Running Chino Hills

Got out and ran some miles in Chino Hills State Park today. It was a visually stunning run. The cloud cover made it seem like some sort of fairy-tail. I especially love the deep purples made by the reeds that have been toasted by the sun.

No idea how many miles today.. I didn't keep track. Have a great weekend!! =)

Scary Day

Tonight my sister was supposed to present her masters thesis at a small conference. I was planning on attending but today turned out to be really crazy.

My sister teaches at a high school near the bay area area. Around 3pm today she texted me that bullets had just ripped through the walls of her classroom. Her and all of her kids were on floor and the school was on lock down. One of her female students had been shot in the leg. She sent me fragmented texts for about an hour before I was able to finally get her on the phone. Very terrifying!

Seems that the shooter was some random guy who was arguing with another random guy about something across the street from the school and decided to settle it with some bullets. The bullets flew across the street and hit my sisters portable classroom. People are nuts!!

She is alright and so are all the kids minus the girl that was hit by the bullet but she should make a full recovery - luckily it just grazed her. She called to tell me that she would not be able to present because she could not leave the school in time. It turns out that she was able to get there as they let them out shortly after she called me and she made it in time to present! She is amazing! I am so so so freaking glad she is okay. So scary. :S

In other news I am planning to sign up for a half triathlon in October. I have really taken to riding and I already enjoy running so... why not?

Monday was my 8 mile loop which was great.. Nike+ stopped working in the middle of the run so I couldn't get an accurate read on my time. I will have to run it again to see if I can beat my last timed run. Tuesday I rode 48 miles from Brea to Newport and then back to Brea along the Santa Ana River Trail. This time I brought a banana and my sun glasses. It was a much better ride.

Biking the Santa Ana Trail

It is fair to say I am not a serious "workout person". It is true that sometimes I sit on my couch watching movies for a week straight and I do not run or do anything other than eat and maybe take a shower so people don't think I am disgusting. However, if I get something in my head that I want to do it is pretty difficult to talk me out of it. This week it was bike from Brea to Newport Beach. I am not really a biker but I want to start cross training and I like to bike so I figured I should try it out. :)

The bike ride is pretty short, about 23 miles, so I figured it would be really easy to get there in 2 hours going 10 miles an hour.

Plan A

I had a 9:30am appointment in Newport that I really needed to get to on time. As I am terrible at following geographic directions and I had to go through a lot of different streets and turns to get to the trail I thought it would be best if I left at 6am to make sure I got there on time - and maybe even have a little time to get a banana and coffee from Bucks.

It was so pretty as the sun rose.. :)

In the beginning I was great! Felt good - happy riding along. Then the sun came out in full force and with it all these insects started flying around and then a crap ton of pollen was in the air.. little seeds blowing about. My eyes seemed to become magnets for all small particles in the air. I totally forgot my sunglasses! Ugh.  

In the beginning it all looked rosy!

About 4 miles into the trail I decided things were looking "wrong" somehow... I couldn't place exactly what was "wrong" but I just felt like something was not right. I had never been on the trail and I am not exactly the person you would ask directions from even on a good day. 

Knowing I suck at directions, I decided to utilize my iPhone GPS tracker. I put in the coordinates I wanted to reach and it spat out the mileage and time (15 miles to get to the park where I leave the trail and return to the road) which seemed correct so I kept riding. About 3 miles later (when I saw Weir Canyon Road from the trail) I realized that I was way, way off the mark. This was reconfirmed when I rechecked my GPS tracker and it read 18 miles to go. 18 MILES?!?! Then I re-reconfirmed it with a nearby runner who concurred with my iPhone. "Newport Beach is really, really, really far that way" he said, pointing behind us. "Really, really, really" huh?

How did this happen? I turned around and started pedaling as fast as I could go on a mountain bike that I had already been riding for and hour and a half. I was going to be late for my appointment if I didn't haul butt. 

I looked again.. I think I got confused when it said "turn left onto Santa Ana River Trail"when I should have gone right.. "right toward Santa Ana River Trail" who says toward and not onto if you are not on it yet?? Anyway, should have turned right apparently. Did you know that the ability to tell North, South, East, and West is genetic? Damn my genes!

hmm

At this point I didn't take pictures.. I just pedaled as hard and as fast as I could go for the rest of the trip. There were interesting things that I wanted to photograph but I had to get there fast.. I was so lost! Here are some pictures I took before I turned around though.. so pretty!!

 

Lots of trees on this trail!

I got there in the end. 10 minutes late but the person I was meeting was exactly 12 minutes late so it worked out perfectly.. except I was really looking forward to that banana. I got someone to pick me up and drive me home because I didn't rub some glide on my bootie and it got chafed by my padded pants.

Plan B

I ended up doing 37 miles instead of 23. If ever I want to do that much mileage again - I am bringing my sunglasses, glide, and a banana.. a new road bike might help the knees too! :D

Bommer Canyon

Last Friday I ran Bommer Canyon in the rain. It was awesome... the weird part is that I used to Run Quail Hill, a trail that is right off of Bommer Canyon all the time. Back then Bommer Canyon was closed, only open for guided tours. I never when in because I am a sucker for the "rules". Instead I would run through to the road and finish my runs on the street. I hated that part of the run and eventually I stopped going there because I figured that was it - nothing left to explore. Boring.

Last Friday however, even though it was closed, I decided to screw the rules and run up in there anyway. Oh wow!! I have been missing out on a lot a lot all these years!!

I took a slew of pictures but blogger can't see them at the moment even though they are in my album.  (I got them!!)

Top of the trail here. It was SO muddy!!

I ran uphill about 3 miles to the top and what was on the other side you ask... The Pacific Ridge Trailhead!! Yay! More to run! I had to turn around to go back at that point but I am excited to check it out another day.

Seems this is all apart of the pacific ridge trail head!

I know this is a weather thing.. but does anyone know what it does?

Does anyone else struggle trying to post pictures in blogger?? 

I want to place them a certain way but it won't let me is it so friken frustrating!! That is why all my pics are posted to the left and sometimes random other places - because I give up.

 For tomorrows adventure I have a 23 mile bike ride from Brea to Newport Beach planned. I decided cycling would be a fun way to cross train so I am jumping right in. There looks to be some sort of Santa Ana trail you can ride, walk, run from the Corona area to Newport so I am going to check it out.

I love my Fridays. :)

Aliso Canyon

Last Friday, I finally made it to Aliso canyon I have been wanting to go to for some time now. It was HOT but the people were super friendly - even the guy I ran into who was taking a pee. Ha! I ran about 1 1/2 miles on a main paved road (no idea what it was called) to get to the trails. 

I decided I wanted to see dripping cave so I went to that site first. 

It was really cool.

I decided I wasn't quite done so when I noticed a trail leading out of the other side of the little cave clearing I took it. I wanted to see if I could do a loop somehow. When I got to the end of the trail there was the option between oak grove and mathis trails but I couldn't tell from the map which would provide  a loop around. Luckily, an older gentleman who had stopped to take a leak saw me perusing my trail maps and asked me if I needed help. He told me that if I went up Mathis I could go left (he stressed left) at the end of the trail at the top of the world and take Meadows back down. 

 So up Mathis I went - I did NOT run. I walked the entire way up that trail. I was super glad I brought my camelback. On the way up I ran into another older man riding up the trail on a bike and he told me that indeed meadows would make a loop and take me back to the right parking lot. As he was leaving me he shouted back "Stay to the left! Did you hear me? Do not go right!" I started to get a little nervous about accidentally turning right since everyone seems very adamant about NOT taking the right. :)

The Sea :)

When I got to the top I made sure to go left and I ended up at a little park I began to search for meadows trail. I was already 4.5 miles into my "8 miles" and the last trail was really intense so I was getting a bit tired. Eventually I ran into another man who told me that I should turn around and go the other way because the meadows trail was about 4 miles down a regular road and was really hard to find. After I got to the trail he said it would be another 4 miles back to the lot. I was a bit bummed out because I really wanted to do a loop. However, the guy told me that I could take Car Wreck to Oak Grove and end up back at Dripping Cave. So I decided to take his advice and I went back to Car Wreck and ran down that trail.

It was a steep single track! Really fun! I was running along and then out of nowhere a random car emerged from the trees. It was weird so I snapped a lot of pictures. 

 Lucky for me the trail did end up back at the correct trails to take me to my car. 

It was a beautiful place. The people were very friendly and helpful too. 

Cool snake I saw.

I ended up doing a little more than 9 miles. Awesome place. :)