Summit junkie!

5 nice and easy. 9:15 pace.

Lifted (upper body) at the gym for 60 minutes. I was going to try and get in a run, but I was feeling so good and I just lifted until the gym closed. I think I will finally be getting out on a peak on Friday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I'm expecting a 12 hour day and I can't wait.

I had a very busy day today, and barely had time to fit in 4 on the TM. I need more excitement in my life right now.

Did a 35 minute ab/core workout while watching TV. Climbing Mount Olympus in the morning and I want my legs to be fresh, so I didn't run.

I climbed Mt. Olympus this morning before work. Our Lone peak trip for tomorrow has been cancelled (again) because of weather, so we decided to do Olympus today instead. I think this is the 5th time this year we have had to cancel, so I am not confident that I will be able to get a winter ascent this year.

We made really good time up to about 7500 feet, and from there we were in snow the rest of the way, which did slow us down. There was quite a bit of ice on the trail where it had been packed in by other hikers, and there were several sections that we really had to take care. The final push after the saddle was fun, and there were a few dicey sections with ice covered boulders to climb over. Nothing extremely serious, but I fall wouldn't be good at all.

It felt good watching all of the slugs monotonously commuting to work on 2-15 and I was grateful I wasn't one of them. There is no better way to start a day then on a peak.  

About 5 minutes from the top it started to snow on us, and we arrived on the summit with plenty of snow falling. We didn't stay long on top

The descent was a little eventful, as the trail was very technical with ice in a lot of steep sections. It was very hard to balance and I kept picking up too much speed. I had two falls, and the last one was pretty bad. I scraped up my arm, shoulder, bicep, and my pinky knuckle looks like meatloaf. Maybe I'll post up some pics later of my battle scars.

It was an incredible way to start my day, and we got in over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. It took us about 4 hours to complete the hike.

I woke up this morning to 4+ inches of snow on my driveway, and I was glad we had cancelled the Lone Peak climb. I hit the gym early before work to lift, and I had a very good workout. Did upper body, and my right arm is a bit sore from my fall yesterday. I have a nice bruise on my forearm and a road rash from my shoulder all the way down. I was a little worried about lifting, but didn't have any major pain.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I met Jun at the Capitol building at 6:00 am this morning and after about 5 minutes Twinkies showed up. He was running 33 miles today, while Jun and I were planning on 15. The first mile was up the road to the trailhead up City Creek Canyon. The wind was cold, and my legs were feeling a little sore from the Olympus hike.

The trail was very tough. It was mostly snow with hard slush. It wasn't easy to run at all , but it was fun. It seemed like it was steep forever, and I kept asking Jun when it was going to get flat. Twinkies and Jun were faster than me, and they waited a few times for me to catch up. Both of them looked strong.

We were planning on running all the way to Red Butte and possibly going to the summit, but I ran out of time. At 8:00 I knew I had to turn around because of the time. I was at the base of Mt. Van Cott when I decided to go back. I ran into an older gentleman that I politely asked to tell Jun and Twinkies what I had done, but I guess he forgot or missed them. A little after the Twin Peaks Jun came flying up from behind and we ran together for a few minutes before he turned on the jets.

I had to stop to take a few gels because my energy was gone, and after I was finished Twinkies met up with me. We ran together the rest of the way, and I couldn't believe how fast he was going. He was on mile 22 of his run and I could barely keep up. On the steep sections I almost fell a few times, and I was really trying hard not to because of my sore arm.

Got back to the cars about 9:15 where we had some food and cold drinks, and then said goodbye to Twinkies, who was going to run another 8 miles home. That run was very challenging, and I am really impressed with how he was moving.

It was a perfect day.