Spring spree

Spree: a period of unrestrained self-indulgence...

After welcoming Spring with a poem last week, I'm enjoying this extended period without a race: 3 weeks between Way Too Cool and American River, what a treat! Two weeks after AR will be RA (Ruth Anderson), then Miwok two weeks later, then only one week before QuickSilver, which I will run for the first time this year. This is the fun of racing in the Grand Prix, it never stops! Incidentally, no race also means no race report, and shorter blog posts... ;-)

In addition, I don't have any business trip scheduled anymore, courtesy of IBM's travel policy. That gives me more time to work (sic!), train and, more importantly, more time spent with the family. Running is only my second job and work therefore takes precedence on running. As a matter of fact, since the IBM acquisition, very early conference calls prevent me from training as much as I want in the morning, and additional workload extends the working hours at night, shortening my sleep time. I really need to keep all that under control this week, before next Saturday 50-mile race.

This morning I ran at Rancho San Antonio. It has been a while since I drove to this park, where I probably ran more than 2,000 miles, and I had forgotten that parking was such an issue on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I had to park almost 1 mile from the entrance. There was an amazing number of hikers on the trail in this sunny and hot morning and many of them were surprised to see me running a second lap after I passed them on my first PG&E-Upper High Meadow-Rogue loop. 2:26 for 20 miles and 2,800 feet elevation, that was a good work out. When I think that one lap felt like a huge achievement just 10 years ago, in 1999, and that two laps now became a simple training run now, I definitely run "Farther, Faster!"
When you hear spree, you think "shopping spree," right? And indeed, shopping we did this afternoon at Fleet Feet in Aptos. If you recall, I won the 2nd place in Montrail Ultra Cup in 2007 and the prize was a $1,000 gift card from Fleet Feet. The store owner, Tom, is an ultra runner himself and he was surely happy to see the whole family enter his store to shop for this significant amount! Tom and his staff are very knowledgeable and I highly recommend their advice for shoe selection (they carry the best Brooks models, but other brands as well, to fit every one's "fleet feet"). And next time you visit, look at the wall, you may see my picture hanging up there! (Store picture from Tom's blog)
We had to drive back for Max and Alex' musical at CHS, but we could manage to fit in one hour at the Seacliff State Beach to enjoy the wonderful weather. The wind made the air chilly, not to mention the water was cold of course, contrasting with the 75+ degrees we experienced in the Bay Area today. Heat training is around the corner, I like that!
What a contrasting weather: one week ago, runners where racing on muddy and windy trails around Mt Diablo, whose top was covered with snow. Today, they were suffering from heat at Lake Sonoma 50-mile. Indeed, Spring is here, enjoy some Spring spree!