The Great Outdoors

As this week has kicked off my pre-Ironman build (the official IM build begins in just a couple weeks), I’ve been spending a lot of time outside!  Not very shocking, right?  I’ve done bike/run, I’ve done swim/run, I’ve done swim drills, I’ve done trail run…I’ve got another 6.5 hrs of workouts this weekend before I am finished!

Yesterday, the beardies and I went to Shadow Cliffs for a playdate with their buddy Belle.  Eileen and I both forgot our cameras (aaaaahhhhhh!) but the dogs spent an entire hour swimming and having a blast.  Belle whomped her way through the water to fetch her bumper while the wild and wet shaggies chased her and barked their fool heads off.  It was quite a sight.

Tired muddy swampy mops

The reason I let the boys get so filthy yesterday was because they were going to the groomers today!  Voila!  Instant clean good-smelling dogs.

While the boys were off on their spa date this morning, I was in the Cupertino foothills running trails!  Trail running…I know it makes you a stronger runner, but it’s still so HARD for me  Some of you may live somewhere with nice gently graded trails, little rolling hills, but HERE the trails all do one thing – GO STRAIGHT UP.  Somehow I always wind up on the loops that spend 5 miles going up and 1 mile coming down (and going the opposite way would totally blow my HR targets, so the longer uphill it is).  Surprising to me though, I really did fall into a rhythm on the hills today after about 30 minutes of suffering and then the run was quite enjoyable!

The run began immediately with a climb from the parking area to the dam at Steven’s Creek Reservoir.

For a very short time (maybe 1/3 mile?) it ambled along at the level of the reservoir.  See that nice trail across the water?  I didn’t get to go there.

Instead I turned uphill away from the water and began climbing into the hills.

I came around one corner and bunnies scattered everywhere.  I only caught one of them before he darted away.

Going up…

and more up…

and up.

A crossroad…and I’m going – you guessed it – up again.

I got to a point where I was above a lot of the trees and the landscape changed to dry California summery hills.

At the top of the ridge, I got a panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay. (click to see more detail)  The highest point on the other side of the water is Mount Diablo over in the East Bay.

From there I ran the trail along the ridgeline – rolling but still uphill until the final drop back to the trailhead.

Eyeing each other

I was highly tempted to dive into this gentle little creek right next to my car!

In the end, it was 90 minutes of running,~8 miles covered, with (supposedly) ~2750 feet of climbing.  Good thing tomorrow is a rest day!