June Gloom

I only ran 5 days last week and took the weekend off (one of those days was a prescribed rest day and the other was due to lack of time/laziness). This past week, however, was a step in the right direction...

On Monday, I was up at 4:00 and on the road by 4:30 to head to the northern most reaches of Maine. I spent the day driving down precarious dirt roads along the American-Canadian frontier. I saw four moose and plenty of bear scat. By the time got home, some 14 hours later, I was too pooped to run, so I took Monday off too - 3 days in a row.

On Tuesday, I drove from northern Maine back to Portland (4.5 hours to the south). That afternoon I ran the Back Cove Loop, which is a quintessential running/walking route for exercise enthusiasts in urban Portland. The 3.5 mile dirt path circles salt-water Back Cove and everyone, it seems, hits up the trail. Having not run in 3 days, I decided to just get after it and ran two loops (7 miles) in 42 minutes. I was very sore that evening - #why?

On Wednesday, I ran an easy 5.5 miles from my hotel before catching a flight to Los Angeles.

On Thursday, I ran an easy 9 by myself along some of the usual roads I find myself running when visiting Santa Monica.

On Friday, I met my friend Ankur at 6:45am and ran an out-and-back down San Vicente. We got in 8.5.

On Saturday I ran "long" and got in 11 with a handful of people from Track Club LA. We ventured into the hills of Will Rogers State Park. If was great to run with people who know the ins and outs of the trail system. I've only ever run here solo and I'm always apprehensive about going "too far" into the seemingly endless labyrinth of trails here, which are frequented by mountain lions and the like. Some day next week I plan to explore in here a bit more.

On Sunday, I ran a solo 9 in/around Santa Monica. I saw a few dolphins off the end of the pier and tried to cut my pace down during the last two miles (12:00) of the run.

That's 50 miles for the week (6 days).

It's "June Gloom" in southern California these days - cloudy and cool, especially in the mornings. It makes for great running weather, though I find myself perspiring more than usual.