Summer S24O's....

S24O's.... "short, 24hr o'ernighters". A fun term for a fun little getaway. LA friend Kent was up to visit his Santa Cruz mountain cabin and make some repairs - and to test out gear for overnight bike camping trips. Amazing, but except for the '96 Big Sur Ride, I've never done an overnight bike-camping trip. Sounded fun and so off we went. Here's the narrative and pix for our trips to Henry Cowell Redwoods, and to Nicene Marks State Park.

The Perfect Trail Run

This past week I've had sore knees till today. Probably from the steep downhill through the streets at the Firecracker 10K on Monday. Just general, vague soreness, not sharp pain as if I'd broken something. I've done a couple of short runs mid week but felt stiff and slow on both. So, it was a big surprise today when, after an ocean swim and heading over to Nicene to hopefully do a long run.... that I actually pulled it off. While I didn't bring enough calories because I just knew that my desire (run the West Ridge Trail) was going to flame-out early (a single Larabar: dates and cashew). But maybe it was the cold water swim, or maybe time just finally healed 'em, but my knees were fine. I did wear my camelback so I wouldn't run dry at least. I took the side trails to the steel bridge, on to the West Ridge trail start, and on up to the ridge and along all the way to the Hoffmann Connector. Here I did a short stretch session, then retraced. That's 14.4 miles - my longest run since my hip resurfacing 4 years ago. My glutes are still underpowered it seems, as the return run had my left psoas predictably pretty sore. 2 aspirin + 2 ibuprofen + an hour of icing seems to have done the trick. Funny Jones after I finished the run - I craved protein. Any protein. Drove straight to Aptos Natural Foods and got a can of tuna and a chicken vege wrap and ate both immediately on the spot. THAT felt better!

The Firecracker 10K

First time I've done this local classic in about 20 years. Tough race, very hilly. I've got a photo page with narrative here.

'Yaking, Biking, and Philosophizing at Pt Reyes

Great weekend with my German friend Fernando, in the USA for just a month. I met him at the hostel at Miami Beach back in '00, when I was getting growth hormone injections in a vain attempt to save my left hip, and he was a recent grad student in theoretical astrophysics. Times have changed, and he's now a successful software engineer at SAP in Frankfurt, with a recent philosophical bent - perfect travelling and conversational companion for me! Enjoy the photos here.