Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 10 miles. 3 x 1 Mile on Wasatch Blvd in 4:42, 4:42, 4:46. Tough headwind today (~25mph, which felt like it sort of negated the downhill advantage of these); the last one felt like I was trying a lot harder than when I ran 4:47 (flat) to close out Tuesday's workout. Still, accomplished the goal of the workout - faster turnover on somewhat tired legs - and bagged it after three reps to make sure I didn't wear myself down.

PM - 7 miles. Warmed up on the Alta HS track and did 4 x 200m in ~32s. Just enough to get loose and put the legs through a full range of motion. Then 4 miles w/ Spencer (shoe testing).

August 1st!

AM - 14 miles. Started w/ Andrea, then was carried along by the Goo Goo Dolls the rest of the way. Kept the pace very easy. Looking forward to getting back up to Jeremy Ranch tomorrow... its been a while!

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

AM - 20 miles. Jeremy Ranch Long Run. Great group this morning, probably 12-15 guys starting off together. Did the typical out and back for the first 15 miles, then Kotter and I added on 5 or so more. He wanted to do the last part on the roads around the golf course, not realizing that area is actually hillier than the dirt road (see below). I knew exactly what we were getting into and was happy to go along. Although I did slip off the sidewalk between 16-17 and took a solid tumble. Came directly down on the right knee and scraped it up a bit (and my hands!). Swollen now so today will require a lot of ice/pool time.

Felt great the whole time today. The last time I did a 20 mile run was MARCH! I'll start making these a more regular thing again next month.

AM - 10 miles w/ Andrea (bike). Horsepark and tempo loops. Knee felt best on flat pavement. Its still a little swollen from the fall, but almost back to normal size. I spent most of the day yesterday with my leg elevated and an ice pack wrapped around the kneecap. That's pretty much all I have planned for today as well. Boring way to spend the majority of the weekend (especially compared to last weekend in Jackson) but what can you do? At least the Kindle is getting a workout!

PM - 5 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

AM - 11 miles. Met the team at the JRP. Rob asked me to pace Kramer through a progression run today. I agreed (last week), figuring it would be a good "lead in" to my other workouts for the week. After the fall on Saturday, I was unsure of how my knee would hold up to this, and that made me a little nervous but I decided to give it a go anyways and help Kramer out. The idea was to do a warmup mile, then drop to 6:50 pace and take it down ~15 seconds per mile, finishing around 5:00 pace or faster. It didn't quite go as planned... the first half was fine and then we turned around into a 15 mph headwind, just enough to make it brutal when its hot out. Once we got under 5:45 pace Kramer was having a harder time so we ended up bagging it early. I ended up with 4 miles in the AT spectrum - 5:45, 5:31, 5:21, 5:25. Knee wasn't great but it wasn't worse. Lots of ice today. Sweat was a little salty so gotta clean up the diet!

PM - 11 miles. Horsepark loops. 

Rob's planned morning workout...

And our failed attempt to do it...
 

AM - 13 miles. LT Reps: 5 x 1 mile in 4:50, 4:55, 4:54, 4:52, 4:52. Tempo Loop. 3 up, 4 down. A little quick on the first rep... I purposely slowed down on the next two but they were still faster than usual (note to self #1: 4:58-5:05 isn't the range for this workout anymore), then finished up well without straining. I think I was so conscious of running with perfect form to make sure I didn't compensate for my knee that it made everything a lot easier (note to self #2: better mechanics = faster pace).

PM - 5 miles. Knee felt good, so I'm confident that I can run at Alta tomorrow without messing it up.

A-ROD!

AM - 15 miles. The "standard" Wednesday run at Alta has really been a treat this summer. Today was no exception. Perfect weather, great group to run with. Hard to beat. Kramer and I ran 15, similar to last week. Rob probably ran close to that, and a lot of the guys are getting these runs up to 10-13 miles. My sense is that everyone is seeing the benefit of these higher-altitude runs. I know I am! Or at the very least, everyone is willing to put in a good effort for some chocolate milk afterwards :-)

PM - 5 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

Started reading David Epstein's new book (The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance). Lots of hype surrounding this book at the moment, and for good reason... its fascinating and well-written. Really enjoying it. 

AM - 12 miles. 4 mile LT Tempo in 19:44 (4:56/mi avg). Splits - 4:51, 4:58, 4:58, 4:56. Tempo loop. 4 up/down. Felt a little tired from the last couple days, so I started off quick by design to get myself focused right away. Target range was 19:40-20:00. Anything faster would be too hard of an effort. My 5K split was ~15:16, so not far off what I was running all-out a couple weeks ago. You'd think I can finally get this 15:XX monkey off my back now, right? I'll have a good opportunity at the Dart Challenge next weekend (fast, flat course, sign up!).

PM - 6 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

AM - 12 miles. Easy breezy horsepark loops. First 3 miles w/ Andrea.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

World Champs start tomorrow! 

I ran this race in 2011, running ~5:45 pace for the 8.9 mile "15K" course. This year I was actually aiming to go a bit slower; just get a good workout without wearing myself out. I've upped the mileage and intensity (on purpose) over the past two weeks, so I wanted this to be a fun cap to the mini-cycle. I thought I saw Ken Richardson in the parking lot and figured I'd probably end up running with him, but then he wasn't there at the start (turns out he missed the gun and started late). Some other guy I didn't know (John Tribbia, I learned afterwards) started off ahead of me at a good clip, so I just went with him. I was more than willing to do my share of leading the race, and tried to move ahead 2-3 times during the first two miles, but every time he surged back ahead. Apparently he got the (outdated) memo that I'm not a threat in the latter stages of a race and was fine letting me run on his shoulder? :-)

Anyways, I didn't want to get into a game of surging so I just hung back a bit for the first half of the race. John would extend the lead a little on the downhills, then I would catch back up on the flats/ups. Around the halfway point you go up a long (~1.5 mile) hill on somewhat narrow singletrack. We went REALLY slow up this hill compared to how I ran it last time. I was getting anxious to get moving but just rolled with it because I saw no major benefit in pushing it. I decided to just wait until we went down the twisty/technical trail on the other side before taking the lead once and for all. After the downhill (where I didn't fall!) we hit the 7 mile mark and I decided it was time to get moving. There was a short, steep hill right around 7.25 mi and I knew the terrain opened up afterwards (more runnable) so I sprinted up the hill and that was that. Picked up the pace a bit as the trail turned back into a jeep road. Cruised in and ended up averaging~6:00 pace for the whole thing (definitely at least a full 15K this time with the course changes) so pretty much right where I wanted to be. Good workout, fun course, and great day with friends.

I highly recommend checking out this race series. Its always fun to go up to Park City and the race organizers do a great job.

Rob and ESPECIALLY Amiee ran well. That really made the day for me. Rob also wanted me to point out that I needed to run a trail race to finally win something. I'll show him! :-)

More photos. 

Splits - 5:42, 5:41, 6:12, 5:46, 6:19, 6:58, 5:46, 6:03, 5:27, 2:20. Had 0.5 for the last stretch so my auto-splits were clicking a little short. 

AM - 13 miles (2 up, race, 2 down)
PM - 6 miles on the PC rail trail (2 w/ Andrea). 

AM - 15 miles. Nice run in Park City along the dirt section of the rail trail.

PM - 5 miles. 

AM - 14 miles. Gully run - first loop w/ Rob, then another round w/ the team while they were doing a time trial. Several guys shaved big chunks off their best times today so it was fun being out there with them and pushing them along.

PM - 5 miles w/ 2 x 1/2 mile LT efforts on the tempo loop (2:28, 2:20).

I made this little PR table the other day... the red box essentially outlines my goals for the fall. After TOU 1/2, attack the right column!

AM - 13 miles. LT Reps: 3 x 2 miles - 9:56, 9:55, 9:52. Tempo loop (0.5 rec). 4.5 up (w/ Andrea), 1.5 down. Target was 9:55, so right on the money.

PM - 4 miles. 

Running TV alert: Nine for IX on Mary Decker / Zola Budd tonight (6pm MST, ESPN). Lots of great WCs action today as well (Duane and Nick go for gold in the 800! - BBC Stream).

AM - 14 miles. Second to last Alta run of the summer... sad. Probably will get one more the morning after the Peruvian Dash, but its hardly still summer up there a month from now. Anyways, we did the usual deal. Kramer needed 15 so I skipped the warmup mile (taper!) and then ran 14 with him. As always, it was a great run. We did 8 campground loops and a couple out and backs on the flat road.

PM - 4 miles. 

Last week I wore Andrea's HR monitor on a typical easy run... my HR avg was 117 bpm (7:45 pace, flat) for that run. I was curious about what would happen going from 4K to 9K feet so I wore it again this morning. Today we averaged 7:30 pace for a run with quite a bit of climbing, at a much higher elevation, and my HR avg was 133 bpm. So, about what you would expect given the hills. I don't think the high elevation affects me too much on flatter terrain.

I'm not really all that interested in tracking HR data. Information overload... I even turned off all of the sounds/auto-splits on my Garmin a few months ago because even that was too much external feedback. But, sometimes I get curious about stuff and figure its worth posting / sharing. I mainly just like the graph of the correlation between HR and the elevation profile.

AM - 5 miles. Couple laps around SHP and then finished on the track w/ 8 x 200m in 30.9 avg (200m jog).

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (bike). 

Working BBC stream. W1500 Final at 11:20 MST. C'mon, Jenny!!! 

AM - 6 miles w/ some short accelerations towards the end.

PM - 2 miles. 

The Dart Challenge is a fundraiser for the Davis XC team. Flat lollipop course, competitive... I'd highly recommend it. Corbin Talley does a great job putting this together, and its an excellent tune-up for the TOU 1/2.

I am not happy with how I ran today. Felt really flat on my warmup, and let that get to me mentally. For whatever reason, I didn't have that killer instinct today beforehand, and it never kicked in once the race began. The lack of effort is a little embarrassing.

John Coyle (who beat me by ~20 seconds at the Des 10K) took it out pretty quick. He was about 4:37 at the mile and I was a little behind (4:42, right where I wanted to be). The second mile is where I really tanked (4:58). I don't even know what to say about that. So I was through 2 miles in 9:40, which is still very much on pace to break 15 minutes, but mentally I just wasn't engaged. I should have been on the attack going after John (who was probably 50 meters ahead of me at that point). 

At around 2.5 miles there are two quick right hand turns (see map below, red circle). John overshot the second turn and kept going straight on Flint Meadow Dr. This was not surprising to me because I did the same thing while warming up on the course (there were arrows and it was well-marked, so not the race's fault by any means). Anways, I called out to John and he kept going. So I called out again and then he realized what was going on and doubled back. I had quite a gap on him now, but there's no glory is winning a race because a (better) competitor misses a turn, so I slowed down to a jog until he caught back up to me, and then we ran to the finish together, just sort of tempo-running it in, with the agreement that John would win (he had a gap on me and it was only fair that way). The third mile was 5:00 and we both finished in 15:08. John would have been well under 15 minutes had he stayed on course.

There are silver linings you can pick out of this (I ran 15:23 the week before running 1:05:40 at TOU 1/2 two years ago, we didn't really race the last half-mile, etc) but nothing makes up for the fact that I had a poor mental attitude today and my performance reflected it. Maybe I would have been around 15 flat if things had gone differently in the last mile, but honestly I was thinking more along the lines of 14:45 today. And I was in position to do that through the first mile, and just gave up. That's what disappoints me. 

I didn't really have time to get mad at myself after the race, though, because two minutes after I finished, Allie came rolling in, running a 30 second PR and SMASHING 18 minutes for the first time! I'm really happy for her - she's been after that benchmark for a long time, and seeing her beat it by that much was really great. Congrats, Allie.

I'm leaving in an hour for North Carolina... spending the week at the beach with my family. Going to use this as motivation to redeem myself at TOU 1/2 next weekend. I fly back and get in just in time to get up to Logan next Friday night. 

AM - 9 miles (course warmup w/ half mile at MP + strides, race, cooldown on the course w/ Allie, James, and Collin).

PM - Off. 

AM - 10 miles. All around Wrightsville Beach, NC... first 7 miles w/ Andrea (7!!!). I didn't tell her how far we'd gone until we were past 6.5 miles. Finished up and went for a long walk on the beach w/ my parents and sister.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea (beach bike).

AM - 8 miles. Ran 4 miles around the UNC-Wilmington campus with my Dad and Andrea, then 5000m on the track in 15:07. Cooled down one mile.

Nice track and field complex. The effort felt pretty smooth despite 99.9% humidity in the air. Even pacing, with the 1600m splits all right around 4:50. We'll call this a "high-end" tempo run. My Mom shot some video during the workout so Andrea could critique my form afterwards. Another day in the life at the Krong Project :-)

Really enjoyed running with my Dad... he kicked our butts on the warmup!

PM - 3 miles w/ Andrea (bike).

AM - OFF. Went fishing all morning on Captain Mike White's boat. Caught a (very small) shark and a bunch of other stuff. Somehow fishing made us super tired and I needed a two hour nap afterwards. Great fun.

PM - 9 miles. First 3.5 w/ Andrea.

AM - 9 miles. Hot and humid run, most of it with Andrea. We found a little shade on a bike path, which was nice, but didn't last long enough. I did 2 x 1 mile efforts towards the end - 4:49, 4:38 (starting at 5.5 and 8 miles). 5K / 3K effort. Felt pretty good.

PM - 4 miles. The family is ready to kill each other and I wasn't planning to run again but I need to get out of here shakeout run. A family vacation tradition! :-)

AM - 5 miles with my parents, very easy. Then we went for a long beach walk and swim in the ocean. Slightly overcast today, which is my favorite kind of beach weather.

PM - 3 miles. 

AM - 5 miles with 1/2 mi LT effort (2:22, tailwind) + some strides.

Put up some pics from North Carolina, including the tiny shark.

TOU 1/2 tomorrow!

I had one goal today - cross the finish line first. So while I fell short of that (by a landslide), it wasn't due to a poor performance on my part... major tip of the cap to Riley, who ran a fantastic race (1:05:16, narrowly missing the course record). In my opinion, the most impressive race anyone in Utah (not just FRB) has run this year. 

The field was pretty stacked (normal for this race now). The primary competition was Riley, Bryant, and Jon Coyle. I told myself I wasn't going to take the lead in the canyon, but the pace was slow in the first quarter mile and I felt uncomfortable running so close to everyone, so I took off - just over a minute into the race and put a small gap on everyone. It wasn't exactly a break for the tape, just an effort to string it out a little, and footsteps started to slowly come back to me. I led the first three miles and then Riley evened up to me and took the lead shortly after that. No one else was there, and I felt like we had a pretty good gap on everyone else. The run down the canyon for the first seven miles was the same as always - focus on running good tangents, feel that small headwind just after 5 miles, which turns into a tailwind a quarter mile later, etc. We were moving pretty quick (29:21 at 6 miles).

On Hollow Road (after 7 miles) we were still pretty close. I think it was somewhere around 8-9 miles where I just started to feel a little tired, and Riley put a gap on me after 9 miles (2011 deja vu, swapping Riley in for Paul). Once we got to the Millville hill I was probably a good 10+ seconds back and didn't feel like I had a chance to rally and win. I started doing the math in my head to figure out what I would need to run to break my best time on the course (never a good sign when you resort to that!)... and ended up losing a lot of time on mile 12 - his lead doubled from what I could tell. Finished just fast enough to beat my 2011 time by 1 second (1:05:39, full splits below). When I said I wanted to beat these times this fall, I didn't mean by only a second each, but its still better than not beating them at all. 

Full Results. Four guys under 1:07, which I don't think has ever happened before. Says a lot about how deep and competitive this race is getting. I love it.

I'm happy with the fact that this is my fastest time on the course, but I'm never going to be completely satisfied with a second place finish. Keeps the fire burning...

If I had run low 1:05s today, I'd be looking to get in a flat half pretty soon to take a crack at the OT standard. I'm in the ballpark, but not quite in striking distance yet... moving in that direction, though. I feel like I've been making consistent progress all summer, and just need to keep plugging away. First things first - a short break from anything intense (~10 days with no faster running, just low intensity... and high altitude). Then I'll get going again with some races the weekend after Labor Day. Keeping my options open for the fall... Oct/Nov seems like the right time to attack the half-marathon again. My speed has improved, but I need to some re-incorporate some of the longer tempo runs so I can put the whole package together for 13.1 miles.

Splits from the last 3 years. Probably a little too quick down the canyon. Oh well, that's racing.

Picture from the Herald-Journal. I'm back to bald (sorry Andrea).

The new logo is awesome. They also upped the prize money without announcing it. This race is always full of fun surprises.

AM - 19 miles (2 up w/ Sasha, Race, 4 down w/ Allie, James, Scott, and Devra).  

PM - 4 miles in Green River, UT.

AM - 8 miles in Green River, UT. I drove here last night and went for a shakeout just as it was getting dark. All the abondoned buildings creeped me out in the dark. This morning's run in the daylight was much less scary, but kind of depressing. I need to look up the history of this place... it feels like a ghost town. I'm guessing at some point there was a lot more action here.

Spent the night at the Robbers Roost Motel, which I'd highly recommend (Yelp agrees). For $34, a clean room, fridge, and fast WiFi. [Note to Fritz, Scott, and Brandon - this is where you want to stay next time you're in Green River!]

The White Wolf (my jeep) and I decided to hit the road for a while. On Friday, I'll rendevous with Andrea and company in Silverton, CO. We rented out Aladdin's Lamp Hut over Labor Day weekend. I can't wait (what a location!) - there are so many amazing hikes in that area. In the meantime, I've got a week to get there and no set plans. I'll hike, maybe tag some mountains once I hit the San Juans, and find cool places to do some easy, scenic runs. I might detour towards the Moab area for a day or two, but the million dollar highway is really calling my name right now. I've also never been to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, so I'd like to check that out as well.

AM - 10 miles. Easy run on some farm roads in Grand Junction, CO. North side of the city towards the Book Cliffs. Yesterday was a total rainout (it just poured all day), but it finally cleared up in the morning. Hopefully the heavy rain is done for the week. There are an endless amount of dirt roads that are great for running around GJ... tons of BLM land (although Halliburton is fracking all over the Western Slope).

PM - 5 miles in Delta, CO.

Since the rain finally stopped I headed down to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP and visited the North Rim. Did a 7 mile hike/jog to Exclamation Point and Green Mountain. I really liked the area and would recommend checking it out if you're ever in the region. [More Photos]

AM - 12 miles on farm roads in Delta, CO. What Green River is to melons, Delta is to peaches.

PM - 10 miles in Ouray, CO... ran the perimeter trail and a couple extensions along the Uncompahgre River. I am beaming right now - what a fun run! If I had my camera with me, I never would have gotten anywhere. Barely beat the 9-minute guy as it was (lots of steep up and down). Never was more than a mile or so from town but this run had it all - meandering river, 360 mountain views, waterfalls, box canyons, bridge-tunnel-staircase, and all through the ice park. There was also a house built directly into a cliff (only seemingly accessible via some sort of outdoor converted mining elevator) that blew my mind and caused me to come to a complete stop. I'm going to stay in Ouray for the next couple days because I love it here. ANDREA CALL IN SICK AND DRIVE DOWN TONIGHT!

In-Between: I drove up to Owl Creek Pass on my way to Ouray and went for a hike up Courthouse Mountain. At only a bit over 12,000 feet, Courthouse is a midget around here. It was a fun, short hike with a surprise scrambling section at the end. [More photos: Courthouse Mountain]

West Fork of the Cimmaron

AM - 10 miles on Ouray County Road 17, which is dirt and parallels the river. That's about as good of a road as you can ask for.

Hiked up to Engineer Pass via the Bear Creek Trail [14 miles r/t, 4400 feet up from Hwy 550 to the pass]. I really enjoyed this one. Put up a lot more photos with more details about the trail, mining history, etc here: Bear Creek to Engineer Pass.

PS - The House of Run's podcast with David Epstein is worth a listen, whether you've read his new book or not. 

AM - 10 miles. River trail loop + some trails around the Ice Park.

PM - 8 miles. Dirt road along the river.

Went up to the Ironton ghost town during the middle of the day and linked together a couple trails from there, essentially doing a loop around Red Mountain #1. Probably 8-9 miles (GPS said 9+ but my feelings on GPS accuracy in canyons (or gulches in this case) are well-documented). [More Photos]

If you eat the dirt here, your anemia will be cured :-)

AM - 20 miles. Long Run. Ran from Ouray towards Ridgway on the dirt roads (dropping from ~7750' to ~7000' on the way out), then turned around and back up to Ouray. Essentially the Mt Sneffels Marathon course, but in reverse. Averaged 6:50 pace, which is probably a good minute faster per mile than I've been running this week.

PM - 7 miles. From the hut to Molas Lake and then up to the Pass, then back. Running at 11,000 feet is tough!

AM - Hiked to Ice Lakes Basin. I've never seen a shade of blue like Ice Lake. [~6.5 miles, 2500']

PM - 8 miles. Molas Lake to Molas Pass (10,900') and back via the Colorado Trail w/ James, Allie, and Amiee. Then the Smores and I added on a few more laps around the lake and back to the hut via Hwy 550.

According to 5280 magazine, the reason for the color:

Upper Ice Lake is a glacial tarn—a lake carved and fed by glaciers—that gets its near-fluorescent blue color from rock flour. When a glacier moves, it grinds the bedrock below, creating a crushed-rock powder that suspends in the water and absorbs the sun’s light spectrum in a way that creates a beautiful cerulean appearance. There are only a handful of similarly colored glacial lakes in the state.