Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - Main Chute [2500']. We skinned Baldy's shoulder instead off booting straight up the chute like usual. The conditions in Main were excellent, and you can still make it within about 100 feet of the parking lot on continuous snow.

PM - 4 miles.

I love the contrast between winter and summer...

AM - 6 miles.

PM - 3 miles w/ Andrea.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 7 miles.

Too much running for one day at this point.

AM - 7 miles in San Francisco along the Embarcadaro. Ran one mile almost all-out towards the end (5:40). 

AM - Main Chute via booter plus a lap off the top of Collins [2900']. Day #50 of the season. We might be done skiing in the Wasatch, but you never know. If this is the end, I'm really happy that we were able to ski until early June and had such great conditions over the past month. Best spring campaign since 2011.

PM - 7 miles. (3 w/ Andrea)

Dry patch at the Collins angle station. Beyond this point and on Baldy, the snow was pretty good.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea.

If you have an hour to kill and don't mind listening to a guy with a funny voice... BBC Panorama: Catch Me If You Can.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles. (4 w/ Andrea)

AM - 8 miles. 

PM - 6 miles.

AM - 4 miles.

PM - 6 miles in Chicago on the Des Plaines River trail.

AM - 8 miles in Chicago on the Des Plains River trail. 

AM - Walked around Mirror Lake and then up Bald Mountain. Went up to the Uintas with the skis, hoping there would be a continuous line somewhere (there wasn't, and we knew it was a longshot). Still nice to get up there and take in the views.

PM - 7 miles. PCMR trails: Silver Spur / Armstrong / Ham / Spiro loop.

AM - 10 miles. First 7 on the Mid Mountain trail w/ Andrea, out and back starting from the Montage. From there I ran 3.5 miles up to Guardsman Pass. Both sections of the run were gorgeous... I can't remember Park City being so lush and green.

This was my first 10 mile run in ~10 weeks. I haven't done a workout in over 3 months, and have put on a half-stone... so the timing is ideal to finally earn my RAGNAR sticker this weekend. I haven't been more specifically prepared.

AM - 10 miles.

PM - 6 miles. (3 w/ Andrea)

AM - 7 miles on the Pipeline trail w/ Andrea.

PM - 7 miles.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 7 miles.

AM - 10 miles.

Day 1 of RAGNAR Wasatch Back. 

A few years ago I wouldn't have imagined typing this next line - I had a really fun time running the RAGNAR relay over the past two days.

Our team was running to promote organ donation awareness. Thus, no kills recorded. Van 1 was a group of surgeons and hepatologists from the Mayo Clinic. Van 2 was an an ecclectic bunch from Intermountain Healthcare, Kansas University, PRA Health Sciences, and BD Medical (our ringer).

We drove up to Eden and spent Friday morning playing basketball at a cabin owned by a teammate's family in Eden. Once the temperature finally started pushing 100 degrees, we were off...

Friday 6:45pm - Leg 9 - 7.6 miles up the old Snowbasin road in 55:17 (7:15 pace). This was a solid climb (+1500 net gain) with beautiful views looking back down over the Pineview Reservoir.

Friday 8:30pm - Leg 10 - 3 miles down the Trapper's Loop road (5:30 pace). A mid-run asthma flare-up caused one of our teammates to abandon her leg... luckily I hadn't taken my shoes off yet and was able to jump in. Too downhill for my tastes (-750 feet!)

Attempted to sleep for a few hours... maybe got 20 minutes worth.

Saturday 4:30am - Leg 20 - 2.7 miles starting in Hoytsville (6:25 pace). It was very dark. The run was relatively flat.

Fortunately one of our teammates lives in Park City, so were were able to hang out (shower!!) at her house for the morning while the Mayo van was on the course.

Saturday High Noon - Leg 31 (the Ragnarliest leg ever, +2200 net gain) - 10 miles from Park City to Empire Pass and then towards Guardsman Pass for the exchange in 1:21:15 (8:10 pace). Aerobically I was never really stressed, but I am still lacking the muscular power to hammer a climb like this (although that seems to be coming around). I kept it at a moderately hard effort that wouldn't test my hamstring too much and had fun with it. Honestly I felt bad for almost everyone else that had to run this leg, I bet it took a lot of people 3-4 hours.

Now that I've finally done a RAGNAR, I'd say that like a lot of things in life, how much you enjoy it comes down to who you are with. We had a fantastic group - nothing but good times for two days. Thank god for 15 passenger vans, finishing an hour under the projected time, and a beer tent at the end.

The aftermath...

Andrea and I both needed a day off from running after Ragnar, so we hiked up to Lake Blanche for a picnic. Apparently we just missed seeing a swimming moose.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles. (3 w/ Andrea)

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea.

AM - 6 miles.

PM - 3 miles w/ Andrea.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 7 miles.

AM - 5 miles.

PM - 6 miles on the PCMR trails: Silver Spur - Armstrong. (3 w/ Andrea)

Short hike to Donut Falls to stand in the cold water on the way to Park City.

AM - 9 miles on the Mid-Mountain trail w/ Andrea and Devra.

PM - 6 miles on the Quinn's Junction trails.

Capped a nice day with a dusk/sunset picnic dinner at Empire Pass.

AM - 15 miles. Started from Prospector Square and ran from the base of PCMR up Jenni's Trail to Mid-Mountain and over to Empire Lodge. Andrea and Jess met me there and we ran another 6 miles on MM. Jenni's Trail is similar to Armstrong - a gradual climb to the upper mountain.

Nice to get out for 2.5 hours... it's been a while! I'm looking forward to running the Jasper Skyline Trail in a couple weeks. Not too worried about bears... confident the wolves will defend us.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 3 miles.

AM - 8 miles on the Pipeline trail with Andrea. Perfect morning run.