Last Weekend's Long Run

Ah, I have neglected to update the bloggo. Well, last weekend's long run was lovely. Huddart is greener than I've ever seen it. There are creeks bubbling where I've never seen them before and green ferns line the trails and decorate the canyons. Every boulder is covered in green moss. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.

I ran up a trail that I usually run down. I had to keep turning around to look down the trail to recognize where I was. Even then with all of the greenery, I didn't recognize where I was all of the time. I figured I'd get to the top at some point.

I took a little connector trail that heads out towards another preserve. I wasn't planning on going all of the way out there, just about 10 minutes out to add more mileage. It was a bit creepy. There was no one up there and by the looks of the trail I didn't think that anyone had been up there in days. We have all of these gorgeous places but I see so few people on the trails. In the big lot at Huddart my car is often the only one there. I see LOTS of people on Pulgas trail when I'm there. You know why? They can bring their dogs.

On the way back down I met up with a nice fellow walking (illegally) with his dog and his son on one of the trails. He was immediately appologetic about the dog and I immediately told him that I thought the rule was stupid. (the East Bay parks all allow dogs on leash on the trails). The way I see it dogs have a special place with humans. We've been together at the very least about 15,000 years (some think 25,000 or more). If you require folks to keep their canines leashed and to either bury poop or pick it up I don't see a problem enjoying the great outdoors with your dog. In fact, it's only natural. As it is now you can't bring your dog hardly anywhere around here, so people don't go anywhere and their dogs don't get an opportunity to get out and about and learn how to be good canine citizens.

I've spoken to countless people who would use these wonderful outdoors more (or even at all) if they could walk/run with their dogs but they don't feel safe without them. I think a dog is a good big cat/evil human deterent. And just a heck of a good companion.

So how about even just a day or two a week where dogs are allowed on peninsula trails. Why not? Anyway, I just think that there are too many stinkin' rules. The Man's been bustin' my mojo lately.

The rest of the run was downhill, thankfully since I really needed to hit the outhouse. I used my cross country flats but the trail was well groomed with crushed gravel and not mudlicious at all. I could've worn my Vibrams. Fer sure this Saturday.

+++++++

The weather's been fabulous here! It's been in the 70's the past few days and it'll be nice like this through the weekend at least. It definitely affects my mood for the better!

Here's some cool ultra links that I found that have been very helpful -

A whole bunch of ultra links

A really cool automatic training schedule for ultras

I've used this link to make a better training schedule for myself. Lotsa weekend mileage!

Sludge

• No pictures today because it was raining on the trail
• Doe sighting, she sighted me too
• Vibram Five Fingers are not so good on muddy trails

The rain was beautiful. It felt nice. Unfortunately the trails at Edgewood have some very slippery clay. I had to shorten my planned run as it was too slippery to head out on a second loop. I fell once and scratched up my shin. Next time I run on the trails in the rain I'll have to use my cross country flats instead of the VFFs. I think that the little nubbies will help a lot. Also I think it would be better to run in Huddart or one of the other redwood forest trails in the rain. The pine needles on the trail take the slip factor out of it.

I'll probably head out for a second run today in the evening with the dog. She was sorely displeased that I went out without her.

Sunday's Trails

It was back to Huddart Open Space for me today. I don't think I've run here since the dry heat of last summer.

Fun Facts About this Run

• 5 banana slugs


• 1 yellow bellied salamander


• no mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats or deer


• a really wierd bluish fungus covers horse poop in rainy weather


• I think I may hate it when it gets hot here again

The drive to Huddart was epic in itself. The fog was thicker than I've seen in a few years up on 280. At one point I had about 30 feet of visibility in a blanket of dim white. Luckily right after its worst point the fog lifted enough to give a decent view of the road for the rest of the way to Woodside.

It was foggy and cold at the start at the Zwierlein trailhead. I hemmed and hawed but in the end I decided to keep on my thin windbreaker as I wasn't sure what the weather might end up doing. It could rain or even snow at the top for all I could tell. It's happened before!

The start was slippery, muddy and cold but breathtakingly beautiful in the redwood forest. Once I passed a "no horseback riders" gate on the trail the churned up mud on the trail stopped and my footing was smooth and easy. The vibrams were a bit slippery on the sludge, but I think that anything or barefoot - it was going to be slippery there. My hands were cold and icy.

About a 1/4 of the way up the hill the fog thinned and the sun peaked through the redwoods and California oak. As soon as that sun comes out around here it gets warm. I stopped and stashed my windbreaker in my Wink UD backpack/waterbladder.

At about this point I was cursing those extra 10 winter pounds that I was dragging up this hill along with an almost full water pack. My lack of significant hill training these past few months was pretty obvious to me. I was glad to see only two other runners on the trails this morning, and they were going back down so thankfully they couldn't see my slow upward progress. I chalked up my starting and stopping up the mountain to being "hill intervals." Yeah, that's what I'll call it...

But oh I love the wet lushness of this place right now! The weather was perfect, cool and crisp with clean, damp woodsy air. The oak trees have dropped a lot of acorns along the trail. I stopped to inspect them and found a yellow-bellied salamander. I haven't seen one of these in years. He was a nice size too, longer than my hand.

I didn't push too hard to get to the top. I felt it wise to temper my enthusiasm as this would be my longest run so far this year, so today is for distance and time spent on the feet on not for speed. There were a few new trees down across the trail since the winter storms, but no washouts that I could see. Also, more of the trails have been worked on with some gravel stuff since I was last here. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I guess this gravel stuff isn't too bad or too unlike the natural trails. It's not pointy rocks but almost like soft chunks of asphalt that kind of glue themselves together. I can't imagine how they get all of this stuff up here - If you don't know Huddart, it's very steep and definitely deep-woodsy, not really the kind of place you can bring equipment into. I'm surprised that they went through all the effort to resurface these trails.

Once I made it to the top I GU-ed up, took a picture or two and headed out towards Chincapin Trail for the rollercoaster ride down. In a few weeks I'll take the connector trail towards Wunderlich to add some more miles back and forth and eventually run into Wunderlich for some very long runs. For now, this was ideal. I tempered my downhill on Chincapin because there are some sections that tend to get narrow and wash out. Also trees tend to fall over this trail a lot more than some of the others. But Chincapin had been gone over too quite a bit with some of the narrow sections shored up and stabilized and all of the fallen trees removed. I'll let it fly more next time I'm here.

There were lots of birds chirping on this run. It really felt like early spring. I saw maybe two squirrels the whole time which is amazing because the bushes are usually shaking with them. I guess they are still winter hibernating or such. The lower down on the trail I got the more confident I became so I started to push the pace. I had no problems with the vibrams or my feet. No stubbed toes or stepping on pointy things...just a nice stable pitter pattering on the trail.

I know some people worry so much about barefooter/minimalists stepping on rocks on the trail or turning ankles. One great thing about trail running in VFFs is that I know I won't turn my ankle. You really can't in VFFs or barefoot because there is no platform (sole or heel) to catch and roll off of. Plus, think of your landing, it's forefoot, heel touch and up again - no rolling from heel to toe where you turn your ankle as your weight transitions to midfoot. And rocks? Well, stepping on them isn't nearly as bad as you'd think, plus, just look out for them and don't step on them. Easy.

I ran the last mile the fastest and let my legs churn freely beneath me. There was an even downhill and then an uphill finish to the trailhead. It was about 11 miles in 1:40, which was actually pretty good. It feels good to be back!

Longest Vibram Run Yet

I did about 11 hilly miles.

And it felt really great. One thing that continues to astonish and amaze me is that I have NO muscle soreness. If I run in shoes, and run hard and long...I'll get the usual stiffness afterwards. Especially after I get up out of the car after I've driven home from the trail. But yesterday and today...nothing! I haven't read anything about this barefoot phenomenon anywhere else...but in this experiment of one there is no muscle soreness. Infact, they feel better than just not sore...but almost massaged by the run.

The only "problem" I've encountered is a little bit of fluid accumulation above my right knee. No pain whatsoever though. And the puffyness went away overnight. I'm thinking it's a protective reaction to the change in stride and hopefully not a problem at all. My right leg is definitely my weaker leg, I broke my tibia a few years ago so I think that its relative weakness may be causing this. I'll keep an eye on it and if anyone has any suggestions please leave a comment!

Tomorrow is THE DAY

Yikes, or Zoikes! as Scooby would say.

It's here, I knew the time would come eventually. I wish I could have gotten two more looooong runs in to feel really confident...but there's no time now. Skyline to the Sea is tomorrow.

I have my transportation all figured out. Hubby and girls are going to drop me off at Saratoga Gap at about 8ish and meet with hubby's aunt for breakfast and hanging out together for the rest of the time. Maybe going to Santa Cruz. I will run for 6ish+ hours through the woods. I'll give them a call from just before the finish if I'll be earlier (by some miracle of the running gods no doubt).

I'm going to get my bag all packed and my hydration pack all packed today/tonight. I'll make sure that I have everything set so that I don't have to worry about it at all. Since I already have the willies I don't want to add any more stress to myself because I'll just become a crazy whiny fool.

Today, a little yoga and stretching. And my usual Friday evening volunteering at the local no-kill animal shelter. And then a goooood night's sleep if I can get it.

Wish me luck! The next post will be about the race.

Whew! Hot Spell

Wow! We had a long spell of hot (for us) weather. About a week of 90+ temps. What was cool about it is that it didn't bother me at all - so I guess I'm heat trained and acclimated...just in time for the end of summer!

Well, actually, it is good because we do get some of our hottest weather in the fall. So I'm prepared. Much better than the Big Basin race where the heat just bitch-slapped me into a whining pile of meat. I was being such a baby.

*****

On my long run last week I hit Huddart Park during the heatwave and did a nice 2 hour loop in the woods. It wasn't nearly as long as I wanted to go but I ran out of time after having done some errands that I shoud've done on another day. But maybe it was good that I had a little bit of an easy week on the mileage because I was starting to feel a little ragged.

It was 95 degrees in the parking lot. That's pretty hot for around these parts. What makes it even hotter is that most of us don't have air conditioning in our houses so they become little ovens during these heatwaves. But, like I said, it didn't seem to bother me this time around. As I headed off on the trail ( I went out Zweirlein to Crystal Springs) there were gray squirrels just kickin' it in the middle of the trail. They'd lay with their legs splayed out, bellies dug into the dirt in the shade to cool off. Very, very mad when I disturbed their comfort.

As I wound up the mountain I concentrated on leaning into the hill and using gravity as my friend - i.e. "falling" up the mountain. I'm revisiting the Pose Method as I'm feeling that my running is getting too much like plodding. I discovered a little tidbit of information buried inside Dr. Romanov's book. He mentions briefly as you learn the method to just kind of bounce in place to get the feeling of elasticity in your legs. This helped my relax my feet and ankles too, which were very strained and stressed. Why on earth do I carry tension in my feet? Anyway, this little excercise created a kind of "aha!" moment for me, relieving the tension in my ankles and feet and giving me that right Pose Method feeling back again.

Going up the mountain you end up running through two different types of forest - an oaky brushy one and the redwood forest. The oaky one makes me nervous. Strikes me as the best place for a mountain lion to sneak around. It's also very dry right now, dryer than I remember ever seeing it. It looks like some of the springs have dried up as I saw a lot of ferns that were totally dead. I just hope we make it to the rainy season soon and without an awful fire up there. There's a big section of this brushy forest that I run through on the Crystal Springs Trail. I love getting out of it and back into the redwoods again. The redwoods are also noticeably cooler and moister. Great for running. And the trails under the redwoods are noticeably softer and smoother.

I always forget about one section near the top that is so steep it's pretty much unrunnable. Makes me cuss out loud. At least here I was entertained by a beautiful pileated woodpecker. I tried to get a picture of him but he just laughed at me and swooped from tree to tree. I've seen more of these this year than ever before.

I got to the top in good time and was super happy to have the rollercoaster downhill home ahead of me. Just as i was blasting around a turn a very young buck with little stubble horns bolted across the trail about an arm's length infront of me. I tried to get some pictures of him and his three girlfriends but my hand was pretty shaky right after that, and he wasn't holding still either.

I was surprised to feel so good on the way down. I "posed" it down Chincapin to the Dean trail and back down to Zwierlein. My legs felt nice and springy for a change. I saw a coupla bunnies just before the Werder campground area and tried to get some pictures of them but they were off and bounding by the time I got my camera out.

****

This week I'll do a looooong training run and then start tapering for Skyline to the Sea. I think a good final long, long run will give me the confidence and stamina to pop that 50K bubble. There's nothing more that I can do for the event except just do it. The best I can do after my last long run is....nothing. Actually, taper which I know is going to be sooo hard!

1-1/2 Hours of Contemplation







I did 1-1/2 hours at Wunderlich. Just did a loop to the Crossroads and back down again. Kind of lazy of me, I wish I had gone to the top, but I was having odd tummy rumbles that indicated I needed a bathroom break so I headed back down Alambique trail to the porta potty. No more Alambique to the trail head for me. It's an annoying, steep root-rutted decent that doesn't make for fast times or smooth running. I don't really need the obstacle course training, I need to get some smoother trail speed in there. From now on I'm taking the Oak trail to Salamander Flat on the way down. Way more interesting.







I wasted much time contemplating my previous employment experience on the way up to The Meadows on Bear Creek Trail. I thought of all the coulda, shoulda, wouldas...which is really dumb because I pretty much knew from minute one that the whole job was trainwreck waiting to happen. So why ponder? I realized sometime after Redwood Flat that I was just hiking; trudging uphill muttering to myself. And making ridiculously slow time. What a waste of energy - not the excercise but the mental energy of mulling over this past failure. When I got to the meadow I was greated by a beautiful scene, the coastal fog spilling over the hills and into the valley below. That's why I'm here. And this is now. Enough of what was then. It's a new day.

















Today will be an easy 3 miler in town. And maybe a moderate run tomorrow morning before I go on a fieldtrip at the kids' preschool. Then I'll go to the top of the ridge on Thursday. For sure. Into the fog and beyond!

Wednesday, March 12th


Edgewood Park


Well, instead of driving all the way down to Rancho I went to Edgewood Park....which is about a 10-15 minute drive away. I'll reserve Rancho for the big long runs, today I should only do a 5'er or so.

I haven't been to Edgewood in a long time. I forgot how pretty it can be, especially in the springtime. Things were green and gorgeous with a few early wildflowers, and much if the early trail which climbs through oak forest switchbacks is like a fairy land; a green tunnel of trees, moss and ferns.

Fairy tunnels!

Upper Meadow

When I got to the top I checked out the views from this beautiful green meadow. Then it took me forever to find the trails that I wanted to take back down because there was a trail not listed on the map that was fouling things up for me. I ended up going on a loop and coming right back to the meadow again. Which was okay, but a bit frustrating. So I headed off in another direction to connect up with the Sylvan Trail to get back down again. I probably did more than 5 miles with the mix up. But who's counting???

Little Lizard