Step by step, mile by mile

PM - 3 in farmington, new mexico. 5:56 pace. knew the ~6000ft elevation was gonna kick my ass before i even started the run, i just don't think i was aware how much i could get my ass kicked :)  good god that thin air burns the lungs something terrible. i woke up at 2am and had done a 13-hour drive prior so i'm gonna say those were also major factors for the suffering, if nothing else than to help me sleep tonight. would have done more but the place i drove out to ended up being a major dud for a running route; all short dead ends or had lots of aggressive trailer park dogs. 

AM - 5, 5:59 pace. was gonna run on the treadmill at the hotel, but the gym there was literally 93 degrees and the thermostat wouldn't turn down, so decided just to leave for provo an hour early. found out during the drive i'd be arriving about an hour before my homie i'm staying with would be home, so decided to run a few miles on this random desert road so i wouldn't be waiting around once i got to provo. considering i drove for 5 hours then just jumped out the car to run, i'd say it was a good run. elevation still kicked my ass but much less than yesterday. i need a run where my legs aren't stiff from a long car ride to really see how much the elevation is affecting me

AM - 6 miles trying(to no avail) to find a good running route immediately by the place i'm staying the next few weeks. 6:10 pace. i assume some people enjoy running in that they get to explore new areas; not me. guess it's time to go hunting for the perfect morning trail.

also, got asked to be a groomsman yesterday for a wedding in a couple weeks. only mentioning this because the groom in question reads my blog and i'm calling him out for not telling me he was engaged until yesterday, even though he knew i was coming to utah this summer for months, and has been engaged for months. his fiancee reminded him about asking me about the groomsman thing and i wonder how much longer he'd have waited to ask if not for that. anyway s/o to will; my wedding gift for you is me buying the dress clothes i wasn't aware i needed to bring with me. besides that, happy for them. the three of us have been friends for like 8 years and if you've seen the last episode of the office where michael says "my kids are growing up and marrying each other", that's the vibe

AM - 3 on kiwanis, 6:30 pace. never running here again lol, the unkept lawn in front of the UA law school is a better grass loop than kiwanis was. would have just drove to the trail i've been eyeing and running another few miles there but my left calf hasn't felt good since i didall that asphalt/concrete running yesterday, and the uneven grass didn't do it any favors. i miss bama and the good grass loops it had, even with the unbearable humidity

Noon - 4 up and down a very technical mountain trail, 7:02 pace. considering garmin says i gained over 1000ft elevation just in the first two miles, that pace is pretty good, especially considering i could barely run back down without risking dying by means of a loooong tumble. probably donating plasma later today, if it doesn't kill me it's probably a triple-run day, even if the mileage won't constitute it. 0-for-3 on trying to find a good running route in provo! i'm depressed

PM - 4 on BYU mural, 5:55 pace. I ran the first couple miles of yesterday's run here and wasn't a huge fan, but after realizing there probably isn't a ~1300m flat and fast square grass loop like there is at bama, i liked it a bit more knowing there probably isn't much better as far as grass loops go. it's only about .40 miles and it's more shaped like a right-angled triangle than a loop, but take what you can get i guess.

AM - a little over 10 on BYU mural, 5:58 pace. felt pretty good; i was tired from staying up late watching a terrible horror movie with the people i'm staying with(joe wright's "woman in the window"), but physically it didn't feel harder than any other aerobic run i've done at lower elevation the past couple months.

AM - 3-mile shakeout, 6:28 pace. only did this because my homie wanted to do this workout with me but he was taking forever to wake up so i got some miles in.

AM2 - 8 x 200m with 200m jog recovery in 60". averaged about 31-flat. nothing too crazy; we weren't sure if we'd even find an open track so i didn't have a real workout planned, so just sort of pulled this out of the hat. felt pretty good. 10 for the AM in total. 

PM - 4 on mural, 5:57 pace. left achilles felt a bit tight, otherwise felt great.

AM - 12.5 with the blog sensei himself(better known as sasha) and blog veteran chad(pretty sure i got his name right. i'm no elephant!). 7:05 pace with a 5-mile pickup in there in 29:13 that felt REALLY good. kept having to check my watch because i don't think 5:50 pace has ever felt that easy. i would have taken pacing duties for a couple of miles, but as soon as i got ahead sasha had to scold me for (unintentionally) dropping the pace down :) can't remember the last time i ran with someone(again, no elephant); it definitely was a nice way to have the run go by a little faster.

PM - 3 on mural after work. 6:4x pace