On Monday I ran on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Utah along the foot of the Wasatch Mountains East of Utah Lake near Orem Utah. I did 7.92 miles and 250′ vertical after my 7+ hour drive from Colorado.
The next two days, Tuesday and Wednesday I did an Incline Treadmill workout and a couple Stairmaster Stepmill workouts. I forgot to bring my whiteboard home with my stats on it, but the Incline Treadmill was:
Time: 30:01
Distance: .548
Incline: 30%
Elevation Gain: 868.03′
Average MPH: 1.095
Average Pace: 54:46
Vertical/Hour: 1735′
Vertical/Minute: 28.92′
VAM: 528.9
If I remember correctly I got in over 2500′ on the Stepmill, and next time I’m in Utah I’ll get it updated here.
On Thursday I went up to the Saddle on Mount Olympus, the iconic peak prominent on the East side of the valley near the large REI store. I tried going up the gravel chute scramble to the summit, but was going two steps up and three steps back so decided that a trip to the Saddle was a good workout and returned down. I’m glad I did. That first half mile down was really hard on my knees. 5.89 miles and 3700′ of vertical.
http://instagram.com/p/oT5tfaqxWV/
That same afternoon then I returned to Colorado in a thunderstorm with lightning bolts hitting the peaks around Avon and Vail.
On Friday Morning I went out for a trip up Mount Royal, one of my favorite local steep ascents up the anvil-like prow overlooking Frisco Colorado Main Street. The trail was still under a lot of snow. It’s been a very cool wet spring here with lots of snow. An avalanche swept through the trees just left of the trail and covered an intersection and I ended up on the very steep avalanche debris and had to work hard to avoid postholing. When I neared the saddle I realized I was in the wrong drainage and tried to go over and through the trees but between the steep rough terrain and the deep snow between the pines I descended and then found the correct trail. I followed it up for a bit but then had to bail after postholing in steep wet slush like a snowcone. I did 3.34 miles and 1286′ vertical.
I kind of felt like that wasn’t quite workout enough, and was going to go for a cycle ride that Friday Evening but decided to go for a second run up the Keystone Gulch Road, one of my favorites. I wanted to go pretty fast overall, in spite of my cold (got a cold from a traveling relative that really packed up my lungs and sinus) and sore knees from Olympus (actually since a pavement run a few weeks ago my knees have been a bit troublesome). I ended up with 1.46 miles and 120′ vertical.
The next day, Saturday I set a goal of 10 miles and I was curious about the Aqueduct Trail going from a pond crossing about a half mile up the road around to The Ranches subdivision above the golf course and stables. That was a blast. After bushwhacking around some snow, I was on singletrack going very quickly for a while in the area before the houses. Eventually the track gently ascended a hill about where I thought you might cross over back on top of the ridge overlooking the Gulch but it was all under water. I skirted it slowly for a while but then decided it was going to go on forever and returned to the gulch road. I came across a couple of mountain bikers who reported seeing a bear along the singletrack on their way so I took out my earbuds and took off the sunglasses just in case. At the road I headed up to a little ways past the 2 mile marker, having to leap across a 2′ runnel of water crossing the road swiftly entering the creek. I returned to the crossroad trail head with 10.21 miles and 700′ vertical gain.
I ended up with 29.368 miles and 6824.03′ of vertical for this week. Add in at least 2500′ of ascent via Stairmaster and that’s over 9000′ of gain for the week. In spite of my achy knees and stuffed lungs and head. It was a great week.