On The Trail Again

On the 24th day of my running streak, I made it back to the trails for a nice, relaxing, “smallish” loop through Aliso/Wood Canyons that included a stop at Top of the World.  After a day back on the trails, I felt like I was never going to leave them again.  But, alas, I realize if I’m going to continue this streak, the road I must return.

I’m feeling pretty good after 24 days of running.  My calves are no longer tight when I take off.  I’m not increasing my speed much.  And the sweat pours fast and quickly.  Also, I must foam roll every day to get rid of an IT Band that so wants to flare-up.  Overall, I am happy to report that body is taking consecutive day running very well.

Scenes from today’s trail run:

Taking off into Wood Canyon for a run up Cholla Trail to the ridge:

View from the ridge (West Ridge):

Coyote Run (a lovely single track detour back to Wood Canyon Trail):

Miles run: 7.76 (12.49 km):

Trail Mimicking

I am a trail runner.  If it makes any sense, I am more a trail runner than I am a runner.  Even when circumstances bring me to the road, I search out something that can somehow mimic the trail.  Though nothing so far truly mimics the trail, I have had lots of fun lately with my boulder hopping.

I still have to run the streets to get to these boulders.  And I must admit the cars freak me out.  People tell me they are afraid of snakes and spiders and other wildlife – but what about cars?  They weigh more than anything I find out on the trail.  And they can flatten me in an instant.  I just don’t trust cars – I mean cars, not necessarily their drivers.  A tire could blow, and next thing I know that car is flying toward me as I run peacefully along the sidewalk.

Well . . . I’ll not think about that. 

My biggest dream as a child was not any particular career.  It was not to be rich or drive a fancy car.  My biggest dream was to live in a beach town.  I was living in a beach town by age 23.  And I had many great years wasting lots of time in the surf and sand.  I am very fortunate.

Funny how now, I want to “waste” lots of time in the mountains.  Every day when I look out to Saddleback Mountains, I’m drawn to drive up there and run.  Unfortunately, it just costs too much dang money and time to run the mountains every day during my running streak.

So, day 23 of this streak, I again headed out my front door to the beaches.  And even though I ran plenty of road, I had a terrific time working up a sweat.  My mission today:  run the boulders at Monarch Beach.  I am getting better, much better at maneuvering my feet over these large boulders.  I move side to side, hop up, jump down.  There was a time, many a year ago, that I could barely hike those rocks. 

What fun!

Scenes from today’s run:

St. Regis Hotel:

Making my way down to Monarch Beach:

Time for boulder hopping:

Making my way to the prize:

My dirty shoes standing on nature’s colorful beauty:

Some of the prize:

The big prize after all that boulder hopping – my own private beach:

Running Monarch Beach:

Big Wednesday :

Running Salt Creek:

The Strands:

Miles run on day 23 of Streaking into the New Year: 10.79 (17.36 km)

Jetty Run

On day 22 of Streaking into the New Year, I decided that since I’ve been pouring way too much money into the gas tank, that I’d take a run right out my front door.  Normally, I would frown upon that.  But I had plans.  Big plans. 

I ran down to the marina wearing gloves for warmth – those didn’t last long.  I fatigued pretty quickly before even making it to the downhill toward the great Pacific.  The gloves I quickly tucked into my belt, squeezed in next to my camera and phone.  While fatiguing so easily on day 22 of this running streak, I wasn’t enthusiastic anymore about my plan, which was to run the outer jetty  – THAT IS UNTIL I SAW THIS:

Approaching the jetty after running around the harbor:

I took off thinking that running the jetty wouldn’t be so difficult.  All it was, really, was giant boulder hopping.  Quickly, I realized this would take some strategy.  The experience was like running a maze.  I had to turn my cap around so that I could see far enough ahead to know the next 10 or so moves.  If I didn’t pay attention, I'd find myself leaping enormous crevices, or running across smaller wobbly boulders, or even running straight down into the ocean.  At one point, I slipped on bird poop and slammed my knee into a rock.  I learned that this challenge took total concentration.

Glorious!

Looking off the jetty toward harbor island:

The further I ran out onto this jetty, the more serene it grew and at one I became with it.  Also, the further I ran out, the more stinky it grew – bird waste and bird remains, as well as the guts of creatures they devoured littered the rocks.  There were birds all over the jetty – awesome pelicans, thousands of seagulls, sleek black egret-like birds that I’ve never seen before, to name a few.  They out-numbered me so drastically that I was a little spooked at times.  If even a fraction of these winged-creatures decided to turn on me, I was done for!

Except for two hikers I saw on my run out, I came upon no other people on the jetty.  Plenty of boats made their way up and down the channel.  At one point, I distinctly saw people photographing me from their boat. I thought to myself, “Oh, brother!  Am I going to end up in someone’s blog post today?”  LOL.

Though I am a trail runner and don’t often get out to the harbor anymore, I am so grateful for the “streak” in getting me here.  The jetty run was an utter delight.  I reached the end dang ecstatic.  PLUS, I could see Saddleback Mountains.  What a prize!

Scenes from the Jetty Run – it was aMAZing:

Approaching the end of the line:

The End.  Well, not the end of my run, still have to run the jetty back (about 1.15 miles) plus back home:

Heading Back:

6.04 miles run this morning (9.72)

Day 21

As yesterday’s saga continues, I woke this morning with a terribly aching arm.  If you read last night’s post, you know that I fell over the doggy gate.  But you might wonder how the heck I did that.  No, I wasn’t drunk.  Though I was extremely preoccupied.  The gate has a latch at the bottom and top, and lifting the gate up is supposed to unlatch both the top and bottom.  Well, last night, only the top latch opened, the bottom remained closed.  Not realizing this I continued walking and walked right into the gate, falling over and onto it when it crashed down.

The pain this morning was continuous, yet I didn’t want to take ibuprofen or another pain reliever because on day 21 of my running streak, I wanted to feel any running aches and pains that may occur so that I might avoid a repetitive-use injury.  So I applied a heat wrap.  I wore it all morning, then after making breakfasts and lunches and dropping the boys at school, then dropping attendance off at my work, I drove to Aliso / Wood Canyons with the heat wrap beneath my shirt.  Those wraps are HOT.  Within a mile of my run, I was burning up, though pain free.  Eventually, I couldn’t stand the heat any longer on this winter day and tied my sleeves around my waist.

I doubted the wrap would stay on much longer as sweat dripped down my arms to my elbows.  You can see from the picture above, the wrap is already loosening.  The sleeves at least helped keep the wrap attached.

I took off running again happily with the sleeves tied around my waist, and with the intent to FORGET reality (or reality as we know it.)  I’m suffering from a great deal of stress right now.  I really needed day 21.  I planned to run, not until I couldn’t any longer, because I could have probably put in 30 miles today.  Instead, I was just going to run until I had to pick up the boys.

First thing I saw after removing the sleeves and unraveling the stress, string-by-string, was my old friend Blue Heron.  He just stood there in the field, blink, blink, waiting for me to make a move.  Finally, when I took a step toward him, as he is such a lovey bird with an amazing wingspan, he took off toward the hills.

And so I continued on running.  When the heat wrap finally fell off, I tucked it away for later and headed for the hills myself.  My arm felt pretty good.  Even though I wasn’t sure where I was running, I knew that I was running up Mentally Sensitive (Psycho-Path).  I needed something strong this morning.

Turning off onto Meadows Trail, headed for Mentally Sensitive:

And then I got silly.  That usually happens first – usually just before everything becomes beautiful.  I didn’t think about anything as I morphed into silliness.  I simply took it all in.  I say “simply” rather loosely, because I couldn’t do this years ago.  To not think is actually difficult.  But if you can do it, and you can with practice, the joy is real, even when utterly fatigued. 

Good Advice:  (LOL) 

Running Mentally Sensitive, looking forward to the climb.  Yes, I am getting stranger and stranger.  But remember, this is DAY 21 of my Streaking into the New Year:

And then I hit the toughest trail in the park.  There are other extremely tough trails at Aliso/Wood Canyons, but right now, this is my toughest.  But a tough trail didn’t take away my silliness.  No, it only added to it, and added to that the feeling that everything is beautiful.  I’m telling you EVERYTHING.  A bug crossing the trail.  A rock in the road. 

Running up Mentally Sensitive:

Off Trail on Mentally Sensitive – Oh No!!:

Upon reaching the top of Mentally Sensitive, I decided to make the “big loop” around the park.  I had more than enough time.  My arm began aching again.  It was all that arm pumping up an extreme climb that probably brought back the pain.  So, I relented and took two ibuprofen.  And I also snapped the picture below of Saddleback Mountains.  I just can’t resist taking this picture.  Notice the meadows, about mid picture – that’s Meadows Trail and the beginning of Mentally Sensitive.  And my starting point (the ranger station) is about 2 miles beyond the hills on the right:

I stopped quickly at Top of the World.  Ate my Luna bar, though I wasn’t one bit hungry.  I figured with the salt that covered my arms and face, that I probably would poop out soon if I didn’t eat.  My fluids did have the salt I needed (Nuun tablets), but it’s usually too late when I realize that I should have eaten. 

So, I ran all of West Ridge, taking a few detours, then down Cholla Trail until I came down upon this gorgeous canyon, Wood Canyon:

I ran all of Wood Canyon, without any detours.  It’s been a long time since I ran Wood Canyon without detours.  I had forgotten just how long it is.  Though I was somewhat fatigued, I ran it on in all the way, happily, joyfully and playfully.

Then I had to check-in to reality (as we know it).

Miles logged:  12.64 miles (20.34 km)

Streaking into the New Year Day 20

Day twenty of Streaking into the New Year, my 20th consecutive day of running, I met running friend Tom Bychowski at Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in Modjeska Canyon.  The morning was gorgeous, blue skies, a bit cool.  And the climb was up, up, up.  Seriously, there is (& was) practically no relief on the run up Harding Truck Trail.  A little over a mile in we got a little down hill.  But that was it.

As we progressed toward the sky the wind came in strong.  Really strong. Most of the time it blew head on, giving much resistance to our upward run.  My cap flew off a couple times.  Tom caught it once as it flew down the road wanting to jump off the mountain.  There was also a gust that came in so strong I thought it might knock me down.  Really, it was great fun!  I’m not sure if Tom thought the same, but I saw him smiling here and there.  It was also pleasantly cool, or cold rather, but not freezing.  And I continued to hold tight onto my hat at times, because I wore my favorite cap on day twenty of my streak, and I didn’t want to chance losing it.

Once or twice, the wind blew at our backs, and it gave me a much needed push.  Eventually the wind blew so strongly against us, we figured it was time to turn back.  So, a little over mile five, I set up my camera for a quick “group” photo and we headed back down the mountain. 

High above Orange County, I could see the coast was socked-in, that is, covered in clouds.  I’m sure the fog horn blew at my home.  For us out there in the mountains, the sun shined strongly.  And being so windy, the clouds above the lowlands looked like ocean waves crashing against the rocks.  Funny, as we ran down Harding Truck Trail, the wind blew against us still.  Now, someone explain that to me!  Still, it was fun.  Fun, fun, fun.  And we made it back to our cars in very decent time. 

So, after day twenty, I felt great.  I did some floor exercises at home – clams, foam rolling, to keep up the non-injury streak.  And I felt a little proud for getting this far uninjured.  And then.  AND THEN.  I fell over the doggy gate that separates our kitchen from the living room.  Injuries:  a sore wrist, a very sore elbow, a knock on the head, and a gash on my ankle.  That is me.  Just call me “Grace.”

10.23 Miles Run on the 20th day of my running streak.  (16.46 km)