A clydesdale no more!

It's amazing how much easier it is to run when the weather is nice.  My hands were cold but everything else felt good.  Left the condo and headed west.  Stumbled across some trails so thought I would explore.  Turned out to be the Bear Claw Poppy trails (I think that is what it was called).  It was a nice and quiet area and the trails were fun to run on.  When I was going up hill I almost fell a couple of times and realized that the "pop" that I felt last week when I was moving a tv was probably a hernia.  I'll have to keep an eye on it.

My kids talked me into staying in St. George an extra day (I'm such a pushover).  After skipping yesterday's run, I couldn't miss another day so I woke up got in a couple of hours of work then headed out the door.  Ran up Dixie Drive until I found a bike path and followed that for a few miles.  It dumped out onto a road that looked very familiar to me.  As I approached I realized that it was the marathon course right before you get into St. George.  I was hit with a flood of memories (pun intended).  That is the point where my legs started to burn and feel out of energy and Rhett, Paul and Matt started to pull away before I got my second wind.  It was a reminder of the reasons why I run races.  It felt good and made the rest of the run a lot easier.  After the run, I took the kids to the Chuckwalla trail for a little hiking and playing on the rocks.

Happy Birthday to Emma and Gracie!  My girls are 7 years old today.  

The temperature was perfect for running this morning.  I guess another storm is coming in so I have to enjoy the good weather days when we have them.  Other than some tightness in my hamstrings, everything felt really good.  I am starting to question my self diagnosis of a hernia.  It hasn't bothered me for a few days and I only notice it when I go up stairs or a steep hill.  Maybe it's just a strain.

Cold and rainy.  A perfect day for an easy run.  I was really tempted to skip the run this morning and it took a couple of miles for me to start enjoying the run but I'm glad I got out.

My legs felt dead today - very strange.  I'm not sure what the deal was.  Pretty uneventful run except I came as close to getting hit by a car as I ever have.  A car on a cross street was turning right and didn't bother looking to the right.  She stopped and I thought she saw me so I continued through the street.  She started her turn and never did notice me.  Luckily I was paying attention and was able to jump out of the way.  She missed me by no more than 3 inches.

Drove to the LPT to meet the running club.  Got there early and put in 3 miles before the club run.  Ran 7.6 miles with Trevor who always makes me run faster than I want.  I accidentally left my watch at home but I believe we ran the 7.6 miles in 54 minutes.  The last couple of miles took more work than they should have.  I really felt out of shape.  It was a good run, though and I felt good after the run was over.  My feeling is that my lack of weekend long runs has really affected my endurance.  We all went to the Paradise Bakery afterward but I had to leave early to coach my son's soccer practice.  Unfortunately, we were the only ones that showed up at the practice.  We don't have the most dedicated team.