Weekly Running Log -- Shoreline park (05/08/2010)

From time to time, we would go back here to run again.
The shoreline park, which was our origin of running. Everything about
running started here.
I could still remember how I finished my first 3 miles in shaking legs
and begging for air in this trail and couldn't barely walk for the rest of the week.
This is one of my favorite spot to run in bay area.
In order to take our legs out of back-to-back weekend's trail run, we
decided to come back here again, just to relax, enjoyed the sun, fresh air ,
and of course, the amazing scenery.
It was hard to imagine this park was built on tons of trash. Now, it is a paradise for wild life
and of course the runners.



Took off

Our starting point was actually north-west of the shoreline park, it should be called:
Palo Alto Bayland Park. The parking was much easier here than it was in the Shoreline Park.
I guess that's the only reason we started from here..



It was early May, there were still some flowers along side of the trail. After June, it will be all dry and yellow, plus, there was no where to hide from the sun here. Unless you are trying to do some heat training, I'll think twice if I want to come here in summer.





Somehow, there were not too many birds today, it was unusually quiet. I guessed sometime back in winter, there were thousands of birds here, and it was so noisy that you needed to talk louder to hear each other.





When you saw this bridge, it was about 2 miles.

Our routine route was from park lot on San Antonio Rd, went around the Palo Alto airport
and back. Total about 9 miles. All flat road, no ups and downs. The only thing needed to worry about was bird dumps. Sometimes, they would cover the whole road and you needed to be very careful of your steps.


Bay view



the pole array, I wonder what they are used for.





turn right headed to natural center.


Airport.





Started from here, there was all paved road. We needed to run on the road side until
we passed the golf court. Most of the time, there were very few cars on the road, it was pretty safe.


golf court





Because of I was busy taking photos, I didn't notice I was left far behind. This kind of stop-and-chase felt like I was doing some tempo run. It was definitely not easy at all.
In the end, I had to shout and called the guys to wait for me.. Ha ha...what a shame.


The goose and the chicks.



Athlete Center


There was a bike trail head at the corner of the Athlete center Parking lot.

From here, we could go around the golf court and the air port.



golf court was on the right.




passed the airport.


another side of the airport.


Natural Center




the board walk stretched into the bay.


Kai arrived.






don't know what they were talking about.


old boat house.


return to parking lot.




Kai finished.

Summary:



After the run, we decided to go to McDonald for breakfast. Well, not very tasty though.
I guess Subway was better . Next weekend will be ING bay-to-breaker. I'll see if we could still mange to do a trail on Saturday since Kai didn't register this year...
I prepared some funny hat to wear this year, it should be fun!! 












--
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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。