The Other Chino Hills

Same town, different route.

Usually when I run in Chino Hills it means Chino Hills State Park. The park is a haven for mountain bikers, hikers and of course trail runners. Next to Bonelli it is one of my favorite local places to run. I haven't been in the park since the beginning of the year. I still haven't. Today I met Terry and Mike near the entrance of the park but instead of going into the park we ran a 9.5 mile route through the streets and neighborhoods. It was a nice morning for a run. The weather forecast had called for intermittent showers but they didn't materialize until the afternoon.

The rest of the week went well. Last Sunday I found out how my legs really felt after running 20 miles for the first time in 8 months. All day Saturday and even up until the point that I started running Sunday afternoon my legs felt really pretty good. Once I started running I realized how tired and worn out they were. I made it through a meandering 33 minute run in Bonelli and called it 3 miles. I put off Monday's 5 miler until Wednesday to give my legs a couple of extra days to recuperate.

Wednesday, I headed over to Bonelli after work for the 5 miler and finished just before 7 o'clock. I finally came to the realization that "that" time of the year was here again; the time when it's just too dark to run in the park after work. I made it to within days of the time change so I can't complain too much.

On Thursday I was able to leave work about an hour early. I took advantage of the time and ran on the trails in Bonelli. About 3/4 of the way through my shin was whining just a little. I realized I had forgotten my brace and was wearing my oldest shoes. The miles on these shoes had probably reached the point of early retirement.

Back to Saturday – Mike and Terry had met earlier for about 5 miles. I joined them at 7:00. We used Mike’s run/walk schedule of 5:15 run/0:45 walk. He likes this better than a minute walk break as he finds he stiffens up too much after a minute especially during the last miles of a marathon. About a mile before the finish Terry split off for some extra mileage. The final score was Darrell 9.5, Mike 15, and Terry 18. We met afterwards at Peet’s for coffee. There is a significant running community in Chino Hills. During the run we must have seen close to 50 other runners, as singles and in groups of up to 10, pretty cool. I’ve run all over Covina and never come across more than a single runner at a time and rather infrequently at that.

I awoke this morning a little after 6:00/7:00 depending on if you go by body time or clock time. I did the green thing and headed straight out the door for a familiar 4.5 mile loop. I decided to run the entire thing and actually time it. Other than the long runs I haven’t been timing myself on the come back trail. I’ve only been using the watch to keep track of run/walk intervals. The 4.5 miles took me 42:38 for 9:29 pace. I think I’ll go back to not timing myself for a little longer.

Now some accounting:

October – 103.5 miles – easily the highest mileage month of 2008, aided by the 20 miler. That same week of the 20 miler was my highest mileage week of the year by 0.1 of a mile at 32.4.

This week was an easy week at 23 miles. Next week will be the same. The following week will include the last long run before Tennessee.

Five weeks to the big day.