Go slow to go fast.

It was great running with jun and twinkies this morning. We ran a pretty steady pace up past a lake and on to summit mt. Baldy at Alta, then down the other side. Coming down the north slope there were a few fun snow fields to skate down.

My running time was about 1:40 for the 8 miles total up and back. The last half a mile to the top was a 23 min/mile pace, with some super steep scrambling before it leveled off near the peak. And coming down initially was really slow because of the steep grade there as well. Very amazing morning for a run. Too bad for us though that Nan scared off the moose running up there earlier (or it scared her off, or both perhaps)

It was nice to have great company on the run, and we're close in fitness level so we all ran pretty close together.

Jun and twinkies, thanks for the great run. I really look forward to running kings peak with you guys next month, that's going to be a fun trip.

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When I got back to camp at Tanners flat, the family was napping...and I was still itching to run, so I headed up the trail from the camp. Its a gorgeous single track along the river. It hooked up with the red pine trail, and I could not make myself stop and turn around...it was too sweet of a trail.

After 3 miles up the trail I was getting pretty close to red pine lake, but I didn't know how much farther it was and it was getting late, so I headed back down.

Totals for the day were 14 miles, 3:04, 13:10/mile avg - 4500 feet ascent. (thanks to sport tracks, that's a lot more accurate than the 5700 ft garmin training center said)

Didn't plan on running for 3 hours today, but I just couldn't resist given the circumstances. It has been a phenomenal extended weekend of trail running. And I'm really pleased with how good my body feels at this point. Now off to the foam roller to preemptively strike any potential issues from a bigger mileage weekend.

No running today...because I'm going to hit up green mtn. again tomorrow so I figured I'd take a rest day.  My legs feel surprisingly great though despite running about 32 miles with about 9,000 feet of ascent between sat and mon.

Here's a quick video of the really fun run up little cottonwood yesterday:

My body told me today as I was ascending green mountain that it was time for a break.  

I put my body to the test over the last week...between last wednesday to this wednesday I ran about 55 miles, 11 hours of running, with about 14,700 feet of ascent and 14,700 feet of descent.  

That isn't much for some people, and would be a very light recovery week for others.  But for me, it was definitely taking it up a notch from my normal 25-30 miles per week, and raising the bar a bit.  

And I could feel it on the climb today.  I was hiking a bunch of it, that I could have run if I was fresh.  I did the climb up green today in 50:08.  Total today up and down was 1:31 - 7.42 miles - 2846 ft ascent - 12:23 avg pace.

But despite feeling fatigued from a longer week of running, I was thoroughly enjoying myself.  It was a stunning morning for a run up green mtn.  I ran with my friend Zach, and we were both in awe at how we felt like we were running through a rain forest.  The rain was drizzling slightly the whole time, there was fog around us everywhere so we could only see a couple hundred feet in any direction.  It was absolutely gorgeous out there.  

Now to take a few days off of hard and steep mountain running and give my body a needed break. 

I strapped my 790's on my hydration pack and took my bike out to White ranch.

I felt tired and sluggish this morning, still recovering I can tell.

I did a really leisurely pace, but its so steep that there really is no leisurely pace.

Rode my bike up about 6 miles to the back side of the park, then stashed the bike and threw on the shoes.

Ran 4 miles with a total of 750 ft gain, 40 minutes.

Then biked back out.

Biking was about 2300 feet climbing over about 12 miles.

It was an enjoyable afternoon in the mountains. It rained on me while running and was really refreshing.