Psalm 91:1 NKJV He who dwells in the secret place

No running today... 

Several hours after this race while my wife and I were spending the night in Idaho Falls for our anniversary I developed a limp caused by foot pain on side of my foot.  It's a lot better now, I can still feel something there, and I did have some knee pain several hours after the run.  I'm going to have to really watch this close.  I'll see how the running goes tomorrow.  I hope this is nothing serious.  I think it's because of the old shoes I put on after the race and helping with the Family Fun day before we left for IF.  I never took a rest at all after the race.

Nice morning sunny so a singlet and shorts was a great choice.  My legs were dead for the first 4 miles and I was tired and fatigued.  I realized that I didn't drink hardly any water, or any good quantity of fluid over the last two days.  I think that's why I felt so sluggish.  Although I did drink a 52 oz decaf diet soda yesterday :-) at least it didn't have caffeine but of course the carbonation is not good for you.

After the 4 miles I felt better for the last 7.  I ran 11.4 miles at an easy 7:22 pace in 1:24.  I too it easy which is probably what I will do all week.  I still had a little foot pain and the knee is still bothering me.  I'm  not going to say anymore about that because it's frustrating, but  I feel terrible about this going into the relay. 

Got home kind of late last night because my daughter had a double header fast-pitch softball game. We ate dinner at 9pm last night, and I ate 4 pancakes and 4 waffles. I guess staying out in the heat made me hungry. I help coach the girls team, and they won both games. I only managed to get about 6 hours of sleep last night due to getting home so late it was hard to get right to bed.

I ran 12.33 miles at an overall 6:57 pace in 1:25 this morning. I ran up Chubbuck Rd. , and then the back side of Satterfield St, on a trail that I found that went uphill for a mile. Then down Pocatello Creek Rd back to my house on Mckinley. I tried to get a lot of uphill in this run today, and it took 4 miles before my legs would wake up. Very nice weather conditions again. On the last few downhill and flat miles I pushed the pace a little bit more finishing with the following splits (6:49, 6:35, 5:55, 6:19, 6:30)

(Asics Trainers 13 - 110 miles) 

Lunch:

Decided to run on my lunch hour, because I did have to cover the daycare on my lunch today. Yesterday I entertained a 8 month old for an hour, and that was fun. Today my wife's daycare count was down so I could do whatever I wanted on my lunch.

Here's my theory about running I run to stay fit, and not really to race. Overall fitness is more important than a race so that's why I will definitely run at times when I shouldn't.

I ran 4.3 miles at an overall 6:53 pace in 29.49 minutes.... splits (7:37, 7:03, 6:23, 6:32). The last two miles I pushed in a very, very, very strong wind. 87 degrees outside and I had to run in running pants, because that's all I had with me at work.

 (Mizuno Precision 8 - 405 miles)

Last night I moved our two computer desk and computer, router/network into what used to be our daycare classroom, and before was my garage that we re-modeled to be a classroom. The computer desks and network was setup in our bedroom. After that we moved furniture around in our bedroom. Our house is actually looking like a house not a daycare. Then we loaded some more daycare equipment up in my truck. So when I woke up this morning (after 6 hours of sleep) I has tried my back was sore my foot was a little sore, but I did get a run in. My old office room we converted into an infant room is now our piano room for my daughter who's taking lessons.

I ran 11.21 miles at an overall 7:06 pace in 1:19. I felt so sluggish and tired I could have slept on the run. The pace my seem faster than I should have went, but I just let my nervous system run how it wanted to, and I ran a completely flat route with not much uphill so that is why it felt faster. I need to get some sleep tonight, but were going to do some more rearranging around our house tonight too. 

With all the running and other extra work my weight is around 139 to 140 so I need to load some carbs up.

 (Saucony Tangent 3 -  90 Miles)

Got 8 hours of sleep last nigh. Still woke up tired and wasn't motivated to run or do anything. Figured if I'm going to eat than I will run to keep the calories down that was my only motivation to run today. 9 miles at an overall easy 7:17 pace in 1:05. My feet feel heavy/slow, I feel tired it's been along couple of weeks with a lot going on with our business and work.

Lunch: 
I'm not going to run again today... I decided I wasn't going to taper, but my knee was bothering me during and after the first run so I decided to hold back and not run until Friday night.  But I can still do sit-ups and push-ups -:).
 

Jeff Shadley and one of his co-workers and I drove up to Jordan, Utah in my truck to drop it off and get a ride with Walter to Logan, Utah to the start of the relay. I wasn’t about to leave my truck at no market, too much money invested in it. Jeff’s a great guy and a great friend and I was glad to go up with him. I like to feed off of his determination and great talent. It was nice of Walter to let me leave me truck there at his house. Thanks Walter.

Once we got to Paul’s house it was nice to see old and new running blog faces and meet all the guys on the blue and white team. My motivation really wasn’t there to run this relay because of the knee pain I had, and I didn’t want to hinder the team. But Cody couldn’t really find anyone else so I needed to run. Even though I wasn’t motivated I was going to run the best possible for the team.

Hand-off 1 Leg 9 - 9:37pm : My 3.5 mile course was pretty flat. The first mile I felt good, but I didn’t want to explode from the start with nervous energy so I settled into a good groove and hit the first mile at 5:28. The second mile was interesting, and could have been a disaster. There was a skunk running down the road on the left side about 20 yards in front of me. I could only make it out when I got close because of it being night, and the headlamp doesn't really put out too much light.   I then moved to the middle of the road and the skunk moved to the middle. Then I moved back to the left and the skunk stayed in the middle.  When I passed the skunk, it raised it’s tail up so I ran off the side of the road to the left side.  Luckily, I didn’t get sprayed or I would have been riding on the top of the van. I finished that mile at 5:28. The last mile I hit a little bit of a head wind, and a gradual gain of elevation in this mile.  I finished at 5:42, and felt really good. My knee ached about a hour after the run when I sat down, but really nothing bad.

Total; 3.5 miles in 19:19 minutes 5:35 pace average.

Hand-off 2 Leg 21: 6.2 miles in 36.32 (a gradual incline) overall 5:58 pace and beat the predicted 6:07 pace.

Before this leg we all got about an hour sleep in the second exchange location on the parking lot in sleeping bags. I ate a Bagel and a Powerbar and some G2 gatorade before this leg.

The first mile of this leg I didn't want to look at my garmin I wanted to run by feel in a headwind. When I finished the mile I felt like I was running faster than I was but I only ran a 6:12 pace. That was enough of that poor mile on a course that gradually went up 224 ft. The next miles were a lot better.  I wanted to be conservative and have enough left for Leg 3, I learned this from Del Sol, because by leg 3 I was wiped-out there. But I also was going to beat the predicted time.

Mile 2: 5:53 in a headwind but passing a lot of runners, oh what fun I was having.

Mile 3: 5:49 still in a headwind and still having fun passing runners at 3am in the morning. No real problems with the knee that I was thinking about at this point.

Mile 4: 5:53 I passed one runner with headphones on and scared her to death. I was just praising God through this whole night leg. This was a real spiritual experience to be out in the nice beautiful scenery and sky.

Mile 5; 6:01 Went under an overpass and up the hill, and I was somewhat conservative, because I knew I had enough incline in the next leg. Still passing runners quite frequently.

Mile 6: 5:58 Ran up the little hill and down the hill still having fun passing runners, but still fighting the headwind. The last 100m's or longer was a downhill and I gave it everything I had going into the exchange.

I felt that I did save some for the last Leg and was hoping the results would be good. I lost track of how many kills I had on this leg, but it don't really matter because were all runners out there doing the same thing. But it's nice to see that you excel on your leg.

Before the next leg we ate Pancakes and Eggs, Bacon at the School. Thanks to Cody for wanting to go here. I think it really helped me and it was the food I needed for the next leg. Thanks Cody for all that you did.

Hand-off 3 Leg 33: 3.55 miles in 29.49 (I was doing the "You got to be kidding me leg 33") 8:23 pace and be at the predicted 8:30 pace.

Here was the leg that I knew if a team was close could make or break our lead. When I was assigned my legs this was the only one I was real focused on, because of the 1,400ft and something elevation gain. I kept kidding everyone that I would need a jet pack to get up the hill, and I kept kidding Bill Campbell (WildBull) that we need to switch legs. There was something inside of me after the first two legs that motivated me to prove that I belonged on this team and I wanted to perform well for my team. The fun was over this was a serious leg for me, and I needed to get mad to be ready for this leg. On the outside I was joking with everyone about this leg, but on the inside I was serious and focused on trying to do well.

The first .5 of the first mile was flat, and I ran this at a 5:50 to 6 pace and I could have easily ran this faster but I knew what was up ahead. The last half of this mile started up the dreadful climb. There were runners already walking, and there was no way in the world I was going to walk up this thing. The next Mile was just steep and I was passing several runners that were walking and they gave me great encouragement along with other vans. I finished this mile at a 8:30 pace. I really didn't feel too bad and my team was great because they kept giving me encouragement. Bill Campbell would get out of  the van and encourage me. What a great guy to meet. Cody was great at encouraging us all through the whole thing. The next mile I just got mad going up steeper and stayed focused. One guy I passed ask if he could strap a rope on me and pull him up. I had so many kills on this leg, and pretty much every runner was walking. It's a tough leg and I felt for every runner when I went by.. I finished the third mile at a 10:10 pace. My wrist band strap fell off and I and to go back a few steps and retrieve it so the pace would have been a little faster. It fell off when I slammed my water bottle to the ground, because I was getting mad knowing I was conquering the hill and even wanted to push myself faster. Through the whole run there really was no break from this steep incline. There was a van that drove passed and asked if I wanted sprayed down and I gladly  accepted that.

When I reached 3.3 I knew right around the bend was the exchanged so I pressed even harder and made the next hand-off.

All in all I felt thankful to be done and very happy to have beat the predicted pace and knew that I had to have increase our lead from the fourth place team.

I want to thank Cody Draper, Bill Campbell, Steve Olsen, Stephen Cuttitta, James Moore, Andrew McClellan for being such great teammates and new friends. This van experience was just fun and we had some good laughs. I had great conversations with all of them and got to know each one personally. This relay is just not about running, but building a special bond with your fellow runners, and working as a team to have fun and motivate each other. I think the Blue team achieved above what was expected and in the end that felt great.