Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve

Last week was a cut back week in my marathon plan so I hit the hills on my 10 mile long run at Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve in Woodside, California. I never get used to how beautiful the trails are in the San Francisco Bay and if you are willing to brave the elevation changes the rewards are great.  The preserve is located on the western side of the Santa Cruz Mountains and you can even see the ocean from the northern part of the preserve. I ran down the Harkins Ridge Trail to the Bay Area Ridge and Craig Britton Trail down into the base of the canyon to the Purisima Creek Trail and then back up the Harkins Ridge Trail.  I stopped to take pictures every few miles because it was so beautiful but the poor white balance on my iPhone dulled the bright green of all the trees so just imagine everything much more saturated than this.  It was pretty slippery with mud in some places, I look forward to coming back when it hasn't been raining so I'm not slipping and sliding down the hills.

 

Weekly Mileage 9/8/13 / Wunderlich

9/3- 4 miles
9/4- 6 miles
9/6- 3 miles
9/8- 10 miles

Total: 23 miles

I ended my mileage this week with a beautiful 10 mile trail run in Wunderlich County Park in Woodside, California.  I definitely did some walking on the way up as it was a pretty even split of 5 miles uphill and 5 miles downhill with an elevation change of 1591 ft.  Good practice for those Big Sur hills!  I caught a root again on the downhill and banged up my knees pretty good- we'll see how they feel tomorrow.  The view was worth it:

Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve Trail Run

Yesterday, I ran 8 miles on a trail in the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve with Run365, a local running club.

It was a little colder than I expected, because my brain still hasn't grasped the concept of the San Francisco Bay Area microclimates, and I was underdressed for the Oakland hills and the fog that surrounded them. I strapped my Vibram Bikilas onto my water belt because I had not run barefoot on a technical trail in over a year and wasn't sure how my soles would hold up. The entire two hours we ran through a blanket of thick fog that hid the vistas as we ran along ridges with steep drop-offs.

There were a variety of surfaces- from packed dirt with layers of dry leaves to mud to rocks.  The dirt and mud were easy as pie and even fun to run on but the rocks left my arches pretty bruised and made me question whether more than 8 miles barefoot on these type of trails was something I even wanted to do.  I love trail running and am going to need to find a balance with possibly training in minimal shoes while running some trails and still getting in barefoot mileage on sidewalks and roads and paved trails. As with most trail running in the Bay area, it was hillier than the moderate hills I usually run on in my neighborhood - we had an elevation change of about 1000 ft. but the beautiful surroundings and chatting with running partners made the miles go by quickly and easily.

I'm not sure we were actually trespassing here, as this sign was on the road gate and not on the pedestrian one.  Either way, I can assure you we weren't a band of jerks littering the watershed with Gu packets. I don't eat Gu anyway.

Pictures of my feet about 3 miles into the run and again after I drove home.

Photos courtesy of my friend Dolores N., a pacer with the RUN365 group.