Like the canyon

Malan's right before dark.  Took it pretty easy on the up, pushed a bit on the down...that is until I realized the stupidity of running fast down a steep rocky trail in the dark with no light. Added a little BST to the end and still made it back to the car in 1:02. 

5 miles, 2300 vert

Work has been nuts! Tis the season I guess.  Multiple projects ending and multiple projects starting now and in the near future has left me spinning out 13 to 14 hour work days back to back for a week. Getting home late, just in time for dinner and some quick kid time before they are off to bed and I get out for a run in the dark.

Funny how a run clears it out. Stresses of the day completely faded while jogging up the trail next to Strong's Creek in the dark with the moon reflecting on the water. 8 miles in the dark alone on the trails puts things back into focus nicely.

Out late again.  Actually took a light this time.  Suprised how many others are out recreating in the dark.  Started at 8:15 and ran for an hour twenty up Indian past the shack and dwon a bit into cold water.  Good times once again. Felt sluggish, hours catching up I guess.

Out before dark tonight finally.  Cruised the local loops for an hour and a half.  Knee bug'en a bit??

Fianlly ran the Goat's monster.  I have done the triple sister a bunch (Malan's to Indian over and back), but never the full quad sister.  What a beast!

I started on Malan's and felt great, cruising easily to the top in 39 minutes passing a huge hiking group on the way up and seeing what looked like a family reunion on the peak. Cruised the BST over to Indian and passed the local trail club coming back from their Indian trail adventure. Indian felt easy going over. I passed the same family I have seen hiking up there every Saturday.  The dad laughed as I ran by and we both said something about every Saturday. 

Even climbing back out the canyon things felt really good and I was to maintian an almost effortless run through all of it. I rolled over the top of Indian and started down, knowing a triple sister was in the bank, but also knwoing there was alot left with a hard climb to hidden valley still to come.

It's been years since I have been past the first part of the hidden valley trail.  I remebered it as really steep, but hoped I was embelishing it a bit in memory.  Nope! This climb needs a name...a real name with curse words in it. I thought Malan's had some steep sections. I am certain I saw deity on a few of the steepest sections. I wanted to run the whole thing....I kept telling myself to get through a section, to the next corner, next tree, if it doesn't mellow out, walk.  It never did mellow out, or if it did it was just enough to convince me I could keep running.  It was a full blue collar slug-fest to run it, but I managaed a trot all the way up.  Passing a nice German guy named Alex about a 1/4 mile from the top .  We sat and talked. Turns out he is in town for a few months working as an engineer on a new super high temperature furnace at Westinghouse.  He mentioned over and over again how much he loves Ogden.  I told him to keep that quiet. 

Getting to the top part of that trail is worth the climb. A sweet trail through a  little valley full of pines and the view into Taylor canyon, across to Malan's Peak and Mt Ogden made it worth every ounce of effort.  Coming back down may have been the most stuning part. The vertical relief was something I have only seen in an airplane.  I was crazy looking almost straight down at St. Joeseph's highshool as the hillside pitches off vertically onto schoolroom wall.

Perfect day! Perfect weather. My body and energy held up great all the way through the run. I did the whole thing on less than 400 calories and never felt bonky.  My metabolism is adjusting to the longer distances, which I think is a crucial part of training for ultra distance races. 

Got home, out the door 10 minutes later to go see the Avengers with my 12 year old, we went to dinner after and walked out of the restaurant just in time to see the first lap of the USA Cycling national championship criterum going on downtown! Incrediable to watch and hear a pack of 150-200 riders go by inches apart at 30 plus miles an hour.   

Amazing! a killer 19 mile run on perfect trails, movie, dinner, national championchip competition and I was never more than 4 miles from my front door! I love Ogden!

Run stats 19 miles or so, 7300 vert  

Week: 55 miles, 14,000 vert

Sluggish 7 on the BST south Strong's loop.  Flet ok, but still a bit worked from Saturday I think.

8 miles BST loops.  Still working long hours, getting in what I can.

Malan's to the creek and back with a couple of BST loops added on.  Good quality hard effort. No watch, but seems it was fairly fast as I was surprised that the time was the time it was when I got back to the car.  

6 miles, 2600 vert or so

No running today.  X-rays instead.  Had a 3000 pound pallet sitting on top of my foot for a few more seconds than I would have liked.  No words can describe the horror of feeling the weight of a full pallet slowly lower onto your foot and waiting for a snap or worse.  My whole summer, and running/skiing/surfing in general all flashed through my mind as I waited for something to give.  

Relived to find my foot intact and able to bear weight when I got it out, but swelling and soreness had me at the doc to get things checked out.  I held my breath for what felt like minutes while the doc poured over the x-ray...hoping nothing would be broken.  Came out clean.

Ice pack, Ibuprophen, and rest for the night.

Foot feeling slightly better, though still swollen and a bit black and blue.  Had to Leave my laces loose, but managed to get out for a very easy and not entirely pain free 5 miles. 

Probably shouldn't have done it, but needed the run and miles and with my wife and kids out of town didn't want to do nothing.  Tried on the bike shoes and they hurt my foot worse than the running shoes, so out for a run it was.  Was planning on a double today and wanted to get in some longer easy miles this morning. 

Foot felt ok, but was nagging a little and I could tell it was affecting my stride a bit.  Wheeler's/East fork/Green Pond to the overlook around Sardine and back down icebox. 

Tough one today.  Wasn't feeling it and just kinda slogged through most of it.  I'm sure some of the sluggishness can be attributed to the sore foot.  

PM: Easy and enjoyable trot up Malan's.  Passed a guy hiking slowly uphill with a pack and trekking poles on my way up and again on the way down.  I didn't realize it until he later posted it on Facebook, but the guy I passed was a childhood friend and neighbor that I haven't seen in 20+ years.  It was his third attempt at getting to the peak, and first time to the top! Good for him!!! Sometimes its easy to take for granted the ability to easily cruise up and down something that might be a long time goal for someone just to do once. 

23.5 miles, 5300 vert.

Week: 51 miles, 9800 vert

Geeze not a post all week...slacker.  Actually things have still been too busy. Making this a weekly update more than a daily log lately. 

Rather than post for every day all, I'll sum up the week in this post. 

After last Saturday's run, my IT band was bugging a bit in my right knee (left knee was the one that bothered my in the fall/winter) At lest I though it was my IT band.

Felt fine Sunday and Monday, but to be on the safe side I took the bike out of moth balls and went for a very enjoyable, but windy ride.  25 miles, 21.4 mph average.  ART/ASTYM Monday night and things felt pretty good.  Seems a tight quad was to blame, loosened that up and things feel pretty good.

My runs through the week mostly hour to hour-and-half runs at an easy pace, with one quality push over Indian to the canyon and back. PR'ed to the shack from 27th, to the canyon and for the round trip. (1:48 from 27th)

Today's long run was a monster. Go fastie Jon did this one last week and I knew I had to give it a go. It was basically an add on to the quad sister, which I ran two weeks ago, a run I always want to call the triple sister because, while it's four hills, it's only three trail systems.

Since I have stupid names in my head for parts of trails and for certain runs, And given the monster/sister theme and the fact that I saw a huge snake (no rattles) out there today, In my own little world,  I am going to call the longer version Medusa, one of the three monster sisters from Greek Mythology. 

Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged with snakes for hair - hated mortal men.

Medusa is Malan's/Indian out and back/Hidden Valley/Malan's. A beautiful run of all steep, technical single track, pines, aspen, views, two water sources, close to town, and did I mention steep and relentless.  No Forest Service sanctioned 3-5% grade trail on these. 22.5 miles, 9700 vert on the Garmin.  

I felt great and ran the whole thing to the top of Hidden again.  Felt much better going up Hidden Valley this time. I guess knowing the ridiculously steep sections aren't super long helped.  Coming down from Hidden Valley, Malan's was still questionable, both for time and energy, but when I got back to Taylor Canyon still feeling good and with enough time to still make the kids k at the Ogden Marathon, I gave it a go.  I was expecting it to be a walking, rest step slog, but actually felt o.k. and managed to run the whole thing in a slow but respectable 38 minutes from the first bridge, though running out of water and gel early on the climb turned the last bit into a death shuffle.

 AM: 22.4 miles, 9680 vet, 5:09.

PM: Had to get out for a short one to put the day into 5 digits. Up Taylor to the Malan's turn off, pond on the way back for the dog. 2.5 miles

Day: 25 miles, 10,000ish vet

Week: 60 miles, 15,300 vert.

Easy hour, mostly clearing trail and getting into a little poison ivy.

Short and easy run.

Nice drive to Driggs, Idaho.  Took the running gear but snow and 32 degree temps put the kabosh on any motivation to go for a jog.