Seeking a better country...

A few hilly, mostly flattish miles with Tara.  It feels good to finally get over the 16 mile hurdle. 

LPT with Tara and Andy.  My son had region tennis, so I skipped work to watch the match, hence the bandwidth for an early morning run.  They won in 3 closely contested sets vs. Davis.

8 on the treadmill, after my daughter's final 9th grade concert.  She played the piano and sang.  I realized I get a two year break from jr high activities.  But as far as jr. high concerts go, this one was pretty entertaining.  

 I wanted to get 10-12 miles in before the race, and try running hard on tired legs.  Due to an alarm snafu, I only made it to 6, though.  The field was very small, dominated by a high school runner who finished in 16:50.  I managed to hold off his girlfriend at the end.  It was a good race, and a decent effort.  I definitely cost myself sub-20 by floating at times, but I knew there was nobody to catch, so why push?

After I finished, I ran back the course to find my daughter who ran on a whim.  She finished up around 36 minutes, very proud of herself for "only walking two times on the hills, if you don't count the water break." (and the walking just before the final turn to the finish...I guess that doesn't count either)  Still, I'm always glad to have her along.  Older sister was coughing up a lung from a long bout of bronchitis, so we ppd her 2014 5k debut until Memorial Day.  

Thus ends a weak of running.  I should be peaking for UVM, instead I'm dragging my butt around for a mere 27 miles.  My back is really sore, and I'm having some misgivings about this race.  But the die is cast, the money is spent.  I'll just do my best, and likely as not, be found wanting by a small margin.  Hopefully I can shore things up for the next couple weeks and at least get to the starting line feeling healthy.

5:50 pm  Regular 10k x 2.  The first lap was with Jackie-doo in the stroller.  He spent the first 15 minutes singing some mash-up of "Let it Go" and "Scripture Power" at the top of his lungs.  Then it began to rain lightly.  The singing turned into complaining about getting wet.  We made the turnaround and came back, waving and shouting hello to all the dogs.  To entertain the lad, I picked up a stick, which he used to hit all the mailboxes and utiility boxes he could reach.  His aim wasn't very good.

I dropped him home and headed out for lap 2.  'Twas quite cool and windy, especially with the aforementioned rain.  This lap went more quickly, as I turned up some music, and didn't have to push him.  

5 in the morning, 5 at night.  Just like a newlywed.

pm run with Tami.  We went to the track.  She did stuff, I did stuff, including a 21:48 progression 5k.  Not that great, but well under goal marathon pace on a perfectly flat course.  Plus it felt pretty easy until I kicked in the last couple laps.

There were a lot of bugs, so we couldn't stop running.

Long run tomorrow:  home to Liberty Park, around 19 miles.  State Tennis Semi and final matches.  I hope my son plays twice!

Long run today with Ash on her bike, and Andy for 11 or 12 miles.  We eventually made it to Liberty Park, finding there is no good way to travel east/west through Salt Lake without hitting a lot of red lights.  The starts and stops during the late stages of the run weren't much fun.  I feel encouraged by this run, as it was a solid pace for totally flat (mostly 7:45s), and I felt well enough afterward--we even mowed 7 lawns this afternoon.  

Ash did her longest ride ever, and drank a super size pina colada slurpee to celebrate.  She's such a good sport.  I told her when she gets old, if she ever decides to run a marathon, I will ride a bike along side her and carry all her drinks.  She didn't seem to care about the offer very much. :)

State Tennis was fantastic.  My son split his matches, taking second place in 1st doubles, as a sophomore, no less.  The rest of the team performed well enough that Viewmont repeated as 5A champions.  

The Liberty Park drinking fountain is to die for, but the wood chips kept ending up in my shoes, so I ran on the ruts in the grass.

Alone in the moonless dark stopping to drink at the park the bugs couldn't penetrate my force field.  Stop leaning on that net, you soccer playing weirdos.

I wanted some downhill miles on the legs, so I went to the top of stone ridge to start up a client sprinkler system, then ran all the way home.  Most of the miles were flat, but 4 were downhill, but too steep.

After a tennis team dinner, Jack and I struck out in the stroller for skater park.  He wanted to practice his kickflip-indy-nosebone-tail-grab-540.

But it got dark.

And I didn't bring his skateboard.

And he's two.

So he sat in the stroller, cuddled up in the blanket his grandma made for him, and commented on the cars, lights, parks, buses, and stars.  

Sometimes running feels so good.  Sometimes it's frosting on a sweet cake of a day.  Sometimes it's the air freshener spritz on a day that's a complete turd.  

I'm glad I got a breath of sweet scented air today.

Just a short run before work.  I was only 15 minutes late.

Somehow, I need to get on track with sleep.  I'm only 6-7 hr guy right now, and it's taking a toll.  I nearly doze off every day driving to and from work, and I'm sure it's hampering my running.  Gotta be to work at 7...can't get to bed before 11 most nights.

Long run with Gaby.  He fell asleep after a while, and didn't seem to mind the rain very much.  (to Farmington pond and back, via Lagoon trails)

3 years in a row.  One of these times I'm going to stay for my free pancakes.  Three of my daughters ran the race with my mom.  They were around 35 minutes.  

My warmup consisted of walking from the parking lot to the starting line.  The most enjoyable part of this race was the part of the course that crosses over on itself.  The bikes, scooters, and rollerbladers left in advance, so at about 1.2 miles there was a lot of collision potential with all those  wheeled participants merging with the faster runners.  

It is becoming clear to me that I am undertrained for a reasonable shot at a 3:10-3:15 marathon.  Under these conditions, if I ran 10 marathons, I could get one 3:13, one 3:17, seven 3:20-3:30's and one 3:30+.  I'll find out in 2.5 weeks.

Another 10k with Jack in the stroller.  He had a train whistle that he blew enthusastically for most of the run.  I wanted to break the train whistle.