Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

I got up for an early morning ride up Suncrest. Under 20 minutes, bottom to top. It's not fast, but it is less slowlier.

We're at a family reunion this weekend, so there was no chance for a long run or anything. I thought I was going to get out for a ride in the morning, but Baby had a rough night (as seems to be the case most nights), so I wasn't able to get up on time to ride. Instead all I managed was an easy 30 minutes on the treadmill with Catherine and some weight lifting with my brother. And curling. Now that I've done it, I still can't it's considered a sport, let alone an Olympic sport. Stupid Canadians.

We had a family reunion this past weekend, and on Monday several of us ran the Freedom Half Marathon and 5K. I signed up several months ago because I thought it would be fun to run with the family and because I was sure that my knee would be better by then. Obviously, I was wrong about the knee thing, but at least I had fun.

I knew I was in trouble from the start. It wasn't just my lack of running over the past month. I felt dehydrated, too, and because Baby Elliott had had a few rough nights throughout the week, I was exhausted, too. Also, the intestines. I used the porta-potties before getting on the bus, and again before the start, but I still felt like there was trouble brewing.

When the race finally started (ten minutes late), I set out at what felt like an easy pace and quickly found myself settling into 7th or 8th place. After only a few miles my legs were killing me. It was a weird feeling--my lungs were fine, but my legs could not handle the pounding as we ran down Emigration Canyon.

I kept plugging along as my legs and my pace steadily deteriorated. By the time I passed the zoo and turned onto campus, I was trashed. This was convenient, because it was here that the course started to climb.

I struggled through what would normally seem like a gradual rise but instead felt like a mountain. I think my pace dropped to something like 8:30. And as I climbed, my intestinal concerns came back with a vengeance. I saw a porta-potty at about 8.5 miles, an I realized that if I passed it without stopping, things could get real ugly real fast. So I stopped.

Two minutes later I felt much better, although my legs were still trashed. It was the first time I had stopped mid-race for a number two, and it was pretty much the end of my race mentally. I struggled through the rest of the race at what should have been a mellow pace, eventually crossing the line just under 1:28. Considering I was able to run just under 1:22 at Antelope Island, I know I'm capable of much better.

After the race I met up with Catherine, who had finished a couple of minutes before me. We hung around and waited for the rest of our family. While we were there, we saw Allie and Fiddy. It was good to see Allie again, and nice to meet Fiddy. He's fast. Maybe someday I will be.

More bike commuting. Convenient, since my legs are so trashed from yesterday's race that I can barely walk.

More commuting. It's hot out there.

I was back on the stair stepper tonight for the first time in a long time. Believe it or not, the Samurai has almost convinced me to go ahead and run ("run") Speedgoat despite my complete lack of preparation. It makes sense, and maybe I'll write more about that later, but for now let's just say that I'll have to do more than just ride my bike for the next few weeks if I'm going to survive.

Forty-five minutes on the machine. Not great, but 45 minutes better than nothing.

I'll start with the GPS file today. Can you tell what I was up to?

 That's right. One hour riding the rollers in the basement. What I need to figure out now is how I (apparently) wound up crossing the street.

Today I ran up Battle Creek to Trail 51, down to Dry Canyon, up the west face of Big Baldy, down the other side to the Baldy Shoulder, and then back down to the car by way of Battle Creek. In honor of Hard Rock, about 4,000 feet in ten miles. Which helps explain my 15:00 average pace. That would be fine if this had been an easy effort; unfortunately, it wasn't. These legs and lungs just aren't what they used to be.I'll return to a normal schedule some day, and when I do I'll get my fitness back.

Another day, another bike commute. I'm experiencing potentially serious technical difficulties with my bike, and the thing only has about 500 miles on it. I hope I can resolve things quickly.

Early morning on the stair machine. I suppose I should be preparing if I'm going to give Speedgoat a try, but I'm still afraid to try running every day, even though my knee felt fine after both of last week's runs.

I was up helping to feed Elliott around 4:0 0 this morning, and she didn't go back to sleep until about 5:30. So instead of going back to bed for 30 minutes, I decided to go run Grove Creek.

I hit the bench in 26:18 and Indian Spring in 40:42, a couple of minutes slower than last time I ran the trail, but not awful. It's interesting how much the trails change with the seasons. When I first ran up here in the fall, the grass was dry, the leaves were changing colors and the waterfall was low. Last time I ran up here the water was raging and the trail above the bench was a marsh. Now it's a jungle.

Speaking of jungles--I took a bad step less than a quarter mile into the descent and went flying into the trailside foliage (if you're up there, look for the unmistakable impression of my body in the plants). I hopped right up, but as I started running I could feel a burning, stinging sensation all over my right leg. I stopped and rinsed at the first water crossing I came to, which helped a bit, but when I got home my leg was covered in little welts (as were my arms and my chest, to a lesser degree). At first there was some itching, so I was afraid I had fallen into poison oak (does that stuff grow up here?), but at the time I'm writing this I'm back to burning and stinging exclusively, so I think I'm okay.

Also, there were some people camping at Indian Campground. Actually, they were camping on the trail by the campground, which ruined my opportunity to hang out an enjoy the view before heading back down (it's hard to not feel like an intruder when someone is getting dressed five feet away from you). Hey stupid campers--that's what the campsite is for. I hope they stepped in poison oak on their way back to the car.

Night run!

I watched Elliott while Catherine went for her run this evening, and then I headed up to Battle Creek for my run. I think I hit the trail sometime between 9:30 and 10:00. I'm terrible at running on technical terrain by headlamp, so I had to keep my pace mellow. So, so mellow. Even so, I almost fell on my face several times. Good run. 

Thirty minutes on the stair-stepper.

I meant to write more, but now I'm two days late, so . . .

Anyways, I had a great morning with Catherine, first at the Run for Mali 5K, then at the Tour de Donut. Despite not eating well in the morning, I decided to head out for my long run at about 5:00. I started at Dry Canyon, ran up and over Big Baldy, then down via Grove Creek and back to the car via the BST 

We can divide this run up into two parts: the good part and the crappy part. The crappy part started near the bottom of Grove Creek when my stomach started acting up. It got so bad that I limped through the flattish final few miles at about 13:00 per mile, with lots of walking. Not cool.

But up until then the run was great, and I'm glad I went. 

Over the past week Elliott has decided that she's done sleeping at night. It's too bad, because up until now she's slept quite well for a newborn. The result of this change is that I'm always tired. It also makes it harder for me to find time to train. 

At the gym tonight, 45 minutes on the stairs.

I got out for a short run on the road tonight, about a 7:30 pace. It was raining a little when I started, but it stopped before I'd gone half a mile. I still got soaked, though. A lot of people set their sprinklers to water the sidewalk after 10:00.

I was in the Cardio Cinema tonight. It's been so long that I can't remember when the last time was. But they were starting Quantum of Solace right as I got there, and I like the new James Bond movies, so it seemed like a good choice. It would have been better if the treadmills in there weren't so awful, but I made do. 

Just over an hour, most of it jogging nice and easy on the 15 percent grade.

Quick run at Lamber Park. It wasn't much, but it's what I had time for and it was nice to be on dirt.

One of those run-to-say-I-ran days. Two miles with a belly full of pizza and root beer.

Long run tomorrow. 

Today was supposed to be my last (and only, really) long run in preparation for Speedgoat. With over 6,000 feet of climbing in under 15 miles, it was a tough one. And except for the death march up the west face of Big Baldy, I think it went reasonably well.

Basically, I ran a shortened version of the Big Baldy loop that Jun and I ran in the fall, with a surprise at the end.

I left my car at Dry Canyon and hit the trail at about 7;00, heading north toward Grove Creek. My plan was to keep the pace nice and mellow, and I think I did a good job of holding back. I hit the Grove Creek trailhead and continued up the canyon, hitting the bench in about 28 and Indian Spring in about 44--both much slower than I usually do, but right around where I wanted to be today.

From there I crested the little ridge and gradually descended past the top of Battle Creek Canyon before starting the climb to the Bald Shoulder. The climb is a series of long, gradual switchbacks. On fresh legs, I think you could run the thing pretty quickly. By the time I got there, I was feeling pretty tired, so although I ran almost the whole thing, I did it pretty slowly.

From the shoulder I descended Dry Creek Canyon, but rather than returning straight to my car, I too a detour to climb up to the Big Baldy false summit. By then I was cooked. The one mile climb took me about 51 minutes (and that's not counting the time when I stopped to just sit on the trail and think about quitting). Even considering the vertical, that's pretty dang slow.

I'm not sure if there was any benefit to the trip up Big Baldy. By that point I'm not sure if there was much training benefit, and really the only reason I finished was because I had started. I guess we can say I was training mental toughness.

Anyway, from the summit it was a two miles descent back to the car and a welcome end to the running.

I felt okay today. Not great, but not terrible, as I've felt during my last few weekend runs. I've pretty much accepted that I'm not in race shape right now, and that's okay--I probably won't be again until Elliott is a little older and can at least sleep through the night. I may be far from race shape, but that's far from being out of shape.

After spending the morning with Catherine at the Desert News 10K, I got out for an evening run in the mountains. I guess you could say I'm cramming for Speedgoat. I know it's too late, but still . . .

The view to the north from Big Baldy.

Anyway, out and back from Battle Creek to the Big Baldy summit. I was pleased that I ran every step of the way, but after reviewing the file I'm not sure that was as much of an accomplishment as I thought it was. Still, tired legs and whatnot.

Also, I met Peaks out on the trail. It's funny how many FRBers I run into in real life. Small world when you're running in Utah, I guess.

The question I'm face with now is what to do for the rest of the week. Do I try to log some more vert tomorrow and then shut it down for the week? Do I take an easy day and squeeze in one last mountain run on Wednesday? Or do I just pull the plug now and hope for the best? No matter what I do, I suspect Saturday could easily be one of my top 5 Worst Days Ever. But if there's anything I can do to mitigate that, it would be great.

I'll keep this post as interesting as today's workout:

45 minutes on the stair stepper. 

30 minutes on the stair stepper.

Oh yes I did.

To say I was unprepared is an understatement—in fact, I didn’t hit 1,000 miles for the year until the middle of the race. Based on what I know I can do, this race was a disaster. But considering how little I’ve trained this year, I can’t help feeling like I got away with something.

The first half of the race went well—the pace mellow and I reached the turnaround comfortably in the top 20. But that was as far as my legs were willing to take me. There were highs and lows, but my second half of the race felt like a train wreck in slow motion. The second climb up to the tram on Hidden Peak was one of the most painful things I’ve ever done. By the time I crossed the finish line in 7:25 and change, I was so ready to stop running.

I’m sorry for the short report. I’m still trying to revive my personal blog, so I’m going to post a full report there in the next few days. I’ll post a link here when I do.