Discretion over Destruction!

It took a full five days and and 90 minutes being kneaded like a piece of 3 week old dough on a massage table for me to feel like me legs have grown back. I probably didn’t help the cause much as this week has been another full on week at work and that has resulted in err nada training during the week. On Twitter I asked the question was I on a permanent taper as I am not running between races or am I just a lazy bum? Ach whatever really, I am enjoying the runs and that’s what counts. There’s no chances of me setting the world alight with my performance but these are just fun runs on the trails and I get to hang out with some like minded people. Tomorrow I am at the PCTR Pt Mugu race, Billy, Rachel, Penny, Emil and Dave will be there for sure.

That being said with Penny scaling back her 50k attempt to 30k this weekend I am off the hook for my pacing duties and so I dropped to to the 30k also. I was pretty good through to 15 miles last weekend and so I think I can bluff my way to the end, the last three miles are not as quad busting as Catalina it should also reduce the recovery time as I am supposed to be running a family Turkey Trot on Thursday!

Another thing that’s going to be different is the weather:

Last weekend (Catalina Eco Marathon 2010)	Forecasted for Sunday (PCTR Pt Mugu 50k 2007)

As I look out the window, it’s drizzling and it’s been raining all night…bring it on I say, that’ll make it just more fun in my books, here’s the actual forecast:

So that’s my plans for my weekend as always I will running along grinning grimacing like a fool! Performance wise – well somewhere around 3:45 would be good!

Finally good luck to Wes at IronMan Arizona tomorrow, I am (as usual) behind on everyone else's adventures so if you are racing this weekend good luck to you to!

Red Flag Warning!

Trail Runners,

Due to the HIGH FIRE DANGER in the Santa Monica Mountains, we must postpone the XTERRA Boney Mountain Xduro. This is required by the California State Parks who closes the park when a RED FLAG WARNING is posted.

The new date is January 10, 2009. Similar to last year, ALL ENTRIES will be transferred for FREE to this new date UNLESS you fill out a transfer form by November 21, 2008. If you are transferring to another event, there is a $10 charge, so please include this check when you mail in your form. Transfer forms can be found on trailrace.com in the NEWS section and the BONEY MOUNTAIN event page.

We apologize for any inconvenience for this, but we are at the mercy of the weather and the managing agencies.

We’ll see everyone at one of our upcoming events:
11/1/08 SkirtChaser 5k
11/29/08 XTERRA Topanga Turkey Trot
12/14/08 XTERRA Crystal Cove Trail Run
1/10/09 XTERRA Boney Mountain Xduro (revisited)

The Generic Events Crew

Fire Season is really going on for an extended time this year and while some parts of the US and Canada have seen their first dusting of snow or even a bit more than that, we are still; well I hesitate to use the words “enjoying” or “suffering” as it falls somewhere in between, temperatures in the eighties and nineties. There was another fire in the Sepulveda Pass by the 405 freeway which I use to go to work Wednesday night night, it was closed all night, when I got there yesterday morning around 6:30 they were still working the firelines and helicopters were dropping water, it was quickly contained but still burnt 150 acres! Now this makes me so mad, I am driving behind a women as we are literally, literally driving by the fire, what does she do; throw a lit cigarette butt out the window, ugh stupid b***h! OK Rant over.

I quickly switched everything around to its usual (ish) state. I hit the roads on the bike last night around 9pm, like I said it’s warm so shorts and short sleeve top and arm warmers were all I needed for a quick 45 min/13 mile spin, then hopped on the treadmill for the first 10/10/10 session, the end target here is ten miles at 10 minute pace at 10% incline, this was to be a one mile effort and it’s unlikely that I’ll get to the full 10 miles but I will be increasing it weekly. I borrowed it from Davy Crocket and it is brutal; I managed .78 of a mile in 10 minutes or the full mile in 12:34 through a mix of walk, run, shuffle. Tonight I have my tempo run of 8 miles, which closes out week 9 of training and then tomorrow a 22 miler kicks off week 10 although with all the parks potentially closed that might mean some quick thinking!

I also got an email from the RD of Twin Peaks saying that she is adding a 100k distance to February’s race, December’s is a carry over from this February due to wildfires (notice a theme) and that next year’s is the last one, so I have changed my plans and will register for that instead, Coyote 2 Moons can wait till 2010, and I’ll also save $175 as the race entry for Twin Peaks is only $75 compared to $250. What this does mean is that I need to decide what to do in January; Calico Trail 50k or Catalina Island 50m…decisions decisions!

I'll be announcing the new competition over the weekend/Monday: "Swap-Beat". It will be starting November 10th and I have some excellent swag so check back and sign up, and Laura and Swimfan I promise to mail you your winnings; the wildfires and such got in the way, yeah blah blah blah, but I will!

Have a good weekend everyone, may you heels be clean, your pace fast and your taper sufferable!

Local Wildfires; day three

Overnight the 2000+ Firefighters working the fire-line managed to contain 20% of the blaze and hope to have it contained 100% by this time tomorrow.

The winds continue to blow it West through Simi Valley and through the hills, mercifully sparing property. As of this morning 13,400’ acres had been burnt; you can see the extent of it on the map.

The air quality has cleared due to the change in wind direction and last night the moon was white again and the stars shone brightly.

The evacuations have been lifted and nearly everyone is able to return to their homes. 19 buildings were destroyed and two people were killed; a homeless person who lived in the hills and the driver of a car involved in an accident, possibly smoke related. One Firefighter sustained an minor injury.

It’s been a long dry Summer and despite being October little there has been little of no rainfall since March/April. Hopefully we’ll get a wet winter. It’s a stark reminder of the price we pay for living in such a beautiful part of the world..well that and the earthquakes.

Thank you all for you thoughts and comments. I hope to report tomorrow that normal blog service has been resumed.

Local Wildfires; evening update

Driving along PCH there was a thin layer of smoke flowing off shore, there had actually been little coverage in the press during the day and I wondered what would be in store once I reached the San Fernando Valley. I was pleased to see or not see as the case was that there was no fire visible on the far hills, last night there were three distinct red glows.

As of 6pm there remains zero containment and we remain on alert for possible evacuation. The burn size now exceeds 13,000 acres; the burn has now extended South West, driven by the wind, away from us towards Simi Valley. As a result the quality of air has somewhat improved for us and there is no longer a taste to it.

The wind seems to be dying down, hopefully it will remain that way to allow the firecrews to get some form of cordon around the fireline during to coolness of the evening.

Local Wildfires; morning update

Quick update. As you may have seen on TV the Sesnon Fire, which is the one that is closest to us, doubled during the night to nearly 10,000 acres, to visualize that; an acre is roughly the size of an American Football field. There is zero containment and the winds reached 70mph during the night. They are forecast to ease later this afternoon. So far the evacuation area stayed at the same boundary as it was last night. There is an evacuation advisory for people living West of Valley Circle, which we do, my assumption here is simply that there is no vehicular access west of us, the road ends and becomes a trailhead and from there onwards is only acres of tinder dry parkland and my much loved trails. But so far for where we are nothing is mandatory.

When I left for work this morning at 6:15am the glow on the hillside seemed smaller than it was at midnight last night. As you would expect there is a large Police presence in the area and I counted at least 20 Police cars with sirens and lights on heading North as I was driving South on the 405 Freeway.

As you would expect there is plenty of coverage in the media, if you want to keep up with it I have found the using Google News and the keys words “Sesnon Fire” is the most expedient way.

Thank you all for you words of support, I am not a religious person but my thoughts and gratitude go out to the firefighters who are on the fire-line.

SoCal Fires strike again!

Right now we're one mile from the evacuation zone; the red area on the map, we live in the circled area, the air is pretty acrid and the moon has an orange glow to it from the smoke!

We've packed external hard drives, photos, documents and a couple of suitcases of clothes etc.

There are two fires blazing to the North and North East neither of which have any containment!

A problem with wind!

80 miles was the order of the day. I started early and was on the road by a little after 5am. I had thought about the route and instead of doing an out and back along Pacific Coast Highway I decided to throw in some hill work and ride a familiar square and add a short PCH out and back to top up the mileage. It was dark and cold when I left, the darkness was gone a lot earlier than the cold and my layering included a windjacket, tights, feet warmers and winter gloves, and I needed then all, the first downhill was bracing with tears streaming from my eyes as I grimaced in the dark. As I rode further out of town I went to check my back light and realized it was missing, I still had a least another hour to dawn and so I took the light off my handlebars (which was white) set it to strobe and mounted it facing backwards on my seat stem, this left me a headtorch and a small “to be seen by” not “to see with” light at the front end, Other than being pissed about losing the light I wasn’t too worried about seeing as I knew I had 10 miles of climbing ahead and by the time I got to top the sun would be up. An hour later I was at the top and the sun was setting the sky of fire as it blazed through the thin cloud on the horizon, see above.

I had been noticing that as I got higher and closer to the ocean the wind had been picking up and as I started the descent I was being buffeted across the road, from heavy sidewinds and then I encountered a headwind that actually slowed me down as I was going downhill! The wind was going to be a feature and mostly in my face what ever direction I followed for the next 45 miles, bleeding my average speed from 16mph to a pedestrian 13mph, and where only two weeks ago I was averaging 17mph! I pushed out for 9 miles on the out and turned around heading back south along PCH enjoying the rolling road when I wasn’t being blown from side to side or to a virtual standstill, finally after two hours I had covered the PCH section and turned into the final climb through Topanga Canyon, a mile into the Canyon the wind dropped and I was able to make good speed, speed is relative when you on a 10 mile climb, but I felt good and kept my cadence up. I had one eye on the clock, as always, as the decrease in average speed had meant a slower than anticipated journey time. I topped out 50 minutes later and enjoyed the 2 mile descent the other side. Five miles after that I was home and enjoy eggs, bacon, Belgium waffles fresh coffee and a liberal handful of RecoverEase!

I seem to be destined to not quite make the distance on these long rides and this week was no exception coming up four miles short; but I’ll take it, I easily had the missing four in my legs and in fact, time notwithstanding, I could have gone on for another 20 or so.

So the final tally was 75.77 miles. 6:04 total time, 5:48 saddle time and a smidge under 8000' of climbing, my average pace sucked due to the wind, a fact that was reinforced in the short periods of time when I was out of the wind. On the way round I got through 4 gels, 2 packets of Cliff ShotBlocks and a Cliff Kid's Bar as well as over 60oz of fluids.

I have one more long ride next week and then I switch up to weekly long runs. No significant photos this week but here’s the MotionBased data:

Be careful what you wish for!

Anyone who has been reading my blog for more than a couple of months will have heard me lament how long Summer was lasting. Despite being October we are still experience hot days, and during the week I found myself running in 90 degrees at five in the afternoon, well yesterday Fall arrived. I set out for my 10 miles last night at 8:30pm and stood on the porch thinking I was under dressed in a long sleeve shirt and shorts; the thermometer said 50 degrees! That’s a forty degree difference! A tad extreme and a bit more a change than I was looking for! I turned around and redressed in CR-W ¾ insulated tights (review to follow) and a thermal top…hmm toasty. Ninety minutes later I was back on my porch. The respite in the weather is short lived though, the forecast is for the Santa Ana winds to kick up next week, these are warm dry desert winds that suck the moisture out of the air and blow grit in you eyes, it also means that the parks will have fire advisories issued!

Last night's run finished off week 7 of the plan; 46 run/26 bike, tomorrow I have my penultimate long bike ride; 80 miles, I have had to switch around run/bike weekends as I am racing on the 25th so my last ride is next weekend and then the cycling is replaced with long runs every week until I start to taper on November 29th.

My wife totally rocked out her Tri last weekend, despite have 5’ breakers on the beach to contend with, she has signed up for the Pasadena Half Marathon in December and will be doing another Tri next year although this time she is promising to train for it...jeez at this rate she'll be starting a blog soon too!

Finally good luck to Billy racing at the Long Beach Half Marathon and Sara who is looking for a BQ in Chicago this weekend and of course to everyone else racing.