I took a few day to recover from Orcas Island, then headed back out on the trails.  After a couple foggy days, the sun broke through and has been warming the Willamette Valley for almost 2 weeks straight. The sunny, warm weather and an earlier sunrise has had it easy to get up and get out.
The next race coming up is the Georgia Death Race so I'm starting to think about that, but mostly am focused on enjoying my everyday running through the local hills.

Here's a few runs I got some pictures on:

1/2 mile below the top

I headed up Mary's Peak a couple weeks ago on one of the first sunny days.  I could see that the peak was clear of snow from town but I was surprised to see not a single patch when I got up.

Looking back at some lingering fog in town

On top of Mary's Peak the view was incredible.  There were a few clouds up high and some fog in the valley but the horizon was very clear.  Although you can't see any mountains in this picture, there was 13 peaks I could name along the horizon.  That's pretty special.

The last stretch to the top

Just below the top and out of the wind, it felt like summer up here.  I think that the top was as warm as it has been when I head up here early on a summer day.

Three deer in the meadow-they look like specs in this picture

Enjoying the heat, I took my time coming down from the top and got some super views of the Coastal   Range surrounding Mary's Peak.  Also, a trio of deer looked up as they enjoyed their day in the meadow.

Mom took this one of me coming off the top

I got in a real long run with my friend Cary last weekend.  We started from the opposite side of the forest so there was a few new views for us.

The backside of  Lookout Mountain

Looking North, early in the run

McCulloch Peak from the Lunch Counter

The main goal in the run way to get out to Beazell Memorial Forest.  Initially we wondered toward Forest Peak and then headed across the lunch counter.  Now that we were in some familiar territory we began to discuss the best route out there.

Cary, a few hours in

Of course the best route is not always the most direct so we headed by this lake on some less traveled trails.

Elk-they also wrecked the trail

Even though there haven't been many humans on some trails, the elk come through too.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see the elk today.  Anyhow, at this point we were both starting to feel a bit tired but we were still in good spirits and kept on shuffling onward.

Almost to Beazell

We started to realize that we would need to get to Beazell sooner than later if we were going to make it back to the car so we scouted out the most direct route and pressed on.

Cary got this one of me in Beazell

We were both glad to at Beazell.  There is a little bit of route finding to get out there as there are numerous logging roads that aren't on the map.  Also, there is a short section where we had to leave road and trail and head cross country.  All in all, the route wasn't too difficult and we made it there with no problems.  After getting there, we realized we had a long haul back to the car and focused on finding the most direct route back.

Almost the same view as the first picture, just many hours later

Eventually we made it back to the top of the last hill and headed down the backside.  We ran into some revived single track on the way up and headed back down it hoping to find some more.  The old maps showed some trails in the area, but there was numerous clear cuts since the trails were built.  We lucked out and headed down an extra couple miles of trail which made a great end to a long run.

The next morning, I started in the dark.  I wasn't too excited to get up early but the sunrise made up for the lost sleep.  Here's some early morning pictures:

Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters on the horizon

The Three Sisters

Mary's Peak

Looking down the Oak Creek valley

 I got started at a later hour today so the sun was shining when I got up Dimple Hill.  From there I headed north out toward Forest Peak.

Looking out from Dimple Hill

McCulloch Peak and Mary's Peak on the horizon

After a nice view off Forest Peak(above), I headed down, following a logging road above the a clearcut.  The view out let me see the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood.  I'm not sure if any of the mountains are visible in the pictures but under the February sun their white slopes were clear to see.

Orcas Island 50K - 4:28:50 - 1st

As usual Orcas Island was a weekend I was looking forward to.  I was excited about the race and just being up on the island.  Orcas Island is a beautiful place to be so if you have never been up there I would recommend heading up to the island at some point.  The island is highlighted with beautiful peaks, moss covered rocks, and some treeless valleys that alway look like a great place to live.

The race course was effectively the same as the past few years with only one or two minor tweaks to the course.  The biggest difference to the awesome course that James Varner and the Rainshadow Running crew laid out was that there was a lot more mud this year than last year.

The day started out warm and wet and the conditions lasted for most of the day, the rain slowly letting up around noon.  I started out near the front and fell into second as we began the climb up the road toward Mt Constitution.  I was within a minute of the leader Nathan Barrett the whole way up that first climb and mainly focused on keeping a comfortable effort.  As I headed up the climb I was excited to be racing again.

After dropping after Pine to Palm last fall, I slowly worked to full health and was able to enter this year feeling healed and strong.  That was the main goal for early in the year, then I though about training for Orcas Island.  The time down after P2P gave me a chance to look at some my running over the past year and try to optimize my training.  In addition to improving my daily running schedule, I put more effort into recovery on a day to day basis.  In the past I only took care of my body when I was sore and hurting but I believe that putting in some extra effort for prevention definitely allowed me to come back to running with no aches and pains along the way (or at least none that I can remember).

I cruised down the first descent catching Nathan about halfway down and then leading to the first aid station with him close behind.  I drank some water my dad had for me and then headed out with Nathan to make our way around the lakes.  I pushed a couple rollers and Nathan fell back a little ways which happened to be the last time I saw another racer all day.  I cruised around the first lake, then enjoyed some rocky sections around the second lake before I headed up to Mt Pickett.

The Mt Pickett climb felt good and I looking back this was one of the strongest sections of my run.  I dropped off the backside of Pickett, descending for a few minutes then headed up the a steep short climb before running down an old road bed to the 2nd aid station.  While the climbing felt good I could feel my hamstrings starting to tighten on the descent which wasn't what I was hoping for at mile 14.

From Mt Pickett(14) to North Arch(20) I didn't feel too great physically of mentally so I don't remember to much.  There was a lot of mud on the lower trails which made going slow but eventually  I got around to North Arch at the bottom of the Powerline climb.

I drank some water and head up the climb, running the bottom section then quickly breaking into a hike.  I felt good hiking up the initial steep section but when I stood up to run my back was so tight I could barely stand up straight.  Obviously leaning over to hike hard uses your back muscles but I think that straining a muscle in my back a week before the race was causing more problems than anything.  Ironically, I was focused on being healthier this year so I when I tweaked my back golfing I wasn't too happy.  I was hoping it would only be a day or two to heal, but after my back locked up in the middle of Monday night, I knew I needed to do something.

Fortunately I was able to get into Healing Motion Physical Therapy on Tuesday morning and with their help I was feeling much better by race day.  They taped my back for race day which helped but my whole back definitely tightened up throughout the day.

At the top of the Powerline climb I thought that I had made good time and turned to take off down hill on some smooth single track when my hamstring cramped up.  Not just a little twinge here and there, instead locking up so bad I couldn't walk.  This was not good, so I muttered some bad words for about 10 seconds then calmed and focused on the problem at hand.  I knew I was low on water and salt so I took all I had, not much, then focused on breathing deep and keeping good form as I was slowly able to run again.

At this point I was a little worried knowing that my easy pace on that descent wasn't near as fast as the guys behind me would be going.  I focused on deep breaths and was able to reach the bottom of the last climb with no cramps.

Uphill turned out to be fine to I as able to run most of the climb, but eased off to a walk at steep section, still afraid to push too hard and bring on the cramps.  I hit the summit drank some sports drink and headed off Mt Constitution.  I knew that the next 4 miles was down so I was just hoping not to see anyone.  I ran downhill at a fairly easy pace, pretty disappointed I couldn't let it loose on the last descent but still focused on efficiency and staying in front.  I hit the bottom of the hill pretty quick headed over a few rollers and cruised into the finish ready to be done.  

All in all, I had a solid run even though I botched my hydration and nearly blew the race 22 miles in finding myself happy to hang on instead of pushing to the finish.  Definitely some room for improvement but a solid early year performance which gave me an idea of what is working and what I can do to improve my running.

Before I'm done here's a few thank yous:

Salomon - a big thanks to my sponsor for the great gear

Healing Motion - without them I wouldn't be back out on the trails yet

Rainshadow Running - for putting on a great race

My family - for always supporting my running, race day or not

My friends and fellow runners - for providing constant inspiration and encouragement

Here's a link to Glenn Tachiyama's race day pictures http://www.tachifoto.net/Running/Orcas-Island-50K-2015/47385416_WsxVCt#!i=3866896566&k=DZ9ccDc

After another week of good running I headed out to the Cape Perpetua Fat Ass and ran the 50K there.  My plan going into the run was to take it easy and run with some friends.  As we all started up the first climb I caught up with a guy from Corvallis who was doing the 30K.  We ended up running together the whole day until I had to head off and do one more loop while he cruised to the finish.  Anyhow, we ended up going quite a bit faster than I was planning but that was fun and the pace was still comfortable.  The course took us up a big 10 mile climb then down 10 miles with a few rollers along the way.  Then up 5 more miles and down 5.  Coming down the 10 mile descent we really got cruising so when I took off for the last 10 miles I felt silly slowing down so I kept up a good pace.  Fortunately the only rough patch was starting down the last hill when my legs felt a little stiff.  I haven't put a hard effort at this distance for quite some time so that wasn't much of a surprise.  I felt strong finishing the run and hadn't checked my watch all day but figured that I had put up a pretty good time.  Turns out I ran a 4:10 on a course with some good climbing.  Looking at the map, I figured that the course was maybe 30 miles, not your traditional 50K, but that run sure gave me some confidence.  The next day I managed a sub-1 hour effort of one of my favorite routes up McCulloch Peak which was the first time I had gone that fast.  After a couple great days though, I could feel that the body took on a little more than it could take in stride and the next few days found me more focused on recovery more than running.  Today the legs felt like they were back and I managed a sub-2 hour double McCulloch using a fairly direct route from Oak Creek then dropping into Soap Creek and climbing out of there.  All in all I'm feeling happy with my recent efforts, and also am having a lot of fun just heading out and running every day.

Cummins Peak

Some sweet single track coming down from Cummins

Heading up the last climb

Looking back up the trail

Another beautiful descent

Although it is hard to see in the picture that's the ocean behind those trees

Cruising through a tunnel of trees

Once again my running has started to take off.  The past few weeks of relaxed running, both in effort and expectation, have payed off leading to some very solid running this week.  After Christmas in Montana with my grandparents, I felt completely healthy and managed to put up a nice balance of long slow running and some shorter faster efforts.  My fitness is really starting to come around so I'm very excited to see what I will be able to do in the coming weeks.  At this point, Orcas Island is definitely on my mind although there is still 4 weeks to February 7th.  I'm not focused on the race yet like I will be in a couple weeks, but ideas are starting to creep into my mind of what is possible.  Coming back from some time down I have no specific goal yet, but if I can keep running how I am now, I will be looking for a pretty fast time.

Enjoying some wet trail with my brother

Cruising through the bottom of the clearcut

Me on top of McCulloch Peak

After getting hammered with a bunch of rain on Saturday, my brother and I got out for an easy run on Sunday.  There was still some rain which was accompanied by unseasonably warm weather (50s) for about a week.

A couple weeks later and there some snow up high

Some cool ice formations up on Lookout Saddle

Nearing the top of Lookout Mountain

After some warm wet days came some cold clear days.  I like the contrast because changes the forest giving me something else to appreciate.  On my run up Lookout Mountain, the weather started to warm up again so I was happy to get a few pictures of the ice and snow.  This run took me over McCulloch and up Lookout putting me on my feet for a while and throwing in some decent climbing.  I felt solid all day and was happy to run through some areas I haven't seen for quite some time.

After a couple months of minimal running, an ice storm and a backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon, I'm finally starting to get running again.  The first week back was mostly slow running but all in all I felt good.  There was definitely a new feeling in the legs when I got back; nothing was bothersome and I didn't feel like I was guarding against injury.  I did built up slow but there was definitely a new freedom in my stride.
The next week or two was mostly the same but with a scattering of really good runs.  Every run felt like an improvement to some extent but there was definitely a few that felt as if everything was back to normal.  Over the past week I have gotten in a couple easy runs around 3 hours and a few hour long pushes up McCulloch Peak at a pretty solid pace.
The break was a little frustrating at times, but mostly gave me a chance to recover, a good break from racing, and some time to look back at this year's running and learn from my mistakes.  Next year will probably bring more breaks from specific training but also some small adjustments to my race preparation.  But for now, I just happy to get out running.

Climbing up through ice covered trees

The sun breaking through just below McCulloch Peak

Almost up

Those Dimple pictures I put up earlier are from the day before.  Not much came down then but after another day of freezing rain the trees loaded up with some ice and started popping.  I headed up McCulloch for an easy run was accompanied by breaking trees and branches the whole climb.  The road allowed me to keep my head up the whole time to watch out for limbs, and fortunately nothing came close to me on my run.

The new thinning on McCulloch

Lookout Mountain poking through the trees

Mother Nature's thinning

Some trails took a hit from the ice

Some bigger trees down in the maze

Looking out toward Mary's Peak from Dimple

A big tree hanging over Dan's Trail

All in all, a lot of wreckage on the trails and some different views, but its great to be out and enjoying what nature has to offer.  Hopefully I will cover some more ground in the coming weeks and slowly get back into shape for Orcas Island 50K in February.

After a few weeks recovering from injury, I rushed back to running just in time to prevent a full recovery.  So after that I got a little smarter and focused on resting up and heading into next year completely healthy.  Now I have mostly just been trying to do some slow stuff and ease back into running.

A couple weeks ago, I headed up Mary's Peak with my mom and a few other guys.  The top of Mary's was lost in the clouds but outside of that it was a  fairly clear day.  I felt good running but I could still feel the calves quite a bit.  I figure a week with minimal running and some work on the calves should straighten things out.

Mom on the Tie Trail Heading up Mary's Peak

The view from just below the summit

 I headed up Dimple with mom and Jacob and we ended up finishing down the road in the dark.  Heading down the road was a nice finish to the day as we descended into increasing darkness with just enough light to guide us back.  Here are some late afternoon views looking out over the valley.

Heading up Dimple Hill

The Horizon just below the top of Dimple

 Today was about 35 when I got up and when mom and I headed up Dimple in the morning.  It was pretty clear that there was some freezing rain up high.  I actually felt pretty good today.  I could hardly feel anything bad in the calves so that's nice.  Hopefully I can ease back and in a couple weeks start to do some real running again.

 A Frozen Morning on Dimple

Me on Dimple

Mom on Dimple