Summer arrived

Apparently last weekend was the first "official" day of fall, but judging by the weather, it was the start of summer.   In typical Southern CA fashion the news stations went to Defcon 4 and gave round the clock coverage to "Heat Wave 2010." Sadly I am not joking.

Anyway, I was happy to have it on this weekend as coach changed things up a bit for Saturday and after a morning masters session and a quick run with a bit of faster stuff I was done for the day.

I am not really a fan of Venice Beach.  OK, to be honest, I pretty much hate it.  I am sorry, I just have zero tolerance for the drugged out, hippie/drifter element of society.  However, as I swim up in Santa Monica, sometimes I find myself running in that area.  It sucks.  A brief review of my run at 9am: 1) guy being arrested with medicine bottles full of tiny little baggies of a rock like substance, 2) Bum romance on the rocks = drugged out couple in the midst of a fist fight, 3) Dude either high as a kite and/or CRAZY screaming at the top of his lungs at a cinder block wall, 4) 20 something girl passed out face down in the middle of the bike path with paramedics and lifeguards attending to her.  All this at 9am before the day even got rolling!  Its really too bad as the area is literally overrun with that element.  There was to be a huge concert/art/rave festival in Santa Monica on Saturday so we got out of town and spent the rest of the day lounging poolside in Manhattan Beach with my old roommate and his wife-to-be in 2 weeks time.

Sunday was back to the longer stuff.  Fortunately, a good friend, who I have been coaching in his run up to his first Ironman in AZ, had a very similar ride to mine so I had company.  The same weekend as Wisconsin, at Nautica Malibu triathlon, Bill put some of his training to the test, won the 50-54 age group and took 2nd overall.  First place was some little known guy named Chris Lieto.

It was quite refreshing to spend a day on a bike with a good friend taking in some new routes and great views.

Along with the heat came, for you non So-Cal peeps, what we call the "Santa Anna Winds" which basically just means the prevailing winds come from the east blowing out to sea instead of the regular on-shore winds. This tends to blow a bunch of smog out to the coast from the inland areas which  was the only bummer of the weekend.

I had a good 1hr run off the bike, in the middle of the day, when the sun was burning its hottest.  The beaches were packed and running on the coast was fun.  I can't say enough about the new Zoot Alli'i.  A great shoe indeed. An hour run with plenty of sweat and no socks and my feet never felt better.  

(Edit per E.Rich Comment:)

 And to keep these sweet kicks from smelling up the joint:

Stuffitts Shoe Savers.  My Alli'i were dry and smelling like a forest by the time i finished lunch!

I have decided to jump into another race this weekend to get another hard effort in before Austin and IM AZ.  I will be racing up in San Luis Obispo at Scot Tinley's long course triathlon put on by the awesome folks at TriCalifornia (same peeps as the one and only Wildflower).  Hopefully things will go a bit better than Wisconsin and I can put a race together.