Dawn Patrol - My Morning Run on the Ridge

Morning Reflections, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

Last Saturday’s ten mile run on the Pleasanton Ridge was a success, meaning I didn't die or get injured. I focused on long, slow, distance (LSD) and didn't push it too hard. My objective was to finish the distance, without worrying about the time. My running program for the first month will be five miles on Monday, seven miles on Wednesday, and LSD on Saturday; all runs occurring on the Pleasanton Ridge trails. My Saturday LSD runs will increase by two miles per week for four weeks. I plan on assessing my fitness level at the end of the first month and will increase the days and mid-week mileage accordingly.

Kami had a softball game on Wednesday afternoon, so I scheduled my run early in the morning before work. “Dawn Patrol” typically refers to surfers who catch the early morning waves, but I decided a dawn patrol run was needed to squeeze my mid-week training run into my schedule. I started my run up the ridge at 6:30 AM and surprisingly, saw a few mountain bikers descending the ridge as I ascended it. More mountain bikers were enjoying the sunrise at the top of the ridge. I’m new to trail running, but I've noticed the trail runner and mountain biker crowds are a slightly different breed. I love the encouragement and positive energy many of these people offer. I typically run on the roads for the convenience and physical benefits, but trail running is an entirely different experience – it’s almost a spiritual revival. Once I hit the top of the ridge, I spent a few moments enjoying the warm, rising sun. The morning light was beautiful, so I took a few photos of the landscape along the way, capturing the green hills before they inevitably turn brown.

The plan for tomorrow is to complete approximately twelve miles. I mapped an “out and back” route that starts at the Staging Area trailhead, proceeds north along the ridgeline and down the Bay Leaf trail, with the turnaround point at the Sinbad Creek Trail junction.

Here are a few photos from my Wednesday dawn patrol run.

No Pain, No Pain

Trees Behind the Fence, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

I don’t mind pain, unless it’s me it’s inflicted upon.

On my first backpacking trip (not counting the 50 Miler we did as Boy Scouts), I was unknowingly dragged on a 28 mile trek on the Ohlone Trail in two days. Many hiking books rate this backpacking route as “very strenuous” when performed over three days -- and we did it in two. The death march began at Lake Del Valle, proceeded up a grueling hill, up more grueling hills, and continued across several more grueling hills, until we completed the 16 miles to the Sunol Backpacker’s Camp. My calves cramped, my quads cramped, and I was seriously considering cutting my legs off with a pocket knife. Fortunately (or unfortunately), one of the guys helped me ease the pain with an 800 mg Motrin and I was able to complete the 12 miles to Mission Peak on the second day. I returned home after successfully completing my first backpacking trip and things were great. Well, things were great until that 800 mg Motrin wore off. I could barely walk up and down the stairs in the house. After six weeks of physical therapy, I vowed never to put myself in that situation again. For future backpacking trips, I trained for six months, putting in the mileage on the road and running a lot of hills. Never again was I going to torture myself physically and mentally by not being in adequate physical shape. The fear of pain motivated me to put in the extra hill workouts, often late at night and often after a long day of work.

As I noted previously, I’m planning on pacing a friend on her 100 mile race (assuming I don’t die trying to get into shape in only four months). My “pacing” will consist of 20-30 miles, at high elevation, and with several thousand feet of elevation gain. Once again, the fear of pain is motivating me to put in the training hours. After a cautious five mile run on the Pleasanton Ridge on Monday, I used Tuesday as a recovery day, massaging my legs with a foam roller, stretching, and wearing compression sleeves on my calves at night and during the day at work. Today, I decided to try my seven mile route on the ridge – and it felt great! Depending on how I feel later this week, I’m considering LSD for Saturday – ten miles of long, slow, distance. I need to make sure I don’t ramp up too quickly and over-train or I run the risk of injury, but based on how I felt today, I think a slow ten mile run may be feasible.

Above is a shot from my run today. Not a great one, but I liked the way the low, afternoon sun lit up the trees, creating shadows on the wonderfully green grass. Within a few months, all of this green grass will be amber.

Escaping the Daily Routine

Trees, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

A friend sent me an online article about breaking away from the mundane, day-to-day routine and actually making time to do things that are important to you. I would post a link here, but unfortunately I must have deleted the e-mail (I’ll need her to resend it). Anyway, as a result of reading the article, I set out to define the things I would like to do outside of the daily grind. One thing I wanted to do was run another trail race. The last race I ran was a 17km run at Muir Beach in December 2007 (or there about). My friend is an avid trail runner, so I asked her for recommendations. I didn’t want to schedule a race for December because it’s too cold and I wanted something sooner, so I would have motivation to begin my training immediately. She said, “Oh, you could be a pacer for me when I do my 100 miler in August.” After further discussion, I realized I would need to run 20-30 miles, at high altitude, with thousands of feet of elevation gain – clearly not what I had in mind when I asked for a suggested trail run. My four mile, flat runs with the dog were clearly not going to cut it. I would need to significantly increase the distance and intensity of my workouts, or she would be pacing me during the 100 miler.

I resumed my trail running on the Pleasanton Ridge a few weeks ago, but unfortunately developed Achilles Tendinitis. This was clearly caused by increasing my mileage and hill work too quickly. After a week of resting, icing, massaging, stretching, and ibuprofen, I decided to give the ridge another try today. I ran/walked my five mile route, walking up the hills to minimize the strain on my Achilles, and stretching frequently. I also stopped on occasion for some photographs. The afternoon light created nice photo opportunities of the West-facing landscape.

Here are a few photos from my training run today. I love my compact Panasonic LX5 camera and how easy it is to carry on my water bottle belt during my trail runs.

Mike Shimansky Pole Vault Meet

Cleared It!, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

After shooting film predominantly for the last twelve months, I switched to my digital SLR this spring for the kids’ sports seasons. My son pole vaults for the high school track team and my daughter plays softball in the local recreational league. In the past week, I’ve shot two track meets and a softball game, and I’ve forgotten how long it takes to post-process these photos. While I’ve been up late three nights this week staring at my computer screen and processing photos, my wife ran off with our pool boy. I’m actually just kidding, we don’t have a pool…she ran off with someone else’s pool boy!

Kevin participated in the Mike Shimansky Pole Vault Meet at San Ramon Valley High School today. This is an informal meet, with everyone having a lot of fun, and even the coaches joining in on the vaulting. Since it’s an informal meet, Kevin opened his vaults at 11 feet. He PR’ed (Personal Record) 11 feet several times recently and decided he’d focus his energy on besting 11 feet. Now it takes big cahones to open at one’s PR, but he decided to go big or go home. Unfortunately, today wasn’t his day and he wasn’t the best company for the few hours following the meet. But, no apologies needed. I love intensity, passion, and dedication, and being upset for a less than stellar performance means one has these traits. Besides, I’ve been married for twenty years, so I know how to keep my mouth shut for the drive home when the person in the passenger’s seat is pissed off!

Here are a few photos from today’s action. One of the things I like about these informal meets is I get to photograph from inside the track. This gives me the freedom to get closer to the action and shoot it from perspectives not normally possible from outside the fence.

Granada HS Track Meet

Cleared, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

The Amador Valley track team traveled to Livermore for a track meet at Granada High School. It took a few hours for the girls and JV pole vaulters to finish, so the varsity boys were vaulting under the lights. This meant two things -- I would be pushing the limits of my camera, shooting at high ISO in the dark, and I would be a bit chilly, wearing shorts and slippers.

Here are a few photos from the meet.

The Winter Sierra

39/52 - Campsite at Lake Aloha, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

Over the years, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, backpacking the John Muir Trail (JMT) and sections of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) during the summer months, and leading several Boy Scout backpacking trips. I particularly enjoy the high Sierra, with the clear lakes and creeks, beautiful granite peaks, and cool, crisp air. These mountains hold a special place in my heart and will likely be my final resting place one day. The high Sierra is incredible, but I’ve recently been introduced to a new Sierra experience – the winter Sierra.

The snow transforms the Sierra landscape into a winter wonderland. I love how the trees and granite contrast against the clean, white snow. While the views are postcard perfect in color, nothing brings out the beauty like black and white photography. My camera of choice this season was the Nikon FM2, coupled with Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AI-S and 35mm f/2 AI-S lenses, and Kodak BW400CN B&W film.

Shooting in the snow is pretty simple – meter off the snow and increase the exposure by 1.5 to 2 stops (assuming the scene is in the same light). Camera exposure meters try to make everything medium gray, so it will typically underexpose pure, white snow (and overexpose dark, black subjects). Not the most technical and elaborate explanation, but basically if metering off snow, increase the exposure to get the “correct” exposure and if metering off a predominantly black subject, decrease the exposure. I noticed a friend’s compact, digital camera had a “snow” mode, which took care of the exposure compensation for these snow scenes auto-magically.

Another technique I frequently use for my landscape work is the hyperfocal distance. Using a wide angle lens (e.g., 24mm or 35mm), I set my aperture to f/16 or f/22 and use the depth of field scale on my lens to set the hyperfocal distance. This creates huge depth of field, providing “acceptable” sharpness from near to infinity. The only issue is a slight loss of sharpness when shooting at f/22, due to diffraction. Unfortunately, many of the modern auto-focus lenses don’t have depth of field scales on them, which is why I love my old Nikon manual focus lenses.

Okay, enough technical talk. Here are a few pictures from my trip last weekend to the Desolation Wilderness, near South Lake Tahoe, California. We parked at the Echo Lake Sno-Park and started our snowshoe trip at Echo Lake. It was a nice six mile trek to Lake Aloha, with Pyramid Peak providing a wonderful backdrop. Many of my photos here were shot using the hyperfocal distance.

Vipers Lose a Close One

Pre-game Meeting, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

The Vipers lost a close game today at the Pleasanton Sports Park. The visiting Vipers came out swinging in the first inning, sending the home team running for cover. Unfortunately, untimely errors and mental mistakes cost them the game. The season is still young, so there will be many more games to win.

Here are a few photos from the game.


Emily hit a nice double, bringing in a run.


Theresa played incredible defense today at 3B and CF.


Theresa didn't mind running over the opposing third base coach in order to catch the foul ball.


Emily played a great game behind the plate, keeping the wild pitches in front of her.


Emily displaying her great swing.


Ball, low in the dirt.


No matter what the sport, my kids always seem to know when I'm snapping their pictures.

2013 PGSL Vipers

38/52 - Foul Ball, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims, of course!

Spring is here, which means the weather is warming, flowers are blooming, and softball season is here! The Pleasanton Girls Softball League (PGSL) season kicked off last weekend with opening day and the Vipers are ready to strike. Kami pitched a nice game today, firing off strikes...just like a deadly Viper. If you haven't figured it out, her team name is the Vipers.

Here are a few photos from today's game.


Kami firing off a fast ball.


It was a very close play, but Olivia was safe at second.


Kami on deck and all smiles.


Theresa and Olivia in the dugout.


Umpire doing his chores.

The Essence of Guam

Polutan and Beer, a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

I traveled to Guam last week on business to meet with a few corporate customers, departing the San Francisco International Airport on Monday morning and arriving in Guam on Tuesday evening. My coworker and I stayed in the Marriott in Tumon. Although I have family in Guam, I usually stay in a hotel with the rest of the sales team because we frequently have customer dinners and activities in the evenings, and logistically, it makes it easier. After three days of meetings, I checked out of the hotel and headed to visit my brother in-law for the weekend.

JR lives in Barrigada, where he runs the business he took over when his father passed away a few years ago. Tumon and the house in Barrigada are like two different countries, seemingly thousands of miles and several decades apart. Nestled in the South Pacific, Guam is known as the “poor man’s Hawaii” for Asian tourists and continuing this analogy, Tumon is like the “poor man’s Waikiki.” Tumon has a number of large US hotels, like Hyatt and Marriott, high-end stores, and nice restaurants, each catering to the Asian tourist. In contrast, the house in Barrigada is off the main road and off the beaten path. Behind the main house is a “barracks” where the workers reside. The barracks is a rather humble structure, adjacent to a little forested area.

The last time I was in Guam, I felt a bit alienated at the house. As the only non-Filipino and the only non-Tagalog (Filipino language) speaking person, I felt largely left out of the conversations. This time, I tried harder to interact and communicate with the group. They struggled at times putting their thoughts into English and I struggled at times trying to understand. We did, however, manage to bond, using the common glue that brings different cultures together – lots of Bud Light and soju!

On the first night, I sensed I was being measured up and watched (although probably not the case). After a lot of beer and several rounds of soju (Korean liquor), one of the guys asked JR in Tagalog how I was doing. JR translated and I told him I was doing great. Ansel Adams recalled a story in his autobiography of a client who wanted to hire him for some commercial photography work. The client’s well-known methodology was to bring in the photographer and share a number of rounds of brandy before negotiations. The idea was to get the photographer intoxicated such that he would agree to a more favorable fee. Ansel, aware of this tactic, stopped by the local restaurant before visiting the client and ate a large, greasy hamburger, with French fries dipped in mayonnaise. The coating of fat in his stomach would slow the absorption of alcohol into his system and give him the upper hand during the negotiations. After multiple rounds of brandy, the client ended up intoxicated and Ansel Adams got his desired fee. In similar fashion, I ignored my high cholesterol and triglycerides, and consumed large quantities of pork ribs and chicken. After a case of Bud Light and three and a half bottles of soju, there were three people passed out, and JR and I left at the table...doing great. We polished off the bottle of soju and went to bed.

The next night, the guys prepared a traditional Filipino dish, banana heart sisig. Joel lashed a kitchen knife to a broom stick and secured two banana hearts from the trees in the back. Billy then prepared the dish, with chili peppers from the yard, onion, pork, garlic, and vinegar. I enjoyed watching them prepare the simple meal on the small butane stove outside the barracks and thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Billy was surprised I tried the dish and was even more surprised I liked it. The onion, garlic, and vinegar are common to a number of Filipino dishes, so the flavors weren’t anything different than I was already familiar with.

I think the best way to gain acceptance with unfamiliar people, especially while traveling, is to eat and drink with them. After a couple of nights of Bud Light, soju, and great local foods, I felt a part of the group. Chris asked if they could call me Kuya Wayne – Kuya being a Filipino term used as a sign of respect to an older male relative or family friend. As a non-Filipino, I took this as an honor, a sign of being accepted into the group.

Guam isn’t about a fancy hotel, sunning on a white, sandy beach, or dining in an upscale restaurant. It isn’t taking a tour bus to Talofofo Falls, having a hamburger at Jeff’s Pirates Cove, or visiting Two Lovers Point. The true essence of Guam, or the essence of any location, is quality time spent interacting with the locals, in their humble homes, eating the local foods, and really getting to know the people and their culture. I had a great time in Guam, but now that I'm home, it's time to work off the five pounds I gained...the diet starts tomorrow!

Here are a few photos from the trip.


The "barracks" in Barrigada, where the workers reside.


Chris cooking up a local favorite.


JR, Chris, and Joel


Two Dogs and a Ford (AKA, Three Dogs)


Last night in Guam (in a Filipino bar)


One of the dogs that roams the property


Things I photograph while drinking


Old school clothesline


JR lighting a pallet to keep the mosquitoes away


Tumon Bay at night


Tumon Bay