Its been several weeks since I last wrote about my running. After focusing almost all of my running life for the past 12 months on Tahoe 200, my recent running has been largely unstructured. I knew I needed to allow my body some time to recover before doing any sort of intense running.

Most of the second half of July and August consisted of lighter running and a reintroduction of twice-per-week bodyweight exercises. The glute issue I was experiencing at the beginning of 2025 started to pop up again, so I figured I should get back into some strength work.

My body and mind feel mostly recovered from Tahoe 200, so I am eager to get back into the long weekend runs. I had a 60 mile week a couple weeks ago, which included a 20 mile run, my longest run since Tahoe. I felt ready to start rebuilding the base again.

Earlier this year, to get my training seriously kickstarted for Tahoe 200, I had the idea to do 7 Arlington Peak summits in 7 days. At that time, I made it three days and then decided that was enough. So, I couched the 7 day Arlington goal for another time. Until now… A couple weeks ago I saw that the approach trail to the Arlington Peak trail would soon be closed for the next few months. I decided I would go ahead and go for the 7 summits now.

The Arlington Peak route is only about 1.1 miles, but contains about 2,000 feet of vertical gain. Pretty steep. The trail itself goes up the rocky ridge along the mountain, making for a challenging, full-body-engaging scramble. The descent can take nearly as long as the ascent, depending on how confident one is with rock-hopping and quick foot work. The approach trail to the base of the peak is a steady climb service road. A week of Arlington Peak summits could be the thing I need to start up my training again.

The first day got off to a tough start. My wife and I and a couple of our friends spent the first part of the day making the 4 hour drive back from Sequoia National Park. We had spent the long Labor Day weekend touring the massive Sequoia trees. But this meant I was starting my trek up the mountain at about 4pm; the hottest part of the day in the hottest time of the year. I struggled in the heat. The rocks felt very hot on my hands. Somehow, still, I set a PR for the ascent and descent of the peak. I guess the couple of times I had previously done the route were also a struggle. After this first summit, I knew I had picked a difficult time of year to do this challenge. The remaining summits would also be in the hot afternoon due to my work schedule.

Day two felt even harder, as my legs were still sore from the first day. I needed to take several 2-3 minute breaks on the ascent to let my heart rate get under control. I also realized I would need start bringing a third 500 ml flask of water. At the bottom of the trail I also noticed that someone had placed a note warning hikers not to do Arlington if the temperature was over 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I later learned that three people had been rescued off of Arlington the week prior due to dehydration and heat exhaustion. The temperature was about 85 degrees when I was summitting, and I still needed to go another five times….

Day three went a bit smoother than the first two days. Bringing more water helped. I pushed a bit more on the descent, lowering my PR a bit. I also took a couple tumbles. I would accumulate more light scrapes and bruises from the rocky terrain as the week went on.

I pushed the pace again on day 4. Unfortunately, my iPhone GPS misfired (as it occasionally does, I need to get a new watch), so Strava would not track the segment times. I was pretty sure I had lowered my PR quite a bit on the ascent and descent. Oh well, what matters is I felt fast at the time.

Day 5 was intentionally easier day. I was feeling a bit cooked and knew I still had three more days to go, so I went into this one a bit easier. A few minutes after starting the ascent, I came across a hiker named Boo. When he told me his name, it triggered a response in my brain, like I was meant to meet this guy. Although, I did not mention this in that moment. He told me about the five peaks route he had done recently, connecting Arlington, Cathedral, La Cumbre, White, and Flores all in one effort. A pretty impressive, big day. I kept on going up the mountain. As I climbed, I thought to myself, I should talk to him again when I see him on the descent.

I made it to the top and took some time to admire the view and drink down some fluids. It was a hot day. I started descended and kept an eye out for Boo. A little past the halfway point I came across him again. I stopped and we started chatting again. He was going to head up to the top, and stay for several hours to watch the sunset.

I decided to tell him about the feeling I had when he told me his name. I asked if he was Chinese and he said “yes,” and that his parents had immigrated to the US from the south of China. He was born in the US. I told him that my wife is Chinese and that she is pregnant with our first son. We were thinking of names recently, and my wife wanted him have a nickname of “bu”, pronounced like “boo.” The translation for “run” in Chinese is “pao bu.” So, when I learned Boo’s name, it set off an interesting connection in my mind and I wanted to tell him about it.

He found the story quite interesting and told me a bit about his son and daughter. We exchanged phone numbers, with the intention to hike together in the future. His parting words to me were to remember to be grateful for the mountain; we do not need to conquer it, but rather we should feel connected with it.

It was a good hike that day. And that night, my wife and I went out to celebrate our friend Leon’s birthday in downtown Santa Barbara. I had several beers, which came back to haunt me on the next day’s summit.

On day 6 I wanted to try going faster on the mountain again. However, when I woke up, I felt quite hungover from the several beers the night before. I had a slow start to the day, drinking a Gatorade and hot coffee to try to pull myself out of the hangover fog. I made banana pancakes for my wife and myself. The sugary fluff seemed to help a bit with the hangover, but I still had quite a throbbing headache.

I set out for the trail. When I starter running, I could tell my body was a bit beat up. The climb up Arlington was tough and definitely not fast. When I got to the top, I took a minute to regroup and drank down a bottle ofTailwind. I threw on a live Goose (the band, not the bird) recording and started hauling down the mountain. I was able to get into a groove with sweet jams going in my ears. I cruised down the mountain, with full body engagement and hopping from rock to rock. I was able to set a new PR on the descent of 29 minutes 41 seconds, getting me the 8th spot on the Strava leaderboard. I felt good about that one.

For Day 7, I was able to talk my friend Zoe into running with me. We had not run together in several months. With an earlier start, the temperature was not so hot. Zoe had never done the route before, so I would show her the way. We had a great time making our way up the mountain, climbing over rocks and talking about various things from running to life stuff. Something about being on a trail moving forward with another person strengthens a bond. Its a special thing to get to share time on trail with others.

This was a great way to end the challenge. I successfully climbed up and down Arlington Peak 7 times in 7 days. I think this week was my highest “vert-to-miles” ratio ever….haha. My Strava says I climbed about 16,800 feet over the course of about 42 miles. Although, I think the mileage should be lower. I was recording using my iPhone, which always seem to give me one or two extra credit miles when my pace slows below a 15 minute mile.

I am hoping that this Arlington week will give me a boost to start building up my training again. I would like to take the fitness gains from this year to another long running day in the fall season. Perhaps a 100 mile effort.

Some music choices from the week:

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong live album Live at the Capitol Theatre. I listened to this one on several of the days. The jams make for a great soundscape to bomb down the mountain.

Green Day’s album Dookie. Always a fun listen to get rowdy.

Goose 8/28/2025 Iowa City, IA. Thanks to taper: Ryan Sibert. Free concert at University of Iowa. This one got me in the groove to PR on the Arlington descent. Great jams.