Seeking a better country...

I'm not sure on the number.  Jens and I hiked quite a distance up the zig zag trail.  50 mph wind, hail, rain greeted us on exposed faces, almost blowing me off balance, and off the trail.  We continued up, into the trees, which provided a welcome wind break.  Across a narrow ridge, up, up, up.  We ran out of water, were getting cold, and didn't have many more gummie life savers.  So we abandoned our attempt.  He bombed down the trail like a mountain goat, stopping every 3 or 4 minutes to wait for me to catch up.  The first couple times I had excuses like, "I stopped to pee." or "I took a wrong fork in the trail."  He saw right through me and I gave up.  With a mile to go, I untied the key to the car, and sent him on home; he was eager to go play basketball.

One of these days I'll get to skyline drive.  Twinkies would probably get me all the way there, regardless of the weather.

7 on the treadmill, 600' vert.  Might be the last time with vert; the incline broke.

I didn't have the will-power to take off the cover and see what was wrong.  This happened once before, and it didn't end me successfully fixing the problem.  I can't deal with more failure at this time.

So NY marathon over the weekend.  The one storyline that interested me was Caroline Wozniaki or however it's spelled.  She bucket-listed the NY marathon, and 2 weeks after completing the ATP tour for the year, ran on Sunday.  She reported her longest training run was 13 miles.  Her time???  3:26:xx.  Pretty impressive to run sub 8 pace.  I guess tennis players (at least that one) are legit athletes.

tread mill

gotta take it apart today, because I can't stand the slapping noise with every single step.  I tried running on the back portion of the belt cuz it's quieter, but nearly fell off a couple times. 

exersice equipment is the #1 least used purchased item.  not at my house.  the thing sits idle 7 months of the year, but gets pretty heavy use through the winter.

The stroller got a flat a while back, so I haven't taken either boy for quite a while.  The upside, I can run wherever I want.  Found my way up to the BST via chase lane.  Walked all of the steep section, then traversed to Freedom Hills.  Scouted out a location for family photos; alas, we took pictures up against a brick wall instead.

Running feels hard lately.  Can't stop though.

It was an incredibly warm day for November 9th.  I snuck out of the back door, climbed the fence, and skirted my way to the soccer field, then down to west bountiful park.  Followed the creek down to Legacy, took the dirt road to the e/w section, and came home via 2 overpasses.  I showered and changed before anybody in my family noticed I was gone.  It was a good sunday afternoon "nap".
 

7 on the noisy mill.

The incline broke when a bolt sheared.  Should be an easy fix.  While I'm dug into it, I'll add some padding to reduce the slapping and banging with every footstep. 

7.5 miles in exactly 1 hour.  Not great pace, but not horrible.  Getting back into the treadmill groove.  I need to disable the fireplace switch so the kids don't make it too hot in the basement.

Watched x men 2 with Ash.  She liked it.

5 on the mill before meetings.  Glad I got them in.  The miles, that is.

It's time for some new shoes.  I missed recording a lot of miles, so I think I'm running in three different pair of shoes with 400-500 miles on them. 

The cover has been off the TM for a week now.  If I had a lathe at home, things would already be buttoned up.  I guess I need to borrow a pair of calipers and get serious about making some parts.

Luckily it's operational with zero incline.  7.5 miles, doing 7 mph for the .5 miles, then 8 mph for .5.

I had a dr. apt. on Tuesday.  Consented to a tetanus booster and hepatitis vaccine.  I'm  achy and feverish today.  On a scale of 1-10 my interest in running was 2.  But I figured I needed the mood enhancement.  5 in 45 minutes.  Objective met, and not much more.

When I run on the TM my feet get really hot. 

8 on the mill after 8 hours at work on a Saturday.  I took the girls.  They watched fairly odd parents all day. 

3.5 on the mill,  shortest run in ages.  I was supposed to go to school with my daughter today and was going to be late, so I hopped off before finishing. 

Turns out, I got bumped, and could have stayed on for more.  Oh well.

Beautiful, warm Thanksgiving morning.  None of the kids wanted to participate this year, so I got to race for a change.  I jogged to the start line for a warm-up; about 1.5 miles.  I forgot my watch.  

That's a great strategy for being lazy.  But I found guys to run with that were very conversational about their paces for a while.  They faded by mile 2.  Then I ran with a guy who BQed at St. George, running a 3:22 in his debut.  We stayed together for a couple miles, but he faded.  I passed a couple in the 5th mile, got passed a couple times.  By the last .7, I was humming pretty good, and catching up to a group of 5.  We overlapped the 5k course by now, and it was really tough getting around everybody.  I quit trying, and cruised in.  Lackadasical start and finish cost me 30 sec.

But really I was trying to get a benchmark of my (lack of) fitness right now.  I managed to run 6:50 pace, so there it is.  Today I'm really sore in my back, legs and feet.  Running 8 mph on the treadmill isn't like racing 9.5 mph.

Wonderful Thanksgiving!  I'm glad I raced alone, instead of skipping altogether.

4 out and back with the little A-girls today.  It's nice to have warm enough temperatures to have bike riding company for this run.  It didn't feel good, but we got it done, including donuts and donut holes at the end.  Hooray for Saturday.