Training Log: October 17 to 23

I fell off of the wagon . . .

Monday: Rode bike to work, ran home. 6 miles easy.

Tuesday: Grandeur West, up and down, 6 miles, Threshold (over under) effort. Wasn't feeling good, so to motivate myself, went from a 2 x 20 threshold effort to a 30 on 30 off effort for 30 minutes.

Wednesday: 2 miles easy. Knee is injured. Needed to back off to aid recovery. Plus, it hurt.

Thursday: 2 miles easy.

Friday through Sunday: I moved. One decent effort from 4:30 to 11:00 pm on Friday. Sustainable pace with a few hard efforts thrown in from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm on Saturday. Sustainable pace with a couple bonks from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday and then again from 6 pm to 10 pm on Sunday. My eating habits will surely have a reverse effect on any fitness gains I have made this month: pizza, chinese food, pizza, chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, a bag of wasabi peas, candy . . . Thoroughly and totally blown. Thanks to those who came and helped.

Looking forward to being on snow!!!

Training Log: Oct 2 to Oct 16

Skimo training continues.

I rested from October 3 to October 10. On that week, I did a few short (under 3 miles) runs, and Deseret Peak (8 miles, 4000 vertical) -- nothing too stressful. I focused on recovery and got some body work done. The body work helped me loosen up after a summer of mountain running.

Last week, from October 11 to October 16, I put in a solid block. My intent is to build both volume (time and vertical) and intensity. I put in three intensity sessions in this week, one of which involved two consecutive time trials to the top of Hidden Peak. I am happy with how my body is responding to these efforts -- it seems to recover quite quickly, which is a indication of a decent base. I have to be careful to be patient and not ramp up too fast. There still isn't any snow!! Also, today my knee hurts from my Hidden Peak TT yesterday. Maybe I should have ridden the Tram down. I might have to do some biking this week.

Here is my log from last week:

Monday: Easy trot for 1 hr up and 1/2 down on Olympus trail. 5 miles, 2542 feet.

Tuesday: Grandeur Loop. Threshold effort up (49:49). Easy after. 10 miles, 4360 feet.

Wednesday: Easy run in the neighborhood. 5 miles. No significant vertical.

Thursday: Intervals on Grandeur with weight (backpack stuffed with climbing rope). 4 x 4-5 min. 3 miles, 1860 feet.

Friday: Easy run to work, bike back. 7 miles in, 6 miles back. No significant vertical.

Saturday: Snowbird TT from tram dock to Hidden Peak (patrol hut), twice. Threshold effort on the up, easy on the down. 13.5 miles. About 5700 vertical. 52:48 to the top the first time, 56:38 the second time.

Totals for 10/11 to 10/16: 43.5 miles, 14,462 vertical.

In Memory of Ben

From Ben

Ben Jacobsen's fight with cancer ended today. I was very sad to hear the news. His passing made me think on some dawn patrols we had. The last one I recall was in January 2009. It was a powder day, and we skinned to the top of Neffs. At the top, we were treated to this view of Lone Peak.

From Ben

Because we were so happy to be out, after one run off the top, we skinned up to the base of Triangle Peak, and then dropped off into North Fork. Ben knew that this wasn't the sensible option, but he was a good sport -- even after the non-sensible option nearly ruined an otherwise-good powder day. Our run into North Fork pretty much sucked. I think we kicked off a sizable avalanche. Ben and I dug our edges into the hill watched a cloud of snow sift through the trees. We looked at each other wide-eyed, then laughed it off. We were happy to be alive. To make things worse, we missed the only good exit out (an elk trail) and ended up performing a massive bushwhack. To this day I can't remember one worse. After a while, it became a situation of every man for himself, along with a situation of get out of here as fast as you can. I skied straight to the car. A few minutes Jon came along. Ben took a bit longer (I attribute that to his telemark gear), and we almost left him. But we didn't, and all ended up being several hours late to work.

I'm glad I got to ski with Ben. I will miss him.

Ben (in yellow) at the base of Triangle Peak, getting ready for a nice adventure. Just before this, we gave him grief about wearing white women's ski gloves.

From Ben

Ben hopping a rock in Idaho:

From Ben

Until then . . .

From Ben

Note: Some of Ben's friends organized a cycling team for Ben -- Team Firestorm, which is selling Firestorm jerseys. Proceeds go to Ben's family. Let me know if you're interested.

Deseret Peak

From 2010-10-09

Deseret what?? I thought that I was well-versed in the Wasatch, but I had no clue where Deseret Peak was. Quickly, I Googled it: in the Stansbury range, about 11k, in a designated Wilderness area, less than 1 hr away from the city. Since it was clearly a win-win-win, I responded "yes" to the email. I'd get to meet and run with some new people, I'd get to run a new trail, and I'd get to do some ski recon.

I. The New People:

Jay, Darcie, and Brian descending Deseret Peak.

From 2010-10-09

George through the mist.

From 2010-10-09

Brian, Jay, and Greg on the Summit.

From 2010-10-09

II.  The New (to me) Trail

Not sure exactly what the name of the trail was, but we ran a counter-clockwise loop that ascended and descended Deseret Peak.  A cloud hung over the summit.  It had snowed earlier and there was a fall rime on the trees.

From 2010-10-09

From 2010-10-09

III.  Ski Recon

Oh yeah . . . .

From 2010-10-09

The entrance:

From 2010-10-09

Coyotes in Red Pine, Pfeif, White Baldy

Saturday morning I was feeling pretty beat, but wanted to cap off a good building block. So I got in the car and ended up at the White Pine trailhead. I ran up to Red Pine lake and heard a pack of what I think were coyotes yipping away. They went to town for about a minute, then I never heard them again. I recorded part of the session though:



From there, I went up to make offerings (for family, miscellaneous blessings, and snow) on the Pfeif:

From 2010-10-03

And then traversed the ridge to the top of White Baldy. Some parts of the ridge were runnable. Other parts were pretty scrambly.

From 2010-10-03

I didn't choose well dropping into White Pine, and ended up getting a bit of unanticipated free solo action. I found some snow though:

From 2010-10-03

Build 1

I'm about 5 weeks into my skimo training program. "Training program" is a term I use loosely, but generally, it involves a few training periods with the objective of being at peak fitness in January. I had a pretty moderate summer as far as intensity and racing goes. I did a few trail running races in hopes that my body wouldn't forget how to work hard. But for the most part, my objective was to maintain fitness (and learn how to run, but that's another story . . . ).

Beginning on August 30th, I entered into a "build" phase. My objective during this phase was to build aerobic fitness and to increase efficiency at threshold. Thus, intensity-wise, it involved several rounds of effort at or below threshold (for me, 162-172 bpm) and a lot of aerobic time (for me, 135-140 bpm). In an ideal world, I would be able to train on skis. However, since there is no snow around, my activity of choice has primarily been mountain running, with a bit of biking mixed in. I've found mountain running to be a good substitute for on-snow training. The motion of climbing steep mountains, sometimes with poles, is very similar to skinning. I think it will require less transition time than biking. Hopefully, it will translate well.

Here is a short summary of Build 1:

I'm going to rest this week, and then enter into another Build Phase. Hopefully, the snow is not too far away.