Tim Long's Hill Clinic

Sporting our fresh Brazen Racing Rocky Ridge sweatshirts at Rodeo Beach.

Victor Ballesteros showing us a drop bag he designed and sells. Tim Long making fun of him.

After everyone was there, we followed Tim up a hill and lined up on both sides while he demonstrated some hill technique.

He's talking about the usefulness of poles.

I may or may not have been a little distracted....

yeah...I have no recollection of what he was saying. It may have been "look at my massive quad"...not sure.

This will be the only time in my life that Victor Ballesteros and I will share the same trail! He's demonstrating Tim's suggested downhill form.  My worst nightmare came true as we all had to take a turn running down through the lined up runners putting Tim's suggestions to use.  As we did, he'd helpfully yell out things like get lower, relax your feet, arms out more....that sort of thing.

Next we got a lesson in transitioning from run to walk and back to run going uphill. In Tim's world, you maintain the exact same speed whether walking or running, the only real thing that changes is you are on your forefoot/toes while running, and you drop your heel while walking....but your speed is the same.  I'm sure this is amazing technique for guys like Tim, Lucho, and Victor who win things like Western States 100 and Leadville....but for the average mortal....its not practical to maintain running pace up hill and call it a walk because you drop your heel. (I'm talking longer, steep uphills..not runnable uphills) This being my opinion, it came as no surprise when it was my turn to run up through runner-lined trail and got scolded by Tim for slowing my pace when I walked.  Did I mention you started down below the runners and ran up through them with Tim yelling out run.....walk....run....walk and then telling you what you're doing right/wrong as you are doing it??  Sounds like fun, no?  Why can't we just stand around and watch Tim talk and demonstrate stuff....just saying...that was much more enjoyable.

After we all ran up the hill, and then down the hill....the instruction part was done.  So just to recap, he showed us one technique for how he likes to run uphill, and one for how he likes to run downhill, and that is it. I will give him that it was cold and windy and we were all a bit miserable...but I was expecting to hear a little more....like uphill fire road vs single track, or muddy downhill single track vs open rocky gravel downhill.  He pretty much said he uses the same stance/technique regardless of terrain or grade....so..yeah.  He did answer any and all questions and would have stayed up there longer had more people asked more questions. I was definitely out of my comfort zone and just wanted to get through the morning w/o making a bigger fool of myself. After the info part, they set out on a group run. I told Brian to go ahead and go and have fun....I'd head out on a different trail. I was not in the mood to try to keep up with this crowd or to get dropped. So I headed out away from where I assumed they would go, only to see they were all heading towards me....now it would just look like I ran ahead to get pictures and then fell behind the group. Gah.

Tim did a little dance for the camera.

I just let them all pass but stayed put where I was. Notice Tim up above yelling down at the last 3 gals to hurry up and run faster....yep, they could go have fun...not my sort of a run. Instantly reminded me of why I am not a fan of coaches. Don't get me wrong, he seems to be a nice, fun, knowledgeable guy, but the coach side was full on, as it should be at this sort of a thing.  He's an accomplished runner, race director, and coach, and the boys legs don't lie, he knows what he's doing. Maybe I've just gotten really used to running by myself, at a comfortable pace that I can sustain, but also feel free to stop and take in my surroundings and take a picture now and then.  The idea of running with a speedy group while getting told to keep up and go faster...while practicing "Tim's" way of running up/down hills (not because we had to, but because he just showed us the proper way and now we'd be running with him...so I'd feel pressured to do it the "right" way)...meh...not my thing.

I'll just hang here for a minute and take in the surfing scene!

I made my way back up the hill the clinic was on and hit another trail off of that.  In no time I looked up to see the group run making their way to the top of the ridge over there....crazy.

There was not a bad view to be found on the trial I was running.

After not too long at all I spotted Brian across the valley and yelled at him.  He made it to the top of the ridge in the picture above, and decided to call it a day.  Turns out...Tim had told the group they were going on a 6 mile group run...but while running and talking, it was made more clear that really Tim and Lucho were running 6 miles to the house they were staying at...the group would have to turn around and make their way back by  themselves.  So...yeah.  Brian turned around and came back down. But this was good news for me because I had spotted a narrow strip of trail I had wanted to take but knew Brian wouldn't have wanted me to...so now he could do it with me!

The unique view of the Golden Gate Bridge was worth it!

and Rodeo Beach

If you right click you will be able to make out the black fin that was making that white streak. There were 3 porpoises.

That's my shadow being a rebel and not practicing Tim's form. I nearly slid off the edge of the world coming down this.....so maybe Tim knows what he's talking about??

When all was said and done....$30 is not a bad price to pay to learn, or at least expose yourself (some of the giddy 20 something gals I suspect did pay the $30 just for a chance to expose themselves to Tim...)to someone else's thoughts/ideas on running technique. Especially someone with Tim's running resume and experience.  To have Lucho and Victor there also willing to talk and answer questions is a total bonus.  Tim gave away some VI gels, and Victor gave away one of his bags, so that was a bonus.  Would I do it again?? Nah. But this was not for me, it was for Brian.  He couldn't settle on what he wanted for our anniversary. Knowing he's a Lucho fan, and wanting to get some hill input this was a perfect gift.  Funny thing is, he ended up running with Catra Corbett for most of Brazen's Rocky Ridge run and picked her brain the whole time and learned a ton from her input and watching how she ran. Talk about experience, the gal's been around for a minute and has done amazing things!!
Anyhow....so that's my thoughts on the hill clinic : ) 
Yeah, I know...I need to work on my conclusions, lol.