Green Canyon - That trail is tough as you have to cross the creek (small river at this point) a good dozen times. Or you can take the road until the section where the road is washed out and you have to swim across that! At least the upper section is gorgeous. I enjoyed the running on that section.
T- 70 mins of biking / 2.5 miles at 8:45 pace - 2250' Vert
House to River Trail to Spring Hollow. Once there, I ran for 1 mile until the trail flooded out. I then rode down the canyon and along BST to Green. Once in Green, I traded off riding the singletrack getting wet and riding the road staying dry. I ditched the bike again for 3 more miles of actual running in Green. Thinks are same as always with regards to the injury. I can get a few miles here and there with no issues, but that is all. One of these days....
T- 150 mins on bike (28 miles)
T - 4 miles at 8:20 ave pace running
2500' Vert combined
** Weekly summary - 99 miles biking, 14 running, 11,400' Vert, 645 mins
I once camped at this very camp spot with Jon (in Green Canyon)
Up at the crack of dawn to beat the crowds to the trails. It worked for the most part. I biked up to the tree at a easy-med effort. I hit the first summit at 33:33 and the tree at 55:00. I quickly dropped the bike and gear and ran in circles swatting the mosquitos before running the loop at the top. It turns out it is 1.5 miles with 250' Vertical per loop. The trail is nice and dry this time on the loop (although the 2 stream crossings earlier were nasty). First loop in 13 mins. Second loop in 12:06. Third and final running loop in 12:25. I loved it. It was sure nice to run on trails at altitude mostly pain free. Things did get tight the last .5 mile so I called it good. I quickly donned my bike gear and did the loop on the bike for comparison. 10:12. So its faster to bike it by about 2 mins. Times up, down the trail to the car. 22:45 counting stopping for bikes and hikers where necessary and stopping in the creek crossing to soak the knee for a min. What a blast!
Biked to Deer Fence - Ran 4 miles on the trail. First 2 were perfect, next mile and a half the ITB tightened, the final half mile the tightness moved to the outside of the knee. Biked home.
T- 45 min bike, 33 min run 1150' Vert combined
PM: Ran the kids to the park and back. Barefoot and pushing the stroller. Felt good. Call it a half mile or so. TRX for 30 min afterward.
Alright, not really epic, but it was cool. Parked at the corner of Left Hand Fork and Blacksmith Fork, jumped on the bike and followed the road up the mtn. for 15 miles. Things started out fine until the cows took over the road and I was forced to play rancher for the next 3 miles. It was not fun. Too many stupid cows refusing to walk 10 feet out of the way and instead running for miles up the road. I would get around some and then there would be more waiting up the road. I ended up following the road until it met up with the top end of Richards Hollow. 15 miles and 3000' vert in 2 hours. Time for a jog now. Ditched the bike and headed down Richards Hollow. The trail was pretty muddy and the stream was running high. 4 miles round trip of blissful trail running. No issues with the leg today. Could have been the stream crossings kept things icy cool. 4 miles in nearly 40 mins with 800' vert climbing. Back on the bike. This time rather than re-visiting the cows, I went for the awesome trail down Richards Hollow. The stream crossings make the bike all squeaky and muddy, but the flowers were out in force. 10.5 miles back to the car in about an hour. It was a blast coming down that trail on a bike. Nearly as fun as running, and much more dangerous. I nearly killed myself a few times. Too many rocks and blind corners combining forces. Finished this up with a dip in the stream and a shout out to Paul P. who was running up the canyon on my way down. Go Paul.
Took the family to Minnetonka Cave near bear lake and it was a hit. We even went on a hike while there and the kids wanted to trail run with their old man. What have I done?
Total - 3 hours bike - 40 min run - 3800' vert
Weekly Summary- 73.5 equivalent miles - 15.5 miles running - 12,750' vert - 94 bike miles - 720 Mins - Highest Volume week of the year. Leg is marginally better, but not much. Enjoying the short runs, much better than nothing.
Today the legs were feeling good so I did a test to see what they could handle. The answer was 4 miles, but since I was still a mile from the bike at that point I ended up going 5. Got a bit sore and tight, but I survived. Things felt great for the 4 though. The only other highlight was the deer that was not afraid of me and let me pet him. Just kidding, but I did get pretty close.
T- 46:45 biking - 42:00 running - 1300' vert total
I was feeling slightly under the weather today, but once I got out the door, things got better. The run was nice. Uneventful except that the new trail is now 4/10 of a mile long. That makes it 1 mile exactly from the bridge to the bottom of the trail. I would guess 3/4 of a mile to go to make it to the mouth of the canyon.
T- 60 min bike 32:30 run (3.5) 1800' Vert total.
By lunch time I was feeling exhausted and all stuffed up. Either severe allergies or crazy head cold. By dinner I figured head cold. I couldn't breathe or move so I went to bed. I got 12 hours of sleep. Awesome.
Slept in to let the body recover from its cold. I woke up feeling way better today, but I was still miserable most of the day. It was a never ending faucet. After dinner, I pushed the kids in the stroller to the park then ran some laps around the grass field while they played. It felt good to do something. 3 miles total.
Feeling much better today and I attribute it to the mountain ride/run. Today it was the usual ride/run/ride up Providence Canyon. Nothing special. Leg felt good until the final downhill then it started barking at me. I stopped just in time.
T- 63 bike 32 run 1800' vert
Lunch was an hour of racquetball. Kicked some butt.
I am in SLC for the day so I brought my mountain bike here and went for a sweet ride. I started at my Mom's house in Cottonwood Heights and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon via Top of the world drive (hillier than wasatch). I found myself in the middle of hundreds of road bikers riding what they call the "4 canyons" (little,big,millcreek, and emmigration). It was fun to mix it up with them for a bit. I peeled off at the Temple Quarry trail and followed it up the canyon for 3 miles or so until it became a bushwhack and I hiked it up to the road. Once again, I was in the midst of the bikers until the top. Once at Snowbird, I hit the trails. I biked around a bit on the Speedgoat course until I felt like it was time to run some.
The run was only 4 miles but it was fun. I had serious flashbacks to last year and what I deem the toughest 50K ever. Made me nostalgic but I was glad I wasn't running it this year. I wandered all around the course and nearby looking for the flattest trails. There weren't many, but there was great scenery. I love that canyon. Post run, I filled up the water bottle at the lodge and headed home. Riding down that canyon is a blast, even on a mountain bike. I will have to try it on a road bike and see how much I can top 43mph (my max speed today).
T Bike - 27 miles in 2:35 - 4000' Vert
T Run - 4 miles in 40:30 - 800' Vert
Weekly Summary - It was a rough week being sick most of the week. I still feel less than 100%. It has moved to my lungs and out of my head (thankfully). The leg is still not right. I have moments of tightness and achy feelings, but for the most part it feels fine. I am enjoying the amount of running I am able to do, but do wish that I could do more.
19 miles of running - 73.5 miles of biking - 12,100' Vert climbing
Bike Run Bike with the run covering the entire (currently existing) singletrack trail for the first time. 4.5 mile run, felt pretty good. Mild tightness on the downs.
Quick trip up to Deer Fence to bike/run. Spent the rest of the day driving to Colstrip Montana to spend a few days with my wife's sister and her family. It took a long 12 hours. Fun.
Explored around Colstrip Montana. I took the road out of town for about 5 miles then turned off onto Cow Creek (pronounced Crick) Road. It was a dirt and gravel road that went for miles. I could have gone for 40 miles or so before it ended. I made it only about 11.5 before ditching the bike in the brush and running for a bit. I ran on the flat road for 2.5 miles before heading back. There wasn't much to see except some ranches and lots of weeds. I would sure miss my mountains if I lived out here. I made it 4 miles before the leg started to hurt and by mile 5 I was glad that I was back to the bike. Once on the bike, the tightness immediately dissapeared. The ride home was nice, but man it got hot and I was out of water. I saw way more cows than people this ride but failed to find the creek that was advertised. Liars
T bike - 65min out & 69min back (convert to 13.5 miles)
T run - 36:30 (7:20) 750' vert for bike and run
This was the biggest "hill" I could find around here. Reminds me of Goblin Valley kind of.
Rode up to the Colstrip lake and rode around it 2 times (2.5 mile gravel trail) before running it once. My leg felt fine during the run but didn't risk another lap. I was feeling sluggish today so I kept things pretty chill. After the run, I took the bike on a tour of the town before calling it a day. Spent the day at the lake and on the golf course. Rough day...get it?
T- 62 bike 23 run 350' vert
Lake -
Power Plant - The town is built around the coal mines and the power plant.
Today I went north and explored some roads north of town. One was great, but only 5 miles before it dead-ended. Another turned out to be a private driveway that was 1/4 mile long. Another was a mud bog that went for miles. The last was another ranch (ie private road and probably had a guy with a shotgun waiting for me on his porch). I headed back to the lake and did a lap on the bike before doing a lap running. Another tour of the town and I was bored so I called it a day.
Its a good day because I am back home again and also because I got to skip work to ride/run the stump hollow trail with Joe. Not much to complain about there. I had fun riding that trail on my bike for the first time ever. Its way more fun on the bike than running. The going uphill part was tough, especially trying to keep up with speedy Joe. Luckily he was being nice to me and I survived. We got to the sinks and decided to run together for a bit until my leg told me enough. We proceeded to jog up a hill or two and down the other side when all of a sudden both quads seized up on me. It was wild. I have never had that happen before. I would assume it was unrelated to my injury as it happened equally to both legs. It brought me to a stop for a good 2 mins to try and get them to relax. They kind of loosened up, but it was painfully tight every step. Even walking. I jogged and walked and moaned and whined. Nothing helped, and the whining just made Joe angry. At least we were exploring an ATV trail that neither of us had been on. Sweet views of valleys and even Bear Lake. All too soon, I opted to start back due to the "minor cripple issue". I was able to run the whole way back to the bike, but my legs were very unhappy with me. I hopped on the bike and rode back down the trail. Luckily, things were fine on the downhill and as long as I didn't try and use any power on the uphills I was fine. Maybe too many miles/hours in the car yesterday did me in. Maybe it was pushing too hard on the climb today, or both. At least the downhill was spectacular. That trail is custom made for a bike. No really, there are jumps everywhere. Loads of fun.
T-Bike 50 min up 30 min down
T-Run 46 min with a good 8 mins of that walking
2500' Vert combined - Great to be back in the mountains.
Good news, the trail is now .2 of a mile longer than it was last tuesday. Progress! The other good news is that my legs were magically better from the weird tightness I experienced yesterday.
T- Bike 61 min T- Run 27 min (3 miles) 1600' Vert total
Today I biked to the new lower "bridge" over the creek. The bridge is right at the backcountry sign about a half mile up the canyon. Its a bunch of small logs side by side across the creek. Good enough to stay dry. I left my bike there and began the run. I went down to the bottom end of the trail and then to the quarry and back. Leg felt pretty good today. Call it 2/10 on the pain/tightness scale (10 being the worst). Improvement?
T Bike - 52 min T Run - 47 min (9:30 pace) 1800' vert total
Jon - I payed attention to my pace today and was running about 10-10:30 pace up and 7:00-7:30 pace down for equal effort. Easier than Dry Canyon but harder than Green. (ave 360' climb per mile, but pretty technical)
The annual pilgrimage to Logan Peak was long overdue. The family was gone for the day so what better time than now? I decided to do it from my front porch to get the full effect. The route was Hollow Road - Blacksmith Fork Canyon - Left Hand Fork to junction - Left at Junction past Richards Hollow (top side) - Up and over a friggin mountian - Logan Peak road to Peak - Ran to Providence Peak and back - Down the road to Providence Canyon - Home. Got it?
Highlights: Well, actually it was pretty boring until I hit the backside of the mountain. Sure there were some distractions. Cows, motorcycles and 4-wheelers, boy hitting golf balls at his dad's truck at a camp site, bugs attacking me, heat, dirt, etc. Once I approached the logan peak area, I noticed a major change. They closed the old road to the summit and built a new one. This one followed the side of the ridge instead of going up the valley. It also had way more switchbacks so the grade was lower. But the distance from the old fork to the top is probably close to double. Plus now you bypass the rodeo grounds. Weird. Sure changes things. The good news is that now I was able to manage the grade and ride the bike the whole way to the peak. After a short break there, I decided to run over and tag Providence Peak too. It was only a mile away following the ridgeline. Those hills at altitude (9500') are tough though. Peaks tagged, time to go home. I opted for the more direct route down Providence Canyon. That turned out to be a mistake as the road/trail is washed out and is pure rocks. It was pure nuts trying to descend on rocks with no dirt down that crazy grade. I did ok until I faceplanted and slid 10 more feet for good measure. After that, I decided to "hike a bike" down until the quarry. The ruts in the road are so large, it will take years and lots of money to rebuild it. Quite unfortunate. Once I survived the "trail" I joined up with the old reliable singletrack down the canyon and headed home. It sure felt good to be up in the high country and even visit my old favorite peak.
Splits: House to Left Hand Fork 60 min (13.1 miles)
LHF to ridge above Richards Hollow 2:27 (17 miles)
Ridge to Logan Peak 37 min (4 miles)
Logan to Providence Peak and back "running" 23 min (2 miles)
Peak to where Providence Canyon road hits South Syncline Trail 24 min (5 miles)
Down Providence Canyon to home 53 min (9.5 miles)
Total Time: 5:45 (50 miles) 5,900' Vert climbing
Profile
Logan Peak from Providence Peak
Old Road/Trail in Foreground. New Road/Trail in Background
