Tahoe Rim Trail

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.

Lake Chabot 30k

Bonus race!

I.e. it wasn’t in my longer term plans, but I signed up for Coastal’s Lake Chabot 30k to get more experience at the greater-than-half distance.  And because the weekend was free except for a backlog of housework.  And because there’s no wind right now.  And because I just wanted to run another race in what was looking like a five week gap.   And because I like running Chabot.  And it turned into a really good personal race in the end. 

I hadn’t trained specifically for this race, but wanted the distance experience.  My last two 30k’s were “just finish the damn thing” races, since I was waiting out a foot strain and nursing it during those races.  Which meant walking long stretches just to back off the running impact.  That less-than-stellar history, combined with a (relatively) not difficult course, had me expecting a 30k personal best.   

The drive in was gorgeous.  I took the Pinehurst and Redwood Roads down, since I had extra time, watching the sunrise over the hills.  It was chilly at the lake upon arriving, a backup reservoir that’s been around since the mid 1800’s.  The course was a 13 mile loop and a 5 mile out and back with a loop at the end.  I’ve trained here a couple times and ran to here from home once, so I was looking forward to the course.

I started deliberately slow, feeling a little sore from starting back on strength training the week before week, and my last two 30k’s still haunt me a bit.  :-)  I backed off on them for a while to get endurance at the half distance back up, and just recently moved back up past 13 miles.  At the start, we looped through the picnic area and headed out on the paved lakeside trail.  It’s a nice warmup with small hills that are just enough to get me out of the we-just-started-and-i'm-not-quite-awake fog.  Then there was a short hill on a small loop a couple mile sin; I walked part of it to avoid muscle cramping, as well as having better long term speed when power walking up longer hills.  I powered through the downhill--yay for my recent focused hill training.  

We then crossed the rather bouncy bridge, always fun, and then continued along the lakeshore to the first aid station near the top of the next hill.  Having these at hill tops makes for a great psychological break.  The next part of the course was rolling hills, which followed some switchbacks before turning north and up a valley.  This stretch was my favorite part of the course, as it was more secluded, with trees overhead.  The course turned around and went uphill to another aid station.  

Heading out from here, we ran along an exposed ridge with a number of mountain bikers and hikers.  The day had warmed, and I was sweating hard, but ran well through the hills along this ridge.  This eventually dropped onto a path along the west shore of the lake, again with small rolling hills.  My uphill speed here dropped quite a bit, and I had people passing me uphill who I would then fly past downhill.  And again.  And again.  I came into the end of the first loop, the half marathon point, feeling strong, grabbed a couple snacks at the aid station, and headed back out for the second loop.

The second loop was 5 miles, repeating the first portion of the half course.  My legs were notably more tired this time along this part of the course, and I walked one more uphill stretch.  On the way back along this loop, the 50k leader was on his way out for his last loop, as well as 50k runners starting their second loop.  I ran the last mile or so hard, wearing myself down to the finish, which I’m happy I was able to do at this distance.  I crossed the finish line and bent over breathing hard for a bit.  After resting with a beer and some snacks, I felt my legs getting stiff, despite stretching, a sign that I pushed myself well.  The post race snacks were great, with the grill serving up sausage and burgers being perfect.  Everyone also received a finisher’s medal here, which was a pleasant surprise.  

Overall I really liked this race.  Unsurprisingly, I did get a new personal best for a 30k at 3:12, and placed 19 out of 33.  The irony is that, with the (far) easier course, this also beats my 25k time from last month.  And being close to home, I think it’s one to repeat.

Marin County Tri

Last week I took part in the Marin County Triathlon.  I signed up for this one mostly for endurance experience, in that I wanted to get an Olympic distance tri in before the end of the season, and before getting into more serious training for next spring’s 70.3.  I set a rather modest goal time and beat it, although many more people were well ahead of me.  It seemed to be a rather serious-into-tri crowd.  

It started psychologically very early, given that it was almost November and daylight saving time hasn’t switched over yet.  The water in this part of the bay, north of the San Rafael bridge, was significantly warmer than in SF, which was a pleasant surprise.  The swim was good; most of my wave was ahead of me (see note above regarding the crowd).  It was out and back along a buoy line, but with a long enough swim out to avoid too much of a buoy-turning pile-up.  I kept a strong but sustainable pace, never feeling tired, and finished in 31:35, which is six minutes better than my normal open water pace at decent distances.  

I felt stronger after this swim than Malibu, but with literally cold feet after the swim that took a long time to warm up, stalling transition a bit.  Then the bike ride really got me.  There were a number of longer downhill or flat stretches, interspersed by small but decently challenging hills.  I hadn’t slept much the night before, which I think combined with a generally busy week to hold back the rest of the day.  Each hill for the first two thirds of the bike course were pulling back my speed quite a bit, and my legs just weren’t cooperating beyond a certain effort level.  The third loop was much better; it almost felt like it took a long time to just warm up in this race.  I finally finished the 22 miles in 1:41, about 13mph.  Far from worst, but far from best.  And my feet were still cold after this.  Big takeaway for the next course like this: hill training.  Everything else was good.  Except I dropped my chain once, but I I had it back on pretty quickly, before the volunteer nearby could make it over and help.  

The run was a double loop, with a two big hills and two small hills.  The hills felt good, but the flat sections just felt slow.  My quads were tired from all the hills on the bike course, so I just wasn’t getting stride length up where it normally would be.  Otherwise it was good, and somewhat warm and sunny at this point.  Finished the 10k in 1:01:17, slightly below the goal for this race and eight minutes below my best 10k time (which would probably better now, given that I haven’t run a 10k since before I started any speed training).  

Anyway, to finish the number juggling, it was 3:21:37, pretty far down compared to what I think I could do on a better week.  But it wasn’t a race for time, more so for experience and to have fun, which I did.  I felt better at this race than at Mailbu, so the longer rides have paid off.  The views were of the bay the whole time, which was great, and warm pasta at the end has to be the best post-race snack I’ve had.  The crowd, while seemingly serious, was friendly, and the race was a lot of fun.  This would be a good one to come back to.  Time to plan a bunch of hill rides through the winter.

Partially Tentative schedule for the next few months, all running:

Coastal Lake Chabot 30k: Nov. 9

Berkeley Half Marathon Nov 24

Inside Trail Woodside Ramble 35k Dec 15

Brazen New Year’s Half Marathon Lake Chabot.  Maybe both.  Still deciding.

Three Bears++ and the Dirty Dare

It wasn't intended to be an all-out endurance pushing weekend, but sometimes it just happens.  

Intending to ride about 35 miles, as part of a slow progression to getting to a strong 55 miles, I had the knack to ride the three bears loop.  But I also wanted to ride down pinehurst again, because it's close to home, gorgeous, and fun.  And I wanted to try some things I'd been reading, about taking downhill curves at higher speed. So on a whim, my 35 mile ride became 42.  Not always he best idea.

The first 35 miles were great, starting down pinehurst, canyon, and moraga.  The three bears loop was a fun ride.  It crosses through a lot of different landscapes, past reservoirs, into hills in the middle of nowhere, past farms, and then up and down some long hills.  I stopped for a snack somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and there was just about nothing there.  Except an occasional other cyclist.  The hills were steep and late enough in the ride that I rode intervals up them instead of riding steady.  The last uphill was hard, as I was at about 30 miles, and my legs were getting tired.  But there was more to come.  

The ride back down through Orinda, Moraga, and Canyon was smooth sailing.  After passing canyon and heading north, at about 35 miles, it was not.  I was just spent, with legs giving out every few hundred yards. So I took a lot of slow intervals, finishing in just over four hours.  The last hour was about the last five miles.  

So I did this on a whim the day before running the Dirty Dare 25k put on my Inside Trail racing.  After the ride, I expected this to be a painful just-finish-it race, but it pleasantly wasn't.  It was a hard course; a number of other runners were feeling it hard after it was over, but it was the level of difficulty I wanted.  It started with a big uphill.  That just kept going.  It started out very cold, but that didn't last long.  I did a lot of slow running uphill intervals on this course, which was actually easier than slowly running all of each hill or walking the the hills.  After the first uphill, the downhill run was fast, fun, and great.  And then it was uphill to the first aid station.

I drank more cola at the aid stations on this course than any race so far, keeping the sugar going in to make up for the overall amount of weekend effort.  After the first aid station, it was more uphill, and then more uphill.  Somewhere in there the course went from difficult to hard.  The views were amazing, and in an area I never make it out to.  Cows and turkeys and backpackers.  Single track, some of it on very precarious slopes, and trails in open grass-covered hills.   

After the second aid station, I made it another mile or so uphill, and was running out of energy.  Stopped for a minute, had a gel, and kept going.  This part got really mediative, in that I passed through a lot of distinct scenery, but I don't remember in which order.  Feet were getting sore, but only really annoying-sore, and I slowed a bit to spread out my energy use.  At some point I was looking for the next huge uphill, when the third and final aid station, only two miles from the end, appeared.  I didn't realize how far I had gone.  Then I ran the last two miles, finishing the 16.4 miles in 3:48 or so.  28 out of 46 runners. Below my current medium-term goal (top half), but far better than the last comparable run, which was a finish-it-despite-a-lot-of-pain run (grizzly peak, 22 out of 26).  The ride had less effect than I thought it would, in that nothing was really sore after all was said and done, just the usual tiredness. 

Overall, a good weekend, and the first with an eye toward building milage for longer spring races.

The 2013 Running/Swimming/Tri Season

This year started off with some modest goals:  run the oakland half marathon, run the SF marathon again, get comfortable with open water swimming, try a triathlon, and work a lot on kite jumping.  The latter was "easy," in that it takes practice and patience, but has been coming along quite well.  The others I all more than met.  A mental recap as this season wraps up is what's in order here.

Brazen Coyote Hills 10k, January 26.  I signed up for this as a first experiment in trying one of he organized trail racing companies.  It was early, windy, sunny, and chilly.  And the park was right on the bay, which was great.  I was a little addicted after this.  And I went kiting afterwords at Third Ave, given the out-of-season wind.  I remember my legs being sore and being rather cold.

Coastal Golden Gate Half Marathon, Feb 10, Marin Headlands.  Trying another trail race.  I got ambitious and signed up for the half marathon, in part since I had passed my training goals for Oakland, and in part because I wanted to run the longer loop of this race.  This was an awesome course.  It started with a steep uphill and kept going.  It was cold, I ran in running pants and a jacket.  But the surfers were still out at Rodeo Beach.  I thought them crazy at the time.  But I wasn't open water swimming yet.

Brazen Bay Breeze 10k, Feb 16, at Quarry Lakes.  Warmer this time!  A flat course, and the first race where I felt competitive.  I blame that guy who asked what age group I was in during the last mile and then said that he needed to beat me.  I opened up and ran hard through that last mile, and I ended up third in my age group.  JB and DL also ran this event.

Brazen Badger Cove 10k, March 16, Del Valle Regional Park.  At this point I was getting addicted.  This was another chilly morning, but with a great St. Patrick's Day theme.   The hills got me on this one.

Oakland Half Marathon, March 24.  2:04 something.  My "lightweight" goal was 2 hours, but I'm not crazy strict about time goals.  And Lily wanted to go to Point Reyes the day before, where we ended up doing a 9 mile hike out to Arch rock and back.  Priorities.  :-)  I was strength bound on this one.  And I got arrogant here, with a tight tendon in my left foot acting up a bit after.  Something new to learn about that took six more months to figure out.  But yeah, a fun run, I love that this is in Oakland, and that it takes you through all kinds of interesting neighborhoods you might never intend to visit.  Somewhere here is also where I got that idea to run a half marathon a month for a year, which I'm still doing.

Coastal Grizzly Peak 30k, April 7, Tilden.  This is where I got really stubborn.  I considered bailing, since my foot was still bothering me after Oakland, and the SF Marathon was getting closer.  But then I decided to take it slow and just finish it, since I was excited for the course, ad I needed to get my distance up.  It was foggy, so the expected views didn't happen, but the fog in Tilden was great.  Took a number of intentional walk breaks to loosen up my foot.  Crossed paths with BT at one point too.  Finishing the first loop, I was tired, and no, I didn't want to run back out for the second loop.  So I just did it anyway, which has become a kind of theme for how I do these things now.  But that second loop hurt.  I then decided to abandon my SF time goal altogether, and I took off running for almost a month, with the aim to finish SF without any damage.

Swim Art Trans Golden Gate Swim, May 18.  MU wrap party day!  Or "Oh yeah, the MU wrap party is happening too" day.  This was my first significant open water swim.  I had trained well for it, since I was progressing fast enough that I wanted to get a sizable swim in before America's cup took over the bay.  I remember crazy shark dreams and strange dreams about looking down while floating a couple hundred feet off the bottom.  And not sleeping much the night before.  This swim was a big psychological achievement, more than anything else.  SMS was also out, in MF's group.  A freighter and a changing current had us repositioned a few times. I bailed on trying to make it to the rock at the end, since I was caught in a strong current.  Overall, I was more than happy, despite it not being the intended straight shot across (yay freighters!).  I'll go back to do this one again next season.

Coastal Canyon Meadow 30k, June 2, Redwood.  A race in my backyard!  Well not quite, but very close, and my trail running training ground.  And the race I stumbled upon last year that made this racing thing catch my interest.  I signed up for this to get ready for SF, and counted it as my May half, since I didn't find anything in late May that fit in.  I took it slow, especially the second loop around the East Ridge Trail, which was scorching that  day.  Foot still sore at the end, but much better off than at Grizzly Peak

SF Marathon, June 16.  Started slow, got slower, and persevered.  The second half had a walk break every couple miles to keep things loose.  I know I walked less than last year (which was every mile for the last two thirds), but my time was way down.  Original goal of 4 hrs I had changed mentally to 5:15. And I think I ended up with about 5:45 in my determination to not injure myself.  Which, in the end, was probably the right call.  But yes, the race!  The second time though was less exploratory, but there was something great about running across the bridge after having just swam under it the month before.  I felt much better after this one too.  Last year's had me walking slow for three days.

Coastal Golden Gate Half Marathon, July 14.  I returned to this, since I loved the course.  Challenging again, I don't know that I fared any better than the last time around, but this felt like the first race where foot tightness was no longer a limiting factor.  I didn't train at all.  In part to get forced recovery time in.  And in part to go to Hawaii to hike, kite, eat, drive, boat, snorkel, etc for a while.   I think I only ran once to warm up, the Tuesday before, and I was about the same, time wise, as February.

Tri For Fun, August 17.  I signed up for Malibu, in part, as a forcing function to buy a bicycle.  I went out and bought one just in time to do this, not wanting Malibu to be my first time through competitive cycling or transitions.  And it was fun.  I had a panic moment at the first buoy during the swim, not really understanding the crowd.  It took half the swim course to get my breathing under control to get my speed up, but I eventually did.  Cycling was fun, and we just had an earthquake as I'm writing this.  But yeah, cycling was fun.  RN was out too.  Running the 5k after the ride was hard though.  My legs felt like I was trapped in molasses.

Coastal Cinderella Half Marathon, August 18.  Back in the backyard, at Redwood Regional Park.  This is also the point where I had stopped training toward running these half marathons, and had returned to focusing on training for speed.  It was hot.  Very hot.  I recall my time being not so great, and far from where I thought it was.  But I read that about others too.  And the course was great, especially the long stretch along the french trail.

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge, Sept 3, 3.5 mile.  Because short races where it takes 8 times longer to drive a there and back than to finish the run are fun!  Especially when it's only a ~3 mile drive.  When you think about it, my running pace was far faster than my driving-there-and-back pace.  Lots of work folk, of course, and being in the evening make this one fun.  Next year bart.

Malibu Triathlon, Classic Distance, Sept 8.  Road trip!  And fundraiser, went as part of the work team.  Started early, the swim was fun.  I took a wide swing around the first buoy, which completely changed the swim for me.  Much better this time, especially given the longer half mile swim course.  The water was cold, but not SF cold, and clear, which I'm not at all used to in the bay.  The ride was a little challenging.  I didn't get much experience on longer more gradual hills before this race.  And the run only felt like molasses for the first mile, having gotten some brick workouts in before this one.  Listened to Born To Run audiobook on the drive down and back.  This pointed me toward walking in lesser soled shoes (xero), which seems to have mostly solved the tight foot problem, since most of the pain was happening not while running, but while walking on heels in cushioned shoes.

Brazen Drag-N-Fly, Sept 21, Contra Loma & Black Diamond Mines.  This was fun.  I got to see the Sherman Island kiting area from the hills, which is new.  And I felt great the entire run.  A hard course, but through an area of interesting history with great views. And a constantly changing course, with one very vertical section.  First rain of the fall a half hour after I finished.  The second run with a large aid station craving for coca cola and gummy bears, after Cinderella.  Something about warm days.

Tough Mudder, Sept 28, Northstar, Lake Tahoe.  COLD.  Snow on the Ground COLD.  I was running extra distance back and forth between some obstacles to warm up.  Electic eel, that thing where you climb under electricity, just plain sucked this time.  And my hands had stiffened up enough that I just plain failed at the monkey bars.  Otherwise I finished them all.  I was contemplating bailing on the dumpster of ice, but 1) there was an Alcatraz swim coming come and the moment of over-re-acclimatization couldn't hurt and 2) I had started sprinting intervals instead of running the course to warm up.  But yeah, COLD, and the electricity sucked a lot this time.  I'm skipping that one if I go back.  We all finished in 6:05 or so.  And oh yeah, COLD.

Other things of note:  Long stretch of Swim Art group swims to get open water swimming down, kite jumping lesson from Dante at Coyote point, kite surfboard clinic from Donny and Sandy Parker at Coyote Point, lots of early season , learning to swim in choppy water on Maui, kiting on Maui, snorkeling off Lehua.

As for the rest of the season, at least the confirmed part:
Alcatraz Swim (done, already written up)
Inside Trail's Dirty Dare, 25k.
Marin Counry Triathlon, olympic
Berkeley Half Marathon

And some high points for next year:

Big Sur Marathon, April 27.  I've been wanting to run this one for a couple years.  Timing finally worked out.
Hawaii 70.3, May 31.  I realized around the time of Malibu that this is a distance I could finish.  And this had caught my attention, so I signed up.

There's a sketch of more to come, other tentative goals for next year are a 50k and, if timing works, a bridge to bridge swim.  And diving back in to learning to kite with a surfboard.

Alcatraz Swim

I did an Alcatraz swim this weekend, with Swim Art.  It was my third significant open water swim this year, after the Golden Gate swim early in the summer and the Malibu triathlon.   

I didn't train specifically for this, so I was mildly nervous in the few weeks leading up to it, but nothing like the Golden Gate swim.  Being the second time well out in the bay made this a bit easier.  And I'm a much stronger swimmer than I was in the early summer, since I've had a fairly heavy swim training schedule through the mid summer and into the fall.  

But on the morning of the swim, I wasn't at all nervous, and completely excited.  We rode out to just off the warning sign, alerting us not to bring back prisoners.  And started jumping.  I keep thinking that there should be a more drawn out getting-ready-to-go break before starting, but no, it's suddenly time to jump in the water.  And I eagerly jumped off the boat, realizing on the way in that I hadn't put my goggles all the way on.  Fortunately I caught them--note to self, hold them in your hand or around your neck next time!  Or better yet, just wear them!

And again, the cold didn't grab my attention too much, since it was time to swim.  57 degrees on a cold morning 7:30am jump.  Easing in from the beach can be so much worse, since you have time to think about it.  Anyway, I spent a few moments memorizing the layout of the other swimmers in the group, the kayakers, and my landmarks and took off.  Early on I was ahead, but I think I mixed well in with everyone, since I took an occasional moment to just look around and take things in.  Swimming in the middle of the bay.  Between Alcatraz and SF.  Between the Golden Gate and Bay bridges.  As the sun is rising above the morning clouds.  Yeah, it was kind of gorgeous.  

Overall, I felt strong, especially in the last third of the swim.  Hands got cold, and I still need to work on body rotation more when wearing a wetsuit, but the whole swim felt good.  Getting to shore was great, it's awesome that it no longer feels mostly like relief from crazy cold at this moment.  Dried off, found some coffee, and headed out.  

Great swim, I think I need to go back for some more next year.  Next up will be 1.5k at the Marin Tri in two weeks, the last open water swim for my season.  

Oh yeah, 1.31 miles in 55 mins.  But I wasn't thinking about that much, I was there to swim, not race.  It's funny to think that I first started seriously learning to swim a little over a year ago, and first swam in the bay back in March.  I had some modest goals for this year, but have gone well past them.

decompression: kiting and running

I stopped doing a lot of things over the last two months, mostly a lot of busy work that had crept in that really had no need to be done.  Two things changed:  1) I have much less to think about, which makes every day seem "quiet."  2) I've had time to reflect on which things to pick back up and when.  Hence, writing here.

As part of that, I decided to cut out a bunch of things on my "try this" list and jumped to what was on the top, which was kiteboarding.  And that's been a blast so far.  Sort of picking up where I left off windsurfing 10 years ago.  At some point over the last couple weeks, accidentally swelling salt water went from a horrible experience to tolerable annoyance to not even noticing it.  I'm learning how to get up on the board.  An hour out yesterday (before the wind died) with the 14m kite (first time) got me up and going a lot better, but either 1) there wasn't enough wind or 2) I was too far back in stance to stay up on it.    I did do a much better job of getting the front leg out further, which was a mistake the last couple times.  And no face plants yesterday!  

So I'm keeping this and running around.  I signed up for the san francisco marathon and tough mudder in september.  Together, these give the water fix, running high, and nature/forest fix.  And it sure helps that there's awesome trails less than a mile from home.  Kiting has me learning to swim better on the side too.  But I don't think that's an end in itself.

rowers rowing past

hut hut ho!

deintertubization

I cut off the internet last week.

Well, not really.  I cut off the web.  I stopped checking websites I check everyday, even the news.  And I quit listening to talk radio and stopped reading the pile of magazines I have a backlog on.  After five days, I don't really miss any of it.  There's more time to think, and I feel like I have more freedom to do thinks I want to.  Like writing blog posts.  Or getting back to some creative projects I had sidelined.

It's also very meditative.  There's a lot more time to think about life and plan for things that will happen and how to do them instead of reacting to things as they come at you.  

Trail running

I've been running a lot for over two years now.  Mostly along the bay and in neighborhood streets, both in the East Bay and in the peninsula.  A couple times along beaches (Ocean beach and Point Reyes).  It clears your head.

I changed it up today and went running on one of my favorite hiking trails in the Santa Cruz mountains off Skyline Rd (Blvd?).  And no music and no timing.  Much more refreshing, and a lot more green to see.  And it was a lot more fun---about the running and not some goal.  Although I ran out of breath a few times going uphill at altitude, I felt far better afterward than when running on flat ground, which I've been getting bored with.

But I need better shoes for this.