The Hills are (not) Alive with the Sound of Music

The Hills are (not) Alive with the Sound of Music

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Music is a big part of my life. I did a solo singer-songwriter thing for years (250+ horrible demos recorded), I’ve had radio shows, and I run music blog (http://desertislandmixtapes.com). Fittingly, running has provided a great opportunity to put on new albums and listen to them front-to-back without much distraction. Music makes running a lot of fun.  But, when things started warming up this year, and people began posting pictures of enormous rattlesnakes on the local trails, I rethought this…

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East Mtn. to Fernwood and Back

East Mtn. to Fernwood and Back

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I so enjoyed the BST on my way to Adams Canyon and back on Monday that I decided to put in some more miles on it. It is about 3.6 miles from East Mountain Park in Kaysville to Fernwood Recreation Site in Layton. It isn’t the most exciting trail, view-wise,  but it is a great place to clock miles. Lots of gentle ups and downs, and few shorter steep climbs and descents – but nothing too crazy. I have decided…

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Adams Canyon Snake Scare

Adams Canyon Snake Scare

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 Last winter a lot of the local Davis County trail runners were trying to beat each others’ times up and down Adams Canyon. I never made it up there and figured today would be a good day. I unexpectedly found myself at home a bit earlier than usual, and swapped a couple afternoon hours of work for evening hours and went on a run instead. 5.9 miles in 1:15:24 @ 12:47 min/mile and with 1,581 ft. elevation gain The Bonneville…

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Bloomington Lake via accidental Worm Lake Detour

Bloomington Lake via accidental Worm Lake Detour

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I joined some boy scouts on a campout up north and west from Bear Lake, at Bloomington Lake, ID. On Friday part of the group drove to the lake, while another group of us was going to do the quick 2 mile trail up to the lake. A couple boys ran way ahead and by the time we caught up to them, they had veered onto the wrong trail, UP UP and UP. By the time we regrouped, we thought…

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Flag Rock for Breakfast

Flag Rock for Breakfast

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With grey clouds in the sky, trails fresh and damp from overnight rains (no dust!) I started the day out with a quick climb up to Flag Rock. The south ascent is about 1,500 ft of climbing over 1.5 miles of trail. I was low on energy, but happy to be up there. When I got home to shower and head to work torrential downpours hit, so I got it in just in time! 3.7 miles in 1:00:47 @ 16:20…

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Pioneer Day Fun with 20+ miles, almost 6k elevation, 2 peaks, 2 Rattlesnakes, and Blisters Blisters Blisters

Pioneer Day Fun with 20+ miles, almost 6k elevation, 2 peaks, 2 Rattlesnakes, and Blisters Blisters Blisters

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 Last year on Pioneer Day, a friend and I tackled Baer Canyon. It was only my 2nd trail run, and we were unprepared and it was rough. I thought I would continue that and make an annual tradition of pushing myself to do unwise things on Pioneer Day. On the top of my trailrun to-do list has been to bag Thurston and Francis Peaks. I have been to both, but only after driving up to Francis and then running the…

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Sklyine 50 Volunteer Sweep Accidentally Becomes my Longest Run Ever

Sklyine 50 Volunteer Sweep Accidentally Becomes my Longest Run Ever

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 Altra was sponsoring an aid station at the inaugural Skyline 50 mile Mountain Marathon, and since my family was out of town, I decided to volunteer.  We were stationed at the Public Grove Hollow trail head (FR 620) on Avon Pass Rd. above Eden, UT.  It was a gorgeous day and it was fun seeing the runners come through.  We were at about mile 12 of the race.  After everyone went through, I had also volunteered to sweep the course…

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Smith Creek Lakes for Farmington 50 Trailwork

Smith Creek Lakes for Farmington 50 Trailwork

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On the Farmington 50 mile Challenge (and associated North Marathon challenge) that I put together there is one section of the route that I was concerned might not be as much of a trail as the satellite image suggested. It is a short traverse from the northernmost (NE of Francis Peak, down the Morgan County side) Smith Creek Lake, west and over the main ridgeline between Morgan and Davis Counties – merging on the other side with the Great Western…

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Altra Olympus – Gear Review

Altra Olympus – Gear Review

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Back in late-April the Mrs. allowed me a 3-months early birthday present – a pair of Altra Olympus trail shoes. I was about to run the Zion Trail Ragnar (read about how much “fun” that was) and hoped that the much raved about max cushioning would help ameliorate impact on some of my over-use injuries. I have now put ~100 miles in them over varied terrain and thought it would be worth a review. Altra Olympus Stack Height – 36…

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Assessing the Damage from Running Ragnar

Assessing the Damage from Running Ragnar

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I am now about a week removed from Ragnar and am starting to assess how the race affected my injury-plagued lower-half.  In short, some prior injuries seem fine, some seem bad. IT Bands: Miraculously they didn’t hurt during the race so I am optimistic that all of my daily work on the foam roller is doing the trick.  Fingers crossed. Stress Fracture on left Fibula: This didn’t hurt during the race or the day after. But, in the following week…

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