Let’s call this an altitude training run. I headed out of Brautovich Park (I'm probably spelling that wrong) and headed north along the Tahoe Ridge Trail. It started at 7831 feet and gradually climbed to 8450 feet over 5 and half miles. I ran it out and back, turning back near the Sierra Canyon trail. I hiked a number of the uphill sections, as I wasn’t at all acclimated to the altitude. I’ve hiked part of this section before, but this was my first time running it. With the exception of Tough Mudder, which is more of a series of short running bursts with lots of much longer breaks, this is the first time I’ve been out running over 3000 ft.
The trail was gorgeous. Hence the motivation to write this. Part of what I love about this area is that everything is larger in scale. There’s few notable small rocks plants are trees, everything is impressive in scale. There’s a great view across Lake Tahoe for most of this section of the trail, and patches of snow here and there made or a great mix of color.
It was also cold and windy, definitely a 7m day in some places (i.e. gusting well over 30). Being late November, I saw only four others out on the trail, two mountain bikers and two dog walkers. Despite my overall slow pace, I think I was faster than the mountain bikers.
The altitude was challenging, I was backing off a lot to stay away from feeling light headed. I ran a lot of short uphill intervals, and by the end of the run I felt much better. I should find a race here, but I'd need a lot more altitude training.
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