Running on jeffcarp

Trail Running Bucket List

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A while back I put together a personal “top 10” list of trail runs I want to complete in my lifetime. In terms of running goals, I find myself drawn less to the big races and time goals, and more to the thing that makes me want to get out the door and run in the first place: running in beautiful places and taking on technical and logistical challenges. This is my list as it currently stands. I plan to keep this updated and write more about my journey here.

2023 Year in Review

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Hi there, it’s time to reflect on what I was up to this year.

Running

I started 2023 thinking I had a long-term knee injury. Around Summertime I made a breakthrough in discovering it wasn’t a knee issue but a toe issue. Since then I’ve been keeping the mileage low and trying to build a healthy base.

In total I ran 361 miles this year, which is down from usual but I was very consistent in my training. I was super grateful to have the consistency and support from my running buddies at WeRunSF and Noe Run Club.

Recent Running Lessons

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

When I have a running injury, it’s not always the right thing to completely stop running and wait for it to heal.

Sometimes it’s worse to stop running altogether, because while the injury is healing, all the surrounding muscles are getting weaker. This actually makes injury more likely when I return to running. My current strategy is to keep running as much as possible as long as the pain is less than 3/10.

Kuli'ou'ou Ridge Loop Trail

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

View from the second peak.

While on vacation in Hawaii I was super pumped to get in a nice trail run. Here’s how it went.

Course


Distance	5.3 miles
Elevation gain	2326 ft
Average grade	12%(!)
Duration	2:32:43
Temperature	75F
Humidity	87%
Strava	Link
AllTrails	Link

Viewed on Google Earth.

Elevation profile.

Loadout

Nutrition requirements

Napa Half Race Report

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 08:24:16 -0800

center-384

The end of the pain cave. Note: the clock time in the picture is for a different race.

I PR’d my half marathon at the Napa Half!! Yeahh!!!!

Old PR: 1:31:37 at the 2019 Kaiser SF Half.
New PR: 1:28:59 (link).
Improvement: 2.9% (-2:38)

In this post I want to look into the race and more closely analyze what went well, what could have gone better, and what was interesting about this race.

CIM Race Report

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 20:32:54 -0800

I did it!! I ran my first marathon! It was painful… but worth it! Despite still being pretty sore I can tell you I would definitely do it again. Solid Type II fun.

My final time was 3:59:44, sneaking in just under 4 hours. You can view the full splits here and my run on Strava here.

Despite consciously trying to keep my pace under control in the first half, I went out too fast. My first half marathon was 1:50:59 vs. 2:08:45 for the second half—a positive split of 16%. 😕

Marathon Training Update

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 08:47:45 -0800

I’m signed up for the California International Marathon (a.k.a. CIM) in Sacramento, which is in less than 3 weeks! This will be my first marathon (the SF Marathon this year was supposed to be, but I gave myself a toe injury by overtraining).

My goal is simply to finish. I think having any sort of time-based goal would risk pushing me past the point of injury during the race.

Am I ready? Probably not 😄. My longest long run so far has been 15 miles. My weekly mileage is probably super low compared to most marathon training programs.

On Being Injured (Again)

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 14:55:14 -0700

tl;dr:

I signed up for the SF Marathon (this would have been my first marathon), then overtrained, got injured, and am currently recovering. I’m probably going to defer my registration to 2020 and become a cheering squad this year.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

This is a cycle I’ve been through over and over again. I literally wrote about this in 2015. Being injured massively sucks. I can’t exercise the way I usually do, and I don’t get see my running buddies.

Kaiser SF Half Race Report

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 13:46:20 -0800

Overall

It went great, I PR’d by 10 minutes! The course is super fast and the light drizzle of rain didn’t really put a damper on things.

Report

t-0:20

I arrived and was able to use the bathroom – they did a great job of making sure there were enough port-a-potties. After that since it was drizzling I hid under a tree to the side of the start line with a bunch of other runners who looked like they were from a club and knew what they were doing.

Building a Running Pace Calculator With AMP

Sun, 03 Feb 2019 23:45:38 +0000

Sometimes you need to know how fast you need to run to achieve a personal best time. Previously the way I did this was to search “running pace calculator” and follow and use one of the top results. However, I was doing this almost always on mobile and none of those results are very mobile friendly. There might be good native apps for this, but I’m a fan of the web and don’t want to download an extra app if I can avoid it.

2018 Year in Review

Mon, 24 Dec 2018 15:39:13 -0700

For the past few years I’ve been summing up my yearly highlights in a blog post. It doesn’t matter if anyone reads these posts—it’s nice to have these to be able to look back on the big things that happened in my life each year.

So without further ado, here’s an overview of the big things that happened in my life in 2018, from Running, to Reading, Learning Work, and Health, finally looking at how I did on my 2018 goals and setting 2019 goals.

Reasons to Try Trail Running

Thu, 27 Sep 2018 18:44:49 +0000

No car exhaust fumes.
Works out different parts of your legs and core that wouldn’t otherwise be exercised on asphalt.
See wildlife.
Visit places and see sights where roads don’t go.
Races are more intimate and less anonymous. You make friends. Strangers encourage you along the trail. You encourage strangers.

China Camp Trail Race Report: Things I Wish I Had Known

Sun, 03 Jun 2018 18:44:49 +0000

Yesterday I ran Inside Trail’s China Camp Trail Run, my first trail half. The course was good! The temperature was in the 80s but the course offered lots of shade. It was mostly single track trails with a few friendly mountain biker sightings. 1.5 miles into the race there was a nice steep 500ft climb.

As a beginner trail runner I want to share with you a few tips that I wish I had heard before the race.

2016 Year in Review

Sat, 31 Dec 2016 15:39:13 -0700

2016 turned out to be a pretty crappy year, but it wasn’t all terrible. I made some good progress on my personal goals, so there’s that. Here’s a review of my 2016. If this sort of post strikes you as excessive navel gazing, that’s because it is — therefore I urge you to stop reading right now.

Work

The theme for this year of my life is probably “insane amounts of learning.” In the first half of 2016 I was at Braintree working on a new payments platform. In August I joined the Google Chrome team.

2015 in 5 Themes

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 21:39:13 -0700

Here are the 5 most defining themes of my 2015, in no particular order.

1. Scapula

I fractured my scapula (shoulder blade on my right side) on December 24, 2014 while skateboarding with my sister. I spent most of January 2015 resting and recovering. Part of that meant starting physical therapy.

PT was such a good influence on not just my scapula, but other parts of my life, that I consider breaking my scapula a highly net positive life event.

Breaking the Cycle

Sun, 29 Nov 2015 15:15:40 +0000

I’ve always been interested in running and looked up to friends who’ve trained for marathons or go running all the time. Running is great because it’s really easy to fit into a busy schedule and it leads me to explore new parts of my city (or better yet, a city I’m visiting).

Throughout my life, however, I haven’t been able to run much due to an ongoing series of injuries. In Middle School I absconded from the swim team for a semester to join the track team, but I didn’t end up running much due to excessive heel pain (maybe I was growing too fast). In college I ran on and off – I even racked up 13.3 miles on a training run once – but throughout college I had knee pain that kept me from training in any serious fashion.

Wrist Upgrade: Suunto Ambit3

Sun, 25 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not a huge runner but whenever I run I use Strava for GPS tracking. I had been carrying my phone with me while I ran, but since it’s on the larger side and I can’t easily glance at it while I run, I looked into getting a watch with GPS + a heart rate monitor. After some research, I decided on the Suunto Ambit3.

Here are the things I like about it: