Every Race is an Adventure!

I ran the 2000 N route with Larry and Wayne this morning. I was feeling pretty good this morning so I threw in a few fartleks. The first one was up the the second half of the big hill. I ran back and rejoined them then pushed again on the last bit of uphill and added a little distance after our normal turnaround. I figured that would give me a chance to chase to catch them on the downhill. I rounded the first curve and couldn't see them. I then turned the corner and still couldn't see them. I was just becoming suspicious when I passed a couple of bikers and they said something, apparently to people behind me. I turned and saw Larry and Wayne in stealth mode trying to catch me. They had hidden as I passed them. They never caught me as we hit the top of the big hill and I took the brakes off. I averaged 6:01/mi for roughly 3/4 miles down the hill. I ran up to rejoin them and had little desire for additional fartleks the rest of the run. At the end of the run Larry gave Wayne and me the challenge of going a little farther than him up a side street and then trying to catch him before our normal finishing spot at Slater's corner. It was too much distance to make up in so short a time, but it did get us to push hard during the end of the run.

Another very enjoyable run with the guys on a beautiful morning. It's runs like these that are the reason I'm a runner. Races and PRs and all that are great, but it's the daily runs that are the staple of my running diet. They keep me healthy and happy.

6.4 miles @ 8:38/mi average

AM. Larry, Wayne and I ran the water tank hills this morning. We added on some distance at the top to get to 3 miles (6 miles round trip). I charged the last hill hard, but most of the run was at an easier pace. I did try using what I'm calling the biker rule. Someone told me that when you're riding up hills on mountain bikes that whoever gets to the top of the hill first has to go back down and ride up with the last rider. I went back a few times this morning, but it was never very far. I may continue this practice. It will allow me to push as hard as I want and still be able to run with my buddies. Hopefully they'll do the same for me when they get up the hill first.

PM. Well, I ran with Tom in the lovely heat today as planned...well sort of as planned. First, Tom said he had overdone his workout this morning and was only going to go a couple of miles. That meant he would turn back after only a mile, but one mile with Tom is better than none. About a mile into the run I suddenly decided to turn back early with Tom, and I ended up running both miles with Tom. I suddenly decided to cut the run short when I stepped on an uneven surface and rolled my left ankle. Those of you who know me know that I seem to do this more often than most people. Based on experience, I felt the best plan was to head back and "run it off" on the way back. By the time we got back it felt good enough that I went the extra distance to get to two miles. I'd rate this a 3 on my 1-10 ankle sprain scale. It doesn't hurt much to walk on it. I'm icing it now. Depending on how it feels in the morning, I may back off a little the rest of the week, or maybe not, but I think I'll be good to go again for sure by Monday. Ah, it's the adversity in life that keeps life interesting and helps us better appreciate the good times.

I stayed up late last night to take care of an urgent matter so I chose to skip the morning run. I did take an early lunch and get in 3.75 miles before meeting up with Tom and Nathan for our noon run. We ran the old Lake View run at an easy pace. I was especially careful on the dirt path where I twisted my ankle last Wednesday. This was my first run since then. I ran out front so I could have a clear view of the path ahead. That path really needs some maintenance.

My ankle felt pretty strong, but not quite 100%. We'll see how it feels this afternoon and tomorrow morning. So many of my buddies are training so well right now. I don't want to fall too far behind. Now that the relay is over, it's time to focus for the next three months on preparing for the St. George marathon, and the half marathons leading up to it.

I've been reading the book "Mormon Scientist" about renowned scientist Henry Eyring. He called himself a "happy muddler". He counsels that there will always be many unanswered questions: "In fact, each answer seems to raise more questions . . . Actually, that's what makes science and religion, fun. Faith is feeling good about myself, feeling good about God, and muddling along after truth as best I can . . . I'm a happy muddler".

I like the approach of just being happy and doing the best I can with what I'm given and not worrying too much about things I don't know or I can't control. I plan to just happily muddle my way to St. George, training as much as my body and my schedule allow. For me, training and fitness and achievement and PRs are just means to an end. The ultimate goal is to be happy, not just at the destination but all along the journey, smooth or bumpy, rain or shine.

Ran the 2000 N Tuesday route with Wayne. Larry's hip is bothering him so he joined us on his bike this morning. It was good to have him along. We pushed the pace slightly faster than normal, including up the big hill. It took us both a while to get going, and we were both plenty ready to stop at the end. The 9 miles I did yesterday at noon is a little more than I normally do at once, but Wayne ran 9 miles last night, so he had even less recovery time than I did. He's stepped up his training the last few weeks. He had 50+ miles last week and is running very well.

We had our relay team post-race party last night. Will and Kevin couldn't make it, but everyone else was there. It was fun. Afterwards, my sister-in-law who came with us told me I had a great group of friends. She's so right. 

AM. Wayne and I ran the water tank hills this morning. Larry was on his bike again, and brought along our neighbor James, also on a bike. Without speaking, Wayne and I both seemed to agree on pushing the pace a little faster than normal this morning. When we hit the hills, the challenge was to see if the runners could beat the bikers up the hills.

The first hill is pretty steep and the bikers seemed to struggle more than the runners. I was slightly ahead of Wayne at the top. I didn't want to run alone, but I also didn't want to give up any hard earned ground. Wayne encouraged me to keep going and not wait for him, so I did. I pushed up the remaining four hills. I finished about 45 seconds ahead of Wayne and never saw the bikes again until I'd run a half mile past the top of the hill and was on my way back.

My time from our start in the neighborhood to the top of the hill was exactly 27:00 minutes. The first mile or so only climbs about 100 feet, but then we climb over 600 feet in the next 1.5+ miles. This time isn't fast for many on the blog, but in our little world Wayne and I climbed the hill pretty fast today. We were tired coming back down, but still held a steady pace (not all out) the last 0.6 miles down 1600 N at 6:39/mi pace. Larry coasted this section and still beat us, but we had the satisfaction of having another quality run behind us. I'll find out at noon if I pounded my ankle too hard on the downhills.

PM. Ran the traditional Lake View route with Tom and Nathan. The temperature was in the lower 80's. We could feel the heat, but it wasn't really oppressive and there was a breeze. Tom turned back as planned after a couple of miles. Mile splits were 8:38, 8:17, 7:58, 7:50, 7:39. It was good to see Cory out running again today. Nathan and I were talking afterwards that we think he's not running with us because he doesn't want to slow us down. We all treat our Monday and Wednesday noon runs as easy runs, usually having run a tougher run in the morning. We need to convince Cory to start running with us again.

Things didn't go quite as planned this morning, but it was a good run anyway. Last week Larry, Wayne and I decided to start running 10 miles instead of 6 on Thursday mornings. I tweaked my ankle last Wednesday so I missed the first 10 mile Thursday run. I was looking forward to today's run.

I got up on time but my GI tract felt a bit off this morning and I didn't feel quite ready to run when I hustled to Larry's a little late. Wayne hadn't arrived yet and Larry was working on his bike. His hip is feeling better but he had decided to ride one more day before trying to run on it again. I asked to borrow Larry's bathroom and then finally felt ready to run. At first we thought Wayne had forgot we were leaving at 5:30am instead of 5:45am, but by 5:50am we realized he probably wasn't coming...very unusual for Wayne. Larry was still working on his bike but I decided to head out and let him catch up.

I ran up to Provo Canyon (about 3 miles) and then went another couple of miles up the trail. As I headed toward the canyon the headwind was pretty stiff. When I started on the trail I turned my hat around backwards so it wouldn't blow off. As I recall, I averaged around 8:50/mi the first four miles and just over 9:00/mi the last mile up. I felt a little GI distress during this mile, but it faded and never returned.

I finally ran into Larry on the way back down around Timpanogos Park. We had overlooked the fact that while Larry could catch up quickly on the bike, his dog Ozzie wasn't on a bike. Larry had to keep waiting for Ozzie. By the end of the run Ozzie was a living example of being dog tired.

It was great having Larry's company for the run back home. With the overall downhill and the wind at my back, I was able to pick up the pace. I ended up averaging 8:31/mi overall, with the last couple of miles being around 7:40/mi I think. My ankle held up well. I'm icing it anyway to hopefully prevent any setback.

My training and fitness is not where I hoped it would be at this point. I see Tom and Terry and Nathan and Josse and others training so hard and running so well and I must admit I'm a little jealous. I'm not afraid of the work and effort and pain. I'm afraid of blowing a gasket. If my body was a Ferrari I could just put the pedal to the metal, but I feel like I'm nursing an old Model T Ford. If I push too hard I'll find myself on the side of the road with steam boiling up from the radiator. But I feel pretty good about keeping the old car running and with the speed I am able to coax out of it. I'm grateful to be running as well as I am.

Wayne and Larry picked me up at 6:00am and we headed to the mouth of Provo Canyon. The wind was pretty strong (as usual) but the morning was cool and the day was beautiful for a run.

We ran up to Vivian Park then on up a half mile past South Fork park to get to 8 miles (16 miles round trip). Since Wayne and I were pushing a little faster, Larry turned around at 7.5 (South Fork Park) and we met back up with him at Vivian. Generally we averaged a little over 9:00/mi up and a little over 8:00/mi down. My overall average was 8:36/mi  for 16.2 miles. During mile 15 I threw in a tempo mile at 7:00/mi pace.

My right hip and left ankle were a little sore. The ankle is the one I twisted last Wednesday, so that's not too surprising after running 52 miles on it this week. I have some arthritis in my hip so that pain is not unfamiliar. Overall the old Model T held up well and I'm please with it's performance...no blown gaskets this week. 

I got very little sleep last night so I called Larry at 5:15am and said I was skipping the morning run and going back to bed. He seemed quite un-disappointed. I feel a little bad because I'm pretty sure he followed my example.

I went down for the noon run a little early and got in 1.7 miles on the treadmill before Tom was ready to go. I think Nathan is out of town this week. Tom had done a tough 10 mile canyon run this morning (man, he's training well!) so he was only going 4 easy miles. Even though it was 82' or so, and the humidity was up, I still enjoyed the run and talk with Tom (as usual). I then added another 2.6 miles on my own. I think I averaged around 8:30/mi overall for the 8.3 miles.

The ankle I twisted about 10 days ago is doing well, but it's complaining a bit that I put 52 miles on it last week, including 16 miles on Saturday.

Many of you know that shortly after Latter-day Saint missionaries return home after serving full-time for two years they are normally asked to speak in church. Often many of their friends and family attend to hear them speak. Yesterday a couple in our ward, the Gessels, spoke in church after returning from Portland, Oregon where President Gessel had served as mission president for 3 years. Many of the hundreds of missionaries who had served in their mission while they were there were in attendance. The chapel was nearly full before the regular ward members started arriving.

What an amazing meeting. The stake president was in attendance and authorized the meeting to be extended by 15 minutes. I drank in every moment. The messages were inspiring and the spirit was wonderful. I bring up this meeting because President Gessel presented a wonderful analogy that I could relate to, both in my life in general, and in my running. He said the previous mission president told him being a mission president was like running on a treadmill. Once you get on it may slow down or speed up, but it never stops for three years. President Gessel said that for him it was more like a 3 year long game of Whack-A-Mole.

What an accurate description of how so many of my days seem to go. I wake up in the morning, whack on as many moles that pop up as I can (never getting all of them), review my score at the end of the day, occasionally consider how to adjust my strategy to successfully whack more moles in the future, then sleep, wake, repeat. Sometimes it's fun whacking the moles and I do pretty well. Sometimes my arm aches, the mallet seems so heavy, and I can't seem to hit even a single mole. What a great analogy! If that was the only thing I got from the meeting it would have been worth attending, but that was just one sparkle of a many-faceted gem. It was brilliant!

If you are not familiar with Whack-A-Mole...from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whack-a-mole:
"Whac-A-Mole is a popular arcade rededemption game. A typical Whac-A-Mole machine consists of a large, waist-level cabinet with five holes in its top and a large, soft, black mallet. Each hole contains a single plastic mole and the machinery necessary to move it up and down. Once the game starts, the moles will begin to pop up from their holes at random. The object of the game is to force the individual moles back into their holes by hitting them directly on the head with the mallet, thereby adding to the player's score."

I went out a little early this morning and got in a couple of miles before meeting Larry and Wayne. I warmed up a mile up 1600 N them pushed the mile back down in 6:16. That was it for speed today. We just ran an easy pace on the 2000 N Lindon hill run, but it didn't feel all that easy. The ankle's holding up but is still a little weak. I'm still trying to ice it after every run and wear my neoprene ankle wrap for a little support and heat therapy during the day.

Larry, Wayne, Kevin and I ran the water tank hills this morning. We took it fairly easy to the base of the hills, with Kevin half-wheeling us most of the way. Kevin started up the first hill pretty strongly. He's always run the hills well, but he's been inconsistent with his training. I couldn't let him be the fastest up the hill today so I went with him. We ran together at a pretty strong pace (for us) until the top of the second hill. At this point Kevin seemed to back off the pace and I pulled away. I felt like I held a pretty strong pace (for me) all the way to the top of hill five. I headed back down to run up with the last runner. Kevin wasn't too far behind, with Wayne not far behind him, followed by Larry. We all ran the last bit of hill five together. What a team!

For my own future reference: To hills: 12:16, Up hills: 15:16, Total: 27:32

On the way back I decided to push the last mile. This is the same "fast mile" I ran yesterday that starts near the old WordPerfect buildings and comes down 1600 N then into my neighborhood almost to my house. It starts with a bit of gradual uphill, then a bunch of good downhill, with some level at the end. I ran it in 6:12 today, 4 seconds faster than yesterday. As Wayne said, it feels good to open up. It was also good to be cheered on by a group of 8 or 10 runners going up the other side of the road. Rich Lamoreaux and his wife were among them. We had seen them sprinting down the hill earlier as we were headed up. I think they were doing downhill repeats.

I'm easing some speed work into my training with these "if it feels good do it" fartlek runs. My goal is to maintain my weekly mileage at 50+ and add a little speed work, while waiting for my ankle to get back to 100%. I'd then like to add some "serious" speed work in the form of mile repeats and tempo runs. It's odd I guess, but I'm eager to feel the pain of effort instead of the pain of injury.

I'll be skipping the noon run today for personal reasons, and it's not because I'm lazy. 

I ran 10 easy miles with Wayne and Larry this morning, our new standard Thursday run...3 miles to Provo Canyon, then 2 miles up the trail, then back home. It was a beautiful morning, albeit a little more humid than normal.

We were asked to help drive some youth up to hike Ensign Peak last night. Jack Christianson, a Church history expert and motivational speaker, and member or our ward, was our tour guide. Two of our daughters were among the youth and we took our youngest daughter along, too. At the top, after learning about the history of the peak, we all sang the hymn "High on a Mountain Top", which was written about that peak. What a great experience. Even if you don't care about Mormon Church history and you just want a great view of Salt Lake Valley I highly recommend this short but fairly steep1/2 mile hike. Brigham Young and other pioneer leaders laid out the city from this hill two days after first entering the valley on July 24, 1847. It's 1.5 miles due north of the Salt Lake Temple. You can Google for more info.

I chose to do a little cross training this morning by playing basketball with my son Andrew and the gang (only 5 of us this morning) again. My ankle felt good, but my right hip was pretty stiff and sore until it loosened up. I'm glad I haven't played basketball for a while, because at times I sure needed some excuse for my play this morning. Andrew on the other hand played great. It was a lot of fun and I survived unscathed.

We were planning on running down South Fork from Trefoil to Fort Utah (about 17 miles) tomorrow, but tonight Larry called to see if I was interested in running the Diamond Fork run with the Sojourners. I've never ran or hiked that area, but I'm up for a new adventure. My ankle survived basketball well. I'll have to keep a close eye on the trail tomorrow and avoid any missteps.

I enjoyed this morning's Diamond Fork run with the Sojourners running club. There were about 30 runners that showed up for this roughly 18 mile mountain run. These included Wayne and Laryy who I drove there with, Bill Rieske from our relay team, Rich and Marci Lamoreaux who live nearby and who I stayed with at Boston last year, and Hawk and Cheryl Harper of Runner's Corner.

The run starts at Three Forks on a single track trail. Wayne, Larry, and I started near the back with Hawk and Rich and a few others. As we worked our way uphill, I enjoyed talking with Rich about the relay and about his experience running the Squaw Peak 50 the past two years, among other things. Wayne had pulled ahead of us and I didn't see him again until the gathering point at the top where the run moves onto a paved road. Larry had been running in front of us talking to Hawk, but then Larry stumbled and fell. He was okay, but when we started up again Hawk was in front followed by Rich and me and then Larry. Hawk pulled quickly away from us and Rich and I pulled slowly away from Larry and the other runners behind us.

There was a big uphill to start the paved portion of the run. Wayne, Larry, Rich, and I all started together with a couple of other runners. It wasn't long before Wayne started pulling ahead again. A little later Rich pulled away, too. I hung out in the back taking it easy on the big uphills. At the top of one hill we could a long downhill leading off into the distance and could see many of the runners strung out ahead of us. I was surprised how far ahead Rich and Wayne were ahead of me, so I told Larry I was going to try and catch them. He had a couple of other runners to run with so I took off. It took me almost a mile to catch them, a mile I ran at 5:46 pace. I was quite surprised to look down at my watch and see how fast I was going, but I was also quite pleased. There was a final big hill at the end of that mile, and we had been following the ultra marathon strategy of walking parts of the steep uphills, so I was able to recover by the top.

About that point the course leaves the road and starts on the trail back down past the Hot Pots and back to where we started. Wayne, Rich and I started out together for a while but when we hit the single track trail Wayne gradually pulled a little ahead of me and Rich dropped back behind me. This left me alone running down a beautiful shaded trail listening to the babbling brook and singing birds. This probably my favorite part of the run.

We caught up with most of the other runners at the Hot Pots, where some were taking a soak and others were continuing on down. Wayne and I didn't wait too long and decided to continue on down the last 2 or 3 miles. We passed some small groups of hikers and a couple of bikers and made pretty good time down to the cars.

Some of the runners, including Bill and Rich, had parked at a parking lot farther down and had run about a mile up to where we parked to start the run. I knew we'd have to wait a few minutes for Larry, and I didn't want Bill and Rich to think poorly of me for running less than them, so I ran down to the other parking lot and back up. When I got back all the runners were down and the snacks were out and Cheryl offered me a big bunch of grapes. They tasted way good, as did the cold bottle of water I had in the car.

On the drive down we stopped at Red Cliffs (I think) and took a short hike to see the ancient carving of a sun in a cliff. It was pretty cool.

I wouldn't want to drive this far very often (I love Provo Canyon being so close) but I really enjoyed the run today.

By the way, the distance is kind of a guess. My Garmin registered 17.22 miles. However, Hawk says that Garmins are notorious for being inaccurate on trail runs. He said some guys rode this course on mountain bikes and their odometers registered 18 miles. He also said that his son had measured 7.5 miles of it with a distance wheel and his Garmin only registered around 6 miles I think. So I'm counting 18 miles for the run, with an additional mile for run down to the other parking lot and back. That was closer to 1.5 miles, but I figure counting a Garmin reading of 17.22 as 19 miles is generous enough.

AM. I ran solo this morning. It seemed very warm and humid - mid-60's and 83% humidity. Even though it rained on me the first part of the run, and there was a tiny bit of breeze occasionally, I never really felt much coolness.

For the last week or so my right hip has been stiff and sore in the morning, as it was again this morning, but it loosens up and doesn't bother me much during my runs or during the day. Still, I decided to stick close to home this morning and just run 1/2 mile loops in my neighborhood. I decided to warm up a mile then try a 4 mile tempo run at marathon pace effort, followed by a mile of cool down. My mile splits for the tempo were 7:34, 7:32, 7:33, 7:23. This was a mostly level 1/2 mile loop, 1/2 slight uphill, 1/2 slight downhill. Given how hard it is to get my legs moving in the morning, I feel pretty good about my efforts. I ended up adding an extra 1.5 miles to the run. Most of it was at an easy 9:00-ish pace, but I threw in one fast 1/4 mile to see what my tired legs could do. I ran a 5:46/mi pace for that 1/4 mile stretch and it felt pretty good.

I've enjoyed inserting some faster miles here and there into my runs lately. My ankle is feeling much better. Now I've just got to work through this hip thing. Still, overall I'd have to say the old Model T is sputtering along okay.

PM. I put in a little more distance this morning because I'm not sure what the weather or my work schedule is going to be like today. I still hope to get some more miles in at noon. 

[I sing]
Oh, what a beautiful mornin'!
[You sing]
Oh, what a beautiful day!
[We sing in harmony]
We've got a beautiful feelin'
Everything's goin' our way.

[Singing fades to humming in the background] 

The run with Larry was good this morning, and I tacked on a couple of extra miles, but the morning itself was incredible. The air was fresh and clear. As the sun peeked over the mountains in the east it lit up the tops of the billowing clouds in the west.

I was greeted by drivers, bikers, other runners, and neighbors. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. As two bikers slowly passed us as they cheerfully worked their way up the steep 2000 North hill, I decided to help the trailing rider so I accelerated and pushed him up the hill for a bit by pushing on the back of his seat.

To top it all off, some tough bugs I've been chasing at work, that just wouldn't seem to go away, were both verified as resolved this morning. I can now relax and enjoy our company day at Lagoon tomorrow, followed by vacation days the rest of the week.

[I start to sing again, cheerfully and energetically (be grateful you can't hear me singing) ]
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah! Zip-a-dee-ay!
My, oh my, what a wonderful day!
(come on sing along)
Plenty of sunshine heading my way.
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah! Zip-a-dee-ay!

Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder.
It's the truth, it's actual.
Everything is satisfactual.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah! Zip-a-dee-ay!
Wonderful feeling!
Wonderful day!

[Singing fades to cheerful humming as I submit my entry and go to kiss my wife good morning.]
 

Larry, Wayne and I ran the normal water tank hills route this morning. Yesterday I decided to spice up my 24th of July (since we have no other plans and I have the day off) and run the Speedy Spaniard 10K in Spanish Fork. So I took it easy on the run this morning to try and save my legs at least a little for tomorrow morning. Still, my legs felt sluggish this morning.

We're headed to Lagoon today, at the company's expense. It's great because it's my youngest daughter's 10th birthday and all her siblings decided to come this year, including her 19, 21, and 23 year old sister and brothers. That's a big deal, especially since my two sons don't really like amusement parks  They must get that from me, although I think I like them more than they do. I just turn various shades of white and green on many of the rides.

I'm pretty sure a long hot day at an amusement park isn't good preparation for a race. It's a good thing I don't have any expectations for this race. It's not a PR-type course and whatever I run will be a course PR for me since I've never run it before. Tom's recommended I take it easy on the first uphill mile. I plan to follow that advice, take what gravity gives me on the second downhill mile, then see what sort of pace I can hang onto for the remaining 4.2 miles. My only real goal is to not look too pitiful at the end as we run through the parade route.

I can't believe it's a 6:30am start. There won't be much sleep for me tonight.

We spent the day at Lagoon yesterday and, surprisingly enough, had a wonderful time. Our six children (ages 10-23) all cooperated amazingly and Amy (our youngest) said she really enjoyed her birthday. We left the park a little after 8:00pm and got home a little after 9:00pm. We then had her Cookies and Cream ice cream birthday cake. It was a really good day.

I didn't get to bed until around 11:00pm and got up this morning at 4:45am. Things went pretty smoothly getting ready for and getting to the race, including several much needed bathroom stops. I warmed up 1.8 miles before the race running most of the first uphill mile and then back to the start. I saw various familiar runners before the race, including Tom, Josse, Steve King, Darin Cable, Scott Blake, Scott Nelson, and Hal Amos.

I settled in near Scott Blake to await the start. I was just relaxed and talking when Scott said "Here we go" and then I heard the gun sound. I pushed the start button on my watch, told Scott I'd see him later, and switched my focus to the race.

[I started not feeling well at this point in my entry so I clicked "Save as Draft" and decided to lay down on the bed. I woke up a few hours later. It was harder to get up at 1:19pm than it was at 4:45am]

I then added a lot to my entry, copied it to the clipboard as is my habit now, and clicked "Save as Draft" again. The browser went back to the login screen and I lost my entry. I didn't worry because I had saved it to the clipboard. I logged back in and clicked Ctrl-V to paste in my entry. Unfortunately, I accidentally click Ctrl-C instead, which of course blew away my copy of my entry in the clipboard.

Ahhh!

Condensed version...started easy...ran with Josse a bit...chased Hal Amos most of the race...near the end I kicked past Hal, a couple of "chicks", and a guy pushing two kids in a stroller...barely missed breaking 41:00, finishing in 41:00.4...watched Kim finish strong and break 50:00...enjoyed the 5 mile run back to my car despite the infamous Spanish Fork canyon wind...had a very enjoyable morning!

If you're reading this I must have submitted successfully this time.

I forgot to add my my splits: 7:17 (uphill), 6:36, 6:34, 6:33, 6:45, 6:33, 35.01 for last 0.11 (by my watch), overall 6:42/mi. Others measured the course closer to 6.2. I tried to run the tangents well, maybe I did it extremely well? Also, I just realized my watch timed me at 40:56.09 while my official time was 41:00.4. Kim said her time was off, too. I wonder what's up with that.

Also, after looking at the race results online, I finished 4/23 in Men's 45-49 and 37/282 in Men's 10K, and my chicked count was 2 (I cut that from 4 to 2 in the last 3/4 mile).

I was planning to just play basketball this morning, but that wasn't to be. First, when I called my son Andrew who said he might be going, he said his sunburn from Lagoon was hurting too badly, and he had worked all night, so he wasn't going. I decided to go anyway but when I showed up in PG at the church there wasn't anyone there. A few minutes later the guy with the key showed up, only he was late because he couldn't find the key. There were just the two of us anyway, so I headed home.

Since I pass WalMart on the way home, I decided to stop and pick up some things we needed. I decided I'd better get in at least a few miles, so I swapped my basketball shoes for running shoes and headed out. I didn't want to go too far or too fast. Yesterday was a 10K race plus 7 miles, and tomorrow is a planned 20 miler. I was also already 7:00am and I was afraid it was going to get very warm very soon.

At first I decided to run towards the canyon. As I passed the high school I decided it to run on the track a while. I can't remember the last time I ran on the track; it's been months. I settled on running a few mile repeats (4 laps on, 1 lap off), not really fast but more focused than just slogging along at an easy pace. I ended up with splits of 7:26, 7:29, 7:23. I took the long way home and ended up with 6.1 miles, avg. 8:21/mi.

I've plenty of projects to do today on my day off, but we'll probably sneak in a matinee movie and go out to eat in honor of Amy's birthday. We're a couple of days late, but it's a good excuse, I mean a tradition.

I was a little worried about logistics this morning, but everything worked out well. I met Tom at 5:00am at the end of the Provo River trail near Utah Lake. We then headed up to Trefoil at the top of South Fork, stopping to pick up Kevin at his house and Kerry and Scott at the mouth of the canyon.

I'm used to the start of this run being cold and dark. Today it wasn't. With the temperature in the valley already at 70', it felt way too warm for the start of a 20 mile run. Fortunately, we had cloud cover for most of the run, and were on shady parts of the trail when the sun was out full force. It got warm, but the heat never felt oppressive.

We all stayed together down to Vivian. When we resumed after the bathroom stop, it wasn't long before Tom took off on a solo tempo run. We met up with him again near Timpanogos park. He had picked up 1.6+ miles on us.

The other three guys had busy days planned and cut off at 10 miles at the mouth of the canyon. Tom and I continued on down to the lake. We stopped at Wil's Pit Stop for a bathroom stop and shared a bottle of cold water. We stopped again at Macey's to wash our gels down with water from their fountain (the air conditioning felt good). As usual, the last couple of miles to the lake seemed to me to take forever, but we finally got there. Tom pulled ahead the last 3/4 of a mile or so. When I got to the end of the trail I was only at 19.5+ (Tom already had extra mileage) so I continued until I got to 20. That cold Gatorade I had waiting sure tasted good.

[End of run report. Personal ramblings follow.]

I feel good about almost everything in today's run, except a part I left out. They had closed the trail at Vivian Park due to the fire above Bridal Veil Falls. I'm feeling a little bad about our decision to cross the "Do Not Cross" yellow tape and then later climb over the "Road Closed" barricade. It turned out okay, as the sheriff's deputy at the barricade at Bridal Veil Park (we stopped dead in our tracks as we rounded the curve and saw him) was understanding and didn't chew us out too badly. He even admired our running and wished us well as we left. I still felt pretty chagrined (disquietude or distress of mind caused by humiliation, disappointment, or failure).

Ironically, Karen is speaking tomorrow in church on the topic "We Will Not Yield, We Cannot Yield". She's been looking for some real world examples. I think she may now use our story (anonymously) as a negative example of how easy it is for good people to rationalize and yield to the temptation to disobey the law. It's ironic that she's also planning to share one of my favorite stories about the three stagecoach drivers competing for a job. The first says he can drive safely within one inch of the edge of a cliff. The second says he can safely hang half the wheel off the cliff. The third says he always stays as far from the edge of the cliff as he can. He gets the job. Most of the time I try to stay away from the edge. Today I literally crossed the 'Do Not Cross' line. I've felt remorse. I've now confessed. I hope to complete my repentance soon. I'm glad I could at least help Karen out a little with her talk.

I apologize if my public confession troubles any of my comrades today. I'm sure this won't be the last time I fall short of my own expectations. All I can do is commit that the next time I'm faced with a similar dilemma I intend to take the physical detour and avoid the risk of the spiritual detour.

As is often the case, it started out begin another solo Monday morning run. I hadn't gone far before I heard footsteps. I thought it might be Kevin but when I turned to look I was surprised to see Lyle catching up to me. We ended up running the Lindon Loop together. Lyle is a beginning runner in our neighborhood, in his 50's I believe, who we've run with for short stretches a few times, but this was my first extended run with him. In fact, this was his first time running the entire Lindon Loop. He ran part of it with us a week or two ago but cut it off short.

Lyle is running really well this year. He was training for St. George last year but ended up with an ankle injury and then a pulled groin that prevented him from running. This morning he told me he decided he needed to carry less weight. He and his wife started eating better and he's lost 30 pounds since January. We saw him Saturday up Provo Canyon on his first ever 14 mile run and he was looking strong. We ran just under a 9:30 pace for six miles this morning and he had enough energy left to kick hard at the end. I told him if he wasn't careful he was going to become a real runner. I enjoyed running with him this morning.

I'm stuck in training Mon thru Wed this week so I'm not going to be able to get in my noon runs. Bummer! 

AM. Six easy miles with Larry and Wayne on the normal Tuesday route up the 2000 N hill. I'm stuck in training all day again today...although the warm chocolate chip cookies they gave us in the afternoon were sure good. I also have a 7:30am conference call this morning so I'd better get moving.

PM. They gave us an extra 15 minutes for lunch today so I sneaked in some more miles on the treadmill in the fitness center. Nathan was on the treadmill next to me. After a couple of miles Nathan taught me how to use the speed interval feature. He was switching between 7.8mph (7:42/mi) and 10mph (6:00/mi) every 2:00 minutes. I switched to do the same for another 2.5 miles.

I ran the regular water tank hills with Larry and Wayne this morning. We all took it pretty easy on the hills. Most of the conversation during the first part of the run was regarding our aches and pains. We must be getting old. Later in the run we referred to someone in his 30's as a youngin'.

Once again I pushed the pace the last downhill mile home. It wasn't all out. I let the brakes off and pushed enough to keep the momentum moving along and ran it in 5:52. It actually felt pretty good. It would be nice to be able to string some sub-6:00 miles together on the flat, but I'll take what I can get. I'm looking forward to the Provo River and Hobble Creek half marathons coming up in the next month. They both have some good downhill miles. They should be fun adventures. It will interesting, as always, to see how things unfold.

Wayne had a golf tournament this morning and Larry's resting his sore hamstring so I ran the 10 mile Thursday run to Provo Canyon solo this morning. Because I knew they weren't coming, and because I stayed up too late last night, I ended up sleeping in this morning and leaving a lot later than normal. I paid for it, as it started getting rather warm by the end of the run.

I ran a little past the 5 mile turn around so I could have two full miles back to the mouth of the canyon. I wanted to keep the average pace under 7:20 for these two miles. My splits were 7:17 and 7:09. I then dropped to recovery pace as I worked my way up the 800 N hill and back to 800 E and 1200 N. I decided to try another sub-7:20 mile on the flat stretch between 800 E and Main on 1200 N and made it in 7:17. I finished the 10.5 miles in 1:29:54 (8:34/mi).

My right hip (that has a little arthritis in it) is still sore in the mornings, some mornings worse than others, but it generally loosens up after a bit of running. I've never been very limber, and my right hip has been pretty tight for many years.  I can cross my left leg over my right knee easily, but I couldn't cross my right leg over my left knee. Both my doctor and chiropractor suggested stretches (a long time ago) to loosen it up. I've finally been doing some stretches in past weeks and I think I'm making progress. I think some of the pain I've been feeling in the mornings in my hip may be related to me extending the restricted range of motion my hip has been used to for many years.