Speed only kills if you don't have it!

I met Timo at 26.2 for an easy 5mile loop through the neighborhoods of AF.  When we got done I went for 8 more miles on my own up into PG on another loop.  My pace was much faster on my own, but I still kept it easy.

(2130- 114 miles) 

Met my kids at the school where I saw Walter doing some speedwork.  We went up yellow fork canyon and did a trail up there.  It is a good canyon that switches from double to single track in several places.  As we got up further on the trail I took it got more steep and technical.  I went from 9:15 pace to 14 minute pace for the last mile up.  As a result of the steep terrain i had some 6 minute miles coming back.  I had a good turnout of kids today and we had a good tough and fun run.  We lost one of my varsity guys along the way and most of the girls and I went back up to find him.  He must be quite the heart throb to have all of the girls want to look for him.  He had gotten lost and had run in a few circles, but he was ok.

(Kahana- 242 miles) 

I did a later morning run today.  It was starting to get hot when I went out, but didn't end up being too bad because I went easy.  I did a loop up around the Pleasant grove cemetery and back.  Legs felt a little sore from yesterday's trail run, and my right glute is still way tight.  I don't think that I will race tomorrow because of my tightness.  59:45 for the run.

(Kayano- 209 miles)

I took yesterday off because of the pain in my butt! I am still bothered by it, especially if I run fast, so no sense in racing.

We stayed up at our cabin in Lava for the 4th, so Paul and I did a 6 mile run along the ridge south of the cabin. Paul is still Paul so even at his out of shape pace I was working at times. It was a fun run, and nice to run with a buddy again.

(Kahana- 248 miles)  

I was hoping for a decent mileage week and a race this week but I think it is better to take it easy and get healthy again for the upcoming weeks of racing.

XC practice this morning.  I did 10 miles along the Jordan River Parkway south of Riverton with my kids.  Fun run and a good turn out for practice. 

My but is still tight and having issues, but seemed a little better today.  Hopefully I can get it worked out soon, maybe I'll have to go get a massage.

(Omni- 524 miles)  

AM-  My right glute has been tight so I haven't been doing anything fast for a while, but I know I need to get going with some speedwork if I want to do any good this year. I was tired and didn't feel that great this morning but pushed out the door and over to the track anyway.

I hit the AF track that was overloaded with cheerleaders, drill team, and slow people walking their dogs on the inside lanes. I had to do a lot of running around idiots today, nothing more annoying to me! I did 3x400s, 4x200s, and 3x400s with 200m recovery between each. Legs felt heavy! 1:16, 1:15, 1:14, :34, :35, :35, :34, 1:15, 1:14, 1:11. Nothing great but since I have done zero speed for a while and I didn't feel good, I'll take it. Now I just have to get feeling better and get consistent with workouts. I know that I'll never run faster if I don't start training faster. Two mile warm up and cool down. 53:55

  (Tangent-239 miles)

PM-  Easy 5 miles on an out and back run into PG.  Still hot out and I felt sluggish, but I expected it after feeling that way this morning. 37:12

(Omni- 529 miles)  

XC practice this morning. I did 8 miles up and down Butterfield canyon. 34 minutes up and 25 down. Good run! 59:00

(Kayano- 217 miles)

I went to turn on my Garmin this morning and it wouldn't turn on. It was working great yesterday and I charged it last night before I went to bed. It won't turn on and nothing comes on the screen when I put it on the charger, it seems dead!

Legs felt tired from the last two days so I did an easy 8 mile PG cemetery loop this morning.  I tried to keep the pace slow so I can recover.  I even stopped a couple of times to stretch out my tight right hammy and left achilles.  1:01:19 (7:40 pace).  Now I am off to the Zoo with my family.

(2130- 122 miles)

Easy 5 miler with my XC kids this morning around Riverton.  Slow and easy pace.

(Omni- 529 miles) 

I had a big family party down in Mona today with everyone there. That doesn't happen too often when you come from a family of 9 kids. I had hoped on a few more miles but what I got ended up being fine.

We went down to Nephi early, kind of a last minute thing, so I could run the race. I was hoping that I would have some competition to chase, and secretly hoped that I could hang on and win. My wish came true when I got to the start and saw the local cross country kids and some other decent guys in their 20s. Last year I won easily, but this year I would have to work harder for a win. At the gun everyone took off as suspected and I hung back. The lead pack jumped out quick and pulled ahead of me by about 60 meters. I wasn't worried though because they took off fairly fast into a slight grade and good canyon headwind, and stayed the same distance ahead. I decided that I would play follow the leader for a while instead of me being the leader. Part of that was because I didn't feel super spring in my legs, and the other part is my confidence isn't at an all time high right now with my little aches and pains and hardly any racing this year.

I stayed back in about 6th place for the first mile, which was 5:53 for me, not bad for that mile. After the mile the lead five began to break up a bit and I saw a couple of guys start to make a move. I didn't make any move myself, just hung the same pace as the leaders, but I picked off two straggler high schoolers in the process. Adam Bracken started to pull away from two high schoolers at about a mile and a half and I follow as before. When we passed the water stop just before two miles I was in a strong second with only Bracken to catch (5:44). He was about 70 meters ahead and I decided to pick it up and win this thing. I stayed calm and continued to slowly close to gap in the next half mile or so. I did have one thought that maybe he could really out kick me if I caught him, but pushed it out quickly and made my move with less that a half mile to go. I caught him on the inside and surged ahead, he tried to come with me and stuck right on my shoulder for the next 200 meters. I used to not worry about people and their kicks a back in the day because I could usually out kick about everyone, but that is not the case any more. When we made the turn east going uphill off of main I decided it was time to put this race away so I wouldn't have to kick it out, and that is what I did. I pushed hard in the next 2 blocks and dropped him on the uphill so that on the final block I could just cruise in, and it worked. Bracken came in about 15 seconds behind me, and some of the high schoolers were as much as a minute back in the end. My third mile was 5:20, and total time was 17:40, a couple of seconds ahead of last years finish. I was glad that the competition was better and that I could run a smart race. I defended my title well and put another trophy on the shelf.

Cooled down for a mile with after the race with Bracken, nice guy, although I could tell that he was bummed about being caught in the last 600 meters of a race. I fully intended to run more miles but never got out with all of the family stuff going on.

(2130- 123 miles) (Fastwitch -92 miles)

AM- I did an easy 7.5 mile run into Alpine with two miles at sub 6:00 pace on the way home.

(Omni- 536 miles)  

PM- First run of my XC camp. We camped at Timpooneke campground and went up the trail to Scout Falls and then continued to the meadow. It was a short run but we climbed 1,000 feet in 2 miles on rough trail. I think the kids had fun. Saw a few big deer. 4.5 miles

(Kahana- 252 miles)

AM- ran with my kids up the Timpooneke trail passed the first glacier and back. We climbed from 7,300 feet to 9,300 feet and did 3.5 in 47 minutes. The way down was slow too because of the rough trail. This run kicked my trash. My best girl went down with a sprained ankle on the way down passing Scout Falls. That was our only really injury of the camp. One of my girls piggy backed her the 1.5 miles down the mountain. 12:15 mile ave for 7 miles.

PM- We started our afternoon at Tibble Fork Res and ran up the 4x4 road that heads back to Cascade Springs. We went 3 miles up the road, over 850 feet of climb from 6,400 feet to 7,250. 6 miles at 8:25 ave per mile. We soaked the legs our legs in the lake when we got back and got leeches all over our feet from it, nasty! Today was 13 of the hardest miles I have done.

(Hardrock- 309 miles)

For our last run of camp I took my kids to Silver Lake Flat. We did a warm up loop of the lake and then had a little 3 person team relay around it. Each person ran two legs of 1.25 miles. That path around the lake is pretty rough with a lot of rocks and some good hilly climbs, and they had to find their own way across the creek at the end. My team ended up third, I just couldn't catch my two guys on the last leg, infact they held me off in the last half mile and had a better shortcut across the creek. I was impressed! I averaged 5:45 pace on both of my legs, and ran the exact same time on both legs. It was a lot of fun and my camp was a success, not too mention I got some killer training in. I probably won't run again today because I am so tired. Camp was a blast and I know the kids loved it too.

(Kahana- 255 miles) (Hardrock- 310 miles)

I was so tired from my XC camp and staying up too late last night that I was lucky to crawl out of bed.  I did 7 easy miles with my kids as a recovery run for the last three days.  It took a while to get the legs going, but felt good once I loosened up.  I would like to get out again later for a couple miles if I can.  

(Omni- 543 miles)

Easy 4 miles around east AF this morning.  Hopefully it will help me recover from my camp so I can run decent at Bryce tomorrow.  7:43 pace with 4x100 meter strides in the last mile. 

(Kayano- 221 miles)

I have always wanted to do this race and now I am not sure if I want to do it again, but tmie heals all wounds. I rode the bus up with Logan and we started to warm up and ran in the Josse, then into Clyde, Dave, and James Holt. so we all warmed up together. I should have hit a potty and didn't and it came back to bite me. No splits because they weren't good enough to share.

I felt fine the first couple of miles and then we started to drop down the canyon and my legs went to jello! I am not sure why I got so hammered, maybe my XC camp runs had something to do with it? I was tight and felt out of rhythm from then on. The downhill hammered and jarred me so bad that I had to use the potty twice, once at 5 miles and another time at 9 miles and I could never get going after that either. Once we hit Tropic and the rollers I was done and I still had 4-5 miles to go. I was lucky to hold on and run as good as I did.

I knew the course would be rough but it just pain brutalized me! I can't quite figure out what happened and why nothing seemed to click or work smoothly, but it didn't. I think the only highlight of this race for me was when we all finished and Clyde, Dave, Logan, and I attempted a two mile cool-down and I could tell they were just as beat up as I was!

I don't recall ever getting sore from a half marathon before, but I got sore form this one. I am as sore as I was last year after St. George in some areas of my body. I don't think my legs have ever felt so dead during any race as they did yesterday. I didn't hate the race, I just didn't run well and I literally got the crap knocked out of me yesterday. That course owned me!

I did treat myself to a double Bruger with cheese after the race with Logan, I felt I deserved it after a race like that!

(Tangent 2- 56 miles)

XC practice with my kids.  I am sore freakin sore from Saturday, probably as bad as after St. George last year.  I did a super easy and slow 7.5 miles with some of my varsity girls. We ran on all four canal trails around Riverton.   My legs started to loosen up a bit on my run but now they are worse than before.

(Omni- 543 miles) 

XC practice with my kids.  Easy 10k run with my varsity guys on a loop down to the pool and back.  I made them keep it easy for them and for me.  I am a hundred times better than yesterday, but my lower calves are still trashed and my other muscles are dead.  It takes a while to get moving.

(Kayano- 227 miles) 

No run today!  I had a huge knot in my foot and spent some time working it out and now my foot is very sore.

XC practice with my kids.  We did an easy 5 mile loop around Riverton followed by 4x100 meter barefoot strides.  Foot is feeling better.

(Omni- 548 miles)  

I have been absolutely trashed this week and my running has suffered because of it. I went out today later in the morning because I slept in until almost 8:00 am. I was tired and the legs felt sluggish from the start. I did a loop up to AF canyon via Lone Peak and came back through Cedar Hills. It was pretty darn hot and I was super grateful that there was a drinking fountain at a park in Cedar Hills. My right hammy started to get tighter toward the end and I was way tired on top of that so I slowed up a little. I felt lucky to run as good as I did for how horrible I felt. I was disappointed in how much trouble I seemed to have on an 11 mile run. 1:20:03

I am really starting to get tight in my hammy from that glute tightness a month ago. I need to get it taken care of soon so that I can start doing some faster training and racing. I can feel it all of the time, running or not.

(Omni- 559 miles)

XC practice with the kids.  We did a Fartlek pyramid on the Jordan River Parkway.  I actually felt decent running today for the first time in a week and a half.    Three of my guys stuck with me and we added 15 seconds to each interval and built up to two minutes and worked back down (:15, :30, :45, :60...), with the same recovery as the fartlek.  Kind of a fun workout.  7 miles total

(Kayano- 234 miles)

I got a late start this morning and didn't start until about 9:30 am.  I was going to run again last night but we had some good friends from Calgary come down to visit.  I did a 9 mile loop around the Lone Peak and Alpine highways.  I didn't really feel bad or good on my run, and it was hot, but I was glad to get out.  1:04:58

(2130- 132 miles)

XC practice with my kids.  We did Yellow Fork Canyon above Herriman today.  Four of my guys came with me and we made it upto the ridge where the single track runs into the old  Bingham Canyon mine road.  It took us 35 minutes to make it the 3 miles up (about an 1800 foot climb), it kicked my butt!  We came down on the south side of the ridge on a different trail.  1:05:42 for the 6.5 mile run.  

(Kahana- 262 miles)