Well this goes down as one of the top 3 workouts in my lifetime for a number of reasons. First I wanted to bail and do it next week because we've had hard rain for a week. That equals mud to your hind end. Second I knew there would be mud. Third there was a chance of even more showers this morning after raining all night and that could lead to mud. However Logan used the commitment pattern on me on the phone and next thing I know by 8 a.m I was running out in the mud. The plan was to do 3 loops out at Little Black Mt. Each loop is a perfect 10 miles. So we wanted to do the first one as a kind of long warm up. Then run the second at trail race effort. Then do the third as a longish cool down. All in all a nice 30 mile day. So we hit the first lap in 1:15. Not bad considering 100 meters from the truck we were already in bad mud. Shoes were caked and we had just begun. The first 2.3 miles of the loop were by far the worst. I told Logan if there would have been alligators this could pass as a swamp. Just gooey, slimy mud about 5 inches deep every step. After that it was hit and miss but still very muddy all the way around. Anyways as we started the second loop we were a little hesitant to even try any "tempo" because what could you really do in this? Well we did very well if I dare say so. After plowing through the now even muckier first few we settled into a smooth flow. It was however always hampered with the spot where you would about loose a shoe in deep mud but we hit this lap in 1:07. Really good considering... The last lap was going to be nice and easy as our reward for breaking 1:08 on the second lap. But Logan kept the pace honest and again after we snorkeled through the first now painful section we hit the final lap in 1:12. A great time considering. 3:34:20 for 30 miles in those conditions had us both pretty jazzed about our up coming race in Moab. We finally made it back to my house and I was in the first stages of hypothermia having been wet for hours and now cooled down. But now after a hot shower and some grub I'm really glad we pushed through such an epic workout. | 