Back At It

Thu, May 17, 2012

Thu, 17 May 2012 06:00:00

Went with Jun and Dorsimus to mark the course for the HOMM trail half marathon. We parked the car at the end of the trail and the race director drove us up to the start. I've never run the area before, but it was outstanding. Wish I was able to run the actual race because the course is fantastic! Unfortunately, with about a mile to go I wiped out... HARD! I immediately got up and started running again because I didn't want to stiffen up. I made it out alive.

When I got home I cleaned up really good. I ended up pulling a few rocks out of my hand and knee and I've got some nice "trail rash". The worst is my knee; completely swollen and a 3/4 inch gash that goes all the way to the bone. I'm gonna be sore for a few days.

This area is outstanding! I was kinda bummed when I moved to West Jordan because I would be so much farther from the Wasatch range. However, after running in the Oquirrhs, I'm really looking forward to spending my summer exploring out there.

1650 ascent
3600 descent

Wed, May 16, 2012

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:00:00

Legs feel just about recovered from my "effort" over the weekend. My soleus and achilles in both legs were stiff as a board on Sunday, but I've been walking around quite a bit and things have loosened up tremendously.

After two hours of tuning and fixing the intonation on my guitar last night, I was mentally drained so I passed out early. Stupid Floyd Rose tremolos! I woke up early though which meant it was time to hit the gym. Did some hill intervals for about 40 minutes and I was sweating like a pig. I'm sure the ladies down wind of me were disgusted by my stench. That's what they get for not even breaking a sweat and having to smell their own filth. Ha! I felt really good though, just some slight fatigue left from Zion.

Another ART session after work today. Hoping this will be my last PT visit. I'll be incorporating massage into my regimen for post-race recovery, but I don't want to have to go back because of injury.

Fri, May 11, 2012

Fri, 11 May 2012 06:00:00

Over the weekend went down to Zion to help Jun with his Zion Double Traverse attempt; a total of 96 miles and over 20K’ of vert. I committed to helping him out even though I've been on the disabled list since January. First a bum ankle, then some IT Band problems have put me in the worst shape of my running career. I'd run a grand total of 34 miles in the 5 weeks leading up to Zion. Did I think I could do an entire single traverse of 48 miles? You bet I did; as long as the knee would hold up. Yeah, I'm officially an idiot!

At the advice of Bryce, I started going to A.R.T. sessions 3 weeks ago for my knee. These sessions have really helped me regain some elasticity in my IT Band and assisted in getting back into running form. I’ve also been doing a ton of hip strengthening exercises to assist in recovery. However, as of the day we left for Zion, my IT Band was still snapping over my knee. I was extremely worried about how my run would go.

Five of us ended up going down; myself, Scott, Matt, MattVH, and Jun. Matt and I would run with Craig the first half, and then VH and Scott would run with him the second half. Normally this would be the perfect game plan, but I was not even close to being in shape for this type of run and Matt was on the tail end of a virus. After dropping Matt within the first two miles, Craig and I worked through the next few together.

The reality of my situation became apparent after about 5 miles though. Craig was running strong and he absolutely buried me into the ground. I eventually lost sight of him, so I decided to make a push to catch him. However, in the heat of the moment I missed a turn. In all honesty, I might have the absolute worst sense of direction of any human being on the planet! I looked over maps before the trip and noted key corners, but in the thick of it I just completely blew it! I ran up a narrow canyon, crossing back and forth over the creek. I kept looking for the distinct shoe print of the Altra Lone Peaks that Craig was wearing, but with so much water it was almost impossible to make anything out, so I continued on. I eventually hit a dead end so I turned around and went up another canyon. The walls continued to get narrower and I eventually came to a waterfall with a wall behind it. Foiled again! I decided I was in the wrong place. Duh!

I ran back to the last spot where I saw another trail intersecting. I ran back and forth along this 1.5 mile section for the next hour. I had no regard for myself as I was in a complete panic. Looking for Craig’s shoe print was now impossible since I was wearing Lone Peaks as well and I’d covered every inch of ground in this section. I was running through the creek in spots and even got up to my waist in water at one point. It was on… my mind was the epitome of full blown chaos! Eventually, I stopped for a few minutes to gather my thoughts. My next move was to start running back and forth across the bottom of the canyon until I found someone. Eventually, I ran into some hikers who gave me directions and I finally made it out. By the time I found the trail again, I had lost about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I was now 4 hours into my “run” and I’d been out of water for more than an hour, just as it was starting to get hot. I was so physically, emotionally, and mentally drained that I just started crying like a little girl.

I’d like to be clear about one thing here; I was not panicked because I was scared for my life or scared of being alone out there. I’m experienced with survival in the outdoors so those types of thoughts never crossed my mind. I was panicked because I didn’t want to be the jerk that blew it for Craig. I also didn’t want to make my friends – or even worse, Search & Rescue – have to come find me because I was an idiot.

It took everything in my power to get back. My worry now was that the crew would need to move on to Craig’s next checkpoint and that I’d have to hitch a ride or something. I pushed as hard as I could possibly go. Coming into Hop Valley it had now been over 2 hours since I’d had water and it was starting to get hot. There wasn’t a reliable water source, but I knew I had to drink so I drank out of a very unsafe water source. I’ll choose stomach issues for a few days over heatstroke any time!

Once I got to within a mile and a half of the trailhead, some ladies on horseback came along on the trail. They immediately asked “Are you Josh?” I was so relieved to see them and they had some water and granola bars for me. The best part was they had a phone and called my crew. The boys were literally one minute away from taking off. Scott was on his way to meet me and I eventually made it back safe.

I was pissed off at myself more than anything. I really wanted to complete the whole traverse, but it clearly became out of the question. I should have ran the back half with Craig instead of trying to keep up with him when he was fresh. In all honesty though, it was probably a blessing in disguise. My IT Band didn’t bother me at all on this run and going any further than I did could have done some major damage. I’m glad I didn’t go back out.

I spent the majority of the rest of my trip helping Matt crew. We had a lot of fun even though we made some really poor decisions along the way, like trying to drive up the canyon in the van and getting pulled over by a ranger. Stupid!

All in all, a fun experience, even though I don’t want a repeat of getting lost like that again. It would have been so much more fun being lost (did I really just say that?) had I not had a deadline to meet. I don’t ever wish to experience full blown panic like that again, that’s for sure! Next time I do something like this I’ll take either a map, or make sure to memorize one before I go out.

Ended up with somewhere between 25 and 28 miles, so I'm calling it 26. I'm so excited that my knee held up and even more excited that I get to actually start running again!

For details about how the other boys trip went, go check out their blogs. Their write-ups are in so much detail that I won't even try to replicate their experiences. Huge congrats to Mr. Lloyd for completing the double crossing! What an amazing feat!

Sat, May 05, 2012

Sat, 05 May 2012 06:00:00

Mill B North. Got up to about 8500 feet and the fog in the air was crystallizing. Was really cool to see. Started hearing lots of loud booms. Not sure if it was thunder or dynamite, but didn't want to get stuck in the freezing temps in shorts and a jacket, so I turned around.

Knee started acting up with about a mile to go. Not quite sure what to do from here. Keep running I guess?!

Wed, May 02, 2012

Wed, 02 May 2012 06:00:00

First run since starting A.R.T therapy. Sessions have gone well and the IT Band is definitely loosening up. Was hoping for a pain free run and didn't quite get it. Things never got to the point where I couldn't run, but there was a dull pain starting around the magic 3 mile mark.

A little discouraged since I'd hoped things would go perfectly. I'll continue to run this week and hope for the best.

Sat, Apr 21, 2012

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:00:00

Mill B North trail. Told myself I was just going for a hike to see where the snow line is at. Of course, I dressed for a run and took a handheld so I'm sure you can guess how "hiking" went. Got about two miles up before I hit major snow. No other foot steps much past where the snow started, so I just went off memory of the trail. Turns out my memory is pretty good since I found the trail 3 times in spots where the snow was melted down.

My legs started getting shredded from post-holing in the crunchy snow and I had already taken the only gel I had, so I decided I'd turn around once my watch said 2500' of vert. I forgot how tiring it is working through snow. I eventually hit my mark and turned around. The run down in the snow was painful on the shins since I was post-holing with every step, at times almost up to my waist. I'm not gonna lie though, it was an absolute blast!

I bombed the descent pretty hard, but with about a mile to go I started feeling the knee flaring up a bit so I took it easy. However, I was able to run the entire 3 miles down so that's encouraging. Lots of hikers out and I got plenty of stunned looks. The combination of shorty-shorts, pasty white legs, and the huge smile on my face probably scared some people.

At the advice of Bryce, I scheduled an ART session for Monday. Crossing my fingers that I can get this ITBS under control.