Saturday, July 23rd marked 14 weeks until Javelina Jundred and while I’d like to say it’s still waaay too early to freak out, I can’t help but have some mild anxiety over it. 14 weeks seems so short, now that I think about it. I mean, it was this time last year (July 2015) when the wheels were set in motion to do the race and to do the race with my Ultra Ordinary Running podcast co-hosts, Angela and Melissa. At that time I was staring down 15 MONTHS until race day, and now I’m looking at 14 WEEKS, or 98 DAYS, or 2352 HOURS, give or take.
After having a little setback with my left knee back in mid-June, training has been progressing rather well these past few weeks. Rest, foam rolling, strength training and ice have helped and are helping me to keep running. I’m still ever so cautious though.
I’ve been able to up my mileage from a total of 11 miles one week, to 44 the next, with the following week hitting 55. Maybe not the smartest move but I felt good enough and went slow enough to hit ’em.
While mileage has been slowly creeping up, so has my vertical. For the first time I ventured over to climb Mt. Baden-Powell with a summit of 9,400 feet elevation and Mt. Baldy at 10,064 feet elevation, respectively. These are some of the highest peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains with Baldy being the highest, and luckily I decided to join my friend John for these adventures. He wanted to get some altitude exposure before heading over to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado at the end of July.
Reaching these summits were two very different experiences for me.
Already starting at 6,600 feet, Mt. Baden-Powell was a series of never-ending switchbacks I was able to swiftly maneuver. This wasn’t easy by any means, but the trail itself wasn’t too technical and very well marked and designated. It was harder to catch my breath after the spurts of running I did, but overall I felt pretty good. And no altitude sickness I hear some people experiencing. Running down was a different matter. Hard! Hard on my knees and quads. Just as there were never-ending switchbacks all the way up, there was never-ending pounding of the quads all the way back down.
Mt. Baldy, on the other hand, was an entirely different beast of an experience. I had a much harder time running up it. I had a few surges, but for the most part, I couldn’t. Some of it was physical. Some was mental.
There was something about Mt. Baldy that scared me. Maybe it was it’s challenging toughness or the fact a few people died on it earlier this year which didn’t help calm my nerves. Ice was most likely a factor in those tragic events. Being that it’s July, ice was most likely not going to be on the trails, but there was still the presence of drop-offs to contend with. Even with loving to be on the mountains, and on the trails, I have a fear of heights and Baldy surely tested me.
Venturing out to Baldy, again with my friend John, we took our time all the way up to the summit. It wasn’t difficult to go slow. Before heading out I always do my research and found the most problematic area for me would most likely be Devil’s Backbone – yeah, that name doesn’t sound scary – which is a narrow ridge with serious drop-offs on both sides of the mountain. That is, until we reach the single track and then from there you’re practically hugging one side of the mountain.
Heading up, I didn’t even have my phone/camera out for fear it would fall and be lost and gone forever. I kept my eyes on the ground at all times as I slowly placed one foot at a time on the rocky terrain. I suppose if I placed two feet at a time I’d be hopping, huh? Yeah, no chance of that happening. I didn’t even want to stop and look around because I might become paralyzed with fear and would want to go back down. Did I mention I have a fear of heights?
It was this fear which also drove me to want to tackle Baldy in the first place. It’s been in this elusive realm of hiking and climbing I haven’t reached and I wanted to experience it.
Once we reached the summit, all the nerve-testing was worth it. The views were absolutely magnificent and we got to see Bighorn Sheep! That was absolutely amazing to witness! I truly felt really lucky and blessed to have experienced this.
However, making our way down was an entirely different scenario! Extremely technical and by that I mean huge boulders, rocks, roots, very uneven, unsteady terrain and no clear trail in certain areas (thank heavens John has his wonderful navigational GPS watch so it tells us exactly where we are) and while nobody fell, I slid on my butt a couple of times because the dirt was unstable and slippery and wheeeee there I went. I’ll admit it was kinda fun.
What wasn’t so much fun was the fact it took us so long to descend close to 4,000 feet. Nearly 3 hours to go 4 miles. At some point it took us over an hour to descend 1 mile. We were able to speed up a little and able to average around 40:00 minute miles. Yes. 40 minutes. I think we might’ve edged sloth speeds out, but not entirely sure.
But it was so hard to even go any faster! I’m sure there are people who can literally fly down this mountain, or this section, but I am not one of them. And I’m okay with that. All I did was focus on getting back safely and that is all.
I wish I could’ve taken more photos or video of this section but it was honestly so difficult to do so. In my right hand, I had one of John’s trekking poles, which after the sliding I was doing, really helped me steady myself down the mountain. And because of the technical rocky terrain, the last thing I wanted was to have my camera fall and crack. Nope. Not worth it.
I am not a technical runner or hiker by any means, but I kept reminding myself this is ALL ultra training. This is all training for Javelina Jundred. Regardless of how slow, or technical, or the altitude, or the temperature, or what day it is, it’s all training for Javelina Jundred.
Baldy challenged me in more ways than most of the other trails I do, and I’m honestly very proud of myself for tackling it. Now, I don’t have a desire to do it again any time soon, but I would entertain the idea at some point. Because without risk, there is no reward and those views and experiences were absolutely rewarding.
Thanks for reading!
CHECK OUT THE VLOGS I MADE FOR THESE ADVENTURES!
Mt. Baden-Powell:
Mt. Baldy: