Same Time, Same Channel

Easy run.

6:46 am, 60-65° F, 47% humidity, winds calm, sunny.

By the time I was a little over halfway through this run I was thinking I wasn't going to get any sprinklers today because I had seen several wet sidewalks where the sprinklers were on earlier but were off when I went by. I also saw a couple of sprinklers on the other side of the street from where I was running, but I didn't want to cross over. But then right before the end of the 3rd mile I got a set of about 6-8 sprinklers all in a row and I ran through them and get my lower half pretty wet. And then in the last mile, I found two other smaller sets of sprinklers, with just a couple of sprinklers each, that I went through. So in the end it was a good sprinkler morning.

I ran for 40 minutes, thus the extra .08.

AP: 9:48. Splits: 10:33, 9:50, 9:29, 9:23, 0.08 @ 8:59.

Easy run.

8:21 am, 67-72° F, 65% humidity, wind 2 NE, really sunny.

I didn't have anyone to run with today, and since I'm not really on a training plan now, I didn't have any motivation to get up and run. So I slept late and then finally dragged myself out the door. I spent the whole run arguing with myself about how far I should run. My target was 8 miles, but several times I contemplated turning off and coming home a shorter way. Don't laugh at me that I think that 72 is hot, but I was really uncomfortable on this run. I didn't have a lot of luck with sprinklers since it was later in the morning, but I did get one small set in the first mile and another small set in the last mile. However they didn't so much for me because I my legs dried off so quickly after I passed through them.

I've got to get busy now. We're having my daughter's birthday party this afternoon. Her birthday was last Sunday, but we're having the party today because today's the only day we could get the gym (she's having a gymnastic party). Unfortunately, a lot of people are out of town and there won't be many people there.

AP: 9:42. Splits: 10:17, 9:47, 9:33, 9:25, 9:39, 9:43, 9:40, 9:31.

Heat acclimation run.

8:56 am, 82-87° F, 25% humidity, winds 3 SW, very sunny.

This was by far my hottest run so far this year and perhaps my hottest run ever.

I took a long nap late yesterday, so then I couldn't get to sleep until late, so then I slept in. I got up a little before 8:00 and got dressed to run, but when I turned on my watch I got a low battery warning. Since I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, I plugged in my watch, then made a breakfast sandwich for my husband and read an article about running in the heat out of Runners World, and then read the Foreword and Prologue from Running on Empty: An Ultramarathoner's Story of Love, Loss, and a Record-Setting Run Across America by Marshall Ulrich. Then I grabbed my watch and finally headed out the door to run.

Running later in the day like this, I got no sprinklers and barely any shade. At least it wasn't too humid. I was sweating profusely and my lips were all gummy when I finished.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

AP: 9:53. Splits: 10:43, 10:05, 9:52, 9:41, 9;48, 9:15, 0.07 @ 8:55.

Really slow run + 8 x 8-sec. hill sprints.

7:07 am, 62-70° F, 67% humidity, winds calm, partly cloudy.

I was really sluggish this morning. Maybe the hot six wore me out more than I thought yesterday. Six normally isn't that hard.

I saw 3 or 4 sets of sprinklers in the first mile, but I skipped them because I wasn't really hot yet. Then by the third mile I was really wishing for sprinklers. My wish was granted at the end of the third mile. That was it for sprinklers except that after my run was finished, before I did my stretching, I walked through my next-door neighbor's sprinklers. I didn't lie down in them this time.

I saw Barbie again while I was doing the hill sprints, but she walked past the bottom of my hill while I was further up on the hill, so I didn't talk to her this time. Also, she was with a man today. He didn't look much like Ken. Every time I've seen her before she's been alone.

I stopped my watch between hill sprints this time. In the past, I've let it run during my walks down the hill between hill sprints. So this made my average pace a little bit higher than it would have been otherwise (but it is still pitifully slow). It also made it easier for me to count the hill sprints as fast miles because I knew that everything over 4 miles was part of a hill sprint. In the past, I've dumped the hill sprints in slow miles because it was too much trouble to add up the distance on them.

AP: 10:08. Splits: 11:07, 10:15, 9:52, 9:59. Pace on hill sprints: 7:06, 6:23, 6:54, 6:56, 7:22, 6:22, 6:35, 6:37.

Easy run.

6:56 am, 66-70° F, 68% humidity, winds calm, mostly cloudy.

This was a slow run. I'm really sluggish, particularly at the start of my runs, lately.

I didn't get sprinklers until the end of the 7th mile, but they were good ones.

When I was at about 7.86 miles, I stopped at home and my daughter came out and we ran around the block together, sort of. We started out together and then she went ahead of me and then I caught up, and then she got behind me, then caught up, but then she decided to walk so I kept going and finished ahead of her, but she poured it on and ran at the very end. When we were done, I stretched, and then we went in the back yard and sat in the wading pull that she had set up yesterday. It was quite cold when I first got in, but then it was okay once I was in. I sat there for a few minutes.

AP: 10:02. Splits: 10:39, 10:22, 10:07, 9;53, 10:00, 9;48, 9;33, 9:53, 0.36 @ 9:52.

Easy run.

8 am, 80°F, 32% humidity.

I'm just outside of Nauvoo, IL. We're here for a family reunion. We got here last night. That's why I didn't run yesterday. It was a travel day.

I ran this morning with my sister-in-law Julie. She's my husband's brother's wife. None of my husband's family runs.

We didn't go far. It was hot and sticky. The road didn't have any shoulder really. We ran on the road, but when a car came by, we had to go off onto the gravel by the side of the road. That wasn't too bad except that it was quite slanted. It's actually a little hilly around here. I pushed it up a hill at the end, but other than that, we kept the pace pretty easy.

I don't understand humidity. Wunderground says that it was 32% humidity here this morning but this feels way different than 32% humidity feels when I'm at home in Colorado. There must be something more to humidity than just the number. Maybe it's because it was 80% at about 4:00 this morning.

The internet is freakishly slow here.

AP: 9:27. Splits: 9:34, 9:30, 9:20, 0.12 @ 9:04.

Easy run.

6:43 am, 60-62°F, 85% humidity, wind 5 WNW.

Wunderground says that we had 85% humidity this morning, but it didn't feel nearly as humid to me as 32% humidity in Nauvoo felt. Maybe it's because it was only 62° here and was 80° when I ran in Nauvoo. I don't know.

I managed to run only the one time while we were in Nauvoo, because I had other things I had to do fairly early in the morning on the other days. We got home from Nauvoo late Sunday night and was nearing the end of the book I had been reading on the trip, and so I stayed up late and read and then got up in the morning and finished the book instead of running. Also, I was kind of out of my normal routine and didn't even remember that it was Monday and was garbage day. I think I got messed up because we travelled on Sunday and so it didn't really feel like a Sunday.

Now I'm back to normal for a little while until we go to Utah.

I didn't get any sprinklers this morning. But I did see Barbie towards the end of my run. We said "Hi" to each other as we crossed paths.

I tried to start out a little faster today and not do my slower than 10:00 first mile that I usually do.

AP: 9:29. Splits: 9:49, 9:23, 9:40, 9:25, 9:34, 9:01, 0.06 @ 9:20.

Easy run + 8 x 8-sec. hill sprints.

6:52 am, 62°F, 97% humidity, winds calm, very overcast.

We had big rain storms last night and I guess that was the cause of the high humidity this morning. At least it wasn't too hot and it was very cloudy. There was no sun at all.

I've got to be finished running by about 7:45 every day this week so that I can get ready for work and then drive my boys to the church by 9:00. They're doing this thing called Stay-At-Home EFY (EFY stands for Especially For Youth). It's the same program that they do at BYU, but they're doing here for the whole Denver area and it just happens to be at our Stake Center. I think they chose our Stake Center because there is another church building right next to it and a high school across the street and they are using all three buildings. The kids go from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm every day and then come home at night. It costs a lot less money than EFY at BYU.

I've got to get up earlier if I want to get a longer run in tomorrow, and I've got to start doing some longer runs because I'm about a month out from the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon.

Stats for 4.03 mile run before the hill sprints - AP: 9:37; Splits: 10:13, 9:35, 9:15, 9:27
Pace on the hill sprints: 6:08, 6:39, 7:02, 6:49, 6:36, 7:25, 6:20, 5:51 (I think that might be my fastest hill sprint ever).

Easy run.

6:19 am, 58-63°F, 86% humidity, winds 5 SSW, sunny.

We had big booming thunderstorms again last night and so it was fairly humid again this morning. Also, I did not encounter any sprinklers. Maybe people have turned them off because we've been having thunderstorms every night for the last several days and the lawns are getting enough water from the rain.

I ran slowly today. Maybe I put too much into the hill sprints yesterday. I'm just feeling tired and run down. I'm getting concerned about my ability to run a half marathon a month from now.

AP: 10:03. Splits: 10:18, 10:20, 9;57, 9:49, 10:02, 10:12, 9:47, 9:58.

Slow medium-long run.

7:28 am, 67-75° F, 60% humidity, winds 4 SW, sunny,

Michelle created a new runner. Her name is Marci. We all left our houses and met at a more or less central point and then ran together for about 5 miles ending at Marci's house. I think that was the farthest she has ever ran. We went slower than usual on Marci's account but then after Marci dropped off, Michelle and I didn't speed up much. When kept running together until I had about 1.1 miles left and then we parted ways to go to our respective homes. I finally got under 10:00 on that last mile all by myself.

I think that Marci is committed and will become a regular on our Saturday runs.

There were no sprinklers this morning.

AP: 10:26. Splits: 10:03, 10:19, 10:43, 10:54, 10:52, 10:32, 10:22, 10:11, 10:35, 9:51.

Easy run + 8 x 8 sec. hill sprints

6:50 am, 66-70°F, 55% humidity, winds calm, sunny.

Carly lives a few doors down and across the street from me and so it is very convenient for us to run together except she has never wanted to get up early enough to run with me. But combining the fact that I'm not running so early these days and she's now got a baby who wakes her up early, she's willing to run with me on a week day. We ran 4 miles together this morning and then I headed over to the hill sprint hill and did my hill sprints by myself.

I ran through one small set of sprinklers. I think that Carly thought I was crazy. She didn't go through the sprinklers.

I don't know if I really ran so much faster on the 2nd hill sprint than on the others or if it's just the Garmin not being terrifically accurate for such a short segment.

AP on easy run: 9:55. Splits: 10:13, 9:46, 9:48, 9;55, 0.07 @ 9:31.
Pace on hill sprints: 7:23, 5:49, 7:11, 7:08, 7:07, 6:54, 7:55, 6:43.

Easy run.

6:56 am, 62-66°F, 27% humidity, winds calm, more shade than sun.

I haven't run much this week on account of travel, poor sleep, and general laziness. I decided I ought to finally get out today for a short run around Orem. I'll see if I can manage a longer run on the rail trail outside of Park City tomorrow.

Obviously, the sun rises in Denver earlier than it rises on the Wasatch Front in Utah even though they're in the same time zone. Add to that the shade that you get from the close mountains to the east, wh ich doesn't happen with the eastern plains in Denver, and you get shady mornings here in Utah.

I did a loop in Orem that was essentially, east on 8th South, north on 8th East, west on 4th North, south on 4th East back to 8th South. I only saw two other runners, but I saw seven LDS church buildings.

I've seen lots of signs advertising races here in Utah.

After about 2.5 miles I looked at my watch and realized I was going really slowly, so I sped up a bit.

AP: 9:47. Splits: 10:27, 10:05, 9:31, 9:19, 0.3 @ 9:06.

Easy run.

7:13 am, 50-58°F, 48% humidity, wind 5 NNE.

I did this run on the rail trail outside of Park City, Utah. I parked at the Promontory Trailhead and ran south from there because the trail was closed going north because of construction on I-80 (the northern part of the trail eventually crosses under I-80). Most of my run was on dirt, but miles 3 and 4 were on pavement. They've paved the trail as it gets closer to Park City.

I saw a whole bunch of hot air balloons during my run. I took some pictures with my cell phone, but they didn't turn out. The balloons just look like dots in the sky in the pictures, but they were actually quite close when I was running. And on my drive back to my sister's house after the run, I saw one hot air balloon that had landed by the side of the road and was being put away.

I saw a couple of other runners and I think 5 bike riders on the trail. I also saw some little groundhogs or something, a lot of birds, and a couple of animals that might have been foxes or coyotes. I wasn't sure. They looked like foxes, but didn't have bush tails.

AP: 9:34. Splits: 9:56, 9:31, 9:35, 9:30, 9:28, 9:29, 9:35, 9:26.

Deseret News 10K

6:08 am, 68-72°F, 28% humidity, wind 3 E.

I'm finally posting my race report. I'm not very good at writing interesting race reports, but I'll give you the facts anyway.

I got up at 4:00, got dressed, ate a bowl of Special K, and then drove down Parley's Canyon in the dark and made my way to Research Park on the U of U campus. I got their at about 5:20 and I was early enough that I didn't have to wait in line for a port-a-potty. However, it was very dark in the port-a-potty.

I waited around for a little while until RAD and bye-wing got there and then waited in the port-a-potty line with them even though I had already made my visit there. But I did have a nice visit with those two tall sisters (I'm a shorty).

We all split up at the start and I watched RAD sprint off like it was no one's business. Shortly after the start, a guy just to my right fell down and I had to kind of jump over him to keep from falling myself. I thought about stopping to help him, but I made a snap selfish decision and kept going.

I saw a few sets of sprinklers on people's lawns as I ran through the city, but I didn't run on anyone's lawn (which I do when I'm at home). However, one lady was spraying a house into the street for runners to run through and I caught the edge of that. I didn't see it soon enough to get myself better positioned for it.

There were two aid stations, but I didn't stop at either of them because I figured that I ran 6 or more miles at home without water or anything all the time.

I saw one girl running in a pioneer dress.

The last couple of miles were on the parade route and while it was hours before the start of the parade, there were several people lining the parade route who had apparently camped there over night. There were some tents and a few air mattresses, at least one of which had kids sleeping on it.

I was good and ready to be done by the time I got to the finish line. RAD had finished before me, of course, and she came out and ran the last bit with me. I tried to pick up the pace just a little bit at the very end, but I didn't have much left.

My time was well off my PR despite the aided course. That just shows how sadly out of shape I am compared to where I was a year or so ago. Still, I was glad to finish in under 55 minutes.

After I finished, I got some food, and then RAD and I found bye-wing and ran her in, which was not so easy for me, and then a little while later, the three of us ran in bye-wings daughter, who was finishing hte 5K. At that point I figured I had finished that race enough times.

RAD helped me find Kelli and I sat on the curb and talked to her for a while. We saw the first two marathon finishers come in, and the first guy looked really strong. The second guy looked like he was about to die. I waited for several minutes and didn't see the third guy and then I went and caught the bus back to where I had parked. Because I had hung around for quite a while after I finished the race, most of the people on the bus with me had finished after me and then hadn't stuck around as long. I overheard one man saying that he wished he could be like the young guys and run it in under an hour, and so I felt good that I was at least as fast as these young guys he was with.

After the race, I took my kids to the Olympic Park and they went down the alpine slide. We saw some high school kids practicing ski jumping (yes, they can do it without snow). We had seen more ski jumping from older people and olympians there on Saturday. Then we walked around historic Main Street in Park City. I spent the evening at my mom's house in Murray, where we had dinner and did some fireworks. The fireworks were much more elaborate than what we used to do when I was a kid since Utah as lifted some of their restrictions on fireworks. After that we drove back to Park City in the rain. We drove home to Denver the next day.

My sister (whose house we stayed at) has a daughter who lives in California who is 5 years younger than me and who runs. My sister called her and asked if she wanted to come run this race with me next year and she said yes, so I may be going back to do that race again next year. Maybe if I get my act together and loose some weight I can run it faster next year than I did last year. Also, after seeing all of RAD's and bye-wing's kids at the race, I told my 14-year-old son that if I run it next year he has to too. He agreed.

AP: 8:30. Splits: 8:51, 8:17, 8:33, 8:30, 8:25, 8:30, 0.2 @ 8:27.

Slow and easy medium-length run.

6:18 am, 70°F, 55% humidity, wind 2 SW, sunny.

Well, I finally got out and ran today after doing other things in the morning all week since Monday. Michelle and Carly both wanted to run, but Michelle needed to go early because she had another commitment in the morning and Carly doesn't like to go too early. So I ran with Michelle first for a little over 4 miles, and then we stopped at Carly's house and she joined up with us. The three of us ran together for a couple of miles and then Michelle had to go home and Carly and I did the rest together.

I'm so glad these two are still running. I don't think I would have gotten out this morning if it hadn't been for them. I would have gotten up and read instead. I'm addicted to reading lately. Right now I'm reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a really good book. I highly recommend it.

My oldest son comes home from his summer internship this afternoon. He'll be home for about 3 or 4 days and then it's back up to Greeley for him to get set being an RA before school starts. It will be nice to have him home for a few days.

I'm registered to run the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon two weeks from today. I am not ready for it. I'm tempted to drop out, but I've already paid for it and I'm not getting that money back whether I run it or not, so I'll probably go run it. But I think I'll just treat it as an easy long run. I'm not in shape right now to get a good time and I don't want to kill myself for a lousy time, so I'll just run easy and try to enjoy the scenery.

AP: 10:11. Splits: 9:59, 10:17, 10:05, 10:10, 10:10, 9:59, 10:15, 10:17, 10:20, 0.37 @ 10:22.