July 2016 recap

After about a week of dead rest, this morning I got up and did a 20 miler up  Mt. Wilson:  Walk up, run down, total time 4:18.  I felt pretty good.  I had taken most of the week off as a dead rest to allow my left calf to heal after pinging it the previous week running on a treadmill in Wuhan China.

July started off well as I had gotten in some great running while on vacation with the family visiting various national parks in Utah, Colorado and Arizona.  I  had a great 28 miler on July 2 to prepare myself to pace Greg Frye at the the Santa Barbara 100 on July 8-9.  That Friday night I drove out to Santa Barbara and up into the mountains, arriving at  Cold Spring Saddle around 10:30pm.

Cold Springs Saddle, mile 30 at SB100

Greg came through a bit before midnight.  Seeing him off I drove down a rutted dirt road in my Honda (not recommended) to Romero Camuesa, mile 42, where I caught a catnap before waking up at 3am to get ready to pace.  We left the aid station around 4am and had a great run together down to the 50 mile turnaround.  Sunrise was awesome:

Greg Frye running through the dawn at SB100

The trip back to to Romero  was a steady climb and it was getting hot.  Finally clearing Romero we hit single track on the route down to Montecito.  The single track was great but quite overgrown with nettles and poison oak -- despite the heat I was glad to be wearing long pants and a long shirt.  We hit a fire road and did some fast running down to the aid station.  From there, as the heat and humidity built, we started the long ascent back up to Cold Springs.  This climb seemed to violate certain laws of physics as it just seemed to go on forever-  and Greg was clearly suffering although not giving voice to it.  His stoicism and determination was an experience to witness and I am glad to have been able to be a part his run as his pacer.

Greg's pal Jonathan took over pacing duties from Cold Spring while I got lost on the twisty backcountry roads trying to get to the next aid station.  I finally met up with my family at White Oak, where the boys and I had a dip in the Santa Ynes River while waiting for Greg.  We just got out of the water when Greg came through.  Helping him with some hot spots on one foot, we then headed out for dinner and returned to the course to see him finish.

The following week I flew to China for business.  Extreme  heat and humidity kept  me indoors for most of my running and I got in a couple fast 10ks  on the hotel treadmill.  On Thursday morning I got up to do a treadmill workout but was pushed for time. I cut my warm-up short and started running fast after only walking about 5 minutes.  Unfortunately I got a knot in my calf about 2 miles into the run and had to cut it short.  I rested  the next two days, and back in  California went out on Mt Wilson last Sunday-  but that calf knotted up again about 5 miles in.  I turned around and ran back which aggravated it further.  A walk on Monday and a short run on Tuesday convinced me that I needed to rest completely and focus on trigger point work with a foam roller and a tennis ball.  This seemed to have worked as I had no issues with the calf on my 20 miler this morning.

I've been considering ramping my mileage and running something in September, maybe Kodiak, however this plan is contingent on my work travel schedule and takes second priority to getting out with my kids to have some summer fun.