March 12-18
Monday: 13.12 mile long run
Tuesday: 4.15 miles of speedwork
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5.59 mile trail run
Friday: 5 hours of downhill skiing
Saturday: 1 hour walk after the rain & wind let up
Sunday: 11.12 mile hike
Total miles run: 22.86
I think running just under 23 miles + skiing and hiking make up that 2.14 mile difference. I could also claim it's my taper before my mostly-trail half marathon this Saturday. Though I have no time goal for that, and I haven't officially been following a training plan for the last month, so I probably can't really say I'm tapering.
Oh, I did crunches a couple nights before bed. But no dedicated arm work. I'm going to say that while skiing when I poled myself through slush that counted as some arm work.
I'm happy with my activity level Thursday through Sunday, which was when our friend Ben was visiting us from Buffalo (where it was sunny and 75...that never happens in March). Meanwhile, SoCal got slammed with a winter storm Saturday and Sunday which meant cold, rainy and windy. Luckily Ben likes to be outside as much as we do.
Skiing on Friday was awesome because it was over 50F and sunny, so that meant we didn't have to bundle up like I'm used to doing in the northeast. Weekday skiing is cheaper than weekend skiing. Also, we went on a Friday before a big snow storm. I'm sure many people were waiting until after the snow hit to ski, but snow on the mountain road requires snow chains, which we don't have. And that road is already slightly terrifying without snow. So Friday it was.
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| No one was there!! |
No one there = no lines for the lifts = amazing. Also means you get tired faster.
Hiking Highlights:
After raining most of the day Saturday, it cleared up a little on Sunday - but was still unseasonably cold in the 40s. We took Ben to Placerita Canyon, a place we hiked when we came out here for our house-hunting trip in January, but added on a new-to-us trail. I don't think I've ever hiked 11 miles before yesterday.
Some of the trails were in rough shape from all the rain, and there were a lot of fallen rocks:
We saw an animal moving in the grass in the distance and at first thought it was a coyote but then it sat down and moved its front paw in a cat-like way, we noticed the dark tips on the ears, and realized it was a bobcat!
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| zoomed and cropped |
Waterfalls, thanks to Saturday's rain. Appropriately named "Waterfall Trail."
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| The dudes climbed up along the left. I waited at the bottom. |
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| There was a lot of up hill |
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| Surveying the land |
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| View of the Santa Clarita Valley including the doom-cloud over our house |
This view was pretty nice, but Ben felt we should continue to the summit.
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| Ben at the top |
I only made it as far as the 'X' before freaking out about all the snake holes I had passed on the way up and was currently standing in the middle of. It was around 3300' elevation and the view was nice enough from there. Ben made it up to about 3400 feet.
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| Self portrait from the X. Don't look down. |
The ground was squishy and it was tough walking up that vertical...coming down was kind of more like a controlled fall.
Dan was a trooper and came back down with me after he made it to the tree. He sort of talked me into quitting the uphill climb, so maybe he just wanted an excuse ;)
After we came down, we walked back around that little peak and found another short trail that gave us views in the other direction.
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| To the south toward Burbank and LA |
What else... Total Distance: 11.12 miles. Elevation Gain: 2,278 ft. Elevation map here:
The End.
How was your weekend?
That Buffalo weather is unreal! I would have been terrified on that climb, especially going down. The views are gorgeous though!
ReplyDeleteYou can always say you are tapering. Anything that uses your arms is an arm workout.