Salt Lake City!

- June 10, 2009

I've been in Salt Lake City for almost a week now, helping my Mom transition out of rehab and back home. She had both her knees replaced last Thursday and has made quantum leaps in recovery. First time for each of us being caregiver and caregivee but we've settled into it comfortably with the intangible satisfaction of being needed and being taken care of. While I spend most of the days making sure she has what she needs, cleaning and working on my laptop, I've had ample occasions to jet out for some alone time.

(Flying over Utah)

(Mom's knees)

The first few days I explored the canyon behind my my mom's apartment that runs up City Creek behind the Capital building. I found a trail run that's part of a 17 mile race called the Wahsatch Steeplechase and tried to follow the route until I realized I'd gone maybe 2 miles and gained 1500 ft. in 50 minutes and decided, for the sake of my mom of course, that I should turn around and head back. The second day it was raining so I stuck to the road route along the other side of the creek making my way up maybe 6 or 7 miles through lush, green foliage, getting colder as I went higher despite the all-uphill effort. Salt Lake has been innundated by rain the past 2 weeks and while I thought it seemed super green and lush because I'm coming from San Francisco, even the locals say they can't remember it being so green. It's really quite beautiful.

So the running has been fun - right out my mom's backdoor and past a stunning Capital building that looks out over a city surrounded by the Wasatch mountains to the east and the Oquirrh mountains to the west. I found the store (Wild Rose) I bought my first mountain bike at (mint green Bianchi) some 20 years ago still alive in the avenues.

Yesterday I dashed out to catch a Crossfit class with Crossfit Salt Lake City. Just minutes from my mom's house I arrived as 4 others were starting to warm up. Jason, the coach, was laid back and welcoming and told me to jump right in. It was a Filthy Fifty day. Yikes. Some background: My friend Yariv and I, when wasting precious work time, like to look at Crossfit workouts online and consider how we'd fare. The Filthy Fifty has been on my list of things to try at some point in a workout. 50 reps of each of the following - box jumps, jumping pullups, KB swings, walking lunges, knees-to-elbow, push press, back extensions, wall balls, burpees and double-unders. Totally doable if you break it down but I had no idea what it would be like to do them all together. Day of reckoning.

Felt good starting the warmup with a few kipping pullups (thank you, Saul), trying to represent California appropriately. By the time I hit the double-unders I was as close to nausea as I've ever been in a CF workout. Finished in a glacial 47+ minutes. It was down to me and two other guys at the end just grunting through the burpees before tackling the jump ropes and finishing almost at the same time. I guess you can't call your first FF time glacial if you have no barometer. Now I have a benchmark. And I'll have to come back to Utah to test it again because...altitude kills. Or so they told me. If that's the case, then I should feel super strong returning to sea level next week, right?

I returned to CFSLC today, lured in by the supportive, friendly vibe and the killer workout they introduced me to. Most of the people there had also done the 50 so we were all a little wobbly. (Cue up John Cougar Mellancamp: Hurts So Good). I'm psyched I got to try the 50! Nothing like a long, challenging, exhausting cardio-endurothon. Today was much more chill although we had to time trial a 500m row which killed. 1:46 of balls-to-the-wall rowing. Agh. My abs are so sore.

Followed this with more errands for mom and a quick thrift store visit in the neighborhood where I scored a sweet white leather belt for $1.You know, the longer I stay and the more I do here I'm thinking that maybe winter and ski trips aren't the only reason to come visit mom anymore. I mean, besides my undying love and sense of responsibility as a daughter. Utah is a sweet place - and I haven't even left Salt Lake!

Footnote: What must be the toughest 50k around takes place right up at Snowbird. The Wasatch Speedgoat 50k with almost 20,000 combined vertical at an average elevation of 10,000. Makes Ohlone seem like a run in Golden Gate Park.