Lisa: Pre-training: Week 4, Days 1 & 2

On Wednesday morning, Sarah, Jessie, and I met at Canyon Rim Park at 5:30 am to start the first of our 45-minute sessions. Besides a few dog-walkers, we had the park to ourselves. The basic sidewalk loop around the park took us about 12 minutes to walk, and we explored a few longer variations around the church next door and Canyon Rim Elementary School on the other side of that. We managed to completely freak ourselves out when we were walking around the side of the school through a little alley. Just as we were talking about spooky things you start thinking about when you're alone in the dark, the only streetlight in the alley went out, plunging us into darkness. OOOoooooOOOOO! Anyway, the only snag was that I didn't bring my headband thingie because I thought I'd be warm enough without it. I wasn't. Sarah lent me her scarf to wrap around my head, which looked awesome I'm sure. I think Jessie's new pedometer said we had gone about 2.2 miles.

Here are Jessie and Sarah:

Note my obvious chagrin that they are so photogenic so early in the morning:

This morning we were supposed to meet at the Parley's Crossing section of the Bonneville trail. I waited for a while in the little parking lot at the south end of the crossing, but eventually set off alone. The whole point of this section of the trail is to allow bikers and pedestrians to cross the mouth of Parley's canyon, which otherwise is traversed only via a triangle of interlacing freeways going in and out of the canyon and across the canyon opening. The trail is parallel to freeway most of the way, so there is some ambient light, but there are no lights specifically for the trail itself. I would bet the crossing is one of the coldest trails in the valley, since runners are unprotected from the winds blowing out of the canyon almost the whole way. Luckily, this time I remembered my headband, coat, and gloves. There is also a wicked incline at each end of the trail, getting into or out of the canyon area. It took me a good 25 minutes each way to walk the whole length of the crossing, but I had plenty of graffiti to read. It was the usual stuff, like "Sheriff got a shotgun," "Beta Theta Pis think Delta Gammas are hot" (news flash!), and "Rotting human flesh this way."

Here I am back at my car. I even put on tinted chapstick to combat that no-lipped look I apparently favor in the cold pre-dawn hours. I still have the giant, self-portrait-induced nose of doom though, so there should be something comfortingly familiar for you.

12/28/05: 130 lbs, 31% body fat
12/30/05: 128.5 lbs, 31% body fat