Monthly Summary – October 2013
Happy Halloween!
October got off to a slow start. After Run Rabbit Run 100, I took my self-promised two weeks off from any running. That two-week hiatus ended at the end of September and I thought I would get back at it in October, spending two weeks getting back into it and by four weeks post-race, be back doing moderately high mileage weeks. As it turned out, weeks three and four after the race (the first two weeks of October) were a struggle. I was really tight and strangely my legs were sore to the touch, almost as if the muscles were bruised. I don’t remember having that feeling before during race recovery. I got out and ran, but wasn’t really having much fun and it felt very forced.
Things started to turn around mid-month. On October 12, I paced Billy for the final 18 miles of Cuyamaca 100k (here’s his race report). It was great to go out and support my friends at the race and then to pay Billy back just a little bit for his pacing help at San Diego 100 and Run Rabbit Run. I had fun running the 18 miles with him, but I definitely wasn’t feeling myself and spent a lot of the run worrying he would drop me! But I think that getting out and being around a race and running 18 miles helped get me back into it. The following week I started to feel better and started wanting to run instead of feeling like I should. And that was the turn-around point. It took five weeks for me to get to that point, instead of the hoped four weeks, but that’s not a big deal at all and is something for me to remember for the future.
The next weekend involved a travel adventure, rapidly evolving plans, a run in western Pennsylvania and sadly, another death in the family. This time it was my paternal grandmother. While her death came suddenly, it had been a long time coming. That doesn’t make it any less sad, but there is the consolation that she’s in a better place. So I took a last minute trip to Youngstown, Ohio for her funeral, which due to constantly changing travel plans, involved a 900 mile round trip drive from Newark airport to Youngstown in a period of 24 hours. On my way to Youngstown on Thursday night, I stopped near Titusville, PA (where I slept in th rental car in a Walmart parking lot for a few hours) and on Friday morning I met up with a friend of Jimmy’s named Tom Lane who took me out for a five mile hike/run on the Oil Creek 100 course. It was great to meet Tom who knows a ton about the area and the race. The terrain is very different from what we have here – rocky, covered in leaves, rolling hills instead of long, sustained climbs. I’d definitely consider going out there one year to do the race.
During the last two weeks, I’ve had two good weekend runs at Mt. Wilson and a bunch of quality mid-week 8-10 mile runs, mostly with the regular crew of Dom, Elan and Guillaume. This morning I got out for my longest mid-week run (11.4 pre-dawn miles) since before starting to taper for Run Rabbit Run nearly two months ago.
Incidentally, this period – mid/late October – is one of my favorite times of the year for morning running. Starting a run in the pitch black dark and seeing the sun rise over LA is an incredible way to start the day. I like that fact that right now, before Daylight Savings ends, it’s darker for longer in the mornings. Running in the morning darkness is quieter and more relaxing. Also, right now we get cool mornings (cool for LA anyway, it was in the high 40s when I started). On Sunday morning, daylight savings time goes into effect, which means that we’ll still start in the dark but the sun will come out much sooner.
Dom took the picture above during a recent B.O.C. run at Temescal. That sunrise always amazes me, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. This morning I started at 5:45 and ran mostly alone through Sullivan Canyon in the dark (I ran into and with Tiffany for a little bit) and the sky just started getting light after the climb up to Dirt Mulholland and the Nike Tower, the highest point of my run.
Here’s October:
With October in the books, I’m looking forward to a big November. I’m planning on starting out strong with a Cactus to Clouds run on Saturday (22 miles from Palm Springs to Mt. Jacinto and back to the Palm Springs Tram, with 10,000+ feet of elevation gain).