Rhett

Exact same run as Tuesday at the same pace but max HR was 140 today.

10 miles on TM
 

I got a little crazy this morning and decided to run from my house to the top of Crossman Peak and back, something I've never done before.  I wasn't exactly sure how far it would be.  It ended up being a total of 26 miles exactly.  The climb from my house to the top was 4244 feet and took me 2 hours 50 minutes.  I was surprised how long it took me to get back down, 1 hour 57 minutes, but my legs were hammered from the climb and it was really hot...92 when I left and 98 when I finished.

Oh yeah, I came within a few feet of a rattle snake that didn't seem to happy to see me. That gave me a little adrenaline rush. I hate snakes!

I wasn't planning on running today since I am out of town with the family for Labor Day weekend and I figured it would be good to have an extra day of recovery from the 26 miles 4000+ ft climb then descent I did Friday morning.  We have been in Phoenix since Friday and we went to the BYU/UofA football game Saturday. We had a blast! 

Anyways this  morning my boys wanted to go to the resort gym and workout so I went with them.  I decided to stick with not running but instead set the TM to 15% incline and 4.0 mph and walked for 3 miles while they did their thing.  Let me tell you, walking at that incline for that long is tough but I figured it was pretty good training for climbing out of the Grand Canyon.

Half mile of running drills and sprints, then 7.5 trail miles with Blake. It was actually cool this morning.  75 degrees and dry air.

It was warmer and muggier this morning, 85 degrees.  7 very hilly trail miles with Blake.

I felt tired this morning so I dialed it down a bit and did a slower shorter TM run than normal.  7 miles 8:30 pace, max HR 132.

Today was one of those really tough runs that felt hard from the start. It was way hot. I think I was dehydrated from the start. We started abou an hour and a half later than normal and I hadn't fueled well. It was just not a fun run. I don't remember the last time I bonked on a run that hard. Anyways I barely survived a 12 mile trail run. I was very happy Blake was with me to mentally help. 

After such a tough run yesterday, I was planning on taking the day off today, but I awoke around 4:45 and felt like going for a run.  It was cooler and less humid this morning than yesterday and I decided to keep my run on the road today.  I ran up Cherry Tree which is a 5 mile run with a little more than an 800 foot climb, then turned around for 5 more miles back down to my house.  The first 5 took 49 minutes, the second 5 took 35 minutes. I felt much better today and am glad I got a run in.

Warmed up with some drills and sprints for half mile then 7.5 trail miles with Blake followed by some core work.

It was still 82 this morning but the air felt nicer like it is going to be fall soon.

8 easy miles on the TM, then some core.

Did some core work then ran 7 very hilly trail miles with Blake.

It was only 71 degrees this morning!!!! I think fall is here, hopefully to stay.

Oh yeah, I signed up for Boston today.

Tomorrow Blake and I are going to run Crossman Peak from my house which is 26 miles round trip with a 4000+ foot climb, so today I decided to take it easy and just walk on the TM at 4.0 mph with a 15 % incline for 1 hour. It is actually really tough and works those climbing muscles but it doesn't have the impact of running.  Hopefully I feel good enough to survive the long run tomorrow.

When I got home from my run this morning I had an email that I have been accepted to run Boston 2017.  Yea!

Blake and I did a 26 mile round trip run from my house to the top of Crossman Peak which is over a 4000 foot climb and then decent.  It was only 70 degrees when we left (over 20 degrees cooler than when I did the same run 2 weeks ago.) It was way easier.  We were about 10 minutes faster on the ascent than I was 2 weeks ago, but on the descent Blake started hurting and mildly cramping so we were about 8 minutes slower on the descent than I was last time.  Anyways we both survived and I felt really good.  Grand Canyon R2R2R is 4 weeks away!

3 easy miles bright and early before a long busy day. It's all I had time for.  Legs felt 100% fine.

1 mile doing warm up, drills, and sprints.  Then 7 on the trails with Blake followed by some core work.

Did some walking lunges and some pushups, then ran 8 trail miles in a light sprinkling rain.  I was hoping it would rain hard but I was not so lucky.

4 miles walking on the TM at 15% incline and 4 mph.  That is way tougher than it sounds!

Then core work.

I did some warm up jogging with some strides then ran the trails with Blake this morning totalling 8 miles.  It was so humid my shoes were sloshing by the end of the run.  I do not miss living in humid weather.

Blake and I ran Crossman Peak again this morning but this time from the start of the trail so it was only a little over 13 miles.  We took it pretty easy but that climb is still pretty intense.

Today was the annual Lake Havasu City High School Cross Country Fundraiser 5 K.  It's always on one of the golf courses here and is a fun but difficult 5 K.  They changed the course up a bit this year so it ran a bit long at 3.2 instead of 3.1 but I liked the change.

It was a beautiful morning, about 65 degrees and no wind, and they started almost on time at a little after 7:00.  As always a small group ran out way to fast for their ability and I found myself in about 10th place about a quarter mile in.  I quickly started passing runners until I was right behind 2 other runners who were in 3rd and 4th place.  The top 2 runner I knew are really fast and there was no hope of catching them, so I determined these 2 were my competition for 3rd place.  Since I had run a tough climbing 13+ miler yesterday and my legs felt like jello during my almost 2 mile warm up, I wasn't expecting much today, but now that the race was on the adrenaline kicked in.  I stayed behind both of the runners through a little over 1 mile when the lead guy started fading and we passed him easily.  The first mile was 6:28, not too fast but a decent pace.  I then ran on the shoulder of the other guy for a while.  Our second mile was 6:31 so he ran a good consistent pace compared to the first mile.  I really wasn't working at all at this point and could tell he was starting to breath hard.  At 2.3 miles I decided to go ahead and pass him and ran by pretty easily.  I knew I would do no better than third place and was not in the mood to hurt today so I coasted the 3rd mile in 6:19 and finished the last 0.2 with a 5:54 pace even though I didn't feel like I had picked up the pace.  My finishing time was 20:33, my watch says at 5K I was 19:54.  I was 3rd overall and first in my AG. I was happy to see I was still under 20 minutes on my 5K time, even on a tough course and the day after a tough run even though I have done just long slow running for about the past 6 months with exactly zero speed work or tempo runs.

10 easy miles on the TM.  1:20:00

Then some core work.

Did some running drills and strides while waiting for Blake then ran some trails totalling a little over 8 miles.  Finished up with some core work.

Legs felt a bit heavy this moring.

Did some core work followed by walking lunges then a few strides before running the trails with Blake this morning.  Total 8 miles

I'm going to take a rest day tomorrow before Blake and I tackle a 26 mile Crossman Peak run on Friday.

Blake just got his Boston Marathon acceptance!  The cutoff was 2 minutes 9 seconds and he was 2 minutes 30 somthing seconds.  Way to go Blake.  We are going to have a blast at your first Boston!

I took a much needed rest day today and just did some core work and foam rolling.

Today was the final long mountain climb run for Blake and I before attempting Rim to Rim to Rim 2 weeks from today.  Once again we ascended Crossman Peak from my house climbing about 4200 feet over 13 miles then ran back down.  Today's run was by far the best one we've done.  We both felt really good so it was a confidence boaster for the upcomming run.