Monday, January 19, 2015, 3:59 pm

6.04 mi, 988 ft gain, 58:37. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Yay for running during daylight again. Although, I thought I had more daylight left when I started. I still got about the mileage I was looking for today anyway.

I was a little bit tired from the last few days and the cold, but not bad. I started feeling better after about 10 min.

The weather was a lot better today as well. I had some great views of the sunset on my way back to the car.

I started feeling pretty good on the return trip and opened it up pretty fast going down the last couple hills. It’s good practice for both downhill running and faster turnover. Other than that, I kept a pretty easy pace. Vida was lagging a bit at times. At other times she was running up ahead to see what Sigurd was up to. I think part of her hanging back might be her protective instinct. Sigurd is out front, so she takes up the rear.

The cold is getting better, no more sore throat, nose isn’t running so much and reduced malaise. I think my HR is still a little bit elevated because of it though.

Average HR 133 bpm.

 

Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 5:43 pm

8.16 mi, 1140 ft gain, 1:25:55. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

My legs were just a little bit achey to start, but not really that fatigued. They felt just fine after 10 min or so.

The logging roads are drying out just a little bit, enough that I didn’t have to wash Vida down when we got home. I still headed for the less used roads and over the hill.

Since I was feeling rather mediocre today, I wasn’t sure how far I’d end up going. I wanted to go at least 6 mi, but as I got up the hill, I felt good and decided to keep going. I kind of wish that I had gone a little farther, but I’m thinking about back-to-back long runs this weekend and want to go into it feeling pretty fresh.

I’m really happy that 8 mi has become a relatively short run for me. I remember when I first hit 5 mi for my weekly long run. It felt like an amazing accomplishment. I still think it was.

I took it easy on the downhills on the way out. After a brief pitstop at the other end of the hill, I headed back.

I ran the climbs with my HR in the 140s. My legs felt great on the climbs. On the way back, I let go on a couple of the downhills, hitting around 5min/mi pace for brief periods.

I picked up the pace a little on the final relatively flat 2 mi, HR in the upper 130s to low 140s, still aerobic.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Wednesday, January 21, 2015, 3:49 pm

11.21 mi, 2252 ft gain, 1:59:19. USPS package drop off on the way to Upper Falls, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I had one small package to send out today, so rather than drive to the P.O., then back home to get ready for my run, I just took it with me and dropped it on my way. The P.O. is just shy of a mile from my house and on the way to Wallace Falls.

Like most days when I go out without the dogs, I ran faster than with them. I made it to the TH at about 27 min or so, including the P.O. stop. I stopped briefly in the restroom. Before heading up the trail, I took of my fleece hat and windbreaker. I was sweating pretty good with those on. My windbreaker stuffs into it’s own pocket and then fits nicely into the front pocket on my reflective safety vest, which is a lot lighter than my Nathan pack. I had my headlamp in the pocket of my UD Fastdraw 20 water bottle.

I took it easier on the way up today than either trip last week, trying to keep my HR in the mid 150s or lower. I think I went up to 160 or so on the really steep steps. I made it up in about 35 minutes. I took a minute or two to take in the view, and get my hat and headlamp out.

I made it back down to the TH in a little over 25 min. The trail was drier, and I could see obstacles better than last time, so I went a little faster down some parts. I still took it fairly easy though.

I made it home from the TH in about 24 min, keeping the pace up and my HR in the low 140s. I sped up for the last 200 yds or so.

It was a great run. I love having such awesome trails so close to home.

Average HR 141 bpm.

 

Thursday, January 22, 2015, 4:23 pm

5.33 mi, 821 ft gain, 57:18. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I felt good today. Because I’m thinking about b2b long runs this weekend, I took it easy anyway.

I was still going to go a little longer than I ended up doing, but I forgot my headlamp. I didn’t realize until I was already halfway there.

The climbing was pretty easy again. I pushed the pace a couple times, once on a relative flat and once on the little hill up to where I turned around.

I ran out for 25 minutes then turned around and headed back. I took a couple short detours to check out some things on the way back.

Average HR 117 bpm.

 

Friday, January 23, 2015, 4:13 pm

5.07 mi, 53 ft gain, 54:32. RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I felt pretty good today, but took it easy anyway. The plan was 6 mi, but I kept stopping for the dogs and photos.

Fortunately, the heavy rain had stopped by the time I headed out. I went along the RR access rd. The clouds had parted to the south and it made for some pretty great views with the sun going down.

I might give Vida a couple days off. She’s been a little slow. She also might have a very slight limp, I can’t quite tell. She’d keep going until she absolutely couldn’t, though.

Average HR 122 bpm.

 

Saturday, January 24, 2015, 2:02 pm

20.02 mi, 2567 ft gain, 3:32:20. To WFSP, Rd grade, Greg Ball Tr, Wallace Lake & explore, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

B2B day 1 went great. There was a little bit of a drizzle off and on. I’m glad it didn’t rain much.

I wore my Nathan Elevation pack with about 1.5 liters of water in the bladder. I didn’t quite drink it all, though I probably should have. I had to stop to urinate several times throughout the run, so I guess I wasn’t too dehydrated. I’m sure the water I drank before I left the house made a difference.

I took the road grade up to the Greg Ball trail. I don’t know why I hadn’t been on the Greg Ball trail yet, after all the times I’ve been out to Wallace Falls State Park. It’s a pretty awesome trail, lots of twists and turns, good climbs and nice tread, even when parts have standing water. The mossy trees and creeks make it even better.

It was about 8 mi to Wallace Lake from my house this way. The lake was quite high with the outlet, the Wallace River, nearly reaching the bottom of the foot bridge. From there, I headed on the DNR rd toward the Upper Falls. About 0.25 mi from the lake, the road is flooded by a stream for about 200 yards. I stopped, took a couple pictures and thought about whether I wanted to get my feet wet. They were already a little damp, and I wanted to check out another spur road, so I went through the water. Most of the way it was about ankle deep. The main channel of the stream washed about a foot deep section of the road out. My feet were pretty cold for a minute or two, but felt pretty good after that.

A little further past the flooded part, I took a left on an old logging road that goes up the western side of Mt. Stickney. I only made it about 0.5 mi up the road, though. A slide took out a 100 ft section of the road. I considered going around on the uphill side, but it was quite steep and didn’t look very stable. Thwarted again in my quest to find a route up Mt. Stickney from the Wallace Falls side.

I headed back toward the lake. Once there, I calculated that I was going to be short of my planned 20 mi, so I headed the other way around the lake to possibly go out to Jay Lake. However, the Wallace River on that side of the lake was running so high it was over the steps. I was still going to be a little short, but I could make it up later.

Going down the Greg Ball trail was even more fun than running up. I had a hard time holding back and keeping an easy pace. I might have to start doing loops to the Upper Falls on the Woody Trail, out to Wallace Lake, then back on the Greg Ball Trail, or the reverse.

I made it back the trailhead a little after sunset, not that I could see it through the clouds, but it was still light out. I turned on my Amphipod reflective led flasher. Then a little down the road I pulled out my headlamp.

Once I hit US2, I turned away from home to get the little extra distance I needed before heading home. My legs were a little tired the last couple miles, but not too bad. I’ve definitely felt worse at the end of long runs.

I think I only ate about 300 calories from the dates and raisins that I brought along. I ate 5 bananas about an hour before I started, and ate a lot yesterday.

Average HR 140 bpm. My HR was a little high compared to usual at the same efforts. I didn’t sleep that well and my stomach didn’t feel that well this morning. I was fine while running.

I feel pretty good, but tomorrow might still be a little tough.

 

Sunday, January 25, 2015, 1:54 pm

20.21 mi, 3233 ft gain, 3:53:50. To WFSP, rd grade, Greg Ball Tr, Wallace Lake, Jay Lake, DNR rd to Upper Falls, Woody Tr to TH, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Back-to-back day two. The flat 3 mi or so through town to the trail head wasn’t actually that much slower than yesterday, but definitely felt a lot slower. Legs were a little heavy, and my HR was up a little.

My HR was still a little elevated once I hit the road grade trail. I don’t think I was actually that much slower though. I still felt slow on the Greg Ball trail, but my time on that section was actually faster than yesterday and good enough for a segment CR on Strava. I think my HR calmed back down somewhere on that section.

The weather wasn’t bad yesterday, but today it was great, sunny and upper 50s. I think I was slightly overdressed, but it got a little cooler in the shade, and I wasn’t sure how long I’d be out or if I’d still be going when it got dark and cooled down. It was really just the skintight undershirt that I could have left behind. The long-sleeve shirt was fine.

I had my Nathan pack with about 1.8 liters of water in he bladder and some raisins and dates. I think I only had about 300-400 calories during the run. But I ate before I left too.

Wallace lake had dropped a little bit compared to yesterday. I went around the other end toward Jay lake and the Wallace River flowing into Wallace lake had dropped enough to expose the steps. Two of the steps were still under water, so I tossed a couple foot size rocks into them. The steps are sort of 2-2.5 ft diameter buckets filled with rocks. The next inlet channel has a steel grate foot bridge crossing it.

The trail up to Jay Lake had some water flowing over it in a couple places and some washout damage in a couple as well. I had Jay lake to myself. It was amazing with low hung mist over the water and the sun breaking through the trees on the hill to the south. I got a pretty good picture that I posted to Instagram.

Once I made it back to Wallace Lake, I decided to head out on the DNR rd toward Upper Wallace Falls. First, I wanted to check the flooded section of the road. I was going to need a little more distance to hit 20 mi, so if the water hadn’t dropped, I would have gone around another way that I haven’t been yet. But the water was down, and I could just barely get around it.

I took a short detour up the old logging road that goes out toward Mt. Stickney. Once I got out about 0.25 mi, there was a spot that looked like it could be possibly doable to go up the mountain. I made it up to the next sort of level spot about another 0.25 mi, which was about 400+ ft of gain. Unfortunately, I didn’t go back down the way I came and ended up going off trail a lot farther than I wanted, a lot was over and around windfall as well.

I wasn’t worried about getting lost. As long as I went away from the mountain, I would hit either the old logging rd or the DNR rd. I hit the old logging rd quite a ways back down toward the DNR rd.

Once I got to the junction with the Woody trail down to the falls, I wanted to check out the bridge construction that I saw a sign about down the trail. Apparently there was a bridge over the river above the Upper Falls in the past. I went and looked and it looks like they’re pretty much done with a new bridge to replace it. I’m pretty excited about all the possibilities on the other side of the falls. I hope there are some plans for more trails, maybe even one going all the way out to Lake Isabel.

Anyway, I made it to the valley overlook viewpoint just in time to experience another amazing sunset across the valley, with views all the way to the Olympics to the west.

I finished out the Woody trail without pulling out my headlamp. I probably could have gone a little faster if I used it, but it’s good practice and I wanted to keep it at an easy pace.

I did pull out my headlamp once I got back to the trail head, so cars could see me on the road as I ran home. I still felt pretty good most of the way home, but tired. My legs started hurting a little about the last mile, pretty comparable to the last 1-1.5 mi of the Bridle Trails 50k.

Average HR 137 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 76.1 mi, 11,053 ft gain