Directionally Challenged

Writing time is pretty slim lately. I'm trying to cram so much into my days that by the time I sit down in the evening words don't turn into sentences effectively. Some great running (and riding) has been happening though!

My poor new Altras busted with less than 200 miles on them. This damage happened in one 9 mile run. I sent this picture, my receipt, and my mileage to Altra, and was sent a 50% off coupon for a new pair. They have just released a slighter newer version of this model, specifically mentioning the reinforced sidewall so it seems to have been a problem they were aware of. I had a mishap ordering my replacement, so now I have two new pairs coming, oopsies... In the meantime I had alread replaced them, but since I got ready for our 12 miler in the dark, I missed a tag! I then forgot to take it off for the FogDodger run on Sunday as well.

Our Saturday runs have been increasing in length, and adding longer runs on Sunday to start practicing on tired legs. Saturdays we now start in the dark, which is definitely an easier way to get practice for night running, though won't help with the fatigue factor. Tuesdays are typically 10 miles or so also, and I'm trying to start those in the dark also. Learning point of the week - a head lamp and rain makes it pretty hard to see, more like having a disco ball attached to my visor.

I have a new midweek running buddy, B, who is training for the Mendocino Coast 50, her longest race beyond a 10k. She's been getting some great training in, and we seem to be pretty well matched so can run well together. We went for her longest ever this week, a gorgeous route in Jackson State Forest with some decent climbing.

And the title of this post? This morning we excitedly set out (in the dark and rain) to run the final 16 miles of the MC50k course. We met at Big River, left S's car there, took my truck out to the trail head in Caspar/Butteff Nowhere, and got ready to run. The plan was to run the Manly Gulch trail to the Woodlands, and take the trail down to the river, following the haul road 10 miles home. A couple of spots we had to pause and think about the correct route, but it seemed pretty straightforward. We got to what looked like the haul road, and a 9.5 mile marker. Seems about right, off we go. Long story short, we realised this was definitely the wrong direction. Where's the sun, that will help. Except it's behind a cloud. Watch the water flow, nope that isn't really helping at all. Eventually find a Forest Service road marker. Rd 23000. Nope, never heard of it, and definitely not where we should be. Call multiple people to check online maps for us. Nobody gets back to us. Well, the mile markers are going down, so we must be heading SOMEWHERE...

Pull up Strava  and Google Maps on phones to at least pin point where we are. It doesn't show the roads, just a blue blob in the middle of nowhere. Decide to keep running, trying to co-ordinate with various people with spotty cell service. Unaware that a member of our online team recently joined SAR and is ready to go guns blazing, already contacted our mutual friend who just happens to be the Sheriff's Officer in charge of SAR, who thankfully J told them to hold off, that I have half an idea of what I'm doing in the woods. We've established we seem to be heading for Highway 20, the main road out of town. That seems like a good plan, keep going that way. Finally finally make it to the road, to no cell service. Conveniently there's a call box, so we try that. No, my vehicle is not disabled or blocking the roadway, in fact I have no vehicle. Bad line and miscommunication (Yes, I see the mile marker that says I'm 14.11 miles East on Highway 20, that's actually my problem!) ended that idea. The first car we stuck our thumbs at pulled over, with a nice guy who was happy to give our stinky selves a ride into town. Half way home, and I spot two vehicles that I know heading out to search for us, apparently having not got our message that we're safe. Oh well, we make it to town, S's wife comes to get him, and I freeze my butt off outside the store waiting for J to get my message that I'm safe in town waiting for him. We get halfway out to get my truck, realise the road isn't Mini approproate, turn back for his truck. At least I can get jeans and a jumper on. Finally make it back to my truck, realise I have to go straight to work, in my poorly fitted, not work appropriate jeans, and the only clean shirt in my truck being a long sleeve. At least I keep wipes and deodorant at work! Thanks to the dumbass that forced me into the ditch on the dirt road taking the short cut to work (yay 4wd works, first time I got to test it). Make myself somewhat presentable, do the 90 minute Deep Tissue massage, and fly to town for FOOD! I highly recommend not waking at 5.15am, eating a banana on the way to a run, running 15.5 miles, driving around all over the place, working at your very physical job, and not eating anything! The bonus? Adventures are always fun!!

Happy New Year

2016 - I'm ready, are you? The year kicked off with a fun, mellow trail run on one of my favourite routes. I made the mistake of waiting for it to warm up a little. Hitting a popular trail at 10.30 meant I had plenty of company. I do like to see people enjoying our beautiful area, but have become accustomed to only seeing the occasional hiker, not multiple groups. Everyone was very friendly and seemed to be having a lovely day, and only one was a little tricky - five off leash dogs, and at no point did I see her with all five. This is not a dog-permitted trail but many people, including me when Rocko could go, takes dogs there. I often had him off leash, but he was always right with me, and leashed as soon as we saw someone. I have no problem with "rule-adjusting" when it's a dumb rule, but at least be responsible about it. This woman had way too many dogs and no idea that one of them was half a mile ahead of her, and none of them had a good recall. It was still a fabulous morning in the woods.

This morning I met S bright and early in Jackson State forest for seven or eight trail miles and some hills. Except it wasn't bright, it was still fairly dark at 7:00, and guess who forgot her headlamp? Luckily there was just enough ambient light to have a pretty good idea how to not fall down and before long I could see just fine. Successfully made it up the two mile hill, luckily it's not too steep and has occasional flat spots to take a breath. There's a creek crossing about a mile from the trailhead, that is usually low enough to skip over or use a rock in the middle as a stepping stone. Nope, not today. We did get to see some Coho salmon swimming past.

Then we had to figure out how to get across. There was no way around getting wet, and no way we were going to jump clear to the other side, but if we were going to get wet anyway we might as well try. My "try" was pretty pitiful though, and I have video to prove it...

I got a great ride in on my pony for New Year's Day, so all in all an excellent start to 2016. J started the wiring project on my truck, and didn't quite get it done but soon we'll be ready to go! I see lots of adventures coming this year :)

Bye 2015

Happy New Year! A quick round up of what happened this year before I figure out how we're ringing in 2016!

Ordnance 100k, Jan '15. Photo by Jesse Ellis

Goals relevant to this blog set for 2015:

• Run every day (Part of a run streak challenge)
• Run <26:30 5k
• Run a 100 mile race
• Run 2,015 miles for 2015
• Ride 750 miles with Bugsy
• Complete Bugsy's first LD or endurance ride

Lake Natoma 50k, photo credit: stranger at the finish line :)

So how did we do? 

• I am about to set out for my final mile of 2015, which will also be the 365th day I've run this year! It's also the official end of the run streak, at least a mile every day since November 24th, 2014. 403 days. Since I always run on New Years Day, then we have Saturday trail run, then Sunday group run, so I guess it will be 406 days streaking.  
• PR'd the 5k at 24:37, so definitely smashed that goal! I also PR'd the 50k distance by more than half hour, and set two distance PRs.
• Completed Zion 100 within the allowed time
• Missed 2015 miles by quite a long way. I think I'll be finishing out the year with about 1600 miles. Well over 2015km though :)
• Bugsy and I just missed the 700 mile mark this year. Close, and we had some great rides.
• Bugsy completed both the Humboldt State Redwoods 35 mile ride, and the Cuneo Creek 50 mile ride. Huge success!

HRSP 35 - photo credit Elicia Kamberg

Other goals were reached, such as buying a truck and trailer. The truck came in October, and I completed it last night with the purchase of a really nice 2 horse slant at a great price with a late night road trip to be first in line. Yay for great friends willing to jump in the truck at a moment's notice to haul it home for me. Still sad that my 4runner's gone, it was most definitely my favourite car and I didn't realise how attached I was to it. But I finally have my own trailer, so I'll be happy :) Will post 2016 goals tomorrow, I have one last mile to run! Hope you've all had a wonderful new year, and I'll see you in 2016!

Grand Canyon trip on the way to Zion 100. Credit: Richard Handley (my dad!)

Lake Sonoma

Photo by Matt Trappe

Yippeee I got in to Lake Sonoma 50! It's a tough course, with no flat anywhere. 10,500' of climb, and 10,500' of descent. I have some hill training and heat training to do. It's actually the perfect run up race to San Diego 100, which will be hotter, but relatively less hill with only (only!) 13,470' of climb. For visual comparison of what I'm getting myself into:

Eeeep! It's also not unheard of for it to be pretty warm at Lake Sonoma, even hitting the 90s although it's only April. Guess I'll be hitting the sauna from mid-February...

LS50 is also a cupless race. One of the biggest problem with these races, and most running events in general, is the huge amount of waste generated. Ultra Adventures, who put on the Zion 100 as well as other events on my to-run list, are a zero waste event (those potties were interesting once there were a few miles on the legs...). Mendocino Coast 50k will also be a cupless race, featuring the same UltrAspire 6oz cup. No more non-recyclable dixie cups would be wonderful!

Dialing in my nutrition during training will also be a huge focus for me this time around. Fueling while training for Zion was pretty awful, thank you body for not bailing on me! Fortunately for me, S is a nutritionist and ultra runner, and shares tips with me on our Saturday adventures - I did point out that ideally I just need someone to follow me around and extract the bad choices from my hand before it hits my mouth. In the meantime I have to use my own brain, and am really shaking up my diet. I see a lot of fruit and far less cheeseburgers in my future... For example, on Saturday after a hilly 8, I had a banana on the drive home, followed by whizzing up 2 bananas, an apple, and a cup of strawberries with a cup or so of water. It took me forever to drink, but would have been even longer to eat! And there was meant to be an extra banana and apple in there. Yup, a whole lotta fruit, at least my sweet tooth is happy :)

It took me forever to figure out how to copy this picture over from Instagram, why can't I save my own photos? Much more effort than result, but now I know, yay smarts :)

Gearing Up

I just about have next year's racing schedule planned, for both myself and my horse.  At least, planned as much as you can in these sports. I planned on riding at Lake Sonoma in September, conditioned, checked tack, loaded a healthy fit horse, who promptly fell off the trailer and sliced his leg. Things happen. So when I say I have it planned, I mean lightly sketched in pencil and fully prepared to toss it out the window and start from scratch as needed...

First off, I really need a trailer. My 4runner is now for sale, which makes me sad but we really don't need 3 trucks and a car between 2 of us. (Yay, hubby is on the phone with someone now...) I could potentially lose my trail access from Bugsy's house, plus I can't rely on friends to come get us whenever we want to ride together. Yay independence!

I very much want to do a 100 miler next year, and it made sense to select from the WSER qualifying list. There's a few on there I'd like to do, and unsurprisingly there's a lottery entry for several. I have opted for San Diego 100 in June, which is going to be hot hot hot!! I already have a pacing and crew offers, and we hope to make a mini holiday out of it. I have a lot of work to do in between now and then. There is a four day application period next month, and if they receive more than 300 entries it will go to a lottery. Should I not get in, the back up plan is Pine 2 Palm in Oregon.

We had a great run finally finding the correct route for the Mendocino Coast 50k for the segment we keep going wrong on. Not lost, since both times we have found fabulous trails for training runs, but not the route we were looking for. It was quite the climb today:

Profile for Miles 9-16

Ignore the last mile on the chart, we ventured a little way down the next section, so the last mile is our climb backtracking up to the truck. From this point it's mostly down hill and flat all the way to the finish! There are some gorgeous trails in store for the runners. I took a little video on our way back (excuse the loud breathing - don't video when going uphill at the end of your run on a mostly uphill route...)

 I was trying to practice breathwork today.  Breathe for 3 steps in, and 2 steps out. Turns out I'm not great at counting, and moving my feet, and breathing, all at the same time. I would get the hang of it, be able to go back to chatting, then get myself all confused again and have to start over. Who knew such basic skills were so hard to combine. Guess that's my homework for the next couple of weeks :)

Changes Are Coming!

I had an incredible run today. In the world of running it wasn't anything spectacular, but it was fun, faster than usual, and just not that hard. I took one of my favourite trails, the bluffs and Staircase trail up to the pygmy forest. I had an early client in Mendo, so took running clothes with me, figuring I could change in my truck to run at JugHandle which I pass on my way home; if I got another client leaving me with a gap in my day I could run at Big River, which is right outside my window at work! It was cold enough for tights and to use my buff as a beanie, even though I didn't actually hit the trail until 10.30 (not looking forward to running at 5:30am tomorrow, brrr). There was ice in the puddles at the boardwalk at the top end of the trail, and plenty of frost elsewhere. A few tourists braved the chilly weather and were enjoying a hike, mostly bundled up with steaming cups of coffee - apparently we don't do Winter very well here haha. Unfortunately for them, a cold run gets things flowing, if you catch my drift. Slight apologies, tourists, for the snot rockets you were unfortunate to experience. Can I mention how effective it is for clearing airways on the run? Try it sometime, you will understand why this most unattractive of habits is regularly performed. To be fair if I had seen them, I may have waited until I was around the corner, and it's not like I hit them or anything extra gross. :D

New shoes getting to enjoy the view

I love love love my new Altra Superior 2.0s! I kept putting off ordering them, since when I upgraded my Lone Peaks I was disappointed, and I really enjoy running in the 1.5s. There is a slight increase in stack height, but the removable stone guard was not in the shoe. Since most of my trails don't need the stone guard, I haven't put it in yet, and the feel in these shoes is amazing. Yesterday S and I were route scouting (and not getting lost! Sorry for oversleeping and being 1/2 hour late - I am bad bad running buddy) for the Mendocino Coast 50k. We ran on dirt road, sand, trail, mud, dry pavement, and icy pavement. The only time I didn't love them was the short section of dry pavement. The super grippy treads were really soft, and it felt a little like having suction cups on my feet. I think they will wear down much faster than the 1.5s if I do too many pavement miles in them. All the more reason to squeeze in more trail miles, right? I might add in the stone guard for my run at Big River on Thursday and see what difference that makes. Hands down my new favourite shoe! Even though I doubt I will get any trail miles in the next few days (heading north to see my bestie, ride, and give massages) I might throw them in the truck just in case.

Superior 2.0 aka My Preciouses (preciousi?)

And the changes? Adjustments to my work situation, which are long overdue, will be giving me more time to ride and run, yet still extra cash flow (Pony shut your ears, we don't need to spend it on vet bills please and thank you!). It will be easier to get time off for races of both varieties, a little more flexibility for training time, and more time for private appointments. I am slowly relaunching my website, and working on a better location to see clients. For the moment I can do outcalls, and have limited availability at my home (no restroom here means it isn't a viable long term solution). Let me know if you're interested in an appointment.

Massage room at Stanford, Big River is my view!

One Year Streaking!

I made it! I began my running streak on November 24th, 2014, and I'm still going. I wasn't my smartest, and didn't connect that the 'streakaversary' day and Day 365 are not the same, so RSD365 was a measly one mile run/walk with our pooch. Today at least was a five miler at Big River with the FogDodgers. Initially I had riding plans, but courtesy of a skunk vs my buddy's dogs that got scratched. Due to last night's downpour (Yippeeeee!) the trails would have been super slick, and neither of our pony's are hoof placement geniuses so it may have been for the better that we didn't go. I nearly went back to bed, until I remembered it was Tuesday. I was hoping the rain would continue, not just for anti-drought purposes (still on a Stage 3 water emergency restriction) but so I can test my new rain jacket. I've worn it for a couple of rides, and this morning's run, but it didn't actually rain during any of those. Eventually! The sky at Big River was pretty dramatic when we set out, and an hour later back at the vehicles we had blue sky. A wonderful view for a year of running!

We've been route scouting on S's course for the Mendocino Coast 50k on our Saturday trail runs. We went the wrong route last time, but found a really fun single track through the woods that cuts out a section of rocked road. While not the race course, it's a good section for training runs and rides. I studied the map some more, got an improved map from S, picked the brain of the local bike shop owner, and declared that I knew where we went wrong and had a good idea of how to fix it. There was one tricky turn that I wasn't sure we'd find, and we actually stopped a couple of times to check the map and be sure we were on the right track. We finally came to the turn in the road, and I promptly do a happy dance through the woods singing out "I'm a good route finder". The bottom of the dirt road turned into single track, with a couple of options. Softly continuing "I'm a good route finder" we tried one route, only to come across a murder cabin (actually some kind of water level measuring area, but when you're in the deep dark woods it might as well be a murder cabin). We couldn't find more trail, so turned back and took the second option. This was another fun single track requiring a lot of attention on footing, particularly going across or around some dilapidated foot bridges. Oddly, the best condition one we saw was the only one with a sign cautioning two people only. There were lots of bridge building materials stashed along the trail (and some tiny solar panels?), but we can only assume they're letting the wood weather a bit to keep the authenticity :) We came to another junction and I figured out which of our three options we should take, proudly explaining my reasoning, which S didn't disagree with. All is well until I recognise a spot on the trail from a FogDodger run a few months back, having made a mental note at that time to come back and explore. I mentioned we may have gone wrong somewhere, and sure enough I had somehow brought us in a big loop and we were now a mile down the trail from where we started. Hey, at least if I'm going to go the wrong way I can get us back to our vehicles. Again, this is going to be a great training route, but still not part of the race course. I once again know where we went wrong (where I did my happy dance...oops) and will be setting out to explore again soon. Of course, fun had to be poked at S who, as the race director, should really know the route! Other than confirming this last section, we only have about a three or four mile section to explore through the Mendocino Woodlands. It's going to be a gorgeous course, and very runnable with enough challenge to keep things interesting.

Never know when you might need mini heavy equipment...