j-lyn's corner

Went out for 10 miles at Liberty Park in the dark. The goal was to work on control my emotions and speed, and do a hard mile then a recovery mile (some may call this speed work, but that makes me gag). But, alas, there was terrible weather tragedy- 18 degrees and raining. Really. That's ALMOST as bad as -20F and 25mph wind. How can it be that cold and raining, not snowing? It was terrible. I was a human popsicle by mile 4, and decided that I would discontinue the speed efforts and instead just force my popsicle body to finish the run. I did.

 So, New Years. It was a good day. Took the boys (+1 nephew) to the Ogden hot springs and soaked for a couple of hours. Loaded my ipod with new music with my husband in the morning, and ate a yummy dinner at my sister "Pretty Kimmy's" house. Oh, and I also got to raid her D.I. pile, which has now replenished my wardrobe. Although I need to sew some of the clothes to fit a bit smaller. 

For New Years Eve we went to the Hogle Zoo lights & party (which had a 9pm countdown for the kids). Then we put the boys to bed, snuggled and watched TV. We're new kids in town, and we're really popular, if you didn't notice.

As for goals? 2012 My goal was to be the year of no excuses. That went pretty well.

2013... So many options. There's all the obvious ones, don't injure myself, continue to raise my beautiful and well-behaved children (who are miraculously doing so well), nurture my marriage, excel at my job, train harder.... blah, blah, blah (good things.)

 A friend posted on facebook the question asking why we run- health reasons, social reasons, or for the love of the sport. I joked asking where the "self-abuse" option was. He was probing to see if the group would still run without a fitness benefit. I began to probe myself more. If I had nothing to prove, if I was satisfied with myself, if I had no emotions and craziness to purge, if I really loved my life and myself, would I still run?

2013. Goals are still simple. It will be the year of discovery. I've been a religion fence-sitter for long enough. I've been unsure on how hard I can push myself near my injury line. Add in there the buying of a house in a few weeks, running my first 100, and my pathetic attempts to be less awkward in social situations and we can call this my resolutions.

Ran with the SLC track club. We did a 5 mile loop. I tried to get the road runners to run a few more with me, but no success. So I sat around and waited for the trail runners to finish the loop... and what a surprise, I was able to convince one of them to keep running. :) Company is nice.

I think today counts as fast miles, even though it wasn't necessarily so. It just FELT fast since I was focusing 90% of my efforts on not vomiting.

After being up with the flu last night (flu+insomnia=no sleep) I did the smart thing when my 4am alarm went off. I took some pepto bismo, forced down some ginger cookies, and went for a run.

I took more pepto every 30 min, totalling about 5 tabs. I think they formed a rock which has yet to dissolve in my stomach.

On the upside, I got to meet new people. It was fun to run with people faster than me. I felt bad for being slow and quiet, but at least I didn't throw up!

Nice morning. Now, as soon as stomach settles again, I will make the drive to Logan... 

Went out with the crew at 5am at the equestrian center in Draper. Went up corner canyon and did the "long loop" (whatever that means.)

JK was whining about coming, but ended up showing up. N came too, and so did JM. JM and I had a harder day, something about recovering from being sick slows you down I guess.

Wish I would've taken a picture of N's impressive ice beard. It even had snot icicles hanging from it. The view of Lone Peak and the valley was nice too, but my hands were too cold to think about doing anything extra. The handwarmers were amazing though, first time I've retained dexterity in my fingers on a run in a while. 

I had to be showered, clean, and dressed and at a hotel for a conference at 9:20am. I was hoping to get there by 9am to have time to shower.

About 5 miles in to the run, and we're moving slower than usual... I ask, hey, how long is this loop anyways? 13 miles was the answer. Oh, crap. Can we pick up the pace? Sure, apparently all you have to do is ask JK personal questions and he starts doing mile repeats. lol. Ended up being 14 miles, and I got to the hotel at 9:10 and snuck in a shower and was only a couple of minutes late.

Fun run with great company. We all aired a little dirty laundry. (Ok, N didn't. Somehow he got out of it...) As they say, there's no secrets on the trail. Oh, and what's said on the trail, stays there. Whew.

 Next week: I fly to Vegas early Friday morning. So I want to get 40 miles in before then. 10 a day? 

"...and I think to myself, what a wonderful world" 

Sometimes, everything clicks. And it's FUN. If you run for fun, ultrarunning isn't your sport. Unless you're willing to suffer for the times it is more than fun.

After a few runs of pre/post flu misery, I felt excellent today. I had the freeing feeling of being released after being trapped. I was actually able to, almost, keep up with the boys today. Ran with jun, Scott, and Matt. I'll either die trying to keep up with them or get a whole stronger. Probably both.

Ran the Avenues Twin Peaks this morning. Got to sleep in til 5am. I feel pathetic that I was excited to "sleep in."

We rose above the inversion level, and it was warm and beauitful. Elk were spotted and coyotes were calling. I was warm, did I mention that? What a novel thing, to be warm in on a dark winter morning.

I must say, when we summitted the first peak, and quickly came do to run up the second, I questioned why I was doing this but after summitting the second one, I remembered.

What a positively wonderful way to start my day. So much that, who knows, I might just head back there tomorrow. (I do have 45 miles to get in before my flight leaves Thursday morning). 

Check out the sunrise, over the mountain tops encompassing the big city. I really did try to dislike Utah.

45 min of chest, shoulders, and core. bleh.

Ran the twin aves twice. Had a blast, saw entrails, gave myself a migraine running in red air, and met up with a few friends. Feeling to lazy to write about it here. Full report on the new, unfinished blog: http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/

I don't know what's worse, the fact that the exercise room in a giant hotel is smaller than a Starbucks, or that out of thousands of people staying at the hotel, only a handful of them are exercising. Suffered through dripping sweat for 12 miles on the dreadmill. It took 10 miles before my brain shut off. Reasonable or not, I paid my $20 allowance of snack money to run on that treadmill (stupid resort fees). The first 10 miles I lied to myself to pretend I was trail running. I did irregular footfalls, steep hills, and imagery. There's a trail I would run from our home when we lived in glenwood springs. It took 3 miles to get to the good stuff- soft high altitude dirt, sun peeking through thick trees, and the rare overlooks on the steep mountainside. This is my favorite memory to harness. Now I vary that memory with friends from the valley and the trails I've run with them. I used to feel guilty that when I am under discomfort or pain, like when I had my wisdom teeth removed while awake (no laughing gas) that my go to calming memory doesn't involve family or kids. Just trails. I'm over feeling guilty. It's an integrate part of me, a part that regardless of my circumstances, can't be taken away. I love my kids and family. But the trail therapy takes all my crazy away and gives me me. I would expect no less if it is, and has been, such an important an time consuming part of my life. Ok, I'm at work a a conference in vegas. Time to get back to it.

Somehow conned JM to run with me in the bitter cold. Such a strange run, started with warm beautiful sunshine. Lots of laughter, race planning, and the usual trail tales. Ended with running miles through a cold, shaded canyon.

The hardest part of the run was opening and starting the car. I had no dexterity in my fingers. After getting the car started I sucked on my fingers until I could at least wiggle them before driving home.

Out by my house (by the SLC airport) it's supposed to be the coldest it's been in 20 years. Fantastic.

Gets me all excited for my token early/late runs this week. 

 I'm going to need a few more packages of hand warmers.

This morning (aka the great whining session).... Hmm. The stats:

10.6 miles on post-holes of despair whining, crying, and trash-talking. Somehow managed to summit the twins and get back down, although I almost succeeded in getting jun lost. Since that took the bulk of my morning (almost 3 hours) and I was running out of time before preschool was over, I went home, laced on my road shoes, and ran on a running path that had the perfect 1-3 inches of snow on it.

I can't say it sucked. I can't say it was good either. It was fun to trash talk and laugh with jun. The run portion was entirely awful. (not sure how much running was done, there must be a better name for "suffering movement in snow") The last 9 I went slower dreaming of water, bacon, and showers.

 Jun did a more in-depth blog entry here: http://jun.fastrunningblog.com/.

I blame him entirely. He also suggested that I would die of dehydration on the side of a trail with vultures pecking my eyes out. This would be after goading him into doing something stupid.

How flattering.

Recovery run with the track club and a few extra for good measure.

I am so used to bathroom trail etiquette. Good thing the extra miles were at a park. (Albeit a park with lots of sledders...)

Song of the day: Out to Get You, James 

Ran in Logan. Cold Logan. I was tempted to run at 4am with fellow crazies, but I had this brilliant idea of actually sleeping in til 8am.

Then my kids and husband got up 5am (and if you know me and my sleep disabalities, that means I'm up too.) I should've woken up an hour and a half earlier....

I think I'm fighting a cold. Or I'm sick. Or it's the inversion. Or I'm allergic to dairy and I'm eating too much of it anyway. Who knows?

4 miles and some lame WOD while my laundry was going at my parents. I need a longer run and tomorrow is my mandatory rest day.

I was reading this training blog, and the writer suggests that every run have a purpose (i.e. tempo run, speedwork, recovery run, fartlek, etc).

Ok dude. Tuesday my run was to enhance my suffering capabilities and see how slow I can move. Today the purpose was to forget gloves and lose complete feeling in my hands and see how long it takes to regain feeling so I can drive home from Logan. See, my runs have a purpose.

PS: New blog post: http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/01/running-lies-exposed.html 

Song of the day: Everyone thinks I'm a liar/ No one knows the truth/ If it was a bigger fire/ I would be on the roof: Submarines by The Lumineers

Ran at 4am with JK. JM was sick, bummer. I even brought coconut-oatmeal sugar cookies. I discovered they taste fantastic frozen.

Lil Fish was up puking all night. He was so tired, I would have to hold him up otherwise he'd lay his head in the throw-up bowl while still puking.

I could've snuck in another 3-4 miles, but I was eager to get home and take care of my little guy.

I think we summited Mount Wire. Or Mount Aire. Vancott? haha. Something like that.

I'll make myself do some core and strength tonight, probably about 45min.

Today: Fake Plastic Trees, Radiohead  It's been a while since I watched that vid. The lead singer looks exactly like the guy I dated when I was 14 who introduced me to this song...

 It's official: I should be the next pin-up girl. With 27 layers and pepper spray.

Nothing like running a lot of 0.8 mile loops around your trailer park wearing a painter's mask to make you feel like a winner in life. It was dark, cold, and smoggy.

The trailer park's night security guard (in the little go-cart) chased me down. I kept running, and it took them about 0.4 miles to catch up as I wove through the tiny streets (entertainment). "Do you live here?" "What are you doing?" "Are you sure you're just exercising?" "Why are your wearing a mask?" Once we all figured out I wasn't going to sneak in through someone's doggie door and steal their cookies, we went our separate ways.

There were 3 cops surrounding a trailer. That was exciting. It also interrupted my loop. A man carrying a pipe stopped me, asking if I had seen his little dog. I said no and kept running. I tried to ignore him the subsequent times he tried to stop me (he creeped me out) and once I saw him driving in his car circling his trailer, I cut that area out of my loop.

Oh, and at the 9 mile mark the "crazy-old-hoarding-man" died and was being removed from his trailer. Even though his trailer was filled with piles of garbage and he'd sneer and me and my kids whenever we went passed, I am sensitive to death and it put a damper on my mood, and I ended up slowing down a bit the last few miles.

I also removed my mask after 8 miles, it became restrictive once it was filled with frozen condensation.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the progression of two Florida girls (who I presume came for OR) shovel snow from their grass, sent up some weird tarp tent from the trees, and alternate moving the car around to shine the lights in different areas (they didn't have headlamps), and sit in it to thaw (their winter clothing was cuter than warm).

Who knew so much goes on at 10pm in a trailer park? Fortunately the trailer park is "safer" than my surrounding areas (I've had scary experiences in daylight there...Like the big black guy who cut me off in his car and hopped out yelling at the top of his lungs to come to his car so he could spray me with his body spray. Also memorable is the hispanic man who followed me with a baseball bat and the strange skinny white guy who wanted me to look at the chihuahua in his pocket).

I much prefer the trails. At least this all took only 1:42. Felt like I was going faster, probably because I was on mixed ice and snow.

Went for a hike with the boys in Millcreek. Hiked around a mile, then played McDonalds, ate ice cream, and watched movies. Oh, I also managed to do an hour of core/lunges.

sick day :/

6 miles round trip to the summit of something next to Mt Wire. Maybe it wasn't a summit. I wanted 10 flat miles on the BST and somehow ended up on the never-eding climb of doom. At least it was warm above the inversion.

Then I pushed the kids in the double jogger to OR and home again. I was supposed to "pick up" Ben from work. Instead he got to speedwalk/jog home with me and the jogger. Such a wonderful wife I am. 

Ran on deer fence trail in Logan. Stupid freezing rain... turned around after 2 miles. The rain had turned to hail, I was soaked, miserable, and tired of slipping on ice-crusted packed/uneven snow. I also was still feeling a little wishy/washy from the flu.

Got out at 4am this morning in Millcreek. I actually got to the parking lot at quarter to four, and while there were quite a few cars in the lot, they were all dark and unoccupied. No worries, I brought the complete works of Flannery O'Connor. I'd been wanting to re-read one of her classics, "A Good Man is Hard to Find." 

So from 3:45-4:15am I sat reading about an escaped murderer who kills a young family with their grandmother on an abandoned dirt road. 

The truck behind me occasionally had glimpses of light. I figured I was just over-excited with my reading and that it would be best to ignore it.

That is, until 4:15 when JK and LH pull in.... and that truck turns on and drives down the road! So someone was there the whole time! I'm sure it was someone who lives in their truck just looking for a quiet place to sleep, but it was still a little unnerving.

Kind of like the time I made the excellent decision to listen to "Lovely Bones" while running on the trails in Logan Canyon at midnight by myself. If you ever want to be spooked, listen to a murder on your ipod while running on the trails by yourself. It'll make you stronger... or more resilient at the next haunted house.

Apparently GPA is not a true indicator of intelligence.

It was a brilliantly fun run. Good convo, good pace, and good snacks (thank you homemeade Larabar). It was warm and crisp and clear. I even enjoyed the "rough" single-track.... it's like running down something technical, while not running downhill.

All was going well, til I got food poisioning today. Thankfully after 4 hours of misery, it's starting to clear out. Glad I didn't eat all that much today.

I swear I've thrown up more this winter than any other (excluding pregnancies). On the flip side, I've never come this far through winter without getting a bad cold or sinus infection. 

And simply because life is incomplete without imagery and music:

  That's a cool hunk of snow that looked like a rose.

Song of the day, Last Kiss cover by Pearl Jam 

UltraRunning (Coaching Endurance) Video.

 I love to run in dumping snow. Instead I am trying to be smart. With the amount of fluids lost yesterday, I should not be outside running. Or so I am reciting to myself. I'm not very convincing.

So instead I'm inside, updating my blog and watching running videos. 

Maybe I'll do some core work in a bit. 

In my defense, they felt fast. No fair that running thru shin to knee deep snow takes forever. I wanted to run a quick 9 (tempo run). I got 6. Not sure if it counts for tempo, but I worked hard...

Summitted the Twins with snow blowing and trucking through Sunday's snowfall.  It took 2:35 round trip... 45min longer than usual.

We all look pretty uncomfortable in this picture. Pretty sure it's an accurate capture of how we felt. Thankfully jun loaned me handwarmers after this, my hands got cold at the summit!

In other news, I am addicted to the A3 peanut butter & jelly bars. SO good. 

almost forgot the song of the day, an oldie but a goodie: King of Pain, The Police 

Despite almost a week of rest, I am still sick.

I had a cold. Only someone with a deviated septum shudders at the thought of a cold- because if that cold sticks around for more than a day or two, it's a sinus infection.

So it was a sinus infection. Some antibiotics and rest, the sinuses are feeling better... but the cough has spread to my chest. It hurts just to breathe.... and swallowing, coughing, and talking are excrutiating. Bronchitis? Strep Throat? Pneumonia? Who knows.

Sad that I'm not running. I was all for "being smart" and resting a few days. Now its going longer and longer....

I am also starting to regret being uninsured. If things continue to go downhill, I may end up with a nasty Dr.s bill to go with my nasty cough.

rumor has it I have pneumonia. not sure it's true or not, and as an uninsured American, I don't plan to find out (yet.)

New blog post. All about my ugly fears. I only take pain meds at night (NyQuil) so it's been the only time I've felt like doing anything (like writing).

http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/02/accepting-fears.html 

took a break from trying to turn the foreclosure into a livable place and went out for a run.

I coined the term "deproving," which is the opposite of improving. my chest was tight and with a dull pain, came home and coughed for an hour and couldn't stop it.

 figured I'd need a couple more days. pneumonia is death. 

I had forgotten how light and comfortable the Vertical K's were! So sensitive, so light, so cushioned... man.

When out with JM in the dark. Utterly brilliant run- after sunset but enough light noise that no headlamp was needed, snow was warm and traction was excellent, my body felt alive again...

Still had a cough, but getting there. Energy levels were high, I had to restrain from wanting to go faster.

New blog entry is up. I tried not to whine about pneumonia too much. It sucked. I usually work from home and took over 2 weeks off becuase I couldn't lift my body into an upright position. Pretty lame-o.

Song of the day is.... there's a few, they're on the blog post.

http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/02/perspective-musical-edition.html 

Backpacked in to the yurt with my love. We got there just before midnight. Thank heavens for my GPS or we wouldn't have found the yurt from where it left the trail. I hate carrying a heavy pack. My back is not meant for labor.

What happens when you take your ultrarunner away on a romantic getaway? They leave you to chop wood while they go for a run in the afternoon sun. Good thing he's used to me. :)

REALLY struggled, especially on the uphills, if my breathing gets hard then my chest/cough/congestion hits in. I had a lot of elevation gain, but still averaged about 20-30sec slower per mile than my pre-pneumonia pace. I'm obviously still under.

Blog post on the getaway on a later day. 

Backpacked out of the yurt. Ben sat on the sled f ull of stuff on the steep parts and I pushed him down the trail. What fun. :) Heavy snowfall.

Took my first fall on ice today. Came down on a smooth patch, which somehow managed to shred my knee and my pants and give my a goose egg on my elbow. Ouch. I sat down and cried, all bloody and hurt, and then about 45 sec later got up and ran the last 4 miles home. I'm getting good at compartmentalizing pain, I just have to allow myself to revel in it before I can put it away.

 Dimple Dell is an ice rink. Just FYI. 

Girls club fun! I was 30 min late (guess what, I got lost trying to find a trail head right off Wasatch Blvd. I'm so awesome.) but we still got 5 hours in. 3800 feet gain. I had to hike all hills for the first  2.5 hours, anytime I'd start breathing hard my chest would constrict and freak me out and remind me of pneumonia.... I don't think I'm ready to breathe hard again yet. Strangely after 2.5 hours I felt great, stopped coughing, and was even able to run up some of the hills. I apparently just needed 2.5 hours of coughing, hacking, snot-rocketing to warm up and start enjoying myself.

I wore the nasty old school rough wool socks, which rubbed the bottoms of my feet a little raw. I know it's wrong, but I enjoyed that pain a little. I also chaffed off some of my ankle bone skin, which I could feel through the rough sock, but it didn't hurt much. Between all that, the coughing, and the messed up knee from when I fell on the ice on Monday... I'm in awesome shape! Haha.

I couldn't walk after (stupid knee). Went to see my good ol' chiro, a couple knee adjustments later, 2 bouts of cold laser therapy, 1 round of e-stim, and a few rounds of ice and it's stiff but not awfully painful. I can at least resume walking and not look like a penguin. I am under strict orders to continue care and bail on the 15 I had planned for Thursday, especially if I want to run Fri, Sat, and Sun...

Ran 7 at dimple dell. Wanted to quit after 0.5. Thought I was going to do some sort of tempo run.... until I was reminded of the fresh snow, the wind, the current snow fall, and the ankle-breaking ice chunks underneath powder. I wasn't feeling it, blah blah blah, but ironically my knee felt all better. So something good came. Super slow, 1.5 hours for just 7 miles. blech.

You know it's a good run when a couple miles in (as you hear avalanche after avalanche crashing) that all the runners debate on who we would eat first-- the tallest/biggest member of the group or the Asian guy who others argued we could stir-fry.  

Did 6.6 with the track club crew. We were crazy enough to run in corner canyon... through quad deep drifts. I was angry and bitter that I was trudging (and face planting) through quad-deep snow that on Wednesday was DRY DIRT. I was also cranky from a skimpy breakfast, forgetting to pack food, and having my water hose freeze before the run even started. After a particularly memorable face plant I threw a full fledged temper tantrum, throwing snow and screaming, that would rival any toddlers. I am told it would have gone viral it if had been filmed. Fortunately only one member of the group was around to see it. After the tantrum, I was able to actually enjoy the "run." I even said the "f" word- fun. I feel a bit embarassed.

 Went out for 6 more after on the paved trail. The first snowy 6.6 took 2 hours 20min. The last 6 on the road took less than an hour. ...Yeah. At least I stayed warm in Terramar's Pointelle silk layer and Hottotties mid-weight. 

On a side note, one of my running heroes throws temper tantrums too. See Anna Frost's here. 

Ran 5 with my hubby on the JRP. I tried to talk him into 9, 8, 7, 6... but he is more stubborn than I am. That said, it's been AGES (like since Nov 2011...) since we ran together. It was fun. Even though he sprinted up the hills. 

I'm putting this as fast miles becuase I was cold and thirsty and hungry and and and I complained a LOT. So that makes it fast. Even if it was slow running up a road covered in miserable snow in negative temps. (Who's dumb idea was that anyways? Oh, yeah.)

Got to meet JG the new guy spotlighted above. The boys did 17. Not to be outdone, the girls went out for 3 more. Which started as a bad idea and ended with sunshine and a new sensation called "sweating." It's a miracle, really.

It sucked and it was fun--the bitter paradox. Laughter, crying, thirst (water all frozen by mile 2) cramps from lack of salt, and hunger. Still there was laughter, smiles, and farts. Girls may fart, but boys fart more. 

Went out for a slow recovery run and ended up running fast. I got excited about new music. Or I was just having fun. Or I was angry that the stupid trail was still icy. I dunno. But 9 min miles on an icy trail is pretty good for me.

"You need an iphone to drive down three exits and park on the east side of the freeway?" Yes, yes I do. 

Just when I thought trail running was the equivalent of self-inflicted misery; just when the lyrics of "Stubborn Love" became my running motto: "It's better to feel pain, than nothing at all/ The opposite of love's indifference;" just when I was convinced I would vomit the next time someone tried to tell me that the perdy pink clouds made the 3 hour slog worth it... I actually have FUN running. Real fun, not the "putting sprinkles on and I think I kind of like it" fun but the guttoral laughing running 5 min miles downhill fun.

 I love this pic. Neasts and jun are all classic "I'm cool when I jump" and JimmSG and I look brilliantly awkward.

...although, I did almost puke up some bacon trying to race JimmySG and jun to the top of the mountain. Of course I lost. I knew I would lose. But if I can make someone else push harder to the top and suffer just a little bit more, of course I will! (Replace suffer with some well-played words on helping those faster than me train harder or something else that makes me seem Mother Theresa-ish).

It was fun to run with Neasts after she schooled me at Pony. She's fast! Met new people, laughed with old people (by old I mean old) (ok, no I don't. I'm just the baby and we're all impressed I can tie my own shoes.) I got to meet JimmySG, who is a super speedy climber. I asked him to go push jun once, and he replied that that would just make jun go faster. I didn't mean pace push. I meant literally push. I couldn't keep up to do it. That's what happens when you're the shortest, fattest, youngest, most obnoxious member of the team. But I do bring food to share so I get nice points. I also got to see ScottW's face for the first time. I reintroduced myself.

We ran up Lake Mountain. I tried to hide the fact that I was thoroughly confused about which way was north, east, west, and south and what range was what. I had never looked at the valley from that angle and I had expected it to look different. I am excited to upload the run and go over the location in eagle-view so no one scowls at me the next time I ask if we are north or south of herriman. (hey, at least I knew we were east of herriman, which we were, right?)

All in all it was fun, I guess. I didn't whine.

really, really slow. knee hurt.

"You wrote a bad song Petey"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4FyZwAFZII

...pretty much sums up the day. Went out with a fun crew for 20, began limping after about 6 or 7 miles, walked/ hobbled in the last few. Probably the most pain I've had while running since I ran on a broken foot. The entire knee froze up and I felt unable to move it. Luckily I was able to get a massage in immediately after, and with some myofascial release, ice, heat, and laser therapy I can at least again bend my knee.

In the spirit of being less bitter (I know, who is writing this right?) I am glad I went out today. As much as it sucks feeling like all the healing progress I've made in the last 2 weeks is gone, I am glad because today's run confirmed the diagnosis of the popliteus injury (definitely not a PCL). That little muscle is also easily injured upon impact. Today it seized up on me, which then tightened all the ligaments around my knee, which immobilized my knee and caused excrutiaing pain. 

The massage therapist was able to get the ligaments limber again and then work on the popliteus as well. The injured knee was substantially more swollen and stiff than my other one. I have again regained range of motion, it's just painful still.

Happy birthday to me! The birthday money I've been waiting for since last summer to buy me a real pair of running shorts is going to be spent on a course of 30 min massages. No sense in buying running shorts if I don't get my knee better to run on.... sigh.

These are the shorts I've been wanting since last summer. They'd look rather nice on my skinny little legs. Well, there's always next year (or the vain hope that I'll receive a birthday bonus!)

http://www.inknburn.com/women-s-performance-denim-shorts.html 

Ah yes, also notable is Leslie finding a fish from England. 

woo-hoo rockin' the sub 1 mile run.

 I'm not allowed any rest days (so I'm told) or all my loose ligaments that we're working on will freeze up in the wrong places. So, 0.5+ it is from here on out...

 I woke up today unable to stand on the injured leg to pull pants on. I told them I wouldn't run today unless I could walk without severe pain. Then my massage therapist worked voo-doo magic on me. I can now walk up and down a couple of stairs and stand on that leg! Small progress, hoping after the deep massage/ counter-strain release method soreness wears off and the inflammation settles a bit more I will have a bit more range of motion and can get around a bit more.

Still banking on being able to go for a real run next week. I'm being good to myself and have the next two massages scheduled... 

progress... I was on ibuprofen still.

With JM and CMC. Took it really slowly, no ibuprofen or braces. Knee flared at 3.5 and I walked back to the car.

 It should've only been 4. But I couldn't figure out how to get to the TRAX where we left the cars from dimple dell. Good thing I had both my watch and my iphone to get me back. It was almost epic. Ha. 

Moved at a pretty good pace at dimple dell. Overall average 9 min miles but that's with me stopping 27 times to put on or off the knee strap. I had KT tape on, and ended up spending almost all of the run without the strap.

Compensation injury (right shin) acting up.

After I got my knee warmed up (0.75 mile) I ran feeling excellent. Pretty stiff and a bit painful afterward, so I took ibuprofen after. Now it doesn't hurt at all... 

We also went for a family hike. I'm counting the miles. I can use all the miles counting I can count miling can count get. 

ran a mile, walked 2 miles, ran a mile. conned Ben into coming with the kids and I to dimple dell where the boys drove remote control cars, then we returned a redbox and went home. it hurt after the massage, I got really down.

2 miles at a good lil clip on the port rockwell paved trail. not fast, but at my usual tempo. felt pretty good, especially for asphalt.

10 miles. Met up with Leslie, ScottW, Craig, and Zac. We ran a decent pace, minus the 20 mins of inactivity at the halfway point. Of course on the way back my headlamp died (I haven't charged it in weeks, go me) and I was running with Zac. Finally, someone who is as good at directions as I am... lol. Took a wrong turn and added on a 0.25 mile. Then we waited around for everyone else. Hoping they were still behind us, we headed to the car, only to be embarrassed that they beat us there and knew our mistake. It is a ridiculous fact that I still get confused on the trail behind my house. Oh well, it's a work in progress.

In other news, my knee felt great. Pain fluctuated between a 1-2 for the first 5 and dropped down to a 1 the 2nd 5. I woke up half hour early to spend 20mins heating it and to have some time for squats and lunges before the run- it does so much better warm and with the muscles ready.

I haven't been adding this on, but since last Wednesday I've been working my arse off trying to get my knee healed. The PT stretches, icing, heating, and strengthening takes 1-3 hours a day. About 45 mins of it is entirely useless (so it feels) doing weird weightless moves with my leg and stretching everything around it. I've started some homeopathics, with a couple more that are supposed to arrive tomorrow. Add to that the extra vitamin C, multi-vitamin, and herbal muscle relaxants.... yeah. But the aggressive combo is working! My opposite shin (compensation injury) now hurts more than my actual injury, and even that's improving after some trigger point massage. 

A painful mile after massage. She bruised me this time. I also thought she was working on the wrong knee. Things are pretty much healed... Just sore and stiff.

2 slow miles with the double jogger. Kind of felt trashed today, so I was lazy and didn't cross-train and barely did any PT. I also ate a lot of cookies. Not sure this is going to help the weight loss goals. Not sure I really give a... (swearing ain't ladylike.)

For anyone who actually reads this.... been blasting back to some of my old school punkrock roots. Here's a gem that started my formal musical education: (by my bro-in-law)

"No Tit;" The Queers (Don't Back Down album) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZUFA6zmB94 

That's right. FAST miles. Nothing too incredible speed-wise, did 6 at dimple dell in 50:40. It felt sooo good to pick up the pace a little on the trails! I haven't done ANY intensity training since early Jan, and haven't done any on trails since before the snow hit. I could've picked up the speed more, especially on the downhills, but was still a little skeptical on my slightly wobbly knee. Knee felt fantastic, shin hurt at probably a level 3-4. 

I downloaded music I haven't listened to since I was a pre-tween and listened to it while running. Slightly embarrassed by my playlist now. :) 

For kicks I'm adding my hiking miles. I carried a backpack and helped kids move. Felt good to stretch the knee and shin on the steep talus. 

Did all my PT and was a good girl and cross-trained. Started cutting back the intensity of the cross-training and PT now, I can't taper it as much as I'd like but I do need to cut it back a bit.

Ran a 7:07 mile. Which was a pretty good clip for me, especially not pushing too hard. Now that I trust my legs again I can't resist using them.

Knee pain at a 0 compensation shin at a 1 while running 3 after. I know I know, I'm working on it. 

Recovery day, took the kids mountain biking while I ran. They had blast! Also had a shin from Hades.

Had my shins stripped and it made be bawl. Only did a mile, moderate shin improvement.

2 sub 8's on the trail in the rain. Shin felt "ok," I was still a bit worried how it'd do pacing. Had it stripped again after. Followed by contrast baths. PT, the bane of my life right now.

I know I know, I technically dropped at the aid station at mile 38. But I am a dork (which is a whale penis) and I forgot my gloves at an aid station and added on 3/4 mile there, and then with all the shuffling around at aid stations caring for a runner I added on some more miles. My Garmin and Garmin Connect verify the 39.3 and I want credit for all of it!

Anyways, my real report is here: http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/03/night-pacing-lessons-learned.html

Basically, it hurt like the devil, and I only (quietly) winced twice which made my runner freak out and demand details so even though I wanted to be a whiney baby I didn't. He needed to focus on moving forward, not wondering if his pacer's knee was going to blow out for the rest of the season.

Had a great time planning the Zion's traverse trip. And eating as much guacomole as I wanted. Do I at all doubt that my knee will be ready for 50 again in 3 weeks? H-E-Double-hockey-sticks-NO. I just ran 39.3 miles on a wobbly sore knee, that had just 3 weeks of recovery time. In double that it'll be fine. I really think it'll be just dandy in another week or two. I'm done babying it.

In other news, I decided to run at Liberty Park on the mulch trail. Ok, my body decided. I didn't really want to run. I've been having all these weird aches and moans and my body just keeps feeling like I need a good run to get them all out. So as I pull out to the park, I have severe pain on my right leg above my ankle. Screamin pain. WTF??! I decide to run anyways. For about the first 1/2 mile, the ankle screamed and I was convinced I was an idiot but I was desperate for warm muscles. It settled down, knee felt sore and wobbly, but not really painful. By the last 0.25 miles my body felt done.

I thought I was going SO SLOW (I'm thinking 12 min miles) but I look at much watch, and it was just under 27 min for the 3 miles (and I stopped for water.) So apparently my body isn't as wasted as I thought it was. 

Took my lunch break to Dimple Dell. If you want to visit Dimple Dell during daylight hours you need to have a dog. I don't. I'm so not cool.

But I blasted Nelly and ran along, listening to me knee and shin jibber jabber to each other and all the other random pains (glutes, hips, ankles, etc) randomly scream for a half second as they sorted it out. I need a few more runs for everything to "fall back into place." Again, I went in thinking a recover run, but averaged an 8:50 pace through snow and mud. I think my body is just excited to move or something... 

Today I started up the PT again. Hooray for the 1 1/2 hour of stretching and cross training. My MT told me my IT band was tight again and she showed me how to strip it at home with a tennis ball. What a painfully dull way to spend the evening. 

Kids @ dimple dell again. JM stood me up (ok, his Dad was in the hospital) and my kids conned me into taking them mountain biking. I'm not too hard to convince. Fish startled a rattle snake and had a panic attack. Kid can bike pretty fast while screaming at the top of his lungs.

Did a tempo @ Dimple Dell, 5 miles 38:30.

It made me want to vomit. 

10 with Jacob @ Dimple Dell. I managed to convince us we were lost. Not so. Whew.

Ran R Mountain in the 'Burg (Idaho) with the love of my life.

He hasn't run in months.

After 5 miles, he put 1/2 mile between me and him and a 0.75 mile climb.

I debated my love for him.

I returned the favor on the way down. He had flimsy old Merrell pace gloves on, which sucked on the volcanic rock. He didn't stand a chance. I had La Sportiva UltraRaptors.

It was fun to get out with him. I tried to convince him on my birthday to summit Grandeur with me on the dark, snowy, post-holing trail. He opted to take me to the movie theater.

I want to see what he could do in a ultra. He would just have to:

1. stop thinking that 6-10 miles per week counts as "strict training" for an ultra distance that ruins his climbing life

2. not race me. I don't want to get my trash kicked by someone who never runs. 

Finally did a real recovery run. It was terrible. Everything hurt. I hate recovering.

8 miles @ Dimple Dell 1:08:30. A decent pace for decent gain. I was disappointed there wasn't more mud.

I am starting to be obsessed (again) with Flo Rida. Especially the song Whistle, which was brought to my attention again by a friend who commented that her teenager just explained to her what the song was about, and ruined what she thought was a song about whistling.

Oh, Utahn's. Really, that song couldn't be more obvious. 

In her defense, it is about whistling. ;) 

Jun's watch said 19.12 and mine said 19.21 and then the watches got in a fight and mine was bigger and awesomer so it won.

When did I become such a running gear junky? Once we started working in the ourdoor industry a couple years ago, my lil fam has accumulated a TON of gear, which we're always swapping out and upgrading. I actually know the names of different types of rope cores. Bleh.

Ah yes, this morning. Neasts came out and joined us, hooray! She's fun to run with, and she's super speedy. ScottW had to bail with knee issues. Jacob came, whined for 16 miles about how we were running too fast, then booked it down the last 3 miles. ...Yeah, pretty much true to form for him. Jun called me fat again. I cried.

 A lot of deep mud, deep thoughts on dying at Barkley, and so on. I swear a saw a mountain lion. Foxes aren't that big nor do they run that fast. 

My reverse shin splint again felt better after running than it did before. Tapering down too much mileage too quickly is apparently just as bad as adding too much mileage too quickly. 

Nice morning. 

9 miles with Jim @CC. It wasn't muddy. It was a light-hearted, trash talking sort of day, and full of fun. I was starving and ate all of the snacks I found in my car, vest, and bag within the first 20 minutes.

I got to run in my new running shorts! Woo-hoo! First thing I've bought for myself for running since lil Fish was born! :) They are lovely. When I ate the trail the first thought in my head wasn't about pain, assessing injuries, or etc- it was, oh no! My shorts! ha. But they didn't get snagged at all.

With about a mile-ish left, some mountain bikers were stopped out in front of us. Then they started pedaling down the hill. I looked at Jim, who laughed and said, "Go get 'em." So I did. I passed one, and got pretty close to the 2nd one before I decided to stop fooling around and wait for Jim. He was dying laughing. I must've been running @ a 4 min/mile pace. What fun.

There is talk about me running a buck-twenty five at Wasatch this year. What mischief. :) 

In honor of hitting 500 miles, the NERC club (in Logan) made me a present.

aw, yeah.

slightly more psyched to push the double jogger for 10 miles tomorrow. Core, back, and legs for an hour on weights today.   that didn't happen!

Not all training runs are fun. Some are downright awful. I tried to have a PMA as everything sucked all morning, thinking "if everything is awful now maybe it'll be great later." It's a lie.

I duct-taped the chunk of my achilles that's rubbed off. But then the duct tape crunched up and chaffed-- result: more skin loss.

There were several goat heads in the double jogger. Oh, no worries, I will fill them with our bike goo and pump the trailer back up. With two boys biking and crashing and crying this takes an entire hour. Once I finally get going one tire goes flat at mile 3. The next tire was completely gone at my turnaround at mile 5. The goo stuff is supposed to prevent this...?!

I wanted to charge my ipod so my kids could play on my phone and I could listen to music, but the charger is broken.  So I charged my Nook for them, which died at mile 4.I then lost my music. So the wind picked up to console me...as I ran against it.

I'm glad I didn't do weights late last night as planned. My core and arms are shot, and would've been worse if I had worked them yesterday.

So, pushing a trailer with two boys heavier than me for 10 miles isn't the best idea. Somehow I managed a sub 10 min/mile pace, and even passed a person or two (poor guys). It all worked out and I got a lesson on suffering.

Oh, and then I used the rest of my birthday money and got my nose pierced. I put in a pretty little moonstone. Based on other people's reactions to it, I'm not assured my husband won't flip when he comes home from climbing tomorrow. According to my kids, I'm the most beautiful mommy and the piercing makes me super cool. (They also think I should pierce both sides of my nose, then I'd be even cooler).

I'm having second thoughts on taking the double jogger out for a repeat adventure tomorrow.

Wow I suck at remembering to record runs unless they're really fun.

2 miles with kids biking. Everything hurt. 

5 miles in a downpour. Wore a tank and a "water-resistant" running jacket. Should've been labeled "water-absorbent." 3 mins in to the run and I was soaked through. Hit up dimple dell and some of the Porter Rockwell paved trail. I went numb.

Held a decent clip 10 @Dimple Dell. Thought about inviting others but I didn't feel like waking up early. My knees hurt, nad shin, just until 5 miles and when I had warmth and direct sunlight, then everything felt better. But then I had to strip off all my layers, since 34 degrees and sunny is so hot.

This will mean that at Zion on Saturday I'll melt but that my injuries will feel great. 

6 w/Ku @CC. A new hot spot on the knee was wanky and felt all sorts of wrong. I kept stopping to adjust the knee strap. It felt fine on downs... I got it adjusted and doing therapy. Not a muscular or tendon mine, just feels out of place or off. Tried to talk Ku out of running 10 or so tomorrow. I don't want to hear him whine all through Zion.

We're all going into Zion with trashed legs. Supposedly this will be good training. 

Trip Report finally up: Zion Traverse

http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/05/zion-traverse.html 

Ran from Carrie's house with the crew.

Jacob tried to chick me on the uphills but I told him I don't let Asian girls chick me.

Carrie hauled on the downhills, I thought she was Jacob trying to sneak up on me a few times.

We all enjoyed running rocky trails. It was fun, moved quick, but walked the mile of pavement. My knees were still oozing quite a bit, stiff to start with how swollen they are. 

Recovery run @Dimple Dell in the early AM. I went early to avoid the snow. Failed.

Brrr. Rain, then snow, then slush. Then it repeated. Glad I wasn't out long.

Knees were stiff and tired, sprained ankle moaned a little.... the normal creaks and groans of a slowly recovering body. 

Took Zion out of my legs, and put something else in. 

Did VB with ScottW in the morning. He gave me great ideas on how to break 100 miles into more manageable pieces. I can mentally handle 50 miles, but I can't mentally handle 100. ScottW's poor knee was flaring, I think the vert and cold aggravated it. It was freezing! I packed food/water for more mileage than the 8 we did, thinking I'd add on after, but my hands were numb and I was frozen from the 28degree weather and wind... and Ben's been sick and I thought he might've slept in so I hurried home. Sure enough he had barely woken up and the kids were still in "pah-jay-jays." haha. So I took an hour to cook breakfast for everyone, pack lunches, load on some layers, and get everyone out the door. Then I rushed up to Lower Bell Canyon Reservoir. Then I ran and proceeded to remove all said layers since it was warm in the sun.

I've been wanting to check this trail out for quite a while, I'd heard rumors it was more technical and steep than most the trails near my house, so I was excited even if it was so short. I ran up the "easier" route (0.71 miles) did a little loop at the top, went down the steeper section (more gain/loss 0.51 miles), then turned around and went back to my car. Then I repeated it. I ended up running to the reservoir 4 times. It gave me a total vert of over 3500+ft (I don't really feel like getting out the calculator).

This was one of my idiotic yet brilliant ideas. Idiotic because I was wanting/needing a recovery run, brilliant because the thrashing of those giant step ups/downs gave my quads and knees smoething new to complain about and will probably benefit me during Bryce. I'll be out of town all week next week, but I think the following couple weeks I will repeat this adventure, adding on a repeat each time. Going up, down the opposite side, and back gives me 1138 vert (without the loop at the top). Doing that 4 times will give 4500ish vert in 10 miles. i.e. thrashing and bashing and training.

I guess I did get a recovery run this morning (sorry Scott I didn't want to run up all the hills) and then I got some training in after. Not sure if this was doubles or a long run.... whatev. 

I've only got 3 weeks til my Bryce taper starts. The clock is ticking... 

Hey, guess what, I ran Karl Meltzer's 100 mile pace for 8 miles. Go team.

Took an extra hour at lunch since I'll end up working a few hours tomorrow. Did 8 at Dimple Dell. Knees were creaking and groanin. So was I. I was conflicted-- I wanted a recovery run, but I wanted a tempo run. It was something inbetween. Best be callin' it a run. Ah yes, and my gangsta name is J-Lyn.

Now I'm still sore. This is a little concerning. This was my easy/recovery week before 2 1/2 really hard weeks. So, buck up body. It's only going to get worse from here! 

Daddy wasn't home this eve, so the kids and I ate pizza and watched mountain bike videos and stayed up late. I'm so productive and such a good Mom. But at least we're going mountain biking tomorrow (ok, they are, I'll just jog along). 

lovely Leslie watched the boys and I ran on the ghetto canal gravel road by her house. Did 10 1:21:50, abt a 7:40 pace.

Although I went on this run as a "recovery run" it ended up being a big motivation boost. It's been a while since I've done a flat run on road and I've been feeling really slow lately-- just discouraged because what I used to be able to run on a long run I can't hit on a tempo. So it was nice to put myself on a road and push a little... oh yah, I can hit a pace. oh good. felt creaky, walked all of the skywalk, etc but all in all good.

Double jogger, slow. Did 4, stopped at the park, then ran the last one home. Felt awful and achy, hoped I got the kinks out.

The idea of a night time 50k struck out of necessity with my husband and I's never ending travel plans. I got Jun to commit, which surprisingly isn't all that hard. I used a combination of blackmail and bribery, but it turns out it neither was necessary. Mental note made. I figured I could try to ask around and see if more people would hop in, and interest was minimal, but Dorsismus ended up coming out too.

But first there was lots of fear and anxiety-- what if they back out? What if I don't get to do this? What if these are snow clouds and everyone is a "fair weather friend?" Despite Jun trying to reassure me that he was coming several times, I had a good bout of anxiety. I soothed that battle just a bit by promising myself I could run laps at Dimple Dell or liberty park. Yes, I'd be willing to run at liberty park in snow/rain through the middle of the night for 6 hours to get my miles, although I hope it'd never come to that. 

We met at 9pm and I fed everone cookies to cheer the mood. We did a 12.36 out and back on the BST, with a vert gain of over 4500. We passed some freaky people, and the boys were pretty sleepy. There was a time or two we were all sitting down on the trail (me massaging my ITB with a rock), then we realized we were sitting on the ground.... on got up and got moving again.

I think I chatted the boys ears off, Dorsimus was smart and dropped behind because I always try to keep up front. So the Jun was stuck listening to me talk talk talk despite his hints about how nice it is to be in your own head. I have mild insomnia and sometimes I get really excited to be out late at night.

I could sense the feeling of.... we hit the cars and we're done. I tried to counteract this by describing the feast that awaited us at Denny's (4 miles roundtrip). We got to the cars, and the boys consented it would be a great idea to drive to Denny's. I am stubborn and refused, hoping to convince them to run there. I failed. It was ok though, Tuesday I had a full day of work and then a drive to Mesquite (and we didn't leave SAndy til 7pm). So instead we all went home, I ate leftover pizza, cleaned up the kids who wet the bed, changed sheets, put the boys in their bed in pajamas, did the dishes, then got my husband off the couch into bed. Then I work up 3 hours later (c'mon body! you had 2 more hours on the alarm clock! stupid insomnia!) so I reluctantly got up.

Glad I have friends who did crazy things like run late at night and put up with me. There's some good people here. 

12 miles 1,100 vert 9:16 pace.

First thing after returning to my roots in Upland, CA was to hit the 99cent store. They have TONS of fresh producs (cantelopes, bags of avocados, 10lb bags of potatoes, big things of fresh local romaine.... all for a buck!) so I loaded up on the produce for while I'm here. Then I changed into my running clothes and took off. I was nervouse about starting a run at 1:30pm in SoCal, but rain clouds blew in, and with the clouds and wind.... ah, 65 never felt so good. Funny thing, everyone I passed was in sweats+coats+hoods! lol.

Ran up an old dirt path that's lined with trees that goes up the middle of a 4-8 lane road through the center of town. Then I cut across some suburbia, fought the temptation to pluck all of the apricots, lemons, and oranges I saw all over, and made onto a trail I found on google maps. Cucamonga trail.... more like Cucamonga wash! the trail went up an old wash and meandered around and was really rocky, technical, and exhausting. The wind kept going and I could hear the rain in the foothills above me so I headed back.

I felt pretty trashed after and was mad at myself for not taking walking breaks. I did stop to snap a picture on the trail on Euclid (ye olde bridle path) because it is so sentimental for me, which I'll add when I'm home. 

Tried to recover since it sounds like tomorrow my 20 miler will include running up (tough probably not summiting thank goodness) one of the local peaks. We'll have to see how the stiff ITB handles that much climbing.

5 miles-- hmmm.... well, it drizzled, rained, my period started, and I went to the bathroom next to the paved running path (it's fenced between a major road and the suburbs). High class and not a lot of fun but I got it done. Here's to a quick recovery.... cuz tomorrow is early and long! 

Long run with Buddy Jones, a CA La Sportiva pro.

 Here's some tips for running with an elite athlete:

1. Don't.

2. Bobble your headlamp when the look back to make sure you're upright. It makes it look like you're running.

3. Try not to feel like a sissy when you eat and drink and they do so minimally.

4. When you finish off your 4000+ vert with 7 miles of rollers, pretend like a 9min pace isn't hard. Pretend really hard.

5. Take their advice about how to suck less. Usually worth it.

Oh, and there were so many ticks on our legs that it looked like mud splatters. What a lovely day. 

Ran on a horse path for recovery. Didn't bring water. Wanted to hug the church handing out water bottles after 6 miles. Chug chug chug.

Tried to do a tempo run at Dimple Dell. TRIED.

Kept the pace uncomfortable. Not as fast as a real tempo run on less tired legs, but close.

Oh, and I went all awol on a poor teenage girl with a leashless huge dog that tried to eat me. First time I've ever reprimanded someone for their dog. I think I'm just going to start spraying aggressive dogs. If your dog regularly tries to bite people, put the darn thing on a leash. 

Ran with Neasts on the BST starting at Big Willow. Where's Big Willow you ask? Ask a climber. Look at a guide book. C'mon runners, it's a whole freakin' canyon full or beautiful granite with some of the best THE BEST sport routes in the valley. It's ludicrous that runners who know every inch of the BST and still don't ever take a step up that canyon.

Anyways, lovely run. Except when I stepped on the trail, scratched up behind my leg and got all bruisey. We ate, I tried not to die trying to keep up with Neasts on the hills, I got some quality spousal advice, etc. Shins were flaring but not awful. 

When I got a late night text that people were bailing from the steeple chase route, I figured, what the heck, I still have one running/carpool partner, let's see if anyone shows up. Just when I'm ready to spend a boring morning running the BST, Twinkies pulls up and says he actually knows where we're going. Sah-weet! That was the only good part of the morning.

As soon as I stepped out of the car I realized it was going to be a lot colder than anyone had planned for- We were all in long sleeves and there was a 20mph wind blowing and biting. I borrowed Jacob's vest, threw on some gloves, and we started. My legs were dead from the first run down to the trailhead from the capitol to the BST. I knew that was trouble if I was hurting so much on a slight road down hill. We proceeded to tag the twins (me trying to not climb too quickly to save some juice). I think we summited at 1:06, so not terribly slow. Coming off the first twin we see MVH with no headlamp or water. Maybe he should be M-WTH? haha. Right on for him. He tags the twins too and then catches us. Once we got on the big slog to summit (last 2 miles up?) the boys were power hiking at a pace I just couldn't come close too. My quads were screaming and I just felt trashed. I felt worse than I did at the Zion Traverse, and pretty comparable to my first 50. This is at mile 7 of a 20 mile run, and I felt like I had already run 50... Last week was still in my legs, as were the jump squats the day before.

So I felt bad watching the boys stop and huddle into their shirts (in the blowing snow...) like little turtles waiting for me. But I just had nothing to give. We got up little black, tried to go down the other side, I got cut up through the scrub oak, there was snow, blah blah blah we went back the way we came and for once in my life I didn't want to push the downhills, I was happy to just stay in line and take them slow.

Then Jacob and I ran 4.5 more. Then my sunglasses ripped out my nose piercing (which I got fixed) then my fam had a bunch of stuff and (other than a quick shower) I didn't get home til 4pm, then we went to Chuck E Cheeses at 5pm.... what a day!

Final thought: Just cuz someone has a nickname based on a disgusting processed food product it doesn't not mean they're slow, and likely it means the exact opposite.... 

Ran with Jim in yellow fork. How pleasant- no dogs, bikers, or other people. We went slow, talked trash, he gave me 100mile advice, I gave him nutritional advice. I stopped at the turn around and grabbed a bunch of trash to run out until my arms were full. (I had a couple boxes of recyclables in my car to add to). So Jim felt bad and started to pick some up too. Then when we were done he hurried off to go buy green juice. I think I'm being a bad influence on him lol.

Then I hurried to pick Ben up from a meeting place and we went to IronMan 3 with my coworker. Fun. 

recovery. realllllyyyyy didn't want to.

Well, it all started when we were looking for a trail turn-off we didn't find. Okay, the boys didn't find, I was convinced it was the clearly marked turn-off we passed...

But somehow, several hours later, we're near the base of the crags in Lone Peak Cirque deciding it's a good idea to ski/downclimb/bush-whack a short-cut to the trail that they're 90% certain is down there.

Several hours later with raw legs, we find said trail. Then we winced the rest of the day everytime we passed through overgrown trails.

10+ hours, 30ish miles (we don't know, everyones watches died), and over 9000 vert.

The good news is that with going so slow and bushwhacking the first 6 hours recovery time was minimal. I strained a gluteus something or other, which pulls on my ITB and SI and give me occasional shooting pains, but neither of those two things are injured. I had my gluteus massaged a few times. I may love my job, but I wonder about my poor co-workers... 

Yes, I am pathetic enough to count the hiking miles with the kids.

It's all about discrimination really. No mile gets left behind. 

10 with Neasts on DD. It was faster than my recovery pace but slower than my tempo. Either way, I enjoyed listening to Neasts clear her brains as we rattled on about random things in our sleepy state. I enjoyed listening, but didn't have much to add- I was sleep and exhausted and was doing my best just to try to keep up with her!

Met at 4:30am with 8 others to run Pipeline. Millcreek has never seen that many cars that early in the morning. It was a rather lovely party. Zac ran 10 and headed out (he's on a taper), but Leslie, Neasts, jun, MVH, Dorsimus, ScottW, and JimmySG all stuck around for a second lap.

I kept up with the front when I was up there, and hung with the back when I was back there, no real pace in mind, not caring about speed and just enjoying being carried by the others. Approx every 5 miles we'd stop for a minute or two and chat and eat, and I didn't record my stops, which were probably in the 10-15min range. Neasts brought Coca-Cola which was a heaven-send.

I left them at 18.8 (Or, they left me) and I went back out. I did the marathon around 3:57. Dropped my vest at the car, sipped some coke and choked down a salt and a bit of bagel and went out for the last 3 miles. Hit the 50k in 4:39. I was hoping to break my antelope island 50k time (yep) and my pony express 50k time (I think it was 4:24, so nope).  The last 5 miles I did 8 min miles.

The major difference for me on today vs my other to 50k times (apart from those being races with aid stations and today just being a training run) is that from last wednesday thru today (so in 7.5 days) I've done over 100 miles. I was happy that I was able to push a little bit towards the end on tired legs. I've been running so slow lately, and after the debacle last wednesday (and pacing Antelope) I just needed a confidence booster run to remind myself- hey, I can do this. There's hope that I can finish Bryce and maybe even run some of it too.

Recovery run tomorrow initiates the taper! Woohoo! It's almost like Christmas, except I get to sleep in! 

Ran 1700 vert gain (I thought this was a recovery run!) with Jim in yellow fork area. I whined and complained incessenantly for the first 3.5 miles. It all hurt and Jim was making me run. Then we hit the first patch of downhill and a view and I remember I liked running and I shut up.

We ended up pushing a little the last couple miles (8min miles) which for Jim is awesome! I was feeling alright and wanted to see him push, since with lung problems he hasn't been able to in a while, so I kept up. He gave me some confidence in myself for Bryce. Pretty sure he thinks I'm faster and better prepared than I am. Or at least he's good at lying. Either way, it's nice to know he really believes I'll do alright. 

Funny thing- we leap frogged with a couple mountain bikers for a bit til we split to do a longer loop. They did the 6 mile loop... and we beat them back to the cars (by a bit). BOOM. 

Paced a 1:56 1/2 marathon. I think we would've hit 1:55 but I had to pee and we had to stop and pour water from random jugs of water and flag down the pregnant sag wagon for a salt pill and some dried pineapple.

Shins hurt, not as bad as I expected, but they weren't happy that I ran on the road.

They'll get over it.

Not a bad day out with Logan peeps and a nice recovery day. 

A quick 6 miles to the deer fence trail head and on the trail. I've always thought of it as a "flat-ish" run... except that 900 vert.

Fields of flowers, cold air, and some music. Splendid. I picked my momma a bouquet and ran it back. Somehow it survived. 

Felt a little klutzy in the ultra-raptors. They kind of clank around on my feet... I'm just not used to the bulk and am scared to trust them.

Started at Big Willow with Neasts for another flat-ish run. I love the rockiness of that trail. Not too much nor too little... just right. :)

We were going to go for 10 but cut the run short... by a giant 1/2 mile lol.  You can tell she was breathing easier on the ups. What I can say? She can fly.

 Oh, and the night before I was near tears I was so tired and my husband was insisting I set an alarm to run and I was so hurt it was so mean. Ha. I was delirious with fatigue, evident by the 4 naps I took that day... 

FB rumor said that lake blanche was "damn near runnable." Hmm. Maybe I should pick up swearing so I can understand what that means a little bit better. Cuz apparently it means 1/2 mile of climbing on snowy/icy single track and hoping you don't post-hole to the point of no return in the empty spots behind the boulders.

Drama aside, it was an incredible morning and just what I needed. I was surprised at how much vert there was in that 3 miles up (I won't post it here, I don't want to discourage a certain someone from running it with me this weekend) but it was nice how runnable that vert was. The view at the lake was outstangingly gorgeous and worth every step. I needed that fun and adventure to soothe me mentally and ground me as I prepare for Bryce.

I then literally giggled the whole way down jumping off of boulders.

For the sake of time I finished off the last 6 miles at dimple dell just so I could get in the miles I needed before preschool got out.

Shins and achilles were screaming on every small incline. Baths and rolling didn't help. Massage tomorrow. 

Woke up and the achilles were so painful I could barely walk. I probably would've called the run off had I not woke up an hour before my running alarm and decided to just "get this recovery run out of the way."

It's been OVER A MONTH since I've done a recovery run without Jim. He makes me feel so much better about my recovery pace! haha. He sets a darn good recovery pace though. I was determined to have a real recovery run, where I feel better after than before. So I ran @DD going a leisurely pace, between 9:30-11:30. I think I ended with an average of 9:45? Who really cares. It was SLOW. I was hoping the achilles would figure itself out with all the squawking it was doing.

I took the lower trail that I haven't run since it was covered in ice and I fell and got injured a few months ago. It was pleasant and winding and rather enjoyable.

 I had a massage, she spent over an hour on my shins and achilles. I was told she'd never seen that many knots in a leg before "it's like a braid..." ha. Glad my knots formed a braid.

Several hours after the massage, my legs are starting to feel better and the achilles actually feel normal and not like a giant ball of tight pain. Good. I'm supposed to stretch them out again with an easy 2 miles tomorrow before I test them with longer distances this weekend. 

did an easy 2 on the paved path to test out the achilles. funny, I haven't seen 8min miles in a while... since I used to run on roads. easy and light.

 vert gain: oh wait. we don't track that on roads. 

it was bloody brilliant. up Blanche and back, dodging hail bullets and flying down the mountain. On the way up I felt like I had brand new climbing legs-- I haven't had these in over a month!  Thankfully Neasts kept me in check, don't want to wear them out when I'm just getting them back.

Then we added on miles on Mill B dodging real bullets. Yep, shooting isn't allowed in Big. No real dodging involved, they were gentlemen, offering us cocoa, but still... you shouldn't shoot at a trail.

Neasts wrote a much more entertaining summary: http://neasts.fastrunningblog.com/blog--nbsp-After-Millcreek-pipeline-tra/05-18-2013.ht 

We were going to go up to Mill D... except for that fresh blanket of snow and blizzard. ...Yeah. I suggested Blanche again and the guys complied. It was a slow hike up, their legs were dead, and I was enjoying the hiking training, something I feel like I've neglected training for my first 100. Then I bolted down.

Oh, and I went out only with a cup of (stevia sweetened) black coffee and a banana, wanted to see what my blood sugar would do (curious if it'd crash). It did, I had a bit of a low blood sugar attack, got all shakey and dizzy, ate a couple dates, wished I had some protein and instant sugar to stabilize myself, but kind of worked through it without the easy resources.

Sort of dumb to do that on purpose, but I figured it was an easy super slow day... In the last month I've had a hypoglycemia attack 3 times, the most severe of which was during the Zion traverse... and I thought maybe I should try go through this on the trail a few times on shorter runs just to figure out how to get through it in case something happens again when I'm out and don't have proper supplies.

SLOW and steady @ dimple dell. I really wanted to go back out to Blanche, but didn't want the achilles to get super tight (it already was tightening up again)

Wild Wire. Quite a crew too! Silly me told Leslie I'd try to pace off of her on the way up. TRY is the pertinent word. She flew up that! Women's FKT car to summit is now 35ish min. 2400ish vert in 2 miles... yikes! 

I only had green juice and eggs the whole day, and stupidly drank a soda and ate a banana on the way over. It was just asking for my blood sugar to crash. Sure enough a little over half way up I started the usual cold sweats/shakey hands/mild confusion. No biggie. Then my feet went numb. For some reason (confusion?) I thought taking my shoes off and putting them back on would magically resolve this. So I did so twice. My feet were still numb. Somehow managed to get up the darn thing in the 40-41 range (at that point I didn't really care....) Jim's been around long enough to know me and he gave me a gu which I eagerly sucked down.

Then I saw the crew starting down a diff way and I took off- fun time! I quickly passed the first couple guys and fell in line with Pete, who flew down the hills and I had a jolly time chatting with him and trying to keep up. 

slow in the clunky ultra-raptors @ corner canyon. I thought with a 6am start I wouldn't see too many bikers. Wrong! There was over 20 that I saw.

 I payed it forward by running down what I think was an "only bikes" trail. I tried to get up to where the Jacob's ladder turn-off is on the dirt road with the bathroom.... yeah, I must've taken 5 wrong turns. Oh well. 

photo shoot for trailandultrarunning.com

I emailed Craig, "Hey, do we actually have to run for this?"

"No. Maybe a mile tops."

...right.

 but it was a blast anyways. For some reason, hanging with those guys makes me feel just a bit less nervous for Bryce.

Moved quicker (but not pushing) @ Big Willow. Slept in and went late, like 10am, and had to dodge all the hikers. I scarred many of them by running in my sports bra. Since the last couple days I got my appetite back and ate enough to make up for the two weeks of not eating.... I'm sure it was an unpleasant sight. Oh well, at least I didn't have to see it!

 The shoes were slick and I couldn't trust my footing to move as I hoped. I started out super sluggish, but warmed up after 3 miles.

put on my race day outfit, including socks, shoes, headband, etc. aw, yah I'm cheesey. Couldn't toe the line in clothes that didn't have a bit of BO.

 I can take heart in knowing that I did 2 "easy" miles and they were both sub 8's. Shows my body is actually recovering. 

Now I have to pack. SOOO not ready to leave in the AM! 

when writing 2 reports is just too hard:

http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/06/bryce-100-race-report.html 

45 mins core + upper body. tried to do core w/o brace, but foot still felt "floppy"

 9 miles on the bike. ugh. 

80 mins of core, legs, shoulders. did about 1/2 without ankle brace. had a good adjustment on the ankle that got rid of the clicking sound every time I stepped.

30 mins core. did something than sent a zing and a pop through the top of my foot. WTH? being a climber, i think--oh crap! popped tendon!

my ankle has hurt substantially less ever since. whatever happened, it sure did help. never put the ankle brace back on, can walk around ok without it...

Did a 5.5 mile jog/hike on the castle rocks apline loop trail- my all-time favorite short trail. I was so happy to be up at the crack of dawn in my favorite place, out camping iwth friends. Early in the loop the wildflowers were dwindling, I was thinking that the meadow you hit 4 miles in was going to be dead.... but surprise! I was so happy I stopped to take pictures and frolick thru the flowers. Orchids, tulips, daisies, and other tubers I don't know the name of... Ah.

Then I was a bad girl and climbed all day. Started the day leading the first route of the day (gear lead) and was surprised at how well I handled my emotions leading- ended up with only 3 pieces in the 35 meters (and I brought I double rack thinking I'd be nervous and sew it up).

A few climbs later and my ankles were killing me so I stopped climbing, since I had night plans. Come dinner time Em and I headed out for a "Mom's adventure." I stole her, she hasn't had an adventure out since her 2nd baby was born. After I  brought up JAckson's thumb, her husband says to me, "Well what are Ben and I supposed to all evening with all the kids?" I laughed, "Ask Ben. Have fun!"

Em and I got to the base (long hike) and the ankle was tender. We decided to swing leads. Ankles were NOT happy- so the pitches I didn't lead I climbed barefoot or in tennies. I belayed Em up pitch 1, and she stopped to scope out how to set up the top belay for me. (It's been a while since she's done a multi)

"Oh, did I need to bring one of those?" she said, pointing to my ATC. Crap, I start trying to decide who gets the short straw to be belayed on a muenter (what's worse, muenter on a top belay or lead belay?) but fortunately she just mean the type of ATC I had (reverso style)- she had an old school ATC on her. Whew.

It was breezy, by pitch 2 it was picking up and we started to worry a bit. Mid pitch 3 the wind increased to 30mph with 50mph gusts! We were blowing over trying to clip. After we rapped from the tip of the thumb, we go to pull rope, said a quick prayer "God, please don't let the rope get stuck up there and make us be here all night" Tried to do the famous pull slow, fast jolt at the tip of the rope.... but the wind blew the rope and we couldn't. Fortunately the rope almost came down.... actually, about 30 meters of rope blew down the gully and snagged onto the rock about 2 ft from the ground the whole way down. Hooray! So we bushwhacked down, picking up the rope as we went. Ankles were screaming, and I was getting worried about my uhhh "rest day" slowing down the healing process.

After we got out of the gully we couldn't find the climbers trail in the dark and buschwhacked around for an hour. By the time we were halfway to the car we saw Ben pull up in the distance to the parking lot. So we pulled out a headlamp and turned it on flashing so he'd see it and know we were ok. Unfortunately he thought that was a sign of distress (he was remembering how I couldn't take steps at Bryce) and ran out to come carry me out. Silly boy. I hiked out like a big girl. 

 Apparently the kids loved staying up til 11pm eating marshmallows, and told me it was the best day ever. They did a few climbs, hiked, and played with friends all day too- and yes, it was a great day. :) Woke up the next morning, ankle much improved... really I was just stretching it out.

Wire Wednesday!

 ...one of the bum deals about being injured is I couldn't keep up, even on the way down (couldn't trust my ankle not to give out). So I took a wrong turn and added on some mileage.

So pleased to get out. It was rather painful, but by 3pm I felt better than I had before the run. I took that as a sign to keep going. 

I asked Neasts if she felt like running. Sure was the response, something easy. I suggested Grandeur. Then Zac was looking for a morning out so I sent the invite, knowing he was injured too. It was a worry-free slow climbing morning. 

I was told stability and a big heal-to-toe drop would help the ankle. Enter the 11mm drop ultraraptors.

Grandeur was pleasant and lovely. Wildflowers in bloom... I couldn't stopping to take photos!

plus, Zac took a pic of me that makes me look like I have leg muscles. I cropped my fat belly out of the photo (phew)

I was going to take the day off, but got roped into running before the movie under the stars. I was still a bit reluctant knowing I was heading out early the next AM for a longer run.

About a mile in about stupid steep asphalt, I was told we were running down the bobsled. WTH? I was so giddy I actually WANTED to run uphill. I'd heard so much about this trail but never run it... I wanted to see if it lived up to its' legend. 

It was incredible. Running up the dishes (for lack of a better word?) on the sides of the hills, stupid steep ups/downs... jumping off stuff for photos... running ramming into friends to stop after said photos...

 Yeah, I giggled, whooped, hollered and squealed more than I ever have on a roller coaster.

SO FUN.

Oh, and Neasts is becoming quite the little downhill runner...

Mill D to Deso to Red Lover's Ridge and back with the SLC track club gone trail runner crew.

I drove carpool and made grown men listen to Party in the USA.

hahaha. 

Ran up the LCC Creek trail in the eve. Lost of bikes but they dwindled out as time went on- didn't start til after 8pm. 1:03:25. Felt like pushing pace a little up the hill so I did. On the way down I tried to make it so a certain biker wouldn't catch me but he ended up getting there.

First time in LCC without a trad rack. So weird to run by the "trail" towards sasquatch, after having bush-whacked out there so many times. 

A quick 4 on the rail trail in the eve.

Ran with Ben up Grandeur. Ankle was extremely painful but a tad better on the downhill.

I was thinking, oh, Ben hasn't run in ages, we have a babysitter, nice relaxing morning together.

Then he ran up the mountain and I pushed hard to keep him in sight. 1:02 to the top, a record for me- I never stopped the time. 

A quick 4 miles on the rail trail. I didn't feel much like running, so I left the watch at home to ensure I wouldn't push. No idea on the time.

A delightful run+ bushwhack up Mount Logan (thru waist-deep raspberry bushes, sadly, no berries.) Ben joined me and got all cranky on the bushwhack. "This isn't even trail running," he moaned. Hahaha. 'cuz trail runners don't bushwhack dear...

He had only planned on 8 miles round trip, we hit the summit at 6.7, it was really cold, and I was planning on tagging Providence Peak (adds on maybe a mile) but I let him talk me out of it. Bummer.

I did talk him into coming down Providence Canyon instead of back out through Dry. I couldn't imagine losing 1200 ft elevation in 0.6 miles through deep raspberry thickets to be much fun, especially since he was wearing five fingers. Oh, and he didn't bring running clothes so he was out in climbing clothes.

We got out of Providence Canyon after 16.6 miles. Oops. I noticed after 12 miles my ankle just rolled over everything- rocks I would usually use to push off of I would just roll over, so a lot of weakness. One roll was very painful, but 1/2 mile later felt better.  Got to get that strengthened.

We would have taken the deer fence trail to connect back to Dry canyon (my original 20+mile plan) but Ben didn't have food, water, salt, etc.... and the pads of his feet were tired from the 5 fingers that he never wears. So I called my Dad and had him come pick us up, since he was only a couple miles away. I really wanted to finish the loop, but I knew that my stubborn husband wouldn't have been ok with getting a ride unless I got in there too. I also felt like if I had kept going he would have felt like a sissy-pants, which he's not.

Then we went to the movies. Then boating. Then barbecuing. What a day. 

A nice 3 mile hike with my sis who emotionally threw up all over me. So nice to be there to let her vent tho!

 LCC Creek Trail again. 1300 vert-ish. 

 I think I started to feel Mount Logan. To get to my turn around point from last week it took me 3 mins longer (on a 3.3 mile section). I felt like I was pushing on the ups. So this is what fatigue feels like...

6 repeats of lower bell reservoir. Each time up has 540 ft vert. I did repeats on both sides- one had .7 the other .5 to the top/bottom. Brutal.

I was really distracted since I friend and fellow runner (my age nonetheless) was just diagnosed with cancer and I had yet to sort my thoughts out. Couldn't handle music, too much stimulation, and even after I put the music back in the car I biffed it once because I was so involved in my thoughts I didn't notice what was going on.

So, not sure it was "real" repeats since I didn't push much on ups NOR downs. Oh well. 

Grander Peak with long lost friend Marty and new friend Jen. Marty had a baby a couple months ago and spent the entire hike up apologizing for her speed. 2 months post baby---she did awesome! I am SOOOOOOOO happy to have Marty here. Our husbands were BFFs in high school and Marty and I became friends in college. What fun.

We start the downs, I take the lead, and Marty follows just inches behind me. Hmmmm.... So I pick it up a bit in the technical sections and she keeps up, awesome! Her core (post-baby stretching) got tired halfway down and she slowed a tad bit. By tad bit I mean she still flew! Awesome!! I am super duper excited to have another chica who loves the downhills. As she recovers, I am excited to take her down Blanche and Bobsled, my two personal favorite downhills.... :)

Up little black with Ku who was recovering from the San Juan Solstice and had a headcold (i.e. we hiked up it... slowly).

 ...That said, I like lil Black a whole lot more now that I know I can take the Bobsled out and the only have to run a mile on the road to get back to the car. Quality. 

I brought back a horny toad for Indy from the top of Black. I am surprised it didn't die in my vest pocket. Sure glad, I'd have to live down lizard-killer jokes forever if it had died. Indy was thrilled for his birthday present. 

After the slumber party finished, we went to Deer Creek Reservoir with some friends. I saw that there was a trail, 7.5 miles each way, nearby and decided... what the heck, I may as well run a marathon or so. I convinced my friend Marty to run 10 miles in the 100 degree heat with me. I drank 50oz in that 10 miles. Whew.

Then Leslie met up with me. It seemed to be a "normal" night run. Ya know, until it got all originally epic. Something about a tiny black kitty that Leslie stopped to pet, that followed us for a couple miles crying. Then we tried to carry it. Then we tried to ditch it, and it fell off the cliff trying to cut the switch back short to get to us and came up all covered in prickles, pokeys, and whatnot... crying it's tiny little eyes out of course. 

That made me feel like a horrible person.

What the heck is a tiny baby kitten doing miles away from ANYONE at 12am anyway?

I tried carrying kitty in my tank. My arms. Finally strapped my hat around her neck super tight and pinned her body in so we could run a little faster. I think the kitty ran about 3 miles, and I carried her for over 4. Exhausting! and slow... added over an hour to that last 7 miles.

Oh, during the last couple miles my headlamp went out, my watch died, and my ankle reared it's ugly head to tell me to cancel tentative plans I'm making for July weekends. 

I brought the kitty home til we could find it a family. My kids now think we have a new pet. She's named "Rezzy" since she was found abandoned at a reservoir. Kind of a lame name.... but better than the other options: Leslie had suggested "Stalker" since it wouldn't leave us alone, Fisher had suggested "Golden Trophy."

Rezzy now sleeps with my childrens and dotes on all of us. She kind of acts like a squirrel. I've never had a cat or even been around them before. Weird creature. 

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.

Ran start of Henry's Fork TH in Uinta's towards Kings and hiked with my kids.

THE TRIPLE CROWN... don don doooooooooon~! 8:46 TH to TH.

Report on the blog is up: http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/08/utah-triple-crown.html

Before that I wrote a summary:

I summited my first 13er (then my 2nd, then my 3rd) which also happen to be the three highest peaks in Utah. The cool kids link them up and call it the triple crown. Since I want to be cool like the cool kids...

I first caught wind of a triple crown blog post (Jun's) within a couple weeks of first moving here a year ago. "Wow," I thought to myself. "I have to do that sometime." I didn't know if I could. Hell, I hadn't been above 12,000ft until I ran the triple C! Was I going to get sick? What if I suck? What if I twisted my ankle and cried like a baby? Lightning was on the forecast?! 

It didn't help my nervousness/ complete lack of confidence that the week before I went up to (but didn't run) the Quest for King's marathon... and watched as my friends/running partners ran King's peak in 7-9 hours. Who was I to even attempt to run the same peak, PLUS TWO MORE 13ers  in the same amount of time? I spent a week dwelling on it.

So when we got to the top of each Summit and Jun was telling me we were ahead of the men's FKT splits, I ignored him. My goal was not a time. I didn't want to know splits. I wanted to put in a solid effort and keep my breathing easy. Eat every 30min. Get to the top. Suck on bacon to keep the tummy happy. Call the boys pansy-ass boys for making Gilbert sound harder than it was. Etc.

I lost my lead on men's after a huge bonk after S. Kings. I was told usually it was 45min from Kings to S. Kings. I did it in 28min. Lightning clouds were circling S. Kings, it was hailing and snowing, and we hurried. I didn't eat for 90min or so. I just wanted to tag the peak and get down to the pass before the lightning let loose and the mountains got pummeled. So we hit the scree face of Kings, I bonked, fell a few times, and was moving really slowly. I think if I do it again I'd rather go back up and down Kings or wait til there was a snow field to glissade. I lost 1/2 hour just traversing that scree field. I handled all the other boulders, scrambling and scree... But that miserable one hurt. I think it was the moisture, the bonk, and the mental blocks of danger that ultimately made me crash so hard. Whatever. We got off the pass and my mood improved, we clocked a few fast miles, then.... the last 5. I had heard they were awful, but OH MAN. I agree with the sentiment that hell would be running those last 5 for eternity. So hard to transition from peak bagging to turnover and super technical trail, that you think is downhill but really isn't it's just a slice of hell that never ends.

Then it ended.

It was easily my most favorite run I've ever done. Don't listen to the bitter boys, Gilbert was not awful, and it was actually my favorite. Might be because I was practically jumping for joy through all of the false summits/ forever boulders because I was thrilled I didn't have altitude sickness.

I can't wait to do it again. Early July 2014 I hope to go back and shave 20-30min off my (very soft) time. So glad Jun came and gave me the tour. I probably would have accidentally summitted Gunsight instead of Gilbert and missed all the good fun. Can't wait to do it again. Thanks to Crockett and Jun for helping establish (historically) the best run I've ever been blessed to do.

My kids and I mtn biked around Mirror Lake. By biked I mean they pushed their bikes and I "ran" carrying more fuel than I would for a 20mile run so I could feed them snacks every quarter mile.

 It was terribly rocky. While they handled the downhill technical well (much to Mommy's fright... and pride...) some of the uphill and flatter terrain had them worried about completing the task.

So I pulled out the iPhone and started making a music video of them. It's amazing how a song they love (Pompeii) and a camera make all the tears go away and bring back the fun.

We had a great convo on the city of Pompeii, which they now want to explore in person and online with me. I am loving this- talking, playing, discovering with my boys. To think it goes by so fast, and they're already almost halfway grown...

Ran to Naturalist Basin with Milar in the Uintas. He was feeling great which meant I acutally had to run. After about 3 miles my legs were "broken in" again and moving felt fluid. We talked trash sporadically between gasping at the thin air at 10,000ft. We enjoyed the quiet. After rough days for both of us over the weekend, it was nice to hit the silence and breathing and forward motion with a friend.

I was starving and spent the last 30min of the run verbalizing recipe types in my head as they came to me for new running food ideas. I apparently hadn't rebuilt my glycogen stores after the Triple Crown and ate like an animal after. Really. I think I downed at least 2,000 calories in 15min. Making great progress on my 6 pack goals really. Isn't inhaling more food than is usually consumed in a day in a breath part of the weight loss plan? No? C'mon. Really? High metabolism? I'm digging here. Kind of like the time I ate nothing but Nutella for 3 days. My children's diet was only enhanced by Cheerios for those 3 days. At least they were organic cheerios. Parent of the year, I know.

After the run my kids and I sat in the car in heavy hail for two hours before hiking in the hail to Ruth Lake to find their Daddy who was out trying to climb between clouds. We made jokes about the "little mean ice balls." The boys are going to be as tough as nails by the time they're teens, just like their Daddy who caught a fish with his bare hands that morning for our breakfast.

Ran at DD. Listened to music and ran hard. I felt free. It wasn't easy, and I didn't understand why I averaged an 8:10 on the trail when my legs were entirely trashed and I had down jumps/squats earlier that had only increased the trashiness. The little hills felt like mountains and yet my legs swallowed them.

Sometimes after a solid recovery run (after a big day) I feel like there's something in me that needs to be "unleashed" after running so long so slow in an ultra distance. So I unleashed it.

By mile 5 I thought I went 1 mile too far but had to get home anyways. Felt good to "get it out," whatever it was I needed to get out.

Neasts said, "it'll be easy." Neasts said, "recovery run pace for sure." Neasts LIES. But she's a big girl ultrarunner now, and I guess it comes with the territory. It's the unsaid rule of ultrarunning- lies are perfectly acceptable if it makes someone else run.

Big crew up VB. You know how ET puts out his finger and goes "Owoooouch?" Yeah, it was like that. I don't know how my legs kept up with the others. I sucked in air and couldn't contribute much to the uphill convo other than a comment here or there so everyone would know I was still alive. But I think the happy runner part of me curled up inside and died.

Then we ran down. Wheeeeee. The last 1/2 mile or so I needed a bathroom, but just cut back pace and decided to wait til I got home. Squatting sounded too painful.

I spent the rest of the day walking like I had just ran a marathon or rode a horse all day, gingerly taking steps because EVERYTHING hurt. Apparently I not only failed to rebuild my glycogen stores (re: starving) I apparently am still worked over from the Triple C and my body can't cope with additional stress, even if it is "normal" running for me. I'm supposed to take a couple days off, up the amino acids and antioxidants. Take baths. Read books. TV? Sold.

But I may run Friday. "Recovery pace for sure." 

I broke the cardinal rule and drove to go road running. For shame.

 Met Neasts for an easy run on the JRP. True to her word (this time) we kept a steady 8:30 pace. We even stopped for a sip of water. Chatter was about the usual pre-race jitters, I had extra nerves because I have the I'm-not-recovered-yet plus the oh-crap-100-miles-soon combo which I've never experienced. It's like heart burn in your brain.

Afterwards was a pleasant breakfast with books, authors, and words. Of course words are included. They're part of conversation. 

I thought maybe just maybe my glycogen stores were replenished, because I wasn't starving during the run (and I ditched breakfast, gotta take advantage of sleeping in and road running when I can). But sure enough I sat down in the truck after running and wanted to eat a horse. Hunger kicks in the primal instinct for me. Must. Eat. Possibly because of the hypoglycemia? Ever hear about that time I did desert survival and had no food or water for 3 days while hiking 30 miles a day and by day 2 I tried (unsuccessfully) to catch and kill a lizard to drink it's blood? I was a vegetarian then too. Instincts... Fortunately I was fed a yummy carmel macchiato and a bagel and all the world was well again.

see how I separated the miles? that's because I ran 5 of the fastest, most blood-pounding WTF I'm going to die miles of my life. otherwise I wouldn't have separated them.

No, I didn't give up on the blog, I just wasn't running. Rest, a novel idea, I know. But I needed fresh legs to attempt the break the consecutive summits on Timp record.

Yeah, so that monsoon storm.... shorted me. full report is up: http://jennilyneaton.blogspot.com/2013/08/failures-and-futures-and-other-things-i.html

4 VERY slow miles early Sunday AM.  Early?! I went to bed at 1am (wasn't sleepy at all...) and still woke up at 6am sharp. C'mon, self! Sleep darnit!

It's kind of eerie in Utah early on a Sunday morning. I ran through my whole neighborhood and didn't see a soul until I ran into a couple of dog walkers at Dimple Dell.

I think I did a 9:30 pace. Usually after something long my body wants to do a tempo run before a recovery run, but that wasn't the case this time. Something about PR'ing my 5k  by probably 4 min while fleeing lightning on something that once was a trail but instead was a mini river must've gotten my "need for speed" out of me at the end of Friday's run. That's a long sentence. It could be considered a run-on sentence, since it has multiple clauses. Fantastic. I should be a writer.

I've made this goal to start actually running again instead of just slogging around in the mountains having picnics.

So, I went out on PAVED path in light rain (no iPod, insert sad face). I didn't have much time so I settled for a 1/2 mile warm up. Then I did 4x800m repeats with 1/3mile recovery. My supposed "goal" times should be 3:08-3:12, but I figured since there was a lot of wind and I just ran 40 some-odd miles up and down and up and down and up and down MFT (Mount Freakin Timpanogos) so I should shoot for something a little slower. 

In case you're wondering, I hate running fast. Sucks. So, here is what goes through the mind of a "slow picnic peak baggers" mind while she runs lame-o repeats:

Repeat 1: Hey, look at me! I'm running fast! Shoot, am I done yet? 1/3 mile? you're kidding me? Oh, look at the birds! I should run Pfiefferhorn Wednesday morning. and Lone Peak on Saturday. Oops, I'm supposed to be running fast... time to pump the arms again. -3:19

Repeat 2: Ok, this time, the wind is at my back. Gonna crush it. Ugh, this is stupid. This is stupider than bush-whacking. I hate this. ooOOOo! I did it! I ran fast! -3:12

Repeat 3: I wonder which is worse, this or bush-whacking through scrub oak. Definitely this. I'd take an hour of scrub-oak over an hour of this any day. Unless it's armpit deep scrub oak. That just sucks. -3:24

Repeat 4: Last one! Don't suck as much as the last one. Don't suck as much as the last one. I wish there was a creek to dip in. Where's the snacks?! This isn't even running it's just torture! -3:18

I know, distance runners are supposed to do more than 4 repeats. But I just did MFT! Ugh. Next week I'll do more. With music. So awful.

....But it dawned on me- when I ran my fast (for me fast) road races my training was harder and the races (compared to long ultra sufferfests) were easier. Maybe I should make training for my "fast" sort of "flat" ultras suck a little more and I'll be able race faster and the race won't hurt as much. Maybe.

do you see that sleep time? aw, yeah! first time in over 2 weeks sleeping more than 4-5 hours of broken sleep. NO SLEEPING PILL EITHER. boo-ya.

I woke up at 5am to go on a recovery run. Checked my messages and my last partner bailed. So I went back to sleep, and actually fell asleep. Miraculous.

Best recovery run ever. My co-workers told me I look like I'm glowing today. Ha.

Went up my first ever Pfiefferhorn summit with Jun and Jacob. On the way up I noticed that while my legs felt good, I was breathing a lot harder than I should be at such an easy pace. Stupid MFT (Mount Freaking Timp repeats). Stopped at the ridgeline to scout out and discuss the cottonwood traverse, the shady parts, access points, etc. I know, I know. WURL? But it's such a beautiful line....

Jacob has an insane fear of heights and said he wouldn't summit so I made it a personal goal to make sure he did. :) He did. Jun and I spotted him on the couple 4th class moves and went pretty very slow.

I tried to pick up the pace after we got down pass the lake, and took off once or twice (both Jun and Jacob are excellent downhill runners) but neither of them followed suit. Oh well. I never was the kind of girl the guys chase. So I hung back to be one of the "dudes." Good thing I had my trucker hat on.

Because I am a glutton for suffering I decided to run up LCC Creek trail after. I usually make it a goal to never walk going up, but this time hit a huge bonk (wasn't doing so hot on the calories/salt) and walked a couple of times. Still hit the turn around only a min slower than my PR and faster than most of the times I run up that "easy." Go figure.

Picked up pace and hammered down, for a total of 1:10. Not bad for totally trashed legs. I think I'm going to have to bail on my mileage goal for the week (60+). Pfieff (with stopping for 10-15min to scout for WURL) took about 3:30... and doing Lone Peak isn't exactly going to be "short" time-wise either. In the amount of time I ran today I could've easily ran double the mileage on a flatter trail. And in the amount of time it will take to do Lone Peak again I could triple + the miles on a flatter trail. But on the flip side... the peaks are pretty neat-o. Pfieff is going to be a favorite.

I can easily see that by next summer I will have transformed from an ultrarunner to a peak bagger, especially with my goals for next year. Thank goodnes too, I think doing regular speedwork the month of September will nearly kill me.

sometimes you sacrifice the time for a real run to take your kids out. boys biked and I ran. worth every minute and every mile I missed. We stopped at the park to play, and had to kiss a few boo-boos. Took about an hour.

I tried Neasts great idea for an "Easy" tempo run: 2 warm up, 3 hard, 2 cool down.

Have I mentioned I don't know how to pace anymore? I've gotten so used to the mountain and trail dictating what speeds to run that I no longer grasp the meaning of consistency.

So off to Dimple Dell I go (after speedwork on asphalt, couldn't bear to do a tempo run on it too, ugh.) I knew that the soft sand/mulch/hills would ruin my goal AP (look at me, throwing around the roadie lingo) but a small price to pay to make an unbearable run more bearable. I was giving up another go on LCC Creek for this, after all.

After two miles of interuppted warm-up (took kids to school) I paused to prep. You'd think I was getting ready to climb Everest or something, I was so nervous and reluctant. A little Rusted Root (send me on my way) to either soothe the nerves or make it seem cooler, and I pushed the button to start tracking.

I was hoping for anything averaging sub 8 (my fastest AP for anything @ DD was 8:10) but shooting for a 7:30. Of course I ran the first half mile at a 6:45 and wanted to burn out, but I kept going. It was kind of awful. At 1.7 I needed the potty (thank heavens!) so I paused the time. Don't know if that's "legal" in speed mode, but oh well.

Ended up with about a 7:37 pace for the 3 miles, which given terrain, isn't bad. Isn't great either.... But still only a week after Timp repeats. I walked up the hill to the dog park, deliriously thirsty. I checked my phone, it was 83F! Only a week ago I was on Timp in 38F in a torrential downpour trying to avoid becoming an ice pop.

While getting a drink a saw a cute jogger. I finished drinking and she had a lead, but decided to pull her in to kill the time on the way back home. I passed her doing a 7:50. Ooops. Then I did a 10:40. Again.... no sense of pacing.

I need help. This speed training stuff is hard. I need to leech paces and training routines off of someone while I try to get a handle on it. Anyone? ;)