The last 6 weeks

November 21st 2011, Monday:

I want to first note the last 6 weeks were the inspiration in starting my own blog; maybe even the last 8 weeks is more accurate.

It all started on the famous South Kaibab trail down in the big ditch, aka: The Grand Canyon. I was on my way to a job in Albuquerque, NM and my boss allowed the off route excursion of which I was so grateful. The beauty surpassed all the photos I had seen as a kid reading SRA cards.

After the job in Albuquerque we decided to go for a once in a lifetime National parks extravaganza most of which would be in the beautiful Utah state. But first, there was this mountain trail marathon that I had caught glimpse of "The Sandia Mountain Crossing" from an online thread. While this is a low key race, it was not so with me. The views on the climb up were so beautiful! Most of the runners that I was kinda latching on to were probably sick of the "wholly shit that is so beautiful" or "wow look at that mountain". Any way I went ahead and ran my race. I took it pretty conservatively as it climbs from 5900' to 10300' and I was not sure of the effects coming from sea level and never having run at that altitude. Anyway I got 6th, I think mostly by being super patient on the way up and enjoying the view and then hammering on the rolling and down hill parts. And check it out, it was FREE! I got a shirt at the end, the people were great as you usually will find in trail running communities.
From here the trip took off and away we went to Santa Fe, Four Corners, Bandlier Park, Canyonlands (Needles section), Moab, Arches, Dead Horse State Park, Cedar City, Zion (did and 37 mile run from the left side of the park down in to Zion Canyon, absolutely one of the best runs ever!!!), Bryce and then to the Grand Canyon to do the full rim to rim crossing which I will always have fond memories, hiking from North to South with my crazy Canadian buddy Matt. (Thanks Dean for picking us up on the South Rim). I would like to make note that on the first hike which was down South Kaibab and up Bright Angel, I had decided to run up Bright Angel which I did and was very proud that I had ran the whole way. Well when I had reached the top bent over my knees pretty exhausted I came to find there were a whole slew of trail runners doing rim to rim. I found out on the second hike coming from the North Rim that ultra/trail runners do rim to rim to rim. I vowed I would one day come back and test my will in the big ditch!
After getting to my family's place in So. Cal and onward to my home here in Hawaii I started thinking about starting my own blog for my own pleasure and a means to express some of the adventures and experiences while out in the mountains, trails or wherever I may be.

The last 2+ weeks here on O'ahu have been pretty sweet to say the least. To start off, seeing all my friends of who I had missed so very much in the 2 1/2 months I was gone; and the island itself. Maybe it is just me, but there is something very calming about being on an island away from the mainland culture. That is not to say I dislike the mainland at all, quite the opposite but Hawaii will always be a special place for me.

Currently my next HUGE adventure lies in the preparation of the H.U.R.T 100 mile trail race in the hills above my apartment. So the last 3 weeks running/training log has been the following:

-November 1st, Tuesday
42 min moderate/steady pace on the Ala Wai and Kapi'olani Park, mostly to shake out the whole traveling/airplane feeling.

-November 2nd, Wednesday
2.75 mile run to Makiki Nature Center (I will just call this MNC), a Tantalus Triple Trek loop and then a 1 1/4 mile to my friends house. Total: 14 miles with around 2k gain/loss, 2h 11m

-November 3rd, Thursday
 Tantalus Triple Trek loop. Was told it was rolled and was indeed 10 miles, but it feels more like 9 just when related to the other trails and time it takes to cover them etc, just an opinion.

-November 4th, Friday
Off

-November 5th, Saturday
HURT loop, 20 miles, 4:24

-November 6th Sunday
HURT loop, 20 miles, 4:30

-November 7th, Monday
Off

-November 8th, Tuesday
Ran from apartment to the top of Diamond Head and back. 8+ miles

-November 9th, Wednesday
The last leg of HURT, to Nu'uanu and back. 14.4 miles, 2:39 plus 3-4 min as did this hill repeat style with small break after each climb.

-November 10th, Thursday
Off

-November 11th, Friday
TTT loop easy effort. 10 miles, 1:40.

-November 12th, Saturday
Same as wednesday, but more relaxed, was fun talked to some of the runners doing the HURT 100 mainly Bob and Barb McAllister (sorry for the spelling)

-November 13th, Sunday
6 miles easy around Kapi'olani park

-November 14th, Monday
Off

-November 15th, Tuesday
Koko Head hike and neighboring look out hike (about 5 miles total) with Tasha.
HURT loop in 4:28. PB&J sandwiches and endurolytes yum. Left ankle-impingement flared on the climb out of Nu'uanu.

-November 16th, Wednesday
Went to gym to supplement the back to back long run. 30 min stair climb, 60 min easy run on tread mill (9min pace), 60 min stair climb, 2 hour run on treadmill at 9 min pace (30 min at 6:50 pace, with a couple pick ups at end of run). Total time 4:30

-November 17th, Thursday
15-20 min jog/shakeout with Tasha down to Derussey and back. Legs super sore from the stair climber.

-November 18th, Friday
Went to gym. 90 min on Nordic cross trainer, 30 min easy on treadmill.

-November 19th, Saturday
Ran to KCC hard effort, hiked diamond head, walked around farmers market and the ran easy pace back home. 8+ miles

-November 20th, Sunday
HURT loop, starting at 5am, 4:33 and then TTT loop with a total of 6:29. Felt really good actually, got to run a bit with Bob McAllister on the TTT loop, he was doing a full loop, and was tempted to do the rest of the loop with him to make it 40 miles, but I had no food left so we parted ways and I finished my run. Took it easy on the steep hike sections to not flare up the left ankle and that seemed to help.

-November 21st, Monday
Today I literally did nothing but eat PB&J and sit on my rear end, it horrible but sometimes I feel you got to overly compensate even if other runners don't gorge on fatty food extremely excessively today was just one of those days.