Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Trail runs...
Today being my birthday, I took a day off from work and went for a run on one of my Favorite trails - the Gray Wolf trail into the Buckhorn wilderness area of Olympic Peninsula. Back in the '80s I would take my family camping there, usually at a campsite called Cliff Camp. Map here: http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/upload/WildernessMap.pdf. The trail ends at 4.2 miles - it used to go much further but there is a bridge washed out at that point and it is very risky to try to cross the river... I hadn't been there since 1986, but it was as beautiful as I remember - I could almost see my daughter's little blond head disappearing around a bend as she led the way.
I followed the plan I read somewhere in someone's account of Badwater: run the easy parts and walk the hard parts, and made the round trip (8.4 miles) in just under 3 hours. Might seem kind of slow, but remember there are some steep climbs and a lot of scrambling over/around/under windfall trees and such.
I learned a couple of things:
1) Bring more water!!! From now on, whatever I guestimate as the amount of water I need I will just double, then add a few pints
2) I am not in the shape I want to be in. By the end I was getting pretty fatigued, and had some cramping on the way home and after I got there (not fun since I was on a motorcycle!)
3) I am not in as bad shape as I thought I was. I ran most, or at least a significany portion, of the trail, even the hard parts.
4) trail running is a BLAST!
I followed the plan I read somewhere in someone's account of Badwater: run the easy parts and walk the hard parts, and made the round trip (8.4 miles) in just under 3 hours. Might seem kind of slow, but remember there are some steep climbs and a lot of scrambling over/around/under windfall trees and such.
I learned a couple of things:
1) Bring more water!!! From now on, whatever I guestimate as the amount of water I need I will just double, then add a few pints
2) I am not in the shape I want to be in. By the end I was getting pretty fatigued, and had some cramping on the way home and after I got there (not fun since I was on a motorcycle!)
3) I am not in as bad shape as I thought I was. I ran most, or at least a significany portion, of the trail, even the hard parts.
4) trail running is a BLAST!
Beginnings...
I have been fascinated by Badwater since the 1980s when I read about it in Runner's World magazine. Back then it was the Badwater 146, put on by Hi-Tec, and I was 30 years old, seriously out of shape and struggling to finish the Navy PRT run in time (PRT = physical readiness testing).
Since then I have run in at least 10 countries and completed 3 marathons, lots of shorter races and many sprint-distance triathlons, but since retiring from the Navy (with it's two-hours a day for fitness...) I have gotten more than a little out of shape. I ran a 1/2 marathon in 2006, but that is the extent of my running over the past 10 years or so.
Last summer (2009) I decided to get back into shape and start running again, with an eye toward eventually participating in ultramarathons and ultimately Badwater. I say participating rather than "competing" because I have never been anywhere near fast, no matter how much I love to run, and probably never will be. As is typical of beginners I got overzealous and violated the rule of too's (too much, too fast, too long too soon...) and ended up with knee pain, plantar fasciitis and ITB problems.
With all of that sorted out -hopefully- I am beginning again, again. I plan to use this blog as a record of my efforts, as a log and hopefully as a way to connect with some running partners. Like the old t-shirt said: "The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running!"
Since then I have run in at least 10 countries and completed 3 marathons, lots of shorter races and many sprint-distance triathlons, but since retiring from the Navy (with it's two-hours a day for fitness...) I have gotten more than a little out of shape. I ran a 1/2 marathon in 2006, but that is the extent of my running over the past 10 years or so.
Last summer (2009) I decided to get back into shape and start running again, with an eye toward eventually participating in ultramarathons and ultimately Badwater. I say participating rather than "competing" because I have never been anywhere near fast, no matter how much I love to run, and probably never will be. As is typical of beginners I got overzealous and violated the rule of too's (too much, too fast, too long too soon...) and ended up with knee pain, plantar fasciitis and ITB problems.
With all of that sorted out -hopefully- I am beginning again, again. I plan to use this blog as a record of my efforts, as a log and hopefully as a way to connect with some running partners. Like the old t-shirt said: "The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running!"
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