Slowly Getting Faster

This was pretty rough.  Some of the difficulty was the knee deep snow coming down from flag rock and some of it was my lack of calories and water. I brought water with me but my bottle froze 2 miles in and I was left carrying a ice block. I managed to sort it out at mile 8, which helped a little bit. Despite how grueling this run was I think I'm going to do it again because it has too be good for building muscle, right? 

Very slow: 3:17:23  

Inherited my mother-in-laws treadmill so now I can run in my garage. 5 miles in 42 minutes even, 8:24 per mile.

I think I will start using this as my speed training method until it warms up.

5 on the TM again. I wanted to do something else but it was dark and cold.

I wanted to join the fellas for a run up Farmington Canyon this morning but the family schedule wouldn't allow it.  So I slept in and then ran 4 on the TM in 34 minutes before work. 

3 miles is lame, I know.  I meant to wake up and go up the canyon this morning but I can't seem to pry my butt out of bed any earlier than 7. Which is why I only got in 3 miles.  And those were on a treadmill. 

I didn't expect this to go as well as it did. I think this is a PR but its not quite as fast as I wanted it to be. I didn't really train so I'll take it. Overall: 54 out of 575

I couldn't miss another opportunity to run in beautiful st.george. 3.83 miles from the condo to the mountain bike trails.

treadmill running. 6 miles in 52 minutes. 

TM again. I'm too much of a wimp to get out in the crappy air I guess.  I also feel like I need to get back into constant running conditioning before I join the team for a run up F-town canyon, though I regret that decision every time I read one of their blogs. 

So, I've been doing speed work mostly on the TM.  It's the best way to keep it interesting. I've been taking workouts from a book I got a while back called "treadmill training for runners." It's been pretty good so far.  Today I did what it called a "cruiser" workout.  Essentially, warm up for 10 minutes, then up the speed to 10 seconds slower than 10k pace and hold that for 5-6 miles. My 10k pace, according to McMillan and based on my 5k performance last weekend, is 7:41 per mile.  10 seconds slower than my 10k pace is 7:51 per mile.  

I managed to maintain that pace for 2.5 miles before feeling like I was going to fall off the back of the treadmill. I then backed it down to 10 minute mile to catch my breath for a 1/2 mile and then pushed it back up to 7:51 for the next mile.  I had to once again back off after that mile for about .3 but then finished strong.  It was a very tough effort but felt great afterward.  

If I'm not going to get out for vert at least I can get my legs ready to move fast.  .5 cool down because I was running out of time. 

Treadmill

Treadmill. Last 1.5 at 5% incline and 10 minute mile pace.

3 miles at an easy pace on the TM followed by snow shoveling for an hour. 

The goal this week is to run every day.  Last night I thought I would go up Farmington Canyon.  This morning there was 3-4 inches of new snow on my driveway, which meant I had to shovel again. No time for a longer run.  So I did 3 on the TM again with 2 miles in just under 15:30 @ 1% incline and last mile at 7% incline and 9:40 pace. 

more snow to shovel this morning so 3 more on the TM.  I wore my Garmin while shoveling, per Dorsimus's suggestion yesterday.  Turns out I shoveled .6 miles of snow.

Solo up farmington canyon. Crazy how warm and nice it is once you get out of the inversion. 

3:18:21; Up the canyon again.  I didn't get high enough yesterday to realize that the moguls get worse by the campground area. Today I made it to the junction where the road splits and goes up to bountiful peak or over to francis peak. The snow up above the inversion is melting nicely, which made for slow going on the way up and a nice cushiony run on the way down.  

2:01:03; up the canyon with MVH. 

10 up the canyon with the davis county boys.  Nice group of guys, though I spent about half of the uphill trip looking at their backs. 

1 hour on the TM in ladder format.  Started at 10 minute miles for a warm up and increased the speed by .1 mph every 5 minutes.  I went from 6mph to begin with up to 7.1.  Felt difficult at the end, probably because my training has been crap. 

AM: 7 mile shorty up the canyon. Much quicker in the daylight. 

PM: 5 more on the TM

Slower today because my legs felt fatigued. I wonder how fast I could have done 10 if I had enough time yesterday. 

FYI: its not sunny above the inversion either.  

5 on the TM in 46 minutes. 

TM this morning. Wanted to get more in tonight but it didn't happen.

10 on the TM in just under 87 minutes. 8:42 mile average. felt pretty relaxed.

These weren't really easy miles, but not really marathon pace either. 

I hit my monthly billable quota yesterday around noon so I decided that I could afford to take the afternoon to go for a run.  My coworkers were pretty worried that I would smell bad when I got back and gave me some crap for going but its pretty out there today and I couldn't resist.

I decided to go up city creek since it is right by the office. I didn't want to run the trail because I've heard it's pretty muddy, so I stuck to the road. The up miles were between the low 8's and mid 9's per mile, and the down miles were lower 7's.  I made it round trip in just a hair over 40 minutes.

 I feel much better now. I hope I can start making this a more regular thing.  

Sunny run in St George with my bro. Part road part trail. Easy pace

Lake-to-lake relay. 3 legs instead of the usual 2. It's hard to sprint 2 legs then finish with a 7 miler.

I was on tap to do Leg 5, Leg 7, and Leg 10 but ended up also doing 1.27 of Leg 3 due to a restroom emergency. Leg 3 was a 7:30 mile

Leg 5: the plan here was to start slowly so that I would have something left for the other two sections of this run.  My brother Robert and his team went out just in front of me though so my ego and pride got the better of me and I turned it on right out of the gate.  He had a good head start on me and I wanted to catch him.  I almost pulled it off.  He crossed the finish line for this section just moments before me.  I could even see him with about 600 yards to go and thought I was going to get there, but I think he saw me too and picked up the pace.  I ended up finishing this leg in just under 30 minutes; a 7:20 pace. 

Leg 7: This was much harder than I expected it to be. Mostly, I think, because I had spent so much energy trying to catch Robert on the last leg. I passed 9 teams on this leg so I wasn't the only one struggling. I pulled this one out in 39:51; 8:14 per mile.  Slower than I would have liked but I was also really trying to pull it back because I knew I still had Leg 10 to run. I think, had this been my last leg, even being as tired as I was, I could have made it under 8:00 miles. 

Leg 10: the longest leg in the whole course. I was dead tired before this started.  I thought some food and caffeine would help get my energy level back up so I ate 2 peanut butter sandwiches and ingested 250 mg of caffeine before I started.  It didn't help that much.  I've heard a lot of ultra runners mock these relays because the mileage is so short, comparatively, but there is something to be said for the difficulty level of stopping, resting, and then starting again.  I've run 17 miles straight on many occasions and never felt as spent in the last 7 miles as I did here. I tried to keep the speed up, and I managed to pass 2 people, but this was my slowest lap.  I was passed 3 times, something that hadn't happened on either of the previous two laps. In the end, I pulled this one out in 1:03:54; 9:05 average. If we do it again next year I think I will spend more of my winter doing endurance-speed work to get ready for this sucker. 

All in all this race was awesome.  It's a good opportunity to get to bond with people while running. Plus, it's a good excuse for a vacation right at that time of the year when the cold and snow have taken all the pleasure out of the outdoors and you just need some sunshine, 70 degree temps and a mixture of asphalt and trails.  

I didn't run yesterday because I was pretty tight in my calves and inner right thigh from the weekends activities. Something about trying to run fast that really stresses out the muscles. This morning I decided to work out the kinks with an easy run on the TM. 7 miles in 1:05:00 @ 1% grade. Felt pretty good.  

7 in 1:02:00 on the TM.  Faster today because I mixed in some speed work after 30 minutes of warm up.

7 on the TM again in 1:02:30.  First 4 miles at around a 9:30 pace, next 2 miles at 8:50 pace, last mile at a 6:40 pace.  All at 1% incline

Tending today while the wife is at work. Only time for a TM run. 10 @ slow pace; 1:35:00; 1% incline.

Wanted to get out on the road or trail today but I couldn't sleep last night and thus didn't get up this morning. So, I hit the TM again and pushed the pace a bit. First 3 at 10:00-9:00 per mile, second 3 at 8:20-8:00, last 1 at 6:40. Overall pace 8:24 per mile.

I'm going to transition back to outside by the weekend. Time to start getting used to distance on the trail again.

5 miles and just under 2,300 feet of vertical gain and loss, very slow. 

I read an article a while back by Karl Meltzer in which he described his training technique.  He said the best way to get ready for a long mountain run is to really practice the down hills.  Everyone, he said, focuses on running up but most people end up walking up the hill, or at least the steep sections.  It's on the down hill that you are able to make up the time, if your legs are ready.  

I also understand that the best way to train for a race is to mimic the race conditions as best as possible during training. Speedgoat, my next race, is a lot of steep up hill followed by steep downhill, all at elevation.  At the present time, running at high elevation is out of the question because there is too much snow up there still.  But running up and down steep hills is very do-able. Right out my font door is a 1,000 foot vertical climb, over a mile and a half, up to flag rock.  So, the training plan for the next 4 months will be largely using this as my treadmill, ala Scott W. and Mount Wire.  

2 laps today, the second one was much harder than the first.  

1:17:52. I really should have done more distance, and maybe I'll go back out and run flat at some point today, but my legs are beat. The double up to flag rock yesterday has my quads screaming. Not too bad on the up hill, but coming down is rough. I thought 4 months of training would be enough for speedgoat but now I'm beginning to wonder.  

I wore the hart rate monitor to see if I could keep my hart rate in the aerobic range, I think I failed.  At least if it is accurate. I think I will either take tomorrow off or run flat on the treadmill. Legs need some recovery time.  

5 on the TM at 10 pm. 

Horrible day.  Sometimes I think I should go back to selling boilers. In the meantime I guess I'll just put down some miles.  

 6 on the TM after work in 55 minutes. If the snow stops and the temp goes back up I'll get back to the mountain.  

The advantage of being at work at 5:30 AM is that I am done by 3. When I got home I decided to go for a run, even though I was very tired.  It turned into a slow run, but it felt good. I decided to start by heading down the fire break road and, after 2 miles, decided to do some exploring.  I found a pretty cool little road on the upper bench above centerville that gave me some nice vert, and after I explored that for a bit I decided to go up into pretty valley.  I haven't been there in a long time and I forgot how pretty it is.  I think I will definitely be doing this route again.  I can get an easy 10 miles with some fun single track mixed into the road and some good vert. 

Easy run down the fire break followed by a trip up to flag rock.  Right at the base of the switchbacks I ran into a heard of deer.  I counted 8.  They ran away quickly. 

I did a Pretty Valley loop this morning and ran into another heard of deer. It's very nice up there in the pre-sunrise hours. I wanted to also go up flag rock but ran out of time. 

6 on the TM. @2% incline for 5 miles then 7% for the last 1.

This run is awesome!  I'm going to add one more section to this run and name it the Farmington Crown (because that is what the GPS tracking will look like when it's done, 3 points on a crown). 

I start on the firebreak road and go south toward davis creek trail.  I bypass the trailhead and go up around the back into pretty valley and up to Hell's Hole. Hell's Hole is beautiful by the way.  Pine forest single track trail within a few miles of my house. Then I cut back down to the davis creek trail and back to the firebreak.  

From there, I head north to the south flag rock trail and head up to flag rock.  When I complete this route I will head down the north side trail back to the firebreak, but there was too much snow on the north side still for me to run it today. I got about .1 of a mile down the north side trail before I turned around and went back the other way.  

Although this is as far as I got today, I think I will add a trip over to farmington canyon and up the Sunset trail to the sunset campground and back down either the canyon road or sunset trail to the firebreak.  Then cut across the firebreak back to my house.  If I take the canyon road back down I think this course will be about 16 miles and have around 5,000 feet of vertical gain. Pretty awesome to have this kind of trail access right out my front door! 

Raining tonight so I stuck to the treadmill. 2.25 warm up between 10:00 minute mile and 9:30 mile. Then 6 x 1/4 mile repeats (hot and cold) @ 6:40 pace. I tried one at 6:00 pace but it was a bit too fast and I had to slow it back down to 6:40. After the repeats I upped the elevation to 7% for 1 mile and 8% for 1/2 mile @ 10:00 pace. Then 1/2 mile cool down. Total of 7 miles at 64:00.

I wanted to get closer to 7 miles tonight, but I also wanted to explore the Hornet Canyon trail.  I've heard that there is a connector trail that goes from Steed Creek/Hornet Canyon over to Flag Rock and I really wanted to find out if it was true.  Turns out it is, although the connector from Hornet Canyon to Flag Rock is not very well groomed at the moment.  It is clear that the Farmington trail crew has been putting in the work up there. All in all a good run.  Maybe something to tack on to the Farmington Crown run in some way. 

I found the Farmington Spine trail, so I took it up the mountain.  First, I went up and over Flag Rock from South to North. North side trail still has some snow on it but it's mostly clear now.  Then I planned on going up Farmington Canyon but discovered the trail head for the farmington Spine and took that up to the junction for the pipeline trail instead.  It's a decent trail, at least as far as I took it. The first .5 mile is pretty undefined, but after that it's pretty clear where it goes and it isn't even too steep. If I had time, I would have liked to take the pipeline trail for a while and see where it goes and how clear it is. Oh well, another day.   

I wanted to see how high up the mountain the spine trail went.  Turns out, not as far as I hoped. I made it up about 1.5 miles, to 6400 feet of elevation, and I lost the trail in some trees.  I saw a bunch of deer though.  on the way back down I figured I would take the Pipeline trail and see if it junctioned with the sunset trail up farmington canyon.  It doesn't.  In fact, it is a pretty rough trail at this point and ends at a cesspool of stagnant water. I don't recommend it. I may try the spine again when it gets warmer.  The point where I lost the trail still had snow on it so that may have been why I lost it. 

7 on the TM. First 5 @ 1% grade and between 6-7 mph. Mile 6 @ 7% grade and 6 mph. Mile 7 at 1% and 7 mph.

I wanted to run every day on vacation but when you're vacation is standing in line for 10 hours a day at Disneyland, running takes a back seat to preserving leg strength. I got in this one run on the first day while in St. George. 

Matt VH sent me a text asking me to come run with him up Farmington Canyon.  I was in my very first civil jury trial as an attorney at the time so I couldn't go.  But when I got home I decided I needed to get my lazy butt out there and get moving. I went up the BST from my house, over to F-town canyon and up the sunset trail to the campground, then up to the road and back down the road. I probably shouldn't have gone so far given that I haven't run much of anything in so long.  I better get my Sh*@! together soon, I've got a race coming up. 

 I'm a bit sore now but I'm going out again soon.  

not a lot of time tonight so I just went up the sunset trail about a mile past the campground and back.  A lot of people shooting guns up there now that the road is open.  I'm also not very fond of vehicles being on the road, though they have made it a bit smoother than it was previously. 

I'm going back in the AM.  Maybe I'll try to get up to the junction or bountiful campground. Time (and ability) will be the limiting factors I suppose. That single track is pretty fun though.  Not too steep, a couple of stream crossings, and lots of stuff to keep me on my toes.

11 up sunset trail past the campground, up to the maintenance sheds and back.  I didn't make a big deal about it yesterday, but after today, the people shooting guns up the canyon have to go. Last night, as I came out of the trail into the campground there were a group of people, looked like 2 adults (fathers?) and 3-4 kids (boys) in the campground.  They were shooting their BB gun at the trail head sign, which sits immediately in front of the trail. When they saw me they got an "oh crap!" look on their faces and put the BB guns away.  I figured they just didn't know the trail was there, and I wasn't hurt, so I let it go. 

Today, they were a sleep or something when I made it to the campground because I didn't see anyone there.  On my way back down, I could hear them about 15 to 20 feet off the side of the trail. One of them shot off a round, and the bullet whizzed through the trees just to my left. So it appears they were shooting their guns across the trial. I immediately yelled out "Hey, stop shooting I'm on the trail!" I didn't hear another gun shot after that, which is good because I passed about 12 people hiking up the trail on my way back down.  

I can understand the first incident, even though I imagine it's a violation of city ordinances to shoot guns in designated campsites.  The second incident is unforgiveable. There were no other cars or signs of people in the campground other than that same group.  To be shooting off guns in an area that you are aware has a hiking trail should be both civilly and criminaly punishable. I called the cops when I got back to my car.

Other than that incident it was a nice run.  I met a guy named Bill from Centerville running in Altra Instincts.  He ran from his house up almost to the towers on top.  Props to him.

I wanted to get 10ish but ran out of time.  I really need to get up early in the AM to get this done.  I almost got shot again on the firebreak road, this time with a sling shot. It's a war zone out there after all the rednecks wake up. 

Little neighborhood run tonight.  I'm going to try something more serious tomorrow. 

I wanted to do something more ambitious today but I thought it would be longer.  Turns out, my complacency has resulted in a loss of stamina. Or maybe I'm just off today. 

I wanted to get up to hells hole and then up and over flag rock.  It would have been close to 12 miles with ~3500 feet of elevation.  I only managed hells hole before I ran out of time and motivation and had to come home. It didn't help that I didn't start until after 9am.  

I've had bowel issues since sunday afternoon but I needed to get some miles in.  I decided the best way to accomplish this would be to run on the treadmill so that if I had a problem I could just come inside.  I managed 6 miles in 51 minutes. 

My wife had to work this morning so I had to get my run on the treadmill. 8 miles in 70 minutes

More treadmill miles.  I wanted to get up this morning and run up the canyon but I can't talk myself into getting up at 5:30 am. My plan was to get up at 6 and be running by 6:30 but my wife kept me awake until midnight so that didn't happen either.  I drug myself out of bed at 7:15 and figured I only had time for quick miles so I hit the TM for 7 miles in 60 minutes. I really need to get outside, but the TM is so convenient. 

Sunset trail up past the sheds about a 1/2 mile.  You've got to get into and out of that canyon early because the rednecks and their guns are out in force by 10:00 am.  

Not quite a 100 mile week like some people I know, but I'm getting the rhythm back. I'm going to shoot for somewhere between 45 and 50 miles next week. 

Easy 6

Up centerville peak trail, trying for skyline drive.  I didn't make it all the way, about a mile and a half short.  I almost stepped on a rattle snake though. 

Yesterday's run wore my legs out so I had to settle for an easy 5 tonight.

drove up to the gate in Farmington Canyon then ran the farmington flats.  It was beautiful. 

Crappy day, only enough time for a quick treadmill run. I decided to run a 10k and just see what kind of time I could get. Warmed up for 1 mile then 10k in 48:30, ~7:48 a mile. Finished with a quick cool down.

Rough day again. Early morning court and evening choir concert meant no running until late. I went with the treadmill again and decided I should push a 5k as fast as I could. I managed to run it in just under 23 minutes, roughly 7:24 per mile. 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cool down.

Farmington canyon, 4 up, 4 down. I managed 9:38 per mile with the last 3 miles all below 8:00 pace. I think the speed training on the TM is helping.

shorty up the canyon

I ran farmington flats again today. I really like running up there. I don't know if its the location or the fact that it was Sunday but I didn't see another person up there all day. I started with the loop, went up to Arthur spring then did some exploring. I found a trail that ended up taking me to a peak that I didn't know existed, called golden ridge peak. There were a lot of deer out too. I must have come across at least 10 in three different herds. All miles above 7,000 feet in elevation. I think if I can get myself up to 25 miles up there, with about 5,000 more verticals feet, I'll be ready for speedgoat

Last week was supposed to be a big week for me.  I planned on starting strong with that 13 mile run through Farmington Flats but by monday morning I was pretty sick and it got worse until thursday. I ended up bagging the whole week and worrying about speedgoat the whole time.  Hopefuly this week will be what last week wasn't.  10 miles this evening from the junction gate in farmington canyon up to fracis peak. I'm hoping that if I can keep running above 7,000 feet I will become accustomed to the elevation and it wont be such a big deal at speedgoat. 

An awesome week of running, with family, at the grand canyon. This was a slower jont along the rim trail from mather campground over to Maricopa Point. 

My two running brothers and I took the rim trail in a different direction on this day.  We went from Mather to Kaibab Trail head and then back on the road and greenway trail. My little brother said he wanted a maximum of 6 miles.  I guess we kind of screwed him on that. 

I was itching to get into the canyon from the first moment I saw it.  Today I got my chance. We took Greenway and the road over to Kaibab and then down to Cedar Ridge.  I would have loved to go to the river but we just didn't have enough time with the whole family waiting for us to get back. Still, the trail is pretty steep even over a short distance.  We went 1.5 miles down and in that short distance managed to drop 2,000 feet. The first 1/2 mile coming back up was more of a power walk until I found my low gear and managed to jog the rest of the way out. What an awesome morning!

After looking at a map of the trails in the park my brother and I decided we wanted to see the entire rim (at least that portion that had a trail on it) by foot. So we left bright angel trail and headed to Hermits rest, the last stop on the rim trail. It's a distance of 8 miles one way but what a beautiful run. My sister in law and little brother came too and each managed to cover some respectible distance for their experience level. the nice thing about this run is that a shuttle bus covers this whole route as well so if you get tired or run out of time you can just jump on the shuttle and ride back to the start. After reaching hermits rest and waiting for the others to get there we were pretty low on time.  My older brother and I ran back to Mohave point before needing to catch the bus back to the start. This was yet another amazing run at the canyon. 

The night before this run I thought maybe we should try and run down Bright Angel to Indian Springs (a traditional winter home of the hopi before the NFS took the canyon over). When we woke up we both (my brother and I) realized that we were tired out from a week of running and, although we could managed the distance and elevation change, we wouldn't have enough time to do so. We opted instead to run a loop over the visitors center and back to the campgound so we could plot a R2R2R run in the next year.  There is something very captivating about this canyon and I will have to come back, multiple times. 

Unfortunately, we had to get up and out of the canyon this morning because it is a long drive home. Sad to leave but hopefully I will be back. When we got home I ran one mile with my step daughter who is trying to run 1 mile every day until the summer is over. She turned off at the 3/4 mark and I sped up to get one more faster mile in before the day was over. She did good, 15 minute mile with minimal walking, no puking, and no complaining. I had a bug hit me in the eye on my way back which slowed me down but I still managed to get a 7:39 mile. 

nice little fathers day morning run from francis peak to thurston peak and back.  I wanted to get a look at that route before attempting to run from the farmington canyon junction gate all the way to thurston and back.  Now I know. That is going to be a good, hard run. 

I started this run on the new farmington creek trail that is supposed to run from the pond to the campground.  I don't advise anyone try to run on this trail for the time being, it is pretty rough.  In fact, I don't advise anyone hike on this trail if they are not prepared for some bushwhacking. After a mile of power hiking up the trail I cut back to the paved canyon road and ran back to my car.  From there, I decided to drive up the Farmington Flat to finish my run.  At the bottom of the canyon the temperature was 65, at the Flats it was 42.  Beautiful mountain air to start my day. I got in another 4.5 miles up there to make a total of 7.65. 

After two small claims trials and 8 hours in court today I didn't think I would have much in the tank for a run tonight. I thought about finding a trail but it was going to be dark soon and I didn't want to run in the dark. I also didn't want to run on the road. I opted instead for the treadmill, found a groove, and managed to get 7.1 miles in 63 minutes.

Farmington flat to over to the wasatch 100 trail that cuts up to bountiful, around the front and over bountiful peak and back.  Great run. 

I found a mountain bike trail that drops into the valleys on the east side of Francis peak and followed it for a little over 5 miles.  I think it may loop up and connect with smith lake, or at least I hope it does.  I didn't have time to find out today, but I will definitely be back.  If you live in davis county and you haven't taken this trail before, I highly recommend it. 

I wanted to do more but I had court this morning so I couldn't run until later tonight. That cuts into my family time and I'm also a bit more tired. Plus, I think the ~29 miles I've done in the past 3 days is taking a little toll. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Flag Rock and sunset trail.  I wanted to get to the campground but ran out of time.  I only made it to the second stream crossing. 

from my house up to flag rock from the south, down the north side and up the canyon, via sunset trail, to the campground, then down the road and back. 

Too hot to run by mid day so I hit the TM for 10

I thought I would get up this morning and run some mountain trails but my daughter spent the night at grandmas and my wife had to go to work early and the allure of a quiet house and no chance of interruption kept me in bed until 10 am. By the time I woke up it was too hot to hit the road or trail so I hit the TM again for a relaxing 6 miles.

Muller park to north canyon loop. beautiful.  Saw a moose. 

TM miles

Mueller Park to Rudy's flat, a little exploring on Rudy's flat area, and back to the car. 

I'm staying in Eden for the weekend so I decided to run at Snowbasin. I took a look at a trail map and decided to run needles trail to the top of the resort. when i got up there the guy running the chair lift offered me a ride down but i declined. The trail wasn't as nice as mueller but it was longer. If I had more time I could have made it 20+, but my wife was already complaining so I had to come back. I think the vert will be close to 3k when I sync the watch.

Couldn't drag my but out of bed so 10 on the TM tonight @ 3% grade.

Early morning so I didn't get out until tonight so I hit the TM @ 1% for 8 miles

TM set at 4% for 10 miles. Going to be similar tomorrow since I do not have anyone to watch my child so I can leave to run.

This run was split into 2 parts the first part was a run up Hornet Creek canyon. I've been up that canyon before but on the previous attempt I turned at the fire trail and made my way over to Flag Rock. Today I wanted to see if I could get to Bountiful Peak going this way.

I made it to the waterfall up Hornet Creek trial, but that is pretty much where the trail ends. However, when it ends, it dives into the steed creek trail which has trail markers indicating that it goes up the the cliffs at least. It took me 1 1/2 hours to get up to the junction of the two trails and I only had 3 hours to be out so I decided I better head back.

For the trip back I decided to take the Steed Creek trail as it looked a bit more developed than Hornet Creek. It was a pretty nice trail, with steps cut in and wood and rebar supports put in place. It is still kind of rough in spots, but much better than Hornet Creek. As a result of the roughness of Hornet Creek coming up, I misjudged the amount of time it would take me to get back. I started my decent at 10:34 and I was home by 11:00. Needless to say, the Steed Creek Trail is steep. I dropped 1,300 feet in a mile. at the bottom my legs were feeling it, which makes me worry about Speedgoat. Cardiovascularly I think I'm good, but if the downhills are as brutal as that section today, I might be in trouble.

Next time, I'm going to go up Steed Creek and see if I can get all the way to the top.

The other part of my run was on the TM at home waiting for my daughter to get back from church.

Up 5 miles and back starting at the single track trailhead. 1 hour 1 minutes up and 37 minutes back down. all 5 miles coming down were sub 8 minute miles by at least 15 seconds with the fastest being 7:12/mile on mile 6. 

This was my rest day, primarily because I didn't sleep at all last night and have been beat all day today. Also, because it has been a few days since my last rest day.  Still, I decided I should start doing every run with my step-daughter to make sure she is actually getting the benefit out of the run. So, with that in mind, I did one, rainy mile with Syd tonight. 

The vert on this run isn't reading the same as it did on Monday despite the fact that the run hasn't changed. So I'm estimating the vertical gain between what it said on Monday and what it says today. 

That said, it was quicker today. The route was up farmington canyon for 5 miles and then back. I made it up in just under 58 minutes. that's 3 minutes faster than monday's ascent time. The decent was much quicker too, 34 minutes instead of 38 minutes. My fastest mile down was 6:43 with 3 of the 5 being below 7:00 per mile and the other two being 7:10 and 7:01. Pretty fast for me.  

PM: not sure if I should count these or not.  1 mile with Syd for her run challenge.  She was faster toay, 15:57 instead of 16:14.  She said she was more sore today but she did it faster.  She seems like she is giving it effort, which is all I'm going for.  

Farmington Canyon again but I decided to change it up and go up the trail instead of the road.  The trail is steeper but shorter.  I was able to run up past 7,000 feet today because of the trail option but didn't have enough time to get the full 10 miles I wanted. That was probably a good thing though since I am feeling pretty beat today. 

Easy 3 on the TM to even out the miles before tomorrows effort. 

Hey, farmington trails crew, there is NOT a trail up steed creek all the way to the top!!!! (despite what you might want to think).  

Very rough run/power hike/bushwhack.  I should have started an hour earlier.  I was told their was a trail so I thought I could make it faster, but there isn't, and I couldn't. Hopefully my general feeling of beat-upness isn't indicative of my overall physical condition or I'm screwed next saturday.  

Easy 1 mile run with my step-daughter. My legs still hurt from Saturday's bushwhack. 

Same deal as yesterday.  Legs are feeling better.

4.8 on the Speedgoat course to get a feel for what is in store on Saturday. slow moving but I was able to run most of the uphills on this first part of the course. 

1.2 with my stepdaughter to get her mile in for the night.  

first 4 and last 2 of speedgoat.

first 2 and last 2 of speedgoat

Speedgoat 50K

My training for the year as not been what I wanted. In January, when I signed up for this race, my honest intention was to run at least 50 miles a week, every week, until the race and at least 2,000 vert each run.  That didn't happen.  There are a lot of reasons it didn't happen, but on race day the only thing that matters is that it didn't happen.

I managed to get out of my training funk about 2 months prior to the race and I had run 50-60 miles a week for the three weeks preceding the race. On top of that, I had the opportunity to stay at the lodge at snowbird for the week leading up to the race and ran the first 4 and last 2 miles of the course multiple times. Although those test runs on the course were hard, I was able to run almost all of it, and so I was confident going into the race that I wouldn't have to DNF.

My goal for the race was to get through it and not die.  Few people know that I ran El Vaquero Loco, the 25K version, in 2011.  Even fewer people know that I was the last person off the mountain, at either distance, and that they almost had to send a horse in to get me out due to my dehydration and lack of preparedness for that race. With this as my only mountain racing experience, I thought my goal for Speedgoat was a good one. Especially considering it was twice the distance and more than triple the elevation gain.

Prior to the race, I got checked in with my brother and mulled around the starting line worrying about how the days events would unfold. Shortly after the runners were let out of the gate, my worries abated, almost completely.  Within 200 yards everyone had broken into a stead hike up the mountain.  Very few people were running this section, which I knew wasn't even a steep section of the race. With this established as the baseline expectation, I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the run, all except the Baldy hike of course.

The original plan was to stick with my brother, so we hiked and jogged by each other for the first 5ish miles. His training has been consistent since thanksgiving so at lower elevations, he is faster than I am.  A little ways past mid gad though, it was apparent that even all of his consistency wasn't going to alleviate the effects of being at high altitude. We caught up with Matt W and the three of us hiked together until just before the boulder field when I got ahead of the other two on an uphill hike. On the single track trail, and keeping in mind this was a race, I didn't feel like I could just stop and wait for my brother to catch up so I kept going.  Besides, he had Matt for company now. 

With that in mind, I sped up my hike and pushed up to Hidden Peak. When I got there I thought I might wait there for them to catch up with me, but it was cold (not to mention still a race), so I decided to head out after getting a few bananas to eat. I made it down to larrys hole pretty quickly and felt fresh so I didn't bother to stop there. I caught a group of people in front of me and we all hiked up to sinners pass and started down Mary Ellen Gultch.  Very soon I realized that this was going to be slow. I had not expected the riverbed style rocks covering the road and it was tricky to traverse this section.  Several people in Hoka's passed me while saying something about having shoes that fill like butter on their feet, but I tried to ignore them and muddle my way down the road.  

I made it to Pacific Mine in under 4 hours and I was contemplating the possibility of finishing in an 8 hour time. I quickly handed over my water bottles to someone to fill (a perk of this race that I thought was very nice) and proceeded to down several shots of Redbull and a popsicle. Before I finished the popsicle I was out of the aid station and heading back up the trail.  In the next 4.5 miles I passed almost every person that had overtaken me on the rocky trail down, as well as a few I had not seen before.  The steep climb back up to sinner pass in mile 19 or 20 took some of the steam out of my sails though, and by the time I made it back to Larry's Hole I was in need of water and a rest. I stopped and ate another couple of bananas and drank a coke then headed back out.

At this point, I had been on a trail longer than at any other time in my life and the effects of this fact were beginning to show.  About 1/3 of a mile out of the aid station the trail turns and heads up the mountain, pretty steeply. Within the next 2 or three miles, everyone I had repassed on the way to Larry's Hole had leapfrogged me again. I was slow getting up to the pass, and when I did finally make it there I had serious thoughts about not being able to get up to the top of Baldy, and that was before I had really seen the "trail". The two people sitting at the pass gave me some encouragement and I decided to just keep moving. 

I was slow getting down to the Baldy turn-off and when I got there I was stopped dead in my tracks. The sheer steepness of that climb momentarily zapped all of my energy and enthusiasm for the race.  I didn't think I was going to make it. While I was standing there pondering whether I should just hike back to the tram and drop from the race or not, a father-son duo came up beside me.  I heard the father tell the son "we'll just have to take it slowly, one step at a time." Hearing that, I thought to myself "if they can make it so can I" and off I went, slowly, up the mountain.

I was beat by the top but glad that the hike was over.  Just before I hit the summit a hiker beside me said I should prepare myself for another hike of that caliber up the ridge from Peruvian Basin. With that in mind, and given the soreness in my legs, I hiked down the trail off baldy.  Most people were running down, but I hiked back to the road.  At the road I decided I should buck up and get moving, so I ran to the tunnel. At the tunnel I checked my phone for signal and sent a message to my brother to see if he was still out there or if he had DNF'ed and if he wanted me to wait for him there, since it was the last cutoff.  His response was that he was trying to get up Baldy so decided to push on.

I had heard prior to the race starting, that the drop out of the tunnel down into Peruvian Basin was pretty deep.  I knew we were going almost all the way back to where we were at mile 3, so the continual downhill didn't really faze me. Moreover, the turn to the uphill heading to the ridge was not very steep. I was able to run part of it and I was able to easily hike the rest.  Toward the top it got a bit more steep and my pace slowed a bit, but I didn't think the ridge to Hidden Peak was anything near as hard as the Baldy hike.  As a result,  I reached the peak in good spirits.  

Just as I started up the last section of the trial to the peak, the tram arrived carrying my parents and my brothers family.  I stopped on the top to change shoes before the final decent.  I was wearing my Lone Peaks, which had been great except I think I got them a size to small. My old lone peaks were 11.5 and the new ones were 11.  A couple of time throughout the day, my toes had been pushing against the front of the shoe and I worried that the downhill would cause my toenails to turn black or fall off or something.  The 11.5's gave my toes space and I knew they would feel good going down.

After changing shoes I bumped into a guy from dallas who was hiking beside me for a while.  We commiserated about how tired our legs were I told him I didn't think I had much run left in me.  To that, he decided he would take off and see how long he could run before his legs were truly spent.  Meanwhile, I decided to walk through the boulder field so I could avoid twisting my ankle on tired legs.  

As soon as I got back to the dirt single track I decided to run.  I guess I had a lot more run in my legs because I ran the rest of the way.  About a mile into my running I passed the guy from Dallas, walking. Shortly after that, I passed a lady running. I was familiar with part of this section of the race and felt better getting back to familiar ground. I thought about my wife and kid waiting for me at the finish line and continued to crank out the miles until I rounded that last bend to the cheers of those at the finish line.  

After crossing the finish, Karl Meltzer gave me a water bottle filled with ultragen and high five.  I couldn't have been happier.  I had completed my first ever ultramarathon and I didn't even need to be carried off the mountain.  In fact, aside from that moment at baldy, I had enjoyed my day.  I think next year I will stick to the training plan and just see what I can accomplish.  

I wanted to get out yesterday but I didn't wake up in the morning and had no motivation in the afternoon.  I wish I was still living up at snowbird, it was easier to talk myself into getting out up there. 

I got in 5 on the TM this morning before work.  I had an early meeting or I would have gone for more. I think I will take it easy for the rest of this week then start to really train hard for St. George.  

Next week my training will shift from trail runs to road runs.  At least during the week. Time to get ready for St. George.  So, today and tomorrow, and possibly sunday, are "enjoy some trails" days before I make the shift.  I plan to still run farmington canyon road during the week when I'm not doing speed training, and some of my long runs on the weekend will probably be trail runs, but I've got to switch back to road if I'm going to be ready to beat last years time. hopefully, my higher baseline will help me in getting faster before race day. 

Not exactly a stellar running day. The plan was to get up early and get in 10-15. I caught some guilt from the wife because the kids were having some cousins sleep over and she wanted help. On top of that, the kids all stayed up all night and so I did too.

I went out tonight, first with my step daughter then by myself. 1.2 with Sydney 4.4 alone, on the street.

Woke up late.  Ran in the heat.  Slow miles: 9:59 avg. 

Up farmington canyon.  I wanted to get 10 but started a little later than usual so I didn't have time.  The poop stop didn't help timing wise either. 

Slow going up, but I got some good leg turnover going down and managed to keep all 4 downhill laps under 7:30, with the last 2 being under 7:00. I think this downhill speed running will pay off on marathon day. 

Steady state run today. 1 mile warmup followed by 50 minutes @ 7:41-8:03 pace.  I managed a 7:49 pace for the 6.4 miles. The graph for my pace on Garmin is pretty flat, so I must have done a good job maintaining a steady pace. I was pleased that the effort, although not exactly easy, was not all that difficult. Tomorrow's workout is going to be pretty hard so hopefully today's will count as rest-ish. 

Marathon pace (MP) day. I should have pushed this workout to Thursday to give myself a day of rest from speed in between. The workout: 4 x 1 mile @ 6:40-7:00 pace w/800 meter (1/2 mile) jogging recovery in between. My MP should be 6:49 to hit my goal time, so the plan was to keep it as close to that as possible. My splits were: 6:48, 6:45, 6:54, and 6:59. That last one was hard. Average split time was 6.51 so not too bad.

I think I will make my speed workout on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday so I can rest for a day in between them from now on.  

Steady state run again today. 1 mile warm up, 50 minutes @ 7:40-805 pace, 1 mile cool down. 

Average pace for 50 minutes was 7:45. I had a headwind after the turn around which made the return trip much harder.  

TM miles while my wife is at work.

Tempo run on Legacy Parkway trail.  workout was 1 mile warm up, 2 x 20 minutes @ 7:23- 7:39 pace w/5:00 resting job in between.  First 20 minute interval was 7:27 per mile, second was 7:32. 

 Tomorrow is resting run day so I'll be going up the mountain I think.  

6.6 on the TM. Should have got out this morning but didn't.

TM again. 6 in 55 minutes. I'm not sure but I think my fatigue this week is from over doing it last week.

8.5 around town. According to McMillan, I should be keeping my pace between 8:23-9:40 for this type of a run.  I managed an overall pace of 9:10, mostly because the last couple of miles had some steep hills in them. I'm supposed to do speed work tomorrow but as wiped as I'm feeling right now, I may just go for another easy paced 8-10 miles.

TM at the hotel in nampa.

Run with step daughter. Very whiny run. Probably my last.

Run around the neighborhood tonight after work. I've found a new circular route that is 10 miles and incorporates dirt, asphalt, and a little bit of grass. 9:07 avg pace.

This was supposed to be a speed workout.  It very quickly devolved into a slow run. I started with a 1 mile warm up, which was supposed to be slow.  It was actually 1.3 miles. At the end of the warm up I tried to hit a 6:49 pace.  I managed to hit a 6:35 pace, but that quickly faded and my average lap time ended up being 7:25.  I couldn't seem to make my legs move any faster.  The next lap was slower, 7:40, and the next one slower than that, 8:23.  

After the first lap I decided to adjust the workout to a tempo run pace, around 7:30 per mile.  after the second lap I decided I should adjust it again to a steady state pace, around 7:40.  After the third lap I just gave up and decided to finish at whatever pace felt comfortable.

I think the problem was two fold.  First, I didn't go out until this afternoon when it was warmer outside. This typically makes me slower.  Second, I've had spaghetti for 2 of my last 3 meals.  While I like spaghetti, the meat sauce stays with me for a while. Haunts me might be a better way to describe it. If I'm going to eat spaghetti before I run, it needs to be at least 12 hours before. It was only a 3 hour gap today and I paid for it. Fortunately, I didn't end up vomiting, though I came close once. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  

My plan was to run Farmington Canyon, up and back, 10 miles round trip.  Then, I woke up late, drove to the canyon before realizing I didn't have a watch or phone to track myself, and drove home to get one of those things.  I could have probably just gone without it, but I wasn't feeling motivated enough to do that.  By the time I got home, I was never going to get decent distance in before work time, so I bagged it in favor of the treadmill. 7 miles at a 1% grade in 62 minutes. Not my best showing, but at least I got some miles in. 

Flag Rock with MVH. I haven't run with him in a while and it was good to get out there again.  It helped that he was tired so I could keep up.  Despite the fire, the trail was only burned in one place and there was some red fire retardant on one other part.  There were also a lot of mosquitoes on at the rock.  

12 on the mid mountain trail in PC. It wiped me out way more than I expected. When I got home I weighed myself and quickly discovered the issue: calories. In the last couple of days I've lost 5 pounds. I'm pretty sure I don't have 5 pounds to lose. Somehow I needs to get more calories.

I don't know what it was about Saturday's run but it really took it out of me.  I was beat and sore sunday but thought it would go away by monday.  It didn't so I decided to take the day off and let my legs recover a bit. I was feeling pretty good this morning to out I went.  9 around the neighborhood at an easy pace, 9:32 average. 

Tm

Neighborhood run again.  Nothing special but I got the miles. the first half was kind of slow due to the uphill nature of the route but the second half picked up a bit. I finished with a 9:29/mi time, which is in range for easy run pace. Good enough.

4 on TM in 36 minutes

I don't know what my deal is this week but I feel beat. I couldn't get out of bed this morning and by the time I did it was already hot enough I couldn't convince myself to go run in the heat. So, I did 10 on the TM in 91 minutes.

I needed to get a decent run in but I didn't want to run on the road.  I have a hard time pounding the pavement after the sun has come out. Instead, I ran down 200 east to Freedom Hills park and then cut up to the firebreak road, cut back toward farmington and went up and over flag rock, down to the pond and back on lagoon trail. Bugs were pretty bad on the flag rock trail but otherwise it was a good outing. 

I need to be getting more marathon pace running in if I'm going to have a respectable marathon time.  I've decided that my 6:49 pace goal, for 26 miles, is an unreasonable goal.  As a result, I've cut it back to 7:30 per mile.  7:30 isn't a relaxed or easy pace, but it isn't an all out sprint either. It's a sustainable effort at this point, which means I think I can do that for the marathon distance. 

Today I did 2 mile warmup, followed by 6 miles at or near 7:30 pace, and 2 miles cooldown. splits were: 7:37; 7:28; 7:38; 7:34; 7:42; 7:30. average of 7:35 per mile. I had some tightness on the fith split and had to stop for a minute and stretch.  Then I had to run faster to get my time back down. Effort felt good though, not forced. 

I can't remember what happened with this run. 

I took the weekend off.  Not sure why. My training for this marathon hasn't been very good. 

TM miles while the wife is at work.  Can't leave these kids alone very long or they will kill each other. Managed it in 73 minutes @ 1% grade. 

head cold. Wiped out both before and after work. No run .

got new shoes. Mizuno Sayonara's. I like them for the most part. Better than the Kinvara I think. I wanted to get in 10 now that the head cold is subsiding but a storm rolled in and I cut it short. 

My physical therapist told me to start running again slowly with low miles. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill so I could stop if I needed to. No issues to report.

I'm not sure if running every day is what the PT meant when he said start running again but since it doesn't hurt I figure I'll just keep building slowly. Another 3 miles in 30 minutes on the TM.

3 more on the TM. Went a bit faster tonight but had to slow down toward the end due to the feeling of impending injury. I've got to keep remembering to go slow.

My back has been feeling much better and my other workouts have intensified so I decided to try and see what I could do on a trail run again. In order to not over do it, I opted to just run up to flag rock from my house, a distance of about 1.7 miles if you stay on the trail. It took me 32 minutes to go the 1.7 miles, so I'm slow. On the plus side, I made it with only walking twice, on the two steepest parts of the trail. I felt fine when I reached the top and ran back down. By the bottom my quads were sore but my back was still fine. I'm going to try and do 3 a day for the next week and see how that feels then take it from there. 

3 miles on the treadmill while watching the football game.  I had hoped to run back up to flag rock but my quads are shot from sunday. I kept it at a 2% incline the whole time and kept the pace above 6MPH. 

3 more on the TM @ 2%. No pain. 

I had to leave town on Wednesday of last week for work. I planned on running when I got to my hotel but they didn't have a treadmill and the roads were icy so I did burpee ladders in my room instead.  Not the same but still a good workout. 

By Sunday I was ready to be outside running again and Flag Rock was calling my name. I blazed the trail through the snow up to the Flag and back. 

Time to start getting this thing back in line. I understand most of the trail running community that used to be on here has now departed for more tech-savy waters but I like the format of this blog so I think I will not be leaving. 

After 2 months of CrossFit I feel pretty strong again and have no back pain so I need to start slowly working back into the miles. I talked to the traininer at the gym I go to and he suggested that I start slow and give my body time to adapt. Seems obvious enough. I decided that today was the day to start but I couldn't really go for a run since my wife was working and no one was around to help with child care. As a result, I ran on the treadmill in my garage. 

My plan is to run 3 miles a day for this week and see how my body feels.  After that I may increase to 4 miles a day across the board or I may just bump up milage a few days a week. Based on how I feel I will proceed from there. 

Today I did 3 miles but I had hard time just running 3 miles at a slower pace. I guess that's what a few months of high intensity crossfit will do for you. So I did 1/2 mile warm up then 1 minute at 7:30 per mile and 1 minute at 10:00 mile for 2.5 miles, then 1/2 mile cooldown. Finished the 3 in 25 minutes and didn't even feel exhausted. It's going to be hard to keep the miles low but I think I have to build slowly if I'm going to avoid injury.

Treadmill at 2% incline, 1/2 miles warm up, 1/2 mile cooldown, 2 miles at alternating 7:30 x 1 minute and 10:00 x 1 minute. 

Treadmill at 2% incline, 1/2 mile warm up, .4 of a mile cooldown. The rest was 3:00 at 7:30 pace followed by 1 minute at 10:00 pace. finished in 25:25. 

3 on the treadmill @ 2% grade again but I did it as soon as I got home from my crossfit workout, which just happened to be leg intensive today. As a result my pace was much slower but I got in done in 27 minutes. 

Tonight's run only happened because my 5 year old daughter pushed me to do it. Although it was very sweet of her it is clear that her primary motivation was to make daddy run on the treadmill so she could ride her Christmas scooter in the garage. Still I got 3 miles in in a little over 28 minutes. I'm going to have to either start running first thing in the morning or keep my miles low until I get used to working out twice in thy span of 2 1/2 hours.