Seeking a better country...

Out and back up Teton Canyon.  I ran up for 50 minutes, and took nearly as long coming down.  I should have fueled.

Running along the creek in that setting was hands down, the most beautiful run I've ever done.

5 miles, including a 5k in conjuction with my mother's family reunion.  In an extremely shallow field, I brought honor to the pink clan by winning the race.  The course was very short, or the stopwatch timing was way off, (or both) because I know I didn't run a 17:30 5k at altitude.

8:30 pm.  There are only a couple of times a year where an opportunity like last night presents itself.  The clouds were blowing in from the south, threatening, just as we finished helping a neighbor load the U-haul.  I came home with my son, checked the baseball scores, and the rain started, intensified, and persisted.  After wasting 10 minutes of the hardest downpour, I got into an older pair of shoes, and headed out.  By 3 miles, the rain stopped, but it picked up again in earnest for the final mile.  Great run.

Marathon training plan for the next three weeks:

8, 9, 8, 20 (find some downhill)

8, 9, 8, 9, 14 (find some downhill)

8, 9, 8, 9, 20 (try to finish fast)

That should get me to a taper window.  

4 with Tami, and Jack in the stroller.  He was in a bad mood, but the run sorted him out.  We started out with clouds and a bit of rain, and ended with muggy, steamy, sunny conditions.  

Days like this in August are a treat.  

2 mile warmup, then 8x800 with 1 minute recoveries.  Goal pace was 3:00.  Well, Jasmine and Cynthia are in a different class than me.  I held on for the first one, then lagged 5-15 seconds behind their breakneck speed.  After 4, I desperately wanted to play the old man card, and take one off, but I couldn't wimp out.  I started keeping my own time at this point, and was gratified to find we were well under 3:00, so I relaxed a little bit and let them run away.  I finished out the set, and kept them around 2:55, +/- 4 seconds.

Sprinklers on the 3rd turn of each lap kept us nice and cool/soaked.

What a killer workout.  2 mile cooldown. 

Afterward I was so wiped out/lazy, I didn't make it to work till 9.  It was nice to be home in the morning to feed and bathe some kids.

Farmington and back with a lap around the park.  Baby Gaby was fussing, so he came along for the ride.  I inadvertently left Anna behind.  She was so eager to come along she talked Tami into bringing her to meet me, hence the park lap.  Lucky I brought my phone.  Usually it stays home.  Hot out.

Long run.  Met Jasmine and Cynthia 4 miles in.  We ran on Legacy to Shepherd land, then back on Main Street.  They dropped off at Glover, I continued solo home, then back to Smoot Park for tennis practice and a soak in the creek.  Garmin died, so I had to map this one.  Overall pace was under 8 minutes, including stops.  Last couple miles I timed, and was at 7:20 pace, working very hard.  I am tentatively encouraged by this run.  One more 20 miler in this truncated training cycle...

Ran home from dessert at my sisters, over by Lewis Park.  I wanted to get my legs moving and flush out the aftermath of Saturday.  I think this was a pretty harmless run.

Work is at a lull for now, so I'm getting in later and leaving earlier with no ill-effects.  Longer mornings and evenings at home are wonderful.  It makes it so much easier to get the requisite sleep when adding mileage.  

Baby Gaby was having a hard time, so we all went for a run to dinosaur park.  He sat quietly the whole time.  When we got home his mood was considerably improved.  The girls, however, were another story.  One even went to bed without dinner.  I hate when the day ends with an argument about toast.

After they all went to bed, we watched Dead Poets Society, in memorium.  

At 7:20, it started raining again.  Run #3 this year in deluge conditions.  The opening mile was pretty fast, but my shoes started getting heavy, and the cookie dough was sitting high in my stomach, so I slowed down a bit, even walked all the way up Old Haul Road.  One of my 18 year old neighbors was sitting at the park in the bowery "chatting" with a pretty girl...good way to spend a rain storm.  I ran up the switchbacks to BST.  By now the rain had stopped, but I could see it coming down in several locations in the valley.  I started playing the lightning game, but every interval between flash and thunder was over 20 seconds.  

There was an occupied car parked on the dirt road looking out over the valley, and momentarily it occurred to me to check on him to see if the occupant was all right.  Didn't do it.  Haven't heard about a suicide victim east of Centerville, so I'm glad I didn't knock on his window.  By the time I got back to Deuel Creek, it was raining hard again.  Lightning game interval was down to 5 seconds.  I got nervous and headed for home throught the graveyard.  Awesome run.

It was Jack's turn to need a run.  On the way home in the dark, I said "Choo Choo!" really loud.  He got mad and started to sob inconsolably, because I was "waking up the people."  I've never been able to ignore a reaction like that, so I did it a couple more times.  He wouldn't stop crying, until I told him I was sorry.  Immediately the flow of tears stopped,  "It's okay, Dad."  

What a weirdo.

From a running standpoint, this one was tough.  He's getting to be a lug in the stroller, and my legs are as tired as my appetite is revved up.

It didn't cool off overnight- 71 degrees @ 5:45 am.  Oh well.  I thought there would be some strong sprinklers to run through, but that was a fail, too.

I'm really grinding this week, struggling on these runs.  14 miler tomorrow, contemplating up and down City Creek Canyon.  I need to get some downhill miles.

Big Cottonwood Canyon with Andy.  Becky, Amy, and Chantall came along and shuttled with us.  

I got cold hands in August, although I had to drive to nearly 9000' in elevation.  I ran this route last year for the drop 13 half, but it was good to get some continuous downhill on the legs and reaccquaint myself.  I wish it felt easier; my cardio was fine, but after 10-12 miles, my back was starting to feel sore.  This isn't crazy steep, other than a couple short sections, but it's continuous downhill, other than one short, meadow stretch.  I need to get back to the mouth of the canyon and run the wasatch blvd section.  

I skipped compression sleeves on my calfs/calves, and they are sore compared to last week.  My lateral glutes hurt a bit, but not so bad. 

Big props to Andy for the course suggestion and logistical support. He even brought me my spectacles after I stupidly left them in his car.

I slowed everybody down today at tempo tuesday.  Even so, 9 miles is pretty good.

Nice, flat and downhill run from summerwood to bountiful blvd, to BST, and home.  The western sky was beautiful.

It made me want to put together and adventure run in 6 weeks or so...Eaglewood Golf Course to Farmington Pond.  With the exception of the first couple miles, it would all be on trails, overall distance around 15 miles.  I would do it in the late afternoon/evening time so runners could watch the sunset, and with any luck like tonight, the lightning.

Jack in the stroller, all four girls on bikes to Freedom Hills.  While they parked, I did three switchbacks.  Sunset was only a 4 or 5.  It got pretty dark for the ride home.  

Nena starts college next week.  It's another "things will never be the same" kind of milestone.  Bittersweet.

20 miles on Saturday, hoping to do most of it in City Creek Canyon. 

After my wife's alarm went off around 5, we were treated to a violent microburst with heavy rain, hail, thunder and close lightning.  We were almost persuaded to scrap the run and go later.  I'm glad we didn't.  

Long run on Bonneville Blvd, 11th Ave, Virginia, South Temple, then up and down City Creek Canyon.  Map my run doesn't have good info on the road past a certain point, so I'm a little bit unclear on the overall distance.  I'm going to call it a solid 20, since half of it was up hill.

I caught up to a guy early in the run, and did the whole run together.  2:52 including pauses to drink here and there.

No more long runs until the marathon.  I'm not sorry about that.  

Out and back to Farmington along main street.  It was pretty windy, but getting somewhat cooler.  Came home around 10:15 and watched John Adams.  The early episodes were much better than that later ones.

I awoke with sans alarm at 5.  Got out the door by 5:20, and did 8 boring miles.  Running pace was just under 8:00, but I did lay down for a rest in a driveway at the turnaround.  

The morning was still and dark, with more buses running up and down main street than cars.

7:15 pm.  Gaby came along for the ride.  He's funny how he slumps in the stroller, completely relaxed.  We dropped Ash at a back to school party.  Just after we left, one of the party-goers fell off the trampoline and broke her arm.  Some party.  

This was one of those runs where I spent the whole time telling myself, "Well, the first mile often doesn't feel good.  Hmm...it's normal to take a couple miles to get feeling good.  You'll feel fine after the turnaround...The last two miles are going to feel great."  It took that long; 4-5 miles to get warmed up and feeling groovy.

Beyond the final 20 miler, I didn't give much though to the final weeks before the marathon. I'm planning on 14ish tomorrow, then 10 next week, but how much in between?  This week I have felt sluggish and tired; I think dropping back to 4 days running is fine.  I'm sure it is; missing a midweek run 2 weeks before a marathon isn't make or break stuff.  Overthinking.

Another long run, another tough route.  Tami, Joanne, and I started at the top of Summerwood.  We ran to Mueller Canyon.  Partway up the canyon road, Tami fell back and sent us ahead.  We ran out and back to Elephant rock.  Nearly at the bottom again, we met up with Tami.  I split off at the boulevard and headed north, while they continued west to do 22.  I came home on the BST, faster at the end.

17 < 20.  Also, Elephant Rock climb < City Creek Canyon, so I was able to do something else the rest of the day.  Turns out it was Lagoon with my little girls.  We finally coaxed Ash onto some of the more scary rides.  She enjoyed Fire Dragon, Spider, and Wicked for the first time.  (smile)