GMR variant

Don was able to get out to go riding this morning. Alex was too so we got a good little group of 4 to ride from the house and back with a good GMR climb in the middle. We headed out from my house at 8 this morning. The temperature was a pretty chilly 33 degrees. The ride out to GMR was sort of cold. We were all wearing what we could to retain warmth. I ended up leaving everyone behind up GMR to the halfway point. It got pretty warm and I felt like if I kept my balaclava on more than the first mile I would be looking at overheating with the thermal arms, wind jacket, and thermal legs I was wearing too. I unzipped the jacket and tucked the balaclava into my jersey and everything was better. Shortly before getting up to the halfway point I thought I saw Mike and Don heading back down. I figured Mike had overextended himself or Don was exhausted since he was just pretty sick last weekend. I headed back down and found that both of them were still on their way up. So I continued up the rest of GMR with Don. He fell back eventually but that was to be expected all things considered. He still rode better than he thought he would. I waited about a mile before the top for him and we continued the rest of the way together ending the ride up in a short sprint to the top.

The rain we just got in the arctic storms that passed through last week dumped a lot of snow in the mountains. The route up GMR was dicey in some spots with a good layer of frost on the ground but I was the only one that didn't have any wheel spin or slippage. Everything was still controllable and manageable for everyone else.

After I napped this afternoon I went out to Top Speed Running in La Verne and met the people over there. I needed to get some decent running shoes if I'm going to start training to do Duathlons. I went in there and talked a bit about what I was looking for and what I was aspiring to do. She got me on the treadmill in a pair of shoes and examined my gait. I found out I slightly pronate and my ankles look like they want to collapse but instead they auto-correct my step. She then brought out about 6 different pairs of shoes from brands ranging from Saucony to Asics and New Balance. We ruled out the ones that didn't feel good and kept the ones that did. Of the ones I did like I tried them on on one foot against another type on the other foot. I ended up feeling the Asics Gel - Kayano 14 shoes felt the best.

Tomorrow morning I will probably head out to Bonelli Park with the TT bike, do a couple laps and then go for a run.