Wheeler Farm Loops

Quick update from the midpoint of our vacation... Brian Head is an amazing place for running - endless ATV trails, dirt forest roads, etc. We are having an amazing time. I posted some photos from our super activity day on Saturday... I'll post full galleries of our adventures when we get back on Thursday.

AM - 12 miles w/ some solid climbs. Andrea and Kevin ran the middle portion of the run with me.

PM - 7.5 miles. Ran up to the top of the Navajo Ridge again and touched the tops of all the chairlifts. It was slow going but a ton of fun.

We spent the afternoon hiking in Kanaraville Creek and the slot canyon. Basically we just walked in ice cold water for hours... so much fun!!!

AM (1) - 3.5 miles easy jog + hot tub while everyone was asleep or pretending to be asleep.

AM (2) - 12 miles loop around Navajo Lake. This was an incredible run. Kevin and I ran while Andrea and Amiee rode mountain bikes. First couple miles on a dirt road, then we cut off to some of the smoothest rolling single track I've ever run on. And... it was all above 9000 feet. The last couple miles took us though an old lava field. This route had everything.

After the run/bike, we went for a short hike to Cascade Falls. Then checked out a scenic area around Cedar Breaks. Now I'm taking a breather and gearing up for another big adventure tonight... more to come...

PM - 8.9 miles to the top of Brian Head Peak and partway back down. 1700+ foot climb over 6 miles to the summit (11,307). The rest of the crew drove to the 3 mile mark, I started from our hotel and met them there. Andrea and Amiee rode mountain bikes to the top, Kevin and I ran up and kept a pretty solid pace all the way. Scroll all the way down for the photos from this run... AMAZING!!!! 

OK lots of pics today... here's the shots from the run up to the top of Brian Head peak...

What a run!!! 

AM - 7.8 miles. Last run in Brian Head... 30 minutes on the town trail, then looped back and ran with Andrea on the dirt road across the street.

PM - 7.3 miles at Bryce Canyon. Kevin and I ran from Ruby's to Fairyland Point on some XC trails / sandy roads... the girls biked along. Then we ran a little bit on the trails there. The forest fires have made the air in the Bryce area really smoky and gross... hopefully it will clear up tomorrow.

Today was a vacation "recovery" day... stopped on the way to Bryce and did a few short hikes near Red Canyon. Hung out by the pool / hot tub for a nice chunk of time this afternoon.

Happy 4th of July!!!

AM - 13 miles. What an amazing and cool run. Andrea and I started at Sunrise Point and ran the rim trail to Bryce Point, then back. We kept the pace super easy and stopped a bunch of times to take pictures and soak in the views. Once we got back to Sunrise Point, Andrea drove back to out hotel and I continued on.... running to Fairyland Point along the rim, then back to the hotel via the XC trails.

After the run we went for a great hike in the canyon - Queen's Garden - Peekaboo Loop - Wall Street. About 6.5 miles with over 2000 feet of elevation gain. Then we drove home. Great trip down south! I have hundreds of photos I still need to sort through and organize... I also haven't checked in on anyone's blog this week - hopefully everyone raced well and has stayed safe from the fires...

AM - 9.5 miles, up to work. BORING run compared to the last week (although the rain sprinkles were a nice surprise). My legs are still locked into "mountain running at high altitude" pace. That's fine w/ me for now. I'm still on a total high from the trip. In the 5 full days we were gone, I logged about a hundred of the most wonderful miles I've ever run... approximately 11,000 vertical feet of climbing... pretty much all on trails, dirt roads, etc. Other than Bryce (8000 ft) we were between 9-11,000 feet for the entire trip. I love being up at high elevation. It was awesome to get in some fun hikes, too. A good vacation is one that you come back a little tired and weathered from. My weight dropped a little too much since last week so its time to get back on the eating all day at my desk bandwagon :-)

PM - 9.5 miles home. Symmetry. 

AM - 10.7 miles up to work. 

PM - 7.3 miles home. Andrea awoke from her sickness slumber and joined me for the last couple miles. 

Tough to work a full two days this week - bring on another weekend! :-) 

AM - 15 miles. Slept in (almost 12 hours asleep!) and then went up to Jeremy Ranch. Ran the first 8.5 w/ Andrea to Mormon Flat and back, then did another out and back to the Morgan County fence. Always enjoy this run! 6000 feet feels easy breezy after where we were running down in the Brian Head area.

PM - 7 miles on the historic Park City Rail Trail.

AM - 14.5 miles. Back to Jeremy Ranch for the second day in a row... living the dream! Andrea and I spent the night in Park City, so it was a no-brainer to join Rob and Fritz for an easy run on the dirt road with all the cows, which were out in full force this morning.

After breakfast we decided to scrap any grand plans of epic hiking / mountain biking and just take a leisurely relaxation day. Went to the PC Silly Market, hung out by the pool, etc. Started looking at the maps of Grand Teton National Park and planning our next trip... already super stoked and its still two weeks away!

PM - 7.5 miles. Horsepark loops... hot out! 

AM - 11.5 miles up to work. 

PM - 8 miles home. 

AM - 15 miles, up to work via Tanner Park-Parleys-Wasatch... lots of hills.

PM - 6.5 miles down to SHP... met Andrea and ran a loop around the park with her. On the way there I threw in a faster mile (4:42, downhill) just to make sure the legs still work. They do.

Yeah soooo... we pretty much have to run this race, huh? Although its the same day as TOU 1/2, and on second thought, you are basically paying $20 for a shakeout run and ice cream cone... so maybe not the best deal in the world. Love the concept, though!

AM - 12.5 miles up to work*

*Lunge walking with a 40 lb vest, alternating hyperventilation and holding my breath 1 min on/off. Barefoot. :-) 

PM - 8.5 miles. Unfortunately missed the Alta run b/c my jeep was broken from the SoUT trip. Ran from work to the repair shop to pick it up. Did a loop around SHP along the way - the park was DESOLATE.  Apparently no one goes outside when its warm and sunny?

AM - 11 miles. Drove up to work today - a massive resupply of my food/clothes cache was needed - so I did an Emigration Canyon run from HCI. On the way back down I picked it up for a little bit (~Ruth's to Post Office)... 3 miles in 14:38 (4:59, 5:02, 4:36). Just focused on keeping my steps light and turnover quick - no overstriding. A little downhill running and strides sprinkled into what I'm doing right now should (hopefully) keep my neuromuscular system from forgetting how to move fast.

PM - 6.5 miles. Cloudy out so even though it was probably close to 100 degrees it didn't feel very hot. I need to get up in the alpine again soon... I have mountain fever and was daydreaming about places like this the whole run...

AM - 10 miles up to work. Caught an incredible sunrise - looked like the sky was on fire for a few minutes. Unfortunately that probably means the ground was on fire somewhere else.

PM - 7.3 miles home. Running the Lavender half-marathon tomorrow, just for kicks. Obviously not resting much for this one :-) 

Found out about this BBC documentary on the history of the Olympic 1500m last night. Watched the first 3 minutes and had to stop because I knew I wouldn't fall asleep. Excited to watch it at some point over the next couple days.

And for a reading recommendation - there are great interviews with Steve and Melody in the latest Utah Running Magazine. They both have some excellent advice to share.

I'll admit it - I was cherry picking this morning (or should I say lavender picking?)... figured I could use a workout and a little cash wouldn't hurt. Who would have thought so many good runners would show up to a little race in Mona, UT? Offer generous prize money and they will come :-)

Andrea and I stayed with Rachelle last night... very convenient, since she lives pretty close to the lavender farm. Thanks Rachelle for hosting us and letting everyone in Utah in on the secret of this race!

My goal was to run ~5:30 pace and with all the (slow / mountain) miles I've been logging the past couple weeks, I wasn't even sure if I would be able to do that. We didn't really warmup much... honestly, Andrea and I didn't even think this race would be competitive until about 8pm last night when we saw the entry lists... at which point we realized it wasn't going to be easy money. So I can't really say I was in a "racing" mode at the start. I just wanted to put in a good effort and stick to my original plan.

The course is basically a loop around the Mona pond/lake. First mile on a dirt road, then on paved roads until ten miles... the last 5K is on a sorta-rough dirt road through the lavender fields. Its not an easy one by any means. 

We started off slow, making lavender jokes for most of the first mile. The race goodie bag included a vile of lavender juice that could either be ingested or applied topically. Can that possibly be FDA approved? Rossy joined us for the first bit, then it was down to the main pack who would round out the top five - Alden Bahr, Brett Hales, John Kotter, myself, and Riley Cook. The pace finally picked up a bit at some point during the third mile and I just felt plain flat... sort of as I expected. At some point we lost Riley, and then after we hit the 6th mile I dropped back from the other three guys. They put about 20 seconds on me in the next mile. I looked back at 7 and didn't see Riley, so I just went into "tempo run cruise control" mode the rest of the way. I really didn't want to push myself much harder than that today. John was up ahead by 20-30 seconds for the last couple miles, but I'm not sure I could have made an honest effort at making up the ground even if I wanted to.

The last 5K through the fields was a tough part of the course - XC style! Running through dirt, rocks, and dodging all the people walking and taking pictures.

Splits - 5:42, 5:50, 5:31, 5:22, 5:20, 5:20, 5:37, 5:21, 5:37, 5:36, 5:50, 5:39, 5:08, :37 [5:32 average pace] - Full Results

1:12:36, 4th place, $200. In the past year I've run 1:05:40, 1:05:45, and 1:06:02 for the half marathon. In those 3 races I earned a combined $175. Today I eclipsed that with the slowest half marathon I have ever run. Sometimes you gotta just pick the right races! :-) 

The course is definitely a fair one (about 30% of it on dirt and plenty of long, gradual uphill - in fact, its a net uphill). Race organization was fantastic - awesome prizes (like I said, generous cash prizes, even for age-group winners), the mile markers were right on the money, etc. Perfectly accurate course (Bill C measured it, so what do you expect?). Kudos to the young living farm for doing a great job.

A really fun morning in general - Andrea's hamstring held up (yay!!!), Rachelle ran awesome (getting on the podium with some of the best runners in the state - what a jump for her this year!)... Melody continued her 5K dominance. Enjoyed chatting a bit w/ John and Kyle afterwards as well.

I was pretty tired going into this so I'm content with my effort today. The TOU marathon is only 2 months away. I should probably start focusing on getting a little more structure into my training if I want to run really fast there... but I don't really want to do that yet. I'm having a fun summer and enjoying just doing whatever I feel like for the time being. Aerobically - I'm very, very strong right now... so once I get serious I'm confident I can get the wheels moving again in a couple weeks of workouts.

Now I have to go plant my lavender weed in the yard... 

Are there dinosaurs on the lavender farm?!?!?!?! 

PM - 4 miles super slow and easy. 

AM - Zero. I feel like I tried to take a charge on Lebron James, he hit me at full steam, and then while I was down, he injected the lavender poison into my system. Seriously I think I either caught the stomach virus Andrea had, or just have some sort of bad food poisoning. Was up all night I'm pretty "depleted" right now (that's the least gross way I can put it). As someone who can typically put in a 25 mile day while feeling sick - I can barely walk across our living room right now. Ugly. I don't like this feeling!

PM - Hardly moved all day. Andrea and I took a walk and I made it just over a tenth of a mile before almost falling over. On the bright side, the weather has been crummy today and my original intention to do a big trail run / hike wouldn't have been a great idea anyways. I've been able to eat some freeze pops, that's about it.

AM - 7.3 miles up to work... first 3 w/ Andrea. Once I was able to put down some food last night, my body started to bounce back. That was a lazy Sunday, though... not sure I could mentally handle too many of those!

PM - 10.5 miles. Down to SHP, a couple laps around the park w/ Andrea, then home... almost. Made it to about 1/3 of a mile from home when my stomach finally said ENOUGH and I had to stop and walk it in. Even though I still feel a little lousy, its a big improvement from yesterday, and it was really refreshing to run in the rain! 

AM - 15.5 miles up to work via the Tanner Park death loop. Started really slow, but started to feel pretty good in the last 1/3 of the run.

PM - 8.5 miles home. Andrea met me for the last couple. 

FYI - that BBC Olympic 1500m video I mentioned last week - its fantastic and I highly recommend it. The kind of TV that no American network would ever produce because no one in this country would bother taking the time to learn a little bit about Cerutty and Lydiard. I especially enjoyed the segment on Seb Coe.

AM - 12.7 miles. Holladay loop w/ Andrea, then split off near SHP and up the hill to work.

PM - 10.9 miles home. Met up w/ Adam H (who ran w/ us a few times in the spring but has been battling FAI) and ran 5-6 miles with him. We were both headed towards SHP from upper campus so that worked out nicely. 

Found the new Usain Bolt documentary on Youtube. Gotta watch this before it gets taken down. And speaking of cool running videos - Bret tipped me off a great Seb Coe documentary called "Born to Run." Watched it last night... its one of those things that you'll either think is boring, or absolutely riveting and love every second of it. No middle ground. I loved it. If you are interested, here's the link - Part 1 (there are segments so just follow the links to keep going).

AM - 12 miles. JAJAK is back to Thursdays, which is actually good because its something to look forward to during the week, and it means the weekend is really close. Ran a 7 mile loop from SHP, then the DesNews/"Brighton is my recovery run and now my legs are trashed" part of the crew stopped. I ran up to work from there, Andrea joined me for the first mile of the journey up the hill.

PM - 10 miles home with a couple pickups on some gradual downhill sections - 2 miles in 10:38 (5:24, 5:14), ~3.5 miles easier, then finished up with 1 mile in 4:59... cooled down another mile... now I gotta finish getting packed up for Jackson!

No videos to post today, but I have a few good links... Running is good for you, and if you run fast enough, Nike will give you lots of Air Jordans. 

AM - 19 miles up to work. Holladay loop, then up the 4500S hill to Wasatch, along the bench to the zoo, then wound around campus for a while. This was actually my longest run since Boston.

Saucony sent me a new pair of the Ride 5 yesterday, so this was my first run in those. Really liked them! I've been wanting to add a more cushioned (but still light and neutral) shoe to my rotation... these are perfect. Just what I have been looking for. I think I'm going to have to order another pair soon because I'm going to be running in them a lot. Plus, the laces and upper glow in the dark! Not that I like bright, fluorescent colors or anything...

Andrea is picking me up after lunch and we're driving up to Jackson. We'll be there through Wednesday night. Tomorrow morning we're planning on running here (River Road)... 

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea to shake out the legs after the drive. Ran on the bike path along Moose-Wilson Road and then made a quick loop around Teton Village. This place is heaven.

AM - 15 miles w/ Andrea. One of the coolest runs we've ever done. Started at River Road and decided we'd rather explore and run some real trails, so we ended up running some really fun singletrack to Taggert Lake, Bradley Lake, and then out to Lupine Meadows. From there we ran on the bike path back to my jeep to complete the loop... then took runs doing strides for the camera. Andrea encouraged me to talk a lot (and loudly) on the trails to warn bears that we were coming :-)

A simply amazing morning. I feel so lucky to be able to have a high level of fitness and experience these kinds of places in the way that we do. 

PM - 6.2 miles on the bike path, a "progressive shakeout" - got moving pretty good towards the end. 

We went mountain biking on the Jackson Hole ski slopes this afternoon. Its pathetic how an intermediate rated loop can kick our butts :-)

Andrea is making sloppy joes, the hot tub is hot, and we have a BIG hike planned for tomorrow. Life is good! 

AM - 9 miles at sunrise on the bike path. I'm afraid to run on the trails here (early in the morning) by myself.

Big hike today - Paintbrush-Cascade Canyon loop (about 19 miles and close to 5K feet of climbing). It was a loop I have been wanting to do for a long time and it lived up to the hype. Spectacular scenery! Unfortunately once we got up to Paintbrush Divide, a big storm rolled in. We hiked in rain and hail for the last 9-10 miles and didn't get any good photos of Lake Solitude or Cascade Canyon, but it was still an awesome day. 

PM - 4 miles easy to shake out the legs. Solid 30+ miles on them today and feeling good!

Here's a full photo gallery from the hike. A few selected ones below... I love the Tetons... this is the only place in the world for me that is on the same level as the Sierras...

AM - 15.3 miles on the Moose-Wilson path. Felt a bit tired this morning, the dreary/rainy weather didn't help. Luckily Andrea ran the first 10 miles w/ me, or else it would have been a massive mental undertaking to make it to 2 hours! Glad to get it in, though - nothing else to do when the weather is socked in. Hopefully these clouds will break soon and we'll be able to do some fun stuff today.

PM - 7.5 miles.

The weather broke for a few hours and we had a great time rafting on the Snake River this afternoon. Saw a bald eagle!

Oh, and McD's sells dipped cones now?!?! Sorry DQ, this is gonna put you out of business!

Good luck to everyone running Des News tomorrow!!! 

AM - 10 miles. Really cool trail run w/ Andrea - we were able to link up 4 lakes (Jenny, String, Leigh, and Bearpaw), and even saw a bear! The trail was so smooth - no rocks - perfect for running. Enjoyed this one a lot!

Then we headed up to Jackson Lake and rented some kayaks for a couple hours... paddled a nice loop from Colter Bay to Halfmoon Bay and back. Perfect timing as the rain started coming down just a few minutes after we got back to the marina.

PM - 9 miles to the park entrance & back, then explored around Teton Village and the mansions on the hill. 

Seems like the blog had a lot of strong performances at Des News today - both the marathon and the 9.5K :-)  I'll have to catch up later this week. But in general - nice job everyone!!

The trail hugged the shore of Leigh Lake for several miles...

Running along Jenny Lake w/ the Grand Teton hidden from view in the clouds...

Jackson Lake...

AM - 16 miles. Last run in Wyoming... Andrea and I ran up into the park via the dirt road. Near the Granite Canyon trailhead we saw what we had been looking for the whole trip - MOOSE! A mile or so later I also came face to face with a deer - no joke, it was like 5 feet away from me. We both just stopped and looked at each other for a few seconds. Beautiful morning here - the sun is out in full force and lighting up the mountains. Can't beat this.

AM2 - Mountain bike ride (14 miles, ~1400 feet of climbing). Andrea found a great network of trails near Snow King mountain in Jackson. We rode up Cache Creek on the old jeep trail, then back down (and up and down and up and down) on some rolling singletrack. Very fun. I would highly recommend this area for both biking and trail running.

PM - 5.5 miles on the mean streets of Millcreek after driving home. Felt pretty good considering the amount of activity over the past couple days, and the long drive.

AM - 11.5 miles up to work. Back to the usual routine. 

PM - 11.5 miles home. Did the same DH pickups as last Thursday - splits this time around were 2 miles in 9:56 and 1 mile in 4:50. Quicker than a week ago, but I still feel pretty slow. Ran a few miles with Andrea, too. Altogether a pretty good (and HOT) run.

Vacation is over... :-)
 
(Sorry Andrea I couldn't resist!)

I'm thinking that I probably could use another half-marathon as a tempo run / hard workout this weekend, but it seems like the only one is up in Morgan, and I don't know if I feel like being in the car for that long after yesterday's drive. I'll have to make a decision tomorrow.  

AM - 14.5 miles, up to work. There were couple small (WEAK) rain showers... a downpour would have been nice and refreshing!

PM - 9 miles home, saw Rob M along the way and ran a few w/ him. We did a detour through his neighborhood to make sure the kids weren't killing themselves on the slip and slide. 

Make sure you order your shirt and shorts for opening ceremonies tonight. 

On a serious (but sad) note - US distance running legend Pat Porter died in a place crash last night. I'd highly recommend reading the archived SI story that Letsrun mentions here. 

AM - 25 miles. Glad I decided not to run a race today... I was able to sleep in, take some photos at Andrea's XC race, then head up to Park City and meet the guys (Rob M, Adam, and Kevin) for a Jeremy Ranch long run. We did an out & back to the east canyon road, then several more out & backs of varying lengths as guys dropped off when they hit their mileage. Adam went to 20 w/ me, by which point I was starting to feel pretty good, so adding on the extra 5 wasn't too bad. 

I did something different during the run today - took in fluids and calories! Gel and G2 at 14.5 miles, then grabbed my bottle again at 22 and carried it for the last 3 miles. 24 oz of fluid is probably the most I have even taken during a run (except Boston)... so hopefully if I keep practicing this, I can start to get a good feel of what I need to do (nutritionally) during a marathon. Or at the very least, get my stomach to tolerate it better.

There is nothing easy about this run. This hills at the end that I was running up and down (around the golf course neighborhood) are soul-crushing... 

PM - 3.5 miles easy w/ Andrea

AM - 10 miles w/ Andrea, Fritz, and Kevin.

PM - 11.5 miles w/ Andrea on bike escort for most of it.

For a variety of reasons, didn't make it up to the mountains today. So pretty much a recovery day, other than the 2 runs, 200 pushups, 50 pullups, and washing the jeep really good.

The wheels in our heads are turning and we've been talking about maybe changing the fall focus to a December marathon for both of us (CIM?). That would be good w/ me... then I don't have to train too hard for the TOU marathon

Just added up my mileage and realized I did about 160 miles in the past 7 days. I honestly had no idea it was that high. No wonder Andrea has been getting mad at me for "exercising too much" :-)

AM - 12 miles up to work. 

PM - 10 miles. Wanted to mix in something of substance, so I ran the last mile to SHP faster (4:48) then did a 2 mile effort on the park inner loop (10:22). Saw Andrea right after I finished that up, and ran around the park for a while with her.

Interesting that Jack Bauer took 10th place in the Olympic road race. Good to see he's found something productive to do in his spare time after saving the world from terrorists on so many occasions. 

AM - 15 miles up to work. Mission accomplished - drove my car to work exactly one day in July. Lots of run commuting miles... and no real workouts. That will change...

PM - 10 miles home. Threw in about 8-10 short accelerations during the last mile. Figured that since July has pretty much been a jogfest, I might as well close it out by moving my legs a little quicker. 621 miles for the month... that's definitely my highest ever... now the rest of the year is a perpetual taper :-)