j-lyn's corner

Ben slept through his alarm this morning (stood his climbing partner up @5am) so I took the opportunity to get a quick 8 miles in @DD. Didn't feel like pushing, didn't feel like walking. Did around an 8:45-9min mile pace. 

Then I went to work and got a text... "Hey, are we still on for Blanche tonight?" Oops. "Sure..."

Marty was taking it slow and we hiked up. Came across a bull moose in the trail. Every time we'd make a movie to go around him, he'd turn, stare us down, and take a step towards us. He did a good job keeping us in our place.

Tried to push towards the summit before the sun finished setting:

Came down in the dark and I took it easy. Also saw a giant spider... tarantula maybe? I tried to stop to do a double-take but got run into. 

Not to be outdone by Ragnar runners, I got a third run in my 24 hour time span. Met for a girl's club run @ Mill D to do the deso/dog lake loop. I was hoping more ladies would show up... but it was Neasts and Leslie. That meant I had to try and pretend I could run fast.... as these ladies talked about running 5 min miles (a speed my body has never seen)... Right. Lots of other feminine talk, and it was fun.

Saw a Mama Moose and baby, how fun! They cleared the trail and we gave them some extra time. I finished up not feeling trashed as expected but not awesome either. At the 9 mile mark I remember thinking.... good thing there's only a few more miles!

I did over 6500+ vert and 3 runs in less than 24 hours. I didn't sleep much.

Ran around the block at the in-laws. Started with Ben who was limping horridly. I stopped many times and tried to make him go back but he's stubborn as super glue... he wanted to do a mile with me. Did a 9 min mile, then an 8:30, then a 7:45, then a 7:15. I started out with the mindset of "taking it easy" but it also felt good to use paces that haven't seen the light of day in months.

Did the face route of Table Mtn in the Tetons. 4 miles over 4000 (4500?) vert gain. Round trip was 2:24, would've been faster if I didn't have to pass 40 people on the way down on super steep loose single track where passing is nearly impossible without impaling both parties. My last summit time up Table was doing the huckleberry route, 6 miles up, and it took me 2:15 to summit. So even with less mileage, I think my vert is improving. Also was nice to feel only a glimmer of the altitude... glad that hasn't been a real issue to me.

 I WAS going to take teton canyon to hurricane pass after table rock. But here's how a period ruins a run:

1. Baby boy wakes up 5 times during the night having anxiety about you running in the mountains. This makes you feel bad, increases the fatigue, decreases ability to think straight.

2. You start bleeding in bear country and have nothing to take care of it.... you just hope that all the hikers you see don't notice.

3. You start crying on said trail run because you feel like a terrible mother for causing said baby boy such anxiety that you run back to the car in tears, determined to quit trail running.

...then 6 hours later, diva cup in and emotions in check, you feel like a bloody idiot for not taking advantage of the chance to run 30 miles in the tetons. 

took my lovely children to dimple dell. I was hoping for an evening run of 8 miles. My kids stood outside BEGGING, "please Mommy pleast take us mountain biking...."

It was a "thrilling" interval workout of out standing around doing nothing, sprinting, and liesurely hiking. Fish did a solid endo onto a curb. He also managed to bike down the big steep hill for the first time without crashing.... so he had to repeat it 5 more times.

I am apparently raising downhill junkies. Wherever do they get that from? 

I felt like I was pushing hard but no matter what surface I'm on I have a hard time logging 9 min miles as "fast." 

Woke up a few minutes to 7am, grabbed my vest (no time to get a drink) and got out the door by 7am. I had exactly 90mins to get a run in, without breakfast, fuel, or really waking up.

I've been a bit sick/congested and all sorts of exhausted.... excessively sleeping. Extra sleep isn't uncommon in my cycles of insomnia, I'll go period of time (days/weeks/months) where I don't sleep more than 4-5 hours a night, then I'll hit a patch of days/weeks where I want 10+ hours. But this exhaustion made me not want to run.... so it was different.

Determined to shake the funk I went to dimple dell (all I had time for). Not sure the funk has shaken but I was glad to get out again and actually have started to plan runs this week that I'm looking forward to.

Oh, and I ran by an overweight jogger who was running in jegging capris and eye of the tiger had just come on my phone (that I was rudely playing on the speakers). She was a super star. 

Somehow I convinced my friend MK that running repeats at lower bell res would be a good idea. Until this point I hadn't been able to con persuade anyone to join me. She knew her hubby with his residency work schedule (80+ hours a week) would also want to squeeze a run in, so they ended up bringing their kids to the TH and took turns running repeats with me. 

KK did two repeats with me. Although they claim he's out of shape, he's a mountaineer, which showed on his ascending abilities. I couldn't keep up with him... just like my husband, doesn't matter how long it's been since he's run, something about mountaineering sticks to him and he can climb fast. I had fun taking off on the downs to see if he'd follow. When it was MK's turn, I pushed her on the downs, trying to see how fast I could get her to go. She ended up only about 10sec slower than my full-blown pace! Awesome! She's excited to see how much she can shave off that in the future... Ah, fun.

I stupidly ate a kale/flax/almond smoothie on the drive to the TH. Spent the whole time wanting to barf. Kale and flax are NO GOOD as pre-run food, especially when pushing on repeats.

Ended up going to the lake 7 times. 

Ran lake mtn with Neasts. Nice and slow, which is good- I needed a recovery run! I spent the first half the run troubled over the dark clouds on lone peak. I knew that even if there was rain/thunderstorms my husband (who was up there) would risk it and climb anyways, especially with the breaks in the clouds closer to AF and the west desert. He ended up making the right call, looks like they probably got rain but the lightning held off.

Tried to push Neasts on the way down.... but she did a high vert week. I know how those initial high vert weeks feel... Ugh, not looking forward to feeling that at the end of next week's craziness!

Funny that my legs felt so tired on a week with so few miles. I think this is the least I've run in a week (excluding injured or pneumonia weeks) since last fall. 

Ran up hoping to snag Raymond and Gobbler's Knob, but it was a fun group run and we went a leisurely pace, and I made the call not to hit Raymond's after Gobbler's. I couldn't be late to work on time, it was the first day of new hours that I instigated.

 On the way down we wanted to take a side trail "It'll only add on a mile..." If we wouldn't done the loop it would've added on 4+... good thing we turned back early. Others were wanting to bush-whack down, claiming it might be faster... but Jacob and I were still scarred (literally, the scars aren't going away) from some all to recent bush-whacking adventures and it can get REALLY slow. So we turned to run back, Sherpa Zac though it'd be fun to throw mile repeats in and the rest of us tried not to die.

Fun morning. 

Joined Jun and ScottW at the obscene hour of 4:15am to do Wire repeats. I'd remember summit times if I cared, something around 43-44. The 2nd one was faster. Didn't have time for a third, and I think only a couple were interested (by this time many had joined the 2nd lap and MatthewVH wanted to keep going with us) so we ran Little Beacon. Whatev, I just wanted vert.

Wasn't fast, but surprised at how long my legs lasted and how not tired I got. 

95F heat. Thought I could sneak a sports bra run in with no one seeing but of course there's truck loads of men doing work on the trail at DD and kids selling kool-aid and millions at the dog park. Oh well. Lost 2 lbs in the 31 min, and I drank 160z of kool-aid...

Did a triple summit series with Ku in the AM from Spooner Summit by Tahoe. Peaks are Genoa (left in photo) and the South Camp Peak to the right of it and the Duane Bliss is the one I'm standing on.  Decided to throw a 3 mile tempo in the end doing 7min miles and made Ku get tired as payback for saying we would do Mount Rose and then bailing on it.

Then came the death march, I mean pacing. We crewed Jim Milar and Carrie McAdam at mile 30 at Diamon Peak, both were suffering greatly from the heat. It was over 100F up at high elevation. Ugh. I started pacing at 7pm and finished off at 5am- 10 hours about 3 mph. I went through a good bonk with Jim but kept him moving. It was HOT- still in the mid 70s at night! It was a carnage-fest for sure, barely over half the registered runners finished the 100M. Jim finished but with high cost. Glad that we got him through it. 

Ran to look at the parade floats. Didn't realize there would be so many people and that all the floats were made by members of the LDS Church and that they would all be there that night to look at them. I was wearing my booty shorts and a tank, I may as well have had a red "A" on my chest from the looks of others. Having my kids in their swimwear (we had just come from the water park) and my husband dressed like he came out of an REI magazine (he was testing out some boots...) we were a sight for sore eyes.

Met up with Sherpa Z to for a recovery run on pipeline. Apparently his recovery runs mean we run at an 8 min mile and then walk occasionally. Not my idea of recovery run pace on a trail... but it felt good to stretch the legs and I enjoyed being carried by someone else's pace.

Not sure on real mileage (didn't track it...) but took the opportunity to run with the Ruby Muir up Gobbler's Knob and Raymond's Peaks. Not sure how two 10,000ft peaks fits into her taper, but she says she doesn't taper.

Pleasant conversation, Ku kept her busy with questions. I had lead legs and was struggling to keep up, even on an easy pace on downhill. Apparently the 19,000ft+ of vert I did last week decided to catch up to me all at once. 

Was really glad I had my minimus on, since the sun stayed down longer than expected and we ran for nearly a half hour in the dark. Met up with Neasts and ran LCC Creek Trail, was a rather pleasant morning with good convo and a pleasant trail. Neasts kept hot on my tail on the downhill, she's getting quite speedy and will be one to watch for in her upcoming events.

Watched speedgoat all day. Planned on running 20-30 in the eve, even found running partners. But my hubby got home and was very against me running that night.... so all plans were nixed, leaving me with a very low mileage week (and this was supposed to be week two of peaking). Oh well! Hope the rest does me some good. I'll probably try to throw together a decent but not difficult week next week and do a 4 day taper after that.

See blog for the run details. Here's the short version: it sucked, hurt, I jumped in a creek, got scared of lightning, and went home. 

http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/07/three-4-letter-words-my-new-gu-recipe.html

Please be a friend and lie to me and tell me that super low mileage last week won't ruin my plans for a week from Friday? My body is still angry about that Tahoe week (hey 7 summits and 19,000 vert and pacing from 7pm-5:30am... guess it's enough to destroy me.) I wanted a good week last week and didn't get it and still have lead legs.

I've got a week from Friday to pull it together. Lie to me, tell me I needed the rest. Please? 

(my plans involve running up very big mountains for an ultra distance.) 

Took Neasts suggestion and tried a 3 mile tempo run. Maybe I should've warmed up first! lol. Did 3 miles, 1.25 was on trail, averaged a 7:35 pace with 150ft vert. 

Kinda slow... But at least I tried. Shins were a bit sore after. Must've gone too fast! Ha.

 Apparently music like Eddie Vedder, Lou Reed, and Horse Feathers, which is great on long runs in the mountains, doesn't cut it for short tempo runs. If this is going to become a habit I need a separate playlist. 

Did a quick 2 miles recovery. Felt good to stretch the feet out, haven't worn 5 fingers in ages, but they are my usual work shoes and were already on my feet during my lunch break. Shin still a bit tender but not bad, fortunately mulch is pretty soft.

I used to refuse to run anything under 6 miles. My last 2 injuries (sadly both this year... one from falling on ice and one from rolling an ankle at Bryce, heh it rhymes) have shown me how nice a couple miles are for recovery and "active stretching."

Effort level was at a 5 max out of 10. Nice and easy. 

Grandeur.