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May 31, 2007
Notes From Afield
While at present I'm on the third day (Sigh.) of a 9-day stretch of 12-hour shifts (Gasp!) in which I try to wrangle the ever-moving-never-ending Yellowstone tourist season (Oy.), my days off work were nothing but lovely peacefulness and abundant outdoor activity (True 'dat.). Here are some notes from the field:
Note #1: Spring Has Sprung
It was Friday evening, and my sweetie, my dog, and I were on a leisurely later evening run. As we returned towards the trailhead, I stole glances at the high hillsides around us, which were bathed in red and orange light by the finally setting sun. Though they were all absolutely beautiful, one hillside caught my eye as it was brimful with thousands of some sort of vibrant yellow sunflower. There were flowers everywhere! Had I tried to tromp and trapse over the hillside, I would have needed to push flowers out of the way. We had to stop running for a minute or two to pay homage to the display.
Note #2: A Slight Impalement
It was Saturday afternoon and, again, my sweetie, my dog, and I were near the end of a run. We were running downhill at a moderate clip, through a sun-shaded forest, crossing back and forth over a small creek, on a rutted, rocky, and technical trail, in wild animal country. My sensory systems were on near-overload while trying to process an overabundance of incoming information. Because the trail was technical, I had to plant each foot deliberately. The forest canopy shaded most of the canyon, but the sun poked through here and there, and the mosaic of shadow and sun challenged my eyes. We were running through perfect bear and moose country, and I felt compelled to scan my surroundings for wild animals as we moved. It was challenging to keep up with it all!
At one point, there was a big stick poking out into the trail about 18 inches off the ground. I saw it, but it all happened so fast. My dog was running right in front of me, and who knows if she ever saw what hit her. Regardless, June ran straight into the stick with her chest, let out a terrifying yelp, and collapsed to the ground. I made some crazy move to jump over the now unmoving dog, just barely missing her. I returned to her and began looking her over. She layed there panting, letting me examine her. After a minute or two, my sweetie and I determined that there was no bleeding, no hole in her chest, and no other indication that she had run into a stick rather hard. In fact, as soon as we stopped touching her, she got up, shook off, and started running down the trail!
As a side note, when my dog was up and moving again, I then turned my attention to the pain I felt on my shin. While making that crazy move to avoid stepping on my dog, I managed to give myself a 3-inch cut and some abrasion rasberries on my shin. I think I looked really cool when we arrived back and the trailhead and I had a big cut with a bunch of dried blood mixed with trail dirt on my shin.
Note #3: Mountaintop Musings
Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day in the Big Hole Mountains. The Big Hole Mountains, located in eastern Idaho, are the slightly less impressive massif of high country located directly west of the more famous and taller Teton Mountains. Even though the Big Hole Mountains lie in the shadow of the Tetons, they are some decent mountains. The highest point in the range lies just over 3000 vertical feet above the range's base. By now, most of the snow has melted out of these mountains, making high(er) elevations quite accessible in the still early season.
My sweetie and I did and out-and-back to the top of Garns Mountain, one of the Big Hole Mountains' high points, which stands at just a few feet above 9000 feet elevation. I'm not quite sure where treeline is in these mountains, but it sure must be close to 9000 feet. Atop Garns Mountain, open meadows are only briefly punctuated by small stands of pine forest.
As we climbed the highest flanks of Garns, a tiny weather squall passed over us, bearing some gray clouds and a few rain drops. As we reached the summit, the sun had returned and we had an outstanding 360 degree view of the world. To be honest, I am too unfamiliar with the geography of this area to recognize everything that we could see. I recognized the ever-looming Teton Mountains to the east. To the west, the shiny buildings of the town of Idaho Falls stuck out from the otherwise more natural terrain. To the southwest, the Snake River snaked its way through the what appeared to be a luxuriously lush, green valley.
To our surprise and delight, the summit was covered with ladybugs! Literally, nearly every rock and patch of grass housed clumps of these cute red and black beetles! I have previously seen ladybugs congregate on mountain tops, and I have heard some explanations about why this occurs, but I don't quite understand this phenomenon. I have heard that during the late spring and early summer, ladybugs migrate to high(er) elevation areas to feed. I have also heard that cooler weather ilicits this "clumping" behavior, as the ladybugs hang out close together to conserve body heat until the weather improves. Despite not understanding what was happening, I felt lucky to glimpse all these beauties and I tried hard not to step on any of them!
Things became briefly nerve-wracking as we descended from the summit of Garns Mountain. We left the summit as soon as we saw another rapidly approaching squall line of dark gray clouds. We were probably about 200-300 vertical feet below the summit, in an open meadow, when the weather arrived with a bang. This squall was more serious than the first one, and we were quickly in the middle of a regular thunderstorm. I felt like the perfect lightning rod there in the middle of an open meadow, near the top of a mountain, holding a metal can of bear spray (which I always carry on these types of runs). You should have seen me sprint and jump and flail and fly downhill through that meadow! I began to feel somewhat more safe once we had descended another 500 or so vertical feet, but the crackling thunder around me kept the adrenaline pumping at full force. Part of the descent involved crossing an exposed ridgeline, so we waited out the weather for a bit, until it was safer to do so. Once we dropped into the long canyon that would eventually return us to the trailhead, I felt much better!
Note #4: Almost The Snow Queen
On Tuesday, I ran in and near the Snow King Ski Resort, which is located in the heart of Jackson, WY. It was an absolutely cool but clear gorgeous mid-morning when I arrived at the base of the mountain, as evidenced by the abundance of locals and tourists recreating. The trail from the base of the ski resort to the top of the highest chairlift is about 2.3 miles long with about 1600 vertical feet elevation gain. The trail switchbacks up at a tough grade the whole way, but the surface is wide and well-worn.
A hill climb race is held on this trail every year. I don't know what the men's and women's records are, but I know my sweetie's fastest time is somewhere around 22 minutes for this route. It took me just under 32 minutes to make the climb, so I guess that doesn't quite make me the Snow Queen. I have two excuses for my time: 1) I was tired from the weekend's endeavorings; and 2) I stopped twice along the way and didn't click off my watch (I stopped once to fend off an uncontrolled dog until the owner could catch it. I stopped a second time because I encountered 2 men hiking with a dog that was carrying a water bottle in its mouth. I found this adorable and fascinating, so I had to have a look!). In all seriousness, this was a great climb. When I reached the top, there was a man there who congratulated me and told me he watched me climb up while he was riding the chairlift. That was nice of him!
From the top of the chairlift, I went up a bit more to the actual mountain summit because, well, I just had to. Next, I ran for about 6 miles on some of the coolest, smoothest, well-graded, perfect trails I have ever run on. Plus, the mountain scenery and the fields full of wildflowers were astounding. If I lived in Jackson, I would be one spoiled girl with these trails! The trails descended and played around the back of Snow King Mountain. Surprisingly, I didn't see a single human footprint on the trail; all the prints were that of mountain bike tires (Also, I only saw bikers back there, no other pedestrians.). I could have played around back there all day, but, sadly, I had to go home and go to work!
Note #5: The End
Life is just too damn good.
Posted by Meghan at 12:19 PM | Comments (7)
May 29, 2007
Week of May 21st
Monday:
8 miles, hilly and easy, Beattie Gulch Road
Tuesday:
full-on rest
Wednesday:
1. 11 miles, hilly and easy, Old Gardiner Road
2. lifting arms
3. SUPER-core
Thursday:
14+++ miles, hilly and easy, Bridger Mountains near Bozeman, MT
Friday:
7 miles, rolling and easy, Trail Creek Trail near Victor, ID
Saturday:
10 miles, hilly and easy, several trails from Pine Creek Trailhead in Big Hole Mountains near Victor, ID
Sunday:
22+ miles hilly long run, from Mahogany Trailhead to Garns Mountain and return in Big Hole Mountains near Victor, ID
Totals: 72-ish miles
lifting x1
SUPER-core x1
Aww man, this was a crazy week of running! I'm a tired puppy. You know, the 72-ish miles just doesn't do justice to the week because every single run involved either elevation or technical trails, or both. Here is some additional information:
Monday:
time- 1:15
elevation- about 1300 feet gain
surface- technical forest service road
Tuesday:
rest
Wednesday:
time: 1:40-ish
elevation: about 1500 feet gain
surface: non-technical park service road
Thursday:
time: 3:55-ish
elevation: 5100 feet gain
surface: technical forest service trails
Friday:
time: 1:05
elevation: about 600 feet gain
surface: technical forest service trail
Saturday:
time: 1:50
elevation: 2000+ feet gain
surface: technical forest service trails
Sunday:
time: 4:40 (includes time hanging out on peak and ducking out a thunderstorm)
elevation: 3500-ish feet gain
surface: technical forest service trails
Additional totals:
total time- about 14:25
total elevation- about 14000 feet gain
Ok, that's more like it. This week panned out exactly how I wanted it to. And, I had so much fun!
Posted by Meghan at 5:33 PM | Comments (1)
May 24, 2007
Snow!
It just won't end; the snow keeps coming. After 2 days/nights of foul weather, inlcuding snow, I didn't hold out high hopes for good trail conditions in the Bridger Mountains today. My predictions were correct; the trails were quite snowy.
You might recall me writing about runs with my friend S., who worked here last summer. About a month ago, she called me with the good news that she would be working at Yellowstone again this summer. I was elated to learn that my running buddy was returning to town. Today was our first run together since she returned.
We attempted the 10 mile, 4300 foot elevation gain trip to Mt. Baldy and back, the same run I did in the Bridger Mountains last week. We didn't make it to the top. About a half mile and 700 vertical feet above the trailhead, we hit snow. About 3300 vertical feet and 3.5 miles above the trailhead, while already running through about 5 inches of untouched snow, we were slaughtered by a storm that rolled in out of nowhere. At this point, wind, sleet balls, snow, and bitter cold forced us off the mountain. Once we were at a lower elevation and back into the weather safe zone, we ran around on some random trails to pick up extra mileage (but little extra elevation) before returning to the trailhead. We were out for about 2:30.
S. was content to call it a day, but I wasn't yet satiated. I wanted to get more elevation in to make up for not making it to the top of Baldy. I drove about 15 minutes to another trailhead in the Bridger Mountains, and headed out again. I ran 3.5 miles and about 1800 feet elevation gain from the trailhead to the first trail junction, and then blasted back downhill again. These 3.5 miles took about 50 minutes to climb, and a bit less than 30 minutes to descend, for a total of about 1:20. The trail was crap, as it was first wet mud, then muddy snow, then just plain snow. I stomped and splashed through it all, and collected about half of the Bridger Mountains' mud on my legs during the run. The weather held out on this run, just barely. I made it to the car as a rainstorm began. What timing!
While I could leave the snow, I'll take today's running. At the moment, I'm not feeling much of the 5000+ feet elevation gain underfoot, and that makes me happy.
Posted by Meghan at 7:26 PM | Comments (8)
I Beg Of You
If you haven't already heard (Such news travels quickly, as evidenced by the slough of personal voice mails I have received from concerned and curious friends and family.), a man was injured by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park yesterday. Two press releases have been published about the incident so far, here and here.
I beg of you two things:
1.) Return here for or read elesewhere the rest of the story as it develops.
2.) Don't yet place judgement regarding the dangerous nature of grizzly bears in general or this bear specifically until the whole story is known.
Posted by Meghan at 5:48 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2007
Implicit Trust
With seeming jubulation and glee (Please allow me to indulge in anthropomorphizing my dog for a moment.), my dog engages herself into bold endeavors that I can only cringe about when watching from a safe vantage point. Last week, I likened her agility to that of a bighorn sheep or a mountain goat here in my blog. And I won't even start in describing her bountiful energy, except to mention that she's a border collie, and that should explain it all. So, with her combined maneuvering skills and endless energy, there isn't much that my dog won't do or many places that she won't go. But today, in the middle of our run, she stopped dead in her tracks, and she wouldn't be budged.
Let me explain. Late last night, a front rolled in, bringing with it colder temperatures, some precipitation, and a lot of wind. Resultingly, it was violently windy when my dog and I went out for a run today. June and I ran on Beattie Gulch Road, a forest service road that switchbacks out of the Yellowstone River Valley and into the Gallatin Mountains. The first few miles of the road climb through arid sagebrush meadows before the road dives into a dense pine forest.
As June and I climbed up through the exposed meadows, the wind blew heartily. When the wind blows like this, June's attention level increases exponentially. I think the wind blows in a variety of interesting scents. She runs from here to there, sniffing the wind with the fervor of a bloodhound on a scent trail. While June was sniffing the wind as we climbed, I was taking in the gorgeous lupine growing in dainty pockets and clusters scattered about the meadow. In other words, June was looking up, and I was looking down.
Near the top of the meadow, at the edge of the forest, June suddenly stopped moving, and her ears perked up. I kept running, and urged her forward with me. She moved ahead of me by several steps, crossed into my path, stopped again, and, in doing so, effectively blocked my forward movement. Again, her ears perked in attention. The situation didn't make sense to me; June never stops moving. June would run herself to pure exhaustion if I allowed her to.
As I stood there confused, I watched her tail rise and her hackles stand up. June was not only at attention, but she was agitated into defense mode. When this happened, I experienced an adrenaline release through my body that felt like a hot, fast-moving wave. Suddenly, urgently, I felt the need to get the hell out of there. We turned around and made a beeline back down the switchbacks.
I don't know what was up above us on the road, but it caused June to act in a very strange way. Normally, this dog trusts and relies almost completely upon me. Today, I implicitly trusted and replied upon her.
Posted by Meghan at 2:09 AM | Comments (7)
May 20, 2007
Week of May 14th
Monday:
Rest
My legs were fatigued and sore from the weekend. I walked the dog; does that count as exercise?
Tuesday:
1. 8 miles, hilly and easy, Old Gardiner Road
2. lifting arms
3. SUPER-core workout
Today was a helluva run. It was so good that it will shortly have its own blog entry.
Wednesday:
1. 10 miles, hilly and steady, 'M' trailhead to Baldy Mountain and return in the Bridger Mountains near Bozeman, MT
2. yoga 45 minutes
Thursday:
7 miles, hilly and easy, Eagle Creek Road
My legs were a bit tired today from yesterday's extravaganza.
Friday:
1. 9 miles hilly with a 4 mile uphill workout, Old Gardiner Road (In this relatively unstructured workout, I pushed hard on the easier uphill grades and recovered on the steeper grades. The goal of this type of workout is to train my body to recover while in climbing mode, even while on the steepest stuff.)
2. legs lifting
3. arms lifting
4. SUPER-core workout
Saturday
6 miles hilly and easy, in my neighborhood
I'm working my way through my week of night shifting for the craziness of Yellowstone, and, wow, can I feel the night shift in my running! Ouch.
Sunday
1. 8 miles flat with 5-ish miles at lactate threshold pace, Gardiner Railroad Bed Trail
2. arms lifting
3. SUPER-core
Totals: 48 miles
lifting arms x3
lifting legs x1
yoga x1
SUPER-core x3
This week didn't have much mileage, but I thought I'd insert a bit of an easier week after last week's "boot camp." I did a couple of good workouts this week, though, which I'm pleased about. Next week I'm going to go for more volume on technical trails, but less intensity.
Posted by Meghan at 7:42 PM | Comments (5)
May 18, 2007
My News
I had previously promised to write about some good news on May 17th. A day late, but here it is:
This team has chosen me to be one of their 4 sponsored athletes for the 2007/2008 racing season. Team WinS is a group of female athletes mostly based around Bozeman, MT. The team is composed of all kinds of athletes, but many people seem to be runners, triathletes, and skiers. I met many of the members of this team last night, and I had a great time. Also, it was a humbling experience to be in a room with so many muscle-y, strong, powerful, competitive women. In any case, I'm very excited about being on this team.
Posted by Meghan at 7:40 PM | Comments (7)
May 16, 2007
Even Mountain Goats Fall, Too
I have the honor of living about 4 miles away from prime bighorn sheep habitat. Quite frequently, I watch them prance agile-y across literal cliff faces like they are out for an after-dinner stroll. Mountain goats and my border collie, June, belong to the same category of cliff dancers as bighorn sheep. Over and over, June leaves me in the dust on the technical terrain. I have to wonder how fast we humans could be out on the trails if only we had 4 feet. However, today I stayed upright while the 4-legged June took a tumble.
Today June and I made a jaunt to the top of Mount Baldy, located in the Bridger Mountains, outside of Bozeman, MT. I had such a good time in those mountains last weekend that I decided to go back for more. More like, I've decided to put in some good training time in these mountains this summer. Their trails are really, truly, a drool-inducing trail runner's dream.
We started at the 'M' trailhead. The 'M' is a monstrous white 'M' that sits on the lowest flanks of Baldy Mountain, so as to remind everyone that Bozeman is home to Montana State University. From there, one climbs 5 miles and 4300 vertical feet to the Baldy summit. Really, it's mostly uphill power-hiking. I probably ran about 1 mile of the climb, in short spurts where the trail levels out here and there. It's just that steep.
The trailmakers of the Bridger Mountains have seemingly forgot 1 element usually included in trails that gain and lose distinct amounts of elevation: switchbacks. The upside of this is that the trails are shorter. The downside is that the trails can be hell-a steep. The climb up was miraculously easy, and I tried to give it a decent push the whole way to get in a good elevation workout. After 1:45-ish, I was at the summit.
June and I sat there for a bit, taking in the view. And it was fabulous. To the north, Baldy Mountain connected with the rest of the Bridger Ridge, the high, knife-like ridgeline of the Bridger Mountains. This ridge is the proud stomping grounds of the Bridger Ridge Run, which I will race in just under 3 months. To the northeast, the tall, remote, and still snow-covered Crazy Mountains loomed stolidly. To the east, farms and ranches decorated the valley far below. Towards the south, the route I had climbed to the summit disappeared back into the trees. And finally, to the west, the expansive and rapidly developing Gallatin Valley (which contains the metropolis of Bozeman) opened wide and far.
After a time, June and I began our descent in the direction from which we had climbed. I intended to run this downhill hard. First, I wanted to get in a good downhill workout. And second, I wanted to get a decent time estimate for a hard downhill run, as this is the last 5 miles of the Bridger Ridge Run's course. I was able to maintain a steady downhill pace, but I never had the opportunity to open up and really run.
My main problem was that my poor dog was lagging so far behind! On some runs and hikes that have no water sources (streams, snowfields, etc.), she wears a dog backpack that contains the water she will drink on the hike/run. She wore her dog backpack today, and it really hindered her ability to descend this steep trail (Incidentally, on the few flat portions of the trail, she was her usual speedy self.). It changed her width and center of gravity, and it added a little weight. I really felt bad for her!
At one point, she made an unwitnessed tumble that I only heard and saw the aftermath of. My little mountain goat fell! I was briefly scared that she was hurt, because she just layed there in the middle of the trail whining. I had to pick her up and stand her back up again. Then she just took off like nothing happened. Perhaps she was just surprised that she had fallen; I certainly was because I had never seen her do so before. In all, it took a little under 55 minutes to return to the trailhead.
I was sad to look down at my feet at the trailhead and see that my brand-new trail shoes were trashed! A few weeks ago, I decided to try out the new GoLite Trail Fly trail running shoes (I would link you to the GoLite site, but I was having trouble getting the shoe portion of the site to load.). I love these trail shoes, but the upper tore at the crease that is made on the top of your foot when you toe off. Luckily, I bought them in Bozeman and so I went directly to the shoe store with my ruined, sweaty, dirty shoes in hand. They graciously took them back and ordered me a new pair. I'm going to try the same shoes again, with the hope that my experience was a manufacturing anomoly. I love those shoes!
Aside from the ruined shoes, it was a great day in paradise, and both June and I are still in one piece.
Posted by Meghan at 7:02 PM | Comments (8)
May 15, 2007
Thank You Kindly
To the whomever or the whatever that decided that I was going to have a good run today: thank you kindly. Finally, it is happening. Finally, I am getting fit.
The previous three months of running (or lack thereof) have been miraculously confusing and confoundingly frustrating. The Coastal Challenge literally consumed my body and left me with the longest period of recovery I have ever experienced. Much like a lead weight hitting the ground, you could say I didn't quite bounce back from that experience. Once I was wholly recovered and ready to train again, I had lost a great deal of fitness. At that time, the uphill road towards regaining my fitness appeared to be infinitely long, steep, and intimidating.
Today, I'm still on that uphill road, and it's still a hard climb. However, today's run along a quintessential fitness-gauging route yielded pleasing results; my time along this route was very similar to my times along this route in the early parts of last summer. And further, I felt damn good out there as well. At this moment, I couldn't be more elated.
As I said, I'm still on the uphill climb with regards to my fitness. However, today's progress gives me hope, patience, and determination to keep on keepin' on. Here's just a bit of information about that which I am keepin' on for in the next two months:
1) I may or may not run a short(er) local road race at the end of this month, simply for a good workout; I'll decide next week.
2) The next "for sure" race is this one in mid-to-late June. While my intent is to run this race to gain fitness and experience for other events later in the summer, I also wish to do well here. It's a helluva 50k race, featuring 11,900 feet of elevation gain over the 50k distance. I get intimidated just thinking of it, as there cannot be many other 50k events with so much elevation gain.
3) This race. My long-time readers might recall my getting schooled at this race last year. Resultingly, I have a definitive bone to pick with the Beartooth Highway on the last day of June this summer.
Posted by Meghan at 7:45 PM | Comments (5)
May 14, 2007
Boot Camp Check-In
Oh yes, this was a great weekend of boot camping.
First things first, skip this paragraph if you don't care to read about other people's vomiting experiences. Let it be known that I hurled on Saturday's long run. This is the first time I've vomited while running since a track workout in high school that occured too soon after eating a bowl of cereal (Though I did swallow back puke a couple times during one day of The Coastal Challenge in February.). On Saturday, I vomited in the middle of a long climb out of a dry canyon on a hot afternoon. I coughed, then puked the fluid and gel I had sucked down a few minutes before that, then kept on running. When I crested the pass out of the canyon and began the descent into the next, my outputted effort dropped appropriately, and I felt fine. I'm confident that it was the hard effort in hot weather that initiated the emptying of my stomach cavity. Hopefully, once I am again acclimated to these variables, I won't puke anymore.
And now, moving on to slightly more appropriate blog topics. We spent Saturday running in the Bridger Mountains, a mountain range just north of Bozeman, MT. My sweetie and I are running a few races in these mountains this summer, so what better place to train? The trails were gobs busy with people, which I'm not used to. If I see another person out on my local trails, I find myself feeling almost shocked. That is changing since summer is arriving to Yellowstone, but my trails here will never be as occupied as the Bridger Mountains trails on a beautiful Saturday. There were hikers, runners, mountain bikers, and even some random people sitting in the bushes along the trail. It was nice to have some company out there!
Saturday's run was both humbling and energizing. I got schooled on the multi-thousand foot climbs in the heat (Hence, the aforementioned vomiting episode.), but I felt really strong being out there for 4+ hours. I even finished the day with the last 1.5 miles hard, while splashing through ankle deep creeks and jumping over rocks on a gnarly mountain trail. This type of run teaches me that my fitness is just beginning to come around, but that I need to keep working hard and have patience.
After Saturday's run, we each inhaled a quantity of pizza roughly equal to our respective body weights and sat in some hot springs. I'm not sure if this is the best way to recover physically, but it hit the spot mentally!
On Sunday, we went on a hike in the morning and a run in the afternoon. In comparison with Saturday's adventure, Sunday was quite tame, terrain-wise. I was happy with that, as I could feel Saturday's elevation in my quads and glutes.
Sunday afternoon's run was truly surreal from several different standpoints. I cannot begin to describe the number of obstacles we encountered on the run with appropriate detail. While driving to the trailhead, we saw a grizzly bear. About 200 meters from the trailhead, we enountered our first bear footprint. The bear footprints continued for the entire length of the trail. There were dry footprints, wet footprints, big foot prints, little foot prints, 1 black bear footprint, and many, many, many grizzly footprints. I haven't seen so many footprints over such a long distance before; it was as if we humans were traveling on a bear trail. We also saw mountain lion, wolf, and coyote tracks on the same trail! We never saw any of the accompanying wildlife; perhaps my loud singing and shouting and generally announcing our passing presence scared them all away!
The next obstacle was downed trees. I scaled over, around, and under so many trees on this run that I felt like I was in my own steeplechase event. Next, mud and water. Snowmelt season is in full effect, and the trail was basically serving as a riverbed for the runoff. We were sopping wet to our knees instantly, but mostly we embraced it and stomped around like children in mud puddles. Then, we took a wrong turn at a trail junction that was missing its sign. We went about a mile out of our way before we realized we had gone too far. We went back and found the said trail junction, as well as the sign for it, which had fallen over into tall grass. And finally, there was snow. We had planned to climb to a small peak that topped out at about 9500 feet. We were turned around by snow at about 9000 feet when the trail disappeared into impassable drifts. In order to return to the trailhead, we successfully ran the gauntlet of obstacles again! All in all, this run goes right up there on the list of truly crazy runs I've been on. Fun, really fun, but crazy.
Today will be a nice recovery day, as I'm sore and fatigued from this weekend. Then more boot camping to follow, I hope!
Posted by Meghan at 9:58 AM | Comments (5)
May 11, 2007
Week of May 7th
Monday:
Rest
I desperately needed to catch up on sleep. There were no options. I wanted to take this rest day on Friday, but it just wasn't going to happen.
Tuesday:
10 miles hilly with 5 miles steady uphill and 5 miles easy downhill, Eagle Creek Road
I saw a grizzly bear on this run, from a nice, comfortable distance. The bear never even saw me. It was also a miraculously warm and sunny day, and I had no water. My dog was drinking freely from Eagle Creek as we ran, and I was jealous.
Wednesday:
7 miles easy and hilly, Beattie Gulch Road
Well, the tourists have officially returned to Yellowstone. With that, the number of hours I work and my job's intensity also increases. At this point and for the rest of the summer, It's difficult to fit in cross training from a time standpoint, and it's also hard to effect cross training when I'm just that much more tired to begin with (My job has physical elements to it.). I have to re-think cross training, to figure out its most important elements and how to fit them into my summer tourist season schedule.
Thursday:
8 miles with 6 x 3 minute uphill hard with equal distance downhill recoveries, Beattie Gulch Road
I felt awesome during this workout. There is something (Many things?) to be said about treating one's body and mind well. I picked a tough grade today and really worked it hard. I forget just how useful one's upper body and core is on tough uphills. I've neglected lifting and core work in the last few weeks, but I could feel the residual strength I still have in these areas. Note to self: must continue upper body and core strength work.The results of this workout were good, really good.
Friday:
1. 6 miles hilly and easy, Old Gardiner Road
2. lifting arms
3. SUPER-core
Saturday:
4:10 long run, several trails in the Bridger Mountains near Bozeman, MT
Sunday:
1. 3 hour long run, Cascade Lake and Observation Peak Trails, Yellowstone
2. 2-hour very easy hike/walk along trails near Yellowstone Lake
Posted by Meghan at 12:55 AM | Comments (7)
May 9, 2007
Maintaining Control
In this crazy, chaotic world, there exists a fence line of control. On one side of the fence is our mostly (albeit subjectively so) sane, controlled, normal world; on the other side of the fence is that wacky place we go when life gets beyond our grip, beyond our capacity to do all that is asked of us in the given 24 hours of each day.
Sometimes we find ourselves riding on the fence of control over our own lives. One tilt to one side of the fence and we can feel the universe begin to spin in wild undulations. One tilt to the other side and the universe slows her spinning madness to a pace that we can keep up with. While I haven't fallen off the fence and lost complete control, I have felt myself tipping a little too far in that direction in the last 2 or 3 weeks.
Admittedly, I like being on the calm and controlled side of the fence. I know there are people who enjoy the other side, but that just isn't me. When I get on the wrong side of the fence, it is typically the result of investing too much time, effort, and emotion into the needs of others, and not enough on myself. I do that, you know; I put others before myself to an extreme that results in me missing the basic elements of my own life. The key word there is "extreme," as I think there is a healthy balance to be found among taking care of oneself and taking care of others. I could ponder this idea a lot more, and I suppose that I should, at some point. However, I'm not going to do that here and now; I mention these facts so that I may point out my current conscious effort towards recollecting my life.
Thus, over the last couple of days, I've been consciously trying to reel the world back within my grip once again. At the moment, I'm trying to whittle life down to my bare bones needs for survival and happiness. On the top of that list are: 1) I've gotten adequate sleep; 2) I've tried to empathatically support those around me without engaging my own emotions to a dangerously over-supportive level; 3) I've done some good running; and 4) I've said "when" when a task was just too much for me to handle, given all else that is present in life. Number 4 is perhaps the most meaningful member of the list, simply because I have struggled with setting boundaries like this for my entire life.
So, onward and upward. Joyfully, I will begin my 7 days off of work tomorrow morning, after putting a fair bit more than 80 work hours in the last 7 days. This will free up gobs of time usually spent doing that thing called my job, and allow me to further reorganize my life. To myself, to the close ones around me, and to those people that read my blog: I'm boot camping the next 7 days of my life. I'm going to use these days to iron life out and get myself headed back down the straight and narrow.
I suppose I should talk about running. I'm also going to boot camp my running in the next 7 days. It's 'round about time that I round up and get 'er dun' in this department, if I have any hopes of having a good racing season this summer. Tick, tock, time is slipping away.
Posted by Meghan at 7:37 PM | Comments (7)
May 6, 2007
Notes On The Evolution Of Life
This has been quite the week, from about 6 different standpoints. Eeks, I'm struggling to keep up.
A few notes:
1. I ran a "race" today. It was a 5.5+ mile leg in a triathlon relay. It was really fun. It was also really funny. It was a local-shmocal triathlon, and there were gobs of people I knew out there. The best part of the day was getting beat by one of my high school cross country runners. He ran a great race! That riled up all the high schoolers out there competing and spectating in a friendly rivalry. Trying to run "fast" was entertaining. When one's body hasn't done a speed workout in I don't know how long, and when one races for the first time on pavement in I don't know how long, things are just kind of squeaky-cobwebby. You know? Then again, it was just for fun, and this kind of running is not at all my current focus.
2. Thank you to all of you for the outpouring of kind comments regarding the anniversary of my dad's death last week. Your thoughtfulness felt wonderful. I've started, stopped, started, and stopped a blog entry about the whole experience, but it just isn't coming together yet. It was a really tough weekend and my heart and mind still feel ragged about it. I will publish something, sometime.
3. There are lots of sad things happening around me right now. None of it is happening directly to me, I'm just experiencing it through others. It makes me feel bad. People, be nice, kind, loving, supportive, and communicative with the valuable folks in your life. All the time. Every day. Don't forget. I don't want to write much more about it.
4. Amidst all the sadness and craziness that seems to be around at the moment, something pretty cool happened. I'll tell you about it on May 17th. The point is, great things are happening as well!
5. It snowed last night. And the day before. It was about 70 degrees last week. I'm ready for spring. Super ready.
6. Life has impinged a bit on my workouts this week. I've missed 1 running workout and almost all of my cross-training. Most of the problem is external and uncontrollable, but I seek balance in this department. I want to run like hell this summer, so I -can't- miss out on training.
I hope everyone is well! When life gets a bit more calm, I'll be back with my usual proffering of wordage on this blog.
Posted by Meghan at 1:05 AM | Comments (5)
May 1, 2007
Week of April 30th
Monday:
8 miles, easy and hilly, Henderson Canyon Trails near Victor, ID
Tuesday:
7 miles, including 7 x 2 min uphill steadily hard, recovering the returning downhill distance, Deaf Jim Cabin Road
Wednesday:
7 miles, out-and-back from the 'M" trailhead to Sypes Canyon in Bozeman
Thursday:
5 miles hilly and easy, the limestone quarry area
Friday:
rest
Saturday:
1. 1 mile warm up, 5.5+ mile race
2. 45 minutes yoga
3. SUPER-core workout
Sunday:
16 mile (2:20) rolling long run, Old Yellowstone Trail
Total: 49.5 miles running
yoga x1
Super-core x1
Goal:
55-60 miles running
2+ hours cycling
This will be a light cycling week. I've somehow been talked into doing a 5-ish mile running leg on a triathlon relay team this week. I have no idea what I'm going to do while trying to race 5 miles on pavement. People see me running and they think I'm fast and that I should be on their relay team. What they don't understand is that about the only thing I seem to be good at is holding a faster slow pace in really long races. Sheesh, I'm going to get my arse handed to me.
Schedule:
Monday- easy recovery running
Tuesday- uphill running workout
Wednesday- easy recovery running
Thursday- easy recovery running, easy spinning
Friday- easy recovery running
Saturday- 5+ mile running leg in triathlon relay, easy spinning
Sunday- long run, easy spinning
Posted by Meghan at 8:27 PM | Comments (0)