All not according to plan, Part 2

And now for Part 2:

Firstly, we flew down to California (again!) on Saturday for my final dental appointment (and of course to see family!) We needed to get 8 miles in sometime over the weekend, and I wanted to get it over with on Saturday, since we had a Birthday Party to go to on Sunday. (Birthday parties are important when you’re 4 and 6!) I was just planning on having us run along the beach, like we did the last time we were down here, but J wanted to try something new. So he talked his friend into driving us down to South Orange County (Aliso/Laguna area) to try out a trail. Not the best choice.

J thought the trail would start with an uphill climb, then level off when we got to the “top”. The trail started out friendly looking enough, but that didn’t last very long. It definitely took off with a very brutal climb. We didn’t run this first section. (I’m pretty sure I would have tripped and died, if we had.) So we waited for the summit, but it never came… Eventually we started running, but after 1 mile of climbing straight upward, we called it quits, and made our way back to the parking lot. I was kind of upset. I really wanted to get a quality 8 mile run in this week, since last week was such an utter failure. So we decided to wait and try again on Sunday.

After the party on Sunday (about 5pm), we finally headed out for our run. I was a little nervous to start so late in the day, especially down here. (It’s hot for us!) But it actually turned out pretty well! We took off straight from my mother-in-laws house, and made our way to the the mighty Santa Ana River (lol). There is a dirt/rock path that runs alongside the “river” with beautiful views of a playground, a plant nursery, and a sewage treatment plant! We even got to wind our way over to Costco, and run under the 405 freeway. What beautiful scenery! (Sense any sarcasm? We are definitely blessed in the NW!) The first half of the run was kind of rough with the sun on our backs, very little breeze, and minimal distractions in the form of scenery. But, when we turned around, the run got much better! There was a heavier (and very welcome) breeze that cooled us off immediately. We were also able to refuel with Espresso Love Gu. (Better than Mint Chocolate!) We somehow lost J’s Gu, either along the way, or in the house, so we ended up sharing. I definitely want to try other refueling sources during our next several long runs. I’m still not completely sold on Gu.

We made our way back feeling pretty good and very accomplished. We ran 8 miles today! That’s farther than we’ve ever run before! Here are our splits:

Mile 1: 9:55
Mile 2: 10:27
Mile 3: 10:23
Mile 4: 10:11
Mile 5: 10:14
Mile 6: 10:01
Mile 7: 10:15
Mile 8: 9:46

Maybe not our most consistent run ever, but we were still able to negative split it! (Thank you wonderful breeze!)

Sunday:
8 miles (10:09 avg pace)

I’ll leave you with some pics of our failed run on Saturday:

The very beginning of the trail, with nice shady trees and a flat path (this section was quite short):
Stupid Hill:
Pretty view:
More view:
J, after we quit, on the stupid hill:
Bunny:
Later that night

We fly back up to Portland on Tuesday. Here’s a rough schedule for our week:

Monday:
Rest Day in Cali

Tuesday:
Track (probably)

Wednesday:
Easy 3 miles

Thursday:
First Thursday

Friday:
Rest Day

Saturday:
Work :( / BBQ

Sunday:
10 miles (Double Digits!)