Monday-  After slacking Sunday I put on my running shoes after work and hit the hills around”‘the neighborhood” for 10 miles.  Knowing my neighbors would be watching kept me moving.  Sure enough three neighbors said they saw me!

Wednesday- traveled for business to Fresno.  Didn’t do my usual Wed. four miler.

Thursday-  Traffic on Highway 580 was at a standstill when I looked on my Garmin Maps app on my phone and saw a green spot north of the highway.  I ducked off at the next exit.  Parked at a regional park and got just under 5 miles in on walking paths in Dublin.  When my path took me to the County jail, I decided to turn around…  The run woke me up and traffic was moving when I got back on the freeway.

Friday- Back to work,  I hit the hills in town for one of my faster runs of the week.  got some good climbs in and worked on my “hill grind”.

Saturday- Took the horses , my mother and daughter to stash some water for my extended run Sunday.  It was a four hour ride to cover 10 miles.  I commented that it was only a 2 hour run.  So this is how it feels to be in beter shape than your horse?

Sunday- Ran Doug Evan’s route with Liana’s “on the fly improvements”  (Drawn in green). It made for a good 2500 feet of elevation gain in three big climbs over 18.4 miles.  Probably the best quality miles I’ve had in a long run.  Rather than push my luck, I did not add the previously planned 8 mile loop.  As it stands, the amount of distance covered in just over 4 hours made it one of my fastest paced long runs over 15 miles.

Weekly mileage: 42 miles

Monday- After Sundays less than stellar run (22 miles with 9 of it being a walk), I was apprehensive about a follow up run the next day. Monday night I loaded up the Camelbak with ice water and left work headed for the high point on the West side of town. While I had some calf stiffness, it seemed to work out over the first couple of miles of gentle uphill. When the pitch became more vertical on Hayes street I was able to gear down, but still keep a jog going up hill.
Once I reached Helen Putnam park, I was feeling real good and the trees and hills flew by for 3 miles. I felt strong for the remaining 3 miles back to my starting point. It was a good mental boost after a disappointing Sunday.

Wednesday- Ran with Fleet Feet for my usual Wednesday night recovery run.  Four miles along Santa Rosa Creek.  Made a point to do it at a conversational pace and chat along the way.

Thursday (thanks to Pete Laskey for the Garmin info)- Immediately after work I wove my way up Highway 101 to the north side of Annadel State Park to meet up with Liana and Pete for a scheduled 10 mile trail run.  This Thursday run is described as a midweek “semi long  run” .   It was about 75 degrees ar 5:50 pm when we headed up the Cobblestone trail.  From there we continued up to Rough Go, and followed an unmapped single track over to the Lake Ilsanjo Dam where we hit the 3 mile mark.  We followed Canyon trail to Marsh and continued climbing.  This stretch had given me trouble on Sunday.  I was determined to pace myself and run this stretch smartly.  One gel at mile 4.5 was perfect timing as the burst of energy hit me at the final steep stretch.

We had to laugh because we had purposely avoided the 4 mile uphill trail with our route, and ended up running a more technical and steeper 5 miles.   With a quick stop at Buick Meadow, we turned up South Burma and I ripped it up on the downhill.  Truth be told, I was more jubilant that I has “fuel in my tank” after the climb and my legs still felt good.  We followed Richardson back to North Burma and took that downhill to the asphalt road back to the Cobblestone trail head.  There I had a Growler of Lagunitas Brewing Co.’s Lucky13.alt.  That hit the spot as the sun dropped behind Bennett Mountain and the mosquitoes came out to feed.  I lost track of time but it felt like about a 2 hour run covering 10 miles or so.

 Friday-  Did an easy five miler to finish out the work week.  Mostly I just wanted to see 50 plus miles for the calendar week!

Sunday- Bagged my run since we took the Ladies (Mom and Wife) to breakfast.  Attempted to run up the coast but aborted that to do yard work when the Tour of California closed the road 10 miles south of my run destination.

28 miles for the training week

This year I elected to sit out the Utah Season, and applied for points only.
Draw Results are expected soon and rumors of Credit cards being charged have filtered through the internet…

You may check your results HERE:

The Wyoming Non resident Elk  results were released February 28th

Wyoming Non resident Moose, Mountain Goat and Sheep results were released May 4th

Wyoming Non resident Deer results are scheduled to be released June 30th

Check your results HERE:

The Western Wanderer crew, consisting of myself, my father, uncle, and brother-in-law, have been fortunate to draw a General Elk License in the February Drawing.  We will be headed to Western Wyoming in the end of September to chase bugling bulls in some beautiful country.

My first year applying for a Colorado deer tag has us getting back a refund.  The upside is that I earned one preference point for next year’s application.

Preference points are showing up for elk for unsuccessful applicants today (May 12th, 2012).  Yep gained one there as well.

You can check your Draw results HERE: