A few recent runs
As it turns out, the last few weeks have been more mileage than usual. It felt good to hit the trails more regularly. Also a few hikes with the kiddos. Here’s the highlights:
Centennial Bushwhack
I recently took a new job about 50 miles from home. This means long train commutes. Until my family moves, I am working Tuesdays and Thursdays at home. This means that if I put in extra hours on MWF, which I inevitably do while working 1.5 hours each way on the train, I have a little time to run during the days on T/Th. Today, I decided to combine work + play. I took a large pile of papers that…
Buffalo 25k Course Again
My wife’s brother’s wife, Rachael, has been getting into trail running and asked if I would take her out on some trails while she is up visiting Utah this week. As you can imagine, she didn’t have to twist my arm. I decided on Antelope Island and she was excited to try out the Buffalo 25k course – which would be a distance and elevation gain PR for her. She crushed it. We hit the trail around 7 and…
Upset Stomach + Upness = Upchuck
I came home early from work tonight, with an upset stomach. After a while, I felt better and was feeling quite restless so I decided to go hit the trails for a quick run before dinner. My plan was to climb the south switchbacks that lead to the Farmington Upper Terrace. It is about 1,000 ft. elevation gain in about 1 mile of trail. At the top, a local trail building colossus, Ryan, had recently cut and flagged a new…
Don’t Play Basketball
After the 21+ mile President’s Day run at The Wedge I was so excited that the tibial stress fracture (left and right, yay!) did not hurt at all. Zero pain. I was excited that this might be the end of my stress fracture troubles. Then, 2 days later, on a Wednesday night, I somehow found myself playing a little pick-up basketball on a nice hardwood court in a pair of random sneakers. An hour later, I limped home – both…
Running The Wedge
I have explained before my aversion to group runs. I’m slower than most of the 100-miler ultramarathoning trail runners who I have the pleasure to know. So group runs quickly become solo runs. For Presidents Day, however, there was a group run that I just couldn’t resist. A 21-31 mile run along the Good Water Rim Trail in The Wedge are of the San Rafael Swell. Wow. The group totaled 26 runners – a collection of Wasatch Mountain Wrangers, Orange…
Buffalo 25k Course Preview
After a failed attempt a couple weeks ago to run the Buffalo 25k course out on Antelope Island, I tackled it again. This time with a couple friends, Glen and Spencer. I was again struck by how gorgeous Antelope Island is. It is stark. The vistas are enormous. Expansive. I don’t run many places where you can see the next 8 miles of trail all laid out ahead of you. Coming down on the bone road either going to…
Treadmill Winter. Avoiding Injury and Inversion Smog
Last week, too lazy and unwilling to slog through a muddy local trail, I took a spare hour and put down a few miles on the paved trails in Farmington – plus a little gravel trail. That night, my right ankle started throbbed – exactly like the stress fracture I have on my left ankle. It was one year ago – Jan/Feb 2014 – that I incurred a painful stress fracture on my left outer tibia by putting in too…
First Snow Run of the Season and First Time on Antelope Island
While in Arizona for the last couple weeks I have been drooling over all of the beautiful snow-running pictures my Utah friends have been posting. So, having just flown back to UT (family still in AZ) yesterday, I resolved to go exploring. A number of people suggested Antelope Island for good snowy trails. I have been out there before (twice) but never to run. I was also excited to test out my new winter running gear: a Bjorn Daehlie Ambition…
2014 in Review + 2015 Goals
2014 was first full year where I considered trail-running (or running at all) my primary hobby. Excited about the prospects of what I hoped to accomplish, I set the goals of running 500 miles and climbing 75,000 ft. At the time, it seemed like a lot. I still don’t like running, per se, and am primarily motivated by the excitement of exploring new places and challenge of doing hard things. Compared to my ultra-marathon friends, 500 miles is probably laughable….