Training: May update and beyond

This year started out to be year focussed around Mountains to Beach(M2B) marathon, but that got derailed due to my lack of training in Feb and Mar. But I was able to regroup a bit and log some good miles in past 6 weeks and managed to get a decent finish at Inaugural Quicksilver 100k(14:58). With a course like that I was glad with a finish of any kind and I did fairly well.

But my goals for M2B changed from a quest for BQ to probably 3:15 and around kind of performance. I was not hitting splits for my BQ which was 3:10. I suppose it has to wait another training cycle, maybe sometime later in the year at CIM 2014.

So with another 10 days from the race, I am just focussing on a good recovery and do my best on May 25th. my friend Dharmendra is here from Bangalore to attempt for BQ and I am very hopeful of this performance there.

Beyond M2B I have slowly started dreaming about possibility of a 100M at Pine to Palm 100 in Sep my running clubmate Dennis has signed up as well. with a 100k under my belt it says I need to go out and train more !!

Some races/training runs going fwd would be:
Jun 14th:            Bryce 50M
Jul 10th(Friday): MP to Mt Rose 40M training run
Jul 11th(Sat):      20M training run (Lex to Mt Sombrero repeat)
Aug 2nd:            SF 50M
Aug 23rd:           30M training run(maybe 15 Fri + 20 Sat)

O Well.. these are just plans.. lets see how life plays out.

Inaugural Quicksilver 100k, 2014.

Quicksilver 100k,
May 10th, 2014
San Jose, CA


This was the 31st addition of Quicksilver 50k/100k races and 1st time Quicksilver running club was introducing 100k distance. In past 50M race was a standard affair with runners training for Summer/Fall 100s. Since Mid peninsula open space preserve, Sierra Azul and beyond opened up for public, QRC decided to be very creative and revamped both distances (50k and 100k).

I have been running Quicksilver races since 2005(this was my 6th Quicksilver), missed few times due to various commitments, but this year I was determined to start the inaugural 100k.  Moreover this happens to meetup of many of my bay area ultra running friends. It was RD'ed by my friend Rajeev Patel, Quicksilver 50k, 2005 was his 1st 50k and being the RD was a special moment for him. I was excited to be back running this.

Course was diligently designed by Greg Lanctot and John Burton it promised to be epic hilly 100k and by god it was everything it promised to be.

Elevation profile(pending).
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From the profile it seems like after that first 35 miles most of the hills are done, but that is misleading even until mile 57 there were relentless hills. We were lucky to have some great weather and gentle breeze, I can't imagine doing this in 80+ weather, should be a awesome race to do though. During the race It was a treat to run with lot of my friends at various points, lucky to be running with Chihping Fu who captured tons of pictures of the course.

Overall, this was beautifully organized by RD Rajeev Patel with amazing support from Quicksilver running club and Stevens Creek Striders and lot of volunteers, course was tricky and course monitors and course markings played a very important role. This continues to be a gem of a race in Nor Cal and regular fixture in my calendar. The post-race Barbeque is already known to be best of its class.

Thankyou all the folks in putting this classic race. will be back in 2015, and next time I will do 100k specific training on the course :). As usual wouldn't have been possible without support my loved ones at home(Rashmi, Ahana and Zoey), both during training and on race day, takes a lot to be around the company of a long distance runner.

Excellent race coverage by Chihping Fu @ Quicksilver 100k Photos