Random thoughts on little outdoor things, and occasional tacos.
Iron Mountain Standard – Sep 22 with Kam
Meh. Knee stuff hurts. Waaahhhh….
Early Maxwell Walk – Sep 11
Sad and gimpy five miles. Boo. But pretty.
Just a few notes, nothing exciting. There needs to be a blog setting that is more “just stupid journal crap” than, hey, read this!
Tahquitz Peak via Devil’s Slide – Sep 10
Jogged up more than half to test lungs / body, and was mostly okay, but really felt knee / tendon thing on slow jog down ;(. Time to take a step back and rehab. Crazy burn (Cranston Fire) pictures from the top here. Kam’s booty hurting again, so good she can take time off.
Iron Mountain Standard – Sep 6 (1:22)
Another “what’s up with my body” run / hike. Slow jog up, topping out at 0:46 which not bad considering (hot, carb-depleted, injured, etc.). But legs and energy were gone on the way down, explaining 1:22 R/T (0:36 down, which is terrible). Overall, body was okay. Honestly, slow descent time sucked.
Mt. Woodson from Poway – Sep 5 (1:56)
Just checking things out. Low 80s. No poles / food / water / salt & carb-depleted, various minor injuries limiting downhill run. So at slowest possible downhill pace (jogging and trying midfoot strikes), 1:08 to the top and 1:56 (0:48) R/T. Felt tired and near-bonk close to top, and heartrate was 176+ at a few points (nice!) so clearly food would be a good idea. Dropped more than eight lbs as per usual. Really enjoying the lower impact of midfoot running; also seems better on the body impact-wise.
Mt. Woodson from Poway – Aug 22 (2:16)
Hiked up with Kam, who was having stomach troubles bc she apparently hadn’t eaten in recent history. Bad, Kam, bad! Still a fun hike, and new SKT :). On a side note, lost absurd amount of weight again despite being nearly 10 degrees cooloer than last time. I am the sweat master.
Iron Mountain Standard – Aug 21 (1:25)
Hike up (0:51), slow hike / jog down, felt my injuries a bit but fine otherwise . 89+ heat w/o food or water, and felt good at finish. have a feeling my plantar BS is here for a while. Descent time was 0:34.
Mt. Woodson from Poway – Aug 18 (2:15)
This may be my slowest single hike up Woodson. Not sure, but I was tired from the start. As usual, took no food or water (which is fine in terms of safety, not so fine in terms of performance) and it was hotter than expected (90+). I’d done the same hike / run on Tuesday in 1:45 and expected to be a bit slower b/c my injuries are buggin’, but 2:15 was crazy. Very slow on the way up, resting, which was most likely low blood sugar due to poor eating the day of and before.
Got home and weighed myself. Surprised to have lose 8 lbs gross, about13 lbs net, which is crazy for a two-hour hike (not that crazy for me, but still). No idea why I lost so much more than on same hike a few days earlier at similar temps.
Iron Mountain Standard – Aug 15 (1:12)
Hike up (0:52), jog down, felt my injuries a bit but fine otherwise . 85+ heat w/o food or water, and felt good at finish. have a feeling my plantar BS is here for a while. Don’t get how my descent here was 0:20. Must have hoofed it down, or it was really 0:30 and R/T time was actually 1:22. Hmm.
Woodson from Poway – Aug 14 (1:45)
Usual hike up and jog down, injuries not really an issue for most if it. Hot 87+ but didn’t take food or water, felt fine. Had energy back at car. No biggie, and time wasn’t bad for lack of training / slow run down / no run up.
Mt. Langley from Horseshoe Meadows – Aug 11 (8:40)
Thought we’d spend a few days in Sierras, but with smoke and body feel, it was just this one hike. Camped Friday, hiked Saturday, drove back that night. Felt crappy from start of hike (usual lack of sleep). Also think I was hungry and dehydrated at beginning and never recovered. Nausea by Cottonwood lakes, but caffeinated Gu helped and I was fine energy-wise until about 300′ below summit. Then body turned to shit and I was dying all the way down.
Oh, smoke at summit was heinous — everything was gray/brown. So, nice to be out and perfect weather, but damn. We need to stop burning the forests down.
Symptoms: Low energy, nausea, killer lower-back pain, achy knee tendons, etc. All things I associate with low salt / dehydration, which makes sense, but it was a long, slowly painful walk down for me. Kam was all energy and joy, so whatever. Her training is going well. I think this is our slowest R/T on Langley, so we set a new SLT ;).
Smoke from Holy Fire was already clearing on the way back through Riverside.
Ellie Lane – Jul 14
Ran with Kam and Mon on regular out-and-back from Iron to Ellie Lane up to Iron and back, but it was hot and humid so we cut it about a mile short at the last bail-out point. I think it was about 10 miles total in 2:45, so pretty slow. Lost net 6 lbs and gross 15-17 lbs, which is pretty insane but inline with what I lost at Woodson last week. Definitely felt the humidity.
The next day, tired and lazy, did a half-assed VO2 Max test at gym (Bruce Treadmill Method) and got 49 despite being tired, fat and out of shape. I figure I can hit 55 without too much trouble. After that, I see a lot of pain. This is probably not accurate, and actual value is probably lower…
Tending to think I’ll not be doing Barkley Fall Classic this year. Training is non-existent and body just doesn’t seem to want to get into it. Yeah, it’s my body’s fault.
Woodson Jog – July 4 / 1:45
Just needed to get out of the house. Not planned. R/T from Lake Poway in 1:45 (1:05 to top). Still stunned that FKT for this is under an hour, but heh, people be fast. It was 85+ and I finished feeling pretty overheated. Took no water or food. Would have needed ice to matter.
Penasquitos Mountainbike – July 3
Did that. Also got spiffy new tires. Weird not slipping all over the place.
Iron Mountain Jog – July 2
Hot little run, mid eighties. Round trip with little or no uphill running and 4-5 min chilling in 1:14 for 5.6m+ (0:45 to top inc. 4 min stall). It’s not a great time, but gives a good baseline for training. If I can take off 10 min off the ascent (to 35 min) and 5 min off the decent (to 0:29 to 0:24), then sub-one-hour possible. Probably need to hit that easily to do BFC well.
Jun 30 / Mt. Woodson Loop – 2:50
In the process of trying to figure out if I can actually train for the Barkley Fall Classic (BFC), I’m taking an especially slovenly, slothful and lethargic approach to training. There may be other issues. That said, I’d like to do a series of 50Ks or the equivalent for 4-5 of the pre-taper weekends prior to the Sept. 15th event. This is not rational, but it may be entertaining.
Anyhoo, today was just a get-off-my-ass attempt on Woodson. We did a jaunt up Mt. Ontario near Baldy last weekend, and I was already feeling like my training is off (Non-existent? Virtual?). Whatever. Today, did the out-and-back from Lake Poway to Ramona and back, which is just about exactly 10.5 miles and 3.2K in elevation gain and loss — making it an ideal 1/3 of a hilly 50K course. I’ve done it 3x in a day in under ten hours and I’d like to do that again before BFC, but today was not that day.
Did the lap in 2:50:14, according to Gaia with 0.00 rest time, which is not a great time but is not terrible considering I couldn’t really run on my Achilles. Also bonked a bit on the 2nd summit. Also, it was hot, for me, which is to say, it was not freezing.
Splits:
- Lake to Summit: 1:08 – Felt a bit breathy 😉
- Summit to Ramona: 1:30 (0:22) – Mellow pace
- Ramona to Summit: 1:52 (0:32) – My PB is 0:22 or something
- Summit to Lake: 2:50 (0:58) – Slow damn jog
Random thoughts:
- Lost net 6 lbs after consuming 10 lbs of water and coffee pre/post/during, which means 16 lbs of gross water loss in 3 hours, or basically my usual 5 lbs per hour during moderately hot temps and exertion levels. I don’t think I can do anything about this. Just have to stick with shorter and/or cooler races once I get back into it. My sweat rate is not sustainable or safe on hotter / longer races.
- Achilles not bad, but I did notice it. Back to the eccentric heal drop routine.
- Not sure on bonk. General lack of training / sleep / diet? Too many factors. I am excellent at bonking under almost any conditions, and it’s neither surprising nor interesting. Just is. BONK!
- Still can’t figure out how I did three laps of this route in 2012 in under 10 hours without freaking running. Even at a slow jog on the downhills and moderate uphill pace, 3 hrs is about right per loop. It remains a mystery, and probably always will. Spooky fast.
It’s a bit hard to figure out, but I think if I can do 3x this loop in 9:30, I can do BFC in 10:30 or so. No idea. Guessing. Sounds good, right?
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