I was really looking forward to FINALLY making it up Dry Canyon today. I was stopped by snow in every other attempt until now. Sort of. I started the run at Providence Canyon and enjoyed a nice 2.75 mile warmup on rolling hills before getting to dry canyon and the nasty climb that ensues. I made my way up the canyon with no issues and no snow on the trail until right before the aid station for Logan Peak. From that point on, it was major snow. The slushy kind that you fall into with no warning. I first took the right fork and tried to make my way around the mountain as I figured once I hit the south slope on the South Syncline trail, it would once again be clear. Unfortunately, I had a 1.5 mile trek across a snow field many feet deep. Amazingly, I was able to find and stay "on" the trail the whole way. I had post-holed my way about a mile when I finally gave up. I headed back and decided to try the North Syncline trail. I knew the south slope would be dry, but it took a bit more snow treking to get to that section. As soon as I crested and was heading down the other side, the snow was just too deep to continue. It had better start to warm up and melt as Logan Peak race is in 3 weeks and I would say that 15 miles of the course is under 3+ feet of snow. Crazy.
I took a break at the ridge to admire the view and snap some photos and then descended like a maniac back to the car. I didn't get to run as much of the course as I wanted, but at least I finally made it to the aid station (mile 4.5 of the course). I think I survived my recovery week and am ready for a big 2 weeks.
T- 3:00:00 (10:54) 152 ave * 4200' vert
Week summary - 63 miles 5650' Vertical
Pics from the day:
Picture 1: Aid Station Looking Right
Picture 2: Aid Station Looking Left
Pictures 3,4,5: South Syncline Trail right after leaving Aid 1
Yep, the trail is under there somewhere. Better start melting!
Picture 6: View of Logan from North Syncline Trail (about mile 22 of course)
PM: Jardine Juniper with Jon and Joe. It was great to catch up with Joe again after so long. He is lean and fit! I led the way up with just an average pace, but with Joe in the lead and Jon right behind him on the way down, the pace was super fast. I was going all out to keep up with them. The final 4 miles were 5:57, 5:48, 6:08, and 5:39 on some mildly technical trails. Crazy fast, but oh so much fun. I love that trail.
T- 1:22:53 (8:16) 10 miles *2050' Vertical (including the small bit down to the tree)
The body didn't cooperate with me today and decided that I would have one gear. Slow. I decided to not fight it and resigned myself to a slog. At least it didn't rain.
Excellent day for another epic long run. I met up with Jon up Logan Canyon at Right Hand Fork. I drove through a huge wind tunnel and some good rain and thought we were in for a crazy run. It actually only drizzled off and on for half the run and turned out to be a great day to hit the trails. My only complaint was the mud. There was a lot of it!
On to the run......We started up Ricks Canyon and followed the bear 100 course back to Richards Hollow. I don't know what to say about it. Some of the most beautiful mountains and trail I have ever been on. Absolutely amazing. I am sad I didn't get any photos today until I got back to the car to get the shot of the mud all up my backside.
T- 4:13 (9:55) 152 ave *6000' vertical
Weekly Summary - 90 Miles 9600' Vertical - Good/Hard Week
AM: Standard monday morning 10 mile run. I did have a bit more fatigue this monday compared to others. It took a while to get the body rolling, but towards the end, things were better.
T- 1:14:56 (7:29) 146 ave *750' vert
PM: T-ball then Landfill Loop (6) then Mowed Lawn. Tired
I joined Jon (joe was a no-show) as we re-visited a classic once a year run that I just have to do. It about killed me last year, but this year it would be different. The difference this year, was that we now know very well the trail up to the Wind Caves Saddle (Birdineau). Last year there was some serious bushwhacking but not this year. I wasn't feeling terribly well today so took it easy from First Dam to Guinavah Malibu (6 miles in 49 mins). Things didn't improve on the wind caves trail (3 miles in 44 mins - 2200' climb). Jon was hardly working the uphills. He sure felt better than I did on the climbs.
We stopped at the summit to enjoy the view before blasting down the Green Canyon side hurdling the hundreds of tree roots. Things suddenly perked up for me on the downhill and soon I was out of range of Jon. I took a nap waiting for him at the bottom, but soon enough he arrived and it was time to hit the singletrack out of Green Canyon. He was whining and moaning so I left him again. Too bad the whole run today wasn't downhill as I could do that just fine. Before long, we finished the short BST section and we were back at the car.
I looked back at the run data from last year and this year, we ran the Wind Caves climb 4 mins faster (even though sticking to the correct trail we added 1/2 mile) and picked up another 5 mins over the last 6 miles. Fun run, but that one time is enough for the year. I will be back next year...
I opted to scale back the small workout I had planned for today due to lingering fatigue. It takes a bit longer for me to recover from big workouts while running high mileage. It is a bit ambitious to run 2 big or even 1 big and 1 small workout PLUS a long run. So, today I just ran. At times it was fast, at times it wasn't. I did the providence star loop plus an extra mile on Deer Fence for 11 miles.
Long day today. It all started with a Ragnar speaker system blaring into my house from the start of the relay at 5am. Seriously. I heard "5 minute warning". I thought the neighborhood was being evacuated and we had only 5 mins to get out. That woke me up good. Never mind that, it is just a silly relay race thingy. Anyway, I couldn't get out of work until 6pm so I rushed over to the start line to attempt a world record vertical climb contest thing on a treadmill, but by the time I got there it was all taken down so dejected, I decided to run the first leg of the course. For those lucky enough to run as runner 1, you probably didn't take much notice, but you entered hallowed ground as you ran on the "Planet Walk" today. Congrats on that achievement. Anyway, I followed the course until Zollinger Park in Providence and decided I had enough and headed home.
Today was another day I have been looking forward to. I love exploring new trails and being fit enough to cover so much terrain in one swoop. This is why I run... Today's expedition was another section of the Bear 100 course. This time it was almost 80% (total guess) of new trail for me. We started right where we left off last week at Right Hand Fork. The first section was up Willow (not new) over to Temple Fork (new) down Temple Fork (not new). This spit us out to where we met up with Jon's car that we stashed and the start of the Out and back up Blind hollow to Tony Grove (all new). I was feeling great after this first section but it was a good thing because the fun was just starting. Time to climb 2400' in 5.25 miles then descend 500' to tony grove. It was made more challenging by the rough ground, rocky footing, 20 fallen tree crossings, moose blocking the path, etc. Very eventful section. I was quite grateful to finally made it to the lake only to be surprised to see that it still had ice on it. In mid June. Crazy. The snow on the hillside (that we found our way through) was quite substantial too. Too much for this time of year (IMO). By the time was finally made it back to the car I was pretty tired and glad to be done, but what a run!
T-3:48:12 (10:33) 5200' climb
Weekly summary: 82.5 Miles 9825' Climb (big week for climbing - PR)
AM: Easy 6 on Landfill Loop. Heading out to Orlando now. I am blogging this at SLC airport waiting for my delayed flight. Should get in some good heat training in...
AM: 7 easy but sweaty miles near my hotel. I found a dirt road 3 miles from the hotel that looked like it had alligators all over it, but I didn't see any. I did see some deer though. Weird.
PM: Late 4.5 mile run around International Drive. More concrete, but not many people or cars. I ran with carl who did WBR for his first time last week. We jumped directly into the pool following the run.
This trip has been a good use of time. Lots of informative classes and all you can eat food. I even ate sushi for dinner.
Great to home to nice and cool Logan. I celebrated by visiting the Planet Walk. Easy run to shake out the travel and flush the junk out of the system. I am still pretty tired from the long days and lack of sleep. Better get some good rest tonight, big day tomorrow...
Logan Peak Race (28 Miles) 04:22:52, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
0.00
28.00
28.00
Logan Peak Trail Race -
What a race! Where to begin? How about I mention the fact that I have been planning and dreaming about this race since last years was over. This is my single most favorite race for many reasons, including the home course advantage, amazing views, tough technical trails, snow, mud and lots and lots of hills. Needless to say, I was pretty excited for the 2010 edition of this race.
The morning began with a nice jog around the starting area with Jon and Joe working on earning a few stars. By race time, I was feeling good and ready to roll. The weather was nice (50's and clear). The race started near Logan Dry canyon and headed out of the park and towards the mountains. Before too long, we were on the Deer Fence trail and then heading up Dry Canyon. Its a nice steep canyon climbing 3000' in the first 4.5 miles. Before long the lead pack included Jon, Joe, myself and 2 others. Things were relaxed but not slow as we climbed the canyon. We were ahead of CR pace by a few mins when we reached Aid Station 1 at mile 4.5 and held that gap for the whole race. Things were looking pretty good, but we were working hard to maintain that pace.
Mile Splits: 9:06, 11:31, 14:15, 15:29, 14:25 (including aid 1)
The big question this year was how much snow we would encounter. A week ago, about a 1/3 of the course was covered in snow. The warm weather took care of that this week and we were lucky to experience roughly the same amount of snow as last year. It was weird though as the snow patches were in different locations this year. Things were moving along nicely as we ran on the South Syncline Trail heading around the mountain.
I was chasing a guy (I forgot his name already) with Joe right on my heels and Jon and (some other guy) behind him when I got a bit carried away on a tight downhill corner(mile 7.5). I stepped on a rock that threw off my balance and before I knew it, I was flying face first into a rock. I banged myself up pretty good even getting a cut upper lip. I layed there in pain until I got some sympathy and then decided to run again. No, seriously, it hurt. After that, I didn't feel too good and had a really hard time keeping up with the pack. This was the hardest section of the course for me. Mentally and physically.
By mile11, we hit Aid 2 and started an out and back section to the summit of Logan Peak (9710'). The pack was still very fluid with lots of position changes. The snow at the summit wasn't too bad and was way less than I expected which helped us maintain a good pace. The celebration at the top was shortened this year as we had some chasing to do to catch the first place guy (name forgotten again). We blasted the downhill closing the gap, but man, it hurt. The nice thing through here was that we get to see the people who are behind us on the course and give/receive praise. Fun section.
Splits: 11:06, 15:50, 11:00, 8:21, 7:31
I made a quick aid station stop to fill my bottle and moved on. I was hoping to get ahead at this point so I could run slower. Weird logic, but it worked for a min until Jon caught and passed me. At this point, he was in the lead with Joe and myself running together behind him. Jon stretched out his lead, but we kept him in sight. I was still feeling tired and worn out. Miserable, but that meant that I was doing something right. Joe and I worked on closing the gap to Jon and by using the singletrack downhill, we were able to do that. We ran the Northern Syncline trail section together and figured that the winner would come from one of us as we had dropped the other guys. This section of trail is absolutely spectacular. Amazing views, beautiful singletrack. I would enjoy it more if it weren't for this pesky race. I started to feel better through here and took over the lead duties. I stayed that way until I found a water trough to dunk my head in as I was getting super hot. More running ensued and before long, we were back at the Aid station at the top of Dry Canyon.
Splits:9:35, 7:11, 7:07, 9:50, 13:22, 8:58
4.5 miles to go. We were all together there, but Jon decided to fill a bottle and since I still had a 1/3 of a bottle I decided to not stop. Joe followed suit and was right on my tail as we flew down the singletrack. I didn't see Jon again after this point. This section is brutal on the legs as they are super tired, but you really have to push it to keep a good pace going on the steep/technical downhill. I worked hard to drop Joe, but he hung with me for a while. Finally! I wasn't able to hear his foot steps anymore (he took a nice spill somewhere in there too). I slowed back off the pace a bit and tried to just survive. At this point I was amazed I could actually win this thing. Don't blow it now Cody.
Before arriving at the bottom of the canyon I was surprised to see about a 100 head of cattle climbing up the singletrack. Great! I made some noise and got most of them to run into the trees so I could pass. A few decided to run by me on the trail and for a bit I was right next to a few cows. It turned out that the cattle owners were following the cows up the canyon on their horses and they were not happy that I was spooking them. Sorry, but what do you do?
The last mile was a bear with some good uphills and downhill all exposed to the hot sun. I looked back and saw Joe not too far behind me, but figured he wouldn't be able to get me so I enjoyed the run-in to the finish. My first win in 3 years and my first ever trail race win. Sweet! Joe finished strong less than a min behind with Jon struggling the last 4 miles and losing about 3 mins to us. But very solidly taking 3rd place. A 1-2-3 sweep for the blog and all of us sporting our Saint George Running Center shirts, we got some nice publicity.
Splits: 7:23, 5:55, 6:15, 6:31, 6:05 (course measured to be 27 miles, but whatever).
Awesome course, well run event that I hope to be able to do for many years to come. The cash prize for first was pretty sweet too. Who can argue with that? Results should be posted shortly HERE
10 painful and slow miles up to the Providence Star. I feel like a truck ran me over today. It is getting worse with every day. Probably 7-8 out of 10 right now. My downhill gear is the most painful of all.
Classic Case of too much too soon. Its really hard to tell the difference between soreness and something being tweaked. Monday morning the line was blurry. Monday afternoon and evening the line was very clear. And I was way beyond the line. My right ankle (actually the tendon right above it) is very unhappy. It feels better this morning and I can now walk without a limp, but running on it would not be a good idea. I am optimistic that it will heal quickly with rest so that is what I will do. I have a big weekend of running planned and must heal up by then.
AM: 6 miles on PW and out to Blackhawk Park. The leg felt much much better this morning so taking yesterday off did it some good. I decided to still take it easy on it and keep the run short. I enjoyed a nice icing afterward courtesy of the hose. If things are still ok this afternoon, I will get a few more miles in. If not, more rest should take care of it.
PM: 4 miles out and back to Planet Walk again. The ankle feels 98% but now there is a sore spot on the bottom of the same foot. After icing, it felt fine again. Whatever.
