Some Fun at Sierra Azul

 Not dead yet.  I bounced back from the Henry Coe trip pretty well.  Competed in our monthly 5k at work on Tuesday and ran a 17:59.  Still 50s slow from where my speed was at last summer, but I'm getting there.  Truth be told I know I was still in recovery and probably was not able to give the run an A effort, but I like to do as many of them as I can.  Got a good hill workout on the PG&E on Thursday morning, and generally felt ok going into this weekend where I planned to do another tough double long run Sat-Sun.  These double-long runs are a new addition to my training and I am looking forward to finding out if results get better.  For the last couple of years I have been doing one really long run on Saturdays, usually in the 50k range, but I wanted to change things up a little and see what happens.

Met with Toshi at Sierra Azul on Saturday morning.  We started out at Kennedy and ran up a mountain or two, and then back.  Kennedy is a fantastic dirt road to train on.  It is a relentless 4 mile climb.  I have a tough time thinking about another trail in the area that has the same profile.  It is all runnable and there are minimal downs or flats to catch your breath on.  Even though I think the PG&E at Rancho is steeper in a lot of sections, you still get some downhills there that let you sort of catch your breath before the next steep climb.  Kennedy makes no such allowances.

Looking DOWN at Mount El Sombroso.

We found this neat tower on a hill somewhere...

Near the tower Toshi discovered a plant that he claims to have a lot of experience with.

The Sierra Azul run was probably in the neighborhood of 22-24 miles and took us about 4.5 hrs.  The running was done at the beginning and end of the run with some scrambling and hiking in the middle of it, so it wasn't strictly a running workout, but a fun adventure in the hills.

The next morning I did my Rancho Black Mountain route again.  Completed it faster at about 3:15 and that was for about 22 miles.  My legs felt fine at the beginning and I was fine at the end.  I think there is something wrong with this picture.  From what I read I am supposed to be "tired" for my second long run and my legs are supposed to feel bad at the beginning of the run.  That is the whole concept of the training adaptations that you want to get out of the double long run, run on tired legs...  I have a feeling I am not pushing myself hard enough or am not running long enough.  I will probably have to adjust this, but we are heading into racing season now, so the training pattern is going to change anyways.  I will be living race to race, just trying to recover as optimally as possible and try an leverage any fitness gains that I might get from each race for the next race.  That a different beast in terms of being able to follow a training plan.

A bunch of kids just having fun.

Looking down at the valley.