Cracking Open the Eastern Pioneers

I've lived in the Wood River Valley for a little over five years now and, sad to say, before this weekend hadn't made the relatively short trip over the Trail Creek dirt road pass to explore the Eastern Pioneer Mountains.  For being so close to the Sun Valley area, just 20 - 30 miles, it offers some of the most remote and spectacular trails the area has to offer.  And save a few select hot spots, it's hard to tell the difference between rush hour and non-rush hour trail traffic, it's typically so quiet.

And this is exactly what I found when I stole away for a couple hours during a family camping trip this weekend to Wildhorse Creek for a trip up to Boulder Lake - a modest, 8 mile (2,300 feet vert) run.  It's an out-and-back, with a loop option to Devils Bedstead only if you have your climbing gear, and it offers a great variety of terrain - steep climbs punctuated by Alpine meadows and mellow ascents, and a quarter mile scree scramble to the lake itself, which sits against near-vertical rock walls.

It was great to finally break the seal on this area of trail.  Like a new convert, I feel drunk with the possibilities but sobered by the press of summer's short play now that I know what I've been missing.

Some photos.

Trailhead.  About 5.5 miles out Wildhorse Creek Rd.

Opening steps - through the creek (no logs or bridge) and a sage meadow

Steep switchbacks with some great views

Open meadow at 9,200 feet.  Getting close to the scree and the lake

Scrambling

Boulder Lake

Relaxin'

Back down, near trailhead.  Hyndman and Old Hyndman peaks in the distance

Photo Guide to Sun Valley Runs: Johnstone Creek/Hyndman Creek Loop (Pio Cabin Alternate)

This is the run the Sun Valley locals hit when they're jonesing for a trip to Pioneer Cabin but want to avoid the crush of tourist traffic that can make an outing to the popular destination more travail than treat mid Summer.  It's about 3 - 4 miles longer than the standard routes up to the cabin (detailed here), with a little more vert and a lot more technical trail.  But the payoff in views of the Pioneers and solitude on the run make it well worth it.

The Hyndman Creek trailhead and Johnstone creek trailhead are about a mile apart via dirt road.  I prefer to run the loop clockwise and start at the Hyndman Creek trailhead, which means you start the run backtracking on foot down the dirt road to the Johnstone Creek trail.  But, it's nice to get this over with first, since it's the least rustic mile of the loop.  For directions to the Hyndman Creek trailhead, visit SummitPost.   This link is for the hike to Hyndman Peak (also a great outing, previous post), which shares the same lot.

For a run that's not that far off the beaten path, this one up Johnstone Creek trail is one to put toward the top of the list, if only for the stunning views of the timeless-feeling Pioneers.

A two minute photo guide -

Photo Guide to Sun Valley Runs: Johnstone Creek - Hyndman Creek Loop (Pio Cabin Alternate) from Run Junkie on Vimeo.

RJ Review: New Balance MT100 - Positive Impressions from a 'Maximalist' Curmudgeon

It's little secret to folks who read my blog and follow my Twitter feed that I'm a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to the book Born to Run (my review) and the barefoot/minimalist approach to running that it's come to represent.  It's not really worth detailing my knee-jerk reasoning for this, but it has a lot to do with the book not being that well written and the scientific evidence on the benefits of barefoot/minimalist running falling well short of established.  In my strange nutshell of a world, these are important unmet criteria.

So, it was with some surprise that I recently found myself caught in the wispy tails of the minimalist zeitgeist, ordering a pair of stripped down, 7.8 ounce New Balance MT100's (retail $74.99).  It's hard to know why I did this exactly, given that what usually passes for stripped down for me are Wildcats, but I suspect it was a desperate quest for a change of pace and an easy way to fake some uphill time trial PRs in this injury-plagued season of mine.  And, hey, they're just MT100's, not Five Fingers.

Given that I was a "maximalist" dipping his toes in the minimalist pond, I thought I'd offer some quick impressions of the MT100's from this perspective.  For a detailed review, I suggest hopping on over to iRunFar (link) who've reviewed them better than anyone else.

Out of the box
Apart from their lightness, the first real impression I had of the shoes was their strange, not altogether negative, semblance to classic Keds sneakers.  The MT100's upper is soft and unstructured throughout, with a light, loose tongue, and a  prominent Achilles backing, not unlike those white and blue Keds many moms still sport.  Clearly, these are a souped up version, but the similarities were unavoidable.  Keeping to its flyweight minimalist intent, the MT100's sole was light, low, and flexible with a decently aggressive tread featuring "Rock Stop" protection, which on first inspection in my hand didn't seem too substantial (see trail test comment below).  The shoe had little if any toe bump protection.

On the foot
Slipping these shoes on for the first time, they felt great. Really. For someone with a slightly wide forefoot, the MT100's were roomy (much more so than the Fireblades I recently tried) and didn't aggravate my persistent neuroma.  And they felt amazingly spry, as much as my Asics Hyperspeed 2s, a high watermark of spryness.

On the trail
Though it slightly pains me to say it, if I had to choose one word to describe these shoes, it'd be: Fun.  Taking them out on the trail is such a vastly different experience than ticking off miles in a heavier shoe.  The low heal on the 100's forces your weight forward for a more natural mid-foot strike which also adds a sense of effortlessness to the strides, and the flyweight 7.8 ounces keeps things incredibly nimble on technical trail, even for this at-times clumsy runner.  For me, the most surprising thing about the 100's was how well the "Rock Stop" protection plate actually performed.  Looking a bit weak indoors, it took on jagged rock and craggy ridge lines head on, and I hardly felt a thing.

Caveats
Without taking anything way from the MT100's, it'd take a supremely dedicated minimalist to wear them for any real distance on rough and tumble singletrack.  Using my personal algorithms, I'd think that 10 - 12 miles would be the maximum I'd put in them.  There just isn't enough there there to stand up to a big day in the backcountry.  The upper is light and feels great, even with bare feet, but it lets in a large amount of dust, micro pebbles, and burs.  The tongue is light and loose and can be urged into place for short outings, but over time folds in places that can form hot spots.  And, I'm just not sure it has the overall structure to support tired tired legs and tired tired minds on the tail end of a 50 mile, let alone a 100 mile, race.

I largely knew this much going in - despite trying to look at things with an open mind.  What I didn't expect really, was to find such a fun, trail-worthy mid-distance shoe with the weight of a racing flat.

For a short while, this maximalist curmudgeon stands chastened. 

More shoe reviews on Run Junkie

Photo Guide to Sun Valley Runs: Pioneer Cabin/Long Gulch Loop

This edition of Sun Valley Runs features a classic middle-distance run to the storied Pioneer Cabin, which rests at 9,500 feet at the base of the Pioneer Mountains. While the most popular route up and down to the cabin is the out/back on the Pioneer Cabin Trail, it can be overrun with foot traffic in summer and a little short for anyone looking to get in a bit of distance.  We've found that heading up the standard trail first thing in the morning and returning via the less traveled Long Gulch Trail makes for a really nice 9 mile loop with some extra climbing (about 3,500 feet vert for the loop) and a lot more solitude.  It's a classic run not to be missed. Directions to trailhead at trailweb.net.

Looking for more distance and vert?  Add the Hyndman Creek/Johnstone Creek loop to the cabin for a challenging figure eight of about 18/19 miles with 7,000 feet total climbing.

Want a quick tour?  Check out the video slideshow below or the static slideshow, here.

Sun Valley Runs: Pioneer Cabin Loop from Run Junkie on Vimeo.

More Sun Valley Runs

Back on the Trails - Two Miles at a Time

As a palette cleanser between the rush of Western States 100 reports, I had to mark my official return to the trails yesterday after my 6-weeks of full rest.  It was all of two miles, taking a dash over 16 minutes, but it felt epic nevertheless.  On the first mid 80s afternoon here in the Wood River Valley, it was a true gift to get to lace up a new pair of green and black Wildcats, grab my visor, and tick off a steady pace in full sun on the  buffed out Croy Creek trails. I even brought my camera along to capture the affair.

I have no idea how my knee's going to do over the next few weeks.  It told me yesterday that things hadn't perfectly resolved with rest.  So while I enjoy some easy days on the trail slowly building up my miles, I'll be monitoring things closely and gathering my thoughts on my next therapy steps.  There's been no lack of advice from people on where to turn, something I very much appreciate, but it's hard to decide which might be the most effective and economic approach.  ASTYM, structural integration, acupuncture, energy work, cupping, ultrasound, steroid injections, surgery.  Hopefully, I'll have a bit of solo time on the trail to form a cogent plan, and if things go right,  maybe I won't need a plan at all.

Injury Chronicles: The End of Exile and Life with Quasimodo

Well, I'm coming to the end of my 6-weeks' self-imposed exile from running and pretty much all other physical activities.  It's gone alright, which is to say that I've adhered to the full-rest aspect of my plan but have done so in a particularly moody and twitchy manner that has left me searching for the bells atop Notre Dame from which to swing.  Life around the house with me could easily be classified as "difficult," "unpleasant," or "Bergmanesque."

But, June 26 - Western States weekend - I'll be released for my first run, which is likely to take less time than a typical aid station stop but is something I'm very much looking forward to.  The skies here in the Northern Rockies are finally starting to clear, the temperatures are rising, and the lupin are beginning their colorful reach - the start of singletrack high season.

Yet, if I'm honest, I have to admit that the past week or so has been pointedly difficult, what with Bighorn last weekend (my first 100 miler last year) and Western this weekend (my main target this year). And although the knee has been feeling pretty good, and I'm optimistic about its prospects, it's also let me know once or twice that the road back may continue to be bumpy.

Right now, though, I don't want to worry about that.  All I really need to do is rest for five more days, then enjoy a summer filled with the simple pleasure of banging out some easy sun-drenched miles and letting the trail take me wherever it wants to go.

Race Results: Nationwide 2010 Titus Van Rijn (TVR) One Hour Run

Nationwide results for the Titus Van Rijn One Hour Distance Classic are in, and the Sun Valley Edition shined. While furthest distance overall, with 15,602 meters, went to 38 year old Washingtonian, Erik Brooks, Sun Valley runners Brad Mitchell (15,500 meters) and Andy Jones-Wilkins (14, 850 meters) took second and third respectively, as well as first and second in the Masters division.  Your truly (Hank Dart, 14,750 meters) came in seventh overall, giving Sun Valley three runners in the top ten.

Women's overall went to 35 year old defending champion Pam Smith of Oregon, with 14,578 meters, furthering the female record she set last year.  Sun Valley's Liv Jensen (12,960 meters) came through fourth woman; Julie Cord (12,429) sixth (second Masters), and EJ Harpham (12030 meters) seventh.

Race directors yet again did a great job organizing the event and compiling results and reports.

What is the TVR One Hour Run?

It's basically a festival of local one-hour running events, now in its 12th year. See the specifics here, but the "rules" are really quite simple. Grab some friends and hit the track sometime in May, record how far you go in 60 minutes, and send the results to the event director.

For more, see the new TVR blog.

Previous TVR posts on Run Junkie.


Overall Top 10

2010 TVR One Hour Run
First	Last	Gender	Age	Meters	Year	Site
Erik	Brooks	M	38	15,602	2010	WA
Brad	Mitchell	M	40	15,500	2010	ID
Andy	Jones-Wilkins	M	42	14,850	2010	ID
Ben	Blessing	M		14,800	2010	ID
Dan	Kuperberg	M	46	14,800	2010	WA
Brad	Smythe	M	31	14,780	2010	NC
Hank	Dart	M	42	14,750	2010	ID
James	Umbanhowar	M	37	14,720	2010	NC
Pam	Smith	F	35	14,578	2010	OR
Stephanie	Snyder	F	40	14,415	2010	OR

Science Wire: More Good Results for Chocolate Milk

Chocolate milk has been riding a wave of popular press in the endurance sports world, and some new results from the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine will only add to this.  In a series of two small studies, researchers William Lunn and Nancy Rodriguez found that non-fat chocolate milk performed better than a carbohydrate-only drink when it came to post-run glycogen synthesis and muscle repair (press release).  Eight male runners ran twice for 45 minutes over a two week period.  After each run, they drank either 16 ounces of non-fat chocolate milk or a carbohydrate drinks with the same number of calories.  Within a three hour recovery period, muscle biopsies were taken to measure glycgogen stores and markers for muscle repair.  Chocolate milk came out ahead on both measures. 

Like most endurance sport studies, these two studies are much too small to allow any firm conclusions.  That they only looked at recovery after a short 45 minute run makes the applicability to marathon and ultramarathon training gets even less clear.  Also unclear is how chocolate milk would stack up against more complex (and more expensive) commercial recovery drinks, like Recoverite or Ultragen.

Still, the results certainly suggest that choosing chocolate milk as a recovery drink could do you a lot of good as well as save you a good deal of money, which you could spend on real food or a new pair of shoes.

Motion Pictures: Choosing a Camera for the Trail

As my oft-chagrined training buddies can tell you, it's rare for me to hit the trail on a 2-plus hour run without my camera. Even if it's a route we've run dozens of times, I feel that each long outing, however seemingly routine, is rich with moments worth capturing. And although I'll never be in the same class as Glenn Tachiyama or Greg Norrander, I've taken some shots I've really liked over the last few years (see below) and learned a few key things about choosing a camera that could help out others looking to take their first shots on the run.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Your camera will break (or get left at a trailhead or carried away in a river or trampled by a moose).
This is just a fact of life. Under the best of domestic conditions, digital cameras live an endangered life.  Get them out in the wilds and in cold, wet, or sticky hands that belong to someone who's been running for anywhere from 2 to 30 hours and it's amazing that they make it back to the car any single time.  Which is just to say, don't spend so much on a camera that you'll be disappointed when force majeure separates the two of you.  You can be sad that you've lost such a great camera that you'd gotten attached to, but you should never be disappointed because of what it cost.  For some people, this will put the limit at $100, for others much higher.

Choose picture quality over most other options.
We're out on the trail with our cameras so we can capture great moments, so you should do so with a camera   that takes great photos.  In general, this doesn't mean the camera with the most megapixels.  It means cameras with great optics and electronics.  Apart from testing a number of different cameras, this means spending some time on the web divining from reviews and sample photos where certain cameras in a given price range fall on the quality spectrum.

Be wary of too many moving parts.
With a trail camera, simplicity is often best.  Moving parts are just asking to be jammed with dust, mud, water, or exploding gels.  I lost a fantastic camera to the red earth of Moab at the 2009 Red Hot 50k when I dropped it in a couple inches of superfine dirt.  While it had a soft landing, the telescoping lens mechanism filled with the dirt and stopped fully opening or closing. It was a complete loss. Its replacement has a permanently flush lens, which still has optical telephoto, and I can be a bit more confident that the camera is just that much more field-ready.

Don't be swayed too much by waterproof and shockproof cameras.
The growing number of waterproof and shockproof cameras is heartening for those of us looking for  something durable, and they may be good choices for some.  Overall, though, they seem to sacrifice too much for the ability to drop them off a tall boulder or dunk them in the local swimming hole.  While they are beginning to reach toward the sweetspot of price, quality, and size, right now they just don't seem to fulfill enough of the other important criteria to make them great choices.  When buying my latest camera last year, I decided against this category largely for image quality reasons. But the slight bulk, and high cost could easily be deal-breakers as well.

Don't worry too much about size.
Almost any of the current crop of point and shoot compact cameras on the market are small enough to carry on a long, long run without becoming burdensome.

Decide what's most important to you.
Are you an image quality person?  Durability?  Cost?  Size?  Everyone has their own special algorithm when deciding what camera to settle on.  For me,  quality comes first, followed by durability and size - all of which must settle within the "throwaway" price tag of $150 - $200.   The great news is that the choices are better than ever, and the starting point is higher than it's ever been.  Almost any name brand camera that costs over a $100 will take decent photos and come with some good bells and whistles.  Pay a little more and you'll have a bit more flexibility to choose exactly what you want.

Right now I use the Nikon Coolpix S52c, which I've been pretty happy with - taking it on Coyote Two Moon 100k, the Bighorn 100, and a number of training runs. It's fairly small (but not tiny) and true to all the Coolpix cameras, takes pretty nice photos. My previous camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS5) took amazing photos, due in large part to the Leica lens, which was also its downfall in the Martian Moab dust.

Some photos from the past couple of years.

2010 Pocatello 50 Miler Scuttled Mid-Race by Nasty Weather

A brutal weather system that brought freezing temperatures, snow, sleet, and white out conditions caused the Pocatello 50 miler to be stopped mid-race today, as many runners from the lead end to the tail end of the pack found themselves lost. The race started under decent but threatening conditions, which turned about 90 minutes into the race into challenging, and ultimately dangerous, conditions when course flagging in the upper elevations became buried under many inches of snow or difficult to see because of white out. 

Lead runners were pulled at the mile 32 Mink Creek aid station, while others were pulled at the mile 17 City Creek aid.  Reports from the field were that some groups of runners went well off course and had to make their way as best they could back to the closest aid station. Race directors were accounting for all runners.

Under the best of conditions - last year's inaugural race was run under sunny skies and 80 degree temps - the Pocatello 50, with its challenging terrain and 14,000 feet of climbing, is one of the harder races on the ultra calendar.  Today it met the only thing that could best the course itself - the weather.

Many thanks to Brad Mitchell and AJW for first hand reports from the field. 

See all Pocatello 50-related posts