Looking Back and Moving Ahead

The last few weeks I haven't been running all that much.  Largely this is because I took some time to reflect on the last year.  Overall it was a solid year of running but not quite what I had hoped for.  Reflecting on the year, I realized the biggest change I needed was to train a little more and race a bit less.  What I mean is that I raced Orcas Island in February, 5 weeks later ran the Georgia Death Race, 2 weeks after that ran Gorge Waterfalls, McDonald Forest followed 6 weeks later with a trip to Italy thrown in there, and Bighorn was 6 weeks after that.  Then I rushed back to running just a few days after Bighorn and soon found myself injured for the rest of the summer.
When I first looked at my spring schedule beginning last year it looked like a lot of fun with plenty of great races to keep me excited.  Honestly that wasn't the case.  The excitement seemed to spread out over all the races so there was no single race that I could barely fall asleep the night before.  And the performances were disappointing too.  I'm not saying I ran poorly, but I know that I definitely could have run faster at all those races.
What could I have done better?  Well that's what I pondered on several sun soaked hikes down in Sedona this fall.

We just scrambled around on a bunch of slick rock this trip.  We never really got that far from the car, but our red rock playground was plenty of fun for the day.

The first thing I decided to do was to take a break in the fall.  Not run much, not even run every day.  The goal was to get rested up and ready to go for next year.  Obviously my body fell apart after Bighorn, so I knew I needed to rest up and go into next year running strong.  Rest only goes so far though, but the timing of the rest this year is where I think I will find improvement over years past.  Really, scheduling of my running is the main change as I was very happy with my runs, just not the races.  This year, I'm taking some time off earlier that the past years.  I took November very easy this year, and hope to start to build up my running a slowly after we come out of the Grand Canyon next week.  Yep, my parent are flying down and we are spending Thanksgiving in the Canyon.   We won't be out in time for turkey, but we will definitely be ready for the Timbers match(second leg of the semi-final) at 3 on Sunday!  This change in schedule still gives me time to let my body recover but more importantly gives me more time to really run before my first race.  So, running more before the first race, where does that lead?  Well that was another question I pondered hiking around Sedona.

See that arch?  Well there's a trail leading to it.  Or you can opt for a bushwhack through thick manzanita.  Being the adventurous guys we are, Jacob and I opted for the bushwhack.  A quarter mile max, 45 minutes.

Actually, we were really happy to find the trail, but felt pretty dumb we missed it on the way out.

Running a bit more before my first race gives me more time to get into shape for the year ahead.  Races take a lot out of me because I run as hard as I can.  I run hard outside of races too, but no where close to as long, which is why races really take it out of me.  Then after races, I have to take some time to recover and be prepared to run again.  I've realized that my best performances always come at the end of the year, which makes sense because I'm continually improving.  Obviously I can't run hard nonstop year round or I'll do my body in pretty quickly.  Not sure why, look up Overtraining Syndrome.

So my plan for next year is to start running earlier, largely just easy runs, so I'm more prepared and will reach 'end of the season' shape earlier.  I have run a few races that I have that were truly special and each one of these were at the end of the year (August or September).  Thinking about reaching that kind of shape, when everyday running always feels easy and I race well, makes me very excited to see what I can do if I find myself at that level earlier in the year.  Now starting running earlier may help some, but the main part of my plan is to race less.

Racing less gives me more time to improve between races instead of rushing from one to the next.  This year I felt like I was mostly ready for all my races.  I'd enter a race feeling mostly prepared, but thinking that I would be able to be all the way ready for my next race.  That never happened.  Races just take too much out of me.  I need to take a few day to recover, then start some easier running and get back to normal in about a week or two (a bit longer for the longer races).  The lost time recovering then resting up for the next race really minimizes training, especially when the races are close together.  Even a few weeks between races might yield only one week of actual training.  Putting extra time between races will allow me to improve faster throughout the year and starting with a higher level of fitness really has me excited for next year.  Also, this doesn't really increase the risk of Overtraining Syndrome as the extra running will be about on par with the really hard race efforts they will be replacing.  The other benefit of racing less, is I'll be more excited for races.  I'll be better prepared which boosts excitement and there will be fewer so I'll really be ready to go.  Right now, I'm already starting to feel the excitement, I just have to keep it contained for while.  This mostly sums up my plans for next year, but after looking at these changes, I looked for anything else I could improve.

We hiked up to Wilson Mountain.  A little bit of snow, but it had mostly melted making the trail muddy.

That's a tarantula

Yesterday's arch is in the middle of this picture

This hike started out cold, but lead to some sweet new trails.

Food.  That was the last thing I could improve.  I usually eat pretty healthy, but I though that there was room for improvement.  After all, food is my fuel and I would put crappy gas in a car so I should put crappy fuel in myself.  I didn't really know where to start.  There was a section in my health book on nutrition, but that seemed like a big change from what I ate and I've been running well so I didn't want to mess things up.  So I asked Joe Uhan for advice.  Joe is a strong believer in a high fat diet, which was similar to how I have eaten over the last few year.  Now, I'm strongly committed as its nice to see science backing up what I'm doing.  In short if you eat fat, you burn fat.  If you eat carbs(sugar) you burn carbs(sugar).  There a lot more fat in your body that sugar stores so fat is a far better fuel for the long run.  To get a more detailed analysis of this go here.  The high fat diet doesn't just benefit long distance runner so it an option for everyone.  Anyhow, that's what I'm doing to be a better runner for next year.  Here's the last couple weekends:

Snow on the south rim

Sundown

Whoops.  About those down coats... 

Climbing out

A parting shot of the Canyon

Sedona

The wind was really whipping up here

When I'm not running a lot, I try to remove myself from the sport so I make the decisions that are right for me, not a poor decision based on what other are doing.  Because of this, I've been a little lackadaisical updating my blog.  Sorry about that.  The winter should have a bit more running action and hopefully lot of stuff during and exciting spring and summer.

Hermits Rest

Last weekend, Jacob and I took off from Hermit's Rest into the Grand Canyon.  We got off to a later start than I hoped because I had to finish a paper for school and we had to take the bus to Hermit's Rest.  We hopped off the bus and the Canyon lay before us so we headed down the Hermit trail for a couple miles then turned off toward Dripping Springs.  It didn't take us too long to get the spring where we ate some nuts and dried fruit and filled up our water.

Sitting by Dripping Springs

Hiking up to the spring we saw a trial taking off on the other side of the valley so we found are way to it and started to follow it.  Initially we though that we had caught up with Boucher Trail but we had actually found the Waldron Trail.  We followed it for a while but soon found it leading us out of the Canyon and back up toward the rim.  We opted to turn back, realizing we were not on the Boucher, and decided to fill up at Dripping Springs and then turn off on the Boucher.

Climbing above Dripping Springs

The Boucher trail rolled along the side of a canyon for a few miles before it slowly started to descend.  At this point the sun was low enough we were mostly in the shade which was cool in the late afternoon.  The Boucher crested a small ridge, then started to descent steeply down toward Boucher Creek which we could see below.

Looking back toward Hermit's Rest

Jacob where the Boucher trail starts to get rough

Looking back at a wall near the Boucher Trail

Heading down the Boucher Trail

We filled up at Boucher Creek and then set up camp for the night.  Last time we were in the Canyon it was too hot to sleep but this time the bivy sacks were just right.  The stars slowly came out as we settled down in our bags and the bugs buzzed around our heads.  Having a mosquito net for our bivy sacks was key.

Looking west

Looking east

The next morning the sun came up bright and early.  We packed up our stuff, had some oatmeal for breakfast, and headed down the trail.  The trail was winding in and out of small draws and we came around a corner and we looking at a bighorn sheep.  Usually these guys are so flighty, you don't even see them except from a distance.  Anyhow, this one looked up, saw us, and continued down the trail.  He probably got 40 feet from us before he turned off and skirted around us but I was starting to get a little worried and he had some big horns.

Bighorn Sheep

Some tracks in the trail

The River

After the sheep, we continued on to Hermit Creek were we drank some water and filled up our bottle for the push to the top.  After leaving Hermit Creek the day started to heat up so Jacob and I tried to move quickly through the sun as a good chunk of the climb would be shaded if we were there early enough.  The trail contoured along for a while, skirting above one cliff and staying below another, before it popped out on a plateau shorly before the Boucher and Dripping Springs turn off.  At this point we started to run into more people so we headed up the last couple miles fairly quickly as the solitude of the canyon was gone.

Looking down on Hermit Creek

Climbing up the Hermit Trail

The Canyon looming large

Almost out

All in all a great trip to the Grand Canyon.  The Boucher trail was awesome and I was super stoked about finding the Waldron trail.  Looking on a map afterwords, I found that the Waldron trail can be accessed by car instead of the bus which would be a great alternative.  The bus is really slow so driving would save at least a half hour.
A little rainy in Flag right now so I'm not sure what we have planned for this weekend but I'll put up our next adventure when I get a chance.

Humphrey's Peak

Jacob and I headed out Saturday and took off out of Snowbowl on a cool fall morning.  As we headed up there was little frost but it wasn't too cold.  We passed a few people starting the climb up to Humphreys then ran into a guy name Chip who we started talking to.  Turns out Chip is an ultra runner so we ended up talking to him about ultra running, hiking, and climbing all the way up Humphrey's.

At the saddle about 1 mile below the summit

Chip and I at the saddle

Once we got up Humphrey's, Chip had to head back down and Jacob and I took off to explore the other side of the mountain.  We headed over the top of Humphrey's and took the ridge leading down to the left.  If we had stayed right we would have followed a ridge to a few more peaks.  Instead we headed left, planning to cut thought the trees back to Snowbowl.

Looking back up at the summit

Starting to angle back toward Snowbowl

Looking out over the valley

We headed down the ridge until the rock gave way to trees and then started angling left.  We had two ridges to cross before we got back so we tried to plan our route which took us through a couple descents and climbs before we reached the trail again.  Of course, as we had no trail, there was a little route finding and it took us a while.

Looking over toward the Grand Canyon

Making our way through the trees.  We made good time until we found this awesome pipe.

The path through the trees was surprisingly easy.  I was a little worried we would get on some steep loose stuff hiking though the trees because that can be a real pain in the butt to go down.  Fortunately it was all pretty solid ground and the trees were spread out enough it was easy going.  Part way up to the first ridge, we were hiking along and came across this old metal pipe leading up the the hill.  We had to crest the ridge anyway so we followed the pipe.  Heading up we were speculating there would be a spring as there was no apparent reason to pipe water up the hill.  So after some steep uphill hiking, we crested the ridge and continued up at a more gentle grade, where we came upon an old water tank!

The pipe changed here but kept going

The old water tank

The pipe kept going though so kept on heading up the mountain.  We eventually broke out of the trees and saw the pipe continuing up.  There was a grassy area that lead up to the end of a boulder field and thats were we followed the pipe to its end.   The pipe ended in a small hole in the boulder field where some cement was to contain the water and feed it into the pipe.  This was dry so we followed the other less defined pipe a little higher and found water!  There was a nice little spring coming out of the rock and on the shady side there was even ice.  (About 2:30 when we got there)  That was pretty amazing as there is very little water in Arizona and ice was the last thing we expected to see.

The first pipe

Ice on the water

Following the pipeline

Standing near the spring

After the spring, we made our way back down the pipeline to where we crested the ridge and took off toward Snowbowl.  The walking was pretty easy although the trees got thicker as we lost elevation.  After a while we were following elk trails through the trees which would pick up and peter out every hundred feet or so.  We didn't see any elk, but there were two big grouse we came upon in a small draw.  After the grouse, we crossed a couple rock fields, then got into the aspen where there was quite a few down trees.  Not a lot of limbs though, so they were good for walking.  Eventually we hooked up with the Humphrey's Peak trail and made our way down to the car.  We were out for about 9 hours which was a pretty awesome day in the mountains.

Some elk up here all right

Moving along through the forest

The grouse is pretty much int he center of the picture

Looking down the first rock-field

Looking up

Rock-field number two

A single aspen catching the sun's rays

Walking the logs

Almost done