Day+23+Journal

=Colin's Journal= 23 January 2006 45 miles Lompoc --> Pismo State Beach 10 miles run, 35 biked

Slept until 7 this morning to try to escape the cold, but there was still a layer of frost on the ground and on a lot of our stuff, including my tent. We took a while to pack up, replaced a tire (the 2nd while at this campsite), then started out a little before 9am. We got to La Purisma Mission after just 2 miles, and stopped to check the place out. It is apparently the biggest, most renovated mission of the 11 in California, having been rebuilt by the CCC during the depression. We saw turkeys, sheep (it apparently used to have nearly 10,000 cattle, 12,000 sheep) and other animals, plus a nice old church. Definitely the most well kept mission we've yet been to.

We started up again around 10:30 with Corey putting in another 10miles. Towards the end of his leg, there was a little mountain we climbed. Since I had the Kokopelli, I took full advantage of the clips and went up it pretty hard, which was really fun. I started running a couple miles later on a long, straight stretch of CA 286, which merged with Rt. 1 2miles later. After warming up and doing some drills, I got to do my 4x1km workout with 3mins between intervals. The goal was to do a workout that would help me relax while running ~5min/mile pace, but found this impossible to do on the road: with no splits or points of reference, if I felt relaxed, I assumed I was going too slow. It was still a good workout, the first two I simulated a race start, getting up to speed from a stop in a few steps, then settling down. The last two I worked into from a jog, building to the finish with the last minute (I did each interval for 3:06) of the last interval pretty quick. As I finished, a turkey vulture was circling above, which was forboding, as I was holding my knees and catching my breath. It wasn't his day though, as I trotted for 21 more minutes to finish my 10miler in 63 total minutes.

After snacking on some really delicious trail mix (as far as I can tell, it has: yogurt covered peanuts, yogurt covered raisins, raisins, peanuts, dried pineapple, dried papaya, dates, sunflower seeds, dried apricots) we rode on, making good time. We had spotted a 'Pismo Beach: 28mi' sign 4 miles earlier, so everyone else went pretty short. Grant finished his 6miles, and Rogo put in his 2nd day of 5milers, then Bill did a 5 mile workout. Right at the start of Stephen's leg, we found a grocery store, but I had told Rogo to ride ahead and catch Stephen, since he was going to stop at a bathroom, and I thought it'd be helpful to know where he was. Unfortunately, Rogo rode by him right when he went in, so Corey and Stephen kept going after him, while Grant, Bill and I bought groceries. We got a great deal and bought half a chicken for each of us, which Bill cooked perfectly by wrapping then in tinfoil and putting them on an open fire. We also got 6 loaves of french bread for a dollar each, and 2 jars of pasta sauce to put the bread in. We replaced our normal dessert of a chocolate bar with a pack of cookies.

There was some mix up here- we were supposed to stay at North Beach, but it was closed. The mix up happened when Rogo rode back from here (there was a sign saying "Oceano", 2 miles south, was open), and didn't find Stephen, who ran past Oceano, then along the beach to North Beach. He called his mom from a payphone at North Beach, so we relayed messages, and he found us later.

It was a nice campground- $0.25 bought a 2minute shower with lots of pressure. We had a delicious dinner, as mentioned earlier, and we had a big fire. I cleaned and lubed the bikes, and Stephen and I tuned them a bit. We have both tents set up, since it is expected to be cold.

Day 23

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Day 24 Journal