Ramping Up (Again)

The Trail Ahead, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

My wife thinks I'm a procrastinator. I can't believe she doesn't know me by now, especially after twenty years of marriage. I was going to give her a few examples to prove her wrong, but I think I'll do that later.

I'm going on a backpacking trip to the Trinity Alps on Wednesday and in preparation, I ramped up my training over the last few weeks to get into shape quickly. I've been hiking the Pleasanton Ridge after work one to two times a week and running it on the weekends. It's been challenging transitioning from four mile, flat road runs to five mile, hilly trail runs.

My friend Faye stopped over to say "hi" the other day and I mentioned I was ramping up my training by running on the ridge. She pointed out that every time she sees me, I'm always "ramping up" my training. I found that to be an interesting coincidence!

Anyway, I've been on the Pleasanton Ridge over ten times in the last four weeks. On Saturday, I carried my Nikon FM2 camera with me for a morning jog up the ridge from the Longview trail head. The soft morning light was starting to burn through the clouds, warming the beautiful grassland with wonderful directional light. As I headed up the hills to the top of the ridgeline, I could only think of one thing....air! But, I made it and took a few moments to catch my breath and snap a few photos.