A few recent runs
As it turns out, the last few weeks have been more mileage than usual. It felt good to hit the trails more regularly. Also a few hikes with the kiddos. Here’s the highlights:
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
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
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
East Mtn. to Fernwood and Back
I so enjoyed the BST on my way to Adams Canyon and back on Monday that I decided to put in some more miles on it. It is about 3.6 miles from East Mountain Park in Kaysville to Fernwood Recreation Site in Layton. It isn’t the most exciting trail, view-wise, but it is a great place to clock miles. Lots of gentle ups and downs, and few shorter steep climbs and descents – but nothing too crazy. I have decided that my Altra Olympus shoes are great for this kind of trail – not to technical. I think this route may be a go-to for me when I want to clock some trail miles, rather than bagging peaks, stacking vert, or exploring UP canyons, etc… Close to home, relatively easy miles.
For the first 3 miles I was feeling sluggish – but on the way back felt great. This might be somewhat due to the fact that there is more climbing on the way there, but I think I generally feel best from about miles 4-8 on most runs. The first few miles are hard, and once my legs loosen up and I get in a rhythm, it feels better. Good splits for me towards the end. I would love to get all of my splits at 10:00 min/mile or lower. Maybe I’ll add this to regular rotation and try to drop my time each run.
I ran through sunset and flipped on my headlamp for the last 2 miles.
7.2 Miles in 1:19:47 @ 11:06 min/mile and with 905 ft. elevation gain
Pioneer Day Fun with 20+ miles, almost 6k elevation, 2 peaks, 2 Rattlesnakes, and Blisters Blisters Blisters
Last year on Pioneer Day, a friend and I tackled Baer Canyon. It was only my 2nd trail run, and we were unprepared and it was rough. I thought I would continue that and make an annual tradition of pushing myself to do unwise things on Pioneer Day. On the top of my trailrun to-do list has been to bag Thurston and Francis Peaks. I have been to both, but only after driving up to Francis and then running the Great Western Trail. I wanted to do it proper, climbing up from the valley floor. I put out the word and was joined by a few nice gents – Bryan, Jeremy, and Steve. Bryan had to turn back (work, or something) after the first hour of climbing, but Jeremy and Steve stuck it out to the end.
20.7 miles in 5:00:07 @ 14:29 min/mile and 5,817 ft. elevation gain
We started at 5:00 AM with headlamps, and I immediately fell behind the group on the climb out of the Fernwood Recreation Site in Layton. I don’t know what it was, but I just felt horrible. My stomach felt uneasy, and the climb really beat me up. When Brian turned back, I caught up to the other two and we stayed together for most of the remainder of the climb. We made it up the primary ascent, hit the delicious springs to refill our water along the traverse over to Chinscraper and then tackle that final climb up to the ridgeline.
As we neared Thurston Peak, we cut up a stream drainage where there was exposed rock and dirt to make an easier bushwhack up to the the peak. Its a bummer that someone hasn’t blazed a proper trail up to the top. Someone get on that. We enjoyed taking a rest, chugged some soda, ate, and then continued on south, back to the Great Western Trail.
Along here, I hit my stride on the GW, but after about an 1/2 mile got stopped in my tracks by simultaneous cramps in my right calf and thigh. Ouch. I had been careful to keep hydrated and intake calories, but I had completely forgotten to pop a salt capsule. I took two with water, rubbed them a bit, and then runned them out until they loosened while trying to catch up to Jeremy and Steve. They didn’t cause any more problems as I kept my electrolytes in balance.
I love this stretch of the Great Western – amazing views on both sides.
We took the steep road/trail up to the FAA towers on Francis Peak and stopped to refuel, take pictures, and plan our descent. Originally, I had planned on coming down the Francis Peak Trail, but had been convinced to take the Farmington Canyon Road down. This would put the mileage higher than I had planned, but I was excited about the prospect of hitting 20 miles – which would make it my longest run ever.
We started to scramble down the rocks just south of the peak marker to get back on the road when both Jeremy and Steve let out a sudden scream and help. Apparently, I had stepped right over (almost on) a large rattlesnake. As they followed me, they saw it slithering away, whereas I hadn’t even noticed it at all. After we got our nerves back, we got on the road and started down.
At this point, my left IT Band was starting to hurt, so I told them to go ahead while I stretched. I had about 8-9 miles of gravel road downhill ahead of me and I figured that with stretching the IT band might hurt, but would be manageable.
I caught up to them a mile or so down the road and continued my faster pace, moving ahead of them for another couple miles. Then, the blisters started. On the heal and arch of my right foot, two large blisters developed. This slowed me down and as we approached Skyline Dr. / Farmington Canyon Rd., they caught up to me. I was quickly realizing that this was going to be a much slower descent than I had planned so I wished them good luck and sent them on their way. So much for 8 minute miles the whole way down. Instead, I hobbled / limped / kind-of-ran / sometimes walked down to Sunset Campground and then took the Farmington Creek Trail down to its trailhead where my wife picked me up. It was really painful. Excruciating.
Jeremy and Steve took the road the whole way down, and my shortcut actually put me at the bottom ahead of them, even though my pace was slow.
In the end, I was exhausted and in a lot of pain but happy to have down 20 miles and to have bagged both Thurston and Francis Peaks. Though on speed PRs, a PR for distance and that was fun.