Weeks 29, 2014: Back to business.

So after all the cycling craziness of last week it was time to get back to running. My leg was getting better, still giving me some trouble but good enough to resume training.

I took Monday off, did an easy run on Tuesday and encouraged by how my quad felt decided to try Black Mountain on Wednesday. Obviously after such a break I wasn't expecting to set a PR but still I gave it my best and missed it by 2 minutes, registering my 6th best time ever; reasonably well. My jog back was quite interesting. It was a hot day so I started late and by the time I was going down it was dark and I was using a headlamp and then suddenly I was... hit by a bat. No, it's not a grammatical mistake. And I mean a flying bat, as opposed to a baseball bat. At some point I saw in my peripheral vision something coming at me very fast and before I had a chance to react... smack in my face! I'm not sure what was worse: the pain or the freak-out effect :)

One more easy run on Friday and then a long run on Sunday. I went to Sunol Regional Wilderness and did the climb to Rose Peak. It's been a while ago so I don't remember the details but it was a very hot day and -- stupid me -- I didn't have much water with me. I passed a first place where there was supposed to be water but it was dry. Not good. The second place was close to the peak and it was also dry. At that point I had no water left, was thirsty and knew it was not going to be pretty. There was a cattle water tank with plenty of water in it but along with water it was full of algae, insects and god knows what. I guessed that a bacteria researcher could have a field day there. So it should give you some indication of my level of desperation when I say that I filled my water bottle with this... liquid.

Still I was hoping not to use it. Now I had to decide whether to still try to go to the top (I had approximately 1 kilometer left) or to turn around asap. I decided to go to the peak: after all what's the point of going to the peak and not reaching it ;). The view was ok but not very spectacular. I took a break there and took a tentative sip of the "water" I just got. Could be worse. Still, I was hoping not to use if I didn't have to, as it could not be healthy.

And I didn't. I made it to the bottom where drinking cold water that I had in the car felt so damn good. In the end I did 33km but with over 1600m of elevation gain.

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