Middle-Aged-Man

Pano on top of Grass Mountain

The day after Thanksgiving is a perfect time for a hike. I asked our friends the Avery’s to go on a hike. So, Romina and Jim with their son Jordan joined me. As well, my wife Teri and our daughter’s boy friend Ryan went. Of course my goofy dog, Chip had to go. We left the house at 9:00 am and drove over in two cars. My dog was so excited to go he was a real pain in the car.

We did the hike, for me. It was nice and not difficult. I had numbness in my left foot. I think my clothing including my socks are too tight, it may be that I need to loose some weight.

Overall we all had a good time, when we finished we headed out to eat some Mexican food.

Today I got out on a hike with my friend Rich Coulter. He is like me and trying to improve his health and has a goal to hike Mt Whitney later this year.

We got out early and I picked him up at 6:30 at his house. We traveled to to South Fork Camp at the base of the San Gabriels and did a three mile hike up and back to the Devil’s Chair which is at the top of the Devil’s Punch Bowl. For a total of just over six miles.

My dog Chip came with us and he was so excited to get out and get on the trail. Chip loved running around in the streams, while we tried not to fall in.

Devil's Chair inside the Devil's Punchbowl

In my mind I set July 1st as the day I could return to running. I tore my right calf muscle playing softball on May 22nd. I thought I was healing well and re-injured it when in Las Vegas on the treadmill. At work my fitness partner, Tracy gave me an article that convicted me. Summed up, to lose belly fat (the thing I hate the most about my body) is to have calorie deficit by doing activities that include intensity X duration X frequency. I was convicted, I do my steps each day an average of about 16,000 but, I like to eat and drink. I was convicted, because I do not have much intensity or duration or frequency. I hang my head in shame. So, to offset this I set in my mind to increase my activities for this month. I am working on a list of things that I would like to do. I have two goals to run a 5K on August 2nd and enter a Splash and Dash or it is a 1/4 mile swim followed by a 5K. i am not sure of the date of the event. My pastor and his wife are doing it, so I thought I would like do it as well.

This morning, I got up, stretched, drink a small cup of juice and ran from the house to the light pole at Avenue H, and returned, by stopping at Starbucks as a reward. A new Starbucks had just opened yesterday by our house. Overall the running was 1.94 miles. This is the first run since my injury. I started to get a side stitch, but pressed on. Average speed of a 10:10 pace. Not bad for two months off.

I returned to the house to change into my cycling clothes and rode almost 22 miles. I wanted to get out before the heat came up. My leg felt like it had small cramp, but did not hurt. I managed to ride at average speed of 17.2 miles per hour.

Overall I was not disappointed so far in the day. Here are some results from motionbased.

I have been trying to become a runner, but I am not alone. My wife has been running. She has started after me, so she is trying to get up her distance.

Teri is a more natural runner, her stride is smooth and natural. It will be a matter of time until she passes me.

Tuesday night is our night to go to Joe Walker Middle School to run. Normally, Tracy will join us and we will meet up with the High Desert Runners. This day, no Clay from HDR, nor Tracy she is healing from an ankle sprain.

Teri wanted to extend her distance, so we walked two laps to warm up. Each lap is 400 meters (or 1/4) mile. We ran 1/2 mile and walked 1/4. Then run 3/4 mile and walked 1/4 mile. We ran the last two laps or 1/2 mile at a much faster pace. Teri kept kicked up her pace and finished well.

I did not run Monday, so I wanted to sprint on the last lap. The test for me is to start at the right moment and not bonk before the end. I did well (for me). When I sprint, is the time that I feel like a runner. It is contagious.

I work for an large aerospace company in the Antelope Valley. They have recreation clubs for us the employees, and one club that I am a member of is the Hiking Club. Kevin is the commissioner and he set up this hike. There were about dozen folks, (only two women, my wife Teri and Tracy) came out for this hike.

I was very excited to see my wife join me hiking. We planned a hike with Tracy and her husband Sean, next month to climb Half Dome in Yosemite. That will require some fitness training, so this hike will help prepare us for Half Dome.

We arrived at the parking lot at 8:00, met up with the others and was on the trail at 8:30. The trail was maintained well and it was a good hike.

The weather was cool at the bottom, due to some thin fog. It warmed up, but did not seem too warm.
This hike climbs 1500 ft in four miles on the forested north slope of Strawberry Peak. Beginning at the trailhead parking lot at Big Tujunga Creek, the trail switchbacks up, sometimes steeply, through mostly shady slopes to reach a scenic lookout over Wickiup Creek before following the ridgeline into the potrero.

Strawberry Potrero is a sandy, forested basin in the shadow of Strawberry Peak, and will serve as our destination for the hike. It is a good location to admire the high granite wall above that forms the north face of Strawberry Peak.

After a long break at the top we came down. Tracy with camera in hand, took some great photos, she uploaded them to flickr, Tracy’s Pictures. The bad news is that Tracy rolled her right angle. I did not realize how badly she was hurt. It has swollen and she most likely need stay off it for a few day.

I am involved in the Wellness Challenge at work and Jeff who is running it, but together a hike up to Mt Rosamond. It is only 15 minutes from the house. It was a really small hike, only three miles round trip and 600 foot elevation gain. I expected to see a handful of folks from work, but only Jeff, Tracy and Sean joined in for the hike. I wish I would have brought my dog, he would have loved it!

I wanted to take out the high school boys from church to get them out and create a better relationships with them. I scheduled this hike about five weeks ago. I did not realize that this weekend was Easter and we would have the Wednesday before off from the high school group. Making it hard to promote. That was true; not one kid joined me. I headed by myself to Bayen-Powell. I got geared up and headed up the trail. There was a lot of snow and the trail, and I was not sure of the trail path. Since I was hiking by myself it was not smart to continue, so I left and called Teri that I was changing plans and would hike from South Fork Campground to the Devil’s Chair.

The hike at South Fork was great. The weather was super. I was alone but did see another hiker and did meet three college students. I took plenty of pictures and listened to my Ipod the whole way.