OCin…

For the last 2 weeks I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to stay in Newport Beach.  I am staying here with some of Chris friends who he met a few years back.  It’s a great place which is about a 6K run from the board walk (meaning ocean!).

Newport is pretty flashy.  Definately the most I’ve seen on this trip.  Fast cars are everywhere.  The best cars in Tucson (Lexus and Vettes) are rarely seen.  It’s all about Porches, Mercedes and even Ferarris and Lambos.  Throw in the SUVs and you’ve got a recipe that will raise gas prices. 

The weather here has been spectaculor.  Apparenlty they see such little rain although the grass is always green!  Great for training.  There have been plenty of spots for running.  My favorite is my 22-23K workouts where I run along the beach.

Cycling here has been a bit of problem.  There are a few biker friendly areas but they are quite short in length.   The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is a popular spot.  However, the car population has been difficult to deal with.  Not in the small times anymore thats for sure!

I had my first ocean swim tonight.  It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done.  I left the swim to the last minute so the sun was setting as I zipped up my wetsuit.  I had never visited this beach before so I didn’t know anything about it.  All I knew was that their were a line of buoys that roughly equaled a mile.  To top it off, I couldn’t see anything in the water.  It was a little cold but the wetsuit made it bearable. 

So I waded out through the waves (about 250 meters off shore) and started to site my first buoy.  All I could think about was how I didn’t want to get eaten by a shark.  When I hit some sea weed I had a brief panic attack.  I kept swimming until I lost site of my last buoy where I turned into shore.  Swimming back in I could barely see what lay ahead.  Not a big deal on some beaches but this one had rocks.  Big ones. 

I made it in without incident and most of my wits!  Probably not going to try that again for awhile!

Anywho, I’m hard at work trying to get some vids up!  Thanks for readin!

Happy (To Be On Dry Land!) Trainin!

Cliff