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In the Thick of It

With Run Rabbit Run now just 25 days away, it’s feeling very real.  Thankfully, training has been going well. I’ve had a few pretty big weeks in a row and have been able to sustain big mileage with lots of climbing. Running a lot is always key for a 100 (duh), but for RRR, I’ve been very focused on climbing. Just look at the elevation profile and I’m sure you’ll see why. There appear to only be five main climbs, but three of those are really nasty and the other two are only sorta nasty.  And frankly, the descents looks just about as scary as the climbs!

One (another) awesome thing about living in Southern California is our easy access to the mountains.  And, as Elan wrote in his new blog, we’re fortunate to have a good local group of runners who love spending time in those mountains.  During the last couple of weeks, I’ve done a bunch of pretty sick runs.

At the beginning of the month, Elan and I were both pacing friends at AC100. We knew we wouldn’t start running until at least 5:30 or 6pm and, feeling adventurous, we started the day with a great run around Mt. Wilson.  Running Mt. Wilson has become a staple this summer. Last summer, I did most of my long weekend runs in the Santa Monicas or in Malibu, but this summer, pretty much every weekend, I’ve been at Mt. Wilson.  Our go-to run is a loop that starts with the climb up the Mt. Wilson Trail past the “bench” to the summit of Mt. Wilson, then continues down Sturdevant Trail to Chantry and back up Lower Winter Creek and Upper Winter Creek to the bench and back down the Mt. Wilson Trail to Sierra Madre. That run is about 23.5 miles with two big climbs and over 7,500 feet of elevation gain.  The beauty of Mt. Wilson is that it’s only about a 35 minute drive from home and even though that’s our staple route, there are tons and tons of other trails to take – to make it any distance.  Also, you can easily make it so that you’re never more than two hours without a place to refill water.

At AC, I paced my friend, Will, for 22 miles from Chilao to Chantry.  Unfortunately, he dropped at Chantry due to stomach issues.  But he’ll be back next year to finish the thing!  I had a ton of fun being out there, hanging out at Chilao while I waited for Will and then being on the course. I saw a ton of friends and met a bunch of new people too.  It was my first time out there since I ran the race in 2010. I’ve already lined up a pacing gig for next year!

Mt. Wilson is great because it’s close and has plenty of climbing for nearly any run, but we get out to Mt. Baldy for training at altitude.  Two weekends ago, Elan, Guillaume and I did a sweet 30 mile, 10,000 foot day at Baldy which included six summits (Ontario, Big Horn, the 3 T’s and Baldy).  Sean and Chandra joined us for a big chunk of the run.

Last week, I managed to get out to Baldy for a mid-week summit with Billy.  When we got to the summit, we were the only ones up there, which was quite a treat and pretty different from weekend summits. We spent a little time up there enjoying the quiet and perfect weather. It did get dark on us during the descent and the only light we had was Billy’s iPhone. The last two miles were a bit was a bit of a challenge.

This weekend was another big one with runs at Mt. Wilson with Lukas, Griffith Park with Billy, Dave, Ethan and Sally and then back to Baldy with Elan.  On Sunday, we didn’t actually summit Baldy, instead we climbed up Ice House Canyon, hit Cucamonga (I’d never been) and then Ontario before heading back down. Cucamonga was awesome!  I’m not totally sure of the geography, but you face a different direction than the other peaks and the view feels very different. This run was good altitude training because nearly the entire run was above 5,500 feet and probably have of it was above 7,500. Elan got this great photo of me on top of some of rocks up there.

Bonus picture from one of our Tuesday runs on top of Eagle Rock in the Santa Monicas:

I’m traveling this week, so my streak of really big weeks pre-RRR has come to an end, but I still should be able to get in some good miles this week and this weekend.  And then, pretty soon it will be about time to think about taper… 25 days!