Summit junkie!

Weights at the gym for an hour working my upper body and core. Considering all of the crap my body has been through in the last few days it went pretty well. Last Friday morning I woke up at 3:00 am with severe pain in my abdomen. It got progressively worse and by 11:00 am I found myself in the ER getting pricked, poked, explored and tested. They admitted me and shot me up with morphine and other drugs and after several tests determined that I had an ulcer in my stomach that was probably caused from taking too much ibuprofen. In the last few weeks I have been taking more than usual with the sores on my feet that have been swollen and painful and that probably pushed it over the edge, so I spent the weekend in the hospital and now I am trying to adjust to a new diet and no caffeine. Ugh! I wasn't able to eat anything for almost 3 days and last night was the first exercise I have had in 5 days. I think I'll try a run tonight to see if it bothers me at all, but I think I'll be good. Life is never dull.

At the track and on the TM at the gym.

Lake Mountain with Jun:

It has been a week since I have been on the summit of a peak, so I really needed to get out this morning even though I knew there would be a threat of some mud on the trails. I was up at 4:20 am and met Jun at the park n ride at 5:00. It was a lot warmer than I thought it would be today and for the most part the trail was in decent shape, but there was a good mile+ that had some really thick mud and it slowed us down a lot. We both kept getting mud bricks on our shoes and we had to constantly knock it off. The upper half of the mountain was alright and we topped out at a slow 1:10. Just as we were coming up to the top 5 deer popped out in front of us and trotted ahead with the most amazing view opening up to us. It was still dark and the city lights looked really cool.

We both had a gel and didn't stay too long up there. This was the first time in almost a month that I have run without my feet bandaged and for the most part they felt pretty good, but going down from the summit was tough on my ankle. I still have a sore there and it is pretty sensitive. The run down was a lot of fun except for the mud mile. We were not fast, but I won't complain because overall it was a blast.

Grandeur Peak loop with the WMW (Wasatch Mountain Wranglers) aka (FLUFFERS).

This is one of my favorite loop runs in the Wasatch and it didn't disappoint. Met the fellas at 6:00 at the Grandeur West Ridge trailhead. It wasn't as cold as we thought it would be and we settled into a slower than normal pace up the steep WR. About 3/4 of the way up Jun and I put a bit of distance on the other guys and we hit the summit in a slow 1:14 which was still an hour faster than the last time in the deep snow. It was cold on top and we waited for 5 minutes for Dors and about 10 more for the other guys. Jun and I froze our tails off and resorted to some snuggling (see Jun's blog for pics). Haha.

From there we ran down Church Fork to the Pipeline. The trail conditions were really good. At Rattlesnake Gulch we checked for the Millcreek Flasher (darn no luck) and then took Bambi hill up another few hundred feet and then dropped back down to the steep trail that would take us back to the WR trail. I took a dive at one point, but landed in a pile of dry leaves. No damage done. It was an incredible morning with really good friends.

Check out the new WMW blog. Our running crew will start to post on this blog as a group.

New blog

Weights at the gym for an hour. Other than a young dude bogarting 3 benches and several weights that I use it was a good session. Dude was moving between the 3 benches and about 4-5 machines. He wouldn't re-rack the weights he had out and had them set up on 3 benches. Annoying. I finally just started taking the weights, using them and then putting them back on the rack. Fun times at the gym.

Runners boot camp at the gym. I was a sweaty mess.

Lake Mountain with Nate:

I got up at 4:20 am to meet Nate at the AF Park n Ride. 20 minutes later we were running up the road to Lake Mountain. There was snow covering the road almost from the start. We followed tracks up to the gate, but the gate was closed and from that point on there weren't many tracks to follow, so that meant breaking trail the rest of the way. It was a bit more effort, but not too bad. Near the top the road was wind blown and there was a few exposed tracks to follow and as we got closer to the saddle the wind picked up a lot. At the saddle it was really blowing and the push up to the summit was a bit brutal. It stung our faces and was pretty biting, so when we hit the top (1:12) we stayed for only a few seconds.

Once we got back down below the saddle the wind died down and we enjoyed a nice run in the snow all the way back down. It was still dark as we made our way down the mountain and the views were pretty cool of the lake and all of the city lights below. It was the perfect way to start my day.

5 at the gym.

View Benchmark peak solo:

I had an awesome experience running/slogging/breaking trail to the summit of VB on a stormy day along the Wasatch Front. I got to the trailhead at 3:00 pm and it had been snowing pretty hard for most of the day. I knew there would be snow on the trail and I also figured I would be breaking it, but I wasn't expecting as much as there was. It was shin to knee deep and at the start I was breaking trail in the fresh powder. At first I wasn't sure if I had time to make it to the top, but I was going to try. I put the iPod on an 80's new wave playlist and quickly got into a nice groove. I ran from the start and it was slow and tough, but an incredible workout. Once I got onto Ann's trail there were some faint tracks that someone had put in a few hours pervious, so they did help some, but it was still a slog. I just tried to keep a running pace uphill in the deep snow. 14:50 AP first mile.

The tracks stopped just after a mile and from there I would be breaking the trail the rest of the way. It was slow, but incredibly fun. It was a surreal place to be with the deep fresh snow everywhere and total solitude that was only interrupted when I scared a large owl out of a tree. Awesome! When I hit the VB trail there was a truck parked there with some guys on snowmobiles and they had put in a track about half way up the mountain which I ran on. It helped some to be on the track, but I was still sinking with every step, so I wasn't fast. Once the track petered out it was time for more trail breaking in the deep powder. Normally this is an arduous process that sucks out your energy, but today it was fun and I enjoyed every step.

I hit the summit in 1:15, which is about 30 minutes slower than normal, but my effort was at least 2X what it normally takes for me. I took a gel and stretched out and after a few minutes I started to get cold. The normally stellar views were replaced by a big thick cloud that had parked itself right on the summit. It had been snowing the entire way up and I was getting wet, so I wanted to get moving and I quickly warmed up as I ran down the hill in the deep powder. Yeeeeah!!!

As I got down past the Maple Hollow connector trail the clouds really moved in and it provided an eerie backdrop for the rest of the run. It was getting colder, but I was still feeling really good, but my energy was definitely getting low and I probably should have taken another gel. With about a mile to go I came around a corner and was greeted with a huge rack! Right on the trail was several deer, including two huge bucks and a few smaller bucks with 4-5 dough's. They took off, but one of the big bucks stopped right off the trail and stared at me. I stopped to check him out and he bounded up the hill pretty quick. More awesome.

It was definitely harder than the miles would indicate, but I had a total blast and enjoyed every minute of solitude out there on the trails. I wore my new Altra Lone Peaks and they were simply awesome on the snowy trails.

On the summit:

Weights at the gym for an hour playing with the meatheads, working my upper body and core.

6 on the TM. Awful.

By the time I had time to run it was dark, cold and windy, so my options were the track or the TM. I wound up on the TM at the gym. The first mile was 8:40, the second 8:20 and the rest sub 8.

Avenue Twin Peaks with Dorsimus:

Dors and I had an incredible run up to the Ave Twins from the City Creek BST. It was cold at the start, but once we got moving we both heated up and after the first mile we were both sweating a lot. The trail still had some occasional mud, snow and ice on it, but overall it was in pretty good shape. We had a nice moderate pace going up and just chatted the whole time and enjoyed the views and the sun. I don't even know what our time was to the top, but it was a blast getting up there. On the summit I took a gel and we snapped a few pics.

The run down was a lot of fun. We took a slightly different route that wasn't as tracked out, but still wasn't too bad. Awesome views of the city. We kept a decent pace all the way down, but never went too fast while we chatted away. The only negative on the run was my hammy was pretty tight most of the time, probably from running on the TM.  Awesome day and I think we will try to do this at least once per week.

Dors about to summitt:

Me on the summit:

Treadmill hell. 

More. Treadmill. Hell.

Weights at the gym for an hour working my upper body and core. Meathead. 

Lake Mountain in a blizzard with the Wranglers:

I woke up to snow this morning. It was coming down hard and I was meeting some of the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers aka FLUFFERS at the American Fork park n ride to climb Lake Mountain. By time everyone made it there and we were driving to the mountain the roads were a mess and the snow only got worse, but I told Jun that the worst thing that could happen is we end up running and playing in the snow for a few hours. Hitting the summit was in questions, but I knew we would give it a good try. 

It was pretty much a slog the whole way. There were 6 of us that took turns breaking the trail, but at about the half way point it was me and Dorsimus (mostly Dors) breaking the trail in the shin to knee deep snow. We saw a few deer on the way and at one point there was a pretty big buck that started running down the road right at us full speed. Dors and I stopped and after about 5 seconds in put on the breaks when he saw us, slid a few feet and then quickly turned around and went back up the road. Awesome.

Jun joined us the last mile and the 3 of us pushed it pretty good to the top. It was now blowing really hard and I was wishing I had my windstopper hat and gloves, but we pushed it on up to the top where it was blowing and cold. We snapped a few pics, took a frozen gel and waited for Aaron and Mindy to hit the top. After a few more pics we got the heck out of there.

The run down was fun in the snow and a few hundred feet below the summit we ran into 3 guys on snowmobiles that were shocked to see us. They called us crazy and gave all of us high fives. Pretty much awesome. The rest of the run was a little tough in the deep snow and I didn't really ever get into a great groove, but it was still a total blast. Summit #114 for the year and it was a good one.

Check out Jun's blog for some pics.

Bootcamp and speedwork at the gym. Sweatfest.

Ave Twin Peaks with Dorsimus and Jsh:

Awesome day! Met the fellas at the Capitol building for a fun run in the snow to the Ave Twin peaks. This is one of my favorite training runs. I woke up to several fresh inches of snow at my house and the drive to the cap was nasty, so I knew we would probably be breaking more trail. It pretty much snowed on us the entire day, but we had a total blast laughing and running in the fresh snow. We let Dorsimus break trail most of the way and I pulled off a few sneaky moves to keep it that way.

Once we hit the ridge it went from quite a bit of snow to a TON of snow and we were now breaking trail in knee deep powder the rest of the way to the top. We saw several deer and elk, including two nice bucks right off the trail. So awesome. It took much longer than we planned to the summit and it was pretty tough, but we were laughing and having a blast.

The run down had to be faster and we picked it up some and when we made it out of the deep powder we were able to keep a consistent pace the rest of the way out. At one point someone started singing "Time of my Life" from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, and within minutes all three of us were chiming in right on key, funny and I'm sure the chick with the dog on snowshoes enjoyed it too. Awesome day.

Approaching the first summit

Dors and Jsh on the second summit

5 on the TM catching up on my DVR. 

Mt. Wire with Jun:

I really wanted to bag a peak on the last day of the year and Jun as usual was game. Once again it was snowing most of the morning, but that wasn't going to stop us. It was almost a perfect day. We saw a lot of wildlife and the views were cool with the clouds constantly rolling in and parting over the distant peaks. We set a good pace and just held it most of the way up. It was pretty darn cold on top and we didn't stay long. This was summit #116 for 2012, which is a pretty big accomplishment for me. Last year I finished with 78 and I thought that was a lot. I think this also puts me over 300K vert for the year. Great day.  Check out Jun's blog for some pics.