Mountain Running

Pretty crazy elevation chart from today's run in Palm Springs!  Decided to run the 5 miles to the base of the aerial tram at about 6:30am (to get the 8am first tram to the top).  A big climb from 600 to 2,600 feet, with all of the climbing happening in 3.5 miles.  Relentless hill, just goes on and on......  Was ready for a rest by the time I got there.

The tram is awesome, goes up to 8,600' and is way above the valley - the views go on forever.  Plan was to run to the peak of Mount San Jacinto which is 10,600, so anotnher 2,000 feet of climbing.  However, trail conditions were not ideal, and what started as a great trail, went to trail with patches of snow, to snow with patches of trail, to just snow.  After losing the trail, sinking to my knees in icy snow and starting to climb past 9,200 I decided it was not going to be great running, and was likely to get worse.  So I turned around amd ran a couple other trails around the mountain top and got some good climbing in.  

Then it was time to take the tram back down and finish up with a hot 5 mile downhill run.  As I descended to the valley floor it got hotter and hotter - by the time I was back at 600 feet it was 95 degrees and my quads were fried from the downhill miles.  It didn't help that there was a 35 mile an hour tailwind coming down the hill so I was constantly braking to stay under control.

Overall a good run, and after a bunch of gatorade and beer I feel human again!

3 weeks to go - time to start tapering.