Week Before the Half Marathon

8/28/10
Sands of Despair
 28:28

Van Ness Night Run

8/24/10
Beverly  to Third Via Van Ness(2 miles) 15:14

Trail Less Traveled

8/18/10
Observatory Trail 24:39

Sands of Despair Can't Recall

8/12/10
Sands of Despair 29:09

Sands of Despair

 8/21/10
Sands of Despair 32:16

In A Rush

8/26/10


Sands of Despair 22:42

BBall Tournament

8/5/10
I don't really remember this run, but I remember losing the bball tournament.

Sands of Despair X 2

8/16/10
I ran the Sands of Despair twice!

Running

7/26/2010

So, I decided to start this blog about running and physical activity.  I plan to detail my runs and workouts in a interesting fashion.  Hopefully some people might actually read this.  If they don't, I will at least have a record of my efforts.  I can look back and say "Hey, I remember this"! I'll try to upload pictures that pertain to the run or the route I run through.  Here it goes.

Today, at around 7:00 P.M. I decided to run through the Griffith Park trail very close to the Greek Theater. Recently I have been running this trail with a group of friends.

Prior to the actual run we usually do a warm-up run.  I must admit this warm-up is very steep and not exactly friendly to those who do not run.  A friend of mine most appropriately dubbed it, "The Hill of Doom"!  Don't be fooled by the the name, The Hill of Doom is not actually a hill! I try to keep the warm-up around 10 minutes long and today was no exception. Here is the warm-up run of approximately .93 miles.

After the warm-up we go and stretch.  Stretching usually consists of swinging our legs in various ways.  I can't think of how to describe the stretches right now, but I will put up a diagram in the future.

Sufficiently stretched and ready to run I walked towards the pole that we use as our start.  Today I decided to try a route that is a little longer than the route that we usually do.  The route is similar to the one we usually do except it has a third hill.  So, I decided to name this route the Triad of Trouble.

If you look at the marker that says starting pole, just follow the blue line, and that is the route I followed.  The Triad of Trouble has three major hills that make this route interesting. The first hill, The mini hill of doom goes up about 70 feet. The Tower of Trouble goes up about 234 feet. Finally The Sands of Despair go up about 155 feet.  The Tower of Trouble is the most difficult, but by the time you reach The Sands of Despair, you have a good amount of energy drained.I finished the 3.59 miles of the Triad of Trouble in 35 mins 25 secs.   I really enjoyed this new route, The Tower of trouble makes it a little tougher.  I need to step up my game before the Disney Half Marathon rolls around on the 5th of September.  All in all a good route.

Well that is that.  My next planned run is on Thursday.  This time around the group should be larger than ever.
See you then.

Hurdling Fun

7/29/2010

Hello again.  So today was another interesting adventure in the world of running.  Today I ran with a group of 3 people.  It was suppose to be much larger, but it's all good!

This parking lot ,next to the Greek Theater, is where we usually meet.

As you can see it is usually empty so there is always space to park.  However it is not empty enough to practice driving.

As usual we started our warm up, and I was able to get a better picture of The Hill of Doom.

In this picture you can get a better idea of how steep The Hill of Doom. It's actually not too steep, but it is long.

This is about where we stop for the warm up.  Actually the view from where we stop.

Going down the Hill of Doom is always fun, but be careful not to trip.

After the warm-up is the stretching.

As you can see, my running buddies are happy to stretch.

Finally we are off to start the run.

The starting line starts at the pole, and you can still see some remnants of chalk when they have 5k's.
 

The run started normally.  We went around the field and climbed up the Mini-Hill of Doom.

The Mini-Hill of Doom wasn't too bad, I thought to myself.  All seemed well, too well until a furry ball of uncertainty approached. In fact, this ball of fur was headed for ME!  It was an accelerating ball of fur whose intentions were unknown.  The owners reassured me that the dog would not do anything.  Hearing this news made me feel a bit of relief. I've never been bitten by a dog, and I certainly did not want to start today.  So this ball of fur continues on it's mission towards me with no sign of slowing down.  Meanwhile my running buddies are further ahead because I had to take these "professional pictures".  I didn't want to slow down either, so I kick the dog off the side of the cliff.  Just kidding I love animals.  So I hurdle over the dog in graceful fashion to the amazement of the owners, my running buddies and myself.  As I pass by the owners they say sorry.  It is ok, because it's all in a days work for me.  Yup, hurdling over animals.


So the rest of the run was pretty normal. We went up The Sands of Despair.  Here you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

A view of the sands of despair from the top.

A view from the bottom of The Sands of Despair to the top.

 We  finished the run of The Sands of Despair route in 29min and  12 seconds.
Stay tuned for more updates.  See you then!

Young Punk!

8/7/10
So today the group consisted of myself and one other running buddy.  We did out usual route which was the Sands of Despair in 22:20