Fortnight Ending July 31

Mon - 7 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home long.

Tues - AM: 6.5 miles (1,400') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg.
PM: 3.5 miles (600') easy. Reservoir Ridge social run with FCTR.

Weds - Off.

Thurs - 8 miles easy. Social run at Pineridge with FCTR.

Fri - 7 miles (1,600') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home long.

Sat - 31 miles (8,000'). Pingree Loop.

Sun - 6.5 miles (1,400') easy. Soderberg - Spring Creek - Herrington - Stout - Spring Creek - Falls.

Total: 69.5 miles (14,600').

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Mon - 6 miles (600') easy. Valley trails.

Tues - 4 miles track w/Jane's (huge) group. Mile, then 4x800 on 1:20 rest. I figured this one was going to be a shock to the system, but knew that I'd have to bite the bullet sooner rather than later to avoid a complete flop at Sierre-Zinal. Eased back in with a low-intensity effort: 5:40, then 2:40-2:43.

Weds - 2.5 miles (500') easy.

Thurs - 6 miles (900') easy with Scott on the Bonneville-Shoreline trail (first three miles of Wasatch 100 out and back).

Fri - Off

Sat - 31 miles (11,600'). Speedgoat 50k.

Sun - 6.5 miles (1,400') easy. Soderberg - Spring Creek - Herrington - Stout - Spring Creek - Falls.

Total: 56 miles (15,000')

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January: 440.5 miles (45,850')
February: 304.5 miles (39,200')
March: 469.5 miles (67,100')
April: 427 (62,000')
May: 509.5 (92,500')
June: 323 (54,900')
July 303.5 (79,700)

Total: 2,777.5 miles (441,350')
Avg: 397 miles (63,050')
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Catching up here. So the last two weeks have been weeks two and three of recovery from Hardrock. While my legs have essentially been feeling fine, I definitely haven't been feeling much of a running spark. Unless heading into the mountains, I'm pretty much forcing myself out the door in a bid to maintain some level of fitness for France and Switzerland. The heat is not helping.

Just back from an awesome weekend at Snowbird with the family. Camping, swimming, hanging out and a bit of racing too. It's always fun in the Wasatch. So anyway, two easy weeks leading up to Speedgoat, but still kind of blah in the legs. I'll have to up my game a bit in the next couple of weeks before resting up for UTMB, which I think will be my last hard effort of the year.

But before that, I'll be running Sierre-Zinal, an uber-competitive mountain race in Switzerland, which I'm really excited about experiencing. Sierre-Zinal is perhaps the premier mountain race on the European mountain running circuit - and they take their mountain running pretty seriously over there - so it promises to be quite the experience. My friend Pablo Vigil (three time S-Z winner and overall S-Z legend) has been putting together an 'Equipe USA' for the last few years and he's outdone himself his year. I'm intimidated enough by the US contingent alone to know that a top 10 finish in Switzerland will be a huge accomplishment.

Aside from myself, Pablo is bringing over Max King (definite shot at the overall win), Joe Gray (two time US Mountain Runner of the Year), Glen Randall (winner of the Pikes and Evans Ascent races last year, both in eyebrow-raising fashion), Dakota Jones, Scott Jaime. On the women's side, Pablo has rounded up Megan Kimmel, Megan Lund (winner last year), and Brandy Erholtz. From that 'equipe' I am going to say that the US has a pretty legitimate shot at winning both races. Of course, two-time defending champ Kilian Jornet will have something to say about that on the men's side, as will some very other experienced and talented European runners. Me? I'm just excited to be running in such a storied race.

Goat report to come, but a quick tip of the hat to Karl who puts on a great race - easily the toughest 50k in the country (that I know of).