Hiking and "trail" running in Irvine - PFTW

Last week....
Tuesday: 4 miles easy (actually, 4 miles with stupid fartleks because I was bored on the treadmill)
Wednesday: 4 miles with hills and it was hard and terrible
Saturday: 3 mile hike
Sunday: 8 miles on trails PLUS 40 minutes total body conditioning. {this was EXHAUSTING}

This week...
Monday: easy yoga
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: cross train
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: ehhhhh
Saturday: 10 miles
Sunday: cross?

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On Saturday, Gabby asked to go hiking! We originally planned on hiking Laurel Canyon in Laguna Coast, but she's the slowest human ever in the morning, and by the time we left the house at 8:30, both the Laurel Canyon and Nix parking areas were packed full.

We ended up at the James Dilley Greenbelt Preserve across the street, and did a moderate, 3 mile loop to Barbara's Lake.

From the parking area ($3 parking fee, payable by card or cash), we took the Canyon Trail, to Edison, to Barbara's Lake, and Lake trail back to our car. It was slow going, because Gabby suddenly is obsessed with collecting every rock she sees, but she loved it.

If you love this, I have 15 more just like it.....

Super easy, moderate hill to the ridgeline, and only one steep-ish part.

There's some poison oak in the canyon, so just be aware.

They had a foot print guide and a poop guide available at the trailhead, so there was a lot of watching out....

The lake was not particularly exciting, but kind of pretty.

Super fun, and pretty easy for the kids. Try it.

On Sunday, I decided to do my "long" run outside (shocking, I know). I haven't been feeling the treadmill love lately, and I really liked being back on the dirt Saturday, so I hit an 8 mile loop from my house. The first 2-2.5 miles are paved trail, not particularly scenic, running alongside the 405 freeway.

At Shady Canyon and Quail Hill, where the dirt trail starts, there's a pretty rough hill, not particularly steep, but almost a mile long. After that, it's some pleasant rollers for about 2 miles, then into a residential neighborhood (Turtle Ridge), and back to my neighborhood.

I hesitate to call it "trail", because really, it's just a route that's partially unpaved. But, there are some good climbs, and I'm really surprised at how good I felt.

The views are not bad, too....

It's so hard living here.