Where's the Donuts?

I flew to Salt Lake City on Friday with a few friends from high school. Our trip was to go to the University of Utah/University of Washington game Saturday afternoon. I also wanted to visit a few old friends in Utah on the weekend trip, so I asked Paul if he wanted to meet up for a run. He didn't, but he told me about the little OctoberFast 5k that he was going to be in SLC to help out with. I haven't been training to race, but it was a sunny morning and I was on vacation. So why not? 

We showed up a little later than planned and walked onto the Highland High track at five minutes to nine or so. Jake and Andrea seemed willing to allow a late entry, so I jogged about 200 meters with a few strides, lined up and we were off.

I had zero plan going into this, so I just ran a comfortable first lap to see where I could be, then decided to hold the pace. I was around 85 seconds for the first two, but backed off to between 88 and 91 for all of the other laps. Jake and the other leaders moved out pretty quickly, but I ran with another guy for the 6 laps or so then was solo for the second half and just focused on sticking the pace. That felt really comfortable, which is fine because I wasn't sure how the last mile would have felt had I pushed more. (I don't always trust the altitude response, so I was cautious.) 

Ended up with an 18:30 and a smile on my face. Most importantly, Paul had donuts in the car waiting. Cooled down two more laps, then we went up the canyon for breakfast.

Jaguars cross country practice, another small crowd but at least the rain stopped and we got in a good workout.

14-minute slow warmup around Olympic College, form drills and stretching, then a half mile or so to a hill and 6x200 meter hill repeats. I ran them close to my normal pace, let the kids chase me. Then back to the track, and I ran another two miles or so on my own. 43:00. 

supernova glide blue

Afternoon XC practice. 15 minutes warm-up to Evergreen-Rotary Park, stretching and form drills, then 6x250 with a rest of about 1 minute between each. Then cooled down back to Bremerton High. No additional run afterward. 29:00 

Foggy morning at Beach Drive, Mike and I left a little late (my fault) and cut the run short at 7. But a good pace and it was a really calm morning. New shoes felt good, I can tell the old supernovas had too many miles on them. 52:03

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Kind of a last-minute adventure into the Cascades with Krissy, Justin Angle and Bryan Estes. We met in the dark and drove up past Cle Elum to a trailhead to Ingalls Peak, where Justin had mapped out a loop of 20-25. Really pretty drive, and the sun was trying to come out as we arrived. 

The first 60 minutes or so were a steady grind, then we dropped down a steep descent to the campground and saw some hikers. We chatted it up, looked at the fall larch, and kept moving. Somewhere in the next few miles we lost our way, and the trails didn't match with our map. Too many unmarked ATV trails confused us, as well as one washout that we suspect may have been the turn we should have taken. So we ambled around, down and up one long hill, for an hour or so. We finally turned and decided to bag the loop, saw a bare ridgeline and decided to scale it just for a view and something different. It was steep, I was taxed going up that thing but the view over Ingalls Peak was worth it. We got a little misted on, but not soaked or anything.

Then we ran back, sun coming back out and day hikers heading up. The long descent to the car started working me over, my energy level was lagging by then but I kept up. Had been awhile since I'd gone that far.

Ended up being out there for 4.5 hours and climbed over 6,000 feet total, the 20 miles is kind of a guess.

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Jaguars XC practice. 15 minutes easy around Olympic College to warm up, 8 hill repeats, then back to the high school. Then another 1.5 miles on my own or so. 

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Morning run on 11th-Shore loop. Pretty nice actually, dry today and mild. Medium pace, my quads are still feeling beat up from Sunday's adventure. 37:59

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Today's trail run turned into a chantrelle mushroom treasure hunt, so it ended up a little shorter than planned. That's all right though, I'm now planning on the Lake Padden Trail Half next weekend and probably didn't need a real big run. 

Mike and I met at Klahowya Secondary School at dawn, and ran into the Newberry Heritage Park trail network just west of the school. 30 minutes or so in there, the trails are  very well maintained and marked, and there's nothing steep. Then we crossed the road into the new trail areas on the other side of the school, and at about 33 minutes noticed some mushrooms on the side of the trail (on the "Chantrelle Trail," of course). Finding chantrelles is like striking a vein of gold, so we stopped and followed it back into the forest, and picked three big bags. These things sell for $8/pound at the grocery store, so it's worth your time and a good idea to carry a plastic bag on October runs.

Then we stashed our pickings and headed out on the Old Trail loop, which is advertised as four miles but probably is short of that. Then we went back to the cache, pick up our bags and walked out with some old man and his dog. Sun was up by that time, looked like a beautiful day was coming, so we went and found some coffee. 53:25

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Evening run on the Warren-Manette bridge loop, watched the sun set in orange and purple behind the Olympics. Ran a brisk pace, in part to beat the sunset and just because I felt springy after work. Needed to burn some steam, I suppose. 37:25

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XC practice w/Asher; 14 minute warm-up, 12 minutes w/8 fartleks of 30-45 seconds; 6 minutes or so cool down; then I ran another 10 minutes on the track myself. 41:20

supernova glide

I had this one one my mind for a few weeks because I'd been looking for a reason to drive up to Skagit Valley. But when I went to sign up the week before the race was sold out. I decided to go for it anyway, signed up for the wait list and figured if I couldn't run I'd volunteer then run the course after the race. 

I think the lousy October weather may have helped me this time. Woke up to a pretty steady downpour, and when we arrived at the race it seemed pretty sparse (everyone was probably in their cars). I went over to the registration tent, and then the woman said my name wasn't even on the wait list. So I explain to another woman what I want to do, and she says "You can have my number, I'm not running in this." So technically I was Teresa something for the official scoring (they corrected the name before awards, luckily.)

Anyway, the course was a lot of fun, I hadn't run at Lake Padden since high school xc. I tried to take it easy through the first loop of trails and was pretty succesful, I didn't get pulled along to fast and ended up catching a number of the guys who whizzed past early (but still hit the three-mile mark at 23:00 or so). The first half was a good mix of up and down, with some steady but moderate switchback climbs. Very messy, muddy and soaked trails, but that's fun once you get going. The sun even peeked out about 35 minutes in and the rain held off for the remainder.

After six the route loops Lake Padden, which is a fairly flat gravel trail. I ran that part solo, then reeled in four or five people on the second (shorter) loop backward through the trail part. I ran smart enough that I had energy to pick up the pace heading into the final three miles, and ran sub-7 for the last mile to finish strong and with a smile. Left two guys less than a minute in front of me, that's my only regret. Otherwise a really well-run race, fun course, a good confidence boost for me after the lousy trails 1/2 two months ago, and a little inspiration headed into the winter months.

brooks cascadia

Dark and getting cold after work, so to the Y treadmill for 5 miles. 7:40 pace according to the machine, but it never feels like that. 

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Cold, wet and rainy run in Chicago, had the lakeshore path and Montrose Park by myself for awhile in that crap. Pretty quick pace though, I was hurrying. 56:10

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Six on the Des Plaines River trial near my parents' house. Really nice fall day in the Midwest, and it's a beautiful, flat trail to run on. 43:48

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