Moonlight and Surf

Thursday I put my run off until the evening. Luckily it has cooled down a little. At least the high for the day was finally in the double digits rather than the triple. The normal Thursday routine prevailed: wife at aerobics, kids and I eat a quick dinner, I sit down to do the crossword and let dinner digest a little before the run. Just like last week I feel asleep midword. I woke up in time to get over to Bonelli just before 8:00 p.m. I wanted to put in 6 miles, so decided on the trail on the east side of the park that is adjacent to the 57 freeway. There was still plenty of light when I got started. Official sunset here in the southern end of the continent is around 8:00. When I got to the turn around point, I had a decision to make. Should I take the road or take the trail back. By now it is nearly 8:30. It will be 9:00 by the time I'm done. There was definitely not going to be any light left by then. During the day, as I run through the trails, I hear things rustling around in the bushes and don't really get too concerned. The same rustling in the bushes in the dark is a little more concerning. I thought of Robb's recent post about adventure/challenge and decided to go for the adventure in the dark. I run roads after dark all the time. The trail is semi cleared fireroad in spots and is a little more single track in others. I only got spooked once bad enough to make my skin crawl and took a couple of minor missteps but fortunately no twisted ankles or knees. On my drive home I realized that the moon was only a very small sliver. It was a pretty fun run, but I think I would have felt better with someone else along. My crazy imagination came up with a few scenarios that didn't have me ending up in a good place.

Saturday morning I met the Cruisers at Huntington Beach for a longish, 15 mile run. The weather was overcast but not particularly cool and very humid. Some people were planning on 10 while others were going for 18. Jesse is still nursing his hamstring so I was pretty much on my own. I came across Jay from the 5k series with a couple of his running buddies. They just happened to be down there for their run. I doubled back and ran a mile with them. My time was 2:21 (9:20 pace). Sort of slow compared to where I was at before SEAFAIR. After my run, I decided to take a quick swim in the ocean to cool off. The water was amazingly warm by normal standards. The Pacific Ocean very rarely gets anywhere near any temperature that you would call warm, even in the middle of summer. I always get used to it but the first wave that hits above the knees is shall we say exhilarating. I swear my heart misses a beat the first time you get completely in. Luckily running shorts dry pretty quickly since the swim was rather impromptu. I hadn't planned ahead to bring a towel. A little jump in the ocean isn't a half bad way to end a run.

Celeste emailed me earlier this week. She may be in town this weekend so we may get a run in tomorrow. Next week my training schedule gets interesting. I've always had Monday and Friday as off days. Starting next week the schedule moves up to 6 days a week of running. So long Fridays off. This will get me to the 50 mile weekly goal with nothing longer during the week than 8 miles. I'm not ready to step up to 18 milers midweek, like Ironman Mike. Next Saturday is supposed to be the first (of 4) 20 miler. I was pretty tired after today's 15, so I'm currently rethinking that. The Cruisers are planning a run in Aliso Woods on Saturday. It is going to be nice, with trails and hills, but may not be the best place for 20 miles. I guess we'll see how I feel then.