Friday Trail Run

 Huntington Beach is pretty flat.  Most of my runs have an altitude gain of no more than 100 feet.  So it goes without saying that my body isn't very used to hills.

Every 6 months or so I get it together to go for a run in El Moro Canyon.  El Moro is part of Crystal Cove State Park and is on the Coast Highway between Newport and Laguna Beaches.  In addition to the back country section, the park includes 3 miles of amazing beach.

Every time I've run here I get my ass kicked.  But then again, I'm climbing more than 14 times the elevation than I normally would find around home over the same distance.  I got my ass kicked again today, but I'm happy to say it was kicked a little less than last time.

I usually do just over 7 miles.  In the past, I would usually have to walk all the steeper pitches.  But today, I took a different approach.  On all of the uphill climbs (there are 3) I would run the steeper pitches and walk/recover on the shallower ones.  I figured this way, I was getting some good hill repeats in.

Despite the occasional pain, El Moro Canyon isn't a bad place to spend a late afternoon.  From the first time I came to California, I've always loved the chaparral and grassland covered coastal hills.  Today, I saw very few people, but did see a bunch of deer and a coyote.  Best of all, I didn't see any snakes.

Here are some pictures from the run -

I actually managed to run up this one...

 This is the start of a descent, but then I have to go up the other side.

View west down the canyon towards the ocean.

It wouldn't take much to convince me to live on that little peninsula.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.