Getting Ready for Dipsea, an early wake up call and all those WS stats..

During these last few weeks I have had some busy days at work followed by a lot of good runs during the weekend. Why can't everyday be like Saturday or Sunday with no work pressure just get out and run for hours. Hmm..too bad my retirement money tanked last year like so many..

Weekdays in the fall have been mixed with lots of work often starting by 6am and getting calls throughout the day. During that time if I am at home I can snag some time out to run Stagecoach or head over to the gym for an hour(that is all I can really handle there..). I had a friend from Seattle stop by one day last week for a run on the trails. I forgot how slow I have gotten over the last two years since he is on the 3hr marathon kick...We went out to run in Auburn and the trails..He loved it and I took him on Down Stagecoach up K2 and back down from Cool and back. This 9mile run with steep climbs on K2 where easy for him..me and my ultra set mind took it slower up K2. We each have different goals but this was a training run..why did I stay behind him and not push so hard?

That was a wakeup call of sorts..I am not in bad shape at all for this time of season and pushing towards Quad Dipsea in November. It had me realize I need to squeeze any type of workout in during the work week in order to get better. So it was good I experienced this ego momement climbing up K2.

As described I am working towards doing Quad Dipsea in late November. I have been running a lot up StageCoach, K2 etc and make these longer time out on the trails.

Here is a 13mile training run profile with me starting at the top of Stagecoach and climbing K2 twice and running down WS as a loop then finish with running up Stagecoach.


I did this last Saturday..I would have done three loops but I needed to be somewhere in Tahoe that afternoon..Funny I was tired and had my last climb up to my car at Stagecoach...just at the base there was a girls cross country team getting ready to run up stagecoach..I thought dang..I don't want to run that hard and race these girls (even though I had been out for two hours) I did not want to get chicked...
So I had to run as fast as I could to the top..tired but a good week of running indeed.

Be sure to check out the latest stats on the Western States sign up on Ultra Sign Up..lots of info on who is invited to run, where the runner applicants came from and their races used to qualify..

First Fall Storms, Good running and WS Lottery

Finally with these past two weekends temps have broken and today we have our first "winter" storms of the season hitting today. Snow Levels will be high but at least with the rain the trails will pack down a bit. It has been very nice recovering from SNER with the last four long runs comprising of long steady ascents up the WS trail to Cool and then finish it off later in the run with the climb up Stagecoach. The quads are getting stronger, heart rate lower but the pace remains slow. No worries. Some track workouts and occasional tempo will take care of that.
These long recovery runs have only lasted 3hours max and then follow that up the next morning with a 1.5 hour run. Not really long time on trails but that is going to increase this weekend with a 4hr run I am planning from Cal Street to Cal3 and back..this will give me long descents and long climbs..perfect for Quad Dipsea.

With the Western States Lottery open on till the 15th there are over 1500 folks on the list so far! Wow...Some names of very familiar folks and some new ones, I scanned the list and saw some suprises and I hope to run into them this winter on the trails...

Have a fun week....Tony