After recently booking my holiday travel, I've decided not to run the Coastal Challenge in January. It just wasn't the right fit, so I've decided to ramp up for the Grand Cayon Rim to Rim to Rim run in November. Check out the miles and mountains I've been running to prepare:
The Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim run is a ~46-mile double crossing of the Grand Canyon from the South Rim in Arizona to the North Rim in Colorado and back, in 12-15 hours. I'll be running with Dr. Mike Campian from Team INKnBURN, who has had a stellar year in the SoCal Ultra Series and Dax who is killing it right now, so I've focused my training on growing my long run and simulating the conditions we'll see during the run.
Thanks to Ryan's suggestion, my buddy Wheeler and I ran up and down San Jacinto Peak, the second highest peak in SoCal. This really helped put into perspective the elevation changes we'll see in the Grand Canyon (11,000' gain, 11,000' loss).
2 weeks ago, my brother dropped in for a visit and we hit the trails in Cuyamaca State Park. We ran a section of the 2008 SD100 course. I took him on the nicest portion of the old course that he didn't pace me on back then. He was loving every minute of it and left me in the dust!
My bro is training for a trail marathon the weekend I'm running the Grand Canyon. So we cruised through 20 miles at elevation with solid climbs. I was able to log 40 miles in 3 days that weekend.
Last weekend, Alicia and I were back at Lake Mead and this time our friends from my home town flew out to join us. They are also running the trail marathon with my brother so we hit the trails in and around Bootleg Canyon.
This week begins my peak training week and I couldn't be more ready to throw down and make it happen. I'll catch you on the other side with recap and more info on the Grand Canyon run.
Peace!
Sweet pics bro!
See you Sunday!
Toby, these all look like awesome training spots. Sounds like you are ready for the RTRTR!
I can't wait to see how well you and Mike do!
Nice man! San Jacinto was a fun day.
Hey Toby,
Glad the training is going well. I am excited to run/hike/crawl this with you. It should be a fun day. I would like to get everyone that is doing it together on Sat. the 30th. Would that work for you and Mike?