recovery!

So, we are 9 days post Jemez, and recovery is relatively complete. I took a few days off, and went for an hour hike on Monday then a short run on Wednesday. I took Thursday off, but Friday did an hour and a half on Glorious Ridge with Justin Evenson. It was good to get back on the trails with him. Saturday I did almost 3 hours in the canyon, doing the tailgate loop while listening to the Lakers game. After hiking on Sunday and going to check out Star Wars in Concert (very good, if a little cheesy and over the top), Monday was a new challenge - High Point!

High Point is the highest point on Palomar Mountain. Starting from Oak Grove, its a 13 mile out and back with 3,600 feet of gain. I picked this one because it should be relatively similar to the climbs for White River at between 500 and 600 feet per mile for several miles. My hope was to get up in 2 hours and 10 minutes and down in 65 minutes. I made my time goal, but was up to the top in 2 hours, and it took 70 minutes to get down. I definitely bonked on the way down, which isn't too surprising given that I only took two gels on the way up and none on the way down. Went through 3 frozen water bottles and could have done another. It was mid 70's at the start at the bottom and mid 80's at the bottom, so it was starting to get warm.

The climb starts with 1,800 feet of gain in 2 miles on technical single track. Definitely some work to get up. It dumps onto a series of fire roads which are fairly mellow for a mile and a half or so, but then kick up before another 1/2 mile flat section through shady oaks and then a final steep kick to the finish at high point. There is a multi-story fire tower up at the top that is sometimes open, but was closed today so that they could do some safety work on it. After about 7 minutes on top, I headed down. I hadn't made it 1/4 mile when a rattler struck at me. It wasn't even close, but it was a wake up call. I have no idea what it was thinking. Its funny because the last time I was here, I had a close call where the rattler struck and missed. Twice! Both times its head bounced off my ankle as I danced and screamed like a 13 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert. So, the lesson is that they have some grumpy rattlers up there.

Among other sites were numerous blooming wildflowers that were populated with big bees. I thought they were carpenter bees, but they might have been bumble bees. I wasn't taking a close look. There is a great view of the observatory from the top. A possible long run will be to get dropped off at Oak Grove and picked up somewhere in Palomar state park, or, even better, to run down to the state park, then back up and over again. That would be tough for sure. I'll have to scout it out.

More soon!

A view of the fire tower from the top. I'll bring a better camera next time because you can get some good pics from a distance. You can see it for the last 2 miles or so of the approach. A good target.
The view of the Palomar Observatory from the fire tower.
A southern Pacific rattler! This was the culprit on Monday, but the last guy who struck at me was a red rattlesnake which are rarer. Neither one makes a good dinner guest.

Daily Double

I forget what the title is from, but doubled up today, and put myself in jeopardy. Get it? HA!

I am training every day, for several days in a row, because I am going to miss out on a weekend of training. But last night, real life got in the way, so that meant two today to make up. I went out on a rather flat 2 hour tempo run in the canyon in the AM that went remarkably well. However, because it was extra muggy out, by the time I got back, my clothes were all a different color from all the sweat gathered in them. Ringing out my shirt, I was able to almost fill the sink. Cool.

For my afternoon run, I headed out for an easy hour at Mission Trails. The legs took a while to kick in, but then I settled into a slow rhythm. On the way up the Quarry Trail, I saw a guy frozen in place. Looking down, I saw the rattler along the trail between him and me. I would say during summer, I see one a week, either in the canyon or at Mission Trails. Seeing two of us, the sucker realized he was outnumbered and headed back into the bushes. However, this was, as you will see, just part of his master plan.

I continued up over Quarry Hill, then down to the Rim Trail. However, where you had been able to skirt the construction earlier, they had constructed a new fence to stop poachers like me. Jerks. So I decided to retrace my steps back to the car as that was going to be about an hour anyways. As I came back down Quarry Hill, I looked off to the left just as my foot was landing. There in the bushes, at the same place I had saw him before, head sticking out maybe, MAYBE, 3 inches was my friend from earlier who had taken up ambush position in the low lying scrub. He made a strike at me but came up just short. He then high tailed it back into the safety of the bushes. WHEW!

This is my second close encounter with a rattler since living in San Diego. The first came running down the Dripping Springs Trail where a red rattler, fairly rare for San Diego, made a strike, but didn't get his mouth open in time, bouncing instead off my ankle. So far, so good.

Tomorrow night is a double loop of the Mission Gorge 15k, which will be 18.5 miles and 3400 feet of climb. The goal is 4 hours. We'll see.

I owe an NBA post. There's big doings on the horizon. I promise one tomorrow.

Did someone say Daily Double?

Mission Trails Friday

Yesterday, did a nice training run at Mission Trails with my friend Andy. Up Quarry Hill, over to the Rim Trail, dropped into Suycott Wash the hard way, running the reverse of the Xterra 15k, then up where I usually drop in at the south side of the wash and back out to the car. About an hour and 15 min. Only walking was the top part of the drop in trail. Legs felt heavy but manageable. Wish I felt a little better on the climbs.

Right before we reached the construction area by the stacks, narrowly missed a little rattler, about 3 feet long. Andy hadn't seen a rattlesnake before in the wild. Not sure exactly where he's been to not see one in San Diego County, but he put on a good show, giving us a good rattle before heading off into the bushes.

I'll have to use map my run to see what the mileage and climb was on the run. It was an interesting link of some of the eastern trails that I had not done before. Next week it will be back to my usual Friday test. On tap today will be a couple of hours in the heat followed by a giant steak dinner at Donovan's courtesy of Greg.

Main victory for the day yesterday? Fending off my desire for fried ice cream at Casa de Pico. I'd guess I'm down about about 5 pounds so far. So far, so good.

Oh, and the mystery around Rubio continues. It wouldn't be the worst thing if he stayed in Spain for a few years to work on a shot . . .