Sunday Longy

Woke up to a sunny 49F day this morning at and out the door at 8:45am for our long run, the first since Long Beach...the plan was to do about 16 miles and see how the legs were feeling and cut short if any problems.

I started out heading for Mountain View and the Stevens Creek trail, and once I got on the trail I remembered that there was a new baylands trail opened up behind the Moffet Air Station/ NASA-Ames. Perhaps my subconscious was really in charge here ;)

I asked another runner on the trail if they knew where the entrance was and he ran me there as part of his run (as we swapped stories about Si-Valley jobs we've had) and then he turned around at the entrance.

It was  cool to go inside the fence that's kept us out of an entire segment of the Baylands since we moved to Ca. Here's a view..hard to see much since my cellphone camera is so wide-angle.

I'm standing on a narrow strip of land (maybe 12m/36ft wide) with water on both sides..in the distance are the large zeppelin hangers that date from the 1930s. The Akron and Macon were stored there.

You can't possibly see it in this shot, but there's a NEW zeppelin in the area, built for giving rides, and it was tied down outside the hanger waiting to go. It's not as big as the German Zepps from back then of course.

Down the path a bit, we saw our beautiful white Pelicans, as usual. 

Again, hard for you to see, but they aren't really more than 15 meters from me..need to bring the real camera, I guess.

At this point, I'm about 8.5 miles into my run and i realize I should turn around soon or I'll be over 16 miles getting back home. So, we turned around and backtracked (next time we'll make a big loop back on one of the outer slough berms.

My original intended pace was about 10:00+ and I was right on and feeling pretty good. Heading through Shoreline park at about 12 miles I was feeling my left IT Band, which I *never* do and realized probably my stride was messed up by my left calf issues. I took a couple of walk breaks when i was eating GUs and they seemed to help...after another mile or so it felt much better. I think the rough terrain on the dirt paths also stressed things a bit and once i was on smooth pavement it's actually better.

About two miles out from home I saw some speed bumps in the road and a trail of Jackson-Pollock-like white paint drips down the road ahead of me to infinity. Methinks somebody had a few tipped over cans in the back of the truck perhaps? This linear modern art exhibit continued for about another mile until the paint ran out 8)

Final stats:

 16.3 miles, Pace 10:00 HR 118, cadence 84