Category Archives: Uncategorized

Finally — back running with SRC at Cougar Mountain

Posted on August 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

As I’ve mentioned numerous times on this blog, I’ve struggled with a hamstring injury for much of the last two years.   It really prevented me from enjoying trail running.  I could do short trail runs (~5 miles), but any long runs on the trail would leave me on the sidelines for days or weeks.   Needless to say, this was incredibly frustrating.  I finally said “screw it” and  paced fellow IUP runner Adam Lint for the final 6+ hours of Cascade Crest 100.  That run through the night up in the Cascades was the only truly enjoyable run that I’ve had in several years. 

Finally, my hamstring is healed.  I owe this largely to my wife, who really helped guide me through some physical therapy to get it healed and strong again.   I’m still cautious, but this morning, I ventured out to the Seattle Running Club sunday morning run at Cougar Mountain for the first time in years.  I had a blast.

It was a small group – just 6 of us today following White River yesterday.  The weather was rainy & foggy (great for running…crappy for every other summer activity).     We did the normal loop, only did it in reverse hitting De Leo’s wall near the beginning instead of the end. 

Still being cautious with my hamstring, I cut it short in an effort to keep my total time around 2 hours.   All said and done, I logged 12 miles in 2 hours with a total elevation gain of 2,151 feet.   One of the things I really appreciate about Cougar is that the elevation gain doesn’t come in one big climb, as it does at Squak or Tiger mountains.  Rather, Cougar is a bunch of ups and downs with nary a flat section of trail to be found:

It was great to get back out and run with a group of people…and great to go hit the trails at Cougar.   Looking forward to the August & September runs, when we often get up into the high country of the Cascades (e.g., Denny Lake, Kendall Katwalk, and the Enchantments).

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My 2011 Racing Plans – NW Trail Runs & Rainshadow Running

Posted on January 4, 2011 | 2 Comments

Like many of you, I’m sitting here at the end of 2010 thinking about what races to run in the new year.  It’s usually tough to decide what races to run.   It seems like every year, there are more choices for trail runs.  So, figuring out which ones to run and how, timing-wise, they all fit together is no easy task. 

This year, however, it might be pretty easy.  Eric Bone, director of NW Trail Runs, and James Varner, the mastermind behind the Rainshadow Running events, have made it quite easy.    Check out their respective lineup of races.

NW Trail Runs  — with Eric and the Meridian team taking over the Vasque Cougar Mountain & Bridle Trails races, this is undoubtedly the best lineup of short (less than ultra-distance) trail runs you can find in Western Washington.    The race at Lord Hill is destined to be an instant classic.   And, the prospect of a “Great Northwest 50K” certainly seem intriguing.   Below is a list of the current NW Trail Runs  (note: complete race info/details can be found here)

March 27 – Redmond Watershed Preserve Marathon, 5-mile, 10-mile
April 30 – Soaring Eagle Park 5-mile, 10-mile, Marathon, & 50k
May 14 – Vasque Cougar Mountain Trail Run Series 5-mile
May 22 – Lord Hill Park 10k and Half Marathon
June 11 – Vasque Cougar Mountain Trail Run Series 7.5-mile
July 9 – Vasque Cougar Mountain Trail Run Series 10-mile
July 16 – Redmond Watershed Preserve, Marathon, 5-mile, 10-mile
August 13 – Vasque Cougar Mountain Trail Run Series 13-mile
August 27 – Great Northwest 50k, venue TBA
September 18 – Soaring Eagle Park 5-mile, 10-mile, Marathon, & 50k
October 16 – Harvest Half Marathon and 10k, venue TBA
November 12 – Carkeek Park 5k and 10k

That’s a pretty great lineup of trail races…but, actually may pale in comparison to what James Varner over at Rainshadow Running has cooked up for this year (note: not all dates have been posted yet, but the list below are in order of what month they occur):

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve raced a lot (like 15 years).  But, my goal for 2011 is to get & stay healthy and to participate in as many of these as I possible can.  I’m not going to worry about a peak race…or a PR…I”m going to try and run as many of these as hard as I can and see what happens. 

What are your 2011 race plans?  Will I see you at any of these races?

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Scott Jurek featured on CNN

Posted on December 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

Reknowned ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek is featured on CNN.   His interview with Sanjay Gupta can be seen here. 

Scott is one of the best, if not the best, ultramarathoner ever.  He lived in Seattle for a good number of years, but now seems to be spending most of his time in Boulder, CO training with Tony Krupicka.  They’re doing some fab runs…check this one out for example.  It’s been great to see Scott get back into great form.  He had some rough years in there, but seems to be really grounded and training well again, which is awesome.  He’s a great runner…and a great ambassador of the sport.

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Running in Winter

Posted on December 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

The east cost is definetly getting it good from a Nor’easter.    Places like New York City have gotten feet of snow, virtually shutting down the city.   

I definitely enjoy running in the snow.  It always seems so quiet and peaceful…the only sounds  being your own breathing and the sound of the snow crunching under the weight of your footsteps.   When we lived in Pittsburgh, I used to love running through Frick Park in the snow. 

Winter in Frick Park - Pittsburgh, PA

There’s not much snow here in Seattle…ever.  At least not at sea level.  In case you haven’t heard, we just get cold rain in the winter.   Running in 38-degree rain isn’t peaceful like running in the snow.   On days like yesterday, when there are 20-25 mph winds, it not only isn’t peaceful…it’s down right miserable.    But, it looks like there is a chance that we could get some snow in the Cascade Foothills (Cougar, Squak, Tiger) in the middle of the week:

The snow level on Wednesday is supposed to be at 1,500 feet…so, that’s promising.   We’re getting feet of snow in the mountains (Cascades & Olympics) right now, so hopefully, by the time it turns sunny on Thursday, Cougar Mountain will look like the photo to the left.   While running in the snow may not be the best option for me at the moment, given my still sore hamstring…it sure would be tough to pass up a peaceful run through several inches of snow in the mountains.  I’ll get to try out my new microspikes (thanks Mom & Dad) for some extra traction.    As much as I would enjoy running in the snow, I’m confident Achilles would like it even more.  So, we’ll just have to see how things play out from a weather perspective.  Worst case, even if it doesn’t snow, a few sunny days of running  would be great…especially on days when I’m not working, so that I can head to the foothills for a run and several thousand feet of climbing. 

If all of this “talk” about running in the snow has gotten you in the mood to head out the door and put in some miles on the powder, you’ve got two options:

1.) Get on your gear and head out (if you’re on the East Coast…shouldn’t be a problem finding snow.  If you are in the Northwest, there is plenty of snow up at the passes :) ). 

2.) Check out this video of Anton Krupicka posted on Running Times called “The Runner in Winter.”    The video has some great, great footage of the front range just outside of Boulder, Colorado.    Here’s a sample image I took from the video:

If that video doesn’t make you want to get out in the snow and go for a run, then you’re pretty much a hopeless cause and should just pack your running shoes away until May. 

Happy trails…whether or not they are snow covered.

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Back running again…

Posted on December 24, 2010 | 1 Comment

It’s been awhile since I last posted.  It seems my posting coincides with my running.  The more I run…the more I post.  I guess that makes sense for a running blog at some level, but it’s tough to grow a readership that way.  

Anyway, I last posted about my fall racing schedule.  It turns out, I only ended up doing 3 races this fall due to a consistently sore left hamstring.  

In late August, I paced fellow IUP’er Adam Lint through the final 25 miles of the Cascade Crest 100.    It was a thoroughly enjoyable run for me, being able to climb almost 4,000 feet up through the cascades in the middle of the night. 

It was also fun because Adam is a tough son of a gun.  I was only running about 1/4 of what he was running…and I was jumping in at the end.  But, he hung VERY tough and just let me pull him along.   So, running 12 minute miles (our average pace) was thoroughly enjoyable for me (not sure it was the same for him :) ).  It was just hard enough and easy enough to be enjoyable.  There were times when we were hitting 16 min/miles on the steep uphills (and probably closer to 20 mins/mile going up Thorp Mtn.):

I have to confess…I didn’t even realize how beautiful this run was, until I saw Glenn Tachiyama’s pictures from it.   Because we were running the mountains at night, I could see nothing but fog and a few feet ahead of me.  There are parts of me that are thankful that I didn’t know I was running on trails such as this:

Incredibly beautiful..but, very exposed.  There were a few places I could tell there were big dropoffs…it was just fog and very, very cold wind.  I knew we were exposed, but kind of glad I couldn’t see it.  Althought that view above, is sweet (how about that photo of Glenn’s…that guy is the best). 

Anyway, my hamstring was pretty sore after that run.  A few weeks later, I tried to run the LD25K.  This race goes up over Squak Mountain and then climbs up over Cougar Mountain.  I crushed it up Squak, but tripped coming down the other side and tweaked my hammy.  I led the race for a good while, but eventually cut the course (thereby DNF’ing) about 2 miles short so I didn’t hvae to run up and down the last hill…my hamstring just couldn’t take it.  I’ve not yet won a race in the Northwest…and thought I had that one, but didn’t want to jeopardize  Bourbon Chase Relay by doing something stupid. 

In late October, I ran the Bourbon Chase Relay with the Stonemill Streaker gang.   We ran tough and finished 5th overall…a very solid performance.   My hamstring really bothered me by my last leg, and I felt like I was just dragging it along for the ride.  But, it was worth it…it was really pretty running through the horse fields of Kentucky:

I’ve been pretty hurt since the race — only running a total of about 7 times.   But, I was out in the mud & rain running at Bridle Trails this AM with Achilles, and my hamstring felt pretty good.  I can’t wait to start hitting the trails and getting my mileage back up.   Regardless, it’s good to be a runner again.

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Sunset at West Tiger Mountain

Posted on August 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

This has been a good week of running. Last Sunday, I logged a good, hard effort out at Cougar Mountain. This Wednesday, I blew off a track workout and headed out to Tiger Mountain. It was a great run with my getting up to the West Tiger summits right near sunset.

For whatever reason, I felt really good on the run. Maybe because the weather was cool. Maybe because it was just one of those runs. But, I ran strong the entire time and climbed particularly well. I swear there’s nothing more fun than feel good on a fairly long climb…one that keeps winding and winding…every turn, it just keeps going up.

Tiger Mountain is certainly not the largest mountain in the Northwest. But, it does provide some nice climbs that are incredibly accessible (in 20 minutes, I can be from my house in North Seattle at the High Point trailhead). The elevation change from the 8 mile loop I did on Wednesday was as follows:

My overall route was as follows:

I love running in Seattle….

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Heading out to Cle Elum for a weekend of trail running

Posted on July 2, 2010 | 2 Comments

There are tons of great places to run in the Pacific Northwest. I won’t try and capture them here (although this might be good fodder for a future post). But, one of my favorites is in the central cascades near Cle Elum. There are two specific runs that I really like in this area.

The first of these is South Cle Elum Ridge, a 29 mile loop that makes up the majority of the Cle Elum 50K run. The description of this route on Trails.com is as follows:

“This is a challenging and beautiful course. It is all run on trail, and most of the climbing is in the first half. On the approach to Windy Pass, a panorama of the entire Cle Elum Valley and the Yakima River emerges. In the distance are the Cascade Mountains, particularly Mount Stuart, the largest non-volcanic mountain in the Washington Cascades. Heading east again, the crest of Mount Rainier appears above the closer peaks.”

As mentioned above, there is some pretty good climbing involved.

To the left is the elevation profile for this run. The total elevation gain for the run is 5,600 feet…so, it’s a good one. But, as you can see in the elevation profile, you get some nice little breaks along the climb.

The second run I really like to do is up along Kachess ridge near Thorp Mountain. This is a ten mile loop, but it’s very easy to add-on, as you can get onto the Cascade Crest 100 course just above Thorp Mountain. You can make this as long a run as you could reasonable want.

To get there, you get off of I-90 near Salmon Du Sac and make a left just north of Cle Elum lake. The trail head starts from forest road 4312. Note: Thorp lake is my favorite “close to Seattle” camping spot. Go check it out sometime. Very worthwhile. And, the trail getting there is short enough that you can hike a case of beer in if needed J


We’re renting a cabin on Lookout Mountain for a long weekend. The primary motivation for doing this is that our dog, Achilles, hates fireworks. But, like myself, he loves trail running. So, the fireworks are really just an excuse to get out of the city for the weekend.

If you’re going to be out near Cle Elum this weekend and want to connect for a run, drop a comment here and let me know how to get in touch with you.

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Still Pondering Western States

Posted on July 1, 2010 | 2 Comments

I have to start by saying that I am quite shocked that Geoff Roes won Western States. I shouldn’t be shocked. Roes was last year’s “ultra-runner of the year” according to Ultrarunning magazine. And, Geoff has continued to run great in 2010 as well. All one has to do is look at his races/results from the past two years to get a sense of how good Geoff Roes really is:

2009 Race Results

  • 1/17 – HURT 100 miles – 20:28 (1st Place & Course Record)
  • 7/18 – Crow Pass 25 miles – 2:57:12 (1st Place & Course Record)
  • 9/11 – Wasatch 100 miles – 18:30 (1st Place & Course Record)
  • 9/25 – Bear 100 miles – 18:43 (1st Place & Course Record)
  • 11/7 – Mountain Masochist 50 miles – 6:27:55 (1st Place & Course Record)
  • 12/5 – North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miles – (2nd Place & 2nd fastest in course history)

2010 Race Results

  • 3/13 – Way Too Cool 50k – 3:51 (3rd)
  • 4/10 – American River 50 – 5:49 (1st Place)
  • 5/8 – Bear Mountain 50 – 7:06 (1st Place)
  • 6/26 – Western States 100 – 15:07:00 (1st Place & course record)

Additionally, I know that Roes’ is one tough cookie, as he battled it out tete-a-la-tete with Uli Steidl at last December’s North Face Endurance Challenge. The race was fast…very fast. Check out this video of Roes & Uli battling it out at Mile 34 of that race.

I believe Uli to be the toughest runner since Matt Carpenter (12X winner of the Pike’s Peak marathon & course record-holder at the Leadville 100) was in his prime. So, this win by Roes shouldn’t surprise me. It was a close race, with Roes winning by just ~6 minutes…which is nothing in a 100 mile race:

Place

Status

Time In

Time Out

Elapsed

Name

Gender

Age

1

Finished

08:07pm

–:–

15:07:04

Geoff Roes

M

34

2

Finished

08:13pm

–:–

15:13:53

Anton Krupicka

M

26

But, it does surprise me that Roes won.

Why?

Because Anton Krupicka didn’t win.

I don’t think Krupicka is unbeatable. I think he is a great, great runner…but, he’s certainly human. It’s just that in following his training this year (as he posts great details on his blog “Riding the Wind” a few times each week), he just seemed to be primed and ready to go. [Note: Roes publishes his training logs online as well, but it's a bit more difficult to ascertain just how well things are going (the quantitative data is there, but not much color commentary as with Anton)].

In general, Krupicka logs more miles than Roes does, as evidenced by their logs. Both have been very consistent throughout the year. Roes had raced a bit more….but, Krupicka just seems to be training at an insanely high level…such a high level that I expected him to win. I expected him to really open things up from Auburn Lake onward. But, that didn’t happen. And, I’m still trying to figure out why.

My inclination is to thing that somehow, the fact that Anton logged so many miles the week heading into Western hurt him. When you compare the time spent running of Roes vs. Krupicka the week before Western, there is a stark difference:


Krupicka ran nearly 70% longer than Roes. Was this the difference?

I thought so, and said as much on a letsrun.com post earlier today. But now, I am not so sure given the commentary of both Roes & Krupicka following the race. Both seem very pleased with the run…which leads me to believe that both were feeling good.

Roes published a short post on his blog about Western States, promising to offer more race details soon. It’s titled “It doesn’t get much better than that.” But the post is short. It doesn’t provide many details other than to say that:


Today, Krupicka also posted a bit about Western States, but he didn’t say much. He did offer the following:

Another short post…that offers little detail. I guess I’ll be left to wonder. Who knows, maybe I’m overcomplicating this entire thing. Maybe Roes was just the better runner on that day. Maybe he’s the better runner overall (credentials may imply this). Maybe he’s just a bit tougher than Anton. We may never know…but, I can’t wait to see the race reports from each of them.


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First Race of 2010: Cougar Mountain 5-Miler

Posted on May 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

Just as my racing season started late this year, this post is late.  It’s been well over a week since I kicked off my 2010 trail racing season.   On May 15th, I joined nearly 250 runners at Cougar Mountain to run the first of 4 races in the Vasque Cougar Mountain Trail Series. 

The Cougar Mountain Seris is sponsored by Vasque as part of their Vasque Project initiative.  A brief overview of this initiative from the Vasque webiste is as follows:

The Vasque PROJECT is our effort, through sponsorship of trail races across the US, to foster trail running competition, community and stewardship.  Vasque employs a rigorous selection process in order to partner with the best race series in vibrant running communities.  These partners are selected because of their dedication to providing runners with the ultimate race experience and also because of their dedication to giving back to the community and environment.

I love the Vasque Project.   I think it is great that Vasque is giving back to the trail community…and I think they’ve done a great job selecting the Cougar Mountain series as part of their project.  The McCoubrey’s, who organize this race for the Seattle Running Club,  are the kind of folks who epitomize the notion of fostering trail running competition, community, and stewardship.   And, the Seattle Running Club (SRC) has always  been great about giving back to the community.  $15.00 from every race entry goes ot the King County Parks and the club regularly sponsors “trail work parties” at Cougar as part of their ongoing commitment to making seattle a great trail running city.  

Oh yeah, and I finished the race in 40th place.  Not great…not bad.  My time was 41:10…which is certainly not stellar, but also not bad for a start to the year.  Running just over 8 minute miles at Cougar isn’t bad for a starting point.  Obviously, I’ve got a long way to go to run fast by Fall…but, I’m on my way.   Martin Rosvall ran a stellar 32:00 flat for this course.  That’s simply flying.   Full results from the race can be found here. 

Let the racing begin….

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Catching A Tiger by the Tail

Posted on May 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

On Saturday morning, Achilles (our dog) and I got a chance to head out to Tiger Mountain to get in some good trail running.  Given the beautiful weather (sunny and in mid-50′s with forecasts calling for 65-degrees), the parking lot was packed.

We started up the main trail on the way to West Tiger #3, but soon broke off to the left on the Tiger Mountain Trail.  There is a sign that indicates that the trail is closed between the K-3 trail secion and the Tiger Mountain Railroad Grade, but we decided to see what was up.  I was concerned that one of the bridges prior (see picture) to that may be the problem, but that was not the case.  These bridges were in good condition. 

We climbed for a good 40 minutes, crossing both bridges gaining about 2,500 feet.   Achilles literally drug me up the climb, turning around every few feet to wait for me with that “what’s the problem slowpoke” look on his face.  We ran the trails on the backside of the mountain (TMT, K-3,  etc.), and were able to easily cross the stream where the bridge was out.   Despite all the cars, we only saw 2 people on this section of the trail. 

We hopped on the RR grade and took it over to connect with the main trail at West Tiger Trail.    Eventually, on our way down West Tiger #3, we passed tons of folks going up and down the mountain. 

All said and and done, about 10 miles of running in 1.5 hours.   Some streams to cross, some muddy spots, a great deal of climbing….just the kind of run Achilles & I wanted.  

Can’t wait to do it again soon.  TMT trail is a good one…just 30 minutes from Seattle.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

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