Sierra

Sierra
Sierra

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Sunday, 03/04/12 Sanitas x 2

Up/Down S. Ridge

4.76 miles/2,517 vert./1:03:12/avg. HR 162  Garmin Data

Splits:  18:41/12:18/20:04/12:08

I skipped running yesterday, not because I felt as though I needed a day off, but because the wind was just too chaffing and annoying.  If I had the opportunity, I would have gladly gone for a run in the hills, but the prospect of pushing the double Chariot in that stuff was not appealing at all.  I did waffle all day though between gusts, "OK, it seems to be calming, I'll suit up and see what happens".  By the time I could think those thoughts though, the wind would gust again and I would come to my senses and realize that it would be no biggie to skip the run entirely.  I was just not at all into it.

So, with it being 65 today, I had to get outside, wind or no wind.

As I was driving to the Gregory lot after work for a lap on Green, I made a spur of the moment decision to head over to Sanitas, as I was lured by the sunshine, warmth and dry trails that I would find there.

I felt pretty sluggish and my legs had little to no snap, but put in an effort on the high side of moderate with a few surges on the low side of hard on my two ascents and just coasted the downhills for the most part.  I was also a bit over dressed, having planned on going over to Green and really wished that I had that clean pair of shorts I had been carrying around in my bag all Winter (and just removed last week, thinking I would not need them for a while).

It was really cool to run on dry trails and I realized that have almost forgotten how to run technical rocky, log steppy trail.  I also was reminded why I like Green much better, the lack of crowds, especially the Biffs and Buffys out there.  Caught up to one Biff fairly quickly and did the requisite throat clearing combined with a foot scuff or two.  With no reaction, I then said "on your left", nothing.  Noticing that he had ear buds, I figured he was rocking out and had no idea I was there, so I tried to sneak past on his left and ended up bouncing into him no less than 3 times in doing so.

I have no problem with earphones, I use them every once in a while on the trails if I am in the mood (maybe 5% of the time) and always on urban/flat runs, but I keep them turned waaaay down so I can still hear what is going on around me, or just keep one in my ear.  I secretly get a big kick out of scaring the crap out of those who are so self absorbed in their own little world and oblivious to those around them.  I often times cause people to about jump out of their skin (after a fair warning of course), even though efforts to be considerate almost always end up with the same result.

6 comments:

  1. I have been thinking about going over there in exchange for a Green too. Would be a good fitness test.

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  2. My favorite quote on headphones is the one time a coworker asked me if I wore them while running in the mountains. When I said I did on occasion, she shook her head and wanted to know how I would ever hear the mountain lion.

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  3. I worry more about rock fall, falling trees, rattlesnakes and bears, all things that I have had close encounters with on the trail. It does not really matter if you hear a Mt. Lion or not, you probably would not hear it either way, nor could you do anything about it.

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  4. Exactly why I want Tool blasting in my ears ... figured it might make the teeth sinking into the back of my skull go a little more quickly.

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  5. Wow GZ, that was an intense thought! Sanitas is in my back yard, but I too dislike the traffic. The dry trail is a treat though.

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  6. Like GZ, I had a dude in the Salida Marathon a couple years ago get all aggro to me about me wearing my headphones using the line, "You won't hear the mountain lion coming at you while wearing those things." That's some flawed logic there. Mountains lions hunt their prey quietly. I won't hear it coming either way, dumbass.
    While I do wear headphones while running sometimes, I'm always looking over my shoulder for up-and-coming runners and keep the level low enough that I can hear my surroundings a bit.

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