This way, that way and a hitchhiker!

So yesterday I headed back to the Los Robles trail for another exploratory run, this week I decided to go left (east) instead of right (west). I caught my rhythm and made my way up the hill, pretty much most things are uphill from the parking lots. I got to the top and saw a sign for a “scenic loop” which was a bit misleading and was really a detour! Still it was scenic.

I met a couple hiking and I asked them for some pointers on the trail and despite me saying that I did not want to go back to the parking lot they gave me some directions that pointedly were taking me there! Oh well. Anyway I thanked them and after a quarter mile met another guy who I had seen earlier who seemed to know where he was heading and what he was doing. He sure did! He went on to tell me that he hikes there 6 days a week, I swear he was not a day under 65! He told me about several trails in this park and of some others further along the valley. I was under no pressure for distance so I whiled a way a very pleasant 20 minutes or so just chatting about the trails and parks…a real benefit of being outside of a training plan.

Anyway he gave me some pointers and I returned the way I came and caught the western trail, this I followed until I was pushed for time at which point I about faced and headed back to the car. Some ways along the trail something caught my eye and I took off my visor to see I had picked up a hitchhiker, I had no idea how long he had been there but I set him down on a juicy looking leaf and headed back to my car. Nine, nearly ten miles, a great chat and a hitchhiker…not bad for a mornings trail work!

Here is the MotionBased data and some photos.

Date Night!

So my wife and I have a standing appointment for a date night at least twice a month. Usually we head to the movies or go for grab dinner, sometimes we while away several hours in a Barnes and Noble with a Starbucks or the like, you know the usual. Given that we are both on a health kick (well more so than usual) we decided to go for a run together and my wife suggested on the trails at Cheeseboro Canyon…eh yeah ok honey!

So we spent a very pleasant 90 minutes on a local trail chatting and catching up on everything that falls between the cracks during a workweek. It was too late for a movie so I picked up some yummy dinner from Wholefoods, sent the sitter home early and we plonked ourselves down in front on the TV to catch up on our ever increasing backlog from NetFlix, Vantage Point, not a bad movie and quite an unusual style.

Who says the romance is dead!

A byproduct of moving...

So as a byproduct of moving I have been able to consolidate books and the like and managed to nearly locate all my running and training books, I posted a picture of the almost complete collection on Twitpic and Facebook a while ago and several people asked what the were specifically, I have still to locate a few of them and some I have given away but this is about 90% complete.

I’ll spare going through them individually but here are a few highlights (click to enlarge):

The Anatomy of Stretching: at least one stretch for every muscle broken out into specific sports and presented in an easy to understand format.

Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes; provides an easy to read (and understand) insight into correct fueling and hydration broken out across various endurance sports.

Fixing your Feet; do you suffer from blisters; learn how to avoid them, treat them and tape them, black toe nail, Morton’s toe (or you want to know what Morton’s toe is) and the like, do yourself a favor and buy this book.

A Step Beyond; A Definitive guide to Ultrarunning; the clue is in the title, pretty much anything you ever wanted to know and were afraid to ask, want to run an ultra – buy this book!

50 Trail Runs in Southern California; written by Stan Swartz the founder of the Trail Runners Club that I run with, if you’re coming to SoCal this is the book to have (of course I'll always be happy to show you), covering many of the State Parks that surround LA this book really does have 50 of the best runs.

And yes there are a few cycling and triathlon books in there as well…what can I say, I like to keep my options open!