12 summits

This week started out with a continuation of last week. I'm just trying to remember how to run without stopping to walk the hills, because there are no hills at the Mt. Si 50 miler.
Monday 0
Tuesday: After dinner (Turkey Soft Tacos) I did 10 miles on the very flat Cedar River Trail. My average pace was 6.2 mph, max speed was 7 mph. I felt really good and I was having a hard time keeping my speed down at the end. The last miles were at and then under 9:00 m/m.
Wednesday 0
Thursday: After dinner (Clam Chowder) I ran around Lake Youngs. I did the 9.6 miles in an average pace of 6.8 mph and a max of 8.3 mph. I know not an even pace but I was tired of running 10 minute miles. I tried to do the first mile slow, 9:19 and the last mile slow 9:26 but the rest were not, 2 miles right at 9 m/m, 5 miles at 8:45 or faster and one at 8:10. It felt real good to run a quicker pace.
Friday 0
Saturday: 12 Summits, 34 miles, over 10,000 elevation gain, 4.1 mph avg, 8.7 max. You can read about it from Eric or Tc.
It was a good run with good company. The weather and trail conditions were perfect. I was sure I'd be only doing 10 or 11 summits because Eric and TC are way faster than I am. Tc was his usual tour guide for the first timer Eric. Telling him to go easy on the ups or you'll be sorry on the way back. "you're gonna want to walk this one" he'd say as he ran up ahead. It didn't seem like either one of them was working very hard. As for me I was ready, as usual, to turn around 3/4 the way up the 1st summit. But since I was out front a little nobody noticed. I slowed and TC went screaming past me. At least I didn't get an elbow as he went by. ;) Just kidding, he only does that in races. We arrived at the top of our 1st summit and it was fogged in, so without haste we headed down and up to our 2nd and then 3rd summits, both also fogged in.

Disco?

The journey to our next summit is much longer almost an hour. There are still a few blown downs so following the trail can be difficult. The section from the Christmas tree to where you cross the Preston trail is runnable in both directions and some of my favorite trail. I felt good and was running as fast or as slow as I wanted. We hit the road up to our 4th summit and Tc didn't do his usual extra up and down. He said he wasn't feeling fresh but I think he was saving up for later. This summit was also fogged in and I was starting to think it would be like that all day. It's logging road nearly all the way to the next summit. We run and talked about Imus and other things. I didn't even know who this guy was a week ago. The road dead ends about 100 yards from the 5th summit and it's straight up from there. I decided to run it to see if I could get Eric to follow. He didn't. So I pulled out my camera and just waited at the top.

Down the back side is some real good downhill running trail. But after only 4 1/2 minutes Tc said he wanted to Not take a left and continue down this beautiful downhill section. So we went straight which was steeper and more rocky and overgrown and much slower. He blamed it on Glenn. After running back up a logging road we met up with the "real" trail and then the dog leg to our 6th summit. On the last section to the turn around we only saw 2 people and 1 dog. No horses or groups of 8 family members out for a hike. I know the keys were in here somewhere!

We had a nice long break at the car before heading back. I stiffened up a little from all the standing around (12 minutes) but it only took a few minutes to get back into the grove. I felt like I was lagging behind a little until we got near the dog leg to South Tiger. I guess my meal started to kick in at the top. I purposefully had been going easy on the gel and had only had 1 on the way out to the turn around. When we got back down to our gear I wasted no time. I was moving before I even had my pack on. I knew they would pull away from me once we hit the road. I really had to push to keep up on the road and Eric had to do the same on the trail. Once we started the climb up to Middle Tiger we really spread out. I figured we would but I thought it would be me bringing up the rear. Tc was 1 switchback ahead of me and Eric was 1 switchback behind. Tc waited for us in the sun on the backside of the summit. It was the same story on the way to East Tiger but this time Tc threw in a 100 yard hill repeat. We headed out down into the woods and got some good running on the way to the Christmas tree. From there it was more walk than run up to Tiger #1. While I waited for Tc and Eric I took some pictures and gave Shela a snack.

We ran down and up to Tiger #2 where we were treated to a nice 3/4 moon from some "picnickers" up by the communication towers. After a few minutes of laughing we run over to Tiger #3. Tc went down the "#3 freeway" and I treated Eric to a trip down the very steep and technical Nook trail. I like the Nook because no matter how tired you may be you're going to work hard getting down to the bottom. After getting Shela one last drink and washing my shoes in a stream we met Tc at the cars. It took him a few tries but Eric finally talked us into stopping for a snack while he picked up a Pizza for his wife.
Sunday: I did a jog, shuffle, walk with the kids for 3.25 miles easy miles. I was pushing them in the bike trailer but it was still an easy run.

Today my quads are still on fire from 12 summits. I think after an easy week they'll be really ready to do Mt. Si.
Total: 57