Philippians 4:13

15.25M easy early on a very cold and windy morning.  40 degrees and good winds made me dress for the first time in warmer clothes (gloves, long sleeves, vest) and I was still cold.  Did 7M by myself the met Lynette and Andrea for the last 8.25M.  We zipzagged through the numbered streets to take advantage of the trees to block the wind.  Had a good run at about a 8:00 pace and lots of good conversation.

Stratos 2- 81 miles    Total time: 1:56:40 

6M easy early this morning down the standard Sunnyside route on a cool morning once again (40 degrees)...fall is here in Idaho.  Nice run, nothing special to report.

Total time: 45:30ish  (Stratos 2 - 87 miles)

6.25M at lunchtime on beautiful day...60 degrees and no wind.  1M easy (6:30) then the rest at MP (5:59-6:17) which felt really good.  Officially withdrew from Salmon marathon as I didn't want to risk any injury/muscle issues from running on 21M of rocky/gravel/washboard roads.  I am planning on a hard 20+M with Pat B (sub 7:00 pace). on that Friday before the Salmon race instead.

Total time: 38:45  (Stratos 1 - 89 miles)

4.5M very slow miles really early this morning. Nothing good to report about this run as I just could not get going, didn't really wake up and had to get back as the insides were turning once again by the end of the run.  Got'er done is about all I can say about that (Larry the Cable guy meets Forrest Gump...what a visual).

Stratos 2 - 92 miles

A quick run in between meetings at lunch today.  4M at fast MP (5:52 avg.) on a beautiful day!  Nice run, pace felt comfortable hard but maintainable for longer (I just didn't have the time).  Good hard run!

Stratos 1 - 93 miles  total time: 23:28

7M early on a pretty nice morning.  Standard morning run on standard route, nothing special to report. 

Stratos 2 - 99 miles

6M on a nice running day but a crappy run, literally.  3 bathroom stops made this not a very fun run.  First 2.5M with Jeff Fogg, then the rest I tried to speed up then nature started calling.

Stratos 1 - 99 miles

Standard early morning run this morning, 7.5M in chilly weather (40 degrees) so I wore long sleeves, gloves and a light vest.  Overall a decent early run at around a 7:45ish pace.  Will try to get 7-8M at lunch today pending no stomach issues today!

Stratos 2 - 106 miles

10.15M on a beautiful day at lunch.  Nice and easy conversational paced run (7:07) with my buddy Pat, where talked all kinds of things from business travel to collegiate runners.  Overall a really nice run, except my intestinal issues were gurgling from mile 4 on, never enough to stop but enough to feel it.  I wonder if my bowl of cereal every morning and the milk associated with it is now not agreeing with me?

Stratos 1 - 109 miles

A nice run this morning with the IF running group (Andrea, Lynette, McKay, Jeff F).  3M faster warmup to the park, then 14M with the group at about a 7:55 avg.  Overall a nice run from the park through Snake River Landing.  At 5M we stopped at a restroom and Jeff indicated he was going to finish his run a bit slower.  Got back to the park for a quick food break, then ran back to the park.  I peeled off just before the park to head home and finished off the last 1.5M of my run solo.  A great morning for a run!

Total time: 2:10:XX    Stratos 2 - 124 miles

Nice early morning run before church. 7M on a beautiful morning, kinda a progression run, starting at 8:11 pace then last mile at ~ 7:00 pace.   Felt nice and easy the whole time and no stomach issues...yeah!

total time: 52:40  (Stratos 2 - 131 miles)

7M on a cooler (41 degrees) and windy (out of the north, brr!) morning.  Saw more traffic on Sunnyside at 4:30am than I have ever seen.  Nice run though, avg. 7:30ish and felt really fresh.  Looking forward to a good week of running topped off by a 20M with Pat B at a faster pace on Friday.

Total time: 52:50  (Stratos 2 - 138 miles)

6.5M MP miles (6:07 avg) around the greenbelt on an absolute gorgeous day at lunchtime.  Wanted to get a bit of a tempo run in, as this started out good but the nature call came up again and slowed up my last couple of miles.  Decent splits (6:13, 5:50, 6:02, 6:05, 6:14, 6:14, 3:06) to start off the workweek.

Stratos 1 - 115 miles

Nice and easy 8M on a nice morning...46 degrees and no wind.  Started off thinking 6M was all I was going to get due to some soreness and not being awake, but by 3M in I was feeling pretty good and the pace was picking up so I pushed the route out and finished 8 miles.  Last 4M were about 20 secs per mile faster than the first.

Stratos 2 - 146 miles

Wow, what a beautiful day for a run.  Had planned 6M, but due to the weather got in 7M.  Kinda a fartlek run with part of evey mile fast, part easy and then mostly alternated MP and easy pace miles.  Splits:  6:49; 6:20; 6:38; 6:23; 6:24; 6:30; 6:47.  Overall a great run (no nature stops!!  Had a bagel, cream cheese and homemade plum jam for breakfast today instead of my usual big bowl of cereal and milk).  Maybe I am developing an issue with dairy?

Also, I got 7.5 hours of workouts on my Forerunner this past time, that even off of less than a full charge.  Maybe the unit was just getting angry for a couple of weeks and now is maybe closer to normal!

Stratos 1 - 122 miles

A very hard 5M run this morning...not physically but emontionally and mentally.  I learned last night of the death of a very dear friend of mine and I am still having a hard time really believing and understanding it.  Steve lived life to the fullest and was the one person I knew who truly lived life with the motto "Carpe Diem".  He was the person who took me on many a grand adventure (many memorable mountain biking trips to Moab, UT) and who I could always call up to hear about his lastest excursion around the country or world.   From Moab to Maui, from Sturgis to the Costa Rica, from the Gallopogas Islands to Russia, Steve lived life to the fullest!  He was a person you could count of for having the biggest smile around and a ready willingness to be there for a fun time, a beer, or just to share his friendship.  I miss him terribly and have a very heavy heart today.

I will miss you, Steve! 

4M at lunch as hard as my legs and heart would take me, which wasn't much as my heart was heavy and thus so were my legs.  1M ok (6:11) as I was working off anger, 1M slower as I fought to keep it together and then repeated this cycle again.  The last 0.5M was very slow as I struggled to keep it together and even not get light headed...could not have run any further.

Stratos 2 - 151 miles; Stratos 1 - 126 miles 

7.5M easy this morning on a cooler day (37 degrees), I even slept in a little and didn't get started until 4:30am!   Nice easy paced run (avg. 7:50) but a slight progression from 8:30 to 7:25 for the last 0.5M.  Will try to get another run in at lunchtime between meetings, another easy run in preparation for tomorrow's 20M with Pat B. Planning this as the last really good long run, a progression run up to race pace!

Stratos 2 - 159 miles

7.75M at lunch on a gorgeous day!  First 4M with Dan S. then the last 3.75M a bit faster.  Just a nice run overall.  Overall avg. 7:12.

Found out more about my friend Steve's memorial services and looks like I am heading to Phoenix next Thursday for the funeral and good ol' knock down party in Steve's honor...the way he would want to be celebrated!

Stratos 1 - 134 miles

20M progression run with Pat B this morning on a beautiful day...perfect for a long run.  Started off with 1M easy (7:15) then started progression up to a 6:30 by mile 10.  Second 10M we pushed the average up to 6:15 and hit the last few miles at 6:10-6:18.  We were hoping to get the last 4-5M at closer to 6:00 pace, but this still felt pretty good and hard for a training run.  Nice conversation and glad to have someone there on a harder long run like this.  Tried to do the run on minimal fuel, only 2 Gu's and a little water and Powerade.  Overall I was really happy with the run...good solid effort after a solid but emotionally draining week.

Stratos 1 - 154 miles  Total time: 2:11:07

Took the family to the Tiger-Grizz XC Invitational at Freeman Park, the largest XC meet in SE Idaho outside of State Championships.  Over 40 teams, 800 runners and 4 major races on a gorgeous day!  Lots of fun.  Ran about 1M around the park to observe the races and check out the course which I hope to run next week at lunch to try my time against the varsity boys results (top time was about 16:30...fast on this course!).

Nice and easy 13.25M run on a beautiful morning (this is awesome weather for runners!) with McKay and Lynette.  Nothing special, just nice and consistent with good conversation.  I actually felt really good this morning after yesterday's long hard run so it was great to get this run in and having it feel so easy.

I may try to get back out this afternoon when the kids have a playdate and Kami is visiting with a friend for another 6M+ to get my first 100 mile week. 

Total time: 1:45:02  Stratos 2 - 172 miles

6.25M in the early afternoon with Lynette who wanted to go back out and finish off a long day (19M for her!).  100M+ for the first time ever, a new mileage high for me!

Total time: 45:26  (Stratos 1 - 160 miles)

8M easy early this morning before church.  Started off pretty easy (8:15) then progressed up to a 7:00 pace for the last mile and felt really good during the run.  Then, after breakfast and resting a bit, going to church, I started to get really tired.  I didn't sleep very well last night, and on top of 50 miles in the last 2 days, I was not surprised.  Tried to catch a couple little eye rests during the day.

Total time: 1:00:45  Stratos 1 - 168 miles

13.5M bike ride with Kami after my folks came and got the kids for a playdate.  Took off from home, through Snake River landing and to Freeman Park and back.  We rode hard the whole way (avg. 14 MPH) and Kami really kicked my butt on this ride...she has strong, powerful legs and pounded me on the uphill climbs!  It was a glorious day and we had a blast riding together.  I will count this as 4M running easy (though my legs are trashed as I write this). 

Tomorrow on easy short run before work (Kami works early so it has to be short) then I am pacing the Skyline HS XC boys up the Sunnyside hill for a hard workout at the request of the XC coach.  Hopefully I will have gas in the tank to push them pretty hard (though I have doubts about the pace the coach wants...mostly for me!).

6M nice and easy on a good morning through Snake River Landing.  Thought I would still be pretty sore and fatigued but I wasn't that bad.  First mile really easy (8:20) then progressed up to a 7:20ish pace at the end of the run.

Stratos 2 - 178 miles

No run at lunch today (most likely) as I will be pacing the Skyline HS XC boys up the Sunnyside hill this afternoon.  Got up to the hill a little before the team and did 1M warmup on the warm afternoon (85 degrees) with no wind.  Once the kids got there, did another 0.5M warmup then talked to the coach about what he wanted.  He had his top 50 fastest times for the 6.6M out and back up the hill (ranging from 39:22 by David Jankowski - who went on to run collegiately for Oklahoma State - to just over 46 minutes) and wanted me to push his 3-5 fastest boys to a low 40's time.  So we took off at a good clip and the top 2 boys hung tough for the first mile (6:50 ish) then it was the #1 boy, Isaac, and me for the rest of the run.  I kept the pace pretty steady (~7:00ish) to push him and I talked to him about his form, breathing and motivation to keep him going.  The pace felt really easy, which was very encouraging.  We hit the 3.3M mark at around 24 minutes then hit the downhill back.  I could tell the kids were not used to downhill as I was just coasting and holding back, trying to help Isaac with the mechanics of downhill but he was struggling a bit and never did quite get his breathing or cadence quite right.  We ran steady and hit a final time of 43:11 for the 6.6M (6:36 avg.).  Felt good to help push Isaac (who beat his time from last year by over 1.5 minutes!) and to see how easy this felt.  If I were running this for me, I think I could have easily beaten the time by Jankowski. Overall a good day of running (finished off with about 0.5M cooldown back to the truck).

Stratos 1 - 176 miles

Out early for an easy 7M run on a nice morning.  Just nice and easy today, nothing special.  At lunch I may try to run the course from the Tiger-Grizz XC meet last week (3.125M) to see how close I can come to the times the boys laid down.

Stratos 2 - 185 miles

A beautiful day for a lunch run.  Dan S. and I decided to run the HS XC course (3.125 miles) from last weekend's Tiger-Grizz Inviational.  First lap easy to get to know the course, we ran it in 24:30 and realized it is a pretty hard course.  Then took about 5 minutes to rest for a hard run at it.  I was targeting 18-19 minutes, Dan 23:00.  First mile felt tough and my legs were feeling heavy from the last week and yesterday's hill workout, but hit it in 5:47.  Next mile felt about the same, but with more uphill work (5:54), then mile 3 I was just trying to hang on...6:03.  Last 0.125M is an uphill finish and ran it in 47 seconds (6:20 pace, ouch!).  Overall really happy with the time (18:30) considering the fatigued legs, so I am going to log these as Threshold miles due to the fatigue factor.  I may run this as a last hard workout on Monday, Sept. 29 (taper week) before the TCM and try to get close to the 16:34 winning time from the meet.

Stratos 1 - 182 miles

Wednesday...site day once again which means a very early run (out the door at 4am) for a shorter run and a usually short, if any, run at lunch.  So, 5.5M on a nice morning at a very slow pace.  Felt tired and a bit sore this morning...I think the accumulation of miles over the past week has caught up.  Maybe it will be nice to just have a short easy day today. 

Stratos 2 - 190 miles

Got back from the site early, so I went out for an easy run around Freeman Park on a warm afternoon.  Just nice and easy pace (6:48) for 4.25M to keep the mileage up.

Stratos 1 - 186 miles

Take off for Mesa, AZ tomorrowfor my friend Steve's funeral, so planning a longer run in the morning before driving to SLC for the flight.  Sad occasion, but it will be nice to have the closure, see some old friends and celebrate Steve's life and impact on all of us.

Slept in a little this morning and spent some time with Kami before the run.  Got out the door about 6am for a nice 10M through Snake River Landing to Broadway and back.  Easy but better than usual (6:55 pace) for the entire run which felt great!

Stratos 2 - 200 miles

13M bike ride with Kami after dropping the kids off and school and scanning in pictures of my friend Steve for the collage/slide show tomorrow.  Good pace, once again Kami rode hard and really pushed me.  I will count this as 4M at an easy pace.

Drive to SLC right after lunch then hook up with a couple more friends in Mesa tonight before the funeral activities tomorrow.

7.25M easy down Main Street in Mesa as the sun was coming up.  Running with a nasty hangover is $)#*%!  Averaged 7:30 somehow...therapy before today's activities and my body revolting against the massive amount of cerveza that we drank last night.  Met lots of Steve's family and friends and had a good time remembering his impact on our lives.  Now, off to puke...

Stratos 1 - 193 miles

Nice easy run through Mesa on Main St as the sun was coming up at just under a 7:00 avg.. Felt a lot better this morning (only 1 glass of wine and a shot in Steve's honor last night) and got a bit more sleep.

Flying back to SLC today and driving back to IF with 3 friends. Looking forward to seeing Kami and the kids.

Stratos 1 - 203 miles

7.75M before church this morning on a cool and windy morning. Overall a good run avg. just before 7:00 pace (1M at 6:10!).  A good start to the taper week.

Stratos 2 - 208 miles

Easy 6.25M progression run (7:40-6:45) early on  cool and windy morning. Nothing special to report.  Had to get up very early so we can drive to Pocatello and get on a 8:00 flight for our business trip this week.  Hopefully some more good runs in new places during the taper week.

Stratos 2 - 214 miles

5.5M from the hotel after dinner, which was a huge mistake as the food did not sit at all well with me during the run.  The run was slow due to the stomach issues and I had to hit the bushes as I got back to the hotel...felt a bit better afterwards but man, that was not a good run.  On top of that, the area where our hotel is has horrible lighting and patchy sideways at best.  Most of the run was on worn down paths in the dark, so I was running by feel and luck.

Stratos 1 - 208 miles

5M easy (7:30 pace) early this morning around the streets near the hotel.   The sidewalks and shoulders here suck as there is no room on the road and the sidewalks almost don't exist.  Short this morning due to early start to the day to get to our meetings. I will try to get another short one in this afternoon after we get to our next destination.

Stratos 1 - 213 miles

After some great meetings this morning, we drove to our next meeting location and got the hotel in late afternoon.  I changed and took off from the hotel thru a little neighborhood and found a reservoir with a trail around it and got in some good MP miles (6:15 avg) during daylight.  A good run and a good run for tomorrow morning before more meetings.

Stratos 1 - 219 miles

11M early this morning. Ran to the reservoir and did 4 loops around the 1.9M perimeter pathway in the dark then back to the hotel. Nice run but had to go a bit slower (7:34 avg) to watch my footing on the trail. Nice and peaceful run. Most likely won't get in a run tonight due to schedule nor tomorrow as our flight leaves too early to run before hand.

Stratos 1 - 230 miles

Got done with some more good meetings and facility tours today then drove back to our original hotel by the airport.  After a lighter dinner, went out for a run on a much better road with a good shoulder and much less traffic.  Good evening 5M run except for the bugs which were out again but not biting like they were on Monday night.  Will try for a short run very early before leaving for the airport at 5:20am.

 Stratos 1 - 235 miles

4M VERY early (you don't even want to know), good thing I can sleep on the plane.  Nice and easy (7:16) down the empty road from last night. 

 Good to be heading home, can't wait to see my family.

Stratos 1 - 239 miles  Total time: 29:00

After sleeping in a bit this morning, I got out for a nice 7M easy paced run down Sunnyside.  First 3M were 7:45-7:09, then I ran the last 4M under 7:00 pace, averaging about a 6:45.  Good run and a nice week of tapering.  Tomorrow get in between 8-15M depending on time, running partners and family commitments.

Picking up our new camp trailer today and getting it ready for a camping trip tomorrow, most likely out at Craters of the Moon for its maiden voyage with our family.

Stratos 1 - 246 miles

12.6M this morning with a good group of friends...John Allen from Logan, Andrea and Lynette.  2M warmup to Community Park at about a 7:30 pace, then ran about 7.5M with the group at an easy 7:50ish pace through Snake River landing and back.  3M back home with Jon at about a 6:30 pace felt really good. 

Now off to coach a soccer game then go camping with the family at Craters of the Moon.  UPDATE:  Craters campground was closed, so we camped up at Warm Springs near Ashton instead (got to see the colors changing on the trees, it was gorgeous!).

Stratos 2 - 228 miles  Total time: ~1:33

We had a great time camping last night up near Ashton and the camper is awesome, perfect for our family right now and easy to tow behind my 1/2 ton pickup.  We had all the stuff we needed to outfit in already from our tent camping supplies, so set up was a snap once we got the site.  Had a great time with the family hiking, cooking, playing games.  Got up after a long night sleep in the warmth of the camper (sweet!) and made a good breakfast, played around with the kids then broke camp (25 minutes to get it all packed up!  Awesome, I am going to love this!) then headed home.

Went out for a 5M run in mid afternoon and hit some decent splits, avg. 6:25 for the run.  Got up to goal MP at TCM (or even better at points) for portions of the run and it felt great except for the side stitch at 2.5M that took about 0.5M to get rid off. 

Stratos 2 - 233 miles

4M easy early this morning to help front load the taper week.  Decent pace (7:15 avg) for an early morning run, getting psyched for TCM this weekend.  Forecast right now for TCM...scattered showers, low 50, high 68.  Temp perfect, not happy about the showers but things can change in 6 days!

Can you believe what Haile did at Berlin...2:03:59 for a 4:44 average pace!  Amazing!

Stratos 2 - 237 miles

Great 6M run at lunch on an awesome day.   1M warmup with Pat B (7:20), 2M at Threshold pace (5:35, 5:26), 2.5 at MP (5:58, 5:48, 5:50ish) and a 0.25M cooldown back to the office.  Overall the pace felt very manageable and comfortable, though the 5:26 mile was fatiguing and took my breath away a bit.  A good last hard paced run before TCM.  Ran in my Tangent's that I am planning on using for the race just to make sure they are feeling good and are comfortable.

Saucony Tangent 3 - 32 miles

Great 7M run on a beautiful day at lunch.  Ran the first mile with Dan S. and Jeff F. at a nice and esay pace.  I then picked it up to a comfortably easy pace for the remaining 6M, around a 6:35 average.  Very good run for my last longer taper week run.  Next couple of days only 4-5 miles each, Friday off then Saturday 2-4 miles.

Stratos 1 - 253 miles