Potato Hill Time Trial & July totals

We spent the night in Acton last night to avoid the smokey air in the AV. We stayed up late so we missed a long run today. Instead, we took turns running the Potato Hill Time Trail from our friends, the Schneider's, house. They live on the north side of Acton off the Santiago exit from the 14 freeway. From their house it is a short run down the street to the trail head which takes you to the top of the hill (Potato Hill) overlooking Acton. They have run this loop (almost exactly 2 miles) with other friends and keep a record of peoples' times. The trail is very steep for one mile to the top and then even steeper down hill and back to their house. It starts and ends at the fire hydrant in front of their driveway.
Bill and I ran first. It took about 2 minutes to get to the trail head and after a quarter mile on the hill my legs started burning. The trail gets progressively steeper until the top which I had to walk the last tenth of a mile when the grades got up around 20-30%. It is 1.1 miles from the top and from the low point at the trail head to the top, there is 620ft of elevation gain (3310ft to 3930ft) in just less than a mile with grades averaging from 7%-17% most of the way. I reached the top in 10:51 and started a controlled fall down the back side of the hill. It was more bounding than running as the grades were closer to negative 30-40%. Then there is a slight up hill on the road back to their house. I finished in 16:33 which is now the course record! The previous record was held by Dawn Schneider in 18:46. Bill came in at around 19:20? I will try and get his exact time. I believe it was his course best time.

Andi and Dawn ran second. Dawn took an early lead but Andi passed her and was the first one to the top of the hill with about a 10-15 second lead. Dawn passed her on the downhill, but Andi couldn't make up the difference on the road. Dawn finished in 18:50 and Andi finished in 18:56!

It is a very difficult course, to get a good time you have to be strong on the hills, have good aerobic endurance (you are working at your max HR for the first mile), and then be fearless on the even steeper downhill to get back as quickly as possible. It was challenging but lots of fun.

Because I didn't get a long run in today I didn't quite meet my July goal of 140 miles. I finished the month with 134 miles, but I am much more pleased with the consistency of my training. It was a good month with 3 runs of over two hours (two of which were 15-16 miles), two good track workouts, a pleasantly surprising 5k on July 4th, and a course record at the Pelona Vista Cross Country course.

My goal for August (which also has 31 days) is 150+ miles. Stay tuned.

Big Bear, CA

I skipped my Wednesday track workout last week because of some plantar fascia pain on both heels. It was bothering me enough to hold on the track work, or even an easy run. I have found that if you start experiencing this type of pain, rest is the best medicine. I was still have some mild discomfort on Friday but it was much better.

We spent the weekend at a family reunion in Big Bear, CA. While the kids were napping on Friday Andi and I, along with my mom and sister, drove over to the north shore where they have a 3.2 mile paved bike path called the Alpine Pedal Path. We went out for 20 min and back for a total of 40 minutes. Andi and I were cruising at 8:00 pace and finished 5 miles.

In a previous trip to Big Bear I ran around the lake which turned out to be almost exactly 15 miles. I thought about doing that again, but after looking at some maps, I realized that the Pacific Crest Trail was not too far away. There was a trail, called the Cougar Crest Trail that took you 2.2 miles from the highway to the PCT. The trail head for the Cougar Crest Trail didn't look to far from our cabin. Actually, it turned out to be 3.5 miles away. I decided to get up early and go say hello to the PCT. I even talked Andi into coming along with me.

We left at around 5:45am and headed back to the Alpine Pedal Path and caught the Cougar Crest Trail. It started out as a wide dirt trail with a slow steady uphill grade. After about a mile the trail narrowed and became much more rocky. It got steeper and more technical until the top where the trail ends at the Pacific Crest Trail. We spent some time at the top looking back at the lake, and then retraced our steps back for a total of 12 miles (The trail turned out to be more like 2.5 miles each way).

Iron Girl

Andi had her first triathlon this morning at the Iron Girl Las Vegas. It was a sprint distance triathlon, which really only means less than Olympic distance, but it was a long course for a sprint (800m swim, 30k bike, 5k run). Some friends of ours, sisters Julie and Joni also competed. They had great weather and all were pleased with their races.

Andi finished the swim in 19:43 (2:28/100m) then bike in 1:06:07 (avg 16.3mph) and finished with a very strong 5k in 22:47 (avg pace 7:20). She was good through each transition and finished overall 85 out of 643 (25/139 AG) with a total time of 1:56:28! Julie and Joni finished 2:17:30 and 2:28:00 respectively. It was a fun morning. I don't think it will be the last triathlon for any of the girls.