A clydesdale no more!

Great run in Garden City with Becky.  Absolutely perfect running weather.  My calves are really sore but everything else feels good.  Hope to stretch them out really good today on the wakeboard.

Definitely not the best start to the month.  Didn't drink nearly enough water while at Bear Lake and could feel the effects.  Legs feel a little sore and dead.  I need to start climbing myself out of this hole I have put myself in.

My legs felt very sore this morning.  Is it possible that I am still recovering from the half on Saturday or am I just old and out of shape?  Took a little detour to extend the run to 6 miles instead of 5.  Really want to get back up to 9/day.  I was almost there at the beginning of July.

I am looking at the Mt. Nebo half in September.  Anybody familiar with how steep the canyon is?  Based on gmap-pedometer, it is a very significant downhill but I am not sure that is accurate.

I feel like I am soooooo out of shape.  I feel weak from head to toe.  I have got to find some kind of motivation.  This is driving me nuts.

No more being a baby.  Time to start running again.  Felt like I put in a decent effort but was only able to maintain a 7:50/mile pace.  It felt closer to 7:20 effort.  Surprising how much the fitness level seemed to drop off.

Something about seeing the family taking their goats for a walk always cracks me up.  Their is just something about 5 goats on a leash that is funny.

Just noticed that I ran 8 miles on 8/8.  Completely coincidental.

Both uphill and downhill have become a weakness for me.  I need to tackle this head on so I am going to start incorporating the weekly run to Mueller Park into my training.  Going up was hard but wasn't too bad.  Coming down was a little more difficult than I anticipated.  My legs are not strong enough to generate a fast enough turn over to run efficiently downhill.  It will come back eventually.

Ran down to the LPT.  First 6 miles felt pretty good but the last 2 were a real struggle.  Not sure what happened but it was like somebody flipped a switch and I suddenly lost all of my energy.  At the time, I was wishing that it was only a 7 mile run but am glad that I had the extra mile so I had the opportunity to practice the mental battle.

Usual 5 mile loop.  A little sluggish to start but the last 2 miles felt really good.  I wore my heart rate monitor just for fun.  My HR seemed reasonable for the pace but what do I know?

My endurance is non-existent.  I really struggled through this run.  A 15 mile run used to be a nice relaxing run.  Ran at a pretty leisurely pace but still had troubles the last few miles.  Seriously considered walking the last mile but decided I just wanted the run to be done sooner so I ran it.  This is all part of the rebuilding process so I am not overly concerned.

One of those runs that seemed to take forever.  Some days the miles fly by and some days they slog on forever.  Felt decent during the run but nothing spectacular.

Good run up to Mueller Park.  After 1/2 mile I noticed a runner behind me so it forced me to keep the pace honest.  He followed me until the start of the big climb but I never looked back so I assumed he was there the entire time.  Of course, it would have been better to let him catch up so I would have a running partner.  Being anti-social isn't always the best thing.

Dropped Ash off at his grandpas to mow the lawn and decided to run while he was mowing.  My plan was to run 5 easy miles but my Garmin was dead so I had to guess on the turnaround.  I was feeling pretty good so I decided to stretch it to 6 miles.  Mapped the run when I got home and realized it was actually 7 miles.  Legs were a little sore (as expected) but I felt really good during the run.  Most exciting moment came towards the end of the run when I was bit by a wasp.  I'm sure I looked pretty cool while jumping around.

Just a nice and easy paced run.  Legs felt tired and heavy.

Becky was running the Hobblecreek half so I decided to run the last 8 miles with her.  In order to get to mile 5 I had to run the last 8 miles of the course backwards.  It worked well for my weekly long run.  Dropped her off at the bus loading then killed some time at Walmart because I didn't want to get up there too soon.  Got back to the bus loading area at 6 and saw a ginormous line of people still waiting to get on a bus with no buses in sight.  Figured it was probably going to be a late start.  Started my trek up the canyon even though I knew there would be a good break between my first 8 and last 8 miles.  Kept the pace at a nice and relaxing 8:30 most of the way up.  The climb wasn't too bad but the moster headwind was a bit rough.  Started thinking how fast this race could be if the tailwind coming down held up.  Felt surprisingly good on the way up.  Thought of running up as far as I could before meeting Becky but wasn't sure if I could hold the pace coming back down if I put too many miles in beforehand.  After running 8 miles I stopped and walked for a mile to the mile 4 marker.  Turned and walked back down to the 5 mile marker and waited for the racers to come down.  There was another guy there doing the same thing I was doing so we chatted for awhile.  As usual, Becky arrived earlier than expected.  She averaged 7:10/mile for the first 5 miles.  We held the pace for the first half mile but then it started to slow to a more reasonable pace.  We were still moving pretty well.  We maintained something around 7:30-7:40 effort for the next 5 miles.  Once we hit mile 10 she started to slow a little to 7:55.  It is probably about the right way to run this course.  Hit the first few miles hard then hold on the best you can.  With 0.2 to go I slapped her on the butt and told her to start pushing.  She finished well with a PR of 1:37:27.  Apparently, I wasn't as nice as I could have been during the race.  It came with the best of intentions but telling her that her knee was going to hurt whether she ran fast or slow so she may as well run fast and that she was faster than this and she had to push harder was not as well received as I thought it would be. 

I felt better during this run than I have in awhile.  I wish I would have gone further up the canyon and put in a few more miles but I had no idea I would feel this good.  If I knew how good I would I feel, I would have prepared better and would run the Keercelbboh marathon.

First day of school for the kids so I have to get in the habit of starting my run 2 hours earlier. Started with 3 easy miles then made an attempt at a tempo run.  I only planned on 3 miles at tempo pace because it has been so long since I have done anything resembling speed work.  The pace was definitely slower than what I wanted but it is what I expected (6:41, 6:34, 6:34).  It felt good to get the legs moving.  I have a long way to go to get where I want to be.

One of those runs where you just put it in cruise control and plug away.  I can't think of one interesting thing that happened during the run.  Ran the usual route at the usual pace.

Ran an abbreviated version of my hill run.  Ran from home to Davis Blvd. then ran along Davis to 500 S.  Same mileage as the regular hill run but not as much climbing.  On the way up I decided to push as hard as I could up the steepest half mile from Orchard to Davis.  I was a little disappointed that my heart rate only got up to 173.  That indicates that I need to work on my mental fitness as well.  I felt like I was pushing it to the max but apparently I could have pushed harder. Good solid effort and the burning in my lungs felt good.

Was late getting out the door so I could only fit in 6 miles.  Still trying to adjust to the school schedule.  First mile was a little slow but the rest of the run felt good.  Ankles and achilles are a little tender.  Nothing serious, just making note of it.

Went to the LPT and put in a few miles.  The parkway trail was more busy today than I have ever seen it.  Kept the pace just under 8:00/mile and it felt harder than it should have.  Just noticed that this is the 3rd week in a row that I finished with exactly 44 miles.  Purely coincidental.  I would like to get 15 miles/week more.  Maybe one day.

Felt a very small hint of coolness in the air.  Original plan was for a tempo run but just wasn't feeling it this morning.  Ended up just running a relaxing 6.  The first 3 miles were ridiculously slow.  That is why I decided to push the tempo run to a different day.

Warmed up with 3 easy miles then ran 4 miles at tempo pace.  Started out too fast but it didn't feel too bad.  Eventually settled into a decent pace and finished the first mile in 6:24.  Felt good through the second mile which came in at 6:25.  Something happened during the 3rd mile and I felt like I was running in mud.  My legs had no energy at all.  Struggled to finish in 6:38.  Seriously considered bagging the rest of the run at that point but the start of the 4th mile is down an overpass so I thought that would help jump start my legs.  Was able to get into a decent rhythm and finished the last mile in 6:23 (slightly aided).  Really not sure what happened during mile 3. That portion of my route has always been my least favorite so maybe that had something to do with it.  We are doing a 4 mile hike for a "team building" activity at work today so maybe running hard this morning was not the best idea.

Right achilles tendon has been sore for a few days and it was a little worse today.  My shoes are getting towards the end of their life so that may be the culprit.