Driven

Up Efftown canyon with Steve N., Ryan L., Matt Ricks and a couple other fellas. Phil Lowery went up earlier and ew met him coming down. My goodness it feels good to be wearing shorts. Feeling light and strong.

I am recovered.

This evening after work I was sitting around thinking of going out but not decided on anywhere to go. There are a multitude of great trails in and near Farmington. I drove over toward the mountain and on impulse decided to run the Flag Rock race course in its entirety. Then I decided I would go as fast as possible and shatter my PR of 1h7m for 7.25 miles and 1800 feet of vert. I ran hard, as if I was racing. No water, no gels. The sun set as I was on top of Flag Rock. I arrived at the flag at 35m53s. Ran quick down the North side. Everything was fast. I really wanted to break one hour. I approximated where the start/finish mat would be in the school driveway. Total time was 1:04:53. Will have work to do in the next three months to contend for the top spot in July.

This is the year I shatter all my PRs. Of that I am sure.

Up Efftown Canyon to Francis shed with the usual suspects: Steve Newman and Ryan Lauck, and Casey.

With MGW (Dorsimus) and Andrea Martinez, trails on North side of City Creek. Fun times, y'all.

Up Efftown Canyon six miles and a quick run back down. Did a side trip to inspect the mine that is about 100 yards off the trail about 3 miles up. I will henceforth refer to it as Three Mile Mine. Looks to go back some distance but I did not dare go in.

Went to Capitol with intention of running on the North side of City Creek canyon. Ran the road to the trail head. After a few minutes of grumbling at the tenacious mud, and my shoes growing heavy, I said screw this. Went back down. Tried the South side trail up. Got a couple hundred feet, accepted the fact that is was not my day. I had more energy on mile 95 of Buffalo than I did today. Ran back on the road. 

BoSho Marathon

I had no real intention of running this until Martinez sent me an email about it. Then I was all in. Why not? It is a free race, totally no-strings attached, unofficial, and fun. I wanted to see how fast I could run a trail marathon. However, this week, I have been "off", if you know what I mean. If I could have run this last week, likely would have been stronger and faster. Plus, a night of 2, maybe 3 hours of sleep didn't help me this morning. But whatever.

There were runners that started at 6AM. I went with the 7AM group. At go, some dude shot out fast. I ran with the front group for the first 5 miles, then stayed about 5 minutes behind most of the way, until the last 6 or seven miles when I really slowed due to achy legs.

The BoSho course is fantastic. It is the ultimate foothills trail run tour above Salt Lake City. All trail.

Lots of familiar peeps there today, and met some new guys. Nick Sourlos introduced himself to me on the trail, then passed me and ran very well the last 6 miles and got way out ahead.

A really fun, free event. Will be back next year.

My goal was 4 hours, and I think I held that pace for 2/3 of the course, then slowed considerably the last third. Race time was 4:32:50.

With the Williams bros, to Flag Rock from the pond in Farmington. On the downside we inspected Patsy's mine. It goes far into the mountain.

Up the canyon with MGW. We continued our Farmington area mine tours, this time we inspected the mine that is 3 miles up the canyon. It goes back in fairly deeply, and has two forks. Dark as hell. 

Up the canyon again, to the campground and back. With Ryan Lauck. He made it 4 miles up before the junk in is lungs was too much. Chilly but clear, beautiful morning.

After work, up Farmington canyon. Where the pavement ends I ran on the single track by the river, up to the campground. First time on the single track. What I found: A very old vehicle, maybe 1920s or 30s, wrecked at the end of a very overgrown old road that parallels the river. Another vehicle that was run off a cliff from the campground above. From the campground I ran up another 2 miles, then back on the road for a total of 13. The gate is open and vehicles are now on the road.

Up Farmington canyon.

Did the Grandeur loop 'smorning with JUN and Salt Lake visitor Josh. We started up in the dark about 5:10AM. Temperature was pleasant but cool until we got into the Pipeline, then up several degrees. I took a digger and got some Church Fork on me.

PM:

Up the single track in F-town canyon with MGW Dorsimus. We spotted a few wrecks in the canyon, including the tailgate of a red Ford F-150. We went up to the camground and then went back on the trail. Found the waterfall.

Nice big day of vert gain today.

With the DCD (Davis County Dudes) I ran from Farmington to the top of Centerville Zig Zag, with lots-o-vert. Steve Newman, Matt Ricks, Ryan Lauck.

Shepard Creek trail with Dorsimus MGW. We parked at the Farmington pond and ran up the North side to the terrace trail. Nice climb for building uphill power. We made a quick detour to explore another mine near the mouth of the canyon. We ran over to Shepard Creek and went steeply up the new trail that ascends toward Francis peak. When I say steep I mean steep. This is Speedgoat training right there.The trail is well marked and we know the guy who built it. I enjoyed this run.

This week has been all about vertical gain. Uphill stuff. (23,000 feet this week.) Today was a lot of the same. I went with Martinez to American Fork canyon and we intended to climb Box Elder peak. There is a lot of snow up there still, and the ridge leading to the peak has a lot of cornice overhang. There was one huge cornice near the top of the peak. We observed this from a couple thousand feet below because we went as high as the lower ridge at the meadow before the climb to the summit. We were ascending a snow field through some scattered boulders when A. felt snow shift beneath her and got spooked. I could tell she didn't want to try for the peak after that. I could have gone on and got the summit but we decided it was time to go down. We also witnessed an avalanche on the East face of the mountain. We had a good run down to the reservoir where we had parked. Not finished for the day, we decided to drive to Timp cave and run up to the cave and back. We got about a quarter mile and maybe 400 feet up and then were stopped with a closed and locked gate. D'oh. Still not finished, we drove over to Dry Canyon TH and did a run up to Horsetail falls. Of course, we overshot it and did some extra climbing, but I wasn't bothered. I was in training mode and made use of the steep climb to strengthen my legs. We eventually found the falls, got a drink from the cold mountain water, and had a fun run back down.

Up Grandeur for the loop down Church Fork. With Martinez and Greg G., and his dog.