Long run. Went from my house up Smithfield Canyon. 5.5 miles of paved road, followed by 2.5 miles of rugged dirt road, followed by 1 mile of nice singletrack, followed by 1 mile of not-so-nice single track (but very beautiful). And then back. Kept it brisk on the paved part going up, about 6:20-6:30/mile until I got to the dirt, and then about 7:00/mile until the single track. Then it slowed down quite a bit, of course. The last mile was a bit of bush-whack in some places, but still pretty nice in other places. It was the furthest I've gone of Smithfield Canyon so far, and ended up about a mile past the wilderness boundary before I had to turn back. Had 4 creek crossings, and also nice views of the backside of Cherry Peak (where Jon and I ran a few weeks ago, and then also of the ridge into Cottonwood Canyon. Elevation at turnaround was 6800', so about 2200' of net climb.
Got my feet a little wet at a couple creek crossings on the way back, which bit me later on, and I got some blisters on the balls of my feet near the end of the run. I picked up the pace a little when I hit asphalt, and averaged 5:40-5:50 on the downhill for the rest of the way in, except for the last uphill mile to my house, which was still a respectable 6:15 or so. Total time was around 2:22:00, 7:08/mile for 20 miles. Although I didn't do any formal workout today, I think the total time on my feet was good to have, and it seems like it wore me out more than last week, despite being the same distance and quite a bit slower.
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