Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Did some barefoot running while throwing the frisbee around at our church picnic this afternoon. That loosened me up. After a good long nap, I ran the dog around the block then jumped in the car and went out to the River Trail, which is always a great Sunday run. Went a little past the end of the single track and back for 6 miles. According to the Garmin, it is exactly 3 miles from the parking lot to the gate after the single track (end of single track is 2.8 miles). Good things to know for future reference.

(Adrenaline black: 526 miles)

AM - forced myself to roll out of bed, put some clothes on, and hit the road. I strongly considered just sleeping instead, as no single part of my body felt very good this morning. I went on to run 5 very very slow miles on the Planet Walk, plus some with the dog. Felt pretty bad. I'll try again this afternoon.

(Adrenaline blue: 145 miles)

PM - 8 mile North Logan out-and-back. Felt better than this morning. 6:53/mile average pace. Did 4x100m strides in the middle. Nice and cool still for a June afternoon.

(Adrenaline orange: 360 miles)

CV fartlek this morning. I did a couple miles at 7-minute pace to warm up, and then started the session: 4 repeats of 4 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy. The last two intervals felt a lot better than the first two. Results:

0.71 miles - 5:36/mile pace (gentle uphill the whole way)

0.74 miles - 5:24/mile pace (rolling) 

0.75 miles - 5:21/mile pace (rolling)

0.76 miles - 5:15/mile pace (gentle downhill the whole way)

Not my most stellar workout, as I was running this fast or faster back in February, but at least I got it in. I seem to have trouble getting moving in the mornings, but it's getting too hot to do hard workouts in the afternoons. Oh well, I suppose that effort matters more than anything.

After the fartlek, I ran brisk pace (6:20/mile or so) to the LHS rec fields, and then did 5x200m barefoot in the grass (33, 33, 33, 33, 33). Nothing blazing, but at least they were consistent.

Cooled down a mile with the dog.

(Adrenaline blue: 150 miles) 

AM - easy 7 miles on canal loop, plus a block with the dog. 7:19/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline black: 533 miles)

PM - easy 4.5 miles on Planet Walk, and a block with the dog. 7:00/mile average pace.

(Adrenaline orange: 365 miles)

Traveling and meetings all day. Then bed. No running.

Got up at 5:15AM and ran from the Days Inn near Golden, CO. Ran about a mile down Hwy 40, then jumped onto a paved trail that paralleled Hwy 6 going north into Golden. I was warmed up after about two miles and started easing into a Tinman tempo. Terrain was very rolling, so I was averaging around 6:20/mile during most of it. Eventually I made a right turn (19th street?) and I passed the School of Mines (homage to Jon Allen) and got into downtown Golden. I found the Coors plant right when it was time to turn around, so mission accomplished. No time for a tour, though, as I had to turn around and run back. Good overall run with a good effort. 6:32/mile average pace for the entire run. I liked Golden, as it felt rather cut off from the the rest of the Denver metro due to topography.

(Adrenaline blue: 160 miles)

Reluctantly rolled out of bed at 7:30AM in to hit the trails. 6AM would have been better due to the heat, but I was exhausted from traveling (didn't get home until 10:30 last night). I met James at First Dam, and we started the run, which I call the Wind Caves-Green Canyon Loop. We went through the Hydro Park, then up onto the Pipeline Trail, which spit us out onto Hwy 89. We then crossed 89 and jumped on the River Trail and took it to its terminus at Guineva Malibu campground. Then we crossed 89 again and started up the Wind Caves trail. Heard (and saw) a rattlesnake, which literally startled me enough to jump halfway off the trail. After about a mile, we took a little side trail that takes us up to the ridge. Here, things got tough. This trail is is a bit less-traveled and has poor footing and a steep gradient. Plus it was getting pretty hot. We did the best we could and run/walked up to the ridge, at 7300', where we were treated to panoramas of Logan Canyon and the Bear River Range. From the ridge, we then dove down into Green Canyon on the Bierdeneau Trail, which was in much better shape, plus was shaded. We made it to Green Canyon Road (dirt road) and ran out of Green Canyon and then linked up with the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, which took us back to our cars at First Dam.

1 loop, 4 different trails, 16.5 miles total, with 4400' total feet of climb/descent. A mark of a good Saturday morning. Average pace was right around 10:00/mile. Cache Valley is really a quite a trail running mecca, but no one knows about it. I encourage you Salt Lake folks to come out and run our trails sometime. Some people want to guard them and keep them a secret, but in order to protect them, people have to know that they are worth protecting. So I say the more the merrier.

(Cascadia: 158 miles)