fremont-older

Medusa style

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Okay, so, you're casually working away, knowing you're practicing your talk tonight and have some work that needs completing today, and the project manager of one of your projects comments that hey, three of these projects need to be done today.

Three.

Today.

So, what do you do?

Yeah, I spent the first twenty minutes spinning my wheels thinking, "omg. omg. omg," too. Because, really now, *that* is completely productive.

And then I realized that, you know what, this is going to be a long, long, long day, and I had best make the most of it. Especially when Katy commented how great the day is, and completely took me up on the suggestion, "Hike?" What I liked the best was that she immediately followed the suggestion with a definitive hike time, all the better to ensure I can't skip out on the plans. While I want to say, "It's like she knows me or something," I've been working hard at setting expectations, so when I suggested the hike, I knew that I'd go on it even if it meant for a crazier day than I really wanted.

Because exercise is incredibly important.

Me, Katy and Brian

As are friendships.

Brian and Katy were willing to meet up at my house, for which I was incredibly grateful, and off we went, Brian bringing along probably over three gallons of water for our hike.

Our 60 minute hike.

Our 60 minute hike in partial shade.

They explained to me how they had gone on a hike recently without sufficient water, and had a really hard time of it. They've swung in the other direction, bringing too much water, but, well, the hike is unknown, so maybe too much water isn't such a bad thing.

After my requisite bathroom break we were on our way. Right up to the top of Hunter's Point, with the views of the Bay, we walked, talking about webapps and phone apps and game metrics and the other ideas that make me excited when talking with people who share the same interest and enthusiasm for my chosen profession.

Yes. Way excited.

The view was pretty clear this afternoon. We were able to see from past San Jose and Fremont all the way to Redwood City, naming landmarks (the Stanford Quad Tower, Moffett Field hangers) and downtown clusters.

View from Hunter's Point

While at the top, Katy commented that she had forgotten her hair tie in the car, and dangit, her hair was annoyingly hot. I suggested she tie it in a knot, which caused a bit of confusion.

Confusion dispersed by a quick demonstration of the hair twisting technique of shoving long hair into a twist, and keep twisting into a bun, then wrapping the ends through the bun, and around the edges of the bun, to keep it tied in a knot.

Because, yes, it's true, I have long hair. I can do this.

After I demonstrated, Katy looked at me for a moment, bent over, twisted her hair into a knot, wrapped it into a tie, straightened back up, and commented something to the effect of "score another girl point for me."

Yes, indeed.

Katy hair in knot

After lingering at the lookout for a short bit, we hiked down, and continued along our hike. For quick hikes, I like the Seven Springs Trail, so we went along that route.

Ten maybe fifteen minutes into the hike, I noticed something fall off Katy's pants, and stopped to look at it. It was a bright orange, so I thought it might be from Katy's shirt. Even after staring at it for a short bit, I was confused as to what it was. Katy, however, was not. "It's a snake."

Brian came over to look at it, and commented, yeah, it's a snake, but probably dead, let's move on.

A snake.

Up close and personal?

Yeah. I need a macro of that.

I snapped a picture standing over the snake, but couldn't really see what was going on with it. I stuck my face probably way too close, had I actually thought about what I was doing as I was fascinated by it.

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No, it didn't look dead to me, but there was something odd about the dark spot on the tip of the snake. I couldn't quite figure it out.

I turned the macro on the camera, and looked at it, then adjusted myself to lean in closer.

"Uh, Kitt," I heard Katy say, "you probably don't want to do that."

Yeah. Probably didn't.

Just as I pressed the button to take a closer picture of the snake, it jumped at me.

I jumped away, too.

Snake shot

Turns out, the orange was the bottom of the snake, and the dark tip of the snake was its head turned right side up. It jumped at me, then slithered off to the bushes, as I squealed and laughed and took more pictures.

Then realized, wow, I had goosebumps all over me.

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I really thought the snake had fallen off of Katy, but only after talking about what had happened, did I realize that it had probably slipped off the hill along the side of the trail, just as Katy was walking by. Because, you know, she said, she just doesn't have that Medusa style hair this week.

The rest of the hike was considerably less exciting, but no less fun! Brian and Katy took the lead, requiring only slight prompting to turn around for a picture (otherwise, I'd have all ass pictures).

Katy and Brian

Hats off!

We were done with our hike, with lots of water remaining, in just under the hour I promised them. It was a good hike. I'm glad we went.

As a side note, Katy wears the Vibram Five Fingers shoes. While Brian and I were leaving shoe prints in the dirt on the train, Katy was leaving adorable footprints:

Katy print

Mountain? Conquered.

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After heading to the HackerDojo this morning to help with setting up for a small event being held today, I hurried home to meet up with Kris for a run at Fremont Older. The hills there are more brutal than the hills near Lake San Antonio, so make a good training ground. The downside of the run is that it's one mile up, one mile down, which is considerably more down than the actual trail.

I was lamenting about this to Jonathan, oh, the hill is so hard, when he commented "You enjoy it. You must. Otherwise you wouldn't bother."

I shut up.

I shut up, but I immediately thought of George and (another) Chris from college, who told me of a time they went skiing. George looked up to the top of a mountain they were skiing, where the only way down (besides the lift) was a double black diamond run, and commented, "I would like to have done that run." Chris, being the more experienced and adventurous skier, immediately said, sure, let's go, and off they went. The way down was fraught with peril, full of tumbles and spills for George, not so much for Chris.

Eventually, they made it to the bottom of the hill, alive and uninjured. George, at the bottom, exclaimed something to the effect of "I can't believe we did that, that was crazy, what were we thinking, what were you thinking, I can't believe you talked me into that!" Chris responded with, "But, you said you wanted to ski that run."

To which George responded, "No, I said I would like to have DONE that run, not that I wanted to DO that run," a thought I, too, have had many times over the course of the years since hearing that story. Many times there are adventures I would like to have had, not that I actually want to put forth the effort to do them.

Heading over to the park, as we were all laughing and joking about things, I sat in the backseat, Blue licking my ear, Shadow asking for attention behind me, Andy and Kris chatting about random things, thinking about Jonathan's words. Do I really enjoy the running part? Do I really like when my legs are aching and my lungs are burning and I have no idea why I thought this was a good idea? The beginning is great, but the middle is so hard, and the only reason I keep going is because I need to finish. Really, do I like the process?

Sure, I like the end result. I like being able to play ultimate well. I like not worrying about being tired. I like how my legs look when I'm in shape. I like how my arms move. I like the soreness two days after a hard workout. Yet all of these are after the workout, the effects of the workout, not the workout itself.

I kept thinking this, until a third of the way up the hill, when I hit my groove, and realized how awesome the human body is, how incredibly joyful moving is. That my legs could move this way, propel me up the hill, is amazing. Sure, that hill is hard, and my muscles are crying out, but there's still that joy of movement from childhood where your body just goes and you don't worry about how fast you are or who is in front of you or catching up to you. It was a wonderful feeling of appreciation for just how wonderful it feels to be alive and able to move.

And I realized that, yes, Jonathan was right.

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The first run up the hill was hard, but Andy caught up to me quickly enough. I am always the first in line for the port-a-john at the bottom of the hill so that I can have that extra five minutes or so up the hill before the two of them start running. Andy slowed down a little bit to put on his earphones as I ran with Blue, but he was soon off and running.

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I made it to the top of the mountain before Kris caught up to me, which pleased me.

On my way back down the mountain, I was on an under 20 minute pace, a great time considering last time I ran this hill I was running 25 minute round trips. Just over half way down, however, as I was about to pass a biker, I realized he was walking his bike. I asked on my way by, "Are you okay?"

He was slow to answer, and was holding his arm awkwardly. He had scrapes down his side and blood over his eye. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Right.

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After asking permission, I took his bike from him and started walking down the hill with it, talking to him as we went. He seemed coherent, which was good. A trail volunteer stopped us and asked again if the biker was okay. The biker claimed that, yes, he was, and we continued down the mountain. On the walk, I found out his car wasn't in the top parking lot where we parked, but at the bottom of the hill, two miles away. We continued to chat until we reached the parking lot, at which point I asked again how far away his car was. When he explained again, I asked if he could walk himself. He said that he'd prefer a ride down, which worked out okay, as hiker had just finished his walk, had an empty bike rack (his wife biked), and could take him.

My 20 minute pace became a 27 minute pace, but I didn't mind so much. Back up the hill I went, Andy having passed me on the way down and heading back up again.

About half way up the mountain for my second run, still feeling good, I stopped to talk to Andy's dad, who was sitting next to the trail volunteer who had stopped the biker and me earlier. The volunteer expressed concern about the crashed biker, at which point I mentioned that the crashed biker was coherent; had promised me he was going to call someone at home to tell them he was on his way, to make sure he made it; had another hiker driving him down in a car; had pupils that constricted when he went into light; and didn't have dilated pupils. The volunteer looked at me stunned. "Are you an EMT?"

Richard commented immediately, "You certainly asked the right questions."

I chuckled, and said no, took Blue and continued up the mountain. Kris caught up to me, so we chatted for a bit. He slowed his pace to mine, as I increased my pace a bit to help him out, and we charged up to the top of the mountain again.

Part of me wonders just how hard this mountain is compared to the real race mountain. This hill has 400 feet of elevation difference in less than a mile, with the cumulative gain being more. Is that a lot? There a couple of really steep hills, and a downhill in the middle, and the really really brutal hill at the very top. Still.

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Down we went again, this time dragging Blue as he started to lag. The dog was confused when we were heading down and Andy passed us going the other direction going up for his third run up the mountain, but I kept Blue going. I had hoped to run down the hill at my run-down-the-hill speed, but Blue held me back. I wasn't sure if I was running fast enough for Kris, but he commented that, well, actually, I run down the hills faster than he feels comfortable running.

Yay me!

Kris was originally going to run up the hill three times. He decided, however, to run up only two times when he was at the top of the hill, but changed his mind to go up half way again. I'm pretty sure I had hit my runner's high, because I wanted to run back up, and so followed him back up the hill for the third time. To my great amusement, I passed a family of four for the fifth time as I started up the mountain again. I had passed them and said hello each time I went up and down the mountain, so I know they recognized my passings. The look on the adults' faces was awesome.

My knee started tweaking on the third run up the hill, so I adjusted my gait a bit. Kris commented later that the hill blasts his quads and calves, which surprised me because my hamstrings are blasted running up the hill, but my calves and quads are unaffected. I need to test different gaits again, to see if I can adjust mine sufficiently so that I can use my quads and calves enough to give my hamstrings a rest on the uphills, then switch back to give my quads and calves a rest.

In the end, I ran the hill two and a half times, feeling good pretty much the whole way. Yay, returning fitness!

At the end, Andy I continued our science experiment and rubbed yet another batch of poison oak on our shoulders to test my claim of immunity. Let's see if this one does anything.

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The knee made it!

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Bella, Kris, Annie and I went up to Fremont Older today.

Kris was going to spend the whole day, starting at 11:00 AM, playing World of Warcraft. I negotiated a hike and time spent with me in return for not complaining about his playing. In reality, I'm completely annoyed that he plays that game all the f--king time. I despise the inherent lack of a productive life that game, and all the other games he's been addicted to in the last 10 years, creates.

Right.

The hike.

I had originally intended on wearing my knee brace for the hike. When I put it on this morning, however, the brace caused my knee to hurt. Okay, not what I was hoping for. I thought about taping my knee, but decided against that, too, mostly out of laziness, partially out of a lack of belief the taping was actually helping.

So, off we went: Bella in her cone and beat up face, I without a knee brace, Annie and Kris with no issues we knew about.

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The hike went smoothly. I ran some of the hills, just to get my legs moving and a faster rate than my usual walking. I had a hard time on several of the hills, with a heavy heart and gasping lungs. It's pretty clear that I haven't been exercising aerobicly for a short while now, a fact I intend to change. I figure, I can run around the block (a half mile loop) four times for a easy 2 mile run. I'll never be more than 200 yards from home, should my knee lock up or I need to go to the bathroom.

As well as my knee did on the hike, Bella didn't do so well. We kept her in the cone, since she immediately started scratching her face when we removed the cone. I don't know if the cone was an additional burden or not, but she ended up not moving at one point, so Kris carried her the rest of the way back to the car.

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I think she might be getting old. We already know she's deaf.

On the hike, I noticed from one part of the trail near the beginning, you could see the other part of the trail from the end, so from both angles, nominally the same spot:

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Fremont Older purple flower

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Fremont Older flower

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Found the sweet spot

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Heather called early this evening, asking if I'd be up for going on a hike. Kris and I have been going to Fremont Older frequently recently, me for the non-running exercise because of my knee, Kris for his hard-running training for his leg of the Wildflower Triathlon that Kris, Andy, and Kris' coworker and best hugger in the world, Marc; so I suggested Fremont Older.

I suspect with so many people having extra free time, I shouldn't be telling so many people about Fremont Older, lest they all discover the parking lot with (shock) parking spaces next to a great hiking spot.

I convinced Heather Fremont Older over Rancho San Antonio (where I seem never to be able to find parking), and off we went.

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Oh, my, did the weather cooperate with us. Where the day was previously cloudy, windy and cold, our hike was cool, sunny and very nice. We even managed to see not one or two but THREE deer!

We made it to the top of Hunter's Point, and continued on to hike the Seven Sprints trail. As we started walking down various hills, my knee started acting up, hurting and locking up. Frustrated, I stopped us a couple times to adjust my knee brace, trying to follow the instructions from the knee doctor to adjust my kneecap to the inside of my knee.

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I adjusted the straps, and again, and again, and again, and HOLY MOLY, the clouds parted, the sun shined and the angels sang as I found the sweet spot on my brace. I needed to pull the kneecap to the inside, sure, but also UP. UP! That's all I needed, up.

At least so far. I managed to finish the hike knee-pain free. Here's hoping this is, indeed, the (temporary) answer to my knee locks.

Matches the current theme

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One tired doggy

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Another Fremont Older flower

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Fremont Older poppy

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