Sunbernal

Today run­ning up Bernal there was not so much haze as the first time and no clouds at all in the sky. One would think I’d be smart enough to wear sun­block, but actu­al­ly no. I’ve been ambiva­lent about my sun­block, which I used to be a huge fan of until I read about recent research which indi­cates that sun­block with oxy­ben­zone may cause DNA dam­age and can­cer, both of which I’d rather avoid. Not that run­ning in the hot sun with­out sun­screen isn’t its own can­cer risk. I’d prob­a­bly bet­ter just switch brands.

Did I run the whole way up? No. I did, how­ev­er, get a half block far­ther before drop­ping to a walk than I did the last time. A half block may not sound like much, but it’s a half block of a side­walk at 26% grade, so I’ll take that as a vic­to­ry, or at least good progress.

After reach­ing the top of Bernal Heights Sum­mit I came down the path on the West side rather than con­tin­u­ing down the road. It’s more fun to nav­i­gate the grav­el and rocks than tromp down the pave­ment. I guess that means I should real­ly try trail running.

Com­ing down the hill I found it was hard for me to let myself go very fast. That means I was spend­ing a lot of ener­gy slow­ing myself down. I wish I were at the point where I could trust my legs to keep me up at what­ev­er speed the down­hill takes me, but that has­n’t hap­pened. Just some­thing else to work on.