Monday, August 3, 2015, 8:27 pm

3.09 mi, 40 ft gain, 28:53. RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2 white.

My legs were a little sore, just the muscles, but not all that fatigued. I took the dogs out along the RR access rd and the park. I kept the pace fairly easy.

I didn’t wear my HR monitor.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015, 7:23 pm

4.04 mi, 37 ft gain, 38:44. RR Access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2 white.

It was cool again today. I decided to take it easy again to let my legs recover a little more for one last long run this weekend before Cascade Crest. My legs were fine.

Average HR 126 bpm.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015, 4:55 pm

3.17 mi, 28 ft gain, 23:11. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I ended up doing another short run. I wasn’t really feeling up to it, but went anyway. It was raining a little when I started, but it got heavier about 5 min in. I considered going about 6 mi or so, but decided to run shorter and faster instead.

It felt good to go faster. Running in the rain was great too. It’s been a while since I had a good soaking rainy run.

Average HR 147 bpm.

Thursday, August 6, 2015, 7:46 pm

4.64 mi, 1745 ft gain, 55:57. Woody trail to Upper Wallace Falls (51), solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #4.

I went out a bit late today. I kept it short again, but not so easy. My legs feel a bit flat and oddly heavy, like they do during a taper. Maybe I’ve taken it easy for too many days in a row.

I started out at a moderate pace for the first 0.5 mi or so, then sped up as I went along from there. I’d say I was running a moderately hard effort from about there until a little past the Valley overlook. Then I pushed a little harder. I made it to the Upper Falls at about 30 min. I took a few minutes to recover up there before heading back down.

I stopped after the descending the first flight of stairs to tighten my shoelaces. After that, I let gravity take over for most of the descent, slowing a bit down toward the bottom due to diminishing light.

It was great to put in a reasonably hard effort.

Average HR 155 bpm.

Friday, August 7, 2015, 6:50 pm

9.93 mi, 2:04 ft gain, 2:04:47. RR Grade, Greg Ball, Wallace Lake, Upper Grade, Upper Falls (52), Woody Trail, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #4.

My legs felt a little rough today. My shoelaces were too tight starting out. I stopped once on the RR grade and again on the Greg Ball trail to fix them.

At the top of the Greg Ball trail I saw a “Road Closed Ahead” sign. I decided to head out to Wallace Lake anyway. They still haven’t replaced the bridge. I crossed the Wallace River where the bridge should be quite easily, it’s so low.

I decided to see if I could get down to the lake by the campsites. There was a good trail down there. I passed three women with presumably their daughters who appeared to be coming from their campsite. I didn’t see them again on my way out.

I continued around the lake loop towards the falls. I saw another road closed sign at the fork for the detour and the Upper Grade. It was on the side toward the detour, but there were heavy equipment tracks going out on the Upper Grade. I took the Upper Grade anyway.

The excavator tracks were rather uncomfortable to run on. They only went to the edge of the more thick woods. I continued out to the falls. I didn’t see anyone or any equipment.

I tightened my shoelaces again at the Upper Falls before heading down. My legs were a little tired on the descent. I think I should have eaten closer to the start of my run.

Average HR 134 bpm.

Saturday, August 8, 2015, 6:20 pm

9.25 mi, 3476 ft gain, 2:07:00. Woody Trail to Upper Falls (53, 54), solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #4.

I felt a little better today than yesterday. My calves were just a little tight on the first time up. There was a woman with a bunch of boys, a teenager and on down from there to about 5 or 6 at the youngest. I think there were 5 kids. The youngest one said, “You’re really skinny.” I chuckled and said that’s because I’m a runner. The oldest said something about running. Then the youngest said, “I mean it, you’re really skinny.”

I had some water and a couple dates, then tightened my laces before heading down. The descent was better than yesterday.

I refilled my water, had a couple dates and took a few minutes break at the TH. I chatted with a guy and his son for a few minutes. They asked about my running and asked something about if I do long runs in the mountains. I mentioned the upcoming 100 miler. They wished me luck when I started my second lap.

Both times up were pretty close. There were fewer other people on the trail, so that was likely part of it. Again, I had some water and dates at the Upper Falls. I left my laces tight on the way up and they pinched a little on the climbs. Even so, I felt better the second time up. I think the difference was being warmed up.

I was pretty close on times for both descents as well. I had fun, and it was a great run.

Average HR 147 bpm.

Sunday, August 9, 2015, 4:55 pm

20.12 mi, 5833 ft gain, 5:34:27. PCT to Icicle Creek to Chain Lakes, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #4.

I had so much fun on this run. So much that I’ve considered not running races anymore, or at least fewer, so that I can do more adventure runs like this.

I got a late start. I had wanted to attempt climbing up Bulls Tooth. At the very least, I wanted to make it out to Chain Lakes just below the mountain.

My legs were a little tight, especially my calves, on the climb up from Stevens Pass. They loosened up after that. I passed a few groups of hikers heading the other way on my way up. The downhill on the other side of the mountain was a blast. I passed two more groups on the descent, one heading north, the other heading south.

From the bottom of the descent, there was another smaller climb up to the junction with Icicle creek and a little more up and then down around Josephine lake. The sign for the Icicle Creek trail was easy to spot, as was the trail.

Once down into the Icicle creek drainage, the trail was a lot less rocky. There were some roots, but it was pretty smooth for the most part.

I had little trouble finding the next trail, mostly because I was looking for it. The sign for the Chain Lakes trail is on the other side of a tree facing the other direction. The trail is fairly apparent, though.
The Chain Lakes trail is quite steep, especially the first 0.6 mi or so, about 1000ft gain. It was about 1800 ft gain total over 1.8 mi. It was fun climbing. I practiced my power hiking.

It was absolutely beautiful when I got up to the lakes. I was going to make my way around to the third lake, but the path I followed sort of just disappeared up on a little knob. I had a view of the third lake, but ended up turning around. I had wanted to at least see if I could spot the route up the mountain. It was too late for me to attempt going up, though. I didn’t want to be scrambling in the dark. I also wanted to make it back down the steep trail to Icicle Creek before sunset. I went back to the second lake and went down by a campsite. I chatted with three guys camping there for a little bit and refilled my water. They were heading to Doelle lakes the following day.

As tough as it was going up the Chain Lakes trail, it was a ton of fun going back down. I made it to the Icicle Creek junction about 13 min before sunset. I went for quite a while before breaking out the headlamp. I was a little low on energy for a little while. I started eating a little more often and stopped to snack on some trail-side huckleberries on the final climb up the backside of Stevens Pass. The huckleberries were amazing. I ran out of water somewhere around the top.

I felt pretty good on the final descent to the parking lot. Even with all the rocks and stuff, I got into a pretty good rhythm. There were a lot of frogs and salamanders out on the trail in the dark. I had to watch my step to keep from squashing them. There were also quite a few trails of ants crossing the trail. They stopped moving when my headlamp was shining on them.

Like I said at the beginning of this, I had such a good time on this run. I didn’t run too hard and kept the effort pretty even. The trails were fantastic and tons of fun. The scenery was gorgeous. I wouldn’t call it a runner’s high. I never really understood what people meant when they said they were “high on life” until this run. I must do more of this.

Average HR 133 bpm. HRM battery died after about 4 hours.

Weekly totals: 54.1 mi, 13,162 ft elevation gain