Long drive West to begin a 16 month masters program in Southern California. Definitely not where I envisioned I'd be at this time as I was planning on staying in Southern New England for school, but saving a great deal of money through this program at California State University- Channel Islands. Getting to explore a new area is fun too, although I'd certainly prefer to be in the San Francisco, Portland or Seattle areas than greater Los Angeles.
Taking the week to make the drive out, also fun to see some neat spots on the way. I hadn't been further West than Minnesota since 2017, so it was nice to get to see more of the country than usual. Overall, I probably like the West Coast slightly more than the East. The East Coast has history, better public transit, and is quite developed. West Coast has far less major cities, but most of them are pretty nice and there's significantly more undeveloped beautiful land. From a running perspective, I think the road running and racing scene is in the East and the trail running and racing scene is the West. There are certainly exceptions to that, but overall there are very few competitive road races on the West coast and vice versa, few competitive trail races in the East.
That's the overall synopsis on the drive. I also used the opportunity to get two more highpoints- Iowa and Nebraska as they added little effort and weren't far out the way. Because this was significant traveling involving highpoints and some cool sights, I'll leave the bulk of the recap for a future highpoint post. So just basic details on each run to keep the weekly log going.
Monday: 13 Miles- Hickory Run State Park, PA
Massive state park. Good day to do a longer run as there was lots of explore. Moderately hilly, but overall fairly runnable and enjoyable trails. No deerflies! Not quite as nice as some other PA trails I've been on, but certainly a good system. Pennsylvania is definitely a great trail state, I'll have to make a ranking of that when I explore some more (#1= Colorado?). But Pennsylvania would rank higher than RI, CT, VT, and ME for me, just many more expansive trail systems. Probably not over MA and NH.
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| Park is known for a massive boulder field |
Tuesday: 7 Miles- Indiana Dunes National Park, IN
First run in Indiana and first visit to this national park. Rainy and very windy, but made a nice mostly road loop that was surprisingly very quiet. The general flatness, proximity to a large body of water (Lake Michigan) and lack of traffic reminded me a lot of coastal Westerly roads. Also got on a few completely non-technical trails which was nice. Good short run after some longer days.
Wednesday: 13 Miles- Minneapolis, MN
Dad met me here so it was nice to have someone else driving for some of it and someone to run with.
First visit to this city, and definitely left a good impression. Made a medium long route that was almost entirely in bike paths and parks, very impressive running network that I think only a few U.S. cities do better. Another ranking I'll have to do, but probably something like 1. San Francisco, 2. Washington, D.C., 3. Minneapolis. Tried a 3 mile tempo which turned into a 2 mile tempo at 5:40 pace + minute on/2 minutes off to finish out the last mile. Felt quite bad, really straining to hit that pace. Not a big deal but on the other hand, I just came out a sub-5:20 5 Mile race so it was surprising to struggle this much. The next bike path was a long flat section and running easy was just a struggle. Got super dehydrated, nice save with a water fountain at the end. I'll expand more on thoughts of the city and state in the highpointing post.
Thursday: 11 Miles- Lincoln, NE
Okay route. First visit to Nebraska, state #38 for me. Went out on a mostly nice crushed gravel path, although the urban scenery wasn't great and there was some cement in there. Middle miles were really cool through some typical woods on twisty but non-technical trails. Did not feel very urban. The last 4-5 were not so great as the path was all cement and then a busy road finish through a disgusting industrial area downtown. Dad embraced his Northeast brashness and was cutting off cars and running in the middle of the road, I opted for the more cautious and careful approach.
Friday: 12 Miles- Denver, CO
Really cool run on the outskirts of Denver. Ran through a really nice neighborhood, then the highlight of the run was through Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Lots and lots of non-technical gravel trails with the backdrop of the mountains 30 miles away. After a few miles, I started to have a lot of difficulty with chest/breathing, likely altitude related. Eventually I started to feel better but felt pretty heavy finishing up and took a harder than normal effort to run low 7s.
Saturday: 7 Miles- Red Rock Canyon, NV
First visit to Nevada, state #39. 7 mile run after racking up the miles last few days. I'll expand more upon this in the highpoint post, but this was a beautiful run and got really lucky post rainstorm with temperatures 20-30 degrees lower than usual.
Sunday: 14 Miles- Irvine, CA
Left on my own. Time to start building fitness to run some half marathons and eventually a marathon. Good place to start is the long run- 14 a manageable number for now and a good start to work off of. I was really concerned about hurricane warnings and about flash flooding if I drove out. But the warnings were for all day and the hotel I was staying was not in a good place for running. Mapped out a route from Colonel Bill Barber Park a few miles away and hoped the rain wouldn't be too severe.
This run was better than I expected. The rain and storm was quite mild, really just light rain or moderate and nothing by New England standards. But it drove everyone inside so I had the double benefit of empty paths and mild weather. The route was also quite nice, which surprised me in urban Orange County.
2 miles on a creek path. Essentially a paved bike path along a canal, there seem to be a lot of these in the area. When the path would intersect a road, you could choose to go to the outside path up to the road, or go under the road and the path would turn to cement and have a dip (short downhill then uphill to go under the bridge/road). It was kind of nice to not to have to cross busy roads, but at the same time it wouldn't work well for workouts to be constantly running those cement dips. A few miles on wide, non-technical trails that were pretty nice. Ran through a few parks and through UC Irvine, which was basically deserted and I was able to run in the middle of campus roads. Brief section where I did have to run on the sidewalk before crossing into another park. Was looking down and rolled my ankle really hard on a crack in the cement path. Thought I was done, but it was mostly okay. Felt really uncomfortable for about half a mile then just a little stiff. The rest of the run was on a few different paths, and unfortunately this part was a little busier with a few traffic stops and some cement sections. Last two miles a bit quicker sub-6:30. Good run, explored Irvine a bit more over the next few days and it seems like a nice city.
Weekly Total: 78 Miles
Movies Watched: Barbie
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