Great Aloha Run Training: Week 2

This week I realized – or experienced, I should say because I already knew this – that when you go from running maybe once a week to running 4 times a week leads to pain. My shoulder is still giving me problems from an unknown jiu-jitsu injury, my left knee is sore, and now my lower back hurts. The lower back concerns me the most because that could sideline me from any type of physical activity. It's from running. I pushed too hard too early. My body didn't have enough time to adjust to the impact of running on pavement, hence why all the aches and pains. I knew I'd have to take it easy this week to let myself heal but I didn't want to do nothing at all so here's how last week went:

Tuesday - I ended work early so I went to Ala Moana for a run. I started at 3:30pm, the sun was still out. It's been a while since I've ran in the afternoon and it was nice to have the sun beaming down offering its warmth...yeah right, are you kidding? It was hot, sticky, and down right uncomfortable. I ran 4 miles or so, not really sure. I debated pushing the pace but ended up doing a maintenance run on account of my sore back. Oh, in case you don't know a “maintenance run” is running-lingo for an easy run at a steady pace. Hopefully I'll heal a bit more and I'll push the pace again later this week and on the weekend.

Part of Ala Moana Beach Park

Wednesday – Went to jiu-jitsu and rolled for 2 hours...there went the hope of taking it easy and healing a bit more. It's damn near impossible to take it easy at jiu-jitsu especially when there's a tournament coming up on the weekend. We did some pretty intense drills. I left with my back a little aggravated, my left ankle tweaked awkwardly somehow, and my big toe got smashed. The toe is still purple as I write this. Despite the added injuries it was a damn good workout. On the upside, my buddy Dan was rolling and he's a big time yoga guy and a personal trainer. I asked him how I can stretch my lower back. His advice: upward and downward dog every day. I've been doing those stretches daily and it's been helping a lot. He also recommended keeping up the stretching even after it's healed because those stretches will help prevent future injury. Good to know, thanks!

Thursday – Swam 400 yards at the Moanalua pool. I'm pretty jacked up from getting beat up on the mats Wednesday and my back is still sore but I wanted to do something active. I needed somethingwith little to no impact so I headed to the pool! The workout started off well but then the nagging shoulder injury reminded me it's still there when I started having problems with my arm strokes. I wanted to swim 1000+ yards but ended up cutting the it short at 400 yards. Hey, at least I did something right?

Friday – Maintenance run at Ala Moana. I ran a little under 3 miles at a very steady pace. I focused a lot on my form and trying to run smooth without so much bouncing up and down. Didn't have so much pain in my back and my knee felt okay. I should be good to pick it back up next week...I hope.

The week was sore and painful but at least I was able to keep up some decent training. Also, no joke about those yoga stretches, my back is feeling pretty good right now. I also picked up a good lower back exercise from a jiu-jitsu video I found on YouTube, which I've incorporated into my workout. A little strengthening should keep the soreness at bay...plus it'll help prevent any long term injury, always a plus!

Odd as it sounds, the pain and injury was part of my workout plan. I knew my body would have to get used to the impact involved with running on concrete so my sores aren't a big surprise. I just think of it as growing pains...annoying but necessary. Although I was hoping they'd go away without so much fuss...

Great Aloha Run Training: Week 1

I'm dedicating a few blogs over the next month to my training for the Great Aloha Run. For those who don't know, the Great Aloha Run is an 8.15 mile run starting in downtown Honolulu ending in Aloha Stadium (where the Pro-Bowl is played). I figure these blogs will help me keep on point with training and give me a sense of accountability since everybody will be able to see if I'm slacking...don't want that. Hope you enjoy the reads. Feel free to comment, share advice or experience, let me know if I'm slacking, or whatever! Let's get to it.

One of my goals this year is to finish the Great Aloha Run in under one hour. Last year I finished in just over 1:05 so I need to shave a little over 5 minutes off of that time. However, a year ago I was routinely running at least twice a week and had been for several months leading up to the Aloha Run. This year I only started running a little over a month ago. And it was pretty inconsistent. Once a week mostly, twice if I was on it. What I knew from those runs is that my endurance is pretty good, my form needs some work, and I need to increase my speed to hit the pace to finish the Aloha Run in under an hour. Knowing those things, I just started seriously training for the run this past week. Here's how I'm doing so far.

Last week Monday I did a track workout at Punahou High School with my buddy Waimea (fun fact for those who don't know, Punahou is where President Obama went to high school). We did an interval workout running 200 meters within a certain time, and we decreased that time limit as we went. Our first set we ran 200 meters in 1 min 30 sec, which is plenty of time. Wasn't hard at all. The next interval was 1:10, picked up the pace a little bit in order to maintain at least 10 seconds of rest between intervals. The final interval was 1 min, which by that time was really difficult. We were tired out enough that it was a struggle to maintain 10 seconds of rest between each interval.

At the start, the track workout didn't seem like much because we had so much time between intervals but what it really did was tire us out. When it came time to speed up we really had to push it. By the last couple of intervals my legs burned. In total we ran 4 miles, took over 45 minutes, and it ended up being a good workout testing endurance and willpower.

Tuesday I ran a 4 mile loop around Diamond Head, an inactive volcano. Still sore from the track workout I tried to maintain a pace fast enough to feel uncomfortable. I don't have a watch so I don't know what my pace was. I just gauge based on the amount of effort I exert and if I had to guess I averaged 8:30 per mile. I stayed outside my comfort zone just a bit throughout the whole run but it wasn't so vigorous that I could walk the next day normally.

Aerial view of Diamond Head

Wednesday I didn't run but went to jiu-jitsu. Rolling is an excellent workout for conditioning and resistance but it also gave my legs a break from running.

Thursday I ran a 6 mile loop around Diamond Head (I run around Diamond Head a lot) with Waimea. Our goal was to maintain an average pace of 8:30 per mile. I just wanted to log mileage more so than work on speed but we ended up averaging 8 minutes per mile, faster than our goal. It was a nice surprise. It felt fairly comfortable.

Friday was a rest day. It was nice.

Saturday's plan was to do another track run with Waimea at Punahou. But the school was doing their admissions testing for kindergarten and the parking lots were full. Instead we went to Kapiolani to do a 4 mile run around...yep you guessed it...Diamond Head! We set a target time of 32 minutes to finish the run. That's a pace of about 8 minutes per mile. We finished the first mile, which is almost entirely uphill, in 7:22. Not bad. The second mile is flat with a few declines. We finished mile 2 in 7:10. Our third mile was slower, somewhere around 8:30. I'm not sure what the fourth mile was exactly but I finished the run at 30:32, well below the target of 32 minutes. I ran at a pace of 7:38 per mile, not bad, but I was struggling at the beginning. It was really tough to keep up with Waimea, who was pace-setting, the first mile and a half. I started to get my wind during the third mile and felt comfortable for most of the fourth mile. But the last half mile was really tough for me. I try to open up my stride and speed up during the last half mile, then speed up more the last quarter mile, and sprint as best I can the last 50 meters. Didn't work so well this time. My legs were burning and felt heavy like they were filled with sand. I sped up a little but I didn't finish as strong as I would like to. Gonna have to work on my finish.

Week 1 felt pretty good. I ran 4 times and pushed the pace on a few runs. In order to finish the Aloha Run in under an hour I'll need to run all 8.15 miles at an average of 7:20 per mile. It's going to take an effort to get there but I think I'm in range. My idea is to get to 4 miles at that pace, then 6 miles. I figure if I can do 6 miles at 7:20 per mile I'll have a good shot at lasting the whole 8.15 at that pace.

Things to work on: smoother stride, stronger finish, increasing speed. I think I'll do one or two shorter runs at a fast pace – maybe 1 or 2 miles at 7 min per mile – just to get the feel of running at that speed. Hopefully it'll carry over to the longer distance runs. Bring on week 2!

New Year, New Ways

All right, my first blog of 2012! I've been doing this blogging thing for a year now. Hopefully somebody's enjoying it. The holiday season of 2011 was awesome and way, way too short...another indication that it was also way, way awesome. Spent time with friends, spent time on Kaua'i with family, and had a blast with both. New years was fun too. The state banned all fireworks this year so naturally there were tons of fireworks going off everywhere. Good times!

Last year I made an effort to try new things. Top of the list was Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with the Gracie Barra University. I stuck with that all year and plan to keep it up. I also wrote a number of blogs and have worked almost daily on a novel I aim to publish, an endeavor I began a year ago. The whole writing a book thing is about as hard as I thought it would be, which is pretty damn hard. Still have a lot of work to do there. I also made a number a new friends and went on many awesome hikes.

So I don't want to get caught up reflecting on the past year so I'll switch gears and look ahead. Things to continue? Jiu-jitsu: a must. Hiking: absolutley! Writing: always. But I want to put a twist on things somehow. Haven't figured that part out yet...I know I want to better understand jiu-jitsu. Begin to develop my style more refined to fit me. Maybe that will open my eyes up to see how, conceptually at least, the gentle art applies to daily life off the mats. By the way, I'm starting a separate blog dedicated to jiu-jitsu so keep your eyes open for that. With my writing my goal is to finish the first draft of my book by the end of the year. I'm about halfway through right now but have been experiencing a lot more writer's block lately. It's gonna be tough but I'm sticking it out.

I'll keep this one brief. Thank you to everybody who played a role in 2011...if you're reading this that includes you, thanks. And to my friends and family who stick by me, much mahalos. And of course, happy new year to all!

Jiu-Jitsu, One Year Later

One year to the day (at the time of writing) I walked into Gracie Barra University for the very first time. And what a journey it's been since. I still remember that first day too. I was nervous and had no idea what to expect. I also couldn't find the place and had to call for directions (I drove by the building twice without realizing it). Donning an oversized rental gi and clueless about what to do I hit the mats for my first lesson. A Brazilian guy with a black belt, shaved head, and thick accent came out. Professor Caveirinha taught us a hip-throw, sit-up sweep, and kimura.

It was awesome to learn a submission. Something I'd seen in UFC and MMA fights. I was stoked. And the technique flowed smoothly. Just that one technique and I began to understand how movement and leverage could overcome size and strength. I was hooked. After training, Gamba pulled me into an office to talk. He asked if I could come back the next day for another class: absolutely!

That first day I went in nervous about the possibility of getting hurt, the closeness at which we'd train, not performing well, not knowing what to do, the type of people that would be there, the list goes on and on. I was immediately struck by how friendly and helpful everybody was. I didn't feel like I was being judged at all. It didn't take long at all to feel comfortable at GB. The training was physical and bruises came easily and often but I quickly learned that injuries are few. I can tap out at any time and my partner will stop whatever they're doing. Even if I'm not fully caught in a submission, if I know it's coming or just feel really uncomfortable I can tap and end the discomfort without enduring any pain. I can stay in control of what's going on to a pretty good degree. And the closeness thing, I got over it quickly...really no choice about that.

I've entered two competitions since joining. Didn't win a single match. All good though. My instructors supported me the whole way and focused more on gaining from the experience than winning or losing. Not sure if I'll enter another competition anytime soon. I'm finding that competition isn't as important to me as learning and understanding jiu-jitsu. I don't feel I need to compete to do that when there are plenty of skilled training partners at GB already.

Gracie Barra has done quite a bit for me in the past year. More than I can write here so I'll just glance over the highlights. First, and most obvious, I learned some jiu-jitsu. Triangle, armbar, kimura, and a few other submissions. I know how they work and every now and then I can catch somebody in one. I watch MMA and UFC fights on a different level than before. I can recognize submission set ups and understand ground game techniques and positioning, which is pretty cool.

One of the reasons I joined jiu-jitsu was for fitness. And let me say, it will get you fit. Only Bikram Yoga had me sweating more than jiu-jitsu and that's only because Bikram takes place in a room heated to 111 degrees. Rolling (the hip way to refer to jiu-jitsu) leaves me more drained from the workout though. Here's a more practical way to put it: I use a belt to keep my pants up, I tightened it to the 3^rd hole for a snug fit when I first began jiu-jitsu. After two weeks of rolling 3-4 times each week I had to tighten the belt to the 4^th hole. Within two months I trimmed down enough to use the 5^th hole on the belt. Yeah, rolling will up your fitness.

The people I've met at Gracie Barra are great and I made some new friends over the past year. Some of those outside of jiu-jitsu and martial arts often have a preconceived notion that if you're training jiu-jitsu or muay thai you must be training to be a fighter, and if you're a fighter you're of a certain, rough around the edges, personality type. Troubled youth, tattooed, surrounded by chaos. Ya know, that type of thing. Not the case at Gracie Barra. The people I train with are pretty laid back, pleasantly casual people doing their own thing. Most of the time you wouldn't even know they trained a martial art just looking at them.

The blend of personalities make for great training and diversity on the mats. I'm even starting to see how some personalities translate through their own jiu-jitsu style (that might make a good blog, more on it later).

What else has jiu-jitsu done for me? Reminders of humility, a dash of discipline, and a nice dose of stress relief. But by far the most important thing I've gotten out of it is a boost of confidence. I walk a little taller, can look people in the eye, I feel a little better about myself, I speak a little more clearly, and some of those butterflies that have made a home in my gut for so long have flown away. By nature I'm a quiet, timid, shy person. I got a thick shell as they would say. I've been working for years to break that shell, or at least thin it down, by trying to go outside of my comfort zones and force myself to work through difficult situations. Jiu-jitsu has done the most to crack that shell.

That boost of confidence has resonated through every aspect of my life. At work I've taken on new roles and volunteered for things that I would have avidly avoided a year ago like giving a presentation to an audience of over a hundred people. I'm more apt to initiate conversations with new people when in the past I would remain quiet unless spoken to. It's even affected my writing. I share my writing, my blogs, and I don't mind letting it be known that my ambition is to publish a novel, which I am currently working on.

I promote jiu-jitsu and the Gracie Barra University often. I always encourage those who are interested to give it a try. Most people are apprehensive about it because of the closeness and the thought of getting hurt. But I let them know it's safe, the instructors are very understanding, and the people who train there are friendly and helpful. I say is if you're even slightly interested in trying jiu-jitsu, come down to Gracie Barra and try out a class. Just try it. There's nothing to lose and so much to gain. It's worth a shot.

Xterra Trail Run

The day began at 5am. My phone alarm blared in my ear and I fumbled around with my TV remote thinking it was my phone. Took a couple minutes to figure things out. But something was off. It was still dark. I'm not used to waking up when the sun hasn't risen yet which meant there was something important going on today. I got out of bed, ate a light breakfast, drank some water, gathered my things, drank some more water, and headed out to Kualoa Ranch. Today was my first trail run.

Sunrise at Kualoa Ranch looking at Chinaman's Hat

I signed up for the 5k event at the Xterra Trail Run Series. A little background about the event: Xterra hosts a series of trail running events, mostly half-marathon distances, across the globe and the event held in Hawaii's Kualoa Ranch is the final Championship event. In addition to the half-marathon final, there's also 10k and 5k events. I did the 5k, which is just a little over 3 miles.

I got out to Kualoa as the sun rose. I parked and looked to meet up with some friends. The first thing I saw when I stepped out of my car was a solid pile of cow turd. Those things were all over the parking area, the staging area, even the course. Mind your step, don't want to slip in one of those things.

Before the races began there were some military guys skydiving onto the field. I think they were Rangers because one of their parachutes said “Rangers” on it. They jumped from 14,000 feet and all of them landed exactly on target. In fact, one of them did a loop with his parachute starting about 300 feet above us and swooped down perfectly, gliding about 15 feet above the ground to the landing spot. I didn't know you could do a loop with a parachute. It was pretty sweet.

Race time came. I wanted to push the run and see how good of a time I could get. I knew my conditioning would be okay for a 5k but I've only been running once a week for the past two months so I wasn't sure how well my legs would handle a difficult run. Not to mention I didn't train on any trails and not too many hills. Regardless, I was going to push myself on the run. I got to the front of the starting line with my buddy Waimea, who's a seasoned distance runner and triathlete. My strategy was to pace with him.

The start gun fired with an echoing bang and we took off. Waimea was right in front of me at the start but within five seconds he was a good 50 feet in front of me. I got swallowed in the crowd. Everybody near the front shot off fast. There went my plan to pace with Waimea. I had two choices: keep steady and pace myself, which risks being dropped from the front-runners, or push the pace and try to catch up to Waimea and the rest of the front-runners. I decided to push, that was the point after all.

I spent the first ¾ mile catching up to Waimea. It was brutal, in fact the entire first mile was brutal because it was pretty much all uphill – got me thinking I should have trained on a few hills. Those hills got my legs burning and feeling heavy. At one point I wondered if I'd be able to make it the whole way running, my legs felt so heavy. But quitting was not an option. The challenge was to push and I was not about to fail in the first mile. No way. I pumped my arms and kept moving. My lungs burned, my legs grew heavier but step-by-step I made it up the hills.

Waimea was struggling when I finally caught up to him. He shot out too quickly at the very beginning and his legs were shot. I wanted to pace with him but he told me to run ahead. Dude must have been hurting. I pushed on.

The first mile was done. Next came a long downhill. It was probably about a quarter mile of downhill over uneven ground littered with holes and cow patties. The safe thing do would be to take my time and choose my steps carefully. But I was too tired to slow down. It was way easier to let the legs go and have gravity do the work. I was leaping over holes and cow turds gaining more and more speed. It was the fastest part of the course.

Kualoa Valley

The rest of the race course didn't offer anymore challenging terrain (thank god). It was a steady trail with slight inclines and declines but nothing that could be called a hill. I settled into a steady stride, found a good pace, and went a little faster. Hey, pushing a run doesn't mean stay comfortable. I run just outside of my comfort zone. But I was able to take in the scenery. Kualoa Valley is beautiful. Lush mountains reached skyward with the sun's rays shining through a light layer of clouds. Sunny but not hot, scattered showers but no downpours. Good stuff!

Throughout the course there were a lot of turns and intersections. You have to keep a lookout for where the signs point in order to stay on the race course. A few volunteers hang out by the signs to make sure you go the right way. Thankfully there was somebody at the last turn because I didn't see the sign at all. The volunteer saw me going the wrong way and yelled for me to turn left. I quickly turned left, followed the path through some trees, hopped over some rocks and came out onto a grassy field. Just ahead of me was a lane of orange cones. I a bit further and saw the finish line about 150 yards away. I opened my stride and kicked for the finish. The crowd at the finish line was great. They cheered and clapped as I did my best to sprint across the finish line.

After the race my friends tailgated in the parking field. We had a grill for steak, chicken, and hot dogs plus several coolers of beer and Gatorade. There was also salsa, chips, salad, pumpkin crunch and I brought Ginger Ale spiked with whiskey along with a melon flavored whiskey cocktail. The tailgate was fun. Good food, good people, good times. A few of us even played a little soccer while being careful to avoid the cow patties.

My results for the 5k run: I finished in 25:46, an 8:35 per mile pace. I was 15^th overall out of 427 and 3^rd in my age group. Not too bad, I think.

I enjoyed the run. It felt good to push for time. And it was great having a group of friends there to support each other and hang out afterward. Up next is the Great Aloha Run. I'll be running that one for time too. I'll definitely have to run more than once a week to be ready. Training begins next week.

Back: Charlie, George, Norman, Ernest
Middle: Sheri, Jen (J-Badger), Greer (me), Jen
Front: Kalani, David (Waimea

Getting Game

My jiu-jitsu instructors constantly talked about developing your game when I was just starting out. Pretty much, what they meant was developing your own style of jiu-jitsu that works for you. Some prefer the top position to control their opponents. Some prefer the bottom and playing from their guard. Some prefer closed guard, some prefer open guard. But eventually something will “click” and you'll naturally evolve a style. You'll develop game. At least that what I've heard.

Ever since I became a blue belt I've been wondering what my game is. Honestly, I don't know yet. I don't really think I have one. It hasn't really clicked yet. There are a few positions I prefer and some that I'd like to be better at but I'm not entirely sure what really works for me overall. What's that fallback technique I can go to that puts me in a comfort zone? Still figuring it out. And it got me wondering: is game really something you can figure out and create, or does it just evolve on its own?

When I first began rolling I was really excited to learn the triangle choke. It was my favorite submission move to watch in MMA and UFC fights. There's something about fighting from you back and using your legs to apply a choke that appealed to me.

I learned the triangle and was surprised at how many steps there are to apply the technique. It took a lot of practice to get it down. Even more practice to do it without speaking the steps to myself. Eventually it became fluid and it was the first submission I ever caught somebody in. It's still my favorite submission to this day.

I focused on getting good at the triangle. I went for it a lot during resistance training (sort of a controlled sparring session). It was a choice to work hard at the triangle and it got me wondering if I could dictate how my game evolves by choosing which techniques and positions to work on. It was time to start trying new things and selecting how I wanted to roll.

Top position holds a lot of advantages, I thought. Your weight is on your opponent tiring them out and gravity is on your side if you attack a submission. I wanted to get good at it. Yeah...that hasn't worked so well. I really like the far-side armbar from side-control. It looks slick when you spin over your opponent and attack the arm. However, for as many times I've attempted it I can still count the successful submissions on one hand. It just doesn't work for me (don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on the technique it just hasn't worked out yet...yet!). The technique I had selected to incorporate into my game wasn't working out.

Two examples that conflict with the idea that I could shape my own game. I want to be good at the triangle and the far-side armbar. I chose to practice those techniques more than others. Triangle works well, armbar does not. So now what? Can I still shape my game or do I have to fall into it? Do I just keep trying different techniques until I find the ones that flow?

It felt like I was back at square one but I kept on thinking about it and I'm starting to lean towards the idea that game naturally evolves. Take the triangle for example. My legs are good for that. They have a little length and they have a little strength so of course triangles were going to work well for me. It just so happened that it was also my favorite submission. The top game hasn't clicked for me yet but I'm comfortable fighting off my back. I think that sort of matches my personality. The top position is perceived as a dominant position, which ties into being a more aggressive position. I don't really have an aggressive personality. I'm more on the passive, I think, so it makes sense that I prefer fighting off my back and working from the guard given the premise and perception that top position relates to aggression. It seems that the positions and techniques I'm comfortable with and better at fit me.

Now this doesn't mean I'm only going to train guard techniques and endlessly go for triangles. Ideally, I'd like to have my comfort zones that I can go to but I'd also like to perform well from every position whether it be top or bottom. It just means that although I'm a blue belt, I'm only getting started. Now is when I need to explore different techniques, refine the fundamentals, and continue developing my game - whatever it may evolve to.

Hike: Moanalua Valley to Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven – Nov 2011

Today a group of friends and I hiked from Moanalua Valley up the mountain ridge to the Stairway to Heaven, came down the stairs and ended in Haiku. We started at 10:30am and finished at around 4pm. It was a long hike with a few bonus features. Here come the highlights!

The hike started out easy with a trek into Moanalua Valley along an old road. Then the rain came. A gentle shower that eased up. It was nice, it was refreshing but the clouds were just getting started. Next thing I knew it was pouring. So much that I started to get concerned about flash flooding and how the hiking trail on the mountain would look. But no matter, we continued along the road dodging mud puddles as best we could and made it to the mountain trail. Time to start the climb!



The path was easy to navigate and the rain let up as we started up the ridge. But then the wind came. It was cold and it was gusty. I couldn't decide if I preferred being soaked by the rain or chilled by the wind. Regardless, we pressed on.



Marlon, Jen, Ronny, David (aka Waimea), Kalani, David (me), Ernest, Kelli



The ridge climb got pretty steep at times. There were ropes at a few areas of the trail to assist with the more sketchy parts. I was thankful for those. We climbed higher and higher and the trail got narrower and narrower. Before long we were hiking on the ridge with sheer drops on both sides. If you fell to the right you'd break a leg or something for sure. If you fell left, certain death. Not to mention the rain and wind continued to take turns soaking us and blasting us. It was like the elements were having fun with us.

Now, a challenging hike will always have moments of pure misery. I experienced a few of those today when I was drenched, my jacket was completely soaked, I was cold, muddy, and the wind was knocking me around. But the challenge always comes with a sight you would never want to miss.

At the upper region of the ridge the rain stopped and the wind died down. To our right we could see some clouds moving over the valley and the mist cascading from the sky to the lush valley floor. The mist came down gracefully, spiraling and coalescing like a dance. It looked like streamers gently falling through the air with more and more streamers joining the dance until there was an entire curtain of mist waving in front of us.

It was quite a show nature put on for us. And nature let us know when the show was over by turning the rain back on. The ridge climb continued.

We got closer and closer to the top, which always seemed to be only 5 minutes away, and the wind really picked up. It looked really cool to be in the clouds and watch them rush up the side of the valley right at you and then spill over onto the other side of the ridge. At times the wind gust with such force that it knocked me off balance and I had to squat to anchor myself down. It was all good though, I just rested while I waited for the gusts to die down then kept on going.

We finally reached the top of the ridge and the trail leveled off. The wind and rain let up and it seemed like it would be easy going...yeah, that wasn't the case though. This part of the hike I label mud slide. Things got dirty. Our feet sunk into mud pools up to the ankle. I was glad my shoes stayed on my feet. We reached a tricky section where the trail sloped down but the ground was slicked over with mud. Traction did not look promising. Kalani took the lead and showed the technique to slide down in a squatted position. Pretty much, squat down and use controlled pressure on your feet to slide down and steer. Yeah...it didn't work out so well for me.

Up to that point I had been able to keep the mud off of me except for my feet and lower legs. I didn't really want to get completely mudded up. I tried to crouch and use the length of my legs to find areas where my feet had some grip. That didn't work at all. I slipped and slid on my rump and side a few feet. Mud was all over my right leg and backside so I figured screw it and I slid all the way down. I tried to slide sideways on my feet, left leg leading in a sort of sprawled out side-lunge. Then the mud just took me and as the trail curved my lead leg got ahead of me enough to make the rest of me roll over and I went the rest of the way on my stomach. All I could hear once I rolled was Waimea laughing his lungs out. I gotta say, it was a fun slide but had to be hilarious to see. Hopefully Kalani got it on video and I can get a hold of it and post on my Facebook page (I just checked and Kalani did catch it on video, check it out here).

After the slide, a few more mud pools, and slippery areas - one which I actually lost my balance completely and fell to my hind quarters – we reached the Stairway to Heaven. We took a break to eat a bit (kudos to Ronny for the beef jerky) and rest. Then it was time to descend the stairs.

The stairs were pretty sturdy. I was still careful with my footing because the weather had dampened things. It was a steady descent. The air grew warmer as we left the clouds and got closer to the ground. The view of Kaneohe materialized when we broke through the clouds, very nice view indeed! Near the bottom I heard a commotion up ahead. I saw Kalani reaching for something off the side of the stairway with his camera pole and then his bag rolled away. He set it down on the stairs while he reached for whatever it was he was going for and the wind took it. The bag rolled down the stairs, through the railing, off the side of the ridge, and fell into the valley below. Huge bummer but better a bag than a person, I thought.

We reached the bottom of the stairs, it was about 4pm, and Kalani wanted to search for his bag. Given the overcast weather, I figured we had 1½ hours of daylight left, 2 hours at best. It was time to get to work. This was the bonus adventure. The others stayed back while Kalani, Waimea, Ronny, and I went into the valley in search of the fallen pack.

The attitude got serious and our caution increased. We blazed our own trail through loose rock, trees, and dirt until we reached the area where the bag fell. No sign of it. Perhaps a little further in we'd find it. The ridge walls on both sides were near vertical so we used the tree roots as ropes and branches as ladders to climb through. It reminded me my younger days in California when my friends and I would blaze our own trails in the mountains. It was fun yet serious because one slip could lead to serious injury. I made sure I had a firm handhold and tested my footing before putting my weight down. Slowed things down a bit, but caution was paramount.

It wasn't long until Kalani found his bag. He got it down and we carefully made our way back to the Stairway to Heaven where the others were waiting. It was a short trek out of Haiku Valley into the neighborhood of Waipao where some of our cars were parked. Some went straight home while the rest of us went back to Moanalua Valley Park (thanks to Waimea for the ride). By the time we got back to the park the sun had set and the sky was dark. We washed off as best we could at the park and ate some cupcakes in celebration of Kalani's birthday - happy birthday dude!

Definitely a good hike. The rain and wind pushed the challenge. Emotions went from misery to victory and at the end the day was ours.

back: Ernest, Kelli, Marlon, David (aka Whitepinapple/me), Jen
front: David (aka Waimea), Kalani, Ronny