Early moning antics!

The TRC plan was to meet at the trailhead at 6:00am Sunday however I had agreed earlier in the week to meet with Jes at 5:00am. I had a new flashlight that I wanted to check out on the trails, it’ll be used more and more as summer ends and fall turns into winter. I was on replen duty this weekend and so by the time I had loaded the car stopped for a top up of ice at a local 24 hour pharmacy I was running late, I arrived at the trailhead at 5:15 and Jen turned up shortly afterwards. Within 10 minutes we were heading up the familiar Westridge Trail, it’s a nice wide fireroad and so there was plenty of space, a headlamp each and the new flashlight (review to follow) to light up our way, the cloud was thick and low and the sun was struggling to break through. After 20 or so minutes we turned around and headed back meeting the main running group at a little after 6:00am. The group run set off back the way Jes and I had come back down. After a mile or so we came to the optional loop which diverted us down into a canyon and back up the other side, I headed off down into the canyon, I reached the bottom and looked over my shoulder to see a grand total of no one following me! Oh well, onwards and upwards and upwards and then up a bit more and I was back on the far ridgeline which then curved round and linked back up to the trail. A couple of other runners passed me as I stopped to take some misty photos, I continued up to the Nike Station and saw Sara and another runner heading back down. I realized that I should to think about heading back to the start otherwise there were going to be some hungry and thirsty runners waiting for me. I had planned to take the optional loop back, I managed to find the turning but lost the trail shortly afterwards so ended up running the ridgeline as per the photo above, I finally made it back to the parking lot in good time with 11.25 miles on my Forerunner and just in time to set up before everyone else arrived. A rep from Bear Naked had dropped off a bunch of free samples; another club perk, in fact two runners, Billy and Ernie were running in free Teva Trail shoes! Although Billy had a rough morning suffering from post wedding reception (he was a guest not the groom) early morning wake up jitters. So not quite the scheduled route but a fun run nevertheless.

I nearly have a full set of week 2 returns for the Worth you Weight Challenge. I’ll give everyone an extra day to email me their weight from Sunday. In the meantime I am glad to announce additional prizes to be added into the prize pool, the good folks at Wicked Fast Sports, the manufacturers of RECOVER-ease which I reviewed last month have stepped up and will be generously be donating a few bottles from their product line, please join me in thanking them for their generosity.

It looks like it’s going to be another close week and with three weeks to go there is everything still to play for!

Brain to body...

Brain to body, engage legs…engage legs…body to brain we have a leg malfunction!

This sums up last weekends run! I was scheduled for a 10 miles to and around Sandstone Peak with the TRC and had been looking forward to it all week. It was a new location for me and is the highest peak in the Santa Monica at 3,111’. My plan was to get there early and add on a few extra miles to get closer to fifteen for the day, making up for a less than stellar week, you know work, life etc.

After a long and twisty drive from Pacific Coast Highway I found the start point at Circle X Ranch, I was unsure where to park and wandered around aimlessly for a while settling on “as close to the road as possible”. From here it was a stretch in the back of the car and I was off. I found a trail called the Grotto Trail and tentatively stepped off as the sun rose. I followed the path for a little over a mile finding myself at a dry river bed, I decided that I wouldn’t get to the end before needing to be back at the start point in time to meet the main group but not until I managed to get some photos of a “cloud lake” that was flowing along the valley.

After meeting up with the main group we set initially along the same trial I had taken earlier and then taking a sharp left turn and instead of running down to the river bed we contoured along the side of the valley and were afforded some stunning views. We exited off the trail and crossed a road and started on the next trail which would loop around Sandstone Peak, a short sharp climb and we were contouring again along a nice rolling section I was playing cat and mouse with Jes and Thomas and I could here them on my tail, I pushed on and was caught by them as I approached the path that would take us to the top, a delicate video pirouette while standing on the summit and a group shot care of some other runners and we were back on our way on the homeward leg. Mostly downhill the trail rolled back the way we had come to out start point for a total on just under 12 miles for the morning, not as much as I had hoped for but a pretty tough 12 miles in total with a little over 4700’ of climbing.

This is an amazing trail the view just got better at every turn, even if you not up to running it, I barely was, it makes for a great hike.

With hindsight that was not the best run of the summer, I had tired legs before I started; a long week at work had taken its toll and it’s a major reminder of the importance of getting some quality sleep (read more than five hours a night!) and with that note I am off to grab some early zzzs!

Here's the Forerunner info and photos, which really don't do it justice.

Clockwise or counterclockwise...it's all good!

The Trail Runners Club, met today to run the Ray Miller trail in Pt Mugu, just south of Oxnard/Ventura and north of Malibu. The trail has been described as such…“if you only can only run two trails in Southern California one should be the Ray Miller Trail and the other should be the same trail in the opposite direction”… I have had the pleasure of running here twice before, last October for an XTerra Race and last November for the PCTR 50k so I was a little familiar with the trail but time plays on the memory and I had forgotten what a beautiful part of the world this is.

The weather was co-operative from a running perspective, not so from a photographic one, call me selfish but I’ll admit to preferring the former over the latter and the clouds were low and wrapped over the peaks like a shawl over your grandmother’s shoulders. The group congregated at the trailhead to make sure we picked up any late stragglers, I stretched everything that had decided to contract overnight, retied my shoes and with an unceremonious “try to regroup at the fireroad” we were off.

The trail, in much the same fashion as last week, went along for oh…about 3 yards and then headed up. It was a single track path the hugged the contours of the hillside gentle in places and more steeply in others pulling us higher and higher, within a mile we were 500’ up and within three just over a 1000’, this section was actually the final 8k out and back for the PCTR 50k and I remember having to walk more than I ran from last year, this year I was able to reverse the ratios and found myself not at the front but within sight of the faster runners, we were by this point pretty spread out but with a few minutes were all together in a sweaty, puffing, gaggle; I am not sure what the collective of runner is. We regrouped made sure that everyone had a rough understanding of where we were heading and set of on the final push up to the highest point, about 1130’ at the 3.25 mile mark, here’s a 20 second panoramic video clip shot just over the peak. From here we were running down through the rolling meadows with bone dry shoulder high grasses I ran with another club member, Jes, through this section and we chatted away several miles with the topic of conversation mostly about running and races past and future, Jes has her sights on running 50 miler and will be racing the 50k here this November, she has also, like me, been working on getting Billy signed up for his first ultra. We left the meadow and started on the section of trail that contours around Mugu Peak and would lead us back to the start/finish, I had run this section twice before as mentioned above but from the opposite direction and it looked familiar and different all at once. We picked up the singletrack again and as we rounded the peak were treated to a stunning view of the coast. I pulled ahead of Jes but she caught me up while I was faffing about taking photos, I grabbed the almost compulsory group (is two a group?) snap, you can just make out the sand dunes behind us and we were off again. The trail wound its away back around the peak losing altitude at every turn, eventually reaching a rocky section that is best taken at a gentler pace as there are some big(ish) drops if you misplace your footing. Once at the bottom the trail flattened out and within half a mile I was back at the parking lot with another 10.79 miles under my belt.

Another great run and while a bit shorter that most it is possibly more challenging than some you may find further south and well worth the drive out to.

As for the rest of the day; with the kidios doing kidio stuff and then we had a good old fashioned steak dinner!

For your pleasure the Forerunner data and photos.

Extended Play!

If you standing at the beach or are close to it and intend to do a trail run anywhere in the Santa Monica Mountains you’re pretty much guaranteed that the first few miles of your run will be uphill, today’s run with the Trail Runners Club was no exception. The weather actually looked like it was going to co-operate, that is if you like low cloud, a high dew point and no sun…perfect running conditions! The group met at the Los Liones trailhead which is an entrance into Topanga Canyon State Park off Sunset Blvd and after a quick brief we were off and running.

The first miles were on pleasant single track not too different than sections of the PCT. We wound our way slowly up along the trail with high foliage either side occasionally getting a glimpse of the ocean below and the peaks ahead through the low cloud. After a mile and a half and about 900’ of climbing we broke out onto a viewpoint and stopped for the obligatory group photo, I was running with Billy and Sarah and we played cat and mouse throughout the run. This was the second and last photo I took as the batteries decided to conk out at this point. From here it was fire road all the way up and we journeyed further into the park gaining altitude as we went and getting slowly damper and damper from a combination of sweat and cloud. We topped out a made our way along a rolling section for the next few miles. The organized run was to turnaround at Trippet Ranch (the point where I started this run earlier in the week) with the option of a quick 2 mile out’n’back to a view point. I suggested to Billy and Sarah that we push on for an extended run and add another 2 miles or so and make it up to Eagle Rock, they were both game and so we set off. Twenty minutes later were at the top and were enjoying the panoramic view of all of 30’ so after a quick chat we about faced and headed back the way we came.

An uneventful run (with a few walk breaks) and an hour and twenty minutes we were back at the parking lot enjoying the goodies supplied this week by Mieko. Mieko’ is running Mt Disappointment in a few weeks; and I think I am convincing Billy to try his first ultra, it’s nice to be in company of other lunatics!

So another great run in the company of great people, I am really getting used this iPod free life!

As mentioned there are no photos but in the spirit of my last post here's the Google Earth View and the MotionBased data:

Los Liones to Eagle Rock

Running Late!

This morning I was scheduled to join the TRC for a Sunday morning jaunt. The route was to be a point to point was to meet at the local High School at 5:45am and then drive some cars to the finish and some to the start so at the end we could shuffle everyone about at the end. You’ll, I am sure, have noticed that everything is in the past tense, well despite my alarm functioning perfectly alas I did not and the next time I opened my eyes after hitting snooze, snooze, snooze, off and looked at the clock it read exactly 5:45am…oops!

I did think of leaping in the car driving like a lunatic and trying to catch them but the stress factor and the potential speeding ticket were deterrent enough, so I mentally reshuffled my plans and decided to head “out the back” to my local trail head at Las Virgenes Open Space (LVOS). After a long drive of oh maybe three ok maybe four minutes I was there. After parking my car and stretching I hit the trail at 6:20am and free formed a 12-13 mile route in my head. I was going to try for a figure of eight and use some trails that I had discovered earlier this year that link through to Cheeseboro Canyon in the next Valley.

The first four miles were pretty uneventful, I chugged through the familiar rolling landscape amazed at how dry everything is, I actually had a discussion with my wife last week on had it rained this year, we concluded it had but it was sometime in February! All the grass is tinder dry and it’s like that for pretty much as far the eye can see. The weather was threatening to be clear blue and hot, but from nowhere clouds appeared, joined ranks and socked me in with a nice level of humidity.

After four miles I picked up the connector that would take me through to Cheesboro Ridge Trail, this rolled along, mostly up for another mile. I hit the Ridge Trail and turned left, a mile along and I got to where I thought I needed to turn and started down the faintest of trails, it was barely a goat path, I saw the barbed wire that had cut up my legs earlier this year and then the path just stopped dead, I turned around and saw that I was about 100 yards in, I turned back and I could see the pylon that I would pass going down back into LVOS but there was no trail to be seen. I did consider bush whaking it across but this is prime rattlesnake season (April-October) so I thought better of that idea. I about faced and headed back to the Ridge Trail with doubts in my mind whether I was actually at the right place, (I concluded later I was), I carried on down the Ridge Trail with a faint understanding of where it would take me, I tried a couple more “maybes” that turned into busts, by this time I was shedding my elevation gain, had covered around 7 miles and had about 90 minutes under my belt, turning round is always an option but not one that I really entertained at this point. I eventually came to a Y junction; I knew the right hand fork would take me the wrong way for sure so a calculated choice had me turning left. This was a new route and it wound its way down the side of a revetment. I could see houses on my left across the other side so I was not overly concerned about being in the “middle of nowhere”. Finally I was ejected onto a road…not quite what or where I was expecting, I looked and felt a bit like a fish out of water! I had a rough idea of where I needed to go and a mile and a half and a few odd looks later I was back on the trail. Three miles later I was back at my car. Not quite the route I had planned but an adventure, albeit a small one, nevertheless.

Here’s the Forerunner data and some photo here.

The ups and downs of Ernie!

Sunday I met up with the Trail Runners Club. The original scheduled run was at Malibu creek, but a small fire, set off by some duphass (pronounced du’fas) welding on the outside of mobile home (the fire actually consumed 20 acres; that’s 20 football fields before it was extinguished) meant that we relocated back to Westridge, the same starting point as last week. We were told that this would be a new route recently discovered by “Ernie” and would offer a few hills and some nice trail time at the bottom of Sullivan Canyon. Also this week we had a change in time to an hour early to accommodate the heat, I, of course got it all backwards and turned up thirty minutes earlier than that; 5:30am, after a 4am alarm call, still I saw a nice sunrise and had a nap in the car.

We set off at a leisurely pace and I was chatting to a few runners when we suddenly took a sharp right turn and headed down the backside of the ridge, we meandered along the trail which was a little overgrown but nothing too onerous. After a while the trail started to climb and we were soon on the ridgeline enjoying some spectacular views of the low cloud washing in from the Pacific and the long morning shadows thrown by the rising sun. I caught up with Billy (my photog) and Kenna were both running strong (they’re running the San Francisco full and half respectively next month) and then they shot off and I stopped to grab some panoramic video footage. The trail then dropped us back down to the Westrige trail heading back to the start. I was thinking this was going to be a very short run until I followed the flour arrows into a sharp right turn and what, if covered with snow would have been a Diamond if not a Double Diamond, it got so steep in parts that someone had tied a rope to help arrest your decent and drag you on the ascent.

A half mile later we bottomed out in the canyon. Sun glinted through the trees breaking angel-rays onto the trail and the temperature was a good 10 degrees cooler. After a short distance another hard right turn had us climbing up the other side to Sullivan Ridge from here there was a short stretch of hardtop and we were back on the fireroad. Being on the other side of the canyon we were fully exposed to the sun which was rising fast and heating up equally as quickly. Billy and Kenna pushed on and I made it up with a walk/run strategy. From here it was a three mile climb gaining about 800’, multiple mountain bikers whizzed past and all were very courteous. I reached the second turnaround point and had to double take as a I something I had never seen before; a mountain bike unicycle! Hardcore!!!

After a short decent I was back on the canyon floor knowing that I had to climb out again at some point again, after a slow decent of 1000’ over four miles that point came, and I plodded up the side of the canyon, check out the elevation plot and you’ll see how steep it was. I topped out just after the 11 mile mark and from here it was a short and easy downhill back to the parking lot where goodies lay a’waiting, along with a good stretch and some welcome cold fluids. Another great Sunday morning adventure running trails that I have never run despite living here for years, thanks Ernie!

With a five miler of Friday and another five or so this morning; I dropped my car of at the dealers for a service and ran back home (perfect multi tasking) that made a little over 23 miles for the holiday weekend, it’s been a while since I clocked that amount of mileage over a weekend. Lots of foam roller lovin’ and my handy-dandy IT strap meant that it was all under control and I fully intend to keep it there.

Here's the Forerunner data and the photos:

Making new friends and the return of an old enemy!

Sunday I met with a trail running group, the Trail Runners Club. The instructions for newbies was to meet at a local High School and then convoy to the trail head. So I met with Stan, the club's founder, and a few others at the early hour of 6am, from there we drove to the trailhead at Westridge. The run was explained to as a out’n’back with a small loop at the end and was to be 13 miles. I recognized Billy from his blog LARunner and we shook hands. After a short brief and a round of hellos to Kenna a fellow newbie and myself we set off up the fireroad, Kenna, Billy and I found a comfortable pace and we chatted our way to the retired Nike missile site, a throw back to the cold-war, at the junction of Dirt Mullholland (DM) stopping for a photo en route (stolen from Billy's blog). Here we followed the flour arrows that were our trail markers along DM again at a comfortable pace and enjoying each others company.

The trail ducked down into a single track and contoured its way along the side of the hill, at one point we came across and abandoned, somewhat of an understatement, VW dune bug, how long it had been there was a good question, how it got there in the first place would be a better one?! We meandered along the trail which broke out onto a set of rollers and then down a steep section that seemed to drop off into nowhere, we stood for a while scratching our heads and chatting to a couple of hikers who didn’t know where or if the trail continued to, Billy braved it going down to see if a trail could be found, we were then joined by two other club runners who said that there was no way this could be right and so we about faced and started back up. We had covered around six miles so as a turnaround it was a good half way point.

We made our way back up to DM and headed back to the Westridge trail; around mile 9 I felt the unwelcome return of an old friend Mr I.T. Band! Slowly niggling it way around my left knee and becoming quite pronounced on the uphill sections. I fell behind the group and walked up the ups, running on the flats and downs. I got back to the car park and enjoyed the table of goodies that had been provided by Jes, thankyou! Members supply the replen on a voluntary basis; I love the idea of rotating the goodies through members; it creates a real sense of club. After chatting to a few members I was surprised to find out that Stan was one of the co-authors of the 50 Trail Runs in Southern California, this is a great book and I have a well thumbed copy on my bookshelf at home.

It’s more annoying than surprising that it the ITB issue has returned, and while the last month or so has seen little mileage of any substance except on my bike. It is, excuse the pun or is it a mixed metaphor; my Achilles heel, and is something that I will need to factor in as I start up the next training cycle next month. I seem to have got the work thing under control and despite the fact that I am walking out in the morning at 6:15am and walking back in at 7pm, there is some training time to be had and I’ll be starting up again in the next few weeks working towards Twin Peaks in December.

Running with a group is a whole new experience for me and I have to say it makes a great change, while I have covered hundreds if not thousands of miles with my iPod in recent years, there is something to be said for sharing the trails with kindred spirits and good company. I’ll definitely be back for more next weekend. Right now I am off to give my foam roller a nice big hug.

Here’s the Forerunner data and photos can be found here.