Finder of good newts
Goat - You're near Monterey? I grew up in Cambria. I've been wanting to do the Montana de Oro run. Wanna give me the scoop? I love PCTR runs. Sara and Wendell are really great.
Yup, I've been in Pacific Grove for about 10 years. I love it here for the variety of places to run and the consistent perfect running temperature.
I've done the 25km at Montana de Oro. If you can catch it on a clear day it is absolutely gorgeous (it's gorgeous anyway, mind you), with the first climb being a peak that juts straight up from the ocean. Now, every time we go back to Morro Bay I make sure to set aside half a day for a run there. Just watch out for the wind! The trails are a bit rocky too - so I wear my trail shoes.
You can camp in Montana de Oro, but there are no showers. We like the State Park at Morro Bay or Morro Strands. Also there's a set of trails that extend from Morro Bay State park that are really pretty nice.
I've done a handful of PCTR runs and volunteered a couple of times. I'm sad the one in Carmel Valley is gone.
~Andy (goat)
It's hard to look down if you don't go up
Well, Montana de Oro will stay on my list of "want to do" races. If for nothing else than to get back down to my old stomping grounds for a couple of days.
Unfortunately, any trail races we want to go to are a minimum of 4 hours away from us. Sort of keeps one from being able to volunteer. If I'm driving that far, I'm running the sucker!
There's a small group of us, though, that want to put together a trail race in our area on the new Pacific Royale trail in Shelter Cove, CA. It was put in by BLM as a mountain biking trail, but a couple of friends have run it and said it's a perfect place for a trail run. Keeping our fingers crossed that we can get something together in the next year or two. We already have a prize figured out for whoever DFLs.
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
Ultrachick
Hi Everyone! Good luck this weekend, Leslie!! While I'm working on my taxes I'll send speedy thoughts your way.
So I broke my running streak last Sunday-I didn't run. I did get a 21m long run done on Sat but missed the planned 12m I had for Sunday. It was my last day of ski school and I actually had a 10yr old to ski with all day, then go to my parents house for Easter. I guess I coulda/shoulda shot out for a quick 4 miler or something but I didn't. I didn't get home until 8:30pm and wasn't going out then either. And I've lived to tell about it-amazing!
It's been unseasonably warm here too-been able to run outside in shorts and t-shirt and sweat a little bit. The snow is melting fast and looks like there won't be much of a mud season either. I haven't checked out any trails yet-maybe this weekend.
Life is the usual busy-boys have started with lacrosse, psych paper is done (got an 85, wasn't my best effort), ski school is done and the only major life decision looming over my head is where to live-keep renting to stay in Charlotte or move back to my house in Essex. I'm crunching numbers and luckily both towns have excellent high schools for the boys and they still have friends in both places so I guess it comes down to numbers and where are we going to be happy. It will all workout somehow.
Glad to see everyone is doing well-Leslie, have fun!
Kelly
Happy
I am more or less completely stressed out and my training has fallen apart and has, to say the least, lost it's momentum too soon; however, I am still alive and kicking - I will be headed to Woods Ferry next week end to run at least 50K; I am fairly confident that I can complete a 50K even with the current training and foot issue (left foot). I will listen to my body when I am out there to see if by any chance my body is capable of doing the 40 miles I had had as my goal a few weeks back before things really started sliding for me.
I look forward to seeing Jen at the Woods Ferry.
Best of luck to Leslie this weekend! You've worked so hard and I know you'll do great! I can't wait to read your race report and find out how you felt your training prepared you for the big event
Flower, my training hasn't been going all that well either since the 12 hour. Here I thought that would prepare me for the 24 hour, but I didn't anticipate that it would kill my feet and just generally wear me out so much.
I had to DNF at a 50K last weekend due to foot pain, and I've never done that before so it really bummed me out. I got some new trail shoes (Cascadias) and I'm going to try to do a med-long run this weekend and try them out and see if the extra cushioning helps at all. If they work, I'm probably just going to do one more short run mid-next week and otherwise rest, ice and elevate.
Looking very forward to meeting you too, flower!
Best of luck to Leslie this weekend! You've worked so hard and I know you'll do great! I can't wait to read your race report and find out how you felt your training prepared you for the big event Flower, my training hasn't been going all that well either since the 12 hour. Here I thought that would prepare me for the 24 hour, but I didn't anticipate that it would kill my feet and just generally wear me out so much. I had to DNF at a 50K last weekend due to foot pain, and I've never done that before so it really bummed me out. I got some new trail shoes (Cascadias) and I'm going to try to do a med-long run this weekend and try them out and see if the extra cushioning helps at all. If they work, I'm probably just going to do one more short run mid-next week and otherwise rest, ice and elevate. Looking very forward to meeting you too, flower!
Oh, Jen - I am sorry to hear that you are having some issues; rest, ice and elevate sounds like what you need.
I was reading an article in The Ultra Running Magazine (current issue) last night discussing some of the mistakes many beginners to ultra running make. The point of the article was to point out how adaptation to training stress occurs only if one gives the body enough time to recover after a workout or race. If we go out and stress the body again too soon, meaning before the recovery and adaptation has taken place, there is no adaptation and in fact repeatedly applying stress too soon greatly increases the risk of injury. This is commonly considered an over-use injury - the article states, that more appropriately it should be called an under-recovery injury.
There is no need for me to go into detail as you can read the article for yourself. I highly recommend the article even though it is not exactly news to most of us who have read many books on running and training. Knowing this and applying it you one's own training is however often proving to be more difficult than comprehending it. When our training is going well we clearly feel it - we can do more and run faster and farther; however, that's when it gets difficult to hold back and give the body enough time to recover between workouts.
I mainly need to read this and look at the pictures of the stress-recovery cycle in order to remind myself of what I need to do.
Only one week to go before Woods Ferry - I can't wait to be out there with you, Jen, and all the other ultra runners and trail enthusiasts. If the weather holds it should be insanely wonderful.
WooHoo!!! Leslie finished!!!! I'll let her fill us in on the details...I already did post her time on the Masters thread we follow....it was kind of tricky finding that she finished at this point because the results page isn't up to date at this time (11:30pm eastern).
Imminent Catastrophe
Jen, hope the foot is OK, you've been putting some serious miles in.
I was hoping to be there at Woods Ferry with you and Flower but wasn't ready, have fun!
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain
"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.
√ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015
Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016
Western States 100 June 2016
"Run slowly, run daily, drink in moderation, and don't eat like a pig" Dr. Ernst Van Aaken. Sorry ultrasteve.
Congrats, Leslie! It was wonderful seeing you finish, and getting to meet you. I didn't want to intrude on your celebration, so we left right after I talked to you briefly. Hope you found a good place to celebrate- i should have told you all the local good places to go in town.
I tried to catch up with you at Rattlesnake Bar, but i think I left just before you came in. I ran the final 3 miles of the course today - from the rvier to the overlook. I can only imagine how you had to force yourself to keep going. Can't wait to here the details. Anyway, I'm so happy you finished!
17 miles on the treadmill today.
Greg....how do you do it? I would have quit from boredom after 6! Good for you though-there's some ultra mental training! I just got my long run done-I waited for the sun to come out and the temp to get above 50 so I wouldn't have to wear tights. Now I'm procrastinating about doing my taxes and writing an essay for my psych class. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon and glad to se you running again!
Star Wars VI and Gran Torino helped too.
Bacon Party!
Liz
pace sera, sera
Hi All! I'm here, alive and kicking
First - Landy - I was so, so happy to see you at the end. I just wish I had been more with it mentally to talk to you more. And I deeply apologize for calling you Lindsey. My brain was not working very well. Please know that if we are ever in such a situation again, you would not be an intrusion. I've met to RA peeps, you and Kelly, and feel blessed when I am able to do so. Maybe one of these days I can get down to your area just to have a fun run some day.
Me and Landy (w/my hat a bit askew and me quite a bit teary-eyed):
Greg - 17 miles on the treadmill? Yuck! Good going, dude.
Jen - So sorry to hear the foot is still giving you problems. Be very, very nice to it and don't push it too hard lest you end up with a worse problem.
Flower - Hang in there with the training. May just be your body needing a rest.
I'll do a race report, but in the meantime . . . . wow. One thing is definitely for certain - I could not have finished this race without my buddy, Karen, as my pacer. She was amazing. She yelled at me, cajoled me, laughed with me, cried with me, or just let me be whenever it was necessary. I barely made the second cutoff, and I only did that because of her, with 2 minutes to spare. The climb at the end - holy freaking cow. I finally told Karen I could power walk it, but there was no way I could even try to run any of it. It felt never ending.
Saturday evening, a lot of runners were staying at the same hotel we were. You could pick 'em out 'cause we were all walking the same - like we had cobs stuck up our butts. You'd see someone walking and say, "You run the race today?"
I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this, 'cause 2 days later, it feels sort of surreal. One thing is for sure, a lot of what kept me going was knowing how many people were rooting for me. When I wanted so bad to quit, you guys were constantly in my head, as were my friends here at home, and I just kept thinking that I couldn't let anybody down.
Thanks, guys.