Running on Eddie: Red Pine Trail

Sunday, August 20, 2017

This Week in Running 8/13 - 8/19 - Red Pine Lake Pictures

Day	Mileage / Workout	Comments
Sunday	Off	8 Miles of hiking
Monday	6
Tuesday	5
Wednesday	5
Thursday	7
Friday	Off
Saturday	7.25	Dam Train Race
Total miles for the week: 30; YTD: 1103

Week's Summary

I felt like this week I actually turned the corner into getting back to full strength. I did two sessions of physical therapy -- one on Monday and one on Wednesday. The treatment has been a variety of electronic stimulus to help activate my lagging quadriceps muscles. And it appears to be working.

I am finding that my legs -- namely my quads, glutes and hamstrings feel much stronger. And more importantly, the amount of pain and discomfort I am feeling in my knee diminishes each day.

Early in the week I was feeling sharp tearing like pains in the patella tendon. This would happen particularly after sitting for periods of time (even as short as driving to work) and then getting up. At minimal, I had annoying clicking / catching feeling in my knee. I walked with a pronounced limp and I was beginning to wonder if my running "career" was over.

I have been religiously and dutifully doing my "homework", which includes a bunch of single leg exercises and work with a stretchy rubber-band type of thing. It kept me from going insane and I think it has really helped build my body back up.

I bumped up the mileage a bit this week and had no ill effects. I kept all my runs fairly easy -- no speed work. I was just logging miles and burning calories.

I was also saving myself for the Dam Train Race. While I wouldn't have been too upset had I missed it, it was a mile marker that I wanted to hit. My performance wasn't too awful and I was just happy to be running and participating in an event I care a lot about.

I have one physical therapy session this coming week and after that, I am hoping to be done. I haven't gone to the doctors at all this year, so I am worried how much my insurance is going to pay for the treatments and what I am going to be on the hook for. However, the physical therapy can be put on reserve if I relapse.

Red Pine Lake

On Sunday, I opted to go for a hike rather than run. I like the crossing training effects as I can turn it into a hard workout without the pounding / stress that a tempo run would produce. I made the ascent pretty quickly and I was happy being able to overtake a lot of casual hikers. You can see the altitude and hills I took while hiking (not running) to Red Pine.

The hike also allowed me to take some pictures, which I always enjoy sharing. I think this lake is the prettiest of all the Wasatch Lakes and I never tired of hiking there. Here are some of the photos of Red Pine Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon:

Upcoming Races

09/02: Midway Swiss Days 10K - Midway, UT (Probable)
09/09: Race to the Angel Half Marathon - Wells, NV (Probable)
09/16: Take it to the Lake Half Marathon - Ely, NV (A Stretch)
11/12: Las Vegas Marathon - Las Vegas, NV (Confirmed)
04/21: Salt Lake City Marathon - Salt Lake City, UT (Confirmed (2018))

Sunday, July 26, 2015

2015 Red Pine Trail Hike - Alta Utah

My "hangout" for nearly an hour

Introduction

Well, another weekend of hot weather in the valley led me wondering exactly what to do on this fine Sunday. On deck was making yet another trip out to Wendover or heading up north and doing some exploring.

I was totally ambivalent on what to do and couldn't find anyone to do anything with. So instead of driving around, I headed back up to Alta and did the White Pine Trail's sister, Red Pine Trail.

Casual readers may recall I did the hike in 2013 with a friend of mine, which you can read here. This trail is short but not easy. It is almost all ascent. I didn't measure it this time with my Garmin, but reading about in my prior post put it at 3.25 miles or so. I managed to make the trek in about 90 minutes and that was hoofing it at a solid clip.

The Hike

With the temperatures pushing the upper 80's in the valley, this trail certainly didn't feel very hot. Most of the trail is shaded and heavily wooded. There were some wildflowers on the way up, but most of the trail is either heavy pine or cedar.

Also about a third of the way up you are treated to some really great views of the Sandy Valley.

There is a lot of scrambling as well as some muddy sections on the way up to Red Pine and I saw a number of people gasping for breath. This is really a good glute and quad burner.

Finally I made it to the top and the lake was just as scenic as I remembered. I wound up cruising around the side of it.

I had the studied the topography maps before I had left and I knew that there was another lake behind and above Red Pine. I had never visited those and I was curious as to what they looked like.

I asked around and found a few people who had made their way back behind Red Pine. Basically the trail climbs a massive rock hill. The trail at this point is very hard to make out and it is hard to guess what the best way up is at times. I managed to follow the trail and every time I thought I had lost it, I found it again and within about 15 minutes I made it to the top.

And discovered a tiny little puddle of a lake... Seriously it was a puddle.

I sighed audibly and low and behold another guy was heading down from above me and I said "That's Upper Red Pine Lake?" He said no and made me look in between a pair of trees shimmering in azure blue was another pair of larger lakes. I managed to make my way over there, but again there was no discernible trail and also the lake didn't look too interesting.

I really don't like trail blazing and while I knew exactly how to get back to Lower Red Pine Lake, anytime I am 100% by myself in an area I don't feel comfortable in, makes me want to not explore much. Just too easy to slip and fall up there and so I wound up making my way back down to Lower Red Pine.

I wound up sitting with my feet in the creek as I enjoyed the cool breeze, the sun and the view. Just an absolutely perfect day.