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!)

SoCal Vacation, Part 1

Before I get into our trip, here’s a recap of the week, so far:

Monday:
3 miles (avg. pace 10:22)
This run took place around the city, i.e. around tall buildings. Therefore, I’m taking Garmin’s avg. pace with a grain of salt. Either way, I felt really good on this run, and it was fun taking a random path through town.

Tuesday:
Rest Day, and I mean it!

Wednesday:
3 miles (11:07)
We joined a running group for the Easter Fulton Pub Run. There were probably at least 50 people there, and I think everyone had a good time. J and I apparently are not very good at finding Easter eggs (we only found 1 each, and by “we” I mean J let me have one of his…), but we still managed to have fun! The first 1.5 miles were along a thin trail, and we were following a group in the back of the pack. We didn’t want to pass them for fear of getting lost, so our pace was a little slower than usual (12:13 and 10:57 for the first 2 miles). After we made it to the turn around for the second half of the loop, we picked it back up and brought it in at 9:48. All in all, we had a great time, and I hope we can join in for one of these group runs again sometime!

Thursday:
3 miles (9:35 avg. pace)
I’ll recap this run later on.

Friday:
Rest Day/Vacation Day!

Ok, now onto the vacation:

Obviously, we made it safe and sound! We started our voyage by waking up at 3am! Look how chipper we are waiting for the Max to take us to the airport:

We made it through all the various airport lines, got ourselves some coffee and breakfast snacks (mmm…coffee cake!), and finally made it on the plane.

We flew JetBlue, so I got to catch up on some trashy reality shows. This trip included America’s Next Top Model (reruns) and Sober House; good quality stuff!

We landed in Long Beach 30 minutes early to beautiful blue skies:

We made it to J’s mother’s house by 9:30am. Good Morning! We were fading fast. Nap time? Nah. Let’s just go for our scheduled run! I brought my Garmin and we took off in random directions, around various neighborhoods, for 3 total miles. J totally picked up the pace for the last mile, and we clocked in at 8:59. I didn’t even notice how quickly we were going! Here’s some pics we got along the way:

I like how this picture is all distorted from the combined movements of J an I running:

Self portrait:

Thumbs Up?

Later that day, I had a dentist appointment (our secret reason for coming down here). I’ve been going to this dentist for more than a year and a half for the same problem, but after yesterday, I only have 1 trip back in May, and I’ll be done! It has been nice to have a reason to come down and visit J’s family, so we’ll take it!

Today is reserved for relaxing and spending time with J’s family. Tomorrow, we will complete our long run (6 miles!) sometime around watching the nieces and nephews hunt for eggs. Sunday is reserved for family time! Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a good weekend, and a good Easter! See you next week!

Cross Training...?

Although my legs felt ok during the First Run, afterward they felt a little less than pleasant. In fact, the next couple of days my lower legs were quite sore. Even today, 4 days after the run, my legs were somewhat painful to walk on, let alone run on. So, I've decided to take it easy this week. I don't really want to, but I do want to run pain-free. And I want to run pain-free without having to take an extended break due to stress fractures. (I'm paranoid!)

So today, I've started "cross training" (well...sort of). The recumbent bike...yeah. Not really my favorite thing in the world. Pretty boring, and way tough on my legs. As with running, I've never really been very good on the bike. I would even say I'm worse at the bike then I am with running; especially now! But after the first 20 minutes, the burning started to dissipate. I managed to stay over 16 mph, but boy did my butt hurt! (from the seat...)

5 minute Warm Up
30 minutes at 16+ mph
5 minute Cool Down

I plan on doing about the same thing on Wednesday. Thursday we're flying down to Orange County to visit J's family, which should be fun! I really wanted to run while we're down there, and I'm not counting it out! Friday will be 1 week since the run; maybe my shins will be all healed and stuff! Maybe... :(