I haven't been on my bike since the end of November. Training for a few races and the trips to Germany and New Mexico had kept me busy. After last week's ankle sprain I was still in no condition to run, so I joined Lesley on a ride across the Peninsula Open Space Preserves. This ride had been on my to-do list for quite a while and it was fun to get on it.
We started at the Russian Ridge parking lot, headed through Russian Ridge to Coal Creek, on to Monte Bello, up to Upper Stevens Creek, through Longs Ridge and Skyline Ridge back to our starting point. It was a total of about 15 miles, with a few serious climbs in it. The total time was around 3 hours.
The burgers we had at Alice's were an appropriate end to a gorgeous morning!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
"Yay!" for REI dividends!
Used my REI dividends today to get some new 'toys'.
I had some items on my wish list for a while, so I decided to get a pair of Black Diamond 'Trail' trekking poles, and a pair of Petzel Ascension ascenders.
I've never been a fan of trekking poles, but on last years trip to Mt. Shasta a pair would have been tremendously helpful. There are a some mounataineering trips on my to-do/to-go list, so I hope the poles get some good use.
Opposed to the trekking poles I had used the ascenders before. About a year ago I did some aid climbing practice to prepare for a big wall in Yosemite, but never got around to do the trip. Back then I used borrowed ascenders, so I decided to get my own set for the next -hopefully successful- attempt.
I had some items on my wish list for a while, so I decided to get a pair of Black Diamond 'Trail' trekking poles, and a pair of Petzel Ascension ascenders.
I've never been a fan of trekking poles, but on last years trip to Mt. Shasta a pair would have been tremendously helpful. There are a some mounataineering trips on my to-do/to-go list, so I hope the poles get some good use.
Opposed to the trekking poles I had used the ascenders before. About a year ago I did some aid climbing practice to prepare for a big wall in Yosemite, but never got around to do the trip. Back then I used borrowed ascenders, so I decided to get my own set for the next -hopefully successful- attempt.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Week 11 workouts
Mon: 5.5 miles on SCT. Yay! Running feels good again! Quite a new experience after the last few weeks.
Tue: 4.5 miles on SCT. some GI issues towards the end... Shouldn't have had the Espresso Beans beforehand!
Wed: Rest
Thu: Climbing! Yes, back to climbing after a pulled tendon in my left index finger. Taped the finger and took it pretty easy: 6 climbs 10a-10b. Felt good though. Probably up to hit the Valley next weekend.
Fri: 3 miles on SCT. I wanted to do 4 miles, but I'm quite happy with 3 since I was super tired after coming home from work. I also have a long run planned for tomorrow.
Sat: Long-ish run at Wunderlich 8.3 miles, due to sprained ankle on the way back.
Sun: RICE Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate of left ankle after sprain on Sat.
Tue: 4.5 miles on SCT. some GI issues towards the end... Shouldn't have had the Espresso Beans beforehand!
Wed: Rest
Thu: Climbing! Yes, back to climbing after a pulled tendon in my left index finger. Taped the finger and took it pretty easy: 6 climbs 10a-10b. Felt good though. Probably up to hit the Valley next weekend.
Fri: 3 miles on SCT. I wanted to do 4 miles, but I'm quite happy with 3 since I was super tired after coming home from work. I also have a long run planned for tomorrow.
Sat: Long-ish run at Wunderlich 8.3 miles, due to sprained ankle on the way back.
Sun: RICE Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate of left ankle after sprain on Sat.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Wunderlich Park Trail Run
It was about time to get some serious mileage in before the San Diego RnR Marathon end of May.
The idea was to run bout 12 miles at Wunderlich County Park. I met up with Dan at 9:15AM in the parking lot off HW84. We started out on Bear Gulch trail up to the meadows. Since Dan dropped back a little I turned around once I reached the meadows and ran back down to meet up with her.
She decided that she didn't want to run up to Skyline as I had planned, so we parted ways. While she headed back down to the parking lot I continued on to Skyline. The climb was more than I expected. Well, I was aware that I was looking at a total of six miles climbing, but it dragged out longer than expected. The downhill afterwards was pretty fun though, lots of cruising on wide soft trails. To my surprise I bumped into Daniela, making her way up the hill. She had gotten a second wind and decided to add a second loop to her run. Together we continued down the hill, happily chatting along. This ended up being a problem... About three miles from the parking lot I twisted my ankle. I don't exactly know how I did it, I ight have stepped in a hole, on a root, a rock, or something else. All I know is that I sprained my ankle pretty bad, and that I could not walk for a few days. The training for San Diego has taken a big hit! I hope I manage to recover soon!
The idea was to run bout 12 miles at Wunderlich County Park. I met up with Dan at 9:15AM in the parking lot off HW84. We started out on Bear Gulch trail up to the meadows. Since Dan dropped back a little I turned around once I reached the meadows and ran back down to meet up with her.
She decided that she didn't want to run up to Skyline as I had planned, so we parted ways. While she headed back down to the parking lot I continued on to Skyline. The climb was more than I expected. Well, I was aware that I was looking at a total of six miles climbing, but it dragged out longer than expected. The downhill afterwards was pretty fun though, lots of cruising on wide soft trails. To my surprise I bumped into Daniela, making her way up the hill. She had gotten a second wind and decided to add a second loop to her run. Together we continued down the hill, happily chatting along. This ended up being a problem... About three miles from the parking lot I twisted my ankle. I don't exactly know how I did it, I ight have stepped in a hole, on a root, a rock, or something else. All I know is that I sprained my ankle pretty bad, and that I could not walk for a few days. The training for San Diego has taken a big hit! I hope I manage to recover soon!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Squaw Valley
Until now I did all my skiing in the US at Kirkwood, CA, which is a beautiful resort, but it was time for a little variety. Lid and I had planned a skiing weekend for quite a while now, and our goal was to check out some places in around the North shore of Lake Tahoe. Saturday we planned on skiing at Squaw Valley USA, location of the 1960 Winter Olympics, Sunday we intended to go to Alpine Meadows.
After driving up to Tahoe City on Friday night, where we arrived around 11PM, we had a hard time getting out of bed Saturday morning. Never the less we made it to Squaw by 9:30 and took the gondola up the mountain. From here we took the Gold Coast Express to a blue warm-up run, which was a first test for Linda's knee. It passed! To be sure we stayed on blues for a few more runs, mostly off of the Emigrant and Shirley Lake chairs. Soon after we moved to the blacks of Granite Chief though. We stayed mostly on the groomers, since the snow off the prepared areas was pretty chunky. It had been the warmest week of the winter, but during the night the snow had iced over. After a run down the moguls to Shirley Lake we made our way to the Headwall Express in order to ski the North Face. The conditions here were awesome, since the wind had dumped a lot of powder on the slope. Before our lunch break we managed also two runs of Sibiria Bowl... nice fast fun! For lunch we went all the way back to the bottom of the mountain to get some runs on KT-22 in afterwards. I usually try not to stop for luch, because I have a hard time finding my rythm afterwards, but keeping in mind that we wanted to ski the next day as well it seemed a good idea to take a break. The first run off of KT-22 however did not feel that great...as anticipated. On the second one I was back in my groove again and enjoyed a nice cruise down the mountain. We finished an amazing day of spring skiing with two runs on Red Dog.
Our Sunday plans were altered by the weather... Always a possibility in the mountains!
When we arrived at Alpine Meadows the visibility was really poor and the most interesting runs were closed due to storm conditions. Given that we already had a great day on the slopes we decided to save our tickets and come back in better conditions. Let's hope for one more storm this year! (Well perhaps two, since I also have a couple of tickets for Bear Valley :-))
After driving up to Tahoe City on Friday night, where we arrived around 11PM, we had a hard time getting out of bed Saturday morning. Never the less we made it to Squaw by 9:30 and took the gondola up the mountain. From here we took the Gold Coast Express to a blue warm-up run, which was a first test for Linda's knee. It passed! To be sure we stayed on blues for a few more runs, mostly off of the Emigrant and Shirley Lake chairs. Soon after we moved to the blacks of Granite Chief though. We stayed mostly on the groomers, since the snow off the prepared areas was pretty chunky. It had been the warmest week of the winter, but during the night the snow had iced over. After a run down the moguls to Shirley Lake we made our way to the Headwall Express in order to ski the North Face. The conditions here were awesome, since the wind had dumped a lot of powder on the slope. Before our lunch break we managed also two runs of Sibiria Bowl... nice fast fun! For lunch we went all the way back to the bottom of the mountain to get some runs on KT-22 in afterwards. I usually try not to stop for luch, because I have a hard time finding my rythm afterwards, but keeping in mind that we wanted to ski the next day as well it seemed a good idea to take a break. The first run off of KT-22 however did not feel that great...as anticipated. On the second one I was back in my groove again and enjoyed a nice cruise down the mountain. We finished an amazing day of spring skiing with two runs on Red Dog.
Our Sunday plans were altered by the weather... Always a possibility in the mountains!
When we arrived at Alpine Meadows the visibility was really poor and the most interesting runs were closed due to storm conditions. Given that we already had a great day on the slopes we decided to save our tickets and come back in better conditions. Let's hope for one more storm this year! (Well perhaps two, since I also have a couple of tickets for Bear Valley :-))
Friday, March 13, 2009
week 10 in workouts
Mon: Rest after skiing Saturday, and spending Sun. mostly in a car.
Tue: 4 miles on SCT. I realized this was the first 'real' running I've done since the 8K race 10 days ago... It felt like it :-/
Wed: CrossFit Sunnyvale WOD: run 800m, 21 Bench Press, 42 Pull Up, 21 Bench Press, 800m run. The Bench Presses were supposed to be at body weight... Well! Good joke! I did the first set and the first 7 of the second set at 115 lbs, the last 14 at 95 lbs. The Pull Ups ended up being jumping Pull Ups mostly. About an hour after this I did 90 min of yoga. Plank positions and Vinyasas were very painful! Not a good combination!
Thu: 4.5 miles on SCT. I felt tired all around, I guess the Wednesday workout took quite a bit out of me. My cold is also still lingering :-(
Fri: Rest, drive to Tahoe City
Sat: Skiing at Squaw Valley
Tue: 4 miles on SCT. I realized this was the first 'real' running I've done since the 8K race 10 days ago... It felt like it :-/
Wed: CrossFit Sunnyvale WOD: run 800m, 21 Bench Press, 42 Pull Up, 21 Bench Press, 800m run. The Bench Presses were supposed to be at body weight... Well! Good joke! I did the first set and the first 7 of the second set at 115 lbs, the last 14 at 95 lbs. The Pull Ups ended up being jumping Pull Ups mostly. About an hour after this I did 90 min of yoga. Plank positions and Vinyasas were very painful! Not a good combination!
Thu: 4.5 miles on SCT. I felt tired all around, I guess the Wednesday workout took quite a bit out of me. My cold is also still lingering :-(
Fri: Rest, drive to Tahoe City
Sat: Skiing at Squaw Valley
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Life is Good!
Yes, I stole the headline of this post from REI :-)
Did I ever mention that I LOVE daylight savings time? OK, we're robbed of an hour of sleep, but now it's actually still bright out after work, so that running and other workouts are more fun. With the weekend the great California weather is back too! Despite the brisk temperatures my mood is just soaring seeing the sun and the blue sky...
Let's hope it lasts for a while!
Did I ever mention that I LOVE daylight savings time? OK, we're robbed of an hour of sleep, but now it's actually still bright out after work, so that running and other workouts are more fun. With the weekend the great California weather is back too! Despite the brisk temperatures my mood is just soaring seeing the sun and the blue sky...
Let's hope it lasts for a while!
Friday, March 6, 2009
week 9
Sat: Juana Run? (I have no idea why they have the '?' in the name!) 5 miles: 37:02.
Sun: climbing PG SF 5 or 6 climbs, until injured left index finger
Mon: CrossFit Sunnyvale WOD: 500m Row, 45 Push Press (55#), 500m Row, 45 Push Ups, 500m Row, 45 Kettleball swings (35#) 17:25. Nice workout! Pretty draining!
Tue: Rest
Wed: CrossFit Sunnyvale WOD: Max. rounds of 400m run, max. rep. Pull-Ups in 20 minutes: ran 1.75 miles (@ approx. 6:30) 30 pull-ups.
Thu: Rest. I need to get over this frickin' cold!
Fri: Rest. Skiing Sat. & Sun.
Sun: climbing PG SF 5 or 6 climbs, until injured left index finger
Mon: CrossFit Sunnyvale WOD: 500m Row, 45 Push Press (55#), 500m Row, 45 Push Ups, 500m Row, 45 Kettleball swings (35#) 17:25. Nice workout! Pretty draining!
Tue: Rest
Wed: CrossFit Sunnyvale WOD: Max. rounds of 400m run, max. rep. Pull-Ups in 20 minutes: ran 1.75 miles (@ approx. 6:30) 30 pull-ups.
Thu: Rest. I need to get over this frickin' cold!
Fri: Rest. Skiing Sat. & Sun.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Banff Moutain Film Fest World Tour '09
Once again I realize how time flies! Last night it was time for the Banff Moutain Film Festival World Tour again, and tradition dictates a trip to the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz. Although there are a few showings along the Peninsula and in San Francisco, I like the trip to the coast, since Santa Cruz has a nice vibe, wich is quite different from the rest of the Bay Area. Also the proceeds of the showing go to the UCSC recreation department, who can use it better than REI, who organizes the other events.
After an early dinner at the Seabright Brewery we went down the street to the theater to pick up the tickets at will call. As the shows in the previous years it was sold out. The crowd was in a good mood and welcoming the seven movies screened that night.
The program included:
A nice perk was the $50 gift certificate from Bugaboo Mountain Sports in Santa Cruz, which I won in the Raffle. Together with the REI dividends and the 20% membership discount, this
should provide some sweet new gear this spring!
After an early dinner at the Seabright Brewery we went down the street to the theater to pick up the tickets at will call. As the shows in the previous years it was sold out. The crowd was in a good mood and welcoming the seven movies screened that night.
The program included:
- The Red Helmet
- The Sharp End (the Lisa Rands segment)
- Red Gold
- *intermission w/ raffle*
- Grit Kids
- Die Seilbahn
- Mountain Town
- Seasons
A nice perk was the $50 gift certificate from Bugaboo Mountain Sports in Santa Cruz, which I won in the Raffle. Together with the REI dividends and the 20% membership discount, this
should provide some sweet new gear this spring!
Monday, March 2, 2009
AAAAHHHHHH!
With the spring climbing season just about to start and a trip to Red Rocks planned for the end of the week things seem fine... Until the gym climbing session at PG SF yesterday, where I pulled a tendon in the first digit of my left index finger. Bummer!
At them moment I rest and pop some anti-inflamatories. By Wednesday I'll decide if I go to Red Rocks or not... Given the rain during the weekend, the conditions in the Sierras should be awesome for skiing. That would be an alternative.
At them moment I rest and pop some anti-inflamatories. By Wednesday I'll decide if I go to Red Rocks or not... Given the rain during the weekend, the conditions in the Sierras should be awesome for skiing. That would be an alternative.
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