TALES FROM THE TRAIL (AND SOMETIMES THE ROAD TOO)

Friday, February 11, 2011

The Easter Bunny has ALREADY Arrived!

Okay, now I'm totally screwed (excuse my language).  The day that I commit, once again, to get on the straight and narrow with my dietary intake (so that I can be healthier, plus drop some pounds) happens to be the day that Easter candy hits the shelves.  Oh the humanity!  What is going on the in the world????

I am a candy fiend.  Easter candy is my favorite candy.  Nothing compares in my mind. 

But Valentines hasn’t even arrived yet.  Yup.  That’s right.  The aisles have both Valentines and Easter Candy. 

I like to know how candy got associated with Easter anyway.

I already had set Saturday (tomorrow), the day before my long run to get my diet straight.  So today, after an Italian birthday dinner (my son’s and mine – his birthday is today, mine in a few days), I bought a whole bag of Easter candy. 

I won’t say what happened next.  But it wasn’t pretty.

So, if dropping some pounds and eating a healthier diet is so important, why haven’t I done it?  I have to answer, sadly, that it must not be that important.  If it was, I would do it. 

In my defense (yes, one of my excuses) is my work schedule.  I leave for work well before dinner and arrive home after dinner time, starved.  But I should count my blessings.  I love my job.  It’s actually too good to be true (just need a tad more hours).  So, I refuse to blame my job.  I have to blame myself!

I’ll just close my eyes when I walk past the candy aisle.  And I’ll take it day by day.  And because 90% of the day my want to get healthier is not that important, I believe I must resolve again to record calories.  And I will drink more water, especially when I first get home from work (so that I don’t clean out the fridge : ) and I will celebrate Easter (when it finally arrives) happily without loads of sugar.

Happy Easter Valentines Day. Winking smile

Thursday, February 10, 2011

So, SO, SO, SO Close (but yet so far)

Today I ran my 9.5 mile timed loop.  The race against myself.  To recap:  this is the loop --

My Activities Timed Loop 2-10-2011, Elevation - Distance

To additionally recap, my goal is two hours.  My best time before today was 2 hours 11 minutes.  In order to make goal, I figure I gotta make it to the top of Meadows Trail in ONE hour.  That’s at about the 5 mile mark on the elevation graph above.   Last week, I made the top of Meadows in 1 hour, 7 minutes.

I wasn’t sure how to improve getting to the top of Meadows.  Do I run like heck to the base, therefore tiring myself beforehand? Or do I conserve energy a bit so that I have more energy running up the beast?

I decided, run my a** off and try to make time on the easy parts.  I will say, that I got off to a slow start.  Needed to make a pit stop.  Then I had to retie both shoes, since I tied them too tight originally. 

I made great time on Wood Canyon.  By the time I reached Meadows’ climb, I was dead-dog-tired, and about a quarter of the way up, I started with that nasty negative talk.  “I’ll never do it!  I can’t, I can’t, I can’t . . . “

With that kind of talk, I’m surprised that I made it to the top of Meadows Trail three minutes faster than last week!

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I ran across the Top of the World (most of it paved) a little sluggish, speeding up on the flat and downhill portions.  When I entered the park again at West Ridge Trail, my motto was “Run like the Wind, Bullseye!”

To my utter surprise, I made the outhouse at the bottom of Canyon Vistas Park in two hours!  With one tiny little hill to go, I told myself, just do it in FIVE minutes.  You can do it in FIVE MINUTES!!!  Thing was, I felt like falling flat on my face.  I had really run myself into the ground this time. 

But I was so close to smashing my record by several minutes.  Ends up I made my best time in this race against myself with 2 hours, 4 minutes.  I really couldn’t hope for anything better than a 7 minute improvement from last week.  I’m shocked.

The pressure’s on . . .

Now to spice things up a bit – I had such a blast looking through old team pictures last week, that I thought I’d post another one (30+ years old – not me, the picture, I’m much older) Smile

Another blast from the past.  This is one of the several softball teams that I played for in my youth.  The Flintstones from 1980, the Bobbi Sox league.  I played in two leagues, the other was Little Miss, where we wore those skirt-like shorts and no sliding allowed, stealing home, or even leading-off.  Bobbi Sox was tough – sliding allowed, leading off and stealing home too!  I slid maybe once.  And I don’t recall ever being asked to steal a base (I was too slow : )  My Dad is in the picture too, and I was so, so young, but I’m sure with that youth, I could have never run today’s loop anywhere close to 2 hours 4 minutes!

Thanks for reading. Smile

bobbysox

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Loop Girl

Today was one of those days that I didn’t feel like running.  The skies were cool and gray.  It even drizzled here and there in the morning.  But I forced myself to the trails.  I forced myself because I want to be able to run when I feel like running.  Do you know what I mean? Winking smile

Lately, I’ve changed my runs to include: 1) what I call my lackadaisical run, where I can run where I want, as fast as I want (or as slow as I want), take as many pictures as I want and just kind of escape into dreamland while running 2) a fast timed loop (9.5 miles), and 3) my long run.  Three days I reserve for cross and weight training.  And one day I rest.  (That’s the plan anyway.  Sometimes two days I rest.)

Today was my lackadaisical run.  I had planned for an out-and-back through Wood Canyon.  But you know what?  I hate out-and-backs.  There.  I said it!They bore me.  I’m a loop girl.   I love running loops (not track and field loops), but trail loops.  They don’t have to be elliptical in shape.  Simply start and beginning in the same location, a trail loop only has a different route out than it does back.

So I switched gears this morning.  I didn’t plan any route, except for the fact that I wanted some kind of loop.  Instead, I just ran one magical loop in dreamland, including some of my favorite lower trails in Aliso/Wood Canyons, like Cave Rock, Dripping Cave, Oak Grove and Mathis.  Then I sped it up just a bit, because I felt strong to return via Wood Canyon Trail. 

Miles logged:  7.15

Cave Rock Trail (on my way to THE rock)

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Posing on Cave Rock (THE rock.)

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Inside Dripping Cave (AKA Robbers Cave)

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Some Scenery Along Dripping Cave Trail

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Finishing Up Dripping Cave Trail

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Poison Oak (it’s so pretty and green – trickery!)

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Moss Covered Boulders on Oak Grove Trail CIMG8944

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Big Baz Winter Trail Series / 18k

I arrived to Blue Jay Campground, bundled up, an hour before today’s Big Baz’s WTS race.  After picking up my bib, I chatted briefly with a some runners I know, others that I don’t know.  Then I stood in the outhouse line.  Noticing one of the doors slightly ajar, I opened it to witness a woman stand up from the pot and lurch forward toward the door.  Apologizing profusely, I decided to go for a walk to warm these old bones and find an outhouse far, far away. Smile

The wind blew strong.  I noticed almost all the runners arriving were bundled up or dressed in cold weather running attire.  Finally I found my nice and secluded outhouse about a half mile away.  It was clean, lonely.  Without being too personal, I just have to relay what happened.  It wasn’t another female runner who pulled the door wide open.  No, he was a big, burley, lumberjack type who flung my outhouse door open.  LOL.  I knew not to stand up like that runner had when I did the same thing to her.  She provided a full frontal shot by doing so.  Instead, I let out a little scream, then looking down noticed that I was fully covered by my coat.  He slammed the door and I laughed out loud, exclaiming, “I thought I had locked it."

Those were my exciting pre-race events this morning.  Oh one more thing.  One runner proposed to his girlfriend in front of the pre-race crowd.  That was cute.

Eager to Start 

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Sheila & her husband Marcus

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Me & Sheila

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Girl accepts ring after proposal as Baz stands off to side

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I got rid of the warm clothes before the race started.  I knew only a matter of minutes would pass before I wished that I left them behind.  I certainly didn’t want to deal with tugging off the shirt during the race.  My plan was to really race.  I mean – run as fast as I could, only hiking in the extreme cases, and hiking FAST.

Turns out, that’s just what I did.  Wait.  The first thing I did, or didn’t do, was start the garmin.  I believe we were about a half mile in, maybe less when I finally started it.  Heck with that, I felt strong.  I jumped over gulleys and up onto boulders.  I eyed the ground suspiciously for anything that would send my flying.  I flew down the descents, but I never fell. 

For miles, I tried to catch a woman ahead of me.  She ran in sweats and long sleeves.  “She’s got to burning up,” I thought.  I gained on her some.  I don’t know if she knew that I had targeted her.  She wasn’t looking over her shoulder.  But then suddenly, she wiped out.  She didn’t just fall, she FELL, landing sprawled out on her back.  I screamed (for the second time today).  “Oh my gosh.  Are you all right???”  I ran up and hovering over her asked if she was alright, did she need help up?

“Not right now,” she said.  She wanted to sit there and recover.  She was kind of half sitting in the gulley, her eyes clear, but dazed.  I knew the feeling.  Oh, how I knew the feeling.   And I knew the annoyed look she gave me too. 

“Do you want me to leave?” I asked. 

“Yes,” she responded, waving me on.

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes, I just need to sit here.”

And so I took off, feeling a bit badly.  When my friend came up behind me some time later, I asked if that lady had gotten up.  I was relieved to find out that she had.  And I continued my strong run up and down hills.  And those steep inclines that I decided that I would make better time hiking, I hiked faster than I can ever remember hiking.  I kept those arms pumping, trying to catch the next lady up a ways.  Approaching her inch by inch, probably twenty feet separated us when she put her hands on her hips.  That’s when I knew my time had come to pass (ask me later about hands on hips, it’s against my rules : ) 

I really can’t remember running a stronger trail race than today.  It was a beautiful day in the forest.  And I have to say, that speed training and those timed loops have done some good.

Before I knew it, I was running pavement.  I was actually shocked that the race was almost over.  Fun, fun day.

After stretching, I hung out for a bit of the post race show (Big Baz’s raffle).  On my way out to the car, I was happy to see the woman who fell, running up the road toward the finish line.  She thanked me for stopping.  And I was oh so happy she said that. 

Runners stand around after race 

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Elevation Profile (a bit short, because I forgot to turn it on at the start), plus don’t forget to scroll down for the movie.

My Activities WTS BIG BAZ 18K 2-5-2011, Elevation - Distance

Oh, What Fun!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Blast From The Past

I feel kind of free since my big race of the year is done in January.  Now, it's like I can do whatever I want.  I'm trying out Big Baz's Winter Trail Series now.  The next one is this weekend.  I altered my workout schedule a bit, so as to rest before the race.  And instead of Monday being my regular "rest" day, Friday is “rest” day this week.  Monday became gym day (elliptical and strength training).  Then I ran early in the week, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Today, Thursday, I had the joy of swimming.  After some strength training at the gym I swam 2200 yards (2011.68 m or 1.25 miles).   I feel great.  My skin is tight, my eyes a little droopy.  I really like my swim days.  Don't do them often enough.

Motivated by Johann's “Throwback Thursday,” here's a picture way back when I used to swim more.  High School Swim Team picture from my sophomore yearbook.  Can you figure out which one is me?  Looks like a motley crew if you ask me.

swim team

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Timed Loop (beat by ONE minute)

The time had come to get out to Aliso / Wood Canyons for my 9.5 mile timed loop.  It’s my “regular” timed loop (regular, as in this is my 4th time), down Wood Canyon, up Meadows Trail (yikes!), across Top of the World to West Ridge, down Cholla Trail and up through Canyon Vistas Park to my car. 

My first timed loop, (early December) I ran it in 2:24.  The next timed loop brought big improvements with 2:12.  After that, I ran it in 2:13.   And then today finally, I beat my time with 2:11. 

With about 1,400 feet elevation gain, I figure the only way I can make this loop in two hours is to make it to the top of Meadows Trail (Top of the World) in one hour.  I thought I had a chance today.  But with so many of the shrubbery washed away, I wasn’t quite sure where I was in the ascent and ended up topping off Meadows in 1:07 (which isn’t too bad).  That wiped me out so much, that  I lost time later, reaching Cholla trail (my last descent) in 121 minutes – one minute later than last week.  But I made up that minute, plus another crossing the imaginary finish line, my clothing and skin crusted in salt.

I was happy that I came in one minute better than my best.  I would have liked more.  I told my husband, it was kind of like losing 1 pound.  You don’t really know if it’s just water weight.  He responded, “It’s better than gaining one pound.” 

That is true . . . that is true.  If I can beat my time by 1 minute every week.  I’ll have that 2 hour goal in 11 weeks.  I can deal with that.  (Now if I could just drop 1 pound also a week for those 11 weeks)  Smile

Top of Meadows Trail (Top of the World) overlooking Laguna Beach and the Pacific Ocean

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Elevation Profile

2 2 11 TIMED LOOP

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

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 Smile)

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).

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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!)

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A View of the The Strands

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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.

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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 CIMG8842