Winning Back What I Lost

Lake Powell, UT

Back late Sunday night, 8/5, from 5 days on a house boat in Southern Utah. A couple of observations: 1) The scenery was absolutely breathtaking; and 2) Great scenery doesn't necessarily make for great running terrain.  I brought my shoes so naturally I felt compelled to sneak away and do some running. Temp was near 90 degrees when I left and it felt much hotter. The running surface was a mixture of sand and clay w/ some hard red rock mesas mixed in. Lots of sage brush and stickers to make it even more challenging. Actually got a little bit stranded on the way back to the houseboat, coming up against a sheer wall. I could have backtracked but I decided to turn the run into a biathlon and swim across a cove. It cooled me off and gave me another story to tell. Wanted to run a bit more but this vacation was more about family and making sure the kids didn't drown. Looking forward to getting back into it this week. 

930PM: Back late last night from vacation. Incredibly sore from my initial wake-boarding experience. I turned 40 last week which is probably 10 yrs too late to take up that hobby. Moderate easy run on a very warm evening. Supposed to reach near 106 degrees tomorrow so I'll have to make sure that I run early.

630AM: Easy run. Temp 75 degrees. 

Noon: Easy run. 93 degrees. Ran O & B from Muni Park to Barber Park. Super hot. No really, it was hot. It was so hot that I burned myself trying to get a drink from the stainless steel drinking fountain.  

6AM: Easy + speed (10 x 100m strides). Hips & left hammie are incredibly stiff and sore. Could not get going at all this morning. I attribute most of that to the double yesterday but my recent weight gain can't be helping either. I've definitely been consuming anything I wanted this past month.....and then some. No ice cream or candy for the next couple of months. 

Noon: 85 degrees; Hill workout on MR trails. Tried some different trails today. Hips/hammie felt much better after a good night's sleep and some stretching. I was able to go a bit faster on the downhill today. Quads are starting to come into shape. Almost went too fast on a really steep and rocky section. Stumbled forward for a bit and almost ended up doing a front somersault. I was able to catch my footing right before going off a ledge. Had a run in w/ another mt biker that refused to yield on the single track trail as required. I wanted to give him a hip check but I settled for wishing him a horrible syphillitic death.

630AM: Awful run that I cut short. Felt drained and sore in the hips. I feel like sleeping for two days and wiping the slate clean. Gotta work through this because time is getting short. 

9pm: 85 degrees & no wind. Started off pretty good but my hips / groin really started aching after mile 7. Not a good run at all. Don't know what to do other than keep doing what I'm doing. I'm not overtrained just weak. Maybe I need to get back to a couple days of weight training?

9PM: Easy run over to the Church and back. I've been put in charge of making sure the building is secure every evening this week. No big deal, just doing the Lord's work.

630AM: Easy run on a pleasantly cool morning, high 60's. Still have very poor air quality, orange alert, from the fires and dust blowing around. More hip and hamstring/glute pain. Not an intense pain but more of a radiating pain. I've gone through this before and it got better after a few weeks of doing some strengthening exercises. Hoping for the same this time around.

930PM: Another easy run. Looking into going gluten free. It was my wifes idea but I thought what the heck, maybe it will help me with my GI issues?

Noon: Easy progression run- Muni Park & BC River Trail. 85 degrees and the air quality is still on orange alert due to the fires. Felt like I was breathing through a straw. We need a nice rain storm to move all of this smoke out but the long range forecast doesn't look promising. 

930PM: Easy.  

9PM: 88 degrees and less smoky. 2M warm; 45 min. @ tempo effort; cool. Couldn't run this at a strict tempo pace so I focused on effort, i.e. comfortably hard. Legs just wouldn't go any faster than 7:20 to 7:30 mi pace. Nevertheless, it felt good to do some non-easy running.

Noon: 84 degrees. Easy recovery run on GB from FF Memorial to Willow Lane. Left hammie/piriformis really acting up. I could feel twinges of pain on even the slightest incline. I'm going to lay off the trail running for a while. I think the uneven surface (sand) I ran on at Lake Powell brought it back with a vengeance and it just got progressively worse since. 

630AM: Easy run. Cool temps, upper 60's. Piriformis/hips felt a little better this morning after a hardcore stretching and strengthening session last night before bed. I've also tried to concentrate on staying in the road or path v. running on the sidewalk. Asphalt is a little more forgiving than the concrete sidewalks. I think there's a cumulative impact to running so many miles on concrete that should be avoided if at all possible. Going long, 20-22 mi, tomorrow!

930am: Easy long run on GB from Glenwood to almost Barber Park and back. Wish I would have gotten out of bed earlier. It was 90 degrees by the time I finished. Smoke was thick and the whole valley smells like a campfire. Hips and left hammie still barking. Scared myself a couple of times pushing off on a couple of small inclines. Had to make a conscious effort to shift my weight to rt side and not push off hard. Not exactly conducive to running hard but at least I'm running.

900PM: Easy progression run. Finding it hard to get up in the morning these days. Watching multiple DVRed episodes of Sons of Anarchy and Homeland til 1am probably have something to do with it. Hamstring is not as painful but very tight which is limiting my range of motion. Need to be more consistent about my strength exercises and stretching routine. 

4PM: Easy run on the River Pkwy in Idaho Falls, ID. Ran out and back on the path along the Snake River, past the Falls and Snake River Landing.

9PM: Easy run. Back home after a day in Idaho Falls, ID. I was supposed to run w/ Marlin in the morning before my meetings but I overslept (I guess I didn't set the alarm correctly). Sorry Marlin. 

6AM: Easy run w/ Court. Caught up on each other's training/racing and talked a little bit of football. We're both looking forward to Sept 20th, BSU v. BYU in Boise, and we made tentative plans to tailgate before the game.  

Backpacking (75 lb pack) into Baptie Lake (10k+) via the Jarvis and Broad Canyon Trail in Pioneer Mts. 3k vertical climb.

Hike from Baptie Lake to Goat Lake. Light pack w/ just the flyrod and food.  

Hike into Goat Lake and Betty Lake. 700 ft vertical. 

Baptie Lake to Trailhead. 3k descent.

1230PM: Easy to moderate run from Muni Park along BC River Trail. Much cooler temps this week. Beautiful day to get back into running. Hammie and hips are sore from the backpacking the last 4 days. This is a make or break week in terms of training. I can't hope to PR at SGM unless I ramp my mileage back up and stay focused in my training and at the dinner table. The wife has gone gluten free w/ good results so far but I just can't seem to pull the trigger.

9PM: Easy run. Doubles the rest of this week.

1230PM: Easy. FF Memorial to Willow Lane on GB. This run was pure evil. 

1230PM: Easy run. Muni Park to Barber Park. Overcast w/ cooler temps. Very nice run but for the stomach ache. No double tonight due to BSU v. Mich State on ESPN.