I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 8.

PM- 8 more. 

AM- 6.

AM- Run with Jeff and Andrea in Idaho Falls.  The temp was about 30 deg, but there was a 25 mph wind with gusts to 35+ that made it interesting.  Accuweather says the windchill is 4 deg, though it didn't feel that cold.  Jeff let me borrow a windbreaker, which made all the difference in surviving.  It snowed a few inches, and the snow had blown onto the roads, making them very icy in spots.  We ran 13 miles, literally winding through the neighborhoods to minimize wind exposure, with lots of good chatting.  I planned to run more, but stopped by the in-laws to see if Marci wanted to run with me.  She (easily) convinced me to finish my run with her at noon, when it will hopefully be warmer and less windy.  13 miles overall at the inevitable slow pace given the conditions.  Thanks for letting me tag along, Jeff. 

PM- 9 miles with Marci around IF.  Still windy, and a bit warmer.  It was nice to run with Marci but without the jogging stroller, which would have been impossible to push today with the wind.

PM- 9.

AM- sick with stomach flu, no run.

AM- back on my feet, back to work after running 5 miles.  Unfortunately, Marci got the virus today.  And so did my mother-in-law.  Fun.

PM- 8.  Planned on 10, but started to really drag after being sick/not eating yesterday, so stopped early. 

I examined my toes last night.  Right now I am missing 5 toenails (including 1 big toenail), and have 3 black toenails.  8 damaged/missing toenails.  Only both of my baby toenails are still normal.  I think this is a new record.  

On an unrelated note, I have signed up for Logan Peak Run and Grand Mesa 50 in the past few days.  Now I just have El vaquero loco and the Bear 100 to finish off my racing schedule.

AM- planned on 7, quit at 3 due to feeling very bad (still weak from sickness).  Added 4 elliptical miles.

PM- felt much better, so wanted to do a trail run.  Ran up the Logan River trail to past Spring Hollow, including some upper loops on the Spring Hollow singletracks.  The trail was very snowy, slushy, and muddy, but not icy (yet)- in other words, a perfect spring trail run.  90 min for 10 miles with 1250 ft climbing and descending.  Slow but enjoyable run. 

AM- 5.5 in about 41 min.

PM- I was near North Logan so swung up to BST and ran 5.5 miles from above the golf course to just past the North Logan cemetery and back.  Nice weather for a run, lots of people and dogs on the trail.  I wonder when they will open the bathroom at the mouth of GC.  45:20.

AM- Long run with Cody, Paul, and Carson Campbell.  First time running with Carson, and enjoyed getting to know him a bit.  We ran from Smithfield on some dirt roads/trails to BST, then did a small bit on Green Canyon.  We ran down some roads and then a canal to get home.  I absolutely bonked with about 2-3 miles to go and slogged it the rest of the way.  About 20 miles is around 2:40.

I'm pretty happy to end up with 70 miles for the week, supposing I was sick at the start and only had 9 miles on Monday and Tuesday combined.  Next week will be near 80. 

PM- No morning run due to a late night, but I did swing by Striders running store today to buy some stuff and talked to Ben Van Beekum for a while.  Cody was nice enough to to run with me after work.  We did a medium workout, running from the fairgrounds up to Providence Canyon.  We ran up the Deer Fence trail (towards Millville), and started our tinman tempo at the top.  Strong wind from the south slowed us down a bit, but the trail was nice.  Ran two ~6:40's on the trail, then a 6:10 on the road leaving the canyon, two 6:20's through Millville/Providence, and finally finished with a bit faster 5:58.  Like Cody said, we weren't working overly hard but didn't have a top gear to run any faster.  That will come with time.  14 miles in about 1:40.  Finished just as the rain started.  Good run, for only the 2nd workout of the year.

AM- 8 mi.  Hips hurt like the dickens today from running on roads for 2 straight, long-ish runs.  Bugger.

AM- Skipped the run to rest my hips.

PM- 6 miles with Cody, then loaded up the kids in the stroller and ran PW4.  Perfect running weather- gorgeous. 

AM- 6.5 miles, followed by a stressful day at work.

Just felt an earthquake while watching Obama's speech on NASA given today in Florida.  Cool.  Not the speech, the earthquake. 

PM- 12 miles.  First 7 at ~7:30 pace, then I did a challenging hill climb.  Ran 3 miles uphill at 6% avg grade, then .5 miles at 8%, then .5 miles at 10%, all of it at 8:00 pace.  My heart just about burst out of my chest on the last part.  1 mile cooldown. 

AM- 4.5 run, 4 xt to rest the hips.

AM- Long trail run with Cody.  We parked at First Dam and ran up the river trail to Guinivah Malibu (trail is very passable the whole way), averaging 8-8:30 miles.  Then we ran up to the Wind Caves- the trail is in perfect condition.  It climbs 1000 ft in just under 2 miles, so we averaged 11:50's up.  Then we turned around and ran back to the start of the river trail.  Last week I bonked hard at mile 16- this week I felt GREAT the whole way.  We even had a few sub-7 miles towards the end.  We turned around again at Stokes parking lot and ran up 2 miles (onto the singletrack), then finally ran back to First Dam.  20 miles in 2:48:31 (8:24 avg) with about 3000 ft climbing.  The weather was gorgeous, the trail was in great condition, I had a good time talking to Cody, and I felt fabulous.  I can't imagine a better start to a day.

PM- Ran to the park with the stroller to give the wife a break.  Went the long way to get 2.5 miles, rather than just 2.  Why 2.5, you ask?  Just wait till Cody updates his blog today, and it should be obvious.

PM- Merlin Olsen park to the canal to First Dam to past Stokes.  9 easy miles, 76 min.  Beautiful day, lots of mountain bikers on the river trail.

Drove up BSF canyon yesterday to scout the Bear course.  Only snow in the high parts of Left Hand Fork- I'll probably run from Leatham to Richards to as far as I can get towards Cowley sometime next week.  I'm planning to run the entire Bear course multiple times this summer.  Also, my Grandma sent me a newspaper article from their small town paper about the Grand Mesa ultra in July that I will be running.  Should be fun. 

AM- 5.5 easy. Hips still sore from Sat.

PM- BTW with Cody.  Ran from Spring Hollow to the start of Wind Caves.  Then we ran as fast as we could (i.e. tempo effort) up to the Wind Caves Ridge- 2450 feet up in 3 very, very unrelenting miles.  The trail climbs steadily with no breaks, and we pushed ourselves hard enough that we were borderline anaerobic.   Mile splits were 11:52, 13:15, and 16:52- and yes, that was as fast as we could go.  The last mile was technical and steep enough that the trail slowed me more than aerobic/physical limitations.  It was more of a faint deer trail than a real trail, with lots of rocks, roots, snow, and a nasty camber.  We enjoyed the views at the top, then ran down to the junction with Cody wasting me on the downhill.  Always glutton for punishment, we ran up to the Wind Caves (about 400 more feet up) just to make sure our legs were tired.  Then we limped back to the car.  It was the hardest 11 mile workout of my life, but great for trail running purposes.  "Pocatello" was my oft-repeated mantra.  If it were on road, it would have been about a 15 mile workout.  But I'll take a 11 mile trail workout with 3000+ feet climbing any day.  1:49:49, which is barely sub-10:00 pace.  Rocking.  Thanks for joining me, Cody.

AM- 8 easy.  Hips are mighty sore, but everything else is great.  Not even any quad soreness.

AM- 7 easy

PM- 10 easy while watching the draft.  Go Broncos! 

AM- 5 ez

AM- Bonneville Shoreline Trail long run with Cody.  We started at Dry Canyon and ran 7.5 miles to Blacksmith Fork Canyon.  I had never run the last couple miles and really enjoyed them- probably my favorite part of the run.  Nice singletrack through some trees, and even a dead moose right on the trail.  Then we ran back to the car- 15.2 miles at this point in 2:19 (nice and easy 9:09 avg pace).  We drove to First Dam and ran the second portion of BST all the way to Paul's house- 7.9 miles.  We visited with the Petersen's for a minute, ate some of their grapes, and ran back to the car.  31.1 miles total, 4:41:10 (9:02 avg pace), with about 3700-4000 ft elevation gain and loss.  Finished with a leg soak in the icy lake.  Started to feel tired but still running well at the end, other than a bit of stomach issues which made me stop a few times more than I would have liked.  Great weather for a long run, and I don't think Cody got too sick of me.  No gear problems, blisters, etc- I think everything is dialed in for Poky 50.  Now a rest week next week, 3 more weeks of training, then the race.

Cody- for the record, Paul's house is 50 ft above First Dam.  And our extra mile is because our stop was at 15.2 miles, not 16.2. 

Recovery week, low mileage.  AM- 4.  PM- 5 with Marci and the kids, 2 more with just the kids while Marci made dinner.

PM- BTW.  Ran from the fairgrounds to First Dam via canal, then up the river trail.  I started a tempo 5 miles into my run, just before Stokes Nature Center.  3 miles uphill (6:49, 7:28, 8:20 [350 ft climbing in one mile plus slick mud = slow tempo pace]), then 5 miles downhill into a strong wind (6:35, 6:37, 6:12, 6:21, 6:25).  I took the high singletrack path toward Spring Hollow for the last uphill mile, which was much slower than the normal route along the river.  Total was 16 miles in 1:55:40 (7:15 avg pace).  Hips hurt quite a bit, which is annoying, but I felt good other than that.  Definitely a bit chilly and rather windy.

PM- 9.5

PM- 8 miles in about 1 hour.  Bread and butter run.  First run with no hip pain this week.