Just Like Old Times

It was a nice 5 mile run at the beach. A little single track, a little boulder hopping, a little sand, and a friend to run with. Jessica Deline, AKA Portland Trail Runner is back in town for the Orange County Marathon on Sunday. It was good to see her and catch up on things.

Good luck to her and everyone running the OC Marathon!

Santiago Truck Trail

This morning's group run turned out to be a solo run because nobody else showed up! It was just me and the mountain bikers. This first picture shows my destination - the American flag in the distance. After that there are some views from the trail and lots of wildflowers.

Wildflowers are not really my thing, but I used the photo opportunities as an excuse to take some breaks on the uphill sections.

[rant]
One of the pictures is sideways for some reason. Blogger just does whatever it wants with my photos. It never lets me arrange them the way I want, and always changes things around when I hit the Publish Post button. What's up with that? Isn't Google supposed to have some of the best programmers around? Haven't they heard of WYSIWYG?
[/rant]

It took me quite a while to get warmed up this morning because I did not run at all during the week - I only walked 6 miles because my legs were sore from last weekend's 9 mile run. That may not sound like much, but it was my longest run since last November!

Last week was my first 20 mile week in quite some time. This week will be more like 16 miles, with today's long run about 6.7 miles.

The cool sandstone formation is called Vulture Crags.

Real Lakes of Orange County

I was on my way to Whiting Ranch for a hilly 3 mile run with a friend from work when I got the voice message. My friend couldn't make it. I was just then passing by Lake Mission Viejo, so I pulled off the road and parked my car. One lap around the lake is just over 3 miles and I have not run here for a long time. Why not?

This was going to be different. There is no single track, no real trails, in fact no dirt at all. It's 100% sidewalk. There are no real hills either, just some gentle rollers. And by my reckoning it's not a real lake, just a man-made depression filled with tap water! Perfect. At least I could pound my legs on some real concrete for a change.

After warming up with an uphill start, I settled into a pace just over tempo which felt great at first, but was becoming a little uncomfortable by the end. My completely uneventful and friend-less run statistics: 3.17 miles, 298 ft. elevation gain, 29:11 at an average pace of 9:12 per mile. Below is an image of the so-called lake showing my concrete route.

"Real Lakes of Orange County"

5 @ 5

The strong onshore was mostly at my back as I ran south on the San Clemente Beach Trail. A few times the moonlight broke through fast-moving clouds, revealing lines of waves streaming toward shore, whipped into whitecaps by the wind. The packed-sand trail was dark and empty.

Can you smell the ocean? That was an exerpt from this morning's 5 mile run at 5 am.

San Clemente Trail Run

The first thing I asked when I picked up my bib was "Could I switch to the 5K?". I guess I was still spooked by the sore legs I experienced on Thursday's "run" (read post). Part of me was thinking that a 5K would be overdoing it. As it turned out, the volunteer made it easy for me - "No switches" - so I obediently lined up with the 10K runners.

It was a little moving when all 150 runners said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the National Anthem together. Here we are facing an unseen American Flag that was surely waving somewhere inside the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base across the valley.

I was chatting with Lauren as we were lining up, so I decided to start out with her and see if I could keep up. At the starting gun (a real gun, not an air horn) we all took off. The entire course was fire road, wide enough for people to pass by each other and prevent traffic jams. As I was jogging along the first mile or so on gently rolling terrain, I realized that I actually felt pretty good and began to get the idea that I could do this! An extra day of rest seemed to have made a big difference.

Lauren and I ran together until just past the halfway point where, near the bottom of the first big climb, I summoned enough confidence to strike out on my own. On that climb and the next big one, there was plenty of walking to be sure, but I was able to do some running, too. I passed a couple of people, but they passed me again later while I was walking. Thankfully my quads and feet did not protest too much, even on the steep downhill sections.

At the top of the second climb, when I was nearly out of gas, the final final aid station came into view. Woohoo! I quickly drank a cup of water, a cup of Gatorade, then poured another cup of ice cold water over my head. Just over 2K to go.

Except for 1 medium hard climb, I thought the last section was going to be pretty easy. I guess "easy" is a relative term that depends on how fast you go, because it was anything but easy for me. On this part of the course it was possible to see the folks ahead and behind, so I was trying like mad to catch the ones in front and not get caught by the ones behind. I don't think I passed any 10K runners, though, only a few of the 5K runners/walkers who started later.

I was able to kick a little at the finish (only because it was downhill), and crossed the line in 1:09:50. Definitely not a record, but considering that an hour earlier I was contemplating just walking the 5K course, I was thrilled to finish 5th in my age group. I guess I lowered my expectations too much!

There were a few members of the Orange County Trail Runners at today's event in San Clemente:

Marta and Heather. Marta ran the 10K and Heather ran the 5K.

Grant ran the 5K because the 10K was sold out.
He ended up winning first place in his age group!

Lauren ran the hilly 10K

Lowered Expectations

Yesterday I planned on a short run to preview the course for the San Clemente 10K Trail Run coming up tomorrow. The trail is only a short distance from my workplace, so why not? I thought I would just do the 5K course because it looked fairly flat (most of the hills are in the 10K).

Well, the run was indeed very short. I ended up walking most of the way, all the while wondering why I was out there at all. The problem? My legs have definitely not recovered from last weekend's race and are still sore. I guess the downhill pounding they suffered was more than they could handle with my limited preparation.

This week I've been walking and pedaling an exercise bike regularly, but I guess it wasn't enough. More time is needed, and I only have 1 day. So tomorrow morning (wearing the event t-shirt no doubt) I plan to set off at a "brisk" 17 minute pace and hope for a miracle.

March Trivia

• Returned to steady running, 4 days a week, total 15 miles
• Finished the latest John Grisham novel
• Ran a 5 mile trail race
  
• Got an ultrasound on a suspicious nodule on my thyroid
• Made my first on-line stock trade
• Celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary
  
• Granted 4 patents by the US Patent Office
• Upgraded to a fast new desktop computer at work
• Applied for a new passport
  
• Bought 4 new tires for my car
  

OC Chili Winter Trail Run #3

I had been looking forward to today - the third and final race in the series. For the past month I had been carefully training just enough for constant improvement but not enough to re-injure my foot. Unfortunately, that worked out to less than 15 miles per week! I had gradually increased my long run up to 5 miles, as today's race would be 4.9 miles. So far, so good.

Starting slowly near the back of the 100+ field, I worked through the crowd a little for the first half mile until we hit the first real uphill. From there the course was mostly uphill for the next 2 miles, gaining almost 900 ft. of elevation. My plan was to do no walking, no matter how steep it got.

After settling on a sensible pace and a sustainable breathing pattern, I simply tried to hold on. I did manage to pass a few people when they started walking, but it was very hard because they were still going almost as fast as me! A couple of them passed me back later. Anyway, I made it to the top of the course without giving in to the temptation to walk, but wondering if that was really so smart.

The first couple of downhills were real steep and I went as fast as I dared. Descending has never been my strong point, but at least no one passed me there. The next 2 miles were pretty flat to rolling with an unmistakable downhill trend. Just extend the legs and cruise home. I could see people behind me, but they didn't seem to be gaining or falling back.

It stayed that way for about a mile, then I had to walk for a few seconds. Someone passed me. A little while later, a short hill, few seconds of walking, another passed. Could we get to the finish, please! All told, about 5 people passed me in the last 1.5 miles. As I was nearing the finish, I caught a glimpse of someone else gaining on me, so I went as hard as I could for the last 150 yards. I finished 49th overall in 51:10, good enough for 3rd in my age group. My legs were sore afterward, but luckily my foot felt OK.

Here are some finish line photos of other OC Trail Runners:

I swore I could feel someone breathing down my neck at the finish, and it turned out to be OCTR member Victoria, who finished a few seconds after I did. It was her first race in the series, and she had a great time, placing 2nd in her age group.








Grant, a new OCTR member, finished 27th overall even though he and a few others made a wrong turn on the course. He was 4th in his age bracket.










Heather had a great race and smashed her previous PR for the course by a full 8 minutes! She was third in her age group.










Photos courtesy of Richard Saunders. Thanks, Richard!