Turn your rut into a groove.

6 Ran a loop around Santa Clara to my parents' house. Legs feeling alright. Still aches. I think I'll ice it some more tonight.

am--8 I ran down through the Sunbrook subdivisions. I wanted to get more miles, but my family was waiting to open presents for my youngest daughter's birthday. She's awesome. Happy Birthday, Biz. I'll try to get more miles in later before my team crushes Utah, hopefully.

pm--3.25 around Santa Clara w/ the wif. 

pm--10 up Lava Flow and the Parkway, through Padre, down to Lava Ridge and back home. My Achilles feels fine. My blister is gone. And I ran this at an 8:38/mi. pace--probably an AT for me. This year I'm shooting for 2,000 miles--roughly 39-40 miles a week. I'll get faster and my fitness will increase, and when that happens, I'll probably want to be piling on the miles.

pm--6.25 I ran down to Green Valley and looped around home. I took this at an easy pace and  it felt pretty good. One thing I'm going to try to do this week is get a morning run or two into the schedule. We'll see. It's been butt cold out.

pm--7.75 Reverse loop around clary. My legs were tired, but the rest felt good. It was a little warmer. I like that. I may try to run in the morning.

am--5 I geared up in my jogging suit and went out for a run this morning. I told myself I would. It was a chilly run but not as cold as expected. I had to get out. It's so much easier to get miles when you're running doubles.

pm--5 Second verse same as the first. 

pm--8.25 I went for a nice easy run over into Green Valley to Plant World and back. I hardly remember the run because I was zoned out, thinking about the BCS, not because I'm a fan of the little guy or like one Utah team better than the other or like either for that matter, but because I wish there was a way to eliminate all this conjecture about this team beating that team who beat this team who beat that team. Yeah, it's out of a lack of respect that Utah doesn't get a fair shake, there is also a lack of respect when Ute fans are claiming hands-down champs. If two guys run a race, but each is on a different course, is it fair to give the trophy to the guy with the best time? Is it fair to give the trophy to the other guy? It's a good thing that fairness is only relevant to sports. If not, oh man. 

pm--8.25 I ran up the parkway to the round-a-bout and stretched then ran back. I felt really good and was able to keep the pace around 8-minute miles on the way back. My fitness is definitely improving. Next week, I'm running the Painter's half. I have 3 goals for the race: 1) finish 2) finish in under 2 hours 3) finish in under 1: 50.

pm--8 I looped around old clary. The body was pretty beat at first, but I got going towards the end. 

am--5.25 A nice little morning run with U2 on the headphones.

pm--5.75 I call the run I did tonight the Hammer church loop. Pretty easy run. Getting miles in is so much easier running doubles. 

pm--8 It's my B-day. Yeah. I ran over by McDonald's, down into Green Valley, over to Plant World and back home. The pace was pretty good--8:30. Ever since I got the Garmin, I'm more pace-conscious. A good run. I could have taken it a little easier.

am--5 I looped up by SCHS with a little extra in the middle.

pm--I ran an easy 5 up the trail by SCMS and back. I'm a little nervous about the half. I need to remember to start easy and have fun.

am--13 My wife and I ran the half. It was perfect weather. We are both very pleased with our results. I kept the pace under 8'30" per mile for the whole race. Taking some advice from a Jeff Galloway book, I walked roughly 20 seconds per mile up to mile 11. It seemed to keep me pretty fresh. After the Bloomington loop, my legs were saying that they were done. But I was on pace to reach my ultimate goal for this race--1:50--so I just kept pushing. It's hard to finish off a race when you have no way of visualizing the finish. When I pulled around to the finish the time clock was clicking towards 1:50, so I gave the rest of what I had. The time clock was 1:50:05 when I crossed the line. My watch said 1:49:36, and my official time was somewhere in between.

am--5.25 A nice easy run to get the ache out. I put on the headphones and took off. Didn't take a watch. I just wanted to run. I helped with a block wall afterwards, so we'll see if I'm up to another run today or not.

pm--5.75 I just had to get out. The half got me pumped. I really feel like my running is improving. At the same time, I see how many runners are at a higher level, and it makes want to improve more. There is such a thing as over-training. Nonetheless, I justify these two runs on the heels of a half because I took it really easy and just enjoyed the run.  

pm--I just took it at a nice, easy pace up to the ball fields and around the barrio. I really love running, and if I'm never uber fast, I don't care.

pm--Loop around Clary w/ extension to the round-a-bout. The weather is near perfect. I wore my PVXC long-sleeve and got some yells. Must've been the Gillespies.

pm--6.25 So my in-laws got me some running shoes for Christmas. They were pretty sweet but heavy stability shoes. Me, I'm a neutral. So I returned them, and, lo and behold, the new Landreths were out. Needless to say, that's what I got in the exchange. So, having promised myself that I wouldn't run in them until I had 100 miles on my other shoes, lightweight trainers excluded, I broke them in tonight with an easy 6 and a quarter. I also thought it would be a good idea to give a top 5 list of running shoes I have experienced:

1. Nike Air Hayward (2 different pairs)-- Maybe it's because these were the first real running shoes I ran in, I'm partial to them. Real lightweight and flexible. 

2. Asics Gel Landreth 4--I really like these shoes. At first they seemed a little stiff but have become a ride that I love.

3. Asics Gel Cumulus 10--Similar to the Landreth but with a little more cushion. I can't really say why the Landreth edges out the Cumulus, but my feet can tell the difference.

4. Asics Gel Stratus 2.1--More flexible than the other Asics I've run in but a little less comfortable. Also, I'm slightly vain. So the yellow and black are almost too much.

5. Nike Air Skylon--The Haywards replaced the Skylons and so on and so forth. Similar feel to the Haywards but not near the durability. After about 350 miles these seemed shot.

In truth, I've never had running shoes I didn't like. If anyone has suggestions for future reference, please let me know. 

pm--7.25 I ran in the light drizzle and noticed some smells: Syrup, not syrup on waffles, but syrup in the heating apparatus of a late '80s Volkswagen Golf and tennis balls, the smell of virgin tennis balls. Weird things to smell on a run. I know. But they made the run that much more enjoyable.

am--3.5 I intended to do a long run--10 or 12--and it was drizzling, so I set out with my beanie, my gloves, and my windbreaker. About a mile into the run the rain had stopped, the sun was out, and the temperature was going on 60. I was sweating. I had to ditch the cold-weather gear somewhere, so I decided to run to my parents. My mom's a runner. I thought, Maybe I'll ditch my stuff at her house, and she'll want to run 5 with me. But she wasn't there. My dad was, and we shot the bull. So much bull that I was nearly late for the snow activity with my religious affiliation. So I bagged the rest of the run.

 pm--6.5 I got back from the snow day and had to get some more running in. So I did. Next week I plan on work some hills or doing some speed work and begin strategically planning weekend long runs. We'll see how it goes. Peace. Oh and Austin, maybe I won't forget running stuff everyday next week.  

am--6 Just a nice little run through the wet streets on a cool morning.

pm--8.5 Wanted to go running with PVXC, but they were doing Sunrise Tire hills. I can't think of anything more fun. No, but seriously, hills are a hit to my self esteem. Instead of hills, I ran 8, pushing it a little--8:28 pace. It felt good. 

pm--6.5 Old Swiss Days course w/ extension. For half of this I had a headwind. It makes you feel like you're not going anywhere. On top of that, I was wearing new shoes that still have that slapping rubber on the tread. They just sound heavy. Overall, the run was blue bowls.

am--6 I got up this chilly winter morn and ran with some Greatest of U2 on the pod.

pm--4 I began w/ a purpose--hills--but a friend tracked me down on the road, and we shot the bull. Then I had to hustle home to an activity that fell through. I still got 10 in today and am feeling good about my week so far. 

am--4.25 I woke up and did some mini-hills by the little league fields. Hills, for me, are painful, and I know the only way this will change is for me to condition myself to run hills. So, here's the beginning of the the conditioning.

pm--5.75 This was a nice easy run. I'm loving the mileage this week and feeling great, except for the hill stuff. 

pm--4 Just a nice run with some sub-8 tempo through valle verde.