Seeking a better country...

Out and back to Glover.  Jack came in the stroller, and he must have smelled yummy, because a  couple miles in we picked up a stray dog for a mile; it tired and fell back.  

It was a perfect night in terms of temp.  With two miles to go, we picked it up for a fast finish, except stopping for cars at Parrish lane.  My daughter's teacher is Mrs. Parrish and she's always talking about how she's famous because the creek, canyon and lane are named Parrish.  Kids are so smart.  Mtn Dew and ice cream recovery afterward, + 3  15-yr-old episodes of Law and Order.  (there was lots of laundry).  They sure don't make shows like they used to.  Jerry Orbach was versatile.

Easy 10k with Jack.  2 suckers kept him pretty calm.

After aerating lawns all day with my son, it was time to enjoy the outdoors in a different way.  Jens rode, I ran.  We wandered around the mountainside, from the V to the B to the temple and back down.  We were out for 90 minutes, so I'm giving it 10 miles.   My gps is dead, and mapmyrun.com has no idea where we were bushwhacking.

We finished at the perfect time; watching the sun set from high above the city. 

Yard worked all day.  This really cuts into running.  I didn't feel like a morning run after Friday night's extended jaunt.

Ash had her birthday on Saturday.  Since then she spent nearly 10 hours on her new bike.  We struck out together on a quest for Freedom Hills.  She wanted to see how well she could navigate the steep hill on Old Haul Road with gears.  (and her "power legs")

She went up the whole thing.  Flush with victory, I baited her into trying the switchback trail.  We slowly ascended to the Shoreline trail.  She appreciated the view, and rode very tentatively over the uneven, rocky road.  It was a perfect pace; I was feeling lousy, with sore hip and horrible lungs.  We came off the BST early; she had enough of the dirt road.  The bike and 9 year-old performed flawlessly.   

Bonus:  the water is on at the park.  Hooray for drinks and bathrooms. 

TM 10k.  Jens wanted to do a nighttime flag hike in the face of the wind; it would have been epic, but stupid.  Instead, I overate dinner, complete with mint chocolate chip ice cream afterward.  Despite waiting around till 10 p.m. for the fullness to subside, I was compelled by the late hour to get running.  I picked up the pace for the last 2 miles, but they were still slow.  

side note-  lately it's taking at least 3 miles for me to warm up.

Pretty much the same run as last night.  I ran the extra .8 so I wouldn't be repetitive.  

Work today was fine, in the bland, nothing went horribly wrong sense of fine.  But I did come home with a headache.  Not a throbbing one, but more of an insistent tapping sort.  It wasn't the kind of headache that you can ignore, but at the same time, not one to require much attention. 

I watched my son's tennis for a bit, then came home to change.  After reading motivational running quotes all afternoon, the plan was a repeat of the 5k time trial from last week or the week before.  A perfect afternoon, temps were wonderful and the sun shining.  

 I walked out the door, stepped off the porch and pressed start.  Mile 1 was 6:50.  I didn't feel great.  My creek split was 14:2x, about 30 seconds faster than last time.  Of note, just before the creek, things started feeling good, but it only lasted about 90 seconds.  The reversion back to feeling like a 5k wasn't so great.   Why can't it keep feeling good?

Final time was 19:52, a minute improvement.  After laying down on a random lawn to forestall puking, I got up and ran slowly home.  

Water is on at the c-ville baseball complex.  It's such a good time of year for running!

Finally,  Centerville City Trails Committee is sponsoring a run on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail tomorrow morning at 9. A 5k and 10k course will be marked.  This is not a race!!  Meet at the Parrish Lane Trailhead. Good times will ensue, I guarantee it. 

Rolling around on the trails east of my house, easy pace with challenging climbs.  I was worn out from all day mowing lawns yesterday. 

These green shoes of mine are headed to the 700 mile mark.  I wore them in Boston last year, and wanted to wear them again.  8.5 on the TM.  I couldn't muster much speed.  Today's events are a bit of a sucker punch.  I feel bad for all the runners who worked so hard to reach the pinnacle of recreational running, only to have their accomplishment overshadowed (justly) by the actions of some craven individual(s).  Of course, my sorrow ratchets up an order of magnitude for those traumatized, injured and killed by the bombs.  What a weird day.

Another treadmill 10k.  I don't know when I arbitrarily decided that runs under 6.2 miles were not worth doing.  2 @ 7 mph, then 4.2 @ 8 mph.  That's a fairly easy 7:30 pace.  I finished in time to stay up way too late watching dumb tv shows with my wife.  

No mission call for my son today; next week for sure.  Daughter finds out about class officer elections today.  There is all manner of baited breath around here.

TM progression run.  1 @ 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 2.2 @ 9 and cooldown to 7.  10k time was 46:30.  I even had the incline at .5  Everything went well until my son came to get an explanation of police entrapment.  I breathlessly told him we'd have to talk about it later.

My appetite has been through the roof lately.   

I'm glad to see some Boston Marathon race reports.  It's a shame the way the bombing overshadows remarkable performances.  I'm glad the injury and death toll is as low as it is.  Obviously, it's horrifying for those who were maimed and killed, but just for sake of perspective, in 2010, the daily homicide rate was 44, and the daily suicide rate was 105.  I guess there's plenty of sadness and sorrow to go around, whether it coincides with a marathon or not.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm 

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm 

7 easy @ 7 mph.  This run felt like a poem.

Loop on Main to Glover, back on LPT and Parrish.  It was a bit moist.  I felt bad for the marathoners.  The temp was perfect for racing, but the humidity was probably a tad excessive.

To Reading and back.

9 p.m.  TM 7@ 7.4 mph .5% incline.  Just get on and run steady for 57 minutes.  It bugs me that I didn't find a number like 7.6  or 7.7 mph so I could be under 8 minute pace.

Cookies and cream recovery.   

8:45 p.m.  7 @ 7.4 mph .5% incline  57 minutes

I started and felt pretty bad.  I determined I'd take a little walk break at the end of the first inning.  60 pitches and 9 runs later, 40 minutes had elapsed; I worked through all the mental softness and just finished up the run without bothering to stop.  Stupid baseball game.

Mtn Dew recovery, no trouble falling asleep.

Probably no run tonight.   

8:00 p.m.  Just asI lay frantic Jack in his crib with his precious "bobby", did I notice the lonely treadmill.  I didn't eat dinner, so it was a good night for speed.  (relatively speaking, of course, both in terms of speed and good)  7-8-7-9-7-9-7 mph, 1 mile each.  It's much easier to run 7 than 9.

Recovery Oh's cereal.   

This morning my back is sore.  It doesn't seem accustomed to running faster.   Once again, hopefully no running tonight.

7:00 p.m.  To Reading and back with Jack.  He liked the birds and planes and treats.  I better not bring him too much or he'll end up with rotten teeth.

7:20 a.m.  I started out planning to head North on BST to get 12ish miles.  I saw a guy coming along 400 E. that was travelling at a pretty good clip, and we ended up running together for 8 miles at the back end of his 21 miler.  Ben Wxxxxx.  He's shooting for a 3:30 at Ogden, so the pace was comfortable 8mm, and company was enjoyable.  After he left, I ran marathon pace or better in a quest for some water.  Alas, I came up empty at both the golf course and West Bountiful Park.  

Ash wouldn't come with, even though she is always begging to go for a morning run/ride.  She was too interested in watching pony videos.  What's with little girls and cartoon ponies? 

 So, a pretty good run, my longest in a while.  I ate 2 toasts before heading out, but no fuel during the run, until I ate a really dry pack of smarties with less than a mile to go, when I was disappointed by locked bathrooms and inoperable fountains at the park. 

6:30 a.m.   I heard a noise at 6:15.  My daughter was being hazed for a jr hi election.  Rather than go back to sleep, I found Ash (who had been up for .5 hrs) and talked her into a run.  Just as we were leaving, she informed me, "I want a donut."  Obediently, I found $1 and put it in my pocket.  

We ran to Freedom Hills on a cloudy, 50 degree morning.  Her birthday bike with gears means I can't keep up with her, instead of the other way around.  I can still take her on the hills, though.  She played at the park while I ran a couple laps, then we came home by way of Dicks Market for a large Chocolate bar.  She even shared a bite with me; although, after I took it, I did get a bit of a sideways glance.  It must have been too big of a bite.  

New shoes.  The Kinvara 3's ($55 from Amazon...so cheap, it's almost like being sponsored) feel better to me than the 2's.  I think my pair of 2's had a manufacturing defect on the left arch support.  

My son's mission call arrived yesterday.  It appears it was stuck to another piece of mail, and was lost for a while.  North Mexico City is his destination, 4 months from now.  I'm proud of that boy every day.