Friday, July 18, 2014

Out the door

Whenever I'm trying to explain to another person why I like running, I tend to appeal to the freedom and the simplicity; I can run anytime, anywhere, and all I need is a pair of shoes. I don't need to depend on anyone else, or the appropriate facilities, or even the weather. I can just head out the door whenever I'm ready and go.


All of which just makes it that much more ridiculous that I'll be getting out of a perfectly good bed at 4:00 tomorrow morning, and hauling all this stuff to Carson City, Nevada for a run that I've been planning for the last seven months.

See you soon, with a race report!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Range of Light

Spent some time in the Sierra Nevada with Petya today (her first time!) above 8000 feet, trying to get acclimated before the Tahoe Rim Trail 50M this weekend.

 
We took the tram at Squaw Valley up into the mountains, as I'm trying to keep my legs fresh for the race on Saturday. After ascending 2000 feet in eight minutes, we were able to walk around on some pretty flat trails with spectacular views of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding mountains. In the picture below, you're looking at very early sections of the Western States 100 course.


Of course we decided to do a little bit of climbing anyway, to reach views like these:


We sat at the base of these rocks and soaked in the views until the weather started to turn really quickly. We scrambled back down to the tram, only to find out that the thunderstorms rolling in had shut it down...possibly for the night!


Eventually the tram got going again, long enough at least to get all the stranded passengers back down the hill, while we all tried our best not to look at the ground 500 feet below. The bad weather did make for some pretty amazing light.


But if you know anyone with any influence on the weather, please put a word in for some sunnier skies; I've got a race to run, and Petya needs to work on her Tahoe face.