March 7, 2009
Today marks the completion of my second longest run of my life.
It began at 7am waking up drinking 2 glasses of water and then having 2 scoops of meal replacement shake an orange and a ½ cup scoop of “Ryan” cereal blender together as shake. My coffee grinder broke yesterday from overuse, so the hand held blender didn’t quite do the magnificent job I expected, leaving a bunch of stuff at the end to eat, but thankfully it just tasted like cereal.
At 8am I warmed up by walking with my mom for about ½ a mile and then jogged 3 miles to the Dish. The dish is a spot near the Palo Alto foothills that is a 3.5 mile loop that hosts about a mile of uphill, 1.5 miles of flat and a mile of downhill terrain. It’s paved, and has a jogging path. However, due to the week of rain, the path was a bit muddy, forcing all joggers onto the paved path.
Getting to the dish was an experience in itself, dodging little mini lakes and avoiding muddy areas, side stepping and it was quite fun until reaching the areas you have to stop and actually find a way around. Other runners and exercisers are very friendly, courteous and seem to be nice in general. I really respect the people out running at 8-10am on a Saturday morning, it takes some willpower.
Upon arriving at the dish I scaled the very vertical climb to the fork where the trails begin and end, and then decided to keep up the vertical fun and ran the left version of the trail which hosts a good quarter mile of continuous uphill. I took a slight break at the top, but then quickly proceeded on. To my left was a beautiful view, the slope off the small hill, southern Palo Alto, and Northern Los Altos. Though I don’t really agree with suburban sprawl, it was well planned, leaving plenty of greenery. The rest of the trail lasted around 20 minutes, down, down, down, down, flat, up, flat, down, flat, up, up, up. Then it was done and I took a slight pause and descended the vertical opening pass. I had stopped a couple times for brief moments to have a snack or part of the shake I brought along.
I felt absolutely incredible upon leaving the dish and continued back towards my house. I stopped by Paly to see if my friend’s team was playing, they were so I stopped and talked to him for a few minutes, continuing on home. At about the 9 mile point my body just kind of shut down and needed to be forced to continue. I’m assuming that’s when the glycogen stores are beginning to become depleted (around 1:30 of exercise). I finished and walked around the park, came home, stretched, dowsed my legs with really cold hose water and began writing this journal. I wanted to take a slight break before taking a shower because I’ve read a lot about how hot water messes with the muscles after intense physical activity.
It’s been about 15 minutes since the hose, I’m going to do some more things, and make another raised bed before I go coach little league baseball. I was able to finish the one I started yesterday in 45 minutes. I’m going for 40 minutes today. Our garden is going to be awesome.
Anyway, I’m pretty tired from the running and have a few things planned for the rest of the day, maybe bike the 4 miles to the baseball field each way, eat some really healthy food, and sleep a lot tonight.
Take it easy,
Ryan
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