Better Winter Training

I'm long due to hit the slopes. I've been neglecting them. I've done lots of alpine skiing in the past. But lately I'm getting excited about Alpine/Touring skiing. What a fantastic way to stay in shape during the Winter!

I don't know much about A/T skiing, but fortunately I work at Backcountry.com. I found lots of people willing to help (thanks Walt, Mark, Robby). So, here's what I've decided. I want to go with the Dynafit setup. I am told that Dynafit compatible boots will work with any A/T or alpine setup so that's a great benefit.

Next lesson: boots are the most important part of your setup. If you are going to spend money somewhere, spend it on nice boots. And it's not necessarily the price that makes them good. You just need to go try them on. I am going to visit the nearby Black Diamond store here in SLC and have them fit me, per Robby's recommendation. He says the folks over there are fantastic.

To get minimally started, I will also need some bindings and skis. I'm very interested right now in the Zealots and the Dynafit TLT Vertical ST Alpine Touring Bindings. See my A/T wishlist on Backcountry.com. However, I can demo some of this stuff for free, so I'm just going to get boots for now so I can try some stuff out.

It's a little lame I'm waiting until the season's almost over to get going on this. Oh well. This is going to be a blast!

Run/Hike Kings Peak?

I've been thinking that it would be a ton of run to do a two day running expedition with minimal supplies. One of the places that sounds fun to do this is King's Peak. This may be naive of me. I really don't know what King's Peak is like. So I'm going to do a bit of research and document it here.

Notes

1. Jupiter Steeplechase is 3000 ft elevation gain over about 8 miles (375 ft/mile)
2. King's Peak (the Henry's Fork route) is about 4100 ft elevation gain over about 16 miles (257 ft/mile)
3. The above two assume no elevation loss on the way up, even though that's surely false. You get the idea...
4. Cold up at the top. Could even have some snow.
5. Need to look into altitude sickness, just to be sure. Sounds like the peak is high enough for it to be a concern.
6. Super busy during July-August
7. upper parts of the trail are usually covered with snow from mid-November until mid-July. The most pleasant time for the climb is late August, when the days are still relatively long but the meadows have dried out and the mosquitoes have abated
8. From greatoutdoors.com: "Sudden storms with violent lightening can brew up at any time (as noted in the story), so be prepared. Snow is possible all months of the year, though least likely in August. The evenings are very cool throughout the hiking season. Wild flowers begin their show in late July and are quite spectacular."

Articles & links for reference

1. Map
2. Here is a good article describing hiking King's Peak from the North.
3. Peakbragger info on King's Peak
4. Summit Post info on King's Peak
5. Wikipedia on King's Peak
6. Travel journal of hiking King's Peak
7. Interesting background on the Uinta Mountains
8. Matt Heart running King's Peak and some more vids of the same.
9. Dave and Ab hike King's Peak and talk with someone who ran it
10. General info on the Henry's Fork approach to King's Peak
11. Excerpts from "Utah's Incredible Backcountry Trails" about King's Peak
12. Crazy dude that did King's Peak in snowshoes in one day
13. Cool blister treatment stuff
14. This guy ran/hiked King's Peak in October 2010. Took him about 4 hours up, 3 down. He said he hit snow at around Gunsight Pass. He wore what warn-looking tights, looks like layered long-sleeve shirt, but no jacket, nice warm gloves. Probably there was more gear not in the pics, but that gives you a rough idea of the temp.
15. Greatoutdoors.com - King's Peak Lives Up to it's Name
16. Trip repot from some guys I know

Notes from talking to my Aunt Linda & Uncle Blaine

1. aug 15
2. elk horn crossing washed out - rebuilt, should be okay now
3. henry's fork
4. 3 hr drive from slc, through evanston
5. weather more important than crowds
6. usually astormy during hike all year
7. watch out for lightning
8. water? - filter or iodine pills. will need to filter it (sheep/horses/people, etc)
9. pack light? - 30-35 lbs. need extra clothes, gloves, hat, raingear
10. they did 3 days
11. saturdays are the crazy days. best if you can avoid sat. friday too. maybe start on saturday and go through sunday?
12. not a lot of vertical first 10-12 miles
13. once you go from about 10-11, then there is a lot of vert
14. lots of false summits (5?)
15. everything takes a little longer than you would think
16. class two after anderson pass (the rocky part)
17. want to have a light shell pant. wear tights/shorts? then put on shell if needed.
18. everwhere they ever backpack, it always rains. if stuff gets wet, it gets very cold. be prepared.
19. freeze dried dinner. granola, power bars, beef jerkey, etc. tuna packets. salmon packets.
20. trail isn't all that well marked.
21. stay away from dollar lake area. beautiful, but crowded and trashed. toilet bowl.
22. altitude: they never had a problem. worry more about it if you are ascending fast. eat and stay hydrated. gu and stuff.

Winter Training

Thump, thump, thump.... it is difficult to keep my strike light at this pace. The Black Eyed Peas are keeping me motivated. I've got 1.4 miles behind me. I'm thinking I'll stop at 3 miles. Not feeling too great tonight.

Thump, thump, thump. I'm getting heavy footed again. I turn down my headphones and I can hear that I'm making a good deal of noise. I wonder if it's bugging the people around me. I shorten my stride a bit, focus hard on my strike and, above all else, try to find that feeling of smoothness.

There's a basketball game going on one level below me. I'm observing as I run. The players are diverse. You could be pretty certain they don't hang out off the court. There's one guy that keeps shooting three-pointers and missing. Even when he has the chance to take a couple steps closer to the hoop, he instead steps back to the line to take the shot. Whatever, they're just having fun.

Dang, a slow song. I need some motivation. Dynamite is next. Now I'm feeling it. I bump up the pace a bit. Then some more. I'm getting close to 3 miles. I'm definitely going to make my goal time... Okay, all done. Short, but good. Oh man, I can't wait for warm weather. I'm really missing the warm sun out on the trail. Until then. Thump, thump, thump.

Sneak Peek at the new Merrell Barefoot Shoe

I work at Backcountry.com. We get passes to go to the Outdoor Retailers show and I didn't go! Shame on me! My friend Nate, who did go, picked up a sweet pair of the new Merrell Barefoot shoe. Check it out on Merrell's Blog and their preview promo.

I haven't run in these, but I did get to look at them in person and they are sick! I want them sooo bad. They have a nice, durable Vibram sole. The sole is very thin. It reminds me very much of the Five Fingers, but with more tread (still not thick, but better traction). They also don't have toes like the Five Fingers. I welcome this because my toes don't conform well to the Five Finger shape. I guess my feet are weird.

I'm super excited to get a pair of these and give them a try. Hopefully that will be soon.

Give thanks for your Achilles tendon

Here is an illustration of the Achilles tendon in case you don't know what it is. This tendon is awesome and we are lucky to have it.

What purpose does the Achilles tendon serve?

The purpose of the Achilles tendon is to help you run efficiently. It is incredibly strong and elastic. Each time you take a step, some of the energy from your fall is used to stretch this tendon, thereby storing the energy and using it to fuel your next step. Animals that don't run don't have this tendon. Our genetic cousins, apes, do not have this tendon.

Humans are terrible at running? So why do we have this tendon that is made for running?

Humans are terrible at sprinting, not running. We are fantastic at running long distances. Be proud of your species. We are great long distance runners!

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

This weekend my wife and I visited my parents in St. George, UT to run the Snow Canyon Half Marathon and 5K. My Dad and I ran the half marathon. It's the first half marathon that either of us has run in years (except for the Jupiter Steeplechase I ran earlier this year).

The course is very pretty. It follows the St. George Marathon course for the first four miles and then splits off to go down Snow Canyon. It is downhill the entire way except for a few tiny rolling hills. It's a bit steep from about mile 2.5 to mile 6, but other than that, it's not too steep. Your knees should be okay.

I heard that this course has some gravel areas so I was planning on wearing shoes, but when driving the course the night before we discovered that it is 100% pavement. So I decided that this would be my first official race to run barefoot. It went well...mostly. For about the last mile, the pavement got really rough with very large aggregate. By this time in the race, my feet were doing well, but certainly not fresh and could not handle the rough pavement. I quickly got some large blisters on my left foot. I could literally feel them expanding within a few minutes. One was on the ball of my foot and was taking a real pounding. It soon burst sending a mist out between two of my toes that I could feel halfway up my shin. Finally I was able to get some relief by running on the sidewalk, but as we neared the finish there were spectators on the sidewalk so I had to return to the pavement. Was it worth it? Totally, but only because if was my first barefoot race. I've never had a barefoot run be that painful and I don't really seek out pain.

My Dad held pace with me for about the first 6.5 miles which was much faster than he had planned. He pulled through all the way and finished at around 2:09. He had some really tight muscles and pains toward the end, but he's got a lot of miles under his belt and knew what he could handle. I came in at 1:44-ish, just behind my Dad's PR. My wife also ran the 5K. She had a baby girl only a few months ago and was pushing a double stroller (a B.O.B. -- they're the best if you're wondering). She ran 9:55's. My Mom also ran and claimed 3rd place in her age category.

This was our first year running and it was totally fun, not too expensive, very well organized and very pretty. The results were ready and announced faster than any race I've done before. It's also an extremely fast race if you're looking to set a PR.

Follow up on 2010 Jupiter Peak Steeple Chase

Yesterday was the 2010 Jupiter Peak Steeple Chase and it was a blast. I finished injury free and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had no idea what my time would be so that wasn't a big deal to me. I just wanted to finish injury free and have fun. Here are some pictures from the race.

Here is my best shot of the starting line, although nobody is actually lined up yet. We started about 50 feet or so up this dirt road. In this race it is important that you find the right spot in the pack near the start because it becomes difficult to pass once you hit the singletrack. About a minute before the start of the race I realized I had forgotten my inhaler. I had to run to my car and I got back to the start about 30 seconds too late. So I had to do a lot of passing in the first 4 miles or so to find people that were at my pace.

At the beginning of the race I recognized a few friends from Pinebrook, the neighborhood in Park City where I grew up. Pictured above is Mike Rasmussen from this group.

Here we are approaching Jupiter Peak, the first of two peaks to be summited during the race.

Jupiter was by far the more strenuous to climb. I found myself crawling up parts of it, mostly because my legs needed some help. In this photo I think you can get a pretty good idea for how steep it was.

At the summit of Jupiter Peak.

There is a pole at the peak.

Here I am with Rob Hanel at the finish. We both had a lot of fun and were in good spirits. Rob orchestrates a lot of adventurous events that Backcountry.com pays for employees to participate in. He's pretty fast and I was very happy to finish close behind him. Backcountry.com was a sponsor for the Jupiter Peak Steeple Chase this year and because of that I got to run for free. What a great deal!