Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

I got my mountain bike back today, so I decided to go for a quick ride on the Dry Canyon Loop. I wanted to see how my time measures up. Not great, it turns out--51:xx isn't slow, but it's not even remotely fast. Of course, I could easily gain a few minutes by 1) not getting lost, and 2) not starting with an empty bottle and stopping on course to fill it. And  I could save even more time by not sucking on the descents. But I do suck, so there's no reason to worry about that. For now I'll just worry about getting those first few minutes back.

Also, I almost ran over two guys wearing camo and carrying guns on Trail 51. I saw another similarly equipped guy at the bottom of the Pipe. It makes me nervous to think that there are hunters up there. Even if I am usually wearing bright colors.

Another day, another three miles. I miss long workouts and high miles. On the other hand, my knee doesn't hurt, and I'm feeling comfortable at a relatively high pace. I think I really will be okay by the time I can get back to real training. 

My brother and I went up American Fork Canyon early this morning and rode the Tibble Fork loop. About 10.5 miles and 2300 feet of climbing. Despite some hike-a-bike on the climb, the route was great. Conditions, however, not so much. Because of the recent rain, parts of the trail looked a lot like something I'd expect to see in Elliott's diaper--very slippery. At one point, my tires collected so much mud that both wheels jammed against the frame or fork and stopped rolling. 

It got cold and wet overnight, so instead of running outdoors I decided to go the gym for a treadmill workout. For the first 30 minutes I held a steady 15:00 pace on the 15 percent grade, with a one-minute interval at 10:00 every ten minutes. I finished with ten minutes on the flat, super, super easy at 10:00, but I threw in a 5:00 pace for the last minute. One minute at that speed isn't any trouble aerobically, but my legs are not used to that kind of turnover. For the entire 60 seconds I was wondering if I was going to fly off the back of the treadmill in front of the entire gym crowd. 

Just one, just to say I did.

I've been sick all day, so I wasn't going to run at all. But by midnight I was feeling well enough to give it a go for consistency's sake, so I headed out for an easy mile around the neighborhood. It's cold and wet out there. 

I had a chance to get out for about 90 minutes after Catherine's run this afternoon. I had to decided between mountain biking, running outdoors, or the treadmill. I chose mountain biking, and what a poor, poor decision that was. 

I rode up Hog Hollow, intending to ride a loop in Corner Canyon. On the way up, the trail felt a little sloppy, but mostly fine. But on the fire road at the top, the soil composition must have changed, because the mud was so thick and heavy that it jammed my bike up completely. I ended up having to walk back to the creek, clean my bike as best I could, and ride back to the car with mud and rocks flying into my face the whole way as they broke free from my tires. All in all, I rode about four miles, even though I was gone for as long as it should have taken me to ride my planned ten-mile loop. And now I have to clean my bike again (at least it's a single-speed, so I don't have to worry about derailleur cables.)

I made partially made up for my lack of a long workout by sweating out an hour on the rollers before going to bed. Better than nothing.