Tag: trails

A Moment

Running wise, January has gotten off to a slower start than I had hoped for.

Life wise, holy crap, where is the brake? How is it almost February???? I need a moment. Or 5.

Also, if this post reads a little disjointed, it might be that I have been trying to write it for 5 day but keep dozing off in my chair. Oops.

I haven’t been a complete lay about. I have made it out for a few runs and finally got the spin bike in the house and shoes ordered. However I have only used the bike once since the shoes arrived. Oops?? I also signed for that 2 month Peleton free trial but with no onboard computer on the bike, who knows what I am actually doing?

I’ve had a few decent runs and some very slow ones. Spent some time in the dirt and got my new trail shoes dirty. Actually it’s been a long time since I felt like a kid on the trails. It was fun aiming for the rockiest parts instead of taking it easy like I have for the past year or so. Still not sold on the shoes though, it’s been a long stretch of bad luck, so I am not ready to commit just yet.

I have high hopes for the weekend and running but forecasters are predicting we might actually get rain. Say what? It can’t be real. We won’t know how to react!!! No but seriously, rain is desperately needed so as long as it comes in nice and slow, bring it on. Thunderstorms and burn scars make for a bad combo.

We just finished a big, surprise audit at work so my brain may take a little vacation this weekend. It’s been a busy, hectic, chaotic week or so. Maybe I’ll take a nap this weekend.

How has your January been?

Escape Day 2- Rim Trail

I woke sore and a little tired the morning after Bright Angel. Ok, my calves were screaming a little.

I headed back to the Grand Canyon later in the day, I had some fool idea about taking it chill on the Rim Trail and then watching the sunset at the Grand Canyon. Now, if you’ve ever been to the South Rim or pay attention to anything related to a compass or sunsets/ sunrises you might think this doesn’t make sense. Because it doesn’t. The sun does not set over the Grand Canyon, at least not from this rim. Which I realized I knew but forgot? Told you I needed a vacation.

Back to the trail- the Rim Trail is not a “trail”, it’s a paved path that runs the length of the South Rim. A one way trip on the path from point to point is around 13 miles. Even paved, I didn’t have that in me. I started at Bright Angel and headed East towards the Mather Point.

The path takes you along the Rim and is fairly accessible to everyone. That also means it was more crowded than Bright Angel the day before. My buff was up over my face most of the time. That didn’t detract from the views at all. Again, I think I took a few hundred pictures.

The path took us through The Trail of Time too, a exhibit about how the Grand Canyon formed over millions of years with rock examples. My former wanna-be geologist self was geeking out over the rock displays.

The various lookout points were the most popular so I didn’t spend a lot of time there. I was surprised at how many parents let their kids run wild. Most of the path is not secured by a fence or guard rail of some sort. It wouldn’t take much to slip or fall. But then I am also clumsy so I generally think of worst case scenarios.

And of course, there were the rule breakers- the ones who jump fences and go down rocks all to get a good selfie. The number of people backing up to edges was ridiculous.

The Rim Trail is advertised as little to no elevation change. And had I not done Bright Angel the day before I might have agreed. But the 600 ish feet we gained and lost in the 6ish miles we went did not feel easy. Ha!

I kind of feel like the Grand Canyon is the Disneyland of trails. Plenty of trash cans, recycle bins, bathrooms and water stations. I have never seen so many rangers out working the trail before either.

But for the love of Pete, pick up your damn masks people!

31- Burn

Other than one of my favorite songs, that word rarely means good things.

At work I have a bad habit of saying that I focus on the big fires first than double back to the little ones. Figuratively, of course.

Except last week there was a literal fire in the parking lot. Really 2020?

All is fine and it was put out quickly with no lasting damage. But it did make me realize I needed to better acquaint myself with where the fire extinguishers are.

A heat wave also rolled in last week and made my usual slacker-ness even easier to do. It was so hot, I actually ate lunch in the building on Thursday and Friday. I usually eat lunch in my car.

After a week of hot weather and laziness on my part, I wanted a woodsy trail on Saturday. So I headed for Cerro Alto. I somehow forgot that Cerro Alto begins the canyon down to the ocean and retains our temps and not beach temps. It was 90 degrees. I was struggling 3/4 of a mile in and knew it was only going to get worse. I knew I could likely finish the 6 mile hike but I would also wreck myself. I wish I could say it was all common sense on my part but it mostly my absolute refusal to become a news headline. “Hiker rescued after becoming dehydrated, air lifted out”. Seriously, that happens all too often out here.

So I turned around and headed back to the trail head. 1.5 miles with around 350 elevation gain in the first half.

But I wasn’t done, I refueled both myself and my car as I hadn’t been planning on making a circle of the county and headed to Harmony Headlands. And the temp dropped to 60, so much better.

Harmony is pretty easy, the dirt path is well defined for 2/3 of it, so I have troubles considering it a “trail run” or a “hike”. The last portion does turn to single track but it’s still what I would call easy. I rarely even take water. I had my pack bladder filled for Cerro Alto so I figured I might as well use it. I power hiked, climbed some rocks and enjoyed some ocean views. 4.3ish miles bringing me to under 6 for the day. My watch tells me Harmony has an elevation gain/loss of 340 each way but I swear it’s flat.

While I didn’t end up dehydrated or with a killer heat induced migraine, I did wind up with a sun burn. Really??! My shoulders were fried as well as the backs of my knees of all places. It was the kind of burn that messes with your internal temp control so I just napped on Sunday. Not that I was super eager to brave the 104* weather outside.

It was little but it was a good week. Onward and upward.

How was your week?

18- Farce

I am my own worst enemy and I know this.

However this knowledge doesn’t prevent me from continuing to self sabotage.

We close an hour earlier right now. So even when we are running late it’s not as late as it used to be. Is this helping me run more? It should be but instead I am at my lowest mileage in years. And this was going to be a marathon year. Now, that is highly unlikely for a variety of reasons.

I’m not having a pity party here but keep hoping that the more I acknowledge it, the sooner I might actually start to work on new habits.

However that was not last week. Last week, I only ran twice. And let’s be real, both times had more walking than running. But really any time outside moving is helpful to my mindset but I can’t seem to force myself out there.

I braved the heat for a few miles on Tuesday. I am not ready for the 90+ temps yet so kept it short and sweet with a little over 2 miles. Sluggish ones but they weren’t too bad otherwise.

Then it was a lot of telling myself to run every day after work but not following through.

Saturday rolled around and while I thought about running, I chilled with a book or 2 and took a long nap. More like coma and it included some trippy dreams too. Even running ones- I dreamed the whole bottom of my feet were blisters. It was so real, I even checked my feet when I woke up. Ha!

On Sunday, I ventured a few minutes away from my house- seriously less than 10- and hit up a trail. It has a brutal uphill-in-direct-sun beast so I was hoping it would be empty. It wasn’t but everyone maintained distance well. And I decided to go straight up the hard way. Ok, maybe I was dared, but damn my legs were shaking after that climb. The sunshine and dirt was exactly what I needed.

This is no way looks my route. It also shows my elevation gain as zero. Boo

I forgot my watch so I tried my Coros pod and app and clearly I don’t know how to work it properly.

So a little less than 5 miles for the week.

My goal is try and conquer the whole morning runner thing…. I just don’t know how.

How was your week?

8-Disappeared

I kind of ghosted social media last week.

I didn’t mean to, I just kind of felt like one day it was Tuesday and then it was Saturday. Woosh.

The week started strong. With Monday off work, I headed down to a new set of trails that opened recently. Holy moly- it was like Disneyland! I have never seen so many people at a trail before. The good sized parking lot was full as well and we had to park on the other side of the freeway about 1/2 mile away. I was with my mother and she was feeling super sore so we picked one of the shorter trails. We ended up with around 3.5 miles.

The trails were very runnable and had gorgeous views. I can’t wait to go back. However, I was very irritated by the lack of trail etiquette by so many people. There were already trampled down short cuts visible and people were climbing all over a tree that clearly has signs saying to stay away. I may have snapped something very not nice at them.

Tuesday was a long day at work but I held strong and changed into my running gear. I headed out for an easy 3 after work. My legs were feeling the previous 2 days worth of running but overall it was a decent run.

After 3 days running, I knew I needed a rest day on Wednesday. My legs are not used to that.

I had planned on running on Thursday, I really did. I told myself if I ran on Thursday, I could enjoy a leisurely Saturday with no guilt. But thanks to some family drama- more ER trips, that did not happen. I did got to dinner with my mother though.

I thought about trying to run on my lunch on Friday but I chose to read a book instead.

Despite failing to run on Thursday, I did take the leisurely Saturday. With only a minor built of guilt.

This weekend was supposed to be chilly and rainy so I slept in on Sunday and headed out for my run in the early afternoon. It was not rainy. The run started off very sluggish and rough. I tried to not think about it at all and just keep going. Not gonna lie, I am currently using a run/ walk strategy for my long runs. And the running portion isn’t very long. Like I ran 9 miles in the time it used to take me to do 10. However, it is what it is and I need to stop stressing about or I run myself into a panic attack. So that is what I tried to do this run. I have to say that it ended much better than it began.

15.4ish miles for the week. Better than last week, time to keep moving up.

How was your week?