Six Outa Seven Ain't Bad

Due to circumstances beyond my control; beautiful warm and sunny weather and a long weekend, I ended up running 6 of the last 7 days on Week 2 of my Wingin' It Plan. All 35.5 miles could probably be described as junk miles or optimistically as baseline maintenance miles. Either way each mile and each day was pure enjoyment.

The lunchtime runs on Tuesday and Wednesday made me feel a little bit like I was getting away with something.

Thursday I met up with Terry for a run through Chino Hills State Park. We met at 8:00 and as predicted it was a sunny day. The temperatures were in the mid 60's and warming. We ran some single track along the ridges. Most of the trails in CHSP are fully exposed to the sun, so even the 60's felt warm.

Friday was a planned rest/cross training day. I went to the gym around 9:00 in the morning. I rode the bike for 30 minutes and then did another 15 minutes on the stairmaster. Finally by today, my legs felt more or less recovered from the leg workout I'd done 5 days earlier. I did some lifting concentrating on back and biceps, because the personal trainer was planning a chest workout on Sunday. And then because it was such a nice day I decided to head over to Bonelli to get in a hike. Once there I couldn't resist the urge and ended up going for a run instead. I was home by noon. I showered and we went back over to my mother-in-laws to help rid the fridge of turkey day leftovers. We all agreed that everything tasted even better the second time around.

Saturday I met up with the CA Cruisers for a completely new route. We met in Villa Park and ran streets for about 2 miles and then headed into the Santiago Oaks Recreational Area. It is a beautiful gem of a place. The park is criss-crossed with trails and ultimately connects to Irvine Regional Park for even more possibilities. Not having run the route before, the fast guys headed out first and marked the trail with orange chalk. I hung back and ran with Dave and Gary and then after a pretty big hill up to the top of the dam, I fell in with Cathe and George. The orange arrows worked out well except that the faster guys forgot to mark the turn around point. After a bit of confusion and the various paces met back up together, we headed back. On the return route, I fell in with Scott. We ended up running faster than either one expected. We each thought the other was setting the pace. A couple of missed arrows on the way back lengthened our route. When we hit the roads we found ourselves just behind two of the faster guys and since we weren't exactly sure of the return trip on the roads we were forced to keep them in sight again running harder than intended. It was still a great run. We talked the whole way so we weren't pushing it that hard. It was another 12 miler for me (that seems to be where I'm stuck for the last three weeks) and the longest run for him in quite a while. The weather the rest of the day took a definite turn towards winter. The highs were only in the 60's with heavy cloud cover and the occasional drizzle.

Sunday morning was the anticipated chest/shoulder/triceps workout with Chris followed by another run around the Sunday Morning Loop in Bonelli. Bonelli was abuzz with activity due to a Turkey Day Triathlon, but the trails were deserted; just the way I like them. The local mountains were pretty with the first snow, but summer-like weather had returned with sun and temps in the 70's, making my run all that more enjoyable.

I ended the week with 35.5 miles, none of them planned too far in advance. I'm not sure what next week has in store for me as I leave late Monday morning for St. Paul, MN. I'm in training sessions from 8:00 to 5:00 so I'm not sure when or if I'll be able to get many miles in. I'm packing the cool weather gear just in case. The Wingin' It Plan is working so far, so we'll see what happens.