Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

So, last week turned out to be far worse than I expected it to be. Even my easy three mile run on Friday felt forced, and I ended up not having time to run on Saturday, as I had to take two finals and then skip out of town. 

But now we're in LA for a week, so I'll be able to get back on track now. This morning I was supposed to run a 10K or a time trial. but I don't know where you find a 10K on a Monday, and a time trial didn't sound fun at all, so I decided to run a trail instead.

I went over to Deukmejian Park near my parents' home and started up the Mt. Leukins route. It's about a 12 mile round trip, but I just ran uphill for 40 minutes (about 3.5 miles, I think) before turning around and running back down.

I didn't feel great. It turns out that mid-80s temperatures feel VERY hot when you're not used to them, and I felt like I was melting the whole time I was out. Fortunately, it should be a bit cooler at Ogden.  

Nothing more than easy miles this morning. I went to the Rose Bowl with Catherine and ran two laps while she and Elliott went on their own run. I'll be honest--I felt like garbage. But I'll blame that almost entirely on timing. It was later in the day than I usually run, which means I was underfueled and that it was hotter than I'm used to. Also, my legs were a bit sore from the hills yesterday. 

In the afternoon we took Elliott to the beach in Santa Monica. Among other things, we spent about an hour riding cruiser bikes on the boardwalk. Good times.  

I decided again to blow off the scheduled workout and run a trail instead. Actually, it was a more of a fire road, but whatever. I drove across the small valley and ran up the Whiting Woods Motorway to the antennas up on top. It was a nice run, and I felt pretty good, except for the stupid unleashed dog that nipped at my ankles for a quarter mile or so. Also, it was super foggy, so visibility at the top was limited to a couple of hundred feet, which was cool in its own way but not as cool as the view on a clear day. 

Six easy miles this morning. There are very few flat places to run around here, but rather than going all the way back to the Rose Bowl I drove down to CV Park and ran laps on the mellow trails through the oaks. The trail around the park is the course my high school uses when the cross country team hosts meets or races or whatever they call them. Running there makes me wish I had run in high school. But maybe I would have burnt out long ago if I had. In any event, I had a good run today. 

So I departed pretty far from the training schedule today. Instead of running 23 miles on teh road with a fast finish, I ran for three hours on the trails above Draper with a friend who is running the Timp Trail Marathon in a few weeks. The beginning and the end were pretty good, and the views were incredible the whole time. But we spent the biggest chunk of time in the middle bushwhacking and searching for the trail and wading across snow fields, which explains why the average speed was a touch under 3 miles per hour. 

As far as marathon training goes, today's run was probably a 3 out of 10. But it ranked much higher on the adventure scale.

I think I'd be interested in running another 50k this year if I can find a good late-summer option.