Lake Chabot Trail Challenge

A nice half marathon trail race in the East Bay hills is the Lake Chabot Trail Challenge. This year is the 25th year of the event, and the fourth year I've run it. When I first ran it in 2003, in 2:01:27, I had never run 13.1 miles up to that point. Now I use the race to see how my training is doing, and how fast I can run the loop around the lake.

In past years, I have run as fast as 1:48 on this hilly course. Since I regularly run around the lake, often on Tuesday night runs, I felt I could pull off a better time this year, even though I don't technically do any speed work. And since a friend gave me some grief for going out slow at Miwok 100k, and then passing dozens of runners the last 40+ miles, I thought I would properly warm up with a few miles before the race, go out at a strong pace, and run as fast a time as I could manage. Well, it worked fairly well. I finished in 1:41:10, or 7:43/miles. I haven't seen the results, but that's sometimes good for top 5 in my age group. Not bad for a lllloooonnnngggg distance runner.

Perhaps I'll come back another year and see if I can get under 1:40.

Update: Here are the results. I guess my run was good enough for 24th place out of 243 runners, and fourth place in my age group.

Skyline Ridge 50k - Scott Dunlap

For a good blogpost about yesterday's Skyline Ridge 50k, check out Scott Dunlap's blog.

Messing with Salt at Skyline Ridge

Saturday I went out to run the PCTR Skyline Ridge 50k. I was trying a new salt product and misjudged the amount I should be taking and how regularly. At 37k I called it a day as my legs were mildly cramping and I felt more comfortable walking it in. There was no training benefit to going out and slogging through 13k.

Skyline Ridge is a wonderfully beautiful course. It winds its way along the ridgeline above Palo Alto, so at times you see the Pacific Ocean and other times the Southbay. It was a warm, sunny day for the most part.

I felt fairly well for the first 3 and a half hours. As my friend Tom has said with a wry grin, "Only you can say you only ran 20-plus miles and make it sound like an under-achievement."

Training For Miwok

My first milestone race in 2008 is the Miwok 100k in Marin. I hope to improve on my 2007 time of 10:51.

My training essentially follows a simple weekly pattern.

M - Easy - 4-5 miles
Tu - Tempo or Hilly - 7-11 miles
W - Easy - 4-5 miles
Th - Tempo or Hilly - 7-11 miles
F - Easy - 4-5 miles
Sat - Long Run
Sun - Rest

With variations throughout the week, I can increase my miles gradually, and get in a good solid long run, generally where I'm going to run my next target race.

For the next 10 week period, I'll use this formula to work on my endurance and speed. A few of the weekends I'll be out at Mount Diablo preparing for the Diablo Marathon, then train a few weeks on the Miwok course.

Angel Island 25k

Right before I left to run the HURT 100 in Hawaii, one of my favorite local trail runs was here smack dab in the middle of the bay - The Angel Island 25k - put on by our friends, Wendell and Sarah of Pacfic Coast Trail Runs. It's three different loops around the island, one including a route to the summit. All around there are magnificent views of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Scott Dunlap went out with his family and has a wonderful write-up with the usual panoply of pictures.

(Picture courtesy of Scott Dunlap)