Lake Hodges Water Project and Other Stuff

After confronting the construction blockade during my scouting of a potential circuit around Lake Hodges, I did a little Web research on the San Diego County Water Authority's (SDCWA) site and found the answers to question of trail access between the Lake Hodges dam and the lake's north shore.

Not for lack of public disclosure, but simply because I wasn't paying attention to what was going on just a few miles away from home, I had no idea such an interesting project was taking place.  It turns out, the county has been constructing a pipeline connecting the Olivenhain reservoir with Lake Hodges for several years now, complete with a pump station and hydro-electric power generation facility.  They've had to close off access to the portion of the "Coast to Crest" trail that runs alongside Del Dios Hwy for safety reasons while the project is underway.

I can understand that, and I look forward to the project being done and the trail re-opened, scheduled to be in late 2010.  I'll run my "Lake Hodges Super Loop" then.

In the meantime, it fascinates me to think of a mile-and-a-quarter pipeline running from Lake Hodges, under the Mt. Israel range to the Olivenhain reservoir.  What an amazing engineering feat.  The idea is to connect Hodges to the county's aqueduct system, using Hodges as an added reservoir for San Diego's emergency water supply, and to provide a means to prevent Hodges water from being wasted over the dam during the wetter season by shunting it to Olivenhain.  I didn't know this, but until the pipeline is completed, Hodges is isolated from the rest of San Diego's water system, serving only the downstream San Dieguito water district and Rancho Santa Fe valley irrigation needs.

The project will also include an electricity generating station that will tap the flow of water through the pipeline.  How cool.  My ignorant annoyance is now replaced by fascination.

http://www.sdcwa.org/infra/pdf/Hodges/LakeHodges_FactSheet.pdf
http://www.sdcwa.org/infra/pdf/ESPUpdate_Fall06.pdf

This blog is primarily a running diary, but I felt like posting this tangential information just for the heck of it.  I've had two good run workouts in a row and am feeling pretty good.  It might be wise, today, to scale back just a bit from my planned easy 8-miler, just to make sure I'm not over-taxing myself.  I want to be super fresh for the weekend long run, since I'll be right on the cusp of breaking 20.  I think I've increased my weekly mileage a little too quickly, although I'm not recognizing any detrimental symptoms.  In fact, I'm feeling rather strong.

I haven't yet decided as I post this, but I will either take a day off from running and go for a swim instead...or, I'll still do an hour-or-so long easy run, and maybe give that 8:1 run/walk pattern a try again, but this time out on the road.  I don't need to do anything speedy today.  I've pressed the pace a little the last two days.  I just want some easy, but non-junk miles.  We'll see.

I'm on a streak now of 3 days of getting to bed before 10:30PM.  That's quite a change for me since my usual bedtime is around midnight.  I wake up naturally around 6-6:30 AM on most days when I stay up that late, and my body is still on that cycle since I've been waking up at 4AM or so when I go to bed early.  I've forced myself to go back to sleep for another hour or two, giving me closer to 8 hours of sleep a night instead of my usual 6.  Now, I don't know yet, but I wonder if this new sleep pattern has had anything to do with the strength of my runs this week.  It'll be an interesting thing to keep an eye on.