Seems like the West side to any city is the nicer part..

It’s like the scene/view from a movie..

Got to run along this river the whole way, pretty cool..

There are a lot more greens here in Des Moines than I will ever find in SD..

Random benches found throughout the trail to enjoy ‘the views’..

Yes, that is a field of dandelions! And there were pieces of these flying into my mouth all through the run!

And yes, those are deer just hangin’ out, staring at me while I run by. On my way back, I wasn’t paying attention to the road and didn’t even notice one of them scurrying off the trail as I approached it. Could have had a very uncomfortable situation with the deer..

So the trail I found is called the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, which has (at least) two main entrances to the trail. You actually have to pay ($3) to park at the lot by the entrances, but there is a park just down the road that is free to park in. I didn’t want to pull a muscle while running the trails, so…I chose to park down the road and ‘warm up’ to the entrance (good excuse, right?). What I learned at the end of the run is that there is actually a path to get to the same point from the park! Anyways, once I got to started, I noticed that the trail is very wide, which accommodates walkers/runners, bikers as well as equestrians. Because of the rains, there were not many people on the trails that morning, which was OK since there weren’t really any forks in the main road that would potentially get me lost all alone. There were a lot of side trails that led to to what looked like steeper, funner, hilly trails. But again, the rain had caused these paths to temporarily close; definitely piqued my interest though. The only problem with veering off to these trails is I have NO idea where it’ll lead me. The main path is supposed to be about 5 miles East to West and about 3 miles West is supposed to be a fun stop at a waterfall.

It was nice being able to run to a destination as opposed to just doing one big loop. However, when I got to said destination, I was a little disappointed (only a little because I read other people’s account of this majestic waterfall and they were not too impressed either). It looked more like a rapid flowing river with lots of rocks surrounding than a Niagara Falls-esque waterfall. What was cool was if you wanted to cross the ‘river’ to get to the trail on the other end, you had to very carefully walk across the rocks that were laid across. That would have been quite an adventure (if I did it)! Check out the photos below as well as the secret bridge/path to the park that I took back to my car. I’m hoping to take another stab at this trail in the future, and if I’m daring enough to follow “the road less traveled”

My tempo run was a lot better paced and I was able to hit around the goal pace or below for all 5 miles. Splits: 6:55, 7:05, 6:39, 6:46, 6:20. My Sunday long run I ran on the trail at home in LA again (need to post pictures of the trail soon!) I took a Clif bar with me to eat around halfway through the run with some water. I can’t really tell if the Clif bar helped since I stopped for water and rested too. But when I started running after eating the Clif bar, I felt really rested, not sure how energized. I really want to try some Gu things though, maybe I’ll use it during the half marathon. I heard that it’s important to eat them with water and actually heard of some people that had a negative reaction to them.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

7×800 m Intervals (6:30 min/mile = 3:15) 3.5 mi 20:35 05:52 pace

Most # of intervals to date, wasn’t scared though. Felt really good and was able to focus on my posture and really stand tall while running a few of those. Results: 3:05, 3:01, 2:57, 3:00, 2:56, 2:52, 2:44. Broke 20 for the final 100m last week, tried again and hit 17.19!!

HR: 172/180

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Easy Recovery Run 4 mi 33:20 08:20 pace

Easy run for the day after yesterday’s 7×800 m intervals. Wasn’t too focused on pace, but hit pretty consistent splits.

HR: 150/165

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Loop 4 mi 32:57 08:14 pace

Easy run, but forgot my daily peanut butter sandwich before leaving work today. Felt weak, but still finished the run as planned. 5 mile tempo run tomorrow, should be fun!

HR: 150/164

Friday, September 25, 2009

Tempo Run 5 mi 33:46 06:45 pace

5 mile tempo run at 7:00 pace, wasn’t that bad. Started off at around pace, which was good. 3rd mile, I think I pushed it a little too hard but was still able to finish very strong. Happy with the workout, overall! Splits: 6:55, 7:05, 6:39, 6:46, 6:20

HR: 175/193

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Easy Run 4 mi

Ran on campus, it was actually a little over 4 miles, but ran it pretty slow anyways..

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Long Run on the Trail 10 mi 01:16 07:35 pace

Long run for the week, back in LA so got to run on my old high school trail. Pretty fun, heat wasn’t too bad and was happy I was able to run that much (longest to day actually). Got one of those awesome sock tans though!

HR: 163/177

This is a really fun trail to run on with many different paths to choose from. There aren’t too many hills, but a few here and there..

I really like this view of the trail since it looks like a tunnel when looking straight ahead.

Looking up ahead, you can see the flags that were used for a previous race that just took place on this trail. Not sure if that’s the start or finish line though.

A view from the trail looking at some research buildings at UCSD. Lots and lots of trees on this campus!

A view of what looks like canyons from the side of the trail. It would not be fun to fall into something like that.

More trees. You can see chalk on the left side that race coordinators used to block off the wrong paths of the trail for their race. They also circled tiny holes on the trail to keep the racers aware of and avoid those areas.

I think this is one of the hills that I ran on this trail, it doesn’t look that bad though. The heat made this run a lot harder than it should have been..

This one is definitely a hill! None of the hills that I ran were that long though. But it was pretty tough to run this part of the trail.

Another hill on another part of the trail from across the way, don’t think I actually ran that part though.

Another view of the college including dorms rooms of one of the six colleges at UCSD at the right.

Another hill that I ran into while running on this trail. I think that is the one mile marker upside-down up ahead.

Another tunnel-like path on the trail, notice the UCSD Police Assistance to the left which is very helpful for runners who get lost and/or hurt while running on this trail. Wonder how it’s powered though, I think it might be solar-powered! But that just makes night running that much scarier..

Today was officially the first day of Track and Field (finally!). The months in between cross country and track and field were pretty hard because it was only a small group of people running together (if any). And because it was not mandatory practice, it was hard to feel motivated to show up everyday. But I guess because there was a fair amount of dedicated runners meeting everyday, it helped me continue to show up and run. What I also like about having the track and field season finally start is that it’s nice to have the support of your teammates, which help push you to run harder and get faster. Having those ‘cheerleaders’ on the side of the track while you’re running your intervals help tremendously. It felt pretty good seeing all the runners coming out and stretching together on the track. I felt really at ease because it was my second year running track and field and I knew a lot more runners than I did last year. And I guess I was one of the more experienced, veteran runners and there will be a lot of new runners that will be looking up to us for advice.

Running Assignments

When we split up to our individual groups, the distance runners (2 milers, milers, and 800 meter runners) met up on the trail to start their run. Sergio suggested that we (the more experienced runners) run anywhere between Camino and the Railroad. So I decided to pick in between the two to Duarte. 

Picking People Off

When we started running, I saw a bunch of runners that just started track today and haven’t been running just take off with a big lead from me. I felt bad because I have been running for a while now and those guys were beating me. But it could have also been that everybody started running too fast and would not be able to keep up the pace. It was the latter because I eventually started catching them one-by-one. I passed Ray at the playground right before Camino. Pat stopped at Camino, but I’m sure if he kept running, I would have eventually caught him. I also passed another runner at Camino. So there were only two more runners ahead of me now.

The Outcome

I finally got to Duarte and rested for a while. When we finally started heading back, the two ran at a slightly faster pace, but I did not try and keep up with them. Eventually though, I was able to catch up to them. As I ran passed one of them, it looked like he was pretty tired, so I just passed him and started to pick up the pace some more. I caught a lot of ground on the other runner ahead of me, but was not able to catch him. I also thought the first runner that I passed was really close behind me, but when I finished the run, I realized he was pretty far behind. This was a pretty good first day of Track and Field practice and I hope those weeks (or months) of running while everyone else was “resting” (not running) paid off.

Image courtesy of iowa_spirit_walker

I didn’t really feel like going easy today because of the terrible workout I ran yesterday. So comng up, I went a little harder, but not too hard like yesterday and many other Saturday workouts that I’ve ran in the past. I needed to be able to control how fast I ran in the beginning of the run to be able to keep up a (relatively) fast pace for the rest of the run. I was at about 7:00 pace coming up, so I tried to keep it at that pace and I guess I did because I stopped and saw my time at Camino and it was a little past 14:00. I planned to rest for 3:00 (the same amount of rest we get during our mile repeats interval workouts) but I think I only rested for two minutes and then decided to head back.

I remember right before I got to Camino, I started getting these really bad chest pains. It felt like a sharp stabbing pain in my chest, which really affected the run. I’ve gotten these chest pains before, so it wasn’t anything new, but I never know when it’s coming or really how to stop it (other than stop running, which of course, is not an option) When I started running back, I felt good. I didn’t know it, but after the first mile coming back, I saw the time and was at 6:30 pace. I liked it because I wanted to finish under 28 minutes (faster coming back than up) and so at 6:30 pace, I had more than enough time to finish the last mile. The first half of the last mile was good, but the last half, I began to get the sharp pain in my chest again. I began to slow down, until I got to the hill at the end of the run. I tried to kick at the end and it sort of worked because I finished with a nice and even time. It was a good run that sort of made up for the bad run the day before, with the exception of the sharp chest pains, which I still don’t know why I got.

Today’s trail run to the End and Back was handicapped! So whoever had the slowest time last time we ran to the End began first and the other runners would follow according to how much faster they ran it the last time. To my disappointment, I had to start the run, so I had to run with the fear of everyone else catching up to me. As usual, I started off too fast and after mile one, my legs felt really tired. I don’t know what from since the last time I had a hard run was on Wednesday. I guess I just started way too fast, which hurt me for the rest of the run.

I knew I was running very slowly because when I turned around at The End, Fernando was running right behind me, which means he caught up to me really early. He finally caught and passed me at about the Park. Nothing much happened after that, and I just kept running at my slower pace. A little bit before Duarte though, I thought to myself: “alright almost time to pick it up”, hopefully this time would be more successful since I said that to myself a couple of times before during the run.

Fernando stopped at Camino and said that there was a woman running with a horse on the trail. I was confused and said, “what?” and kept running while he waited for Frank. I eventually saw the woman and when she saw me, she stopped. Then when I got close, she started running again. I eventually passed her at the garden. And after that, I saw a couple up ahead with a dog and when I ran by them, their dog started chasing me so I started sprinting. I guess I should have the dog chasing me during the whole run. I finally finished the workout. I think I need to continue to run on the weekdays to stay in shape because these weekend runs are getting harder and harder.

Well I would have ran the real workout this morning (6 laps around Arcadia Park and finish at the top of the hill) if not for the alarm clock glitching or me not getting up from it. I’m pretty sure it is the latter, but who knows? So I decided to run on my own on the trail to the Railroad. When I first started running, I wanted it to be a hard workout since that was the type of run we were supposed to have today and I made it just that (but in the wrong way).

My first mile was 6:30 and that was what Fernando said we should run for the workouts. He wanted us to be able to run 6:30 for six miles, comfortable. But I was dying, so that wasn’t good. I was tired and was running all alone, two very bad combinations. I ran the last two miles coming up at 8:00 pace, which is pretty slow. It seriously felt like I was just jogging, even though I was trying to run faster.

I rested for a little bit at the Railroad and just wanted to get the workout done with. Coming back was the same as when I was running up: really bad. The last mile, I wanted to kind of pick it up and I did, sort of. The pace coming back was about 7:23 average which I think is alright. I was just glad I finished the run and went home without stretching or doing any strides.

I thought we were going to run intervals today, and even if they aren’t that hard, I still don’t like them. But I guess that depends on what type of intervals we run. The type of intervals we have been running lately have been mile repeats, which are pretty hard, just because it’s running a mile each time, rather than a shorter faster distance. Today, we were just going to run two miles (at pace) on the Trail. Two miles sounded pretty easy and it was a completely different workout than the mile repeats. The coach said it wasn’t going to be hard, so I was pretty relieved. He kept saying our first half mile was going to be fast, but before we got to that point, we were actually off pace. So we had to pick up the pace a little bit.

Coming up to the one mile mark, we were OK. At 1.5 miles, it was alright and we were below pace, which was good. But coming back for the last half mile either Ha wanted to pick it up or thought we weren’t going to make it on pace so he picked it up. I was just going to let him go and I did until the downhill right before the end of the run. I thought we were behind pace (but we weren’t) so I surged or kicked a little bit to pick it up. When I realized we were OK and actually faster, I slowed down. It’s probably not good to be switching paces back and forth like that, but it was the end of the run anyways. This workout was a lot better than intervals because it was short, pretty easy and different from any other workout we have ran. I just hope we get more into our Track workouts so I can try and focus on more of the short distance speed workouts.

While running the warm-up on the trail, I thought I felt pretty alright: no pain, injuries, no real complaints really. When we were stretching at Live Oak after the warm-up run, I realized that only four guys would be running today, so there would be big gaps between the people (which means we would most likely be running alone, which I hated). I guess all four of us could have ran together as a pack, but the odds of that happening were very slim. I think it’s a combination of the fact that all four of us are on different skill levels and there is always this feeling that we need to beat each other..

We started the run extremely fast, under 6 minutes (5:45-5:50) and after that I felt really tired. Other times before, I felt alright because I didn’t start out that fast. But this defnitely had an adverse affect on me, like it would with anyone starting a run too fast. A little bit before coming up to The End, I realized that Raymond was running right behind me. The rest of the way, I got discouraged because I thought he was going to beat me (I kept thinking, “Is he going to pass me now, which is fine or later on toward the end of the run, which would suck”) I saw how close he was to me when I got to The End and turned around and saw him running up toward the fence. It was literally 100 feet away or less. At the Park, I turned around (which I really didn’t want to do) and didn’t see him anywhere. That relieved me..a little.

Nothing happened until Duarte. I saw two runners up ahead, so I got a second wind kind of, and started picking up the pace. I didn’t catch them (I was really close though) but I caught a lot of ground on them. So from Duarte to Longden I ran at a pretty fast pace, which now, I loved! Then at Longden, without thinking I kicked, since it was only .25-.5 miles. And when I say kicked, I mean all out, I definitely didn’t want to get passed at this point in the run. Unfortunately, I hit a wall well before I finished, but at least I still finished.

What freaked me out was that Raymond was less than 20 seconds behind me, which really scared me. It was fun cooling down though, because I was talking to Raymond about the run. He kept saying that he wanted to beat me, lol. I talked about how scared I was if he caught me and how close he got at certain points in the run. It was a pretty successful run overall. Even though these runs are really hard, I’m glad I can run fairly well and hopefully they will help me for the upcoming track season and even looking long-term, the cross country season.