Weekly Summary: July 30 - August 5

7/30 - Rest.

7/31 -  6.17 miles.  1:05:33.   400'v.  Stagecoach.  An easy and much need run to decompress after a full day of moving equipment to the new shop.  Over the past 2 weeks Bob and I have been relocating the business, which is no small feat.  Today, in particular, was a hot day and we began moving the larger shop equipment.  This run felt like one of my longest this year as I was on my feet the entire work day.  Route was from the house, down to the lakeshore and about half a mile of trail before turning around and running back uphill to the house. 

8/1 - Rest.  Completely whooped after another day of moving.

8/2 - 6.27 miles.  :56:39.  400'v.  Stagecoach.  Almost the same route as Tuesday but with a little more pep in the legs.

8/3 -  4.41 miles.  :45:02.  400'v.  Stagecoach.  Waited until the sun went down so that I could run in the dark and practice running with the headlamp on.  I ran about 1.5 miles on the road and then cut through the sagebrush to get down to Elk Run Trail next to the lake.  My depth perception was playing tricks on me on the trails.  It's a strange feeling running on trails in the dark.  Even with a headlamp, your vision is so limited that you have to slow down and be careful of your footing, even on a wide trail like the one by the lake.  From past experience, it's even stranger in the woods, when the trail is rockier and every sound coming from the darkness is like something stalking you.  Funny thing this evening was that I didn't make a wrong turn until I got back on the roads.  I should do a few more night runs before RRR.

8/4 - 17.45 miles.  3:48:14.  2750'v.  Sarvis Creek Trail.  Attempted to run Sarvis Creek from end to end and back and failed miserably.  About 45 minutes before my run, I took a 2.7 fl.oz. dose of Vespa CV-25, an amino acid supplement that is supposed to help athletes metabolize body fat.   For fueling, I carried 1.8oz. packet of Pocket Fuel Almond Butter, a couple Clif Shot gels, three SaltStick capsules and a clementine.  I also carried a 20 oz. water bottle and a SteriPen  Adventurer to purify water that I would be refilling from creeks and streams.  There were several groups of hikers on the early portion of the trail, which was nice to see, and I hiked and ran the first 800' climb in the first couple miles.   I reached the wooden bridge crossing the creek (around 3 miles) in about a half-hour and felt really good as I continued another mile up trail on the portion I had run a couple months ago.  I noticed alot of cow piles on the trail (this area is Wilderness Area but apparently Open Range for ranchers, also) and it made me nervous about getting water from the creek but I figured that's why I have a water purifier.  Around the 6 mile mark, I had run through a couple of open meadows and it was getting close to noon and warming up pretty good.  I finally stopped at the creek for a few minutes to refill my bottle and then continued back on the trail.  About a mile later, I ran into 3 people who had come in on horseback from the Buffalo Park end of the trail and were having a little lunch.  I surprised them by coming down the trail solo and I stopped to talk for a couple minutes.  They were visitors from Arizona and said it had taken them 2 hours to ride to that point.  By now, I was sure that I wouldn't make it to Buffalo Park but I continued on, waded through Sarvis Creek and started a climb for another mile until I reached 9000' elevation before deciding to turn around.  Originally, I had thought the trail was about 8 miles end to end but I pulled out my map, determined my location and figured that it was actually 12-13 miles.  I definitely didn't have enough food to make the trip so I turned and ran the downhill through some pine trees until I hit a creek crossing where I stopped to refill my water bottle again.  Here, I saw the threesome again, this time on horses, and yeilded the trail to let them pass.  At the creek crossing, I filled my bottle up, yet again, and stopped to take a couple photos.   I ran the next 3 miles at an easy pace on some technical single track, mostly because I was feeling the heat and lacked energy, despite eating all my Pocket Fuel, the clementine, one gel and all my SaltSticks.  I passed a family I saw earlier with about 4 miles to go and looked forward to the bridge where I would dip into the creek again, refill and cool off.  In the last few miles, I was thankful to be in the trees and hiked the short climb from the bridge and ran the last 2 mile downhill portion feeling pretty drained.  Once I made it back to my truck, I pounded a warm Gatorade and ate a banana, and while tired, didn't feel exceptionally bad.  I drove about 15 minutes to get back home and shortly thereafter my stomach turned and I promptly vomitted before I could get in the shower.   Demoralized, I climbed into bed and napped for an hour or so before I finally felt a little better and was able to eat dinner.   

8/5 - 2 miles.  Walked with Katy.  Man, it's hot.  Legs felt a little stiff.

Weekly mileage:  36 miles.

Moving the shop was a real pain early in the week, rough on my back and made it tough to even want to run in the evening.  I decided to do the night run on Friday to 1) reaquaint myself with running in the dark and 2) run on somewhat tired legs before my Saturday long run.  I'm not sure what caused my problems on Saturday.  It could have been the heat, the Vespa (first time I've tried this product), accumulated fatigue,  contaminated water or any combination these things.  From my Wilderness First Responder training, I'm inclined to rule out water contamination since I did purify my water and it usually takes at least a few days for waterborne illness to show up.  It's also possible that I didn't stay hydrated enough for the weather as I held back on drinking early in the run.  I'll try the Vespa again on next week's long run to see what happens. 

Weekly Summary: July 22 - July 29

7/22 - Rest.

7/23 - Rest.

7/24 - Rest.

7/25 - 1 mile.  Walking with Katy.

7/26 -  A couple miles.  Stagecoach.  No watch.  Just shaking things out a bit.

7/27 -  Rest.

7/28 - 10.66 miles.  1:59:19.  700'v.   Stagecoach.   Some trail and alot of dirt road for this casual morning run.  The weather was pretty clear but humid when I set out down the dirt road on my way to Sarvis Creek Trail.   After a 2 mile warm up on the road I was ready to run some single track but only made it about a half mile up Sarvis Creek before running into two, dog-sized bear cubs.  One bolted down the trail, FAST! and the smaller one tried to climb up an aspen tree.  I immediately turned around, afraid that I would frighten the two bears into losing each other.  It also crossed my mind that Mama Bear was probably within earshot of her cubs and wouldn't appreciate me bugging them.  No worries, they were there first.  I decided to run the road again for a while and saw a few guys fishing and three runners also enjoying the morning.  I hiked quite a few hills on the way back as my legs seemed to lack some pep. 

7/29 - 11.26 miles.  3:01:25.  Gilpin Lake Trail (1161) - Gold Creek Trail (1150).  Finally, I can check the famous "Zirkel Circle" off my list after wanting to do this route for over two years.  My first attempt, two summers ago with Katy, ended rather abruptly when a rogue tree branch nearly scalped my then-girlfriend.   This time I ran it with Richard Williams and we didn't run Mica Lake Trail, opting to do just the classic North Routt County mountain loop.  It looked like it might rain all morning but we didn't get wet until the final two miles and, by then, it was a pleasant, light rain that cooled us off.  The hike up was steady and relaxed for the first 3 miles and we didn't run a whole lot.  There were many, many people on the trail and even more sitting at Gilpin Lake when we finally arrived there.  I'm not used to sharing the trail with so many people (unless it's a race!) but I love seeing people getting out in the woods so it was cool to exchange greetings with them.   Gilpin Lake was incredible and I can really see why it is such a popular destination.  After leaving the lake, we climbed up and over a saddle and enjoyed 5 glorious miles of downhill all the way back to the trail head.  The single track trail was both runnable and fairly technical but we were feeling good on the return so we kept up a pretty brisk pace most of the way down.  Gorgeous track!



Two good runs on the weekend although I lacked a couple of maintenance runs during the week.  Overall, feeling very good and looking forward to a few more wilderness runs with Richard in August.  Right now, the only race I'm considering for next month is Continental Divide Trail Run on the 18th.  Richard and I are planning to do an out-and-back run on the entire Mad Creek (Swamp Park) Trail in mid-August as a final long run (44 miles) before the RRR100.  Next Sunday, I am planning on taking him to Sheriff Reservoir to check out the Black Mountain Trail.

Fortnight Summary: Apr 22 - May 6

4/22 - Rest.

4/23 - Rest.

4/24 - Rest.

4/25 - Run/hike with Benihana up Stagecoach Mountain.

4/26 - Rest.

4/27 - Rest.

4/28 - 5.31 miles.  1:37:54.  Mega easy effort.

4/29 - 12.80 miles.  1:57:10.  Spring Creek Trail.  Ridiculously fun session on Spring Creek with about 15 minutes of barefoot running on the soccer fields by the high school afterwards.  Ran the 5.2 miles of single track up to Dry Lake and back into town at a super solid effort.   Just over an hour to get up to Dry Lake and then rocked the downhill return in 37 minutes.  The trail was in perfect condition.

4/30 - Rest.

5/1 - 6.35 miles.  1:03:38.  Stagecoach.

5/2 - Rest.

5/3 - 5.39 miles.  :42:25.  Stagecoach.  

5/4 - Rest.

5/5 - 14.13 miles (1500+').  2:43:37.  Sarvis Creek Trail.  Easy effort long run from South Shore out to Sarvis Creek Trail and, then, 4 miles out on the trail.  It was a beautiful, sunny morning and I felt really good.  I hiked much of the uphill sections and ran moderate 8 - 10 minute/mile back out, stopping frequently to take pictures.  I've wanted to run Sarvis since last summer and it was a real treat to find the trail pretty dry.  After the first mile, I could hear the creek raging but couldn't see it through the trees.  I was stoked when I finally crossed the creek on a bridge and found that the trail stayed right next to the water for the next 3 miles or so.  I can't wait to run it again, hopefully in it's entirety.  I had the trail all to myself, except for spooking a pretty decent sized elk cow.   I should've brought a second water bottle, as it got warm and I ran out of water on the outbound and had to refill from a stream without means to filter the water (next time I'll bring a Steri-Pen).   Hopefully, I don't come down with giardia or some nasty bug, but I think the chances are pretty remote considering the source I got the water from.  It was just fantastic to run a trail in Wilderness Area again. 

5/6 - 8.16 miles (~2000').  1:37:12.  Stagecoach Mountain.  Up to the top of the mountain with Benny before taking him back home at the 5 mile mark and continuing on for some light hill running. 

After Desert RATS, I took a few days off to recover, despite feeling really good and ready to run again within a few days of the race.   I also skipped a couple of maintenance runs due to some long days at work.  It shouldn't have any effect on my fitness at this point with regards to doing the Quad Rock 50 next weekend.   Bronwyn is going to go down to Ft. Collins and crew for me and I'm grateful to have the support on what I expect to be a really tough course.   Fortunately, the long range forecast calls for coolish weather.  The funny thing is that now that trails are opening up around here, I'm less motivated to race (and rest afterwards) because I just want to do long, slow wilderness runs.  Oh well, there will time for plenty of those this summer and the races are always fun.