Maria's dream

In her dream Maria could feel the thundering from above.  It was the thundering of a thousand horses.  She could hear the chorus of hoof beats reverberating above her, pushing her down into the deep nothing.  She could feel a thousand eyes upon her, now slowly closing turning away as she sinks lower.  Silence.  She can hear nothing.  Water.  Water being moved.  A light.  A figure standing facing her.  In the dream she strains to see some distinguishing features of its face, but its moving away.  Moving away in the water, others are seated facing away slowly rowing.  Standing at the back of the canoe the figure drifts away into the shrinking light, heavy until it slips into the deep nothing

This morning was one of those rare ones....one that you read about other people having, but once in a while you slip into the groove of life.  Yeah, that's what happened.  My brother Justin is in town and we were planning on going trail running this morning.  I should preempt this by stating that I am currently reading the book 'Born to Run' by Christopher McDougall, nough said.  So last night I was Soooo looking forward to hitting the trail bright and early that I could even sleep; thats not hyperbole, I didn't sleep one single wink.  By 4:00 am I couldn't take it any longer, so I grabbed my headlight, some cytomax, my gps watch, and the scrabby clothes on my back and headed toward the mountains.  I went up to the Orson Smith trailhead and headed up with my headlight and one brilliant full moon to guide me.  I never felt so light running uphill, and I was all smiles.  I reached the station where the shoreline trail intersects and just had to stand there and take in the lights of the Salt Lake valley, and right across Corner Canyon was the Draper Temple, lit up in all its celestial glory.  I can't remember when I last felt that happy and content.  Then I turned around and ran back to my car because I had to pick Justin up at 5:30.  In the parking lot I met a group getting ready to head up Lone Peak, I almost said "Can I tag along?", but I had to go get my bro.  I went and picked him up just as it was getting a bit light and we went right back to the same spot and I did it all again, but this time my little brother was with me.  What a morning!!!  Even without sleep I felt as strong and light as I ever have in my life.  I learned a great lesson  from all this, a secret if you will.....There is nothing as potent as pure love and enthusiasm.

long run day

I got up this morning at 5:30 am and put in a 10.5 miler.  It felt better than last week so that's good.  I'm still looking for my rebate on Mt. Timpanogos, maybe next week.  So, I have started taking nutrition seriously.  I wasn't recovering as fast as I should and I have this 90 minute thing, its like after 90 minutes of running I start hitting a wall.  Matt has been preaching nutrition to me and I always thought he took it a bit over-board, on the other hand, the guy did qualify for the Boston marathon.  Like most things I've just gone gung-ho on the whole thing.  Raw fruits and vegetalbles, nuts, whole grains, supplements, the whole sha-bang.  I am feeling better though.  Anyway, that's it for now.

library post

Every now and then I end up at the Marriott library on campus and here I find myself again.  My brother Jake moved back to Salt Lake from Georgia and we hit the trail together Monday and did a quick 3.5 miler on the usual suspect loop.  I did the same thing today.  I'm debating on whether to rest or run tomorrow because thursday is gonna be a 12 miler.  We'll see.  Maybe I'll sleep in.

Update

Well, the Timpanogos trip didn't go as planned.  Last wednesday I was driving up American Fork canyon at about 6 am and I come around the bend and WHOA...there was a rockslide that had covered the road big time, so I my run up Timp was ended before it even began.  I came back to Draper and just did one of my normal trail runs.  Thursday I decided it was time to put in a long slow run on the road, I'd obviously forgotten how much I hate road running.  I did 10.5 miles and it sucked.  Needless to say, I taken the last couple of days off.  I will start back tonight or monday.

Sunday post

As on most Sundays, I don't do anything besides go to church.  Yesterday the bishop and I did our weekly run together as we are still planning on our October trek up Lone Peak.  I'm already stoked.  In the short term, I'm excited to do Mt. Timpanogos this wednesday.  I'm planning on going fast and light: about 1400 mL of water and 650 mL of water mixed with efs, and a couple of GUs and a power bar or two.  This should be enough for a fast trip, it definitely would not do for an all-dayer.  I would like to be up and down in 4-5 hours.  The only worry is the heat, but if I get to the trailhead by 6:30 or 7 it should be okay.  Also, I'm pretty sure there is still a considerable amount of snow towards the top but I'm guessing its already seen a fair amount of traffic, so the actual trail is probably clear.  I'm not all that familiar with American Fork Canyon but as I gather the trail is pretty easy to distinguish the whole way, unlike Lone Peak where Jake and I got lost on the last trip up.  So thats it for this beautiful Sabbath day.  I will definitely post after the Timpanogos run.  Lastly, thanks to all of my followers, I love both of you.

i'm back

It's been a while, I know.  I just got back from my trip to Ohio and I was afraid 5 days off was gonna hurt, but it was refreshing.  My endurance is at an all-time high.  I was so amped to run this morning, I woke up at 1:30 ready to go!  I tried to go back to sleep, but I was full of energy.  I got up at 2 and ate a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey then stretched out for an hour while watching taped episodes of Conan.  I tried to go back to sleep, but it was fitful.  Something burned inside.  I wanted to run.  At 4:45 I headed up to the Orson Smith trailhead and started out and up.  Yes up and up.  2.6 miles of continuous uphill until I reached the Jacob's ladder trailhead.  I didn't stop until the Jacob's ladder area and I had an interesting experience, it was like I was in a dreamstate, the exhaustion was extreme.  I walked around the area below the trailhead, sipped some water then continued on.  I was running up the fire road towards suncrest and I thought I saw a rattlesnake in the road ahead of me, I was startled, but as I got closer I realized it was a stick.  Man, I don't know if I had put myself into a state of hallucination or what, but I was kinda freaked out!  I went all the way to where clark's trail comes out on the fire road and turned around.  I was exhausted yet I felt strong.  I ran back down and picked up the Bonneville Shoreline trail and circled back to Orson Smith.  8 miles in all.  I felt like I could do more.  Tomorrow I'm gonna run with the Bishop.  Probably my 3.5 mile loop, then some hill repeats.  Next week I'm going to run up Timpanogos, 12.5 mile round trip with about 6000' elevation gain.  I hope to make that a weekly training run, then one of these days I'm gonna stretch my legs out and do a 20 or 30 miler.  I feel like this is my calling.