Another Back-to-Back & Taper?

This past weekend I did my forth back-to-back weekend in this training cycle: a 19/11, a 17/18, a 20/10 last weekend, and now this:

Saturday: Inside Trail Racing's Chabot Trail Run 30k

When so many of my Bay Area friends signed up for this race, it took no time at all for me to be convinced to join. I had never run Lake Chabot, I could stand to use more miles on the trails, and any reason to see friends is a good enough one for me.

I ran the first two miles or so on my own, until I caught up with Kim, a friend of Aron's. What started with a few basic life questions turned into 16 more miles of truly great company. As Aron always says, "To really get to know someone, do a long run with them." Kim & I really connected on this scenic trail run, and we had a great day chatting, hiking, and having a good time. She is training for a 50 miler & I got to pick her brain a bit about ultras. It was a lot of fun!

Kim & me approaching an aid station.

At the top peak, we could see the Bay (way in the distance) and hills forever.

Funny. I am missing a picture of Lake Chabot. I swear it was there.

Friends in the sun! 

18.22 miles/3:22:50/2,245' climbing

Sunday: San Bruno Mountain Ultramarathons' Half Marathon

A few months ago, Alisyn won an entry into an inaugural race just south of San Francisco. She had tried to convince a few people to join her, but after looking at the website and seeing how disorganized it was & how many details were missing, I wasn't sold. I planned on doing my second long run on my own & save my hard-earned dough instead, until about 6pm Saturday night... I decided I would give it a shot & join Alisyn for my second long run of the weekend. I signed up for this inaugural race despite not even knowing where the starting line was (yes, those kinds of details were missing), and let me say, I am SO glad I did it!

Lake Chabot was fun and a great challenge, but the San Bruno Mountain half marathon was another story. It had the same amount of climbing in 13 miles as we did in 18 miles the day before. That phrase "what goes up must come down" definitely did not apply to this race. I don't know how this race director did it, but we had us running various routes around the San Bruno Mountain State Park, and somehow made the course nearly entirely uphill. What downhills we did have were so steep they were nearly unrunnable and completely unrelenting.

But, despite my slow pace, I charged up almost every hill on the course & had a really great confidence-boosting race, especially coming off a challenging run the day before.

Teeny tiny San Francisco to the distant right. 

This was the biggest downhill we had. It's hard to tell from this angle, but people were trying not to tumble down toward the water. I slid a few feet a couple times and miraculously kept my balance -- it was so steep that it would have been easier to crab-crawl than walk.

Then we turned around at the bottom & went back up for endless climbing toward the finish.

The hills were hard, but the views did not suck.

More up.

 More, more up.

 Alisyn, her friend Shannon & I all crossed the finish together!

13 miles/2:55:04/2,195' climbing

This race was wayyy harder than my longer race the day before, but I felt great the entire time. I'm so glad I went to do this race and when they hold it again next year, I'll be back. :)

Taper time!  
With this past weekend of races, I now start tapering... although I'd be lying if I said I thought I deserved a taper. My back-to-backs didn't hit the miles I wanted to hit and I didn't do as many of them as I initially dreamed of doing. My overall weekly mileage numbers were low compared to what I usually run. I only did one 20-miler whereas I usually do a few more than that for a marathon. But, excuses aside, I did what I could given my gimpy hip, life/work/apartment changes, & everything else that seems to happen when you're alive & trying to live that life.

And even though I have no goals for Way Too Cool other than to finish, I am happy to rest up a little bit & take on my first 50k in 12 days!