Regular Route on Fairview Dome, aka the North Face

I know this is majorly delayed, but here it finally is: The trip report of the Regular Route on Fairview Dome in Tuolumne Meadows.

The morning after coming back from Carlsbad I got up at 4:30 (the time I usually got up in NM anyway), packed up my gear and drove over to Sam's place in Milpitas. From there we headed out to Yosemite around 5:30. It is always amazing how fast the drive out there is when there's no traffic. Including a gas stop and a coffee stop it took us just over 4 hours to the Cathedral trailhead, where we stashed our food in the bear boxes. On the way there we passed the pullout for Fairview and were amazed that there was only one car parked. Even by the time we got back it was just one car... It took us a bit to sort out the gear and rack up. After a walk of about 20 minutes we reached the base of the route and could jump right on. Sam started leading the first pitch and chose the left of the two parallel cracks. He did a solid job all the way through the crux about 2/3s up the pitch. He continued on and linked pitches 1 and 2 with my 70m rope. Following the crux I had a pretty hard time due to the slick rock. I can't imagine how that's supposed to work when the crack is wet, which is supposedly the case often. Sam also took the lead on the next pitch, the 5.8 finger crack. At the next belay I took over the lead, and from here on we swung leads to one pitch above Crescent Ledge. At this point I got off route, because I was following another party, to which we had caught up. Following, Sam took the right way while I belayed from above. Things went downhill from here on, at least for me: I suffered from a severe headache. I don't really know what was the reason. I definitely was well hydrated. The most likely reason must have been the lack of sleep and insufficient food. Anyway, Sam lead the rest of the route in three pitches with me following. Since the upper pitches are quite easy we pitched it out, but hardly placed any gear. We reached the summit at 6:30PM after 8 hours on the route. I took it pretty slow on the descent... so that we got back to the car around 7:30. Since my headache got better as soon as we were back at the base it might actually have been related to altitude, although I've never had problems at altitude before. At this point we decided to cut the trip short and drive back to the Bay Area the same evening. Unfortunately Taqueria Algave in Oakdale was closed by the time we got there, so we stopped at In&Out in Manteca for dinner.
I got back to my place around 1AM that night...

Moonlight Run

I just finished the Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run. It was my first 10km run, and the first of the planned races for this fall. It was quite exciting! Although my training went really well lately, I didn't have to big expectations, since my right glute was pretty tight since last night. A thorough warm-up took care of that though...No problems after about 1.4 miles of easy jogging and stretching...
The race started at 8:15PM under an almost full moon. It was amazing to have a race in the dark. I managed to get away from the crowds right in the beginning and settle to a good pace... Between mile 2 and 3 something weird happened: I was completely zoned out... I had a song in my head, and actually don't have any recollection of how I ran that section... At mile 5 I decided that no one would pass me anymore until the finish line... It worked :-) It was a hard 2km, but hey, who said it should be easy. It's pretty much as Dean Karnazes said in his presentation last night: "We can do more than we think we can." Anyway, I finished in (approx. taken with my Garmin) 47:33, a 7:27 pace. Definitely the fastest run of that duration I ever did. And also a PR (well it was my first 10k :-)).

Splits:
mile 1 - 7:36
mile 2 - 7:33 15:09
mile 3 - 7:26 22:35
mile 4 - 7:40 30:14
mile 5 - 7:36 37:50
mile 6 - 7:08 44:57
finish - 47:33

Update:
Official result: 47:29 22/149 AgeGroup 99/479 Gender 114/920 Overall

Some thoughts on goals and training

I have thought about some long term goals. They include:

• A triathlon (hopefully an Ironman)
  
• An ultra-marathon (50 or 100 miles)
• more alpine routes
• climb as many of the 50 classics as possible
• climb all California 14ers
• climb a few Bigwalls

As for the training:
I've been following a trainings plan from RunnersWorld.com, and it seems to work well for me. I'll know more in a few days, after having raced in the Palo Alto Moonlight run. I intend to stick with this plan/plans for the upcoming half and full marathons as well.
However, I came across crossfitendurance.com, and it seems very interesting, since the actual volume of the workouts seems to be smaller and less time consuming. Additionally, the regular crossfit workouts, which are incorporated in their program seem to be beneficial to my climbing plans too. Furthermore, looking at a 50miler trainings plan on RunnersWorld.com, their emphasis on strength training increases as well. So it might be worth a shot...
I've also toyed with the idea of joining a local Triathlon Team. Seems like a fun thing to do.

What a weekend!

This weekend was simply fantastic!

I started Saturaday morning with a 10 mile run through Shoreline Park and the Palo Alto Baylands. Besides the two half marathons I ran, and the Diablo 25, this was the longest run I ever did...and it felt good! Really good! I was right on the rx'ed pace, actually two seconds faster and could have kept going... So the running training is going well...

After getting back home I had a huge omlette with mushrooms for breakfast (ok, I had a banana before I left for the run), and took a nap while watching college football. Around 1:15 I drove over to Sue's place and we went to Lindamar Beach in Pacifica surfing. Again: Simply fantastic, I can only compare it to the most perfect day out there, which was Oct. 29. 2005 :-). But yesterday was close...really calm sea, and occaisional perfect (for my limited skills at least) waves. It was rally peaceful and relaxing. On the way back we stopped at 'Flying Fish' in Half Moon Bay for fish tacos...

Today Ben and I headed up to Lover's Leap, where we climbed 'The Grove' and 'Traveller's Buttress'. Details on that will follow. Here only so much: It was another beautiful day!

The next week will be a little calmer... No plans for tomorrow, a tempo run on Tuesday, perhaps some climbing on Wednesday, a talk by Dean K (the Ultra-Marathon Man) in San Carlos on Thursday, and the Palo Alto Moonlight 10K on Friday... Sounds pretty busy too, but there is not too much exercise in there... Also no plans for the next weekend yet... we'll see what that brings (besides another long run (12 miles)).

Ouch!

I had a pretty good workout at Planet Granite tonight. I met Ben there, and we both had the same idea, since we both had brought our ropes. I started out leading two 5.9s and a 10a. After these three climbs my arms felt as if I had done 8 climbs already. This also showed on the 10b I tried to lead afterwards. Also the 11a I toproped following that was pretty pathetic. But it was a good workout never the less.
No that I am writing this my forearms are pretty sore... I hope this passes by Sunday, when we'll head either to Stinson Beach for some bouldering, or to Lover's Leap...

Planet Granite

I had a good evening of gym climbing tonight. I met Dan at PG in Belmont, because we wanted to keep the option of joining Ben's yoga class, but decided to stick to climbing for the evening.
My fingers were still slightly tender from the weekend's face and finger crack climbs, and I was pretty tired since I hadn't slept the night before...
Despite all that I got seven climbs in mostly 11a's and b's.
Ok, off to sleep now...

Tuolumne Meadows

Last weekend Ben and I went up to Tuolumne again. The trip started Sunday morning at 5:30AM, when Ben picked me up. Traffic was not bad at all, and we got to Tuolumne about 9:45. After dropping off our food at the bear boxes on the South side of Tenaya Lake, we continued on to Mettlicot Dome. A 20 minute approach on trails and climbers trails brought us to the base of Shagadellic. Since I had led the first pitch already while climbing "Piss Easier" last year, Ben started leading the first pitch. Following him I managed to clean a stuck cam and scored a .75 BD cam. I took the lead on the second pitch. It took me quite a while, and Ben got quite cold. The wind on Sunday was pretty strong and cold. The third pitch was Ben's lead again. Instead of topping out after the fourth pitch we rappelled back to the base and headed over to Daff Dome to check out the approach to West Crack. Since we were already there, we climbed "Witch of the West" I started leading, but at some point couldn't find the next bolt anymore. The wind was a problem too, and made it hard to find balance sometimes. I bailed of the third bolt. Ben led the whole climb nicely and lowered down.
From the base of West Crack we walked over to the Western Front, where we TRed a 5.9 and a 5.10a (me) and 5.10b (Ben).
After this it was time to check out the campground, where we met Lesley and Daniela, who had invited us to stay with them. After shortly checking in with them we drove down to the Mobil for dinner. The evening ended with a bottle of red wine at the campfire...
Sunday we started on West Crack, where Ben led the first two pitches and the fourth. Following the second pitch scared the living day lights out of me: It took me quite a while to figure out the chimney part at the start of the second pitch. It was hard to squeeze my 6'3" in there. The rest of the pitch was not bad at all. It was funny to find a nest of critters behind the flake at the start of the wide crack. What do they eat up there?
The third pitch was a nice lead, fingers to hands well protected. It definitely helped to regain my confidence in my leading abilities.
The last two pitches were a nice cruise. After rappelling down, and walking back to the car, we decided to have a look at "Little Sheeba" on Drug Dome. At this point a streak ended: It was the first climb in Tuolumne I had to wait for in Tuolumne this year. Ben led the one pitch 10a finger crack, which I TRed afterwards.
After 12 great pitches on the weekend we got back in the car around 4:30 on Monday and headed back to the Bay Area, of course stopping at the Taqueria Algave in Oakdale.