Start of the fall trail season for me. After racing 3 consecutive road/marathon blocks, it was time to get back to the trails especially out in here in California where I've barely explored the great trails of this state. Jumping right into the deep end with the inaugural Headlands 27K, a golden trail world series race- extremely competitive, world class field. Also jumping into the deep end with the course- 4,200' of elevation over 17 miles, by far the hardest profile of the ones I signed up for.
Monday: 9 Miles- Los Angeles, CA
Closest major park to me- Elysian Park, went to explore here. This park contains Dodger stadium and like a lot of L.A. trails, it has some hills. I was surprised how quiet and empty the park felt, considering it's about a mile from downtown LA, the second biggest city in the country. Ran some winding roads, and most of the hills were quite gradual so there wasn't much suffering. Downside to today was the last day of the heatwave, and I ran late so it was close to 90 by the start and just felt brutal. Feels like 91 shown on strava, which is one of the hottest I've ever done. Good route for the most part, finishing on busy roads/sidewalk wasn't great but probably 7 good miles in there.
Tuesday: 10 Miles- Pasadena, CA
Rough day, woke up pretty early to go run Mount Baldy. This would be the third time I planned on doing it (bailed in April because of snow, bailed in August due to smoke closure), but this time I drove over there (about 50 minutes), only for the air quality to be horrendous and military and police vehicles blocking the entrance. Figured I'd at least run in the area while I was here, but everything was closed to the terrible air quality.
Sat in traffic for a miserable hour and a half, so frustrating given I came out there for nothing. Ended up running in Pasadena near the NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory. Got on some fantastic singletrack and ended up being a great route. Legs felt pretty bad so maybe not getting to do Baldy wasn't the worst thing.
Wednesday: 10 Miles- Los Angeles, CA
In Los Angeles, generally the hills/ridges are quite nice/good for running, and the flat areas are very busy/not as nice/bad running. So I figured running some hilly roads would be decent. Explored the neighborhood of Mount Washington and made a loop finishing with Ernest E. Debs Park from last week. Okay route overall as there was some busy running (on the start/finish flat parts).
Thursday: 9 Miles- Los Angeles, CA
Plan was for a Griffith workout, wanted to hit the iconic trails up to the observatory then to Mount Hollywood- tough one with 1,000' over 2.5 miles. If I felt good, I'd add another mile back down to Mt. Hollywood drive. Considered a longer tempo out to the Hollywood, but thought better of it with the racing coming up soon.
The observatory trail is the toughest part with about 500' of uphill in a mile, and it absolutely crushed me. Running tempo up 15% (average probably 9-12%) is a very different story than a 1-3% grade and it got very intense and my quads locked quite a bit. I was struggling so much after the observatory that I called it at 1.5 miles, took a long break and finished up the last mile hard. Was so tired from that I ended up running 9 instead of 10. And to make matters worse, I couldn't get water at the fountain because it was swarming with yellow jackets.
Friday: 9 Miles- South Pasadena, CA
Repeat of the arroyo seco loop, much less crowded than last time.
Saturday: 7 Miles- Concord, CA
Drive up to the Bay Area. Didn't realize that unless the town is directly on the bay/ocean, that it's very hot. 83 degrees on this one (compared to low 60s in SF) and sunny. Nice route though, got on some great bike paths and rolling trails.
Sunday: 20 Miles- Mill Valley, CA
Headlands 27K. This race was really cool. I'll do a full recap later. Huge activity day with the 20 with race and warm-up, plus 8 miles of hiking in Big Sur after.
Weekly Total: 74 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Headlands race
Weekly Lowlight: Early/mid-week stuff: blowing up mid-workout, Baldy fail and heat on Monday.
Movies Watched: Alien: Covenant, Road House, The Fall Guy
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