A Run to Beat the Rain

Rain approaches, so I hear.  Don’t much like running in rain.  It’s like “been there, done that – now I’m done with that.”  Besides that, they close my trails when it rains .  With little time to spare between pick-ups and drop offs and grocery shopping and chatting with elementary school moms, I’m fortunate to have slated today as my lackadaisical run. 

With about 36 miles logged last week, I planned to bring it down a notch this week, mainly due to the final Big Baz WTRS this weekend.  Turns out, with the amount of rain we’re expecting, I’m going to bring it down more than a notch.

I dug around beneath the bed for a pair of road running shoes.  Funny thing, I have five.  Not five pairs, but five shoes of the same type – 3 left and 2 right.  Go figure.

I carried nothing on my back, nothing in my hands for today’s run down to the marina.  I wore a small running belt with my camera, lip balm and phone.  (Gotta carry that camera, I never know what I might see).  The sky was gray, the weather cool.  Pelicans swooped down on the marina waters like planes coming in for a landing.  Two sea lions lackadaisically swam the Pacific waters.  Squirrels ran rampant on the island on the other side of the marina.  They’re the scrawny type, overpopulated, scavenging for too little food, and no predators to take them out.  (In comparison to the plump furry squirrels on the trails that have to look for food and have plenty of predators seeking them out.)

I didn’t see many runners this morning.  I saw one woman that I recognized. She smiled wide like she recognized me, and I smiled back.  I didn’t see this area’s famous runner (among runners, that is, an Olympic qualifier from years ago).  He runs through the marina at top speed.  An amazing sight.  But he never smiles or even nods. 

Anyway, I find it nice to have a water fountain to drink from every 50 feet .  I also enjoy looking at all the different dogs walking their owners.  I didn’t much appreciate all the stop lights I needed to wait for. 

As I ran back home, I saw my husband driving to pick up our youngest son.  He yelled out the window that the back door was unlocked.  Thing was, I couldn’t get the back gate opened (I’m clumsy that way).  So, while talking on the phone with my mom, I climbed the gate and jumped down about five feet onto the cement.  And I think I heard a gasp from the other end of the phone that said, “yikes, women your age shouldn’t be doing that!” 

Here’s to hoping to no rain tomorrow so that I can fit in one more run before the weekend.  If not, off to the gym I go . . .

Dana Point Wharf, Rain Threatening

Have you ever seen a blonde squirrel?  I never had until a few years ago.  They scramble all about the marina island. 

And lastly, I was surprised to find that I ran beneath sea level at times.  What the heck?

Miles logged: 6.14

Snake Run

Saturday, I needed to take care of a residual from my face plant a month ago (Big Baz WTRS 15k).  Whereas my eye actually improved a great deal initially, this week it took a turn for the worse.  It was red and painful.

Turns out, something went into my eye during the fall.  Though whatever it was is no longer there, my eye didn’t react well to the intrusion.  A cyst formed in response, which in turn began irritating blood vessels.  “Thank God you didn’t damage the cornea,” the optometrist said.  And then she went on to say, in not so many words, that women “our age” shouldn’t be taking falls like that.  In my defense, I told her, “Well, I normally don’t fall like that; I was trying to avoid the cliff, so I fell awkwardly.  Usually, I fall much better.”

I’m sure that convinced her that women “our age” are okay to take falls like that.  She sent me off with an eye-drop prescription.  And already, my eye has greatly improved.

Saturday night, I went to bed at 9PM.  I could still hear the boys roughing up the place and didn’t fall asleep until after 9:30.  Up at 5:20 AM, I sat on the couch fooling around on the computer, avoiding getting dressed.  Not that I didn’t want to run.  I greatly looked forward to my long run this morning.  I was just too dang cold (we are so spoiled weather-wise in California – I’m guessing it was 40/45 F).  6:30 AM I was finally out the door and in the car to drive to my local trails (why, Aliso/Wood Canyons, of course).  My plan today was to run every trail up to the ridge and every trail down.  In other words, I ran up the first one (Cholla), ran along the ridge to the next trail into the canyon (Lynx), ran down it, ran up the next one, etc., etc.  The last trip down was Meadows (the beast!) which after running I turned around and ran up it to make the trip back.  Technically, I suppose this 19+ mile run was an out-and-back, but not exactly.  I made a few alterations on the back trip.  It was more like a snake route, back and forth, back and forth.

“Before” (I had planned to take an “After” shot, but forgot), standing in Canyon Vistas Park, layered and ready to take off.

The weather remained cool my entire run, though I stripped those layers pretty quickly.  Running through spider webs on the single tracks, I found myself smiling instead letting out yelps like I used to.  My thought was, “Ahhh, I’m the first one on this trail this morning.”  I would wave my hand in front of my face when running through spider-like areas.  Once a web broke on my upper lip.  I didn’t utter a peep.

Later, I found myself semi-frequently dodging mountain bikers.  Guided groups of hikers also roamed the hillsides.  I ran past one such group struggling up Mathis.  They smiled and shook their heads in amusement as I snaked my way up the mini-beast.  I have avoided Mathis for a while now, because it is so painful.  Surprisingly and happily, I found Mathis Trail quite comfortable to run.  Not at all saying that it was easy.  Just that all those runs up Meadows Trail have miniaturized other trails like Mathis.

Hours later, after running back up Meadows Trail on my way to West Ridge, I met that same hiking group while I ran across Top of the World.  One of the guys exclaimed, “It’s you again, I can’t believe you’re still running!” 

“You’re still hiking!”  It was like meeting old friends.  Turns out I set off this morning at the same time as this hiking group (7 AM).

Running down Lynx Trail in the cool morning shade, spring flowers already dot the hillsides.  (Running back up this at about mile 18 was a bear – no shade!!)

Spring flowers Along Rock It Trail

Dodging Mountain Bikers on Rock It

Car Wreck Trail

Finishing Up Car Wreck

Posing with 2-Headed Dragon I Found on the Trail

Top of the World View of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island & Laguna Beach

A Little Detour on Park Avenue Trail (Trip Back)

19.29 Miles: +4,031/-4033 SUPER FUN SNAKE RUN!

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.

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 --

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!

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)

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.

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?

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)

Posing on Cave Rock (THE rock.)

Inside Dripping Cave (AKA Robbers Cave)

Some Scenery Along Dripping Cave Trail

Finishing Up Dripping Cave Trail

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

Moss Covered Boulders on Oak Grove Trail

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.

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 

Sheila & her husband Marcus

Me & Sheila

Girl accepts ring after proposal as Baz stands off to side

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 

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.

Oh, What Fun!

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.