Run for your life!

Great run this morning. Ran up to the mountain road above Hwy 89 which is a good 500 foot climb and then swept down to Shepherd Lane and back home. Had a good clip going after reaching the top of the route and then enjoyed the downs which set a good tempo for the flat at the end. Overall 7:54 pace. Brought my bike to work and hopefully will be able to ride home. We'll see how the day goes.

I was able to ride home. Took it fairly easy averaging 19.6mph.

Great ride to work averaging 20.3mph (darn stop lights!) over the 23.5 miles.

After work I took Nathan and Peter to the pool and swam just over 1 mile. Good workout. 1st time swimming with the thought of an Ironman in mind. Might be my last!

Rode the bike to work and averaged 20.1 mph. A bit of a headwind. Pushed it hard. Loved the Tour de France although I spent way too much time watching it. Cadel Evans is a stud. So is Thor Hushof. Thomas Volkler (sp?) rocks the house. What a great competitive spirit!

Riding home after work so I'll just log the miles now.

Climbed 4,000 feet up to Chinscraper Summit and then ran down the switchbacks. It was a great workout starting in the dark and then driving straight to work. I'm counting all of these as marathon pace even if some weren't because of the elevation attained at a fast pace and then the tricky descent as fast as I could go. Plus because I'm really sore now and most of the time running doesn't make me sore. But I'm going to incorporate this loop into my training again as part of getting ready for the beating that St. George gives the runners. I want to be ready!

Lisa and I headed out on the tandem again for our first peleton experience as a tandem team. We screwed up at the beginning because Lisa (who couldn't see the wheel in front of me) kept pushing me into that wheel. I ended up braking to show her when we were going to fast, but I had forgotten that braking in a peleton is a definite no no. After the guys behind us got rightfully mad at us (me...and we didn't know them) we settled into communicating better and getting used to drafting. After that the ride went very well. We communicated a lot and enjoyed the beneft of the peleton. We went from Mtn Green up East Canyon to the top of Big Mountain and then back down and over the hogsback and to Hennefer and Echo and almost to Coalville before we turned around and headed back over the hogsback and down East Canyon and over the river and through the woods. 104 miles in all. Over 5k elevation gain. Good climbing and best of all, I was able to do this after the tough mountain workout and soreness of the previous day. It was also very cool because we were able to spend a lot of time at the front pulling the peleton because of the power of two on a tandem. Great day!

Raced the BDO criterion race. 10X1.5miles. I should have taken second place, but there was a jerk who never pulled who passed me and took second by 300ths of a second. Oh well. I won a $50 gift certificate to Bountiful Bicycle.

Took 5th in our business park race. We had some good runners and I placed behind the people that I thought I should have and beat everyone that I thought I should have. Then I added some miles to get to 10.

Ran 11 miles at average pace of 7:45. Great run. Felt very good!

74 really not very fun miles on the tandem. Started out of Park City and then went to Kamas and then up the Mirror Lake Highway about 15 miles and back. Then around the south side or Jordanelle and back up to Park City. Tough ride on busier than I'm comfortable roads.

Took my sons Zac and Nathan who will be a Senior and Freshman at Davis High, respectively to a day of training with the Davis High Cross Country Team. I met Coach Talley who is awesome. I got to run with him a little bit along the shoreline trail until we caught up with Zac and Nate at the top of a hill. Zac was wiped out already and thought he was going to barf, but I got him restarted and we went two miles out and then back. Nate did well. Neither of my boys have done much running, but they are enthusiastic about giving Cross Country a try. They've been swimmers in the past. I hope it sticks!

Ride to work.

Rode into work and averaged 21.1. Fastest time of the year. Rode home and averaged 21.4. Great day of riding!

Went to another cross country practice with Nate and Zac. It was slow going. These boys are not used to running. Coach Talley was very encouraging. Especially to Zac. The team has  a 5k on Saturday and I will be on a long ride with Lisa, but I've signed up the boys so hopefully they'll try hard! One boy reached out to Zac and made him feel like he wouldn't be lonely on the team. What a huge difference one nice person can make in someone's life.

Lisa and I did a killer ride today on the Tandem. We left from our house in Kaysville with 6 other friends and headed north over the North Ogden Divide around Pineview on the west side and up Trappers Loop to the high point up Snowbasin Road, then back down and across the Weber River Valley and past Morgan, up East Canyon and then up Big Mountain and down the other side, then over the shoulder of Emmigration Canyon and down, across the UofU and the Capital and then north to home via the Legacy trail. Steep hills, over 8,500 feet of climbing. Lisa is one tough cookie! We love riding together even though we ocassionally get mad at each other--it's shortlived. Mostly we're encouraging and work very well together. I can feel her taking some of my share of the load sometimes and I'm amazed. I think we're ready for Lotoja but there's always the unknowns of game day now less than three weeks away. Time to taper, which I will do on the bike, but not on my feet. Now it's time to make sure that St. George is secure.

Good morning run. Hopefully I can do some more this afternoon. What is with this heat!?

Four more afternoon miles.

7 miles in the morning around town and then 5 in the afternoon on the treadmill. Did 4 of the miles at 3% decline. Need more downhill to get ready for the St. George beating!

Six miles with Nathan. We got him signed up for the Cross Country team, but then we couldn't find the team! So we went to the gym and did intervals at his pace of 1X200, 400, 600, 800 and 1,000 and then back down the other side. Hoping for a good long run on Saturday.

I had a great time camping with my 11 year old son Peter at his first Scout Campout. The next morning I ran for a mile and then we went on a hike up to a ridge that had a beautiful view of the East Canyon Reservoir. This was about 3 miles RT. Peter and I had a good time and he hiked well commenting that it must be because of all the running he has done this summer--probably about 60 miles over the summer (go Mom!).

After the hike I helped him cook breakfast for the troop and then I took off on the rest of my run. I ran the 1/2 mile up to the dam and then around the east side of East Canyon Reservoir. I intended to turn back where route 66 meets route 65, but decided to run up the Hogs Back, which is a long steep hill that is a challenge for local cyclists (myself included!). I ran all the way to the top only to find that I needed two more miles to get to 7 to make it 14 for my out and back, so I ran down the other side for two miles towards Hennefer. Since we had already gone on the hike and had a late breakfast it was now 11am and about 90 degrees outside and my water supply was all but gone. After descending the other side of the Hogs Back for two miles and then re-ascending the summit I was beat. I walked the last 200 yards to the top and then ran down the other side back to the 65/66 intersection and all the way to the base of another steep climb...which I walked. But I felt pretty good for my accomplishment this far having done all that climbing and still was at 8:58/mile. I needed water. There was a state park about 1 mile away so I hoofed it to the top of the hill and ran to the state park where I doused my head in cold water and drank a full bottle. Then I went back out to the highway and completed my run. That was actually a few days ago now and I was sore on Sunday and even more sore on Monday so my run had the desired effect of breaking down the muscles in advance of St. George. I need a few more like that, but now it's time to taper for LOTOJA in two weeks. Life is never dull!

Good run this morning which made me plenty late for work. But that's okay. Working is overrated.

Arrived home to my school teaching wife who was desperately in need of a ride and so we pounded out 20 fun miles on the tandem.

Good day.

Rode bike 50 miles to and from work. Very hot outside!