Little Buddha

3 easy miles in Monticello, Ut after traveling most of the afternoon.

Did 3 miles around town and then rode out to the motor cross track with my cousin, ran back from the track to town which was just over seven miles, after spending the morning in Monticello we drove to Alamosa, Colorado, didn't do any other running over the weekend, we did go to the Great Sand Dunes on one the days and did some hiking there. Similar to Clyde, took this week a little easier, trying to recover from Hobblecreek.

Traveled most of the day and didn't run. Body feeling a little tired so an extra day of rest might be alright.

Did 3 Castle Rock hill loops

1-5:00

2-4:54

3-4:52

Still pretty hot outside and legs feeling tired, but I was happy I was able to get faster on each one. Got home tonight and did another 3 miles easy.

Good run this afternoon, left the school at 2:00 pm did close to an 8 mile loop down to the Sunbrook golf course, then up Dixie Drive, over to the bike trail came out by Paradise Canyon Subdivision then back to the school. Right foot started hurting on the way back, so I'm icing it right now. I might do some more miles tonight, we'll see how I'm feeling. It was a cooler afternoon and felt good to be out running. Went out and did 3 more easy miles this evening, foot seemed to be feeling a little better, still a little concerned.

Ran 2 easy miles this morning down 300 west to the fire hydrant and back. This afternoon did the Oil Can Henry Loop 5.5 miles, plus .5 warm-up, .5 cool-down. Meet up with Clyde and Bill tonight, we did a nice run down to the river, up through Bloomington, then back on River Road, very nice evening cool temperature, plus some rain, the run was 8 miles, then I did another mile at the park.

Did 4.5 easy miles this morning, legs feeling a little tired from miles yesterday, but not too bad. Ran tonight in Provo did 8.5 up around 900 East over to sister's house then down to the mall back to the hotel

Eventful day, ran 4 miles this morning at the cross country meet in Provo, was fun to watch all the races, especially the college men's 4 mile, wish I could get back to those days when I was running like those guys. Bus ride home was ok, slept most of the way, then decided to go out and try to get a long run in. Sunny drove me up to Oak Grove Camp Ground and I ran back to La Verkin, through Leeds and Toquervile, she clocked the distance at 19.8 in the car and I started a little further up the road than she clocked and I so it was probably pretty close to 20 miles, it took me 2:24 and I felt pretty good especially the first 10 to 12 miles, however about 2 miles into the run I started feeling some burning on the bottom side of my right foot, I thought maybe it was just the fact I was running down a pretty good hill, and maybe the pain would go away once I got down to level ground, however the pain didn't go away. I decided to stop after about 6 miles and adjust my socks, but that did help feet continued to feel on fire the entire run, but besides that I was really feeling pretty good and enjoyed the evening, I just wish I would have started about an hour earlier it was hard running about an hour and a half in the dark. Once I got home and could finally take my shoes off I had a nice bloody sock and two big blisters on the bottoms of my feet, the right side was really bad and had quite a bit of fluid in it, the left side wasn't so bad, but still painful. I guess if anything I learned one combination of socks and shoes not to wear in the marathon. Good week of training and glad I got the long run in plus the mileage only running five days this week.

Probably won't be doing any running for the next few days, these blisters I have developed on the heels of my feet are pretty bad, still really hurts to even walk. Hopefully they will heal up quick, but I'm a little worried right now. I will probably try to do some cross training on a stationary bike for the next few days. Rode the exercise bike for 45 minutes tonight, my college coach used to count 10 minutes of biking or swimming equal to 1 mile running, so based on that maybe 4 miles tonight. The blisters do feel a little better tonight, so that is a good sign.

Rode stationary bike for an hour tonight, really tried to push the pace would go 10 minutes hard, then 2 or 4 minute easy, then 10 minutes hard. The feet are feeling a little better and walking is getting easier, probably be able to do some light running in a few more days.

Biked again tonight for over an hour, good workout, feeling like I might try some light running tomorrow, blisters seem to to be healing up pretty good, the right foot is still a concern, because the skin tore and the new skin is still pretty tender. The left foot is feeling pretty good.

Was able to get out again this afternoon and run a little, blisters seem to be healing up pretty good, ran easy pace from the school to the Jacob Hamblin home and back 4.0 miles. Legs feeling pretty sore still from the 20 mile run on Saturday and then not being able to run the last 4 days. Meet the club at the park tonight Bill and I did 2 miles easy around the park, before Steve and Clyde showed up, then we ran a version of the Black Hills loop backwards which was uphill a good portion of the time, which added to my difficulties, finished down Diagonal and Main Street, but I was pretty sore for most of the run. Body and legs still stiff and sore from not running much the last few days. However, it was nice to get in some mileage tonight, plus the temperature was nice a little humid, but comfortable.

Easy 3 miles tonight up in Provo, raining and a little chilly, but felt good to get out and run a few miles, legs still sore from last night.

Ran 10 miles this morning down the Provo River Trail to Utah Lake and then back to the hotel, added another mile by running over to my sister's. Felt pretty good this morning and maintained a pretty good pace going out pace was just over 7:00 and coming back pace was under 7:00. Jogged another mile at the cross country meet. Did an easy 3.5 miles tonight over past the Hurricane Cemetary and back home.

Did 6x800 during my planning period, pretty nice temperature outside not too hot, but still warm, wanted to get this workout in before running with the team tonight. It has been good coaching, but at times I feel like I have altered my original marathon training program to do workouts with the kids. Anyway ran the following splits with a 400 meter jog recovery between

1-2:43

2-2:42

3-2:44

4-2:43

5-2:46- starting to hurt

6-2:47- hip flexor bothering me a little on the last one, so I eased up the last 200 meters. 1 mile warm-up, 1.5 miles recovery and .5 cool-down, will now go do some more easy miles while timing the cross country team during their workout. Ran .5 warm-up, then did 2x800 with the team, the kids were doing 5, but since I had done some earlier I just ran 2 to help pace the kids along.

1-2:45

2-2:36

Easy mile cool-down

Did a short warm-up then a 5K tempo run over the Swiss Days course ran it around 19:30, not exactly sure of the route but pretty close, might have ran a bit longer. Finished with a mile cool down, now I have Parent/Teacher Conferences this afternoon and this evening. Went out again this afternoon in the heat of the day left at 3:30 and ran from Chuckwalla up to the church at Wincester Hills, just under 5 miles going up took 41:05, really didn't feel that bad of course fighting traffic both going up and coming back down. Picked it up coming down tried to maintain goal marathon pace for entire 5 miles back

1-8:00 this was more than a mile

2-6:34 (14:36)

3-6:16 (20:53)

4-6:34 (27:27)

5-6:20 (33:48)

Felt pretty good running downhill the only complaint was the headwind I was running into and the heat.

Feeling a little tired today, so decided to use it as more of a rest day, only 3 miles. Need to listen to the body, especially with the marathon approaching.

Really good workout, decided to try doing the ladder workout that fellow blogger Chad has done a few times.

1.5 mile warm-up, then 3 sets of the following 1600, 800, 400, with 400 meter recovery jogs between each interval and set. I was pretty confident I could do two sets without really killing myself, so in my mind I kind of left it up in the air on doing the third set (would wait and see how I felt when I got to that point)

1st set

1600-5:38

800-2:46- maybe a little slow

400-1:17

2nd set

1600- 5:41 (2:51, 2:50)

800- 2:40

400- 1:17

Feeling pretty tired, but decide to give it a shot at another set

3rd set

1600-5:42 (2:51, 2:51)

800-2:45

400-1:17

1.5 mile cool down

Overall, felt pretty pleased with the workout, it is definately challenging, I also ran it around 12:30 so it was warm in the afternoon, probably low 80s

Easy 4.5 miles this afternoon, went down 300 west up past Farmer's Market up to 100 east then back across, down past Howard's to Pah Tempe (need to get back to doing my hill workouts down there) then home. Looking forward to the Swiss Days 5K tomorrow, should be interesting I haven't raced a 5K in probably two years.

Swiss Days 5K, 17:29 and 5th overall. I started off with about 1.5 miles of warm-up, still could have used a little more, it was kind of chilly. The start of my race was pretty good, but it was a faster pace than I was used to at the start, anyway I still got out pretty good ran the following

first mile-5:57

first mile had a few hills and some turns, after about half a mile I was in 7th place running with Hayden Hawks a sophomore from my team, dropped him before the 1st mile marker and focused on another high school runner from Pineview. Also ahead of me were Brandon Wignall, David Holt, Mike Schramm, and Logan Fielding,

2 mile- 5:32 shortly after the 1 mile mark I passed the Pineview runner then turned up into Santa Clara Heights, Steve Hooper was close on my tail and we kept pushing each other through the second and third mile all the way to the finish.

3 mile and the .1 to the finish- 6:00

I had to keep surging on Steve, as he ran a really good race, finished just ahead of him and Bill wasn't too far back.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with my time. I hadn't ran a 5K in quite some time, I think the last one was back when I was coaching in Colorado and I ran something around 19:27, so this showed the improvement I have been able to make over the last year. Interesting a year ago I was getting ready to have my ankle surgery, glad things are going much better this year.

After the race we (Steve, Bill, Logan, and Holt) went up and ran the marathon course down from Snow Canyon Entrance to the finish at the park 10.5 miles. I was thinking we would take it pretty easy, but we came down as a group at a pretty good pace.

1-7:01

2-13:07

3-6:30

4-6:32

5-6:36

6-6:18

After mile 6 I didn't have anymore road markers to time my splits so we were going off of Holt's Garmin

Miles 7,8, and 9 we were hitting around 5:45, and the last mile was under 5:40

Total run was just over 67 minutes.

Ran down the trail over to Ivins turnoff, then behind the storage units, back through Santa Clara Heights easy 6 miles.

Did .5 warm-up then 2 mile tempo run on the track first mile 6:22, second mile 6:30, started feeling dehydrated and a little sick, so I just jogged .5 miles then came home. I was going to do a few more miles tonight, but instead I'm just going to go to bed a little earlier and get some more rest.

Did 1 mile warm-up, then a 5 mile tempo run faster than marathon race pace. I started my run at mile marker 6 out at Anderson Junction then worked my way down into Toquerville and to the 1 mile marker just outside of La Verkin. Overall, I felt pretty good on the run, it was still really hot out, I was running at 4 pm so that may have effected my pace a little.

1-6:03

2-5:56

3-6:14

4-6:36 -was hurting on this mile

5-5:56

After I finished the tempo part I did an easy 2.5 mile cool-down and then went and cooled off for about 20 minutes in the Virgin River down in the Confluence Park area, found a nice stretch that was deep enough to swim in.

I was also excited when I got home I weighed in at 142 which is a record low, last October I was 165 right before my ankle surgery.

Easy 4 miles around the Snow Canyon Cross Country course, will run some more tonight with the running club. Ran 8 tonight with the club down past the Dixie Center then up into Bloomington and back down to the river trail and back on River Road to the park. Felt pretty good on the run, stomach bothering me a little from eating dinner to close to my workout.

Easy 1 mile run around the cross country meet in Cedar, most of the kids had big improvements from earlier in the season. At the meet talked a little with Dave Holt, he might come and run with us tomorrow and I also met and talked to Josh McAdams, NCAA steeplechase champion last year from BYU, his wife is a coach for Timpview. It was interesting to talk to him, he has ran on teams with Bryan Lindsey and Nate Robinson, two guys I ran with for a season at BYU, anyway it was nice to meet him. When I got home tonight I did another easy 4 miles over to Hurricane Middle School and back, nice temperature outside, but it is getting dark a lot earlier in the evening.

Bring on the marathon! Really good run this morning with the club. We started at the beginning of the course and ran 12.5 miles almost to the halfway mark. It was nice to get a feel for the first part of the course and think a little about pace and a game plan for the first half of the marathon next Saturday, last week it was nice to run the 10.5 from Snow Canyon to the finish, having done both runs now, I feel pretty confident and excited more than anything for race day. Here are the splits, which were actually faster today on training run, than when I ran the marathon in 2004.

1-6:02- little short the first mile

2-7:05

3-6:45

4-6:13 Clyde out front, Bill running pace with me, Steve back a little bit stopped to remove long sleeve shirt.

5-6:32

6-6:18 everyone back together, Steve's knee hurting him a little bit, slowed down some.

7-6:18-pace is feeling pretty good. Bill stops in Veyo to use the restroom.

8-7:09 Clyde and I make our way up Veyo Hill, the hill isn't too bad and we continue visiting pretty much the whole way up the hill.

9-7:05 still running up the hill, but feeling a little tired.

10-6:52

11-6:55

12-6:31

13-6:14- 1:26:07 Good run and feeling ready for a big time PR.