Clyde's Comeback!

Felt better than yesterday but still sick. Tried to go out and do a few things with Mik'L around town and a short time into it I was over my head. Got really dizzy and just wanted to be back in bed. 

Sick of being sick and tired.

60 min's on the elliptical. Kind of feeling a little better. But by the time I finished up with the workout I was dizzy and light headed. Took a few hours sitting in the chair with a blanket to recover. It's been really cold. 20 F or so the last few mornings. This is the 10th day this winter that my chickens water has frozen. 

60 min's on the spinner. Again by the end of the workout I was completely out of breath and dizzy. This sickness is killing me. Plus I haven't ran for over a week but my groin, hip and abs all hurt as bad as they ever have... I don't know. I'm done fighting it. I've been living a dream that I'll just feel better one day. Now I just hope to be able to work through it and be able to run daily again... not to train but for general fitness and joy. 

17 F this morning. I'm done with the super cold winter part. 

15 min's on the spin bike while Mik'L was on the elliptical. 

60 min's on the elliptical. Feeling semi better but this sickness doesn't want to leave. 

Went to see April today and see if she could do anything for my hip, groin, hammy, lower ab problem. After a brief conversation and some a short physical examination she said my left leg is 1/2 inch longer than my right leg. Could be the result of all the running on the bad ankle through the summer. And could be the reason for my growing/ endless pain. She said maybe my pelvis is twisted and that I was totally out of whack. So a trip to the chiro is in order. See if he can adjust something. I don't think it will be an immediate fix but there is a lot of pressure down around my hips and now it seems like a no brainer that I should have thought of this earlier... like in September.

Still sick. 

Got a chiro exam today. Left leg longer than the right. Pelvis twisted. He worked on my but insisted I'd need to come back 5-8 more times to correct the problem. And if that would correct the problem I'd jump on it. However... I don't think his little rinky dink adjustments are going to work. I mean he really didn't do any thing yesterday... so 5-8 more times. I don't think so. 

Just feel awful. This sickness will not go away. I'll feel semi ok for a few hours or most of a day then wore than ever the next day. It was like this with Mik'L who was sick for almost 3 weeks. I'm on day 10. Eff my life right now. 

1.5 mile walk with Ears and Myler (who took his battery powered 4-wheeler). Kind of sort of feeling better after days of sickness. Didn't dare risk another crash so no workout today just to be safe. 

Wow look who finally went running again! It's been at least 10 days since I got sick. Finally feeling like I can move on with my life. You'd think that with all the rest my hip/thigh/groin/hammy issue would feel great... but it's hurt almost every day during the sickness when I haven't done any running, biking, elliptical. So I don't know if time off will be the fix. I'm going crazy so I had to run today. 

Inner B-hills loop. The whole system is kind of glitchy so the run wasn't great. And the hip hurt over a 7. But I'm going to try and at least get a short run in everyday. Forget trying to go long. Just 30-40 min's daily with good stretching after. We'll see how it goes for a few weeks. 

Some hard miles on the treadmill. Hips were crazy tight. It doesn't seem real that I can be in this much pain with out being in some kind of crazy accident. 

Was actually just too lazy today to get out or do anything. Spent most of the day with the family at home. Had dinner at Red Dragon or something with the running club. Logan ate a catipillar well it was sushi but looked like a bug.

4 miles on the treadmill. Not as bad as last Friday but still pretty sore and painful. 

20 min's on the elliptical after the run to try and loosen up the hips and such. 

15 F out at daybreak.

4 miles on the treadmill. A little more stiff than yesterday. Just a major effort to get through 4 slow miles. Ran it in 37:56 with the first mile in 11:03. This is where I'm at. 

15 F at sun up. We've gone through the coldest spell I can remember here in STG. 5 days below 20 F (in a row) with it hitting 14 F once. That's cold round here. 

7 real actual running miles today. 

2 miles over to the park and back pushing Myler in the jogger. Ran over there with some new running students:). Then after getting back home Myler and I ran back over to the park. While he played on the swings I ran 4 laps (2 miles) around the park. Then we came back home around the bottom of the Knolls and the other side of Coyote. I felt ok for all but the last 1.5 or so. Then the hips started to really tighten. Glad to see the sun warming the cold ground a little today. 

4 miles on the treadmill

30 min on the elliptical

Tried something different today. I've been gonna try adding an extra insert to my right shoe because my right leg is shorter and may be the cause of my pain. So I just grabbed another one out of a random shoe and put it under the existing asics insert and... it seemed to help. I'm not sure it was just random or what but I was able to run with less pain, and faster. Lately I've been around 39-38 min's for 4 miles and today it took 35:45 with less pain. Happy about that. But tried sit ups and side sit ups after and couldn't pull at all on the left side... super sore in the groin, lower back and inner thigh.

Good run today. Maybe this adding an extra insert on the right side will work. Got going and felt fantastic... maybe only a 2-3 on the pain scale. It's really been months since I've felt like this. Granted now I'm out of shape so there's different issues but all things considered very positive. I wanted to do about 8ish but got over into B-hills and just couldn't say no to the DC loop. At around 6.5 I got a little tight but it didn't get any worse the remainder of the run. Very thankful for a run like this... I know I'm not "healed". But I've been so hurt for weeks that at time I didn't think I'd run again... ever.  So this gives me hope for change:)

We decided Wednesday night at 11pm to buy tickets to Hawaii and fly out a day and a half later. That's today. Headed over there for a few days and pumped that I'll be able to tool around with a few runs on the island. Mahalo!

Fist day in Hawaii. Got in very late last night but still woke around 6 a.m local time. Headed out for a run before Mik'L and Myler woke. Ran back down the beach front from Waikiki to in the direction of the airport. Just looped around everywhere checking stuff out while the sun came up. Ended up in some big connecting parks and looped them a few times. Had a awesome run with minimal pain on very little sleep. So pumped for the trip!

1 mile-Got up and headed out from our hotel (Pacific Beach) with the intentions of doing a run. But I also had to swing by the car rental to see if there was anything for that day. They had one car in all their lots... so I had to bag the rest of the run and get the rental taken care of for our day up island to see the temple and north shore. 

After the day of touring the island in a charger I did a 3.4 mile run from our new hotel. We moved down the beach about .8 from the first hotel. Spent 3 nights there and 2 in the second. It ended up saving about $350 to split up the rooms so worth it in the end. Anyways just ran around the new hotel trying to get a feel for what was around. Ran back down to our old hotel to see how far apart they were and down to the beach. It was one block from the first hotel to the beach and .4 from the second down. We liked the first place much better on all accounts.

Left the room before the sun came up and ran back to Waikiki past the old hotel and over to Diamond Head. Then followed that road around the mountain up past the light house to see the sun come up over the eastern view of the ocean and beach (awesome). The ran back down the Waikiki strip. I love this place. Last full day on the island. 

took a zero today. Had planned on getting up early and running before we had to leave. But the taxi was scheduled to come at 6:15 a.m and I was trashed. Woke up 3 times in the night and couldn't sleep. So at 5 a.m I just tried to lay there and rest as much as possible before the long, long travel day back home. 

Got home late last night from an awesome fun packed trip to Hawaii. We did it super spur of the moment but ended up doing plenty of activities every day like the trip had been planned for months. Everything went smooth with no issues. We really loved it! Especially having our 3 year old son Myler along for the fun. We've both been over before but this was more enjoyable just sharing the trip with him. Making quality memories. 

Needless to say I'm TRASHED. It was go go go for almost a week with getting ready to leave in a days notice, having a fun trip and traveling home. So today I'm just trying to regroup and get about 10 loads of laundry done. 

Ugh. I did a big swim on Tuesday in Hawaii and while out there I got a pounding headache. It was so intense that I had to come straight to shore. Had I been out in the deep I would have drowned. Anyways it's stayed with me leaving me feeling "headachy" ever since. Very dizzy and have a hard time focusing... can't even drive. 

Headachy still. 

My headache felt horrible on Saturday but Sunday it felt way better. So this morning I decided to try a run. Just took it slow around the B-hills loop. Hips are super tight but runnable. I'm really going to try hard to get something in every day this week. It was snowing when I left the house... big, wet flakes but I have a feeling that spring is in the air. 

Ugh! This was a hard one. Every step. I about started walking before I hit a mile as I got over to the park my hip was hurting so bad. Just tight, painful and seems to be like a lead weight. I kept on around the park and decided to try the B-hills loop. It never felt better or loosened up but I think I just got a little numb to the pain by mile 3. I don't care if it hurts I'm running on it every day this week. 

Another hard one. Just super tight on that left side. Got out around 8:30 and it was a beautiful morning. Blue skies with no wind. 33 F. 

A little better today. Not good but not moaning out loud as it has been. Secret Street the middle B-hills loop. Went out around 9:15 and it was lovely. 30 F for the overnight low. 

Same loop as yesterday. About the same effort and body feedback. Overall just happy to get out and run. I'm tired of worrying about what I can't do: can't run the mileage I'm use to, can't go out with the guys, can't race, ect. Today on my run I just felt blessed to be running. So I know this sounds like Jon Bytheway but  I'm just going to focus on what I can do from here on out. 

Another run around B-hills. Started out around the park then the middle B-hills loop and finished up through the secret street around Little Valley. Feel like I may be on a road to recovery although today's run hurt pretty bad. Just took it slow. I was going to wear the gps to see just how slow these runs are but it wasn't charged. 

54.6 mile bike ride. A big group ride was heading out this afternoon and I decided it's been long enough- time to try riding again. Tempo was slow and for the first 30 or so miles I kept getting ahead and having to stop and wait.

We went out through the fields up around the south side of Coral then up by the Walmart distribution center. Took a new road (for me) up around the crusher sales office above the freeway and it drops back in to coral canyon. Then we went back up and down the dump hill and turned north onto the parkway then back into town. Up over the "Dixie" road and out into Ivans- then up through Snow Canyon and back down the course all the way down Bluff. Then I split from the group hit the bathroom at the DC and finished on the trails around B-hills and the park back home.

I started to bonk going past Entrada so I took some shot blocks and gatorade. Ended up dropping my bottle in the road and not being able to pick it up because cars were on me. So I had to loop back around to get it. Here I ended up tipping over because I couldn't get my foot out of the clip and unknowingly bent my derailer. Finally got going again and the group was waiting at the park entrance. So we started the big climb up through the park. When it got steep I tried shifting to my climbing gears and found out that the derailer was bent and it wouldn't shift. So I tried to climb in the harder gears for 2\3 of the way up. But one by one the group passed me and finally my legs were gone and I had to get off the bike and try bending it back. Luckily it worked and this made things much easier but I was one of the last ones up the hill... humbling.

Anyways after months of not doing much I hope today can help me turn the corner to get some more workouts and rides in. By the time I got home I was really trashed and super hungry. Luckily my wife had already ordered Cafe Rio and it was on it's way!

Fairly good run today. Started out with doing the outer B-hills loop. Pain was less than half of what it has been. Wore a watch today to see just how slow I've been running. 7:14 avg for the run. Although today was a little faster than it's been because the pain was down. Beautiful blue skies and calm morning with a low of 30 F. Continuing with the extra insert in the right side to help even out the longer left. Seems to be really helping. Now if I can just keep it smooth and ez and continue to build my volume back up the next couple months.  8.2 miles

3 more miles after I finished the B-hills loop with Misty. Over to the park, around the grass twice then back to my house. 32:14 or 10:46 pace. She did great and held the pace consistent throughout the run.

DC loop. Was a little tighter than yesterday but I also tried a new insert in my left heel that seemed to raise the foot up and help a little more. So overall another positive run. Didn't get out until after dropping Myler off at school so it was 9:15 or so. Just beautiful for running. Trying to work on ways to keep those hips loose. One things that sucks is doing sit ups or side sit ups seems to be counter productive and knots things up. So my abs and core are really suffering because just as soon as I try and work them out everything starts to hurt again. 

Finally was able to go out on a big boys run. It's been weeks since I joined them for the Wednesday morning run so today I was actually excited to wake up at 4:45. Pace was slower which I needed as we chatted it up. Feeling so so today. Maybe a little extra sore and tired from the recent up in volume but as long as I stretch it out good I should be ok... 

After the run I hit the spinner for 30 mins on a pretty EZ effort. Mainly wanted to loosen up the legs and hips. 

Out to the freeway and back around B-hills. One of our old tempo loops. Felt pretty good today. Like not full swing but moving forward for sure. Just tried to stay loose most of the run but 50:00 into it I decided to up the effort and try to beat the 7 min guy home. 10 miles at a 6:58 avg. So a good 20 min push to end it but felt pretty doable. Just trying to put one day at a time into the books. 

35 min swim at Summit. Finally got things in order so I can get in the pool. For not really being in the mood this swim went really well. It's an outdoor pool that's heated to 83F so it was kind of magical swimming out there at 7:30 last night. 

Ran over to the DC on the regular loop but once I got there and hit the potty I just decided to turn around and run back. For some reason the 6 miles back the same way seemed easier than the 4.2 to finish off the loop. Pace was slower today but I didn't have a watch to see just how slow. Felt kind of sluggish today. A mixture of doing a swim workout last night and Myler waking up through the night- so not much sleep. Had some ran and wind but temps were warm and I had to strip a layer off for the ride home. 

12 mile run-Started the day off by doing the same out and back run to the DC as yesterday. No watch but kept the effort honest. Felt a little better than Friday on the run and much better after. For some reason on Friday I was just trashed after the run and could hardly function. Continuing to try different inserts and set ups in my shoes to see what works the best for my left hip. But so far it's allowing me to get out and log some miles- thankful for that. 

 52 mile bike ride- Basically did the same ride as last week. Today it was solo. I headed out with the intentions of doing it much better, fast and positive than last week. So I did it faster 17.6 mph avg over last weeks 17.4 and I felt more in control and comfortable this week. But I got beat up by the wind. It rocked my boat the entire ride. It was super hard coming from the west. So from Coral Canyon back over to Ivans and into Snow Canyon it was just brutal. By the time I got home I was trashed. So a plus that I could do this ride better with way worse conditions however I really hated it. I enjoyed riding back in the fall before my accident in early December. But the last couple times out on the bike I've just loathed the time. Hopefully with some better conditioning in the legs over the next few weeks I'll start to enjoy it more.

DC loop this morning. Temps at 24 F. I thought we were past the cold stuff... good thing I haven't planted the peas yet. A little more stiff and achy than last week. But maybe it's just Monday. Came home and stretched good. Then headed to the pool. 

35 min swim at Summit. I can drop Myler off at the daycare at Summit for 90 mins. So it will work out good to allow me to swim while he plays. I've never been a gym joining type of guy. So I wont start now. I'm only doing a month to month thing... hoping it will only take a couple months to warm up enough so I can swim at the lake. But for now I'll try to really get in as much as possible since it's only 2 miles from my house.

DC loop. 24 F this morning first thing but I didn't run until after dropping Myler at school so around 9:30 and by then it was pretty nice out in the sun. Starting our adding on project here at the house. Turning the garage into rooms and building another garage. So I've had lots of work to do just in prep. Myler tried to help but was more work... but we had fun wheelbarrowing bark. 

19 mile run this morning. Started out with the guys on the regular Wed's loop. It's 10.2 miles long. Then I headed out for another loop. Cut it off a little short of a full loop by skipping the park. But I knew I had to run again with Misty so saved some miles for later. 

I just wanted to see what a good long run felt like on the body. It was ok. Hip held about where it's been. Overall I'm just out of shape and the hard parts of the run were do to that more than anything. But I didn't die off and held basically the same pace on the second lap as we did  on the first. 7:34 avg. Never tried to push... just wanted some long miles. 

3 more miles. After the long run I had about an hour to recover before going out with Misty. We just went over to the park, did two loops then came back. She rocked it today hitting a 9:34 avg for the run... way faster than last week.

B-hills loop. Felt pretty good the day after the long run. Just really slow. I only went 6 today because there's just a lot to get done here at home. 

Over to the DC and back. Felt really slow on the way over. The heavy legs loosened up a little on the way back so pace was a little faster then but still slow. Hip seems to be ok. The only issue is sometimes it almost feels like it could pop out of socket. It just feels really weak and unstable. But the painful grinding, tightness from before seems to have passed. 

15.2 mile run. Went to Summit to run with the club. Steven and Ben took me on a tour of the fields. Steady run but not fast. Felt pretty good and in control of the situation all the way thru the finish. Just trying to rebuild my great wall of China fitness base that was lost. Best week in a long long time. 

Now off on the cycle. 

56.5 mile ride today. Great weather helped this to be the best ride for me in a while. Legs seemed to have some juice today as well. Felt in control the whole ride. Even up Snow Canyon I kept it in check whereas the last couple time up I've basically tapped out. Upped the results from 17.4 mph two weeks ago, 17.6 last week to 18.7 mph on this ride. Basically hit the 56 mile mark at 2:59:30. I'm gonna have a hard time going much under 3 hours in the half IM for the bike leg. It was super busy in town today and so those sections with traffic might have been a little faster but I'm not taking as many chances now post wreck.

52.2 mile ride. Hit a really solid brick workout today. For the first time in a while I got on the bike first then ran. Legs seemed to have more power on the uphills for sure this way. Road basically my same Coral canyon, Crusher, half IM loop course. I planned on doing 56.5 like last Saturday but at 52.2 I got a flat... Luck for me I was only a mile from my in-laws and it was super EZ and fast to have my father in-law come pick me up and take me home. I was only 2 miles from home on the closest route. So total downtime between bike and run was roughly 12 min's. But I killed the ride today for me. Last weeks PR of 18.7 mph avg was blown up as I hit 20.4 mph avg today. Really was able to ride the hills strong and felt really good all the way through until the stupid flat. Someone told me that the benchmark "good" time up Snow Canyon from payhouse to payhouse is 19 mins. Last Saturday after running first I road it in 21:00 but today I hit a 18:40. So I was pretty pumped about that.

13.1 mile fields tempo loop course. Got home changed cloths really quick and went potty then started to run. Right at first my left hip felt super weak and felt as if it could pop out of socket. So I babied it for a mile and it warmed up. Just put it into a smooth controlable pace all the way around. Ended with a 6:46 avg for the run. My best or fastest run since the STG marathon. So after riding good and then finishing it off with a solid run I was very pleased... and ate 5 brownies to reward myself.

Middle B-hills loop extended back through the secret street. Left hip felt super slippery today. The first mile it sent sharp pains and acted like it was sliding out to the left. Very weak on the stability side. By mile two it felt more stable but the whole run was sketchy. I'll take the rest of the day off... and finally plant my peas. 

20.4 mile run. Started out with the regular Wednesday morning loop. Logan was the only one who showed up. The two of us stood in the cutout of my garage door and took shelter from the downpour... then we headed out. Got soaked to the bone. Pace was slowish. I had my gps but didn't have it working correctly. We stayed warm by running and chatting it up. Got home and hit the potty, changed shirts and shoes then did another loop. It rained on this loop until it turned to snow. Finished up the 20.4 mile run soaked and pretty cold but other than that I felt pretty good. 

4 more miles with Misty. Had about 70 min's to kill before Misty came for her run. Took a long hot shower and ate 4 pieces of toast with a chocolate/ banana protein shake. Was pretty spent but by the time she got to the house the legs were ready again. We did a big loop of Little Valley and hit our longest run so far. She rocked it with a 38:35 or 9:39 avg. We'll be looking for 5-6 next week.  

Slow grind around the DC loop this morning. No watch but I could just tell it took forever. Everything was just a little stiff and unresponsive. The right ankle (the one that was broken) has been more stiff lately- I'm guessing due to the recent up in volume. But it's kind of giving me a slight limp while running. I'll try 800mm of Ib and see if it takes the edge off. 

Really didn't want to run today... but once I got out it seemed better than yesterday. No watch but not as slow. Kind of cooler at 28F. 

Fields loop via the Washington park then down into B-hills and back over to River Road. Crazy that this loop was exactly what I needed for distance. I wanted 15.1 to put me at 80 for the week and nothing more... so when I ran into the cul de sac I was pumped to not have to add on. Really felt hammered today. Some of my "pains" came back and then hip, and lower abs were sore. Could have pushed it a little too far this week but will Dr up over the weekend and see how it goes on Monday. 

Since I've been able to get back out on a normal basis I've wanted to crack off a 80 mile week at least once before the half IM in May. So I guess I got that out of the way and can not focus on mileage from here on out. I only got in one ride this week (monday) and no swims. So hopefully the weather will warm and I can get a little more well rounded in my Tri training. 

B-hills loop. Nothing else to report. 

Super hard run. Woke up at 2:30 a.m and was wide awake. Sleep wasn't happening so I finally just decided to go for a run just before 4 a.m. Tried a different insert and it was horrible. Withing a mile things just didn't feel right, by mile 5 I was hurting pretty good and by 8 I was all but walking. Every symptom of my injury came crashing back... it was super painful. But I really didn't stress about it because I knew it was the shoes and insert. Just drug it back home slow and then started what turned out to be a super bad day on the addition construction project... bad news all over the place. 

Just did one loop on the DC course today. I just didn't have it in me to do a long run today. Hip felt much better but I can tell it was super sore yesterday so best not to push it. But the run went waaay better than yesterday. Hoping for some positive news and progress on the building today. Need the footing dirt to pass the compact test or we could be SOL on the whole thing. Been super cold too. 25 F the last two mornings and yesterday the wind was just super cold even though temps said it was around 53F... I froze the whole day. 

5.3 miles with Misty. Looped out around Silkwood and Bridal Gate. Didn't take a watch so I'm not sure on pace but it was consistent the entire run and about what we've ran in weeks past. She rocked it and was conversational the whole run!

Ran the same loop as Misty and I ran yesterday. I took the gps today to check distance for sure. Then I milled around LV to get some more miles in. Still chilly at 28 F this morning and it marks the 3rd day in a row of being out super early... 4:00, 5:15, and 5:00 today- these are summer hours for me. 

DC loop. 

14.5 mile run with Steve and Logan out around the fields. This one was hard. My hip was tight from the start to the finish. Wanted to stop so many times. 

49.7 mile bike ride with the neighborhood peps. First out to the airport and back. Then out to Quail and back. 19 mph avg. Didn't hammer the pace and tried to stay with the group. Which was good because my legs were pretty dead from the run beforehand. 

8 miles in the morning. Middle B-hills to secret street and back around LV. Slow but felt better than Saturday. With temps warming I'm just happy to be out running and enjoying it. The framers have been working on the addition but it's kind of slow going. 

7 miles this evening. Middle B-hills to secret street then home. Lunch didn't sit right and I had a crash landing at the restrooms in the B-hills park. It was bad news. Other than that I felt pretty good and seemed to be clipping right along. 

DC loop. 38 F this morning. It could stay like this all year long. Just cool enough for an extra shirt but warm enough for shorts. Felt pretty good this morning in the hip but the whole system is weak. Spent way too much time on the end of a shovel lately... body is sore. 

Long run this morning. Started out on the Wednesday boys loop. No one else showed. For selfish reasons I was sad because I really needed the guys to pull me around the first lap. But in the end it was good because I had to stop twice for big potty breaks along the way and would have made them late/mad. Just tried to get through the first lap and save as much energy as possible for the second. Got home took a gu and shed a layer of cloths. Started back in the opposite direction and upped the effort. Ended up hitting the second lap well under 7:00 pace. Actually finished the entire run at a 7:09 avg. Felt pretty good- hope it continues.

B-hills extended through the Secret street. Felt really wore down this morning. Just overall tired and blah. Hip actually felt pretty good amongst it all. Cut the run shorter this morning because I'll try to do some kind of ride/run later today. 

 48.8 mile ride this afternoon. Did 3 loops up Snow Canyon then back down SR9 and around. THREE. Took the first one pretty chill and stayed with the group. Then really tried to hammer the second. Set a new PR of 17:22 from pay house to pay house up Snow Canyon. My old record was 18:40. Then continued to roll out the whole second lap. As I started the climb for the third lap I could tell there wasn't a lot left in the legs... things got really slow before I got to the top. I was done and had used all my gas on the 2nd lap. Finished that lap and ended at the truck in the parking lot just below the Snow Canyon entrance. Transitioned into the run.

4.5 mile run down the Tuachan road then up to Tuachan and back. So I was either running up hill or downhill. For as trashed as I felt on the bike I still ran a 7:01 avg.

DC loop. Super trashed this morning. Wanted to do anything but run. But labored around the loop. Got home and was 150.5 lbs which is the lowest I've been since last summer. I think I was up to around 165 lb back in January when we were in Hawaii. 

Had a lot of thing going on today with family in town and Mylers 4th Birthday party... but bottom line is that I just didn't want to do anything. So I took a good recovery day. 

DC loop. Just perfect running conditions this morning. Starting at 36 F and warming with the sun. Ran into Scott over at the DC and he joined for a couple. Felt pretty sluggish today... hope it's just a Monday. Plus the IT on the right side has been supper tight. 

DC loop starting with River road then cutting off short and not going around the park. Just felt rotten today. The right knee pain is almost a 9. Hip hurt around normal pain but the two combined just made things almost undoable. I think I've yet to recover from last weeks 20 mile run on Weds then the hard bike and running on Thursday. Hoping to stretch good today and maybe get out again this evening. 

5.6 miles around the inner B-hills loop. Felt a little better tonight than this morning. 

Ran with Logan early. DC loop then extended with some miles around LV. Felt pretty crappy. 

DC loop. I've felt just horrible this week. Hip tight. Right IT Band tight. Even my old broken ankle has been super painful. Unusual sore and acheyness all over to be exact... So running has just sucked. Today felt slightly better. Not good but a little better and it was a blessing. I guess I'll still follow the same rule of "I have good days and bad days". 

86 F today. First time all year over 80 and it was actually HOT out. 

Another ol DC loop. Still pretty soreish. But I made myself pick up the pace from the DC up the River trail and up River Road to home. I figured if I'm gonna hurt I might as well run a little faster... pain was about the same. 

73 mile ride on the bike. Went from my house out around the park then out past the airport. This put me out a little more than 12 miles- then I just came back. Did that out and back 3 times. Hit a 21.4 mph avg doing the ride in 3:24:10. Went 21.3, 21.5, 21.4 respectively per lap. So just an nice even push. Felt good and in control throughout. 2549 ascent and 2560 decent according the garmin. It's just rolling hills the entire ride. 

6 mile run. Got off the bike and hurried through the transition into the run.  The run was totally different from the ride.... the run sucked. I had planned on doing 13 or so but after 3 miles out I decided to turn around. The bad factors included it was around 83-85 F and full sun. My stomach was upset from drinking WAY too much water at the transition (learning moment) and more than anything my hip hurt too much to run. I've been fighting it all week and today I just got sick of fighting it. So after 3 miles out at 7:02, 6:42, 6:50 I stopped turned the garmin off and headed back home.

Not the super brick workout I wanted but I'm still jazzed about how well the bike went. And the good thing is outside of my hip injury I'm coming off the bike and still able to run sub 7 min pace if not around 6:40 once I get the legs going.

DC loop. Trying to work into another week. The run was slow and painful but not as bad as last week was. Got to find some relief soon or it's time to stop again. 

10.2 miles around the DC early. Felt a little better than on Monday at the first of the run but by the end of the loop I started breaking down pretty bad. Lower back is so tight it's just ruining everything... hip is the worst. Still got around the loop at just over 7 min pace avg. Got home and had 40 min's to kill before another run with Misty. Had a protein shack and got things ready for work on the house.

7 mile run with Misty. 10:20 avg around the middle B-hills loop extended through the Secret Street at the end. This was her longest run to day... ever. Did great. The Secret St hill at the end was tough but didn't slow us down too bad. I was fighting my own hip pain and pretty happy to be done when we got back to the ranch. 

DC loop with Loggy. Good chit chatting but the running sucked. I just felt yuck. Getting close to stopping the run training. Hate to do it but if things don't loosen up and improve I'm going to go insane trying to muster up the power to get through a run everyday. It's a emotional battler to get through it and then the rest of the day I'm trashed from having to work so hard running. Boo Who- I want my running life back. Rewind a year ago and stay off the wake board. 

Anyways if you wanna join the NCAA group on ESPN it's STGandFriends. There's no password. 

36 mile ride out around the new airport and then SunRiver back up to River Road and around Stone Cliff. 20.6 mph. Just can't run for a while. Too much pain right now. 

36 mile ride. The same one as yesterday. 21.3 mph. A little faster than yesterday but nothing fancy. Almost too much going on right now to even think about "training". 

Ran the half ironboy course with Steven and a few others. Felt a lot better than earlier this week. Steve kept the pace honest as we hit around a 7:04 avg or so... I think it was like 1:32 total time. A little cooler today and windy. Glad to get out early and get done. Now just working on home projects with no ride today. 

6 miles. Decided to go shorter and try doing some doubles to break up the suffering. Going 5-6 twice a day sounds much easier than 10 at once. We'll see how it goes. Started off and I felt really crappy. Ran over to the park and just did laps on the grass as it felt better on the hip and knee. 

7 miles this evening. Felt a little better but I'm on the downside of a breakdown. 

Hip is really jacked. 40 min's on the elliptical was all I could muster. 

Nothing today but a trip to the chiro. Totally loosing it. 

50 min's on the elliptical. Went to the chiro again with little progress or faith in his work. Battling a spring head cold too. Having a hard week. 

36 mile ride at 21.3 mph avg. Same airport/ sunriver ride as last week. Battled wind on every westbound leg but kept it solid throughout. Tried to stay relaxed and not overdue it as so I'm ready for another bigger ride tomorrow. 

Boys ride today. 65.2 miles w/ Paul, Bob and Bubba with Tom joining later. We did the 2 lakes loop. Out to Sand Hollow then Hurricane, La and up to the freeway- then down into Leeds, Quail lake and home. Pretty good ride with a 19.3 mph avg. We started off hot and cold going hard then stopping and waiting for Bubba who ended up having to turn around on time. Then through the middle section of the ride pace was pretty chill  and I didn't really get going until we hit the freeway on the way back. From there on home I tried to keep the pace honest. It got really warm (85F) and none of us were ready for the heat. 

60.6 mile ride today. We had an Easter egg hunt out at the GC at Sand Hollow. After that I decided to ride the ironman course and then home. 20.4 mph avg. Legs felt pretty good considering this was the first time I've ever ridden 3 days in a row outside. And yesterdays ride was no push over. Didn't attack the course but tried to keep it uptempo throughout. Really only relaxed up Snow Canyon. I decided to just relax up through there and see what I'd ride it in. Thought I'd be around 20 min's... Started the climb at the bottom payhouse at 2:00:35 seconds into my ride- got to the top payhouse 2:20:36. ha pretty dang close. So the difference between hammering it 17:20 and EZ 20:01 isn't that much. I decided it isn't worth the extra energy to try and overpower that climb. 

Pretty good ride and result- even had a decent headwind coming from the west throughout. I"m guessing that's gonna be there almost everyday so I'll expect nothing less on race day. Another hot day at 85 F and I got some nasty tan lines to show for the hours out in the sun. 

Finally got out for a run. The first 2 miles were nasty as the hip was just screaming in pain. I was only planning on doing 6 or so but as I got to 4 things kind of loosened up and I felt good enough to take it around the DC loop instead. So the run started crappy but ended pretty good. Still way tight in the hip and the dang knee... not sure what it's deal is but I was able to run today and that was a blessing. 

Busy day with the home project. I knew I wouldn't be able to run. Got a lot done. It's really close now!

10.2 miles with the guys around the DC loop. Nice to finally get the circle together after a long hiatus. Felt way better than the last few weeks. Was able to run and not just suffer in pain the whole time. 

10.2 miles with Misty. I had about an hour and a half between runs so got some oatmeal and hydrated then went and worked on the garage. Misty showed up and we looped around Stone Cliff into the bottom of St. James, then back through B-hills and home the long way in Little Valley. She rocked it! 1:40 or 9:51 pace. We left the  house planning on only doing 8.5 or so but 7 miles into it she was still chatty and I said she felt good so told here she could get her first 10 mile run in. Did it and stayed strong all the way to the finish. It was awesome.

21.8 mph avg for the 36 mile airport/ sunriver loop. I had it up to 22 at around mile 30 but crossing River Road and traffic slowed the pace on the last 4 or so miles. Still my fastest ride avg ever. Kept the hammer down most of the ride and couldn't have gone much faster alone. But I didn't have my areo helmet on and that is supposed to make me 1-2 mph faster? So nonetheless a solid ride. Got the final inspection done on the home addition project too. So all done with the city crap and almost all done period. 

Maybe the worst run of my life. Worst run hip related for sure. The first 4 were pretty good too. Ran the Stone Cliff loop that I ran with Misty on Weds. By mile 5 my hip started to tighten up and by 8 I was suffering. Got home and stopped running only to find I couldn't walk. Super painful and even more frustrating. Maybe due to the hard ride yesterday? IDK should have stretched out good last night but got too busy with projects. 

Another big day working on the house. I got up early and worked all day into the night on projects... just didn't do any workouts. Felt bad about it but there wasn't time or energy at the end... just bed time. 

70 min's on the spin bike then

6 miles running on the treadmill in like 52 min's

60 more min's on the spinner later that night

Pretty solid indoor tri training day. Didn't want to mess with the wind and rain. Hip felt painful but doable on the machine. Actually better there than it does out on the road. More forgiving and lower impact for sure.

Up early and ran the DC loop. Not as painful as last Thursday but almost. Ugh. My wife thinks that I'm worse the day after riding when running and I'm starting to think she's right. If I ride at all the day before my hip seems more painful the next day running... but not so much the same day. ?

.7 mile swim with Mike. Oh boy! He picked me up at 8:30 a.m and we went straight out to Sandhollow. Got there and it was a hurricane wind with air temps around 45 F. We dressed in our wet suits and got out by the water. I was shivering then. Got my feet in and it hurt- just super cold and painful in the arch and around the ankles. Water temp is at 55 f. After a few min's of standing there the pain slowly left but the wind was just hammering from the north west. Whitecaps. We swam into it. It was crazy and at time I thought I might end up at the bottom of the lake. My goggle in the left eye leaked super bad and it was a pain in the rear the entire swim. Anyways you'd have to have been there to understand but it was crazy. After we got going the coldness of the water didn't seem to bother which was comforting to know for race day. I just can't imagine getting out of that and on to a bike... I might have pulled out if today was the race. Mike said it was worse today than it was at last years IM race. Guess he went out and watched... so that's comforting too:) 

DC loop with Dave this morning. A little cooler than it's been (40F) but once we got going I had to pull up the sleeves. Felt achy and tight but again runnable and glad I didn't have to let Dave go.... although I'm sure I slowed him down. 

60 min's on the spinner after the run. Just couldn't get going... at all. Stayed around 95 watts or so and usually I'm around 120+ just regular effort. Really felt like I was working hard and the output was super weak. Plus my butt hurt the whole session. But glad to get in a decent workout timewise and watch a couple days worth of PTI's too. 

Oh and I did something off the wall- registered for LOTOJA. IDK?

2 hours on the spinner first thing this morning. This is my longest or equal to my longest time on the spin bike. And let me just say that 2 hours on that thing is like 5 outside. 

12.2 mile run with Misty right after the spinner. This was her longest run ever so far. We did the DC loop then extended back down the inner river trail in to B-hills, then back to River road to home. She ran great and kept it solid throughout. 9:58 avg for the run. 2:02:xx. So that gave me 4 hours of tri training for the morning. 

Big Workout Bike, Swim, Bike, Run

Loaded up my Ogio Tri bag  with food, wet suit, towel, beverages and other crap and took off on the bike to Sand Hollow. The bag fits much like a backpack but is designed for this... I guess. But riding with it was pretty hard. It was heavy and created a lot of drag. I only hit 18.5 mph on the way out to the lake. It's just a little over 20 miles from my house there. 

Once at the lake I did a swim of around .75 or so. I wanted to do the full course but after getting home and google earthing it I found I was pretty short... plus it only took just over 25 min's and I'm not that fast in the water. But it was a good day, good water and good test run for sure. Shoulders did get tired but they got tired at like .2 and never felt much worse the rest of the way.

Out of the water and changed back into riding cloths to head back home. Came home basically the same way but went around the Harley dealership then back down to Telegraph like the course does. Then when I got into the fields I cut in by Stone Creek meadows instead of out around by the corn maze. So it just about evened out. Was able to ride a little faster on the way in and brought the overall avg up to 19.2 mph but it was still slow with that bag.

Got home and ran 7 miles around the B-hills loop extended through the Secret Street. Hip didn't kill like it has been doing but was so tight that I just couldn't go any faster. Ended with a 7:20 avg on the run.

Another solid 3+ hour workout. Just bugged that the running is so my worst part... It should be my strength! Super stressed about it.

Finally had a good run. Maybe the best since... I don't even know. Started out slow and smooth with a little tightness so I was timid to push anything hard. But wanted to keep the run upbeat throughout. By the time I got to mile 6 I was really starting to feel good and realized today was a good day. I was only planning on going 12 miles max or maybe 8 if things were bad. But I felt good and extended just over 15. Sad I didn't have a watch on because paced was solid... know I pounded the 7 min guy. Which was all that mattered as he's been talking smack and in my ear like a bug for weeks now. Hit the DC loop then dropped back down  the inside river trail to the bottom then back home around B-hills and the park. Actually picked up the pace on the last 1.3 or so to were I was hitting sub 6 and really rolling... haven't been in that ballpark forever. Glad to feel a little flow.

And I wore some low profile race shoes. Kinvara's... anytime I've wore a shoe that wasn't really supportive I've got jacked up. But for some reason today I just decided to try it and my hips seemed to square up. Do I think it's a forever fix? No but even if I could get today's body to show on the half ironman I'd  run way better than I have been.

Had another decent run... shh! I'm trying to keep it on the DL. Hopefully I can stay on top of things and not get so tight and jacked up between now and race day. Beautiful and warm morning today as it was 61 F at 7 a.m. 

Birthday Challenge

20.5 mile run this morning. I had no intentions of doing this run this year due to the injuries and overall pain level I've dealt with for months. But as the night rolled on Monday night I just couldn't let the day pass and not try. So I decided if nothing else to get up and do a long run then see how the day went and at least be in position to finish it in the evening. 

So the morning run went great. Just kept it smooth and easy and only pushed the pace on the last 1.6 or so. Ended up hitting a 7:00 avg exactly for the 20.5 down on my river trails loop. Felt great other than from like 12.5-14 my left knee had some really sharp pain. But it came and went.

13.6 around the summer fields tempo loop and extended around the park a couple times in the fields by the river. Left the house and that same pain in the left knee was super sharp and painful from step one. But I just kept grinding through the first mile and by mile 3 I didn't feel it anymore. Didn't have a watch this time as I forgot to turn it off after the morning run. But pace and effort seemed about what I was running this morning. Got rained on pretty hard on the last 4 miles but it felt good- hands and forearms were pretty cold though by the end.

Anyways got it in and the hip really felt pretty stable throughout. The left knee thing was and is now (post run) super painful. Hope I can work through it without big issues. Hoping the hip continues to improve. I've been using a ball and rolling on it belly down on the soas area and hip. Seems to really be helping.

I felt like after yesterdays batch of running today should be a recovery day. 

40 min's on the elliptical this morning. Legs seem to be feeling pretty good. That left knee still has the same ache but not as sharp as yesterday. Think I'll pass on real running today as well. 

40.7 mile ride on the bike. I'm calling it my horse and naming him LeRoy. So old LeRoy and I went out this afternoon on the airport/ sunriver loop then extended around the fields instead of coming home on River Road. The wind was gusty but my legs were on fire tonight. Just pounded the ride. Had a 22.2 mph avg through 31 until I had to start really dealing with traffic. Still ended at 21.84 and bested my previous fastest ride ever of 21.79 mph avg. With the wind tonight that was pretty solid. And I felt good. Maybe I should do a 34 mile run a few days before IM to "light up the darkness" in these old legs and get LeRoy really rollin?

DC loop with a little extra at the start. Left the house early and got about .2 away and realized that the left knee was super sore and wanted to get the brace thing I've been wearing. So I went home and got it then continued on the run. The brace is just a band that goes around the leg just under the knee cap and seems to help support that tendon on the inside of my knee that's been super sore. With it on the knee didn't seem to bug really at all- and the hip seemed pretty solid too. Maybe like a 8 out of 10. So way better than the 4 or so it's been at. Pace was slow as the legs did feel pretty heavy but that's due to the long run on Tuesday and the hard bike ride last night. Pretty chilly last night at 36 F but warmer than yesterday where the temp said 34 F but there was ice on the wheel lines out in the fields when I took Myler to school. A lot of ice too.

Up at 3 and out running at 3:30 a.m. Just wanted to get a little run in before we headed off to the hospital. Mik'L was already up showering and stuff anyways. It was a beautiful morning and I had a peaceful feeling during the run. I was just so happy to out running, and living such a wonderful life. The baby came and him and momma were both healthy too. So blessed. Spent the rest of the day in the room with family in and out. No name yet for him...

Did the same fields tempo loop run that I did last Tuesday on the second part of my birthday run. I had to run it again with a gps to see how far it was for sure. Ended up being 13.8 so .2 longer than I had google earthed it. I started out slow with a 8 min flat mile then a few 7:15's but then got going around mile 5 and ended with a 6:55 avg for the run. Hip was more sore than it was last week but I wasn't very good over the weekend about rolling it and stuff. Now back to the hospital and maybe we come home today. crossing my toes

36 mile ride on Leroy. I borrowed some 808's from Mike W and they rolled! It was super windy out on the AZ parkway but even with the wind I PR'd hitting my first 22.1 mph avg ride. Coming back to the west was  a lot of work right into the headwind and I was over 22 mph early around 15 miles but by mile 20 I was back under with the wind.  Then once I got to Sun River I had some trees and houses blocking and was able to roll. Was going as fast as 27 mph up the river trail. It was fun. Legs and lungs got a good push tonight.

Circle of Trust run. Super nice morning to be out running with the lads. Hips were more tight than they have been for about a week but still runnable. Just nice be out and get the run in with two local legends. 

1 mile swim out at the lake this afternoon. Air temp was around 80 and so the water didn't seem too bad. I swam pretty good but didn't time it. Ended up staying right in front of a couple other dudes who started by me. My swim isn't going to be amazing but it shouldn't break the race either. 

60 min's on the spinner. Semi hard effort. Ended at 15 miles. It's so different on the spinner than it is outside on the real bike. 

40 min's on the elliptical after spinning. Again a semi hard effort but it felt good. Ended the workout feeling strong and no aches!

20 miles in 2:18 or a 6:55 avg. I started out feeling amazing. Better than I've felt in months. Was rolling off 6:45's give or take for the first 13.... then I started to cramp up and the hips got super tight. Like worse than ever. Managed 7 min pace up to 17 and then just fell apart. It was later in the day as I didn't start until after 9. So heat was an issue and I was super dehydrated with some GI issues all night last night. Anyways the last 3 miles killed and my hip just broke. Got home and can't even move. I want to scream. I wish I would have just gone like 12. Buggin- just wanted one more good long run in the tank. Now I've really got to work hard to loosen up and get something back before next Saturday. 

Did a mock race workout out at the lake this morning. My wave starts at 7:15 a.m next week so I was out there early enough to get all set up and start the swim at roughly 7:15 today. It was a beautiful morning and with water temps at 55 F or so you'd think cold but I felt pretty comfy. Swam just over a mile but didn't time it. The swim went smooth... as smooth as it can for someone who's not a good swimmer. 

31.3 mile ride. I got out of the lake and transitioned in the back of the Rav4 and headed out on the bike course. I didn't want to ride the full things but wanted to get in a solid spin. Took the course over to Hurricane then back east on SR-18 until the Quail lake turn and took that up to the dam parking lot then back down to SR-18, then back up to Coral Canyon and under the overpass by the Harley shop and back west. Then just came back to the lake. 31.3  miles at a 21.6 mph avg. My legs felt super heavy as I got on the bike, quads for sure. Feeling some fatigue from yesterdays long run.

Overall great morning and home by 10 a.m to spend the rest of the day with the family. Our little baby boy is 1 week old today so we've at least been successful with two kids for that long.

B-hills extended through the Secret Street and Little Valley. Hip was worse than it was last week pre the Friday run. But better than the last three miles of the Friday run. It started out feeling very unstable with pain around a 5 out of 10. As the run progressed it seemed to gain in stability but the pain stayed the same. Dang! I sure hope I didn't screw it up for Saturday by doing that 20 miler on Friday. It was just coming around. Going to see April tonight and will play it safe all week with very little running or hard physical output in any sport.

Ran with Misty out 2.5 then back. Hip seemed ok at best but the pace was slow and EZ. Nice morning for a run and fun to see Misty so excited about running. She's really come a long ways since the middle of Jan when we started. 

My first Tri workout. Sad that with a few days before the big race today was the first time I've ever ran, biked and swam all in the same day. 

.5 swim out at the lake. Wanted to do the same workout as last Saturday but the wind was howling out there. So after almost calling it off and driving back home we (Harmers and their English friend) all suited up for a  quick swim. Once in the water it really wasn't that bad and the distance is just a educated guess. 

24.3 mile bike ride. Came home after the swim.  Actually drove home with the wet suit still on my legs. Got here and hung with the fam for a couple hours trying to decide when to go out and ride because the wind here was blowing too. Anyways I headed out to the airport and back in the wind at around 11 a.m. I had wind pushing me all over the place but... this was the first time I've ridden Leroy since the professional bike fit Monday night (it lasted from 9:30 pm to 2:30 a.m mind you). So with the new adjustments and the the wind slapping me to and fro I banged out a 22.5 mph ride (my fastest ever). Kind of pumped about that. Without wind it could have been supa fast.

4 mile run after the bike. The hip was sore just walking around the house this morning but it didn't hurt much more than a dull pain on the run. I didn't have a watch but felt like I was cruising along somewhere around 6:40 pace. But both hips seemed tight by the time I got home... not super painful but tight.

1 hour on the elliptical. Hip was too tight and achy to run. I actually could have ran but am grasping at anything to try and get it race ready in two days... I'm running out of time. 

B-hills loop extended through the secret st. Hip was still achy this morning but I needed to run and shake it out, see what was going on. Through the first 3 miles it was very tender to push weight on. Then last part of the run it seemed to do a little better. Ugh! Months ago I didn't think I'd still be in this boat. Just hoping it'll loosen up a little and give me a shot tomorrow. 

Wow what a day. Pre race goals were to break 5 hours and be the first Southern Utahn done. Both were a little unknow because I've never done a triathlon before and didn't really know how I'd stack up against the course or the local competition. 

I achieved both goals!

The day went about as smooth as you can write it up. Weather was great out at the swim and bike with zero wind. I did get hot out on the run as there was a high in town of 92 f today. But everyone had to deal with it.

The Swim

The swim went great. I thought if I can do the swim in 40 min's I'll take it and feel good. Well I came out of the water in 36:52- pumped! I was zig zagging a lot too. Took the last turn way way too wide and looked over to see I was swimming all alone way off the path of the big group. Oh well I'm not a swimmer.

Got on the bike and the transition was super as well. Transitioning from swim to bike in 3:41.

The Bike

I rocked the bike in 2:34:53. But there was a big mechanical issue. Less than 2 miles into the ride I tried shifting from my small ring to the big ring up front and it would not do it. Tried over and over for about 10 miles and it just wouldn't push the chain up. Would it ruin my day? No... was it a factor in my bike? For sure. On all the good long downhill where you really want to hammer and make up ground and time I was just spinning in place. Without all those harder gears I was super limited to top end speed. So people would come flying by me on the downhill and I'd come flying by them on any uphill or flat. In the end it cost me somewhere between 6-10 min's on the ride. A big difference on placing and time overall but for some reason I'm at peace for it and realize that maybe it happened for a reason. Because that's never happened before on this bike. I've ridden this bike course 3-4 times and I only use the small ring for the 4 miles up Snow Canyon... today I had to use it for all 56 miles.

Other than the shifting issue everything on the bike was a dream. I pushed my body as hard as I wanted to and it answered on every call. I really passed hundreds of people and only got passed by 3 guys while out there- and that was on some long downhill sections. On any uphill it was like I was the only one moving and people were just lined up sitting for me to pass or something.

The run

Well the run turned out just as I thought it would. I ran it in 1:33:35 or 7:08 avg. This run and bike course are both very challenging. The last 6 months I've basically only been able to run around 7 min pace with this injury and that's basically what I ran today. Was I hoping for a race day miracle where I'd start dropping 6 min miles and sub 6 on the downhill... yes. But the reality is my hip is injured and this was all that I could do. And I'm happy I could do it after hitting the bike so hard. I did have a goal to not get passed at all on the run. It lasted until the last mile and 3 guys came blazing by me one of whom was Josh McAdams. The runner in me wanted to go with them but I just couldn't get any faster of turnover on Diagnal st. It's slop is killer on my hip and in the end it just rocked my world. I thought I'd never get to the end of the street and make the turn south to the finish.

Anyways I'm really happy about how everything boiled down. I learned a lot in my first event and had a really fun day actually. Although I'm not chopping at the bit to sign up  for another one... just yet.

I had every intention of running today. Not really sore but I'm very tired. A lot due to the race and a lot due to Halen my 2 week old little boy who sleeps all day... then wants to party all night:) I just got busy with a bunch of things I've neglected the last few weeks. Plus right about the time I was gonna run we got hit with a CRAZY downpour that flooded my chicken coop in and the whole thing needed my attention. So that was like 1.5 hours of hard and fast emergency work. I was running all over the yard so maybe like .5 running today. 

B-hills extended through the secret street and LV. Felt so so today. Actually the hip felt pretty good but the legs were a little awkward and heavy. I now regret not doing anything yesterday. Even 30 min's on the elliptical and it would have helped shake out some of the junk I had to deal with today. Nice morning for a run though. We had a pounding rain storm yesterday evening and it was a clear crisp morning with the smell of rain. 

Good early morning run with the old guys. Logan got the party started when he showed up with a combo of Ace Ventura/ Snoop dog perm hair. Lots of laughs and a beautiful morning out with Stephen even joining. Hip felt pretty good during the run but since has been tight. I'll have to continue with nightly stretching and rolling out with a ball sessions just to stay in the game. 

Ben and I ran from my house this morning. DC loop in reverse with one mile beforehand up to a port-o-potty. Really nice morning, actually ended up wearing a tank top at 5:15 a.m.  I think it was like 58F and calm. Pace was just chill and ended up having a great run. Too bad Logan slept in. 

28 mile bike ride with Ben. We started with Bob and headed into the fields but this was Ben's first real bike ride and the pace needed to be a little slower. So we just took it chill up to the Coral Canyon park on the mesa and around the river trails. Beautiful morning to be out. 

4 mile run with Ben after the ride. Just out and back into Silkwood. Ben said we were doing 6:30 pace on the way back. Felt pretty good today. 

18 holes of golf with Ben VanBeekum. Ben lost.

105 min's on the elliptical. Watched the first episode of the Hatfield-McCoy series. Loved it. Mik'L had an early meeting so I couldn't run with the guys. Good thing because we were up all night with the baby. I got like 1 hour of sleep if you combined all the little junk together. Anyways by the time she got home from the meeting and I got feeling like doing something it was almost 2 p.m. So I stayed indoors and enjoyed my new workout room. 

Over to the B-hills park and back. Didn't get out until around 8:30 a.m and it was already hot. Yesterday's high on this little valley link was 100 F and today is gonna be hotter. Sad but it's that time of year again. I felt ok but kind of rusty. Like I hadn't really ran in a few days:) Hope to have a solid week of running everyday and keep improving the hip tightness.

Trying to start getting up and out early everyday of the week. The hot weather is upon us and my wife needs more time in the morning to do her workouts. So from now on it's 6 a.m or earlier for the rest of the summer. The good news is that's the best running time. Cooler temps and less traffic on the roads. 

Hit the DC loop in reverse. Felt ok with no super sharp pain in the hip but still feel like I'm running in quick sand all the time. I'm a long ways away from running hard and fast again. But any running is better than no running and I'll take it. 

Big boys run around the DC loop... in reverse. I felt pretty trashed and junky today. I had planned on doing at least 2 more or even 5 more after we finished but it just wasn't happening. Had a long, hard night with the baby so that was one factor. Then the hip didn'f feel good at all. Not super painful but more like the right side swings freely and the left side has a brake or clamp causing friction at around 45-60% resistance. Which does actually hurt. IDK it seems I never really make progress with this.

On a good note it was fun running with the lads. Had a nice morning although even at 5:15 a.m it was 70F or so. I already miss spring. 

90 min's on the elliptical. I so wanted to run everyday this week but today it wasn't in the cards. Mik'L had an early meeting, Myler had to get to school, and my hip felt so jacked. So I made the best of it with another longish session on the machine. I actually don't mind the elliptical where as I hate the treadmill and the spinning bike. 

Nice solid run this morning. I felt pretty stiff and achy but managed some decent results. 12 miles @ a 6:49 avg. DC loop then extended back into B-hills. Actually hit a 6:01 mile coming up the trail from the DC to River Road. I didn't think it was possible to go that low with this injury and I wasn't really going all out. So that gives me hope that there's just a little speed there even though it's not much. Kind of hot to start out this morning with the over night low of 72 F aided by cloud cover. But now the day is overcast and cooler than it's been... maybe a chance of rain too. 

20 miles down the STG marathon course to the finish line today with Stephen Abraham Lincoln Hooper Pope. Nothing fancy just a long run. 6:39 avg. Hip got tight around mile 7 but didn't get any worse so it was runnable all the way in. Had perfect conditions on a beautiful morning. Glad I could spend it with Stephen. 

My legs are sore. Sore from Saturdays run down the STG marathon course. It's been since like the first weekend last October since I ran any downhill and the quads just got super bent out of shape. So yesterday as I hobbled around I thought there was no way I'd run today. I stretched good last night but still woke up super sore. Got up and went outside to do chores and a little yard work and at first I was too tight to manage but in the course of 20 min's the legs loosened up enough to where I thought I could try running. So anyways after a long intro I did a run today. Middle B-hills loop with the secret street and LV at the end. Very tender and sore? Yes. But also very runnable too... and my hip felt pretty stable with minimal pain in that region.  I'll take it and just might get something else in later today as well. 

2 hours on the elliptical at 4 resistance. Had some more delayed soreness setting into the legs and just to be safe decided not to run outside. Plus I really wanted to finish the third and final part of the Hatfield and Mccoy series. So that was awesome. Kind of a long workout on the machine but it should have helped move some of the heavy and soreness out. 

Big boys run with the Circle plus not only Steven showed but also Billy boy. Running felt really hard because I played ultimate frisbee last night and it rocked my world. Hip is really sore and hurting. Other than that it was a special morning although Logan was carrying around some zesty anger. He needs to talk to a professional about it or if kept inside, he could really become a burden to society. 

This may sound crazy but I had a major accident in the middle of the night while burping my little boy. I was sitting down and had him on my shoulder and then I sneezed... It like slipped a disc or something in my back. I literally couldn't take one step and had to call for Mik'L to come help (this was at 3 a.m.). It's super painful and sometimes it gets even worse if I move just right. I'm in udder disbelief. Anyone have any suggestions or similar mishaps?

Back is still really jacked up. I've been reading a lot about it and it sounds like sneezing and back pain are more common than one would guess. As soon as it doesn't hurt like crazy I'll try and see April and the chiro. 

2 hours on the elliptical this afternoon. Back is still way too sore to run. I went to April's and she thinks its just a muscle spasm and not anything with the spin/ discs. Happy about that. But it still just hurts. Feels like someone shot me with an arrow in the top left side of my back and now I'm walking around with the arrow still in. Everyone says the muscles just need to loosen up and release... I'm like ok how and when?

40 min's on the elliptical followed by

6 mile run out around Silkwood.

Back still has a major knot in it but the elliptical sounded like it might be doable. Then after hitting it I thought I may be able to do a little run to just check it out. Back was tight but  never got worse. Effort felt extra hard for slow pace.

37 mile ride out early this morning. Woke up at 3:25 to feed the baby then was  up and just hung out until 5:10 when it was time to ride. We headed out to the bike shop then up Snow Canyon and then once at the top we just came back home. I felt pathetic. Left leg has  no power. Not sure if it's related to the back or not. Riding felt ok but I did start with a big heat patch that seemed to make it feel much better (while on). But this ride kicked my trash... 19.8 mph avg

60 min's on the elliptical after the ride. Just felt dead. At the end of the entire workout I was trashed... kind of sucks because I only boarded 6 miles but it was much more involved than a 6 mile run. Time to eat a lot of jerky and frosted mini wheats. Kind of a brunch type meal.

Morning run with the lads. Pace was laxi taxi but about my limit right now. Back still has a big knot but the pain has eased down a lot. The mornings have been amazing (58 F) with a slight chill in the air and the daytime high of only around 90 F. 

37 miles on the bike this morning out to Hurricane or so and back. Pushed hard in places and then kept it honest in others. Pretty good ride. I was on the BMC roadmachine that Ian is having me ride to train for LOTOJA. Feels way different than my tri bike. I'm not very comfortable on it but I'm guessing I'll get the feel soon. 

1 hour on the elliptical after. Started to feel DEAD about 30 min's into it. From there on out it was a grind. Sleep has become something of the past. 

43 mile bike ride. Kind of felt dead on the bike. Quads are pretty shot. On the way back home from the airport I tried to hammer the bikefix strava section and was only 3 seconds faster than when I road it unknowing of the challenge. 

9 mile hike on the West rim trail in Zion. With a 55 lb backpack. Overnight camp with the scouts. Tried out a new cool hammock. Loved it. 

Finished of the 6+ miles off the West Rim trail. Plus on the way down we went up Angels landing and added another mile and hour to our trip. The heavy pack was way less comfortable than just running it and carrying nothing. Think I'm gonna be sore.

33.7 mile ride out to the end of the Quail lake road and back. Hit the hills hard. Heart rate was pumping. 

8 mile run about an hour after getting home off the bike. Out and back into B-hills. Felt pretty smooth and hip wasn't too bad. Happy about that today. 

34.5 mile bike ride over to Snow Canyon and up that sucker then back down the marathon course, bluff and home. Road pretty aggressive as I needed to be home by 7 a.m so Mik'L could go on her run. Pulled in the cul de sac at 6:57 or so. 

Fed the baby and got things squared away here and when Mik'L got home I went back out for a 7 mile run. About an hour transition between. Secret St then B-hills loop. Felt so so. I just want to keep chipping away with these double workouts on M,T,TH,F and run longerish on Weds and Sat. If I can keep it up I'll be happy. 

Early morning big boys run from my house. Good group today. Fun to run with the guys even though Logan's still dealing with his anger issues.  I got out for one mile before everyone showed up and then hit the park loop after we all finished to add a few more. Hip hurt a little today by the end and is sore after around the house.

35.6 mile ride out and back to the end of the Quail lake road. Much like the Tuesday morning ride. There was a big group and on the way out things took a while. So on the way back home I had to "get on it" and road hard all the way home so I could be here at 7 a.m so Mik'L could go do her run. Ended around 21.5 mph. Pretty hard push. 

7.7 mile run about 45 min's after the ride. Started out on the treadmill for 1.7 then when Mik'L got home went outside for the remaining 6 miles. Hip felt better than yesterday- although I went roughly half the miles. 

54.1 mile ride this morning. Out through the fields up to telegraph then on turtle road over to green valley and out to airport and back. Alarm was set for 4:00 but my bladder got me up at 3:28 a.m so it was a EARLY morning for the kid. Road the first 20 miles semi aggressive with Bob before meeting the group. Then the middle 14 or so was really chill and put me behind the clock. So I had to try and hammer the last 20ish to get home on time. 21.1 mph avg

6 mile run after Mik'L got done with her run. Just around the inner B-hills loop and extended through the secret street.  Legs felt pretty spent and I was now low on fuel as I hadn't taken anything the whole ride. 

Had planned to get up and do a 20 mile run. But the ankle (yes last years injury) hurt bad yesterday and last night so I kind of bagged running first thing. We had the kids sleep at the grandparents last night so I slept great from 9:30p.m -6a.m. The best rest I've had for almost two months.

40.4 mile ride on the bike out and back over through the fields up by Costco and then out and back to the airport. 21.8 mph avg. Kind of a bummer because I though I needed only 40 miles to hit 200 for the week but I mis read it last night and today's ride only put me at 198.3.... duh. Anyways on the ride my legs were dead but I tried to work on riding with tired legs and by the end of the ride my ankle felt pretty loose.

10.2 mile run around the DC loop. Almost 9 a.m by the time I hit the road and it was hot. But I was hydrated well and the drinking fountain at the DC was cold! No watch but a honest pace to finish off a solid day and week.

52.3 mile ride early out to the airport then out to the end of Quail road and back. It was hot and I struggled all morning to keep the peddle pushing up. 21.5 mph avg but it felt like I was working for a 25 mph avg. Ran out of fluid too early and what drink I did bring was too warm within the first half hour. Today was hard. 

8.1 mile run around the big B-hills loop. It's been a long time since I ran this loop. A couple years ago I use to run the sucker twice a day but for some reason just never go this route. Was between 84-87 F out in full sun during the run. I was in "push on through" mode. But other than dehydration and fatigue my hip and running felt pretty good.  Time was just under an hour something like 7:10 pace or so.

47.7 mile ride with Bob out on Southern parkway into SunRiver then up around Snow Canyon and home. Took it a little easier today but felt much better. Temps were between 10-15 degrees cooler so it was much easier. Ended with a 21.1 mph avg. 

8.1 mile run after. With temps cooler this run was soo much nicer than yesterday. No dehydration= feeling pretty good. 

A little before then the DC run with the Circle of Trust and Billy the kid. Felt warmer this morning and that seemed to shut my body down. This whole run seemed hard. No energy at all. Plus the hip hurt. I had planned on doing 2-4 more but once we got back to my house I was done. Then I even thought about doing some time on elliptical but after feeding the baby I felt like a bloated, stiff dead body floating down an icy river. Yeah that bad.

Slept in and that cost me the time to get in the miles on the bike. So I used the time left and bust it out to the airport and back. 22.3 mph avg. Pretty aggressive ride even though it was shorter.

8.3 mile run about 20 min's after the ride. Legs felt heavy and slow. Hip was semi achy but good enough to run. It was hot. 

80.9 mile ride this morning. Started at 4:30 a.m and went out and back to the airport 3 times and on the third loop I went out by Sunriver and the river trail to River road then back around the park to home. 21.8 mph avg. 2,936 ft of climbing. Not a super hard course but lots of rollers throughout the entire ride. This was my longest ride today. Pretty solid effort to be over 21 mph on a solo effort. My butt got really sore and so did my shoulder on the left side... cramped big time in the last 10 miles. 

Had planned on running at least 4.1 miles too but just didn't... and as the day rolls on it sounds hard... I'm pretty tired overall now. 

Long run with the Circle of Trust from Logan's driveway. Rolled through Ivins, Santa Clara and Green Valley. Did my first real tempo run since the marathon last October. 5 miles in 5:46, 5:34, 5:40, 5:55, 6:17. I kind of checked out on the last mile. I was only planning on doing the 4 miles then the guys kept going so I  semi tried to push the last mile out. Hip started to hurt on this mile but prior it had felt pretty good on the run. Not bad though. I'll take it as a place to start and hopefully get something long and temp filled every Saturday... unless traveling or other crap.... like next week. 7:03 avg for the entire run. 

Ended the week with 205 biking miles and 57 running. Goal is 200 and 60 for the rest of the summer. 

Out riding at 4:15 a.m with Bob. We went out to the airport overpass then back into town. Then out passed Quail and back home. 21.3 mph avg. My legs felt heavy and quads were very unresponsive. Never really could get comfortable and really struggled on the climbs. Usually feel pretty good on those. 

Got home and hit the 8.1 mile B-hills loop on a run. Again the legs were heavy. Took 5 miles to loosen up and by then I was tired... no watch but I'm sure the run was slow. 

Gonna be a short week with a trip to SoCal coming on Thurs-weekend.

Out riding at around 4:30. I don't mind the training I'm putting in but it's gonna be a battle to keep these early hours up all summer... coupled with no sleep and a baby. Yesterday for example Haylen woke to be fed at 1:53 and the whole process took almost an hour before he went back to sleep. Then I couldn't fall asleep for about a half hour... then the alarm went off at 3:50. So basically yesterday I was up at 1:50 a.m with a 30 min nap all day. I'm freaking wasted. 

So todays ride was a direct reflection of the above. Felt like I was killing it the entire ride. Just working my butt off and I was barely over 20 mph. Even on some downhills I couldn't get any turnover. It was super frustrating out there and at times I'd just yell verbal rants at myself in effort to pick up the pace... but it didn't work.  20.6 mph avg. Out around southern parkway up into Ivins and back.

8.1 mile run. I got home right before 7 a.m and came in to find Mik'L who was (sleeping in)! So she wasn't going outside today I just jumped right into my run for a real brick workout. I was tired and the run was slow. I spent almost the entire run thinking about what I was going to come home and eat for breakfast. Cereal, eggs, bacon, toast, fruit... I thought it out and came home and made it happen.

Big boys run @ my house. Logan got here a little earlier and we did like 1.4 then joined Steven and Billy boy for the regular loop. Then after I re looped the park solo for a little more. 

Had a good run with the guys. The downers were: It was about 12-14 degrees hotter today than it was yesterday morning. We also ran along side a cute little kitty cat... then as we got parallel too it the poor thing darted in front of a car and got smashed right by us... then another car smashed it again. Pretty sad and I'm not even a cat guy. I usually drag road kill cats out of the street but today I couldn't even look back. 

On a positive note after feeling totally trashed yesterday and last night I woke today to feel pretty good. The run wasn't bad at all and hip held up pretty good. Plus we got to watch Billy put out the vibe on a few female runners that passed by.

No run today. Travel to SoCal and hit the Newport temple then an Angels game. Great day to start off our trip. 

Stayed in Walnut Ca so I ran around there. Ended up over by Mt. Sac and on some dirt trails. Messed around a while then came back. Super slow as the hip really started to hurt... everything else was achy too. A pretty good run at the park too. After we got to Six flags we ran (hard) to every big ride during the first hour of entry. Because of that we got to ride the good stuff before any real lines formed. But it was a killer workout... honestly only two of us made it through the whole loop and we were dripping with sweat. 

Another run over to Mt. Sac and on some different dirt trails. Didn't have as much time today so I was just glad to get any running in. Still felt super stiff, achy and slow. Fat too. 

Spent the first part of the day down at the Huntington Beach then started the drive back home. The boys had fun and the trip went off without issue. 996 driving miles down there and all around LA for three days then back home. 

57.2 mile ride this morning with Bob. It was warmer but the breeze was the hard part. Just struggled to get anything going. Feeling pretty trashed and have decided I must have crossed the line and overtrained at some point because it's just not coming back. 20.6 mph avg. 

Didn't run due to some much needed yard work after the ride. 

50.9 mile ride again much with Bob until over by Entrada where I had to leave the group for time purposes and hit Snow Canyon solo then home on time for Mik'L. Still just don't have the power or comfort on the bike from a couple weeks ago. Effort seems harder but times are slower. 20.5 mph avg. 

10.2 mile run after Mik'L got done with her run. The run seemed pretty good. Legs turned over decent. Hip has been and was hurting though. Finished up and now to a day of a screaming kid. Gotta love it. My alarm was set for 4:10 a.m but he got me up at 3:30 a.m. Never fails to be just one hour before the alarm. 

A little before and a little after the big boys run her at my house. Really nice morning out with the guys. Temps felt just right... kind of soaking it in before the forecasted 5 or so days coming up that are gonna be like 112. Ugh! Hip was super tight today and at times seemed like just too much effort to even stay with the guys. 

50.6 mile ride out to the airport overpass then back into town. Then out by the fair grounds and back. Legs were really rejecting the bike for at least 20 miles. Then they kind of loosened up but not really. Saw Mr. Coach D. Holt running up the dump hill as I was on my way back to town going down it. Kind of fun to see runners... I was wishing I could just let the bike go down the hill and join him running. 

Got home and spent 15 min's getting things together before hitting the run. 10.2 Miles around the DC loop in reverse. Temps weren't super hot like they're gonna be but the run was in full sun. So by the time I got home I was dehydrated and overheating. Drank a lot on the bike too beforehand. 

50.2 mile ride out at 4:20 a.m. Got my first flat in like 1200+ mile. Kind of a bummer. Just slammed into a man hole rut and started hearing a "hiss". I had bonded to that tube and thought it was gonna last forever. 20.3 mph avg. Hit it hard in a few spots and then pretty EZ for a while with the group from the bike shop out to the airport. Although I pulled the entire time. 

7.2 mile run around the park and stuff. Actually did one mile on the treadmill while I waited for Mik'L. Then a couple loops around the park and one loop around Coyote. Some old man in a yellow convertible slowed down to yell at me. "Why are you running in the road you idiot". I said nothing and just kept running. There were no other cars in sight and he made special effort to get in my face... Then a half mile later I had to hold back my rage- just got pissed. I wouldn't allow myself to go back to the pickleball court where I'm sure he parked. I might have punched the dude. 

Long run from the Torqurville exit down through Leeds and back to the running store. Extended up over the I-15 overpass in Washington to get closer to 20 miles. Hottest morning so far this year. When I left the house at 4:30 a.m it was 81 F. But despite the hottness the run went pretty good. Hip held off until about mile 16 before it began to nag. No super fast miles but a consistent pace throughout. 6:34 avg for the run. 

Ended the week with 61 real running miles and 208 biking.

65 mile ride up around Gunlock and Veyo. Left the house at 3:50 a.m. Solid effort this morning as things clicked for the most part. It was super hot and I did drop one of my water bottles which sucked down the stretch... but still kept a solid grind without really feeling hammered. 

30 min's on elliptical after Mik'L got home. In the 45 min's while she was gone my hip got super, super, super tight and hurt just to walk. So I about bagged everything. But decided to get on the elliptical for a while and see if it would loosen up.

5 miles on the treadmill. After a half hour on the elliptical my hip seemed to feel runable so I switched to the treadmill to finish the workout. Didn't want to got outside as it was now around 90 F. Ended up running pretty solid by the end.

48.8 mile ride out to the airport and back (twice). I flirted with the idea of doing the same ride again as yesterday and even set my alarm for 3:30 to do so. But I woke at 3:15 and decided I wasn't going... at all. Fell back a sleep and woke at 4:30 to go potty. Then I re-commited and rushed out the door as fast as I could to get in as much as I could before 7 a.m. Legs didn't have much in them but I did get in a ride. 20.7 mph avg. 

7.2 miles on the treadmill after the ride. Basically got home and fed the chickens went potty, and changed my clothes. Then hit up the machine while Mik'L was out on her run. When she got home I was only 2 miles into it but just didn't feel like going out into the sun so I finished on the belt. 

15.3 mile run early this morning. Hit a few before and a few after solo and ran the middle DC loop with Billy boy. It really felt hot and dry. Even in the darkness of the morning I was super uncomfortable. Hip was killer today... hurt from about the second mile on. At times it was almost crippling. 

13 mile Super EZ ride after Mik'L was done with her stuff. It was at least an hour and a half after I finished my run that I got on the bike. Just really wanted to spin the legs out and try and loosen up the stinking hip. Seemed to help a little. 

The annual 4th of July run. Big group this morning. I think there was around 40-45 crazies who showed up to catch the vans at 4:15 a.m. It was super hot today. The hottest morning of the year so far. 93 F when I left the house at 3:40 a.m. But once we got up there it was a little cooler and there was a breeze. Plus some cloud cover kept the sun at bay until well after I'd got home. 

Took it really EZ for a couple miles but then worked into a groove with STeve and Tom. With just under 6 miles to go and after all the hill climbs were done Stephen dropped the hammer and was pounding the downhill to the finish. I fell back but then worked through the flatter sections to catch back up. Then we both just kind of jogged the final mile together. Still hit like a 7:02 avg or something for the run. Lots of climbing and ALL dirt roads+ half in the dark. 

Good run. My hip had sections of super painful jolts but as a whole felt pretty stable for the run. Happy about that.

75.3 mile ride up in Torrey. Actually had to do a full Tour de Wayne County to get the mileage. Took my Tri bike up and it was nice to get back on it after riding the BMC for the last 6 weeks or so. Had some nasty wind during the first 20 miles then it kind of tappered off. I really was sucking air on all the big climbs... the low part of my ride was 6,800 and up to 7,400 or so. A big jump when you live at 2,600 ft. But had a good ride and for the most part good weather in my old stomping ground. Ended with a solid 20.8 mph avg.

Got up and didn't know if I wanted to run or not... really didn't know if I wanted to race or not. Today was the Torrey Apple days 5k and when I'm here I usually run it. So I went out running about an hour or so before it started to get warmed up and see if racing would be an option. After about 3.5 miles I headed over to see what was happening at the starting line and there was no one there. I was a little early but still someone should have been there. So I looped around a little more checked again and still no one. Then I decided to just bag it and went back to enjoy the rest of the day at temps under 80 degrees and beautiful surroundings. Later that day I learned that I had the time wrong about the race and I had shown up over an hour early.... the race happened without me. Oh well. 

64.4 mile ride up around Gunlock and Veyo. Started with Bob and I then we picked up Stacy. The three of us road up to basically Veyo together then Bob fell off and Stacy and I took it down to the Snow Canyon entrance. Then he turned and I kept on back home. Felt strong at times and super weak in others. Road the tri bike today again as my days with the BMC are basically over. My tri bike only holds one water bottle and that just wont cut it with these temps. So I busted out a new hydration pack that I won more than a year ago in some race. It's a UltrAspire pack and seemed to work pretty good all things considered. Still felt bulky and hot but did help provide the much needed H2O. Not sure what I'm gonna do to remedy my bikeless situation as I really don't want to buy a road bike. Ended the loop at a 21 mph avg- a PR on that beast of a track.

  11 mile run shortly after the ride. Hit the treadmill for .8 while I waited for Mik'L to get home then hit the 10.2 mile DC loop. No watch but pace was pretty honest. Even though I didn't get out running until around 8 am the temps didn't seem too bad where it did feel really muggy out on the bike.

54 mile ride everywhere this morning. Out through the fields to start then back down to Sun River via Tonoquent, back and forth up the river trail and then back home. Had nothing in the legs so took it EZish most of the ride but did hammer a couple sections to try and get a KOM on Strava. 

8 mile run after. Mik'L stayed indoors for her workout so after feeding the chickens I was able to get right out to run. Temps were down to 68 F. The coolest morning in about 15 days. Felt good. I wish I would have felt more lively so I could have gone longer to take advantage of it. But I was super low on fuel and spent. 

Ran here with the Circle of Trust. Did a few before and a few after and the DC loop with them. Hip was so so but overall legs were just gone... zero flow in the roll today. Still nice to get out with the guys. Another decent morning too at 71 F. 

53.4 mile ride around a weird track. Started out heading up through Green Valley and into Ivans. It was so bloody hot I could barely ride. 89F when I left the house at 3:50 a.m. Plus there was a choppy breeze that felt like a blow dryer in my face. So the first 20 miles were hellishly slow. I wanted to get off and hitch hike home, but there wasn't anyone out to ride with. Ended with a 19.5 mph avg. Road Luke's Look bike and it didn't help the speed either. 

10.2 mile run around the DC after the ride. Got er done. 

38.4 mile ride. Cooler but very very humid today. I sweat my butt off and then some. I road the Look again today to see if it was just yesterday that was slow... still the same. I just can't get going on that thing. It's a size or so big and set up way off my mark. Oh well it was worth a shot but I still need a bike. 19.8 mph avg. 

7 mile run after. Overcast kept it nice and I love the smell of fresh rain. Looking forward to only running tomorrow. 

No real running. I did test ride my new bike down in Yorda Linda, Ca for 1.1 miles. Left the house at 3:30 a.m and drove to San Luis Obispo with a buddy to pick up his new Escalade then we both drove down to LA area to pick up my new bike. And the headed back to STG. We didn't clock it on his car but google maps says it's a journey of 1,125 miles. We got home at 11:58 p.m. This was the biggest car travel day of my life. 

64.4 mile bike ride up through Gunlock and Veyo then back down the marathon and eventually home. It was hot and humid today and I really labored. Was sweaty early in the ride and had no response in my legs. However the pace was faster and the new bike rolled it out pretty good. It was a hammer fest and I ran out of fluid way too soon but still hit a PR on the course at 21.5 mph avg for the ride. 

10.2 mile run around the DC after. Had stomach cramps, potty stops and was super low on electrolytes but the run seemed to roll off pretty good as well. Had an honest clip all the way through. Got home and really started to cramp up so I drank pickle juice.

30.5 mile bike ride. So I've never done a "bike race" before so I'm not sure about how to go about my week with tapering and such. Today I just decided to wake up whenever without an alarm and ride whatever I had time for. Woke at 5:08 and the baby was crying. So fed him then got out as soon as I could. Looped through the fields down the river trail around Sunriver and back through the Southern Parkway. Decided to take it super EZ as I trashed the legs and system out yesterday. But once on the river tail at the very top I decided to hit that section hard all the way to Man-o-war bridge to see if I could own the KOM's on that section on Strava. So I did and now own all 5 for now. But other than that I road EZ and let the legs recover.

6.6 mile run after. Super smooth and ez run with some good running vibes flowing... until my hip really started sending some sharp pains with about 2 miles to to. Ugh. Just a quick reality check to let me know where I stand.

Big boys run. I hit one lap around the park before hitting the DC loop with the Circle and Billy. Humid and hot. Bill and Logan were as sweaty as.... Bill also took it upon himself to run right through the middle of 4 females on their run. The sad thing is that we had to be seen with him doing it. 

6 mile run. Did the inner B-hills loop and Secret street at the end. Had some major stomach issues as a result of some excellent Mexican food yesterday. Stomach was bad news this morning. 

15 miles spinning the bike while getting fit at the shop. Didn't make a ton of changes but brought the set up pretty good and dropped the bars up front. I guess we'll see what happens on Saturday. 

Up early to bike but... had some issues with the electric shifting unit. So I was home in less than a mile. Messed with it for a half hour and got frustrated so I went for a run. 5.6 miles around the inner B-hills loop. Nice and ez and felt good for the first time all week. Hip has been horrible and today there was minimal pain. 

Got home from the run and read online forever to try and figure out what the heck was wrong with my bike. Finally figured it out. Yesterday when I got fitted at the shop Ian rolled my bars forward just enough to unplug the wires under the hood grips. Even at first glance they looked plugged but were not. Plugged them in snug and presto. Works like a charm. Glad I found this out today and not tomorrow. 

First bike race ever. Starts in Panguitch and loops up red canyon turns at Ruby's inn and heads north behind the Dunton mountains all the way to Otter Creek, then down Kingston Canyon to Circleville and back down to Panguitch. 

So the race started out with BIG drama for Clyde. Got to the start at 6:50 a.m and thought the race started at 7:30. Got out or the truck and started getting my bike out and shoes on and everyone vanished. Still needed to pump up my tires to the right tire pressure and go potty but rolled over to the starting line and the guys says "is everything ok". I said what's going on... he said the race started  like ten min's ago. Then all hell breaks loose as I just jump on the bike and start blazing my way down the road. Couldn't believe I'd made this mistake. Left my wife sitting there scratching her head and I was just screaming all the way through town now well back over EVERYONE. After two miles of hard pounding a motorcycle came up (guy for my home ward) and told me to hold on and he'd pull me to the lead group. I didn't know what to think but at this point I just wanted the experience of the day more than the result so I did it. That was the scariest things I've done in a long time. I swerved all over holding on with one had and trying to steer the bike and balance with the other. With a lot of luck I didn't go down and he pulled me for about 5 miles down to the lead group. 

I quickly peddled up the masses and found Bob told him the story and then tried to settle down and make the best of the day. Within about a mile of joining the group we all merged from the road to the bike trail that runs up Red Canyon. This was super tight, shoulder to shoulder, wheel to wheel all the way up. But it wasn't fast. Very ez and I wanted then to use my strength in climbing and mover up but it was impossible. You were just caught in the river of riders all the way to Ruby's inn where the road comes to a junction and we went north.

Soon after hitting the road I was right up in the lead. But something was up because NO ONE would go. Nobody lining up, nobody pushing the pace at all. Turns out that 3 of the big dog riders for a local team got flats coming up red canyon and because of this the entire led group of about 40 riders wouldn't push the pace. Everyone was content to just sit in and wait for those guys to catch back up so they could control the race. This was super frustrating for me. I kept trying to get a group together to take off and nothing ever got going. There were a several riders who also wanted to make something happen but it just didn't for miles and miles and miles.

Meanwhile by mile 30 I had to go potty... bad. Other riders would pull off and go and then work to get back with the group. This happened several times between miles 30-75. But I was too scared that if I pulled off that would be when "they" would take off and I'd be left. I also couldn't bring myself to "go" on the bike as I've come to learn is an option as well.

By mile 80 I was in sever discomfort. Having missed my pre race potty and now just grinding out a race it was killing me. I led the race over and over again getting up and pulling and at some points creating a pretty big gap between me and the group but no one would ever come with. So I'd let up and fall back into place. There was no way you can break a lone with the last 20+ miles of this course fairly flat and wind exposed.

I started to think about how the race would end. I knew my fitness was great and legs felt pretty good through 80+ miles. I was only fighting the bladder issue and a sore bum. But I couldn't break a lone. Not with the headwind we were pushing and a 40+ rider group licking it's chops and I also knew that I wasn't a sprinter. And in the end would get eaten a live by all these sharks who've been riding our wheels the whole race.

With 1.5 miles left I was in the led taking my last and (worst) pull of the race. As I slowed from that pull and waited for someone to come around so I could recover... Everyone started breaking! Super strong surge that left me way back in the group as people started flying past. I pushed hard and got on someones wheel but it got dangerous. Bikes cutting each other off here and there. Handle bars hitting each other and I was boxed in. With about .6 to go I rallied and got around to pass my blocker and hammered it passing most of the people who had just passed me. I worked really hard and was now in around 5th but then Everyone started hammering again and I had no answer. I finally got tired of fighting for place and just cruised in right in the middle of the big group. The finish line was a super dangerous left turn at full speed that saw several wrecks during the day.

In the end bike races are dumb. Not a true reflection of the guy who works the hardest, trains hard. Not because I didn't win or I think I'm this total bike stud. But because there were 20+ people who road in that race in our group who NEVER could ride like that without being pulled. Anyways I like riding, training. But I don't like cycling races. I'm doing LOTOJA and that may be my last regular bike race. I like Tri's where every man has to do his own work.

64.5 mile ride up around the Gunlock/ Veyo loop. Temp started at 81F when I left the house at 3:50 a.m. It was hot and humid. Legs felt sluggish too. But the ride turned out pretty fast as I hit a 21.4 mph avg with very little drafting. Must have had good air or something today. But I pushed it hard too and got home with no drink left... I'd ran out up by Winchester Hills and was needing some hydration. 

10.2 mile run-Waited about 45 min's for Mik'L to finish her run and then I took off on mine. Regular old DC loop.  Legs felt super heavy and hip was naggy but by mile 5 I had a good flow going. Just dripping with sweat the entire run. Forgot to get on the scale but I'm sure I was low due to dehydration. This was a tough morning on the ol' body.

26.2 mile ride this morning. Left with the intentions of going about 50 but within about 3 I could tell something was up. Really struggled to get the peddles to go round. Just felt totally bonked and by the time I got out by the dump road I just turned around. It was the hardest and slowest ride I've gone on so far. 18.1 mph avg. Legs had nothing. 

10.2 mile run. Got home way earlier than normal and started to to yard work out in the darkness at around 5:35 a.m. Did that for about a half hour and just kept getting more and more frustrated with the results of my morning ride. So I finally just decided to try a run. It seemed too hard for a few miles and then it felt doable by the end. But the whole system is in recovery mode. I got way too dehydrated yesterday and now I can't recover. 

Sick day. Woke up at 4 a.m to head out and do a group ride and head felt like 1000 lbs. Neck, shoulders and everything hurt with a pounding headache. Had a big bite on my leg and it could have been from a spider... not sure if they are at all related but nonetheless I took today off. Spent it with the family and went to the parade early then breakfast after. Came home and had a BEAUTIFUL 2 hour nap. Much, much needed for sure. 

Woke up feeling much better than the last couple days. Both head and body. Went out solo today into the fields then back out to the airport, down into SunRiver and back up the river trail and again around the fields back home. Kept an honest effort but nothing in the red as I need to fully recover for a long, crazy ride planned on Saturday. Finished with a 21 mph avg. Felt good throughout. 

10.2 mile run around the DC. Again this was just a smooth effort but seemed to have a nice clip all the way through. After feeling crappy for a couple days just feeling normal today felt like I was Superman. Felt like I could have doubled the workout without too much strain. 81 F at 4:20 when I started today. 

51.5 mile bike ride out into the fields then up around Green Springs over to Ivans and back through Green Valley and the fields to make a big loop of the valley. 19.8 mph avg. Lots of hills and rollers. Took it super easy for at least 25 miles then picked it up a little but no real push today. As tomorrow is a LONG ride. 

5.6 mile run around the inner B-hills loop. Just a formality today. Want to try and be as rested and ready for tomorrow as possible. 

Woke up at 2:30 a.m to go ride from here to Mesquite NV and back. 125 miles round trip. But... it was raining. Decided to wait til 4 and try again. Still raining. So tried again at 5:20 and still rain. By 7 a.m the rain had stopped and I was sick of trying to go for a ride. So I went for a run. 

19 mile run. Started through the fields on our summer tempo loop (that hasn't seen action all year). Then extended down to the Dixie Center and back on the normal DC loop finish around the park. Had a good run. And in a way I'm glad the ride didn't work out because I've been needing a good long run to square off the body. Just wish I would have know and I could have gone and ran the marathon course. I could really use some downhill training to get ready for STG. Pace this morning was above avg. Not sure because I didn't wear a watch but had some solid mild tempo miles from 5-15. Guessing the avg pace was under 7 min's for the run. Really muggy so I was dripping with sweat by mile 4... by the end of the run I might as well have gotten out of a pool. Hands and fingers were wrinkled from being soaked. 

60 mile ride this morning around the Gunlock/ Veyo loop. For some of the ride we had a motorcycle leading us to aid the drafting. It ended up being hard to line everyone up and make it work so I'd say I maybe only got a good draft one third of the time. But we were still flying. And even though we were going faster the effort wasn't easier. As we were killing it all the way through. Ended with a 22.1 mph avg.

13.2 mile run. 3 on the treadmill while I waited for Mik'L. Then hit the regular DC loop. Hip was tight and naggy but I pulled off a solid clip as I made the loop. Enjoyed the 70 F temps and dreamed of winning a race again.... someday. 

53 mile ride very similar to last Fridays big loop of the valley. Bob was with and we were just at conversational pace with really no pushes. He talked me  into doing the Tour de Park City this weekend. Guess it's pretty hard. 157 miles and 10,000+ feet of climbing. So I'll try and taper off throughout the week and give the legs a chance. 19.8 mph avg

60 min's on the elliptical after the ride. My right knee has kind of been hurting (IT bandish) and I decided to break from real running. This will also help with the recovery and taper. 

DC loop with Logan and Billy. It was earlier than we normally go and I felt like crap. Glad the guys were cool with going slow. Pace was very conversational. Hip hurt like #$%%. But it was good to get out and socialize with the likes of those two. I just about bagged it this morning but glad I decided to head on out. 

19.3 mile ride after the run. I don't normally ride after running on Wednesday's but today the hip hurt so bad I wanted to try and spin it out. So I just road the same loop I ran on last Saturday. Totally tried to keep it EZ to the point of insanity. But it worked because when I got home the hip felt much better. And I chased a deer on the river trail up behind the Washington Dog pound.

19.4 miles on the bike around the same loop as yesterday. Just took it a different direction today. Starting to feel good as this taper is setting in. Hoping the legs and body will be ready to hammer it in Park City. I did find out that this course has 6 miles of dirt roads... Yes that's not a typo and I'm not sure how it's gonna roll out but we have to ride on a dirt road. Just hoping Superfly doesn't eat the road. 

30 min's on the elliptical.

Just an ez short spin on the bike in Park City to make sure everything worked.

This gives me a headache just thinking about writing the report. So if your reading it. Sorry I've got a lot on my mind. 

Unlucky, Bad execution, and plain Stupid. That pretty much spells out my day. Bob and I didn't get into the race until a day or so before so we were stuck in the back of the pack. In the CAT 5 b group. Which even if we registered early we would have only been up one group in the CAT 5. And the CAT 5 b was just another heat of the CAT 5 that was supposed to start 2 min's after the CAT 5 group. Starting time ended up being 15 min's slower than scheduled and the gap between groups was like 5 min's instead of the planned 2. Because some dink on the mic wanted to sit and hear himself talk. Totally pissed me off.

So our plan was to hammer the first and bridge the gap between the groups so we could just be in the first CAT 5 group. So we did it. It took 15 miles to finally catch them but wasn't super hard however in the end just one more strike against me. To make it worse after we caught them we passed the next women's group and a masters group but by around mile 27 the CAT 5 b group we started with just caught up to the CAT 5's anyways so we basically did all that extra work for nothing. But I was feeling good and didn't think much about it. At mile 45 the course turns onto a DIRT road section that lasts for 5.7 miles. I had heartburn about this from the time I found out about it. Seriously! DIRT! On a road bike? We hit that section and the pace got faster. I guess this is a place were the race kind of takes off. So I made my move to stay right in the front of our big group. We hit a pretty steep climb on that hill and coming over the summit I was in 3rd and within a couple seconds moved into 1st and started putting distance on everyone in our field. I was rolling and feeling great and with only .5 left of dirt I was well up on everyone. Which didn't really matter because I'd join back up with them anyways once w reached the pavement. But then I heard a BOMB go off and started sliding sideways. A flat tire. It just didn't go flat. It exploded. And so did the rest of my day. EVERYONE buzzed by as I struggled to change it out and burned 10:20 or so. Now I was all alone and only 50 miles into a 157 mile race. So not only had I lost 10+ min's on the group but now my pace was slower in the hunt because I was going solo and they were united. Ugh. I still believed I could reel them in... STUPID. I worked like a dog up to Evanston Wy and would pass stragglers every mile but no group in sight. I didn't stop for anything at the aid station in town and kept motoring a long. And for 50+ miles I worked. Worked hard. It was hot, sunny, uphill (really) and into a blistering headwind. At around mile 75 I passed a lone girl rider who eventually busted her butt to catch back up and she road my wheel until my end...

So I pulled her and we kept burning down straggling groups and solo riders one by one just blazing our way up the foothills. The course basically climbs from 30-117. It was all uphill, all hard, and the WIND was so stereotypical of Wyoming. It just hammered me. By around 85 I could feel things slipping and asked the girl how much more climbing? She looked at me like I was crazy and said A LOT. Ouch! I just needed a break a little flat or downhill to switch it up a little. But it never, ever came. In fact it just got steeper and steeper as we went. At mile 98 we got our food bags from the aid station. It had two bottles, one of water and one with some kind of electrolyte mix (it was super nasty) but I drank it out of need. It also had a mini warm coke, a cliff bar and a cliff shot pack. One of these if not a combo of something blew my stomach up. By mile 101 just a few miles past the feed bag pick up I was close to hurling. Couldn't take down anything else... even water. I finally talked to my lady friend who was oh so happy to be riding my wheel and said that I was "checking out". She tried to get me to press on. She told me she was with the pro women's group and had blown a tire and basically took her out of the race too. Now she was just trying to get a workout in. Had I known she was so strong I'd have worked with her the last 45+ miles. Instead of pulling her. By mile 105 I couldn't go anymore. And she slowly road away into the sunset. I didn't. I had it in the easiest gear and was fighting for my life. I just thought if somehow I can summit this climb then I'll be able to recover on the 30 miles of downhill into Kamas. But the climbing never ended. One false front lead to another and around mile 112 we hit the summit... or so I thought. There was a brief maybe mile of downhill. I though I was home free. But was having a hard time staying on the bike even on the downhill. My butt hurt past my breaking point, my neck and shoulders were the same... and even my feet. Which have never had issues: where now killing me. Then came my "tap" out. The downhill that I was struggling to roll down turned to another never ending steep long uphill climb. I think I really did cry a little as I started to try and work up it. And then it was over. I could no longer stay on this bike one more second. I got off fell to the ground and was quickly joined by some other riders. I was done. Sunburned on my arms and legs worse than any Lake Powell trip could do. Dehydrated and an upset stomach.

Too fast too early? Too hard alone? Wind? No sunscreen? Upset stomach? Bad food? It was just one thing after another that brought me to my first ever DNF and I road the meat wagon back to Park City and the finish.

Don't know where I'm going after this one. Pretty bummed.  Had I not got the flat my day could have been much, much different. I'd have easily stayed right in the group until the steep climbing at around 100 miles. I'd be WAY fresher to start those climbs. I may or may not have won my division or finished with the leaders in that group but I think I would have made a running for it. But with the flat and all my struggles this has to be the single hardest physical thing I've ever done in a day. It rocked my world. I'm still sick today. Fever, headache, upset stomach, body aches. It just got way to damn ugly out there. I hind sight after the flat I should have just road it in. Or teamed with that chick. But I'm really scared about one aspect of this cycling thing. That's my butt. I'm not getting use to it. 200+ miles a week for over 2 months and after about 80 miles I'm really, really hurting. I tried wearing two pair of cycling shorts this time.... it helped for about 10 more miles than normal but still. There's no way I could make it through LOTOJA at 209. Really thinking about bagging it.

sick

sick

I had planned on trying to get up and run with the guys. Set the alarm and went to bed. Woke at 4:30 before the alarm went off and had a blistering headache and was just spinning. No can do the run like that. Ugh! Seriously I haven't bottomed out like this for a long long time. Went back to bed until 6:40. Then decided to get up and try the elliptical to at least get some blood flowing and maybe help come out of my funk. Stayed on for 70 min's. It was super hard for about 35 min's and eventually felt doable. Hoping to right the ship somehow and get things going again. Just need this headache, body ache, and dizzyness to pass first. 

Finally got out. I didn't expect much of this run and good thing. It really sucked. Labored the entire time. Hip hurt super bad and actually the other side was pretty tight. Still was able to get over to the DC and then just came back the same way for an out and back special. The good news was it was 69 F at 6:30 when I left and got down to 66 F while I was out. Coolest it's been since the first of June. Much needed. 

39 mile ride this morning. Wasn't going to ride at all this week but woke up early and couldn't sleep so I decided to go out. Actually yesterday my hip hurt worse than almost ever on the run and super bad just throughout the day. So I was thinking of riding a little to help loosen it up. So it was nice to get out this morning. Temps were awesome! Low of 64F! It just feels soo much better than it did in July when the low was 80+ with high humidity. It was heavenly today to feel the cool air on my skin. Way worth getting up for. 20.9 mph avg. Almost got a KOM back that was taken from me earlier this week in Bloomington... but in the last 200 yards I had to break for a truck at an intersection and missed it by 2 seconds. I want it back!

10.2 mile run after around the DC loop. Got home at 7 from the ride and was able to basically get straight out on the run after changing cloths. Again the temps were awesome AND my hip felt way better today. Just took it EZ for the first 4 or so and then decided to work on the last half of the run. Hit a couple sub 6 min mils up the river tail and kept it honest all the way home. Ended with a 6:40 avg for the run. Not too shabby after the ride and for how bad I hurt yesterday with the hip. One of my best runs all summer... 

Ran the feilds/ Dc loop. I've started to like this little loop and even when I feel totally jacked I can get through it on basically muscle memory. As was the case today. Left the house and my calves were super sore from running a little harder yesterday and wearing low profile shoes. But my hip horrible. First 3-4 miles were in the 8:30 min mile range and I constantly debated on turning around or not. But it was early and in the dark so no one could see how crappy I must have looked. Finally got to the park in Washington at mile 6, had my second potty stop and from there tried to get something going down the river trail to the DC. Nothing super fast but did get a little better turnover and managed the pain better. The last 6 miles from the DC home were pretty rough but doable. 

7:18 avg

46 mile ride. A little of everything today. Out to Coral then up around the Crusher loop. Back up the "Everest" trail by Coral. Then up over the freeway around Green Springs, down through town right down the Blvd and Bluff. Then finally back across riverside all the way to the fields and back around home. Didn't have a plan when I got on the bike and the ride shows. Just making stuff up as I went. Still a pretty solid ride with lots of rollers. 21.1 mph avg.

12 mile run after the ride. 2.5 on the treadmill waiting for Mik'L. Then finished up on the B-hills loop, secret street and around LV. Pretty solid effort. Hip wasn't comfortable but didn't hurt enough to ruin the run.

67.6 mile ride early. Big full loop of the valley. Similar to yesterdays ride but extended out to southern parkway and airport after coming across town. Lots of elevation change. No seriously steep climbs but no real flat either. 3,560 ft of elevation gain throughout. Kept the motor humming all morning and clocked a pretty good ride. My headlight wasn't fully charged and it went out after only 17 miles. So things got really dicey after that. Avoided a few crashes and cops. Note to self: charge it before every ride! Loving the cooler mornings. Low of 64 F. And I even saw the old running coach from the south side with his team. Good luck to both of the coaches from the circle and their teams in the meet today.

10.2 mile run. Got home and Mik'L said she was just staying in for her workout today. So I basically got to head right out. Got about 3.5 miles into the run and just started bonking... didn't eat a very good dinner last night and didn't take very many calories on the ride. So the remaining miles were really hard. Just didn't have much to give. Thought about cutting it short several places but the fool in me just did the same old loop. Hip felt pretty good though:)

Big boys run today at my house. I warmed up with 2 miles then joined the guys for our 10.2 mile DC loop. Then hit 3 more after. 63 F this morning. I'm loving it. Honestly it could stay like this all year. 100-103 F during the day isn't too bad and having cooler mornings really helps with training. Hip really hurt today...  like bad. Lately it's ok or just super painful. Laboring through hard runs is taking it's toll. Not sure how much longer I can keep it up. Somehow get through STG marathon and hope it goes ok all things considered. Then it might be time for something else?

46.2 mile ride. Out to airport back around Bloomington and the fields with one more mini loop around Summit and Stone Cliff. Just took it pretty EZ. Didn't have much in the legs to push if I'd wanted to. Butt is sore AGAIN and hurt pretty bad for the first 10 miles but by the end it wasn't bothering me. Took a shot at the KOM on the Rustic Dragstrip (twice) and edged out the neighborhood sharks for now to take the crown. 

7.6 mile run on the treadmill after. Mik'L had a meeting early so I had to stay in and go shorter. I'll try to get out for a double today to get caught up on mileage and to take the pressure off tomorrow so I can hit the goals for the week. Hip didn't bother too much but that's the only blessing of the treadmill- it seems to be a little more gentle on things than out on the street. Sad though as it was 62 F this morning and I really was loving it on the bike. 

5 more miles on the treadmill this afternoon. It felt like death to get on the sucker and get it done but one song rolled to another and finally it was over.

45.1 mile ride. Bob and I were joined by Ty Newman. With three strong this ride turned into a hammer fest. I'd planned on just taking it ez today in prep for my long ride tomorrow. Wasn't the case. 22.1 mph avg for the ride. Pretty good push and fun to "group' up and hit a solid ride. 

10.2 mile run after. I'm home a lone for the weekend so I was able to get right out on the run. I took a GU at the end of the ride (which I normally don't do) and it seemed to really help out on the run. Hip was a little tender early on but the legs wanted to turn. Ended with a 6:37 avg. Overall a super solid workout with both the ride and run. Happy to see some good results coming around. Now to nap all day:) or do whatever one does when your home alone. Recover and try to get this long ride in my rear view tomorrow. 

100.4 mile bike ride today. Up at 2:30 a.m... and it took 50 min's to get out the door. I headed out to the airport and had planned to log 25-30 miles before joining a group at the DC. Hit that section perfect for time. Mixed extra bottles and had them sitting on the driveway so when I got home from the airport loop I could switch them out and head to the DC. It was SUPER hot today. I don't know what happened to our cool mornings but it was around 15 degrees warmer than the mornings of the first part of the week. 85 F when I left the house today. 

Met the group and got a flat in the 2 miles between the DC and River Road. Ugh! Stopped to fix it and about 5 guys waited while up at River Road about 13 others rolled on. We fixed it pretty fast all things considered and then hammered it up and caught the others by the bottom of the costco hill. They must have waited a while before rolling off. I jumped up front and pulled out to the top of the Coral Canyon hill. There we waited for everyone to re join. I thought it'd be a long day if this kept up. So we rolled off the hill and up the the light at the end of Telegraph and there was only about 5-6 guys with me. They slowed and I said lets keep going. I told them I'd slow down and we could hit the Quail\Leeds\Torquerville\Hurricane\Sandhollow loop together. They agreed and we dropped off the hill above the fair grounds. Then disaster struck. There were some construction barrels up just off the rumble strip and (it was dark) they came out of no where. 4 of us managed to slip by but I heard a loud "slam". One of the 2 guys in the back didn't see it in time and hit it going about 35 mph. It was Dr. Clark. He was on the ground pretty jacked up. Bike was trashed too. Everyone got there and a cop just happened to be coming by. Some girls called his wife and she came out to get him. He ended up with a lot of road rash and a separated AC join in the left shoulder- just like mine:). 

It totally sucked and killed the hype of the BIG group ride. I finally rolled out with one other guy- Jace (who hasn't been riding at all but is only 23). I told him to ride my wheel all day just as long as he stayed with me in case I got another flat and needed his extra tube and stuff. So I pulled him the rest of the ride until we got back to that very same hill and I finally dropped him coming up the hill.

From there I just messed around out in LV to get to 100 miles for the  day. I had planned on maybe doing like 120-140 but we spent a lot of time with my flat and the waiting for the group and then the wreck.

So anyways I was able to finally get 300+ (305.5) miles in on the bike and 60 miles of running in. I've wanted to hit this all summer but it just hasn't worked out. Glad to cross it off the list. Ended the ride on a pretty hard loop with a 20.5 mph avg. Not too shabby on that loop with no drafting all day.

55.5 mile ride this morning. Started pretty slow and EZ fro the first 11 miles and was at a 18.5 mph avg then. Picked up Bob and Busted it out to the airport and all the way to Man-o-War bridge in Bloomington. At that point we were at a 21.3 mph avg. Then from there up riverside and around the fields back home was chill again. Ended with a 20.5 mph avg for the ride. Got my KOM back on Mullberry in Bloomington. Saw a massive 4 point buck .5 miles a way from my house just walking down the road at around 4:30 a.m. He acted like he wanted to get hit. Last week there was a big one killed 1 mile from my house it was big too. Similar size at around 27in wide and 26 or so tall. I think they were buddies and now this other one just wants to go as well. He looked so sad. I saw him from 10 yards the first time then about a half hour later saw him again at around 50 yards. 

4 miles on the tread mile after. Myler went back to school today so it's gonna be a struggle on school days to fit in my workouts. Have to figure something out. 

7 more miles outside this afternoon. 97 F. I think this is my first afternoon run in like 3 months. Wasn't too bad. Partly cloudy and breezy made it better than full sun exposure. Hip felt better than last week for the most part.

52.7- Another DRAMA filled morning on wheels. Bob and I planned on riding out around Sandhollow via the half ironman direction. We were just rolling a long not too hard for the most part. Hit the big hill up out of Sandhollow and I dropped Bob by around 30 seconds and waited for him at the top. Then we started the small decent. A jackrabbit  came darting across the road from my right to left. I hit the breaks and Bob closed a gap between us. I thought that was it- but a half second later the rabbit darted back across this time from left to right and I locked up the breaks while hitting the rabbit. I was going down to my right side then Bob hit me in the rear wheel and stood my bike back up but he actually went down... hard. I road it out and turned around to find him in a pool of sweat and blood. After it was all said and done he didn't break anything but his body was covered in bad road rash. Plus his 2 month old bike took a pretty hard beating. Totally sucked. He hit the breaks so hard that it ripped a hole in the tire and popped his tube. So we couldn't even fix it for him to ride home. 

I finally got him up and walking then I started back home. He called his wife and she came out to bring him in. Just a bad accident. Really nothing either one of us could have done to prevent it. The road had almost no traffic and we weren't really going that fast. The one bad factor in both these bike wrecks in the last 4 days is the dark. In the day you'd have been able to see both the rabbit or the barrel in time to prevent accident. But... we don't have time to ride during the light, and it's too hot. So what do ya do?

8 mile run after Mik'L went out for her run. My mind was racing through the mornings events and on some levels I was kind of emotional. Not like crying but just mad, sad for Bob, questioning things, and overall amped about things.

20.4 mile run here from the house. Started with Logan and Steven Abraham Lincoln Hooper Pope Abercrombie & Fitch. Hit the first DC loop pretty smooth and easy. Got back to the house and Logan had to get to practice. It was about 6:15 a.m and I was planning a longer run. So I talked Steven into hitting another loop with me. So we went out the opposite direction as we'd gone with Logan. I felt pretty good through about mile 12. Then my hip got CRAZY painful. At the DC we stopped for a drink and I suffered to get going again. Labored back through B-hills but it started to loosen up around 18. We even picked it up pretty fast on a couple occasions... like 5:15 pace. Then we finally slowed down and just jogged the last .3 or so back to my house. And it was then that I really, really started to hurt. Hobbled back in the house and have been in pain all morning. It just aches. Maybe by the evening it will feel good enough to stretch out and roll. But this is as painful as I've ever felt it. Honestly I can't walk unassisted by walls, chairs, counters and the like. The saga continues. Outside of that everything else felt great. No hydration issues or bonking due to low calories. Low of 76 F and it felt warmer.  

39.5 mile ride. Boy did I NOT have it today. All morning there was just nothing in the tank. I kept thinking I'd warm up and get going... but it never happened. Just felt trashed, felt hot and it felt like I had a headwind every time I changed directions. 18.2 mph avg. This has got to me maybe my slowest ride ever. 

52 min's on the elliptical after. My hip was so sore and jacked up yesterday that I didn't even dare run today. Hit the machine and watched an episode of Walking Dead + a little. 

PM-

30 min's on the Cycleops trainer. 20 mph so 10 miles.

50 min's on the elliptical after the spin.

Another 4+ hours of training in a bank...  stored away for something.

43.7 miles on the bike. Had planned on getting up and riding up to Zion and back with a group. But the rain and electric show last night spoiled the plans. I woke at 6 and fed the baby then looked outside and it wasn't raining. So I got going as soon as I could. Headed out to the airport. As I turned around out there I could see BIG time trouble coming with black rain clouds all over. I just started hammering it back and planned on turning straight into town and home. But when I got to the overpass and intersection I saw two riders come onto the parkway. I'm not sure why but I just had to follow them and keep going down into Sunriver. Passed them in like 1 mile and was now committed to going all the way around Tonoquinte and Riverside through the fields. Decided to stop off by southgate golf course and do the Sir Monte hill climb challenge... got the KOM.  But as I was actually going by the clubhouse the rain really started up. From there all the way back home I got poured on. Totally sucks. Didn't want  my pretty bike to have to go through something like that. She was a pig when I finally got home. Plus the roads were CRAZY slick and I had to be extra careful to not go down. Still finished with a 21.2 MPH avg. Pretty solid ride all things considered. 

10.7 mile run after. If the rain sucked on the bike. I loved it on the run. DC loop with one lap around the park to add on a little. Just tried to enjoy the rain. Hip was pretty painful from miles 2-6 but it felt good on the ending miles. 6:50 avg. Nice and honest. 

103.4 mile bike ride. Left the house at 3:29 a.m. Headed out for an airport run before joining a group at the DC at 5 a.m. The air felt heavy and slow early on. I felt like I was working super hard and was sweating up a storm. Temps weren't too hot (74F) but it was muggy for the first 30 or so miles. On the way back in I stopped at home and reloaded the bottles and food supply. Hit a 20.9 mph avg on this section.

Meet the group of mostly laddies at the DC. With the gals I took it super EZ through Green Valley all the way out to the reservation. Plan was to ride to the summit of Utah hill and then back. I thought I'd try and hit this section pretty hard. It's a steady climb from town at the DC park all the way out to the summit at just over 23 miles. About 2,786 ft of climbing on those miles out. When I got to the top I turned and my gps which I was running off my iphone was only tracking the last section and had lost the first of my ride. I was ticked. Headed back to the DC. 46.2 miles on this section at a 19.8 mph avg.

From the DC I just did the exact same airport run from early in the morning. So back home then out the the airport and then... back home. 28.6 more miles to finish off the day. I got "on it" here and rolled this section at 22.0 mph.

Ended the 103.4 mile ride w/ Utah hill climb at a 20.9 mph avg. Nothing crazy but a solid effort all morning. AND- NO issues outside of the gps crap. Had a fun time this morning. Felt stronger than ever. Butt had less issues. Shoulders got less sore. Stayed on top of food/drink so that kept me from bonking.

Question is... Could I lay down another HUNDY after that? OMG- Lotoja is gonna rock my world.

Finished another big week with 304.8 cycling miles and just over 60 running. Two weeks to Lotoja. Now I'll start to taper a little next week.

2:40:00 on the trainer today. It was raining early and then Mik'L went to work. So I had to stay indoors. Wasn't as bad as one might have guessed it'd be. Watched a few Walking Dead episodes and finished off season 2.

No running until I feel like this hip wont kill. I'm just sick of living in pain.

1:50:00- 0n the trainer... agian. I had the alarm set for 4 am. I woke at 3:30 and thought I'd just get out and go. Went outside to check the weather and as I walked onto the back patio rain started to fall. Within a few min's it was a pounding rain. So riding outside was out. Good thing I bought the trainer last week. Watched a DVD that came with the trainer and did the "workout/ race". It was killer- I was sweating.

Big boy's run here from my cul de sac. Looped Coyote once then did the B-hills loop, then one more lap around Coyote. Cooler this morning but super humid. The other guys were all dripping wet... shorts and all. I was sweaty but shorts were dry. Guess I'm different.

Took it EZ. This was my first run since the end of last week. Hip was tight but didn't scream pain like it was last week. I'll continue to take it EZ on the running side until after Lotoja.

20 min's after the run on the Cycleops trainer. I don't usually bike at all on Wednesdays after the run but wanted to try and loosen up the hip a little more. Plus I'm not sure what the weather is gonna do the rest of the week or when or where I'll get to actually ride. To start off the week I only needed like 225 biking miles to hit 1000 for the month. I know it's not a big deal but on a personal level I'd be a nice benchmark to cross. I was close last month (975) or so and didn't realize it.

With the running and biking volume combined this summer it has been a lot of work. I'm excited for things to be wrapping up and to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Since June 1st I've tried to be at least 200 miles of cycling and around 60 miles of running. Had a couple below and a couple above and basically met my avg goal. In Mid July I didn't think I'd make it day after day, week after week. But I'm basically at the taper for Lotoja and then only a few weeks after than will the the marathon. So I'll give myself a pat on the back and a sigh of relief.  Still worried about the hip but I'm not going to stress anymore until after this biking thing is over.

62.1 mile ride this morning. I woke up early and planned out this great ride in my head. It'd been since last Saturday that I actually road outside. Left the house at 4:30 a.m and headed down the raod. Roughly 2.5 miles into my ride I got stuck in one gear and couldn't shift out. My bike has electric shifting which is seriously awesome... unless you forget to charge the battery. Oops. So for the next 59 miles I road a big loop 4x through the Washington fields around Little Valley and back up River road to Riverside then back to the fields. It was a flat loop that I could manage in one gear. Roughtly about 14 miles per loop. Then a shorter StoneCliff loop at the end. Lucky for me I ended up being in a gear that I could push on the uphill and got me going fast enough on the flats. On the downhill I was spinning out but what do you do?

Still ended up hammering it for what it was worth. 22.1 mph avg. I was dripping wet with sweat. Running the motor at a super high RPM for a little under 3 hours. Kind of fun. I didn't really have a choice. It was ride like that or bag the entire morning.

60 min's on the elliptical after the run. Started to bonk because I fueled like crap all morning.

Didn't get anything done this morning. The body needed sleep much more than a workout.

25.4 mile ride out to the airport and back this afternoon. 95 F and very windy made this ride special. 20.2 mph avg and that was working like a dawg.