Back With a Capital Vengence!

Got my mountain bike out of the closet for the first time in two years. Yup, still word's worst mountain biker. Two hours on the Round Valley Trails in Park City; would have been much easier on my feets!

Loved this!

"I run because I seek that clarity.

Maybe it's superficial.

Maybe it's just adrenaline and endorphins and serotonin flooding my brain.

But I don't care!

I run very fast because I desperately want to stand very still.

I run to seek a void.

The world around me is so very, very loud."

'Why This Compulsion To Run Long Distances?' A Runner's Beautiful Confession

Hour walk. Quads and lower legs still sore from the weekend.

I have to admit that I am still feeling pretty stoked after the Sapper Joe 15K last weekend. Now that I am feeling great it is hard for me to imagine that I couldn't run for more than 30 seconds at a time 3 months ago (first time I ran this year was on May 8, 2013) and the first time I ran a continuous mile was just June 10, 2013. I want to take this moment to toot my own damn horn, maaaaannnnnnn was this a long hau! I am absolutely thrilled to be out doing things!!! Below is the world's slowest return to running plan, but I really think I did it right this time (May1-3 ranged from .05 to .5 miles/week :). Onward!

Woke up early form the back of Rubes (my car) in Kane Creek Canyon to weird didgeridoo type sounds coming out of Hunter Canyon, ate an entire melon while paying homage to the Birthing Rock, and then ran up the Amasa Back Trail.  Overshot the turn off on the Jackson Trail because the trail sign was on the ground in the bushes, but I found it on my way back down.

The Jackson Trail is one of the neatest running trails in Moab and I have never see a soul on it. The single-track trail hugs a cliff above the Colorado and the views and drop-offs are really dramatic! One little trip could leave you tumbling a thousand feet down to the river below and Kane Creek can be flooded and difficult to cross at the bottom so maybe that is why people avoid the trail! Thankfully the Creek was only waist deep and it felt goooood at the end of the run. It is odly humid in Moab today - 50%, weird!

PM: 2-mile hike in my flip-flops to the Mill Creek swimming hole for bathing :)

Jackson Trail above the Coloardo.

Attempt at a running self-portrait. I guess when running solo, my hands are unconciously thrown into the air!

AM: 6-7 mile hike to the most ridiculous blue/green lake I have ever seen, Ice Lakes near Silverton, Colorado. Had fun with my new gigantic camera!

PM: 5 mile run. Molas Lake to Molas Pass (10,900') and back via the Colorado Trail w/ James, Allie, and Jake and then a lap around the Molas Lake with Andrea. So happy I can run with people and I even kept up (almost) to the pass :)