Much Better At The Top

"It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top." ~Henry Ward Beecher

Today's Long Run was thru Bonelli, a local park with a reservoir where they hold the LA Tri series and a few others through out the year. The fun thing about Bonelli is that it has a variety of trails thru and around it. You can stick completely to paved roads/bike trails or hit the fire roads or the single track. It's not a big park but if you go looking for hills, it's got plenty of them on all surfaces.

I've been doing my "short" long runs in Bonelli to get ready for the Buffalo Run on Catalina Island in January. It has about 1600 ft of climbing so I want to make sure I'm ready for it. Today's run was 15 miles and it only had 1125 ft of climbing. I was dead dog tired at the end so the Buffalo Run should be interesting. And all the 50Ks I've been looking at have at the least 5000 ft of climbing! Ahh! I need to do more hills!

Although, I might have been a little tired because I didn't do any waffles or gu during the run, just drank some Powerbar Ironman. I would say about 16 oz worth and I might have been a little low on energy supply but for these shorter runs I'm trying to not do as many carbs to teach my body how to deal with that. I had a gu after and finished up the Ironman, then headed out on my mt bike but I could tell I was still tired because I didn't stand up on any of the hills. I cheated! And used smaller gears. But it helped loosen up my legs, especially the calves, hamstrings & glutes, which were really tight. All in all it was a good morning. The weather was beautiful,there was a cool breeze, and I saw lots of birds - ducks, egrets, cranes, hawks, and such.

I got a massage this afternoon. Carlos (my regular masseuse) worked on me for 90 minutes and let me tell you, it was not pleasant when he hit my calves and ITBs. But they needed it and we'll see how they are tomorrow. I never seem to get as deep in those areas as he does with the foam roller so maybe I'm doing it wrong? Or maybe I'm less willing to inflict pain on myself. Hmmm...

Another week done and only a few left in the month and year. Time flies! Workout stats:

Friday - 5K run, arms/abs/legs, and 15 mile bike commute
Saturday - 15 mile run & 11 miles on the mt bike

Stats for the week:
Run - 41 miles
Bike - 123 miles