Steep Ravine Marathon

This was another race I was really looking forward to, Coastal's Steep Ravine .  I signed up for this because 1) I wanted to run a race on these trails 2) I wanted a marathon distance race around this time 3) I wanted something more challenging, elevation wise.  This fit well, since the elevation profile looks something like this:

I.e. Run up Mt Tam.  Run Back Down.  Run Back Up Mt. Tam.  Run Back Down.  Repeat.  I think there's a singularity at the top of the fourth hill.  And most of us don't really run all the uphill parts.  Especially the stairs.

I was well rested for this race, since I had more-than-tapered due to a cold I had been fighting for the prior week, which was still lingering a bit.  I also ran a training run on some of these trails a couple weeks back to see how much climbing there really was, and there’s a lot of it.  The 25k/50k courses are actually on trails I’d rather run, but I stuck with the marathon distance to avoid pushing myself too hard, since this would still be both a new trail run distance and a new elevation climb for me.  

With a later start at 8:40, the marathon and half marathon runners started together along a road in Stinson Beach.  I started fast in the group, much more so than normal, but it didn’t feel hard, so I stuck with it.  I usually adjust my pace based on effort/heart rate or muscle fatigue.  The course quickly turned up the Dipsea Trail, crossed the Panorama Highway, and started climbing.  On stairs, of course.  After maybe 50 or 100 steps, I quickly decided to drop my pace, but being in a crowd, I stepped off trail and let a large group pass.  Fast uphills are not my strength.  Dropping back in a moment later I was able to keep a fast stair-walking pace, mixing running and fast hiking for the rest.  There’s a lot of stairs here.  You know there’s a lot of stairs when getting to a 20% uphill grade where you actually can run feels like a relief.  Getting to the aid station at the top of Cardiac Hill, I drank a LOT of water, and made myself eat something I didn't really want, since I was going to burn a lot of calories.  

The next part was a lot of fun.  The very long slow climb up the Coastal View/Heather Cutoff trails from my training run a couple weeks back was now a long slightly downhill stretch perfect for running fast.  I made up a lot of ground here, dropping below seven mins/mile a few times, which I surprised myself with, given that the trail gets quite rocky in places.  I passed a number of people here.  Getting to the Heather Switchbacks, I kept the speed up, just kind of dancing down the hill.  It was warm and sunny and I was having fun.  At the bottom of the hill, I crossed the horse field/bridge, and ran most of the Redwood Creek trail, a very gradual uphill section, to the next aid station.  Checked in here, had a lot more water, a quick chat, and a quick snack, and started the next climb.

I deliberately switched to mostly hiking fast uphill here, since this was a new distance, and there were three climbs left to go.  I started passing the back of the 50k runners here, who had started earlier, but had more distance in already.  The course followed the Dipsea Trail back up to Cardac Hill from the other direction.  The final stretch through an upper part of Muir woods got harder and quite tiring—many roots on a steep part of the slope.  I had another quick snack, a lot more water and took off downhill.

At this point, it was time to pay for climbing all the stairs.  I kept my speed up, but about halfway down, my quads were feeling it.  Getting back to the start, I had finished the first half in 2:52.  I was curious if I could do that again, since I still had a lot of energy, but the downhill stair run had beaten down leg strength a bit.  I climbed back up of the third time, repeating the first climb, but this time felt notably harder, in terms of just forcing myself though it.  At the top, I refilled my hydration pack, chatted a moment, and took off back down the Coastal view trail.  

Heading down the hill this time I felt the muscle fatigue, so I backed off the pace.  Sometime legs just don't listen when you tell them to go as fast as you want them too.  I only saw one other runner on this stretch, who I passed on the Heather Cutoff Switchbacks.  I gave myself a walking break across the horse field and bridge this time, and I ran intervals along the Redwood Creek Trail, since my legs and feet were getting quite tired at this point.  At the aid station, the two guys running it, who were rather friendly, were watching out for the runners quite well, asking lots of questions to make sure I had hydration/salt/etc. in check.    

It was time to climb back up again.  This would be the last climb.  Somehow, it seemed easier this time.  I think my mind had just tuned out any body complaints and I kept climbing the hill.  I skipped out on running any parts of this climb, and I finally saw another runner as a 50k runner jogged past on a flatter stretch.  Reaching the Cardiac hill aid station for the fourth visit of the day, the volunteer and I said our farewells (you start to get to know the volunteers on these long loop courses), and I took off for the last downhill.

Mile 24ish

I thought I’d run it.  And I realized I just needed to walk a while.  That last climb took away a lot of flexibility.  One more 50k runner passed me, and that was the last runner I’d see.  I eventually started jogging and kept a steady pace going downhill, but when I got to the stairs, the stairs fought back.  I ended up massaging a pressure point on one leg on and off as I was running down the stairs, to keep the pace up.  Seeing tired hikers a mile into their walk quietly amuses me at this point, but they’re still doing the right thing.  After finishing the hardest part of the stairs, I stopped at a fence for a round of stretching, to make the last mile fun again.  That worked—I picked up the pace the rest of the way.  Unlike most recent races, I didn’t go all out the last stretch of the course, since this one was mostly about finishing and having fun.  I just ran back into town and through the finish.

I finished in 6:28:11, ~25% slower on the second half.  The stairs on the descent at the end of the first half definitely had their way.  I felt much better then expected, rested, stretched, ate, and stretched some more.  And out of nowhere GQ then walked through the finish area, a bit of a random surprise to both of us; he was out at the beach with his family.  We chatted for a bit; it’s always fun telling people that I’d been out running for that many hours.  Before heading out, I waded a bit in the great pacific ice bath.  It's nice to have the ice bath ready for you at the end of the course before driving.

With the small number of Marathon-distance registrants, I ended up first (out of two) in my age group.  9/18 overall, so just in the top half, which is typical lately.  I wasn’t solidly expecting that this time, with the combination of a much harder course then I've run in a race yet and a longer distance.  But I was overall pleasantly surprised.  Except for the traffic on the way home, it was a great day of running.  I find it ironic that, being being my third marathon distance race, the far more difficult course than the SF Marathon left me feeling a lot better.  These are also great training climbs; the two times I've been on these trails in the last few weeks have had a big effect on both my running and my cycling.  

     

21, 20: Adjustment

Mon Jan 6: 10.5 mile bike ride and 1400 yard swim.  I was up bright and early to get a pre-work ride in, and the sky looked awesome.  I rode up to Grizzly Peak and back, keeping an easy pace after the long Saturday run and fast Sunday ride.  After work, I got back in the pool, feeling clunky after two weeks off.  I mixed it up a lot, just letting it be a warm-up swim.

Tuesday Jan 7: rest.  I just wasn't feeling it in the morning.  Or at lunch.  These days are good for rest days.

Wednesday Jan 8, 2850 yard swim and 4.01 mile run.  I've been using the Swim Speed workout series since last summer, in part to improve form and in part to give some structure to my pool workouts.  An unintended side effect is that what I once considered rather long swims have become normal for me.  Kind of like running...  Anyway, I did workout 11-2, which focused on core form.  Following this I hit the treadmill for some mixed hill and speed intervals.  I kicked my speed intervals up a half minute per mile faster.  Looking at my race pace from the flatter parts of the Brazen New Year's races, I was often as fast and sometimes faster than what I've been using for speed intervals.  Hills I kicked up a decent notch too, to 12 degrees.  After the volume of holiday running on hills, 9 degrees didn't seem like much.  

Thursday Jan 9, 6.1 mile run.  I finally had the right combination of waking up early enough and no early meetings to get out for a morning trail run.  Not specifically planned, I went to Redwood and made a spontaneous turn out on the French trail to get some small hills in.  Heading down from the ridge, a dog started chasing me.  I gave it a friendly greeting, which usually placates them, and took off again.  Then the dog chased me again, getting more aggressive when I turned back toward him.  Finally the owner came down the path and I let them run ahead, since I was taking this run very slow after Wednesday evening's speed/hill intervals.  After that it was a calm, peaceful run, mostly through the fog, with the sun peeking through.  I turned uphill to loop back at the Fern trail, which I’ve somehow never been on.  It turns out it’s a pretty decent climb.  I was mentally naming trees as I headed up the Fern trail, since there were a few rather contorted trunks on the way uphill, and I was using them as landmarks for short intervals.  For as tired as my legs were, this was actually the best uphill running I’ve had in weeks.

Friday Jan 10.  12.4 miles on the bike and 4000 yard swim.  Slowly getting into a better sleep schedule, I managed to get out about 7:45 for an easy paced ride along Skyline.  I rode north and tuned back before the Grizzly Peak climb.  Then I turned back and rode to the Chabot Science center, turning back again for a faster finish.  I ended the day with a late long swim.  It was workout 10-3 of the swim speed series.  This one built up to a fast paced fin/paddle set, which I haven't tried before.  That, along with a long kick set, had me feeling a little sore and tired for a while, but each ended in a place where the soreness and tiredness faded away and I just kept going.  This turned out to be by far my fastest 4000 yard workout, around 1:45, even with the long kick set.

Saturday Jan 11.  16 mile run.  I started at Inspiration Point, with the goal of exploring Wildcat Canyon Park, which I've never been in.  It was very foggy and, at the ridge top, very windy.  I headed out on the Nimitz trail and turned uphill at the Conlon Trail.  Everything started getting out-of-this-world mystical at this point, with 7m-9m winds blowing fog across the hilltops.  And visibility was close to nada.

Out of nowhere came a bunch of cows; they apparently graze here all year.  Not the smartest of animals, this group was standing around alone in the windiest, coldest place they could find.  I walked though, not wanting to startle them, especially since there were a few calfs in the group.  Most just kept eating, while a couple stared me down intensely.

The trail went downhill from here, and I then headed north on the Wildcat Creek trail, which changed to pavement.  It runs right next to the creek, which is the lone stretch of dense trees and scrub in a park mostly filled with open grassy hills.  Lots of people here.  I turned uphill on the Belgum trail, coming across a few oddly placed, well groomed palm trees.  There used to be a sanitarium here.  Continuing uphill, but under the fog, I noticed a great view of Richmond and the north bay.  Continuing further uphill on the San Pablo Ridge trail, it got steeper, foggier, and windier.  The GPS data says it was a 38% grade on one hill, which I really trudged though, since my legs were well pre-exhausted on this run.  The only people I saw up here were a slowly hiking older couple--kudos to them for getting out in this weather.

I turned downhill on the Mezue trail, a respite from all the climbing, and refilled my water.  Rounding one corner on this downhill, I startled a couple calfs, who took off running.  I've never seen a cow run.  At this point, I had a lot of energy, but my legs were beat.  I kept going south along a different stretch of the Wildcat Creek trail, and turned uphill at Jewel Lake.  This part, in Tilden Nature area, climbs through Eucalyptus forest, eventually coming to the open top of Wildcat Peak.  It had an awesome, astounding view of nothing but fog in all directions.  Which is perfect for me; these are some of my favorite running conditions.  I ran back to the Nimitz trail, exploring a bit before heading back to Inspiration Point.  A few hours later, I completely crashed; the lack of sleep from readjusting my schedule this week finally caught up with me.    

Sun Jan 12.  2.7 mile hike.  What hit me like a hammer a few hours after Saturday's run turned out to be a cold.  After crashing, I decided to back off for a few days to let it burn itself out.  PL and I went for a hike around Sibley, looking for cows.  I tried out the five fingers shoes I bought, since I want to ease into using them occasionally to help with foot strength.  They were surprisingly comfortable for being minimal.  Then again, the Xero sandals I've been wearing on and off during the day since early fall have made a huge difference in foot strength already.  After buying the same two models of running shoes repeatedly for a few years, I recently picked up a number of different kinds.  In part to experiment, and in part to mix things up in hope up avoiding the muscle tightness I wrestled with early last summer.  Anyway, I also bailed on a planned bike ride to let the immune system work.

Tuesday Jan 13.  13.1 mile bike ride.  After a day off, I rode another double out and back to Fish Ranch Road and the Chabot Science center.  This stretch avoids the biggest hills in my neighborhood, and I'll probably use it more to get in fun training rides when I don't want to beat myself up, since it still has hills, but I can ride most of it at a controllable effort.  The cold was in full swing, but not yet at its worst, so I started easy.  I felt better as I rode, so I picked up the pace and finished quite fast.

Thursday January 15.  5.3 mile run.  After the worst day of the cold on Wednesday, it was finally starting to ease off, so I used the chance to get a final training run in before Saturday's race.  Running Sibley at sunrise is really pretty; the light and shadows make it look a bit like a real volcano.  I explored a bit on a trail I haven't been on that heads out to a pond.  In the continuing shoe experiment, I tried the Altra superiors on this run.  I really like the feel of them, but I'll need some adjustment time for the lack of heel drop.  Otherwise, my sinuses protested quite a but, despite my having better energy than the last four days.

Saturday January 18.  Steep Ravine Trail Marathon.  26.89 miles.  I took another rest day before this, and it turned out to be a great race, despite the lingering cold.  More on this run elsewhere.

Sunday January 19.  Rest/David Hockney exhibit  I planned a ride, but it was a busy day, and the amount of walking and standing brought my legs back to a tired place by the end of the day.  The David Hockney exhibit was amazing, especially the blown up iPad paintings.

I'm calling this two week stretch "Adjustment," since the combination of returning to a regular schedule from the holidays and fighting a cold put a bit of an upheaval on everything.  Lots of lost sleep the first week probably helped cause the cold.  This flipped things upside down the second week, in which I skipped a lot of workouts to get extra rest. But it all ended well, taking on a hard race course at a new trail distance with a consistently string effort.  

23, 22: The Holidays

I had these two weeks off and used the time flexibility to explore new places.

Monday Dec 23.  12.5 mile bike ride up to grizzly peak and back.  Just getting some cycling time in.  I switched to using Strava here, mostly as an experiment.  I’m finding it much more interesting to use than RunKeeper, mostly because of all the segment data for comparing yourself to others, and especially to yourself.  I like some of RunKeepers reports better.

Tuesday Dec 24.  I woke up early and ran 10.7 miles in Redwood, following the French Trail and East Ridge Trails, one of my common long run routes.  It was quiet and peaceful, I was listening to the 1493 audiobook by Charles Mann.  He has an interesting story about how Columbus’s arrival in the Americas started a dramatic planet-wide ecological shift toward homogeneity.  After this, lots of holiday busyness.

Wednesday Dec 25.  3.5 mile Christmas run.  Family had departed, so I drove up the hill, and ran the Huckleberry loop.  Feeling strong, I added the steep hill climb into Sibley, to a place I know in my head as the "picnic spot."  Because it would be perfect for a picnic, if you were willing to carry the food out there.  This was a good burn-off of holiday stress.

Thursday Dec 26.  5.6 mile run in Sibley.  I ran counterclockwise around Round Top.  After passing the southern ridge, I took off on the fastest stretch of running I’ve done since the Woodside Ramble.  Maybe faster, I was just feeling in the zone, whatever that zone is.  I followed the Volcano trail out to the end and headed down Old Tunnel Road, deciding it was time to invest in some less technical shoes for these odd stretches of pavement I come across.  I ran the Bay Area Ridge trail south to Fish Ranch Road, a new stretch of trail for me (it’s amazing how many there still are close to home).  I turned back and ran/walked back uphill to the end.

Friday Dec 27.  Fast 12.5 mile bike ride up to Grizzly Peak and back.  It was quite the hazy day.   

Saturday Dec 28.  Brazen New Year’s Eve half marathon.  It was cold.  It was fun.  I as feeling slow though, having had a fast bike ride on Friday.  

Sunday Dec 29.  21.1 miles cycling.  This was a big loop.  I rode up grizzly peak, and then down El Toyonal into Orinda.  I think I’m going to skip riding down El Toyonal again for a while.  Like for another year.  Or three.  My hands were sore when I got to the bottom of the hill from riding the breaks too hard; it’s just well past my skill level to take this at any decent speed safely.  But if I’m having a masochistic day, I might ride ride up the hill.  Oh yeah, after this I rode south through Orinda, Moraga, and Canyon, and then climbed Pinehurst to get back home.  It was amazing clear out, I could see the Farallon islands from the hills.

Monday Dec 30:  6.6 miles running in Tilden.  Only my second time running in Tilden, this was more deliberate exploration to expand my close-to-home running routes.  I followed part of the course of the Grizzly Peak race I ran last spring, which seems significantly less difficult now.  I started from Grizzly peak, ran over to Volmer Peak, and south along the Bay Area Ridge Trail/Seaview Trail.  Unlike when I ran the race in a lot of fog, this run had great views of both the East bay hills and the bay.  It’s nice seeing such a large span of my riding/running/swimming/kiting spots from one place.   

Tuesday Dec 31:  13.1 miles cycling.  I rode the Pinehurst loop clockwise, which has a fun fast downhill at the start.  I ride this route a lot to get downhill training in; this was probably my fastest time at 1:13, even though I was taking the climbs easy on account of the next-day race.

Wednesday Jan 1:  13.1ish mile run, Brazen New Year’s day half.  I was really happy with this race, being able to push myself well during the last few miles.  It’s the first race I’ve run with my garmin, which is a great tool for pushing yourself harder than you normally would, since you can chastise yourself for being lazy when you realize how slow you’re inadvertently running.  

Thursday Jan 2: 3.5 mile run.  This was intended to be a rest day, but I felt really restless.  I went to run the Huckleberry loop, and I added in the steep climb in Sibley.  This really did the job-by the end I was as tired as I should have felt for running two races in five days.  Friday became the well-needed rest day.

Saturday Jan 4: 22.1 miles running around Mt Tam and the Headlands.  Maps say closer to 24/25 miles.  This was one of those epic go-out-and-take-my-time-exploring days.  One of my goals for this year is to use long runs to explore new trails.  I used to do this a lot when we lived in the Peninsula, but it completely fell off a couple years ago.  So it was overdue, and I wanted a ~22 mile run this weekend.  I planned a course here that would take me along some trails on a couple upcoming race courses, as well as some that I just wanted to run.  I also made sure there would be lots of climbing to train for a couple climbing-heavy races in the next couple months.  

I started in Stinson Beach off the Panoramic highway, and headed uphill along the Dipsea trail, which I’ve never run on before.  The sun was peaking through the early morning fog on the long climb, which I was taking slowly after running two the half marathons in the prior week.  Very slowly.    As the trail moved from open space into the trees, I followed the Steep Ravine trail, where things become almost magical.  It was early enough that I saw no one, and I had a lot of fun running and climbing the stairs quickly.  The ferns, redwoods, and stone stairs along the creek were gorgeous and peaceful.  The notorious ladder came and went easily, and the trail eventually made its way to the Pantoll station parking lot.  Here, I got confused.  After looking around for a while, I found the Old Mine trail and took it south, passing an old attempt at a gold mine and ending up with a large view at Cardiac hill.

I ran back into the woods and headed down to Muir woods.  I haven’t been here in about nine years.  At that time, walking outside on mild hills made me feel tired, to put into perspective how much has changed in my life since then.  It was fun seeing the early-morning slowly moseying tourists and just running right through.  I ran a side trail out, eventually climbing a LOT of stairs to get up to the panoramic highway, and following a trail south along it.  Somewhere here I slowed down for a snack and passed a large group of ~70 year old men who were powering up hill.

Then it was back to the Dipsea trail for a run west, back through Muir woods, and then south on another trail up to Dias Ridge.  Here’s where my feet started to feel sore, but I was having fun.  Slowing down, I followed this west, ending with a fun downhill run toward Muir Beach.  The west part of this hill has awesome views of the valleys and coast.  And many mountain bikers.

After searching around a bit, I found the Heather cutoff trail and started climbing.  And climbed and climbed some more.  Seriously, you could climb this trail like it's your job if it paid anything.  After lots more climbing and many switchbacks later, I made it to the Coastal view trail.  It was time to climb some more.  I ran and walked slow intervals to pass the time here, rationing water, since it was an open trail and quite warm at this point.  And my feet were tired.  I managed to set the slowest ascent on this trail yet recorded on strava; that’s how much I was taking my time, stopping to stretch and look around, and taking photos.  But that's part of the fun of these solo long runs, you don't feel any pressure to avoid hanging out, just enjoying a stretch of coastline.  After climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing some more, I made it to the desolate water fountain on Cardiac hill and stopped for another snack, just watching the ocean for a while longer.  

Then I ran back down the Dipsea trail.  This was a fun stretch, still with a lot of stairs, but it passed back under a lot of tree cover that made for soft downhill-friendly single track.  Making it back to the car was anticlimactic, but I managed to spend over six hours moving through some awesome trails I’ve mostly never been on.  These long solo runs really make the world seem smaller and more real, I’ve planned a couple more already.  I sort of stole this route from pieces of existing race courses; I realized it's lot easier to use these than to plan a route that hits a distance goals on my own.

Sunday Jan 5: 25.7 miles cycling.  Feeling strong after the very easy, but very long run on Saturday, I went out for a fast afternoon ride, aiming to get 25 miles in before dark.  I rode quickly out to Inspiration Point, with an aggressively paced climb up Grizzly Peak.  It was warm and sunny, followed by a great sunset.  I then rode back on Wildcat Canyon Rd and down into Berkeley a bit to add a hill, finally riding back home.  It felt good to get a strong ride in, since the last few weeks have been easier effort workouts.  PL and I later wen out for a .6 mile night hike in Redwood, watching stars.

Brazen New Year’s Day Half Marathon, Lake Chabot

It seems like I just ran a race here.  It seems like I just wrote that too.  For the third time in three months, I ran at Lake Chabot, for Brazen’s New Year’s Day Half Marathon.  It’s the same as the New Year’s Eve course, but in reverse, which is a great idea.  I occasionally reverse my usual running routes close to home; these routes become  very different stories in reverse.

I’m not sure I slept better hn last Saturday, with the neighbor’s reveling well into the morning, but I was better rested.  I arrived earlier, and discovered why there was an oddly linear line of people waiting together last Saturday—with the very cold morning, everyone stands in a line of sunlight that comes in through the trees and hills.  After standing there and taking in solar radiation for warmth for a while, I ran a quick warm-up, and it was time to start.

I ran fast along the West Shore trail, averaging my fastest race pace, despite the small hills.  Then I came to the first significant hill, and my calves protested again.  So I speed-hiked up it.  This would prove to be the theme for the day—speed hiking most uphills and running flats and downhills very fast, often faster than my current speed intervals.  After a decent climb and a visit to the aid station at the top of the ridge, we ran downhill, crossed the stone bridge, and into the long section of hills and switchbacks.  It got warm in here, and I was having a blast with the much better speed his time around.  

After a lot of small hills that gradually climbed up the back of Mt. Doom, and a visit to the third aid station, it was time of the rather steep downhill, formerly known as the rather steep uphill.  I’ve run down this on training runs before, but this was the first time during a race, and I was much more aware of being limited by the incline.  Views here when running downhill are great.  I wanted to hit my time goal this time, so I didn’t stop to shoot photos, but maybe that’ll come later.

Hitting the bottom of the hill, I crossed the oddly bouncy bridge, on my own this time.  Then the course went around the last loop/hill, and back along the East Shore Trail.  I pushed the pace hard here, and came in sx seconds over my time goal at 2:28:06.  I’m amused that this is the second race in a month where I’m within seconds of my target time.  175/362.  I set my target time lower than Saturday.  Again, I stuck around for a while, thoroughly enjoying post race snacks, while welcoming other finishers.  Brazen has a nice series of connecting medals if you run both races.

   

This was a really fun, but decently challenging pair of races.  And a much more upbeat way to bring in the new year than the usual watch-the-clock-and-drink-sparkling-wine thing.  This also capped off a personal challenge (that came from a website I read) to run 50 miles during the holidays, which I’m feeling surprisingly good after.  I’m still learning to recognize when/how to pace & schedule training runs in different ways, but this week beat a few things home in which I responded to my body telling me one thing, when I should have academically known better.  

Finally, an unintended GPS experiment on tho course, having used my iPhone on Saturday and my new Garmin for this race:  the iPhone significantly overestimated the distance, by a couple miles.  Most of this seems to be due to drop-outs of the signal.  It also think I have the ability to teleport.   The Garmin underestimated distance by about a half mile, but it was more of a steady drift that accumulated over distance instead of large teleportations.  The Garmin path is far cleaner too, which I expected.  I'm very happy with it so far.

Brazen New Year’s Eve Half Marathon

It seems like I just ran a race here.  Like last month or so.  Oh yeah, I did.  This weekend was Brazen’s New Year’s Eve half marathon at Lake Chabot.  

After a less-than-stellar morning awakening, I arrived tired, and unfortunately without enough sleep.  It was cold!  Lots of frost on the ground, but sunny.  After checking in and a brief stretch and warmup, we started the half.  It was a fairly large and energetic crowd too.  Recalling a number of runs here, we headed out on the east shored trail, which is paved for quite a while. It was far easier this time around, although my legs felt tired right from the outset, starting with my calves.  I picked up some new road-friendly trail shoes specifically for running races in this park, as my usual trail running shoes don’t handle pavement at all well.  This was the first time running a race with them, and it made the course overall much more comfortable.  Skipping the first aid station, we rounded the small hill loop before crossing the rather bouncy and oddly designed wooden bridge.  The bigger crowd made the bridge hard to run on, as I was in and out of phase with the bridge’s bouncing this time.  Different from my last race here, we then rounded a corner and headed straight up to the ridge.

Photo from Brazen.

I backed off running uphill a fair amount from this point, saving the tired calves for later in the race, as well as another event only a handful of days away.  At the top of the hill was the next aid station, and I grabbed a cookie and some fruit.  We then followed the ridge for a while, and the course made a number of switchbacks on this longest stretch of the course.  There’s a lot more uphill on this course than I had really paid attention to when looking at it, as there were a number of decent climbs along this stretch that added up.  We eventually dropped down to the stone bridge, which is the current end point of my long runs from home, and the course headed south up the ridge along the west side of the park.  

We came to the third aid station, and here’s where I needed a lot of water/electrolyte/etc.  We would be in sunlight for the rest of the course, which would be mostly the same as my last race here.  It’s a nice stretch of rolling hills on trail and pavement, along the west side of the lake.  The shallow water, overhead sunlight, and likely the time of year, made the water clear enough to see the bottom of the lake quite clearly from the course.  By this point my calves felt good, but my quads were just too tired to push my speed much, likely due to a hard bike ride on Friday.  Going out on a hard bike ride the day before a race is hardly the best idea for maximizing race performance, but I was antsy about getting a good ride in, since I had to hold back effort on riding for a couple weeks.  Priorities.  :-)  

There was a final aid station not far from the end.  Past this, I slowly picked up effort over the last mile or so, and finally picked it up to a good pace for the last whole tenth of a mile or so.  I finished in 2:33:27, decently six and a half minutes under my target time.  208/391—the entrants as a whole were faster this year.   I noticed the trend, since I pick my target times on non-flat trail races using the distribution of results from a prior run.  Again, another runner had followed me as a pacer most of the way; I seem to do that well.  

Snacks and ice cream and stretching and some cheering for more runners coming in, and it was done.  The course caught me nicely off guard on the amount of elevation--it's good to be surprised when you think you know a park.  In a switch from my expectation, the Brazen course had significantly more elevation than the Coastal course.  This half marathon had about 600 more feet of climbing than the 30k I ran here in November.  And having increased both my training volume and top race distance over the last few months, I felt great, although still tired, after the race was done.  Next time I’ll consider tapering a bit better.  Well, at least I say that now, but I also said that last week about this race.

25, 24

Monday 12/9.  Rode 9.7 miles along Skyline in 45 minutes.  I intended longer, but this was the week of frigid weather.  When I finished before 8AM, the temperature was 29 degrees.  And it was windy, blowing up to 30, it felt.  A few minutes into the ride, I turned down Skyline instead of heading out on Grizzly Peak, just o have the excuse to ride back up the hill so I could warm up on the way back.  I added a half hour swim at lunch.  It was still freezing outside, but the water in the pool was warmer than my office.

Tuesday 12/10.  Still freezing.  Ran about 6.5 miles out and back from Skyline, along the West Ridge trail, and back along the Baccarus trail in Redwood.  Many frozen puddles.  On and off the phone a lot, this run stretched out longer than intended.  I like these really cold runs though, especially on sunny days like this, I get a feeling of being more alive, kind of liking I'm rebelling against the weather.

Weds 12/11.  Swim speed workout, 1.6 miles.  Followed by a mile run.

Thurs 12/12.  Tired and cold, I hit the gym for a post-work fartlek run instead of the morning trail run.  5 miles.

Fri 12/13.  .8 mile IM swim and a 7 mile easy ride.  End of day.

Sat 12/14.  Miscellaneous cycling all over to get 17 miles in.  Dropped off the car for maintenance, rode up Pinehurst Rd. to get home.  Then back down later.  And capped it off with a few miles along skyline to watch the sunset.  Still very cold out, but warming.

Sun 12/15.  Woodside Ramble 35k/ 22 miles.  Took it mostly easy, until the last ~6 miles, which I went full speed at.  Perfect weather.  I was really tired the rest of the day, taking naps, watching bad tv, and going to bed early.

Mon 12/16.  Easy swim, .7 miles.  Light freestyle, breaststroke, kicking, pulling, and lots of stretching in the pool.  I find these easy swims the day after a hard run or race really help loosen things up.  Especially breaststroke kicks for loosening up hips and quads.  And the pool makes a number of hard stretches easier, in that I can suspend myself into them, using buoyancy to ease into a stretch more slowly than I could without it.  

Tues 12/17.  11 mile morning cycling on Skyline.  Rode from the end of our street to near the top of Grizzly Peak and back.  Slow going, legs were still tired.  Evening 5 mile treadmill run, alternating hill and speed intervals.  This felt strong, despite working out tight calves.

Weds 12/18.  An hour bootcamp with lots of leg work, followed by a 2 mile easy run.  At the end, my legs were beat.  Just plain tired at the end. 

Thurs 12/19.  1.6 mile swim + pool stretching.  I finished the swim speed 11-1 workout.  I really like these, since they mix things up and usually push you to swim hard for at least part of each workout.  I bailed on a planned light run to let legs fully rest from running for a couple more days, as I had a long run planned for the coming weekend.

Fri 12/20.  .8 mile swim, IM + kicking.  Followed this with 45 minutes spinning while reading.  

Sat 12/21.  Long run!  18.7 miles through Redwood Regional Park, half of Chabot, and back.  I started out on the West Ridge Trail, and headed down the Tres Sendes Trail, followed by a run on the full length of the French Trail.  I run this section a lot, since it has rolling hills, which are good for approximately light hill intervals, while following single track through redwoods.  I crossed the ridge at the end heading down the Toyon trail to cross into Chabot.  

Into Chabot, I crossed up and over the big hill on the MacDonald Trail, running/walking intervals on the uphills.  It's really a ridge, but I think of it as a long hill.  At the end, I followed the Grass Valley trail south to the Stone Bridge for a short stretch break.  I then headed back North on the Brandon trail, followed my the MacDonald trail, alternating uphill running intervals with short fast-walking breaks.  Crossing back into Redwood, I followed the Golden Spike Trail to the park entrance, and then followed the road to start of the Canyon Trail, where I filled my water.  It was then a long set of mostly uphill running intervals with short walking breaks.  As the sun set, there was an awesome display of colors on the ridges heading out to the south, transitioning from shades of light blue through to dark pink, with a light pink sky in the back.  

The iPhone camera missed 90% of the color.

I mostly intended to take this one easy, but in hindsight, I think I pushed the first two thirds harder than planned, as it was feeling good.  The last long slow hill on the East Ridge Trail is where I really backed off, just to get the time in without beating myself up.  The end result of this is more tight calves, which is a sign of having pushed myself on the uphills, but much less tight than the prior week.  Feet were sore too, but my trail shoes are close to retirements.  These are good signs, since they’re both predictable.  The compression sleeves pretty much did away with all the quad wonkiness on these last few long runs, a great psychological relief, since that was a huge limiting factor for a long time.  Also, I never felt winded on this run, more muscle-limited, which is happening more and more often.

Sun 12/22.  Long Ride!  18.4 miles.  I find it amusing that my long run this weekend was longer than my long ride.  I’ve backed off on long ride distance for a while, since I rotate through the things I push on.  Longer swims were a focus for a while, followed by longer rides, but it’s running focus time.  The winter is great for longer runs for me, as the lack of wind provides the extra time the long runs take.  Anyway, it was warm, and I ride the usual route along Skyline and Grizzly Peak, into Tilden.  Lots of hill climbing, which I took slow and consistently to let my quads rest (relatively).  Another gorgeous sunset, this time with a pink sun!  I bailed on a followup short light run to let my calves rest a bit.  They’re less tight, more so tired now.  

All together, a very cold week followed by what’s mostly been a recovery week.  I like pushing myself a couple times during recovery weeks, in short bursts and much less consistently than normal, since it keeps things feeling fresh (whatever that means).  I decided to write this, since every long outdoor run or ride is a small story.  And every week is a story.  One of my aims for the upcoming collection of races is to get more organized and deliberate with training, and writing these stories helps me reflect on what’s been accomplished and what I might want to change.  Week 1 will be the end of this stretch of events.   

Woodside Ramble 35K

I was really looking forward to this race.  For a number of reasons.  Across the hill, in Purisima and El Corte de Madera, is where I was inspired to try trail running.  I always wanted to run these trails too, but I didn’t get around to it before we moved to the East Bay.  So it’s a return to my original trail “neighborhood.”  It’s also the only place I’ve gotten a ticket for running.  Back when I first considered trying a trail race, a race on a similar course was the first one I was aiming for, but again, that moving thing put it all on hold for a couple months.  I then got sidetracked for a year just exploring the trails close to our new home in the Oakland hills before finally getting into trail racing this year.  And I haven’t run a race in the peninsula yet, so it was high on my to-do list, and Inside Trail Racing’s Woodside Ramble caught my attention.  It delivered well.

I went into this intending to back off on speed a bit, as it’s the longest trail race I’ve run, at 22 miles.  I have a not-so-great history of killing my legs by running new distances too fast.  And coming off of two faster half marathons in the last month, I was just getting recovered from the follow up muscle wonkiness.  

Psychologically, I broke the course up, by aid stations, into four parts.  First, a long, gradual uphill in Huddert County Park.  Then a run on the Skyline trail, near the ridge line, to Wunderlich Park.  Third, the run back to Huddert County Park, and finally, a long downhill section.  The course was mostly in a Redwood forest, with a lot of canopy blocking sunlight, which is one of my favorite running environments.  

The race started downhill across a field, which would be about the longest open stretch of the course, until it entered the woods and turned through a notorious bottleneck.  I was far enough ahead that it only backed me up a few seconds, and we ran downhill for a mile or so.  Then we started a very long hill climb.  The next mile or so I alternated between running slowly and hiking fast.  The mile after this was mostly fast hiking.  I finally felt warmed up and went back to running/hiking intervals, making sure to hold back to avoid any muscle cramps that might cut short or make miserable the latter parts of the run.  This would pay off really well.  We went up.  And up.  And up.  And up and up.  And up.  As we hit the Skyline trail and the course flattened out a bit, I was able to pick up speed.  Coming over one hill, I found a well-read blogger out shooting photos with his daughter.  As much as I’m not the biggest fan of my own running photos, having photographers on the course is great; each time I pass one, I’m motivated to kick myself in gear, and I pick up speed for quite a while.   We came to the road and had a short, fast downhill to the aid station.  Today’s craving was oreos and tangerines; the tangerines were awesome, as they have the perfect burst of intense flavor.   

Crossing the road, the course went back into the redwoods, winding in and out of the myriad gulches along the Skyline trail.  I was keeping very close pace with another runner through almost all of this, as we alternatively passed each other, but kept each other in sight.  Eventually the 30k leaders came by, going the other way.  I’ve run trails at really fast speeds a number of times, but I’m in no way trained to keep it up for very long.  I’m always impressed and humbled to see the runners at the lead.  This section ended with a decent climb up to the next aid station, with more tangerines.  

Running back along this trail, I really started to zone out, which is a big part of why I run these long races.  Eventually the stuff to think that I didn’t have time to think about during the week gets all thought about and I get time to just enjoy the environment.  The first few 50k runners passed by.  The runner I was keeping pace with had to stop on the side of the trail, and I didn’t see him again until the end. And I didn’t see anyone for another 45 minutes.  So I just ran.  

I came back to the road, made the last aid station stop, took a fast hiking break up what was now a slower uphill, and then the long downhill stretch began.  I felt great, and with less than 6 miles to go, I pushed the pace to try to hit my not-so-serious time goal.  A few more 50k runners flew by, and I flew past a couple 35k runners, since I’ve gotten much stronger and faster on downhills lately.  A couple miles from the end, Sam from Brazen, who times these, went by running up the hill.  We had been warned about a final hill in the last mile, so when I came to it, I decided to just run up the whole thing, as the race was wrapping up, and I felt strong.  I passed another 35k runner walking up this stretch, finished the climb, crossed the road, and ran around the playground and across the bit of field to the finish.  

I wrapped up in 4:45:16, 16 seconds over my not-very-serious goal, which is perfectly close enough, since I think of my times on these longer runs with a granularity of about 5 minutes.  And it was a not very serious goal, since the bigger goal was finishing a new trail distance without an injury or weeks of muscle pain, which I succeeded in.  I ended up 24/48.  Ate some food, drank some beer, chatted a bit.  A number of other runners were talking about the North Face Endurace challenge the week before, which has caught quite a bit of attention.

On a side note, I tried compression sleeves, on both thighs and calves, for the first time on this run.  I won’t claim they made me faster, but they definitely helped avoid muscle tightness.  I picked the full set up after wearing a medical compression sleeve to train through a post-berkely-half really tight vastus medialis.  After wearing it though a 16 mile, 4000’ training run, the supposedly irritated quad was the only part of my legs that felt great after.  This time, at a much faster overall pace, nothing was sore during the run, and I’ve only had the expected tight calves since.  So I ordered another set of calf sleeves, to have around for recovery.

And a couple photos, the first running up the long hill and the second down the hill at the end.  Looking quite ridiculous this time, methinks.

Up next, another pair of half marathons on familiar ground before increasing distance again.

Change of Focus

The last couple races (Berkeley and the Quarry Turkey) ended a psychological chunk of races for me.  I go through phases of running, and this one was ready to be over, having started in August with the Tri for Fun.  This stretch was all about density, almost at a compulsory level, in that I ran and swam or had a tri more weekends than not.  It wasn’t intended, but a lot of it came from signing up for races if there was no other early morning plan on a weekend.  And we haven't been out of town as much on weekends lately.  Here’s everything in this stretch:

Tri For Fun Sprint

Cinderella Half Marathon

Corporate Challenge 3.5 mile

Malibu Sprint+ Tri

Drag-N-Fly Half Marathon

Tough Mudder

Alcatraz Swim

Dirty Dare 25k

Marin Olympic Tri

Chabot 30k

Berkeley Half Marathon

Quarry Turkey Half Marathon 

…in slightly over 3 months.  That includes six half marathon or longer runs, three tris, and on distance swim.  In this time, speed went up, distance went up rather comfortably, and I acclimated to just going out and running a half distance without much thought.  These were also my first triathlons, and while swimming stabilized in terms of knowing what I’m doing, cycling had a ways to go.  Especially on hills.  I hit a time goal at the Berkeley half.  And got electrically shocked seven two many times.  

I’ve rested the last week, which was needed, more for psychological reasons than anything else, and focused on stretching and working out muscle kinks.  

The next chunk of time will be aimed at three goals:  Big Sur Marathon, Hawaii 70.3 tri, and run a 50k.  I’m going to attempt to back off on the number of races, in favor of better endurance training, and using races more intentionally to get toward these goals.  And somehow I went from a vague notion of how to do this to a specific plan.  The Dirty Dare and Chabot 30k were the first parts of this, as well as working in more cycling time over the last month.  Here’s what the rest looks like:

ITR Woodside Ramble 35k (Dec)

Brazen New Years Eve/New Years Day Half Marathons (Dec/Jan)

Coastal Steep Ravine Marathon (Jan)

ITR Chabot 50k (Feb)

ITR Marin 50k (March)

Big Sur Marathon (April)

Hawaii 70.3 Tri (May)

The Marin 50k is the race that caught my attention and motivated me to get up to 50k.  I love running in Marin, but don’t do so often enough.   I added Chabot to have an easier course the first time at that distance.  And because there’s a small possibility an upcoming life event might make me need to back out of Marin.  Backtracking, Steep Ravine, the pair of New Year’s halfs, and Woodside all aim to progressively ramp up distance.  Woodside and Steep Ravine are on trails I haven't been on, but have wanted to run on for a couple years now.  And it looks like I will have compulsively run 4 races at Chabot in 4 months. It's relatively close to home, why not?

I expect Big Sur to be the hardest.  Road races beat me up far more than trail races, which is why I put the 50ks before it.  In comparison, the Berkeley half left me more sore than the 25k or 30k, the latter of which is about 50% longer.  It’s about the greater speed and more repetitive running on flatter courses, so getting the distance down on trails makes managing the roadness at the distance a lot easier.  Big Sur will be hilly of course, but not like most hills I’m used to. 

For Hawaii, it’s all about cycling and bricks.  I regularly run and swim well over the distances involved, but cycling’s got to go up 50% longer.  I’ve gotten up to 40 miles on the bike, but not comfortably.  I’ve backed off since then to increase distance more slowly.  This is one I’m still researching how I want to train for.

A lot of training reference I read aims toward peaking at certain races.  Since these are in part new distances, I’d mostly like to finishing them at a good effort.  But I’d like to beat my existing marathon times at Big Sur, since they’ve been quite not-so-good because of less planned training in the past.  And if I avoid major injuries, it shouldn't be too hard to do so.

I’ll probably add a bay swim in there if one lands at a good time too.  But otherwise Im going to try to behave myself and not sign up for anything else until after Hawaii.  But of course, I’m sure there will be some weekend or two where I need to break my plan for fun.  

That photo of trees above has nothing to do with these races.  I believe it's on the huckleberry trail, close to home.

Quarry Turkey

It’s back to Quarry Lakes for Brazen’s Quarry Turkey half marathon.  This is where they held this spring’s Bay Breeze, which was my second race of the year, as well as of my now-rather-regular series of races.  It’s also my first time running half marathons two weekends in a row.  Last week’s Berkeley Half took a decent amount out of me, and I was still loosening up a bit from it.  And having run two races rather hard in a row, I decided to slow down on this one a bit.

Since the course is the same as Bay Breeze (but Bay Breeze is usually elsewhere. I hear it’s normally somewhere close to the bay.  Close enough to feel the breeze.), I’ve seen parts of the course before.  Since I’ve upped my baseline run to half marathons, the out and back portion was significantly longer, but running along the arroyo made for a rather pretty suburban course.  I started a little bit fast, and backed off pretty quickly to a pace that was a minute per mile slower than the prior week.  And I held that for most of the course, speeding up a bit for the middle section and again for the last mile.  

The aid stations had pie!  I had to say no a lot.  Lots of bread-and-sugar-like-carbs don’t mix well with flat courses for me.  But it was enthusiastically offered again and again and again.

Quarry Lakes is a collection of…quarry lakes.  The immediate landscape reminds me of Gilboa quarry, where I was known to hang out many years ago when scuba was what kept me busy.  And it was a fun flat run, with a handful of small hills and dips.  And the giant turkey was happily hanging out with everyone.  I finished in 2:!2:07, 13 mins longer than last week, but 3 mins faster than my target time.

I usually don’t run this distance two weekends in a row, but this was good prep for the two-half-marathon-in-5-days thing coming up at the end of the year, which, unlike this course, will have some hills.  As well as for the progressively longer races coming up into the early spring.  

Berkeley Half Marathon

The Berkeley Half Marathon was originally my one half marathon for November (which turned into 3 in a compulsive need to add a couple more races).  I intended to push my time on this one, to see if I could get under two hours.  It was the inaugural race, put on by the same organizers as the San Francisco Marathon.

I had my long bike ride the day before, and I rod my bio to the race.  Both of these were working against me, but getting the rides in were more important than my time goal.  I treat my times as fitness measures, ways to challenge myself, and as fun numbers games.  Small things in the rest of life often win out over a strict effort to hit a time goal.  Although I’ve gotten better at tapering normal training runs in the week before races.  But for how many races I’m running this fall, this means every other week.

Back to the Berkeley Half Marathon.  I arrived at Civic Center Park and stowed my bike, immediately finding the Tough Mudder crowd, the first of many people I know who I would run into at this race.  I was less early than usual, so after stowing jackets and such, we went straight to the finish line.  I was in the third wave (2nd non-elite wave).  We started off around a multi-block loop over to U.C. Berkeley, and we then headed downhill along University Ave., zig-zagging into neighborhood streets here and there.  I started off a little faster than needed, anticipating the hill at the end and expecting to gradually slow during the race.  Around 4 miles in I settled into a more consistent 9 minute/mile pace.  

The course headed out across 80 and went south along the east bay shoreline frontage road, into Emeryville and turning around just before the art.com building.  This would be the first of many out-and-backs along this trail.  We ran back north, crossing 7 miles before heading out towards the Berkeley Marina.  It was pretty steady going, in that I was constantly close to my limit for this distance (at least for that day), and I was well challenged mentally to hold the pace for the rest of the race.  

The course went out and around Ceasar Chavez park, which is one of my favorite running routes, although I haven’t run it much since last spring.  The wind-and-water drama I’m used to seeing here was replaced by nearly flat water, more normal for this time of year and this time of day.  We headed back in, back to the bay trail, before making at least three small out-and-backs on the gradual progression north.  On the less-than-great side, an ambulance was in the middle of the course, with paramedics treating a passed-out runner; I read later that he was hospitalized, but ok.

The course wrapped up by heading up the hill near Golden Gate Fields and dropped down the north side of the parking lot.  Being the end of the course, I just pushed hard up the hill.  I don’t think I slowed at all, in that I was more muscle-bound for most of the race than endurance-bound.  The final run down the hill to the finish was a nice end, since I’ve gotten much better at taking downhills with speed the last few months.  Crossing the finish line, I stopped to the side, and bent over to catch my breath for a couple minutes, which is for me a sign of having pushed myself well.  

I came in at 1:58:56, just under my goal.  Being the first time I’ve made a point to pace myself, it worked out well, and I apparently kept a pretty steady pace.  Another runner came up to me afterwords and said I was a great pacer, as he’d been following me most of the race.  I caught up with many people while recovering a bit, before heading out.  I picked up the bonus SF/Berkeley Challenge medal too, having run the SF Marathon this summer.  I ended up 1915 out of 4664, also inside an ongoing percentile goal I have.

Then there was the long line to get on the shuttle back to the start, as well as the long, very slow bike ride home.  Riding 1200 feet uphill after a hard 13 mile run isn’t the easiest thing.  :-)