It has been two months since I have posted. Going forward I will make sure and post more often.
I ended up not running the Squaw Peak 50 this year. I was definitely looking forward to running it but it took me longer to recover from the Buffalo 50 Miler than I ever thought it would, and I also got sick after that and ended up having 3 weeks of minimal training. I felt it was best to not run Squaw Peak and focus on the Speedgoat 50K on July 28th, with my ultimate goal of completing the Bear 100 in late September.
That plan has been going very well. I have been running in the canyons for the last month or more with several runs a week in the hills for the last couple of weeks. It has felt great! I love to run in the mountains and with our snow pack being so pathetic this year I have been able to get up there running much earlier than last year. My goal from now until Speedgoat is to run at least 3 times a week on the mountain trails with a run or two in the valley's as well. This week has been a good week and I feel very good about where I am at right now.
As a side note. I absolutely love my Hoka Stinson Evo's. My last mountain run was in my Cascadia 7's and I honestly don't know how much more I will wear them. I will probably still wear them on some of my 2 to 3 hour runs but not on my longer mountain runs. I do like the Cascadia's on the slight downhill clean sections as I believe I am a little faster in them than the Hoka's in that scenario. The Hoka's are just so much better on the rocks and roots and anything technical, and my knees feel no stress at all when I am wearing them. If it wasn't for the fact that I probably only have about 150 miles on the Cascadia's I wouldn't put them on again, but I can't bear the thought of retiring a $100.00 pair of shoes without wearing them out. My only complaint about the Hoka's is the lacing system they use. If my feet weren't so narrow it might be okay but I have to do all kinds of looping and such to make it so I don't trip over the pull tabs. I will probably switch to a standard lace, as the way it is there is really no benefit to the pull tab lacing system that they have.
I will post again just before Speedgoat and update my progress and my goal. Speedgoat this year should be a lot of fun to be part of as they have a large number of the best trail runners in the country, and the world, running it this year. Not that I will see any of them except at the starting line, but it will be fun to just be involved with such a large group of high caliber of runners, both male and female.
