Like the canyon

Left the house intending a slow run, got the the trailhead, hit start on the watch and play on the Ipod,  1st song up was Rage, Know Your Enemy, rock'en! Add a mountain bike and another runner ahead on the trail and well....so much for easy.  I "eased" into the faster pace and it felt good so I kept it up.  Got the runner right away and the mtn bike before the end of the first climb, but I had to pull over and let him by at the top as it was flat to downhill and I didn't have a chance, of course.  Kept a good solid pace for the rest of the run. 5.45 miles 7:38 pace, 705 ft climb. Moderate to hard effort. (27th to BST at Taylor, south via the high trail, dropped down to the gate, back to Waterfall,  low trail to 29th, up to BST at Taylor and back around to 27th)

This chest gunk, cold thing has been fleeting so we'll see what tomorrow brings, hopefully feeling strong again.

8 dreadmill miles. First 6.2 at 6:53 with last 1/4 of each mile at 6:30. Last 1/4 mile was 6:00.  Guess that makes a 42 ish 10k didn't look at the exact time as it went by? Pace would have felt much harder last year, which was the last time I ran like that on the treadmill, tonight I'll call it tempo, to just a little harder on the pick ups.  Pretty much trotted along for the last couple miles until I hit the hour mark. That time of year again.

Easy 4 or so on the bench.  Always amazes me that as much as I run up there, I can still put together a unique route on the spaghetti bowl of trails.

Took the camera for an easy cuise up Malan's tonight.   Figured I'd try to entice Scott W to get up here and run this thing with some sweet pics of what he's missing. :) Sorry no summit pics, had to turn around at the 3/4 mark to get to the Pack Meeting (Arrow of Light for the little dude). 

View looking up Taylor Canyon from the trail head at 27th Street. 

Took the pics from the top down, so Malan's in reverse.  Sweet top section through the pines. 

View from the "overlook" at about half way up, this is a major split marker for the faster runs. Trail head is marked with a red dot.

Looking North from the same spot.

One of the steep sections before the overlook on the way up.  The trails gains almost 1200 ft in a mile through here. Yep, steep.

Knee tweak section #1 in Taylor Canyon. Most of the trail through the canyon bottom looks like this, guess that's why I regularly tweak my knee running through here.

Knee tweak section #2. Good tecnical fun, both up and down.

Nice easy run tonight.  Body feeling good running almost everyday.  Mind really craving running again. Gunk 90% gone. Call it just under four miles and 1750 vert (in 1.9 miles) tonight.

Very enjoyable 4 on the trails at sunset.

4 miles, easy

I had no intention of running this on Saturday morning.  After C's 8:00 AM soccer game, I got home, new I needed to run and remebered this race started at 10:00.  It was 9:30, I threw on my gear, grabbed the headphones, drove to the start, put $25.00 in my pocket, jogged to the start line and we were off. 

I ran this last year and remebered the first 2 miles being tough, climbing about 1500 ft on gravel road and some nice single track toward the top.  Chili isn't my best pre-race dinner and my legs felt heavy from the 3 Malan's runs and 2 harder efforts through the previous week, but it was good to be pushing a bit and trying to keep up with some of the local fast guys. 

I hung on up the climb, but didn't have the downhill legs this morning and a few guys pulled away.  I held my place to the finish, gave Oreo, who was volunteering, some love, handed HD the $25.00 in my pocket and aplogized for not registering.  Overall, a pretty hard effort on tired legs.  Good to hang out a bit at the finish, talk with some old friends, and watch people finish, Gdoc came in  looking strong!

Corey and I ran back over to the start, mostly goofed off, foraged for food and swept the course for Clay and HD.  Corey ended up runnig the last 3 miles with a 5 gallon bucket full of grub, and I had 3 orange road cones, some mileage signs, and a pocket full of flags by the time we hit the start area.  Good times.

11 miles total, 3200 vert or so.

Race: 5.6 miles 48:00 minutes (and change??) 1700 vert, 8:30 pace.

Week: 38 miles, 5000 vert or so, 3 hardish runs.  Monday, teusday, saturday.