Maybe I'll Blog, Maybe I Won't

A few miles easy followed by a few miles of tempo pace.  Warm and humid after this morning's rainstorm.

BST/N. Logan loop plus extensions.  Easy for the most part.

Mountain Workout

Ran from my place to the TV reflectors on top of the mountain just east of town via First Dam and BST.  3000 foot climb from lowest point (First Dam) to highest point (top of the hill), but there were hills all over in between that including Old Main Hill so it was probably more like 4000+ feet of total climbing.  That was kind of the point of this workout though.  Man, that hill is steep.  Some spots I swear are a 45 degree angle.  Running was probably the wrong word for most of the main climb...more of a jog walk, but that's all I could manage.  Excellent workout.  Quads are destroyed both from the climb and the controlled slide back down.  I didn't biff it once though, so that's a good sign.  Otherwise I probably would be dead, because I think once you start rolling on that hill you won't stop 'til you hit the bottom.  Anyway, great workout.  Hopefully it will help prep me for Logan Peak. 

8.6 easy.  Quads are quite sore, so I took it very easy.  Played steal-the-bacon until late and did a lot of sprinting around chasing people and stealing the flag.  Legs are even more sore after that.  :P

Note to self:  Going on a long run starting at 11:00 at night is not a great idea.  I have never had this happen before, but as I was just about back home I kept getting slower and slower until I was just going at a plod and was actually getting sleepy while running...then I guess I momentarily fell asleep at the wheel because the next thing I knew I was running into a bush on the side of the road.  It was weird.  Never had any idea that was possible.  It must have only been for a moment though because I don't remember any discontinuity really, just that I was all of a sudden running into a bush.  It was a good thing I was only a block or two from home.  Interesting experience.  But I got my 70 for the week.

Easy easy run.  Hammies are sore for some reason.  I guess they just got jealous of my quads and decided to join the party.  Going to cut the mileage down to 60 this week.  I love that 60 feels like a rest now.  It's great.  Best shape of my life.  Get all those little naggers healed before Logan Peak.

Fun run today.  Did the Jardine Juniper trail with Jon and Cody.  Great trail for running.  I think it is now one of my favorites.  It was really good to run with Jon and Cody again after so long.  We took it easy on the way up and chatted about the coming Logan Peak race and other odds and ends and it was real nice to catch up on everything.  The tree itself was pretty cool...much bigger than I expected with only a little tuft of green at the top of an impossibly gnarled and twisted skeleton of a trunk.  Pretty neat sight.  The views from the trail are gorgeous as well.  I think I am going to have to actually hike it (Imagine that--hiking a trail! Who does that?) sometime very soon so that I can take it slow and enjoy the scenery some more.  Anyway, on the way back Jon told me I should take the lead and go fast and so we ended up averaging just under 6 min. miles the whole way down.  It was fun to just boom down the trail and not have to worry too much about tripping over stuff in most places.  Good run.  Good company.  Boosted my confidence on as the clock continues to wind down to LP.  I am getting really excited for this race!  Thanks for the run Jon and Cody.  Lets not let it be so long until next time.  

AM- 7.5 miles easy.  Canyon Road loop.  Got a good dose of the canyon wind coming down the hill into First Dam.  

PM-  Hiked the Jardine Juniper trail with one of my friends because I wanted to have a chance to take it in slowly and she wanted to hike it.  On the way back we got hit with a pretty good thunderstorm which was fun but we decided to run the last mile back to the car, so I got another mile there. 

Today I felt like poo.  That's about the long and the short of it.  My hammies for some reason feel really sore.  Not sure why.  Oh well.  Also, I went and checked out the new specialty running store ("Runners North") by Macey's after doing my grocery shopping because I saw that they had an "open" sign out.  They were still waiting on a lot of product to come in so the shelves were pretty bare...not like I had money to spend anyway.   But the people seemed pretty friendly and helpful.

Dear Logan weather,

I would very much like to put away my winter running clothes.  If you could please help me out in this endeavor by actually behaving like it is halfway through June, I would very much appreciate it.  Thanks.

Joe 

Didn't actually need any miles from a weekly mileage standpoint today, but I went out in the rain for a little bit anyway.  The loop I took ended up being exactly a 5K, so it will be nice to have that for time trials or something. 

Final long run before Logan Peak.  Felt absolutely fantastic.  Ran to Wind Caves via the River Trail (again...I need to scout more long routes) with extensions to get the miles in.  Had a bit of excitement on the way back when I came round a corner just before SHC and found myself practically nose to nose with a moose.  Ok...so maybe it wasn't quite nose to nose, but after a few minutes of staring each other down he decided I wasn't actually a threat he came CLOSER until I could have reached out and poked him in the nose if I'd have wanted to.  I had definitely NOT decided that he wasn't a threat so I did no such thing.  After a few minutes of trying to get past him without getting myself into a spot where I couldn't run away quickly he started wandering up the trail the same way I was going.  I walked behind at a respectful distance until he left the trail so I could get past.  Cool experience, but it made me a little nervous.  He was BIG even though he couldn't have been much more than a yearling.  I was nervous because the whole time I was remembering my dad telling me about him getting charged by an angry momma moose when he was a Boy Scout and I was having visions of being mashed against a tree or something.  Anyway, interesting experience.  You don't have that happen every day.  

Today I took it very easy.  5.5 mile loop and then ultimate frisbee at FHE.

So, apparently, God didn't want me to run today.  Wish I would have known that earlier.  Was supposed to go on a long run with Jon and Cody, but I got off work late because right when I was getting ready to clock out some things came up that had to be done and I was the only one there to do them.  So I was 10 min. late getting off work and missed Jon and Cody.  Tried to catch them, following some guy's directions that they had gone onto the River Trail (don't know if that was actually the case or not) and ran my guts out trying to make time and catch them.  Eventually I gave up and turned around and went back to First Dam where my car was.  By this time I was dead from running fast with no warmup, plus the leftover fatigue from Saturday.  Almost decided to call it quits right there but thought I'd drive over to the Planet Walk and do a couple easy miles there to cool down and try to make a respectable day of it.  This went fine until I went to cross the RR tracks.  I slipped on the embankment, tripped over both rails, and ate it on the other side.  I really banged up the toes on my right foot somewhere in the process and scraped up my left hand, elbow, and leg pretty good.  I jogged/limped over across the bridge and surveyed the damage:  bloody hands, elbow and toes.  My feet are going to be the ugliest things on planet earth before too long.  At this point I was done so I soaked my legs in the river and tried to wash off some of the dust and blood.  Limp-jogged back to the car and went home to lick my wounds.  Don't worry, I'll be back at it tomorrow.

Easy day.  Right big toe is extremely sore and somewhat swollen.  No other signs of damage, though.  No visible bruising, broken skin, deformities, etc.  Definitely messed with my stride significantly.  I don't think it's broken.  Just hurts like billy-oh.

No run today due to my foot.  I gave it a couple of doses of RICE, and as of last night (I'm writing this Friday morning) it felt much better.  This morning there is no pain and only very little when I put weight on it.  Normally I probably would have just run through it, since I don't think there is any actual structural damage, but I need to be as near 100% and pain free next Saturday as possible, so I figured it was worth it.

Moderately hard run today.  Foot felt fine.  Slight pain, but it's about 1000x better than Wednesday.  Definitely going to be fine.  

Late night run.  I love running at night, even though I don't do it very often.  Stars were bright and the moon was out.  Very peaceful and nice and cool.  Last 15+ mile run before Logan Peak.  It's the final countdown...

AM:  A couple of friends of mine have recruited me as some sort of running coach, so I ran with them to the bottom of the hill by the Logan Temple and did 3x sprints up the hill with them.  

PM: Short tempo run at about marathon pace (didn't have a watch, so no exact pace).

AM:  2.5 very easy miles with my friend on the LRT.

PM: 11 miles with Jon on the LRT.  Easy pace.  Felt great!

AM:  Easy run down thru the Island with my friend.

Easy run in the heat.

Last run before Logan Peak. Did the Planet Walk and then back via the RR tracks.  This time I didn't trip and jack up my toe. Everything feels great. Will probably do some stretching and maybe some icing today.  Can't wait until tomorrow!

This race was epic.  I can't say how much I enjoyed myself, even though I would say that this is definitely the most challenging run I've ever done in my life.  Anyway, here's the blow by blow report.

Got to Mt. Logan Park at about 5, picked up my packet and waited around with my parents (they came all the way from Hurricane to watch me--they're great) until Jon and Cody showed up.  Cody graciously let me borrow his bottle with the cool little hand loop.  Jogged around and warmed up with them for a bit, and earned my second star for the race (the first star was at home).  Soon they had us on the line starting and Cody, Jon, and I were quickly in the lead pack with a couple of other guys (one was named Scott I believe, and the other name I forget).  Dry Canyon was a relaxed but still very tough climb to the first aid station, during which one of our pack dropped off and another guy named Chris joined us.  We then crossed a bit of snow, and a few downed trees and began the South Syncline loop.  Soon the trail became very downhill and we started cruising pretty fast.  Scott started to pull ahead and Cody and I were flying along trying to keep contact, with Jon and Chris not far behind when Cody took a bad spill in front of me.  I was a little worried as he looked a little rattled and didn't seem to take well to jumping up and running again.  He made it though.  After that things settled down a bit until we got to the second aid station.  At this point I was starting to feel a little fatigue in the legs, but not too bad.  Chris then began pushing the pace to the top, although Jon, Cody, Scott and I hung back.  Instinctively I wanted to chase him to maintain position, but I followed Jon and Cody's example and held off, and I was grateful I did.  I am definitely not used to the strategic approach used in a race like this, so I pretty much followed Jon's and Cody's every move for basically the whole race (thanks, guys).   Anyway, back to the narrative.  We reached the top (Scott dropped off somewhere in the ascent) and unfortunately had no time to admire the fantastic views, as we needed to chase down Chris.  I will have to get up there again sometime to fully appreciate it.  We caught Chris coming down to the aid station again, and he dropped off quickly.  After a quick stop grabbing some Gu and electrolyte caplets I took off and soon was able to catch up to Cody.  Jon was a few meters ahead but we maintained contact and caught up on the single track.  The climb up North Syncline was absolutely brutal, but I made it fine with energy at the top to cruise down to the final aid station.  Here Cody just blew through, and I made the momentary decision that anything I would get there would not have time to help me before the race was over, so I followed and this seemed to be where the race really began to heat up.  Jon fell off, although I didn't know it at this point.  I was focused on keeping close contact with Cody, as he had really turned on the afterburners.  Made it through the switchbacks with no mishap, but coming into the shady section I began to have a hard time breathing and felt as if I could not open my lungs to get air in.  Really weird feeling.  I attribute it to the quick descent.  Anyway, this caused me to lose contact with Cody while trying to resolve the issue, all the while expecting to hear Jon come pounding down behind me.  All of this not paying attention soon resulted in me taking a nose dive and sliding down the trail.  Oh did it hurt!  I banged up my knees and shoulder, and I even have somewhat of a shiner on my cheekbone.  But I believe that this turned out to be a good thing, as it completely relaxed me and I had no more breathing problems after this point.  My goal now was just to make it down the canyon with an untied shoe without tripping and to get this thing over with.  Back on the Deer Fence section I was surprised with my ability to deal with the rolling hills even though my legs were gone.  I think I was just so used to them being dead tired that it didn't matter anymore.  Finally made it to the road and back to the park.  Finished with a little slow sprint for show and came in a little under a minute behind Cody.  I was so surprised that I finished second.  I did not expect to do anywhere near this well or to even come close to touching the CR.  It was great though!  I feel wonderful about this race, and I am definitely putting it on the calendar for next year.  Many thanks to Cody and Jon for letting me stick right with them and helping me along.  Thanks also to my Mom and Dad and my friends who showed up to support me.  Congratulations to both Jon and Cody on some great races.  Cody was an animal and Jon is just a beast for running the kind of mileage he has been and only taking a little taper and still having a great race.  FRB with a clean sweep as well, so that's fun.  Great race, great company, and just a great time overall!

AM:  1.5 easy with my friends/trainees.  No watch.

PM:  6 at a plod.  I am actually surprised at the speed of my recovery so far.  Yesterday I was pretty sore, but today wasn't too terribly bad.  Definitely tired, but compared to St. George 2008 my recovery is going extremely well.

51:24 (8:34/mi.)

AM:  3 easy miles with my friend.  No watch.

PM:  7.3 in the heat.  Legs are still definitely sluggish, but I actually had a little spring in them today and there is no longer any soreness.

53:42 (7:21/mi.)

3 miles easy, and then 3.3 up Green Canyon with my friend.