Trying to Salvage the Week

As predicted yesterday, the trails around me are still closed. To give you an idea of the amount and severity of the rain, a normal average year's rainfall in Newport Beach is 11.3 inches (yes - that's per year folks - we *do* live in a desert). So far, since the first of the storms came through on Monday, we have received almost 5 inches. That's almost half of our normal annual rainfall in 5 days. I think I've been in Chicago when it seemed to rain that much in a day, and I *know* I've been in Miami when it has. Here though, we are not set up to deal with this much rain. Our storm drains really struggle to keep up with the deluges, and some of the low lying areas (like Long Beach where chicrunner documented some of the flooding) have further issues because at high tide, there isn't a natural flow toward the ocean.

So, water is flowing like a mutha in the flood channels, mud flows have come down the cliffs along the back bay, and high tide and high surf have flooded the beach trails. All of my standard trails are closed and will probably remain so for another day or so. I don't own a treadmill - when you have 330 days of sunny weather a year why? I also let my 24 hour fitness membership go because I just never used it. So, I'm relegated to being flexible with my schedule and doing what I can when I can.

Last night it was the rowing machine again. 5 minute warm up, then 5 sets of 5 minutes on, 4 minutes rest, followed by a 5 minute warm down. Total distance - 7.5 kilometers (4.66 miles) in 55 minutes (including rest). Another workout that had me dripping. I'm hoping to hit the hills tonght, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

Finally, I wanted to let you now that I've actually been asked by someone to checkout and review some product! Yup! Who would have thought? One of the sponsors of the Firecracker 10K is Injinji, and I've been asked to review a pair of their performance socks:

They look strange enough - my wife's first comment was that she didn't think I had chimpanzee feet. Ha ha. (I think she was kidding.) I'll be taking them for a spin over the next couple of weeks - short runs, long runs, etc. I'm most interested in seeing if they are comfortable, don't result in blisters, and most importantly, wick moisture. They should be smelling like a toxic dump in no time!