Run

Afternoon run around the fields. Didn't sleep well last night so I wasn't about to get out of bed at 6 for a run. Finished at work early, so I came home and went out. It was a nice day, but kind of hot and my gut always feels heavy if it's not the morning. Plus I was kind of phlemy the whole time.

Library: saw Pug coming out of their neighborhood and picked him up. They all ran Snow Canyon half on Saturday, so he was sore and needed a shake out. No one else was running today. Kept a decent pace considering the uphill and his soreness. After I dropped him off, I ran the last mile back home almost all out. Felt good to go fast, but I'm a little disappointed that it was only 6:40. There's no downhill and some good uphill up the Dam road, but I'm not very fast anymore. I need to do some speed work.

Buena Vista: the cold mornings have been scaring me off for the last week. Plus I had a bit of a cold last Friday and Saturday. The weather report said 38 for this morning, but the thermometer said 32 when I left and 30 when I got back. Was cold most of the run, but did warm up a bit by the end until I got back into the fields and then hit a cold spot like turning on a light switch in a dark room.

Felt sluggish the whole way, but the average was 7:41 and the slowest mile was 8:07, mostly uphill.  Both hips were a bit sore by the end.

Fields loop: just slow and easy after my hips were sore all day Wednesday, but felt better yesterday. It's the sitting at work. Warmer today, around 42. Below 40 I don't like. Bought a jacket today so maybe that will help, but I probably won't get it until Christmas.

Browse Guard Station: I've been wanting to do this forever after finding out about the old guard station and the sequoia tree. Measuring on Google Earth I figured it was about 7 miles from the freeway to the guard station. Back in July after I ran Kolob Arch I drove up the dirt road and scoped it out. Found the first 3 miles or so of the road to be no problem for a car, so that could cut down the distance and vertical considerably. I haven't had a chance to try it because of the injury during the summer and soccer games and things. Finally thought I'd give it a shot today.

Woke up this morning and saw clouds in the sky and rain on the ground and was a bit worried about what the weather would be like up there. Figured I'd at least give it a shot. Drove up to exit 30, Browse, and headed west on the dirt road about 3.5 miles to the end of the gravel road. Started running at the gate where the maintained road ends.

First mile was mostly downhill to the creek crossing, then a mile of steady uphill to a nice grassy area and the trailhead for the old Cottonwood-Harmon Trail. Mile 3 was mostly uphill climbing, but awesome views of the West Temple in Zion to the east. Miles 3 and 4 had a lot of clay and were pretty muddy, so I was slowed by the extra weight on my shoes and being careful with my footing.

Measured 4.13 miles to the guard station in a beautiful grove of ponderosa and oak. Unfortunately it's too late in the season for fall colors, but it was a beautiful setting and day. The sequoia tree planted by the CCC in the 30s lived up to the billing and was awesome.

Took a little detour on the way back down along an old road where they rerounted it. Fun to explore those random paths seen in Google Earth. 

This is one of my top 5 runs of all time.  The weather was perfect. Had a few sprinkles but was dry for the most part. Only had the sun on me once and I got a little warm, but the clouds soon covered it again. It started raining pretty hard about 2 minutes from my car so I finished just in time. 

Met up with the guys and ran down Riverside. I told Kami I'd be home at 6:45 so I had to turn around 2.5 miles in when it became apparent I wasn't gonna have time to go the whole 6. Ran back as fast as I could averaging around a 7:00 pace on the way back which is slightly uphill. Still trying to figure out where I fit in with this group.

Met up with the Dowers from the running club and some others at Chuckwalla and ran some trails in the Paradise Canyon section of the reserve.  Ran Chuckawalla, Beck Hill, Scout Cave to the overlook, and Turtle Wall. I ran another loop with Rachel Cieslewicz up Beck Hill and down Paradise Rim. It was fun to meet her and talk about her brother and sister who I went to high school with. A nice morning and fun run. Lots of people out for the holiday. Too bad it takes 20 minutes with no traffic to get there because it would be a fun place to run often, especially for short 5 to 9 mile trail runs.

Icehouse. Been wanting to do this again since the first time I turned around about a half mile from the end without realizing it. Started running at 7:30 as the sun was coming up so despite the temp being 34, I wasn't too cold. Left my beanie on the trail sign at the top of the hill after walking up most of it (avg pace for that half mile section was over 16:00). Kept a decent pace most of the way up. 

The fire has turned a lot of the hillside into a cool moonscape look. The trail has washed out pretty bad in some places and I lost it for about a mile on the way up. There were also a lot of tumbleweeds, the nasty ones with the stickers. As I approached the wildlife guzzler I spotted a truck up ahead a bit. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had driven around the gate (the fence is totally down) and were trying to hunt coyotes. They really didn't seem like they knew what they were doing as they said something about downloading some coyote calls from the internet and playing them from an Ipod hooked up to a speaker on the top of the truck cab. Then he pulls out a map printed off of Google Maps or something and says they were going to take this "road" that goes all the way down to Washington. I had to inform them that it wasn't a road and only a trail and that cut in the hillside they could see north of Washington isn't even passable by the heartiest Jeep. They seemed to appreciate my advice and decided they better get their truck out of the reserve before they got in trouble.

I got to the "Broken Mesa" trailhead (stupid name since it's not Broken Mesa Rim Trail) and measured it at 6.4 miles including the "illegal" trail section from Green Springs. The fire has left it very open up there and made it possible for some easy cross country travel. I hugged the rim for the first little section and found an old road that goes off the lava top into a canyon on the east side. From the map it looks like the head of Mill Creek. Someday I'll need to explore that one. Cruised back down and enjoyed the views. Right hip a little sore. Knees and ankles felt great, which may be a first for a rough trail run like this.

Fields loop. Cold and dark. Guess I could have gotten up 15 minutes earlier and ran with the guys, but I'm just so asocial. Actually saw them about a quarter mile ahead of me. I'm content with the solitude though.

Library. Had to get up this morning after missing Wednesday. Warmer with some cloud cover and a full moon. Never felt good for the whole run and just happy to be done. Stopped my watch without looking exactly at 40:00.