Hills, Hills and oh the Down Hills!

What was I thinking? I definitely got my money's worth at Coyote last weekend. The race profile says it all! This race is hard. I haven't decided if I think it's harder than Wasatch or not. While running Coyote on Saturday I announced it definitely was but now after further evaluation the real problem might have been just how out shape I was for all the long descents.

This was a very low key event starting with all the pre-race follies consisting of miniature golf, bowling and course prowling. We were only able to make it for bowling on Thursday night. We were all pretty excited about the opportunity to show off our bowling skills spouting off about how great we were. I especially let them know I had the upper hand in this event with my years of bowling on leagues as a youth. Steve swore he would beat me while Micheal stayed his usual quiet self. I was so sure I would be carrying our team to victory and all the right moves and flows would come back to me once I grabbed the ball. Our team (rubber duckies) consisted of Drake, Steve, Micheal, myself and another runner from Florida. Drake who swore he doesn't bowl throws 2 strikes and a spare in the first 3 frames. Uhhhh sorry but I thought you didn't bowl???? Micheal is hot behind him with a strike, a spare and a 9 in the first three frames. Steve just about falls over forward due to the lack of slide in the bowling shoes but manages to knock down a bunch of pins. I on the other hand couldn't mark if you paid me! Believe me when I say I got loads of grief which I totally deserved with all the pre event trash talking I was doing. As we continued it became very clear that Micheal and Drake were the bowlers as they lead the game by a long shot until Steve found his groove and gave them a good run for their money in the end. I simply sucked barely bowling 110! I was so pissed until the awards when they announced the Rubber Duckies won the whole thing with the highest average. Okay I feel better that our team won but was seriously carried by my buddies. The prizes were amazing ranging form old skis, dirt and all sorts of bizarre stuffed animals. The grand prize for us was a wonderful plastic light up Santa! Micheal was thrilled and wanted to get him home on the airplane but first we had to figure out how to get him in the car.

With bowling out the way Friday was filled with a race briefing lunch then prep for many folks who would be starting that night. Steve and Drake had a 9 pm start time while Micheal and I were in the last 100M start group which set off at 3 am. When Micheal and I arrived at Thather School at 2:30 a.m. to check in they handed me a baseball hat with a propeller on top. Apparently someone decided I was going to be the lead woman. The idea was to have the fastest and the slowest folks wear the hats. I looked at her and said I will not be leading in about 10 feet so should I pass this hat off to leader later. She said yes! I have a super small head. I buy children's hats so they worked on trying to rig up the hat so it would maybe stay on my head. Long story short I wore the hat for about 10 minutes as I battled to keep it on all the while the propeller is spinning and Micheal is laughing his head off. I finally gave up and clipped the hat to my pack and the propeller continued to spin and spin as we ran annoying the hell out me. I was going to get boner minutes if I arrived at an aid station without the hat on my head. As our group took off it was clear Micheal and I were dead last. The fast folks were gone, out sight and simply disappeared on the hillside. That left Micheal and I dead last. This meant we needed to pay attention to where we were going and sure enough we took a wrong turn out the camp ground. It was pretty humorous and set the tone for the day. It was short mistake and we were back on track quickly. Fortunately the first aid station is at mile 11.4 and there is short out and back. We started seeing our group coming towards us and I was eagle eyeing them looking for the first girl. It would be either Francesca or Wendy and when I spotted Francesca I passed off the propeller hat fast! She didn't seem very excited and I never saw the hat again, hmmmm boner minutes?

My strategy was simple. Go super easy and preserve my quads for the second half. As we made our way to the high point of the race to Topa Topa at mile 20 we started seeing folks from the 9 pm group coming back! At mile 16 we see Steve and Drake, what! That means they have covered about 16 miles in 6 hours? Can that be? Wow, we are in trouble. It was fun to see them and Steve gave us some brief words on what was ahead. It sounded tough and it was. The steep climb to Topa Topo at 6,000+ feet was steep but short. We actually enjoyed it and a the top grabbed our playing card choosing aces of course. We are dead last and when we got the aid station they were packing up as they waited for us to arrive. Okay being last is not really fun when they are closing aid stations. It was pretty funny because I wasn't sure this scenario would change. The sun was up now and we could feel it. It was breezy and felt good and we hoped it would stay breezy all day. We made our way to Rose Valley 1 and again we see the leaders coming back and they have gaped us now by about 35 minutes. There were 6 of us in the late start group and all 4 of the others were racing while Micheal and I were having ourselves a trail party. At RV1 we get our first drop bag and we are at mile 26ish. This was blunder number 1 for me. I put zero gels in my drop bag. Why? I don't know....I am stupid? I had 2 left plus a bar. Micheal said he had an extra so I used that. Wow, this is getting funny. We left and headed back up to Lions Ridge. It was a long climb out of RV1 and we decided it was time to start moving so we booked it up the hill to find the aid station packed up and a guys standing there with 2 water jugs. He says, "Water is good, right?" Was that really a question? Sure, we reply and laugh our heads off as we leave. After the laughter and about half way on the extreme rolling ridge line that was hotter than hell for us I tell Micheal I am done being last we need to pass some people. So we get more focused with music and very little talking. It was getting toasty up there but the views were amazing. The fog bank had settled in the valley below us and we were just above it. We felt like we were on top of the world. It was beautiful. After about 5 miles on the hot hilly road we start to see people, yeah! I am like a dog on bone to get some runners behind us. We run into some of the 1 am starters and a few of early 100K starters so now were are not bringing up the rear. At this point (mile 33) we will see lots of people since most everything is a kind of out and back format. We finally reach the summit of the ridge road and are heading down into Rose Valley again but from the other side. The downhill is steep and on a gravel road. Micheal and I are flying now and all that's going through my head is oops....we have to go back up this baby! We arrive to another drop bag and I pull out my garbage and find my camera a sticky mess from a gel pack to I lick it clean just to find some guy snapping pictures of me. Great, those will probably appear on some website somewhere. Also, as we come running in someone says, "Look it's Tina Fey"! I look at him and say, "No, Dorothy...from the Wizard of Oz". He looks at his girlfriend and says, "Definitely not Dorothy but seriously Tina Fey". Okay fine but do I really look like Tina Fey? We leave and begin the long hard climb out. We chat about the day so far and are having a blast. We felt really good and planned to keep it that way. It was now over 50 miles and folks were starting to feel the day on their legs. I could feel my quads already but not too bad. We climbed out back on the ridge road but in a different area. We were anxious to make it to mile 60 so we could start the last two huge climbs of the race. We were about 1 hour ahead of predicted finish time at this point and feeling really good. Before we could start the first big climb we had to preview it by running down first. We flew down this hill running into Steve and Drake again. Steve immediately tells us this section is long and he predicts about 2 miles long. Really? Could that be true? It started getting dark as we made the descent that seriously went on and on through a poison oak alley finishing with the last mile down what seemed like a creek bed. My quads are feeling lots of love at this point so the step downs and maneuvering required on this last mile were awful. Finally at the bottom of Cozy Dell which the aid station folks renamed Cozy Hell we enjoyed a great aid station. We got stuff out of our drop bags and were pretty quick since we wanted to start the 3 hour climb! It took us 2:51 to climb out of hell! We weren't messing around either. It actually felt good to climb after the long descent. I knew the next descent was going to hurt bad. Finally reaching the top to the aid station called Gridley Top at mile 74.7 we took a moment to get prepared for next plummet. As we started it took a bit for my legs to loosen up. This descent was just wrong. It was solid rocks, loose, large and in some sections big step downs. Ouch! That was painful and it too seemed long. It was hard and at the aid station Micheal and sat on the ground, went through our drop bags, ate 2 homemade burritos from the aid station and re-stocked for our final miles to the finish. The climb out was going to be brutal but we were anxious to get the ball rolling. Off we went up the rocky trail. It was a quiet journey to the top as we wove around the hillside hoping the top would be just around the next bend but it never was. I was so happy to see the top and didn't even stop at the aid station. We had more climbing to do on the ridge road again. It got super cold on this section. Since the race has a everyone finishing at the same time the ridge road section was full of people. Most of them had now been out for over 35 hours and it was kind of neat to mingle with such studs. Here we were on hour 25 and feeling pretty meek and here these folks are plugging along in the cold wind after so many gruelling hours. The road seemed to go on forever and about half way to next aid station Micheal flashlight goes out. Oops, didn't bring batteries. Then within about 5 minutes his headlamp dies just as my flashlight begins to dim greatly. I had a headlamp that was fine but it's not super bright. We started busting up! Are you kidding Me? Are we experienced 100M runners? Apparently not! We were left with no extra batteries, no extra lights and a lot of darkness ahead. Due to the lack of daylight hours our batteries ran out and since we have never had this experience before we were not prepared. After the humor we started planning for a very dark run. Since we were now among a lot runners we asked each one if they had extra batteries. Everyone was incredibly nice and wanted to help. We finally came across a couple who was sitting on the side of the road because the lady was falling asleep. They had extra batteries so we traded them. We gave them a double caffeinated gel for three triple A's. Back in action with one head lamp and one flashlight for the two of us we made good time to the final aid station. We grabbed some soup and headed off for the last 5 miles. It was all down hill with 4 miles of serious rocky steep terrain. I was reduced to walking this downhill. It was too steep and my quads were done. We were tired and rummy and everything seemed funny and ridiculous at this point. The final 4 miles seemed to drag on as I am sure they do in most 100's but this one was just special. Arriving to the finish in 29:14 was pretty exciting. We were thrilled to have the beast behind us. Steve and Drake were waiting and they finished in 32 and 33 hours both had a good day. To top off the fun the RD thought it would great to make everyone do a victory lap around the field. Just what you want to do with your thrashed body. We made the best of it. I did a few cartwheels. My upper body was in much better shape than my lower.

This is a seriously hard run. I am paying dearly for the lack of downhill training. My legs are huge, sore and my quads which are buried in a ton of fluid are just now coming back to life. When I say "life" I mean I can walk slowly without holding on to things. It was fun to run my 20th 100 mile race in such a relaxed fashion and share it with my training buddies who we saw a ton throughout the day. Running without crew was a new experience. My brain doesn't really like to do much work after 50 miles so I had to really try to focus and make sure I had all I needed from each drop bag. I was weighted down big time and felt it. I generally like to run with a little as possible but when you have no crew and you are unsure of what's to come I felt it would be best to be prepared. I am sure that didn't help my legs. I have zero blisters so that is good. I think I will need a good 2 weeks recovery before I start up with the serious scheduled runs.

I have moved to number 11 on the Hardrock list! This race gave me new fear for Hardrock which I plan to put to good use as soon as I can see my knees and ankles.

Miss Piggy, Steve's Skinny & Taper Plan

First off if you haven't read the comments from my first entry Cynthia forwarded on an awesome article on hips and the issues related to under active glutes. It really is a must read for runners and I have done the outlined stretches and strength sequence a couple of times now. It really does wonders for ROM in the lower body and will introduce you to your tight or weak muscles. Read it here. Thanks Cynthia for passing this along.

This was my last week of training before my taper for 2 Moon. It was a stiff week and I am happy to report my knee held up for all my workouts but it was touch and go. I was incredibly agitated and nervous at the beginning of every run waiting for my left leg to give me the green light or send a zinger to my knee letting me know my running plans were to immediately be halted. I am not yet 100% but I think I can make it through this event but I won't be without my trusty bandages. My biggest thought is not setting myself back now so I can train like I want for Hardrock.

Thursday I had a tempo run which was around 10 miles long with only 4 at threshold pace of 7:10. It snowed again so I headed to my favorite fitness loop. This felt like it was the right thing to do as the 2 mile path made it easy for me to bail if my knee began acting up. I got a new outfit! Really super cool white tights with a grey waistband and grey swirls all over the white. I paired this with a even cooler bright orange zip top. I am total girl when it comes to clothes. I absolutely love workout gear and Bill is constantly making fun of how many shorts or running shirts one girl needs. I explain it's really not about need. :) Anyway as I did my progressive warm up to my tempo portion I was at about mile 4 when I slipped on the mud and went straight down into the mud. Now covered with nasty clay like mud on my right side I was pissed. There is a soft spot on the path that's about 10 feet long and everyone goes around it. Since there are walkers and other runners on the path I decided to take the right side instead of the left. Unfortunately the right side has a 6 inch slope. Yes, only a six inch slope and when I landed on it my foot when right out from under me and plop! I was in the mud like a pig. The old people walking were so sweet, "Honey are you okay?" One guy said, "it's okay I know it's embarrassing". My reply...."I am fine and not embarrassed just mad I ruined my really cool outfit"! I was serious. Another 6 miles in this mud suit seeing the same people was actually funny but I rushed home and feverishly tried to salvage my now not so new outfit. The good news is my tempo run went great.

Saturday was our last big training run. Steve organized "Steve's Skinny Ass". We planned to do loops on Powell Butte. Each loop is 6.3 miles long and gains 1000 feet per loop. I wanted to get in 6. We arrived at 7:30 to a good sized crowd. Steve marked the maze like loop on Friday. It was to be a nice day but the winds on top of Powell Butte were something else. They were extremely strong and they were those frigid east winds out the gorge. Buurrrrrrr. They were so strong I had to tuck my braids inside my jacket because they were smacking my face really hard. Once we were off the top and into the forest it was perfect but we hit that ridge 2 times per loop. The first two laps were pretty somber for me. My knee was acting up a bit as I favored it greatly on the downhills. Trying hard to just be in my own space, find my groove and walk if I needed was the perfect plan. As I finished up my second loop my body was coming around and my stride was normalizing. I have been staying on flat ground for the last couple of weeks trying to get quality workouts in without jeopardizing my recovery so the hills were being re-introduced. By the third loop I was feeling good and my quads were firing like they should. Nothing like adapting on the fly. Most folks did 3 loops and called it a day. I was done at 5 feeling like I needed to leave on a high note. I felt strong and re-energized being about to run each loop better. Micheal was the only one that persevered and did 6. What a great little urban park.

Now it's taper time! Here is my taper plan. I have gotten some emails and comments inquiring about tapering. This plan is relatively normal for any 100M race I do. If you double click on the chart it should get bigger. This week I will start to work on drop bag and a fuel plan. Micheal did a good pace chart already so I will use that. I am excited to get on those trails at 2 Moon. I have heard nothing but great reports from folks who have run there before.

Common running mistake......

There are lots of common running mistakes when it comes to form but one of the biggest is over striding. Over striding can cause of so many injuries, patella tendinitis, IT band stuff, major hip stress and calf problems. That pretty much covers it all. Over striding is not the only poor habit that brings on these types of overuse injuries but it's a bad habit that most runners touch on at one point during their running life.

I would consider myself a runner with pretty good form but I have definitely developed an over striding habit and didn't really know it. After my knee injuring last summer I have semi battled hip (mostly glute medius) strain and some knee pain. About 3 weeks ago my knee started acting up again. With a good memory of last summer I was pretty dialed in to the particular pain and the feelings in my leg. Being so aware I took all the appropriate precautions, stretching, icing, resting, isometric flexation, blah, blah, blah. I worked with Dr. T to dig out my balled up glute medius and make sure my pelvis was aligned but the one thing I didn't do was have someone take a look at my stride. In order to run the last couple of weeks I had to sort of bring my left leg along for the ride. I focused on getting it turn properly but my knee and muscles were not getting any better. It wasn't until Sunday when Micheal and I hit Lief for our 15 mile run where I warned him I may need to turn back early that all my problems would unfold. I am pretty sure I can bank on this now after giving it a couple of test drives so I will share the story in hopes others may benefit.

As we ran along I again made my left (injured) leg the focus of my stride. Working on all the stuff Scott told me to think about while running. His list includes, quick paw-back, knee drive, dorsey flextion of the foot upon landing, leading with hips or pelvis and a tall stature with quick turnover. I know that's a big list but each piece comes naturally for some. I my case a couple are no brainers like a tall stature. I have good lower abs and stand fairly erect anyway. Knee drive also comes easy for me. The ones I struggle with are paw-back (lifting the foot as if you were kicking your butt) instead of a lengthened push back. I also have an anterior tilt to my pelvis that comes naturally (like a duck butt) so leading with hips can always use work. All the while I am working on left leg form my right leg is just doing it's job. But is it???????? The lack of good form on my left side forced my right side to do a fair amount of compensating. Did I realize this?? NO! But Micheal saw it clearly. As we made our way to the around the 5 mile mark he said. "You are really over striding with your right leg, bring it in to match your left instead of trying to get your left to match your right". I thought for moment, took stock in my right leg and immediately noticed my over striding. I brought it in and instead of dwelling on my injured leg my mind shifted to the healthy one. I body immediately made the adjustment. Within about 2 miles all my knee pain lifted and I could feel my left quad start to fire properly. My speed increased and I reported a miracle. Could it really be this simple? Scott says, yes! As we continued on my hips began to square and the strain in my hip (glute medius) sort of vanished as well. Skeptical....most definitely. I needed more data and I got it. 2 more runs with no hip or knee strain. But.....my atrophied left rectus femoris (frontal quad) is super sore. It's firing like crazy when I run. See this guy's back leg? That is essentially what I do with my back leg. This straight paw back forces me to really use my hip to get my leg back in front of me plus extra energy. Now all of this was very subtle so the correction is subtle but has a huge impact on my body.

How do you know if your over striding. First count your strides and they need to be a minimum of 90 per minute but 95 is even better. Have someone watch you run! I don't care how long you have been running you can benefit from an outside view. Be open to suggestions! When we have any injury our minds go to the injury but maybe we need to go direction opposite and focus on NOT over compensating. Stop trying to favor or make the other leg do extra.

Every time I have had an ache or pain Scott's rehab has always included stride management. He will have you shorten that puppy up tight when injured. I am fortunate to have a few friends have almost textbook strides. Micheal's stride is almost perfect along with Darin's. Jim Rudig's stride is absolutely effortless. Beast had me shorten my stride during my hill climbs at AC100M one year and I gained speed during the climbs. He can out climb most on steep terrain for long periods of time. His uphill stride is perfect. Check out your stride. Do you reach in front of your pelvis.? Do you have a straighter leg on your kickback? Do you dorsey flex your foot? If you over stride it's really hard to naturally dorsey flex so if you don't you might want to check it out. Check out this video.

Hagg Lake Trail Runs!

Whew...a sigh of relief. Hagg Lake is now part of yesterday and Stacey and I can fill our spare time with what else but....training. Saturday was absolutely perfect in every way. The race went off perfectly. The weather was sunny and dry and therefore the trails were in great conditions keeping the injuries to a bare minimum. We were home and done by 6:30 p.m. Every year in mid February my mind and spare time is consumed with Hagg Lake activities. It's not really that overwhelming since we everything well lined out. But, since we are both perfectionist we worry about every little detail and want to be sure we put on a great event where folks have good fun. Since it's the opening race of the Oregon Trail Series we get to see a lot of trail running friends from all over. All eager to get the party started for the year so the feelings of enthusiasm are most definitely contagious. In the past there has sort of been a tradition of "Hagg in Drag" or men in skirts. But this year Sean took the costumes to a whole new level. He walked up dressed like Richard Simmons and I swear the likeness was too much. Good thing I was dehydrated or I would have wet my pants laughing so hard. It was hysterical! The best part is he runs fast and that outfit didn't get in the way of another great run for him.

Now that Hagg is over it's time to focus. Oh....just in time to taper for Coyote. Well not so fast. One more week of hard training then a taper. Last week was a planned recovery and I needed it. My body was having all sorts of squeaks, twinges and just plain fatigue. I milked the recovery runs for all they were worth and my M-Pace and T-Pace run both got cut short. My body was just not in the game. I listened and felt it would be best to go with the fatigue and bring it this week. Yesterday I had a KPR run and Micheal joined me. I was ready to cut it short if I felt any overly fatigued muscles scream as my left leg, hip and knee were not in good working condition. It all ended up awesome....Thanks Micheal who suggested I make some subtle but effective changes to my stride. I will write more on this later as I gather more data. Anyway we ran the 15 miles on Lief at 7:40 pace, nice! I am back in action so that full week of serious recovery paid off.

This Saturday Steve is putting on a Fat Ass run at Powell Butte. Details to come. I have my 2009 race schedule done! I will post my plans soon but I am excited about all the races coming in the near future. I am leading the run clinic at Lululemon Athletica in the month of March. The run starts at 6 p.m. from the store in the Pearl District. Please come out. More on this later too.

My toes have bones!

Since this was last Black Saturday before Coyote I thought it would be good to have my toes in the game. Black paint with skulls and crossbones were in order. Trisha and I spent an afternoon soaking our feet, having them scrubbed, trimmed and painted. Trisha drew up a lovely skull and the pedicurist copied it perfectly. Later that night I was walking around at home and completely forgot about my tough looking artwork when Bill looked down and said, "What on earth is on your toes"? Oh, that's for Black Saturday I said with complete casualness. He replied with only an "Oh my, then I guess you better get rested up"! Right after Alex pipes up to let me know that if I was volunteering for the Valentines Party that I could not come to school with black toes. That is against the dress code for sure! I am not sure what kind of example I set when I told him I would be sure to wear shoes.

We never do 3 repeats on Black Saturday. Why? Because it's really hard! About 2 years ago while training for WS100M I inquired about triples during my consult with Scott. He said he only recommends 3 if you are a very top athlete and going for a win and even then he doesn't recommend it often. I said I wanted to try it. During the early months when the repeats were less than 40 minutes per ascent he put 3X30 on my schedule. Determined to make it happen I set out for a BS, dug deep and had 2 super 30 minute ascents. We tore down the technical trail in the gorge, turned and headed up for #3. I was sure I was going to prove to him I could do it. Well.......the brick wall came after about 15 minutes of the 3rd ascent. My legs were done, zip, zap, dead...nothing left. That was my last time at attempting 3. Since we are limited by snow and won't be doing anything above 30 minutes right now Scott put 3 in again. I was pumped to give it another whirl. Since we are normally at the 45-60 minutes of ascent on each repeat at this phase before a race we needed a good 90 minutes at threshold on an incline. Hamilton Mountain was going to be are destination but it snowed this week so we had to do them on Saltzman Road. Not nearly as steep as anything in the gorge but certainly not easy. We all set out for 3X30 minutes. We were joined by folks from Trailfactor and it was awesome to have more athletes pushing up the hill. They showed up in all black ready to kick some butt. If you haven't checked it out go to Trailfactor and see what they do. They do a lot of group runs on some awesome trails. Shawn and Jesse are great people and great runners too. I hope they come out again. Their group runs are open to all levels and sound super fun. Today their fast pace helped keep us focused and on our game.

This is a peak week for me and I happy to say the 3X30 minutes went way better than I expected. Everyone was on today. When I can be this close to a taper and finish out a peak week with strength I know everything is coming together. It tells me my body is adapting to the heavy workloads, recovery quickly and not fatigueing out. I hope I got all that fatigue out of my system a couple of weeks ago and stay strong. Now that I have conquered the triple repeat I have to go back to the gorge and try it again. I actually know I can do it now! To finish off this peak week we are running 5 hours in Forest Park tomorrow. I think we will do a couple of different loops to get the full time needed and that will make it easy to fuel.

In other news I won ORRC Female Runner of The Year award. They had a banquet on Thursday night to give out all the 2008 awards. I was really surprised to have won because I didn't run that many races last year. The award is performance based and I finished well in the races I did do so that scored me a lot of points. I got a neat plaque for a prize and it was really cool.

You can feel it!

Spring is around the corner and the ultra running season is getting underway here in the PNW. The excitement is contagious! Lottery's are being drawn, races are commencing and it seems everyone is talking about training and racing. Maybe it's all in my head but that's okay I will work with it.

Last week was the beginning of my last training cycle for Coyote. With tempo runs and m-pace runs followed by hill repeats on Friday I felt like it was a peak week but it's not. Since we had Hagg Lake trail work on Saturday I had to do my hill repeats on Friday. I was lucky enough to have some friends join me which made it much more fun but most of all it kept me out there. Susan, Tom and I headed out together and found Beast hiding on the hillside snapping photos. Just after our first summit we got to see Anna, Stan and Kia (Anna's husky) heading up. I was working with a pretty tired body especially my legs. Seems my leg workout on Tuesday lingered in my muscles. I was fine with the fatigue and did the best I could on the climbs. My first repeat was my fastest time ever up Hamilton but still not good enough to beat Steve's sub 27:3ish time. Most all of the snow drifts were gone so I had no excuses. Even the temperature was good and it actually felt balmy. Seems like Hamilton has been my hill repeat of choice this winter. I feel pretty lucky to have any parts of the gorge open for running this time of year. During the summer months I never go to Hamilton Mountain because the hikers love this trail and it's full of people but during the winter it's almost people free.

Since Saturday was spent out working on Hagg we opted for 5 hours on Dog Mountain for Sunday's run. With Steve running the death valley marathon it was only Micheal, Dr. T and I for the 5 hours of quad busting fun. We weren't sure what the top of Dog would unveil so we planned on teeter tottering the mountain if we couldn't make full loops. We haven't had much snow fall since our last visit but whatever snow had fallen most likely stuck since it has been bitter cold with the east winds. We started up the steep side with a vigorous pace. I knew it was going to be a good day and I was really looking forward to testing my fitness. I think all three of us were excited to be out. Making our way up the steepest side quickly we ran into a few snow drifts. By now they were mostly ice drifts but not super slick. As we made it to the clearing about .4 miles from the summit it was a sea of ice crystals covering everything. The wind was really blowing and it was cold. It's summer in my mind so I was in shorts.....right....good move. The trail was rock hard from being frozen but the ice wasn't bad until we hit the top. Wasting no time at the summit we headed down the other side to see how much snow lingered. It was dicey as we made our way along the ridge. Micheal was an ice skater in a previous life as he showed us his finest triple lutz and sow cows with grace. With Micheal leading Dr. T. followed closely while I was left for dead along the ridge. Grasping for every blade of grass or stick I could find to hold myself up I only took one fall and did a not so graceful version of the splits. Remember it's summer in my mind so I have on shorts. The ice scrape on my butt is sweet! The splits were super neat on my oh so flexible legs...NOT! It took me about 25 minutes to go a mile which is about how much ice stuff we had to maneuver through. When I arrived at the junction Micheal was all smiles as if he just received a 10 from the judges while I on the other hand got thrown out of the competition. Once we got off the ridge it was smooth sailing to the bottom.

Now that we have the information we needed I announced I would not be going to the top nor would I be skating on any ice. They both agreed. We took the not so steep side up for round 2. Our destination was the Ausberger junction. I felt super strong and wanted to see if I could run up the whole way. Off we went with me in the lead. I had a good strong run going and my heart rate hovering around 160. That simply rocks! Running up Dog Mountain pretty darn comfortably is definitely a new level for me. I was on fire except my left knee was pretty pissed from my not so graceful splits. I knew it wasn't really bad but it was talking to me. We made it to the junction fast, turned around and headed down. Micheal and Dr. T flew. I brought up the rear but still made good time. Now with 5,800 feet under our belt in 12 miles we had one more round to go. Up the steep side again.

Besides showing off his triple lutz and sow cow on the ice Micheal is simply on a rocky mountain high and we are not even in Colorado! The guy was gone, out of sight and not looking back. He is mister mountain with this years line up of Coyote, Hardrock then Wasatch and you can certainly see the fire in his eyes. No more mister nice guy....it's all business. I am not bitter or jealous..... I tried to keep up but NOPE he decided to set a record to the summit. I turned around with .4 miles to go to avoid the ice rink, Dr. T turned before that while Micheal flew all the way up. As I was making my way down here comes mister happy showing me his summit time. Sure enough it's a record for anyone we know. Nice work Micheal!

What an awesome training day with just under 8,000 feet of climbing and descending. Thanks guys! I came home and jumped straight into an ice bath. I might not be able to skate but I can swim!

Lucky #13!

I am lucky number 13 on the Hardrock waiting list. I am told to simply plan on running since in the past at least the top 15 get in. 13 is pretty close to 15 but I am not complaining. Micheal got in along with Olga and Bushwhacker. Steve is #50 on the list but still plans on showing up for some Hardrock fun and maybe get a bid last minute. Either way I will be at Hardrock if not running then supporting so Colorado here we come. I am going to train like I am in and if not then I will be in great shape for Bighorn. This is going to be really fun especially since my training buddies are planning on running so that means some serious training sessions.

Last Sunday's half was the end of another training cycle so last week was recovery. I still had a good M-Pace run on Tuesday that went well but the rest of the week was just okay. My T-Pace on Thursday was hard and I couldn't make my pace of 7:17 on one of the miles. My legs were super tired. I did the T-Pace run at my favorite Fitness Trail. :) That is what it is called, "Fitness Trail". That cracks me up. The killer squirrels were out in force but that didn't help me run any faster. Steve kicked my sorry butt and that helped me get a couple of good times. That guy can simply run fast if he wants to!

We headed up to Hamilton on Friday for 2X30 minute hill repeats. Steve set the record of under 27 minutes to the summit from the trail junction. Micheal was right on his heels but Steve was first. That's the time to beat and I am going after it on Friday when I do repeats again. Sunday we did a great 3 hour run in Forest Park. I actually felt better on Sunday than Saturday. For whatever reason I was darn wiped out last week with most of my training. Even my lifting was fatiguing. I hope to have a bounce back for this week.

Not much longer before we head to Coyote. We got our start times and Micheal and I got in the last start slot for the 100M. We are lining up with some fast folks and only have 28 hours to find the finish line. I thinks that's going to be a big push. Since I haven't put the kind of training in I would for a serious hard effort I am nervous. After conversations with Scott about how to approach Coyote I decided to scale back on training compared to other events. Why? To save myself for later. I know how gruelling the big Black Saturday's and long Sunday's can be and I don't want to burn myself out this early. With this late start group I don't know how well that plan is going to work, yikes! Whatever the outcome Micheal and I are getting a lot of laughs from it. Frankly I am planning on peaking for bowling night. I have been practicing my slide.......

Congrats to Darin for breaking 3 hours at Surf City Marathon! Read about it on his blog here. Also check out Trisha and Darins new endevour....reasontorun.com. Sign up to race a fast one.