07-15-2025 Walk/Hike

Travel day. I woke up around 3:40 and decided to go for an early morning walk to get most of my steps in. Walked around the neighborhood, and Ann was up when I got home around 5:00. I was busy finishing packing up and putting my bike on the roof rack. For a short while, it didn't look like it would fit, but I figured it out. Got all my stuff checked off and packed and made some coffee for the road. Then I packed the cooler and we hit the road. We got to Valley Pkwy before I realized I had forgotten my coffee and left the coffee maker on. I turned around and drove back, got my coffee, and we were truly on our way. No traffic until we approached the 91, and we had another wait on I-15 around the intersection with the 60. From there, it was smooth sailing. Stopped for gas in Adelanto and had a restroom stop before we got to Lone Pine (the rest area was closed). Ann started driving then. We stopped for lunch at Amigos Mexican Restaurant in Bishop. I  had a couple of short naps in the 2+ hours it took to get to June Lake after Ann started driving. We got there right around 2:00, made pretty good time. Had the camp set up around 3:00, so we relaxed for a bit, took a short hike down by the marina. I had another short nap in the tent, and we started making dinner around 6:00 after a big lunch. Heated up chili for the meal, then we made a peach cobbler in the Dutch oven for dessert. It was slow to cook the topping, perhaps because of the altitude (7700'). I cleaned up all the dishes and packed our stuff into the bear locker, then got ready for sleep. Sheets on the mattress and a sleeping bag for a comforter, and it was fine for the night. 

07-13-2025 Ride/Walk

Had an early planned start to a ride with Paula, Catalin, and Rob. Rode through the neighborhood to Matinal Rd and took it to W Bernardo Dr to get to RB Rd. Down to the Albertson's parking lot, where I was early enough to get a coffee before the ride. Once we were ready we took RB Rd back to Bernardo Center Dr and turned right off Duenda Rd on W Bernardo Dr. Across the pedestrian bridge and over to Centre City Pkwy the usual way via Kit Carson Park. We took it out to Country Club Ln, with me and Rob getting out ahead the waiting for them to catch up. Left turn there, taking it until we got over to El Norte Pkwy. We stayed on this road until Borden Rd, then turned right onto Richland Rd. This is a nice way to get to a twin Oaks Valley Rd via Mulberry Dr and Olive St. We got onto Buena Creek Rd and took it over to Rancho Santa Fe Rd for a short jog onto Robelini Dr, which turns into Sycamore Ave. Under the 78, then we took a short bathroom break at an AM-PM, and I bought a Clif Bar. Stayed on this road until turning left on Brookhaven Pass, which got us to Faraday Dr. We turned left onto El Fuerte St and took it down to Gateway Rd, where Paula had us turn to stop by Bressi Gazebo Park for a picture. We continued on Town Garden Rd until turning left onto Alicante Rd and taking it down to Poinsettia Ln, where we turned right and rode for a short distance before turning left onto Estrella de Mar. This is a nice little street through an old neighborhood. We got across Alga Rd, waited for Paula and Catalin to catch up, then rode down into the Omni La Costa resort, stopping for another picture before taking Costa del Mar Rd over to El Camino Real. Continued heading south until we got to Olivenhain Rd, where we were back on a familiar route, albeit in the opposite direction. Back into RSF via Rancho Santa Fe Rd, El Camino del Norte, Lago Lindo (another stop to eat some food and take a picture), El Montevideo, and reverse Stud Loop to VdlV. We took Via de Santa Fe and El Apajo to San Dieguito Rd, then rode fairly slowly up Three Witches. Regrouped at the turn onto CdS, then took it to Paseo del Sur, turning there. On that slight climb to the turn, Paula showed that her fitness is definitely increasing. She has more endurance and can push harder on climbs when she needs to. Over to Potomac Ridge Rd, then to Camino San Bernardo via Nicole Ridge Rd. To RB Rd and down the hill. Before we got to W Bernardo Dr, Rob got a screw in his tire and had a flat, so we helped him change it before continuing. Right on Bernardo Center Dr, then left on Lomica Dr and left again on Acena Dr to get to Callado Rd, which was thankfully downhill, turning into Rios Rd. We then turned left onto Bernardo Oaks Dr, which took us back to RB Rd and to the Albertson's parking lot. Everybody did fine on this longer ride, Catalin probably had the most difficulty, but he will be fine for the actual ride, just likely slower than his riding colleagues. I rode home via the RB Rd and W Bernardo Dr route, legs fine at the end but overall tired. This was a fairly low-impact ride for me, nearly all time in first and second heartrate zones.

Avg speed =- 13.9 mph. Total mileage = 60.6 mi

Avg power = 110 W. Weighted avg power = 143 W

Total elevation gain = 3670'

Avg heartrate = 105 bpm

Relative Effort = 53

Training Load = 222

Intensity = 65%

https://www.strava.com/activities/15104257568

Ann still wasn't home from church when I got home, had a little bit to eat and a short nap in the early afternoon. I wanted to get my steps in, so I went for an hourlong walk, fairly slow-paced, down to the park and looping around a couple of times to watch the baseball and softball games going on. Later in the afternoon, I drove us down to Coronado to see Cassie B in concert at Spreckels Park. We put our seats down and then walked a little further into town to have a drink and some chips before the show started. We had a picnic dinner once the concert started, then ended up dancing for roughly the second half of her show. She has an amazing voice, and the band was also really tight. Not exactly my favorite music that she performed, but the show was a good one. Ann drove us home, and in the evening I got the camping stuff down and started piling it together before calling it a (long) day.

07-11-2025 Run/Walk

Woke up early after decent night's sleep, Ann slept in late so I decided to go for a run down at the park. Rode my scooter over there and then ran four laps on the extended loop, getting just about 4 miles in. Ran slightly negative splits for the first three miles and then pushed myself harder on the last mile. It was overcast during the run, there were a fair number of people walking or running around the park. Humidity was noticeable, so I was sweating pretty good at the end.

Avg pace = 8:00/mi

Total distance = 4.02 mi

Elapsed moving time = 32:12

Avg heartrate = 130 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 12

https://www.strava.com/activities/15080079867

When I got home, I did some chores around the house and then read in bed for a little bit (<!>). Ate some breakfast, then I finished preparing the bike rack and mounted it on the car to judge how it fit. So far, so good. I'll put a bike on it over the weekend and see how that goes. I worked on the computer for a little while, then I went out in the back yard to go after the pepper tree suckers. This time, I focused on a small patch near the fence by the original garden bed, where they were intertwined with the chain link and thus a mess to get rid of. I took a break after that. I set up the four water sensors under sinks and connected them to the hub that will alert us if they detect water. In the early afternoon, we drove to the credit union and met with Jeff Ross, who has taken over for Brett Everhart. Jeff is more approachable and friendly, but I don't think he is as good at understanding all the market forces and making recommendations as Brett has been for us. He may also want to make his mark in our portfolio by recommending more changes, so that will bear watching. We tried to get our free Slurpees on 7-Eleven day, but theachines weren't ready. I watched some TV in the afternoon and then ordered new battery-powered security cameras after having been refunded the money for the other Tapo cameras I bought and returned. I also checked out the details of Wednesday's ocean swim to gauge the actual distance better. It looks like I swam pretty close to the distance logged in Strava, not what showed up in the Zepp app. It was a little over 2 miles, which is probably still my longest swim but not by a lot. I think the choppiness of the water is what made it a bigger effort. I still have a little rash on my neck where my wetsuit was rubbing against my rash guard and irritating the skin underneath. Will need to figure out a better solution there. I'm also seeing pretty different results from when I directly download the Zepp file into Strava vs. when I save it as a GPX file and then import it. I think the latter approach is preferred, since it doesn't appear to include the times when I wasn't actively swimming in my elapsed moving time. Watched some TV after dinner and then we tried to get our free Slurpees again, but that that store they stopped the promotion at 7:00. So it was a quiet evening. I was settling down when I noticed that I still needed more steps, so I went out for a short evening walk.

I'll catch up here on some books I've read but didn't include in the blog.

John D. MacDonald, A Purple Place for Dying - Travis McGee investigates the murder of his client Mono Yeoman at a place out in the undefined west, perhaps Arizona.

Mark Synnott, Into the Ice - Synott sails a fairly small fiberglass boat from east to west through the Northwest Passage, with various crew members to help him along the way

Ian Douglas, Galaxy Raiders: Abyss - military SF book following Alexandra Morrigan as she wages war against a galaxy-wide conglomerate known as the Galactic Authority, ultimately getting to a point of cooperation by winning numerous space battles

John D. MacDonald, Bright Orange for the Shroud - McGee's old friend Arthur Wilkinson is swindled out of his money, and McGee works with him and others to recover the money

Steven Barnes, Star Wars: Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss - I'm currently reading this book. Mace Windu, who was played in the Star Wars movies by Samuel L. Jackson, travels to a world in the Rim Planets, where nearly everybody lives underground, there is a substantial criminal element, and the planet's main export is high-strength silk

07/10/2025 Walk/Swim

Woke up after a decent sleep, some effects from caffeine ingestion at lunch. I wanted to get most of my steps in before it got warm, so I took an hour+ long walk around the neighborhood. When I got home, I had a little time to get ready for a swim with Avi at the WWC. No intent to push really hard during this workout. I swam a warmup 250, then we did 5 100s on 2 minute turnaround. Next were 3 100s where we alternated arms for 25 yds, did arm catch for 25, and standard stroke for the last 25. Two more 100s with lengthening strokes, the latter using arm catch strokes. The last drill focused on alternating breaths from both sides, and here Avi gave me good advice about how many strokes to insert between alternating breath sides. I did two 100s by starting with alternating breaths every 5 strokes, then I breathed every 4 strokes on one side, every 4 on the other side, finishing up with alternating again. One final 50 with alternating breaths every 5 strokes. Need, in the future, to work on alternating breaths every 3 strokes, which could be better for longer swims to get more breaths in. Good workout and discussion. Here are the times:

Warmup 250

    4:41

5 100s at 2:00 intervals

    1:43

    1:47

    1:49

    1:50

    1:41

3 100s using arm catch

    2:12

    2:04

    2:03

2 100s with successively lengthened strokes every 25 yds

    1:50

    2:09

2 100s with alternating breathing sides (with pull buoy)

    1:47

    1:50

1 50 with alternating breathing sides every 5 strokes (with pull buoy)

    0:57

After I got home, I ate some cereal for breakfast and relaxed before driving the new car over to Mossy Nissan to get a smog check. I misunderstood the date that Ann had set for the smog check (she did too), but it worked out okay, after the service guys figured out how to charge the service back to Mossy Toyota. It took about an hour and a half, then I was on my way. I stopped at an ATM to get money and then filled the car up with gas before driving home. Had a little break before turning around and heading back to Escondido on my scooter to have lunch with Earl at Firangi, a new Indian food restaurant on Grand Ave. Food was very good, this place just opened. We talked about AGI, the meaning of consciousness, and our families. I hope he enjoyed the conversation, I sure did. Rode home, getting gas for the scooter on the way. Later in the afternoon, I rode over to Phil's BBQ for happy hour with HP and ex-HP folks. Avi, was there, as was Aadi Nath (for the first 45 minutes or so), Britt and Bill C. I had a soda and chatted with a guy, J.J., who I remember seeing around B65 and who works for customer quality for the webpress business. Got back home around 6:00 and worked behind the backyard fence clearing out pepper tree root suckers for a while before heading back in and eating a light dinner. Watched a little TV as well. I also got the old bike rack that mounts on top of a car down from the attic and checked to see if it will work on our new car (appears so). I started mounting protective fabric-reinforced rubber strips to the metal on the bike rack so it won't damage the car rack cross-members when it's attached.

07/09/2025 Walk/Swim

This was an exceptional day. I didn't sleep all that well, got up and ate some cereal and read, but did get back to sleep. I woke up in time to have plenty of time to get ready for my ocean swim with Charlie. Left early to avoid some traffic and got there around 7:50. I walked on the beach and through the nearby neighborhood until about 8:30, then got my gear and walked over to the meet-up point. Charlie got there soon after, and we geared up and got into the water. Seemed about the same temperature as last week, but it was a little more shocking getting in, since the choppy waves poured some water under my wetsuit. We had more difficulty getting through the shore break, and even beyond the break the surface was more choppy. I had much better success with my breathing, got into a steady cadence and swam longer distances before stopping to wait for Charlie. We ended swimming all the way to La Jolla Cove, close to where the sea lions were in the water and on the rocks. There were several sea lions who come up to breathe very close to us, which was cool and a little disconcerting. Lots of sea birds as well, very cool. Then we swam over to the caves and swam through and out the normal exit point, where we saw Garibaldi fish in the kelp beds. Then it was time to swim back to La Jolla Shores, and that was a workout. We avoided the kelp beds this time, much better, but my arms were pretty tired at the end. They held up, I got out of the water further south than Charlie. We walked to the showers and rinsed off, then split. This was my longest swim ever, Zepp says it was 4273 yds, but it was really a little over 2 miles. It also looks like my watch stopped tracking the swim at times for some unknown reason. In any case, it was epic. I got back to the car and changed into dry clothes before driving home. Not as much need to rush when I got home to get ready for my volunteer shift. I got to the hospital early enough to stop at the cafeteria and have some snacks before my shift. The shift was unremarkable, slow at the start but busier near the end. After I rode home, Ann drove us down to Balboa Park for a picnic before going to see Noises Off at the Old Globe Theater. Traffic was pretty rotten on the way down, Ann drove. We had salad for dinner, then walked over to the Old Globe and sat down. Ann had bought $25 tickets, which were in Row 2 but on the left end. They were fine for the first and third acts but pretty limiting for the second act. It was a good show, well acted but not exceptionally well. The play was a farce that apparently we had seen back in the day in Gainesville. Fun, then an drove home and it was to bed.

07-08-2025 Ride/Walk

Got up fairly early, around 5:40, to get ready for a longer bike ride. I decided to ride up to Santa Ysabel and back. Made electrolyte drink and took some food with me, then headed out, actually starting the ride at 6:15 after stopping a couple of times to come back and replace batteries. It was a simple route, down by the park and over to Highland Valley Rd, then up to the 67, turning left there and riding into Ramona until I turned right on 3rd St to get to the Old Julian Hwy. I was about a minute and a half slower than my PR on the entire Highland Valley Rd eastbound segment, would have liked to be a little faster but it was okay. I tried to stay more in the saddle on the steep climbs to build my core strength, not sure how successful that was. Through Ramona without issues. The stretch on the Old Julian Hwy was tough as always. The road condition was quite poor, awful in some places, and it was generally uphill with just a few flat or downhill stretches where I could recover. Weather was decent, not too hot on the outbound part of the route. There isn't much of a shoulder on the 67 in places after I got onto it past the Old Julian Hwy, and that was a little dicey. The climbing segments there weren't as bad as I remembered them from previous rides. Got into Santa Ysabel in about 2:37 without stopping other than at intersections and for a brief time before the Old Julian Hwy to unwrap a nut bar. I got a 32 oz Coke fountain drink and sat outside Don's Market (they sell sushi there) to drink it and eat the rest of my food (dates and dried mango). On the return on the 67, I felt good, a little refreshed from the food and perhaps aided by a modest tailwind. The climbs there were all minor, even the little ones on The Old Julian Hwy weren't as significant as I remembered. Back through Ramona and to Highland Valley Rd, where I had a headwind when I turned onto this road. It slowed me down on the flats and gentle rollers leading to the more significant climbs, which I took at measured pace and didn't have the strength to really attack. The downhills were fun, as usual, no incidents to report. I was also not super fast on the flats back to Pomerado Rd, but I made it okay up the last two climbs and got home feeling fine. Legs were tired but not sore or cramping, which was a good sign, as expected.

Avg speed = 15.7 mph. Total mileage = 66.7 mi

Avg power = 151 W. Weighted avg power = 178 W

Total elevation gain = 4660'

Avg heartrate = 127 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 115

Training Load = 292

Intensity = 81%

https://www.strava.com/activities/15048538462

Ate just a bit when I got home, wasn't particularly hungry then. Ann was gone running errands, so I watched a little TV and hung out. Had a light lunch later on and then spent the afternoon finishing getting up to date on my 2025 Event Log, as well as planning a route for this Saturday. I talked at length to Ben on the phone, just checking in. He can be really difficult to talk to. He lives by a credo that he must be true to himself, which can devolve into pushing his own agenda and opinions without taking others' concerns into account enough. I have difficulty getting this point across, at some point I should stop trying. Watched a little TV later in the afternoon, then went for a walk after dinner to get my steps in.

07-07-2025 Swim/Run

Slept pretty well, although I did wake up in the middle of the night and read (<!>). Got ready for a longer swim at the WWC and rode over there, it was a little cool. Lots of people there when it opened, the pool lanes were totally full, so I shared a lane with Blaine. It was fine, I was concentrating on steady pace for longer times. I lost track of my lap count a couple of times and ended up swimming 2150 yds without pausing. I thought I set my watch to track the swim, but apparently I didn't hit the Go button, so I used the camera results instead. Here are the splits for the four 500s and the last 150: 9:22, 9:30, 9:44, 9:46, 2:50. I could definitely feel myself tiring in the latter half of the workout, need lots more distance swimming to get that endurance I've had in the past. Got home, had a light breakfast, then got ready for a run. This was a mental challenge, since I would much rather not have run. But I got started, and the rest followed. Ran down to the park and did 5 extended loops, then ran back. I had negative splits for the first 4 miles, the fifth mile was just a little slower than the fourth, but the sixth mile was a fair amount slower. It was starting to warm up, and I forgot to wear sunglasses. Eventually, I hope I can get to a point where running six miles isn't a big deal. The last little bit of the run back up the hill was torturous and slow.

Avg pace = 8:00/mi

Total distance = 6.28 mi

Elapsed moving time = 50:17

Avg heartrate = 143

Relative Effort = 50

https://www.strava.com/activities/15036860417

Ate some more when I got home and rested for a bit. Watched some TV in the early afternoon. In the mid-afternoon I worked for quite a while on updating my 2025 Event Log, which is pretty time-consuming. Still more work to do there. Around 4:00 I went into the back yard and over the fence to start chopping away at the Pepper tree sprouts as well as my attempt to cut back the root sections where the sprouts were coming from. Lots still to do there, I'm wondering if it's a hopeless cause without more serious equipment to dig into the ground and take out the extensive root system. After I stopped for the day, I had a shower, then Ann and I drove to Yanni's off Scripps-Poway Pkwy to have dinner with Emily and Caleb as their way of thanking us for watching the cats. Dinner was fun, good conversation and food was decent. Home from there, and I put together a draft of a route for me, Paula, and Rob to ride on Sunday in preparation for the Padres Pedal the Cause ride.