My first brick

Equipoise's postings on "bricks" inspired me, so I did my first brick this morning. This was actually inevitable. I'm in the process of getting back into running shape, and at the same time biking to work on a semi-regular basis. Currently, I see the 10mile bike as part of working out, especially while trying to maintain a decent pace. The goal is to get in good enought biking shape that it doesn't phase me, and I stop thinking of it as a workout. Then, I'll be able to run on a regular basis, regardless of when I bike to work. Hence, despite sleeping in this morning, I jumped on the treadmill for a little bit after arriving at the work fitness center to shower. Today it wasn't really a brick, it was much smaller, possibly some other, more elegant clay object, like a vase, or a sunflower coaster. I only went for 1.75 miles, but I still followed my rule, that regardless of how far I had already ran or biked, the last mile on the treadmill gets done with the speed maxed out. On that note, I found that at least the newer treadmills in the fitnes center go up to level 10, not just 9.9 which I think is the limit on the older ones. Overall, slightly sore, but I think that might be just as much from the climbing last night, than the running this morning.

elephant seals

Here are pictures from the elephant seal breading grounds on the Pacific coast south of San Fransisco. To some it up, elephant seals were once very, very endangered, and on the verge of extinction. A few years back, however, a couple of them suddenly started using a nature preserve on the California coast to breed, and have been doing very well there. In order to walk along the beach during the 6 month plus breeding season, you need to get tickets for a ranger guided tour. One of the guys at work had gotten tickets 4 months ago, and had extras, so he took me along with him. It was pretty interesting. I'll write more about this some other time hopefully.