Run fast

Ran through the U, up to the hospital and back along Foothill.  Many of the roads don't have a shoulder or a sidewalk so I spent a lot of time running in and out of the gutters and over the curbs. Probably not the safest route but it keeps me on my toes.

Cross training at the gym.  Mixed in very difficult two minute intervals at max (which equates to least) resistance.

Nice run with Jake, ACorn, Bryan and Jon. A good crew, perfect temps, and great fall colors. Longest run since SGM (yes, I have been slacking) so I am leaning towards just running the half in Japan. 

Brunch at Ruth's for Andrea's Birthday afterwards. She was born at the same time  

11 miles on the treadmill with the last 6 at 5:55.  Didn't feel great.  Must have been that extra hour of sleep or the massage I got yesterday.

Election eve!  I think I will vote during my run tomorrow to kill two birds with one stone. If the line is long I will do push ups and stretch.

Ran over to my polling location and then added on another 6 miles.  I arrived at 6:57 and left at 7:10.  Not too bad I suppose.  

My hamstring started acting up which makes the decision to run the half that much easier.

Up 3 flights of stairs and down the escalator x 25 at the SFO airport. If I had worn shoes instead of sandals I would have tried running the wrong direction on the moving walkway. Kind of like swimming up a river.

Travel time was 27 hours door to door.  Considering that, I was somewhat surprised that I got out for a run this morning (Japan time). After the run we took a bus to visit some shrines in Kyoto.  

Out and back from the house in Igibawa.  Finally saw some sun today and took a tour of the hilly marathon course.  Japan is amazingly clean and the people are incredibly polite.  My only complaint is the pillows.  They are about three inches thick and full of what feels like tree bark.

Internet access is hard to come by so I will have to keep this brief.  Race went ok I suppose considering the course, weather, hamstring, and basic laziness since SGM. Finished 8th overall with a 1:12:46 and with that I won a bag of potatoes. The marathoners had be miserable because there was a downpour for the entire race and about 45 degrees.  The winner of the half ran an amazing time for the course (1:07:00) and he walked away with not only potatoes, but rice and onions. Lucky guy. Iain Hunter also ran a great race and finished 5th in a 1:10:45. Amber Green finished second in the women's race in ~1:25.  My time would have put me in the top 3 or at least the top 5 for most years so I guess the competition was a bit tougher this year. I started off with a pack of 5 but they dropped me slowly as we started up the canyon.  Iain passed me shortly thereafter and for the rest of the race and battled with a couple of young guys on a local team.  I ended up beating one but the other guy who was only 18 out kicked me at the finish. More memorable than the race was the pre race festivities which included calisthenics and food vendors serving steak and fish on a stick, sausages and brats, ramen soup, and my favorites, bread with whip cream and bananas. Amazingly I saw several of the runners eating the fish and steak skewers...which makes me wonder how they felt at mile 13. Overall Japan has been a great experience.  The culture is very different than ours in many ways, although you can sense that western culture, for better or for worse, has influenced the economy and younger generations of late.

 Rainy finish

Iain at the finish 

Amber at the finish

These were the bento boxes available before the race.  The thought of eating fried prawns before a race didn't sound appealing to me.

 Pre race beverages, meat skewers and calisthenics

The plan was to meet Iain and Julie at the Red Rooster sign for a 10 mile run.  I arrived on time and after waiting 10 minutes I realized that there was probably another Red Rooster sign in the city so I took off on my own.  I ran an out and back along a super narrow busy road and somehow on my way back I took a slight left when I should have taken a right and for the next 1.5 hours I wandered aimlessly through the city with no idea where I was going.  Notice below that the finish below is not the same at the start.  After trying to get directions at the 7-11 and from a highschooler who was late to school I just sat on a pole at an intersection and almost started to cry.  My hip hurt, I was hungry, nobody could understand me and needed to get back to the house within a hour because we were leaving for the airport.  Fortunately I came to my senses and decided to walk back to the one recognizable building I could see, the townhall, where I knew somebody could probably speak just enough English for me to explain that I was lost.  As luck would have it right when I got there the mother of the host family called the station and 10 minutes later I was in the car headed back to the house. At least I am now tired enough that I shouldn't get too restless on my 13 hours of flights home.

Starting to feel normal again after the long day of traveling. No running until this weekend because the hip was acting up in Japan and it's cold outside.

Checked my email today and saw this deal on the Garmin 310xt.  This find was more impressive than my workout this morning.

LINK

Felt terrible yesterday but today seems to be better.  Still took it easy and ran 6.6 miles on the TM at the gym.  The last mile I picked it up but I regret doing that because my chest felt very tight and it took longer than usual to catch my breath.

10 miles around sugarhouse and the University then mowed my lawn.  Sadly this might be the last time for the year.

needed to conserve my energy for work today

ran around SHP and then 4x400 on the Highland track. First three were low 70's and the last was in 69.  I have a lot of work to do before these will get easier.

Wow lots of races today.  I wasn't really committed to race from the start and it felt like I was still under the weather a bit from the bug I got last weekend. But I had signed up so I still gave it a go.  I ran into Adam on my way up Memory Grove and got to the start line with about 10 minutes to spare.  I went off the front but a group of about 6 guys including B.J. and Kevin passed me after about a half a mile.  From there I just tried to maintain a decent pace to the turnaround but by the time I got there the leaders were too far ahead for me to make up any ground on the downhill.  I think I finished 7th or 8th and was about 2 minutes slower than last year...just didn't feel good.  Turned around at the finish and paced Lulu Walls for the last 1/2 mile or so of the race.  She beat her time from last year by 30 or 40 seconds which was great.  Cooled down another two miles with Adam. Despite the sub par run I was still glad to be out there.  Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without racing a Turkey Trot.

Stairmaster and rowing at the gym.  Had the great pleasure of chatting with Rob for a bit at the gym.

Great run with Scott, Dan, Mike, Brandon, and Toni around Orem and up into the hills.  Despite destroying my hip I think it did it some good.

10 TM miles then 1 on the stairmaster to cool down.  The hip was as sore as I thought it would be after yesterday's hilly run.

Crosstraining at the gym

On the biggest online sales day of the year below is the email I received from Patagonia.  Pretty cool!

 And here is a link to their Common Threads Initiative.

This week has been dedicated to making my hip and hamstring stronger, hence not much running. Oh joy.  Here is a video with same pretty basics exercises that seem helpful. 

 http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Strength-Training-Circuit-For-Triathletes.htm?cmp=306&memberid=30560782&lyrisid=37577325&email=fritzvdk@gmail.com 

7 miles on the treadmill because I was rushed for time.  One day soon work will slow down.

Running tomorrow, outside.