fat camp

I’m heading off to the Tuolumne Meadows area (Yosemite N.P.) in a couple of days to do some walking through the hills with Mom. We’ll be walking several miles a day and staying in the High Sierra camps in tent-cabins with cots and wood burning stoves with meals provided. When we did this same route 20 years ago I lost ten pounds.

the rarest of phenomenon

I was at a party over the weekend and I happened to be wearing my Sycamore Canyon trail race t-shirt. Someone commented on the shirt and a group of us got to talking about going for a run sometime – a sort of trail running club was formed. Now keep in mind, there was some drinking going on at this party and I’ve had my share of these drunken late night agreements that never pan out. Amazingly, though, running club actually happened this evening. Of course, only two out of the five showed up for it, but still… Mike (no nickname yet) and I ran up the El Prieto trail for a total of about 6 easy miles. It sounds like he’s done a fair amount of long distance running in the local mountains so he might be a good running buddy to push my limits. Hopefully we’ll run again sometime soon. As for the rest of the club members... well, we’ll see if they ever show up…

beach running

Barefoot running on the beach last weekend was awesome. I went 2 miles. I don’t know if this really counts as barefoot running because doesn’t everyone run barefoot on the beach… well, no, actually, it seemed most people were wearing shoes. I ran along the waterline in the harder sand. Dodging seaweed clumps added some agility testing to the route. It felt so liberating to be rid of the shoes and to be able to run right through the shallow water when I felt like it. Running barefoot felt very natural, animal. I loved it and can’t wait to try again on trails or grass – I’ll save the concrete for later or never. The only draw back is that now my calves are super tight – although that could be due in part to the sand running too and not just the bare feet.

Currently reading: The Golden Spruce - John Vaillant