Like the canyon

Allright...alright. Kept waitting to upload my pics before posting, but I'm in cell phone data purgatory and after days of trying have given up on uploads until I can find at least 3G coverage. I got a few to partiallly load, you'll see below. 

Been on Kauai with the fam for a little over a week and have had some incrediable runs once again.  A week ago Friday I repeated the 22 mile Kalalau Trail.  Confirmed once again 22 miles can't get much more difficult to run than that trail.  My Garmin recorded 12,000 ft of climb for the round trip, same as last time.  I thought there was no way, but after some online research...maybe it is.  According the the H.U.R.T. blog they measured it as that much too.  It doesn't come in the form of big climbs, just lots and lots of 200-800 footers over and over and over again. 

The first 2 miles of trail, the part all the tourists do, is rough, but the trail is wide and easy to pick around the worst parts.  After leaving Hanakapai Beach the nature of the trail changes dramtically to very rough footing, narrow, over-grown trail, lots of up and down, and significant consequences if you're not paying attention.  Add to that 75-80 degree temps and lots of humidity, and no wind and its a tough, tough outing.  5:40 RT, not including a few minutes at the waterfall on Kalalau Beach.  Within minutes of my time last year, and, regardless of fitness, I don't think I could run it much faster without taking signifigant risks to life and limb. 

Tuesday of this week was one of  those all to rare days I wish I could live over once a month or so. To satrt off, I left early to run a loop I've never been on in Kokee State Park. The trail starts at an elveation of 3500 ft and is an 11 mile loop from car to car that includes several undescribably beautiful overlooks of the Napali Coast, running along steep, narrow ridges with multiple thousands of foot drops into lush, green canyons on both sides, and gorgeous forested single track. Great run, not in a hurry, took my time and enjoyed the whole thing.  Didn't see a soul for 10 miles, passed a few right before the car.  Injury acted up abit on this one, Hip and ITB ok, but the inner-quad, groin is still touchy....getting there though.   

(Pic of one of the views along this morning's run.  Looking East down the Napali Coast and the area the Kalalau Trail traverses.  No roads or hotel/resorts on that part of the island)

Post run I spent and a few hours playing with the kids at the pool and then paddled out to a surf break that has always intimidated me everytime we come here.  It's a rocky, shallow point break with a reefy/rocky section inside.  Basically you make the wave, go right or left or get pummeled, pushed inside and washed into the rocks. (ok maybe a little dramatic, but possible none the less)  I have paddled out there before, but usually just sit outside on the shoulder and let waves go by, nervous about pulling into a wave and somewhat intimidated by the local presence. 

This time was different. I felt confident and strong and paddled for peaks and caught waves smoothly and in control.  It was a total break through session.  Surfing is by far, absolutely with out a doubt the hardest thing I have ever tried, and I have along way to go before I would call myself a surfer, but it felt good to have all the little things I've learned along the way come together at the right time and place. Perfect shoulder high glassy rights at sunset with whales breeching in the distance and a couple of turtles cruising around just outside the break.  Un-freaking-believable. Out for a nice dinner and ice cream with the fam after.  Bottle that one up for another day, because they just dont get better.

(The surf break from above a few minutes after I paddeled in.)

Yesterday was surfing some big, steep and fast closeouts at Hanalei Bay on the North Shore.  Scary! But I nailed a couple and almost got drowned by a couple others. 

Today, a very enjoyble exploratory run along the coast from Shipwrecks Beach in Poipu.  7 miles or so along a rough and secenic trail with a mix of smooth dirt, sand, deathly rough lava rock and  a mile or two along the beach where I was almost mauled by a Monk Seal, not kidding.  Gorgeous! Took easy, leg felt 85%. 

Oh, and one 6.5 mile road run that seemed to bother my leg more than any of the others. Kept it comfortably under an 8 minute pace. First time running on the road on purpose in over 2 years. Uninspiring for me, even in paradise. 

One more week of island living......

6 miles on the trails doing something that approximated running.....Mix of it all, snow, 6 inch deep slush, ice, dirt, but mostly a substance that was something between ice and slush that made forward progress something akin to running on a bosu ball. Beats the TM though I suppose.

6 miles that felt like 10, some hills.

Back from the easy island living.  Kept up my 7-8 mile beach cruiser most days.  Surfed everyday.  Surfed until my arms would move the last 3 days.  Last day I paddled out to a bigger North Shore break and managed to snag a couple of 8-10 footers.  Pretty cool, but watching guys pull into 20-25 foot faces makes me realize how far I have to go. 

Couple more pics from the trip:

Looking down on the Kalalau Valley from Kokee State Park.  The Kalalau Trail ends there, down where you can see the waves breaking.  The last section of trail goes through the red dirt area just above the ocean, center right. 

Heading out to the Lolo overlook on an 11 mile loop I ran in Kokee Park.  This section of trail dropped 2000-3000 on both sides of the trail into deep hanging valleys.

Looking East down the Napali Coast from the same spot the above pic was taken from.

Looking across to the spot the above pics were taken from.  I was standing on the red dirt section toward the end of the ridge. 

Section of my 7-8 mile daily run.

Steep, fast shore break. Pine Trees, Hanalei Bay. Got some great waves here, got pounded by a few waves here too.

Oh, and an easy 40 minutes on some soggy trail above the house tonight.  Arrggh, sucking sea level wind. 

7.5, 1250 vert on the 'mill. EP

Skied 3 hours moring, then work, then 75 minutes bike, 200-240 watts. Skiing takes it outa me, Sat, Monday, Tues, Legs felt hammered, but the good kind of hammered.

Finally sucked it up and went for an outside run on the snowy trails.  Very enjoyable hour cruising around above the house.  Injury feeling good....it's gotta be that magic heal'en balm.

6 miles on the trails doing something that approximated running.....Mix of it all, snow, 6 inch deep slush, ice, dirt, but mostly a substance that was something between ice and slush that made forward progress something akin to running on a bosu ball. Beats the TM though I suppose.

6 miles that felt like 10, some hills.

AM 9-2 Suprisingly good moring on the hill.

PM

Wouldn't have thought the trails could have been worse than last night but yesterday's slush is today's frozen nightmare. Trails are almost totally water ice and were not even really runable, resorted to running off trail in the fresh snow for a few miles.  Trail up the first part of Indian was managable and quite enjoyable.  Followed jack rabbit tracks through the sagebrush back to the car to avoid the bobsled run on the trails. Tough one.

1 hour

AM: 11 icy and rough miles on th BST north.  Broke trail out to the end. Spikes pretty much mandatory.

PM: Kiddo skiing at Snowbasin.  Little dude's first run on the big boy lift. Good times.

Very enjoybale 1:15 cruiseing around above the house. Felt much better than Saturday's slugfest. Came to the conclusion I really dislike running in Microspikes. It's like having a pound of mud on each shoe, guess it beats slding down the trail on my back side.

Really great post from a Tri coach's blog (Chuckie V)

The Art of War -- Triathlon Style

The Rules of Engagement

1) If you want post-race peace, be ready for war. You must prepare accordingly and carry out what the race and your race goals demand of you. As it is in the original Art of War, the will to win means nothing without the will to prepare. Victory belongs to those best prepared. Come to terms with this before you come to blows, or you will blow your chances.

2) Be sure you have secured the proper army of supporters to back you: confidants, guides, medics, scouts, and the like. Though triathlon is contested amongst individuals it is generally those with the greatest support network who rise to the top. Build your forces to the utmost or you will be fighting a losing battle.

3) Concern yourself only with yourself and your forces. Disregard the politics of war or what your adversaries claim to be doing, except when it furthers your cause (rarely does it further your cause). Utilize scouts if groundwork is deemed essential; focus upon your personal responsibilities.

4) Strive to be ego-free and humble. Laugh at yourself more than you do at those arrogant souls who take themselves too seriously and incessantly sound their battle cries. Then, so as to obtain the last laugh, be sure to quietly kick their ego-ridden ass. Let your performance stand on its own ass-kicking legs as you batter their battle cries into them.

5) Divulge nothing (e.g., training details; race plans; secrets; beliefs; principles, practices, etc). Reveal only that which returns to assist your cause. If a training partner can be of benefit, forge an alliance and share with them as they do unto you, and not a scintilla more. If not, abstain from the "assistance", as he may be an infiltrator.

6) Be intimately familiar with your competition, particularly that which lay inside you, but also in others. (This may sound incongruous with Rule #3 but it is not; you must know your competition's capacities and believe them to be comparable to yours.) Cultivate relationships in accordance with the aforementioned rule (Rule #5), with the understanding that ours is an 'every-man-for-himself' affair once the cannon is fired and war is waged.

7) Whether you win, lose or draw, respect your rivals. For it is when you least respect them, so too is it when you least expect them. In a historical perspective you must also respect those who've fought the hard-fought battles long before you. (This relates to the first seven words in the last line of Rule #9.) Moreover, you must absolutely respect those who will come to replace you; for if not, they will come to do so that much sooner. The bottom line: respect your competition, for without them, there can be no winner.

8) Be intimately familiar with every element of the battlefield: the rules, the swim currents and/or tide, the transition areas, the wind, the potholes, the layout of the land, the finish chute, the element of surprise, the potential problems, the possibilities...or you may end up a causality in the medical tent.

9) Nourish yourself accordingly: nutritionally, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and cognitively. Put the "stud" in study; be a student of the sport and all that it entails. Learn from those who have "been there" and from those who have not.

10) Choose your battles carefully. Fight when all your reserves are in place. Entering a war ill-equipped to defend yourself may precipitate your demise, if not engender post traumatic stress disorder. Know precisely why you are fighting and what you are fighting for. If you fight merely to preserve ego (by "cherry-picking" for example) know that you're ego is not prepared for the true hardships of battle. (See #4 above.)

11) Choose your weapons wisely. Be intimately familiar with each of them, but do not overestimate their need. Use your internal weaponry and aim high.

12) Play fairly when winning or while being monitored by race marshals! Humor aside, you must strive to fight the good fight, both in deliberate practice and on the battlefield.

13) NEVER apologize for waging war. Whether victory is all but lost or completely secured, be sure to fight for all you are worth. The corpses of your enemies always smell sweet. Pummel them all.

14) Limit your mistakes, for they may be fatal. Understand too that he who has committed no mistakes has not fought for very long; exploit him.

15) Finally, you must come to terms that the war will not---and does not---last forever. It is an ephemeral affair, and one day (soon) you may come to miss fighting the good fight. Fight hard. Fight well. Fight to the bitter end. (Do all this and there shall be no bitter end.)

Nice run from the house tonight. Caught up to the H.U.M.R. group going up North BST. Awesome group that is getting to be quite the gathering it seems. Ran with the go-fasites for a few miles while they put the hurt on me. Oreo threw the hammer down. Running really strong! We got back to Rainbow right at dark, said goodbye to the group and headed up the icy hill home. Felt good overall, hip/quad was good, still fighting a slight cold, but noth'en too serious. Good to see everyone out!

13-14 miles, ?? vert, 2000ish, monster blisters on each arch credit to new footbeds...

1:20 on the rough and wild BST South trails.  Ice has started to melt, but it's still pretty western out there.  Started late and looped around a bit above the house and headed out around the headhunter loop and back with waterfall to 29th.  Didn't see a soul, but if I had to guess I was following Forrest and Go fastie BJ or Jon from the set of fresh shoe tracks on the trail in front of me.  Seems I have been doing at least half of most runs in the dark lately.  I've taken a light, but haven't used it much, something enjoyable about running on the dark trails.  Love winter running

Crowded little 7 or so tonight.  Everyone's run'en these days, good to see, especially the HD.  Things feeling good except this 4 inch blister on my arch from my fancy new $200.00 orthothic foot beds. Would give up a couple of  upper body apendages to run pain free for a week straight.

BST North

Hour on the trainer. Steady effort.

Little bender on the big hill above the house. Hadn't been up there in a while so I got in a few laps.  Foot hurts running on flat ground, but felt fine on the steep.  Trail's in great shape.  Wore my old Yaktracs today, decided I prefer those much more than the much touted Microspikes.  Lighter by a long shot, keep my foot closer to the ground on hard ground, fit to the bottom of my foot better. Not quite as grippy on pure water ice, but then neither are Microspikes all that grippy on the clear stuff.  Anyway, there's one rant and here is another.

If any O-town runners actually read this, thought I'd post my somewhat novice but relevant observation on a hidden danger that exsists on a trail many of us use all time and probably take the risk for granted. Some may not be aware, but there are a couple of significant avalanche paths that cross the trail on the upper part of the Malan's Peak trail.  The elevation and aspect, North to Northeast, put it in the bullseye for some of the instability that exsists this year, and really, every year during times of instability.  These paths have slid multiple times every winter that I have run up there.  They luckily go naturally and I assume during a snow loading event such as heavy snowfall of wind from the south-southwest and luckily no one has been in the way yet.  While not typically huge, the slides that occur in these spots are more than enough to burry a person.  Another thing to keep in mind is that the trail does not go through the starting zone, but does cut right through the deposition zone.  This means that a human triggered avalanche would have to be remotely triggered, or started from a distance, below the starting zone.  Something that isn't likely all the time, but during times of high instability as we have had this year, it is a real possibilty.  Just keep it in mind, maybe check the Avalanche Forecast before you go if there is any doubt. 

Sorry in advance my phone didn't upload the whole pic on a few of these:

This is the biggerst starting zone and slide path.  Notice the scubby trees in the slide path with Pines in the areas where it doesn't slide.

This is looking down off the trail from the same spot.  Notice the trail below (center).  Same thing, scrubby trees with pines on the sides of the path.  Frequent slides keep the big trees from growing here.

Smaller path a little further up trail.  Notice the avalanche debris piled up in the gully.  Harder to see due to new snow since the slide.

Looking down trail you can see where this path comes across the trail. This is below the big statring zone from above.

Deposition zone below the trail.  Full of avy debris right now, just not apparent because it's coverd by a little new snow.  Wrong place, wrong time and someone could end up in there.

Potential trigger for a slide.

A very uncrowded 10 miles on a pretty much snow and ice free BST North at sunset.  Great run. Almost pain free. Finally.

AM: couple runs on the sunny groomers. You know skiing's bad when even freshly groomed runs are, well....not fun.

PM: 8 slow miles on the buttery dry trail. 4 miles of indescribably miserable trail. Frozen, cupped snow, mud, solid ice, slush and everything in between. Will be avoiding BST South of 12th for a while.

12 miles, slow-n-easy.

Some of the old injury aches flared up a bit on last night's run. 3 longish days in a row was probably a little much on top of a slightly higher mileage week last week (higher than the last month-and-a-half  for me, but not high for most) . That and the Malan's binge on Saturday.  Gotta remeber to take it slow.  Tough to do when things feel so much better than they have in months. 

50 minutes on the trainer.  Steady.

9 or so north of 12th.  Ran a few miles on the flat dirt canal road.  Running on flat and smooth terrain is so much different than trails. I think I need a little more of that just to mix it up.  Took the BST down to the nature center parking lot and back to 12th with the upper loop add on.  Trail is in great shape, no mud, very little snow. Pretty dark the last couple miles. 

Lots of the regular ultra/trail running folks out again tonight.  Really good to see so many people getting after it consistently.  There is something about watching groups of bright blue LED lights spread out behind me on a dark trail that gets me fired up to run a 100 miler. 

9 miles or so, vert? 1500.    

A distracted hour or so wandering the trails at sunset that included:

A little trail running

Some impromptu bouldering

And sunset watching.

I got out for my run about 7:00 and managed to link together 45 minutes or so of somewhat dry and snow free trail above the house. Enjoying running in the light beam lately. 

I'm pretty sure I had a dream last night that looked something like this:

I've enjoyed the winter for what it is, but would really like just a little more.....please.

14 mile slugfest up on the dry trail.  Couple laps around the canal road to BST loop.  A little flat road type running for 5 or 6 miles of this one.  I find it hard to pace myself on the road.  I see all that flat, wide open terrain and wanna punch it up and run too fast, which, in reality, is quite slow. What can I say, I'm a trail jogger.  Ran one of the back's with the go-fastie, and ran another back with a guy from Logan who drove down to run on the dirt. Great day out, perfect weather.  First no-bennie run of the season. No skiing to avoid the Dew Tour Madness.

50 minutes on the spin-o-meter. 

A great video put together by go-fasie-Jon of our Windriver Cirque trip from this past summer.  After this winter, I'm ready for some more adventures of this sort.

Thanks Jon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oudnMJy01g&feature=share

Half way through a ten day course of antibiotics, an injury with a 5 month recovery and the resulting inconsistent training left me with very low expectations going into this year’s Red Hot 55K. But, a race is a race, and when the gun went off, I planned to give it 100% of whatever might happen to be in me, and I really had no idea what might be there. So I lined up with no splits and no plan beyond having a fun day in the sun out on the red rock and see how far I could crawl into the pain cave.

Which is where I quickly found myself as the first 4 miles or so we were clipping along at a low to mid 7 minute pace. I don’t run that fast often, and, other than one sea-level jaunt on vacation over a month ago, haven’t run that fast since some pre-injury running late last summer. I felt comfortable, but odd, to be moving rapidly along the flat, smooth dirt roads. I could tell my slow legs wouldn’t tolerate a pace any faster and probably wouldn’t last 34 miles at this pace. Crazy thing is, I was going backward. I was 30-40 places off the front and falling back as people were motoring past like I was walking.

It was tempting to turn it up a couple of notches and stop the bleeding, but I told myself to hang on to this pace and save some strength for the last half. After a fair bit of climbing and a fun section of technical running I came into the mile 13 aid station at 1:39, not bad if the mileage is correct, and hit mile 17 at 2:20. At that point, I knew there were just a couple more miles of dread and we would hit some terrain that is a bit more comfortable for me.

About 19 miles in, the course makes a dramatic change, going from mostly smooth dirt road to technical steep slickrock with lots of climbing and descending. Once on terrain that suits me, I started turning up the effort a bit more. I kept telling myself to roll another log on the fire and let it burn. I was running hard through these miles and really digging deep. I was relieved to find some reserves and be able to push the pace in the late miles. As soon as I hit the rougher ground and turned it up a little, I started catching people. I passed 3-4 people on the big climb up to mile 23 and just kept reeling people in. I think I moved up 10 or so spots through the 6 mile slickrock section, getting passed once myself by a motoring Greg Norrander.

The last three miles or so revert to dreaded road with some techy stuff here and there. I tried to hang on and keep turning my legs over. I was pretty cooked at this point and my legs were screaming from the hard effort and lack of miles. There were a couple of runners in front of me and I set a goal to pass them both before the finish. I got one easy and the second guy was moving pretty well and it took a good effort to get by with a mile or so left to run. I put a bit of distance between us and backed off a bit as the next runner was out of reach. I glanced back at the last corner and still had a good gap on the guy behind me so I just kinda cruised it down the last hill. Right before the finish, like 50 yards, I luckily took out my headphones just in time to hear the gap getting closed in a hurry. I glanced back and was about to get passed by the guy I had passed a mile ago. Into full sprint to the line and the guy didn’t back down at all, I had to sprint all the way over the line, with my him 6 inches off my back. Crazy finish.

I crossed the line in 5:23, ten minutes slower than last year but totally happy with the time. I put it all out there and didn’t leave anything in the tank. Tank just wasn’t as deep this year. Found Shane who was waiting for me with a cold Mtn Dew. Then had a great time watching the rest of the O-town crew come in. Tom finished about 1 minute behind me and I am glad I didn’t catch sight of him earlier. Finding another gear out of fear of the dreaded, and too often experienced, late race “Tom pass” would have hurt badly. Nick, Cory, Shane, Aric, Ryan, Melinda, Molly, Chad, Kasey, Phil, Jamie, and Ron all finished strong and happy. I think just about everyone set PR’s or finished their first Red Hot.

34 miles, 4000-5000 vert, 9:30 average pace

Couple Highlights and Lowlights for my own notes:

-Nutrition was perfect (other than prerace dinner)

-Crampy legs?? More Scaps and water, lack of miles and road specific miles?,

-Crampy at site of injury? a little concerning, feels ok now.

-Pace and effort was perfect for where I was at fitness wise. left it all out there

-Good mental race, stayed in my own race for the most part.

-Stomach was a little off (training?, electrolytes off?, pre race dinner?, heat (relative)

Off

60 minutes bike.  High cadence, easy effort.

4 hours on the hill this morning.  Silty and wind blown, but pretty much had the place to myself.  Might almost trade a so so snow year for less crowds.  Doesn't matter how good the snow is if it's gone in 30 minutes.  I was still laying down side by side fresh tracks at 1:00 today....hmmm.

Got out for a slow and easy run tonight just before dark. Beautiful out tonight. Wasn't running much faster than the dog walkers, but if felt great to get out.  Soreness is gone.  hip/groin a little touchy but not too concerning. 

Big work day.  Guess I gotta pay the piper once in a while.

Got out for a run late and felt like a plie of rocks.  Dragged the whole way.  Seemed everything hurt.  Sometimes they are like that I guess.  Coming down the hill to Rainbow, I actually turned left and ran up the Bird Song trail from for the first time ever.  Fun little diversion for sure. I just wish it went somewhere that didn't require a 1/2 mile on the road to get back to the trail or doing it as a long out-n-back.  I actually poked around a bit to try and find a way to link back to the BST, but no go.  Oh, and just for you Nick, I had some lady's damn German Shepherd charge me, plant two paws in my chest and lunge full teeth at the side of my head.  Followed up by "oh sorry, he's really friendly, I think he's just playing" I love dogs, but that one needed to be on a leash. 

6-7 miles, some hills, really easy pace.    

Hour or so easy pace. Finally feeling a bit of pep in my legs agian. Well, compared to last night's slug-o-thon. Ran into Pablo and talked to him for a while in my broken spanish and his broken english. The one thing that came across without words was his excitment to be running. The kid can move fast! Hope he gets in a few races this year. I think I talked him into the Buffalo run. If he signs up, a bunch of people, myself included, will be finishing one spot further back.

17 miles, mostly relaxed pace.  A few pick ups in the middle including linking together a three fast-ish miles for a trail jogger.  Felt good to get out, legs felt pretty flat after about 6 miles, but all the rickety stuff felt pretty solid, which is really good. Longest training run since the before the Bear 100 in September....how long is that??...almost 6 months, geez injuries suck.

38 mostly really easy miles for the week, including a 3 mile equivalent for the hour on the bike Tuesday.  Not bad for a recovery week after a hard race.  Want to ramp it up a bit in the coming weeks if the body will take it.  

17 miles, 2800 vert, 9:15 ap.

Boulder field trails with Indian and Hidden Valley add on up to the icey sections of each. Lots of hikers out tonight. Spring must be in the air.

9 miles, easy pace, legs a bit heavy.

AM: Cold and cloudy couple of hours of dust on crust skiing. Better than just crust I suppose. 

PM: Cold and clear 10 miles on the BST norte.  Felt better all the way around tonight.

60 minutes on the trainer.  Moderate effort.  Really wanted to run tonight, but a late parent/teacher conference and a serious snow storm doused my motivation. May not sleep tonight in anticipation of a REAL powder day manna.  :)

AM: YEEEEFREEEKINNGHAA! WOW!  About time Snowbasin had a proper powder day. Now I remember why I arranged my life around the ski season. Hate to admit it, but I've had an anxious energy all winter that has left me in a bit if a funk that I couldn't really figure out.  Gone. Shook it all off by 3/4 of the way down to first run. Untracked and over the top all day long. I know it's pathetic to let something like lack of a ski season affect me so much, but I guess it did.....I feel completely different than I did 24 hours ago.

Skied and hiked hard non-stop from 9-4. High speed lifts and no line meant tons of vertical and a glorious, hazy exhaustion.  Rough guess at the vertical descent is 30,000 ft. Probably totaled a good hour of hard hiking. Snowed most of the day, sun broke out  for a couple toward the end.

PM: Got in a good 45 minute jog with heavy legs on the freshly snow coverd trails.  Hoping tomorrow is a repeat of today.....

Repeat of Thursday. Add about 8000 locals and 4000 SLC'ers cuz the canyons were closed. Great snow, good day all in all, even if the fresh was gone too fast.

No running.

Early morning long run on the Island with the O-town group.  Started up the White Rock Trail with Cory, Matt, Shane, Chad, Molly and a couple of others. Ski legs felt a bit slow and heavy at first but came around after a mile or so.  Big group runs can be tough as not everyone is on the same page all the time.  My goal going in was to get 25 miles or so at a 50 mile race pace. Put it in cruise control, turned on some music and settled into a steady rhythm and just ran how I needed to run without worrying about were the others were at.

 Ran in my own world for miles. Out Elephant Head trail, back and around the 50k loop.  Miles clicked by quickly and the pace felt moderate and unlabored most of the time, which is what I wanted. Steady effort.  I noticed Shane closing in from a ways back. No surprise. 

Shane ran with me the last mile or so back to the White Rock trail head.  We cruised along chatting away, feeling pretty good at a 7:15-7:20 pace and 19 miles in to the run.  I had noticed someone a bit behind Shane and closing in on us.  It turned out to be Pablo, a kid I have run into on the trails this winter.  He's a strong runner, and is racing the 50k this year.  His second race ever.  I think he'll do really well.

We froze in a stiff breeze waiting outside the locked cars for the rest of the group. Shane smartly hid out in the bathroom while I paced around the car for a good 30 minutes. Reasoning that chattering teeth is preferable to outhouse stench.

Cory and the gang arrived eager to keep moving and head out around the 6 mile loop on the north end of the island. Shane and I suggested a long out and back to Crown Burger in a warm car. Group wasn't having it, 25 miles it was. 

Took about two miles to get the blood flowing again. Everything felt locked up. Seemed everyone pushed the pace the last 4 miles or so.  Luckily I was in the lead for the last 2 of those single track miles, keeping the dogs at bay until we hit the last mile or so on the dirt road.  Matt, Shane and Pablo took off at a sub 7 pace, I hung on about 50 yards back.  Last mile was not a steady effort.

Miles: 25.6, 8:39 pace, 2740 vert.

Easy hour or so on the trails between Rainbow and Taylor canyon.  Legs and body said I should spin on the trainer, but with the beautiful weather outside just couldn't do it.  Gorgeous day brought out lots of "new" runners.  Every winter I see the same 5-8 people on the trail for months, soon as the weather breaks all kinds of new faces.  Good to see everyone out soaking up some blue sky. 

Hip sore today. Put on my running clothes, thought better of it, and ended up doing 70 minutes on the trainer. Moderate, steady effort. 220-240 watts. Good work out anyway, hip thanks me. ART/ASTYM tonight.

AM: Snowbasin groomers.  The 3 inches of dust on re-frozen wasn't too appealing so went with the skinny fast skis and lots of gondola rides.  Glad I did.  Everytime I got on a car it was full of some real chararcters.  First ride was a group of wide-eyed-virginians.  Never skied out west before, first run of their first day.  Great to hear their questions and nervous chatter about being on a real mountain.  Second ride was a group of 80-year-old guys wearing Sun Valley season passes.  Turns out they had been skiing Sun Valley since the early 40's and were on one of the original Sun Valley area high school ski teams together. Still out getting after it in their 80's! Gotta love it Next was an older couple from Pennsylvania who own a small ski resort.  Next ride was with a group of F-16 pilots.  Had as much fun riding the lift as I did skiing I think.  Finished the day off with 5 fast laps on the women's downhill.  Leg burner!

(John Paul lodge, and some of the best views in the Wassatch.   Love running up here in the summer, love skiing up here in the winter.)

PM: Hour and a half in the wheelhouse again.  Hip felt great thanks to some of Sean's Blak Majik. Hit the hills on this one. Indian for a ways, part way up Hidden Valley trail (forgot what a steep mutha that one is!)  Down to Rainbow and back, three laps around pond to Taylor Canyon loop.  Legs felt good after the skiing this morning.  Great day!

Enjoyable 9 on the sunny warm trails. Goat, Nic and a bunch of others out enjoying in too. Finished in the dark, still chasing the deer off the trail the last mile or so. Thought the nice weather might keep them up hige. Easy pace, hip/groin a bit sore.

9 miles. 1500-1800 vert.

Hip was sore today so bike for 1 hour it was. 45 minutes easy with some 4 minute pick ups for the last 15.

Hip felt better today.  15 miles in the perfect weather. BST north with a little add on up jump off canyon.  Ran into the HUMERS and talked for a bit. Good to see Jon back at it.  Easy pace for 13 miles, pretty hard effort  for the last 2 miles coming back out of Rainbow to 27th. 

Got home, changed clothes and took my oldest skiing. Go thome from that, changed slothes and took my 3-year-old out for a couple miles of hiking/bouldering/pond wading (glad it was warm). Long, but perfect day.

15 miles +2, Easy pace with pick up at end.

1:30 minutes in the wheelhouse again. Double little sister hills with some Rainbow add on. Pushed it up Indian a bit into the ice trail. Pretty much had to down climb to get back to the dirt. 8 miles or so.

Started out up the north BST chasing Cory.  Soon ran into the H-diggity and Orero on their way back and right behind them the Shane, Cory and Aric. They kindly turned around and ran with me out to the the nature center parking lot and the mountian lion loop add on. Ran into a train of HUMRS on their way out and picked up Ryan.  Sheesh! busy night out.  Good run, 10 miles or so, easy pace for most of it. 

60 minutes bike. Easy, steady.

1/2 mile warm up to a good 6.2 mile effort on the boulder field trails. Legs felt great but I was weezing like an 85 year old smoker. Allergies or worse??.  Hope its nothing, really want a good run next weekend...! 

6.2 miles, 7:18 pace, 560 vert. 

Total for day: 9 miles including some hiking/jogging with the little fast feet.

I should add that I feel like my hip/quad injury seems to be holding up to the increase in miles and effort the past couple of weeks.  I plan to continue to bike 1-2x p/wk for a bit, but will most likely make the bike days doubles with running. Hoping to be back up to 80 mile weeks with 15,000+ vert again by April. Its been a while.....

BST south of  Taylor for the first time in months. Happy to find it snow, ice and mud free.  Easy pace. Low energy, still feeling the funk.

7 miles 

Congested and low energy.  Crashed all day. Felt great to ge tthe rest. 

AM: Felt some improvement this morning and 12"+ of new snow was hard to turn down.  Felt like crap all morning, shivers and low energy.  Hked a No Name lap from the top of JP and felt suprisingly better.  3 more laps of the same and I felt ok.

PM: Flat and easy 5 miles just to keep things loose.  Not 100%, but felt better than Saturday.  Very flat, very easy, going to bed very early. 5 miles.

Not me pictured, but beautiful up there this morning.

Easy, slow and flat. 3 miles

Fast-ish paced 6 miles.  Feels like the cold/gunk has been clearing up and I had some energy tonight for the first time in over a week.  Felt good to push it a little.

Standard Thursday pre race hike.  A little push on a few of the hills

Took my 3 year old skiing on the 6 inches of slush.  Pretty much pond skimming at the bottom of little cat.  Not a  pre-race rest day activity. I think I duck walked 1500 vert picking the poor kid up outta pile after pile.  Tough conditons for little legs that are just figuring out the skis.

Arrghh! Too much running.  I shouldn’t complain, I knew it going into this race.  In fact I set a goal to run to whole course, with the exception of one short climb at about mile 44, but the monotony of running a long, flat out and back of almost 20 miles after already running over 20 miles nearly broke this trail jogger.  

Race morning found me out of bed at 3:30 in the morning, which I almost hate to admit is 3 hours earlier than I have been out of bed in a long time.  My penchant for sleep has been even more exaggerated over the last week as I was crashing for 10 plus hours most nights trying to get through a slight cold that had set in. 

Shower, breakfast, final race prep and I was out the door a little before 5:00, depositing me on the island a comfortable 20 minutes before the race start, which is 15 minutes earlier than I usually seem to show up for races.

Made my way over to the start just a RD Jim called out 2 minutes to go.  I walked into the tent  to put my drop bag in the pile just as everyone else was trying to get out.  Hopped into the start crowd right with fellow O-town runners, Cory, Matt and BJ. Seconds later we were off down the dirt road into the dark. 

I bolted past a few folks in front of me a settled into a small group just behind the front two guys.  I wasn’t a strategic move, just wanted to avoid the inevitable dust cloud that would envelope me if I was any further back in the pack.  As luck would have it, my little group was moving at a perfect clip and we started to open up a gap from the main pack and the front couple of runners moved farther ahead. 

One of my favorite parts of this race is the first couple of miles in the dark.  The unique, wide open nature of the terrain that is Antelope Island makes for a dramatic scene to look back down toward the start and watch the huge trail of runner’s lights behind snaking up the trail.  The first year it took me a few minutes to realize I wasn’t looking at an airport runway or some huge industrial complex. 

I was running with my headphones in at this point, but could tell from the head turning and body language that I was missing some conversation.  I popped on ear bud out and listened as one of the runners, a girl, asked the guy next to me if he had run the race before.  He said he had twice, she asked me the same, same answer for me.  The guy next to me asked the girl the same question.  She said no she hadn’t run the race before and that this was her first 50 miler.  He made some comment about how she was pretty brave to be running up front in her first 50.  I smiled at that, knowing the girl we were running with was Bethany Lewis, Current record holder for the fastest double crossing of the Grand Canyon, winner of almost every race she enters, and wife of the guy in the lead way out in front of us. 

The four of us stayed in a pretty tight pack all the way through the first 17 miles or so then Bethany took the brakes off was gone, going on to finish second place overall, behind her husband Ben and taking more than an hour off the old course record. 

My buddy BJ caught up just before the Start/finish as we rolled into a tide of 25k runners who had just started their race.  We hit the start/finish, just over 19 miles in 2:38, about an 8:12 pace.  I turned the corner at the gate, skipping the aid station in order to keep some momentum going into the hill past the start finish.  Everyone else stopped, so it was just me getting passed by Chris, the eventual 3^rd place finisher.  

Up and over to the Mountain View trail. I hit the turnaround at 3:03 and headed 11 miles south into the sun and building heat.  BJ was right on my heels and the other two guys I had been running with were dropping back.   

About a mile into the long out and back BJ went by.  I had three goals going in to the race.  One was to run under 8 hours, two was to run the whole course with the exception of the one hike-a-hill at mile 44, and three to finish within 10 minutes of BJ. So even though he was in front and pulling away, I just tried to keep the gap to less than a couple of minutes. I think it was around this time that I passed MattVh and Scott finishing up Matt’s 100 miler.  They looked good and smiling.  

We crossed the marathon distance at around 3:45 and approached the Frary Aid Station and a much anticipated temporary halt in the monotony of running on the seemingly endless wide open prairie and a chance to catch up to BJ.  So I thought, I watched as he turned the corner and ran right past the aid station! Dagger! I had to stop. Not only was out of water in the now hot mid morning sun, I couldn’t have willed myself to keep going without a break in the drudgery.

Back on the trial out of Frary aid and BJ was a small dot in the distance and no one was in sight behind. Just miles of open trail and a few 100 mile runners spread out along the trail, running well into 24 hour day.  Surprising how many of them cheered as I came through and moved off the trail for me.  It should have been the other way around.  Those guys and gals had to have been hurting pretty bad at that point.

Right before the ranch a guy came motoring by, I recognized him as one of the guys who was running at the front with Ben in the first 13 miles.  Not sure what happened there, but he was moving well when he came by.

I caught BJ at the Ranch, mile 33 with 17 to go, my split from Frary was 53 minutes, not fast, and I hit the Ranch at 4:53, I knew I had to be there under 5 hours to have a good chance at sub 8, so I was happy about that.  It was getting really hot and the only relief had been a mild south breeze that would now be a slight tail wind, good for the push, but bad for any cooling effect.   BJ and I left the ranch together and he pulled slowly ahead.  I just didn’t have any go in my legs.  A couple of minutes out Wade passed going the other way. He’s a fast marathon guy and I knew with only a couple minutes gap, he would catch us.  At this point I knew I was the first old-guy (masters) runner, but would be second when Wade went by.  Which he did before we got back to Frary.  He and BJ ran close together a minute or so in front of me.  There are a few mild hills getting back to the Frary aid which BJ and Wade were walking.  At this point everything hurt and I wanted to walk badly, but knowing once I started any walk breaks they would become more and more frequent, I kept up at least a slow jog through all of it.

The three of us basically came into Frary aid station together, running about a 50 minute split on the way back.  We left together as well, but not before some first class treatment from the Black Diamond volunteers that included a much needed over the head dousing of cold water.   Again, Wade and BJ pulled ahead and I sat about a minute back, gaining a little when they would take walk breaks and getting dusted out by several horse and riders that kept leap forging me along the trail, saying “we just need to get in front of these runners” hated to break it to them that there are about 200 of us. 

Everything hurt at this point. Legs were screaming, I felt overheated, wanted to stop and sit in the shade. Just as I was feeling lowest, Seth, one of the guys I was running with early in the race, came motoring by out of nowhere.  It took me a second to process it, but rather than let it get me further into my low, it actually pulled me out of the bad patch.  My pace picked up and I felt more energy.  I watch as Seth passed BJ and Wade and found myself closing in on them as well, going past them just before the second to last aid at mile 44. 

Jay Aldous is an aid station hero. He was working at 44, and would run out a half mile, take your order, take your bottle and have everything waiting ready to go by the time you got in! What a great guy!  With that service I was quickly on my way blissfully hiking my ¼ mile of the course that I had given myself permission to walk before the start.

I had just over an hour to get through the last six miles and it was a knock down brawl.  I absolutely left all of it out there that last bit.  I really almost sat down on the trail with a mile and a half to go.  My legs were in searing pain and by breathing was wheezy and labored ever since getting dusted out by 7-8 horses multiple times around mile 39 or so. I wanted to be done even more so when I realized the last ¼ mile was going to be uphill. I held off BJ and Wade and got in at 7:47.  First In my age, seventh overall, and first old guy.

I spent the next 10 minutes limping to my truck, and the next 45 minutes sipping water and trying not to vomit all over my shoes.  I swore off racing again forever in those minutes, at least running that hard again.  Funny how it changes, an hour later sitting in the shade with a cold Coke, talking race plans for the summer.   

Going into the race I knew there weren’t a lot of known really fast guys registered and in fact made cracks about it being a battle of the mid pack with my buddy BJ.  That is pretty much how it turned out.  It absolutely felt like hard racing from start to finish.  Never did it feel relaxed or easy.  I was always pushing to catch, stay with or hold someone off.  My legs felt pretty good most of the way thorugh, especially with my lower miles and injury recovery.  I met every goal I had, even finishing on the right side of 10 minutes of a good running buddy who I generally consider a faster/better runner than myself.  Even if I miss my race goals, I always feel good about a race if I know I left it all out there, that I pushed myself deep into my capacity on the day.  I know I did that today as well….couldn’t have asked for a better race, and the good ones always hurt.     

Catching up a bit.  Took it pretty easy last week recovering from the race.  Got out for a short hike Tuesday, 30 minute easy spin on wednesday, 4 miles thursday, 6 friday, skiing saturday morning with the 3 year old (rough and slushy) Indian Trail Saturday afternoon. Love that trail!! Feeling pretty beat up still, energy is good but legs still a bit beat, which is fine and  to be expected.

Indian Trail on Saturday. No snow, sweet forested single track and a good amount of damage from the wild winds this winter.

Looking down Ogden Canyon at the waterfall from Indian

Got out tonight for a bit of a wild adventure up Colld Water canyon from Indian trail.  Took the loppers, saw and some pruners to do a little trail work.  Glad I did.  3000 vert, lots of off trail madness. 3 hours.

Sweet recovery.  Got out for a fresh feeling 7 toninght.  Finally had some pep in the legs which was confirmed when I ran into Pablo and we flew along at a mid to low 6 minute pace from Strong's to 22nd (ok, its mostly downhill but did include busting a gut up Taylor to the first bridge).  Kid can run, it was fun to hear him tell me about how his 50K at Antelope Island went (3rd palce overall in his second race ever). 

slow and easy hour pm the trail.

A little more trail work with Cory and the dogs.

Zion traverse with Cory and Matt.  Perfect! Great weather and the trail was 95% dry unlike last year's mud slog.  Cory's first trip ever to Zion, guess running from one end of the park to the other is a great way to see the place. Pretty much had the whole trail to ourselves, except right in the main canyon of course.  Went West to East, which feels uphill pretty much the whole way, except practically falling off a cliff at the end of the West Rim trail.  Still seems like the more aesthetic way to do it to me, though could see the other way being faster. Fast wasn't the goal for this one. Unsupported on the run, 34 hours house to house.

No pics for this one. Here's a link to last year's trip for pics and a map.

http://bryce.fastrunningblog.com/blog-05-2011.html

Spent the last 3 days getting through most of a cold that kicked in pretty hard the at mile 35ish of the Zion Traverse last Saturday.

Got out for an easy four.  Legs felt really fresh, energy was good but still a bit congested.

Wintery run up Malan's tonight.  Haven't been up there in months and it felt great to get back up the big hill.  Legs felt great on the climb.  Little BST add on. 5.5 miles, 2300 vert.

View from the top

Snowy trail, wasn't it 80 degrees yesterday?

Easy 4 around the the recovery loop. Meh.

Wicked triple sister-O-pAiN! (to borrow some Oreo lingo.)   Started with an Indian Trail over and back.  Felt great! Ran into the the Hyperphil/Cory/Matt/Goat train going the other way and was nearly persuaded to follow the Goat on his quest for the triple sister.  Choose to stick to my solo run to avoid having to chase that Mtn Beast all day. 

Felt great coming back outa the long climb from Ogden Canyon.  Trail is in great shape except for the weird fallen tree carnage all over the place.  In ten years I have not seen so many trees down across and near the trail. Not just winter fall either, they keep happening.  Almost everytime I run up there a new tree has bit the bullet. Crazy. 

Even crazier is the rock fall.  Two huge boulders sitting right on the trail wedged into trees. With in the last three days a boulder the size of a truck cut loose above the trail, leaving giant exploded pine trees and a huge rock completely blocking a large section of the route!  Maybe the indian spirits are pissed at the graffiti morons that seem to hit something up there a couple of times every summer.   

Anyway, back over Indian, across on the BST and up Malan's.  Felt great until I hit the snow covered trail, which zapped me completly.  Kept something resembling a run going all the way up though I was seeing a few stars by the top.  Goat and I exchanged a hand slap as he was runnig down and I was shuffling up. Spent a few seconds doubled over with hands on knees at the fogged in peak and then pushed the pace hard on the way back down. 

15.5 miles, 5000 vert.  Kept a run going all the way through. Legs are now Jello-sauce. Still amazes me that this is 30 seconds from my door and I was never more than 5 miles form home.  Very thankful to have world class trails so close.

9 miles at a good clip.  Lots of bikes and typical warm weather BST strange follk out tonight (kids with big knives and swords, a guy dressed in black ninja clothes, and dude in a long black trench coat and cowboy boots walking 8 dauchshunds, just normal things you see on a 9 mile trail run)  Felt sluggish...Gotta eat better on Sundays. Meh. 

9 miles, 1100 vert, moderate pace.

Incredible video from the Buffalo Run put together by my buddy Les:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUxjAOSNVzY&feature=youtu.be

More trail work with Cory and the dogs.  Almost there....

BST to the BFL to the IT over to OC back on the IT to the BST. Three complete biker/hiker/runner/dog gridlock stops on the mile of BST between IT and Taylor.....Waaaayyy too many people on one trail. Had IT all to myself for the most part....nice, love that trail.

12 miles 2800 vert. easy to moderate with a pick up at the end.

Easy 4 on the recovery loop. 

15 miles out and back on the BST north.  With the warm weather setting in, may be the last run out there until the fall/winter trail runner gathering that always seems to take place along that section of trail. 

Pretty much alone through the whole run, not even any bikes now that the easier trails are clear. 

Stange encounters continue however.  Came around a corner on the way back and found myself staring at the wrong end of a big black assault rifle.  I was no more than 100 ft from the barrel of a gun pointed pretty much right at me! Idiot was target shooting into the hillside right below the trail! Guy had it on his shoulder, looking down the site, ready to pull the trigger. I dont even think he saw me until I started yelling Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!  Most likely wouldn't have hit me if he shot, but having a large caliber gun go off in my direction and at a target 30ft below where I was standing wasn't what I wanted to be a part of my morning run!  He dropped the gun down to his hip and kinda chuckled a sorry....and asked if there was anyone else up there?!   When I said no, he waited for to run by and proceeded to unload 15-20 rounds!

15 miles, 2300 vert or so, felt really sluggish toward the end.....damn allergies!

8 miles on the home loops. Hot. Legs tired...thinking about it on the run I put it together. Guess I went on a little vert bender without realizing it. I ran Malan's three times, and a full out and back on Indian Trail  two times in seven days...not consecutive, and broken up between "weeks" so it didn't really register that I had done so much vert, mix in the trail work and some other running and it adds up to a cooked trail runner..... 

http://vimeo.com/34674950

Great short little video that describes alot of the reasons I love running. Thanks CodyB

Malan's up and back.  Dry, pretty much snow free trail.  Been a while, almost forgot what it looks like up there without a cover of snow.  Got out pretty late and had the trail and peak to nyself, first time for tha tin a while too.

4.5 miles 2200 vert.

Busy night.  Took my oldest climbing to the local grid bolted crag. Had a great time. He did really well for his first time on rock....kinda hard to find the holds when they aren't bolted to the wall :). 

My buddy Anthony showed up with his wife to climb with a scout group.  Cool to talk with him about his new V14 and the V15 project he working on.  Unbelievable how strong he become....I still remember when he was a goofy highschool kid that used to hang out with us at the climbing gym. 

I even led a sewed up little 5.9.  Its been years since I have even tied into a rope and probably 12 years since I clipped a draw...felt sketchy and nervous but fun! Crazy! I used to do this every single day!

Came home, changed clothes and headed out for an easy 5 on the daily right before dark.

Short home loop.

Indian Trail over and back.  Got out late, not a soul to be seen.  dragged out anouther or mile or so running on the boulderfield loops waiting for the sun to drop out of the clouds at the horizion and was rewarded with some sweet alpenglow to finish off the run. 

Repeat of Friday's run.  Wanted more but was all I had time for as I had promised to take my 4 year old up waterfall canyon.  He has been obessed with this hike since we did it a year ago and couldn't go to sleep last night he was so excited to go. Gotta love it. 

AM - Indian over and back with a little add on.  Picked up last two miles

PM - 3 miles or so up the waterfall.  Carried a pack and anded up filling it with rocks I guess it should count for something.

Fantastic little late evening cruise around the lower/mid/upper BST/ Mt Ogden trails.  Did a little exploring down Strong's and south of the golf course...crazy as many miles as I put in up there I've never run those lower trails.

Picked it up coming back on the BST and felt great unitl I caught my toe square on a rock and took a nice full frontal digger.  It is in that moment, when flying hands and feet sprawled, face first at the trail, that curse words rarely uttered are extruded from the darkest corners of my mind. 

1:20, 1100 vert or I'd guess.

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. 

Ohhh, where to begin with this one….at the risk of making the whole report sound like one big excuse for a lackluster race…let me just get this outta the way right up front…It wasn’t an A game day for me…more like a C-.  It started early…lockng my car door with it still open, throwing keys on the seat to take off my jacket right before the start, bumping the door and watching, in slow motion, as it closed locked, with keys inside….Well Sh**! Well at least my waistpack and drop bags were sitting on the hood instead of the front seat next to my keys.

Off to the start and we were under way under an already too warm starry sky and a crowed river trail.  I felt like crap…No excuses, I really felt terrible.  I was l clearing my throat every five seconds and felt winded at an easy pace.  My buddy Tom, a well know heckler, caught on to my throat clearing and for the next ten miles every time I coughed, it was echoed in an exaggerated way by Tom, who soon had a back up group of several other O-towners all hacking away in unison at every wheeze out of my clogged lungs.   

I had a pretty nasty cold a week and a half before the race and hardly ran a bit, but mostly it seemed confined to a sore throat and a headache.  When that went away, I assumed I was over it.  I had felt tired and super low energy the week leading up to the start, but assumed it was mostly work stress and long hours and hoped an easier day or two before the race would bring me around.  Given where I was at in the first hour of this race, I knew something was up. 

Up the first climb, hanging with the group I usually run with, but I was at a full red line effort, when it shouldn’t have been.  I tried everything, slowing down, speeding up, hitting my inhaler again, nothing seemed to shake the heaviness in my lungs and legs.  It was bad enough that we were running behind Brian B and a couple of other guys and he finally turned around and asked “who’s running on half a lung back there?” Yep, that would be me.  I have felt bad in this section in previous years, and been able to rally on the long descent into Hobble Creek canyon and go on to finish strong, so that’s what I was hoping for again this year.

Wasn’t to be this year, We left the aid at Kolob Overlook, I watched the O-town group pull away on the slight downhill and just couldn’t get moving.  Jeff B caught up to me here and we ran together for a bit, he was looking strong and said he was hoping for some redemption after his melt down at the Bear 100 last year, which was his last race and the last time I had run into him, it was in the middle of the night just before the Logan River aid station, where he was walking down the road in the middle of a bad, bad bonk. We talked for a bit, and then he took off strong and went on to finish in the top ten. 

My next plan to rally was on Hobble Creek road.  I told myself to run every step up the road at a good steady, pace to see if I could shake off whatever it was that was ailing me.  I ran the road, but it was slow and with a lot of effort.  I hit the gate aid station at mile 26.5 in about 4:30, which was about the split I wanted at that point.  What I didn’t want was to be standing in the aid station, hands on knees gasping for breath like I had just run a 5K. 

Leaving Hobble Creek, the race follows an almost flat dirt road for a few miles.  I could barely manage more than a walk.  I would shuffle along for a bit, then as my heart rate came up, I would get winded and back to a walk.  Pretty much miserable at this point. 

One thing I have learned is that in these longer races, you have to problem solve. So that’s what I was trying to do as I pretty much crawled up the road.  I was congested, I ached everywhere, wasn’t sure what that was about, I hit my inhaler a couple more times, and remembered I had an Allegra D stashed in my pack.  I took that and decided I would sit in the next aid station for  a bit, drink, eat, get cooled down a bit as it was starting to get hot.

Sitting in the aid felt great, getting my respiration down, eating, pounding 4 cups of Coke, waiting for the Allegra and Ibuterol to hopefully kick in.  Lots of runners coming through, I even borrowed a used wet towel from a guy.  My next plan was to get through the next 4 miles to the Little Valley aid, if I felt as bad as I had to this point, consider dropping out there, rather than risk a deeper meltdown on the long, hot and steep 14 mile section between there and the only other place to bail out, the last aid station at mile 47. 

I headed out for Little Valley, walking at first and not feeling great, but in a few minutes I seemed to rally a bit and started to run a little.  Things seemed to be coming around, my lungs seemed clearer and my heart rate wasn’t shooting up on every little rise in the trail.  Finally! I thought. I held a good pace all the way up the climb, passing a few people who went by me while I was sitting in the aid.  Starting the short decent into Little Valley aid, I felt ok, not great, but was getting  it done, passing a couple more runners and catching up to two more. 

I started to evaluate my race and realized the sub 10 hour I wanted, and knew I had in me, wasn’t going to happen, but I figured  I could still get in under 11 hours, and probably around 10:30.  As I got into the Little Valley aid, I wrote off dropping as I was feeling slightly better.  I decided to take another long pit-stop, and get myself ready for the 8 miles up to Windy Pass.  I rudely pulled a chair into the shade under the aid station canopy and made myself at home. I switched out my waistpack for my Nathan pack to be able to carry more water.  Something I almost didn’t do, but now am very glad I did. Pounded a little more Coke, ate some delicious watermelon and was soon calling out “runner number 3 out” and stated the long uphill haul.

  The first mile or so went by great, and was way more runnable than I remembered.  I felt pretty good, and the trail was gorgeous, tall pines and aspens, green grass and shade.  Good things weren’t to last today, and it all started to unravel quickly.  I noticed my lungs getting tight again, my heart rate was up too high, and the body aches were back, along with a headache.  I hacked, coughed and spit over and over, trying to clear things out. I hit my inhaler again, 5^th or 6^th time in 7 hours, didn’t even touch my wheezing lungs.  I was only about halfway up the initial climb out of the aid, I still had a rough 2 mile traverse and the dreaded Bozung hill to climb before getting to the Windy Pass aid station. 

I got through the rest of the first climb ok, and the traverse, was slow but not terrible as it is slightly downhill, which I could handle as long as I went slow and kept my heart rate down.  It helped that it was a beautiful section of trail with awesome views to the north and west.  Approaching the big climb up to Windy Pass, called Bozung Hill after the race director, I knew it would be a monster.  I stopped to water the bushes and get myself together to motor up the 1200 foot climb in less than a mile.   

I knew from the first uphill steps I was in trouble.  I was breathing and moving like I was at 14,000 ft.  Slow steps, and rapid breath.  I tried to keep moving, however slowly it was, but after 10-15 steps, my head would start spinning and my vision would fill with sparkly things.  I just couldn’t get air to the bottom of my lungs, I was wheezing like an old diesel truck and barley moving at all. 

And this is where it got hot! Roasting hot, like boil water on my head hot! The “trail” isn’t really a trail at all, it’s just kind of a dirt line, straight uphill through the scrub brush and low growing Aspen trees. No shade at all, and with the foliage, humid and muggy.  There was a breeze, but it seemed to be hitting the ridge just to my left and skipping mercilessly over my head to shake the leaves on Aspens that were 8ft tall.  I am certain I cursed John Bozung in five different languages through here, which is stupid because I only know curse words in English and Spanish and because I signed up for this godforsaken hill when I sent in my entry form.  I don’t think I was really in imminent danger of death, but I know this is as close to death as I have ever come in a race, and maybe in any physical activity.  The higher I went, and the hotter I got, the worse my breathing became, until it was pretty much a full on asthma attack.  I hit the inhaler twice, stood with my hands on my head for what felt like 10 minutes, watched to world spin and tried to concentrate on getting a little air in and a lot out.  Never before, and hopefully never again will I feel that bad.

Finally cresting the ridge after a very slow and scary last quarter mile, I was relieved to see Ryan, a running buddy of mine, and another aid station worker on the hill just in front of me.  They were working at Windy Pass and had come out to re-mark and section of course that was confusing.  He was on his way back, so it was good to have some company for a few minutes, even though he mostly had to listen to me whine about how terrible I felt.

Slowly and painfully into the aid and a welcome chair to sit and get things back under control.  I felt bad, I think I ate more than my share of melon that Jim and the other volunteers had hauled up there on their backs, and drank more than my share of hard to come by water, but I defiantly received first class treatment from everyone there.      

Within minutes of me sitting down, the best thing that happened in hours came about.  My good buddy, neighbor, and running partner Cory J rolled into the aid station. He was having some struggles of his own, so we sat a commiserated for a bit, then decided to walk it in to the finish together.  We had a blast walking down form Windy Pass, talking and taking it easy.  We got passed several dozen times I think, but didn’t care.  Eventually we caught up to a pacer who had twisted an ankle and was walking in too.  We invited her to join our rolling picnic and the three of us cruised into the last aid together.  She had a ride there, and I am a little ashamed to say Cory had to threaten me with broken bones to keep me out of the car and a ride to the finish.

Running down the pavement, Troy O caught up to us.  He was having a rough day too, so the three of us ran in together, talking, running and walking as we felt like it.  We crossed the line together. 

It wasn’t the race I wanted, and I can’t help be somewhat disappointed by that.  But some go good, and some go bad, at least they do for me.  It’s cliché to say I know, but I do learn way more, and am motivated way more, by the bad races than the good, and am grateful for the lessons learned out there on this one.

The best part is seeing good friends do very well.  Go fastie Jon finished top 10 and won his age group.  BJ, the good running buddy I battled it out with at Antelope 50 this year had another great race finishing just behind Jon. The Goat killed it again, winning the Masters age group and finishing top 5  I think. Matt C had great race as well.  I saw Kendall from the blog, he had a great race! And got to meet Lulu, who looked like she was having a blast as the official finish line photographer and medal awarder.

Oh, and my keys…I almost called the locksmith of Rock to Window, but Cory was able to jimmy rig a wire outta something in the back of his truck and pop the lock…though we did have fun explaining to everyone walking by why were breaking into a car in the parking lot…we finally resorted to telling everyone there was a wallet on the seat.     

Easy 45 minutes of recovery running.  Legs feel pretty good, no soreness and not alot of fatigue.  Guess that's the upside of not going hard on race day. Right knee/lower-outside quad/ITB bugging pretty bad though.

Another easy 45 minutes. Some improvement on the knee soreness.  ART Sean thinks it's a tight outter quad, he had a prorper name for the muscle which I can't now recall.  Hoping fro a speedy recovery.

Easy two hours. Legs feel absolutely fine, no fatigue.  Breathing was a little funky again for the first hour but seemed to resolve.  Knee feels absolutely fine going up, flat, and mellow downhills, but any steep downhill is painful, classic ITB pain.  Improving everyday though, two more ART/ASTYM sessions scheduled before the race. Still hopeful for a Big Horn start on Friday, may be a short race, but at least at this point I am feeling like I could give it a go...I wouldn't hesitate to pull out if my knee gets out of control though, no sense blowing a whole summer and its too late to get my money back anyway so I might as well try and get my $180.00 worth of aid station offerings.    

All right....it's been a while so I'm lumping alot into one post and this my be the longest post ever on FRB, but I included pictures so at least that part should be entertaining.

Last I left off I was getting ready to start the Bighorn100. Thanks for the well wishes before the race, but I didn't end up going.  Things came up at work the week before and there was no way I could have left town and run a big race without getting some resolution. 

Things did resolve to a point where I felt like I could go late Thursday afternoon.  I really wanted to run, put a call in to the Goat and had him ask the race officials about a late check in.  While waiting for him to call back, I completely packed for the race, including drop bags, in less than an hour.  Goat called back and I was ok to check in on Saturday morning, but, understandably, they couldn't gurantee my drop bags would make it to where they needed to be.  I knew others running, and I knew a few had crews, but something about driving 8 hours, starting a 24 plus hour race with out knowing for certain I had drop bags where and when I needed them left me not really wanting to put out that much energy on an unsure outcome. 

Truth told, my knee wasn't 100% so the odds of actually finishing where low anyway. Goat did well and finished strong as did several others I knew running.  Hated to miss it, was one of may favorite races last year, but there will be more races.  Besides, had I run I would have missed out on what I was able to run over the last week, which I would have traded Bighorn for in a minute. 

First off, I had an absolutely incrediable run up Ben Lomond last Saturday.  First time up this year.  I left the trailhead with no watch, a water bottle and a gel.  I love how light I am able to travel now.  A few years ago this outing was a 70 ounce Camelback and a packed lunch. I left the car just after 9:30 and ran every step up perfect trail to the summit marker.  It felt effortless and I never pushed a bit. Curious, I pulled out my Ipod to check the time, I made the top in 1:37, give or take a minute as I was basing it off the time in the car.  Pretty decent for me. 

A few cruiser runs early in the week  around the local trails then I was off to Driggs, Idaho for work on Wednesday  afternoon.  Last time I was up there a snow storm kept me from exploring the trails in the area, so I was really looking forward to getting in some running, with the ultimate goal being to summit Table Mountain, which is a peak directly above Driggs and directly West of the Teton massif.

(View of the Tetons from where we are working in Driggs)

(Table Mountain is the flat peak top-center)

Wednesday evening, I got out on an explroatory run on a trail up Teton canyon on gorgeous single track through aspens and pines in the fading light. A few miles in, I ran into a couple of moose who refused to yeild the trail.  Noise, banging sticks, nothing, they would trot up trail around the next corner and stop.  After a couple rounds of that I decided not to press my luck and headed out, getting back to town just in time to take my guys out for some of the best Mexican food I've ever had.  Gotta love Driggs.

The next moring I was off fairly early to run up Table Mountain.  I had heard a lot about this peak.  Gorgeous hike with stunning, up close views of the West side of the Tetons, so I was excited to give it a go.  I had glanced at a map, and it seemed there was one way up, and it was the trail I was on the night before. 

All started off well, then after three miles or so the trail took a turn that required wading a fairly stout creek that was running full from snow melt. A couple of freezing steps in, knee deep, then thingh, then waist deep for a couple of steps.  Freezing!  I had to repeat the crossing a couple more times as the trail continued up river. 

(Freezing creek I had to wade)

A mile and a half later the trail took a turn into a large north facing basin that was covered in snow.  The trail disapeared and after a bit, footprints in to snow faded out as well.  I knew where I needed to go. I could see the peak, I just needed to figure out a way to negotiate the terrain to avoid the many steep, icy snow slopes above.

(Snow filled basin. Table Mountain is the peak on the horizon)

I made my way up exposed boulders and mostly dry groud to the ridge just below the peak.  I hadn't seen a soul all day, but as I got to the ridge I noticed two people about a half mile away, walking toward the peak from the west.  I wondered where they had come from and if they had followed the actual trail.

(view of the Tetons from the top of Table)

The views from the peak were better than I thought.  Tetons close enough you could almost make out people on the lower saddle.  Sheer drop to the east down into Alaska Basin, looking northeast to the top of Cascade Canyon. Best of all, a clear view of the Southwest couloir route on the Middle Teton. That got my wheels spinning.

As I left the peak, I asked the couple still walking up where they had come from.  They said the "Face route" and that it was snow free.  All I had to do was follow the flat ridge for a mile or so and I would run into the trail.  They warned me it was steep.  I took off happily trotting along the flat alpine ridge, noticed a trail in the hillside a mile or so away and set course for that spot.  As I started down the trail proper, I ran into tow guys hiking up that wanted to know about the snow up high.  I noticed he had a handheld GPS, so I asked how far to the parking lot.  He looked and said 1.4 miles. I thought, sweet closer than I thought.  Then he looked again and said  "and it's 2800 vertical feet."  What?!  I thought no way could a trail be that steep, maybe a bushwack, but not an actual trail.  I said, "wow, that's steep." he very casually looked up from under his camofluge ball cap, pulled a bandanna out of the pocket of his of his jeans, wiped his forehead and said "ya, pretty much straight down from here"  Gotta love Teton Valley folks.  Straight down it was, I don't htink I've ever run an established trail so consistently steep.  Literally straight down not hardly a turn let alone a switchback. 

Spent the afternoon working and considering my running options for the next day.  I really wanted to get to a properTeton peak.  The Southwest route on the Middle looked like the best option.  I was going solo, so needed something non-technical and the snow that is still lingering in abundance in the range limited alot of other options.  By 7 o'clock I was loaded up and driving over Teton Pass, hoping to make it to Teton Mountaineering before they closed at 8:00 so I could pick up a new mountain axe.  I wasn't planning on a high peak when I left home, so I didn't bring anything for snow climbing.  I was o.k going light, but an axe is pretty much required minimum equipment for an early season climb in the Tetons.

I slept in the dirt next to my truck right at the Lupine Meadows trail head.  I set  my alarm for 4:30, but was pretty suprised to wake up at 4:15 and find twilight on the east horizon and enough light to see clearly.  I felt tired, didn't want to get up in the cold morning air, so I rolled over and fell back to sleep unitl 5:00. 

(Beautiful morning starting up the trail)

Waking up, I stuffed down a cold breakfast, tried to shake off the grogginess, stuffed a couple of gels in my pockets, my lightest windshell in my Nathan pack along with a light pair of liner gloves and a hat.  I was at a bit of a loss about what to do with the ice axe.  With a proper pack I could attach it using the axe loops and be on my way.  No such thing on a Nathan runnnig pack.  Luckily  I was feeling inventive and happened to have the hardware to make the modification.  I now have what may be the first Nathan mountaineering pack.

(modified Nathan, Jacket sinch straps and a small hole in the top with some tie wire to hold the shaft upright.  Held perfect running, couldn't even tell it was there)

I was able to make pretty quick work of the trail leading up to the meadows area.  Amazing how much easier that trail feels when your not hauling a rope and climbing rack.  Rounding the corner into Garnett Canyon has to be one of my favorite places in the world and the Middle Teton is front and center.

(Garnett Canyon and the Middle, might be heaven on earth)

Reaching the sign and creek crossing at the meadows, I was shocked to see how much snow was still hanging on.  The snowfields were all the way down to the creek.  Snow coverd the south facing wall above Spalding Falls, and it looked like it was solid snow all the way up the the saddle between the South and Middle Teton's.  I sat on a rock for a bit and thought through things.  I was in running shorts, a light shirt and trail shoes.  Not really equipped for a icy snow climb, would seem crampons would have been a minimum addition to my gear list. 

I decided to start climbing the snowfields and see how it went, but told myself I wouldn't push it at all and if the snow as too hard or steep for running shoes I'd turn around.  Pleased to find the intial slopes soft enough that I could get pretty could bite in my shoes and my new axe added a little security in the sketchier sections. 

(Looking down the intial snow slopes to the meadows, this was taken on the way down)

I plugged along to the saddle and got my first good look at the Southwest couloir, I was really hoping it was snow and ice free.  Looking up the route, all looked passable.  There were some snow patches, but looked like I could pick my way up the steep slopes on mosltly dry ground.  I also got a good look at Table Mountain from the other side, couldn't belive it was just yesterday I had stood on that peak.

(looking across at Table from the saddle)

(Looking up the Southwest Coulior to the peak .  The route follws the rock ribs in the center of the pic to the v shaped notch in the rocks where it steepens (read: got sketchy) and climbs to the summit, feeling good here, my Garmin has been beeping low batery for a bit, I made to to here in 2:40)  

I made my way up the inital slopes of the final pitch and felt great.  I was surprised by the steepness of the terrain.  It reminded me of the climb to the upper saddle on the Grand, but slightly steeper. The wind was starting to rip pretty hard from the west, and I was totally alone on the mountain, which was fine, but  the solitude and roaring wind did it add a bit of a creepy element to things, knowing if I blew it in any way I may be there for a while before someone came along. 

(Looking down into Alaska Basin from about half way up the Coulior. Notice Summer ice lake (? I think that's the name?) still frozen far below.  This is just below the "crux".  Rock'en some Chilli Peppers "Higher Ground" on the Ipod at this point)

About 2/3's the way to the peak I looked up and my heart sank a bit.  I knew there was a steep section right before the top that I recalled from climbing this same route 15 years earlier. I was now looking at the section I remebered only it was filled with a ice and rock hard frozen snow.  I would guess the steepness at 45-50 degrees, with broken up rock slabs on both sides.  It was only maybe 200-300 vertical feet, but enough that a slip above halfway up without being able to self arrest would almost certainly end in injury or worse. 

I started up, just to see how it would feel.  The running shoes weren't cutting it.  Even lite crampons would have made this section simple, but felt sketchy in shoes.  I decided to scranble on the rock next to the snow.  I took off my gloves and started to climb.  The terrain was easy, but definatly 5th class. These were not happy moments.  I knew if I blew anything, it would be a short, but uncontrolled fall onto the ice, then a fast out of control slide to the rocks. There were a couple of moments where I had to really tell myself to stay calm and relax. 

Within a few minutes it was over and I was scrambling up the last bit to the summit.  The top of the Middle Teton is a crazy place.  It's no bigger than a sofa a drops nearly vertical on 3 sides.  I was cold, the wind was ripping, and I was still prety freaked about reversing the sketchy section on the way down.  Needless to say I didn't stay long.  I looked at my Garmin to see how long it took me to summit, dead! Damnit! I pulled out my phone to snap some pics and noticed it was 8:47, so around 3.5 hours. 

(looking at the Grand from the top of the Middle)

(looking East down Garnett Canyon from the summit. Trail starts left of the lake)

Heading back down, I got back to the crux, scrambled down the rock to a point where I didn't feel comfortable down climbing. I ventured tentatively out onto the snow slope by sinking my axe all the way to the adze and trying to step in the frozen sun cups in the snow. I'd get a secure palce for my feet and move my axe down as far as I could, and kick my feet down again.  I down climbed the snow this way.  It was slow, but felt much more secure than climbing on the rcok, I should have gone up the same way. 

Soon enough I was back in the warm sun and cruising down the rock and snow feilds back to the meadows.  I had great fun glisading down the now super soft snow.  I passed a few parties on their way up to the Middle.  They were all decked out with crampons, gators, big packs, axes, all the gear.  I felt like a bit of a goof running by in my shorts and short sleeve shirt skating along in my running shoes with an axe rigged to the back of my running pack.

Getting back to the Meadows, I found a dry spot, sat down a relished to view for a bit.  Such a stunning place, surrounded by huge peaks and waterfalls. Everytime I climb out of Garnett Canyon, I always feel a bit giddy when I get back to the creek in the meadows area.  The stress of the climb melts away and the joy fully sets in.  Same feeling I get at the finish line of a hard race. 

I relaxed for a bit then took off to run the four miles back to the parking lot.  I cruised the trail a hard as I could while still trying to take it somewhat easy on my freshly healing knee. I felt great and still had plenty of energy all the way out.  I hit the lot and looked at my phone again, I had made the round-trip in 5:20 or so, wasn't sure to the exact minute I left the lot. I jumped in the truck and drove straight to the Jenny Lake boat launch and walked straight into the lake and sat down, much to the shock of the nice family from Iowa sunning on the rocks.  Soaking in Jenny lake is always the reward for a hard day in the Tetons.

(The classic Teton view.  I took this from the highway on my way home.  The Middle Teton is the peak left of the tallest one in the center which is the Grand Teton)

Got out for an easy hike to Malan's basin today.  Three peaks in three days, my kind of a week.

Stats sum up from Saturday to Saturday:

Miles: around 55 

Vert: 19,250 ish

Knee: holding up ok though not 100%.  ART Sean thinks its a tight quad and glute medius that is causing the trouble, rather than a tendonitis or brusitis, so working it isn't making it worse as long as I take care of the knots in the muscles. 

I hid from the heat like a coward and spun on the trainer for an hour in the cool basement.  Legs needed to break anyway, right?

Hot 50 minutes on the local loops.  Ran into Forrest heading up Malan's, seems the go fasties got him signed up for Speedgoat. Legs felt good, nice pick up at for the last 15 minutes.  The test hill I've been using at the end of all my local runs to see how the knee is progressing was pain free for the first time since Squaw Peak.  Sweet. ART/ASTYM after.

Late one up Malan's with Cory.  We left just before 9:00.  Cory's always wanted to try and run the whole hill, well tonight was the night.  I ran in front of him, coaxing and encouraging all the way up.  It was a push but he made it, ran every step.... pretty cool to see him do something he never thought he could.  He's got Hardrock in 10 days, so hopefuly that'll boost his confidence some. Nice and easy on the way down in the dark with one light between us.

No time and no desire to run in the heat and smoke tonight.  Trainer spinning for a hour again. Good even effort, kept it over 220 watts for the hour with good roll up to 280-290 for the last 10 minutes. 

Indian trail up to the shack and back.  Easy pace, hot.

7 miles in the wheelhouse.

Annual O-town Ben run.  Left later than I wanted so saw everyone coming back down. Kept it pretty easy but it felt like work. Nice easy jog all the way to the peak again.  1:34 to the top.  

Beautiful night out after the rain.  Hard to describe the view from the top of Malan's.  Setting sun, alpenglow, mist blowing in and out.  Pretty cool.  Wasn't trying at all, but I think I PR'ed the up, really need to start carrying a watch.  Left the car at 8:30-31 Ipod time hit the peak at 9:02, give or take some seconds so about 32 minutes, which would make it a PR.

Took the BST out to the Waterfall low trail/pond loop back to 27th. 

6.5-7 miles, 2800 vert or so.

Recovery loop.  5 miles, easy pace. 

Quad sister O pAiN.  That thing is a  D*#n rough son of a B*%#.  Especially with one water bottle and when its already 80 degrees at 7:00 AM, brilliant!  I filled up at the barely trickling spring on Indian, but was out again by the time I hit the top.  Did Hidden (hiking) without water at the end, again ,brilliant! Always good to get a massive dehydration induced bonk once in a while, just to remember the feeling....sheesh!

19ish miles, 7500 vert.  Good end to a good week,

14,500 feet in 4 days, and about 17,000 for the week, might be a new high for a week, I need ot check that...

Miles: ?? 60 or so. 

7 miles of easy cruise'en.  Felt pretty good all in all.  Hot of course.

Nice little cruise up to Lewis Peak that included a rabid squirrel, out of control baby sage grouse, sleeping rattlesnake, and a near mountain lion encounter. Wild one out there tonight. 

Easy paced 1:03 to the top, a little longer on the way down with all the critters around.

Very nice sunset from the peak.

I have no appreciation for these things... 

AM: Walked out of the house for my moring run to see this

Yep, that's Taylor Canyon and from what I could see it looked like  the fire was right on the Malan's Peak trail....which is where I was headed.  Lot's of timber and lots of fuel in there so I imagined the worst....Felt like I was loosing a good friend.

A quick drive up the street and I could see it was 1/2 mile east of the Malan's trail and it looked like it was a single tree burning.

Drove up 27th street and there were several forrest service trucks, they were on it.  I ran up to Taylor canyon and bumped in to a firefighter walking down and ribbon marking the trail for the other crews to follow.  Really good guy, said they had been on the North Ogden fire until 3:00 AM and got called out to this one.  I walked up with him for a bit, even offering to carry some of the gear, those guys are tough, it was hot and they are decked out head to toe and carry alot of gear. He gave me the go ahead to continue up the trail, which I did until I ran into a group of 5 firefighters who asked me to turn around.  I thanked them for their hard work, turned around, ran 100 yards down the trail, crossed the creek and hiked around above them, I know....but there really wasn't any close danger. 

Ran up Malan's took some good pictures of the fire and was relived to see it was contained in low brush and rock.....Very, very lucky.  Any other spot on that whole hillside and the thing woulda burned huge all the way to Snowbasin .

PM: Got out for a nice hike with the boys to this little piece of tropical paradise up Taylor Canyon.  Pure spring water, cold and clean.

Ran into the same firefighter I walked up with this morning.  Poor guys had been sitting on the hillside all day in 100+ degree heat keeping any eye on the fire....Kind of a cool job, but gotta be pure misery on days like today.

Home for dinner then a nice 45 minute easy cruise just after sunset. 

AM: 6:00 AM Easy paced cruise up "the hill" with a BST loop and on.  Saw the old guard coming down and a pack of HUMR's.

PM: Muggy 5 miles on the BST in the dark...Bluh.

AM: South lower/upper BST loop.

PM: Not much..

 Wild day on the peaks this afternoon.  Got a late start so I was hoping for a little cloud cover and some weather.  Got just what I wanted, windy, fogged in, a little mist of rain. Perfect.

Cruised up the BL, said hey to the Camo guys looking for goats in all the wrong places, Ha! I'm not going to tell them where they're at. Beautiful misty ridge running over to Willard.  Solid power hike to the peak.....then I don't know what went wrong but I got turned around in the fog and instead of going south, ended up going north off the end of the peak and ended up right back where I started....walking in circles...what an idiot.  Guess I was a litlle distracted by these guys:

Ghosts in the fog....It seemed I kept stumbling into heards over every rock out cropping. They are pretty tame up here and used to people, but they did have little one's with them and the fact that a dozen or so get picked off every year by Camo types like I saw earlier (they might have a grudge) meant I tried to give them some space.

Back to the car and up Lewis for ways before the lightening and a very intense down pour turned me around....worried about all the slow movers in jeans and t-shirts I passed up on BL that were no doubt caught up high by the deluge.....

Day: 24ish miles, around  6800 vert

Week: 70 miles, just about 17,000 vert, 34,000 for two weeks.

AM: Nice dry shirt hike up Malan's.  Felt great to not run a step of the up. 41 minutes up, 1:04 RT. Easy pace.

PM: Hour or so in the rain, easy.

About 11 miles and 3200 vert.

AM: 5 miles cruiser BST loop. Easy pace

PM: Indian out-n-back a bit beyond the shed with a BST waterfall loop tacked on.  Moderate pace, pushed a bit going up last part of Indian.  Strange animal encounters continue, including: five white tail deer (which is odd in itself) bounding over Indian trail in front of me, more rattlesnakes, a pitch black no light  face to face with a deer less than a 1/4 mile from the car.

13 miles, 3100 vert.

PM: Tired legged Snowbasin 13.1 loop. Lovely miles and miles of single track. Started slow but rallied mid run for a nice solid tempo run. Felt slow but finished in 1:50.05, within seconds of a PR.  Managed a 6:25 last mile down Wheeler which was a bit kamakazi for me. 

13.0 miles, 2100 vert, 

Just Malan's...Took my 12 year old and we power hiked at a good clip.  He did great, kept up and no complaining, even hung on the run down. One of the best alpenglow sunset displays I've ever seen from the peak, even included a double rainbow.  Added a little loop to get 5  miles or so.

5 miles

2300 vert.

Been wanting to get up and do this one again since I first ran it last year. I'm still calling it the best route in our local hills.  Has a bit of it all, sweet mellow single track, brutal climbs, some off trail scrambling, ridge running, lots of peaks and a big 5000 foot drop back to the car. 

I was beat going in, and was prepared to turn around at any point if I wasn't feeling it. The first 10 miles climb almost 5000 feet to the top of Mt Allen, and it was slow and painful on heavy legs.  I did run (with ample shuffling) every step to the peak again, and comparing to last year's Garmin data, I guess I PR'ed by less than a minute, wouldn't have guessed that at all. 

Pretty much that's where all comparison's ended.  The last half was a struggle, I was shot! Death marched and shuffled the last 5 miles, "Running" down Wheeler's slower than I ran up. Ha! looking forward to a few very easy daze!

Pics from last year:

Been wanting to get up and do this one again since I first ran it last year. I'm still calling it the best route in our local hills.  Has a bit of it all, sweet mellow single track, brutal climbs, some off trail scrambling, ridge running, lots of peaks and a big 5000 foot drop back to the car. 

I was beat going in, and was prepared to turn around at any point if I wasn't feeling it. The first 10 miles climb almost 5000 feet to the top of Mt Allen, and it was slow and painful on heavy legs.  I did run (with ample shuffling) every step to the peak again, and comparing to last year's Garmin data, I guess I PR'ed by less than a minute, wouldn't have guessed that at all. 

Pretty much that's where all comparison's ended.  The last half was a struggle, I was shot! Death marched and shuffled the last 5 miles, "Running" down Wheeler's slower than I ran up. Ha! looking forward to a few very easy daze!

Run stats: 22.5 miles, 5900 vert

Week: 17,000 vert, 71 miles

Pics from last year:

Ridge section starts on rocky peak on the right (Mt Allen) and follows the skyline over all the high points to the peak on the far left.

Mt Ogden on left and Allen on right on the way up.

Teton loop!

I've had this one on the to do list for a couple of years now.  Getting up the Mddle Teton and doing a couple of runs on the Idaho side of the range earlier this summer left me wanting to get back to the Tetons and get this one done. 

A tight shedule made this a quick trip.  I left home around 6:30 PM on Monday, pulled into the boat ramp parking lot at Jenny Lake just before midnight, threw my bag in the back of the truck, set the alarm for 4:30 and crashed hard. I woke up a couple hours later to a starless sky and a trickle of rain and really hoped I hadn't driven 5 hours to get rained out.  Alarm went off at 4:30 and it was still slightly drizzly and no stars, it was too early to get a look at the sky and assess the weather.  Decided to sleep a couple more hours, until I could get a look at the sky. 

Waking up at first light, it was cloudy and the peaks were a bit socked in, but the weather looked like it might hold or get better, so got my stuff together to leave, throwing in my rain shell with a hood, some light gloves and a hat, just in case. I left Jenny Lake sometime around 6:30 in the morning headed clockwise. 

The elevation profile (stolen from Matt Hart' trip report) above is for a counter-clockwise loop.  That direction would be better for speed, but clockwise, in my opinion, is a little more asthetic.

Blurry first moring light.  Fun little single track between Jenny Lake boat ramp and Lupine Meadows TH.

Bradley lake I think (Taggart maybe?) A few miles in and nothing but fun, fun rolling trail to this point.  In a few miles I would intersect with a very lonely and seldom used section of the Valley Trail that connects to Phelps Lake and the Death Canyon Trail.  It's about 3.5 miles of very overgrown, densely wooded, seldom traveld by people, very prime bear habitat. Bear scatt in several places on the trail, the time of day, and being alone made for a reasonably tense 3.5 miles.

Beautiful trail up Death Canyon.  First ime on this trail and it was amazing! The trail climbs steady next to the creek up to the skyline and then transitions into gorgeous valley.

Valley in the top of Death Canyon.  Pic was taken from the trail up to Static Peak Pass, which is a huge, unrelenting climb. 

Nearing the top of Static Peak Pass.  Looking back to the East at Phelps lake and the Snake River. The trail skirted the lower left edge of Phelps before climbing to here.

Getting above tree line. Looking up trail from about the same spot ther last pic was taken.

Looking across to the West from the Static Peak Pass at a really cool hidden lake.

Looking North for Static toward Alaska Basin. Trail is just visable cutting through center right. About 18-19 miles in at this point. Biggest climb out of the way.  Running on cloud 9!

Looking back toward Static from my little detour into the unknown.  My mental map notes said to stay runners right coming into Alaska Basin, but apparently not too far right.  I ended up on the sucker trail you can see cutting across the talus.  It lead to a pass and dead ended. Probably added a mile and 800 feet of climbing. 

Back on track and wildflower running in Alaska Basin.

More of the same. Stunning place to be.

Starting the climb up to Hurrican Pass, looking back up A. Basin toward Static Pass. Mile 24 or so.

Approaching the top of Hurricane Pass, the Grand and Middle Tetons coming into full view. Pics don't do it justice, incrediable place to be. Mile 26 or so.

Great view of the Southwest col route on the Middle Teton.  This is the route I did a couple of weeks ago.  Follows the talus slope from the saddle up through the v-shaped notch in the rock above.  Looks like the icey spot that had my shaking in my shoes is finally gone.

Looking forward to some downhill runn'en.  Cresting the pass and headed into the top of Cascade Canyon. 

Upper part of Cascade Canyon.  There may not be a prettier spot in the lower 48 than the top of Hurricane Pass into Cascade Canyon.

Long descent from here.  The trail got more and more crowed the closer I got to the boat drop off from Jenny Lake. The last few miles down to the lake were pretty much very slow walking.  It got to the point where I would have to have been completely rude to pass people or just settle in behind the conga line and pass when I could.  I really had no idea it was possible to walk as slowly as some people moving however.

The couple miles around the lake seemed to take forever.  I was out of water, it was getting a little hot and still too many people and too narrow of a trail to really run much.  This is one of the biggest reasons I think the counter-clockwise loop would be much faster. One would get through this section of trail early, before the masses of slow walkers showed up. 

Made the loop back to the truck and settled in with a cold Coke I begged off a nice couple from Arkansas parked next to me. Next to Kalalau Trail, this might be the new #1 on the list of best adventure runs.  Perfect loop, just the right amount of climbing, not too long or too short, and non-stop vistas to whole way.

Stats:

Around 36 miles with the detour, 8100-8800 vert, 7:48 on the watch with one clock stop at the top of Hurricane Pass.  I would guess the crowds on the trial in the last bit added 30-40 minutes.

Packed up, grabbed a bite in Jackson Hole and made it home by 8:15.  Almost under 24 hours for the whole trip.

AM: Easy 6 

PM: Hour on the trainer

Helped out at the Speedgoat 50k.  Good to see so many friends running well.  Watching Tony K descend off Baldy is an image that will stay with me for a long time.  Amazingly fast. Probably logged a few miles running water back and forth to runners and running/hiking between the Hidden peak aid and the tunnel aid. 

Easy paced 8 miles or so in the heat. Bluh.

AM: Easy 6

PM: Malan's PR. Had no intention of running a PR, just wanted a solid paced run up and down.  Ended up with a 49:53 RT, with two pit stops for a shoe tie, a few moments of digging around in the leaves and deep cursing when a bush ripped my Ipod out of my pocket, and deep inhalation of ganja when I ran through a freshly exhaled cloud and a group of hippies. Felt like a good effort, but wasn't all out. 4.5 miles, 2250 vert.

Tired run up Indian with a neighbor.  He is just getting into trail running and has never been up to the top of Indian and wanted the tour.  We had a great time and kept it pretty easy.  

Easy 5 recovery run. Slow, slow slow and eeeasy.

Crazy long work day finishing up a big project in Draper and starting a new one in Logan, bluh! 

Easy little cruise with my 4 year old, pond loop.

Ben Lomond/Willard circuit. 1:32 to the peak at a pretty easy effort. Ran right over the peak without even a pause, cruised to Willard Basin, ran about half the climb to Willard Peak, crawled through the "Needle" and power hike to the peak.  Hit lap right at 2:02 and kept heading South across the goat ridge. 

I love this section, scrambling over rocks, ducking under trees, cruising knife edged ridges, and even one 5th class 25 foot down climb, which I have tried to avoid every time I do this, but it's pretty much the only way through without a major detour. Luckily the terrain is pretty easy. Took my only stop through here, when a close encounter with a goat and kid, that wasn't too thrilled about me being between it and the baby had me waiting on the high ground for a minute or two.

Reconnected with the proper trail and felt strong cruising back up to BL. Ran back over the top at 3:02 and thought I'd try and hit the trailhead under 3:30.  I felt really good on the way down and kept the last 4 miles below 7:10, even clocking one at 6:52.

 Ended up with 3:28 RT, which taking the descent and ascent times on just the BL section, I should be around or just under 2:30, which last year was an all out effort.

20.5 miles, 5400 vert. 3:28. 

Keep it simple on this one.  An unexpected rainstorm had me sleeping in a mud puddle under a soaked rain fly listening to the beaverly hillbilles change a tire on their 5th wheel at two in the morning. (Wyoming)  Missed the start cuz  I was at the car getting things together (stupid).  Ran way too hard for the first mile to get through the pack then raced hard for two hours through a beautiful morning on one of the most scenic courses anywhere.  Felt great for most of the first half, felt like hell on the way back. Still analyzing the melt down.  Not my best race. They happen. Great time all-n-all.

10th overall I think,  might have been first or second old guy (gotta play that for all I can) Only two hours behind Luke, who has to be the most down to earth badass runner around.

31 miles, 9000+ish vert.

Easy 35 minute spin on the bike. Not sore really just tired.

Very light and easy cruise on the standard route. Bluh! Someting is wrong when the setting sun is nothing but a red globe hanging in the dirty film that used to be a sky. 40 minutes

Ahhhh....Back from a much needed break.  Coupla days slow hiking and an activity that somewhat resembled jogging for a few miles is what made up most of the last week, that and lots of sitting on my arse.  Needed it.  

Back with a nice 26 in the Winds with Cory.  He had never been in there, we had to go.  Quick and basic.  Freezing in the morning, gloves and arm warmers, numb fingers actually felt good.   Felt great, ran every step of Jackass. Good times .  No more chugging a protein shake after a run like that. About puked all over the rental.

 26 miles, 5000 vert 

Nearly 15 that I thought would be 10.  Green pond, through SB, up to the overlook, up around Sardine. Coming down the switchbacks toward Maples once again confirmed this to be the worst section of trail in the Ogden network. Sorry, I know a lot of folks enjoy it, but boring flat 1-2% grade to a 90 degree corner, repeat over and over and over. horrible, bluh!  Down Maples, up Middle fork back to Green Pond.  Very nice loop other than the drop off Sardine to Maples......

14.8, 2640 vert.

Easy hour in the dark.

Malan's to the basin and back.  Legs felt good, but I think I went slow. 

Slow and easy 45

Slow and easy 30 minutes.  Still on the recovery program.

Good cruiser up Indian to the point and back.  Kept the effort easy.

Feeling it today...finally! Moderate effort up Indian again, hit the shack in 38:10, which is a good time on a harder effort, which it wasn't today.  Over to the point and back over the top. Out to Beaus on the BST, back on the low trial.  Solid steady effort all the way through.  Felt fantastic.  Rest does a body good.  Really need to pay attention to training/work/life stress, it all adds up fast and tends to put me in a hole,...one I think I've been in off and on since April!

Easy hour...circles.  

Easy hour again...more circles. 

Creek and back burner! PR up Malan's, PR for the creek and back round trip and I think a PR for the Malan's up/down segment.  Didn't hit the lap button, but my crappy math thinks I got it. Hard, but not an all out effort.  Almost met my maker coming down the rock shelves just before the bridge on Malan's. Dangerous.

2500 vert, 5.7 miles, 1:02:10 RT

ART session as my digitorum something or other was tight along my calf. 20 minutes on the table, a lot of pain and it's feeling much better. 

A little BL push.  Kept a good effort on the up, could tell my legs were still a but heavy form the harder Malan's effort on Thursday, even after spending some time in the "G-suit" at Sean's on Friday. Stuck to the trail on the way up from the saddle and hit the peak in 1:33.  Took the direct route off the peak to Kasey's corner and kept the effort up on the way down for a RT of 2:32.  Happy with the effort for me on tired legs. 

15 miles, 3900 vert.    

Easy spin for about 45.

Easy hour on the local trails.  So far, not a fan of high school mtn bike teams.  Must have been 50 of 'em out "practicing" in a huge pack on the BST.  From the looks of it, I think they were practicing pushing their bikes uphill.

40 minutes with some pep here and there.

Wow! Been a while since the lost post.

I 'll start where I left off. The weeks leading up to the Bear 100 were perfect.  Enjoyed some great runs and an easy taper that left me feeling fresh and ready to go the week leading up to the race. 

The DNF at the Bear sucked.  No big mysteries to uncover, no long stories, just didn't manage things well in the days leading up to the start and during the race.  I felt fantastic in the legs and lungs, but after three complete stomach melt downs I was done. 

Could I have finished? Yep. No doubt in my mind I could have sat, recovered, moved forward and done the drill a few more times if needed and made it in under 36 hours.  Did I want to death march it in the last 30 miles? Nope. Would I have felt any less disappointment finishing with a death march than I felt dropping out, probably not. 

Huge congrats to all my friends who finished and had great days out there.  Thanks for the support of friends and family that got me further into the race than I would have made it alone. 

Looking forward to learning from the mistakes and going forward to better races in the future. 

The upside to only making it 70 miles, 20 of which was walking slowly, is that my recovery was almost instant.  My legs felt fine on Monday. I was running light by Wednesday and had a great easy jog up a peak on Saturday.

10 days after the race Cory and I made a quick mid-week trip to the Tetons and ran the big loop one more time.  We left Jenny Lake in the cold early morning and returned  7:15 later after 36 miles and 7500 vert .  We took it pretty easy, had fun and enjoyed the generally deserted Teton trails.  I felt perfec. Strong, with solid energy the whole way.....calling this one of the best runs of the year.  Rinsed off in the lake, grabbed some dinner in Jackson and made it home just over 24 hours after we left. 

Been enjoying some fantastic fall running in the local hills over the last month. Got shut down this week by a pretty nasty cold. 

A little of this last week left my legs sore in strange places...Hauling my heavy metal uphill is a great workout though!  Makes running feel 50% easier without 9 pounds on each foot. This is something I need to incorperate more this winter.....the downhill part is a given, but more hiking and left liftinig is needed.

Great lap on the local loops on Saturday and some very enjoyable night running tonight.  Feels great be back in the world of the healthy!

After a DNS and a DNF at the other two 100 milers I signed up for this year, I finally got one done.  Good to have the monkey off my back.  Report to follow soon.