So I haven’t written a post in quite some time, but that is because I have been busy, busy, busy! Spending most of that time on the trails, exploring my new surroundings, and moving apartments yet again!

First off, I have moved into a studio with a loft at the base of The Canyons Ski Resort (practically ski on ski off; I am very excited for the winter)… the apartment is actually much larger than my last apartment in Atlanta, I have a gigantic deck, and it is two stories in some respects (I will soon post pictures). My address here is 2100 Canyon Resort Drive, Park City, UT 84098. I have also acquired a PO Box (hooray… you can send me mail if you are really bored).The address of my PO Box is #982573, Park City, UT 84098. The old apartment wasn’t working out, and this place is definitely a step up, as nice as the last place was!

I have also signed up for the Logan Peak Trail Run and the Speedgoat 50K. With those races on my mind, I have been training quite a bit in the last 2 weeks, almost every day which is unusual for me (I typically give myself 2 days off a week). Though I haven’t done many runs longer than 12 miles, these training runs have been very quality runs, which I am very happy about. I have conquered the altitude finally, and I am running up switchbacks very well. I think I am in very good shape at this point. A small setback in my training though – I had to cut my planned 13 miler today short as my right foot is giving me problems… I think it has to do with my ankle and overuse, but I will have to take the next 2-3 days off, which sucks as running on Memorial Day weekend is awesome I hope patience in this case will pay off, as I expect to do very well at Logan Peak and Speedgoat 50K.

After I cut my run short today, I got back to my apartment and threw together a light camelbak and went to explore some of the trails in my backyard – I literally walked out my frontdoor and went for a 3 hour hike up some awesome trails surrounding the ski resort. I fully expect to run into more wildlife as I will continue to hike around the mountains around here, but for today, it was just birds, deer, and the occasional chipmunk (definitely no complaints though!). There is still a good amount of snow on some of the trails out of the way of direct sunlight, but the snow is melting quickly. Anything above 10K feet is still buried in the white stuff though… I really can’t wait for that stuff to melt, I am just dying to hit the trails!

If I can fix this foot problem and have a good few months of training, I may be signing up for my first 100 miler, the Bear 100 in September. If I can go uninjured this summer and keep up the training, I feel that I am more than ready to tackle a 100, even if the Bear 100 isn’t the easiest 100 miler to start with.

Pretty much what the title says.

I went for a 7 mile run today on some single track trails just north of Park City where you can see the trails from the highway in an area of town called Jeremy Ranch. I chose these trails for the time being because you can tell that the snow has melted a good bit and the trails looked dry for the most part. Rather than a few snowy patches, the trails were perfect.

The trail probably climbed a good 1000 feet by the time I turned around. Boy was I huffin’ and puffin’ on the way up. I didn’t stop to walk, but I sure wanted to. I am hoping that in a few weeks of being out here, running at elevation will become much easier. I think I now know why folks come out to these big mountain ultras (particularly Hardrock 100) two weeks ahead of time. But hey, no complaints from me! It got up to about 67 degrees today in Park City and it was very warm on the trail, probably due to absolutely no shade.

Regardless, the entire run felt like I was in a picture; I have only encountered wide open sky and unshaded single track trail  like today in Backpacker and Trailrunner Magazine. Seriously, all those pictures that you see published, those trails do exist. And not to make you jealous, but the trail I ran today is only 5 miles from my apartment. On top of that I only ran 3.5 miles of the 300+ miles of trails in the area.

To say the least, I am a happy camper. I start my job on Thursday, and I get internet and cable tomorrow (which means I’ll begin uploading all the pictures and videos). But until then, run on!