Carlsbad Coastal Run

08/08/08. Crazy eights. Today is the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing (北京), China. I'm looking forward to the swimming events, the diving, some of the track and field, some of the cycling (I dig that pursuit event) and, of course, the distance running. I woke up late again today to the sweet, sweet sounds of a silent house. I love vacation. I decided to run about 5 miles today. I walked from our vacation house to the corner of Tamarac Rd. and TSoMN. I did a little stretching and queued up the Dark Designs Podrunner mix, about which DJ Steve Boyett says, "After luring you in with some nice opening tracks from Deep Forest and Absolute, it becomes a mostly tribal mix that will push you along with some serious percussion." True dat. I particularly like the Absolute track, "Dance Music Programme (Pogano in Heaven Mix)." The percussion of the tribal portion of the mix does, indeed, provide a good beat for a good run. After stretching a bit, I headed south along TSoMN. There were quite a few runners out this morning. My legs felt really good today, probably because of all the swimming in the ocean I've been doing. I fell into a nice cadence in time with the music. After a brief downhill, the long uphill began. I attacked the hill with gusto, passing a few runners on the way up. I maintained the same pace when I crested the hill. After a few hundred yards, the terrain turned into a long downhill. The bottom of the hill would be about 2 1/2 miles, so I picked that as my turnaround spot. I spied a public restroom near the beach and took advantage (whew!). The first part of the route back was the uphill side of that long hill. The music of the Podrunner mix helped push me up the hill. I focused on the traffic light at the top of the hill and chugged up at a good pace. I kept up that pace along the top of the bluff, and then began the descent down the other side. At the bottom of the hill, there is a slight uphill to the finish at Tamarack Rd. A female runner who was running toward me stopped and did her turnaround about 200 yards ahead of me. Great! A bunny! Unfortunately, I passed her pretty quickly. I picked out a walker who was only a short distance from the traffic light. I turned it up to 11, and reached the light just before the walker. Boo ya! I did some stretching and walking, and then headed home. We drive back to Phoenix tomorrow morning. I'm sad to be leaving Carlsbad, but at the same time, I'll be glad to get home. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 0 ft Location: Carlsbad, CA Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 08/08/08 Up/Downhill: [+0/-0] Time: 07:22 AM Difficulty: 0 / 5.0 Weather: Overcast with Haze 70 F temp; 81% humidity 70 F heat index; winds Calm Performance Distance: 5.19 miles Time: 0:45:43 Speed: 6.8 mph Pace: 8' 49 /mi Calories: 846 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 30 -0' 19 7.0 +0.2 -- ft 2 8' 44 -0' 05 6.9 +0.1 -- ft 3 13' 18 +4' 29 4.5 -2.3 -- ft 4 9' 02 +0' 13 6.6 -0.2 -- ft 5 8' 40 -0' 09 6.9 +0.1 -- ft end 8' 24 -0' 25 7.1 +0.3 -- ft Versus average of 8' 49 min/mile

Posted from runtracker.runnersworld.com