Took the family on a little hike just outside of Pasadena at Monrovia Canyon Park. Hoping to find a rare California Newt sighting here in southern California, I didn’t get my hopes up due to the rarity. There are tree frogs in just about every rural watering hole in Southern California. But newts?
California newts are one of my favorite animals. They’re hearty, but only in terms of amphibians which makes them the heartiest of a flimsy species. Amphibians have the largest number of extinctions around the world, because things can go wrong for them one of two ways: bad water or bad land. And the explanations of their extinction aren’t so easy as to claim environmental pollution, acid rain, etc. Amphibians are dying off even when the environment appears to be normal. They’re just leaving us… as if it’s their time.
A lot of reptile/amphibian experts know about the Santa Rosa Plateau, down in Riverside county, where a small but stable group of California (or Western) newts thrive on a reserve. There is a lot of volcanic soil in the area which produces rich, green vegetation and the usual red clay that muddies up the water is gone. The population is stable enough, that I intend to poach some egg clusters and raise them in captivity. I can breed them and make sure more babies survive than out in the wild, and release the adults back into the preserve after a few generations.
But little is known about this tiny population of newts in Monrovia. There are plenty of sightings, but the area is very close to the city, with a lot of foot traffic from hikers going to the waterfall at the end of mile long path. But going up isn’t where you find newts, you have to go down stream to where the water slows down a bit and the pools get larger. The kids were getting antsy, so My Beloved has to take them back to the van for refreshments. But I had crawled through some bracken to a calm part of the stream and found a single, adult newt, about eight inches long if you count the tail. He was about four feet into the pool so I couldn’t reach him. I called my two oldest kids over and they got to see the newt, walking under an overhang of grass and mud.
I stepped into the water with my shoes on and sunk deep in the mud. The park rangers would dig this site, but I figured I was far enough off the trail nobody would see me. I wanted to catch the newt just so the kids could see it up close. He got away, I couldn’t get a good picture, and my shoes were filled with mud. At least I saw what I came for. My next step over the next month will be to widen my search to other parts of the San Gabriel Mountains. I have a feeling there’s a lot more newts up there than in just this area.
I did five and was bored. Maybe I’m going through a runner’s depression, but this running without the Eye of the Tiger is lame. It’s weird running with no inspiration, because I turn on my Shuffle which is packed with heart pounding, jaw crushing songs and they suddenly have no impact. They might as well be “Convalescent Home’s Favorite Moog Hits”.
The Marathon is in less than 12 days and I gotta find something to do with my mind to get it plugged into the race. I’m hoping that running with My Beloved will do the trick, and just the general excitement of running with 25,000 snobby, Los Angeles narcissists through the urine-soaked streets of the world’s most shallow-but-broad slab of cement wasteland will be inspiration enough. I don’t know, maybe some guy in a Ron Paul tee shirt will trip and fall right in front of me. That might to the trick.
Now I don’t know how much to run. I don’t really want to risk injury, or burn out. I also hear that for three days I’m supposed to starve all of the carbs out of my body, then pack them back in three days before the race.
I forgot to document the four miles I ran yesterday morning at 5:45am! I didn’t try to go fast or slow, just did a fast run to keep my legs frosty.
I did an easy 10 mile run and should have stopped. But noooOOOooo I had to do 15 miles and slaughter my legs on those last 5 miles. I went paint-balling yesterday and dove into ditches, crawled on my knees and did other stupid things I shouldn’t be doing just before a marathon and I hadn’t fully recovered. My left foot hurt so I limped out the last 2 miles. I could feel my knees knocking around but it didn’t hurt a lot.
After the run, it was time to soak my legs in the cold pool while wolfing down dinner. My Beloved made a meat loaf so I had a giant meat loaf sandwich, potatoes and broccoli that was better than lobster I was so hungry. By the time I finished dinner and slugged down a Mountain Dew (bad decision) I got into the hot tub just as the kids got out… meaning I didn’t have to constantly avoid their cannon balls.
I’ll sleep well tonight.
I’ve had a rough week. I spent Sunday through Thursday in bed with what I first thought was a hard recovery of the Pasadena fiasco. But each night I woke up soaking wet and I lost my appetite. I checked the news for an Airborne AIDS mutation and found nothing.
By Thursday I was so tired that I went to the urgent care to see a doctor. That’s what we Americans do when we need a check-up, we go to the emergency room. And they didn’t carry my crummy insurance so I happily paid out of pocket. I like to still enjoy my freedom in America before this administration disfigures the healthcare world beyond recognition. I got a round of antibiotics and felt better the next day.
Today I only wanted to feel how my legs were doing, so I didn’t want to go too far. I thought I’d do four miles max, and was able to push it a little and go 6.3 miles. My left knee and foot felt a little prickly, so I knew better than to continue.
I’m also working on my pace, trying to jog at a perfect 12.5 minute mile speed to finish the Marathon in under 5:30. I learned I’m really bad with pace, and I’ve even got a Garmin that gives me a second by second read out of my speed. I would look down and see the Garmin read 10:05 or even a 14:30 mile! My next few runs are going to be dedicated to jog at that 12.5 minute mile pace.
I’ll only be doing another 3 or 4 runs over the next week, maybe 10 miles each then hang up the shoes until the big day.
