wait, what's going on here?

 

at the back of each month's issue of runner's world there is a feature called "i'm a runner" where they let a celeb (or pseudo-celeb) who runs explain what running means to them.  the people profiled usually run because they're in the limelight or they need stress relief.  past issues have profiled people like bear grylls, ed hochuli, and flea.  this month's is someone less interesting: kate gosselin, formerly of the show "john and kate plus 8."
i have no interest in kate gosselin, but i was intrigued by the awkward photo setup they chose for her.  as you can see from the above photo, it's a weird one. 

a few thoughts spring to mind when viewing this photo:

• who sits on the counter while preparing food?  
• why would she put her running shoes on the counter?  
• what is going going on with those sandwiches?  seriously, look at the enlarged section below.

 she's made a stack of sandwiches, presumably for her 8 kids, but she's wasted about half the food by hacking them apart with cookie cutters.  why would anyone do that and, more puzzinglyly, why would they photograph that?  is that something she does normally or was a set decorator trying to make things more interesting?

pch at warner 50 years ago

Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.

 a half century ago, orange county was still a bit of a wasteland.  as an example, check out this photo of the huntington beach/sunset beach border at warner ave.  now there's a jack-in-the-box right about where that white house sat and a surf shop across the street.  also, the neighborhood that now exists to the left of this image is full of extremely expensive houses and the state beach to the right currently costs $15/day to park.  see the google maps shot below.

sometimes i just like to run fast

tonight i planned to do my standard 3-5 mile run, but as soon as i started i decided to cut things short a bit.  at the same time i figured i ought to pick up the pace.  i wasn't exactly flying, but i was moving quickly and feeling good.

as i started the last half mile to home having only run 1.5miles, i decided to split the distance into two quarter-mile intervals.  i did the first in 90 seconds which is only 6 minute mile pace, but felt quick.  after a short rest at a stoplight i did the last one even faster.  i was never at full speed, but i managed to do it in 75 seconds (5 minute pace) with a peak of 4:52 pace.  it felt good and showed me that i should probably incorporate a few intervals into the last few weeks of running before my race at the end of the month.

as i was writing this, i thought about how i used to race mile races (and even some of my few 2-mile races) as fast i peaked at tonight.  of all the races i did in high school, only a couple of the 2-milers were ever slower than 5 minute mile pace.  i managed to run every mile race faster than 5 minutes for four years and never imagined that, ten years later, i'd think that was really fast.

running hills used to be easy

 

in the early days of my running career, the only flat places i ran were tracks and soccer fields.  everything else was up and down.  in mission viejo it's nearly impossible to go more than a couple hundred yards without hitting a slope.  as such, i used to relish a good hill climb and could hammer long descents.  i would accelerate up long climbs and glide down winding hills with ease.  

at the time i took it for granted.  when everywhere you run is a hill, they stop being interesting.  in fact, i grew to sometimes rue the constant pace-shifting it took to run anywhere around my parents' house.  when i went to college, however, i found myself stuck in the pancake flat neighborhood surrounding usc and i learned the boredom of flat places.  i was so bored in fact that i stopped running almost entirely.  okay, it wasn't just the lack of hills, but it was a major factor.

fast forward a few years.  i finished school, got married, and moved to another place as flat as usc.  after a few stops and starts, injuries, and illnesses i finally learned to tolerate the lack of hills around here.  for the past few months i've been able to make progress with my running in spite of the lack of variation in my routes.

of course, at the same time i've started to get comfortable with the scenery i've also started dabbling in trail running.  trails, by their nature, are not flat.  they follow the lay of the land and, in suburban orange county, only exist in the kind of terrain that hasn't yet been graded and subdivided.  all of this brings me to the picture you see above.

on saturday morning i made my first trail run of the year.  i hit crystal cove state park for a wandering run.  after years of running almost exclusively in flat places, i've lost my ability to gauge pace on the climbs. between injuries, illnesses, busy weekends, and intermittent laziness, i've only managed ten or so trails runs since receiving trail shoes for my birthday in july.  the first few were noteable only for their lack of distinction and my lack of fitness.  saturday's run was different.

for the first time since i started my foray into trail running, i was able to keep an easy pace on the downhills and a sufficiently-tough pace on the climbs.  that's not to say i didn't have to take a couple breaks, but i was finally able to manage a good effort... well, at least until i hit the steepest hill i've probably ever run.

it doesn't look like much in the photo i took and it looks like even less in the heavily-processed instagram image i posted here, but trust me.  it's a beast.  one section is steep enough that i defy anyone to mountain bike up it.  on saturday, i only managed to run the first fifth-mile without taking a break.  from there i didn't even run most of it.  i trudged up the rest of the climb at a quick-hiking pace, but i was toast.  my lungs were burning and my legs were tired.  true, some of my exhaustion was probably caused by some strenuous lifting on friday, but that's not really a good excuse.  

even though i was decimated by the climb i was able to recover and finish a 4 mile run in a decent 33:45.  i'm not exactly sure how long the route would have been, but i'll be back and i'll be faster.

crystal cove state park geologic survey marker

a geologic survey mark from a run a few weeks back. 

this one is on the middle of a trail in crystal cove state park and it's easy to miss; i only noticed it the first time because i had to retie my shoe when i stopped at a peak.  this shot is actually from the second or third time i've been by it.  

look at the date, 1933.  i wonder the newport coast area looked like 80 years ago.  now the state park is bordered to the northwest by the ridiculously large mansions of newport coast.  to the southwest is the coast which is still mostly unblemished except for a large, modern house on a coastal bluff that has sat empty for quite a while.

another cool thing from a trail in the same park - a fossil i'd probably have trampled had it not been marked by rocks.

remember when the space program was cool?

 

sure, it's been over 40 years since america reached the moon and nearly as long since the average person was geeked up over nasa, but aren't these pictures cool?

see more from: asu's space ref site via radiolab

if nobody else jumps, wilt will definitely make the layup