Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

I planned to run during the day, probably an out-and-back from our house up Grove Creek to the bench, but we were  busy with other things and by the time I got ready to go it was late enough that I was afraid of running out of daylight while on the trail. So, Catherine and I set about unpacking more boxes, planning to run at the gym that night. But it turned out the "best gym ever" closed at 7:00, so I wound up bundling up and hitting the road a little after 7:00. I got off the road as soon as possible and ran an out-and-back on a bike path near our house (packed snow) followed by a loop around the temple for 9.1 slow and steady miles. Once I got going the run was actually quite enjoyable, although my elbows were painfully frozen by the time I was done. It's strange--I've frozen just about everything at least once of the past few years (part of training through the winter, I suppose), but this is the first time I've frozen my elbows.

One hour on the treadmill this evening. I ran 45 minutes on the 15 percent grade. The mileage is lower, but for my goals, I think vertical is more important. After five minutes I stopped my treadmill because I thought maybe the incline wasn't steep enough, but it felt the same when I switched to a different one. Maybe all the treadmills at the gym are sandbagger treadmills, or maybe I'm just getting stronger. Whatever the case, I bumped the speed up to 4.7 mph for the 40 minutes on the second treadmill, while throwing in two 5-minute reps at 5 mph.

More treadmill vert tonight, but slower so I don't fry myself. I ended up putting in 65 minutes, 45 of them on the 15 percent grade. I spent the first 30 minutes at 4 mph, and after about 10 I thought I was through--I just wasn't feeling it. But I kept going and kept feeling better as I went. I never came around to 100 percent, but I did feel well enough to finish with 15 minutes at 4.3 mph before cooling down on the flat.

My mileage is lower this week, but I believe I've gotten over 5,000 feet of vertical so far.

There were so many things wrong with this run--I didn't feel well at the beginning, two different treadmills broke while I was using them, and then the employee responsible for restarting the movie in the Cardio Cinema didn't, and I was stuck watching the DVD menu for Stomp the Yard for 10 minutes. Also, I guess Stomp the Yard was wrong with the run. I thought it was supposed to be about break dancing, but instead it was about competitive "steppin'," which made about as much sense to me as a cricket match. As far as I could tell, it's some form of hip-hop patty-cakes performed by guys in faux military outfits who grunt and yell a lot. Also, you win by sliding on your head, but only if it's in response to the guy from the other team spinning around really. really fast. Or something.

Anyways, I cut out early, with nothing more than some flat, easy miles.

50:00

I was planning on doing a second run this evening, but there was no time for it, so I wound up with just my out and back to the bench up Grove Creek. The snow is getting deeper, and the last half mile is mostly suitable only for walking rather than running, both for convenience and safety (I never noticed when the canyon was dry, but there are a few places where you could go for a real ride). Anyways, the two-mile, 1600-foot climb took 32:38 today, compared to 27:28 last week.

Also, I ran into a fellow FRBer at the parking lot who had run up from the valley. I can't remember his name, though, but it sounds like I'll be seeing him at the Buffalo Run.

51:55

More treadmill miles this morning, and it was a better experience than my last trip to the gym. I watched TMNT (Ninja Turtles, baby) in the Cardio Cinema, which was better than I expected. At least as far as treadmill movies go. I'm not sure I'd ever just sit down to watch it. Now I kind of want to go back and see the live-action movies from when I was a kid.

As for the run--10 minutes to warm up, followed by five reps at 6:00 with five minute recoveries, followed by a short cool down.

65:00

Anyone who's read this blog for a while has probably noticed a pattern of me deciding to do one thing and then doing something else. I'm just saying . . .

Anyways, last night I decided that I would run indoors today, no matter what the weather was like, because the inversion was so bad that I couldn't see how it would be a good idea to run outdoors. But this morning I woke up thinking I really should get away from the treadmill, so I bundled up and headed out into the murk.

I followed the bike path near our house up to the mouth of AF Canyon, then I followed the path (and later a fire road?) along the foothills to Grove Creek Canyon. I started up the Canyon, but I felt terrible after less than a quarter of a mile, so I turned around and continued along the foothills to Kiwanis Park at the mouth of Battle Creek Canyon. From there I ran down into Pleasant Grove, headed north along the irrigation ditches, and then ran down the road back home.

One thing about feeling awful at Grove Creek--I've felt terrible twice this week, during my only two outdoors runs. I'd like to blame the inversion, but that feels like an excuse. Does anyone know whether the crappy air can have an immediate and noticeably detrimental affect on performance?

2:21:00

AM: A quick five miles on the treadmill to start the day. There was a frozen puddle by the gym entrance. I saw a woman slip and fall on it as I was parking my car before the run, and some guy slipped and fell as I was leaving the gym after my run. Also, my first treadmill shut off ten minutes into the run. I didn't crash into the controls as hard as I could have.

38:00

PM: more vertical on the treadmill. I ran a pretty typical workout--10 minute warmup, followed by 45 minutes on the 15 percent grade, followed by a cooldown. I ran most of the vertical at 4.5 mph, but I bumped it up to 4.8 mph once I was inside the last 10 minutes, and finished with a minute at 5 mph. I think that puts me at just over 2500 feet for the night.

I was watching the Oregon-Auburn game because I was told it was not one to miss. I have no connection or loyalty to either school, so I chose to cheer for Auburn. That violates my general cheer-for-the-lowest-ranked-team policy, but sometimes the state of Oregon bothers me because of its surplus of smug. Plus, I see a lot more people running around in Oregon attire than in Auburn attire, so I thought I'd cheer against the team with the (seemingly) more cultish following.

Oregon fans, don't take any of that personally.

Unfortunately, I left at half time. I wonder how the game will turn out

61:00

Eight miles on the treadmill in a little under an hour. We ran late tonight, so I felt a little off at the start, but I came around after 15 minutes or so. I passed the time by throwing in assorted half-mile intervals. Or interval-like-thingies.

AM: Forty minutes on the treadmill before school. Five minutes to warm up, 30 minutes on the 10 percent grade (10:00/mile) and 5 minutes to cool down.

PM: Very little time this evening, so I just through in a quick 20 minutes on the treadmill. I'm starting to feel some protests in my left knee, and it makes me nervous. So far it's nothing to worry about, and I hope it stays that way. Still, I think I'll be cross training for the next couple of days, then I'll see where I stand on the weekend.

The reason I had so little time this evening is that I've joined an intramural basketball team with some guys from the law school, and we had our first game tonight. I didn't know what to expect before, but I do now--we're terrible. In fact, I don't think I've ever been beat so badly in any sport in my entire life.

I guess it will be fun :-l

As promised, I stayed away from running today and used the stair stepper instead. (Obviously, then, my miles aren't actual. But as I've said many times before, the stair stepper is the one form of cross training that I do count in my miles, given it's direct relation to mountain running). One hour at a steady pace (after slowly ramping it up for the first five minutes or so). 

AM: More stair stepping at the gym. This time, I alternated between two minutes easy (about 150 watts) and two minutes not so easy (about 350 watts).

PM: Even more stair stepping. Sigh. This time, I just kept it nice and steady for an hour. According to the computer, I climbed 320 floors (compared to about 420 in an hour last night), but who knows what any of that actually means?

Tomorrow I plan to try running again. I think two days is enough to keep my knee from getting injured, but just in case, I'll be at the gym so I can bail at any time (see how just gave myself an excuse to stay inside where it's nice and warm?). Also, I'll wear my little tendon strap thingy. I don't know if it really works, but I think it does give me a mental benefit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again--I like treadmills. Which is why I spent two hours on one today. (Also so I could bail out at any moment if my knee felt like trouble.) The workout was pretty straightforward. For the first hour, I alternated between ten minutes easy on the flat (8:30-9:00 pace) and ten minutes on the 10 percent grade (10:00 pace). For the second hour I ran 10 flat, 20 incline, 10 flat, 10 incline, and 10 more flat, with the last two minutes at a 6:00 pace. After that, I thought I was done, but I still had to wait for my ride home so I ran a flat mile at a 12:00 pace. I read that that was Meltzer's average pace on his cross-country adventure, and ever since reading that I was wondering what it would feel like. The answer--slow. Still, I can see how it would be very enjoyable to cover long stretches of back roads at such a pace. Also, I imagine you'd start to feel it after 10 hours a day for 40 days. Yikes.

2:12:00

Today is a holiday, which means I meant to get an early start but instead wasn't out the door until sometime after nine. It's so hard to get out of bed when you don't have to.

I ran an out-and-back from our house up Grove Creek. It turns out the trailhead is a little more than 5 miles from our house, not 4, as I had thought. Anyway, there was much less snow on the trail than last time, which I expected, but there was also even less traction, which I did not expect. Basically, it was too warm, and the consistency of the snow was such that I felt like I was running in a Slurpee. I quit after half a mile, reconsidered, pressed on, and quit again after another half mile. It was just too much work and too frustrating to be worth it, and my head wasn't in the game. Even without the climb, it was a great start to the week.

1:45:13

So, my knee is definitely acting up again. I'm not quite ready to say I'm injured, but I'm definitely walking the line. Stupid IT band. And, for the record, I'm not stretching it, strengthening it, or using the roller on it. So really, stupid me.

Anyways, I was going to skip running today and cross train, but when it came down to it I didn't want to, so I ran. I'm sure some of you read that article a while back (on irunfar?) about creating narratives about injuries, and I'm definitely good at that. I think my problems have something to do with running too much vertical. So I'm going to try to run more flats, and limit myself to a couple of climbing days per week between now and the Buffalo Run. If I do that, maybe my knee will get strong enough to handle more vertical between the Buffalo Run and Squaw Peak.

As for today's workout, one hour on a treadmill. Fifteen minutes flat, fifteen minutes walking on the 15 percent grade (I said I think running too much vertical is the problem), fifteen minutes flat, and fifteen more minutes walking on the incline. According to my imprecise measurements, my heart rate was in the low 130s during the walking parts. And if I'm not mistaken (unlikely), I think I got somewhere in the neighborhood of 1400 feet of vertical.

If you asked me what my least favorite body part is right now, I'd tell you it's my knee. Or maybe my IT band. Whatever. Tomorrow I'll wander into meathead territory, short shorts and all, to do my little lateral strengthening exercises. It really annoys me not to run as much as I'd like to.

Speaking of meathead territory, I've decided to get back to strength training this year. I used to lift five days a week, but when I started cycling seriously I thought I should lose every pound I could, and I've been skinny ever since. (Who am I kidding. Other than a brief flirtation with 180 lbs, I never really managed to break past 175. Which is not much when you're 6'5". In the bodybuilding world, I think I'd be the equivalent of the guy who runs 100 miles per week for 5 years and still can't run a sub-20 5K.) But I'm not racing for anything other than my own satisfaction these days, so I may as well have a little muscle, right? I've taken a before picture, and maybe I'll post it when I have an after picture to go with it. I'm only going to lift twice a week, but I figure I should be able to resemble the Incredible Hulk in a month or two. Green skin, purple shorts and all.

Today I spent 40 minutes hiking on the treadmill at a 15 percent grade, followed by 20 minutes on an elliptical. Followed by about 10 minutes on a rowing machine, because I just found out the gym has one and I couldn't resist the novelty.

AM: I'm going to be better about taking care of my IT band, and I started this morning by doing my strengthening exercises. After that, I went for a quick run on the treadmill. Four miles in 27:30. Two miles at 6:20, and half a mile at 5:30, with the rest at a fairly relaxed pace. My knee felt fine during the run, but a couple of hours later it's feeling about the same as it did yesterday. I'll be cross training tonight.

The Cardio Cinema movie of the day is Harry and the Hendersons. Whoever picks the movies at the AF Gold's Gym needs to be fired. Out of a cannon. Absolutely no idea as to what makes a good treadmill movie.

PM: More stair stepping, followed by the strengthening thingies. On the stair stepper, I went for an hour on some random intensity program. A little more than 400 floors.

Yesterday we all got an email announcing that grades would be released today, and I had a hard time not worrying about it between then and 4:20 today, when I actually got my grades. I did well enough.

As for my workout--Catherine and I got a late start, but we made it to the gym this evening. I pumped my guns for 30 minutes or so, then I spent another 30 minutes on the stair stepper doing intervals, alternating between two minutes easy (170 watts) and two minutes hard (390 watts).

I had an intramural basketball game this morning. For civility's sake, I won't say much. But one could argue that some of those student employees are unreasonable in their enforcement of the honor code. Next time I'll draw a chalk circle around her.

Despite playing half the game short one man, we tied. Definite improvement.

By the time I got to work out tonight, we were running short on time. Which is fine, since my knee isn't getting any better (on the other hand, it hasn't gotten any worse). Ninety minutes on the stair stepper doing three minutes easy, three minutes hard. If the computer is to be believed, I climbed about 570 floors. While watching The Matrix. That's a good treadmill movie. And it's funny to watch on TV--it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure the characters in the original didn't say things like "oh, shucks" and "jeepers creepers!"

Who rocks? I rock.

Pool time today. I think my knee is feeling better, but I'm going to play it safe for a while and do a lot more cross training than I used to. I'd hate to blow my race schedule before it even starts.

I shared a lane with Catherine. I tried the water jogging thing, but I just wasn't getting it. Maybe a four-foot-deep pool isn't deep enough for me. Or maybe I'm just incompetent. Either way, I'm not sure if I'll try it again. If I do, I'll have to watch some of the videos Bonnie linked to first.

I ended up swimming for 30 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of kicking (Catherine wanted her goggles back). Now I smell like chlorine.

This morning we were late to the bus stop, so Catherine dropped me off and I ran over to get on the bus before it left, but I tripped as I ran over the snow bank between the parking lot and the loading zone. I stumbled, and because I was carrying an unbalanced load I couldn't steady myself and I hit the deck. Hard. I skinned my knee, bruised my hip, cut my hands and tore my jeans. And now I can't tell if my knee is sore from running or from falling on it. I think it's the latter.

Then, when I went to Subway for lunch I slipped and fell on my butt as I was leaving the law school. Stupid fake Sanuks have less traction than a pair of banana peels. I still love them, though. But seriously, kind of a bad day for Eric.

Anyways, I spent 75 minutes on the stair stepper at the gym tonight. For 60 minutes I did 3 minutes on, three minutes off. Then I kept a steady pace for 12 minutes, cranked it to the maximum level for 2 minutes, and cooled down for 1 minute. Also, I was watching Glee.

I was hoping to watch the BYU game at the gym, but they didn't have the right channel, so the best I could manage was to watch the score updates at the bottom of the screen on ESPN. Looks like a good game. Unless you like SDSU.

As for the run, I just put in an hour, with 20 minutes tempo-ish in the middle (about 6:40).

I came up with a new variation on the stair stepper for my hour tonight. Four minute blocks--Three minutes easy (180 watts for the first ten, 160 watts for the last five), one minute at the maximum level (430 watts). The first few reps weren't so bad, but I was feeling it by the end. I was drenched in sweat, too.

While I was going, I watched some alarmist "news" report on Spike TV about gangsters in the army--you know, the kind where the narrator explains that the problem may seem small, but shows how big it really is by speaking in a menacing voice about an isolated event or two. Journalism at its finest, yo.

Late night, and I didn't even hit the road until just before 11:00. By then there was no spring in my step, and I just kind of slogged my way through. Also, I stepped in a mud bog up to my ankles. My trusty Launches aren't so pretty anymore.

50:43

A late night last night meant a late morning today, and by the time I'd done some other things that needed doing, it was past 2:00. Energy levels were low, but  ran up the bike path to American Fork Canyon, throwing in five repeats on a short but brutally steep golf-cart road, and then followed the highway back home.

My miles suck lately. Unfortunately, the time isn't there as much as I'd like it to be. Plus, I think my knee is still tweaked, although it's hard to say what I can attribute to my tendon and what O can attribute to my skinned knee. Either way, the fear of injury really screws with my motivation. The Buffalo Run could be ugly this year, but I hope I can pull it together before then.

1:25:36

I got up early this morning and went to the gym to pump my guns. I'm so buff.

This afternoon I went back and spent an hour on the stair stepper. Thanks to the scabs on my knees, I don't really know how my knees are feeling, so I'll play it safe for a while. I'll run, just not every day. Anyways, I did two 20-minute threshold intervals today. It was pretty brutal by the end of the second. Fortunately, they were showing Blade on Spike TV. It's not a very good movie, but it's just about perfect for the treadmill. I guess it's like Twilight for males age 18-35. Which is to say it's a crappy vampire movie, but instead of sappy romance you get graphic violence. (Disclaimer: I have neither seen nor read any of the Twilight series, so my synopsis may be inaccurate.)

One hour on the treadmill tonight. I ran a 20 minute warmup, followed by 30 minutes fast (20 at 6:30 and 10 at 6:00), followed by a 10 minute cooldown. 

Florida v. Vanderbilt was on TV. I chose Vanderbilt because they were the lower-ranked team and they were behind when I started watching. Also, I considered going to law school at Vanderbilt, while you probably couldn't pay me to move to Florida (the state). Stupid refs--my boys got robbed.

Also, Catherine and I went in for our 20-week ultrasound today and confirmed that we're having a little girl. If it were a boy we would have named it Leif, but now we have to come up with a girl's name. As of this morning we're thinking of Elliot. Feedback is welcomed.

I took it easier at the gym tonight because I had an intramural basketball game right after. Two miles walking on the 15 percent grade, followed by 1.5 miles or so of easy running.

Our game went pretty well tonight, even though we lost. It was close, and I had a good night, so I guess I can't complain too much. At this point, I'm hoping we lose our remaining two games, but not by much. That way, we'll go into the playoffs with one tie and four losses, which should land us firmly in the lower division. I have much more confidence in our crew as one of the better "bad" teams than as one of the worst "good" teams.

I have no idea why it's so hard to buy Sudafed. People are still making meth, and now I have to fill out more paperwork than I would to close on a mortgage, just so I can get a decongestant. At least I was able to give a fake address.

I started on the treadmill planning to go 10 miles, but I got bored. When the Lakers game came on, I decided to compromise and run till the end of the first half.

I think I may be coming down with whatever Catherine has.

AM: Four miles at the Cardio Cinema. Twister was on. I saw that one in the theater when I was much younger, but I had no idea it was such a crappy movie. 

PM: Pumping my guns at the meathead gym in Sugarhouse. Afterward, Catherine and I ate dinner at Pei Wei and then caught the end of the gymnastics meet at the U (We got season tickets on Groupon.)

I totally planned to go run a trail today, but with so many other obligations I didn't get to run until after 9:00 in the evening. I didn't have the requisite toughness to strap on  a headlamp and hit the trail, and because the Best Gym Ever in AF closes at 7:00, I ended up driving down to the gym in Orem. Perhaps not surprisingly, it's pretty empty on a Saturday night.

Anyway, I ran a 30-minute, 4-mile warmup (during which I was suddenly hit with the urge to pee so bad that I almost didn't make it to the men's room.) Then I cranked the incline up to 15 percent and cruised slow and steady for an hour (4.3 miles and 3400 feet, according to the treadmill. I was going to finish with another 30 minutes on the flat, but I got bored and stopped after 15.

1:45:00

My brother and I both decided we need new basketball shoes, so we went out shopping this afternoon. Two observations: 1) basketball shoes are ugly, and 2), basketball shoes feel like cement boots. I was looking for new shoes because my old ones are hot, heavy and stiff, but that just seems to be the way basketball shoes are. Some newer ones have addressed the hot and heavy issue, but there's no way around the stiff part. Nike has 95 percent of the market share--why don't they take a chance on a Free basketball shoe or something? 

No run tonight. I slept in this morning because I forgot to set my alarm last night, so I missed my Monday morning pump fest at the gym.

The reason I missed my run tonight is a little more serious. Catherine's heart thing turned out to be significant enough that the cardiologist wanted to see her today. And once he saw her, he wanted to keep her at the hospital for a few days. So I'm here with her, and we're waiting to hear more about what exactly is going on and how long we'll need to stay. For now, all we know is that it's idiopathic ventricular tachycardia, but since we're not doctors we don't know the exact implications. We do know that she may need surgery after baby comes, though. Hopefully not. Anyways, we'll keep everyone posted as we learn more.

We're still in the hospital, but we're a little more settled in now, so I was able to get out for a run. I hopped on the BST right behind the hospital and then ran up Dry Creek until I hit a semi-arbitrary turnaround point that allowed me to make it back just as the sun went down. The run was way too short, but incredibly satisfying nevertheless, and it makes me miss living in the Avenues. I could run that trail all day long (in fact, there's an idea for a long run).

As for Catherine. We've now figured out that we're here so they can keep an eye on her during a loading phase for her medication. At first we thought we might get to go home today, but then they decided the medicine they gave her wasn't working, so they decided to try something new, which means we'll be here for at least another night. Sigh.

Right now it looks like Catherine is in the clear, so we're mostly worried about Baby Girl. They tell us the medicine should be safe, but they also say there aren't enough studies to really know about effects on pregnancy. We're hoping for the best.

1:00:41

We're out of the hospital now, thankfully. It will be nice to sleep in our own bed, and without nurses coming in all night to draw blood and measure vitals. Anyways, Catherine has to be on a special heart medication until baby comes. We've been assured that any risk to Baby Girl is minimal, but it's still scary. Also, Catherine has to wear a heart monitor for the next 30 days, and she may need heart surgery after giving birth. Fun for her!

I was pretty beat all day. Something about not getting enough sleep. Still, I managed to drop by the gym tonight for four lethargic miles on the treadmill. I feel the need to maintain some consistency no matter what, just so I don't lose the habit forever.

31:45

Not much to say about today. With Catherine our of the hospital, things are pretty close to being back to normal, or at least as close as they'll be until the monitor comes off. I only have two classes on Thursday, so I woke up an hour later than normal and spent most of the day catching up on my reading. I managed to fit in an hour on the gym tonight. Forty minutes of tempo/threshold stair stepping, with 10 minutes of easy cruising on either end.

I got in a very short run at about 11:30 tonight, just to say I could, but that doesn't mean that today was so busy I didn't have time to work out. Running just wasn't a top priority. I woke up early and headed to the gym to do some lifting, and then I spent the entire day over at the law library. Catherine picked me up at 6:30 or so, and we grabbed dinner before running a few errands on our way home. Then we had to turn right around because I had an intramural basketball game at 10:00. As usual, we lost. And as usual, it wasn't really that the other team was that good. Of course, they did have a tall guy kind of like me but way, way better. I slowed him down a bit, but I didn't manage to stop him. Which is too bad, because he was pretty much the team. Anyways, I was hungry, sore and tired after the game, but I still got my miles in like a good boy.

24:02

I finally managed to get out of bed and on to the trail by a reasonable time today. I started at Grove Creek and then ran an out-and-back to Orem on the BST. It's a very nice run. When we do the Big Baldy loop, the BST looks pretty flat in comparison to the major climbs, but in reality it's a continuous series of short climbs and descents. The ground was frozen when I started, and all of the horse footprints made footing difficult. On the way back the ground had thawed and all the mud made the footing very sloppy. I guess you could say it almost felt like spring.

Anyways, so ends another low-mileage week. Really, my training volume isn't as low as it seems, because I don't count many miles for my hour-long stair stepper workouts. But I think I may be paying the price and getting out of shape. I bonked pretty badly on the return trip today, and what should have been a nice, easy cruise turned into a bit of a slog. I can point out that I didn't eat much yesterday or sleep much this week, and that may explain things (after all, I did feel fantastic on Tuesday), but a more plausible explanation may simply be that I'm not training enough and therefore I'm losing fitness. At least I still have 6 weeks or so to whip myself into shape for the Fubfallo Run (not a typo).

1:49:17

On the treadmill. Alternating between half a mile at 8:00 and half a mile at 5:27. I was going to run six miles, but I dropped by phone on the treadmill at about 5.25 miles. It was sitting just by the belt, and I had somewhere to be, so I figured it was a sign that I should pull the plug.

In addition to running, I did my weight lifting in the morning and I went to play some three on three with my brother and some of his friends.

36:20

More treadmill miles. Nice and steady, for the most part, but I did throw in a couple of six minute miles. 

1:00:00

Three days in a row of actual running--the first time in a while. I think I should probably cross train tomorrow, because I don't feel like my knee is out of the woods. Tonight I ran very easy on the treadmill for ten minutes, then I cranked the incline up to 11 percent and spent 45 minutes at 12:00, then I finished with an easy five on the flats.

The run was in the evening. This morning I got up early and went to the gym to work on my b-ball skillz for 45 minutes or so. There's only one more intramurals game left, and I'd like us to win at least one before we get shipped off to the lower division playoffs.

1:00:00 

Continuing my running streak to four days in a row. My knee doesn't feel invincible, but it doesn't hurt, either, so I'll take that as a good sign. One hour on the treadmill, super easy pace.

Goose egg. But I did get a chance to lift weights in the morning.

There's a lot to say about today, but not much of it running related, so I'll leave it out. Let's just say it wasn't the best of days.

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of hours on the treadmill tonight. Basically, I ran at a steady 10:00 pace for the entire time, except for the last six minutes, over which I slowly ramped the pace up to 6:00. My workout went like this: 10 minutes flat, 50 minutes at 10 percent, 15 minutes flat, 30 minutes at 10 percent, 15 minutes flat. I ended up running 8 miles on the 10 percent grade, which I think puts me somewhere in the range of 4,000 vertical feet. Not too shabby.

It's too bad I was unable to run yesterday, as I might have broken 40 for the first time in way too long. At least I was able to run every day rather than cross train. 

I'll try to stay on top of the blog this week.

Six miles on the treadmill this morning. I've decided, at least for this week and last, that Monday will be speed work day. So, I did today's run alternating between half a mile easy and half a mile hard. The easy halves were at 8:04. The first hard rep was at 5:27, the second at 5:00, and the last four at 5:45 (although I did crank it back to 5:27 for the last minute or so of the last rep). It felt like a pretty decent Monday morning run. This evening I'll be back for a little weight lifting, and then I hope to get down to Oremville to play basketball with my brother. 

I had a bit of a runny nose last night when I got home from basketball, but when I woke up at 5:00 this morning I had a runny nose, a sneeze, and a sore throat. I hopped back in bed for another hour or so, and miraculously the sore throat had mostly gone away when I finally got out of bed. But I was still sick all day. I blame the bowling yesterday. Sticking my fingers in all those holes--who knows what else has been in there?

Anyways, tonight's run was one of those do-it-to-say-I-did-it runs. Just nice and easy, no need to make myself feel any crappier. I started out at 9:00 per mile, and I was at 8:00 per mile by the time I finished. I think the whole run lasted 39 minutes. I remember that because I finished the minute, the half mile, and the song on my ipod all at the same time. Score!

I'm still feeling like garbage, so today was another just do something day. And I did make it through the run this morning, thanks to another crappy selection at the Cardio Cinema (10,000 BC. How did the Egyptians build the pyramids? With woolly mammoths and child labor, that's how.)

Anyways, I'm going to a water aerobics class with Catherine this evening, and then I have my final (pre-playoffs) basketball game tonight. Then I go to sleep. I hope I feel much better when I wake up.

40:00

Catherine picked me up after school today and dropped me off at the gym while she went to get a pedicure. I decided to spend 75 minutes on the treadmill, although I wasn't sure what the plan was as I got started. After two minutes I decided to get some vertical, so I cranked the incline to 12 percent and settled in for an hour at a 12:00 pace. According to the treadmill I logged 3199 feet and climbed Mt. Treadmill a little more than one and a half times. I finished up with about a mile and a half on the flat and called it an evening.

Long day, but I had time for two quick workouts: weights in the morning, and laps at the track at night.

35:45

It's weird how long it's been since I logged 40+ miles in a week. I thought this week would be the one, but today was a busy day and other priorities meant I didn't get to run as much as I wanted to. I ended up at the Gold's in Orem at 10:30 PM. I hoped to get some vertical, but because my late dinner was sitting heavily in my stomach, I settled for 10 easy treadmill miles instead.

1:18:00

A whopping 6.4 miles in 75 minutes. The 30 minutes I spent on the flat were pretty mellow, but I also threw in 45 minutes on the 15 percent grade. I wasn't feeling too hot (although I felt much better by the end), so I kept the pace at a mellow 15:00. Still, I think I logged some decent vertical.

More treadmill miles on limited time at the gym tonight. I ran a five mile progression run (of sorts) in 32:58 and rounded the workout off with a very easy mile.

42:20

Catherine and I went in for another ultrasound this morning. It was at the lst one, four weeks ago, that we discovered Catherine's heart problem that led to our stay in the hospital. Which means it's been three weeks since Catherine has been on the calcium channel blocker. At the last visit, Baby's abdominal growth was in about the 40th percentile. Now it's in the 20th. The doctor today told us that there's still no reason to think the medicine is responsible, although it may be, and that we don't need to worry about Baby's size until she drops below the 10th percentile. But we're worried--that's a big drop in a short time. We're going in to see a perinatal specialist on Tuesday, but until then ... who knows?

WTF, BYU?

(The F is for flip.)

1:04:00

A bit of half a mile on, half a mile off at the gym.

34:50

If there's one thing I've been missing from my routine, it's trail running. Because the weather was so nice today, I decided to head up to Grove Creek this evening for a short out and back along the BST. When I got there, I changed my mind and decided to do an out and back up the canyon to the bench. It was a beautiful run--the weather was nice, the sun was setting, and the trail was in great shape, with only a few muddy spots and some packed snow and ice higher up. I made it up (1500 feet and just over 2 miles) in a not-awful 24:32, then spent a few minutes on the bench to catch my breath and enjoy the view before bombing back down in 14:05. You know that feeling when you use muscles you haven't used in a long time? I had a bit of that going on--I haven't run down steep hills in ages, and my quads were trashed. I guess that means I'll need to make a point of running the canyon more frequently, now that Old Man Winter is retreating. I'm looking forward to it. 

38:37 

I would have loved to join Jun and co. for their long run on Fubfalo Island this morning, but unfortunately I didn't have time. Which probably turned out to be a good thing, because if I had gone I don't think it would have been anything short of a disaster, considering how my much shorter run on the BST went this morning. 

When I finally started for real (after two false starts--I returned to the car once to leave my hat and another time to when I realized I had forgotten my handheld), I felt off almost immediately. In fact, about two miles out, as I was climbing away from Battle Creek, I stopped and strongly considered turning around. It's always a bad sign when you start to bonk after fifteen minutes. (Note to self: eat more.) I ate a gel and decided to go at least as far as Dry Creek, because I'd get at least six miles if I went that far before turning around, and I felt better by the time I got there. Not good, but better enough that I decided to keep going.

My plan was to run the BST into Orem, continue up the Little Baldy trail past the Altar, and then follow trail 51 into either Dry Creek or Battle Creek. Unfortunately, the Little Baldy trail was still covered in snow and I lost it somewhere below the Altar and had to turn around and settle for an out and back. It was a slow slog back to the car at Grove Creek, but I was steady, and according to the Garmin, I picked up somewhere from 2200 to 2500 feet of vertical. All in all it was a satisfying run, although I hope next week's long run goes much better.   

Sadly enough, I think this may have been my longest run of the year.  

2:13:36

Wow. So, those trail miles this weekend destroyed my quads. I guess it's been way too long since I ran down a proper hill. Accordingly, I limited myself to a short treadmill run this evening. Then I went and played basketball with my brother.

34:35

I made it to the gym late tonight, as is usually the case these days. I made it through nine steady miles on the flat before I got bored and decided it was time to go home so I could finish my homework and get to bed at a reasonable time. It's strange to think that I used to average about ten miles per day during the week, as recently as last semester.

On the plus side, we went and saw a specialist this afternoon, and it looks like there's no reason to be worried about Baby right now.

I made it out for another quick out and back up Grove Creek Canyon this evening. I brought a headlamp along, just in case, but I was able to finish the run before daylight ran out, although just barely. The trail was in great shape, even after the rain and snow earlier this week, but there was a lot of snow in the last quarter mile to the bench. Because I was the first to break trail, I finished the climb in 26:20, much slower than last time. I descended in 16:50, even slower, because of the snow at the top and the low light at the bottom. 

43:10

I had an intramurals basketball game tonight. It was the first round of the playoffs, and we crushed the other team (the Crushers, ironically) by more than 20 points. I attribute the sudden turnaround to two things: 1) we played much better than we have in our other games, and 2) we only had seven players, and we couldn't have built a stronger seven-player team from our thirteen-man roster. 

Catherine and I celebrated our victory with my brother at J-Dawgs. The festivities were dampened somewhat by our discovery that J-Dawgs has gotten rid of the amazing root beer they had in the soda fountain and replaced it with Mug, but we still had a good time.

Catherine and I went to AF High to run on the track almost immediately after we ate. I felt as good as you might expect someone to feel while running with two cups of root beer, one and a half hot dogs, and all the associated sauce, pickles, onions and peppers in his stomach. Fortunately, I felt better as I went, but I decided to call it quits after a little more than five miles. Of course, it wasn't just the food--basketball does something to your legs that running doesn't.

38:45

After our surprising and dominant (surprisingly dominant) intramurals victory last night, my brother and I were under the impression that we'd be playing again tomorrow. That turned out to be wrong, but by the time I had figured that out I had already made plans to take advantage of my light Friday schedule and do my long run today. So, I dropped Catherine off at the bus this morning and then headed up to Grove Creek Canyon. 

I had no actual plan for my run this morning, so I started with an out and back up the canyon to the bench. There was less snow up there than there was on Wednesday, but what remained was slick and bulletproof. Even so, I finished the climb in a not terrible 26:25. I made a leisurely descent, and on my way back down I thought about just running laps up the canyon. I had convinced myself that that was the way to go, but when I got back to my car to drop off some layers I changed my mind and headed south on the BST. By that point I was thinking I would run an out and back to the Orem trailhead and finish with another lap up the canyon if I felt like it. But when I got to Dry Creek I changed my mind and headed up the canyon to Trail 51 to scout a route for next weekend. Bad idea.

The trail conditions went from sloppy to impassable so gradually that by the time I realized I should turn around I was at the halfway point and it made just as much sense to keep going. For some reason, there are still massive amounts of snow up there, despite all the direct sunlight. The only explanations I can think of are that 1) the snow builds up in deep drifts along that trail, and 2) the trail is much higher up than I thought. Whatever the explanation, I was postholing through knee- to thigh-high snow for way longer than I would have liked to. After more than an hour during which I covered just over two miles, I emerged in Battle Creek Canyon with bloody shins and soaked and frozen hands and feet. I was hoping the Battle Creek trail would be in similar condition to the Dry Creek and Grove Creek trails, but no such luck. Battle Creek is probably the coolest of the three canyons, but it also gets the least sun, and winter isn't nearly as quick to retreat. Add in some super technical singletrack and two numb feet, and the going was slow.

At one of the many bridge crossings near the bottom, I overtook two girls and a guy hiking down the canyon. The guy and one of the girls were on the other side of the bridge were waiting for their friend, who was slowly picking her way across. I could tell she was nervous, so I stood back and waited for her to cross before crossing myself. But then her friend told her there was a runner behind her, so she looked back, saw me, got startled, slipped, fell on her butt, and started crying. Awkward.

Anyways, from there to the bottom of the canyon the trail widened into a dirt road that was covered with enough clear ice that it felt more like a skating rink than a trail. I moved over and ran through the bushes on the shoulder, which allowed me to make it down without further incident. From the mouth of the canyon it was a short run back to the car, and I was so glad to be done.

In short, 13 miles in just under three hours. The appeal of mountain running is the adventure, but it doesn't always work to your advantage.

I had planned to run on the road today, but after yesterday's fiasco I thought I would try for another trail run today. So, I headed up to Grove Creek Canyon and did my usual out and back on the BST to Orem.  I still didn't feel very great, but I felt better than I have for the last few weeks. Also, the trails down low are in better shape every day, and there was very little mud out there this morning.

Unfortunately, my Garmin battery died shortly after the turnaround, so I don't know how long the run took. I do know it was 42:45 to the turnaround, and I think I was faster on the return. 

I took advantage of the longer days and went over to Grove Creek Canyon right after I got home for a quick out and back to the bench. Up in 24:32 and down in 13:19. After I picked Catherine up I went over to AF High with her and we jogged an easy mile together on the track. Tigger ran with us, and he was incredibly annoying. Such a sissy dog sometimes.

Out and back on the BST from Battle Creek to Dry Canyon. Meh. It gets darker earlier than I thought, so I ran less than I planned. Also, I had no energy. Evening is not the best time for me to run, I guess.

So, my knee is starting to hurt again. It seems that every time I come back from the knee injury, I'm in the game for less time before the knee sends me back out. Anyways, hopefully this is a twinge that won't progress into anything more. After all, I'm already out of shape for the Buffalo Run. It doesn't seem fair that I should have to race injured, too. 

I did an hour on the stairs at the gym tonight, then I did my lateral strengthening thingies and rolled out my IT band.

Another hour on the stairs tonight.

I'm still afraid to run on my knee, especially if I have any hope of showing up at the Buffalo Run. But, I needed a long run today, soooo . . . three hours on the stair machine. It was as exciting as it sounds.

A weird workout at the gym today. The majority of the time I spent either walking or running very slowly, but I threw in a bunch of intervals of varying lengths and at varying speed. My knee felt okay--there was still the pain, but it didn't seem to get worse, so I guess that's not a bad thing.

1:34:30

I guess I'm tapering this week. I'm not sure how valuable a taper is when you haven't put in the miles beforehand, but I guess I'm about to find out. Anyways, 4.5 miles on the treadmill, alternating between a quarter mile at 5:00 and a half mile at 8:30 for five reps.

33:30

One hour on the stair stepper, easy and steady.

What a beautiful day. I managed to get outside for a quick five mile out and back on the BST. If you ask me, one of the best reasons to stay in shape is so that you can get out on the trails on a day like this. Unfortunately, it looks like tomorrow won't be quite as nice.

30 minutes on the stair stepper before school this morning. I'll probably jog a couple of miles tomorrow morning, but other than that I'm done until I "race" on Saturday. Hoping the weather clears by then.

No miles today. I've been worried enough about my knee and its ability to survive 32 miles tomorrow that I decided I'd feel better just not running today. 

I've also been worried about running a 50K when 1) I'm so clearly not ready and 2) I should probably be using the time to prepare for finals. I did come up with a brilliant solution to the latter, though. I'll be running with my ipod tomorrow, but instead of hawt club jamz I'll be listening to West's Sum & Substance lecture series on criminal law. The best part is that the professor is Professor Dressler, some dude at Ohio whom I've never met but who wrote my cassebook.

So, if you see me absentmindedly run off the trail and into the lake or something tomorrow, don't follow. It just means I'm distracted by deep mysteries such as the difference between intentional omissions and voluntary acts and the hypothetical kiddie-crushing machine. Good times.

Note to self--faking it for 50K is no fun at all.

Here's an important principle: you can't get any more out of a taper than you put into the training preceding it. So although my legs felt pretty great this morning after a week of taking it easy (or easier than usual), I knew that I was in for a long, rough day. But to keep a positive outlook, things did go much better than I probably had a right to expect.

Going into the race, I knew that the goals I had set last year--sub 4:00 being chief among them--were completely out the window. When I set them I didn't know I would be in law school and I didn't know I would spend so much time dealing with knee injuries (I did have an idea that a baby would be on the way). So, I went into the race with a much more modest set of goals: 1) finish, 2) sub 5:00, 3) beat last years time (4:32:37). And really, two out of three isn't bad.

Catherine had volunteered to help out at the race, so we made it to the island at 7:00. While Catherine tried to find out what they needed her to do (not much, as it turned out), I went to sign in and pin my number on. We ran into Lily at the start tent, since she was also volunteering. I hate to think how early she must have had to get up to get there from Spanish Fark.

When the race started, I got busy ignoring everyone around me. I knew that my only way to survive out there was to completely ignore the other runners and focus on running my own race with out getting drawn into any sort of competition. (I mean, it's not like we're racing out there, right?) As I said I would do yesterday, I had loaded my ipod with law school material, so as everyone else chatted and settled into their pace, I was busy reviewing the differences between civil law and criminal law. I soon found myself in no man's land, just behind a rapidly disappearing group of about six very fast runners and out ahead of just about everyone else besides two guys who would end up yo-yoing with me for most of the first lap.

The first lap went surprisingly well. I kept the effort steady, running all the hills with no problem at all, and I was back at the start in just under two hours, faster than I was last year. Unfortunately, I also knew that the second lap was going to be a completely different animal. I think my longest run of the year before today was about 16 miles, so every step after the turnaround took me deeper into uncharted waters. I held together on the first climb, passing a runner who had caught up to me at the turnaround and left while I was eating, talking to Catherine, and stalling in general, but after a couple of miles my legs were trashed. And by trashed I mean destroyed.

I walked the hill into the aid station, and I as I was hobbling down the hill away from it the runner I had passed passed me, and so began the rest of my race. Hobbling down hills, walking up them, and shuffling across the flats. A runner with a serious Geoff Roes lookalike thing caught me at the top of Elephant Head (I think he was Bryon Powell, the irunfar guy), and as I was hobbling down a hill after my second pass through the aid station, I got chicked by a woman who was absolutely bombing the thing. (I'm pretty sure she would have beat me last year, too.) By my count, that made me the tenth place 50K runner.

The rest of the run was a death march. I walked a bit, but I was able to keep running most of the time, which was an improvement over last year (when, although I blew up later, I blew up harder). By the time I had gotten to the last mile and a half, I had had enough of Professor Dressler's crim law lectures, so when he finished with unintentional manslaughter and moved on to forcible rape I yanked the ear buds out and called it quits. At least the rest of the run was educational.

As I descended that stupid, miserable last hill to the finish line, I just focused on getting to the end so I could sit down and temporarily retire from running forever (you know, until I forget all the pain a few days later). But as I came into the final half mile or so, I looked back and saw another 50K runner less than 10 feet behind me. Seriously? I mean, seriously, we have to race now? After nearly 32 miles and a pretty thorough butt-kicking, I had no desire to put forth any kind of effort. But I also knew that if I let him pass me I wouldn't be able to salvage the day by saying I had finished in the top 10 (although I still need to confirm that on the official results). So I decided to at least make him work for it. I hit the afterburners, he didn't respond (I don't think he even knew I was a 50K runner), and I sailed across the line at about 6:00 per mile. It makes me think that maybe I wasn't as physically trashed as I had thought, and that maybe my problem was largely mental. Lesson learned.

(Here I am. And there he is in the white shirt.)

Anyways, based on last year's run at Sapper Joe, I know I'm capable of running this course much faster, but I haven't put in the miles. With that in mind, though, I think I acquitted myself nicely. I only hope my knee can forgive me.

Update: The unofficial results are on the website. It looks like I was actually 11th overall and 4th in my age group (and there were some very fast people in my age group). Also, it looks like they think I'm 25. Also also, the chick who chicked me was North Face runner Nikki Kimball (http://www2.thenorthface.com/na/athletes/athletes-NK.html).

Saturday's race was my third 50K. After the first and the second, I was so sore that I couldn't walk comfortably for a couple of days afterward, so it's surprising how un-sore I feel right now. Unfortunately, I do have some injury-style pain. First, as I expected, my knee is not happy with me right now. And second, my right foot is killing me. I've had on and off problems with that foot ever since I decided it would be a good idea to wear my MT100s on the rock-strewn Sapper Joe course. In fact, given the nature and location of the pain, I sometimes wonder if I gave my self a minor stress fracture that never healed properly. Whatever the issue is, it's usually not enough to slow me down after I've loosened up.

Anyways, to ensure that the Buffalo Run helps me more than it hurts me, I've decided to take it very easy this week. My plan right now, which, of course, is subject to change, is to cross train all week. This way, I can give my knee and my foot a chance to recover without neglecting my cardiovascular system. If all feels well by the end of the week, I'm hoping to get out for a 10+ mile trail run on Saturday. Weather permitting, of course.

Today, I got up early and went to the gym to lift weights. I went back to the gym with Catherine in the evening and we did a beginning spin class. Unsurprisingly, it was much easier than the advanced class. The workout was not difficult, but I felt pretty tired, which made me realize just how much Saturday took out of me. Still, it was a good way to shake out my legs.

One hour on the stairstepper at a very mellow pace.

We had an ultrasound this morning and a visit with the OB this afternoon. Baby is still small in the abdomen, but she hasn't gotten any smaller (proportionally), so it looks like everything is fine. As of now, she has a little abdomen and a big head. Which I assume means our girl is going to be either a skinny little brainiac or a bobblehead.

I'm having a hard time telling if me knee is mostly fine or if it's killing me. I guess that doesn;'t make much sense.

Anyways, I went to the gym for more stair-stepping action tonight. Twenty minutes in the middle at tempo and the rest super easy. Afterward, I spent about fifteen minutes stretching and strengthening the IT band. I want to be able to run trails worry-free again.

Not much time tonight, and I'm going for a longer run with Jun tomorrow, so I just went to the gym to do my Friday lifting a day early. I also walked a 15:00 mile on the treadmill at a 10 percent grade in the spirit of warming up and doing something training related. 

Jun and I met up at the Battle Creek trailhead this morning to try a route I've had my eye on for a while. Basically, we ran up Battle Creek to Trail 51, which we followed over the the Little Baldy trail, which took as down to the BST, which took us back to our cars. 

Last time I tried a portion of this run I ended up covering one 2 mile section in an hour because of all the deep snow covered by a breakable crush. Today was a lot better, but there were still some sketchy sections. Primarily, at the point where Trail 51 was supposed to meet Little Baldy. There, we lost the trail under the snow and ended up doing some major (and majorly unpleasant) post-holing resulting in bloody shins, until we decided to leave the trail and bushwack our way back to dry ground. This required cutting through some nasty brush, which resulted in even bloodier shins. Eventually, we made it back to the trail, from there it was a pretty straightforward run back to the car.

I went for a run with Dragon Vulture and his posse this morning. We started in Alpine and ended up running over to the Draper temple. This was my first time in that trail network (which, by the way, is awesome, although I still prefer the West Timp network), so my description of the route may be off, but I think it was something like this: up Hog's Hollow, over and up Jacob's ladder, down some other road, back over and down the lower portion of Jacob's Ladder, BST to Clark's Canyon, Clark's Canyon back to Hog's Hollow.

The trail was pretty sloppy in a few spots, but it was nothing like yesterday, and for the most part the conditions were fantastic. It was a great way to start the day.

13.1 miles and about 2,400 feet in 2:08.

Before the Buffalo Run, I was worried about the soreness in the IT band on the outside of my right knee. But since the race the pain has been on the inside of my right knee. I took almost an entire week away from running after the race, and then I went for two long runs (by my current standards) on the trail. I felt okay during the runs, with a few twinges, but now my knee hurts again.

And I don't know what to make of it this time. I usually feel fine when I'm just walking around. But when I sit, my knee tightens up and hurts when I move it or stand up. But once I'm up and moving again, I don't really notice it. It makes me wonder if what I've got is some sort of a sprain, and I'll be fine running as long as I stay off the trail for a while. Or maybe I have something just waiting to explode. When the semester is over, I hope to get into see a doctor. In the meantime, I hope I can keep moving forward in my Squaw 50 prep.

What bugs me most is that I've now had four knee injuries in less than a year. And although all four have been on the same knee, there have been three different types of injuries: the runner's knee (behind the kneecap), the ITBS (twice), and now this new one on the inside. I hate to think that my knees just can't handle running, but you have to wonder.

Anyways, I'm seeing a doctor on Friday. But for now, it's infuriating, really.

As for my workout: I spent about thirty minutes at the gym this morning, pumping my guns and strengthening my IT band. In teh evening I went back for an hour while I watched the first half of the NCAA championship. 45 minutes on the stairstepper, followed by 15 on the treadmill, I figure I can get more out of limited mileage if I soften my legs up first, Fritz-style.

I was going to do 75 minutes tonight--60 on the stairs and another 15 on the treadmill. But then I decided to try to do it all on the treadmill. But then my knee started to hurt after a mile, so I decided to go to the stairs after 15 minutes. But then my knee stopped hurting completely, so I stayed on the treadmill for 10 miles. Some things make no sense.

Anyways, for the first 8 miles I alternated between one mile easy (about 8:00) and one mile faster (about 5:52). Then I finished with an easy two.

1:12:20

Here's a story that helps explain why I'm prone to overuse injuries. During our run on Friday, Jun and I talked about switching to a midfoot stride as a possible solution to my knee problems. I'd though of that before (a great deal, in fact), so when Aaron K. suggested the same thing on my blog yesterday, I was all ears (especially since he seems to have had such great success with the switch). So, I was determined to run my entire ten miles yesterday without hitting my heels. After about six miles my calves and ankles were starting to hurt. By eight miles they were screaming. Even so, I refused to listen to my body and quit, pressing on until the end, when my calves and ankles were in absolute agony.

Anyways, I'm not injured as a result of my stubborness. Just very sore. The plus side is that because of the soreness, I decided to cross train instead of run today. So even if the whole forefoot thing doesn't benefit my knee directly, it may end up doing so indirectly by forcing me not to run for a day or two. Good deal.

One hour on the stair machine. Law and Order Special Victims Unit sucks.

So, my left ankle hurts more than I thought. Serves me right, I guess. It feels better every day, but I may not be running as much as I'd like for the rest of this week. I guess that's good for my knee.

Anyways, Catherine and I did a one hour spin class led by Stan the Man. Actually, his name is just Stan. He is a man, but I can't say for certain whether he's the Man. But we did enjoy his class.

Afterward, I ran one very slow mile on the treadmill. As in 9:45 slow. At least there was some hilarious show called Winter Wipeout on the TV.

Also, check out this video. (Thank you Catherine for finding a subtitled version.) I think it's hilarious. If you don't, you have a bad sense of humor.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I decided to go ahead and take care of my running and my lifting this morning. Of course, my lower legs are still pretty trashed, I decided to hike on the treadmill (12 percent grade) instead of running. I did throw in one easy mile of running on the incline at about 13:00, with the result that my IT band was protesting for the rest of the morning. (Fortunately, it seems to have quieted down as of this writing.)

Anyways, the good news from the doctor is that there don't seem to be any real problems with my knee. Apparently, however, while the stretching and strengthening I've been doing are good, what I really need is to strengthen my glutes, quads, and core (which is kind of strange, since I thought all of those were pretty strong). So, it looks like it's back to PT for me, as soon as finals are over.

The best news from the appointment is that the only limit to how much I can run on a sore IT band is my tolerance. In other words, as long as I can deal with the level of pain, I can keep running without worrying about causing further damage. It's nice to know that I don't have to stop running just because my IT band wants to bully me around.

Also, this is the show that Catherine and I saw at the gym last night. Anyone who saw that old Disney movie about fat camp (Heavyweights, I think) might remember the Blob--a giant airbag by the lack that one person sits in while another person jumps on the other end and bounces him into the water. But on this show, instead of one obese adolescent bouncing another, they have one not-so-fat person getting bounced by a 1,000 lb. weight dropped from about 50 feet. The results are pretty much what you'd expect.

Catherine and I went to the temple this morning, and afterward we went down to Provo so I could attend a review session on campus and she could do some grading in her office. We planned to stop at Kneaders on the way for all-you-can eat French toast, but we got there just a few minutes too late and missed it. So, instead of late breakfast we started looking for early lunch. On a whim, we decided to eat at the Taco Riendo, a Mexican place we saw along the way. As far as I can tell, it was pretty authentic. The food was very good, so it's two thumbs up for the Laughing Taco (unless we wake up with Laughing Diarrhea tomorrow).

Anyway, I did my workout at the gym tonight. My lower leg feels better, although it still hurts, so I thought I'd try a little running. I was okay for about a mile and a half, but then I got some sharp pain in my left ankle, so I decided not to push it. I left the treadmill and went over to the stairstepper for a couple of hours. For the first 90 minutes, I cruised steady at 200 watts with ever sixth minute at 400. For the last thirty I followed the same pattern, but at 180 watts and 340. So once again, the mileage I'm recording doesn't really reflect the workout.

I'm still realizing just how bad I messed up my left ankle last week. It's weird, because I knew I was being stupid at the time, but I  honestly didn't think I was hurting myself. I just thought I would be really, really sore for a day. Anyways, nearly a week later (I think, although I didn't actually bother to check my calendar from last week) and all the soreness is gone, except for the pain at the front of my lower left leg. 

And even that has been feeling a lot better. Enough that I got up before 5:00 this morning for a quick out and back on the BST from Battle Creek to Dry Canyon. But about a mile and a half I could tell my leg was in bad shape. I second guessed myself twice before making the right choice and turning around to hobble back to my car. If it weren't for the shooting pain in my left leg, it would have been a nice run. As it is, I wound up with just over three miles in just under 30 minutes. And a sore leg. I was worried that I had set myself back a few days on the recovery, but within an hour or two I felt like I had before the run.

This evening I went to the gym for a hard hour on the stairs. I borrowed a workout from my cycling days and did a 5-20-20, which is nothing more than 5 minutes at threshold followed by two 20-minute intervals at threshold, with five minutes of recovery between them. I think I got the intensity about right, because by the end I felt like I could keep going but I was dying for it to be over.

Anyways, I think I'll cross train again tomorrow and then I'll test out my leg with a short run on Wednesday. 

No pain at all in my leg today, which is a good sign. Just to play it safe, I stuck to the stair machine for one more day. A steady 75 minutes at a moderate pace, good for 510 hypothetical flights of stairs.

Anyways, it's game on tomorrow, with my first final (Structures of the Constitution) at 8:30. It's been a great class, but the test is going to be rough. If the weather and my leg cooperate, I'm hoping to blow off some post-test steam with some mellow miles on the BST.

That's one final down. Throughout the test I never felt unprepared, but since the moment I finished I've been second guessing my answers. I guess I may as well put it out of my mind, since I can't change anything and I won't know my grade until June. Three to go.

I celebrated the completion of one class with an out and back on the BST from Battle Creek to the shooting range. I ran into Dragon Vulture and his friend, who were running the same route in reverse, and on the way back I tried a side trail that they mentioned to. Good choice.

Anyways, no pain in my leg today. Both legs reminded me that I'm not quite in the clear, but I felt fine for the whole run. I'll probably continue alternating between running and cross training for the next few days, and I hope to be ready to return to a steady diet of trail running as soon as finals are over next week.

1:06:19

I had planned to cross train today, so as not to push my luck with the injuries. But I decided to run at the last minute, and ran a few easy miles on the treadmill in my XC flats. It's surprising how much strain the flats put on my calves. Still, I'm determined to adapt and see if that helps my knee at all. I ran three miles on the flat, after which my calves were starting to feel worked, so I dropped the speed and cranked up the incline to finish with a 1.1 mile hike and about 675 feet of imaginary vert.

40:00

Worst. Test. Ever. We opened our test packets, and it turned out someone had included the *$&% answer key. After three minutes of deliberation, the administrators decided to have us hand in the answer keys and then take the test as if nothing had happened. Which ignores the fact that even if no one cheated (and it wouldn't surprise me if no one did), more than half the class still saw the answers. And it's not like you can exactly un-see that, either. So the entire curve for that class has been severely compromised. And given that our entire grade for the course will be based on that two-hour final, and given how merciless the law school curve is, I'd say the entire course has been effectively invalidated. 

Speaking of compromised curves, 10 of the 40 multiple choice questions were plagiarized verbatim from exams given by professors at other schools. The problem is that these exams are available as practice tests on the internet, along with the answers, to anyone who happens to stumble across them on google. So a few students in our class, through the course of normal exam preparation, happened to be handed the answers to the questions on our test.

Can you tell I'm angry?

Anyways, I blew off some steam with a trail run in the Draper network. Hog's Hollow to Ghost Falls to Clark's trail. Or something. Nice trails with about 1,500 feet of mellow climbing. I even took a page from Jun's book and drank out of Ghost Falls.

1:13:27

My knee has been unhappy again for the last couple of days, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend hours on a stair machine when the weather is finally getting nice. So this morning I headed over to Alpine and ran up into the Draper trail network again. I started with the same run as yesterday, but before I ran back down Hog Hollow to the car, I threw in an extra loop on a few trails I'd never been on before. In the end I wound up with a little less than 12.5 miles and a little more than 2100 feet of vert.

I got up early this morning and headed to the gym in the rain. I started with my IT band strengthening routine, then I did 30 minutes on the stairs, then ran a mile on the treadmill, and finished with 30 more minutes on the stairs. I'm so frustrated with my knee right now. In fact, I was looking up some 100-mile MTB races this morning as alternatives to ultrarunning.

I spent the rest of the day at school studying for my property final tomorrow. After that I had to make a late night trip to the post office to stand in line to mail our state taxes. You'd think the state would be able to accept payment online by now. I mean, it is 2011.

After taking my (thankfully drama-free) property final, I ate some pizza, spent a few hours studying civil procedure (only one final to go) and then went home to great ready for a workout. I was going to cross train, but there was a break in the gloom and drizzle and I just couldn't resist the chance for a quick trail run. Out and back from Battle Creek to Dry Creek: six miles and about 1100 feet of vert.

I decided to run because my knee felt fine, but it was pretty unhappy by the end of the run. And it was sore and a little stiff all evening. But as I write this (the morning after), my knee feels pretty good. I'm not sure what to make of that. But I do wonder whether I should seize the opportunity to roll my SP50 registration over till next year. I want to race, but I don't want to run if it's only going to be a miserable experience. Thoughts?

46:12

I was up and at the library early this morning, and I was there all day preparing for my test tomorrow. I still don't feel ready. In fact, I feel more intimidated by this test than any other, I think.

Anyways, I limited myself to two easy miles on the treadmill this evening, just so I could say I ran. It felt about as good as you'd expect two miles to feel with a belly full of bean burritos and at the end of a long day with no lunch. But I think my knee was okay.

Speaking of my knee, I've come up with a short-term plan:

Step 1: This week, I will run. (That's right--#*&$ you, gimpy right knee.)

Step2: Next week, I will not run. Nor will I use the stupid stair machine. Instead, I will ride my bike to and from campus every day while I work on the law review write-on. Unless the weather disagrees; which seems likely.

Step 3: Next next week, I will return to running, as triumphantly, invincibly, and sexily as ever. But with a better knee.

Step 4: If step 3 fails, I will defer my Squaw 50 registration and trade my short shorts for my tight shorts, at least for a month or two.

And now to finish with some good news. I will be done with my first year of law school by no later than 11:30 tomorrow morning.

I took my civil procedure exam this morning, a 3-hour, 35-page, 85-question multiple-choice monstrosity. But finals are over. Which means I'm now officially a 2L. Unfortunately, it also means I have to suffer through the anxiety of waiting two months for grades to come out.

Anyways, I drove up to Salt Lake after my test to give Catherine a ride home, which gave me an excuse to celebrate the end of the semester by running my old BST loop in the Avenues. I parked up by the Shriners hospital and ran down 11th Avenue to City Creek Canyon (thus dealing with the stiff headwind on the downhill road stretch at the beginning of the run--smart). From there, it was an incredibly enjoyable run back over one of my favorite trails ever. Conditions where nearly perfect until I reached The Gulch Formerly Known as Dry. Seriously, anyone wondering if there's any truth to all the talk about flood potential needs to head over to there. There's so much water pouring down that thing that I spent as much time navigating tricky water crossing as I did running. And in the end, I still had to splash through the river at the end. Anyways, I had fun, but I wouldn't recommend using the Dry Gulch trail anytime soon.

A little more than nine miles and about 1600 feet.

1:14:08

You'd think that I'd have some free time now that finals are over, but instead I spent the entire morning in mandatory meetings. In the evening, Catherine and I drove up to Ogden, because I'm taking the GMAT tomorrow and we wanted to avoid giving to wake up at 5:00 AM on a Saturday. But I still managed to get in an easy 5-mile run with my brother on the BST.

I took the GMAT this morning with no preparation, because I've had neither the time nor the desire to study. And, as expected, I pretty much tanked on the math section. But I knocked the verbal section out of the park and wound up with a much higher overall score than I thought I needed and a much, much higher score than I probably deserved. I rule.

Anyways, after the test, Catherine and I made up for skipping breakfast by eating breakfast for lunch at Jeremiah's up in Ogden. Catherine ordered two blueberry pancakes, worrying that two wouldn't be enough, but then each pancake ended up being about twice the size of her head, and I don't think she even finished one. Jeremiah's rules.

When we got home, I only had a little time before we were going to Catherine's grandparents' house for dinner, so I headed over to Alpine for a quick run up and over into the Draper trail network. Conditions were fantastic, and I ended up with about 1500 feet and just under 9 miles of very enjoyable singeltrack.

And now I'm going to take the entire next week off from running. My knee sucks.

1:08:35

So, it looks like my plan to ride this week is over before it began. Between the law review write-on, funeral attendance, and exceptionally crappy spring weather, I just don't see how it's going to work out. I am, however, following through on my plan to not run. Which means I'm going back on my promise not to use the stupid stair stepper.

Today, I used the stupid stair stepper for 75 minutes, alternating between 3 minutes off, 2 minutes on for 65 of those minutes. According to the display, I climbed about 510 virtual floors. I guess that's a pretty good workout.

Anyways, after bothering me on Saturday, my knee actually felt pretty good yesterday, and it felt even better today. It's enough to tempt me to go out and try to run, but I'm going to be strong. However, I may try to run again on Saturday rather than waiting till Monday.

Yet another day of running behind. And yet another day of cross training at the gym. At least my knee is feeling better.

60 minutes on the stairs. Just over 400 fake floors.

We had an ultrasound yesterday, and an appointment with the OB today, so I spent the day at the library in the Avenues working on my project. By the way, Baby's growing nicely, so things have gotten much better since our scare a couple of months ago.

Still no running this week. Instead, I spent another hour on the stairs doing one-minute intervals with three-minute recoveries.

I'm so busy trying to finish my write-on stuff by the deadline tomorrow, so I only stayed on the stairs for 45 minutes tonight. I made those minutes count, though.

My knee seems to be responding well to the rest. I think I'll try to run on Saturday. 10-12 miles of singletrack should be a nice "long run" to ease back in.

My law review write-on materials were due at 5:00 today, so it was crunch time. After that we had dinner with my mom, who's in town till tomorrow. There wasn't much time left for exercise, so I headed over to the track for an easy 4 miles. No knee problems after that little test, so I'll hit the trails tomorrow. 

I wore my XC flats today. Now my calves are sore. It's kind of annoying, but I'm going to make this forefoot thing work. If it helps me resolve my recurring knee issues, the discomfort will be with it. And if it doesn't, at least I can run all naturally and hippy-ish. 

30:15

I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and saw snow on the ground. Stupid spring.

Anyways, I went out for a trail run as planned this morning. I headed up Hog Hollow(?) then down toward Ghost Falls, with a one-mile out-and-back detour up Jacob's Ladder along the way. From the bottom of Ghost Falls I picked up the BST briefly and then ran Clark's Trail back to the top of Hog Hollow before returning to my car.

There was quite a bit of snow on the trail today, enough to make things tricky. Down low it had started to melt, leaving the trails covered in what I could best describe as greasy mud. Up high there was enough snow to keep me from seeing rocks and other features on the trail, making footing treacherous. There were several times where I stepped on what looked like a snow-covered rock but turned out to be a puff of snow, or what looked like a puff of snow but turned out to be a snow-covered rock. I had several close calls, especially on the final descent to my car, but I managed to keep myself upright throughout the entire run.

Also, my knee did not bother me at all for the entire run. But within 30 minutes of finishing the pains inside my kneecap were showing back up, and now that I've had hours to cool down, I can say that something isn't right. The good news is that the rest this week seems to have helped. The bad news is that it hasn't been enough. So, it's more cross training for me this week, although I hope to get out and run a couple of times to test things out.

Also, with my knee acting up and the Squaw 50 a month away, I've decided to roll my registration. I want to run the race, but I want to run it well. And given the way my training has played out since January (not to mention all the freaking snow on the course), that's just not going to happen this year.

Hopefully I can get things together in time for Speedgoat.

(Check it out--I embedded my run like Jun does.)

My knee felt fine during Saturday's run, but it was acting up shortly after, so I've decided to spend this week primarily cross training. I'll plan on getting out for a longer trail run on Saturday (in St. George this week), and I hope to make a run up Grandeur Peak tomorrow morning, but otherwise it'll be more time on the stair stepper for me.

I'm also hoping to up the volume a bit past where it's been for the last few months. I think 75 minutes per day should be a good start, plus one longer workout on Wednesday and another on Saturday. Aerobically, that should be similar to about 10 miles per day, which for me I think is plenty. At least for now.

Which brings me to today. I have some externship training on campus from 9 to 5, but I wanted to see Catherinebefore she left for work, so I got up at 4:10 and did my 75 minutes. Fortunately, I have more time available as of Friday, so I was able to get to bed early enough last night that getting up early wasn't too bad.

At the gym, the Bin Laden story was everywhere on TV. I kind of expected it to be on Sports Center, too. I guess I'm surprised they got him, because by this point I kind of assumed they never would.

My schedule didn't end up allowing for a Grandeur Peak run this morning, but after a full day at the office, I decided I needed to hit the trails. When I left my house the sky was gray, the wind was howling and a little rain was starting to fall. I prepared for the worst and grabbed my gloves, my beanie and my jacket. But by the time I reached the trailhead the sky was blue and it was warm enough that I considered going shirtless. I ended up having a great little run to finish a busy day. And the best part is that two hours later my knee still doesn't hurt.

I was going to cross train tonight, but the weather was so nice that I just couldn't resist getting out for a run on the Draper trails. The good news is that my knee felt fine. The bad news is that my calves are killing me. This transition to a midfoot strike may take a while.

Speaking of which, I got some advice from Aaron K via email today, and it turns out I am supposed to stay off my heels even on the technical descents. So that's just one more thing I have to work on, and one more thing that makes my calves hurt. But I'll get it figured out.

Against my better judgment, I went for another run today. I got a late start, so I had to cut it very short, but I think that was a good thing, as I know my knee isn't quite ready for a full return to running. Still, it was nice to get out. I'll just take tomorrow off and let my knee recover, so I can maybe get a run in on Saturday.

As for today's route, I ran up Grove Creek to the top of the big switchback, then I went north on a trail I've never run. It was a great little trail, looks like it keeps going a long way, so now I need to get back there and explore further. West Timp is the gift that keeps on giving.

No miles today. My knee feels okay right now, but I'm afraid to push things so soon, so I decided to take a rest after three days on the trail. Instead of running, I got back to the gym to pump my guns, because I've been neglecting my meathead-itude since finals started. I could feel that, too. I'm not back to square one, but I have lost some ground over the last few weeks.

Anyways, to make up for the lack of an interesting report today, I've decided to share the following linguistic issue I've been puzzling over.

Would the result be a moofallo or a buffamoose?

I'm in St. George visiting my grandparents with Catherine and my brother, Sean. We got into town last night sometime after 11:00, and we weren't in bed until sometime after midnight, so this morning's “early” start wasn't until about 7:00. I drove out to Hurricane and parked at the trailhead up on the mesa. From there I ran about 4.5 miles up the highway toward Polygamyville and Gooseberry Mesa and then picked up the JEM trail. I stopped there for a few minutes to shed some weight (if you know what I mean), eat a gel, and sign the trail register.

The JEM trail is a gem, in my opinion. I've ridden it on my mountain bike several times, but today was my first time running it. The trail rolls and swoops through the desert, a gradual descent almost the entire way with a few short climbs and some steep drop-offs along the way. Because the sun was low in the sky, the temperature was fantastic and I ran with my shirt off for about an hour.

After five miles, the Hurricane Rim trail intersects the JEM trail. This trail connects the JEM trail to the parking lot where I left my car, about seven miles away. Hurricane Ridge is a different beast. Although it's no mountain, there are a couple of small but sustained climbs, and a lot more rocks and technical sections along the way. My brother and I rode the trail last year at Thanksgiving, and I crashed three times and broke my saddle, thanks to my dismal bike-handling skills.

Anyways, it was here that the wheels started coming off today, too, so to speak. First, I saw a sign with what looked like a picture of a snake on it, and it made me start worrying about snakes. I freaking hate snakes. Also, the sun had started to come out, and although it was only in the mid-80s, it was much hotter than anything I've run in this year. On some of the later climbs, I started to feel dizzy and nauseous, and I had to walk a few short stretches—pretty lame, given the relatively mellow nature of the climbs.

Anyway, I made it back to the car without incident, other than almost not being able to find my keys, which I had hidden a little too well along the cliff. I ended up finishing just under 17 miles in 2:15. Sadly, my longest run since the Buffalo Run, and my second longest run of the year. I could have run the Gould's Rim trail rather than the highway up to the JEM trail, but I'm glad I decided not to. Given the heat, I would have needed to start earlier than I did, and I don't think my leg would have enjoyed the extra three miles.

Speaking of my leg—I wouldn't say my knee hurt, but I felt enough twinges to know it wasn't happy. Seventeen miles is probably about five too many right now, and I expect I'll be pretty sore this evening. I've swallowed a handful of ibuprofen preemptively, and I'll ice the knee a little later. Hopefully it won't keep me from running next week.

By the way, the Grandeur Peak Fun Run is next week. If you're in Salt Lake next week and you run mountains, you won't want to miss this one.  

http://sites.google.com/site/mrcultra/granduer-fun-run

Not much to say about today. I didn't take any ibuprofen this morning, and throughout the day I could tell that my knee is still sore from Saturday. Not bad, but definitely not good. So I decided to cross train tonight--one hour on the stair stepper--but I started with a mile on the treadmill in my flats. Even if my knee hurts, I think it's important to keep the pressure on my calves so they can adapt to the forefoot thing.

Another relatively uneventful day at the gym. I started with a mile on the treadmill before switching over to the stairs for some threshold work. I ended up cutting the stair workout short by about seven minutes because I felt pretty trashed, but otherwise things were fine.

After a few days of rest my knee seems to feel fine, so tomorrow I'll do what I can to set myself back. Grandeur Peak west face at 5:30 tomorrow evening with my brother and possibly the Samurai. Anyone who's interested is welcome to join us.

Grandeur Peak, how I love thee.

I don't know what it is about that mountain, but I just can't get enough of it. Actually I do know what it is--it's steep. So, so steep.

Anyway, I ran with the Samurai tonight, and my brother came along for the ride, too. He's never done anything like that before, and I'm pretty sure he won't be able to walk tomorrow. But he loved it, and he'll be back. Unfortunately, the Samurai had to get home in time for his kid's soccer game, so we turned around at what he calls the "first summit" (also known as "not the summit"), about a quarter mile short of the actual summit, but that's where the snow line was so it was fine with me. I think we were on pace to hit the summit in the low to mid 50s if we hadn't stopped. Not fast, but not slow. And I was yapping away the whole way up, so I know the effort was reasonably relaxed.

The whole round trip was 1:06:25 for 3.7 miles and 2800 feet of vertical at a blazing 17:48 per mile.

Afterward, Catherine was on her way to the gym, so I went with her and ran an easy 20 minutes on the treadmill in my flats to shake out my legs, strengthen my calves, and pad my mileage.

As expected, my legs are trashed after yesterday's run. But not cripple-trashed, so I enjoy the feeling. 

I just ran a few easy miles with Tigger at the track today. I ran the first three in my flats, and the last two in my Ronins. The extra cushion felt super nice, and I picked up the pace by about 30 seconds per mile with out even thinking about it. 

By the way, the Grandeur Peak Fun Run has been postponed till next Saturday. You should still plan to be there.

37:23

I wanted to get in a short, easy trail run this morning, so I planned a little lollipop loop starting from Grove Creek and doubling through Battle Creek. But the little stream you have to hop across before running south from Grove Creek has become more like a river. I looked around, but I couldn't find any way past it other than through it, and I was in no mood to get wet. So I headed north on a little trail that joined up with a dirt road that brought me back to the parking lot at the end of a two mile loop.If I don't mess my knee up today, I may get to do a long run tomorrow, so I just ran two laps and then called it a day. Not great, but not bad, either. Super slow, though. My legs are still sore from Grandeur.

I'm shocked at how sore I've been since running Grandeur on Wednesday. I honestly didn't expect it to be so bad. Yet here I am three days later and it still hurts to walk. Weird.

A few weeks ago, my cousin in law, a mountain biker turning trail runner, told me that Lambert Park over in Alpine a good place to go when you want to ride dirt but you don't want to climb mountains. That sounded like just the thing for my trashed quads, and since I had been meaning to check out the park for a while anyway, I decided that today was the day.

Basically, the park is a huge network of constantly intersecting trails (take a look at the map to get a better idea). So, I just picked a trailhead and got busy. I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide which way to go, but after an hour or so I felt like I had a pretty decent idea of the place although there are still a ton of trails I need to check out. It's a good thing the park is only 7 miles from the house. And apparently the trails are runnable year round. (For the record, the trails I ran on include Rodeo, Lambert's Luge, Poppy, Middle, Spring, Middle Spring, Ziggy, Zag, and ZPC. I may have forgotten some, but I think that's it.)

I forgot my Garmin, and I wasn't wearing a watch, so I have no idea what my run looked like. But I was away from my car for two hours. Even with all my stops and wrong turns, I think I can still safely credit myself with 12 miles.

Three easy miles on the road before work, wearing the flats to keep strengthening my legs. Now that I think about it, almost everything I've done for the last little bit has been in the gym or on the trail. This was my first road run in quite a while, and it felt pretty good, except for the freezing wind from then north.

Anyways, my right ankle has been hurting since Saturday. It's pretty much the same thing that happened to my left ankle a while back when I went out and ran ten miles with new stride, only it's not as bad this time. I was going to run a few miles more this evening, but I decided against it in hopes that my ankle will feel better tomorrow and even better on Wednesday so I can run Grandeur again--I've got a new weapon I'm itching to use.

It seems like I'm perpetually broken down these days. But on the plus side, my knee doesn't seem to be bothering me. I hope that my body will adjust over the next few weeks so I can get back to training as usual.

26:40

When we left Salt Lake, I was disappointed to have to leave Grandeur Peak behind. Fortunately, it turns out there is a Utah County equivalent in the direct route up Big Baldy from Dry Canyon. Although I can't confirm it yet (because I forgot to charge my Garmin), it climbs a bit more than 3000 feet over 2.5-3 miles, depending on which website you look at. I can confirm that the trail is freaking steep. My brother checked it out a couple of days ago and said it was a lot like Grandeur, and he's right. Once you leave Dry Canyon and hit the Big Bald trail proper, it's relentless and brutal. Or brutally relentless. I can't wait to spend time on it this summer.

Today I got a late start. That, combined with the fact that I was traveling slow (more hiking than running) and the fact that the trails were muddy or covered in snow or both meant that I didn't make it to the summit. In fact, I stopped a few hundred feet short of the false summit, because I had lost the trail under a few inches of fresh snow and because I was already afraid of the sketchy conditions on the descent and the possibility of running out of light. So I turned around. But it was a good hike, and I'm glad to have discovered a new route that I plan to use extensively this summer.

If you're reading this, you've probably noticed that the weather has been unseasonably crappy around here. Because of that, the Samurai suggested that Grandeur might be a bit too muddy today, so instead my brother and I met him a little farther south for a run on Mount Olympus.

I'd never seen the trail before, and I feel like I've been missing out. It's steep and technical and runnable, at least for the two miles or so that we ran today. I hear it gets much steeper for the second half.

Everyone was taking it easy today, so we hiked a short portion down low, but after that I settled into a groove and cruised up the mountain at a nice steady pace. The rain had slowed into a drizzle, so the moisture was more of a benefit than a burden, and the trails were wet but not sloppy.

The run down was equally casual, and that was fine with me. My calf is still hurting, so perhaps even that was too much. At least I had fun, though. Also, I almost hit the deck near the bottom, but instead of crashing I pulled out what may have been the best save of my career. Wild stuff.

I got out late for my run at Lambert Park tonight. I hope that I can blame the low light (I ran teh last half by the light of my headlamp) and the mud (it rained all day and it was still raining when I ran) for my slow pace, because otherwise I'm just out of shape. Still, it was a good run and a nice way to end the day.

Sore knee and no time means no running today. Grandeur Peak in the morning.

First things first: the Grandeur Fun Run is not really fun. And yet I'm sure I'll be back next year. And the next year. And probably as many more years as I'm living in Utah and running.

Before the race I had to deal with three gear decisions: tights or no tights, MT101s or Adizero XTs, and water or poles. I chose tights, MT101s, and poles. Right, wrong, and undecided.

I was in second place right from the start and by the time we hit the real climb I was in the lead. This worried me, because I was hoping to play it safe on the initial climb (last year I went out way too hard, as I often do, and blew up before the summit), and I didn't think that would involve me taking the lead. I was right to be worried, and by about halfway up the climb I was redlining and fading fast. It took about another quarter mile for anyone to pass me, but when I got caught I got caught by three runners.

Shortly after they passed me we hit the snow. This slowed me down a ton, because although there was a well-established trail of footprints through the shin-deep snow, the footprints must have belonged to midgets, and I just couldn't make them fit my stride. Plus, my poles had become essentially useless as they sank into the snow with each step. I decided to break them down right then.

I hit the summit in about 54 minutes with another runner about ten steps behind me. (For reference, my PR up the west face is in the high 40s, and although the snow slowed me down today, it didn't slow me down that much. I'm just nowhere near top form). Because of all the snow, the trail of the summit was buried and the course instead plunged straight down a snowy spine. I thought "no way" and told the guy behind me that he'd better go ahead unless he wanted to get stuck behind me. He bombed down the spine while I slipped, crawled, and picked my way down after him.

I continued creeping along the snowy ridge like the wimp I am, and it didn't take long for my friend Jon and another runner to fly past me. (Anyone who's run in MT101s knows that their traction is a joke, and they were clearly the wrong choice for the day.) But soon the snow ended and I was back on them almost immediately. I flew past Jon behind the other runner, and I stayed on his heels until we hit the bottom of the descent, when he suddenly jumped off the trail (I think there was something in his shoe).

There was an aid station at the bottom, but all they had were jugs of water for refilling bottles. No cups. I was thirsty, but there was nothing I could do without wasting time, so I continued along the Pipeline trail wishing I had brought a handheld rather than my poles. I settled into a 6:40ish groove and was right on the runner ahead of me almost immediately, but it only lasted for about half a mile. I was quickly reminded that I have not run much this year and that very little of what I have done has been on flat terrain. For the rest of the Pipeline, 7:30 was the best I could manage, and the the gap between myself and the guy in front stayed pretty constant.

If Pipeline lit the fuse, the climb up the game trail blew me up. I felt awful, and I pretty much gave up on life right there. To add insult to injury, I lost the trail almost immediately. (In fact, I stayed on the trail last year during the race, and I have yet to replicate the feat, despite many attempts to do so.) I crawled and scrambled up through the brush, and when I finally hit the ridge (after .25 miles and 550 feet, according to my Garmin), I could tell I was nowhere near the trail. So, I looked around and saw Jon and another runner run past a course marking a couple hundred feet below me on the ridge. Crap.

I scrambled down the ridge and got back on course, but by then it was pretty much over. I made it down the steep, technical descent of the ridge and limped back to the start on the final miles of singletrack, taking a major digger with less than a quarter mile to go.

In short, today was not my day. But I am glad I went, even if I was ten minutes slower than last year. (I'm not sure how I placed, so I'll update once results are posted.)

My pride still required that I hit at least 30 miles for the week, so in the evening my brother and I met at the Dray Canyon trailhead for a run/hike/crawl up the Big Baldy direct route. We ran at a leisurely pace up the Dry Canyon trail, hiking the steepest parts, and after a mile we turned onto the actual Big Baldy trail and set into a steady hike. By the time we were a quarter mile from the summit ridge, the combination of mud and a thin layer of snow made the trail so slick that we were forced to crawl until the snow got deep enough for us to post-hole our way (with bloody shins) to the lightning rod on the false summit.We were running out of daylight, so we turned around there. After a very slick and sketchy descent off the top we were able to make decent time on the run back to the car.

I had my Garmin tonight, so I can give a better picture of what the Big Baldy trail is about. According to Connect, it was about 2200 vertical feet from the Dry Canyon trail to the false summit in just one mile. Take that, Grandeur.

Anyways, 13.5 miles and about 7000 feet makes for a pretty good Saturday.

This just might be my highest weekday mileage of the year.

Saturday's race was a reminder of just how much I've slowed down since last year, so I've decided to get back to adding short doubles to my schedule on top of my usual runs. So, this morning I was out before breakfast for a quick 3 miles or so in the flats.

25:39

After the rain finally stopped I got out for a run up Grove Creek to Indian Springs. The snow is all gone to that point, but the upper trails are downright boggy. Word to the wise--drainage is the most important feature in a trail shoe for the Wasatch this summer. Followed closely by traction in the mud.

My run back down was very slow, in part because it was getting dark and I didn't want to fall off a cliff, and in part because my right knee hurt. It's amazing how afraid of running I've become after a year of continual knee trouble. Of course, this time the problem could be as simple as the puncture wound on the side of my kneecap after Saturday's run.

In other news, Catherine and I went in for our last ultrasound this morning. Baby is doing fine, and we should meet her within the next few weeks. We're into the endgame now.

I got out for a quick run out of Dry Canyon with Sean (my brother) and Aaron (Catherine's cousin's husband). Aaron lives only a few minutes from the trailhead and he's been a mountain biker for years, so he was able to show Sean and I a few new trails. We headed up Dry Canyon to Trail 51, which we took north a short way before running some trails I'd never seen before that eventually brought us back to the BST. From there Sean headed back to the cars while Aaron and I checked out yet another new (to me) trail to pad our mileage a bit.

AM: A couple of miles in the XC flats just because.

17:12

PM: I thought of getting out to log some vert, but I decided to get some easier trail miles instead and headed over to the Draper network. Up Hog('s?) Hollow, down Ghost Falls, up Clark's Trail. There were a few other connector trails in there, but that's pretty much the gist of my route.

I felt pretty good today, except my calves are still protesting the forefoot strike on the descents. Also, on my way up Clark's I passed a group of boy scouts coming down. The kid in front called up to the rest of the troop to warn them that a "jogger" was coming. I must be slow. 

Not much to say about tonight's run. We were behind schedule and I didn't feel well, so instead of hiking Big Baldy I ran barefoot in the grass for 30 minutes while Catherine was at her pregnant yoga class.

Quick morning run, out and back to Alpine. My calves are sore. My knee hurts, too, but I still think it's probably from Saturday.

48:55

So, I forgot my Garmin again today, but after looking at GPS files from other runs I'm pretty sure today's route was something like 9.5 miles. I'll call it 9 just to be safe. Of course, that makes it worse when I say that I think it took about 2:30 of actual run time. Sure, I climbed more than 4,000 feet, but I was still very, very slow.

I started at Dry Canyon and headed north on the BST. I could tell almost right away that something was off. My legs felt fine, other than the persistent soreness in my calves that I've gotten used to, but my lungs were not there. As in I felt winded even as I ran the gradual grade out of the parking lot. Plus, I had a bit of a headache that made it hard to focus. Things only got worse, and by the time I hit Battle Creek I was hiking pretty much everything. And by everything I don't mean just the super steep parts.

It's kind of weird, because I felt strong and had some great runs early in the week. Then again, I felt pretty off yesterday and on Thursday, although I didn't think much of it then. Maybe it's allergies. Maybe I've come down with something. Maybe I need to eat a little more. Whatever the reason for my struggles, I decided early in the run just to relax and deal with it. Hiking may not be as good as running, but it will do more to get ready for Speedgoat than doing nothing.

Anyway, back to the run. When I left Battle Creek for Trail 51, things got muddy. Ridiculously muddy. Dragon Vulture mentioned the mud in his report from the Timp Trail Marathon last week, but I had no idea that it was this bad. At one point I took a step and sunk into the mud up to my shins. I just started laughing and kept plodding along, postholing my way through the mud to the top of the hill.

Near the top I came across another runner coming the other way. We chatted for a bit, and then I started the gradual descent into Dry Canyon. There was no more mud here, but the trail was chewed up from people and horses coming through when there was mud. Normally I would have flown down this descent. Today my head wasn't in it, and I was pretty slow.

When I got to Dry Canyon, I thought I should return to the car and call it a day, but instead I headed up the canyon and soon found myself turning onto the Big Baldy trail. I ended up hiking all the way to the lightning rod at the false summit. Unlike last week, there was almost no snow or mud on the trail, so I think I was faster today despite feeling trashed. Of course, I don't think it's possible to do that trail without feeling trashed. I mentioned last week that it's about 2200 feet over one mile, and after today I'm pretty sure that about 1500 of them are in the last half mile.

Anyways, from the top it was time to call it a day. I crashed twice on the descent (running on those little rocks can be like running on ball bearings), but both times were at low speeds and I was up and running without skipping a beat.

And that's it. I think I'll go eat now.

Out for a "run" up Grandeur Peak this morning. I hit snow after a mile, and shortly after that I was trudging through 6-8 inches of powder. I wasn't the first person up that way, so I was able to follow a trail through the snow until just past two miles, when the footprints disappeared. By then I was up to my knees in the snow, so I decided not to break a trail the rest of the way to the summit.

Obviously, my plan to run the loop was out, so I turned around and headed back down. Snow, slush, mud, and slippery rocks made for a slow, sketchy first mile of the descent.

For those of you who may be running the Squaw 50 next week, here's what the Wasatch looks like at 8,000 feet. Have fun at 10,000 :)

Because my run this morning was shorter than planned, I decided to get out for a quick couple of miles this evening. All I did was check out a little loop of the Dry Canyon BST. After that I ran 6 repeats up the big stairs at the bottom of Dry Canyon (about .05 miles and 50 feet). I can tell that my knee does not like running around downhill switchbacks.

I was too tired to get up for a quick run this morning, which was probably not a bad thing since I've been feelings all kinds of trouble in my right knee lately. Not an injury--yet--but it feels like I'm on the cusp.

After missing my morning run, I thought I'd play it safe and cross train at the gym tonight, but the weather convinced me otherwise, and I ran the out and back up Grove Creek to Indian Springs. Absolutely stunning. If you haven't been there this year, go now. The best part is that despite the storm this weekend, the trail is in better condition than it was last week.

My knee hurt early in the climb, and it was acting up enough at the top that I decided not to extend the run into a loop through Battle Creek. But on the way down all trouble went away, and as of now it feels pretty good. I'm sure the soreness will come back in a bit, but for now I feel encouraged.

Anyways, I've been thinking of new routes in the area, and I think I have one for Saturday if  my knee and the weather hold. Jun, I'm telling you--do what you can to un-busyify your schedule for a few hours on Saturday. You won't want to miss this one.

1:01:51, 2300 feet.

AM: Quick jog on the bike path around the neighborhood for about 2 miles.

PM: Good news! I think my knee really is injured. So, I'm going to take some time to cross train. If the weather stays dry I guess I can use this opportunity to put in some miles on the bike. If I remember correctly, my knee healed pretty quickly last year once I stopped trying to run on it. Hopefully the same thing will happen now so I can put in decent block of training before Speedgoat.

The downside to the injury (no, it's not all fun and games) is that I didn't get to run up Grove Creek tonight. Instead, I did the next best thing and spent an hour on the stair stepper at the gym. Hooray! 

More time on the stairs. My knee still hurts.

I had a pretty funny experience on my way out of the gym, though, which I wrote about on my other blog. That's right, I have another blog. Sometimes I write on it, too. But despite my best intentions, if you're hungry for Eric updates, you should probably look here first.

So, backing out of the Squaw 50 was the right call. First, I injured my knee. Then, the director changed the course because of the snow. And now, Catherine is in labor.

That's right, Baby is on her way a couple of weeks early. We went to the hospital yesterday because Catherine's blood pressure was pretty high, and the doctor said it was preeclampsia. She was admitted early yesterday evening and they induced labor shortly after.

So far it's been slow going. But the doctors think Baby could be here sometime tonight. Check back for details.

Say hello to Elliott Isabella.

Because of the preeclampsia, she's about 11 days early. And at 5 lbs, 6 oz, she's a tiny one for sure. Catherine was induced at about 6:00 Friday evening, and Ellie wasn't born until 6:28 this morning--more than 32 hours later. Needless to say, it's been a long weekend for all of us.

It was worth it.

Back at it today, although only for a (very,) very brief jog of just over two miles in the XC flats. After seven days of no running and six days of nothing at all, my knee does not feel nearly as awesome as I hoped. Other than that I felt great. We'll see where I go from here.

Baby is great. If I weren't posting this so late I'd throw in a picture or two.

16:31

Short PM jog on the bike paths. I took a detour on a little dirt path through the park near our house without thinking about the fact that it was dark and I had no headlamp and ended up having to slow down a lot to avoid breaking an ankle.

So. The quantity and quality of my blogging has gone downhill since Elliott came. That's to be expected. Unfortunately, I can say the same about my running. But I don't think that's as much about the baby as it is about other things. Or an other thing. Mostly my knee. After a week it hurts like it did right before I took time off. I may go see a doctor again, but I don't think a doctor will tell me anything new. It looks like I may have to get back on the bike and wait this injury out. It also means I may not be running Speedgoat. Again.

Anyways, today I had an awful run on an awesome route. Dry Canyon to Battle Creek, Battle Creek to Trail 51, Trail 51 to Dry Canyon. I had planned to go farther, but, as mentioned above, it was an awful run, so I decided not to.

As a side note, despite my relative inactivity, I seem to have lost weight this week. Which means my bad run could be at least partly the result of not eating enough.

Also, I think I'm in the worst shape I've been in in years.

Short PM run of two laps on my little bike path mini-loop. My knee actually felt decent, so I threw in a few pick ups or strides or whatever. Let's just call it fartlek and leave it at that. Ha--I said fartlek.

29 :25

Remember what I said about my knee feeling decent yesterday? Well, things are back to normal today.

I probably shouldn't have run today, but I left my house key in the house this morning and had some time to kill after work before Catherine and Baby got home. So I went to the track for a short run. Although I had time, I didn't have running clothes. So I ran in what I wore to work--cotton slacks, a T-shirt, and a (very) old pair of Converse All-Stars. It wasn't ideal, but it worked.

Anyway, despite hurting all day, my knee felt okay during my run. Not good, but not bad, either.

31:09

I got out for another short evening run today. Two laps around the Timpanogos Temple, and then back home via my bike path mini loop. There were barricades and road closed signs at every entrance to the bike path, but I ignored them all. I worried that I was on my way to becoming a cautionary tale, but I think the path was closed to keep people away from the river, which is impressively high and fast right now.

I seem to be settling into a groove in which my knee hurts during my run and bothers me a bit the morning after, but otherwise seems okay. It's not healthy, but it doesn't seem to be getting worse. Which is encouraging, in a way. I should go see the doctor again, and I will as soon as I figure out my schedule. But for now, if my knee won't get better, not getting worse is the next best thing, right?

Another very short run in the wind. I take back what I said yesterday--my knee is getting worse again.

No run today, because my knee is hurting. I should have gone out for a ride or to the gym to cross train, but I just didn't have the time or the desire. An injury can be a real motivation killer. I miss being in shape.

Since my knee is hurting now, and because it's been giving me trouble fairly consistently for more than six months, I decided that I should probably quit trying to force things and take a break from running. Last time I did that (almost exactly a year ago) I was healed and running in about two weeks. If that happens this year, bonus. If not, at least I'm back on the bike.

This morning was my first road ride (my first bike ride, actually) of the year. Cat 1 Eric I am not, but it still felt good to be out riding. I just rode a simple out and back through Lehi and out to Five Mile Pass. There was a lot of wind out there today, and as usually happens, it was in my face a lot more than it was at my back. Wind sucks, but I guess it builds character.

Those of you who read this blog looking for updates on Catherine: she's slowly starting to run again, and I think her blog should be active sometime in the next day or two. Go over and say hi if you get a chance.

Although I'd never ridden it from our house until today, it turns out that an out and back from here to the top of Suncrest is only 22 miles. That means I can squeeze in quick ride with a nice little climb in just over an hour. Perfect when time is limited.

I felt slow, but I'll be doing this ride a lot from here on out, so my legs should get stronger. 

I borrowed my brother's single speed and went mountain biking for a little bit this evening. Lambert park is the perfect place for no gears, because its never so steep that the trail becomes unrideable. Which isn't to say I rode everything. If I was a bad mountain biker a couple of years ago, I'm even worse, now. You'd be surprised at the type of  "obstacle" that can stop me cold. And it didn't help any that my brother's brakes suck. In fact, the last bike I rode with such crappy brakes was a cyclocross bike.

Still, it was fun. 

DEMON BABY!

Anyway, I got out for a run on the trails tonight. I'm still planning to shift over to riding so my knee can heal, but I want to keep running once or twice per week so I can maintain my running legs. As expected, my knee hurt, but I'm hoping that by riding primarily I'm on a two steps forward, one step back plan. In other words, I think I'll heal more slowly than I would if I stopped cold turkey, but I'll have more fun in the process. Maybe I can still do Speedgoat.

As for the run--I hit the trail at 9:00, so about half of the run was by headlamp. Up Battle Creek, over to Dry Canyon, back to the car via BST. The same route that's given me trouble on my last two weekend runs. No trouble tonight, though. I ran every step easily, and never walked once or even felt tempted to. Go figure.

Also, mileage is approximate, and I have no idea what my time was. Note to self--remember to charge the Garmin after each run. 

Another short road ride, finishing in just over an hour. It's funny how one hour seems so short on the bike, but not at all when running. Anyway, I've been fairly consistent this week, averaging at least an hour a day, so it's an improvement over the last while. It's a big change from the last few years, though. One of these days I'll dig a week out of my old cycling training logs for comparison.

As for the ride, I rode up AF Canyon to the cave parking lot, then flipped around and rode home via a loop through Pleasant Grove. I've heard the canyon is open to the top, so I'll head up that way as soon as I have time. 

More cycling. Another short ride, another trip up American Fork Canyon. This time I rode as far as the fork. I hear the road is open all the way through. If only I had time to ride the entire loop.

A couple of years ago, I set out for a scheduled 6-hour ride on a Sunday afternoon in early February. At the time I was living near Liberty Park, and my plan was to ride a loop up through Tooele and back through Lehi. But as I came around the south end of the Oquirrh Mountains, the head wind was so strong that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make it all the way around the loop before dark, and winter is a bad time to be caught out in the cold. 

I passed a turnoff to Ophir, and because my photographer friend had mentioned the place before I decided to check it out and then retrace my route home. What I found was a beautiful little canyon with a beautiful little ghost town at the top (acccording to Wikipedia, there are about 28 people living there). I haven't been back since. Every time I plan to, something comes up. 

My most recent attempt was today. I asked a friend if he wanted to come along, but he ended up bringing a friend who was a bit slower. Slow enough that I didn't want to ride all the way to Ophir because that would mean getting back way later than I had told Catherine.

So instead we headed up a different canyon to Mercur, another ghost town. I was hoping to find another little gem like Ophir, but instead we found this:

Oh well--still a good ride. And as my friend said, we're probably three of about 100 people in Utah who have ever been to Mercur. 

Another ride up Suncrest and back, this time before school. I'm still slow, but not as slow. Maybe the wind was just favorable.

I decided to ride my bike to school this morning. It's a bit of a hassle, because I have to ride to the gym and shower, then ride to my sister's house to stash the bike, then walk to school to work. Things would be much easier if there were a safe place to leave my bike on campus. 

In the morning:

In the afternoon (with a killer tailwind on State Street):

One-way commute today. Catherine was in Provo this afternoon and needed me home sooner than I could get there by bike, so I left my bike at my sister's house and got a ride home. Probably a good call--a bike ride this afternoon would have been a wet one.

I've decided that even as I let my knee recover, I need to run at least once a week so I don't forget how. Unfortunately, this weeks run wasn't much, as I was only able to sneak out for two miles at midnight. Better than nothing, right?

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.