Run With Garrison

Aloha everyone!

I am currently sitting in beautiful downtown Los Gatos, California. I am in Northern California for the Mt. Diablo Trail Challenge 50k on Saturday. My trip to Norcal was pretty ideal. I picked up an awesome Carnitas burrito from Whole Foods on the way to the airport, no traffic on the H1, easy parking in the secret lot by the Lei stands, and to top it all off, I found a TSA security checkpoint with no line. Today has been another easy day. Woke up at Dan’s house in Oakland and went for a nice 9 miler around the campus of UC Berkeley. It is the first really hot weekend here in the Bay Area. Should make the race conditions extra brutal tomorrow. However, I should be acclimated to the heat since I do most of my running at home during the heat of the day.

Training for the last 2 weeks has been nice and steady. I went to the track and put in a 4xmile workout with a minute rest. Averaged 6:32. First 3 felt good and the wheels fell off on the 4th. Gerry Lindgren was at the track and ran the first and last 400 of each repeat with me just for fun. It was a big help to have him running on my shoulder. It is not everyday that we get to run with legends of our sport. I talked with Gerry about my upcoming Ultra plans and he said that I would be fine because I was a tough runner—that totally made my week. Tim and Marianne, 2 of Hawaii’s best endurance athletes, were also at the track. We cooled down together and I hope to get in some workouts with them this Spring and Summer.

Mileage for the past 2 weeks—April 2-8 I ran 55 miles with just that 1 workout on the track. The week served as a recovery week and included a 2 hour massage with Barbara @Massage Specialists. Last week, April 9-15, I ran 78.4 miles with a few runs up on Tantalus. Since I am now committed to an attempt at the HURT 100, I decided that I need to spend a lot more time in the trails where the race is run. The trails are as beautiful as they are brutal. Unreal scenery along with an equally unreal amount of ankle breaking roots. My hope is that the more time I spend up there, the better prepared I will be for the HURT and any other trail race on my horizon. The run was awesome and I am looking forward to making it a weekly part of my training.

Heading in to the race tomorrow, I feel not quite fit physically. I’m still back to building some base mileage following Rocky Raccoon but I am 100% healthy. Which feels great. I have decided that I would rather be a few pounds heavy and healthy than being a bit more fit but banged up—I hope that makes sense. Mentally, I feel ready to run well tomorrow. The course record is right around my 50k PR of 5:02. There are also quite a few fast guys to follow through 7000+ feet of climbing in the hot hills of the East Bay—should be a fun trip. The race starts out in Brentwood and heads thru Morgan Territory. The tough climbs seem to be in the first 10 miles with another significant climb around 16 miles. Once again, P will be out on the trail supporting and inspiring me—What a blessing!!!! I think she will try to update the blog during the event and we will get a post up hopefully right after the race.

Thanks for all the help and support!