My plan was to wake up early and get a run in at Rancho San Antonio before it got all too toasty today. It ended up being a little later than planned, I left my place at 8:30 after having two glasses of water and a banana for breakfast. When I pulled into the parking lot at Rancho I was surprised...It resembled a zoo... It was super crowded! On a Sunday morning! At 8:45!!! Crazy! But I guess that's what an attractive park does to the active population of the Bay Area.
I ran from the county parking area towards Deer Hollow Farm, continued on the Rogue Valley trail, went up the Wild Cat Loop trail, after gaining the ridge I followed the Wild Cat Loop trail back down to the canyon. I was planning to take the turn off to the PG&E trail and take it back to the parking lot. As it worked out, I took a wrong turn and took the Upper Wild Cat Canyon trail instead, which took me a little higher on the same ridge which i had just left...After realizing my mistake I went back down the same trail to find the right turn off. A 3 mile addition to the original plan! But a very nice one! The views were amazing, and the California Poppys along the trail were really pretty. It was good to see wildflowers despite the little rain the area got this spring.
This was my first hilly run in a loooong time (several years) and I walked quite a bit on the different uphill sections, but it was still fun and felt pretty good.
Thanks to the additional 3 miles and the corresponding elevation gain, I ran pretty exactly half of the Diablo 25k distance/elevation... 8 miles with 1860ft of elevation gain at a 10:32 pace.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Inspiration
I first saw this clip a few hours before I went to Yosemite a few weeks ago...
It definitely set the mood, and made packing a breeze :-)
by Ammon McNeely
It definitely set the mood, and made packing a breeze :-)
by Ammon McNeely
This is going to be tough!
Alright, just got back from another run...
It was a tough one, and made me wonder if I am up for the 25k trail run in 6 weeks.
The temps were slightlt higher than in the last few days, which seemed to be quite a problem...
I ran 6.3 miles in about 56minutes...a 9 min/mile pace...Not very happy about that. What's worse is that I really felt my legs afterwards, since it was on a perfectly flat course.
Since my shoulder keeps me from climbing this weekend :-(, I will try and hit the trails and get a long, hilly run in. I'll probably give it a shot at the PG&E trail.
It was a tough one, and made me wonder if I am up for the 25k trail run in 6 weeks.
The temps were slightlt higher than in the last few days, which seemed to be quite a problem...
I ran 6.3 miles in about 56minutes...a 9 min/mile pace...Not very happy about that. What's worse is that I really felt my legs afterwards, since it was on a perfectly flat course.
Since my shoulder keeps me from climbing this weekend :-(, I will try and hit the trails and get a long, hilly run in. I'll probably give it a shot at the PG&E trail.
Monday, April 21, 2008
running
Yay! I finally ran again! Exactly 4 weeks after the last run, I ran 4.5 miles in 37:57. This is a 8:25 min/mile pace...Not quite where I want to be, but not bad to start from.
I'll sign up for the Mt. Diablo 25K on the seconf weekend of June though. Until then I need some major climbing training though, since the course gains 4450ft of elevation!
Update on 4/22: Just signed up for the Diablo 25. 6 weeks to go!
I'll sign up for the Mt. Diablo 25K on the seconf weekend of June though. Until then I need some major climbing training though, since the course gains 4450ft of elevation!
Update on 4/22: Just signed up for the Diablo 25. 6 weeks to go!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Tioga Pass opening date
One of the big questions of spring is: "When will Tioga Pass be opened up for traffic?" or in other terms, "When will it be possible to climb in Tuolumne Meadows?".
I can't wait for the pass to open, since Tuolumne is my favorite climbing area. A look at my tick list reveals several routes I want to do in the area... And there's not only rock climbing. I'd love to do some backpacking in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and in Lyell Canyon. Then there's mountaineering in the backcountry as well...so many things to do!
On top of all that HW 120 is the easiest, fastest access to the Eastern Sierras...another huge playground!
But when does it open???
As of yesterday, there's 20" of snow left, the road is cleared to Ellery Lake from the East Side...
and the gas station is scheduled to open on May 22.
Let's hope for the best!
UPDATES found here...
I can't wait for the pass to open, since Tuolumne is my favorite climbing area. A look at my tick list reveals several routes I want to do in the area... And there's not only rock climbing. I'd love to do some backpacking in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and in Lyell Canyon. Then there's mountaineering in the backcountry as well...so many things to do!
On top of all that HW 120 is the easiest, fastest access to the Eastern Sierras...another huge playground!
But when does it open???
As of yesterday, there's 20" of snow left, the road is cleared to Ellery Lake from the East Side...
and the gas station is scheduled to open on May 22.
Let's hope for the best!
UPDATES found here...
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Yosemite
What an awesome weekend in Yosemite!
It was my thrid time up there for this year, and I have to say that it was the best trip so far.
We left the Bay Area shortly after 6pm on Friday night... Traffic out of was pretty bad, due to an accident on 680...
Another delay which turned out longer than expected was the stop for dinner at Hula's, a burger place in Escalon. We tried this since they claim the have the best burgers in the Central Valley, and we wanted to scope out options besides the awesome Taqueria Algave in Oakdale. Well, if these were indeed the best burgers in the Valley, I am glad I didn't try any other places! Taqueria Algave wins by far!
We were lucky going down HW 120, since we hit the traffic light at the construction on green! YAY! No further delays there...by 11pm we were nicely tucked away in our sleeping bags in the Upper Pines campground.
Saturday morning started with a cup of coffee and a rather large breakfast: Banana, bread and avocado and some cake...
For our first climb we headed over to Sunnyside Bench, were I led the first pitch of Jamcrack; Wendy leading the second pitch. After rapping of the second pitch , we set up a toprope from the 1st pitch anchors to give 'Bummer' and 'Lazy Bum' a go on TR. The two climbs share the same start and develop into finger cracks of different difficulty (.10c & .10d). After cleaning the TR, we moved over to the 'Five Open Books' to give 'Commitment' a go. Wendy led all three pitches of this climb. We topped out around 5 pm, and took our time on the way back to the car. After beer and pizza for dinner we took a short walk around the campground. It was amazing to see lights on Washington Coloumn, thinking that we'll be up there ourselves in a few weeks.
Sunday's climbing was a little slower, we went cragging at Church Bowl, where we did Uncle Fanny (my lead) and Church Bowl Lieback (Wendy's lead). Uncle Fanny is a chimney/off-width. Just the kind of climbing I have to get better on!
It was my thrid time up there for this year, and I have to say that it was the best trip so far.
We left the Bay Area shortly after 6pm on Friday night... Traffic out of was pretty bad, due to an accident on 680...
Another delay which turned out longer than expected was the stop for dinner at Hula's, a burger place in Escalon. We tried this since they claim the have the best burgers in the Central Valley, and we wanted to scope out options besides the awesome Taqueria Algave in Oakdale. Well, if these were indeed the best burgers in the Valley, I am glad I didn't try any other places! Taqueria Algave wins by far!
We were lucky going down HW 120, since we hit the traffic light at the construction on green! YAY! No further delays there...by 11pm we were nicely tucked away in our sleeping bags in the Upper Pines campground.
Saturday morning started with a cup of coffee and a rather large breakfast: Banana, bread and avocado and some cake...
For our first climb we headed over to Sunnyside Bench, were I led the first pitch of Jamcrack; Wendy leading the second pitch. After rapping of the second pitch , we set up a toprope from the 1st pitch anchors to give 'Bummer' and 'Lazy Bum' a go on TR. The two climbs share the same start and develop into finger cracks of different difficulty (.10c & .10d). After cleaning the TR, we moved over to the 'Five Open Books' to give 'Commitment' a go. Wendy led all three pitches of this climb. We topped out around 5 pm, and took our time on the way back to the car. After beer and pizza for dinner we took a short walk around the campground. It was amazing to see lights on Washington Coloumn, thinking that we'll be up there ourselves in a few weeks.
Sunday's climbing was a little slower, we went cragging at Church Bowl, where we did Uncle Fanny (my lead) and Church Bowl Lieback (Wendy's lead). Uncle Fanny is a chimney/off-width. Just the kind of climbing I have to get better on!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Update
Yesterday was my first time in the climbing gym in two and a half weeks. Due to feeling weak after catching a cold last week, I decided to take it easy...
Starting out on a 5.9 felt hard... Despite some climbing outdoors over the weekend my fingers and arms were not used to the plastic holds as they usually are. My hope was that I could get into the groove by climbing a 5.8...oh how wrong I was! I felt as if i never had climbed before! That just changed after I went over to the 'slabby' wall, and did a 10a, and a 11a... The 11a included a hang, but I felt that the mojo was coming back...The 10c, and 11b I did afterwards felt really good too!
In between the climbs we did a nice drill, after seeing some other guys doing it...hop on a 5.6 with huge, juggy holds, and layback the way up without using the holds for the feet. A really good workout and a lot of fun! Also increases the trust in the feet... Which is always good!
I ended up the workout with a few attempts on the slackline...Better than the last time I tried, but far from going anywhere :-)
Starting out on a 5.9 felt hard... Despite some climbing outdoors over the weekend my fingers and arms were not used to the plastic holds as they usually are. My hope was that I could get into the groove by climbing a 5.8...oh how wrong I was! I felt as if i never had climbed before! That just changed after I went over to the 'slabby' wall, and did a 10a, and a 11a... The 11a included a hang, but I felt that the mojo was coming back...The 10c, and 11b I did afterwards felt really good too!
In between the climbs we did a nice drill, after seeing some other guys doing it...hop on a 5.6 with huge, juggy holds, and layback the way up without using the holds for the feet. A really good workout and a lot of fun! Also increases the trust in the feet... Which is always good!
I ended up the workout with a few attempts on the slackline...Better than the last time I tried, but far from going anywhere :-)
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