Between a Rock and a H'ard place

A bunch of us met down at LaJolla this morning to run some miles and then feast in Pancakes, Eggs and Mimosas.  Put in about 16 miles at a good pace running with Gretchen, Justin the whole way.  Julie, Jill, Marla, Jack, Jerod, Kim, Maria, and Sean also joined for some good running but on different routes.

Heading down Hell Hill we heard the sonic booms of the space shuttle landing in Palmdale California instead of Florida due to bad weather.

Had a good tempo run up Mugu and down Ray Miller.  This was a big mileage week for me and feel it was a good test of my fitness and lack of injuries as I ramped up.  Rest Day tomorrow.

Finally got around to doing some repeats on my favorite trail. I ran into people I knew on every iteration. It was a nice way to break up the work. However we did have an encounter with 3 rude mountain bikers coing down the trail. This trail is marked by sign that have been damaged by vandals, probably mountain bikers, to show that biking is allowed. Click on the picture for a close-up where you can see they smeared brown painted on the sign.  Anyone who would look at this sign and make that assessment is an idiot. Just like these 3 bikers. First they said they didn’t see the sign, then they said the sign allowed bikes. What a bunch of dicks. We told them to turn around and they refused. Voices got raised, shouting began and I thought he was going to push Chris but he did not. As they passed we tried to call law enforcement but had no cell coverage. I took off up the hill with a mission to make the call. After 5 attempts I finally got a signal and got through only to get a record message of extraneous stuff I did not care about. There was no reference to law enforcement in the recorded message but I was able to leave a message. I suspect no action will be taken related to this incident but new signs must be put up as soon as possible.

I took a run today with Jonathan on a new trail out near the far West end of Hidden Valley. An obscure trail that is being used by the horse owners in the area connects to the National Park. The dusty horse trodden shaded trail connected with a fire road known as Stauber Road. We climbed up this road for a good 1500 vertical feet to a radio repeater on the top of the mountain. We were looking for a trail to connect to the Misha Mokwa trail. Unfortunately this connector does not exist. We tried to bushwack it but it was a fruitless attempt to make the passage the last two tenths of a mile. We retraced out steps and back to the car drenched in sweat with a plan to scope it out and come back another day.

I started my run late this morning because I had some business to tend to and because I wanted to start my run at LaJolla Canyon on Pacific Coast Highway.   I saw a new sign installed next to my normal parking spot at the entrance to the park.  I was amazed at the verbiage on the sign and the source of this banter.

Now does this mean the Sheriff has just given up trying to apprend the theives or is the Sheriff in on this raquet?  Not sure which is true but I was concerned that I better take my important stuff or just hide it in some obscure corner of my car.

I started up the Ray Miller trail with the thought of doing repeats on it.  I needed to get some hill work and I needed to fine tune my down hill running with a mid-foot plant to keep my heel blisher from getting worse.  Running fast down hills without a heel plant will take some time to get used to but it is a technique that has great promise.  It will ultimately be easier on the knees and hips since I will be absorbing more energy with my feet and has the potnetial to make me more agile over technical terrain.

I look back to my car after the first switchback to make sure nobody has stolen my wallet and scoped out 3 people and a dog parking in front of me.  Are they runners? hikers?  I continue up the trail at an easy pace and keep looking back to see if anyone is coming up the trail.  I arrive at the Overlook trail after 30 minutes of runner. Take a two minute rest and then head back the way I came.  I meet some runners coming up and find its my friend Scott and his buddy Ian and his girlfriend Maria.   They were doing a big loop and that sounded so much better than repeats on Ray Miller so I joined them for the next 2 hours running up to Mugu Peak and back to the car.  Scott and Ian are incredible runners with more experience between them than dozens of my training partners.   They are cool people and we had fun running and chatting on the trail.  Good for me they had a hard day yesterday and were taking it easy today.

The Ultrarunning community is full of down to earth people that don’t take themselves too seriously and provide encouragement to others despite their running abiltiy.  This community is about sharing experiences with the goal to make each of us better runners. Yes we are competitive but all within the boundries of good sportmanship and a caring for our fellow runners.  I am glad to be a contributing member to this community and welcome others to join us.