Accountability -- Day 5

Was it a verdant spring like this one that inspired a rock band to call itself Green Day?

There I was at 7 am, all dressed up with nowhere to go! In Pleasant Town it was sprinkling gently, so I figured it would be game on for the WoW relay team to meet at Redwood Park for a hill run. Wrong. Turns out it was rainier in Oaktown than here; the run was cancelled so we could all avoid becoming casualties of mud on the trails and the trails could avoid becoming casualties of us on them.

It was a little wet when I stopped briefly at Stanley Middle School. Click on the photo for the full effect.

I'll  just go to the Lafayette / Moraga Trail, sez I, and run my own darned paved hill run. So I did. Have you ever seen gentle sprinkles morph into steady rain? Well, I have. This very morning, actually. Blub, blub.

What I did: 9.75 miles at a run 4 minutes / walk 1 minute pace. 4.5 miles down the hill; 4.75 up. Admittedly the hills on this course are gentle, but on the way back up, around (a very wet) mile 6, I didn't feel much like I was on a flat. I freely admit I find something wonderful about running in the rain, however. I was in short sleeves and shorts, with a billed cap on my head, and didn't ever feel cold. Very wet, very early on, yes. But it wasn't unpleasant--it was green and clean and lovely, as a matter of fact. 

When I did it: I left home about 7:15 and, after having a couple of arguments with my GPS (she won, BTW), was on the trail by 8:05 am. 

In these posts I really should add a brief description of how many non-running exercises I manage on each outing, since I usually try to fit in a few in the course of a run. Today I climbed on a picnic table and did 12 regular crunches, 12 crunches targeting the left obliques, 12 crunches targeting the right obliques, 50 supine bicycle kicks, 12 dips off a bench, and 12 low sissy pushups (from about 8 inches off the ground). I credit these little mini-workouts for whatever core tightness I manage to maintain. Also bicep and tricep strength. Think Draymond Green flexing after he sinks one. He's an appropriate athlete to call to mind while running through, well, greenery.

I considered taking this cab home.

How it felt: I think I've already told you. I felt wonderful, but wet. I'm giving it an 8.5. The number would be higher except I experienced some discomfort from eating an over-large breakfast and drinking too much coffee--to be delicate about this: for much of the way, I had to pee. It's a lesson for the future, right?

There was a surprising number of people out there. My favorite was a sprightly guy wearing an Orioles shirt and carrying an umbrella. He took a look at me and started laughing--"Impressive," he said, "but insane."

Photos: Have a look-see for yourself. 

Keep on running!


Ps. Fitness tracker has me at 24,730 steps, even after I took a long, stepless nap after I got home. I'll bet my favorite nephew still has me beat for the day, however. He's a beast.