I'm retired from racing. Really.

6 easy miles on the planet walk with the jogging stroller.  43:50

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Ran with the jogging stroller to the end of planet walk and back, then met Cody.  Ran near Blackhawk then through Providence.  Easy pace.  I will get some speed tomorrow (my first since TOU) to make sure I am ready to help on Saturday.

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Wanted to do a bit of speedwork today to get my legs ready for Saturday.  I ran to Merlin Olsen park, then did the TOU 5k course (19:04), then ran home.  6:09 pace for the fast stuff without trying too hard, so I should be ready.

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St. George marathon day.  First, I want to join the bloggers in thanking Clyde and Mik'L for the great blogger party last night.  It was fun to finally put some faces with some blogger names.

Day of the race- my marathon was TOU 3 weeks ago, I was just here to cheer and help.  I got dropped off at mile 16, ran to 17, then cheered on the first 30 or so runners.  When Cody showed up, I picked up with him and ran almost the whole way to the finish.  I have to say, it is much more enjoyable to run the last 9 miles of a marathon when you haven't done the first 17.  It was tons of fun to see all the bloggers at the finish line- many of them set PR's, some by 10-20 minutes.  Awesome.  Congrats especially to my previous pacers, Paul and Logan, for qualifying for the Olympic Trials.  It is well deserved and the result of many, many hours of hard work (or, in Paul's case, many, many hours of naps).  Nice job!

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I felt good today, hardly any soreness, which was good considering I just did a marathon on Saturday.  Oh, wait...  I only did part of the marathon.  That explains it.

2x planet walk with the jogging stroller.  The first 3.5 miles of the run were easy, then I unexpectedly got passed by a lady on rollerblades.  That was no good, so I decided to catch her.  She was moving pretty good- about 6:00 pace.  I chased her to the end, then back again, finally passing her right before the last bridge.  Mission accomplished.  Ran home, then did a 1 mile loop around Providence to make it 7 miles.

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9 easy miles with the jogging stoller, around Blackhawk park and multiple loops on planet walk.  Had to keep stopping to get the gnats out of my eyes- annoying little things.  Better than mosquitos, though.

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Planet walk with the kid and stroller.  Easy.

Frisbee with the friends.  Fun.

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Center street to Dry Canyon, then along deer fence trail.  Had to cut the run 2 miles short due to time constraints and 3 port-o-potty breaks.  7 min pace on the road, 7:30-8 on the hills. 

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Planned on a trail run in Logan but instead I am in Idaho Falls. So, I did my normal run- from the in-laws to Community park, 1 lap around for calibration (felt like 7:00 pace, watch said 6:58- dang, my internal calibration is accurate today!), over to the river, up to Fremont park with a brief detour to the weather station, then reverse home. About 12 miles. Started at 7:00 pace, gradually picked it up so mile 5 was 6:48, then mile 9 was 6:30. Maintained that pace until about 1/2 mile out, then slowed down on the last bit. Great weather (48 deg), good run.

It's not often I finish above Logan, Paul, Holt, and Clyde on the mileage board!  It's a sign of things to come... 

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I spent a lot of time recently thinking about my running goals and have found a dilemma.  Read about it and post your comments on the discussion board (it's under training review requests).

Awesome, awesome run today!  8 miles up Green Canyon- and I set a new record for the run, which is even better since the run is now about 200-400 meters longer with the new singletrack.  Lots of bikers, walkers, and even 3 runners.  Ran up in 31:07 without going all out (up record is 30:30 on the old course), down in 22:18, which is a new down record.  Total time 53:25, new record on both old and new (longer) course.  That is just a hair under 4 miles in 22:18, including the last mile on rather technical singletrack in 5:35.  It was a bit muddy, which made it even funner.  And on the way down, I raced a car!  Granted, it was only a suburban with a family that wasn't trying too hard, but I raced a car, and I even took the longer route with both singletracks!  I was ahead most of the way thanks to a bumpy road that slowed him down, but he managed to catch me the last mile with all the technical singletrack plus the last uphill.  But he only got me by 5 seconds!

On another good note, the forest service put in a new bathroom at the top of Green Canyon by the parking lot.  I love it when my tax dollars go to a good purpose like that.  I already used it today.  Could life get any better?  I propose that it cannot!

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10 miles around Logan with the jogging stroller.  It is hard to push a jogging stroller up 800 E towards USU.

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Funny story from yesterday.  I was on my way to my run (wearing my TOU shirt) and stopped by the drive up window at Wells Fargo bank.  The conversation went like this:

Wells Fargo teller: Did you do the Top of Utah?

Me: Yeah

WF: What was your time?

Me: 2:39

WF: Hey, were you the top local finisher?

Me: Yeah

WF: *pause* You looked like you were about to die in your picture

Me:  I was

WF: The 2 guys behind you sure looked good

Me:  They were barely trying.  They both ran 20 minutes faster a few weeks later at St. George.

WF: Wow- did they qualify for their thing?

Me:  Yeah, they both qualified for the Olympic Trials

Moral of the story- if you are going to get your picture in the paper, smile.  I thought is was funny how the teller used almost my exact words about that picture- that I looked like I was about to die while Paul and Logan looked great.  So smile, raise your arms, whatever- just look happy that you finished your race!

I'll draw from Sasha's excuse sheet today and claim number 1 and 3.  But I was busy at 5 am (leaving for work) and didn't get home until 9 pm.  Can we add those to the top 10 excuses?

Frisbee- perhaps my last game of the year :(   (whoops, put that on Fri- should be Thurs)

Evening run- ran from my house to the end of planetwalk (exactly 2 miles) in 14:00, then ran to Cody's house (about 2 miles) in 13:30.  Decided it is about 1.9 miles to Cody's.  Ran back to end of planetwalk in 13:10, then home in 13:30.  7.8 miles, 54:10.

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Morning run with Cody.  Rather dark when we started at First Dam, up bonneville trail to Green Canyon.  Just light enough when we got to the singletrack.  Cold and rain/hail/sleet/snow.  Up to the top of Green Canyon road.  Nice run, nice and muddy just like I love it.  Good run up.  Coming down was a bit cold for a few miles with a very strong head wind, 35 deg, and hail.  It was nice to be able to commiserate with Cody.  It was real bad when at the same time we both started saying "Ouch, ouch" from the hail hitting us.  Much warmer at the finish with no wind.  Good 13 mile run, but not muddy enough and no blood drawn.  Maybe next time.

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Wanted to get a descent run today, so decided to do a classic run that I hadn't done in over 2 months since I was burned out on it. Ran from my house to the end of the canal and back, 8 miles. Started at 6:45 pace, then gradually picked up the pace the whole way until the last mile was 5:45. I guess it was somewhat of a tinman tempo/marathon pace/threshold run. Felt real good but I was definitely working fairly hard. Cool, nice running weather.  50:45, 6:20 avg for the whole run.

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No James, no Cody, no Paul, no Dan, no Logan, no Dave, no Ben.  All alone.  **sob**

Started at the 1 mile mark of Logan river trail, ran to just before Guinavah Malibu and back.  30 min up, 28:20 down.  Definitely getting cooler, so I have to get all the trail runs I can before my trip to Florida and winter.

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Beach run in Florida again today.  Thanks to the nearby tropical storm, it was the most windy run of my life- sustained wins above 30 mph with gusts up to 40.  Combined with rain that can only be described as stinging (it usually came sideways) and blowing sand, it was a heck of a run.  Ran into the wind first, crawling along.  Often had to look at my feet because the rain hurt my face so much.  Ran to the cape entrance, then turned around and ran 3.5 miles with the wind at my back.  Glorious.  Then, turned around and had 1.5 miles home into the wind.  Very painful.  It was a good thing no one else was on the beach cause I sure looked funny.  I started smiling and yelling at the wind and rain.  I said things like "Is this the best you can do", "Bring it on", "You can do better than this", and "I am Spartacus" (not sure why I kept saying that one.  I sang Home on the Range a few times and kept growling and roaring at the wind.  Thouroughly enjoyed myself despite the wind and rain blast.  Great fun.  And, I hardly had to breath since the wind shoved itself down my throat.  Fun run trying to beat mother nature today.

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My wife commented that I hadn't written on the blog in a while, so I figured I should get my page up and running again (get it?).

4 easy miles on the beach in a 20 mph wind.  Great temp.

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Beach run today.  By far the most windy run of my life- thanks to a tropical storm there are sustained wins of 30 mph and gusts up to 40.

Started my run into the wind, running 2 miles.  Thanks to the blowing sand and rain that can only be described as "stinging", it was rather painful.  And slow- the gusts would almost grind me to a halt.  I had to keep my head down at times since the rain and sand were blowing so hard in my face.  Turned around at the port entrance and ran 3.5 miles with the wind at my back.  Nice.  Made farmer blows real easy if you aimed right.

Final 1.5 miles were into the wind again.  It picked up even more with very painful rain.  It is a good thing no one else was on the beach because I started yelling at Mother Nature, challenging her to bring more at me.  I yelled things like, "Is this all you got?", "You can do better than this", and "Bring it on".  I constantly growled and roared at the wind.  Spit flew out of my mouth.  I sang "Home on the Range" and repeatedly yelled "I am Sparticus" (I don't know why I said that).  The wind shoved the air and rain down my mouth, and pelted my skin with sand.  I would not be stopped.  I loved every minute of it.  I challenged mother nature and would not back down.  Good run today.

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Multiple choice test today-

You know you are running in a strong tail wind when:

A)  You run more than 1 min/mile faster on the way home than on the way out while not working as hard

B)  The back of your legs get pelted with blowing sand hard enough that it hurts

C)  You pass gas while running and actually smell it

D)  All of the above

E)  A & B, and I don't want to think about C

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