A Nice Long Weekend (and a long blog)

For the past several years on the long Thanksgiving weekend I've had to travel to Chicago for a tradeshow on Friday. It is so much nicer to stay home and enjoy the weekend. And a long weekend it was in more ways than one.

Thanksgiving day started off with a nice Rancho run with Nicholas and Charles. the Booths caught Nicholas and me at the top of Rogue. We went up the backside of PG&E then added lower Wildcat up and over for about 10 miles. Then I went to join the Ironteam for a ride up Altamont and a few other hills. T-day dinner did not include any gorging at all thank goodness.

Friday I started off running at Rancho again and wanted to get some mountain points as well as a long run done. I'm one of the folks doing the "Rancho 500" - check it out at rancho500.com. I went up the backside of PG&E again and came back down then went up it again. I was planning to then do upper wildcat and the up and over on the lower part. But the up on lower wildcat, while short, just kicks my ass. So I went up PG&E again. Then decided to repeat it a 4th time and just head back to the parking lot by going down Rogue. I did 19 miles and got 48 points.

On Saturday Big Al talked me into doing a ride with him in the morning. But I needed my Rancho fix so I went out before the ride and ran about 8.5 miles. The ride was up Stevens County Rd to the out and back which was pretty doggone cold. That canyon is so shaded the temp dropped at least 10 degrees from the start. From the out and back we then went up Mt Eden and got warm then returned to the start after doing the backside of Mt Eden.

Karen and I went wine tasting in the afternoon. We usually go up to Napa/Sonoma but decided to forego the drive and stay locally. We went to David Bruce and Byington on Bear Creek Rd above Los Gatos. We hadn't been to either winery and was pleasantly surprised by both of them. David Bruce makes excellent pinot noirs and Byington makes a wonderful blend called Alliage. Of course we sampled and bought some of each. Then we headed to Ridge at the top of Monte Bello Rd. Ridge makes really great zinfandels - can you tell I like the deeper reds?

Well, since we were at the top of Monte Bello and I had my running shoes with me - Karen dropped me off at the top of the road and I ran down the Black Mountain trail into Rancho. It wasn't quite as much fun as I thought it would be. Incredible views from the top but a very steep downhill trail. And I took one wrong turn that was about a half mile detour. Then it started getting really dark. I was dreading another after dark ticket from the rangers. Finally made it into the parking lot about 40 minutes later than I told Karen to expect me.

Sunday I met up with a few folks to do PG&E backside once again. I wanted to get about 20 miles in so I would hit 300 for the Rancho 500. So I went out before everyone else arrived and ran 7 as a warm up by myself. Changed into a dry shirt, refilled the water bottle and took off with Glenn, Mark and Michael. Glenn and Mark gradually pulled ahead so Michael stayed back with me. Went up Rogue and up PG&E then back down. I needed to get some more hills and mileage so I did lower wildcat up and and down the switchbacks to the farm. Refilled the water bottle then headed back to go up the switchbacks. By this time it was starting to rain a little bit. Thankfully the switchback trail is mostly covered and protected from the rain. Went down to the top of the creek, did the bypass to the far parking lot then back to the start. Total of 21 miles to end the weekend right at 300 miles for the Rancho 500.

Everyone else was finishing up at Peet's so I still went and got my recovery latte.

All in all - a very nice, long weekend.

But I am a bit tired.