Summer Is Done - A Training Update

Yes, it's almost November and just over a week away from my first half marathon. Today was my last "long run" before the race itself, and I opted for an 8 mile run.

I got up to witness a very nice sunrise as I was eating my power bar and drinking my water before I go on my run. There are a couple of storms coming in (hence the end of summer) and this morning, the clouds conspired to create a cool pre sunrise sky.

The photo below is taken from the lounge window as I munched away on my power bar.


After I'd finished my munching, it was time to run. The sun had risen by this time, but had risen behind the clouds that were coming in to bay, but at least it wasn't foggy like it had been the last few days, so I decided to run along the coast.

In the end I got a little over excited (as is the norm) and ended up running 10 miles, but the cloud formations looked pretty cool.

The photo below was taken at my turn around point (5 miles from home - for those of you that struggle with math) at Asilomar Beach.

The storm clouds were spilling into the bay and creating some nice vistas.

Another Weekend, Another Pub Crawl

Well, that's exaggeration for effect for you! Gateau Man came to visit for the weekend - and the two of us went on a pub crawl on Friday night. I think that's my third pub crawl in the almost two years I've been living here, so it's not exactly a common phenomena.

We had a good time catching up and putting the world straight etc., and then vegged for most of the rest of the weekend - wandering around town, soaking up the autumn sunshine and basically enjoying doing not much at all - a pleasant break for both of us given that work has kicked up again for me (I did have to work a couple of hours both days over the weekend) and Gateau was kid-less for the weekend (Lianna had family round all weekend, so she had help!)

The Whales Are Back

Well, I've a feeling that's an exaggeration - though after seeing a very bright shooting star last night, I got to watch a mother and calf Humpack whale out in the bay this afternoon as I worked from my desk (strategically placed to allow spotting of bay wildlife while I work).

Gotta love the bay.

Condor Classic Bike Ride

After spotting all those Condors a week or so earlier, it was somewhat poetic that the following weekend, I'm riding the (warning, common American phrase ahead) first annual (end of warning) Condor Classic bike ride.

My good friend Wella alerted me to this ride - she came back to Monterey for the weekend to ride this ride (and to go to the pub - not sure which was the bigger lure). We did the 40 mile route.

I rode my mountain bike and Wella rode her super light carbon fiber everywhere pink bike (pictured below, note the aerodynamic spokes on her wheels - I was doomed from the start) - even though there were a few hills here and there we had a good time.

After a couple of initial hills, the ride got fairly flat, which is a good thing, trust me. Below is a photo of the two of us riding along - shame I look so gormless.

The final rest stop was the end of my endurance - the last few miles, into a head wind, relied on me ducking into Wella's slipstream to stand any vague chance of keeping up.

After the ride, we had a BBQ lunch (not too spectacular) and eventually headed back home - it was a fun ride and a fun time - hopefully we'll do it next year - the second annual ride!

Big Sur Condors

Jez, Sally and I ventured down to the Big Sur coast on Tuesday as the weather was really clear (ie, not fog!)

We did the usual Big Sur type things, stopped at the Bixby Bridge etc., and we got some sandwiches from a deli in Big Sur itself, with the plan to go down to one of the turnouts where you might see Condors and have our lunch there, so that there was plenty of time to maybe get lucky and see one.

Well, we did get lucky, noticing two or three within a couple of minutes of starting lunch. They were near the house that's being worked on where I normally stop to see if I can see Condors, so after we finished our sandwiches, we moved around to that turnout.

There was a biologist already there checking to see which Condors were around the house - she gave us a good lesson on what we were seeing and I've never seen so many Condors so close - we counted at least nine that we could see (there are only around 40 in the whole of California) and they were apparently waiting around hoping a dead sea lion or two got washed up onto shore about 600 feet below us.


I neglected to bring the big camera with me (typical!), but even the Jez's point and shoot was good enough to get some good shots as the birds were so close. There are four of them in the trees and on the rocks in the photo below.


After spending a while watching the Condors, we ventured further down the coast to where the waterfall is hitting the beach (if you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll be very familiar with that sight!) - that's where the picture of Jez and Sally was taken (looking in the opposite direction away from the waterfall).

While we were there, we also spotted whales out in the ocean, so another amazing day of wildlife spotting.