Cazadero "Highway"

While not the most ideal running terrain, I opted to do the 8 mile tempo right out the front door of Trestle Cabin on Cazadero Highway. I put the highway in quotations above because I wouldn't necessarily classify the road as a highway. As I was running, I contemplated what the AAA people use as their basis for putting a road on a map. My reasoning brought me to the conclusion that it has something to do with the post offices. If a town is large enough to have a post office, a road must go to it. That is the case with Cazadero Highway - not a major road at all, but there is a post office at the end of it. The cabin is 6 miles up the road and the post office is about 6.5, so I first ran to the post office and then came back in front of the cabin and did 3.5 miles before I turned around and came back. While the cars go fairly quickly (speed limit is 35, but I don't think most follow that) my best estimate is that there was an average of less than 5 cars per mile that actually passed me, so all in all a successful run in not getting hit by a car, which leads me to my next comment:

I want to state for the record that I do not believe it is a good idea for either of you (especially Amber might get the itch for this dream) to have the goal of cycling on Highway 1. It seems to be somewhat of a pilgrimage for some people, as we saw many cyclists loaded down with gear for a long trek. Its not that I don't think you could do it from a physcial perspective - I'm quite sure you could. But from a getting hit by a car perspective, I am not so confident. We almost wiped out at least a dozen cyclists. The road is just not made for two cars and one bicycle at the same time. In many places it is, in fact, barely made for two cars. So, that's my thoughts on that.

PS - Crosstraining this week consisted of canoeing, hiking and golfing. Not extremely cardivascular, but hey, I was on vacation.