Old Man Still running

Recovered well from the grueling adventure yesterday.  Funny how my only soreness is in my left wrist, don't know why.  Either from gripping a bottle too hard or a fall.

I'm having fun tracking Chad Brackelsberg on the Highline Trail.  I think he is trying to break my record.  He has a good advantage in that he's backpacked the entire trail before and has 300 actual waypoints.  He's carrying a SPOT receiver and so far, so good.  He's at mile 13.4 (Chepeta) about 40 minutes ahead of my pace. He started at sunrise, I started in the dark, so was slowed in the first part.   Chad will hit high winds and cold tonight.  I hope all goes well.  I really, really hope he breaks my record because then I will be highly motivated to do it again next year.

Chad is a much faster runner than me, I like his chances.  Last year he ran Wasatch in under 25 hours.  I gave him a bunch of advise for this Highline run.

His Spot it at: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0TuBeqI9VSR3L7mqDbyaD2eHn2hveakCf

Stayed up late following Chad online as he ran the Uinta Highline Trail.  Then I dreamed about it all night.  I kept expecting him to falter, but he didn't.  He crushed my record by over five hours.  28:08.  Granted, I didn't really try to race it this year, but still...  Now there is a time very challenging for me to try to beat.  Very impressive.  He had three GPSes running and they showed 83 miles.   Wish I could try to best his time this weekend, but that would be stupid, so I'll focus on a real race, Wasatch 100.

I need to do some tempo runs, heat training, and some more weight loss.   I know I'll be tempted to do another Uinta run next weekend because the weather is looking good.  We shall see.

Treadmill miles.  WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?   Yeah, I know.  First time on the crazy machine in months.  Here's my crazy thought process.   For Wasatch 100 as I start tapering, I need to work on footspeed.  The treadmill helps me do that.  It even helps me get used to a power hike pace of at last 4.5 mph.  And, I can crank that incline way up, was doing powerhikes at 35%.  Woa, baby.  Also, in the 75 degree+ room, I'm doing heat training, sweating like crazy.   Also did weights and core....yuk, yuk, yuk, yuk, yuk, yuk, gag me with a spoon.

Felt good after the crazy workout.  I know others in the room think I'm insane running at huge inclines and grunting and groaning like I'm killing myself.

p.m. 4-mile tempo run in the heat.  Boy that was hard.  Haven't done fast runs like that in over a month.  Interesting how fast you lose it. After three miles it felt like I was starting to warm up and I felt better.

The weather looked so nice today that on a whim, I decided to run up Mount Timpanogos after work.  I usually go up about 15 times each year, but I've trained other ways this year, so this was the first time I made it all the way up there (I tried in June when there was still too much snow.)

This is a great way to benchmark my fitness because I've run up so many times.  (This was my 63rd summit). Afternoons are great to run up there because the trail is pretty empty as most people are already back down or almost down.  I had the trail mostly to myself.  I was delighted to see my ultrarunning buddy, Brent Rutledge from Lehi coming up as I was heading down.  I haven't seen him in a few months.  He's training for The Bear 100.

This went very well.  I didn't push it too hard, but still did the second fastest round trip I've ever done, and the fastest I have ever done solo. (My PR was running with others).  My roundtrip time was 3:22.   

Splits:

Scout falls: 20:14, rock slide 42:41, Basin trail junction: 1:17, Saddle 1:44, Summit: 2:05, Saddle 2:17, trail junction: 2:31, Scout Falls 3:09, Trailhead 3:22.

In never fails, when I push the time toward 3:30, I face plant at least once.  The trail is just too technical.  As I was approaching a problem section, I was thinking that I better be careful and not face plant, right after that thought, down I went.  Boom.  Scraped a knee and sprained a finger a bit.  But I was fine.  But I also have four near-face plants.  Very close to going down, just caught myself in the nick of time.  My left foot is the problem that usually trips.

So, I'm very pleased by my fitness.  I never felt any altitude problems at all.  I didn't slow down near the top.  All my altitude work this month has really helped.   I think I'm ready for Wasatch 100.

OK, call me stupid.  ---- Everyone together now, "STUPID"  Thanks.  I just can't taper in the middle of the summer when the weather is so perfect.  Tomorrow I am thinking of returning the the scene of the crime, last Saturday's run.  Now that I know the trail on the west, why not run the entire Bear River - Smith Fork trail end-to-end and set a speed record?   This would be running across 7 forks and 6 major ridges.  About 25 miles with 7,000 feet of climbing.  And then of course need to return back for over 50 miles.

Perhaps stupid, but I do recall one of my best 100-mile races ever, Leadville 100 in 2006 when I didn't taper at all, doing a tough backpack the days leading up to it.

Not a race, but I did establish a speed record on a trail on the North Slope of the Uintas.  I ran the trail out and back for 59 miles and about 13,000 feet of climbs.  I know I should be tapering for Wasatch 100, but the weather was too ideal to pass up an adventure run.

Read all the details and view the pictures at: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=415

While I was being good and resting today, I received a distress call from my brother up on Lone Peak.  He and my nephew were descending but nephew Rob could not move any more with heat stroke/exhaustion symtoms.   I rallied, called my brother in law and we raced over to the Orson Smith trailhead.  By that time, my brother had descended and looked bad.  We were in contact with Rob by cell phone and he was doing a little better up on the mountain.  Ed and I raced up the trail.  I was still pretty pooped from yesterday, so I sent Ed ahead.  He is a nationally ranked triathlete, very fit.  It was 95 degrees out.   Ed made it up to Rob about ten minutes ahead of me.  By that time Rob was descending.  He had received some drink and help from a passing hiker.  We then escorted Rob down.  Thankfully everything worked out well.  It turned out to be a good excuse to go up on the mountains today.