CasITa-to-5k At Dockweiler Beach

The CasITa-to-5k went running on the Marvin Braude Bikeway at Dockweiler Beach last night.

The Los Angeles City Recreation and Parks Department named the Marvin Braude Bikeway in honor of the former Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude in recognition of his efforts to develop the bike path and beach facilities.

The 22.3 mile path, commonly referred to as the South Bay or Santa Monica Bike Paths, spans from Pacific Palisades to Torrance.

With autumn, the days are shorter and the sun was already setting when we arrived at the beach. We marveled at the beautiful shades of red and orange cast across the evening sky from the illumination of the setting sun.

As we ran along the coast, aircrafts taking off from LAX flew overhead. We saw a huge British Airways 787 that dwarfed all the other planes.

My legs felt heavy and fatigued. I wondered if this was a result of all the exhausting one-legged squats from kickboxing that morning or if I was still tired from the weekend long run.

Either way, I was grateful each time Mr. Green Garmin beeped to indicate a walk interval.

As we ran, we observed the fiery sphere descending into the horizon and stared at the reflection on the ocean's surface.

CasITa-to-5k Polliwog Park Run

The CasITa-to-5k ran around Polliwog Park last night.

Polliwog Park is an 18 acre park that includes a grassy amphitheater, a botanical garden, a natural wildlife refuge, an outdoor gym under a shade canopy, a pool, multiple playgrounds, a 9-hole disc golf course, winding footpaths, and a large duck pond.

The park's pond serves as an important environmental resource. Local storm water flows into the pond before being pumped into the storm drain system.

This process allows trash in the storm water to settle and be removed before flowing to the ocean. In addition, some of the storm water is absorbed into the ground and provides nutrients for the park's wildlife.

We looped around the park, alternating between 3 minutes of jogging and 1 minute of walking.

At one point, CasITa-to-5k was forced to stop at an unmarked duck crossing.

We followed the walkway past Begg Pool and around to the Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden.

The grounds serve as a demonstration garden for drought-tolerant plants, water saving irrigation technology, and sustainable gardening and landscaping. Free classes are offered on a regular basis.

Water flowed down a small rock waterfall in the center of the garden.

Signage identified the colorful indigenous plants and explained how native plants help restore the ecological balance.

CasITa-to-5k was careful to take only pictures and leave only footprints.

CasITa-to-5k Run and Super Harvest Moon

The CasITa-to-5k ran on the Veterans Parkway wood chip path last night.

It was a beautiful Southern California evening for a run and the path was alive with walkers, pets on leashes, and runners.

We started off with our usual brisk walk to warm-up and then moved into the intervals of running and walking.

As we were running, we spotted a set of lost keys hanging from one of the The Mariposa Pathway Butterfly Totems.

After our run, we drove down to the beach to catch a glimpse of the harvest moon.

Yesterday marked the September equinox, also known as the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. An equinox occurs twice a year and is when the center of the Sun is in the same plane as the Earth's equator.

The full moon nearest the September equinox is referred to as the harvest moon.

This year, the harvest moon appeared on the same night as the autumnal equinox - a phenomenon that has not occured since 1991 and will not happen again until 2029.

As the summer sun set last night, its rays blended with the rising autumn moon to create a unique twilight.

From the beach, only the setting sun was visible so we headed over to Sand Dune Park for a higher vantage point.

At the base of the dunes, we looked up and caught a glimpse of the setting sun in the distance.

We climbed the seemingly endless flights of stairs to the top, stopping periodically to catch our breath and admire the beauty of the full moon.

From the top of the sand dunes, we observed the changing colors of the round moon and the night sky.

The Japanese believe there is a moon rabbit, also known as 月の兎 or Jade Rabbit, that pounds rice to make mochi. As we gazed into the twilight, I fixated on the dark shadows in the sphere and tried to envision a rabbit making rice cakes.

CasITa-to-5k On The Veterans Parkway

The CasITa-to-5k headed over to Veterans Parkway for our run tonight.

Veterans Parkway is also known as the Hermosa Valley Greenbelt. It is a former railroad corridor that has been converted to a 21 acre park with a wood chip rail trail.

A section of railroad track is still visible in the Fry's Electronics parking lot and is a remnant of the Santa Fe railroad line that was built back in 1888.

We parked and walked timorously under the ominous Sepulveda Blvd. overpass to the beginning of the trail.

Once the path was in view, its quiet beauty calmed our nerves and we eased into our brisk warm-up walk.

This was my first time running on shredded bark so I wasn't sure what to expect but it was similar to running on a sandy trail.

We followed the path as it ran through a strip of lush greenery.

We spotted several butterfly sculptures that were part of the 'The Mariposa Pathway Butterfly Totems' public artwork. The totems were created to honor the trail's Monarch butterflies.

The green way even featured posts with prominent 1/4 mile markers.

The dark marine layer that had blanketed the city all day lifted and the bright blue sky shined through the haze.

Signs indicated leashed dogs were allowed on the path but bikes were forbidden.

As we headed south, large homes and businesses bordered the path on either side.

At this point, the chip path essentially became a traffic island.

When we reached Downtown Manhattan Beach, we were unsure how to navigate the intersections.

The first time we crossed, we obeyed all the street signals and followed the blue paths.

On the way back, we sprinted behind another runner across several lanes of traffic and narrowly dodged the vehicles speeding by.

The view back into the Fry's parking lot from the trail was not nearly as inauspicious as our initial impression from the other side.

I'm looking forward to revisiting this trail in the future and running it in its entirety.

CasITa-to-5k Stair Workout

The CasITa-to-5k did some stair work at the local LA Metro station yesterday before our run.

Over 300 artists have been commissioned for Metro projects since the Metro Art Department was established in 1989.

A couple of years ago, I attended one of the LA Metro Art Tours. The two hour tours are led by volunteer docents and offered the first Thursday, Saturday and Sunday of every month. Included with the tour is a free rail day pass.

From the LA Metro Art Tour website, Metro’s Docent Council is a group of volunteers committed to increasing awareness of the broad range of art in the Metro Rail system through public tours that provide insights into the artworks, the artists who created them, the processes it took to make them, and the communities they enhance. While docent programs are commonly found at museums around the world, Metro is the first transit agency to benefit from such a program.

I found the Metro Art Tour fascinating. I had no idea so much history was embedded in each station. At the Hollywood/Vine Station, actual movie reels line the walls.

The Douglas/Rosecrans Station was designed by Renée Petropoulos from Escudero-Fribourg Architects.

Petropoulos said, People who use this station are daily commuters who work in this area. I wanted the various aspects of this station to reveal themselves over time, for the station to be experienced as a giant art piece in which the understanding of the whole is reached through daily encounters with each of its elements. I chose to focus on the idea of location—places that identify you in terms of where you are in the city, in the country, in the world—including psychological location. I wanted to pose some questions about monuments or markers as identifiers, including seeing the station as a possible landmark.

We went up and down the sets of stairs. Reading the quotes on the steps helped take our minds off the burning sensation in our legs.

When we felt like we couldn't climb another step, we headed to the parking lot to start our intervals. We skipped the brisk walk warm-up since we did the stairs and repeated the Week One schedule with 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking.

Cool Running Couch-to-5k Printable Schedule

When I decided I wanted to be able to participate and complete a 5k race, I searched online for training advice. The Cool Running Couch-to-5k Running Plan seemed to be the most popular. And I loved that it was specifically geared for non-athletes like me.

I wanted to print out the weekly schedule so I could reference it as I did each run but I couldn't figure out a way to do that without reproducing the table and parsing it up myself.

By registering with the Cool Running website, I was able to get a personalized sheet for that day but I couldn't seem to print it all out ahead of time. I finally ended up logging in once a day for a week to get the entire schedule by changing my account settings so I got all nine weeks. Then, I pasted them together.

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7
• Week 8
• Week 9

If this is helpful to anyone, please help yourself.