Back With a Capital Vengence!

AM: Horrible, horrible feet PT. Who knew a foot "massage" could make me cry :( 

PM: Rode from work to Little Dell. After 6 weeks of trying, I finally accomplished a wee little time goal I had for my Little Mountain ascent. Yay!

Slept in my crazy new contraption (crazy, cheap, gigantic PF-curing night splints) last night and I think we may have made some progress. Could actually walk to the bathroom this morning rather than crawl... I heart miracles!

PM: Ran about a mile on the treadmill at the Salomon store. I am counting it! Tried on every pair of shoes they had and went home empty handed. I somehow think if I find the perfect shoes all of my troubles will go away :)

City Creek rumble.

Second night with my crazy PF splints and my feet feel almost normal today. I am serious! Holy crap this is so exciting!!!  

Typical Emigration/Little Dell dealie. 

Super multi-sport I am a dumb a** day!  

PM1: My feets were starting to feel a little better so I thought about going for a little hike/run plus I wanted to try out my new sweet shoes. Planned on doing 2 miles and ended up with 7 starting at 9600 feet. This is why I am never going to get better! Trails felt sooooo good though! But my feets ughhhh :( Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

PM2: Tooled around the paved bike trails in Park City. Fun!

PM3: Climbing gym. PF + climbing shoes = no bueno + need for multiple microbrews

Negligible run. 

Emigration/Little Dell ride.

Hiked around the Warm River and slept in my car :)

AM: Rode from the Warm River near Ashton, Idaho to Mesa Falls. Pretty sweet ride until I got caught in a torrential downpour - eek! Froze to death, but it felt sort of good. 

PM: Short hike on some dirt roads and then swam across a lake. Yup a lake. Can't really swim so it was pretty much the scariest thing I have ever done. Then froze quite a bit more...

Rode from some lake in Montana to nearly Ennis. I was on my road bike and Fritz was on his mountain bike and I could almost keep up. That was pretty much awesome!  

Baby hike.

Baby hike.

Memory Grove RUNNING! 

Getting absolutely psyched for Europe trip! T-minus 6 days!

The current agenda: wine drinking bike tour in Paris, hiking from Chamonix, France to Courmayeur, Italy, biking through Barolo wine country, hiking in the Liguria cliffs and then sunning it up in the Italian Riveria.

I believe this trip is going to propel me into some sort of greatness. Well at least propel my body into some real running action.

Looking for a little inspiration? Thoughts About Rocks and Other Valuable Things.

4 hours of sleep + copious amounts of coffee = fastest Emigration climb yet. Took 1.5 minutes off my fastest bike - yay!

Moab Red Hot 33/55K registration open and going fast! 

 BEST QUOTE EVER!!!

 “This is how fairy tales would go if the patriarchy hadn’t rewritten them: Eastern girl gets fed up with the city and moves west, finds the right guy(s) … pretty soon she’s skiing, climbing and biking her brains out, pretty soon she’s better than he is at most of it.”

— “Woman with a Pulse,” by Nichole Gordon

Sad to say that I bailed on my big ride this morning, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Having insomnia and weird migrainous issues so I didn't really want to overstress the bod right before the big trip. Went to the Farmer's Market, yoga, and got a massage instead.  

AM: Rode from home to Little Dell to Java Jo's. Wind kicked my bum. Caught up with Sandy and Ashley on the downhill who were already back at it after their 100-mile Leadville Mountain Bike Ride last weekend. Crazy peeps! Think I may have seen a Fritz blow by me too. 

PM: Flip-flop hiking. Strengthens the feets! 

Speaking of Leadville, I was curious how New Zealand Olympian Mike Aish was going to do. Bummer that he had to drop. Excellent race coverage per usual on iRunFar. 

On my way to France, but delayed - booooo! I am losing precious Paris time :(

Trail Runner Magazine and Strava have teamed up for the 100 mile challenge. I am sure this blog could do the 100,000 mile challenge on our own.

All participants who run 100 miles during the Challenge will earn a copy of Trail Runner magazine, plus extreme bragging rights.

As an added incentive, if the entire group of challenge participants can run 100,000 miles or more, Trail Runner magazine will provide a digital copy of the magazine to every participant who logs a single mile.

http://www.strava.com/challenges/trail-runner-100M

Biked from the EIffel Tower to the Notre Dame Cathedral and then to the Louvre and by some other nifty places in my flip-flops and non-bike worthy travel skirt because my luggage went to Switzerland. Classic Amiee-style start to trip not to mention dropping (and breaking) camera from bike. Wine: 2 (out of plastic cups on the Seine- classy), Croissants: 1.

Paris to Geneva to Chamonix via subway to train to plane to bus. Chamonix is way more impressive than I had imagined. The city is getting psyched for the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc and there are signs and stoke everywhere. Kind of makes me want to stick around for it... Just hiked and toured around a bunch today. Thinking about renting a road bike tomorrow. Need to catch up on the sleeps before I get out on the trail. Wine: 1, Croissants: 1.

Rainy, rainy day in Chamoix so I spent the first half of the morning sipping espresso and practicing ze French so I could spend the second half trying to figure out how to use a French payphone to make my hut reservations for the Tour du Mont Blanc. Then I hiked up a mountain because I was too cheap to pay for the tram ride. Unlike Snowbird, if you get to the top you don't get to ride down for free, but unlke Utah they do have wine at the top :) Had dinner with a bunch of British Ultra Tour du Mont Blancers - Trail Runners are the coolest ever! Vin: too much to mention, Croissants: 0.

Most amazing day ever! Getting into the travel groove and stoked. So much for a rest day before the big hike. Splurged and bought a Chamonix day of fun pass and took a series of trams up some mountains and hiked around all day. Hiked to a glacier. I heart France!

I lost my wallet last night. Everything but my passport, all my cards and money gone, gone, gone. I didn't realize it until I was packing my bag in the morning to head out on the hike. Long story short, 20 hours later it was found. Crazy, crazy day.

Celebrated by a lil run around Chamonix. I am definately staying in tonight! As for good news, I think I've beat the PF out of my feets and the hips are holding up. Tomorrow will be the true test though.

Hiked up, down, then up, down, and then up again because I screwed up (this is why people hire giudes) for a crazy total of close to 7000 feet of elevation gain carrying a good 25 pounds on my back. For some reason 2200 meter of elevation gain didn't sound as bad. Passed out as soon as I got to my refuge and then woke and ate a lot of cheese.

Rest day after yesterday's slog fest (picking up more Brit talk than French). Only about 3800 feet of climbing and 9 miles... Europeans don't believe in switchbacks. It is either straight up or down.

Holy most beautifully amazing scenic day of my entire life!!! Chilling in Courmayeur, Italy to thunderstorms and rain and doing a little sink laundry. It did not rain a drop during my 3 days out on the trail. I have been more than lucky on this trip and I still have a week left!

Woke this morning at 6 am to get an early start and caught the most ridiculous sunrise ever. The Alps are beyond amazing. Hiked from the Refuge de la Croix up through the Col des Fours down into the Ville des Glaciers and then up the Col de le Seigne into Italy and then down into Courmayeur. Perfect bluebird day all the way, a good 18 miles or so and about 4500 feet of elevation making my 3 day total over 14,000 feet. I think I'm back!!!

Posting pix to my facebook so hit me up there if you want to see :)

http://www.facebook.com/amiee.maxwell

Rest day in Courmayeur. Caught up on the sleeps. Feeling awesome so I have decided to head back out on the TMB and finish what I came here to do :)

Snow!!! Set out from Courmayeur in the rain and encountered snow after just an hour. Was not prepared for this at all and I was starting to freeze. Since I still had several hundred meters to climb and a good few hours before I got to the nearest shelter, I decided to turn around :( 

Sopping wet and chilled to the bone I took a bus back to Chamonix though the creepy 12 km tunnel. The weather was even worse in Chamonix at a little over 30 degrees. All hotels are booked solid with the UTMB so I had to settle for some super lavish 4 star resort a few miles from town costing me a whole 4 nights hostel worth which means only baguettes and boxed wine from here on out (yes, I was happy to find that the french also have boxed wine).

Anyway... Weather is so terrible that they had to completely change the UTMB course from 168km to less than 100km because the passes are impassable. I CANNOT imagine what it was like to set out this evening in freezing temps and pouring rain and know that it is only going to get worse. All participants were required to carry 4 layers of clothing and were instructed to at no time stop moving out there tonight right before the gun went off. 

Have to say the start of the UTMB was unbelievable. People were hanging out of every terrace, on top of telephone booths, swinging from light poles and screaming their lungs out for the 1500+ runners braving the elements. Every cook was out of their kitchen banging on pots and pans and I heard cheers in more languages than I can count. 

Abso-feaking awesome!!!