Weekend Update in Pictures

Lets pretend it was a 3 day weekend....this is from my Monday morning run. Guess what?  The frogs were back! There's a video of the sound on the photo site.

Also from yesterday's run.  I used to take a lot more tree pictures, this one was just to amazing to pass by w/o taking one.

Just me.

Yesterday's run. Many of the flowers have started to bloom, these were growing out of a crack in some rock.

This is from a hike we did on Sunday w/some friends. It's a shot of Buckeye Ravine that I'm always mentioning going up or down on runs. The muddy, sliding video last week was taking while coming down Buckeye.

We found a bike track in the scrub near our house and Emma loved it!

Kids in a cave on Sunday's hike.

Kids in a creek on Sunday's hike.

Making our way down a steep part of Sunday's hike.

Guess what this is?? Yep, kids on a rock from Sunday's hike.

and this.....is kids on a hill from Sunday's hike. : )

That about catches you up. We are still having amazing weather. Should have a few 70's days this week.  Yesterdays run it was about 63 out and I was pouring buckets, so I need to really get some longer runs in during this mini heat wave and try to get the body used to a bit of heat. Diablo 50k is rapidly approaching!!

Seriously.

Serious. Downhill. Runner.

Seriously. Big. Stick.

Seriously. Amazing. Sky.

I. Seriously. Love. His. Legs!

Seriously. I. Get. To. Run. Here.

Yesterdays Run

(I promise I'm saying 'shoot' and not any other sh word)

That video shows why I'm running long, paved, and flat today. My least favorite way to run, but I'm giving the trails another day to dry out.  Yesterday was slow and tedious, and left me super tense. It was beautiful out, though, and I still had a great morning!

This is how my shoes would be the entire morning, until I could get them into a creek.

You can see the tops of the snowy peaks behind the ridge.

The first climb of the day

Deer

Diablo Summit has some snow.

Going down Buckeye Ravine, things are so green right now!

The last 3 are looking at the back of Diablo from Mitchell Canyon near our house.  It is also the same snowy peaks that are peeking over the hill from the front of Diablo in one of the pictures above.

Things are so green and pretty out right now, the trees are all budding and poppies are starting to bloom, and the mustard is in full bloom! It has been fun watching how the Mt has changed as the months go by. This is my first year spending this much time on it, and it has definite seasons.

Gotta go hit the pavement, ugh.

"They're gonna eat my cupcakes without me?!"

I know, I know, I need to get a new post up!!

I just haven't had the time to do it. I need to dump my camera and get some fresh pictures for you. I've had some great runs to share with you, and a slippen and slidin video from this mornings run.

In other news, about 10 minutes after I got my last post up, I got a call to pick up Myles from school. He had been there 1.5 hours and was in the potty 5 times. Sadly, he was also star of the week, which is a big deal. It's the only time of the year he gets to bring a treat, and he had picked out cupcakes that morning at Safeway. The bakery manager overheard him wishing they had rings in them and in no time she had 3 dozen cupcakes and was putting Kung Fu Panda rings in them. He was so excited!  And then .....he got sent home from class BEFORE it was cupcake time!!  He got sent home with no cupcake while his class got to eat them. I was so heartbroken for him I was in tears. And of course, he said he felt fine when I picked him up. He had no fever, and I made the decision to take a calculated risk of stopping at Ross on the way home. All I needed was a purse, mine is literally falling apart. I grabbed a purse (I really don't care about purses, just need something cheap to carry stuff in, so I just grabbed the cheapest one I could find which was hot pink and zebra print, joy), headed to check out and Myles yells out "I'm gonna barf!". So I run with him to the bathroom, swing open the ladies room door and he gets his head in the door and pukes....covers the entire ladies room floor.....get ready for it.....they made me clean it up. Seriously, handed me garbage bags and paper towels.  I asked if I could at least get a mop and was denied.  So I had Myles stay in a stall while I crawled around cleaning up puke, telling the ladies they could not come in whenever the door opened.
That was all on Friday, by Sunday morning he was slowing down, and by Monday he was better, went to school Tuesday. I felt woozy, swirly, dizzy, and like a wilting flower Sat and Sunday, but was able to pull it together to run w/Brian on Monday.  Tuesday, yesterday, Emma came home from school sick - dizzy, headache, upset stomach.  So....we just need to get her through it and wait for Sophie to get it and then hopefully we'll be good to go.  Oh, it was also science fair project weekend, and we went to the drive in Monday night to see Escape from Planet Earth. Myles and Sophie's first time at the drive in. Good times.
So that is what we've been doing.
I will try to dump pics and get a running post up tonight while watching Survivor.
Oh, and Myles did end up with a dozen of his very own cupcakes. Not quite the same as being the cool guy who brings cupcakes w/rings for his class....but it's the best I could do!

I'm Still Here!

My mean runner face. Side note- this is a dumb hairdo to run with, I had hair in my mouth and eyes the entire run. Made me want to shave it all off.

It has just been so sunny and warm out, I have not been indoors on the computer a whole lot this week! (and obviously have not spent any time editing these pictures!)

It has been another busy week, full of workouts and amazing runs! The kids had Monday off, so we spent the day outside in the yard, mowing, pruning, cooking lunch my favorite way, and then we went for a hike. Tuesday was another great day of running. First I worked out, then did a 4.5 mile loop packed full of elevation, then picked up Myles at school and from there headed to the reservoir to meet up with the Beast for another hilly run.

 Haven't done a double day in a while and it was great!
Wednesday I was in the kids classrooms and took a rest day. Thursday is Beast day, and we headed out of Castle Rock for a tough 6.9 (ok, I count this as 7, but it's technically 6.9) with a few feet shy of 1700 ft of elevation gain.  Check out this elevation chart -


Followed that up with an afternoon in Sophie's class helping with her art program (watercolor project this week) picking up kids at 3 different times. Today is a non-running, yes to a working out day, so not a full rest day, but legs need a break, so getting all errands/cleaning done today.  It's also CO's visit this week, so yeah. Busy week.
Brian and I will get a run in together tomorrow after noon, I've got a doozy mapped out of 10 miles with 2620 ft of climbing! Should be a hoot!

Mustard flowers have always been his favorite.

this was so pretty in real life

They have had enough of the Beast and my antics and decided today was the day to present a united front.

Seriously, they tried to be so tough...but they were no match for a crazy mom running at them waving her arms over her head and yelling, "woo hoo, woo hoo, woo hoo!"

Dropping back down to Stage, the sun was hitting the section of trail that is more creek than trail right now, one of my favorite sections.

 

 I leave ya with an overhead view of the froggy pond, Pine Pond. You can see the trail runs along the bottom edge of it and the pond is still flowing over the trail and making a waterfall over the edge of it. I know when running through there to stay towards the waterfall edge. It's about mid calf deep, but not muddy or anything. Well, two weeks in a row the Beast has seen the reeds and mistakenly thought it looked like higher, less wet ground.  It's not, since the reeds are laying down on top of the drop off into the pond. I thought she learned her lesson last week, but nope, in she went again! Ankle deep mucky mud + her new Salomon trail shoes = not happy Beast!  Good thing there were 6 more crossings to rinse them off in! : )
 More pictures here.

My Favorite Way to Run

I have so missed my runs with Brian.  We have so much fun!

This was Brian's first trail run since his calf injury. I took him on the same 7 mile loop I did with the Beast in this post. It is a tough little loop, but every corner brings another breathtaking view, and it seems to go by quickly. The first few miles were new trail for Brian, and I had fun showing him some new stuff.
I have really missed these runs with him! We always have a blast and enjoy getting out and running together.  We both pulled 30 mile weeks this week! It's been a LONG time since I've pulled that off and I will admit my legs are feeling the mileage. I've laid down a solid base over the past few months. Now it's time to start building. Both in miles, and elevation.  I'm super happy to have my hubby running again and able to literally hit the ground running on the weekend!
Here's a few pictures from yesterday's run -

Heading up on Shell Ridge Loop

Heading back in on Stage Rd.

Not mad, he just makes me work hard to keep up with him on the downhills.

This is on the Briones to Diablo Trail, near China Wall.

First time we've seen a coyote on Diablo. He's in the green spot top/center of pic. Brian has seen a bobcat on Diablo before, but this is our first Coyote sighting.  There was actually a cow chasing him away from the herd, I'll post that pic on our photo site.

Mom'n Up, Trail Style

Ok, so I was going to say Man'n Up, but that didn't sound right.

So, despite the fact that I have sun shining in my back yard right now...the Beast and I had to dig deep on this morning's gruelingly tough run.  We have a cold front coming in this evening. Don't laugh WA family, they are saying possible snow on the valley floor, which is unheard of and I'm sure wont actually happen, but Diablo should get a fair amount of snow.  While I was expecting drizzles off and on all day, the Beast was sure it wasnt' going to rain. I at least wore my arm warmers and a visor, not for sun, but for any drizzles. The Beast was sporting capris, a short sleeve tech shirt, and sun glasses.  She's always optimistic!

Playing with the cows never gets old!

Isn't this the cutest cow ever??

This is what a blurry picture of rain looks like.

 Today's run starts with a long, steep climb right out of the gate. I generally love this because it tends to make the rest of the run and any smaller hills seem easier. But today, it just meant we were up on an exposed fire road, running into a steady, strong wind, which was accompanied with steady rain. And...it was cold. It was 43 before we got up there, with no wind and rain...so ad that in and we were cold! My skin on my thighs was bright red and felt like ice when I put my hand on it, and the Beast's face was burning like when you go skiing and are gettting hit with blowing icy/snow when you go up the chair lift....from the wind and rain hitting her. My visor was keeping the majority of the rain off my face, but had two steady drips of water  that kept blowing right into my face.

We tossed around cutting down off the ridge at Little Yosemite. Actually, I had said, "well, we can cut down at Little Yosemite instead of going out to Wall rd if you want." To which the Beast said, "Yes. I don't want to go further than that."  But, once we got to the cut down, I ignored the marker and said, "go to the right". The Beast doesnt' know my Mt. like I do, and did not know she had just been denied her cut down.  After we were a safe distance away, I told her we were going to come down at Wall, and did my best to convince her it's much funner because we get to go through 11 creeks, the section where the creek is still running over the trail for about 1/3 of a mile, and maybe the frogs would still be out (they were not there, it was totally quiet).  She called me a name and took off up the hill. : )

I've been wanting to get the beast out to this section of creek/trail for a while, it's always fun!

LOVE this pic of the Beast attacking the creek!

The rain was coming down pretty heavy running back out Stage, it was already getting pretty muddy, but the wind wasnt' as bad down there in the valley.  Once you get that chilled, you pretty much stay that way until you can hit a warm shower, though. After a few creek crossings, I asked her if that last one felt warm to her, which it did. I said, "I think that means our bodies are too cold".

We were freezing, soaked, muddy, running through creeks out in the woods, in the rain, tired.........and I think we were both secretly loving every minute of it!   Well.....at least one of us was. : )

Got red, icy cold skin?

Here's a peek at the run from a map/elevation chart view-