Running on Twinkies

Eight miles on a Monday morning. I started a new challenge this week. Stay tuned to the next blog or two for the details.

I mentioned yesterday that I started a new challenge. Here is what it is. Each year the descendants of my Grandparents get together for a family reunion. This year they are doing a healthy challenge that starts now and ends at the family reunion in July. Everybody that wants to do it puts in $20 and the person with the most points at the end wins. Here is how the points work. There is a maximum of four points per day. One point for drinking 8 glasses of water. One point for exercising for 30 minutes. One point for getting 6 hours of sleep. One point for not eating any junk food. The exercise is not required on Sunday, so there is one other point for the week if a personal goal is met. The personal goal does not half to be health related. The earning of points is done on the honor system, and each person can decide what they consider junk food. The junk food will be the most difficult one for me. I am used to eating whatever I want and not worrying about what is inside of it. The worst part is that I have not found a way to justify twinkies as being healthy. So far I have the full points possible, but it is only the second day.

For todays run I did a large hill workout. I ran up the Sessions Mountain Trail. I only went up 1.5 miles, but gained an elevation of 1600 ft.  If you're doing the math, that's a 20% grade. I came back down the way I went up, which was a steep downhill. When I got off of the trail, I did a 1.5 mile cooldown.

Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

I wasn't able to get a run in earlier today. So I cranked out five miles on the treadmill just before bed.

Another five on the treadmill. While running I was watching the news and saw an amazing clip from a baseball game. The player was running from third base to home and leaped over the catcher doing a hand spring of of home plate.

I met Scott at the Centerville Peak trail head at 6 a.m. this morning. Neither of us had been up that trail before and we weren't sure were the peak was. We started up the trail and there were lots of switchbacks. The trail was very runnable and just kept going back and forth across the hillside. When had gone about three miles when we hit snow. The snow had a hard pack on the top and we were able to stay on top of it. After 4 miles we really couldn't see the trail anymore and just headed up the face of the mountain.  The peak was right at five miles. It was beautiful up there this morning, but a bit windy on the peak. We had climbed about 4000 ft. We took a few pictures on top. I accidentally dropped Scott's camera while he was showing me how to use it. It seemed to be okay. Let me know if anything is broke on it Scott, and I will replace it. See Scott's blog for the pictures. 

The down hill was a blast. I ran down the snow conservatively, but when I hit the dirt I opened things up. Everything was going great until the last quarter mile. I caught my foot on a rock and went down on me hands and knees. I was moving fast and made skid marks about 5 feet long on the trail. It tore some skin off in the center of my right hand about the size of a dime. My right knee also got a bit bloody. I was wearing wind breaker pants so that protected my knees a little. I had gloves with me but had taken the off a few miles back. I guess I was getting to cocky about my down hill running ability.When I got back to the car I rinsed the dirt off my hands with my water bottle. That was painful. I walk back up the trail to meet Scott. I met him about a half mile up and ran the last little bit with him. It took me 1:45 to reach the top and only 45 minutes to come down. I definitely want to do this trail again after the snow melts a bit more. Thanks for joining me on my adventure Scott.