Beards

Some good times, some bad times...  About a week ago I joined in to support Jared Campbell in his fundraiser for Breathe Utah on Grandeur Peak.  See details and summary here and here.  His goal was to summit 10 times.   Some quick math reveals this to involve 33,000 ft of vertical climbing in about 40 miles.  With waist deep drifted snow at the top and harsh winds he couldn't have picked a harder day for the endeavor, but he got it done.  Hopefully this will be a yearly event.

The next day I ran just over 27 miles on Antelope Island with the middle 12 of it at a pretty brisk pace along the flatter trail along the east side of the island.  I then met up with Christian, Karl, Greg, David, and Matt who had started a bit later  Sure enough, doing all that 'real' running was enough to flare the achilles up and this past week involved some unappreciated downtime, during which I was revisited by ghosts of injuries past, neurotic and otherwise.  To heal myself I've simply reverted to my old ways of slogging uphill and it is working like a charm for both collagen and soul.  I did the steep route up Mt. Wire from the Sunnyside trail head parking lot in 31:40, all hiking, and then today did 3 x Mt. Wire for about 6,600 vert in 12 miles.  All good specific training for the mostly flat and graded upcoming Antelope Island 50 miler in 2 weeks... :)

Of course, all this is just preamble to the real news of having finally shaved my face.  While a positive move for the marriage, professional life, and vitamin D synthesis, I nonetheless miss being mistaken for a homeless person.  Interestingly, while Charles Darwin (himself whiskered) speculated that beards have evolved in our ancestors because women find them attractive this turns out not to be the case.   Rather, at least according to a study in the Oxford Journal of Behavioral Psychology (here), the converse is true. However, the augmentation of aggressive facial displays facilitated by facial hair may lend an indirect survival advantage in competition with other males in the intrasexual mating milieu.  

The face of dominance.

Peter Adler, Bonneville

Grandeur Peak: 1st of 10 for Jared.

Antelope Island.  Greg Norrander, David Hayes, Karl Meltzer, Christian Johnson, Matt Hart.

On the island of Yap, age 10. Photo courtesy of  Craig Lewis.

Bridge-Jenny Loop, Zion NP

This past weekend Bethany, Ada, and I traveled down to Zion NP to meet up with Jared and Mindy Campbell and Ryan and Julie McDermott and their two children.  Viral infections be damned, Jared, Ryan and myself went out for a great 8 hour backcountry traverse to Bridge Mountain, Marble Ridge, and the Jenny Peaks.  I imagine there are few people on the planet who know this terrain better than these two guys (see Zironman) and it was pretty cool to get a chance to see parts of the park that very few folks ever get to.  We headed out around 9am, leaving just east of the tunnel and made our way through mixed terrain of shin deep snow, ice, sandstone, and brush.  The pace was steady which belied Jared's increasingly labored and shallow breathing and evident malaise.  I politely declined to follow these guys up and then back down Bridge Mtn out of both abject fear for my life as well as realistic appraisal of my limited climbing skills and instead explored around the tamer terrain around the sloping sandstone saddle between Bridge and G2.  We continued on, eventually traversing the sublime and rolling Marble Ridge which was punctuated at several points by bizarre scattered slabs of basalt: fractured alien-appearing remnants of what must have once been a full layer of volcanic rock over the sandstone.  Our final scrambling descent back to the tunnel was small potatoes for these guys but ended up being fairly gripping stuff for yours truly.  I did manage not to shit my pants, for which I'm thankful, but it was not a graceful sight to behold.

Ryan and Jared with Bridge Mtn in the background.

Ryan, taking in the surroundings.

Otherworldly slabs of basalt perched on sandstone

Traversing across Marble Ridge.

Being Social.

Another great couple of weeks of running / post-holing up steep snow covered slopes.  I've had a lot of social runs lately which has been a nice change of pace from my typical solitary and antisocial caveman ways.  Highlights include some good running with Jason Berry, Greg Norrander, Bryon Powell, Matt Vukin, Chris Helfer, Kerry Gaines, Jared Campbell, and Bethany.  Got in about 8 hours of running this past weekend with a vert session with Jared on Saturday, hitting both Mt. Olympus and Grandeur for over 7000 vertical and then a hard aerobic 23 miles with Bethany yesterday along a slushy and wet Bonneville trail.  I woke up this AM with my second of 2 colds in the last 3 weeks: a testament to starting Ada in disease-infested daycare and simply an additional level of resistance added to the training load.

School! Doggy!

Summit of Grandeur, right after doing Olympus which is in the background

A typical training day for Jared... 

Bethany on Bonneville trail, slushy conditions

Helfer on Mt. Wire

Bryon Powell and Chris Helfer at Round Valley

 Baby moose at Round Valley (mamma close-by)

Ascending west face of Grandeur.  

Looking towards Mt. Olympus off Grandeur.  

Black Mtn with new snowfall

Coming off Black Mtn, valley below

Greg Norrander and Jason Berry in the fog on Mt. VanCott.

Updates and TRT

Two big pieces of news over the past week: 1) I got into the Wasatch 100 and 2) I committed to a speed record attempt on the 165 mile Tahoe Rim Trail in August.  Gary Gellin- the speedster who I met at the Bear 100 this past year- has been organizing an impressive team of ultrarunners to take on this challenge (everyone running as individuals) and was gracious enough to invite my sorry ass along.   The current record is 38:32 and is held by the phenom Kilian Jornet.  I must say, even mentioning this possibility feels like unrealistic hubris on my part (as far as my abilities alone are concerned.)  But what the hell...  I'm certainly not one to turn down such a potent opportunity to sublimate death anxiety.  I can only hope to be fit enough by that time so as not to embarrass myself too badly.

I've had a good run of healthy, solid training over the last month with over 80,000 vertical gain in January.  While little of this training has much likely bearing on my prospects at the mostly graded and nontechnical trails at the upcoming Antelope Island 50m it has certainly been enjoyable and hopefully is money in the bank for later season technical mountain races on the schedule.  The past week's highlights include a good threshold effort on Mt. Wire (29:10 to summit in slow, icy conditions), a hard aerobic 26 miler on Antelope Island and then 4 x 5 minute cruise intervals at the end of a 16 miler today- the latter two workouts with Helfer, the Manimal.  Nice to see a bunch of local SLC runners out on Antelope Sunday morning.

Remembering in the midst of this Einstein's caveat: 'not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.'  

Mill D

Mt. Wire, the old standby

Bonneville overlooking the city

I heart Mt. Wire.

Antelope Island, sunrise.

Helfer, taking a break from hammering.

Antelope island...

Towards Mueller Park...

Existential Reminders

While winter trail running in SLC can be limiting in terms of possible routes, one nice consequence of  traveling the same set of trails on a daily basis is a growing sense of intimacy with the terrain and the ability to appreciate minute changes in trail conditions, lighting, weather, and wildlife.  There is a habituation that occurs to place and my presence in it.  I know each bend, each rise, the most efficient footstrike patterns to negotiate obstacles, what the temperature means for the snow conditions and expected traction.  The strange is made familiar: a state facilitated by the proximity of these trails to my workplace and the city at large, the expectation of being here in the minutes I squeeze out of a lunch break or the early morning hours, the folding of this activity into my routine.  At times this can promote a desultory, even complacent attitude towards the surroundings and the daily ritual of weaving to and fro amidst the foothills.  And yet there are moments where strangeness returns, where you are reminded in the clearest of terms where you are and what you are: in the natural order of things, an animal of bone and gristle running instinctually during the bright, brief window of time you are alive.  

Strangeness.  An odd term for what is the truest encapsulation of our existence.  It's been nice to have a few daily reminders of this. 

The following photos were all taken over the last 3 days in Dry Creek, only minutes from the University Hospital.  Mountain lions are alive and well in the foothills judging by the carnage and plentiful surrounding tracks.  

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

The Gist

Helfer heading up Uncle.  

I've accumulated some decent vertical over the last 2 weeks (a little over 40,000ft of vertical gain), a good deal of it slogging uphill in snow.  This marks a stodgy commitment to my general training plan of running whenever the opportunity arises, doing none to very little fast running, lots of ups, and skimpy overall mileage totals.  While controversial and certainly not a plan destined to take one to the Olympic Trials, I justify this approach by fear of injury and facilitate it by not wearing any form of GPS tracking device- the latter allowing for not only gross overestimation of distance traveled but also convenient obscuration of one's true level of fitness.   While this would be unthinkable for a candy-assed, obsessive-compulsive, existentially-adrift triathlete, or even my former mileage-obsessed road marathoning self, it nicely fits the bill for me right now.

AM Grandeur, west face.

Slogging up Mt. Wire with the sunrise.

Jason, Mt. Wire.  Cold.

A bit of a treacherous descent.

Mom, Ada, and new snowfall.

Trail Running: East and West.

It's been a dry winter here in Salt Lake.  While this has made for consistently runnable lower elevation trails it has definitely limited other winter activities.   Luckily, running is a pretty great thing in and of itself.  Having done zero snowshoeing this winter I may forgo the 50k snowshoe race at the end of this month and simply focus on building strength for the upcoming spring racing season.  In that regard I've been able to accumulate some decent time on my feet over the past 3 weeks- both here as well as back in Maine visiting my folks.  I'm also finalizing my race schedule for the spring and summer which will likely look something like this:

March- Antelope Island 50 mile

April- Zane Grey 50 mile

May- Zion 100?  vs. June 2nd Pocatello 50

June- San Juan Solstice 50 mile

July- Speedgoat 50k

August- ? possibly Transrockies with Bethany

September- Wasatch 100, lottery pending.

Fall TBD.

Piano lessons with Mimi 

Icy trail up Saddleback (Maine)

A bit slick

Bushwhacking

Bethany scrambling up classic Maine trail.

Jason Berry on ridge between Mt. Aire and Grandeur.

Sunrise on Bonneville

Afternoon on Bonneville.

Bethany in the Maine woods.

Why we averaged 18min per mile on this long run.