Little Buddha

Legs pretty sore today, I think it was a combination of the hike last night and the tempo run yesterday.  I ran up the La Verkin Twist to Sheep Bridge Road then over to the Falls Park.  It was a good 6.5 mile run, with the first two miles up the twist.  After the first two miles were over I did a little better and averaged right around 7:40's. Once I got up to the falls I met up with Sunny and the boys and swam around for about an hour.  I figure we have about 14 weeks until St. George, so I going to attempt to give up my pop habit for the next 14 weeks.  I think it is something that makes losing weight more difficult for me.  I'm also going to try to limit eating red meat to once a week, which will mean cutting out the burgers and fries.

I really wanted to do some 1000s today, especially since the weather is quite a bit cooler. However, I didn't feel very good when I got up and didn't get out. This afternoon I headed out but only did 3 miles warm-up, still not feeling too good, so I just decided I'll go to the club run tonight and then see how I feel in the morning and attempt the 1000s then.

I went to the club run tonight and struggled. I didn't feel too bad the first two miles, but then slowed down some in the middle, felt better toward the end. My eyes have been bothering me all day so I didn't wear my contacts, instead I ran with my glasses, which turned out to be pretty annoying. Hope my eyes start feeling better tomorrow.

Went and played basketball this morning. I ran 4.5 miles with Sunny this morning. We went down through Confluence Park and got eaten alive by horseflies. While we were down there we ran over by Jordan's eagle project site. Hopefully, we can get going on it, by the end of the month.

Not one of my better decisions today, decided to go run this afternoon with temp's over 100. I did 3 miles up to 600 North trail, then thought I would do a 2 mile tempo back, then 1 mile cool-down. Well the 2 mile tempo turned into a 1 mile tempo and a very slow two miles home. The one mile was a good one though 5:55. However, the rest of the way home was very difficult. Anyway, got home and took an ice bath which felt good.

This has been a pretty good week.  Hoping to run 14 miler tomorrow which will put me at 70 miles for the week, which I think would be my highest mileage for the year so far.  I probably won't be doing the 3rd annual Steve Abraham Lincoln Memorial Classic Run or whatever the name is?  Sunny and I are cleaning the temple tonight and won't get home until around 12:30, I really don't want to sleep three hours and then drive back to St. George to meet everyone at 4:15.

I just did 12 painfully slow miles out on 600 North Trail to the golf course and then back to La Verkin through Hurricane. I got home pretty late last night and slept in this morning, got out around 8, so it was already starting to get hot. I need 2 more miles to make it 70 for the week, which is a big jump from last week while on vacation and even the weeks before. I'll go out again this evening and do a few more. I feel bad I missed the club run, but after the run I had today I would still be somewhere between Enterprise and Veyo and people would be looking for me.

Got out and did 2 more miles, to put me at 70 for the week.  My legs are really sore, but I think I'll get used to higher mileage if I can break up my week into some two a day workouts. 13 weeks until St. George so I need to get into a better rhythm. 

5 easy miles this morning.

7 miles tonight, ran over to Hurricane and back home, then did an extra mile loop.  It is exactly 2.5 miles over to Hurricane City Park and a drinking fountain so that worked out good as it was still pretty hot when I left.  Pace was 7:58, I'm still running my easy runs pretty slow, but I guess slow miles are better than no miles at this point. 

Big Workout #8 Tuesday morning 5 mile Tempo with the Bull and Bigfoot.  Didn't feel real great when I got up and this turned out to be a 3 star morning before the tempo even began.  Did a nice 2.5 mile warm-up then got into the tempo run.  Last week's time was 29:39 with a 5:55 average.  Today I started out a bit slower the first mile, then ran faster on each of the next 4 miles than I did last week.

1-5:46 relaxed (last week 5:33)

2-5:48 still feeling good (last week 5:52)

3-5:56 good mile today, much better than last week (6:06)

5K split 18:06, not much change from last week 18:07

4-5:58 struggling a little here (last week 6:05)

5-5:53 good push at the start and middle of this mile, slowed down a bit once I hit the last turn (last week 6:02)

Overall 29:26 average 5:52, this was a good improvement from last week's time of 29:39.  I think a few things helped. 1. More relaxed first mile. 2. Not as much stomach issues as last week. 3. Understood the course better and knew what to expect.

Anyway, good workout and an easy 3.5 mile cool-down

Ran down to the Trails Subdivision, then up over Nephi's Twist and back down the La Verkin Twist (trail).  Legs sore and hips sore today.  Probably heading to Salt Lake this afternoon and then Colorado tomorrow.  Might go to Seven Peaks this afternoon. 

7 miles this morning in Salt Lake, didn't get a run in tonight once I got to Colorado, hopefully tomorrow I can run a few more miles.

11 miles this morning in Colorado.  The 6500ft elevation took some getting used to, but overall a pretty good run, quite a few hills to climb.  Not sure if I'll be hitting 70 miles this week, but hopefully at least 60.  I have quite a bit of family in town, so I'll be spending a lot of time with them.

8.5 easy miles from my parent's house into town. Easy 3.5 tonight

Big Workout #9 5 x 1000 CV repeats with 2 min recovery.  Well, this workout was tough.  I'm still here in Colorado so still struggling a little with altitude.  I did a two mile warm-up down to Woodbury Park, this is where I would have kids run intervals when I was coaching here a few years ago.  Anyway a nice park with large grass soccer fields to run around.  However, I do think the grass made my times a little slower than on the track or road.  I did the best I could to measure out a course, but was limited to just using my Garmin.

1-3:41 .62 m (5:56 pace) Felt good, just seeing how the course would work

2-3:41 .63m (5:52) Another good repeat

3-3:43 .62 (6:02) Starting to hurt

Extra recovery here

4-3:45 .62 (6:02) Not feeling good at all

5-3:48 .62 (6:09) Just running to finish

So overall not the best of times or workout, but still glad I did 5, especially for being out of my normal routine and location for doing this workout.  I had thought about doing them on the track at the local high school, but then thought the grass might be a nice change.

Easy 2 mile recovery home.

Ran into town today over the by pass and down Victory Way.

Had a hard time getting up and moving this morning. Did manage to get in 6.5 miles, will do another run tonight. Legs stiff from the drive home yesterday.

Another 6.5 miles tonight.  Ran up to the 600 North Trailhead, then back home extended a little through Pheasant Glen 

Did a river run tonight with the club.  It was 108 when we left. It was fun running through the river, not so fun running through the sand.  I took a little spill, but it was all good.  Bill and I cut the run a little short.  He had to get back to work and I needed to get home. Fun run, but not something I would do very often.

Ran to the church then played basketball for an hour, good break from running this morning.

Ran over to Hurricane City Park and back.  Nice run, a hot still even at 9:00 pm.  Didn't run with a watch just some old school hip hop on the ipod. 

Meet up with Mike, Bill and Logan this morning out at Brentwood.  We did the loop out to Sand Hollow.  We didn't go around the lake, just cut across the dam, which put us right over 9 miles once we got back to the car.  Then Bill and I extended another 3.5 miles. I did another .5 around the block once I got home.  Overall a nice morning and glad to have gotten in a longer run.  I need to start hitting some 15 to 20 milers to get ready for the marathon.

I'm doing pretty good with the pop thing.  No Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, or Mountain Dew going on 18 days.  Also been about that long since I've had a hamburger or fries.  I have had a couple rootbeer floats, but overall the diet has been better.  However, I'm still not losing the weight, probably once I start doing some longer runs the pounds will come off faster. 

Played basketball for an hour this morning, then did a 6 mile run over to Hurricane High School and back via the City Park (for water). Now heading to Vegas to trade in the Explorer for a Mini Van.

Well, we didn't make it to Vegas maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, with the nice cool temperatures tonight I decided to do a short tempo run.  I wanted to a little speed early in the week and then run easy miles until the 10K race on Friday.  I decided to do the 2 mile tempo I've done in the past warming up by running to the substation by Hurricane Middle and then pushing it hard back which is mostly downhill for two miles.  My best time so far for this tempo has been 5:21, 5:31 so 10:52.

I was interested to see if I would be anywhere close to that tonight.  Sorry to report no PR tonight, a little headwind and stomach issues.  Pretty strange I almost threw-up just doing the warm-up.

1-5:27 decent mile, but I thought I was going faster.  It was funny a little kid on bike tried to keep up with me for a minute, then asked why you going so fast.  Didn't really have a good response, so I just kept running.  I thought is was funny and it reminded me of Will Farrell in Talladaga Nights when he says "I'm going fast again"

2-5:34 Had to negotiate a few cars crossing the main highway.  I really felt pretty good once I got across the bridge and was coming back into La Verkin got into a good rhythm the last .5

Overall 11:01 (5:30) Not my fastest but still a nice little workout.

1 mile easy cool-down

Nice overcast morning. Ran 9.5 miles out to the Intermediate School and back via City Park. Legs felt sore, especially the hammy's?

Ran 2 miles easy with Sunny and pushing Jarren in the stroller.  Jarren lasted one mile, then fell asleep which was good.

Over an hour of basketball this morning.

I did 5.5 miles easy down through Confluence Park. Legs a little sore, hope everything feels better for the race tomorrow.

3 miles easy tonight over the bridge to Pah Tempe then back home. 

Well this was a positive race for me this morning. I've run this race only one time before back in 2006. In 2006 I ran 34:49, so I was really hoping to be close to that or faster. At the beginning of the year I set a few goals. One was to break 17:00 in a 5K and the other was to break 34:00 in a 10K. I knew for either of those things to happen I would probably need to find a fast downhill course. I missed out on running the Utah Summer games races so decided that today would be a good day to shoot for the sub 34.

Everything went good and I was able to kill two birds with one stone. I went through the 5K in 16:34 and finished the 10K in 33:49. I feel pretty good that I was able to improve by 1 minute since 2006. I was also happy considering I ran most of this race alone in second place. Ryan took off from the start and had a 5 second gap on me the first mile and kept increasing it a little each mile. He ended up running in the low 33's I think 33:04. I think the course was just a tad short, or at least measured different than the tangents we ran.

2009	2006
1-5:12	1-5:03
2-5:22 (10:35)	2-5:29
3-5:27 (16:02)	3-5:40
4-5:40 (21:43)	4-5:43
5-5:40 (27:23)	5-5:53
6-5:54 (33:18)	6-6:58- last mile plus the extra distance to
.1 30:31	the finish
33:49 (5:33)	34:49

10 miles over to Sky Mountain hole #13 and back home via 600 North Trail.  My legs were pretty sore today, mainly my quads.

This was another pretty good week training wise for me.  Just been hitting around 60 miles a week.  Hope to bump it up a little in August, but for the most part pretty pleased with the way my training has been going lately especially considering my schedule. 

Basketball this morning. Stomach issues too much bad food over the weekend. Today has been a rough day.  I haven't felt good all day.  I think I ate something bad because I've been making constant trips to the bathroom.  Tonight's run was a struggle 6 miles in the heat over to Hurricane and back.  I really didn't want to run at all, but forced myself I didn't feel any better on the run or after, hopefully I can sleep ok and then meet up with Bill in the morning for a tempo run maybe?

Well I still wasn't feeling good last night at midnight, so I sent Bill and Mike a text and bailed out on the early morning tempo over in St. George. I slept ok and felt a little better this morning, but still not super. I left the house a little late, so it was already getting warm-up did 4 miles out to Toquerville City Office, got a drink and cooled off, then decided to do a tempo run. The plan was going to be 3 miles, but I only ended up doing 2.5 just wasn't feeling too good and it was way hot now, not a great effort averaged 6:26. I had to crawl the rest of the way home. I thought it was very fitting the sprinklers were on at the cemetery so that is where I stopped next since I was almost dead anyway.

1 easy mile tonight with Sunny it was late and she wasn't feeling too good so we only went to her parents then back home. 

Pretty good run this morning even though my legs were tired. Sunny drove me up to our church in Virgin and then I ran home 7 miles averaged 7:25 pace which is pretty fast for me on an easy day. Most of the time I just average around 8:00. Anyway, plan on doing another 5 this afternoon, then I have family coming into town. Tomorrow I'm off to Vegas, then Friday through Sunday I'll be in Southern California.

Ran 5 miles over to Hurricane City Park and back this afternoon, very hot out.

Big Workout #10 7x1000m repeats @ CV pace. This was a good workout this morning, even though I was not looking forward to it. In fact I kept trying to talk myself out of doing it, saying my legs were tired. However, once I got going it turned out to be pretty good. I had to get up early and take my dad and Jordan over to Hurricane High so they could meet up with some other cousins to head off on their raft trip down the Grand Canyon (kind of a bummer, I'm not going but it was a pretty pricey trip, my mom is taking Sunny and I and the younger boys to Legoland this weekend, so that should be fun.) Ok back to the workout.

1-3:36 (5:42) a little slow to begin with still getting warmed up

2-3:29 (5:29) felt better

3-3:30 (5:34) feeling good

4-3:27 (5:26) good

5-3:27 (5:26) still feeling good, figure I can do one more

6-3:29 (5:27) good one but getting tired, cool off in a sprinkler decide to do one more

7-3:31 (5:32) pretty good, but tired at the end.

Overall I was pretty pleased with this workout. The last time I ran 1000's on the track was on June 9th, today I did two more and the times were all faster which is a good sign.

1-3:34

2-3:36

3-3:35

4-3:36

5-3:38

Spend most of the day driving to Carlsbad, CA.  Swam for awhile tonight with the boys, hope to get in a run tomorrow morning.  Kind of taking it easy today and tomorrow.  July was a good month for me running wise, 2nd most miles in a month I've had since getting back into running in 2006, so I was pretty happy about that.