Trails!

A nice cold run to start out 2008.  I ran on the Jordan River Parkway as I am in SLC for the day.  I came down last night after the race and celebrated the new year at my in-laws house.  I hit the trail at 6200s and headed north 3.5 miles and turned around.  The trail was icy and snowpacked, but it was not a treadmill so I can't complain.  I felt pretty good, with a tiny bit of soreness in the quads from yesterday.  I kept it around 7:00 pace until the last two miles where I stepped it up to make sure to beat the 7:00 guy.  I followed it up with some nice waffles...mmmmmm. 

Happy new year.....

T-48:26 (6:55) 165 

Easy 7 on the Treadmill this morning. I was still feeling sore from the 5K. Crazy. First time I have been this sore from a 5K. On a nerdy note, I put a temperature sensor in my garage last night with a wired outdoor sensor just outside the garage window to see how cold it really is in the garage in the early morning. It was 33 degrees in the garage and 7 outside the window. By the time the run was over, it had heated up to 35 degrees inside. I started out with a long sleeve shirt and shorts and after a mile, I needed to turn on the console fan to keep cool. By mile 6 I was sweating enough to shed the shirt. 35 degrees and no shirt and still hot. I definitely "run warm". Not warm enough to venture outside in single digits though...

T-52:10 (7:27)

PM: 1 mile to and from the Church for a round of bloody Church-ball.  It was fun but I was pretty rusty.  I played for an hour straight.

Treadmill again.  When it is 0 degrees its no contest.  I was feeling tired today.  Probably from lack of junk food.  I have gone into sugar withdrawls from the holidays.  

T-52:10 (7:27) HR 155-165

7 Miles playing the speed up / slow down game on the treadmill.  Fun stuff....I will be posting my running goals for 2008 soon on my short term goals list so stay tuned......

T- 51:32 (7:22)

8 miles on the Jordan River Parkway.  It had just snowed a couple of wet inches on the trail and it was pretty slick.  As long as I stayed away from the footprints already there, I could get traction. 7 min pace was also about the limit to how fast I could go without slipping on the pushoff.  So thats what it was.  I ran into Brent on the trail and tried to recruit him for some extra miles, but he was already done.  Next time.  It should be a while until we are down to SLC again. The run went well, but I still feel out of shape and that I am working too hard for the pace.   I will get where I want to be soon though.  Still just building back up.

I am in the process of researching Health Savings accounts (HSA's)  Does anyone currently use one?  Anyone with experience with it?  It seems like a great deal, if you don't spend too much time at the doctors.  My current insurance through work costs an arm and a leg for the premium so if I could find better options, I am all ears...

T-55:30 (6:56) 170 ave 

AM: Easy 5 on the treadmill this morning.

T-37:12 (7:26)

PM: 3 More in the evening

T-21:00 (7:00)

AM: 6 miles on the treadmill. Easy pace, happy to be able to continue to build mileage slowly.

T-44:13 (7:22)

PM: 3 More in the evening. Sped up a bit the third mile to get it over with faster.

T-20:40 (6:53)

AM: I woke up to about a foot of snow and its still coming down. So what do I do, I decide to go run in it. For fun. It was crazy, fun, and stupid. I ran out to the end of the planet walk and back. It wasn't easy to get any traction and blazing a trail on the sidewalk was tough. It was cool though. I totally overdressed and was sweating by the end of the 3.5 miles. I figured slipping and sliding all over was not good on the leg so I bailed at 3.5 miles and finished on the treadmill. I did another 2.5. All I have to say is that there is WAY more snow this year than last.

T-29:04 (8:18) 3.5 157

T-18:24 (7:21) 2.5

PM: 2 miles on the treadmill in the evening to hit my 8 for the day.  Easy pace, mixed with some hills.

T-15:00 (7:30)

Wow, a whole hour on the treadmill.  I start to go crazy after 30 min or so, but I was able to get my run in today without having to shoot myself.  

T- 59:14 (7:24)

Well, it didn't snow for the first time in a while and the roads were pretty clear so I was happy to hit one of the old "bread and butter" routes.  Providence - River Heights loop.  There were a few roads still with snow on them (maybe a mile total) but I was able to cruise on the rest of the run.  It was a med effort run with a few faster miles thrown in due to the hills.  I still feel the soreness outside the knee every once in a while during my runs, but it doesn't get past a 1 on my scale and by the next mile, it dissapears again.  Just a friendly reminder that I have to be careful.  I still plan on upping the mileage again next week to average 9 a day and 10 the next week.  After that, we will see...

T- 55:15 (6:54) 164

We had a light dusting of snow last night, but not enough to make the roads un-runnable.  They were slick in places, but it wasn't too bad.  I ran my Providence hills loop with a mile add-on up to the mouth of Providence Canyon.  I started out with no time goals and just ran by feel.  I was surprised the miles were sub 7 (except for the big hill mile).  I kept the same effort on the downhill and hit some 6 min miles.  As soon as I got home the sun came out and it warmed up to 40 degrees.  Of course. 

T- 61:48 (6:51) 163

AM: Easy 5 in the morning. It was pretty chilly outside, but I survived. No watch.

PM: Same 5 mile run at dusk.  Faster pace, sub 7 but not by much, but not sure as I ran naked. 

I struggled through one of those runs, you know what type I am talking about.  It was also cold and windy as a storm is moving in.  Whew, glad that run is behind me now. Providence hills run with canyon extention.  

T-64:34 (7:11) 164

** On the drive into work I watched an accident.  Guy speeding straight through a red light while a girl turned left when the light changed red but he wasn't clear yet and they crunched good.  The guy ended up in the ditch and the girl lost her front bumper and left front corner of her car.  It could've been a lot worse.  I stuck around until I could tell they were ok, then I left.  Don't tell the cops.  The van in front of me stuck around as a witness so I felt ok leaving. 

I hit the treadmill to avoid the single digit weather.  Wuss.  The treadmill wasn't too bad today.  I was able to complete the 9 miles scheduled for the day and be done.  Now I will have time to play some basketball late this evening.  Uhh, is that ok Beth?  

T-63:36 (7:04) 1% incline

AM: Treadmill game. Starts at 7mph increasing .1mph every min until I hit 10mph, hold for a min, then jump back to 9mph for the remainder.

T-35:06 5 miles (7:01)

PM: Ended up on the treadmill afterall this evening.  It is still snowing...(from 4 to 9:15 and still going).  Just another run.

T-28:35 4 miles (7:09)

AM: Easy 6 (7:20) in the morning. Yep, on the treadmill again. Watched the first of the Bourne Ultimatum. Will do 3 more late tonight.

PM: Yep, did the 3 (7:30 ave) more...miles in the evening as planned. I am beat. It has been a busy week at work and I am drained. Lily has not been feeling well, so sleep has also been harder. But I have to admit, Bethany has suffered the worst from Lily's sickness. She is a great mother/wife thats I can say.

Small workout today.  First real one since the injury.  It went pretty well.  The goal was to run 7 min pace for 3 miles then run 3-5 at tinman tempo (6:15-6:30) then the remainder at 7.  I ended up with most of the slower miles around 6:45 with the tempo miles in 6:27, 6:20, 6:20, 6:22.  The slowest mile was on the Planet walk due to the snowy slick trail.  Oh, and I didn't know it at the time but I was only 3 seconds off my course (Young Ward Loop via Planet Walk) PR, sooo close.  The wost part of the run was the warming of the hands once I got home.  Ouch, super painful.

T-1:06:53 (6:37)  ave HR 168 (still a tad high, but getting better)

AM: It wasn't too hard of a decision today between running in a blizzard and running on the treadmill. I took it easy this morning. I have a sore right calf and left hamstring. I am assuming from sat's run. I finished up the Bourne Supremecy. I will do 3.5 more tonight. I sure enjoyed reading all about everyones races on Saturday. Nothing like living vicariously through the blog.

T- 46:30 or so for 6.5 miles (I can't remember how many seconds, but it doesn't really matter)

PM: 3.5 more on the treadmill.  Did a mile warm-up then did some time at 6:40 pace then one mile at 6:00 pace.  It felt fast but manageable.   That was because I knew I only had to do one mile fast.  Cheater.

T- 24:00 (6:51)

I got to sleep in today because I was running in the evening.  I can get used to that.  Met Jon at my house and braved the sub zero temperatures and the darkness and the cars for a run.  It was pretty cold.  I wore my new FRB jacket and it sure kept the upper body toasty though.  By the time we were done, we were covered in ice.  Fun stuff.  Nights like this makes you grateful for a treadmill indoors. Our pace was pretty brisk (6:45ish) for the first 3-4 miles until we hit the ice covered roads and it got pretty slick.  After that it was 7:15 pace.

T- 1:11:00 (7:01) 163

AM: 5 Easy miles in the morning on the treadmill in the garage. Garage was a balmy 30 degrees while it was -11 outside.

T-37:00 (7:24)

PM: 5 more miles on the treadmill.  The highlight was doing 4 striders at 12 mph.  I felt like I was going to be shot out the back.  I had better work on those.  I have adjusted to slow running I guess.

T-35:10 (7:02)

AM: 5 miles Body was dragging today, so an easy run due. I think I am now up to the mileage where I need to make sure and take easy days so I can recover and still get in some quality runs on the harder days. Watched a portion of Pirates. -10 outside again so it was easy to choose the treadmill over freezing to death.

T-40:00 (8:00)

PM: 5 mile with Jon.  The usual route...for me at least.  Cold, but not horrible.  Afterward played Volleyball with the Young Men and Basketball with the Elders.  I think I will have to quit Basketball...I am awful.  I have lost all my ability over the last 5 years.  Maybe it was all that not playing.  I did much better at Volleyball.  Time for bed. 

The temps were finally into the double digits, barely, so I sucked it up and ran outside this morning. Once I made it about a mile, it started snowing of course. It was an average run, which is pretty decent for a friday. I always am tired on fridays. Providence - River Heights Loop with 4x20 sec striders. I am still super clunky on those. Better keep working.

T-57:50 8 miles (7:14) 158

2 More miles on the treadmill in the evening just to hit 10 for the day. 

First time I have seen the sun in over a week it seems today.  It is sure nice.  Jon came over and we ran 12 miles on the TOU marathon course.  The roads were slick in many places but as long as you ran in the car tracks it wasn't slippery..only dangerous.  Nice run overall, good pace, not hard, but not easy.  Most people call that medium I suppose.  I got home and Bethany and I put the kids into the new 2-seater stroller we were given for Christmas.  Its maiden voyage.  It worked great.  It is pretty heavy, but runs smooth.  I figure it is worth about 30 seconds to a mile handicap.  We ran 2.5 miles getting some serious looks from the cars as they drove by.  I can just see them thinking, "poor kids, they are probably freezing."  Well, they survived so take that!

12 miles in 1:25:00 (7:05) 156 ave

2.5 with Beth untimed but would estimate 10 min miles

I swore the house was going to blow away last night. A nice warm front moved in and warmed things up nicely this weekend with a big storm projected for today. I woke up to no snow so I was excited to run outside this morning. The wind was still going strong at 15-20 mph but it was a balmy 38 degrees. I ran the Providence - River Heights run as most of the miles are East-West and I can handle a cross-wind no sweat. I started out with 3 miles warmup at just over 7 min pace then hit a fast mile with the wind in 5:55. Then a cross-wind mile in 6:36 followed by a tough mile into the wind in 6:54. The last 2 miles were heading back West so more crosswind. 6:36 then decided to hit it hard again and hit a 6:08 feeling good.

T-53:33 (6:42) 160

PM: 2 easy miles on the treadmill.  Uneventful T-15:00 

Just another morning on the Treadmill. I didn't want to risk slipping on the super slick roads this morning and end up like Paul. Sorry Paul. So another episode of 24 later and 6 miles were done. Will run more tonight...of course.

T-44:00 (7:20)

Ran with Jon after work.  It was cold and windy, but time went by fast.  Easy pace on the 6 mile landfill loop.  We need Paul to get healthy again to spice things up.  The Logan group is pretty sad right now. 

T-45:00 (7:30)

Since it snowed again last night, I was resigned to the treadmill today. No biggie. 7 miles with 5x20 sec striders at 11mph. I feel out of control at 12mph, but 11 is much more comfortable.

T-49:20 (7:03)

3 more in the evening....

T-21:20 (7:07)

Another AM treadmill run. Today I mixed it up a bit. 2 miles at 7:30 pace then 4 miles at 6:40 then 2 more at 7:00. Was working hard for the 6:40 stuff, but not quite Tinman Tempo effort. Busy evening planned but will sneak in 2 more...

T-55:40 (6:57)

I actually got in 4 more.  Now I can slack off tomorrow and only run 8.  It is still snowing like crazy, so treadmill of course.  I am so sick of shoveling I am going crazy.

T-29:30 (7:22)

8 Miles on the treadmill followed by 30 min of shoveling snow.  When will it end???

T-60:00 (7:30) 

Met Jon at the Planet Walk and headed out on the Young Ward loop via the landfill.  Traffic was light and the roads were clear so it wasn't too bad of a run.  Still pretty chilly, but manageable.  We hit 7 sub 6:50 miles with some 7:10-7:20 stuff thrown in too.  I ran Jon home and added a bit to get 15 miles.  I ended up with 15.25 by the time I got home.  I looked at my overall pace at Jon's house and it read exactly 7 min ave so I made sure to stay under 7 min pace the rest of the way home.  I was tired by the end, but not dead, so the pace was pretty appropriate for the season.  Another good week of solid mileage.  I am starting to see the HR drop more so all indicators show progress is happening.  This January, I ran about 250 miles while last year, I ran 160 so I am starting off the year in the right direction.  Now, if the snow would stop falling, things would really be nice....

T-1:46:00 (6:57)  158 ave

Wow, just when you think it is all over and the Giants don't have a prayer, Eli comes up with the sweetest play ever!  Nice outcome to a great game.  

So, it has snowed for over 24 hours straight now. Still going.....I said I would never buy a snow blower, but I am pretty tempted right about now. 6.5 miles on the treadmill

T-46:30 (7:09)

Treadmill for round two tonight.  Watched Jackie Chan First Strike.  Usually I end up reading lips more than listening to the words as it is hard to hear due to the noise of the treadmill.  However, for this movie, that is just not possible as it is dubbed.  Weird movie.  Dialogue is lame, but the action is worth it.  That man is incredible with his stunts.  I was feeling tired and full of dinner for the first 4 miles.  Then I bumped up the pace and I felt better.  5.5 Miles total

T-39:40 (7:13)

Decided to sleep in today and run my bigger run later in the day. 3 miles on the treadmill, just so I wouldn't be gone all night out running. I would have to say that 3 miles is the perfect distance. Just long enough to think you did something, but too short to get tired and bored.

T-22:00 (7:20)

PM: Jon met me at my house and we ran the Planet Walk 5 miler.  The trail is somewhat slow as it is covered in lumpy snow in many places.  After a pit stop for Jon, I ran him home then ran home from his house.  I picked it up the last mile as my hands were frozen.  Hit a 6:34 mile accidentally. 

T-58:07 (7:02) 8.25 miles 152 ave

AM: Was going to run outside this morning....I swear. That is until I looked outside and saw the blizzard..again. So it was treadmill again. I did 2 miles warmup at 7:30 pace then did 4 miles between 6:15 and 6:40 then the last mile at 7:00 pace. I was sweating up a storm in a 40 degree garage.

T-54:05 (6:45)

PM: Treadmill for a quick jaunt.  Felt pretty good.

T-20:35 (6:52) 

Woke up to a light dusting of snow from last night. No big deal. I wouldn't live down the ribbing from Jon if I ran on the treadmill again today. So I went outside and sweated. I was way over dressed. I was feeling pretty run down today so I took it easy and listened to the body. Providence - River Heights Loop (8)

T- 58:32 (7:19) 155

PM: 3 on the treadmill - 22min

Young Ward loop in the morning.  It was a pretty nice morning.  Light winds from the south, upper 20's, no snow.  Not too bad.  Kept it under 7 for all miles other than the slippery Planet Walk.  

T- 69:57 (6:56) 157 

I am in SLC for the weekend.  Thought briefly about doing the 10K but I race enough and didn't want to compromise the training.  I needed to get some brake work done on the car so I drove over to Big-O by my parents house and dropped the car off.  I then hit the streets for my run.  I did 13 miles including some of the nastiest hills ever.  East bench is all hills.  I was hitting 8 min miles going up and 6 coming down.  I was back on my old stomping grounds so I ran one of my favorites.  "Animal"  8 miles of hills.  Brighton High school up to Big Cottonwood Canyon to Top of the World drive to the "La Calle" sign down danish rd and back to Brighton.  Back in high school, I was pretty happy to break an hour for this run.  Today that 8 mile portion was 56 mins.  Sweet.  After 13 miles, I stopped off at my parents house for a drink and to check on the car.  The car was done, so I ran over to pick it up.  2 miles.  On the way, I helped push a truck out that was stuck in some deep snow.  I am beat now.  Better take a nap.  70 miles for the week.  Mission accomplished.

T-1:42:42 (6:51) 163 

AM: Easy 6 on the Landfill Loop. The body was not wanting to go fast, so I didn't. I did throw in 4 20 second striders and it seemed to wake me up.

T-44:04 (7:21) 150

PM: 8.25 with Jon most of the .  He came and picked me up a half hour into his run.  We ran the Providence Hills Loop.  I dropped him off at his house on the way home so he could take care of some pressing matters.  Pretty comfortable pace most of the way.  I wore shorts as it was about 35 degrees outside.  Blistering heat.  Good chat, good pace, good way to unwind after another crazy day at work.   

T-58:45 (7:07) 156 

AM: Easy 5 miles on Planet Walk 5'ver. Ran Na....errr without a watch.

PM: 8 Miles by myself on Providence River Heights Loop.  Legs felt better this evening than this morning. I wore shorts again since it was a whopping 36 degrees. It looks like snow tomorrow so I will be back to freezing. 

T-55:35 (6:57) 152

AM: I was sure dragging today. 7 very easy miles. Probably close to 8 min pace, but I am not sure as I ran watchless again. Too many miles on Mon and Tues to go hard, so easy it was. (Landfill loop plus 1)

PM: Snow Storm kept me indoors tonight.  3 miles on the treadmill plus an hour of shoveling.

T-21:40 (7:13)  

AM: 6.5 on the treadmill. Nothing to report

T-48:00 (7:23)

PM: 3.5 miles untimed to the end of Planet Walk and back.  It was mostly clear of snow, not too shabby.

Easy run on the treadmill.  Still feeling pretty worn out, but did see some improvement  over yesterday.  Watched 2 episodes of The Office.

T- 51:30 (7:21)

Striders Winter Racing Circuit 5K

Jon drove me down from Logan and we met up with Andy and ran the course. Slight change on the last mile over last year. More gradual downhill with two extra uphill sections (short). The finish was one of those. I would guess that the course is slightly faster over last year, but only by a few seconds max. As the race was getting started, I noticed all the big boys were not there this year like last so it would be a very different race. I started out with the lead pack about a step or two behind for the first mile. We dropped the first victim by mile one and the pack was down to 6. Chad, Jon, Walter, Tim, and Ben. 6:00 first mile. Net gain of ~100 feet. I felt good just cruising along up the first big hill, but couldn't get the turbo going on the downhill. Everyone slowly pulled away on the downhills. Second mile was 6:03. I had to do some math to figure out my splits after the race as for some crazy reason the Garmin was messed up. It showed me running 2 min miles at 30K feet. I was within 3-4 seconds of the leaders but couldn't close. The downhills in mile 3 were sure nice and that helped me drop Walter and then I got Tim on the final uphill to move into 4th. Mile 3 in 5:24. Nothing changed over the last icy .14 miles. 32 seconds and it was all over. I was shooting for breaking 18 mins and just did it. I got 17:59 on my watch but the official results show 18:00. I am happy with it as it is almost a minute faster than last year and I felt like I could hold the same pace for another 5K (as I will have to do in two weeks). I can tell that my strength is there as I felt good on the uphills, but was not able to get the turnover on the downhills. More striders are in order I suppose. Good ideas for next race.

Good blog turnout. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th,and 10th. Results are Posted HERE

T-17:59 (5:43) 177 ave max 186

I enjoyed a nice cooldown with Andy, Chad, Walter and Jon. After getting home, I wanted to get in a few more miles so rather than showering and running later, I immediately left and ran 6 more miles. I was out of fuel and dragging, but not sore. Good week of running (70 miles) despite a stressful week of work. Horray for the weekend.

No work today so I slept in and then left for a long run.  As I left the house and started running, I took inventory of what was sore from the striders 5K.  All I could complain about was a pain in the rear.  Weird.  (Insert joke here....)  

Today's run was lonely and cold.  The bank in Providence read 5 degrees..brrr.  I ran from the house to Mile 24 of the TOU course and ran the course backwards to mile 18.5 and back the same way.  I hit one fast mile of 6:12 into Providence, but most of the other miles were between 6:50 and 7:00 pace.  Good run, and nice to have time to run when the sun is up.  Too bad I went when it was still freezing outside.  I looked like a snowman with the icicles all over me. 

T- 1:42:30 (6:50) 157 ave

AM: Easy 5 on the treadmill. Sluggish to say the least.

T- 37:30 (7:30)

PM: 5.25 with Jon.  Pretty Random route through the neighborhoods.  Stopped at Paul's house briefly, then ran into Paul walking home, then pushed a broken down truck, then actually ran.  Yep, pretty random.  Watching Idol while blogging.

T- 37:45 (7:12) 150

AM: Treadmill again. Half asleep

T- 42:40 6 miles (7:07)

PM: Treadmill so I didn't have to run in the dirty air and so I didn't have to wear 12 layers.  Easy pace for most of it.  Included 5 striders at 11mph for 20 seconds each.

T- 36:00 (7:12)

AM: It was time for a workout of some sort as I felt I needed some tinman tempo pace to push me a bit. I ran the Providence Hills loop in the dirty scum we call air. I was ticked that I counted close to 40 cars idling in their driveways with no drivers in it. I am sure that is not helping the air situation.

I started out with 2 miles of warmup at 6:54 and 6:56 pace then hit the next two miles of uphill hard. 6:47 and 7:57. That hurt. The second mile is lots of climbing with a section of steep uphill. I tried to recover while coming down the backside hill, but a sideache slowed me for a bit. 5:44 and 5:57. The Final 2.2 miles home is mostly flat and I hit them in 6:24 and 6:28. The idea was to hit tinman tempo effort and try and survive. I might have gone too hard on the uphill, but overall I think I hit my goals. Now I can enjoy the easy pace for the next few runs...

T- 54:25 (8.2 miles) (6:38) 168 ave

PM: Ran with Jon on the Planet Walk 5 miler.  We both took a spill on the bridge while walking across the ice.  Pretty funny.

T-34:24 (5) (6:53) 152 ave

AM: Recovery 5 on the treadmill.  I felt blah.  To be expected though.  

T-37:30 (7:30) 

Long run with Jon. We finally had shorts weather as it was around 40 degrees. Super hilly run! We ran into North Logan then up Green Canyon to the Shoreline Trail and over to First Dam. The trail was slippery but pretty fun to run on. If you stepped off the snow-packed trail you would sink past your ankles in slushy snow. We then ran down the canyon road to the canal trail and home via the Blvd. I am cooking up a batch of spaghetti for food as I am starved right now. Got another week of 70 miles in (Had to round up to 15.55 from 15.53 so I could round out my mileage for the week).  We will keep it here for a while still.

T-1:56:21 (7:30) 154

AM: Easy 5 on the Planet Walk...sort of. I made it about 3 feet onto the planet walk and bit it. It was a pure ice rink from all the rain and then freezing last night. I shuffled/skated to the first bridge (100m) almost falling multiple times. I decided it wasn't worth it and turned around. I ended up running randomly around the neighborhood instead. Had to take a pit stop at Jon's favorite port-o-pot by the golf course. Pretty eventful for only 5 miles I suppose.

T-36:36 (7:19) 147

PM: Ran with Jon again.  It is getting out of control.  We ran in the rain-sleet-snow-rain-wind combination.  We got soaked.  Providence River Heights loop.  We started picking up the pace as we went.  Probably to try and stay warm and get it over with sooner.  Felt good.  ITB is a bit sore during the run and now afterward.

T-54:32 (6:49) 157 

Workout day. Young Ward Loop (10.1). No rain/sleet/snow so it was a good sign. Started out with two warmup miles with a slight downhill. I was surprised how easy the sub 7 pace felt. (6:44 and 6:35). The goal of the workout was 6:10-6:20 Tinman tempo pace for 5 miles. It went pretty well with a 6:16,6:17,6:17,6:20,6:15. I was tired by the 6:20 and pushed harder on for the last one. I jogged to recover and within .25 I was back cruising at 6:40 pace easily. It was surprising how good 6:40 feels after 6:15. Weird. I was only planning on staying below 7min pace to finish but I hit a 6:40 and decided to try and stay under 6:30 average pace for the run. My next mile was on the slippery planet walk and things went downhill quickly. 6:56. I kicked it back up once I was back on the road to catch the 6:30 guy and took care of him pretty easily. 6:22 pace for the last 1.1. I need to check my garmin history but I believe this is a course record or at least close.

T-65:20 (6:28) 166 ave

PM: 2 mile shakeout on the treadmill late in the evening.  Slow 

AM: Slow and easy 8 miles on the Providence River Heights loop. Started to feel decent again by mile 6.

T-59:22 (7:25) 148

PM: 5 on Planet Walk 5 Miler.  Not timed, but would guess 7:30ish. 

AM: Slow 5 on the treadmill. I am not feeling great. Looks like a cold.

T-36:30 (7:18)

PM: 5 miles on Planet Walk loop.  No watch. 

Rough night of sleep.  I wasn't feeling well and my daughter was down with a fever thingie.  Poor Beth had to put up with us both.  I got up today and stood next to the bed for a good 5 mins trying to decide whether to run or not this morning.  I finally gave in and went.  Slow and easy 6 on the landfill loop.  Visibility was about 20 feet due to thick fog.  Was pretty neat except for the cars swerving at the last second. 

T-45:12 (7:32) 148
 

Striders 10K Race

The weather was ideal in Ogden today with no chance of slipping on ice. It was shorts and singlet and gloves. Sweet! Jon, Andy and I warmed up for 3.25 miles and then we got started. The course was much better than last year, both in time and in turns. Last year, the hairpin turns stunk and this year those were gone. It was still a challenging honest course with big hills though.

The race started out as predicted with the same group as the 5K minus Walter (@ Del Sol Relay). 5:32 first mile (half up, half down). No one was pushing the pace, it was just fast. Jon and the crew flew the second mile down the hill and I was a few seconds behind trying not to pound my legs too hard. We averaged 4:50 a mile for that half mile before it flattened out. 5:12 second mile and we are all still together (minus Chad 10-15 seconds behind). The third mile turned tatical and the pace slowed as everyone tried to settle into a comfortable pace. That helped Chad out as he caught up quickly. 5:47 third mile and roughly 17:00 5K split. Now the fun starts. We more of less stayed together as a group (Chad, Jon, Tim, Ben, and myself) until the big hills started. We did have more steep short rollers along the way though that I didn't remember. 6:00 for mile 4. I was hurting and knew the worst was to come. I slipped into 5th and tried to stay with Ben (currently in fourth). The big hills mixed things up again as we all suffered (minus Chad as he pulled away) up them. We were now all single file with a few seconds between us. 6:40 5th mile and I was up to 4th overall. I worked the top section of the hill to try and drop Tim and it worked. I picked up 5 seconds or so on him by mile 6. 6:35 mile 6 and I kicked the whole .2 to hold off Tim. I knew I wouldn't catch Jon, but wanted a FRB sweep. 1:05 for the last bit.

36:53 (official results showed 36:49) 3rd overall and 3-4 seconds behind Jon with Chad ~15 seconds ahead. I feel good about it as it was a tough course and to run a sub 19 min 5K ALL uphill is nice. Cool down with Jon after chatting with Ben and Tim. Cool guys and they were a great motivation during the race. They will be there for the whole circuit which will be nice.

Chatted with James and got the Del Sol updates. Super good job by the team down in Arizona. Sounds like a lot of fun.

T- 36:53 (5:56) 181 ave 185 max

 PM: Ran with Paul (5.2 miles) just as the weather turned for the worse.  Rain, wind and snow.  Far cry from the 50 in Ogden this morning.  He was able to crush Lybi's PR (as that was the whole goal of the run).  We only live 1.5 miles apart, but we haven't run together in over 3.5 months. 
 

AM: 6 easy on the Landfill Loop. It was cold this morning. Single digits. I took inventory of the body and my quads got the worst of it. I am sure mile 2 was to blame. Pretty sore. I plan on taking it easy (low intensity) to make sure I am recovered for Moab.

PM: 8.5 miles in the evening.  Ran with Jon AND Paul today.  It has been ages since this happened.  Some faster but mostly slow easy miles.  I still have tender muscles but they are getting better.  

T- 63:20 (7:26) 147 

Slept in the morning and skipped my morning run.  I am still fighting a cold and feel miserable at night.  During the day I am fine, it is just at night that it sucks.  I decided sleep is more important this week.  I did my run in the evening with Jon.  We met at the planet walk and ran the Young Ward loop.  A perfectly flat course to hit some good even splits.  We did 3 miles of warmup then did 5 miles at Tinman tempo pace (marathon pace more or less).  We went:

6:14 (163)

6:19 (166)

6:09 (172)

6:09 (173)

6:04 (174)

It was way easier doing it with someone than all by myself.  When I found myself slacking off, Jon would carry the pace and vice-versa.  We finished with 2.1 miles of cooldown at 7 min pace.  Last tune-up for Moab, now it is just easy miles till Saturday.

T-1:07:00 (10.1) 6:38 (161 ave)

AM: Easy Treadmill miles. T-44:20 (7:23)

PM: 3 Easy miles with Bethany.  The kids were locked in the closet.  We took our time. 

AM: Planet Walk 5 miler in the frost.  10 degrees.  STILL not 100% healthy.  48 hours to get well.  Its actually not that bad, but annoying.

PM: Ran to and from Paul's house and 3 miles with him.  He was back to his old speedy self.  Much faster than I was expecting.  Paul is BACK!  Watch out...

Right afte, drove down to SLC and we are staying at the in-laws for the night.  We leave for Moab tomorrow....

Pre-race shakeout in SLC. Taylorsville to be more accurate. I brought my revolver in case I got mugged. Of course the only thing worth taking was the revolver...hmmmm.

Ran 3 easy miles at 6500 feet near our Cabin outside of Moab.  Ran with Paul and Ben, and David.  I wasn't planning on running, but didn't want to get stuck hanging out with the girls....Turned out great.  Nice shakeout.  Feeling pretty good for tomorrow. 

Canyonlands (Moab) Half Marathon

This was my first time running this race. I almost ran Boston this year but due to budget constraints, decided to run this race instead. We (Bethany and I of course) got my parents to babysit the twerps for two nights and we were lucky enough to join up with Paul, Stacy, Ben, and David for a group rate in a cabin outside of Moab. Sweet setup, made the whole vacation experience! Excellent way to spend time with friends. No TV, computer, internet, cell phone service (AT&T at least), basically everything I am addicted to normally. It was kind of a de-tox for a techie nerd-guy. Anyway...

The morning of the race, we were excited to see overcast sky's and cool weather. We also had a bit of a tailwind for the first mile or two. We waited and waited and FINALLY got to start the race. I started fast, but with the first mile downhill, it was to be expected. I settled in next to Logan and watched Walter cruise off. Logan kept me company for a bit but was quickly bored with the pace and moved on. He went on to show the big boys how to negative split in a big way. Very impressive show...from a distance. I felt fine and was hitting my splits comfortably (for a race, right?). I hooked up with Brad Phippen at mile 3. He offered to trade mile leads with me since we had the same goals and were actually already working together already. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement that lasted almost to the end. I felt decent and was positive I could keep a good run together until just after mile 10. We had just run the big hill together and it put us in the tank. After that, it was survival mode. I felt like I was in a marathon at mile 22. After that, it was a struggle to keep any pace. I figure that my fitness got me to 10 and I need to gain more fitness to get past that point. I have focused on base work and have done only a few short Tinman tempo workouts (which was the pace I slowed to actually). So, with my limited training, I feel I held it together pretty well. I gave it my best effort and ran as hard as I could at this point of the season. I enjoyed the course. I did think the rolling hills take a lot out of you. Plus, the headwind at the mouth of the canyon was pretty stiff. I would say it was worth 20-30 seconds easily. I think the course it tough, but can be mastered with ideal training and racing. Anyway, enough rambling. Bottom Line, I think I ran to my potential on that day and am pleased.

Mile 1: 5:25 (163) Fast downhill (biggest downhill of the race)

Mile 2: 5:48 (176) Settling into my goal pace of 5:50-6:00 range

Mile 3: 5:57 (176) Drafting behind Brad and a few others occasionally

Mile 4: 5:53 (177) First mile of Brad and my alliance (I led). I was working hard to do my part.

Mile 5: 6:03 (176) Brad's first mile. He slowed a bit, but we were ok still.

Mile 6: 5:55 (176) I was definetly stronger than him during this part of the race. 36:10 at the 10K point.

Mile 7: 6:03 (175) Fatigue setting in, but still ok.

Mile 8: 6:04 (175) I led

Mile 9: 6:15 (173) Slow, but I couldn't have done better by myself.

Mile 10: 6:09 (175) Big hill, I cruised up the first part, then hit the top part fast and carried speed down the hill. I actually gapped Brad for a bit, but he recovered on the downhill and came back up to me.

Mile 11: 6:28 (175) It was windy and difficult here. This is where the wheels fell off. Brad was stronger here it seemed. Trouble...

Mile 12: 6:18 (175) It was my turn, but I hit the gas and nothing happened. The best I could do was pull alongside Brad. I even dropped a few steps behind him here. On a positive note, somewhere along here, I met Craig (fellow blogger) and encouraged him to go for it as he was looking really strong. I couldn't even attempt to stay with him. He took off and finished really strong. Good Job Craig!

Mile 13-13.1: 6:34 (5:55 Ave) (179) Everything I have got. I caught Brad and we ran side by side for a while. We turned the last corner and after a block or so I decided I would try and gap him and a guy named Ben who had caught us earlier. I started my "long kick" and it worked. I was able to hold them off to the finish. Oh, happy day, I am done...

My watch showed 1:18:55, race results showed 1:18:53, but the website shows 1:18:43. Off by 10 seconds somehow. I will go with the official results, I guess. Thanks Brad for working with me.

1:18:43 (6:00) 175 ave 184 max (during the kick) Course PR of course.

I was impressed with many people there. Logan, and Craig, as I already mentioned. Walter just smoked me. He certainly has more endurance than I do. Watch out at the 10 miler Chad and Jon... Paul ran the 5 miler pretty sweetly, fast but smartly controlled. Bethany ran her heart out. My watch that she borrowed from me died so she had to go by feel and did awesome. She is now hooked I can tell. It is her turn for a year of PR's. Ben and David both ran well and exceeded their expectations. It was a lot of fun to enjoy this experience together.

For those interested in more photos, go to http://cody.prismview.biz/Moab/

and click on the links for the images. You can then download whichever ones you like. There are some of Logan, Walter, David, Marcie, and of course ME.

Hiking on the Negro Bill Trail to the arch.  Very nice hike.  Perfect weather.  Gotta love it..

AM: Easy 5 untimed on the Planet Walk. Dark. Lousy daylight savings. Messes up the mornings. Took inventory of body parts during the run. No major issues. No soreness, only fatigue.

PM: Ran to Paul's house and ran just over 3 miles with him.  Dropped him off at the gym and ran some more miles on the TOU course.  Nice and sunny today. 9.5 miles - 7:30 ave
 

AM: Sleepy 5 miler in the dark. Did 4x20 second strides.

PM: Ran the planet walk with Paul, Jon and Dave.  Very busy today on the trail.  Dropped Paul and Dave off and ran landfill loop with Jon.  Recovery from the 1/2 still a work in progress.

T- 1:06 (7:40) 144  

General Aeorbic run on the Yooung Ward loop.  Most of the miles were in the 6:50 range. 

T-69:40 (6:54) 158

AM: Same old 5 miler in the morning. Slow and tired. Pretty uneventful.

PM: 7.25 with Jon and Paul. Checked out Jon's new house.  Nice setup.  He will be only 1/3 mile away now.  Legs still dead.  

T- 56:00 (7:43) 144

Same old.....beats the treadmill, but it was a lame week of running.  Too many races...

Striders 10 Miler

Its gotta be the hardest 10 mile course out there. Fun stuff. Coming off two weekends of races, I wasn't ready mentally and physically to bust out a big one. I have mixed feelings about the result for me, but I think I performed as expected.

The race started out very conservative for the first few miles, so I was able to run my pace. Someone, I didn't recognize took off from the gun and dusted all of us. Other than him, it was Adam and Walter in the first chase pack, then Jon, Chad, Ben and myself in the third.

5:57 (165) first mile. Like I said, conservative

5:32 (173) Mile 2. Big downhill

5:48 (177) Mile 3. Still hanging with the same group. Adam and Walter about 30? seconds ahead.

6:01 (176) Mile 4. Fun is about to begin

6:42 (176) Mile 5. Climbing, losing ground to everyone but Ben. I put about 5 seconds on him here. He was my main motivation, very helpful.

6:46 (176) Mile 6. Lost more time to everyone.

7:21 (176) Mile 7. Last major hill. Destroyed me. I was sliding on the ice too. Major fatigue set in and I shut it down. I went from a race mentality to survival mentality. I really should have pushed it more here, but couldn't.

5:19 (174) Mile 8. Big downhill finally. Re-grouped and focused on trying to catch Chad (as he was the only one in sight). Secondary goal was to not let Ben catch me either.

5:47 (174) Mile 9 Some up, some down. All alone, and whining to myself. Not closing on Chad at all.

6:05 (176) Mile 10 The hill in this mile was super hard. Sapped all that was left in the legs. Sections of the last mile were pretty slippery and it made it hard to pick it up. Chad was out of reach, Ben was safely behind, so it was a cruise into the finish kick.

Great Results from the Blog. 2,3,4,5,6. Jon had the what I deem the best race of the bunch. Walter ran well considering how well he ran Moab. Good Job bloggers.

T-(Official) 1:01:21 (6:08) 174 ave 181 max

On another good note, it was an improvement of 1:40 over last year.

Warmup/cooldown = 6.5 miles

AM: Easy 6 on the landfill loop. Not timed. Legs felt pretty decent. IT band was a bit tender/tight. Better watch it close.

PM: 6.5 of my 8 miles with Jon.  Leg felt better this evening.  Providence River Heights loop.  No animal attacks, no blizzards = no entertainment.

T- 57:30 (7:12) 152 

Waited until the afternoon for my workout.  Jon and Paul picked me up and we did a few miles (7:00,6:42) together until Paul turned towards home.  Jon and I began our Tinman Tempo on the Young Ward loop.  The goal was 7 miles at 6:15-6:20 pace.  It went pretty well.  The only complaint for me was wind from the south (headwind for a few miles, crosswind the rest).  

6:12 (161)

6:14 (166)

6:13 (167)

6:21 (169)

6:11 (163) (Jon's not-so-private bathroom stop)

6:09 (173)

6:05 (175) 

 The rest of the miles were around 7:00 pace.  Not sure because the battery died on the Garmin at this point. 

Dinner was Pizza, breadsticks, cookies, and ice-cream.  Sweet!

AM: Easy 6 on the Landfill Loop. Slow and tired. It was warm enough today to take the scooter to work. Now it looks like it might rain. Dang it.

PM: No rain...yet.  It worked out to be a pretty decent day.  Got in 5 more miles at 6:30pm.  Saw some other runners going the opposite direction.  They are coming out of hibernation now. 

AM: Felt Lousy this morning. My back has been sore for two days now and it was super stiff this morning. I opted for the treadmill so I could bail if it hurt too bad. I managed 5 slow miles and quit. My body is worn out.

T-37:30 (7:30)

PM: Felt much better this afternoon.  I plopped the kids in the stroller and did some planet walk laps.  Lily cried the whole time.  Very annoying.  Turns out she was hungry.  I dropped her off at the house at 5.25 miles and ran another 2.25 with Jaxon.  When we finished, he ran for 4 houses and threw sticks into the stream.  Every kids dream.

T-59:00 (7:52) 147

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETHANY!!

Providence hill loop this morning.  Ran what felt comfortable.  Nice morning to be out and about. 

T-59:18 (7:19) 152

I was in SLC for parties and Easter, so I decided that I would rather run 20 miles with Sasha and the posse then by myself.  What is another 30 mins of driving anyway? 

For the first 13.1 miles, we (Sasha, Steve, Jeff, Tyler)paced/urged/annoyed/mocked/threatened/ignored and any other tactic known to man to motivate Josse to improve on her time over the Moab Half Marathon.  It was redemption day.  She came through with close to a 4 min improvement.  Pretty good.

After dropping Josse off, we hit the road again for 7 more.  Steve and Sasha wanted sub 6 pace.  I said I would hang on as long as I could.  I made it 3.  By then, my IT band had flared up and was actually hurting.  It progressed beyond annoying and moved into the hurt stage.  So I pulled the plug and let them go.  (In reality, I was dying and slowing them down anyway so it was easy to say "leave me on the side the trail while I curl up into a ball" or something similar).  My splits for the 3 miles were: 5:52, 5:35, 5:47.  Once I slowed back down to 7 min pace, the leg started to feel better.  I ended the run coasting in at 7:15-7:30 pace.

T-2:19:06 (6:57) 155 ave 178 max

After the run, I got scrapped by Josse.  Painful, yet very much needed.  I am proud of my deep purple bruising now.  My in-laws think I am even dumber though.  Not only do I run 20 miles by choice, but I inflict pain ("Bruising by Josse" would be a good name for a buisness) by scrapping after.  It feels pretty sweet right now though.  Thanks Josse.

Happy Easter

Spent a good portion of my night in the bathroom. I am afraid, I got some food poisoning yesterday. I gave the morning run an attempt, but only made it 2 houses before the dry heaving began. Plan B.... Sleep.

Called in sick to work. Only the second time I have done that in 4 years. Felt better and better as the day went on. I was able to keep the food in and gain strength. I went out for a cruise in the early afternoon. Providence River Heights Loop. Easy 8 (57:15) (7:10)

Met up with Jon, Paul, and Logan and ran some more miles with them. I was loaded down with the kiddies and the stroller. No crying this time though, they were angels. I really didn't plan on running this far, we just kept going.  Easy 9 (70:00) (7:47)

AM: Landfill loop (6) in the rain. Saw two other runners going the opposite direction. I recognized Paul's form in the dark. Figured the other was Logan, but wasn't sure. Figured that bloggers would be the only people crazy enough to actually run in the rain and the dark...at least in Logan.

PM: Planet Walk then Paul's, then Logan High, then fairgrounds to home.  Ran with Jon and Paul and lots of kids in strollers.  Tired legs... 

AM: Easy 5 on the Planet Walk. 4-striders. Same old stuff. Oh, my foot is hurting on the top. Seems like a bruise, but it has been there for 3 days now. Doesn't hurt when I walk in loose shoes. Only when I walk/run in running shoes. I am crossing my fingers it is only a bruise. Keeping an eye on it.

PM: Workout day 

Met with Jon and we ran the Providence-Millville loop.  11 miles long with lots of hills.  We did a warmup then did 2x3 mins hard up the hills.  We took a ~2 min break between fartleks then did 3x3 mins on the flat/downhills. 

1-.44mi in 3:01 (6:49) - Up a big hill

2-.47mi in 3:00 (6:24) - Not as steep

3-.54mi in 3:01 (5:36) - Down-Flat-Up

4-.58mi in 3:01 (5:11) - Big down (sections really steep)

5-.56mi in 3:01 (5:22) - Quality downhill here

 I was sure feeling the last few, but focused on good leg turnover and breathing.  Once we were done, we had a nasty headwind back home that cooled us off pretty good.  Windy, rainy, and cold.  Whatever happened to spring?  Finished off picking it up a bit to beat the 7:00 pace guy.  Foot felt better, but IT band was sore by the end. 

T-1:16:52 (6:59) 157 ave, 170's during the fartleks

Only have time for a single run today, so it became my easy/recovery day.  I didn't brave the blizzard and stayed indoors on the treadmill.  Watched an Incubus concert on the player.  Very good concert to run to.  Great music with visual stimulation.  It of course stopped snowing by the time I was done. 

T-59:10 (7:24)

Young Ward loop in the morning.  It was a nice quiet and cool morning.  Quite uneventful.  Left to my thoughts.

T-71:36 (7:06) 153 

Long Run today.

Jon met me at my house and we went and ran on the TOU marathon course backwards.  We joined it at mile 21.5 and headed into the snow storm.  It got progressively windier and snowier.  Jon and I ran together for 5 miles then he had to head home.  I continued up the course, up hollow road and up the canyon.  At this point I had a nice tailwind going up the canyon and was praying for a change in wind direction as I knew trouble was brewing.  I hit 10 miles in ~72 mins and turned around very close to the 1/2 marathon point.  I was hoping to pick it up on the downhill and get the legs going on the downhill.  That didn't work out very well.  I was blinded by the wind blown hail that was pelting me.  I was running with my eyes closed peeking every 10 seconds or so to stay on the road.  6:20, 6:40, 6:50 splits before I slowed back to 7:00 pace as the hypothermia set in.  Slogged through the rest of the run until I hit Jon's house.  I stopped and helped him load his U-Haul while I thawed out.  2 doughnuts and some OJ and 5000 lbs of boxes moved, I headed home for the final 1.5 miles.  It was rough getting going with the food slogging around in the belly, but it settled and I was able to pick off the 7 min guy by throwing in a 6:33 mile (no more wind, but the snow continued).  Enough whining for one day.   On a positive note, this run gave me my  highest mileage week ever.

T-2:19:47 (6:59) 157

AM: Easy 5 on the treadmill watching Incubus. Ready for another week of training. I am excited that it will be an easier week capped off with a race.

T- 36:20 (7:16) 1%

PM: 8.25 miles with Jon.  Cold but sunny.

T-59:00 (7:10) 151

Slept in today to 7:00.  Heaven.  Ran with Jon in the evening.  Ran from my house to canal trail and continued up to the Nature Trail center bldg.  The river trail is runnable again.  A bit muddy but not too bad.  We picked it up from the Blvd the rest of the way home to catch the 7 min guy in-spite of Jon's whining and mocking.  Good times.

T-1:23:40 (6:58) 156 

AM: Planet Walk 5. No watch

PM: More planet walk with the kids in the stroller.  Did the first 1.75 miles with Beth too.

Landfill loop in the morning.  Easy pace, no watch.  5x20 second striders.  Sluggish today.

Taper for Striders 1/2.  5 Miles on the TM.  Incubus Concert again (middle 1/3).  Ready to roll tomorrow....

T-37:10 (7:26) 145-148

Striders 1/2 Marathon.  

Well, my only complaint was the wind.  It made the second half of the race pretty ugly.  Temps were ok, not bad, but combined with the wind chill it made for a rough morning.  I drove with Jon and we met up with Clyde, Logan, and Andy for a bus ride to the start.  We met up with more bloggers and did some warmup and stretching/waiting for the thing to start.  Lots of snow still in that canyon and Ogden Valley.

We finally got under way and immediately I could feel the wind.  I mostly drafted through the canyon so it wasn't too bad.  Plus the downhill countered it pretty good.  We got a bit carried away with the first mile, but soon settled into a better pace.  I felt really good until mile 10 or so.  That was when the wind picked up (headwind or un-favorable crosswind the whole way).  I was also in no-mans land too from mile 8 on in so it was a struggle.  I felt like I had a shot at my pr (1:16) until about mile 9-10 then it was out of reach.  My splits were:

1: 5:30

2: 5:41

3: 5:43

4: 5:40

5: 5:47

6: 5:51

7: 5:48

8: 5:54

9: 6:05

10:  6:06

11: 6:24

12: 6:19

13: 6:07

.1: 0:32 (5:12)

1:17:25 (5:55) 175 ave 180 max 

Beat my Moab time by over a minute, even with much worse conditions.  I would guess the wind affected me by 1 to 1.5 minutes, but that is hard to tell.  I do feel that if I had conditions like I did for my 1:16 PR (TOU half 2007) I would have PR'ed.  Who knows though.  4:20 course PR over my time from last year.  I am happy with the results and am now looking forward to the Ogden Marathon.  Of course, we still have a battle on for 2nd place in the Striders Series.  Chad added another min+ to his lead on me, but due to his sickness, I made up the time I was down to Jon and then a bit more.  He ran a great race to cut his losses and gut it out.  It will be a battle at the 30K! 

I enjoyed mingling with the other bloggers during the cool-down and after.  It is always fun to catch up and talk running.  I have a few medals for some of the folks who (wisely) split early.  Josse, I sent yours with Tom/Kim.  Walter and Steve, I have your medals.  Good job guys. 

AM: Ididn't set my alarm clock properly and so I slept in a bit. Didn't have time to get as many as I wanted, but I managed to get 3 on the treadmill this morning. Legs are feeling pretty good. Not sore at all. I did scrape them last night, but very little bruising. Just easy miles for a few days.

T-21:50 (7:17) 3 miles

PM: Met Paul in the afternoon.  Ran Planet walk, then Planet Fitness, then a loop in Providence.  Good pace, feeling pretty good.  Last two miles, I was tired.  The recovery is going well.

T-1:13:48 (7:11) 10.25 (151 ave)

AM: My legs were not happy with all the miles I did yesterday so today they revolted. I didn't put up a fight though and took it easy. Providence-River Heights loop

T-61:24 (7:44) 8 miles 148

PM: Met Paul and we ran the Landfill Loop.  We chatted about Wasatch Back Relay.  I am getting excited and it is still MONTHS away.

T-45:35 (7:17) 6.25 miles 146 

AM: Legs were dead again today (no suprise). Out and back on 400W. Great road to run on. No traffic, super wide. I was hoping to beat the snow home. Didn't make it. 3 miles of blinding snow/sleet. I am hopeful that is the last for the year. Knock on Wood...

T-61:46 (8miles) (7:45) 150

PM: 3 on treadmill in the evening.  Kept my dinner in me!

T-22:00 (7:20)

AM: Sleepy 5 miler. Legs are starting to get the life back in them. Just in time to work them over this afternoon with a real workout. Not timed, but faster than the 2 slower runners I passed on the Planet Walk. Ha!

PM: Medium Workout. Providence - Millville loop (11 miles). I was excited to see sunshine and I think I got too excited as I froze with only my short-sleeve shirt and shorts. My hands were frozen stiff. I started off with 3 miles warmup at sub 7 min pace. The wind was at my back and I was cruising. The plan was 8 miles of tinman tempo pace (6:10-6:20). The course is super hilly so it is difficult to gauge the speed. The first mile was a steep uphill with the wind.

7:24 (I actually think that is a record for me on that mile due to the tailwind).

6:07 (flat with favorable cross-wind).

5:47 (downhill with favorable cross-wind)

6:16 (rolling - non favorable wind)

6:13 (rolling - non favorable wind)

6:07 (rolling - non favorable wind)

6:16 (flat - headwind)

5:59 (flat - headwind) Trying to get home fast cause I was cold!

New course record for me by over 10 seconds a mile.

Once I got home, I jumped on the treadmill for a half mile cooldown/warmup not timed.

T-1:10:50 (11 miles) (6:26) 162 ave 176 max

Young Ward Loop in the fog.  I knew this would be slow, but it was really slow.  My body was toast.  But now I am done for the day.  Sweet.

T-1:19:42 (7:54) 144 

Long run split into pieces.  First ran 10.3 by myself.  Ran up to First Dam via Canal Trail.  7:05 ave.  Was doing well coming home hitting 6:30-6:50's.  Ran to Jon's house.  Helped him and two other friends move his couch upstairs.  Then carb-loaded for the second half of the run.  2 doughnuts.  Mmmm  Ran with Jon for 8 miles into Providence.  Dropped him off, ate one more doughnut, ran to Planet Walk then home. 2100 calories burned, 1500 calories eaten.  Still in the black.  Well worth it.  Had sections of good speed, but most of the run was slow and dragging.  Must be the end of another PR mileage week (85 miles) after a big 1/2 marathon.  Smart?  Probably not.

T-2:28:00 (7:24) 151 ave 

Did Yardwork all day yesterday (as soon as I was home from the run) and today I am sore.

AM: Right Hamstring is super tight and tender. Must have pulled it Saturday while doing manual labor. Its been too long since I have had to do that. I am turning soft. Took it easy to try and loosen it up. (Landfill loop)

T-45:00 (7:30) 145

PM: Body is not happy.  Went SLOW and it still was not very much fun.  Kids in the stroller didn't help, but it gave me a good excuse for going slow.  Providence and Planet Walk 

-8:20 Pace 141 ave 

AM: 8 miles in the wind. 400 W to 1600 N. and back. Felt much better than yesterday, but still a far cry from feeling "good". Slow, easy miles, until I can get the hamstring happy and some life in the legs.

T-58:00 (7:15) 154

PM: 5 on treadmill

T-37:00 (7:24)

AM: Providence River Heights - Not timed

PM: (Dusk) Landfill Loop - Not Timed 

AM: Small to Medium workout.  (Kind of a gray area).  It was overdue, so I hit the Young Ward Loop 11 miler this morning.  2 mile warmup then progression tinaman tempo pace.  6:20, 6:16, 6:10, 6:10, 6:11

At that point, I backed off to 6:30 range for the remaining 4 miles.  6:30 felt like marathon pace where 6:10-6:20 felt like half marathon pace.  Very distinct difference in pain levels.  My HR is continuing to drop, so I hope the mileage is paying off.

T-1:10:38 (6:25) 161 ave 

PM: 5 miles with Jon, Paul and the kids in the stroller.  Easy Pace.  8 min pace

Slacker 8 this morning.  Classic Friday recovery day.  Not timed

Early morning run with Logan.  We met at the West end of Hollow road and we ran up the canyon 10 miles and back down.  On the way up it was pretty windy (headwind) at the mouth of the canyon.  It got much better by mile 4 or 5.  Right at mile 5, Jon was waiting for us.  He joined us for 10 miles.  He seems to be much healthier now.  Easy pace up then a bit faster on the way down.  I was dragging big time today, but survived.  The last 4 miles Logan and I did  some faster miles.  He took off at 5 min pace or so and I kept it at 6 min range ( 5:48, 6:00, 6:04, 5:59) to the car.  It was pretty tough keeping the legs going with them so fatigued.  Glad that workout is done!

T-2:19:22 (6:58) 158 ave (170 ave during the fast miles) 

AM: 8 mile on the Providence Hills loop. Uneventful due to finding a port-a-pot at just the right time. That was close. Legs were lead until after I hit the big downhill. That brought them back to life. I finished strong at 6:45 pace.

T- 59:46 (7:23) 150

PM: 5 easy miles with Jon.  Only 1 pit stop.   What a letdown.  

T-36:53 (7:23) 148

Young Ward loop with Jon this afternoon.  Easy pace warmup then we did one mile faster at 6:28 pace then I stepped it up a bit to do 3 more @ tinman pace.  I went 6:13,6:17,6:15.  I was shooting for 6:15 to 6:30 so I kept it right on the money.  It felt pretty good until the last one where I had to work.  I decided that was enough and that it would be better to save some for Saturday.  I looped back a bit to get Jon and then we ran the rest of the way together at 7:30 pace home.  Now I have to get the legs with some life back in time for the 30K.  That race is so crazy.  Long, but not quite as painful as a marathon.  We'll just have to see how it goes.

T- 1:11:30 (6:54) 158 ave (171-173 during the faster stuff)

AM: Rough night with the kids last night. Kept us up for a large chunk of the night. Got out in the morning for an easy 5. Tried to sleep during the run, but failed. 8 min pace must be fast enough to stay awake. I will try for 9 min pace next time.

PM: Easy 6 on the Landfill Loop.  Wore a watch to keep the pace slower than 7:30 overall.  It didn't take long to realize that it wouldn't be too hard to keep it that pace.

T-45:30 (7:35) 145

Ran 2.25 miles to Young Men's.  Played Volleyball for 1.5 hours then ran some more.  Wandered onto the Planet Walk.  

T-50:00  (7:41)

Easy 5.05 (to round out my weekly mileage) on Planet Walk.  Not timed.  Today is Bethany's first day of her clinical tests in Amarillo.  The grandparents fought tooth and nail over who got to watch the grandkids.  Needless to say, I didn't argue much.  The kiddies are in SLC where I will join up with them after the race on Saturday.  Good Luck Beth!  Ace it!

Striders 30K.  Final Race in the 5 race series.  1:55:03 2nd Overall

I was not looking forward to this race as it is a long race without the "glory" of a marathon.  Which makes sense since it is a marathon minus all the hard miles.  I didn't really have a time goal coming into today.  I was 2 mins down on Chad for the series and 2 mins up on Jon.  I felt pretty secure in this spot as I thought it was unlikely that Chad would bonk bad enough to let me make up the time.  You just never know though since the race is so long.  I warmed up a few easy miles with Jon as we watched the sunrise.  It was about 28 degrees at the start, but starting to warm up.  By the end, it was just perfect weather. 

We (Chad, Jon, Ben, Nate) started out very easy and chatty for a few miles until we got bored with the pace and Chad and I eased away from the group.  It stayed pretty relaxed for a few more miles, but was not easy by any means.  By mile 9 I was feeling sluggish and Chad made a 10-15 sec a mile move that was just enough to drop me.  I slowly continued to lose time to him over the next 9 miles as he was by far the strongest out there today.  I switched from hanging on to Chad to treating this as a tempo run to get ready for Ogden.  I hit some faster stuff when i could, and slowed on the rollers.  I was pretty spent by the end, but kept it together to finish strong.  I am happy with the race as it shows significant improvement over last year (duh, of course).  I am still not sure about my time goals for Ogden, but figure to be between 2:40 and 2:45. 

Good job Chad for winning the series and doing so convincingly.  Good job Jon for toughing out the sickness and securing third.  Good times.

Here are my split for those interested:

1-6:54 (long, but at 6:19 pace)

2-6:15

3-6:13

4-6:11

5-6:09

6-6:15

7-6:15

8-6:15

9-6:12 (bye bye Chad)

10-5:57 (downhill now)

11-5:49

12-5:52

13-5:56

14-6:00

15-6:14 (rolling hills again)

16-6:12

17-6:22

18-6:17

 18.6*something - 3:44 (5:46 pace)

1:55:03 (6:10) 169 ave 183 max

4+ min PR over last year

Best news of the day though, was Bethany is 3/4 the way through her test and has passed all portions until now.  Only one more day of testing!  Yeah for Beth!!

Ran with Chad today.  I joined him in the morning at his house and he took me on a tour of the SLC bench.  Ran by the zoo and by Bonneville Golf Course and followed some ladies around as they rode their bikes.  Great place to run.  Little traffic, tonz of hills.  Easy pace.  Legs are tired from the 30K, but not sore at all.  Hamstrings are tight, so I need to work on them today.

T-1:25:00 (7:45) 148

By the way, for those interested, Bethany passed her 3 day test!!  We all knew she would, but she still did it.  It's party time at the Drapers!!! 

AM: Providence Canyon Road. Easy pace. Felt much better the second half of the run.

T-59:14 (7:24) 146

PM: Ran with Jon and my kids in the stroller for a while.  Then ran with both Jon and Paul for all of 1 block.  Then ran home.  Made it all the way home before I realized I left the kids at Paul's....Just kidding. 

AM: Easy 8 on the 4th west route. Very boring. Still working through tight leg muscle issues. I need to stretch more.

T-59:24 (7:25) 148

PM: Planet Walk 5 un-timed.  Would guess it was 7:00-7:15 pace.

I thought I was done with deciding between the treadmill and running in blizzards.  I was wrong.  Treadmill won, but only because I have a new Incubus video to watch.  We are flying out to Denver tonight, so this is all  for today.   Unless you can count runaway kids in the airport.  I am fully expecting that to happen.

T-51:00 (7:17)
 

Vacation this weekend at my parents house in Denver area.  We survived the ordeal of flying with kids.  Our flight was delayed almost 2 hours and the kids were tired.  All in all they did well though.  I ran from my dad's house this morning and jumped on the bike/run trail that is never ending. I followed it as it wound through neighborhoods, fields, along canals, etc.  It was even gravel for a mile section.  I could pretty much run all the way into the city (I am in Thornton).  I am way jealous.  I went out 6 miles then returned the same route.  Felt pretty good, but was fighting a good stiff wind. 

T-1:27:00 (7:15) 157

Bethany was able to join me for a few miles today on the bike while I ran.  She kept me company for 7 miles then I dropped her off at the house. It was sure nice to chat with her while I ran.  I ended up on the same trail as yesterday, no big deal since I am not sick of it and it is pretty nice.  I headed back out for 12 more miles.  Pretty uneventful. My legs were a bit sore in certain spots due to the deep tissue massage I got from my Dad.  He is going back to school to get a massage therepists license/degree thing and it was awesome.  He tells me my leg muscles are all out of whack and meshed together.  He has been able to re-align and separate most of them.  Pretty much all the legs muscles were united in destroying the ITB. 

T-2:16:22 (7:11) 152  

AM: Back into the routine after the nice weekend. Providence hills loop with add-on to start of Providence canyon. Legs felt fine.

T-1:05:46 (7:18) 148

PM: Planet Walk 5 in 75 degree weather.  No watch. 

Its my Birthday today!

I don't want to run 28 miles today or anything crazy like that, so I figured I could eat 28 cookies or doughnuts or 28 pieces of cake.  Now THAT is a birthday gift to myself.  We'll have to see how that goes.

Ran into Providence and into Von's Park.  Did some exploring and headed home. 

T-60:45 (7:35) 147

Had a fun day yesterday.  Enjoyed a good night out with Beth and no kids.  I needed to burn off some excess food so I went out for a small workout this morning.  Young Ward loop with 5 miles at Tinman tempo pace.  Started out feeling sluggish and finally got into a groove.  I was glad it was only 5 faster miles though.  (6:20, 6:21, 6:15, 6:12, 6:10).

T-66:18 (10.1) (6:34) 158 

AM: Canal Trail in the rain. The power was out for half of Logan and I had to dodge the cars that didn't realize they are supposed to stop if the signal light is off. "Hmmm, no red light, sweet!"

T-61:50 (7:44) 144

PM: 3.5 on the Planet Walk.  Lead-filled legs.  No time.

Tired, rainy, slow

Ran to Jon's house and picked him up this time.  It was nice to have company again after so long running by myself.  I have turned into a hermit.  Oh wait, I was always that way.  So we ran up to the start of the River Trail via the canal trail.  Felt much better than most of this week, but still have some sore muscles.  I will work on them this afternoon.  We ran into Drew M on the canal trail.  He was looking good (moving along nicely).  He is in great shape.  I ran Jon home and then finished my run.  Easiest Saturday run in ages as it was the first one that was not a race or a 18+ miler in a few months.  Taper time has begun....

T-1:34:45 (7:17) 152

400 W route this morning.  Started out slow at 7:40 but picked it up over the run as I got warmed up.  Topped out at a 6:33 mile.  Most were around 7 though.  Did some scraping last night and the legs felt better today.  Still some soreness to overcome, but I still have 5 days.

T-55:41 (6:58) 150

Landfill loop in the morning.  Felt good except for the last mile where I had some weird breathing issues.  I have also been watching my foot closely as it seems I bruised the bottom.  Just making sure that is all it is.

T-42:40 (7:07) 151 

Easy 6 miles into Providence.  I did manage to get in one final fast mile as prep for Ogden.  It was downhill though (~2%).  5:34.  Legs are starting to come around.  Starting to get excited....

T-43:00 (7:10) 154

Easy 5 on the Planet Walk route.  Not timed.  I did throw in 4x20 sec striders. 

2 easy miles.  Yep, thats it for today.  Hardly was worth it at all.  Actually, it was very relaxing and nice.  Did 4x20 sec striders to satisfy the desire to run faster.  In 24 hours from now I will in Ogden Valley running around Pineview....

Ogden Marathon

2:43:48 (by my watch) 9th Overall

Race day began with some easy running in Huntsville as a few of us stayed at Logan Fielding's grandparents place the night before. That was super convenient and nice. We were all pretty anxious, but ready to go. The race started at 7 and the sun was already up and warming things up quickly. I wish this race would start at 6. The race started out pretty good with the body agreeing with the watch on the correct pace. We created a group of 3 pretty quickly (Walter, Ben, and I). Chad and Jeff created their own group not too far ahead and the leaders (Logan, Sasha, Clyde, and Seth Wold) were taking it easy for the first few miles too. The race was pretty un-eventful as we cruised down South Fork chatting and such. We stayed together really well but had a guy who recently moved from New Hampshire? join us for a while. I was feeling pretty good on the easy downhill and as we transistioned to the rollers at mile 9+ I was still happy with the pace. We took it easy (but it still felt like a race). I also was careful to hydrate well taking water or Gatoraide at every station. Things were shaping up nicely with us hitting the half in 1:20:20 (more or less). That was my personal goal was to hit the half in 1:20-1:21. It came so naturally too, so I was pleased. We stayed together (minus the guy from back east) up the big hill and along the lake. We overcame another older gentlelmen who we didn't talk to. We held back until we hit the Dam. I decided to go with the flow and sped up. I gapped my group, and tried to keep the momentum going, but fatigue was setting in. It didn't take them long to catch up with me and we ran together down Ogden Canyon. Ben had a run-in with a half marathoner, but other than that, we just tried to keep it together. I felt a lot better this year in this section, but I was struggling pretty bad. We exited the canyon and entered the trail and I fell apart. I knew I had only 5K to go, but no amount of willpower would make me keep my pace. I felt like I was barely moving. I tried tricking my mind into the "only this mile left, after that you can walk" trick, but it didn't work very well. We got strung out through here and had Kory overtake us all. He had been 30 seconds behind us the whole second half and made his move at a good point. I was in survival mode all the way to the finish. I think the only guy who suffered as bad as me (in my group of course) was Walter who walked to take a drink at mile 25 and couldn't get going again. Pathetic kick at the end for me, but I didn't care at that point. I managed to not pass out or collapse and seemed to recover reasonably well. I was impressed with Ben's race as he was strong the whole way. He got his revenge on all the races I beat him this spring....Now look out for him once the joins the blog. He will be shaving even more time...

I am happy with my race. It turned out about as expected. I really wanted 2:40, but I feel I ran my best race I could for the day. 9 min improvement over last year. ~2 min equivalent effort PR over St.George last year (based on Sasha's calculator). Still some serious work to do to get to 2:30 at SGM, but one step at at time.

It was a good day for Bloggers as we took 10 of the top 12 spots for the men and had one in the womens top 3 (Michelle), and another in the top 10 (Josse). Nice job everyone....

Splits:

1- 6:00 (adjusted for the misplaced marker - they really struggled with marking this race)

2- 6:04

3- 5:55

4- 6:11 (long)

5- 5:42 (short)

6- 6:04

7- 6:08

8- 6:05

9- 6:22 (rollers)

10- 6:11

11- 6:24

12- 6:18

13- 6:22

Half- 1:20:20

14: 6:02 (short)

15: 7:18 (super long - 6:33 pace)

16: 6:04 (short)

17: 6:11 (short)

18: 5:59 (down the big hill)

19: 6:05

20: 6:12

21: 6:15

22: 6:08

23: 6:04

24: 6:36 (ouch)

25: 7:10 (felt horrible)

26: 6:47 (still dying, but almost done)

Finish 1:16 (5:48 pace)

Ave HR: 175 (186 max)

Sore...

Still sore...

Spending the time off catching up on overdue projects at the house... 

After 3 hours of hauling 5 cubic yards of dirt in a wheelbarrow to various points my backyard, I was free to go for a run.  It was slow and easy.  I am still working on letting my legs recover, so it was nice to take it easy.  I noticed that the Logan River was the highest I have seen it in years.  Should be interesting for the next week as it continues to rise. 

AM: Easy 2 on the treadmill to wake the body up. Legs fatigued, but not too sore today.

PM: Ran on the River Trail with Jon.  8 miles in 65 min.  Things were clicking pretty good considering the soreness I have felt.  Good recovery run.   

Planet Walk 5 in the light drizzle. Not timed

Ran 4 more on the treadmill late finishing up a movie. 

Easy 8 on 400 W route.  I think I am just about recovered.  Still a few knots and tiredness, but way past the worst of it.  I should be good to ramp up the miles next week.

T-58:20 (7:17) 152

We were blessed today to have Walter join us Loganites for the weekend.  Fresh blood is good.  So what do we do?  We take him to the hilliest trail  for miles (Deer Fence) and tell him keep up or you walk back to Lewiston (half hour drive away).  He managed just fine.  In fact, it was me who was the most tired of the 3 (oh, did I mention Jon came too?)  It was a fun run with lots of chatting.  Trail running season has finally begun.  2 trail runs this week.  Recovery week is over, back to 70+ mileage now.

T-1:52     152 ave