Gaining more than you lose

5 miles on the LCC trail with Craig. We had our new shoes (Altra Lone Peak) and a new camera, so we had some fun taking a lot of video and pics. Beautiful day on the freshly fallen snow. Shoes were fantastic. 

Easy 5 miles on the BST Kaysville. Just got a ContourHD POV camera, so I tested it out on the run...its going to need some work with the mounting- I used a headband, which allowed for too much movement.  

Met Craig in Sandy at Willow Park to run the HPHM course for next Sat. It had snowed last night and a little in the morning, so there was a decent amount of snow on the trail. It was a beautiful afternoon and we just kind of cruised along. The snow was fun, but certainly slows you down a little. Canyon Hollow had one other set of tracks before us, so it was a lot of powder to run through. We still ran the whole thing, I hate to use the word 'magical' but theres just something cool about running in the snow covered forest through fresh powder.

Flying down Clarks was a lot of fun, a little tricky since you can't really see whats under the snow, but we made it without incident. A little mud, but not much. Heading back on the BST we were both a little tired, my hip had some residual soreness from the PE50, but other than that, my legs felt quite good (but tired).

Wore the ContourHD on the top of my hat, seems to work pretty well. I'm putting together a little (OK, not little) turn by turn video of the course.  

Ran with Jun starting at the BST at Willow (Hidden Valley) Park. At Corner Canyon we ran up the Ghost Falls trail. Craig gained a little on me, but I tried to keep him at the same distance. Was doing OK until we hit a little steep section that just took the wind out of my sails. I still ran the whole thing, there were just some really slow spots...It was really beautiful, a little muddy in spots, but not too bad (except at the very top). The Lone Peaks were fantastic. From Ghost Falls we ran down Corner Canyon road, and rather than turning back on the BST like usual, we continued down the road until we met up with a smaller firebreak road that we ran for a couple of miles until we got to a connector trail that took us back up to the BST. The climb looked steep, but once I got on it I was like "oh this aint too bad" and continued to run up it, then took a switchback that took my legs away (again) -it was rough but I just kept running (however slowly) up the hill. Once we got to the BST (which connected where the trail forks at the bottom of the hill), we took a brief stop with our hands on our knees to get our legs and breath back, and then continued on. I was feeling pretty good, but again, once we hit a couple of the hills my energy just gave out. I still ran everything, but I let Craig get really far ahead of me. He said he was feeling really good. The reality was I probably wasn't feeling quite as bad as I thought, but you sure feel a lot slower when you get left in the dust! Great run on a cool trail. It was fun to mix it up a little and run a different trail and see how they all connect up. 

Ran the LCC trail with Craig. It was feeling quite nice and warm when we left the office, so Craig shed his long pants and opted for the shorts he was wearing underneath. It took about 10 seconds starting on the trail when he mentioned that might have been a bad choice. The trail is pretty much in complete shade all the time, so it was pretty chilly. I had forgotten a hat, so my head was getting really cold. Luckily I did have my Rambo headband, which I pulled over my ears, which helped. I tried to keep Craig close and was doing OK until about a mile and a half up, when he started to pull further and further away. Shortly after the two mile mark, I started to feel much better and began to gain on him, being only a few seconds behind when we got to the turnaround.

I was pretty beat from all that catching up, so when we started back down, it wasn't 2 minutes before Craig was well ahead of me again! I thought I'd lost him, but felt a little speed come back into my legs and I once again started getting closer and closer. He then slowed down a bit and I was able to catch back up - I think he was getting lonely. We ran together for about the last mile with a little sprint ahead near the finish (Craig had given me a little motivation to pass and run ahead of him...). 

Sweet run - wrote this yesterday and realized I hadn't posted it. 

Marked the first 4.5 miles of the HPHM route. Craig dropped me and a buddy from work off at the start, he then drove over to where the loop part is on the course and he marked that section. Took it super easy, the guy I was running with is fairly new to the trails, plus we were stopping to hang markings, so it was pretty chill. We arrived at the meeting spot at exactly the same time as Craig, and, as it turned out, we both got exactly the same distance! Should be a fun time tomorrow. 

Running with Scissors 

Ran the BST in Draper with Jun and today, I was actually running with scissors! We figured on the way back we could take down the course markings from the race on Sat, so I had a little pair of scissors with me. The best part was we weren't on the trail for more than 2 minutes when I caught a toe and went down. I guess mom was right - you really shouldn't run with scissors! Luckily they were just tiny ones used to remove stitches, so no one had their eye poked out. Once we hit Corner Canyon road we headed up about a mile to get to 4 miles. Jun had gained a considerable lead on me, so I started pushing really hard to try and make up some time - after a minute though, my heart rate told me I was pushing it too hard, so I had to pull it back a little. Legs felt pretty good the whole time and much better than they had running back on Saturday. Pretty sure that's the fasted I've run that route, though I felt slow again because Craig finished about a half mile ahead of me overall.   

8 miles - 1:12:59 - 9:07 AP - 995 vert

Just added my HPHM report for Saturday as well... 

8 miles with Jun to View Benchmark via Ann's trail. Very nice casual climb - a little muddy in spots, but not terrible. Couple little grunters near the top of Anns that Craig gained some ground on me. Felt much better running the dirt up towards the 'summit' and we ran the whole thing, which I'm not sure if I've done before. It was very nice on top of View Benchmark, not too windy and really sunny, great views of Timp, Lone Peak and both Salt Lake and Utah Valleys. Coming down was pretty speedy, Craig gained some ground on the connector trail down to Ann's, but I caught back up and we ran out the rest together. Craig was really low on energy, but still kept the pace pretty solid the whole way. 

8 miles - 1:22:40 - 10:20 AP - 1500 vert 

6 miles on the LCC trail with Jun. My calves have been a little tight from the last few days of vert, so I just took it pretty easy going up and Craig went off ahead. On the way back down I kept telling myself to just keep it casual and not push it. Really enjoyed the trail and was able to get into a nice'n'easy rhythm. The last half mile was icy frozen foot prints, which kind of sucked, but overall it was a lot of fun. 

6 miles - 1:03:00 - 10:30 AP - 1075 vert. 

Jun and I were supposed to run today, but just couldn't find the motivation. So we did what we had to...we called up Josh and met him at the Chinese Gourmet for lunch. I'm counting all that back and forth between buffet tables as running. That counts, right? 

5 miles on the Kaysville BST - was hoping for more but it was starting to get dark when I got to the 2.5 mile mark, so I figured I'd better head back. Tweaked my knee a little on the way back, not super psyched about that - hopefully it'll be good in a day or two. Super casual. 

5 miles - 49:10 - 9:50 AP - 720 vert

Met up with Scott and Jun at City Creek to run the BST up to the Avenue Twins. The last time Craig and I had attempted this it was a joke. We had hiked a lot of the uphills, and I remember thinking at the time, that I didn't know if I'd be able to run all this even on a good day. Well, today I ran everything nearly right up to the point where we had stopped that day, so I was happy about that.

Craig was absolutely flying, killing the climbs - there was just no way of keeping up with him. It was nice to finally see him hike one of the really steep, snowy sections as you get near the top. Once on the peak, we took a few minutes to take in the beautiful day - and then we let Scott have a head start as he needed to get down for a conference call. Jun and I chatted for a couple minutes and then took off. I hung pretty close to Craig as you go down and up the second peak but then as I crested the top he was already now at the bottom! Sheesh. Had a good time cruising down, had to stop for some dogs and to tie my shoe, so I was running hard to try and catch up to the other two. I finally saw them a while later, just as Craig was passing Scott, and now that I had seen them, I really tried to turn on the jets and push hard. I slowly reeled Scott in and passed him, almost getting run over by a mountain biker trying to navigate his bike up the mud shortly after. Ran really hard down the remaining section, catching glimpses of Craigs bobbing white hat a ways ahead. I knew there was no way of catching him, but I still pretended like there was a chance! Ha.

I was happy to see him waiting at the road, where we met up again with Scott and then Jun and I ran on ahead as Scott slowed to take his call. Super fun day on the mountain with absolutely fantastic weather - shorts and a t-shirt two days before thanksgiving! Oh yeah! I wore my camera the whole time, so I'll have to see if I got anything good. 

 For those of you up north (Davis County) Darryl from Wasatch is putting a 5K on Thanksgiving morning. Fun race, sweet shirt (at least last years was) - Anyway, it's a great way to start the Thanksgiving day - check it out at www.fatpackracing.com

Turkey Trot 5K

I had no idea how this race would go, since I hadn't done any sort of 5K training - at all. My brother and his wife would be running, and when I got out of the car I saw Aaron Kennard warming up. Started off pretty fast near the front, and finally settled into a low 6 min pace that felt pretty comfortable for a bit, then the road starts to gradually incline, before making a turn at the one mile mark. 6:37 split for the first mile - not bad, but I knew I certainly wasn't going to be breaking 20 min on this course.

Mile two is a mostly gradual uphill, where I passed a fair amount of people, but also felt like I was losing some steam. Mile 2 was 7:10. You make another turn at mile 2 and head down a short steep hill and then run past the park where you will soon return to after running through a neighborhood. Once I hit the park 'trail' I really tried to push it hard and make up for a little bit of time. I could see the clock counting 20:35, 36, 37... I ran hard to cross right around 20:40, so we'll see what the official time actually is.

Last year I ran a 21:20 on this course, and my PR for a 5K was 20:50 (on a pancake flat course), so I was pretty please with my time.

Chatted with Aaron afterwards, he ran a blistering 16:54 (I think?) and took a very close 2nd place, very cool. He and I then ran a few loops through the neighborhood and around the park to add a couple of cool down miles. Beautifully warm morning (last year it was single digits!) for a fun 5K and a great way to start the Thanksgiving day.

Celebrated Black Friday out on 'the Island' (antelope, that is) with Jun and Aaron K - which meant that I would spend the majority of the run by myself - ha. Weather was a little overcast and cool, with a brief smattering of snow, but was otherwise quite nice. Those two left me in the dust within about a half a mile, and then stopped at the top of Lone Tree to watch me huff and puff up the hill. Then we were off again on the backside loop, and I kept with them for a good part of the downhill, but then they pulled ahead as I slowed a little (my knee wasn't liking the super fast downhill). They waited for me again at the Elephant head turn off, and then we all just ran for it back. Aaron pulled ahead of both of us and finished a full mile ahead of me - in 5 miles he had gained a mile on me! Speedy! Craig was a little ways behind him, and then Aaron ran back with me at about a quarter mile to go. I really don't mind running with people faster than me, I figure it keeps me on my toes and doesn't let me get too complacent.

You know what they say - surround yourself with the best (fast) people - so I was in good company.

Saw a bunch of buffalo, deer and more antelope than I've ever seen out there. I think I would have rather tried to ride one of those buffalo than walk into a Walmart today! :)  

6.3 on the BST in Draper with Jun. Was a mix of feeling good, then tired, then really good, then really tired and then back to pretty good. Jun took the high route that adds .2 and finished about 30 seconds ahead of me. Son of a!  Knees feeling a little iffy these last few runs, trying to take it somewhat easy when I'm feeling it.  

 6.3 Miles - 57:46 - 9:08 AP - 1190 vert

Jun and I were pretty booked up at work today, but were able to hit the gully near the end of the day. Decided since we didn't have a ton of time that we'd do a shorter run and just try and hit it hard. Had a brief warm up and then we just pushed the pace the whole time, with a little cool down at the end. Craig had me by about 20 secs at the top before waiting for me and then turning back. Those short fast runs actually feel kind of invigorating. 

4.17 miles - 31:20  - 7:30 AP - 200 vert