Wildlife central

Well, I will label tonight's run a "recovery run". I was hoping for something better. I knew I needed a 2 hour run to kick off my weekend, having done a little bit of speed work yesterday, or speed work as far as I am concerned. So I decided to do my usual Friday loop with an extra loop up the quarry trail added on.

My legs felt like they were filled with sand and water on every climb, but I ran up most of the quarry hill. Reaching the top, I decided that I would be marching the rest of the hills. Even with that, had to stop for 2 min. on the climb up South Fortuna Stairs to pop a gel. Felt better after that and made it up to the top. Felt like I was dragging a grand piano the whole time, but ended up doing the 2 hours and did the Fortuna Loop in 1:31 while I was shooting for 1:30. Its only about 12 min. more than my best time, so while not great, it wasn't bad either. I don't know the mileage, probably around 8 with about 1700 feet of gain.

But, what was fun was running down North Fortuna. I decided to practice my footwork and power down this rocky technical trail. As I ran towards the intersection with the perimeter trail by SR 52 I was watching my feet and literally almost ran face first into a mule deer doe who was minding her own business. For almost getting run over, she sure seemed calm, neatly taking one leap over a bush, on which she promptly started to graze.

As I left her after watching for a minute, I almost tripped over a very healthy looking coyote maybe 200 yards down the trail. I didn't see any of his buddies, but coyotes don't hunt deer, so I don't think there was any association. I think it was goofy luck, but he sure was pretty. They can get pretty mangy out there. And it was only the 3rd or 4th deer I had seen out there, so that was cool. And seeing the wildlife seemed to put a spring in my step on what was otherwise a bit of sweaty drudgery.

As I'm writing this, I'm thinking about Scotty out there killing it in Colorado. He seems to be well in front of the cutoffs, so that's looking good. GO SCOTTY GO! I put in for it this year, but didn't get it (for the first time in race history, no one got in from the waitlist). Maybe next year. And I'll get the scoop from Scotty. Anyways, I'll be hitting refresh several times through the night . . .

Good training tonight

Did a good trainig run tonight running the Mission Gorge 15k course. Its 9.3 miles as designed with 1560 feet of climbing. I do a little change just to make it 9.5 miles and 1600 feet. The last time I raced it, I did it with my friend Justin and paced him to a 1:46 finish in his first long race and first trail race. The first time I did it, they sent us up a wrong turn so we added another half mile and 300 feet of climbing and finished around 1:40. This time I did it as a training run. My thought is that eventually, I will do 3 laps to simulate one of the loops of the GTR 100. 3 loops would be 28 miles and 4800 feet of climbing, so its off somewhat, as I need 25 miles and 5000 feet of climbing, but its a good simulation.

So with that intro out of the way, I did it in 1:40 which I feel is pretty good for training. My thought is to do the 3 laps in 6 hours which will be a good goal for my first loop in the race. We'll see. Felt a little too tired after 1:40, but since I will probably try to do it in 1:50 or so when I'm doing multiple loops, it hopefully shouldn't be that bad. I'd like to feel decently fresh after finishing the first lap, take a 5 minute break and head out again. We'll see how that works out. But for now, I'm pretty satisfied . . .

Catching up

A whole 3 days without posts? What in the world am I doing? Monday was a day off. However, since I am going to Michigan a week from Friday and will do little if any running that weekend, I have a lot of training to pack in between now and then. So, I'm not expecting to take day off until that Saturday to make up for the 2 day enforced break.

On Tuesday I hit the trails around Crystal Cove State Park after my deposition didn't go. The area is a neat area of 5 or 6 intersecting parks, making it very easy to piece together a long trail run with lots of up and down. The hills are steep and hot, making it good training grounds with the reward of killer ocean views from the top and a run to the ocean if you want to do it. However, as I was to find out, they have some draconian rules of which I was not aware.

From where I started, the initial run to the top is fairly steep and steady, but manageable. There are a few hard pitches, but none too bad. I felt I had the strength to run the whole section, but tried to make myself walk some so I was training myself to walk fast. One of my surprises at North Face was that when I did walk the uphills, people were flying past me while usually I can walk right past people. That told me I need to practice that more, so I am.

At the top there were a number of options, so I ran about a mile or so down a number of the choices. As I made my way towards the far end of the park, I ran into another runner. As we chatted, he seemed surprised to hear I had come from Laguna Highway. "You know," he said, "that they close those lots at 4 PM. You must have come a long way to run to that entrance." Oops. I didn't.

Looking at my watch, it was a little after 4. I turned around and ripped as hard as I could for the parking lots. Luckily it was all flat or downhill on the way back. I made it about 4:25 or so, just as I was getting written a ticket. Fortunately, the guy was super cool and let me move my car. I found some street parking down the road, hopped a barbed wire fence, and headed back out.

Unfortunately, however, I had been counting on running to a water fountain at the end of the highest trail in the park, so I had no water bottle and was now going on an hour and a half without water. I decided to just run as much as I could to get a workout in. It was hard to get back into a groove, but I was able to get another hour in, including some steep climbs, so though it wasn't ideal, it wasn't too bad. The views were great, the cactus and thistle were blooming, and I was REALLY thirsty at the end. All in all, about 2:45 of hilly running, with 1:45 of real quality stuff including my pell mell downhill to catch up.

Last night I had to work late and had some stuff to do so I didn't get the kind of run I would like. I just went in the canyon and took Gator with me, which is always a plus. We did about an hour and half, but Gator's paws were still sore from Saturday's adventure, and I wasn't that into it. The plus was it was a night run on the trails with the light, which is one of my favorites. If I have any advantage, and I'm not sure that I do, its that I tend to run well at night. While most are looking forward to dawn, I can't wait for the sun to go down! All in all, a relatively flat hour and a half, but ran pretty well with a little bit of speed and felt I had plenty left at the end.

I'm afraid tonight will be the same, although I'm going to try to make it to Mission Trails. We'll see. This weekend I'm planning on a double ascent of Cuyamaca Peak which is simlar to Fred's Mountain in that it gains about 1800 feet over 3 miles. It will be tough and hot. Then Sunday, I'll probably head up San Jacinto via Marion Mtn. Both of these are tough runs and will give me time at elevation. San Jacinto, as I will write about, is ridiculous. A chance for me to work on my uphill hiking prowess as there will be very little running . . .

Easy day

Not much to add today. Did my usual tailgate run which is a loop from Clairemont down to Marian Bear Canyon through a use trail along 805, then follow the canyon, under the 52 by I-5, then into Rose Canyon, and Rose Canyon back under 805 to where the Marine Base starts. There are only 3 climbs of note, and they all come at the end, and even then they are short but steep. Each of the climbs is probably 250 feet over 1/4 mile, so its three really steep efforts on tired legs, but not much really. All told, the run took about 3 hours, 10 min. A bit warm. Tried Heed for the first time. The jury is out. Took 3 gels during run. Probably should have taken more even with the Heed as ran out of energy at the end.

Tomorrow, a much needed day off . . .

Mount Woodson

Today I ran up Mount Woodson and took Gator with me. I got a late start, which was a mistake as I will explain later. Anyways, got there about 10:45 or so. I'd never been to Lake Poway. It was crowded for the 4th, with the smell of charcoal already in the air. The trail around the park went straight uphill then back down to the shore of the lake. That's where the trail up Mt. Woodson began.

From there, the trail is about 2.8 miles with approximately 2,000 feet of gain. It was double track for the first mile and a half, then a steep half mile of short switchbacks followed by a more mellow approach to the summit. By the time I was headed up this trail, it was about 80 degrees. I had a liter and half of water to share between Gator and I. Most of it was gone by the time we got the top. courtesy of my thirsty dog.

To make matters worse, most of the trail is along an area that burned two years ago, meaning the ground was dark and soaked up the sun, making it extra hot on poor Gator's paws. On the way back down, she would run from shade point to shade point, trying to lift her paws quickly to keep them off the hot soil. Finally, I had to leash her up and "encourage" her down the mountain, but that slowed us to a walk. When we got back down to the lake, Gator plunged in for a paw soothing swim.

The climb up took one hour, but it took about an hour to get back down as well. Had I been without the dog, the climb would have been about 55 minutes or so, not bad considering it was about 12 hours after my longer run last night. Temps at the finish were in the mid-80's. I'll be doing this run a lot as it almost exactly mimics the run up Fred's Mountain for the 100 miler, so I can build my strength and get an idea of exactly what I have to do 4 times. I expect I'll be doing some double climbs as well.

Tomorrow is my usual fall pre-tailgate football run to get some easier time on my feet to end my step back week. Should be about 3 hours or a little more with very little elevation gain. I will try to concentrate on running without stopping except at the water fountains. I am also going to bring Heed for the first time as I got a great deal on some at REI. We'll see how it goes.

Weekend training plan

This is supposed to be a step back weekend, but having signed up for a 100 miler this week, it is hard to hold back. I'll try to take it easier this weekend, but I wanted to do my usual Friday afternoon run with a twist. As opposed to doing just one lap, I wanted to do the dreaded steps up to South Fortuna summit twice (see picture to the left). With the race coming up being 4 loops, I think I need to do a lot of loops around courses to get used to running the same terrain again and again. In that spirit, I ran my loop, cut down into Suycott Wash, then went back up S. Fortuna.

From the best I can figure, I did about 12 miles with 2,500 feet in 2.5 hours for 12.5 min miles. Had 3 gels during the run and drank 40 oz. of lukewarm water. I was tired at the end, but not dead by any long shot. This is in line with where I want to be right now. The loops at GTR 100 are 25 miles with 5,000 feet of climbing, so I did roughly half of one of those loops on pace for a 5 hour loop, although there obviously would be much slowing. Still, climbed well, used my sirius portable which worked remarkably well, and then finished with some music. All in all a good run. Tomorrow will do something more mellow theoretically and then a 3 hour non-hilly run on Sunday before I start stepping it up again on Monday.

On the NBA front, the only news is that Hedo Turkgo-glue is signing with the Raptors for "personal reasons" because he and his wife like the city better. I get that, but he's not going to have a lot to work with up there. He's a third bannana kind of guy, sort of a Lamar Odom-esque personality who needs someone to play off. Not sure if he can step up as a second guy and how well he'll play off of Bosh. Apparently they are paying him all the cap space they are getting from not resigning Marion, Delfino, and Parker. Lets see if he can keep his Magic karma going. I think he will regret not signing with Portland or the Magic in the long run professionally, but its cool that he likes where he is going to be.

Oh, and did a little decorating tonight. Can you say Fathead?

NBA doings

OK, back to the NBA. Two major moves so far.

First, Detroit signed Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, signing each to a multi-year deal. I can't help but think that this is going to end badly. They still have about 4 mil in cap room, but do they really think these are the two players to get them to the top? If not, why bother? Gordon, at his best, is a streaky shooter capable of putting up 40 point games here and there. But he also disappears for long stretches. And while Charlie Villanueva is sort of like a very poor man's Rasheed Wallace, he also is inconsistent and is not much of a defender. To top it off, both have had motivation problems.

The real problem is by trading Billups, the Pistons do not have a floor leader to put it all together. Rip needs someone to get him the ball. Villanueva and Gordon need a strong floor presence or a strong coach to keep them in line. And as there is currently no coach in Pistons land . . . Don't get me started on how Dumars is ridiculously overrated. Yes, a good player and made some smart moves, but this is the latest in a series of bloopers.

Now, Artest to the Lakers. Hmmm. I'm not wild about this move either, but I don't hate it. It seems like a knee jerk reaction to the Spurs getting Richard Jefferson. The Lakers, of all teams, should know that you can't have too many people who need the ball. It was a lack of touches that led to Artest's split with the Pacers. Yes, he'll play great D, but he's a little older and he won't play the D they want without getting his shots. I'd rather see Odom getting those touches, assuming he's coming back, which I think he will be. And they signed him to a 3 year deal. Its going to be hard to keep him motivated. While everyone in LA still pretends to like Kobe, I can't see Artest falling in line. First time Kobe tries to do something, well, Kobe-like, Artest is going to punch Kobe in the face. But with so much talent, its hard to say no.

The other intriguing thing is what does this do with Phil coming back? Does he see this as another Rodman and pique his interest? Or is he, in the words of Lethal Weapon, too old for this shit?

And where does that leave the Rockets? Screwed. Yao's injury looks bad, bad, bad. Like not playing ever again bad. And now they got spurned by Martin Gortat. Gortat? Rockets GM Morley shows up at his door at 12:01 to woo him (with the idea of a T-Mac-Gortat-Ariza triumvrate?) and Gortat still goes to the Mavs, who just found the big man who can clean up around the basket that Eric Dampier was always supposed to be. A nice fit. Sorry Rockets fans. It looked so good just a month ago, but that was the apex of this team for quite some time.

And the Lakers did the right thing to not sign Ariza for what he was looking for. Ariza was unbelievably hot during the playoffs, but that is like signing the Super Bowl MVP from his one game performance. Ariza is a nice player, a good defender, but he has offensive lapses and is another up and down player. You knew he would command more than he was worth after his playoff run, and good for him, but Lakers did right by letting him walk. Now, whether replacing him with Ron Artest is a good idea? Hmmm.