All it takes is all you've got

Fever still lingering, but I had to get out for a little movement. Very slow.

Oh, and there's this blog post I wrote today.

Hilly rainy run with Aaron

Long run around Sand Hollow Reservoir in Hurricane, UT while vacationing with The Emily Dunn and her family. Spent a couple of days exploring Zion with the kiddos. Beautiful!

Same Hilly 8 as Friday...only faster. My new fav loop from my house. Canal Path, Vestry Road, Corner Canyon, Aqueduct Trail, back down to Porter Rockwell, and zig-zag home. Complete with a temper tantrum from two german shepherds who were super territorial about the easement beyond their yard.

Easy 6 with Aaron before he left to Denver for the week.

Then a 6 mile rainy hike with my sister, sister-in-law, and cousin up at Snow Basin. Super fun!

Felt really good this morning. Like I'm getting fitter.

Got this workout idea from Brad Hudson's book, Running Faster From 5K to the Marathon.

10 miles with 30 seconds at 5K pace every 3 minutes. I didn't look at my watch meticulously to do them exactly every 3 minutes...they were probably more like every 2 minutes. And I didn't time the intervals, I just counted 60 strides. That was easier than looking at my watch every few seconds. Ended up giving me some pretty fast miles though. Sub-7:00 pace for the run.

Easy run with Konda. Discussing our son's Jr. Jazz Basketball team and such.

An hour on the elliptical at a new gym. Trying out a few gyms in the area. Feeling like it would be helpful to have a memberhip somewhere through the winter so I can cross train, do weights, and yoga as needed.

With Aaron still out of town, I had a tricky morning. 

My sister in law, Emily and I decided last night to register our kids for the BYU Homecoming Cougar Run kids races and run the 5K together. Her sweet husband offered to watch my four kids in addition to their three kids during the 5K but I didn't want to be gone for long, so I did an easy shakeout run early in the morning before leaving for the race so as to get a little more mileage for the day.

So this was how my morning went: 6.5 headlamp miles at 6 a.m. Stretch, shower, eat, wake kids, dress kids, feed kids, load kids into car, speed towards Provo, get caught in gridlock traffic due to major crash on the point of the mountain, call Emily and Adam and divert them off I-15 in an attempt to help them get to Provo before the kids races began, finally get through traffic and carefully speed the rest of the way to Provo. Arrive 5 minutes before kids races begin. Grab kids race bibs, take kids to potty, barely make it to the starting line as the girls age 7-9 800M race begins. Run parts of the race with Ali while sometimes cutting across the field to cheer for Bre a little bit ahead. Bre finishes. Ali finishes. Bre says she wants to run the mile too. Take her right over to the starting line again. Bre runs mile while I help Ali and Kelsie get blue pancakes. Abe's turn. They're calling all 5K runners to the starting line. I drop Abe off on the starting line for his mile race and leave other kids in Adam's charge. Emily and I jog over to the 5K starting line. Long potty line. Decide to jog up the road a bit and find a potty tree. Short .8 mile warm-up, but really I've been warming up all morning. 

Get to the race start with two minutes to spare. Meet the other fast looking ladies, two BYU club runners. Race starts. Why are they going out at 5:10 pace UP THIS HILL? Ok good, that lasted only 30 seconds. Other runners slow down and fade out. I settle in to a more comfortable pace.

Mile splits: 5:48 up University Parkway to 900 E., 5:34 down 900 E., cute young BYU couples with little kids cheering. Familiar houses, familiar happy faces. 5:53 down 800 N. and back up Canyon Road to the track. I must have run that stretch between Smith fieldhouse and the track over 2,000 times before. Happy memories. Back to the blue track for one lap to the finish. Kids cheering.

17:38 finish

One mile cool down on the grass around the track while the kids play in the shot put pit. Awards. $150. Thanks Doug Padilla! Shower in the Richards Building. Aaron arrives after flying home from Denver. Walked the kids over through the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame to show them my picture. Back to the track for lunch and a BYU track reunion. Hugs, connections, food.

What a fun morning!!

6:30 a.m. headlamp mountain bike ride up Canyon Hollow down Rush. Legs pretty tired from Saturday.

10 a.m. Vo2 Max test at Lifetime Fitness. Probably should have done this more rested, but they offered me a free test since I'm doing a trial membership right now. I was just curious because I've never had a Vo2 Max test done.

Unfortunately my legs were too flat from Saturday to really push myself for very long. Only got through 5 miles with the trainer bumping up the pace every 2 minutes. I still got some useful information though. 

He said my heart rate never got over 160 bpm, and based on my oxygen output he's certain my max is much higher than that. Said my Vo2 Max score was 76.5 whatever that means. Also said my weakness is not aerobic capacity, its my legs. If I could strengthen my legs I could run fast for much longer. Already knew that.

My conclusion: more speedwork + strength work=faster Nan.

Easy run. Bumped into my neighbor, Traci a few miles in and ran with her. Vented about the stress of mothering children.

It took me 25 minutes to get Abe out of bed this morning! Why? He was upset because he forgot to do his Science homework, so he wanted to miss 1st period to complete his homework. Nope sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Why did he forget to do his science homework? Because he refuses to write his homework assignments in his planner. This is the 4th time this year we've had this exact same conversation. 

Me: "I know how you feel, bud. I forget EVERYTHING that I don't put it in my calendar."

Abe: "But I hate writing in my planner."

Me: "Well, which do you hate more? Writing in your planner or missing assignments?"

After 25 more minutes of him venting to me about all the other horrible, difficult, annoying, awkward aspects of middle school, we finally got out the door for carpool. #growingpains

Long warm up to Highland Drive 15X1 minute at 4:40-6:00 pace depending on hills. 1 minute jog between each.

Trying to get my speed back.

Canal path, Vestry Rd., Corner Canyon, Aqueduct trail, Highland Drive loop. Legs pretty tired.

With Devra and Kristen

I was feeling tired and run down. Kids were off school Thursday and Friday and I was watching my brother's four kids, so I had been pretty busy and hadn't slept well for a couple of nights.  Decided to run it as a workout instead of racing all out. Ran with my SIL, Emily for the first 6 or 7 miles, took a potty stop, then picked it up a tad until mile 10 when I pushed hard for the last 3 miles. Averaged around 7:05 pace for the first 10 miles, and I think closer to 6:05 pace for the last 5K.

Nice n' slow venting session with Aaron. Therapy.

I've been pretty trashed the last few days. But I'm finally feeling a little more energetic today.

8X1 minute hill repeats in East Draper.

MTB Canyon Hollow to Rush

Feeling lethargic. Hilly, slow start, faster finish.

Easy run in Park City with Amy and Sarah, former BYU teammates.

We had a girls trip Friday and Saturday night with Amy, Sarah, Katie, and Jessie. Non-stop fun and interesting adult conversation! Was a nice break from regular everyday mom stuff. Got home in time for the Primary Program on Sunday though. Couldn't miss that! 

1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 workout. Feeling a little off balance. Left hamstring, right glute, left achilles. Meh.

Hiked 5 miles in ice box canyon (near the top of Ogden Canyon) with my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and cousin. Good times!

Flat recovery run on the Porter Rockwell trail.

Drove Abe's carpool and then came home and went back to bed. My body is just tired. I'm looking forward to daylight saving time kicking in on Sunday. 

After I slept for another hour, I woke up and stretched a bit and...ZOING! My neck tweaked something fierce. So painful I could hardly breathe. Aaron massaged it for 15 minutes or so but it was not subsiding. I couldn't bear to run with the pain. So I took the day off.

Neck still super stiff. Spent a lot of time on my foam roller today and took a two hour nap. Ugh.

Neck still pretty tight, but I just had to run. Legs felt rested. After about 7 miles my neck started to warm up a bit so I pushed the last few miles a bit faster.