Sequoia-Bayview Trail

Yesterday after work I headed up to Redwood Regional Park for the weekly
Transports trail run. The course was an out-and-back on the
Sequoia-Bayview trail, supposedly an "easy, baby trail" by East Bay
standards. I was already skeptical, as my ears had popped on the drive
there, but this part of the trail was, mostly, pretty easy. There was
one long, steep hill that was made a little more tricky as there were
goats grazing to thin the underbrush, penned in by an electric fence
that encroached on the trail. Several other short and steep hills made
this far from a walk in the park, but it was still much easier than our
run at Sibley two weeks ago. I was a bit disappointed to find that the
"Bayview" part of the trail was only about 25 meters, but the "Sequoias"
were as advertised. There was a steep dropoff to the side of the trail,
and as you look down you realize that the trees go down as far as they
go up - it was like running on Endor.

I ran most of the out leg solo, but had some company for the back leg.
Call it 7.2 miles in 57:47.

Of note, before the run I had a twinge in my heel (okay, where my
Achille's tendon connects to my heel). It didn't hurt when I ran, which
to me is the difference between pain and an injury. It was super stiff
when I woke up this morning, though, which has me a bit concerned. I'm
taking a long weekend in San Diego, so I think I'll leave my running
shoes behind and see what develops.

Cursus interruptus

Monday evening, 3.5 miles in 29:33
Some run is better than no run. I've been trying to adopt this as my
motto, and after sleeping in and staying late at work yesterday I
decided to put it to the test. It's hard to do a <4 mile run for a
couple of reasons. The first is that I can't get psyched to get out for
such a short distance; the second is, once I'm out there, it's hard to
cut it short. I tack on a mile, or 2 miles, and end up late for work,
or with a crabby baby, etc. So, I took Silas out knowing that he needed
to be in the bath in about 45 minutes for an uphill-downhill loop in
Berkeley, over to UC. Suffice to say, I resisted my impulse to swing
down to Oakland for a little extra and bath and bedtime went off without
a hitch.

Tuesday morning hills, 4.4 miles in 32:17
12 hours later, we hit the road to Ohlone Park for the weekly hill
repeats. The hills went down in 1:20, 1:15, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18, and the
workout was over by request from Silas. I have no complaints about the
pace, but I can't really compare this week's half workout to last week's
full workout. I really felt like I was pushing it on 2 and 3, so I'm
not sure if I could have held at 1:18 or if I would continue my upward
climb, so to speak. Stay tuned for next week.

Oakland foray

Two runs this weekend. I headed out with Silas on Saturday morning
set on doing a 15 miler in 2 loops. We dropped down to San Pablo Ave,
a main thoroughfare that is pretty empty on weekend mornings. Heading
toward North Berkeley, we turned on Marin Ave, a road that starts off
with a gradual incline near the Bay and gradually gets steeper and
steeper as you move toward the hills. About 2 miles up, past "The
Circle", it really takes off, but I didn't feel like testing my
strength. As we headed back home to drop Si off near the middle of the
run, I began entertaining thoughts of turning this into a 20 miler.
"I'm feeling good - I know that I'm registered for a half marathon next
month, but maybe I could switch to the marathon!" I counted off the
weeks in my mind, figured that I could probably fit in three 20 milers
by the end of July, or maybe just 2.

I was delayed for about 15 minutes at home while dropping off Si before
I headed south for the second part of the run. The running gods here
saw an opportunity to punish me for my impudence, and my legs were
dragging from the break. I came to my senses and realized that I owe
the marathon more respect than a 6 week training period. I decided for
the second part of this run, I would head down into Oakland and try to
find Lake Merritt; I had a vague idea that I could head south until I
found MacArthur or Grand Ave, then follow it to the lake and maybe run
around it. I wandered around a little bit through an atmosphere that
smelled distinctively of fried food, found a map on a bus shelter, and
finally found my way to the lake, which sits next to downtown Oakland.
The lake was further than I thought, so I looped around just when I hit
it and headed home. Total distance for the run was 16.2 miles in 2:11.

Sunday was a nondescript 6+ miles in about 50 minutes, mostly over the
first part of Saturday's run. I only managed about 35 miles in 4 days
this week, compared to 50 in each of the previous two weeks, but I feel
pretty good about the 16 miler. I'd like to have a few more 50+ mile
weeks over the next month, and I should be in pretty good shape for the
SF half marathon in July.

Finally, I need to find out where Alan Webb and Tyson Gay get their rocket
fuel.

Sloth

No run yesterday, but Silas went to his swim lesson, and I biked to
work, so I guess we can enter a father-son triathlon now. If the swim
leg is a 1 meter assisted splash. He had a great time, though, and
maybe this will dampen his habit of doing laps in the dog's water bowl.

This morning I climbed out of bed like I had 3 toes. Si and I read 3
books and split a banana, then decided we may as well go for a run. We
took an easy run that was a slight variation of the Milvia-Gilman loop,
but ran Grant St instead of Milvia, through the MLK Middle School
campus. We saw the student garden (The Edible Classroom) and took half
a spin on the dirt track before hitting Hopkins.

The run was otherwise uneventful, but I did have to swerve to avoid
hitting a snail in Ohlone Park. I also found that a couple of my
frequently run blocks are in Google Street view:Delaware
St by the BART station, and the area around Ohlone Park.

About 5 miles in about 40 minutes.

Hills surprise

No run yesterday, and I had other commitments this morning, but I was able to get out with Silas after work today. I was planning on an easy 7 miles or so and was feeling pretty sluggish as I got on the road. I was surprised, then, to find that I hit University Ave at about a 7:30 pace, so I decided to do some spontaneous hill repeats in Ohlone Park. This is a repeat of a workout that I did two weeks ago, but this time I was doing it with a stroller. I didn't have any expectations for my times today, due to the handicap, but I was pleased to see the first rep go down in 1:21. The next 8 ran from 1:22 down to 1:18, and I nailed the last one in 1:16. This compares very well to the last iteration of the workout, and I'll consider it an improvement. We took a short play break in the park before jogging it home; all told, 6.6 miles in 49:03.

Tomorrow will be a cross-training day for Silas as he starts his swim lessons at the Y, but I may take him out for a double in the afternoon.

Ian, we first had the broiled grapefruit at the White Dog, but there's a recipe in the Joy of Cooking. It's an easy way to class up second breakfast. Just slice a ruby red grapefruit in half, dust each half with sugar, star anise, and ginger, and broil it for about 5 minutes until the sugar caramelizes; garnish with berries. It would probably also be good with cardamom.

How's your father?

I awoke yesterday at 5:15 am to a kick in the face from Silas, who was
deciding whether it was time to wake up or not. Happy Father's Day. He
decided the time hadn't yet come, though, so we got another hour of
sleep. After a small first breakfast, we headed out for an easy loop: down to the Bay, and back via North Berkeley. I have to give Silas props for sticking out our 13 miler on Saturday, but on Sunday he was pretty fidgety. We made lots of stops to pick up toys, exchange water for
snacks, etc, and we had to walk a few blocks to check out the gardens in
Northbrae. Watching a honeybee pollinate flowers for a few minutes
provided a centering experience for a few minutes, and we were able to
continue home without incident. Second breakfastby Christine, including
broiled grapefruit, made my day.

Gmap says 8.1 miles, in 1:07:20. No run today, yet.

Donut Run

The assignment from Coach C this morning was, basically, that I could run any distance at any pace, as long as I came home with some donuts. With that mission, Silas and I set out for Dream Fluff Donuts, the long way.

After a run of warm and sunny days, this morning was the more typical 50s and overcast. We started off with an easy out-and-back on the Greenway, out to the far side of El Cerrito. We took a short break at the softball field in Ohlone Park to say hey to my friend Dan and his son Nikki, who were playing baseball with the dog. We then took a meandering route up the hill and toward Ashby, alternating steep uphills on the eastbound blocks with gradual downhills on the southbound blocks. We hit Russell, a block before Ashby, and I wander to get in a little more distance before stopping for donuts. Continuing up the hill, it gradually gets steeper and steeper; just as I figured the hill was too steep for decent folk, we hit Claremont, so we turned around and headed down to College and Ashby for Dream Fluff. I bought my standard apple fritter and a couple of donuts and we headed the rest of the way back home. The total distance was13.1 miles, in an easy 1:48:02.

Of course, I left the donuts at the store, and we had to drive back to pick them up.

Bagel redux

I took Si on a repeat of last Saturday's run, complete with bagel stop. I
was still stiff from Wednesday's run in the hills, and was going on 5.5
hours of sleep after staying up to watch Gandhi last night (taking baby
steps into the 21st century, we joined Netflicks this week... Soon to be
spending some time on the couch watching The Prisoner). Nevertheless,
we went at a comfortable sub-8 minute pace, and got to see some buses
on the way. No hummingbirds for a while, though.

I am starting to recognize some familiar faces on the greenway, which is
nice. I need to develop some new routes, though, because Christine has
assigned me another errand run to go on. This could develop into a bad
habit...

8.1 miles in 62:43.

Skyline Trail

One of the local running stores organizes a weekly trail run that moves
around from week to week. I got out yesterday evening to join the group
at Sibley Park to run the Skyline Ridge Trail to the steam trains at
Tilden Park. The trail was out and back, singletrack, and one of the
hilliest runs that I've ever done. I'll admit: there was some walking,
but it was brisk.

Sibley Park is about 7 miles from home, and the drive up there is scenic
in itself. Much of the drive is on Grizzly Peak Blvd, and there is a
striking contrast between the views on the right of the East Bay cities,
Sanf Francisco, and the Bay, hundreds of feet below, and the views to
the left of undeveloped hill country. This satellite view gives some
idea of what's going on.

I forgot to bring a waiver, but I told the run leader that I understand
that running is foolish and dangerous, which was good enough for him.
We set off in a group of about 15 or so, but the hills sorted us into
smaller packs pretty quickly. There was a long, winding downhill at the
start, followed by lots of up and down. I spent most of the run with a
British couple living in Oakland and we made small talk for much of the
distance. Saw a couple of cows on the path as well.

The approximate route is mapped here, but without the twists and turns.
The actual distance was 8 miles in 70-75 minutes.

I still had gnats in my teeth this morning and didn't feel up for 2 runs
in 12 hours, so today is a DNR.

Cat's Cradle

OK, I've never actually read that book, but it certainly describes todays
run much better than Slaughterhouse 5. I decided to take Silas on an easy
hill workout just by running up and down the grid bounded by Oregon on
the South, Dwight on the North, Telegraph at the top, and Shattuck at the
bottom. As urban runs go, it might see like a pretty mundane route, all
within 1 mile of home, but it was actually interesting to see gradual
changes as I worked my way downtown, 1 block at a time. Also got to
watch Telegraph transform itself from an Oakland thoroughfare to a
countercultural Main Street. I think this would be interesting to try
on a southward grid toward Oakland sometime, and also to stretch out to
a 10 miler or so. This morning was 6.9 miles in 55:34.

Yesterday, Silas and I ran on the Greenway; 6 miles in 46:30, plus a
stop at Berkeley Bagels on Gilman to carry breakfast home.

Two runs this weekend. Saturday morning Silas and I hit the Ohlone Greenway for an out-and-back to El Cerrito. No much to report from the run, except that out was in 32:03.56 and back was in 32:03.96. I blame the gradual uphill on the way back for the extra .4 seconds. Gmapped it as 8.1 miles in 1:04:07.

We headed out again this morning without an aim, but ended up heading north on Milvia (a street that is forver branded as Mulva in my mind) until it ended at Hopkins. We were close to the hills, but I took the easy way out and head down Hopkins, then to Gilman, and home via the Greenway. We took a detour past the BART station so Silas could check out the buses. As usual, the streets were pretty quiet in the morning. We got to see an area of North Berkeley that was new to us, and quite pretty with lots of old, overhanging trees. The plants out here are still very strange to me, and I am frequently struck by something that I've never seen before, like a huge Eucalyptus grove or strange trees covered with white flowers on the top and green leaves showing on the bottom. I'm no gardener, but folks out here seem quite inspired.

This morning was 5.9 miles in 48:23, giving me 50 miles for the week. This was my first 50 mile week since last November, a week that began with an unplanned 13 miler with a sleeping baby and culminated in a 10k PR.

Expedition

I met one of my coworkers this morning at Grove Park and we set out on
an expedition to find the elusive Southwest Passage, a land route across
I-80 to get to the Bay Trail. We worked our way down Ashby, running
through tall grasses and over rugged sidewalks, and received a momentary
setback when a person sleeping under a bridge in a wheelchair blocked
our path. We resolutely continued on, running in the street, but when
we reached I-80 we found that there was no way across, so we gave up.

Jacob headed home, and I turned south into Emeryville. Emeryville is an
enclave west of Oakland that, if covered, would rival the Mall of
America for Pure Shopping Enjoyment. There's no roller coaster, though,
and no underground tunnels either. It is also the home of Pixar. About
8000 people live there, all in new, brightly colored apartments and
condos, along fake Main Streets. It wasn't a bad place to run, since traffic
was light at 7 am, but it suffers from disappearing sidewalk syndrome.
On the way home, I passed through a warehouse district between E'ville
and B-town that included a State Farm office for hipsters and some other
interesting establishments (the Co-op Kitchen?).

I didn't map the run, but I'll call it 6.5 miles in 51:53.

Two runs to report, both solo.

I got home late again last night to a nearly empty fridge and decided to kill two birds with one stone. I ran an out of the way route to Whole Foods, picked up something to go with the cabbage back at home, and ran an out of the way route home. 3.6 miles in 29:xx;a short run to fill the gap between two tougher workouts and get me into bed so I could run in the morning.

10 hours later I woke up and jogged over to Ohlone Park for some hill repeats. There's a straight, uninterrupted stretch of sidewalk that goes about 345 meters at a 3% grade. The plan was 10x hills hard, with an easy recovery downhill, and see how long it takes. The first rep went in 1:19, but I quickly lost focus and had slowed to 1:24 by the fourth rep. Here I chastised myself and got my head back in the game; the remaining reps came in mostly at 1:19 or 1:20, with the last two in 1:17 and 1:15. I jogged the mile home easy, for a total of 6.5 miles in 51:19.

I'm still feeling it a bit in my quads, so I guess it was a good workout. I haven't done a lot of hill repeats, in the past, preferring to run on the track, but I think that out here strength training will serve me better than speedwork; particularly since I'm doing most of my runs these days with Silas and the stroller, which isn't really compatible with the track. The SF Half Marathon is 7 weeks out, and it's looking like this will be my first 40+ mile week since the beginning of April. Here's hoping for a good 7 weeks. I'm looking forward to C and S getting back home tomorrow night and hitting the road with Si this weekend.

I registered for the first half of the San Francisco Marathon* today, which gave me the motivation to go for a long run after work. I've been putting this one off for a few days, and looking through my log I actually haven't run long since a 15.5 miler on April 1st. If it's not clear from the route, that only became a long run because Silas fell asleep around mile 6 and so I kept doing loops near the house to let him finish his nap.

Anyway, today was another solo run. The purpose was to run 100 minutes, and the goal was to see the sun set behind the Golden Gate Bridge. With that in mind, I headed west toward the bay and toward Cesar Chavez Park, near the Berkeley Marina. I had never been there, but it is a piece of land at the end of an isthmus (can't remember what that's called) with lots of trails and a ~1.5 mile loop that has quarter mile marks. When I got there, it became clear that the sun doesn't actually set behind the Golden Gate Bridge, but rather behind Marin County to the north; this doesn't make any sense to me - shouldn't the sun keep south of the Tropic of Capricorn where it belongs? In any event, I ran around the with some stiff tailwinds and wicked headwinds for a while. Notable features of the park included great views, even without the sunset; paved and dirt paths; and wild fennel growing on the north side that smelled awesome. The other feature was that it was a pretty boring place to try to run for 45 minutes, so I turned home early and picked up the slack by running around my neighborhood a bit before returning home. I clocked in at 1:40:02, and I'll call it 13 miles based on a few wind-assisted and wind-handicapped splits that I timed in the park.

In a bizarre follow up to Seebo's post earlier this week, I swear I saw two snails mating this morning. Didn't get a picture, though, but it wasn't nearly as hot as the leopard slugs. Did I just type that?


*if that's not clear, it's a half marathon that covers the first half of the course.

The family went to Minnesota for the weekend to visit some friends who are expecting a baby any minute now. Silas and I skipped Friday's run, since it was a travel day, and we borrowed a brand-new jogging stroller to tour the St. Paul suburbs on Saturday morning. I had never been to Minnesota before and found it a bit hillier than I'd expected. Also, for being 15 minutes from the state capital, the suburb where we were staying was remarkably undeveloped. Si and I did a 6 mile loop but probably only crossed 9 or 10 roads; the first crossing was 7 minutes into the run. I also was able to cristen the borrowed stroller as we ran through a mud puddle under a bridge. We tacked on a little more at the end by running through the subdivision for 7.6 miles in 1:01:00. We passed 26 lakes in this run, which made sense of the fact that Minnesota has the highest per capita boat ownership in the US, a fact that is made up by me but is probably true.

We skipped Sunday's run due to weather and general malaise. C and S are spending a few more days in Minnesota. I slept in this morning to recover from travel but decided that I've been skipping too many runs of late. I flexed my work schedule a bit to come home in the afternoon to walk the dog and go out for a quick run on the greenway. There were more people out than I see in the mornings, including cyclists, more runners, kids walking home from school, and even a couple that appeared to be learning how to waltz. I started off at a pace that was comfortable but probably faster than necessary; it was modulated on the way back by a killer headache. I'll call it 6 in 46:22.