Mountain Monkeys http://mountain-monkeys.com Mountain and road biking, trail running, skiing, and whatever else I do, mostly in the mountains (or hills) posterous.com Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:25:11 -0700 Two Runs, Heat, and No Tape! http://mountain-monkeys.com/two-runs-heat-and-no-tape http://mountain-monkeys.com/two-runs-heat-and-no-tape Got out for runs on Monday (Blanton, 3.6mi) and Tuesday (Willamette, 4mi).  Both were in the afternoon and it was about 80 degrees.  For some folks I realize that's nothing, but for me it's getting on the warmer side.  I consider 80 to be about the threshold where once over that the run takes a noticeable extra toll.  I sweat a lot more, and the run itself just feels heavier and harder.  This is not surprising in terms of "hotter than normal" conditions of course.  Both runs were decent, but the bigger news was that these were also my first runs not taping my ankle!  The ankle did fine - zero pain or anything, and nothing aftewards.  Today, Wednesday, I feel a very very minor bit of ache in my ankle, but this is often what I feel post run even with the tape.  I'm planning a longer run for tomorrow and will likely tape, but we'll see, might just skip it and see.

I'm also excited right now, as I happened to get back in touch with Jared, who is a superstar adventure racer, and also a very fast mountain biker.  Super fit.  We got to talking about running, and now he's going to give me a tour of Pisgah tomorrow, as that's where I had planned to go, but there are no good maps, and so having a tour guide will be great in terms of starting to learn to navigate their maze of trails.  Really looking forward to it.  He will no doubt absolutely kick my ass: he was planning to go try to set a speed record at the Inca Run, a 4 day race in Bolivia, but it looks like the race may not happen.  Regardless, gives you an idea of his skills.  I've never run with anyone other than my wife (unless you count races), so this will be interesting to see.  I've already told him he's free to drop me :)  On the other hand, it'll be good for me to try to keep up, do a bit of race simulation, etc.

Today I also hit REI to see if they had any really light weight and somewhat more trim//shorter shorts.  I like the ones I have, but with the bit of weight loss (also proven by fitting size Medium in both Mountain Hardware and North Face brands - I have no idea the last time I work that size) and the warmer temps, I'm wanting something a bit less bulky and such.  I got these:
Both seem super light, airy, thin, shorter (I think my existing shorts are all of the 9" variety).  I also needed more shorts as I am ramping up to running 4 or 5 times even per week at times, and sometimes the laundry doesn't keep up :)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:22:24 -0700 Learning to Go Hard http://mountain-monkeys.com/learning-to-go-hard http://mountain-monkeys.com/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.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:45:34 -0700 Another big run today http://mountain-monkeys.com/another-big-run-today http://mountain-monkeys.com/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.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:46:30 -0700 Convincing Myself of Half Marathon: My Longest Run To Date http://mountain-monkeys.com/convincing-myself-of-half-marathon-my-longest http://mountain-monkeys.com/convincing-myself-of-half-marathon-my-longest 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.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:38:30 -0700 Heat and More Heat http://mountain-monkeys.com/heat-and-more-heat http://mountain-monkeys.com/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...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:30:09 -0700 A Close Call On Today's Run http://mountain-monkeys.com/a-close-call-on-todays-run http://mountain-monkeys.com/a-close-call-on-todays-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.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:07:18 -0700 A Morning Trail Run & Evening MTB Ride! http://mountain-monkeys.com/a-morning-trail-run-and-evening-mtb-ride http://mountain-monkeys.com/a-morning-trail-run-and-evening-mtb-ride Yesterday was a great day!  My wife and I did a trail run in the morning (Spencer Butte, Fox Hollow), in the nice cool weather.  Then, in the evening, I got a great mountain bike ride in at Goodman-Eagles Rest.  I think this is only my second or third mtb ride of the year, and boy was it nice to be back on the bike.  I'd just posted complaining about lack of mtb, so it was great to get out there and ride, and have a great ride at that.  Or so it was by the end, it didn't start out great...

Roland and I met up at the Goodman Creek parking area at 6pm, and headed out.  Not even 5 minutes into the ride, and I can't seem to clip into my right pedal.  I look down to realize all I've got there is a pedal spindle!  I jump off and we track down my pedal.  We find that the bolt that holds the pedal body onto the spindle has somehow come off, but manage to hand tighten it (didn't have a socket to really crank it down), and that seems to hold for the rest of the ride.  This was not a good start, given the last time I rode here was when I broke my frame!  Anyway, we continued riding...

About 10 minutes later, Roland feels his chain or hub slipping, and as a result, painfully slams his knee into his fork.  Ouch.  We start to diagnose.  I then notice that there are a dozen or so teeth missing from his Gates belt drive belt/chain!  No wonder it was slipping!  Roland has been training for the Cascade Creampuff 100, and apparently he's just become so strong, so manly that he's now sheering teeth of belt drives!  Badass.  But also bad in that that ended his ride.  I continued though.

It was a gorgeous night, temps maybe around 60 give or take.  I made it up to the summit of Eagles Rest in 1 hour 12 minutes of ride time.  It wasn't sunset yet, so the photos were a bit harsh:

Felt really good though, especially given I'd run in the morning.  Had a Honey Stinger (wow, those are pretty much just a more liquidy honey (duh)!), and headed down.  What a great descent!  I'd forgotten that this was really quite a good ride.  I was on my rigid Niner, and some of the descent was a bit harsh.  Between this and a couple of other rides, I've been starting to wonder if I'm "over" the rigid, and want to put a fork on this bike.  The main downside though would be that it'd add about 1.5-2 lbs (the Niner steel fork is 1100g/2.4lbs), and one thing I just love about this bike is how light it is.  It's not even that light when compared to what folks consider really light bikes these days (mine weighs about 27lbs), but compared to my suspension bikes, etc., it's light and snappy.  I'll think about it some more.

Overall, it was a great day out on the trails, and I was thrilled to be back on my mountain bike.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:11:20 -0700 Enjoying Running, Missing Riding http://mountain-monkeys.com/enjoying-running-missing-riding http://mountain-monkeys.com/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...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:27:38 -0700 Haulin Aspen Training Begins? http://mountain-monkeys.com/haulin-aspen-training-begins http://mountain-monkeys.com/haulin-aspen-training-begins Yesterday my wife and I signed up for the Haulin Aspen trail half marathon.  This is in Bend, in August.  I've heard it's a great event - good trail, good food & beer sponsors, etc.  Looking forward to it.  Definitely have to get my wife's mileage ramped up, and really, need to up my own a bit as well, as I've yet to run that distance, and have only run over 7 miles a few times now.  

Today's run was a sort of hill workout.  I started at Fox Hollow, and run up to Spencer Butte summit.  This gets a nice even 1000' feet of elevation gain in about 2 miles.  The last pitches up to the summit (and much of the return down) I had to hike/walk, as it's too rocky and steep for me to be able to run it.  But, up and back took 47 minutes - 26 of that was up, about a minute of hanging out at the top, and then 20 down, if I recall properly what my watch said at those points.

Legs were pretty worked by the time I got to the top, but recovered fairly soon after finishing the slower/rockier/hiking sections back down from the summit.  Twas fairly warm, at roughly 76 degrees.  Got to try out a new Under Armor running shirt that is super super light weight, and has a bit of a mesh section down the center of the back.  This shirt was awesome!  Basically felt like I wasn't wearing anything, didn't feel soggy at all (even though it was drenched - probably cuz it's so thin and light that it's soaked but not that much water total).  Lightweight Smartwool socks FTW (tried running in some thin Defeet cycling socks the other day, which was mild fail - rubbed a bit, and not comfy).  Drank about 1/2 of my water bottle.

Good bit of training for the Haulin Aspen, which has 1300' of elevation gain in the first 8 miles, then down after that.  Clearly a much longer overall race, so the elevation gain will be more mild I assume (but don't really know how it stretches out yet - need to check their topo map).  It seems a lot like doing the first 10k of the Ridgeline Ramble (I clocked 1250' gain on my watch for that), and then running back down.  The downhills rarely bother me, as long as I keep good(? for me?) form, so I think it'll be more about getting up and finished with the ascent, and then enjoying the run back down.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:45:45 -0700 Interviews with Scott Jurek and Hal Koerner http://mountain-monkeys.com/interviews-with-scott-jurek-and-hal-koerner http://mountain-monkeys.com/interviews-with-scott-jurek-and-hal-koerner Just read a couple interviews of interest:

And, uh, no, I am not planning on getting into ultras (I've yet to do a half marathon, although got close (20k) on Monday :)  I am looking to get into a bit more distance, but it's still early for me, so I'm eyeballing 20k, maybe a 30k later on.  Thinking about the Haulin Aspen as a start.  I've heard that's a great event.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:24:17 -0700 The Run After the 20k http://mountain-monkeys.com/the-run-after-the-20k http://mountain-monkeys.com/the-run-after-the-20k After Monday's superb 20k run, went out today on a subset of the same trails.  But, clearly I had some residual muscle tiredness.  I ran for 55 minutes, roughly 5.5 miles, and just felt heavy and slow.  I wasn't hurting, but nowhere near the spring, lightness, and effortlessness of Monday's run.  Regardless, I was happy to get out there.

A slight note on distances.  My new Tech4o Traileader 1 watch seems to be fairly accurate, maybe overstating the distances a bit, whereas the iPhone is crap due to the heavy tree cover - if it even works.  Today is a good example.  My watch said 5.9 miles, iPhone said 4.23.  Along the way I was comparing my watch to the trail signs which state distances.  It was 0.1 miles over the first one at I think the 1.3mi mark.  The other day when I checked it, it was only 0.1 over after 3 something miles.  In general the watch seems fairly close, at most 10% over, probably more like about 5%.  I expect, since it bases it on stride, that it will vary based on how hilly a particular run/trail is, etc.  I intend to go calibrate it, but I'm not sure where yet, since doing so on a track will make it accurate for the street/track, but probably not quite as right for trails.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:24:55 -0700 On a High After My First 20k Trail Run! http://mountain-monkeys.com/on-a-high-after-my-first-20k-trail-run http://mountain-monkeys.com/on-a-high-after-my-first-20k-trail-run I am pretty dang stoked right now, as I managed to do 12.24 miles of trail running on the Ridgeline trails this afternoon.  Previously my longest run had been the 8.5 mile Gorilla Thrilla, so this was a nice jump up.  From about mile 5, I was clearly on the running high, because as I thought about it, I just got goose bumps with excitement.  I had gone out only thinking I'd do 9-10 miles (so I did know I was going to try to go longer than I had before), and it wound up being even longer.

I started at the Blanton trail head of Eugene's Ridgeline trails.  Through the rolling singletrack, to the Willamette trail head, up the steep hills there, and down to Fox Hollow trail head.  Did a loop around Fox Hollow, then headed back the way I came.  When I got to the intersection where I'd go right to head over to Willamette, I thought I needed a smidge more in order to get an even 10 miles, so I stayed on the trail toward Spencer Butte.  I figured I'd just go a ways up, but then I was getting closer and closer to the junction with the main Spencer Butte trail.  As I neared it and prepared to turn around before, I came across a hiker.  Well, I couldn't just pass this guy and 10 feet later turn around, so kept going.  This was good anyway, as I was clearly taking longer than I'd told my wife I'd be out, so at the top I sent her a quick text.  I have a bit of a history of bike crashes and so on, so I like to keep her knowing I'm safe :)

Anyway, from there, it was running back down one of my favorite sections of these Ridgeline trails, and then forking off back towards Willamette, and finally on the Blanton section.  I'd expected Blanton to be a real beotch at this point, but wow, I ran more of the hills there than I would even if I was purely doing just a Blanton run!  Awesome.  Back at the car, I snapped this photo for evidence:

It was a really nice day weather wise, 65 degrees, sunny (but these trails stay nice and protected by the trees).  The grasses are out in force, and did majorly irritate me, but I didn't really notice until I was home.  I drank nearly all of an Ultimate water bottle (20oz?), and had a Hammer gel.  Perfect.  It's a few hours later now, and I do feel the run a bit, but not even as much as I'd expect.  I think my goal of doing a half marathon by year's end is clearly attainable.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:22:00 -0700 Great Running in Mammoth http://mountain-monkeys.com/great-running-in-mammoth http://mountain-monkeys.com/great-running-in-mammoth

I'm in Mammoth Lakes, CA right now for a company meeting (one of our guys, Ross, has a killer house here that we're using).  Yesterday, Sam and I headed out around 5:30pm for a quick run.  First Tough Mudder team training run (except Ross skipped it :).  We had planned to just do a quick say 2 miles, as Sam was really affected by the altitude (we're apparently at about 7000-8000' here).  We had some vague directions/idea from Ross, and wound up running some trail and a chunk of pavement up to the resort.  But, then from there we picked up the trails again and headed back.  Some decent hills, and a little over 40 minutes later we were back.  Nice easy pace (lucky for me I wasn't feeling the altitude at all), and just a real nice set of trails.

The particular trails we were on were singletrack, with lots of twists and turns through the trees.  Clearly sweet mountain biking trails too.  Smooth, but looking like killer flow with many banked turns and just a nice fun set of trails.  The other thing I noticed was that they seem to have two trails that parallel each other, and it appears it's so that bikes just go one way on each.  VERY nice!  

This morning I didn't want to miss getting out on these trails once more before we fly out tonight.  I really really like these for running, and the dry clean air, gorgeous setting, and perfect temperatures are just too much to pass up.  So, up "early" at 7am, after a bit of a fitfull night (stomach didn't feel great).  First 15 minutes of the run were a bit rough, but then got mostly warmed up (was 45 degrees), and went up the singletrack, turned around up near the resort, and back down.  40 minutes, maybe 3.5-4 miles (iPhone's RunKeeper said just over 3 miles, but as we found yesterday, all the twists and turns clearly had it coming up short on mileage).  Uphill for the entire first half, and then such a sweet downhill back, awesome.

I'd really like to have had more time here.  I originally planned to bring my bikes and spend more time, but thought the trails were under snow (ski resort is still open, but down here at the base, there isn't much snow).  But, maybe I'll have another chance this summer.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:11:29 -0700 2010 Steep Hill Chase 5k race http://mountain-monkeys.com/2010-steep-hill-chase-5k-race http://mountain-monkeys.com/2010-steep-hill-chase-5k-race Saturday Diana and I raced the Steep Hill Chase 5k trail run here in town.  Fun event.  The course was essentially flat, with exception to the "steep hill", which was only maybe 20 feet up, but steep and slippery with mud.  You really had to claw your way up, using hands and knees, etc.  The other fun bit of the course was an option about halfway through where you could either take a "short cut" through the water, or go around.  In the spirit of things, I went through the water, which turned out to be waist deep, and a bit of a slog.  It was maybe 30-40 feet across.  The water wasn't too cold.  Really, the worst aspect of this was after - your shoes are soaked, as are shorts, part of my shirt, etc.  The soaked shoes really weigh you down, and I think, if ultimate time was my goal, going around would have been a better choice, but the water cross was fun.  

As it turned out, I had quite a good race, with a time of 23 minutes 41 seconds, for a pace of 7:38.  This is far and away the fastest I've run.  I was quite happy, as I figured 25 minutes would be the absolutely fastest I'd do it.  Clearly, having a shorter, flat course made a huge difference.  Diana did great too, and beat her expected time, coming in at 32 minutes and change.

There was a bit of a scare at the end of the race, as a woman crossed the finish line and collapsed, losing conciousness for a few seconds, and shaking a bit, kind of looking a bit seizure like.  The sharking stopped shortly, one of the race folks called 911, I gave her my vest and jacket to help keep her warm, and in the end she was ok.  She opted not to ride with the paramedics back to the hospital, and we saw her walking around at the award's ceremony.  Hopefully it was just dehydration and exertion, etc.  Glad she seems to be ok.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:40:00 -0700 Two Great Runs This Week - and a New Watch http://mountain-monkeys.com/two-great-runs-this-week-readying-for-steep-h http://mountain-monkeys.com/two-great-runs-this-week-readying-for-steep-h

I'm quite happy with the two runs I got in this week, following the Gorilla Thrilla, and I guess sort of in prep for the Steep Hill Chase this coming Saturday.  Tuesday's run was my usual out and back on the Blanton-Willamette section of Ridegline.  I was feeling pretty good after the Thrilla, and also the distance was close to Steep Hill, so I wanted to push it a bit.  It worked - I set a new PR, with 32 mins flat.  Very good for me. 

Today, Thursday, I did a run I've only done I think two or three other times, and have considered the hardest I've done aside from any races.  This is starting at Spencer Butte parking lot, running over to Fox Hollow, doing a loop in there, and then back.  The section of trail from Fox Hollow back to where it tops out when rejoining the main Spencer Butte trail to me is the hardest section on the Ridgeline trails.  Many steep sections along 1.5 miles of trail.  I usually have to walk a lot of it.  Today was no different.  But, overall, I set a new PR by a ways today, doing this in 61 minutes (previous times were 67+).  Weather was funky.  When I left my house, computer said it was 61.  But it had hailed only an hour before.  Arriving at the trailhead, thermometer said 49 degrees.  I started out, sort of idiotically, in hat, gloves, and jacket (short sleeve shirt under).  This actually felt good (my hands get very cold easily, and my head does a bit too (it's nearly shaved, which doesn't help :)  hat came off in the first mile, then at Fox Hollow the jacket (which was very wet inside, so much for breathability!) and gloves.  

What I liked about today's, was that I felt I started out at quite a nice, almost leisurely pace.  I did not want to go real hard today, and I felt dehydrated, had headache, etc.  I'm glad I carried a water bottle (something I almost never do, but with that dehydration feeling, figured I should).  Was a nice run.  Achilles and calves got a bit of strain in the first half, but I think I determined that I really need to take the bigger strides on the descents, as I can actually be a bit more light/graceful that way, vs. the short, choppier, seemingly harder hitting steps.  Not always possible if the descent is real steep, but this sure seemed to make a difference.  I prefer it anyway, but the terrain sometimes doesn't allow for it as much.  Just have to work on doing it more.

So, I'm headed in to the Steep Hill Chase 5k on Saturday feeling good.  I am confident I can do sub-30 minutes, and really, should be able to do closer to 25 mins if the course is mostly flat (sounds like the "steep hill" is just one hill at the end, but rest is flat-ish?).  We shall see.

I also have a new watch, a Tech4o Traileader One.  I'm hoping it does a good job of measuring distance, since GPS based items suck here in the dense woods of Oregon.  This sucks, becuase I really like using Runkeeper Pro on my iPhone, but there are many times it's just so far off (iPhone's/GPS' fault, not Runkeeper).  Anyway, the watch uses technology that measures your stride/rhythm as you run.  No foot pod or anything else, which is great.  It also does altitude, temperature, and so on.  I've only used it on Thursday's run so far, but it is looking like right out of the box it's pretty darn accurate.  I tallied the trail distance using the maps, and it's within 0.2 miles for the total run.  This is even better than say the trail running book I've used, which says this run is 7 miles, but the maps show more like 6 (the watch said 6.24).  I plan to head over to the track at some point and do an official calibration for my running, but even now it seems at least close enough to use until I get a chance to calibrate.  It's also super light and plenty comfy.  It's a bit big for my taste, but I didn't even notice it on my wrist, so that's about all that matters.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:28:12 -0700 Gorilla Thrilla 8.5 mile race http://mountain-monkeys.com/gorilla-thrilla-85-mile-race http://mountain-monkeys.com/gorilla-thrilla-85-mile-race On Sunday, June 6th, I ran the inaugural Gorilla Thrilla race here in Eugene, all of a 5 min drive from my house.  I did the 8.5 mile version (there was also a 4.25 mile, the 8.5 is just two laps of the course).  I was excited, but a bit nervous going in, as this would be the longest run I'd ever done.  Awoke that morning, and it had been raining during the night, and was before the race.  We heard reports that it was a real mud fest, with some non-trivial creek crossings, and slippery hills.  It stopped raining before the start.  Mike joined me for this race, Jake was there, running in some Vibram 5 Fingers shoes, and speedy James was there too.  The gun went off and the gorilla and banana guys jumped out and then started wrestling.  The rest of us had to go run...

The course was definitely tricky as they said.  Very muddy in spots, ankle deep at times, but also just a bunch of grass and other things that combined to make seeing some rocks underneath hard.  I immediately knew I needed to take it easy, as I was pretty worried about my ankle.  I settled in as the race progressed, and was feeling fine.  Approaching the completion of the first lap, there's a solid hill, which was tough.  I chowed a Hammer gel just before this, which I think wound up being very good.  At about this point I was sort of wondering why I'd signed up for the two laps, but knew I could do it.  Getting over that hill, and then through the finish was great.  Grabbed a small bit of water, kept going.  Did the first lap in 48 minutes.

About 1 hour 7 mins in, as I looked at my watch, I was feeling quite good actually.  Probably had just done some downhills.  A few minutes later the rain started, but the temps were in the 60's, and it really was no big deal.  It wasn't as if I wasn't pretty much wet anyway.  Soon after was the knee deep creek crossing, and then onwards to the crazy guys pretending to be hillbillies chasing us down, yelling at us, etc.  That was good for a big smile on each lap, and a fun aspect of the race.  

I was yo-yoing with a couple others near the finish.  Caught a guy who'd passed me before, and one woman was creeping up from behind.  I held her off on the last descent, which was pretty damn sketchy.  I was surfing down it, and heard her yelping behind me (I can only imagine how many people probably crashed on this descent, so slippery!).  Then I kind of ran across the finish in a daze.  My wife and kids were there and I almost didn't notice them, I truly was in a bit of a daze. 

Pretty darn happy with my result though.  I had revised my initial guess of 90 mins, after hearing the course conditions to 1 hour 40 mins.  Wound up at 1 hr 37 min.  As it turns out, this was actually good for 10th place in the 8.5 mile group (overall: men + women, all ages).  Of course there were only 28 finishers :)  The 16 year guy, Alex, who won it, just smoked everyone but one other guy (only one other guy was within 10 minutes of his time), running a 7:22 pace!  He finished in about 1hr 2mins.  To me that was seriously fast given that course.  He was on the 2nd place relay team at the Ridgeline, and ran 6-something minute pace there, so clearly he's fast, but damn.  My pace was 11:26 in comparison.  I'd like to see what I could have done if it weren't so muddy, but really, quite happy with my result, and stoked to finish that distance.  Turned out to not be too bad.  Knowing the course on the second lap wound up being excellent, made it easier to break it up into mini-milestones.  I also quite enjoyed the course.

The land that this was on was private, 300+ acres owned by a guy who just wants to turn it into a park, but is being fought by the city and his neighbors for some f'ed reason.  He has a non-profit called Trials Club that I need to look into.  Apparently you can get a card that lets you go run/use the area, just have to sign in, and obey some basic rules.  This is fantastic given it's all of 5 minutes from my house.  I may even be able to run via the powerline easement to get there, something I'm now a bit more motivated to explore...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:28:14 -0700 Running Forest Park in Portland http://mountain-monkeys.com/running-forest-park-in-portland http://mountain-monkeys.com/running-forest-park-in-portland This past week I was at a conference in Portland, so two mornings I got up early and hit the trails in their amazing Forest Park which is one of the largest municipal parks in the country. The Wildwood trail network alone has something like 40+ miles of trail!  On Tuesday I did Marquam Shelter to Council Crest (and back), which is a nice 5k, 600' of ascent, basically uphill to Council Crest, which gives you a killer view of the city, then back down, all singletrack.  Sweetness!  I nearly rolled my ankle a few times on some of the rocks/roots, but it's a great trail, really enjoyed this one.  Was about 2 mile drive from my downtown hotel.

Thursday I did Wildwood-Wild Cherry loop, also close, only about a 10 min drive, if that, from downtown.  This one was a bit longer at 4.8 miles, 570' of gain according to the book I have. I was feeling a bit tired this morning, and got blown by by someone as I started out :)  A nice trail loop again though. Had a bit of pavement on it at the end, which is not my thing, but was a small price to pay.  Eugene's Ridgeline system is excellent, and the particular trails are very much to my liking, but this place has A LOT more terrain.  The good part is I'm in Portland several times a year, and I think will have to make more attempts to get out on the trails while I'm there.

The book I used for trail beta is "Trail Running Oregon" by Lizann Dunegan (Amazon, or view it on Google Books).

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:37:59 -0700 2010 Ridgeline Ramble http://mountain-monkeys.com/2010-ridgeline-ramble http://mountain-monkeys.com/2010-ridgeline-ramble Posting this a week late.  My wife, Diana, and I did the Ridgeline Ramble as a relay team (10k each).  Diana rocked it.  She beat her expected time by 20 mins.  She's only been running again for about two weeks, so this is pretty damn sweet.  I finished, and did ok.  But, I was sick, and knew it affected my time.  I ran a 1:06, which was 6 mins slower than I'd hoped for.  Hard to say how much the illness affected me, but I clearly felt low on energy.  I just don't know if that means it cost me 3 minutes, 5, or 10.  But really, this was my first trail race, and all that really mattered was finishing with a solid performance (for me).  That I did.

One thing that I'm finding interesting, is that within a few minutes of finishing, I felt fine, and was joking with a friend who ran with me, that I should go do the rest.  Couldn't have done that, but with running, I'm finding that, so far, I can recover pretty quick.  The only thing is that this also makes me feel like I didn't go hard enough, or certainly that I didn't finish as strong as I could have.  I'm used to coming home from what would be a "hard" mountain bike ride (say a 4+ hour solid ride) and wanting to just veg on the couch the rest of the day.  With running that's yet to happen.  They're different, and I probably have cycling to thank for some endurance, and am still getting used to the muscle and joint use in running.  The nice thing is that it makes me think that doing 20k/half marathon, or potentially a bit more is going to be possible this year.

What's also fun is to see how fast the top folks are.  Jenn Shelton from Ashland, who's a top trails racer, absolutely smoked the course at 1:28, taking 4th overall, and beating the women's record by 9 minutes.  Jeremy Tolman won the mens, and set a new mens record as well, at 1:21.  Heck, that's only 15 minutes longer than me for double the distance!  The notion of running a 6.5 minute mile on trails is in that unattainable category in my mind.  I'm shooting to be able to do 9 (which I've done just about for 5k distances, so I think it's an attainable goal).

Most of all though, I'm having fun with this, enjoying it.  I haven't raced (bikes, or anything) for many years now, and I'm just enjoying taking a very casual approach back to it.  Not completely ignorant of times or placings or whatever, but for now, just competing with myself, and happy not to be last :)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Tue, 25 May 2010 18:43:00 -0700 More running, achilles issues, bionic ankle http://mountain-monkeys.com/more-running-achilles-issues-bionic-ankle http://mountain-monkeys.com/more-running-achilles-issues-bionic-ankle

Last week after some runs, I had some a pretty sore achilles in my left leg (same as broken ankle).  I had to walk the last nearly mile of our Dillard scouting run.  So, I decided to go see the physical therapist (Hannah) again.  She got to work on it, and then luckily I had two days of business travel with no running, followed by a weekend of no running, but a road ride and some PT, push-ups, etc.  That seems to have worked it out mostly.  I ran Monday, and only on the very last descent of the steep Willamette section of Ridgeline did it even vaguely start to re-occur (but very mildly).  

Today I went in for PT again, and after Hannah did some work on it, she then applied this, uh, well, bio-electric type of stimulator thing:
I've got bionic ankle today
That stayed on for about 6 hours, which is how long the battery in it lasts, at which time you simply take it off.  Here's hoping it helped.
At this point, the scouting we've done for Ridgeline Ramble is essentially complete.  I realized that the last segment or two of the first 10k is going to be brutal.  I haven't run it, but I believe it's essentially the full uphill from the bottom of the Fox Hollow Ridgeline chunk that is nearest Fox Hollow Road.  That is preceeded by a bunch of downhill on pavement.  Not going to be my favorite section, that's for sure, but oh well.  I'm still really looking forward to it.  I've never done a trail running race (and not really any running races, last one was back in college), so should be interesting.
Finally, I've really been getting the itch to do some truly longer runs, like 2+ hours.  I know I'm not supposed to just jump from having only done 1 hour runs up that much, but dang I'm interested to see how that'd be.  I really want to go down and run Brice Creek, but I want to run a long while given it's a good hour drive to get there.  I expect it's going to be tougher terrain than I think, as it's a fair bit of little ups and downs, some roots, etc.  I'd like to aim to do this in June, so we'll see.  I'll chill and of course not plan to go up to the waterfall, that'll have to wait until I can be doing 20k distances.  

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey Mon, 17 May 2010 18:44:22 -0700 Scouting Run for Ridgeline Ramble http://mountain-monkeys.com/scouting-run-for-ridgeline-ramble http://mountain-monkeys.com/scouting-run-for-ridgeline-ramble My wife and I did a bit of a scouting run today, so she could see some of the 2nd half of the Ridgeline Ramble she'll be doing as part of our relay team.  We ran the Fox Hollow section out to Dillard, along Dillard to the Dillard West trail head, where we saw what looks like a fairly steep section of trail that heads up to the Baldy summit.  We ran out of time today, had to go pick up my son from school, so we'll hit that another day.  Decent run.  I did a bit of back and forth as my pace is a fair bit faster than hers, which is all good.  Going to be good to know the full course before hand.  On Wed we'll probably do the Dillard chunk.  That'll only leave doing the entire Willamette section (from 52nd to Fox Hollow) left to scout out, oh, and the paved part on Spring, etc.  I've done nearly all the Willamette part, but don't know about a half mile in the middle.

Felt good today, although I did get a bit of pain in the back of my left leg, sort of higher than the achilles, but along those lines.  Not happy about that.  Don't know if it was the brace, or just a bit of strain on my body after now having started to run again after so much time off, or what.  Hoping it's just a fluke and gone by Wednesday...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/234629/CRB_Tahoe_2009.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36UK8zyE9KI9 Christopher Bailey Chris Christopher Bailey