Summit junkie!

3 very easy miles. Legs were heavy, but not super sore.

Weights at the gym for an hour. It is amazing how much lifting helps with recovery. I felt fantastic after I left the gym. This has been the best/easiest recovery for me after a 100 miler. I never got really sore and didn't have any soreness anywhere really. My legs felt soooo much better than after Buffalo 100.

Easy easy. Everything feels good, but I'm not going to push anything yet.

3 with my wife at night. Temps were perfect and it really felt awesome stretching out my legs.

View Benchmark peak with Craig:

This was my first real run since the Bryce 100 9 days ago. On the way up my legs felt ok, but I wasn't as strong as normal. I still ran most of the hills and only hiked the very steepest section. Craig looked strong and waited for me a few times and hit the summit about 90 seconds before me. Awesome views! It was fun to be out running again. On the way down I could tell that my legs were very heavy, just no juice. We still ran down at a decent pace, but I wasn't feeling fresh or fast. I will take it a bit easier this week and then really kick things up next week.

PM: Weights at the gym for an hour. I was very tired and had to force myself to the gym to lift, but I ended up having a really good session.

Boot camp at the gym with my wife for an hour. Worked my core HARD and had a pretty good sweat going.

Mt. Raymond with Craig:

I was up early to meet Craig at the Big Cottonwood park n ride this morning before work. It was light at 5:30, so no need to use a headlamp as we started at the Butler Fork trailhead. Wow, this trail is just fantastic right now. We were in heaven running/hiking up the steep slopes with wild flowers, pines, aspens and green everywhere. I really need to run up there more often because it was a perfect run in every way.

We were up to the saddle between Raymond and Gobblers in just under an hour and then we decided to tag Raymond first and then we would hit Gobblers if we had time on the way back. I absolutely love Raymond, it has to be in my top 10 Wasatch peaks. There is some scrambling, a fun craggy ridge and some of the best views in the Wasatch. Awesome.

We hit the summit and took our time taking pictures and checking out the view. By time we were back at the saddle we decided to skip Gobblers, but we will probably be back next week to tag it. The run down was prime. I can't say enough about the conditions and views on this trail. We only saw one other person the entire morning and we passed him about 5 minutes from the trailhead. It was definitely an incredible day, one of the best of 2013 so far. I need to get up there more.

Craig put together this short video from the run.

Just before we hit the saddle:

Summit jump:

Well, that was fun! I wasn't planning on doing this race, but I got an entry a few days ago and figured why not. My legs were not super fresh, but I just wanted to have fun and push it as much as my legs would allow. This race starts at the top of Butterfield Canyon and goes straight up 1600 feet to Butterfield Peak and then you run a 4X4 road all the way down to Rose Canyon in Herriman and then finishes at Butterfield Park.

I met Craig and we rode the bus together up to the start. It was pretty darn scary on some of those tight turns going up the canyon and I was relieved to get up to the starting area. It was pretty cold up there, but we only had to stand around for a few minutes and then we were off. Craig went out first and I was right behind him for the first half mile. I kept waiting for one of the faster dudes to run past, but they never did and after about a half mile I wanted to push the pace a bit, so I passed Craig and was actually leading the race for about a half of a mile until 4 faster guys went buy.

I was in 5th just before the summit, but I took a wrong turn and 4 people passed me there. Luckily I only lost about a minute of time, but when I got back on the trail I was now in 9th place and that is where I would end up. I hit the summit and the girl that won the race last year passed me within about 30 seconds. She was the only person that would pass me the rest of the way down.

I got into a really good groove on the road and my watch only went above an 8:00 pace once the entire way on the biggest hill. Even though my legs didn't have a ton of juice I was running 7-7:30 pace very comfortably and felt pretty solid all the way to the finish. I ran behind the woman that won last year for most of the way down, but about mile 8 I had to stop to get a rock out of my shoe and she put some distance on me. At the first aid stop a couple of guys were right behind me, so I kicked it up a bit and by the next aid station I had put some distance on them. I carried one handheld bottle and 3 gels and never stopped at the aid stops except to quickly fill my bottle once.

The dirt road ended at mile 10 and from there it was 3 miles on the road to the finish. I just wanted to finish strong, so I kept the pace in the mid to low 7's and rode it out the rest of the way finishing in 9th. It was definitely a fun race and I had a great time, but now my legs are pretty worked. I was able to see Rad and a few other friends come in and it was fun chatting with everyone after the race. I would love to run this race with fresh legs to see how much faster I could be. Next time I won't do it two weeks after doing 100 miles. :)

3 easy peasy with my wife. Hammies are still sore from the 1/2 on Friday.

Weights at the gym for an hour. It's a Monday tradition.

5 easy to work the kinks out of my legs. My hammies were still tight from the HOMM half.

RAGNAR relay Fri/Sat:

A very close friend of mine asked me and my wife to join her Ragnar team a few weeks ago because they had a few team members drop out. She has helped crew me for my Wasatch 100 runs, so I was happy to return the favor and help her team. A few days before the run she called to let me know that one of the guys in our van was having some medical issues and wanted to see if I could pick up some of his miles. Sounds good to me, sign me up for all of them, so I was runner #1 and #6 in Van #1.

By time we got together as a team on Thursday, had dinner, decorated the van and checked into the hotel it was 11:00 pm and by time I fell asleep it was after midnight. 3:00 am wakeup and I started running at 5:15. The first leg is just under 8 miles and were listed as 'very hard' in the Ragnar guid. I wanted to run conservatively because I was going to do close to 40 miles, but it is very hard to take off the gas when people are passing you. I settled into about 6th place in our pack of about 80 and just went with what felt good. We ran from the University up to the BST and that was one of my favorite sections. I passed a few people on the trails and my legs felt fantastic, so I opened it up and cruised that section well. I did my best to hold back, but still ran a lot faster than I normally would for an ultra.

My next section was 7 miles. Half of the run was on a dusty dirt road. I was following my wife who did the previous 8 miles all uphill on a dusty mountain road. She killed it and I was so proud of her. It was the toughest run for our van during the whole race and she was awesome. The dust was just horrible with all of the van traffic and because it was so crowded we couldn't get to her until about two miles in. I jumped out to give her some water and ran with her for about a mile. She actually beat our van to the exchange and I got out and ran up to meet her because we were stuck in a line of vans. There were too many people on the course in my opinion and there were a few instances where we couldn't get to an exchange before the runner.

I noticed immediately that my legs were stiff and sore from sitting in the van and my left knee was hurting in the same place that it did after the Buffalo 100. I wasn't happy about that and ended up just sucking it up and running with knee pain the rest of the time. At times it was very painful, but when I would get into a groove it seemed to be a bit less sharp. It started getting really hot on this section and I was happy to get it done. After that run we had a break while van #2 took over and we ate and took a brief nap in a park before meeting up at Snow Basin ski resort where I would be running a tough 8.2 mile leg.

My knee was bothering me a lot on the next section, but after about two miles it warmed up and I felt a lot better. This was the toughest section for me and I tried to run on the side of the road in the dirt where it was possible. The last few miles I really picked up the pace and pushed it strong to the exchange.

The next several hours were not all that fun. My legs got stiff from all of the sitting in the van, I was starving and got tired of eating snacks. I needed some real food. We lost a runner for over an hour that got out of the van at one of the exchanges. We were all tired and super grumpy and ended up at South Summit (I think) high school where we crashed on the floor for 3 hours to try and sleep. People were very loud and not very considerate and none of us slept well at all. We were up at 5:00 am and I was the first runner for our van in the morning. Without any real food for breakfast I ate a banana, granola bar and choked down two gels. It was freezing when I started my leg and my legs were so stiff, but I worked out the kinks and actually enjoyed the leg. After I finished I had some real food at a school (I can't remember which one). I had pancakes, eggs and sausage and that helped put me in a better mood.

My last leg was an easy 2.1 miles. I felt ok the first half, but when I got my groove I pushed it strong all the way to the finish and had a sub 6 pace for the final 1/4 of a mile. I finished that leg with a 7 min average and my legs felt fresh after 30+ miles and I felt like I could have kept on going, but I was happy to be done.

Overall it was a really good experience. There is a lot to dislike about Ragnar, but there is also a lot to like. There are way too many teams and the exchanges were a mess and there were rarely enough POPs. I really didn't like the sleep deprivation and all the time spent cramped in a van. That said we had some fun people on our team and I really enjoyed a lot of it, but there is a lot of sitting around and waiting and that did get old. The best part was watching my wife crush it on her runs and run farther than she ever had before in a single day (12 miles). I also enjoyed the scenery and for the most part really liked the legs I ran. I'm not sure if I will ever do it again, but I think it is a good event that gets a lot of people out running and that is a good thing.

A few pics: My wife and I at the finish:

My van:

Weights at the gym for an hour. I kicked up the weight and really felt the difference in my core and supporting muscles. Good session with lots of grunting and sweat.

Boot camp at the gym with my wife. We really worked our core and upper body hard. Also ran some sprints. I was sweating like a motha.

7 on the track at the gym. I did not feel like running today. Actually I felt like running, but not in the heat or on the road or track, so I found myself sitting in my car at the gym debating with myself whether or not to go run or go back home. I finally just got out of the car and the next thing ya know I'm running round in circles by myself on the track. Yawn. I got into a decent groove, but I really need to get on some trails.

With MattVH on his Millwood 100 project:

I was meeting Matt at 2:40 am up Millcreek Canyon so I could run with him the first 10 miles of his Millwood 100 project. I got two hours of sleep and we dropped my car at Church Fork and then drove to Neff's Canyon where we would start. Millwood was the creation of Jared Campbell and is 100 miles and over 40,000 feet of climbing in Millcreek and the Cottonwood canyons. This route is a total beast with over 15K more vert than the Wasatch 100. With temps going over 100 degrees in the valley I was really worried about Matt and I knew it was going to be a difficult challenge.

We did the first 9.5 miles from Neff's up 3k feet of vert to the top of Neff's Pass and then ran down to the Desolation trail in Millcreek Canyon. The trail up higher had a lot of roots, stumps and overgrown bush and I nearly ate it twice and tweaked both of my ankles. The lower few miles are on great trail and we really picked up the pace. When I left Matt on the Pipeline trail he was in very good spirits and ready to tackle the beast.

I met back up with him at mile 27 to bring him some food and Coke and it was so hot and he was getting depleted. He pushed through two full days of that heat and completed the project early Sunday morning. Incredible! Congrats to Matt on being only the 3rd person to complete this route.