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.
