Hit the Dusty Trail

Whew, another 30+ yesterday.  Went with a friend and ran around Pineview reservoir on the roads, then headed up Wheeler canyon on the trail toward Snowbasin.  Once at Snowbasin, we went up the access roads to ridge above the Needles lodge, then traversed over to the Beus Canyon trail that goes to the top of Mt. Ogden, then ran down that trail to the trailhead.  What a great run.  We both felt great after.  I'm a little stiff this morning, but virtually no soreness at all.  We started at about 6:45 and finished up at 2:45, so 8 hours for the distance.  It was nice and cool running around Pineview, then stayed cool as we went up the mountainside.  It didn't get hot until the last couple of miles coming down Beus Canyon.  The air was nice and clear so the views from the top were fantastic.  We had access to water at all the right places, the car after our Pineview loop, Snowbasin base and Needles Lodge.  I used Cliff Shot Bloks exclusively (except for one PBJ) for the run and downed about 4 packages.  That seemed to be plenty (1000 calories total?).  With views and a good time like that, why run roads.  Nothing beats a good, epic run with a friend.

Did my run on the treadmill.  Was going to run at lunch but didn't have time.  Here I ran 33 on Sunday and had no blisters.  I run 5 on the treadmill and pick up two.  What's up with that?

Ran to work and will run home this afternoon.  Should be a hot one.

Ran the Clearfield Freedom 5K again.  I generally don't like to do 5K's.  I think they're way too hard and I'm not fast.  At last year's race I somehow managed to take 1st place in my age group (45-49).  First time I've ever done that.  I went back this year to see if I could do it again....and I did.  I ran this year's race over a minute faster than last year's and it's agood thing.  My time from last year would have been good for 4th place this year.  So 23rd out of 144 wasn't too bad I thought.  Especially for not being a 5K runner and running over 17 the day before.

Ran the local roads this morning.  Was planning on going around 15, but the legs were pretty dead and I just couldn't get into the run, so I cut it a little short.

Ran one of my favorite trails.  From 22nd street to beus Canyon and back along the BST.

No running today unfortunately.  I spent 18 hours on the road with my son going to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.  that's where he's going to school next month.

Went for a nice run in Grand Forks along the river.  They have a very nice paved trail on both sides of the river.  Very pleasant, but not much in the way of elevation change.

No running again today.  Busy with getting my son signed up for classes, taking tours, etc.  Also left for the journey home at around 9pm, then drove all night with a couple of 1 hour stops for naps.

Still driving.  Finally got home around 4:30pm.  Too tired to do much of anything.

Ran to work this morning.  Will run home this afternoon.  It was nice to have a few enforced days off after a couple of very hard weeks of training.  I'm ready to get back into it.

Ran on the Mountain View trail on Antelope Island.  Didn't start until around 7:30am.  Was originally going to run 20, but it was getting very warm and the bugs were acting up.  In 13 miles, I drained three water bottles for a total of 72 oz.  The deer flies were really "bugging" me on the way back since I now had a tailwind.

Ran at lunch today.  Kind of humid.  Pushed the pace a bit.  the legs are still a little sore from last Friday's weight session.  That was the first weight session in about a month and it showed.

Ran in to work today.  Felt a little slow, but my time was actually very consistent with what it normally takes to run in to work.  Not very cool this morning either.  It'll be a hot one this afternoon going home.

Ran the BST from Kaysville to Fernwood picnic area and back.  Very hot.  Car said it was 101.  Took one water bottle and ran a little slower.  There is water at the picnic area so I had plenty to drink.  Run wasn't too bad.  Went and did a partial workout at the gym afterwards.  Went to bed early.  I was tired.

Ran to work.  The run in was kind of slow, it seemed, but my time was about what it usually is.  We'll see what this afternoon brings.

I ran the first ever Wasatch Speedgoat 50K held at Snowbird Ski Area on Saturday.  The race was put together by the orignal Wasatch Speedgoats, Karl Meltzer and Scott Mason.  Karl is one of the best ultrarunners in the country, having won teh Wasatch 100 a number of times and holder of the course record.  He has also won the Hardrock 100 3-4 times and is the only person to go under 24 hours for the HURT 100 mile race in Hawaii, so you know this course was going to be tough.  And they didn't disappoint.  Originally, the course was to go thru both Snowbird and Alta ski areas, but at the last minute some lawyer for Alta got cold feet and we ended up running only thru Snowbird.  The course took us from the Tram deck to the tunnel, into Mineral basin, back up thru the tunnel, back down into the front side of the area, back up to the top of the tram, back into Mineral Basin, back up to the top of the tram again and then a screaming 4 mile dowhill finish from the top.  The general consensus is that the course was about 26.4 miles rather than a true 50K.  Who cares, it was still the toughest 50K I've ever run.  Almost 12,000' of elevation gain and 12,000' of loss.

My race went very well.  I had already run 60 miles for the week and only took Friday off to rest a little bit.  My uphill climbign ability isn't that great, and true to form, I sucked going up hill.  For some reason, my downhill game was spot on and I was able to fly downhill and not trash my quads.    I stayed well hydrated and fueled.  I had a goal of in and out of every aid station in under 2 minutes and I met that goal by going in and out in under a minute each time.  I took two 24 oz handheld bottles with me and tried to make sure that both were empty by the time I got to any aid station.  I also took several gels and Shot Blocks with me to provide fuel in between aid stations.  Those worked very well and I will be going with that startegy in future races.  My energy level seemed to remain fairly constant throughout the day and I never did bonk at any time.  Teh best part of the race for me was the final dowhill push.  I hit the top of the tram aid station right at 7 hrs and was told that it was 6 miles to the finish.  I thought I had a chance of going under 8 hours and took off.  I managed to run from the top of the tram to the finish line at the bottom of the Peruvian lift in 38 minutes.  I found out later that the actual distance was around 4 miles.  Still not too bad a time (for me anyway) for 4 miles of downhill rocky trail and service road.

The weather Saturday was perfect I thought.  Others thought it was a little warm.  it did get a little warm in areas where there was no breeze, but I generally enjoy running in warmer weather.  The flowers in Mineral Basin were spectacular.  There's no road race in the entire world that can beat running on a narrow single track trail thru waist high lupine and indian paintbrush.

All in all, I had a great time and Karl and Scott did a great job for a first time event.  The aid stations were great, plenty to eat and drink.  The course could have been marked better as I did go off course once for about 200 yards,but  I heard that several others went off for some distance.  Snowbird was glad to have us there and I plan on going back next year.

Pictures can be seen at www.powdershots.com  The race was on the 21st.  There are several hundred pictures of the race on that site.

If you'd like to see the actual course map and elevation profile, go to this link.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=3436555

Ran at lunch nice and easy.  Legs are still a little sore from the race on Saturday.

Ran in to work today.  I'm still sore from the race on Saturday, but the run in seemed to help some of that.  The run home should be warm as usual.

Ran in to work again.  Once at work, I felt exhausted.  Just really tired and sleepy.  I got 7 hours of sleep last night, but maybe I need more since I'm piling on the miles these past couple of weeks. 

Ran to work again today.  On the run home yesterday, I bonked badly and had to stop at a gas station to get a candy bar.  The run took me about 20 minutes longer than normal.  I went to beda t 8:30 and actually got a good night's sleep.  that seemed to help a lot this morning.  Thank goodness this is my last day of running into work this week.  This is wearing me out.

Ran part of the Milcreek 50K.  Started out with a climb up to the summit of Grandeur Peak, then down into Millcreek canyon.  I decided to bail at Elbow Fork as my legs were absolutely dead from the week's training and the previous Saturday's 50K.  Also took Saturday and Sunday off.  Starting my taper for Where's Waldo 100k in three weeks.

Nice and easy at lunch.  The legs were still a little tired and not fully rested, but I imagine that will change this week. 

Only went 3 easy miles this morning.  Legs still felt a little tired.  I was planning on going 5, but I figure that since I have a 100K race this Saturday, cutting my run a couple miles short isn't going to hurt any and will let me rest up a little more.  Would normally run at lunch, but I have to work until midnight tonight.  As an Engineer, I have to observe some processing that will take place this evening.