Provo River Parkway 50k
The Provo River Parkway Trail is exactly 25k long – Utah Lake to Vivian Park. That seemed predestined to be run as an out-and-back 50k. This is the longest pavement run I’ve ever done. Ouch.
Mountain Biking?!
In the 90s as a teenage mountain biking was my primary hobby. I still have the same old ’95 Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail (no front suspension even!) and I finally took it out for a spin. First proper trail ride in over a decade. It was a lot of fun…except for the slipping and sliding due to the commuter non-trail tires I put on it a few years ago…and the bad brakes. Went over my handlebars once.
More Road Work + PRs
Over the past few months I have been pushing speeds on pavement and it has actually been a lot of fun. Today, I went a bit nuts and threw down just over 16 miles. That made for some PRs.
- 10k PR – 47:19
- 10 Mile PR – 1:18:34
- Half-Marathon PR – 1:45
- 25k PR – 2:09
Here are some other recent flat terrain PR-earning runs:
- 13 December 2018
- 10k PR – 49:24
- 22 December 2018
- 10k PR – 48:16
- 15k PR – 1:13:43
- 10 Mile PR – 1:19:06
- 31 January 2019
- 5k *almost* PR (missed by 20 seconds)
- 8 April 2019
- 5k *almost* PR (needed 10 second/mile faster)
- 27 April 2019
- 5k PR – 23:09!
Over the past few months I have been pushing speeds on pavement and it has actually been a lot of fun. Today, I went a bit nuts and threw down a 25k PR.
Here are some other recent PR-earning runs:
- 13 December 2018
- 10k PR – 49.24
Jello Legs Redux
Excited to see trails drying out and feeling up for some speed, I tried to PR on the long squiggly trails on the south side of the the mouth of Provo Canyon. PRs! Felt so good.
Exploring New Green Trails
I get stuck on trails, doing them repeated times in a row. This set – exploring the VERY GREEN foothills between Shooter and the Rock Pile / Betty trails. Gorgeous in the Spring.
Snowy Taj
Nice jaunt up to the Taj trail. I have only done it once and was surprised by how much snow there still was at the top of the loop – lost the trail for a while and post-holed around. Still great fun.
Johnson’s Hole Redlining
Fun times trying to go fast around Johnson’s Hole.On Monday I did a double loop of the Johnson’s Hole and Great Western (Dragon’s Back) trails, once each direction. Afterwards I noticed that I wasn’t too far off from getting a course record, so I went back on Wednesday and redlined the clockwise loop, poaching the CR. We’ll see how long it lasts.
Pushing PRs
I have lost a good amount of weight this year and on the trails I have noticed myself feeling stronger, getting faster, and breaking PRs. Here’s a few recent ones.
A few weeks ago I went out for a street run in the evening and accidentally got a 10k PR of 53:32.
This accidental PR made me curious, so the next week I went back out and tried to go faster. I did, clocking a 51:01 10k PR. I am really NOT a road runner – my fitness is so much more tuned to trails – so putting down mid 8:00 min/mile pace for miles on end is a real challenge. Or, it used to be. Again, with the weight dropped, I didn’t feel like maintaining this pace was as hard as it should be. I felt great!
A couple of days later I tried to crank out a flat 5k PR. My previous was 24:00 (last year’s Pima Turkey Trot) and I beat it by 30 seconds, coming in at 23:30 for a flat 5k. This one hurt a bit.
At this year’s Turkey Trot in Orem, I pushed again and shaved of 3 more seconds! Ha! 23:27 is my new flat 5k PR.
Curious about how this newfound strength would translate to trails, I have also recently picked a few old favorite routes and tried to bang them out faster than I have before.
I dropped about 7 minutes of my previous PR on the 10 mile out and back from the Indian Road Trailhead to Bridal Veil Falls.
I also redid a 6.6ish mile up the Lindon Squiggles / Crop Circles trails that I have done a few times. It felt so good. I cut 3 minutes off my previous PR. It felt great to clock 12-13 minute miles w/ ~300ft climbing per mile on the way up and then bomb the descent.
So . . . where should I go next? I have lots more old trail routes to revisit . . .
Provo Canyon Foothill Trails
I go through phases where I hit a trail system a bunch of times in a row, then don’t go back for a year. Well, this September was aparently my time to mess around some more on the (mtn bike) trails on the south side of the Provo Canyon, off FS 027 Sq. Peak Road. It was hot and these trails offer more shade than most. I had some fun, then went back and tried to do it all faster, then hiked there with my kids and wife, then went back again and pushed for PRs. I have been feeling stronger lately and it was fun to push so hard and today on the 20th I broke all my PRs for the trails.
Here’s 3 of the more noteworthy outtings.
New Waterfall
I spied a waterfall down-canyon from Bridal Veil and realized it was probably accessible from one of the side trails I have seen popping off of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Sure enough, one did. After the waterfall I went along a pipeline trail that got pretty shwhacky. It wouldn’t have been bad except for BEES swarming around breaks in the line and the fact that it all looked terribly snakey. No snakes though.
Slide Canyon
I have been scheming for a long time to get up on the south end of the Timpanogos Massif ridgeline via Provo Canyon. The most common route is via Slide Canyon. This was my first time up there. A shwhack for a lot of it, but gorgeous. I hit a headwall, was running out of time, and didn’t see an obvious way around. After looking at the map when I got home I figured out the way around (to the right) I should have taken. Just after that headwall/waterfall there is a scree slope up to the right that gets you on the ridge that takes you to the top of Sundance. I’ll be back…
First sub-2:00 Half Marathon
It hurt. But I did it. South Fork Rd, down Provo Canyon. My first sub 2:00 half marathon. Lots of PRs on this one! Now if I could find a *slightly* steeper route…I could go even faster!
Lost Creek Canyon
There are a bunch of canyons that go up the south end of the Timpanogos Massif from Provo Canyon. Some have “trails.” I’ve been wanting to go up them for a long time. I went up past a few waterfalls and up to where it turns into a long scree slope. To the left I went up a fork that cliffed out. I know other have gone up there, and I am pretty sure I spotted a route on the left side of the cliff headwall where a hidden staircase of sorts could go up and over. I’ll have to try it again when I have someone with me. Here’s a few pics from Lost Creek Canyon.
Provo Canyon Treadmills
I seem to be playing a lot in Provo Canyon lately instead of on the Orem/Lindon foothills/bench like I did for my first couple years here. Now that I look at some of these, I was clearly looking for routes with good amounts of flat. However, today I hopped over to the south side of the canyon to explore some mountain bike trails that I knew snaked around the hills east of FS Rd 027 (Sq. Peak Road). Fun times exploring!
Exploring the Little Baldy Foothills
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 person up in them.
Touring a new friend around the foothills
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.
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The Racetrack
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
Accidental Half Marathon
Every winter I start pounding out more pavement miles because I’m too lazy to run the snowy or muddy trails and every winter I get overuse injuries. So far so good this winter! I have mixed in some treadmill with some street runs, culminating with an accidental 1/2 marathon. I have only done a 1/2 on pavement once before. This time, I was planning to run from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Nunn’s Park and back – about 6 miles. When I got to Nunn’s I was feeling good and figured I should head another 1/2 mile up to Bridal Veil Falls to see it. It had been warm, the Provo River was surging so high, and I thought it might be fun to see. Once I got there, I figured I should probably just go all the way to Vivian Park so I could say I had done the full canyon trail up and down. When I got back to my car I was at 11.75 miles, so I figured I was ethically and morally obligated to run another 1.5 to make it a full 13.1 miles. I was a bit stiff by the end. A couple days later I did a 4 mile “recovery” run that started sore and ended great. The next morning all soreness was gone, so I am again converted to the recovery run idea for shaking out sore tight muscles.
Petroglyphs, Monster Wolf Spiders, and More Johnson’s Hole
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 their being out in the elements. My archaeologist friends date these to the pre-Fremont era, pre-1,000 AD.
Enthused by the area I went back to explore more. I did a double loop of the Johnson’s Hole / Great Western, one in each direction, then explored up-canyon on one of the lower aqueduct (Union?) roads, climbed back up to the Alta Aqueduct road. There I found the old 1857 Provo Canyon Guard Quarters, built during the Utah War and then manned for a while to monitor Native activities in the region. I also got in a good schwack and sliced my leg up on the scrub oak. It had been a while, I figured.
This run was particularly soul-invigorated. I was up in a region with TONS of access, trails, dirt roads, etc., but I didn’t see a single person. I felt so good to have the place to myself.
Today it was 75 and it is supposed to snow in a couple days, so I figured I should get one last sweaty run in.
Johnson’s Hole and my Sinuses
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 looped it up to the aqueduct roads for about 6.5 miles. It wasn’t that hot, but I felt pretty slow and low. Very quickly it became apparent that I am not as recovered from this illness as I thought I was.
Heat Training
It was 90+ and I knew that the BST from Indian Hills to Bridal Veil Falls would have almost no shade. 10 miles round trip. Sounds great, eh?
The Bryce 50k is coming up in 9 days and it is forecast to be hot, so I wanted to see how I fared in the heat. The trip to Bridal Veil was hot, but I had plenty of water. At the falls I took off my shirt, submerged it and put it back on ice cold. Nice! As I left to make the return trip I had a genius idea. On the way there I had drank both of the bottles of ice water in my chest pockets, saving the (almost) full bladder for the return. As I thought how nice the cold wet shirt felt and how it would probably be dry and hot within 5 minutes or so I looked down at the stream, looked at my empty bottles, looked back at the stream and then the light bulb went on. I filled both bottles up – not to drink, but to intermittently dump over my head, down my back, on my arms, down my chest, etc. It was genius and it seemed to keep my core body temp down. I did the return trip faster than the way out as well, and I was feeling great. I attribute it to the bottles of water. I think I’ll do this at Bryce. Have 2 empty bottles in my drop bag at mile 14. By that point it will be warming up. Then, take them with to cool me off. Refill at the mile 22.5, etc. I think it’ll be a good way to keep a bit cooler.
Just Keep Moving
Trying to put in some easy miles, keep fit, but not aggravate my sore injured hip and foot/ankle. Varied success. A couple of these felt great, a couple hurt. The last, the full Grove-Battle Creeks loop was magnificent and actually felt pretty good during and after. Thankfully, I haven’t turned my ankle any more. Hopefully things are on the mend.
Exploring the Provo Foothills
I have done a number of runs in the Orem/Lindon foothills on the side of the mouth of Provo Canyon, but not much on the south side of the canyon mouth. I remedied that this last week with 2 runs.
Starting at the Indian Hills trailhead I headed up the first mile climb and then another couple miles along the BST that travers up-canyon. The was ice in a few spots, but not bad. It felt great to be out. Once I turned around, my right IT Band flared up pretty quick and didn’t let up – getting especially bad on the last mile descent. More time on I the foam roller, I guess. Lots of tread mill. No hills.
On Saturday I planned to try out my new snowshoes for the first time up at Aspen Grove, if the snow was deep enough. Unfortunately, the anyone road was closed. About 10-15 minutes earlier, a oil tanker overturned, spilling 1,000 gallons of crude oil into the Provo a River. Very sad. Nobody was hurt. I’m glad I wasn’t a few minutes earlier or I could have been in the middle of it.
I wasn’t planning to run because of my knee, but decided to give it a try. I ran up the Sq*** Peak Road a bit, then dropped onto the Cactus Hill Connector and then to the top of Cactus Hill. The trail was untouched by human feet until the top of the hill. Just animal tracks on about 2 inches of fresh snow. So perfect. Down the west side of the hill there were a bunch of tracks from earlier in the morning, but once I headed back up canyon on the Smith Ditch a then BST I had taken on Monday, it was fresh tracked again. So beautiful. I bombed back down the road to my car. The knee felt *ok and it was so fun to be out on the fresh snow. But, for the next bit I need to keep it flat. Treadmill, I assume.
First Road Half Marathon
I have run 1/2 marathon distances a number of times, but never on pavement. It has always been on trails and going mountain pace.
I attempted this a week ago, but got rained out.
So, I tried again. This time I started at Big Springs Park and ran down to Orem. It was great for the first 9 miles – nice easy pace. I’m not fast. But then the last 4 were hot and exposed. Why did I do this in the middle of the day?!
Some Slow and Easy Rehab Runs
With muscle relaxants doing their work, I was advised to try some easy slow runs. The Dr. didn’t have to ask me twice!
Thursday I hit the some Orem/Lindon BST. It was great to get out and move, but I did it in the heat of the day and the temps really got to me!
Feeling good, I tried a new place on Friday – up Provo Canyon and to Big Springs, on the backside of the Cascade Ridge. I went up the Big Springs / Shingle Mills Trail and down the Big Springs Hollow Trail.
Monday night I tried out some twisty mtn. bike trails above Lindon. It was a BLAST! Between all the twists and turns, there was a lot of flattish runnable terrain. I will definitely add this loop to my regular rotation.
