This week was a little rough for me. I didn't feel all that great for most of it. Mostly lack of energy, likely due to diet, and motivation issues. There were also some other things that got in the way this week overall to make this a bit of a downer week. So my mileage was a little lower than I would like and my performance not so great, but I got through it.
Monday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - As I went to the garage to get the bike and ride to the workout with Mark and the others I discovered a flat tire. So I had to run the 3.5 miles from TWU to McLeod park. Chris saw me running and picked me up about a mile from the park, so that was good. We did a fartlek as usual, what kind escapes me at this particular moment. It was something like 2 minutes on, 1 minute off where the on was just faster than tempo and the off was just slower than tempo. I kept up for the first 3 or 4 then started to lag because my legs were heavy, I was tired, and I'd already run a few miles before we even warmed up with our normal 20 minutes warmup. To be honest though, I don't know if I'd have done much better if I felt all that great, so maybe I'm just complaining. All in all I put in about 9 miles for this half of the day.
Tuesday:
AM - 5 miles easy
I was tired and didn't go for another run today.
Wednesday:
PM - A good 10 miles at a decent pace around the Houston Trail.
Thursday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy
Friday:
AM - 5 miles with some of it at tempo pace
PM - again I didn't feel too good to I skipped this run.
Saturday:
PM - I went for a nice good 15 mile run and felt much better today than the rest of the week.
So I put in about 54 miles this week, so I guess it was more of a down week after more mileage last week. Hopefully this next week will be a little better and the week after that I can really put in some good miles.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Week 12: July 10-16
This week I had a really hard time holding back my mileage. I feel like I can be doing a whole lot more, but coach wants me to not push it it too high yet. But its coming down to I'm getting tired of 5 mile runs which are the easy runs I do. I want to add more mileage as 5 miles seems more like a warmup now than anything else. I also have been having a hard time not increasing my long runs. He doesn't want me going too much over 90 minutes at this point, so that kind of limits my mileage too. Even with all this, I'm going over 60 miles this week, and I couldn't really help it. Here is what I did.
Monday:
I was still a bit tired from all the hiking and camping, especially the leg-pounding I did running down the mountains Saturday and Sunday as well as the run I did on Friday evening. So I just turned today into a recovery run and chose not to run the fartlek with the rest of the guys and shift that to tuesday.
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy
Tuesday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - I went out to the Fort-to-Fort trail and to the Houston Trail at Derby reach. At Derby reach I started the fartlek that the others did yesterday which was a Mona fartlek. For the uninitiated, a Mona fartlek is intervals of 2x90sec, 4x60sec, 4x30sec, 4x15sec, with equal rest in between. The rest isn't really rest, but just a different tempo. I went at about 10k-15k tempo pace during the on portion and around 30k-marathon tempo pace for the off portion. The total mileage came out to about 7.5 miles
Wednesday:
PM - I went out to the same trail at Derby reach as yesterday and went around it twice adding 2.5 miles so my mileage for the day was 10 miles.
Thursday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy
Friday:
AM - It was going to be 5 miles easy, but turned into more of a tempo run. After putting my Vibrams back on after the first mile I was feeling really good and just started picking up the pace. I don't know at what pace I was holding the other 3 miles, but the last mile was in around 5:30-5:40. It felt great and I hopped on my bike and finished riding to CanIL.
PM - 5 miles easy
Saturday:
I'll probably get in trouble for this, but today I did a bike ride and a run. At CanIL over the summers we do a "Tour de CanIL" and get together for a bike ride. Today's ride was a bit wet, but we had like 10 or 12 people show up so it was nice. The ride was about 37k total, which was a relaxed pace for me until I took off with 12k to go. Add that to my normal 24k commute from home to school, school to Fort langley for a run, and back, and I'll have put in about 62k of biking today. I then took a nap after eating some oatmeal at the brunch. I got up a little after 3, got something to drink and chatted with a friend for a few minutes and headed out to Fort Langley for my run. It was a nice easy pace and I put in around 13 miles, 13.5 max in 98 minutes. So all in all I adding biking and running I put in about 83k of distance covered today which is almost 52 miles. Not a bad day.
Overall this week felt great and I'm ready to up the mileage some more. We'll see though. Total running mileage was about 65 miles this week and I'll be getting a bit of riding in commuting each day, which I started on Thursday. I've also been adding some habits to my routine like dousing my groin area with water before and during runs to help prevent abrasions and I even taped my nipples down with duct tape today to prevent nipple burn from riding so long and running with a wet shirt on. It worked great. So I'm learning a few new tricks. Now its time to finish my ride home as I am at school and filthy and smelly and take a shower, get cleaned up, and eat some dinner.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday:
I was still a bit tired from all the hiking and camping, especially the leg-pounding I did running down the mountains Saturday and Sunday as well as the run I did on Friday evening. So I just turned today into a recovery run and chose not to run the fartlek with the rest of the guys and shift that to tuesday.
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy
Tuesday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - I went out to the Fort-to-Fort trail and to the Houston Trail at Derby reach. At Derby reach I started the fartlek that the others did yesterday which was a Mona fartlek. For the uninitiated, a Mona fartlek is intervals of 2x90sec, 4x60sec, 4x30sec, 4x15sec, with equal rest in between. The rest isn't really rest, but just a different tempo. I went at about 10k-15k tempo pace during the on portion and around 30k-marathon tempo pace for the off portion. The total mileage came out to about 7.5 miles
Wednesday:
PM - I went out to the same trail at Derby reach as yesterday and went around it twice adding 2.5 miles so my mileage for the day was 10 miles.
Thursday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy
Friday:
AM - It was going to be 5 miles easy, but turned into more of a tempo run. After putting my Vibrams back on after the first mile I was feeling really good and just started picking up the pace. I don't know at what pace I was holding the other 3 miles, but the last mile was in around 5:30-5:40. It felt great and I hopped on my bike and finished riding to CanIL.
PM - 5 miles easy
Saturday:
I'll probably get in trouble for this, but today I did a bike ride and a run. At CanIL over the summers we do a "Tour de CanIL" and get together for a bike ride. Today's ride was a bit wet, but we had like 10 or 12 people show up so it was nice. The ride was about 37k total, which was a relaxed pace for me until I took off with 12k to go. Add that to my normal 24k commute from home to school, school to Fort langley for a run, and back, and I'll have put in about 62k of biking today. I then took a nap after eating some oatmeal at the brunch. I got up a little after 3, got something to drink and chatted with a friend for a few minutes and headed out to Fort Langley for my run. It was a nice easy pace and I put in around 13 miles, 13.5 max in 98 minutes. So all in all I adding biking and running I put in about 83k of distance covered today which is almost 52 miles. Not a bad day.
Overall this week felt great and I'm ready to up the mileage some more. We'll see though. Total running mileage was about 65 miles this week and I'll be getting a bit of riding in commuting each day, which I started on Thursday. I've also been adding some habits to my routine like dousing my groin area with water before and during runs to help prevent abrasions and I even taped my nipples down with duct tape today to prevent nipple burn from riding so long and running with a wet shirt on. It worked great. So I'm learning a few new tricks. Now its time to finish my ride home as I am at school and filthy and smelly and take a shower, get cleaned up, and eat some dinner.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Week 11: July 4 - 9
Monday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - I ran with Mark and the other guys starting at Fort Langley out to Derby Reach to a service road with a slight gradual incline for a few strides up the hill for 10x20 second bursts for form. We came back and I'd guess that makes it about a 6 mile run.
Tuesday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy
Wednesday:
AM - Wake up super early for an EEG appointment in Vancouver after 4 hours of sleep. Ick. Glad I took a nap when I got home.
PM - 8 miles on the Fort-to-Fort trail at faster than recovery pace, but still relaxed.
Thursday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy and tossed the frisbee around a bit but no game because everyone was probably trying to finish all their homework that was due on Friday before the campout.
Friday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - We arrived in Squamish and so my run was a little later than usual, around 6 PM, but it was nice. I started at camp with Tim as we jogged out looking for the correct trail up to Brohm Lake. After a few misses, we finally hit the right trail just as Kevin came bounding down the trail exclaiming "I found you guys!". So he joined us 10 minutes into the run as we started climbing up towards the lake which was a really steep climb. It was rather like K2 in grade and distance, but more awkward because of running up rocks and stairs which make it impossible to take shorter steps which are much more efficient at such grades. Anyhow, it took me about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer to get to the top. I ran up towards Highway 99 a little through some brush that was encroaching the trail. I wanted to run all the way around the lake, but after reaching 99 the rest of the trail was not cleared overgrown with all kinds of fallen brush and trees on it for farther than I could see. So after climbing through that for 10 meters I turned around and headed back the other way around the lake. After running for a while I realized it had been about 50 minutes and started heading back down. My total time of running was about 65 minutes until I got to the steeper and more awkward portions of the trail on the way down as I had to slow down to not bite the rocks(dust wasn't appropriate here). So if I had to estimate I'd say the run was probably a little over 6 miles with the crazy grade at first and the general slower pace I had to go through brush and running with Tim and Kevin the first few minutes.
Saturday:
All day - Hiking up to Lake Garibaldi for some polar bear swimming and some fun. I decided not to couple my day with hiking and running, but in the end ran most of the way back down the mountain for probably about 5k worth of downhill running some of which was on tightly packed snow. It was a great hike and a lot of fun.
Sunday:
Normally I take Sundays off, but I had the chance to climb the Chief today with Jordan and Daniel after we all left Paradise Valley campground in Squamish. So we hiked up Stawamus Chief and did everything the wrong way, or at least in an unusual way. We hiked up the trail towards the third peak first which most people come down rather than go up. Almost up to the third peak we cut across the bush straight up to the second peak instead. We hung out and then headed up to the third peak for some Bible reading and deep conversation. Afterwards we headed back to the second peak and down the up trail. On the way down we saw to our right a lady with her dog and asked if the way up to the first peak was where she was. She said, "sort of". I headed up and saw a rebar ladder heading up the cliff and started climbing to Jordan's dismay. We finally got up to the first peak the shortcut way and eventually headed down towards the car. On the way down we were walking and another group of 3 guys starting running past us which Daniel apparently couldn't accept so we ran after them and ran most of the rest of the way down, which was probably a few kilometers. We went over to the bottom of Shannon falls for a great view and headed home. My legs got enough of a beating this weekend that we stopped for some meat afterwards and then headed back to Langley which I managed to stay awake all the way home. It was an amazing weekend and I thank God for the wonder of His creation.
So I ran probably somewhere around 55 miles this week without really doing any long run, which is a bummer, but Its okay, one week without a long run so far before the season won't kill me.
Running Toward God,
Jason
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - I ran with Mark and the other guys starting at Fort Langley out to Derby Reach to a service road with a slight gradual incline for a few strides up the hill for 10x20 second bursts for form. We came back and I'd guess that makes it about a 6 mile run.
Tuesday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy
Wednesday:
AM - Wake up super early for an EEG appointment in Vancouver after 4 hours of sleep. Ick. Glad I took a nap when I got home.
PM - 8 miles on the Fort-to-Fort trail at faster than recovery pace, but still relaxed.
Thursday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - 5 miles easy and tossed the frisbee around a bit but no game because everyone was probably trying to finish all their homework that was due on Friday before the campout.
Friday:
AM - 5 miles easy
PM - We arrived in Squamish and so my run was a little later than usual, around 6 PM, but it was nice. I started at camp with Tim as we jogged out looking for the correct trail up to Brohm Lake. After a few misses, we finally hit the right trail just as Kevin came bounding down the trail exclaiming "I found you guys!". So he joined us 10 minutes into the run as we started climbing up towards the lake which was a really steep climb. It was rather like K2 in grade and distance, but more awkward because of running up rocks and stairs which make it impossible to take shorter steps which are much more efficient at such grades. Anyhow, it took me about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer to get to the top. I ran up towards Highway 99 a little through some brush that was encroaching the trail. I wanted to run all the way around the lake, but after reaching 99 the rest of the trail was not cleared overgrown with all kinds of fallen brush and trees on it for farther than I could see. So after climbing through that for 10 meters I turned around and headed back the other way around the lake. After running for a while I realized it had been about 50 minutes and started heading back down. My total time of running was about 65 minutes until I got to the steeper and more awkward portions of the trail on the way down as I had to slow down to not bite the rocks(dust wasn't appropriate here). So if I had to estimate I'd say the run was probably a little over 6 miles with the crazy grade at first and the general slower pace I had to go through brush and running with Tim and Kevin the first few minutes.
Saturday:
All day - Hiking up to Lake Garibaldi for some polar bear swimming and some fun. I decided not to couple my day with hiking and running, but in the end ran most of the way back down the mountain for probably about 5k worth of downhill running some of which was on tightly packed snow. It was a great hike and a lot of fun.
Sunday:
Normally I take Sundays off, but I had the chance to climb the Chief today with Jordan and Daniel after we all left Paradise Valley campground in Squamish. So we hiked up Stawamus Chief and did everything the wrong way, or at least in an unusual way. We hiked up the trail towards the third peak first which most people come down rather than go up. Almost up to the third peak we cut across the bush straight up to the second peak instead. We hung out and then headed up to the third peak for some Bible reading and deep conversation. Afterwards we headed back to the second peak and down the up trail. On the way down we saw to our right a lady with her dog and asked if the way up to the first peak was where she was. She said, "sort of". I headed up and saw a rebar ladder heading up the cliff and started climbing to Jordan's dismay. We finally got up to the first peak the shortcut way and eventually headed down towards the car. On the way down we were walking and another group of 3 guys starting running past us which Daniel apparently couldn't accept so we ran after them and ran most of the rest of the way down, which was probably a few kilometers. We went over to the bottom of Shannon falls for a great view and headed home. My legs got enough of a beating this weekend that we stopped for some meat afterwards and then headed back to Langley which I managed to stay awake all the way home. It was an amazing weekend and I thank God for the wonder of His creation.
So I ran probably somewhere around 55 miles this week without really doing any long run, which is a bummer, but Its okay, one week without a long run so far before the season won't kill me.
Running Toward God,
Jason
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Week 10: June 27 - July 2
This week was fun and fairly relaxed. At this point I'm just maintaining mileage per my coach's wishes.
Monday:
I got together with Mark and some teammates out at McLeod park. We went for a warmup to check out possible loops for future practices and I figure it was around 15-20 warmup. We then got in a few drills and got into the meat of the workout, 20 minutes of fartlek. We did 1-2-3-2-1-1-2-1 minute spurts of tempo pace with a 1 minute hard recovery in between each interval. We were tired afterwards, but not excessively so. Then 10 minutes of jogging, more drills, and 5 minutes more cooldown to finish up our workout. I would figure it was somewhere around 8 miles.
Tuesday:
I was a little sore from Monday, but not much.
AM: 5 miles easy
PM: 5 miles easy
Wednesday:
AM: 5 miles at harder than easy, but still relaxed
PM: I went running with Kevin who is trying to start running a little more regularly (he bought himself a pair of Vibrams last year after meeting me at CanIL for the summer, he's trying to use those, but I'm trying to get him to ease into them). We got started later than I had wanted and when we got back the gates on the parking lot we parked in were closed! We searched around for some other way out, found an opening chained off and tried to get the chain off, but to no avail. In the meantime we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes and I currently have no less than 10-15 mosquito bites on my legs and other places. Eventually as a last resort we drove down to the lower gate that looked like it was raised higher than the others and my corolla managed to slip under the gate unscathed. Interesting little adventure. No more parking there in the evenings! So the run was very easy the first 1.5 miles with Kevin then I kicked it up several notches when he turned back to the car and was holding a fairly good tempo pace the rest of the way until I met back up with Kevin. 5 miles in total.
Thursday:
AM: I changed my routine a little and didn't run at 7AM. I slept in a little and went to work as a TA and went for my run afterwards instead. It was a simple 4 miles out and 4 miles back for a nice casual 8 mile run on the Fort-to-Fort trail.
PM: I've been organizing Ultimate Frisbee for everyone at CanIL on Thursdays and this week was a blast. Three guys from an Engineering conference that was on our campus joined us for some play and they were exceptional players. One in particular, Dominic, is a Master's steeplechaser and a good one. I was too busy covering him to do any kind of zone defense, he was too good. We played for about an hour and a half and as per usual I always play barefoot. We then met up with 2 of the guys and a few other CanILers for some volleyball on the sand a couple hours later and they even gave me one of their discs which was an UltraStar 175 gram disc with the ORU logo and a Bible verse on it. ORU is a school in Oklahoma that the team I met in Tanzania was from, so that was an interesting connection. I need to look into maybe getting some TWU or CanIL quality discs like these printed. Anyhow, my feet are always too tired after Ultimate to go for another run on Thursday evenings.
Friday:
Canada Day! This was a fun day.
AM: 5 miles easy
PM: 5 miles easy
This day was interspersed with running, moose massacreing (a moose pinata that met a gruesome yet noble end), some video games, more running, pinochle, Oh Heck!(card game), Fireworks, Hot Cocoa, and Worship time until the wee hours of the morning. This day honesty couldn't have been much better, for which I praise God Almighty.
Saturday:
I didn't think it was possible, but this day was even better than Friday. I got to sleep in again and go out for a run at 10AM. It was another out and back starting in Fort Langley, but today I decided I would go further along the trail than I'd ever gone (since I found out last week it kept going and didn't stop). As I started out I saw another runner on the trail a little ways ahead and although I was only just warming up a bit he was keeping a decent pace that I was only gradual gaining on him. He stopped and talked with a couple ladies he knew a few minutes later and I passed him assuming that'd be the last time I'd see him. A few miles down the trail I took one of the side trails and as I came out along the road at Edge Bar he was running along the road where I exited the trail. So being the competetive sort I took off assuming he'd probably be turning around anytime soon and I wouldn't see him again. I gradually grew into a more casual pace after I couldn't see him behind me anymore and explored the trail a bit. As the trail came out onto the roads at the end of that section I stopped to look at the sign and see the map. I was standing there about a minute as this guy comes running through again! I have to guess he took another trail than I did which was slightly shorter since I was most definitely going faster than he was at this point. So this man intrigued me so I sidled up alongside him and we started talking. His name was Andy and he was training for a marathon. He lives in Walnut Grove so he was towards the end of his run and heading back there which is why he wasn't going to be turning around like I had assumed because he already had turned around! Anyhow, I was getting close to my turnaround point of 50 minutes so we only had about 8 minutes to chat, but he was a very pleasant guy and I enjoyed his company. So we parted ways and I turned around at 50 minutes and probably only a couple of miles away from the Golden Ears Bridge (after I joined up with Andy we went up the road instead of following the trail further which heads to the Golden Ears Bridge). It was at least 7 miles out from Fort Langley, possibly up to about 7.5 miles out. I took to a few minutes of harder running interspersed with a more casual pace as I headed back, though the closer I got the longer my harder spurts would last. I got back about 2 minutes faster than I went out and was pleased with my 14-15 mile run. Now it was time to go to TWU and get ready for the hike later that afternoon.
PM: There was a huge group of us heading to Golden Ears to do the Lower Falls Trail. It is a casual hike with a possible more intense hike after the lower falls to another fall a little ways up the canyon. The trail is probably about 1.5-2 miles long and parts of it were a little muddy, which was to be expected and was rather pleasant to feel in between my toes in my Vibrams. After climbing stumps and scaring a few friends who weren't paying attention we got to the falls and a group of us took off for the other fall. We headed up the trail and as we went it was not what I recognized from the year before so I wanted to head back and find that trail, but some of the people with me urged us on wanting to see if this one might take us there too. It met up with a horse trail that we followed for a while until I knew we had gone too far. So we headed back and saw some trail markers down the mountainside in the brush toward where we could hear the falls. On the way down we saw Christina, Jesse, Liz, and maybe a couple others who had started a little later but had the same destination as us. A little confused I decided to bushwhack straight down and see what I could find. After 2 minutes of doing that I came to a cliff. So I climbed back up and followed another set of trail markers and intercepted the group coming down into the falls from a slightly different angle. Enjoying the magnificence of God's creation we sat around for a while. There is a cliff overhanging the fall on the other side of the river that I had wanted to find a way to last year but could not. This year I was more determined. I hiked up river a few minutes and finding no way to do it dry, walked as far as I could across until I had to swim. It was a little unnerving since the current was rather strong, but I made it to the eddy I was aiming for and climbed my way back to the fall. It was amazing fun and I had conquered the river this year. I spent maybe a minute there knowing we had to be heading back. So I took my time being careful not to slip on the slippery rocks back up to my crossing and swam back across which was much easier than the other direction. I picked up my pants that I had discarded (I was still wearing my running shorts underneath) and headed back as quickly as I could. I needed to get going because the car I had ridden in noone but me had headed up here so I knew they'd be waiting. Then there was also the fact that while I was crossing the river again everyone else had headed back, and we were the tail end of our large group because we were the more adventurous sort. So I picked up my bag and started jogging when I could and climbing down the mountain. I passed the first 5 of that group at the lower falls and started to run along the trail and ran all the way back eventually passing the other 4 a few minutes later. I made it back to the cars not too long after and even made it back at about the same time as Brian and his family. My car had been waiting for me about 20 minutes, so it could have been far worse. But I still feel bad for making them have to wait for me. Either way I had a lot of fun. I'd taxed my body so much this day that I had a hard time even making it to 9 o-clock which is when I went to bed. A total of about 16 miles was run today at least.
Week: 62 miles
Running Toward God,
Jason
Monday:
I got together with Mark and some teammates out at McLeod park. We went for a warmup to check out possible loops for future practices and I figure it was around 15-20 warmup. We then got in a few drills and got into the meat of the workout, 20 minutes of fartlek. We did 1-2-3-2-1-1-2-1 minute spurts of tempo pace with a 1 minute hard recovery in between each interval. We were tired afterwards, but not excessively so. Then 10 minutes of jogging, more drills, and 5 minutes more cooldown to finish up our workout. I would figure it was somewhere around 8 miles.
Tuesday:
I was a little sore from Monday, but not much.
AM: 5 miles easy
PM: 5 miles easy
Wednesday:
AM: 5 miles at harder than easy, but still relaxed
PM: I went running with Kevin who is trying to start running a little more regularly (he bought himself a pair of Vibrams last year after meeting me at CanIL for the summer, he's trying to use those, but I'm trying to get him to ease into them). We got started later than I had wanted and when we got back the gates on the parking lot we parked in were closed! We searched around for some other way out, found an opening chained off and tried to get the chain off, but to no avail. In the meantime we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes and I currently have no less than 10-15 mosquito bites on my legs and other places. Eventually as a last resort we drove down to the lower gate that looked like it was raised higher than the others and my corolla managed to slip under the gate unscathed. Interesting little adventure. No more parking there in the evenings! So the run was very easy the first 1.5 miles with Kevin then I kicked it up several notches when he turned back to the car and was holding a fairly good tempo pace the rest of the way until I met back up with Kevin. 5 miles in total.
Thursday:
AM: I changed my routine a little and didn't run at 7AM. I slept in a little and went to work as a TA and went for my run afterwards instead. It was a simple 4 miles out and 4 miles back for a nice casual 8 mile run on the Fort-to-Fort trail.
PM: I've been organizing Ultimate Frisbee for everyone at CanIL on Thursdays and this week was a blast. Three guys from an Engineering conference that was on our campus joined us for some play and they were exceptional players. One in particular, Dominic, is a Master's steeplechaser and a good one. I was too busy covering him to do any kind of zone defense, he was too good. We played for about an hour and a half and as per usual I always play barefoot. We then met up with 2 of the guys and a few other CanILers for some volleyball on the sand a couple hours later and they even gave me one of their discs which was an UltraStar 175 gram disc with the ORU logo and a Bible verse on it. ORU is a school in Oklahoma that the team I met in Tanzania was from, so that was an interesting connection. I need to look into maybe getting some TWU or CanIL quality discs like these printed. Anyhow, my feet are always too tired after Ultimate to go for another run on Thursday evenings.
Friday:
Canada Day! This was a fun day.
AM: 5 miles easy
PM: 5 miles easy
This day was interspersed with running, moose massacreing (a moose pinata that met a gruesome yet noble end), some video games, more running, pinochle, Oh Heck!(card game), Fireworks, Hot Cocoa, and Worship time until the wee hours of the morning. This day honesty couldn't have been much better, for which I praise God Almighty.
Saturday:
I didn't think it was possible, but this day was even better than Friday. I got to sleep in again and go out for a run at 10AM. It was another out and back starting in Fort Langley, but today I decided I would go further along the trail than I'd ever gone (since I found out last week it kept going and didn't stop). As I started out I saw another runner on the trail a little ways ahead and although I was only just warming up a bit he was keeping a decent pace that I was only gradual gaining on him. He stopped and talked with a couple ladies he knew a few minutes later and I passed him assuming that'd be the last time I'd see him. A few miles down the trail I took one of the side trails and as I came out along the road at Edge Bar he was running along the road where I exited the trail. So being the competetive sort I took off assuming he'd probably be turning around anytime soon and I wouldn't see him again. I gradually grew into a more casual pace after I couldn't see him behind me anymore and explored the trail a bit. As the trail came out onto the roads at the end of that section I stopped to look at the sign and see the map. I was standing there about a minute as this guy comes running through again! I have to guess he took another trail than I did which was slightly shorter since I was most definitely going faster than he was at this point. So this man intrigued me so I sidled up alongside him and we started talking. His name was Andy and he was training for a marathon. He lives in Walnut Grove so he was towards the end of his run and heading back there which is why he wasn't going to be turning around like I had assumed because he already had turned around! Anyhow, I was getting close to my turnaround point of 50 minutes so we only had about 8 minutes to chat, but he was a very pleasant guy and I enjoyed his company. So we parted ways and I turned around at 50 minutes and probably only a couple of miles away from the Golden Ears Bridge (after I joined up with Andy we went up the road instead of following the trail further which heads to the Golden Ears Bridge). It was at least 7 miles out from Fort Langley, possibly up to about 7.5 miles out. I took to a few minutes of harder running interspersed with a more casual pace as I headed back, though the closer I got the longer my harder spurts would last. I got back about 2 minutes faster than I went out and was pleased with my 14-15 mile run. Now it was time to go to TWU and get ready for the hike later that afternoon.
PM: There was a huge group of us heading to Golden Ears to do the Lower Falls Trail. It is a casual hike with a possible more intense hike after the lower falls to another fall a little ways up the canyon. The trail is probably about 1.5-2 miles long and parts of it were a little muddy, which was to be expected and was rather pleasant to feel in between my toes in my Vibrams. After climbing stumps and scaring a few friends who weren't paying attention we got to the falls and a group of us took off for the other fall. We headed up the trail and as we went it was not what I recognized from the year before so I wanted to head back and find that trail, but some of the people with me urged us on wanting to see if this one might take us there too. It met up with a horse trail that we followed for a while until I knew we had gone too far. So we headed back and saw some trail markers down the mountainside in the brush toward where we could hear the falls. On the way down we saw Christina, Jesse, Liz, and maybe a couple others who had started a little later but had the same destination as us. A little confused I decided to bushwhack straight down and see what I could find. After 2 minutes of doing that I came to a cliff. So I climbed back up and followed another set of trail markers and intercepted the group coming down into the falls from a slightly different angle. Enjoying the magnificence of God's creation we sat around for a while. There is a cliff overhanging the fall on the other side of the river that I had wanted to find a way to last year but could not. This year I was more determined. I hiked up river a few minutes and finding no way to do it dry, walked as far as I could across until I had to swim. It was a little unnerving since the current was rather strong, but I made it to the eddy I was aiming for and climbed my way back to the fall. It was amazing fun and I had conquered the river this year. I spent maybe a minute there knowing we had to be heading back. So I took my time being careful not to slip on the slippery rocks back up to my crossing and swam back across which was much easier than the other direction. I picked up my pants that I had discarded (I was still wearing my running shorts underneath) and headed back as quickly as I could. I needed to get going because the car I had ridden in noone but me had headed up here so I knew they'd be waiting. Then there was also the fact that while I was crossing the river again everyone else had headed back, and we were the tail end of our large group because we were the more adventurous sort. So I picked up my bag and started jogging when I could and climbing down the mountain. I passed the first 5 of that group at the lower falls and started to run along the trail and ran all the way back eventually passing the other 4 a few minutes later. I made it back to the cars not too long after and even made it back at about the same time as Brian and his family. My car had been waiting for me about 20 minutes, so it could have been far worse. But I still feel bad for making them have to wait for me. Either way I had a lot of fun. I'd taxed my body so much this day that I had a hard time even making it to 9 o-clock which is when I went to bed. A total of about 16 miles was run today at least.
Week: 62 miles
Running Toward God,
Jason
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