A good training week, at last!

Apart from the rest day last Sunday following my Ruth Anderson 50-mile race, I was able to log 86 miles in 6 days before flying to Vegas early this Saturday morning. 86 flat miles that is, so I feel ready to handle any flat mile at Miwok 100K next Saturday. Oh, but there aren't any, are there? What about Quicksilver 50K the following weekend, none either? Darn! And Silver States 50-mile on May 17, an even hillier one?! Maybe that wasn't such a good training week after all... ;-)

No, seriously, it felt so good to run normally at 7-7:30 min/mile pace and not getting any pain in my tibialis at the end of the week, there is definitely progress! With the lack of hill training so far this year though, I'd better take it easy at Miwok to keep something in the tank, or the legs, for the way back to Stinson Beach.

What felt good as well was to do more trail running, about 42 miles this week. After my hard and too intense training on the track in January, Jeremy was the first to advise that I get back on the trails instead. The irony is that, for the orthopedist I consulted in March, his version of soft surface was actually the rubber of the track. However, because the shoes adhere so well on that surface, I believe it's actually much harder on the muscles and tendons. The uneven surface of trails provides a healthy variety of foot and ankle positions. And the dusty or sandy ground allows the foot to find its right orientation, a latitude that the track doesn't provide.

Yes, it was a good week overall, great way to spend time outdoor, even enjoy the bit of rain we got this week (it's never too late, keep it coming!). I also stopped by the event we had at the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge for the Earth Day celebration of our IBM site in Alviso (the activity consisted in a walk so I ended up going on my own for a 11-mile run instead...). With the Alviso Marina County Park, we are so blessed to have such natural and preserved areas just a mile from the office! Here are a few pictures.

The IBM group exploring the marshes with Ranger Joe, and our office building in the background:

One of the numerous geese. Can you spot the three cute goslings?

As you can guess if you have already encountered a geese family on a trail, the male was mad at me approaching...

The first pelicans are back from their winter break in Mexico (I'm guessing, Steve Patt will correct me on this...). See the nearby and brand new 49ers' Levi's stadium in the background (right).

And Steve Patt will also tell us the exact name of this majestic bird which looks like a grey heron to me:

A few notes about the change of this area from salt ponds to a natural preserve and bird sanctuary.

And an explanation of the rich, vivid and varied colors of the ponds which are so spectacular when flying over the South Bay: a function of the density (number of particles per unit of volume) of bacterias and algae in the salted water.

With that, see some of you on the trails again at Miwok next Saturday. Enjoy your tapering, or still some training for those who couldn't get in and will race later this month. In the meantime, I'll walk a few miles at our Impact conference in Vegas, going from room to room in this huge Venetian hotel and conference center... Still no hill training, so looking forward to Saturday for that! :-)