I took the last two weeks off from running for a trip to South America. I packed my running gear, but there was so much to do that running took the back seat to drinking wine and eating beef. I don't know how the people of Argentina and Chile stay so thin since they have so much yummy food and wine and they consume it in USA-sized quantities. I know how Europeans stay slender: portion control. South Americans seems to eat big, eat late and drink all day. They have some miracle metabolic gene while I have a fatty-fatty-bombalaty gene. (I started posting trip stuff at: http://thirteenhourflight.blogspot.com/.)
This Saturday, it was time to pay the piper. I was a bit behind on my training calendar and needed to do an 8 miler. Since I hadn't run that distance in awhile, I decided to do the ultra-flat bay loop.
Here's the problem with doing the bay loop. It's boring. Buh-buh-buh-boring. When I'm driving to the bay, I can see the highway exit for my all-time favorite run in San Diego: Sunset Cliffs. From the name, you can deduce it's a hilly run with some 10-14% grades. Despite my distaste for hills, I cannot resist the beauty of that run.
It was a challenge, but I felt really good and ended up tacking on two extra miles. Felt good, but my quadriceps where screaming on Sunday.