15, 14: Grab Bag

Monday Feb 17, 2014.  1100 yardish swim.  I'm shifting towards making Monday a leg rest day and using swimming to kind of kick off new training weeks.  I've had a strict training plan for the last couple months, but I'm seeing places where it consistently isn't working, so I'm going to adjust it a bit.

Tuesday Feb 18, 2014.  5.4 mile run.  Huckleberry and Sibley.  I took this one deliberately slow to taper for this weekend's race.  But it was good to get the hills in, to loosen up some tightness from pushing the climbing on Diablo on Saturday.  A body was found in Redwood on Saturday night, on fire.  I spent most of this run thinking about that, since Redwood was my main running spot all of last year (I've shifted a bit to Huckleberry/Sibley to get in a particular harder climb).  Bizarre.

Thursday Feb 20.  5.1 mile run.  I ran out to the Emeryville Marina and back over lunch.  It was a fun mix of half mile fast intervals, walking to loosen up, and repeating.  I had contrary goals of backing off to not push things too hard while kicking speed up to get ready for Saturday.  I ran a lot of half mile intervals well below 8 mins/mile, which is currently fast for me.  The end result is tight calves and sore heals.  Lots of foam rolling to do before Saturday.

Friday Feb 21.  1200 yard swim.  Just moving before the race to get my heart rate up and to
loosen up.

Saturday Feb 22.  31 mile run at ITR's Chabot 50k.  First 50k!  I ran it rather slow, feet were surprisingly sore pretty early, but I kept steadily at it.  More elsewhere.

Monday Feb 24.  1000ish yard swim.    This was a rushed workout over lunch at the start of what's became a very busy week, with two high-impact new arrivals coming within the next month.  It's good timing though, since my legs will benefit from the rest.

Wednesday Feb 26.  Probably a half mile walking fast, around a shopping mall, of all places.  Having had not enough time to run (or sleep sufficiently) this week, I parked at the opposite end of the mall from where I needed to run a five minute errand just to get moving.  I think this week's collected errands are taking a bigger toll on me physically than the 50k.  In part because I'm also mentally off balance from not getting outside enough.  There's some exploring planned for the weekend that should make up for it.  I also signed up for my first 50 mile race in the wee hours of the morning before bed.  It'll be in December, as the next big challenge for myself after Hawaii.

Thursday Feb 27.  4.3 mile run.  With not-running-or-exercising-much-at-all-this-week frustration building up, I ran later at night from home, down through Montclair Village, and back.  I've never run down the hill and back up--I just typically head for the trails.  Legs were very stiff, but I ran through it, letting them loosen up over time.  I ran quarter mile intervals going back uphill to keep the pace up.  It was some of the fastest uphill running I've done, and it didn't feel like much of an effort.  I backed off mostly to avoid having my legs tighten up too much.

Saturday March 1.  5.9  mile run.  East Ridge and Pool trails loop at Armstrong Redwoods.  More in another entry.

Sunday March 2.  1.8 miles hiking and 2.6 miles running.  PL and I were exploring for the day, starting at the mouth of the Russian River, and working our way down to Bodega Bay.  I took the chance to hike around with my camera, and I threw in some running too, just to have fun with it.  There was a group of harbor seals hanging out at the mouth of the Russian River, many were playing around.  We made 6 or 7 stops, along with a seafood sandwich stop in Bodega.  Great weather shift from morning rain to fog and drizzle to sun.

I'm not sure what to call this two week stretch of running (I didn't do much swimming or cycling here).  I ran my first 50k, took it conservatively, and finished it well.  Then life through a bunch of stuff at me.  And my next couple runs were road/trails I haven't run on.  This ends this phase of training, which has been focused on ramping up trail distance and difficulty.  I have no races in March (I back out of a planned 50k because of a conflict), and I don't plan to race again until late April.  I have to continue increasing cycling distance, but otherwise, I plan to use the next couple months to just have fun.

Armstrong Redwoods

PL and I set out for a quiet weekend, not having much of an agenda.  Which usually means hiking, cooking, reading, sipping coffee, watching movies, and other active and inactive things.  The main point is to get out of the house and the myriad parts of life we manage from home.   On these trips, I also like to get in a run or two in new places.  

We went to Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Preserve for the afternoon and took a short hike on the valley floor.  With all the rain, it was quite humid, quite green, and filled with redwoods, with the oldest at 1400 years old.  Reading up on it later in the day, the valley is classified as rain forest.  

After the hike, I ran a loop up and out of the valley, around and back down.  The climb was long and steady, very humid, and steeper than I expected.  But quite runnable today—the forced time off during the week worked in my favor.  

Climbing out of the valley, the East Ridge trail eventually leaves the redwood forest and climbs though grassy hills and other forest types (I’m not the best at identifying most trees).  The views up here were amazing.

After the climb, I ran a long steady downhill stretch on the Pool trail.  Returning to redwood valley, it crossed a handful of streams before returning to the central redwood grove of the park.  This was one of my most fun downhill runs ever, with others having been in Huddert county park and on the Coastal View trail.  Getting back to the main redwood grove, I explored parts that I missed on the hike.

I also used this run to break in a new pair of Altra Olympus shoes.  I picked these up to add in some high cushion trail shoes to the mix.  Everyone seems to love Hokas right now, but the other Altras I’ve been running in have done such a good job at getting rid of unnecessary foot pain/injury that I went for these instead.  They have this interesting design that makes you want to run instead if you happen to be walking.  Especially uphill.  As a result, I was able to push a little harder than usual when running uphill.

Chabot 50k

I ran my first 50k at ITR’s Chabot trail run last Saturday.  I picked this as my first 50k because I know the trails, have experience racing here, and it’s an easier 50k course.  

But within two miles of starting, I knew it was going to be a long race for me.  A faster run during the week had a much bigger impact on my feet than I expected.  My heels were sore pretty much from the beginning of the race until the end.  Early race soreness and stiffness usually works itself out by about two miles, but not this day.  

For the first 20 miles or so, I was holding back my pace quite a bit, since my only real goal was to finish the 50k distance.  The last 10 miles were a mix of running through foot pain, walking, and just enjoying the process of constantly moving.  I call it pain, but it wasn’t at the level of really hurting, more so a constant irritating tightness that I knew would turn to pain if I didn’t keep my pace down.  I finished in 6:59, well over what I expected.  As a first 50k, it felt somewhat anticlimactic.

Otherwise, this was a mostly internal race.  I had music on for most of it, and I used the time to think through things happening in the rest of life.  The trails were familiar, and with running slower this time, it became a very meditative day. 

I ran with a new hydration pack this time too, a minimal Salomon 1.5L pack.  I was looking for something smaller that would ride higher and be easier to refill.  The velcro arm straps failed a few times, until I realized that having a clip snapped in too high was tugging one sleeve out.  After adjusting the clip, it behaved itself.  If the velcro continues to behave, this might become my goto racing pack; I like how it rides.

17, 16: Atonement

Monday Feb 3.  1000 yard swim.  I'm 33% of the way through my break from running.  I went out for a short easy swim, just moving at a moderate pace, not pushing it too hard.  I included a couple kick sets to get my legs working.  Later in the day they felt much better than in the morning.  I'm also sketching in some goals for the next chunk of racing/etc, but I'm waiting to see how a few event dates land and how I feel after a finishing a couple more races in this set.  I'm contemplating whether or not to commit to a stretch goal or just to dive in.

Thursday Feb 6.  1800 yard swim.  I'm now on my fifth leg resting day--I let a planned bike ride on Tuesday fall through to get extra sleep.  Allowing myself to rest has really let my body crash for a few days.  It was only this morning that I finally awoke without a lot of effort to stand and walk.  I went out for a lunch time swim class with light rain, which we really need.  I might cycle tomorrow, and I might wait until Saturday to get going again.  The stretch goal I'm contemplating is becoming more firm in my head, but I'm going to make myself wait until the end of the month to commit.

Friday Feb 7.  13.0 mile bike ride.  Very light rain that picked up as I finished.  I rode up to grizzly peak and back, treating this as an uphill strength session, staying in a higher gear on the uphills and riding out of the saddle on a couple of the smallest hills.

Saturday Feb 8.  11.5 mile run.  It's been raining the past few days here.  Finally.  Perfect weather for a trail run.  I don't know why, but I find running in the rain to be more calming than any other conditions.  The world feels more alive, and there's fewer people out.  I went to the middle part of Chabot regional park, exploring some trails along the western edge of the park that I've never run on.  Some of them are the hardest looking part of a race I'm running in two weeks, so I was also scoping them out.  They weren't too bad, since Chabot is forgiving as far as most climbs go, except for the fresh mud on the exposed parts of one climb.  I ended with an out and back on the Cascade/Columbine trails, which follow along the bed of a seasonal winter stream for a while.  It says a lot about how bad the recent drought has been that after two days of rain, there was still no water in the creek bed.  

This also ended my self-imposed six day running break.  I ran a lot of uphills, taking downhills and flats easier to enjoy the day.   I also applied something I'm trying to change in my swimming form to my running form, with the theory that I'd get more distance per stride.  It mostly involves keeping my grounded foot on the ground longer, pushing off further, to get as much work out of each stride that I could.  I didn't time myself, but it overall felt more comfortable for a given effort.  I mixed this in with a bunch of walking, since the form change is working my hamstrings harder.

My left heel was sore again, and has been on and off all week.  I think there's something tight or weak when my left calf fully extends, since adding the zero drop shoes (which I'm occasionally running in and now always walking in) and the much greater amount of uphill running I've been doing cause these muscles to work harder over a greater range of motion.  Something to keep in mind for planning longer runs and races until it balances out.  This, along with aggressively rolling out my right IT band seem to be slowly reducing some strength, flexibility, and form imbalances I've been aware of.  

Sunday Feb 9.  35.6 miles cycling.  Cold.  Wet.  Rainy.  Windy.  Foggy.  And eventually Dark too.  The perfect day for a long ride.  After learning from last time, I backed off on the pace, managing to finish strong.  I rode the last few miles much slower than usual, since visibility was bad.  I was intending to extend this to a brick, but I was cold, and the rain made the last part take longer than planned.  I followed this up with furniture construction, building a place to sleep for someone who will need one.

Monday Feb 10.  1000 yard swim.  Just moving, a good recovery workout after pushing myself both days over the weekend.

Tuesday Feb 11.  7.5 mile run.  With 1800+ feet of climbing.  I started before 7, running through Huckleberry, around Sibley, and back.  It was foggy and the streams were flowing (finally!), but at the Round Top ridge, I broke above the fog to awesome views of sun on fog patches across the east bay.  The one day I don't have a camera.  It was a hill endurance day, probably my favorite kind of "run."  If you think in terms of "elevation density," something I've started to do to mix up difficulties of my runs, this was higher than Steep Ravine.  It was also my longest run in the Superiors, and my feet are a little sore as I write this, since I'm still getting used to them.  They hold up surprisingly well for traction on steep wet trails--better than on steep dry trails.  And they were quite comfortable on the technical parts.

Wednesday Feb 12.  4.4 mile run.  Out to the Emeryville peninsula and back.  I kept a decent, but steady pace, given the tired legs from yesterday morning.  I bailed on a morning ride to get more sleep in too, since I needed the recovery after yesterday.

Thursday Feb 13.  3000 yard swim.  I backed off on running to let my legs recover after pushing a little hard for two days, and because I had an early morning appointment.   I think I'm ready,  endurance wise, for the 50k in a little over a week, and I don't believe that strictly pushing it instead of recovering intelligently will do any good at this point.  I've run a 27 mile race with significantly more elevation and a 22 24 mile race with about 60% of the elevation in the last month.  This won't be that much further than 27 miles.  And there will be much less stairs.  After having a large chunk of time to work hard in the office for a number of hours, something I don't often get a chance to do, I up'd my swim plans for the day, doing a 2950 yard swim speed workout.  I compulsively added an extra lap to make it 3000.  There was a stretch of 6 200's in a row with increasing speed.  Halfway through, I wanted to bail, but kept going, and flew through the second half.  I'm glad I did; it's probably my best overall swim workout so far this year.

Saturday Feb 15.  12.8 mile run.  I had the right window of time and the right week in terms of training to squeeze in a "run" up to the summit of Mt. Diablo.  With 3800+ feet of climbing, on a deliberately easy-paced weekend, this took a little while.  I parked at the Mitchell Canyon trailhead and headed up Mitchell Canyon, which has a deceptively steady incline on what's a relatively flat trail.  I was feeling tired and stiff from pushing it both Tuesday and Wednesday and from not having time for a morning ride since then, as moderate paced bike rides tend to loosen up running stiffness.

This eventually transitioned to steeper fire road climbing.  And climbing.  And more climbing.  The view slowly became awesome, as I could see both the hills I know in the Berkeley/Oakland hills and the Sherman Island kitesurfing area.

Around deer park flat, it got windy.

I passed a boy scout troop twice on the final stretches to the summit.  On the last stretch on the Juniper trail, it looked like the trail was the line where they held last fall's fire.

I paid a quick visit to the summit, and headed back down to the North Peak trail, finding all the downhill to be steeper, more technical, and slower than I expected.  But also more fun.

There was more high wind on the Bald Ridge trail, which was just great to run along; I think I'll come back to run some more of the ridge trails.  I finished by heading down the Back Creek trail and a couple others to get back to the trailhead.

This was almost all new trails to me, with a lot of different environments, and a place I've wanted to run for a long time.  It's by far the largest single climb I've done, and the highest elevation density (this new measurement of trail difficulty I'm using) at 298.8  Methinks I'll make this a more regular training spot, since it's not all that far from home.

Sunday Feb 16.  4.5ish mile bike fail.  I set out for a 25 mile ride.  My legs were really tired, given the almost non stop climb up Mount Diablo on Saturday.  But it was a different kind of tired; one where I had much less force, but not a kind of tired where I felt anything sore.  Halfway up Grizzly peak, I stopped for a break, and failed to get my shoes in the pedals when starting back up.  A few second later, after falling (not surprising), there was one less spoke in my back wheel (surprising), and everything was out of wack.  I bailed.  Time for a wheel repair.  And time to learn more about getting into these pedals on an uphill.

These were a good pair of training-focused weeks.  The first was deliberate rest to avoid overtraining, which feels like it did its job well.  Everything felt stronger after it ended.  The next was full on.  I'm getting to know what isn't working in my training schedule right now, in that I'm finding I need extra recovery time on specific days (Monday and Thursday).  I'm confident I'm at the volume I need for the distances I want to run until the end of the year, so I might as well start deliberately missing those workouts.

Fort Ord "39k"

This was a great course.  Many of the single track trails, especially in the valleys, were packed sand, not something I’ve found often.  This was an extra race I added, not one I trained well to target, so I didn’t put much expectations on myself other than to get a long run in, but with the pressure of a race to pick up the pace.  And I really wanted to go run this course, being a bit out of my neighborhood, furthering the goal for this year to run more in new places further from home.

It was an odd race for me in a lot of ways.  My legs had been tired the last week, after a hard bike/run brick the prior Sunday, as well as a very-high-for-me social schedule over the last week.  I pulled back on my planned running and biking during the week, and I felt good at the start.  And then I ran uphill—quite a bit.  For a majority of the first 10 miles of the course, and about half of the second.  Recent training was really paying off on what’s been my weakest point for quite a while.  On the downhills I was just slow.  I just didn’t have the drive to keep my recent pace for very long without hurting, similar to my runs during the prior week.  And after mile 10 or so, my heels started to hurt.  Possibly due to the faster uphills; I’ve noticed that working my calves hard has a side affect of pulling on my feet enough to make this area sore.  So I just relaxed when I needed to and enjoyed the run. 

The trails were great, and varied a lot.  Rocky fireroads on open hills and sandy single track in covered valleys; these trails were just fun.  This would be a great course to return to, especially in a year that we get more than .04 inches of rain in the month leading up to the race.  

Somewhere after the second aid station, while I was zoned out and following a couple other runners, I got off course.  They were pulling away from me, but I eventually convinced myself I was off course since it was flat for far too long.  ITR just doesn’t make courses this flat for this long.  Seeing no course flags, I checked the map and talked to a local runner, finding a way to get back on track without shortchanging the distance.  I must have been really zoned out, since it took me over a mile to notice.  On the way back, I caught a 100k runner who made the same mistake and pulled him back on track too.  This added a couple miles to my run, but it got me out of the just-keep-running mentality for a while, and made for a fun excursion.  It also kicked my adrenaline up for climbing and descending the next hill, making what was a sore part of the race a lot more fun.  I later found out they went back to add more markings to that turn too.

There was a short flat section that led into the second aid station.  This part just sucked for me.  I don't really like to use the word "suck."  But it did.  Legs and feet were protesting, so I walked some stretches of it, just waiting for the next climb.  It's quite ironic that I was waiting for a climb to come to get of a flat section of the course.  That climb delivered, about two miles of steady uphill, and I ran a good chunk of it.  The next mile and a half were downhill, which didn’t go very well.  Heel protests were back.  Getting into the last climb, I took off, hoping to pass the one other runner I could see.  I did this and kept going, until I got to the point where I could see no one and really didn’t know how much more of the course was left.  I eased back again to not beat myself up and came comfortably into the finish, running the final uphill.

I wrapped up in 5:05, running 24.2 miles, about two miles over the course distance.  Despite the slow downhill, aching legs and heels, and side excursion, it’s actually a better average pace by 20 secs/mile than I ran at Woodside (my only other 35k), which had 300 feet less elevation gain.  So I’m not complaining, as that’s a significant improvement. 

ITR was also putting on their first 100k here, and I stayed until dark to volunteer at the finish area.  It was inspiring to see people finishing a run of that distance, and a lot of fun.  And forcing myself to stand was probably better recovery for my legs than finding a couch at home.

I in part added this race to get a last fast and long run in before running a 50k for the first time, which is in three weeks.  It did that well, the extra excursion even working for me in that regard.  But with al the leg aches, I’m going to challenge myself to take a six day running break.  It’s about the right timing for a short recovery rest too, since it’ll give enough time to get in a hard week before tapering.

19, 18: Ramp Up and Beat Down

Monday, January 20.  25.6 mile bike ride.  Still feeling very stiff in a few places from the Steep Ravine marathon, I moved my long ride from Sunday to Monday, since I had the day off.  My calves were still tight, so I changed from a two-big-climbing-effort route to a single-big-climbing-effort route, and headed down Pinehurst.  I rode out past Moraga on an unseasonably warm day, and eventually kind of stumbled across a paved trail up to Lafayette.  Lots of parents out with their children.  I rode this out and back, and, upon returning to Canyon, turned south for the eventual long climb up Redwood and Skyline.  Somewhere before this, it occurred to me that when I started riding bigger hills about 4 months ago, I had to stop every tenth of a mile or so just to keep my quads from burning.  I don't stop at all now, and it's become mentally easy.  That had to be good training.  So I kicked up my effort a notch by riding the whole climb in a single gear, one higher than I ride most of the climb.  It wasn't as hard as I expected, but it was a better workout.  I might progressively increase my baseline climbing gear now.  I woke up the next morning with well beat-down legs and bailed on a planned easy run.  I had the energy to keep going, but that's not always the smartest thing or the most effective way to get stronger/faster or to increase endurance.  All side goals of this whole outdoor sports thing.

Tues Jan 21.  Rest.  I took Tuesday off, in part because of a packed schedule, and in part to get extra needed sleep in the morning, and in part because I was feeling weak and tired by the end of the day.  During a short massage, it was pointed out that my right IT band and muscles around it are tight.  My right thigh has been tighter for years, but stable, while my left thigh has had its ups and downs.  Intense rolling work in December really loosened it up though, so it’s time to repeat it on the right thigh.  

Weds Jan 22.  4.2 mile run and 2650 yard swim.  On the run, my calves were still tight, muscle tone was out of whack, and my right thigh was off kilter from some intense rolling the night before.  So I decided to run out on the French Trail and make the Redwood Peak climb, running about half the uphills, albeit slowly.  This was a day to just keep moving.  The evening swim was much better, with a lot of swimming, kicking, and pulling intervals.  It’s nice to be able to breath well enough to swim again. 

Thurs Jan 23.  5.4 mile run and 2400 yard swim.  I decided it would be good to include two big climbs on my morning run.  I started on the Huckleberry loop, and it was windy.  I ran down and up the valley to Sibley, ran around Round Top, and returned.  1400 foot climb.  Including these large climbs on my normal weekday runs (I seem to be getting around 1000 feet on many of them now) seems to be doing a lot more for my uphill running skill than the planned gym hill intervals.  I'm contemplating bailing on them for now, since I don't notice the fatigue on trails, and it's mentally easier to push through it and push myself harder outside.  I went to swim class at lunch.  We have a new coach; today seemed to be speed focused, which I'm liking right now.  It's good getting feedback from different coaches, I had some new notes about my form that I wasn't aware of.

Friday, Jan 24.  15.2 mile ride.  I rode the Pinehurst/Redwood/Skyline loop, adding some milage at the end to hit 15 miles.  I stuck to the higher-minimal-gear idea from Monday, and I added some higher effort intervals to the climbs, kicking things up a few gears for a bit every five minutes.  My variation of an idea from one of a handful of training plans I'm using to make my own training plan right now.  It did make the long climb much more fun.  I bailed on a planned swim to say farewell to a departing colleague, and since I had plenty of swim distance in the prior two days.

Saturday Jan 25.  9.5 miles running.  I ran (and hiked) a couple loops at Tilden, adding up to over 2500 feet of climbing in less than 10 miles.  Training is paying off well, I ran quite a bit of uphill trails.  At one hilltop, I chatted with an older runner who was out with his wife (she was still halfway up the trail) about running vs. walking on some of he steeper climbs.  Agreeing with him, walking is often faster, but running what I can makes me overall faster in the long run, even if it slows me down a lot at that moment.  I got the heart rate monitor working for this run--watching it, it's actually quite useful for deciding more logically when to run uphill and when to walk.  At 170 I start to get really inefficient.  But a combination of laziness and muscle protest try to have their way sooner.  I was using this as a sanity check to push through and keep going a number of times, which was far easier than I expected.  This is my first weekend of backing off on my long runs on a biweekly plan to alternate running and biking focused efforts.

Sunday Jan 26.  30.3 mile ride and 1.1 mile road run.  It's time to start increasing long ride length, also on a biweekly schedule, with the goal of alternating weekends of long ride efforts with weekends of long run efforts.  I could keep going with both every weekend, and I want to, but I realized that time needs to give in to other parts of life.  It's freeing in some ways though, since I don't feel so much in a rush if I only make one effort that pushes my time/distance bounds every weekend.  I dropped off NF, who's visiting, for a coffee get together, and rode a Sibley/Grizzly Peak/Inspiration Point/Orinda/Moraga/Canyon/Redwood/Skyline loop of 30 miles.  I kept a very strong pace for all but the last 5 miles, setting many Strava PRs on climbs.  The higher-min-bike-gear and the intervals earlier in the week made a huge difference on my climbing strength.  It was also my first ride down Wildcat Canyon Rd, which is a far less insane nicer descent than El Toyonal.  I immediately followed this with a quick road run (my first road run since the Berkeley half), hoping to get many more bike/run bricks in before Hawaii.  The first mile or two of running is a weak point for me in a tri.  It's also my first run with the headlamp, since it had gotten dark by this point.  I might be making more use of it this week due to some morning schedule constraints.  Finishing up, I drove back to pick up NF before heading home to eat far too much.

Monday Jan 27.  2800 yards swimming.  A fast workout, swim speed 12-2.  Lots of high-paced short sets.  I gave my legs most of a break for the day.

Tuesday Jan 28.  6.15 mile run.  Because of a morning errand of toting the furball to the vet and listening to her many vocal protests, I squeezed my run in during lunch.  Arg, road running.  I ran out to the start of the new bay bridge path and back.  I didn’t realize how far it is to get there; it’s a 10k run to get there and back, most of it through the maze of approach ramps.  I’ll have to return when I have more time to actually run out over the bay.  It was sunny and hot and my legs were still really tired from Sunday.  I forced in a bunch of higher speed intervals though, which makes things more fun, even on days like this, when I can’t keep pace up very long.  I also rearranged my workouts for the rest of the week, playing things a bit more by ear, to be better recovered for a race on Saturday.

Wednesday Jan 29.  2600 yard swim.  I took a day away from running/biking (my original plan) to let my legs rest a bit.  I bought some new road shoes (Altra Torins), which I've been walking in for a couple days to break in.  Just walking in them is helping to stretch out some long term tightness in my right thigh.  I'm contemplating shifting all my shoes in this direction, since the zero heel to toe drop (including on my zero sandals) feels better in my feet and in my legs.  I swam the Swim Speed 13-1 workout to get some workout time in, since I might take Friday off or easy.  I'm noticing a significant swimming improvement since returning to it after a short break at the beginning of January, mostly in form and strength, which I hadn't really anticipated, as swimming seemed to have been plateaued for a couple months.  I'm consistently about 3 strokes lower for a pool length than I was in December.

Thursday Jan 30.  4.3 mile run.  Another road run at lunch.  These are good for pushing speed, but this was just to get time outside.  I kept a slow pace in lieu of Saturday, and having had tired legs all week.

Friday Jan 31.  13 mile ride.   An easy back-and-forth on Skyline.  Just looking to stay warmed up.  No real hills.

Saturday Feb 1.  24.2 mile run.  That was supposed to be 35k...  I ran the Fort Ord trail run.  Surprisingly strong uphills, slower than usual downhills.  Lots of muscle protests after 10 miles, and I mistakenly added a couple miles.  Really great trails, I'd like to go back for a stronger run again.

Sunday Feb 2.  Rest.

I planned a full week of workouts for the coming week, but even with taking the last two weeks easy, things were off a bit on Saturday.  Except the uphills, which were really strong.  As a gut feeling move, watching some muscle aches creep in, I'm taking six days off of running to swim and cross train.  Writing these blog entries, which I share minimally, helps a lot with reflecting on training choices and their outcomes.  Since I've started writing this, I've used things I notice when writing to adjust my training, sometimes with surprising results.

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.