Terrible Analogies

A week from today I’ll finally be on the Mt. Whitney trail, heading up to 14,500ft, and most probably in a great deal of pain.  My run up Mt. Baldy last week provided some insight as to what to expect, and that expectation is cramps, fatigue, and a slight case of altitude sickness.  Can’t wait!

Being a runner for most of my life, and a hard core trail runner for the past fifteen years, I’m confident that I’ll come close to my 8 hour target for the entire 22 miles, but man, I still find myself nervous just thinking about Mt. Whitney.  My stomach is doing flip-flops, and my mind races with doubts and uncertainties.

Taking a look for the 100th time at my various Mt. Whitney books, I saw something today that I never really noticed before:

Why are the mile markers in the shape of tombstones?  That does not fill me with confidence

Ahhh….I’m just psyching myself out, I know it.  It’ll be fine.  Won’t it?

This past weekend I took a training run up Mt. Baldy’s (Mt. San Antonio) Baldy Bowl/Sierra Ski Hut trail.  I was curious to see how my body was going to react to running at altitude. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to perform at 10,000+ feet above sea level.  I now have a greater understanding of how I should fuel up prior to my Mt. Whitney assault in September, and what food I need to consume during the run up.

I drank less water than I thought I would on this 11.2 mile run.  Considering that I went from 5,000ft above sea level to just over 10,000ft in five miles, I wasn’t that thirsty.  That means I need to force myself to drink more that I did.  When I did finally make it back to the car and stopped running, my vision was a bit blurred (it like someone turned the Photoshop “brightness” up ten notches too high), which I attribute to a combination of lack of food and altitude.  After downing a sandwich I began to feel human again.

My performance was hindered a bit by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.  The smell of smoke was thick, making for less than ideal conditions for a run up this grueling trail.  Regardless, I finished the run / hike / run up and down in 3.5 hours.  That puts me on target for an 8 hour round trip up Whitney, but I plan to slow the pace down a bit for Whitney.  Whitney will be a bit more forgiving on the uphill side, but the length and higher altitude (22 miles @ 14.5K feet) deserves a bit more respect than Baldy.

The trail I took splits off to the left from the dirt road. Follow the road up to the Devil's Backbone. Follow the path to the left for the Ski Hut trail.

Hikers on the trail

Panorama shot, showing the smoke in the air. Click to embiggen...

Click to enlarge

I’m anxious to run this trail again, hopefully on a day with less smoke in the air.  Everyone I met in the parking lot and on the trail was very friendly and easy to approach.  If you think you might be lost, the hikers around you will gladly point you in the right direction.

Bring plenty of water and a Cliff Bar for the uphill journey.  It’ll make your hike much more enjoyable!

Yay!  Let’s hear it for me.  I broke my own toe.

Now, I’d like to say that I broke in in a desperate Muay Thai death match, in a bare hands wrestling match with the last panda on Earth, or while hiking barefoot across the vast exploding lava fields of Hawaii’s Big Island, but alas this was not the case.  I broke it, pedestrianly enough,  tripping over the tub while attempting to lower the window blinds.

My dead sexy, gorgeous foot...disfigured!

The pain isn’t relegated to my toe, but instead tends to occasionally travel halfway up my shin in threads of dull pain.  My Mt. Whitney run is in less than a month, and now I get to finish my training runs with a busted toe.  This should be interesting.

Yay!

I got into work before 6am yesterday just so I could leave early and grab a quick run up at Iron Mountain in the Poway / Ramona area.  The Ellie Lane portion of this run crests over three high points, and isn’t for the weak willed.  When I hit the trailhead it was in the upper 80′s, humid, and windless deep in these mountains.  This was probably one of the toughest runs I’ve had in quite a while, and I was smiling the entire time…

I’ll be updating this post in the future with more pics, maps, and technical details.  There’s quite a bit left to photograph.  Hopefully it’ll be a bit cooler on my next hump up this hill, allowing me to not only enjoy the run more, but the scenery as well.  Today I just wanted to get this thing over with.  I was running low on water and my hands were insanely swollen due to dehydration.  I have a pic, but didn’t want to gross anyone out.   Ahhh…good times

As always, feel free to click on the pics to embiggen…

The run begins just off the shoulder of highway 67

It's rattlesnake season. I saw quite a few tracks in the dirt, but so far no snakes.

Yep, they weren't joking today. High heat and humidity makes for a painful run.

This run looks sooo inviting at first...

...but once you're past the initial grove of trees, its true unforgiving nature is revealed.

The first real challenge of this run is the steep log hill

A section of the trail near the first peak

Decisions, decisions. I almost always opt for the cruel meat grinder called Ellie Lane.

On Ellie Lane, looking down towards Ramona

Ramona Overlook

Looking back at the trail I just ran up

The peak view of Ellie Lane. There was a haze in the air today, but on clear days you can see out to the Pacific ocean.

Near the end of the run Ellie Lane skirts past a small lake

There was quite a bit between the peak and the end of the run, but due to the heat and technical difficulties with my camera (the final few photos came out strangely), I didn’t capture everything I wanted to (table top rock, the rock-walled chicanes, oak tree bench, etc…).  Ah well, I guess that’s something to look forward to in the next couple of weeks.

Even though I had to work on Saturday, I still managed to squeeze in a quick 7 mile run on the Mt. Woodson loop.  It was 85° at 2pm when I began the trek up, and by the time I got back to my car my Camelbak was drained.  Let me tell ya, that was a hot run…

I’ve updated my Mt. Woodson trail loop entry with some new pics, so if you’re interested in following me up someday, take a look at it to get an idea for what you’ll be in for.

My assault on Mt. Whitney is still set for the beginning of September.  In preparation my long, grueling mountain trail runs have been increased.  I can usually be found on Iron Mountain, Elle Lane, or Mt. Woodson three times a week now.  I plan on hitting Mt. Baldy / San Antonio this weekend to get a bit of elevation training in.  Can’t wait!

Follow the hiking trail to the base of Mt. Woodson

New stairs!