My Electric Postcard

I’m in Markham Canada for the Mycological Society of America meetings this week.   I arrived on Sunday and immediately set out for a shake-out run around the vicinity of the Hilton Conference Center.   What I intend to be a simple 2-mile jaunt turned into a 4 mile tour after getting lost and missing a turn in the suburban environment of Marham/Unionville. Despite the detour, I felt good. Much nicer experience to go from 5k to 6k ft atmosphere down to relatively terrestrial 600 ft elevation. However, I still tried to push myself to stay on top of the relative challenge of running at Denver’s elevation. What was good about this week was the relative consistency in my runs and ease of recovery. I had a great time at the conference. There were some longtime friends and colleagues that I hadn’t seen in a while. The research, educational, and collaborative projects I’ve been involved with had a great presence at the meeting.   I was also able to make new acquaintances and establish new p

  The second week of training for the Chicago Marathon begins in earnest in the California Sierra Nevada. The first week of June is typically my annual pilgrimage to the Spring Fungi course at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus near Yuba pass.   My parents have a little summer place in the small town of Calpine. My first run was in the hills above Calpine. I covered nearly three miles, but it was slow.   The hills are steep and my training watch suggests I covered 590 feet of ascent and over 600 feet of descent. All between 4900 and 5500 feet in elevation. The second run was at Yuba Pass for a six mile long run.   I thought it would be ideal since there is a forest service road from the pass up Weber Lake Road.   I’ve traveled it enough times by car to have a feel for the road, or so I thought. My memory tricked me into thinking is was long and flat. It was not. In running three miles up the road I again covered over 550 feet in ascent. However, this occurred between