Welcome Back Rick

I heard those words ring in my head as I ran 2 routes this weekend. It's good to be back. I still have images of Montana and Wyoming mountains in my head and I can still imagine the sensation of having large rocks move under my feet or jogging/sliding down the side of a scree filled slope. Such great adventures I had while I was gone.

I'm back now, no big mountains or super technical trails but it's nice to be able to run at full strength, unencumbered by altitude. I was constantly exposed to altitudes above 10,000ft. and I did fine but I could tell my body was not running at 100%. It was to be expected and I'm glad I was able to hang with my friends. I didn't slow anyone down, no throwing up on the side of a mountain and no wigging out. I couldn't ask for more.

So what's next?

Despite the fun I had on my little summer vacation I haven't really been running that much. The last big run was pacing at Headlands and my knee was still bothering me then so I made the decision to take more time off. As I mentioned I won't be doing any more 100s for the year because of the knee but I don't think it will hamper me for the shorter stuff, we'll see. My next race should be the Firetrails 50-miler. I've already told friends I was doing this event and I made up my mind while in Wyoming. I've got roughly 7 weeks to train. 1 week to get back in the swing of things, 4 weeks of hard training and 2 weeks for taper. That should be enough. Like in all my races this year, I don't want to just participate, I want to race and finish strong. I'm really enjoying the higher intensity of racing events and it's a blast to see personal records drop.

Looking forward to catching up on blogs and I've got more pictures and stories about mountains from my little summer vacation. The following images is from a potluck / outdoor movie night from this past weekend. We were in the small quaint town of San Anselmo, about 45 minutes from San Francisco. The movie was shown in a baseball field and the movie for the night was "Breaking Away". Who remembers the movie? It's great no?

Chance, not too happy to be kept away from potluck goodies.

Jess (pink), our potluck queen, preparing food and opening beers.

Belcha, hyper and in the mood to cause trouble.