Seeking a better country...

I need to go for a run.  In the meantime, this looks kind of fun...

http://tinyurl.com/848okjj 

 p.m.  I made it out.  I got paid to run tonight because I delivered a bunch of my bills.  $4.  Take that, postal service.  It was a perfect night; cool, no wind, Venus and the moon. 

It's a very busy week.   Easy 10k with Jens on his bike.  We talked a lot.  

10k, 43 minutes, then cooldown to 7.  The first mile was slow, but the middle 5 were 6:20-6:50 pace.  I used the treadmill and board for downhill simulation.  UVM coming up...

I don't remember what shoes I wore.  This was a nighttime run after I fell asleep on the floor in my daughter's room.  Jens came with.  We ran down Pages, where a police action was underway.  They were blocking off intersections and trying to get a guy to come out of his house.  I ran past, then stopped to watch, and a bunch of cops that were hiding yelled at us to get out of there.  I don't know if they got anybody, but they had a cruiser on the lawn, lights flashing and yelling over the loudspeaker from Kevin somebody to come out.  It was pretty intense.  After that, it was a quiet run to Legacy, then north until it turns east, then over both overpasses home.  I worked in a couple of pickups just to show off for Jens.

After spending the morning with family and the afternoon repairing a sprinkler system, I left around 7:30 to finish off the week's miles.  I ran a sub 10 minute mile to BST (400' of climb) , then 4 miles north to Farmington.  The view of the valley with new-leafed trees and the setting sun was GORGEOUS.  My timing was perfect in that I ran out of light at the same time as I ran out of trail.  I ran home in the mostly dark along Main Street, sometimes enjoying the middle stripe in the road when no cars were coming.  I brought along a belt with chomps, smarties a cell phone and powerbar.  I didn't use any of them.  With a couple miles to go, I was still feeling pretty good, so I picked up the pace.  I just checked the pace.  7:28 and 7:09.  Huh.  It felt like I was going faster.  Now I wish I hadn't checked.

Buggy, windy, warm.  Headwind out, tailwind back.  Russian olives starting to bloommmm.

Sweet baby murmured and cooed for 5 miles before falling asleep.  Thank God for May.

Tonight I joined the varsity scouts for a hike to the rope swing by Deuel Creek.  We had a party of six, with one other adult.  4 of us made it to the swing easily, while 2 lagged behind.  I got some running in shuttling back and forth between the groups, since I wasn't familiar with our destination.   When the slower two were making the final leg, I ran ahead to see how far the trail went before dwindling away.  My son met me (and startled me brilliantly) when I was coming back with news that one of the boys had fallen off the swing and hurt himself.  Sure enough, he had banged his right shin pretty hard, and couldn't put any weight on it.  We tried helping him hop to no avail.  We were around 2 miles away from the car, but this kid was big, probably 150 lbs.  Me and Kevin (the other adult) ended up carrying him down on our backs.  Kevin probably did 70%.  It turns out I'm not very good at carrying my body weight.

Anyhow, we got him down just as it was getting dark.  His parents took him straight to the instacare; I don't know the results yet.  Hopefully he's all right.  I found some new muscles tonight trying to decelerate over 300 lbs coming down a hill.  

 I'll have to retrace our steps tomorrow with the GPS.  It'll be worth knowing real distances.  This is one of those stories that'll get better with each retelling, I would imagine. 

6 a.m.  early for me.  Despite a late night, my eyes popped open at 5:45.  If I didn't go in the morning, I wouldn't make it after work, since work wasn't slated to end till 10 p.m.  Plus I needed a shower anyway, so I went.  It was a cool, arm freezing, perfect morning.  My running was horrible.  Still glad I went.

8-10 p.m.  I had to work all day.  All afternoon my legs felt like a million bucks, so I was very excited to go tonight.  I wanted 15, and I really thought I did 15.  Oh well.  I ran with watermelon chomps, venus, bugs, cool breezes, Muse, Vampire Weekend, Radiohead and my thoughts.  This week has been crazy busy.  I'm very glad to get this one in.  Next week's long run will be on the Ogden Marathon course.  I'm going to meet friends at mile 7, and run them to the dam, then loop back around to my car.  

4  weeks till UVM.  At one time I thought I'd be able to give this race a shot, and now it looks more like a throwaway.  My spring schedule isn't very conducive to dedicated hard training.  I'm lucky to get the miles in, to say nothing of adequate sleep.

 I really need a sponsor.  It's too bad for me that shoe companies and foundations don't sponsor mediocre, past their prime runners. 

Lately miles have been hard to come by.  Work is crazy busy at both jobs.  I looked at my weekly graph, and guffawed at my hubris of paying for UVM when this is my training volume.  I gotta hit 50-55 this week and 55-65 next week to be legit, I think.  IDK.  That might help, or it's too late to do any good.  Reasonable long runs might be my only saving grace.

Anyhow, this morning Ash joined me for 10k on her bike.  She was all bundled up with double pants and a sweater while I ran shirtless.  I added on while she finished her breakfast and played at a park for a while.  It was so nice to have her along.  May mornings in the 50s are incomparable.   

p.m.  My neighbor Travis is beginning to run.  I joined him on his ladder workout;  he runs a modest distance north, then returns home running up and down every cross street.  He didn't like that I wasn't breathing heavy.  When he spends the next 4 years running consistently, he won't breathe heavily at that pace either.   

10:50 p.m.  I need to get a watch.  My garmin is giving up the ghost, and by now I have a pretty good sense of distances for my usual routes.  Tonight's 10k started much later than I would prefer, but the cloudy, moonless darkness, along with the late hour, made for a quiet run.  There were only 2-3 cars the entire run, so I was enjoying the middle stripe of the road, rather than stumbling along the shoulder and gutter.

Medium-hard effort tonight, with a pause at 4 so soak my head and get a drink.  I startled the amorous couple on the swings who were also enjoying the moonless darkness. I'm sure they were just visiting.  Um hmm.

Something I ate wasn't sitting well, so I thought about skipping tonight.  Then it occurred to me this was an excellent chance to practice running while feeling lousy.  1 mile warmup, then 7@6:40, slight downhill.  The crocs worked great, and I felt better from 1 to 6.3.  I'm always glad for the treadmill for runs like this; lock in a pace and hang on till it's over. 

Good luck to all the Ogden runners!  I'm joining friends for a loop around the lake.  

My friend Nate and his sister Liz were running the Ogden marathon, and I got to pace.  I planned to meet them around mile 8, just after the turn to run around the lake, but I saw Kelli running down, so I tagged along with her for a couple miles.  She ran well!  Shortly after getting dropped, I saw Amber, and ran with her for a mile or so.  She PRed by a long ways.  It was fun to see waves of runners coming along, with clusters around the pace groups.  I heard the 3:35 pacer quit at the half, leaving the course, tossing the balloons and signs in the trash and disappearing into the crowd.  It would be pretty discouraging to be part of THAT pace group.

I saw several other neighbors and friends, before finally spotting Nate and Liz.  We ran from 9-19.  Liz was doing her 1st marathon.  She was having a tough go, more mental than physical, so we did all we could to keep her distracted and moving along.  I laughed at one point she said, "I thought this was going to be fun."  She mostly held on to 10 minute pace, so it was easy to keep up an endless stream of prattle to keep her distracted.  

At the parting of the ways I was tempted to continue along with them, but logistically, it wouldn't have worked out very well to collect the car parked in Huntsville.  So I turned around at mile 19 and headed back up the canyon.  I wanted to run 20ish miles, and pick things up at the end.  My final miles were considerably faster, but not as quick as the couple I ran with Kelli.   My garmin is giving up the ghost, so I can't get any numbers, but I stuck pretty close to 7:20 mm.

I'm making long run plans for 5/26, pondering an up-down on skyline drive, or some BST nonsense, shooting for 17-20 miles, depending on difficulty of the trail.  Company would be welcome!

Hiked to the rope swing with my 6, 8, 12 and 14 year old.  Everybody made it back without a broken leg.  Unfortunately, the clouds blocked our mountain view of the eclipse.  Anna and I spotted a rattlesnake after it buzzed at us and slithered away.  Fortunately, it headed in the opposite direction instead of striking.  The older 3 kids walked right by it.  By the time we came along, I guess it had lost patience.  Talk about a rush of blood to the head.  That's my 3rd rattlesnake ever.  

So both the little girls are on board with going camping for a month in the canyon.  I doubt my employer will be as enthusiastic.  It's probably for the best, as I'm pretty sure I'd miss Jack, and the rest of them. 

a.m.  I don't know what happened.  I was going to get up and go for 11 this morning, but at 3:30 I woke up and puked my guts out.  I don't have a fever, so I must have got some bad food, or my wife or kids are trying to poison me.  Weird.  I'll have to run tonight, which is too bad; temps would have been so much better this morning.  But when the alarm rang at 5:30, I couldn't force myself to get up and eat bile-flavoured oatmeal and head out the door.  

p.m. After finishing up flag responsibilities for the scouts, I left at 9:30.  It was dark, cloudy and somewhat cool.  I ran from park to park for drinks, and was disappointed that the municipality of Farmington still hasn't activated their fountains.  What the #$#?  Traffic was pretty quiet, so I got some line running in, with pickups here and there, and fartleks past the churches.  77 minutes overall, which isn't bad.  Whenever I get to exhaling every 4 steps, that's my top sustainable effort.  (5:50-6:20 pace)

My garmin 305 still keeps track of stuff, but the mode button doesn't work, so I can't see workout data unless I hook it up to the computer, and cannot change any settings.  I got three years out of it, better than any other Father's day gift I can remember.  I love that thing except for 2 items;  I'm not all that impressed with it's water resistance, and the wristband size was exactly wrong, in that one hold was too big, and the next tighter one was too tight.  This sounds like an obituary.

8-9 p.m.  Tami had planning commission, the kids were busy with plays and concerts, so I stayed with the little ones.  After doing the dishes I put Jack in his strap in seat at the counter, loaded up Baby Einstein on youtube, and left the 6 year old sister "tending" while they watched.  What could go wrong?

I did 1m warmup, then 3@6:40, downhill.  I paused to come upstairs and check on the kids.  They were watching teletubbies in french.  Whatever.  3 more @6:40, then .5m cooldown.  My quads were tight the duration of the run, otherwise things felt good. 

8 p.m.  Regular 10k to Farmington.  The first 4 miles felt pretty bad, but it's taking me that long to warm up lately.  I came home and Grace joined me for a bonus mile.  Laps around my block are .5 exactly, so while she got her stuff on, I added on some more.  I've got to grind, grind, grind at the grindstone...while childhood sifts like sand through a sieve.

6:30-8:30 a.m.  BST to Farmington pond, home via Lagoon trails and 106.  Great run with Andy.  The trails were nice, other than a rolled left ankle.  (it matches the one I rolled on a rock last Saturday)  Stupid Farmington doesn't have a single outdoor fountain turned on.  Maybe they are doing Memorial Day to Labor Day.  2 packs of Smarties for a 15 miler might be too little, but I ate oatmeal, 2 toast and choc milk for breakfast, so I couldn't have been too low.  The last few miles Andy must have felt peppy; he picked it up, then we took turns creeping the pace faster and faster.  He got me exhaling every 6 steps, then down to every 4 steps, and held it for the last 4 miles, so that was a bonus-  kind of an inadvertent "little big". 

After the run, I pulled two 7 gallon buckets of weeds.  Hung out with the baby and Tami for a while, then got really hungry.  Nena and I went for lunch.  We stopped at Wendy's for frosties and fries, then went to In and Out for burgers, and took all the food to Carl's Jr. to eat it.  Next time we'll get Frosties, Carl's Jr. fries, In and Out burgers, and eat them at McDonalds.  

Then it stopped raining and we went and mowed a couple lawns the boys missed this week.  My mower didn't have self-propel, so I am very tired.  Good Saturday! 

Ran to Elephant Rock with my BIL Dave.  He's getting ready for Wasatch Back Ultra team.  Good luck to him.  It was a gorgeous Sunday evening, and the trail was busy with mostly hikers.  Glad to get in some bonus miles with Dave.

Andy told me about this free 5k.  I registered Sunday night, and showed up at 6:40 for the 7 a.m. start.  12ish extended family members also ran, but my kids layed an egg.  My 15 year old nephew threw down, so I knew this was going to be an unpleasant, tough run trying to not let him beat me.  He's a swimmer, but not a runner.  I thought that might help me turn back the clock.  When I saw him, I asked if he warmed up.  He thought he had, but I convinced him to come run with me.  If there had been more time, I could have tired him out, but we only got in a mile or so.  We got lined up at the start.  I hung back a couple rows, but Josh was right up front.  Somebody randomly shot a pistol, and we took off.  I immediately lost sight of him, but expected that to happen.  

This course is full of turns and double backs.  All the turning was tedious within the first mile.  I think there are 27 turns total, so staying in rhythm was tough.  I didn't have a watch, and miles weren't marked, so I ran blindly hard.  Around 1.5 I saw Josh ahead.  He came back to me bit by bit, and then held a 5-10 second lead.  I knew I could reel him in, but didn't really care if he beat me.  (or so I thought)  I was happy to get some puke zone miles in.

We finally worked our way to the last turn, so I thought, but there was one more.  At this point, I was feeling pretty bad, and went into float mode, rather than push mode.  Nobody up front was gapping me, so it didn't seem so horrible.  We made 6 more turns, and were finally in the final .1.  I ran in pretty hard, with a sharp left at the very end.  A man called out the times:  Josh 18:58, Kam 19:04.

So what kills me is the slow start, the float mode, and the lack of a final push.  I had no idea I would run a time like that on a maze course.  2 sec pr, but better than that, a good confidence boost.  On a normal course without 27 turns, a "no float" effort, solid warmup and more than a 12 hour taper, I'm sure I could drop that time considerably.

Everybody else finished 5-10 minutes later.  Two of my nephews cheated and skipped some of the distance.  My 10 year old niece dragged her parents across in 27ish minutes.  Grandma couldn't quite keep up with her and was 30 seconds back.  There was free breakfast for race participants afterward, but we had to jet to do our traditional NSL to City Creek hike and picnic.  I got 7 more slow walking miles in with my little ones, plus 4 hours of paying yard work.  All told, it was a long, solid memorial day without a second spent in a cemetery.  Maybe some other year.   

6:20 a.m. 10k to Farmington, on the return I ran the 5k hills hard.  I should do this 10 times before the race...It is a pleasant morning.  My legs feel good.