Running journal, Thursday, 2006-02-23

Running journal, Thursday, 2006-02-23
Resting heart rate: 71 bpm (60 second test)
Day: Thursday
Date: 2006-02-23
Weather: Sunny, cloudless sky. Haze on the horizon, which probably means I am in it. :P
Temp: 20.56 C (69 F)
Time: 12:30-13:16
Terrain: mostly flat with mild inclines
Comments: Walking day today. I decided last night to go somewhere new today, and after learning from an ex-co-worker that the trails continue past the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, I decided to park there and explore. It turns out the fish hatchery parking lot offers free parking, but other lots do not (for example, one parking lot about two blocks away on Nimbus Road costs $4.00). I might be missing something. I decided to wear my red RaceReady shorts and my blue New Balance t-shirt. I looked like Superman (thus the graphic above). Having a sky-blue Superman shirt would be fun to wear. :) I found new pockets for my carry-alongs today that fit better: driver's license and pen in the left-rear pocket; gloves and PowerBar in the center-rear pocket. I discovered while driving to the fish hatchery that sitting on gloves and a Powerbar feels weird though. And who wants to eat a sat-on Powerbar? ;) Next time I'll load up the center-rear pocket after I park. Right after I began, I stopped and stared at bird houses made of mud that clung to the bottom of the Hazel Avenue overpass. Somehow the birds can build them in the 45-degree angles in the cement, very high up. The view of the river must be great. ;) As I walked up the embankment on the eastern side of Hazel Ave., I noticed two people descending a non-trail part of the slope of the steep hill on the north side of the river. They made it to the bike trail, with a few pauses to assess their situation. :) I stayed on the south side of the American River, but there is a trail on the north side too. The southern trail east of Hazel Avenue seems a bit less maintained than what I am used to. For example, no mile markers on the pavement that I could see, and it merges into a paved two-lane road for a while. It could be that the trail really continues on the north side of the river. I accidentally turned off the two-lane road (I missed the spray-painted white turn arrows) onto what I thought was a continuation of the bike trail, only to find myself on an embankment for a pedestrian bridge crossing Hwy 50. I decided to cross it anyway and see where it took me. I ended up walking up to Folsom Boulevard, passing by new Dodge trucks and vans. Walking back up the embankment, I saw a large McDonalds cup and lid in the ditch, which I picked up. The copyright read, "2003" -- three year-old trash. :P I filled up the cup as I walked with an assortment of candy and energy food wrappers. One appreciative biker thanked me for this, and I felt warm inside at his thoughtfulness. :) As I approached Hazel Avenue, I heard what I thought was a slow-moving, poorly-oiled bicycle behind me. I was wrong, it was a grandfather and his young granddaughter with older bicycles. The girl's wire basket over her right-rear tire was empty, but her grandfather's contained a small Igloo cooler. As she passed the girl looked at me with an energetic, cheerful expression on her face, cute as a button. :) Her grandfather was the exact opposite: quiet, slow, focused. The girl seemed to find be in the process of finding ways to amuse herself, because she took both feet off her pedals, coasted, then stuck her legs straight out. :) I think she might have wished she could accelerate the pace. Nothing eventful happened the rest of the way back to the parking lot. I got a drink of water, then noticed the fish hatchery folks invite the public to view the fish tank area. They had six enormous tanks in the area I was in, but only tank F had fish. I could not tell which fish they were, but I think they were salmon. Tanks A, B, C, and D were empty, and E was only full of water. One worker was in the process of power-spraying tank D. As I turned to go, I noticed a water bottle rolling around in tank E, at the end where the water bubbles up through the aspirator. I initially thought it was trash, so I took it out of the water and set it on the edge of the tank so someone could throw it away if they wanted. As I sat in my car writing down notes from the day, I overheard one worker ask the other who took his water bottle out of the water. XD The other worker of course did not know. :) The first worker got a sort of confused look on his face, and after taking a drink placed the bottle back in the cold water. Funny. :) I took a different way home, down Gold Country Road, and passed a bunch of communities with chi-chi names like, "Gold Country Village," "Sutter Village," and "Maidu Village." All the houses looked the same. Boring. Gold Country Road ended at Sunrise just south of Bridge Street. This Saturday I run seven miles, so I think I will try the south side again. I noticed my sunglasses hugging my too closely again today. Bearable, but a bit annoying. And I had another dream about a marathon last night. This time, the race started, but for some reason, before I could begin the running part, I had to complete three tasks. Weird. First everyone had to climb an indoor, steep, artificial embankment, which exhausted me, I could barely pull myself over the edge. I ended up in last place with my elementary-school classmate Carolyn Redinger. Don't ask me why. Second, we had to solve a series of thinking puzzles to get points. Unfortunately, since we got to the puzzle in last place, no points remained to be awarded. :P I still enjoyed solving the puzzle though. :) Third, I had to go back down the embankment while at the same time controlling a soccer ball using only my feet. Somehow, I deflated my soccer ball on the way down, and slid on it to the bottom (this was actually quite clever of me, in retrospect). ;) That's where the dream ends. This represents the second marathon dream in one week. Note: My heart-rate seemed abnormally high today, even though I slept well last night. I woke up right after my marathon dream, so perhaps that elevated it. I think my heart is working overtime to clean up my system and irrigate blood into my body since I pushed it hard yesterday with only four hours sleep. Hopefully it will be back down to normal tomorrow.
Time: 46 minutes
Goal Time: n/a
Distance: 4.5 km (2.8 mi) http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=35479
Total Distance For Year: 137.1 km (85.0 mi)
Weight (after run): 78.4 kg (172.87 lbs), 22% body fat
Any irregular feelings, aches, pains, heart rate, and so forth?: Again, a touch of worry in my right knee near the end of the walk.
Foods eaten today: three toaster waffles and real maple syrup, soy milk, bottle of Honest Tea First Nation Peppermint (17 cal), soy tempeh spread and wheat bread, salsa and chips.