Back to the Cypress, for an intentionally slow, low heart-rate, run.  I am not the best at following my learned trainer’s instructions, but my building  anxiety over how to survive the 5-6 hour Bridger has me paying better attention to her instructions!   So, I slow may pace, keeping my pulse in Zone 2 or […]

We have not been back to Kirkwood in several months, and are pleased/surprised to see how much snow remains.  The tops of chairs 6 and 10 look like they do in early December, when just another storm or two will open the mountain.   Not enough of the white stuff to ski on the 4th […]

Ran the Cypress this morning very early, around 5:45.   Earliest rays of light darting through the redwoods and pines that form my running cathedral.  Thinking about the fact that the sun will now pause, pivot and begin its methodical march southward for the next 180 days.  The daily changes ever so small, barely noticeable […]

Thirty years ago, the annual “Escape from Alcatraz” Triathlon began with a swim from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park in San Francisco, then a bike ride over the GG Bridge to Old Mill Park in Mill Valley, followed by running the Double Dipea from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach and back.  The distance of each leg […]

Resilience!  A great word, a great virtue, though not always a strong one for me.   But I awake resilient, and follow my trainer’s guidance onto my mountain bike, and do a 40 minute, leg-loosening, climb up railroad grade.  (Ok, she suggested a shorter, flatter ride, but also says that sometimes you have to color outside […]

D Day turned out to be a bit of an adventure, at least for me.  Nice, decently cool morning.  Fog curling over the hill, temperature around 60.   I crossed the starting line at 8:44.  My group included Brian Pilcher, last year’s winner, and, as it turns out, this year’s too.  I was tied with him […]

Dipsea Eve!   24 hours from now, give or take five minutes, I’ll stumble down the “stiles” (short for turnstiles), then take the last couple of turns on the road before crossing the Dipsea finish line at Stinson Beach.  With the age and gender based handicapping and staggered starts, four or five hundred runners will have […]

Last Saturday morning training run for awhile.   One last rehearsal up the brutal steps, flying down to Muir Woods, struggling up Dynamite and Hogsback to Cardiac.  Six of us today, only one in group not running the Dipsea.   Die is now cast.  WIll do some biking and easy exercise this week, then join for all […]

Got up before 6 to run the Dipsea trail again, this time to “halfway rock” and back.   Splits better; shaved about a minute and a half from Sunday’s times.  Ran hard at times, running with emotion.  Learned in last few days that a grad school classmate, the kind of guy everyone really liked,  died of […]

Okay, enough hiking and romance, back to business.  Ran the Dipsea all the way to Stinson, noting key split times along the way.  Feeling healthy and good.  Ran particularly fast the last two and half miles down from Cardiac,  but will have to pick it up on the first half to run a “qualifying” time. […]