Pipeline Trail & Elbow Fork

I slept in a little late today because my nephew moved in last night (until he gets married in two months) and I stayed up late talking to him.

I left the townhouse about 9:00 and decided to head up Millcreek Canyon. I thought there might be a chance I would run into Leslie Peterson on the trail. Sure enough, when I reached the Burch Hollow parking lot, I saw her car with the bike rack attached, which meant Harold had also gone biking with her.

About 2 miles in on the trail, I ran into Leslie coming around a corner. I think she was pretty surprised and happy to see me. She turned around and we ran another mile out and then headed back to the trailhead so her mileage wouldn't get too high. She has decided to stick to trails for her running except for the St. George Marathon. We talked about it a bit. She thinks this will be easier on her joints than the road running. We did a total of about 4 miles together and then she headed home and I turned around to go up the trail a bit and get on the Elbow Fork Trail. A sign a quarter mile back said it was 2 miles from there to the trailhead.

Elbow Fork was a pretty trail heading east up the mountain. And I do mean UP the mountain. A lot of the first ¾ mile was switchbacks where I couldn't get above 25-30 minutes per mile pace walking and my heart was pounding pretty hard. After that it settled down and I could run most of the gentle flats and uphills with no problem. I did find that starting late was putting me in the heat of the day and I did not have enough fluids and started feeling the heat. When I hit the road a little after mile 9, I took time to go down to the river and splash myself with water and pour several hats of water over my head. I was disconnecting (losing focus) on the return trip, which was a little worrisome because it doesn't take much on a trail to get injured if you don't pay attention. However, I persevered and finished up.

Remember how the sign said the trailhead was 2 miles up the road. It lied. It was almost 3 miles. A pretty section of trail – but a lot of work on the uphills – it makes you earn your downhills.

Anybody want some new shoes?

I bought a bunch (ok – 3 pairs) of Montrail trail running shoes on sale at Strider's earlier this year. I have worn the size 8 ½ Montrail Vitesse for less than 16 miles, but have decided they have to go. They must be too small – because my feet start falling asleep in them. Luckily they were half off – but I hate wasting money on running gear. (I love SPENDING money on running gear).

On the bright side – I did buy a second pair that were size 9. I will start breaking them in and hope they fit better.

Now I have two pairs of my shoes in my 'shoe the shoeless' pile to donate at a Running Store. Somebody will hopefully really love the brand new pair.

Memorial Day Run on Provo River Trail

Today was a beautiful day out and perfect running weather for a 20 mile run.

I met Marion McLellan, Luz Lewis and Marion's friend, AnnaLise for Marion's first 20 mile run in anticipation of her first marathon - the Utah Valley Marathon on June 13th.

Luz's husband took us partway up the parkway and we then headed uphill for 7 miles up Provo Canyon. We quickly split into two groups, Luz and AnnaLise up ahead, Marion and I in the rear. It was a bit chilly on the way up, but lots of other runners and bikers on the trail. Marion was playing around with her hydration and gu timing and I was following my usual pattern. I switched over to my marathon timing of run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute.

A little after 7 miles, we turned around just shy of Vivian Park and headed back down the canyon. The downhill definitely seemed a lot easier after the 7 miles of uphill - even though it was gentle uphills.

This picture is of Marion as we were getting near the mouth of the canyon. The quality is not great because I was using my cellphone camera, but has to do.

As I was waiting for Marion, I noticed how beautiful the clouds and snow were on Mt. Timpanogos in the background.

We met up with Luz and AnnaLise again at Will's Pitstop and took a pitstop ourselves. After this, we had to go down the least scenic portion of the trail for a couple of miles and then got back down near the river.

Marion was doing awesome. I know she is nervous about her first marathon, but she has been very careful in her training and is going to do great.

We were both happy to get to the end of the run. After a group picture, Luz took Marion and I down near her house and we sat in the river for a few minutes (my feet couldn't handle the cold, so I sat backwards and kept my feet out). Then we went to Luz's for some fruit and stretching before heading home.

My own bizarre triathlon

The beautiful day was calling my name this morning, so after talking with my daughter in Italy for a while, I headed out the door. This time I carried a little more water, some Gatorade Endurance and some Gu Chomps (first time trying these).

I rode my bike a little over 10K to Draper and parked at the Draper City Park. After locking up, I headed out on the equestrian trails along the Draper Canal Trail and Porter Rockwell Trail. I did a 7.1 mile loop and alternated running and walking to let my legs recover from 2 hard days. Strangely enough, the grass rubbing along my legs on the way out irritated me, but running back I was in a wall of chest high grass and loved my own little 'tunnel' and the feeling against my arms. By the way – I really like the Gu Chomps – maybe even more than ShotBloks.

Climbed on the bike and headed back home. The first hill I hit really made my quads whine, but I told them to shut up and they did. My butt was a lot happier about having a break partway through the ride than when I just ride to Draper and back.

For the third leg of my triathlon, I stopped at Gold's Gym and did 45 minutes of weight training on my chest, back and biceps. There was a great bicep workout in the latest issue of Oxygen magazine and I wanted to try that out.

Once more on the bike for the last 1.3 miles home. Whiny quads again – but I didn't care because I caught some nice definition in my legs in the mirrors of the gym.

Tomorrow will be a rest day. Monday I am meeting some other runners at 6 a.m. in Provo to run the Provo River Parkway Trail for 20 miles. It will be the first 20 miler for Marion and the last really long run for all of us in preparation for the Utah Valley Marathon three weeks from today.

My IT Band no longer bothers me at all. The piriformis is healing – but I can still tell it is not 100%. I will do yoga and core tonight and then do some serious stretching of my entire body.

Friday night fun

To stave off the depression that often hits on holiday weekends, I headed off yesterday afternoon to Little Cottonwood Canyon.

I started running up the Little Cottonwood Trail. My plan was to get up as far as I could until I was stopped by snow. I was able to run about 1.5 miles until I had to throw in a few walking breaks. I need to work on my uphill running again this year. Last year I was able to run (ok – slog) the entire trail both ways at the end of the season. There were lots of mountain bikers, hikers and runners – so I didn't worry about my safety like the last time I did this trail. A little after 3 miles there is a turn to the left where there is a parking lot, or a straight ahead trail. However, that section was under about 6 inches of running water and I didn't want wet feet, so I just ran over to the road. After a brief hydration stop, turned around and ran the entire way back down the trail. I did find a nice bike tool way off the trail that must have flown out of some cyclists pocket.

At the end of the trail I decided that I wanted to get to 9 or 10 miles, so ran down the road a bit. Much to my surprise, I saw the parking lot for Bells Canyon Reservoir. Leslie Peterson showed me this trail last fall. I hiked to the top of the trail (jumping a bit as a snake slithered off the trail and freaked me out) and then ran around the reservoir. Almost at the end was a stream crossing that was really low last fall. However, it was about 18 inches deep and cold and fast and I couldn't find a way across, so had to turn around and run back the way I came.

As I started running down the trail, I could feel my energy draining. I was only carrying a 12 ounce bottle of water with a Nunn electrolyte tab in it and between the heat and distance, was needing some calories. I was able to find a water fountain at the bottom of the trail to get some more hydration, but still had 1.5 miles uphill to get back to my Jeep.

It was a great run and I felt good, but I was definitely hot, tired and hungry when it was over. Thank heavens for the green chicken chili (especial) quesadilla at Bajio's.

Speed Work Starting Again

Now that I am recovering from injuries and not training for a 50 mile race in the future, it is time to get back to speed work again. Granted – I doubt I will ever be fast, but I am already faster than I ever thought I would be.

Since I had a neighbor that has thoughtfully decided to wake up the entire condo subdivision by blaring a clock radio from 4:00-5:00 a.m. while they are out of town – I went to the gym at 4:30 this morning. I started out my day with an hour of weight training on my legs and core.

Treadmill time came next. I alternated half mile splits with the first half mile at 5.2 mph and the next half mile at 6.2 mph. After 5 miles of this, I gradually dropped my speed .1 mph from the 6.2 until the treadmill hit the cool-down section at 60 minutes. The speed work felt good and it was amazing how the slower half mile actually felt easy after the speedier portions. I felt like I was on Biggest Loser because I was absolutely dripping sweat from the effort.

I think I will repeat this workout for the next couple of weeks (increasing the speed each week by .1 mph) until after the Utah Valley Marathon on June 13^th and then add in a tempo workout in addition to speed intervals.

The Pipeline Trail - Millcreek Canyon

The other weekend I ran the Pipeline Trail in Millcreek Canyon on both Friday night and Saturday morning. The picture above is of me and Odee Peterson (or his back half) at the end of the Pipeline Trail looking into the Salt Lake Valley.

The Pipeline Trail is about 4.25 miles each way and is a beautiful trail. It is not too hilly, but has gentle inclines and declines and, except for a couple of rocky areas, is very easy single track to run on. You run into lots of hiker, bikers, runners and dogs. Shortly before this I ran into another ultramarathoner who was mountain biking as cross training. He made me look lazy - he had the Ogden Marathon, Sapper Joe 50K and the Squaw Peak 50 miler in the next 3 weekends.



Leslie and I ran the trail together on Saturday morning. Here is Leslie coming into the stream crossing about 1.5 miles in.

It seems that everyone wants to be outdoors on Friday night. I saw two parasails that I think made it all the way across from Point of the Mountain. They were catching some good breezes.

Here is Odee with his panniers. We make him carry his own water - so that we don't have to.