The Ultra Experience

Here's to the adventures of my life which are usually ultra marathon trail running or fly fishing but may include other trips, experiences, thoughts, opinions, or pretty much whatever I want. As co-founder of Altra Footwear my life and adventures seemingly revolve more around developing and promoting the best footwear in the world...and I love it!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Winter Running

I had two great runs this weekend. I really enjoy winter running. There is little pressure to put the miles in, just relaxing runs. I've been doing a lot of miles on snowmobile paths with my Kahtoola Microspikes. It's been great.

Saturday however I decided to do the Kahtoola snowshoe marathon on Jan 29th so I buckled up my snowshoes and ran the Days Canyon to Kirkmans Hollow loop I did a few week earlier. Instead of 5 1/2 hrs it took me 2:47. The conditions were perfect with the paths already packed down and I had a great time. The only disconcerting part was the amount of cougar tracks I came across. In two spots along the route were not a set of tracks but 8-10 tracks criss-crossing the area. Definitely cougar terrain. Felt good and am hoping to hold up for the whole 26.2 miles in a few weeks.

Martin Luther King Day I ran south BoSho. With temps near 50 it was a slush fest but all fun as I was able to get another 2 hours out on the trail. I've only found two problems with winter running neither of which affected this past weekends runs. 1st-Lack of daylight. Since it's only light 8-9 hours of the day, getting a run during working daylight hours can be tough. 2nd- Late winter slush. It's great but I have this issue of following the slush through the whole spring as I attempt to run the high trails. During winter it's fine but by May I'm tired of it, yet I'm never content running the low trails all spring. Come April-May I'm anxiously attempting the high country a bit too early and end up post-holing through May and into June.

It comes with the territory though and my affinity for the mtns calls regardless of the temps or conditions. One of the allures of trail running though is the various conditions one finds. I've had 3 races in which it snowed during the race...and those races define my ultra experience becoming icons of the sport. However I'll complain about the snow until it gets too hot....man I hate the heat....:)

Monday, January 3, 2011

Days Canyon Loop

Ended 2010 with a bang! A group of us met at Jolley's Ranch up the Right Fork of Hobble Creek and headed up the canyon. We ended up going up Days Canyon and down Kirkmans Hollow for a cruel yet incredible loop. The person in front could usually only last 5-6 minutes due to the exorbitant amount of powder. The whole loop is packed down now which I hope is the case for the remainder of the winter. It took us 5 1/2 hours but it was great. I think I can do in 3 hours now that it is packed down. So far all this snow hasn't been too bad!