back to back

as the date for my salomon xt wings challenge gets closer, i'm needing to pack more distance and difficulty into my miles.  with a long weekend, i decided to go long on both friday and saturday and include some challenging climbing.

friday morning, i met up with mr. k and we tackled some of my favorite hills and single track in el moro and laguna coast wilderness.  we did a 16+ mile loop from ridge park including a trip along the rarely traveled serano trail and into the nix center, over to the james dilley preserve and back up to bomber via laurel canyon and willow canyon.  the weather was on the brink of raining the whole way, but it kept from dumping on us and the temperatures stayed perfect for running.

mr. k and i tackled all the hills aggressively and turned in a real quality run.  i took the nokia n82 along for the ride and captured some photos, video and a gps track of the workout

i had hoped to turn in a 20+ mile run on saturday with lambert to complete the back-to-back long runs.  i made the 3:30am treck out to idyllwild and met up with him at 5:30.  we drove up to the devil's slide trail head and were greeted with fresh snow as we climbed elevation.  at the trail head, the snow was covering everything and about 3" deep.

hello, opposite ends of the spectrum.

yes, last weekend's run was in the 90's.  the temp at the trail head was 34.  i was fortunate enough to be prepared for extreme weather, so i geared up and lambert and i went out for a quick 5mi out and back while we waited for his friend, eric, to show up.  we dropped down about 500' over the 2.5mi and then climbed back up to our starting elevation of  6700'.

we rolled back into the trail head a little late, but the timing was good because eric wasn't there yet.  when he showed up, we geared up again and were off to climb up to the saddle and run along the ridge.  we were running about 45 minutes late, so i figured we'd loose about 4 miles or so from the total mileage

the thing i didn't take into account was the view.  every turn revealed a new snow covered view.  and every new view was photo worthy.  we made a good number of stops over the course of the run so we could take photos and video.  some of those views just can't be done justice by a photograph.  the view over suicide rock when we got above the clouds was a once in a lifetime type experience. 

we climbed up to the saddle at 8200', headed out for a couple more miles and then turned around due to my time constraints.  total mileage for the day was only 13.1, but it was all up at altitude with some significant climbing.  really, though, on days like this, training takes a back seat to the experience. 

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Nilleshna Lisa Gerrard The Mirror Pool

in the kitchen, nay, in the oven

as the old saying goes, "if you can't stand the heat, then stay out of the kitchen".  sunday's run was more like sticking your head in the oven.  the plan for the run was to get some decent elevation gain in a long run and stay on my feet for four plus hours.  the route was one i've been itching to do for a while.  holy jim to the santiago summit, main divide to west horse thief and down the trabuco trail to complete the loop.  the estimated distance was around 20 miles and the climbing was going to be at least 4000'.

as if that wouldn't be challenging enough, mother nature decided to hand out some heat training in the form of temperatures in the 90's on sunday.  i recruited a few folks from the socal trail headz but unfortunately, dmitri was feeling 'upbeat' (that's russian for my legs are still trashed from my 50mile race last weekend) so it was just greg and i that would tackle the summit.

we headed up holy jim, which is a beautiful piece of single track with a constant and challenging uphill grade.  greg and i cruised along at a pretty good clip.  the sun stayed behind the ridge for most of the climb, so we were spared any direct attack, but we could feel the air already beginning to warm.  after five miles, we gained access to the main divide trail and started the three mile climb to the peak.  i've never run this section of trail before and was surprised how steep sections of it were.  we ran most of the way, but there were a couple sections where we were forced to walk.

but not for long.

when we slowed to walk, we were attacked.  flies.  midges.  ugh.  the midges would congregate around our mouths and faces in dark clouds and the black flies would start their biting.  okay, i pride myself in being a pretty tough guy.  i can handle the heat.  i can handle pain.  i think i've got a pretty solid mental fortitude.  but, those freakin' six legged crawling on my face and buzzing up under my sunglasses DRIVES.ME.ABSOLUTELY.INSANE.  no, you don't understand.  i can't handle it.  i nearly snapped and started yelling and howling and then started running faster to get away from the stupid things.

up on the summit, there was a slight wind blowing, so the bugs backed off a bit, but you can tell from the picture of me that there are flies and midges everywhere.  you can actually see a couple in the frame.  greg and i quickly topped off our bottles and ate some chow and then boogied on down the mountain to get away from the madness.

on the way down, we passed jessica on her way up with a couple people from her trail club.  we said hi and warned them about the bugs.  i had to be silly and comment on her nice shoes, too. 

we headed south on the main divide toward west horse thief , climbing the couple of steep sections before we hit the trail down.  at one point, we passed a couple back packers resting in the shade.  i looked at them with a concerned look on my face and asked, "have you seen my sheep?".  they looked confused so i elaborated.  "my sheep.  a little black one about yea high."  still confused so i continued, "if you see it, i'm heading this way on the trail.  can you let it know i went this way?".  and then i was off again.

soon we reached the top of west horse thief and began our descent.  this section is a steep and rocky bit of single track.  since it was late in the run at about mile 15, the legs were starting to get tired, so footing was important.  my knees were starting to feel the effort from the day, so i took it easy headed down.  up until this point it had been hot, but both greg and i were being smart about our fluids and the heat hadn't been too much of a factor.  down in the canyon, though, the air stopped moving and it turned into an oven.

at the bottom of horse thief, we were getting cooked and it was all i could do to keep a respectable pace to the end of the run.  usually, this section is one that i like to fly on, but today i could only manage around an 8-9 minute pace.  we finally bottomed out and hit the dirt road that leads back to the trail head at holy jim.  i seemed to forget just how long that section is because it just seemed to go on and on and on.  eventually, we rounded a corner and saw the trailhead and trotted to a stop.  in the car on the drive out the thermometer read 92 degrees.  ouch.

i noticed a couple cool things about the run in the heat.  i switched from packing gatorade endurance in the camelbak and instead opted for water.  i carried two hand helds and just mixed the gatorade powder as i went.  this gave me some water to use for cooling purposes other than drinking.  having the visor to shield my eyes along with the sunglasses made a huge difference in how i felt in the sun.  i also carried a bandana and kept it tied around my neck and wet.  even when the air felt really hot, i didn't seem to really 'feel' the heat.

finally, the shoes.  when i accepted the gear for the salomon xt wings challenge, i was really hoping that the equipment would work out well so that i'd be able to give a favorable review.  these shoes are turning out to be the best pair i've ever used.  they had great traction on the climbs and stellar grip on the descents.  more importantly, though, is that i didn't notice them.  on a run like this, you have enough to worry about, let alone gear that chafes, causes blisters or malfunctions.  no hot spots, no foot slippage, no blisters, no worry.  even in the heat, that is something to celebrate.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	The Weeping Song (Munich) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds The Abattoir Blues Tour

more fun with wings

i met up with mr.k this morning for a zero dark thirty trail run in el moro.  those 5am starts really make for some groggy mornings.  i forgot food this morning.  good thing i packed my socks and underwear last night.

i thought i'd take the salomon xt wings out for another spin and see how they did on a shorter run.  again, they held up to the initial review i gave them after saturday's 18 miler on the pct.  they were solid on the steep downhils, no heel slip and great footing on the climbs. 

we ran from the ridge park access gate and down to the laguna coast wilderness center.  the return features a 1.5mi climb that has some pretty steep sections on it.  mr.k and i were feeling frisky this morning and we both ended up pushing pretty hard up the climb.  we also hammered the return back to the cars and i was pleased with how well the shoes responded when we switched over into high gear;  light enough for quick turnover and aggressive enough tread to handle the loose trail surface.

when we finished up the run.  mr.k was joking around about the colour of the shoes and how coordinated it made me.  i noticed that my garmin was red and so was my car.  i like how thoughtful salomon was in ensuring that the shoes matched everything else i own.

[quick aside, the above picture was taken with the nokia n82 and immediately uploaded to my flickr account.  super cool feature.  and, no, dmitri, it's a one at a time upload thing.  no batch uploads and no queuing.]

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Ballad of a Running Man Catherine Wheel Wishville

our mother's day

our mother's day dawned early with smsmh feeling sick.  sore throat, congestion, lethargy.  what a great way to start off your first mother's day.  i popped out of bed to get stuff ready for thunderclap and let smsmh sleep.  we had our morning awake time and then i made breakfast of french toast for all of us.  my parents were still with us, so it was a full table.  tc nibbled on french toast, too.  seriously, that boy is a bottomless pit.

when tc woke from his nap we quietly ate while smsmh kept sleeping.  we then loaded up in the jogger and headed down to the park to hang out for a while.  we played in the grass, which tc loved.  i had to be super vigilant because there were tiny mushrooms growing everywhere in the grass.  tc would be crawling along, grab a mushroom head and try to shove the thing in his mouth.

after a while of getting our knees grassy, we headed over to the swing and tried our best to throw up our lunch by swinging as high as we could.  i say we, because the higher he'd swing, the higher the likelihood that he'd kick me in the stomach and force me to spew, too.

after tc's second nap, we loaded up and headed to smsmh's folks place where my mom and both of my sisters would be meeting us.  i hopped on the bike to ride over while smsmh took tc in the car.  i tried out the sport tracker software again and had much better success.  my workout didn't completely stay live (must have lost signal somewhere), but it definitely didn't eat the battery like saturday.  i arrived with full battery bars after an hour of riding.

the afternoon was great with a wonderful dinner of smsmh's world famous lasagna, lots of moms to celebrate and a gaggle of kids going wild with the tissue wrapping paper.  for such a blah beginning to the day, it sure was a brilliant finish!

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	I Don't Like Mondays The Boomtown Rats Great Songs Of Indifference: The Best Of Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats

flying with the wings

okay...so at the start of the day, i thought for sure that the nokia n82 and the nifty sport tracker software were going to be the highlight of my workout.  funny that it turned out to be the one thing that failed miserably and it was the SHOES (gee, it's a salomon promotion, go figure) that were the highlight.

up at zero dark thirty and out on the road by 4am, i rolled up to the forest service road just before 6am and met lambert and judy.  we all hopped into lambert's truck and headed up to the fobes trailhead.  it was a brisk 33 degrees, so i bundled up a bit.  i started up the sport tracker software and we were off.  we had 15-18mi on the pacific crest trail planned, so i was running a huge risk of running in the xt wings for that distance without breaking them in first. 

the first mile and a half were a hard uphill haul.  no warm up here, it was scrape your nose steep.  what better way to shock your body into being warm, though, eh?  before we knew it, we were up on the pct and heading south toward lion peak.  after about another mile, judy turned around and headed back down the mountain since she had an 8am cut off time.  lambert and i continued on, constantly headed up.  ever time we made a quick stop for bio reasons or to re-fuel, i'd check the phone to see how it was doing.  it seemed to be recording the workout just fine, but the thing i did notice was that the battery was being eaten alive.  after an hour, the battery was almost completely gone, so i shut the phone off.  after review, i think the problem was that there was spotty cell coverage and the phone was working hard to establish a connection.  i'll try the sports tracker with the wireless option off next time and see how it does.

  i snapped a couple photos at the trail intersection with the nokia and realized that self portraits are not it's forte.  it kept focusing on the things behind me.  haha...i guess the phone knows best, eh?

lambert and i cruised on, having a blast of a time running along and just constantly marveling at the beauty around us.  each new summit provided us with a new amazing view.  i commented at one point that there was too much world for me to take in.

the shoes were brilliant.  they were stable, gave good arch support and were lightweight enough to allow for a quick leg turnover without fatigue.  i hardly noticed the trail through the sole.  the pct in this section is fairly rocky, and not once did i 'feel' any of the rocks. 

after a couple hours of running, we came to the top of the cedar springs trail and decided to head on a little further down the pct and then turn around and head down the cedar springs trail and back to my car.  this seemed like a good option for time, since it would put me back at my car when i needed to be there and give lambert a couple more miles as he ran back up to his truck.  we estimated that we'd be looking at somewhere around 14 miles for the run with that option.

well, the pct has this magic way of foiling the best laid plans.  our short out and back before heading down ended up turning into several more miles than we'd planned and next thing you know, we're dropping down cedar springs trail with only minutes left before i need to be back at the car...and something like four miles left to go.

fortunately, we hit road pretty quick and we were able to run much faster than on the trails.  i'll tell you what, though, the singletrack down cedar springs was so worth all the climbing we'd done earlier.  it was great to let the legs fly and do all the fancy footwork through bolder strewn creek beds and along the grassy meadows.

the salomon xt wings were great on the road, too.  we were really flying on the downhill and i was able to run comfortably in them at a 7:20 pace.  i had a slight hot spot develop on my instep, but after removing the sock, realized that it was because of a bite in the sock fabric, not the shoes.  on all the fairly technical downhill and climbing, the shoes never let my foot slip in the shoe and the toebox was plenty wide enough for my feet.  in comparison to my sauccony trail shoes or my vasque trail shoes, i'd say they're better than both.  better on the toes than my vasques and more solid and better fitting than the saucconys.

anyway, lt and i hit the main road and ran the 2 miles back to my car for a total of 18+ miles.  we were out on our feet for just under five hours (that includes all stops) and all the gear held up incredibly well.  i'll beat the shoes up some more and give a more detailed report at a later date, as well as the phone, but at a first pass, everything worked pretty groovy.

once again, lambert took some fun photos so stop by the scth website and take a look at them.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Fisherman's Blues The Waterboys The Best Of the Waterboys '81 '90

they're heeeeere!

my package showed up today with all the gear for the salomon xt wings challenge.  i'm now a proud owner of a pair of salomon xt wings (bright RED) a salomon technical training shirt (bright RED) and a nokia n82.  woohoo!  the picture of the salomon gear was taken with the n82 and uploaded from the phone to my flickr account.  check out the resolution on that crazy thing! 

so, the gear is here just in time for another altitude training session on the pacific crest trail tomorrow.  lambert and i will be tackling a section between spitler and lion peaks in the san bernadino national forest.  i'll wear the shoes and shirt and try out the nokia sportstracker software.  if you're a twitterer, i'll try to sort out the logistics for sending the details in a tweet so you can watch our progress if you like.

you know, i really like the concept of letting real life bloggers test out gear and post their honest opinions about the products.  sure, there's a "free stuff is cool" aspect, but more important is the legitimate feedback that others are able to obtain.  at the same time, it is an honor to be picked to participate in this sort of event.  i feel like it's my responsibility to put the gear through the wringer and give a detailed, unbiased review.  i hope that all of us picked to participate in this challenge can live up to that challenge! 

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Camel Walk Southern Culture on the Skids Dirt Track Date

cleared customs and on their way

my gear from salomon should show up tomorrow.  i spent some time this morning taking care of the customs details with fedex and they said that barring any flight delays, the package should be delivered tomorrow.  PERFECT!

i have another pct run planned for saturday and i can't wait to try out the shoes on the trails.  the other thing i'm excited about is the nokia sports tracker website.  seriously, this thing is cool.  with the n82 and the sports tracker software, not only am i tracking my workout, but it is uploading the information in real time to the site.  this means that if i share the workout, anyone can watch my progress.  this is such a cool concept!  it's cool how connected items like this can make you.  now i can just twitter that i'm starting my workout, pass a tinyurl in the tweet to the sports tracker website and presto, instant entertainment.  because, c'mon, we all now how exciting watching a dot move around a map is! 

seriously, though, from a safety perspective, this a great tool.  now, in addition to letting loved ones know where you're going to be running, they can check on your status in real time.  maybe this is what i need to keep my mom from panicking when i take too long on a run in the arizona desert.

soundtrack for this post
	lick: hipsters: wax:	Sleeping With The Lights On Teitur Poetry & Airplanes

altitude training

so, in preparation for the salomon xt wings challenge, i'll be needing to spend the next couple months doing long runs at various altitudes and with mostly long inclines.  that 6,000' to 14,000' climb is going to be a challenge! 

this week it was time on the pacific crest trail with lambert.  i headed up to the black mountain trailhead and met him there at 6am (that meant a wake up call of 3:30 and on the road by 4am!).  we drove up to the pct trailhead at fuller ridge and headed out.  no sooner had we started toward san jacinto when we ran into a post on the trail saying that the pct was closed because of the apache fire.  well, our plans of running up and back down were dashed.  we turned around and at 7765' started heading down the mountain toward the desert.

we cruised along for a while, moving in and out of valleys, following the contour of the range.  as we chatted away happily about running philosophy, gps technology and integrating it into websites, teaching, dogs on the trail and a myriad of other topics, i began to realize just how effortless the run was.  i occasionally looked back to realize just how far DOWN we were running.

the trail wound us down out of the heavy pine and cedar forest into chaparral forest with oak, pine and manzanita and eventually into high desert scrub complete with yucca.  we ran through the exposed burn area where four fire fighters were killed in 2006.  the trail was beautiful and we were having a great time.  after a while, we decided to turn around and after a quick look at the garmin, realized that we had dropped over 2500'.  no wonder it had been effortless!

so, we turned around and began the long climb back up to where we'd started.  along the way we spooked quite a few lizards and the occasional garter snake out sunning themselves on the rocks.  we even came across a sun baked pct through hiker.  after about three hours out on the trail, we were back at the trail head.  it was a great day out on the trail and a perfect mix of company and nature.  pop by the scth website and take a look at the pictures lambert took.

zane grey pacing report

this is a week late, but like lots of things these days, it had to take back seat to a newly mobile thunderclap.  several months ago, one of my bloggers, angie, said that she was going to run the zane grey 50k for her 30th birthday and wanted her trail running friends to show up and run/support with her.  several other folks from the trail running group signed on as well,  so i figured that would be a great excuse to head out to arizona and see my parents and get an event in while there. 

last weekend, we headed out to phoenix and set up camp at my parents place.  early saturday morning, i headed out to payson to meet up with chris and jump into the last half of the race at the washington park aid station.  i showed up a couple hours early and was treated to seeing pinkcorker come through the aid station.  when i saw her new visor i exclaimed, "hey!  you're pinkcorker!  i've read your blog!".  it's such a small world in the ultra running community.  it cracks me up every time i come across someone who i've read but never met.  i also got to meet eliot and his son, asa, while they waited for his wife to come into the aid station.

chris finally showed up and we chatted for a bit while waiting for angie to come through the aid station.  she rolled in just before the noon cut-off for the 50k, so we quickly got her bottles and bladder filled, took care of equipment and then we were off.

my first impressions of the course were those of amazement.  i mean, i've seen the short forests that are around the flagstaff area, but i had yet to actually get INTO them.  the majority of my outdoors experience in arizona has been in the desert, so this was a new treat.  the trail was challenging and quite un-runable at several points.  there were fist to grapefruit size boulders on nearly every inch of this section, along with copious amounts of downed trees.  but it was beautiful.  the views out over the valleys, the towering mesa above us, the smell of pine, the wind blowing through the trees and scrub.  i was in heaven.

we chugged along, yo-yoing with rachel and wound around through washes, climbed over spurs and slowly made our way upward.  angie was great company and made pacing easy.  usually, i do most of the talking while pacing.  telling stories, cracking jokes, being a dorque.  you know.  being normal me.  angie was chatty, though, and that made for fun running.

we rolled into the hell's gate aid station and were greeted by the most enthusiastic and helpful crew.  the aid station was remote and was difficult to get to by 4x4, yet these folks were bubbly, resourceful and observant.  we were provided with first aid, fuel and fluids along with kind words of support and encouragement.  before we knew it, though, we were off again.

the next leg of the course was much more runable, with plenty of climbing, but not quite as steep and with fewer rocks and downed trees.  we continued to cruise along and i began to notice that at no point was angie dropping into that familiar "dark" place that most runners experience while doing endurance events.  she kept chatting along, either telling her own stories or commenting on ones being told. 

time flew by and quicker than expected, we came across one of the race spotters who informed us that the finish was a mere two miles away.  we picked up the pace and flew the remainder of the course.  before much longer, the road was in sight and we could hear voices.  we crested a ridge and down below we could see the finish.  we both started hollering as we dropped down into the valley.  we were done! 

while 17 miles isn't a great distance for me, i did set a pr for the amount of time on my feet.  i did twin peaks in 6:05 last year and bested that time by 16 minutes with a run time of 6:21.  what a great experience, though.  i got to see a part of arizona that i'd only heard of, got to spend the day out in the wild and support friends and athletes in a race!  i enjoyed the course so much, as hard as it was, that i think i may sign up for it next year.  hey, gotta come up with more excuses to get out to arizona to see my folks, right?

salomon xt wings challenge

so, here's the details on this challenge that i've been hinting at for a while.  a few weeks back i was contacted by a guy from buzzparadise.com asking if i'd be interested in a challenge that salomon trail shoes and nokia phones were putting together.  it involved the new salomon xt wings trail shoe and the new nokia n82 phone.   

the whole focus is to go out and adventure in the salomon xt wings and use the nokia n82 to tell the stories.  the marketing push involves participants to come up with a challenge that fits their capabilities, perform the training and the event in their salomons and use the nokia n82 to report back on the event.

i'm really excited about the shoes.  i've tried on salomons in the past and they seemed to fit my feet pretty well.  these are supposed to have a really decent grip along with good wear on the outsoles along with self cleaning lugs.  they claim to be highly breathable and quick drying.  that means, depending on whether i'm a glass half full/half empty sort of person that my feet can be comfortable after a stream crossing or soaked easily when it's raining.  heh...we'll see!

now the nokia n82 is the gadget that i'm anxious to try out.  i've been using the timex body link system for gps, carrying a small camera and often skipping the cell phone.  this replaces the need for all of those.  with a 5mp camera, gps capabilities and the sport tracker software, i'm all set to replace the three items with just one tool.  you know me and my love for taking video of singletrack.  let's hope that the video quality is as good as it's claim!

so, my challenge is "portal to peak".  i'll be scooting up mt. whitney, trying to make trail camp before dawn (to catch the sunrise on video and in stills) and, depending on snow conditions, make my return down the mountaineers route.  i'll need to complete the attempt before july, so that means the mountain has a month to shed some of it's winter blanket.  the chute on the mountaineers route might prove, um, interesting!  my challenge is up over at the salomon website where you can vote on whether or not you think i'll be able to complete it.  they've created a widget that you can include on your blog if you're interested in promoting my challenge.

it appears that they're opening the challenge up to other folks, with a monthly winner selected to receive a pair of the shoes and a phone.  check out the video for a better description.

wish me luck and stay tuned for all the training related posts!

going mobile

last friday we headed out to arizona for the zane grey 50k/mi race and stayed with my parents just outside of phoenix.  just before we left to drive out, smsmh had thunderclap on the floor in the bedroom and just happened to set something across the room from him.  he promptly dropped down on all fours and began army crawling toward it.  we were shocked and having so much fun having him crawl around the downstairs that we forgot to grab the camera. 

as soon as we got to my folks place, i pulled out the camera to see if he'd repeat.  i plopped him down on the living room floor and started filming...