Going With The Flow

AM - 3 miles on the bike path in Jackson Hole. 

PM - Jake and I hiked the Paintbrush Canyon to Cascade Canyon Loop trail. It's about 19 miles and 5000 ft of vertical. It was absolutely beautiful for the first half of the hike until we got up to the mountain pass, then rained/hailed on us for the remaining 9-10 miles or so. It's always an adventure in the mountains! Too bad hiking miles don't count for anything on the running log :)

More photos on Jake's blog... 

AM - Misty and chilly 10 miles with Jake on the bike path in Jackson. Feeling pretty worn out this morning - can't say I was disappointed when the run was over. 

PM - The weather cleared up nice for a fun rafting trip down the Snake River. Then, I went on a shake-out 30 minute bike ride touring the millionaire homes near our condo.

AM - 10 miles on the trails in Teton National Park. We linked up Jenny Lake, String Lake, Leigh Lake, and Bearpaw Lake for a nice run. The surface was smooth and trails were flat. It was really fun....the only problem with running here is the bears! We only saw a small one but talked to others that saw much larger ones (which I'm sure that Jake and I just ran right by). My legs are feeling the fatigue of vacation day #4.

PM - We went kayaking on the Jackson Lake for a couple hours. It was my first time kayaking and I loved it! 

AM - Ran from Teton Village into the park for several miles and back. Saw two moose hanging out near the road and got about 5 feet away from a deer. Nice run! This must be my week of 10 miles :) 

PM - 14 miles of mountain biking, ~1400 ft of ascent. We parked at Snow King Resort and made our way up the Cache Creek trail then cruised down on the Putt-Putt trail. The Putt-Putt trail was a little challenging for me (beginner MTBer) but really fun. There are a lot of great trails in this area that I think would be equally as running as they are biking. 

AM - Horsepark loop, easy morning. Back to work today - glad it's only a two day week! 

Time to catch up on all the race reports now...

PM -  Frisbee golf practice for 30 minutes which turned out to be 2.5 miles. I was jogging, sprinting, walking through all that so I'm going to count it as 1.5 miles of running. Hopefully that's not considered to be padding the mileage! Then went out for a 3.2 mile run. HOT!

AM - Easy 3.1 miles around the block. Hamstring felt a little irritated again. 

PM - 5.1 miles with Devra on the roads. Hard to run at 2pm in the summertime!

I got roped into doing a cross country 5K tomorrow morning as part of the Corporate Games for work. I would rather do a long run tomorrow, but I'm kinda the advocate for running at work so I feel like it's important for me to participate. It'll be fun, I just can't run fast and risk irritating any injuries right now! Anyone else doing this event?

Corporate Games Cross Country 5K! Whew - that was hard. Running on the grass with steep rolling hills really takes the energy out of me quick. Great workout and no pains except fatigue :) Ran about 4 miles before the race.

The course was at the Cottonwood Complex at 4400S and 1300E (same place as high school regionals XC I think). It was three loops of about 1.1 miles. Distance was a little long but time is irrelevant compared to the roads anyway. My breathing was very labored and I felt like I was pushing hard....so the right effort for a 5K. The first lap was the fastest and the last two were about the same.

I was a little disappointed as to how many guys beat me (8), but I'm just getting back into shape and much stronger on the roads. It's been a tough training week with the ultimate exercise vacation + 70 miles for the week....I know, I know, lots of excuses! I do think there is a lot of value in doing something different like this every once in a while.

The rest of the BD Medical team did great - I was very proud and excited to have them come out for the event as well. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that we had to have two girls for scoring, so I think we were disqualified for points. Oh well! Maybe next year I can be in charge and sucker a lot more people (especially girls) into doing it!

Afterwards I got to talk to Emily and Teren Jameson (who won). Nice to see them again! There was quite a bit of activity too with lots of free food, games, activities, etc.  I took about an hour break socializing and walking around. On my run home, I decided to pick it up for a mile at marathon pace (6:21) then jogged the rest of the way. Total of 10.5 miles for the morning.

Jake was nice enough to come over and take a few pics before he went off for his Jeremy Ranch run - 

My happy pose, Rachelle-style :)

PM - 3.5 miles easy with Jake before BBQ time!