Per Aspera Ad Astra

My legs were really tired from the previous day's run through super deep snow, so I played Xbox for nearly the entire day then (finally) went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. Got to love it.

Nice easy super snowy run at night. Tunnel Springs Park to Bountiful Blvd to Mueller Park / 1800 to Orchard and back home. One super downhill mile built in to make it net downhill and still only ran 8:40-ish AP. I'm really trying to make sure that my easy days are super easy as I get back into the swing of things. If G Mutai could do his easy runs at 8:00+ pace before his biggest marathons, I have no problem just getting in a slow, lazy outing.

Indoor track. 7:03 AP.

Treadmill. 1% decline to get legs moving a bit faster without as much effort. 7:00 AP. 11 to 11.5 at 6:00 pace.

.5 outside to gym then 7 on indoor track at 7:15 ap. Busy today! Last week was consumed by being pretty sick (don't sleep on an airport floor if you don't want to get sick) and taking care of our new kitty Phineas, a disabled little guy with cerebellar hypoplasia.

While watching sportsball with Fritz, Amiee, Josh, Marianne, etc, I signed up for the Bear 100 on a whim. So, I decided I should probably be training and ran 6.3 miles at 8:03 AP afterwards. :P NSL/Bountiful with 270' gain. Strong tailwind going North, strong headwind coming back South.

2.2 > 0. Haha. 6:58 AP. Got out at 11:30 PM and didn't want to do much, but want to make running a habit again if I'm going to get in shape for racing later in the year.

BPRB to BOSHO to zoo and back on roads. 7:48 AP with 420' of gain. Trails were a mix of sort of muddy and sort of snowy, but I could run off the side on grass most of the time when I was on the trail. Really liking the Vazee Summit still after 160-odd miles on them, and the traction is still really good. It's looking like I should be able to get quite a few miles out of them.

BPRB to JCC to BOSHO to trail down to 1400-ish East Tomahawk, back to JCC via top roads and trail route, and back. 850' gain, muddy/slushy trails, and very easy effort resulted in 9:30 AP. Haha.

Only 8:30 AP, but moderately hard effort. 2/3 trails, mostly muddy, 1/3 roads, with 1600' of climb. Same amount of loss, but hard to take much benefit from it, as majority of dowmhill was in sloshy mud, or on the absurdly steep terrace hills drive.

Very strong headwind on the downhill and very strong tailwind on the uphill. Roughly evens out. Haha. 6:50 AP for the brief outing.

Staying in San Pedro near the coastline for the weekend. Beautiful hilly run near and along the coast, as well as on some trails in white point preservation. 400' of climb in 4.7 miles. That's a lot considering that I had no trail uphill. 7:30 AP. The humidity is kind of shocking. I finished 20 minutes ago and already showered, but I'm still slightly sweaty. Haha.

8:30 AP on BOSHO with 790' of climb. Weather is super nice.

Bprb to natural history to spine to living room and back via standard route. 1150' of gain.

Easy, with Daria.

24 laps on the U of U track with barriers forcing people into lane 4 for half of the track. Estimating that I averaged about on the edge between 2 and 3 (cut in on the bends when possible), it would be 6. 2 instead of a hair under 6. 7:10 AP.

Tm. 7:13 AP.

Indoor track. 6:55 AP.

8:10 AP. Work to red butte and back, to jcc, along bosho to city creek canyon and down to the bottom of memory grove. 1600' climb, slightly more drop.

Quick run with Holly before having people over.

.5 to gym, then 6.5 more on tm. 7:04 AP.

Work to 11th ave to city creek to radio towers to nsl (with brief extra for guinea hill) to home plus extra parking lot looking to get it up to 11. 1400' gain and 8:32 AP. Trail portion was dry except at highest altitudes.

Afton State park back in MN. Trails were somewhat slick, but it was a great time. Regardless of all of the Utah beauty I'm exposed to, I'm amazed by Afton every time I get to run there. 12.2, just shy of 2000' gain, 8:45 AP. 

Easy trails and roads around parents' house with a respectable 300' of climb. 7:50 AP. 35.8 is (rather sadly) my highest mileage week in 14 months. Lol. Legs feel good though. I'm being smart and not pushing it, pace wise, as I get it rolling agajn.

Trails with 1250' climb, mostly in the first 1.3 (350' from 1 to 1.3, which I definitely noticed... Haha...). Wildrose to city creek ridge to radio towers and back, with last little bit on roads to link to other trailhead.  Went really easy (mid-high 9s, never faster than high 7s even on the downhill), but lower back oddly got pretty tight in the last mile. Guess all the airline travel this week and the aggressive skiint earlier today didn't help?

Back was reaaaaally jacked Mon-wed. Doc thinks it was tweaked on plane on Saturday and I could start running again a couple days ago, but it really hurt (literally couldn't stand up straight much of Mon/Tues), so I was conservative. Still motivated, just trying to not get hurt.

Things still feel a little off balance after the back was screwy last week, but there's no pain, which is good. AP just over 8:00. Nice and relaxing evening run. 200' climb.

10 miles, treadmill, 7:04 AP.

Work to BOSHO to zoo to Foothill, to Cappechi and back, with 370' of climb. Very casual effort. Figured it would be about 9 min pace, but it was apparently 8:25. Very heavy rain during the run, but that's what shells with adjustable hoods are for.

7:57 AP. 710' gain.

Pasadena. 7:40 pace with 250' climb. 81 degrees feels like 91 after being in snow yesterday. Glad I got that out of the way early ish, as it'll actually be 90 later, and I'm not sure I could handle that very well right now. Hah.

Pasadena. Same loop as yesterday, but tacked on an extra 2 and a half ish at the end. Starting at 8:15 am and having 8 oz of water before made the temps easy. 7:33 AP. 270' gain. Nice that 10ish at mid 7 feels easy.

Legs surprisingly felt great today, so I did 11.6 at a higher effort than usual (7:30 AP on the dot, at altitude, with 430' gain). This caps off 57.3 miles in one week! Amazing to see that I'm able to be back at this point and not hurting myself. Guess taking it pretty easy on nearly every run and not doing any huge jumps in mileage has been helpful. Looking forward to continuing to ramp it up and getting into shape. Weight is responding well to proper diet, and it's only a matter of time until I'm in shape again.

4.3 at 8:02 AP. Told Daria I was just going to do 4 at 8:30 to really just get a super easy active recovery. Actually did a little more at a little faster, but close enough, and kept the average above 8. :)

18 miles at 7:29.9 average pace. Hah. (18.01 in 2:15:03 means ever so slightly under 7:30 pace). I'm rather surprised that 18 miles at "sub-7:30" didn't kill me. Fitness must be coming around really quickly. Anyway, the route was Fritz's old house to JRP trail, where I immediately went the wrong way (stayed on the gravel along the river instead of going around the golf course, which was rather dumb considering that I had to jump a short rope). That added a half mile, then I kept going up JRP, with the detour between 200 S and N Temple, back to the little loop prior to Center Street in NSL. I planned to take the loop, but didn't think I ought to go over 18, and was going to be 18.5 with the extra distance early on, so I cut back to Redwood and then threw in an extra .2 at the end to get up to 18 even. Really, I can't reiterate enough how happy I am that this didn't wreck me. Sure, legs feel pretty dead - I've only run over 13 miles once in the last year, and that was 21 or 22 miles at Jordan Chang's 100 mile pace, with plenty of breaks - and the pace felt casual the entire way. I still have 15-20 pounds to drop, so I ought to be able to get back into actually good-ish shape when the weight is back to usual.

Other note... I'm at 63.7 miles in the last 7 days, and that's my biggest week since Summer 2014. Jeez. It's been too long since I trained for real.

Only looking to be about 50 or just over this week, and hit 43.5 in 4 days, so I rested up yesterday and just got in a couple miles before work today. 7:38 AP. Will keep tomorrow pretty short as well.

LA again. 6:34 AP. Within 2 min per mile of what Eliud ran for 26.2 yesterday! Lol.

Exhausted after traveling back from southern California. Took a day off that I didn't intend to take off.

Work to home via JRP. 7:10 AP. Felt pretty comfortable, but the last 2 miles (uphill) weren't super fun. Fitness is coming along. Just a week ago, 12 miles at 7:30 felt roughly (or almost) as hard as 13.3 at 7:10 did today. Yes, today was a bit net downhill, but it was also in the 70s and I was running into a headwind most of the way, unlike last week's perfect weather 12. 

Wanted to get a long-ish, very easy effort trail run in on somewhat tired legs, so today was perfect for that. 13.5 (11 on Bosho, 2.5 on roads) home from work with 2400' gain (2330' in the first 10, then a nice coast down home) at a very pedestrian 9:20 average pace. Roughly mid-8 equivalent effort on roads, so achieved my goal of long-ish very easy effort trail run on somewhat tired legs.

Very easy 5 miles. Trails with 700' gain, 9:20 average pace. Legs were really tired, and I wanted a super easy day. Intended to go longer (more like 8), but this was what I had time for. I recently ordered a second pair of Vazee Summits. Unfortunately, old pair is mostly still in great shape, but I wore a really annoying semi-hole into the heel of the left insole that was bugging my foot a decent bit yesterday, so I retired them and will just use the new pair now.

Definitely a challenge today. Heat (low 80s) was really aggravating at the start and I was dehydrated from the beginning, so I didn't take it out super hard. I drank about 20 oz of water and ran out at mile 12. I could have refilled with a tenth of a mile pit stop, but figured I'd be fine. Bad call. By 16, my thirst was extreme. The mosquitoes on JRP were the worst I've ever seen, so I jumped back on Redwood. Got 10ish oz of water at a gas station at 17.5, but at that point I was pretty done. Finished up with an absolute crawl from 16 to 20 (literally like 9 min pace to avoid more pain haha) to end up at 7:53 AP. At the very least, it would have only been 19.6, but I did a large loop at the end to get it just above 20. I'll be smarter with fluids next time. 

Calories consumed: ~200 calories of skittles. Haha.

Well-earned day off.

7:30 pace. Played disc golf with Daria in the northern end of Centerville, then ran home. I apparently really like 7:30 average pace. Was dead on 7:30 yet again. Haha.

7:50 ap. 360' gain. Feeling slightly under the weather, so running wasn't a blast today, but I'm glad I got it done.

Track. Pretty windy. 6:43 average pace. Harder than marathon effort right now, but not as hard as half marathon effort. 6:43 should be easier, but it's a lot easier than it would have been a few weeks ago.

Home via a much less buggy jrp. 7:36 AP.

Bprb to bosho 5 way and back. 1100' climb, 8:51 average. Started snowing 5 min from turnaround. Very snowy and extremely windy on the return. I had a down vest on and I don't know how things would have worked out without it. Stucks hands in pockets and they still got extremely cold. Bare forearms were fully numb. The massive wind gusts on the exposed trail made every snow hit (dippin dots consistency) sting. Despite the vest, I'd rank this in my top 3 runs of all time for worst preparedness for the conditions. 90 min later, my hands still hurt a lot. Wow.

7:27 average pace. Home from work via yet another iteration of a JRP run.

Easy shortie, though it still had 600' of climbing. Around campus area at 8:13 average pace.

Fairly easy effort running of the Mueller Park / North Canyon link up (with some crappy road linking the beautiful trail). 2040' climb, 9:08 average pace.

Easy 7 at 7:56 AP in NSL/Bountiful with just under 300' of climb. Got heckled for my American flag shorts by a morbidly obese couple with XXL sodas in hand. Ahh, America. 

Well-earned day off.

Easy long run with Lara (7:58 average) who will be crewing and pacing with her partner Max and Daria at Squaw Peak in a week and a half. Last long effort before tapering a bit. I'm not fit ot ready to run well for 50 miles, but I'm  sure I can finish. The only goal with signing up was to scare the hell out of myself and, in doing, force a smart but quick reintroduction to actual training. Regardless of how the race goes, I'm sctually training. There's still weight to drop, but that's happening too.

With Josh and Nic. Nice easy trail run at 8:41 AP with 1040' gain and loss.

Got home from work at 8:30, then spent 3 hours setting up and mounting the rooftop tent. Haha.

No running today! Running a 50 miler in 8 days, so I guess this is ok.

Camped out overnight with the new rooftop tent up Skyline Drive (4WD-preferred dirt road) right before things suddenly went from dry dirt to several feet of snow within the span of about 100 feet. Crazy what a change on the path to a north-facing aspect can do. Daria took the car home via Skyline while I ran home over the ridge and down Sessions. I slogged up Skyline and onto Sessions Road. Things were straightforward for about 2 miles, and then I started crossing some pretty steep and deep snowfields that completely covered the road. Around 2 miles in, the snow was deep enough for me to run over the top of a "Road Closed for Winter" sign. Hah. Around 2.5 miles, all tracks ended, and the snow was deep enough that navigation became somewhat of a challenge, especially considering that I've only run that chunk of dirt road up there a couple times and it's been a few years since I've been up there. I'm quite glad that I have the Fenix 5X (with built-in maps), as I was somewhat lost around 3.5-4 miles, and it turns out I had gotten a fair amount East and down mountain of the road. To be fair, the road had at least half a dozen feet of snow at that point and there were no tracks anywhere. However, after consultation with the built-in maps on the watch (seriously, such a great feature to have), I figured out where I was going, hiked up a steep snow field, and was able to find the peak and Sessions trail. Going down Sessions was reaaaally slow up top, with the steepest portion (near the top, probably 45 degrees) completely covered in snow. I'm surprised my pace managed to hover around even 20 min per mile for that portion. It was pretty wild. A few of the really rocky, steep downhills were also crazy slow today, as I just didn't want to commit to running them at anything other than a jog. Probably didn't help that we forgot matches to start the grill and barely ate last night - and then for no reason at all, I only had a single graham cracker for breakfast - so I was pretty hungry and not wanting to put a lot of energy into stability on steep downhills. Haha. Anyway, finally popped out on the road after a few miles of 10:00 rocky downhill (seriously so lazy about putting energy into stability to run faster without falling hahaha), then did an easy mid-high 7 min pace from there, both on the steep downhill outside of Mueller and and on the flatter Orchard. I'm glad that a bit over 14 miles at ultra effort took nothing out of me - I guess that's kind of important since I'm going to run 50 miles a week from today. Hah.

1110' uphill and 4530' downhill. 

Camping up in North Canyon a quarter mile down from the trail head. Ran with Holly up to Rudy's Flat and back. Mid-8s AP with 1000' of gain was actually a moderately hard effort.

Tapering because I'm dumb and running 50 miles on Saturday.

Tapering because I'm dumb and running 50 miles on Saturday.

Tapering because I'm dumb and running 50 miles on Saturday. 4 mile cut-down on treadmill in 6:45, 6:08, 5:54, 5:35. Haven't run much of anything this fast this year. Felt good to go fast. I feel like the rest is getting me into a fat version of sharpening up. Hahaha.

TAPERING. Conversational trail shake-out with Josh Jones. 5.1 miles with 660' climb at a nice, easy 9:18 AP. Haha.

Squaw Peak 50. First half was ok, second half was rough. Still, made it through on very limited training. Mentality was good, so I'll be ready for Bear when I'm in better shape.

2.5 miles of downhill recovery (meeting Daria at a grocery store in the Aves after work) at 7:46 AP. Legs are tired, but not sore.

500' climb. Easy with Josh and Nic.

Very easy trail run/hike with Daria in Bowman Fork.

Quick run on Jeremy Ranch Road at 7:26 average pace before dark. 230' gain. Camped out overnight. Fun times.

Gradually picked it up on Jeremy Ranch Road after camping overnight. Slept poorly, and started really slowly. Miles 9:05, 8:43, 8:45, 8:27, 8:11, 8:04, 7:59, 7:35, 0.7 at 7:15 pace. 

I had apparently forgotten how ridiculous the unmarked, ultra-steep, uphill bushwhack was in upper City Creek Canyon. I was super annoyed to not only have my legs get shredded, but to also have my average pace implode (7:46/mile for the 16.5 miles excluding that section, 8:47/mile including that section). Got home and found that I got a Strava CR for the terrible bushwhack. Hahaha. Extra funny considering that I only did it because I forgot how much I hate it. It's actually a super weak CR if you can manage to run through getting your legs and even legs and torso shredded by horrible bushwhacking. I can't manage that, so I hiked like half of the climb. Haha. A little hungry and thirsty at the end. Didn't bring calories or water. Had a few oz at the bottom of City Creek and planned to drink more right before jumping on the bushwhack, but upper City Creek water fountains weren't running yet. Fortunately, I bummed a little more water from a biker at Rudy's Flat, which got me through the rest of the run without too much thirst.

Bosho from work to old apt in NSL. 2100' gain, 8:11 ap.

Easy trails with Josh. 1000'+ gain, 9:11 ap.

Same run as Wednesday, but with Lara and at 9:11 average pace. 93 F is hot. 2100' gain.

Easy long run with Max and Shaina.

Am: 5.5 with Fritz, Adam, and Andrew. 7:21 average with 250' gain.

Pm: 5.5 more in up to 95 F home from lab to new Sugarhouse place. Too hot. 7:49 average.

Am: 6.6, mostly with Fritz, Adam, Roo. 7:40 average. 295' gain.   Pm: 6  solo. To, in, and from Sugarhouse park. 6:56 average. 270' gain.

AM: Up to Laird, up to campus, up to red butte, down to zoo, to wasatch, and back. With Fritz and Adam. 7:59 AP with 780' of gain at 6:04 am. That's a wicked hills/early am combo. Haha.

Am: 6.3 with Fritz and Roo. Mostly road with a bit of trail through Miller Park. 7:41 AP with 270' gain. I swear it took me 2 miles to really wake up today.  Pm: 6.1 from campus to sugarhouse. All downhill makes 7:28 average feel reaaaally lazy.

Am: 8 with Fritz. Moderately hilly (360' gain) and 7:26 AP. PM: 4.5 to sugarhouse to meet Daria there. Downhill. 7:16 AP. 86 F max.

Quick 4 at 5:47 am before heading to Brussels. 180' climb. Threw in a few surges for fun, but otherwise easy. 7:33 ap.

In Brussels! 6:51 per mile.

Hilly downtown Brussels loop (285' gain in 6.1 miles). 7:03 AP.

In Mallorca, staying at the Pedruxella Olive Farm's Son Duri. Not much time to run, so down from Son Duri to MA10, back up to the Pedruxella Gran gate, then back down. Then, 1 mile of goat herding (see strava for story). A bit under 8:00 average with nearly 700' of climb in 4.2. Steep.

Long run on the extraordinary MA10 in Mallorca. Son Duri to MA10 to Lluc and back. So many cyclists out enjoying the spectacular road, and I can see why. 2400' gain, so a lot of hilliness. Also, REAAAAAAALLY humid, which was painful, even though it was only 86 F during the run. Ran out of 2 bottles of water with a few miles to go. 8:37 pace through 17.5, then shut off watch to allow myself to be slothful on the final mile+, which is annoyingly uphill.

Quick morning run with Daria. 9:28 AP with 230' of climb.

Very much the wrong shoes for this run. Haha. Skechers don't do well on sharp rocks and rugged trail. Uphills were lazy, downhills were a crawl. Hahaha. 2050' gain, 9:45 AP.

From Port de Soller on the Northwestern portion of the island. Absurdly beautiful running. 2 miles on road uphill, 6 miles on trail, 2 miles on road downhill. Splits were all over the place: 7:12, 8:27, 14:28 (837' net uphill... oof...), 9:06, 8:03, 10:06, 9:01, 6:13, 6:45. Total climb was 1713', which is quite a lot for 10 miles. Once again, Skechers aren't a great choice on super rocky, rugged trails (not your typical, smooth Utah trails).

Long run. Moderately hard to get a soft Strava CR by a few minutes on a 4.6 mile section going into the mountains, then nice, lazy long run on mountain trails from there. Total of 3117' gain over 16.1 miles, with 9:45 average pace. Mallorca is incredible and the Tramuntana are amazing. Can't wait to come back here again. On to Copenhagen tomorrow.

Copenhagen! 6:53 pace!

7:05 average pace. Copenhagen run including the star.

Copenhagen. All I had time for. 6:33 average.

8 on treadmill at 6:12 AP. Nice cutdown with first at 6:37, and last at 5:45. Average was easier than true tempo, but harder than MP. Then, easy 3.1 home (1.5% downhill average grade) in 7:15 average. 94 on the way home, but didn't feel terrible with shade.

Goldminer Alta - Germania - Cecret - Catherine's - Wolverine - Catherine's - Brighton - Twin Lakes - Albion - Alf's - Germania - Goldminer. 6000+' gain.

With Fritz. 256' gain and 7:23 ap.

Am: 9.5 with Fritz and Nate. 443' gain and 7:32 AP. Pm: 4.5 on treadmill at 7:04 AP.

Am: with Fritz and Nate. 285' gain and 7:18 AP.  Pm: quick 3.4 home. 390' net downhill. Accelerating from 6:45 pace to 5:50 pace with 6:16 average.

Am: 13.6. Home to Laird, with Fritz, Andrew, and Nate to Liberty, a bit over 5 laps, then back home. 499' gain, mostly in first mile and return home, and 7:22 average pace.  Pm: 2.3 mile shakeout with Daria. 69' gain, 8:52 ap.

Am: 9 with Fritz and Nate. To, on, and from bosho. 797' gain and 7:21 average pace. I felt pushed pretty hard on the uphills. Pm: Work to home depot, where I met Daria. 400-450' net downhill. 99F (too hot!!!), 6:58 AP.

Am: 9.1 with Fritz and Nate. 292' gain, 7:14 ap. Pm: 12 on treadmill. Nice and slow. 7:40 ap 

Lazy long-ish run on City Creek road and trail above. 8:45 AP, just under 1900' gain. Too hot at 1 PM in UT in July. Not going early made it hotter than it needed to be.

Liberty Park laps. 7:22 AP.

Am: 7.1 with Fritz and Adam. 7:20 AP with 335' gain. Pm: 6 on indoor track at 6:38 ap.

Am: 6 with Fritz, Nate, and Adam at 7:34 average. 262' gain. PM: off. Letting legs relax.

AM: Casual 5 miles at 7:42 pace with 236' gain. Solo, for the first time in a morning run since I started doing them again - Fritz took the day off, as is tradition for him 5 days before Des News, and I didn't realize that Nate and Adam were still going. Legs were tired for a couple days, but they feel much better today. Pm: meandering run home. 150' up, 500' down. 7:18 ap.

AM: 8 mile run with Fritz, Adam, and Nate. 7:28 AP with 361' gain. Pm: 8.1 miles. Another stupidly meandering run home. 384' up, ~750' down. 7:43 AP with comical splits of 7:26, 7:14, 7:19, 7:48, 7:41, 7:22, 9:52 (got lost in the woods), 7:08.

Very little time. Quick run home at 6:08 pace.

Quick morning run of 3.1 before driving to Las Vegas. 108' gain, 7:26 AP.  Pm: 5.5 at 4PM on Vegas Strip in 108F. 6:42 AP.

Am: 6 on TM at 6:27 AP. PM: 7 in Yosemite valley. 7:0x average except for a mile of getting lost and stopping a few times without stopping watch (9:30 lol).

Quick jog to wake up legs then ascent of Glacier Point via Four Mile Trail. 3200' gain and 13:30 pace on ascent. Haha.

Old place (2nd to last time) to new place. 554' up, 400' down. AP of 7:24.

Too many laps at Liberty Park. 😹 Ran into Nate Blouin and did a bit under 2.5 miles with him. 7:09 average pace.

Am: 6.2 with Nate at 7:25 AP. 282' gain. Pm: Run home from post office via zoo/wasatch/parleys. 5 miles with 200' up and 480' down. 7:08 AP.

Home from work with a Mt Wire Summit mixed in. Stomach was super unsettled for whatever reason and the run felt miserable. Guess I've felt pretty good on most runs lately, so I'm bound to have a goofy one from time to time.

Day off. Hung out at Speedgoat, hiked around Snowbird, and skied what was left of Main Chute.

14 on JRP around 2:30 PM. 13 at 6:57 AP then 1 mile very slow to recover from the beating the sun gave me. Pace was fine, but 95F with 97 "Real feel" made it harder to stomach 13 semi-fast miles.

12 on treadmill followed by slightly circuitous 5 home from gym. Treadmill miles at 7:14 average, then picked up to 6:53 average on the roads. Total average of 7:08 pace.

Am: recovery run. 6 with 180' gain at 7:57 AP. Attempted to get it over 8 min pace and got close. 😹 Pm: 6 on TM at 7:03 AP.

Am: 9.5 with Fritz, Nate, and Adam. 7:27 AP with 443' gain. Pm: Easy 4.4 with Daria and Holly. 10:03 AP with 217' of gain.

Am: off. Pm: 15 at 7:09 AP. Split up as 2.3 long route from work to gym at 7:32 AP, 9 on treadmill  at 6:52 AP, roads home from gym at 7:37 AP.

Am: 9.5 with Fritz, Nate, and Adam. 7:21 AP with 420' gain. Pm: easy run home from work. 7:24 AP with 130' up and 500' down.

Late am: quick run up(hill) to campus. 7:08 AP. 325' up, 30' down. Pm: upper big water loop with Shipleys. 11.6 with 2430' gain. 9:30 AP. 

Am: 6.1 with Shipleys. 7:28 AP with 266' gain. Early Pm: Long route to campus, around sugarhouse park and up 13th/virginia and then behind jcc. 700' up, 400' down. 7:50 Ap. Saw tour de utah absolutely hauling down virginia while I was running up. Pretty cool.

Am: 6 with Fritz and Nate. 7:17 AP with 223' vert.

Am: 8.1 with Fritz and Roo. 371' gain, 7:05 AP. PM: 3.4 home. 7:07 AP.

Up and down North Canyon (1450' gain) with single track portion hard effort, then 0.8 more with 200' gam.

Am: 7.3 with Nate. 7:13 AP with 270' gain. Pm: very easy 5 on treadmill. 7:41 AP.

Tired and racing Sat, so took the day off.

Elephant Rock 7 Mile Trail Run * warmup and cooldown. 1000' climb in 3.4, then 1000' drop in 3.4. 1st, won by something close to 10 min, and #2 for this route all time on Strava. Went a nice controlled tempo on the up, then cruised 6 min pace on the down. Right hammy was a little tight, so I couldn't quite push as hard as I wanted. Still, happy to get the win.

13 at 6:55 AP. 8.6 on tready at 6:57 average, then 4.4 home at 6:50 average.

Am: 8 miles with Fritz and Michael Rees. 7:19 AP with 289' gain. Pm: 5.8 home. Threw in a 1.4 mile pickup at 5:30 pace to get a strava record because I'm apparently motivated by easy records. 😹

Am: 16.1. To Liberty via 2100 s, 6 laps, then back via 2700 s. 7:29 ap.

Tapering for Sat. 6:25 AP.

Shakeout. 7:26 AP.

Easy win at Harriman 50k (because Fritz didn't run). Lost 5 min due to screwed-with flags in first loop. Eventually backed off until I could run with someone who knew the course. He tried to drop me at halfway when I spent 30s drinking fruit punch. I caught back up 1 mile later and never saw him again a mile after that. Easy effort for a race, but I won by probably 30 min, so I didn't need to do more. Encouraging before Bear, but I still need to get better at eating more while running ultras. I had course a little short, but I had watch on a less accurate mode. RD apparently mapped it dead on. Who knows or cares.

Recovery after 50k. 8:06 AP. Roads in Grand Teton NP. 190' gain.

Pre eclipse. 70% sloooow trails, 30% roads. 9:13 AP with 600' gain.

Evening run. 7:18 AP. 310' gain.

AM: 9 at 6:56 AP with 320' gain. Pm: 3.5 home at 7:03 ap.

Hard run of bosho from Dry Creek to City Creek (45:47) and back easy on roads.

San Fran. Fisherman's Wharf over the bridge, through Sausalito, and back. 6:48 AP with last 4 picked up a bit to 6:20 average.

7:04 AP moving down from 7:47 mile 1 to 6:22 mile 8. San Francisco. A little humid, but not bad, heat wise.

A bit sick and exhausted from travel.

Feeling like crap. Sick. Just did a quick 3.4 at 6:35 AP to get in a run.

Sick. Feel like crap.

Still feeling sick. 3.4 home at 6:23 pace. Ugh.

Mostly better finally. Run home at 6:24 AP.

Long, easy, mountain run with Lara. 4200' gain. Felt good until about 19, when dusty air got the best of my lungs. Last climb was terrible, as was last descent. Threw up afterwards from all the coughing. Need to be smarter with my inhaler.

Yesterday's long run was perhaps a bit soon after being sick most of last week. Wiped out today.

Tready. 6:45 AP.

Was planning 14, then stress fractured my foot! Fun! Was out for just over 2 months. Got back into things in early/mid November. Building slowly, up to 40 mpw by early December, and mostly just using Strava at the moment. I’ll come back and re log stuff here at some point, but the automated Strava system just makes it easier right now.