Monday, October 31, 2016

This Week in Running 10/23 - 10/29





DayMileage / WorkoutComments
Sunday7Easy -- recovering from yesterday's long run
Monday13Trail run along the Utah and Nevada border
TuesdayOffOff
Wednesday7Medium paced run
Thursday5Easy
FridayOff
Saturday13Halloween Harvest Half Marathon
Total miles for the week: 51; YTD: 1846.5

Week's Summary


So much for a "light" taper week.

This week's half marathon was a bust - for me - in terms of performance.  To date, it was the slowest, non climate / non altitude / non-hilly course that I've run.  I figured I was going to come in around 1:56, but I came in over 2 hour.  Jesus.

My legs were just dead after 6 miles and to make matters worse, I felt like I started off fairly conservatively.  In fact, I felt pretty good. But as usual, my abilities start to unravel about half way through (race recap coming).

As I was telling people afterwards, it was a tough day at the office.  I think I haven't fully recovered from Lake Tahoe and with less than 2 weeks to go until the Las Vegas Marathon, I am a little worried.  I am not sure I can stomach another death march shuffle marathon and I really need to dial back the time on my feet.

Also, hopefully this winter I can dial in some "down time" and let me body and legs recover.


Desert Run  

I wound up taking Monday off from work and took advantage of the day by running out along the Utah / Nevada border.  I woke up early, had a gel with me and some Gnarly sports drink  (a sample I had gotten at a previous race) and just kept going.  I love days where I get to run some place new, with nothing on the agenda mileage-wise and I can explore.  I sort of let the run simply take me.

I wound up taking in a lot of the trail and got to see another view of Pilot Peak.  I sort of wanted to go further, but it had already taken me quite a bit of time to get to where I was.  It was absolutely perfect weather.

I had taken the route before last winter, but snow and wind had impeded my progress. It was awesome to "complete" the trail and get a look at the other side of the mountains.


 















Pilot peak in the distance









Pilot Peak in the distance






You can see the southern salt flats



My Route

Losing Weight Progress

I officially weighed in this week at 181.6.  Hard to say whether that was a gain or a loss, but at least it wasn't any higher -- especially considering I was in Nevada over the weekend and did my fair share of eating. I am trying to eat a bit better and watching my portion sizes.  I definitely held back over the weekend as well.


Upcoming Races



11/13: Las Vegas Marathon - Las Vegas, NV (Confirmed)
11/26: South Davis Recreation Center Thanksgiving Day 5K - Bountiful, UT (Confirmed)
01/14: St George Half Marathon - St George, UT (probably - weather pending)
02/11: Winter Striders Race Circuit 5K - Ogden UT (Confirmed)
02/25: Winter Striders Race Circuit 10K - Ogden UT (Confirmed)
03/18: Winter Striders Race Circuit 10 Mile - Ogden UT (Confirmed)
04/08: Winter Striders Race Circuit Half Marathon - Huntsville, UT (Confirmed)
04/15: Salt Lake City Marathon - Salt Lake City, UT (Confirmed) (2017)
04/29: Winter Striders Race Circuit 30K - Huntsville, UT (Confirmed)

Jack's Mailbox Hike - Salt Lake City UT


Introduction


This past Sunday I was looking for a hike that would be 1) new and 2) fairly easy.  Being that I have done a lot of running and I still have the Las Vegas Marathon coming up in a few weeks, I really wanted to go easy on myself.

So I found Jack's Mailbox Hike.  Jack's Mailbox hike is located near the University of Utah.  You can see the parking lot from this Google maps link.

The trail is about 1.6 miles to the top and offers some great views of Salt Lake City and Red Butte Canyon.  The payoff at the end is a stunning view of the canyons in the area and a somber memorial to a 20-month-year-old who died of Leukemia in 1995.  You will find a makeshift memorial to him as well as several log books, in which you can sign in and write something to Jack.  There were also binoculars and other knickknacks as well.

The trail starts either to the left or to the right of the parking lot.  I came down from the right but went up from the left hand side.  The left hand side is much easier and the trail is much more easy to follow.  GirlOnAHike did a fantastic job of laying out the route (which I had wished I had read before I left).  Basically you find the Bonneville Shoreline trail (to the left of the parking lot) and take the first right and simply ascend the trail.  Your first goal is to get to the radio tower, which will be plainly visible.  After that, you are about half way to the summit.

The trail took me about 45 minutes to reach the top.  I was moving pretty quickly though.  The trail is exposed and I would recommend going on a cool day.  You won't find any shade and while I didn't see any rattlesnakes, I would suspect that they are around.

There is about 1400 feet of climb on this, so it isn't a walk in the park and I found it harder to come down in spots then go up.

But the views are definitely worth the effort:


Initial View of the Salt Lake Valley


View of the city


A little ways up...


Jack's Peak is at the top

View of the Radio Tower from Jack's Peak




View behind Jack's Peak


View of the Canyon from Jack's Peak



Mailboxes stuffed with notes to Jack