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.
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