Can I bottle this weather?

Today was my triple header of hill runs - two 10 mile loops of the Ladera Norte monsters, with 5 miles of the Bull Creek trails inbetween. I got to the dogpark at 5am and met up with Roger, Stephanie and David for road loop number one. The temperature was wonderful - perfect for running - and there was a cool breeze blowing. What a difference a week makes!!! It was one of those days that I felt really strong - we set a lively pace, took the uphills in our stride and made hay on the flats and downs.

We got done in good time for the trail portion and were joined by Marcia, Gabe, Janice, Jeff F and Robert. I hadn't seen Jeff F in a while and it was great to catch up with him.

I knew when I left the house that I had forgotten something, and it turned out that something was my trail shoes. The trails were pretty slippery after all yesterday's rain, and I held back a little because I was slip sliding all over the place in my road shoes. Nevertheless it was a good run and broke up the road sections wonderfully.

The last loop of 10 miles road was down to me, Roger and Stephanie - and by the end it was just Stephanie and myself. We hadn't run together very much, so we had a great time chatting and getting to know each other. She shared some great stories about her time living in London, in particular a trip to a "traditional sports" festival in the Cotswalds (I still can't believe they had a "shin kicking" contest - that's hilarious).

I felt so strong for all of this loop, which really surprised me. I just didn't get tired today, and took on some of the monster hills - even managing to run most of the way up Smokey Valley (which made my day). I guess hill running is like anything else - the more you do of it, the better you get.

So I was very pleased with my weekend - 42 miles of good hilly running. To top it all off, when I got home Nancy had made some of Ashlee's lemon yogurt cake which was super yummy and really hit the spot (though I suspect it was partly a bribe to get me going on the "honey do" list).

Whatever, it was a nice end to a fine weekend.