Monthly Summary – June 2013 (and San Gorgonio adventure)
June seemed like a very long month. I’m guessing that’s because it didn’t follow my usual routine at all. June started with my last week of taper for San Diego 100. Then, I ran (and walked) the race. Then, I had a week of recovery, a week of continued, but slightly more active, recovery on vacation in Wainscott and ended the month with few days at home, seeing if I can will myself back into my usual routine. It was a good, busy month, but it seems like forever ago that I ran across the SD 100 finish line in Mt. Laguna.
We had a really nice, relaxing week in Wainscott. The weather was awesome – it was one of those rare weeks in New York when it’s sunny, warm – but not too hot – and not oppressively humid. We hung out in the pool, walked on the beach with the dogs, went kayaking, ate a lot of great food, watched a few movies and I went for a few runs. They allow dogs on the beach in the morning and evening, and the boys really loved running around on the sand:
After the race, I took about 10 days completely off from running. When I started back running, we were on that vacation and I ran about 6 miles on the road every other day. My goal was to be careful not to get back into it too quickly. A month or so ago, a group of us got a permit for the trails at Mt. San Gorgonio and yesterday was the day. About half of our group had to bail, but Billy, Elan, Dave and I drove out to the Vivian Creek trailhead to run/hike to the summit at 11,503 feet. It was the first time that Billy, Dave or I had been out there and the first time Elan had run this route. I took it really easy, partly because I wanted to be smart about my first big run since the race and partly out of necessity, because my legs absolutely would not move any faster. Billy stayed with me during the ascent, while Elan and Dave went ahead and crushed it. Here’s a picture Elan took of Billy and I approaching the summit.
And here’s our group at the summit.
The weather was awesome up there. After spending about 20 minutes relaxing at the summit, we started back down. Elan and Dave went ahead and we were all supposed to meet up about 3 miles down the trail at High Camp to fill our bottles from the stream there. And then, as Billy posted on Facebook, “things went a little crazy.” To make a long story short, Elan and Dave took a wrong turn near the top of the mountain and ended up going about 4.5 miles the wrong way before turning around and coming back just about to the summit. Meanwhile, Billy and I waited a bit at the meeting point and then, assuming they must have taken a wrong turn, went ahead, figuring they would catch up to us quickly or would have taken a different route down and found their way back to our cars. We asked everyone we saw if they had seen Elan and Dave. No one had. When we got back to the trailhead and they weren’t there, we started getting really worried. We knew they had food and that there was water on the trails, but any number of other things could have happened to them! Only Verizon works up there (in spots) and on Elan was on Verizon. We couldn’t get ahold of them. Three and a half hours later, after getting the Sheriffs involved and getting close to having Search and Rescue started, Elan came sprinting down and told us they were fine, explained the story and that Dave would be along soon. Phew. That was a very stressful few hours!
Elizabeth asked me what lessons we learned. Know the trails and carry a map if you don’t. And most of all, don’t make wrong turns. 🙂
Yesterday’s run was a tough one to do as my first “real” run back since the race. My legs are still pretty heavy and flat, but it was nice to get out there and get it done. I felt relatively fine even at 11,503, which is a great sign. As long as things keep progressing as they have been, I’m looking forward to getting back into the rhythm of my training in July.
Here’s June:
Swim: 7,712 meters
Cycling (outdoors): 19.2 miles
Cycling (indoors): 0:00 (hours)
Run: 167.3 miles
Total Run Elevation Gain: 23,672 feet
Strength Training/Yoga: 3 sessions
Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 49:56 hours (over half of that was SD 100!)
Weight: 162
Haha…what a CRAZY day! At least we never lost our sense of humor about it all. Could’ve gone nuts otherwise.
Welcome back officially btw. Considering you’re only 3 weeks out from a gnarly 100, you were moving great.