Beach runs

Now that the sun rises earlier each day, I've gotten into the routine of running on the beach in the mornings a few times each week. The stretch of beach that runs in front of the Hotel del Coronado from NAS North Island to the Naval Amphibious Base is about 1.5 miles, so a down and back of 3 miles is the perfect route for my runs. I use the term "run" loosely since I'd call my 10:00 per mile pace more of a jog! I've always been a morning person, so I love that I can get up at 5:00 a.m. and get a workout in before I have to be at work for 8:00 a.m. I'm determined not to take for granted the fact that I'm only a 5 minute walk from the beach!

Almost every morning run for the last couple of weeks, I've been privy to some pretty amazing sites. Each event random, but moving in its own way. As you can see from these pictures, this morning it was hundreds of sand dollars washed up on the beach! I've never seen anything like it! Usually, stumbling across one sand dollar still whole is like finding hidden treasure, but there were clusters of 30-50 still in-tact sand dollars strewn all along a mile section of the beach this morning. I immediately thought of my sister Monica when I saw them; she and I share a passion for collecting sea shells! Not ones that you can just buy at a beach shop, but ones we've found ourselves. I don't take my camera on runs with me so I returned to the beach post-run with camera in hand for these shots.

Of course, finding sand dollars on the beach was just one of many ways mother nature has rewarded me for donning running shoes and heading towards the Pacific Ocean in the chilly, early morning air. One morning last week I stepped outside to a bone-chilling drizzly morning. Determined that there must still be some military toughness left over in me somewhere in my now cushy life, I determinedly shut the door behind me and headed in the direction of the sound of pounding waves. As I rounded a corner that allowed a full view of the beach and ocean, my breath caught as I gazed upon a full arch rainbow over the ocean. Not just a vividly-colored ribbon in the sky, a streak of early-morning sunlight had escaped through the clouds and was illuminating a three-masted sail boat off in the distance. It was like a spotlight was being shown on the vessel under the arching rainbow. Startling and spectacular all at once.

A couple of mornings prior to the rainbow-sailboat sighting, I was running along and kept catching glimpses of something moving out in the water. It was right at dawn and I couldn't really make out what it was. I kept running along until enough light from the sunrise allowed me to spy the source of movement. I literally stopped in my tracks and stood in amazement as at least 2 dozen dolphins (or porpoises, not sure which) played and surfed through the gently rolling waves. Although I've encountered these beautiful mammals numerous times on fishing trips with my dad and even spent hours in the water off the beach of Pensacola holding one with my buddy Rob trying to save its life (we did!), I had never seen so many at one time. They were swimming into the barrels of surf and riding the waves until I could no longer see them when the wave pounded the beach. I thought for sure they would beach themselves by coming so close, but none did. I reversed course and started walking back up the beach from where I had just ran to follow them as they played. I must've walked parallel to this moving playground for at least 15 minutes until they headed out to deeper water and I could no longer see them.

One of my first pre-sunrise encounters came on a morning run about a month ago. After waking up earlier than intended and not being able to go back to sleep, I decided not to fight it and just got my day cranked off before dawn. Although the beach is somewhat illuminated by the hotels along the water front, it was still quite dark as my footfalls fell into a comfortable pace with the water lapping at my feet. Don't worry Mom, it's quite safe and the beach is patrolled! My attention was divided between early morning thoughts and the rhythmic sound of the waves when I looked further up ahead and saw an image I couldn't quite figure out. It looked like several headlights heading my way but with a lot of shadows moving in and out of their beams. After a few more minutes, the mystery was solved as a whole class of Navy BUDS candidates/SEALS closed the gap between me and their formation. It was comforting to know that I wasn't the only early-morning runner out there! Although I still miss being in the military, a feeling of freedom washed over me as I reminded myself that I was out there running by choice and not by mandate!

With all these sightings, I take off in anticipation each morning for my runs excited about what might be awaiting me!

Indianapolis, IN

I hate posting without pictures, but I don't have any pics to accompany this post yet. For once, I wasn't the one with the camera so I'm forced to wait for others to forward their shots on to me before I can post them! I'm sitting in the Denver airport during a layover on my way back to San Diego. I flew to Indianapolis, IN on Wednesday to attend the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) conference. I usually stay for the whole 5 days, but I just didn't have that kind of time to spend away from work this year. I only attended a couple of sessions, but in the less than 48 hours I spent in Indy I was able to catch up with quite a few friends and colleagues. It's amazing that amongst thousands of faces at these conferences I always find myself responding to my name being called across a large conference hall! The sport science and sport nutrition worlds are pretty small so it's not uncommon to run into many international acquantances each year.

Barring flight delays, I should be back in my own bed before midnight tonight. The only big plans I have for the weekend ahead is to attend Whit's celebration tomorrow night for obtaining his architecture license! Should be a fun time!!!

Memorial Day weekend in San Diego

Three whole days off! Although the weather was chilly and overcast most of the weekend, I still got out locally. Although most Americans consider Memorial Day weekend nothing more than the kick-off to summer and cook outs, I was determined to commemorate the holiday by visiting some local memorials. I rode back up to Mount Soledad (previous post) and read a few more commemorative plaques. It's amazing how personal some of them are. The family decides how much information to list about the service-member's military careers and achievements as well as their family life, but almost all of them are accompanied by a picture. For those of you subjected to my camera-toting escapades, you know that I'm a picture person!

Today I attended a memorial service at Fort Rosencrans military cemetery out at Point Loma. It was solemn and beautiful, complete with accompaniment by the Marine Corp band and taps being played by echoing buglers. The effect of the echo as they played acres away from each other on opposite sides of the cemetery was haunting. I don't think I've ever heard anything so hallowed and touching; an emotional tribute to those who have paid the ultimate price for the life and lifestyles we enjoy today.

One of the best parts of living on Coronado island is that everything is so close. Even sites across San Diego bay are walking distance thanks to the Coronado-San Diego ferry. For $6 round trip, I boarded the ferry boat (in the picture between the pier and the San Diego skyline) and was transported across the bay within 10 minutes. There are so many things to see and do right across the bay but I decided on a leisurely sightseeing day and bypassed all the maritime sights and headed towards the Seaport Village.

Before getting to the Village of shopping boutiques and restaurants, I stopped off in the park right next to the USS Midway Museum. I spied a huge sailor statue from the ferry and wanted to get a closer look. It turned out to be a 3D depiction of the now famous V-J Day photo from Times Square of a navy sailor kissing a woman that was originally published in Life magazine in 1945. As you can see by how small the people on the ground look next to this thing, it's massive!

Next stop was lunch! Since moving to San Diego, fish tacos are quickly becoming one of my favorite local meals. They come in many forms with many different fixins' and many types of fish out here. My favorite however, is grilled with lots of cilantro. Although not the best fish taco I've ever had, I ate a pretty decent version at Buster's Beach House & Longboard Bar. They're always awkward to eat, but I love the grilled fish with cabbage, cilantro, tomatoes & lime falling out of the soft tacos. Pretty tasty with an ice cold cerveza!

One other high point of the weekend was attending the first concert of the Coronado Summer Concerts in the park series. Every Sunday evening throughout the summer there will be a free concert out at Spreckles Park. Whit & Kathie came over to the island and we hung out at the park enjoying a bottle of wine and patriotic music by the Coronado Community Band. The evening was clear & cool but not too chilly as we lounged in lawn chairs and enjoyed the music and company. I'm looking forward to attending these performances whenever I'm in town.

Speaking of being in and out of town, I fly out on Wed for Indianapolis for a conference. It's a short trip, I'll be back before the weekend starts if the airline lives up to its end of the financial transaction of my airline ticket. Seems so simple doesn't it. . . I give them money to take me and my luggage somewhere. My end of the bargain is to pay the fare and show up at the allotted time with my luggage. Their end of the bargain is to take me and my luggage to the designated location at the designated time as indicated on the receipt of the financial transaction. Should be so easy. . .

Point Loma & Bay Bridge Run/Walk

I've been so busy this week, I haven't had a chance to update ya'll on the rest of last weekend. I just couldn't stay off my bike with the weather so beautiful and warm, so I did a little more sightseeing and participated in a run/walk.

I'm starting this post off with the map to orientate you on my weekend. I live on Coronado which is the "island" in the middle of the map. The red line that is marked "toll bridge" in the map is actually the San Diego Bay Bridge. As mentioned in a previous post, it's no longer a toll bridge and is free to pass over. Unfortunately, it's illegal for anything other than motorized transport to pass over the bridge. That makes it pretty hard to get some good pictures from up there, so I decided to walk the Navy's 22nd Original Bay Bridge Run/Walk so I could take my camera along. To the west of the island is a peninsula called Point Loma. I rode out there a couple of times and toured the National park and spectacular ocean views.

Unfortunately, the day of the walk turned out to be hazy and visibility wasn't great for my photo trek. The walk/run was 4 miles long and raised funds for the Navy's MWR program (Morale, Welfare & Recreation), so my registration fee went to a great cause even if I didn't get spectacular pictures out of it! In this picture you can see the Hotel del Coronado (red peaked cluster of buildings) slightly right to center and further to the right is Point Loma off in the distance. The Hotel del Coronado is on the coast at the sharp south-east bend of the road depicted by the red line on Coronado island on the map. As you can see, it's a straight line of sight from the hotel to Point Loma. I often go for walks along the beach in front of the Hotel del Coronado to watch the sun set just behind Point Loma.

At the end of Point Loma is Cabrillo National Park. Although this point of land may not have been the actual landing site, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed somewhere in San Diego bay in the 1540s and became the first European to set foot on the west coast of what is now the U.S. There's a statue commemorating him and his landing at the tip of the point overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Not far from the statue is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse build in the 1850s. The Fresnel lens reflected the oil lamp of the light house and could be seen 39 miles out to sea, on a clear night. I say "a clear night" because we often get what's called a marine layer out here in San Diego. Apparently the fog and low clouds of the marine layer often obscured the light resulting in the closure of the lighthouse less than 40 years later. The lighthouse still stands and is open to the public for touring. At the turn of the 20th century the 422 foot elevation of the peninsula was recognized as a strategic defense site and designated as a military reserve. During World Wars I & II, the facilities on the peninsula acted as lookout points and defense garrisons.

On a winding road that descended down to sea level from the top of the peninsula I discovered what must be one of the most scenic duty stations in the U.S. I took a picture of the Coast Guard station in my rear view mirror as I ascended back up to 400 feet. Click on the picture for a bigger view and you'll see that the small cluster of Spanish Style buildings hugging the cliff overlooking the ocean is a military base! Not sure how many people are stationed there but there was one house with a swing under a front porch. Sure is a waste of a sweet site if no one lives in that house!

I had my riding boots on so I didn't do a whole lot of hiking, but I will certainly go back out there with running shoes in my saddlebags this summer. There are quite a few walking trails throughout the peninsula with pretty amazing views. Some of the trails are up high overlooking the cliffs and some actually parallel the shoreline and provide access to some tide pools. Looked like a great place to take Monica and Philip when they come out for a visit next month!

OK, still lots more to catch everyone up on. I got out and about a bit on this three-day Memorial Day weekend. I hope everyone had a great holiday and didn't forget to take a moment to recall the real reason for this holiday.

Naval Training Center, San Diego

The last three days turned out to be a beautiful, hot weekend! The temps hit the 80s all three days!!! With such gorgeous days, I couldn't resist taking my Harley out for some riding. I didn't do any long rides, just stayed around town and played tourist. Just up the road from the San Diego Airport is the remains of NTC San Diego. Great Lakes is the only Recruit Training Command now indoctrinating recruits into sailors, but for over 70 years (1923-1997), just about every enlisted man in the Navy had been run through the training facilities of NTC San Diego. That includes my dad who went through boot camp here in 1958!

One of the enduring symbols of naval boot camp are the training ships. The ship you see in this picture is the USS Recruit and has never sailed a day in its life! It was commissioned in July of 1949 and has helped train over 50,000 recruits in ship borne duties. It's a 2/3 scale model of a destroyer escort that in 1983 was reconditioned as a training guided missile frigate. The fact that it has always been permanently dry-docked earned it its nickname USS Neversail. It's now a California Registered Historical Landmark.

In 2001, demolition and deconstruction began at NTC to transform it into a community and development center now known as Liberty Station. What used to be the training grounds for all enlisted sailors now contains housing developments, service & retail businesses, parks and museums. It's pretty amazing what a great job San Diego has done to preserve the history of this place while still allowing progress and drawing the public back to the city's history. This picture is of the North Chapel which was built in 1942. There's a great stained glass window on one side of a sailor with head bowed and cover in hand.

Although the redevelopment of NTC is still in progress, it's easy to see how this place is already becoming a city center. A lot of the old buildings have been refreshed and have a distinctly Spanish flair. The Command Center faces the waterfront and the rear is adjacent to a beautiful flower garden complete with a pond. There were several groups hosting events here as I wandered in and out of buildings; a uniquely historical setting in which to hold meetings.

Back in the 1940s, the station housed 33,000 men, 75% of whome were recruits. For some new sailors, NTC remained home for a while longer as they completed their "A" schools. That's a lot of buildings and space! Most of the barracks are gone and have been replaced with residential neighborhoods and parks. The residential areas are a mix of civilian and military housing and don't stray far from the Spanish architecture seen in the commercial buildings.

As you can see in this last picture, the nautical theme has definitely been kept throughout the commercial area. It's pretty cool that you can now grocery shop at Von's and Trader Joe's and do your banking at Navy Federal Credit Union in the same place that recruits were getting their heads shaved and issued boondockers back in the day! It's really cool how pieces of the original base have been placed throughout the new Liberty Station. In Trader Joe's, there's a black & white picture of a sailor standing guard next to the front gate with the NTC Gate sign next to him. Next to the picture on the wall of this grocery store is the original gate sign.

That's it for today. I visited another picturesque place here in San Diego that I'll do a post on later this week. Thanks for stopping in!

Columbus, Georgia

I just returned from working with some of our shooters out at Fort Benning, GA. I have to apologize right off the bat that I really slacked on taking pictures this trip. Even though there were lots of beautiful and interesting things to take pictures of, it just never seemed convenient to whip out my camera! So, the one picture I did get was of a hodge-podge supper of side dishes I had one night. After having read the advertisement for this restaurant (which I'll leave nameless), I figured a place specializing in Southern food was just what I needed! I had eaten a late lunch, so I opted-out of the meat selections and just ordered an assortment of sides.

For my non-Southern readers out there, I'll identify the side dishes for you! Starting with the blue bowl of butter and going clockwise: black-eyed peas, fried okra, sweet potato souffle, carrot & raisin salad, butter (Lima) beans, and cornbread sticks. It all looked right, but the okra had been fried in old grease and were inedible in my opinion. The sweet potato souffle was OK but I could've done without the raisins in it. It's hard to mess up carrot & raisin salad, so not too bad there and the butter beans had a good flavor. The black-eyed peas and cornbread were just bland, nothing special. All in all, it was OK, but certainly not like my momma's! It was a good effort, but my Southern taste buds weren't quite satisfied by the meal.

I realized on the plane ride back home that I didn't do the one thing my friend Suzanne in Colorado Springs had asked me to do- take a picture of the Fort Benning base sign! Her husband David had been born on the base but hadn't been back since. I'm disappointed to report that I don't have any pictures of the base or of Columbus in general. There were tons of magnolia trees blooming all along I-185 and I kept thinking to myself that I would stop before I left and get some pictures. Magnolias are one of my favorite flowers. They smell delicious and the trees always have a proud, shiny-leaf look to them. Just another reminder to never procrastinate doing things, time will slip away before you know it and you'll be left with disappointment or regret over something you didn't do!

This week at Fort Benning felt familiar to me; being in the south, being on a military base and around shooting. I had shot on a 22 smallbore rifle team back in high school, so I have a rudimentary knowledge of rifle shooting. Obviously the level of competition I was witnessing during this Olympic Qualifier was well above any I had been exposed to before, but there was still a familiar feeling to the smell of gun cleaner solvent and spent casings and the sound of 22 rim fire bullets being discharged. Beyond the shooting aspect, I'm always comfortable on military bases. Even though I've been off active duty for 10 years now (wow, a whole decade!), I'm still quite comfortable around folks in uniforms spouting acronyms as real words! Then of course, there was some heat and humidity thrown in there just to bring it all home! The first couple of days started off chilly (50-60s), but the temps got into the 80s the last couple days I was there with humidity will above the 75% level. Perfect!

So now I'm back in San Diego starting a 3-day weekend. The weather here is supposed to be in the 80s Friday, Saturday & Sunday! I'm thinking me and my Harley will be rolling out a few miles in the following days!

Resevoir Run

Although the weather on Sunday wasn't quite as nice for riding as Saturday, I rolled out from my apartment into the chilly, damp air. As luck would have it, Fred wasn't scared off by our first ride a few weeks back and invited me on another! We met up at the Sweetwater Harley-Davidson dealership in National City for the 1st Annual Reservoir Run. The event was a poker run that took us to several lakes around the area.

After registering for the ride, I pulled my first card for the day's poker hand. I'm not much of a poker player, so I didn't pay much attention as they marked my sheet and sent me on my way. From the dealership, we rode right past the Olympic Training Center where I work to the park by lower Otay Lake where we pulled our second card.

After stretching our legs a bit, we hopped back on our bikes and rode some winding roads down south to Lake Morena. The sun had started to peak through when we first rolled out, but the clouds were invading again by this time and I was a little chilly. I know, you're probably not feeling very sorry for me that I was chilly on my ride in southern California when parts of Colorado were getting snow!!

From Lake Morena, we rode en masse to Sweetwater Regional Park and pulled the fourth card of the day. After quick bathroom breaks, our growling stomachs nudged us back onto our bikes and we made our way back to Sweetwater Harley-Davidson for the final card draw and the BBQ.

Back at the dealership, prizes were given for low and high hands. I had a mixed bag and didn't qualify for either! Not to worry, the pulled pork BBQ sandwich and baked beans tasted good and I enjoyed hanging out for a few hours while raffle prizes were given out (I didn't win anything there either!).

All in all, the weekend turned out to be a couple of days of quality miles and good company! I was a slacker on Sunday and didn't take many pictures, so thanks to Fred for supplying the ones posted here.

Once again, I am preparing for another trip. I fly out on Sunday to Fort Benning, GA for the pistol & rifle Olympic Trials. Don't know if I'll get to post from there, but I'll try to put something up as soon as I can. Have a great weekend!

Venice Beach

I took a comp day off work on Friday to catch up from being out of town in Lexington, KY for work last weekend. I spent the whole day doing the stuff that falls behind when work & travel take a front seat to domestic duties. I spent the morning at the Harley-Davidson shop getting the 15,000 mile service done to my bike as well as get a new front tire. Then I came home so the plumber could fix the running toilet and clogged tub drain at my apartment. Sometimes I enjoy being a renter as opposed to the owner!

With domestic duties behind me, I had Saturday & Sunday to do as I pleased. After breakfast and time wasted trying to locate the neighbor who had blocked in my Harley (drawback of being a renter with limited parking space), I hopped on my bike and headed north to visit a friend now living in Los Angeles. Since working with Liz back in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center, she has moved out to the Los Angeles area to pursue playing professional soccer. What a great excuse to cruise up the coast for a few hours!

I rolled into town just a few minutes before Liz and Amy pulled up to their apartment building after a morning of training. After they got cleaned up from practice, they took me out to Venice Beach for a little sightseeing and some lunch. During my hard-core lifting days (relatively speaking anyway!) in Navy weight rooms back in the mid to late 1990s we got all our workouts from magazines like Muscle & Fitness and Muscle Mag. Being the token female on work shifts and aircrews, I adopted the workout routines of the guys I worked and flew with. At the time, we had no aspirations other than to be strong and BIG! In hindsight and with the perspective of now working with high-level athletes, I have to laugh at the things we did in pursuit of bulging muscles and veins! That period of my life is what piqued my curiosity in training and ultimately led to my career path in exercise physiology and nutrition. Without formal education in exercise or nutrition, we fell for every magazine workout routine, diet and supplement out there. It was then that I started wanting to know more and no longer trusted what was printed by the "experts" as fact. Although too late, to make this long story short (or at least shorter), it was those years as a gym rat back in the Navy that spurred me to see Muscle Beach.

Muscle Beach was originally located in Santa Monica, but moved down to Venice Beach to become the fitness mecca it is now known for back in the 1930s. Pick up any bodybuilding magazine circa 1970s and you're sure to see pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbo and other body builders working out in "the pen." Although it was legendary back in the day, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of folks pumping iron in it this Saturday. Right behind the pen on the beach is a gymnastics area that has parallel bars, speed bags, rope climbs, gymnast rings and other apparatus. It must've been a sight to see back in Jack LaLanne's day! I couldn't resist getting a picture of Liz & Amy on the chin-up bar. For some reason they couldn't seem to synchronize their efforts and it took a couple of pull-ups on their parts before I got this picture of the two of them at the top! I knew it wouldn't be too strenuous for them though; they both play semi-pro soccer for the Pali Blues soccer team.

Unfortunately, my "hard core" workout days are long gone and I knew I wouldn't be able to muster even one pull-up! Being a good sport, Liz just hung on the chin-up bar with me for this photo op! With lunch and all that exercise behind us, Liz & Amy took me to one of their favorite dessert shops: Pinkberry! After tasting my personalized concoction, I wasn't disappointed with this stop. I added ripe mango and blueberries to the relatively unsweetened frozen plain yogurt which proved to be a delicious combination.

I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon in LA with Liz & Amy, but it was time for me to head back down to San Diego. I wanted to hit the road so that I wouldn't have to do too much riding in the chilly night air once the sun went down. Yes, even in Southern California I'm still a wuss in the cold! We parted with plans already in the making for my next trip up and their trip down to San Diego for a visit. My afternoon with them reminded me how we're all surrounded by fun, sincere people if we just slow down a bit and allow ourselves to recognize them.