A Balance, Redefined

In lab at 6am and one set-up before heading out the door. The way out was rough into 18mph winds with 32mph gusts and sleet. However, after the turnaround it was pleasant as the sleet turned to snow and the wind helped push me along. With about a mile to go I ran into Chad and after we picked each other up I apologized and we continued on our way. Actually, we just stopped and chatted very briefly. Avg. 8:13 HR 141

Tough night. Kristen had been getting into a routine. It still wasn't ideal but overall we were getting used to it. However, last night was brutal. Not sure if she is getting the cold her sister and mom just had but she was up 3 times in the first two hours. Then down for two hours before getting up from 1:30-3am... Then she was done for only an additional two hours before up again though I was already getting ready for work. So zombie commuter run. The fatigue could definitely be seen in my HR and felt in my knee. Avg. 9:26 HR 156

So far a much better start to the weekend. I actually managed 7hrs of sleep and Kristen must have tired herself out the night before as she only woke up once during that time and continued to sleep after I left for work to give Sandra some well deserved rest.
I was running about an hour behind though as I had given myself an extra hour on the alarm clock to compensate for the night before. The run went well. My legs are starting to feel like they have a little strength again. It is sad to think that at this time last year I was doing 2X3mi as a workout at <5:45 pace but at least I'm running again. I have a long way to go before I compete again but this week has really made me think that I will get there. Just one day at a time... Avg. 7:35 no HR.

Probably could put down 8hrs of sleep but with two wakeups I rounded

down. I think I'm now fighting the cold that my wife and daughter had

as my entire body was achy. That being said it was a good morning for a

run. Mid-40s F w/ little to no wind and a slight drizzle/snow the whole

way. My knee acted up a little but I think that was fatigue more than

anything. Last nights rest helped. Today marks my longest run since St.

George and my longest week since the first week of Sept... I saw four deer during the run and ran 1+ miles with "Jason" a 40yr old that has done 34 marathons and 4 IronMan races. I just realized I told him I've done 10 marathons when I've only done 9... The pace the whole way was slow but today was more about seeing a 50 in my weekly total again. Avg. 8:16 HR 145

Nothing special. Knee is sore this morning. Kind of a bummer... We'll see what happens this week. Avg. 7:58 HR 139

Overall a much better start to the day. Knee still a little sore but not the same sharp pain I felt yesterday. I think I'm being cautious but... The rest of yesterday went well and we even managed a family walk as the temp got nearly to 60F. The night was restless, however not because of the baby. She did wake up but I never heard her. I did manage to wake up three times on my own though?!? In to work by 5:30am and out the door to enjoy my first run into City Creek this year. It was enjoyable to run along the creek again, even if it is only for half a mile by the time I get down there. On the way back it was nice to watch the sun rise over the snow covered mountains. I was just coming down into Dry Creek when the first rays broke over shining on the peaks near Mt Olympus. Avg. 8:12 HR 143

A little slower this morning, getting going for sure. Commute run into work. Instead of going down 2 miles to SH and then up 4 miles to lab, I did up 2 miles toward Suicide Rock and then down 3 miles before going up the last mile. Overall, this route is easier on my body as I get the warm-up miles on the tougher part of the course. Avg. 8:11 no HR.

Well two City Creek runs in one week. It is like I’m back to my old routines… I just hope that I get to enjoy more than the ½ mile stretch that an 8 mi run can afford me soon. Probably not until a weekend run or another month goes by. Knee still tight but not bad like on Sunday. Sleep ok. Work stress is building again but I took last night off and that helped some. Well back to it. Avg. 7:48 HR 148

Cold and rainy out so I opted for the treadmill. Knee about the same so I just kept it at the same pace and got the miles in. Avg. 8 HR 134

Nothing too special. Knee pretty sore. Fairly productive day. Looking forward to Easter Weekend. Just the FH out and back from work Avg. 7:44.

Today was one of those days that reminded me why I run. Now don't get me wrong my knee was still achy and I didn't go fast but I really enjoyed the time out. We had an Easter Egg Hunt early so I got up at my normal weekday time and had to go into lab to set something up. The good news was I then drove to Popperton and ran to and up City Creek from there. I actually saw a lot of people on the road to the canyon but once in it I only saw one runner coming out and one hiker all the way up. The creek was extra loud with all the snow runoff. I made it all the way up to the snow. It was great seeing the mountains covered and making my way up over 6500ft. Exactly at the 6 mile mark the plowing stopped and I "ran" the last 1/2 mile to my turnaround point in ankle to knee high snow. It was slow going but I made it far enough up the trail that the only other prints in the snow were some hooved animal. That mile up/down was >12 min. The rest of the run I tried to take it easy. My goal was to not let myself go faster than 7min pace on the way down. It was tougher than I thought especially because the way down I started seeing tons of people. However, I kept it there and my fastest mile (the one with the most people) was 7:15. Overall, my knee doens't hurt worse than before I started so I'm counting it as a success. I even got my data from my experiment (it worked!) and made it home in time to get my daughter ready for the hunt. She managed to snag 6 eggs and pet a real bunny. Avg. 8:16 HR 145

Happy Easter. What a wonderful morning for a run. Out early so as to get it done before the festivities. Saw two deer and two other runners. Knee the same. Avg. 8:39 HR 133

I stayed up a little too late last night/this morning. But I finally got my manuscript draft to my boss. I've been struggling with writers block and this thing for a couple months. I decided the extra hour of sleep was worth it so I got into work a little later than normal. I decided though that I had worked enough over the weekend and also came home a little early so that I could run Kaitlyn down to SH. Avg. 8:04 HR 141

6.5 continuous hrs of sleep. That is always nice. The day was a beautiful spring day meaning it was mid-50s F and rained on my the entire run. Much more of a drizzle and actually felt pretty good. I did a new loop from work, past Chad's up Memory Grove and then did about 1.5 miles of trails before hitting the road to finish things off. Both of the miles that included trail portions were slower than 9min otherwise a pretty nice (EASY) pace. Avg. 8:43 HR 141

Well another day being reminded why I should run. Bad news is my daughter was up a good portion of last night. Good news is my wonderful wife took care of her and I didn’t even know about it until this morning. I got into work early and it was raining. I was planning on setting up one thing and heading out. I decided to set up three things and I’m glad I did. By the time I finally got out the door it was snowing! So I decided to run up the not so Dry Creek. It was just amazing, the snow, the water running down the creek. Despite the water logged feet the run was great. Of course it was slow in the mud and snow and climbing (fasted mile, 9:08) but it was still great. I was so tempted to keep going but am sticking to plan. A couple weekends ago when my mileage started picking up I planned my weekly mileage through the rest of the year. I did this for two reasons. 1. I wanted to think about training and 2. Before I was fully healthy I wanted to lay down a “sensible” plan. So I should not hit 60mpw until the first week in June and I won’t hit 80mpw until the first week in January. I will adjust but only down if pain. Even with the apparently conservative mileage if I keep to it the total mileage for TOU (18wk prior) will still be in my top three for any marathon. Knee about the same. Avg. 9:57 HR 136

Where start. I drafted a pretty lengthy entry in my head during the run but due to time constraints this is what you get. Up at 4:40am and couldn’t (didn’t want to try) to go back to sleep for the extra 30 min so I just headed straight into work. I worked until about 7am then out the door for my run. It is funny that the other day one of the excuses that I gave Kory for not running on flatter courses around here is that most are boring. However, I tend to run the same or very similar courses every day. Then when I do find a new course I run it to death as well, speaking of which I ran my new Chad/MG/Work loop. I even saw Chad this morning on it… I was so lost in my thoughts though I almost ran past him. This time I didn’t get off the trail in MG like I did last time so it was an easier loop. Avg. 8:07 HR 144

It is amazing how different children can be. For the most part we are treating the two girls the same. However, Kristen really has a different idea about sleep. We had three great nights but the last three have been very hard, all three for Sandra but only last night for me. I was up from ~2:45-4:15... I still managed to wake-up at my "normal" 5am and get into lab. Got stuff going until about 7:15 when I headed out for my run. It went well. Even with the fatigue my legs were feeling pretty good. Also, the weather (though upper 30s) felt nice. I hit the FH mile at 6:07 everything else was my now typical jogging. Looking forward to a good weekend (and hopefully some sleep for Sandra). Happy Friday! Avg. 7:39 HR 154

The day started out right with Kristen sleeping her longest stretch since she was born, 9hrs! A welcome surprise to both of her parents who were at their wits end after the previous three nights. Got up a little later and get dressed to go out to cheer on the runners. Started to go up to Foothill when I released the course was changed to run down 22^nd instead. It cuts out the fastest mile but also cuts out one of the slower miles. Only problem is they make up for it at the end.
Stood around talking to Scott. Saw one of my colleagues on her training run, Robin. Then the runners started coming. Waited only for a few of them and then headed to SH, with the course change I was going to be hard pressed to beat any down. Luckily they make a loop of the park first so I was able to see at least the full marathon leaders on their way back out. I missed the half leaders at that point. Runners I was able to cheer on included Sasha, Jeff Mc, Albert Wint, Steve A, James M and others. I waited longer than I should have and then continued down 21^st. I cut back across and joined the half-marathoners.
I started running with this one guy Eric (BYU student) and just paced him through their 11 mile mark, and then he told me to go ahead. I should have known I’d have no self control with all the excitement going on around me. I caught up to and started pacing two other guys (never got their names) and took them through their 12.9 mile mark then peeled off to go look for the finishers. Didn’t catch many. Saw the guy Eric and he thanked me, I told him he should join the blog and then I headed home.
I had mistakenly thought I would be home by 9am. I saw Walter and briefly said hi. Then I saw James and Sasha doing their cool down and going to back to look for Jeff who was running the full. I joined them for about a mile. Then they stopped when the leader passed to let know Jeff know how far back he was while I continued up the hill home. I didn’t see Jeff. Not sure if I missed him or what. In any case I ended up running one extra mile today (not the end of the world) and getting home half an hour late (not a problem either as Sandra knows if it is a race or “one” more experiment in lab I never judge my time correctly).
After a good stretch we started family fun and that was the rest of the day, shopping and a 2+ mile walk in the beautiful spring weather followed by a grilled dinner eaten outside.
Running details, finally: The first nine miles I pushed harder than I should have but didn’t even look at the Garmin splits and was just going by feel. My breathing never got hard. My HR went up there but the breathing was controlled. My second mile was very quick as I was trying to get the park, 5:51 fastest in a while. I also had two 6:11 mixed in there. First nine miles were at a 6:26 average with an “easy” effort. The remaining miles were slow either talking with people or making the climb back up to 22^nd East. Total Avg. 7:17 HR 161

Overall, happy with the experience. Always fun to go and cheer on friends and it was motivational. Good to know my legs are still attached to my body and aren’t too worse for the wear after the abuse today. Plan is still to take it easy until June with no “real” racing until July. Still struggling with if Des 10K is the right race back, all that downhill on a bad knee???

Great job to all.

Typical Sunday morning run. Up early to get done before the family wakes up. The weather was cool but nice. Good news is that even with the harder miles yesterday my knee wasn't more sore. Still the usual tightness but it seems like that is how it is going to be. Overall I just took it very easy. I don't want to push my luck and I want to focus more on maintaining "ok" mileage rather than speed at this point. Avg. 9:04 HR 128 

After two nights of great sleep last night was a wreck. Very tired now. Luckily I had to run into work so there was no skipping out on the run. Easy commuter run first up Foothill and back toward campus. Avg. 9:15 HR 132

More of a death march really. Luckily it appears that the previous night was a fluke as the sleep went back to normal last night. But I still feel wiped from the poor sleep before.
Today will be a full day with meetings in the afternoon. Another commuter run, today I did an extended south loop before heading in. Avg. 9:24 HR 138

The meeting yesterday went well. My mentor is always so optimistic it is hard to come out of a meeting with him with anything but a need head of steam pushing me forward.

Last night I tried to go to sleep an hour earlier so that I could catch up on my sleep. Problem is that I woke up two hours before my alarm. After laying there for an hour staring at the wall both my daughter and then wife also woke up. So I ended up getting out of bed with them and then made my wife a snack while my daughter had hers, ate breakfast and into lab early, 4:45am. Set-up my first experiment for the day and then went for my run. With Saturday having been a better run than I expected I wanted to push a run this week and decided today was the day. So after 1mi warm-up I started the accelerator. I did not look at my Garmin once during the next two miles. When it beeped the second time I looked and the splits were 5:42 and 5:13. Keep in mind this are both net downhill miles with the second one being the FireHouse mile. Overall, I’m happy with my progress. My knee was definitely upset with me about this but there will be at least another week until I do something like this again. Avg. 7:21 HR 165

Sleep was a little better. I was wiped last night but I guess a total of 13hr of work will do that to you. Most of yesterday was also just meetings (I was not the agenda) we had two visiting speakers so between their seminars, lunch, etc. I also slept in an extra half an hour. I did a new run this morning. I was planning on 8 but misjudged. Still I good course. From my house down to Memory Grove then up back to campus. The majority of the first 5mi is downhill with the majority of the up in mile 6 on a zig-zagging ramp. Avg. 8:50 HR 153

Stroller miles in the PM. Today was "one of those days". When I run in the morning I normally just go into work in my running outfit and change after my shower. That was my plan for today. But I misjudged one thing and that kept me from getting an hour window the rest of the day. Instead I just went home an hour early and ran Kaitlyn to SH and took a longer way back. I pushed it on the way back and pushing a stroller up hill is a real workout. Avg. 7:31 HR 150

Up early to get my stuff done before the family woke up. Tried going past Starbucks at 5:45 to see if I would run into Chad and his group but no one was there. So I continued on toward Memory Grove again. I took a slightly different route there. It rained (45F) the whole way there but by the time I started up the canyon the rain had stopped. I continued to about 1 mile past the City Creek gate house just in time to see the sun break through the clouds over Black Mountain before making my way back out. At the bottom a group of ~10+ "runner" looking guys came flying down on the dirt path to my south. They were really moving. I asked one if it was a race and he said sort of. Then once to the top of the City Creek out look I ran into a truck setting up cones marking a 5K course. Finally on my way back down Foothill Dr to home I saw the 11-mile mark for the Hometown heroes training runs. Definitely a lot of running going on this morning. Knee was sore after this one but nothing worse than it has been. Next week I will front load my mileage as I'm traveling and I don't know how much running I will get in. Avg. 8:29 HR 139

So much for my best laid plans. Initially I wanted to front load this week but when all was said and done I worked until nearly midnight last night and still had to work a bunch today so I slept in to get some rest and decided to bag the run so that I could still manage some family time. Now work...

Nothing too eventful. Asleep an hour early last night up at 4:30am and into work. The run was nice but slow. Surprising number of people out there. Just down into Memory Grove and back. Avg. 8:28 HR 138

Well I’m continuing with my week, as if you have a choice. Things are hectic but as good as they can be. I was able to co-op at my daughter’s school this morning and that is always fun. Then we had a farewell party for a student who is leaving the lab on Thurs so at 1:30pm I finally started my day. Needless to say it was brief. I had decided to sleep in and skip my run (twice now this week) but wanted to make it up at night. However, I forgot my wife needed the car and me to be home for her to go to book club. So I decided last minute to hammer a run after my daughter’s went down for the night but before my wife left. So that gave me exactly one hour and I wanted to hit 8 miles. I decided I would do the “original home loop” which was the first run I went on when we moved to Utah. I did one mile warm up and then wanted to hammer the next three miles like a time trial. Sometime during the second mile I decided I would make it into a time trail and tack on the extra 0.1 to make it a 5K. So here is my non-race race report.

Warm-up it was cooling off and I felt a strong crosswind. This had me nervous as I knew that would be a headwind going into mile 1. The first mile is all downhill and should have been my fastest mile.

Mile 1 5:34 HR 184

After that I turned onto 13^th and it is still net downhill but about half the decent per mile as the first.

Mile 2 5:45 HR 179

I think I let up too much at the turn but got back into a rhythm after crossing 13^th/13^th intersection.

Mile 3 5:40 HR 187

I was feeling it and I was starting to get a stitch in my side. But go figure it has been awhile since I really hit a run. The final 0.12 by my Garmin for the “finish” is the only uphill as I turn up 21^st at the Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Mile 0.12 0:41 HR 188

TOTAL 17:38 Avg. 5:39 (now to string 26 of those together for a sub-2:30…)

Overall I’m happy with the time and relative effort. I’m coming back…

Avg. 6:49 HR 174 for the total 8 miles and I made it home in 54 min 37 sec so my wife even had time to spare J…

Work stress continues to wreck havoc on my mind. However, it is just a matter of remembering baby steps are steps none-the-less. My sleep was also interrupted a number of times last night after a few peaceful nights so that added to the fun. Into work early and had my stuff set-up and I was out the door. To keep things moving in the right direction I planned to run up Dry Creek and kept to plan. It makes it hard to do anything but easy miles when running up (UP!) a dirt/rock trail. I know Jon could make it into a hard run but I’m still learning that skill. My way up I was averaging about 11s and on the way back about 9s. Avg. 10:12 (Just a little slower than yesterday, :)) HR 135

Commute run. Day was going well but slowed down too much in the end. Run in was fine but slow. Legs sore but not as bad as I was expecting from Tues. No sleep tonight, have a personal deadline for tomorrow hence the late blogging. But break time is over back to it. Avg. 9:01 HR 138