Go slow to go fast.

I felt like running again yesterday but didn't have much time.  Did a p90X workout in the AM while Nan was out running.

Today I got out for a quick barefoot run in the afternoon.  My legs felt pretty good.  Hips and hamstrings could still feel really light residual soreness from the weekend, but it went away after a half mile and it was a nice quick recovery run to get my legs moving again.  Just did 4 miles slow - 34:45 - 8:45 pace.  It felt good to run again.  Running is so addicting. 

We're camping in Alpine WY this weekend and doing some rafting today and tomorrow. So I got up early and drove up the canyon toward jackson and stopped at the first thing that looked like a possible trail up a canyon.

It turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for. It was an unmarked, rarely used trail that went up a canyon and toward some passes and peaks in the distance. The trail had lots of growth coming in on it from the little use, and the only tracks on the trail were deer tracks, which were fresh on the trail all the way up almost.

It started out moderate, only 400 feet ascent in the first mile or so, and it felt good to go slow and get warm.

It was a beautiful morning and perfect temp. I saw a few deer, but otherwise had the canyon to myself and thoroughly enjoyed the quiet morning and peaceful mountain sounds.

I got near the convergence of 2 valleys and the trail turned and got steeper. And just kept getting steeper and steeper. The last stretch before a plateau between two valleys that I topped on was insanely steep for a while, but I ran the entire thing and it felt good.

When I reached this plateau it was totally beautiful. The sun was hitting the one ridge, I was surrounded by ridges and peaks on all sides and I just sat on a rock for a few minutes taking it all in and enjoying the silence and peace of being by myself in the mountains far away from everything.

Then I ran comfortably down.

I checked the garmin as I went down and realized that the last 1/4 mile to where I stopped I climbed 450 feet. Which I believe is an average grade of 33%. Wow...I knew it was steep, didn't realize it was that steep. Kind of felt good to be able to run that without even maxing out my HOUR (granted it was super slow I'm sure, but my legs felt good).

Total was 6 miles, 2200 feet ascent and 2200 descent in about 1:20. Slow, very enjoyable mountain run.

Tomorrow I want to get out earlier and run up to a couple of the peaks I didn't quite make it to this am. I didn't have enough time this am, but there were some incredible looking treeless ridgelines up there that I REALLY want to run tomorrow.

Todays run consisted of going up tons of insanely steep trail and non-trail for 5.75 Miles gaining 4150 feet.  Then running straight down 5.25 miles back to the car (lost the trail part of the way down and cut out 1/2 mile of the run on accident).

I definitely set a new slow PR for actual running.  The first 4 miles were actually runnable and I did it in 1:12 minutes - 18 min/mile, and I was actually running the entire time.  I was taking it pretty easy, but it was just plain steep.   Then the trail ended or I lost it, once I reached the ridge.  And at that exact same time I came upon two gargantuous bucks with huge antlers.  It was impressive.  They didn't like hanging around me much though, I probably stunk, so they took off down the other side of the ridge and were completely out of sight by the time I could run the 50 yards to where they were to catch another glimpse.  

At that point I couldn't see a trail anymore so I bushwhacked/ran up a really cool ridge line for 1.75 miles until I arrived at some unknown peak at 9800 feet (started the run at 5800).

Coming down I found a trail on the ridge that I hadn't seen on the way up and that allowed me to run down most of the ridge pretty quick.  Then I successfully lost that trail after a mile and found myself charging through 2-3 foot sage brush and climbing over fallen trees etc.  Really slowed the progress, but I finally re-connected with my trail and headed down.  Then I saw a big fat mountain goat charge across the trail and blast through the sage brush with ease, and that was cool.

It is apparent that people don't go to Alpine  Wyoming to hike or run because I had the entire mountain range to myself (minus the deer and goats I never saw another soul anywhere).  And it was really cool standing on the peak and being surrounded for hundreds of miles of peaks on all sides of me.  It was a pretty epic view, and well worth the effort of getting there.  The Grand Tetons loomed to the north, daring any more people to try to climb them this week after a lightning storm on the peak blasted a whole bunch of people on Wednesday, blowing one guy off the mountain to his death.

Time: 2:40 - 11 Miles - ~15:30/mile - 4150 Feet ascent and 4150 Descent. (13.67% avg grade - ouch, no wonder it was so slow.  But also the 2-3 miles without trail slowed me down quite a bit.)

The steep ascending and descending was sure a good workout on the quads and hips for me today.  But its nice now that my quads don't get sore at all after runs like that.  I like that a lot.  I still roll everything out with the foam roller though, for injury prevention and because it feels really good.