Speed only kills if you don't have it!

AM- I went with my friend Damon Cox over to the Dixie Center where we met up with Clyde and Steve Hooper.  We did a fun little loop up the hill to the South past a radio tower and down along a river trail.  It was fun to get out and run with Clyde and Damon.  I totally recognized Steve from back when he worked at Runners Corner, and I enjoyed talking to him as well.  Damon was beat after the run, but he hasn't run much in the last three years.  He used to take me out every run and kick my trash, and that was when I was in the best shape of my life.  I was impressed that he was able to hang in at a decent pace for over 7 miles with zero training.  Good times!  7.1 miles 55:42

PM-  Met Clyde at his house and ran 6.1 miles with him around his area.  It was over 100 degrees when we went out at 7:30 pm.  We had a good visit and a good run.  We even did about a mile bare-foot on a golf course.  I also got to meet his wife and little ones (dogs).   I had a great time in both runs today.  42:53 

(Adrenaline-175miles)

I met Clyde at his house again, and Dave Holt showed up too.  It was good to meet Dave, and the three of us had a good run and a good visit.  We went out on a really soft red dirt trail that headed into the middle of the desert and eventually went into a town that I didn't know existed.  We then went past some of our evening run last night and headed back to Clyde's house.  It felt at times like we were going at a pretty good pace, but I am not really sure.  Thanks for the fun run and letting me tag along guys.   Didn't see any desert turtles, but I saw a bunch of road runners!

59:24 

(Hurricane-230 miles)

Damon and I went over to the Pineview track to run with the St. George crew at 6 am.  We were a few minutes late so they were already on a warm up so we did our own.  It was super windy and the weather looked pretty ugly at first.  We did a workout with Steve Hooper, Dustin, and Dave.  I did a 12x400 meter workout with 200 meter recovery.  The other guys were doing 15 or 16x400 meters and I didn't want to do quite that many today so I had a couple of 400 meter recoveries to stay with them while they did an extra 400 interval.  The 400s felt good until you came around the corner into the wind and then it felt like you were standing still sometimes.  I wanted to do all of my 400s around 75 seconds and was pretty consistant for the most part until I had some nasty windy laps, but I pulled the last couple back in where I wanted them.

1:13

1:14

1:14

1:16

1:19

1:16

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1:18

1:14

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1:13

I ended up pretty close to averaging what I wanted to.  Damon ran 4x400s and came on the cool down run.  He went to High School with Dave and wanted to see him again.  Other than the wind it was a good and fun workout.  I have enjoyed running with the guys down in St. George, they are a talented and fun group of guys.  We had a good visit after the run, in fact, after each run this week. 

(Adrenaline-183 miles) 

Damon and I went and checked Steve's store on my way out of town.  We met Steve's wife Kendra and his three little kids.  It is good to see someone who actually knows something about running open a store up, I wish Steve luck with it.

It was 84 degrees when we left St. George and 50 when we hit Ceder City, and 38 when we got home to Logan!  Typical weather for this year, it will get blazing hot and then snow on us a few days later!

I waited until this afternoon when it had finally stopped raining.  I went on an 8.2 mile loop through River Heights and Providence.  I wanted an easy run today, but even with a slower pace I still didn't feel too great.  It was probably a mix of not much sleep on my trip to St. George, the quality runs that I have had this week, travel, and the 60 degree in temperature difference from two days ago to now.  I just never got in a rhythm or felt good, and it was still pretty chilly when I was out.  I got spoiled running with people all week and when I went out today by myself, in the cold, it was kind of a drag.  At least I got a few more miles in today.

59:04

(Hurricane-238 miles)

I went tonight for a 5miler to loosen up the muscles and nerves.  I have to take the praxis 2 for my teaching certificate in the morning so I have been studying like crazy for the last two days.  After my 6 hours of tests tomorrow I plan on doing a fun trail run with Paul.  I didn't feel like going out tonight but I knew it would help me and it did.  After a couple of miles I felt really good, and I am much more relaxed now.  I ran into River Heights and back the exact same way.  Nice evening, and I am glad that I ran a few miles.

35:07

(Adrenaline-188 miles) 

After taking tests for 6.5 hours straight and having my brain destroyed, I met Paul to do a trail run.  It was a nice day and I need to release all the built up stress and tightness from the rest of the day.  It was just me and Paul which was kind of fun.  I think that the two of us have only run by ourself together once before.  I am going to copy half of what Paul wrote because I wasn't sure where we were at times and he is the map and trail master, besides he cracks me up!

We met at first dam and headed up Logan Canyon to the Right Hand Fork trailhead. From there we did a big 16+ mile loop: started up the Willow Creek Trail, then turned onto Steel Hollow and took it to its terminus at FR 056. We turned north onto FR 056 (Long Hollow) and paid homage to Old Ephraim by visiting his grave memorial. Old Ephraim was a legendary 9'11" grizzly bear that terrorized sheep during the 1920s, until a brave rancher repeatedly shot him to death with his gun. Pity. Now there are no more grizzlies in our area, but we seem to be overrun with livestock, most of which trample and poop all over my trails. Anyway, after stopping at the Ephraim memorial, we continued on Long Hollow, and then turned west onto FR 007 and headed toward Mud Flat. We then took Mud Flat all the way around to Cottonwood Spring and then Little Cottonwood Creek. And then we were back at the car. It's a great loop, and I've never done that particular variation of it (I usually come down Willow Creek instead of Mud Flat). The views are splendid on this run, particularly the second half, and everything is very very green right now.

According to the Garmin, our average pace was 9:07/mile. Total time 2:29:10. Fastest mile was 7:40, slowest was 10:31. Also according to the Garmin, total ascent/decent was ~4250 ft, which maybe why we ran so slow.

It took me a while to get loosened up because I was so tight is my shoulder area.  I have a very hard time putting todays miles in the "Easy" category because I don't remember anything easy about it.  We did a ton of climbing and it was tough.  The run took us a long time and we never went very fast but we weren't just moseying along.  If you don't believe me think about this: a 2:26 marathoner like Paul doesn't just normally train at a 9 minute mile pace and say that it kicked his butt.  The reason why it took so long was  that we climbed the whole darn mountain three times!  And eventhough it killed me I loved almost every minute of it.  It was one the the prettiest runs that I have ever done.  It was just added to my list of favorites and might spend a long time there.  It was nice to be up in those mountains and just shoot the breeze with Paul, it felt like we were truly in God's country.  We made a few stops along the way to take in the sites and the beauty of our run, and to catch our breath and suck down every last drop of liquid that we had with us.  That run was just what I needed today, and I will sleep very well tonight now because of it.