Old Black Water

I pretty much stuck to the plan this week but I threw in a lot of walking and dialed back the Saturday long run from 16 to 12. I've pretty much decided to condense the schedule a little. The original planned called for 3 runs of 20 miles or more. I'm dialing that back to only 2.

With my first walk/run of the week happening on Monday, that gave me a good 2.5 days of rest before my Thursday run. It has been pretty warm around here lately so I waited until after 8:00 p.m. to hit the roads. It never seems to fail that school starting brings on a heat wave.

I went over to the equestrian trail in Via Verde for 4 miles. To extend my usual 3 miler I add on a nice quite street on a ridge in the hills of Via Verde. The street is a dead end so traffic is always light and there's a great view of the mountains in one direction and of the valley and downtown LA in the other. The houses on that street are well above the million $ price tag. There have been several empty lots on the street since I've started running there 4 years ago. I was surprised to see two new mini-mansions being built. I used a 2:2 ratio. I was surprised at how out of breath I was at the end of the 2 minute run. I'm not sure if I was running faster since I was running shorter or if I've just deteriorated beyond comprehension.

Saturday I went down to Huntington Beach and ran with my friend Terry and Mike. We all ran the Winter Trail Series together earlier this year. A couple of years ago Terry and I ran together almost twice a week, but it has been a long, long time since we've run a training run together. We kept the pace to something around 11:00 utilizing a 5:1 schedule. The leg had the usual pains around the shin and some extra added bonus tightness on the inside just above the ankle. Grrrrrrrr.

This morning I went over to Bonelli (I just can't give that place up) for an easy 3 miler on the trail. I set the watch for 3:1. I have no idea how long it took, but it felt pretty easy.

When all was said and done I passed the 7000 mile mark for lifetime miles (June 2003 to present).

Next week I will be traveling for work. It is a multi destination trip. The traveling will offer me the option of giving my leg some R&R. I do enjoy getting my run on when I'm out of town though. So, I will pack my running clothes and see what kind of opportunities present themselves.

The post title refers to the Doobie Brother song. On the way to the beach I was listening to classic rock. I always loved the harmonies of that song. The song brought back memories of buying 45's at the Ben Franklin downtown. My sisters and I would listen to those records over and over and try to figure out the lyrics. I laugh now thinking about how scandalous the band name was back in the day. Compared to some of the music of today the whole thing seems sort of tame and mellow.