Kerry's Running Blog

Clear, cold morning. Temperature heading out was 23 degrees. My legs had some good spring in them and the cold air was refreshing. I was happy to see that most of yesterday's snow had melted and that it's now getting light enough to see the path the last mile or so (I generally head out around 6:00 am and get back around 6:45). The crescent moon in the southwest was beautiful.

My legs are feeling good and I think my red cell count must be getting back pretty close to normal. I'm debating whether to run tomorrow as I have a colonoscopy scheduled for Thursday and tomorrow I'm supposed to be on a clear liquid diet all day. I'll have to re-read the papers they gave me to see if it's 24 hours prior to the procedure in which case I can run and have breakfast since I don't have to go in until 10:00 am tomorrow morning. It's possible that I can get a run in Thursday afternoon, but I'll have to see how that goes.

Another beautiful, clear morning. Temperature 28.5 degrees with 65 percent humidity. The skies in the southeast were just starting to get light as I left the house and a couple of miles into my run, it was getting light enough to see cracks in the road. My legs and lungs felt good this morning, but I had a bit of cramping and bowel distress -- apparently a lingering effect from the powerful laxative that I took prior to yesterday's colonoscopy.

The colonoscopy itself is completely painless as they put you out for it. They put a syringe in your IV line and within about ten seconds you're out. The next thing I knew is that I was waking up from a deep sleep and looking at the heart rate monitor just beside me. I was a little confused as to why my wife was there and the doctor and nurses weren't because it seemed like I'd just closed my eyes for minute. I asked her why my heart rate was so high (just before falling asleep it was 50, when I woke up it was 87 and my blood pressure was up significantly). I was in a bit of a fog, but no pain at all, that was why I couldn't understand why my heart rate would be up. I laid there for a little while and they said that I could get up and leave as soon as I felt up to it. I sat up and felt OK so I decided to get dressed so we could leave. I noticed the time was about noon, so I figured I must have been out for about an hour. The scary thing is that I thought I could drive home. Laureen wouldn't have let that happen, but I felt like I could have. I guess that's why drunks behind the wheel cause so much damage -- your thoughts are fairly orderly but your reaction times and judgement are off. Anyway, the doctor didn't see anything out of the ordinary so I don't need another screening for ten years. I'd recommend getting one to anyone with any of the risk factors. It's really not bad at all.

For the most part, the whole process is

Laureen and I had a nice run around the Highland Glen loop. There was a pretty stiff breeze out of the north northwest that dropped the wind chill into the mid-30's, but for the most part we were shielded from it by trees and, of course, running in the opposite direction.

I don't think all of today's miles were easy miles, but I left the house a little later than usual and by the time I reached the corner where I usually start my run, the Garmin still wasn't locked into the satellites so I just turned it off and ran. I was really expecting that I'd be running in the rain and snow this morning, but temperatures were fairly mild and there was only a little wind from the south. No aches and pains to speak of. I recently realized that I may have a conflict with the 5K I signed up for this weekend. I believe that my daughter is scheduled to take the ACT that morning and my wife will be working so I'm not sure how that will all work out (we always plan out our week during FHE on Monday evenings so I should know by tomorrow). Anyway, just after I got home the storm hit with hail, rain and wind. Some days everything just works out for you.

When the noise from my daughter getting ready for school woke me up this morning I was in the middle of a running dream. I'd been walking along the street in front of Deerfield Elementary when I noticed some runners coming towards me with race bibs. I didn't know of any race going on then, but decided to join them anyway. I ran and chatted with them all the way to the finish and was just talking to them about the race when I woke up. I thought I recognized a few people from the blog there.

Well, this was another morning when the Garmin failed to lock in before I was ready to run. It must have a lot to do with the position of the satellites at that particular time of day, as when I run later in the morning on Saturday's it's locked in before I even get to the end of my driveway. Anyway, another pleasant day for a run. With yesterday's snow, rain and wind I was expecting conditions to be a little worse than they were. It was cold and humid (29 degrees and 81% RH), but I was dressed warm enough that I didn't really notice. What I did notice was how clear and fresh the air was. Running south after the turn by the high school I especially noticed how much the temple stood out this morning. It was just brilliant. I couldn't help thinking about President Uchtdorf's talk in the priesthood session when I noticed that I wasn't running directly towards the temple, but was a couple of degrees off. It was a good reminder of the need to know where you're going and to make the necessary course corrections often and early in one's journey.

Lunch run with Laureen on the Highland Glen loop. We have been asked to work from home on Wednesdays so this gives me a chance to run with my wife. I might have run earlier as well, but I had to get up early to work on a video project for my daughter. I kept getting errors when I'd try to burn it to the DVD. Kind of a pain, but I got it all figured out. It was a bit nippy at times. The temperature was 43, but the wind out of the north was around 15 mph, which dropped the wind chill to 28 degrees.

The regular Highland Glen loop, just trying to build my base back up. Starting out there was a stiff breeze (about 15 mph) coming out of the west north west that dropped the windchill into the upper teens. It was hard to imagine that they're predicting temperatures near 80 for Monday. With it being so cold and windy I was amazed to see that one of the neighbors had their sprinklers going. Not only was most of the water blowing into the street, it was so unnecessary with the recent moisture. The house isn't currently occupied, but someone's got the idea that the reason the lawn is yellow while many of the neighbor's are deep green is that their lawn isn't getting enough water (when the real reason is that it just needs some fertilizer).

Outside of the initial cold, it was a fairly routine run. It's now so light at 6:00 am that with the scattered clouds only Jupiter was visible in the southwest. I couldn't make out any of the surrounding stars in Sagittarius. I guess I'm going to have to start getting up a little earlier.

I keep hearing rumors that warmer weather is coming, but I haven't seen much evidence of it yet. I missed last night's weather report, but before going to bed I could hear the wind and ice pelting our bedroom window. I wasn't sure what to expect as I stepped outside this morning, but was happy that it was a little warmer with very little wind. It was, however, snowing lightly. Ran the usual Highland Glen loop. Once I've established a base over the next two weeks then I'll start to build on that by upping the mileage and hopefully starting to do some doubles and one or two tempo runs per week. The WBR is not that far away. I also need to put in our registration for St. George.

I  was really hoping to get a long run in today, but we stayed up late last night and I woke up just in time to take my daughter to her ACT exam. Since this was a catch up day on chores, we were still going until well after dark, but I did manage to get a fairly leisurely bike ride in with my daughters. It was just a beautiful day, we got a lot done and finished the day with a wiener roast under the stars with our next-door neighbors.

I talked my home teacher into joining me for part of my run this morning. We started off right at 6:00 under beautiful, clear skies and temperatures in the low 40's. Richard has jogged off and on over the last couple of years, but hasn't done too much lately. We jogged and walked for better than a mile and a half, before he needed to head home to get ready for work. I'm hoping to convince more of our neighbors to join us on Monday mornings. It was nice having someone to talk to. After Richard headed back, I continued my normal route, adding a steep uphill section towards the end. With the nicer weather there were a lot more people out this morning.

Easy run today as I pushed it a little harder yesterday. It was a lot warmer than I expected after listening to the weather report last night (they predicted a cold front would move through after midnight and temperatures would drop 20 degrees or more). There was a lot of dust in the air from the wind blowing from the south. Mix in some automobile exhaust and it would great training for Beijing (there may be some skill I can pick up between now and then that would still allow me to qualify).

Beautiful morning for a run. Clear skies and 27 degrees. Average pace was 8:55. I didn't have the best night of sleep, but I wasn't dragging when I got up.  The highlight of my run was seeing Richard Lamb, my home teacher (and former HPGL), coming the other direction as I was rounding the pond. We ran together on Monday morning and talked about training and what it takes to see any improvement. The cold and dark may have discouraged a lot of people from getting out this morning, but Richard is a veternarian from Wyoming who thinks 10 degrees and a 30 mph wind is kite flying weather. Richard is also an avid Scuba diver and trained for dives in the North Atlantic by breaking through the ice to dive at that same Highland Glen pond. If your handcart company was stranded in Wyoming during a snow storm, he's the kind of guy that you'd want coming to the rescue. We're planning to run again on Monday, rain or shine.

Met up with Richard at 5:45. I thought that Antonio Lopez might join us as well, but we didn't see him. It was a bit cold (33 wind chill, wind 3 mph out of NNE) this morning, but not as cold as expected. Last night the forecast said to expect temperatures in the low 20's. We ran south along the trail and then west and north towards the high school. I left him at the flag pole and ran the normal Highland Glen loop with the Redwood Drive hill thrown in for good measure. Had some good spring in the legs today, but was a litte short on sleep. With a good nap on Sunday afternoon, it took me until close to midnight to fall asleep. Maybe I'll have a chance to catch some winks around lunch time (we've gone to a work from home schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays).

I really didn't want to get up this morning even though I was awake before my alarm went off. With the weather alternating every few hours between hot and cold, we never know whether to pull the quilt on at night or to just go with a lighter comforter. Last night my wife and I both woke up because we were too hot (she's bothered by allergies this time of year so we can't open the window to cool off). As I was trying to get back to sleep, I kept hearing very faint music and decided that I'd better get up to investigate. I looked around downstairs and even checked outside, but couldn't hear anything. I laid down and could hear it again. By that time I was fully awake and realized that it was coming from my cell phone. We have a nightly conference call with developers in India at 10:30 pm (which I took in bed last night). I must not have disconnected when the meeting ended. I'm just hoping that six hour call is covered by my plan.

Anyway, the same Highland Glen loop this morning. Temperature 38 degrees with high clouds. Everything felt good this morning, but I still took it kind of easy. Will push it a bit harder tomorrow.

Lunch run with Laureen on Highland Glen loop. Kind of a cold wind out of the north starting out, but it felt quite pleasant after we turned and headed south. Of course, we had to take Drake,  our Chihuahua,  out for a walk when we got back. He was excited to get outdoors, but decided after about five minutes that it was too cold for his taste. Now he's waiting for me to fix something tasty to eat.

Kind of a weird morning. A storm with strong winds and sleet hit just as I was getting up. Last night after working in the yard, I had some sharp pains in my knee that improved as I walked around, but were still there this morning. I took it fairly easy on the treadmill until the pain in my knee disappeared after about a mile. I gradually increased the pace, but didn't have the time to do more that two and a half miles. Since tomorrow is a work at home day, I may try to get an early morning run in and a noon run with Laureen. It will depend on what time we get to bed tonight. Our oldest daughter needs to catch a bus at 10:30 in Lehi. She's going down with a number of her blind and visually impaired friends to the Blind Olympics in Los Angeles (she comes back Monday at 4:30 a.m.). 

Beautiful morning for a run. The skies were clear and the temperature was 28. Running by the high school there were a couple of trees completely covered in ice from nearby sprinklers. I pushed it a little harder this morning just because I felt good. A doe darted out in front of me on the trail bounced over to a nearby clearing and then starting trotting along in the same direction (mocking me a bit) before racing off into the trees. It's very dangerous along that part of the trail at that time of the morning. They recently opened the road up to one way traffic as well which means that high school students try to use it for avoiding the traffic mess in front of the school and to make up for lost time. Like many of that age, they consider lines in the road as mere suggestions and come around blind curves at high speeds.

Ran the regular route today. I thought maybe I'd go longer as I've been feeling pretty good, but thought it best not to increase my mileage for the week by more than 10 percent. Laureen reminded me of how easy it is to get injured when you start upping the mileage as she's been battling a very sore Achilles tendon the last few days. Heading out there was a stiff breeze from the north north west that dropped the wind chill into the 20's, but the sun came up a few minutes later and I turned so the wind was at my back. Felt great throughout the run and am hoping to boost my mileage by another five miles next week.

Richard was around yesterday so I wasn't too surprised when he didn't show up this morning. I'd invited a couple of others to come, but no one else showed up. I'll just keep bugging them about it. Everybody I talked to said that they want to get started, especially with the nicer weather.  Ran the usual loop this morning except that I ran further up the hill on North Cottonwood Drive (it's a nice Veyo-like experience). I saw a number of other runners out the last half of my run. Started out kind of sluggish, but felt pretty good by the end. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day.

Ran the same loop as yesterday except a little slower. The temperature when I left the house was 57 degrees with a very slight breeze out of the south southwest under mostly cloudy skies. I was probably a bit overdressed as I'm still expecting windchill to drop into the twenties. I felt a little achy this morning, but it was mostly gone after a mile or two. I'm trying to make sure I don't build up mileage too fast and get injured. On the other hand, I'm anxious to start putting in some decent mileage.