At 10 a.m. today, I ran from the trailhead at Wendy and Potrero in Newbury Park up to the Danielson Monument and old cabin site.  Generally I prefer to run early in the morning but my wife needed some extra sleep today so I ran later.  It is definitely getting warmer out there but there was some light ocean breezes in the trails.

This is roughly a 7 mile round-trip trek and it took me an about an hour, 32 minutes up and 28 minutes back.  Some of the trails are a little overgrown but overall it wasn't too bad.  Butterflies and lizards were out in force today.  In fact a baby lizard ran with me for about 20 steps as he decided to veer off the trail.  There were only about 2 dozen people total on the trail today so it was nice and quiet.

I run at a decent clip.  For many of you, assuming you run the whole way, this would be about an hour and a half run.  If you hike the trail, it is more like 3 hours. Details at THIS LINK.

I was out of gas at the end of the run today. This is a challenging run because it involves a lot of hills.  The net elevation climb is 1200 feet but I suspect the total climb, factoring in downhills is a lot more. Courses like this are great for building endurance, strength (uphills) and speed (downhills).  Lots of rocks and turns though so be careful!

There was shade along a decent section of the trail today but overall it was pretty warm.  There are some areas, particularly near the stream crossing, with poison oak to watch out for.  I didn't carry water with me as I knew it would only be an hour, but I'd recommend bringing some.

Now go on, stop reading this blog, get out there and start RUNNING!