Trail rrrruns

I finally got out to run a few trails.

First was Agua Caliente. We picked up my lost wheel, sharing a friendly conversation with the owner of the house on Fort Lowell Rd. I’ll park on the other corner now.

The wind has been blowing relentlessly from the east for the past 4 days. Today it seemed even stronger. On the ridges of Agua Caliente it was strong enough to make it feel like 15 degree weather. Fortunately I was exploding in sweat from running my brains up the steep trail. I thought it would be interesting to think about the lines I’d take on a bike without the pressure (and difficulty) of actually executing them, but after a while I was so tired that I completely shut off that part of my brain & just ran the lower level ‘running’ line algorithm. It was actually too tiring to think about which lines would work best on a bike.

Paula turned around soon after we reached a super wind ridge. I ran a few minutes longer, but it was good I didn’t continue much further since my shins got hammered by the downhill. It was a good, if short and brutal, run.

The next morning I was out at Starr Pass running with Paula and her friends. They all ran further than me, but I was happy with just completing the standard loop out there. I could not keep up with the pace for more than the first 2 miles, but I did cut over on tech pass, meeting them exactly as they came around from Starr Pass. It was a good trick, but it cost me dearly on the uphill of Tech Pass since I was hammering.

I let them go a bit later, then stopped for a break at the top of ‘the wash.’ I watched some of them climb towards Golden Gate, in pure jealousy for their ability to run long and my relative weakness. Jealousy faded to survival, realzing I still had a hefty run just to get out of there.

The wash was cake compared to riding it. Actually it made for a very nice run. I was definitely hurting before I made it out of the park. Shins aching, mainly. I think I would have fared much better without the agua caliente run the day before.

The current big talk is of me making my 10k debut for the Valentine’s day race. They’ll add my time to Paula’s and, well, we’ll probably lose since my time is unlikely to be very competetive. Even on the bike I have no speed or power for such a short race. My left IT band still doesn’t appreciate running faster than a 7 minute mile, anyway, so it’s all slow for this slow poke.

Lee and I have a few good ideas for rides brewing. I cannot wait for a new adventure. It’s been too long.