Don't wanna be FAT!

Workouts like this one get me excited.  Ran with Riley, Jason, and Bret.  Warmed up 3 miles then did 6x1 mile repeats jogging for 2:30 in between. Then 3.82 miles of cool down.  

Mile Splits:  5:06, 5:05, 5:03, 5:04, 5:03, and 5:14.  (I've added a few seconds to each because my watch is a little bit inaccurate).

This is the most speed work I've done since college.  Very happy with it.

Last night I woke up at 11:00 and went to the bathroom then went back to bed.  When I woke up again I checked my watch and it was 5:38.  That is the longest I have slept without waking up at all since before we had the baby.  It was awesome!!!  This morning's run went well, the first couple of miles were really slow as I was tight from yesterday's workout, but as things loosened up a bit I felt a lot better.  AP:  7:12.  

Nice and easy run this morning in the fog.  AP:  7:04.  

I decided that I'm going to run the St. George 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks.  I wasn't going to race this soon but several factors made me want to run this race.  

1.  I'm excited about how my workouts have been going and I really want to test my fitness level.

2.  I think it will be fun to get away down to nice sunny St. George and I don't have to work the following Monday because it's Martin Luther King Day.

3.  The real selling point is that they have a kids race.  My oldest who turns 4 in April has been begging me to get him in another race since he ran the kids k at Hooper Tomato Days and I'm glad to see him excited about running races.  There aren't very many kids races in the near future so this really sold me.  

I know the competition will be stiff down there and it will be fun to see how I stack up right now with some of you great runners!

6.5 easy, 3 mile tempo, 1 mile jog, 3 mile tempo, 6.5 easy.  

1st 3 mile tempo miles:  5:19, 5:26, 5:22

2nd 3 mile tempo miles:  5:24, 5:47, 5:34

I had hoped to run between 5:15 and 5:20 pace but that was before it snowed.  After seeing 1/2 inch of snow on the ground when I woke up I considered not going hard at all but decided I would just give it my best effort and not worry about times.  The second mile of both sets had 4 sharp turns and I almost had to come to a complete stop to make sure I didn't go down.  The other miles were straighter, but I was spinning my wheels pretty good.  So while the times weren't even close to what I wanted to run, I felt that the effort was good.  

My knee was pretty sore right after, but I worked on my i.t. band and it seems to be feeling better.  It is something I'll need to watch.

Easy run.  My I.T. band was a little sore, but I think that is because I rubbed it out so aggresively over the weekend.  My knee and everything else felt great.  AP:  7:11

9 miles easy.  Nothing special to note.  AP:  7:09

2 up, 10 mile power run, 2 down.  Weather affected the run a little bit, but not much.  There was a skiff of snow on the roads, but not to slippery.  The bigger factor was snow blowing in my face and in my eyes at times.  I'm guessing it slowed me down 2-3 seconds per mile is alll though.  10 mile power run was really good.  Average pace was 5:30.5.  Target pace was 5:30 so given the weather conditions I was very pleased with the overall average pace.

Power run splits:  5:14, 5:30, 5:36, 5:41, 5:25, 5:33, 5:30, 5:38, 5:33, and 5:25

Funn story,  the reason the 1st mile was so fast is because instead of having my pace displayed on my watch where I usually have it I had my clock displayed instead, but I forgot that it was my clock being displayed instead of my pace.  So I kept looking down and seeing 5:50-something and thinking that was my pace.  I kept thinking to myself 'shiz, I feel like I'm running a lot faster than 5:50-something, this is going to be an awful run.'  I finally figured out my problem part way into the 2nd mile.  

Easy run.  AP: 7:29

Had to be extra carefull this morning because the roads were covered in black ice.  AP:  7:29  

Ran with the Ogden crew. The company was great. I was planning on running 20, but I was feeling really fatigued so I stopped with everyone else. AP: 6:34

9 miles easy. I was still feeling a bit sluggish. I'm not sure what it is but both this morning and Saturday morning I didn't feel quite right. Hopefully that feeling subsides before Saturday. AP: 7:30

2.38 warm up, 10x1k (1:15 walking rest), 3.75 cool down. Target was to do 10-12x1k@3:10. Ran on the roads which made it difficult to get in a rhythm because all of them had slight downhill and/or slight uphill.  I also ran in my trainers rather than flats because I didn't want to be too sore from them.  Next time I do this workout I think I will go to the 21st street pond and do them in my trainers.  I averaged 3:12.3

1k spits:  3:15, 3:24, 3:13, 3:18, 3:09, 3:09, 3:08, 3:10, 3:11, 3:06  

Not a great workout, but not bad.  The good news is that I didn't have that sluggish feeling I've had on my last couple of runs.  My legs feel good too.  

I really enjoyed looking at the moon as I ran this morning, it was beautiful. Nice easy run. AP:  7:16.  

One interesting note is that my first mile was faster than my second mile this morning which never happens.  It might have been because I had about a 200 meter race with a dog during the first mile.  At least I'm going to give the dog the benifit of the doubt and assume he wanted to race and it wasn't that he wanted my femur bone for a snack.  Luckily I won the race so I'll never know which one it really was.  

Nice and easy run.  Did 4 strides towards the end of the run just to get the legs rolling for a minute.  I'm excited to race on Saturday!

I was actually giddy on this run. Being down in beautiful St. George running in clean, warm air just felt awesome. I really wanted to keep running. But decided just to keep it short as I really wanted to have a good race the next day. I ran from my parents house in Coral Canyon across Telegraph Road onto the road across from the Coral Canyon golf course that goes to the dump.  If you go up this road for about a 1/2 mile then turn off onto a dirt road it takes you to a pathway that goes down the gorge there.  Help me out Southern Utah guys I don't know the name of that pathway.  But, I took that and for just a little ways and then turned around and headed back.  I really wanted to keep going though because that running down that gorge is just absoluletely beautiful.  AP:  7:04.  

Great race to everyone! I was thrilled with a 3rd place finish against such tough competition. I did about a 2.5 mile warm-up then some strides.  My goal for the race was to run under 1:11 so I didn't want to go out any faster than 5:20-5:25 effort knowing the first couple of miles were uphill I was okay with them being around 5:30.  I just want to disclose that my watch measures each mile about .015 short, so as I list these mile splits my miles were actually about 1-2 seconds slower than the time listed.  Mile 1 5:31,  I ran this mile with Dave Olson the leaders already had a decent gap on us.  I thought there were about 9 ahead of us.  Mile 2 5:27, The gap kept getting bigger.  I thought Dave was feeling okay but somewhere near the end of this mile he dropped back from me.  Mile 3 5:23,  I was running right where I wanted to be and I was feeling great, but my I was starting to lose patience.  Mile 4 5:12  this had some downhill in it so I wasn't too worried about it being a bit fast.  I think 2 guys dropped out of the race at this point.  I'm not sure what they were doing.  The gap on the group behind Bryant was getting pretty large at this point and I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to be able to catch any of them but I was working on catching up to Matt.  Mile 5 5:13 this was a good mile I passed Matt probably about 1/2 through this mile and I don't think the gap got any bigger betweem me and the pack.  Mile 6 5:27 this was a tough uphill mile  I felt like I handled it pretty well though.  Mile 7 5:28  despite being a little slow I felt like I was closing the gap.  Mile 8 4:52 this had the huge downhill it, but I still probably ran this mile too fast I probably would have been better off at the end had I ran it a bit slower.  According to my watch I reached 3:20 mile pace going down the steep hill. I made up huge ground though on this mile though and passed Dave Holt (I'm not going to lie I feel a bit of a healthy family rivalry there) at the end of that mile.  There was just a little bit of a gap between Clyde and I at this point and a another little gap between Clyde and Mike, and I felt like Ben was within range at this point.  I knew that Bryant was long gone by now and I really had no aspirations of catching him.  Mile 9 5:04 I passed Clyde early in this mile but I was not closing the gap very quickly on Mike at this point.  He had a really strong mile there as did Ben.  Mile 10 5:12 I was still running well but I could feel myself running out of gas.  I passed Mike somewhere in this mile but I could feel his presence and knew he was close to me for the next 1.5 miles or so.  At the end of this mile I kind of gave up on catching Ben and made the decision to just try and hold on the best I could and try and take 3rd.  Mile 11 5:21 I was just doing my best to hold on.  Mile 12 5:17 still holding on for dear life.  Mile 13 5:14 Finished a little stronger than I thought I was going to be able to based on how I was feeling at Mile 11.  It was a tough but fun course and overall I was really pleased with my race.   I thought it was lame that I didn't get a prize (besides a plaque) for taking 3rd overall for as big a race as it is I was at least expecting like a $50 gift certificate or some socks or something.  I think it is a great starting point.   I won't be happy if I don't run a lot faster in a few months.  I cooled down about 3.5 miles after the race.

The highlight of the day was watching my 3 yr old Mitchell run the tough kids 1/2 mile race.  He was so excited to run it and he did so well.  He ran the whole entire way.  He was the only one that was under 4 years old in his race and he took 6th out of 24 kids and he only got beat by 5 and 6 year olds.  His time was 4:48.1.  I was so proud of him!

I was still in St. George we really enjoyed being down there for several days. I ran from my parents house in Coral Canyon again and started going down that pathway down the gorge that I don't know the name of. Then I turned right where the pathway splits and came out of the gorge by Washington parkway.  I took Washington parkway until just before reaching the freeway.  I then got on a trail that took me under the free way and connected me to Grapevine trail (dirt road)  ran on that for a little bit then got on Prospector trail which I took for a while and then went back under the freeway and looped back to me parents house.  I enjoyed running on some trails in nice weather.  AP:  7:51.  

Hard to be back home again. I really had a hard time pulling myself out of bed. The run was cold the air was gross. I was sore. AP: 7:36

When I woke up this morning I didn't feel well at all so I went back to sleep, hoping I could get my run in later.  I felt weak all day long so I didn't run.

Ran home from work.  Did 2 miles of warmup 4 miles of aerobic builder then 5 miles easy.  I was hoping to run 8-10 miles of aerobic builder but I was feeling real weak again and my left calf was really tight so I called it quits on the builder after 4.  Mile splits for the builder were:  5:26, :25, :23, and :35.  Just having one of those weeks.  Still planning on racing the Salt Lake Winter Series 5k on Saturday.

Ran to work.  Ran nice and easy.  Calf wasn't as tight this morning.  I spent a lot of time last night rubbing it out.  I didn't feel nearly as weak as I've been feeling either.  Felt better about things today.  AP:  7:19

Woke up early and did 9 easy miles from my house.  Met up with Riley, Amy, Dave, and Albert and rode down with them to the race.  Ran 3.5 miles of warm-up.  Then ran the race.  I wanted to average 5:00 minute miles.  The gun went off and I did good being patient for about a 1/4 mile then I got antsy and took off.  Moved into 3rd place for little bit as I was just barely ahead of Bryant and Scott.  Riley and Jason already had a pretty good gap.  The first mile was about 4:52.  Bryant and Scott then passed my and started to gap me little by little but Jason looked like he was coming back so I thought I might have a shot at him.  The second mile was about 4:59.   I forgot how painful 5k's can be it's weird you think it is going to go by so quickly and then you get about 1/2 way done and you think to yourself wow I'm only 1/2 way, I've still got a long ways to go.  So the last 1.1 miles I was just doing my best to hold on.  At some point I gave up on trying to catch anyone, Jason found another gear and went by Bryant and Scott, and I was just trying to hold onto 5th.  Well that didn't happen because Jake went blowing by me with about 1/4 of a mile to go in the race.  I heard him coming and I wanted to respond but my legs weren't having it.  3rd mile was about 4:58.  Making the last 1/10 about 46 seconds.  Overall I was very happy because I was right around 5:00 minute mile pace which was the goal.  The only regret is that I was so close to beating such a great runner but I ended up getting passed by him in the last little bit.  It was fun though to be in such a competitive race.  Great race guys!  Ran 3 mile cool down after the race.

I felt really strong this morning.  Definitely the best I have felt since before the STG 1/2 .  My calf felt almost completely better too.  Things are looking up.  Ran up to the rail trail, weaving my way there so I wouldn't be stopped at any intersections, ran on the trail for a little while then turned around and went back the same way.  AP:  7:04.  

The plan was 2 mile warm-up then 5 miles @ 5:40 AP then no rest and straight into 5 Miles progressive going 5 seconds faster each mile then 2 mile cool down. I did 2 miles warm-up then 5 miles @ 5:35 AP then I messed up the progressive part by going 5:15 on the first mile of the progressive. So on that part of the workout I ended up going 5:15, 5:15, 5:22, 5:23, 5:12.  Then did 2 miles cool-down.

So it didn't go exactly as planned but I was happy with the workout 5:26 average for 10 miles with no rest at all and going much faster for the 2nd half then the first half was great!  The idea behind the progressive was to help me go faster at the end of my races as I have not been pleased with my finishing strength in my races so far.  I was happy that my last mile was my fastest.  The progress is starting to slow down which I knew was going to happen, but there is still noticeable progress from a few weeks ago.  

The conditions were great outside this morning.  

Recovery run. Ran out and onto the Syracuse trail and then back. I'm still feeling strong this week. AP 7:23

I laid in bed thinking how awful the conditions were going to be because it had rained real hard the night before so I was thinking all that rain was probably now frozen on the roads and I convinced myself to go back to sleep. It turned out that it wasn't even bad outside, but I did enjoy the sleep in day.

Enjoyed a nice loop this morning south into clinton east to the rail trail north to 5200 S then back home.  Everything is feeling good.  AP:  7:23.  If any of the Ogden Crew needs to get their run done early tomorrow morning, I plan on running 25 miles and starting at 5:15 a.m.  I've got a busy day tomorrow and need to get it done early.  Let me know if you want in.

Made a nice big loop this morning.  Ran from my house into Riverdale, hopped onto the Riverdale pathway and took it all the way to 21st street pond then did a lap around the pathway and headed back on the pathway that goes out to West Haven.  From West Haven I took the back roads back to my house.  It was a great look except that much of the pathway still was covered in ice.  I guess I will be sticking to the rail trail and Syracuse trail for the rest of winter because there is no ice on those ones.  For most of my dry miles I was running between 6:30 and 6:40 pace.  For the entire run AP was 6:51.  

I had a rough go this morning.  I was hoping to average around 5:30 for 10 miles, but could not even come close to that.  Splits:  5:35, 5:42, 5:48, 5:48, 5:40, 5:34, 5:40, 5:53, 5:55, 5:40.  So I only averaged 5:44.  The roads and weather really weren't bad so I can't use that as an excuse.  I'm not sure what it was.  Oh well, the effort was defiinitely good.  warmed up 2 miles cooled down 1 mile.  I cut my cool down short 1 mile so that I would have time to shovel my driveway before coming in to work.  

Alisha and Payson have been really sick and I am now getting whatever they have. As I started running this morning I felt terrible. So rather than making things worse I decided just to turn around and go back to bed.

This is the worse cold I have had in a long time.  This morning went okay though.  I think I'm getting over it.  I went 9 easy AP:  7:24.  

I felt pretty darn good this morning with just a couple of coughing fits.  The nice thing about taking a week off is that my legs feel great, no aches or tightness.  I probably won't do anything hard until at least Saturday.  I want to ease back into things and there really is no need to rush.  Nice weather this morning.  AP:  7:10.  

When I started it was just sprinkling very lightly.  From mile 3 to the end it was raining pretty heavily.  I hope that getting soaked doesn't hinder my recovery from being sick.  Other than being cold and wet I felt great.  AP:  6:57 

Didn't feel real great this morning.  For the first couple miles I felt really tight, then just really sluggish.  AP:  7:25.

Out and back (Syracuse Trail).  I was just going to go 15 miles easy because I have still had a really bad cough, but I was feeling pretty good so I decided to see if I could run under 6:00 minute pace for a while at about mile 5.5 I decided to do that.  So my miles ended up being as follows:  7:23, 7:04, 7:02, 6:56, 6:49, 5:57, 5:46, 5:54, 5:41, 5:32, 5:31, 5:44, 5:31, 6:08, 6:54.  Not a super workout, but I was very happy with it and it felt great to go hard again. 

Worked my way over to 1800 N in Clinton and ran all the way from 2000 W to the top of 1800 N.  It was a good long gradual climb.  Then came back down 6000 S in Roy.  AP: 6:54.

I don't have any excuse for missing the last two days.  My alarm went off and I just wanted to stay in bed and sleep longer.  I need to get out with the Ogden crew some more because I am currently lacking motivation.  This morning I woke up early though because I had to be into work early.  I ran the same loop I ran Monday with a slight variation to shorten it.  I will henceforth refer to it as the "top of the hill" loop.  After reaching the top of the hill I was going to go 3 miles hard (mostly downhill) because I wanted to get some kind of workout in before racing the Salt Lake series 15k on Saturday, but I didn't want to do too much with the race being only 2 days away now.  I ended up only going two miles hard because my calf started to cramp up worse than it has in years.  So I ran 1 mile in 5:29 the first .6 was flat then the last .4 was downhill then the 2nd mile was in 5:23 all downhill.  Overall I averaged 6:38 for the run which is decent considering the size of the hill.  I just hope I can get my calf feeling okay.

Ran my typical 9 mile loop with modifications.  calf felt pretty good it was tight but didn't ever hurt too much.  I think I'm going to try and give the race a go tomorrow, but I have an excuse in my pocket ready to pull out in case I run poorly (which is a bad thing because when the race gets tough mentally then I'll remember I have that excuse and I will probably end up running bad just because of that).  AP today was 7:00.  

Warmed up 4 miles with Dave then did some strides.  The race was a rough outing for me today.  The plan was to try and run 5:20-5:25 pace for the first 1/2 then race hard.  Well I was having a hard time even hitting 5:25 pace for the first 1/2 of the race.  I wonder if I would have been going out with the pack of 4.  I got myself into no-mans land and ran the entire race by myself.  Mile splits (based off of course markers) were:  5:25, 5:29, 5:28, 5:29, 5:35, 5:34, 5:39, 5:46, 5:30, and 5:24 pace for the last .3.  I looked back at right before the 8 mile marker and saw Nate Hornock coming up on me so that going me going for the last 1.3 miles.  So it wasn't close to what I was shooting for and I have had many workouts this year that have been better than that, but I'm glad I went down and ran it because I would not have gotten that good of a workout in this morning had I ran on my own and it was good to get out and see some friends run well.  There were some excellent performances by many today so congrats to those that had good races! 

Ran my rail trail 10.5 mile loop. Calf was still tight but it is getting better. AP: 7:12

2.5 warm-up, 2 x 3 mile tempo with 1 mile jog (7:24) recovery in between, 2.5 cool-down. I turned around at .5 into the 1 mile recovery jog so that the 2nd 3 mile tempo was the same as the first 3 mile tempo just in reverse order so there would be no net elevation gain or loss.  For the first set I went 5:14 (slightly downhill), 5:25 (flat), 5:23 (slightly uphill).  For the second set I went 5:13 (slightly downhill), 5:28 (flat), 5:32 (slightly uphill).  Not a fantastic workout but I'm happy with it.  I realized Saturday that I'm going to have to work my way back down.  This is an okay place to be.  My short-term goal right now is to go sub 2:30 at the Ogden Marathon.  I have a lot of work to do, but I believe there is still time to get into sub 2:30 shape by then.  

Ran an new loop in Hooper. I ran past the cemetery and on some of the pathways in Hooper. It was a pleasant run. I love how early the sun is rising now. AP:  7:01.  I finally feel 100% healthy and I think my calf is about 90% better.  

2.5 warm-up, 8 AB (AP: 5:38), 2.2 cool-down.  Target was to be between 5:35 and 5:40.  Mission accomplished, but effort was greater than I wanted it to be.  It was very windy and I was still feeling Tuesdays workout a little bit.  I almost called it quits after 3 miles but decided to stick in there and take it mile by mile.  I was proud that I ran the whole 8 miles that I had planned on doing and I am glad I stuck it out, I just hope the effort wasn't too great and that this workout doesn't come back to haunt me. Ran it on my 3 mile midland  drive loop.  Splits were:  5:30, 5:49, 5:43, 5:39, 5:39, 5:39, 5:34, 5:28.  

1800 N top of the hill loop.  Good easy run.  Everything felt fine.  AP:  7:16.  Good luck to everyone running big races tomorrow!  

Out and back. Ran from my house to the syracuse trail and on the the rail trail and then back.  20.15 miles total.  Plan was to just run 20 miles easy but about 7 miles into it I was feeling pretty good and decided to start putting the hammer down.  Mile Splits for the entire run were:  7:28, 7:13, 7:20, 7:02, 7:13, 7:05, 6:57, 6:45, 6:23, 6:20, 5:55, 5:47, 5:45, 6:06, 5:42, 5:51, 5:51, 5:34, 6:14, 6:00.  My AP for the entire run was 6:25.5 despite the slower miles at first.  It was a very solid run at the end of a very solid week for me.  

Rail trail loop.  Everything is feeling good.  AP 7:10.  I officially signed up for the Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon and the Ogden Marathon.

2 mile warm-up, 10 mile AB, 1.8 mile cool down.  It was windy and wet.  I ran most of the AB on a 2 mile loop so that I could space the head wind out eavenly.  I averaged about 5:40 pace I'm not sure what my exact pace was because of watch issues but I know that overall average was about 5:40.  Individual mile splits were kind of all over the place because of the heavy winds.  Overall a real good strength building workout.  

Hooper Pathways loop.  AP:  6:56  

4 mile warm-up, 5k all out, 4 mile cool down.  The all out 5k was on the Hooper Tomato Days 5k course.  I was hoping to run it under 16:00 which I thought would be good considering it was after I've already done a lot of work this week and was in a nonrace situation.  For those of you that have ran the Hooper Tomato Days 5k you know that the course is flat as a pancake.  I ran it in 15:53.  Mile splits were 5:01, 5:07, and 5:07.  Weather conditions were great and I felt really good about this run as a workout. 

True recovery day.  Legs are holding up really well.  I was going to do 10.5 but I ended up snoozing the alarm a couple times because it was a rough night with the kiddos.  AP:  7:13

This was a real confidence builder.  It was the end of a hard week and I ran 25.15 miles in 2:35:25 which is an AP of 6:11.  I a big loop from my house going up 5600 S then on the back roads of riverdale onto the weber river pathway which I took to the 21st street pond and did a lap then took the West Haven pathway then I worked my way home on the back roads of West Haven.  I felt really strong the whole run and just got faster as I went.  First 4 miles were uphill the next 4 miles were downhill, and then the rest was pretty much flat.  Mile splits were:  7:16, 7:02, 7:12, 7:04, 5:56, 6;07, 6:08, 5:56, 6:15, 6:17, 5:48, 5:55, 6:04, 6:03, 6:00, 5:55, 6:01, 6:00, 6:08, 5:58, 5:53, 5:52, 5:50, 5:54, 5:49.  This makes me believe that I could run sub 2:30 right now on the Ogden Marathon course because it is mostly downhill and I would be in racing flats instead of heavy trainers and I would be fresh because I would back off, and it would be a race situation rather than a training run.  I'm just really happy with how I felt today and with how strong of a week I had.  

Recovery run.  Legs felt really good considering how hard I went on Saturday. AP:  7:17.  

I ran nice and slow today.  I felt like that's what my body needed.  I plan on running a 12 mile power run tomorrow and I'm racing a 10k in Layton on Saturday.  Those will be my only hard runs this week.  I feel I need to let off the accelerator a bit after two hard weeks in a row.  AP:  7:29.  

3 mile warm-up, 12 mile aerobic builder, 3 mile cool-down.  Aerobic Builder Average Pace was 5:24.  Mile Splits:  5:23, 5:13, 5:29, 5:23, 5:25, 5:13, 5:27, 5:25, 5:22, 5:30, 5:26, 5:27.  The two 5:13's were slightly downhill.  I Ended a little lower than where I started.  This workout exceeded my highest expectations.  I was hoping to average around 5:35 at best 5:30.  I just got into a nice rythm and kept at it.  I had great weather conditions.  I just hope I'm not doing too much.

Legs were quite tight to start but the further I went the better I felt.  By the end of the run the legs were feeling pretty darn good.  New Balance 490 shoes are finally feeling broken in.  AP:  7:15

Easy 9.  AP:  7:26.  Will run hard tomorrow in the St. Patty's March Run 10k in Layton.  

This race was a good workout.  I warmed up 5 miles and did some strides.  It was a windy day out the course was set up in a way that the wind was broken up nicely though.  But, because of the way the course was set up I was weaving through 5k and 10k runners over the last 2 miles.  I guess that was good practice though for when I'm weaving through 1/2 marathoners at the Ogden Marathon.  I turned the auto lap off on my watch but ended up only getting the first two splits because I wasn't paying close enough attention to the mile markers.  I think the course was probably a little short because my watch had the course at 6.24 miles and given my watches history my watch should have read around 6.35 if it was an accurate course.  1 mile 5:02 2nd mile was 4:54 but was with the wind.  I struggled to run 5:20-25 pace against the wind but made up for it when I had the wind aiding me.  Overall time was 32:13 or a 5:11 AP.  Given the windy conditions and the weaving through people I was very happy with that time.   I had some guy go with me for the first mile then he fell apart in a hurry.  2nd place was more than 3 minutes back so I didn't have anyone pushing me.  For a small race awards weren't back a couple small $10 gift certificates an 1 hour long massage, and a free entry next year.  Mitchell didn't have as much fun in his race.  His race was a full mile which was a really long ways for him given that he won't turn 4 until next month.  But, I was proud of the way he fought through it and never gave up.  Payson did about half of the kids race he was really excited about that.  Overall a fun morning with the family.  Good week of running.

They need an "extra slow miles" category.  My AP this morning was 7:48.  I didn't get below an 8:00 average until 8 miles into the run.  I didn't feel real sore before starting the run but once I started I noticed I was super stiff and really didn't loosen up until about 6 miles into the run.  It was a combination of my race Saturday and playing basketball with my brother last night.  I wasn't going to play hard, but he went up on me 2 games to 0 (we always play the best of 5) and with the rivalry we have with each other my competitive side kicked in and I played real hard the last 3 games.  Not too smart I know.  I was going to workout hard tomorrow, but now I think I will hold off until Wednesday.  

I didn't start this run until 8:45 p.m.  I was planning on running in the morning like I normally do, but Payson (our 2 year old) decided he didn't want to sleep the night before like almost all night long.  I finally got him to sleep at about 5:00 a.m. but he was sleeping on my chest when it was time to go on my run so I bagged it in the morning.  Luckily I was still able to get a run in.  AP:  6:53.  

Was going to do a workout today but because I ran so late yesterday I decided to hold off until tomorrow.  Nice easy run.  Legs are feeling great!  AP:  7:21

3 mile warm-up with 4x100 strides, 6x1600 (2:00 active recovery ~250 meters jogging), 2.25 mile cool down.  1600 meter splites were:  5:01.28, 5:03.28, 5:02.43, 5:03.72, 5:00.49, and 4:55.76.  Goal was to be able to hit 6 between 5:00 and 5:05.  Hit the goal.  This was done on Roy High's track.  A little windy but not bad.  I was very pleased with this workout.  Felt the lactic acid lock-up feeling in the last 100 of the last 1600.  That is the first time I've done anything quick and hard enough to get that feeling in a long time.  

11 easy miles.  AP:  7:30  

I had a hard time deciding on doing 25 miles slow and steady or 20 miles with a workout.  I decided on 20 miles with a workout because I had only done 1 workout earlier in the week.  I ended up doing the Ben Vanbeekum special break down workout with a shorter warm-up and a longer cool down because I didn't want my last quarter mile to be uphill.  I did 2.5 miles warm-up, 3 miles hard (more downhill then up with wind to my back), 3 miles recovery, 2 miles hard (flat with cross winds), 2 miles recovery, 1 mile hard (all slightly up all against the wind), 1 mile easy, 1/2 mile hard (rolling hills against wind), 1/2 recovery, 1/4 mile hard (flat against the wind).  4.25 miles cool down.  3 mile hard splits were 5:04, 5:07, 5:05.  2 miles hard splits were 4:53, 4:59. 1 mile hard was 4:58.  1/2 mile was 2:21. 1/4 mile was 1:03.  This was a very good workout done in my heaviest trainers.  I'm thrilled with where I am right now.

2.4 mile warm-up, 12 mile power run, 1.6 mile cool down.  Mile splits were: 5:30, :28, :26, :35, :24, :30, :23, :25, :27, :28, :25, :23.  AP was 5:27.  I wanted to be between 5:30 and 5:35 because I intent to do this same workout on Thursday and wanted to leave some gas in the tank, but I got into a good rythm and just went with it.  

11 miles easy on my rail trail loop.  AP:  7:11

As I was running my hard workout in the rain and wind early this morning I was thinking to myself 'being really dedicated to something sure is annoying at times.'  2.4 mile warm-up, 12 mile power run, 1.6 mile cool down.  Power run splits were:  5:28, :21, :32, :23, :21, :24, :28, :20, :26, :22, :24, :25.  AP= 5:24.5.  This was a real strong run considering I had done the same workout on Tuesday and considering the weather conditions.  These are the types of workouts that are going to give me confidence when it's needed. 

Nice recovery run. AP: 6:56

aited until this afternoon to run because I was busy in the morning. Was planning on doing 25 today but when I started heading home at about mile 14 I started feeling low on energy, my i.t. band started to feel tight, and I realized I would be running against a fierce wind the rest of the way. So I decided to take the most direct way home. By the time I got home I was feeling pretty crappy. This run really took a lot out of me. AP: 6:36.

Sunday night just walking around my knee was sore from my i.t. band having knots in it so I rolled it out Sunday and Monday, and decided to take Monday off completely.  This morning I ran real easy and it was fine until the last little bit I could feel the i.t. band getting real tight again.  It's nothing serious yet, but I'm going to be ultra conservative this week because I don't want it to become something serious.  I was due for an easy week anyway as the I have been very aggresive in my training for about 5 weeks in a row.  AP:  7:34.  

Ran 3.8 miles up to Roy High's track, 4x100 strides 100m jogging inbetween, 4x200 fast 100m slow jog inbetween, 400m slow jog, 4x200 fast 100m slow jog inbetween, 4.2 mile run home.  1st set of 4x200 splits were 31.8, 31.14, 30.86, 31.38.  2nd set of 4x200 splits were 30.62, 31.44, 31.77, 30.99.  I felt good on these and my leg felt good.  I think I might just be being paranoid about my leg and knee because I'm in real good shape right now and everytime I get into real good shape it seems I get injured.  I hope it's just me being paranoid.  But, I'm experienced enough with injuries that I know that I can't just ignore the pains that I have been having.  I think it might be piriformis syndrome that I'm dealing with and not my i.t. band like I originally thought.  I've had a little bit of knee pain on the outside of my knee which made me think it was my i.t. band, but I have also had some real bad lower back pain at times and some tingly pain up and down the back and outside part of my leg and real tightness in the right buttocks which makes me think it's the piriformis flaring up and causing pains up and down my sciatic nerve.  Any thoughts or advice????

Easy run. Felt pretty good. There were times where my knee hurt just a little bit but the last 6 miles or so felt just fine.  I think it's getting better.  

3.5 mile warm-up, 8 mile tempo, 3.5 mile cool-down. My leg felt good, but this was not a great run. I felt like I was going as fast as I could the whole time but was unable to run as fast as I thought I should have been able to. I was glad I didn't run the strider's half marathon because I would have gotten my butt kicked on this particular day.  Splits for the tempo run were:  5:20, :16, :21, :21, :25, :20, :23, :41.  AP:  5:23.  I was hoping I could average between 5:15-20  and not feel like it was an all out effort.  Oh well I would rather have an off day now than in a couple of weeks.  I'm just glad my leg is holding up.  

I felt better this morning than I have in a couple of weeks. The leg feels like it almost completely back to normal. I plan on doing a real hard workout tomorrow which will really test it. I felt pretty comfortable today which made me very happy because I have been real concerned.  AP:  6:53.  

Great job to everyone that ran the Striders Half this past weekend!  I was really impressed with how competitive it was when I looked at the results yesterday! 

Real strong workout this morning. 2.5 mile warm-up, 15 mile AB, 2.5 cool-down. AP for 15 miles was 5:26.73.  Mile splits were:  5:22, :23, :33, :27, :25, :28, :28, :27, :33, :22, :25, :18, :30, :35, :25.  I ended at the same place I started so it was an honest course.  It's amazing the difference a few days can make.  I felt really good and my legs felt pretty good.  

Afterwards I used a certificate I had won at that small St. Patty's day race to get some Positional Release Therapy (PRT) done on my piriformis.  It was interesting.  So far I feel like it may have helped.  Time will tell.  

Nice and easy recovery run. AP: 7:00

Opted to wait another day before doing a hard work out in order to recover more from Tuesday's workout. My right leg which had the piriformis issues is feeling completely better, but now I have a pain on the outside of my left leg just a couple inches above the ankle.  I iced that this morning after my run.  Anybody have any ideas of what that might be and how else to treat it?   It doesn't feel like something that I have to worry about becoming a huge issue, but again something I should pay attention to.  AP:  6:51.   

After posting on Thursday, the pain above my left ankle worsened. By the end of the day Thursday I was limping just walking around. So I decided to give it a rest from Friday to Sunday. It is feeling just fine now and both legs felt like they were back to normal this morning.  Today's run was good.  AP:  7:12.  

3.75 mile warm-up, 4x100 strides, 12x400m w/ 60 seconds walking recovery, 3.75 mile cool-down. 400 meter splits were: 71:45, 69:56, 71:31, 71:24, 71:30, 71:45, 70:42, 71:61, 69:57, 70:96, 70:03, 67:06 (on this last one I ran the same pace that I had been running all the others in until the last 100 meters then I kicked it in).  Plan was to do 10x400m in 72-73 pace, but it felt so easy running what I was running from the start that I kept it there and decided to do a couple more.  I was hoping it would feel easy because this was meant as a tune-up for Saturday.  My legs actually felt better after the run than they did before.  I'm excited to race on Saturday!

Started tapering for the Salt Lake 1/2 marathon today. Nice and easy run. Legs feel good. AP: 6:58.

Nice to sleep in a little longer this morning. Easy 7. AP: 7:08

Easy run.  Mixed in 4 strides.  Excited to race tomorrow morning. Not excited to wake up at 4:45 a.m.  

I've got mixed feelings about this race. On one hand I am very discouraged because going into the race given the elevation profile and where I thought my current fitness level was I thought for sure I would be able to at the very least go under 1:09.  But, on the other hand I know that the course was a little long and everyone I talked to said they thought the course was a lot harder than then they thought it was going to be.  I felt the same way.  I was very surprised at the difficulty of the course.  I was also thrilled to take 4th place given the level of competition.  Even if I had the race I was hoping to have I don't think I would have been able to place any higher than 4th the three that beat me were just better than me it's as plain and simple as that.  I went a little harder and faster than I probably should have gone on some of those downhill miles from miles 3-5.  It was nice to have company for the first 6 miles or so and then it got incredibly lonely for the rest of the race.  Here are my mile splits based off of the mile markers on the course:  5:19, 5:38, 4:56, 5:07, 4:21 (Not sure why this one was so far off I know I didn't drop a 4:21 mile on the 5th mile though.), 11:20 (next 2 miles, I missed the mile marker), 5:50, 5:28, 5:34, 5:15, 5:35, 5:23, :37 for the last .1.   Cooled down 4 miles with Ben, Mike, Scott, and Justin.  It was fun to see a lot of you bloggers at the race.  Many had great races! 

I was super sore this morning from Saturday's race.  Just took it nice and easy.  I started feeling a little better about 3 miles into the run.  AP:  7:38.  

Legs were feeling much better today. Watching and following local runners yesterday running Boston got me psyched up and motivated to keep at it.  AP:  6:51.  

4 mile warmup, strides, 3x800(200m jogging rest about 1:15), 4.5 mile cool down. Not the best workout. I was hoping to at least get 4 or 5 in, but the effort felt like a strong effort to do the 3 I did and I would like to perform well Saturday in the thanksgiving point tulip festival half so I called it good after 3. Splits were 2:24, 2:28, and 2:28. Not sure why they felt hard...probably still recovering from the SLC half.

Nice easy run. AP: 7:12

Nice and easy run just tried to keep it slower than 7:00 pace.  Legs are finally feeling fully recovered and just in time.  

I really enjoyed the weekend at Thanksgiving Point with my family.  I thought it was great that the race packet included two flex passes that admitted you into all of the venues at Thanksgiving Point.  We spend the day yesterday taking the kids to the farm, ancient life museum, and the gardens.  We then stayed at the Marriott at Thanksgiving Point because I had an e-certificate that I needed to use by June.  I woke up at about 5:45 so I could get some breakfast in me and take care of business on the toilet.  I was nervous this morning because I couldn't go near as much as I normally do on race mornings and thought that I was going to need to stop in the race.  Luckily that was not an issue.  I ran about a 2.5 mile warm-up and did some strides and then some of the heavy hitters started showing up at the starting line. There was Brett, Jon K, Jace, Scott K., Jon H.  I knew then that it was going to be very difficult to win some cash.  We headed out in a pack with Brett leading the way through the first mile.  After the mile marker Brett picked up the pace considerably and Jon K. was the only one to go with him.  I started to go with him but quickly decided the pace was too heavy for me to handle, so I dropped back and joined Jace and Scott.  Somewhere partway into that mile Scott started dropping off which surprised me, but I later learned that he was battling some calf issues and ultimately ended up dropping out of the race (sorry Scott!)  Jace and I stayed close to each other through 3 miles.  Then I gapped him just a little.  The gap stayed minimal for a while so I decided to let him catch up with me so we could work together, hoping that we might eventually catch up with Jon who we could see was falling off of Brett at this point.  Jace and I stayed close and worked together and I think we closed the gap a little bit on Jon over through 7.5-8 miles then Jace started to gap me.  He gapped me by about 20 meters at one point and then I decided I really needed to work hard to get back up there with him soon or I was going to get dropped so I really worked hard over the next mile to get back up to him.  In the mean time Jon was opening his large gap on us again and I knew we weren't going to get him so it was going to be a tough battle between me and Jace for 3rd place and the $150.00.  It was at about mile 9 that I finally caught back up to Jace.  When I pulled up next to him he suggested that we make thing much more pleasant on each other and agree to split the $150 evenly and run the last 4 miles together so we could both ease up a little and not have to duke it out with each other.  Having just made a big move to catch him I was more than happy to agree to the deal knowing that after a big move like that I wasn't going to have much in me to battle over the final 4 miles.  So we cruised in together and determined from about 3 miles out that we wouldn't race until the final turn which only left about 75-100 meters.  I thought for sure Jace would have no problem outkicking me because anybody that knows Jace knows that he has some wheels!  However, today I was really able to get rolling and actually outkicked Jace, barely.  Overall, it was a really fun race.  I loved how pretty it was and I was super impressed with how Kendall Wimmer put on the race and how he catered to the elite runners.  I definitely would like to make this race an annual tradition.  My mile splits were all over the place but that is to be expected on a course like this one.  Those of you that have run the course know what I mean.  They were as follows:  5:24, 5:27, 5:10, 5:22, 6:05, 5:08, 5:34, 5:41, 5:36, 5:31, 5:50, 5:45, 6:6:05 (for last 1.1).  After the race I ran back up to the hotel and did my cool down on the hotel treadmill because it was so wet outside. 

Easy run.  Everything felt good except for my left calf.  Left calf was pretty tight.  AP:  7:13.

Ran this one in the afternoon because I couldn't get out of bed in the morning after being up for over half the night with a screaming baby.  Decided to run this one just a little out of my comfort zone.  This wasn't a tempo or power run by any means but the whole time I felt like I was putting forth a decent effort and it so it wasn't an easy or recovery run.  AP:  6:36.  

I felt really tight for the first two mile but loosened up after that and felt pretty darn good.  Still a little soreness in the left calf, but it is doing much better.  AP:  6:55.  

4.3 mile warm-up, 5k time trial, 4.4 mile cool-down.  5k time trial was done on hooper tomato days 5k course.  I ran it in trainers for the extra cushioning.  About 1/2 mile into it I felt my left calf get real tight so I ran it at about a 95% effort rather than 100%.  Splits were:  4:57, 5:09, 5:23, and :42 for the last .14.  Total time was 16:11.  I was disappointed with how much slower I got as I went.  It was a good effort though and I think it was good for my training.  

Recovery run nice and easy. Nothing exciting to mention. AP:  7:15

4.75 miles ap: 6:50, 5 miles hard splits were:5:32, 5:33, 5:32, 5:33, and 5:27 into the wind, I took about a 60 second rest as I turned around then did 5 more miles hard splits were: 5:21, 5:27, 5:28, 5:27, and 5:26 (with the wind), then did 4.75 more miles back home ap: 6:38. this was a strong work out. The ten hard miles were done on the rolling hills of the Syracuse Trail. The legs and cardio felt great. The only problem was I didn't start until 8 this morning and it was really hot. I was feeling quite dehydrated by the end. Have been pumping fluids in since. this will be the last hard workout I do until the Ogden marathon. I will do a couple of workouts next week but they will just be maintenance workouts. I was glad to get one last good one in.

Easy run. Skipped my run yesterday because I couldn't get out of bed after a long night with a screaming baby. On today's run I felt tight to start but the further I went the better I felt. AP: 7:06

2 up, 8 marathon pace, 2 down. Target was to run this at my target marathon pace for the flat sections of the marathon which is 5:30-5:35. Splits were: 5:34, 5:30, 5:32, 5:38, 5:32, 5:32, 5:37, 5;20.  AP: 5:32.  So I was where I wanted to be for most of the miles not sure what happened on miles 4 and 7 just lost focus I guess.  This was a little harder than I thought it would be.  May adjust target range to 5:34-5:38 range for the flat/rolling sections of the marathon.  

I was proud of myself this morning. I had an early meeting at work so I had to wake up at 5:15 to do this run. That's pretty darn early for me.  AP:  7:00

4.75 mile warm with strides, 12x400 60 seconds walking recovery, 4.25 down. Target pace was 70-72. I was having a hard time holding back. Legs felt really good. Splits were: 69.48, 70.61, 70.01, 69.40, 69.19, 68.68, 71.39,69.99, 69.87, 70.66, 70.97, 66.27, held back on the last one until the final stretch then I let loose. 1 more week.

I was planning on doing 10 easy today, but I was going to have to do it in the afternoon or evening because I had to leave really eary in the morning to travel to Sidney Nebraska for work.  Unfortunately our bags didn't make the transfer from Denver to Cheyenne so I was without running clothes and shoes.  They didn't deliver our luggage to us until 10:45 p.m. so I ended up taking the day off.  

6 miles easy and 2 miles in the middle at marathon pace.  It was cold out here in Sidney NE.  There was not anywhere flat around my hotel so I ended up doing the run on rolling hills.   Everything felt great.  Legs should be super fresh and ready to roll on Saturday.   

6 miles easy on a dirt road with little rollers here in Sidney NE.  Nice to run on the soft dirt road.  I like running through farm country.  

Easy 4 miles.  My legs are feeling antsy and ready to race.

2 miles easy.

Let me start by saying I was very proud of my race today.  I didn't quite reach my goal of 2:25 and I might not have ran as smart as I could have, but I know that I could not have ran any gutsier.

Before heading up I had a bowl of cereal.  Once I got on the bus I had a banana, and at about 6:00 I had a snickers marathon bar.  I also had 32 oz of water before starting the race.  during the race I tried to get water at every aid station and power aid at a couple.  I had a cliff gel at about mile 7 which didn't settle well, but as I was running very low on energy at about 16 and 20 I had a couple more cliff gels. 

Good to see lots of friends before, during, and after the race.  

My mile splits are based off of the course markers.  First mile was measured short with the second mile being long but together they were right on.  Fritz took the lead from the get go. Bryant and Jason started to go with him but ended up dropping back with me and Jace.  First mile was 5:20  second mile read 5:53. So we were a little slow those first two miles but that was alright with me.  We then started getting in the groove I wanted to be in running the next miles in 5:28, 5:24, 5:29.  Somewhere in there Bryant and Jason started breaking off from Jace and I.

In hind sight I probably ran the next several miles too fast.  I passed Jason and pulled up to Bryant.  The next several miles were 5:22, 10:47 (for two miles I missed a split).  That ended the downhill miles.  

The next 5 miles they were rolling and flat mile.  I really wish I would have ran them slower.  I think it would have helped me overall.  Bryant started gapping me a little over the next 5 but not by much.  They were 5:32, 5:23, 5:40, 5:33, and 5:34.  I hit the 1/2 marathon mark in 1:11:52.  

The next couple of miles were quite slow as they had the big hill in them.  Bryant started gapping big time at that point.  Those next tow miles were in 11:38 I missed hitting the split at 14.  Just before mile 15 I started to get cramps in my right calf and I thought I was in real trouble.   I said a little prayer to myself that they would go away for at least a while and I was able to make it about 3 miles before had more cramps.  The next three miles were in 5:34, 5:35, and 5:25.  The 5:25 mile had the big downhill coming down off the spillway and that's why I was able to run a little faster.  So at mile 18 I was a little ahead of where I was hoping to be and still on pace for sub 2:25. 

Then things started getting real rough I started hurting bad and was just trying to run 6:00 minute pace.   I thought I would be able to run around 5:30 on the canyon miles as they were downhill but they next 4 canyon miles ended up being 5:45, 5:52, 5:49, and 5:31.  At about mile 22 a half marathoner said to me to keep going because 2nd place wasn't that far ahead of me.  I thought they were crazy because it had been about 6 miles since I had last seen Bryant.  But, just before coming out of the canyon I finally saw Bryant clear out ahead of me and that gave me a little bit of life. 

With about 3 miles left I was getting some really bad cramps in both calfs and up into my hamstrings they felt terrible.  I even started crying a little bit at about mile 23 or 24.  I was in a lot of hurt.  But I noticed that Bryant was slowly coming back to me so I kept pushing through.  The last 4 miles were in 5:32, 6:18, 6:02, and 5:51 with the last .2 in 1:23.  I think I passed Bryant with about 1.5 miles to go at about that same time I started feeling dazed and confused.  In the last 200 meters I had a real difficult time staying concious.   

As soon as I finished they put me in a wheel chair and took me to the med tents.  I had a temp of 103 and was very dehydrated.  The pumped two large bags of fluids into me using an i.v.  I was in bad shape.  I was stinking proud of the race I had just run though.   Anytime you beat Bryant it's a good day even if he isn't 100% which he wasn't.  There were many other really good runners in the race as well like Fritz and Jace and Justin.  So I was absoluletly thrilled with 2nd place.  

Congrats to the many others that had great performances today in both the full and the half!

I walked just .75 miles to church and then back home after church.  I was obviously very sore I hoped the walking would help.  Walking home was a little much.  

Just got out and shuffled along at an AP of 8:38.  The purpose of this run was just to try and get some of my stiffness loosened up.  

Once I got going this run didn't feel too bad. AP: 7:28.  

For some reason I felt a lot better yesterday then today. I woke up with some lower back pains and just never really loosened up during the run. I'm not worried about it though because I planned on spending this whole week recovering.  AP:  7:35.  

Ran this one pushing Payson in the stroller. AP: 7:41.

Did a strenuous 4.5 mile back ride up the canyon and back down where we were camping.  Then later I did a strenuous hike carrying Penny.  

About a 4 mile hike with the whole family. It was very nice weather and a beautiful hike.  Great family time!

It is time to get back to the grind I think I am recovered now and it is time to get going. I didn't run yesterday because of two bad nights in a row sleeping. Penny is not a happy camper and I was up for over half the night with her two nights in a row while camping.  Luckily she slept much better last night, being in her own bed.  This morning it felt good to get out and going again and hopefully I can get going with my training again now.  AP:  6:55.  

I Couldn't get my butt out of bed this morning in time to do more than 7.5 miles after another long night with the kiddos (This time it was Payson that was up for much of the night). I finally got out of bed around 6:30 and pushed it to get 7.5 miles in before I needed to get ready for work. I ran a couple of miles right at 6:00 minute pace.  It felt good to open up and run a little faster.  This is the fastest I have run since the marathon.  AP:  6:35  

Well I couldn't get my butt out of bed again this morning so this ended up being a late night run.  After going to my son's t-ball game and being barefoot on the grass I decided I wanted to do something faster barefooted at the park near my house.  So I did barefoot mile repeats on the grass at the park at 9:30 p.m.  

I warmed up 2 miles then did 4x100 meter strides, then 4x1 mile repeats with 1/2 mile jogging recovery inbetween, then 2 miles of cool down.  Splits were 5:05, 5:09, 5:06, 5:12.  Considering this was my first workout back after the marathon and that they were done on the grass I don't feel bad about this workout at all.  I was hoping to do 5 and I might have been able to, but my bowels simply would not allow it.  I find that I almost always have bowel issues when I right at night.  Overall I was pleased with the workout and pleased to find that my legs have recovered.  

This was a recovery run.  I started this run exactly 8 hours after the time I finished my workout last night.  Probably not the smartest move, but I wanted to get back to running in the mornings right away.  Once my legs loosened up I felt great.  AP: 7:00.

I only ran 13 miles, but they were hard miles. At first I started from the corrals at North Fork Park and headed up the trail that goes up to Ben Lomand Peak.  I only made it about 3.5 miles up before I started getting into a lot of snow.  I turned around at 4 miles and came back down as I was doing more hiking than running at that point.  I gained a lot of elevation in that 4 miles and only averaged about 11 minute mile pace going up and about 7:45 pace going down.   

After getting back to my car I drove up to the top of the North Ogden Divide (about a 10 minute drive) and took the trail off to the south that goes up to Lewis Peak.  For the first .5 miles this trail isn't bad, but it then gets very steep after that for the next 2 miles.  I averaged about 13:30 pace for those 2.5 miles up.  At one point I was going 16:45 pace, but my heart rate was way up.  I averaged about 8:45 pace coming down because it was too steep and technical to go any faster.  

Both of these sections of trail are part of the Skyline Mountain Marathon which I plan on running in August.  Even though my paces were slow and I only ran 13 miles total, given the effort I feel like this was probably worth the same as about 20 miles at 6:45 pace on the road.  Just a different currency.  

Today was Penny's first run with me. She seemed to quite enjoy the run and didn't whine at all the whole run. She fell asleep and stayed asleep for the last 6 miles.  

I forget how much more difficult stroller miles are than normal miles.  I only averaged 7:38 pace, but I think it was at least a 7:00 pace effort.    

2.25 m. up w/ strides, 8 m. tempo on Clinton 4 m. loop, 2.25 m. down.   I wanted the second 4 m. loop to be faster than the first. I met that goal, but I wanted to average about 5:30 on the first 4 and then around 5:25 on the second 4.  I wasn't able to run that fast.  I guess I'm still working on getting back after the marathon.  Splits were:  5:34, 5:42, 5:35, 5:28, 5:31, 5:39, 5:31, 5:20.

I'm mostly glad that I still feel motivated to run hard workouts.  Usually after a big race like the Ogden Marathon was for me I end up going into a slump.   

2.5 m. up w/ strides, 10x1,000 meters w/ 300 meter jogging recovery (averaged about 1:35 for the recovery), 1.75 m. down.  1,000 meter splits were:  3:08.5, 3:08.5, 3:07.5, 3:08, 3:07.5, 3:10.5, 3:08, 3:07.5, 3:06.5, 3:07.5.  Rounded to the nearest 1/2 second.  

I ran this workout barefoot on the wet and soggy grass at Emma Russell Park.  Target was to run them at 3:07.5 (5:00 minute mile pace) .  I averaged a bit slower than that, but I was close enough to be satisfied with the workout.  

The weather was perfect this morning.  

I was really tight at the beginning of this run but felt better as I went.  Very nice temperatures out this morning.  AP: 7:05.  

Met up with Bret F. and ran from the wind surfer beach parking lot by Pineview Resevoir up to Lewis Peak on the Skyline Trail.  It was just over 9 miles each way with about 3,000ft elevation gain.  We averaged about 10 minute mile pace going up and then about 6 minute mile pace coming down.  It was a really good workout and it was good to have some company. 

11 miles easy. I felt real tight at the beginning, but things loosened up fine.  AP: 7:05.  Throw out the first 2 miles and AP was probably around 6:55.  

2.25 m. up w/ strides, 8 mile ab/tempo, 2.25 m. down.  I ran this on my 4 mile tempo loop in Clinton.  I haven't been feeling real well (cough and little bit of a sore throat) so I was just going to run this as more of an aerobic builder than a tempo.  I did well running a more relaxed pace for the first 4 mile lap, but then I couldn't hold back for the 2nd loop and ended up pushing harder than what was probably wise.  Average pace for the first 4 miles was 5:39.  Average pace for the next 4 miles was 5:25. 

9 miles easy.  AP:  6:50

2.5 up w/ strides, 3x1200 meters 300 meters jogging recovery, 2.5 down. I almost didn't do a run at all today. I had to get up early for work for the 2nd day in a row and I couldn't get myself to wake up super early two days in a row. Then I took the kids swimming in the afternoon because I got off work early. So I was tired before even starting but decided I would give it a go and do what I could. I was hoping to do more than 3 but something was better than nothing.  I did these barefoot on the grass at the park by my house again.  It was just over 80 degrees when I ran them at 8:00 p.m. so it was still very warm.  Splits were:  3:40, 3:42, 3:47.  

On a happy note, I got my first pair of trail running shoes that I have ever had in the mail today.  I found some Kinvara trail shoes on sale for $36.99 w/ free shipping and so I decided to give them a try.  I warmed up and cooled down in them tonight just to break them in a little before I do a big long trail run in them on Saturday.  I'm excited about them and I think I'm really going to like them.  If anyone else is interested I found them on 6pm.com that it where I buy all my running shoes.  

I had a rough night. My three kids decided to tag team it last night taking turns throughout the night screaming. My wife was sick so I had to step up my game.  When I woke up this morning I wasn't sure if I really liked being a dad to 3 small children or not, then I took Penny in the stroller on my run with me, because she was up super early and I fell in love with being a dad again right away.  She was being so cute and making the cutest sounds.  I really do love being a dad (most of the time).  The run was 9 miles easy pushing the stroller.  My legs are feeling strong and healthy right now.  AP: 7:32.  

Met up with Brett F. and Ken R. on top of the North Ogden Divide. We ran up to the top of Ben Lomand Peak and back down. The trail was still covered with snow near the top so we had to do some hiking rather than running for the last mile. We averaged about 10:00 pace going up.  

We started going back down and I was in the lead then Brett went blowing past me and set a quick pace.  After a while I caught back up and passed him, then Brett passed me back, then Ken passed both of us and they left me in their dust over the last 1.5 miles.  We averaged about 5:30 pace over the last 5 miles which was pretty crazy givin the technicallity of the trail.  It was way fun, but way risky. Probably the best rush I've gotten in a while.  

I was still feeling Saturday's run. My groin muscle on the left side was a little sore, something to watch. Good run. Very nice morning outside this morning. AP: 7:05.  

I mentioned yesterday that I had some groin pains, well today that pain was a lot worse.  So I decided to turn around .4 miles into the run and go back home and ice it.  Hopefully nothing a little rest and ice can't fix.  

Took it nice and easy this morning.  Groin felt a lot better than it did yesterday.  It was a little tender but it didn't get any worse throughout the run.  I will continue to ice it and will not run hard until at least Saturday.  AP:  6:51.  

The plan was to run 10 miles at 7:00 minute pace or just a little faster. Well I got into the run and the groin was feeling really good so this ended up being a good little 6 mile progressive run. The groin felt great the whole run, Yay!  Splits today were:  7:32, 7:08, 7:05, 6:12, 5:56, 5:58, 5:45, 5:34, 5:23, 6:29.   Nothing super tough or fast but a much better workout than the planned 10 at 7:00.  

We got out to the Fort Collins Colorado area late Thursday night to visit with the family of my wife's sister. I slept in a little bit and so it was quite hot on my run. I ran on dirt roads that had a lot of rolling hills. I wish I had some dirt roads to run on near my house, I really like running on dirt roads for some reason. This was a pretty good run. AP: 6:37.  

At 4:00 a.m. Penny my 6 month old woke up and after 30 minutes of trying to get her back to sleep I gave up and decided to take her on my run with me. I had been planning on doing 20 miles with hopefully 12 miles at around 5:40 pace. Needless to say I did not get the 12 miles at 5:40 pace in pushing the baby in the stroller. I did however get 20 miles in pushing the baby in the stroller on the dirt roads with lots of rolling hills. This ended up being a challenging run and I believe it was a great strength building run and strength building is what I would have been trying to accomplish with the 12 miles at 5:40 pace.  I was glad to have gotten the run in early too, because by the time I finished it was already really hot.  AP: 7:24.

Still in Colorado. Woke up early and went and played basketball with a group of guys with my brother-in-law. On the way home I had my brother-in-law drop me off at what we were guessing to be about 10 miles from his house and I ran to his house from there (I ended up having to loop around his neighborhood to make it 10). Between the basketball playing and the run I got some really good exercise in this morning. AP: 6:46  

Got home late last night. Got a late start this morning. I was feeling very tired and not loose at all. AP: 7:29

5 easy miles. Didn't get out yesterday because Penny has been sick and has had a high fever which means very little rest for me and Alisha. Got out late today for the same reason. Penny has me worried she had a temp of 104 this morning. Not too worried about the lack of running as I will get plenty of running in this weekend. I'm running on a Ragnar ultra team. My van has me, Bret Hales, and Fritz in it. We are running for the Wasatch Running Center. Should be a good time. Average pace this morning was 7:06.

Ragnar Legs 9/10 This first set of legs was by far my easiest. I just took it easy knowing what I had coming up. This was 5.97 miles with net elevation loss of 61'.  I started this run on Friday at 5:50 p.m.  AP:  5:48.  Weather was perfect for all three of my legs

Legs 21/22  Started this run on at 12:38 a.m. and finished at 2:47 a.m. it was 19.47 miles and had a net elevation gain of 515'.  My total average pace was 6:38, but I had to stop 3 times to go poop so if you took out the poop stops I averaged well under 6:30 pace.  Other than the G.I. problems I was having, I enjoyed this run.  I saw 3 shooting stars. 

Legs 33/34 (You've got to be kidding me and Ragnar)  Started this run at 8:50 a.m. and finished at 10:03 a.m. glad that I got to run this early in the day on Saturday.  This was 8.31 miles with a net elevation gain of 3188'.  This was just a relentless grind, but I went into it knowing it would be that way.  I decided not to kill myself on this run but to go out at a reasonable pace and enjoy the views and the beauty around me.  I ended up really enjoying this run and running a lot faster than I though I would.  My stomach felt great and the longer I went, the better my legs felt.  AP:  8:42.  

Overall the weekend was enjoyable and I think it was good for my training.  Great strength building stuff.  

I really enjoyed running for the Wasatch Running Center.  They hooked us up with some really nice gear.  I really liked being in the same van as Fritz and Brett Hales.  Those guys are studs!  Overall I think I enjoyed the ultra experience more than being on a normal Ragnar team. 

Payson woke up the whole house (and probably some of the neighbors) screaming for his mama this morning at 5:00 a.m. I was pretty mad at him because he woke up Penny and Mitchell. We couldn't get Penny back to sleep so I took her with me on my run this morning.  My legs felt really good.  I am really surpised at how little soreness I have after Ragnar this past weekend.  I enjoyed this run.  Penny loves going on runs with me it was really cute the huge smile she got on her face as soon as I started running and then a few miles later she was sleeping.  AP: 7:12 which is pretty darn good for being stroller miles.  

2 miles w/ strides warm-up, 8 mile tempo run, 2.06 miles cool down. For the 8 mile tempo the first 5 miles were slightly downhill and the last 3 were slightly up.  Finished a little lower than where I started so it wasn't quite honest.  AP:  5:21  Miles splits were:  5:25, 5:26, 5:25, 5:19, 5:22, 5:16, 5:19, 5:15.  This was a great workout.  I'm surprised at how strong I'm feeling these days.  Hopefully I'm not overdoing it.  

I plan on running the Murray Fun Days 5k on Friday morning hopefully I'll see some of you there. 

Good recovery run. Everything feels good. AP: 6:45

I didn't feel as good this morning. Legs were sore and tight. I went a very easy 6 miles. Hopefully my legs will be ready to race a fast 5k tomorrow. AP: 7:33.

Got up early and did 5 easy miles from my house then drove down to Murray warmed up 2 more miles did some strides then ran the Murray Fund Days 5k, then did a 2 mile cool down.  

Teran Jameson shot out to the lead early in the race followed by a group of about 5 or 6 of us.  I sat in the group for the first 1/2 mile then I felt everyone slowing down so I just kept going and went to the lead.  By the turnaround point (a little over a mile into the race) Teran and I had broken off from the rest of the pack.  Teran sat on me for the next 1/2 mile or so and then through in a big surge between around 1.75 miles in as he passed me.  I could tell the surge was meant just to make a statement as he went by me because after just a few seconds of increased speed he settled down into about the same pace we had been running.  He had about 10 meter gap on me which I closed to about a 5 meter gap with about 1/2 mile to go but then I looked back and saw that Jason Holt and Nathan Hornock were far enough back that I could just coast in for a 2nd place finish and I made a concious decision not to fight and try and get 1st but to coast in for 2nd.  I am disappointed with myself for not fighting.  I'm not sure if I could have won or not, but I definitely could have made it a better race.  I was pleased that I was able to run such a fast 5k (it was a little short)  without putting myself into too much pain.  Splits were:  4:55 (mostly uphill), 4:45 (mostly downhill), 4:54 (both up and down), and :30.  

I hadn't heard anything about Teran Jameson for a while but the guy is still a heckuva runner!

Started at the Wheeler Canyon Trail Head. Ran up Icebox Canyon to Snowbasin then did the Sardine Peak Loop. This was an awesome run. Had some stunning views, but for the most part it you're surrounded with trees, so I was covered with shade for almost the whole run. The temperature was a lot cooler up there than it was down at my house.  The only negative to this run was the amount of bike traffic I had to conted with.  For the 7.5 miles up I averaged around 9:30 pace and for the 7.5 miles down I averaged about 6:15 pace.  This might be my new favorite trail run.  

I was feeling a bit slow this morning especially at the beginning of the run.  Started feeling a bit more up to speed toward the end of the run.  AP:  7:00

2 mile warm-up w/ strides, 8 mile tempo (same course as last week), 2.06 mile cool-down. I didn't feel quite as strong as last week and my splits were all over the place, but I still managed to average 5:22 pace.  Splits were: 5:33, 5:20, 5:21, 5:24, 5:15, 5:12, 5:28, and 5:19.  It was a good workout.

On the warm-up I ran past a house where a lady was out in front with her 3 little ankle biter dogs.  As I ran by they came after me so I made the quick decision of rather than stopping and yelling and/or kicking the dogs in the head to just outrun them since I knew I could and I was ready to start my strides anyway.  Well the lady yelled at me saying, "You don't run away from dogs, you idiot!"  I was furious, her stupid dogs come running after me and rather than kicking the stupid things in the head I decide to outrun them and she calls me an idiot.  I started to yell at her and then my better judgment took over and I decided to just turn around and keep running.  The nerve of some people!

Last night I laid sod for about an hour in the 95 degree heat. I was feeling the affects of that a little bit this morning. The first 3 miles of this run were super slow and a little painful. After that I was fine. AP: 6:59.

Decided to do my long run today instead of on Saturday because I will be running a small 5k in Nephi on Saturday morning. This was another run where the farther I went the better I felt. The second half of this run was much faster than the first. Even though I got out early this morning it was still quite warm.  At the beginning of the run it was drizzling ran for a little bit.  I wish it would have continued to rain.  AP:  6:39.  

Morgan Valley Marathon finally responded to my request for a free entry today saying they don't give free entries, so I think I'm going to run the Des News 1/2 marathon that weekend instead.  I think a 1/2 marathon at that point will be better for my training anyway as my two focuses right now are the Skyline Trail Marathon and St. George Marathon.  

Went fishing with my grandpa early in the morning so I didn't get out until it was real hot outside. I didn't want to overdo anything so I just ran a little over 6 with the anticipation of running a lot of miles the next day. AP: 7:45 (There were some steep trail miles in there that brought down the average, on the flats I was below 7:00)

Ran from Levan into Nephi before the race which was 11.63 miles at an average pace of 6:50.  Then ran the ute stamped fun run 5k which actually ended up being 3.25 miles.  Then cooled down 1.27 miles.  I didn't expect any competition in this race, I just thought it would be a good one to run because we wanted to spend some time with my grandparents and we like going to the ute stampede rodeo and I knew they gave the winner free tickets to the rodeo.  I tried to give it my best effort and make a good workout of it.  Mile splits were: 5:04, 4:54, 4:54, and 1:12 for the last .25 for a final time of 16:02.  I ran the whole thing by myself and won by over 2 minutes.  I got $50.00, a $25 gas card, and 2 tickets to the rodeo so it was well worth it and a great way to get a good workout in after running almost 12 miles already before the race.  As a side note, the rodeo was awesome that night!

Between my late nights the last several nights and my heavy week last week, I was feeling it this morning. I also had to be to work earlier than normal so by the time I got out of bed I only had time to run 6. Maybe if I can get motivated enough I'll get out again tonight and run some more. I didn't get down to 7 pace until 4.5 miles into the run. Left calf is sore. AP: 7:32.  

I caught some kind of stomach bug. I have felt awful the last couple of days and have not gotten out on my runs as a consequence.

AM 9 I'm feeling better, not 100%, but much better than the last couple of days. Got out for an easy 9. Calf started hurting at about 5.5. Feels like something I will need to be cautious with. AP: 7:09.

PM 5.  Staying at a cabin with my wife's family up Tollgate Canyon (inbetween Rockport and Park City).  Decided to double because of missing a couple of days of training due to being sick.  My calf did not feel good at all during this run.  The run was all up and down on the dirt roads around the cabin.  Iced the calf earlier that day and afte the run I sat in the hot tub for a little bit.  I think it was actually the hot tub that helped it start feeling better.  AP:  7:47.  

Plan was to do 10 but with the difficulty of the terrain (still up at the cabin) and the plan to race hard the next day I decided to cut it short and only did 7.58. Calf was feeling much better on this run. AP: 8:20 (felt much harder).

Got there really early because I wasn't sure how long it was going to take to get there from the cabin and I wanted to at least run the course as a warm up before the race.  So I got the course in and then added on a little longer getting 4.13 miles in total for a warm up.  Then I did some strides and got to the start line.  My calf was feeling a lot better I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it felt.  

My race plan was to stick right on Teran for as long as I could and then try to outkick him if I was still with him.  So he went out a little slower than most expected and there was a group of 6 or 7 of us at the mile mark as we came through in about 4:53.  Then Teran and I took off running shoulder to shoulder and the 2nd mile was a 4:39.  I'm not sure how much we gapped the group but I couldn't feel anybody near us by the time we reached the 2nd mile marker.  Then I got a little impatient and went to the lead.  Teran sounded like he was struggling (grunting and such) so I tried to break him but he stuck right on back of me.  He came around me making a big push as we turned onto the trail.  I couldn't match his move and he got maybe 15 meters on me.  At about 2.8 I looked back and saw that Jason Holt wasn't far back.  I know how hard Jason finishes races, so I knew I needed to get moving if I wanted to hold on for 2nd.  Saw I got rolling again and I started to make up good ground on Teran.  It got me excited and I thought that I might be able to get him.  When I got to within 5 meters (about 100 meters left in the race) he turned and saw me and he had another gear that he switched into.  He got me by just under 3 seconds.  I felt better about this race than the Murray Fun Days 5k because I felt like I fought harder.  

After the race it was good to get 4 miles in with Josh E., Fritz, Jason Holt, and Nate Hornock and his brother for part of it.  Then I added on another 1.25 miles on my own for good measure.  

I would really like to beat Teran one of these days.  He is one heckuva fighter.  

Payson woke up screaming at 11:30 p.m. His screaming woke up Penny. It didn't take too much effort to get Payson back to sleep, but Penny did not want to go back to sleep. At 1:30 a.m. I took her for a drive because that usually puts her to sleep. Well she was quiet until I got back home then she woke up again and was screaming.  So since I was already awake and I didn't want to wake up at 5:30 which is what I had my alarm set for, I decided to take her on my run with me.  We started at about 2:00 a.m.  I did 11 miles with her in the middle of the night.  She was alseep before I hit the first mile and stayed alseep after I got home so that was the good news and I got to sleep in 'til 7:10, but I was up from 11:30 to 3:30.  When I got home both Payson and Mitchell were in my bed with Alisha so I got to go sleep on Payson's bed.  Not a fun night.  Just part of the joys of being the father of 3 small children I guess.  The run felt good though.  Stroller miles.  AP:  7:17

Easy run with 8x100 meter strides throughout the run.  I did the first stride at mile 1.5, then 2.5, then 3.5, etc.  Other than a little stiffness in my left calf, I felt really good this morning.  This is the best  I have felt in a couple of weeks.  Excited to race on Thursday!  AP:  6:40.  

Easy race day eve 6-miler. AP: 7:10.

Woke up at 3:10 and made my way down to Salt Lake.  On my way down I ate a bowl of frosted mini wheats and had a banana and drank a lot of my powerade.  When I got to the buses at Rice Eccles it was 88 degrees outside so I decided I better drink as much as I could between then and when the race started.  Just sitting on the bus waiting for it to pull out it felt like I was in an oven.  It was a weird morning with it being hotter at 6:00 a.m. then it was at 10:00 a.m. 

I did a 3 mile warm-up going up the canyon rather than down.  Then did 4 strides right before the start of the race.  My plan was to shoot for around 5:00 minute miles but right before the race started I changed my mindset to being okay with 5:05's because of the heat and the wind.  

The race started with some kid that looked like he was a high school kid going to the lead.  He did pretty well for about 1.5 miles then I didn't see him again.  Brett was up on me about 10 meter after 1 mile and about 20 after 2 miles and Jason was halfway in between us.  I think I caught up to Jason at about the 2 mile marker.  Jason and I ran together for the next 3 miles or so.  I was hoping to work with Jason because of the wind and I let him go by me so I could draft off him, but I could tell it wasn't his day.  It seemed like he was laboring quite a bit at that point already and we weren't going as fast as I wanted to be going so just a minute after talking to him about working together through the wind, I decided to take off and go it alone, feeling bad about ditching him right after I had talked to him about working together, but knowing if I was going to have a good race I needed to keep going at a decent clip.  

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful Brett had between 100 and 200 meters on me at the 5 mile mark and that didn't change a lot over the next 8.1 miles.  There were a couple times where I lessoned the gap and thought I might have a shot at catching back up to him, but I never really came that close to him.  I went out conservatively because I always race better when I go out consevertavily, but with the wind this may have been one of those races where I should've just tucked in behind Brett and let him pull me to a good race.  

I felt really good most of the race.  I didn't hurt really bad until the last mile so I think for running by myself I ran a good pace.  I just wonder if it would have been close to the same effort despite going a little faster if I would have gone with Brett from the start.   Towards the end of the race I had no idea how far back Jason was but I did not feel his presence at all so I felt pretty comfortable.   

I left my watch on auto splits so these splits are a little faster than they really were as my watch measured the course at 13.48 miles because it alwasy measure the miles a little short, but my splits per my watch were:  4:55, 4:54, 4:57, 5:09, 5:00, 5:04, 4:55, 5:02, 4:48, 5:08, 4:56, 4:57, 5:12, 2:42.  

Overall, given the conditions, I was thrilled with this race.  Going in knowing Brett was in the race I knew my chances of winning were slim to none.  I knew there were going to be some other great runners so I would be extremely fortunate to come in 2nd place.  I was hoping to go low 1:06, but I know that it was a lot slower this year because of the heat and wind and 1:07:38 is still a big aided half marathon personal best.  I have closed the gap on Brett as he beat me by 2:35 in the Salt Lake Half and 2:13 in the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon.  He only beat me by :54 in this one (granted he didn't have anyone pushing him).  

After the race I did 2 laps on the bark chip trail around Liberty Park which amounted to about 3 miles.

It was great seeing some familiar faces at the finish line and to get to catch up with some of you.  Given the conditions I was sure glad I didn't choose to run the marathon.  There is no way I would have been anywhere near Fritz in that race.   

Started earlier than planned and as a result ran more mile than planned. Penny was up at 5:20 and it was definitely my turn to get up with her as Alisha had already been up a few times with the kids. I was going to take her for a drive, but I figured by the time I got home I wouldn't have time to climb back into bed anyway, so I just took her on my run with me.  I ran at a snail pace today the first few mile were especially painful.  As would be expected I was very sore from the fast downhill pace of the race yesterday.   Mostly lower back pains and upper legs (glutes, hamstrings, and quads were all sore)  little stiffness in the calves but not too bad.  Stroller miles AP:  8:11.  I think this is the first time it has ever taken me 1:30 to run 11 miles, but it's also the first time I have run 11 miles pushing a stroller the day after a hard half marathon. 

I was able to run a little faster this morning. I took Penny again this morning so this was another stroller run. I really like watching her cute little smiles at the beginning of the run and then her sweet, innocent, sleeping face in the latter stages of the run. AP:  7:27

Later that morning I took the whole family on a little hike to a water fall from North Fork.  It's only .4 miles each way and not strenuous at all, but my boys loved it and it was great to get out in the mountains with the whole fam.  

First 3 miles I was still feeling really sore, but after 3 I was able to get in my groove. It felt good to be able to roll at faster than 6:35 pace for the last several miles. AP: 6:50

I decided to wait one more day before doing the 8 mile tempo run I had planned on doing just to make sure I was fully recovered from the Des News Half. I will tempo tomorrow and then add some kind of speed work into my long run on Saturday. This morning I felt really good. AP: 6:34

2 mile warm-up with strides, 8 mile tempo, 2.05 mile cool-down. I ran this on the same 8 mile course that I have done my last few 8 miles tempos on. It is a pretty flat course that is not quite honest.  I finish just slightly lower than the start.  Today I had an awesome run.  The weather was perfect and I was feeling good.  I haven't done this workout for several weeks because of all the racing I have been doing, but I was hoping to do it a little faster than the last couple of times where I averaged 5:21 pace.  So I was hoping for around a 5:18 average.  Well I did a lot better than expected.  My total time was 41:39 so a 5:12.5 average.  Mile splits were:  5:13, 5:08, 5:09, 5:13, 5:12, 5:11, 5:22, and 5:10.  That 7th mile was rough but other than that I felt very strong this morning.  Workouts like these ones are what make me love running.  I love to see progress and to make jumps.  I really believe that this workout is a good indicator that I am progressing.  

I felt a lot better than I thought I would this morning.  It only took 1 mile to get going.  AP:  6:41. 

Super rough night with the kiddos.  Got about 4-5 hours of sleep so I ended up sleeping in, hoping I might find time later in the day to get a run in, but it didn't happen.  

Ran from my house up 6000 S to the Rio Grande Rail Trail.  Took the Rail Trail all the way to Gentile Street in West Layton then turned around and came home.  This is the first time I have gone that far on the rail trail.  I won't do it again.  The Syracuse Trail is a lot less boring for a 20 mile run.  The workout ended up being a tough one.  I took about 7 miles to build up to a tin man pace and then I maintened a tin man pace til the end of the run. I should've started the run a lot earlier.  I started at about 8:00 and by the end it felt really hot.  I ended up getting dehydrated because I didn't carry any water with me and I let myself overheat.  I didn't take my temperature, but I think I let my core body temperature get a lot higher than I should have.  I did not feel well at all for most of the day that day.  This is also the first time I have ever had white stuff foaming from my arm pits.  I'm not sure what that means, but it had me a little nervous.  The positive part of this run is that my legs felt strong the whole way and I maintened a good pace especially for the last 13 miles.  Mile splits were:  7:09, 7:10, 6:53, 6:40, 6:37, 6:15, 6:08, 5:45, 5:35, 5:26, 5:50, 5:46, 5:45, 5:58, 6:12, 5:50, 5:45, 5:45, 5:51, 5:48.  

I was very glad when I finally got home and I downed a 32 oz powerade and about 100 more ounces of water within a couple of hours of finishing.  I also took a cold shower to get my core temperatures down.  I just hope I didn't do more damage than good with this one.  

Almost every night for the past few weeks we have had sleeping issues with the kiddos. I'm quite literally getting tired of it. Last night was no exception. I managed to get up though and after a couple of miles I woke up. Legs are still feeling really good. Mentally I'm starting to feel a little burned out between the lack of sleep and the hard workouts.  I'm excited that next week I will get to taper as it will be a big race week.  AP:  6:52.