Summit junkie!

4 easy on the TM after the kids went to bed. No big woop.

Weights at the gym for an hour working my upper body. This was one of the best workouts I have had in a while.

I had no desire to run in the wind, so I went over to the track at the gym and ran 8 miles at a pretty decent pace. I tried to keep it under 8:00 the whole run.

View Benchmark with Jun:

After I put my kids to bed I met Jun at Ann's trail to run VB. On the way to the trailhead I noticed that the weather was a little unsettled across the valley and a storm was moving east and I could see pockets of rain. VB looked clear, but there was a chance it would hit us, but it didn't look too bad. The temps were almost perfect and we settled into a nice run talking the whole way. The miles flew by and we had a fun time.

On the upper trail the wind picked up and it was definitely colder, but still not too bad. We hit the top around 46 minutes, which is respectable, but we weren't pushing it. After a quick break we went down. I was usung a small handheld flashlight that I received from a vendor at the SLC Business Expo last week and it pretty much sucked. We held a solid pace back down to the lower trail and then it was an easy run the last few miles as we talked the whole time. Fun run. I'll give it 4 stars.

I got out early before work so I could miss the wind/rain that was supposed to move in. I only had about 40 minutes, so I just ran from my house down the Alpine Hwy for 20 minutes and then turned around. No big woop.

View Benchmark and sub peak solo:

It was a perfect morning for a nice cruise to the summit of VB. I wanted to beat the storm so I started early and the temps were so good with no wind. I put on my ipod, selected my "Ritz Classics" playlist (New Wave classics from the 80's) and got into a good gear and just had a nice run all the way up. I only passed one runner and two guys on bikes on the lower trail, but above Ann's I didn't see another person the whole time. I loved it. When I hit the VB trail I was in a casual running apathy when "Murderous" by Nitzer Ebb came on and immediately my pace picked up. No way you can run soft with Nitzer Ebb cranking in the ipod. While I was on the summit of VB the sub-peak to the west caught my eye and I decided I wanted to run over there and tag it, so I took the most direct route, which required some mild bushwhacking, but eventually I made it to a 4X4 road that goes up to the top. 

At the summit of the sub-peak I was greeted by a big hawk that took off only about 10 feet from me and I watched it float away. The wind picked up and the temps dropped a little up there and I took a few minutes to take in the views and then I ran back down the road which eventually runs into the VB trail. The sub-peak added a little over a mile and I will probably add it into my VB runs when I have time.

I was having a sweet run down, enjoying my music and when I was on the connector trail my toe caught a root and I took a hard digger in almost the same place that Jun did a few weeks ago. Luckily my handheld bottle took a lot of the impact, but I did bang my shoulder and my hip. Nothing serious, but it was a hard fall. The rest of the run was just a nice easy cruise back to the car. As always this trail didn't disappoint.