Monday: 9 miles. Main run: 7 miles, 2000' gain, Holbrook Canyon. 1:00. Ran with Adrian. Wanted to do more, but ran into several rattlesnakes that were being pretty aggressive (the first actually lunged at Adrian), so we turned it around early. Also, 2 miles of literally running errands. Haha.
Tuesday: 10 miles, 2000' gain, 1:3x, with Adrian. Ran up Little Water and partially down Canyons. Smoke from the Alpine/American Fork wildfire was quite thick on the backside of the ridge dropping down into Park City, so the air quality was atrocious. Once again, wanted to do more, but I value my lungs.
Wednesday: 17 miles, 6000' gain, 2:40. Mill B to Desolation Trail (a lot more than the 3 miles posted, closer to 5 based on the last time I GPS'd it... haha... took 60:xx going moderately without walking a step for the climb, which is moderately steep, but not insanely tough), along Desolation Trail to Dog Lake, down Butler Fork, down the road. Went too hard on the 4 miles on the road. Paid attention to 3 of the 1 mile splits, which I hit in 6:10, 5:48, 5:50. Aerobically, this was very easy, but my legs aren't really used to pounding at sub-6 pace, so I felt slightly sore.
Thursday: 2 miles, jogged to lunch off campus and back. Felt sluggish after work and decided to call it a day and go to bed early.
Friday: 17 miles, 5000' gain, 3:16. Nice slow effort from Mill Creek Inn up Desolation/Thayne to Porter Fork as a loop with Joe Dean. Accidentally went a little ways up the Neff's connection to add on a bit of extra miles. Did this late at night, starting at just before 7:30, finishing at about 10:45. Found a complete moron with a raging campfire after dark in upper Porter Fork, which I thought was a wildfire briefly, due to its size. This idiot definitely got reported to the cops and I really hope they busted him and gave him the maximum sentence of 6 months in prison (yes, you can go to jail for 6 months if you light a fire up in the canyons, as you are risking burning down everything up there). Utah folks that read this, remember that it is ABSOLUTELY NOT OK to have fires in the canyons outside SLC right now. Back to the run, I feel the need to point out that this trail is extremely slow, hence the extremely slow time. This was a bit more laid back than normal, my last easy running of it was 3:01, but I doubt I could hit these 17 miles faster than 2:30, which is very slow for a hard effort over 17 miles.
Saturday: 25 miles, 5000' gain, 5:04. Big Mountain to Sessions Lift-off and back plus a little extra. First bit of getting lost occurred by accidentally following the west trail above upper City Creek instead of the north trail. Second bit was caused by thinking I made a mistake while traversing across the City Creek ridge on the way back. I thought the trail was dropping into City Creek, so I backtracked quite a bit until I realized I wasn't actually wrong. I was exhausted on this run due to going to bed after midnight after Friday night's run, but getting up at 4:58 AM for the Saturday AM run. Legs were fine though, which was good. Drank 80 ounces of fluid, ate 4 S-caps (would've taken more, but couldn't find another bottle in time before the run) and consumed ~720 calories, pretty much mostly from sugar (320 cal of gatorade, 400 of candy). Nutrition seemed fine, could've gotten away with less calories, but the fluids couldnt' have been less. I actually intended to run more like 30-32, but apparently I would've needed more fluids.
Sunday: 24 miles, 4000' gain, 3:42. All the way up City Creek Canyon road from 1/4 mile before the gate, plus 6 more miles past the top of the trail, and back. Ran past the top of the trail in upper city creek, finding the creek to be bone-dry that far up, so I took the creek bed up to the very top of the canyon, right below the Great Western Trail. The bottom of upper City Creek was cleaned up nicely from the last time I was up there (May I think?), but middle upper City Creek, after the weather station, is getting very overgrown and was absolutely full of flying buzzing insects, which made things a little less pleasant. Overall, a good run, although pretty hot at the start. I intended to go all the way up to GWT, instead of turning around just shy, but I forgot my watch and had no idea what my running time was until I finished and checked the clock in my car, so I turned around slightly early out of fear of getting caught in the canyon after dark. It turns out that I wasn't even close to getting caught after dark, but whatever.
Totals: 104 miles, 25,000' gain. Overall, a solid week, although quite lopsided mileage and time-wise. Note the fact that within about 48 hours on Friday-Sunday, I hit 66 miles with 14,000' gain. It was all slow easy running (12:02 total), ie only marginally harder than 100 mile effort, but it was good to get so much time and miles in after a more modest first 4 days. It's funny to me how much faster Sunday was than Saturday, but this goes to show - beyond the fact that Wasatch is a technical course - how beneficial sleep is (I was outrageously sluggish on Saturday after sleeping only 4 1/2 hours on Friday night, whereas on Saturday night, I slept 11 hours and finished the Sunday run faster than anticipated). I feel very good now on Sunday night, 2 hours after finishing my last run of the week, so I'm happy with the week. One other important point is that while 104 miles isn't really all that much, there's quite a bit of climb (similar to last week's 102 with 26500'). This upcoming week will definitely be lighter. I can't say by how much, but probably quite a bit since I most likely won't get to run on Saturday or Sunday, as I'll be helping Claire Heid prepare for her run at Badwater. Fun!
Music for the week:
The out of tune guitars are annoying, but if you can get over that, the groove here is unbelievably cool. Besides, this is from 1982, so I'd bet their guitars were fine and the recording just makes them sound out of tune. Plus, the line-up of Fripp, Bruford, Belew, and Levin is ridiculous.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
Week of 6-25-12: 102 miles, 26500' gain.
Monday: 12 miles, 500' gain, roads, 1:26. NSL/Woods Cross/Bountiful loop. Boring, but starts and finishes at home...
Tuesday: 17 miles, 5000' gain, 3:01, easy effort (and extra slow since the Desolation Trail is pretty tough). Mill Creek Inn up Desolation Trail to Porter Fork connection, got off trail a couple times, added a little distance, down Porter Fork, down the Porter Fork road, down the Mill Creek road back to Mill Creek Inn.
Wednesday: 12 miles, 2500' gain, 1:39. Campus to JCC to most of the way between the 5 way and City Creek and back. Only mid-to-high 80s, but the heat was annoying for whatever reason.
Thursday: 7 miles, 2500' gain, 56:xx. From Wakara/Colorow, up the annoyingly directionless new switchbacks to BoSho, up to the Wire trailhead, up and down Wire. Saw a rattlesnake on the way up while listening to a song called "Venom" in my headphones, interesting timing. Split from trailhead/turnoff to top was just a hair over 30 flat (would've been sub 30 if I didn't have to avoid the snake on the trail), which is quite a bit faster than I've done it in the past, but I didn't feel like I was working all that hard. There are a few steeper spots up top on the climb, but my legs felt unbelievably strong. Very encouraging run.
Friday: 8 miles 3000' gain, 1:16. A bit up the Mill Creek Canyon Road, up Church Fork Road, up Grandeur Peak. From the parking lot in Church Fork to the top in 39:44, from the Pipeline trail trailhead/connection in 37:54, a big personal best. Felt very strong for the climb, but took it out pretty hard and the last 5 minutes, when the trail is at its steepest, put me in a whole new world of hurt. :) Came back down at a much more moderate effort, and then went a little ways back up the Canyon to my car. Also another extremely encouraging climb after feeling, just last week, that my climbing legs weren't that great. I guess things can change quickly.
Saturday: 20 miles, 5000' gain, 4:47. Got together with a group of people training for Wasatch, starting from Bountiful B, going backwards along the course for an out and back. Immediately started off on the wrong trail, and ended up not going very far in the first 2 hours, when the organizer was convinced that we were going the right way and that there just wasn't really a trail in this section. Turned out he was wrong and the first 2 hours or so were wasted. Got all the way up Bountiful peak though, which was cool. After that, we had to follow a dirt road for quite awhile to access the actual trail, and then made it most of the way up Francis Peak before turning around and following the actual course back. Easy effort, not many miles, but a decent bit of time on my feet.
Sunday: 26 miles, 8000' gain, 5:28, the unofficial "Brighton Marathon" (not actually a race, but just a group of people running some trails in Big Cottonwood together). If you're curious about the course, message me - not sure if I'm supposed to post much about it, but it's quite rugged, technical, and there's a lot of climb, with an average elevation of more than 9000' and a peak of 10600'. :) I went in with sore legs from lots of climb this week, an extremely hard effort on Friday and a nearly 5 hour day on Saturday, not to mention that I was running on not nearly enough sleep (11 hours between Friday and Saturday night, whereas I almost always get 8+ most nights). I felt sluggish, but kept things within myself, so it went pretty well, although it took roughly 30-45 minutes than I could do it fresh and well-rested, in my estimation. In other words, it was a good training run for upcoming races. All I had to eat was a 160 calorie gatorade, 6 salt pills, and 6 Mint Chocolate Gu gels. I really strongly dislike Mint Chocolate GU, so after 1 or 2, I was disgusted by the taste and wanted to throw up after putting them in my mouth. By the end of the race, I consumed 2 + 1/2 + 1/2 gels + the gatorade, + 4 bottles of water, plus the 6 salt pills. I say 2+1/2+1/2 gels because the mint chocolate got so disgusting by the 3rd gel that I couldn't even swallow the entire 3rd or 4th gels and just spit half of each of them out to avoid vomiting from the taste and consistency. The funny thing is that my stomach was entirely fine, but the taste was just too much to handle. Not enough salt was probably a good thing for training - my legs were still fine at the end, but they would've felt even better if I had had more salt, so this probably helped simulate later in a longer race. The total caloric intake (roughly 450) was low for a 5 1/2 hour outing, not to mention that I didn't eat anything for the last 2 hours, so I felt close to bonking near the end, but I kept things together. I'm glad this wasn't a real race, since I wasn't particularly quick and didn't want to have to push it, but it was an excellent training run.
Total: 102 miles, 26500' gain. The mileage wasn't huge, but the climb was a lot, at least for me, averaging 4333' of climb everyday from Tuesday to Sunday. Oof. I guess I kept my promise from last week to start upping my climbing!
For this upcoming week, I'll be shooting for similar mileage, a bit more if I feel good. This week is supposed to be really hot again (in the mid-high 90s most days...), so that will make things more fun. I suppose this is good considering that I'm crewing/pacing at Badwater in a couple weeks, but it seems like, while training in heat makes me better at dealing with high temps, I get sick of it pretty quickly. Haha...
Music for the week is the only thing with a hard enough drive to keep me at a balls-out effort level all the way up Grandeur Peak.
Good stuff, really brings out the primal beast within on a several thousand foot climb.
Tuesday: 17 miles, 5000' gain, 3:01, easy effort (and extra slow since the Desolation Trail is pretty tough). Mill Creek Inn up Desolation Trail to Porter Fork connection, got off trail a couple times, added a little distance, down Porter Fork, down the Porter Fork road, down the Mill Creek road back to Mill Creek Inn.
Wednesday: 12 miles, 2500' gain, 1:39. Campus to JCC to most of the way between the 5 way and City Creek and back. Only mid-to-high 80s, but the heat was annoying for whatever reason.
Thursday: 7 miles, 2500' gain, 56:xx. From Wakara/Colorow, up the annoyingly directionless new switchbacks to BoSho, up to the Wire trailhead, up and down Wire. Saw a rattlesnake on the way up while listening to a song called "Venom" in my headphones, interesting timing. Split from trailhead/turnoff to top was just a hair over 30 flat (would've been sub 30 if I didn't have to avoid the snake on the trail), which is quite a bit faster than I've done it in the past, but I didn't feel like I was working all that hard. There are a few steeper spots up top on the climb, but my legs felt unbelievably strong. Very encouraging run.
Friday: 8 miles 3000' gain, 1:16. A bit up the Mill Creek Canyon Road, up Church Fork Road, up Grandeur Peak. From the parking lot in Church Fork to the top in 39:44, from the Pipeline trail trailhead/connection in 37:54, a big personal best. Felt very strong for the climb, but took it out pretty hard and the last 5 minutes, when the trail is at its steepest, put me in a whole new world of hurt. :) Came back down at a much more moderate effort, and then went a little ways back up the Canyon to my car. Also another extremely encouraging climb after feeling, just last week, that my climbing legs weren't that great. I guess things can change quickly.
Saturday: 20 miles, 5000' gain, 4:47. Got together with a group of people training for Wasatch, starting from Bountiful B, going backwards along the course for an out and back. Immediately started off on the wrong trail, and ended up not going very far in the first 2 hours, when the organizer was convinced that we were going the right way and that there just wasn't really a trail in this section. Turned out he was wrong and the first 2 hours or so were wasted. Got all the way up Bountiful peak though, which was cool. After that, we had to follow a dirt road for quite awhile to access the actual trail, and then made it most of the way up Francis Peak before turning around and following the actual course back. Easy effort, not many miles, but a decent bit of time on my feet.
Sunday: 26 miles, 8000' gain, 5:28, the unofficial "Brighton Marathon" (not actually a race, but just a group of people running some trails in Big Cottonwood together). If you're curious about the course, message me - not sure if I'm supposed to post much about it, but it's quite rugged, technical, and there's a lot of climb, with an average elevation of more than 9000' and a peak of 10600'. :) I went in with sore legs from lots of climb this week, an extremely hard effort on Friday and a nearly 5 hour day on Saturday, not to mention that I was running on not nearly enough sleep (11 hours between Friday and Saturday night, whereas I almost always get 8+ most nights). I felt sluggish, but kept things within myself, so it went pretty well, although it took roughly 30-45 minutes than I could do it fresh and well-rested, in my estimation. In other words, it was a good training run for upcoming races. All I had to eat was a 160 calorie gatorade, 6 salt pills, and 6 Mint Chocolate Gu gels. I really strongly dislike Mint Chocolate GU, so after 1 or 2, I was disgusted by the taste and wanted to throw up after putting them in my mouth. By the end of the race, I consumed 2 + 1/2 + 1/2 gels + the gatorade, + 4 bottles of water, plus the 6 salt pills. I say 2+1/2+1/2 gels because the mint chocolate got so disgusting by the 3rd gel that I couldn't even swallow the entire 3rd or 4th gels and just spit half of each of them out to avoid vomiting from the taste and consistency. The funny thing is that my stomach was entirely fine, but the taste was just too much to handle. Not enough salt was probably a good thing for training - my legs were still fine at the end, but they would've felt even better if I had had more salt, so this probably helped simulate later in a longer race. The total caloric intake (roughly 450) was low for a 5 1/2 hour outing, not to mention that I didn't eat anything for the last 2 hours, so I felt close to bonking near the end, but I kept things together. I'm glad this wasn't a real race, since I wasn't particularly quick and didn't want to have to push it, but it was an excellent training run.
Total: 102 miles, 26500' gain. The mileage wasn't huge, but the climb was a lot, at least for me, averaging 4333' of climb everyday from Tuesday to Sunday. Oof. I guess I kept my promise from last week to start upping my climbing!
For this upcoming week, I'll be shooting for similar mileage, a bit more if I feel good. This week is supposed to be really hot again (in the mid-high 90s most days...), so that will make things more fun. I suppose this is good considering that I'm crewing/pacing at Badwater in a couple weeks, but it seems like, while training in heat makes me better at dealing with high temps, I get sick of it pretty quickly. Haha...
Music for the week is the only thing with a hard enough drive to keep me at a balls-out effort level all the way up Grandeur Peak.
Good stuff, really brings out the primal beast within on a several thousand foot climb.
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