Building to Buffalo...

The single-track of Prison Hill

This was a strong building week with a variety of efforts; my first 50-mile week of 2013. Started off with some focused walking practice and a good base run. But the highlight of the week was a smooth Tempo effort out Mexican Ditch during which I averaged a 8:17 pace and a 170 HR for a one-hour interval. The Tempo proved a good challenge and actually felt pretty comfortable right at the edge where the steady effort fights with motivation. I really enjoy the hard workout. I felt no echoes of the Tempo during a smooth shake out in the cool of Friday evening.

That cool evening turned into a blistering north wind as a small group of Carson Runners arrived to get in a long session on Saturday morning. For some crazy reason, Abbey wanted to climb the ridges from Centennial Park toward the high Goni Road near the McClellan Peak summit. I'd hoped to start off easier but the group seemed motivated to test will against wind-chill. So up we went into sideways snow-squalls and the daunting headwind for 2,000 feet in about four miles. Most of the group turned back after the climb, so Abbey and I continued down the descending road eventually heading to the excellent single-track around Deadmans Trailhead and Washoe Lake. The wind had sucked so much energy from us that we took the rolling return to Centennial at an easy pace. I tried to make up some time at the end (toward my 4-hour goal) but the wind was miserable and the car looked welcoming.

By Sunday the wind and my wind-weariness had settled enough to make up a bit of time and wrap the week with a loop through Gold Canyon and Dayton. Felt good to get warmed up again.

Last week I reported on a visit to Ascent Physical Therapy and some focus on strengthening the stabilizing muscles and connectors around the hip and pelvis. Kevin had also provided me with a slight heel-lift to get my legs and pelvis a bit more even. I had worried about changing anything in my running stride beyond strength, endurance, and flexibility, and questioned why any heel-lift would be relevant. When I asked Kevin about this on a follow-up, he simply laughed at me. The insert was for my daily shoes, not my trail shoes! Makes much more sense to me now. Nice. Some new exercises and stretches coming into play.

I hope it's warming up on Antelope Island. We will be there very soon!

Week Summary 2/24/2013

Monday

Hot Springs Walk: 3.0 mi (+83 ft); 13:49 pace

Tuesday

Ditch and Deadtruck OB: 8.3 mi (+823 ft); 10:53 pace
Thursday
Mexican Dam OB (Tempo): 10.4 mi (+197 ft); 8:50 pace
Friday

Chocolate Factory OB: 4.7 mi (+271 ft); 10:05 pace

Saturday
Centennial to Deadmans Loop: 17.1 mi (+3,394 ft); 12:34 pace
Sunday
Gold Dayton Loop: 6.6 mi (+579 ft); 10:33 pace

Weekly Totals: 50.1 mi (+5,346 ft); 9:15:04 on trail

Hitting Stride in the Re-Set Week

Hill Repeats Anyone?

Week Summary (1/13/2013)

This was a re-set week at the start of the build-up to the American Canyon 50K. Resting the engines for the week, it probably couldn't have been better timing. After a cold start, temperature spiked near 60° at mid-week and then plunged to sub-zero by the weekend. This meant the previous snows melted, creating pooled and water-lined trails. These were then flash-frozen on Wednesday night and frosted with a few inches of new snow. Wait, this isn't a weather-blog! In summary, it was a difficult week to navigate the trails. In fact, on Wednesday, the warmest day of 2013, I had to bail (almost literally) and just go home early.

But what to expect? It's a western Nevada winter, it is what it is. Regardless, the weekend brought a little competition in the form of the Centennial Slug It Out 10K. This little event is part of the Winter Trail Series put on by Ascent Physical Therapy. Because Kevin didn't have a Zamboni available to groom the ice-covered trails, he adapted the course to the conditions and the event went ahead under a bright Saturday morning and a starting temperature of a biting 7°. Twenty-nine hearty runners lined up for the 10K, with a slightly smaller group sampling the 5K course. 

Centennial Freeze Out:  7° and ready to go...

My training and the rested engines of the re-set week served me very well. Although the 5.7-mile (modified "10K") course had little climbing I used the small hills to good advantage and concentrated on simply getting good turnover.  Brett Long was uncatchable as usual. We started one-two but I quickly watched him pull away on his quality strides. It was a brand new experience to cruise for a while in second place, knowing there's a group right behind me though it appears I've the trail all to myself. Then the 15-year old Ethan caught me as he dashed up to the race's highpoint turnaround. 

On the descent I was passed by two others. Patrick, running to his tunes, would kindly remove the appropriate ear-bud so that we could mutter "good job" or "damn it's cold" each time we yo-yo-ed our places. The out-and-backs were kind of fun, as the gave me the opportunity to encourage and say "hey" to Peter, Abbey, Sarah, and  all the others out there for a little run.

At about Mile 5, I moved past Patrick and Ryan knowing the turnaround hill was coming and that would be followed by a couple good rollers to the finish. If I could pace the hills, maybe I could even get close to the speedy Ethan; Brett was undoubtedly sipping hot-chocolate at the finish. What great motivation, again seeing the little trail of people as I cruised the descent and then hit the rollers pretty hard. At this point, I was sure Patrick or Ryan were in my shadow and would certainly catch me on the relatively flat finish. And yet, making the final little turn I glanced back and, wow, I was alone. 

Third Place in 44:57. First Place Masters, for a motivational and well-earned prize. The Winter Trail Series is a low-key event, and the turn-out was a little low due to the cold temperatures and sketchy trail conditions, but you win if you show up.  And this was good affirmation that the training regime pays dividends. 

Full results at Ascent Physical Therapy.

Congrats to everyone who showed up in the cold. Sarah got a nice age-category win; always good to carry a little prize for your effort (just a personal "prize", there aren't ribbons or medals for this fun run series). Thanks to Kevin and his crew for setting up and working through the difficulties. Keep going...

Tuesday

Carson River Flats: 5.5 mi (+79 ft); 11:00 pace

Wednesday

Carson River Flats: 2.0 mi (+30 ft); 10:44 pace
Thursday

Whites Creek Trail: 5.4 mi (+647 ft); 11:08 pace

Saturday
Centennial 10K: 5.7 mi (+448 ft); 7:54 pace
Saturday
VC Circuits: 5.9 mi (+386 ft); 10:41 pace

Weekly Totals: 24.4 mi (+1,590 ft); 4:09:14 on trail

Great Week, Simple as that...

Week Summary (11/25/2012)

Running Lines with Darren

Tuesday

C-Hill Loop: 7.3 mi (+1,341 ft); 12:35 pace

Wednesday
Centennial Trails: 4.1 mi (+498 ft); 11:38 pace

Thursday
Long Valley Tradition: 9.7 mi (+558 ft); 9:57 pace
Friday
Ophir Grade OB: 4.8 mi (+484 ft); 10:25 pace
Saturday
Seven Emma Loop: 12.1 mi (+2,162 ft); 12:03 pace
Sunday

Centennial Trails: 8.9 mi (+1,228 ft); 11:08 pace

Weekly Totals: 46.9 mi (+6,271 ft); 8:50:32 on trail

It's easy to create a great time out of a 3-day work week, especially when combined with some very un-Fall-like weather. Together these gave a wonderful kick to the the first intensive week of the fall training schedule. For the first time in a long while, I knocked out six good days on the trail while tossing in a few core training sessions. And damn it feels great.

The Running Portrait Cliche

My Base day on Tuesday turned into a more of a slow climb than I'd hoped; I'd forgotten about the rather long pull up the south side of C-Hill (combining Shotgun and Three Amigos) but enjoyed the drop down Longview on the backside. I'll be back out here next week for some hill repeats, much more appropriate!

Long Valley - The Tradition

After stopping by Centennial for a run-out on toward Moundhouse and the Wild Horses trail on Wednesday night, Darren came up on Thursday for our traditional Thanksgiving Day cruise in Long Valley. Two years ago (Thanksgiving 2010) with Darren's encouragement, I went for a little 7-mile jog and something clicked. The runner's high has lasted two years. We even expanded on the tradition which has not become a true run as opposed to a jog, hitting some sub-8 pace on the in-bound. Perfect.

While we were out in Long Valley, the Texas and Colorado crews were running in the 8-mile and 5K versions of the Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot. Dennis and Bryan toed the line in the 8-mile, with Dad cruising easily to  30th place (M 60-69) at 1:32. Bryan finished his longest effort (so far!) in just under 2 hours. The women's team took in the sights in the 5K. Great work in Big D.

Looped around Virginia City via Seven Mile Canyon and the Emma-Sutro trails for my Long run on Saturday. A perfect outing if you discount the rapid-fire harassment of automatic (no those aren't legal here, but I wasn't going to enforce it), semi-automatic, and single-shot weapons. It made me not mind the dozens of ATVs, but also reminded me why I don't typically run the local trails on Saturdays in good weather. I'd hoped to gain about 2,500 feet on the outing so I pulled a couple extra climbs in, but still didn't quite hit the target. I great time nonetheless.

Down Sunday to Centennial Park to join the Carson Area Runners for some great, wide-open single-track. I would guess about nine of us left the park and linked up various sections of the West Canyon, North Canyon, Mound House, and Wild Horses trails. Good to see Abbey, Steve, Angela, Brett, Lindy, and the rest of the crew (still learning names). These group runs put me at a somewhat higher effort for a Base Sunday than I might typically do, but the motivation is great and it's fun to share some time in common pursuit. The group splits and re-joins as personal goals allow. Nice and low-key, but good efforts at the same time. 

Congrats to Footfeathers on finishing 13th at Quad Dipsea while averaging a 130 bpm heart rate. It's not the finish, that's envious enough; but the barely perceptible pulse across over 9,300 feet of gain and drop, that's simply mind-boggling. Cheers, my friend.