Clyde's Comeback!

Started the new year off like I've done the last 4 years. Playing in the New Years Day Golf Tournament. However since I've spent a lot of time running the last year and a half my golf game has lost the shine it may have once had. Anyways the day was fun. We finished 6 under (about middle of the pack in this scramble formate). Three years ago we finished in the top 3 and was around 17 under- last year we were 9 under I'm seeing a trend.

O well I get more out of running than golf- and golf is fun even when you don't win.

Came home and spent the rest of the night watching the Bowl games (I love this time of year).

3 miles in the morning on the treadmill

3 miles in the evening on the treadmill

3 w/ Cumulus

3 miles on treadmill at 6 a.m.

5.5 miles on treadmill at 6 p.m.

3 w/ Cumulus

3.5 miles in the morning

3 miles in the evening

3w/ Cumulus

Miles on the treadmill set with 2% grade for 80% of the run and then down to 1% for the rest on both runs.

Big run loop but turned left and ran up the sandy hill to the water tank instead of going down to the golf course. Then I made my way over to the new overpass and down the road into Washington and back home. Pretty good run the trail part was around 7:20 pace and the road part was around 6:40 pace.

HR. 164

Made it official I'm going to Boston again. I registered last night. Hope some of you will join me.

Ran with the club. Pretty much the same run I did last week. I didn't push the button down hard enough on my Garmin so it didn't start until 7.7 when I looked to see where we were. The good news is Holt had his and kept things honest.

Picked it up the last mile and a half to around 5:50 pace. Overall I was a little sluggish from the run on Friday.

I will try and do a few more tonight to get in 50 for the week.

W/ Cumulus

8.5 miles from Dixie high down to the Dixie Center and into Bloomington Hills and then back the way we came Saturday.

Pretty good run- ran it at 6:30 pace.

Then came home from wrestling practice and did 1 and a half miles on the treadmill before the game started.

Now at the half it's Florida all the way! Go Gators!

No highlights -just some miles. Ran the first part of one of my 20 mile loops. Up over skyline drive down main, over to the bike path up to river road, down other path to bottom of St. James place then up into the Boulders to my in-laws house.

That was the frist 10. Then I dropped down over by the river and ran the path that washed out below the dinasor tracks. Took the road up past Costco and back home. Pretty good run Avg. HR 153 and the run was right around 6:55 pace.

All w/ Cumulus

Good morning workout. Climbed from around 2,600 ft to just under 4,000 ft in around three miles. Most of it was on trails- other than where I had to go Rambo and make my own trail. Really good hill workout. I was breaking in some new Vasque trail running shoes. I like the shoes for trail running other than they are 1.8oz - I guess that just adds to the workout.

No more running tonight. By the time I finished practice and a trip to Best Buy I was ready to hang it up for the night.

Hope to get a good run in tomorrow.

Well the mind and body are both ready. One more month and it will be time to start throwing it down again. After the last few days of getting some miles in I feel good. The rest the last couple of months was just what I needed.

Started off the run today heading up into the reserve and then going over to the water tank and hitting turkey farm road for a few miles then hitting a trail on the left that dropped down into Winchester Hills. Once I was in Winchester I made my way over to the main road and followed it down to town until I hit Diagonal Street. Then over to main and up the hill to Skyline and back home.
I Googled it last night to scout out the territory and it said the run would be around 20 miles (pretty close).
Around mile 6 I found a hunting knife in the middle of the dirt road so I packed it home (not fun). Not too comfortable bouncing around clipped to my shorts. But hey it’s a pretty sweet knife someone lost going down the road.
Anyways I feel good now and am getting ready to spend the weekend in Orem at a wrestling meet.

3 miles in the morning on the treadmill

5 miles in the afternoon on the treadmill

I had time this afternoon to go out and do a real run- and I really wanted to but it just feels soo cold out. So I just stayed in and took a nap and then did 5 on the tread.

I couldn't get up this morning so I had to do it all tonight. However, my run was cut short because we had to go to our HOA meeting. I guess 5 is better than nothing.

4 miles on the treadmill in the morning

4 miles on the treadmill this evening

Ran two miles between 4%-8% incline. Started at 4 then moved up to 6 and then to 8 and back down. Felt pretty good. For some reason I'm about 3-4 pounds fatter this week, so I'll have to work on that.

Also got a good workout in at wrestling today working with my 160 lb and 171 lb wrestlers.

3 miles in the morning on the treadmill

7 miles this afternoon on my water tank loop. First 3.5 are uphill and on a trail so I wasn't moving that good. Then I hit the road by the water tank and started to get into a good stride. Hit 5:55 pace for the last 3.5 miles. At one point coming down the hill I was at 4:55 pace on my garmin too bad that streatch of hill was only like a quarter of a mile long.

Wrestling @ Delta

Wrestling @ Delta

Team went 9-1 this weekend. Only loss was to Delta 31-30 ( a close one).

Beat -Morgan, Ogden, Carbon,Panguitch, Millard B team, Grantsville, Springville, Union, and Altamont. It's a fun tournament- 5 duals on Friday and 5 on Saturday. I'm just drained now. Three weeks until the State tournament.

4 miles on the treadmill this morning

4 miles on the treadmill this evening

.5 miles running in practice around the wrestling room

Today has to be one of the most physically taxing workouts I've had (save the 2 marathons) in about a year. The running was just there. Although I did do my last mile tonight on the treadmill @ 5 min pace- just to see if I could. I did it but it sucked.

The workout came at wrestling practice. Most of the time I just go around and coach. Sometimes I wrestle with the kids for like a round and then I take five. Today I wrestled most of practice without breaks with my 189 lb and 171 lb kids (I'm like 157 lb right now). Both guys are tough and have a good shot at a state championship. Oh man I'm sore. I came home and wasn't going to run on the treadmill but got on somehow. We'll see how I feel in the morning to see if I run or not. It would be good if I could do this kind of workout a couple times a week the next three weeks before wrestling is over.

3 miles in the morning on the treadmill

5 miles tonight after dark up around the golf course

Tonight it was dark but the temp was still pretty nice so I had to break away from my treadmill and get outside.

Running felt good. Body is still sore from wrestling.

3 miles on the treadmill this morning

7.25 mile shake out tonight after wrestling out in the desert reserve

Run felt good. I got home and had just enough daylight left to make it up into the reserve and down the trail to Green Springs area by the golf course before dark. Then ran home on the streets in the dark. I love running out in the reserve and 50 degrees is prime. I'm kind of looking forward to the end of wrestling to see how these kids will finish the year, and also to get back into some real running.

This afternoon was amazing running conditions. Shorts and tee shirt. I ran the same loop as yesterday. The first 2.5 are up hill and on a trail- it's hard to get going so the pace was around 7:38 then once I got up to the powerline I hit 6:28 for a little more than a mile and a half then 6:05 mile pace for the last 3 miles home.

I didn't have time for any more otherwise I would have stayed out there all day. I had to get to the high school by 4 p.m. to catch the bus over to Pine View high for our last region dual. We won 10 or the 14 matches for a score of 37-25 and give us a 5-0 region finish.

Water tank loop via the industrial park.

Tryed to run nice and slow and just enjoy the weather.

Worked my tail off all day in my back yard installing a putting green and rocks and stuff. The project was harder than it started off to be and by 2:30 when we finished my wife and I were trashed. So I ate something and tried to get ready for a run. I went expecting the worst but I actually felt pretty good on the run.

Ran with the club from the running store up the Chuckawalla trail down into Snow Canyon park. Then took the paved trail back around to the store. First 6 miles were on trails and we were around 7:30 pace then once we hit pavement it dropped down to around 6:10 pace back to the store. Nice day. It was fun to run with the guys again. I'm pumped for the rest of the spring and summer.

3 miles on the treadmill this morning.

8.2 miles this afternoon.

I had a one hour break from 2:20 p.m. to 3:20 p.m. so I wanted to get out and do a run. I left the high school and went over to River Road then down to the trail that cuts off by the river and runs up through Bloomington Hills. Then trailed it over to the Dixie Center and around by the car dealerships and Fruniture Rowe, and up to 700 south and back to the school.

The 8.2 miles took 50:05. I left the school just running easy but the 6 min guy wanted to race I told him not today but by mile three I couldn't take any more of his trash talking. From that point on I tried to run him down.

Finished the run at 6:07 pace- those first 3 slower miles of around 6:40-6:20 gave him the edge. I shoud have just ran up to the nine mile mark and finished hm off. Oh well he'll race every day so we'll meet again.

After the run I went to a 3 hour wrestling practice and then about an hour coaches meeting after that. By the time I got home I was done.

6:30 pace run up to the overpass down into Washington then down by Costco and up to Middleton Dr and home.

About 5 miles into it I had to find a road side stop fast- lucky for me there was a construction site with a porta potty that saved the day. I guess I shouldn't have had lunch 5 min before leaving on my run.

Did the same run as a couple weeks ago- Up to Winchester through then desert and back down the road. On the way back I stoped in at THE RUNNING STORE to say hi to Steve, grab a drink, and empty out my shoes. I had some rocks in my left shoe that was making things harder. The run was at 7:07 pace- slow I know but the first 9 miles are up rocky trails and 7:30-8:00 pace is flying.

Finished coming up the Blvd. and then home.

6:30 pace run down past Costco to the river trail over to the Dixie Center then up to our office.

Just out on a run.

Cold run early this morning. When it's cold and I've got all my layers on it's hard to run at a good pace- so this run was slow.

Ran over into industrial park, up turkey farm road to the water tank, then on the trail to Green Spring and then on the road back to my house.

Because of timing this week I was able to get a good week of training in. Next week I'll be lucky to get half of what I got this week.

Ran down to new overpass, down on to Telegraph then over into Washinton, back up around Green Spring GC and back home. The bad news was it was dark for most of my run this evening. The good news is it was still nice and warm because the weather is getting good.

I didn't pay attention to my pace until the last mile and ran it at 6:00 pace. Did the whole run at 6:30 pace.

Shakin it out after wrestling practice. 6:28 pace.

6.5 miles this morning

7.25 miles @ noon

Tried to get some miles in before heading up to state wrestling. The rest of the week may be slim on the amount of miles I run.

Treadmill miles at the hotel the first day of the state wrestling tourny.

Got up early to get these in. That night I had nothing left so I just went to bed.

Last day of State Wrestling. Too much going on to get a run in.

Team finished 5th...

2 guys in the finals. One champ. Fun but long weekend. Sad it's over but I'll welcome the time it will give me to now train.

Just could not get out of bed this morning so I had to get all the miles in this afternoon.

Left my house and went up to the new on ramp in Washington then over it up to the water tank that over looks the freeway above Coral. Then made my way down that mesa to the main road and ran it down into Washington and turned north to go under the freeway and then back home.

Didn't push it at all- just want to get some miles in the next few weeks.

Week goal is 80 or so.

6.5 miles this morning golf course loop

6.6 miles this afternoon track workout

The morning run was just an easy run 6:50 pace.

This afternoon I got to the track and there was alot of people there but I didn't know any of them. So I jogged a couple miles warm up. Then Bill showed up and I talked to him then ran two more miles at 6:00 pace. Then Steve came and we decided to do some timed miles.

The first one was fast, too fast. I felt like I was pushing it and just kept hammering it out against the cold headwind. Right before I started the last lap I looked at my watch to see where I was at and I had not restarted the time when we started. It just started on top of my warm up miles... but the pace said 4:30 I know I didn't run the whole thing that fast but just guessing I was around 5:05. With the wind that wasn't bad.

Then I felt crappy and told Steve I was done with these- he made me run one more. So I said I would just run it slow and try to stay with him. So I did and drafted off him for 3 1/2 laps then passed him in the last 150 or so. Time on this one was 5:17 and Steve was like 3 seconds back.

Kind of fun to go see where I'm at but the stroy says I need to do alot of work.

8.2 miles this morning on the water tank/ industrial loop

6.2 miles this morning on the dirt loop

On the morning run I ran the first three and a half as a warm up- up to the water tank then ran 6 min pace back home.

Tonight I went out on my all dirt/sand/slick rock trail loop. I wore a garmin but only to check the distance. I tried to enjoy the run and not look at the pace.

6.5 miles in the morning around the golf course loop

7.2 this afternoon with club

Morning run was easy with no Garmin to tempt me to race the 6:30 guy.

Afternoon run was slow as well. Did a loop around Red Hills GC and back up to the running store. We started out way slow and on the trails it was slower. I did 200 jumping jacks along the way. After we hit the street I picked it up to 6 min pace to finish the last 3 or so miles. Avg pace per mile on the whole run was 7:17. It was fun to be out running with the club again after a winter off.

The loop was 6.5 miles then when Steve got back he wanted to jog the parking lot. So I did another .7 miles always on the run with the kids.

8 miles this morning

7 miles this evening

Both runs were at around 6:40 pace.

Fun with the club this morning. Most of the run was nice and easy. the last two miles we picked the pace up a little. Hit the last mile at around 5:40 pace.

Now for my sad little story...

After the run we all chatted in the parking lot for a few- and then went on our way. While I was gettting on the freeway I and approching around 70 mph I though I saw a bird hit my windsheild. I kept driving for about a quarter mile down the freeway and realized what had just happend. I had left my garmin sitting by my windshield wiper and when I got up to speed on the road it flew up and off my car. I parked along side the road and ran back down there hoping to find it- I did- only now it was in like seven chuncks with microchips and broke plastic everywhere. Sucks. Hope to get a new one soon. After running and training with one I could never go back to not having one.

8..2 miles this morning with my wife

8.2 miles this afternoon on Water tank/ industrial loop

The morning run was easy and slow for the first 4 miles. Ran with Mik'L up to powerline trail and down to houses by Green Spring. When we got to the end of the trail I sent her back on the road (three miles home) and I turned around and went back up the trail (4 miles home). Pushed the pace on the way back to finish 5 min before she got home. I was really proud of her for finishing her longest run ever- 7 miles!

This afternoon it got cold and was soggy after the rain all day. So I put on layers and went out on the water tank loop via the industrial park. I love that it rained because all the sand on my trails will be a little firmer. Hopefully the guys on horses don't come back and mess it up again.

This run was a nice smooth paced run somewhere around 6:40 pace.

9 miles this moring out and back up to the water tank through the industrial park.

8 miles this evening around golf course loop with a little extra

Good workout day. Ran this morning thinking I wasn't going to work today. Then when I finished my run I had a call to come if I wanted to. So then went and worked 5 hrs landscaping a backyard. Ended up getting a free BBQ along with pay so it was way worth my time. Then came home and did the p.m. workout. By the end of the day I was pretty trashed but felt like I got a total body workout.

6.5 miles this morning around golf course loop

10 miles this afternoon from my house to in-laws house

My morning run was slow and relaxed. Really enjoyed just being out. This afternoons run was a different story. We had Paula's Mexican food for lunch and I thought I had waited long enough to go out. Sorry. .8 miles into my 10 mile run I was getting sick to my stomach. I should have just came back home but- I would never do that. Just kept pushing along wishing it would go away. By mile 3 I was in pain- I was spitting, dry heaving, and had some bad heart burn action. This continued up to around mile 8 and from there in maybe I was just numb to the pain and just finished the run.

Lesson learned - Never eat at Paula's again before a run. I should rule her out all together because it's not even that good.

The good thing was because of all the drama in my stomach and stuff I didn't even think about how fatigued I was or how sore my legs were. So I guess you win some and lose some.

13.2 miles this morning

7.2 miles this afternoon with the club

Morning run was hard. I really struggled to get any type of pace going. Just glad to finish and get home.

Afternoon run felt great. Ran from the store up to overlook. Continued up the top with Brent. Then came back down different trail.

6.5 miles this morning

8.5 miles this afternoon

The weather has been nice until today. Windy and a lot colder. Nothing really to write home about today.

13.5 miles on a club run early this morning

1.5 miles on treadmill this afternoon

Morning run was nice... We ran from Dixie Center up the back side of the black hill up past SC High school and then over to Bluff st. Then to main and down to the Dixie Center.

The first 9 miles were riddled with uphills and it seemed to go on forever. Then we started making our way back down through town. I wasn't using the lap button so I didn't have anything cool to review when I got home. However around the last 3 or so miles we were at 6:00 min or below mile pace. I had been having stomach issues all week and this morning I almost made it without trouble. However with only one mile left in the run I had to stop at the Golden Arches and take a bio brake. It sucked because at this point of the run we were really moving along and I was starting to have fun.

Anyways finished up the last mile to the car and told the guys bye. I still needed 1.5 miles for the day to get me to 100 miles for the week so later that afternoon I hit the treadmill for a nice easy 1.5 mile run.

Glad the week is over. There is a big difference in 80 mpw and 100 mpw. I just wanted to get one in before Boston.

7.2 miles in the morning

8.2 miles this afternoon

Morning run was just a nice icebreaker for the week. I felt nice and rested and just took it slow up to the power line then down into Green Spring and back around to the house.

Afternoon run I decided to run kind of a time trial on my water tank via industrial park loop. I wanted to get mile splits and use this as a building block for the rest of the year. Goal was to run it as hard as possible and set a benchmark to race against every week.

The first 2.5 miles are uphill on a sandy trail. Then from 2.5 to 3.5 half of it is pretty level and the other half is a mother of a hill up to the water tank. So after 3.5 you’re on roads but that first few aren't easy at all.

1. 8:06 (up, up and away also slow down to cross a fence)

2. 7:24 (mostly uphill but some flat sections- all sand)

3. 6:51 (More sand and hills then a flat section)

4. 7:05 (Flat at first- but rocky- then the step rocky hill and now on the paved road)

5. 6:00 (on the road trying to get some faster turnover)

6. 5:25 (some downhill but sure doesn’t feel that fast)

7. 5:37 (half downhill and half flat-hope to hold this pace until the end)

8. 5:46 (flat and uphill-good mile for me because it felt like 6:30 and I was way surprised to see how fast it really was)

.2- 5:40 pace to finish the last couple streets

Overall- not bad. Finished with a time of 53:14 and an overall pace of 6:31. If in a few months I can bring that overall pace down to 6:20 I'll be a runner who means business.

The effort on the first 3 to 4 miles was around 6:00 pace although the times don't reflect it. Just a tough part of the course. If I can make myself run this once a week and run it hard it will be fun to see any progression.

7.8 miles in the morning

7.5 miles in the windy afternoon

I guess the weather is crappy all over the state and we may have the best of the worst. So I shouldn't be too unhappy. Although I'm ready for some nice spring St. George weather. 65-70 degrees. Because what will happen is one day it will be cold and the next day it's 90+ outside for the next five or six months.

Both runs were right at 7:00 min pace. Just easy kicking along. I did both of them on the powerline Green Spring loop. There is three ways I can finish that run. It can be 7.2, 7.5, and 7.8 miles long. Today I did the second two.

I'm not running for a mileage goal this week. I just am running what feels good. The end of this week I will be travling up to northern Utah and my miles won't be that great.

6.5 miles in the morning

6.5 miles in the evening

Ran the Green Spring loop one way in the morning before the snow and the other way in the evening after the snow. Not too much going on here. On the afternoon run my feet were a little sore in the arch area. Time to get some new shoes.

6.5 miles on the treadmill this morning

7.8 miles around the Powerline GS loop

It was cold this morning so I ran on the treadmill. It wasn't that bad. Then did a run @ 5 p.m. and it said it was 50 degrees out. But if felt like the coldest 50 I've ever ran in.

5 miles in the monring on the treadmill

5 miles this afternoon around GS Loop

Two easy runs. Felt good to cut it back today.

Yeah it was like 10F... TEN and when we were going up the canyon against the wind- the wind chill was around 2 F. I have a rule at home that on my day-to-day runs if it is lower than 35 F I stay inside and run on the treadmill. So anyways it was cold and we slugged along. Sasha kept me in it telling me to "close the gap" between us. Otherwise I could have just dropped off and got in the car. My garmin was acting like it was "sick" too- giving out spits and beeps randomly all the way through the run. So that sucked to not have any of the data to look over.

When I'd start feeling good and push the pace a little we'd come to a part of the path that was coverd in snow and ice and I'd slow down and then struggle to pick it back up.

Glad I got the workout in- but it was murder. When I got in my car I looked in the rear view to see two ice sickles hanging off of my ears about 2 inches long each. Hello! Ice forming on my body, and it stayed there until I got back to the house to show my wife.

Sasha is a warrior and didn't seem to mind the weather at all. He just ran the trail like he's done it 500 times before or something. Had we not been running I think I was one step off of hypothermia.

After it was all over and I was sitting in a HOT bath back at the house I was glad to have pushed through it. As far as the pace goes it was slow on the uphills and still slow on the way back down. Sasha said we ran the last mile at 5:35 pace and the total time on the 12 mile part was like 1:14- Had I not been there he would have ran a 1:10, but he was nice enough to pull me along.

7 miles morning run

13 mile run this evening

The morning run was easy. I didn't have a GPS but I made myself run what I thought was 7 min or slower. Monday is always kind of tight. That first run of the week I just need to get out and loosen up. I ran this one so easy it was like I didn't even run at all. It felt good.

This afternoon wasn't much faster 6:50 pace most of the run. Other than on 5:30 mile that was downhill. I decided to just run some good quality miles this week and not try and race or push the pace until later on in the week- if any at all.

The weather this evening was amazing. 73 degrees at 5 p.m. when I left my house-So that would be 63 degrees warmer that my run Saturday morning with Sasha.

Today I thought I'd try this trail above my house that I've allways wanted to run -but never have. The Ice House trail that runs up the Broken Mesa and stays on the mesa up above the turkey farm almost to the base of Pine Valley Mt. The first 11 miles went something like this. From 2,800 ft to 5,300 ft in elevation gain. I ran a good 6:30-7:00 pace effort only resulting from the high 8's to a 10:30 pace mile at one point. In all the first 11 miles took 1:45.30. Not looking good with 9 more miles to go.

At the 11 mile mark I drank some water I had carried and took a GU then hit the dirt road and tryed to run 6:30's all the way back. The last 9.2 miles back to the house took about 55 min's. A total of a 2:40 min on a 20 mile run. Crazy. That first half was almost too much for me. I didn't run a mile that first 11 under 7:40 min pace. Some runs you think back and say "I'd do that again"- on this one I wouldn't. Not alone anyways.

Came home and felt like I'd just finished a whole marathon. I got on the scale and it said 147.5 lbs the lowest I've been since last summer when I was dehydrated after a long hot summer run.

After relaxing at home for a while and drinking everything in the house I felt pretty good the rest of the day.

6.5 mile morning run

9 miles run this afternoon

Morning run was slow and legs were sore from Monday and Tuesday. Also I've had some issues with my chest. Or just under my ribs I've had some pain the last two days and it's hard to go faster than 6:30 min pace or so. It could be a relaps of the pleurisy I had last summer. I hope it's nothing to worry about.

This evening I ran up to the water tank then up the road until the pavement ends and then back down through the industrial park and home. Chest pain still there- but felt better about 5 miles into the run. Ran the last 4 miles at 6 min pace or faster.

7.5 miles this morning

9 miles this afternoon with the running club

Morning run was easy with some pain still in the lower chest.

Afternoon run with the club. We left the store to go up to the water tank and then soon after changed directions and just headed up the marathon course. Steve and I ran 4 miles out and then came back. Some parts of that trail are very steep and you can't go much faster than 7 min pace down those parts or you'll die. So on the way back I tried to push the parts that I could and tried to run the steep parts easy so I would not get hurt.

At one point Steve asked me what pace we were going and I said 5:30 or so- he was doing just fine until I said that and then decided it was too fast and he jumped off the bus. Next time I'm going to lie and say like 6:45 pace.

8 miles this morning

7 miles this evening

Worked all day and just feeling the week starting to weigh on me. Will be glad to finish up and have a day off.

I keep forgetting to log this but I tryed the strides per min test and this is the results:

At 6:30 mile/min pace on level ground I was 186 strides per min

At 6:00 mile/min pace on slight downhill I was 186 strides per min

At 6:00 mile/min pace on level/ uphill I was 184 strides per min

Also a resting heart rate of 40

I've seen a few people on the blog thorw this up... although I'm not sure what this means I just read the article in runners world about how around 180 srides per min is what the elite runners that are winning big marathons have.

Today I Ran with Steve and Bill.

Did most of the half marathon course backwards. Ended up in the parking lot at 12 miles so we ran under the freeway and up past the dealerships for some more to cool down. Didn't blow the doors off anyone today. Just got in a good run.

Ran from my house up over skyline drive then down to main and on to the Dixie Center. From there I hit the trail over to Bloomington Hills and then made my way to my mother-in-laws house. Then from there around the hill past Stone Cliff over by Steve's new house and up by the corn maze. I stayed on that road over the river and up into Washington. Then up by golf course and back to home. I ran right in the hottest part of the day around 80 or so. My shoulders and neck got a pretty good burn in the 2:15:25 it took me to run the 20 miles. I never tried to push it at all- but on the fiip side I never could get into a good stride. I ran in some new shoes New Balance.... I think the shoes will be ok but only from runs under 9 miles or so. If I would have had a different pair of shoes I think this run would have gone alot better. Also had to stop 3 times (dixie center, in-laws, port-a-potty in a construction site) for a bio break. I really need to prep my stomach better on a long run like that. Yada yada yada....

I just could not get up this morning so I had to pay the price and run it all at once this afternoon after working all day. By the end of the run I was feeling pretty trashed and dehydrated. I'll try and take a couple days of easy stuff to recover from the last two days.

6.5 miles in the morning

7 miles this evening

Both runs were easy recovery runs. No pick-ups, strides, or surges not even on the downhills. Just kind of in a funk right now and want to make sure that no injuries come out of it.

6.5 miles this morning

9.5 miles this afternoon with the club

Morning run was again nice and easy. No watch or gps just easy stuff. This afternoon meet up with the club and did the Santa Clara/ Jacob Hammlin loop. First 5 miles were a smooth pace with Dave. Then we started some downhill and running seemed effortless just felt like I was floating. Looked at Garmin and was between 5:40-5:50 pace. So I wanted to ride this wave as long as I could and decided not to slow down. I tried to hold that effort all the way back to the running store. I did ok until the last half mile that winds through some houses and is uphill- then I slowed way down.

Good workout. Glad to be feeling better after the fist part of the week I felt so poor. Just a few easy runs in a row really work well to help me recover, or at least they did this time.

5 miles on the treadmill this moring

8 mile loop this afternoon up to powerline and down into the golf course and back home

Just out running.

14.6 with Bill

6.5 miles this morning

10.2 miles this afternoon

Morning run was slow and easy. Pretty tight all over- Just a case of the Monday's.

This afternoon did one mile warm up then came back home and was going to do my time trial 8.2 miles loop but the tile guy working at my house showed up and I had to wait for him for 15 min then I went on the run- so really no warm up.

This course is hard:

last time 53:14

This time 52:49

I ran hard and pushed the first part of the course up the rocky/sandy trail trying to get a jump on things from last time. I did and was a little over 2 min faster at the 4 mile mark. Then from 4 miles in it's on the road and mostly downhill. I should have been able to fly. However I got a side ache and had to work for 6 min/miles. The 2 min lead I had fizzled off. So I saw some progress although I'd like to have had a better second half.

Did a mile cool down and called it a day. I like the workout and hope to push myself to do it once a week or at least every two weeks.

6.5 miles in the a.m.

7.5 miles in the p.m.

Two different worlds today running. The morning run was calm and relaxing. The afternoon run felt like world war 3... Well not really but the wind was blowing me all over the place and rain- I just did not want to be out there. Although that shows how much I like the treadmill because I picked going out in the storm over staying in on the machine.

6.5 miles this morning

6.5 miles this evening

Boring day. Same run both times only in the p.m. I did it the other way around. Both runs were around 6:35 min/mile pace pretty easy day.

One mile warm up on Steve's treadmill @ the running store.

Then 8 miles with the club @ easy pace. Every time we started getting faster than 6:50 or so I'd slow down. Nothing too amazing. Everyone is getting pumped for the race this weekend- so we'll see how it turns out.

Treadmill run.

Did 3 miles in new Asic Ohana Racers to see how they would feel.

Then did 2 miles in new Brooks T4 Racers to get ready for the 10k on Saturday. I was going to do a few more that night but ran out of time.

Ran the Spectrum 10k today. Didn't know what to expect because the last time I raced was the first part of Nov...

Warmed up with two miles and then rushed to the starting line to catch the gun.

Mile 1- 4:42 The pace didn't feel that fast because we were going down hill and there was still a lot of runners around so I was shocked when my garmin beeped and I looked down and saw the time.

Mile 2-5:20 Steve Olsen and I start to pull away from the group. This part of the course I didn't care for. We ran back up the canyone on a dirt road and looped around a cone in the road then back down to the trail.

Mile 3-5:31 now on the trail some rolling hills to prep for the next long down hill leg. Still feeling really good and building a lead on Steve O.

Mile 4- 5:33 Now a comfortable lead and not pushing the downhill as fast as I should have.

Mile 5- 5:26 Gave it one last surge down to the corner where I could see no one too close. Starting to feel a little sore and decide to just bring it home easy.

Mile 6- 5:52 up the hill from the corner and through the intersection. Now I can see the finish and am glad to be done.

.2- 1:22 As I cross the finish line and go into the shoot I dry heave a couple times due to some new product I tried during the race.

Glad to finally get a win after more about a year and a half. The course was fast this year but not too much faster than last year where I ran a 37:16 and 5th place. Last year a 35:30 or something won the race. I'm guessing with the course changes that this year was about 50-60 seconds faster than last year. So even with that I still was around 3 min faster.

Did a couple miles with Dustin to cool off before we had to wait forever for the awards.

P.M. Ran anouther 6.5 miles tonight to get some more miles in and try and stay loose.

6.5 miles this morning

7.8 miles this evening

I can't believe how sore I am from the race on Saturday. All day Sunday it was just "pain", as Clubber Lane would say. Monday morning run was sore then this evening was a little better. Hope to run it out and be ready to race again this weekend for the Del Sol.

Hope to get some good miles in Mon, Tues, Wed then I travel to PHX and who knows what will happen other than the miles I run in the race.

Word to your momma

6.5 miles this morning

8.2 miles this afternoon

Starting to feel better each time I get out. Afternoon was a windy dusty mess out and I really didn't want to go. However I didn't want to run on the treadmill so about 5 p.m. I made myself go do it. I felt pretty good but didn't push it at all even when I wanted to.

6.5 miles this morning

6.5 on treadmill this evening

Just some easy miles to stay in shape before the race this weekend.

My heart goes out to those members of the Del Sol team who are driving from Utah to AZ then riding in the van for the race then driving back to Utah. Wow! Thats a lot of time in a car or van or whatever. Hope you guys drive safe and we'll see you there.

God Speed Brother

5 miles this morning before leaving

6 miles this afternoon in PHX

I got to the hotel and found Paul and Dave and we ran around and found a nice iner city trail. Just easy pace nothing over 6:30 min/miles.

Good to get here and relax before a long day on Friday.

Got up this morning and did a 7:30 pace run with Paul and Dave. Then Paul and I hit the hot tub (only for a short time). After the hot tub we all went to a great breakfast provided by The Embassy. Now we just have to try and relax until 1 p.m. When we check out and head up to the starting line. Our team starts at 6 p.m. and I run the second leg this round.

I'm putting it all here.

Del Sol Relay

Friday morning Paul, Dave and I work up @ 7 to get a run in around 7:30 so we could be done in time to eat a free full breakfast. The run was easy-Paul wanted it to be around 8 min/mile I think we ended up around 7:30 pace.

We made it back to the hotel and indulged ourselves with breakfast (my last real food for over 12 hours. I would go on to consume health bars and Gatorade….more on that later.

Then we relaxed at the room until the afternoon when we left and headed out to the starting line.

First run Leg 2-Race begins and I’m the 2nd runner on the team so as Dave (first runner) goes out I’m trying to get physically and mentally ready to run a race that starts @ 6 p.m. and not 6 a.m.

When Dave got to me he had only lost around 25 seconds to the Google team so I thought I could run them down and show my stuff. Well that didn’t happen. The first mile was downhill and we both took off at about 5:15 pace and then worked into a hill that lasted for around 3 miles. At this point I calculated that I was about the distance from one delineator to another away from the Google runner. We both worked out tails off pounding out the hill and then finished with around a half mile of flat before the hand off. I ran hard and pretty well but the Google guy held his lead and when I handed off to Sasha we were now 40 seconds back.

Second Run Leg 14- By this time it’s around 1:45 a.m. and we are in the middle of suburbia. We are floating around 3-4 min’s behind Google so there really isn’t a race going on between me and my guy. I take off and have to navigate through a maze of turns and dirt roads. But it wasn’t that bad. The whole leg was essentially uphill so it made me work- I kept pushing it trying to pick off the slower teams along the way.

Third Run Leg 26- Final run and not without drama. By the end of our overall second leg we are now back to 20 seconds or so behind Google. We’ve decided that we can win if we put the second van as close as possible. So Dave takes off at around 7 a.m. and is hunting down his Google man. Meanwhile I’m trying to get ready to run and two of our guys are nowhere to be found. Finally locate them sleeping on the stage of the school and we get going to my start point. But a bathroom stop is coming. So when we get there I run to the port-a-potty and there is a line… however the girls let me go first and I get in and am taking care of business when I here “Clyde, he’s coming!!! He’s here…” So I sprint out of the John and across the parking lot to catch Dave and the hand off for the most part unprepared to start racing. The first 3 miles of this leg are all down hill. Good downhill to. So I’m thinking I should be dropping 5:10’s or so. But I just couldn’t get going and ran 5:23, 5:27, and 5:30 to the bottom and then it was 3.5 miles of the same type of hill back up the other side. Wow this was killer- I just felt like I was working like a dog and the Google guy just stayed that 20 seconds ahead and I never could close the gap. He later told me that I worked him to death pushing him, and that if I had caught him going up that final 3.5 he would have slowed from 5:40 pace to below 8 min.

Anyways the race is over for our van and now it’s a waiting game. We don’t win- in fact Google opened up a 10 min win on us. But the rivalry made things way fun.

What a good race. I had a blast despite going through my worst allergy attack of ’07. It was good to meet everyone and I’m pumped for the Wasatch back. I dare Google to show-

Race report is in Friday.

17.1 race miles @ 5:41 pace- one second slower than my projection. However good because at least 13 of those miles were uphill.

Bottom line "One step anaerobic" takes the cake for the most classic one liner for those of you who were there.

6.5 miles this morning

7 miles this evening before the game

Both runs were just so so. I'm not sore at all from the race this last weekend however I am very wore out. I think I may have gotten a little sick from my allergies that have been just out of control. Because my body is so tired it can't fight off the sickness. I hope to get a solid week of training in and start feeling healthy again before next week.

7 miles this morning

11 miles this afternoon

Easy paced runs trying to get back in the swing of things after a long weekend. I've got this bad side ache. Not only when I run but just walking around the house. I kind of felt it on my second and third legs of the Del Sol and then Monday on both runs then today. It's a pretty bad pain if it continues for two more day I'll have to go see a Doc.

Saw TWO desert turtles this afternoon. One about a mile north of my house and one about one mile north of that. The first one scared me just as bad as I scared it. Then I saw the second from a far and came up on it from behind- it was just going to town eating on a bush. Then it saw me and hissed and went in it's shell. It's kind of cool seeing them. In a little over a year since we moved to this house I've seen 4 or 5 live turtles out in th reserve- and way too many snakes but we won't go there.

Wanted to get a nice base building workout in. Only thought about doing around 16 but one road lead to anouther and by the time I got home it was 20.15 on the garmin. Chest pain pretty bad for first 5.5 or so then it didn't really bother me on the run- returned later in the day. Just ran smooth and easy trying to see what kind of shape I was in. Felt good and never ran out of gas. I wasn't pacing myself at all but ended up just in front of the 7:00 guy- my pace time was 6:59 min/miles for the 20 miles. Legs feel good, I just hope to get over whatever it is that's wronge with my chest. May see a Dr. today.

6 miles this morning

6 miles this evening with the club

An easy day. Chest and sides hurt on morning run for first 2 miles then pain went away. Kind of sore all day but didn’t bother me on evening run. Tried to get into a Dr. but there was no appointments available. So we did some research on WEB MD and decided I may have bronchitis. Symptoms started showing up last Thursday. It would explain why my nose ran so bad during the Del Sol. It was a little worse than just allergies. I also had this dry cough, and also the pain under rib cage. I can kind of tell its working its way out of my body. Hopefully through this weekend I can show signs of improvement and we’ll look forward to Boston. If no improvement is made by Monday running the race may not be an option. I can do my day to day training runs at a slow pace but as I increase speed below 6:30 pace it almost brings me to my knees. I don’t know how I finished the last leg of the Del Sol- the other legs hurt but this one left a very vivid impression. About 2.5 miles into the run I got that sharp pain in the side-I just fought it off as a bad side ache…now I know it was a little more than that.

Maybe in the end after training with this for about a week it will make me stronger. Because my lungs have felt like they have had a rubber band around them. Anyways enough rambling about it- I’m just happy to see some signs of the healthy Clyde.

6.5 in the morning

7 in the evening

First day chest pain hasn't been an issue. Whatever it was that was down in my chest is now breaking up and I'm coughing up all kinds of junk. Hopefully back on track.

Morning run was easy. Eveing run I pushed 5:30 pace for about 2.5 miles and did the rest around 6:30 pace.

My wifes grandma has been asking us for months to help her have a yard sale... So today was the day. We got to her house at 6 a.m. and started getting stuff out and ready. Almost as soon as we did people started to show up. So after things were rolling at the yard sale I left on the run. Felt really flat for all 13.3 miles. Never found that smooth stride that makes things easy- instead I just felt like I was breaking a trail in deep snow without snow shoes on. I should have just done like 8 but I thought I was this close to 90 for the week I might as well finish.

After the run cleaned up the mess at the yard sale and came home to crash. Felt like I had raced the Striders half today (by the way good job to all). Fell asleep until the Masters started and watched all of it. I felt bad for those guys and hope the weather on the east coast warms up before Boston. We'll see if Tiger can pull it off tomorrow?

11 mile morning loop

5 miles this evening

Did a nice morning run-pretty much my old big loop trail but a little shorter. Felt really good the whole run. It was nice and cool out and just beautiful this morning.

Afternoon run was a quicky before going ot Olive Garden. If I had to rate the two- I'd say going to Olive Garden was way harder on my body than the 5 miler.

7.5 mile morning run

6.5 miles this evening at the track

The morning run was great. I love this time of year. Brisk in the morning but warm enough to go with shorts and a Tee shirt.

This evening I wanted to get a light track workout in to work on leg turnover. I went to the track with Steve and Paul and we each did our own workouts. I went with a three mile warm-up and then 4x800 with 200 recovery @ 2:40 or less- This was the goal going into the workout.

1. 2:33 felt really good and didn't feel like I was pushing it that hard.

2. 2:35 For the most part the same effort just had a stronger head wind.

3. 2:33 Head wind getting stronger and I pushed the last 200, but still feeling pretty frisky.

4. 2:37 Wind on the last back leg was killer- plus I was really just trying to keep them under 2:40.

Mile cool down

A perfect workout to help me feel my stride a little better. The last week or so I've been in this 7:30 min/mile pace type of rutt. Got the legs going tonight but not enough to be sore. Now I'll start a taper into Boston. Feeling really good and different from any other race I've ever ran- This time I'm really not nervous at all, so I guess that could be good or bad.

7 miles this morning early with Steve

3 miles this afternoon

Morning run was slower pace up in the reserve above Steve's house. I was happy to only have 7 miles on the day but did 3 more this afternoon just to stay loose. Kind of Sashas always on the run policy.

Up to the powerline trail and then down to golf course and back home. Last run at home before the trip. We fly out of Vegas tonight and get to Boston @ 6 a.m. tomorrow. Even though the weather is going to be the pitts I'm still pumped for the trip, and yes even the race. My bib number is 1138. Hopefully I can just ride Dave's coat tails the whole race and we can have a good one.

Boston here we come!

After a day of being Utahns in Boston, Dave and I did a nice little run around the area. Felt good after the traveling and stuff.

Dave and I took a nice run down to the beach- although it's not really a beach. Kind of a rock pile. Legs feeling good and rested. Weather is poor at best.

We went out for a easy 3 miles just to stay loose and got lost in the sleet and rain- ended up going a little farther. The weather could be one of or the worst in Boston Marathon history. 15-30 mph headwind with 3-4 inches of rain and sleet. Sounds like fun. Times may not reflect effort.

Garmin lost signal due to the heavy overcast along the way around the 19th mile- so here is what I have and it could be off-

 The race started off well after we took shelter in the school at the starting line and we stayed very warm and dry dispite what was going on outside. We were right up front just a couple rows back of where the elite guys were warming up so it was fun to watch the race start. Almost first thing we were passed by guys going out at like 5 min pace... bad news later for them. Tryed to run within myself even though I knew we were running the first part pretty fast and wonderd how it would hit us later. Felt great at the half and started thinking about trying to PR and run a 2:34 or 35. From 13 to 17 things went great and I was suprised at how good I felt. All the while we were hanging with a pack of about 15 guys trying to draft when we could. Then at 17 or so we had to drop them and try and stay in good position. Also at this point we start our battle with the hills. Last year they didn't seem to bother me and if the wind hadn't bee so bad I think I would have been sitting really good this year- however the combo kicked our butts! Pace went our the window and we just tryed to keep moving forward. From there it pounds us up past 21 or whenever the hills are finally over. Somewhere around 20 on a meaty hill Dave falls off my pace and I don't find out until around 22. From 20 on in I felt horrible and just tryed to hang of for dear life. Although the hills are gone the wind is not and I'm just sick of it. Legs really starting to feel done. I try and pick a few more stragglers off and make my way to the finish. Good thing because if 3 more guys beat me I'm our of the top 100. Kind of had that as a back of the mind goal going into the race.

1.5:56

2.5:41

3.5:40

4.5:37

5.5:50

6.5:40  Felt like we were rollin around the first 10k. Alittle faster than planned but staying with the pack to draft from the wind.

7.5:46

8.5:51

9.5:45

10.5:56

11.6:02

12.5:49

13.5:55  Dave and I are still running together switching leads here and there. Getting a lot of comments on our matching gear and most of all our pink winter hats!

14.5:49

15.5:57

16.5:40

17.6:19 The start of the hills and also the wind really strats to pound us. Still working together.

18.6:48 Hills and wind!

19.8:34 Around this time the garmin started going crazy so this could be off although the hills with the wind are almost stopping me in my tracks.

So I'm disappointed about the Garmin thing. I wanted to come check it all out. I'd really like to know my last 3 mile splits.

Really happy about the race. Two goals comming in- Run under 2:40 and finish in top 100. So I got a nice birthday present. I'm 28 today.

I feel that had this been in St. George in good conditions I could have been really close to 2:30. I think I could have finished the way I started. So we will see how things go this summer. Big thanks to Dave for being there. I had fun working together and couldn't have done it without his help.

After the race both of us spent about an hour in the med tent. I had a temp of 94 and he was down to 91. Both of us were struggling to walk and very close to hypothermia. Too cold for me. I guess I can move on and not come back to Boston unless someone is paying me to race it! Joke...

First off thanks to everyone for all the nice comments after the race.

Well the day after and I feel pretty good. I was going to wake up and do a short little 3 to 5 miler down to the ocean but decided not to this morning. My legs felt good enough to go- however the weather was rainy and windy again and I had just about enough of that stuff so I did not go out- instead I went back to bed and slept in. Our flight left at around 5 p.m. so we still had time to walk all over today. I think I walked more today that any other day we were here, so that was kind of nice just to walk out the legs. If I could keep moving I'd feel good, but when I sat down I'd start to cramp up. Comming home took forever, delay's, slow luggage, and bad traffic. I went to bed around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning. But glad to be home, and happy to see the dogs- even though the pup had chewed a corner out of the carpet in our house.

Got out this afternoon in the wind. I felt like I was back in Boston. Still sore, but feeling better. I'm just going to try and do some easy miles this week and hope to recover soon.

Same run as yeasterday. Still sore but feeling better. The weather today was soo nice, a perfect spring day in St. George.

I forgot to tell my sad story- so here it is.

When we got home from Boston I unpacked my stuff only to find my Garmin...My second Garmin was gone. I'm %1,000 sure I put it in my suit case inside of a shoe. So either at the hotel when we left our baggs with them while we went out shopping or at the airport after I had checked it- someone got inside and stole my Garmin. Crazy! After training with one I can't do it without one, so I'll have to buy anouther. Hopefully the third time is a charm.

No running. I got my usual sickness a the week after a marathon. I guess I could have seen this one comming with how cold it was in Boston.

Still sick. Had to travel 3hrs up and 3hrs back to grandma's funneral. Ready to be feeling better.

6.5 miles in the a.m

7 miles this evening

After taking 3 days off I was feeling recovered and ready to roll...So I go out this morning and two miles into it my calves are hurting so bad you would have thought I had run Salt Lake and not Boston. I've never hurt this bad for this long so I decided to go get a rub down for a fee. The guy didn't do the best job but by the time I ran in the evening I felt 10 times better and was less worried about being injured. This had really been out of my comfort zone. Like I said I've never hurt that bad that long. Maybe it's a good thing or sign of improvement to have pushed it hard enough to really need to recover.

Anyways hope to log some good miles this week-at least 80- as it is the only solid week I have between next weeks half marathon in Hurricane.

6.5 miles this morning

6.5 miles this evening

After working outside all day I was wasted and was not going to go. But after laying around the house for 45 min's I talked myself into going. Pretty hard run because I was so trashed and still feeling sick and sore.

Morning after- glad I went.

7.8 miles this morning

8.2 miles this evening

At last a good day. Morning run was a little slower pace up powerline trail and down around golf course. Tried to work on good form and enjoy running after days of being so sore.

Evening run was more of the same. Went up to powerline then to water tank and down around industrial park to home. Running a little faster and feeling like I could pick it up if I wanted to. Good to finally feel like I'm working my way back up.

6.5 miles this morning

10 miles this afternoon with the club

Feeling good. Just need to eat more today than I did the last few days. Feeling tired from hunger.

On the morning run I ran into Bill so he ran my Golf course loop with me. Then this afternoon we had a good run (Steve, Bill and I ). I wasn't planning on going that far but hey- When in Rome...

6.5 miles this morning

6.5 miles this evening when I got to Torrey. The elevation was killing me at around 7,500 ft.

Both easy run's. Just trying to finish off a long week of work and other things. Drove to Torrey and did a run around town. Things sure have changed there since I have moved away. I decided I need one house in St.George and one there.

We went fishing at Lake Powell today. Bullfrog marina because the lake is too low to get the boat in at the Hite marina. We were leaving the house at 5 a.m. So I got up at 3:40 a.m. and got ready and left the house by 4 and headed down the road with my reflective vest and head lamp. I had a goal to at least get 8 miles before my uncle came along on the way to the lake. After 6 miles of finding a stride I got things rolling and ended up getting in just over 11 miles as I just got to the visitor center of Capital Reef National Park when they came pulling up. I dumped a cold gallon of water on me and changed my cloths and we headed down the road to Powell. The three of us caught around 30 fish and had a great time. At the end of the day after being in the sun and stuff I was glad that I had ran that morning.

7 easy miles this morning up to powerline and down and around Green Springs area.

8.2 miles up to powerline-water tank and down through industrial park back home.

I didn't have any timing device to see what my pace was but from the water tank home I was rolling.

6.5 regular morning loop around Green Spring area

6.5 miles workout with Steve at the track

Steve and I decided to do a 400m workout and with the half maratthon we have this weekend we cut it in half. So we did 10 x 400m @ 80 seconds or lower with 200m recovery after each one.

I didn't have a watch so Steve would yell my time as I crossed and then follow with his so it could be a little off on either side.

1. 78 sec - just getting the feel of the workout

2. 77 sec

3. 77 sec -blah

4. 76 sec

5. 76 sec

6. 77 sec -blah

7. 77 sec

8. 75 sec -picked it up a little

9. 79 sec - slowed down to get ready to really push the last one

10. 64 sec - I told Steve we should hit 70 on the last one and he said he'd do 75- so we went and pushed it he ended up way better than goal too at 69 sec.

Good workout even with the strong headwind. I hate doing speed in windy conditions but what can you do. Hope to keep playing with this workout and mold it into the 20 x 400m... we'll see how things go.

5 miles this morning

5 miles (late night) at 8:30

Starting a taper for the race this weekend. Did a real slow easy run up on the trail above my house this morning and saw anouther turtle. That makes 7 so far Bill so you better get going.

Then was busy all day doing little projects and things and by the time the evening rolled around I wasn't going to go. But somehow I just didn't feel good about not going so did an easy church loop.

3 miles this morning

7 miles with the club

Ran with the club tonight. Did a couple more than I had planned and ran the last two a little faster than I needed to as well. But like I said last week. When in Rome.

Easy five miles around the church loop this morning. No more today so I can be ready for the race tomorrow.

Hurricane Half Marathon. The old slogan for this race was "She's fast but she aint easy." Well today she wasn't fast and I could have easily stayed home.

Mentally feeling like I'm ready to race again from the post Boston taxation, but two miles into the race and physically I know I'm not were I want to be.

I ran without a watch or gps so I have no splits... but the race went something like this.

From the gun I go out and just want to burry everyone and give myself some breathing room to run a relaxed race. I've never tried this before and it obviously doesn’t work. So I take the lead into a pretty hard head wind, and we are not going very fast almost from the git go. Two miles into it I back way off and see if anyone else will come plow the way- no one comes. So I surge and want to drop them (2 guys behind me) but they just close the gap.

Just past mile three Glen says he will "plow" for the next three miles and I gladly let him drive. Although now the wind is hitting us at a side angle so it's not really helping. We make our way uphill the next three miles and I jump back into the drivers seat and continue to battle the hill for one mile then Glen drives. Just past mile 8 we crest the hill and start the downhill. Now Glen is 15 seconds ahead of me and I want to close the gap. So the steep downhill lasts for about a mile and a half- about .8 into the downhill I catch him and we chat for a second then I pass him and go down into LaVerkin. As we make our way through town Glen pulls up and then starts to run away from me just past mile 10. Here is where I'm pretty confident and should put up a fight, but there is nothing to give. Glen looks like he's flying but in reality I'm just slowing down. So I just put my tail between my legs and made my way to the finish line knowing that this was a slow race. I expected to be under 1:14 no matter what and was floored when I saw my time of a 1:16 something. Glen ended up winning with a 1:15 something. He ran a pretty good race, but bottom line I didn't have an "A" game to bring. I'm not too pumped about this one even though last year I ran the same course without headwind in 1:20. I feel like I could have done way better, but maybe this course is harder than it seems it should be.

Yes, I want some cheese with my whine!

I've got four good solid weeks before my next race. I hope by then I can be recovered and ready to go. So this next week I may cut it way back and then hit it for the three remaining weeks or maybe not- at this point I'm not sure.

The cool weather and finishing up work early today, talked me into a long run. Did my Winchester Hills loop. Left the house just before noon and just headed up the trail nice and easy. When I got up to Winchester I got water on the golf course and was feeling great so when I hit the road I pushed it down to Steve's store. Stopped in and visited with Steve maybe for too long because I wasn't really into running home when the time came. But made my way back home and felt ok.

So instead of taking an easy week I'm going to hit 3 good weeks of training- starting with this week of 100 or so. Then after that I'll drop it down and get ready for the Teaton Dam marathon on June 9th in IDAHO baby! I hear there are some crazy good parties up there- it's off the hook!

9 miles early this morning

11 miles this evening

Did the new overpass loop up around and into Washington. This evening I cut back up by the golf course to add a couple more. The morning run was a little stiff from the single 20 on Monday. Then this evening I could tell that I was feeling better and just plugged along.

Early moring run 8.2 miles. I did the industrial park loop backwards. So had to go up all those fast fun hills. Pretty slow and tierd this morning- I did not want to get up, nor go for a run. Stress fracture in foot is feeling better every day. That's a good sign with the miles the last couple day, but I'll still baby it for awhile.

Hope to get a good run in this afternoon and stay ahead of the count on my week.

9 miles this afternoon. Same run as this morning only I did it the other way and when I got up to water tank I ran up to the end of the paved road and then back down. Not an easy run. When I left my house the temp outside of my house was 100 and when I got back it was still 96. I guess it's that time of year.

6.5 miles this morning around reg golf course loop

9.5 miles this afternoon with club

We did the Santa Clara/ Jacob Hammlin loop and it was hot. These 9-10 mile hot afternoon runs are a lot harder on me that an easy 13 or so when it's cooler. None of it felt that great. I'm ready to be done with this week. 100+ miles in 6 days is a lot and anyone who can do it is a pretty tough cat. I've hit a couple this year so far but this is by far the hardest.

Did the Coral Canyon overlook loop and down into Washington. I left the house at around 8:20 (yeah I slept in a little) and it felt nice compared to last night with Dustiin. Just pushed through it. I had a couple miles mid run that felt pretty good but overall I was pretty tierd. We are going up to Torrey today for the weekend and I'll get a good run in tomorrow at elveation.

I did all my miles for today this morning because I be golfing this afternoon in Richfield on the way up to Torrey and wont have time to run. This round of golf could be scarry because I haven't played since the tourny on New Years day. Four!

147.5 lbs today. That is the lowest I've been in '07.

Good run in Torrey on Saturday morning. I started from my uncles house (6,850 elev and climed up to around 7,500 elev). It was nice around 75 degrees. I took the paved road from about 5 miles then a dirt trail back. I just ran nice and easy other than the last mile I did around 5:40 pace. Happy to be done for the week and now ready to go show my in-laws the Burr Trail.

7.8 easy morning run up to trail and down around golf course

7.6 mile run from house back over to office to get my car

This evening I ran up to the powerline trail and over to the watertank then down the road for a mile. Then I took the T' bone trail over to the road and then I just droped off the hill down into town to our office. I waited until around 7 p.m. and it felt nice out by then.

7.5 easy morning run by golf course

9.1 a mini tempo run this evening

I had planned to go to the track with Steve and do 20x400 and get a nice speed workout in. But Steve had some family stuff come up and couldn't make it so I didn't want to go to the track by myself. However I still wanted to do some speed play of some sort. Did an easy 4 miles up to watertank and just up past where the pavement ends on the turkey farm road. From there back on the road through the industrial park is 5.1 miles back to my house. The workout went something like this.

1. 5:53

2. 5:46

3. 5:34

4. 5:54

5. 5:59

Ended up @ 5:49 min/mile pace. Really not that fast considering the course is downhill much of the way. I had a hard time getting things to turn over. Could have been a combo of the heat and general fatigue that is haunting my body.

I did an early morning run before a long busy day. Planned on getting in anouther run but by the time I was able to run it was 9 p.m. and I needed to get ready for bed to prepare for Thursday. So anyways that sucks! It really messed up my week. Now I'll have to make up for it on Thurs, Fri, Sat.

12.6 mile morning run

7.5 with the club

Did a early longer run today. Just stomping along at about 7:10 pace. I saw Dave running. He says he had to chase me out of Dog Town but little does he know I lived there for 3 years and Dog Town and I have a special relationship.

Evening club run was warm. We ran down to the park from the store. Then Steve and I did some barefoot grass loops around the park. Then headed back to the store. I picked up some more supplies from the St. George running store. The people there have been amazing to work with. I wouldn't have bought THREE Garmins from anyone else.

I did just one run today- a part of my old big loop trail. Nice and easy pace. Feeling good and want to try the Icehouse 20 miler on Satuday.

The Icehouse loop with Steve. What a run. I did this last on March 6th on a pre Boston training run. I ran it solo then in a time of 2:40. Today Steve and I took it a little easy and ran it in 2:59. It is one of a kind. Anyone who thinks thats slow for a 20 mile run should come post a time of their own. We kept it pretty easy because this was Steve's first 20 mile run since last summer. We both had some new Nathan hydration packs on to carry around 2.0 L of water. It runs from 2,758 elev to 5,122 on a rocky trail in the first 10 miles. So you just climb until you can't climb anymore. Then a step rocky one mile down until you hit the road. After we hit the road we did around 6:30 pace for about 4 miles then backed off for a couple and then I pushed the last one in. We saw a desert tortise. That was fun becasue Steve has never seen one before. I felt great and could do anouther 10 tonight, but won't.

Hope everyone had a good Ogden race. Can't wait to read about it.

6.5 mile easy Monday morning run.

8 mile run this evening

Did a nice run this evening. Wind was blowing a little, but it was a good thing. It felt a lot cooler than the last few days. Everything was clicking. Just one of those runs where you wish it was race day. I guess my legs and body are starting to feel ready to play hard again. Couple more weeks until Teton Dam Marathon.

6.5 miles to wake up this moring at 5 a.m.

9.7 miles at the track

Morning run was just blah. Going out and running to get in some miles for the day. Evening track workout with Steve and one other guy who's name slips my mind right now. Workout was this 20x 400 at goal of 1:20 or lower with a 200m jogg to recover between each 400.

Warm up one mile

Cool down just over a mile

The disclaimer here is we had a pretty hard headwind to deal with. So all the 1:18's would have been at least 16's and everything else a couple seconds faster too.

1. 1:18

2. 1:18

3. 1:18 (found an easy groove here and hit a lot of 1:18's)

4. 1:16

5. 1:17

6. 1:17

7. 1:18

8. 1:17

9. 1:18

10. 1:16

11. 1:17

12. 1:16

13. 1:18

14. 1:17

15. 1:16

16. 1:18

17. 1:18

18. 1:18 (groovin it)

19. 1:18

20. 1:10 (pushed it to finish up)

Wind Sucks!

Glad to have pushed all of them out. Glad to have stayed under goal of 1:20- ended up being 1:18 or lower. Can tell I might feel this one for a day or so.

6.5 mile run at 5 a.m.

7 mile trail run this evening

This morning I was a litte sore and just tried to do an easy recovery run from the speed workout on Tuesday. By the end of the run I was feeling pretty good.

This afternoon I did an all dirt 7 miler up in the desert reserve. Legs feeling better- I'm just trashed from everything else we've had going this week.

Now it's off to Viva Las Vegas. I may end up running a 10k this weekend down there just for fun.

8 miles this moning up in the reserve

5 miles this evening in Vegas

I was feeling better after the track workout but it's still hanging around. I not sure why I signed up for the 10k down here but I'm going to do it now that I've paid. It will be fun I guess because it's my wife's first road race ever.

Hope to relax all day Friday and get the legs ready to race.

Got up and did a run up around the Palms and Rio casino's and back to our room at the Monte Carlo.

Only did this one run today because I feel like crap and have that race tomorrow.

My wife came up with this idea to go run this 10k while we were in Vegas. So I thought I'd go do it. Wow! This was the hardest 10k I've ever raced. Even harder than my legs of the Del Sol Relay. It was located right up by the LDS Temple in Las Vegas. If you think Vegas you think flat but this is one of the only hill areas in town.

Splits went like this.

1. 5:49- Left high school and started the long uphill

2. 6:16- Hill gets steeper here. Pack startes to fall off.

3. 5:52-Still uphill with just a little level section

4. 6:19- Really steep section. Half of this mile is up to the turn around and the other half is back down.

5. 5:09- A good all downhill mile

6. 5:39- by now I can't catch the lead guy and I'm way ahead of the 3rd place guy so I just bring it in easy. No surges just smooth pace.

.26 1:30 Finally done.

We started out at a pretty fast pace for this course. One guy went out soo fast I knew he was going to choke. After we finished the first mile and a half the lead pack was down to about 5 and three miles into it we were at only 3 of us. Just after the three mile mark the guy who won the race surged and I didn't go with him thinking that I'd for sure run him down later. I pulled ahead of the 3rd place guy for good right after the halfway point and then started to try and reel in the leader. But he was gone. I let him slip away and didn't really care.

After I finished I ran back up the course a mile and a half to find my wife Mik'L and ran with her back to the finish. She did a good job on this very demanding 10k course.

We stayed for the awards to find out that I got this 3ft tall trophy for 2nd place... a little over the top, but oh well. I'd rather have gotten a medle and a gift certificate.

MIle total for the week was a little low but I hadn't planned on this race and needed to get ready for it. Also with the speed workout that we did on Tuesday night my legs have been feeling it all week. One more good stronge week and then it's time to get ready for Teton.

Dave and I decided to celebrate our Memorial Day with a run up and down Utah Hill. The old highway from St. George to Mesquite, NV. We drove just over the Arizona line and then started our climb up for the next nine point something miles. You climb a little over 2000ft in the nine miles and never get a brake from the hill. We held a strong yet comfortable pace up and averaged 7:52 per mile up. When we reached the summit I ran down the road a little more trying to find some water and Gu that we had stashed on the drive by. So total for this up segment was 9.6 miles. Then I reset the Garmin to have a fresh look for the downhill and we walked up to my stuff got a drink and stretched. Then we started down off the Mountain and the splits went like this.

1. 5:47 (took a mile to realize we could run fast now, Yeah no more uphill)

2. 5:34

3. 5:26 started feeling frisky

4. 5:31

5. 5:33

6. 5:38 left the mouth of the canyon and hit some headwind

7. 5:38

8. 5:43 Headwind and now I very thirsty- Should have stashed more H20

9. 5:46 Just trying to get back to the car to get a drink

.3 in 1:46

Finished the downhill tempo at 9.3 miles in 52:25 right around 5:38 mile pace. Then Dave came a couple minutes later and we did another 1.2 miles to cool off and get to 20 miles on the workout. Happy with getting in a tough run like this. I wish I could push myself more often. This should be the last hard workout before my trip to Idaho. Now just get some miles in this week and then taper off next week before the race.

6.5 mile morning loop

8 mile powerline golf course loop

Both runs fall under the easy recovery department. Legs feeling pretty sore and slow from Mondays workout. Hope to run it out this week and be fully recovered by next week for the taper.

8.2 mile morning loop up to water tank and down around industrial park

7.2 mile golf course loop mix

Feeling a lot better and almost fully recovered from Monday’s tempo run. Morning run felt nice and I wanted to keep pushing it down off the hill but held back to make sure things were good. This evening I went up to do my regular 6.5 mile loop around the golf course and then I had some bad stomach issues. I'm guessing the bowl of Life, peanut butter and honey sandwich, and pack of beef flavored Top Roman- washed down with Ruby Red grapefruit juice didn't all mix up like I'd hoped for. So I had to make a run to the nearest stop if you know what I mean. This happened to be on the golf course and took me around a different route than normal, and after the bio break was over I was happy with my new find. It makes a pretty good loop 7.2 instead of only 6.5. Something new to mix it up with is always a plus.

8 mile morning run

8.5 miles run this eveing with the club.

I'm really starting to feel good. Every time I get out my legs want to run harder and harder. Both runs felt great. The club run today was good up into the Sunbrook golf course and back to the store. Good to get out and run with the guys. Steve pushed us on the way back. He's looking pretty good for an old business man.

Finished off May at 386.95 miles. I think that in a one month record for me. One more day and then I'll start a taper and should be ready to roll.

Happy anniversary to me and my wife Mik'L. Or big 6th today. So I did all my miles for the day in one run so I have more time this evening to spend with my sweetheart. She's my little trooper.

Today I ran up to the powerline trail and to Middleton trail and over to golf course then around to the house. I took my hydro pack and it felt good to stay hydrated. No turtles or snakes today. Just a couple of golfers who could use a lesson or two.

Nice morning run with the club. Everyone came. The first time for well like ever. We ran a loop around Sand Hollow out by Hurricane. We just ran easy for the fisrt 6 or so talking and moving along. Then around the half we move down around 6:40 pace for a mile or so and then started to drop around 5:50 pace for the next 4 and a half. I told myself ealy this morning not to play hard today but it felt so good and I fell to temptation. Then at 11.5 we ran into the main road so I stopped and waited for Steve H. and Steve O. then did the last mile as a cool down.

Good run and I feel good going ino my taper. It will be nice to run on fresh legs again. I haven't had them since before Boston in April.

Fun run this morning with James from Logan, and his friend Damon Cox, and Steve Hooper. We meet up at the Dixie Center and went up the fire trail on Webb Hill and then down off onto the trail that loop around the river and back to the DC. Nice and cool this morning and fun to run with those guys.

Ran 6 more tonight with James. Around 6:40 pace. Went a little farther than I wanted to but it was a good little run. We did around a mile in bare feet on the golf course to help with biometrics.

Ran this morning with Holt and James. They meet at my house and we went up into the reserve and back round golf course to the house. Pace was a little faster than I wanted to go. Around a 6:15- 6:40 effort for the run. The times up on the trails in the reserve are a little slower but the effort was right there. So now for sure I need to start some good easy days. This will be all today and Wed, Thurs, Fri should be nice and easy. As usual the nerves are stating to drive me crazy. I wish I didn't get so nervous before races but its just part of it for me.

Easy run this morning up to power line trail and then back down. Wind is a pain today... although the temp is way down so I guess you win some and lose some. I feel's good to be running this week- doing the taper and all. It almost feels like the last week of school. You have to show up but you don't have to do anything. Anyways if everyone on the blog will all cross their fingers at the same time maybe the wind won't be too bad in Rexburg on Saturday morning. Or I may just be wishful thinking.

Nice easy run this morning up around the golf course. What a nice morning. The storm and wind are all gone and it was just so peaceful, plus it was nice and cool. 50 something degrees in June is a big deal in this town.

Tried to run nice and easy but got into a nice little groove and was cruising along for a while. We will leave for Orem this afternoon. Drive up there tonight and then up to Rexburg on Friday morning. It almost feels like I going to be driving from Mexico to Canada.

Drove up to Rexburg from Orem today. What a drive. I really do feel like I'm in the Canadian Tundra. It sure is nice and green from SLC north. In northern Utah and southern Idaho it is way pretty and lush.

So the race hasn't even started yet and I'm out on Rexburg. I'll report more later but not really a fan. We went and drove the last 10 miles of the course. That hill from 16 to 21ish is a beast. Not looking forward to it. Also they had it posted that the last few miles are downhill; that was false. The last miles and a half will be an incline to the finish.  I've got a bad attitude right now. It could be from the drive, or the not so warm welcome with our number pick-up at city hall.

Hope for a good day tomorrow.  

Teton Dam Marathon.

After we arrived in Rexburg on Friday we drove sections of the course and I quickly changed my goals for the race. I feel like I’m in PR shape and ready to run a 2:32ish marathon but it wasn’t going to happen today. There is a hill… Goals changed from wanting to PR to just wanting to win. Sasha had told me during the Del Sol Relay to just go run it and win  but not push it hard, and I thought that was a good approach. Although I didn’t know exactly who would show and what would happen.

So we get to the bus and I meet Jeff and Kory. Jeff and I sit together on the bus and talk about race. At the start it was a beautiful crisp morning. Perfect race conditions-low temp, little to no wind. So I’m pumped for that.

The Teton Dam web page shows an elevation chart and also has a description of the course. Both are very inadequet. It shows the first 16 or so with a slight downhill if anything level. Then it shows the hill and then a drop down to the finish. Well here’s the real story.

1. 6:13 Nice warm-up mile. Little uphill then a little downhill
2. 5:50 Pretty level. Starting to get warmed up. Running with Jeff.
3. 5:43 Some gradual drop and I start trying to reel in the relay team in front of us.
4. 5:46 Jeff and I catch and pass relay and both of us beat all the relay teams.
5. 5:47 Cruising by a little town of Newdale
6. 5:45 Feeling good. Nice and level for a few.
7. 5:45 Jeff not too far back. Everyone else long gone.
8. 5:49
9. 5:47
10. 5:55 First mile of a not shown climb (gradual) Now I’m out in front and running solo.
11. 5:52 What are we doing going up?
12. 5:51 Long straight shot
13. 5:52 Right after half we finish the small climb
14. 5:52 Feeling good, but can see the big hill coming
15. 6:00 Trying to relax before the climb
16. 6:09 This mile drops down and then starts at the base of the hill. The only aid station with sports drinks, everything else just has water.
17. 6:46 Kill me!
18. 6:40 Just pull the trigger! At the aid station I take a GU and drink. About .2 miles later I start dry heaving and stomach is doing crazy things. Still going up!
19. 6:43 Training for Ragnar. Uphill style.
20. 6:23 Still going up but not as steep. At 20 miles my time is 2:00.30 not too bad for really not pushing it, and all this uphill stuff. I start thinking about trying to run down a PR anyways. If I could only pound out this last 10k in 35 something.
21. 6:23  This mile changes my mind back pretty fast. Some rollers that are pretty steep up and down.
22. 6:25 So I’ve finally crested all the hills and am hitting the downhill I’ve been dreaming about all race. Only now I can’t get going. In fact I’m done trying. The cop tells me I have a solid mile lead on anyone else (I later find out that wasn’t true, Jeff was hunting me down and I was there for the taking). But his words tell me to go into survival mode and just finish.
23. 6:12 Downhill here but I was hoping for 5:40 pace on this section. Who cares though. I see my wife and I see her lips moving but I can’t focus on anything she is saying.
24. 6:12 Some good downhill I’m not cashing in on.
25. 6:36 Here is the really frustrating part. The course description says it drops from like 21 down to the finish. That’s funny because I felt like I was on a gradual incline here. Nothing too serious but I wanted cruise control all the way in.
26. 6:39 Ready for it to be over as I make my way down main with the crowd and stuff the only thing I can think of is “I wonder what pace I’d be running on this mile if it was a decline?” Speaking of pace I should pick it up here and break 2:40… na it doesn’t matter.

.2   2:40 Last little part was fun. Kind of a little arch to run under and “I just won a MARATHON”

Finish time 2:40:11 at the time I couldn’t care less but now I’m mad I didn’t push it  and run 2:39:59 or something.

Fast running blog goes 1. Me, 2. Jeff, 3. Kory!!!

Good race, New course record by 10 mins although they didn’t say anything about it. I’d never run it again but I’m glad I went up. Very challenging course. Awards were…Well lets just put it this way I’m glad I wasn’t running to win something. Bad news there. It was good to meet Jeff and Kory. They are both really nice guys. I enjoyed talking and running with Jeff (who ran a very good race considering Ogden was just a few weeks ago).

 At Boston I took my heart out of my chest and ran with all I had, and then paid the price by being trashed for a month and a half. Today I never really pounded any of the miles out. Not the best effort but I really don’t feel that sore tonight. So I’m glad it turned out that way- hopefully I really will be ready for RAGNAR! Anyways that’s about it I could go on forever.

I wasn't going to even run today but after getting up and walking around the house I started to feel pretty good. So I just went out nice and easy. Going up some of the hill portions out in the reserve was a little challenging but nothing too bad.

I'm still going to take this week very easy. My wife and I are doing a hand-cart trek with our church on Thurs, Fri, Sat and I may not even get to run on those days. But we will be walking and eating dried fruit and jerky in small proportions.

Did the industrial park loop a little late in the morning. By the time I was doing the last few miles it was hot. My diet has been ugly this week. Hamburgers on Monday and pizza on Tuesday. Its time go come back to earth and start eating better. My miles will still be pretty low this week. I just don't want to drop any fitness in this so called down time. I think the worst part about racing is that it really cuts into your training- with the taper and then an even longer recovery.

Our trek is somewhat local. In the Kaibab National Forest. So I think I'll be able to get a run in early Thursday morning before we leave and then no run on Friday. On Saturday when we get back I will do a longer run that evening if I feel good.

Up to powerline and down Middleton trail. Then over by golf course and back home. Felt pretty good.

First day of trek. Walked a little over 8 miles/ pushed hand-cart and packed a pack with around 25lbs of junk in it. I don't make it a practice of giving myself miles for non running activities but this trek stuff left my calves just as sore as if I had did hill workouts at home. So we'll go with 4 easy miles on the day.

Same as Thursday but we only did a little over 5 miles. So I'll go with 2.

Walked a little over 2 miles on the last day of the trek. So 1 easy mile on that.

After finally getting home from a marathon of a trip with the youth from our stake I sat around the house so tierd I couldn't sleep for a few hours. Then just before ten o'clock I went out and did 12 miles down around town and back home. Bad, bad, bad run.

13.5 miles this morning

7.25 miles this evening

Wanted to get in 20 today and was going to do it all this morning but decided to split it up and try and say as shap as I can before WBR this weekend. I headed out and only was a half mile from home when I ran into Dave so I joined him on the second part of his 20- we did his Wendy's loop back to his house. Then I got a drink and went up over the new overpass and back home.

This afternoon I pushed it a little harder than I should have. It was still around 100 degrees and by the time I got home I felt dead. After the marathon a week ago and then kind of having a some time off last week I feel like I am teaching my body how to run all over again.

6.5 miles this moring

6.5 miles this afternoon up in Cedar City

Went out this morning for a quick run before heading up to Cedar for the day. Went up to help with the summer wrestling camp. Good day of wrestling. We had Pat Smith (4x NCAA Champ) and brother of Olympic Gold winner John Smith. It's fun to see guys that have been that great at what they do. I sat and talked with Pat over dinner and asked him how much running played a part in his wrestling career. He said he ran almost every day durning his college career- around 5 miles.

Anyways morning run was o.k and then the afternoon run up in Cedar should have been nice because the weather is cooler. However, I went only a hour after a big meal and paid the price.

8.1 a.m. miles up to powerline/water tank then down around industrial park

5.1 p.m. miles on the treadmill this afternoon

Starting to come around. Still no sparks, or signs of any speed. But the form is falling back into place and the soreness fading fast. This evening I couldn't talk myself into going out. It still said 102 on the temp and it just felt like it was going to zap me for all I was worth. So I stayed inside at 72 degrees and hit the treadmill for the first time in months. We've got this $2,000 treadmill I may as well us it once in a while.

Lots to do before we go up to Logan on Thursday morning. The Wasatch Back Relay team is falling into place-with some last day changes.

Here are a list of the Bloggers on the team.

Paul

James from Mona

Dustin

Sasha

Steve O

Dan

Cody

Jon with green shorts

Chris R.

Me

The other two are not bloggers yet. Go team MarathonGIS! Oh yeah and Bingo was his name O!

8 miles this morning Good run today. Feeling pretty good. Now we just have to pack up and drive from one side of the state to the other. Hope to get around 4-5 miles in tonight in Logan.

Long drive up. I mean it sucked. However, worth it to join some of the WBR team at Dan's house for a BBQ. Good start to what should prove to be a great weekend.

4 miles back at the motel tonight after hanging out at the BBQ. I don't know where I went- I just ran until the garmin said four miles and that I could stop.

Woke up at 6:30 a.m and did a nice morning run here in Logan. A very nice morning. Then came back to the motel and had breakfast then went back to bed until around noon. Hope to be ready to roll for the race today. Some of those suckers have been racing for hours now.

Race starts and it's hot! I'm in the second van so we shuttle up to the major exchange. At the exchange we find out that we and BYU took some wrong turns and put us back from Weber who is running very strong.

I start my first leg and it's only 3.6 miles. The race was right after it got dark and I ran ok but nothing amazing. around 5:39 pace.With a warm up and cool down a mile and a half also on the day.

Second leg (6.6 but ended up almost 6.8) of the race. Around Coalville, Utah. Leg was about 3:30 am and on rolling road. Felt ok but not racey at all. I have a hard time running hard in the dark. I feel like I'm going crazy fast and I'm really not going that fast. This leg ended up being like 5:58 pace. Really can feel the altitude and then in the last .4 I start dry heaving and just make it to the hand off.

Third leg (Ragnar 4 miles).

This is the leg that everyone seemed to talk about. When people talk about the WBR they talk about the Ragnar leg. Why? Because its straight up hill. Wasn't really that bad. There was even a little part that was flat that gave me some time to relax the quads that were on fire. Ended up doing it in 34:48 or @ 8:46 min/mile pace I think. I felt better on this leg than the two other legs before. I was happy with this leg, not that happy with the first two. This wasn't the fastest time up the mountain but was in the top 10 I'm guessing.

A mile a half warm up/ cool down on the day with both runs combined.

 Team ended up in 3rd place overall out of 330 or something. Fun race! I decided I like running these relays because of the guys. It's just fun to work as a team and live in a van or Expedition. If you haven't done a relay you need to sign up for one.

8 miles in the morning

8 miles this evening

Morning run up through industrial park and up the hill to the water tank then back down trail to the house. Felt really good for a Monday morning- one of the best Moday runs I've had in a long time. Around 7:20 pace

This afternoon I went out at 6:30 and it was still over 100 degrees out. I did fine for the first 6-7 miles hitting 6:30 pace or faster. Then in the 7th mile I got very dry and needed to be done fast. So I only went 8 instead of the 10 I had planned. Once I got to my in-laws house and finished the run I felt sick to my stomach and it took almost a half hour to cool down.

Moral of the story- When you go out and it is over 100 out, don't go more than 5 miles or so without water.

Good run this morning at 5 a.m. Went up to new overpass and then down through Washington and back home (9 miles). This town is a lot better place to be when the sun is asleep. I may have to start using my treadmill in the afternoons... it's just too hot to run and if you do go out it just zaps your energy for then next three days. We'll see what happens this eveing?

This evening I wanted to stay in and run on the treadmill... I should have! My wife wanted to go over to her parents house and have dinner so I warmed up on the treadmill for two miles then ran down past Costco and over to the in-laws. It's only about 6.4 miles down that way but it was over 104 degrees. This time I took water with me in a hydration pack, but it didn't seem to help. It was still just too hot. When I got to the house again like Monday it took me over a half hour to cool down and not feel sick.

So again I've got to play with ways to get in miles on my p.m. run until it cools of around here.

Speed workout day.

Got up at 5:20 a.m and ran the 2 miles down to the high school to meet the club. Waited until like 15 after and there was only a new guy Tony there. So I did a half mile more to be warm and started some speed miles- today there was no speed. I pretty much trashed my system last night on the hot run and could feel it like a slap in the face as soon as I started running this morning.

1. 5:26- Didn't feel good from the git go but thought as I pushed through I'd start to feel better.

2. 5:27- Same effort as the first, but by the end I don't want to do any- not even one more!

3. 5:48- Didn't want run this but am making mysef finish the workout I went there to do. Just ran lazy.

4. 5:48- Felt like I was even going slower on this mile. Dustin joined me on this one and him being there helped me push through. After I finished I was dry heaving. That seems to be happening like every run since my first leg of WBR. I think I need to do some ab work to help my stomach get over being a baby.

This workout pretty much sucked. Not only did I feel like barf, but I don't like the miles on the track. I'll stick to 800's and 400's and anything longer for speed I'll do out on the road. It's just too painful to run around the track. I can go out on the road and run the same pace and it feels a lot easier.

Between each mile did a 400. Then ran back home for 2 more miles.

Just an old fashion 7 miles on the treadmill this evening. Hit it right at 50:00. I started a 7 speed and worked my way up to 10 to finish the last half mile.

Nice run this morning at 4:45. Ran up through the industrial park to the water tank then back down. Went up the 4.5 in 36:00 and back down in 29:30. Felt good but didin't push anything.

Met up with the club at around 8 p.m. We ran a nice little loop around Bloomington for 8 miles tonight. The first two miles were slower but faster than I would have liked. I could tell that Steve wanted to push the pace and I was fine with that so we started to hit 6 min miles for the next three or four. A nice little push. Even though it was still around 100 the sun had gone down and it felt a lot better. Then we ran nice and easy for the last two miles or so to cool off.

Got up at 4:45 again and made myself go out on a 20 miler. The first 3-4 miles were up a dirt rocky trail and it was dark, I mean no light. So the pace was slow, but that was ok because I was feeling a little run down from the miles this week. I did the Winchestor Loop so by the time I got up there to the golf course I was finally feeling good. I ate a GU and got some water on the golf course and then hit the main road back to STG. Felt good on the downhill on into town. Then made my way back home. The last mile or so I was in need of a drink but all in all It was a pretty good run.

Well this was kind of just for fun. I didn't taper at all for the race. In fact I was on a 100-mile week with 20 miles the day before. So I wanted to run it but just as like a tempo training run. The race was at 6,800-6,950 feet of elevation. The course wasn't fast by any means and it was out and back. Slight uphill the first .5 then .5 of downhill, then .5 uphill again- followed by the same backwards all on a freshly loose graveled road. Other than that it is very beautiful there and would point anyone in that direction for a good weekend in Southern Utah.

So I warmed up with just over 5.5 miles around the out skirts of town then made my way over to the start.

1. 5:31- Because of the way the course rolls I knew this would be the fastest mile so I pushed the start and felt good.

2. 5:44- Harder mile as you climb up to the turn around on the gravel. Same effort as the first mile and still feeling good. As I turn around I see the second place runner around 2 min's back and so I just kind of start coasting.

3. 6:08- You climb the hard hill in this mile and I wasn't in a hurry to get away from anyone so I tried to stay loose and wanted to push the last .5 from the top of the hill to the finish. I did run that section faster but not too much. Just felt good running in my hometown. 5:47 pace per mile for the race.

Fun race. IMHO I would have put together a different course to showcase the area a little more. It was actually a pretty good effort with what I'd done earlier this week and on the elements of the course and elevation. Had I been rested I could have maybe gone 1 min 30 seconds faster. On a flat course at lower elevation a little faster than that. Did just over 4.5 miles after the race to get to 13 on the day and 100 for the week.

I'm happy with my training this week and glad to see the improvement from one week ago. Starting to shake out the post-marathon garbage that my body goes through. Two good weeks of training before the week of the Bryce half. Then it's time to rock and roll and see where I'm really at.

5 miles a.m

7.5 miles p.m

I had my alarm set at 4:45 a.m and was going to go out and do 9- but at 4:30 I woke up and turned it off and went back to sleep. My wife finally got me to get up just after 6 a.m. and I did a quick 5. Feeling pretty good.

Too hot outside to run so I hit the treadmill. Warmed up for a mile or so and then hit a couple miles at around 6:30 pace then started a "speed play" series.

First a mile at 6 min pace. Then a recovery to a song (so like 3:30 min or something. Then one more at that pace but just a bit shorter. Recovery to a song.

Then just over a half mile at 5:30 pace- one song recovery.

Finished up at about a half mile at 5:00 pace and then a short cool down.

Kind of a fun way to pass the time on the treadmill. Not too hard of a speed workout but still got the legs moving.

9 miles in the morning

6 miles in the afternoon on treadmill

Did the morning loop up around new overpass and around Washington. Then made my way back home. Felt really good and it was nice to be out early. There was a couple miles up on the dirt that were slow because it was dark and I couldn't see all the bumps in the road.

Ran on the treadmill this afternoon. Just a even paced 6:40 type run. I do like the way the treadmill makes me run with a good, smooth form.

Meet up with the STG running club at 5:30 this morning for a 4th of July run from Enterprise Lake down to Veyo on the back dirt road. Good run. The course was good with some climbing and some downhill. We stopped at mile 5 to wait for Bill who was feeling a little sore. Then we made our way around the hill up and down to mile 13 and waited for Dustin and Bill. Then from there down we made our way down to the car at mile 17.5 then I ran one more mile to cool off and walked it back waiting for the guys to come.

The first 13 miles felt great. We just moved along talking and enjoying the morning. Then after the wait we all started feeling cramped because of running and then stopping. Plus we all needed some water and were starting to get dehydrated. Once we got going again it only took just over a half mile to get warmed up again and then started pushing the last few. Hit the last three miles at 5:40 pace. Then I needed a drink bad.

9.2 miles this morning. New overpass loop. A little sore this morning from the run with the club on the 4th. The downhill at the last was pretty steep and I was hitting that section at about 5:15 pace... now I can feel it.

9.1 miles this evening with the club.

Good run tonight. Although the first three miles or so were hard then I finally started to feel good. We didn't get going until around 8:10 p.m. or so and it was still around 105 but there was clouds and the sun wasn't melting us like ants. We ran over to Entrada golf course and hit the back nine. It's nice to run on the golf course- just feels a little cooler. Then we found a stash of water and it made things a lot better because at that point I was very dry. Made our way back to the store- pace for the run was all just nice and easy.

12 miles a.m. Got up this morning to find that the clouds that made our evening run last night so nice- had kept the overnight low down to around 90 degrees this morning at 6:30 a.m. It just didn't feel cool at all. In fact there was a light breeze and it felt like a blow dryer hitting you in the face.

I did the powerline trail up above the Green Spring golf course and ran into Dave up there. So I ran with him for a couple miles until I had to split over to the golf course. There I hit up the water tank and got a well needed drink and soked my hat before finishing the last 2.5 or so. Other than the warm morning it was a good run.

4.3 miles this afternoon on the treadmill.

Ran early this morning with Bill and Dave. I had planned on doing an 8 mile tempo run with some warm up and cool down miles. However when we started running it just didn't feel like a good thing. So we just did an old skool longer run down through town. It was nice once we got down by the river- you could feel a little cooler air. Felt good and happy it is Saturday.

Around 10 p.m. I went out for anouther 6.5 to try out a new pair of shoes and to push it over 100 for the week. Feeling good but will be happy for a rest on Sunday.

9.25 miles a.m. It sure felt like Monday this morning. I didn't want to get out of bed, then once out running I felt very robotic. I saw Dave out doing his 20 and we did a high five and continued on our way. I had to hit a construction sit for a porta stop and then finally on the last three miles I started to feel good.

6.25 miles this evening on the treadmill. Blah! Blah! Blah!

A.M. 10 miles

Did an out and back temp run. I ran up into the industrial park and up to the water tank to be out 4.5 in 33:30 (uphill)- then turned around and tried to hit it harder on the way back. Came home in 25:20 and then did a mile to cool down. I felt I could have pushed the last two miles harder but had to go to the restroom bad so I was just staying in a comfort zone as to avoid any problems. Pace on the way back was around 5:25 min/mile and was that kind of effort on the way up but slower due to the hill.

4.5 miles on treadmill this afternoon.

Morning run from ???

Today was going to be track workout day with the club. I wanted to get in a long run, and still wanted to do a track workout so. I got up at 4:30 and it was still 86 degrees out- sucks I was hoping for 70's. I gave myself an hour to go run and be at the track by 6 a.m. to meet the guys. I ran down into town and looped Foremaster hill and up to Pine View HIgh track right on time at 6 a.m. and 8.5 miles into my hour run so far. I got to the school and jogged around it to find a porta potty (very helpful at the time) - then jogged back to the track and did one more mile on it to warm up with Tony (the only one who showed up). Now Ten miles into the run and start the 800"s. No time goal not knowing what to expect after doing 10 miles.

1. 2:40- not too bad, not too good as far as time but feeling pretty good.

2. 2:37- A little faster but nothing to write home about.

3. 2:38- Now starting to feel like maybe I'm tierd and maybe I need to be done for the day.

4. 2:40- Wanted to finish hard and run the fastest one- but a head wind came up on both laps of this one and I run around a 2:36-37 effort but now I'm done for real just get me home.

400 recovery after each 800.

Run home from high school 2 more miles to put me at 15. Goal for the morning was to finish off 20 miles after the track workout. But by the time I got up to the gas station one mile from home I just came home and decided to finish tonight with 5 more miles on the treadmill. Got on the scale and was 146 after drinking. So I'm sure I was down a pound or two lower than 146- my all time low. Very dehydrated. Kind of sick on the couch for a couple hours after. I know I'm a baby.

8 more miles this afternoon. No, not on the treadmill. It RAINED! The first time in like three months. So today at around 2 p.m. it was 80 degrees and cooler than 5 o'clock this morning. I pretty much dropped everything and went out. I was a little tierd but felt great. In the hour I was gone it went from 80 to 94 by the time I got home.

Got up and road in the car with my wife and all the running girls in the club to 5 miles up the marathon course from the running store. Then I ran home over skyline and did a little detor up on top to make sure it was at least ten. Felt like death when I got up- but started running and just tried to keep good form, but wasn't pushing it at all. Ended up running the ten miles right at 1 hour. That just shows what the downhill on that course can do. You feel like crap and you run easy and you still run pretty fast.

Now I'm off to Lake Powell for the weekend with the scouts in my ward. I hope to get some miles in down there. If I can get away from the ski boat or out of the house boat and if I can find a place to run.

Got up at 5:30 a.m. on the house boat and jumped on a jet ski to drive across the lake to the marina so I could run. Hit the road that runs down to Page, AZ. Went out and back. Alot of up hill and then some fast downhill on the way back. Finished and went back to the fun stuff.

Same as Friday morning. Great morning run watching the sun rise up over the lake.

New overpass loop this morning. Feeling ok for Monday. A lot of junk in my belly- so trying to get it through the system as fast as possible. I didn't get to finish off my week very good last week, and this week I'll cut it down to get ready to race on Saturday. So it's a good break or a waste of some good training time. It depends on how you look at it. Right now I'm not sure how I see it.

This evening the wind kicked up big time and we got a little microburst of rain. I wanted to test the waters and so I was out in it. Not too bad. A lot better than a normal hot evening. Even though the wind almost knocked me off my feet.

I've got a ripped, or torn abdominal muscal. I must have did it down at the lake water sking or something like that. It's pretty painful. At easy pace there is no pain but as the pace increases I sure do feel it. I tried some sit ups and could hardly even do one. I'm not sure what it is, but hope it heals soon.

Nice morning run up in the reserve. 8 miles. The desert smells so good after a rain. It ended up raining for a few hours last night-Good, but it is a little muggy out today. No complaints here, I'll take rain every day of the week. Stomach muscals are still pretty tight. I'm not sure what to do. I'm going to give it a couple days and see if it starts to feel better and if not I'll have to have it checked out. If it hurts like this I may not be racing this weekend. Frowny face. We'll just have to see.

5 more miles tonight late around 10 p.m. after the ward pool party. Belly muscals still sore but will start ice and rest on Wednesday.

5.5 miles this morning

5 miles in the evening

Morning run was just easy pace up into the reserve. Went out to the powerline and back.

Evening run did the club house loop. Warmed up for a little over two and then tried a mile and a half at around 5:20 pace. Held the pace but didn't feel good. Stomach is producing a lot of acid. Still painfull with presure. I looked on Web MD and decided best case it could be a muscal strain- worst case it could be anything. If it is a muscal strain about the only thing I can do is relax and give it time. Ice and Advile work too. Kind of a bummer. I don't wont to pull out of the race this weekend because I've been looking forward to it for so long. So I'll most likely run- just not %100. I still have a couple days to start feeling better so I'm hoping to be able to game on race day.

Four miles on the treadmill this morning. Relaxing today and will run with the club this afternoon.

6.6 miles tonight with the running club.

Pace was slow and we chatted the length of the run. Everyone is going up to Bryce and it should be fun. My abs didn't bother me at all on the run- but the pace was slow. I'm just crossing my fingures that by Saturday morning I'm ready to race.

2 miles on the treadmill this morning. Way too smokey outside to run.

3 miles up in Tropic (Bryce Canyon) after we eat dinner. Went with Steve and Logan.

Bryce Canyon Half Marathon.

Slept about 3 hours last night in our wonderful motel, but when I got up I felt better than I'd felt all week. Ab's didn't hurt and I just got ready to head up to the start. Got to the start and saw Mike Vicke and knew Hobie was comming so thought things could be fun. Got a good warm-up in and then used the porta potty one too many times as the last time I went it stunk so bad I was dry heaving and didn't puke because I had nothing in my stomach to push up. Wonderful pre-race fun. At the start we had a fase start and everyone kept running but Dave and I. We stopped and then when everyone kept going we started again. Maybe a 5-10 second waste of time. I ran a pretty good race considering on Tuesday I wasn't even going to run at all- that's how bad my ab's hurt. At mile 5 the pain showed up and just held me back. From there in I struggled to stay in the race. So it went like this.

1. 5:36- Dave and I catch up to Logan after the false start. Some slight downhill and some up.

2. 5:30- The three of us trying to get into race mode. .6 uphill .4 downhill

3. 4:52- The step downhill. Way to fast for me. Too step too.

4. 4:58- Same as mile 3

5. 5:11- Starting to cramp- ab's and legs.

6. 5:10- The guys start pulling away.

7. 5:30- Gets flat through here

8. 5:48- A climb up before you get to the town of Tropic- Now I want to just pull out early, but my pride makes me finish. I'm having a hard time keeping this pace.

9. 5:46- More of the same.

10. 5:36- Gradual downhill helps me pass the time. But the race is over. I do some quick math and make a new goal of running under 1:12.

11. 5:37- Actually start to feel good right here and start wanting to chase down Dave and the other guy from Durango, Co.

12. 5:47- As quick as I felt good I felt bad again with a side ache that sends me into "hold on for dear life" mode.

13. 5:40- Flat road and I can see the end.

.2 5:25 pace... No big finish, just happy to be done.

Overall not a good race. Goal was sub 1:10. But even on a bad race took a PR on this course and a new PR for the half marathon. Last year I ran a 1:15 here and my PR was at Hobble with a 1:12. So if I'm healthy and start getting some better speed workouts I think a 1:08 can happen in a month at Hobble Creek.

Hobie showed why he's one of the best in the state pushing out a 1:04 flat! Mike V. ran a 1:07. Dave and Logan both ran great kicking my butt, but I'll let them tell about it. For some reason I'm just glad this race is over?

Easy morning run with Sasha. We left from his house and ran down the trail to Utah Lake. Out three miles back three miles. Most of the run was just easy. Sasha wanted to do one mile at around 5:40 pace tempo- so we did.

I'm a little sore from the race on Saturday. More than I thought I'd be actually. I'm going to try and get a run in this afternoon and then join Sasha or Steve O. on the marathon in the morning around the 16 mile mark- so I'll run the last 10 in with one of them, or try to.

6 miles tonight. Ran up to Mt. View High School and did laps on the half mile loop around the baseball field. The run reminded me of when I ran at UVSC- one of my old training runs. A little rain this afternoon so the temp was down. Nice run!

Des News Marathon- the last 11 or so miles-This is kind of a race report but not mine.

This was one of the funnest running things I've ever did. We drove from Orem up to SLC at Hogle Zoo so I could run the last part of the marathon with Sasha. Why? My reasoning was 3 fold.

1. So I could get a tempo type workout in before driving home and not wanting to do it in St. George.

2. Help Sasha in any way I could.

3. See the last part of the Des News course in person- Next year I'll run it.

Did a couple miles warm up waiting for Sasah to get to the Zoo. I'm still kind of sore so I hope that I can hang in there and not get dropped by Sasha on the way in. I ended up feeling great. The best I've felt in a couple weeks. Stomach felt fine and legs moved good considering the weekend. Sasha came along and I gave him an update on the leaders and then it was time to buckle down and run.

Our splits went like this.

Keep in mind this is somewhere around Sasha's 15th mile.

1. 5:37- a little downhill past the Zoo, then steep but short little hill.

2. 6:03- We start pulling away from the guy who was right behind Sasha when I picked him up.

3. 5:54- Smooth relaxed pace

4. 5:57- same

5. 6:06- Same

6. 6:10- Same, small incline around here.

7. 6:03- We would run easy on the uphill and push the flat and downhill a little harder.

8. 6:13- Same effort- little climb

9. 6:14- Sasha is hanging tough

10. 6:22- Now he just wants to be done, I try and keep him relaxed and try to be a good wind blocker so he can draft, but I'm not that big to block any kind of head wind.

11. 6:37- Slows dwon a little but there was no need for him to push the pace. Next guy (Steve O) was around 10 mins back.

Just an awsome run. I decided I like running the end of marathons when I haven't run the first 15. The weather was great too. After Sasha finished I went back out to bring Steve O in and somehow missed him... don't ask me how. So while he was finishing I found Walter in a bad way (walking) and tryed to get him in. He showed a lot of guts at the end and fought off being chicked.

Good job to everyone who ran today! We missed the Logan guys so I sent some stuff with Sasha to give to them.

Woke up to an amazing morning in STG for July. Around 74 degrees and overcast. So I went out for an 8 mile loop but around 6 miles into it I thought I might as well enjoy the weather and so I went a little farther. I ran very easy the whole way. My legs can still feel some hang over from the last few days.

No run this afternoon. Very, Very Sick. The last couple weeks my stomach has been right on the line of being healthy or sick and today it jumped right in. Hours in the bathroom.

No run this morning. Still sick. First time being this sick in a couple years.

Still sick. Maybe the worst I've been in a couple years.

Wow! What a week. Today I finally started to feel good later in the evening but ended up running out of time. It feels like a big waste taking so many days off. I hope I can get back into things pretty quick and that it won't hurt me too bad.

Up at 4:40 a.m. for a little nine-mile shake out after a four-day hiatus. Stomach is finally feeling regular again. At least I’m able to eat now without it coming back out within 20 min’s. Calves are a little tight but that’s to be expected after not running for so long. I just want to try and get some good mileage in this week and try and get back into shape. I also want to get one good speed workout in.

8 miles this evening. Went out around 8 p.m after the rain storm. This rain we've been getting is awsome. It sure helps the days cool off. My lower calf's are pretty sore- a little more than normal. I guess I'll have to use the stick and roll them out. Ouch!