Grand Obsession

I just finished the book, Grand Obsession, about the life of Harvey Butchart, one of the (if not THE) most obsessive and complete explorer in the Grand Canyon. Building a minor obsession with the canyon myself, I really enjoyed the book. I recommend this book to anyone who loves exploration of the Grand Canyon!

In reflection, there were two things about the book that I really enjoyed.

1) The awesome stories of Harvey exploring some pretty hair raising sections of the canyon.

2) The author's exploration of Harvey's huge obsession with the canyon at the cost of his family.

Because I stick to the trails exploring in the Grand Canyon I am blown away at how he just went for it and explored pretty much where ever he wanted. All a person has to do is take one look down at the many layers of sheer cliffs of the canyon to see how daunting his hikes were.

His obsession was interesting to me because I often struggle with feeling the 'pull of adventure' that he acted on. I may not focus all of my energy exploring in the Grand Canyon but I do put a lot of energy exploring the southwest. I seem to find a better balance of adventure and the rest of life these days than when I was in my twenties but I do still struggle with it at times. After reading this book, I do not ever want to have the 'obsession' that he had and how it alienated those closest to him.

Very good read for us 'adventurers.'

A big thank you to my mom for leaving the book with me to read!

Other news...

Susan and I met some other Flagstaff folks in Red Rocks near Las Vegas for some climbing over the weekend. It was a good time. We climbed at The Stone Wall at the Second Pullout on Saturday and really enjoyed the 5.10's and 5.11's, sunshine and good company. The second day offered some pretty crappy weather so we "attempted" a hike and then finally gave up and bailed to Trader Joe's for goodies and the drive home.

It was nice to be climbing on a trip again (it had been a while) and Susan and I agreed that driving the loop after a good day of climbing, a celebratory beer and nice sunset was THE special moment of the trip! Good times...we should road trip more.

Oh yeah...another good moment was getting back to Arizona and while pumping gas having a herd of cows walk through the gas station. Classic. Gotta love Arizona.

Running Log

Last Week Total Miles: 27 miles (a great week for my knee.)

Today: 9 miles (5 miles on the mesa (ice rink running, a bit of snow falling and excellent sunrise! good run) and 4 miles running to work and home twice)

Dry Lakes Loop in January...say what?

That's right. Early this morning, I ran the ever popular (in summer...) Rocky Ridge, Brookbank, Little Gnarly, Schultz Creek Loop. My initial plan was to run Rocky Ridge and Brookbank and then turn around unless (crossing my fingers) the snow wasn't to bad on the Little Gnarly Trail. Sure enough, all the warm temps had melted everything down enough that when I reached the Little Gnarly Trail I was able to continue and complete the loop. The only trail that is out of commission is the Schultz Creek Trail as it is completely in the shade and has accumulated some deep snow. I didn't really want to battle on it when there is a perfectly good dirt road that parallels it for it's entire distance. In the end the whole loop went surprisingly well. Great run!

Here are some of my favorite photos from the loop this morning:

(Getting started at the gate for Schultz Pass Road and the start of the Rocky Ridge Trail.)

(Just about the only snow on the whole traverse of the Rocky Ridge Trail is at the start.)

(Great trail conditions! Rock Ridge offers some wonderful running right now.)

(Short bit of road to link Rocky Ridge to Brookbank. The Brookbank Trail ascends the sunny hill in the back of photo.)

(Start of the Brookbank Trail.)

(Great views and lots of sun on the Brookbank Trail.)

(Great trail conditions on the upper sections of the Brookbank Trail. The lower sections had a fair bit of snow but it was easy to get through.)

(Deep snow but great views from the Brookbank/Little Gnarly intersection.)

(Little Gnarly had a bunch of snow still (the whole trail was covered) but the hard snow made for good running in a fantastic setting. I punched through the snow a bit on this section but nothing horrible.)

(Nearing Sunset Trail parking lot.)

(Good views of the peaks from the Sunset Trail parking lot.)

(Lots of snow on the Schultz Pass Road but snowmobiles packed the snow down nicely making for excellent running. I didn't punch through once on the entire road section.)

(Last mile of the Schultz Pass Road was in great condition with very little snow and dry dirt.)

Notes: I need to make sure that I get up earlier if I want to run this loop again. I started at 8 am and by the time I reached Little Gnarly it was getting pretty warm. I punched through a fair bit but not as much as I thought I would. I think if I got up there earlier the snow will be a bit harder and I may not punch through at all.

There has been a fair bit of traffic on that loop already and I didn't have to break new ground on any of the sections although it seemed that only snowshoe hikers and a few cross country skiers had been as high as the Brookbank/Little Gnarly junction (although I wouldn't be surprised if a few runners have already been doing laps on this loop and I just couldn't see their tracks...)

I never imagined that I would be able to run this loop in January! Part of me is psyched to get in the high country right now and part of me feels that we are going to pay for it this summer...hmmm.

Running Log:

Yesterday 1 mile (ran to work, got a ride home)

Today: 10 miles (Rocky Ridge, Brookbank, Little Gnarly, Schultz Pass Road Loop in 2 hours. Jogged the whole thing and took my time taking photos. Knee felt great!)

Rocky Ridge Trail

It's in extremely good shape! I went for an early am run from the house and linked up the Urban Trail, Schultz Pass Road, Elden Lookout Road to a bit past the gate and then back on the Rocky Ridge Trail to link back into the Urban Trail. A good run from home that I have done many times over...but usually in the summer.

Except for just a few icy spots the whole Rocky Ridge Trail was pretty much in summer conditions. Really nice running.

Still no weather or super cold temps predicted for the next 7 days... snow keeps melting.

Today's run: 12 miles (1:50/knee felt good but still didn't push it too hard)

The sun keeps shining...

So far, this has been one of the more mild winters I can remember and I intend to take advantage. Many trails in the dry lake hills, Mt. Elden and all around Flagstaff are coming into shape and as long as I get out early in the morning (when things are frozen) I plan to explore a bunch to see just how many are runnable. With each passing sunny day the trails keep on melting... some winter!

Oh yeah, got a bit of climbing in on Sunday with Susan at Jack's Canyon. Good fun as we almost bailed with the high temperature at 32 degrees and high winds but once in the canyon we found just enough warmth to make a day out of it. We had heard that the road to get in was super muddy still from the snowstorm over Christmas but it was not the case on Sunday. Conditions were fine for driving in.

Run Log

Yesterday: 0 miles

Today: 4 miles (ran to work and home twice)

...just thinking about the canyon again and how people are running in there right now. I just read that someone ran up the S. Kaibab in 1 hr 8 minutes. Damn... I wonder what the fastest time up that trail is...

Running log

Miles today: 2 miles (run to work and back home)

Total miles for the week: 25 miles

R2R2R Flagstaff Represent!

I have had a lot of really good days running in the Grand Canyon over the last few years and hope to be fortunate enough to have many, many more 'canyon running adventures' in the future. In my opinion, running in the Grand Canyon is up there as one of the most epic, beautiful, memorable and flat out spiritual places to run anywhere! As I have stated many times in this blog, I LOVE RUNNING IN THE CANYON!

The most well know of the long classic runs in the Grand Canyon is the totally amazing Rim to Rim to Rim (which I have been lucky enough to run three times now). It has seen many an attempt at a Fastest Known Time (FKT) over the years.

An article about flagstaff local, Jason Wolfe, who just missed breaking the FKT last spring, showed up in Running Times Magazine recently. It seems that Jason is looking to better his time of 7:12 this spring and try to break the FKT of 6:59:56 set by Dave Mackey a while back. Read the article here. Good luck Jason!!! Go get it! Flagstaff represent!

I would love to run the R2R2R that fast... I will have to settle for a PR attempt in the spring and try to crack the 9 hour barrier. Reading this article got me psyched to get my left knee fully squared away and get down in the 'big ditch' again sooner than later to get training!!! Thanks for the inspiration guys.

Running today: 5 miles in the am (Observatory Mesa-icy!)

First Run up Elden Lookout Road in 2011

Finally felt like I could risk running a big hill with my recovering knee. I haven't been worried about the uphills, it's the long continuous downhills that's the stress. So, I took a casual pace up the Elden Lookout Road this morning to see what would happen. I got up there at 8 am and the temp was about 10 degrees accounting for wind chill. It was sure cold this morning but the daytime temps have been very warm lately, melting much of the snow around Flagstaff, making the Elden Lookout Road seem like spring conditions. There was barely any snow on the road although there was a fair bit of ice to move around. Not a big deal though and the morning ended up being quite a fun run. I did feel my left knee slightly, right near the end of the run, but it was very encouraging and I think that I will be able to build on this.

Run Log:

-Yesterday 1 mile (ran to work, got a ride home)

-Today 8 miles (Elden Lookout Road to top and back, 2,500 feet of gain and loss, 2 hours of leisure jogging)

Photos from the run...







Note: A lot of trails on the dry lake hills and Elden are shaping up and I know for sure that all the trails on the front of Mt. Elden, Rocky Ridge Trail, Shultz Creek Road, Brookbank Trail up to Little Gnarly are all in pretty good shape as long as you run 'em before things melt in the morning. Pretty crazy conditions for January and the weather is supposed to be warm and sunny for at least the next 10 days....amazing.

Spring Day in January

The last few days have been flat out beautiful! Temps in the high 50's and snow melting fast. I haven't gotten out in it too much as I have been hanging with sick Susan (She is getting better really fast and went to school to teach today! Amazing!) and feeling a bit under the weather myself. To top that off, I stayed inside on Sunday and watched the Seahawks seahack it up against the Bears in the playoffs. Oh well, there's always next season...

Today I got out for a few miles to run fliers around town for work and to sneak in some sunshine before it gets cold again...it is winter after all. Beautiful day!

Running log:

-Yesterday (Monday): 2 miles (ran to work and back)

-Today (Tuesday): 7 miles (ran to work and back and ran to put up fliers around town for work)

Jeff texted me this morning that he is up on the Sedona Traverse to fix an anchor for the third pitch and do a bit of climbing on it. Sweet! Maybe we will be able to get down there together again soon and get some more pitches in... It is gorgeous down there right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Wanna Climb Like a European Ibex!

I just got these amazing photos emailed to me from my mom. They are probably the most kick ass climbing photos I have ever seen.

In the photos, the European Ibex that are climbing on the Diga del Cingino Dam in Italy (and making it look easy!) make me feel like a complete wimp climber with all my ropes and gear and such... I guess the Ibex scramble on to the dam to eat moss and lichen and lick salt. Crazy!

I am impressed!

Susan sick watch: It's officially the flu and I am officially Susan's nurse. Looks like she won't be working next week...

Run today: 3.5 miles (ran around the neighborhood a bit and did some laps on a hill on Cedar Street, beautiful day!)

Week total: 23.5 miles

-a good week with just a bit of stiffness in left knee but felt fine while running

-started adduction/abduction in hips, leg strengthening and range of motion exercises in earnest this week (I really want to make sure to lick this runners knee thing for good, guard against future injuries and get faster)

-I think I will try my hardest next week to not run over 20-25 miles and then if everything is still looking good with the knee I will slowly start to continue the climb in weekly mileage.

Sick Wife II

Susan is still sick as a dog. I asked her what she did while I was at work all day and she said she moved from one end of the couch to the other. Didn't even make tea...but found the energy to eat a bag of Smartfood some how.

Run today: 2 miles(to work and back)

Sick Wife

Oh boy...Susan is sicker than I have ever seen her. About 1/2 hour ago I took her temperature and it was 101.5! She is laid out.

We were going to go to Red Rocks with some friends to climb this weekend but had to bail. Now the focus is getting Susan healthy again. Poor girl...

Running today: 2 miles (run to work and back)

Oh yeah... if you didn't catch Obama's speech in Tuscon then please watch it! Unbelievably inspiring.

Chuckanut 50K

Looks like Anton, along with a strong field, may do the Chuckanut 50k in my home town of Bellingham, Washington, March 19, 2011. Man, I wish I could watch these guys duke it out on some of my favorite home town trails! I may have to get some of my family to check it out and get some video for me to salivate over...

Makes me remember my run turned epic overnighter on Chuckanut a while back (long, ridiculous story that I seem not to be able to find in my old blog posts...oh well). That night sucked. I will never forget to bring a headlamp on a run that pushes dark ever again especially if I try to cut off trail!

Running log: 0 miles today. Rode my bike to work.

Tuesday Sedona Run

Got down to Sedona for a quick and freezing early morning run of 10 miles on the Girdner, AZ Cypress, OK, Dawa, Cockscomb, Rupp and then back on Girdner loop (parked near the Community College).

It is amazing that there is still snow on the ground in Sedona. The cold made for some good trail conditions though, as the the trails were completely frozen as was the creek. If it got much warmer then the trails would have turned to slop so I was psyched on the conditions.

Knee still felt good but with today's run + yesterdays 6 miles, I will probably go pretty light on the rest of the week to not go over 20-25 miles for the week.

It was nice to do an easy 10 miles today and still have a solid knee but during the run thought that I should probably wait a couple weeks before venturing into 10+ mile territory just in case.

Side note... I ran into a guy training in Sedona from Notre Dame and man did he have long legs and he could cruise. Me and my short legs...

Second side note...I also ran into a college runner that was a text book heel striker and he didn't change it up for the down hills, flats or up hills. Heel striking all around. He was cruising but man was he loud. Every step came down with a loud fwap! He ran like a buffalo. Can't be good...

Seahawks crowd causes Small, Seismic Tremor

Football

I didn't know it was possible but during Lynch's amazing run on Saturday it is reported that the Seahawks crowd caused a small, seismic tremor in downtown Seattle! This is no joke! Check out the details here.

Running

I think I am going to try and be more thorough in keeping track of my daily runs by posting at least the basics of 1)where I ran and 2)the mileage each time I run to give me a more complete record of my running efforts. I have been looking back at past years to look for specific runs and weekly or monthly mileages and am noticing that I don't do a very good job of keeping track (I have good reports of my more memorable runs but not the day to day). Hopefully, at the very least, I'll post the basics of my recent run even if the meat of a post is about other subject. I'll at least have a good record to look back on then. It seems I'm accumulating enough running experiences and miles that it is useful to look back and self evaluate and hopefully learn something. So, might as well get started...

Week so far...

Sunday- 0 miles

Monday (today)- AM 5 miles (Urban Trail from home to gate on Observatory Mesa (out and back) great packed snow and nice sunrise), 1 mile (home to work)=6 miles

Note: My knee is feeling much, much better. Good sign... maybe go for a 10 mile run this week.

Biggest upset ever!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SEAHAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On to the next round!

Highlights

Getting back on track

Man, it's been a while since my last post. Things got pretty busy the last few weeks with working a bunch, going to visit the Spizzirri Family in Chicago for the Holidays and then getting back to catching up at work.

Everything seems to be getting back to normal and I am having a bit more time to collect myself and think about more relaxing things like blogging...and running. Jeff and I haven't been able to get back on the Sedona Traverse to put more pitches in but, hopefully in the next week or two, we will be up on the wall again putting some time in on it.

How's the running going... well, pretty good actually. I took a bit of time off from running during the Holiday and pretty much rested, iced and did some specific exercises for leg strength. I also talked to my dad, who has plenty of good advice on the subject, about what I should do with my knee pain and he had some suggestions that have seemed to be quite helpful.

Near the end of the trip to Chicago I went for a 5-6 mile run in the city with some of the Spizzirri kids and felt almost no pain the whole run. Later that week I ran a few more times with a 5 mile run in Sedona and a few "junk miles" of running back and forth to work (it's only about a mile from my house to work). I finished the week with about 15 miles and didn't really have any pain of note. On both 5 mile runs I had the slight sensation that pain could start up after a few miles but then it would subside and everything would go pretty smoothly. I was jogging pretty easy on these runs and trying to go easy on the legs.

It looks like I am on the road to recovery (fingers crossed) and in response looking at entering a couple month phase of building miles and running easy to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully, sometime in March, I will be able to get back to bigger miles per week and put some speed into my workouts. At least that's the plan right now...

This week I have already started off with some promising runs. I ran 5 miles on the mesa next to the house (beautiful running in the snow) and 7.5 miles in Sedona on the Airport Loop and Ridge Trail (with a few other side trails mixed in) for a total of 12 miles so far this week. I would like to end the week at 17-20ish miles and keep building weekly from there with one run a week getting longer and longer until I can get back to putting in a 4-5 hour run once a week. Slowly but surely with a ton of self control I'll get there...a ton of self control.

I must say that I am PSYCHED to be running again. Getting out on the trails and cruising (even at a slow pace for now...), totally in the moment and the beauty of the wilderness and exploring every turn while working the body is a very special thing for me.

To be connected in such a raw way with such jaw dropping places like The Peaks, Sedona, The Grand Canyon and the other great deserts and mountain ranges of the west is most definitely a gift I will try not to take for granted. Having an injury always puts things in better perspective and I am very lucky to get to run where I do and with such great frequency...very lucky.