Recovery week/end

Recovery weeks provide a time for reflection and personal growth. I have learned to embrace them! As an athlete, recovery (rest) weeks and days keep your body in tune for training.

I am enjoying a blackberry margarita at Pacific Coast Grill

Friday evening started with a celebratory dinner of my friend's, B, birthday at Pacific Coast Grill (PCG) in Cardiff by the Sea. You can read my review on Yelp here: Diana A Yelp Review. The sunset view completed the experience. I'm a big fan of the sunsets. On the 2nd level of PCG they have an open patio with an amazing view. Next time, I'll enjoy my drinks on the outdoor patio.

We had an amazing view of the sunset that made the pricey dinner worth it!

 I took full advantage of a Saturday recovery day by sleeping in until 7 a.m. It occurred to me that Saturday was Jodina's, Italiano with Jodina, conversation group. I decided since I had this rare cycling free Saturday to join her group. Training plays an important part in becoming a strong cyclist, same concept with a language. Jodina's Saturday session complemented my Monday evening class. Jodina shared with us this beautiful linen with the pasta of Italy and we learned the "leggenda" of where pasta was born (hint: not China).

Bike Ride Report:  Since I had two days off the bike I decided to join my friend,  JP,  and his Velo Allegro cycling club on a ride up Glendora Mountain Road (GMR) for a 50+ miler ride covering approximately 5K feet of climbing. I didn't know what to expect. GMR placed high on my "to do" cycling list. We encountered beautiful weather for our ride. Overall, the ride provided a challenge but not as steep as I expected hitting only 7-9% grades.  The last 6 months of training focused on keeping a high cadence and this has helped tremendously with the climbing. The compact crank helps out too with the climbing.  I felt very strong on this climb. It served as a reminder of the importance of recovery both in my cycling training and in life. 

Check out my ride here:

Moroccan Bowl & Acai Beer

We had a post race celebration dinner at Native Foods in Newport Beach. I died with happiness eating the rockin' Moroccan bowl. All vegan and plant based food. It tasted delicious and a reminder that being creative you can make delicious food. I thought of Kalli, who inspires me to cook healthy and live a positive life, when I read her Fit and Forty Something blog & view her instragram postings.

Barkley after daycare

Recovery week and weekend proved successful as noted by my performance on the GMR ride. After this ride, Barkley did a great job depicting my feelings of how I felt after the long day of cycling.

A nice complement to my recovery weekend included a beautiful sunset view from my balcony.

On a quick side note regarding my blog. I started this blog as an online journal to share my experiences with the participants of the Wednesday Women's ride I lead in Encinitas. I received a very nice compliment from Jessica that writes the Run on Organic Blog. She nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award!! Check out her blog for the details of the award.

 

Here are 7 possibly unknown things about me:
1. Spanish was my first language. I didn't speak English when I started kindergarten.
2. I completed 3 Ironmans. My goal was to complete 3 in the 3rd decade of my life.
3. I've traveled to 32 countries (I traveled a lot in Europe since I lived in Germany for 9 months).
4. I'm a project manager for a healthcare insurance company.
5. I ran Boston Marathon and had a personal record time of 3:35 hours.
6. I'm of Mexican descent. Both of my parents were born in Mexico.
7. My first endurance sport was marathon running to lose weight.

I am supposed to list the 15 blogs I follow but I only follow 7:

1. http://fitandfortysomething.com/

2. http://runonorganic.wordpress.com/

3. http://dailyworth.com/

4. http://zenhabits.net/

5. http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/

6. http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/encinitas/2012/05/17/oh-baby-whole-baby/

7. http://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/

Thanks for reading my blog! It's been a fun journey with you.