Ocean Swimming

So I had to drop over to Santa Cruz to bring my car in for service. So naturally I had to jump in the water for bit as well! After hanging out at Coffeetopia (one of the nicer coffeeshops on that side of the hill), I headed over to Cowell's Beach. After getting the courage up, I jumped in and promptly froze. I managed perhaps 300 yards despite my head feeling like I had dunked it in a can of ice water...

Good times! The water temperature was 55.8 degrees today (the air temperature was perhaps 60). I'll have to repeat this once in a while to stay used to cold water. It's cheaper than buying a wetsuit! ;)

SJBC Winter Series Criterium #1

This past Sunday, winter series took a ride on the rainy side. Fortunately, the rain wasn't actually falling during the ride. But the roads were wet, so it seemed a bit sketchy at first.

From the start, I somehow ended up in front of the pack. And nobody would pass me. By the time I slowed down enough to force them to pass, I was too tired to do much more. And then I almost got bumped going into one of the corners, and ended up off the back and spent the rest of the race trying to catch back up. The good part was that I didn't get lapped by the field (on a 1.3 mile lap (we did 15 laps)). But I did end up finishing about 2/3 of a lap behind the lead pack. It would seem that I came in 12th place, though there is a little confusion about that.

On the other hand, Joan did the smart thing and stayed in the pack from the start and was able to do the entire ride with the lead group. So she finished a little higher up in the standings than I did. 9th I think, though they haven't posted the final results yet.

Lessons learned: stay with the pack! Don't start on the front, let someone else set the pace! Don't run 6.5 miles the afternoon before a race! Good times though. And I was happy that I was able to essential time trial 20 miles in under 55 minutes...

http://www.teamsanjose.org/ws/2008/ride1101.php