Gaining more than you lose

Drove 11 hours from Spokane to Kaysville...no running, just happy to be able to walk after. 

After spending the weekend in the dreary, rainy, cloudy Spokane, I was itching to get out for a good run. That itch became even more pronounced when the morning was shaping up to be a perfectly sunny cloudless day. Jun and I finished up with some conference calls and headed out for a lunchtime run. We decided to hit up the Corner Canyon/Clark Trail in Draper, and man were we glad we did. We started the run with me in front (I think Jun wanted to make sure that I didn't get lost), though I almost did because the leaves so thickly blanketed the trail that I could barely make out where it was. We made some sarcastic remarks about what a terrible place this was to run, because the trail was jut perfect - Beautiful leaves had fallen, snow capping the peaks above, not a lot of people out, all with some sunny but cool crisp fall weather. The trail has a fair amount of ups and downs for the first two miles, but then you hit a nice three mile uphill stretch. Apparently this where Jun decided he was done pussyfooting around. I stayed with him for about the first mile, then he was feeling his oats and dropped me like a wet sack of potatoes. I kept him mostly in sight until the very end, and at those times I was sure he was going to pop out of the bushes and try and scare me or something. I made it to the top a couple of minutes behind. Took a water/pee break then we were off down the Clark Trail. Again, Jun couldn't contain himself and Jun blew down the trail, I couldn't even think about keeping pace with him, especially on this downhill. So I just kept my pace and got into a good rhythm until I met up with him at the bottom. Still had about a mile and a half to go and he lost me again. I was feeling OK, just had no gas in the tank- it'd been a while since my oatmeal breakfast, so I think there was just nothing left to go on. I still finished averaging about a 9:16 pace, and a couple of minutes faster than my last run on that trail, so I feel pretty good about it. Jun gave me something to chase (and not catch), which is just demoralizing enough to keep me motivated to keep working. MT 101s were great, especially over the rocky patches that would've eaten my track flats alive. Driving back we couldn't believe the people that we saw running on the side of the road when there are such amazing trails nearby. To each his own I guess...    

4 easy miles on the BST in Kaysville. I was planning on a few more miles, but I took my buddy with me who doesn't run trails and he was feeling the hills pretty quick so we turned around at two miles. Can't ask for better running weather. Jun has some early morning run planned for tomorrow, so maybe its good that I didn't run too far. :)  

This morning I met up with Scott and Jun where we headed up to Ogden to meet up with Bryce. I didn't really know what we were doing, Jun had just told me that we were going to do a trail run with a couple of hills. When we pulled up to the trailhead, as we sat there waiting for Bryce, this huge rock-faced peak towered above us, seeming more menacing in the dark, as the lights from Weber State appeared to illuminate its pale, rocky face. Scott commented that he thought that's where we were headed. Bryce showed up a couple of minutes later we exchanged quick greeting as he had never met any of us. He confirmed that peak as our destination, and there wouldn't be "a couple of hills", just one big one! 

We got started around 6:30, with the first little bit a gradual, rocky incline. Once we crossed the creek, the real climbing begins. I had to stop and quickly tie my shoe, and Bryce moved to the front with Jun. I caught back up to the group, and Jun and Bryce were already pulling away. Scott and I stuck together and trudged along up the hill, mostly hiking. We could occasionally see the lights of Bryce and Jun up ahead, especially on the early switchbacks. There were a couple of long stretches that you felt like you were in a tunnel, this was really my first trail run in the dark, and it was really cool. We could now see a light in front of us a ways up, which we later learned was Jun, with Bryce's headlight bobbing around in the trees above us on the hill. Bryce topped out first, with Jun following behind. Scott and I showed up a few minutes later.

We sat and chatted for a bit as we watched the sunrise - Bryce told us about the area, which peaks were what, which was cool for me because I've spent a lot of time in Ogden, but none really in the hills above it. Once the sky was light enough that we wouldn't have to use our lights, we began the run back down, and run we did! Jun was flying up front, followed by Bryce then myself, with Scott bringing up the end. We stopped about halfway down at a lookout point to check things out, then ripped back down some more. It was super fun, and while my quads certainly feel it the day after, its totally worth it! I'm sure with more downhill training they'll adapt and recover a little more quickly.

Great trail, fun run. Thanks to Bryce for showing it to us! I'm looking forward to hitting that trail up again. It's awesome to learn new trails, especially when I live pretty close!

4.4 miles, 2200 ft of gain, total time: about 1:01 (I forgot to reset my watch from the day before).

As nice of a day as it turned out to be, I didn't get a chance to go for a run. But since I haven't run since Friday, I had to go ahead and hit up the Treadmill. Haven't been on that for a while! The thing that does make it a little more bearable is the Jillian Michaels iFit SD card that I throw in there and she controls the workout. Keeps it challenging and therefore more interesting. 

 5 miles, 40 minutes, 5%-9% incline, 6-8.5 mph

Jun and I hit up the BST in Sandy/Draper for a lunchtime run. What a perfect day for running! I started out in front and then Jun took the lead when I took a wrong turn. There's a really steep uphill that I was able to run but certainly took my breath away and my legs we burning! Craig pulled ahead a little on the uphill and then a lot on the downhill. I felt like every time I'd reel him in a little he'd shoot forward. I'm looking at my watch as we came towards the turn around, I'm running a 7:30 and not gaining on him at all - and he said he was going to take it easy...On the way back we passed a few people that were ahead of us, and ran a negative split on the way back by nearly a full minute -we had a nice sprint at the end to make sure of it. Love the BST!

6.2 miles - 57:43 - 9:08 Pace - 1200 feet of elevation gain

Got a couple of non-trail running buddies to go hike up Baer Canyon in Fruit Heights. Due to the snow, I recommended that we hit up a more traveled trail (like Malans peak), but both of them were all rip roaring to do this trail. It was really nice for about the first mile and a half--a little snow, but the trail was clear and not too cold. After that the snow got deeper and we lost the trail for a little while, taking a pretty big detour that added some mileage to our journey. Snow got deeper, and a really thick fog made it hard to see where we were and where we were headed (it's usually really cool to see your progress up to Francis peak). Had to stop and wait a few times for the other two, and as we got nearer to the top we dropped our slower guy and made our trek up the steep face of about the last half mile or so (probably less). The snow was slippery and deep and it was SLOW going. My buddy kept saying "Dude I think this is good", but I kept leading him up - the hard part was that you couldn't actually see where the top was, it just looked like it kept going up and up, which I think is what made it so discouraging. I finally gave in even though I kept telling him the top was just up ahead (turned out we were maybe 30 yards from the top! :)), and we turned around and headed back down. That steep part was a lot of slip sliding skiing, but it was pretty fun after all of the climbing we'd been doing. We moved down pretty fast, I ran a decent part of it, which was hard because my feet were sliding around in my boots and my toes kept jamming into the front. I stopped a few times to wait for guy #2, and ended up waiting a half hour at the bottom for the last guy...bad part was he was the one with the keys to the car!

Got a little chilly and wet there at the top, but still made for a great hike. I'm glad we got it in, though we'll probably wait for spring to take this one to the top again!

Part I

Jun and I hit up a nice run around the Red Butte Gardens. He thought it was about 4 miles, but then a little into the run said "oh yeah, when I did this before we started closer, so it will be more than 4." Ended up being just shy of 6 (5.93). Totally fine by me. Beautiful run with some good uphill (1200 total), though a little muddy in some spots which made it interesting at times, particularly on the downhills - there were a few times I thought I might slide right off the side of the trail. As we were on the last mile or so we could see a storm rolling in, the wind was picking up and raindrops were making an appearance. We ran down the last stretch pretty quickly, and met Scott in the parking lot. Since the storm looked like it was moving pretty fast, we sat in Craigs car for about 5 minutes until it did. During which time he mentions that he thinks that's the first time he's ever run that loop without walking at all - he likes to mess with me like that. I told him I think my ignorance is sometimes a good thing in those cases.

5.93 miles, 55:32, 9:22 average, 1200 ft of elevation gain

Part II

Once the storm had quickly passed, we suited up for the Mt Wire run. I threw on an extra long sleeve, thinking that it might be a 'little chilly' on top, but I left the gloves in the car since I hadn't felt like I needed them on the previous run. Bad idea. We ran up the first hill at a decent pace, especially considering we'd just run 6, then got to the hiking part. I believe Jun referred to this as "the suck". It was a rocky steep climb up to the top. Once we started heading up the ridge towards the top, the wind became horrendous. It seemed to get colder and stronger as we climbed, and several times it would push you nearly off the trail, and sometimes nearly knocked you over. I luckily had my headband on, which I pulled over my ears, and  Jun, who was in front of me was covering his left ear with his had. I could tell he wished he brought his gloves too. There's these two big screen things near the top of the peak, and I'm glad that Jun had told me that they were about 100 yards from the top, otherwise I would have thought that they WERE the top, and been terribly dismayed when I saw that final stretch. We made pretty good time, but the wind was strong and my face was frozen, so it was no surprise that when we hit the top, Jun made an immediate left hand turn down the backside trail. Scott was standing there wondering what was going on, so I gave him a high five and said we were going this way. Scott headed back down the front. Once we started heading down my calve started locking up on me, and I could tell that Craigs were too. We stopped to stretch for a minute, and then jogging seemed to help loosen it up. My knee was giving me a little trouble, some residue from Fridays hike, but once I "found my form" the pain pretty much disappeared. This had some steep, rocky downhill, but after that brutal climb to the top, it was fun to just let your legs go - the only thing you had to worry about was where to put your feet. When we rounded the bend we could see Scott way up ahead from coming down the front side. We kept a decent pace (at least I thought so) up to the end. Scott was nice enough to hang around and say bye, I'm sure he also wanted to know what our time was too. Good'n'tired set of runs!!

5.23 miles, 1:16:58, 14:27 average, 2250 elevation gain

Nice 6.8 run on the BST in South Draper with Jun. Cool trail just cuts across the mountainside, a good chunk of it looks fairly new, like they just plowed through parts of it with a little bobcat. Pretty much a gradual incline the entire 3.4 miles (730). Enough to know that you're climbing a hill, but not really enough to feel like you are...Beautiful views of the entire valley looking north. It was a nice temp with some wind in spots, which gave me flashbacks of Tuesdays trek up Mt Wire, but I worked hard to kept myself from folding into the fetal position. :) We weren't sure how far we were going to go, so we ran until the trail ended - looks like they're still working on it. It was great to see a guy out there trimming branches and keeping the trail clear. As it was a nice gradual climb up, it was a nice gradual slope down, so we just flew the second half, which was a lot of fun. Gotta get these snow-less days in while we can!

6.8 miles, 58 minutes, 8:30 pace, 730 ft elevation gain

Jun and I hit up a morning run at Antelope Island, trying to get a good run in before the impending storm got here. We met at my place, then drove out to the island. I always forget how far out there it actually is, it just seems so close- as does everything else on the island it seems. We came across a few buffalo as we drove, and could usually see some during the entire run. Saw a couple of small herds of deer as well. The run was quite windy, with some gradual climbing for the first couple of miles. As we descended back down into the valley around mile 3, my ITB in my left knee started hurting pretty badly, but typically that's a good reminder that I'm not doing something right. Softened up the knees, made sure my hips were swinging back (etc) and the pain pretty much went away. Had a sturdy little climb up where we came around a corner just in time to see some buffalo butts with their tails up as they ran away (Craig would come back for more). We went most of the way out to Elephant Head, but Jun has a wife and kids he had to get back to or something (oh wait, so do I...) so we turned back at about mile 6. As we met back up with the main trail, our 3 buffalo friends were back, so Jun ran down the trail towards them a ways until they ran off. As weird as those animals look, there is certainly a powerful, majestic beauty to the way they run. Near the end we ran across another big guy who did not want to move off the trail until Jun was pretty close (I was a little surprised he didn't stop, but not really), and when he did move he just moved a little off the trail then turned around and stared at us. Jun blazed down the last section and finished off a minute or two ahead of me. Overall a great run. 

12.5 miles, 2 hours, 9:36 pace, 1400 feet of gain

See Juns post for some pics :)

I wanted to  have something to do as the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, so when I saw a Turkey Leg 5K just blocks from my house, I thought about signing up. Then when I saw that it was being put on by a friend (of a friend:)) from Wasatch Running, I was sold. We were going to be having Thanksgiving at my aunts house nearby, so I sent an email to my family inviting anyone that wanted to come run with me. I was a little surprised and very happy when 4 of my 5 brothers signed up (only missing the one who couldn't make it from Denver), and my Mom and Dad even said they would walk it.

I was wondering how it would turn out with the weather being unpredictable beforehand, and forecasts for single digit temps for the start, but everyone just bundled up and headed out. It was a little chilly as people milled around waiting for the start, but I kept my big coat on and felt pretty good. Took a jog around the park with my oldest brother to get the blood flowing and the heart rate up. Said hi to Jun who was there to watch his son run, and also met Aaron and Nan, which was fun. We got our place near the front of the pack, two of my brothers sporting their VFF's. We started off fast for the first little bit, I had to reign myself in a little so that I didn't overdo it. I had planned for a 7 min first mile, then see how much I could push it after that. My two older brothers ran right with me as I kept our pace. When the Garmin beeped for mile 1 I looked down and our time was 7:00 right on the nose. At the turn just after the first mile there's a very gradual incline, just enough to slow you down a little, but I tried to keep the pace consistent, though we didn't really go any faster which I was hoping a little for. Once we hit the top of the hill we dropped one of my brothers, I think the cold air was bugging his allergies/asthma, so he slowed down a little. We blew past a few people on the downhill (about mile 2) and then ran past the park where the finish is and into a neighborhood that would loop us back. I pulled a little ahead of my oldest brother, but could still hear him breathing behind me, still staying hooked to my shoulder. We pulled into the park and ran the 'lap' around the park that takes you to the finish. With about 100 yards to go, my brother pulled up beside me and said "OK, on three! One Two, Three!" and we began our sprint to the finish. I couldn't keep up with his long legs and he pulled a few seconds ahead to pull off the win - though he won't take credit for it, saying that I did all the work pacing the whole time. Brother three came in 1 minute later, with the younger two finishing their first official 5Ks in 25 and 29 minutes. The two of us that finished together then ran backwards on the course to find my parents, and caught them just at the top of the hill as we ran up it. We walked/jogged with them as they finished their first official 5K as well. My mom had also run into some people from the old neighborhood where we used to live, so they had a fun time catching up. I was proud of my Mom and Dad for coming along and finishing the course. They had a great time. 

The weather ended up being just beautiful for the race - clear and sunny (and yes cold) and the race was very well done. Roads and paths were well marked and well salted where needed, and the Tech tees that came with registration were sweet. They changed the course up slightly due to ice conditions, and I actually liked the changes, as it took you past the finish so that spectators could see you run by.

While I was hoping to try and push for a sub 20 5K, I'm very happy with my  PR of 21:15 (unofficial - 6:52 average), along with the fun it was to run with my family and meet some very cool people from the blog. This will have to become a Turkey Day tradition.  

I've had this nagging pain in my upper calf/back of my knee that I've been trying to get healed up for over a month now, so I thought I'd take a few days off running to see if it helps. Decided to do a quick 12 miles on the bike trainer while my wife ran next to me on the treadmill. I'm wondering if the strain might have come from riding my bike rather than running, as the pain seemed to be fairly pronounced (although now, the day after, it may be feeling a little better than it has...who knows). Did an all out sprint for the last half mile, thought I might tip the whole trainer over I was pedaling so hard, felt like I was going to puke afterwards. Gotta make those quick workouts count I guess. Did some easy spinning to cool down and walked a quarter mile on the TM. My parents just gave us a TV as an early Christmas present, which meant that the old one could come to the basement with the TM and bike. Made it SO much better to have something to watch.