Back to work…

A little something to take the edge off!

Bryce Canyon…all snow no go!

Nada hiking today, we headed out to Bryce Canyon and the snow was deep and crisp and even, so much so that discretion ruled, so here are the best of the photos…

Sunrise Point

Sunset Point (N)

Sunset Point (S)

Inspiration Point

Garmin altitude check…check!

Natural Bridge

Happy Feet!

Zion National Park; Angels Landing

We arrived late last night, checked in, ate and hit the hay, this morning we weren’t the liveliest birds in the nest and that only got worse when we realized we had moved to Mountain time and lost an hour! Oh well. Today we managed three hikes, Goldilocks bear sizes; large, medium and small, well none of them were that large, but the first one had some elevation gain about 2000’ feet over three mile and topped out at just under 6000’ just on the snowline, I did wear my Garmin but it had a total brainfart, it kept dropping the signal in the canyon and then spiked to 10,000’ and added 2 extra miles!

This photo is from Angles Landing which takes you from the bottom of Zion Canyon up through to the Landing, which has a hair raising final climb using some chain handrails to the summit, I got so far and stepped back due to the ice. From there we pushed onto the West Rim Trail for another mile or so until it got too snowy so we turned around, the weather is perfect as you can see from the photos.

After this we left the park grabbed a coffee and headed back in to do a couple of smaller ones, Weeping Rock and the Temple of Sinawava. We had a complete camera fail on day one, I left my battery in the charger and my wife’s was dead, luckily I had my iPhone so we got some pictures, there will be plenty more but I am on the slowest of internet connections and I am emailing photos on the Edge network and well life is to short!

Oh and I picked up this shirt…well it would have been rude not to, right!

Tomorrow Bryce Canyon, cold and snowy is the forecast, oh well that’s why they invented goosedown jackets!

Kids, Keys and Car!

It’s inevitable really no sooner do I put something down in writing then my plans change! Sometimes it’s for the bad this time it’s for the good! I think I mentioned my in laws are in town from England, their annual trip albeit this year a little shorter at about 8 weeks, it’s all good though. Through the power of iChat they’re not strangers to our kids and they’re now at the age (3 and 6 years) where my wife and I can leave them with their Grandparents with no concerns, so it is a case of here are the kids, here are the house keys and here’s a car to ferry them around…seeya in a week!  And that’s just what we are doing! So come the weekend of the March 6th I will not be running the PCTR Malibu Creek race I will relaxing here:

Shame about the silly looking handrails!

This is going to be followed by a week spent Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, some hiking, some relaxing and some quality time sans kids with Ms Q!

Thor’s Hammer

Zion Canyon

Yep sometimes things do change for the best! Although the weather forecast is not so great; snow storms are expected so we may end up seeing a lot of this:

Oh well, that’s why they invented Gore-Tex!

Vacation is over…now for a rest week!

Sounds counter intuitive right…as mentioned in my Daily Mile log yesterday;

If you want to find/follow me just search for Quadrathon, Thursday was my OWS it was so short it does not register! Friday was another six and I finished out the week inches short of 40 miles. Saturday started another week and my long run was only long in duration; 12 miles in nearly two hours! WTF!!Legs were shot, if fact my body is pretty beaten up. An uncomfortable bed, two kids who were up at the crack of dawn and seemed to run on Lithium long life batteries and bad food choices just sapped the strength out of me.

So this week is a down week in mileage, although it started yesterday and that’s the only down bit, the rest of the week is business as usual. I redeemed myself in the pool today with another mile+ in an hour, that black line makes it so much easier than the ocean! The rest of the week will be early runs and lunchtime at the gym, that’s the plan at least; a cursory glance at my work Blackberry shows an inbox of 500+ unread for the week! That’s actually worse than my blog reader which is at 300+, I’ll be spending some quality time with you all tonight before an early-ish night!

Here are a bunch of random photos from the trip; Mission Bay and SeaWorld mostly.

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The end of the trail…

So yeah you’re probably sick of Hawaii by now, well if you are sorry, this is the last one, I promise, and it was prompted by looking at the quality (lack thereof) of the iPhone photos and I really wanted to share this one trip with you.

During the week my wife and I left our boys with their Grandparents, yes we all went together, and headed to the west side of the Island to Waimea State Park. Part of the park is taken up with the Waimea Canyon. Also known as the Hawaiian Grand Canyon is runs for about 10 miles as is 3000’ deep.

We headed passed that after a photo stop and parked at the Koke'e Ranger Station which gave us our start point for the Nualolo Trail.

The hike is just under 8 miles for an out and back, although it can be extended into a longer loop We had grand plans to do the 11 miles but time got the better of us. Like most of the Kuaui the area is littered with chickens, they’re pretty much everywhere, there are several theories why which I won’t go into but here’s some evidence:

And so on with the hike. After a short sharp uphill for a quarter mile you’re treated to some broad technical downhill. There are lots of fallen trees and plenty of roots to navigate: This then opens up into a tropical lushness. The hike has an elevation change of 4400’ unusually you go down first and then up on the return; you are basically hiking towards the coast.

Around the 2.5 mile mark the trail gets decidedly tricky and you’re hiking down a mini canyon using the roots as handholds.

After 3 miles you find your self back out in the open and the views start to open themselves up. At this point we were also hit by the wind which was blowing a gale. The trail gets narrower and narrower and at some points you’re on a knife edge ridgeline.

This comes with a 2000’+ drop off on one side.

Finally you hit the end point you know it’s the end point ‘cos there’s a sign! Handy that!

You get a grand view along the coastline, we didn’t linger as (a) it was cold and (b) rain clouds were heading our way.

Another two and half hours later we’re back at the start point and like the chickens we were pooped. 7.75 miles in 4:15 hours.

There are more photos of chickens and cliffs here, enjoy!

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Now I am woefully behind in my reading so hang in there, I’ll get to you this week, promise.

Finale!

Let down by the weather on the last day, we still managed to spend a few hours on a blusterly beach!

Lava rocks sit patiently on the shoreline.

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It's not all beaches and blue skies!

Windy, grey skies and a 70% chance of rain...and we're on the sunny dry side of the island!

Is that a smile I see?

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Hips don't lie!

This is way harder than they make it look, maybe another Mai Tai will loosen my hips up...maybe!

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Buying local...

Grown about 15 miles from where are staying! Seriously good stuff!

I wahi kope nau? Will you have some coffee?

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It's a British thing!

Don't let this picture fool you, high winds blowing sand in your face, cold sea and the occassional shower!

But we will enjoy ourselves...of course the soon to follow ice cream helped!

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Thank you Mr Garmin!

Mr Garmin: ding ding ding mile alert
Me: Oh that's mile 5, only 3 more to go
MsQ: No that's not the way to play!
Me: Oh...[thinks for a second] that's another mile...yay!
MsQ: That's better...

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Wailau Falls

Breakfast, beach, lunch, falls, fish'n'chips, Pina Colada, bed!

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Verdant vistas....

Lush, humid and green! I guess that's why the coffee tastes so good!

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Sounds like a solid plan to me...

Now this is something I could get used to!

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Aloha

An early start, uneventful flight and we're here!

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Going mobile...

This is just a test post. I am off on vacation this weekend and will be spending a week on a beach in Hawaii, Kauai to be precise, yeah it's gonna be hell!

Anyway I'll be blogging little and often care of my iPhone.

Please don't hate me!

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Yeah but it’s a dry heat!

A slow week for my blog posts (and reads), but hey I am on vacation. Last weekend we loaded up the car and roof box and unloaded it and reloaded this time making it all fit, strapped the two kids in along with our nanny and her cousin and drove the 300 or so miles to Las Vegas; we have a big car. The idea being that the nanny gets a vacation as well and she had never been to Vegas so she looked after the boys in the morning and one day all day and the rest of the time she was off and we hung out as a family, other than having the car towed (long story) it’s all worked out pretty much. We’re not here for the gambling but totally enjoying the pool and of course the weather, the heat here has been a bit warm even for Vegas, the thermometer in the car topped out at 123f! There have been heat advisories on the radio and average temperatures are well into the 105-110f range each day.

This week being a down week I managed to get some training done under the heading of ‘heat training’ with three runs up the Strip, the first one nigh on killed me and from there I seemed to acclimatize to the heat better, slowing my pace right down and stopping multiple times to refill my water bottles at McDonalds etc and with a couple of walk breaks towards the end of the longest; which was about 14 miles. I was feeling the heat finishing around noon, what is it they say about mad dogs and Englishmen! We also spent a morning at the spa/gym at the Venetian (we’re staying off strip) and I used one of their Expresso exercise bikes which places you in a race; very cool, and then had a run on a treadmill; my first ever training ‘brick’! Of course it was followed by a massage and lunch on the ‘Grand Canal”.

Today we’re winding our way back to LA and the inevitable kit explosion that will ensue once we get home! Sunday I have my penultimate long run and my longest run yet, I’ll be running the Backbone Trail from end to end which is measured out at around 70 miles, so it’s an early start Sunday morning and no doubt a late finish, I am estimating something around 17-18 hours.