Joe's Running Blog

Ran to the top of "Big Hill" and back. Tough and steep incline, and lots of Wyoming wind. One of those runs you're glad when you're done. Actually, I can't think of a run that I'm NOT glad when I'm done.

Airport and back run. Cool crisp run, had to hustle because AnnMarie graduates this afternoon from Weber State with her Bachelor's of Nursing. So is she now a bachelor? I hope not. I'm proud of her and all the hard work she's put into it, it seems like she's been going to school for quite some time. Woo hoo!

Ran to the "west side" with AnnMarie. I let her set the pace, and toward the end of the  run she commented we/she probably started off too fast. Busy day today, we will be excavating for our home, moving lots and lots of dirt, but also burning some deadfall, and cleaning up lots of schtick that's on the property we're building on here in Cokeville. My sister & brother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law are also in town with their kids to help out. Hopefully we can get done what we need to.

Ran with the team for 10 minutes, then on my own for the rest. Decided to check out the poison creek road, and besides the coyotes howling like made, it was a pleasant run. We got most of the "dirty work" done for the footings and foundation, am hoping to have the footings done early this week and the foundation going by the end of the week. It's coming along, and having some family in town helped out too. I'm hoping to get another run in tonight, 5 or 6 miles would be nice. It's going to be tough to juggle work, building a home, and running for the next month, but I think I can do it if I drag my carcass outta bed in the morning and run in the evening instead of watch a movie with my wife while eating ice cream and/or cookies.

No run today. Woke up with a nasty sore throat and just overall feeling of garbage. In the evening, a bunch of community members gathered at the house two doors down from us to clean up what was left from a house-destroying fire on 4-26-08. So I hope the running gods will bless me for doing a good deed for my neighbor.

6 miles in the morning, it was fairly pleasant--almost 40 degrees, and apart from Montezuma's Revenge plaguing me for a couple miles, I enjoyed the run. Am definitely concerned about the marathon coming up, and my current level of fitness, which isn't much.

Helped finish the clean up on the burned-down house two doors down, what a mess! At least they'll be able to rebuild a new home soon. Out.

Solid airport run. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and I'm fairly tired as I write this, but it was a good run to get done for the day. Looks like more rain to come, but I will try to squeeze in another run this evening.

Missed yesterday's run, but made it out the door early for a combo road/trail run. Headed out Smith's Fork Hwy until the Pine Creek turn off, then turned around and stayed on SFH until it met up with the Sheep Trail Road. No jokes about anything to do with sheep. There are NO sheep on the sheep trail road! Anyhow, the STR is a mean, uphill bugger that taxes me everytime I run it. Turned east and headed for the landfill, and saw probably 100-150 deer just getting up for their morning cup o' joe. Cruised the downhill from the landfill, and cruised back home. Solid run with good results, I hope. Casper marathon is way too close, and I need to get a couple good long runs in before then.

I summoned the courage to attempt a "hard" workout, one that was tied to a watch, a distance, and a standard. I decided to try 4x1 mile with anywhere from a 1/2 mile to full mile jog recovery. The wind picked up early in the afternoon and really howled for most of the afternoon and into the evening. Finally about 8:15 it calmed down enough, and I made it out the door to see just how far out of shape I really was. Jogged a 1/2 mile warm up, then took off toward the east, running on main street here in Cokeville. I definitely get some strange looks, running on Sunday in a largely LDS community where everyone knows everyone. Oh well, come June 8th it will only matter if I'm in shape or not, it won't matter which days I trained on. Others may disagree...

Anyhow, back to my sluggish workout: My goal was to run 5:20s or better, which at 6300 feet is worth more than a few seconds. After a few feeble attempts at stretching, I took off.  I felt like I was sprinting, and when I approached the 1/4 mile mark, I was a bit dismayed to see 1:22. Too slow. WAY too slow. I attempted to pick up the pace, and apart from the taste of pennies in my mouth and my head feeling like it was going to explode, I felt great. Time at 1 mile: 5:19. Whew, maybe I can salvage this after all. 5:19 for the second, 5:16 for the 3rd, and 5:15 for the last. I seemed to get stronger as the workout wore on. Make no mistake, I was working my tail off, and I can feel the "new fat" that Sasha eloquently described last summer. But with each good workout, with each run, I get a little closer to being in better shape. I think one of my strengths is that my body responds quickly to stress, so the plan is to do the same workout in 7-10 days and see where I'm at after 4 repeats of one mile, and keep going if I can.

woke up yesterday to 2 inches of snow, and it seems that snow is enough of a motivation-killer that I don't make it out the door. Oh well, I'll probably regret it the last 6 miles of the Casper Marathon...

This morning held no new snow, just the chill from 25 degrees. Total of 5 miles on the Smith's Fork Hwy. Need to get another run in tonight.

Made it out for another run, headed to the west side. Felt like a "runner", not just a meatball rolling along like I have for months. Excited for the O-town marathon this weekend, I'll be helping my friend Nate Wilcox in his attempt to break 3:30. Should be fun, if only a bit warm.

I don't know if I should call today's miles "easy", but they definitely were slow enough that if anyone saw me running, they would probably say it looked like I was taking it easy. I pushed Myles in the jogging stroller, and between one flat/low wheel and my overall fatigue, it was a grueling 6 miles. Glad to have it done.

Tough time getting outta bed this morning, but I managed to get 5 miles in, out to the west side and back. Nothing too exciting, but glad to get something done. Hoping to get another run in tonight. Heading to Provo early tomorrow morning to watch two of my former high school athletes run in the state championships--George Barlow and Angela Baker of Weber High. They'll be in the 1600 tomorrow morning. I hope they end their high school careers with fast races; George will be continuing at BYU this fall and Angela at UVSC/UVU. I'm proud of them.

No running today, but I watched George Barlow and Angela Baker--both from Weber High--run in the finals of the 1600 meter run at the Utah State 5A championships. They both did well, Angela clocked 5:20 and George 4:22. I'm proud of them both and was glad I got a final chance to watch them perform. Drove clear out to Vernon to look at some trusses/rafters for our garage we're planning for as we build our new home here in Cokeville. I found the trusses on KSL.com classifieds, and if you haven't been to Vernon, it's way the hay bales west of Eagle Mountain. Way west. Like almost Wendover-west. anyhow, I think the trusses will work, and the price is right, too.

Marathon tomorrow, hoping Nate can break 3:30.

Ran O-town Marathon today with Nate Wilcox. Like the other entries on the blog, I felt the temp would be a factor. Not cold enough at the starting line. Gave me flashbacks to Chicago Marathon last October. Anyhow, it was a different feeling, knowing I wouldn't be running for myself, but rather as a one-man peloton or "sherpa", as Nate would call it. Turns out that Eric Randall--one of my former student-athletes, and Steven Sessions, husband of one of my former student-athletes, ran with nate and myself for several miles. Eric would be ahead of us by 7 miles and went on to a fantastic race of 3:27. Steven, in his first marathon, looked great and was with Eric for several miles afther they pulled away from nate/me, then I saw Steven again at 16 or so miles. He indicated his achilles were in serious pain, and I tried to ease him down the canyon and escort him to the finish. He made it in 3:54. Back to Nate's race...

By 1/2 way, we were only 2:30 down from 3 hours, 30 min, but I could sense that it would be a battle of survival the last 10 or so miles. We continued on at about 8:30 or so from 14-19 miles, then the struggle began. Steven and nate's stride continued to deteriorate, but they kept a positive attitude and kept pushing. By the time we got out of the canyon, we were slowing significantly and feeling the effects of the heat. Steven began to pull ahead a little, I stayed with Nate and encouraged him home. He finished in 3:56, not what he was shooting for, but not a bad time either. I was proud of him for sticking it out and keeping a positive outlook for what was basically a too-hot day to run a marathon. It was a different experience running in the middle of the pack, but I'd do it again if I was asked.

No running today, I'm more sore than I thought I'd be, but I suppose that's going to happen when a person runs for four hours, no matter the pace. An interesting thought came to me since the marathon: does a person experience more muscle trauma running a 4 hour marathon or 2:30? I don't have a concrete answer.

Easy morning run. My legs are still quite sore from Saturday, so today was an easy run.

Ran past the airport and back. The last 5 minutes were definitely a reminder of the marathon I ran on saturday. I'm stoked for Casper, though I know I'm not in as good of shape as I'd like to be.

Easy run this morning in the chilling rain. Need to get another run in tonight. Nothing special about today's run. 

Solid run this morning out on the west side. Cloudy, foggy, but no rain, so it made for nice running weather. I can still feel the effects of the Ogden Marathon in my legs, which isn't surprising when I consider I was out there for nearly 4 hours, regardless of the pace. I think I might be okay for Casper, as long as my legs are rested. The plan for here on out is 40-50 minute runs with one or two 60-70 minute runs.

Okay, following Paul Petersen's lead, I'm going to enter my "cross-training" workout, and even though I didn't run today, I got one heck of a workout. We're working on our new home, and today's menu included putting up four window wells. While that may not seem like much of a workout, my task included using the hammer drill to bore holes for the anchor bolts which hold the window wells. If any of you have used a hammer drill, they're nice to have around. If you've used a hammer drill with a 1/2" drill bit, you know that it's WORK. Anyhow, by the end of the day, I was beat like a rented mule.

Ran to the mouth of Pine Creek Resort and back this morning. It felt good to get in a long solid run, and it was even nice that I had a brand new iPOD from good friend Nate Wilcox. He paid us a surprise visit Friday, and bore gifts. Not of frankincense and myrhh, but of a much more usable form. In return, I granted unto him 4 seedling Colorado Blue Spruce trees. He is a tree lover like AnnMarie and I, so I know he'll value them. Anyhow, today has been more work at the house, yes on Sunday, but it needs to be done. Backfill, move some scrap metal, knock down that ratty barn-shed, and stockpile more topsoil to put on top of the fill dirt we need to haul in.

Bummer that I missed both Monday and Tuesday's run. Monday rained the entire day, and though there are those who would not let a little water slow down a run, I decided to call it part of my taper for Casper marathon and not run. Additionally, Myles has not been sleeping through the night very well, and I've woke up several times with him to try to get him to go back to sleep. Finally, we decided it would be better for me to sleep with him in his bed than have him continually try to come in and sleep with AnnMarie and me. There is no such thing as sound sleep when sharing a twin-sized bed with a two year old, so both Monday morning and Tuesday morning I woke up feeling on the verge of having a cold. so no run.

However, this morning proved relatively uneventful, and I made it out the door for 7.5 miles. Ran down to check on the bonfire we started last night on our property where we're building, then out towards the airport. Felt pretty good, I sure liked cruising with the tunes from my new iPOD from Nate Wilcox.