Posted on January 21, 2013 by jimmy76mac

Flying through the redwoods this morning.

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2013 Race Schedule

Posted on January 15, 2013 by jimmy76mac

…has been finalized, and here it is (dates subject to change):

January – just training, building the base back up.

February – 50k, Feb. 23rd @ Lake Chabot, Castro Valley, CA (Inside Trail’s Chabot 50k) [link]

March – more training, gonna try an unsupported FKT on the East Bay National Skyline Trail (~32 miles) on either Saturday, March 9th or Sat. the 16th [link]

April – 50-miler, April 13th @ Lake Sonoma, Healdsburg, CA (Lake Sonoma 50) [link]

May – 50k, May 26th @ Pennypack Park, Philadelphia, PA (Dirty German Endurance Fest) [link]

June – 50-miler, June 29th @ Pine Valley Ranch Park, Pine, CO (North Fork 50 mile Trail Race) [link]

July – 27k, July 21st @ Stinson Beach, CA (Inside Trail’s La Sportiva Table Rock) [link]

August – 50-miler, Aug. 10th @ Kirkwood, CA (Troy’s California Trail Runs’ Kirkwood Trail Run Challenge) [link]

September -50-miler, Sept. 14th @ Rodeo Beach, CA (PCTR Headlands 25/50/75/100 Miles) [link]

October – 100-miler, Oct. 26th @ McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Fountain Hills, AZ (Javelina Jundred) [link]

November & December – rest, rest and more rest. I’m going to treat Javelina as my Super Bowl so I will more than likely not race the last two months of ‘13. I’ll probably go back to 40-50 mile weeks, no speed work, just chilling.

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My first DNS…

Posted on January 6, 2013 by jimmy76mac

I Did Not Start today’s Epiphany 50k race- this head cold won’t seem to go away. I was really looking forward to my first “fat ass*” race, but with the coughing and the snot and the fact that I haven’t run in four days (nice “forced” taper, I guess) there will be no race for me. 

Oh well, I took the time today to work on a rough draft of this year’s race schedule. Looks like the Tahoe Rim Trail 50 in July sold out in 5 hours, I slept right through that. Gonna do a 50-mile race either in Colorado (North Fork 50 in late June OR Silver Rush 50 in July) or Oregon (the Siskyou Out Back in late July). Still targeting Pine to Palm in September as my first 100 miler, I’m going to register for that later this week.

I’m also going to do my first ultra back in my hometown of Philly come May- the Dirty German Endurance Fest at Pennypack Park. This should be fun. I’m also looking forward to the 2013 edition of the Skyline 50k in August, I’d like to shave about 30 minutes off last year’s time of 5:40.

Well, that’s it.

* – a “fat ass” race, for those that don’t know is a (usually) free event, the organizers say something like, “no fees, no t-shirts, no bib numbers, no aid stations and no wimps”; meaning that it is a completely self-supported event. I was looking forward to running with all my water and nutrition and just getting out for what amounts to a timed long group training run. Oh well, maybe next month…

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Posted on December 31, 2012 by jimmy76mac

Guess how many miles I ran in 2012? Hint: it’s equal to 3,356 kilometers.

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Posted on December 30, 2012 by jimmy76mac

Running trails in western Massachusetts for the next week.

Yep, lots of snow!

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Epic Run – Christmas Edition!

Posted on December 26, 2012 by jimmy76mac

Another epic run today, this one from the edge of the Redwoods (Pinehurst Rd & Canyon Rd) to the top of Rocky Ridge through EBMUD lands and back on the same trails.

10.65 miles each way (21.6 miles @ 3:35:59) with 4,382 feet of climb.

2:04:53 out, 1:31:06 back. 10:00 per mile EXACTLY.

All I can say is that speed work WORKS. There were times during this run I thought “holy crap, this is faster than race pace” and “I think I’m gonna bonk” but didn’t. It’s all thanks to going balls-to-the-wall hard lately after taking 5 weeks off of long runs (I think my longest run in that stretch was 9.5 miles).

My legs feel lighter these past few weeks.

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I joined Strava, too, here’s the GPS map. I’m still undecided if I like it or not. I’ll give it another week.

Here’s some pics. Oh, it rained most of the time, too.

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I also learned how to do panoramic shots, here’s my first ever:

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Soooooo much sweet California single-track…

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More panoramas:

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These canyons are very green right now. I say “yes” to rain.

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Another panoramic, this one from the top of the ridge looking east at Mt. Diablo and the radio tower.

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This one starts at the radio tower and looks south.

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Here’s the happy runner-slash-photographer-writer:

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…and some more single-track to take you home:

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Just to give you an idea, here’s a zoom in of the above shot to show the distance between these canyon ridges:

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That’s all. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night run tomorrow!

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Redwoods Rain Run 12-22

Posted on December 23, 2012 by jimmy76mac

Just gonna post all these pics first and then give some brief commentary at the end.

I started at Skyline Gate and did the West Ridge -> French -> Orchard -> Bridle -> Stream loop (7.89 miles) in 1:29:13 (+1,129 feet of elevation gain) for an 11:18 per mile pace. Then I did the East Ridge -> Canyon -> Stream loop (6.22 miles) in 1:09:10 (+911 ft. of gain) for an 11:07 pace.

The trails ranged in consistency anywhere from mildly damp to chocolate pudding and various states between. That nice puddle above made it so I had to get wet up to almost the knee to cross (after staying relatively dry for the majority of the first loop).

So, all told it was a 14.11 mile day with +2,040 feet of climbing in 2:38:23 (11:13 per mile pace). Lots of fun.

I’m going back tomorrow to do a speed attempt on the first loop (my PR on that loop is 1:17:35 for a 9:50/mile pace).

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Epic Run – December 15th Edition!

Posted on December 16, 2012 by jimmy76mac

Did another Epic Run in Marin yesterday. 19.12 miles with 3,100 feet of climbing. 3:43:24. Felt pretty good, it had been almost 5 weeks since I did anything longer than 10 miles; sort of a combo of tired legs and not having any races lined up to train towards.

Just a 9.41 mile jaunt from Muir Beach (8 feet above sea level) to Mount Tam’s East Peak (2,571 ft above sea level) and a 9.71 mile run back (there were some missed trail junctions and a few quick add-on connector trails on the return). Here’s the GPS map (one-way only):

Weather was overcast and foggy the whole way up, started pouring rain about 5 mins before the peak.

2:04:12 from Muir Beach to summit.

Hit a really strong downpour from the start of the return to Pantoll Ranger Station, once I passed the station (and filled my water) I got back under the trees so I stayed “dry” (as far as not getting direct rain). I gotta give props to the Brooks LSD jacket, kept me relatively dry in a torrential downpour, was easy to take off when I got too warm and packs down into a tiny little ball. A+ for that thing.

It finally stopped about 20 mins later as I was hitting the Dipsea Trail.

Yeah, that’s an art shot.

A lot of fog.

The trails drain pretty well for the most part.

Then I met a guy that was taking pictures, Cobbie from Wisconsin. He took these, then we briefly chatted and exchanged e-mail addresses and wished each other well.

One muddy, wet, epic run…

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Lake Sonoma 50…

Posted on December 10, 2012 by jimmy76mac

…April 13th, 2013.

Just registered.

Then I saw the entrants list.

Scary good runners gonna be there.

Timmy Olson, Hal Koerner, Anna Frost, Nick Clark, Miguel Heras, Ryan Sandes, Emelie Forsberg, Jacob Rydman, Rickey Gates, Stephanie Howe, Victor Ballesteros, Erik Skaden, Jorge Maravilla, Joelle Vaught, Tim Long, Joe Uhan, Devon Yanko, holy crap.

I better step up my training for 2013.

Also, think it’s gonna be the Pine to Palm next September as my first 100-miler. Probably gonna do Tahoe Rim Trail 50 in July as a warm-up. I’ll probably do a 50k every month or so, it’s getting harder to find the motivation to do long runs (like 35+ miles) when all your friends consider long runs to be in the 16-20 mile range.

Bring on ‘13.

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No Western States…

Posted on December 8, 2012 by jimmy76mac

…for me this year.

The lottery just finished, and no love over here. Oh well, I had a 7.9% chance, and next year I get an extra ticket in the lottery, should bump me up to around 12%.

I think what I’ll do now is sign up (tomorrow) for Lake Sonoma 50 in April (American River sold out weeks ago), then run another 50 in June (or a 100k) and shoot for P2P in Oregon in September.

What to do, what to do?

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