Turn your rut into a groove.

pm—3.5 Tready Miles but felt better. The groove is coming back. On another note, I'm trying out the One-Punch-Man workout—100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10k of running. We’ll see what it does. I already feel stronger even though I didn’t quite hit the running numbers.

am—3.5 First day of practice. Quite a few kids out. Erged after. 

I also finished The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. I thought it would be a par-for-the-course discussion about getting people to work together, but it was so much more. I recommend it for anyone trying to build something great with other people.

am—4.25 First Urie loop of the summer w/ some barefoot grass loops and 6x striders. Kids Club after. Great start to things.

am—5.25 Alton, UT. Good run w/ Mat. He kicked my rear. Between my lack of fitness and the elevation, I had some struggles. Elevation really hits me, not sure why.

am—4.5 Out-and-back towards Grapevine w/ 6x barefoot striders after. I felt much better in STG than on the mountain.

am—5.75 Nice run around Shinob Kibe w/ a small but great group of kids. Saw some very encouraging things. We had a nice push the last 2 miles.

pm—4.25 Run w/ 3x 3:00 pickups. Felt dece.

am--6 Dirt-Mile Tempo. Had some girls step up and others struggle w/ the tempo. Not sure how to help w/ that. It's fun to see the next group begin to fill in the gaps left by graduating seniors. 

am--4 Urie and grass loops w/ 6x barefoot striders. I had a nice chat w/ Macey (sic) today. 

am--5.5 Telegraph out-and-back, including the Coral Canyon Hill. For some reason, it was rough coming back. Jada ran well today. 

am—7.5 Green Springs-Telegraph loop. By the end, I was tired, and, somehow, I deleted the workout from my watch. We had a small group w/ youth conference and everything going on.

am—5 Nice, chill run in the desert above Middleton w/ 8x striders after.

pm—3 Didn’t have the means to get up and go this morning, so my run didn’t happen until later. Basically, just a run.

am—8 Nice run in the north desert w/ 4x 1-min. pickups. Light crew again.

am--4.75 Urie w/ grass after. The achilles heel was bugging a bit by the end. It's funny how it ebbs and flows. Weights after, but I didn't lift because I came out loser from my tangle w/ Decker and have some kind of kinked neck. 

am--6 Out-and-back on the Grapevine road. I love this run, and even though the crew was light again today, kids were doing cool things. 

I also finished Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien. It's a Vietnam novel w/ a nice dose of Magical Realism. The basic premise of the novel is that Cacciato deserts and decides to walk from Vietnam to Paris. His squad goes after him. Near the end of the book, I found a great quote:

"Peace of mind is not a simple matter of pursuing one's own pleasure; rather, it is inextricably linked to the attitudes of other human beings, to what they want, to what they expect. The real issue is how to find felicity within limits. Within the context of our obligations to other people. We all want peace. We all want dignity and domestic tranquillity. But we want these to be honrable and lasting. We want a peace that endures. We want a peace we can be proud of. Even in imagination we must obey the logic of what we started. Even in imagination we must be true to our obligations, for, even in imagination, obligation cannot be outrun." (320-321)

pm--5.25 Got a run in later. Did some travelling over the last two days to see Belle and Sebastian at Sundance. It was a great time, but travelling kills my motivation. It's a win that I got a run in. 

I finished a book of essays, Maps and Lengends, by Michael Chabon. He's a good writer who uses lots of $100 words. This book tackles the underestimation by the literati of genre fiction--Sherlock Holmes, comic books, horror stories, etc. It also gave some insight into his writing process and research. Probably not a book for everyone. 

am—5.75 Nice run from Confluence Park to the park in Green Valley w/ barefoot striders after. Hopefully, next week will bring a bigger crew. Not that today’s crew was lacking anything.

I’m officially back on the reading wagon. Just wrapped up I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier. It’s quite a dark, interesting read.

am--7.75 A slow burner but just what the body needed. 

am--8.25 Sand Hill Run. This was the first for me. I really didn't know what to expect. It went pretty well. We have a decent pack of girls, but they're still the second pack. How to get it together? 

am—5 Urie Loop and grass w/ 8x barefoot striders.

am—7.25 Good dirt-mile tempo. We had a group of 7 that stayed compressed the whole time.

am—7 Green Springs out-and-back. Holt ran w/ us, so I used this run as an opportunity to run w/ some different girls today. It was nice.

pm—1.5 Obligatory run after weights to get used to the heat.

am--7 Coral Canyon to Walmart distribution and back w/ 6x striders after. Good run even though I feel bored out. 

pm—5.5 Decent run, progressively dialing in the pace. I sweated a lot, and it was glorious. 

I finished Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. The book pulled me right along and stoked my desire to go to Alaska and live somewhere with mild summers.