Per Aspera Ad Astra

Alta Lodge to Twin Lakes Pass to Solitude, back up the road to Brighton, to Lake Mary, to Lake Katherine (the long way, not the shortcut), to Katherine's Pass, to Sunset Peak/Sunset Pass, to Point Supreme in Alta, down the meandering road to upper Albion, to Cecret Lake, up Sugarloaf to Sugarloaf Pass, back into Mineral Basin a good chunk of the way towards Hidden Peak.  I decided to turn around and not do the whole Snowbird part when incoming weather and clouds started to look nasty (unfortunately had dropped in elevation a fair amount on the way towards Hidden Peak before starting the uphill towards it, so I had to make up for all of the descent), so I went back over Sugarloaf and then over Germania Pass and down through Collins Gulch to Goldminer's Daughter and back to the lodge rather than cresting Hidden Peak and going down Peruvian and back up the canyon. It had rained a bit when I was at the bottom of Brighton and then it actually snowed on me, extremely lightly (very tiny granules), on Sunset Peak.  When I got to the bottom of Alta, the rain started getting kind of nasty for a bit, so I'm glad that I took the shorter route down and cut 2 miles off what I planned.  Hip wasn't quite 100%, but it was still really good in my longest run in quite a few months.  Took a hair over 3 hours to complete, as I was climbing a massive amount (about 6500' of both gain and loss), going very easy, taking pictures along the way, and just enjoying myself.

Some cool pics from the run, although only the first half, as my battery died at Katherine's Pass:

It kind of blows my mind that you can see all of this within about half of a 16 mile trail run.  The even crazier thing is that 2nd half of the run was even cooler...

If I'm healthy enough to get in 16 miles of very challenging trails without any real issues from  my hip, I think I'm healthy enough to start training for real again.  I'm going to be in Seattle from Wednesday to Saturday for a conference, but I'll still be able to get some good running in while I'm there.

Suddenly the ball is rolling again.  12 miles on BOSHO.  JCC to 5-way, down to the water tower above the meadow, down the short steep turnoff into the meadow, lap the meadow, back up the normal way.  Saw Nate Krah coming the opposite way a little before the 5-way on the way out, but I was rocking out to my headphones, so I just said "hi" and kept going.  91 minutes.  Felt like I was actually going pretty fast a lot of the time (reflected in the mid-7 pace with lots and lots of climb), but it was in control.  I actually don't think I've lost a terrible amount of fitness, which is nice.

9.25 miles with Holly (Little Water to Crest down Crest Connector to Mid Mountain, back up the access road to Crest, back down Old Red Pine Road Trail), also jogged between SMBB and MEB a couple times, so I'm calling it 10 for the day.  Finally got my Garmin replaced and used it today.  Really happy that the battery doesn't die after an hour, even when not connected to satellites.

13 miles in Seattle with Mike Gee.  First 9 at ~8:00 pace, last 4 he started to blow up (this was his longest run in like 10 years), finished at high 8 average.  Hah.  Still fun, although I have no idea where we were at basically any point other than near water the entire time. Hah.

10 miles along the waterfront paths in Seattle.  There were a lot of sharp turns, tiny rollers, and other people to dodge, so it was hard to get a rhythm going, but I did the first 9 miles at tempo effort and then did the last mile as a cooldown.  The first mile was 6:13, but I suspect it was a little bit long due to running between very tall buildings making my pace jump around a ton.  The rest of the tempo portion was at an average 6:02 pace, with the last 3 miles a hair faster than the rest, all a bit under 6.  So yeah, 9 miles in 54:30, but probably more like 54:20.  Felt good to run hard and the pace wasn't super terrible considering that I was mostly just running hard without much of a rhythm.  I haven't taken any ibuprofen to run in a few days and my hip has been pretty close to fine.  I felt a very minor flareup around mile 6, but after about a minute it was gone and never came back.

I'm actually really pleased with this run in hindsight.  I haven't done virtually anything of any value, fitness-wise since May, I've put on 5 pounds of upper body muscle, and if my legs were rested (ie, not after running 61 miles in 5 days after only having broken 35 in a week once in 4+ months), I could probably still bust out a 1:18 half, or there-abouts.  I consider this a win and I'm really excited to see what I'll be able to do when I get back in shape.

Ok, time to go party it up with some undergrad friends that I haven't seen in 4 1/2 years!

10 miles easy (72 minutes) in Seattle.  I went the opposite direction from yesterday on the water front, through a pretty industrial region, across the West Seattle connecting bridge, and south through Delridge before heading back the same way...    The last few days have been great: academics until 5 or 6, a good run, and then partying with my colleagues from undergrad and grad school - as well as some of the world's brightest biomedical engineers - in the late evening.  Tonight we went to a thousand-plus person party at the Experience Music Project Museum, which was a total blast.  Will be back in SLC tomorrow.  It's kind of a bummer to leave such a vibrant city to head back to Salt Lake, but I'm looking forward to the upcoming ski season, so I can deal with it.

Took the day off!  Was traveling and had already broken 70 for the week, which is a ridiculous uptick from anything I've done recently!  Rest isn't always bad. :)  Feeling healthy and ready to get super fit!