Coastal 50k

WOOOHOOO!

I finished a goal race! Well, better even: I started! :-)

This may sound ridiculous, but after last December's CIM and last months Santa Rosa 1/2 marathon, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had trained well for both of these races, only to be unable to sleep the night before, and not toeing the line at all.

Not so last week! I made it to the starting line in Stinson Beach, and after 31 miles, and 5800ft of climbing and descending I also made it to the finish at Rodeo Beach 6:09:40 later. This was a bit slower than planned, but at the same time the course was a lot more challenging than expected.

I may have gone out a bit too fast as well: The first three miles were rather challenging, climbing up the Steep Ravine trail to Pantoll ranger station.

Around mile 20 I struggled with a bit of nausea, completely disgusted by the gels I had with me. Definitely a first! On top of that I had lost my little ziploc bag with my salt tabs, so that my quads were a little twitchy on the descent into Rodeo Valley... But all this aside it was an awesome event! The organization by Coastal Trail Runs was flawless and pretty much everyone had a great time.

The finish (start) was definitely good for my head, and I think I am ready for the next challenges this year.

Last Saturday I drove up to the North Bay for a long run. I planned to run around 16 miles, so I picked a 25km loop from Stinson Beach to Pantoll ranger station, down to Muir Beach, back up to Pantoll and back to Stinson.

Over the last few years I had heard and read a lot about the Dipsea Trail, but I had never actually run it. It was definitely time to change this. From the beach parking lot I started out on Arenal Rd, which leads straight to the trailhead. After about 1.3 miles the Dipsea trail intersects the Steep Ravine trail, which I chose for the climb up the side of Mt. Tam. Aptly named, the trail climbs about 1200 ft in just under two miles. Although steep and technical (there is a 10ft ladder about two thirds up the trail), this is a gorgeous trail. Lush Redwoods and ferns, and the creek make for a great scenery. At the top of the climb I turned right on the Coastal View Fireroad leading to the Coastal View trail. Leaving the forest, the Redwoods were replaced by all kinds of wildflowers. A rather unexpected view for me, since they are not around in the South Bay anymore at this time of the year. As the trail opens up it offers sweeping views of the ocean and the coast line below. The miles just flew by on the descent into Muir Beach. The next mile on the Redwood Creek trail was pretty much the only flat section of the run. It leads back to the Dipsea, which I took back up to Pantoll. From the parking area I picked up the Matt Davies trail for the last 4.2 miles back to Stinson Beach. The first two miles of this trail were rather pleasant, before the gradient increases dramatically, and turns the last two miles of the loop into a hammering of the quads through steep, narrow switchbacks.

The overall loop took me about 3:26. Quite a bit longer than expected, but I also didn't expect the trail to be as technical as it was in sections. I tried my new hydration pack for the first time on this run as well. I am not quite sure if I like it. The fit and comfort were fine, and offer nothing to complain about. The problem I had was that I was reluctant to drink constantly, since I could not see how much liquid I had left (not a problem with handheld bottles, which I usually use on shorter runs). This resulted in having about one liter (out of two) left in the pack upon getting back to the car. I'd say that's a sign of a failed hydration strategy. I guess that's the reason one tests things like this on training runs :-)

After this outing I can only confirm all the good things I heard/read about the trails on Mt. Tam, and I am sure I'll be back for more!

Los Gatos Jungle Run

Last Sunday I joined 740 fellow runners for the Los Gatos Jungle Run 10k.
It was my first road race in quite a while, since December 2009 to be exact. My primary goal was to beat my time of 45:22 from the 2009 Turkey Trot in San Jose. Furthermore it was to stay under 45 minutes. With about 200ft of climbing the course was not quite as fast as the San Jose course. Still I managed to finish in 45:03, good for 38th overall.

What's going on?

OK, yet another post starting with the remark that I haven't posted in a while.
What's different this time is the fact that there was simply nothing to write about. No adventures at all in quite a while. I realized that a few weeks ago, when I was asked at a party what my last adventure was, and I really had to think hard.
Life has been pretty busy in the last few months. Between a new job and a new housing situation there was simply not too much time to play. Even now, as things settle down I am rather happy to unwind on the weekends instead of hitting the road/mountains. A good example is last weekend. I went down to Whitney Portal, to scope out the approach to the Mountaineers Route and/or Whitney's East Face, East Buttress. I spent a rather unpleasant night, sleeping for about two hours, and when I woke up I realized that I didn't really want to be there. That was really a first! As the outdoors usually have been where I was happiest. I'm wondering what's going on, and try not to freak out about it...
On the other hand, I have been increasing my running mileage. For now the plan is to run the Jungle Run 10k in Los Gatos tomorrow, and the Santa Rosa 1/2 marathon in the end of August.
These two races will be followed by the Coastal 50k from Stinson Beach to Rodeo Beach in late September.

Alpine Meadows skiing

The streak of changed plans continued last weekend. The plan was to fly to Boise, ID for the holiday weekend and spent a few days skiing in Sun Valley with Juliana's cousin. We got to the airport well before the departure time, since we both had skis to check in. Just after we swiped the credit card and got charged for the checked baggage we were told that the flight was canceled due to a mechanical problem. Furthermore, we were told that we could not expect to be on a flight in the next two days. There went the holiday weekend plan...
We decided rather quickly that we go to Tahoe instead. While I tried to sort things out with the airline, Jules got on the phone and secured a room in Truckee for Saturday night.
We left the Bay Area shortly before 5am on Saturday morning. Getting to Alpine Meadows at 9:30. The last miles from I-80 to the resort were definitely the slowest of the entire trip.
The weather and the conditions were fantastic. The skiing couldn't have been any better anywhere else. The previous week had seen four feet of powder, and there were plenty of untouched stashes.
After a few easy runs to warm up I went to Scotts Gully, a double diamond. What a incredible run! I am not sure why, but the run just felt awesome... Either it was the new skis, or I am finally getting a hang on steep, deep runs. After a few runs here, I could not get the grin off my face.
After checking in to the hotel we had dinner at the Bridgetender in Tahoe City. If I remember correctly I was asleep by 8:30.
Sunday saw more skiing in the morning, but the temperatures dropped significantly in the afternoon, so that we left around 2. Although the second day was rather short I am absolutely happy about the skiing I got in.

Mount Shasta

This winter started out with some epic early storms in late November and early December. January on the other had saw almost no snow fall in the Sierras. Obviously this is bad news for skiing. The new Mantras with AT-bindings just got a three day work-out in Chamonix in December, but had to stay in the closet back here in Cali.
On the other hand the stable high off the Northern California coast allowed for good conditions for a winter ascent of Mount Shasta. The Casaval Ridge seemed to be in pretty good shape during the first weekend of February. Just the right thing for a quick weekend dash, similar to my previous ascent of Shasta. Or so I thought.
The plan was to leave the Bay Area Saturday morning, get to the trailhead around 3pm, hike to Horse Camp, set up camp in daylight, get an early night, set the alarm for 2am, get going by 3am, summit, descent via Avalanche Gulch, break up camp, head back to the car, make the drive back. Simple enough, right?
The first part worked just fine. We arrived at Bunny Flats around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, got the permits, re-packed some gear and got ready to go. Just as we were about to leave two parties got back to the parking lot, who had started out that morning. Both of them tried to climb Sergeant's Ridge, but turned around due to high winds. They reached a high point of around 9400ft. One of the climbers had soloed Casaval Ridge the previous weekend, and confirmed that the conditions had been great. With these mixed news we were in our way at 3:30pm. The hike to Horse Camp was rather mellow, and eventless. By 6 we had set up camp, eaten dinner and tugged away in our sleeping bags... This is were things deviated from the plan: High winds made sleep practically impossible. It didn't help that I had a congested nose either. Given the sleepless night, high winds, a missing pair of gloves and a malfunctioning headlamp the summit attempt stopped right there.
Objective not achieved... But I still had a good time. A wonderful sunset, a night spent outside... What more can one ask for?

2011 races

I spent the past weekend browsing websites and race calendars. Here's what I came up with for the coming year:

Mar 19 Pirates Cove 20k
Mar 26 Woodside 17k
May 1 Big Bear 5k
May 21 Horseshoe Lake 21k
Jun 5 Sierra Foothills 50k
Jul 10 Jungle Run 10k
Aug 14 Squaw to Donner 25k
Oct 2 SJ RnR 1/2 marathon
Oct 23 Silicon Valley marathon
Dec 3 North Face Endurace Challenge 50 miles

Let's see how it pans out!

2010

I haven't posted much in the past year, that doesn't mean that nothing was going on. Quite to the contrary actually. So here's a quick recap:
Early in the year, I spent quite a bit of time skiing in the Tahoe area. Until then I had mostly skied in Kirkwood, but last year I explored further, Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows and Northstar (which totally deserves the nickname Flatstar!).
When not skiing I was running preparing for my first ultra-marathon, the Skyline-to-the-Sea 50k.
It took me a while to recover from the race. So I decided that the next race had to be shorter, a lot shorter! It was the Angle Island 8k in June. At this time I felt quite speedy, and was looking forward to the Santa Rosa 1/2-marathon and a fast marathon in St. George. Unfortunately I sprained my left ankle on a trail run in early August, so Santa Rosa was completely out of question, and I 'down-graded' St. George to a long trainings run.
In July there were a few trips to Tuolumne. Once for some climbing (some routes on Pywiack Dome, Crying Time Again, and cragging), once for some trail running, and once for an one day solo trip to Mt. Lyell and Mt. MacLure. Rather a death march. 23 miles, 5000ft of elevation gain - 14hrs round trip.
Due to the injury in early August, my activity level that month was pretty minimal, but September started with an exciting trip to Mt. Langley. The rest of the month I prepared for St. George, which was on Oct. 2. Since I was in the Southwest already I tagged on a trip to Zion NP. Here I hiked the Narrows, and got rained out before exploring the Subway. Fortunately there was no rain in Las Vegas, where I spent the remainder of the trip climbing in Red Rock Canyon.
The next goal was CIM, so the running mileage was ramped up again, and I have to say running never felt better. Too bad that I ended up not doing the race. Despite the injury in summer and no running at all in December I ran 1050 miles, which is a lot more than I did ever before. Running is really addictive!
The year ended with a trip to Chamonix for skiing in combination with the anual trip to visit family in Germany. Cham is absolutely fantastic! Three days there were way to little, and I need to go back! No questions there!
The 'urban adventure' front was pretty active too! I saw some good classic metal shows, Iron Maiden, Exodus & Heathen, and Suicidal Tendencies. Furthermore I discovered Yoshi's in San Francisco and Oakland, where I saw Stanley Clarke (May) and George Clinton (November), and Chick Korea respectively.
A pretty packed year!
Here's to 2011 to be at least as busy!