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

7 miles early morning in Minneapolis before flying back to Denver. Pretty dead legs today from the last few weeks of off and on training, or just from that last long run.

8 miles early afternoon in Denver with an hour in the gym. Feels great to finally have some time for working out the last few days. Thank goodness for a job that gives me time to run. I sure can't do much when I am at home!

7 mile Tempo run in Detroit at the hotel.  The hotel gym must have been 85 degrees.  I am so sore today, this kicked my butt..

Very hard speed workout.  If masters running is about pain, then the last few days have really been masters running.  Man, some of these have been hard.  Probably still trying to shake off that 30 mle day last week.  I was going to do this on the track but since I am back in Logan the weather is of course snow so I had to do it on a treadmill.

5 X 1 mile repeats at 5 min pace

5 X 400m repeats at 1:15 pace

2 warm up and cool down with 400m rest intervals at 6 min pace. 

8 miles on the treadmill at the gym early morning followed by 45 minutes of core lifting and beach muscle lifting (no purpose whatsoever)

5 miles in Millville easy at night.

13 long slow miles along Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Logan.  Tired today and sick of the cold!

I eliminated refined sugar from my diet two weeks ago today.  This has just been an experiement for me.  As anybody who knows me can attest, this means about 50% of my diet was taken away.  Hostess will have to ramp production back down at the plant.  As I had read, the benefits have been remarkable.  My energy levels are amazingly stable.  I have lost 3 lbs which puts me finally on track for race weight.  Still have another 7 to go, but now have a way to do it.  I definately have less energy for training but I think that I can compensate by some energy drinks during my runs since I usually don't take anything.

Also been moving things for three days with my kids.  I finally have been able to move back into my home for good that I built.  It's been 18 months since I lived in my own home, long story.  This means a massive move forward in stability for my family and very postive for my girls.  Two years of hard work to accomplish this and very excited!

Simply no time to run today.  The kids and I had a full agenda.  Hopefully I can catch up a little on mileage next week.

Had a great pizza party with the girls and their freinds until about 10pm and ate a lot of pizza.  Curious how that will affect a run.. It was snowing here in Logan and I was also starting to get worried about the drive to Salt Lake in the morning, but the girls were so excited to go see the Murphys and their cousins that I knew I had to do it.

Did some warmup with Rob Murphy and his wife took our kids to see the race which was real nice since the kids love seeing these things.  I was excited to also see Steve Ashbaker, Dennis S, and Neil G since this year is shaping up to be a great year for some Master competetion.  The race started off in a mess since there were a bunch of younger guys elbowing everyone around.  It reminded me of indoor track days for a few minutes.  Just before the gun went off a guy stepped up to me and asked if I could move over so he could start with his friend and in about 100 feet after the start another guy actually grabbed my elbow to pull himself ahead.  Good times..

The pace felt good the first mile, I had Dennis just ahead of me but was more interested in holding a 4:50 pace to shoot for that elusive 15 minute time.  I passed the guys with the gifted elbows and my Garmin beeped a 4:50 so the pace was fine.  I got ahead of Dennis and tried to catch the lead pack for a bit as the course was doing it's only uphill and then Dennis came by me on the left.  The second mile was 4:52 and I realized this was almost over and couldn't believe how quick these short races are.  I tried to pour it on but there was just nothing left in my legs and Dennis actually gapped me a bit more.  ( He said after the race he was being gapped by the lead pack and was trying to catch them)  The last mile was about the same pace even though it was a steep downhill.  My lungs were hurting after the race pretty good, but it felt like I had a lot left, maybe not.  No idea how to run these, that is as fast as I have run a mile in six months.  I didn't get either goal of mine, a master win or a 15 minute 5k, but very happy with the time and even more with how training is going.  The kids just loved the whole morning.  They were upset to see the Murphys go, and that made the day for me. 

Thanks to Bill for a fun course and now on to some marathon training