Life's a Beach

David asked just how does one “accidentally cut a route short”? Rather than running my usual Sunday morning Bonelli loop I had ventured out onto the streets in my neighborhood. I headed out on my Bonnie Cove 5 route. The route has many right and left turns on some of the same streets that I use for other routes and distances. I hadn’t run the BC5 since earlier in the spring. By Sunday, I was beat. Couple that with the fact that I don’t compute well on the run and I made a right turn one block too early. About 50 yards down the street I suspected that I had turned early but wasn’t up to backtracking. I confirmed my mistake when I got home, so 5 became 4.7.

Thanks to all for the suggestions and encouragement on last weeks malaise. Anne suggested vitamin B. I used to take B as part of a daily regimen including C, E and glucosamine & chondrotin. I ran out of B four to six weeks ago and haven’t made a trip to the store for more since I had plenty of everything else.

I believe Michelle suggested a massage, which luckily I had already scheduled for Monday along with a chiropractic adjustment. I also enjoyed her seemingly contradictory suggestions of focusing on healthy eating and indulging in something decadent. I suspect much of the problem can be attributed to a diet a little too far on the decadent side for too long. I’ve been getting away with it for quite a while now (remember my love of ice cream and cookies).

This week was a much better week for running. All my weekday runs were done in Bonelli, in part because I just plain enjoy running there and in part to keep the pace easy. Monday evening and Friday morning I did an out and back route on the Sunday morning loop for 3 miles each. On Wednesday night I did a different out and back on the north side of the park for 6 miles. I think having a rest day in between each run helped out. During these runs I wasn’t rocking the speed but at least the legs felt up to the task.

Saturday, I met my Cruiser buds down in Corona Del Mar for a run along Ocean Blvd then ultimately onto the beach down to Crystal Cove. This was a 12 miler that included 5 miles of running on the sand. The tide was relatively low so we had some great hard pack to run on. I got to run with Michelle. She has been experiencing a battle with plantar fasciitis as well. She has also been struggling with here speed since coming back. I could certainly relate.

As we ran along the sand on a beautiful sunny morning I couldn’t help but think to myself that a run can’t get much more “California” than this. We finished the run in 1:50 with is about the same time as last weeks 12 miler on the HB bike path. We followed up the run with coffee and bagels at Bruegger’s Bagels on PCH in Newport Beach.

I stuck to the streets around home this morning for 6 miles. I could tell today that three straight days of runs were beginning to take their toll. I was about half way through the run before things finally began to flow. I finished off the week with 30 miles, as planned.

Next week is a cut back week, again. It seems like I just had one but I’ll take it. It will be just a few more weeks before I break the 15 mile barrier on a long run. I will eventually get in a 17, an18 and two 20’s before MCM.