W10D7

W10D6
The Cruisers planned to meet in Newport Beach to run the Crystal Cove route. It is a fun route, 11 miles total, with about half of that on the sand. Yasso's plan was for a 15 miler. The write up on Heart of America calls it "one of the toughest courses in America," and "Easley Hill one of the toughest climbs in America". Based on that, it seemed wise to get in some hills on my long runs. So I strayed away from the CA Cruisers once again.

I've got a 15 mile route near home that is almost always either going up or coming down. Terry was interested in joining me, as were Mike and Carol and another friend of theirs, Jeanie. Mike and Carol are early birds but thankfully they compromised for a 6:00 a.m. start. The route is Temple, Grand, Chino Hills Parkway and then snakes through Philips Ranch to make a big loop. We all ran together for the first seven miles with the girls in the lead. At the 7 mile mark Mike, Carol and Jeanie took Diamond Bar Blvd back to the start.

Terry and I continued on. The longest hills were still to come. I pulled Terry up the hills and she dragged me back down the other side. We each had our strong(er) suit and the other followed along. I’m not sure of the time or pace. I had started my watch but by the time I remembered to stop it, we had already had coffee and chatted at Starbucks and I was on my way home. The clock read 3:30 something when I looked. I think the run took us somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:30 to 2:40. No matter.

W10D7
I started off the day with a personal training session. Chest, triceps and abs this morning. That is always a good combo that I feel the next day or two. After that Lisa and I headed back to Huntington Beach for some more surfside relaxation. But before I could join her on the sand I had to knock out 6 miles on the bike path (I’d gotten in 1 mile on the t-mill at the gym earlier). It was after 11:00 by the time I got started with temperature in the mid 70’s. The run just felt right, everything seemed to flow. My pace for the 6 was 8:53, probably faster than the “easy” pace called for, but sometimes you just gotta go with the feeling. That feeling where everything just clicks and running seems natural comes by only so often. I’m still enjoying it nearly 10 hours later.

I ended the week with 47 miles, completing the schedule as written. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the 47 miles hasn’t been recorded since the week ending 2/12/2007 and only surpassed once since then; 6 weeks later. I’m riding high, being able to run this kind of mileage with relative ease. Those zero weeks and months are still fresh in my memory. Next week is the biggie and then its coast on in to Columbia.