⛰🏃🏻♂️ 15km & ~2k' in #Marin 8/31 to finish #August at 216km & 7116m. Grateful for a month of consistent training at home. Traveling a lot soon — HMU to #run in Portland @XOXO, Fukuoka @W3C #TPAC2019, Amsterdam @IndieWebCamp #ViewSource, NYC & Brighton IndieWebCamps, London #MozFest, St. Louis @WordCampUS #WCUS!
August was a monthly distance running PR and my second highest vertical climbing month after last October’s 207km & 8932m (also only my second time running 200km+ or climbing 5km+ in any month).
Got a late start that morning and drove myself directly to the Tennessee Valley parking lot. Having forgotten to check the #SFRC route direction, I ran the opposite way again, up Fox with less fog(2) than last week, down Coastal to an ominously overcast Muir Beach(3). Touched the water(4) and noticed blue skies in the distance to the northwest(5). I cut the route short via the beautiful Middle Green Gulch trail up to Coyote Ridge. From the Coyotoe Ridge peak(6) I could see the north side of Muir beach, and a thin blue line of clear Pacific Ocean over the clouds(1). Looking south the city was still covered by fog, just a few buildings and Sutro tower poking through(7). Ran back down Miwok(8) to the Tennessee Valley parking lot and up/down a bit of Marincello to reach 15km.
I’ll be making good use of the few September and October mornings I’m home and joining up with runners (especially on trails) on my travels when missing Marin #trails(9). Hope to see you out there!
🌙🌅 #tbt to #Tam #Tuesday. Clear sky, crescent moon, and changing of the light(1) from #dawn to #sunrise as snapped while #running/hiking up #MtTam, chasing friends Bryan and Kat. Individual photos from 6:06(2), 6:14(3), 6:21(4), 6:33(5), finally 6:42(6) at #MtTamEastPeak. Plus Bryan’s selfie of us at 6:43(7).
I’m working on custom "Add to gCal" links next because Google Calendar (website) seems to require its own way of doing things. Maybe that’ll work for the Android app too? Maybe we can experiment tomorrow at HWC SF.
☁️⛰⛅️ 20+ miles & 4k' of low quiet fog, quail(2) & bunnies(3), lush green hills(4) & forests(5,6), and finally sunshine above the clouds at Cardiac hill(1,7) before running back(8,9) to where I started and up/down another hill(10).
Being prepared brought more confidence than last week. Started later than planned, yet before #SFRC. Took my own route up Fox trail(2), down Coastal Fire road (stopping only for a curious bunny(3)), thru the Redwood creek woods, across Santos meadow, and up the Heather cut-off switchbacks(4).
Made good time up Coastal view to the patch of misty forest where most of the trees have grown leaning with the wind(5). Moss covered trees rising from a floor of ferns(6), only a few hundred meters of forest canopy in the middle of an otherwise exposed trail. Still, such relaxing #greentime before finally emerging into the sunshine.
The climb to Cardiac felt faster and smoother than usual. As a runner I’ve become grateful for fog and overcast skies, yet it was still nice to get some sun at my goal peak where I could look back on the clouds I had climbed through(7). After a brief snack break and saying hi to the volunteers at the Headlands50k aid station, I decided to chase the racers back down the way I came, all the way to Pirates Cove(8).
Pirates Cove also felt faster, and less scary this time around. Kept encouraging the racers as they passed me on the climb, and chased them down the Coastal Fire road, stopping to snap a greener than usual Tennessee Valley for this time of year(9).
Returned to Tennessee Valley parking lot at almost 18, hiked/jogged up Miwok trail to more foggy valley views(10), and scampered back down to round out my long trail run. Finally got my 20. ✅
The next step is to add a link or button on the #indieweb event like:
📆 Add to Calendar
to #interoperate with existing apps & services via .ics download (@IETF #openstandard #RFC5545). @schmarty & @gRegorLove do this. I’ll add code for my events too
🌞🌳🌊🌁 #Sunday #longrun! Ran 14+ miles on tired legs.
Planned to do a half marathon after Saturday’s 11 miles of Marin trails, ended up a mile-ish more. Slow start, but drank/fueled and felt pretty strong in the second half of Golden Gate Park. Spreckels lake sparkled in the sunshine(2). Reached the beach(1) and felt encouraged to go further. Ran up to the Sutro Baths for a beautiful view(3) and thru Lands End for a clear view of the Golden Gate!(4)
Happened to look upward in the Sea Cliff neighborhood and see an old air raid siren(5). Against the deep blue sky it reminded me of Depeche Mode’s Music For The Masses:
By the time I ran up Lincoln Boulevard to the bridge, Karl the Fog had enveloped the tops of the towers(6). Ran down to the Warming Hut for another view(7) and over to Crissy Field Marsh(8).
Struggled up the final climb to the Presidio, and up to the top of Arguello Blvd, then easy cruising all the way home.
🌬💨☁️⛰🌁 Underprepared for unexpected weather, Saturday morning I nearly gave up on my trail run and went home.
I planned to start at 7am at the Tennesssee Valley parking lot, arrived at 7:05. Overcast as expected, yet much colder. In contrast to last week’s quiet fog bank (https://tantek.com/t51y1), the wind howled through the valley, bending treetops and swirling up dust like I’d never seen before. I’d only worn shorts and a t-shirt and wouldn’t last 10 minutes in that wind chill.
I sat in my car in parking lot for almost an hour waiting for it to warm up a bit and for the wind to quiet down, berating myself for having forgotten a long sleeve. Just before giving up and going home, I decided to double check the shallow depths of my trunk.
Tucked into the bottom of a beach bag I found an SF Marathon long sleeve. Threw it on, and took off up the fogged-in Marincello trail(2), connecting via Bobcat trail(3) to Alta trail’s lush peak(4) instead of the windy coastal route I’d planned.
The fog thickened on SCA trail(5), where I barely caught a view of the Golden Gate bridge(6) being overwhelmed by the fog. My favorite part of SCA trail is a brief lush forest tunnel(7) that I decided to stop and capture (usually I just run through it grinning). Soon after capturing the Golden Gate Bridge from a hill(1), I saw a couple of faster friends from the SFRC running crew and realized I had been running the opposite direction. Finished a short loop up the Bobcat trail(8), then returned down Marincello to the parking lot and barely made it to Good Earth just before 11, last call for breakfast sandwiches.
11 miles done ✅ (not the 21 I planned, calling this mental game a draw)
Afterwards I shared with a few trail running friends how I’d felt starting out, and they reminded me (correctly) to look more on the positive side:
“Good job sticking with it. Deposits in the grit bank” [that’s a good metaphor to keep in mind.]
“You toughed it out, nice job keeping it going in less than ideal conditions.”
Even if that run was a mental draw, knowing I got at least something done will be good to remember next time I face a similar challenge, perhaps in a race.
We've scheduled lots of IndieWebCamps this year and are on track to schedule a record number of different cities as well.
I had conceived of a graphical representation of the growth of IndieWebCamps over the past nine years, both in number and across the world, but with everything else involved with setting up and running the Summit, ran out of time. However, the idea persisted, and finally this past week, with a little help from Aaron Parecki re-implementing Dopplr’s algorithm for turning city names into colors, was able to put togther something pretty close to what I’d envisioned:
I don’t know of any tools to take something like this kind of locations vs years data and graph it as such. So I built an HTML table with a cell for each IndieWebCamp, as well as cells for the colspans of empty space. Each colored cell is hyperlinked to the IndieWebCamp for that city for that year.
The table markup is copy pasted from the
IndieWebCamp wiki template where I built it, and you can see the template working live in the context of the IndieWebCamp Cities page. I’m sure the markup could be improved, suggestions welcome!
The Homebrew Website Club is a growing world-wide network of meetups for everyone who wants to take back their web experience from social media silos, and own their online identities, content, and interactions.
It’s not always sunshine and flowers. Sometimes it’s endless #fog. Or miscommunication and isolation. Still grateful for 11 miles and nearly 2k' at #SFRC to #MuirBeach(1) and back.
We can choose to be frustrated or grateful. To blame (ourselves, others), or be patient, accepting, and choose to be the best we can in the circumstances. We can anticipate conflict, or be open to hope and reconnection. It starts inside with the outlook we choose, and manifests with the words and actions we choose.
🌅⛰ #trailtuesdaythrowback to this morning’s beautiful #sunrise at Tam Tuesday! Started earlier this morning than usual, in darkness. After seeing Bryan, Hannah, and a few others disappear up the steps, I ran up the Mill Valley streets alone. Dark & seemingly empty while everyone slept, the #fog was particularly eerie, silencing any sounds. Whenever my headlamp lit up the fog’s swirling droplets, it looked like The Upside Down from Stranger Things. Hard to capture on camera(2).
Slowly the sky lightened, and the sun crested the fog in the East(3). As it rose it started to disappear behind another layer of clouds, orange tipping the tops of the lower clouds(1). When I reached the #MtTam #EastPeak it had risen above those #clouds as well(4).
Such a contrast of experiences, starting in darkness, running up nearly always alone, then seeing the sunrise, friends on the trails, and gathering at the top(5,6).
The #run down was quite scenic as well, descending right back down into the clouds obscuring the forest and town below(7).
Over a month ago we organized the ninth annual IndieWeb Summit in Portland, Oregon, June 29-30. As frequently happens to organizers, the combination of follow-ups, subsequent holiday, and other events did not allow for much time to blog afterwards. On the other hand, it did allow for at least some reflection and appreciation.
Day 1 Badges, Pins, Shirts, And Breakfast!
Saturday morning June 29th went relatively smoothly. We had everything setup in time. I finished preparing my “state of” outline. Everyone signed-in when they arrived, got a badge, chose their color of lanyard (more on that later), pronoun pin(s), and an array of decorative stickers to customize their badge.
For the first time we had an anonymous donor who chipped in enough in addition to the minimal $10 registration fee for us to afford IndieWebCamp t-shirts in a couple of shapes and a variety of sizes. We had a warm breakfast (vegetarian and vegan) ready to go for participants.
Captions, Codes of Conduct, Safety, And Photo Policy!
Another first for any IndieWebCamp, we arranged a captioner who live-captioned the first two hours of Summit keynotes, introductions, and demos.
After welcoming everyone and introducing co-organizers Tiara and Aaron, I showed & briefly summarized our codes of conduct for the Summit:
In particular I emphasized the recent addition from XOXO 2018’s Code of Conduct regarding safety vs. comfort, which is worth its own blog post.
Another Summit first, also inspired by XOXO (and other conferences like Open Source Bridge), color-coded lanyards for our photo policy. Which was a natural lead-in for the heads-up about session live-streaming and where to sit accordingly (based on personal preference). Lastly, pronoun pins and a huge thanks to Aaron Parecki for arranging the logistics of all those materials!
I told people about the online tools that would help their Summit experience (chat, the wiki, Etherpad), summarized the day 1 schedule, and thanked the sponsors.
Video, Outline, And Always Aspiring
Here’s the 8 minute video of the Welcome. I think it went ok, especially with so many firsts for this Summit! In the future I’d like to: reduce it to no more than 5 minutes (one or two rounds of practice & edit should help), and consider what else could or should be included (while staying under 5 minutes). That being said, I feel pretty good about our continuous improvement with organizing and welcoming to IndieWebCamps. As we’ve learned from other inclusive conferences, I encourage all conference organizers to explicitly cover similar aspects (excerpted from the online outline I spoke from)
Code(s) of conduct (with multiple organizers and contacts)
Photo policy (with clear indicators to self-select)
Pronoun pins (or stickers)
Consider these a minimum baseline, a place to build from, more than goals. Ideally we should aspire to provide a safe and inclusive experience for an increasingly diverse community. Two more ways conference organizers can do so is by recognizing what the conference has done better this year, and by choosing keynote speakers to provide diverse perspectives. More on that with State of the IndieWeb, and the IndieWeb Summit 2019 invited keynote speakers.
Sunday long #run on tired SFRC legs in Golden Gate Park, stopping at bodies of water to stare and contemplate. #Cloudbank over green Spreckels Lake(1), so quiet even the geese slept-in(2). Kept running down JFK to the bison paddock, stopped to look but they were hiding. As I turned to run back, saw my pal Emilie approaching on the path, and instead ran with her to Ocean Beach. Classic San Francisco summer #Fogust, people wearing jackets at the beach(3).
Felt surprisingly strong for the day after SFRC, better than the last time I did something similar (Bay to Breakers in May https://tantek.com/t50a1). Over a year since my last training run all the way through Golden Gate Park to the beach and back. I’ve started using music and earphones on my road runs again, restarted 3 weeks ago at my last long run before the SF Marathon. Kept up 4-5 minute run and 1 minute walk intervals. Had planned on about 7 miles, felt good so I ran the rest of the way home.
8.7 miles done. Back on back-to-back ultra training runs.
⛰☁️ 10 miles at #SFRC Saturday: #running into #fog, up Old Springs #trail(1), down #Miwok, exploring a bit, returning on the same trail. Ran into Katie & Morgan(2) on the way down as they were on their way back up. Noticed yellow #flowers along the end of Miwok, now well below the fog which hid distant #hills(3). #nofilter, just natural soft lighting on a well made ciabatta breakfast sandwich(4). All smiles sitting in the sun at Good Earth(5), a brief break from #Fogust.
#fbf to two days ago running to @Nov_Project_SF #PRWednesday and finishing 40 burpees & 4 spokes in 27:00 — a new PR on the "new" (since this year I think) #NPSF PR Wednesday course. Before this week I admit I didn’t feel very motivated by this new course, still wanting to improve on the previous course. I do know that I’ve never made it past 30 burpees & 3 spokes.
This morning was also the first time I’ve run to the Wednesday workout in quite some time. Definitely first time this year, and maybe since 2017? I also ran back afterwards, and saw this(2) graffiti street art on the running path in the Panhandle park.
Clear skies. Easy warm-up run/walk to the start. Waited in line for portapotties when there were plenty of them without lines by the corrals. Barely made it into my corral (B) as they were starting. Had a good first mile and then lost momentum compared to my practice run on the same route two weeks ago.
Pushed on through the park, first with a 5/1 minute run/walk, then a 4/1 on the uphill to the Haight and the aid station at Masonic run by @Nov_Project_SF! Topped off my water bottle and headed out. Downhill on Haight, Buchanan, and Guerrero. It was nice not getting diverted from the main route.
As I turned the corner onto 16th, I stepped aside to tighten my shoelaces. Running up 16th the sun had started beating down, the heat became draining. I kept having decent bursts of energy, followed by feeling tired. I had been fueling with Clif bloks so that wasn’t it.
The Dogpatch was a hot struggle, until we turned the corner to run near the water, and welcomed the faintest of breezes. Finally picked up speed in mile 13, and sprinted the last 100 yards to outkick the racers slowing down in front of me.
15th half marathon done.
Congratulations to San Francisco Marathon finishers of all distances!
Running @theSFMarathon 2nd half marathon tomorrow, my 15th #halfmarathon. Have trained a lot more on hilly trails than flat roads in the past year. Going to run/walk it, as fast as my breath & legs will sustainably take me.
#trailtuesdaythrowback to #running & #hiking up the Tunnel Creek Road #trail at Lake Tahoe last Saturday to cheer Bryan & Krissi running the TRT 55k! (Spoiler: they did great!)
Great people to spend a weekend with starting Friday(2), then getting up at 03:30 (yes am) Saturday to get Bryan & Krissi to shuttles to the start before #dawn(3).
After seeing them set off (and a quick Incline Village Starbucks run), we hustled up Tunnel Creek trail just after #sunrise, the trees casting long shadows(4). Behind us gorgeous Lake Tahoe, the moon still visible(1). Ascended ~1700 feet to the nearest aid station at nearly 8000 feet up to cheer & photograph (using Bryan’s DSLR camera which I’d stuffed in my minimal backpack).
After our racers came through the aid station (twice), we ran back down, enjoying lake views(5), and a wide moderate downhill(6) descent. Having hiked and run 7.5+ miles, Vivek and I drove back to Incline Village to devour nearly all of a large veggie pizza(7) and enjoy excellent local cafe coffees.
It was quite warm by the time we returned to Spooner lake(8) to watch our racers finish.
It had been way too long since I last visited Tahoe. Yet it was nice to return home to San Francisco early Sunday evening(9).
#trailtuesdaythrowback to #running up Mt. Tam last Thursday with Krissi! We saw #deer(2). Krissi snapped photos as I ran/power hiked #uphill(3). We took selfies at the top, one with Mt Diablo poking through the #clouds(1), and another facing the #morning #sun(4).
San Francisco was shrouded in #fog, the tip of Sutro Tower barely poking through(5). The #sun was already high above the clouds at 07:29(6). On the way down we also saw an egret(7)! No PR but did set my second best time up the mountain. That and no falls this time. I’ll take it.
🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♂️ Thanks @sarahwhosellers for a #funrun@sportsbasement and live @theAMshakeout interview with @mariofraioli yesterday morning! Appreciated the personal #realtalk + Q&A on training, nutrition, weight, pressures, struggles, everything. #inspiring & #inspired 🙏🏻
1. After the run, Sarah posed for photos with everyone who wanted one 2. Before the run, a quick #selfie with friends, and Sarah casually hanging out in the back! 3. 📷 @theSFMarathon at Hoppers Hands turn around spot on the run 4. Thanks pal Michele for pacing me on my slow run!
Still feeling blown away by all the speakers, sessions, and demos @IndieWebSummit. So many expectations exceeded. From poignant & real keynotes to inspiring sessions to demos of many new personal sites, UX innovations, and #IndieWeb protocol breakthroughs
t
