Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in June of 2008. Started taking Enbrel in March, 2009.
Run as much as I can, and race as well as I can. Make the most of however much time I have left as an able-bodied runner.
Training for the 2018 Colorado Marathon
Long-Term Running Goals:
Run until I'm old, and then run some more. Stand tall.
Personal:
1 wife, 2 kids. 1 cat. Work as a GIS Specialist/Map Geek
Endure and persist; this pain will turn to your good. - Ovid
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5
Heavy inversion today, but still not too bad of a morning. Happy first day of winter!! Started off the week with a good, enjoyable run. Did an out-and-back to North Logan, and threw in some strides in the middle of the run. Averaged 6:12/mile for the run.
Good news: I finally found my sports watch. All this time I had been blaming it on Seth, but in actuality (of course) I had thrown it in some random crate during our move, and never unpacked it. I heard the watch alarm go off this morning, and realized that it wasn't my regular watch, and Stacy didn't have a watch in there, so it must be the missing watch. Then I dug around in the closet until I found it. The funny thing is that I hear that watch alarm go off almost every morning, but never thought anything of it until today, other than being temporarily annoyed that some random alarm is going off. Stupid. But now I can take splits again during my next race.
Special guest appearance by Logan Fielding today. I met Logan near my office downtown, and we ran the Providence Hill Loop. I forgot my garmin at home, and grossly miscalculated the length of the run. Thought it was near 8 miles, but was actually 9.75, according to gmap-pedometer. Oh well. I have no idea of pace, but the first half was at a decent clip. Always nice to see Logan and catch up on things.
I registered yesterday for the Indianapolis Mini Marathon again for 2010. I like the race a lot last year, and hope for a big PR there this year. It's a very fast course, and good competition.
Hyde Park Loop. Did 6x100m strides in the middle of the run. Felt like I was loafing, but still averaged 6:33/mile for the run, according to the garmin when I finally checked it at the end. I guess that's a good thing.
Merry Christmas! I got up around 7AM this morning (since that's when Seth woke up), and started the Christmas festivities. For breakfast, I made a new recipe: gluten-free cinnamon muffins, made with a blend of almond flour and coconut flour. I had never used almond flour and coconut flour in the same recipe, but it turned out quite excellent, and the taste was lovely. Also, I busted out my home-made vanilla extract for the first time, as it is almost matured. Basically you just cut open 15 whole vanilla beans (about $15), and drop them into a bottle of vodka ($10). Let sit for 6-8 weeks, shake occasionally. And then after a couple months...walaa! 750mL of pure vanilla extra, for $25 of investment. When you think about what vanilla usually costs, it's an incredible deal.
After breakfast, we opened presents, just the three of us. Seth still has no idea what's going on, but he liked playing with the tree and trying to break stuff.
After presents, Seth was in a bit of a stupor, from staying up way past his bedtime last night at a Christmas party, plus all the excitement and unusual food from the morning. So we put him down for a rare morning nap (he went out like a light for a couple hours).
I had been planning on running in the afternoon, but decided to do it around 10AM instead, to take advantage of Seth's nap time. Since it's a holiday, I ran a little bit longer and a little bit faster than usual (probably fueled by Christmas cheer). I ran the Bear River Loop, out west in the valley near Almaga and Benson. I hadn't done that route in a while. My first mile is down the hill from my house, and that was about a 6:15 (typical since it's a big hill). The second mile was flat and through Smithfield town, and it was 6:08. And then I headed out of town toward the Bear River, and the miles really started clicking. 5:45, 5:51, 5:44 (now running south along the Bear River), 5:42, 5:45 (now running back toward Smithfield, ever-so-slight uphill), 5:50 , 5:59, 6:24 (back up to the hill to home). So it turned out to be an accidental tempo (3rd degree tempo, aka RanSlaughter). I felt very joyful the entire run, full of gratitude of being able to run at all, and full of gratitude for the birth, life, death on the cross, and resurrection of Christ (what this day is all about).
Ran with Logan today. We ran from my house to the end of Smithfield Canyon Rd., then came back and jumped up on Upper Canyon Rd to add a little more distance, and went back the long way to my house on Summit Dr and Hillside Dr. It was quite cold and the air was bad, so I was content to go 13 miles instead of 15 and call it good, especially since yesterday's run was a bit longer than normal. Averaged 7:01/mile for the run.
