The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old

Easy run. Finally back at home and spent the day molding new fiberglass fenders for the RV. Good to have a day of garage time. But I probably should have spent more of it running.

Off day

Long run in washington, DC.

Yesterday Walter ran the USATF Half Marathon Championships in Melbourne and it was something that I had wanted to do for some time.  I ended up with a four day work trip that I could not cancel since it was Superbowl weekend, big time of year for airlines, and I was super busy with family stuff.  I'm just on the start of getting into running again anyways so I didn't feel like I could have put in a decent race anyways. Looks like some problems again with drug use though.

Easy run and some lifting.

Easy day.

Bored with running. Hour and half of snow shoeing.

Gym workout today. 6 miles @ 10mph, 1/2 mile swim, light lifting 20 min.

Big sled and ski party at the house. Fun day.

Full afternoon teaching the kids to ski on the big hill by our house. Human tow rope for them, pulling them up every run.

1.5 mile swim, 48 minutes.

Intensly beautiful night running in the Spring Mountain range west of Las Vegas.  Clear and 60 degrees until I gained some altitude.  Then I froze.  No idea of actual mileage or how long, I was just enjoying the run.  This could be a new set of trails for me, previously unknown by my rookie self.  This range gains 9,000 feet from the valley floor!

First trail running overnight in a while. I slept on the side of the trail using my large camp blanket wrapped around me like a cacoon. I'd like to do a couple of long trail runs this summer that require overnights on the trail and I gotta get used to what this takes. Left an airhole on the end, but you gotta wonder what the CO2 is like through the night doing this. It hit maybe 38 in the night so I was pretty warm. I've used this before in my Jeep to make it through -28 nights in Colorado and it works great. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep since I was huddled in there typing a few responses back to some runners upset about a R2R2R that we are looking at running as a group again this Spring. Next time I gotta leave the phone. Got up this morning and ran back down to the hotel with just a few minutes to spare to get to work.

1.5 mile swim in Arizona State's saltwater, edgeless pool. One of the best 50 meter pools in the country.

Two small but important items of Utah news I read traveling the US today: Eli the orangutan at the Hogle Zoo has the world record for animal predictors of games by predicting Superbowl wins by hitting on a helmet. 7-0 with his last prediction of the Seahawks. The next contendor was a giraff I think. Also that the reason came up today by a US speedskater for the lower medal count was that they have been training on Utah's fast Oval ice, the Sochi ice is just too slow. I feel possessive of this ice since I have ran in the Oval once.

Early Valentine's morning and the kids and I had a good breakfast of chocolate. After I dropped them off at school I headed over to the Rockhaus and did some indoor rock climbing for the morning. For $5 you can climb all day here. Cheapest I've seen anywhere.

Every once in a jillion years you just get a perfect day. I had registered for the Moab 55k but when I got home late Thursday and picked them up I could tell they needed a different weekend than a long ultra run in Moab would let me give them. We headed south Friday with the kayaks and camped on the bluff above Lake Powell. In the morning I woke up the kids filling up our friends hot air balloon and they sat on the Jeep watching the set up. I don't think they breathed. After that morning we headed south to the Indian trading posts and National Parks between Flagstaff and Phoenix. All parks are free through Monday and we hit four of them. Tonight we ended with a night hike in the Superstition mountains East of Phoenix, 85 degrees.

I seriously think sometimes the most rewarding thing to experience in life is holding your kids attention for an entire day. I know it's like getting hit by a meteor though. The only thing more impossible than it happening is that is ever happens again.

Last night heading up on our night hike I noticed a race crew setting up on the trailhead and remembered that President's weekend is always the Lost Dutchman Marathon. So when we got back I caught some sleep and headed up to the bus pick up to beg an entry. The race director was more than willing, a ton of marathoners had changed to the half because of the high temp forecast. He also said he had flown in a few Kenyans to break the record and drop the Leaderboard times a little. LDM has a rep as being a way friendly group but a slow course. Eight miles of trail, rolling hills along Apache Junction, and some suburb running with a 180 around a cone.

I had no goals for the race although a few weeks ago I did a Yasso 800 predictor set which came out indicating I could do a 2:47. So that's what I shot for. The pace went out slow, I didn't have a Garmin on today but it felt good. The lead guys started picking it and left me. They were gone. I then ran with a group of trail runners from Boston and North Carolina. Pretty neat guys heading up after the race for a R2R2R Tuesday. I could feel the heat a bit by five miles, not a good sign, and prepared for a long morning. By thirteen miles the pack fell apart and I ran with one of the ultra runners from New England until mile 18. We were totally alone and talked mostly the whole time about all the Canyon running stuff that I've been thinking about the past two weeks. The hills hit hard though at mile 19 and he pulled ahead. I was worried a lot about bonking with the heat and that I had no marathon training essentially, and was slowing way down to work the hills and pouring water on my head. I was regaining some energy though by the end and am so happy to have a decent race again in the pathetic shape I'm in!

Mokono Lamech was the Kenyan who won, now a US citizen with Phoenix as a home. He was the winner of Grandmas Marathon 2012 in 2:13 and Victoria in 2:12. He barely got the record running a 2:18. Just a way nice guy and I spent a few hours talking to him, and the two ultra runners that sandwiched me, Eric Ahorn and Robert Shaffer. Mocono's main goal this year is the course record at Grandmas, so I look forward to watching that race again. The record is 2:09.

Stoked by this run. In the groove and on pace. Good idea where I stand and how to improve. Not a squeak at all from the knee which I attribute to strengthened hips, glutes and core from snowshoeing.

And it is cool to get a third with a slow 2:50. :-)

The kids and I then spent the afternoon kayaking the Salt River, Tonto National Park.

No running unless you count about six miles of hiking and three hours of kayaking. Kayaked the Salt River north of Phoenix with the kids and headed up to Flagstaff. Hiked the North and South Lava Trails in Sunset Crater Volcano National Park, then visited Wupatki National Park to hike the various Pueblo Indian ruins. These are incredible sites and I had a hard time getting the kids away from each one. They don't affect me as much as the ancient ruins east of Moab, or the Grand Canyon. We then headed up to Lake Powell and kayaked Antelope Canyon up to the Petroglyphs. After that we loaded back up and rode horses from Lone Rock to Big Water.

That is all.

We came within 27 miles of the South Rim visitors center. I could not figure out how to fit it in.

1 mile swim @ 35:40, 30 minutes upper body lifting.

1 mile swim just under 36, 30 minute lifting upper body and core.

1,000 meter fast swim, 30 min lifting.

Quick report, more details later. Took a Cessna down to Grand Canyon Airport and joined a group of five for a canyon run. So nice to be there in two hours instead of seven. Low, cold overcast and had to do an instrument approach but the weather was showing consistent temps and clouds breaking up.

We ran from South Rim, Bright Angel Trail, the group was going R2R2R but I wanted a look at the section of Tonto towards Hermit so we split up at Indian Gardens. Very neat group and experienced. I took several ideas including carrying coconut water which one of them said helped stomach problems. Used a Camelback again and required no water stops from Indian Gardens back along the Tonto. Average temp though seemed around 52 degrees.

Rough climb back up with ridiculous sore quads from the marathon Saturday. Walked a few sections. Flew back, stopping only in Ceder City for a huge, greasy cheeseburger. Between Saturday and this morning I now only have one toenail left that is not black or in the process of falling off.

Spaghetti legs today. Good start but after a few miles had to back it off. Quickly discovered I could run about 6:05 today, any faster I started to crash, the legs just hurt. If I slowed down to 6:20 or so they recovered quick, so I tucked in just above 6 and waited for the finish. Rob passed me at 7 miles and wouldn't slow down to talk. Kassi chicked me. James flew by me. Great races today by Rob M and James Moore. Good to see Dennis pulling back from an injury too. I'm betting he will be setting a few new records by Fall. I had to bust out after the race quick to get my kids, not much time to say hi to anyone afterwards.

Day off.

A day in Trenton, NJ.  Diverted with a broken plane.  Headed out to catch a section of the Delaware Trail which Google Earth showed just two miles away, but froze my butt off in a mile so I reluctantly headed back for a treadmill run.  Probably good since I am still so wasted from last week.  I'm just not recovering as quick as I'd like right now.  I called it off at 6 miles and did some easy lifting.

PM  got in another 6 easy watching Swamp People which is currently my favorite show, narrowly beating Moonshiners.

Really pretty night in the Everglades. Nice to run at a cool 70 degrees.

Cross country skiing Jackson Hole, WY.

Easy run, lift routine upper body and core.

Dropped the kids off at school and headed up Logan Canyon for some skiing. I'm going to count half the distance since I was skiing back down. I lean towards counting it all since I carried the skis up on my back though.

Weekend off, kids are gone. I think I'll head to rainy Phoenix for some hiking. If I feel good enough I'll run the Phoenix Half or Full in the morning.