AM- 8. PM- BW in Ogden. I started on the canal just north of Weber HS and ran east/south. The trail was a bit hillier than I expected. I did 4 miles warmup, then started my 9 mile tinman tempo. Unfortunately, less than a mile into my tempo, the canal road was blocked. I was forced to choose between a dirt road or a paved road... so I followed the dirt road up the mountain. The road soon became a singletrack headed up Coldwater Canyon (one canyon south of North Ogden pass). Coldwater Canyon is steep. Very steep. And technical. I was huffing and puffing for about 3/4 mile up, then forced to walk due to the grade. It became unrunnable, then almost unwalkable- kind of a "hold on to the branches so you don't fall backwards" type of climb. I climbed 1080 feet in .9 mile at 16:48 pace, which is pretty dang fast for that much climbing (23% avg grade, though easily 30+% at the top). At that point it wasn't worth going up more at such a slow pace into the snow, so I turned around and ran down in 8:35 (yes, that's how technical and steep it was). Once I returned to the canal, I went south for another 2 miles at tempo pace (around 6:30, which was 6:10 effort plus a bunch of hills and some switchbacks). I turned around exactly where BST started in Ogden- I'll have to go run that sometime. I tempo-ed back, skipping my mountain climb, averaging 6:20's for the next 5 miles. Then 3 miles cooldown with a few strides. 16 miles, 2:04:25 (7:46 avg) with 2000 ft climbing. Avg pace is 7:04 if you exclude my detour. Overall a great run. Definitely the most tired I have been after a BW all year, so it was a good workout. Essentially a 7 mile tempo with 1 mile super-hard hill climb and 1 mile super-technical descent thrown in the middle. Fun times. Now I need a nap! On a related note, I stopped by Striders and they hooked me up with a Salomon repair kit for my XT Wings. I'm still ticked the laces broke and am questioning the wisdom of wearing them on long races when you can't easily replace the laces. Great, great shoes, except I hate the laces.
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