Mountain Monkeys - Mountain and road biking, trail running, skiing, and whatever else I do, mostly in the mountains (or hills)
 

A great week

The last week has been great, running wise.  I had been down visiting my family in southern CA, and got my sister out for her first trail run (she's been running a fairly long time, but never on trails).  We did a nice 45 min run at Crystal Cove State Park.  Bit of hills, pretty warm (80?), but fun.  We talked the entire run, and she's in great shape, so I was actually a bit out of breath towards the end.  I headed back to Eugene the next day, and crammed in some overdue work.  Then, ran each day until today.  These local runs totalled 22 miles, and I intend to do about 10+ tomorrow, so it'll be a solid week.  Thursday was a really nice 9 mile effort as well.

I've been doing pretty much all my shorter runs now in the Inov8 Roclite 295 shoes.  I'm very much liking them.  At this moment, I plan to run in them tomorrow, but it'll be a last minute decision I think.  The shoes are different, especially when you just put them on and sit there in them.  The insole reminds me of my Specialized Body Geometry cycling shoes, especially the earlier generations where there was a pronounced bump under your metatarsal area.  But, as soon as you hit the trail, you don't notice it, and in fact, the shoes just seem to fit me really really well.  They are more minimalist compared to the Brooks Cascadia, but so far, all I've been able to notice is that I feel more of the trail under my foot - I haven't noticed any particular muscle pain or other side effects that you sometimes hear about with more minimal shoes.  This is partly why I'm ready to go try them on a longer run (longest in them to date has been 6 miles).  Should be interesting.  I will also be interested to see how my legs fare having done the 9 miler on Thursday.  

Filed under  //   running  
Posted August 28, 2010
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Reflecting on the Haulin Aspen Race

I've been wondering why I just wasn't that happy with my race at Haulin Aspen, even though my time was pretty solid for me.  I've realized that it really comes down to the fact that I after about 4 miles, I just wasn't enjoying it, and wasn't running strong.  I had really been looking forward to this race, felt I'd done some good training, and just couldn't wait to get to run that distance again!  

The week leading up to the race I'd taken it super easy based on various things I'd read, some slight pain in my right knee, and partly time.  I only ran twice during the week, and they were both 4 mile or less runs, that I took easy.  In hindsight I think that was a mistake.  I should have run one more day, and I should have done at least one or two 6-8 milers.  That may or may not have helped, but I think that I'd simply have liked it better, I missed running this week!  

Probably regardless of the training, I think the key was that unpleasant, sustained road climb.  I haven't done any climbs that have lasted that long where I was also able to run all of it (I did walk a few minutes, but not that much).  Where I run it's either too steep to run the entire climb like that, or the climbs simply aren't that long.  Top that off with the fact that that hill was just plain boring and ugly to run up: a big wide dirt and sometimes gravel or sandy road.  I knew it was coming, but I think it still just wound up taking a real toll.  Pretty much from that point on I never felt strong again.  And that is really where I get bummed.

I'd have been happier if I felt strong running - even if I was just going the same speed I did.  The "strong" is about how I felt mentally and physically in terms of enjoying the run, having a good time, being happy I was out there running, regardless of how fast I was going.  I didn't get that, yet I did both times on my two longest training runs.  Both of those runs ended with me feeling like I could have gone longer, and in fact, on the second one, I had really really wanted to go longer, but felt the blisters and knew I should cut things short.  But, with this race, I got to the point where I was yearning for the finish.  So, all that winds up leaving me a bit bummed out about it as a run.

It has made me wonder - what could I have done differently to have changed that?  Could I?  Without being practiced on longer sustained climbs, I'm not sure.  Although I do suspect I really should have just walked a chunk more of that climb, left more energy in my tank, and that may have then allowed me to run stronger for the rest.  My time probably would have been just as good, who knows.  But, that's tough, when you're in a race, and the climb is quite runnable, you simply don't want to walk when "everyone" else is running (I only remember seeing one guy, maybe one woman, doing any walking).

I try to tell myself, hey, you've only been running about a total of a year, with your longest run being 6 miles until June, and here you are racing a half marathon, that's solid, you can't expect to have a strong run every single time.  In the end, it's disappointing, but I guess motivates me to continue, get stronger, be stronger more often, and to get faster.

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted August 11, 2010
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Haulin Aspen 2010 Half Marathon

Earlier today I completed my first half marathon trail race, the Haulin Aspen, in Bend, OR.  It was a well done event, and overall quite a good time.  My official finish time was 2:06:16, but my watch had 2 hours 5 minutes and some seconds.  Close enough :)  I'm pleased with my time, as I was thinking it'd take 2:15.  But oddly, I'm left not as happy as I should have been.

Prep this morning went great, and I was nice and relaxed at the start.  The first mile of the race was a bit harsh, kinda fast for me, big time dry mouth action in the dry air there, and since I rarely race, just harder to start at such speed.  This was mediated by the fact that I saw I'd done about an 8.5 minute first mile though.  For me that's pretty fast, although that first mile was mostly flat.  I kept thinking I should slow down a bit, and I did feel like I did settle in to my own pace, so I was quite stoked when at the 4 mile mark, I saw I was just under 32 minutes, so now averaging 8 minute miles!  Very good for me, and I was pretty pumped.  Also, at that four mile mark, I was finally feeling pretty solid.  I was also happy to see that my watch mileage lined up perfectly with theirs, so that'd be nice for checking my progress.  That didn't last long though...

Soon after you hit the hill.  It's a wide dirt and gravel road, and climbs, with no shade, for I think about 1.5 miles (I think they state it's about a 1300' gain).  I knew this was coming, but it just wound up draining me quite a bit.  That's a lot longer sustained climb than anything I've ever done.  I did walk a few bits, and I probably should have walked more.  But man, in a race, you're just in the spirit of it, and you don't want to be walking!

The hill finally tops out, there's an aid station (the second one I just ran through, since I was carrying water and gels), and you do a quick bit more singletrack climbing.  Then it is mostly rolling.  A bit after this, we saw one the 19 mile mark, so we'd obviously rejoined the marathon course.  What sucked though, was that this would mean I had 7 miles to go, and thus was only 6 miles yet.  Yet my watch said I was something like 7.5 miles in!  Not a small discrepancy.  I had not really been able to pick up the pace any more either, even though we were done climbing.  This was also about the point I finally decided to try to take a leak, and as I figured, not much came out, but hey, at least the sensation was gone :)

This reminds me that, while on the main hill climb, there was a younger girl (18?) just a bit in front of me.  I could see her keep looking back as she'd jump into the bushes, and then back out.  I covered my eyes in an obvious way to say, go for it, I won't look.  Finally the third time she jumped into the bushes she stayed there.  This was pretty early in the climb.  And I swear maybe a mile or so later (after she's caught and passed me, grrr), she pulls over for another one!  She still finished the race ahead of me, although just a little :)

Anyway, the course continued to roll, few bits of more downhill stuff too.  Even a couple real short, slightly technical sections which were fun!  I was getting pretty beat though.  My watch said we'd done 10.5 miles, but I knew that was way ahead.  But, I kept thinking, ok, just roughly 30 minutes more, you can do that.  I was walking more often now too.

Finally, you could star to hear cheers and could tell we were getting to the bottom.  And then, we came into Shevlin park, sort of ran almost into some honey buckets (go team!) and made a 90 degree right onto....  an uphill paved road!  This was NOT a good point in the race for me.  All I could think was, "fuck, they are finishing the race on a paved uphill?!?!"  That section of pavement felt like it took forever.  I already knew I wasn't going to break 2 hours, but if the finish was at the end of the pavement I just might (since I knew this paved section was supposedly 0.7 miles, according to the announcement at the start).  I plodded along, looking for the covered bridge, as I knew that was the reason we were doing the pavement, so we could get to that.

Upon arriving at the covered bridge, the volunteers said you've got "about half a mile to go".  What?!?!  Ya, I wasn't happy.  Luckily it was back on to trail, but I was just beat at this point.  I tell ya, that is the longest half mile I've ever run!  It easily felt like a mile, and it took me almost that long (normal pace wise) to run it!  Oy.  So much for the 2 hour time.  Alas, the finish finally arrived, and I saw my beautiful wife, and things began to get better :)  I wound up 21st in my age group, and I think 124th overall (out of 353 I believe).

Reflecting on the race, while my time was a lot faster than I expected, I think why I'm not as happy as I could be is that that ending really just kind of sucked.  The paved uphill was just a real bummer kind of thing for me to finish with.  Plus, I realized, when you physically can't see, and don't know where the finish is, that makes things hard.  I wouldn't have thought that, but I realize that was one of the tough things.  In the end, my watch read 14.6 miles, so that had messed me up a little.  However, the flip side of all this is that I really want to get under two hours now.  So, maybe that's part of the problem with getting that close to 2 hours.  Maybe if I had gone 2:15, I'd have been like, ya, that's about what I expected, fine.  But, now that the two hours was only those 5 minutes away, and that finish was so brutal (for me), I think I just could taste the 2, and wanted it that much more.  Alas, gives me a goal.  It also showed me that I can run faster, and that I need to practice that a bit too.  It's made me realize that since I can't go run 10+ miles each run, when I do the shorter runs, I do need to ramp up the speed, and hopefully that'll help with upping my speed overall.  So, overall, a pretty good outcome, and I'm pretty excited to have my first half marathon in the bag!

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted August 8, 2010
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Mountain Hardware/Montrail Tour du Mont Blanc Writups

I enjoyed running vicariously through Topher Gaylord (President of Montrail/Mountain Hardware) and friends' trip to train for Tour du Mont Blanc.  

Max King's blog entries:
Promo like video with Gaylord and King:

Max King, soul runner video from the trip:

Lisa Jhung's account on Runner's World

I recently picked up some Mountain Hardware Refueler shorts, and the Double Wicked Lite shirt.  Both are excellent for running, I really like them, and it doesn't hurt that they also look good.  I suspect I'll stay with the regular Refueler short, vs. the Refueler Advance that King talks about, since I am just now moving fro 9" inseam shorts to 7"...  Not ready to go to 5" yet :)

Filed under  //   running  
Posted August 2, 2010
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Learning to Go Hard

Something that's been playing on my mind a lot lately, is how I'm new enough to running that I don't really know my limits and thus understand how hard I can go for how long, and how long it'll take to recover (during the same run).  On the bike, I know this very well.  I know that if I hammer some hill, I know precisely how my legs feel, how long I can do that, when I need to let up, and then when I can do it again.  But with running, I don't.  Partly this is pure lack of experience, having seldom really tried to go hard for some particular distance.

Over the last two days, I've put in two solid road bike rides.  Both were short, only about 1hr 35 minutes.  The first day I did a ride I've done many times, which included the McBeth climb, and total ride vert of about 2400'.  I did this ride maybe 5-10 minutes faster than normal, which I believe was completely due to the fact that about halfway through it, I passed a guy on a TT or tri bike, who then appeared to jump on and start chasing me shortly after.  I turned around to see he was at the base of a short hill, when I was maybe halfway up.  It was game on!  

From that point on, I put in a solid pace, about as hard as I could go, but sustain for at least 30 minutes.  So, clearly not a sprint, and I was sitting the entire time, but a few mph faster than normal.  On the descent of the same hill, I dropped a water bottle (first time ever?), and thought he'd catch me, but he didn't.  Occasionally looking back, I could still see him, but by the junction on Lorane towards home, I'd apparently dropped him.  Was definitely a hammer ride, but felt good.

Yesterday I did a similar distance, similar vert climb, but not quite so hard.  During this I spent a lot of time thinking about doing hard efforts, and how to figure out how to do that during runs, in particular during races.  Usually on the bike, there are parts of a ride that this is easy to do and break into a particular chunk: a climb, or trying to drop someone who's behind you on a flat, or going hard to the next road you'll turn on, etc.  But, while running, about the only time I've really ramped up pace is when I've run downhill a bit, recovered, and am feeling fresh, and just feeling like turning it up a notch.  This doesn't usually last very long though, I'd bet the longest I've pushed a hard pace is maybe 1/3rd of a mile.  Partly I'm just not comfortable doing it, or rather, it feels odd.  It doesn't feel bad, it's just that my legs/body aren't used to it.  So, in part, I think I simply have to start doing it more.  Racing will be a good way to force the issue, but even there, I'm not typically racing a particular person, or care about that, so haven't.

Alas, for the upcoming Haulin Aspen half marathon, I'm currently strategizing that I'll do the first half of the race at my "usual" pace.  This is also the expected hardest half of the race as it has all the vertical gain.  But descents are usually where I can open things up anyway, and I think I'll be able to sustain a faster pace for longer and not run out of gas.  So, we'll see.  My goal will be to really try to put in some speed during the last half, when I can.  I don't expect to blitz the entire last half, but will conciously try to run faster than normal whenever possible.  Hopefully I can do that without bonking.

Filed under  //   cycling   running  
Posted July 21, 2010
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Another big run today

Today was pretty exciting in that I was able to do a 12 mile run only a couple days after doing my 14.5 mile/longest run to date.  At the 8-9 mile range, I felt awesome, not tired at all, and was starting to dream of doing up to 15 miles.  But, as I did some downhill on Willamette, some toes on my right foot flared up, and I could feel that it must be a couple blisters, as it was tender.  I knew I was also maybe a bit tight on water, so I headed back.  It was a good call in the end.  6 hours later (as I type this), and I'm fairly worked - just feeling like I need a bit of sugar, and still needing to drink a lot of water, but otherwise good.  Two of my toes do indeed have blisters.  I'm now debating whether I drain/pop them or what.  This is new territory for me (first set of blisters).

Today I ran with the Nathan pack again, thing is great.  I also tried orange flavored Hammer gel: excellent!  It's super light on flavor, actually bordering on not really even having flavor.  But, the real bonus was that it seemed far more liquidy than their other gels, so it was that much easier to consume.  This is going to be good stuff.  I also had some Sport Beans, and man, with the high salt in those, they just taste great deeper into a run when you've been sweating a lot and it's warm out.  Not something I can eat a lot of, but in the right moment, they're great.

Did the run in 1 hour and 59 minutes :)  Initially felt a bit of residual heaviness from Wednesday's run and Friday's road bike ride, but by a few miles in all was going well.  Did some decent hill work today.  Started at Spencer Butte parking, up and over to Fox Hollow, one typical lap there, then did a down and back up on the lower section that goes to Martin Street.  This is a solid descent and climb back up.  From there, up and over to Willamette, which is all I planned, but again, was feeling good, and even with the toes, wanted to do a bit more.  So, I did a brief bit on Blanton, to the little mini hill embedded in there, around that, and then back to Spencer parking.  12 miles probably (12.55 on my watch).  Good stuff.

Filed under  //   running  
Posted July 17, 2010
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Convincing Myself of Half Marathon: My Longest Run To Date

I am very happy with the outcome of yesterday's run.  I set out to do a long one, to get close to or do a half marathon distance, to see what that's like and prove to myself I can do that at the upcoming Haulin Aspen.  I wound up running even further than I planned, covering about 14 some-odd miles (my watch said 14.89, but it tends to overestimate a bit).  What I bummed about is that I simply can't seem to understand how I'm supposed to know how much ascent/descent I've done from my watch.  The watch tracks this, but I fail to see how to actually see the numbers!  The manual is not helpful.  I am curious because I'd like to know if I was at about the same as the Haulin Aspen will be (1300'), or more, or less.  VERY back of the napkin calculations would put me somewhere between 1000-1500', but with all the little ups and downs, it could be more.  

I felt really good during the run.  I didn't feel I was running a very fast pace, but I also didn't walk too much either.  My time was 2 hours 18 minutes, so that's a high 9 minute/mile pace assuming it was 14 miles.  That works.  Haulin Aspen will be harder for sure, simply due to the heat (my #1 concern), and the wildcard of the altitude (sometimes it affects me, sometimes it doesn't, thus "wildcard" status).  Yesterday I tried out a new hydration pack, the Nathan HPL #008.  This went a lot better than the other pack I tried last week, and this one is going to work really really well.  It fits great, was comfy to run in, and I really like the front pockets on the shoulder straps.  I was able to carry 50oz of water, of which I drank about 40-45 yesterday (was 75 degrees out), and carry some gels, and my iPhone.  The phone did start bouncing around a lot towards the end when I'd consumed the gels that it was sharing the zippered pocket with.  I'll have to think about the best way to alleviate that in the future.  Anyway, I plan to use this pack in the race.

Another thing I've surprised myself a bit with is how much I like Honey Stinger "gold" gels.  I normally don't like super sweet stuff, but damn if these don't taste just awesome on the trail! They are a bit like a somewhat more liquid packet of honey, and I am just loving them right now.  I would say my mainstays are still a variety of gels from Hammer, in particular the Banana, Espresso, and I'm now trying their new Montana Huckleberry.  But the Honey Stingers, especially towards the end, are great.  They're easier to consume as they're more liquidy (than most gels, except maybe those crazy 4x salt versions of the Powergels), and their taste just really hits the spot when you're worked (although so do the Banana Hammer gels).

This morning, I'm feeling good.  Just hanging around, I feel very little residual soreness or what not from the run, which is great.  I know if I were to go run I'd be feeling it for sure, but feel I've recovered pretty well.

Filed under  //   running  
Posted July 15, 2010
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Heat and More Heat

We've had a heat wave here in Eugene this past week.  Nothing like the temps of the last place I lived (Rocklin, CA), where things routinely hit 100, but still, quite hot for Eugene (upper 90's).  On Thursday I went out for a run in the morning, wanting to beat the heat.  I went in the morning, and it was only about 80 degrees.  However, I was definitely feeling it.  I had a bit of residual tiredness from Tuesday's run on top of that.  I had wanted to do a bigger run, around 10 miles, but it became evident early on that that wasn't going to happen.  I wound up doing 8.5 miles, and finishing a water bottle before the end of my run (have never done that before).  I was completely soaked in sweat by the finish.  And, upon arriving home, checked my weight, to find I was 4+ pounds down from the morning!  That includes having had more water in the car on the way home, and when I got home.  Ya, dehydrated for sure.

On Friday, I planned to take the day off, due to the very high temps (was supposed to hit 98), and the dehydration and such from the day before.  But, I was just restless, and had to get out.  So, in the middle of the afternoon, I went for a short road ride.  Temps ranged from 95-99 during the ride, depending on where I was.  I even chose to do the McBeth climb simply because it was tree lined/shaded, as compared to nearly every other road I could do on a shorter ride.  Strangely, this heat didn't bother me nearly as much.  On the bike it helps that you have a 15-20mph "wind" simply due to riding, but I was surprised the heat didn't get me as bad.  Coming back up McLean on the way home was quite hot, but all in all, not bad.  

Saturday I did wind up taking off, had a nice family day.  Weather cooled down a bit into the mid to upper 80's.  Spent some time outside, but just hanging out with my kids and relaxing.

Sunday I got to get on the mountain bike, and went off to do Goodman-Eagles again.  I started the ride at 11am, and it was in the mid-70's.  But man, I don't know if it was more humid in amongst all the trees or what, but it became a serious sweat fest.  It was in the 80's by the end of the ride, but even 20 minutes in I was sweating heavily.  This is a solid ride, with 2500 feet of climbing in the first hour and 15 minutes, getting up to the Eagle's Rest summit.  I hadn't really realized it was that much, and that helps explain why it's a pretty solid ride for a shorter ride (total ride time is 2 hours).  Met Ken and Scott at the base of Eagles, and then led them up to the top.  We hung out and talked for a while, about the relatively unknown, yet somewhat epic surfing on the Oregon coast, Eugene's difficult job market, and so on.  Then it was time to head down.

Somewhere on the first segment down, I had a very hard rock-to-rim hit on my front wheel.  At the base of Eagle's I thought it was fine.  Checked the wheel, tire, etc., all seemed ok, and I've had these before, so wasn't worried.  But, riding a bit more, realized the tire was going flat.  I stopped and assumed I just needed to inflate it a bit, it'd probably burped or lost a bit, and the tubeless sealant just needed a bit of air and a spin, etc., so I told Ken and Scott I was fine.  Of course though, the sealant didn't seem to be doing the job.  This sealant is quite old (more than 7 months), so I figured it'd probably just run dry or what not.  I inflated a bit, gave a spin, and figured I'd ride a bit more and see if I could get it to seal up.  But nope, a short ways later, air as getting low, and I pushed it too far, rolling the tire and sliding out.  At that point it was time to put a tube in.  To continue the good times, the tube I had was a 26" tube, so it took a bit of work to get it stretched around the rim, and then a lot of work, oddly enough, to get the tire back on (I hadn't recalled these tires being so tough to mount - maybe they too were feeling the heat).  Finally, I got it all put back together and headed down again.

By now though, the mojo, the flow, was gone.  I was riding somewhat lamely, and just had to take it down a notch or two.  No way I was going to catch back up to Scott & Ken.  Oh well. Made it back, and it was still a good ride.  I just can't seem to catch a break on Goodman's in terms of unusual mechanicals.  But, this is also a sign that it's time to do some real bike maintenance.  I need to put the new pedal spindles in, new sealant in the tires (and maybe replace that front one), a good cleaning and tune, etc.  Regardless, it's great to be riding my mtb again, and I hope I can continue to get some good rides in.  And now, on Monday, it appears our heat wave has left us for the day.  We'll see if I get out today though, busy day, and I'm a bit tired.  But, given that I see we're supposed to see temps back in the mid-80's again this week, I might have to get out there...

Filed under  //   cycling   running  
Posted July 12, 2010
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A Close Call On Today's Run

Today has been a warm day, currently it says 85, and just a bit ago when I was on a run on the Ridgeline trails, it said 83.  Luckily Ridgeline is heavily treed and I suspect was 5 degrees or so cooler along the trail.  I was running a bit slow-ish today, after taking 3 days off.  I was also trying out a new running hydration pack from The North Face.  But more on that later.  The, uh, highlight (not) of the run was when I nearly got shish-kabobed by a falling tree branch.

Running back towards Fox Hollow from Willamette, a dead tree branch, roughly two feet long, and maybe two inches in diameter fell straight down like a spear, landing directly in front of me.  It was close enough that it nearly hit my legs and I sort of had to jump to avoid getting tripped up by it.  Thinking about it, if I'd been literally 1 second faster in my run, this thing probably would have speared me in the top of my head.  Based on the deep thud it made when it hit the ground, I am extremely glad it didn't hit my head.  I like to think it wouldn't have cracked my skull, but I guarantee it'd have made a mess of my scalp, and (not having much of a clue medically...) maybe knocked me out.  It'd surely have knocked me down.  Of course, saying that if I'd been "1 second faster" also means that if it'd been maybe 2 seconds faster it wouldn't have happened, and one can extrapolate that to know that this "near hit" probably was possible a few times today (I could hear lots of stuff falling today for some reason, although this was the only solid branch I saw hit/on the trail).

I will say, it didn't really freak me out much, other than for about a minute to think about, holy crap, that thing very nearly skewered me!  But since it didn't, that was about the extent of it.  This was somewhat interesting timing, given I've just read the "Of Life or Limb" chapter in Mark Jenkins super book "A Man's Life", which is about Aaron Ralston's arm amputation, several other people's, and generally about survival in such horrific situations.  It was slightly interesting to note that I have had a vaguely parallel Moab experience - having a terrible mountain bike crash there in 1992 a few weeks before my 21st birthday.  I was carried, ATV'ed, and then ambulanced to the Moab clinic, and then airlifted to St. Mary's hospital in Grand Junction (same hospitals as Ralston), where I spent a week.  Not that my experience compares, just an interesting tidbit for me to read.  Fortunately for me, unlike Ralston, I remember nothing of my accident, and have hardly any residual issues from it (minor nerve loss and extra tissue in my left hip, overlapped healing of my broken collar bone).  These things do make you think, but hopefully just enough to be prepared when you're out there, know it's possible to survive some really horrific things, and use that to prevent you from being a shut-in and not getting to experience this wonderful world we have available to us, whether it's simply your local city trails, or exploring unknown lands.

Aside from that, a fairly routine run.  Tested out a The North Face Enduro Boa hydration pack.  I'll review it later.  I'm only so-so on it, but probably need another run or two with it to see if I'll plan to use it.

Filed under  //   running  
Posted July 6, 2010
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Enjoying Running, Missing Riding

I've been running consistently for a couple months now, post ankle breakage.  I've really been enjoying it.  My fitness and running have both been improving nicely, and I've done some races for the first time in my life.  What I haven't been doing much of is cycling.  I've done all of one, or maybe two mountain bike rides this year, and maybe a half dozen road rides, if that.  I both miss riding, but also don't so much, which is a really weird thing for me, given how long I've been riding and that I consider it my one true passion, sports wise.

Part of this has been my seemingly increasing disappointment with the lack of good close trails for mountain biking.  Road riding here is pretty good, although I'm a bit bored with it at the moment, and road riding has always been more of a fitness thing for me.  Trail running has become somewhat of a stand-in for mountain biking.  It at least gets me on trails, which is really where I want to be.  But, I feel like I'm losing riding, and I'm not sure what to think about that at the moment: I'm both quite mad and frustrated about it, but also sort of feeling like it's just this moment in life.

What I'm holding on to right now is that I'm pretty excited to go run - I really want to run, and run most days.  There are days when I really need a rest, or I'm having some ankle or other joint pain from a longer run, and need a break, but most days I want to get out there.  That is super healthy in my mind, and I'm glad to have that.  One thing I'm slightly worried about is that I've started to yearn for other trails to run, aside from the Ridgeline trails (which are awesome, but I'm the kind of person that really needs variety).  I'll be heading to Pisgah soon, and I'd like to see about running on some of the mtb trails, like Goodman, South Willamette, Salmon Creek, Brice, and so on but darn it if those aren't a good 45+ minute drive away, and just become the same problem as mountain biking...  Once I have to spend nearing two hours in the car, it just becomes a real buzz kill, not to mention it all of a sudden turns into a minimum of a half day time hit.  One of the reasons I took up running was to have a short time commitment workout.  When I was only typically running 3-4 miles, that worked out great, I could be  home and showering within an hour after a 5k-ish run on my local Ridgeline trails.  I guess the good part is that I can now run 1-2 hours, so driving a ways for a run isn't quite as bad if I do a longer run.

I look forward to doing some good mountain bike rides this summer, but I just don't know when those will be.  Summer is already getting busy, I don't have much budget or time to travel beyond what we're already doing, and the trails that really get my blood running are 2+ hour drive, or a day's drive (Tahoe) away.  Hopefully the trail running will keep me busy with some trails and help alleviate the pain of not getting to mtb much.  I just hope it's not something that I'll wake up one day and realize was a poor stand-in.  I really don't think so though.  I typically have WAY too big a grin when I'm done with a run, and am having a lot of fun seeing where I'll be able to take my running - getting into longer distances, and improving my abilities.  Now to figure out how to squeeze a run into a very busy day today...

Filed under  //   cycling   running  
Posted June 29, 2010
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