Early mornings and big hills in Utah!

No beehives here.

I adore the color-coded, neatly ordered grid of numbers that is my training schedule. Each square holds a number for the miles that will unfold on trails and roads that day, maybe in early morning light, possibly in humid evenings. I have a printout of it at my desk at work, and I stare at it on a chalkboard in my kitchen.

Months ago, the numbers seemed monstrously big, inconceivable! Now that I'm in the thick of it, the numbers are still big enough that I feel nervous looking ahead to each run, but really psyched to see how many miles I've logged already this summer.

Mormon Temple, SLC.

Last week I had to throw out my schedule and fit in the miles around a week of travel. (Possibly the biggest news week of the last decade occurred while a few hundred public radio news managers were not in their newsrooms, but at a conference in Salt Lake City. Cue mass pandemonium and overheated cell phones.) Getting up early is rarely a choice I make willingly, but highs of 97 degrees made early morning runs the only option.

Each day I ran 6-8 miles from our hotel in City Center to the Mormon Temple, then uphill to the state Capitol, and then way up the canyon on Bonneville Road. Looping back into town, the sun would be high enough to cast buttery light across the basin of the city. The craftsman bungalows and desert architecture were a treat, and the light rail system was so impressive! (Less impressive: the cascade of wasted water running off the sprinkler system from the capitol lawn.)

Switchbacks at Snowbird.

Friday afternoon, the conference organizers set us loose at Snowbird Resort in the mountains above Salt Lake City. Gorgeous! We took the tram up to 11,000 feet and I ran the trail 5 miles down to 7,700. Quad burner, but awesome!

By weekend, I was out of Utah and in San Diego. Sunday morning run was a tour of Point Loma, Liberty Station and Shelter Island, plus I got to cheer for racers in the bike leg of the San Diego International Triathlon while I was running in the opposite direction of their ride. Go cyclists!

All in all, I got in around 50 miles on the week, which was the original goal, but those miles were spread all over the week in a weird configuration that did not respect the orderly color-coded schedule that has ruled the rest of my summer so far. Next week I resume the mantra I learned from Jess Cover: Consistency. Discipline. Consistency. Discipline.

Also adding to that: Sleep. Don't get sick. Sleep. Don't get sick. (Darn airplanes....)

Nearing the bottom of the descent at Snowbird.

Back to Back Long Runs!

Hubbard Park: Mile 15 on Day 2 of hard running.

Here’s the advice I’ve received on training for an ultra: back-to-back long runs are useful because you learn to run while fatigued, and you can get in a ton of miles over two days instead of going extremely long in one day.

This weekend, I got in a total of 25 miles, with 8 on Saturday and 17 on Sunday. I don’t think 8 miles really qualifies as a long run but these were pretty technical trail miles on the most challenging section of the Moosalamoo race course. So I’ll count this as a weekend of back-to-back hard effort!

The 17 miles on Sunday were on varied terrain in Central Vermont – dirt roads, muddy trails and paved roads. The final miles in Montpelier went up and around Hubbard Park, with a steep descent back into downtown. My legs were TOAST after this. This training run also included a pit stop at Skinny Pancake to eat a spinach & feta crepe. (You know, just because that’s how that goes.)

Thank you to the amazing people with whom I got to run this weekend: Erika, Flossie, Beth and three Middlebury Trail enthusiasts on Saturday, and Emily, who gutted out five key miles with me on Sunday. Your enthusiasm and great company were a huge part of a successful weekend!

Run-Race-Run in Hinesburg

Country roads, take me home.

Running to a destination is a good way for me to ensure that I'll cover all the miles I intend to and keep motivated to run well the whole time.

Sunday was the Equinox 10K trail race in Charlotte, and I drove down early to Hinesburg. Five-mile run from Hinesburg to Charlotte, 6-mile trail race, then 4 more miles around Charlotte and I got a lift back to my car thanks to the charismatic Covers.

During my last miles I stopped to chat with these cows. I was running by their pasture and they all sauntered up to the fence as if to say hi. I would have felt rude if I hadn't stayed to hang out for a few minutes...

Such a great day!