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Wahsatch Steeplechase 2012

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Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,United States

Member Since:

Sep 14, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

52 marathons, Overall winner 15 times, PR 2:20:25 at St. George 2013, Kona Ironman 2002, Zero DNF

2016 Races

Personal:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Bike Lifetime Miles: 8003.27
Elliptical Lifetime Miles: 1295.72
Stairmaster Lifetime Miles: 3252.63
Rowing Machine Lifetime Miles: 335.05
Swimming Lifetime Miles: 14.97
Treadmill Lifetime Miles: 1111.92
Saucony Kinvara 2 Grey Lifetime Miles: 994.29
Saucony Kinvara 2 Blue Lifetime Miles: 528.18
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La Sportiva Vertical K Lifetime Miles: 78.50
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Altra Lone Peak 2.5 Lifetime Miles: 99.50
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New Balance 890v4 Lifetime Miles: 41.25
Nike Pegasus 33 Lifetime Miles: 12.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
23.6522.000.000.0010.6556.30
Bike Miles: 10.00Stairmaster Miles: 1.00Rowing Machine Miles: 1.00Saucony Kinvara 2 Grey Miles: 9.00La Sportiva Crosslite Miles: 17.50
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
7.003.000.000.000.0010.00

10 miles, 6.5 in the hills above the zoo and 3.5 on the TM.  Basically the 2 extremes of running.  Based on effort and time this was more like a 15 mile run because my first 2 miles went straight up the mountain and gained 2,300 ft.  Just maintaining any resemblance of a running motion was the goal for those miles.  After I hit the peak at those weird white towers above the zoo I went down some technical trails on the backside.  Rather than continuing up and down trails and leaving my legs super beat up tomorrow I decided to do my last 3.5 miles on the treadmill.  At least for those miles I felt like I was moving.  

Odds of running the Steeplechase are now around 75%!!!  Odds of running of running fast are TBD. 

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
0.000.000.000.002.002.00

The trail run yesterday beat up my legs quite a bit.  I shouldn't be surprised considering that my feet haven't touched dirt since the Buffalo Run in March and I haven't run much in the last 3 weeks.  My lack of trail specific preparation will make for an interesting Steeplechase this Saturday.  The one thing I am certain of is that I won't be able to run on Sunday.

Light day of stationary bike, stairmaster and rowing 

Bike Miles: 10.00Stairmaster Miles: 1.00Rowing Machine Miles: 1.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
3.651.000.000.007.6512.30

Stairmaster then treadmill.  Starting to feel like a runner again.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
9.000.000.000.000.009.00

Looped SHP then ran with the gang around Millcreek.  I think we talked about Ragnar more than the US Half Championship, which doesn't exactly make sense.  I guess Ragnar really is a big deal.

Saucony Kinvara 2 Grey Miles: 9.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
0.000.000.000.001.001.00

Basically a day off.  My PT "scraped" by hamstring and IT band with a metal rod.  It was great.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
3.501.000.000.000.004.50

Most days at 7 there is a slight chill in the air but not today.  This means I might have to carry water tomorrow even though the race starts at 6.  The quads are ready to take a beating.

Comments(3)
Race: Wahsatch Steeplechase 2012 (17 Miles) 02:14:29, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
0.5017.000.000.000.0017.50

Sadly I missed the hugely popular, competitive and well directed Wedding Bells Relay 5k. It looked like a great time. Instead I ran, hiked, and crawled the Wahsatch Steeplechase, which is quite possibly my all-time favorite race.

After several weeks on the bike and only recently getting back to running I didn't really know what to expect. Turns out my 50 mile bike rides and climbing the canyons got the quads race ready and I improved my best time by 5 minutes and also set a new course record by 36 seconds. For a 33 year old race I thought that was nifty. The mileage chart below tells the story best, i.e. my pace ranged from 5:15 to 17:13 :), but I will attempt to add some commentary. I went out fairly conservatively and was in second place through about mile two. From there the leader dropped back and it was just me and Josh Steffen for next 3 to 4 miles.  We swapped the lead a few times and then right at about mile 6 I started to pulling away slowly. By that point my quads were sucking oxygen and I was barely getting any recovery on the flats. It felt like I was barely moving but I guess in a race like this moving at times is better than average. Having run this race before I decided to not even try to run mile 7 because the extra energy it takes to stay running isn’t justified by the slight gains in speed. Surprisingly I finished that mile in 17 minutes which I think is about 3 minutes faster than last time. This goes to show that while my quads were in much better shape this time around as result of my road bike climbs up the canyons. Someone is sure to disagree but in my opinion there is no better way to build quad strength than biking up hills. This seems like common sense, at least to me, because there is no other exercise that requires 100% of the effort and power to come from one muscle.

After I finished that never ending climb/hike I did my best to navigate and jump over and down the crags at the top of Big Mountain. That lasted longer than I remember so it was great relief to hit the aid station at the end. I grabbed some water and Swedish Fish and continued on my way. This is where the race gets fun.  Basically you get to lose 2,000 ft. in about 2 miles and you obviously try to do it as fast as possibly without falling off of the course. That section went relatively smooth this time around meaning I was only terrified of falling a few times instead of 10. This was a result of the dryer year and less vegetation which made it easier to see my footing.

Getting off the downhill at mile 11 felt great and from there it’s just a matter of holding on and letting gravity do the work. I put in some good splits on the miles down the City Creek Canyon road and held up ok on the later miles down the single track that parallels the road. I came off the trail in about 2:09 and knew that I had about a mile to finish, which meant I needed to run a sub 6 minute mile to break the old CR. Fortunately the bottom of City Creek and the road down Memory Grove are fairly steep so I was able to put in around a 5:45 mile.

After I finished I had no choice but to lay face down in the creek. This is bound to help my staircase descents tomorrow. The next hour was spent conducting surgery with my multi-functional bib pins on my new blisters and chatting with the racers about their war stories. Promptly at 10:30 (trail race directors don’t mess around) Butch gave out the typical trail race awards (trail shoes, headlamp, backpack, cool hat, and decorated bowl). And as a surprise I got a little cash for the CR. Not only are trail races and directors cool, they are also creative with their shirts.  Because last year's course had to be changed due to the snow pack, this year’s motto was “Back to Black”, i.e. back to Black Mountain. Cool logo is shown below.  

Congrats to Josh who finished 2nd and just over 2:20 in his first attempt. Unfortunateley the Utah running scene will be losing him because he and his family are moving to New Hampshire. On the women's side, an out of stater, Annie O'Donnell ran an impressive 2:41 (4 minutes off the course record) and Liz Butler was second with a 2:44.

Carl Swenson was the previous CR holder. As an Olympic Cross Country skiier and professional mountain biker, this was probably a race he entered last minute and just for fun.

Time

Distance

Split time

Elev. chg.

0:06:53

1

6:53

191

0:16:06

2

9:12

531

0:24:05

3

7:59

336

0:32:09

4

8:04

315

0:41:14

5

9:04

371

0:50:44

6

9:29

488

1:07:57

7

17:13

1,068

1:22:40

8

14:43

-56

1:30:31

9

7:50

-1,284

1:36:51

10

6:19

-549

1:42:06

11

5:15

-340

1:47:45

12

5:39

-237

1:54:03

13

6:17

-143

2:00:18

14

6:14

-218

2:06:54

15

6:35

-206

2:12:43

16

5:49

-221

2:14:29

16.3

2:21

-61


 

 

La Sportiva Crosslite Miles: 17.50
Comments(12)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
23.6522.000.000.0010.6556.30
Bike Miles: 10.00Stairmaster Miles: 1.00Rowing Machine Miles: 1.00Saucony Kinvara 2 Grey Miles: 9.00La Sportiva Crosslite Miles: 17.50
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