To celebrate the new year I went and ran an old favorite. Providence Canyon (from the house) with two laps of the canyon trail lower 2 miles. It was packed down nicely until 2 miles up the canyon so I turned around and ran it again. Was going to do a third but I was pretty beat. Great way to start the year.
I had a tight window to run so it was a semi-early start and a route that is time productive to run. House to halfway up Green. Out via canal, back via Sumac Drive. We pushed the last 4 miles under 7 min pace. Good run on some tired legs. Solid week with 70 miles in 4 days of running.
Ran with Mike, Fan, Zac. I wore my modified Roclites with screws. Perfect choice. Trail was a mix of ice and punchy snow. Perfect for turning ankles. Shoes helped a ton. Rest of the guys were whining the whole way. Fun run if you ignore the crying...
Canal Trail again today. This time with Keegan. Foggy until we hit the waterlab then the breeze from the canyon cleared things out. Had a good chat with Keegan.
We tried to escape the inversion today. Headed up to Deer Fence starting at Dry Canyon. We were barely above it until we hit Millville. The lower elevation in Millville made us drop down into it. Worse than the inversion was the frozen, chunky, uneven trail conditions. Not ideal at all. Providence Canyon Trail was a dream. All buffed out by bikes. I was super tired by the end and Fan bonked worse than me. Probably cause he let me eat his food and drink his drink. What a good guy.
AM: Canal Trail(s) with Mike - took it easy in the fresh pow
8 miles in 73 mins
PM: BST, Green, Upper Canal, River Trail with Mike and Zac. Trail conditions stunk again. Lots of complaining from the peanut gallery. Lots of people falling and rolling ankles etc.
Came home and made an omlette with maple flavored bacon on top. Mmmm
PM: Attempt at jardine juniper in some seriously ice conditions. Spikes are mandatory. Upper bowl wasn't tracked out and so it was pretty pointless to go all the way. We did two loops of the lower half of the trail. (9.5 miles) 1:38 2400' vert
Attempt at a snomobile tracked out forest service road. It wasn't too bad, but still very slow going. I went from Camp Lomia up Cowley Canyon and headed up to the pass near the top of Ricks Canyon. I tagged a new peak (un-named I think) and headed down. I got back to Camp Lomia and headed up RHF up willow canyon until I had enough. Wasn't feeling it today so called it good at 3 hours. My hip flexors were tired after lugging around my spikes on my feet today. They sure are heavy.
We tried a few trails but literally within a few feet we stopped and turned around. Too muddy. We did end up in a random field cause we didn't want to backtrack. That was a mistake. Nasty mess that was. I'm hoping that was only mud, but it was dark.
12 miles with Zac and 1.5 before he came (7:13 pace) 750' vert
the plan was to run the big loop now that it's allowed to run on the northwest part of the island. 30 miles in 5 hours. Well, at mile 14 my IT Band said, "YO BUDDY, I HATE RUNNING!" I argued for 3 miles before realizing my fight was in vain. He won. Major pain and now I am very unhappy. I was able to hitch a ride back to the car eliminating the last 13 miles of further injury. Dang it, gotta get it healed up quick. Hopefully it cooperates.
