Geeze this weather is all backwards! It rains on good training Saturdays and is hot and sunny on race Saturdays. I was suposed to meet a couple of friends early this morning for a run up Ben Lomand peak. I woke up and the wind was ripping. Checked the NOAA site on Mt. Ogden and it was clocking steady at 45 mph with gusts to 65-70, ARRHH, looks like another long run on the low trails.
My friends changed plans with the weather report and were going to do a long out and back on the BST, I couldn't get motivated to get out the door and running another loop on the BST didn't help spark any fire either. I headed out solo an hour or so later with no clear plan, but knew I wanted to start with Malan's Peak. By the time I left the wind was still ripping and it was raining hard, sideways. I put on a light weight gore-tex shell over a long sleeve shirt, a hat, and some light gloves, (dressed like winter in June???) With in 5 minutes I had my hood on too, the wind was blowing rain right down my jacket and the trail was a river. Luckily the Malan's trail is very rocky so very little to no mud.
I maintained a nice steady run, dodging limbs and one tree that had been knocked down by the wind, all the way up and passed several groups of very wet people coming down and one group of two heading up. I hit the top in 39 minutes and the wind almost knocked me down when I crested the last little rise. At this point I figured I'd better stay close to home and get some climbing in. I ended up running a two more laps up and down from the second bridge in Taylor Canyon. On the third I continued all the way to Malan's Basin. I ended up passing the group of 2 I passed on first my lap a total of 5 times, by the 5th I apologized for making them stop and get off the trail so many times.
My Garmin was on some who knows what mode so I don't know exact numbers but from today, but looking at past runs I can say 6000 vertical, 10.25 miles and I know the time 2:49. I ran pretty easy and took the downs mellow to go easy on my knee, the pace seems slow but there was alot of up, there are no flat sections on this route, except for maybe a 1/4 mile stretch into Malan's Basin, so that means about half of the miles were climbing so that's 5900 vert in about 5.5 miles. Equals out to about 1100 vertical ft per mile for the climb, give or take a little. Finally, I was able to run a complete 3 laps up Malan's. I had done 2, but never 3, feels good to have the training paying off. Knee was a little stiff after and my right calf has a little twinge, but everything seems to be on the mend, ART is awesome! (thanks Aaron) gotta keep it together and strong for 2 more weeks, Logan Peak baby! (was my favortie race last year) Really looking forward to a fun day, lots of friends running, My best friend's wife, a girl from my ward growing up, 2 of my wife's college friends, lots of Ogden area runners, and one of my long time friends who ran this and Speed Goat with me last year, oh, and I get to chase Twinkies all day too! | 