January Motivation

As I went out this morning for a hard five mile run my neighborhood was fairly quiet.  Most everyone was still sleeping and I had the two lane road to myself for about a mile before even a single car went past.  I was able to lose myself in thought as I chugged up the hill until I ran past the house with my good friend Mr. Pitbull.

I've run past this dog so many times I know every little quirk it has.  It sees me coming and crouches down, eyeing me until I'm at the closest I'll be to it's yard and then it sprints off at top speed toward me.  It knows how far it can go before the thick chain will jerk it backwards so it jumps into the air at just the right time.  It flies through the air before snapping backwards and then stands there growling at me until I disappear off into the distance. 

This dog easily weighs well over 100 lbs and I can see its muscles rippling when it runs at me.  It's a pure, unadulterated killing machine and would love to rip my head off.  Despite the fear of having my leg torn off on a deserted section of road, I love this dog.  It always provides me with a sorely needed surge of adrenaline and boosts my running speed significantly on a steep section of the road.

On the way back down the hill I'm running faster and can get past Mr. Pitbull's house before he knows what's going on.  Sometimes I taunt him just for good measure and payback.  "Hi, doggy.  Aren't you just a sweet little doggy?  See you tomorrow, enjoy that chain around your neck."

Sometimes you can find motivation in the most unusual things.  Search hard and use what you can find for mid-winter motivation.  Speaking of running, I put up a new poll in the sidebar.  Check it out. 

Waihee Ridge Run

I did a great trail run the other day on the Waihee Ridge trail. I'm currently living on the North Shore of Maui and Waihee Ridge is about an hour away over in the West Maui mountains. I was pleasantly surprised to find some decent trail running here in the islands and this one is one of the best trails I've come across. Running in the West Maui mountains often means coping with clouds, rain and cooler temperatures. At the car in the sun at 1500 feet elevation, the temperature was about 75°. I climbed up into the clouds and gained 2000+ feet and the temperature dropped rapidly and it was about 60° by the time I reached the top.

The trail passes through thick forest of kukui, guava, ohi'a and ferns.

Amazing views of some valleys and waterfalls of West Maui a couple thousand feet below.

The sun rising over Haleakala.

The trail winds along a 20 foot wide ridge and drops off steeply on each side.

Some of the terrain looked positively Alaskan. This damp section was foggy, had evergreen trees and standing water on the trail. It was like something out of Southeast Alaska.

The top of the trail was a dead end with steep drop-offs on all sides. Thick fog prevented me from seeing how steep it really was but I've been up some of the valleys before and seen that much of the terrain is close to vertical. Great run up in the mountains with surfing just a few miles away.