Downhill and Shade

So far, so good, in sticking to my low-mileage-every-other-day agenda. Sunday morning, I met with Tom F. for another run in Laguna Wilderness. The sun was already hot, and the Willow Staging area parking lot was fast filling up. We ran a loop that I have not run before, one with lots of shade, and plenty of single track – my two best picks for trails. We had a good amount of down hill too (of course, that meant some climbing as well). It is doing me well to get in some trails that I haven’t “run” countless times before. I enjoy the explore aspect of trail running. That’s what kept me going for so many years.

In all, we put in 5.61 miles with a little over 800 feet of elevation gain. The last of it was one nice long shady decline. And thanks to that downhill and shade, I will live to run again.

The route: Laurel Canyon, Stage Coach, Camarillo, Serrano Ridge, Laurel Canyon. The title to this blog entry is Tom’s, as if I remember correctly (& sometimes I don’t), he suggested “downhill and shade,” or at least something like that.