weekly summary: Mar 7-Mar 13

03-7-2011
Mon-PM: 10 miles- Chuckwalla Mesa/jeep roads/Silver Spring Gulch/FR413, '1200
VERY windy!! Made this mostly unpleasant... like running while anchored to a bolder. Felt extra tired from the effort.

03-8-2011
Tue-PM: 5 miles- Chuckwalla Mesa/jeep roads, '600
Legs were heavy and tight.

03-9-2011
Wed-PM: 2 miles- Chuckwalla Mesa, '200 
Its sometimes hard to understand why days like this are so difficult. They're bound to happen, just sucks when they do.

03-10-2011
Thu-PM: 10 miles- Chuckwalla Mesa/jeep roads/Silver Spring Gulch/FR413, 1200'
I dealt with the worst stomach issues I've ever experienced before on a run. Not exactly sure what was going on. My system just wasn't taking anything, no calories, no water... left me feeling very nauseous. Pretty difficult when you try to grind it out for this many miles. I met up with John on the turn around on FR413. We ran back together, which helped take my mind off of the fact that i felt horrible. John wondered why i was going so slow.

03-11-2011
Fri-AM: 10.2 miles- Chuckwalla Mesa/jeep roads/Chuckwalla trail/old mine roads, 1600'
Woke up early (4:30) for this run. Had some residual stomach issues but disappeared as soon as i took my first few running steps. Turned out to be a beautiful morning and a solid run!

03-12-2011
Sat-AM: 10.4 miles- Black Canyon Trail (to the saddle) 2500'
Never really felt great on this. But its hard to complain about anything when i get to run on this trail up this mountain.

The early part of black canyon trail before it transitions to very narrow single track

My favorite trail!

Looking down into black canyon from the trail

Looking up towards the summit

Beautiful snow capped peaks

Looking back you can see the thin single track carved into the side of the mountain

The dense pine forest after you drop down from the saddle

03-13-2011
Sun-AM: 10 miles- Chuckwalla Mesa/Silver Spring Gulch/FR413, 1200' 
Felt surprisingly good on this run, legs were peppy, good energy, a beautiful morning.
Sun-PM: 4 miles- Tonapah/Fir/Chuckwalla/Mesquite/Ochoa/Pioneer/Chuckwalla Mesa, 200'
Again, thrown in just to get some more miles as i want to be in the 70 mpw range.

Totals

-Miles: 61.6

-Vertical: 8,700'
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Another pretty solid week, i increased my mileage slightly and increased my vertical by a few thousand feet. Friday thru Sunday were all great running days, all early morning outings... i really love running this time of day (apparently so do lots of jack rabbits and mule deer) . I'm already starting to see signs of warmer weather, things are getting greener, there are increasing numbers of insects, and not much snow up high.