I left home at around 6:30am weighing 144.0 lbs and with a
resting heart rate of 50 bpm. Instead of driving to Mission
Peak, I parked the car on the nearby quarry lakes staging
area. After one kitkat and 24oz of water, at 6:45am, I got
on the Alameda Creek trail heading to Mission Blvd. I have
always wanted to run to MP and today is the day.
Off the trail and onto Mission Blvd, the road was in great condition and mostly
empty. I faced the traffic and ran in the well-marked bike
lane at my leisure pace. I passed a senior care center, some
new homes, then the Fremont central park (Stevens Blvd),
Mission San Jose High School, a church, and arrived at the
Ohlone college trail head. It was a peaceful 7.6-mile and it
took me 75min.
I did notice trees. Along the stretch from Niles to the college,
most were sweet gums whose leaves provided welcoming
shades and whose hard balls I needed to avoid stepping on.
There were willow-leafed red-barked trees which looked kin
to eucalyptus and their trunks always looked as if had just
survived a wild fire. Oak trees were not many and I hate
acorns on the path. Passing 680, one started to see tall
palms along the road reaching majestically into the sky. And
finally one ran into graceful olive trees on the college campus,
whose fruits I learnt to respect (the olives in brine can cause
上火, big time, if over-eaten, say, more than 12).
I had 12oz water (I should have the 2nd kitkat here) and started the climb at 8:00am. My glutes
were strong enough to propell me upward and keep up with a
runner. But the prior run did have some impact and it felt
different from the first ascent last week. Today's cloud was
higher and engulfed the summit. The climb took me one hour. I
had water and the second kitkat on the peak and lingered for
14min. The climbing-down was worse than the first but better
than the second descent last week. And I had another 12oz water
and the last kitkat before running back. The time was 9:45am.
The sky cleared up and the sun was beaming down. I run
mostly on the pavement, fully aware of the traffic now. It was
painful. My plantar fasciitis felt bad, reminding me to use
the glutes more. The good thing was that it was a gradual
downward slope and I was able to speed up a little. Before
the bridge over the creek, while waiting for the green
light, I did some stretching (trying to reach my toes) and
that seemed to slightly improve the PF.
I crossed the bridge and took the unpaved north side. It
was the toughest 2.8 miles I have run this year. My feet
hurt and they hurt like hell when I stepped on sharp pebbles.
But I kept breathing, scanning my body, reminding myself
to ignore the pain and enage the glutes. I skipped the water
hole near the Niles Community Park and reached my car
at 11:00am. It took me exactly another 75min to run the
7.6 miles back.
My new weight was 142.8 lbs. My posterior chain, from
the butts to the toes, was tight and needed stretch. So
after a quick shower at home, I did 10 Surya Namaskar. It
felt great and I started to gulp whatever I can lay my hands
on in the kitchen. I had one cookie, some spam, one beer,
one unknown expired cake and one can of sardines, and
arrived at Starbucks at 11:50am for my morning coffee.
The beauty of this kind of exercise is that one knows one
comes out a winner, finish or die (figuratively) trying. One
does not need rave reviews from peers, approvals from
bosses or certificates from the government. One does not
need to do it to better the the collective, e.g., a nation, the tribe,
or the family, although they do benefit from the individual's
effort. Doing it gives one peace and it's beautiful by itself.
No one else has to know about it; neither can they take it away.
