Elite Jogging For Dummies

Our first run in Santa Barbara, along the beach, from our hotel up to Shoreline Park and beyond. It's a beautiful run.

This was supposed to be a trail run on the Jesusita trail in the Santa Barbara foothills, but a deluge of rain washed out the trail and made it muddy and impassable within the first half mile.  Beautiful scenery, but not the run we were looking for. So we headed down the canyon near the SB Natural History Museum and ran up Mission Canyon, where a fortuitous slip through a fence put us into a beautiful grassy meadow with an incredible view and a nice bench to sit on and enjoy the moment.  Heather and I were out forever on this run, but only covered 6.5 miles.  Great day for it.

An easy 4.5 after wandering the beach in Santa Barbara where Heather discovered her passion for collecting seaglass.

Poly Canyon, San Luis Obispo, CA.  I ran here once in 2001 during a camping trip I was taking along the CA coast.  It was an epic run. I brought my camera along at the time and I have these pictures of me, shirtless at sunset with this giant grin on my face. It was one of those amazing runs. So, all these years later, I finally made it back to SLO.  It's sort of random that I took my wife to stay in SLO for two nights, but frankly, I sort of did it for the running.  So, I got to take Heather up Poly Canyon, which is just behind the campus of Cal Poly.  It's miles of rolling green hills with trails careening in every direction. If you are ever in the neighborhood (or even 200 miles from it), it's worth the trip. It's not always easy running, plenty of hills, but Heather loved it.

Epic run in Poly Canyon, San Luis Obispo.  This time Heather and I ran up to the top of a ridge with no idea where we were headed along the rolling grassy hills. It was wondeful and amazing up there, but a little muddy and not great footing. It's what the Scottish would call fell running, I believe. Heather was a trooper, no complaints. But how could you complain amongst such scenic wonder? It's like an amusement park for runners.  Miles of endless trails in every direction. And if you aren't always on a trail, that's ok too.

Easy run from Diva's with a group of three.

My first race after a long drought of not racing. When did I race last, you ask? It was the BAM Triathlon in August 2010, where I ran the 5k to cap off that race.  Why did I race, you ask?  Great question. Well, I guess I felt like my mileage has been decent enough that it was worth getting on the road and seeing where I was at. That's what I was thinking a couple of weeks ago when I signed up, anyway. Having been on vacation all last week, my motivation was not terribly high.  In fact, I didn't firmly commit to running until about 10pm Friday night. But once I decided, I was pretty much all in. I would run to my potential, whatever that might be.

Turns out it wasn't much.  I ran this race in 55:19 in 2007, 5:32 pace.  I knew I didn't have a chance to run that fast.  Maybe I could crack an hour. Maybe not!

I had a nice little warmup at the start but then had a long portapotty line to navigate. The race started slow, as it should, considering the first two miles have a big climb.  I was trading places with some folks. I ran with Kevin Tuck for a while, then he dropped me at the top of Little Mountain. I then ran with Allie Scott -- who is awesome -- until close to mile 6 or so. Walter jumped in and joined bandit for a while and they both dropped me . . . nicely, but still.  So I was just hanging out crusing down the canyon, watching my 6:20 splits reel off my watch. I was just taking the temperature of things, seeing how I felt.  I had plenty of cardio strength from my semi-decent fitness base, but no leg speed at all. I just have not had the hard miles to earn it.  That's the way it goes.

My wife and boys were waiting near the finish and it was great to see them. I was happy to cross the finish line feeling somewhat strong.  I hoped most of all to have some fun, and I think I did. It was enjoyhable to know I could go out and get my body to move somewhat rapidly down the canyon. I can't take it for granted.

The most symptomatic thing of my lack of real fitness is the soreness in my legs after the race. It's almost like marathon soreness, due to the downhill quad pounding in Emigration canyon.