Long Weekend In Utah

Last weekend I took an extended weekend trip to Park City Utah to visit Meg, who is teaching at a geology field camp there this summer. It was great to visit Meg for the first time in almost 7 weeks, and to get to my fix of mountain running too!

The Wasatch Mountains

I was able to do several 3:00:00+ runs in the Wasatch mountains between 8,000 and 10,000 feet in elevation including near Alta Utah, at Jupiter Ridge near Park City, and Empire Pass outside Park City.

Meg and I trail running to an alpine lake

Trail running here was a blast!

Besides running and hiking, Meg and I ate in one of the best Thai restaurants I have ever been to, visited the Park City Olympic Training Center - site of the 2002 winter Olympic games, and found 5 geocaches in the area. The only down side of the trip was having to leave to head back to home for work. I hope to go west again this fall for a longer running and relaxation respite with Meg.

The Olympic Training Center and 2002 Olympic venue in Park City Utah

Two Weekend Long Runs

This past weekend I had the chance to do two long workouts. The first was a speed embedded long run after work on Saturday that consisted of a 1:00 warm up at long run pace, followed by 1:00 at L3 (which is ANT pace. Also know as tempo pace, it is a hard pace that you could keep up for between 10K to an hour but not much longer), and finally a bit more than a 1:00 cool down at long run pace.

At the SHT trail head near Beaver Bay/Split Rock

My second long run of the weekend was part of a trip up the shore with Tony and Dave from the Duluth Running Company team. We drove up just past the Split Rock river and ran an out and back on the Superior Hiking Trail for a bit over 2:30. It was a beautiful day...for going to the beach, but a bit hot for a long run. We were loving the shaded parts of the trail. We pushed a bit ont he return trip and had a roughly 5 minute negative split. My heart rate average for the run was 149 BPM - not bad for the 88 degree F heat and tough hills of the SHT.

Post SHT run

After the run and bit of re-hydration we trekked down the lake for a quick dip, and then refueled at the Rustic Inn. Delicious! A fun weekend of training.


The other new development in my training is my recent purchase of a Scott 29'er mountain bike. I took it out for the first time on Friday and after having ridden not more than 20 minutes crashes and nicked up my elbow and knee. Luckily they were just superficial wounds!

The new Scott 29'er mountain bike

The trail pushed back on that fall

My second trip out on the easier Piedmont ski trails Saturday evening proved a success with no crashes! I can't wait to take the mountain bike out more. Though I don't see changing my focus on running any time soon, I have been enjoying using road (and now mountain) biking as my spring and summer cross training and snowshoe running as my winter cross training.

Second time is the charm!

Have a great week everyone, and I hope to see you out on our trails!