Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Almost two years ago, shortly after we moved into our house, I ran into a guy named Vance while I was out running. Since then we've been saying we should run together, but it wasn't until this morning that we finally did. It went pretty well.

I've also been saying that I should start writing here again for a while. Since I crossed one thing off my list, I figured I may as well do another, so here I am.

It's been a good year of running but a bad year of racing. But I'm mostly recovered from the St. George Marathon and hoping to learn from my mistakes and do better next year. I'll post my goals here as I come up with them, but for now expect to see a lot easy runs in the 8-10 mile range, with some pseudo-speedwork and trail running thrown in for variety.

I went back to the office last night after putting the girls to bed and stayed there past midnight, so I slept in till about 6:00 this morning (I should sleep more -- I know) and went for a shorter run. I threw in a couple of  0.7 mile intervals at around a 6:00 pace. Why 0.7 miles? Because that's how long the local Strava segment is, and now I'm the king of Eastdell northbound :)

I'm finally starting to recover from St. George, and I've enjoyed running this week, but my high end is still missing. The 6:00 pace felt harder than it should have.

This morning I went out for my first long run and my first trail run since St. George. I started at Hidden Valley, took the BST to Corner Canyon, and did a loop up Anne's and over to Jacob's Ladder. I can tell I'm not fully recovered because I have no high end and I ran out of gas sooner than expected. But it was a great day for running and I was glad to be out.

I'm still trying to decide how much racing I want to do next year and which races to focus on. Both of my target races went poorly this year, so I know I need to do something to redeem myself :). Right now, I think I may go to California for the Catalina Marathon in March. If anyone knows anything about it, I'd love to hear more.

Easy miles, but they didn't feel that easy today.

I ran farther and faster than I did yesterday, and covered a lot more vertical, too, but somehow it felt much easier. I guess a better night's sleep can do that for you.

I ran some tempo this morning--two blocks of about 2 miles each. Nothing structured, of course. Right now I'm just looking to maintain my mileage and lay the groundwork for future training.

I decided to throw some trails in the mix this morning. Up La Caille gully and on to the lower Bells Canyon reservoir, then down past the boulders, which is pretty sketchy in the dark.

I ran a new loop this morning, essentially combining two shorter loops that I ran a lot earlier in the year. I was grateful for Granite Park and its reasonably clean bathrooms around the halfway mark, but other than that it was an uneventful run. Like Monday, it was an easy run that didn't feel so easy.

Hidden Valley to Corner Canyon via BST.

We had to be at a funeral in Layton at 9:00, so I was on the trail before 5:00 to make sure I had time to run, buy donuts, and get home to get the girls dressed. Because of all that, today's long run ended up being pretty short, which was fine, since I didn't feel great anyway. It was nice to have the trails all to myself, though.

Easy, uneventful morning run. I thought I was going to be running in the rain, but I got lucky and it stopped before I hit the road. Highland to Crestwood Park via Creek, then up past the high school (Brighton?) and home by way of Willow Creek Country Club and Alta Canyon.