Browsed by
Tag: Farmington Urban Trails

Treadmill Winter. Avoiding Injury and Inversion Smog

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 many miles too soon on the pavement. I was trying to avoid vert to rehab my IT bands (wow, life is cyclical) and overdid it. I don’t want to let that happen, so I’m trying something new.

Saturday:

I’m going to build my base mileage this winter on treadmills. I joined a $10 a month gym and am going to just suffer through it. I have done 2 runs so far, and no increased ankle pain.

Cons: I hate gyms. Treadmill running is pure torture. I miss the trails.

Pros: I get out of the horrendous inversion smog in the Salt Lake Valley. It is fast and convenient. It will hopefully prevent injury. I can use the other parts of the gym to do some strength training to strengthen my hip flexors and other muscles in order to rehab my IT bands and prevent them from flaring up.

Ugh. This is going to be a long few months.

Today:

#EarnThatPie

#EarnThatPie

Turkey Trot

We are making a family tradition out of doing a race on Thanksgiving morning. We did it back in 2012, a 5 miler that seemed like the farthest distance I would ever run. This time the Mrs. and I did the Turkey Leg 5k in Farmington. It was a lot of fun. I should have eaten a little better in the morning though because I felt like the tank was empty. Still the 25:00 time was pretty good for me. Afterwards I ran home (also 5k) as extra credit to earn myself some more pie.

AND

A few recent runs

A few recent runs

Here are a few recent outings:

A run up the newly worked on lower stretch of the Farmington Creek Trail by Ryan Lauck, up the first section of the post-parking lot single track, and then looping across the creek to explore the Aqueduct Trail back – a first. All with a coworker, Spencer, who just moved here and is quickly getting hooked on the trails.

5.0 miles in 1:33:34 @ 18:44 min/mile and with 1,170 ft. elevation gain

Farmington Canyon + Old Aqueduct (1)
Farmington Canyon, Beautiful as Ever
Farmington Canyon + Old Aqueduct (2)
Spencer Surveying his Domain from the base of the Farmington Spine

A night run on pavement. Zzzz.

4.3 miles in 38:00 @ 8:53 min/mile and with 0 ft. elevation gain

A night run up Centerville Canyon. Bad idea to do in the dark. Rough trail, LOTS to trip on and having to stop a few times to figure out where the trail went.  Slow.

3.1 miles in 47:04 @ 14:58 min/mile and with 952 ft. elevation gain

Centerville Canyon - Dewell Creek at night
These woods be creepy in the dark!

A repeat of the 7 mile out and back from East Mtn. Park in Kaysville to Fernwood in Layton on the BST. I ran it faster than ever, getting PRs on all of the segments and even negative splits. I felt great! In my head I was thinking it had to be way faster than last time, but looking at the previous post it was only 2 minutes faster overall. Oh well – I’ll take it!

7.2 miles in 1:17:39 @ 10:50 min/mile and with 835 ft. elevation gain

Adams Canyon BST
Autumn is popping in the hills, but still plenty of green on the BST – here coming out north of Adams Canyon
Busting my Bike Legs While Resting my Running Ankle

Busting my Bike Legs While Resting my Running Ankle

So…I have still be really nervous about my ankle.  But, equally nervous about getting out of shape. So, I have put in some miles on my mountain bike.

11 March 2014
All pavement, but first time riding the Lagoon Trail up to Farmington Pond
7.4 miles in 36:11, 12.2 mph average and 24.4 mph top speed

20 March 2014
I only have about 45 minutes, so I through my bike onto my car, parked at the bottom of Farmington Canyon and rode up to the 1st switchback where the pavement ends.  That non-stop climb burns.
3.1 miles in 23:42, 7.8 mph average and 36.7 mph top speed, 750 ft. elevation

 25 March 2014
This time I rode 4 miles up Farmington Canyon. My legs felt great and I was hoping to make it a full 5+ up to Sunset Campground, but I ran out of daylight.  Yarg!  The climb was tough, but the way down was almost just as bad. Flying down that dirt road on my hard-trail (no suspension) bike was PUNISHING on my wrists, hands, forearms, etc…  Ouch.
7.9 miles in 1:05:37, 7.3 mph average and 35.3 mph top speed, 1,661 ft elevation

 

Panorama looking south

IMG_1884

Blasting my Legs on my Bike as I Rest my Ankle for Running

Blasting my Legs on my Bike as I Rest my Ankle for Running

One thing I noticed  a couple weeks ago when I went for a short 4 mile run on the BST above Farmington was that after taking a full month off to rest my injured ankle, I was OUT OF SHAPE. Actually, its scary how fast I had lost my lungs, legs, and overall endurance – not that I had much to begin with. My ankle is feeling a lot better, but I don’t want to chance reinjuring it. So, in hopes of keeping my overall fitness going, I jumped on my mountain bike today to head for the hills.

I made it about a mile from my house when I realized I had forgotten my water.  Turned back, got it, started again. I had thought about driving to Farmington Pond and starting from there – saving my legs the 2.5 street miles to get there, but was too lazy to load my bike up in the car.  So – streets it was. The climb up Farmington Canyon Road was slow and hard.  Man, I’m out of shape. I was happy that I didn’t really have to stop at all, but I creeped along pretty slow as I climbed about 1,300 ft. straight with out stopping from the turn off onto E 600 N (from W 600 N), up to N 100 E, and from there up the Canyon Road proper. The steepest sections are the pavement climb up to the first switchback.  After that the dirt road is harder to ride on, but not as steep – so it was a bit easier going.  I didn’t make it too far up – only about 2.5 miles up the canyon. This made me wish that I hadn’t started at my house and had instead parked at the Pond.  Oh well.

On the way down I quickly realized that my brakes were busted.  I had adjusted them before leaving, but apparently didn’t do it right.  That made for an interesting, and sometimes terrifying descent. They worked, but not well.  When I hit the left turn off for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, I decided to get a little actual trail miles on.  I grew up mountain biking on the trails of Galbraith Mt. in Bellingham, WA – some of the best trails in the world. The BST is a bit of a let down.  And, getting run off the BST multiple times by 4-wheelers and motorcycles was not great. At Steed Creek, I hung a right and hit a short section of actual single track, then hit the streets and made my way home.

15.2 miles in 1:43, average speed 8.8 mph, max speed 32.9 mph, 1,693 ft. elevation.

 Untitled picture2

Oh – and my ankle doesn’t feel aggravated.  Phew!  My legs are a different story.

Flat No Vert IT Band Rehab Runs and new Ankle Injury, Jan. 1 – Jan. 20

Flat No Vert IT Band Rehab Runs and new Ankle Injury, Jan. 1 – Jan. 20

When I got back from Arizona, I decided that I would try to rehab my IT Bands. They hurt the worst going downhill, so I thought maybe staying flat – on the pavement trails around my house – would help.  Over the course of a few weeks, I did 6 flat runs. I would do stretches on the trail every 1/2 -1 mile for 20-30 seconds on each side. It actually worked pretty well and by the 6th run I was feeling very little to no IT Band pain!  Hooray! And, it was actually fun to pound the pavement and work on my speed and pace.  I posted some of my fastest paces ever. Concurrent with this was the New Year and I decided to make a resolution.  I wanted to run 500 miles this year.  This motivated me for these 3 weeks to keep on getting out there and clocking miles and was probably my most runningest (not a word, I know) month ever.

Jan. 1: 5.2 miles @ 9:10 min/mile

Jan. 4: 6.2 miles @ 8:48 min/mile

Jan. 9: 4.2 miles @ 9:35 min/mile

Jan. 11: 3.7 miles @ 9:03 min/mile

Jan 15: 5.0 miles @ 9:34 min/mile (with MVH)

At this point, my left peroneal ankle tendon began hurting.  That’s right – the right ankle was feeling fine, but now my left ankle started hurting. I think it was, again, from doing a few runs on uneven snow. Stupidly, I ran through the pain a few days later and blasted out a PR for a 10k.  I was excited about that, but woke up the next morning in extreme pain – totally limping around.

Jan 20: 6.3 miles @9:02 min/mile (10k PR)

Testing Endurance, first true 10 mile Run

Testing Endurance, first true 10 mile Run

As I have mentioned, I know that trail running extends my endurance.  A slower 6 mile in the hills is way easier than pounding out 6 miles at my top pace on pavement.  So…I decided to test my legs out and really see if my endurance on the streets was improving.  I decided to run a straight 10 miles.  I had never done this before, so it was a big deal for me.  It was hard,  but I’m very glad I did it.

10.3 miles @ 10:34 min/mile

I followed it up a few days later with a evening pavement run – experienced my first ever side ache, but clocked my best 5k time ever.. 3.5 miles @ 9:11 min/mile.  So, maybe my speed endurance was improving.

10k on the Pavement. Zzz

10k on the Pavement. Zzz

I was feeling good on the trails.  THRILLED about going 6-9 miles.  But, I was realizing that there was a bit of self-deception.  My PACE on the trails was slow.  That is normal for trail running.  A bit slower overall – fast power hiking on big climbs, etc…  You aren’t running at a full street pace the whole time.  So, I was wondering if I could put in 6-9 miles on the pavement.  I suspected not.  I decided to shoot for a 10k.  It was boring, and long, and hard, and killed me.  A 10k PR in fact.  Way more tiring than a slower 10k (even with elevation) on the trails.  I’m glad I did it though.  6.3 miles @ 9:22 min/mile, 0 ft. elevation.

BORING!!!

IMG_1407