Go, you chicken fat, go away!

It started raining last night.  If I had to guess, I'd say it's been raining most of the night.  I woke up this morning at 4am.  I stayed in bed until about 5am.  Since it was raining, which is different, I decided to do something different.  I ran along the streets instead of along the RWCD and/or Floodway paths.  I noticed a bit of a wheeze when I first started.  It didn't last long, but it did worry me that I was wheezing while it was raining.  The run felt decent.  The miles seemed to be just clicking away.  I regretted the way I went because it would mean I'm finishing on a slight uphill.  But that's ok.  Because it was dark and raining I wasn't expecting this to be a fast pace.  But it was by far the fastest I've run this year for a 5 mile run.  It's nice to see triple digits.  Instead of quadruple :(

I got up a little late this morning.  It rained all day yesterday.  No excuse for me to not go running, but I didn't go running.  Anyway, it wasn't raining this morning, but it was after 6:30am when I left.  I always wake up Emily right at 7am.  Still I wanted to get my 3 loops in, so Emily would get some extra Z's.  It was real humid, but it looked like it wouldn't rain today.  However, an hour and a half later, it dumped on us.  This isn't typical, but the tropical storm in the Pacific is doing weird things for us lately.  Or hurricane.  Or whatever it is.  I don't pay attention.

I planned on running the same loop I ran Monday only instead of going west to get out to the main streets, I would go east.  I was taking it nice and easy.  I was about 2.25 miles in when I heard my phone ringing.  It was my buddy Greg New.  Greg has worked at RWCD for many years.  He said he was at the Red Mountain Cafe and I needed to turn around so he could buy me breakfast.  By that point I was drenched in sweat, but he said not to worry about it.  I went in feeling a little sheepish.  He was surprised at the amount of sweat.  I warned him.  Anyway, we were able to catch up and I got a nice breakast of pork chops, eggs, hash browns, and toast.  Broke my diet, but oh well.  I was about a mile from home and he offered to drive me.  I showed him our pig, and he let me know that it's a Yorkshire pig.  The best pig for eating.

Yesterday I texted Mike and asked him if he wanted to do the 9.2 mile route.  It's basically continuing down the road to the McDowell Park entrance, turning around and going back.  He texted me that he would let me know in the morning.  He showed up with Bryan again.  Mike asked what we wanted to do.  I basically told him that if he wanted to turn around at the top, I would also turn around.  He usually beats me by 10 minutes, so it would be another 20 minutes on top of that for him to wait for me, and I'm not that mean.  But Bryan was running pretty fast this morning, and he went to the park entrance, so Mike followed. 

There seemed to be a lot of cars going up the hill this morning.  Usually you see more cars coming down, because people are going to the lake.  Maybe it had something to do with it being Fall Break.  I didn't see any cyclist until I was running back down.  It's staying darker out and it's actually cooled down some.  I noticed my ears were a little cold.  Knowing today was also the St. George Marathon, I knew I wouldn't see the other Brian.  He ran about a 3:30 something. 

My run felt okay, but I was a little surprised to see that my pace was noticeable slower than a couple of weeks ago.  It was faster than last week's, but last week was not a good night's sleep and helping my daughter move.  But we did tack on an extra 1.8 miles.  Mike's pace was also slower.  I told him not to worry about it.  When I had just under a mile to go, I saw Bryan running back up the hill.  He ended up running 11.2 miles.  Mike called him a show off.  It's nice to get the run done early to be able to enjoy General Conference for the rest of the day.

I was  kinda sore all weekend.  Who knew an extra 1.8 miles added on to my regular Saturday route would make that much of a difference?  I was just going to do a nice easy 2.5 mile cool down.  But I got about a half mile in and had to stop because my knee was hurting.  I stopped and stretched.  I ran another quarter mile and had to stop and stretch again.  I decided to just do one loop today.  Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow.

I felt better this morning.  I had one brief moment where my knee felt a little funny.  Then on the home stretch my right leg tightened up some.  But overall it was good.

I wasn't feeling well yesterday.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to run this morning.  When Mike texted me yesterday to see if we were on, I told him to text me in the morning.  I also told him the forecast was calling for rain.  So he texted me and said that we would take this week off.  When morning rolled around I saw my wife getting ready to go out.  It looked like it had rained a little during the night.  I asked her where she was going.  She said Hilltop.  I said that I wanted her to take me to the top of Usery Pass so that I could try that run again.  I still wasn't feeling great, but figured I could do 4.5 miles easy enough and that would get me to Hilltop.  So we hop in the van and realize we need gas.  We get gas and start heading east.  I could see some rain clouds in the distance but hoped that they were far enough away where I wouldn't get a whole lot.  Well, it was moving towards us quickly.  By the time we got to Hilltop it was dumping buckets down.  My wife said she didn't want to hike in this rain.  I still wanted to run so we kept going.  There is a property close that we've looked at before.  Vickie suggested we drive by while it's raining and see how much water goes through the washes.  We drove to it, and I hopped out.  I took a look, and it wasn't a whole lot, but it was some.  It would definitely need to be re-routed, which could be expensive.  Then I jumped back in the van and we drove to the top. 

I was hoping that the rain would die down some.  It might have a little, but it was still coming down pretty good.  And I noticed a couple of washes running across the road that I would have to run through.  I got out of the van and stretched out a little.  I got my water bottle in one pocket and had my Strava running on my phone in the other.  My wife asked me what I wanted her to do.  I said just drive down a mile and see how I'm doing.  I figured I'd know within the first mile if my sickness from yesterday would impede me from doing a 10+ mile run today.  So she drove about a half mile down the road.  I was feeling good when I got to her.  Just some tightness in my legs.  I gave her the thumbs up and told her that it wasn't a mile :)  I kept going and she drove on.  That's when I saw a rattlesnake on the shoulder.  I could tell that it was smooshed.  I actually passed it, stopped and turned around and took a picture of it.

Other than a couple of stop lights, this was the only time I stopped during the run.  Vickie stopped again at the 1 mile mark.  I was still doing good.  The next mile was the steepest downhill mile, so I was still feeling pretty good other than the tightness.  But my vision was getting impaired because not only were raindrops falling on my glasses, but they were fogging up.  So I handed them to Vickie and ran the rest of the way without them.  My feet were pretty soaked from runnning through the washes.  The deepest one was probably only about 3-inches deep, but enough to cover my feet.  I hoped that wet socks wouldn't equate to blistered feet later on.  About mile 3 I felt a stinging feeling in the scrotissory area.  You know, like when an ant crawls up your pant leg and bites you.  We've all exprienced that.  I tried making adjustments and pinching my shorts just in case. 

Vickie was stopping about every mile after that.  It was nice that she spent her morning waiting for me.  I got to Brown Road which is about the 4 mile mark.  Probably a little over because I actually started about a tenth of a mile from the top because there's that nice place to park on the side of the road, and since it was raining, it made sense to stop at a safer place.  Anyway I was feeling good.  The rain actually felt great and made me happy.  The tightness was going away, but it would soon be replaced with soreness.  I figured I'd done 9.2 miles last week, so as long as I could do that again, I'd only have about a mile to go to get home.  And this was all downhill, so I remained optimistic.  I talked myself through the uphill of going over the freeway.  I think that's where I started to fall apart  last time I attempeted this.  But I told myself that it was the heat that made me give up at the 7 mile mark.  I knew I was at least half way there and kept on plugging away.

My overall pace was 10:07.  But looking at my splits I was really slowing down.  My wife says I was looking good.  She snapped this picture of me.

I think I finally took my first drink around mile 5.  I still had some left over when I finished.  I got to mile 7 where I had given up last time.  I knew I could make it.  Just two and a half miles to go west and then I turn and run 0.6 miles south.  That last mile seemed like a bit of a struggle, but I pushed myself.  Right before I turned I saw a lady walking her dog on the other side of the street.  I could hear her trying to talk to me, but wasn't exactly sure what she said.  The gist of it was - Great job.  It's a great morning to be out running.  I agreed.  I turned and ran past my wife one last time.  I got home and was soaked!  I asked her to help me take my shoes and socks off in the entrance way.  She's the best.  I then went to the bathroom to take a shower.  That's when I noticed that the ant bite was actually chaffing.  Yowza!  I missed that spot with the Body Glide.  I showed my wife, in a manly fashion, and she cringed.  I started the shower and she asked if I would be all right.  No sooner did she ask then all the sweat started running over my wound, and I screamed like a little girl.  But I was all right.  I know I'm going to be sore for a few days.  It's still raining.  But it was an epic run and totally worth. it.

I was still sore this morning, but I didn't want to miss another day.  Emily is sick again today.  I didn't get out until 8:30am.  It's actually kinda chilly today.  Right as I started, it began to rain.  I'm okay with that, but it did seem colder than Saturday.  I just took it nice and easy.  I wasn't sure if I was going to do 1 loop or 2.  I decided on 2 since I was feeling good.  I saw a couple of ladies pushing strollers.  I wonder if they didn't realize it was going to rain and just got caught in it.  Anyway, with a little over half a mile to go, I saw a walking stick in the path.  I stopped and took its picture.  Then I decided I wanted to keep it.  So I picked it up and carried it home.  At one point it crawled all the way up my arm and on to my shoulder.  That's when I had to stop because bugs on my shoulders tend to creep me out.  I have this recurring nightmare about it.

I wanted a mid distance run today, but I was limited on time.  So I did a run that I haven't done before even though I've done it a million times.  I ran up the Floodway to Greenfield Road.  Usually I cross the road and keep going.  But today I turned around and ran down the other side of the RWCD Canal, all the way to Main Street, and then back home.  I felt nice and comfortable the whole way despite eating some goodies last night, and my pace was well below 10 min/mile.  When I first got on the Floodway path, I could see a woman up ahead.  I assumed it was a woman because of the skirt.  As I got closer I started to question (short hair and baseball cap), but it was indeed a woman.  It took me a while to catch her though because she was walking along at a pretty nice clip.  She turned around at Brown Road and walked down the RWCD road.  It's probably about 0.4 miles from Brown Road to Greenfield, so by the time I got back to Brown Road she was way ahead of me.  It was a beautiful day out and there were a lot of people out walking.  I saw this guy on the other side of the RWCD Canal.  It looked like he was wearing an old Ragnar shirt.  The closer I got, the more I was convinced that is what it was.  He ended up saying good morning to me, and I asked him if he was wearing a Ragnar shirt.  He looked down at it, and said, "Yeah it is.  But it's a really old one.  Like 10 years ago."  I said, "I know.  I have that same shirt." 

I crossed Adobe and wondered if I would be able to catch the skirt lady.  She looked like she was too far ahead.  I was making some ground on her, but she got to University before me.  I saw her turn east and thought she might live in one of the 55+ communities and that would be the last time I saw her.  But she moved over from the Canal road to the Floodway path.  I got to Main Street and started heading back north.  When I passed her I said, "You sure are walking fast!"  I don't know if she recognized me from before, so she probably thought I was being condescending.  Right after that I saw this lady with a dog.  I don't think the dog was leashed, but when she saw me she leashed him.  As I approached her she said, "I should just give you the leash and let him run with you."  I said, "Sounds like my dog except my dog stops on a dime every 10 seconds."  Then she said, "Would it bother you if I let him off his leash?  He's not a biter."  I said, "I don't mind.  I'm not afraid of dogs."  So she let him off, and he started galloping toward me.  He got about 5 feet in front of me and stopped.  He just wanted to beat me.  I said, "You win!"

A nice and easy run today to keep me fresh for tomorrow.  I don't know if fresh is the right word.  But I'm going with it.

When you have Filiberto's the day before, you make sure you pack some TP with you.  It was a beautiful morning, but I didn't have a bowel movement beforehand.  I got a headstart on Mike.  He caught me right around 0.55 miles.  I told him I didn't know if I could hold on for the entire run.  I said, "Luckily I brought some toilet paper with me."  He said, "You did?"  The way he said it made me think that he might need some.  But I wouldn't be able to afford any so I said, "Yeah.  Just a little bit."  He continued past me, but he wasn't running as fast as he usually does.  Or I was running faster than normal.  I thought I might actually pass him, but it I enjoy having him in front of me.  That way the traffic sees him and is more aware of me.  Selfish?  Maybe.

Right at 1.2 miles the pressure was too much.  I found a nice tree to go behind.  I popped a squat and well, you know.  I had just enough TP, so I'm glad I didn't share.  I got back out on the road and Mike was well ahead of me, but I could see his butt lamp from time to time.  He was now half a mile ahead of me. 

At one point I could see a headlamp pointing in my direction.  I wasn't sure if it was Mike, a cyclist, or another runner.  Then I saw the butt lamp, and figured it was Mike.  I was thinking maybe he was going to ask me for some TP.  I felt a little bad, but I have to take care of numero uno.  Or numero dos, depending on how you look at it.

I was actually gaining on Mike.  Looking at Strava, I can see a couple of times that he had to stop.  I reached the top and stopped briefly to pull my briefs up.  By which I mean retie my shorts.  As we were running up, there was plenty of vehicles coming downhill, but not one that came uphill.  I finally saw one at the 2.75 miles to go mark.  That's always nice.  I felt like I was running pretty well and pushing it a little.  But that last mile seemed to drag.  Mostly the last half mile, but that's usual because the slope starts to flatten out.  I finished and Mike was upset at how poorly he had run.  The truth is, it wasn't that bad.  His pace was still a minute faster than mine.  He told me that his shins were killing him and that he was glad we only did the 7.4 (to the top and back) today. 

The reason we only did the 7.4 is because I was going on a 1 mile hike later with my Wolf den.  All 4 boys showed up and 1 father.  I'm glad he came because Vickie started feeling real sick after her walk this morning.  He was able to substitute for her.  We went to the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert.  I think the boys had fun.  Well, they certainly enjoyed the doughnuts when we finished.

I've decided I want to try and hop on a Ragnar McDowell trail team here in the next couple of weeks.  I better join a team within the next couple of weeks because the race is in less than two weeks.  So I need to start doing more hill training.  I run up Usery Pass every Saturday, but that's a long gradual climb.  The hills in McDowell are shorter and steeper.  Ergo I chose to try and run Hilltop for the first time today.  My wife hikes it all the time.  I started the morning out by running my usual 2 loops around the Floodway/RWCD Canal.  Then I took my daughter to school and continued on to Hilltop.  My wife told me that it was 1.5 miles round trip.  I recorded 0.8 miles.  But it was quite steep and I wheezed the whole way up.  But I made it without stopping.  I'm going to try and do this as much as I can between now and the race.  I might even try doing doubles as soon as I feel I'm ready.

I did Hilltop again today.  I did it twice.  I guess I was ready.  I wasn't able to run all the way up like I did yesterday.  I stopped a couple of times.  So maybe I wasn't ready.  I brought my inhaler today because of all the wheezing yesterday.  I started out and immediately was wheezing again.  So I took a hit.  By my second ascent, I wasn't wheezing anymore.

I fell asleep early last night.  I knew that I had left my phone charger in my office, but thought I might get up during the night and get it.  I was awakened by my wife moving my phone and thought I saw her putting it on the charger.  I thought, "How sweet.  She got my charger for me."  Only she didn't.  There is another chord next to my outlet, but it's not the right one.  So I woke up to my phone being at 27%.  I was up pretty early, too, but I didn't go running.   I thought maybe I'd do a 5 mile loop, but my two youngest daughters are staying home again from school, and my wife said she had to take our other daughter to school early for some testing.  She said she was going to do Hilltop afterward and asked if I wanted to come.  So I agreed to.  As we drove through the second roundabout crossing the freeway, I saw a chicken in the road.  The poor thing was trying to make it to the side.  Where my wife parked was only about 0.4 miles away, so I decided to run back to it to see if it was okay.  I crossed the road (no jokes, please), and ran back to the roundabout.  I couldn't see it.  I slowed down and started running back looking for it everywhere.  That's when I heard a car on the other side of the road stop and start honking.  I quickly crossed over to the median. where the, not chicken, but rooster, had gone to the other side.  It tried to run away from me, which I figured it would, but it was in pretty bad shape.  I tried to pick it up, but it wriggled away from me.  I let it walk a little more across the road.  Luckily there wasn't a whole lot of traffic, but the few cars that were coming were being courteous and driving around us.  I tried picking it up again, but it wouldn't let me.  Then I heard a lady hollering that she had a box.  I looked down the sidewalk and a the lady and her daugher were hurrying up the way with a box and a towel.  By now the rooster had gotten to the other side of the road, and had stopped right at the curb.  And there were a lot of cars coming.  So I reached down and got a good hold of it, picked it up, and put it in the box.  They covered it with the towel.  She wasn't sure what she was going to do with it.  She said she was a teacher and was going to bring it to school.  I said I hope it survives.  They said they saw it get hit by a car.  It probably has internal bleeding and I'm afraid it won't last much longer.

When I got back to where my van was parked, it was gone!  I briefly entertained the idea that my wife was hiking up the hill and it had been stolen.  I called her to see where she was.  She was having tummy issues and went to the local grocery store to relieve herself.  So, I decided to start without her.

I started running up the hill.  I had forgotten my inhaler, and I was wheezing a bit.  I had to stop like three time going up.  Right before the top I saw this guy that looked like a real mountaineer.  He had a long scraggly beard and those mountain poles.  He was booking it down.  I got to the top and decided to wait until my wife came back so I could wave at her from the top.  At least 5 minutes went by.  I was just about to call her again when I saw the van pull up.  I waited another minute or so until she finally got out of the van.  She started walking around the base of the hill.  I waved, but she couldn't see me.  So I called her.  As soon as she heard the phone ring, she looked up and waved.  She answered and I asked what she planned on doing.  She said she would do whatever until I was done.  Well, I was hoping she was going to hike to the top and back.  I was going to tell her that I would just run down the road towards home and she could pick me up when she was done.   But since she was hiking around the base, I decided to just run down and try to find her.

When I turned around to go down, the mountain man had reached the top again.  He was running around the plateau, and I started running down.  It wasn't long before he was running down and hot on my tail.  I moved over and ran in the sand so that he could pass me.  The last stretch down the hill is very rocky due to the recent storms we've had.  At least, that's what my wife says.  I've never seen it any different, so I'll take her word for it.  But it's rocky enough where I'm gonna slow way down, so that I don't trip.  Mountain man just kept cruising.  By the time I had gotten to the bottom, he had already turned around and started back up.

I wasn't going to do doubles today, so I ran down the dirt road that I had seen my wife walking on.  I ran all the way around the west side of the hill and saw that the road was about to dead end.  I looked around for my wife, and spotted her up on another trail on the hill.  I hollered at her, but she had her ear phones in and didn't hear me.  That's when I had the idea to sneak up behind her and scare her.  I started running up the trail which went up and as it turns to go around the north side of the hill, goes back down.  I saw that she covered this part pretty quick, but she was walking and I would be able to catch her soon.  I tried to run on her left side because I figured if she turned her head, it would be to the right.  When I was about 20 feet away she turned her head to look up the hill to see if she could spot me.  Unfortunately she spotted me behind her.  I scared her a little.  But I really wanted to make her pee her pants.  Oh well. 

I walked with her a little bit until the trail ended at a golf course.  I said where now?  She said that sometimes she cuts through, which is tresspassing, and sometimes she walks around and turns back around to follow the trail back.  I told her that I would meet her at the van.  I then finished up my run by going back to the locked van.  I sat down on the bank of a small wash and waited for her.  My phone was down to 5%, but it lasted.  When I got home and looked at my Flybys on Strava, I realized that the mountain man was my old friend Brian that I see all the time when I'm running Usery.  How embarrassing.  I didn't even recognize him behind all that scruff.  I sent him a message apologizing.  But overall it was a fun morning.  Prayers for the rooster.

My legs felt completey wrecked yesterday from all the hill work the first three days of this week.  So I took yesterday off.  I did a nice and easy run today to shake them out for tomorrow.  I averaged a 10:01 pace.  Nice to see that my easy pace is now what my fast pace was a few months ago.

Woke up to a text from Mike saying that he wasn't going to be able to make it today.  But I had already texted Glen yesterday to see if he was coming.  After I saw Mike's text, I texted Glen to see if he wanted a ride.  He said - sure.  I picked him up, and although it's only been a couple of years, we had a lot to catch up on.  We ran together for most of the way up chatting the whole way.  Mostly about our pets.  A little bit about our kids.  Right before the top we saw this other couple running down.  They didn't have headlamps or butt lights, and very little reflective gear.  We got to the top and turned around.  It wasn't long before we had almost caught the couple.  I think one of them must've stopped for a tinkle.  But we couldn't catch them.  When we reached the Bulldog Trailhead, I told Glen we had 2.9 miles to go.  He asked how our pace was.  I said, probably a little slower than usual, but not bad.  He then started to pick up the pace.  I could see that he was about to catch the couple.  But it was hard to tell because it was still dark and they had no lights.  Glen ended up finishing about 3 to 4 minutes ahead of me and said he wasn't able to catch the guy, but he got the girl.  He ran pretty well for not having run that much in a while.

I felt pretty good this morning.  My legs are almost back to normal.  I was running to the Floodway when a truck pulled up alongside me and the driver said, "Hey-ay!"  It was Vanessa, my wife's walking buddy.  It was just getting light out and there weren't a lot of people out yet.  When I got to two miles I saw a runner coming toward me.  He was the same guy I saw a few months ago that let's his dog follow him, but it's hard to tell if it's his dog, because of how far away it always is from him.  He seemed pretty fast and I expected him to run over to the other side of the RWCD Canal when he turned back north at McKellips.  I didn't think he'd be able to catch me before I got to McDowell.  I got to McDowell and turned around and I saw him coming back to me on the same side of the Canal that I was on.  There is a bridge at the Canal gate about a fifth of a mile from McDowell.  He crossed the bridge right when I got to him and was quickly in front of me on the other side.  He then proceeded to run a quarter mile and turn back around.  I knew I was running faster than I have in a long time, but I'm still slow.  I was happy that I averaged well under a 10 min. pace today.  As I approached Greenfield Road I saw a lady on the east side of the Canal.  She crossed over to the west side and started running.  I wasn't able to catch her and I thought she might just be doing this little loop that I see a lot of people do who work out at the gym there on the corner.  But she crossed Brown Road and kept going south.  I still wasn't able to catch her until she stopped right before Adobe.  I told her good job, but she didn't say anything back to me.

3 easy loops on the Floodway/RWCD roads.  I saw some bunnies, ducks, and dogs.