BC

AM 5 miles with the XC team around the park at SHP.

PM 9 miles with Wasatch Athletics, speed workout.  Normal warm up, 2X800, 2X400, 3X200, normal cool down, Jamba Juice...  

AM 5 miles from SHP on 19th to Sunnyside and back via 1500 East.  Just missed the 7:00 man.

AM 5.00 miles Loops at SHP with some strides and a few hills in the middle.

AM 6 miles warm up and Murray 5K. overall position Masters wise was where I needed to be.  3rd Masters overall second in my age group 40-44.  Last race in that age group.  Higher miles have the legs not turning over fast enough for a 5K.  Need to crank out the mileage the next 3 days of this Holiday weekend.  Time was 18:12

PM 15 miles on pipeline to overlook and back from burch hollow and then up the road about 2.80 miles about 3/4 of a mile  passed the elbow and back down to the car.

AM 20.5 miles,  Was meeting a group at Liberty Park fo a long run at 7:30 got there early so I could get in some extra before it gets to hot.  Ran 3 laps around the park until the group arrived and was ready to go.  We then headed to city creek via 3rd Ave and memory grove.  It is 5 miles from the park to the gate by the fountain and restrooms.  We had a quick drink and headed up the canyon another 3 miles before turning around and running back to Liberty.  16 miles first half all uphill and second have mostly downhill. Avg. 7:25 for the entire run with the group.  Felt good and recovering nicely from the 4th 5K and the 15 miles late the night before.  Run again tonight when it cools.  I'm now in a new age group 45-49.  Ate breakfast with the group and had a massage.

AM Temple Work day. I ran 22 miles in the spires of the temple, god's mountains.  We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place.  Good Elevation work very uplifting.  Started at Guardsman pass trail head and ran up to close to 10000 feet elevation.  You sure can feel the higher elevation in your whole body.  Ran on the trial that takes you to Desolation Lake and down towards Dog Lake, missed the turn to dog and ended back at the road in Big Cottonwood so I had to turn and run back up the trail close to 2 miles to get back headed towards dog.  When I got to dog took the trail back to Big water trail head which is the top of Millcreek Road.  From Big water parking lot I ran down the canyon on the road to rattle snake gulch trail head.  It was a long 22 miles and the back to back long run days made it a good test of fittness and focus.  Temps were nice and I never got really hot, just thristy.

PM 8 miles Jordan River Trail, Felt sluggish in the first half so I pushed the second half Avg 7:12 for the full 8.

AM 8.25 miles Ran 6 withe the XC team from SHP came back did a little core work and then Emily and I ran a outer grass loop.

PM 11.75 miles Pipe line and up the canyon road with Zuzana good run at a quicker than usual pace.  Hit the turn around in 34:58.  I'm feeling sore from Sundays down hill running.

AM 5 miles from SHP and drills.  Legs are still real sore so I finished with some stretching.

PM 15.50 miles Wasatch Athletics Speed workout.  Normal warm up and cool down.  20 @400 between 1:15 - 1:22.  Avg 1:20 Jog a 400 recovery after each one.  Legs were to sore to do the 10 X 800 which was the plan. 

AM 7 miles XC team ran from the trail head by the zoo to the top gate up Red Butte and back.  I doubled back on the trail to make sure a couple of the kids didn't get lost and made the right turns.  No one got lost!! When I got back to the car I needed .40 to finish off the 7 so I ran up to the dog park and back.  Core work, crunches, push ups and wall sits.

PM 11.50 miles the usual run from burch hollow to the overlook and back, with a mile up the canyon and back.  I had heart burn type feel the whole run.  I need to figure out if it is food related or what might be causing it.  I've had it a few times and it sure is uncomfortable on a run.  It's like a burning feeling about 6 inches down from my mouth and feels like it's only in my throat.

AM 10 miles at Sunnyside park, 2 mile warm up, 5 4 3 2 1 fartlek workout, 4 miles cool down, followed by core work.

PM 10 miles.  Alexander drove Zuzana and me up Emigration Canyon almost to the top of little mountain and we ran down the canyon to their house.  Nice night. Heart burn again but not as bad as last night.  The run felt like cheating because for the most part it was all down hill.  7-11 run in the morning with the team should be fun.  It's free Slurpee Day so load up! 

AM 7 miles Slurpee run from Sunnyside park it was not as bad as I thought it could be.  After stop number three I could feel the slurpees bubbling in my stomach. So after the next Slurp I had a good Burp and all was good again.  We hit 6  7-11's, eating a full one at each and ran to the next.  It was fun.

AM 20 miler Rail trail from prospector.  Lucked out today and had one of the top Master runners in the country helping me work through this workout.  Dennis and I started at Prospector and ran to Star pointe and got a quick drink and a gel.  Avg about 6:45 to 7:00 pace.  Then started a 10 mile tempo, the goal was to avg 6:20 or so.  I never checked my watch or Garmin to see what we were hitting, just running on effort.  If I felt like I was starting to tire I would push to get out of the comfort zone.  This part of the trail is nice because it is a gentle downhill that doesn't beat you up to much.  Hit some of the miles 5:45ish but most were between 5:55 and 6:05 according to my garmin data.  Ran out to 17 and got some water and another gel and did a 3 mile add on up the trail 1.5 and back to the car in Wanship.  Felt good about the run, wanted to slow down but stayed focused on Dennis which helped me huge.  He can really run and makes it seem like he is out for a morning jog.  After the add on my avg dropped, but for the whole 20 avg 6:40.

PM 10 miles on pipeline from burch hollow to overlook and back with a little up the road.  I was surprised how well I felt tonight. Out and back 1:09.  My little breaking down cough is just starting night after the run.  So I need to watch it the next couple of days so it doesn't worsen.  Core work tonight with Bre.

AM 15.50 miles Draper Loops.  From the park up the trail to South Mountain bridge entrance and west to Fort Street, North on Fort to the end then East to Park via new Library entrance.  Each Lap is 5.11 miles.  First lap in trainers 39:33 Second Lap changed to a racer 37:25 Third Lap 36:08 finished .20 jog to round off the number.  Hot out and not much shade, because I didn't get started until 9:30.  AVG run time 7:24 per mile.  No cough after I finished but dehydrated.

PM 4.50 miles Ran a couple miles warm up and then did 6X 200 strides at the golf course, finished with a run back home.

AM 7 miles cemetary loop from SHP doing one lap in the cemetary.  Started a little sluggish but moved better towards the end. 48:10 Avg 6:53

PM 5 miles at SHP doing laps on the road.  Got a late start and so I quit early so I could get home to bed.  Heart burn again tonight.

AM 8 Miles XC workout group.  Liberty Park Loops today.  Started the day off running over to Collins to get him out of bed.  He told me he would be at workout this morning, so the whole team ran from the park over to his house to get him up.  I t wass good to see him back, he will need to work on his fittness.  When we got back to the park we did 4 laps.  Goal was to run 15 seconds a lap faster each time. Each lap is 1 1/2 miles.  Kind of a progressive tempo, to feel an increase in effort and pace.  Here's how I did.  Lap 1 10:47 Lap 2 10:11 so 36 seconds faster more than twice of an increase that was goal. Lap 3 10:00 so an 11 second faster pace almost to goal. Lap 4 9:37 a 23 second faster pace, to fast again.  But I only decreased 1:10 from Lap 1 so I guess I was close to the desired workout but alittle to fast.  Second lap was just to fast.  I like this progressive run.  Did a cool down lap with Emily which felt nice.  She ran great today and was pushing our top guys. Crunches and push ups.

PM 10 miles Wasatch Athletics workout normal warm up, 1 x800 2:37, 400 recovery, 10x200, 100 recovery, 2 laps around SHP. 

AM 10 miles with XC team on pipeline.  From Burch Hollow to overlook and back, plus a little up the road to make it an even 10 miles.  Sat in the river for ten minutes.

AM 6 miles XC team at Sunnyside Park, finished with some strides.  Felt good to loosen up.

PM 6 miles on pipeline trail.  We picked up Zuzana and drove up to burch hollow and ran out three miles and back.  Michelle wanted ten so her plan was to go to the overlook and back.  Zuzana wanted 15 so from the car we figured would be about 9 more to her house so she ran down the canyon.  Me I get to take it easy the next few days.  Sometimes when I cut back I start to notice more tightness and little aches and pains.  I don't like that part of a sharpening period because it can make you question your training or if your now getting hurt after all the training.  But I am going to keep cutting back until the race.

AM 4.5 miles 3 Liberty loops ran into James and he joined us for the workout.  Firemen for the middle lap.  Wanted something to quicken the pace but didn't want to do strides.  I like fireman drill because it keeps the group moving and more of a team working together feel.

AM Draper Days 5K Not a bad race for me today but very even.  I did not record my splits but through talking to those around me during the race this is what I came up with. Mile 1 to slow 5:50 Mile 2 5:45, picking it up but with the downhill in this mile I would think it should have been quicker.  I felt like things were going smoothly though and not a huge struggle to hang like at Murray on the 4th. Mile 3.1 6:30, so I will say 5:55 for mile 3 and 35 seconds to the finish.  This mile does have the most climbing in it, so I didn't slow down to much. I was passing people on this mile which is a change for me.  Overall I would say I ran very even.  But I let a few people gap me too much in the first mile to regain contact.  Oh well!  I got 1st in my new age group, but only because Dennis was displaced for a top masters finish.  I was 5th master overall.  My time was 18:05, which is 7 seconds faster than Murray and only 9 seconds slower than last years Draper on the faster course.  I will go back to see how much slower the avg was for the other runners  from last year to this year to see how my fittness is now verses then.  Des is getting close... Time for a couple of good Buffalo steaks on the BBQ. 

Am 10 miles on JRT with Zuzana.

Not a planned day off but my ankle is very swollen.  So ice and elevate.

This is a planned day off.  Ankle still swollen and hurting.

Usually I would run 2 -4 miles with strides but ankle trouble so rest again.

AM Deseret News Marathon Today. This is a race that started me running I first ran it when I was 12. Untrained and found out about it the day before the race, registered for it and jumped in the next day. First marathon 4:20 and had to be carryed to the car after I sat down. My claim to fame is that I did my first marathon before my coach did his. However, his first was also Deseret News the following year, but he won the overall and repeated 9 times. I was dreading todays race. I looked back a couple days before at my last years time and place on the blog. It added some unneeded stress. I felt like I ran good last year considering the fast start and the worst blister problem I had ever encountered. I was 5th overall, first master with a high 2:48. I wanted to run as well as I had but like I always say, it's a marathon. You train for it but never know what can happen on race day. Bob Wood, the race director, told me they had the best field of elites running that he could remember. So I knew it would be hard to place as high. So I would work on the little goals, time and Masters placing and things worked out. I was 10th overall, but really 9th, 1 Kenyan didn't run up the Pinecrest turn around and was a DQ, I don't know why they listed him in the results. 3rd overall LDR circuit points behind Sasha and Seth, I thought I could catch Seth when I heard he was having trouble, but could never see him until the turn off of 800 S. and made a push to catch him and fail short by 19 seconds. I was first master again 5 years in a row, and don't know if I can do that again there are a lot of good master runners out there that don't run this race because of low prize money and it beats you up so bad. It is always the hardest marathon for me to recover from and can screw up your plans for running good times in other marathons later in the year. Happy with overall race effort and time. I'm not going to list all my splits, but first half was 1:19:24 and finish time 2:45:45. So a slower second half, but ran the race alone with no one in sight. Never could get info on gaps in front or behind to know if a push was necessary so I don't know what I could have done with some late pressure. No one passed me after mile 4, and I did't start to crazy and was with the group of Kenyans at that point. Ice bath and recover is the game plan before ramping the milage back up. Have a great holiday. I might even start my garden tonight, heck (is that family friendly) the pioneers started their gardens when they got here and raised a good crop. My bishop said, procrastination is the work of the devil, but think of all the weeding I have missed to this point. Happy 24th.

Afternoon 1 lap on the grass around sugarhouse park.  At a snails pace.66 minutes.  103 degrees, and that must have been why I was so slow.

Am did a 2 hour bike ride on the JRT.  13 miles

PM 4 miles on pipeline and a soak in the river. 35 minutes

AM 3 X on the Minuteman 5K course.  1- 26:18, 2 - 24:25, 3- 21:22.  The 3rd one had an avg pace of 6:51.  It was windy today which did help cool things a bit, but a late start still gave me temps in the 90's.  Cool down to round it off at 10 miles.

AM 8.5 miles with the XC team.  We ran from SHP to the Shriners drinking fountain and back.  Not real fast but going out is all uphill.  avg pace for the whole run was 7:47 pace.  Ankle is giving me big trouble right now and I need to get it under control so I can continue training.

AM XC team workout 6 miles.  We did the rock run up dry creek from the JCC.  I have the team each carry two rocks about the size of a baseball to the overlook pass and add to our pile.  This was the first time for the season and our old pile from last year is still there, but smaller.  We will add to our pile again this year.  Ankle was still sore decided I really wanted to run no matter how slow so I took some vitamin IB to help me through it.  I know it can slow sown the healinng process, but not running can slow down the overall fittness process.

PM Wasatch Athletics workout 8 miles with 10 X 1 minute.  Ankle got progressively more sensitive as the run went on and is swollen tonight after the workout.

AM 4 miles with the XC team.  I did the warm up and cool down.  Need to back off the ankle is not getting better.  I don't want to run on IB, it can slow down the healing process.

No run today but I biked on the JRT with the team we did 8 miles.  I would count this in my mileage but why?  Letting the ankle rest.  Had an Xray today to rule out a stress fracture.  The doc thought it was bone, but nothing showed on the film.  He wants to reevalute it on Monday.