Runnin' down a dream

Great Race! I had a blast on this race. Starting out, I paired up with Ben Larsen from Provo. We were both shooting for 1:30. After discussing the book "Born to Run" we were at mile 5 and Ben had to ease up from our 6:45 pace as he was recovering from a cold and couldn't quite hold on to that pace. I met him again after the race with his shirt covered in blood from his bloody nose he battled with on the course. I continued on and ran pretty much alone for the rest of the race. I didn't have a Garmin and I didn't know the course so I just enjoyed kind of running in ignorance of what mile I was at and what my pace was. I just listened to my body and tried to stay slightly uncomfortable, knowing that if I was breathing a little harder and feeling a little more fatigued than my training runs, I would be going faster than my training runs. My mantra was, "This is a race not a training run". I totally loved the tree lined trail that ran along the Provo river. Beautiful! I didn't have my ipod so I got to enjoy the quiet sound of the river and the soft sound of my steps and my breathing, joined occasionally by other runners. Then...the race strategy kicked in at mile 11 when I found myself coming up on two guys that looked my age. I had to beat them! I decided to kick it in and came up right between them. It was a battle to the end as we fought for the finish. I ended up coming in 2 seconds behind Tony (who wasn't even registered officially for the race! whew!) and 42 seconds in front of Jeff Loveless. It was a great fight to the finish. I did not even realize that I was only 24 seconds behind 1st place in my age group. Bottom line...loved it. Will probably do it again. 

Did a nice and easy 4 on the treadmill at Gold's in West Valley. Then I actually worked out my chest and tri's. Flat, incline, decline and free weights.

ran while Brigitta was at Orchestra. Up Eastridge, down Foremaster

Up Mall Drive, around red cliffs area and back

up at 4:45. up 3050 E across Red Cliffs, down River Road, Then caught trail to Riverside and home. 8:11 pace. Comfortable run, finished with a half mile 6:55

Ran 7 with my wife this morning. I love that we can run together now that my daughter is old enough to watch her little sister. (even though we are back before they even wake up). We ran up 3050 e across Red Cliffs, down River Road and up and over Foremaster then back home on Riverside Dr. I then added another mile later trail running in Snow Canyon.

Discovered a new little trail that I had never run before. It goes just behind the dog pound in washington. One of the very few "flat" runs I can do around my home. Just took it easy. 8 min pace

up 3050 e, probably a 2% grade for 1.5, across Telegraph for a mile, down 300 e for 2 and back on that cool trail for a mile and a half. The moon was HUGE! I have never seen it so big and so yellow. It was about 6:15 a.m.

Tempo Run: Warm up mile and then 5 tempo miles. 6:52 avg pace. Felt strong. Loved it! Enjoyed running down the trail on Mall Dr. I must confess, I really enjoy listening to New Age music on my runs. Uplifting, contemplative, relaxing...helps me run strong.

Ran with my wife this morning. What a great time! Being able to enjoy a beautiful run is always uplifting, but to run it with my wife is even better. We had a great time. Averaged 9 min miles. Talked about hopes, aspirations, etc. A great way to spend an hour and a half with my best bud. 

4 this morning...stopped at home for breakfast with the family. After enjoying a bowl of wheat chex w/ Bananas and Blackberries and a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, headed out for another 5. Felt great. 7:45 avg pace. 

Along riverside dr, and back over foremaster ridge. (a very big hill) avg abt 8 min miles. I saw my mom out running as I started out. That is always awesome to see her running when I am running. A very cool thing to share with my mom. 

After getting home from a 5 mile hike, I had a half hour to fit in a work out before work so I threw on some shoes and did speed work. run .5 recover .5 x3. Speed laps were 6:17 / 6:47 / 5:48. You can tell this was not on a track. It was running around my neighborhood, which is very hilly. Works great for training. 

I have a stomach bug so I don't feel well at all. Achy and sore. But I had to go do a little bit today. No Garmin or anything. Probably about 9 min miles

Ran down snow canyon today. Nothing intense. I am fighting a stomach bug so I just wanted to see what I could do without further wearing myself down.Nice'n easy.

7:45 per mile. 3050 E, Telegraph, 300 E, and the trail home. Nice run

Had a nice run, early in the morning. I am enjoying building up my miles. This was my firts 10 miler during the week. Building up miles I can see is going to require longer runs more than just on the weekends. Named my course in the my Garming WSHPKWY10. Washington Parkway 10 mile loop. 

Nice 5 miler. Ran one of Chelsi's favorite 5 mile loops. Ran a couple of sprint miles in the middle of it, coming down 40 N. Felt strong, fast and efficient. 

Ran with Kade Matthews. He is off to run the Utah Valley Marathon next Saturday. Good luck Kade! We ran 8 together and then I went two more.  Averaged 8:30 a mile. Hit 30 for the week!

Avg 7:45. up eastridge (very steep climb) and down Foremaster, west side. (very steep descent) Didn't think to take water, but found out that there is a convenient drinking fountain right inside the Coral Dessert Medical Park or whatever that is called across from the Hospital. Working on hitting 35 miles this week. That's a lot for me.

wow. this was one of those runs that make other runs feel great. It was hard. I felt like a slug. I was planning to do a mile warm up, 4 Tempo miles @ 6:50, and a mile cool down. Ended up doing 3 warm up miles and three cool down miles. AVG 7:30

no Garmin. came up over the West side of Foremaster. Great climb. Not easy. I have 20 for the week now, and my shins are starting to feel tender. Good thing I am hiking tomorrow instead of running. My body needs a change of motion. Will hit it again Friday. 

Another run with my wife. Can I just say again how I love that I can run with my wife. To share a hobby with your spouse is a special gift. Love you babe!

Trail run. It was awesome! I love to trail run. I don't do it near enough. I enjoyed running "3rd Ravine" last night right at sunset. It was awesome. I was running on dirt and slick rock, jumping over boulders and bushes, cruising along a ridge that overlooked mountains and valleys on both sides of me. I like the challenge of foot placement and varied terrain that trail running gives. It makes it feel like I am running faster because I have so many split second decisions to make. Just a great run. Feels good to have 36 miles under me in one week too!

Second 10 miler this week. Not enough sleep. Ran it with my wife and that is always cool. I am so thankful that we get to run together. Had the Flu the last two days though, so not feeling 100%

Two weeks in a row of 36 miles! That is a lot of running for me. Although, combine that with not enough sleep, I now have a cold and cough. I am wearing myself down here trying to build a bigger base. I have got to get more sleep if I am going to make it. Ran with my Brother-in-law Jeremy Kidd today. Always fun to share a run with someone that I don't usually get to run with.

slept in today. recovering from a cold and flu last week. too many miles, not enough sleep.

While camping with the boy scouts, I got up early and enjoyed 5 miles of dirt road running around Kolob Reservoir. Elevation: 8,118 ft. 7:45 pace. 

Night run on the "west bench" in Salt Lake City

Ran in Salt Lake City with my wife and her brother, Jeremy. Mostly down hill, trying to prepare my body for the down hill course of the Bryce Canyon Half. 

strong run, but no Garmin. Not sure if I was fast or slow. Just ran it. Felt good. 

again, no Garmin. Run felt good though. I was probably in my 7:45 range as usual on a mid-week run. 

Marathon course with my wife and my mom. Good fun! Went by quickly. Averaged 7:45. 

Nice morning. Good run. Mall Dr. to 300 E

Speed Work! Haven't done this for a month. Did 3 minute sprints followed by 3 minute recovery. Avg .50 miles for sprints at 6:00 pace. My recovery lengths averaged .35 miles or 8:30 pace. Did that five times with a half mile warm up and half mile cool down. 

I am rotating between Brooks and Saucony. I love my Brooks! My Saucanys that I wore today give me blisters after about 8 or 9 miles. Just thought I would try them. Liking the Brooks better.

Ran from the top of Smith's Mesa (By Virgin, Utah) out to the Hurricane Walmart. 15 miles. This is a family favorite for a Bryce Half-Marathon training run. It drops quickly and then gives some good rolling climbs at the end. Parallels Bryce really well. First time ever that I chaffed though! It was humid and I had on last year's Bryce shirt, which is kind of heavy and has a lot of ink on the front. My nipples didn't actually bleed, but they sure felt like the should have been!

I hiked 8 miles with Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge. I am a hiking guide there. I ran two of the miles to get me to my 38 for the week. 

just a comfortable 5 after having done Smith's Mesa on Friday

Not much to say. Just a nice six. Caught up with Willy Heinrich for a bit and helped him run in his final 1.5

This was fun. I did 4.5 miles of 3 min sprint / 3 min recovery. I was very consistent on my distances for those three minute blocks. Sprinting, I would hit .5 miles or a 6 min mile. Recovery I would hit .38 miles. Intervals are hard, but rewarding. Having the Garmin hold you accountable is helpful. It's crazy how a little watch that beeps to stay run and beeps to say rest is just as powerful as a coach standing there with a whistle. After doing the interval training, I did a 5.5 mile loop to bring me to 10 for the morning. 

1 mile warm / 1 mile sprint 6:20 / One mile cool down. Just enough to prepare my legs for tomorrows race at Bryce Canyon.

Great Race! Personal Best! My high miles (high for me anyway) of 38 miles a week for the last 5 weeks, except for a sick week, have paid off. I ran faster than I ever have for this distance. 6:21 a mile for 13.1 miles. I am very excited. I was able to control my breathing better and recover more quickly during the race. My legs were also not as fatigued. The weather was great, even cold at the beginning, perfect over all though. I raced it out for the last 3 or 4 miles with Scott Bushar. After about 2 miles we realized we were in different age brackets so we didn't need to keep killing each other. We then just ran it out together. I pulled ahead of him with .5 to go, but then he burst past me with .25 to go. Beat me by a hair. Fantastic race. My wife, my mom, and my brother all got PR's at this year's Bryce too. A very enjoyable day.

Washington parkway loop. Comfortable 10 miles at about a 7:50 pace. Nice recovery run after Bryce Canyon. Wore my Sauconys, but I put band-aids on my big toes so I didn't blister up. Ran from 6:30 to 7:40 am. Beautiful Sunrise created by a very welcomed cloud cover. Saw sheep grazing and ducks swimming. Kind of a nice morning watching the world wake up. 

I felt empowered from getting my PR at Bryce. My high mileage is paying off. I guess I shouldn't have been to eager though, after a fast 13 on Saturday and then 10 on Tuesday, my shins weren't ready for 10 today. At mile 5 I felt a tear and now I have a serious shin splint issue on my left leg. Switching to the bike for a while to keep my hear rate up and stay conditioned without putting stress on my leg. I'll be back on my feet soon. 

Ran at 8,000 feet near Bear River Lodge in the High Uintah Mountains. Beautiful. Got to run with my wife which is always awesome. 

getting back on my feet after a three weeks of recovering from shin splints

Just another three to see how my shins would do running two days in a row. I can feel my shins, but I am icing them and taking Ibuprofen. Let's hope for the best

Ran my wife's 5 mile route. 3050, red cliffs, Arctic Circle, back on 40 N. Shins did well for my first "long" run in 4 weeks

Another 5, ran in my Saucanys to protect my shins, since they are more padded than my Brooks. Felt good. exciting!

Only three miles, nice and easy

Just a little faster, trying out some speed again

Ran with my wife. Works out great to run with her on my way back to my usual training speed. I love being able to run with my wife. Great to have a "date" before the kids are even up and the day is even started. 

Wahoo! 7 again. My shins felt fine. I do feel them kind of flare up at about one mile. After that they chill out and I can run comfortably the rest of the time.

Foremaster with my wife. We both love conquering this giant hill by our home. Excellent hill training. And beautiful view from the top. 

an easy 3 miles before my 10 mile bike ride with my dad. 

After my special event at work I did not get to bed until midnight. So I got up an hour later and split my planned 10 miler into a 5 mile morning run and a 5 mile evening run. Both runs were in 90 degrees! 6:30 a.m. 90° / 8:30 p.m. 90°.  I listened to actual music today. I have been listening to conference talks and an audio book for the last year and I forgot how motivating it is to run to motivating music!

6 with my wife and 3 added on at the end. 

Did a couple of Tempo miles to see how my shins would respond to my marathon pace. Felt great. I just got some compression socks that I wore after the run, for the rest of the day. I think they helped a lot!

I have been running a 9:30 pace with my wife. Figured I better cut loose on my own and kick my cardio up a notch. I have lost some in my effort to lay off my shins. Felt great. Legs are fine. I am encouraged. Planning for 15 on the St. George Marathon course Friday morning. 

Along the marathon course with Danny 8 min/mile

threw in a couple of 6:30's to start telling my body to get ready for Oct 1

Ran with my buddy Nate Bundy. Threw in some 6:30 tempos again.

On the course w/ Danny and my Mom (and friends) felt great. 8 min/miles.

So, this is supposed to be tapering week for the St. George Marathon. I felt I needed one more long run. Because I have been recovering from shin splints I have not hit the miles that I wanted to lately. My brother Danny and I have run the marathon course 3 times together over the last few weeks. I love it! Great time to talk about life and things with him. We averaged a 7:50 pace. My marathon pace is going to be a 6:40-6:45. So I am praying that I can maintain that pace for that distance. I think I can, but I know it will be a hard recovery. 

Ran with my wife this morning. Crazy, but this was the toughest run of my training. One week out. I don't think I was feeling 100%

warm up mile 8:30. 6:57 / 6:05 / 6:20. Fun to run fast, gotta run real fast for a long time this Saturday!

Running in my Saucanys. Letting my Brooks rest for the big race on Saturday. Did 6 miles this morning with 4 tempo miles. 6:40, right where I want to be for the Marathon 6:20 / 6:30 / and 6:53. Felt good. Just listened to my breathing and payed attention to stride, pace and cadence. Realized that I breath out on my right foot strike, and in on the next right foot strike. Sound like fast breathing but I felt okay. It felt like I had three steps for breathing out and two steps for in. I think my heart rate is between 140 and 160 at that pace. I have checked it just using my watch and putting two fingers on my neck. Not very precise I know. Well, off to get another 8 hours of sleep!

3 miles just to work out nerves and keep things tuned up for tomorrow. 26.2 under 3!

Wow! What a journey. I learned a lot. It was the hardest race I have run. My goal was to finally get my sub three....didn't happen. 

I was on pace until mile 23. I still had a about a minute and thirty second cushion, and then BAM, it hit a wall. I wasn't wearing a garmin, but I am sure I did like an 8, an two tens at the end. I just could not maintain. One reason is I my lack of miles in training. I was hoping to be hitting 60 miles a week before the race, but I only got up to 44. I gave myself shin splints after the Bryce Half because I thought I was suddenly a super runner after getting a 1:23. Here's some advice. Don't go do two 10 milers back to back two days after running your fastest race ever. The distance and speed increase gave me shin splints. That caused me to lay of running for 3 weeks and slowly build back up, which caused me to fall short of my mileage goal of 60. 

The other difficult thing was trying to get a cliff shot at the right time. I trained my body on my long runs to use a cliff shot after 50 minutes because  I thought I had read that there would be shots at 7,11, and 18. Not the case. I was begging for one at mile seven just after Veyo, all I got were looks from people like, "What are you talking about?" I felt stupid for asking. Then as I passed the aid station, I caught glimpse of a bunch of boxes of blue packets. I am pretty confident those were cliff shots but I was not going to stop and go back. I pressed on up Veyo hill and up the 4 mile climb by Dameron Valley. There was a surprise cliff shot handed out at mile nine. Double Espresso with extra Caffeine! Heart attack anyone? I offered it up to anyone who wanted it, surprise...no one wanted it. So I chucked it hoping to get a better flavor at 11. No cliff shot at 11! They also looked at me like a was asking for a sports car or a free ride to the finish line. I pressed on, a bit concerned now that my body was going to move into burning it's own fuel since I didn't have anything to give it. 7 miles later, approaching mile 18 I was desperate now for some energy...NO CLIFF SHOT! Not until mile 19 I was told. So I tried to grab an orange out of a bowl, my hand hit the bowl but did not succeed at grabbing an orange, so on I went, hungry, frustrated and kind of sad that I haven't been able to find any food for the last two hours.  Okay...mile 19! I see cliff shot!! I grab the purple on instead of the brown one (just in case the brown one was Espresso with caffeine, or Monster or Red Bull or something else that would spur on a heart attack) Eager for some nutrition and energy, I rip open the packet, got to squeeze it into my mouth and discover that I had ripped the whole side open, not just the top. Suddenly I get a blast of raspberry Cliff Shot on my hand, arm, face and shoulder and a tiny bit in my mouth. I spent the next half mile sucking on my fingers like a Cliff Shot lollipop. Quite defeated and feeling like a bit of a fool, I pray for help. "Lord, Please help my body find some strength from somewhere, I have failed to fuel it, it will have to fuel itself."

At mile 23 I saw my father, who had a cold towel for me! Awesome! I needed that so badly. I had spent the last 4 miles running with a sticky, gooey hand. (Which, by the way, makes grabbing a cup at an aid station tricky. You have to peal the cup of your hand, you can't just throw it.) So I used the towel to clean up, and cool down. Hoping to miraculously make it the last three miles. Well, The last three miles were a harsh, slow, struggle. I walked for the first time in five marathons. I had nothing left. 

The last little kicker was when I was surprised at the last half mile when the 3:05 pacer came up on my tail. Scared me to death! What! I can not be that far off of 3! I somehow found some strength do sprint ahead because I at least had to beat him. Thanks to my turning 35 next January, I still at least qualified for Boston.

Just a crazy crazy race. Glad I did it. I learned a lot. Wasn't my best race but it strengthened me as a runner. 

First run since the Marathon. I have been hiking, biking, and swimming, but I have taken a break from running for a couple weeks. Kind of a nice change for s short bit. Now that I am back on the street, it feels like I have met up a with an old friend.