Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Week Summary: Sept 6-12

Wow, it took me a while to get around to this one, but I've been busy.

09-06-10
Mon-AM: 15 miles (2:18) Green & Bear, 4100'
Really windy day, and as I was finishing up I saw the startings of the Four-Mile Fire.
PM: 8 miles (1:24) Walker Ranch Loop, 1500'
Great run with Jocelyn and Jenn starting from the Flagstaff TH. Finished up in the dark.

09-07-2010
Tue-AM: 13 miles (2:00) Green Mt. up back down Bear Cyn, 3000'
Started before the sun and ran embarrassingly slow up Green.  The extremely thick smoke in the air probably didn't help and probably wasn't so great for the lungs.

09-08-2010
Wed-AM: 13 miles (2:01) Green Mt. up front down Bear Cyn, 3000'
Took it really easy again in very smoky air again.  Just feeling kinda off this week, so keeping the effort on each run super-casual.

09-09-2010
Thu-AM: 14 miles (2:13) Green & Bear, 4100'
Idyllic fall morning--looking to make this double-peak run a very regular thing from here on out.  The moisture last night made the trail surfaces perfectly tacky, making the Fern descent a lot of fun.  They'd been getting frustratingly slick with dust and loose rock after a long stretch without rain.
PM: 8 miles (1:02) Skunk Creek+barefoot at Kitt
Nice run with good energy with Jocelyn.  Feel like I'm coming out of my funk a bit.

09-10-2010
Fri-AM: 16 miles (2:26) Green & Bear, 4200'
Got out with Jeff and George. We took a circuitous route up Green (Greg-Long-West Ridge) and then I tacked on Bear Peak.  Descent down Fern Canyon was dialed again this morning.  This vintage clip of a speed record on the Matterhorn (that's been making the rounds on the interwebs) has me re-motivated to keep growing my proficiency on gnarly terrain like what Bear and SoBo Peaks offer (although they are hardly race-specific in any way, at least here in the United States).  Efficient, quick, two-legged travel over alpine terrain is always my main interest and motivation.
PM: 7 miles (1:00) Flagstaff Mt., 1500'
Did this run with Jocelyn, but left her on the uphill and just met her on the top to run down together.  We went up Gregory to Crown Rock to the top and then just came all the way down the Flagstaff trail on the way back.  Definitely the best my legs have felt since Leadville--I finally feel mostly back to normal, now.  I love running in the evening as the sun is going down, too.  Great time of day.

09-11-2010
Sat-AM: 15 miles (2:18) Green & Bear, 4100'
Up early in the dark before catching a flight to California. Definitely getting out of my funk, because even at the early hour I had a reasonable amount of spring and bounce in my legs. Another perfect fall morning.
PM: 8 miles (1:00) Santa Monica/Venice Beach
Last 20 minutes barefoot. I'm not a huge fan of running on the beach.  I know it should be idyllic and great, but I just rarely have a good run when I go running on the beach and a lot of the time I'm distracted and annoyed by all the other beach-goers, which was especially easy to have happen this afternoon as my run took me past the Santa Monica Pier, twice.  Jumped in the ocean afterwards, though, which is definitely the best part of running on the beach.

09-12-2010
Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:14) Santa Monica Mts., 3000'
Great run with my college buddy, Martin, who lives in L.A. now.  He picked me up and we drove the five miles or so to Temescal Canyon where we parked on Sunset Blvd and ran up into the mountains.  After a 1000' climb and descent that traversed us over to Will Rogers State Park on fantastic singletrack we climbed back up another 2000' on singletrack, breaking out of the very thick marine layer at ~1000'. The views up there were sensational in every direction as we could see all the way down to 10,000' Mt. Baldy in southern L.A.  Looped around on the popular Backbone trail and cruised it back down into the clouds on a mix of fire road and singletrack.  Amazingly nice mountain run for being so close to the ocean and the masses of Santa Monica.  Spent the rest of the day at the NB photoshoot where we were eventually regaled with a spectacular sunset from 3000' above the coast.

Total
-Miles: 132
-Hours: 19h 56min
-Vertical: 28,500'

Boulder 8ers 2010 (Day 254)
Green: 209
Bear: 19
SoBo: 4
--------------------------------------------------------------
I felt pretty terrible the first half of this week, which I suspect was at least partially caused by the smoky air.  However, the second half of the week I started finding some of my normal energy and was able to hit the Green/Bear run on a pretty regular basis.  I know that right now I should probably be taking some more extended/focused downtime but with the onset of fall weather it's really tough for me to not get out and run up a couple of peaks every day.  I have been sure to keep the intensity very low, though, and I find that is usually the key to me staying recovered and on top of my running.

17 comments:

Billy said...

Hey Tony,

I was the Asian dude (+ friend) you ran into in Santa Monica. Can't fully express how stoked I was to finally meet & talk to you in person. Thanks for taking the time to do so, I know you were on the phone at the time we (rudely) approached.

That Temescal Canyon route is a staple of mine - glad you enjoyed the run!

Take care and continued success in your future races.

Billy

Tyrone said...

Hey Tony,

I've been trying to find a place to pre-order the MT101 shoes to no avail. I tried calling the New Balance store here in Seattle and they said they *might* have it at the end of October. There's also no info or way to pre-order them on the New Balance website. Could you send me a pair and I'll send you the money? :) Or just point me in the right direction of where I'll be able to find these wicked awesome shoes when they come out!

- Tyrone

peter L said...

FInally got a pair of the NB MT101's this past monday and I gotta say I LOVE'EM! Great pair of shoes. Well done.
peter
ny

Unknown said...

Missed your blog .. was wondering where you had disappeared!! Good to see you back.

When is the road marathon that you are doing? And which one?

knix05 said...

I ran this summer in LA at Venice Beach in the morning ... It was not a nice memory !
I prefered Santa Cruz or the napa to Sonoma.

cs said...

In your training log...are the vertical feet total vertical (climb + descent) or just climb?

rough running said...

Hey tony.
you clearly love what you are doing but are you plagued by that ever present question of "why the hell am I out here?"

mr everyday guy said...

Tony,
I would like to extend a sincere thanks to you in providing insight into your running. It has been all too strange, yet fascinating to follow your weekly blog this summer. I am not a 100 mile runner and a 50 mile week is huge for me, nor do I suppose Western States is in my future, other than volunteering medically. But you and a few others continue to motivate me in achieving things once thought impossible. I have run a 50K, logged more trail time, and just enjoyed keeping it simple. It may sound cliché, but thanks.
In respect to Sir Edmund Hillary, “You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated.”

Brad G. said...

Hi Tony,

Weird to read your descriptions of my local trails after all of the dreamy CO stories. Also good to hear you liked 'em as much as I do. INext time you're in LA you should head out to Baldy. The run up is a classic and there are a ton of other trails in the San Gabriels too.

Anton said...

Brad G,

Yeah, I love the San Gabriels...legit mountain running up there for sure; however, this trip I didn't have the car or time to make it down there, unfortunately.

Jay said...

Tony,

I can't believe you ran on Tuesday last week. I woke up a 6 AM, Green and Bear were barely visible through the smoke from my house on South Broadway. So, I went back to sleep. Don't need to breath that much smoke. Ran up Green on Wed instead. It looked crystal clear from my place, but was smoky once I got up there (mostly on the descent, I think winds shifted to the South mid-run). I could most definitely feel the smoke. And I have no doubt that affected your performance, especially on Tues.

Run free.

l.d said...

what do you mean by "smoke"? is it a kind of pollution? from what? town?vulcano? it's weird to listen there could be a cloud of bad "air" all above the spectacular moutains than you describe to us all along this blog!

Anton said...

l.d,

forest fires.

RMS XXV said...

Hello,
Our math teacher recently read your blog about your "Epic Indian Peaks Loop" to us. We come from The High Mountain Institute, a semester school based in Leadville. As a school HMI centers its focus on the meeting between academics and the natural world.
Naturally, we were very interested in your steep descent of "at least 60 degrees". As a class we consulted a map and used some basic
trigonometry to calculate the angle down the slope that we gathered you hiked down based on your description. In groups, our calculations
gave us a range from 20 degrees to 39 degrees with an average of about 28 degrees. Just thought this might interest you. Nevertheless, the loop sounds very epic.

Karl Remsen (the teacher)
Jamie
Emy Takinami
Scott Tentinger
Genevieve Meller
Kat Geppert
DP
Smallen
Pablo Uribe
Natalie Margolin

Anton said...

RMS XXV--

Nice catch. As a former avid math student myself I am slightly embarrassed at my inadvertent hyperbole as I tend to make fun of people for exaggerations of just that type. I'm sure I meant to write "60%" instead of "60 degrees", which would mean I have a pretty good eye, as a 60% slope would fall right in the middle of the 20-39 degree range that you cited.

Either way, I'm glad you guys enjoy the blog and I just have to say I love the mission of HMI and am proud to share the same major and alma mater as its founder (Colorado College, Physics).

Tony

Anonymous said...

Hello everybody,

I am a french trail runner and I am looking for ordering some NB MT101 which are now available on the us online store.

Does anybody know how could I do ? Because this model is not sold in France...

Thank you very much,

Joan

Anonymous said...

Ok, I have found a friend who can order them for me. Thanks anyway, and I want to tell you that I appreciate a lot your way/style of running/life ;-)