A weekend in Eden and the XTerra "no-go" decision

We spent the Labor Day weekend at this cabin in Eden, UT

Way back over the winter, Andrea and I had planned on spending this Labor Day weekend hiking the Teton Crest Trail. However, back then we didn't quite anticipate being in this type of running form. Funny how things can change so rapidly for the better, and like I said in the TOU 1/2 Marathon post, these are exciting times!

So with training a priority (and 3-4 days of hiking not quite fitting into that plan!) we opted to stay close to home, but still get away for a few days. We found a cool little cabin up in Eden, UT and spent the weekend there - running and recovering.

On Saturday we did a nice long run w/ some friends (20.6 miles, Andrea has never run more than 17 before). Sunday was running, mountain biking, and axe-throwing (see videos below). On Monday we ran the XTerra Nationals course at Snowbasin. This race has been on our schedule for a while, but after running the course and thinking a little more about it while eating dipped cones at Dairy Queen, we decided that we are not going to run when nationals come to town on September 25th.

I described the course in more detail on my fast running blog; I feel like I have a very good chance to win the race (and some major prize money), and Andrea could probably also win it... but its not in our best interest in the big picture. We are racing in Long Beach CA two weeks later, and that race is a lot more important to us. With Andrea's off-and-on back pain, racing on trails could make it tough for her to recover in time for Long Beach. And I'm very concerned about beating up my legs too much on the downhills over the last portion of the course, or simply doing something silly like twisting an ankle.

XTerra will be a really fun event, the course is awesome (challenging but fair), and in some ways we're sad to make the call that we are going to skip it. But you can't run every race you want to do, and you can only "go to the well" so many times per season. You have to pick your spots, and for us, the Long Beach 1/2 Marathon is a much more important race.

Some pics and videos from our weekend are below. We are in full-volume training mode now for the entire month of September.


Our cabin... sometimes this beats camping!


Nice

Pineview Reservoir


Riding up Wheeler Canyon


Andrea riding towards Mt Ogden / Snowbasin


Art Nord trailhead


Andrea tossing some axes, she would make a great warrior!


My turn on the axe toss. I had been practicing for a while longer :-)


The supermarket in Eden sold giant bowls of soft serve ice cream for 50 cents! Jackpot! We made multiple trips there.


Map of the XTerra Nationals course at Snowbasin

Elevation profile of the XTerra course