AM: (7) Slow and Easy run to end of Von's Park. The recovery is going really well. Soreness is only a 1 (out of 10). Sore butt/back/feet/quads. Tired, but should be good in a few days.
PM: 4 miles to Logan High and back with the kids in the stroller. Hot and I had just eaten. Not pleasant.
PM: Met up with "unemployed Jon" and "always itching to run faster Joe" and we ran from Right Hand Fork up Maughan Hollow to the top. We took a side route on some cow paths for a while towards Willow Canyon but eventually made it to the FS road at the top. We ran on the road until the junction with the Mud Flats Road. We then took the road all the way back to the car via Little Cottonwood Creek. I liked that trail the best even though the cow count was pretty high. Bottom line, most of today's run was nice, but not worth repeating.
I arrived at the Dry Canyon parking lot to see a huge moose with a nice rack staring at me. I flashed him with my brights and he didn't move. I eased into a parking spot as he slowly wandered up dry canyon. I then took off on Deer Fence and bit him farewell. The first 2 miles on the trail were still in the dark, so they were slow, but things improved as I warmed up. I ran out to Millville Canyon and did just a touch up the canyon before heading back. I felt pretty good on the way back so I pushed the pace and ran a 3:30 neg split with a net gain of a few hundred feet.
Another great new trail run with Jon. This was a fabulous trail that I will come back to run again. The downside is that it is 3/4 the way up Logan Canyon so there is a long drive involved, but it is worth it. Very pretty with perfect singletrack to the sinks. Oh, it was Stump hollow to Peter's Sinks. Barely out-ran the huge rain and thunderstorm that blew through.
This marks the completion of the Bear 100 Course recon mission. This was the last section of trail that I had not run before and it was a great one to finish with. Joe me with Jon and I and we were off running starting at Tony Grove at 7:30. The first 4 miles are on the busiest 4 miles of trail in Cache county but today it wasn't bad. I can understand why it is busy. Its gorgeous. In fact most of today's run was awesome. When I say awesome I am referring to the views. Not the state of my body during and after today's punishment. I had a rough time today and was super low on energy. Its a bad sign when you know you are going 20+ miles and by mile 2 you look at the garmin to see how far you have gone. Oh dear. Jon and Joe were patient in my rough patches and I survived to tell the tale.
The route was Tony Grove to White Pine lake then down Bunchgrass trail (one of my all time favorite sections) over to Franklin Basin via Mules Ear pass. Things went downhill here as the trail turned steeply upward on Steam Mill Trail. Once we FINALLY made it to the top we deviated off the course to visit the Lake. Lake seen and admired, we went back to business on the Bear course working our way North to the Steam Mill Road a few miles away. That road spits you out onto the Franklin Basin road (dirt) which we had to follow for 1.5 miles to the car we left there last night. Phew. It goes a lot faster typing than running. Great section of trails though. Steam Mill is pretty steep and rocky. I wont be visiting it anytime soon (other than during pacing duties of course).
Overall, the run was awesome (I think I mentioned it already) even though my legs were shot. I did manage a 6:33 mile to the car at the end while on Franklin Basin Road.
T- 3:40 (10:22) or so since I stopped my watch accidently for about a half mile.
3500' Vert climbing 4500' descending
Weekly summary: 70.5 Miles 9000' vert
Pics:
Running to White Pine (sorry for cutting off your head Joe)
The crew at white pine ( I look tired already)
It's a BEAR! Or is it just Jon?
At the remains of a steam boiler (way off the beaten path)
River Trail from Stokes Nature Center to Guinevah Malibu Campground. Came back via Spring Hollow and the Bridger Overlook. That is a beast of a hill. 800' in .8 of a mile. Thankfully the route down was a bit more gradual. I felt lousy to start and as time went on I felt better. I ended up turning it into a bit of a progression run with the last mile at 6:38.
El Vaquero Loco 50K (30 Miles) 05:39:23, Place overall: 3
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
0.00
30.00
30.00
El Vaquero Loco 50K -
I call this race, "The Revenge of Jon". After the thrashing I gave Jon at Logan Peak he was forced to quit his job and run full time logging 100+ mile weeks just to beat me at this race. He may claim it is all for the bear 100 that he wants to run, but it is a lie. In-fact, he even did a 4 day cold turkey taper so his legs could be rested. He claimed some phantom pain that magically disapeared on race day. What to believe?
Seriously, though I am glad that we were able to race the final in our two part series. We picked an awesome course and a great day to do it. Ty Draney (Race director) put on an excellent race. The course was an out and back 25K each way starting at ~7000 feet climbing to 10,000 feet, dropping to 9000' back up to 10K then a long down to 7000' before turning around and doing it all over again the opposite direction. The start finish was at Cottonwood Lake just outside of Afton WY. Absolutely beautiful terrain.
The race started in the morning dawn and was quite dark for the first mile or so. I was able to see Luke Nelson ease away from our lead pace group on pace to destroy his own course record again. Jon, a guy named Micah, and myself made up the chase pack with another group of 4 or so not too far behind. Jon set a solid pace up the first 4 mile climb (2800') and I hung on for dear life. I was fine as long as the trail was runnable. Once it got too steep and we were forced into a powerhike, I slipped back a few steps. That tendency would turn out to be a factor later on.
As we finally hit the saddle at 10K' we caught a look at what we would descend into and it took our breath away. The most beautiful mountain valley with a large cloud nestled into the bottom of it. An awesome sight. We made our way down the steep / rocky switchbacks and were soon running through the clouds. Jon faded into a fuzzy green and red blob due to the visibility (or the altitude affecting my brain). As we climbed another hill, we stumbled onto a lake. It was amazing. I have a hard time describing the scene and would have given my left shoe for a camera.
More climbing ensued and we hit another lake and another steep climb out the bowl. I lost a bit of ground on this last climb and Jon and Micah put 100 yards on me. I didn't fret and tried to relax on the downhill just running my own pace. I heard an animal in the bushes but it turned out to be Jon taking a pit stop. He caught me easily and worked his way up to near Micah as he had pulled away from me too. The turn-around was interesting as we were able to see our competition and see the time gaps. Luke was way ahead (10+ mins), Micah 2-3 mins and Jon 1 min ahead. We also had the 25K runners start as we approached the turn-around so we were forced to get past them in one direction then work our way through the entire pack (or those that we could) and get past them. It actually turned out to be not a big deal as they were kind to step off the trail when we asked to get by.
The turn-around was the low point of the course and it was a long 8 mile climb to get back to the lakes. I stuck to my low (aka slow) gear and ran all I could on that climb. I enjoyed having roadkill the whole way to motivate me. About 4 miles up the trail I caught and passed Micah who was in a bad place both mentally and physically (went out too hard?). Now I only had to somehow catch Jon who was both climbing and descending better then me. My only hope was that he was falling apart worse than me. I finally got my first glimpse of him a half mile up the mountain at about mile 24. I timed his gap at 5 mins.
This section of the race was a blur as I worked through my fatigue and focused on hydration and fuel. I stopped at most of the creek crossings to pour water on the head and cool off. The cool morning clouds were long gone and the sun was beating down. The lakes were pretty in the mid day sun, but didn't hold a candle to what we saw earlier in the day. As I hit the last aid I saw Jon hiking up the nasty 500' climb to the summit. I timed him twice on that climb. First at 5 mins then at 6 mins. Shoot. He saw me and sped up. Or I slowed down. Or my power hike speed just plain sucks.
Once at the top, a deep breath and a big plunge down the 2800' descent. I knew I wouldn't make up 5 mins on the descent and really only wanted to keep the gap decent. I knew it was going to be close so I pushed as hard as I could and tried not to fall on my face. The finish finally approached and I was quite happy to be done. I finished and looked for Jon. He was smiling and showed my his watch which showed the time difference between him and I. It read 5:39. After a combined 60 miles of racing less than a min seperated us. Crazy. Oh, I suppose I should mention that the 30 seconds or so is in MY favor. HA! Luckily I am not running the Bear 100 or he would take over the lead by a few hours.
Luke broke his won course record again, with Jon being the second fastest person to run the course ever and I following as the third fastest ever. Cool. Micah finished about 30 mins later with Leland Barker not far behind.
Sport Tracks stats:
9000' vert climbing and the same descending.
I spent 59.2% of the race (time-wise) climbing, 33.1% descending and 7.7% on the flats. Kind of cool. Slowest mile was 19:54 (net gain of 889 feet). Fastest mile was 6:51 (mile 29). I guess I was going so slow at times that it thought I had stopped. It showed 41 mins of time stopped. I think I spent 5 mins max stopped at aid stations.
13 of the slowest/steepest/rockiest/bush and poky branches cutting the legs infested/best views of both Cache Valley and Box Elder County at the same time / most awesomest/ Miles I have ever run on the Wellsvilles today with Jon. Very cool indeed. We started at Deep Canyon at 5:30 and ended at Rattlesnake Gulch in the dark. Last 2 miles were run by light of the moon. I will post pics of the amazing views someday.
Another epic trail run. This was the farewell run for Jon. I wish him luck in finding another training partner in South Carolina. But even harder than that, is the difficulty in finding a run to match this one. Sorry to rub it in, Jon. We will miss you though.
Beirdneau Peak to Mt. Elmer to Mt. Jardine to Green Canyon. Awesome loop. I will have to try it the other direction to see which I like better. I sure enjoyed the fast descent in Green and know it would not be the same to descend down the Beirdeneau trail.
Anyway, the run started off bad as I had an alarm clock issue and missed my wakeup. Jon called and that woke me up but now we were 25 mins behind. Sorry again guys. I had a deadline to meet up with some friends at 11 am so the early start was necessary. I liked it though as we got to see the sun rise and even run in the cooler temps for longer. The grunt up to Beirdneau was a doozy but with the awesome views, very worth it. After that, things just got harder as the trail was faint and was relentless rolling (up) hills at 8500'. We eventually made it to Mt. Elmer and scrambled to the summit for some pictures and a breather. 2.5 hours to run 10 miles. Seriously?
The next highlight was the random bush-whack over to Mt. Jardine. If there is an easy way from Elmer to Jardine, we sure were not on it. We eventually made it to the top to only talk Jon out of looking for the real way down to Green Canyon. We erroneously convinced him another bush-whack was in order. Straight down the mountian and down a ravine until we hit the real trail down Green. Not a route I will repeat. Ever. But very cool.
The descent down Green Canyon was once again a race and Jon led the charge. I stayed with him until a biff slowed me up a bit. Very fun stuff though. I love that canyon. Except for the bikers on Saturday morning. Too busy. Mission accomplished, loop completed and definetly one to remember.
T-4:15:00 (13:30) 5500' vert
Weekly Summary : Lowest mileage week of the year, but some serious vertical for 2 of those days. **42.5 miles 11k' Vert
Today I drove into Providence to bypass some road miles and enjoy some trail. I parked at the Park/School and headed up to Providence canyon. I then jumped on the Deer Fence trail and headed to dry canyon and ventured about a half mile up the canyon before running out of time. The way back was faster with the final 3 miles quite quick (for me). Great morning to be on the trails. Too bad its dark now for the first half of my runs. Makes it less inviting for sure.
Sadly (a small part of me) I didn't run the Top of Utah Half marathon today. It was the first year in 4 years not running it. I thought about the many runners out today while on my trail run. Losers. Just kidding....
Joe and I got an early start again today (since he had to work at 11) and hit the trails in the dark again. Joe wanted to recon his section of pacing duties for Jon and I happily obliged. We started at Right Hand Fork (after dropping a car at Temple Fork) and ran up the Willow Creek Trail to mud flats. We followed the course to Temple Fork mostly uneventfully. The highlight of the morning was the spectacular lightning storm taking place just north of us. Luckily it had just moved through so we weren't in any danger, but it left behind some muddy trails and very wet plants.
We hit Temple Fork in 1:19 (mile 8.1) and the real climbing began. The grunt up Blind Hollow wasn't as steep as I remember. I figure I have gotten used to some steeper stuff since last running this section. It did get a bit tedious at the top, but we made steady (but not fast) progress. We hit the lake at Tony Grove in 2:43 (mile 14.4), ate a snack and got back at it. On the downhill, my legs were very unhappy with me and let me know. Once again the pace was steady, but not fast. That trail wasn't half bad though and I am glad I got to run it again knowing what to expect as it did seem easier and more fun this time. I am thinking a good run would be RHF to Temple Fork up Blind to Tony Grove over to White Pine and down to Franklin Basin. 24 miles or so. Not a bad shuttle either.
Another great run and glad Joe could join me.
T- 3:40:00 (10:29) *5000' vert gain *4500' descent
Weekly summary - Crazy busy week at work and I was lucky to get out running as much as I did. I am feeling the effects of the long hours and have to go in today for more. Considering all that, not a bad week. I am still feeling the effects of all the racing I have done as well.
I made the mistake of not taking the big dark clouds seriously this morning and boy did I pay for it. The heavens opened up at mile 4 of a 10 mile run and didn't let up. I was frozen and miserable. In shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Not that would have made any difference as I was soaked through in minutes. The icing on the cake was the short section of barbed wire I somehow got wrapped around my leg taking a good chunk out of the skin behind my knee. Man that sure stung from all that dirty road water "washing" it out as I ran home. What a morning... time to start checking the weather a bit closer and probably time to take my headlamp so I can see the trail (and barbed wire) more clearly.
