Lots of short runs lately, so I decided to see if I was up for a bit more mileage. A fellow professor joined me to run the Timp Trail Half Marathon course. We’ve had so little snow, I suspected most of the route was dry. I was mostly right – a couple patches of wet dirt, some mud, but not bad. What was bad was my body. Not only did I get killer cramps in both calves and one quad,…
Above the Orem Gun Range there is a great set of squiggle trails that lead up to Trail Nr. 051. Between there and Little Baldy I have noticed a series of green meadows that lead up in between the trees and have long wanted to explore them. So, I did. I did the climb out of the gun range a couple times, and messed around in those little meadows a bit. So quiet – I didn’t once see a single…
I have been doing my best to seduce a new neighbor (kind of old family friend) to the trails. So far, pretty good. I have taken him up the Lindon Squiggles, around the BST, the Dry Canyon – Altar/Rock Pile loop, the Johnsons Hole / Taj Mahal / GW loop, etc. Good times. I still struggle to believe all of these great trails are just a 5 minute drive away. >
Above Timpanogos Park there is a great set of squiggly trails (obviously built by mountain bikers) that some call the racetrack. If you loop a specific route, it is exactly 2 miles around. Super fun. I have done it a few times now in the snow, mud, and dirt. Go put it on your phone or watch and try to follow it! Great route. Racetrack Clockwise Racetrack Counterclockwise
For some reason my last few local runs have all been around the Johnson’s Hole area. There are a lot of dirt access roads for the aqueducts and water infrastructure up there – which makes for some nice easy miles, when I’m too lazy or beat up to bang out the singletrack. Here’s some recent routes. I took the kids up to some boulders above Johnson’s Hole that have petroglyphs on them. Very cool. They are quite weathered due to…
I have been out of commission for about 3 weeks with a cold turned sinus infection turned lingering cold. Yikes. I haven’t been this sick for this long in a while. Being sick in the summer is just cruel. Beautiful weather, but stuck inside. I finally had to get out. I hit up Johnson’s Hole from Canyon Glen Park. I can’t believe I’d never been up there before. It’ll be gorgeous in the spring when the grass is green. I…
I’ve said it before, but I really am pleased as punch with the easy access and quality of some of my backyard local trails. 3-5 minute drive to a trailhead and I can put in as few or as many easy miles as I want around the foothills. Add a canyon in for some elevation, or just putter around the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and countless offshoots. Here’s 3 recent ones. I took another friend out for his first trailrun with…
For the past couple weeks I have been thinking a lot about putting in smart miles rather than just lots of miles. Lots of miles usually just get me injured, plus I don’t have lots of time, so I’m trying to be strategic (and have even added biking to work once a week or so into the mix as a way to work on muscle strengthening and endurance without stressing my joints). Here’s some recent doings. Two of them were…
Barring catastrophic weather, bad falls, rolled ankles or other injuries, getting attacked by wild animals, etc., even the worst trail-run is still pretty great. The BST and squiggly wiggly trails above Orem/Lindon (especially between Dry Creek and Battle Creek) are kind of my treadmill. A little vert, a little technical single track, some flat sections to really open up and run. A bit of everything. The trails aren’t spectacular, although the sunsets, alpenglow, tall grass (in the Spring) are sometimes…
In hopes of rehabbing my IT Bands and increasing my flat-terrain endurance and speed, I have stayed off the trails for a couple weeks. (I want to be injury-free and flat-fast for my fundraiser on January 1 – read about it here to help Syrian refugees). One treadmill run and 3 on paved trails around my house. The treadmill was horrible. The ones around my house were convenient and actually somewhat enjoyable…but I missed the mountains. It is entertaining to…