Off Day

I chose not to go out today. Knee hurts a bit so I like to rest it. The good news is that I'm going to pace Dirt Diva during the AC100 in a few weeks. I'm stoked! It will be cool to run with somebody at that level. I will use the experience to get my ass motivated to run my own 100. I'm thinking of a 50 in February. Since I did not run today I will use throw in a pic of my dog.
I like to use snow pictures when I'm hot

Catch up entry

Oh yea,
Once again I have been neglecting my blog. I am happy to say that is mostly due to the fact that I have been spending more time running than I had been over the last month.

Good news and bad news.
Good news is that since my wife has a kick ass job and I am one of the few Americans that have health insurance. It had been a few years since I was covered. So, I went to the doctor to get checked out for the hell of it and I am in pretty darn good shape. The only hitch is the beginning of arthitus in my left knee. I have been suffering knee pain for the last few years and I thought it was just my body rebelling against the higher mileage I wanted to run (and basically it is). Looks like I have a great doc. I told him that I had no intentions of stopping running because of some stupid knee pain and he said it wouldn't be a problem as long as I stayed off the road. SWEEEEEEEEET......... I hate running on the road.

We have been hiking up Baden Powell out of Wrightwood. It is so nice to get out of the smog and into some elevation. It is a nice hike and a fun run down. I guess people are training for the AC100 right now. I wish I had the poop to go for it. Although, last Monday I threw caution to the wind and got a day permit for San Gorgonio Mountain.

San Gorgonio
I woke up Monday morning with and itch I had to scratch. That itch was along run, an adventure. So, as my wife got ready for work I half-assed my running kit together and made ready for an all day run. I said good bye to my wife and rolled down the road to the unknown. I got to the ranger station at around 8:15 got my permit to be on the mountain and the permit to park my truck. As the ladies were telling me of all the trails I could run I did not pay attention to the trail they put on my permit. OH Well. They gave me some fact sheets and news letters and I was off...... Only a half hour up the mountain to the parking area and I would be off. After twentyfive minutes I thought something was amiss Hmmmmmmm. So I pulled over...going through all of the papers the nice ladies gave me I could not find my parking permit. Down the mountain I go back to the ranger station. lo and behold it had fallen out of the F*cking pile of papers the nice ladies at the ranger station gave me. BACK UP THE MOUNTAIN I go. Good thing gas is so cheap right now or I would have been pissed. Did I mention I drive a fullsize pick up.

I was in great spirits to be up in the mountains to foolishly head out into the unkown all by myself. Man do I love being stupid. Pull on my trail shoes , strap on my camelbak, (even used sunscreen on my nose and ears) and I'm off. I would love to say that I was in a nice steady run from the truck to the summit,but a liar I'm not. A knuklehead maybe, but not a liar. Anyhow I'm off at a mix of steady jogging and power walking. I stopped a few time to snap some photo's and eat a little along the way. Since I lost over an hour driving back to get my parking permit I was on a tight time schedule. I would have to reach the summit in three hours or turn around and go back to the truck. It was pretty much a great assent. I kept an eye on my watch the whole time. As It got close to the three our cut off I started to get discouraged that I was not going to make the summit. I decided to switch over to my clock instead of the stopwatch I had been using and it was only 12:45 that meant I still had 15 minutes to reach the summit. Whoopee..... I went for it. I came around the bend and I probably had 500 yards the summit. I was able to break into a comfortable run. I hit the summit in 3:09. I was happy with that. Met some folks up there took turns taking photos for each other, had a snack, back down I go........


The run down was fairly uneventful until.........I got to a break in the trail and lost the damn thing. I'm not one to lose trails easy, I'm pretty good at finding my way. But, was somewhere new and walking in circles. Not fun....Went back up to where I lost the trail and found it again. Whew.....I was cruising along fairly well, I had to slow down at times because the trail was too rocky to run. I was paying attention to the fact that I was alone. I was hydrating along the way not wanting to cramp up. Guess who did not bring enough water..... Doh' I ran into a pack of scouts heading out on a backpacking trip. When one of the scouts asked me"how far did you get?" I proudly replied "to the top". Now after that I felt it would have been awkward to ask for some water. " Dumbass can make it to the top but doesn't bring enough water" I felt I had to suck it up and make it back to the truck. It was a long trip not having anymore water,live and learn. I made the return trip to the truck in 2:12. Not a minute to soon cuz I was wrecked. Luckily I keep a rather large first aid kit in the truck stocked with water and a lovely can of peaches. Who cares that they were piss warm. Those peaches were damn good.....

All in all I made it to my wifes work with plenty of time to spare. I came home to find that it was a 23mile round trip from 6600' to 11500'. Not bad for a day off

Lazy..................

I am so bad about keeping up my blog. Since I do not sit a t a computer durring my work day, sitting down to write is not high on my list of things to do with my free time. I have been running though. I found some good trails in Loma Linda down the road from where I live. I have not crossed paths with any rattle snakes yet, But I'm always looking.

Road Trip

Well..........
I did it 2100 miles in four days. What a pain in the Butt! Literally. I got a cramp in one of my cheek's that really got my attention. The first day was 14 hrs. behind the wheel. Damn that was long. Second day 10 , third day 3,fourth day 6.
We broke it up so we could relax in Flagstaff. Which was a great idea. We were able to go hiking for a couple of hours which helped to loosen up the body after being crapmed up in the truck for a couple of days. Then off to a nice meal. Very much needed after eating nasty road food. We arrived in Redlands mid afternoon Sunday and have been waiting for our furniture since. I got a call and it should be here first thing tomorrow morning. What a relief. I have run twice since being in town. Yesterday and today man is it hot, but nice and dry! Not nearly as uncomfortable as the midwest. We will see what happens next in our new town!

Moving Day

We are packing up the last few items today. The movers will come and load the truck at some point today and we will leave Thursday moring. So I will post next week from our new home in California.

Hot Hot Hot

Went for an early road run this moring. Trying to beat the heat. Running in the Midwest is like putting a treadmill in your bathroom while running the shower full blast steaming up the place. Tech fabric? Forget it. They don't dry fast enough (or at all) to have any cooling effect. The weatherman said he saw a firework shoot up in to the sky " and get stuck". I'm just babbling as the movers are packing our stuff and I seem to be getting in the way. Here is a pic of what we are leaving. I posted the winter pic beacuse I'm thinking cool thoughts. Plus it's the nicest picture we have.

Running in the Heat

Went for 14/15 miles not really sure on the trail length. Met up with some friends for a very hot and humid run in the woods loops of a 7 or 7.5mile trail. I am trying to upload an image to make this blog a little more interesting.

Saturday Run

I have been remiss in posting. My upcoming move has changed my schedule. I have really slacked off on running. It is easy to do when your schedule changes. We were supposed to move last week, but the movers botched that up. You would think I took the extra time to run, I didn't. I really need a race in the distance to keep me motivated. I have been able to get some nice runs in with my friends here in Bloomington. I will miss running with them. I am heading out for 14 miles in a few hours probably my last group run here. It will be fun.

Sunday's Run

Went for an early run on Sunday morning. Ran the upcoming 1/2 marathon course. Could not have asked for better weather. It is so nice to run in the woods in the spring time in the Midwest. That will be one of the things I miss. Californians have no idea what season are really like. I know I didn't till I moved out here. Due to the early start I have time to come home and shower eat lunch and watch a movie before I headed out to my buddy's house to shoot the breeze about life and go for a couple hour ride on his horses. Life does not get much better than that! Two trips to the woods in a day.

Sunday Morning

Has been a few weeks since I posted. We have been busy , my wife just graduated from graduate school with two masters in three years. We have been looking at new places to live as she is now a librarian. We will be moving in a few weeks to southern California. I do not know what that will hold for us but I'm looking forward to it. This will be a short post I am leaving for training run. I'll continue later.

Wednesday

Went to work and the city had torn up the street right in front of the house I am working on. Bummer.....Had to take the day off. I was leaving early anyway to take my wife to the airport as the job search continues. I should have squeezed a run in but I took the dog swimming instead, she was happy. But, all in all a great day!

Day One

Today was a great day! Woke up sober and will hopefully go to sleep the same in an hour or so. Had a good day at work was able to get out and run a few miles in lovely 75 degree weather. I am a little worried I run my Boston a little too hard. She will be two next month and nobody told her she was not supposed to be a trail runner. It is amazing to watch that 20lb. mutt flash through the woods. It is great to have a running partner that is always ready. As this is my first entry in my new blog I will keep it short and hopefully interesting.

My goals........
1. Move in the next three months, where ? I don't know. Wife is getting a new job we just don't where.

2. Run a 50 miler when and where depends on #1

3. Be happy, depends on me

4.Learn....... anything good or bad

5.Be open