Father’s Day Run (Last Day of “Easy Week”)

Happy Father’s Day!  Fortunately today was my last day of an “easy” week.  Granted “easy” in my training plan doesn’t necessarily mean easy.  It simply means less mileage.  

To lessen my time away from home this Father’s Day, I ran straight out my front door.  That meant (gasp) . . .  A ROAD RUN.  Please do not think I have anything against road runners or road running.  As I’ve written before, nowadays, I’m more a trail runner than I am a runner (if that makes any sense). 

I admit, I had a delightful run.  And I was sure to make it a hilly one.  I got in some sand running, and a bit of trails too.  I saw LOTS of other runners and ran through crowds of people.  Also, the wind blew hard the entire six miles.  Amazingly and rather hilariously, every direction I turned, the wind blew straight-on into my face. 

Running down to Dana Strands:

Some seaside running:

Lots of steps to run up to get back to town:

“Headlands” trails:

Overlooking the marina (where I first began running):

A rare looking elevation profile:

Again, happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there.  Me & Dad pictured below (oh ya, and Mickey too):

She’s a Two-Timer

That’s right.  I am!  Even though I broke up with the pavement some time ago.  I have been seen running around around with pavement a few times since.  One of them today.  But I have an excuse.  I had little time to run, and with the way my schedule’s working this week, I needed to run today.   To tell you the truth.  I was looking forward to meeting with my old friend pavement.  It’s kind of nice to run straight out the front door.

Firstly, I had to find some road shoes.  The first pair I pulled from the beneath the bed, though the same brand, were both for the left foot (apropos, I thought).  Searching more, I found a right and left shoe (of the same brand again underneath the head of my bed.  (I’d say it’s time to go through the shoes again )

Though I ran pavement today, I took to the inclines, which meant some fast long declines as well.  And I saw some new things, it’s been so long since I’ve run the streets of my seaside town.

I ran over a new walkway above The Strands (a local beach) with these fish mosaics (dozens of them).

And I found new beach access down to The Strands (this once secluded beach now has three delightful access points, all beautifully landscaped.  But what goes down, must come up – I know the saying goes the other way, but with running, I’m always thinking as I run down, yikes, I gotta run back up!)

A View of the The Strands

After running up another set of stairs, I thought I’d investigate the road further, see if I found something else new.  And like a dog, I sniffed out a trail.  Well, kinda a trail.  Yes, it was a trail, more of the headlands trail system that the city has put in.  Notice the fence below that lines the entire trail system to keep runners and hikers in check.  The sight is way to gorgeous to complain.  I just think a more rustic looking fence might have fit better.

This trail meanders around the headlands overlooking the Pacific and comes out at a brand new building, some sort of headlands information building, where I promptly tripped on the pavement where it met the dirt.  I tripped hard too.  I thought surely I was going down.  My body was practically parallel with the earth.

No Worries.  I was able to add one fall to my fall count today nonetheless (LOL).  I came out overlooking the harbor and ran a path and bridge that travels along the cliff.  And while running UPSTAIRS.  Yup.  Upstairs.  I fell.  It was a soft fall.  No harm.  That’s ten to date though (3 for pavement, 7 for trails?).

I’m sure to visit pavement again.  Can you believe how lucky I am?  When probably a third of the country is covered in snow, I stand above in shorts (sweating) overlooking blues skies and the great Pacific.

Miles logged this morning: 6.53 + this afternoon, 1 mile with my son = 7.53

Dana Point Marina below

Spontaneous Turns

I looked forward to my Sunday run when I went to bed Saturday night. Sunday morning, 6AM, I crawled out of bed. I thought seriously about skipping it and sleeping in. But after 2 cups of coffee and over an hour later, I finally took those lonely steps out the door.

It was COLD. The breeze blew at my face, my legs were numb. I pulled my cashmere beanie over my ears and pulled on those gloves. (I wore shorts because of the pockets -- I knew that I'd need them later). With an ipod loaded with new music (not new as in recently recorded, but new as in music I haven't heard in a while), and ran myself into oblivion. I mean, I ran, and ran, and ran . . .

Not an hour in, my beanie was stuffed in my belt, my gloves in my pockets, my face and legs now enjoying that cold breeze. I ran inland for a while, up, up, up, then made my way down the condemned bike path to Monarch Beach. Waves roared and crashed violently on the shore. Dozens of surfers dotted the waters, runners and walkers alike made their way across the sand. The tide was high, but receding. Blue skies, white clouds -- absolutely gorgeous!

I ran at a slant on Monarch. The sand leveled out by the time I reached Salt Creek. The surf ate up much of Dana Strands, but I ran as much of the sand as I could, and taking a detour up the rocks, ran all the way to the cliffs, where I wondered if hopping up onto the cliff base was a good idea. There was little room to stand as the waves crashed all around me. Last thing I needed was to be swept into that cold water : (

And so I ran back across the sand and ran up the hill at Salt Creek towards town. I made a SPONTANEOUS turn back onto Highway One. Having not run this portion before, I didn't know there wasn't a sidewalk on the side of the street that I wanted. I like to run facing the traffic. And since I wasn't gonna run in the street, I crossed the highway for the sidewalk. Cars whizzed by, 50 mph plus, causing some anxiety. I noticed my breathing became labored -- nervousness? Or maybe I ran faster just to get off that part of the highway.

Coming into town, I noticed the new trail system on the bluffs was complete, so I took another SPONTANEOUS turn and ran up onto the Headlands where plenty of walkers made their way through the narrow landscaped trail that meandered in many directions. I knew I didn't have much time left to finish up this run, but I pushed it to fit in some more of my favorites -- the Cliffside path, pedestrian bridge, Doheny Beach, the jetty and wharf, when I finally made that climb up the big hill home.

Whew! I was a little tired. : ) I'm sure glad though that I didn't decide on sleeping in.

Total miles logged on Sunday: 15.63

52 Runners Total -- 4 of them barefoot (53 if I include myself who was running with shoes : )