Claire and I just got back from 5 nights of camping in the Santa Cruz area. We camped for two nights at New Brighton Beach, two nights in Big Basin, and the last night in Butano State Park. We took our bikes, Mathilda, and Mathilda’s trailer. Of course we packed plenty of firewood on the top of the Hub Bus. What does this all have to do with training, well, not a lot, but we did ride into Santa Cruz each day and did about 40 km of riding each day with Mathilda in tow. The first day we piled up the trailer with beach chairs, dog, and a picnic lunch and rode down to one of our favorite beaches in Santa Cruz. We sat on the beach, and I even jumped in the water for one wave.
I ran for an hour on Monday, part on the beach and part on some trails on the cliffs above. On Wednesday I did my longest run in a long time. I ran for a little over 3 hours around Big Basin. Claire hiked and I did little loops back and forth. We went out to the waterfall in Big Basin. It was about a 12 mile loop from our campsite. I figured I ran about 18 or 20 miles while Claire hiked. I felt really good the whole time. My Average heart rate was 144. I only tripped and fell once, but I managed to roll through the fall. The only problem with that was that I had a water bottle on my back, and when I rolled, I popped the top on the bottle and lost all of my water. I had to bum some off of some hikers a while later. We were both pretty knackered when we got back to the campground.
Today is the third Grasshopper race. It is the only one that I have never done, but I just didn’t have the energy to drive out to Point Reyes for the start. The next one isn’t for a while. I am getting ready right now to head out for a bike ride and then hopefully a short run. It is only 50 days until The World’s Toughest.