No Running Day

Monday, I could not run. First day all year and that breaks the goal set for the year to run every day.
So sad...I think I have to rest this thing...so I biked this morning, in the pitch black. I am bummed, sad, depressed and disappointed about it.
Hope it heals (heels) enough to run BSIM...et al.

Ouch

So Saturday March 13, I set out to do 18 miles. I had a hot spot all week on the bottom of my foot and thought it might loosen up after a couple three miles. I got out about four and it really started to hurt. So I turned around and limped home. Walking, running, running without a shoe...whatever...totally sucks.
I did however a that terribly slow and mediocre pace happen to find a 1936 buffalo head nickle. Pretty cool that.

The Grade

On Saturday March 6, 2010 I ran over The Grade and back plus, plus and finished over 16 miles with over 2000 feet of elevation gain.
Ran really well and felt good about the training schedule.
I have four long runs left in the schedule...18 miles, Snivley's Ridge, and two 20 milers.

Speaking of 17 Miles

I posed as a model for the one of the new mile markers for the Big Sur International Marathon.
The Company purchased a mile marker at the urging of several people last year, and I suggested at the time that we use tag line "Volunteers Rock" playing on the Company name and the great work that the volunteers, as all volunteers, really make a difference.
So the BSIM group took to the idea, and suggested a mural done by local mural legend John Cherney, to include Sally a 91 year-old volunteer and me, a bedraggled runner, being pushed back out on the course.
So we posed last week and have seen several views of the painting in its various stages of progress.
Run the race and I will see you at 17.

17 Miles

Finished 17 miles yesterday in preparation for the Big Sur International Marathon.
Felt pretty good the whole way. Turns out I was frightfully slow. Had a sore foot and the usual aches and pains, but went this morning to the water tank and once I got a little warmed up I was OK. Pretty good recovery.
Ran a good 15 mile trainer last Saturday. Out east bound on the Valley Road. It was a spring day around here...though too early to truly be spring.Clear blue sky and green, green all round with all the rain we had. The flowers were not out yet, so the only real color was green.

Everyday is a New Day

If last year's mantra for me was Present in the Moment, this year's is Everyday is a New Day.
Everyday, when we put on the running gear, a little or a lot, as weather and situations dictate, every run is a bold new interesting and exciting adventure.
And it is true. We see a bird or some flora or fauna or just notice something different on the trail of our everyday run.
Go try it...see what you see.

Garland Park Waterfall

With all the rain, I thought it would be a good idea to run up to Garland Park the back way and come down the Waterfall Trail. This is a path I do not usually run, but felt the added water feature would be cool. So Saturday I went that way...dodging the rain and not completely, up my usual back entrance, past the Mesa pond, which was nicely filled finally.
I then turned back and headed down the Waterfall trail. It had started to rain a good bit and I was heading down at a pretty good clip, so I was real careful not to slip and try to find solid landing places.
Finally get to the Waterfall...and really not much water. It must just come and go really fast during big events. The cool thing was the beautiful canyon that has been carved there through the ages.
Green mossy walls, golden limestone boulders, and Mother Nature doing her best to flatten out the world in which we live.
Go see it!

San Juan Bautista 10 Miler

Ran the San Juan 10 Miler on Saturday. Finished in 84 minutes besting the goal I had set of 8 1/2 minute miles, by a minute.
It is an interesting race that I had run years ago (much faster) and had not been able to run the last several years due to work schedules.
A relatively flat course all on the asphalt farm roads around the quaint little mission burg of San Juan. There is one set of hills just before the turn, but nothing too drastic.
I felt particularly good during mile eight, as it was a long straight stretch, I got up on the center double yellow line and really felt like I was making good time. Miles nine and ten were not so swift.
The older slower theme continues, but I am embracing the new mantra of Each Run is a Great New Experience.

Pulled a Muscle

As mentioned, I started playing racquetball again...or at least I thought I had.
I was just into the first game when twang...something happened. I could not even turn to swing the racket.
Dave, my playing partner asked what was up and I said," I think I pulled a muscle..." But I did not know for sure cause I do not think I ever did that before.
Right under my ribcage on the left and it only hurts doing very specific moves...like sneezing and last night I reached over across the bed to turn off the light, apparently reaching too far.
Anyway the doc said to take two weeks off.
I was able to run regardless and got in over 13 miles on Saturday.
Felt pretty good doing it too, though when I got home and checked the time it was slower than I thought...big surprise there...hah.
So the long and the short of things is It Sucks to Get Old.

Weather

Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night...this week in CA we have had a tremendous amount of weather, which we are not used to.
Monday was stormy, but I got the run in.
Tuesday was stormy, including lightening and thunder. I tried to time it and finally found what I thought was a window, but after some short while the lightening was so close, at least if felt like it, I cut it short and headed home.
Wednesday was stormy...getting the picture...and I got soaked. Nice run, but real wet.
Thursday was stormy, but I got the run in. It was windy, but I got the window with relatively little wind.

Feeling slow

Really seem to be just trudging along...feeling real slow so far this year.
Going to have to pick it up to run the 10 Miler in two weeks

Whole new set of muscles

I played racquetball the other day...for the first time in what must be 25 years. Wow what a quick and intense workout. I thought it might be a good cross training method and so I took the dare from a friend. He plays 6-8 times a week. I found my stamina to be good, but my oh my...I tried to play like the last time I was on a court, once I got the hang of having walls all 'round me again. Really need to play at a much more mature pace I think and rely on my wily veteran moves.

At any rate I was sore for days...particularly the glutes...just do not bend over that way so much while running in a straight line.

Great exercise...thanks Dave...he promises to introduce me to handball next. Yikes...

Skunk on the Bridge

The winter seems to bring those little buggers out.
Tuesday there was a skunk on the bridge and I did not see him until I was just a few feet away. I certainly stopped and let him waddle away...
This morning during a particularly early run, 4 am thank you due to an early call at work, I was close to one around the block.
He was out and looking to crawl into a culvert, with his tale up...but I was not sprayed per se...
Skunks...

The Rio Resolution Run

Ran the Rio Resolution Run as most always on January 1, 2010. Some of the nicest running weather that race has had. Got to start fairly close to the front. So much so, I later saw in the paper the guy that carries the American flag was behind. I did not see him before during or after.
At any rate, ran a good steady race. The last couple miles with a gent name Dave Reid. He finished just ahead and I finish at 51.50 for the 6.8 mile track...thinking I did great and maybe beat last year's time...
But then reality set in...a minute and one half slower! A little bummed...but is that old age and the forces of nature slowing me down?

Napa

Went to the beautiful Napa Valley for the week between holidays. Wonderful sights, sounds, and smells...oh yeah and plenty food...ate so much I had to run.
Went out for what I remembered at an eight miler...out of Yountville, over the Yountville Cross to Silverado Trail, across at Oak Knoll Road, and back up to Yountville.
Well, as I was out there I went over the map in my head as I was thinking, "You know, this seems I have been out here longer than an eight should take..." and sure enough I did not add all the distances and it was a 12.
It is a good thing and I handled it well. Nice to have something of that distance while on vaca...
Went to SF for just one night and ran a small bit up on Pacific Heights and into the Presidio. Saving up for the New Year Run at the Rio.

San Juan 10 Miler

Just signed up for the San Juan Ten Miler. A neat flat race at an interesting distance that I have not run every year as it usually lands on a working Saturday. This year not! So I am in. This race, many years ago was my fastest. I ran 10 miles in under seven minutes a mile. Ain't gonna happen this time, but am looking forward to it.
This event is in its 25th year. It is sponsored by the Hollister Rotary Club and all proceeds go to benefit local scholarships and charities. San Juan Bautista is a small California Mission town just off Hwy 101 approximately 50 miles south of San Jose. The two races, one 10 miles and one 5k in distance, both start and finish in front of the historic and beautiful San Juan Mission. The area is rural and the course takes runners through farm land and up the Anzar hills. Medals are awarded three deep in standard age categories. We also hand out door prizes. The 10 mile race is particularly good training for upcoming spring marathons. Fees include LS-shirt. Good training for marathon base. Both races timed w/awards.
www.sjbca.com; Online www.theschedule.com; wgtt@sbcglobal.net; 831/637-0071; 831/637-0092 Bill Tiffany, 535 Monterey St., Hollister 95023

Event Date:
Jan. 30, 2010 (Saturday)
Location:
Mission San Juan Bautista (45 min. south of San Jose)
City:
San Juan Bautista, CA US
Web Site:
Visit event website
Register Online:
Click here to Register Online

It was a Long Dark Night

The longest night or shortest day just past. We got a good bout of rain, followed by two real clear and cold mornings for running. Black, black sky and twinkly little stars all about. Heard a Christmas owl the last two mornings too.

Mushroomin'

With the recent rains I have noticed a good number of mushrooms on the trail.
When armed with my little Buster Brown flashlight in the dark on the trails I see the little white caps pushing up through the rich dark earth and feel as if I have entered a Disney animation world...Fantasia or Alice in Wonderland.
There was an article in the local paper about mushrooming. The usual warning, but not necessary for me. Fortunately I have not been bitten by the bug to go toadstooling for consumption. I will stick with the items in the grocery store in the little pink and blue boxes.
Aside from the white ones, I say a cool pink one up the Tank Road the other day.

Vibram Five Fingers

Saturday at long last I purchased a pair of the Vibram Five Fingers "shoes." Also known as Monkey Toes, or Foot Gloves. I got a nice black pair at the Treadmill in Carmel. They fitted me nicely as always and one of the staff had a pair on. She runs about 100 miles a week, (oh my) and suggested starting out slow...like five minutes a day.
I got the KSO model...which stands for Keep S*%t Out apparently another staffer suggested.
They are all black which works with my wardrobe, such as it is, but also makes for something padding around the house that indeed resembles gorilla toes. Very disconcerting.
So I have run a block or two a day with them. Heightened sensations all 'round. Ones skin tingles, need be aware of running posture, road hazards...
We will see.

Geminids

Got out early this morning and tried to catch a peak at the Geminids. It was partially overcast at first and could not see anything...just barely a few stars sneaking through. By the turn and heading home things cleared a bit. I thought I had missed it all, but then I saw one and then a couple more...pretty cool.
Late tonight is the peak of the year's most prolific annual cosmic fireworks show—the Geminid meteor shower (Geminids picture).
The meteor shower has been growing in intensity in recent decades and should be an even better holiday treat than usual this year, since it's falling in a nearly moonless week.

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Perseids: What They Are, How to Watch the Meteors, More
Interactive Solar System Map
Coming fast on the heels of its more famous cousin the Leonid meteor shower—which peaked less than a month ago—the Geminid show should feature as many as 140 shooting stars per hour between Sunday evening and Monday morning.
The Geminids are slow meteors that create beautiful long arcs across the sky—many lasting a second or two.
Favoring observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the Geminids are expected to be most frequent within two hours of 1:10 a.m. ET in the wee hours of Monday.
The shower's radiant—the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate—is the constellation Gemini, which rises above the eastern horizon after 9 p.m. local time.
Astronomers recommend observers head outside between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time.
As with any meteor shower, the Geminids will be muted in light-polluted cities, but even suburban sky-watchers may catch as many as 60 meteors per hour during peak time.
Geminid Meteor Shower: Rising Star
The Geminids have been historically overlooked, simply because of their timing so close to the busy holiday season and during frigid winter nights, astronomers say.
But that's beginning to change, thanks to the Geminids' rising intensity over the past few decades.
In fact, for many astronomers, the December meteors have now dethroned the more popular August Perseid meteor shower as the shooting star event of the year.
"It may come as a surprise to many, but the Geminids are currently richer and are brighter on average," said Anthony Cook, astronomy observer at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.
Why the sudden illumination?
Earth is plowing deeper every year into an ancient stream of rocky debris left behind by a mysterious 3.1-mile-wide (5-kilometer-wide) object that orbits the inner solar system, he said.
When Earth's atmosphere crosses paths with that debris cloud, the rocks are superheated and burn out—and new Geminids are born.
Geminids' Mystery Parent
The Geminid meteors all appear to be chips off a mysterious rocky object called 3200 Phaethon.
Other meteor showers come from material shed by melting comets—which are massive chunks of dirty ice and rock—as they pass close to the sun. (See asteroid and comet pictures.)
But no one knows for sure whether the Geminids' parent object, first identified in 1983, is an asteroid or the core of an ancient comet that simply sputtered out.
Recent observations of Phaethon, though, suggest it's a nearly dormant comet, and the Geminids' parent is now officially classified as such by NASA.
The research revealed that Phaethon is the rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun, according to NASA.
The shooting stars' rocky, hard exterior—as well as the fact that they, unprotected by ice, get baked by the sun—may help explain why Geminids are slower and last longer in the sky than other shooting stars, said Peter Brown, a meteor expert at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
"They have the ability to penetrate deeper into Earth's atmosphere," Brown said, "and burn up at much lower altitudes than meteors associated with the Perseids and Leonids."