May 13 - 19

May 13, Mon 

Mt. Olympus

2800' Gain

1hr56 - 7mi

Way too hot for me at 10am. 90º already!? Hoped to put in a good hustle, but it didn't work out. Mostly hiking today, and sweat, lots of sweat. Felt uncoordinated with no energy whatsoever. I was en route to the saddle, but had lost everything. I was tired and felt pretty beat up.  I walked nearly the entire way back down, too. More of a floppy, tiresome excuse of a hike than a run.

May 14, Tues

Pipeline

1000' Gain

1hr07 - 6.5mi

Incredibly easy. Like, averaged–10:40–pace–easy. Ran from Birch Hollow up to Elbow Fork and back. Took a digger at one of the very last switch-backs before the car, which annihilated my final pair of cheap sunglasses. Mountains keeping me humble.

May 15, Wed

Mt. Wire 

2700' Gain

1hr40 - 8.5mi

Zoo TH, up Emigration BoSho, up Living Room Ridge, up George's Hollow to the summit of Mt. Wire and returned roughly the same, minus the Living Room Ridge. Got ran up on by a massive Pit Bull (unleashed) at the Living Room. I'm glad that I know how friendly those dogs are, so I didn't freak out. Stayed pretty calm and told the owner it was okay, even though the owner was freaking out (I think he felt pretty bad). The dog went right through my legs barking and growling and then turned right around and wanted to be pet. Strange occurrence. The entire way up George's Hollow I thought about 20 different scenarios of how that incident could've been prevented, and could've been much worse.

May 16, Thurs

Grandeur + Full Pipeline

5200' Gain

4hr25 - 22.5mi

Started at Rattlesnake Gulch TH and headed up to Grandeur Peak via Pipeline. I had a shit-load of troubles with my gear/shorts at several different times of this run. Mainly the drawstring not staying tight whatsoever. I believe I could shave 15min+ off my time just from fiddling with that shit. Running Grandeur to the summit and back was great, definitely took it pretty casually though. Returning to Church Fork I still felt pretty fresh. I downed my first water bottle (still half full), and traded it out for a full one that I stashed on the way up. I followed the Pipeline trail to the end up at Elbow Fork. I took 3 minutes and dipped my head in the stream and then headed back down. Coming back, I realized I didn't have close to enough water to get me to the car which was still about 9mi away, all flat trails, but 9miles in the heat with no water, well, sucks. I took a little detour at Birch Hollow and trotted on the road to Log Haven Restaurant where I used a drinking fountain they have out front (thanks Log Haven). I took 5 minutes, downed 3 bottles, filled up again and continued down the road back to Church Fork with some serious cramping from too much water intake. Shit. I walked most of the way to CF. The cramps subsided as soon as I hit the climb through the picnic areas and I was able to put in a bit of running back up to Pipeline and ran at consistently zippy pace back to Rattlesnake.  

Food Intake: 

• 4 Gels @ 100 calories ea.

• 2 Power Bars @ 210 calories ea.

• 3 S!-Caps.

This outing went much better than I thought. I went into this on roughly no sleep and some pretty blown out legs from the run the night before. I felt pretty good the entire time with the exception of miscalculating my water supply coming back from Elbow Fork. I kept track of all of my S-Caps and calorie intake, which made a huge difference with everything. I plan to do this run again with another big vertical push somewhere along the way and more bottles stashed precariously. It's a great tour of Millcreek Canyon. I'll wear different shorts with a better drawstring as well. Sheesh, what a pain in the ass that was. To give an idea of what was going on; I was having to re-tie the drawstring roughly every mile, sometimes more. Even double knotted. Just a shitty string the brand used, offered no locking.

May 17, Fri - Ø

May 18, Sat

Red Butte +  Mt. Wire

3100' Gain

1hr45 - 8.5mi

Nice run. Refreshing trails. Great temps after the morning rain storms. Felt good to be the one of the first runners on the trail brushing the wet grasses and branches. A little muddy on the Red Butte Skyline Trail, but the dirt was perfectly tacky elsewhere.

May 19, Sun

Pipeline

900' Gain

36min - 3.5mi

Snuck in a quick run between yard work and grocery shopping. Tried to keep it pretty casual but I think my legs wanted to GO since they felt awfully peppy. 

Overview:

Gain:15,700'

Mile: 56.5

Time: 11:30

Feeling good about it. Definitely felt like I could have ran the day after the long run, but it seemed like a good idea to chill. Noticing my recovery times are speeding up significantly, which is welcomed with open arms.

Looking back up Millcreek Canyon.

Spring flowers on Mt. Wire.

Humble pie. 

May 6 - 12

May 6, Mon 

AM

Corner Canyon

1500' Gain

1hr15 - 6.5mi

Met up with Charles early for a quality loop around CC. 

PM

Olympus - 2nd Creek

2500' Gain

1hr15 - 5mi

Nice overcast late-evening trot on a very quiet Olympus trail. Ran up to the 2nd creek.

May 7, Tues - Ø

May 8, Wed

Mt. Wire

3300' Gain

1hr45 - 8.5

Perfect rain/drizzle. Started at the Zoo TH, went out easy and did a little warm up on the Emigration section of the BoSho path and headed up to the Living Room. Connected with the Georges Hollow trail where I started to feel really good and made a solid push to the summit. Felt real, real, solid on the descent.

May 9, Thurs

Grandeur Peak

3600' Gain

2hr15 - 12mi

Nice late evening run. Ran from Rattlesnake Gulch TH up to Grandeur Peak via Pipeline trail. Bonked real nicely at the end just before descending down Rattlesnake. I managed to hold on and stay upright with a pretty casual jog back to my car. I purposely brought only one Power Gel and one Power Bar, I annihilated both coming off the summit. I was hoping both of those food items would hold me over to the end, so close.

May 10, Fri - Ø  

May 11, Sat

Grandeur Peak

3600' Gain

2hr25 - 12mi

Rattlesnake Gulch TH and up to Grandeur Peak via Pipeline trail. I had intended to stay out much longer today, but I got pretty zapped by the sun coming down Grandeur. Definitely should have stashed an extra bottle at the bottom of Church Fork. I don't think I would have had an issue to keep going (which I intended too) if I had an extra bottle dropped off. I only hit one gel and took one S!-Cap around Mile 10 which got me back to the car and away from stumbling around like a drunken fool.

May 12, Sun

Pipeline - Mt Aire Trail

1600' Gain

1hr20 - 8mi

Ran from the Birch Hollow TH up to Elbow Fork and then decided to head up the Mt. Aire trail for about 20min. Excited to see how dry the Mt. Aire trail was since it's a ways up the canyon. Pretty good run. Felt good to push myself on the flat sections of Pipeline and really get some good strides in. 

Overview

Gain: 16,100'

Time: 10.25hr

Miles: 52

I'm noticing one thing with my training, I've been pretty damn consistent. I just hope it's going to be enough to get me through 50m in one swift go. I had planned to bump things up a lot this week, but I think I started the week off a bit too heavily since I noticed I had some "burn-out" like symptoms (Tues). However, I felt like getting after it properly on Wed/Thurs. Friday I was primed to get out again, but I ended up building a pretty dope compost bin with my wife and then spent a few hours planting veggies and perennials in the… holy shit, I'm a hippy. Whatever, I love tackling big projects with her. Makes her so excited that I've been getting into gardening. Love it!  Saturday I got dehydrated and called it early, while Sunday I used my brain, went later in the day and started at a higher elevation which allowed for much cooler temps. Decent week though, can't complain. 

Grandeur Peak. Looking over at Mt. Olympus. My back looks jacked up in this pic. Oh well.

From Grandeur Peak again, looking towards Church Fork. This shows the trail off nicely.

Looking up George's Hollow. Living Room Ridge is partially shown on the left. The old FM towers are up on the ridge just below the summit of Mt. Wire. 

Apr 29 - May 5

Apr 29 - Mon

Rattlesnake Gulch - Pipeline - Grandeur Peak

4200' Gain

2hr45 - 11.25mi

Oh boy, what a morning. I started at the Rattlesnake TH and headed up the Gulch and connected with Pipeline trail and headed up canyon towards Church Fork. I was clipping along at an okay pace (8:30ish), then hitting the split off at Church Fork (31min) I hit a mental wall and couldn't keep my feet turning over. I was tired, flat out depleted. I pushed as hard as I could up to the first wood "trail <–" sign (40min) and decided I'd need to hit a PowerGel if I wanted to keep any kind of forward momentum. My legs felt like paste and just wanted to stick to the ground. Hiking was my only choice. I wasn't about to call it a day since I wasn't running, so I hiked/slow-jogged to the summit. It's always great to stand on top of that. One of my favorites! Descending I thought I'd be set and have no issues, but my legs still didn't want to turn over. I got maybe 1 mile (?) off the summit and then stopped running. Stopped. I had no more. I walked all the way back to the car with small fractions of intermittent jogging along Pipeline trail and then walked down through Rattlesnake Gulch to my car. I had no feeling of bonking ever, just didn't feel like pounding my feet into the trails today.

Apr 30 - Tues

Corner Canyon

1500' Gain

1hr40 - 6.5mi

Met up with Charles down at the Corner Canyon trails and went out on a nice, chatty little loop of single track. I had heard  rumors about the trail network down there, but had never been. Smooth and mellow trails that go on for a good ways. It was nice to catch up with Charles and trot some trails with him.

May 1 - Wed

Rattlesnake Gulch - Pipeline - False Grandeur

3500' Gain

1hr54 - 10mi

Brisk run. A little rebate after Monday's debacle. Started from the Rattlesnake TH and linked up with Pipeline (9:12). Clicked off a pretty good pace at the start and kept it up all the way to the junction at Church Fork (27:50). My legs had some good zip in them so I leet them crank up through Church Fork and held on all the way to the first Parleys Saddle overlook (1hr:00). Then it got a little windy and a lot colder. I didn't make the summit due to 40-50mph gusts on wind ripped snow (sastrugi). It looked cold and miserable up there honestly. Decided the false summit was plenty. I hit a gel and retraced my steps back down. I took it pretty gently on the descent since my hamstring is just now starting to be grief-free so reigniting an old flame just didn't seem bright. 

May 2 - Thurs

AM

Corner Canyon

1500' Gain

1hr32 - 6.5mi

Easy jog with Charles around the massive network of organized trails. Corner Canyon still weirds me out. Certain trails are to be travelled in a certain direction and "no skidding" allowed if you're on a bike. And "trail marshals" too!? Wow. -  I'm not certain which trails we were using. Just running around and enjoying it. Ran at Charles' pace (which is pretty damn good for popping up off the couch after a long winter), we stopped a couple times to shoot some high quality pics on our iPhone's. Great morning jog.

PM

Blister Hill

2000' 

1hr02 - 5mi

Standard Wasatch TH to Blister Hill. Started out at an easy pace and then did some hill work mixed with quick hiking. Still managed a decent time to the first creek (27:08). Hit Blister Hill pretty casually and hiked/ran it to the big dead tree at the top (37:28). Descended from there casually and checked out the sunset a lot. Great evening trot on a classic Wasatch Front trail. Legs felt really solid, just taking it easy on 'em with the increased volume.

May 3 Fri - Ø 

May 4 - Sat

Living Room - Mt. Wire X2

4700' Gain

2hr29 - 11mi

One loop and one out-and-back. Started at the Red Butte Canyon Rd parking area. Took the Shoreline trail over to Red Butte Ridge and headed up to the Living Room (pretty windy) and then headed straight for George's Hollow trail up to Mt Wire for summit 1. Descended the South Ridge back to the Shoreline trail and wrapped back around to George's Hollow (minus the living room ridge this go'round), and continued up for summit 2. After the 2nd summit, I retraced back down George's and went straight to the Shoreline trail back to my car. Good runnable uphill sections through George's too. Great run with quiet trails in the upper reaches.  

May 5 - Ø 

Overview

Miles: 50.5

Gain: 17,400'

Time: 11.25

Corner Canyon. Lone Peak lurks over my left shoulder.

Plush trails in Corner Canyon

Charles clipping along nicely in Corner Canyon.

Blister Hill, Salt Lake Valley, and a quite distracting sunset.

Apr 22 - 28

Apr 22 Mon - Ø

Apr 23 Tues

3200' Gain

1hr30 - 6mi

Ran up to just barely below the saddle of Olympus. The snow didn't get a chance to go through a thawing cycle so it was still bulletproof mid morning (I doubt it had a chance to thaw at any point this day). The thought of climbing it didn't phase me, but descending it with no way to arrest myself if I were to take a slip didn't seem too brilliant, so I bailed at the snow line. Maybe only 400' vertical away from a dry trail the entire way now… patience!  **Later in the week I learned about a hiker taking a substantial slide on the frozen snow during their descent this day. Apparently they got rattled pretty good sliding through the trees. Hope they're ok.

Apr 24 Wed

2600' Gain

1hr10 - 5.5mi

Ran up to the 2nd creek on Olympus. Felt ok. I've been feeling the allergies ramp up, after all, it is spring time. Had a bit of a puffy eyes and a headache at the start but it seemed to have subsided within the first mile. It was nice to link up with another runner on Blister Hill. Both of us agreed that running Mt. Oly is like getting slapped in the face, with a book, by a good friend, repeatedly. Shit never gets easy.

Apr 25 Thurs

5500' Gain

3hr45 - 20mi

This didn't go easy at any point. I used the standard Zoo TH and headed out on the lower Emigration section which tacks on a quick and easy mile and allows for a fraction of the traffic with the same elevation gain. Linked back up to the main BoSho trail for a bit and did a quick trot over Red Butte ridge and then linked up with my normal longer run-route that links up via Red Butte canyon, Dry Creek, Avenues Twins, Avenues skyline ridge nearly to City Creek and then retrace my steps back to the car. I started to get chafed at mile 3, and for whatever reason, I decided to keep going. It ended up messing with me so badly that I had to adjust my gait/stride in order to stay comfortable. I ended up stumbling and walking a heck of lot more than I had hoped to. This was my first time ever chafing below my waist, and I don't care to ever have that happen again.

Apr 26 Fri - Ø

Apr 27 Sat

3200' Gain

1hr45 - 7.5

Woke up with unreal headaches, swollen eyes, and scratchy throat, all of which are my typical allergy symptoms. However, uncommon for them to hit me this early in the spring. I had planned to go run in the morning with some of the Trail & Ultra crew, but it didn't work out. - Onward, had to switch things up today due to the large events and weddings being held near the University, which ended up being a good thing. So, I parked at the Red Butte Amphitheater TH and ran a loop around Red Butte, up to the Living Room and then ran the West Gulch trail up to the summit of Mt. Wire. I really like this little run and should start to make this one more regular. Surprised how quiet the trails were for it being Saturday afternoon and the trail heads were packed to the max with cars.

Apr 28 Sun

3200' Gain

1hr43 - 7.5

Nice warm day with temps reaching the upper 70º's here. Good taste of summer. Pretty much a repeat of yesterday, allergies and all. However, the trials proved to be a popular place to be today for large families. I lost count of how many groups of 20 or more there were. I need to start running earlier, or going out later. Can't wait for the upper canyon trails to shed the snow.

Overview

Gain: 17,700'

Miles: 46.5

Time: 10hr

Happy with the week. Felt the hamstrings flare back up during the long run, but I ran through the issue as it doesn't seem to matter if I give it rest or not. In all honesty, they feel better after I put in a couple miles. Still continuing with the Über Hot Epsom Salt Baths post-run too. Starting to feel better on longer runs, I still have a few things to learn what works best for me.

Mt. Wire Summit.

Salt Lake Valley Panorama from Mt. Wire

Uinta Brewing Labyrinth Black Ale. Tasty. And my friend, Trent Call, did the art on the label.

This!!

Avenues Twins.