Monday, March 24th
AM—16
Miles—3:31—2,900’—Hidden Valley, Moab Rim, and Pipedream Trails (Moab, UT)
Within 30 minutes of arriving in Moab I had my shoes laced,
shirt off, and was ready to hit the trails. My legs were full of energy on the
short, steep climb up to Hidden Valley. So, I proceeded to cruise right on up
it. The flat 1.5 mile stretch in the valley reminded my legs that they had just
endured a three hour drive and weren’t quite loosened up yet. I took the Moab
Rim trail easy since it has a decent amount of sand on it. I wasn’t auditioning
for Baywatch so I figured it served no purpose to try to run it fast. On the
way back I added some extra distance and vert in order to get some sweet views
of Moab and the La Sals. I even got into some easy scrambling for 30-45
minutes. When I reached the valley I was starting to get insanely thirsty. So,
I ran this 1.5-mile stretch pretty quick to get back to the Taco and guzzle
some water. After my water break I started down Pipedream for about three miles
before turning back. This trail is a true rollercoaster. Never flat, always
fun.
PM—9 Miles—2:06—1,400’—Negro
Bill Canyon and Porcupine Rim (Moab, UT)
A nice, easy run on tired legs. I used Negro Bill Canyon as
an opportunity to do some scrambling on mainly 4th Class routes up
to the mesa top; have to get those scrambling skills back before summer. When I
got back to the Taco I guzzled some water and headed up Porcupine Rim. I
eventually passed a couple out on a leisurely hike: a fairly fit girl and a
fairly fat guy. When I passed them the first thing she said was, “If you would
do what he’s doing then you would have a body like him.” He didn’t seem too
pleased with this so I booked it before he decided to kick my ass. Ended the
run with a little creek bath action at the mouth of Negro Bill Canyon.
Tuesday, March 25th
AM—8
Miles—2:06—1,250’—Devil’s Garden Loop (Arches National Park)
My legs weren’t feeling the greatest this morning. So, I ran
an easy loop in Arches NP and spent a fair amount of time scrambling around to
see what stuff I could get on top of. At one point I ended up having to
negotiate a ~50 feet slab downclimb with a little side traverse action because
I somehow ended up way above the trail and didn’t feel like taking the roundabout
way to get back on it. This was pretty fun in my 110’s that have 600+ miles of
wear and essentially no tread remaining. Although short, this loop packs in a
bunch of amazing sights.
PM—8
Miles—1:24—500’—Bar M Trails (Moab, UT)
Some easy miles on flat, non-technical mountain bike trails.
Great views all around.
Wednesday, March 26th
AM—5
Miles—0:50—300’—Two Mile Road (Near La Sal, UT)
Legs felt like crap. I stopped just outside of La Sal to
sneak in a shakeout run along Two Mile Road with the intent of doing another
run once I got back to Telluride. When I got back to Telluride it was snowing
and motivation was nowhere to be found. So I didn’t run. A couple of days in
Moab made me realize just how much I dislike Telluride—maybe it’s just my
frustration with the lack of runnable terrain in the winter?
Thursday, March 27th
PM—12
Miles—1:55—1,200’—Illium Road
Pretty blah run. Legs felt OK, but not great. The weather was
a bit strange today. It was snowing, but at the same time warm enough that I got
by in shorts and a t-shirt.
Friday, March 28th
AM—17 Miles—3:03—2,450’—Last Dollar Road
Crappy run on legs that felt
like crap. .Was glad to be done with this one…
Saturday, March 29th
AM—20 Miles—2:56—2,450’—Sunshine
Mesa and Illium Road
The initial five mile ascent to the end of Sunshine Ranch
Road didn’t seem too promising. My legs felt better than the previous few days,
but I was still struggling to run sub-10 minute miles when I’m usually running
sub-8 on this stretch. The descent went a little better than anticipated as I
hovered around 7:30 pace most of the way down. Still not anywhere close to what
I usually run here. After a water break at the Taco I headed up Illium Road and
everything just came together. My legs finally felt good and I started knocking
out some 7-8 minute miles on this five-mile ascent. I cruised the downhill back
to the Taco.
Sunday, March 30th
AM—10
Miles—1:48—850’—River Trail and Mill Creek Road
Easy shakeout/recovery run. I walked most of the way up Mill
Creek Road. Legs didn’t have much energy today.
Weekly Totals
Miles—105
Time— 19 hours 41
minutes
Elevation Gain— 13,200
feet
March Monthly
Totals
Miles—400
Time— 72 hours 00
minutes
Elevation Gain— 53,000
feet
Runs—36
Year-to-Date
Totals
Miles—884
Time—186 hours 51
minutes
Elevation Gain—167,000
feet
Runs—96
Days Off—7
Last Day Off—February
5th
It felt great to get out to Moab for a few days of trail
running versus road running or snow slogging!
Well, that makes two 100+ mile weeks in a row—a first for
me. That also makes my second ever 400 mile month. The last one was over two
years ago. I guess it’s hard to get in a lot of miles when you’re averaging
well over 350 vertical feet of ascent per mile, which is what I did for most of
last year.
I’d like to get in another 100+ miles this week (and maybe
the next week?), but some little aches and pains are starting to pop up here
and there. I’ve been trying to prevent them from becoming too noticeable
through foam rolling and acupressure, but those only help so much. I’m looking
forward to getting in to see Allison for some trigger point sessions during the
Telluride off-season.
During the next few weeks I’m hoping to get in one or two
more speed’ish sessions as well as one or two hard efforts on runs in the 30-40
mile range. Ideally, these will give me an idea of what sort of pace I should
plan on running at the Free State 100km on April 19th. We’ll see…
Arch Vision. It's kind of like 3D... |
Happy 150th, El Taco Blanco! Oh, don't worry about your engine... |
Looking up at the climb to Hidden Valley |
Hidden Valley Trail. When life gives you shitty lighting for pictures you simply go black and white. |
Getting ready to run along the Moab Rim Trail for a bit |
Pipedream and one of the many sweet views of the La Sal Mountains |
Arches National Park |
More of Arches NP |
More of Arches NP |
Sun rising over the La Sals as I head back to Telluride |
This looks like a great place to take a bath! |
Sometimes you run until the wheels fall off... |