Getting back to work.

Today I decided to try something. I wanted to get right back to training and I felt really good considering Saturdays run/hike. I want to tweak my training so today I jumped back on the dreaded treadmill and tried designing a simulation. Granted, nothing simulates the real thing but what i am looking to do it wake early, hit the treadmill with some incline and run at night.
So tonight I tried it. I set the incline at a few different levels and adjusted the pace as well. The idea is to work on hiking. It felt great. I hiked a the highest incline (10) and was all over the board with the pace.
I think I am going to like this. The goal: get up early, hike 40-60 minutes and do some training on the trails at night. We will see how this goes but I do like the change and I want to make sure I capture and maintain what I went through at SpeedGoat.
I did a solid 60 minutes today and felt great.

Wasatch SpeedGoat 50k

Karl is sadistic! I could start and end my post with that line.
Here's how it went down. Friday night at the Clif Lodge....brutal. I ate a Subway sandwich and apparently it didn't jive with my body. I was up all night sweating. Got up Saturday morning and still not much better but I thought I took care of it. I got to the check in and the nerves started to kick in. Nerves and bad Subway really don't mix well.
At the start the stomach started grumbling even more, SWEET! The countdown began and we were off. It was pretty warm for a 6:30 start and I already predicted a long hot day was ahead.
We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed (well you get the picture) and being a very poor hiker, it took its toll on me. I felt like a Yugo going up and I was in the slow lane. I kept trying to remind myself that this was merely a training run but competitive juices kept flowing and I battled those demons all day. Once we hot the tram at the top it was time to go over the Mt Baldy and then start our decent. Let me just say I do NOT like anyone named Mary Ellen anymore. We hit the bottom of Mary Ellen Gulch and it was hot!! Getting ready to leave the aide station, Roch Horton said "alright 3000' foot climb ahead so go get it!" Aw man, I didn't need to hear that. I knew it was there but just hearing it hurt. I started the climb out of Mary Ellen Gulch and just puttered along. We followed a little run off creek most of the way up and i took full advantage of the refreshing cold water. I kept dipping my hat and washing my face. I needed any help I could get. It took a good 2-3 days for me to get out of there but once I did, I felt pretty good. We hit another water only station then climbed up to the Peruvian Tunnel. I actually felt better here than I thought. Stop at the aide station and talked to Jim Skaggs (Antelope RD) for a bit I told Jim that I wasn't sure if my mom heard me or not but I kept crying out to her up Mary Ellen, he laughed and I disappeared into the tunnel. Made a nice little decent then up next was "the ridge" as I called it from last year. I hit the ridge with the hopes of doing better than last year. Last year it absolutely broke me down! I did a little better today but still lots of room for improvement. Once you hit the top of the ridge, Karl decided to sent us back down again. This part is difficult mentally because this is where you pass runners who are headed down to the finish. After following the snowy switchbacks and heading towards the tram, I caught up to my buddy Phil. There we were, 1 year later sitting at the last aide station and trying to figure out if our route down would be the tram or the trail. Last year we chose the trail and lived to tell about it so we took the trail again. We were both struggling but we were going to finish and we did just that. Only about 50 feet from the finish line, I saw my wife and Aspen and that was special. Crossing the line at 10:46ish (not sure official time...yet). It was over. By the way, Nate McDowell won in 5:43! I was so close but I couldn't catch him....
All in all it was another learning experience. Saw some familiar faces and shared some stories..to me that's what its all about. Congrats to anyone who finished. I just read a guy GPS'd it at 13,000 vertical feet CLIMBING in 28 miles. Karl is sadistic!

Mr. Slacker is back

I have tried to keep up daily but summer is not helping. Here is the last couple weeks.
July 14th- Wheeler Creek (below)
July 15th- Wheeler Creek 11
July 16th- BST 10
July 17th- Co-Ed softball (a type of cross training...okay not really)
July 18th- off
July 19th- I did my trailwork for Wasatch, thank you Gib!
July 20th- Ben Lomond Peak- 16 miles, good vertical and finish strong. Almost t-bones a young moose.
July 21st- BST 10 miles
July 22nd- Left for vacation/work in Sun Valley
July 23rd- Off Sun Valley
July 24th- Off Sun Valley
July 25th- Off
Well not the build up I was hoping for. I get the Wasatch Speedgoat tomorrow and I am definitely not where I need to be. Family trumped a race again. That's okay though. No Excuses and when Karl's course is killing me slowly, only 1 person to blame.....my wife. j/k
Full run report to follow. Just running it for training at this point.

Wheeler for 11 more

Rough day today. I think the mileage from last week caught up to me. I ran the big loop from Wheeler and my legs were dead. The lungs didn't feel bad but my legs were shot. Uphill, downhill, flats, roller or whatever it was just didn't feel right. It was pretty hot and the trail was not crowded at all. Funny thing about the run was as bad as I felt, my time was right on with 1:30. I will take off Tuesday for needed R & R, run Wednesday, softball game Thursday and run Friday, Saturday and Sunday will revolve around climbing Snowbasin so I can get ready for SpeedGoat. Next week I go to Sun Valley for work so I will need to play it by ear.
I am hoping for a better run on Wednesday.

Lazy week for posting

Alright, I was very lazy this week when it came to posting. Lots going on between Hardrock 100, work, family and oh yeah, my 37th B-day. I will put a simple version below.
Monday- off
Tuesday - 12 miles on the BST fire road
Wednesday- B-day off
Thursday- 12 miles BST fire road
Friday - 10 miles Wheeler Creek
Saturday - 8 easy miles BST
Sunday - Indian Trail and BST 22 miles
Pretty decent week overall but my mind was at Hardrock. Scott Jaime finished 2nd in 29:50.
There is nothing this guy cannot do! Way to go Eddy!

Wheeler for 11

Another day at Wheeler and another day struggling going up. Ya know, one day it would be nice to move up this thing and feel good. Met Scott and Phil at 7 am to beat the heat but 7 am isn’t early enough. We left the parking lot and up we went. Scott and Phil pulled me up and at times I lost sight of them. Had a pretty good ache in my left shin but at least the back was good. We went through icebox and changed the route and headed up towards Maples. We found a little shade going up this way but when you were exposed, you could feel it.
Scott was on fire the entire run. He ran out in the lead and looked strong. It was a great run with great friends. We covered about 11 miles which was good with me. Going back down from the maples area I felt a lot more comfortable. Finished pretty strong and logged another 11. Not bad. Sure beats yard work…..

Ben Lomond and the 4th

Unbelievable….seriously, unbelievable. I got lucky today. I was invited to go on the annual 4th of July run to Ben Lomond Peak. This is a run I have never done but I will definitely be back. We met at 4 am at the top of North Ogden Pass. This is a pretty large group and unfortunately I don’t know many people. I ran with Cory Johnson, Tom Remkes, Ron Remkes, Phil Mendoza and Matt Connors. There were others we saw as well, Jamie Remkes, Katie Johnson, Chad Carson, Niells (?), Marc Collman, Celeste Collman, Chad Carson and others. Cory and Tom are getting ready to go to Hardrock so they took it easy which was fine by me, that way I could keep up. It was dark at the start and we began our climb up the switchbacks. Seeing was definitely not an issue as Cory had the new Petzl ULTRA headlamp. This thing could be spotted from outer space. It actually helped out with the climb as we all were trying to come up with funny jokes as to how bright this sucker was. We did some fast hiking most of the way with a few short runs to get the legs going. As the sun came out, I looked around and it felt like I was no where near Ogden. It was breath-taking, that’s right breath-taking, I can say that. Flowers everywhere not to mention the rising sun. This run definitely lived up to its reputation. We got to the climb up to the peak and it was steep. Phil cruised up first like a damn mountain goat. It was “now you see me, now you don’t.” I brought up the rear and finally reached the top. WOW! I was on top of the world……at least in this area I was. We stuck around a bit and talked and a few pictures were being taken. Then we saw about 6 mountain goats, the real ones. It was pretty cool.
We decided to head back down and tackle the steep descent off the peak. I only slipped once and landed on my butt which is where all the cushioning is so it wasn’t bad.
Heading back to the trailhead was great. It is mainly down with a few little rollers but the views make it easy. I took off and felt good. I stopped a few times to look around and take in the view. Tom, Cory, Phil, Matt and myself formed a line and had a good pace going down. About a mile or so from the end I thought it would be fun to roll my ankle. Man, what a way to wake up a bit. It rolled pretty good, best one of the year (so far). I caught up at the end and we cruised into the parking lot.
After the run, everyone goes to Marc Collman’s house for breakfast. It was great. I got to meet some new people, have an amazing run and eat Jamie Remkes’ ham. What else is there?
Thanks everyone!
16 solid miles. Started at 6000 feet going up to 9700 feet.

Short and Sweet, well maybe just short

Short and sweet. Just did a nice little run today with Scott Mendoza. Tomorrow is a big one so today was good to make sure the legs are working and get a few miles in. Started at the bottom of Wheeler and went towards Maples a bit. It was HOT! We think we did close to 7 miles which is decent. Tomorrow I am meeting a group to go to the top of Ben Lomond so I want to make sure I have a little juice in the legs to get me there.
I didn’t feel great today. I was tight in my back and shins. Not sure where this is all coming from but I sure didn’t care for it. Scott charged up icebox and a fluttered behind. I felt a little better coming down and going to Art Nord but overall, I didn’t have much today. I hope for better tomorrow.

Logan Peak Race - 6:30

Another race in the books. Finished 2nd (in my age group), 16th overall. It was a small number to enter only 39. Official time was 6:30 which I am okay with I was hoping for 6 hours but until I get some good climbing legs races will continue to hammer me when going up. I feel good with running flats and downhill but going up, well that’s a whole other story.
The race started at 6 am and had a great feel to it. Kelly Bradbury, race RD, did a great job. This event in its 2nd year is a must do. She keeps it very personable and puts a lot of time into it. The course was marked extremely well. I was nervous about the course and getting lost being the first time on it but once I got going and saw the marking I had nothing to worry about.
The run starts and you go up for what felt like forever. I struggled with early shin splints and due to my week leading up to the race (eating burgers and brats and no sleep) I couldn’t blame my body for feeling like crap. (With Melony’s family in town from Texas, we had a fun week outlined with a trip to Lava Hot Springs and lots of Bar B Q’s……not good to combine with a race but it has been a blast.)
I really struggled going up for the first 5-6 miles. The trail was great and that part of the course was awesome. We hit a flatter section with some rollers and it was great to get the legs going. The shin splints eventually went away and things started to feel normal.
Once we hit the aid station before we went to Logan Peak I was prepared for some big time climbing. As I was going up some of the lead runners were coming down. One guy was coming down and said “I hope you like snow.” AGAIN! First Squaw, then Logan Peak. It was slow and go through much of the climb to the towers on Logan Peak. As the lead runners came down I tried to look at my time to get an idea how far I was behind them. At this point, things felt good and I was just looking forward to the view on top. Once I got there it was nothing short of perfect. Views all around. I decided not to stay long and quickly starting sliding down the mountain. Fun times. I had a good pace all the way to the aid station and actually caught up to about 3-4 runners. I didn’t stick around long and was on my way. I knew by the map that from here on out was pretty much down hill. I made a conscious decision to let it loose. I knew it would hurt and knew I would most likely bonk with the temperatures rising but this is a training run…right?
As I caught up to a few people I decided to play a game with myself. If I saw a runner in front of me and they turned around, I felt like it was my obligation to pass them. The game worked. I forgot about certain things and went for it. I passed about 9-10 in all on the way down and felt good.
The final aid station had me catch about 3 guys. I said to myself, “I need to finish in front of these guys.” It was about 5 miles to the finish and all down hill and pretty technical. I got a good pace going and caught up to another runner. He let me pass and then just stayed right on my heels. He really pushed me down most of this. I didn’t want him to pass me so I set a pace that was border line red line for me. He didn’t budge. Then I remember a quote (not sure from where) and it goes something like….I know they are hurting as bad as I am but I can take the pain. I decided to see what he had. I shifted up one more gear. I know felt like my knees were going to pop out of the skin and my quads were ready to blow. I kept telling myself that I could endure what I felt but with the dogs barking and the knees screaming I was about ready to concede when I heard a few noises I haven’t heard before. I thought, well he may be struggling, so I pushed just a bit more and then I heard nothing. I took a glance and there was nobody there. WHEW! I backed it down just a bit to catch my breath and ran the rest of the way to the finish. 6:30 finish but I felt good.
What a race, what a day.