Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

AM: I ran at the gym with Catherine after sleeping in for about 20 minutes.I figure I deserved it, since I was up late finishing a paper last night. Anyways, I ran a little faster than I normally do for these runs. It felt good but not great.

43:50

PM: I went out for a short run after dinner. A little too soon after dinner, if you know what I mean.

23:28

AM: Early lap on the Slate Canyon (road) loop. I was pretty cold for the first half mile or so, but the weather turned out to be perfect for running.

45:33

PM: I went to the gym with Catherine and put in four miles on the treadmill. I held a steady 7.8 mph pace and threw in two half miles and one quarter mile at a ten percent grade.

AM: Four miles, no watch.My calves are sore, and they have been since last week.

PM: Six more miles on the treadmill, steady pace. I would have thrown in a faster mile, but the machine was old and couldn't keep up. Weird.

Finally, success!

Catherine and I went for an easy run on the BST this evening, and things actually went according to plan this time. The only bummer was that it gets dark so soon these days, but there's not much we can do about that. 

Also, my brother, who is not a runner, ran with us. I'd say he did very well, although he'll be sore tomorrow.

After dropping Catherine off at the bus stop, I drove up to the Y Mountain trailhead and ran the Slate Canyon to Y Mountain loop. I thought about running it in reverse today, but I decided not to because the run out of Slide Canyon is about as good as it gets.

The run up Slate Canyon is tough, but it's the final stretch from the fire pit to the saddle that always cleans my clock. I took a separate lap today to see if the problem was me or the trail. I came up with 924 feet over 0.86 miles, so I think it's the trail.

Total vertical for the run was 3200 feet.

1:36:35

I had hoped to try one more time to run from Provo Canyon to Hobble Creek Canyon today, but after checking the weather reports yesterday I decided there was too much risk of being caught in a snowstorm in the mountains. It looks like I might have gotten away with it if I had tried, but that's neither here nor there. 

Instead, I went up to Provo Canyon with Catherine. She was running with Allie, MelodyJ and MichelleL, so I ran with them up the River Trail to Nunn's Park. From there, they continued up the trail while I hopped onto the BST and headed back down the canyon.

I followed the Squaw 50 course, which I've finally deciphered, up to the overlook above Rock Canyon Pass, then I ran down the canyon and picked up the BST, which I took over to Slate Canyon before running a couple of miles on the road to get home.

It wasn't my best run ever. I was pretty trashed on the climb to the overlook, although I think I know why. It turns out that the climb from the BST to Hope Campground is brutally steep. It's pretty obvious when I'm reviewing my GPS report, but not so obvious when I'm actually on the trail. The result is that when I start hurting, I think the problem is me, not the trail, so I push harder and dig myself a deeper hole, and then end up walking more than I need to later on. It's good to figure these things out in training so I don't make the same mistakes while racing.

Other than that, there's not too much to report. I saw some people in the woods with guns, which freaked me out and made me grateful for my orange shorts. It makes sense that a hunter might mistake me for a deer because I'm so fast. I also got rained on for the last mile or two, but that felt good.

2:45:47

Also, my Cascadias are now past 600 miles. Can somebody tell me what a dead shoe looks like? The cushioning is gone but I don't mind too much, and otherwise the shoes are holding up pretty well. They even have some tread left. I'd like to get new shoes, but at the same time I just can't bring myself to throw away a pair of shoes that are technically still runnable. If I keep going, will I eventually hit a point where they fall apart and I have to toss them? Or am I stuck with them until I get the nerve to move on?