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I've started running through a sequence of stretches at night. I've found that it helps immensely with being able to sleep after hard rides, and I no longer do my bent-forward "old man walk" when I'm stiff and tired after a ride. (Because, y'know... I don't feel stiff and tired.)

The sequence focuses mostly on the hips and low back, and takes about 10 minutes, so it's a great time investment:

1. Start in a "hero sit", with an inflatable balance disc between my heels and butt.
2. Twist right and left
3. Bend backward, support with my arms and extend my hips to stretch the hip flexors. (Essentially an adapted saddle pose.)
4. Bend forward into child's pose, but with arms extended to stretch my lats.
5. Separate the knees and move up onto all-fours, push the hips backward to stretch the whole hip area.
6. Lift the hips into downward dog
7. Stretch the calves and hamstrings, extend the shoulders
8. Swing my left leg forward into "pigeon pose"
9. Bend forward over my front knee, then backward to stretch my abs and hip flexor
10. Return to downward dog
11. Swing my right leg forward into "pigeon pose"
12. Bend forward over my front knee, then backward to stretch my abs and hip flexor
13. Move to a cross-legged seated position, with my lower legs parallel
14. Bend forward to stretch the ITBs and gluteus medius
15. Reverse the legs and repeat
16. Return to "hero sit" and let everything settle.

Either I learned this sequence somewhere, or I'm a natural-born yogi, because this makes me feel awesome.

I've been getting a lot of good information from a book called Full-Body Flexibilty. The sequence above comes straight out of Yoga class, but I get more out of it than I used to because I'm using what I know from Full-Body Flexibilty.

It was amazing to get out in Sycamore Canyon tonight. It's completely charred down to nothing. As one rider said, "It's easy to see people coming!"

I'd planned on an easy 60- to 90-min. spin, but I did three stupid things:

• I totally underestimated how long it takes to reach Guadalasca from the top of the Canyon Vista Trail.
• At the bottom of Guadalasca, I thought I was turning left onto Sycamore Fire Rd and heading for home. In reality, I was heading up Wood Cyn Fire Rd, which put me on the wrong side of the ridge, and much farther from the car than I thought. I realized my mistake within a few minutes, but then (wrongly) figured that at that point backtracking would take just as long as just heading straight through.
• I forgot that the five-minute roll down into Sycamore canyon becomes a thirty-minute grind up out of Sycamore at the end.
• I forgot to account for the time I spent trying to find the "secret entrance." (I found it, but the way is closed for revegetation.)
• There's no cell reception down in the canyon. So my wife was worried and couldn't reach me. Not cool.

Oh. Right. Five. That's five stupid things I did.

Oh, and:

• I wanted this to be a relatively easy recovery ride, setting me up for a couple of PR attempts in Simi later this week.

So, y'know... six.

What I planned as a 90-min ride stretched to 2½ hrs., and by the time I got back to the car it was 8:20 PM and I was cold and tired and hungry and had worried Janell for no reason. Ugh.

I actually thought at the top of Canyon Vista that I should probably just turn around and ride down again and head for home. I should have, but instead I thought, "Oh, Guadalasca is just right over there. I'll ride down that, and then head up the road home."

Idiot.

Sycamore Cyn Loop

I'd planned to ride Sycamore Cyn, but it was a hot day, and I knew I'd find friendlier temperatures on a ridge overlooking the Pacific than at the bottom of a canyon.

Zuma Ridge Loop

This reminds me why I want to be in mobile software development. A friend once said, "I just want to be a bronze worker in the bronze age."

This puts all my frustrations with development tools, and the time and effort required to continually update my skills in perspective.

We must reach higher, think more clearly, question every premise.

Last night I took my last, best shot (for now) at climbing Johnson Fire Rd. in under thirty minutes. I finished just two seconds ahead of my previous PR, and fifty-five seconds short of achieving my goal.

But I'm going to let this project go because I don't want to chase seconds. I want to gain minutes. Johnson isn't my real quary. Bulldog isn't my real quary. Hell, Gridley isn't even my real quary.

What I'm really after is to cover 100 miles and 12,424 ft. of climbing on unfamiliar trail in under nine hours. Chasing seconds isn't going to make that happen.

Strength training, intervals, losing weight, these things will make me faster. Faster by minutes. And when you add up all those minutes...

(I've attached GPS data for Tammy Sadle's 2011 Leadville 100. She finished in 8:57:30, right at the pace I'm aiminig for.)

Tammy Sadle's Leadville Performance 2011