Lastly....2 Days of Trail Running in Wild Utah

After the 2013 Red Hot Moab race, I felt cheated of a true wild Utah experience.  Red Hot's a nice race but a boring one for most of it's 34 miles.  To truly experience what the Colorado Plateau has to offer, one needs to get off the beaten path.

Getting myself back into wild Utah has been high on my list since then but with a wife, two kids and a career, not exactly something I could just pull off like that.  Well I finally did this past weekend and was thankfully joined by WA for a few days of some amazing running.

Day 1 - Halls Creek Narrows, Capital Reef National Park.  One needs to be committed to take this journey on.  Not only is this route in one of the most remote Utah National Parks, it's also in the most remote part of the Park itself.  Example, from the north, one has to deal with roughly 50 miles of washed out dirt roads to get to the trailhead.  The last 3 miles being very slow and requiring a high clearance vehicle.

The trail itself is almost not existent and follows a sandy creek bed from North to South.  I'll let the pics explain the rest of the route.  My Garmin 620 lost reception a lot while in the Narrows but the stats for the day were roughly 25 miles with 3,000 feet of vert.  6hrs 40mins total time.

Day 2 - Alcove Springs, Taylor Canyon, Syncline Loop, Canyonlands National Park (Island In the Sky District).  Not exactly out there but linking up these trails does put one in some remote country.  Goals for the day were shorten by roughly 3 plus miles due to a Spring storm blowing through the region.  What started as a comfortable, breezy, overcast day turned into crazy wind gusts reaching 40 plus mph with soaking rain that felt like pin needles drilling into the body.  When the rain wasn't falling, the stinging was still felt from the sand getting whipped around the canyon bottom.  With all that, the surrounding canyon walls were still an amazing site.    

Yet all this weather was somewhat tolerable at just under 4,000 feet in elevation along the Green River.  However the end point is around 5,800 feet in elevation and by then temps were below freezing.  I was way under prepared and frozen solid by the end of the day.  It took me a few hours to get my body temp back in check.  Again, I'll let the pics explain how the day played out.

Stats were roughly 19.5 miles, 3,000 feet of vert in 3hrs 30mins total time.    

Lastly....Lastly this will be my last post.  After 4 1/2 years of randomly posting and commenting, I'm simply over it.  I honestly don't mind blogging.  I still enjoy posts from fellow bloggers I've had the thrill to follow (and get to know!!) over those 4 1/2 years.

But this whole social media/running combo over the past few years has honestly gotten out of control and has me sick of the sport of running in so many ways.

I've done a pretty good job on biting my tongue and NOT voicing my opinion to much on this blog, so I'll take the high road by ending here and simply not elaborate on what I'm sick of.

As one of my favorite quotes says "There are those who walk and there are those who talk.  And baby I'm walking.  I AM WALKING".  In this case, my walking will be my continuance of loving my family, running the trails I love, exploring new amazing places, and challenging myself to be a better person every single day of my life.

On that note, I'll leave you all with some pics from this past Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th of April!

(Day 1: Henry Mountains - Last surveyed mountain range in the lower 48)

(Hall Creek - Typical Running Conditions)

(The "trail" is literally right in front of the pic. The views of the Waterpocket Fold were amazing)

(Now looking South along the creek)

(The first major bend in the Narrows.  I did nothing to alter this shot.  Still not sure if I'm standing in an Alcove or what)

(Left: Water, Center: Quick Sand, Right: Sand)

(No way to avoid the water here)

(Or here)

(Water was cold here!  WA is something like 6'4" so the water gets deep here)

(The Narrows just kept on giving huge views)

(By this point, the sun was warming things up making the last few water crossings extremely enjoyable)

(Not many pics of the desert wildflowers but there were thousands of them out there.  Of every color too.  I took a pic of this one mainly for the prickly pear. I accidentally kicked these needles on 3 different occasions.  One toe got it twice and is still in pain)

(One last shot from the starting point of the run looking down Halls Creek.  The narrows were roughly 9 miles south of this point)

(Day 2: Start of the Alcove Springs trail.  The Alcove was huge)

(The technical trail zig zagged somewhere below the Alcove)

(Zeus and Moses.  The weather turned quickly here preventing us from climbing the saddle of these pinnacles)

(Approaching the Upheaval Dome. It was only raining at this point. The finish was behind the dome up on along the high point in the background. Winds kicked in shortly after and prevented us from enjoying the longer route back to the car)

March 2014 Summary

Running Days - 17
Average Miles per Running Day - 8.4
Vertical Feet - 15,000
Weightlifting Days - 11
Push Ups (YTD) - 107/per day = 9,645 push ups
Beer Challenge (YTD) - 41

A rather frustrating month of Running.  A majority of my runs were done simply to test what my knee could or could not handle.  Followed by lots of icing of my knee tendon and applying a topical NSAID.  None of this was even close to being fun.  Also just shocks me how time consuming all this knee maintenance has become.

However progress was slowly being made.  3 runs a week turned to 5 runs a week by months end.  4 milers around the hood become 10 milers around the hood.

What scared me the most was what running trails would do to my knee.  The up and down would put much more stress on my knee tendon as opposed to the flats around my home.  The doctor who looked at my knee cautioned me on approaching the trails slowsly.  So I eventually took a 3 week brake from trails.  Thankfully the knee responded nicely on my first trip back to the trails.  The last weekend of the month saw almost 6,000 feet of vert over 5 1/2 hours and all was good.

Another positive out of this rehabing is I've seen all those little issues that developed over the winter disappear.  Tight calves, hamstrings, hip flexors.  All that stuff was gone and I felt extremely balance during my runs as my fitness came back around.  

The tendon is still bruised.  Still a bit swollen.  I still notice it with every step.  It'll likely take another month before it's 100%, but it is getting better every day.  And that's all I could ask for at this point.

Lifting Weights was simply a routine this month.  One of maintenance.  While I was in the weight room to work it during my one hour there, I never pushed more weights then needed. Nor did I challenge the legs much as my bruised knee is really restricting what I can do.          

I'm only 49 beers behind in the Beer Challenge.  I would have been like 48 or maybe 47 behind but for some reason I bought a bunch of Belgian Style Beers which slowed down my beer intake.  I also bought a 12 pack of 1554.  Big mistake if I'm trying to mix it up.

(Green is for St Patty's Day - Fresh Squeezed IPA might be the best beer I've had this year)

Looking Forward

I'm finally in a position where I can now push the running miles and vert and I plan on getting after it this month.  I'll still have to watch the knee but I'm not nearly as cautious as I was just a few weeks ago.  The visits to the weight room will drop to no more then 2 times a week at most.  The key here though is getting the legs back into weightlifting shape all while running the miles I put in back in Jan.    

After missing out on Salida (again!), I've been thinking about adding in a race for the spring time.  However when I find one that works, and there are many, I catch myself not at all excited about it.   

But there's still that void of needing to do something.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't need some race to hopefully fill that void.  So a few weeks ago I got home and went straight into my box of Trails Illustrated maps and trail books.  I pulled out 5 maps and 3 books detailing Utah around the Colorado Plateau.  So many possibilities.     

I can't wait to get back to Utah at the end of the month for some amazing running!      

  

February 2014 Summary

Running Days - 12
Average Miles per Running Day - 10.6
Vertical Feet - 16,000
Weightlifting Days - 9
Push Ups per Day (YTD) - 105/Day (6,205 Total)
Beer Challenge (YTD) - 28

I've ready discussed my Running in a prior post so I won't expand on it much more here.  Still sucks starting out on such a solid note (averaging 12 miles per run with all that vert mixed in) and literally ending the month with 1 run over 11 days.  What could have been....

As soon as I took time off from running, I thought it would be a great idea to just kill it in the Weight Room. 4 visits in 7 days where I spent an average of 90 minutes in there pushing my limits.  While I surprised myself on a few occasions with the weight I was throwing around, I honestly hated these 4 workouts.  It defeated the purpose of why I was weightlifting to begin with.  The goal has always been simple and it's to put myself in strong running shape and I wasn't doing that.  So I took the last 10 days off of the month from lifting just to give myself a mental check.

I suck at the Beer Challenge...but you would too if you had a crazy 3 year old and 3 month old at home. Hitting the Ouray Brewery with my daughter on a Thursday night that saw heaps of snow in town was awesome.
 

With so much time taken off to end the month, it's amusing what other things I do to occupy my time.  New Tattoo idea...check.  Looking at bigger homes for our now family of four...check.  Walking my fat dog more...check.  New job searches...check.

Of all these, the searching for a new home has been of most interest.  My wife and I love the area near DU/Wash Park but our house was unfortunately the perfect size for just the two of us.  Maybe even for three of us.  But not for four.

It's been fun asking ourselves what's important to us as we decide on areas to live.  What becomes interesting is asking this same question to ourselves 5 years ago.  To ourselves 5 years from now.  Very interesting to see the answer.  For example, I love how there's great coffee shops near our house but what would be even cooler is having trail access near our house.

Looking Forward

Pretty simple.  Get this knee healed up so I can....

Play Like An All Star
Party Like a Rock Star
Hammer Like a Porn Star    

I have no idea how that relates to running healthy but credit goes to Mike Piazza for the awesome quote.              

A Story of a Bruised Bone and Tendon

February 8th, I ran 17 plus miles and 3,800 feet of vert around Mount Falcon in a solid 2 hours 45 minutes.  99% of the trail was covered in nasty snow and ice.  Not once did I come close to falling.

February 9th, 1/2 mile away from my house, I slipped on what looked like grainy snow and drove my right knee into what ended up being a solid sheet of ice.  I continued on for another 10 plus miles in temps that hovered around the teens.  My knee hurt but didn't think much of it.

In the proceeding days I caught a nice cold from my daughter and put in a few flat miles around town.  Knee was sore, but nothing worrisome.  By the end of the following weekend, I had accumulated 27 miles, almost 6,000 feet of vert and one swollen knee.

Over the next 2 weeks I ran twice for a total of 8.5 miles.  The runs didn't hurt my knee.  Yet I found my knee hurting at random times.  Sometimes it hurt like a mother f...er!  Usually by the end of the night.

Frustration took over.  

Since my son was born, I've spent so much time building what I felt was a very strong running base.  Paying attention to each of my runs and investing much time in weightlifting.  Putting myself into position to run the Salida Marthon strong.  Waiting for that light switch to turn on for me to put my training into another level for this summer and fall races.

Prior to the fall, I felt like I was much stronger this year then I was at this point last year.  I'm pretty confident in saying I was stronger this year then I was entering last years SJS50.  That switch...I was just about to turn it on as a test for a few weeks leading into Salida.

Then the fall.  The frustration stemming from a sudden stop in my training.  An injury caused from a damn fall.

My sister in law works at CU Sports Medicine.  Having that connection puts me quick contact with some established doctors that know a few things about running.

For roughly 30 minutes, the doc asked me a lot of questions, took a few x-rays and twisted/pulled/pushed my right knee every which way.

It was great hearing that my knee was extremely strong.  The fall 3 weeks back resulted in a bone bruise and a patellar tendon bruise.  Had I come in right away, the suggested path to recovery would have been taking it easy for a few week running easy flat miles.  Avoid the trails as the act of running up or down replicates my fall too much and puts unneeded stress to tendon.  And avoid kneeling since the tendon can't yet handle the body weight!

By kneeling, I put myself further into the injury hole.  I kneel to change my son's diaper daily.  I also painted my sons room in the past week and kneeling to paint baseboards, lower portions of the walls thrashed me. In hindsight, it makes complete sense why my knee hurt so bad at the end of the day.  At the time, I just assumed my knee was beat from running.    

The key now is getting the tendon to calm down, which it already has after a few days since my doctors visit. A few more weeks of low key running, no kneeling, ice and Advil should do the trick.  I've lost a little fitness, but what sucks is loosing that sharpness of running one can only obtain by training consistently.  Loosing out on this means my chances of running the Salida Marathon strong the whole time is non existent.  So I unfortunately won't even bother with the event.

I will however be thumping the friendly trails of Mt Falcon and Mt Morrison by months end and to me that's way more important.              

January 2014 Summary

Running Days - 22
Average Miles per Running Day - 10.1
Vertical Feet - 27,500
Weightlifting Days - 11
Push Ups per Month - 108
365 Beer Challenge (year) - 14

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty damn tired.  Going through the newborn stage and a soon to be 3 year old stage wears on you.  I feel like when I'm at work and home, it's go go go time.  Always thinking about the task at hand and at the same time already planning out the next few tasks I need to do.  By the end of the day, which is normally around 10pm or 11pm, I am wired!  Finding it difficult to fall asleep right away.  Even though I'm exhausted.

Don't get me wrong here.  All is great, just, tiring.  Thankfully it's only a matter of time till the family finds a nice routine.  

"Habits are easy to start.  Difficult to break."  This is what my college baseball coach told our team my freshman year.  When my daughter was born, I started getting my training in during the early hours of the morning.  It's the reason why I now wake up almost every morning at 5am without an alarm.  It's the reason why I was able to run and weight lift as much as I have this month.

All these workouts have also been some of my most peaceful moments. All is calm and I'm allowed this brief moment of clarity on the upcoming day.  Balancing out life.  Without these workouts, I no doubt would be a complete train wreck.  

This will be one of the few times I talk about my Push Ups.  I will continues with the 100/day average with a little switch up.  Doing only 2 sets of as many push ups as I can do.  Not a big deal till you factor in making up for missed days.  Which I tend to do at least once a week.  It's the making up the missed day that will make this a challenge.

I've always been a Garmin Connect person but this year I'm giving Strava a shot.  The free version. Some really cool stuff, some very interesting stuff and of course, as to be expected, some douchey stuff.  

As for the Running, I was consistent and strong all month putting an emphasis on vert and time, not miles. Highlight was a great 26 miler down in the Springs for their annual fat ass.  Even went 29:30 on the incline which I think is good?  JT was gracious again playing host and I had a great time down there with so many awesome folks.

The slight increase in Weight Lifting has resulted in me weighting in at 188. However, as I pointed out last month, I've pretty much hit a ceiling.  My current diet is geared towards running.  Along with my current running and weight lifting pattern, there's no way I put on any more weight.  Getting stronger will occur but at a slow progression.  This I'm fine with.  The gym right now mixes things up, focuses on muscles I would normally neglect and is a nice refuge away from the dark and cold early morning runs I experience most days this time of year.

No way in hell I come close to this awesome yearly beer challenge, but I'll give it a strong effort.  I'm so focused on family once I get home that I forget to take care of myself with a beer.  It's been a lot of fun mixing up the beers I drink since I tend to be a creature of habit and stick to IPAs.  

(Red highlights beers awarded to me by Front Range Denver for now Rambler)

Looking Forward

More of the same with me taking it literally one day at a time.  Have to approach it this way with the newborn and Mother Nature making most of the calls.  I'm really hoping to add some structure to my running in February in preparation to Salida.  A focus on more leg turnover, a true heart rate focused recovery run for example.  I'm feeling really good and starting to think I might be in decent race shape come March 15th after all.

Weekly goals will remain the same.  Still keeping it to 5 running days per week with a few days on the trails. 3 visits to the weight room per week as well just for the hell of it.  I likely won't hit these numbers and that's fine.  I'm still putting in a solid base for this summers fun.