Running/Track and Field

Well, I had a goal. And it was good to be done with it. I must say it proved more difficult than I thought it would be! I had some necessary help from some friends.

Saturday was an aggressive beginning. I ran Wasson Peak on the west side with my friend Joe. It was a great morning run, but harder than I had expected. And this was the smallest one! After a fruit shake at Joe's house, I went to Mt Wrightson on the south side. I was already a bit sore but started to make my way up. On the way, my right quad cramped and I had to fast walk on a lot of the steep trail. On top of the mountain there was some snow and it was super windy. Freekin cold! But I got there and made a quick decent. Very sore and rethinking this whole plan.

Sunday, I had planned an early bike ride up Mt Lemmon, but opted to sleep in a bit and reconsider. Luckily, another friend, Chris, was willing to start a little later and by 9am I fealt good enough to go. We climbed well enough and the weather was perfect. But by Palisades at mile 20, I was spent! Thank god the gift store at the visitors center had prickly pear candy. It saved me! We then made it to the peak. Chris dropped the bike off at the ski valley and ran up the ski slopes 20+% grade! I rode the service road that tipped up to 14%. After, we had great food at the alpine restaurant in ski valley. It's amazing how GOOD food can taste sometimes! On the way down, I froze my @#%$ off! The wind picked up and we had to actually pedal down hill! Finished the day sore and tired and rethinking again....

Monday, Chris saved my goal by doing some research and telling me the highest peak in the Rincons, was NOT Rincon Peak, but Mica Peak. So at 7am we set off to conquer it! Yes, he got hooked on the goal of 4 peaks as well! A bit of bush waking to find the trail, but overall it was easy to find. It was steep and very exposed. I was sweating like a madman! My camelback, unfortunately, had a hole and we were left to share a 32oz bottle of gatorade for the 18 mile trip with almost 5,000 ft of climbing. Not enough...........The trail was awesome though and the dirty snow at the top tasted oh so good. The way down started fast until, we realized we had gone a long way! It took forever. And at the end, I was so tired, I almost puked. But the goal was accomplished........Maybe a silly goal, but an epic and fun way to spend the holiday weekend.

Chris jsut called a bit ago and had tried to get up Wrightson, but ran into a bear on the trail that wouldn't move! Crazy! So another weekend of insane workouts at another time I guess. But one heck of a story to tell!!

Yes cross training can be fun.................

So what do you do after Ironman? I want to keep the fitness, but have not worked out much for the last month. My forced rest and recovery. But this weekend I am going to go aeorbic and long with a goal I have always been interested in. ALL FOUR PEAKS AROUND TUCSON!!! I have stared at these mountain ranges around us for so long. I have only been to the true peaks of 2 of them. So here is my plan, all who want to join me for all or part are encouraged. For those racing in Sahuarito's Tri this Monday, good luck.

Saturday at 0700, I will plan to start at the trail head to Wasson Peak. This is the highest peak on the west side of Tucson. For info on the hike and route http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Wasson_King_Canyon_8520.asp . It is a little over 6 miles roundtrip to a great view. After getting a bite to eat, I plan to drive down to Madera canyon and hike to the top of Mt Wrightson. It is the highest peak that we in Tucson stare at to the south. The trail head is from Madera Canyon. For info on the hike and the route, http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Old_Baldy_Trail_8520.asp . I plan to start this around 11am. It is about 9-10 miles round trip.

Sunday at 0630, I will leave from Tanque Verde and Mt lemmon Highway at Le Buzz Cafe. On a bike, I will climb the entirety of Mt Lemmon. I always have gone into Summerhaven, but this time to get the actual peak of Mt Lemmon, I will go to the ski valley and beyond via the access road and up to the towers. From what I understand, the trail to the true peak is obvious from here. I am unsure of the distance. But this will be a minny brick. Minny with the run!! The bike will climb about 6000 ft! Lunch in Summerhaven and then home. Pasta dinner at my house!!

Monday at 0830, I will start the trail to Rincon Peak! It is the highest peak on the mountains to the east of Tucson. The trail head is actually on the easterly part of the mountain and it is quite a drive to get there. Maybe 1.5 hours. I have never done this, but I have been told it is the most beautiful peak of the four around the Tucson Valley. For info on the hike and trail route, http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Rincon_Peak_8520.asp . This peak is about 16.2 miles round trip

The total of distance should be about 32-33 miles of hiking and running and about 60-64 miles on the bike. Total elevation gain should be about 17,500 ft. Give or take a little. A little diversity in the workouts is a good thing. And to go long and slow will zap my body out of the rest phase I have been in for far too long!!

Well, tomorrow is a long day coming.........so it will be, a long day. Here in Ironman village and hotel, there is an interesting energy combined with a calmness. All different walks of life have led to this path. From all corners of the world. Some to win, some to dive into a personal agenda. Some unfinished turmoil that needs to be let go through the exhaustion and intensity of a day of Ironman. You can see the different stories in people's eyes as they walk, talk and stare..........

I have been a triathlete for over 18 years. Truly dedicated to the sport. I love the competition, the people, and the well roundedness of the sport. Maybe the Libra in me! THIS will be my first Ironman, though. And with it comes a new feeling. There is a definite thoughtfulness and respect for the race I will do tomorrow. Maybe not so much "the race" but the distance. Whether it takes me 9 hours or 13 hours I will be going much slower than what my brain typically considers racing. I will try to set my body like a metronome and just cruise. And hopefully set the count right!

There are families here. Support systems that only they can describe. There are friends from clubs, and there are lone rangers. All have a familiear stare and look in their eyes. You do not have to ask who is doing the race tomorrow, it shows in their face. I wish my kids were here to sense this energy and learn from it. And to know what the training that they have seen me do, ultimately turns into. But..............

I have been fortunate to have many friends and family that have called me to wish me luck and to have a good race. It reminds me that with the everyday life we live, people notice.........And with that, it gives me a greater humility and sense of being. Because it is not just with Ironman training, or any race training, it is with life that people notice and are in a way influenced. We all notice the good people do..........We all notice the bad people do....... Inbetween is a lot of life that we think goes unnoticed. But is it? Our children notice, our friends and family notice. Work colleagues notice. How we live matters......... We are an example as individuals.

The evening news is full of dread and doom and gloom. But here at Ironman, and maybe in everybody's everday life, we can strive to do good. To make our own good news. I hope the first good news to share is a good race tomorrow.

Thanks, to all my friends and family

Last week was a run focus week. And I ended up a little short of my goals in the swim and bike. Overall for the week, I had 7250 for the swim (goal was 8-9k), and only 80 for the bike (goal was 120). For the run I was just wanting to get total of 26-27 with a couple of quality runs and a long run of atleast 13. I did some pick-ups on the track on Tuesday. Not much, but a couple of mile efforts: One at a 6:40 pace and one at a 5:50 pace. They fealt good but my calves were feeling it the next day. No cramping though.........WOOHOOO!! On Sunday, I did a 13 miler with my brother in northern California. We were visiting my Granpa, who is turning 90, and celebrating a birthday with him. The run fealt good and I ran it in a 1:35 total. No issues and thismorning getting up, I did not feel the run at all..........So now it is just putting it all together in two weeks. Hoping that my tapered and rested and trained body can do twice that after swimming and biking. I do not plan to run that pace of course!! If I do manage to I will go ahead and apply for my pro card!!

The next two weeks will be all about keeping my edge and NOT overdoing it. About a true taper. Days off. And short days with good post exercise refueling and keeping hydrated. Ironman is a race of unknowns, even to those who have done it many times. A matter of science, discipline, rest, tapering and good old fashioned luck!! I hope that I can manage to put it all together and have a successful race. I will pray to the Gods and have peace within (Mark Allen would be proud!).

If everybody in the world took life as sereiously as we do training and racing, what a world it would be...................

Well last week was a good week for training. For a rare time, I exceeded my plan! 11,000 in the pool, 242 miles on the bike, and 14.5 running. The last and big workout was a 112 bike with headwinds and sun from 10:30 to 4:20. I did a weigh in before and after and kept track of my fluids to help manage myself for the race in 3 weeks. I drank 120 oz of gatorade over 5 hours and 50 minutes and came home still down 9.5 pounds!! So race day I have calculated that I need to drink, in similar weather, about 18-20oz every 20 minutes to keep up fluid management. My salt content is another thing. I was encrusted after the ride, but quickly recovered over the first two hours and felt fine. My power output dropped only slightly and I did not BONK. So I think my calorie intake was close to good. Besides the gatorade, which I mixed and had a total of about 720 calories, I had two Odwalla bars and a small snickers. That was another 710 calories. This will all help me have the best race I can with the training I have done. Fluid and caloric management are just as important in an Ironman event as the miles you put in. I have experienced this with some of the adventure racing I have done. So I hope all will be put to good use and I have a kick ass exeriencein Tempe!

This past weekend was the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo........A great event that takes a scrappy piece of desert and turns it into a bike city of 3,000 plus people every winter outside of Tucson!  RVs, tents, expo, entertainment and lots of just plain good people.  For those that do not know, the race is a 24 hour non-stop affair........A 17 mile loop course and you and or your team making it around the course as many times as you can from 12 noon Saturday to 12 noon on Sunday.  I was in a duo team.  Our goal was 16 laps total..............We were doing well until late in the night Saturday, both of us started to experience BAAAD stomach cramps!!  We both were using Accelerade and think the protein and the bouncing around on our bikes caused some gasseous cramping.  So we laid off and took some sleep and when we felt better headed out for some more laps..........Only 11!!  6 for me and 5 for him.  But our laps were good and fast and competitive, so all was not lost!  AND.........I will never use Accelerade in a competition again!  I have used it plenty post exercise and I think it is great for that, but not during mountain biking!!  So like every race, even though not on the podium, lessons learned for better racing in the future.  The good thing is...........no crashes, no injuries, and my calf felt good!  I even ran 3.5 miles yesterday.  So Ironman AZ watch out!!  Ok not really ready, but still going to do it..........................

So other than having a big part in the athleteinyou.com site, I also work in the pharmaceutical industry selling legal prescription medications.  At times, this job requires me to travel - lately I have been travelling quite a bit.
Just last week I was at a National meeting and they are fun as you get to see so many of your friends from other parts of the country and have some great "catching up" time.
However, one thing I noticed is that we tend to hang out with those that agree or accept our qualities.  Hence, I hang out with healthy, attractive, very healthy oriented people.
While at this meeting, I had the chance to stop and look around at the different types of people out there.  In case anyone does not know much about the pharma selling industry - most of the sales people out there are extremely outgoing and very accomplished in their own right.  However, looking outside of my groups that I associated with, I was able to observe how many unhealthy people are out there!  Many men and women thrive to take on bad habits - such as excessive alcohol drinking and smoking.  Most of these people can't wait to get out of the daily meetings to participate in all of this.
Well don't get me wrong, I have my "social" moments too, however those that I am around like to let off a little steam but also can't wait to get their next workout in or work towards a healthy goal. 
When most ask me what makes me tick - it's my son and family, all of the amazing friends that I have in my life, and training for my next race.  Now those unhealthy types may look at me like I am too extreme from the other end.  Maybe I am - not everyone has to compete in multi-sport/bike racing, etc.  But it's good to have some type of a healthy goal.
When we read in the newpaper or watch the latest edition of nightly news - you can't run away from the fact that most Americans are fitting into the unhealthy lifestyle category.  The "norm" is now becomming overweight!  Why is it easier to eat badly and take up bad habits that put a strain on every part of your life?  We have all listened to the nutritionist or health trainer tell us how to eat and workout - everything they say is true but it mostly goes on deaf ears.  We choose to be the way we are, the way we eat (I do like to eat lots of bad food too), etc.
My whole point to this blog is maybe we all need to become redundant in promoting our lifestyles and reach out to as many as we can to convince to start living a better way of life.  As I stated before, the pharma industry employs some of the most outgoing people in the world!  If there are so many unhealthy types here, then what must the rest of this country be like?  My bet is all of those news reports are extremely accurate and this in an epidemic.  We are getting lazier/fatter, whatever - if this continues America will not be the best place in this world in years to come as our offspring will soon take over and they will have inherited unhealthy values.
We all need to do our part - maybe not tell everyone that they need to train for multisport - but seriously participate in a healthier lifestyle and make it permanent.
There are many college students on this site and all of you need to make it start with you.  Promote yourselves in positive ways by your actions.  When you get the chance to show somebody how to become active - Do it!  Nobody needs to always be a cheering fan in the stadiums (I do like to cheer at times too), but to actually go out and have someone cheer for you!  Clearly this message is not being promoted enough and not enough people out there are living a healthy lifestyle.
I know that I will do my part in always promoting a healthy lifestyle, raising my family to have healthy values, and cheering for anyone that makes a difference to live a healthier life no matter what their chosen activitiy!
Cheers to everyone already living their dream, and to those younger athletes that will be accomplishing much in the years to come.  I hope you all do your part to keep this lifestyle alive forever!

It has been a mundane couple of weeks.  Lots of bike trainer time.  Some good swims.  And keeping off my run for another week.  Going to get an MRI to check my calf out next week.

But today I wanted to comment on being an athlete spectator...........While watching two of my best friends expose themselves into competitions that most will never dream.  One in the Rock-n-Roll Marathon in Phoenix, and one in the Washington State Judo Championships.  Both well accomplished athletes in their regards.  Both with dissappointing results...............And I have been there..........Pissed at the results for whatever reason.  But to spectate the trials and triumphs and even personal failures of the age group athlete is both inspiring and humbling.  You want to support your friends and also want to wish them success.  But it will not always be a success and I think it is humbling to watch athletes, no matter their level of play, grow.............Because every experience is a growth process.  Success or failure alike.  And when you are on the sidelines, you know they are surpassing you with their new experience.............  And it makes me just want to get out there all the more!!

The last couple of days I have been feeling better.  Still a nagging cough, but my body feels good.  I have been able to get out on the mountain bike and was shown by a friend of mine, some BRAND NEW trails on the west side of Tucson.  Tucson has been very pro-active in improving the cycling community;  more bike lanes, and advertising for bicycle safety.  It is always ranked as one of the best cycling communities in the country for a reason.  But mountain biking has gotten a great boost here in the Old Pueblo.  The state has purchased massive amounts of acreage around the skirts of Tucson.  For one reason:  improve the natural paths of the desert animal life.  Tucson is in the Sonoran Desert and is very unique in its flora and fauna.  But the other wildlife......................Mountain bikers are going to get the huge benefit!  Because not only is the state setting land aside to always be protected, they are paying mountain bikers to cut tons of new trails!  The ones I rode the last two days, I do not yet know the name of, but they can be accessed off of the end of Sweetwater Road in the Tucson Mountains.  There currently are three loops of pristine rollers through the saguero forests out there.  With enough of rocky technical riding to make for about an hour (depending on your level of expertise of course).  I spoke with one of the guys planning and cutting the trails and he let me know plans of about 60 miles of trails to be cut over the next few years.  So no longer is Fantasy Island, way out on the east side, the only designated mountain biking haven in Tucson.  The reasons to love this place just keep growing!

Well, I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Year.  Mine was filled with some family, sparkling apple cider and dancing like a fool with my kids!  It was a great night after a great Christmas at my house.  But the stirring was already happening in my body that night.................On New Years day I got the crappiest bug I have ever had.  Fever, malaise, GI, myalgias, coughs..........Welcome to 2008!  Woohoo!!  Tonight I am much better, but coughing like a madman.  I was of course on track to start running/biking more.   The Rock n Roll Marathon?????????  Out.  Plans for Ironman Arizona????????  Seriously waaaaaay behind.  Frustration level????????  Extremely high!!!  How did Lance stay healthy and on top for so many Tours de France?

Well I hope for myself and everyone out there, 2008 is a better one.

Well I took 10 days off of running because of the focused calf cramp/pull.  Hard to do, but I did get out for a few bike rides.  Not too intense and I didn't feel the calf at all on the bike.  But after only 2 short and very slow miles on the treadmill today, and feeling like it was perfect to that point, it did it again!!  Son of a ...........!!!!!!!!

So running is out for a while.  I am signed up for the Rock n Roll Marathon next month, but there is no way I can think I will be good to go.  A friend is flying in to do it (his first) so I will plan on running some, but have no expectations I guess.

So now to focus on cycling......In February is the 24 Hours In The Old Pueblo.  I am signed up as DUO Team.  Our name, athleteinyou.com, of course!  So more time on the mountain bike.  It is a great event, and I have done a couple of the 24 hour mountain bike events, but never as a duo.  12 hours of riding per person.  I figure about 150 miles of mountain biking per person.  I spent 3 hours at Fantasy Island this past Sunday

I got in the pool 3 times this last week and will start more consistancy with that as well.  Udall and 78 degrees feels great compared to my unheated 52!  So for April, and Ironman AZ..............?  I am a little scared about my calf and cramping issues.  Maybe it is time to get a full metabolic panel on myself and see if I have some wierd freeky deficiency.  I figure at the very least, I can kick ass in the swim and bike and do whatever I can on the run come crunch time.   Very frustrated right now............

Week  of Pain:

Monday:  30 min on the trainer with high resistance, followed by immediate 2.5 mile run on treadmill.   A good little time to workout effort.  HR in the 160s on the bike and 180s on the run.

Tuesday:  After a trail warmup from Broadway, a hilly 8 mile tempo run at Saguaro Monument East.  56 total minute effort with long interval/fartleck work.  Then a trail cool down.  Sore and stiff from the steep ups/downs.  11.5 mile total.

Wed:  Day off

Thursday:  Before work 35 minute indoor trainer.  After work weights

Friday:  Before work 30 minutes on the indoor trainer.  After work 6.5 treadmill.  Nice and easy at 7.7-8.8.

Saturday:  On call at the hospital for 24 hours.  Before got on the treadmill for a goal slow 4-5 miles.  At 2.8, for no $%&$# reason, my calf balls up.  End of run!  I'll just say it FUCK!!

Sunday:  Today, after a night a wrapping my calf, I thought of spinning on the bike instead of going for the planned 6 mile run, but opted out.  Thought about getting in the pool, and tried to motivate myself with the hot tub first.  The pool is at 56 degrees.  I am a whimp!  Feeling so especially, after my daughter jumps in after a moth.  I go have some coffee.  In Russian fashion (Where vodka cures all ailments), I add some vodka and some holiday cheer to the coffee.  Some egg nog.  No work out.  Depressed.  Have no idea why I share this to cyberspace.  Maybe somebody will get a laugh from my pathetic weekend.   I hope everyone out there has a great week.

    Right before Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to have my LT tested.  There are two local Docs (one is an ex WebCor rider) that have formed a company in which you can have your LT, Vo2 Max, Body fat, etc. tested.  I have never focused a huge amount of energy towards understanding why or how my body works, quite frankly I have mostly trained on feel and past results.  But as the old story goes...my time spent training has gone from 20 - 25 hours a week to 8 - 12 hours a week.  With this said I really felt like I needed to get an idea of how to gain the most of my time on the bike.

The test was actually fairly difficult (100w + 40w / 4 minutes).  Basically they give you as much time as you need to warm-up, then the test begins.  Starting at 100 watts you maintain an 85 or greater RPM for 4 minutes.  During this 4 minute interval, they prick your ear lobe and draw blood to measure the amount on lactate, have you rate the amount of effort you think you are giving, and record your HR.  Then they increase the wattage by 40.  Take all the above mentioned tests again, and raise you again by 40.  You continue to raise the wattage by 40 unitl you have complete failure or you can no longer maintain a RPM above 70.   My test went as follows:

Male 175 lbs. age 38 height 71 Sport Cyclist 

4 minutes @ 100w = felt easy / HR @ 116 / lactate = 1.2mMol

4 minutes @ 140w = felt easy / HR @ 128 / lactate = 1.2mMol

4 minutes @ 180w = felt good / HR @ 146 / lactate = 2.6mMol

4 minutes @ 220w = starting to give some effort / HR @ 153 / lactate = 2.4mMol

4 minutes @ 260w = feeling good / hr @ 159 / lactate = 3.9mMol

4 minutes @ 300w = WOW big jump in effort / HR @ 168 / lactate = 4.3mMol

4 minutes @ 340w = Not much left in the tank / HR @ 174 / lactate = 5.7mMol

- 2 minutes @ 380w = DONE! / HR @ 188 / lactate = 10 mMol 

Test results:  LT(e) = HR @ 178 / power at peak 330w /    

So, I said to the Docs "How can this help me, how can I apply this test to my basic understanding of how my body works and make my training more efficient?".  Basically this is what they said, I have a basic problem many, many master athletes have.  That is.... we (master athletes) tend to think that lack of time should be "made up" by more intensity.  While this formula might work in the short term, most master athletes will experience longer periods of being "flat" with this approach.  So if I am spending the majority of my time training at / above or near "tempo" (for me this would be HR above 159) that I would "empty the fridge to fast" and never have time to replace "the groceries".  They suggested that I needed to put effort / time into riding  endurance (for me HR @ 130 to 148) in order to keep sufficient "stock in the fridge".  While they said this may sound easy, it actually can be difficult because of the limited time I had and the nature of group rides / riding with the fellas around the area.  I was thinking "cool they are telling me I should take it easier, I can sit in with the best of them",  when they added you also need to increase your effort on interval days (for me 340w @ 170 +).  OOOCH!  The docs told me that most master athletes go too hard on their recovery easy days, and not hard enough on the interval / hard days.  So basically they said you now have a really solid baseline (the LT test) in which you can measure your efforts while training, and oh yeah the best thing is that your LT is the most "plastic" measure you have.  Meaning that we as master athletes can change our LT dramatically if we train with a level of intelligence and not just ego and muscle.

I have been training with the "test results" for two weeks now and have some races coming up, I will let you know how it's going.

Carothers       

This weekend my wife approached me with the serious intent to complete a marathon!!  She has never done one and her idea was that on our 10 year anniversary, lets celebrate by training for and finishing a marathon!  Is that awesome or what?!?!?!?!  I know she is ready as she is a fine runner anyway, however, we both train smaller distances for the moment.  The day is June 7th, 7weeks prior to our anniversary, but the time and place are perfect and our traning will take on a new look over the course of the next 6 months.  I truly feel fortunate that my wife and I have so much fun together and as a family. (Our kids rock!!  Any parent knows this experience!)  Anyway, just a fun little blog and I'll share training experiences as we go.  We can easily complete a 1/2 marathon now, so any input on training would be very welcome as we don't have tons of experience with serious distance.  I personally have done 2 marathons to date, so I know that true preparation is vital!  Have a great week everyone, be safe and God Bless!

                                                                                                                  Mitch

Monday:  14 mile run with friend from University up Mountain and to the Rillito.  Felt good.  Started off a bit too aggressive and slowed down towards the end.  Overall great first long run to prepare for IM AZ.

Tuesday:  4 mile treadmill after getting off a 16 hour night shift.  Then napped like a big dog.

Wednesday:  30 minutes of quick bike trainer in the morning before getting the kids up.

Thursday:  Up at 3am because of the thunder and barking dog.  AHHHH.  Drove to San Diego to visit my sister and ate.  Way too much pie.  Gained 13 pounds pretty sure.

Friday:  Up early at 530am ran through Balboa Park and to downtown water front.  About 7 miles.  Sore/crappy run.  Probably the 13 pounds!  Drove back to Tucson.  Upper body weights with military/curls/pushup repeats.

Saturday:  Rode with friend out west over Gates Pass.  A little cold and windy.  Legs fealt tired and heavy.  Put in 40 miles of pushing to keep up with him. 

Sunday:  Swam 1500 in my pool.  Wetsuit on...pool temp is 58 today!  Then ran/hiked up Pima Canyon.  I will say 5 of running and the rest bushwacking to the back side of Pusch Ridge.

Overall 30 running,  waaaaaay to little swimming and biking.

This morning was a beautiful day for the El Tour de Tucson.  But instead of packing in with the 7-8000 plus riders in the 109 mile event, for the 4th year in a row I toed up to the kids race!  Bonus feature:  Sleeping in until the 0900 start!  NO, I didn't do the kids 4 miler, my two kids did.  It is a 4 mile loop through downtown Tucson.  And for the last 4 years, I have had to run faster and faster!  This year, my daughter who is 7 took off like a bullet with my 5 year old son.  She kept going while I stayed back with my son.  He still made me finish in 26 minutes flat.  So it was an honest run for me.  They both did awesome and afterwards, they rock climbed on the portable wall and spent time in the jumping castles.  For those with kids, it is an awesome event.  And you can still get a workout in yourself!

My week has been weak....Only 2 other runs.  Both 6 milers.  Only one bike and no swimming so far.  Tomorrow, I need to make up!!   After bird watching in Patagonia with the girlscouts that is...

Yesterday, I followed up the Sabino/Bear Canyon loop Friday with a trail run in the Tucson Mountains on the west side.  A friend lives right on a wash that is next to the Yetman Trail.  By car you can access it by a relatively small dirt parking lot off the south side of Speedway, just past where Anklam meets up on the way to Gates Pass.  The trail is Awesome!  I have never been out there, but there is a network of trails that you can just run forever.  We started off on the Yetman and did some loops that took us all over the Tucson Mountains.  Not many signs and if I wasn't following my friend, I might have gotten turned around a bit.  Impossible to get ultimately lost, because in every direction there is something recognizable.  And if need of a water or bathroom break, the Marriot at Starr Pass is off one of the loops that we took.  Overall a 72 minute run for us.  Around 9 miles at a mostly casual pace.  There is a lot of potential for climbing, one of which I was sucking air on.  Joe decided to leep up the hill!  I was glad for the downhill after.  But there is a lot fun sections out there.  And you can make whatever run you want out of it.  I'll be exploring more out there for sure.

Today I had the day off.  On call tonight.  It was a beautiful day and I met a friend out at the Sabino Canyon parking lot and we did a great loop from Sabino Canyon to Bear Canyon.  I had done this loop on a couple of occasions, but it has been a while.  We started going clockwise and up the road.  There is minimal water in Sabino Creek now, but it is flowing.  None at any of the low bridges.  The Road is closed after the last bridge which is at mile 3.  They have cut a new trail that switch backs up to Phone Line Trail at that point.  It is an immediate rise up about 500-700ft and is in very good shape.  After meeting up with Phone Line, you keep following it in towards Sabino Basin.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  Maybe around 80 and sunny.  One of those days you feel like you can go all day.  The trail is a little overgrown once you get back to Sabino Basin, and it looks like there is probably plenty of water if you go to Hutche's Pools to the east.  But we went along the west fork and connected to Bear Canyon.  I haven't been back there since the fires a few years ago and was surprised to see minimal evidence of a burn until we crested over towards Sycamore Canyon.  It is pretty chared there and mostly low lying grass.  But the trail is in great shape!  It looks like they recently came through with a weed wacker and opened up the trail.  So the decent into Bear Canyon towards Seven Falls was as open as I had ever seen it and you could fly.  We bouldered through Bear Canyon Creek for a mile or so above the falls and with the water running saw tons of footprints from animals.  Mostly dear it looked.  But to my surprise around a corner we ran into 3 Coaties!!  It was awesome!!  I have never seen them in the wild and even questioned there existance here.  They have them at the Sonoran Desert Museum and are fascinating to watch.  They are a long tailed climbing machines!  After dropping into Seven Falls, we stopped and it was good to see the pools now exist.  The last time I was up here they were filled with dirt/sand/debris from the flooding during monsoons.  It was a little eerie, thinking of the two people that died there this summer during the massive flash flood.  But even the trail down Bear Canyon Creek is in great shape.  It is one of my favorite trails to run down.  Not too steep but downhill and techincal enough to get in a great groove.  There is about a mile and a half road to get back to the parking lot.  You can take a longer trail, but the 17+ miles was enough today and it felt great.  This loop is a great pre-marathon training run, and a must do for anybody that loves to really get out there.  Total elevation is minimal for the distance at around 14-1600ft I would estimate.  No GPS today.