Elite Jogging For Dummies

Haute Route, Day 5.  We woke up at 3am and left the hut at 4am.  It was still extremely dark outside, but visibility was good and we were treated to spectacular stars. I saw a shooting star and thought of Jon Allen.  We had to descend out of the hut to the glacier below, which was no small feat. It took about 20-25 minutes to navigate the ladders and exposure and get everyone down safely.  It was thrilling and I felt very alive to be doing that at 4am.

Once we were on the glacier, we had the best part of the entire hike. We crossed the Mount-Miné glacier for about two hours in the morning darkness darkness, under the thick stars and a silvery sharp moon. 

Our climb led us to the highest point of the hike at sunrise, Tête Blanche, 12,218 feet.  To the west was the imposing site the Matterhorn, which we would keep in view all day.

(not my pics by the way--will post ours soon).

With the Matterhorn looming above us or along side of us, wedescended into Zermatt, across glaciers and crevasses, huge expanses of rocky morraine, and then finally nice easy downhill walking along well-developed footpaths. An extremely long day--10 hours of hiking, and it rivaled any long run I have done for its challenge.

Duration of walking: 10 hours. Length : 15 miles. Difference of level : 1,880 feet up, 7,441 feet down.

From Zermatt, more great views of the Matterhorn.

Despite a lot of fatigue from the hike, I managed to get up and go out for a run in Zermatt. I gained 1000 feet during the course of the run. It was spectacular! 

The rest of the day was travel: from Zermatt back to Chamonix to pick up gear, then from Chamonix to Geneva to spend a night before flying home.

No running, extremely long travel day.

Met up with Josh and Megan at 5:45 on 3rd Ave. I bored them to tears with the detailed version of our Haute Route trip. 

I met up with Josh at 5:30 to run a workout. We ran up through the U and over to Resesarch Park. At the end of a three mile warmup we started the first chunk of the workout: 10 x 2 minute fartlek at CV pace with ~ 1 minute recovery.  The first few we did on the road, heading up above the zoo.  Then we hopped on to the fairways at Bonneville Golf Course and ran the rest of the intervals on the grass. This afforded us a nice surface with some variety in grade.  We were running hard and were pretty spent by the end of these. Josh was still coming off his smoking half marathon at TOU and I was coming off, well, not running.  Anyway, we survived.I don't have my watch with me to write down the distances/splits, but we were generally around 5:25-5:30 pace.

Next up was 3 miles of Tinman Tempo. We ran out and back on Wasatch Blvd and then through the golf course again on the return. Splits were 6:04/6:03 and 6:11. The last mile was tough. It started with a favorable downhill but got ugly when we made a hairpin turn and headed back uphill.

Four miles of recovery to get us home after the workout.

My body is still feeling a little jetlagged, but getting better.  I woke up at about 4:15 again this morning (went to bed at 9:20). Maybe it will improve in the next couple of nights.

At 5:20 am, I ran from home over to Foothill Village, in time to get in four miles and catch the 6am group running the H Rock route.  That route includes, of course, the brutal climb from Wasatch Blvd up and up and up 21st South to Carrigan Canyon.  Then its a nice easy descent to Foothill. Hung out with the group at Starbucks for a while.  Caught a ride home from Josh and Megan.

Met up with a group of six at Foothill at 5:30.  We ran north toward the Firehouse on 11th Ave. A couple of folks turned back and the rest of us pushed on toward City Creek.  We turned back at the Capitol and ran to 11th Ave and Federal Heights. I split off from the group as they were only running 13. I had to stop at home to take care of a couple of issues ...  Then I continued back toward Foothill via This is the Place.  Just missed seeing the leaders in the Salt Lake Half Marathon come out of Emigration Canyon.  I ran into Josh, however, who was out watching the runners and he told me he had just seen Adam come through in second and looking good.  Nice work, Adam, considering the injury issues this week.  I watched a couple of runners come through and then headed up into St. Mary's neighborhood and wandered around.  Then headed back down to Foothill. This was a really challenging run, I never felt that great and had to work mentally to stay with it. However, I did get it done and that's the key.