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.

Cornered in the School Yard!

This is a reply to an open tag that has appeared on multiple blogs I read so here’s my two cents.

How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
Hmm let me think. Ten years ago I was living in London, working in HR/Recruitment and serving as a Sergeant in the Territorial Army (think US National Guard) my running pretty much was composed of maintaining a passing level of the BFT; Basic Fitness Test, this comprised of three miles and was age graded, the first half was, from memory, was fifteen minutes (10 minute pace) and was completed as a squad the second half was individual effort and I was given 10.5 minutes (6:59 minute pace). This was all completed wearing running clothes; vest shorts and running shoes and was on the road. Because everyone know that when you heading off into battle you’ll going to don you nicest matching Asics kit this test was changed to the CFT; Combat Fitness Test, three miles, a 56lb Bergen and your personal weapon and in boots. The whole thing was completed as a squad, the route was shifted to a tank trail, think mud, more mud 12-24” deep puddles, mud, more puddles, did I mention mud and you had an hour to finish it.

What is your best and worst run/race experience?
I have actually had some pretty good race experiences; my personal best half marathon at the Santa Barbara Wine Country half last May was a great run, finishing my first marathon, my first 50k and then my first 50 miler all hold special places but probably the best runs are the ones where I have a whole morning to run around the trails “out back” behind my house and for that I have my understanding wife to thank. As for the worst; getting stuck with a knee injury 10 miles from home kinda sucked, getting soaking wet in Wales wasn’t so great and overheating while on a 20 miler wasn’t much fun either but you know they may have been bad runs but there’s always a lesson to be learned and that counts for something in itself.

Why do you run?
Because golf is too damn hard! To find the limit. To see Mother Nature in all her finery. To see what’s on the other side of the horizon. To set a healthy example to my boys.

What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?
A couple of pearls of wisdom; never make decision on an uphill! If you want to run fast; train fast, a modified military one; train hard: race easy and finally sunscreen! As for bad advice; hmm a couple of bad shoes salesmen who nearly killed my feet, running is bad for you knees (a perennial favorite) and run through pain; you can run through discomfort but pain, real pain should be listened to.

Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
Dang, there’s really not much left…hmm let me think. I am a qualified riding (horse) instructor, in a previous life I trained and competed as a show jumper in Holland and the Low Countries.

So if you’ve just read through this and have a blog and haven’t partaken consider yourself tagged.

PS for those of you who follow such things, this year's, (this weekend's in fact) Western States has been canceled due to wildfires that are raging through Northern California, thousands of lightening strikes during the month of June on the backend of one of the driest winters on record have left many areas in tinderbox conditions. While I even cannot begin to emphathize with runners who have trained and been selected for the race my thoughts go out to the firefighters on the line working hard to save people and property.

It's getting hot in here...

...so take off to the coast.

Southern California has been experiencing a little heat wave for the past week, temperatures have been in the triple digits for most of the last week with the high on out front patio topping out at 114 degrees, great practice conditions for Badwater but that’s about it. Sunday I threw the bike rack on the car and headed west to the coastal road, it was already 84 at 6:30 in the morning when I left and I didn’t fancy the slog through the canyons in the heat. A nice ride on the rollers up and down Pacific Coast Highway would make for a pleasant Sunday morning, plus I wanted to try out some new aerobars that I fitted during the week.

It was an uneventful ride, three hours of saddle time and a fraction of a mile under 50 miles. The aerobars took a little getting used to and there was a definite wobble the first few times I settled into them, there’s a noticeable aerodynamic improvement but I think I’ll need to adjust my saddle, I am having a little tissue-issue (gezundheit) around the three to four hour mark and while the Selle SLC and company looks tempting weightwise, I think there is a lot to be said for comfort and I may even try the ISM Adamo saddle as recommended by Wes perhaps a trip to my LBS for a fitting would be a good course of action, input from cyclists welcome here.

The weather is forecast to cool down over this week and should lead to a nice weekend, thanks to Burger I am going to head over to LA's westside and see how the Trail Runners Club does it.

Pictures can be found here and here’s the Forerunner data: