Clyde's Comeback!

10.3 race miles

1.7 warm up and cool down miles (not so good today)

My 2nd leg (Leg #16, 6.1 miles long, 34:07, 5:36 avg min mile pace)
In the land of relay’s you may be running a 6.1 mile race at 2:36 in the morning. That’s exactly what I did today. This was the most eventful leg I’ve ever run in my relay history. I took off and had about .2 miles of paved road and then it turned into gravel, with pot holes and keep in mind it’s dark. So the course was rolling (some up some down) and I’m stumbling up through grapefruit orchards and all this time I’m brewing up a witch’s brew in my stomach with that Subway from earlier, a chocolate GU, and way too much Gatorade. As I’m laboring to get things going I feel like I’ve been running for about 3 miles but don’t want to take time to look at my Garmin to see how far it’s actually been- so I wait until it beeps at the next mile and then the light comes on and I look to see where I’m at. It just about floors me that it only says 1 mile. I thought to myself there’s no way. But I just keep moving along and at mile 2 I start to get a good side ache. No problem I’ve had them before just keep running. Well 5 miles into the run I start to do little dry heaves. But I don’t think too much about it as now I’m starting some good downhill and almost done. Then it turned into about every 6 strides I’d heave and I had just passed three people and I knew they could hear me. However I was coming up on a girl and then I felt it coming and knew (this was the real deal) and vomit was coming out. As I got closer to her she could hear me loudly screaming, and making the puking sound. Then she turned around all scared and screamed “What way are you going to go ?”, meaning are you going to pass me on the right or left so I can get out of the way of the splash. I tried to answer her but when I spoke I started puking and said “I don’t know”. It sucked. Then I just pressed on and finished and never apologized to her. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t get any on her.

Then we went to the next major exchange and I got about 20 more min’s of sleep, and tried to settle my stomach before my last leg. I was hungry but didn’t dare eat anything until the relay was over.

3rd leg # 28, 24:42, 6:04 min mile pace. This leg was virtually all up a really nasty hill. When I took off I thought I’d like to run it at least under 6 min mile pace. But the lack of food, rest, a head wind and the hill it’s self just killed me.  I tried to gut it out and pushed about as hard as my tired legs would go and in the end was actually pretty amazed I had ran it that fast. I still had some side ache pains hanging over from the 2nd leg nightmare so my breath was a little short. But overall I was happy with the performance of this leg. I also saw a coyote staring at me but then he ran off. Must not have wanted to get any puke on his pretty fur coat. The best part of this leg was that I passed a runner and when I did it put us out in front of the rest of the 190 teams. Now there was no one left to pass and we could just finish strong as a team and win.

This was a great trip. We had a blast during the race and even more fun hanging out the rest of the trip. When the race was over all 12 of us and our drivers (James & Steve) went to James and Lybi’s house for a great pasta dinner. It was fun to hang with the other guys and hear their stories.
Then our travel van decided to drive back home. We had planned on staying down there but all wanted to get home to our cute little wives. So we bravely left and about 50 miles up the freeway we all hit rock bottom. We had pretty much been up for 36 hours and together ran 190 miles. We ended up pushing on to Flagstaff and getting a room for the 7 of us and enjoying one of the best Ihop meals you could ever dream about. The guys got a little out of hand there and I had to be the adult and settle everyone down before we got into trouble. Then we talked about the influences of soccer on our American society.

ZZ Top
Baseball
Elmers Glu
Vicks

You know what I’m talking about. Just makin’ memories baby.

12.3 mile run this morning up to new overpass and down around GS. I felt pretty good this morning after the long weekend of racing there was a little left over soreness when I went uphill  today but nothing too bad. 

(White Cumulus 111.8)

8.2 mile run this afternoon. Up the trail to the powerline, over to water tank and down around the industrial park. As far as running goes I felt pretty good this afternoon. I was just trashed from a long day at work.

12.3 mile run this morning. Same run as yesterday morning. Nothing too flashy going on. I kept the pace right around 7:15 min mile and just tried to relax and run. Long day planned at work.

(Stratus Red 124.1)

7.8 mile run this afternoon. Good ol' Powerline/GS loop. You can tell spring is in the air with the warmer weather... however it also brings wind and I hate wind.  Had a non-typical day at work. We ended up doing a bid for a putting green is someones back yard (typical) but they also wanted a cement pad placed right next to it. So I spent most of the day wheelbarrowing cement into a backyard and then finishing it. It sucked and now I'm officially drained. The good news is we've only did that twice in about a year and a half.

 (Blue Stratus 192.25)
 

12.3 mile run this morning. Same as the prior two mornings. Not a bad run. It was a little cooler out this morning, once I got to the golf course there was ice forming on the sprinklers. I'll be working down in Mesquite today so I'm going to try and run in off Utah hill this afternoon/ evening on the way home.

(Blue Cumulus 194.2 )

8.2 mile run this evening. Well it was a long day down in Mesquite and I was planning on running 10 or so miles back into Ivans on the way home... however we ate at a casino buffet before leaving town and one thing I really struggle with is saying no to free food in mass quantities. So I did partake and then had to wait a few hours to run. Once home I decided to run from my house down past Costco and onto the river trail down to the other trail that drops under St. James place and then back up to my in-laws house. It looked like it should be a pretty good run... Well, well, well Clyde pays the price again. The buffet hadn't even began to digest especially the pork tamales. Again I dry heaved and felt the pain in my stomach. I used Jedi mind tricks to try and keep it down and not spew all over the bike path. At one point I just had to stop and take deep breaths and wait a few before I could go on. Then when I got to River Road up at the end of St. James Place the Jedi stuff wasn't working any more and I had to stop running and just walk it out for about .2 miles. Finished up and just laid on the floor at my in-laws for about an hour trying to decide why I just don't say no to drugs ( drugs being the buffet).

Anyways another lesson learned at least until next time.

(Red Stratus 132.3)

12.3 mile run. Regular morning run. Pretty chilly out this morning. I felt much better this morning that I did last night on the run. So far this week I've been able to feel pretty good even though I've been working everyday and keeping the mileage up. Hopefully I can fight off the mid to end week "Wall".

(White Cumulus 124.1)

Met up with the club for a 10 mile run this evening. We hit the trail loop up above Red Hills golf course and then dropped down into town. There we were running down in the direction of the temple and Steve said we should do a fartlek down to the temple. So I took off for about a half mile and was pushing about as hard as I could. I never looked at the garmin to see how fast we were going but when I go home I looked and it said that at one point I was going 3:56 pace. No wonder it felt hard. I'm guessing that we held that pace for around 700m or so. Then the rest of the run was just at easy pace.



(Blue Stratus 202.25)

12.3 mile run this morning. I've been running this run over 1:30 something all week and today despite being drained at the end of a week I ran it in 1:28:54. Not anything amazing but I wasn't trying to push the pace so it's nice to see that I'm really not as sluggish as I feel. Now I've got a big day of house chores and getting the dogs groomed... But I love my life as a stay at home dad.

(Blue Cumulus 206.5)

5.7 mile run this afternoon. I had a long day of laundry, dishes, shopping, and getting the doggies groomed.  

20.4 mile run this morning with the club. They all were actually doing 15 miles so they took me up an extra 5 up past Veyo. This run was scary similar to a run I did on Aug 4, 2007. It was within seconds on both parts of the run. I had originally planned (today) to try and do the second ten miles at around 5:20 pace... this to try and equal a workout that I had done on September 8, 2007... pretty aggressive considering that was one of my top 5 best running performances ever!

Today it just wasn't happening. I had to work a little too hard on the first half to hit the 6:38 pace I ended up with- then on the second half there wasn't a lot of kick. Plus there was a mild headwind that cost me about 10 seconds a mile, and I'm at the end of a really high mileage week (for me). To top all of that off I'm trying to teach my legs how to run fast again. I have to remind myself that it is only March 8 and we are very early in the year to have much speed at all.

Goal for the spring/summer is to run that second 10 miles at 5:10 pace or faster!

Total- 2:03:54 for 20 miles.

PART 1: 6:38 min mile pace for the first 10 miles. 1:06:44

PART 2: 5:42 min mile pace for the last 10 miles. 57:10

Here are the splits for the last 10 miles although they really aren't that impressive:

1. 5:58- taking a GU and running with a drink

2. 5:25- Nice relaxed mile

3. 5:36- Met the headwind for the first time and battle it on in!

4. 5:47- Wind

5. 5:56- This is a pathetic mile it should have been 20 seconds faster on that grade... Bad wind though.

6. 6:00- Battling up the hill by Winchester and the wind

7. 5:38- Really try to get some turnover and save the workout!

8. 5:27- A little better but still should have been faster.

9. 5:38- Blah!

10. 5:40- Should be close to a 5 min mile on this section. I do have to stop completely at the light and stop the watch (sucks because now I'm not really going to get going again).

So the good news of the workout is that I didn't bail off and pull out of tempo gear. Although it was very tempting at some points. I'm happy that inside of a 120+ mile week I could hit the same caliber of workout that I was hitting last year in August.

Around .4 miles of cool down. It should have been more but I was trying to get home to go the the track meet with my wife.

(Red Stratus 152.7)

12.3 mile morning run. The new standard loop. The legs felt pretty sore from Saturdays workout... very sore actually. That's a good sign- it means I got a good workout on the club run on Saturday. So I just went out this morning and tried to focus on good form, breathing, and stride turnover. Amazingly I finished in 1:28:24. That's faster than any of my times last week when I had fresh legs. So I hope the good luck trend continues and I can shake out these sore legs and get ready to have a good race for the Spectrum 10k.

(White Cumulus 136.4)

7.8 mile run this evening. The legs a little more heavy and stiff than they did this morning (not good news).  I pushed myself out the door and drug it along up into GS and onto the Powerline trail. The good news is the weather was just priceless today. What a nice afternoon/ evening clear and calm and right around 70 degrees.  

12.3 mile morning run. I ran my loop backwards today. So up into GS first then up the dirt trail down into Washington around and over to the new overpass and back home. The Garmin measured it right on with the other way. I'm still feeling pretty trashed but somehow ran a PR on this course with a 1:27:06 @ 7:04 min mile pace. I'm guessing that this direction is a little faster that the other way. I got a text from my quads that said: "Hey we are ok with running 20 miles a day. We are even ok with some 6:30's and a few 6's. But we are not ok with anything fast on hard downhill."

How do I respond to that? Especially with the Spectrum 10K coming up on Saturday. Last years first mile for me was a 4:4x on a mean downhill through Snow Canyon park.... I'm doomed.

(Red Stratus 165)

9.2 mile run this afternoon/evening. The time thing has just got my mind going crazy. It totally doesn't feel like it's 6 p.m. and the weather is making it feel like the end of April so I'm all jacked up. Anyways the run was ok. Just up to the powerline and down through GS- then back home long  through Middleton. My legs are starting to feel a little better and losing the soreness of Saturdays workout. I think on the grand scale of things I'm more sore than if I'd had raced a good half marathon. Hopefully along with getting faster over the spring I can also build a better resistance to soreness. At least I did last year... because I wasn't sore after the same type of workouts.  

Oh one more day until I can taper a little!

(Blue Cumulus 215.7) 

12.3 mile morning run. I didn't wear a watch this morning so there wasn't a temptation to PR a third day in a row on this course. Throwing PR in to a sentence makes thing sound fast... not really. I'm absolutely trashed. I just can't recover from Saturday. But not having a watch today just let me relax and not try to keep any type of pace. I'll do that again tonight and then taper off hard on Thursday, and Friday... then hopefully go to the race on Saturday and not get too embarrassed by the likes of Nick, Dave, and possibly a couple high schoolers.

(Blue Stratus 214.55)

3 mile run this evening. Well after my morning run and the soreness in the legs was still about a 8 out of 10 I decided I needed a message. So I went to Message Enve and used the free gift my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. I know it's about time. I just struggle with them. This is only the second message I've had since October of 2006. But the girl did a pretty good job today and worked my legs out- mostly the quads. After the totally relaxing trip there I really didn't want to ruin the feeling with going out and doing a second run. I kind of wanted the message to sink in and last... But after a few hours of pacing around the house I finally caved in to a slow, easy run to try out some new shoes. I guess we will just call it an early taper.

(Landreth 3)
 

7.3 mile morning run. Ran down to PVHS and talked with my wife and then went around the dog pound and up through Washington to the fire house and on home. The soreness wasn't really and issue this morning but there is no flow right now- normal for a race week. I aways feel pretty crappy until the day of the race and then about 80% of the time I end up feeling good.

(White Cumulus 143.7)

8.6 mile run this afternoon with the running club. We went up to the start of the 10k course and ran it back down into Ivins to see all the changes they have made since last year. Then we made our way back over to Mike's house. I got caught along the way needing a porta potty and had to leave the guys. Then I found Kendra and jumped in the van to go back to the store. Anyways pretty good run and the legs are feeling much better today than earlier this week.

(Landreth 11.6)
 

8.1 mile run this morning. Up to Poweline and down through GS back home via Middleton. Legs felt pretty good this morning. Plan on doing a few more this afternoon and then the race tomorrow morning.

(Red Stratus 173.1)

5.1 mile run this afternoon. Felt antsy and nervous all day so I just went out and tried to shake it out. I through a few three surges in at around 5:40 pace for like 600m just to try and prime the pump. Anyways I'd feel a lot better about this race tomorrow if it was a half or something a little longer. 10k's are so hard and fast!

1 mile at the house at around 6:50 a.m to help the tummy get going if you know what I mean.

2.6 mile warm up at the start. This could have been a bad choice. I ran up the hill after the bus dropped up of for a little over a mile. I needed a good warm-up but not a steep uphill.

At the start I could see fast people everywhere and decided that Dave and I had our work cut out for the race. We jumped on with Nick M, and a UVSC runner (last name Moody). Here's how the race boiled down:

1. 4:40- A fast first mile but I knew it would be on that steep downhill sections. All 4 of us are together and Hip Hip Jose is out in the lead pulling his usual stunt.

2. 5:10- The course rolls through some washes and stuff so it's up and down through here. Moody and Nick are up on Dave and I but we're not too far back.

3. 5:01- I try and really work on this mile. Nick drops the Moody guy and it looks as if I can go get him... so I surge hard in a few places. 3 miles in 14:51!

4. 5:23- I wanted this mile to be better but as we turned uphill into the houses I started to drift and really struggled to get to the top where it turns and heads back down to the main road. Dave is close as we are going up, but on the downhill back out I try to put a few seconds on.

5. 5:35- I'm still back in no mans land and totally up for grabs if Dave wants to take me out. One this mile Nick and Moody miss a turn and head straight in to the finish. At the point that I turned I'd say I was 1 min back from Nick and around 25 seconds back from Moody. So Dave and I turn back uphill and weave our way through the desert.

6. 5:36- I'm still just hanging around. Now my mind is racing thinking about how those guys missed the turn and what would become of it all. I decide to give it just a little more to lose Dave for good and I think he is gone... Well as I turn the corner at the round-a-bout out of the corner of my eye I see him ROLLING like 3 seconds away. So I quickly shift gears.

.2 miles in 56 seconds- I surge hard for about 400 m to discourage Dave from coming up. Then once I realized he was o.k with it I was o.k with it and I just coasted on in.

2.5 Ran back to find Mik'L and she was doing great and most likely could have done better without me giving her the splits and stuff. She did a good job smashing the hour mark with a 56:30 I think.

The race was pretty good. I didn't care about what the time was because I didn't know what to expect from this course. All I wanted was to go run to my potential considering the training and such... and for the most part I think I did. The steep warm-up mile might have slowed me down just a little through the 4th or 5th mile. But when it was over I was happy with a 5:14 min mile avg on that course. It is still hard to judge where Dave and I are right now (we're both so close in our shape). The only thing I keep telling myself is that we should be good with the 5 or 6 weeks straight at 100 miles or more. I know this is kind of uncharted territory for us but should yield some great results later this spring and summer.

5 mile run this afternoon. After the race I spent the rest of the day here in front of the computer and on the couch watching some college hoops with some naps. When I finally started to move around I was starting to get tight. So I decided to do a little shake out and loosen up while pushing the week over 100- I was at 98- just to close to just leave it. I have OCD!

(Landreth 16.6)

So I'm a little tight this morning after the race yesterday. Not like "I need a message" sore but sore like "I need to relax". My mind is racing about where I need to take my training. I've got two good weeks of hard training before the week of the Striders Half and I've got a lot to do before then. I'd like to keep the miles up over 100 but also really try to hammer some tempo runs and work on that threshold speed.

My last 6 weeks of training I've avg 110 miles a week and I feel that I've got a good solid base. Now instead of trying to just pile on the miles I'll do two or three speed workouts each week. So like I said I still want to be at 100 mpw or just over but I won't be aiming for 120's or something.

My lack of threshold work has in a sense crippled me at both Del Sol and yesterday at the Spectrum. I hate the feeling of not being able to push any harder. On races where I have really felt good about my performance I've always just ran smooth and never tried to force things. But the last two races I've been forcing the turnover and in a way felt "flappy" or sloppy so to speak.

Anyways I'm just venting about what needs to happen. It's just hard for me to push out those harder tempo workouts. But the time has come.

12.3 mile morning loop. Man the legs were heavy and slow this morning. I can't get over how sore my hind end is. I'm not sure it's ever been sore after a race...Today with both runs I'll just be kind of do easy recovery runs and hope to prepare for some tempo stuff tomorrow morning.

(Landreth 28.9)

7.8 mile run this evening. Over into GS and then up the sand trail to the Powerline and back down into Middleton. Not as smooth feeling as I'd have liked it to be, but I can see some improvement from this morning.

(White Cumulus 151.5) 

12 mile morning run. Kind of a mini tempo on very tiered legs. I ran from the house over to the industrial park and up the hill past the water tank to where the pavement ends. This put me out 5.1 miles. For the last mile and a half of that I tried to run a harder than easy but not full blown tempo. Then a bathroom break and back down to begin the all out temop.
4.1 miles at tempo pace avg 5:20 for that phase. The only reason I was able to hit these times was that it's downhill... but at this point leg turnover is leg turnover. Then I finished up running back down to the gas station and back home for the cool down.

(Red Stratus 185.1) 

Over all not a bad workout. Kind of a cheap way to get some fast miles but it's close to the house and I'm pretty sore still from last week. Plus running up there to start with is a good workout in it's self. Hey it's a good way to start, now I just need one more tempo this week. Most likely I'll just try to finish my long run on Saturday at race pace or maybe Thursday night- we'll have to see.

5.2 mile run this afternoon. Up to the powerline and back on the trail. Just an easy (get it done) type of run. The weather is perfect right now int the afternoon.

(Blue Cumulus 220.9)

16.6 mile morning run. The same start of my normal Washington overpass loop but when I got back to GS I took the sandy trail up to the powerline and then up to the water tank and back around through the industrial park. Nothing really to write home about other than it's in the books. I guess I negative split this run today even with all the big hill climbs on the second half.

(Blue Stratus 231.15)

4.2 mile run this evening. Mik'L and I went on a little drive "just to look" at the houses in GS. We love that area ALOT but everything was either not what we were looking for or WAY too much $$$. Like I said we were just looking. We are toying with the idea of buying a bigger home but it's not like it will happen right now. I'm sad though because even if we were... we sure aren't going to be doing it up there. So after we were done I had her drop me off at the head of the sand trail and I ran it up to the powerline and back home.  

10.1 mile run this morning. Same loop as usual but I didn't go up into GS. Busy day ahead, plus I have the club run tonight.

(Landreth 39)

10.1 mile run with the club. Very hard run for me this afternoon. We were only doing around 7 min pace on the first 4.5 or so and it was very difficult for me to keep the pace. The legs felt way tired, and heavy. I should have just stopped and hitch hiked back to the store but when the guys split and went back I just ran a lone and slowed down to around 7:15-20 pace and things felt a lot better. I'm not sure what my deal was but is sucked.

(Red Stratus 195.2) 

Allergies, and being totally wiped out kept me home this morning. I actually got up at 6 and got dressed to run but just felt horrible so I got back in bed. Hopefully after what is set up to be a long day at work I'll be able to get a few miles in tonight.

13.1 mile run this afternoon. We worked until around 1:30 then I did a loop out in Ivins and Santa Clara. It felt hard to push out 7:20 pace for the first like 8 miles and I was getting really upset that maybe something was generally wrong. Then after my garmin beeped at 8 I started to hit 6:30 pace and it felt easy.... I don't know what's going on. Don't tell me I now need a 8 mile warm-up to get going.

(Red Stratus 208.3)

22.8 mile run this morning. Met up with the club down at the Dixie Center and started out to try an idea I had about a tempo loop. So we ran the loop once as a warm-up and it turned out to be 5.7 miles. A lot of it is on the Painters course and the some up on the other trail.

After the warm-up lap that was at 7:14 pace we started the marathon paced tempo. Some of the trail is under construction so we only did 5.4 miles at temp pace so we didn't get hurt trying to run fast through the construction mess.

The 5.4 mile tempo was at 5:31avg pace. Pretty good considering I only wanted to hit 5:40 pace. Hayden stuck it in high gear and I just tried to hang on to him. He ended up pulling away from me at the end and was running very strong.

Then another lap (5.7 miles) with the guys to cool down at around 7 min pace. Then the guys were done and I added one more lap at 6:40 pace to finish up the week.

Had a good time this morning. It's just amazing spring weather and the mornings are the best. I liked the little tempo loop and think I'll keep it as a standard the rest of the summer. Like every two weeks or something.

(Blue Stratus 253.95)

12.3 mile run this morning up around the new overpass. I felt totally rested and fresh this morning. Over the weekend I took 800m or IB on two different times to try and get the soreness out of the system. I guess it pretty much worked.

(Landreth 51.3)

9 mile run this afternoon. Around GS and up over Powerline, then a long finish up the Middleton hill and back. I felt really good and really enjoyed the run. I never pushed the pace at all- kind of focused on form and breathing.

12.3 mile run this morning up around overpass. I had music this morning and the legs felt strong, and swift. It seems I had a lot more output than any run in the last 2-3 months. Maybe I'm finally turning the corner and getting out of that winter slump... Ended up doing the entire run at 6:40 pace without ever throwing it into tempo pace or effort.

(Blue Cumulus 233.2 )

7.7 mile run this afternoon/ evening. The paved GS loop with 1.1 miles barefoot on the golf course and then a short extended version around Casidas Del Sol.

The run was an avg of 6:53 pace. I really enjoyed the barefoot on the grass. It felt good and I could instantly feel some changes in my form. It's been a long time (pre STGM) since I hit the barefoot.

(White Cumulus 159.2 )

Check out Pandora.com for you own custom made radio station.

12.3 mile run this morning. Overpass loop- but I mixed it up with the directions. I kind of criss x-rossed all over the place. I didn't feel as fresh today as I have the last two...but you can't win them all.

(Red Stratus 220.6 )

9.10 mile run this afternoon. Basically the same tempo workout as last Tuesday. Today I took the dirt trail up above the water tank for a 4.1 mile warm-up. Then hit 4 miles down at tempo pace and a 1 mile cool down because I was just about late to take my wife to the temple.

Last week the tempo miles were at an avg of 5:20 pace (but on semi trashed legs). Today the temop miles were at an avg of 5:14 pace with a decent head wind and it was 83 degrees when I left the house. It felt pretty hot for this time of year... at the end of the run I was soaked.

Pretty good effort today. Mile times went like this 5:17 gradual down w/ one small climb, 5:16, gradual down or flat, 4:53 steep and fast downhill although the wind is bad here, 5:31 about half gradual down then a short flat section and just under half uphill.

(Blue Stratus 263)

10.1 mile morning run up and around the overpass. The legs were not tight at all from last nights speed. Ran smooth and easy and just slipped in front of the 7 min guy to end the run at an avg of 6:59 pace.

(Landreth 61.4)

10 mile run with the club tonight. For the most part I just felt blah. But then around mile 8 I realized I could still beat the 7 min guy if I worked for it. So started inching up the pace and passed him. Ended up finishing at 6:58 pace.

(Blue Cumulus 243.2)

11 mile morning run. I had to get a new windshield put in my car so while it was being worked on I ran. I left the auto glass shop and ran down River Road all the way out and around by the new high school then down by the freeway to the trail and took it back to River Road and then back up to the shop.

The run pretty much sucked. I'm feeling kind of trashy. I've got a bad tooth ache and it's starting to have side effects on the rest of my body. I went to the dentist yesterday and he said I need a root canal and a crown! Talk about making me puke! So now we have to figure out what to do with our new dental insurance that will only give us discounted rates... Puke again.

(White Cumulus 170.2)

I didn't go back out tonight. We had Olive Garden for lunch and it was sitting pretty heavy- plus I went to the track meet to see how Mik'L was doing and stayed for a while and just kind of forgot about running this evening. Not to worry really... I only wanted to be around 110 miles this week anyways.

17.2 mile run this morning with the club. We left the store and ran over to Snow Canyon and up through it to the top. Then down the marathon course back to the store. It is 9.4 miles up to the top and some of it is very, very steep. On the way down I didn't really want to push it so I just ran at whatever felt good pace (wfgp) which ended up being around 6:10 pace for the 7.8 miles down or whatever it was.

Over all a pretty laid back run. I almost feel like I didn't get a workout in today, but with the race next week it will be good to be a little more fresh.

(Red Stratus 237.8)

Now to finish my entry for the day and week. For some reason during the run a McDonald's breakfast sounded so good. So when we finished we went there and partook of the goods... now my stomach isn't too impressed but it tasted good at the time and I don't have to run until Monday so it should pass through by then.

My last 8 weeks I have hit an avg of 111 miles per week. This is by far the most intense training phase of my running life so far. I know there are some bloggers that do this in their sleep but for me it's been a good challenge. Do I feel a lot faster? Not really. To be honest I may feel just a little slower and run down. But on the grand scale of things this mileage should "pay the bills" so to speak later on this summer. I hope to go up to Ogden this week and regardless of time- I'd like to just run what feels to be a good race. But it seems like I always struggle with half marathons. That is something I'd like to work on (this week!) as well. So my real test will come on May 17th where I'll push to run a PR and really get my 2008 racing season off to a good start....

12 mile morning run. It rained yesterday, and last night so I had to avoid any dirt areas. So today I just ran up into GS and did two loops there and back around Middleton the long way to hit 12 miles.

What an amazing morning. The desert smells so good after a rain. Today there was a thick fog up around the golf course area. It looked awesome and reminded me of doing runs in northern England.

The run felt pretty good for a Monday. I'm going to tapper off pretty good the last part of the week and with the race only be around 70-80 miles for the week.

(White Cumulus 182.2)

8 mile run tonight. Up to the water tank and around industrial. Pretty windy on the run- I hate wind! Once I started down off the ridge and had the wind at my back for a while I just tried to relax and run. Also worked on a few breathing exercises to help open up the lungs. My allergies have been horrible the last couple weeks. Everything here has been growing and in bloom. From what I remember it usually goes away sometime in May.

(Landreth 69.4)