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March 10, 2007
Catching Up
Sunday in CA: Ran 20 miles with my friend Frank in CA at 6 in the morning. Ran from Liz's house in San Rafael to Mt. Tamalpais State Park. Ran up to our favorite trails around Phoenix Lake and up to Lake Lagunitus, ran back through Deer Park in Fairfax, and ran back up and over the hill to Liz's house in San Rafael.
After the run, I ran another 6 miles with Liz's students for our first day of Experiential Learning: Running and Exploring Mt. Tamalpais. I felt very tired for this run and just ran in the back of the pack. We ran from Mt. Home Inn and did a great loop in a rain forest type atmosphere. I was overdressed for the run and had to stash some of my clothes in the bushes and retrieve them later in the day. In the afternoon, we did a four-mile hike from Muir Woods to the Dipsea Trail and back to Muir Woods’s parking lot. It was very relaxing.
Total: 26 miles
Monday: Ran six miles in the morning at 6 a.m. with my old good friends Chris and Diana. Ran easy felt good, ran on the roads, great to catch up.
Ran with students about six miles in the afternoon, ran from Pan Toll Station to West Point Inn to Mt. Theater. At Mt. Theater I turned back to help a student who turned their ankle. From this point on, I walked the rest of the way with the student. We had a lot of rain on this run and had an afternoon hike scheduled. The hike was canceled and instead we went to my sister's brother in laws ice cream shop, Three Twins Ice cream (http://www.threetwinsicecream.com/), for some great organic ice-cream.
In the evening, I did another 5-6 miles with Liz and Frank through San Rafael and up to the Ridge. Liz and Frank did a half-mile hard but I was too tired to run anything fast. The views from the ridge were terrific.
Monday Total: 17 miles
Tuesday: Ran about 10--11 miles on the west side of Mt. Tamalpais led by the great trail runner/mountain bike runner/Dipsea runner extraordinaire Roy Rivers. Roy led our group on a very adventurous two hour run in which we experienced snow on the mountain, hidden lakes, hidden spike tree forest, and garbage cans in the middle of the mountain. Great pictures of our run can be found here: http://satrun.songbirdsoftware.com/runs/February%2027,%202007%20-%20Marin%20Academy%20Run/slides/IMG_0861.html
Tuesday Evening: Ran a track workout at San Rafael track. Ran a one mile warm up and then ran 5 min hard, 4 min hard, 3 min. hard, 2 min hard, 1 min hard, and 5 min hard, and then ran a one mile cool down. I ran everything at about a 6:30 pace since I was feeling pretty tired.
Tuesday Total: 15 miles
Wednesday: Ran seven miles in the morning with Diana and Frank. Ran an easy pace, ran along the Marin bike path into Ross, to Phoenix Lake, then turned around, and came back the same way.
Ran with the students at Samuel P. Taylor Park. Ran four miles uphill and then ran four miles down hill. Very beautiful single-track trail that slowly wound its way up the mountain. Very fun downhill run. In the afternoon did some volunteer work for the park and planted some grass along an area that was experiencing some erosion problems.
Saw Astronaut Farmer in the evening with Liz and Carl. 15 miles for the day
Thursday: Ran a great run with the students from Mt. Home Inn to Pan Toll to Matt Davis to Stinson Beach. Very beautiful run, really did not want to stop running. Once at the beach we had lunch and then played ultimate frisbee on the beach for an hour. Very fun and the weather was very nice.
Thursday evening ran three miles with a pack of runners Liz invited over for a Mary's back party in Marin. Ran a good pace, felt fun to be running in the middle of the street with a pack of runners. Spent the rest of the night catching up with lots of old friends.
Thursday total: 11 miles
Friday morning: Took Mark to Crown Road in Larkspur, ran Hookekoo trail up to Roller Coaster, came down Huckleberry Trail and ran back on Crown Road. I ran very easy. It was a beautiful clear day and I was happy to be on my old stomping grounds. Saw lots of people out running that morning.
Friday afternoon: volunteered at San Quinton Prison. Helped to pace some runners there in a 5k race in the courtyard. Very interesting and fun experience. I was running with the second pack but the crowds urged me to get going so I ran to the front pack and tried to help second place out kick first place. The front pack was about to lap me so I really did not catch them. With a lap to go second place went after first place and just missed it. I did not even try to hold on for that sprint. The top times were 17:44 and 17:48.
Friday mileage: 11 miles
Saturday: ran about six or seven miles around Phoenix Lake with Jen and my friend Trisha. Beautiful day ran nice and easy. Great to be back on those trails. Caught up the entire time.
Saturday mileage: 6 miles
Total for the week: 101 miles
Sunday: paced Liz for 11 miles of the Napa Marathon. Initially she wanted me to pace her for the second half but I did not want her to drop me at the end of the marathon after she had already run 20+ miles. Pacing her for the first, half was fun. I was a bad pacer for the first four miles because I was cold and my quad was really sore but then I felt really good and tried to run one step ahead of her and remind her how incredible she was/is. We ran 6.40 to 6.52 pace. After the first four miles, I felt good but by the time, I finished at mile 11 I was glad to be done. The high mileage and high activity week was catching up with me. I tried to get to mile 17 to watch Liz but missed her and met up with her at mile 23 to get Mark who was pacing Liz. I saw Mark but he continued to run with Liz who was on sub 3 hour pace at that point. I thought Mark would just finish with her so I dashed off to the finish. I saw Liz ran a huge pr of 2:57.14 and realized Mark walked back from mile 24. I felt horrible. He was looking for me but I had already left. He was tapering for Snowshoe nationals which are today in Minnesota. I am homebound waiting for his call and the results. We spent the rest of the day celebrating Liz's race and catching up with Sage.
Monday: Jet Lagged Tired, No Running, Teaching at Night
Tuesday: Sub Zero Temperatures, Ran 7 miles at the gym and lifted for 40 minutes.
Wednesday: No Running :(
Thursday: Biked 40 miles, Lifted 40 minutes, Water Ran about 25 minutes, and Ran 7 miles on the treadmill
Friday: Ran six miles with some students I teach and then ran five miles with my friend Jen.
Today: going to do a marathon-pacing run after I get a phone call update from Mark from his snowshoe race.
Posted by mary at March 10, 2007 12:23 PM
Comments
Hi Mary! You don't know me :) but I knew your and Liz's names from when I started ultrarunning a few years ago. I'm so glad you've started blogging again. I love hearing the descriptions of your runs (both of you) and when I ran in Headlands 50K last year I was excited to be on some of the paths and places that I had read about. It sounds like you guys both really enjoy the details and outdoor beauty of your runs, and I do too so I love reading your descriptions. By the way, will we see you at any ultra trail races soon? You sound like you're doing so good and your training runs sound FAST! Take care, Hi from Seattle and nice to "meet" you.
Posted by: Kendra Borgmann at March 10, 2007 6:56 PM
How did Mark do? I don't see the results up on the Snowshoe Nationals website yet. Fingers crossed for him!
Oh my, your Cali trip sounds fantastic. Teaching that class and running with kids must have been a wonderful experience!
Posted by: Meghan at March 10, 2007 10:13 PM