El Burro Blanco

8 miles in the morning.

14.25 miles in the afternoon.

I did an easy 8 miles this morning just under 6:30/mile overall.  Happy to be heading down to Arizona this weekend though.

It was the first day of official track practice today.  I ran an easy 5 miles this afternoon with the track team.  I will have them do some tempo paced miles tomorrow.  I hurried up to Weber State for my big workout.  I did an easy 3 miles to warmup and then Paul had me do a 2000, 1600, 1200, 1000, and 800 for my workout.  My best times were 4:59 for the 1600 and 3:03 for the 1000.  The other times were not that pretty.  He wanted me to ease back into it after being sick for most of last week.  I did a 2 mile cooldown and then went up to eat my dinner.

8 miles in the morning.

12.15 miles in the afternoon.

Same run as yesterday morning.  Just trying to keep the legs loose for this weekend.

I did 8.10 miles with the track team.   I ran just over 7 miles with the boys which included a 2 mile tempo run in the middle.  We did a 2 mile warmup and then a little bit of a cooldown afterwards.  It was a little windy so it was tough for a lot of them.  I have a sophomore on the team that ran a 5:00/mile in 7th grade and hasn't even really trained!  I am excited to work with him.  We should have a good team this year.  I ended up going back out and looking for one of the girls.  I found her and she was just moving along nice and relaxed.  She hasn't run much since cross country so she was taking it easy.  I was a little worried about her for a bit.  This tacked on just over a mile.  I came home and finished up the day with 4 miles at 6:00/mile overall.  Great day for running.  Temperatures were right in the mid-40s!

8 miles in the morning.

12 miles in the afternoon.

It was a nice relaxed run this morning.  I can't wait until Friday.  Arizona, 80 degrees, running a great relay, spending time in a smelly car with other guys!  This should be quite the event.

I ran with the girls distance runners to see how their workouts are going.  They are working hard which makes me very happy.  I did 6 miles with them and almost got eaten by 2 dogs!  Fun stuff.  I finished up with them and then did another 6 miles on my own around Plain City.  I almost got eaten by another dog on my 6 miler.  I just love animals!

8 miles in the morning.

8 miles at just under 6:30/mile overall.  I pick up Adam and James on our way down to St. George and then Arizona.  Look out warm weather, here I come.

No run this evening.  Drove down from Ogden to pick up Adam Wende and James.  We drove down to St. George and met up with the guys and then headed down to stay in a hotel in Las Vegas.  Smelled like smoke and didn't enjoy it that much.

5 miles in Las Vegas.

4.63 miles at Del Sol (Leg 2).

1.5 warm-up and cooldown.

Dave, Nick, Adam, Clyde, James, and me went out for an easy 5 miles this morning along the Las Vegas Strip.  It was fun running in and out of cars and trying not to get hit.  Great 60 degree weather.

We drove down and eventually made it to Wickenburg (where Del Sol starts) and had a little bit of time to relax.  We started had 6 PM so we had a couple of hours to kill.  It was going to be fun in Van 1 which included Dave, Nick, Clyde, Walter, James, Steve Hooper and me.  This was going to be a blast.  Google eventually showed up while we were waiting around along with another Running Store from Tucson who looked like they had a couple of ringers.  I got my gear on and did a 1 mile warmup with Clyde and Dave.  I had the 2nd leg in this relay so I was getting the little slap bracelet from good old Dave.  Dave started out well and dropped the Google guy pretty quick.  We hurried to the next exchange and waited for Dave.  He ended up coming in dead even with the Running Store from Tucson.  This was going to be close.  I started running at 6:30ish.  My 1st run had a gradual uphill climb for just over 4.6 miles.  Here were my splits:

1- 4:52 = feeling good and feeling a little antsy just to get going

2- 5:04 = finally relaxed

3- 5:27

4- 5:19

.63- 5:17

My time was 24:01 and I averaged 5:11/mile overall.  It had a decent headwind and never stopped the entire time.  I was happy with this start.  I ended up having to wear a reflective vest and headlamp.  Not my favorite things to wear.  I guess the guy I ran against from the Running Store was pretty upset about not keeping up with me.  He finished and was kicking dirt all over.  Sorry buddy!  I then did a .50 mile cooldown.  I could write more about everybody else and what happened in the race but I am sure Sasha will elaborate much more eloquently so I will let him do it.   

2nd run (14th leg) = 6.71 miles and 1 mile cooldown.

3rd run (26th leg) = 6.33 miles and 1 mile cooldown.

2nd run = I started my second run at 1 AM.  It showed a huge downhill section but once I got going their was a little bit of uphill all throughout.  I really wanted to get moving on this leg to see what I could do.  I knew it was going to be fast.  Here are my splits:

1- 4:43

2- 4:57

3- 4:52

4- 4:59

5- 4:57

6- 4:58

.71- 4:56

I ran 32:55 for 4:55/mile overall.  I was stoked about this run.  I finished and was screaming all over.  Their was probably over 100 people there and the guys from the team were hooting and hollering after they heard my overall pace.  People started cheering and it was a lot of fun.  I had personal bests in the 5k and 10k during this leg.  I hit just over 15 minutes for 5k and then 30:30 for the 10k.  I also dropped the guy from the Running Store by 4 and a half minutes.  This shocked me!  I was really pumped up after this leg.  I started feeling the effects of dinner at about mile 2 but just blocked it out.  I went on my cooldown and started to really cough.  I don't want to get that discriptive but I lost my dinner and all of the Gatorade I had been drinking.  It wasn't a pretty sight but I felt much better afterward.

3rd run = I got a total of maybe 30 minutes of sleep but got a decent warmup in and knew this was my last run.  The first 2 miles were downhill and then just over 4.3 miles was straight uphill.  I had a little bit of headwind on this one but I was used to it by know.  Here are my splits:

1- 4:56

2- 5:04

3- 5:16

4- 5:41 - My right quad started acting up.

5- 5:47

6- 5:51 - Dirt road and running on car divots.

.33- 5:36

I ran 34:24 for 5:26/mile overall.  It was not my best leg but I was happy to be done.  That 4.33 miles straight uphill really got me working and extremely tired.  I was done though.  Clyde was the 4th runner and eventually passed all of teams so we were in 1st place with two runners left in our van and then all of the runners in Van 2.  We were smoking everybody.  We hurried to the finish and hung out all by ourselves.  We waited for Steve Ashbaker to come in and then we all ran in together for the winning time of 17 hours 4 minutes.  Our entire team averaged 5:38/mile overall.  That is just mind boggling to me.  Their was no one in sight to watch us come in since all of the other teams were still out there.  We had a little bit of pressure from the Running Store in Tucson but Google was not a problem at all.

I had a blast on this relay team.  It was so much fun spending time will all of these great guys.  I would write down a lot of the crazy things we saw and talked about but when I talk with many of you in person, it will be that much better.  It was a great experience and I can't wait for Wasatch Back now.  I was thrilled with my times also.  It is making me very antsy and excited for the Ogden Marathon.  I will keep training hard to see how the marathon turns out.