What a Week

Saturday: Started the day with a nice and easy 10k loosener run than a good strength workout of drills. It was supposed to rain but other than a 2 second drizzle at one point, pretty much partly cloudy and another good day to run. After yesterday's gritfest of a run, today wanted to take it somewhat easy, so just rolled through a 17k run up Prospector Loop to Gamble Oak, back to Solomore and back. Still a good 1500ft gain and ended with a couple quick kilometers back on the rail trail.

After it was onto a core workout and watching both Real Madrid win UCL and Miami Heat later one. 

Sunday: An absolutely stunning day without a cloud in the sky and 24. Two differences I notice with the weather here compared to Thornhill is that when it is 24, it feels 24, and it reaches the high for the day much earlier - by about 9am. Took to the roads for a 6k shakeout and some drills, then was off for my longer run of the week (28K), and by far one of my new favorite routes. Went North to the Canyons Resort on Mcleod Creek Trail (paved path), and then west through about an 8 ft wide gravel path through the beautiful farmland. It really is amazing how many different regions there seems to be in about a 10mile radius around Park City. You have the business district with some chains shops and stuff, then main st. where you have all your boutique stores and fancier restaurants, then to the South there is Deer Valley Resort, to the east, Park City Mountain Resort, and to the north the Canyons Resort, and all the "resorty" type shops and stops. Well where I was yesterday was totally different because I was truly in farmland. The path was so beautiful with a white farm fence the whole way along, equestrian fences, and what seemed like forever long miles of rolling hills. By far my favorite spot because of how quiet it was and the amazing view you got of the mountains to the west the whole way. So that was the first half of the run. Then things got a little interesting. Was intending on going 12k out and then back on another paved path called Silver Quinn Trail for a total of 26k. The trail started from one residential neighbourhood on Trailside Rd., where I'm telling you those people have more money then they know what to do with (massive mansions, and yards).  So strolling through the neighbourhood, the whole run to this point was hovering around 4min/km pace, but going easy with HR constantly at about 150, and finally got to a path called Silver Summit Trail. Since it was incredibly close to where I knew the Silver Quinn trail to be, I figured it must have just changed its name. Boy that was a mistake. This trail zig-zaged north, then east, then west, then south, back north and fourth, and was taking me off into what seemed to be no-man's land. Thankfully, I had the mountains in the background to use as a reference point to atleast give me an idea of where I needed to get to. But not knowing exactly where this trail is taking me and starting to run low on water and fuel is not the greatest feeling. So everytime the trail was leading back South I was pushing on the pace, and then if it curved back North, I started getting nervous and slowing a bit. In my head the second half of the run pretty much sounded like this, "Yes, South alright, will get back no problem, shoot back North o man I'm going to end up in Wyoming." The run turned into a 28 battle and finally climbed over one last big hill to end up back in PC. I should've packed more water and fuel than a tiny 200kcal for the trip, and only 400ml of H20, but overall still had lots of fun, since fuel or no fuel I will always be able to keep running, and really how frustrated can you get with the view you're treated to throughout. 

Overall a massive week of mileage, and a good mix in of some quality speed sessions. Just about 230 kilometers of running over the eight day span, and a sweet 5500 meters of elevation gain (18044 ft) - about 2/3 of the way up Mt. Everest (8848 meters), not bad for week number one. I'm thrilled with the amazing variety of runs I've been able to go on: some on the road, some of the trails up the mountains, on the track, in farmland, and more. Today, Monday, I've already gone for 10k warmup run, then in the afternoon once the memorial day ceremony stuff is over at the high school here will hit there track for a race pace tempo run (8k), followed by a cooldown run in the evening.

Here's the tempo:

Sky Running

Thursday: Up bright and early and off for first longer workout of the trip. This was a 1,2,3,2,1 X 3 Fartlek workout where I would go 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min hard with equal rests in between each and did that 3 times over - overall 15k. All in all, very happy with the workout. It was done on the flat rail trail and then back to the Mcleod Creek Trail, and it was really amazing to see how fast I could go on flat ground, after a bunch of runs in the mountains, especially the one on Tuesday. No world records but good honest splits: the 1 min hard splits ranged from 3:20-3:30 pace, the 2 min from 3:30-3:35 and the 3 min from 3:35-3:37, so overall the surges ranged from half marathon pace to marathon pace. Obviously I could go faster on the 1 min surges, but I'm content with the workout from an effort point of view with the heart rate right in that range where I wanted it to be 180-188 range, and peaking at 192. After that took a nice nap in the sun on my veranda, which was happily welcomed as the past few nights I haven't been getting the best of sleeps. Then off to do more groceries. You ever get the feeling like you seem to be doing groceries every day, maybe it's because you are. Holy smokes, the problem is due to the nature of it being a training trip, my goodness I am needing to pretty much eat constantly, and am in search of so more efficient ways of shopping without breaking my budget. But anyways came back and was off for run number 2 a 15k jaunt on the Prospector Loop, still over a 1000 feet of elevation gain at a lower altitude (7300ft), but taking it nice and easy. Next, on to an ab workout and 20 minutes of drills outside and that was it for the day. Some pics from the afternoon run:

Didn't turn out how I wanted. Was intending on
sort of a look what I've conquered pic, but whatever
hard to be dissapointed looking at those sweet kicks.

Friday: Road Day: I  think it's important that in addition to gallivanting off in the mountains, it is critical I maintain my feeling of straight line running on the road, as that's where I will be doing all of my competitions. Having said that, it doesn't mean I'm restricted to just running around town - although it's not like that would be that boring considering how pretty the town is. And it also doesn't means that it has to be flat running. I am after all training in the mountains, so besides the rail trail pretty much everywhere you go is up or down hill. So I decided to do a road session up to very high altitude and with lots of climbing involved after my early morning 6.5k loosener and strength workout. Decided to head South to Deer Valley Resort and to Royal St. Royal street basically winds its way up and past Bald Eagle Mountain and towards Bald Mountain. The trip is basically one long hill of a constant gradient, although map my run says it is split between two category two climbs. The first is a 10 km climb, followed by a 5km climb with a mile long section at 15% to the finish. Overall a 15km sufferest of 2081ft of gain, not to mention the majority being well over 8000ft the finish sitting at 8600ft. From there a equally challenging and much steeper 8.5 km descent back (more direct route) with a few points with a 20% downhill gradient. Overall it went really well. I held a solid pace for the climb up reaching the 10k mark in 48:30, the tenth kilometer even managed to be under 4:30 pace. All was going well till about 13k when hit a bit of a wall where started to feel a little woozy, and dizzy, my heart rate surged into the 190 range, and the pace substantially dropped to 5:35 for that split. But continued to push through and bounced back with a 4:36. The pounding descent took alot out and was considering stopping at one point, but continued on, and managed to finish with a strong kilometer at 3:40 pace. Afterwards, was exhausted but happy with the overall effort for the 23.5k adventure. Submerged myself into a frigid cold whirlpool slush bath afterwards, I hope the residents weren't able to hear me for the first few minutes of the 20 minute soak, I was a tad cold and I let the towel wrapped around my head know it quite sternly. Luckily, what has been getting me through these after-run soaks is the muscle milk chocolate protein power, banana, and buckwheat pancake batter resting nicely on the counter ready to hit the pan - in addition to some music to try and distract myself. Stopped twice (just for a few seconds don't worry not enough to recover) along the run up to take a couple gorgeous views of the mountains, here they are:

Way back down after the teeth shattering mile long steep drop.

Now onto a core workout.

Murdock Peak

Wednesday: After 3 tough runs yesterday my legs were definitely feeling it. Getting up and out for this morning's loosening up 6km was a little rocky to start. But after the first few kilometers climbing up to Deer Valley Resort, the legs starting to feel pretty good again. The nice downhill back really helped my legs open up, and then had a really good 20 minute drill workout afterwards with some good stride outs. Only real issue, besides my quads still feeling a bit mangled from the last couple days, was my left hamstring which was feeling tight. On today's agenda was a climb up from the Canyons Resort, at the north side of the Wasatch Mountain Range. A 4 mile rollerblade over to the Resort yielded some stunning views of the mountains to be summited later on. Stunning but at the same time a bit intimidating. If you look back to my post titled "Into Thin Air" the picture shown there, which I got from google images when I was back in Thornhill, I passed on my way over and took the same picture from the other side of the road. As I passed by, I said to myself, "Hey that looks familiar."

 From the canyons resort it was off for another adventure in the mountains this time up collin's trails, to rob's trail, them ambush trails and back down via the ST segment trail but first it was a massive climb down a ski run and back up to the top of the mountain. Overall the whole 20k trip had about 2600ft of elevation gain peaking at 8000ft. The featured climb in the video was extremely intense, my heart was beating out of my chest, and when I was the top looking down at my legs they were actually blushed. Tried out the chest mount for the go pro, it is by far the most comfortable but again shaky as evidenced in the video. If you can, stick around for that climb, and don't let the video fool you this was straight uphill. Do not maximize the video, the sea sickness created from the video is not bad if its smaller, I find atleast. 

Praise King Salomon

Monday: Monday started with a 6k stroll to Main St. in Park City to loosen up for what would be an epic day of running. The downtown is very upscale and stunning - with boutique stores and "resorty" areas. Not to mention the fact that everyone in this town must be incredibly active because throughout town there are pro-looking basketball courts (special rubber for the court and glass backboards), beach volleyball courts nestled throughout the different resorts, pro style tennis courts, and everything in between. Got back from the run did about 20 minutes of drills and strength training (sumo-squats, and lunges). Chilled out for a bit then was off for an hour long rollerblade along the rail trail. Is this not a perfect path to rollerblade - averaged about 30 kilometers throughout peaking at 45 kilometers per hour! Again sorry for the 360p video quality on my computer it is crystal clear HD.

It was an out and back an came back to the base of Scott Mountain at a trail called Spiro. From here is was a hard steep ascent climbing 1500 ft in only a 3 mile span (couple sections had 30% gradient). The descent down this mountain cut my quads to pieces leaving them feel as though they had been through a blender. But after this descent I think my long-time fear of descending from having had so many stress fractures may be gone. The run continued from there to climb an additional 1200 feet back to another trail for Masonic Hill Peak. It was an incredibly exhausting 20km adventure. Unfortunately, I tried a new setup for the go pro and the video came out way to shaking so to spare the audience from a dizzying video I cut the video to 10 second long to just show how far I had climbed and how much more still to go (my apologies for swearing it's just I got a wee bit of vertigo when I looked down).

After that hit a hard 30 minute ab workout, watched the MTL v NYR game and then the SA v OKC game and was out like a light.

Tuesday: After a 6k warmup and 20 minutes of drills in the morning my brand new Saloman S-Lab Sense 3 Ultra (wow thats a mouthfull) arrived). My goodness they are sweet - so much technology is a shoe that weighs less than my racing flats (7.5 ounces). Put them on and went out for was was going to be a shorter run, but loved the shoes so much decided to push them to a half marathon distance (21.1k). Now this was not your typical half.m as it involved 3000ft of elevation gain between the climb up Skid Row, to Gamble Oak Trail, around Solomore Loop, back to the Lost Prospector Trail, and then descending back to the rail trail down a death trap of a trail called SOS descending 600 ft in 0.5km. What was truly beastly about this run was the half marathon distance with 3000ft of gain in 1:36:32. Also a very cool part of the run was up at the top of the mt. seeing two vultures (absolutely massive) soaring oo about 15 ft above me. Running up where the vultures fly just has a good ring to it. Here a some pics from the day.

Those tiny cars show how far up so far. 

Still more climbing to go.

Made it to the top

Hold on though, this day is not done. Off to the best track ive ever ran on in my life for 4X1km. Oo my goodness considering the battering my legs have taken the last two days being at altitude the splits were 3:15, 3:16, 3:15, 3:14 -woot.

27 and Sunny yields lots of Running

Arrived in Park City Utah around 2:30 on Saturday, unfortunately my bags were not with me. They were still in Denver after a "random check." So as you can imagine Sat was pretty nuts. I had a long window when the bags could arrive here between 5pm-3am, plus the room I was in was not ready. This meant I was upgraded to a bigger suite - but unfortunately in this one the TV did not work - hmm "I getting frustrated now." Having not eaten since 5am that morning and needing to get groceries for dinner and breakfast the next morning, I quickly walked over to an amazing grocery store that had more variety than Ive ever seen. Between a whole sport section with a zillion different gel varieties, and what seemed like the biggest ever aisle of cereals including one I've been trying to get for a while Kashi Go Lean Protein (13g of Protein in 1 cup - way more than vector) it eased some frustration. I got back and thankfully the bags arrived not too late (around 6:30). But still had this tv problem to solve.

Sunday: Woke up around 5:45 and was off for a quick warmup run before breakfast by 6. 4k seemed to fly by quicker than ever before from being treated to gorgeous views of the sunrise over the mountains. After, I did 15 of lunges and warmup drills (running ABCs). So a solid start to the trip. Take a look - tried to cut the vids to about 5-10min. No idea why youtude (where I uploaded from converted them to 360p when they were shot in 960)

After came to my room, ate some breakfast, watched some top chef on my computer and was off for run number 2 by 9:30. This was a 10 mile (16k) trail run up one of the smaller mountain which sits right beside my condo. Again 10 miles flew by even if I climbed higher the the CN tower of this one run - around 1500 ft most in a long and steep two mile stretch. Very high intensity run with my heart rate around 180 and up to 194 throughout, but so much fun.

After the run came back had some GU recovery brew and a full size Clif Bar (White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Flavor - yum and 4 for 5 bucks), and was off to hunt for trail shoes around town - after realized on the run the trails were extremely technical. This included about 20 kilometers of rollerblading up and down some hills, and visiting 5 stores but not luck either not my size, or only road shoes. But whatever another solid exercise session. Came back had same lunch (Toad in a Hole), and saw some of the rest of the LA - CHI game on NBC on the computer. Still this TV needed to be solved. I called yet again, asking what was the situation, guy said he doesn't have any of TVs he could get for the room, and would that be a problem to which I responded umm ya thats a problem. So he upgraded me once again but this time the upgrade was significant it was just down the hall in the deluxe studio condo which is massive and the kitchen is enormous - not to metion being kitted with some sweet appliances: Oyster blender, and immersion blender (handheld blender), hand mixers, literally everything I need and much much more. After I got into the room, downstairs for a 30 minute water running and strength workout in the pool, and then off for Run number 3 - this time a 6k run with 1 min hard 1 min easy intervals throughout. The intervals were kind of all over the map with my heart rate soaring high most were around 3:30 pace, I was actually able to get one at 3:17. Off from there to get a few more groceries, and to watch some more Food Network but now on my sweet TV.