Thursday, July 30, 2009

Blood, Sweat & Tears

...OK, so there haven't been any tears yet. Over the last few weeks though, I've been putting in quite a few miles and had plenty of sweat to go around. I'm getting really bored with running on the busy roads though, so I try to limit that type of running to about once a week. Here's what a pretty normal week has been looking like as of late:

Monday: Head down to the Jordan Parkway for a semi-long run
Tuesday: Hit the gym and get my ass handed to me on a treadmill
Wednesday: Usually try to get a mountain run in right after work
Thursday: Been resting, but looking at more Parkway miles
Friday: Hit the streets with my posse (ok, so it's usually just me)
Saturday: Anywhere I can get in mass amounts of miles
Sunday: Rest Rest Rest

I've been trying to heat-acclimate lately so I've been doing some running in 90+ degree heat. I will say though, that I don't sweat nearly as much doing that as I do at the gym! It's always so muggy and humid in there. And why they keep the heat up beats me! Maybe it gives people the feeling that they're getting a good workout when they sweat off 5 pounds of water weight? Who knows really.

My legs were hurting pretty badly on Tuesday night after doing some leg presses and running on the treadmill. I didn't know how my legs would feel last night after that debacle (BTW, I will never do leg weights and long running on the same day again). My run last night felt good though. No real pain in my legs, just in my lungs since I was doing some speed work... but that's a good thing! So I'm feeling good, cool down, walk in the door and sit down, relieved to be home and just relax the rest of the night. I pull off my shoes to let them air out and what do I see??? Oh, the aftermath...



I guess this came from a small blister I got on Saturday that's just progressively gotten worse. I decided to drain it on Tuesday so it wouldn't get worse, and it worked! Instead, it just decided to bleed all over the place. Lucky me!!! Time to invest in some 'moleskin' or something like that. I heard super glue works too?

Monday, July 27, 2009

Time To Enjoy The Great Outdoors

Due to a few hiccups in the planning for the guys' "Living off the land" trip, we weren't able to make it happen this past weekend. We're tentatively rescheduling for another weekend next month. So instead, Lydia and I decided to spend some time with her family up in the Spruces campground up Big Cottonwood. We left Thursday right after work and stayed til Sunday morning (with only a few trips back down to the valley).

So instead of putting my miles in on the road over the weekend, I decided to take it to the trails instead. Friday consisted of a few separate hikes, totaling about 6 miles for the day. My dad and I are trying to get some good hikes in to prep for hunting season, but I decided not to do anything too aggressive since I had a longer trail run planned out for Saturday. So instead, he and I went to a well known area and did a little scouting. Later in the day, Lyd and I went on a couple shorter hikes as well.

And then there's Saturday... I did a little research and thought I had the total mileage for my run pinned down. Turns out I was off by 3 miles or so! I awoke Saturday morning, drove down to the Mill B North trailhead and proceeded to make my way up the trail. It had rained the night before, so the vegetation was really wet. Needless to say, I was soaked once I hit the thick stuff about a mile and a half into it and stayed that way until the end of the run. I made it to the Porter Fork junction in about 1 hour 25 minutes or so; my best time to date.

I proceeded into Mill A Basin along the Desolation Trail and stopped to watch some deer feed. No big bucks though! I moved along around Mill A at a pretty decent clip, only falling once! The overgrowth on the trails was starting to get a little annoying though as my shins were getting trashed, not to mention I was now soaked up to my chest.

I eventually hit the junction for Butler Fork and continued along the Desolation Trail. This section was a mystery to me; I couldn't find anything on the web about the distance, and I'd only hiked it twice before in my life, the most recent being about 4 years ago. So I guessed it at around 2 miles. Turns out it was probably closer to 4! And the overgrowth was unreal!!! There were points where I couldn't even see the trail and I'd have to stop and walk it to avoid snapping one of my limbs. Good times! After nearly 50 brutal minutes, I made it to Dog Lake.

I've been to Dog Lake a few times over the years, but always on an out-and-back. So when I got there, I had no idea where to go since I was going on a through route. I followed my instincts and made my way down a trail. After about 10 minutes though, I realized I was not going the right way and was most likely heading down into Millcreek. Turned around and went down another way... Dead end! By this point I'd lost about 20 minutes, so I finally asked someone who pointed me in the direction I was looking for... Mill D. I flew down the .6 mile section in about 3 and a half minutes, then turned up the steep incline towards Desolation Lake.

I've spent plenty of time on this section so I knew what to expect, except for the mountain bikers. I think because it was the 24th holiday weekend, a larger number of people were out than usual. I saw at least 25 mountain bikers in that 1.9 mile section up to Desolation Lake. When I got to Desolation, I saw a few more and 15-20 people sitting at the lake, something I've never seen before.

The rest of my run was completely new to me. I knew I had to end up on the South ridge of the Desolation Lake cirque, but wasn't quite sure the best way to tackle it. I headed down the west side of the lake and noticed a small trail that went up in a southern direction. Turns out this was the right trail to take as it got me to the southern ridge, but I might as well have been scaling a mountain... It was steep! The views from above were worth it though (too bad my camera was out of commission).

Once at the top I dropped down into Beartrap Fork. I didn't know what to expect having never been here before, but the canyon was peaceful. The first third was steep, the second third was moderate, and the final section was a slight downhill. Since the canyon was still mostly in the shade though, I continued to get soaked (just as I was starting to dry off too). Could've done without that and the hoardes of nettle that pummeled my now open shin wounds... It felt amazing! (notice the sarcasm).

Once I hit the road it was another mile or so to The Spruces and I was finished. An estimated total of 17.5 miles which took me about 4 hours 45 minutes. The aftermath: two raw shins, one bloody heel, nettle stings, a few new blisters, wet drawers and a big smile! Onto my first 50 mile week!!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Sometimes You Just Need A Good Break

Turns out my idea to tone it down a bit has worked out pretty well. Even though I probably shouldn't have, I actually ended up taking the weekend off. I figure that I'm 12 weeks out from the marathon and rather than continue with some ailments, I could sacrifice a few days to get healed up. And it seems to have worked! I'm feeling much better in just about every category so that's definitely a positive.

So after 3 full days off, I ran last night after work and felt pretty good. I did a 6.5 mile route in the 86 degree heat in 51:17 (including water breaks). Pretty good considering. Obviously not my best day, but it feels good when you don't have to run through pain. Tonight I plan on a speed workout so it should be pretty short and sweet. Then tomorrow I've got my mountain run scheduled so we'll see how the legs hold up after that. For now, all's good in the hood!

I also started keeping track of my food intake this past week. I'm trying to balance out what I'm eating daily which I'm hoping will yield results in my running. I'm averaging right around 3,000 calories a day with around a 55:25:20 ratio (carbs, fat, protein). I'll start tweaking this a bit as I find what works for me, but also as I continue to increase my mileage.

Totals since last post:

Wednesday: 5.0 mi
Thursday: 4.0 mi
Friday: off
Saturday: off
Sunday: off
Monday: 6.5 mi

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

And Just When It Starts Going Good...

...I experience a setback. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I haven't trained seriously for anything in the last 10 years? Maybe it's because I'm getting older? Whatever the case may be, I hate injuries! And I'm noticing a trend now that I'm actually writing all this stuff down... That I'm having to take a day off every week due to injury. So, it's time to pull back on the reins this week.

First of all, the injury I have is not debilitating, it's just something that I don't want to get worse. It's known as posterior tibial tendonitis. It's basically just an inflammation of the tendon that starts under my foot, runs behind my ankle and connects with a muscle under my calf. It doesn't hurt too bad walking on it, but the constant pounding of the pavement is not allowing it to get any better. So, I'm just gonna cut back on the miles for a few weeks, then build up a bit more slowly. I honestly think I just jumped into constant high mileage a little too quickly. Apparently, I'm not Superman like I thought.

So the plan for this week is to simply cut down on distance. Tonight I plan on hitting the eliptical at the gym to see how the ankle's doing. If all goes well, I'll head to the mountains on Wednesday for a nice short, flat trail run. Thursday is my day off, then I'll do an easy jog on Friday and a longer run on Saturday. Hopefully all goes well, but for now it's ibuprofen, ice, and ace wraps. Gotta love it!

Totals since last post:

Thursday: off
Friday: 4.5 mi
Saturday: 12.0 mi
Sunday: off
Monday: injury day

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Slowly Building Up

After about 4 1/2 hours of sleep (partially due to the terrible pullout bed in the condo), I awoke around 5 am on Saturday for my longest run to date. Luckily I got it in early and in a new environment in Park City, so there wasn't the usual monotony associated with my weekday runs. I ended up doing a modified loop on a long outdoor trail they have up there. Temp was hovering around 45 degrees when I started, and it took about 40 of those first 50 minutes to warm up. Yikes! My pace was comfortable though and I finished the first 6.5 mile loop in just over 50 minutes. Then I met my dad and sister at the start of the loop where we ran the 6 mile version together in almost exactly an hour. Way to go Britt on your longest run ever! I honestly felt like I could go at least one more loop, but decided I should stop while I'm ahead.

Monday was a completely different story! You'd think that after taking Sunday off I would be back in top form. However, it took all of about 15 minutes for temperatures in the mid-90's to wipe that out! The schedule only called for 4 miles with a few sprints, but since I'm trying to increase my miles a bit, I decided to run half an hour out, and half an hour (or so) back. Ended up going about 28 minutes out and 31 back for a total of 59:18. More importantly though, I got some good training in the heat and a good sense of how much water I should be taking in.

I had trouble waking up Tuesday and felt a bit lethargic at work. However, I decided to head up the canyon for my weekly mountain run. The destination: Mill D trail in Big Cottonwood up to Desolation Lake and back. With a loop around the lake at the end, it's about 8 miles total. I struggled up to the lake in just over an hour, then pulled out the camera for some scenery, threw my pack on, then made my way around the lake and back down the trail. Total time was 1:37:40, of which 5 minutes was spent getting a bug out of my eye on the way down . Not too bad considering how I felt.


After my mountain run I started feeling some tightness in my ankle. After I woke up today it's just progressively gotten worse, so I decided I'm taking tonight off to ice up and rest up. Then I'm hoping to plow through some cross-training on Thursday, and some long Friday, and Saturday morning runs. But I'm tired now so it's off to bed...

Totals since last post:

Saturday: 12.5 mi
Sunday: off
Monday: 7.5 mi
Tuesday: 8.0 mi
Wednesday: injury day