Friday, January 15, 2010

No Light...No Problem...Stagecoach in the Dark

This has been one of those weeks...A week where things have not turned out as planned and adaption has been the rule of the game so far. The good side of things is I have stuck to the plan regardless of some things that occurred.

Northern California has been in the fog for the last 10 days or so and recently some pretty heavy downpours. We really need this but getting in sun keeps me in a good mood. After the Nichols run I started to review the upcoming week and training schedule. There where going to be some issues between work and getting in the time to run. I actually handled this pretty well. I would hold to working as late as possible and then cut off the meeting or conference call and head out the door. I had been doing more road running and building speed according to the workouts. The trails where calling by middle of the week so I did my speed work there and that helped cheer me up. When the sun finally did come out on Wed...I had a cross train and weight session scheduled...jeeez but I went and did that. Come Thursday I had a hectic work day with meetings in Sacramento ..I left the last meeting and headed out the door for Auburn to run the Stagecoach Loop..

I got to the Overlook about 5pm and bolted out to the trail..grabbed my bottle and flashlight and ran down the trail....Still some light and I felt I could get to the 49bridge before total darkness...As I crested near Robie..and heading down WS and the black hole it got dark..I looked to my trusty flashlight...DANG! DEAD Batteries! I was running well,running hard and felt no way would I turn back then...I would just be careful as it got DARK! I am not too skiddish about running alone on trails I just did not want to fall...I ran hard to nohands and sprinted across 49bridge lucky no car traffic at the time..I got to the base of stagecoach where it was really dark..Pace slowed to a slow shuffle..even though I know this trail like the back of my hand it was still hard in total darkness..this is a wide old stagecoach road but ruts and rocks abound so slow run..The plus side to this is the pace was so slow I never went too high in the heart rate and it was really comfortable from that standpoint...But slow. I finally made it to Foresthill Road and was careful running back to the overlook..I enjoyed it though..WHY? Because it was a challenge to finish this in the dark..not smart but a bit more difficult and there where no other folks out on the trail the whole time..I love running in solitiude like that.

So the week and mileage is where it is supposed to be I keep asking myself if I should be doing more but this is January not March or April! No travel to LA so I will be running part of the Quad Ball with Nichols and others...Gotta be flexible and go with the flow...

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