I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 10 in 69:30 on sore hips.

PM- 7.5 with Marci and the kids.  New shoes- I just retired my second pair of NB 769's last week, and got my third pair out of the box. 

AM- Accidentally set my alarm for 5:20 am instead of 4:20, so only had time for a quick PW5.  It felt good to sleep in an extra hour, though.

PM- Big Trail Workout with Cody.  Repeated a run from last year- start at First Dam, up Logan Canyon, climb the Wind Caves ridge trail, descend Birdeneau trail, down Green Canyon, then BST to the car.  15.5 miles with about 3000 ft climbing, though 2300 ft of that comes in 3 miles going up the wind caves (aka 15% grade).  I felt good on the uphills, though I was reminded once again how brutal the climb up the the ridge is as we averaged 15:30's uphill even though we ran most of it.  Hit the top of the ridge in 1:32 (9 miles exactly).  The technical descent down Birdeneau was a bit slow for me today, and I watched Cody pull away as he had an extra gear (or two or three- he was a ton faster today downhill).  Didn't feel great the whole way down, but finished the last 6.5 miles in 47:20.  It was strange that I felt fine running uphill, with plenty of leg strength, but felt tired downhill.  Anyways, finished the 15.5 miles in 2:19:50, which is 10 minutes faster than last year.  Very tiring run, but we finished with a good leg soaking in the lake.  You missed out, Joe.  Probably not going to repeat this run this year- too many other good runs out there, plus this one is just so darn slow on the climb.  Good workout for upcoming trail races, though.

AM- 10 at just under 7 min pace.  Tired, but definitely had more spunk in my legs than I expected after yesterday's run.

PM- 4.5 with Marci and the kids, then 4 more by myself.  Quads are a touch sore- better now than during a race.

Cody sent me the following info regarding snow on Logan Peak for the race- all data is from a snow station near the summit:

2008- 30" snow on June 15.  Course conditions- patchy snow miles 5-11, continuous deep snow with a few bush tops visible from miles 11-16.

2009- 5" snow on June 15.  Course conditions- minor snow miles 5-11, partial snow miles 11-16.

2010- 50" snow on June 15.  Course conditions- who knows.  But it won't be a fast race.  In fact, it snowed at 7500 ft level today! 

AM- 9.5 in 1:06:11.

PM- 2 running, 3 biking while watching the NBA finals- had to switch to the bike to keep my Mexican food dinner from coming up.  I saw a ton of decorated vans and SUV's around town this evening- looks like everyone is ready for the Wasatch Back tomorrow.  Hope everyone has fun and is safe. 

AM- Today was my only morning off, meaning the only morning I could sleep in past 4:30 am.  However, just after 5 am I awoke to a loud yet muffled sound.  Thinking it was one of my daughters, I got out of bed to help.  Nope, not them.  I wandered around, trying to locate the source.  I finally discovered it was coming from outside- I opened my door and could clearly hear the speakers from the Wasatch Back starting line, 1 mile from my house.  The dear Ragnar folks, bless their little hearts, had the first runners starting at 5 am and weren't shy about letting the whole neighborhood hear the festivities.  I drove by the circus (starting line) on the way to work, and saw a bunch of decorated vans driving from SLC on my commute.   Looks like nice weather for the run- have fun, everyone!

PM- Stink, stink, STINK!!!  I ran down to the Wasatch Back start in hopes I could win a treadmill like I did last year.  They have an incline trainer, and they give you 5 min to climb as many vertical feet as you can, with 18% min grade.  Whoever has the most vertical wins the treadmill.  The record was 468 ft.  I started at 5.8 mph, thinking that was enough, and chugged along.  It was definitely hot and my legs were tired from the miles this week, but it wasn't super killer.  With about 30 seconds to go, I realized I was a bit short and tried to increase the speed... but it was too late.  I finished with 465 feet.  Aargh.  Oh well.  Talked to a bunch of guys at the start (Bill Cobler, Nick McCombs, Seth Wold), then ran a few miles.  5 miles total, roughly.  I called Cody afterwards and told him to try, but they had taken it down by the time he got there- I even drove over with water to cheer him on and give him water.  It's too bad he couldn't get it.

AM- I have a long-standing goal of running the whole Bear 100 course prior to the race.  I'd like to do all of it this summer, too.  So today, Cody and I ran 22 miles of the course... of which maybe 1 mile was new to me!  We left at 6 am and shuttled a car to Temple Fork.  Then we drove back to Right Hand Fork and started running the course from there.  The run up Willow Creek was nice and uneventful.  Then there is a bit of road running followed by some very nice singletrack from Temple Fork sawmill down towards Temple Fork.  Lots of amazing beaver ponds in here.  We ran smooth, no pushing the pace since we have a long race next week.  Reached the car at Temple Fork, about 8.35 miles, in about 1:13- not bad considering it had 1500 ft climb and 1300 ft descend.  

After a quick bottle refill and clothes drop, we were onto the challenging part- climbing to Tony Grove.  The climb up Blind Hollow gains 2400 ft in 5.25 miles.  The trail is technical and was generally poor footing from all the moose and horse tracks that churned up the muddy trail, then dried.  Lots of moose tracks... at least partly due to the bull moose we encountered! We were within about 20 yards of it when we all startled each other.  Cody and I made a bunch of noise, and eventually the moose moved away from the trail and up the mountain.  The rest of the climb was uneventful but tiring.  At the top, we found a surprise- the 1.5 mile, 500 ft descent into Tony Grove was completely covered in 1-2 feet of snow.  We skiied down, making our own path.  

The lake still had ice and, unfortunately, the drinking water was not yet turned on.  We talked to some nice hikers, and they gave us a 16 oz bottle to split.  Thanks!  With a bit of water, we began the slow hike back up to the ridge.  Cody led the way and actually found the trail in spurts- he was proud of his route finding abilities.  The descent back to Temple Fork was fairly easy, with the only notable item being that we saw 8 people, our first humans of the day.  Finished with just under 22 miles in 3:48:12 (10:33 avg pace), including 5200 ft climbing and 5000 ft descending.  Grabbed a Jamba Juice and got home just after noon.  Good run, though that's likely my last time on that part till the race.  The amount of snow also puts into question our planned high-elevation runs in the coming weeks.

98 miles this week- high for the year.