Boring title, I know. But, there are things that are completely unrelated that need, NEED to be discussed that are on both. So, I went for safe and boring.

Yesterday, I went on an exploratory run. I started from the Big Meadow trailhead and headed south on the Tahoe Rim Trail. Instead of continuing toward Round Lake, at the meadow, I veered off to the left and headed toward Scott's Lake. What a beautiful trail! Nice runnable grade, beautiful trees and views. The only disturbance in the morning was the sound of my stentorian breathing. 

The lake itself isn't much of a lake any more after a few years of drought; the level has dropped dramatically from its past height, but hoofing around in the dried and cracked mud bottom was kind of fun. Also, at this time of the year, I had the place to myself, which is always a bonus.

After looping the lake, I saw a double track leading off and up. Being the curious sort, I followed it to where it dead-ended. I'm glad I did. The point provided spectacular views of Hope Valley. Some photos below, and the full set available here.

Happy birthday Dad. Today would have been your 81st birthday, had cancer not screwed things up back in March. I think of you every day, and you are still the guide against which I measure myself as my kids' father. "What would Dad have done?" is always the first thing I think of when presented with a parenting problem.

The 21st is also International Nacho Day. Whaddya know?

I was inspired this past week by Turi, who struggled and persevered though a grueling (but beautiful) marathon he had absolutely no business participating in. As a result of that inspiration, I decided to do three things: two of which I shouldn't have done. The bad twosome happened Sunday: (1) I ran a trail 10-miler, and (2) I ran with a group. 

The trail upon which this all occurred is a fave: the Little Valley trail to Dardanelles Lake. In the not-too-distant past, the distance would have been pleasant. Not this time. I struggled. Hard. Which made item (2) relevant, as everyone was waiting for DFL*-Me to first make the lake, and second, make it back to the car (I drove.). Sorry folks for being a major poke. 

The third thing I did, I did on Wednesday. I ran a race. It wasn't organized as such, and I was the only participant. I followed a well trod route in town (the V&T Lasso) which is a 4-miler with an itty-bitty bump of a hill in the middle. I ran for time just as if it were a race. Boy, THAT hurt. 

My pre-bike crash PR time is a 9:02 pace. Not speedy, but for a slogger like me, respectable. The last time I tried it was two weeks ago and I barely broke 12 min/mile. My goal this time around was to break 10. I'd been training, and the ribs and lung and clavicle all are greatly on the mend.

I pushed hard and lo, and behold, I finished with a 9:46 pace. Thanks Turi! And thanks to the human bunny that was in front of me. She was cruising easily, I was pushing hard. I never caught up, but the target made me run harder.

Below, a few snaps from Sunday. Full set.

* DFL - Dead Fucking Last

Great news for the amateur star-gazer or anyone interested in anything outside the local planetary system. A planet has been discovered orbiting our closest stellar neighbor. Designated Alpha Centauri Bb (so named because it is orbiting the start Alpha Centauri B, and planets are designated with lower case letters beginning with "b"), the planet is roughly 1.13 times the size of Terra. 

Unfortunately, the planet is very close to the star (only 4 million miles, compared to our 93 million) so cannot support life as we know it. Oh, and its year is about 3 days. Dizzying, as it revolves!

Anyway, there is more information here. If you were planning a visit, despite it being only 4.3 light years away, our fastest probe ever would take approximately 75,000 years to get there. Kind of gives the size of the neighborhood some perspective, doesn't it?

So my daughter is finally getting turned on to reading! She's devoured the Hunger Games trilogy (devoured, heh), and is looking for new stuff. She's also discovered she really enjoys astronomy. I'm thinking of getting her a classic Heinlein: "Tunnel In The Sky" that I read many years ago, but regardless if she likes it or not, I'm going to need more. Anyone out there have recommendations? I know a few librarians read this... 

While I was out investigating a new trail, and reacquainting myself with the whole exercise and movement thing, I thought about a few terms that make sense to me with regard to running, and trail running in particular. 

Everyone knows what a zombie is, especially these days with zombies getting pretty decent billing in some major movies. There are zombies in the running world too. They are classified as such:

Zombie: A runner who is "back from the dead" and recently back in action, but not yet to pre-zombie form. There are at least two subsets of zombies as well:

1. Injury Zombie: A person who is coming back to life after an injury. I classify myself as an injury zombie at the moment.
   
2. Couch Zombie: A person who is coming back to running life after too long on the couch, for whatever reason.
   

After stumbling a few times on the trail, I thought of a few more:
Obstacle: something that impedes normal running motion. These are the metaset. They include fallen trees across the trail (e.g., Ash Canyon Creek Trail after the windstorm last fall) that you have to scramble over, ginormous rocks, whatever. There are subsets though: 

• Rockstacle: Any obstacle that is of a rock. A subset of these are rockodiles, which are those that specifically bite at your ankles in a sometimes-successful attempt to trip you. A prime example of Rockodile trail is either the start of Centennial (which I've dubbed the Rockodile Highway) or the middle 1.5 miles of the Echo Summit to Lake Aloha trail.
  
• Dogstacle: A dog that is running with you that suddenly simply must stop and sniff, thereby blocking the trail. Sometimes known as a Trail Pig. Gino of Gino's Jaunt trail fame falls into this category. Often.
  
• Stumpstacle: Visible or not, a stumpstacle is a bit of chopped off vegetation in the trail that does it's damnedest to plant your face (or any other non-sole-of-the-foot) on the trail.
  

But not to distract from the run, it was pretty good. Farthest I've gone since my injury, so that was a positive. I got to tread new territory, which is also a positive. The new trail is going to be epic when complete. Here is a few snaps of the part I sneaked onto:

Can't wait until it's complete. It's going to be great!