Every Run is a Great Run!

Ran 6 meditative miles with Kim around the bottoms on this melancholy Monday. Not so excited to jump back into the work fires after the 3 day weekend. I've been under-the-gun for about 3 months straight and I'm growing a bit weary of it. But on the other hand I'm just thankful to have a job in this economy.

9:24/139

Later did 40 min XT at the gym. Eliptical - 15, Bike - 10, Stairs - 15.

Got out later than usual this morning so we had a bit of warm to go along with the usual canyon wind. Ran a somewhat random 6 mile route.

9:10/145

Hadn't planned on going to the gym but later at work there was a bit of a lull so I snuck over and got 40 minutes XT similar to yesterday.

Ran up/down Payson canyon with Kim 4 miles up and 4 down as we continue to work on getting the legs ready for all the mostly down but some uphill of SGM. We got out a little late this morning and arrived at Pateetneet just in time to see Chad, Dan and Janie finishing up their canyon downhill 11-miler. In a couple weeks we may start joining them but we wanted to be cautious with the hill runs and ease into them with Kim's history of ITB troubles with hills. Pretty warm/muggy still. We're getting some good heat/humidity training lately.

9:19/149

Did similar up/down Payson canyon run as yesterday, except this time I ran with the speedster dudes and only ran 6 miles. Same group as last week plus Tyler S was there as well. Tyler has been nursing a knee injury so he was nice and ran easy (for him not me) and turned around when I did and kept me from slowing down too much. 

Very windy today (headwind on uphill of course) to go along with the warm/humid conditions we've had for a while now. The good news is that although my conditioning is well behind everyone else in this group, I did manage to go a bit faster than last week and it felt a whole lot better. I was able to get into a good rhythm and although I was plenty tired at the end I still felt pretty good and even a little energized.

Finished just in time to avoid the downpour that started while I was driving back home.

7:53/174

Ran 3 with Kim in the morning then we parted ways and went 1 more while she went 3. We're doing 16 tomorrow and I didn't want to increase my weekly mileage by any more than 3 miles from last week.

Later went to the gym for 45 min of various XT.

9:09/139

Ran 16 miles nice and easy with Kim around SF/Salem backroads and hills. My longest post-injury run and high mileage week of the year.  Nice day today, cooler and less humid than the last couple of weeks. Quads a touch sore from all the up/down hill miles this week, but all in all feeling good.

I'm so thankful my feet and legs seem to be holding up well, so nice to run without the nasty PF pains. Thankfully Kim's ITB issues are staying under control as well.  Hopefully my conservative injury recovery plan of slowly building mileage base, mostly all easy miles with just a handful of MP miles here and there, and no all-out racing the rest of the year, will keep me good and healthy and ready to go in 2011.

9:30/142

Ran 6 miles with Kimi in the morning along the usual route. Also did a few striders along the way. Later went to the gym for 40-min various XT.

9:18/140

Had a great run with Kim up/down Payson canyon in the cool morning air. This time we took 2 vehicles and drove 1 up to Beercan Flat so we could run up 3 miles and down 6 and focus more on the downhill. Beautiful morning and the cooler temps were great. Only downside was that being a little later in the morning the traffic up the canyon started to pick up so we had to take care not to get ran over! Can't believe how fast some people fly up/down that canyon. Oh yeah the only other downside was that my 16-yr old who took the truck last night did something and trashed the brakes which made the downhill drive a little spooky.

Felt good so pushed the last mile a bit and ran it just under 6:50.

9:07/141

Six nice and easy around the bottoms with Kim. Then later went to the gym and did 40 minutes various XT. Nice to see my ave HR starting to drop lately, also notice the gym XT stuff feels easier too.  I'm sure the cooler temps as of late help alot.

9:35/133

Drove over to Payson with the intention of doing similar run as last 2 Thursdays up/down the canyon with the speedsters. But apparently I didn't get the memo that said nobody was coming today as I was the only one who showed. So did the run solo, 3.5 miles up and then back down.

Kinda spooky on the way up in the dark alone, too much rustling in the bushes. But luckily I survived without being eaten or attacked by any wild animals. Tried to run at a pace that would be similar to what I would likely do if I was with the group, but always feels a little harder going it alone. But the cooler temps were great.

7:52/175

Ran about 3 1/2 with Kim then I turned went 5-mile hill direction while she went the 6-mile route. Cool morning for August! Weather.com said it was 54 degrees. But no complaints, I seem to run much better in the colder temps. Looking at my lifetime PRs, I noticed they all occurred with temps in the 35-55 degree range.

Felt real good today, I expected to be worn out a bit from the harder run yesterday but that wasn't the case.  I'll likely head to the gym a little later for 40 mins or so of XT.

9:23/132

What a nice morning for a long run! These cool temps this week have been great. A little nippy the first mile but then it feels fabulous.  Decided to sleep in a little this morning so we could catch some sun and still get a little touch of heat-training, although it was cool enough the whole time we didn't have to deal much with heat.

Ran mostly with Kim with an occasional marathon-pace burst sprinkled here and there. Ran up Harry's with Steve K and got pretty pooped. But mostly felt really good and for most of the run just felt like I could run forever.  Kim got into a pretty good zone as well and ran most of this run at marathon pace or half marathon pace.  Hopefully the knee will continue to allow her to stay in a good groove through the rest of SGM training and for the race.

8:58/147

Nice 6-miler in the morning with Kim. Did 5 15-30 sec striders along the way for fun. Later at the gym did 40 minutes XT (eliptical, bike, stairs).

Might just hit 50 miles this week. Plan is to hold at 40-50 through the end of the year, with another 10-15 miles equilavent in cross-training. 

Thinking of doing an experiment in my training for UVM next year. Not going to do any speedwork, nothing faster than tempo runs at marathon pace. Only thing faster than that would be 15-30 sec strides.  Goal MP is in the 7-7:30 range.

9:14/142

Enjoyed a great Payson canyon  run with Kim, 3.4 miles up and 6.6 down. Beautiful morning, foxy running partner, great scenery and mild temps. Wildlife sightings included a bunch of deer and Kim's cousin-in-law on his bike.

I really seem to be getting my legs back lately, and the chronic ache & pain areas have mellowed out (hamstring, lower abs, etc), feet happy too. Took off the last downhill mile into town and ran a 6:42. I'll call it MP since it was downhill and it felt like MP.

Great way to start the day.

9:01/145

Looks like the warmer, windier, muggier weather is back for a couple days. Not as nice for running but I do like any rain showers we can get in the summer.  Ran 6 with Kim this morning at don't-care pace (DCP?). Later went to the gym for 40 minutes of XT.

Ran Payson canyon up/down run with Darin and Carl on a kinda dark and muggy morning.  Tough run, especially uphill as the pace was already into the 7's by the end of the first mile. Usually the pace stays mostly in the 8-9 range on the uphill but for whatever reason things were quicker today. Maybe because this is the last time they're doing this particular run for the year and they wanted to finish with a bang? 

I hung on for about 2 1/2 miles but then I was major sucking wind and I noticed my HR pushing into the 190's which is about where I max out at the end of a 5K race. So I finally told Darin to take off and I slowed down up to Beercan where I turned around. Went a little slower coming down than past weeks as those early fast uphill miles took it out of me. But I suppose it was good for me?

On a positive note my weight was just over 141 yesterday which is lowest it's been since May.

7:51/173

Doing 18 tomorrow so decided to do only XT today and wait until next month to venture into 50-mile week territory. Legs/body felt pretty peppy when I got to the gym and was tempted to jump on the treadmill for a few run miles but decided to hold off and put the energy into 20-minutes each on eliptical machine, stair-stepper, and bike for 60-min total XT.

Looks like my oldest son Camron survived his operation to fix his deviated septum and is doing well albeit a little loopy from the anesthesia and feeling like he got punched hard in the nose. As Kim pointed out on her blog yesterday, ironically both the name "Camron" and "deviated septum" basically mean "crooked nose". So after this operation our boy might be due for a name change.

Good luck to all the PCM and HCHM runners tomorrow!

Longest post-injury run of the year today with Kim.  A bit warm and windy but the plan was to take things slower than the last few weeks so everything went well and we finished with a little gas still in the tank.  Had the roads mostly to ourselves today as most runners were over at Hobble Creek.  Check out Kim's blog for more details about the happenings of the run and the day.

9:37/148

A bit nippy this morning, low 50's according to weather.com with high humidity. But no wind, very rare for SF, which made for a very peaceful & meditative 6-mile run with Kim. Just took it easy, feeling good but still a touch of Saturday's 18-miler in the legs. We'll save the oomph for tomorrow's 10-mile hill run.  We saw 3 deer, a doe and 2 bucks (2-point and spike). Also a family of quail crossing the road that got pretty excited when we invaded their space. A very nice morning.

Later did 40-min various XT at the gym.

9:42/132

Brrrrrr!!! Chilly morning with temps dipping into the 40's, wasn't quite expecting that for a few more weeks. Was wishing I had some gloves.  Plus the good ol' Sp Fork canyon wind was back in force to add a little wind-chill factor. Ran 10 mile hill route with Kim up and down the streets of the city. We maybe kept the pace a little more steady than usual, pushing on the uphills and relaxing on the downs. Kim was running strong up those hills, very smooth and graceful like a gazelle. Pushed it the last 1/2 mile to try and catch the 9:30 man.

9:29/136

Six miler in the morning with Kim around our usual river bottoms loop. Did a few (6?) strides along the way just for fun. Later went to the gym at work for 40 min various XT. 

New flash fires at work today have me under the gun again after a bit of a reprieve the last week or 2. Thankfully my boss knows me well to enough to know I'll be able to solve the problem quicker if I get my "sweat" time in. Sometimes when things get crazy he practically orders me to go to the gym or go running. Amazing how often the solutions to tough problems magically appear during or shortly after a good bout of exercise. At the moment I'm still waiting for some magic........

9:14/137

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM!!!!

Rest day for the birthday girl Kim today (I won't reveal her age but I'll just say that if you write the numbers forward or backward you get the same number!) so I ran 7 solo. Felt good, legs peppy so did a few MP miles.

7:44/170

Ran 5 with Kim this morning at DCP then she finished with 1 more.  Busy day at work again, didn't know if I'd be able to make to the gym for some XT but was able to sneak over around lunch time for 40 minutes.

Today Kim and I got daring and attempted our first all downhill Payson Canyon run. There was a group going up to the top doing 20-22 milers but since we haven't been doing the steep, completely downhill runs we decided to start just below Payson Lakes and go 14-15.

This run has some very steep downhill sections with grades in the 6-8 percent range, similar to the very steepest sections of St. George but lasting longer. Needless to say it can be a risky run and a few runners have injured themselves pretty good while running it. But if you can survive 2 or 3 times down and get the legs used to it, it makes SGM feel a whole lot easier during the race and in days following.

The OTHER concern on this run is bears, since some of the runners saw a momma bear and 2 cubs while running this route on Wednesday. We were armed with mace just in case (would it even help?) but fortunately we had no bear encounters. All the bow hunter traffic coming up the road probably helped keep the wildlife away.

Kim hasn't had very good luck with her ITB running Payson in the past so we did our best to take it easy and hold good form. We were mostly successful, although she was feeling the first inkling of ITBS pains during the last 2 miles or so. Wisely she decided to walk the last 1/2 mile and it appears as I write this she is doing fine and the knee is feeling dandy.

Pushed the last mile a bit and ran it around 7-7:15 pace so I'll call that a MP mile.

8:57/131

 Course tool data for today's run route:

Six miles this morning with Kim nice and easy. We're both still feeling the steep downhill long run on Saturday so likely tomorrow will be an easy 6 as well and wait until Wednesday to do the 10 miler.

Later went to the gym at work and did my usual M-W-F 40 min XT routine. Feel pretty good afterward, the XT seems to really relax my legs and the non-pounding makes my legs and feet quite happy.

Wow can't believe August is already over. Fall is certainly in the air with these nice cool 50-60 degree morning temps the last couple days.  I really love this time of year. Lots of  fun stuff planned for September/October I'm really looking forward to. And just love the fall weather.

Had a nice 6-mile run with Kim then did 1 more on my own. Legs still feeling a little bit of the Saturday downhill run but much better than yesterday.  Did 5 strides along the way. I had the upper hand on the first 4 but Kim kicked my fanny on the last one. She has an acceleration gear that I don't have. A 100-yard dash race or shorter between the 2 of us could be interesting, anything longer than that I think I can take her. Mr slow-twitch vs. Ms fast-twitch.

Looks like I'll sneak just over 200 miles for August, first 200+ mileage month for me since March. Happy September everyone.

9:30/134