Like the canyon

Easy 5 miles.  Felt a bit sluggish still from Saturday's run.

Ran my 13.1 mile loop up on the trails around Snowbasin  for the first time this year.  Last summer I managed a 1:51 for the 13 miles of rocky trail with 2000+ feet of climb.  I felt good about the effort and it was pretty much a red line effort for a good part of the run. 

Starting out toninght, I had no idea what to expect.  I haven't felt well for a couple of weeks, most of which I attribute to this  http://www.intermountainallergy.com/pollen.html.  I figured I'd run at a moderate to slightly harder effort and see how it went. Sure enough, the climb up East Fork and the freshly cut weeds on the side of the trail from the mountain bike race Saturday had me coughing like an old diesel truck. That, and the kid on downhill bike that almost Van Gogh'ed my left ear (caught air off a roller in front of me and his peddle went right past my head, not kidding) I didn't feel on the game at all, but kept on truck'en up the steady, long climb that is first 7 miles of this run.  I couldn't remember any splits from the few times I ran this hard last year, but when I crossed Snowbasin Road things seemed a little ahead of schedule despite the poor effort and lack luster feeling in my lungs. 

The downhill was fast thanks to the Forest Service grooming as of late.  Kept it pretty much sub 7 min pace for the last six miles, with the exception of the Icebox Canyon section, that was a 7:50.  Felt good about the last mile being a 6:18 split.

I hit the bottom at 1:46 for 13.07 miles .  The Garmin musta gone whacky, it had the vert at 2900, not so much, more like 2000-2200, always a little differnt. I pegged it pretty hard the last couple of miles, other than that the pace was just a bit above comfortable, but not a hard effort.  Good to improve, especially as sporadic as my running has been for the last month or so. 

Cruiser 7.5 on the bench, hot, dusty, crowed. Run is a run I supose. Getting to where I could run most of my loops up there blindfolded and not miss a beat.  I've taken to running on the opposite side of the trail I normally run on, just to dodge different rocks. With work and the new little guy, time has been tight lately so most of the mid-week runs have been pretty blah.

7.5 miles, 900 vert.  

I'll group two runs into one since they happened so close together.  Left last night about 7:00 for a good hard long run.  Up and over Indian Trail anb back. Forget how good this trail is, and its right out my door. Need to get up there more. Got dark on the climb out and had to turn the lights on coming back down onto the bench.  Continued on for a nice night run up Malan's.  Felt pretty good through most of the run, but was dragging a bit coming down Malan's.  I always forget how much slower and more effort it takes to run downhill at night.

Got home about 10:30 and was in bed about 11:50.  Up pretty early for a Ben Lomond run.  Left the trailhead about 8:15.  Temps this morning were really nice, but the sun felt hot for some reason climbing the first 4 miles or so. Kept a pretty tired run going up to the saddle, then walked/hiked to the peak.  I was completely thrashed on the run back down. Dehydrated and really bonky, depite downing 40oz of water on the run.  I know I didn't eat enough out there, but geeze, hammered!  Prety drained all afternoon, even after a nap.  Not sure what's up, but those were hard back to back runs. I haven't been running alot of miles, but  have done a really long run every week and some hard runs most weeks for the last month and a half, so maybe just accumulated fatigue.  One more week to keep the hammer down, then backing off for Bear.

Oh, looks like I'm pacing Phil Lowry from Brighton to the finish.  Should be a blast as he is going for a good fast time I'm sure. Be nice to see how a veteren gets it done.  With all the FRB'ers pacing the last 25, we should hold a pacer race.  Like a dogsled race, see who can mush their runnner to the finish the fastest! HA!

Run 1: 15 miles, 5300 vert

Run 2: 15.5 miles 3800 vert

Total running in 12 hours 30.5, 9100 vert. I'm thrashed.

Week: 58 miles, 13,000 vert.