Fremont Older open space preserve(05/01/2010)

It was a good day for a lot of vitamin D and oxygen.
I was surprised that there was a open space reserve so close to where I live.
Fremont older OSP was located in south-west Cupertino.
About 10 minutes drive from home, somehow I've never heard of this place before.
It was quite easy to get there, just got on Prospect Ave
and headed west to the end of the road.
The parking was limited, but you could find a spot if you came early.
According to the map, we were planning to run the biggest loop,
approximately 9-10 miles.
Here was the list of the trails:
Cora Older Trail
Seven Springs loop Trail
Hunter's point
Hayfield Trail
Fern Trail
Vista Loop Trail
Steven Creek/Tony Look Trail
Coyote Ridge Trail
Hayfield Trail
Cora Older Trail
It was mid-spring, and we still caught some green here, it was gorgeous.
The run started with a little uphill on Cora Older Trail, it seems difficult for mountain bike rider, but fairly easy for runner to out run bikers during this 0.4 miles trail.


Cora Trail



Headed into forest on Seven Springs Loop Trail

When we got to the top, headed east on Seven Springs Loop Trail, to our surprise, it became downhill already. It was a single track, through a hardwood forest trail.
We caught a little breath here and then started to climb uphill again. This part of the trail
was under some kind of construction, needed to be careful about your steps here.


a little construction on the road, watch your steps.

From here, there was no shade at all. Can't imagine how hot it will be during the summer.
The climb was runnable but not short. I don't know if we didn't warm-up enough, or
the altitude was higher here, everyone started to gasp already. It was just around 2 miles
on my watch. Kai seems to struggle a little bit, and Yi said he felt weak on his legs.
Anyhow, we still managed to finish the hill and to the Hunter's point.


like tourist, we took a group photo here..




The view here was wonderful,  on one side you could see the whole preserve, and the other side, you could look down to the city.


City view

Felt like the run was over, but not yet. Still about 7 miles to go. We hydrated, and took a short break, some photos. Then kept going on Hayfield Trail.  The Hayfield trial was the main trail of the preserve, a big road cut through a large plain of meadow. It would be super beautiful if the grass was all green.


Hayfield Trail

If you could conquer the last section of uphill on Hayfield trial, there was another reward
for you, the Maisie's Peak , the highest point of the preserve. elevation 1200ft.
Well the scene was not breath-taking, but good enough to take a few deep breath,
and shouted : Yeah!!


The Maisie's Peak.




The map here started to get inconsistent with the sign from here, it took us sometime to find the entry point of the vista loop trail, and half way of it, we got confused by the trail
and didn't know which way lead to Steven Creak Trail.


Vista Loop Trail


So, we just went by instinct, and finally found a small entry point down a PG&E electrical tower, it was the Steven Creek Trail we were looking for.
Started from here, it was all single track, geen forest downhill trail. I really liked this trail,
it was all shaded, no sweat, connected with some little wood bridges, then, it opened up
to the Steven Creek Reservoir. The trail started to go along the lake for about 2 miles, the best part of the trail. I think if you were running the other direction, it won't be as much enjoyable as this one. We were just lucky to choose this direction.


Steven Creek Trail --1


Steven Creek Trail -- 2


Steven Creek Reservoir --1


Steven Creek Reservoir --2




The wider part of the Reservoir

When you saw this sign, it meant the fun was over, time to go home.


Fun was over, last 2.5 miles big uphill return.


Dry, rocky fireroad

The trail was wide and rocky, we need to watch out for few bikers who took a speedy downhill here. Maybe we were all tired, not much fun running on this trail.




A big tower by the road, looked scary




Yi was beat by the continuous uphill.


Kai looked pretty tired and walked his way up.

The climb was about 1 mile, elevation gain: 600 ft. It was the 5th hills we climbed that day.
The repeated up-and-down really killed us, even thought the distance was just still under 10 miles. I would say, this was a very good pre-race training route. It covered a lot of different terrain, and road conditions. Trained both our mind and endurance.


Last downhill back to Cora Trail and parking lot.

Well, we probably wouldn't visit here again for a while. Because the weather was getting
warmer. However, it was still a nice run. Every time we got beat or exhausted , we became
stronger and stronger. Of course, everyone got a lot of vitamin D today, right ?

The summary :

map



Summary


Elevation

--
Sent from my mobile device

Allison 之腳踏車的渴望

我們到Toys R Us 選腳踏車，順便玩三輪車

自從上次Aaron把腳踏車拿來我們家玩之後，Allison就念念不忘，吵著要腳踏車，
 還說一定要公主腳踏車，
小孩真的蠻奇怪的，你根本不知道她去哪裡看到過什麼公主腳踏車，總之，她就是知道她想要什麼，然後一天到晚找到機會，就要你買給她...

一天，我從公司拿回一個台灣寄來的包裹，裡頭是台灣的奶奶寄來的巧虎DVD還有貼紙，
所以我回到家之後，就很高興地說，Allison，有你的禮物耶，
正在興致高高玩黏土的Allison扔下手上的黏土，馬上衝到門口，說：爸爸，是腳踏車嗎？
昏倒，真的有那麼愛嗎？

我說，不是啦，是你喜歡的巧虎啦，她居然說，喔，然後頭也不回地又回去玩她的黏土.....

晚上，她終於有興趣來看看到底盒子裡頭是什麼東西了，她把整盒的巧虎DVD拿出來
一片一片地仔細看著，我還很好心地說，你趕快找一片，爸爸現在讓你看一次，
她說：可是我都找不到好看的耶
阿？你還知道什麼好看，什麼不好看喔，這個小鬼真的是...
 突然，她大叫一聲，爸爸，我找到了，這個很好看喔，我要看這個！
她很堅定地說，這一片一定好看，她一定要看，
好吧，我心想，反正一定是隨便挑一片...
結果拿來一看，天阿，原來她之所以一定要看這一片，是因為這一片的封面的巧虎DVD
有一隻兔子騎著腳踏車！

看來這個週末我們一定得買給她才行了。

Weekly Running Log -- San Antonio Ranch (04/24/2010)

 

As promised, our goal this weekend was to explore new route from San
Antonio Ranch to Black Mountain trail head.
Part of my sleep was replaced by the excitement which made me get up at 5:00am .
Felt like I have enough sleep already. So I just took my time to watch
one of Star Trek Voyager episodes again and also finished my breakfast without hurry.
By the time I was ready to head out, it was just 7:00am.
Not bad for an early start of the weekend.

Initially, I thought we could start off from Yi's place,
which we didn't need to worry about parking and just ran along the
Fremont Ave for 1.5 miles, entered the San Antonio Ranch via another side entrance.
Kai seemed to worry that it might be too far, and to run on the street was
not quite comfortable to him.
Somebody voted NO, then we'll just sticked to normal way of getting there.

It was 7:30am when we arrived, a "parking lot is full" sign was already there.
What !! 
This was new to us, even though we knew this was a very popular place,
but 7:30 in the morning !!  
Since when did the people passion about outdoor activity this much??
I didn't recall seeing any celebrity mentioned about this place on TV recently.
Anyway..
Well, in order not to waste our time to wait for a spot, we decided to
make a road side parking about a mile away from the entrance,
added some warm-up distance.
Very lucky, Yi found that there was a small trail along side the Cristo Rey Drive and 
 headed to the direction of the ranch, we jumped it without second thought.

 
started our run. 

 The trail was really easy to handle and it gave you a different view
of the scene , we've been here countless times, and never set foot on this trail before.
In the morning of the spring, blue sky,
green grass, breezed wind, it was like running in the movie .


beautiful trail.



a small pond.


into the ranch, and headed to parking lot. 

It didn't take long before we hit the ranch, there were even more cars
waiting for a precious spot. This was really crazy...


the parking lot full of cars, waiting to get a spot.

 
We made a short stop at the restroom, released some load, stretched,
then we hit the road, headed into the wood. With my music on, right
tempo could give you some lifts for the run. I just can't help smiling
and enjoyed the moment.




Wow, right after I took the picture, a deer just walked pass me !! 

It was about 0.9 mile to the Deer Hollow Farm, from there, we needed
to pass the gate and went straight into the valley.


Deer Hollow Farm

 
Kai started to lead.

It started with a slow uphill
and you could see some small birds and rabbits frequently running across the road.
And some people already made their way back to the exit. 
It went about 1 to 1.5 miles to a intersection. You could see a pond on the right hand
side.  It was pretty dry last time I came here, but now it became a really beautiful
pond !!





We turned right, followed the trail and started to go uphill. The
hill wasn't too steep to run, but enough to make you gasp a bit.
That's exactly what we were looking for. The variety of the road made
it more fun than just a flat paved one. That's why I preferred trail running
than road running, unless there were more girls on the road. :-P


uphill started here.


need to make a 180 left turn here.



the little blue dot was Kai.

I stopped couple times to take some photos, but I knew I could go straight
up without resting. It made me think back when I first saw the slope in Tilden Park few weeks ago. "Oh my God" was my only word in my head at that time.
I hoped  after several training runs in the future, I could have more confidence to face
that trail again.




Kai looked pretty strong today, he lead the pack most of the time.
I think he will be more confident about trail running after today.
Hopefully, he enjoyed the trail today, and joined us for the next race.

 

Finally,  we reached the end of the hill, it was a T junction. Now we needed
to make a left here , and it was a small ripple road, snaked around the
hill, very easy to cruise along , very breathable . With a 9 min/mile
pace , made it a perfect speed to enjoy the scene and also watched out
the rocks and cracks ahead.
When we were cleared out of the wood, cut through a green flat plain,
there it was, the trail head of the Black Mountain. About 5 miles from
where we parked the car. Nice jogging, guys.



the destination: trail head to Black Mountain summit.



Yi arrived.




As usual, we hydrated , refuel, the second half of happy ride home...
I think this route could be one of our favorite training routes, very
good distance and hill condition. For a half marathon race, this is a
good place to train on.


make our way back to parking lot.

Maybe, next time, we could run all the way to the summit of the Black Mountain.
That should be another fun trip !!

Summary:


Splits:



Elevation:

--
Sent from my mobile device

Weekly Running Log (0417 _2010)

Los Gatos Trail -- 10 miles running log

Saturday morning again, God knows why the time flies so fast when we are close to 40.
As usual, three of us got together for our routine training run. This
week, 10 miles easy run .
You might wondered, who decided how far we should run? In fact , there
is no such thing as training plan. The number is purely decided by the mood.
Easy pace is used to lure Kai to run with us the full course. Ever
since he got some soar knee, he just closed himself around 8 miles
distance for a long time. Of course, there is no pushing here .. After
all, it was our only healthy interest.

Maybe people were still in their spring break, it was really rare to
find a parking spot available in Campbell park, and today there were a
lot of them. One hand it was good for us to park closer, on the other
hand it seems quite lonely to run with such few people .

After some stretch, we headed into the trail as I leaded the pack.
Since I was the only one with the GPS watch, usually, it's me who controlled
the pace in the first half. I promised Kai that today would be a easy pace run,
therefore, I tried to make it around 9:10-9:20 speed in the beginning, with which
we could still chat.  Some experts did suggest runner should do some pre-run stretch after
about first 1 mile jog, it's better to stretch a warm body than a cold one. And what's more important is the post-run stretch, which could prevent some muscle injury. Well, we knew about this, but reluctant to follow.
Hey guys, this was very "unprofessional" !!
Wanna do it next time ?

Around the 2 miles marker, my body started to feel warm, and the tight feeling on my legs was gone. I started to speed up a little bit but still  keep an eye on Kai behind me and my watch. All of sudden, Yi was totally left behind for quite a distance. He might not have enough sleep last night, but I was not worry about him at all.
He must had fallen asleep with such a slow pace .ha ha ..

At the 5 miles marker, it was GU time, we all stopped, and refuel with GU gel . It was quite important to us, since we were all empty-stomach. GU gel was quite magical, you could feel it when it was taking effect.
We could run a 8:20-8:30 without gasping, or tiring legs. Plus, it was a little bit downhill on our way back, the gravity also helped to speed up.  

I knew it, when we were close 8 miles, Yi started to speed up , and even more in the last mile.
7:19 min/mile on my watch, I tried to keep up with him, even though my legs didn't agree..
Kai arrived around 1 min later, saying, didn't you say "easy pace" for today ?
Ha ha, sorry Kai ...


Compare to last year, our pace did improved by about 1 minute in average. We
used to run 9:50 min/mile , now it was about 8:45 during the first 2
miles warm up, and we could maintain about 8:20 to 8:30 cruise speed.
Push hard on the last 2 miles with 7:30 - 7:40

Now workout was over, it's breakfast time !! We went to try the new Subway breakfast this week
and you know what, it was pretty good and cheap!! Ever since McDonald won big in the breakfast war,
now, everyone jumped in to share the market. Burger King , Starbucks, and Subway...
To tell the truth, it was not something special at all, all they did was to put an egg into their subway sandwich
or you have a choice to change the bread to English Muffin.

This weekend, we'll shift the paved road to kick some dirt in San Antonio Ranch. There is a trail from San Antonio Ranch to Black Mountain. It should be fun. Stay tuned for the running report.
 
--
Sent from my mobile device

Tilden Park (Grizzly Peak) Trail Run -- 21km (04/10/2010)

Me at the check-in tent.

This is my second trail race of the year. I had a good excuse last time for dropping from 11 miles to 5 miles in Woodside Trail, Hepatitis A was really killing me, but this time, I am fully recovered,  I have to give all I could give. The success of running the whole PG&E trail in San Antonio Ranch  somewhat gave me a little confidence about tackling hardcore trail running.

"As long as I keep a steady pace, though slower, I might still manage

to the finish line without burning out all my fuel, or get a cramp

on my leg again" I said to myself.

The problem about the race is: sometimes, or I should say most of the

time people will get too excited and forget about

there is a long trail ahead with unknown condition. Haha I am one of

them. The result, as you could imagine, running will become walking and

finally got passed by a lot of people. That will be quite frustrated ..

So, my goal this time is : steady pace, don't get too crazy, and try to keep running. Shouldn't be too hard . I guess.

Back to the race day. I got up around 4:30AM, still quite sleepy.

I checked in all my gear, had a light breakfast, and headed out right away.

It was a clear sky but the wind was blowing hard.

5:30AM I picked u Yi at his place and headed north.

It was still very dark outside ,but I like this kind of feeling, smell like an excited adventure.

6:40AM, after about 1 hour drive on HWY 880 and turned into HWY 80, the stupid GPS wanted us get on to Hwy 24. The map must be too old, Yi told me.

So we totally ignored the robotic sound from GPS and continued HWY 80 until

we hit the exit : Bucknan Ave

The winding road took us into a residential area with a very steep climbing.

My impression about Berkeley and Oakland was really bad from the TV news lately,

so I was kind of at the edge of my seat, and watched out for any movement outside.

To my surprise, it was a pretty good neighborhood, beautiful and quiet,

Within 10 minutes we found out way out and the entrance of the park was on the

left of the road.

6:55AM.

The cloud was darker here and the temperature dropped to 50F. It was not as cold

as the CIM race. But this unseasonably cold and humid, I still needed to continue moving to keep warm.

7:30AM race started right on time. Yi will transform to a non-stop train after the race starts.

and I was right about him. After about 10 minutes, he was out of my sight totally..

Who said "I am going to take it easy today, and take more pictures..."

I just can't keep up with his "easy pace" at all..

The trail condition was not good (it is a trail running, what do I expect)

About 2 minutes after we started, there was a big muddy section right in the middle

of the trail. I hesitated for about 2 seconds about where to land my foot, and all the people behind me already passed me and went forward without any delay.

What the hell was I doing, I came here to get dirty, not kept clean!

No second thought, I followed the crowd and headed forward.

Wet shoes on the steep climb trail, not a very pleasant feeling, the steady pace strategy didn't work at all, it became steady walk and then slowly walk and I was gasping for breath already. Where did all my endurance go ?

It seems forever to get to the top of the long hill, on the first short downhill, I finally could catch some breath, but right at the moment, I found I lost one of my power gel.. Oh my God ..

I was planning to enjoy my seasonal limited edition vanilla gingerbread GU for the returning route, looks like I had no choice to get to it now...

To the top of the hill , snapped some pictures , and also got passed by three people ..

Around 4 miles, I reached the first top, and followed by a steep downhill to the aid station.
600 ft drop in 0.5 mile ! It was kind of slope you wished you wouldn't need to climb back again.
When I was descending, I really prayed for not coming back from here on my return, and what do you know,  my dream "came true", a really bad one.

 
The bottom of the first V is the aid station.



somewhere on the trail

I didn't remember how did I wander to the second top of the hill , but when I saw the beautiful view
there, I almost forgot about my shaking legs and hunger. It was dark gray color background , but with some imagination, I could realize how beautiful it is when the sky is clear.


San Pablo Reservoir on the left, and Briones Reservoir on the right.

Then, it was the happy time , around 2.8 miles easy downhill, I could finally smiled and enjoyed my speed up for the first time in this race !!
However, the happiness didn't last long,  when I saw the aid station again, I knew the bad dream started . "This is the last hill, and after that, it will be all downhill to the finish line" The guy said.
It was "the" hill, I just almost tumbled down.

There were 4 people at the aid station and we took off together after a quick refuel with the snacks.
I followed a guy on my way up and kept my focus on his feet, and the two girls ahead just talked their way up to the top, then disappeared. Again, gasping for air , more air, even with my headphone on, I could still hear my heartbeat bumping loudly.


The last 4 miles downhill seems never end, turn after turn, up and down, down and up, I was all by myself, and at one moment I felt like I was lost. Then I found the ribbon again and a sign said "To the finish line" . I was relieved. Finally, I saw the familiar mud and ran right though it, and back to the paved road again. Finish line !!


my running through finish line moment and Yi was taking photo for me.


The finish line.

Final time, 2:41:05 on my watch, and another beautiful view of the race -- post race snacks!!



my steady pace strategy failed, but I didn't get a cramp on my legs !! Not very happy with the time, but at least I reached one of my goals. So, where is the next race ?