cheryl

Met with the BBK group at the JRP trail at about 126th So.  It was a windy and cold morning.  There was a fairly strong wind running south, I didn't like that at all.  Then when we turned around, I was sure the wind had stopped because I felt nothing.  Then we turned around again and I realized the wind was still going strong.  The group was running (as it seems like is always the case) a little faster than I wanted to go.  I ran by Eric for some of the time and wanted to talk, but just didn't have the extra oxygen to say many words.  I really dislike the wind, so I didn't like this run too much.  It was fun being with my running friends, but I was glad when we were done.

Later I put in an extra two miles, running very slowly on the treadmill on a 13% incline.

Take it easy day.  After doing some chores at home, I went to the Rec Center and ran for 30 easy minutes on the track.  There were still a lot of people at the gym at 2:00 pm.  It's fun to run when there's lots of other people around.   When I'm by myself, it's too easy to quit before I really should quit.

I'm starting a program at TOSH with my boys, so I went for the first time this morning and did fast hill sprints on their treadmill.  Then I went to the Rec Center and ran on the track there for 30 minutes, kept it pretty easy, threw in a few accelerations along the way.  I was glad I didn't have to run outside today. 

I first went to the Rec Center and ran on the track there for 30 minutes.  I threw in a few little pick ups here and there.  Then I got on the treadmill and ran for almost 30 minutes at a VERY slow speed and 13% incline. (Kelli, believe me, if you go slow enough, it's not really that hard.  But thank you for being impressed by it).  I watched a few of my favorite shows during that. 

I just couldn't face the icy, slushy streets this morning, plus I've had my one fall of the year and didn't want to risk another, so I went to the Rec Center and ran on the track there.  Kris and Dean were there, and Aaron also, plus Debbie came a little later.  I ran 40 minutes, which I'll say is 4 miles.  I must have enjoyed it, because later I went back and ran an easy 30 minutes.  I'll count that as 3 miles.

First thing this morning, I spent 30 minutes doing core exercises.  Then later I got on the treadmill and ran an easy 30 minutes at a 3% incline, then ran some sprints, then ran 1 mile at 8.5 and no incline, then finished with an easy about 10 minutes.

Last night I played basketball with other women from my stake.  There were some younger women there who had played high school basketball, and playing against them, I felt every one of my many years.  I wasn't able to run the court real well because of hamstring pain and other leg pain.  So that's why today I practiced sprinting, just so I can get faster on the basketball court.  And somehow I have to get rid of the hamstring issues, that's why I'll be focusing more on strengthening the core.

The first thing I did was go to the Rec Center at 5:30 to warm up.  I thought if I could run a little before meeting the group, maybe my hamstrings wouldn't be so tight.  I met the group at 5:45, and what a large group it was--one of our biggest of the winter.  My warm-up didn't help too much, because I still felt stiff and tight.  Plus it was cold and windy, and my first thought was, I left the warm Rec Center for this?  But I plugged away and managed to fight the wind during the first part of the run.  I pretty much hated every step I took.  Then Peggy said we were going to do it again, and I seriously thought about just calling it a day and going home then.  But I stuck with it and managed to get through it again.  The only part I enjoyed was coming north up 2700 W. with the wind at my back.  Anyway, today just wasn't a fun running day.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the wind?  Plus, I didn't really get to talk to a lot of people.  I heard Kelli was there and I read her blog where she said she was there, but I never saw her.  The warm weather where it is light and we can see each other can't come soon enough for me

I'm on a quest to get my hamstrings and other things feeling better, so I've decided to do core training every day.  I spent 30 minutes doing that after getting the kids to school.

Later I went back to the Rec Center and did a little more running.  I like going there in the afternoon because I pretty much have the track to myself.

And then tonight I played basketball again.  That was fun, my legs didn't hurt as much as they did Tuesday.  I felt like I was running the court better.  Maybe my core work is already paying off.

Very easy running at the Rec Center

I ran on my treadmill for about two miles, then went to TOSH and ran on their treadmill for probably 4 miles, then worked on core exercises.  It was fun.  I was sorry I missed the group run at Riverton, but I wasn't sorry to miss out on the cold.  I think I'm becoming a winter wimp!

Three easy treadmill miles.

I stayed inside and did treadmill running.  I started with a very easy run/walk of about a mile, then to the main workout of 30 minutes of at least 6.0mph, fooled around with the speed throughout, but mainly stayed in the 6.0-6.7 range, with a 2% incline.  Took a break, then ran 10 minutes at 7.0 and 1% for 5 minutes, 2% for 5 minutes.  Watched Ghost during the run, that was good.  I like it when there are good movies to occupy my mind.  Let's hope for good streets and good weather tomorrow.  Will this be the time of the dreaded inversion?

I met with the group at Parkway Palisades and we ran our two mile loop, which took me 17:51, then we ran over to Lampton View and up Tithing Hill.  It was pretty fun.  Warmer than I expected, I could have worn shorts but didn't because everyone gives me a hard time when I show up in shorts.  The group was pretty big this morning.

Tonight Julie Beck came to speak at our stake for enrichment night.  She was great.  I remember how people were bothered by her talk in conference about a year ago where she talked about "mothers who know."  I was wondering how she would be tonight, if she would give a "guilty inspiring" talk or just an inspiring talk.  I was thoroughly impressed.  She seems to be a great lady.

I knew it might be tough for me to get a run in today, and since I never feel like running first thing in the morning (expect on group day), I thought I'd better get something in, so I rode the stationary bike for 30 minutes.  Then I helped in my son's class for a couple of hours, then I came home and did chores, then I tried to get up the energy to run, but it just wasn't happening.  Finally I went to the treadmill room, looked at the treadmill and said I'd just run for a couple of minutes, then when I got going I found that I was really enjoying it and didn't want to quit.  It turned out to be a great run when I was totally expecting nothing today.  You just never know when you're going to have a good run.

I met the BBK group at 5:45, and we ran two "easy" approximately 3 mile loops.  I kept up with the main group on the first one, then knowing I was going to TOSH later, decided to keep the second fairly easy.  It still felt like I was pushing it just a little.

Later I did make it to TOSH and ran approximately 3 miles on their treadmill.  I always kind of dread that workout, but am always glad after that I did it.

Later tonight I'm planning to play basketball.  All I can say is, I'm tired!!

My hamstring tendons were really bothering me today, so I thought a day off from land running would be the smart thing to do.   Since I still wanted to "run,", I went to the Rec Center to do pool running.  Unfortunately, there was a water aerobics class in the area where I wanted to "run," so I had to be imaginative and figure out another workout.  I ran some in the lap lane, and also swam some laps (if you call doggie paddling "laps.")  I felt challenged by the workout, and I think my hamstrings thanked me later for laying off today.

I wanted to rest my hamstrings some more, so all I did today was 30 minutes on the bike. 

Three very easy treadmill miles.

I had told myself last week that I wasn't going to run again until Tuesday, but today I was feeling pretty good, felt rested, just felt like running, so I did.  I was able to put in a 5K on the treadmill in 23:51, with a 1% incline.  I was pretty pleased with that, legs felt pretty good during the entire run.  My legs have been feeling better; I'd like to think they're healing up, but I really think it's the advil I've been taking.  Oh well, whatever works.

Met with the group at Elk Ridge Middle.  The plan today was to hit some hills.  We first ran up a couple of streets in Glenmoor that went uphill, just to prime ourselves to get ready to really hit the hills.  Then we ran the hills on Skye Dr. in Glenmoor.  It was fun doing hill sprints.  It was more like a traditional type speed workout that we used to do.  More of this fun stuff will follow in the weeks to come.  Big group today, it was fun being with everyone.

Easy run on the treadmill.

I met the group at Bingham High at 5:45.  The plan was to run some 2-mile repeats, hopefully 3.  We were only able to get in 2 1/2 repeats, which was ok.  Didn't like running out in the inversion, but didn't really notice any adverse affects, besides this terrible smoker's cough.  Hopefully it will clear up by the next time I run outside, which will probably not be until next Tuesday. 

Here are the details of each run:

#1- 2.1 miles; avg. pace 8:30; fastest pace 7:19

#2 - 1.99 miles; avg. pace 8:28; fastest 7:05

#3 - 1.24 miles; avg. pace 8:26; fastest 7:14

It was fun being with my fellow running friends.  I couldn't run like this by myself.

Today was my "eclectic" day, a little of this, a little of that.  Not too much of any one thing.  I lifted weights, worked on my core, pool ran for 30 minutes, walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes.  How does that sound for a fun day?

My "max effort" day at TOSH, then a little more running when I got home.

Ran on the treadmill at home, did some fast and slow running.

We had a fun workout today with the group.  We met at Peggy's house, then went to the neighborhood east of 13th West and ran up a street that was a slight incline for almost .5 mile, and then did 30 seconds up a steep hill.  I felt sluggish on the long street, and stronger on the short hill.  I think when I know I only have 30 seconds of pain, I can perform better.  It was cold, but a fun workout.

Later, I put in 2 very slow miles on the treadmill, and then at 9:30, I went to play basketball with my stake team.  I'm giving myself one mile for all the running I did. 

Just easy running on the treadmill, then some biking.

I found out today that my thyroid may be going out of whack again.  That is good news and bad news; good news, because it may explain why I've felt sluggish lately on runs, it's the thyroid, not just because I'm getting old.  But it's bad news because it seems to always take so long to get it back into balance.  I need to do what I should have done many years ago, and just have the thyroid removed.  Maybe that's what I'll finally do.

The group met at the Parkway Trail at 9800 So.  We first did a warm-up on the new section, heading north, then we ran two tempo runs starting at the parking area.  My garmin's battery was dead this morning, so I don't have all the particulars.  I ran the first tempo with Debbie and Kris.  It was fun being with them.  Then on the next, I didn't really plan to pick up the pace, I just felt pretty good, so did.  I met up with Britta, Kelli and Rachel and ran with them for a while.  Then Kelli took off, then Britta took off, and I tried to stay close to Rachel.  I actually felt pretty good today, my stride felt a little stronger and I can actually say I enjoyed the second tempo run.  Usually I just "endure" these kind of runs because my hamstrings and other things hurt, and it's not too fun.  Today was better.  I've been going to a new chiropractor, and maybe all the stuff  he does is actually working.   I did feel a little sick (not too much) at the end, which confirms that the thyroid is a little out of whack.  If I can just get my thyroid and hamstrings under control, I might have a pretty good running year.

Later, I ran  sprints for acceleration, then I played basketball on my stake team.  We have fun.  I enjoy just running up and down the court the most.  I do need to warm up before playing because you immediately start running fast, and for me, that's a big strain on the hammys.  I will count all this extra as 3 miles.

Not much in the way of exercise to report--I walked/ran for about 15 minutes.  I will count that as one mile.

I went to the Rec Center and ran for 30 minutes, then practiced a new technique my chiropractor has shown me that might take pressure off the hamstrings.  It did seem to work, I was less sore after this run than usual.  I then took my dog and walked/ran along the canal road.  That is always pretty fun. 

I have to back off running a little until I get my thyroid under control.  If I run too hard, I feel very sick at the end.  So today I went to the Rec Center about 7:30 and ran for 30 easy minutes on their track.  I worked on my "new" technique, which takes pressure off the hamstrings, and had an enjoyable run.  I then did about 6 minutes on the stair climber. Later at home, I did 30 minutes on the stationary bike.  I'm just trying to maintain right now until things are better, then I can hit the training for whatever I'm training for this summer.

I didn't go to my group today, but I did miss them terribly.  Reading all their blogs, I really missed running those hills.   It's hard for me to miss a group day, but I think if I had run those hills, I would have felt very sick at the end.  The good thing is that there's always next time.

What I did, I went to the Rec Center again and ran an easy 30 minutes on the track.  I kept a record of my splits, and I averaged about 47 seconds per lap.  The best thing is, I wasn't sore and miserable at the end.  I'm enjoying running more now that I feel I'm running more correctly and not with so much tightness.  I wanted to go to yoga, but I looked in the class, and it was packed.  I don't think there would have been room for me, so instead, I did 10 minutes on the stair climber, then went home and did some stretching and core work.  Tonight, I plan to play some basketball. 

Too lazy to get up early for the Rec Center, and since my 9 year old is off track and I don't like to leave him alone, I was stuck with treadmill and indoor biking stuff today.  I used to like the treadmill to run, but now that my chiro has shown me better running technique, I don't know if I can run correctly on a treadmill.  I need to work on it.  So I mainly walked, and threw in a little running in the middle.  I spent 32 minutes on the treadmill, then turned to the bike and spent about 30 minutes on it.

I missed the group again because of my thyroid issues, but I did get up fairly early and make it to the Rec Center at 7:30, and ran 4 miles.  I tried to keep things fairly easy, but you know how it goes, you start watching the watch and end up running faster than maybe you should.  I paid for it at the end, because I felt sick for a few minutes, then was fine.  I was pretty happy with my splits considering everything.  I'm going off ten laps being a mile, but maybe it's a little short.  Anyway, the splits were 8:59, 8:10, 7:50 and 8:09.

Today was a bit of a repeat of yesterday.  I once again ran on the Rec Center's track.  I tried not to look at my watch too much and just hit my watch every 10th lap, which is supposed to be about a mile.  My splits today were:  8:42; 8:00; 7:39; 7:43.  I basically enjoyed the run, it was fairly easy.  I did practice running fast one lap, slower the next.  That helps keep it interesting.

Boy, I am getting a little lazy these days.  I thought about getting up and meeting with either Cheris' or Kelli's group, but I just couldn't do it.  I ended up running about 11am on the canal roads mainly.  I did run into Nancy Russell along the way.  She was basically just starting as I was finishing, but we had a nice little chat for a few minutes any way.  I noticed how she looked so relaxed as she was running.  I need to work on that more.  I did the 5 miles in a 9:07 average pace, which, all things considered, I am happy with.

When I got up this morning, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I  don't remember being that tired in a long time.  And the funny thing is, I did basically nothing yesterday, it was a day of rest.  Anyway, I did not make it out for an early run, so I was kind of stuck because my 9 year old is home and I don't like leaving him.  But we did have fun doing Wii Fit together, we ran a couple of races, then I did the stationary bike for about 20 minutes.  Finally, about 5:30, I made it to the Rec Center.  I was expecting it to be fairly quiet because I didn't think people really worked out at what I consider almost dinner time, but it was packed!  Hard to run the pace I wanted on the track because there were so many people.  I don't think anyone there has heard of the rule of leaving the inside lane open for the runners--lots of walkers in the inside lane.  I made 3 miles anyway, with my times being 8:31, 8:07, and 7:58.  I then did 10 minutes on the stair stepper.  So what seemed like it wasn't going to be a great working out day ended up being ok.

It's been a while since I've "had" to get up early, so this morning was a bit of a struggle.  That is one good thing/bad thing about being sometimes in charge of the group:  you have to go whether you want to or not.  I always want to, but you know what they say, the spirit is willing, the body is sometimes weak.

The news said it was supposed to snow this morning.  So I dreamed that it was bright and sunny for our group, and we all said the weathermen really got it wrong this time.  Then when I got up, I remembered about the snow, so I looked out halfway hoping a blizzard was going on, but no such luck.  So off to the group I went.  Of course, once I got there and got going, I really enjoyed being back with everyone.  We ran around the Tithing Hill area.  I wanted to do a version of what I think the Kenyans do for a warm-up, that is starting really slowly then speeding up gradually as you go along.  However, I couldn't see my watch to tell everyone when it was time to speed up, so we just basically ran whatever for the warm-up, and if you were like me, it was basically the same pace the entire way.  I'll have to try that again when I can actually see what I'm doing.  Anyway, we ran some hill sprints, 30 seconds and 1 minutes, then did a 10 minute tempo run out to the trail and back.  One good thing, I wasn't coughing and didn't feel sick after, so who knows what the old thyroid is doing.  When it's really out of whack, I feel quite sick after running.  None of that today, so that's a good thing.  And the snow was so nice, it waited until we were about done before it started.  We were meant to do this workout today.  Later, I went to the Rec Center with the plan of doing about 10 minutes on the stair master, and I made it to 17 minutes.  Don't ask me why I didn't just continue on and make it an even 20 minutes, let's just say I'd had enough fun for one day.  Thanks everyone for coming to the group and making it a lot of fun.

Another day of waking up tired, another day of having to really work on getting out and getting the run in.  I tell myself missing a day here and there doesn't matter, but then I worry if I miss one it will turn to two and then who knows what.  Even after many years of running and working out, I still have a fear that I'm going to quit one day and do absolutely nothing.  Probably because in my previous lives, that's what I did--I would run for a few weeks, then quit, run for a few months, then quit.  So I've got to get out every day, or else I might become a quitter again.

Anyway, enough of that.  I made it to the Rec Center about 3:00 and ran for 30 minutes, easy run, didn't keep track of splits or anything, just tried to keep things easy.  Then I did 13 minutes on the stair climber.  Fun as always.

What can I say, it was a tough running day for me.  I did enjoy being with the group and talking  with different people.  That's the one positive from today.  My second 5K was 29 something, I don't think I've ever been that slow on that route.  Oh well, we'll see if things get better in the weeks to come. 

Today was a lazy day, didn't do a whole lot of anything.  Did manage about 35 minutes on the stationary bike, that's it!!

I went to the Rec Center and ran for 30 minutes on the track, then I did about 13 minutes on the stair master, then I ran some laps on the track, trying to see how fast I could go.  The fastest I managed was 36 seconds; my previous fastest had been 38.  I then ran several more laps, averaging around 39 to 41 seconds.  It was fun.

It was back to the Rec Center track.  I feel sorry for anyone who ran outside today, that wind seemed pretty brutal.  I guess it makes you tough, though (do you notice how tough and though are spelled almost the same but pronounced very differently, no wonder people say English is a difficult language)  Anyway, I digress.  I ran 4 miles, and I did notice my times, but then my watch didn't work right, so I'm going from memory.  I think my splits were:  8:47, 8:11, 7:47 and 8:00.  I'm still working on a new technique my chiro has helped me with, it does seem to make running a little easier and much less painful--takes a lot of the stress off the hamstrings.  So I'm happy about that.  I also did a little stair master, can't resist that machine.

All I know is I'm thankful for my running group, because the chance that I would have gotten out there today and run in the windy, cold, snowy, windy, windy conditions without them was zero.  No, let me rephrase that, less than zero.  We met at Daybreak.  I had scouted out the area yesterday, during daylight hours, to see good places to run.  Today, when it was dark and snowy and did I mention windy, I couldn't get my bearings as well so we didn't quite run the workout I had planned, but I think we got in a good run nonetheless.  We ran up by the temple, did a couple of half mile repeats, then back down and did hill repeats.  Part of the run when we were running into the wind reminded me a little of St. George last year.  I run with the toughest group of people, nothing stops them from running.  I admire every one of them.

Having a child off track puts a crimp in my working out.  If I was only disciplined enough to get up and running by 6:00, it would be ok.  However, I am only disciplined on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Anyway, I took my son to the canal road about 11:30, when it was fairly warm, and we walked/ran there for about 30 minutes.  It was fun to be out with him, and he got some exercise along with me.  Then later this evening I went to the Rec Center and ran a little more.  Still working on better running form.  Maybe one of these days I'll get it.

I walked/ran to Bingham this morning to warm-up for the big group run.  Met the group at 5:45, and we ran over to Temple View to warm-up some more.  Then we broke up into two groups, the group being chased and the group doing the chasing, and ran about a 3.5 mile run.  I was in the group being chased.  I like doing things like that because I think it gets us running harder than we would otherwise.  I ran the entire way with Nancy Russell.  Nancy, if you're reading this, it was fun talking to you.  Sorry I couldn't talk more, I was in the "uncomfortably hard" stage most of the run.  I was mad at the end because my garmin malfuncationed (or maybe I malfunctioned) and I didn't get any info for the run.  I was curious of my average pace, but it's gone forever, so, oh well.  Rachel and Eric were ahead of us the entire way, then Scott came passing us about halfway thru Bonanza (about 1/2 mile from the end), then Peggy passed us maybe a quarter mile from the end, or maybe a little longer from the end, I don't know for sure.  Peggy was too nice to say it on her blog, but she (and Scott also) pretty much passed everyone (maybe not Rachel and Eric).  But nobody else got us, we were glad for that.  I felt pretty sick at the end for a minute or two (thanks everyone, you know it's a good run when you feel sick at the end), then we regrouped to run one of our standard two mile loops.  I was pretty wasted, and my garmin malfunctioned again, so I didn't really get a lot of info on this run either.  I think it took about 18 minutes.  I know the last mile I averaged 8:51 (the garmin finally worked right).   Kris, Debbie and I then ran back to the high school, and Kris said we got in 7 miles (her garmin worked ok).  It was fun, I feel pretty tired right now.

My "eclectic" day again--a little of this, a little of that.  I read in the latest Runner's World that walking backwards has benefits, so I tried that on my treadmill.  That takes a lot of concentration and I fell off a couple of times.  I then walked forwards a little, then ran a little.  Then later I went to the Rec Center and did 15 minutes on the stair master, then ran a few laps on the track.  A nice workout day.

This was one of those running days that if they were all like this, I would become an ex-runner really fast.  I've been doing a lot of running on the indoor track at the So. Jordan Rec Center, working on my running form, trying to be less tight, more loose, so to speak.  The track is easy because you don't have to deal with any of the elements.  So today I decided to take my training outdoors, and to run on the canal road and work on form.  Well, lucky for me, my worst nemesis was out today, that being the wind.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the wind?  Things were bad from the start.  I felt tight, lacked energy, lacked just about everything necessary to have a good run.  I forced myself to keep running non-stop for 30 minutes, and pretty much hated every one of them.  I know 30 minutes doesn't sound like much when I've noticed many in the group ran really long Saturday, but for me to keep at it the full 30 minutes was a kind of triumph.  My brain was yelling for me to stop the entire time.   Anyway, I will regroup and try again another time--and hope for no wind next time.

I returned to the scene of the crime--the canal road, windy, very similar conditions to Saturday when I had a very unfun run.  This time I really worked on not being tense and tight.  I tried to run very relaxed (for me, I don't think I'll ever be able to relax totally).  Anyway, I had a much better run, I actually enjoyed it this time.  So I know what I need to do to feel well.  I cooled down by walking/running backwards on the treadmill.  That's my new favorite thing to do.

The group met today at the 123rd So. trailhead of the Jordan River Parkway.  I got there about 10 minutes before 5:45 just to do a little warm-up.  My main goal today was to stay relaxed, to not tense up and get tight.   When I do tense up is when I really don't enjoy running.  So we ran the big hill there about 4 times.  Debbie and I decided not to do the full recovery, and just run it on our own.  I ran up the hill feeling as untense as I ever have, and it was pretty enjoyable.  I actually enjoyed running today!!  Newsflash!!  However, after the hills I did feel quite sick, so that tells me I'm still a little out of whack.  Because of the sick feeling, I took Part B fairly easy, not running the entire length of the street, not recovering fully on the street.  I think I need to wait until I feel better before I hit speedwork hard.  Anyway, all in all it was an enjoyable morning.  And pretty warm too.

PM--3 mile recovery run on the canal road.  It was quite windy, worse than yesterday.  I just tried to not fight the wind, and felt pretty good.  This run was slow, but it felt good.

Stayed inside and ran on the treadmill.  Did about 30 minutes where I alternated fast with slow minutes-1 minute at 8.0mph, 1 min. at 6.0-6.4 mph, no incline.  It was fun, especially the recovery minutes.

Met the group at Parkway Palisades.  I caught the tail end of the warm-up miles.  Then the entire group did about 1 mile warm-up, then we ran pretty much the entire length of the Jr. River parkway trail there.  The group took off as usual.  I enjoyed running with Kris.  We heard some weird noises in the bushes just north of 104th So., like an animal was being attacked by another animal.  Didn't stop to investigate, like apparently Debbie did.  Just kept on running.  I forgot my Garmin today, so I have no clue of pace.  I felt like we were running fairly fast, then I asked Kris what we were doing, and she said about 9:30.  I have no sense of pace.  We ran back the same way we came, once again I have no idea of pace.  I must not forget my Garmin again!  Later, I ran to and from my father's house, so that added about another mile.  I experimented with different running forms, seeing what will help me be more efficient.  I think the high knees and kick back is the best.  At least I hit 6:27 (for probably just a second or two) running like that.  It was a fun running day.  I felt bad that Debbie went to the wrong location because of my erroneous e-mail, but I think she got in a better run than she would have by chasing us, so maybe alls well that ends well.

Decided to hit Lisa's class this morning at the Rec Center.  I realize I could use some more strength, so I need to be less lazy and just get up and go.  Debbie went also.  It was fun, I always enjoy it when I go.  We did some jump roping and ran ladders in the gym.  We then did strength exercises for the lower body.  It all was very challenging to me.  Glad I went.  I then ran about 2 miles upstairs on the track.  That's it for today.

I debated going to meet some of the BBK group for a 12 mile run, but I've been battling a little cold, so I wasn't sure I wanted to run outside in 25 degree weather (or thereabouts).  So I talked myself out of going.  I was thinking of going to the Rec Center and running on the track, but then about 9:30 I decided I felt ok, so I went to the canal road and ran there.  I'm becoming somewhat obsessed about experimenting with different ways of running, trying to figure out what works best.  I think I may have hit on something today, my garmin says I hit 5:40 for my best pace.  I've never been in the 5 minutes before.  Maybe the satellites were out of alignment or something.  Anyway, I did enjoy the run.  I need to start doing longer runs one of these days. 

Went to the Rec Center class at 5:30, then ran to Peggy's house, she was nice enough to drive me back to the Rec Center.  Then later took the dog and ran a little with him on the canal road.  Nice day, a little windy (as always, it seems like).

The group did hill sprints and relays at the SJ cemetery today.  I felt a little sick until I warmed up into it.  Felt ok when it was all over.  I'm putting down the info I got from my garmin for future reference when we do this run again.

Warm-up:  from the parking lot to the cemetery, around the cemetery, back down to the base of the hill:  9:47 avg.; 7:25 best; 10:57; 1.12m

Tempo run:  up the hill, down the street to the turn around, back to the corner:  8:18 avg; 7:11 best; 5:53; .71

1st cemetery relay:  7:19; 5:07 (that's what it said, I don't believe it either); 1:38; .23

2nd cemetery relay:  6:56; 5:33; 1:34; .23

3rd cemetery relay:  7:02; 6:13; 1:38; .23

1st hill sprint:  7:49; 5:53; 1:39; .21

2nd hill sprint:  8:07; 5:57; 1:39; .20

3rd hill sprint:  up:  55 secs; 8:52 avg.; 5:53 best; .10  down: 45 secs; 7:53; 6:24; .10

4th hill sprint:  up:  55 secs; 8:38; 6:56; down:  44 secs; 7:03; 6:10

5th hill sprint:  up:  53 secs; 8:44; 7:37  down:  43 secs; 7:15; 5:46

Run back to the cars:  8:33; 6:51; .48; 4:05

Is this TMI?  I guess I'm just a garmin geek.

Just an easy few miles on the treadmill.   Too windy for me to run outside.

We met at the church at 10200 So. and 40th W. to run uphills and downhills.  I felt a little sick during the first 3 mile run, and also during the 2 mile run.  I pretty much felt sick the rest of the day.  Why?  I don't know for sure.  Anywho, here are the details:

warm-up:  .60; 6 mins; 10:00 avg; 7:39 best

striders:  .43; 3:49; 8:51 avg; 7:09 best

1st tempo run:  2.84: 24:37; 8:40 avg.; 6:33 best

2nd tempo run:  1.76; 15:07; 8:35 avg.; 6:33 best

back to car:  .43; 3:31; 8:08 avg.; 7:11 best

Later I ran an easy about 2 miles on the treadmill

Three easy miles on the canal road

About three easy miles on the treadmill

Just easy miles on the treadmill.  I think all my runs will be pretty easy for the next little while.

A few easy miles on the treadmill, a few easy miles on the canal road, ran outside just as the storm was arriving.  Hope things are ok for tomorrow.

The snow kind of messed up the planned run for today, but I think we got in some good running nevertheless.  We went to a new subdivision off of the Parkway Trail by 106th So.  There was a nice hill we ran up and down a few times, then ran back to the cars by 1100 W.  Cold morning but I think still fun.  This evening I played a spirited game of basketball.  All that running has to count for something, doesn't it.

What a day, no energy, no real desire to run.  I spent about 20 minutes walking/running on the treadmill, then about 10 minutes on the stationary bike.  That part was fun.

The group met at the church at 12400 So. and 1100 W.  I got there early for the early miles because I wanted to show everyone where we were going to run the main workout.  I tried to include lots of up and down hills.  That seems to be a good neighborhood for that.  I wasn't feeling super great, so I tried to take things easy.  Any of you who didn't enjoy the hills, you probably just ran them too fast.  I took them easy (like I just said) and they really weren't that bad.  I did hear a few complaints, so maybe next week we'll just do one day of hills.

I did a short run on the canal road. It was fine running north, then we hit gale force winds (at least that's how it felt) running south. I no longer fight the wind, I just go with it. I wonder if anyone's ever done a survery to see how many days out of the year are windy in So. Jordan. It seems to me like it's always windy, though I'm sure there are probably more non-windy days than windy. What can we do? I then went to the Rec Center and did 20 minutes on the stairmaster and ran a few more laps there. Funny thing, there was no wind running in the Rec Center, so that was very enjoyable.

Took my dog to a different place today--the trail at 9800 So. and Jordan River parkway trail.  I wanted to head north on the new section mainly, but ended up going south quite a bit.  It was windy once again--maybe even gale force winds.  I love the wind, bring it on.

Met the group at Bingham at 5:45.  It was a pretty nice day, warm, and I didn't really notice any wind, which was so disappointing.  I had planned some hill work, then some other running.   I thought it was fun, and I felt pretty good, not sick like I had been.   As long as we get our miles in, and also get in some fast running, I think it's been a successful day.  I did go talk to Bingham's assistant principal later, and he said he's pretty sure we'll be able to use the track, he just needs to get final approval from the principal.  So we can still call ourselves the Bingham Butt-Kickers.  We won't have to change our name to the Riverton rear end kickers or anything like that.

Later, I played my usual Tuesday night basketball.

Just a noneventful day on the treadmill.  I set it on its highest incline and just walked/ran for about 40 minutes.  I'm trying to build up more strength by doing the workouts on an incline.

I did a half hour on the treadmill where I put the incline up to 15%. Then I got driven up to the top of Glenmoor and I ran home. That was about 4.5 miles and my average pace was 9:12.

About 40 minutes walking/running on the treadmill with a 15% incline.

Met the group at Peggy's house.  We warmed up, then did some speed around her subdivision.  It was a little tough for me to keep the speed up.  I liked the slow down parts.  Mental battle just to keep going, but I did.  We then ran on another street where we did fast 1/4 miles, then recovery 1/4 miles.  I was pretty spent from what we did at first, so I took it easy on that.  Hope to feel a little better in the coming weeks.

Treadmill day.  Spent 30 minutes walking/running at a 15% incline and low speed.  Then did about 1.5 miles at 7.0 and 2% incline.

When I first go up, I looked out and didn't see any precipitation. Then somewhere between 5:15 and 5:30 I noticed the wind blowing and the snow coming down sideways. I was very tempted to return to the bed, but knew that there would be several members of the group who would show up, so I reluctantly decided to go. Once we got running about 5:45, the snow had let up and we ended up having a very nice easy run--easier for some than for others. That 9:20 something pace felt perfect to me. Thank you all you die hards for getting me out and running today. Later I rode the bike for 30 minutes, then got on the treadmill and walk/ran for about 22 minutes on a 15% incline but only 3.0 mph. Did I just hear on the radio that it's going to be 22 degrees tomorrow morning, but with the wind it will feel colder? This global warming thing just fascinates me.

Last evening I played about 2 hours of basketball.   Although I hate to admit it, I think I officially overdid it yesterday.  When I woke up this morning, I was exhausted and really didn't think I would get in any exercise today.  However, as the day went along, and after a nap, I started feeling better, so I headed out to the canal road and ran for 30 minutes.  I did 6 minutes easy, avg. pace was about 10:28, then picked up the pace for 12 minutes, avg. pace  about 8:48, then took it down again for the remaining 12 minutes.  It was actually an enjoyable run.  Good luck to everyone running the Riverton half tomorrow.

I did not manage my time very well today. I ended up spending most of the day at my son's track meet at Taylorsville High. When we got there about 9:00, it was cold and windy out. I thought about all those running the Riverton half, part of me glad I wasn't there, part of me wishing I was running it. It did warm up by the afternoon, so I snuck away from the meet and got in a little run; it was a nice short run.

I just could not face the cold and wind outside today, so I ended up at the SJ Rec Center.  First, I did about 5 minutes on the stairmaster just to warm up, then I ran on the track.  I was planning just to do 3 to 4 miles, but ended up doing 5.  With about 10 laps being a mile, here are the splits:  8:05; 7:38; 7:25; 7:24 and 8:38.  39:12 for the 5 miles.  You can really hit the speed when you have no wind or hills or other obstacles to contend with.  Just people walking in the inside lanes, so you have to run around them.  I then got on the treadmill and spent 18 minutes on a 15% incline walking/running very slowly.  Wanted to go for 30 minutes, but I had to leave to pick up my daughter at Trax.

We had our first track workout at the Bingham track for this year. It's been a long time since I've run on the track, so it took some getting used to. We did a 1200, some 800s, some 400s. My best time for the 800 was 3:47, my best for the 400 was 1:43. I have a lot of work to do, because those times are well off my PRs for those distances. Though I am having doubts that I'll ever get back to those times, but I'll never know unless I try.

Later I did my latest favorite thing, walking/running on the treadmill on a 15% incline for 30 minutes at very slow speeds. This time I did more running than walking, usually it's been the other way around.

I once again did my latest favorite thing, the treadmill thing at 15% incline. Again, like yesterday, I did more running than walking. Then I rode the bike for about 15 minutes, then back to the treadmill to walk at 5.0mph and a 3% incline. Everything felt pretty good. When I've done that fast before walking, my hamstrings have hurt, but not today. I'll take that as a good sign.

The group met at the Tithing Hill area. There were a lot of us at first, then after the warm-up, there were just a few of us: Peggy, Rachel, Lisa and me. The others I guess thought it was going to be a tough hill workout and wanted to avoid running hills. Sounds like they're all tapering for Boston. Anyway, the four of us (actually Peggy had to leave early) ran about a 4 mile tempo, down to the Parkway Palisades hill up to 1300 W., then back. That way had the wind at our backs. These are the stats for that run: Time: 18:49; distance: 2.24; avg. pace: 8:25; best: 6:32

Then coming back, with the wind against us, and starting my Garmin a little late, here are the stats: Time: 14:23; distance: 1.67; avg. pace 8:37; best: 7:03

Lisa had to leave, so Rachel and I ran an easy extra 2.5 (at least that's what I did, she ran a little longer) just down to the trail, up the golf course hill and back. Stats: 24:49; 2.5 miles; avg. pace 9:48; best 7:21.

I did feel sick after the tempo run, so that tells me my thyroid is still not normal. I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks that will change.

I've decided all my hamstring, back and other issues have been caused by poor running form, and I think I've figured out (with the help of my chiropractor, Dr. Shane Watt in South Jordan, if anyone's looking for a good chiro) what I've been doing wrong. So today I concentrated on keeping the form good, though it's so easy to fall back into the way I'm used to running, so it's constantly thinking about doing things right. Anyway, I think it helped because I'm less sore and stiff after this run than usual.

I ran a little on the treadmill, then later I took  Tim to the SJ Rec Center pool and did some pool running.  That felt really good.  My legs and back felt as good as they have in forever after that.  I should hit the pool more often.

I keep wanting to join the group for the Saturday run, but first of all,  I get to bed too late on Fridays.  That's really not the best excuse, because I could get up if I really wanted to.   I guess the best reason is I don't quite want to run that many miles yet, plus I hate running in the cold and the snow.  So I had lots of excuses for not going this morning.  I ended up on the treadmill, first doing 30 minutes easy walking/running, then a fast 5K  on a decline.  That was fun, but boy my legs were sore after.   Downhill running does seem  to be hard on some leg muscle.  The rest of the day I spent in the cold and wind watching a track meet at Timpanogos  High.  It started getting nice just as the meet was ending.  The Bingham boys came in first place.  Maybe we should call them the Bingham Butt Kickers.

I actually managed to get up early and run before school.  I think knowing it was slightly warmer out was motivation for me to get up.  I ran to the high school.  I've been wanting to run and jump stadium stairs for a while, so that's what I did.   I was the only one there.   Then I ran for 30 minutes on the canal road and thru the neighborhoods.  It was a nice run.

Later I went to the service for Eric's baby son.  It was very nice, lots of inspiring words.  We love you Eric!

We met at Parkway Palisades and ran the hills there. We did a few half mile repeats (actually we were supposed to do 4, I did about 3--the first two wiped me out, so I halfway did the other two). Then by popular demand, we ran the two mile route, heading up the road first. I started out tired and draggy, but felt stronger as the run went along. I finished in 16:38. I was happy with that time considering how I felt going into it. It's better than the 17 something I did last time we ran it.

My legs were a little achy today, so I decided to cross-train.  I went bike riding in the afternoon.  I went to the Parkway trail at 9800 So. and rode along there, going into the new neighborhood and doing a few hill climbs.  Altogether I spent about 1.25 hours on the bike.  Later, I guess I just couldn't resist running, I did about 1 mile on the treadmill.

Today, we meet at the So. Jordan park to run our 5k route.  We did it twice.  The first I manged in 25:46, which was an 8:35 pace.  Then I felt pretty wiped out, wasn't sure if I could manage a second.  Then nice Eric said he would run slowly with me, so off we went.  Thank you Eric, for your company, I'm sure I would have stopped if you hadn't been there.  We did that one in 26:55, which was 9:00 minute pace.  That's not as bad as the 29 something I did about two months ago, but not as good as the 22 something I've done in the past.  Will I ever get back to that level?  Time will tell.  It won't be for lack of trying.  I felt pretty sick after the run, and sick for several hours after.  I was hoping to feel better by now.  Maybe in a few weeks.  Then at night I played basketball full court for about an hour.  Now that's a good workout!

Sore legs today for some reason.   Therefore, I had to take it pretty easy, so all I did was go to the canal road and walk/run for about 40 minutes. 

My legs were really sore yesterday, so I was afraid about running too long and on asphalt today, so I opted for the canal road again.  I did a workout where I ran a minute, walked a minute for 60 minutes.   Felt I needed to do the walking thing to keep from hurting my legs further.  I tried to push the one minutes running, and averaged probably around 7:40 for that.  There is good news and better news.  The good news:  I did this same workout about a month ago, and I was a little faster today.  The better news:  last time I felt a lot of the thyroid sickness, today I felt a little sick, but not nearly the intensity of a month ago.  Hopefully that means things will just get better from hereon out.  At least, that's what it better mean.

Later I power walked on the treadmill while watching that sad Jazz game against Golden State.  What has happened to the Jazz?

My legs felt great on Sunday after really bothering me last week.  Today, they felt really good again, as good as they've felt in a long time.  Why such a change over just a few days?  I don't know, but I'll take it.  I power walked on the treadmill for about 10 minutes, then the running workout.  I ran for 32 minutes at about an 8 minute pace.  The good news:  felt just a little sick after, nothing like I felt a week ago when I did almost the same workout.  Maybe my long thyroid nightmare is coming to an end (for those of you too young to remember, I'm taking that from something that was said in the Watergate era, that our long national nightmare was over.  My thyroid issue hasn't really been a nightmare, I just like the way it sounds).  Anyway, we'll see how things go tomorrow.  That will be the real test.

A fun, slightly easy day of running with the group.  Because several of the group are running Boston next Monday, we just decided to keep things low key.  Ended up running around Bingham, on the canal roads, thru the construction.  It was a good run, I just wish I could loosen up just a little more while running.  I always seem to feel a little tense and tight.  Basketball tonight also.

I had a fun day working out on the treadmill.  It was fun because I put no expectations on myself, I just said I would walk and run at whatever speed I wanted for however long I wanted.  I ended up staying on for just over an hour.  I feel like some endurance is coming back.  Sickness monitor:  a little sick, not too bad.  Maybe next week I'll feel totally better.

Had a small group today because several are in Boston to run the marathon. It was fun to get to run and talk with some I don't usually get to talk to. We just kind of meandered around some neighborhoods close to Bingham that we don't usually get to. We ran around the temple also. My garmin wasn't working (again) so I don't know the average pace. It felt for the most part fairly comfortable, not too slow, not too fast. It was a fun run.

About 50 minutes walking/running on the treadmill, then to the canal road to run a little more.

First thing this morning I played basketball.  It was fun, the other team was pretty good, but we were better and we won fairly easily.  I'm not the greatest basketball player but I enjoy running up and down the court.  I feel it is a pretty good workout.  Then after I went to our 5K course and ran it, heading south.  I tried to go by feel, keeping things somewhat comfortable, although that was hard.  I didn't feel overly fast, but my time was 25:32, which was over one minute faster than I ran it last week, so I'll take it.  I then spent most of the day sitting in the sun at Taylorsville High watching my son's track meet.  Later, I was so sore from sitting on those hard stadium bleachers that I had to go to the pool to unwind.  I pool ran for about 45 minutes.  Now that is true fun!

Off track time, and that puts a crimp into my running.  I made it to the canal road and ran for a few minutes there, then went back to the treadmill and put in about 4 miles on that.  Nothing too exciting, but every day can't be.

Up about 4:40.  I drove to Riverton/Herriman to meet at Kelli and Scott's house.  We had 7 or 8 in the group today. Aaron Griffith was there for the first time in like a long time.  Kelli had told us there would be hills, and there were hills!!  But strangely enough, I enjoyed the hills.  We did some loop around Herriman that I could never figure out again on my own.  It was a beautiful morning, perfect temperature, nice views of the valley in parts.  I liked running/talking with everyone.  Thanks, Kelli, I really enjoyed that run and would like to do it again.  Hills are great!

Took it fairly easy today. All my miles were from pool running.

We ran around the Jordan Pkwy and up to 1000 W. and back to the Parkway.  We did that twice.  The first time I ran with Michelle P.  We ran it in about 22:19, which was an 8:28 pace.  After 5 minutes of feeling sick (sorry everyone for having to witness my problems, hopefully these will be over soon), I attempted to run it again.  It was tough because I was still feeling sick.  Kelli and Scott were nice enough to turn around and then Kelli ran with me.  I eventually got into a rhythm and didn't feel too bad by the end.  My pace was about 8:40 on that run.

Forty minutes on the treadmill running and walking, then 20 minutes on the stationary bike.

Busy day.  My son had a track meet at Davis all day, plus I had a few things I needed to get done.  I was able to sneak in a short run in the middle of the day.  I ran mainly on the canal road and the neighborhoods by my house.  Did some 30-30's during the run to make it maybe a little more effective.

Just an easy run/walk on the treadmill, then a few faster things.  Nothing too spectacular, but I got a workout in.

We met at Bingham with the plan to do a track workout.  After a warm-up, we looked around and just about everyone had left the track.  Most of them had run Boston and were still a little sore, so I understand not wanting to do track.  I really didn't want to do the track either, mainly because I've been feeling sluggish running lately and just prefer to run fairly slow and easy.  More on that below.  Anyway, a few of us stayed.  Some, I think Walter and  Rachel, actually did the planned workout.  Lisa and Lynette did a lot of it, they just had to leave early.  Peggy did a little, but she had to leave early also.  I ended up just running some 400's.  My best time was 1:41, the others were 1:45 and a few 1:48's.

The reason I didn't feel very well today and was unable to do the workout is because my thyroid is still high--in fact, higher than it's been in quite a while.  Supposedly my thyroid has been killed or is in the process of dying, so why am I still high??  And not only high, but higher than it was before I did radioactive iodine?  I'm seeing the doc tomorrow, so hopefully he'll explain what's going on.  This is getting old!!   

Not a lot today, obviously.  Just wasn't feeling it.

The group met by Daybreak today.  Smaller group.  It was nice being able to talk with just about everybody.  I actually felt pretty good today, maybe because I did very little yesterday.  We ran two almost two mile loops.  The first I did in 8:19 avg. pace.  Then the second was 8:30 avg. pace.  The best news is that I hardly felt sick today.  Hope that means things are getting better.  We'll see how it goes the next few days.

I walked/ran for 30 minutes at a slow, comfortable pace.  Then I ran some more at a faster pace.  Good news again--did not feel that sick after the run, just a little.  Are things finally kicking in?

I got in a quick workout this morning on the treadmill, then I went to a baptism, then to do Saturday chores.  I was worried that I wouldn't get any more working out in, then my son asked to go to the pool, so lucky me, I figured I'd pool run while he swam.  First I went upstairs at the Rec Center and did a little stair climbing and running on the indoor track, then to the pool for pool running.  It was really fun, I highly recommend it.

I decided to kind of do the proverbial "kill two birds with one stone" today.  I had to take my van for service to Riverton Chevy in the Auto Mall, so I decided instead of getting a ride home that I would run home.  I went west on 106th to the Parkway Trail, ran it to 9800 So., took that to the canal road, then thru Bingham, then home.  I guess I would call it fun.  Still don't like how tense I sometimes feel while running.  Later I got on the treadmill and ran 3 more miles.  Mild coughing/sick feeling after.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I met the group at Parkway Palisades.  We ran the hills, the one mile repeat, the two mile, some hill sprints, a tempo run.  We had it all.  It was fun being with everyone.  Then later I went to pick up my van, so I walked/ran back to Riverton Chevy.  By the end I was running pretty well, had some in the 6 minute splits (just for 30 seconds or so).  Felt pretty good about that run.

I didn't plan it this way, but I just didn't get a run in today.  I did run 3 times yesterday, so maybe subconsciously I was thinking I really didn't need to run today.  The only thing I did was a few little form exercies, so that's why I don't have a complete zero for mileage.

I ran to the SJ park, trying to get well warmed up for our 5Ks.  We started running and I found myself not far behing Peggy, Cheris and Michelle.  I was hoping to maintain that, but gradually I fell behind.  However, I was happy with my time, 23:49, because that is about 3 minutes faster than I ran it about a month ago.   I was pretty wasted at the end, more coughing/sick feeling that I would have liked, but not as bad as it's been lately, so I'll see that as progress.  After some recovery time, we ran it again.  I knew I had to take it easier on this one, and my time was 25:04.  Not bad for feeling sick for some of the run.  Later I hit the canal road with the schnauzer and ran a little more, mainly still working on getting a better form.  I think I've figured out the best form to run with, now I just need to be able to maintain it for an extended period of time.  It is so easy to fall back into the old tense, tight, inefficient way.

I started out on the canal road walking/running to warm-up.  Then I ran 30 minutes straight.  Not overly happy because I still felt too tense.  Also, it was windy, which I did not enjoy.  So then I went inside and ran 3 miles on the treadmill.  That was my favorite run of the day.  By the way, does anybody else think it seems to be windy all the time, at least in the So. Jordan area?

Easy run on the canal road.

Easy 30 minutes on the canal road, then a little harder 30 minutes on the treadmill.

We met at the Bingham track today.  I'm trying to have a better attitude about the track.  Thinking about running on it seems to stress me out.  I realized today that if I just get in a good warm-up and feel loose, not tense, that I enjoy it more.

So we did 3 one mile repeats.  The first I started out with Michelle M., Cheris and Greg.  They were running a fast pace but I just felt like I wanted to stay with them, so that's what I did.  The time was 7:13, the fastest mile I've run on the track in over a year.  But I felt pretty wasted, so the next one was slower, 7:45.  The third I had a little more energy, and  did that in 7:29.  The last part of the workout was to run two 400s.  I really didn't feel like it, but Rachel wanted to (thank you Rachel!), so we ran it.  The first I did in 1:39.  I didn't want to do the second, but again Rachel said let's do it, so I did, and I'm really glad I did.  I felt like I finished strong on that one.  Time was 1:35.  I was especially happy because it's been a long time since I've been in the 1:30's for a 400.  And the best part is I hardly felt sick at the end.  It feels good to feel good once again and to finally get my times down to where they've been in the past.  I still feel like my thyroid is a little high, so maybe we'll have more improvement in the weeks to come.

Easy 30 minutes/3 miles on the canal road.

Met the group at Bingham.  Since it seems like just about every member of the group is doing some portion of the Ogden marathon, we took it very easy today.  And did I enjoy the run!  Whose idea is it to do speed work anyway?  If I could run like we did today every day I might learn to enjoy running again.  We just kind of meandered around, no set course, just wherever we (or maybe I should say "I") wanted to go.  Great morning, great company, great run.  What more can I say?  Here's some more.  Later, my daughter and her boyfriend wanted to do a hike, so I said I'd go along and show them a fun hike in Millcreek Canyon.  I was thinking we'd hike for an hour or so.  It ended up being 3 hours, a lot of it on a hilly trail.  My 9 year old was with us too, plus my 12 year old dog (does that make him 84 in human years?)  It was tough, but everybody held up and I think we thought it was fun.  But no running for me on Friday, a total rest day. 

I'm putting my mileage as it is because I did run from my car to the BYU track to watch the state track meet.  That's about it for me today.  I said yesterday that there would be no exercise for me today, and I stuck with it.

I was up early to get a run in because I knew it would be tough any other time of the day.  I got on the treadmill and ran 8 miles, 5 of it pretty easy, 3 or it somewhat intense.  I then went to Provo to watch the finals of the state track meet.  It was a great day for us.  My son runs for Bingham, and they won all the relays, which had never been done before at the 4A or 5A level at a state track meet. He runs on the medley relay and the 4x400 relay.  He also had a great run in the open 400, setting a Bingham school record at 48.3 seconds.  He finished in 3rd place in 5A, and 4th place in all the divisions.  He was very happy.  He's had a somewhat frustrating track season, so it was good to see him put it all together and do well at state.

Easy running and then some uphill treadmill sprints.

The group met at the Parkway Trail at 9800 So. and we just ran easy along it.  Fun to talk with everyone and to hear about the Ogden marathon.   Avg. pace was about 9:10.

 Met this morning at 6 to bike ride with Dean, Lisa D. and Dean's son Ryan.  We rode up 114th So. to 40th West, by the temple, then back down 9800 So.  Then we did a time trial on our SJ 5K route.  It took me 11:11.  At the end, I had a flat tire.  Besides that, it was a lot of fun.  Later I did hill sprints on the treadmill.  That is always fun.

The group met at Bingham.  I decided that since the last 3 sessions have been pretty mellow, tapering for and then recovering from the Ogden marathon,  I wanted to do something a little more intense today.  So we ran our tried and true 2 mile loop twice.  The first time we did it in 15:37, the second in 15:01.  I ran with Michelle M. and Curt Evans both times.  The difference was I was breathing hard, they were hardly breathing.  It was fun. I think, no I know, that's the fastest I've run that loop in like forever, or at least in the past year of so.   It feels good to be getting a little speed back again.  I had a little sickness after the first one, none after the second.  I won't be happy until there's none whatsoever.

I wanted to do some serious yard work today, like plant flowers, so the running took a hit.  I figure a day off now and then can be a good .

Once again, wanted to spend a day on the yard, so I just got in a short run, 4 miles on the treadmill.  Debbie came over later and helped with her artistic eye to arrange the flowers in a nice way.  Nice of  her to help with that.

Another day with everyone home, so I didn't feel I could spend a lot of time on the running thing, so I got in 5 miles on the treadmill, 2 easy, 3 fairly intense.  Not that I get in much more than that when everyone's gone, I just felt like I couldn't do my usual long warm-up and cool down.   Holidays, they're fun in some ways, but in some ways they mess up the routine, and with everyone home, the house seems to get messier.

The group met up at Glenmoor today.  When my alarm went off, I noticed that my stomach was hurting and I thought I might not make it to group.  I laid in bed for about 20 minutes and gradually felt better, so I decided to go, knowing I probably wouldn't get in much of a run today if I didn't go.  When I got to the meeting place, the group was just leaving, so I ran after them to catch up.  Walter came a little after me, but of course, he caught up easily.  I did not catch up, but was there in time for the first repeat.  We ran approximately one/half mile repeats around the park up there.   These are the stats:

1.  3:42; avg. pace 7:41; best 6:38; distance .48

2.  3:49; 7:44; 6:42; .49

3.  3:34; 7:23; 6:31; .48

4.  3:37; 7:21; 6:16; .49

5.  3:27; 6:56; 5:47; .50

6.  3:28; 6:58; 6:03; .50

Then we ran a 2.61 mile run, that took 21:14, pace 8:09 and best was 6:15

A very nice morning to run and a good workout.  Glad I made it.

A little treadmill work, that's all.

Hill day at Parkway Palisades.  We first ran our tried and true mile; it took me 8:46.  Once again, I'm wondering if I'll ever be under 8 minutes again.   Hard to believe just a few years ago I ran that hill in about 7:20, and I was able to run it regularly under 8 minutes.  Will I get to that level again?  Who knows?  Who cares?  Then we did 3 miles.  My time on that was 24:55.  Hard for me to maintain feeling strong on the longer runs.  Wonder if it's lack of leg power or lung power?  Maybe both?  Then we did 2 miles, it took me 16:08.  The only good thing is the last time we did it in early April, it took 16:38, so at least I was better on that one.  I fell off running pretty dramatically in just one year it seems, and the big question is (lots of questions in this entry) whether I'll return to that level ever again.  Will I? Only time will tell, right?

A few little treadmill sprints.

Today was a great day.  First, started out with a 10 mile run with the fun people in my group.  Cheris had planned a run with lots of hills, and I do have to say, I like hills.  And I like the people in my group, so it was a perfect run, except for missing the people in my group who weren't there.  Then hubby and I went to the temple.  I have this goal of once a month, and today was it for May, so we went and enjoyed it.   Then home to do a few household chores (not so fun, but somebody has to do them).  Then a 10 mile bike ride with hubby that included going up Butterfield Canyon  (giving myself 3 miles for that).  It was hard but enjoyable at the same time.  Then home to a wedding shower for a neighbor.  Then to dinner with the future in-laws to plan last minute wedding things.  Then home to fall in bed exhausted.  But it was a great day.

Did some treadmill uphill sprint work. Not many miles, lots of intensity.

Today the group met at the Bingham track to do a track workout (go figure).  If I had known Peggy had planned the "Marquis de Sade" workout, I may have found a reason to skip today.  As it was, I just decided to plow through it and hope for the best.  I've decided it's best to do the workout and slow down if you have to than to skip part of the workout because you run too hard, which I sometimes have a tendency to do.  So I never felt in the "I'm killing myself" zone today; more like the "I'm a little uncomfortable but I can do this" zone.  Here are the times:  400:  1:48; 3:00 1:18; 200:  :52; 100:27; 400: 1:40; 300:1:15; 200: :48;100: :25.

I thought part B might be some 200's or 400's or something like that.  Imagine my delight when I heard we were doing the same workout again, only in reverse.  This is when my "just survive this" mode kicked in.  The times aren't as good, but at least I did it.  Here are the times:  100:27: 200: 54; 300: 1:22; 400:  1:52; 100: 28: 200: 54; 300: 1:21; 400: whoops, just realized I ran out of lap space, so I don't know that last 400, which is sad, because I kind of tried to finish strong, and I'm wondering how I did.

Overall, I was pleased by the workout because I didn't feel as hammered as I usually feel after doing the track.  In fact, later in the day I even wondered if I had really run, because I had that feeling that I hadn't done anything today.  Not that the workout wasn't hard, it's just that I was able to handle it better than usual.  Think getting that thyroid under control has made a big difference.  So thank you Peggy for showing me I can survive the Marquis de Sade.

A little treadmill sprint work, nothing to write much about.

I really wanted to go to the group this morning because you all know how much I love hills, but when my alarm went off about 5:00, and after having had a sort of bad night's sleep, and knowing I wouldn't be going to bed at all Thursday night because I was helping with my school's grad night party, I just couldn't get out of bed.  Anyway, I slept in, but I don't think I felt much better than I would have if I'd just gotten up.  First thing, we went to graduation down at UVU.  The principal had said it would be a 3 hour ceremony, but it was only 2:35, so that was great.  Now 50% of my kids have graduated high school.  Two down, two to go. 

I was able to get in a run in the afternoon on the treadmill.  Four wonderful miles, felt good.  That more than any caffeinated drink I had helped me get thru the night.  At 9:30, it was off to the party at the Rec Center.  Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun.  It's amazing the party you can put on when you have lots of money to throw at it.  If any of you think you might want to put on a grad night party for your school's PTA, let me know, I have lots of good ideas after last night.  Then my son and another boy had to be in Woods Cross at 4:30am to catch a bus to Albuquerque to run in a track meet down there.  I don't like to drive at night because I have bad night vision, but we somehow made it safely.  When I got home about 5:00 the birds were chirping and I thought this is the time I usually get up to run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so maybe I should just stay up.  I cleaned up the kitchen a little, but by then I'd had it.  I fell into bed at 5:45, slept soundly until having to get up at 7:45 to take my 9 year old to school.  Then back to bed, now I feel great!

Did you guys like that long narrative of what I did?  Thanks for reading.  And by the way, I haven't figured out how to post comments since the change, so thanks to everyone for any comments and as soon as I figure things out, I'll comment back

Some treadmill sprint work.

Only got to the treadmill for a few miles today.

Treadmill work, some downhill, some uphill

Running group day.  We did lots of different things.  The only thing I'm really happy about is that I hit a 1:31 on my last 400.

After yesterday's brutally difficult workout, I thought I'd take it easy today.  I walked backwards on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then frontwards for about 5.  I'm giving myself 2 miles for that.

I ran to our meeting place, the church on 2200 W. and 9700 So. After doing a few strides, we tempoed it up to 4800 So. and back. My avg. pace going up was 8:48, coming down was 7:30. Obviously I need to work on my uphill running more. There shouldn't be that much of a discrepancy between up and down, should there?

Today was treadmill sprint day and then treadmill up a steep incline but very slow day.  Lots of fun.

I really wanted to run today, but I had a lot to do and then felt pretty fatigued from the week, so just decided to take it easy and do nothing, a big fat zero for my mileage.

Three miles on the treadmill.  Felt pretty good today, maybe because basically I didn't run all weekend.

Even though I didn't have the greatest night's sleep, I was pretty determined to make it to early miles at 5:30, although part of me tried to talk myself out of it when it was time to get up.  The other determined part won today, although it doesn't always win.  We met at the Bingham track and ran about 3 miles for the warm-up.  104th So. is pretty bad with the construction, next time we'll try to avoid that road.  Then for the main workout.  I really came into the day not sure what I wanted to do.  I knew I wanted to do some short intervals on the track, but didn't want to do that for the entire hour.  So we did a 200-400 thing where we had a 200 recovery each time.  I wasn't sure how long to go on that until I realized that 4 400s was probably enough.  Then we ran kind of a tempo run to the Prospector Neighborhood and back.  I took that idea from when I ran with Robynn Masters many years ago, she would have us do some track work, then run us out around by the University of Utah.  That was always fun.  Then it was back to the track to finish with two 200s.  I think it's easier when you're the one in charge since you kind of know what's coming up next so you don't mind it too much when you see what comes next, especially if your the one who decides what comes next. Did that make any sense?  Anyway, it was a good workout, good job all you BBKers, we did good today!!  Or should I say we did well today!!  Or we did great!!  Whatever, you guys were awesome!

Treadmill hill sprint day.

I made it for early miles again at 5:30, hurray!  We ran around somewhere, a nice route I haven't run before.  Talked with Kelli and Julie about various things on the blog, then with Peggy about the book I should choose for book club.  Do I  choose one I'd like to read but maybe nobody else would?  Do I choose one that make require everybody spending $20 or more on the book?  Or do I choose one that sounds mildly interesting and there are lots of copies in the library, but it wouldn't be my first choice of a book to read?  Decisions, decisions

Back to the run.  After the warm-up, we ran our 5ks.  The first, we headed north to hit Rustic Roads first.  I ran with Peggy on that and enjoyed talking.  Felt a little tense, needed to loosen up a little.  Time on that was 24:30, which was an 8:13 pace.  I felt tired after and probably would have gone home then if I were on my own, but that's the beauty of a running group, they get you to do more than you would on your own.  So after about a 5 minute rest, we ran the opposite direction.  This time I was on my own.  It was tough but again, with the group, I stuck it out whereas on my own I might have cheated and headed down Canterwood on the way back.  My time on that was 23:09, which was a 7:48 pace.  The last time we ran this, in early May, my time was 23:49, so I had a 40 second improvement.  I was pleased.  I'm getting close to that magical 22 minute range, the range I've questioned if I'd ever get back to.  Maybe next time!  Then it was home to recover, was more tired today than I was on Tuesday, and I thought Tuesday, on paper, was a harder workout.  Maybe it's cumulative fatigue from the week.

Nothing much to report, just very light running.

So today was the day of my daughter's wedding. Doesn't seem that long ago when I was getting married and then two years later having her. Where does the time go? I think everyone wonders that. Anyway, things didn't get started until 4pm, so I had a fairly free morning, so I got on the treadmill and ran fast, just to get in a really good run, although it was short. I did a 5K in 20:40, with the treadmill on a decline, so take that into consideration when you consider the time. It's always easier to run downhill. So I felt good after that. It poured down rain at 3:45, it cleared up by 4:15, we had about 45 minutes to do the ceremony and take pictures, then it poured down rain again around 5:00. We decided to move the reception into our stake center. Everyone in the family was so helpful, it was amazing to see how fast they set up the church. When they were done, it looked almost like that's where we'd planned all along to have the reception. It actually turned out really nice, well attended and I think it actually was a better locale to hold the reception, more room, pretty able to spread out and visit with each other. It just wasn't as beautiful as the back yard we'd planned to have it in, but oh well, considering everything it turned out to be a great and very fun day.

Did some running on the treadmill.  I did another fast 5K, then later did some hill sprints.  Very fun, as always.

The group met at Parkway Palisades.  I was thinking of just running our mile loop several times, but then decided that might get too boring, so I threw in some minute sprints in between the longer runs.  I read in Runner's World that minute sprints are better for training for a 10K than tempo runs, so that's why I threw them in.  I did not turn on my Garmin for the first mile run (even though I thought I did) so I don't know how long it took.  Then two one minute sprints  The first: 6:26 avg, best 5:32; 2nd:  6:10 avg., 5:37 best.  The next mile I did in 8:41.  Then sprints averages:  6:39; 6:56 (90 secs); 6:29; 8:08 (uphill on the main street); 6:44 (downhill); 7:35 (uphill).  Then the half mile from 1300W to the start:  3:35, 6:34 avg.  Two more minute sprints:  6:22 (best 4:54); 6:16 (5:27 best).  I liked seeing all those 6 numbers, although it was for a short period of time (or maybe my Garmin was broken).  Fun run, pretty tired after.

Hill sprints on treadmill day.

If you get out of bed at 4:35, you should be able to make early miles at 5:30, right?  Not so, I had a rough morning.  I did get on the treadmill and warm up some there, so I did get something done.  I then met the group at a new location, 2700 W. and 11800 So.  I think Peggy and I thought that was closer to Daybreak than it really was, because the plan was to run more up in Daybreak, but oh well, it worked out anyway.  We first ran west on 118th as a warm-up.  I liked that because it was a gradual uphill, and that's what I need.  That was about 1.4 miles and the avg. pace was 9:18.  Then about .5 miles of 30 seconds on, 30 off, the pace there was 8:30, with best of 6:30.  Then a 1.94 run, up into Daybreak, around the round about, back down, then north on 40th W., over the temple hill, down and done.  The pace for that was 7:53, time was 15:17.  Then about a half mile run back up the hill and to 114th W.  It took 1:27 to reach the crest of the hill, and my pace there was 7:39, then downhill and to 114th, the pace was 6:41.  Then a 1.94 mile run back to the cars, with one minute on, one off.  My average pace there was 7:45.

This is probably too much detail of the run (translation: boring to everyone reading) but I like seeing 6's and 7's before my avg. pace, it's been a long time since I've seen them, so I need to record them because they may not last!  You never know.  It was a good workout, I felt pretty beat up after.  I'm trying to push the limits, but not go over them, wherever that point is.  I always enjoy running with everyone in the group, they are the greatest!  Bingham Butt Kickers Rule! (I can say that because I don't think Michelle M. reads the blog.)

I decided to rest today for the run tomorrow, so nothing for me. 

I met some in the group at Cheris' house.  Those there:  Cheris (of course), Jody, Michelle M., Lisa, Kris L.  We ran to the start of the Riverton 10k, then ran the course.  I've been feeling pretty good running lately, so I was expecting to do well again.  However, from the get go I was dragging and just generally felt like I didn't have much to give.  We ran it in about 51 minutes.  Originally I thought we might do it twice, but I had no desire to do that at the end, so I just went home.  I was pretty tired all day, then felt a little sick.  So maybe I'm coming down with something and that's why I had such a bad run.  We'll see how it goes this week.

Treadmill running.

Sluggish day, didn't do a whole lot.  A little walking and running on the treadmill.

Treadmill hill sprints.

Still not feeling it, didn't meet with the group.  I did go to the canal road and run with the schnauzer.

I ran 4 miles very slowly on the treadmill, but on a pretty good incline, not all out, but not just a little like I usually do.  Then I rested a few minutes, then got back on the treadmill and ran 3 more miles at a fast pace, but this time on a decline.  Enjoyed the workout.

Whoa, two days in a row of no running.  I guess I'll consider this my drop back time before the BIG workouts come.

I typed up the details of the run, then it all mysteriously disappeared.  I don't feel like typing it over again, so let's just say we had fun on the hills of Parkway Palisades.  If I feel like it, I'll add more detail later.  Thanks to everyone in my group for the well wishes about my father.

I met with the Bunners, the biking group.  We had a great ride up to the temple and back down.  Then it was to Lagoon.  I got my courage up and went on all the scary rides, except the Rocket, which I would have gone on, except my 10 year old didn't want to and just wanted to go home, so that's what we did.  A year ago I watched the Wicked and said there was no way I would ever get on that.  This year, it was actually easy to get on and it wasn't overly scary, it was actually fun.  I'm glad I was braver this year.

The group met at Bingham.  I read about a workout in Runner's World where you run 4 minutes fast, then 2 of recovery, so we did that for 30 minutes, mainly running around Canterwood and Rustic Roads.  We then did a tempo run, down North Forty Way to Rustic Roads, over to Canterwood, up to 2700 W., and back down Rustic Roads.  That was about 2.3 miles.  I averaged 7:33 per mile on that.  Then we ran strong back to the high school.  I was kind of wheezing on that one, something I haven't done in a long time.  Then looked at my avg., it was 7:05, so a little fast for me, even if just for 2 minutes.  That probably explains the wheezing.  I figure I don't have to do any races this year, running group kind of turns into race effort (for me) each time.  It was fun as it always is.

Treadmill work with some hill sprints thrown in.

It has dawned on me lately that I have not run a race since the St. George marathon.  So I wanted to do something that would require race effort, but would be low key, in other words, no one there I knew so that I would not feel extra pressure to do well.  So I decided to do Sasha's 5 mile race down in Provo.  It was a fun, low key race.  But now I remember why I've been dreading doing a race--they are painful!  These are my splits:  7:28, 7:33, 7:40, 7:45, 7:51, total time 38:19.  This was an unusual race for me, because usually my slowest mile is the first, and fastest is the last.  I think this is the only race I've done where I've gotten slower every mile.  But I was able to keep everything under 8, so I was happy about that.  By mile 4 I had had it, I was ready to quit and I would have quit, except it was a race, so I kept going.  Seems like I need more aerobic endurance so I don't fall off pace.  Thanks Sasha, I enjoyed running this race.  The trail was very pretty.  But why do flat races sometimes seem harder than hilly races?

Later my husband and son and I went out for an hour bike ride.

I spent about 50 minutes on the treadmill, doing fast one minutes, then recovery minutes.  It was very fun.

The running group met at Bingham.  After a warm-up, in which I learned about Melanie's career running track at BYU, which was very interesting, we ran some 800's on the track.  My times were:  3:38; 3:32; 3:33; and 3:29.  We then ran our tried and true 2 mile loop, from the back of the school parking lot to Temple View, Bonanza and then Prospector.  The time was 15:04, which was a 7:39 avg.  Then back to the track for a mile.  We took  it fairly easy the first three laps, then hit it on the fourth.  Time was 7:19.  So I tried to not kill myself today, and felt I succeeded somewhat, although I was still quite tired after.  I think that's more from getting up much earlier than I wanted than from the actually workout.  Later, I did some biking, concentrating on hill repeats.

I met the biking group at 6:00.  Last week, Debbie was on her mountain bike and got way behind.  I let her use my road bike today,and I used Michael's, and she was able to keep up and even finished before me.  It's amazing what a difference a good bike makes.  I don't think anyone really believes it until they experience it.  Anway, that was fun to do.  Later I did hill sprints on a treadmill.  That is never fun, but I'm always glad I did them "when they're done."

This was a run I've been wanting to do for a while--up the Suncrest road.  Whenever I've seen this particular road, it has intrigued me, wondering what it would be like to run up.  So today was the day.  We met at 5:30, explored the neighborhoods around there, then at 6:00 started our long trek up.  I just kept thinking, keep things easy and relaxed, just complete the workout.  There were parts of it where I thought we were crazy for doing this, but overall I didn't really hate it like maybe I thought I would.  I was very happy to see what I considered to be the summit, by the information center.  However, Jameson told me he and Peggy went a little higher and it was a lot steeper there.  I heard later that that was probably the real summit.  It was amazing to watch Peggy and Jameson pull away from the rest of us, I think they get the award for best climbers (I've been watching a lot of the Tour de France lately).  I would call them the "mountain goats" of our group (that is a compliment).  Anyway, I was glad to complete the run without too much damage.  The pace up was 11:25.  I obviously need to work on downhill running, because on the way down, I was afraid of falling or possibly twisting an ankle that I put on the brakes too much.  My pace there was 7:58.  On a more gradual downhill I would be able to pace faster, but not on a 10% grade.  Overall, it was a good run, I would like to try it again sometime.  Everyone who ran up, good job, I think we deserve something special for taking on such a tough run.

So after several days of feeling tired and sluggish, today I felt great.  I felt like I could have run Suncrest again, I barely felt sore or tired from that run.  Why did I feel so good?  I figured it out--I finally got some sleep!!  I've been up every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 this week.  Today I slept until about 8:00.  That extra time does make a difference. I had a good run running  sprints on the treadmill, and then did hill sprints on the bike.  Later I went to the new Harry Potter movie.  I'm not really into Harry Potter, but I think I'm finally going to start reading the books, just so I can understand better what it's all about.

I started out by running a recreational 5K down at Parkway Palisades and the Parkway Trail.  I went in thinking being in the 22's would be great, 23 would still be  really good, 24 Ok, 25 not so good, and so on.  I'm hoping the course was long because I only hit a 25:38.  Or maybe it was the 81 degree temperature.  Whatever it was, I was glad I did the run because I haven't done a lot of racing lately, but I was disappointed in my time.  Oh well, we just keep plugging along anyway.

Then I started feeling like I definitely needed more miles, so I spent about an hour on my treadmill from 10pm to 11pm.  I ran slow and easy.  It all felt really good.

Six pretty easy miles on the treadmill.

I had pretty much decided last night that if I woke up in time on my own, I'd go to early miles.  If the alarm had to wake me up at 5:10, I'd only go to the 6:00 running.  Well, I woke up at 4:50, so what should I do?  I decided to bag the 5:30 thing.  Probably the wrong decision, but oh well.  Anyway, got to the track at 6:00.  There was a pretty good sized group today.  I was mad with myself because I forgot my Garmin, and today would have  been a great day to know what pace(s) I was running.  We ran to the entrance to the SJ park off Redwood Rd., then ran some 3/4 and 1/2 mile repeats.  I felt a little sick after that and wondered if I was done for the day.  However, I just decided to run whatever was next and just try to get thru it. What was next was a  run thru Canterwood and Rustic Roads.  I drove the course later and to the entrance of the high school, it was 2 miles.  My time on that was about 15:15, so not too bad of a pace, especially after feeling that I might have been done.  Then a few of us "diehards" I guess you could call us ran 3 400's with 30-second recovery between.  My times were 1:40, 1:39 and 1:35.  It was a fun workout.  I wanted to go to Provo to help with the movie Eric was making, but I had a 10 year old who would have been alone all that time, and I just couldn't feel good about that.  Hope everything worked out well with the movie.

I wasn't sure I would get anything in today because most of my time was taken up with getting ready for book club at my house.  However, around 6:00 I felt motivated to do something, so I power walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then I ran for two miles, pretty fast.  That was fun.

If I had known what we were in for today, I would have pulled the covers over my head at 5am and gone back to sleep.  As it was, I naively got up, looking forward to a nice run with the group.  Peggy had mentioned something about a hill up 114th So. she wanted to run, but that didn't really compute.  We did some warm-up miles from 5:30-6:00, then it was a run up 114th from State Street to 1300 East.  It was pretty much a steady uphill the entire way, until the mother of all hills from 10th East to 1300 East.  It was tough.  It took me 17 minutes flat to run that about 2 mile route, with an 8:38 avg. pace.  Not too bad, I think, for all uphill.  Our group has gotten so fast that even though that was a good time for me, I was one of the ones bringing up the rear.  Where did all these fast people come from?  We then ran from 114th So. to 11000 So. (I think), down to 10th East, back over to 114th So., and then you guessed it, the mother of all hills again.  It was just as lovely the second time around.  That run took 15:35, avg. pace 8:14.  Once again that was a good time for me, but once again, I brought up the rear.  It was during this run that I recognized the hill--it's one we ran last year with Steve Ashbaker.  I really liked the hill back then, thinking it was a great hill to run up.    For some reason, I liked it a lot less this year.

Then it was back down from 1300 East to State St.  I ran that in 14:38, avg. of 7:27, which, you guessed it, was a good time for me, but I still brought up the rear.  At least that avg. was a lot better than the Suncrest average of 7:58.   I knew I could go faster on a more gradual downhill.  All in all, I really liked what we did today and would like to try it again.

It's funny, after running Suncrest last week, I wasn't sore at all.  Today, on hills a lot less extreme, I was a lot more beat up.  My left lower knee hurts and my right shin hurts.   I wonder if it's because I went a lot faster today, especially on the downhill?  Or maybe it's cumulative, this is soreness that has built up over the last few days?  Beats me, just hope I feel better tomorrow so I can get in another fun run.

Seven miles of treadmill running, some fast, some slow.

Ran for 30 minutes in the heat of the day, then ran inside on the treadmill for 60 minutes, some of it very slow, some of it very fast.  Enjoyable day of running.

I ran 30 minutes on the treadmill at a very slow pace, easy, easy.  Then I took a short break, then ran for 30 minutes at faster paces, going fast, slowing down, going fast again.  That is always a fun run that I enjoy.

The group met at Bingham today to do mainly a track workout.  Peggy had us do a broken 5K, so we first ran a 400, which I ran in 1:42, then an 800, which was 3:34, then 3 1000s.  Peggy said to keep the times consistent.  My times were 4:20, 4:25, and 4:23.  Was that consistent?  I was doing addition in my head as we ran, and I knew that to make 5000 meters that we had 800 meters left to do.  I convinced myself I'd be able to handle that.  Then Peggy sprung on us that we had to do a two mile tempo run.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that.  I don't know what it is, when I'm in charge I can handle the tough workouts, when somebody else tells us what to do, I'm convinced I won't be able to do them.   But you have to do them, so we headed off on our tried and true two mile route, thru Temple View, Bonanza, then Prospector.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my final time as 14:38.  The last time we ran that same route, a few weeks ago, my time was 15:09, so I'll take that improvement.  Then back to the track to finish those 800 meters.  We did a 400, time 1:36, then two 200s, times were 43 and 41.  It was all very fun.

Later I ran two very easy miles on the treadmill.

Hill sprints on the treadmill.  Really enjoyed it.

We are on vacation down at Mt. Carmel Jct.  For those of you who have never heard of this great little town, it is really just a junction of two roads, the road coming out of Zion heading east, and SR 89.  There are two of everything there--two motels, two restaurants, and two gas stations.  But only one golf course.  It is a very nice place, relaxing, and beautiful scenery.  For my run today, I ran up the road going to Zion.  I call it "running up the mountain" because that's what it seems like.  I ran up a pretty good way, then back down, then up for five minutes, then down, then up for three minutes, then down, then up for one minute, then down.  I wanted to get in lots of hill work, which I did.  I have no real idea of mileage, I just know I ran for 53 minutes, so we'll call that 5 miles.

Today for my run I ran on a little dirt road that is off the main road on the way to Kanab.  I went down it a little way, then found an uphill trail, so I ran that several times to get in more hill work.  I ran for 36 minutes, so we'll call that 3 miles.  Later in the evening, we went to the sand dunes that are just north of Kanab and I ran in them some.  Have you ever run in sand?  It's pretty tough.

No real running today, but does a really tough hike count as anything?  We went into Zion today and did Angel's Landing.  I've heard about this hike for a few years now from my brother-in-law who has done it a few times and likes to tell me how scary it is, sheer drop-offs on both sides, chains to hold onto on narrow strips of trails with those sheer drop-offs just inches away.  I figured that hundreds of people do the hike every year, and I've only heard of two deaths, one a woman whose husband "allegedly" pushed her off, and another a teenager who was drunk and was obviously not being careful enough.  So I figured as long as I was careful, no worries.  Just to get to the hard part is quite an uphill hike, but if you've run Suncrest, it really wasn't that difficult.  The people I was with have not run Suncrest, so they were struggling.  We made it to Scout's Landing, and then for the treacherous part.  I was ready to turn back several times, but my BIL convinced me it would be ok, plus both my daughters and my older son were doing it and I didn't want to seem like a wimp.  But I wasn't enjoying it one bit, I just wanted it over.  We made it to the top, "enjoyed" the views for a while, then back down.  I thought going back down would be worse because then we would have to see the drop-offs better, but going back down really wasn't that bad.  I was happy to be done with it and said I would never do it again.  Now a few days later I think "maybe" I might try it again if the circumstances were right.  I did run the non-treacherous parts of the trail a little, so I'm giving myself  two miles for the day, just to even my weekly mileage out to 30 miles.

I ran on the treadmill, alternating paces, from very slow to quite fast.  Always enjoy that workout.

A big workout at the track and the roads.  After a 3 mile slow warm-up, we did 4 800's; my times were 3:42, 3:36, 3:34, 3:28.  Then an almost two mile run.  The pace on that was 7:40.  Then about a 1.6 mile run, pace was 7:28.  Then two half miles in Prospector.  My times were 3:37 and 3:39.  It was  a great workout.

Not a lot of mileage, but did put in some sprints on the treadmill.

Today the group's plan was to run 4 5K's.  We like to call them 5k's because it's the old course of the So. Jordan 5K, but whoever measured it got it a little wrong, and it's more like just 3 miles.  But I don't care, it's close enough for me.  That extra .12 miles may have put me over the top today.   So we get there at 5:30 and just take off, turning left and running the course that way first.  I felt pretty good, fairly comfortable.  But that was the plan, stay comfortable so you can finish strong at the end.  The time on that was 26:55 avg. pace 8:56, best pace 6:28.  Hmm, no wonder it felt fairly comfortable.  Will 23 minutes ever feel fairly comfortable?  Probably not.

Anyway, then off for the next one.  This one was harder, I felt fairly uncomfortable on it.  My time was 24:29, avg. pace 8:13, best pace 6:32.

So I try to tell myself we're halfway thru, pick up the pace now.  Did I do it?  No, my time on this was 24:54, avg. pace 8:18, best 6:19

Now I'm starting to hurt, I'm stiffening up, I just want to go home and go back to bed.  But I told myself I was going to run 4, so by golly I was going to do it, even if it took 45 minutes.  The only ones left standing were me, Kelli and Debbie.  We decided we were just going to run slow and just get thru the dang thing!  So we take off, running probably about a 9:30 pace, crest Rustic Roads, start our downhill on 2700 W., and all of a sudden I felt the proverbial "second wind."  Finally, I had some energy, which was nice.  I think my mind knows the misery is almost over, so it's more willing to let me loosen up and run a little better.  If only I can feel that way at the beginning of runs.  Anyway, my time on that was 25:42, avg. pace 8:37, best 5:48.  I guess that's pretty good after averaging probably about a 9:30 first mile.

So while I was happy to finish strong, I wish I had felt a little better on the two middle 5k's.  Always something to be a little dissatisfied about and always something more to work on.  That's the life of a runner, it seems like.  That's what makes running fun!  Congrats to everyone who took on this tough workout, and good job Kelli for sticking it out with me and running all 4.  I hope you felt better than I did when you got home.  It took until about noon for me to feel among the living again.

So I was evaluating why my run yesterday wasn't the greatest, and I realized that my old nemesis (or nemesi), tightness and tenseness, have crept in again (or maybe they never left).  I know I need to run "looser" and more relaxed, so that's what I practiced today.  I didn't worry about pace or anything else, just staying relaxed.  And voila, I had a much better run, much more enjoyable.  I didn't go any faster (probably went slower) but I just felt a lot better.  So that's my goal now for every run, staying relaxed.

PM--I guess I felt so good that I wanted to do another run.  So while my son practiced football at the SJ park, I ran around there for about 30 minutes.  Is that called multi-tasking, running and watching football practice at the same time?

Well, a big goose egg for today.  Not that I planned it that way, it's just that a blister on my foot that I first noticed on Thursday really was bothering me today and there was no way I could run.  Grr, I'm not happy about this, two months out from St. George and I missed a big long run.

Another day of no running due to a small little blister on my little toe.  Who would think a small little thing like that could take me out?  Usually I'm able to run around a blister, but not this one.  The way it feels I don't know if I'll be able to run at all this week.  You know how you can just tell based on pain how long something is going to last?  When it keeps you awake at night burning you know it's going to be trouble.  Hopefully by Thursday I'll be back at it.  I'll miss my group tomorrow and those lovely hills, but what can you do?   I did manage to put in 20 minutes on the Stair Master at the Rec Ctr, so at least that's something.

Day 4 of no running because of the mother of all blisters.  This is as bad as when I broke my toe a few years ago.  With that I was able to put on a shoe and run a week later.  I'm wondering if I'll be able to do that with this blister.  A weird thing about it is that at night it throbs and burns and I have trouble sleeping.  I've never had this experience with a blister before.  We'll see what happens.  I did make it to the Rec Center and spent 20 minutes on the stairmaster.  I wanted to go back in the evening and do more, but I decided I'd rather watch my son's football practice.  So a 20 minute workout yesterday and today.  Not the greatest marathon training.

Progress today.  My toe did not ache last night, so I thought today would be better, which it ultimately was.  I put some liquid bandaid on the blister and that seemed to help.  It was still painful to run with a shoe on, so I went to the park by Marv Jenson's and ran there on the grass with only socks on.  The only problem was that they don't seem to water it too well and there were several dead patches.  Have you ever run on dead grass?  It can get prickly.  Anyway, I ran around there for 30 minutes.  My toe was aching a little at the end.  I later went to the Rec Ctr and did 20 minutes on the Stair Master, then I tried running a little on their track, and interestingly, my toe did not hurt (had shoes on of course.)  So I ran a little there.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow with the group.

I thought I'd give the group a try this morning.  I got there at 5:30, but my foot was hurting, so I skipped out on early miles and just tried to warm up and get to where the blister wasn't bothering me.  After a little running on the Bingham football field, things felt pretty good.  The plan was to do a 6.5 mile tempo run.  I really wanted to practice staying relaxed on this run and having a better experience from last week.  I kept thinking "loose and relaxed, stay loose and relaxed."  I'd give myself about a B minus on accomplishing that.  I felt more relaxed than last week, but still was tightening up more than I wanted.  It's hard to change something that has become very ingrained.  Patience, I must have patience.  And lots of practice.  Anyway, overall it was a fun run, I enjoyed talking with Jody and then Michelle M. at the end when we added on extra at the track.  By that point I had stiffened up from standing around too long, so there was no "loose and relaxed" going on during that run.  By the way, the Garmin says the avg. pace for the main tempo run was 8:10. 

Thirty-six easy minutes on the canal road.  Working on "effortless" running.  Need to do that if I'm going to keep running for the long haul.

Football and kids are messing with me getting in a good Saturday run.  The kids mess me up by staying out late and making it difficult to get to bed at a decent hour, and then the football comes too early in the morning--8:00 the past two weeks.  So I plan to run after football, but you know how things go, it never works out quite as well as if you get your run in early.  Today I went out around 1:00 planning to run for about two hours, I get about 16 minutes in my run and I have to stop and go back home.  Once home, I get on the treadmill and plan to run for an hour straight, but that doesn't happen either.  I probably got in a total 90 minutes of running spaced out, not continuous.  Does that count for a long run?

So I plan to go out today like I do almost every Sunday and take my dog for a walk on the canal road.  Because of my bad run yesterday, I plan to do just a little "shuffle" run, very slow, barely faster than walking pace, just to shake out my legs a little.  So I'm doing that and then I look behind and who do I see but Debbie running--really running--with her dog.  I hate to see her running alone, so I join up with her.  My planned "shuffle" run turns into more of a real run, but I don't care, I enjoyed it, it felt good, and all is well.  My husband said I didn't plan to sin, it just happened, so it's not as bad as if I had planned it.  That makes me feel much better.

So I'm on this new "Chi " Running thing where the most important thing is to run relaxed.  Nothing else really matters, just staying relaxed.  It is so nice, now I know why I was starting to not enjoy running, my upper body was way too tense and I'd come home just a tense, stiff mess.  Today's run was on the canal road again.  I went about 4 miles.  Then I came home and ran some sprints on the treadmill, which I felt strong on.  Good day of running.

Whoa, what a 24 hours.  After yesterday's run, where I felt really good, I was actually looking forward to today's BBK run.  Monday evening I went to watch Tim's football practice, feeling good, no problems.  And then, POW!  I've read before that the way you can tell if you have the flu is it comes on suddenly, one minute you're feeling good, the next you're feeling pretty miserable.  That's exactly what happened with me, one minute good, the next not so good.  No warning or anything.  Let's just say I had one of the most miserable nights of my life.  Today I'm feeling a little better, but unless I start feeling quite a bit better, there will be no running today.  Hopefully I'll be ok for tomorrow.  I don't recommend getting the flu, so everybody, stay healthy out there!

Wow, what I was hoping would be just the 24 hour variety of flu must be something worse.  Coincidentally, I had a physical scheduled for today, so I went to it and the doctor didn't seem concerned about my issues--they didn't rush me in to be cultured for swine flu or anything.  I probably just have to outlast it, but in the meantime, another day of no running.  Last week I was hobbled by a blister, this week's it's the flu.  SGM is taking a hit.  By the way, I got two vaccinations today, one for DPT, one for pneumonia.  By the evening it felt like somebody had punched me in my arms as hard as they could; both my arms were really sore.  It's been a while since I've had any shots, so maybe I'm just "soft."  So along with all my other pains, my arms hurt and I wasn't a happy camper!

Still no running.

I finally felt well enough to run today.  The only problem is I waited until the heat of the day to do it, which probably wasn't too wise.  I thought I'd just go for 30 minutes and see how I felt.  I felt a little weak and was glad when the 30 minutes was up.

Felt pretty good this morning.  Ran along the canal road with the dog and actually enjoyed the run.  I went about 4 miles.  Of course, that's not nearly enough if you're training for a marathon, so I went back out later and added 2 miles.  That's still not enough for marathon training, but it's what I could do today.  The next few weeks I really need to hit it!

I ran on the canal road. Tried to keep things comfortable, but not overly. Mainly just tried to keep my upper body relaxed, succeeded for the most part. Avg. pace was 9:10

The group met down at the church at 124th So. and about 1100 W.  I got there for easy miles.  Started out by talking with Michelle and Cheris about their great Hobblecreek race.  They were taking it easy, so moved up to talk with Jody about her Hobblecreek race.  She wasn't overly happy with how things went, but hey, if I had run 1:39 I would have been very happy.  That would be a PR for me.  Then moved along to talk with Lisa about her and her husband's bike accidents.  Lisa's handlebars came off her bike and she took a bad spill.  Her husband was attacked by a dog on his bike.  They've had a few bad things happen to them lately.  Then we were done with easy miles and regrouped at the church.  My pace for that run was about 8:47, give or take a few seconds.

Because just about everyone had raced this past weekend, we decided to take it easy today and just run and put in the miles.  I made the mistake of starting out with Melanie and then just felt like I needed to keep up.  So I ended up running with some of the faster members of the group, so this supposedly "easy" day turned into probably more of a tempo effort for me, which was fine, I actually kind of enjoyed it.  My goal lately has just been to run more relaxed, especially keeping the upper body from tensing up too much.  I feel I succeeded really well today, I felt pretty good on the run.  We ran 5.37 miles, the avg. pace was 8:18.  Then I just ran by myself for about 10 minutes until it was 7:00, thinking that would be it for the day.  Then Peggy wanted to do more, so I ran with her.  We ran about 2.2 miles, avg. pace 9:55.  At the end we wanted to even out our miles, so we decided to run around the church at a faster pace.  This is where I'm especially happy, hitting a 7:02 avg. for the two minute run, with best pace at 5:22.  How do you maintain that pace for a longer time?  That's my question.  It felt good to put in 12 miles, it's pretty easy when you do it like we did today, and I enjoyed the fast running at the end.   

Today was treadmill day. I ran slowly, then put in some fast hill sprints. It was challenging but fun. Need to get more mileage in though.

The group met at a church out by Daybreak.  I like running in Daybreak because the neighborhoods are pretty plus there are hills to be found.  Got there at 5:30, ran up by the new temple, that was very nice.  Then the main workout.  We were running along 40th West and it was kind of dark and along came two bicyclists who apparently didn't see us in time and they seemed to run into each other.  No one hit the ground or anything, they seemed fine but a little startled to see a group running along there.  Then John all of a sudden pulled up lame.  I thought he was joking at first, but apparently he stepped on a good sized rock and sprained his ankle.  Lisa was nice enough to say she would run back to her car and pick him up and take him home if necessary.  By then I was getting a little worried wondering what was going to happen next.  My plan was to run the big hill by the temple a few times.  Then we saw bicyclists coming down the hill fast, so I was afraid something might happen there.  We went ahead and ran the hill up and down and over and back twice (probably should have done it one more time).  No mishaps there.  Then to 104th So., and we ran up there west into Daybreak and back down, about 2 miles.  My pace on that was 8:02.  I was happy about that because I was trying to keep things at marathon effort.  I kept thinking "pretend it's mile 6 of the marathon and you have 20 to go.  Could you maintain this pace?"  I kept thinking I felt I could (maybe I'm fooling myself, who knows?).  If I could maintain about an 8 minute pace for the marathon, I would be around 3:30, which I would be very happy about.  We did have a mishap on this run--on the turn around, Julie hit the sign, then I think as she was turning around, she fell.  She had a nice scrape on her hand.  Hope she and John are both ok.  I was just happy to get back to the church and no longer to be responsible for any more mishaps.  I enjoyed the run, I felt strong and comfortable--upper body was pretty relaxed.  Since I've worked on relaxing more, I've enjoyed running much more.

PM--3.5 miles on the treadmill.

Four miles on the treadmill.  It took about 35 minutes.  Caught up watching a few TV shows I had DVR'ed.

Before today, I had not run anything beyond about 12 miles at one time since last year's SGM.  I decided I needed to get some longer runs in, so I met with fellow BBKer's at Cheris' house at 5:30am for a 20 mile run.  All I can say is now I know why I avoid doing long runs.  It felt hard and painful most of the way.  I think the problem was the group started out faster than I wanted to run, and since I didn't want to be left behind, I tried to keep up.  I was able to keep up fairly well but I wasn't enjoying it.  We would stop a few times and I would think I would just run slower, but I never really did until we were about 12 or 13 miles in, then I just decided to slow and try to get some feeling back in my legs.  Time was getting to be an issue because Tim had a football game at 8:00 and it was 7:30 and I was just at mile 15.  I realized I wasn't going to make 20 today, so when the group turned off of 9800 So. to 3200 W., I just kept on running down 9800 So.  I called my husband when I got by the elementary school and told him to pick me up, which he did.  I quickly changed, and then made it off to the game, which Bingham won by the way.  So I didn't run 20, I made 16, which considering how I felt, was plently for me today.  I loved the company but did not really enjoy the run.  Maybe I need to do more of those long ones and they'll get easier.  I'm not sure what our average pace was because I didn't turn off my Garmin when we had some fairly long water stops, but I would say the majority of the run was sub 9:00 minute miles.  Now if my marathon goal pace is somewhere around 8:00-8:15 minute miles, and Jeff Galloway says you should do your long runs up to 3 minutes slower than goal pace, what did we do today?  This was counted as a fast continuous run.  Actually, if you don't count the last two marathons I've run, this was the longest run I've done in over two years.  I wish I could learn to love the long run, what is the secret?  Everybody else seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Hmm...I'll figure it out one day.

I ran 7 miles on the treadmill at various speeds/inclines.  Then I pool ran for 30 minutes.  I'm counting 15 minutes as a mile.

Butt-kicking day.  We met at the track and ran around the neighborhoods for just over 3 miles, the avg. pace being 9:06.  Then we did a tempo run up Rustic Roads, back thru Meridies, and back to the high school.  My time on that was 14:49, and 7:48 pace.  Hmm, when we last ran that about a month ago I did it in 14:41, so a little slower today.   I never like that.  Then it was off to do Yasso 800's.  My times were:  3:35, 3:27, 3:39, 3:29, 3:30, and 3:29.  When we last ran these, about a month ago, my times were  about 5 to 6 seconds slower, so I did better on the 800's today.  So according to Yasso, I should be able to run a marathon somewhere around 3:30-3:35.  I would be happy with that at St. George, but I'm not counting on it because Yasso 800's have never worked for me in predicting my marathon time.  Add about 10 minutes to the slowest, and then you have my marathon time.  I had to run off right away, no staying around for any extra mileage.

Here's the thing:  my 5th grader had a field trip to the Timpanogos Cave today.  Ordinarily I don't like field trips and I sometimes volunteer secretly hoping they've already filled the parent spots.  However, I wanted to go on this particular trip because I thought the hike up to the cave would be good cross-training and a good workout.  So I was looking forward to that.  So we get there, we wait around for quite a while because they had to take us up in different groups, and I was in the last group.  When it's finally our turn to go, I was pumped up about the hike.  So we get going, we hike for a few minutes, then we stop.  One of the girls in the group had asthma and was really struggling.  We waited a few minutes for her and her dad to catch up, then we're off again.  A minute later, we stop.  We wait a few minutes for them to catch up, then we're off.  Two minutes later, we stop, we wait, we sit and let everyone catch their breath, then we're off.  Thirty seconds later, we stop, we wait, we go.  Do you get the drift?  We probably didn't hike continuously for more than a couple of minutes at a time.  It took us 1 hour and 19 minutes (yes, I was timing it) to do the mile and a half hike.  That averages to about 1.2 mph.  Have you ever walked that slow on a treadmill?  It is slow torture, which is what I went thru today.  For some reason the teacher didn't want to send any of us ahead, so we had to do the slow march up the mountain.  Very frustrating, but I tried to be a good trooper and keep my frustrations to myself.  I probably won't volunteer for another field trip anytime soon.  So much for my cross-training plans.

I did get on the treadmill later and do a little more running, probably one or two miles.

Did all my running on a treadmill today, at a 2% incline most of the way.  I always enjoy the treadmill, so it was a fun workout.

OK, geek alert.  We ran our 5k's today, and because we have done these many times, I like to compare times from previous years and months.  So here's the lowdown:

Today, these were my times:  25:45; 23:44; 24:09; 24:58

Now, the good news is that these times were an improvement over how I ran them on August 6.  The times then were:  26:55; 24:29; 24:54; 25:42.

So I should be happy that in about a month I have gotten a little faster, it seems.  Plus, I felt much more relaxed today than I did last time, so I feel better about that aspect of the run also. 

However, in  September 2007, when I ultimately ran 3:35 at the SGM, these were my times: 24:58; 23:49; 23:27; 23:09.  So as you can all see I was better two years ago.  So that probably says I won't be running 3:35 or faster this year.

In September 2008, when I ultimately ran 4:01 at the SGM, these were my times:  26:15; 24:54; 25:49; 24:28.  So as you can see, I was slower then compared to today on all except the last one.  What does that mean?  I don't know yet, we'll see after SGM.

Another interesting thing:  I've usually been able to negative split, meaning I get faster on each 5K, which you can see I did in 2007 and  kind of did in 2008 (at least my last one was my fastest).  The two times we've done them recently, my last has not been my fastest. The second has been the fastest both times, then the 3rd was next fastest, and my last was my 3rd slowest.  What does that mean?  Why am I getting slower as we go along instead of faster, which I used to be able to do?  Is it an endurance issue?  Any of you (maybe I should say either of you) have ideas?  We'll see how it all plays out in exactly a month, when we run the big marathon.

Thanks to anyone who plowed thru this entry, probably interesting only to me.

I did a little cross-training and a little running today. Friday I usually spend time working on better form, which is what I tried today. Then something weird happened. I ran on the canal road and was fine, no problems. I went to my son's football practice, everything still fine. Then I went to a neighbor's wedding reception, stood around talking wearing you know kind of dressy shoes, came back home and then out of the blue I was hit by a pain in my left knee. It was either the ITB or the meniscus--I only know about the meniscus because my son hurt his a few months ago and my pain seemed to be where his pain was. It was weird because I didn't feel anything while running, it just seemed to hit when I got home in the evening. I've never had something like that happen before, usually you feel a little twinge and then it gets worse and then you really feel it. This seemed to come out of nowhere and it was somewhat painful--enough to know I probably wouldn't be running for at least a day or two. Very strange.

I wanted to meet up with the group and do their planned workout today, but because of the pain in my left knee, I knew there would be no running today.  Whenever I get injured it means one thing--cross-training, and for me today it was pool running.  I went to the Rec Center about 7:45 to pool run, then a water aerobics class came in at 8:00, so that cut short my workout.   I did get in 30 minutes of running.  I came back later to do more, and this time I just had to dodge all the kids that like to hang out at the pool on Saturday.  I got in an hour of pool running.  Not the same as land running, but I felt like I was working hard.  I'll give myself one mile for each 15 minutes of running.  Typing this Saturday evening, my knee feels better than last night, but I still don't think I should try running on it.  Good thing tomorrow is Sunday, my rest day (usually), so we'll see how things go on Monday.

I ran 6 miles on the treadmill while watching the Bingham-Texas high school team game.  Bingham lost by two touchdowns I think, and that was too bad.  Then later I went to the Rec Center to do some pool running.  Labor Day is a bad day to try to swim at the Rec Center, way too many kids in the way.  I made it for 45 minutes, then had enough of dodging kids.  I will count that as 3 miles.  My knee felt much better today.  It was a strange thing, how it came on suddenly with really no warning and then went away after a day or two.  The way it felt when it first hit, I thought I might have to cross-train all this week.  Fortunately, it got better faster than I thought.  Let's hope that doesn't happen again.  Can you imagine being hit by something like that, completely out of the blue, the night before a big race?  That would be very frustrating, so I'm hoping the bizarre knee pain will stay away for good.

Today the group met at Parkway Palisades, but we didn't really hit the hills too hard--we're saving that for Thursday. We did warm up around the Parkway Palisades neighborhood, then when we regrouped, we went over to the main hill and ran that once. My time was 8:27. Then we went to the trail to run some tempo/harder intervals. My idea was to run for 10 minutes comfortably hard, then 5 minutes really hitting it. The only problem with my plan was it was dark and I could not see my watch, so I had to guess on time. Fortunately, Cheris came up on me at the end and let me know how much time was left. In the 15 minutes, I ran 1.94 miles, with the avg. pace about 7:40. As we were standing around recovering, I thought I wanted some incentive to run the next one faster, so I came up with my brilliant idea to have the speedies start behind and then try to chase and catch up with the rest of us. What a difference it makes when you're running "scared." This time in 15 minutes, I covered 2.06 miles with the average pace 7:19. I was pleased because I haven't averaged that fast in a two mile run in quite a while, so even though I don't really like the idea of everyone wanting to run us down, it does get us to run faster than we would otherwise, so it seems worth it to me. Some of us then ran our main hill again. I wanted to take this one easier, but Nancy R was running by me, so naturally we were pushing each other. Time on that was 8:32. It was all a lot of fun, as always with our group. Later this afternoon, I made it to the Rec Center for 1 hour of pool running. I love pool running, it's so relaxing and rejuvenating to the legs.  I'll give myself 4 miles for that (1 mile for each 15 minutes).

Six miles on the treadmill.  Ran for 30 minutes not going below 7.0mph and getting up to 7.5 for a lot of it, on a 2% incline.  Then ran fast minutes, mainly at 8.5mph and 2% incline.

Our group's plan was to run up 114th So. to 13th East, then from 13th east to 11000 So., back down, past Alta High, back up to 13th East, then back down.  From 1000 E. to 1300 E. is a nice hill.  My times were 16:53, 15:20 and 14:52.  We ran this on July 23rd, and my times that time were 17:00, 15:35 and 14:38, so I was faster on the first two, but not the last one.  I think I could have been a little faster today on all 3 runs if it hadn't been so dark.  I ran on the sidewalks a lot and was afraid of hitting an indentation or something and falling, so I held back a little.  The best part is I felt great at the end, felt like I could have done it again (if really coerced), I did not feel wasted like I think I felt the last time.  Fun run. 

PM--Because I missed the early mileage this morning, I felt like I needed to do a little more.  So I ran 4 miles on the treadmill, then went to the Rec Center and did 30 minutes of pool running, which I will count for 2 miles.

Well, good and bad news today.  The good news is I got a lot of miles in.  The bad news is that I tweaked my left quad and I think it will put me out of running for at least a couple of days.  This is the second Friday in a row where I've done something that hampered my running.  Last week I felt better by Monday.  I'm hoping for the same this go around.  But I've missed out on two Saturdays of getting any real running in--pool running is close but of coursre not exactly the same as running on the roads.

I was hoping I could at least run a little today, but it just wasn't happening.  Then I thought if I couldn't run I'd at least get out for a couple of hours and just have the experience of being on my feet for a long time.  So I headed out on a walk, hoping to make it for at least an hour, two would be better.  Things started out fine, but about 30-40 minutes into it my quad starting hurting, enough to make me think if I kept going I would just be doing more damage and hinder the healing process.  I did make it to an hour, then that was it.  Very sore quad.  I'm still hoping I'll be able to run  by Monday, but we'll see.  Based on the pain level, I'd be surprised if it put me out for more than three or four days, but you never know.  I'll give myself 4 miles for today, one for each 15 minutes.

My quad was still just a little sore today, so I mainly just power walked with a few short bursts of running thrown in.  I'm giving myself two miles for this workout.

The group met at the church at 40th West and 9800 So. today.  I did not come for early miles because I wasn't sure how my quad would feel and I didn't want to overdo things.  When I got there, Melanie was just arriving also, so we ran a short distance up 9800 So. then back to meet the rest of the group.  The workout consisted of two tempo runs from 4800 W. up around the neighborhood and back down.  The first time we ran north and then up, that took 10:22, with an avg. pace of  7:35 for 1.37 miles.  The next time we started south, then up; that took 10:06, avg. pace 7:11 for 1.41 miles.  I was happy with that effort, I felt pretty strong on it.  Then it was hill sprints on the big Glenmoor hill.  We did 4 of them, I did not catch speeds or anything like that, I kept forgetting to hit the lap button.  I did like doing those hill sprints, though, I think sometime we should come and just concentrate on doing those for half the workout.  Then it was back to the car.  I guess the idea was to cool down, but I still had some energy left, so tried to feel more like tempo pace.  It was a fun workout.  Not as many miles as usual because I missed the early miles, but I liked how I felt all during the workout.  Maybe that goes to show  there is something to tapering.  I really hadn't run since Friday and I felt like I had lots of energy today.  My quad felt good, so I'd give this workout a solid "A" grade.  Later I power walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and then pool ran for 30 minutes.  Love that pool running, it's really rejuvenating.

Did some power walking on the treadmill, some hill sprints, and pool running.  I figure five miles for all that is probably somewhat accurate.

Well, what can you say?  Some days of running are good, some days (most days?) not so good.  I've had about a year and a half of not so good days, frustrating days, days when I've wondered if my best days are well behind me.  Finally, today, I had one of those good days.  I finally hit some times on the track that I was able to hit fairly consistently two or three years ago, but just haven't been able to do recently.  We ran 800's and after the second one, I decided to try and pace off of Cheris and Michelle.  That's when I was able to run some fast times (for me).  Here are the times, and in parantheses are my times from two weeks ago, just to compare between then and now:  3:25 (3:35); 3:24 (3:27); 3:13 (3:29); 3:17 (3:29); 3:14 (3:30); 3:18 (3:29) and 3:10 (only ran six last time).  That 3:10 is my fastest time in about two years.  So needless to say, I was happy about this workout.   Now I need to work on endurance.

Light day, just a little treadmill running, some hill sprints.

I woke up early, like 5:10, but didn't feel like I had enough time to get ready and meet some of the group at Cheris' house, so I just bagged that idea.  I got up, did a few things, then laid back down and slept some more.  Great way to start the day (not!).  Anyway, I finally got going, and this is what I did.  I took Schneider to the canal road and ran for 40 minutes.  Not overly happy with the run, I felt like I was struggling more than I should have for a 9:15 avg. pace.   Then I went home and ran pretty easy on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  Then later this evening during the BYU-FSU game (Ugh!) I ran some more.  I did a 5K in 21:35; that time is deceptive because the treadmill was on a decline so it was easier than if it had been flat or on an incline (obviously).  It was still an enjoyable run; just enough intensity to challenge me, but not too much to wipe me out.  I didn't enjoy the football game, but I did enjoy the run!

My workout today was a fast 5K on the treadmill, then some hill sprints. For some strange reason I almost always enjoy that workout.

The main part of the workout today consisted in running six 800's with 30-second recovery between each.   I was looking back at past training the other day and noticed we did this workout about a month before SGM in 2007, and I noticed that the times for the 800's were all around what I eventually ran SGM in that year (if you throw out the first warm-up 800.)  So I wanted to experiment with that again today just to see if what I did today will coorelate with how I run the marathon in 11 days.  So here are my times today, and in parantheses are the times I ran back in '07:  3:37 (3:46);  3:32 (3:39); 3:29 (3:38); 3:26 (3:36); 3:26 (3:33); 3:20 (3:32).  So it's interesting, all my times were faster today, so that says I should run a faster marathon this year.  However, my training this year, I feel, hasn't been quite as good as it was two years ago.  Then, I ran several half marathons leading up the marathon, which I haven't done this year.  I've never been good about getting in long runs, so it's no different this year.  We have done some "big workouts" as suggested by Paul Peterson this year that I don't think we really did two years ago.  Another thing different this year is that I've been working on a more efficient running form, so maybe that has made a difference in being able to run faster 800's today.  I don't think having a better form will make up for lack of basic endurance, which is what I feel I lack this year as compared to 2007.    It will be interesting to see how it all plays out in a week and a half.

Treadmill hill sprints, work on running form.

Today we met at the SJ park to run our 5k's--only two this time.  It felt a little like a vacation after we ran four the last two times we've done this.  My goal going in--actually my goal all summer--has been to hit in the 22 minute range on these 5ks.  Just some history:  last winter, when I think I was at my all time low with running, I barely made it under 30 minutes on one of these.  I wanted to blame the cold and the snow on the ground, but I knew it went deeper than that, so to speak.  I knew I had some problems that needed to be corrected if I ever wanted to run these 5K's well again.  Eventually some things got taken care of, the most important being my thyroid, and the times came down.  However, I still was not able to hit that magical 22 number despite what I thought were my best efforts.  My best time before today was 23:09 which I did in June.  Lately, all the times have been in the 23 to 25 minute range.  Today we started south, and I tried to keep things relaxed and fairly comfortable, focusing on keeping my form good.  I ran that in 23:30.  Good, but still not where I wanted to be.  The second we ran north, and this time I ran with Nancy R. the entire way.  I think having her by me kept me going strong, and, what do you know, I finally made it into the 22 range, 22:31 to be precise.  Nice to reach a goal.  The best part is I didn't feel totally wiped out at the end, I felt like if I had to, I could have done two more 5K's.  However, I'm glad I didn't have to.  Tapering is nice.

Another day of working on my form and treadmill hill sprints.

I ran the Steeple to Steeple race today--from the Oquirrh Mt. Temple to the Jordan River temple.  They said it was 5 miles, and at first some of us were thinking that it wasn't that far, but then it turned out to be a little over 5 miles.  I started out with no warm-up--looking back I wish I had put in a little warm-up, but oh well.  I took off and there came Michelle M. and Dean running the wrong direction, then they turned around and joined the race.  My goal was to stick with them or at least not let them get too far ahead, which I did pretty well.  I would say they were no more than 10 seconds ahead of me at any point before the last mile.  Becky Christensen was close behind me pretty much the whole way, so I was trying to keep Michelle and Dean in reach and keep ahead of Becky.   I got stopped once at 9800 So. and Redwood Road by the traffic for maybe 5-10 seconds; Michelle and Dean did not get stopped, and it was then they opened up a gap I was unable to close.   They seemed to get faster once they turned onto 1300 West, so there was no hope of catching them.  I think I finished about one minute behind them.  In my mind, I thought the finish was a church south of the temple, when it really was a church north of the temple, so the finish was there before I expected it.  I wasn't able to put on a finishing sprint like I wanted to.  I think my time was 36:50 (started my Garmin late, one of these days I'll get that Garmin right).  I was second female, behind Michelle.  Becky was third, and I think the BBKs can claim her, so we finished 1-2-3.  Walter won for the men, so we swept this race.  Avg. pace was 7:09--that may sound pretty good, but remember this was a nice downhill race.  I really liked it.

Light treadmill work.

We met at Bingham to do the last best pre-marathon workout, which consisted of three 1-mile repeats and then two 400s.  The first mile was up and down Rustic Roads.  That took 8:06.  The next mile was from Rustic Roads to Canterwood, up to 2700 W. and ending at North Forty Way.  That took 7:53.  Then it was down Rustic Rds. to Merides and then Culmination.  That took 6:51.  The 400s I did in 1:39 and then 1:29.  Obviously, I ran the second two miles a little faster than marathon pace.  All the years I've run St. George, I've never had a sub-7 minute mile.  I'm hoping this year to keep all miles (except maybe for Veyo Hill) below 8:30.  We'll see how it goes.