Speed only kills if you don't have it!

XC practice-  We ran up and down Butterfield canyon today.  It is a good place to run strength run.  There were a lot of kids out and I don't know how most of them did, because I started in the back and worked my way up with Chris and Alex and the bunch.  I ran down with Aubree at a decent pace, about 6:40s the first couple of miles, a 6:17, and the last half mile at 5:30 pace.  Probably her best training run to date.  Good run today! 

We finally got moved over from AF to Riverton/Herriman this weekend, but the business is only starting!

XC practice- We did 7 miles up to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and back.  Good run, I averaged around 7:10 per mile.

5 miles to the wall and back on the canal for XC practice.  I ran back with some of the new kids to help them out.

Yellow Fork canyon to the ridge.  This run kicked me butt today.  It is a tough  3miles to that first ridge.  Last year i was able to run most of it, I walked several times today.  the good thing was I had 6 guys and four girls that made it there with me today, last year I only had 4 guys that made it.  It is one of those runs that hurts bad enough you hate it until you get done and then you like it.  Good to get on the trail finally.  Too bad it wasn't really 12 miles like it felt!:)

Easy run on the canal, then played some Ultimate afterward

We did the Dimple Dell trail today for practice.  I like this trail because of the wood chips and sand.  I ran with Aubree most of the time and we beat most of the guys.  She is getting really strong and should do fine at UVU this fall.  Fun run today!  I made Aubree run a couple extra miles at the end with me so we can get ourselves 40 miles this week, Dutton came with us.

I met some of my girls (Aubree, Ashlynn, and Jenica) at Smiths in Herriman/Riverton and we ran a big loop around the south side of Herriamn.  We ran passed Butterfield Park, up to the new Res., down passed my house, on the trail to Rosecrest Park, and back.  It was a nice easy run and I finally hit a 40 mile week fo the first time since th hips problems, YES!

I started my Lava Hot Springs Elite camp today. I had 22 kids show up and then I invited Nick and Aubree to come help me out since they are my only college runners not on missions.  The first day went well.  I had the kid get dropped off at the bottom of Smith Canyon and run up to the cabin.  It is an over 1500 foot climb in 4 miles, kind of like Ragnar.  I didn't run with them because I was directing the run and aiding them, so I ran earlier, down Big Bear and back, then up High Country a ways 6 miles total. 

Before dinner we did a 5 miler up High Country, to Maple, and up High Ridge around the tree and back.  This was the same run Paul and I did last 4th of July.  Nick and I added an extra mile + at the end.  We lost Timmy on the last turn and ended up searching for him later, but he found a guy that was able to bring him back to the cabin before dark.  Thank goodness!  I ended up with 12 miles and the kids got 9 tough ones in.

The kids did a down hill speed mile in the morning that was down High country, I didn't run with them because I was timing.  Chris was first with a 4:54.

About 1:00pm we did a run down into Lava town.  It drops from 7200 feet to 5200 feet in about 5.7 miles the drops another 100-200 feet in the next 3.5 miles and has a lot of rollers.  It was hot too.  Allison aided us several times with water stops.  I ran with Dillon, Chris, and Alex most of the way and we finished together.  We ditched everyone else along the way and finished with a 58 minute run for the 9.1 miles (6:25 average).  We waited for everyone to come in, which took a long time, had lunch, then hit the pool for three hours.  This was a tough run that I will be sore from.  The kids thought it was brutal!

We did an easy 2 miles this morning to get everyone's legs moving again.  We ran around the helipad and High Country.

The last run of camp was a relay with 3 people on a team and two 1.4 mile legs.  We had eight teams.  I ran for two teams because of injuries and dehydration issues for Rylie and Shae.  I average 6 minute pace on both of my legs combined.  It was a tough and fun course and the kids found new energy to compete in their very hammered legs.  Everyone ran well and seemed to have fun.  I was glad to see the kids make it through so many tough runs, things they aren't used to.  The relay was a good ending to a great camp.

XC practice this morning-  We did a very easy run to the pond on the canal and back.  Not too many of the kids that went to camp were there, no surprise!  I am pretty sore, especially in my calves.  i ran most of the run with Parker.

We did an easy loop down by the City Park, along 1300 W, and up 13400 S.  There were a bunch more kids that went to camp there today, and they were all hurting bad.  My left calf finally started to loosen up around mile 6.  We averaged a 7:45 pace for the run.

I was supposed to meet whoever wanted to run at Smiths in Herriman /Riverton at 7:00am.  The problem was my night time dishwasher replacing project took 4 hours instead of 1 hour because every possible thing went wrong, and I got to bed at 3:00am.  I still pulled myself out of bed and met Aubree, Chris, Alex, and Schiffman for a loop around Herriman.  I was glad did.  We did a similar but different loop as I did with the girls last week, the end was about the same.  I like Herriman because there are a lot of hills and I need hills.  I mostly ran with Chris and Alex while Aubree and Schiffman tagged behind.  It was a dry morning but nice, and the run was a good end to a week that I finally hit over 45 miles.  I am making a comeback, slow but sure!  7:39 ave.

Started the week off with a 10 miler with the kids.  We ran on the parkway out by Camp Williams and back.  1:13:30 for the run.  

Ran on my own this morning around Herriman's south hills.  I saw a lot of cool looking dirt trails that all seemed to be on private land, bummer!  I am glad to have hills close to where I live to get some good training in.  I will keep exploring this area.  Average HR was 155.

We did a fartlek workout for practice today.  I ran with Alex the whole run.  We warmed up for 15 minutes and did 5 x 2 minute repeats with 2 minutes recovery on the west canal road.  We did an out and back so we came back the same way.

I ran with Aubree and Jamin in the later morning in Herriman.  We ran out to the pond from the park across the street from Smiths and back.  We went and had breakfast burritos  afterward at Mark Anthony's.  We also had some Birthday cake for Aubree's Birthday.

I had several kids show up to practice this morning on the 24th of July, don't people know the meaning of Holiday?!  Because they showed up I made it worth their while and we ran a 10 miler.  We went out into Bluffdale and ran some neighborhoods that I had never been in  before.  The pace was easy, like 7:45ish, so I was able to recover my dead legs from the last two weeks.

Well I finally made it back to a 50 mile week!  This is my first since September 14-20 last year, 10 freakin months!  It has been a long slow road to recovery and I am not 100% even now, but there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel and I am getting closer every week.  I just hope I can get going and salvage at least a decent race at St. George this year.

I had Aubree and Schiffman tag along this morning.  Aubree needed 9 for her first ever 50 mile week and I needed a bit more.  We ran 10 miles together from the park across from Smiths up to the mouth of Butterfield Canyon.  I didn't realize that it was all uphill to the canyon, so it was an up and down run.  I liked to road, quiet, a few farms, a lot of cyclists, kind of reminded me of the runs I had done with Jon, Cody and Logan out by Clarkston in Cache Valley two years ago.  I added on another 1.5 miles at the end up Juniper Crest hill and down to give me 50 miles.  I am tired but excited to finally be running some decent miles again.  Hopefully I can get some speedwork in and some long runs.  I need to find some 20 mile buddies in the next month or sooner. 

We did a loop today that went over to Oquirrh, down passed the Park to the pool, on the river trail, up tithing hill and back on 12600 S.  We warmed up for a mile then did a 1.5 mile tempo.  Alex, Dillon, and Parker helped me lead the group, we were at 5:35 or so (8:25).   We also did 3 tithing hill repeats in about 1:10ish.  This was a good workout for me to see if I could still run sub 5:40s after all this time.  7.5 miles total.

Some of the kids wanted to go with Jamin and Aubree to "shoot the tube" up by the east bench.  I went along and we made a practice out of it.  We ran around in the river bottoms and around the neighborhood for a few miles and then went to shoot the tube.  This was a blast.  I only went twice but they were both great runs.   The first time the water was damned up to my waist and there were about 10-12 of us that went down.  The end was crazy as I got pushed over the top of everyone and almost tossed over the second dam.  Nolan was hold the dam and was sucked down with us because of the force.  My second run was with four of us and was almost as much water and with speeds twice as fast it seemed.  Good times! 

We did Yellow Fork today for practice.  I wanted to go up the left trail where we usually come down.  Somewhere along the way we missed a turn or two and ended up trailblazing up a deer trail to some road.  The road ended up being one we had never been on and it kept climbing up and up.  Alex and I were leading the way so most kids tried to follow, most probably would have turned back at 2 miles up where the trailblazing began but there was a lot of positive peer pressure.  We ended up going to a ridge where we were above the copper mines and just below the one radio tower.  We could see Butterfield, Rose, and Yellow Fork canyons.  The climb had been a nasty 2,000 feet in 4.5 miles, kids were cursing my name!   However, we had 8 boys, 3 girls, and myself that made it to the top.  On the way down most of the kids went back the same way while me, Alex, Aubree, and a couple others went down several different roads that kept splitting.  We ended up running almost a mile further that the rest of the group, but finished first.  We came out from the south end of Rose canyon. 

This was a brutal run, which I loved, I just should have taken water with me.  It might have been the hardest workout any of those kids have ever done.  Jon, Cody, and Paul would have loved this run!   I was surprised at how pretty those Oquirrh mountains are once you get up into them.  1:26:26 for the run, 7:15s down and 10-12:00s up. 

Ran by myself this morning up around Rose Crest and over to the pond by the Cove.  I came back along Emmeline and down Juniper Crest.  A lot of hills, which is good even with being sore form yesterday.  Now I am off to Provo to get the axle on my truck fixed.

Easy run around North Riverton and on the lowest canal.  Played some Ultimate after the run.