Wetlands

Decided to give myself a break and got up a little later at 5:30 AM. Considered going kayaking, in fact was about to depart and then decided I had too much to do. Besides, at this early time, I felt it was important to keep my routine going especially after I discovered that it is much more pleasant to go running outdoors than to do the substitute indoor aerobic routine. Stuck to my routine of boring oatmeal with cinnamon and coffee. Of course I love the coffee.


So I took to the trail at the wetlands. I started at 8:23 AM and finished up at 9:38 AM. I made it a combo walk/run and used the heart rate monitor as my guide. I kept my heart rate between 120 and 154 with only a couple of peaks into the 164 range. This seemed so easy yet the rule of thumb, 220 - AGE = 172 * 70% means I should only be exercising in the 120 BPM range. So, even on my easy days, it seems I am in danger of dropping dead. Oh well, like I said before, this will either get me in shape or it will kill me.

80% of the people encountered on this trail were happy to acknowledge and greet me when we passed. This might be due to the time of day I was out.

I saw a coyote searching the fields, a seagull pecking at a fair sized yellowfin croaker, a few egrets, a few herons and quite a mix of ducks. I didn't see any fish swimming. Often times, you can see large schools of fish at the flood gates with an occasional very large fish swimming up from the bottom. The schools are usually smelt, yellowfin croaker, sargo, spotfin croaker and often you will see packs of mullet. Also at certain times I have seen many stingrays and sometimes smooth greyhound sharks. The really large fish that come up every now and then must be either stripers or white seabass. They are about 3' long. Now I know mullet get this size, the particular fish I am referring to are not mullet.