Little Buddha

6.5 this morning, ankle a little stiff. I'm going to try to get in some more miles tonight and then 12 to 15 tomorrow. Did 7 miles tonight, right after dinner which slowed me down a little, but I wanted to get a run in before Sunny and I went to the movie. I have to run 19 miles tomorrow to hit 60 for the week, which would be quite an accomplishment for me considering I only ran 5 on Monday and none on Tuesday.

Morning Club Run with Dave, Clyde, Steve Hooper, Bill and Steve Olsen.  Was nice for me today we ran from the Brentwood Bowling alley out around Sand Hollow, so I didn't have to get up as earlier to meet up with the group.  I did. .5 mile warm-up (jog/walk), then took off with the group. The first six miles were at a comfortable pace, then the pace started to pick up, which I figured it would, everybody took off, but I just continued to do my thing.  Overall, felt pretty good with the run average pace was 7:43.  If I can get in around 5.5 miles this afternoon/evening that will put me at 60 for the week.  Which is my goal for the summer, even though I'm not starting my actual summer training schedule until Monday, I still would be happy if I can hit 60 this week, especially considering the slow start to the week.

Today is the first day on my 18 week training schedule for St. George, and things are off to a decent start. The last few months I haven't been doing any high mileage, just basically staying between 30 to 50 miles a week and running races here and there. Actually, since the start of the new year I have ran 1 30K race, 3 half marathons, 2 10Ks, and 1 5 mile race. I'm planning on doing some more half's and 10k's over the summer and maybe even a 5k or two.

Anyway today the plan called for 4xhill repeats. I made the mistake of waiting until mid morning to get out, well I actually went and worked earlier this morning on a garage my father in-law is building, so that pushed my run back to about 10:30 (already hot! here in St. George by that time of day)

Warm-up over to Pah Tempe where I do the hill repeats, then I realized I really needed to go the bathroom, so I turned around and ran back home, did my thing, then jogged back over to Pah Tempe. Ended up being a 3 mile warm-up

1-2:10- Not bad to start with, this was the first time I have used my Garmin on this workout, so I was interested to see what the distance of the hill was. It was right about what I though .32 of a mile

2-2:11- The first part of this one felt really good

3-2:12- Notice a pattern? slowing down but not bad. I threw-up a little bit after this one, wasn't much, since I didn't have much in my stomach

4-2:13- I thought I really slowed down on this one, but really the time wasn't that bad, in fact the times for the whole workout are about where I thought I would be maybe even a little faster.

After the repeats did a mile cool down home.

Tonight I did another easy 4 miles over to Hurricane Middle School and back, after we went swimming down in the Virgin River with my family and extended family.   It was nice to go and cool off a little, I think it is going to be a pretty hot summer.

I did a run tonight, I will call the Gun Club Run.  Basically started from my house and ran out on 300 West, then up the La Verkin Twist (State Road 9 going to Zion National Park) anybody familiar with the area knows its is a good climb to the top.  I made it to the Gun Club turn off 3 miles in 24 minutes so I was happy with 8:00 minute mile average considering the uphill.  After a little stretching at the top, I told myself I wanted to push it on the way down and be home in 21 minutes for a 7:00 minute average going downhill, fairly easy, but there was a very hard headwind.  Anyway I made it home in 18 minutes so a lot faster than I was planning, but I was feeling pretty good, especially the first two miles

1-5:48

2-6:02

3-6:10

Like I mentioned we've had quite a bit of strong wind here today.  This morning I didn't get a run in, but I shingled a garage from 7:00 am to 12:00, which was quite the workout.  I'm pretty beat tonight, but planning on a track workout in the morning. 

Once again, I had difficulty getting out of bed and making my way over to PVHS for a track workout with Steve and Dave. However, I'm glad I made it over there. Last week I did 13 400s, so the goal this week was to complete 14.  I thought my workout went better this week, the times weren't much faster, but we really had some strong wind this morning.  Like last week, I broke the workout up into two sets, however this week I only took about a 3:30 rest between sets, last week was closer to 6:00 min between sets. James and Damon also showed up and also ran some 400s with us.  We did a 2.7 mile warm-up

1-1:20

2-1:18

3-1:20

4-1:20

5-1:18

6-1:18

7-1:17

8-1:19

9-1:18

10-1:24- I started way behind the group on this one, and lost all mental focus.

11-1:16

 12-1:15

13-1:20

14-1:18 

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the workout, especially considering the wind which I think might have slowed us down 1 to 2 seconds.  Finished with a 2 mile cool-down 

Easy run up to 600 North Trail at 3:00 pm ran about 1.5 miles out on the trail, then turned around and came back home. I was really feeling sore and tired on the run, busy day mowing lawns this morning, and finished roofing in-laws shop yesterday afternoon which I think might have added to the soreness, plus the 400s yesterday morning. Planning on running more miles in a few hours with the club. Ran with the club up above the golf course across the trails, down to Diagonal, then extended the run up to Snow Canyon Parkway and down through Steve's neighborhood. I felt a little better tonight compared to the run this afternoon.

An easy 6 this morning, didn't sleep very well last night, hip flexors sore. 2 easy miles tonight

Tough run this afternoon heat+wind=slow 8 mile run. I ran up and over 600 North Trail to the golf course, grabbed a drink on hole #13, then down to Brentwood Bowling Alley. (Nike 30/40 for a change)

I went out again tonight at 10:00 pm so I could get in 4 more miles and make it 60 for the week. (Nimbus)

Now, I feel pretty good about myself and my week.  Good hill workout on Monday and good 400 repeats on Wednesday, plus some other solid runs and a few good days of hard physical labor, so all in all a good first week to my summer schedule.

An easy 5 this morning, then another 3.5 at 12:30 pm, little upset my Garmin wasn't working again this afternoon. I'm wondering if anybody knows if it is harmful if the Garmin is on the charger for long periods of time?  Well, since I wrote this post this morning I figured out the problem with the Garmin, I think it just had locked up.  Anyway, I just did another easy 2 miles tonight at 10:00 pm with Sunny over past the bridge and back.  She went 1.5 and did fine.   Maybe in the future I can get her out to run with the ladies in the St. George Running Club.

Well, not a very good running day.  I had to help set up girls camp for our ward up at Oak Grove Campground.  One of those leave early in the morning get home at midnight days.  I did manage a short 2 mile jog/hike up a trail, but most of the day was spent setting up tents, packing in food, and dealing with flat tires on cars.  I was pretty happy to finally be home last night.  The day really messed up my training, but I guess sometimes you have to serve the Lord and put others needs before your own.  Anyway, I going to try to do two good runs on Wednesday and back off a little on Thursday, to get ready for the 10K on Friday.

I slept in this morning, then did an 8 mile run over to Hurricane then out south to the cow field and back.  Going out my splits were decent, coming back I started to slow down, I could already feel the heat, 7:40 average for the run.  I ran in my DS Trainers again, I think they are getting pretty close to being retired.

Only 2 miles today, pretty busy and eventful day too many details to describe, just the bad news my Ford F-150 was basically like they say Found On Road Dead.  Pretty funny I was actually at a car dealership ready to trade it in, when the motor just froze up, not good.  Between that, teaching driver's education today, and setting up and taking down flags with the scouts not a good day.

Well, I had a really great race this morning. A new old man PR for a 10K 33:11. actually pretty close to my all time PR of 32:50. Even running that fast I still placed 10th overall and 4th in my age group. We had a good field of runners there today. Joe Wilson won the race, and Dave took 2nd in 31:00. The St. George Running Club and many fastrunningbloggers ran strong. Dave 2nd, Steve Olsen, 7th, Dustin 10th, Steve 11th or 12th?, Bill first in his age group, and Ruth 1st overall female. I really didn't know how the race would go for me. I was feeling a little sinus problem before the race. The pace started off really fast as most of the course is downhill, hence the fast times.

1-5:13 Really faster than I thought I should be going, but I was back in 13th place. Everyone took off really fast from the start. I figured some of the high school kids would fade, but not very many did.

2-5:22 (10:36) Good mile feeling alright, still in 13th but not too far behind Steve Hooper and Ryan from Cedar.

3-5:30 (16:07) Good mile here, picked it up a little and passed Steve and another high school kid.

4-5:33 (21:40) Feeling stronger as the race goes on which is a good sign and a good feeling.

5-5:39 (27:20) Still happy with my splits and gaining ground on Ryan, another high schooler, and another guy. I can see Steve Olsen up ahead.

6-5:30 (32:50) With a little less than half a mile to go I pass the high schooler and Ryan, only to have Ryan kick it in at the end and beat me by about 10 seconds

Last little bit was .21

Anyway I was very happy with my 33:11 and a 5:28 average. Always nice to run a fast time, last year my best 10K was 34:30 so I think I'm on the right track with my training and getting stronger and faster, still not where I was in college, but a lot closer than I was a few years ago.

Had no desire to get out of bed this morning, but I did manage to make it over to run with the club at 6 am. We drove up the marathon course 13 miles, then it was back down to the store. I knew it would take me a few miles to get warmed up. I was still feeling some soreness from the race yesterday. Right after we started off Steve Olsen and Dave took off. I knew from the beginning that there was no way I was going to be running with them today. So I just told myself if I can just hang with the 7:00 minute guy today on this downhill and feeling a little sore I will be pretty happy.

1-7:59 pretty slow, still trying to wake up. Hooper takes off to catch Olsen and Holt

2-6:58

3-7:00 just taking it easy running with Bill

4-6:39 still running with Bill, decide to take my shirt off since it is already starting to warm-up, then I decided to pick it up a little.

5-6:06 not my idea of a recovery run the day after a race, but hey maybe this will help me mentally for Wasatch Back next weekend. Trying to run faster when the body is tired.

6-6:16

7-6:28

8-6:54

9-6:32

10-6:27

11-6:28

12-6:35

13-6:48

13 miles average 6:42 pace 

At the time, the run didn't feel that great, I mean I wasn't dead, but I also didn't feel that fresh. However, now that I'm finished I'm really glad I made it over there this morning and pushed the pace a little.

I haven't hit the mileage for the week, like I was hoping to, but I did have a really positive experience with the 10K yesterday. The rest of the week was kind of a downer, but today was a good run, and I'm getting excited for next weekend.

Started teaching a 3 week summer school session this morning, not something I was really looking forward to, a few months ago when I committed to doing it I thought it would be alright, but now that it is here it is stressing me out.  Went out and ran 7 easy miles tonight, went down by Spanish Gardens in La Verkin.  I came home to pick up Sunny to go run a few more miles, but she had already left, so I took off trying to find her.  I ended up running a few more miles, but never found where she had went.  My wife dogged me and run up to her parents and back a good 1.5 mile run for her.  My legs still feel tired for the race and the run on Saturday.

An easy 4 this morning over to the Middle School and back. I worked with the scouts tonight on their Personal Fitness Merit Badge.  We did a one mile run for time.  It was pretty easy pacing them along, but also rewarding to see them all improve their times from 2 weeks ago.

Killer hot this afternoon at 5:00 when I took off.  I did a run out to my new school and back.  My son Jordan was kind enough to ride along and supplied me with some water when I needed it.  I might run another 2 miles later tonight with Sunny.  My legs have still not felt fully recovered from this past weekend.  I'm sad Steve Ashbaker won't be running on our WBR team, but Steve Olsen is a great replacement he has been running pretty strong lately.

4 mile this morning, it was hard getting started, but the last 3 were decent.  We leave for Salt Lake after work this afternoon.

Started the morning off with an easy 3 mile run in Murray, then met up with Sasha and Steve Olsen and took off in VanGoGo on our way the The Wasatch Back!  We picked up Chris and made our way to Logan.  Sasha was right on pace driving the van and we made it there in plenty of time, after a short team meeting and some instructions we made our way to the start.

Sasha had the first leg and I had the second, so I did a mile warm-up at the park, I guess I was just a little excited, but I wanted to be ready for my leg.  The weather was pretty warm at 5:00 pm, around 95 so I didn't need much of a warm-up, but I just wanted to loosen up the legs.

Anyway, I guess I better get the worst news of this race over with.  So far the guys on the team have been really positive in their posts, but I really set our team back from the beginning by making a wrong turn on my first leg.   I was trying to close a gap on a BYU runner when he took a wrong turn and I followed him, the mistake cost us some time as I ended up running an additional .9 of a mile in 95 degree weather at the end of a hard leg.  I really was feeling pretty good with my leg, until the confusion of the wrong turn.

mile 1- 5:59 maybe a little fast, we were in 3rd after our first leg, so I wanted to maintain that as best I could, knowing BYU was on our tail.  (They took a wrong turn the first leg also)

mile 2- 6:22 starting to feel the heat

mile 3- 6:29 a little shade on this leg, and some water from the team helped, but the BYU runner caught me on this leg and went on by.  Still I was closing in on Runner's Corner

mile 4- 6:39 this mile felt hard, as I was really feeling the heat, but I did pass Runner's Corner and maintained my distance with BYU

mile 5-7:07 a decent hill climb in the beginning of this leg.  I felt like I really attacked the hill and ran strong up it and all the way to main street.

mile 6-6:46 this is where my Wasatch Back experience became very bad. After crossing the main highway with the confusion of traffic and police officers directing traffic I saw the BYU runner take a left turn, I wasn't completely sure if that was the right way, I even stopped and asked a guy walking his dog if that was the right way and he said yeah just follow him.  Big mistake! 

mile 7:06 Upset, Where am I going? I hate myself? I continued pushing along, as the BYU guy kept taking rights and lefts. I had my Garmin on and soon realized we were off the course, I tried to pick up the pace, finally BYU's van spotted their runner and got him back to main street, luckily I wasn't far behind so I tried to chase him down main street to the exchange

.62 3:49- Finally done with this mess. 

7.62 miles- 6:36 average, about 30 seconds slower per mile, than predicted.

Looking back now, I was a fool.  It was a simple leg, I should have just ignored the BYU runner and stayed on Main Street, but sometimes in the middle of a race when all your energy is focused on running and the race and the guy ahead of your, you lose focus.  Still it should have happened, and once again I apologized to my teammates.

I did another mile cool-down running water on Cody's and Paul's legs.

After the disappoint of my first leg, I was pretty pumped for my second leg, plus the fact it was only an easy 3 miles. It didn't turn out to be quite as easy as described but still a nice leg at midnight.

mile 1- 6:04 took off fast

mile 2- 6:15 a little hill climb here, which slowed me just a bit, plus the altitude which I noticed a little more on this leg.

mile 3- 6:13 felt pretty good

339ft .23

Overall 3.06 miles 18:55 6:11 average, better but still not good enough.

At this point in the race, we are in third place and pretty much aware of the fact that Weber and BYU are going to be really hard to catch. However, everyone is continuing to have a great time and all the guys are running hard. I think this is what I enjoyed most about this experience was watching all the great runners in our van. I've been around Sasha a little, and run quite a few with Steve Olsen, but it was really nice getting to know Cody, Paul, and Chris better. Chris ran all his legs really strong, considering his injury. Paul is just awesome, and Cody ran all his legs faster than predicted. I really think he had a great performance for our team.

After my second leg it was time, for some rest and food. We made it to the next major exchange and was able to get some Fazoli's which was great even in the middle of the night. After that we drove to a state park, where we were able to crash for about an hour.

We had to be up around 5:00 am to get ready for our last legs.

My last leg went pretty good. It was fun being able to finally pass other teams. In my leg alone I think I was able to pass about 20 to 25 teams.

mile 1- 6:31 My first mile here was a little slow. It took me awhile to warm-up the legs

mile 2- 6:32 Still struggling a little to get going.

mile 3-6:25

mile 4-6:12

mile 5-6:44 a good hill climb to finish this leg.

.3- 1:46

5.30 miles 34:14 average mile 6:28. Still ran too slow. I've got plenty of work to do over the summer. After feeling pretty good about running after the summer games last weekend, now I'm back to wondering where I'm really at???

After my last leg it was all enjoyment. I had a nice breakfast in Heber at the last major exchange. It was also fun I saw some of my friends from La Verkin, they had a team that had started early Friday morning, I was glad to see they were still going and excited.

When we got to Park City it was fun to see the finish, even though I thought it was going to be in a lot bigger area, not in the middle of main street downtown, but it was still nice. I was able to meet up with Sunny no problem.

The last part of the race was meeting up with James and running through the finish line together as a team. After the race we took a few pictures, but everybody kind of took off, including my family. I am looking forward to talking more with Clyde and hearing all the stories from van 2.

Overall, my experience was good and I'm already looking forward to do more of these types of races. Of course I was upset with the wrong turn, but I felt my other legs were decent. I was happy with our team taking third, it would have been nice to have been closer to Weber State and BYU, but both teams had some really incredible runners. In fact, it was kind of fun I saw a few guys from BYU that I ran with when I was a junior and they were freshman Chad Durham and Matt Adams. After the relay I drove back to Salt Lake and took an hour nap, then took Sunny and the boys to Lagoon until 11:00 pm made for a long day.

Easy 3 mile loop after work, from house over to 300 South then up to 100 East, back on 300 West. I will go out and do a few more miles later tonight, when it cools off. I should have got some miles in this morning, but I was still pretty tired from my trip so I slept in.  I went to the movie tonight with the family, then did 8.5 more miles tonight.  I felt pretty good averaged 7:25 and ran over Hurricane then out west on 400 South.

Once again, I didn't get a run in this morning, so I had to pay for it tonight with some miles in the heat.  After work I went over to the St. George Running Center and got two new pairs of shoes.  The Asics DS Trainer and Asics Cumulus.  I have been running in a pair of DS Trainer and just put in over 300 miles.  They are a lightweight trainer, and didn't last as long as some shoes, but I still like the feel of them, especially on days when I want to run faster.  The Cumulus should be a good in between shoe.  I have also been  running in some Nimbus which are kind of heavy, so the Cumulus should be about in the middle.  I did my first run around 5:30 two miles outside in the DS Trainers, then headed inside because of the heat, also the shoes felt a little big so I changed to the Cumulus.  I then did two more miles on the treadmill inside, then it was off to scouts.  After scouts Sunny and the boys weren't feeling too good and they all wen to bed so I took off and did my Gun Club run up the La Verkin Twist.  I did this run 3 weeks ago and hit 24 minutes going up.  Interestingly I hit the exact same time tonight going up.  Coming down I wanted to hit at least 18 minutes, which is what I did 3 weeks ago.  Well, I hit 3 miles right at 17:59, so my times were almost identical to 3 weeks ago, which I guess is a good thing.  I think I might have been able to run a little faster, but felt a little zapped from the 4 miles earlier.  Tomorrow I'm planning on running over at Pineview Track in the morning.

DS Trainer- 2 miles

Cumulus- 8 miles 

Made it over to Pineview Track this morning.  Clyde was already warming-up when I got there, so I started my warm-up.  I was waiting for Steve to show, but something must have come up.   Anyway I did 2 miles warm-up and still felt terrible, while I warming up Clyde had already started doing mile repeats.  I ran my first mile repeat with Clyde when he was doing his last.

mile 1- 5:50 legs didn't feel very good

mile 2- 5:55 still struggling and just hoping to run under 6:00

mile 3- 5:55 once again, nothing to write home about, but I was happy to finish three, especially considering my run late last night.

After the track workout, I decided I had enough time to drive home, so I went home and did a mile cool-down, then showered had breakfast, then drove back to Pineview to teach summer school.

The nice thing about this morning, was the fact I got 7 miles in, so I won't have to run as many miles tonight which will be good.  This way I can spend more time with the kids and maybe get some rest.  I've been feeling a little tired the last day or so, plus my family has been kind of sick, hopefully I don't pick up anything.

Cumulus- 15 miles

Did 4 mile run up to the substation in Hurricane at 5:00 pm, still pretty hot.  Met up with the club tonight and did a nice 8 mile run down by the river out to Bloomington.  Average pace was 7:05.

Cumulus-23 

I went and played basketball for over an hour this morning, good workout and now feeling some soreness since I was using some different muscles than I have been running. After basketball came home and went back to bed, now its time to do some chores around the house and then get in another run this morning. Went out an barely managed 4.5 miles at noon, really starting to get hot today.

Nimbus-253

I didn't make it over to the club run this morning, like I was planning to.  I woke up at 5:30, but I was still feeling the same sickness I felt yesterday, so I called Bill and told him not to count on me. I then went back to bed and slept until 9:30.  I think the extra rest helped, I seemed to feel better as the day went on.  I was feeling pretty good tonight, so I took off around 9:30 and ran 10.5 miles, went out on the 600 North trail to the golf course, then over to the highway and back into Hurricane, then home.  The pace was pretty slow and relaxing, but I was fine with that.  I got my 60 miles for the week, which I didn't think was going to happen with the way I feeling this morning, but I'm glad I got the run in tonight.  June has been a pretty good month of training and racing.  I still would like to increase my mileage a little through July and August.  I'm looking on doing a few half marathons the next few months.

DS Trainer- 10.5