No run today. Practicing the art of Zen and Lawnmower Maintenance.

 9:40 AM. Sunny, 80+ degrees. One mile boardwalk loops at the bird refuge. I had set out to do an 8 - 10 mile progression run but due to several factors, including lack of sleep, heat, bad genes, poor fitness, and suspect diet I had to give up the effort after 6 miles. The last two miles I just focused on form. 8 miles / 8:37 avg.

Splits: 8:51, 8:34, 8:31, 8:22, 8:25, 8:09, 9:14, 8:49

6:32 AM. 76 degrees, (warm!). From the house. 6.5 miles, Easy pace.

11:42 AM. A hillbuncious 5.3 miles with the young 'un on the fire break road in 90 degree heat.

Easy eight. Early lunch. Hot but the cloud cover helped a lot.

No running today or tomorrow due to dental work done yesterday. When it comes to soft tissue in my mouth, I don't take chances. Just let it heal right the first time. 

Hopefully going long Saturday or Sunday.

25.3 miles. 5:32 AM. It was warm this morning. The thermometer in the car showed 80 degrees when I got to the parking lot, and it was about 91 degrees when i got back. There were points on the run that were certainly cooler because of the elevation (9,400 ft), and it was windy most of the time. When I started out it was dark and there was thunder, lightening, and a little rain as a fast moving storm blew through. Great way to start a long run in the mountains. Left from  the Kaysville Wilderness park, near the start of the Wasatch 100. Ran about the first 12.5 miles of the course and came back. I had intended to get to Francis peak (14.6 miles) but I was feeling nauseous from the start, and was getting dizzy. I was going to turn around after 8 miles but just kept going. Started feeling a lot better after 10 miles. But by the time I reached 12.5 miles I had been out for 3:45 and decided it just wasn't my day. Fortunately on the way back I ran into a couple of other runners. It was a big help having someone to run with and I'm sure I came back a lot faster because of them. Much of the trail was single track, and overgrown, had to watch for roots/rocks. The steepest part of the trail, from mile 4.7 to mile 8 or 9, is really rocky and technical. Coming down that section really beat my feet up. In the overgrowth, my shoelaces kept getting untied by hidden branches.  Around mile-ish 11 there is a steep climb up and over a cirque (?), kind of a four limbed scramble, harder to descend than to climb through this section. Although I didn't feel well, and moved extremely slow going up, I'm really happy to have gotten this run in. I'm hoping to eventually run all sections of this course, and today was a mental victory for me. I was out for about 7 hours. My left ITB started to twang a bit the last few miles, but held up great considering the elevation gain/drop (I'm still trying to figure that out). Though I was pretty tired toward the end, I didn't bonk!  Hope I burned some calories.

Easily the most sore I have felt the day after a long run. Quads and calves are shot. Love that feeling!

The only problem with these long mountain runs (Saturday), is they take me out for so many days. My garmin stopped recording elevation data after mile 18 for some reason. By then I had climbed over 7,200 feet. Miles 18 through 25 were mostly downhill though, just a couple of short climbs, so I'm estimating about 8,000 feet of ascent/descent on the run. More than that though, I think it was the technical nature of the course that got to me, and the 7 hours of "running". All in good fun, can't wait for September's long mountain run!

Hopefully I can run tomorrow.

Hiked around for about an hour in the foothills with the dogs. Good to get the legs working a little. Looking forward to running again tomorrow.

8:30 AM. 10 miles on the LPT. Very easy pace.  Just out picking up the pieces today.

Late morning run, 10 miles, easy pace. From work etc.

5 miles. Early lunch, Bluff trail. 8:25 avg pace.

12 miles. High noon on the LPT. Temps low to mid 80's. Easiest of paces.

10 AM. 7.1 miles from house, Clark/Glovers lane etc. Sunny, 75 degrees.

5.3 miles. From work. EZ

Easy 8 from the house, Clark/Glovers lane. It was 82 degrees before the sun came out.

12 miles / 8:32 avg. Overcast, low 60's, light to heavy rain. Awesome running weather. Ran from work, nice break from the heat today. Don't know if it was just the cooler temps or additional factors, but today was the best I've felt in weeks.

Splits: 8:59, 8:34, 8:34, 8:43, 8:48, 9:03 (up big hill), 8:13 (down big hill), 8:06, 8:34, 8:11, 8:16, 8:17.

I think my splits are faster toward the end of the run because it was raining really heavily and I wanted to get back.

Short-n-easy from the house before work. 5.1 miles.

10.1 miles. From the house Clark/Glovers lane. 7:30 AM and temps in the low 80's! 8:49 avg pace.

8 miles / 8:42 avg. Early lunch run from work. Sunny, upper 60's.

The first three miles felt awful. I felt light headed and weak. I decided to try some 1 minute intervals and see if that would fix things. Since this wasn't a workout, I took 2 minutes in between the 1 minute surges (<7 min. pace). After 8 intervals I was feeling better and ran mile 7 at 7:46. Then did two more one minute surges and cooled down for a total of 8 miles. So, although this was an easy paced run overall, it was a good mental exercise.

Splits: 9:16, 9:05, 9:15, 8:32, 8:19, 8:46, 7:46, 8:40.

10.4 miles. Early lunch run. Bluff trail. I was going to call this run "rough", but I think "ugly" describes it better.

5.3 miles on the fire break road before work. 

10 miles on the fire break road. This was the perfect summer evening run. I got started a little after 7:00 PM. Temps in the mid to upper 80's, but once the sun went down and the breeze kicked in it felt perfect. Beautiful sunset as viewed from the foothills on the East side of the valley with the sun dipping behind Antelope Island to the West. One of those runs where I felt no pain and had plenty of energy. It got dark towards the end which was kind of cool.

1,900 ft vert.

7.25 miles / 8:27 avg. TM. That's right....treadmill. I took my running things to work and changed into them after work intending to stop at the LPT on the way home for some easy miles. The wind had been blowing pretty hard all day from the South. So I figured I could go South out then come back with a nice little tailwind. But when I got to the parking lot and got out of my car the wind was just too much for my feeble mind to deal with, plus it was pretty warm. So I got on the treadmill at home. First TM run in 3 months or something. I can't run on the treadmill without doing a little workout so I did  a 2 mile warmup, then 10 x 1/4 mile with 1/4 mile rest in between. My pace on the quarters went thus: 8:00, 7:48, 7:42, 7:36, 7:30, 7:30, 7:42, 7:09, 7:30, 7:04. then 1.25 mile cool down. I haven't done anything even resembling speedwork lately so I kept today's intervals easy, mostly just staving off boredom.

Running on the TM in my house had me sweating like it was Summer time. Oh wait...

6 miles at 6:00PM on the fire break road. Cooler temps = very nice.

800 ft.  up-n-down.

Taking a rest day today. Not sleeping well lately, feeling bleh. Great weather for running though!

15.4 miles / 8:56 avg. Extended lunch run, from work. Sunny, temps low to mid 70's. Anytime I run from work means I'm running some hills. Today was about 1,650 ft. up/down,  which is great for fitness, not great for pace. Really glad to get this run in before the month ends so as to get my minimum 200 miles for the month. Water stops at miles 7, 9, and 12. Gu at 10 mile.