Work found me in Nashville, Tennessee this week. I managed to squeeze in one run in the large Percy Warner Park. Fall leaves were bright and the temperatures were perfect. The trails were well-maintained but at times rocky. I was particularly surprised by how taxing the constant up-down-up-down was. Very hilly and tough to get into a good rhythm. The fact that my stomach was totally off (too much delicious fried southern food) probably didn’t help.
I found myself in St. Paul Minnesota for work and with a free afternoon. I made the most of it, taking a bus out to trail head and then linking the Battle Creek Regional Park(s) and Indian Mounds State Park trails back to my hotel. Good times.
I suspected there was still a lot of color up in the hills. I was right. From a distance, the flanks of Big and Little Baldy looked like they were covered by motley patches of multicolored lichen or something.
I have been out of commission for about 3 weeks with a cold turned sinus infection turned lingering cold. Yikes. I haven’t been this sick for this long in a while. Being sick in the summer is just cruel. Beautiful weather, but stuck inside. I finally had to get out. I hit up Johnson’s Hole from Canyon Glen Park. I can’t believe I’d never been up there before. It’ll be gorgeous in the spring when the grass is green. I…
I’ve said it before, but I really am pleased as punch with the easy access and quality of some of my backyard local trails. 3-5 minute drive to a trailhead and I can put in as few or as many easy miles as I want around the foothills. Add a canyon in for some elevation, or just putter around the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and countless offshoots. Here’s 3 recent ones. I took another friend out for his first trailrun with…
I lived in Lincoln Nebraska for 7 years as a graduate student and one year of teaching. I didn’t run. Not once. I pulled out my mtn. bike a couple times, but only hit dirt once. We were back visiting friends and I decided to go run that dirt – along the Salt Creek in the Wilderness Park. It was about 4PM, in the 90s, and about 50-70% humidity. Oh my word. I haven’t sweat that profusely since my Rim2River2Rim…
This was the first time I had registered and planned on running a half marathon. I did run one a couple months ago, but that was after dropping down from a 55k at the last minute. This meant that I went into it knowing that 13.1 miles was the target. With my 50k race I have made game plans, but that is a lot of miles to plan out, and I’m still pretty inexperienced so whatever plans I make…
A few short hikes and runs. I took my 12 year old niece out for a trail run. She is getting into cross country and it was a lot of fun to give her a taste of the Wasatch dirt. We took the Buffalo Peak Trail from the Little Rock Canyon overlook, up to the peak, and then looped down FS 27 back to the car. Then, I took my sister-in-law (a 50k-er like myself) on the Timpooneke Trail. She…
My local trail-running club, the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers, adopted the Timpooneke Trail Nr. 053 and Mt. Timpanogos Summit Trail Nr. 054 – two of the most heavily used trails in the entire state of Utah. Last night I joined for the first organized trail work event, clearing out the first mile of trail with loppers and shovels. It was looking gorgeous and I knew I’d need to get up farther in the near future. Then, this afternoon a friend posted…