Philippians 4:13

8M on a beautiful morning...56 degrees, no wind crispness in the air.  Started off slow and not too motivated (8:15) then saw a rabbit up ahead about 1/2 mile and kicked it into gear for the rest of the run averging about a 6:45 pace which felt pretty good.  Nice start to the week. 

Time: 56:00  (Stratos 2 - 26 miles)

8M early this morning on the standard pathway.  Started way slow, then bumped up to around a 7:30 avg. for the last 7M.  Good early morning run, nothing to write home about. 

Total time: 1:01:30 (Stratos 2 - 34 miles)

Stayed late at home to get the kids off to their first day of school, then had to head right to the site for a meeting and got back late for lunch.  Got out for a quick 5M run in hot and very windy weather (probably windiest day in IF this summer!).  Overall an ok run, but couldn't get my energy level up for a tempo run.

Total time: 32:56  (Stratos 1 - 68 miles)

1M with the soccer team for a scrimmage helping the kids understand positioning, spacing and passing to get ready for Wedneday nights game.  Got a good sweat up!

7M early this morning on a VERY WINDY day...felt like a hurricane out there at times, especially when I was heading south.  Luckily, most of the run was down Sunnyside Road which is an east/west connector so I just had a heavy cross-wind for the run.  Overall a decent run for 4:15 in the morning.  Left hamstring was a bit tight during the run, but not worried about it right now.

I talked with my friend Pat who ran and won the Mesa Falls marathon last weekend.  He indicated that the portions of the run on the gravel road (13 or so miles) were especially tough this year as it was very dry, washboard and slippery and let his calves really feeling strained.  With this in mind, I am really rethinking running Salmon as nearly 20 miles of the race are on gravel roads and I am sure they will be no better than those in Island Park for the Mesa Falls race.  I just don't think I need/want to cause that much strain on my body before TCM just for a training race and a possible win in the marathon.  I would rather be fresh and healthy heading into the Master's championships with a solid last few weeks of training.  I will likely call the RD in the next day or two to discuss this more, but I am leaning heavily to not running.

Total time:  55:30  (Statos 2 - 41 miles)

5.25M around the greenbelt on a very windy day with Pat B.  He is still recovering from Mesa Falls marathon, so we just took it easy and had a great conversation about work, family, running.

Total time: 41:30 (Stratos 1 - 73 miles)

4.5M very early this morning on the Sunnyside route as it a my usual Wednesday at the site.  Easy first mile, then ran the rest at about a 7:35 avg.  Overall felt really good.  I will try to get another 4-5M in at lunch today. 

(Stratos 2 - 46 miles)

4M at lunch in between meetings and tours.  Went hard to simulate race pace for this weekend and ended up avg. 5:55 for the run.  I was not too happy with my power/kick, but the turnover felt pretty good.

Total time: 23:40  (Stratos 1 - 77 miles)

Easy 5M on a cooler morning down the standard Sunnyside road route.  Legs felt great this morning as I started my mini-taper for Saturday's race.  The pace was easy, but I ended up with last couple of miles just under 7:30 and it felt like 8:00 pace.  I will get a 5 miler in at lunch today at around a 7:00 pace just to keep the legs fresh for the race.

Total time: 38:45  (Stratos 2 -  51 miles)

5.75M easy around the greenbelt at lunch, running with Dan and Pat.  We ran easy (7:30ish) and just talked the whole time.  About 4M in, I had some serious intestinal distress and had to make a stop at 4.5M and it never really got much better for the rest of the run.

My GPS battery died right before the run...the avg. battery life is getting crappy right now (maybe 7 hours), anyone else with a 205 having issues with their batteries?  I am going to check the Garmin website and send them a note.

Stratos 1 - 83 miles

Day off today so I slept in a little and got out for an easy 6M at around 5:30am.  Nice day, good temp and no wind.  Ran down through Snake River Landing to get a little rolling hill work and ended up averaging 7:17 for the run, the last 3M just under 7:00 pace.

total time: 43:38 

After dropping the kids off at school, Kami and I went out for 4M from our house over to Community Park for a lap and back home (her normal route).  Ran into some friends and chatted for a bit.  Kami did great averaging 9:00 pace and making it look easy.

Looking forward to tomorrow's race!

Stratos 2 - 61 miles

Great day today.  Got up early and caught a ride down to Pocatello with Lynette and McKay.  Once there, met up with Andrea and did a 3M warmup then got on the buses to the start.  Stomach issues from yesterday continuing but not too bad up to the start.  Right before we get on the buses, see a young guy in an ISU warmup suit and chat with him for a bit.  He indicated a goal of 1:10, so I knew I was in trouble for the overall win. 

At the start, the weather had settled down and the high winds in Poky had died out in Inkom at the start.  This race is all rolling hills despite what the profile shows so keeping a consistent and maintainable pace is the trick.  The gun goes off.

1- 5:21   Go out hard with the ISU guy, John Ricardi.  The pace feels ok, but I know that I likely cannot sustain it for the whole 13 so I back off to run my race and let him go. 

2- 5:34  Just crusing through the rollers.

3- 5:41  A bit more uphill here but still rolling and passing marathoners.

4-5:49  More hills.

5- 5:32  A bit of downhill section so I pick up the pace.

6- 5:39  Still feeling really good.  The next mile is where I got my side stitch last year so I just focus on nice a steady running

7- 5:45  Feeling good.  Take a Gu right about here.

8- 6:06  The hill under the freeway up to Century high school.  Not too long but a momentum killer.

9- 5:58  Over the worst of the hill and now just catching my breathe and rolling on the uphill through here.

10- 5:49  Breathe back, but now starting to feel a little intestinal distress.

11- 5:51  Intestinal issues getting a little worse, just focusing on keeping consistent.

12- 5:55  Ok, insides not feeling good.  Trying to decide whether to stop at a porta pottie or keep going...I keep going.

13- Made the turns into the park and I can see the finish...and the blue huts!

0.13 - 0:45  Finish with all that my insides will allow.

Overall I secured a second place finish, the 1st Master and take 3 minutes off my time from last year!  Young ISU runner John smoked the run in 1:09:xx with a great race.

As for our little IF running group, Andrea won 1st overall in the HM, Lynette was 1st Master just behind her and McKay was 3rd in his AG!  Not to bad for the IF group.

Afterwards, did a 2M cool down with Lynette, then a 4.9M cooldown with Andrea.  After the awards, my family had driven down after my daugther's soccer game and we spent the afternoon at the Ross Park water Park.  What a great day!

Kory W. deserves huge kudos for a smoking 2:36, new course record and outrunning Chuck Engle!  His training was superb and he peak just right to blow the marathon away!

Tangent 3 - 26 miles