Day One of conditioning . . . or Blah!

Just now getting a chance to sit and write about this a little after the fact.

Okay so it was time to get things moving. I live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles and was hoping to find a few local trails to do some conditioning hiking just to get my base back. (Did I mention it has been a minute since I have done any thing you can call hiking.) So of course I jumped online as everyone does these days to find some likely suspects. I was very fortunate to find a great trail just few minutes away on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The trail is called the Crenshaw Extension Trail and Portuguese Bend Overlook. The Trail head is just down Crenshaw passed the Del Cerro park parking lot. It is a fire road that seems pretty well maintained. It starts with a long decent so you can get the hard stuff out of the way right off the bat. Everyone knows man was meant to go up hill right? I've seen varied distances on a couple different sights but, it is about 1.6 miles and I think it makes a good down and back. Link to trail information here: http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/PalosVerdes_4472.asp

The was to find something close that I can do regularly around six miles long. If I do this trail twice it's a little over six and I also get some decent elevation gain. It looks like it's about 350 feet over the less than a mile. It will get your heart pumping and wake up your legs.

I decided to try it out Sunday, January 18, 2009. I told Scott and Mike P. I was going to start around 8:00 am if they wanted to join me. Well, Mike P. had gone out the night before and wasn't up for any real, moving, breathing, or anything else. Scott had decided to go snowboarding the lucky bastage the day before. (Bastage, not a real word I know but, you get the idea.) And when I talked to him later he had hit the trail that afternoon instead on his mountain bike with his lady. So, I set out on my own.

When I arrived at the trail head it was a clear morning and about 53 degrees Fahrenheit. It seemed cooler with the slight breeze. I was wearing shorts, a cotton t-shirt and a fleece zip-up. It was perfect, or so I thought. I also had decided to start breaking in the new trail shoes. Being an old trailhound, I of course, forgot my sun glasses, hat and water bottle at the house. Okay, I was a little excited to get out and move in the world.

I stretched and set off. By the end of the first quarter mile I as already feeling my shins starting to ache and had shed the fleece. I saw many people on the trail coming and going. It appears to be a popular trail by hikers, runners, and a few mountain bikers. It wasn't crowded and saying hello to others on the trail helped pass the time. Before I knew it I was at the bottom of the trail and had only to make the short climb at the far end to Barn Owl lookout. Once I got to the lookout point I rested just long enough to check out the view and started back.

Okay, the hike back was a little more work, being almost all up hill back to Del Cerro. Without water it was a bit more uncomfortable than I was hoping. Legs were tired and I could drink a river dry but, it was all good for a first day back on a trail. No blisters and the new shoes were very comfortable. I did notice a little rubbing on my right ankle so I'll have to try a different sock next time.

I had promised my Honey (Crystal) that I would accompany her to a bead show that afternoon so I needed to get back and shower. The shower felt great and I figured the walking at the bead show would help keep my legs from getting too tight. I was right about that but, boy my feet were tired after four hours more of walking and standing.