GORGEous Week IV

Mon - 0hr - rest

Tues - 1.5hr/ 9m/ 1800' - Little Mtn - Up and down the 2 times for a nice easy workout with some good elevation gain.

Wed - 48min/ 4.8m/ 1000' - Little Mtn - Didn't feel too well today, so I opted for just one out and back, plus a little exploration.

Thur - 43min/ 5.1m/ 300' - Latta Plantation - Was running out of daylight on this one and finished the last mile in the dark.  Good easy effort run, minus the last 2 miles pushing to beat the dark back to the car.

Fri - 30min/ 3m/ 1000' - Bakers Mtn - Thought I'd hit up a short summit run on the way out to Marion to hang and prepare for tomorrow's run with Matt.  This place still amazes me by its difficulty.

Sat - 6h38min/ 23m/ 6000' - Linville Gorge - Northern section of the GRAND LOOP exploration w/ Matt.

Sun - 0hr - A well deserved rest although I was itching to get out the door, but ended up being a lazy bum.  I'll run tomorrow which is my usual day off.

Totals =
Hours - 10hrs9min
Miles - 44.9
Vert - 10,100'


This week of running was pretty good, although I didn't really put in a hard effort at all this week.  I finished the week with well over 8 hours, even though the associated mileage wasn't really reflective of the time, but that is what happens when you run in the gorge! The highlight this week though was definitely Saturday's run in the gorge.  Matt and I have been thinking of attempting the GRAND LOOP in the near future and have both never been on the maze of non-recognized trails in the northeastern section.  Just to let you know, the GRAND LOOP is an ~ 40 mile all trail loop in the Linville Gorge.  Navigating and orienteering ourselves with the northeastern section of these trails was imperative for a successful attempt at this route in the future.  We made a few wrong turns at a few intersections, but we pretty much immediately realized our mistake and back tracked and found the right turn.  I was really impressed with the trails up in this section as they were fairly runnnable and not technical.  We did run into a problem on top of Hawksbil trying to find the Ledge trail off the summit and eventually had to turn around and run down the the summit trail back to the road to access Spence ridge.  We must have bushwhacked for 30 minutes trying to find the trail, but I'll get out there and access the Ledge trail from Spence in a few weeks.  We were running out of our allotted time for the run  on the river trail and we decided to go ahead and go straight up Cabin trail and hit Kistler instead of pretty much walking the the rest of the horrendously technical River trail, which would have probably taken us another   hour to finish the last 4-5 miles of it.  Plus, discovering Cabin was awesome.  I had never been on this trail and it has to be the the steepest consistent climb I've ever done.  I would hate to go down it, that is for sure.

View of Gorge from Sitting Bear w/my ugly mug blocking the view

Map Master Matt

Matt on Hawksbill

View of gorge from Hawksbill

Spence Ridge Bridge

Matt, Uwharrie, and I at the finish

Cabin Trail is STEEP!

View of gorge from River Trail looking north

Sultonic Week III

Mon - 0hr - Started to feel a cold coming on after Sunday nights run, so I took Monday off and rested

Tues - 36min/ 4m/ 200' - Fisher Farm Park - Still feeling cold like symptoms and thought a run might help, but I think it did the opposite.  Could barely breath and it obviously took me awhile to run.

Wed - 0hr - Yesterday's run was indicative enough in telling to take it easy and bust this cold by not running and chugging a full 40oz of V-8 Fusion Juice.  It did the trick

Thur - 65min/ 7.1m/ 600' - Fisher Farm Park - Felt ten times better today, even though I can tell I'm not completely rid of this cold quite yet.  Great run on some beautiful mb trails/xc trails.  Nice park in Davidson, NC.

Fri - 0hr - I don't feel any worse than yesterday, but I didn't want to take any risk of regressing with a planned 33 mile Sultan B-Day run scheduled tomorrow.  I've been looking forward to this one since last year's running!

Sat - 6hr29min/ 33m/ 6200' - Sultan 50k - What a wet day!  I had ambitions of going sub 6 hours on this run and I really think I can, but it just didn't happen today.  After pretty much running the entire out portion of the run, coming back was a different story.  My legs were stiff as a board and running downhill was becoming a chore.  Maybe it was the hard surface (gravel/jeep rd) and the steady cadence that I wasn't used to that made my legs want to stop moving in a running motion.  It was still a great day running with the WNC crew and celebrating Sultan's b-day in appropriate fashion.  Had fun catching up with Dennis and Jose most of the day and a big thanks goes to Lily for offering me her rain jacket at the turnaround, where I was contemplating quitting because I was freezing cold and completely drenched.

Sun - 25min/ 3.1m/ ~nothing' - Davidson - Nice little shakeout run through the beautiful town of Davidson.  Legs really seemed to loosen up on the run after yesterday's overall stiffness lingered into today.  These runs are hard to get out and do after a hard day like yesterday, but they do wonders in helping rid soreness and stiffness from the legs.  Glad I stepped out the door.

Totals =
8.6 hrs
47.2 miles
7000' of gain

Being sick pretty much killed my week day runs, but I'm glad I was over the cold by Saturday to participate in the Sultan 50k.  I still managed to get in my 8hrs for the week despite being sick, even though it pretty much came all in one big chunk.  Huge thanks to Sultan for putting this phenomenal run on through the South Mountains and to his wife and two sons, as well as all others who volunteered at the turnaround, taking good care of us by filling our bottles and feeding us delicious red velvet cake!  And as always, a big thanks goes out to the Hill family for putting Hannah and I up for the night in Asheville.  Making it out that way would be a lot more difficult without the kindness they show to me on an almost bi-monthly basis.  Happy trails!

Pics below by Charlie Roberts

Hannah having a blast in the rain

Den & I slogging up one of many steep climbs

Almost Cascades looking

Vonda 

The Sultan 50k Crew

A Little Bit of Everything

I think that it is finally time for me to join the bandwagon and give you a play by play of what I've done each day of the week.  One reason for this is that I have set myself a New Year's resolution to at least (bare minimum) log 8 hours on my feet a week for the whole year.  Be that in running (mostly) or hiking (only if I am injured or on a backpacking trip).  Hopefully sharing this with the masses will help keep me on track throughout the year on this goal.  Last week a managed 9 hours on my feet and was quite happy with that and now I will share you this weeks log, or log-o-rhythm (ala Grand Kirk).

Monday - 0hrs - Well deserved rest after last weekend's fun.

Tuesday - 1:15/ 9m/ 400' - Latta Plantation - this is one of my favorite places to run in the Charlotte area.  Took it pretty easy for the first 4 miles then opened it up for the next 3.  Last 2 were easy.

Wednesday - 0hrs - Went to see Anton Krupicka give a presentation/Q&A at Run For Your Life.  Pretty cool experience getting to talk to some new people and of course "Trail Running Jesus" himself!

Thursday - 1:35/ 8.5m/1600' - Little Mtn - Two repeats w/Hannah on the local mountain (hill).  This has been a pleasant surprise.  There is only about a 3/4 mile of pavement on one repeat and the rest is trail on top of this local gem.  One out is about 2 -2.5m depending on the route you take.  I'm pretty sure it is private property though but I haven't been kicked off it yet.  This place will become a weekly run for sure!  There are technical pitches at 30% grade for half a mile on the backside of the mountain.  Pretty stout place to train for a run like Linville!

Friday - 1:00/ 7.5m/ 1000'+ - Bakers Mountain Park - Got out there pretty late so I had to push the pace on my planned 6 mile route on the trails at this sweet NC foothills park.  Did 45 min on the first 6 miles.  I felt really good today.  Squeezed in another 15 min and 1.5 miles to cool down after realizing a had a bit of daylight left.  This will become another weekly regular.

Saturday - 2:20/ 12.5m?/ 2500'? - Uwharrie Trail - Headed back home to visit the family and pick up my new pair of NB MT110 and couldn't think of a better place to put them to the test than Uwharrie.  Super technical trail, stream crossings, and a surprising amount of vert for the piedmont.  The views today were the best I had ever seen in Uwharrie and somewhat reminded me of distant views of the Blue Ridge.  Shoes performed well!

Sunday - 1:50/ 12m/ 600' - abrieviated Triple Lakes Half course - Coaxed my cousin on his 20th birthday to come out and join me for a 12 miler on his favorite trails.  He hasn't ran over 4 miles in like 3 months and absolutley hung with me and out sprinted me on the last half mile of this run.  Dude is a beast!  I wish he would train harder and come out an join us WNC guys for some runs.  I didn't feel particulary well until the last 3 miles which were practically in the dark.  Good way to end the running week for sure.

Totals =
8hrs
49.5 m
6100' gain

Definitely not a bad week of running.  Can't wait for next weekend's running of the Sultan 50k though.  Funny how that one run will have the same vert as this entire week.  Can't wait!!!!