Bella Vista–Again.

This could be my favorite road for training I’ve got in Bolivia.  It rolls.  The climbs are all runnable, and they last for a while.  It’s got some flat stretches too where it’s possible to relax into a good groove.

Anyway, on Saturday I got out onto the road to Bella Vista for my weekly long run pretty early in the morning.  The sun was up, but it hadn’t lit the valley yet.

 

Anyway the last couple of times I’ve been running here mud has been a real consideration.  In fact, the last long run I did on this road had me questioning my sanity thanks to the 3 steps back for every 4 forward mode of transport I had undertaken.  This time, the track conditions were really good. 

By the time I crested the first hill, I knew I wasn’t going to be setting any land speed records – I was simply enjoying the scenery too much.



There isn’t much in the way of actual trail here in Bolivia, but many of the roads are primarily used by foot traffic – lots of double track.  I expect this road would be a freaking blast on a mountain bike too – though coming around a blind downhill curve and running into a cow wouldn’t be a ton of fun…



I’ve been running on this road many times now, but this was my longest by quite a bit.  Many years ago I’d driven back here with Nataly while scouting sites for her PHd work.  She ended up not working back in here, but the drive featured one spectacular (bella even) vista and I finally got there on this run.







The last time I ran here, I knew I was close, but the red dirt you see in a couple of these pictures is absolutely miserable to run on when it’s a bit wet.  Glacial.  I actually think running downhill on it is worse than up – it’s straight dangerous. 

I continued a bit further along on the road and actually came into a bit of a developed area.  Certainly a more “civilized” one.



The big pine tree on the left of the picture is non-native and planted.  Others have started spreading.  Nataly is worried about them because they may change the fire cycle in this region.  She’s on a mission to take out all the pines that have been planted at Cuevas.  I’m not 100% on board with that – the pines are doing something to stabilize the hillside – but she’s probably more right than me.  The native vegetation is adapted more to landsliding than it is to fire…

Anyway.  I turned around just a bit further along down the road and headed back.  There are a few more kilometers to explore on this road yet and I expect I’ll visit them in a few weeks.  This weekend my long run will be here in LaGuardia.  I’ll be back up to Cuevas on Thursday next week.



I should note too - I ran this in my Vibrams - 18 Miles in VFF Trek Sports.  Longest run in them by probably 20 percent (guessing, but...)

Thanks for reading and stay in your lane on blind curves,
J

Knee Wha...

This post was supposed to be the culmination of my On injuries and running barefoot post, but as luck would have it, I've got something else to write about instead.

So for the last several weeks I've had a "Goth" toe.  It had gotten to the point to where I'd named it Marilyn.  Black toenails are something I'm familiar with, but this one, well, it is different.

I'm not sure when it first developed, but at some point a couple of weeks ago I noticed dried blood caked around the pinky toenail on my right foot.  I told Nataly that I thought I had a worm living under there and she just scoffed.

I kept running thinking it was just a new manifestation of the black toenail syndrome all runners eventually suffer from if they log enough mileage.  Then the toe started to hurt.

I asked Nataly to look at it several times, but she didn't think much of it.  Black toenail.

Finally this weekend, with some good light she looked at it and declared, "I think I know what this is: 'Knee Wha'."  Cool, I have no idea how to spell that!

Supposedly it's a relative of the tick.  It finds callouses and burrows into them, then lays it's eggs.  This particular one chose my pinky toe.  Sweet!

Nataly spent the better part of an hour and a half last night with a needle picking and squeezing at my toe until no more eggs squirted out and more than half of my callous was removed.

Pretty hideous I know.

Running wise.  Last week I ran 10.5 miles on Thursday to La Guardia, Friday I ran laps of my back yard while Deneb slept (1 hour) and Saturday I got 1.5 hours in the hills behind Cuevas.  That "run" totalled all of 4 miles, but I was completely wasted yesterday - sore and dehydrated.  Ended up flaking on my scheduled workout.

I have an off day scheduled today, and given the gaping hole in my toe.  I expect I'll be taking it.  Tomorrow 1 hour and 15 minutes are on the schedule.  Base 1 week 1 is commencing.

Apologies and thanks for reading,
J

Run: 10.01 miles

Got out again yesterday and it was the only thing remotely constructive I did all day yesterday.

This week, I've been trying to get my Bolivian residency status squared away and I was driving into Santa Cruz when I got into a fender bender.  Remarkable it hasn't happened before, but there it is.  Nobody was hurt, but our car has a new ding in the side.

A cop was actually riding in the passenger seat of other vehicle and he said it was the other driver's fault.  I honestly have no idea, the place where we were in the accident is an absolute cluster.  Whatever...

My run yesterday required a bit of willpower to undertake.  I was (am) sore from the run and the raking I did on Tuesday (we've got a big yard).  Eventually though I did get out and 97 minutes later I got back.  Heart rate was high again on the run yesterday, and toward the end of the run I actually gave it a bit of a kick just to see 200 on the tachometer.  I think it's kind of cool to be staring down the commencement of my 41st trip around the sun and still able to hit 200 BPM and not have a heart attack.

Nothing else particularly remarkable about yesterday, today I won't be driving anywhere that's for sure.
Thanks for reading.
J

Quick note while the muse is with me...

Today I knocked out a pretty excellent 7 miles (11.27 Km).  I've figured out a loop which is about 2.45 miles long on relatively quiet roads (it's hard to call anything quiet here though).  3 laps and a brief out and back got me to just about an hour.

I'm starting to feel like I can add more days to my schedule.  I've been really focused on staying relaxed while running and taking short but quick strides.  My (Ache)illes is feeling better for the most part.  The last time I ran I felt some pain in my right plantar tendon, but that didn't bother me today.  I did gimp around a bit post run, but simple movement afterwards loosened everything up.

In a couple of weeks my wife and I will be moving out to where we will be spending the next few years.  I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of living out there.

View Property @ Km 14.kml in a larger map - let me know if this sucker doesn't show up well.  
For some reason, Google earth is sweet here, but Maps sucks.


Explore around a bit and maybe you mightwant to come visit - shoot me a note on the Twitter or the FB and I can email you a Google Earth Kml file for you to check out the surroundings.

All are welcome, we'll be living in a 4 bedroom (allocated as: 2 bedrooms, 1 guest room/office, 1 tv room) house.  Grapefruits are just about ripe.  We will soon have more avocados than is humanly possible to eat.  We are actually going to cut down 1 of the 3 mango trees and there are tangerine trees and one bitter orange. That one, I can't wait to use for marinades...

Alrighty then.
Thanks for reading, I'm still working on another "Retrospect piece" but it's being tough to get time to write during the day...
Jay

Today's "Run"...

Went out with the goal of completing the Boulder Skyline Traverse today, but ran out of water.  That made things a bit tough, especially as I was coming down off of Green Mtn. with a virtually empty 100oz bladder.

My route took me from 19th and the Creek path South via Benson Earth Sciences (for a pee stop) to the Mesa Trail.  Felt pretty good along this portion of the (still) run and really I really enjoyed the views once up on Mesa. Took Mesa to Shadow Canyon and up.  That sucker is a straight up slog.  Steep, technical.   Not much running for a 210 lb dude.  Took 55 minutes.

South from the Shadow Canyon to South Boulder Peak where I forgot to hit my lap button, but it was about 12 minutes and then back north to Bear.

Bear is a treat.  It's bald.  Requires some scrambling to get the summit, but once there you've got 360 degrees of unobstructed view.  On a clear, haze free day, you could probably see Wyoming.  Coming down off of Bear, a dude (Kevin?) and I chatted for a bit and he noted an air show going on down in the Centennial Airport area.  That was sweet, I had been wondering, "What the heck is that weird pillar of smoke over there?" for a while.

The trek from Bear north to Green Mountain went not so well, I'd been not enjoying the sun too much and it was  giving me a bit of tough time.  Combine that with a rocky, technical descent and I found myself not hammering like I would have liked.  Keep the ankles happy - race coming up.  Once the trail turned up though, the wheels almost popped off.  My Camelback got a workout.  I hiked an awful lot of the trail, ran when I could, but that wasn't often.

Up, up, up - to Green.  Not my favorite summit in Boulder.  Too crowded, lots of trees.  Vistas are nice, but Bear is way better.  At this point, people were starting to look at me, perhaps wondering if I was ok.  I'd been conserving water and was really feeling it at this point.  I think I hit the summit of Green in about 4 hours, maybe a little more.  The real relief there was:  It's almost all downhill from here.  Unfortunately, there are still tough technical bits before you get to the nice, wide open, Ranger Trail.

My brain was really starting to fade at this point.  I was able to run most of the way to the Tenderfoot Trail on Flagstaff (it's all downhill), but I wasn't digging it.  At some point before crossing Flagstaff Road, I ran out of Heed (stuff is good btw, sweetened with Maltose and Sugar - not HFCS - Mild Mellon in my pack today).  Got to the ranger station on Flagstaff and discovered that the water fountain was broken and not to be repaired.  Vandals.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Fortunately this was a weekend and the ranger cottage was actually open.  I'd've been hitch hiking otherwise. Gentleman inside (had a couple of gallons of water - I took a pint) and I chatted for a while.  Turns out his son had ridden the LT100 mountain bike version a 2 weeks ago.  10 hours or something like that.  Cool.

All the rest was down hill.  I hit a trail I'd never been on before that pops out right at Eben G. Fine Park where I expected to have some water, but the fountain was pathetic.  Seriously.  Thought I'd get some water for my pack, but I got water for my mouth and that was all.

Sucked a bunch down and took off for the car, after about 25 meters on the creek path I could no longer take my shoes going "shshshshshshsh" and I took them off.  The last 1.5 miles or so of my run today was barefoot.  Set a couple of folks aback by that - "That guy is running barefoot?!" and another "Dude!  Barefoot!  Hard core man!"

Anyway.  I've got some video from today's "run" and I'll post it later.  Boulder is sweet.
Thanks for reading,
J

P.S.
When I got home I'd come around far enough that Homey and I went out for 3 more miles.  Me in VFF and he barefoot (surprise).  Total for today 22 miles in less than 7 hours.
J