I can do it. I will do it NINE times!

Ran long out toward the AZ strip, mostly ran easy but not real slow, watch ran out of batteries at 5.13, but overall time was 74 minutes, so approximately 8:12/mi avg. Not too shabby of a run, the last couple miles I was feeling pretty tired out, but overall quite nice.

XC practice: all the stuff... warmup, stretches, pushups, crunches and agilities, then we went out on the fire station 4 miler that ended up being quite short so we extended it to be an actual 4. It was fun to be running with people since I run lots faster with people and that is much fun. Wasn't pushing real hard, but still got down to a 6:33 mile for the second one and averaged 7:01/mi. I got new shoes, the Asics DS Trainers and I like them lots.

Woke up so freakishly early to go run the race, warmed up a half mile and ran the race. The 'fast' boys took off at the start, one went the wrong way and the other died, so this other fellow and I had the lead together for the last 2 miles. I really wanted to beat him, but he got me at the last 200m or so. It was mostly a flat course, the few hills there were weren't steep - the problem was the wind against us half the race. Anyway, splits were 5:52, 6:14 and 6:33 (avg. 6:14/mi)  - though not excellent splits, I PRed with a 18:51! And won!

XC practice, all the stuff, then a run out in the desert a ways and back (5) - mostly took it easy on the way out with around 7:30/mi, then picked it up a bit on the way back (esp. since it was mostly all downhill back). Avg. for whole run was 7:14/mi. Pretty good feeling, legs a little tired from racing, but not horrendously so. Sadly, the dirt and mud had gotten my brand new shoes all dirty. :-( I have decided that am going to count shoe mileage on the blog now. (DST 10)

9.2 mi. club run, those guys totally killed me. Felt real good for the first 6 miles or so, then I was feeling pretty dead for the rest of it. On the last couple of miles, I was so spent, I could hardly keep close to them so I wouldn't get hopelessly lost in Santa Clara. Last mile, my left hip and knee were complaining which didn't help either. Avg. 7:49/mi, even with a couple 8:30's thrown in there, so not bad time-wise. (DST 19.2)

Didn't even hear my alarm this morning, so I hurried over to xc way late with Kalli and took off on the Tortoise fence run, my legs felt just plain hammered. On the way out, my legs hardly were moving - I was running so slow! With the nice downhills and incentive to catch Kalli, the way back was much better and by the time I finished, my legs were feeling like legs again, so that is much improvement. Avg. 8:49/mi.

This afternoon, we drove up to Koosharem, so I ran an out-and-back 3 miler in the dark there once we had arrived. The Iceberg food I'd had for dinner in Cedar certainly didn't agree with me, so I felt pretty sick the whole run, plus sideachy. Not very fun, avg. 8:14/mi. (DST 26.4)

I'd been looking forward to running in much cooler weather in Koosharem, but my guts were still churning and even walking hurt so bad, that all I did today was gut the fish dad caught. I hadn't missed a day in a long time, so this makes me very very sad. Curse that Iceberg!