Camping + Training: Week 2. PFTW

Last week....

Monday
40 minute barre from this terrible YouTube video. For such miniscule movements, it sure is HARD.

Tuesday
5 miles, with 3 at tempo. Goal was 1 mile warm up, 3 @ 9:50-10, 1 mile cool down. Actual was 10:10, 9:52, 9:40. My legs were EXHAUSTED from barre the day before, and it was hard to warm up. Plus, I did it before work, so it was extra hard. Morning work outs should give extra credit miles.

Wednesday
AM: Tank Top Arms, Core, and a new-to-me 10 minute post-run stretch video.
PM: 25 minute bike ride, 10 minute swim

Thursday
Renegade Summer Trail Run - 5 miles on hills, recap posted here.

Friday
Rest!

Saturday
AM: 3 mile bike, 1 mile run
PM: 2 mile hilly hike with the kids

Sunday
8 miles, easy pace with some strides the last few miles.

Total running miles: 19
Bike: 8.36
Cross training: 4x!!


Plan for this week....
Monday: core, arms, stretch
Tuesday: am run (5 miles, speed), bike
Wednesday: barre, swim (run?)
Thursday: cross train, run (5-6 easy), bike
Friday: rest!
Saturday: swim (dun dun DUN) (run?)
Sunday: Long run (12)


It's obvious there are some changes to my normal training, and some things I'm adding in.... I'll post more about this, and my plans tomorrow when I have things kind of straightened out in my head.

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This weekend, we spent a night camping at O'Neill Regional Park, a local spot about 30 minutes from us in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.

Gabby has been BEGGING to go camping (our last trip was to Yosemite before leukemia, in 2010! Recaps here and here). While I'd love to head back to Yosemite, it's not really in the cards for this summer. My friend was interested in trying out camping with the two kids she's created since we last camped, so we planned a joint trip to this super local place, JUST IN CASE the trip needed to be called off.

We've hiked O'Neill before, and I remembered that I wasn't a fan, but couldn't really remember WHY. Until we went hiking. And THEN we remembered that we hated hiking there because we found the trail marking to be confusing. I'm pretty good at navigating, and really comfortable when I have a map. I've never gotten lost while hiking, until this place. I'm not sure why, or what was OFF, but it was An Ordeal.

The camping was FINE. The park just isn't my favorite, and I doubt we'll be back. Gabby had a splendid time, and the other girls seemed to at least not want to stab me in my sleep for taking them out to the Vast Wilderness. The weather was AMAZING, and we maybe didn't even need sleeping bags - it might have been warm enough without.

Most excitingly, The Snork's kids handled it great, and now we can plan more trips! Sequoias, anyone?

The pictures!

#2 is like a billy goat. She scaled this trail like it was nothing.

 

We camp fancy.

 

Good morning!

Gab sure looks suspicious.....

 
 

Last week, I did stuff! PFTW

Things I did last week:

Monday: Strength - 30 min weights (arms, back, shoulders), calf raises, heel drops, foam rolling.
Tuesday: 4 miles eassssssy outside - it was actually COOL outside, so I took advantage. Lovely.
Wednesday: Strength (!!) - more of Monday's stuff
Thursday: 6 mi with 3x800 @ 8:30. Ouch. I really thought I wouldn't be able to do this. I almost didn't even RUN (more on this below). But I didn't die.
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 12 miles easy. Pace was totally easy, but it felt like it would never, ever, ever end. I just got bored. I had forgotten how long it takes to do a long run. Holy crap.
Sunday: More cross training!! 20 minutes sun salutations, 25 minutes yoga for runners. Ommmm.


I'm switching up some scheduling this week...

Monday: 6 miles, .75 easy, .25 dangerously fast.
Tuesday: Cross training
Wednesday: Long run - 14 easy
Thursday: 3 easy, yoga
Friday: Cross training
Saturday: Chapman 5k! maybe a PR attempt...
Sunday: Rest

So.... Week 1 CIM training down? Ha.

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On Saturday, SkinnyRunner hosted a brunch for some of us local runner/blogger/people. Check out her recap and pictures here, because I didn't take any pictures, not one.

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I'm switching up my schedule this week, because I needed to switch up my schedule NEXT week, because Thursday (10/11/12!!) is Gabby's 6th birthday, and Friday we leave for the hopefully less hot Sequoia's.

I'm going to pitch a little "Choose Your Own Adventure" here.... Would you rather....

1. Leave from work, drive through LA traffic at rush hour (5pm), get to the park around... 11pm? Drive up the road that the friendly tripadvisor forum members have deemed "too sketchy to drive on in the dark unless you're familiar with it", and put up a tent that is new-to-you at 1 am in a campsite where bear encounters are "frequent"....

OR

2. Leave from work, let traffic settle down a little, Priceline a super cheap hotel ($45! for 3*, so not sketchy) outside of the park, drive up there and sleep without the bears, then drive into the beautiful mountains bright and early, and pitch a tent in the daylight?


You can guess which one we picked. My friend Snork disagrees with our selection.

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I had a (lame) realization last week, that I'm sure is kind of an obvious thought to most people, but it didn't sink in for me until I was in the middle of those dreaded 800's.

Without fail, the only times I really don't want to run, are when I'm afraid I won't be able to hack it.

After my MRI a few weeks ago, I got the notice that it wasn't an sfx on Friday afternoon. I could have run Friday. I could have run Saturday. I draaaaggggeed it out until Sunday. I didn't think I could actually still run. It had been so long....

Tuesday's 4 miles outside felt HARD, at a 10:15ish pace. So when Thursday rolled around, and I was supposed to do 800's at a much faster pace, I almost didn't even do it. I thought there was just no way I would be able to run any distance at that pace.

And it turns out, it wasn't THAT awful. I survived.

I am coming up with a billion excuses to get out of trying to PR at the 5K this weekend, but what it really boils down to, is I just don't have the confidence that I'm in PR shape right now.

Eh.

If it ain't fixed, don't break it

1. Today is exactly 2 weeks since I ran last. I've been extra unpleasant, and generally cranky, but also realllllly grateful I didn't run through #heatpocalypse (it just took me three tries to figure out the correct spelling of grateful, wtf).

One might think I'd take this non-running opportunity to, you know, cross train. I've done some cycling (an hour's worth), and some ellipticalling (all of 10 minutes before I wanted to kick myself in the throat), and weights (one 30 minute arm/back/chest program).

That's 1 hour and 40 minutes in two weeks. LAME.

I had an MRI on Jerk Shin Tuesday evening, and I'm waiting for the results. I shouldn't complain, my company pays for my health care in full, nothing out of pocket, but holy bejesus slowest process ever.

Oh well.

2. Last weekend, it was a billion degrees. SoCal generally has pretty mild summers - we are hot for a few days, REALLY hot for a few days, but the rest of the summer is pretty glorious. Except this summer, where it's been ridiculous for a long, long time.

The H and #1 had plans to attend Comikazee in downtown LA (about 60 minutes NE of us, and HOTTER than OC). I was kind of a little concerned about this drive - neither of our cars have working AC, which isn't normally a huge deal, but that drive sure would suck for them.

BUT THEN! We found the OC Metrolink train - $10, all weekend, right into downtown (and Pasadena! And Hollywood!). There's a station a few miles from our house, and it's air conditioned. Awesome. So we dropped them off at the station, and I spent the rest of the day with the other kids avoiding #heatpocalypse.

FYI, you can spend up to at least 4 hours at Souplantation (or Sweet Tomatoes, for you non-west coasters) without getting any shady looks.

Gabby made friends.

Rose also attended Comikazee, and did the zombie obstacle course I was really bummed to miss.

The H brought me a present, though, so I guess we're good.

You can pick up your own copy of "That's Not Your Mommy Anymore: a zombie tale" on Amazon (not an affiliate link, I'm not that fancy). Totally worth it. Gabby and I read it, and i was pleased to hear that I must not be a zombie, since I'm not green.

Yeah, we added that shit to her kindergarten reading log. That might be awkward at parent teacher conferences.

3. Kind of zombie related.... The H and I are going out for actual, real life grown up fun Saturday night, for the launch of Knott's Scary Farm!

This year is Scary Farm's 40th anniversary, and it sounds... well, terrifying. I haven't been to anything like this since Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando BEFORE I HAD CHILDREN. That was in the last century, I'm not even joking.

Halloween Haunt runs weekend nights from 9/21-10/31. And looks extra, extra scary.

4. My job is driving me batty. I'm kind of for real sort of looking, but mostly just for specific organizations and companies that I really want to work for. The thing is, I have it pretty cushy at this company, so I think until something I really, really want to go for pops up, I'm just going to tough it out. There just aren't a ton of great jobs out there that interest me, and I'm not desperate, just bored.

But if anyone knows of something that lets me wear compression and running clothes, and does good, like curing cancer, and is in SoCal (that's important), I'm game.

5. I don't really love getting up at 6am, but I do love getting out of work by 4pm. And these fall sunrises sure don't hurt.

6. We're planning a camping trip to Sequoia National Park in a few weeks. Anyone been there? I hear it's beautiful, but everything I read says there are bears everywhere.

 

Am I going to be eaten by bears?

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods... there is a rapture on the lonely shore.

I treated our last camping trip, to Carpinteria State Beach back in May, as a test trip. It was close to home, close to town, had real, water running bathrooms, showers. I figured I'd break us in slowly.

Since it went so well, I took Snork up on her invite to Mammoth over 4th of July weekend. Snork was meeting some dirtbiking friends. We were just touristing.

So, I rented a tent, again, from REI, because I'm not quite so committed that I was shelling out a couple hundred bucks to own one yet, when I can rent one for $45 for 3 days.

But a few days before we leave, a mutual FB friend of ours (well, FB friend of mine, RL friend to her) tells Snork she has a tent she'll give me for free - giant, 3 rooms, we could practically LIVE in there. I'm so stoked.

I am also paranoid, and like to be fully prepared for anything. So despite Snork's laughing at me, I did not cancel my REI rental tent.

So we left the day before Snork did, spent the night in Fresno, and toured Yosemite the next day before heading to camp. Meanwhile, Snork is picking up our magical new (free) tent on her way up from camp. Promising, even, to have it all set up nice and pretty for us when we get there.

Cell service in Yosemite is pretty spotty, but I start getting texts from Snork, like...

"Did you cancel the REI tent?"

"hey, do you have a tent?"

"did you cancel the tent????"

"CALL ME"

"But did you cancel?? CALL ME!"

Turns out, the tent picking up was unsuccessful. There was a bag. There were stakes. There was a footprint. Alas, there was no tent.

Moral of the story: Do not laugh at your friends' preparedness, even if it borders on paranoia.

Camping this time was a bit more... rustic, than last. And by rustic, I mean, 40 minutes from the closest "town", up a dirt hill 20 minutes into the mountains, no water, no cell service.

The upside to this, was the blanket of stars we saw all night. It was kind of mind-boggling, coming from LA, where it's a handful of stars in a night, to this.

Being a dirtbiking trip, there were plenty of bikes around, which the kidlets kind of dug...

Baby made friends with Riley, whose name is burned into my psyche forever, thanks to Riley's owner screeching for him every 10 minutes while Riley wandered through neighboring campsites....
It was super, super dusty - far worse even than the windy beach camping. This was not sand, this was dirty, grimy dust. And it flew. And was everywhere. So it was tough to stay... clean, and not FEEL dusty. I watched Mr. Snork molest his feet with baby wipes for a good 10 minutes....

Apparently, ones feet must be dirt free prior to putting on dirt biking boots.

Ahem.

We toured the town of Mammoth, which is cute, and houses.....
Yep. A Coach outlet. It was pretty exciting. I was hesitant to even go in, you know, with the dusty and all, but I did, and it was glorious.

We went to the beach at June Lake. The water looked pretty chilly, which was confirmed by the shivering children who kept playing in it. I grew up in Florida, where we do not swim in fresh water (gators, yo). But this water... was clean, and clear, and had fishies, and snowy mountain top reflections, and was perect. If it were 20 degrees warmer, I'da been all over it.

#2 likes to show off that she is completely unfeeling, so she frolicked in the lake like it was a bathtub. Which, let's be honest, after 3 days in the wilderness and no running water, it essentially was.

I was shocked - shocked! - by how cool it was still in the middle of summer. Day times were warm, but the second the sun started to set, it dropped down to Hella Cold. And stayed that way until mid-moning. The Sierra Nevada's? That isht is cold at night. My gas station hat from Gorman came in handy....

We watched July 4th Fireworks at Crowley Lake... Baby tossed pebbles into the lake where people were trying to fish...


#1 and The Niece made questionable fashion decisions...

And, as it does, the sun set over the lake.

If I were a better planner, I'd have had batteries for my camera and could show you said fireworks. But trust me when I say, the $25 was worth it, and it was spectacular.

We did some hiking around camp, up the mountainside, which gave me some time to play with the macro setting on my camera....


The drive home, on the eastern side of the Sierra's, was... interesting...
Eat? No thanks.

We left camp early, around 7 am... when it was about 45 degrees. Which we were dressed for - sweaters, jeans, hats, the works. The 395 runs along the western edge of Death Valley. Shockingly....

Didn't really feel that bad. Obviously, it's hot, but... it's a dry heat? Anyway, when we got out of the car to run into CVS for drinks, we looked... ridiculous.

All in all, I'd call it a success. No one hated it, we mostly enjoyed it. The biggest complaint was that the vault toilets were icky (and, legitimately, they were.... Baby even told me one time, "This is NOT a potty. This is a trash can." Even she knew.).

"The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entereing a huge library."

Things I learned while camping, part 2.1. Yosemite recap.

1. Kids in the car are pretty hyped at the idea of driving 5 hours. Weird.

2. Fresno is pretty creepy, and I'm glad the Snork's decided to travel separately. Their bikes might not have stood a chance there. But the drive OUT of Fresno is really lovely.

3. Wildflower season comes later in the Sierra's, so, YAY for pretty flowers!

4. Giant Sequoia's are called Giant for a reason.

5. While reading travel tips, everyone said to use the pull out right after you drive through....

Yep. A tunnel, through the mountain.

6. But they weren't joking. This is serious business.... 7. Did you know, Yosemite falls is the 5th tallest in the world? True story.

8. Those trees keep being giant.
9. My kids are cute. And they liked Yosemite.

10. Everybody I talked to and read about yapped about how bears are plentiful in the park. There are even these signs. But you know what? I am beginning to doubt the veracity of these claims. Not one bear sighting, at all.

10a. Deer, however, were plentiful.
11. Use every pull out, always. You can always change your mind if it's boring. But it might be awesome. Like this.
And this.

Or this.


12. My kids are weird. (yes, I know this isn't really a new development, but.. all the same).



13. Tioga Pass is the highest pass in California. Running at this elevation is near impossible, and just dumb. So is walking, in general.

14. In July, there may still be snow avaialble to "play" in.


15. I don't remember what this little guy was, but we are BFF's now.


16. Toulumne Meadows was about 45 minutes from camp. It might have been my favorite part of the park, and if I had more time (and less kids) I'd have stayed here forever.


17. Baby likes yoga. Downward facing dog!


18. Snork tried to become part of a herd of deer...


18a. Baby might have foiled her plan.


(Don't worry. Baby's interference did not stop her. She continued, despite the marshy landscape and billions of mosquitoes. There is video, as well, if anyone is iterested.)

19. Snork is a risky person to take to a park, apparently. I'm not entirely sure what she's doing, but I'm pretty sure this was on the heels of Mr. Snork telling her she could not hang from a bridge.




20. The Snork's are, in fact, Baby stealers, but at least it looks like Baby would enjoy them.



21. Look, I'm tall!
22. Pullout = picnic spot. I TOLD you to stop at all pullouts!