Posted on Mar 11, 2010 under running, Trail |
I have been hoping to finally run on some trails for the past couple of months, but things kept getting in the way. First, it was training for my first half marathon and my incessant need to stick to the schedule. Then, it was a matter of actually finding good trails to run on, which is a task in itself. Once I finally figured out worthy trails to run on, out of nowhere, it rained every weekend for at least 3 weeks straight. And this is in San Diego, where it never rains! I finally found a weekend where rain was not forecasted. Actually, it rained later that afternoon, but I had finished just before it started. It may have been perfect timing since it is just a few weeks before only the 2nd trail race I’ve ever ran, the Black Mountain Summit 7K. What I’m hoping is that combining these trail runs before and after racing the 7K, I will be more than prepared for my next half marathon, the La Jolla Half Marathon (2nd half of the Half Marathon Triple Crown). This half, I heard, has a few daunting hills within this scenic 13.1 mile course.
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” 🙂
Posted on Sep 10, 2009 under running, Trail |
Here are a few pictures taken from the University of San Diego (UCSD) trails that I ran on a couple of weeks ago testing out my new Saucony ProGrid Xodus Trail Running Shoes. This is also the trail where I ran my first 5K race back in May.
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.. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Aug 30, 2009 under running |
This was my first 7-day running week, if I’m counting this past Sunday as the end of the week (which I am). I probably won’t be doing that from now on though according to my new half-marathon training plan. Monday’s are off days, which is a change from Sunday’s, but there are also two other days in the week that are either off, cross training or a 30-45 min easy run. It just sounds weird to me that it’s possible to train for a half marathon with only 4 days of running. I probably won’t be taking those other two days off, but just go for an easy run instead. I contacted Caleb, a fellow Twitterer & DailyMiler who initially suggested this training plan and he actually planned out how fast I should run all my workouts, from my 5K to 10K pace as well as moderate to hard tempo pace. How great is the running community? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Nov 26, 2008 under Trail |
Sunday, January 27, 2002
Workout: Warm-up to Live Oak, hard to The End and back to Live Oak, Cool down Live Oak
Time: 48:38 Weather: chilly
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Aug 28, 2008 under Trail |
Saturday, January 19, 2002
Workout: 8 Miles: Warm-up from Huntington to The Rise, run hard from The Rise back to the Water Tower, cool down to the park and back
Time: 36:17 for 5.5 miles Weather: cold during warm-up, sunny after
Since running up the trail was a gradual uphill, Fernando told us we would be going pretty fast back downhill especially the first mile, which was clocked at about 5:30. When we got out and started, we were running really fast and I did feel the downhill. But after the first mile, I wasn’t that tired, but we had to stop to get out of the fence at The End. The End is literally a fence with a hole in it, so it’s almost impossible to just run by or jump over this part. And that’s where I caught Andrew and passed him. I’m pretty sure Ha caught him a little bit later as well, but I think he just ran with him. So during the rest of the run, like many of my other runs, I ran with the fear of being caught and passed. It is a real motivation when you think there is someone running up behind you. But you don’t want to make it obvious by constantly looking back, so you only do it every now and then. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jul 25, 2008 under Trail |
Tuesday, January 8, 2002
Workout: Easy to Camino
Time: Easy Weather: Sunny/warm
Running up to Camino, we thought it was going to be an easy run, but we were running with an old classmate and he made the workout not as easy as we expected. We ran up hard until Longden and then a couple of them stopped, including the old runner. Frank and I continued to Longden and immediately toned down the pace. Frank said that he killed the old runner, and I thought that was pretty funny. I think it was his first couple of days back to running, and I guess he was trying to show off. We stopped at the 2 mile mark and rested for a while. We then started running back together, but at a much easier pace. At the dirt downhill, Frank slowed down to do something, so I kept running with another runner. But right before the cement, Frank caught up to us and it looked like he was going to kick, so I went with him. I finished the run right before Frank medium, kind of hard. Then, after resting a while, he said we should do strides. Read the rest of this entry »
