dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran easy with my brother at about 7:30pm.  We averaged about 7:15 pace throughout.

I felt good, but I kept the run short because I just started running recently after a stress fracture. 31 min.

I haven't been running much since my stress fracture and this is the first time that I have run three days in a row since I got injured.  Because of this I kept the pace slow at about 7:30 pace.

I probably shouldn't have run so many miles today, but I felt ok so I kept going for a while after I should have stopped.  I went running at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington with my brother, some of his friends and their high school cross country coach Ben Mangrum.  The run was through lots of trails and was pretty muddy with lots of rolling hills.  That kept it a bit slower, but we were still running at about a 7:00 pace throughout (although the effort felt more like a 6:30).  Because I went farther than I should have I will probably only run a couple of miles tomorrow just to get moving for a little while.

I traveled back to Utah from Washington today.  My day started really early going to the airport after I stayed up late getting ready to leave.  I took a nap on the plane and then after getting to Provo I had to move.  My initial plan was to run a couple of miles after I got into Provo, however I grossly underestimated how long it would take me to move and organize my things.  By the time I was done it was already past 9:30pm and I was so tired at this point that I just went to sleep.

I ran with Sasha and Ted this morning for the first time since the beginning of November.  I felt fine, but I was more tired later then I should have been due to not being used to the mileage and the lack of sleep.We ran really slow because of all of the snow on the ground and the temperature when we began our run was 19 degrees

I decided that I needed to keep my run short because I am afraid to do too much too soon.  I kept the pace easy but a little faster than yesterday because there was not quite as much snow on the trail and I was running later in the afternoon.

my hips have started bothering me again.  It is a problem that I have had off and on since my freshman year in college, where my hips get out of alignment and I begin to experience pain in the socket area of the hip joint on one side.  It won't take too long for me to fix the problem, but I decided to take today off in order to be safe.

my hip wasn't hurting as much today, but I ran indoors to make sure that nothing was wrong and so that I could stop immediately if it started to hurt.  I felt fine but my hip did feel a little tight near the end of the run

my hip is feeling a lot better than it did on Wednesday when it hurt the worst, but worse than it felt yesterday.  I think that after today I should be fine and I hope that I should be able to run every day from here on out.  It didn't hurt too much today, but there was a little discomfort at times when I would move around while at work or just doing other things during the day.

I ran with Sasha in the afternoon. We were running at about a 7:00 pace and it felt fairly relaxed, but we picked it up to about 6:30 pace for the last few miles. This felt harder than it should have due to the snow and ice. It also made me realize that I still have a ways to go before I really start getting back into shape again.  In the afternoon my knee started to act up a little bit.  I think that this is because my body is just getting used to running again and everything should be fine.

I ran with Sasha and Ted in the morning and I felt pretty good. My hips weren't acting up at all, and my knee wasn't bothering me either, so I felt pretty good about things.  I did feel really tired later on in the day, so I think that I need to make sure I sleep lots as I slowly get back into shape again.

I just went out for a short run in the afternoon.  I kept the pace nice and slow.  Nothing eventful happened.

I could have run today, but I decided to take the day off as I am slowly getting back into shape.  I plan on running every day for the rest of the week and hopefully starting next week I will be feeling in shape enough to run every day without getting myself hurt.  I have had way more aches and pains then I anticipated coming back from the stress fracture.

I felt good this morning. At the start of our run it was only 3 degrees at the airport, so I can't say that it was very comfortable but thats how life in Utah is in mid January. I didn't get very much sleep last night so I was pretty tired but the run itself was not bad. My hips did feel a little tight which means that I probably need to make sure that they are staying in alignment.

nothing spectacular.  I went nice and slow and finished my run in just over 29 minutes.

I was going to run 10 miles but I decided to do 9 instead because I figured that 35 would be a nice round number for the week.  I started out pretty slow but I picked up the pace over time and I finished in about 1:02:30

I was going to go out with Sasha and Ted in the morning but they forgot to tell me that they decided to meet an hour later than normal, so I ran on my own.  There was a lot of new snow on the ground so it was kind of nice to run in fresh snow instead of the packed stuff that I have gotten used to.

I was going to do 4 miles but I was really busy all day so I finally forced myself away from my work at about 9pm to get in a quick 3 miles.  I kept the pace at about 7:30 throughout.

I was really tired this morning because I did not get enough sleep last night.  I ran with Sasha and Ted and it was a little cold, but not too bad.  My hip is acting up again.  It is not painful yet but I better make sure that I do my stretches and everything correctly so that I can keep building mileage without getting hurt.  I also need to make sure that I sleep more.

I ran easy with Sasha and Ted in the morning.  Nothing spectacular.  We just kept it nice and slow.

I kept the pace fairly quick.  I was able to time one mile on my way home and it was 6:18.  That is good since there was still snow on the ground and I didn't feel like I was killing myself to run a 6:18.  I ended up finishing my run in 55+ min.

I got to sleep way to late last night (3am) so that kind of killed my day and I didn't run in the morning, but I got out later on and I had a good run.  My hips felt better today than they have in a while.  They felt great through 7.5 and then tightened up a bit the last 1.5 miles.  So I was happy about that even though they tightened up the last little bit.

It is hard to truly classify this run as easy, but that is closer than any of the other classifications.  I ran indoors because I was sick of always bundling up every time I wanted to run.  I really tried to keep the pace slower, however through 4 miles I was at 26:58 because I get excited every time I step onto a track and I can't help myself.  I kept the last mile slow for the first three laps, but then I finally decided that I didn't care and that I wanted to run fast instead of trying to slow down the entire time, so I picked up the pace and ran somewhere in the range of a 70 second 4th lap and finally a 57 second final lap.  So, I finished in 33:12, which is just a shade under 6:40 pace.

I have to say that this was probably the slowest run I have gone on in my entire life.  I ran with Sasha at 5am and due to the time, and the fact that there was snow all over the ground, and because we were chatting a fair amount, it was slow.  We finished the 10.1 miles in 1:26:41 (I could be wrong about the exact time, but close enough) which puts us on the wrong side of 8:30 per mile.  I honestly think that when I went on the occasional run with my dad around the age of 10 that we probably went faster than that.  So it was very slow, but I guess I can't say it was a bad thing.  Maybe I wont get hurt this time around because I haven't run more than .4 miles at faster than 6 minute pace since I started running again.

So, I accidentally overslept this morning and I missed my morning class.  I guess that it helps in a sense because it helps me catch up on my sleep which I don't get enough of although my grades will probably suffer.  I ran in the evening after work and I kept the mileage low.  Nothing special to report except that my hips are slowly feeling better.  Each week they seem to feel a little better as I adjust to running again and I increase the mileage.

I ran with Sasha this morning and I felt pretty good.  I only got 7 hours of sleep, but that is the most sleep I have gotten on a morning that I get up to run with Sasha in a while.  At least I felt more awake than I normally do which was good.  We kept the pace really slow at the beginning because we were slipping a lot on the fresh snow that came down right before we left to run.  We made it through 2 miles in just under 18 minutes and it looked like we were going to repeat our run from Wednesday.  However, after that we started to settle into the run a little better and I think that the snow started to settle a bit, which helped our traction on the ground so we were not slipping so much.  We had made up enough time to catch up to an 8:30 average by the 10k mark, and shortly thereafter we settled into a pace in the mid 7 minute range.  We finished around 1:23:00 which is still pretty slow, but considering the conditions not so bad, and certainly better than on Wednesday.

Todays run was good.  I felt relaxed and I didn't feel stiff or sore at all.  about 7 miles into the run, I put in 1.05 miles at 5:50 which felt good.  I was supposed to be going marathon race pace, but considering my level of fitness right now it felt more like 1/2 marathon race pace.  Even still, I was not pushing it too hard and I felt good, so I felt happy knowing that I still have the ability to pick it up every once in a while

I felt somewhat tired this morning while Sasha and I were running.  Part of it I am sure is because I only got 5 hours of sleep last night, but I can't help but think that I am still a little tired after running 10 and 12 miles on Friday and Saturday.  I will see how I feel tomorrow after getting a little more sleep before I come to any conclusions as to whether or not I might be building mileage too quickly or not.  We finished our run in around 1:19:00 so it was good.  Not quite as slow as some of our recent workouts, even with fresh snow on the ground.

I got out later than I wanted to, but I ended up getting out around 7:15pm.  The path I was running on was either completely dry, or really icy in places for the first mile, and I almost fell 4 times during that section of my run on the way out and the way back.  The rest of the run wasn't too bad and I finished the run in 1:00:30.  I felt really good and I almost didn't turn around at 4 miles, however I decided that I needed to stick to my plan, so I turned around and headed back in.  Overall a good run.  One of the only runs in the last while where I have noticed no tightness or discomfort in my hip, which is really good and shows me that my body is adapting well to running again

I ran with Sasha again this morning and due to the trail being better than it has been in a while, we were moving pretty good.  This was the first time that we have broken 1:15:00 for the course since I started running with Sasha again and only the second time we have broken 1:20:00.  We finished in 1:14:19 which is about a 7:21 pace and it didn't feel too fast.  It felt like we were working no harder than we normally do when we are running slower than 8:00 pace.  We hit a couple of miles under 6:40 in one of the drier areas.  Overall a good run.  My hip also was not bothering me during the run, but after we had finished I started feeling a little tightness and soreness, so I will need to stretch my hip out later to get it more loose.  At least it didn't bother me while I was running.  I think it is just sore now because I did my run last night late and then got up early to run this morning so I got both runs done in a 12 hour period which I am not quite used to as of yet.

nothing spectacular, I will probably try to add a few miles to my Thursday run next week. I finished in 31:43

I ran with Sasha this morning and I felt good.  I was messing around with the guys at work yesterday and my back was kind of sore (I was wrestling three guys, not at the same time, but they weigh between 20 and 90 pounds more than I do).  I shouldn't do that anymore.  Anyhow my back felt ok but I didn't want to push it just to be safe.  We finished our run in 1:19:16 and stayed fairly consistent with our pace the last 4 miles.

I kept the pace slow for the most part. I stayed at about 7:30 pace for the first 8 miles or so. I then started speeding up slowly over the next few miles and at about mile 10 I sped up to about 6:30 pace for about 1.5 and then slowed down a little before the end. I finished in 1:28:58.

It is somewhat deceptive to say that I got 4.5 hours sleep last night because I took naps yesterday which when added up give me another 4 hours of sleep.  I woke up from the second nap a little before 10pm so that practically should count as night sleep time anyhow.  Anyways I ran with Sasha this morning and we finished the 10 miles in 1:09:39 by my watch.  We ran the last mile in 5:49 because we wanted to beat the 7 minute guy, however we were in the low 6 minute range for a couple miles before this.  I felt good, and I like the fact that the trail is finally getting clear of ice and snow.  It is still wet and slippery in places, but not too bad.

I ran in the afternoon today and due to the warmer weather I got excited and before I knew it I was running sub 7:00 pace and didn't even feel like I was trying.  After a couple miles or so I realized what I was doing and I tried to slow down just a little bit, but all I ended up doing was stabilize my pace so that I stopped speeding up.  I ended up running 1:13:59 which is pretty much right at 6:40 pace.  I will probably need to make sure that I go slower tomorrow morning.  My hip felt good today too.  I felt some tightness at times but there was no soreness after the run was over which is good.

I ran with Sasha and Ted this morning.  I felt less tired than I normally do at 5am because I got more sleep than I normally do the night before.  The run seemed to go by faster than normal which might have something to do with the fact that we ran 6 with Ted and then went out and did another 4 after we dropped him off.  My hip tightened up after we finished, but the tightness and soreness was minimal, so that is good.

I don't know why, but I was feeling really tired all day today even though I ran in the evening and I got plenty of sleep (I accidentally slept in and missed my first class).  it took me 6 or 7 miles to finally warm into the run and feel comfortable speeding up even a little.  I am not quite sure why.  Everything else felt fine.

I got to Sasha's house late this morning and they had already left so I had to go a little faster than normal at the beginning so that I could catch up to them. I made it through 2 miles in 13:14 and I wasn't feeling quite as tired as yesterday. I finished the run in 1:06:38 which is just under 6:40 pace. Overall good day, but even though I wasn't as tired as yesterday I still did not feel completely normal considering the pace. Somewhat tired still.  I finished in 1:02:20

Ran 6 miles with Sasha and Ted, then did 6 more with Sasha.  Finished in 1:23:30 (I think).  I felt fine, but later on in the day I was feeling really tired.  I think that my body is just adjusting to increasing my mileage so I should be fine.

Ran with Sasha and Ted this morning.  First did 6 miles with Ted and then 4 more with Sasha.  We finished in 1:13:59.

Ran at 5:30 with Sasha and Josie?  We threw in a couple stretches where we sped up to about 6:20 pace but other than that we stayed fairly slow.  Finished in 1:16:57

Considering the lack of sleep I got last night I felt really good this morning, however I had no desire to go faster than about 7:20 pace. I was up late trying to get things ready so that I can leave for California this afternoon. I will try to get in some quality miles tomorrow, but I can't see myself getting more than 4 miles on Friday and I probably wont run on Saturday so that should leave me with about 40-45 miles for the week. It should be a nice off week to help me feel rested and strong again, and then I can get back into things next week and start building miles again the week after. Being married should help me get more consistent sleep as well, since I wont be staying up on the phone until midnight every night and then getting up at 5 or 6 the next morning. So I am excited for everything, I get married on Friday at 11am in the Oakland temple.

I ran with my brother this morning along a trail in a nature preserve in Newark, CA.  We didn't go too fast, but we kept the pace right around 7:00 for the 15 miles and we finished in just over 1:45:00.  It felt good.  This is the longest I have run all at once since I started running again.  My hip started getting tight at about mile 12 but it never got very bad and there was no pain.  After we finished I think my brother was feeling it a little and he mentioned later in the day that he was sore.  I felt fine, but I guess that comes from doing more long runs in the past that are much longer than the run we did today.  I am planning on doing about 4 miles tomorrow morning before the wedding, however my parents are trying to talk me out of it so we will see.

I am getting married in 4 hours so I better be quick.  I only ran 4 miles this morning because my parents absolutely did not want me to run 8 like I was planning to do with my brother.  I felt just a little sore after running 15 miles yesterday, but after I warmed into it I felt fine.  I sped up on the way back for no reason other than that I felt like it.  I went out in 15, came back in less.  I don't know the time, because my brother was keeping time and I didn't have my watch with me.

I ran about 30 min after eating so I took it slower than I would have otherwise.  I finished in 57:30.  For some reason I felt more tired than I would have thought after not running 3 days in a row.  It is probably from the somewhat irregular sleep I have gotten the last few nights.

I felt good while running today but I felt kind of sore later on.  It seems strange due to the fact that I have been running more miles than I have run in the last week and a half yet I didn't get sore before.  Some of the soreness might be due to finishing my run last night at about 9:40 and then running again only 7.5 hours later.  We finished the run in 1:12:36 and we were consistently under 7:00 pace over the last few miles.

I was kind of in a hurry today since I needed to get to class so I cut my run 1 mile shorter than I had planned and I ran faster over the 9 miles than I was planning.  I started out with a 7:08 first mile and then started speeding up.  When I was nearing on the 2 mile mark I saw a guy riding a bike in front of me.  I have a tendency to get excited when I see someone on a bike, at least when they are not going too fast and when I saw this guy I decided to run him down.  I ended up running a 5:52 mile to catch him (the second 1/2 mile I did in 2:46) and then I stayed at 6:00 pace for the next mile and a half until I turned around in order to stay in front of him.  He ended up turning around before me so I couldn't see the biker at first.  I slowed down for a while, but after 2.5 miles I caught sight of him again, so I sped up in order to run him down again.  I averaged just under 6:00 pace over the last 2 miles and I finished in 56:41.  I felt strong, but I was really tired later on in the day.

I felt good today.  I wasn't near as tired or stiff as I was yesterday or the day before but my achilles did feel slightly stiff for the first few minutes.  I was really consistent throughout the run which was good, and I finished in 1:09:56.  My fastest mile for the run was in 6:48 (coming when I decided to run down a guy on a bike) and my slowest mile was a 7:12 (immediately following the 6:48 so that I wouldn't get too far under a 7:00 average).  Later on my hip started to feel kind of sore, but otherwise I felt fine.

I kept the pace fairly easy but not too slow.  I was averaging about 7:15 per mile through 10 miles.  I then sped up to about 7:00 pace for the next two miles.  At this point I decided to put in a fast mile and I ran 1 mile in 5:40 (1:27, 1:26, 1:24, 1:23).  As you can see I slowly sped up each quarter of the mile, however I was not trying to go any faster after the first quarter it just kind of happened.  I felt good and I could have gone fast for longer, but I didn't think it would be smart so I slowed down a bit.  I finished in 1:45:59

I went running with my wife Kimia.  She rode the bike while I ran.  We kept the pace pretty slow and after about 3 miles we ran into Sasha who was coming home from a run.  We went with him back to his house and visited with his family for a while.  We then ran home and after getting home I went back out for a bit to end up with 8.2.  I have no clue how long it took because I had no watch with me, plus it was all broken up, so I don't really know anything other than the distance.

Due to getting lots of sleep on Sunday and taking a nap yesterday afternoon, I had trouble falling asleep last night, but at least I was resting even if I only slept 6 hours.  I ran with Sasha and Josse this morning and we kept the pace pretty slow.  We made it to the half way point in about 40 minutes and finished in 1:17:30.  Overall nothing too spectacular to report, but I felt fine physically whereas last week I was feeling pretty tired for much of the week, even when I got plenty of sleep.

ran with Sasha at 5:00am. We started out in 7:53 but quickly sped up to sub 7:00 pace and we finished in 1:09:07.  I felt good but I was tired from not sleeping enough the night before.

I ran with Sasha and Adam this morning. I felt less tired today because I got more sleep last night than the previous two nights. We started out about the same speed as normal and didn't go too fast over the first 4 miles with the exception of a 1300 that Sasha and I did in 4:17 in order to gain on Adam and then to catch him after taking a pit stop. At about 4 miles we sped up to about 6:50 pace and then around 7.1 miles we slowly picked up the pace to the finish. We ended in 1:09:03.

So, the night sleep time that I got last night is actually somewhat deceptive.  I was in bed around 10pm however I had trouble sleeping so I didn't get much rest last night.  I ended waking up late when I got a phone call from Sasha wondering where I was.  So, I cut my run a mile short because of the late start but I don't think that is a big deal since I still got in 9 miles.  We ended up meeting up with a couple other people while we were out running and ran the last couple miles with them.  We finished the 9 miles in 1:05:21 after which the other 3 all left and finished their runs.

I averaged about 6:40 for the first 4.5 miles after which I met up with my brother and one of his friends who had both just ran a 1500 at a jamboree track meet for their high school, so I ran 7 miles with them as it was their cool down after the race.  We met up with a dog about 4-5 miles from my house and the dog followed us home, so we had an extra running partner that evidently wanted to kill itself as it kept running in front of cars while we were running with it.  After getting home I ran an extra 3 miles to end in about 1:38:00 for the run.  The dog was still at my house and we didn't want it to die (it is just a puppy) so we put it in the back yard and closed the gate.  We called animal control so that it could get picked up, but animal control never came and as of Sunday evening it was still in the backyard.  I flew home from Washington Sunday evening and the dog was still there, but I think my family was hoping that animal control would pick it up on Monday at some point.

I went out averaging 7:00 pace for the first 4 miles after which I decided to throw in 2 miles hard at the 6 mile mark. So, in anticipation of this, I sped up a bit and made it to the 6 mile mark in 41:36. I then ran 2 miles in 10:48 (5:23, 5:25) which felt a little fast, but I think that if someone was with me I might have been able to hold a 5:25 pace for 5 miles. I also felt like if I had just dropped the pace down to 5:30 I could have held it significantly longer than 5 miles. Maybe I am wrong, but that is how I felt so I think that it is positive. It is the first time I have done more than 1 mile at a fast pace since the Saint George marathon (maybe) so it has been a while. I then slowed down to about a 7:45 average over the last 2 miles to finish in 1:07:55.

I ran with Sasha, Josse, Ted and Adam this morning.  Adam had already been running for a bit so he only ran 1 mile with us and then turned around, but I ran 6 miles with the others and then 4 more with Sasha and Josse (slightly less with Sasha due to his frequent vpb stops).  Finished in 1:18:42

I accidentally slept in this morning, but I woke up a little after 5 so I still had the time to get out and run before I needed to be in class.  This is good, because the morning is the only time I have on Wednesday to go running.  I went out a little quicker than normal because I was a little late, but I didn't have any miles faster than about 6:30.  My first mile was about 7:50 but after that I sped up pretty quickly.  I met up with Sasha about half way through the run.  He had left without me when I didn't show up at his house and I ran about 4 miles with him averaging just under 6:40 per mile while I was with him.  I then came back to my house and ran a little extra to get to 10 miles for the day bringing my total time for the run to 1:07:45.

I ran with Sasha this morning, and I did my first real tempo run in months (unless you count the 2 miles I ran hard on Monday or a couple of quick miles I have done here and there).  We ran our standard 5 mile tempo.  We started out a little too quickly for me, as I thought that I would be able to go faster than I could.  I think that I am just a little tired.  I should get a little more sleep than I have been and I don't think that my body has quite adjusted to the mileage yet but it is coming.  Anyhow, we ran a 5:32 first mile then 5:30.  At this point I started to not feel so good, and we slowed down to a 5:38 for the 3rd mile (which includes a turn around) followed by a 5:37 and a 5:40 to finish with a total time of 27:57.  This is not a bad time for this particular course however I should have been able to go faster.  I should probably not do any speed work next week before re-evaluating and deciding if I can start it up again.

I ran with Sasha at 6:45 this morning.  We met at my house again so it was a little longer to get out and back.  We kept it pretty slow for the first while and then slowly started speeding up.  We finished in 1:20:28.

I didn't want to be out for too long today so I decided to keep the pace a little quicker than normal.  I started out in 6:57 for the first mile and then sped up from there.  I made it through 4.5 in 29:35 then I made it through 9.1 in 1:00:02.  I went through 13.6 in 1:28:57 and finished in 1:38:31 for an average pace of 6:31.  I felt kind of sluggish at the beginning and I actually slowed down on purpose about 5 miles in but then at about mile 9 I started speeding up without realizing it and I felt good towards the end.

I didn't get enough sleep last night so I should have gone slower today, but I was in a time crunch so I went a little faster than I should have.  My first mile was a 6:43 and I think that it might have been my slowest mile of the run.  I made it through the half way mark in 32:45 which was a little faster than I was planning on even with the time crunch.  I decided to slow down the second half just a little bit, but that didn't happen and I finished the run in 1:04:38

I ran with Sasha, Josse and Hyrum this morning.  We dropped Hyrum off after 2 miles and then we decided to do the normal 10 mile run that we do and we ran that finishing in 1:32:54 with everything combined.

I ran with Sasha at 5am this morning and we kept the pace fairly easy but not too easy.  I could tell that Sasha wanted to go faster than we were going because he kept pushing just a little in front of me.  I didn't feel like going faster than about 6:50 pace so for the most part I held back until the end when Sasha asked if I wanted to break 1:10:00 for the run.  I said sure, so we sped up and ended up running a 1:22 last quarter to finish in 1:09:49

I ran to Sasha's house this morning.  I was going to run with him and Hyrum, but Hyrum didn't show up so it was just the two of us.  we ran out to the 4 mile mark and then back to my house which gave us 8.5 plus running to Sasha's house gave me another 1.5 for a total of 10.  I felt more awake this morning and I was able to start out a little faster than I have been lately during the morning.  There was also some nasty wind while Sasha and I were heading out.  It reminded me why I hate windy races so much.  Finished in 1:14:54

I worked late last night so I didn't get up this morning to run early and I slept in. Luckily I had time in the afternoon before I went to work to go running.  I started out with a 7:14 mile.  After that I subconsciously started speeding up and nearing on the 2 mile mark I realized it and I thought to myself that I was going a little fast.  At the same time I didn't even realize I had sped up until I was only about 400m from the 2 mile mark.  So I just maintained my speed until the 2 mile mark and when I went through that mile in 6:33 I thought that it might be better to slow down.  So I slowed down to about 6:55 per mile average for the next while.  I then warmed into a 6:45-6:50 average approximately for the last few miles.  I finished in 1:16:15

I ran with Sasha, Tyler, Josse, Cody, and Steve this morning.  It was the biggest group I have run with in quite a while.  We were pacing Josse through the uneventful half and we started out at close to 7:00 pace.  We were pretty much right on 7:00 pace through 6.6 (maybe a little slower) and then we slowly started to slow down until we hit about 7:50 pace around mile 10 or 11.  We then sped up a little to about 7:30 pace for mile 12 and we hit the last mile in 7:03 to pace Josse through a 1:34:50 for the half marathon (Sasha had a 1:34:51 by his watch but I like the even number better and that is what my watch had).  I then went out for 4 more miles after we finished.  I ran the first 2 miles with Sasha, Steve, and Cody running a 5:46 and a 5:40.  I then slowed down a bit and cruised back to Sasha's house alone for the last 2 miles running them in 12:54.  Total time for 17.1 miles 1:59:10.

I took it fairly easy today.  I virtually ran without a watch because I didn't look at it until mile 4.5 and not again until 6.6 and then finally at 10.1 and the end.  I sped up a good deal from a bit past mile 5 until mile 6.6 because I only intended to run 10 miles but then I accidentally past up my mark and I wanted to run a set distance that I already knew so I ran extra.  I finished in 1:18:05.  I also rode my bike up into north orem today.  It took about 25-30 min and it was mostly uphill the entire way.  Maybe I should post how much I ride my bike on a more regular basis.

I ran this morning with Sasha, Josse, and Brad at 5:30 and we just did our normal 10.1 like always.  We kept the pace fairly slow.  I don't think that we had any miles faster than about 7:30 but I am not sure because I wasn't checking the time.  We finished in 1:18:03 for 10.1

In the evening Kimia wanted to go biking so I ran while she rode my bike.  Again, I kept the pace nice and slow and we went for 4 miles in 30:31.  After we finished Kimia said that she wanted to ride a little longer because she didn't feel like she got a real workout so as I write this she is still outside riding the bike for a little longer.  Maybe one day she will be able to run with me, even if it is slow. 

I have to say that this is the most worn out I have felt in a long time.  I actually made it to bed a little after 9pm last night but I didn't fall asleep until a little after 10.  Add on top of that, the fact that I ran twice yesterday for the first time in a long time, and in essence I worked out twice on Monday when I rode my bike up into north orem and also ran 11 miles.  So, all added together I feel completely worn out.  I hope that I can sleep better tonight because I feel dead right now.  Anyhow, I ran with Sasha at 5am this morning.  We did our normal out and back along the Provo river trail.  We started off a little faster this morning than usual going through the first mile in 7:3?. After that we settled into a pace around 7:00 until the end when we sped up a little over the last couple miles.  We finished in 1:10:10

I woke up last night at about 12:30 with some nasty gas and abdominal pain.  I ended up spending pretty much every waking moment from that point until about 3:30 the next afternoon in the bathroom sitting on the toilet.  As you can also see based on the sleep time listed above, I also slept quite a bit.  I might have actually slept more but I am not sure.  Anyhow, once I was finally done on the toilet I felt good pretty quick, however at this point my wife had already said that I was not allowed to go running toady because I was sick.  Otherwise I would have gone running but one day off is not going to kill me.

I ran today while my wife Kimia rode the bike.  We started off a little quicker than I normally do I think in part because she was on the bike running a 6:59 first mile.  After that she slowly started to speed up without even realizing it, so I just decided to go her pace with her and see how fast it took us.  We then ran the second mile in 6:41 followed by a 6:14 and a 5:47.  At this point I decided to slow down and I let her know that it was time to slow down a bit.  She slowed down but seemed somewhat antsy for the next couple of miles almost like she liked going faster but couldn't because she was with me.  We kept a decent pace until 9.1 miles when I decided that I wanted to speed up a bit.  We then ran a 6:20 up to 10.1 and then slowed down to a 7:10 for the last mile because Kimia started to not feel so good.  Finished in 1:14:25

I ran with Sasha and Tyler this morning.  The other two had done a fast tempo run the day before so they were both tired from it and didn't want to go very fast.  So, we started off slow and through 4 miles we were at 31:40.  We sped up a little after that but not too much.  At about 10.5 a guy named Matt caught up to us and we started running with him.  We dropped off Tyler at 15.1 after which I did one more mile with Sasha and Matt and then came home.  Total time 2:08:29.  I was getting antsy and wanted to go faster for a while, but I guess it is good not to throw in too many fast miles especially since I was sick earlier in the week.

I thought that my stomach issues were done with after last thursday, but I guess that they still need a little more time to be resolved.  I forgot to take a watch today, so I don't know how long I was running for, but I ended up soiling mother earth twice on my run today, which is very out of the ordinary for me.  I stopped first a little past 2.25 and then a little past 5 miles.  The second stop was particularly bad as nothing solid made its way out of me.  I also had continued stomach discomfort throughout the run.  On the plus side I kept my 13 year streak of not throwing up intact even though I didn't feel too great.  This is a gross post, but I guess it is not any worse than dinner conversations my family had when I was in High School.  So, I am glad I got it over with and still got my mileage in.

It is hard to say that I actually got 7.5 hours of sleep last night although I fell asleep 7.5 hours before I got out of bed in the morning.  I woke up for decent stretches during the night because my wife was having trouble sleeping and she kept waking me up.  That is life I guess.  Anyhow, we went really slow this morning.  Probably because it was cold.  I finished in 1:35:04 to average 7:55 pace for the run.  I guess that I need days like this every once in a while.

I ran with Sasha at 5am this morning and I felt good.  At times lately I have just felt kind of run down and tired but that was not the case this morning.  We kept the pace slow again which might explain partially why I felt less tired then I have at times.  After we finished 10.1 like normal I ran a few times around the block to get the extra 1.05.  I finished with a total time of 1:24:53

I ran with Sasha this morning and we had a good run.  After doing a 3.5 mile warmup in just under 30 minutes we did a 3 mile tempo.  We started out with a 5:24 mile (1:23,1:22,1:20,1:19).  I led the first quarter, then Sasha took the next 2.  We continued this throughout with Sasha taking 2 quarters for every quarter I took.  We ran the second mile in 5:22 (1:18,1:17,1:24,1:23).  This included a 180 degree turn halfway through.  Also, at the turn Sasha asked if we could slow down a bit because he is running a race on Saturday so he didn't want to push it quite so much, thus the slowdown.  We ran the last mile in 5:27 (1:24,1:21,1:24,1:18).  I was getting slightly antsy, which is why we dip to 1:21 for the second quarter, and then I decided to pick it up the last quarter and run in front even though it was Sasha's quarter to lead which explains the 1:18.  So, over all time 16:13 (5:24,5:22,5:27).  I guess I am in a little better shape than I thought I was, which explains why I was able to drop down to 5:10 pace mid workout and not be feeling it by the end of the run, so that is positive.  I have also done few speed workouts in the last few months so this is encouraging.  After we finished we ran a few extra miles to bring our total to 10 for the workout.

I took it easy with Sasha this morning.  We ran a little later than normal today so it was actually light outside when we left.  On Wednesdays when we run together it is still dark outside when we finish running.  Well anyhow, my left heel has started bothering me some so I was paying close attention to it today.  There was some discomfort but that slowly went away as the run went on.  By the end of the run I could only feel it if I was taking a sharp turn to the left.  So, not too bad.  I think that over time it will stop bothering me if I just keep running on it so I am not going to change anything in my routine.  We finished in 1:25:45

Today has been a very strange day and although I have gotten the miles in for the day, I have not gotten them in a very conventional way.  So, last night I went with Kimia up to Salt Lake and to Kaysville for our mission reunions.  We were driving back from Salt Lake at about 10pm and just before we got past the point of the mountain the check engine light turns on.  When it came on I took a look at the temperature gauge and it said that the temperature in the engine was way hotter than it should have been.  So, we get off the highway and drive up the road to a gas station.  Evidently we were in Draper, but it looked like the middle of nowhere to me.  Our car had overheated and we didn't know what to do so we talked to the gas station attendant who knew more about cars than we did and we ended up talking on the phone to her mechanic friend.  We eventually called for a tow truck, but after we did a group of people stops to get gas and they offer to help us.  We ended up putting more coolant in the car and filling the coolant bottle with water and we decided to try and drive back to Provo and hope that we would make it, with the group from the gas station following us to make sure we got back ok.  Now, we didn't leave the gas station until about 12:30am which is why I consider last night part of today when I say that it has been strange.  Anyhow, about half way back the car started to overheat again, so we stopped on the shoulder and poured in about half of the bottle of water.  At this point we decided to try and drive it again, but just until we could get to an exit so that we could get off the highway.  This time one of the people helping us decided to come with us in our car since he knows more about cars and he wanted to be able to see where the temperature was at.  So we start driving again but the car didn't overheat again, so we decided to keep going until it got hot again.  It never overheated again so we were able to make it all the way home without stopping again.  So, we ended up not getting home until about 1:20am after which we crashed and didn't get up until 10am when the first session of conference started this morning.

So, this does all tie into running.  In part because of how late we got into town last night I was not able to run this morning, and after the first session of conference we were working on finding someone who could fix the car for us.  I never knew how difficult it would be to find someone open on a Saturday.  We eventually found someone open and they fixed the car for us, but not until we had already called about 15 other places all of which were closed.  I guess we just had some leaky coolant hoses leading into the thermostat.  So, because of this I was not able to run between the first and second sessions of conference.  So, I was finally able to get out the door to run after the second session, but due to the priesthood session I needed to get home earlier so that I could shower and get ready to leave.  I wouldn't have been opposed to watching the other sessions while all stinky since we watched them at home, but I didn't want to sit in the church all nasty wearing dress clothes.  So, I ended up cutting my run short and I just did 8 miles in 53:11.  I was at 20:28 through three miles and then I started to pick it up a bit.  After the priesthood session was over I ran again with Kimia on the bike.  We did another 8 miles in 58:34.

All in all I think that everything worked out rather well considering we could have been stranded in Draper, in which case we would have needed a ride to Provo and then back out there to pick up the car once it got fixed.  I am also super grateful that there were some kind strangers that helped us out so much.  We had never met these people, and they were almost at home for the night when they came to get gas and saw us.  These people then came all the down to Provo with us, after which they had to drive all the back the way they had come.  I doubt they got to bed any earlier than 2am.  They also refused to let us give them anything in return for the help they had given us, they just said that the next time we see someone in trouble that we should help that person.  I was rather impressed with the help they gave us.  Anyhow, this post is too long so I better finish it up now and get to bed.

Well, today I accidentally fell asleep while doing homework so I got out a little late.  because of this I started my run a little faster than normal going through the mile mark in 7:14.  I then slowly started speeding up slowly, but the effort stayed the same so I just let it happen, however once I got to about 6:30 pace I kind of leveled off and stopped speeding up.  I turned around at 5.55 in 36:58, 2 seconds faster than the 6:40 guy.  I didn't think anything of it and I started running back, however I subconsciously started to speed up and I made it through the next 1.05 in 6:27 which is under 6:10 pace. I was rather surprised because I didn't feel like I had sped up.  I kept running, not making any attempt to slow down, but still not making any attempt to run faster and the next thing I realize I am going through the next mile in 5:55.  At this point I started making a conscious effort to slow down but I still did the next half mile in 3:02.  After this I was finally able to slow down a bit more and I put in a 6:20 mile which ended up being my slowest mile going back.  I am not sure what it was but I couldn't seem to go any slower today, and I ended up averaging about 6:10 pace for the last couple of miles.  I finished the second half of my run in 34:02 (6:08/mile) for a total time of 1:11:00 (6:24/mile) for 11.1.

We took it nice and easy today.  I ran with Sasha and Josse and we didn't really get much faster than 8:00 pace the entire time we were running.  I think it was good for me after I averaged under 6:24 pace for my run yesterday and I averaged the second half under 6:08/mile.  Add on the fact that I did my run yesterday in the afternoon, so I was only going off of about 12 hours rest from the time I finished yesterday to the time we started running this morning a little after 5:30am.  Anyhow we finished in 1:35:36 for an average of 7:54.

Easy run with Sasha this morning.  I didn't look at my watch once while we ran so I don't know how fast we were going except that we started slow.  Sasha told me that we went through 1 mile in 8:53.  After we got back I ran an extra 1.05 to finish off.  I finished in 1:27:06.  My heel is slowly feeling better so that is good

I ran with Sasha and Brad this morning.  We kept the pace nice and slow with the exception of 3 quarters that we ran spread out throughout our workout.  We ran our first quarter when we were nearing up on the 2.5 mile mark and we ran it in 69.  We were planning on running it a little slower but I guess I just got excited.  We ran our second quarter when we were a little past 6.25 miles and we ran it in 67.  The last quarter we ran around the 7.5 mile mark and I came through in 59 followed by Sasha in 64.  So, this was a lot faster than I expected but I think it should be fine.  The purpose in doing this was to wake up our legs a little bit so that we can be ready to run a 5k on Saturday.  This is because I have done virtually no speedwork, other than a few tempo runs since I started running again after getting a stress fracture, and I have not raced since running the St. George Marathon in October.  So, I just wanted to wake myself up again and hopefully I can run well on Saturday.  On the negative side of things I have a cold now, so I am hoping that I get over it by tomorrow so that I don't have to deal with it anymore.

I have been sick the last few days and I started feeling a lot worse last night.  I woke up fairly regularly throughout the night and there was about a half hour stretch where I couldn't sleep at all.  My skin was warm to the touch and I was even sweating a little bit while I slept but I had the chills and I felt cold, which is partly why I couldn't sleep.  So, I didn't run in the morning and I only went to school to work on a group project for a class.  After that I came home and went back to bed until 2:30pm.  I wasn't asleep the whole time but I didn't move or eat much during that entire time period.  I also took my resting heart rate on Thursday and on Friday morning and both times I checked it my resting heart rate was about 84bpm which is incredibly fast.  I checked it one more time a little before 3pm and it had gone down to 66 which is closer to normal for me (54-60 is normal for me).  When I got up at 2:30 I was feeling a lot better so I decided to go to work for a while and I stayed until 6:00pm.  After that I came home and went running with Sasha at about 7:00pm.  So, the mileage is lower than normal and the run was later in the evening but I am feeling better.  Still not 100% but a lot better than I was.  I am just glad the fever broke when it did otherwise I would be wasting the 26 dollars I spent on the 5k I am running tomorrow.  Hopefully I can run well despite getting sick yet again.  It has been one heck of a winter for me.  I don't think I have gotten sick this often in years.

So, I have been sick for the last few days, climaxing yesterday when I could barely get out of bed in the morning and I ended up sleeping off and on until 2:30pm.  After that the fever broke but I am still not 100% better.  It was also cold this morning (27 degrees at the start) and due to a number of little things happening, one of which involved me leaving my timing chip at the finish 3 miles away and needing to return to get it, we barely got any warm-up in before the race started.

So, putting that into context, I ran my first race since the St. George Marathon and my stress fracture that kept me out for the better part of 2 months.  Sasha and I knew that we were going to be the only 2 people in the race that had a real chance of winning it so we decided to pace each other the first mile taking 1 minute intervals and switching off who was in the lead.  I took the lead at 5 minutes and Sasha decided to pass me around 5:40-5:50 into the race.  He held this lead over me and slowly extended it to about 15 meters by the time we hit the 2.5 mile mark.  During this time period I started to wheeze a little bit, and I was having trouble breathing normally, mostly due to the fact that I am still somewhat sick.  With about .5 miles to go I decided that I needed to make a move if I wanted to beat Sasha and I realized that if I didn't do it soon, I wouldn't have enough time to catch him.  So I put in a surge and caught him with about .4 to go and when we hit the marathon 26 mile mark I pushed it hard so that I could stay in front for the last .2 miles.  I could hear Sasha behind me as he started making a move to try and catch me once more and I put what little I hadn't yet used from the surge catching him and from pushing it harder with .2 left into staying in front.  This ended up being enough to win, and I came across 1 second in front of him.

 After the race I immediately started feeling a good deal of chest pain and congestion and I started coughing up a storm.  It was rather painful for a couple of minutes, but once I had cooled down somewhat the coughing and chest pain as well as a headache subsided.  After this I paced Josse to a very close win in the marathon, a race in which she didn't pass the second finisher until they had already hit the 26 mile mark, following which Sasha and I ran back to our cars to finish up.

nothing spectacular.  I took it slow.  Half way mark at 41:03.  Total time 1:24:09

Did the first 5 with Kimia riding the bike in 36:40 with lots of wind.  The wind wasn't so bad the second half when I was alone and I was able to pick it up a little for a total time of 1:12:38

Ran with Sasha and Josse this morning.  We did the first two miles in just under 18 minutes and finished 10.1 in 1:24:18.  I then picked it up a bit and ran 1.05 alone to finish in 1:32:04.  After this I came home and crashed for 5.5 hours until my body was finally rested after multiple consecutive nights of next to zero sleep in comparison to what I was getting.  I woke up around 1:15pm.  Just in time to get ready to go to work

I worked late last night because one of my co-workers got fired so I didn't sleep much, but at least I didn't need to go to school today.  I went with Ted and Sasha this morning.  We dropped off Ted after 2 miles and then Sasha and I did another 6 together.  After this I went home to drop off the car with Kimia so she could go to work and then I left and did another 4 miles alone to finish with 12.  Total time of 1:30:43.

I went out a little later today than normal because I didn't run with Sasha and it was gorgeous outside.  I think it was the first time in a while that I have really felt comfortable running while wearing short sleeves.  I went out a little faster than normal because I was running alone, and I went through the first mile in 7:22.  After that I settled into a pace around 7:00/mile and I held that through about 7 miles.  At this point I glanced behind me and I noticed a couple on a date.  They were on bikes and were coming up on me fairly quickly.  It kind of annoyed me that they were coming up on me so quick when usually couples on dates ride slowly.  So, I decided to show them who was boss and I started to speed up.  Now, my intention was never really to out run them, simply to go the same speed as them, however the guy noticed that I was starting to speed up near the marker at 7.1 miles and he sped up a little more.  I decided to take the challenge and speed up even more if they were going to speed up, so about 200m past the mile marker at 7.1 right after the couple went by me I sped up more.  I went through the first 1/2 mile in 2:37 with the first 200 being the only real difference between a 2:33 and a 2:37.  At this point I could tell that the girl was having trouble keeping pace with her date who kept looking back at me to see if they had dropped me yet.  At this point I also figured that I was creeping them out so I decided to hang on for another 1/2 mile and then slow down to at least spare the guys date so he wouldn't kill her trying to drop me.  I went through the next quarter in 1:16 followed by a 1:17 which would have been one second faster except I started anticipating slowing down and I started slowing down early.  This gave me a 2:33 for the half mile and a 5:10 mile with the first 200m being the slowest.  Once I slowed down I averaged about 6:40 pace for the last 3 miles until I got to my house.  After 1 mile of this I saw the bike couple again.  I think the girl was tired from riding faster so they had slowed down and I was catching up to them again.  However, the guy saw me when they went under the bridge and he motioned for his date to speed up again.  They sped up, but only slightly faster than 6:40 pace so I could see them just a little ways in front of me until I turned off to head home.  I thought the entire ordeal was rather amusing.  It made my run more entertaining.  however, I better not do it very often or I will kill myself pretty quick.

I was in somewhat of a time crunch so I started off quick today and I went through 1 mile in 6:16 followed by a 6:04 and a 5:56 to make it through 3 miles in 18:16.  At this point I decided to slow down a bit and I averaged close to 6:40 pace for the next 8.1 miles.  I hit 11.1 in 1:12:27.  For some reason I wasn't feeling too good so I decided to head home at 11.1 to get some water and when I got home the second door was locked.  I was surprised because I had left it unlocked when I left, locking only the first door.  Thus, my plans were all thrown out the window because I had a final that I needed to be at in less than an hour and I needed to get into my house so I could shower and get ready.  So, I used the neighbors phone to call Kimia, after which I ran to where she was at to get the key to the house (she had locked the second door while I was gone forgetting to leave it unlocked).  I ran home, however now I didn't have the time to finish my run before my final, so I showered and barely made it in time to take the test.  For the extra running I will add an extra 1.4 to bring my total to 12.5 for the day (it was more than 1.4 but I wasn't sure exactly how far so I am counting that because 12.5 is a nice round number).  In the evening I added the extra 2.5 in 19:00 to finish my run for the day since I didn't have time earlier in the day.

On a side note, I have found that I am becoming somewhat proficient riding a unicycle.  One of the guys I take care of at work got one for his birthday about 7 months ago and we used to ride it every once in a while.  He was getting better at it, however I would generally make it about 2 or 3 feet and then fall.  I believe this was in part because I just wasn't trying very hard and also because he was riding it more often than me so he got better at it.  Just this week he decided that he wanted to start riding it again, after not riding it for about 4 months, and it was startling how quickly he picked it back up again, riding farther than he had ever gone before after just a few minutes.  I however continued to make it about 2 or 3 feet and then fall off.  What startled me even more was that the very next day I was suddenly able to ride it almost as far as the guy I take care of, consistently making it to a fence at one end of the parking lot before falling down.  I am still not exactly sure why this happened, however I do know that I finally started to try a little harder.  Maybe the desire was all I needed.

I ran with Sasha, Adam and another guy this morning (his name escapes me at the moment).  We took it pretty easy for the most part and only sped up slightly after a quick vpb in order to catch up.  Mystery guy turned around at about 3 miles out from my house and Adam turned around a little before 5 miles out.  Sasha and I then finished 10.6 from my house after which I ran home for a total time of 1:35:15.

I ran with Sasha and Josse this morning and we took it easy.  I slept plenty last night so I was not tired at all and I felt good.  We did our normal out and back for 10.1 after which I asked if the others wanted to do any more.  They both did, so we added an extra 2 miles after we finished the initial run.  Total time 1:36:41.  Just seven seconds under 8:00 pace.

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night because I was finishing up my finals for the semester and it was Kimia and my 2 month anniversary so we decided to spend a little extra time together after I finished my finals.  So, because of this I didn't run with Sasha this morning, however I was able to get out this afternoon and I had a good run.  I was planning on running about 7:30 pace throughout and I started off just cruising without making any attempt to run quickly.  However, I made it through the first mile in 6:55.  This was somewhat surprising and I think it has something to do with the fact that we hovered around 8:00 pace the past 2 days so my legs were fresher than normal and the fact that I had a bit of wind at my back.  Anyhow, since I wasn't pushing it at all I decided to just keep cruising and I was averaging 6:53 through 6 miles with varying amounts of wind either slowing me down or speeding me up (During miles 3-6 the wind probably hurt me more than it helped).  During mile 7 a strong wind hit me from behind and pretty much carried me through the entire mile so that mile was a bit faster (6:33) after which the wind stayed more normal and my pace dropped down.  I ran the last mile in 6:38 because I felt like speeding up a bit and I finished in 1:08:09 for an average pace of about 6:49.

I ran with Sasha, Hyrum, and Daniel this morning.  We ran from my house back to Sasha's house first where we dropped off Hyrum after which we ran to BYU because Sasha wanted to do a strength test performing a one rep max in the leg extension.  Sasha went first and did 180 with his right leg while slowly increasing the weight and then 200 with his left leg minus the incremental changes.  After that I was able to do 160 with my right leg and then 180 with my left leg doing the same thing that Sasha did.  After this we ran back out to the Provo river trail where we did 4x100.  I did my first 2 in the high 14 to low 15 second range.  I ran my third 100 in the low to mid 14 second range and I ran the 4th in the mid 13 second range.  We ran back to Sasha's house where after which I ran back to my house.  Now is where things get confusing.  There was so much stopping and starting and running in strange new places that we are not quite sure how far this all is.  Sasha thinks that it might be 10.75, however I am sure that it was a little farther than that.  I finished in 1:31:59 which would be an 8:33 average however I am sure that we were going a little faster than that.  On the other hand I don't want to add more than I actually ran, so I think that 10.8 will suffice mainly because it brings me up to an even 45 miles for the week up to this point.

Ran with Sasha and Hyrum this morning.  First we ran back to Sasha's house to drop off Hyrum, after which we ran out 4 miles.  On the way back, Sasha and I parted about a mile from my house and because I didn't go back with him to his house I realized I was going to be a little short, so I added just a little extra to get my total to 10 for the day.  No watch so I don't know how long I was out for but we were averaging about 7:00 pace for a little while

Good run today.  It would have been longer but there was an emergency at work and I got called in so I had to cut my run a little short later on.  I started out with a 7:25 first mile and then I slowly started speeding up in part because I was thinking about work and being ticked off I didn't notice.  I noticed after a while but I just let it happen.  I finally slowed down after I hit a 6:10 from mile 7.1-8.1.  I then slowed down to about 6:30 pace but I slowly sped back up again until I hit the last mile in 6:13.  Total time 1:39:00

Easy run with Sasha today plus 8x100.  We ran out from my house and after 2.5 we ran 100 with no time after another 700m we ran another 100 in 15.6? followed by similar rest.  We then ran a 15.1 followed by a 14.7?  We then took a larger break of over 2 miles and then ran 2 more 100's in 15.1 and 14.9 approximately (I am just going off of memory for all of the times so they may not be accurate).  With about 2 miles left We decided to see how fast I could do a 100 all out.  Sasha started in front of me with my objective being to catch him and see how much I could gap him.  I ran the first 100 in 11.5 however I slowed down early because I was looking at the wrong mark.  So, we decided to nix that time and do it again.  I ran back to our mark and this time I ran the 100 from a standstill instead of giving myself a running start and I ran a 13.6 for the final 100.  This one could have been faster except I ran it with almost no break after the 100 before it and I was already over 9 miles into my run for the day so I started to fatigue near the end.  After this we ran back to my house to finish up.

I ran with Sasha, Brad, Josse and Michelle this morning.  Hyrum came as well but he stayed back and turned around after one mile.  We were pacing Josse and Michelle through the uneventful half-marathon so I started with them at what felt like 7:20 pace through the mile mark.  Sasha and Brad caught up around 2 miles and we held sub 7:00 pace through about 7.6 miles.  At this point Josse started to slow down, so I went with Michelle while Sasha and Brad stayed back with Josse.  Michelle and I stayed at sub 7:00 pace throughout with the exception of a few quick vpb's.  We went through those quarters a little slower than 8:00 pace including the stops.  Near the end we started to pick it up some and we hit a couple of quarters in 1:38 with about a mile left.  I didn't catch our final mile split but I think it was probably about 6:25.  I also ran a little extra after we had finished and I took a detour with about 1.5 left to see if the bathroom was unlocked to give me the extra .1

easy run this morning. I woke up a bit late so I met Sasha on the trail. We took it slow and after 5 miles we went back to Sasha's house and ran 2 miles with Hyrum as well as one lap around Sasha's house before he got there plus a standing long jump test (my best was 7'5", Sasha's was 6'7"). I then did an extra three miles to finish up. Total time 1:24:31

Good run today.  I ran to Sasha's house and we ran our normal route out to the lake and then back to my house.  After a ~2.5 mile warm up we did a short 2 mile tempo.  I wasn't feeling up to a longer tempo otherwise we would have gone farther.  The plan was to go out in about 5:30 pace and to hold that, however Sasha went through the first quarter in 1:23 and it felt too slow.  I would have sworn that we were going 5:40 pace or maybe even slower.  So, I sped things up a bit, and by my watch we went through the mile in 5:22-5:23 and the second mile in 5:15-5:16 for a total time of 10:38 (Sasha had us at 5:24,5:15 for a 10:39).  Sasha could tell that I was kind of edgy because I was coming up to take my turn at the front a little early every time and he commented that the pace might even have been a little slow for me.  This is a good thing for me because it means that my top speed is coming back even though I have done limited speed work.  After this we ran to the end of the trail, and on the way back Sasha asked if I wanted to run an 800 at about 5:00 pace.  It sounded good to me, so at about my 8 mile mark we ran an 800 starting off with a 1:17 first quarter and then a 1:15 second quarter to finish with a 2:32.  We had a cold wind blowing into our faces the entire time we ran the 800 so if we take that into account then the 800 would be a couple seconds faster.  We then finished running to my house for a total time of 1:29:12.

I ran with Sasha and Hyrum this morning.  We dropped off Hyrum after 2 miles and then Sasha and I ran around the block a few times while we waited for one of Sasha's friends.  He never showed up so we ran out a little over 2 miles and then we came back. 

We did another 800 today at the beginning of our course for the 5 mile tempo so we could get a better feel for 5k race pace.  The goal was to go through 800 in 2:30.  We started off a little quick going through the first 100 in 18 seconds, which is on pace for a 2:24.  I then settled down and slowed a bit (though not much) to go through the 400 in 1:14 with equal 200 splits of 37.  The next 200 was also a 37 to give me a 1:51 through 600m.  After this I decided to speed up a bit over the last 200 and I ran it in 35 seconds for a total time of 2:26, 1:12 over the last 400.  So, it was a little faster than planned but I felt fine.  I felt like I could have held that pace for at least a 3000 or a 3200, but I am not sure how much farther I could have held it.  I feel like I have been getting a lot faster recently which is good seeing that I have not been doing consistent tempo runs or interval workouts.  I will see how good of shape I am in tomorrow at the law day 5k in Salt Lake at the U of U.  It would be fun to have a Cougar win a race on the Ute's campus.

So, Chad recruited Sasha and I to run a 5k for his law firm.  I guess they have an annual trophy that they give out to the fastest team composed of 3 men and 2 women.  The times of all five members of the team are added together and the fastest team wins.

The course goes around and through the U of U campus and basically goes up for the better part of the first half of the race, followed by a flat portion in the middle and then dropping significantly the last portion of the race.  Due to the team nature of the race and the early climb, we decided to hold back the first mile or so, trading 1 minute intervals.  This was Sasha's idea to prevent me from going out too fast so that I might take a shot at beating BJ Christensen, who was running on another team, with a fast closing second half of the race.

So, the race starts and Sasha takes the first lead.  Our second runner didn't take his interval at 1 minute so I pulled even with Sasha and I started to run with him.  After about 2 minutes I started to pull up in order to catch some of the runners on the opposing team.  I passed all of them and then passed the third member of our team shortly before the mile mark.  Coming up to the mile, Sasha put in a surge to pull even with me and pulled me through the last 50m of the mile to go through it in 5:26.  At this point I decided to put in a little more of a surge up the hill in order to try to gain a little ground on BJ and slowly close the gap.  I did this and I felt like I made marginal gains in closing the gap on him until we hit the top of the hill about 1.4 into the race.  At this point the road flattened out and stayed flat until about 1.8 or so when it started to drop.  I hit the 2 mile mark in 10:58 (5:32) and I could tell that BJ was now stretching his lead over me just a little at a time.  I started making efforts to make up ground on him, and although I did not feel too tired I felt like I was missing that extra gear to speed up much faster.  It went like this until the finish as I would try different tactics to try and make up some ground on him but he kept extending his lead just a little at a time. I went through the finish in 16:26.8 (5:28 for the last 1.1) whereas BJ finished 19.4 seconds in front of me in 16:07.4

So, I didn't win the race individually, but we did win as a team.  Although BJ beat me by 19 seconds, Josh (our second place finisher for our team) and Sasha both beat the number 2 and 3 runners on BJ's team giving us an 18-19 second lead before the women's times were added.  Our women sealed the deal by finishing a couple minutes in front of the women for the other team.  On a side note, Chad also beat the number three runner for the other team, so we really had 4 runners in front of the other teams number 3.  So, overall I think it was a good race.  The course is slow because of the climbing, and Chad measured it to be long on his GPS so we think that it really might be closer to 3.15 which makes my time more respectable.  I also didn't feel too fatigued at the end of the race so that is a positive for me because it means that my overall level of fitness should carry over well into longer races.

After the race we ran to liberty park and did a 3 mile tempo at Chad's marathon pace in 17:28 before running back to where we started to finish up our mileage for the day.

It was a good run this morning.  I ran with Sasha and Daniel.  Daniel turned around at about 3.5 miles and the rest was just with Sasha.  Part way through Sasha was experimenting with trying to push off the ground a little harder without speeding up.  He found out that he couldn't do it, but that he could run a 6:40 pace that felt like a 5:30 if he concentrated on pushing harder off of the ground.  After doing this for a bit we ran a 600 in 2:01 to see how 6:40 pace and a faster pace differed in how they felt as Sasha tried to push harder off of the ground.  After this we finished our run going back to Sasha's house.  Total time 1:16:06

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but in my defense I did get in bed 9 hours before I woke up.  I just didn't go to sleep because I was watching a movie, and after it finished I had trouble falling asleep.  The run this morning was good.  The soreness I felt on Sunday and to a degree yesterday is now virtually gone and I felt good although it took me a little longer than normal to really warm into the run and the pace this morning.  I ran with Sasha, Josse and Daniel this morning and Josse wanted to do the 5 mile tempo so we paced her through it averaging close to 6:40 pace for the first half and then slowing some the second half but still averaging faster than 7:00 pace.  At this point Daniel headed back and the rest of us added a couple extra miles before dropping off Josse after 10.  Sasha and I then went out a little over a mile and a half after which I turned around and headed back to finish up.  No watch today so I don't know the total time but I think it was fairly slow with the exception of the 5 mile tempo which we finished in 34:10

I am not sure why but I felt really tired today.  I had trouble getting moving this morning to get ready and then I fell asleep in class later on, thus the half hour nap.  Anyhow, Sasha and I met at 5:00am and we ran 6.25 miles in 47:51 and ended at Sasha's house.  We then met Hyrum and ran 3 miles with him in 26:20.  After we dropped him off we ran one more mile in 7:21 to finish in 1:21:32 for 10.25 miles.  For the most part I felt fine on the run, other than being a little tired.  I also have a bruise on my right hip because I ran into a wall playing racquetball yesterday and that felt somewhat sore, but as long as I was going faster than 8:00 pace I didn't really notice it.  If I slowed down it started to bother me but it was no big deal.  I think that it should heal fairly quickly.

I ran with Sasha and Daniel today.  We ran around the block a couple of times and then we ran out to the river trail.  Daniel turned around after a couple of miles and Sasha and I continued until we got to the end of the trail.  On the way back we did 2x100 in 14.2 and 14.7 seconds for me.  I felt stiff the first 100 but then felt more loose so I relaxed a little the second 100 and I ended up slowing down.  We then ran a 200 in 29.8 for me.  This would have been a little faster but the starting mark kind of surprised me and it took me a little longer than normal to get up to speed.  We then ran back to Sasha's house to finish.

I met with Sasha and Daniel at 6:00 this morning and we went out for an easy 10.1 with Daniel turning around after 4 miles.  Sasha and I went to the end of the trail and back to finish our run in 1:15:18.

The faster portion of our run came  at a couple different time periods as Sasha wanted to see how well I could sing while running at a faster pace.  To put this all into context, yesterday while we were talking the subject of singing came up.  Sasha asked me how well I could sing and I told him that I was probably good enough to sing a solo in church, but not as good as my younger sister who is an amazing singer.  Well, due to this conversation Sasha decided that he wanted to test and see how well I could sing while running.  First we ran a 600 in 2:03 (5:28 pace) and I sang the star spangled banner while we ran.  This was followed by Sasha singing the song while we ran about 8:00 pace with Daniel acting as judge to determine if my singing was better at 5:28 pace then Sasha's was at 8:00 (he determined that mine was still better).  I then sang the song again while we ran at 8:00 pace.  Later on we sped up so that I could get home in time and while running close to 6:00 pace we decided to sing the song one more time at that speed to see what the difference was between singing at that speed and the other speeds.  We then finished our run speeding up over the last 400-800 meters or so (I counted 600 but I wasn't really paying attention so I don't know).

As far as analyzing my singing goes and relating it to my overall fitness I have to say that I am doing well.  I noticed that while singing at 6:00 pace was harder then at 8:00 pace, the difference was not all that remarkable, which tells me that my heart does not have to work much harder at the faster pace then it does at the slower pace.  However, at 5:28 pace it was rather difficult to sing and the difference between that speed and 6:00 pace was a big one.  So, this tells me that my heart starts to work much harder at these speeds, but that my overall fitness is good enough to keep the stress on my heart down to the point that I can go for somewhat extended periods of time without breathing.  Maybe I will try this test out again in a few months and see if it becomes easier to sing at sub 5:30 pace or faster.

Today I ran alone because Kimia and I went dancing up in Salt Lake last night so I didn't get to bed until after 2am.  I was tired before we even got to Salt Lake a little after 10pm and by the time we got home I was having trouble staying awake no matter what I was doing.  So we slept until a little past 10am this morning which felt really good.

Anyhow, I started off running around 7:00 pace hitting 3 miles in 20:54 after that I didn't look at the watch for a while but I slowly sped up until I was going faster than 6:40 pace.  I held this pace until about 13.8 when I did a mini tempo over the last 2.5 of the 5 mile tempo.  I started out hitting 2:34 for the first 800 and then decided it was too fast and slowed progressively to 2:40, 2:45, 2:55, 2:57 for the last 4 800's.  I then finished running home making it back for a total time of 1:58:33 for 18.2 miles. 

I ran with Hyrum and Sasha this morning.  We made it through 3 miles with Hyrum in 24:39 and then Sasha and I went out for 7 miles more.  We finished in 1:15:52.  There was a little bit of soreness in my quads this morning that I needed to run out after running long on Saturday and then resting yesterday, but it was minimal and I barely noticed it after the first couple of miles.

I ran with Sasha, Josse and Hyrum this morning.  Hyrum turned around at 1.5 and the rest of us ran a 2 mile tempo at Josse's tempo pace we did mile 1 in 6:29 and mile 2 in 6:24 (total time 12:53).  We turned around at 3.5 miles and came back.  I then went out alone and ran 6 more miles I kept the pace easy and I made a conscious effort to keep the pace no faster than about 7:30.  I wasn't perfect but I was close.  Total time for 13 miles 1:39:55.  I am starting to feel some tightness in the groin on the left side, which I seem to get whenever I run too hard.  I don't feel like I have been running too hard but it might mean that I need to slow it down even more the rest of this week

I ran with Sasha and Hyrum this morning.  We did 3 miles with Hyrum in 24:17. We dropped him off and then ran 3 miles more in 23:38 (47:55 for 6 miles).  I then ran 4 more miles alone in 27:29 for a total time of 1:15:24 for 10 miles.  I did the last 4 miles a bit faster than I really wanted to because I needed to finish so that I could get to class on time.  Overall a good run.  The tightness in my groin in also less than it has been the last few days.

I met with Sasha and Hyrum this morning and we ran 3 miles together in 25:37.  I then ran 3 more miles with Sasha, running the last mile in 5:40 for a total time through 6 miles of 45:43.  After this I drove home and then ran 7 more miles from my house.  On my way home I ran three 100s over the course of the last 2 miles in about 15 seconds each.  I finished with a total time of 1:35:20.

I ran with Sasha and his son Benjamin this morning.  We ran 3 miles together, followed by another 3.125 with Sasha (we accidentally added an extra 200) for a total time of 49:10.  I then went home and I ran 5 more miles (minus the 200 I added earlier with Sasha) for a total time of 1:26:01.  My legs were feeling somewhat tired this morning even though I have gotten enough sleep the last couple of nights.  I wonder if I am not eating enough.  My left leg also was feeling kind of funny near the same spot where I had my stress fracture.  There is no point tenderness and the feeling I had kind of came and went, so I am hoping it is nothing.  I think I might take my long run a little easier than normal tomorrow just to be on the safe side.

My leg was feeling kind of funny yesterday so I decided to take it a little easier today and I slowed my run down.  Because I was going slower I also decided to cut my run a little short just to be safe.  I held about a 7:45 average through 7 miles after which I was feeling a little more reassured that my leg is ok and I picked up the pace slowly until I hit sub 7:00 pace around mile 11 or 12.  As I was nearing on my turn around before heading home I saw one of my friends that I knew in high school, and after I turned around I picked up the pace to try and catch up to him.  I did this for what I guess was about a half mile, at about 5:30 pace and as I was getting close to catching him he reached a stop light and went straight where I needed to turn.  So, it was all for naught but I'll probably see him on campus one of these days anyhow and I can talk to him then.  I then came home to finish up my run in 1:56:07.  Based on my final time it looks like I didn't slow down much over the last 2 miles or so because my average time per mile at the end was under 7:13 yet at my final turn around it was still over 7:25 with less than 3 miles left.

I woke up a little late this morning so I started from my house and I met up with Sasha, Hyrum and Daniel on the trail.  We ran out to the 1.5 mile mark and then back to Sasha's house where we dropped off Hyrum.  At this point I had about 250m less than 3 miles because I started from my house.  We then ran out to the 3.5 mile mark with Daniel turning around at 2.5 miles and we came back.  On the way back I continued on the trail back to my house instead of going to Sasha's house.  I finished in 1:22:33

I ran with Sasha, Josse, and Daniel this morning. We went out 3.5 miles then came back. We kept the pace really easy and we finished in 57:33. Normally I would have run 3-6 more miles, but my leg has been feeling weird. I finally pinpointed the place where it feels strange and it is on the medial side of my left leg about 6-8 inches below the knee. From probing around it feels like it might be at a muscle insertion point on the tibia and it felt sore after I massaged my calf and rubbed that area down after running today. I just iced the leg and I am going to rub it down again to see if starts feeling a little better. I think I will take it easy for the rest of this week and then increase the mileage back to where it was starting next week as long as I feel better.

So, I massaged the calf again and then iced it one more time after class.  I found some big knots in the calf earlier and I was working them out.  I have to say that working out tight muscles can be painful.  I am just glad that it appears to be nothing more serious than that.  I am trying to figure out the cause of all this, and after narrowing it down I think that it is being caused by riding my bike too hard and pushing off too hard with my calves while I ride to and from class.  I am going to keep massaging and icing it.  I think that I might use some heat as well and see how that affects it.

We took it really easy this morning.  I ran with Sasha, Hyrum and Daniel again and we ran 3 miles before dropping off Hyrum.  We then went out 2.5 miles and back.  Sasha was doing 200m repeats so he was usually visible but not with us.  Daniel and I finished in 1:04:05.

My leg felt a lot better today after being aggressive with it yesterday.  I couldn't feel as much tightness today and for the most part I forgot about it until there was about .5 miles left and it tightened up a bit.  I massaged it again after I got home and I will probably ice it later on today.  Hopefully I will feel good enough by the end of this week to run a long run so that my mileage for the week isn't too low.  Regardless of that I plan on being back to full mileage next week.

I took it easy again this morning.  I met Hyrum, Sasha, and Daniel again this morning. Hyrum turned around after 1 mile and then Daniel turned around at 4 miles.  Sasha and I went out to the end of the trail and then came back to finish the run in 1:19:54.

My leg is getting better.  Based on how it feels I think that I might still do a long run on Saturday instead of cutting it down to 10 miles like I was planning at the beginning of the week.  I still notice just a little bit of soreness, but it is minimal.  My right hip is a little sore because my hips were getting out of alignment again.  I did my exercises to fix the alignment issue and it seemed to work.  The exercises cause some stretching of the muscles in my hip, thus the soreness.  Hopefully that will go away in a couple days like it usually does.

I ran with Sasha, Daniel and Hyrum this morning.  We dropped Hyrum off after 4 miles finishing in 32:20.  We went back out and Daniel turned around after 2 more miles and Sasha and I turned around after 3 more miles.  We finished in 1:18:26 for 10 miles.  We were running close to 7:00 pace over the last couple of miles.

My leg still feels kind of weird and I am not sure if I am just imagining things or if there is still some lingering effects of what was going on early on in the week.  I felt fine while running today and I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, however later on in the day my leg felt like there was this dull ache to it.  Again, I am not sure if it is still not 100% or if I am imagining this all and it is fine, but I guess I will find out soon enough.

I ran the Magna 5K this morning. Sasha, Tyler, Steve, and I (plus my wife Kimia) carpooled up to the race and we warmed up together. At the start of the race the temperature was a little cooler than expected but not too cool, and there was a tailwind which helped. I went out behind the leaders and they put a quick gap on me. I was sitting in about 9th place at the beginning. Here are my splits.

Mile 1 - 4:34 - I was in 8th place by the mile mark with Tyler one second back and Sasha a second or so in front of me. This ties for the fastest mile I have ever run, tying with a mile I ran in practice once. This mile by far had the biggest elevation drop of any in the course which explains why it is so fast.

Mile 2 - 4:49(9:23) - I was in 6th place by this point, just a few seconds out of the money (only $20 but I still wanted it). Sasha was 3 seconds back and Tyler was 13 seconds behind me. This mile had a good amount of downhill near the beginning of it, however it flattened out after a bit and even had a slight increase in elevation over the last few hundred meters.

Mile 3.1 - 5:44(15:07) - I missed my time at the 3 mile mark but based on my pace from 2 miles to the finish I averaged about 5:10-5:11 pace. So, if I give myself a 5:11 I come up with a 14:34 at 3 miles. My official time was actually 15:08 due to rounding per USATF rules since it was not chip timed, but I know it was a 15:07 so I am counting it. The last mile continued the slight uphill from the end of the second mile then flattened out. There was a quick drop and then the course flattened out again to come into the finish. I sacrificed Josh (the 5th place runner and thus my sacrificial lamb for the day) shortly after the 2 mile mark to pull into the money after which I put 8 seconds on him by the finish. Sasha finished in 8th with a 15:25 and Tyler came in 9th at 15:28. Steve finished 10th in 16:06 (not bad for his first post injury race).

So, I am happy with the big PR, especially since I have not been training for short distances and I have done almost zero speed work. However, I am not as happy as I would have expected. I think I could have gotten a few more seconds out of my legs if I would have pushed it harder the last mile and now a big 'what if' keeps running through my head. I would like to eventually get under 15:00 and although I don't know if that was in my range of possibilities today I think that eventually I can. Anyhow, I am pleased with the race and I am looking forward to future improvement.

I need to leave so this will be quick.  Ran 8 miles in 1:04:12 then paced Julia through 1 mile in 9:23 followed by 3 more miles slow with Sasha.

I ran with Sasha, Josse, Daniel, and Matt this morning.  We met Matt a little over a mile into our run.  We ran out and back for a total of 8 miles in 1:01:02.  Daniel and Josse were done at this point, but Sasha, Matt, and I turned and went back out again.  Matt headed back home after 2 more miles and Sasha and I turned around to head back for a total of 12 miles in 1:32:41.

Well, last night my replacement didn't show up at work and I couldn't leave until someone else came, so I got stuck there until about 11:30 when the manager came in to relieve me. So, I got less than 6 hours sleep because of it and I am super tired now. I also got assaulted earlier in the evening by one of the guys I take care of, so it made for a wonderfully terrible day at work.

Anyhow, I ran with Sasha, Daniel, Hyrum, and Matt (for about a mile). We were with Hyrum for about 2.5 miles and then we started a 5 mile tempo with Daniel starting at 6:00 pace for the first mile and then hitting 5:58, 5:57, 5:51, 5:46, for a total time of 29:32 by my watch. I felt really tired this morning, and although the last 2 miles were slower than marathon pace they were at a marathon pace effort. We ran about 1 mile of the tempo with Matt as he met us on the trail and ran with us for a bit. After finishing and dropping off Daniel, we ran back to Sasha's house and then did a few laps around the block for 1.05 miles to finish up with 10.05 for the day. Total time 1:14:16

We took it really easy this morning.  I ran to Sasha's house and then we went out to the 8 mile turn around and came back to the start of the 5 mile tempo.  After this we went out again for 1.75 miles and then I ran back to my house for a total of 13 miles.  Total time 1:46:44

I ran with Daniel and Sasha this morning.  We met up with Matt about .75mi into the run.  We ran out to the 8 mile turn around and headed back until we got to the start of the 5 mile tempo.  At this point Daniel kept going and the rest of us turned around and went out 1 mile before coming back to Sasha's house.  Matt turned for home a little after our final turn around.  Total time 1:18:38.

My calf is still making improvements over how it felt last week.  It is still not 100% but it is close.  I think that with the knots that I had in it, that there was some pressure being placed on the nerves in my leg, which caused the funny feeling and the pain that I felt.  Now, I just need to let a sore spot on my other leg heal.  I got that from being kicked in the leg when I was assaulted at work on Tuesday.  It is already feeling better, but it is still somewhat tender to the touch.

Todays race was pretty low key.  It starts in the Provo Canyon on the river trail and it heads up past Bridal Veil Falls before heading back down the canyon to one of the parks off of the trail.  We got to the start and I was surprised at how windy and cold it was.  Back at my house it was so nice that I didn't think to bring an extra shirt to warm up with.  Anyhow, there was a nasty headwind coming at us down the canyon, so we decided to trade leads in order to minimize the effect of the wind on us until the turn-around when the wind would be at our backs.

So, the race starts and Sasha and I go out with this guy we met at the start named Bryan.  Sasha and I traded leads at one minute intervals, while Bryan mostly hung back behind us.  We went through 1 mile (all mile times approximate because some of the markers were off) in 5:42 followed by a 5:58 second mile (11:40).  Just before the 2 mile mark, Bryan made a move and took the lead for a minute or two.  He then fell back a little but still maintained contact with us until about 2.5 miles.  We hit the third mile in 17:53 (6:13).  I am pretty sure this marker was off and if I were to guess I would say we probably ran it about the same speed as the second mile.  We turned around and started heading back down the canyon just after 3 miles and with the downhill and the wind at our backs we really started to move.  We hit the 4 mile mark in 22:44 (4:51).  I think this mile was short, as the 3rd mile was long but it was still in the sub 5:10 range pace wise.  Just past the 4 mile mark Sasha started to fade and I upped the intensity a little more in order to drop him.  I started to grunt a little as I worked on dropping him, in contrast to Sasha's moaning, and I think it worked.  I might have started the grunting too soon because I starting hurting a little the last mile, but it wasn't a big deal.  I hit the 5 mile mark in 27:46 (5:02) and from there I just worked on maintaining pace through the finish.  I didn't catch my split at the 6 mile mark, but it took me 6:00 to make it from the 5 mile mark to the end which averages out to about 5:00 pace assuming the total distance was correct and the distance from the 5 mile mark to the end was also correct.  I finished in 33:46 followed by Sasha in 34:25, and Bryan in 36:28.

After the race we did the timing for the other runners, and then we went out to get the rest of our miles in for the day to finish up with 18.

I met Sasha and Hyrum this morning and we we ran 4 miles together, finishing at Sasha's house in 35:38 by my watch.  We met up with Matt about 1.5 miles in and ran with him for a couple miles before he turned around.  After we dropped off Hyrum, Sasha and I ran 6 more miles.  In the middle of the 6 miles we picked it up for about 3 miles starting at 6:40 pace and ending up at about 5:30 pace for the last quarter (5:36 last mile).  This is so I could get home on time to drop the car off.  Sasha ran to my house while I dropped off the car and then we ran 2 more miles together before he dropped me off at home.  Total time for 12 miles, 1:33:43.

I ran with Sasha, Daniel, Josse, and Michelle this morning. We ran out 2 miles before returning to the start of the 5 mile tempo. We then started the 5 mile tempo at 6:00 pace to test Michelle and see how long she could hold the pace for. Josse and Daniel did not want to go faster so they just did 1 mile with us and then slowed down. We held 6:00 pace and through 3.25 miles we were 1 second under pace. The next quarter was a little slow and then Michelle decided she had endured long enough and she slowed down. It was slower than marathon pace, but I have decided that from now on I will count anything around 6:00 pace as marathon pace in order to distinguish between those miles and slower miles that I run. We then ran back to Sasha's house for a total of 9 miles. After this, we ran out 2 miles and back for a total of 13 miles. Total time 1:41:42

I met with Sasha at 5:00am this morning and we ran out to the end of the trail and back. We kept the pace relaxed and barely finished 10.1 miles under 8:00 pace. I then went out and ran 2 more miles to finish 12.1 in 1:34:00. After I got home I went on a walk/ run with Kimia. We went out and back for a little over a mile. At least 1/4 or more of it was running so I am adding the little extra to end with 12.35 for the day.

I ran with Sasha and Daniel to the BYU track this morning and we ran 4x100m repeats to warm up for a 200m time trial. We started the 100s at about 16 seconds for the first 2 and then at about 14 seconds for the next 2. We then ran 200m in 27.1 for me, 30 for Sasha, and about the same for Daniel. The track was wet, so it slowed our times down a little bit, but overall not too bad. We then decided to do one more 200 and I ran it in 28.0 with Sasha coming in at 30.4 and Daniel at 30.5. One difference between the first 200 and the second, is that the first was run from a slightly moving start, while the second was stationary for me and Daniel. Sasha was moving on both 200s. After we finished our 200s we did 1 more 100 to see how close we would stop the watch when starting and finishing together. There was a difference of about .3 as I had 16.33 and Sasha had 16.65(?). After this we ran back to Sasha's house to finish with 8 miles. We dropped Daniel off, then I dropped my car off at home and Sasha and I ran another 5 miles together in 40:30 before I finished with a total for the day of a little over 13 miles.

I had a good run this morning. I am a little sore from running the 100s and 200s yesterday but nothing too bad.  I ran with Sasha and Daniel, and we met Matt on the trail about a mile into the run.  We ran out to the end of the trail and back.  We hit 4 miles in 34:07 and slowly sped up from there until we finished in 1:21:29.  So, we didn't quite catch the 8:00 guy, but we were close.  It was good to go a little slower than normal and it didn't feel too slow.

I ran to Sasha's house this morning, getting in 2 miles before I got there. The two of us then ran from his house up the river trail into the canyon. We ran a little ways up the canyon, and then crossed the highway at the squaw peak turnoff. We did a tempo run up the mountain until we got to squaw peak. It was 4.3 miles to the top, and I did it in about 32:30 but I am not sure because I didn't catch my time and I still had the running clock going. My wife Kimia then gave me a ride back down while Sasha ran down to get ready for Des News. Once Sasha got to the bottom
we did another 4 mile tempo coming out of the canyon until we got to Will's Pit Stop. We did this tempo in about 23:20. Total time for 19.2 miles was 2:20:26.

I stayed up really late last night working on a research paper, but we took it really easy this morning and I took a nap yesterday, so I don't feel too tired now.  I ran with Sasha, Daniel, and Matt this morning, meeting Matt partway into the run like normal.  We ran out and back for a total of 8 miles.  Sasha and I then ran around the block 6 times for 2.1 miles extra to end with 10.1 on the day in 1:21:56.

 After our run today Sasha and I measured the circumference of our legs.  I have been reading some articles for a research paper I am writing and it was claiming that small bone structure of the lower leg and small calf size was correlational to better running economy.  Based on the description in the article, running economy sounds a lot like what has been discussed in the forum regarding quality x.  Anyhow, Sasha wanted to measure us both to see the relative difference.  My measurements at the ankle, calf, and thigh were 7.5, 14.25, and 20 inches.  Sasha had measurements of 8.375, 14.25, and 21 inches.  It is interesting to see that although Sasha had about an inch on me around the ankle and thigh, that our calves were pretty much the same size.

So, I was really tired this morning (probably from the lack of sleep the night before last) and I overslept a bit.  Because of this I met Sasha and Josse on the trail about a half mile from my house.  We then ran out to the end of the trail and back to Sasha's house for a total of 10.6 for me.  We then ran 6 laps around the block for a total of 2.1 after which I ran 1.5 more to my house to finish up 14.2 miles in 1:49:48.  I felt good on the run, but at the end I was speeding up a bit (probably around 7:00 pace) and I felt tired.  I should be careful to try and get the sleep I need every day otherwise I am going to risk injury.  It shouldn't be too much of a problem as the semester ends here soon, so I shouldn't have too many late nights from here on out.

We took it really easy today, with the exception of a short stretch when we did some 100s and a 200. I ran with Sasha and most of the run with Matt. We did one hard 100 about 3.5 miles into the run. I came through in 14sec. We then ran to the end of the trail and on the way back I did another 100 in 13sec followed by a 200 in 28sec. Sasha then wanted to do another 100 with me timing him, so I ran next to him and timed him in two 100s in 14.6 and 15.3 seconds. We then finished running to his house. 10.1 miles in 1:24:08.

PM - 4 miles with Kimia in 29:51.  I wanted to get a few more miles in this week and I didn't think I would be able to, but I realized this morning that I would have the time in the afternoon as long as I got my final draft of my research paper done on time.

I met Sasha and Tyler at 5:30 this morning and we ran out on the trail like normal. Just before 4 miles the other two turned to do a tempo run and I went to the end of the trail. I passed by Matt on the way back, and I ran into Brad Skidmore a couple miles later. I ran with Brad until the end of the 5 miles tempo, after which I went back to find Sasha and Tyler. We ran back to Sasha's house to finish with about 12.2 for me. I then ran 2.1 more with Sasha while running around the block. Total time for 14.3 miles 1:46:01.

I took an early morning flight to Washington this morning.  Kimia and I are going to my sister's high school graduation so we got up at 4:40 this morning to head off to the airport.  We ended up getting into Washington a little after 8am.  I ran 5 miles with my brother Andrew and his cross country teammates and then another 4 miles with my brother's coach Ben Mangrum before running the last mile back to my family's house.  We were going a little faster than I normally go and I think that it was because of being here at sea level and getting a little excited talking about past races and the race tomorrow.  It was also a little warmer this afternoon than I am used to so it felt harder then it was.  Overall it was a good run and finished in 1:12:13.  Possibly a little longer than 10 miles, but I will count 10.

Well, I can't say I am happy with how the race went today, but at the same time I can't say that I didn't expect something like this to happen. Money went three deep. I was a few seconds out of third ($50) and no more than 14 seconds out of second ($150). I just didn't feel like I had it there today. If I would have run like I can I think I would have placed second, but I think that a combination of travel, bad sleep a couple of nights ago, and running more miles this week than I have ever run just took away that little bit extra that I needed. Well, here is how the race went.

1 mile: 5:01 - Downhill, we took it easy and ran as a pack.

2 miles: 5:06 (10:07) - Downhill at first, then hit the first hill of the course to start the rollers. I was with the second place finisher at this point. The winner had already taken off and left us.

3 miles: 5:40 (15:47) - A good portion of this mile was uphill, and fairly steep so I backed off. The second place runner moved up, and I went back with a group of three runners and started running with them.

4 miles: 5:22 (21:09) - A little more downhill on this mile but still rolling. It was during this mile that I realized that every time we started heading uphill, I was losing ground to the other guys, but that once it evened out or headed down I would hold even with them or pass them with less effort then on the uphill sections. I just didn't feel very strong on the uphill sections for some reason.

5 miles: 5:40 (26:49) - Another uphill mile. At this point I was in 5th and maybe 10 seconds behind 2nd place and 5 seconds behind 3rd and 4th.

6 miles: ~5:11 (32:00) - Another downhill mile. I couldn't see the mile marker but from where it should have been I think I guessed my mile time pretty good. The 3rd and 4th place runners have now caught up to the 2nd place guy and are running with him. I am about the same distance behind as before, maybe a little closer.

7.46 miles: 40:27 - We went up one hill just past 6 miles and the 4th place runner started to fade. The road flattened out and I caught him just a little bit later. We then turned the corner and started back up the hill to the start and the same thing happened just like earlier; the guys in front all started pulling away. They got a decent sized gap on me and then it started flattening out a bit and they started coming back. I made up almost the entire gap that the third place runner had on me, but I ran out of room and finished in fourth.

So, I am kind of disappointed with the finish, and I was hoping to finish about 30 seconds faster, which would have placed me in 2nd. There was a light wind as well which might have slowed me down by 10-15 seconds over the course of the race, but there is no saying for sure. But, I guess I can take consolation in knowing that I did well considering the situation with traveling and not feeling 100 percent for the race.

I figure that I should keep better track of the miles I put on my shoes since I will be getting another pair to use soon, which will make it more difficult to remember how many miles are on each pair. I figure that I will update it once a week and post it on Sundays. So, here goes:

Pearl Izumi Surge - 62.7

Aasics Gel Ohana Racer - 185 (at least that is my best guess)

Aasics Speedstar - I don't have them yet, but once I get them I will put it here too.

I felt somewhat sore today due to the hilly nature of the race I ran on Saturday, but it wasn't too bad.  Sasha wanted to measure how long our legs are and the circumfrence of our legs just above the knee.  He was about an inch longer on the different leg measurements and about 2 inches bigger above the knee.  Because of this, we got out a little late so we had to run a little faster than normal.  We ran our first mile in just under 8 minutes and then quickly got under 7 minute pace.  Eventually we sped up to about 6:15 pace for 1 mile and we did one quarter in 1:31.  We finished at Sasha's house in 1:09:07.

I ran with Sasha and Josse this morning. After about a 2.5 mile warmup, Sasha and I ran 1 mile in 4:54 (73, 71, 74, 76). I lost concentration near the end which partially explains the slowdown. I also think that I haven't eaten enough the last couple of days and I was feeling kind of drained. I also have not been sleeping well for various reasons. Last night for example, I could not fall asleep for a while and then I woke up a number of times during the night, which is uncharacteristic of me. Anyhow, we ran to the end of the trail, and on the way back we ran 2x100 with Josse to see how fast she could go running both in the mid 16s. Matt ran with us for a bit before turning back to his house on our way back. After finishing 10.1 at Sasha's house, he and I went out and did another 4.25 in 33:34 for a total of 14.35 miles.

I had trouble falling asleep last night because Kimia was watching a movie while I was trying to fall asleep, so I had trouble relaxing for a while.  I was in bed for about an hour before falling asleep.  At least I was resting, so it isn't all for naught.  Anyhow, I ran with Sasha and Daniel this morning.  We ran our normal out and back to finish up 10.1 in 1:20:11.  We ran our last 3 or 4 miles at about 7:30 pace.  We dropped Daniel off  at this point and then Sasha and I went out and did 4 more miles finishing 14.1 miles with a total time of 1:50:53.  I plan on running a little less tomorrow in preparation for the Wasatch Back.  I want my legs to be a little fresher for this one.

I had a final this morning so I ran a later in the afternoon.  My wife Kimia rode the bike while I ran.  My run today was short because I want to be ready to kick BYU's butt tomorrow, so I figured a decrease in mileage for the day was in order.  I will run another 3 miles tomorrow morning just to get my legs moving and ready for the day.

We started slow for an afternoon run and went through the first mile in about 8:00.  We then sped up a little but not much, making it through 3 miles in 23:33 and 4 miles in 31:22.   After this we sped up a little more, going through 5 miles in 38:53 (7:31).  At this point I decided to run a quarter at a hard but comfortable pace and I ran it in 1:23 (42, 41).  The only reason I was slower the first 200 was because it took me a bit to get up to speed.  It felt like a good marathon pace, and when I account for speeding up at the beginning it was a 5:28 average pace.  I then slowed down so that Kimia could catch up and then we went home to finish 6 miles in 46:18.

Crap, I just lost what I wrote.  So, this will be a little shorter than the first one

AM: 3 miles in just over 23 minutes

PM: leg 1 - I started with Kyle Perry and Mike Vick running a leg of 5.14 miles.  Perry took off right from the start and I stayed with Vick through just over 2 miles and hung less than 10 seconds behind him through 3 miles.  I hit a decent uphill after mile 3, and Perry and Vick both gapped me by a good amount.  I am still having issues with running uphill and I am not sure why.  I am not too concerned with it, but I am thinking about doing some strength training to get my leg strength up.  Total time for the leg 28:28.

 mile 1 - 5:06

2 - 5:18

3 - 5:28 I was hurting a bit this mile because I started out too fast, but it was manageable.

4 - 5:51 going uphill now.  Legs felt weak, but breathing was relaxed.

5 - 5:51 still uphill.

leg 2 - 8.5 miles.  We were about 16 minutes behind BYU at this point in a solid 2nd place.  I took the handoff from Clyde and took off at a decent pace, but not too hard because I didn't want to kill myself before the downhill started.  The hill crested and started down right at the mile mark.  It then headed down for about .75 and then had a slight uphill for .25 on both the 2nd and 3rd miles.  4th mile had a little more uphill followed by a rolling 5th mile.  The 6th mile was similar to the 4th, and the 7th was a moderate downhill all the way.  The 8th mile was starting to flatten out a bit more, followed by a half mile to the finish.  Total time for the leg 44:05

mile 1 - 6:33

2 - 4:52

3 - 4:50

4 - 5:04

5 - 5:21 rolling mile

6 - 5:03 had trouble getting the legs going after the roller

7 - 4:48

8 - 5:07 the GPS battery got low and I wasn't getting quarter splits so I lost concentration

This was the last leg of the relay.  There was a headwind which slowed me down the first few miles, and then after the third mile I hit a big uphill section for about 1.25 followed by a light uphill for the next .75.  The leg then went downhill for the last .6.  On both the second and third legs I was only about 30 seconds behind Kyle Perry which was good because he gapped me by 1:56 on the first leg.

mile 1 - 5:33

2 - 5:48

3 - 5:49

4 - 6:28

5 - 6:27 first quarter 1:49... ouch

I was done with this leg around 5:50am and got to relax for the next while before our team finished just before 11am.  Our team finished with a total time of 17:54:16.  34:42 behind BYU and almost an hour in front of the blue team, which finished in 3rd place.

So, I crashed after the relay last night and the nap Sunday afternoon was really nice.  I am a little sore, but it is not too bad.  Anyhow, here is the update on my shoe mileage

 Surge -  110.25

Ohana Racer - 209

Speedstar - 1.5

I ended up having trouble sleeping last night because I slept so much yesterday, but I guess it all averages out.  Anyhow, I ran with my brother Andrew this morning up in Park City.  My calves were pretty sore after the Wasatch Back, but they got better pretty quick.  Now my quads, and to an extent my shins are the only areas left that are still sore.  We took it pretty easy and after 6 miles I dropped off Andrew and then ran 2 more miles alone.  Total time for the workout was 1:03:46.

I ran with Andrew again.  He ran 8 miles and then I ran 4 more to finish up.  Still in Park City.  Total time 1:30:29.

I ran pretty easy with Andrew today.  Still in Park City.  Total time 1:44:18.

I went swimming yesterday and today, as well as hiking this afternoon, so I am staying pretty active on top of the running.  It has also been really hard to sleep considering that my mom never sleeps and neither does anyone else at our famiily reunion.  My original plan was to run 14 tomorrow but I think I might hold it to 12 instead and try to get a bit more sleep.  Also, I am not sore anymore, but I think there might be a few more lingering issues from the Wasatch Back that still need to get worked out.  Basically I am just feeling a little tired, not from lack of sleep, but I am still getting over the shock to my system from racing 19.2 miles off of no sleep.

Ran nice and slow with Andrew.  We went a different way today than we have been going.  We ran on the dirt part of the trail the Park City half marathon runs on.  Total time 1:37:04.

Easy run again, about half of it with my brother.  We kept it at a slightly faster pace today because we had somewhere else we needed to be later in the morning.  Total time 1:24:34 for 12 miles.  I was pretty tired later on in the afternoon because I didn't get enough sleep last night.  I have found that it is almost impossible to get enough sleep when you are sharing a hotel with a whole group of people who don't ever go to sleep until after midnight.  I guess it has been bearable, but I am anxious for a more normal schedule so that I can get enough sleep.

I ran with a whole gang of people this morning up in Park City.  We started off pretty slow going through some hills in Park City at the 4.5 mile mark we had been out for about 36 minutes.  So, 8 min pace for the first little while.  Then, Walter and I started to pick up the pace and the next thing I know the others are completely out of sight.  We ended up running down the trail the Park City half-marathon is run on until we got to I-80.  At this point we ran next to the highway for a bit and then ended up looping back on a road in the middle of nowhere until we finally made it back to the trail we had been running on earlier.  We started heading back to where we started, and eventually we caught up to the rest of the group, finishing with them.  We finished in 2:08:00 for 18.2 miles, while the others had gone just over 15 miles during the same time span.  I then did 4 100s on the turf at the high school barefoot just to see what it would feel like to finish off my mileage for the day at 18.45.

I was really tired today at church. I kept falling asleep, and Kimia would wake me up again. Anyhow, time to track shoe mileage again.

Surge - 152.7

Ohana Racer - 209

Speedstar - 35.5

I ran with Sasha and Daniel this morning. We went out to the 8 mile turnaround and then started back until we got to the start of the 5 mile tempo. At this point we turned around again and said goodbye to Daniel. During all of this we were testing my heart rate with a new toy that Sasha got from the Ogden marathon, so there were a couple of pickups (sprints) in the middle that amounted to about 200m I estimate. My heart rate shot up to almost 160 during/after these pickups and was hovering around 130-135 while we were running slow (approx. 7:50 pace). We picked up the pace to about 7:00 on our way to the start of the 5 mile tempo and my heart rate was at about 150. We then did 1 mile in 5:50 with an average heart rate for me of about 171-172. After we turned around we did one mile in 4:58 with a max heart rate for me of 187. I am not sure what the average was. We estimate that this is close to my overall max heart rate. We then slowed it back down before turning around 1 more time at the mid way mark of the 5 mile tempo in order to head back to Sasha's house. Total time for 13 miles 1:39:09.

I ran with Sasha this morning, as well as with Luz and her dogs for part of the run.  We ran out to the turn-around for 10.1 miles.  We had averaged just under 8:00 pace for the run when we started running with Luz and we slowed a bit, but not much, making it back to Sasha's house in 1:21:44, so just slower than an 8:00 average.  Luz then started to run with Sarah, and Sasha and I ran another 3.15 around the block to finish up for the day with a total time of 1:45:23 for 13.25

Well, due to problems at work last night (the other staff forgot to show up... again) I had to forego my run with Sasha this morning. Instead I slept in and ran later on in the morning. While I was running I began to think, with my thought process going something like this:

Sprinters always have a very high leg kick when running (angle of knee flexion from the calf to the thigh)

Elite world class distance runners also have a high leg kick

According to an article I read on running economy and Sasha's observations, runners with better running economy tend to have a higher angle of plantar flexion of the foot on toe-off from the ground and less of a range of motion in the foot during running.

Sasha and I have had various discussions about the performance variant that running barefoot as children may have had on East Africans.

Sasha has mentioned that running in Vibram 5 fingers (basically running barefoot) causes him to work harder with his gluts and in the fore-section of the lower leg (I can't remember what the muscle is called)

So I thought that if I could simulate the form that elite runners have when they run, would I go faster at the same effort. I decided to first try this running 4x100m sprints, followed by a 400. My goal was to focus on good plantar flexion on toe-off from the ground, while attempting to flex the gluts a little more to create a higher leg kick. I also wanted to try and stay relaxed. I did not want to go faster because I was working harder. The results of my 4x100 is as follows 13, 14, 13, 13. I had a running start to all of them just like always with a running clock. The 13s were all in the mid to high 13 second range, with the 14 being in the low 14 second range, so virtually equal for all of them. This was somewhat surprising, especially on the first repeat, because on the first 100 I was half expecting to come through in a high 14-15 seconds. It felt too easy to be run in 13 seconds as the effort felt the same as when I am normally running them with Sasha. I ended up running my 400 about 8 miles into my run. I purposefully ran it on the same section of trail that I last ran an all out 400 on a couple months ago (59s). This section of trail has a net uphill and is generally fairly slow. Again, just like the 100s, I ran it from a moving start with a running clock the whole time. I ended up with 56 seconds for 400 meters (POST MISSION PR!). Again, I focused on plantar flexion on toe-off, high leg kick, and staying relaxed. I made it through 100 either in a high 13s or a low 14s. I didn't get any other 100 splits because I was focusing on different things. By the time I hit the 300 mark I almost felt like I could not feel the toe-off and I was having trouble maintaining a high leg kick. My legs felt completely dead (This was also how I felt a couple of months ago when i did the same thing). I estimate that my overall time was anywhere from 56.0-56.3 based on where my clock was (59:08 at the start, almost 59:09 and 1:00:04 at the finish, almost 1:00:05). After running the 400 I finished up my run, finishing 13.1 miles at my house in 1:37:29.

I find the results of my little test to be encouraging and I want to try it out at longer distances in the future, maybe starting with 800s and then working up to a tempo run test, as well as trying it out in long slow runs to see how it feels. I also think that the 400 equivalent was faster than my actual 400m pr that I set in high school (?55.7?). My actual pr was set as the first runner in the 4x400m relay, and due to a three turn stager, the time is somewhat approximate. The time I ran today was from a start, but it was 8 miles into a run, I wasn't wearing racing shoes, I had run 4 semi-hard 100s before it, and it had a net uphill. On the other side of the coin, it did come from a running start, however I doubt I was going any faster than 12:00 pace by the time I started the 400. I honestly think that if I was focusing on this 400 today, and I ran it on the track with racing shoes I could have come close to or maybe even broken the 55s barrier.

Anyhow, it was a good run.  I will probably keep messing with this to see if I can keep improving and pushing my limits.  I will have to if I want to hit that OTQ in a few years.

I ran with Sasha and Adam this morning. We did a little test with Adam so that we could try to determine what is causing him to have a higher rate of neural fatigue, and a higher heart rate than average while running. He said that his blood glucose levels were low after eating when he had them tested, so that might be why, but who knows. Anyhow, we did a 2 mile warm up followed by 2x400 with 600 rest. We did the 400s in 1:21, 1:25. On the way back we sped up to 7:00 pace for 1 mile before finishing up running to Sasha's house for a total of 6.5 miles. Sasha and I then ran out and did the same distance again to finish with 13 miles. With about 2 miles left I started to feel a slight discomfort in the right anterior portion of my right leg. A little bit later it started to get painful. It almost felt like the muscle was cramping up. I think it was because of yesterdays workout. The muscle isn't used to that much stress and it didn't like it. I'd better be careful with how often I experiment with different things, because I don't want to get hurt. I think that I will be fine, I just better take it easy the rest of today. We finished our run in 1:46:20.

In the afternoon I took an accidental nap at work (whoops!)  It was strange because I almost never get a break there in the afternoons and today one of the guys fell asleep in the living room while another played video games in his room and the third watched tv.  The result of it all put me to sleep.  I am glad the guys didn't notice or it would have been bad.

I ran alone this morning. The original plan was to do 10 miles, but I ended up changing plans due to some unplanned events during my run. While I was running (about 3.5 miles into the run) I see a burnt out section of the provo river trail. This surprised me because it wasn't burnt out yesterday. As I run I keep seeing more burnt out sections. I was surprised that there was so much burnt, yet nothing big. Then I come upon a section that is still smoldering. I decided to put it out and I got super dirty in the process. I was afraid that it would catch fire again so I didn't want to leave it. Because of this I cut my run short as I had some time restrictions due to the fourth of July. I might try to get in another mile or 2 later on today to make up for the lost mile this morning. If not I don't mind because one mile isn't significant anyhow. I finished in 1:04:24 running the first 4.5 in 33:37 and the second 4.5 in 30:47.

I ended up getting a little bit more running in just after I finished my 9 miles in the morning.  I dropped my wife and her parents off so they could watch the parade after which I drove home and ran to watch the parade.  I ran more than a half-mile and less than a mile so I will count it as .5

I ran with Sasha this morning. We started at the shops at the riverwoods at the end of the provo river 10 miler and ran to the start of it, then back down. We started off fairly brisk today making it to about 7:00 pace before long. We stopped a little over a mile in for a quick vpb and again at 5 miles so that I could stretch out the muscles in my shin. I am still feeling it a bit after Wednesdays experiment. The muscles in my lower leg/shin area have really been kind of sore. More than anything they have just felt tired. Anyhow, we stopped for a minute so I could stretch it out which made it feel a lot better. We started off again and began our tempo making it to the turn around in 1:06:06 (1:06:05 by Sasha's watch). We started back down to continue our tempo, and Sasha took one more vpb shortly before we got to the bottom of south fork canyon. After we got back down on the river trail, we were consistently hitting miles in the 5:30s with our fastest being a 5:31 from what I figured. Near the end we were going just under or at 5:40 pace for the most part. We finished the second 10 miles in 56:13 for a total time of 2:02:19 (for what it is worth, Sasha had us at 2:02:16 as I stopped my watch a bit late). Total distance 20.1 miles as the 10 mile course is just a little long. This is the longest run I have done this year, not by much but it is the longest, and I am really tired now. I think that I am going to take a nap.

Good day at church today. We substituted in the nursery and had fun playing with the little kids.

Surge - 199.05

Ohana Racer - 209

Speedstar - 70.6

I ran with Sasha and Daniel this morning.  We ran about 6.5 miles with Daniel dropping him off and turning around at the start of the 5 mile tempo.  We then picked it up for a bit so we could catch another guy who was on the trail, but after about a quarter he had already turned around and was heading back so we slowed down again.  We ran the course of the 5 mile tempo still keeping it slow and then finished up running to Sasha's house.  Total time for 13 miles 1:42:19.  My legs are not yet feeling 100% after Saturdays hard tempo and the general fatigue I was feeling the few days before that, but they felt pretty good this morning.  I will probably try to keep the intensity a little lower during the first part of this week, and I will probably do a shorter slower long run on Saturday.

I ran with Sasha, Josse, Michelle, and Matt today. We did 6x1 mile repeats with a goal pace of 5:50. After a little less than 2.5 warm up we did our first repeat, finishing in 5:47. We did a quarter mile recovery followed by a mile back the same way we came out in 5:49. Another mile out in 5:46, followed by a mile back in 5:45, a mile out in 5:44, and a mile back in 5:42. Sasha was towing Josse, so their times were a little slower, and I was pacing Michelle and Matt. Michelle was hurting on the last repeat going through the half mile in 2:56 (5:52 pace) but then picked it up and ran the last quarters in 1:26, 1:20 to finish off the workout. We then ran back to Sasha's house to finish off the run. Total, 12 miles in 1:34:21.

PM - I was at work and one of the guys decided that he wanted to go to his mom's house.  I agreed to take him and I let one of the other guys ride my bike so we could get there quicker.  So, I was on foot and the other two were on bikes.  I ended up walking at times because I didn't feel like running the whole way, (I was wearing jeans and crappy shoes, I didn't want to go running too much in that and summer heat) and running at times so that I could catch up to the guys.  I will count it as half a mile of running.  I think it is about twice as far to her house, but I didn't run the whole way so I think it evens out.  Maybe I should count everything plus rectroactively add in the 30+ miles a week I was putting in on my bike for 3.5 months during school just to tick off all of those mileage board fanatics :)

I ran with Sasha and Daniel this morning.  We ran with Daniel through 3 miles and he turned to head back home.  Sasha and I decided to do the course of the uneventful half so we kept going.  we turned around at 5 miles and headed back but before we got to our last turnaround we ran into the guys from Provo High out running.  We decided to run with them a little, so we turned a little early and then added a little extra before heading back to Sasha's house for a total of 13.2 miles in 1:43:59.

I ran with Sasha this morning and after a warm-up we ran 6x400 in 75, 70, 70, 68, 68, 68 rounding my time down on the first two repeats and rounding up on the last four.  We then continued running out the trail and we ran with Luz and her dogs for a while before returning to Sasha's house for a total of 12.35 miles in 1:43:04.  We then ran 1 more mile with Julia in 10:00 to finish up for the day.

We took it easy today.  We ran out to the end of the trail and then added a little on the way back to finish at Sasha's house with 11.1 miles.  We then ran 1 more mile while we waited for Julia to get ready to go, followed by 1 more mile with her in 9:17.  Total time for 13.1 miles 1:44:08.

We took it easy again.  I ran with Sasha and another guy today (his name escapes me at the moment, but he is on the blog).  We ran 14.1 miles in 1:47:07 followed by 1.15 with Julia, the last mile being run in 10:00; then 1.5 with Jenny and Benjamin in 11:46, and finally another 1.5 mostly alone in 9:57 (last .5 in 3:01) for a total time of 2:20:36 for 18.25.

I got a lot of sleep last night, but I have been yawning all day. Oh, well. At least I am not tired.

Surge - 242.65

Ohana Racer - 209

Speedstar - 109.9

I ran part of the Des News marathon course with Sasha and Seth this morning.  I am not running the marathon with them, but I figured it would be a good workout anyhow.  We drove up to the start of the marathon and after I dropped them off I ran back down to the three mile mark where I ran a one mile warm-up before waiting for them to make it down to me.  The reason that I didn't run the first three miles is because it is a nasty downhill, and I didn't want to beat up my legs or put in as many miles.  Anyhow, I ran from there to the zoo which is about 12.75 from the 3 mile mark.  My total time for 12.75 was 1:16:57 and overall it didn't feel too hard.  My mile splits were:

5:10 - just finishing off the steep downhill, then a slight uphill.

5:23 - a mix between up and downhill, mostly down.

5:51 - starting to head up the hill before we get into immigration canyon.

6:36 - uphill pretty much the entire way.  Sasha asked us to back off a bit.

6:07 - mostly uphill, but it flattened out near the end and even headed down a bit.

5:19 - downhill mile.

 5:52 (40:18 for 7 miles) - has a couple downhill sections at a low grade, and one uphill section between the downhill.

After this we backed off to about 6:00 pace for a bit and then slowed down a bit more from there.  We made it from mile 13-15 (10-12 for me) in just under 13:00, so we didn't slow down too much, but it was downhill so it made it easier.  Overall the workout didn't feel like it was too hard of an intensity and we were moving pretty well so I am happy with it.  I was also pleased to see that I was still chatty while going through the main uphill section that we ran.  Seth was asking me about what my background was with running and I was chatting away for a while.

I ran easy with Sasha and Josse this morning. The run felt different at the beginning this morning, as I felt like we were going faster than we really were. There was really no soreness from the workout yesterday, but my quads did feel just a little tight for a decent portion of the run. We ran 10.1 finishing at Sasha's house, after which Josse and I ran two more miles to finish up with a total time of 1:35:10 for 12.1 miles.

We took it easy this morning. I ran with Sasha and we met Matt out on the trail. We ran to the end of the trail and back and we pretty much ignored pace the entire time. Finished in 1:20:34 for 10.1 miles. My foot was hurting more today than yesterday. I am not sure why.  I iced it after I got home from running and if it feels better I am going to run to work instead of biking to get a few extra miles in, miles that I would have gotten this morning if it wasn't hurting. I think it should be fine, but I'd better be careful just to be safe.

So, I iced my foot after running today and I took some ibuprofen.  By the time I went to work it felt fine, so I ran there in the afternoon.  It took me about 14 or 15 minutes to get there.  After work I ran home while Kimia biked along side me.  Coming home was a bit slower and we finished somewhere in the 16-17 minute range.  I am very pleased with the effort that Kimia has been making recently to eat healthier and to exercise.  She started coming to my work in the evening and riding the bike home while I drove so she could exercise and this week she has been running and walking a little as well.  Today, since I ran to work she rode the bike to my work and then rode it home while I ran.

I ran with Sasha this morning and we ran 10.1 together pretty easy.  We finished a little faster than we have been recently because we started a bit quicker than normal.  I think it might be due to the fact that Sasha is running fewer miles right now.  Anyhow, we finished in 1:17:55, so it was still pretty slow, but we started off a little faster than normal (we hit about 8:45 for the first mile compared to 9:30 or so yesterday).  After we finished I did another 3 miles alone to finish with a total time of 1:40:11 for 13.1 miles

I ran with Sasha this morning and we kept the pace about the same as yesterday, but we made it through the first 3 miles a little quicker so our overall time was faster. We finished 10.1 miles in 1:16:39. After this I drove home and then ran 2 more miles from home to finish up with 12.1 miles on the day with a total time of 1:31:48.

I ran a little with Kimia in the evening, about a half mile.  She does the run walk thing, but she ran for almost 5 and a half minutes without stopping today which is about 3 minutes longer than she has ever done without stopping.  It is a little step, but I am still proud of her.

Nothing special to report. I went to a little community 5k because Seth told me on Monday that they paid $100 to the winner. Well... they don't.  I got a plastic trophy worth maybe a dollar if that counts for anything. They did raffle off some gift certificates worth as much as $50 depending on what you got, but I didn't win one. So, I thought it was lame that here they are raffling off all of these gift certificates yet they don't give anything to the winner when they paid $100 last year.

Anyhow, I am just bitter because I thought I was going to win some money and I got nothing. The race was nothing special. It went through some neighborhoods and down a small trail similar to the provo river trail then back through some streets to the finish. There were no mile markers, so I have no clue what my pace was per mile. I think the course was also a little short by as much as 10-20 seconds but I don't know by how much (one guy had it at 3.04 on his GPS but I don't know that his GPS was right as the race people told me that they measured it at 3.1 with a GPS, so it is probably somewhere in between). I think that it was a good race considering my effort was not all out the second half due to lack of competition, (second place was Ryan Bybee, 39 seconds back) and I have been feeling pretty tired the last couple of days. I just would rather spend money on a race that is accurate, with some competition if I am not going to get anything out of running it. I could have run 3 miles hard on the river trail if I really wanted to and saved myself the $20. But, I guess I am just spoiled since I have gotten used to getting into races for free; maybe this will help me be more appreciative of the freebies I do get.

I ran another 15.1 miles a little while after the race once I got home.  I wanted to keep the pace right around 7:00 per mile.  I was pretty much right on pace for the majority of the run and at 12.1 miles I was 9 seconds ahead of the 7:00 guy.  Then, I stopped looking at my watch and I accidentally sped up a bit and averaged just over 6:50 for the last 3 miles.  Still right in my acceptable range for the run.  Finished in 1:45:08.

I felt fried after yesterdays run because of the heat and my legs are still feeling it today although it is very minimal. I fell asleep in church for a few minutes today because the relief society room was too warm. They need to keep the a/c on in there.

Surge - 297.05

Ohana Racer - 212.1

Speedstar - 133.75

I only ran 10 miles this morning. I took it nice and slow with Sasha and Luz for most of the run. After 8 miles I dropped them off and then ran 2 miles more at a slightly faster pace to finish the morning with a total time of 1:19:30 for 10 miles. I am going to run to work this afternoon as well, so that will get me another four miles if I run there and back.

I ran to work in the afternoon, and then home in the evening for another 4 miles.  My wife Kimia ran a mile straight for the first time ever today, and I am excited for her.  She actually didn't even stop at a mile, but she made it a bit farther and then ran for a bit longer after walking for a few minutes. 

I ran 6 miles easy with Sasha this morning, running the first 1.5 with Daniel, and about a mile or so in the middle with Matt.  I then ran another 7 miles alone.  I finished with a total time of 1:39:44 for 13 miles.

I ran 4 miles with Sasha this morning. After that, we took his kids out and got another 3 miles in. I plan on running another mile or so with Kimia in just a few minutes and that will be it for today. My leg started feeling weird yesterday, and after probing around I realized that there is some point tenderness on the bone in a similar place to where I had the stress fracture back last year. I don't even notice it walking or running, but just to be safe I am going to back off considerably the rest of this week. I might even back off next week as well. I will probably re-evaluate it later on this week.

I got 1 mile in with Kimia after I got home. 

I don't have time to write much, but all I can say now is... wow. It was a great race, and I edged Mike Vick out at the line to win (however he out chipped me by .02 so they declared it an official tie). We beat a BYU guy by 1:07 and Shin (Japanese guy who placed 5th at SLC marathon) by 1:08.

So, the race course starts at Timpview High School and heads North on Timpview Dr. At the starting line myself, Mike Vick, the BYU guy and Shin were all lined up next to one another. The rest of the field gave us a small gap, so we didn't need to worry about any bumping around at the start. We took off and I slid in behind Shin to draft off of him since there was a slight headwind, however Shin had different plans and he moved up a little quicker than I found comfortable. So, I moved over and started drafting off of both the BYU guy (Reagan Frey) and Mike Vick. There is a gradual uphill for the first mile or so and I stayed behind them the entire time. Shin had a 5-10 second gap when we hit the first nasty uphill dubbed goliath by the race directors which was near the mile mark. He immediately started to struggle and Reagan moved up and put about 20 meters on both Vick and myself. We passed Shin, who was breathing really hard heading uphill and once we crested the hill we started to close on Reagan.

The course drops after the crest of the hill and heads into some rollers for a while, and by the time we hit the 2 mile mark Reagan was struggling. Shin was already a ways behind us, but was maintaining the distance, and we dropped Reagan who fell back with him. At this point I started to push the pace a little more and a little over halfway through Vick asked if I could hold back a little. He suggested that we maintain pace a little longer and race near the end. I agreed and we backed off a little bit, but still kept the pace strong so that the other two wouldn't catch up to us. We headed down the hill by the Provo Temple and after getting to the bottom we started to pick up the pace again (about 4 miles in now).

Up to the three mile mark I had mostly sat on Vick, however from then on we mostly ran side by side and occasionally I would pull ahead followed by a small surge from Vick to pull back in front. This went on until during the last mile I started to fade a little as Vick pushed the pace faster. I dropped about 5 meters behind him and maintained that gap for a minute or two. I then realized how close we were to the finish and I decided that I needed to close the gap if I wanted to beat him. I closed the gap by the time we hit Timpview Dr once more and when we turned the corner I was right on his shoulder. I was moving to try and pass him as we turned left into the parking lot, but a guy finishing the 5k ran into us as he was trying to kick to finish his own race. This gave me 25-30 meters by my estimate to make up what was now a 1 meter gap between Vick and myself, and somehow I found a gear in me that is very rarely there and I blew by him to cross the line just barely in front of him for the win.

Reagan and Shin came in a bit later, with Reagan out-kicking Shin as he had to come from a ways behind to catch him at the end. They came through at 33:33 and 33:34. I had 32:32 on my watch when I crossed the finish line, so I think the timing started a few seconds late, as the official gun time had both Vick and me at 32:27.4 and the chip time had us at 32:26.9. Either way, it was a solid time and a new 10k pr for me on a slow course. I think that I could go sub 31:00 on a fast flat course at sea level, or one similar to Des News. By my recollection this is also the most competitive race that I have ever won, which is a great step forward for me.

I was somewhat sore today, which is surprising considering I only raced a 10k yesterday.  Anyhow, I kept the pace easy and I finished in 1:02:36.

I took it easy today and I kept the mileage really low considering that it is Saturday.  I just want to be careful to make sure that my leg stays injury free.  I ran into Matt out on the trail and he looked like he is still pretty sore after the marathon but he was running with me at about 7:00 pace.  I ran 7 miles alone, then one more with Kimia for a total time of 1:03:35 for 8 miles.  The leg doesn't hurt but I think that I will ice it just to be safe.  I already took some anti-inflamitory drugs to be safe as well.  I think that I will probably take it easy the first part of next week as well.

Good day at church today. We helped with the nursery again. I think it is fun to change church up every once in a while to go play with some 2 year olds. I am glad however that I don't have to do it every Sunday.

Surge - 318.05

Ohana Racer - 222.6

Speedstar - 159.75

I ran with a whole crew of people this morning.  Daniel turned around after just a little while because his knee is still bothering him.  James turned around after 3 miles, and Matt ran with us from about the half mile mark to 4 miles before turning around.  Sasha and I then finished the run together to end up with 10.1 miles in 1:20:58.  So, the 8 minute guy beat me by 10 seconds; not too bad considering we were over a minute behind him after 1 mile and almost 2 minutes behind at the halfway mark.

I ran with Josse, Sasha, and Michelle this morning.  We ran out to the trail and did 2 mile repeats with Sasha pacing Michelle and me pacing Josse.  I did 2 repeats with Josse at 6:20-6:55 pace followed by a few more easy miles to finish with 10 miles in 1:17:28.

I ran easy with Sasha, and for a little bit with James, and later with Matt.  Finished in 1:22:18.  Josse worked on me yesterday, and I could definitely tell a difference today.  It didn't hurt or feel tight while I was running, but I did not feel like I could or should run fast.  She told me to take it easy today anyhow because it was supposed to feel like this, so no worries.  I just need to stay aggressive with this thing so that it does not turn into anything serious.

I ran with Sasha and Benjamin today.  We took it pretty easy for the most part, but there was a short section where we sped up with Benjamin to about 6:00 pace for .25 and later on to a pace in the mid 6:00 range before slowing down just before we hit .5 miles.  After dropping Benjamin off at the house, Sasha and I ran a few more miles and we threw in one 800 in 2:29 to get a feel for the pace in preparation for Saturday's 5k.  Total time for 10 miles 1:19:20.

I ran with Sasha, Matt and Benjamin today.  Since Benjamin didn't meet his goal yesterday to be able to go out to eat he ran with us again today so that he could try to get the time (3:10 for 800).  He met his time goal, running about 3:08 and after we dropped him off at the house we added a little more to finish up with 10 miles in 1:18:47.

I ran the minuteman 5k this morning, getting to the race course a little after 7:00. I warmed up with Sasha and Seth before doing some striders, and stretching before the start of the race. Just looking at the field before the start of the race, I could tell that it was going to be competitive, as there was a high number of runners who looked serious.

When the gun went off I was really surprised at the speed at which Teren and Seth took off at. My original plan had been to try and hang with them for as long as possible, and then trying to survive the last bit to the finish. Instead I scrapped those plans, and I hung at the front of the trail pack with Alexander Thomas, while another runner tried to hang with Teren and Seth, and another held about halfway between them and us. During the first mile I would switch between 5th and 6th, as Alexander would sometimes be in front of me, and vice versa. I hit the mile in 5th place with a time of 4:53, 6 seconds behind the leaders (4:47).

During the second mile, Alexander and I started moving up and we began to battle one another as we tried to stay in front of one another. We caught the 4th place runner a little past 1.5 miles and we started gaining on the 3rd place runner, who had now dropped off of the pace that Teren and Seth had set. The course through the first mile and a half had been either a slight downhill, or flat. Just a little ways before the 2 mile mark, however, the course starts to go up a slight uphill, which does not hurt too bad initially, but which really takes a toll by the end of the race. Alexander passed me just before the 2 mile mark, and we had not yet caught the 3rd runner, so I finished the second mile still in 5th place with a time of 9:47 (4:54). At this point I was 11 seconds behind Teren and Seth who went through this mark at 9:36 (4:49).

Just past the 2 mile mark I passed the runner who was in 3rd for the first 2 miles. He seemed to be fading, so I did not worry too much about him. Alexander however, was posing more of a problem as he was now the only person between me and the money. He started to push the pace a little more as we worked our way up the hill and he put a small gap on me (3-5m). I let him have it as I did not want to push the pace too early because I wanted to be able to have enough left to take him at the finish if it was necessary. We turned the corner onto a bigger hill (still not too big) with less than a half mile left, and it was at this point that I decided to make my move. I really did nothing more than focus on maintaining pace up the hill, but it was enough to catch up to and pass Alexander. From this point on I could not even hear him, although he finished only 2 seconds back. I now focused on Seth, who had dropped off the pace Teren had set. I could tell he was coming back, albeit rather slowly and I slowly worked on reeling him in. As we neared the 3 mile mark I could tell that I was pretty thrashed, as my battle with Alexander had taken a lot out of me and I realized that I would probably not be able to catch Seth. I made it through 3 miles in 14:59 (5:12 not bad for an uphill mile) with Seth about 4 seconds in front, and Teren a ways in front of Seth.

Over the last .1 Seth pushed it a little harder in order to beat me, and I think the gap stayed about the same as I finished the last .1 in 31 seconds for a total time of 15:30 for the race. Seth came in at 15:26, and Teren came in at 15:13. Officially my time was 15:31, however both the running clock and my watch both had me at 15:30 as I crossed the line. Anyhow, based on our two mile times, Teren only put six seconds on me over the last 1.1 which was consistent with the rate at which he gained on me over the first 2 miles. I gained 7 seconds on Seth over the last 1.1 but I think that pretty much all of it came before the 3 mile mark as he sped up over the last little bit to maintain the distance.

Just like my last race, this race has proven to be a good barometer for my fitness and the improvements which I have been making, which is very encouraging for me. Just a few months ago I finished 20 seconds behind Seth at the Magna 5k (4 seconds today) and 56 seconds behind Teren (17 seconds today) and that race was a 50 second 5k pr for me. Anyhow, I am excited with my progress, and hopefully I can keep this up over the next few months.

I got plenty of sleep last night, but I was really dragging at church today. I think it was because I was fasting. I came home and took a good nap and it made me feel better.

Surge - 348.25

Ohana racer - 229.6

Speedstar - 189.85

I had trouble sleeping last night because I took a really long nap yesterday afternoon, but I felt fine this morning, so I think that it all added up together fine and I shouldn't feel too tired later on today.  I ran with Sasha, James, Benjamin, and for a little while with Matt.  We all seemed to have VPB issues this morning as James had to go twice, I had to go twice, and Sasha is Sasha so I don't think any more explanation is needed there.  I think it is due to yesterday being Fast-Sunday.  We didn't eat anything for a day, and then we ate a bunch in the afternoon and it decided that it wanted to come out this morning.  Anyhow, we ran a little faster than normal this morning, partially due to Benjamin deciding to run a 7:03 mile during his workout and we finished the first 6 miles in 44:57.  We dropped off James and then headed out again.  We did a tug of war test with Sasha's harness and I won.  I am not really sure what it means, but I guess it doesn't really matter.  We also did a couple tests of muscle recruitment doing a bunny hop for 100 then a bound for 100, and finally a 1 leg hop for 100.  Sasha seemed to struggle more with the bunny hop.  After our turnaround, we ran into a former BYU runner who graduated in 1994 and we did a few 800 repeats with her in 3:04 (approximately), 3:16, and 3:04.  We then finished running back to Sasha's house, finishing with a total time of 1:30:04 for 12 miles.

I ran with Sasha and Tyler this morning. We went out 2.5 miles and then came back to the start of the 5 mile tempo where we said goodbye to Tyler. The goal was to see how long Sasha could hold 5:00 pace and then to finish the 5 mile tempo as fast as possible after that. We started off, but Sasha's watch didn't get started so we stopped after 100 and came back to start again. We started again and went through the first 100 in 20 seconds, so a little slow. I don't know exactly why, but I just wasn't feeling it today. I think it was primarily from a lack of sleep the last 2 nights, but I feel like there were other factors as well. Anyhow, I had trouble pacing Sasha through 5:00 pace and at 400 we were at 1:18. We followed this up with a 1:14 and a 1:16, so we were only 3 seconds back at .75 miles. Sasha then started to loose it and we went through the next 400 in 1:21 for a 5:09 mile. After this we did the next mile in 5:44 followed by a 5:38 including a turn-around. Our last 2 miles were a 5:38 and a 5:34. The last half mile I had Sasha slap my hand a couple of times as he was struggling to maintain pace and we went through the last 2 quarters in 1:23 and 1:21 for a total time of 27:43 for 5 miles. The whole workout felt odd. The 5:44 mile felt almost as hard as the 5:09, and I wasn't feeling too good later on, when an average pace in the 5:30's should have felt relatively easy for me.  After finishing we cooled down, and finished at Sasha's house for a total time of 1:31:35 for approximately 12.1 miles.  I was feeling light headed after we got to Sasha's house, so I went inside and got some water before going home.

I accidentally set my alarm clock for the wrong time, so I woke up late this morning and wasn't able to run with Sasha.  So, instead I took the opportunity to sleep late and I ran later in the morning.  I wanted to hold about 7:30 pace for the run and I sped up after putting in an 8:20 first mile and almost caught the 7:30 guy by 4 miles.  I locked into just under 7:30 pace after 4 miles and stayed there until 8.1 miles at which point I slowly started to speed up, averaging about 7:15 over the last 4 miles to finish in 1:29:40 for 12.1 miles.

I ran with Sasha and James this morning.  After three miles, James turned around and headed back.  After he turned back Sasha and I did 5x10 seconds hard with 5:00 between each repetition.  It was all out for Sasha, but less strenuous for me because my calves are still giving me grief and I didn't want to mess them up.  We added an extra 2 miles on the way back so that we could get 12 miles in.  Finished in 1:35:58 for 12.1 miles.

Sasha and I drove up to the end of the Provo River Half this morning so that Curt could show us the changes that have been made on the course so that we do not get lost tomorrow.  We ran the last few miles twice to make sure we don't mess is up and then ran up the canyon for a few miles before coming back.  We did two quarters at approximately race pace (one a bit slow, and one a bit fast) to get a feel for the pace tomorrow while coming back down the canyon.  We did them in 1:22 (5:28 pace) and 1:14 (4:56 pace).  Even the second quarter did not feel too hard due to the decline we were running down.  I may try to hit about 1:18 quarters during that stretch of the race (a little over half way through).  We finished 12 miles in 1:34:50.

There were a lot of bloggers at the race today. We took the top seven places for the men. I warmed up about 2 miles before getting on the bus, and after the ride up South Fork Canyon I ran just a little more before the start.

Mile: 1 - 4:50 - I took off and after 1/2 mile I was pretty much alone for the rest of the race. This first mile was pretty steep heading down, but the first few miles do roll a decent amount while they head down, so it is not a straight descent.

2 - 4:52 (9:42) - Pretty much the same as the first mile

3 - 5:11 (14:53) - This mile still has a net descent, but there are some uphill sections thrown in that slow it down a bit.

4 - 5:06 (19:59) - Similar to mile 3, but with more descent. Around this point I start to feel it just a little. I don't think it was a big deal, but I might have pounded it a bit too hard coming down the canyon. The pace was on target through this point, but I misjudged how much the pounding would take out of me.

5 - 5:16 (25:15) - about the first .1 heads downhill before exiting South Fork Canyon. Then, it flattens out for a bit before beginning a gradual climb for the rest of the mile. Based on my split, I probably pushed it too hard during this mile.

6 - 5:22 (30:37) - At the beginning of this mile the grade gets steeper and stays that way for about 3:00 or so. After this, it starts heading back downhill again until you hit the mile marker. I probably pushed it too hard going uphill on this mile as well.

7 - 5:02 (35:39) - Downhill almost the entire way except for a small rise as you get on the river trail. I think that this mile was about where it should have been. I also took a gu about halfway through this mile just to test it out.

10 - 16:01 (51:40) - the mile markers at miles 8 and 9 were misplaced, so I am not counting those miles, but I was timing quarter mile splits off and on, and they were almost all right around 1:20 (5:20 pace). This holds true to the 3 mile split as it is only 1 second slower than 5:20 pace. I felt like I should have been able to run these miles faster, but for some reason I just couldn't push myself any more than I was. I felt like I could hold the pace forever but could not go any faster. I think that it has something to do with pushing the pace a little too hard while going uphill earlier in the race.

13.2 - 17:15 (1:08:55) - I made it to the 11 mile mark before they got the marker out, and I don't know if they had 12 or 13 mile markers. Anyhow, I knew were the 11 mile mark was supposed to be, and based on my estimation I still held 5:20 pace for that mile. I started hurting at about 10.5 but it was fine holding the pace for the next .5. However, from 11 miles to the finish I was really hurting. Based on the time I averaged about 5:25 over the last 2.2 miles and I probably was going slower during parts of those miles as I sped up shortly before the finish. The course was a bit long, and pretty much everyone I talked to was getting readings right around 13.2 miles so I will count it at that length.  My official time was 1:07:59 and I wish that I ran that fast, but the official timing started late as I had myself much slower and everyone else did too.

Dave Holt came in second, a little over a minute behind me.  Sasha came in third, and Adam Wende came in fourth, followed by Chad, Walter, and Steve to round out the top seven sweep by the bloggers.

I slept really well last night. I am in California for the next two weeks and I was so tired last night that I crashed at about 9:00 and only got up at 6:00 this morning because Kimia was so excited to be in California that she woke me up.

Surge - 384.35

Ohana Racer - 248.1

Speedstar - 214.05

I am still somewhat sore after the half marathon on Saturday.  My legs were really screaming at me those last 2 miles.  I am surprised that I didn't have a bigger slowdown than I did considering how bad I felt.  Anyhow, I ran 11 miles alone, and then 1 with Kimia in a total time of 1:39:50 for 12 miles.  I started off really slow considering I am at sea level, and then sped up later on.  The soreness slowly worked itself out while I was running.

I ran 12 miles easy in 1:32:33.  My legs are not feeling so sore anymore as much as they are feeling tired.  I think it should just take a little longer to recover from the half marathon last Saturday.  About an hour after I got back I ran 1 miles with Kimia

My legs are feeling a lot better today.  I don't feel so tired, however, I woke up this morning and my groin was tight and sore.  Who knows why, its not like I have done much the last couple of days.  I did help my father in law put a laminate floor in an apartment he is making out of his old workshop but if anything that should have made my knees sore.  Oh, well.  My run took me 1:32:05 and I ran 12 miles.

I took things really easy today as I made an effort to go slower.  I have noticed that it is easier to speed up at sea level if I am not paying attention.  So, I took it slower today, but due to speeding up later on the overall time I spent running is only about a minute less than yesterday.  1:33:06 for 12 miles.  I also went to the park with my nephew and niece this afternoon and ran around with them for a couple hours playing in the sprinklers and going down slides.  It was fun.

I found a trail that runs alongside a creek in San Jose and I ran along that today.  It is similar to the Provo river trail, except that it is not as long, has more rolling hills, and due to the fact that it is inside a city of about a million people it is packed with walkers and bikers.  Overall, however I can't say it was too bad.  I wanted to get done sooner, and I didn't want to be running for over two and a half hours, so I took the pace a little more aggressively than I have been.  I went out in 1:06:20 for 10 miles and I finished in 1:03:17 for a total time of 1:09:37 for 20 miles.  On the way back I also started chasing an old man on a bike for about a mile, and I put in 1 mile in about 5:50.  Other than that I was sitting around 6:20 pace for the majority of my run.

I am not used to running the day after a long run, so todays run felt odd.  My legs just felt kind of drained for the first few minutes.  The pace was not an issue, I just felt like it should be my day off since I normally do long runs on Saturday and then take Sundays off.  Anyhow, I cut my run short by a mile because I didn't feel right and I finished 11 miles in 1:22:45.

Surge - 420.35

Ohana Racer - 248.1

Speedstar - 258.05

My leg was pretty sore yesterday, so I worked it out for a while and it felt a lot better this morning.  Just to be safe I decided to cut todays run a little shorter.  I took it pretty easy for the most part and finished in 1:18:00 for 10 miles.

I felt like the horses wanted out of the barn today, but I tried without success to keep the pace slower for most of the run.  Finally I gave up when 2 kids on bikes passed by me, and I spent a half mile running them down and then leaving them in the dust.  I finished 10 miles in 1:12:46 followed by one more mile with Kimia.  My leg has been bothering me more and more.  I think that I am going to keep the mileage at about 10 a day for the next while and hopefully the leg gets better.

I ran 10 miles easy in 1:18:04.  Nothing spectacular to report.

10 miles in 1:20:06.  I ran about half of this run on grass.  I wanted to see if the leg would feel better if I stayed on grass and it actually felt pretty good.  I will probably try this again tomorrow and see if the improvement continues.  I have been massaging the leg fairly consistently, as well as taking anti-inflammitory drugs and icing.  It doesn't really hurt, but it feels similar to how my leg felt last summer before I developed a stress fracture and I do not want that.

I ran on the grass again today.  My leg felt fine except for some tightness at the beginning of the run as I was just warming up, and at the end of the run as I sped up a bit.  I probably went farther than 10 miles both yesterday and today, but not by much.  Total time 1:19:49

I ran on the grass again for about half of my run.  Total time 1:19:52 for 10 miles.  Like every day recently, I feel relatively nothing out of the ordinary while I am running, but after I finish I feel like there is a tightness in my leg, almost like an achy feeling.  At least it feels like it is getting better as I have backed off recently.  Hopefully that trend continues.

My calf felt tight today, more-so than normal, but I almost feel like it is a good thing. This is because I was able to massage it out, and the tightness didn't feel like it extended to put stress on the bone like it has felt recently.

Surge - 451.35

Ohana Racer - 248.1

Speedstar - 288.05

Good run today.  I did feel some lingering tightness in the leg, but it was no worse than it has felt recently and might even have been better.  I think that I will keep on the 10 mile a day plan for the next few days, but I might increase the mileage later on in the week and possibly add in a long run this Saturday.  As long as my leg either stays constant in how it feels or gets better I think that I am safe.  However, if it starts getting worse again I will need to keep backing off.  Total time for 10 miles (maybe a little more) was 1:18:27.

Everything was pretty much the same as yesterday.  I ran with Sasha and Derek and finished up with a total time of 1:18:53 for 10 miles.  Nothing spectacular to report.  My leg felt fine while running.  It did feel somewhat odd at the beginning of the run, almost as if I was getting a cramp in the muscle but slightly different.  The feeling went away after about 1 minute.

Today I really just didn't feel like moving much. I didn't feel tired, I just didn't feel like going very fast. The only time we started to speed up at all my calf gave a slight twinge and we slowed back down. Total time for 6 miles 50:57. I will run this afternoon with the Springville Cross Country team as well.

PM - I ran 7 miles with the Springville Cross Country team.  I need to slowly work on these guys in order to get them running slower.  We finished 7 miles in 47:53.  The guys were all breathing hard, and were having trouble saying more than a few words at a time to one another, when their coach told them that they should be conversational during the run.  The leg felt good except for one little twinge  in the muscle about 5 or 6 miles into the run.  Considering the pace, that shows significant improvement.

I ran with Sasha, Derek, and Michelle this morning, while running the first mile with my Dad (peds endo doc on the blog) and some other guy I don't know. After one mile in 9:05, we picked up the pace and caught the 8:00 guy shortly after the 3 mile mark. We hit 6 miles in 47:XX and Derek took off so he could do some ROTC stuff at BYU. The rest of us then picked up the pace into the 6:30-6:40 range. After 2 more miles I turned around and ran back to Sasha's house to finish 10 miles in 1:15:46.

I ran with a whole slew of people this morning just like the last few days. Tyler and Daniel turned around after about a mile. My dad turned around after a little more than 2 miles. Derek was late, but caught up and after my dad turned around we sped up to catch the 8:00 guy. we ended up finishing 10.1 miles in 1:17:36 after running at about 9:30 pace for the first 2 miles.

I ran this afternoon with the Springville Cross Country team. We only ran 3 miles as they have a race tomorrow. We ran most of the run at about 7:30 pace, but I ran the last quarter in 1:32 because I wanted to see how it would feel going slow for 100m and then picking up the pace for 100m and then going slow for 100m, followed by another fast 100. Because I haven't done much of anything that is fast recently, I felt like I was working the cobwebs out.

I went to a cross country meet for Springville High School up in American Fork, so I couldn't run early this morning. Instead I ran a little during the meet, and then did the bulk of my run after we got back to the high school. I ran home from the school wearing a backpack in 90+ degree heat. I can't say that it was pleasant, but it got over 9 miles out of the way. I then dropped off my bag and finished up my run to get a total of 13 miles in 1:34:30. After adding in the mileage I got in at the race, I come out with 15 miles total on the day.

I slept a lot today. It was good.

Surge - 493.45

Ohana Racer - 248.1

Speedstar - 317.05

I kept the mileage lower today, in part because I want to keep the weeks mileage lower in order to do well at the autumn classic this Saturday, and also to make sure that my leg is fine after it was feeling kind of odd yesterday.  The leg felt great during the entire run, as well as afterwards, and I hope that I might not need to worry about it so much any more.  Anyhow, I started off fast today.  For some reason I just took off, and I went through 1 mile in 6:53.  I followed this up with a 6:10 mile and then a half mile in 2:53.  I didn't feel like I was pushing it at all, but when I turned around at 2.5 miles I decided to make an effort to slow down.  I then hit about 6:30 pace for the next while, before speeding up again with about a half mile to go to finish 5 miles in 32:07.  I then went out for 3 miles with Kimia on the bike, and finally slowed down a bit more to finish 8 miles with a total time of 56:04.

I ran with Sasha this morning and we did a tempo of sorts. We started by going out at 6:00 pace for a quarter, followed by a faster quarter. We then slowed down to 6:00 pace again for another quarter, with another fast quarter following. We did this for the whole 5 mile tempo. The only "slow" quarter that we got off of 6:00 pace by more than 1 second was at the turn-around halfway through and we did that quarter in 1:34. Our splits for the fast quarters are:

1:15, 1:15, 1:14, 1:16, 1:14, 1:17, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18, 1:15.

Sasha asked me to back off the pace a little during the second half, as he could no longer hold 5:00 pace, which explains the slowdown during the second half. During the last quarter I told him to slap my hand, and he made a big effort to catch me in order to do it. He then faded slightly over the last 150m as he used everything trying to catch up. I finished in 27:40 (5:32 per mile), with Sasha at 27:41. The early quarters actually felt easy to me, however the finishing quarters did not. I probably could have held 5:00 pace on the fast quarters over the second half of the tempo if I was not pacing Sasha, but I would have had to work a lot harder for it than at the beginning.  Finished 10.5 miles with a total time of 1:10:40

PM: I ran with the Springville Cross Country team again.  I ran part of a hill workout with them as well as their warm-up and cool-down.  I ended up getting in about 4 more miles.  The guys all started out really fast on their first repeat, and all but one of them faded pretty badly by the time the fifth and last repeat had been completed.  Not by coincidence, the one guy who did not fade is the fastest runner on the team.

Now that I am done with everything for today I have to say that today was one of the most tiring days I have ever had.

I ran this morning with Sasha and Josse for a few miles and then headed back early. Even though I got up at 4:45am to run, I didn't have time to get in more miles because I had to get over to Springville Junior High, where I am doing my student teaching. So, I just ran 7 miles before heading home so that I could eat breakfast and then leave. I had to bike to the Junior High because I don't have a car to use every day, and by the time I got to the school I was beat.  For some reason biking takes a lot more out of me than running does.  Maybe I just push myself harder.  Added on top of this is the fact that I didn't get much sleep despite getting to bed by 10:15 last night.  After school let out I biked over to Springville High so that I could run with their Cross Country team, after which I biked back home.

All in all, I ended up with 7 miles running this morning in 56:49, as well as 4 miles this afternoon in just under 30 minutes.  I also had about 18 miles biking when it is all added up.  In the past I have never counted biking miles towards my total mileage, as I have never biked more than a few miles a day.  My original plan was to not count them this time around either, however I have now decided that biking miles count.  I am tired.  I will add an extra 6 miles for the day for the 18 miles biking.

I ran 5.25 miles with the Cross Country team this afternoon in 39:44.  After this I came home and ran 2 more miles while Kimia rode the bike with me.

I only ran 3 miles with the Springville Cross Country team today as a taper for the race tomorrow.  Nothing spectacular.

I am not too happy with the race today.  I was wanting to place in the top 10 overall and hopefully in the top 5.  I didn't start off any harder than I normally do, and I was in a good position through about 1.5 miles and then the wheels just fell off the bus and I faded pretty bad.  I still only finished 36 seconds out of 10th place, but there were a lot of people that I have beaten before that beat me soundly (the worst was Reagan Frey who beat me by 32 seconds and I beat him by 1:07 at the Pioneer Day 10k).  It was the worst feeling as my legs just felt like lead, and other guys slowly gained more and more ground on me and the guys behind me slowly passed me one at a time.  Now I just need to start getting ready for St. George.

Surge - 517.2

Ohana Racer - 248.1

Speedstar - 339.05

I ran with the Springville Cross Country team today. They only ran 4.5 miles so I ran that with them and then finished up alone for a total of 10 miles. I ran the first 7 miles at about 7:30 pace, however I ran the last few miles at about 7:00 pace because I was coming downhill to come back to the school. I finished my run in 1:13:24. I also rode my bike to and from school today for a total of 18 miles, so I will count that as 6 running miles.