Summit junkie!

Dimple Dell Gully trail with Jun and Brent:

The sun was out and it was a perfect weather day for a run in the DD gully. I met Jun and Brent at the park next to the Trax station. The first mile or so was pretty awesome and the trail was in great shape, but the higher we went the conditions deteriorated some and it became more of a slog. Brent turned back 3 miles in and at mile 5 I had to turnaround because I was running out of time. Jun kept going all the way up to the lower Bell Canyon reservoir.

The run back wasn't as fun by myself and it seemed like the trail got worse as it baked in the sun. Sloppy. The last few miles were a slog, but I was glad I got out on such a nice day.

Lake Mountain with MVH:

Matt and I had an excellent morning run to the top of Lake Mountain. I was expecting crappy conditions, but there was a nice hard packed track most of the way up. We never really pushed it too hard because we were chatting and laughing most of the way up. The weather was almost perfect up there with very little wind and not all that cold. I'm not exactly sure what our time to the top was, but it wasn't fast. On the summit we lingered longer than usual taking some pics and enjoying the views. It looks like the inversion is coming back.

Here are a few pics from the summit:

Me:

Matt:

Weights at the gym for an hour:

I was so sleepy when I got home from work that I crashed out on the couch after dinner. I'm really not sure how I got up and made it to the gym, but I didn't feel like working out at all. It took about 20 minutes to get going, but finished strong grunting with the meatheads. Wasatch 100 training has officially started.

5 at the gym.

Lake Mountain with Jun:

Jun and I hit Lake Mountain this morning. The trail is packed snow most of the way and it was in great shape. We went faster than MVH and I did on Sunday and I tried to push it and run more of the steeper sections. We were on the summit in 1:09 which isn't a bad time for the conditions. It was windy and cold up there and the inversion is getting worse. On the way down we noticed a half-eaten deer carcass that we had missed on the way up (probably because I was looking at Jun's electric orange socks). We had a nice run back down to the car just chatting the whole way.

Ave Twin Peaks with MattVH:

I was up at 4:30 am 'smornin to meet Matt at the Capitol. It was warmer than it has been and I was expecting some wind before this storm, but luckily there wasn't any. It seemed to take us a while to get going, but once we finally did we slogged it out up to the summit. The trail was hard and a bit icy, but nothing serious. We did see several deer and also a coupla coyotes. The summit actually was breezy, but it was warm and neither of us really got chilled. I have to say that the views up there were pretty awesome this morning with the sun starting to rise, the city lights and the clouds moving in made for some excellent vistas.

The run down was slower than normal and we had some good laughs and chatted all the way back down talking about televangelists and the evils of pornography. We stopped a few times to check out the dark cloud that was moving in from the south and slowly enveloping the city. Back to the cars in just over two hours and after a quick Nalgene bottle shower in the parking lot I made it into work on time.

8 on the treadmill.

I have been sick for the last 4-5 days with a sore throat, mild fever and lack of energy. I have been getting up every morning feeling like total crap. I had intended to go run Lake Mountain this morning, but I went outside late Saturday night and it was still snowing and the wind was blowing hard, so I didn't set the alarm. I was feeling shizzy again when I got up, but forced myself on the TM. The first 3 miles were like getting a root canal, but by time I hit mile 4 I was feeling pretty good and felt like I could run all day, but I can only take so much on the TM. I was dragging pretty hard the rest of the day, so I'm glad I stopped at 8.

Weights at the gym for an hour working upper body/core.

Ave Twin Peaks with Jun:

The 4:15 wakeup call was mighty early this morning. I was very tired and not feeling great, but by time I met Jun at the Capitol building I was feeling much better and surprisingly I had a lot of energy for the entire run. The trail is in excellent shape and we had a nice run up to the saddle where the track wasn't quite as good, but not terrible. I think we hit the second peak in 1:10 where we took a quick break and then had a sweet run back down. I really enjoyed the run felt much better than I thought I would. Awesome morning.

5 on the track at the gym. No big woop.

Ave Twin Peaks with Jun:

I had a nice romantic run up to the Ave Twins this Valentine morning with Jun. It was a touch warmer than it was on Tues and after a few miles I was pretty hot. The trail is still in great shape and that is why we keep running it. We didn't see anyone up there today and we had a good day just chatting on the way up. Up higher on the ridge it cooled off and I had to zip up my jacket, but I never got cold. There were snow flurries the entire run, but it wasn't anything serious at all.

We hit the summit in 1:10 again and took a quick break and then had a nice cruise all the way back to the cars. It was a fun morning and a great way to start my V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! In honor of Valentine's I'll post a pic of my FRB Valentine.

The Wedge 50K at the San Rafael Swell with Jun, Dorsimus, Warlordblade, Rob, Sam and Crockett:

Up at 4am to meet the boys at the American Fork park 'n ride. We traveled down to the San Rafael Swell to run the Good Water Rim trail around the Little Grand Canyon area. We had a lot of laughs on the way down and hit the Wedge overlook just as the sun was coming up. It was 15 degrees and there was a lot of snow on the ground which we weren't expecting, but that wasn't going to stop us from having a great day.

We took our time on this run stopping at several overlook locations to take pictures and enjoy the views, but we did run at a fairly good pace between stops. The first 4-5 miles we tried to stay on the trail around the rim, but the snow was pretty deep and it was very challenging. There was no way we would have been able to complete the full 31 miles under our time limit on the rim trail, so we decided to make our way over to the road where we were able to pick up the pace significantly. We stayed on the road all the way to our original turnaround point overlook where we took a quick break. It seemed like it was uphill most of the way, but it was all very runnable and never too steep.

The run back down was a lot of fun. At mile 17 we had placed a cache of food and we ran a solid pace all the way there where we stopped to have some lunch. I had some pizza, Reeses sticks and a Mountain Dew and it was awesome, like rocket fuel. It was 4 miles back to car at the Wedge overlook and my muscles were a bit stiff after the break, so it took about a half mile to get going again. The last mile is straight up hill and I ended up running most of it with Crockett as we had dropped the other 3 guys (Jun and Dorsimus were ahead of us). It was fun running that hill and we ran mile 21 at a 9:00 pace on a pretty big long hill climb. We took another break here and then ran a few more miles on the rim in the opposite direction of where we started the day. Running the rim was a lot more challenging with loose rocks, shrubs and the constant cliff and cracks that had to be avoided, but it was a lot more fun and the views were outstanding.

When we got back to the Wedge overlook at about mile 23ish we all had different goals for the remainder of the day. Rob, Sam and I wanted to hit 31 miles for an ultra distance, Craig and Aaron (Warlordblade) wanted to set up a highline and Crocket wanted to keep running near the rim. All of us minus Crockett started running back down the road and within about 10 minutes we started to spread out. We had been running an 8:00 flat pace and Jun passed us like we were standing still. He wanted to get in some solid miles before he set up the highline. Aaron started to fall back a bit and Dors stayed with him and that left me Rob and Sam running together for the next 7 miles. Rob had never been over 26.2 and Sam only one time, so it was a lot of fun running with them. Rob started hurting a lot about mile 25, but we kept pushing strong and ran mostly in the 8's. He stopped a few times to get a gel or a drink, but I told him not to stop if possible, because it is so much harder to get going.

I was feeling really good the whole day and it was by far the best I have felt during a 50K run. At about mile 28 Rob had gone into the pain cave and wasn't talking at all. I tried talking and singing to him, but he only grunted back. Haha. So I put on my ipod to get some juice and I think it ticked him off, so he picked up his pace. From mile 26-28 we were running strong, still in the 8's and occasionally going above 9:00, but everyone was looking good. I failed to notice that we had been running slightly downhill, so I had this genius idea to turnaround at mile 28 and run back the other way, as Dorsimus would be coming to pick us up after he finished his run. Mistake! After a mile it was all uphill for the final two and it was tough. The pace fell off big time, but all of us continued to push it hard to the finish only hiking once up the end of the steepest hill. We all finished within a minute of each other and I was feeling great. It was an awesome day.

We got back to the overlook just as Jun and Aaron had set up the highline and we got to watch jun walk the slackline over the edge of the canyon. It was pretty intense and fun to watch. Crazy! Check out the pics and vid from the run below.

Wedge Vid

Wedge pics

Weights at the gym for an hour working upper body/core and then 1 on the track to shake out my legs. My legs have never recovered this well after a 50K. I only had a tiny bit of soreness.

I wanted to take it easy, so I didn't push anything. I also did 30 minutes of core work.

Ave Twin Peaks with Mark K.

I met Mark at the Capitol at 5:30 and we were quickly running up the road to City Creek Canyon. My legs felt great, so we kept up a decent pace to the canyon. Once we hit the hills Mark was hiking some of the steeper sections and it was slower than we normally go, but I was totally ok with it this morning. We were just chatting away and we came around a bend and both of us saw a set of eyes just off the trail about 50 yards away. They looked exactly like the cougar eyes I saw at the Wasatch 100 and looked about the right height. It definitely wasn't a deer, but looked too big to be a coyote. As we moved up the trail the eyes disappeared and we never saw it again, but as we came around the next bend in the trail there was half of a deer leg right off the trail, so it probably was a cougar and it freaked me out a bit.

We had a really relaxing fun run up to the ridge where we encountered a lot of windblown snow and in places the trail had been completely covered. We actually lost the trail a few times and ended up post-holing in the drifted snow, but quickly found it, although we did have to put in some new track over the drifts. We hit both summits and took a quick break, but didn't stay long. The run down was fun. We just chatted about upcoming races and gear and the time flew by.

Back on the road Mark really picked up the pace and dropped me for a bit, but he waited for me and we ran it in back to the cars together. It was a fun morning with perfect weather. My legs were a tiny bit heavy on the run down, but overall I am really happy with how I recovered from the 50K on Sat.

5 at the gym. On my way home from the gym two guys from my neighborhood texted me asking... ok begging me to come over to the church for a church basketball game, so I went home and changed into my Air Jordan's that feel like cement bricks compared the Altra's and cruised over to the church. I got there just as the game was stating and ended up playing the entire game. It was a lot of fun, but it reminded me my I haven't been playing lately. I took an elbow to the arm, a knee to the thigh and hit the deck twice. It was a ton of fun though and we won the game in overtime.

Highland/Alpine loop solo:

The weather forecast was calling for a huge storm to hit overnight, so I decided I wouldn't get up and hit the trails and that ended up being a mistake. The weather was downright balmy when I woke up and I was wishing I had gotten out to take advantage of it. By 10:00 am it was a complete whiteout and when I finally got around to my run it was still snowing and blowing, but it has settled down some.

I ran from my house to the Alpine Hwy and then went north to the Timpanogos hwy. There was a strong cold headwind and it really wasn't all that fun, but I pushed through it. When I hit Kohlers I turned left onto the Timp Hwy and I was still getting a nasty breeze, but not as bad as before. I stopped into Wendy's to pee and then after I turned south on 6000 W. the wind died down a bit and the rest of the run was much better. The last mile I mixed in some tabata intervals where I ran as hard as I could for 20 seconds and then dialed it back for 10 seconds and then hard again for 20. My paced would dip into the 5's the first two or three and then back to the 7's for the 10 second break. Oh man it kicked my butt.  

7 on the TM:

I wanted to get outside and run today, but I hate the wind and it was blowing hard all morning, so I hit the TM for 7 miles while catching up on my DVR.

Weights at the gym for 70 minutes.

I have been going to the AF fitness center for 7 years and last night was the most crowded it has ever been. The New Year resolution folks seem to be hanging on like barnacles this year, bless their hearts. I actually like to see people stick with their fitness goals, so good for them, I think it is awesome. What wasn't awesome though was the hot, stinky, crowded gym. Luckily I bogarted a bench and set up camp there for about 30 minutes. I had an excellent workout.

Arms n back (of course)

lats

delts

chest

core

4 at the gym.

Millcreek Canyon (Big Water/Pipeline) with Jun, Jsh, Je10 and Leslie:

We had a really COLD, but fun run in Millcreek Canyon this morning. I got up at 3:00 am, slammed some calories and hit the road to meet the crew in the canyon at the gate where the plowing stops for winter. It was very cold at the start and almost painful to just stand around, so I was happy when we started running. We ran on some packed snow for the first few miles as we made our way up the canyon, but the higher we went the less tracked out it was and the running was tough. It also got colder as we ascended and there were a few sections that you could feel the temp drop significantly.

I kept my water bottles from freezing for a few miles, but eventually they froze along with everyone else's hydration hoses. When we got up to Upper Big Water it was so cold that my head started pounding and my body started to ache. I haven't felt that cold all winter. It was definitely below zero, but I'm not sure what it was. We have run in below zero temps a lot this winter, but it never felt like that. We got to the top and turned right around and ran back down. On the run down my left hammy started to get tight and it bothered me the rest of the run.

At Elbow Fork we stopped to get some fuel and I nearly puked up the frozen gel I had because I didn't have any water to wash it down and Je10 was nice enough to give me some of her food. I can't even remember what it was, but it was good. Back at the cars I gulped down about 15 ounces of water and took another frozen gel and then we ran down and jumped onto the Pipeline trail. It wasn't in great shape, but we have been on worse this year. My hammy really started to bother me and it slowed me down a lot.

At Rattlesnake Gulch we took a quick peek to find the Millcreek Flasher, but didn't have any luck. We did see some elk though. The run back was hard. My energy was low and I didn't want to try to gag down a gel, so it was a bit of a slog, but fun. It was a really fun morning and I just barely warmed up in my office after blasting my heater for the last 3 hours.

Here is a pic taken at the finish. Notice the ice beard on Jsh: