Week of June 17 and Corbin's review

Sunday - Finally made my first trip up Ben Lomond for the year.  A little cool and breezy to start, but warmed up nicely by the time I got back.  I pretty much had the trail to myself until the last couple of switchbacks.  Here I caught about half a dozen people also making the trek up.  I wasn't trying for any sort of speed record, but my time wasn't too bad, 2:15 up and 3:55 round trip.  Miles - 15.6

Monday - Had big plans to go out at lunch.  Went out and after about .1 miles decided it was just too warm.  Then I went to the gym to run on the track.  Well, it was closed because they're refinishing the basketball court.  So no lunch time run.  After work it was about 95 degrees, so I waited until around 8pm, then went on a short run with Karen. We ended up going a little over four starting at 22nd street.  Not a bad evening for a run.  Miles - 4.26

Tuesday - Went out at lunch for a little over 5 miles.  The temp was a lot cooler and the run felt great.  Imanaged to go sub 8:30 for the entire run.  That hasn't happened in awhile.  I ended u leaving work late and didn't get much of a run in before Pilates.  Since I didn't have a whole lot of time, I decided to just do a little bushwacking/climbing above the trail north of Rainbow.  It was kind of fun but I was worried about rattlesnakes the entire time.  Prime habitat for them.  Didn't see one at all.  Pilates was good.  Now that I've been going for a few weeks I do notice that it is helping my core and upper body strength.  Whethere this will translate into faster running times remains to be seen, but I do feel stronger, and that's a good thing.  Miles - 7.56

Wednesday - Went with Ryan and Harrison down to White Pine trailhead up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  The plan was to make the hike up to Pfeifferhorn, bag it, then get back down, all before dark.  Well, that didn't happen.  When we got to the knife edge to the base of the last pitch up Pfeifferhorn, Jim said "Jim's a weenie and he's not going up that".  Yep, the last 300' or so is an exposed rock scramble with a snow patch near the top that needed to be avoided.  Part of the reason was a lack of daylight, part of it was I was getting cold.  I think the temp was down around 40 up there with the wind blowing.  Part of it was I was afraid of the climb back down.  That looked kind of dicey.  The knife edge didn't bother me, I could have done that no problem.  Still, it was a great hike/run to an area I had never been.  The views from 11,000' are incredible.  Pictures don't do it justice.  We did manage to get back down right at dark.  Time wise, it took us 2 hours to make the 4.5 mile trek up from 7700' to 11,000', and another 1.5 back down.  So pretty slow going, but when you figure we were gaining almost 1000'/mile, maybe it wasn't so bad.  Here's a few pics I took.  Miles - 9.0, vert 3400' gain

Looking at SLC down Little Cottonwood Canyon

Looking across LIttle Cottonwood Canyon

Ryan and Harrison motoring up the trail

Red Pine Lake, our route took us to the left of that peak in the center

White Baldy Peak?

Looking at American Fork and Utah Lake from 11,000'

White Baldy Peak

Looking down from 11,000'

Thursday - Ran at lunch.  Did a little bit different route.  Was going to run after work, but it was way too hot.  Miles - 5.6

Friday - Ran at lunch again.  Wasn't going to get a chance after work.  Ran up to Target to get my lovely bride an Anniversary card.  Yep, we've been married 32 years now.  Wow!  That's a long time these days.  Miles - 5.7

Saturday - Didn't do squat running wise.  Spent most of the day in my shop playing with wood.

Total miles for the week - 47.72

Corbin's Restaurant - So Karen and I went to Corbin's for our anniversary dinner.  It's a pretty nice place in Layton that we've been to a few times.  They have really good steaks.  I had the 7 oz. filet, medium, and it was cooked to perfection.  One of the best steaks I've had in awhile.  You could really taste the wood smoke on the outside as they grill the steaks over an open fire.  We had the fried brie for an appetizer and it was pretty good, we ate the entire thing.  Karen had the salmon and steak and really enjoyed that as well.  For desert we shared an apple tart with ice cream. It was a little skimpy on the ice cream, but other than that very good.  Service was excellent.  Unobtrusive yet attentive.  All in all, if you want a pretty nice place to go, this is it.  Prices aren't too bad either.

Week of May 20th plus Timp Trail Marathon Report

About time I posted again.

Well, this week was kind of a waste....sort of.  I spent the week in Salt Lake City attending an OSHA 30 hour training course.  Since I'm the safety weasel for my place of employment, I need to be up on all the OSHA stuff.  The 30 hour course is kind of a big deal in the safety world.  Still, it did put a little bit of a crimp in my rinning plans.  No lunchtime runs we to be had and I ate lunch out every day.  I still managed to get some running in, but with the Timp Trail Marathon on Saturday, I was a little worried about how I would do.  So here goes.

Sunday - Did a short run with Karen.  We went late morning and ran Rainbow north.  We came back on the lower trail just for a change of pace.  It was a nice run.  Miles - 6.0

Monday - Felt kind of like crap after the first day of training and too much lunch.  Ran from Kaysville to Fernwood and back, the first few miles of the Wasatch course.  It was a hot day and the run was pretty slow.  Miles - 7.2

Tuesday - Ran a bit farther.  Rainbow north to the canal road.  If I remember right it was a kind of warm day.  Miles - 7.8

Wednesday - Had big plans to run the Wheeler-Sardine loop.  Felt like crap again, so bailed on that.  Instead I went to the south Skyline trailhead and ran up towards Lewis peak a few miles.  Hadn't been up this trail in over a year, so it was a nice to go up there.  Took it slow since I couldn't run faster.  Miles - 6.5

Thursday - Took the day off.  Just wasn't feeling the love.

Friday - Ran from Rainbow north to the canal road again.  This was the first run of the week that felt good.  I cruised it and felt good the entire time.  Not super fast, but good enough.  Miles - 7.8

Saturday - Timp Trail Marathon - Race report.  This is the third year I've run this race and it gets better each year, or at least I get faster each year.  After a sucky week of running, I was looking forward to a decent time, especially since the weather was going to be perfect and the trails would be in awesome shape.  Not only that, but seven HUMR's were going to be there running the thing.  It's always a good time when a bunch of us get together.
The trail this year was in perfect condition, no snow at the higher elevations and no mud going up the trail from circle springs. 
When we started, I decided to hang back for the first little bit along the pipeline road just to see how I felt.  I chatted with Breein until we got to the trail.  At that point I decided I felt pretty good and decided to start pushing.  I went on up the trail, passing a few people but generally just keeping the pace a little bit faster than I normally would.  I knew that some of the other HUMR's had bolted out of the gate and by about mile three I had caught up with Shawn.  We motored along for a bit going up a hill.  Close to the top I decided to pass her.  Most of the next few miles were uneventful.  It was a gorgeous day, temps were perfect for me, and i felt good.  I could see Aric up ahead and he was moving along pretty good as well.  I blew through the first aid station.  I figured that since this was just a marathon length race, I would fuel and drink like I would for a marathon.  I still had plenty of fluid left in my two bottles, and I had no need to extra food, so on I went.  Pretty soon the second aid station came along.  I did refill my bottles here.  I knew it would be awhile until the next station and there was some serious terrain to cover in the meantime.  Shortly after the second aid station we hit the green monster.  This is a roughly 650'-700' climb in a half mile.  Straight up the mountainside.  If you have climbing legs at all, this is the place to use them.  I did manage to catch and pass a few people here.  I guess all of the hills I've been training on have helped a little.  Once at the top, there's some nice downhill running for a couple of miles until you get to a canyon that takes us back up the mountainside.  This canyon is probably my favorite part of the course.  Steep and rocky with a creek coming down it, waterfall at the top, gorgeous.  During this climb I did manage to catch Aric and motor on up, but he kept with me, just a little behind.  After awhile climbing, we hit the next aid station at Indian Spring.  Here we get to fill our bottles straight from the spring.  Runners were asking if the water was safe to drink.  Must have been, I didn't get sick.  After Indian Spring, we did a little more climbing until we hit the high point on the course, an alpine meadow that's very cool to run through.  This is followed by a screaming technical, rocky descent.  I don't do well on that kind of stuff and Aric just blew past me here.  I guess I'm too afraid of falling and doing some serious damage to let it rip.  The next section is my least favorite part of the course, the climb up through Circle Springs.  This part of the trail has always had shoe sucking deep mud with no way to avoid it.  Add to that it's a steep uphill climb and you have a recipe for a slow grinding trek.  This year it was completely dry and I was able to make some reasonably decent time going up.  I knew once I got to the top, it was a slow descent to the next aid station and not too far to the finish.  The last aid station was run by a bunch of high school girls and naturally every time a runner came through they would yell and scream.  You could hear them a half mile away.  Stopped here to grab a couple of cups of Coke and left.  The next part is a climb, but it's not too bad.  I managed to catch some of the slower half marathoners as I went up.  By now I knew I was on a PR pace and tried to pick it up a little more.  Once at the top of this climb, the last few miles are all downhill and easy running.  Here I tried to let it rip and get done a little quicker.  I ended up crossing the finish line in 5:20, easily my best time on this course.  It was good enough for 3rd in my age group and 22nd overall.  The HUMR's did pretty good as a group.  Britta won the women's race and crushed the course record by a substantial amount.  Shawn came in 5th female and 1st in her age group.  Aric ran it in about 6:10 and finished 15th.  Ryan finished in 4:44 good enough for 12th overall.  Breein did pretty good as well, finishing in 5:46, 5th female and 2nd in her age group.  Alicia isn't listed in the results for some reason but I think she finished around 10th place female.
All in all it was a pretty good day.  Lots of fun was had on the trail by everyone.  Miles - 26.1

Total miles for the week - 61.4

Week of May 6th and an Irish Pub

Sunday - Went for a nice little run with my lovely wife.  We started at Wheeler trailhead and ran the Green Pond route.  Gorgeous day and we even saw a couple of young moose just past Art Nord trailhead.  Karen was thrilled.  She has a thing about moose.  Followed the run up with breakfast at The Oaks.  She actually enjoyed the run.  Awesome!  Miles - 9.0

Monday - Did a short run at lunch just to get out.  Pushed it fairly hard since this is speed day.  I was going to do speed work with Breein and Shawn, but they had things come up.  Karen and I ended up meeting at Rainbow and heading north.  After about 1.5 miles, Karen wasn't feeling the running love so we turned around and headed back.  Just one of those days where things aren't quite right.  Oh well.  Miles - 6.26

Tuesday - Went out north of Rainbow by myself.  No one wanted to run with me.  I did take a shower but seems like that didn't matter.  Anyway, wanted to get some miles in before Pilates class.  Went a little beyond the three mile point heading north.  Pilates was a killer this week.  Did a fair amount of upper body work and I was sore after that.  Miles - 6.26

Wednesday - Did a double today.  Went out for a tempo run at lunch.  I ahve a standard 5.2 mile route that I run at lunchtime and I really pushed it.  Well below 8:30 pace for most of the miles.  Felt pretty good to do that.  My pm run was more of a hike.  I made my second trip up Malan's Peak this year.  There was still some ice on the trail near the top.  It's covered with pine needles and such so it's insulated.  Anyway, the legs were tired from the lunch run but I tried to push the hiking pace anyway.  Whenever I go up that trail, there's always other hikers out trying to make it up.  It's a steep trail.  Made it up from 22nd street in less than an hour, then ran back down in around 30 minutes.  I would love to get that up time down to around 45 minutes by the end of summer.  We'll see.  The plan is to go upthis once a week just for the vert.  Miles - 10.8

Thursday - Went on another double run today.  At lunch I ran up to the bank to deposit a check, then added another mile or so just because going to the bank wasn't long enough.  After work Karen and I met the Ogden group up at Wheeler for a short little run.  We went up Wheeler, Ice Box canyon an towards Sardine for around four miles, then turn around.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well Karen did going uphill.  She's really come along in just a few months, especially since she only runs 2-3 times a week.  She did great.  Of course, going downhill I have a hard time keeping up with her.  Had a great run followed by some pizza at Ogden Pizza.  Miles - 10.8

Friday - So I had big plans to drive down to Virgin and pace Aric at the Zion 100.  I made it to my designated aid station at about 8pm and waited......and waited.......and waited.  Finally I checked and he had dropped at aid #6 at about 2:30am.  Big time bummer for him.  I guess he and his pacer and a bunch of others got way off track running around on Gooseberry Mesa.  The course markings were sporadic, non-existant, and confusing.  They spent hours trying to get to aid 7 and should have been there but in reality were nowhere near.  It was cold, and they were out of food and water.  Aric and Shawn ended up going back to aid 6 and spending the night.  I ended up driving back to the race hq and throwing my sleeping bag out on the grass.  Met up with Aric and Shwan the next morning and got the full story.  He's disappointed, but I think he made the right call.  No need to put yourself in danger when you don't need to.  You can always go back and run it next year.  Miles - 0.0

Saturday - Drove home from Zion.  Miles 0.0

Total for the week - 43.1 miles

Restaurant review - So Saturday Karen and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, MacCool's Irish Pub.  Their food is always good and they know the proper way to pour a Guiness.  I usually get their meatloaf (awesome) but thought I'd try something different.  So I got their lamb sandwich.  Thin sliced lamb with spices and cheese and au jus, mashers and gravy on the side.  Never have had the lamb before and I have to say it was different.  Not bad, just different.  I would order it again, but I think it's an acquired taste.  Karen took a bite and said it reminded her of what our buck goats smell like.  That's not a good thing and I didn't get that impression at all.  Service was good and so was the beer.  Even though Karen didn't like the lamb and I thought it was just ok, we still highly recommend this place. They have other menu items that are far better.  We took our son once and he said it was more Irish than some of the pubs he visited while he was in Ireland.

Week of April 29th, Post Race Lack of Activity

Sunday - Didn't do squat running wise.  I did do a lot of stuff around the house and yard.  That did help as far as keeping things loosened up.

Monday - I actually didn't feel too bad.  I was barely sore, the legs didn't feel too tired.  I thought "what the heck" and went for a run with Karen.  Yeah, big mistake.  We walked over to the trail north of Rainbow Gardens.  I ran about 50 yards up the trail and decided that running wasn't going to happen.  The legs weren't too bad, it was my chest.  It felt like the muscles were really tired.  Anyway, we actually hiked up to the canal road, then back down.  That wasn't too bad.  Miles - 1.6

Tuesday - Yep, took the day off.  Figured I needed a little more rest.

Wednesday - Actually went out for about five miles.  The legs weren't sore at all but were still a little tired.  It felt good to get out for a few even if I was still tired.  Miles - 5.0

Thursday - Yep, took another day off.

Friday - Went on one of my favorite runs, 22nd street south for about 3.5 miles then turn around and come back.  The legs were still a little tired, but other than that, I felt really good.  I was able to actually push the pace some.  Miles - 7.0

Total miles for the week - 13.6

Restaurant review time -

So we went to a Thai restaurant Friday.  We've been to Aroy-d before and the food was very good.  For some reason, Thai sounded good again.  We were really surprised at how busy it was.  Seems as though word is getting out. 
Anyway, I had a salmon dish with a red curry sauce that was excellent.  Just the right amount of spice to warm things up.  It was mixed with green beans, bell peppers, and brocolli.  Good stuff.  I don't remember what Karen had, but she really enjoyed it as well.  I've had their Pad thai before and that was very good as well.  If you want some decent Thai in the Ogden area, this is the place to go.  Reasonably priced and they serve beer and wine. 

Week of April 22nd plus Salt Flats 100 Race Report (with pictures and graphics!!)

Sunday - Had big plans to go out for a last kind-of-long run.  Ended up not doing that at all.  Instead we got a bunch more stuff cleaned and done around the house, then Karen and I went for our first horsey ride of the year.  We took the horses up the North Ogden Divide trail for about two miles.  Talk about out of shape horses.  Dustin (my horse) is such an out of shape fat pig that after half a mile he was breathing hard.  Both of them were sweating good by the time we turned around and came back down the canyon.  Of course the day was warm too.  After we got back down we turned them loose in the North Ogden horse arena and they started running around.  Sandbaggers!  Next time we go to the top of the pass.

Monday - Did a run by myself from Rainbow to the canal road and back.  Just kind of a nice run to stretch the legs for a few miles.  Miles - 7.84

Tuesday - Went out for a few miles with the always lovely Mrs. Skaggs.  We started at 22nd street and headed south.  Once we got to Waterfall Canyon, we took the low trail back.  Not a big fan of that trail.  Miles - 4.66

Wednesday and Thursday - Didn't do squat.  Thursday I drove out to Wendover.  Now there's a garden spot if I ever saw one.  The entire way it was windy and once I got out to the salt flats area it really got windy.  There was enough salt and dirt blowing across the road that visibility was pretty bad, probably less than 1/4 mile.  I was glad that it wasn't supposed to be like that on race day.  It would have been a mess.    Did the check in thing for the Salt Flats 100, then headed for the Rainbow Casino and Hotel for the night.  I slept reasonably well too.  Usually I don't before a 100.

Friday - Well, here goes, my Salt Flats 100 race report.
One of the little perks of being a race director is that occasionally I trade race entries with other race directors, so when Vince asked about a trade I jumped at the chance to give his Salt Flats 100 race a try.  Since this would be the earliest I have ever tried a 100, I decided that I would make sure the training was as good as possible thru the winter.  I went into this race with way more miles than I have ever had at this point in the year.  My hope was that maybe I had it in me to get one more PR at 100 miles.
The race was definitely a low key affair, Vince was limiting entries to around 50-60.  The cool thing was almost 10% of the starters were Speedgoats.  Scott, Cory, Tom, and myself were all running.  Not a bad showing for a early season race.
One of the things that attracted me to this race was that I knew it would an extremely remote event.  Other than having the start within sight of I-80, there wasn't going to be much civilization around.  A lot of people were telling me how boring this race would be.   I didn't find it boring, but at times it was rather monotonous.
If you're not familiar with the Utah Salt Flats, it's where the Bonneville Speedway is.  Every year they have Speed Week, where people from all over the world come to see how fast their vehicles will go.  Vince bills this race as the slowest event held on the speedway.
Anyway, race morning I got up, checked out, hit the McDonald's for breakfast and drove out to the speedway.  It was a bit chilly, low 40's and breezy.  I knew that we would warm up once the race started.

Gathering of the runners  credit Michael Lebowitz/Long Run Pictures

Right at 7am, Vince sent us off.  For the first 10 miles, we ran on salt, flat, white salt, salt as far as you could see (kind of), salt six feet thick.  The only way we knew where to go was the tire tracks and the occasional stake. 

Running on salt  photo credit Michael Lebowitz/Long Run Pictures

So at 10 miles we get to the first aid station.  It looked like this.

Aid station #1  photo credit Michael Lebowitz/Long Run Pictures

After the first aid station we ran six more miles on salt, then mud flats.  It did get a little sticky in the mud from the rain the night before, but it wasn't too bad.

More running on the salt  photo credit Jim Skaggs

After the second aid station (16.0 miles), we ran across a gravel "causeway" to the first of three "islands" that we would be running on. 

Aid Station #2  photo creidt Jim Skaggs

Aid station #3  22.6 miles  photo credit Jim Skaggs

Aid Station #4 photo credit Jim Skaggs

Once on the island, we ran for a few miles to the third aid station.  This marked the beginning of our first major climb of the day.  That climb gained about 1000' over 3-4 miles, so nothing really hard.  Parts of it were runnable.  At the top of the climb was aid station 4.  Once again just a car and a card table.  The next section was some really nice downhill running, followed by a few miles of flat. 

Photo credit Jim Skaggs

It was at this section where you began to realize just how remote you were. Other than the dirt road, there was no sign of civilization as far as you could see.

Aid station #5 and #7  photo credit Jim Skaggs

Aid station 5 was the one aid station that we would see twice.  Davy Crockett was in charge here and was his usual self, putting a skeleton just outside the aid station complete with running apparel and a Garmin on.  After this aid station we began a 19 mile loop  By now, the field was pretty scattered.  There were long stretches where I couldn't see anyone ahead or behind me.  For the next 10 miles, I was by myself, I could see a couple of runners about 1/2 mile ahead, but there was no one behind.  We had another shorter climb during this section that ended with another aid station at the top.  Leaving this aid station brought runners to what I thought was the most challenging part of the course.  Six mile of featureless mud flat. 

Mud Flat Running  photo credit Jim Skaggs

Photo credit Jim Skaggs

Keep the island on your left, and the mud flat on your right and go from flag to flag.  It seemed to go on forever.  All you could do was put your head down, the mind in neutral, and run.  There was a pretty good breeze blowing across the flat at this point, which didn't help matters any.  Needless to say, I was glad to finally get back on some sort of dirt trail/road with a little vegetation around it.

Aid station #8  photo credit Jim Skaggs

After getting back to Davy's aid station, we had about five miles of dirt road running.  I found it interesting that a lot of the roads out here were well maintained gravel roads and were marked as scenic backroads.  Who knew?  Aid station #8 appeared out of no where and after a stop, disappeared into no where.
I finally met up with Aric, my first pacer, at aid station #9 (61.7 miles).  Up to this point I was doing reasonably well time wise.  I had managed to run about 12:42 for a 100K distance.  A little slower than I wanted, but I was doing ok.

Aid Station #9 with Aric  photo credit Jim Skaggs

Aric and I headed out across the island to the next aid station, about six miles away.  We got there about dark and I was pleasantly surprised to see Carolyn Luckett.  She paced me last year at Leadville and was a welcome face here.  We had a nice chat for a few minutes, then Aric and I took off.  I found I had cell service, so I gave Karen a call to let her know how I was doing.  Now we had another climb back to the other side of the island and down a road to the next aid station.  Once again, this one was a tent, fire, a card table and that was about it.  I guess with only 50 runners, things don't need to be too elaborate.

After aid station #11, we headed south towards Wendover.  Way off in the distance you could see I-80 and the vehicles on it.  It must have been a good 20 miles away.  As we got a little closer to civilization, we realized that we now had cell service, so Aric texted Breein, my next pacer, to have her car warmed up because I was getting cold.  We also found out that Lori Burlison had driven all the way out from Ogden just to hang out and be a part of the race taking pictures.

I finally got there, sat in Breein's car for awhile, changed into dry, warmer clothes, ate a couple of hot dogs, and Breein and I took off. 

From here, I knew that we had a long climb ahead of us, and it was long, and we got cold.  It was just steep enough to not allow for running to generate some heat, and we had a slight breeze in our faces.  I think the temp must have gotten down into the low 30's by the time we hit the aid station at 90 miles.  Yay! Single digit miles left.  This aid station was at the top of our climb, and once we started downt the other side, we were able to run (kind of).  Within 5-10 minutes I had warmed up and was feeling not too bad, just tired. 

The only time I dropped my pacer.  Photo credit Michael Lebowitz

As we descended, we could see the sun start to come up and by the time we got to the last aid station, it had risen, but it was still cold.  Lori met us here, took some pics and let me sit in her car to warm up again.  By now, I was down to the familiar death march and I still had five miles of flat paved road to trudge down.

Coming into the finish   photo credit Michael Lebowitz

Getting my buckle from Vince  photo credit Michael Lebowitz

Glad to be done  photo credit Michael Lebowitz

Aftermath - So my finish time was 25:38, I had hoped for something well under 24 hours, but it was not to be.  How did I fuel?  The usual, 1st Endurance Liquid Shot (the new Kona Mocha is pretty good) for about the first 70 miles, then some sort of real food after that (the two hotdogs at aid #12 were pretty good).  I was surprised at how much water I drank given how cool it was, probably on the order of two gallons.  No blisters, but I'll lose 2-3 toenails.  I actually kind of kept track of my splits, so here they are.  Missing data is from forgetting to hit the lap button on my watch.  Time for the geeky Engineer in me to stand out.

Many thanks to my two pacers, Aric Manning and Breein Clark.  You guys rock.  I'll pay you back next week Aric.

Aid station	Miles	Elapsed Time	Elapsed Pace	Lap Time	Lap Pace	Notes
Start	0	0:00	0	0	0
1	10	1:37:00	09:42	1:37	09:42	Flat
2	16	2:35:00	09:41	0:58	09:40	Flat
3	22.6	3:48:00	10:05	1:13	11:04	Flat
4	25.5	4:34:00	10:45	0:46	15:52	Long climb
5	31.6	5:41:00	10:47	1:07	10:59	Downhill and lfat
6	40.9	7:40:00	11:15	1:59	12:48	Rolling with climb
7	50.4	9:57:00	11:51	2:17	14:25	Steep down, mud flats
8	57.4	11:41:00	12:13	1:44	14:51	Flat, slightly rolling
9	61.7	12:42:00	12:21	1:01	14:11
10	67	14:25:00	12:55	1:43	19:26	Climb followed by descent
11	74.3
12	80.6	18:30:00	13:46	4:05	18:01	Climb, descent, gradual climb
13	89.6	21:48:00	14:36	3:18	22:00	Long climb
14	95
Finish	100	25:38:00	15:23	3:50	22:07	Downhill followed by flat

Week of April 15th and Restraunt 1107 review

Sunday - Did some hiking along the south rim of the Grand Canyon with the others.  Generally spent the day playing  tourist and having fun doing that.  Miles - 2.5

Monday - Spent the day driving home from the Grand Canyon.  Sat on my butt for almost 10 hours, ugh!

Tuesday - Did a run north from Rainbow with Sharon.  We went to the Polk Trail turn off and came back.  Nice and easy.  Felt good to get back out.  I noticed that my legs weren't sore at all.  Maybe a little tired, but the run didn't present a lot of effort.  Went for my Pilates class after.  Either the class is getting a little easier or I'm slacking, but it doesn't seem to take nearly the same effort as it did three weeks ago.  Miles - 6.2

Wednesday - Took the day off.  Tapering for Salt Flats in a week and a half.

Thursday - Went to 22nd street and ran up to inspiration point, then headed back to the trailhead to meet Karen for a run.  We got in another few miles by running over to Waterfall canyon, then down to the lower trails and back.  Nice little run.  Miles - 7.25

Friday - Took the day off again

Saturday - Helped out with the Gib Wallace Trail 10K.  Directed runners at one intersection, then went out on the course after to clear course markings.  Miles - 5.84

Restraunt 1107 - This is a fairly new restraunt on the 11th floor of the Ben Lomond Hotel.  I think it's been open a month or so.  We heard about it from some friends who had gone there and thought it was pretty good.  I think we were expecting it to be a bit more crowded than it was.  We were immediately seated by a window overlooking Ogden, and just as the sun was setting.  Very nice.  Their menu selection is somewhat limited, only abut a dozen main dishes are listed.  I got the chicken fusilli and Karen got the chicken catcitore.  Mine was quite good, small pieces of grilled chicken sun dried tomatoes, broccoli, onions, all tossed with some olive oil and spiral pasta.   Plenty hot too.  Sometimes when you order a pasta dish, it's not as warm as it could be, maybe pasta cools off quickly.  This was fresh out of the kitchen hot.  The salad was a field greens with blue cheese, also quite good.  Karen said she enjoyed hers as well.  Service was good.  One thing I kind of have a pet peeve about, especially in a higher end place is when the wait staff says "you guys", as in "how are you guys doing?".  First, it's a low class move in a high class place, second, my wife is not a guy, far from it.  So if any wait staff are reading, how about "how are you folks doing?" instead.  It's a little more formal and doesn't call my wife a guy.  Still, we'd go back, the food was good and it's a little something different than the usual Ogden fare.

Week of April 8th

Sunday - Didn't do squat.  Had plans to run a few but ended up getting a mess load of yard work done now that spring is here.  Felt good to get that stuff done.

Monday - Double day for me.  Did some intervals at lunch, 4 x .5, plus a little extra, then went out for a few miles going north from Rainbow.  I was kind of surprised there weren't more people out, especially mtb'rs.  It was a pretty nice day.  Miles - 10.5

Tuesday - Another double day.  Went out for an easy 5 at lunch.  Nice warm day, little breezy though.  Did another 4.2 with Karen after work.  Went to Pilates again.  Miles - 9.2

Wednesday thru Friday - Didn't do squat except drive to the Grand Canyon on Friday.

Saturday - Ran the Grand Canyon for the 5th time.  This time things were a little different.  Usually there is gorgeous weather for the run.  All week the weather forecast had been pretty ominous, snow, rain, cold.  We drove the truck down since my car really sucks on icy snowy roads.  Turns out we didn't need to.  The roads were fine going down an coming back.  Still, when everyone met in our room at 5am before starting down, it was snowing, the wind was blowing and the temp was about 28 degrees.  There was about 2 inches of the white stuff ont he ground.  Nothing like a little winter run in April.  I knew that once we started down, the wind would ease up and the snow would go away, but I figured it would turn to rain.  I figured that the snow level was around 6000' and once we got below that, the trails would be clear.  Well, they were pretty much clear, but muddy.  By the time we got to Indian Garden, the snow and rain had stopped.  The temp was about 38 and we were doing just fine.  At the river, the weather was actually not too bad.  Probably in the upper 40's and cloudy.  The further we headed up the North Kiabab trail, the more we could see that the north rim was completely socked in.  As we climbed up from the caretaker house, the wind picked up and the snow started again.  Several of us who had been to the north rim before elected to turn around at the bridge that's about 3 miles from the top.  There was about 4 inches on the ground and it was cold, plus we figured that there weren't going to be any good views that day.  The kind of cool thing about this year's run was that there were very few others doing a R2R2R.  We counted six others and that was it.  Needless to say, the trails were kind of empty.  Anyway, we got back to the ranch, took a short break and headed back up the south rim.  I had plans to see how fast I could go up Bright Angel tral to the top.  Last year I did it in about 3:15, so that was the time to beat.  It did rain on us pretty good for about 20 minutes as we came up thru devil's corkscrew, but after that, the weather was fine until near the top.  I did well on the climb to Indian Garden.  Felt good and going strong, actually running portions of it.  Then I hit the steeper part after Indian Garden and that's when the wheels kind of came off.  I slowed way down, but still wasn't doing too bad.  We could see that teh south rim was still socked in with bad weather, and sure enough, about 2 miles from the top we were in snow again.  One of the highlights was a herd of mule deer right on the trail that styed just in front of us.  We could get within 30-40 feet and they would walk on down the trail.  Very cool.  As I got within about 1/2 mile from the top, the wind picked up.  By the time I got to the top, it was blowing hard and snowing hard.  Good thing our room was only about 100 yards from the trail head.  I did manage to go from the ranch to the top in about 3:30, so not too bad.  I did kind of bonk for the last three miles.
The next day was gorgeous, sunny, cool.  We should have done the run that day.  Oh well, we all had a great time.  Several people that had never made the run managed to make it to the north rim (shin deep snow).  I managed to get in 41.5 miles.  So not a bad day or weekend.  Time to go into a taper for Salt Flats.

Total for the week - 61.2  Total vert was probably around 17,000'

Restraunt review time - So while at the Grand Canyon, we obviously ate at the restraunts there.  Friday dinner and Sunday breakfast were at the Bright Angel cafe.  The food wasn't too bad.  I don't remember what I had for dinner, but for breakfast I had one of their skillets.  Couple of eggs on top of hash browns, bacon.  Just the thing to have after an epic run the day before.  Saturday dinner was at the Maswick Lodge cafeteria for pizza and beer.  Pizza didn't really sound appealing to me, so I pretty much drank my dinner, OJ, chocolate milk, beer.  I was good with that. Sunday dinner was at the Arizona Room.  Karen and I had the rib eye steaks and I've had better.  For a rib eye, there was way too much fat on this hunk of meat.  It was cooked properly (medium rare) but the steak was still tougher than it should have been.  Karen's was much the same.  Others had good luck with thier steaks.  Still, for the price I should have gone with the filet.