Summit junkie!

Mount Wire solo:

Wire oh how I have missed thee. Your voluptuous hills, sheer curves, loose gravel rock, beautiful vistas and shaggy overgrown bush. I won't stay away that long again. You complete me.

PM: Weights at the gym for an hour. Sweat-fest.

Draper trails/View Benchmark night run with MVH, Jun and Mark:

We did the same exact loop that we (me Jsh and Jun) did a few weeks back on our night run, taking the long route up to View Benchmark. MVH had just come from running the Pfeifferhorn and already had 20 miles under his belt at the start. Animal. The first half of the run was really fun. I was feeling good and it was a lot of fun just chatting and laughing. On the way up to VB my tummy took a turn for the worse and I was feeling quite sick. On the way down from the summit my GI issues went from worse to horrendous. I'll spare the details. It was bad. At least I gave the guys something to laugh at for a few minutes. Oh and VH where were the wipes? First time in months he hasn't been carrying a 3 month supply. DRATS!

After the 'incident' I was feeling pretty good and really enjoyed the run until I took a hard fall on my hip with about 1.5 miles to go. I took it slow the rest of the way down. Overall it was a pretty fun night with a lot of laughs.

Neighborhood loop with Clayton:

One of my neighbors is just starting to get back into running, so we decided to get out on a run. He runs pretty fast, but usually only does 2-4 miles and he wants to start training for longer distances. We started off at a 7:20 pace and ran between 7:20-7:45 for most of the run. We just chatted about running the entire time and the miles really flew by. He wants to get out on some trails, so I invited him to do VB with me and he seemed pretty psyched to try it.

View Benchmark with MattVH:

Matt and I were going to run up to the Pfeifferhorn, but it was raining at the LCC park n ride and the conditions looked iffy, so we drove over to Draper to run up VB since the weather looked good over there. The first few miles were easy as we let our dinner settle and we didn't push it too hard. On the VB trail we picked up the pace a bit and ran it strong up to the summit. We decided to hit the sub peak to the west as well, so we cruised over there and took in the sweet view. Easy cruise back to the cars.

Mount Timpanogos with Jun:

One of the best runs of the year so far. I met Jun at Kohlers in Alpine at 5:30 am. The Timpanookee trailhead was packed, so we had to park 1/4 of a mile below the TH. We had a nice jog up to the TH where we saw probably 100 people getting ready to hike up the mountain. We were quickly running up the trail and lucky for us there wasn't a lot of people on the lower mountain, but as we got higher we started passing several groups. It was fun picking them off and making good time up the trail. 

Just before the upper basin we ran into Davy Crockett who was coming down from his first summit of the year and looked pretty good. We said hi and it was good seeing him back in the mountains after recovering from injury. In the upper basin we passed several more groups and Jun kicked it into high gear. I pushed up to the saddle and he was now about 5 minutes ahead of me. We got a ton of comments from hikers on the way up and down. From the saddle I tried to push it hard and I felt really strong on that section. It was fun actually seeing it because the last 3 times I have been up there it was in the dark. On the final push I really picked up my pace and hit the top in 2:02 which is a PR, but I really only pushed the last half, as we took our time on the first few miles chatting and taking pictures, so I know I can do it faster.

We chatted with a few people up top that were surprised to see how fast we had made it up and also we talked to a few girls that also ran to the top. After a few pics and signing the register we took off. Jun pushed the pace a lot and I ran with the girls and another guy (who did Wasatch 100 in 2010) back to the saddle where Jun was chatting with some folks. I was feeling really good, so I just cruised down the trail. Again more comments from hikers asking how fast we went up and telling us we were amazing bla bla. It was kind of fun though. My legs felt really fresh, so I pushed the pace a lot more than I ever have on this trail. It helped that we were doing it in the light and I felt a lot more comfortable, but I was just feeling good.

We probably passed at least 150 hikers on the mountain and several that we had passed on our way up. That was really the only thing that slowed us down out there. With a few miles to go Jun said I could go under 3:15 so I was pushing for that, but didn't quite make it. 3:15:15 total time. It felt good and we had a blast. I love that mountain.