Training Log Archive: Yvonne

Short sunrise run from house to the St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve trails. Walked through the super-fluff sugar sand sections. Ran through the rare hardwood coastal hammock w/ primeval oaks draped w/ spanish moss. Amazing how only a few feet of elevation gain result in all these ecosystem changes. My feet are pretty hammered from all the super-fine sand of the past week. It seeps through every fabric pore. Need another week or so for my skin to adapt, but alas, we leave today.

Obtained backcountry permit to hike a small portion of the wilderness preserve trail in St. Joseph Peninsula S.P. Thought the permit and gentle interrogation by the ranger was a bit much...until I got a mile or so under my belt. Very fluffy, deep "sugar sand" the whole way plus unrelenting sun and heat up and down dunes and through scrub pine forest made for some pretty extreme conditions. Brought a full 100 ounce bladder of water and consumed over half of it just in this little hike. I can understand why 2 had been evacuated from heat exhaustion this week. BUT - the most spectacular FL wilderness experience I've ever had. Extremely unique and isolated/undeveloped area. At one point I slogged up and down a bunch of huge white dunes resembling a moonscape that opened up onto a 200' wide beach with a gazillion perfect shells, aqua colored water, and not a soul in sight either direction for miles. The trail continued for another 5+ mi. but I was out of time and had to turn back. Hope to finish it another time!

C • way cool. how few people ap... 3

I had stashed the scooter in the woods near the trailhead. Retrieved it to get to the southern part of the park to join the fam who had been snorkeling in the bay. They saw pufferfish! Plus tons of crabs, sea urchins, starfish and scallops.

Morning beach/bike path run. Nice and breezy. Ocean became slightly more aggressive today w/ 4' waves which were really too much for the kiddos. The nice thing about Cape S.B. is that gentle St. Joseph Bay is a mere 30 sec. away on the other side of this skinny peninsula. So we spent the day snorkeling in the shallow sandy sea grass beds. Very healthy marine community - clear water and tons of little critters to look at and touch.

Forgot to tape my blister and realized it about 1 mi. in when my foot started barking. Stopped when I felt too much damage was being done and hiked the rest of the way back on the beach.

Hobbled hike back to house.

Sets of 10 pushups and 10 burpees, x10; on beach at waters edge while waiting for sun to go down so we could look for ghost crabs and other evening critters.

Scootering south on the peninsula past wildlife refuge. Tailwind out, headwind back.

So hot. So humid. So sweaty. And so slow. Not handling the conditions particularly well.

Bodyboarding into the evening. Logging about one third time. So fun. Everyone loving the ocean.

Short barefoot beach run to help work off giant seafood dinner. BONUS - right when I finished, we got word from the university turtle-researchers (stationed behind our house) that a loggerhead nest was hatching and baby turtles were all over the beach. So we scampered down the way to watch the show. Federally protected sea turtle nests are all along this beach (including one under our deck) but we weren't expecting to see them hatch. Incredible treat.

C • Incredible treat? I hope t... 2

Didn't have room for the bike, but brought the scooter! Early morning scootering up the Cape San Blas peninsula to the state park and back. Kinda strange spot here -- technically eastern time zone but doesn't start getting light until 6:30 AM.

Jog to Richardson Hammock near house. Slog through some sand and back.

Bodyboarding! Tons o' waves -- very lucky that we happened upon this weather. Beautiful sun AND waves. Logging prob about one-third time. We were out there a long time. Kiddos POOPED. We're working them hard!

Morning beach run. Sand -- oof. Heat and humidity @ 7AM -- double oof. Plus got a good-sized blister from running off-kilter on beach. Half sand, half paved.

- 120 pushups (10 sets of 10; last set was 20)
- 2:00 plank routine
- static stretching

Bodyboarding - logging half time.