Run DMZ

There’s a great article in The Atlantic about whether e-bikes spur users to higher fitness levels or actually downgrade their expectations. I wrote earlier this summer about how I manage my own e-bike use, which at the moment is purely recreational because I am afraid to leave it unattended, even with a bike lock, to run errands. They are just too hot a commodity in my city.   These lines in that article caught my attention:  An e-bike sure seems like a way to cheat at exercise, even if it really facilitates it. That’s been my experience; the credit my Apple Watch gives me for “outdoor cycling” on my e-bike pales in comparison to the exertion I undertake at home on the Peloton. (Apple has added an e-bike-detection algorithm in this mode, which both underscores the fact that e-biking ain’t biking, and suggests that yes, in fact, it is.)  I noticed the same thing with my Apple Watch on my Sunday morning rides. If I use the pedal assist to get up a big hill, I don’t g...

There’s  a delightful piece on NPR about the joys of riding a bike  – not for personal records or trophies, but just to depressurize and stay healthy. Several years ago, I would have fast-forwarded such a segment, being one of those with feet firmly planted on the ground. Now, I get it.   The first time I experienced the highs and lows of cycling was when I bike-commuted to work. My job at the time was 10 miles from my house at the terminus of a 12-mile-long bike path adjacent to a freeway.  I purchased a hybrid bike I christened Penelope (because she had a pink and black frame). I only commuted in late spring and summer when it was lighter for longer because it wasn’t safe to ride alone on dark evenings. ( Or sometimes early mornings .) It also meant I arrived home around 6:30 p.m. soaked in sweat from riding mostly uphill on fat tires in blistering Carmel Valley heat.   But I loved that period of my life and especially the practicality of the bike. I wasn...

For my big birthday, my kids gave me an ebike that I ride when I can, which admittedly is not as often as I want. But I’m working out more than before the bike.  My husband gifted me an Apple Watch, having tired of me complaining about my old Fitbits and Garmins that never seemed to motivate me the way this thing does. Sure, there’s a ton of other functionality I use since my watch syncs to my iPhone. But the Fitness app is what gets me going every morning and sometimes well into the evening.  It’s easy to use: Just open the app on the watch; select the type of workout; and it counts down to start times. I haven’t used it long enough for the watch to know my actual calorie burn, but whatever I’m doing is working. Once done, I stop the timer and then wait for my “rings” to update. There are three:  --One recording specific movements that get the heart rate up  --One that logs at least 30 minutes of daily exercise  --One that reminds me to stand every hour  S...

The current mayor of San Diego campaigned on a pledge to treat the place like a metropolis rather than a network of sprawling suburbs . You think San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York, and you immediately think compact blocks with mixed-use buildings, high-rise apartments and stately rowhouses, corner convenience stores, great ethnic restaurants and excellent public transportation.   San Diego has those things too, except the great public transit.    I was reminded of how much San Diego has grown during a recent early morning walk from Little Italy to Seaport Village via The Embarcadero . And again, a week later when we visited  our old suburb with family in town.    I can remember some of my first runs along the Embarcadero, dodging more homeless people than tourists, even during Comic-Con . The Gaslamp Quarter was still the nightspot it is now, but you took greater risks walking beyond its boundaries in the dark.    Cortez Hill, East Vi...

A lot of the allure surrounding Coronado, an isthmus that likes to call itself an island, boils down to this: it’s flat, pretty and has plenty of shoreline. Gridded streets are lined with mid-century bungalows and large custom homes with deciduous trees and well-manicured gardens.  New homeownership  is out of reach for most of us (and probably residents who were fortunate enough to purchased property a half-century ago when the place didn’t have much going for it), but a heavy Navy presence adds a little diversity to the community. Coronado has two thriving restaurant/retail centers:  one offering sweeping views of the downtown San Diego skyline and a ferry ; the other, an  iconic hotel  and  ceramic cow .    Near the latter is a beach where they rake the sand daily, so everything looks just so. The result of that attention to detail has been Coronado Beach cracking the Top 10—sometimes even the No. 1 spot—on one of the most respected  annua...

Just learned that the Amgen Tour of California, the largest bicycle race in the nation, is returning to San Diego County after a four-year absence. The last time, the tour ended here (we went to the Rancho Bernardo start of the final stage and then loved watching the Tour de France style climb up Palomar Mountain on televison) and there was a massive turnout. Next May, it'll start here and run north to Santa Rosa. I hope there's another great turnout so the Tour comes back. I know a lot of the star cyclists have been tainted by doping charges and convictions. It's still exciting to be part of a live event of this magnitude and I hope many of my fellow San Diegans will be there to support the cyclists during the first stage of a great race.

My hairdresser has a new bike that is drawing a lot of attention. Maybe because it's a tricycle. She got the idea to buy an adult three-wheeler after seeing one on television or at Walmart, I think. And she loves it. It stores easily in her car, no need for a bike rack. She takes it to Mission Bay and Miramar Lake, both more level venues than her hilly neighborhood in Scripps Ranch. She says she bought it mainly for a new form of exercise. She started to worry about crashing hard on a two-wheeler. When you hit your 50s, you don't recover as well from those kinds of spills. Looking at some Web sites, safety seems to be a prime motivator for purchases. I've seen the low-rider trikes that resemble a recumbent bike, but until now I was unaware of the adult-size tricycles. They aren't that expensive either, starting in the low $300s. I had my (dual-locked) bike stolen in February, and I'm hesitant to replace it since I'd have to store it in the same place. B...

No, they haven't been caught. They won't be. I've been monitoring Craigslist to see if it shows up, but someone wiser than me noted the bike isn't likely to be sold in San Diego. This jibes with a fascinating Outside Magazine article I read about stolen bikes that Josh recommended via DailyMile. It's worth a read. Who Pinched My Ride

After a succession of rainy weekends, I took one look at the blue peeking through the blinds early this morning and immediately threw on a pair of tights, technical shirt, shoes and the brand new Triple Trail Shell I received a week ago from Columbia Sportswear. Field testing winter gear when you live in San Diego is tricky, but the 48 degree air and chosen bike route were perfect to discern the colorful jacket's wind resistance and wickability. When it's warm, you live for the breezes on long downhills and dread the heat generated on the climbs. But when late fall and winter arrives, it's the reverse. The winds tear at your face, ears and limbs as you barrel down steep parts of bike paths; you start longing for a different discomfort from leg churn. Today was different, and I think it's because of this jacket. First: a disclosure. I immediately fell in love with this jacket before I even tried it on or read about the technology to keep you 20% warmer by reflecting back...

If you live or visit San Diego and have frequented the 56 bikepath in the past couple of months, then you've seen the memorial erected after two cyclists were struck by an out-of-control SUV during the evening rush hour. One was killed instantly and the other, far as I know, survived life-threatening injuries. Here's another angle to help you understand how difficult it was for those of us who use this bikepath to fathom what happened. A motorist turned into oncoming traffic, overcorrected and ran her truck up a 15-foot steep embankment and through a large chainlink fence at precisely the time two executives were riding on the bikepath. They didn't know each other. It's been a solemn spot for cyclists since that fateful evening, and for some reason each time I pass it I start thinking about how many terrible drivers are out there (it's going to be one of our top public health crises in the next 20 years as aging baby boomers refuse to turn in their keys, folks). I a...

I usually write about running and runners, but a very dear friend emailed me to tell me about a young athlete who lost her life while cycling. Her name was Carla and apparently she was on her way to becoming one of the best female cyclists in the world. Only last week she was riding in her native South Africa when she turned to retrieve a fallen “cycling computer” and looked over the wrong shoulder to see if it was safe to make a U-turn, momentarily forgetting she wasn't in the U.S., where they drive on the right side of the road. She was struck by a truck and died. Our friend Rodney has a son who is a competitive cyclist at a small college in North Carolina, and Sam and Carla had grown close. Sam even spent the winter holiday training and touring with her in South Africa. I’m sure her sudden death hit him hard, as it did everyone else who knew her. Rodney told me, "I know she had a temendous impact on Sam, and helped him see that being fiercely competitive and selfless are ...

Word of warning to anyone who plans to sip ‘n’ cycle their way through the Santa Ynez Valley: Don’t start off with eight wine tastings at your first stop. We’d no sooner taken our last gulp of cabernet when I was on my last gasp of air trying to get up a small hill on a mountain bike in a radically wrong gear. I slowed. I stopped. I went sideways. Fortunately, I quickly learned how to pace myself on both the bike and the booze as did my friends Sue, Sarah and Tracy, traveling companions I’ve written about previously on Run DMZ. This trip they all flew west and we drove from San Diego to Santa Barbara for several days of R&R in “America’s Riviera,” and that included a day of cycling among the vineyards located along the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail. It’s located in Los Olivos, in the heart of wine country that received a huge publicity boost with the movie Sideways . That’s also the source of the background music in this video. Enjoy. There are plenty of ways to see California wine count...

One great thing about doing your long run on a Saturday is having more options for your early Sunday mornings. I decided it was high time to get back on my bike, partly inspired by my friend Jeanette's first half Ironman celebration and partly instigated by an upcoming sip 'n' cycle tour in September. Before I even get to a very well traveled bikepath along the freeway, I have to motivate my muscles to get up a big hill just to get to the bikepath. (This photo is at the midpoint.) The reward once I reach the top is a nice downhill start on the 56 bikepath that always makes my eyes water and my windbreaker flap. I did not stop to take photos on the real decline, which you can't see from this angle; trust me, it's a decent drop. I originally intended to go 20 miles up and back, but I forgot to bring my water bottle and forgot to drink any water before leaving. I was already thirsty and decided to instead pull off the bikepath onto Rancho Santa Fe Farms Road and wei...

I suppose I had the same reaction the first time I went to a marathon expo, but I spent this afternoon surrounded by triathletes in Mission Bay and just felt a wee bit out of place. The swim stuff was intimidating, the bikes cost more than my kids’ college tuitions and the running representation was minimal. Plus, what’s up with all the guys who shave their heads?! I wasn’t the only one daunted. In one clinic the speaker looked at all the fit folks and said, “I’m a little intimidated that you might make me swim or something.” That talk was about optimal power, led by Dr. Allen Lim , the director of training for Team RadioShack (Lance Armstrong’s latest cycling team). Most people use heart rate or sweat rate to measure intensity. But you can somewhat accurately measure your power by continually ranking your exertion from a scale of 1 to 10 and multiplying that number by time/duration. This way you don’t have to rely on a Garmin to tell you if you're running race pace; you’ll feel it...

(My friends Louise and Rolly recently helped out at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. This week we're featuring some of Louise's photos from that event.)

Well before I ever owned a bike, I bookmarked the Midnight Madness Fun Bike Ride on my computer because everyone who'd done it had raved about it. Which is how I ended up cruising with a couple of thousand other cyclists last night around some of San Diego's most scenic spots. I went with my friend Justin, another Midnight Madness first-timer. Justin has a lot of experience with bikes and was even a bike tech on a transcontinental tour. He's basically my Penelope's general practitioner -- doing routine check-ups upon request to make sure all her body parts are functioning properly. We ran into another friend, Peter (below), who's a speed demon. He was riding with his brothers, who looked equally fast. We never saw them after the start. Around that time I ran into the executive director, who turned out to be someone I run with on Saturdays in our track club training program. Who knew! Prior to the ride, Hostelling International San Diego organizers held two contests,...

I am not sure how it happened, but this morning I had one of the best rides ever. Granted, I don’t have to dial back too far to find the last peak since Penelope and I are still relatively new to this cycling thing. But, still, time to try and figure out how to replicate it. Set Expectations Low First, yesterday I struggled through three miles of running. The calf that’s attached to the problematic achilles tendon ached the entire way, and I limped around the rest of the day. I held little hope of riding any better the following morning. Fuel Up Well Before I went to bed at a decent hour so I was sure to get up an hour before I started my ride. Thus, I unhurriedly ingested some caffeine and carbs and let them settle in my stomach. I also took my calcium tablet and vitamins, which boosted my energy level sooner than expected. Leave in Layers We’re back to seasonal weather, which means high 60s and overcast early in the morning. I wore a windbreaker on the way out, when I mostly coasted ...

It’s interesting what each of you would have done in the situation that presented itself last week on the bike path. Here’s what happened after I found a young man apparently passed out cold and lying on his side, cell phone nearby, just as a man in workout clothes approached from the opposite direction. I rode away. I didn't check first to see if the guy was OK. I didn’t call 911 soon as I could. Something just felt very strange, aside from the obvious obstacle. I got to work, told everyone what happened and was universally condemned. Well, maybe not everyone strongly disapproved. One other woman rode that bike path to work a little later that morning, and she too found the guy in the exact same position. Like me, she was spooked because she was in an isolated area. And because there was a guy in workout clothes approaching from the opposite direction. So, I may not have made that 911 call – but I believe, in the end, I did make the right call.

It’s 6:15 a.m. on your bike commute to work, and you’re about three miles in when you notice something big in your lane on the asphalt bike path that parallels a busy freeway. You’re kinda in a barren area, with the highway on one side and a desolate canyon on the other. As you get closer, the image comes into focus: It’s a body. You slow way down and approach what appears to be a guy in his early to mid-20s wearing shorts, a shirt and a flannel jacket. He looks well groomed and is lying on his side in a slight fetal position, a cell phone just inches from his face. There’s no blood, vomit or other body fluids around him. But this is a high-traffic thoroughfare and he isn’t moving, either. You’re not even sure he’s breathing. An older gentleman on his morning walk is approaching in the opposite direction and staring you down, shaking his head. Do you dismount from your bike and try to wake the guy on the path? Move his cell phone so no one steals it? Call for help, even though you are...