July 4th trip, ID and WA and RUNS

Arco hotel room

I had Wednesday to Sunday off over the holiday so Toni and I set off to ID to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument. Last time I was at this place I was a very young person ;).


It's a totally cool place. The Apollo astronauts were sent here to learn to recognize volcanic features. At that them we still didn't really know if the craters on the moon were volcano craters or meteor craters or a mix. (It's almost all meteor craters).

We spent the 4th in Arco, ID. Alas, because of the fire danger NO FIREWORKS. The locals did not get the memo and kept us up (and the horses scared) until midnight or so. 


The next morning off to Craters of the Moon. This volcanic area was created by the same 'hot-spot' that is currently under Yellowstone (the plate is moving south west and so the hot spot appears to be moving north east). The last eruption was 2000 yrs ago. 


It's a cool place to visit for a day. We took a nature walk around "Broken Top" cone with a guide..getting good views of the Rift itself (where the lava breaks through). 


The most fun was going into the lava tubes. These are caves made by flowing lava..when the lava stops and drains out you have a tube. Eventually the roof caves in someplace and you find them. One of the caves was 800' long and you could climb through from one opening and out another.

Looking back at entrance

"Beauty" cave was a so-called  "Ice cave". It has ice in it all year! As we descended into the opening the temp went from 75F to 32F in about 10 feet! Using our flashlights we walked to the back of the cave (about 100' in) and found some ice on the floor of the cave. Amazing. This is summer in ID and it is getting up to 100F pretty much every day, but just 20' under the rock it's 32F all year long! Whodathunkit?

ICE in beam of flashlight! (My shoe in photo LR)

We climbed up Inferno cinder cone (hence the new blog header photo) and got some great views of the entire area.


After that, off to Sun Valley for one night. In the morning I got to do a short 4 mile run at 6000' altitude on a hilly trail near the Inn. I felt pretty good considering the altitude and powerful sun. 

2012-07-06 Fri, Sun Valley ID
Split	Dist	Pace	HR	% WHR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	1.00	13:10	120.0	60.66	76.0	288.4	23.1	1.303
2	1.00	10:37	127.0	66.39	86.0	84.5	69.8	1.341
3	1.00	9:45	129.0	68.03	87.0	61.7	140.8	1.383
4	1.00	9:30	121.0	61.48	89.0	30.9	184.2	1.462
5	0.63	9:19	126.0	65.57	89.0	3.6	42.9	1.469
Sum	4.6	10:33	124.2	64.12	85.1	469.2	460.9	1.377

Leaving Sun Valley, we drove north through the Sawtooth mountains and then cut west, hit highway 84 and continued north-west up to Walla Walla, WA. Some incredible views of rivers, mountains, desert along this drive.








Walla Walla was hot. (100F) Luckily the wineries we visited all had good air conditioning of course. I went for a 4-ish mile run there too. It was already in the mid-70s and the sun felt like a giant full-body space heater with the elements about 12" from my skin. Yow. But the run went ok. Perhaps I am getting more acclimated to the heat?

2012-07-07 Sat, Walla Walla WA
Split	Dist	Pace	HR	% WHR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	1.00	10:31	112.0	54.10	87.0	49.4	0.0	1.539
2	1.00	10:58	115.0	56.56	84.0	51.9	0.0	1.440
3	1.00	9:53	112.0	54.10	88.0	0.0	53.2	1.560
4	1.00	9:44	118.0	59.02	88.0	0.0	44.1	1.508
5	0.14	9:46	126.0	65.57	88.0	0.0	3.3	1.417
Sum	4.1	10:15	114.6	56.23	86.8	101.3	100.6	1.506

Monday normally would be a rest day, but since I didn't run Sunday and I want to get a few runs in before the trail marathon on Saturday, I went out for some hill repeats. I'm still trying to build leg strength.

2012-07-09 Mon, HOME
Split	Dist	Pace	HR	% WHR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	1.00	10:29	109.0	51.64	89.0	9.1	3.3	1.545
2	1.00	10:06	117.0	58.20	88.0	19.6	0.0	1.506
3	0.22	9:42	117.0	58.20	88.0	2.2	2.1	1.554
4	0.31	9:37	136.0	73.77	89.0	58.3	0.0	1.500
5	0.29	8:59	121.0	61.48	89.0	0.0	50.4	1.520
6	0.30	9:40	135.0	72.95	89.0	53.3	1.7	1.497
7	0.29	8:54	122.0	62.30	90.0	0.0	53.6	1.517
8	0.30	9:27	136.0	73.77	89.0	52.1	0.0	1.518
9	0.29	8:57	124.0	63.93	89.0	0.0	51.2	1.489
10	0.28	9:02	142.0	78.69	90.0	50.6	1.6	1.522
11	0.28	9:34	122.0	62.30	88.0	2.1	50.0	1.420
12	0.29	8:46	141.0	77.87	91.0	51.3	1.8	1.578
13	0.30	9:59	122.0	62.30	87.0	2.2	56.1	1.355
14	1.00	9:34	118.0	59.02	88.0	1.0	19.7	1.549
15	1.00	9:38	121.0	61.48	88.0	2.2	15.7	1.502
16	0.28	9:26	124.0	63.93	88.0	1.0	0.0	1.507
Sum	7.4	9:40	121.7	62.07	88.6	305.2	307.2	1.511

I did 5 sets of .3 miles up and down running the ups at 9:30 to 8:46 pace. I'll do two more runs and then knock off for Thurs/Fri before the race.