Like the canyon

Been absent for a while.  Alot going on so I figured I better write some of it down so that I can refer back when I get through all the weirdness.  It's a week worth of catch up, so...it's a bit.

Friday 4/1 - Got out for a nice easy little 8 miles or so on the BST.  Still fighting the cold, but some improvement.  Still feeling good in the morning, slowly getting worse through the day.  Found a quick 10-15 min nap afer work seems to fuel me back up a bit.

Sat 4/2 - Indian Trail adventure.  Nice and clear to Warm Water Canyon then pretty western from there on through to Ogden Canyon.  Not really a trail, mostly traversing steep snow fields and avy paths.  Ran down the dirt road through the canyon, up North BST looped around and back across 12th to 27th street.  Stopped at the river to watch some boaters in the big wave by the bridge, freaking NUTS! Not for me at all!  Cold is still hanging on. Took it really easy, walked a good part of the climbsboth ways  from 12th on the BST, never done that before, but I have no energy!  Feels like breathing through a snorkel filled with snot! Sorry but it does.  11-12 miles.

Monday 4/4 - Still no energy.  Came home from work took the now standard nap, put on the shoes, drug myself up to the trail.  Didn't feel like doing anything, let alone running.  Started shuffeling up toward the BST, right away I noticed a difference, my energy was low, but I could breathe!! and my legs didn't feel like concrete like they have for almost 3 weeks.  Took right to the pond and around and up Taylor Canyon, planning on turing down at the 1st bridge.  I felt so good going uphill for the first time in weeks I kept going, thinking I'd u-turn at the 2nd bridge.  Next thing I know I headed up Malan's.  Ran solid all the way up!! felt great, was hacking a spiting snot every 10 seconds, but I could breathe!! Legs felt great, body great! finished up with a little loop on the BST and home. 7 miles, 2600 vert. 

Tuesday 4/5 - BST North from 27th, felt like hell all the way out to the nature trail parking lot.  Stiff, aches again, couldn't breathe again. The worst part was that both of my Achelles hurt!?! Got the the parking lot, sat on a rock for a bit, stretched, hacked, hacked some more and started back.  within a mile my lungs cleared up substantially and my energy was better, felt strong all the way back, other than my right Achelles was really sore.  Same one that gave me issues this winter.  Left hip/quad hurt and right hamstring was sore by the time I got back to the car.  Self analysis is that my stride was hitched trying ot favor my heel and started tweaking on other things.  Decided to take it easy for at least a week, maybe two or more to get this heel to calm down.  Usually responds well to some rest and treatment, hopefully will heal quick.

Wen-Thursady. ART on wednesday to loosen up the calves, helps with the Achelles. Cold gone!!! feel 100%.  Achelles is not.  No running, easy trail walks with the dog and the 2 yr old. 

Friday - A little cross training on the ski hill for some nice April powder.  Fun little 10 minute power hike to an open gate, passing lots of folks along to way.   Hoping to x-train on the bike a bit next week if the weather holds up.  Gotta get the old girl outa moth balls this weekend. 

Great morning skiing with some hiking.  Cross training is ski boots is perfect. Isolates my calf/achelles, so no pain, put can cruise up hill. 

Afternoon, hour hike in the blizzard with the dog.  Up Taylor canyon to the Malan's overlook for part of it.  Lots of broken trees from the snow overload.  Witnessed 4 break first hand.  Crazy loud crack, then piles of snow and tree come crashing down.  One pretty good limb broke right across the trail just in front of me. Freaked the dog pretty good, he Ran about 100 yards down the trail with his tail between his legs.  Trail is going to be a mess when this clears up. 

Easy half hour on the boulder field loops.  Made the mistake of gunning up the first section of Indian Trail, not a big deal, but kinda flared the Achilles a bit.  Shouldn't have done it, but I have a real self control problem when it comes to single track, hills, and legs that feel fresh from not running much for a week. Kept it pretty easy for the most part.  Giving recovery a 6.5 out of 10.  Coming along, but has a ways to go.

On another note, best run (ski type) of the year this morning.  Hiked the 20 minutes from JP to the top of the tram to the top of Mt Allen, multiple 1000's of vertical fresh all to myself! Took the skis off, walked down Taylor Canyon, and home.

Easy hour on the boulder field loops again.  Kept it pretty flat.  Achilles felt much better tonight.  Running really easy.  7 out of 10 on the heel scale tonight.

Half hour easy, RAIN, boulder field loops.  7 outa 10 again.  Treament seem to helping.  Morning soreness is pretty much nothing, post run soreness is minimal. Runs are easy though, so weill see when they get long.

Finally!! First run in over a month that felt good all the way through.  Started easy to test things a bit, and slowly wound it up to just a notch over easy pace through the run.  Give it an easy-moderate on the flater sections, a little more toward moderate effort on the hills, took the downhills very easy as that seems to bug my hip, which happy to say was the only thing with any amount of discomfort at all tonight.  Calf/achilles was pain free all the way through! If A.R.T. is vodoo ASTYM is some kind of witchcraft.  The hip thing is improving quickly, as I think it was tied to a poor stride trying to favor the sore heel.  A little rolling with a baseball after a run and it mellows right out.  Still going to be on the easy/light program for another week or so at least. 

7.65 miles at an 8:06 average pace with 940 vert. easy/moderate pace. BST, BF loops, BST out-n-back to the waterfall cutoff to the pond trail. 

Really wish I was going to run across the Big Ditch with the 10 or so Ogden runners headed down there tomorrow.  

Another quick note to myself. Running again in the clod hoppers seems to help with the achilles, blaming flat shoes for part of the problem.  Running in clod hoppers with a heel wedge sucks, as they are at least a pound each and really make it hard not to heal strike, which bugs my knee.  Love the flatter shoes, don't like what they do to my calf/achilles. Need options.

Easy paced 45 minutes. Heel feeling a little tender tonight, but nothing alarming. Some self administered ASTYM post run. Continued improvement is good.

Longest run in a week and half.  Was a bit nervous going in about how things would feel as last time I ran this far I was a wobbling mess by the time I got back to the car.  Things felt good, but a bit sluggish going out, negetive split and much stronger on the return trip.  Cutting my miles and running time down the last 3-4 weeks, it seems it takes me an hour to "warm up".  Most of my longer runs feel better after I have been moving for 45-60 minutes. Shorter runs, my legs feel heavy and slow. 

13.3 miles, 2100 vert, 8:53 pace, which,  for the route, I am totally happy with as there was very little push of the pace at all.

Nice and easy hour or so on the trails.  Cruised along and tried to avoid the muddy sections.  Probably 6.5-7 miles.  Felt alright.  Not great.  Legs have plenty of go, heel says nope.  Really have to try hard to keep the brakes on, my legs want to run fast toward the biggest hill I can find.   

Easy 45 minutes out and about.  Mtn bike plauge has begun.  I know it's bad when I have to stop and look both ways at trail intersections as not to get run over by sporto on a full suspension bender.  Ran by my ski buddy Mic a couple of times.  He was on his bike so I didn't even look up, finally stopped and talked for a bit at the first bridge in Taylor.  Mick is tough on the bike, usually see him peddling up Malan's in the dark mid-winter.  Running it is tough enough, peddling it....geeze! 

Things feeling a little more loose tonight so I put a liitle more effort in. Been a while, seems like every post is easy pace for...months. Felt good to blow the dust off a bit. Encouraged by the 6:05-6:10 pace on the flat service road for 3/4 mile in the first 1/3 of my run that felt about like I always run it, just never knew my pace, didn't feel hard. Also felt encouraged by the 5:35 pace I managed on the downhill outa Waterfall to 29th. Most of all I was happy with the 7:40 average pace for the run with 1020 vert over 7.8 miles. It wasn't easy, and was out right all out at times and moderate at others. Great run, it has been 4 plus months said I have put in anything above a moderate pace on a training run, and those moderate efforts have been short and far between

7.8 miles, 1020 vert, 7:40 pace.

Easy 45 minutes with a little moderate pace in the middle. Felt better running easy.

Easy paced 40 minutes.  Heel a little sore tonight.  Low energy, legs kinda felt blah. 

Started out early this morning with a friend who is just getting into running.  He is a pretty fit guy, my full time ski partner, cycling buddy and close friend since we were like 7 yrs old.  He is about as close to a brother as it gets, so given our history I wansn't sure what to expect as things with best freinds and brothers can get pretty competitive. 

Right off the bat I could tell competiveness would not be an issue as he seemed content to run his comfortable pace and enjoy the run.  We started at 27th street and headed north on the BST across 12th street and beyond.  I was running really easy and doing some out and backs to keep him close as he would fall a bit behind on the hills.  We had a blast, and it was fun to give him the tour of an area where I spend so much time. 

My olny moderate miles were the couple catching back up to him as he turned around about 1/2 mile before me, giving him a mile or so head start.  He rocked it! ran every hill, even the dierect climb out or Rainbow back up to the south bench and he ended up with about 11.5 miles.  My extra running put me just over 13 miles.  He's pretty psyched to keep running so I'm sure the competitive runs will happen soon enough. 

I got home, changed clothes, drove a couple of blocks to my son's soccer game, drove home after, put the running clothes back on and went out for another easy paced 6.5 on the south BST. 

Not feeling 100% yet, heel is still sore at times, but overall improvement, hip/quad/glute thing is still a little naggy but improving as well.  Rolling with a baseball on the quad/upper glute helps huge, working the trigger spot at the top/outside of my calf helps the heel.

19.5 miles, easy pace, 2600 vert.

No running last two days.  Short hike to the Malan's overlook after the snow yesterday PM.  Short hike and some imformal bouldering with the kido's tonight.  Heel sore as a result of a tight calf, ART/ASTYM tonight, alot of improvement.  Bike is coming out as soon as I can ride without winter gear.

Finally out for a run toninght.  Felt good from the start, legs felt good, heel o.k, runnig pretty easy unitl I got into a stupid, on my part,  race with some random runner.  Long story.....Sufiice to say I didn't start it, but I finished it.

Ran into Ultrajim and Go fastie Jon just after the bridge, hung out for a while and talked, watched a parade of kids (probably 100, not kdding) go by.  Made guesses at what kind of group it was, polygamous group, school group, church group, kind of kids you see in the big white van kind of group......

Jon and I finished out the loop at a causal pace, good to chat and catch up on their Grand Canyon trip.

About 7.5 miles I'd guess, 800 vert ish.