I'm retired from racing. Really.

6 medium miles.  Loop from my house, through Providence to 300 S, to Blackhawk, to Riverwalk, then home.  Felt pretty good, especially the first half.  I need to get more sleep, though.  On pace for 35-37 miles this week, then 40+ next week.

4 miles at pretty easy pace around the neighborhood

Just over 11 miles with Paul and Cody, averaging around 8:00 pace.  Looped through Millville/Providence with a few hills.  Longest run this year by over 20 minutes, and I felt real good.  It was cold, though (somewhere around 0 deg F at the start, windchill below 0), and I enjoyed my eyelids almost freezing together.  Cody ran in shorts- I don't think he will do that again.

Snowshoeing, no run

10 medium pace miles.  Ran up Cliffside. 

5 medium miles along riverwalk trail.

I also donated blood today.  Do any other runners donate blood?  Do you slow down a bit on your next couple of runs after giving blood? 

8 miles in 1 hour with Paul, running a loop through River Heights/Providence/Millville.  Felt very good.  2 hours of basketball later in the day.

5 slow miles in Idaho Falls

13 medium paced miles (between 7:30 to 8:00) in Idaho Falls.  Felt kind of tired and sluggish the first half, but felt good coming back- I picked up the pace a fair amount the last 3-4 miles.  Perfect weather for a run (~40 deg, overcast).  I'm glad I got my 40 miles in this week even though I took Monday off.  I will run 6 days next week, 45-50 miles, with some hills and a bit of faster stuff.  3 more weeks till the Relay Del Sol.

7 miles on the Logan Canyon river trail.  Very enjoyable run, with lots of mud, snow, and ice.  Of course, that slowed me down on some sections, but still enjoyable.  Felt pretty good.

6.5 miles from my house, up to Providence canyon, and 1/2 mile into the canyon.  Lots of steady, uphill running to mimic some of my RDS legs.  Felt tired.

766- 85 miles

4 medium miles along riverwalk trail (29 minutes).  Felt pretty good.  Then played 1 1/2 hours of basketball after getting 4 cavities filled.

766-89 miles

10 miles today, out to the canal and along it, then home and around the neighborhood.  First 4 were at 7:22 pace, then next 3 were at 6:50.  Mile 8 was in 6:20.  The 8 miles felt tiring but good, and I'm glad to see I can pull a sub-6:30 out.  The final 2 miles were very slow (~8:30 pace) pushing the kid in the jogging stroller as a cool down. 

Finished by playing a few hours of basketball- good speedwork and very tiring.

766- 99 miles

5 very easy miles around Logan/Providence, running with the wife and the baby in the stroller.  Nice recovery run after a hard workout yesterday. 

766- 104 miles

15 miles at a somewhat easy pace, from start of the canal up the canyon to Guinivah Malibu campground.  I felt pretty crappy the first 4 miles, but then felt better the rest of the way.  I could feel that I was somewhat dehydrated and hungry, but it was a great run.  I love running in the mountains, especially when there is some slop, snow, and mud, and it was nice to run in a group (Paul, Dan, James, and Cody).  This run should help a lot with the Relay del Sol, since it was longer than all my legs combined.  Good day.

806- somewhere around 150 miles

9 miles- 3 up Green Canyon (still very snowy for most of the trail), 3 down, then 3 miles along the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  Lots of small to medium hills.  Got real muddy again.

806- 160 miles

Ran from my house (mile 21.5 on TOU course) back to mile 15.5, then home.  I ran 8:15 miles on the way out, then 7:30 miles on the way home.  While not the fastest times, I am pretty happy for 3 reasons- 1) I was pushing the baby and jogging stroller the whole way  2) It was raining pretty hard for much of the run and was windy, which really slows the stroller down, and 3) the stroller got a flat tire at the turnaround point, meaning I ran 6 miles with a flat tire and increased drag, including the hills on TOU course from miles 18 to 20.  Overall, a good run.

Total time 1:34:28

766- 116 miles

I ran from my house along the last 5 miles of the TOU course (very nice to have the miles marked), and then reversed the route.  I went out at 7:20 pace for the first 5 miles, then returned at 6:50 pace, which felt pretty good.  My last mile (mile 23 to 22 on the TOU) was a 6:30.  I felt good, which made me not feel quite so bad about taking yesterday off.  And being able to run 10 miles, with half of them under my goal time for RDS, sure helps me feel at least somewhat prepared for the race. 766- 126 miles

So my first toenail of the season has officially turned black.  It is not uncommon for me to be missing 4 or 5 toenails all running season.  And yes, my shoes are long enough- I think I curl my toes a bit when I push off.  Anyone else lose toenails on a regular basis?

6 miles at 10 pm as the first of my 3 runs in 15 hours.  Pretty easy pace (7:45/mile)

2nd of my 3 runs in 15 hours.  7 am, ran to Firehouse, then decided to follow Paul's lead and run the deer trail.  I ran up cliffside, along the deer trail to above fox hollow, then home through Providence.  Felt pretty tired and sluggish going up mountain road, but felt much better running the deer trail hills.  I lost one of my gloves, but drove up later and found it.

3rd run was at 12:30, meaning I did 3 runs (6 mile, 9 mi, 6 mi) in 14.5 hours. 

My 3rd run was from mile 21 to 18 and back along TOU course.  First 3 miles averaged 7:20 pace, 3 miles back was 6:40 pace, which I was pleased with supposing my mileage and that it was net uphill.  I actually felt quite a bit better in my 3rd run than my 2nd run.  I think I am in decent shape for the RDS (not great, but decent) and should be able to meet my 7:00/mile goal pace.  Supposing I only started running in February, I think I am doing ok.

Finished the day with 2 hours of ultimate frisbee (a little speedwork) and a 30 minute hike.  My legs are tired.

766- 147

6 easy miles with some of the RDS team.  First day running after missing Monday and Tuesday.  Went to the chiropractor for the first time ever on Tuesday and I am sore!

We leave tomorrow for RDS.

I have already read a few of the entries for the race from my teammates, and recommend reading them.  Paul's has more of a general overview and is rather humorous.  I recommend it.  Here is my report.

A group of us drove down Thursday night/Friday morning.  We met the rest of the team at the starting line in Wickenburg.  I was the last runner (runner 6) in van 1.  The race started well, with it quickly becoming apparent that our competition would be from the Google team.  The five runners in front of me ran great, though Google did manage to open up about a 4-5 minute lead on us.  After making my ritual 20 trips to the beloved port-o-podies (or so it seemed), my leg approached.  My first run started about 8:30 pm.  It was a short leg- 4.4 miles, though it was hilly the whole way.  I had not trained near as much as I should have (only 10 weeks of running), so my overall predicted pace was 7:00 miles, though this leg was supposed to be a 7:18 thanks to the hills.  I didn't like running along the highway for the first bit, but having a full moon was great.  I hit my first turn (1.4 miles) at 6:45 pace and was feeling good, though I knew I was (sadly) near my speed limit since my breathing kept trying to turn random and I had to force it to stay even (2 steps in, 2 steps out).  I then had a gradual uphill, gradual downhill, then somewhat steep uphill.  The second hill slowed me a bit, but not too much.  I finished with a nice downhill run and a time of approximately 30:30, 2 minutes faster than predicted but we were still 4 or 5 minutes behind Google.

We drove the exchange 12, where I took a very cold but wonderful shower and fell asleep for about 2 hours on a wrestling mat.  Having always been the 1st runner in my previous vans, I prefer being last so I can sleep longer.  Results continue on Saturday.

Part 2

Our team ran great leading up to my second leg.  Clyde had a very hilly leg with lots of turns- something I would have enjoyed.  Paul closed a lot on Google and I was only about 3 minutes behind them at the start of my leg.  I was slightly confused for the first half mile because I thought I missed a turn, but actually didn't.  My leg was 4.1 miles, with a constant ascent the whole time.  I pushed myself and passed 2 teams (the only ones I saw), finishing about 4 minutes under my predicted time (just under 7:00 miles again).  I was tired but happy.

The race got real exciting after this.  Van 2 ran great and closed the gap with Google to 20 seconds.  It's amazing that you can run 120 miles and be within 100 yards of a team.  Google pulled away a bit before my leg.  My leg was very short (3.3 miles) with one decent uphill, a steep downhill, and then some flat and gradual up.  I ran hard but was very tired.  I could definitely feel some fatigue in my legs on the downhill pounding.  I also thought the second half would be flatter and even some downhill rather than up, which was hard.  But, the "1 mile to go" sign came a lot quicker than I expected and I finished 2 minutes ahead of schedule (~6:16 miles).  I was glad to be done and was very hopeful would could catch Google.  Alas, it didn't happen, but we still took second place, 10 minutes behind Google and 90 minutes ahead of 3rd place.  It was very fun to have a team to race and they were great competitors and good sports. 

Overall, it was a very enjoyable race.  I met some nice new people, saw some beautiful country, and had a great time.  I will make sure to start training earlier before future relays so I can pull my own weight rather than dragging down the average time.  It shows you how great my teammates did when our average time was 40 seconds/mile faster than my time.  They were great runners and enjoyable teammates.  Thanks, guys.

Looking towards the future, I'm not sure if I will do this relay again.  I enjoyed it and am very glad I did it.  But I think I want to run some other relays (other Ragnars, Hood to Coast, etc) before I would consider repeating this one.  If they change it to run from Flagstaff to Phoenix, though, I would be back in a heartbeat.