Driven

Olympus

 With Scott, hiked Olympus - my 30th time at the summit - and ran the trail down. No big woop.

Big Bacon with Scott. GreatGreatGreat!

Big Bacon, with Scott.

No big woop.

It's getting warmer. Soon it will be warm enough to wear shorts. Ima have to find some nice purple shorts to wear up on Bacon.

Ave Twins/Mount Van Hott BST Combo with Brother Wassermann

Alarm at 4AM, met Scott at 5AM near the University Hospital above Salt Lake City. We then drove to a trailhead above Federal Heights neighborhood to access the BST. Temp was chilly but the season is definitely shifting into Spring and it was comfortable once we got running. We ran the trail to the Avenues Twin Peaks, then plowed down the west slope to pick up the BST, then turned South for a handful of miles  of sustained running. My first time on this section of trail. Like it. Lot of water coming from Dry Canyon watershed. I rolled my ankle on a stream jump; fortunatley it was a temporary soreness. We continued to the base of the Van Cott ridge trail, then up and reached the summit rock pile quickly. Another quick run down to Scott's car then shuttle back to mine at the morning TH. Nice run. Scott was hoping to run into his fluffy-haired crush, Brian. He went unfulfilled. He's been looking all over for that guy. Above the din of indie rock grinding out of my earphones, I thought I heard Scott say 7.7 miles. OK.

I did not run today. I'm still a peak bagger trying to become a runner.

I climbed Lone Peak for over 6,000 feet of vertical climbing.

But wait. I must confess that again, I did not tag the summit. We were literally dozens of feet from the summit, so we should pat ourselves on the back for making the effort. We got partway on the knife-edge snow-covered ridge leading to the summit and we backed off. Those cornices were just sending out some bad vibes. The snow up there was brittle, not the heavy snow that has been baking in the sun for days that makes for a safe crossing. Back in February Joe and I climbed the same mountain and turned back at the same spot. Reaching the summit of a mountain --even a mountain as gorgeous as Lone Peak-- is not worth dying for if the conditions are unsafe.

But I am satisfied. We hiked on snow to a great mountain. 

I am also very happy with the level of energy I was blessed to have today. I got less than 4 hours sleep and got up at 4AM this morning. All day I had a crazy amount of energy and I cruised up those 6,000 feet. I was even running up some of the slopes.

Here is how I will relate this to  running, or even "fast running":

I believe the weekly hike/runs with my buddy Scott are helping me to call up the kind of energy I had today. We had a terrific run mid-week, and I feel great for having gone. Thanks Scott for encouraging me to get out and move, even if it is only once a week. 

My first run with people. 5K. Yay.

 Then a 4 mile run in the evening on the Bonneville Shoreline trail above Farmington. Not a good trail. It is a wide jeep trail to be shared with SUVs and motorcyclists.