Skyline Drive 50k

By Steve

It is official.  Monday's are my new distance days.  Wanting to give my new distance day a good test run, I opted to do a whopping 50k and see how I fared.  In short, it was fantastic.  With the exception of the last mile of climbing through the morning heat, I felt really good the whole day. 

A couple differences between this time and last attempt:

1-  I opted to go counter-clockwise this time in order to make it so I could stop at Farmington Canyon on my way to the Bountiful B and stash a drop bag.  After stashing it at what would be mile 24, I made it to the Bountiful B at 4:00am.  Matt Ricks met me there and ran the first 6 miles with me.  

2-  I tagged the summit of Bountiful Peak this time, whereas last time Sam and I ran past it.  I did make the mistake of attempting to summit the wrong sub-peak, and lost about 8 minutes of time upon realizing my mistake.

3-  I was able to shave off about 3/4 of a mile by not having to drop all the way to the parking lot at the bottom of the canyon. By stashing my aid bag at Firebreak road, I was able to cut that section off and make it almost exactly a 50k distance.

So... what's the verdict on Monday distance day?  I felt better than I have on just about any distance run I've done all year.  Why oh why was I so slow to learn this lesson?   At any rate, this was a very good run that was long overdue.

Monkey on his throne

Another monkey sitting on his throne

Bountiful Peak throne and sunrise

Summit Melon on Pfiefferhorn

by Sam

It's not every day on the trail that people compliment you melon. I mean really, who just says: "Dude, nice melon"? It is a nice melon, after all. But do people really have to stare at it like it's some sort of toe fungus? I mean, how can you say that its a beautiful melon and then stare at it like that? Yet, as I climbed the Red Pine trail up toward Pfiefferhorn all the hikers could say was: "whoa, look at that melon" or "wait, did you see that guy's melon?" or "can I take a picture of your melon?" I've never had anyone take a picture of my melon before. It was kind of awkward.

Looking down into Red Pine from the ridge. Also the Cottonwood Ridgeline can be seen across the way.

Cy runs along Red Pine Lake.

The climb seemed harder than normal. Some people didn't compliment my melon at all, they just stared with amazement or dumbfoundment (pretty sure that's not a word). The sideways glances made me feel out of place. Maybe, that's why I was slower than normal. I couldn't take the pressure of the random compliments and the drop jaw stares. This has never happened to me before. I've never had so many people obsess about my melon that way. That's why I usually run in the cover of dark. Much easier to hide one's melon when it's midnight.

"What's that sound?" I heard people say as I breathlessly crested the ridge above Red Pine Lake. My breathing was much more labored than normal. It seemed I had to use my arms to pull myself up. Normally, I can rely on my strong legs to push me up. Not today. My melon was weighing me down apparently. It was soaking in all the attention. Can you blame it? Never before has it gotten that much attention.

Usually people are asking about my monkey. Now that I'm used to. Anyway, onward and upward. Due to my over-sized melon it was difficult crossing the knife edge ridge. My balance was way outta wack and my legs were shaky. It was nice to have a cool breeze even though it sometimes threatened to blow me off the mountain. Finally, I arrived at the last scramble to the summit. I was anxious to get up there. I pushed as hard as I could but it felt like I was moving like a sloth. I guess all that talk about my melon and the strange looks got to me. Wouldn't you know it, just as I was about to summit some hikers sitting up there had to say, "dude, you made it all the way to the top with that melon." Well, of course I did. It is my melon after all. How could I summit without it?

Pfiefferhorn summit.

In case you didn't notice, I'm holding a watermelon in the picture above. Yep, it's not every day people see a 25 lb. watermelon strapped to someone's back on a high and strenuous mountain trail. It was a hard feat and a tasty treat. Six lucky hikers will never forget the day some random trail runner supplied them with watermelon on Pfiefferhorn's summit. Countless others will not forget the day they saw a trail runner carrying up a watermelon, then pass them on the way back and say: "dude, weren't you the guys with the watermelon?"

Schedules

By Steve

Schedules, schedules, without our schedules, life would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.

At the beginning of Summer this year, I attempted to do my first 100 mile training week, by running to the summit of Ben Lomond peak every day for a week.  This was only possible because it was the one week of summer when the kids were all out of school, and we somehow managed to not schedule any family activities that week.  Every morning I woke up at 4:30am, made sure I was at the trailhead by 5:30 am, and was at work by 9:00am every day.   While not making the complete goal, I still ended the week with 84 miles and 15,000' of vert.  That is a record for me, but even during that seemingly available week, I still found myself sarcastically saying to Sam,

"Who would have thought it would be so hard to find 20 hours of spare time per week to run?"

Obviously, with busier schedules, it becomes even more of a challenge.  Family, work, kids school schedules, and church activities are priorities to which running has to take the back seat.  Sam has mentioned many times on this blog how we have found that running in the dark is often the only time we are able to get out.  Matt Ricks was the master who taught us the art of the "early-early" and "late-late" runs.  And this has kind of worked for a while now, but for the last year or so, something has felt a little off for me.

Wednesday night, Sam and I climbed Mount Raymond and Gobblers Knob via Butler Fork.
We reached Raymond's summit at 11:00pm, and Gobblers at midnight.

A long time ago I created a rule for myself that I am not allowed to do any run on Saturdays that leave me too tired and grumpy the rest of the day to do anything meaningful around the house.  Doing so only left a longer honey-do list which I was never able to get done. So long runs on Saturdays are out...

So I've tried for the last 2 years to make Fridays my long runs.  And you can ask Chris, Matt, and Sam how well that has worked for me.  With a standing date night on Thursday nights with my wife, more often than not, I end up having to cancel the Friday 4:00 am run, which has really messed with my mind.  It has left me in this ugly cycle of often getting less than 20 miles per week total running, and still somehow managing to feel tired towards the end of each week.

Last night,  I packed up my running gear and work clothes so I could go do a huge run this morning.  Then as I was sitting with the wife at date night, knowing I wouldn't get enough sleep, I had a moment of clarity.  Why am I trying to shoe horn my long runs into Fridays?  Thursday night and Friday morning are usually the time of the week when I least want to get up and run, and usually feel like crap. Why don't I do my long runs on the day that I feel the best, instead of the worst?

So, starting this next week, I've got a new schedule for myself. I'm throwing out the old paradigm of running the days that I think I'm supposed to, and instead basing it on the weekly pattern of how I feel on each day.  Monday morning will now be my long distance day, because that is the day I always feel the best each week.  Then I sleep a full night on Monday night followed by a "late-late" run Tuesday night with Sam.  On average, that should be 30 or more miles in the first two days of the week.  That is a huge improvement for me.  Short/speed runs on Wednesday and Thursday, will then be followed by a moderate Saturday run.

Will it work?  Am I just overthinking things and wasting blog space?  I guess we will find out next week.   Monday I plan to do the Skyline Drive 50k by myself before work.  Here's to new schedules!