Next up: Skyline-to-the-Sea

Chaparral

I've been super busy with family stuff, also trying to get some work done, so I apologize
to my blog friends for not visiting your sites more extensively and commenting. I do hope to return to form shortly now that I'm back in my normal routine (and the rains seem to have stopped here finally!)

Thanks for all your comments on LA. It was an unforgettable day!

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It's now been 9 days since and I've done 11 miles...I now feel pretty healed up and ready for easy running, perhaps not for any fast running. Planning for a 10 miler (or so) tomorrow.....I'll see how I feel.

One lesson I've learned for myself from doing closely spaced marathons is that you want to shorten the taper (to 2 weeks..or less) and lengthen the recovery (no running for a week, just walking or light spinning on bike). 

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In the comments to my LA race report Nelly brought up some ideas for warmth in a cold race like LA besides jackets: i.e. vest or arm warmers.

I own all of the above but consider jackets to be much better for the simple reason that you can roll them up and tie them around your waist. How do you carry a vest when you don't want to wear it? Arm warmers you might be able to carry in a pack if you have one big enough.

At LA only the jacket would do..rain was very cold. Kept it zipped up to the max for the last 10 miles (only unzipped when I saw the marathon photo guys so they could catch my number).

UPDATE: almost forgot to mention my big fashion FAIL in LA. I wore some very svelte running gloves for the first mile or two and then took them off. Later in the race i really wanted them again but my hands were wet and I could not get them  back on! Give me back my oversized cotton gardening gloves a-la Bill Rogers!


But should also mention I wore the Zensa calf sleeves again and had zero problems after the race with trigger points in my lower legs. I don't wear them for every run..just my long runs and long races, but I do think they are a good idea. (I also wear them on long airplane flights)



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The closely spaced marathons seem to be going ok, I've done 5 of 8 now..

It has not escaped my notice that I've just run my second fastest time on a mileage base of only 100-110 miles/month or so and recovered pretty quickly.  Contrast this to the buildup for my PR race which was 150, 180 miles per month at the peak.


I could conclude that all those miles weren't worth much (only 6 minutes) but I rather think that I was missing some other ingredients to my training that I needed. I plan to think long and hard about this when it comes time to do a peaked race again this fall. I really want to break Mach 1 once and for all (i.e. sub-4hrs).

S2S is coming up on 4/10..only 3 weeks from LA..the closest race spacing I've attempted so far. Basically I only get about one week of vaguely full intensity training before you taper off a bit...

My young niece is doing a science project on the California Chaparral ecosystem...I flipped through her field guide  this weekend and learned a few things 8)...e.g. .the world famous "Hollywood" is named after the California Holly, aka "Toyon" bush

The name "chaparral"  is a spanish loan word..and the "chaps" that cowboys wear is to protect the legs from the scratchy dry branches of the chaparral.


Learn something new everyday, eh? 8)


S2S basically runs through 50k of this (after starting in redwood forest)..so I promised her I would take a lot of pictures of the plants along the way.  


The only thing I dread is a return to the rains...I really don't want to run on 50k of muddy trails.