Ready or Not

I apologize for not getting to blog comments.  I really enjoy responding to them, but I’ve been a little busy getting everything together for my first pace job, which includes making sure everyone at home has everything they need since I will be gone all day.

FIRST OFF, Congratulations Giraffy for being the first person to correctly name the song I quoted in my last blog.  “Ain’t Talkin’ bout Love,” Van Halen.  1970’s.  I was going into the 9th grade when I purchased that album.  LOL.  Just e-mail me your address Giraffy (you can find a link on my profile) and I’ll send you a few of my favorite gels.  Thanks for reading!

Secondly, tomorrow is a big day, as I will be a pacer for the first time.  I am so honored to be chosen by a very adept trail running friend.  Of course I am nervous.  But I have trained.  I’m nervous to have someone else depend on me.  But then again, every single day of my life others depend on me.  I hope for a restful sleep and a fun time tomorrow pacing one of the toughest 50 mile races in California – Twin Peaks 50.  Good luck Hank!  And good luck to all those lining up at the Start Line.  That takes guts!

Good luck also to my friends running the Long Beach Marathon tomorrow (Jeremy and Jeff) – I know you’ll do great.  Again, even taking that spot at the Start Line takes guts!  Good luck to all those I didn’t mention.  I know A LOT of people are racing tomorrow.   Fun, fun, fun!

You probably will not see a “Pace Report” tomorrow, as I may arrive home quite late.  I’m also not sure if I will capture many pictures.  I’m there on one mission only – that is to help my friend cross the finish line.

Good night to all.  Hope your runs are fun tomorrow.  And if you’re not running, have a great day anyway!

Lackadaisical Run

We got rain in Southern California the past two days.  Enough rain to close local trails.  Of course I could have probably run mountain trails, but there’s no one to run with me on weekdays.  And I don’t run mountains alone.  Why? 

Mountain lions. 

And those two legged coyotes (as my husband calls them).

Rain was fine with me, though I’m not a big fan of rain.  I live in Southern California!  But I wanted to cut back on miles this week anyway.  I cross trained instead, and did my short speed workout on the treadmill. 

This morning, the sun shined brightly.  I checked local trail websites to find that they were all open.  Deciding on a venue change, I opted to drive many miles past my usual park to the Newport Coast to El Moro Ridge (which I believe the is part of Laguna Wilderness Park and the bottom is Crystal Cove State Park – I’m not sure on the boundaries.)  (For those of you who know this area, I ran down No-Name Ridge to No-Dogs, then past the ranger station and back up El Moro Canyon where I hopped onto a portion of Missing Link, then ran all of Fence Line to Bommer Ridge.)

I picked a lovely day to run  trails lackadaisically.  Having been wet for 2 days, then dried up today, the amount of animal tracks were astounding – lots of deer, bobcat and coyote, not to mention bird tracks and other miscellaneous tiny tracks that I didn’t stop to identify.   

With my speed training, I found that I took off at a quicker pace with little warm up needed this morning.  And when I found myself plodding along on the inclines, I thought to myself, “I can run faster than this.”  And I could.

But on to the pictures:

Running No-Name Ridge, I encountered lots of friendly hikers, all with walking sticks:

A quick pose on No-Name, I was so, so ready to rip off this long-sleeved shirt despite the cool breeze.  But I wanted to wait until the bottom where I would make a pit stop at the ranger station:

Running along No-Name:

Approaching the Crystal Cove ranger station, notice white water in the distance:

Heading up El Moro Canyon, this lovely shrub lines the trail.  I can’t i.d. it.  Do you know what this plant is?  Let me know!

Fungi growing along the lush, wet parts of canyon:

Just plain ole’ beauty running up El Moro Canyon where a doe dashed out from the brush in front of me, then another and then one more.  They hopped (yes hopped!) across the trail so quickly and back into the brush on the other side, that though I fumbled for my camera, I was not quick enough to catch a picture:

More El Moro Canyon.  It was nice to run a trail where every tree is new to me:

Toward the end of the canyon, I had three options to the top – Nice-and-Easy (which isn’t exactly easy, but it is very runnable), Elevator and El Moro Canyon.  Here is the intersection of Elevator and El Moro.  I had not run either one before.  Guess which one is Elevator?  It’s not the trail on the right!  I took the trail on the right for a more direct route to Missing Link:

Oh my!  I don’t know why this trail wasn’t named “Elevator.”  I was actually slipping back down the hill as I went up.  But I was able to run some of it:

A look back.  Curious what Elevator was doing, I went to the edge, “and there I stood and looked down, you know I lost a lot of friends there baby, ain’t got no time to mess around.”  Not!  I haven’t lost a lot of friends there (but can you tell me the name of that song?  I’ll give a small prize for the first person who can.)  Anyway, I did go to the edge so that I could see Elevator, and saw a meandering trail going up – Nothing like this one:

Fence Line Trail:

Miles run this morning:  9.02:

Will These Socks Work?

I stand now at the start line as my race season begins.  I suppose it’s now the “moments of truth,” as I’ve got a few races planned over the next five weeks.  Time to find out if all my training helped.

I know one thing for sure, I’m going into this year’s season in better shape than last year, and with no repetitive use injuries.  Although, the other day, it seemed I strained one or more of my chest muscles, not by running, but by strength training.  I am happy, so very happy to report a two-day recovery for that strain.

First up, in less than 7 days, I’m set to pace my friend Hank for the last 20 miles of Twin Peaks 50.  There’s not much more I could have done to prepare for this.  Besides training, I’ve memorized the route, I’ve run to the peak as much as I could take the time to do so.  And I ran to the peak from the bottom.  I start mile thirty from the Main Divide which cuts out a MAJOR climb.  Now, I’m just fine tuning – things like, filling the headlamp and flashlight with fresh batteries, washing my stinky hydration pack and deciding on attire (it may get cold).  And since I usually wear thin socks, I decided to run today in the pair I’ve chosen for Twin Peaks.  They are really comfy, warmer socks that I’ve never worn with the shoes that I’ve been training in recently, and also wearing next Sunday.  Today I put the combo together and went out and ran 12 miles of trails.

Yellow!  A good sign, my favorite color

We’ve got a cool down in Southern California.  The skies are blue with white puffy clouds.  The reptiles are lethargic, the rattlers unseen.  Rain is even forecasted for the next couple days (not good for my local trails!  They close them in the rain )  Today however, I didn’t need to worry about that.  My run was tranquil.  I barely needed fluids, though I packed plenty.  I didn’t even take in gels or solids.  I’d call it a very comfortable run.  Most everything was beautiful to my eyes.  Often I couldn’t resist a picture.  At times I escaped the present and the thoughts turned negative, but mostly I just ran.  I didn’t stop because I was tired.  I stopped because I was just plain ole tired of running.  My husband said, “What are you doing?  You still have time to run.”  He knows me.

Some scenes from my “winding down run”:

Off in the distance is where I’m pacing next weekend:

Top of the World (overlooking Laguna Beach/Pacific Ocean):

Running the rolling hills of West Ridge:

It’s all down hill from here:

Sycamore Grove (Wood Canyon):

The final stretch (about 3.5 miles remain):

Miles logged this morning:  12.02:

Oh ya.  The socks were comfy as usual and worked wonderfully!

Running with a Friend

When economic times are bleak, and I can’t even think a day ahead of time without a cloud of anxiety, there’s nothing like taking off the earphones and running with a friend.

It seems like I haven’t run with Sheila in such a long time – I know we missed all of the summer.  It may have even been last winter when we ran together! 

Well, this morning was lovely, blue skies, the sun shining, but it was cool.  We ran to the Top of the World and could actually see the great Pacific.  A large fluffy bobcat crouched down in a meadow as we ran through Wood Canyon.  Birds screeched out it seemed extra loud.  They scurried along the forest floor and flew from tree to tree as acorns fell down upon us.  A whole high school cross country ran by us.  And we even ran on in with two other runners that we’ve never met before.

Lovely way to begin the weekend. 

The view of Santiago Peak from West Ridge at Aliso/Wood Canyons

Quick pose before running onward & upward to Top of the World

Top of the World

Sheila takes a call running down Car Wreck

I got such a kick out of her second call, I snapped another photo.  (No one phones me that early in the morning!!)

Miles run this morning:  7.35