Monday, May 29, 2006

Camping and Running in Carpinteria

Carpinteria State Beach is located along CA101, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles and 12 miles south of Santa Barbara. It is nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains. The city of Carpinteria has a nice small town feel. The campground is tucked between the beach and the railroad the defines the southwestern border of the town. If you are going to be tent camping, I would highly recommend a site on the Anacapa circle. The Santa Cruz area might be all right too. The Santa Rosa and San Miguel areas are definitely more for trailers and RV's (basically a big parking lot). The beach is only a walk away. If you forgot to pack anything, the town is within walking or bike riding distance as well. A Sunday School class from our church have been making this an annual event for many years. It is a family weekend that grown to include a third generation these last couple of years. Although we don't attend the class, we lucked into a spot in 2003, when someone else canceled. Our group usually manages to reserve most of the 20 or so sites on the Anacapa circle. It is a lot of fun to spend the weekend with so many other families. The kids hang out, the adults hang out. There are always pickup softball games, ultimate frisbee games, water balloon wars, bike trips, sunbathing and of course campfires and s'mores.

I went up on Wednesday with my younger son. We did a couple of bike rides over to the seal rookery. About 30 of us went for a hike in Santa Barbara to the 7 Falls via the Tunnel or Jesusita Trail on Thursday. I taught my son how to play backgammon. He then taught his brother and the kids camped next to us. My wife and older son joined us on Friday afternoon. I of course got in a daily run around Carpinteria. On Thursday morning my son rode along side me for 7.5 miles along the bluffs. Friday morning I soloed back out on the bluffs and through town for 6 miles. My long run on Saturday was along Via Real that parallels CA101 out to the Big Yellow House in Summerland and back through town again. I returned along Padaro Lane, a beautiful tree lined road that borders the salt marsh. There a many estate style homes on this road. All that you see from the road are the elaborate gates. I ended up with 16 miles due to my classic inability to calculate simple math while on the run. After spending most of Sunday on the beach, I put in another 4 miles along the bluffs out to the baseball diamonds on the southern tip of town that afternoon.

All told, including my runs at home on Tuesday and Wednesday, I put in 46.5 miles for the week, a personal high by 1.5 miles. If you've been following along, I have been trying to slowly increase my weekly mileage since my posting about "Potential". The hope is that the extra miles will help my reach my sub 4:00 marathon goal. So far, I still feel pretty good. I did cut Tuesday's speed work short (only 3 halfs) but ended with a decent 2 mile "tempo" at 8:20 pace.

We had perfect weather all weekend, except for a couple hours of some pretty significant wind gusts on Saturday afternoon. All in all a very nice long weekend. When I got home I probably spent way too long catching up on the blogs I read. It is now late Tuesday night and I'm off to sleep in a real bed, ahhh. I love camping, but I love coming back home too.

8 comments:

matt said...

sounds like you had an incredible weekend. i enjoy following your progress in training for the Seafair. do you have any other races planned between now and then? i would love to get them on the master race calendar. great job pushing the mileage up for this week. are you going to take it above 50?

Unknown said...

That really sounds like a fun weekend. Fellowship and running... vey nice.

Based on what you have been blogging recently, I would imagine that a sub4:00 is definitely in the works. You have been very diligent on getting your miles in...

Legs and Wings said...

Darrell, what a great weekend away with friends and family. It's good to re-fuel! A bunch from our church has just booked 5 days near the end of August. It's just 20 minutes from home so I'll ride to work while my wife and kids hang at the beach. It's something we look forward to each year.

I'm nearly as excited about the Seafair Marathon as much as you are...I know you'll crack the 4 hr mark! Good job on getting the miles in while you were away.

Anonymous said...

Sorry I wasn't able to get down there for a run. My trip to D.C. went long and I just wasn't able to get away. Maybe next year after you're a sub 4:00 guy!

Donald said...

That's one of the prettiest beaches in California. I've never had the pleasure of running there, though. Sounds like a great week.

Joe said...

Awesome week, Darrell, very cool indeed. The scenery, the fellowship, the running...what's not to like??

You seem to be managing your milage well...that will pay off well at Seafair!

Unknown said...

i did you the favor of not posting while you were gone so you didn't have to catch up with me. aren't i a giver? welcome back and congrats on the distance pr!

Rae said...

It sounds like you guys had a great holiday! I'm going to have to make it out to CA one day and enjoy one of your beautiful runs.