Trails!

I live on the edge of some of the most beautiful land.  The lush wooded hillsides of the Santa Cruz Mountains are not the tallest mountains by any stretch, but I see them every single day, with their sawtooth top, and I smile every time I do.

Today, I ventured into the mountains with my running shoes on.  This came about because I was talking with one of my coworker about trail running. I've never really done it, in the way that I imagine most people do, and so I asked him about his experiences.  He's done a lot of road running, but prefers the trails because they are just more interesting and he's planning on doing a race nearby soon.  I got really excited about the idea and started my Internet research.  After talking with him more, I decided that I should do a reconnaissance run on the trails of the race first and see if I could handle it.  So, that's what I did today after school.  It didn't go quite as planned for many reasons.  The first being that it took me longer to get there than I thought.  The second being that the park closes at 5pm, and daylight is already an issue in the heavily wooded place.  The third is that I ran around for 5 minutes before I found the trail I was looking for.  So, I didn't get to explore as much as I wanted to, but I am definitely excited about pursuing this more.  I only ran four miles, but it was a darn tough four miles.  The grade was steeper than I've run in a long time, which I think this is going to be good for my running.

I don't quite know how it's going to pan out due my work schedule, my running schedule, the park closing time, and daylight. It might have to wait until after the marathon in May, but that's fine.  I also can see myself heading up there for four or five miles on Sunday morning.  I'm not wild about driving to run, but I did promise myself that I would "get out in Cali" at least once a month and this the only thing I've done in January to explore my surroundings (next month is Yosemite if the weather's right and hopefully the spectacle of Horsetail Falls).  And, the more I use my bike, the more I'll feel okay about driving for weekend adventures.  As for the race, the shorter distances (what I can handle physically) are sold out and the longer race (what my training schedule wants me to do) seem like too much, too soon.  But, there are races at least once a month around here, so it will work out eventually.  I'm trying to embrace living in California and this afternoon definitely made me appreciate where I am and what I get to do here.