El Burro Blanco

8.55 in the morning.

8.50 in the evening.

It felt great getting up this morning and getting in a solid 8.5 miles.  I went over by the DDO in Ogden.  Their was not very much traffic so it was awesome.  I pushed it this morning and did a couple miles just under 6:00 pace and finished with an overall pace of 6:29.  It felt nice to get the muscles really moving.

I worked outside for the entire day at my job but got in another nice run this evening.  I was up in Ogden Valley and ran a route that took me along Pineview Resorvoir.  A little over 4 miles of the route was up and down trail running.  It was good to get away from everything.  It was nice and quiet and nothing but a lot of horse dung!  I guess it doesn't compare to all the desert tortoises down in sunny St. George!  I forgot how fun trail running is.  I did a fair amount of it while I was going to school at Utah State.  I will have to do more of it.  Overall pace was 6:56.  The stomach flu bug is all gone!  I am going to try and shoot for 16 miles tomorrow so I can hit 70 miles for the week.  I might have to break it into two runs because I have to work tomorrow.  I am liking the two-a-days though.

I had to split my runs into two today because I had to work.  I wanted to do one long run.  Oh well!

8.00 in the morning.

8.00 in the afternoon.

I ran out to Mariott/Slaterville this morning.  I felt good and did not want to push that much.  It was a nice run.

The run this afternoon was really hot.  I had to do it when the temperature was hovering close to 90 degrees.  I ran the same trail run as yesterday.  My neck was really black after the run because of all the bugs that were pasted to me!  I swallowed a bug or two so I have had my protein for the day.  I got to 70 miles this week which was more psychological than anything.  I did not like being sick so I wanted to push myself these last two days.  I think I am shooting for anywhere between 70-75 miles next week.  Overall, I am pleased with the week of running.

6.00 in the morning.

6.00 in the afternoon.

I was a little tired this morning but I got in a good 6 miles.  I felt really good afterwards.  I am making sure that I stretch before and after my runs.  It seems to make me more loose and the legs are not as tight.  After work I went and was feeling really good so I pushed it.  I averaged 6:04 pace for the entire run.  Their were 3 decent hills and the wind was blowing a bit so I was pleased with my pace.  I am going to make sure I start doing speed workouts this week.  I did them a lot in the past and haven't done much lately.  If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.  I was happy with both runs today.

7.00 in the morning.

6.00 in the afternoon.

I had a good run out towards Fremont High School and was going along great until on the way back I had to stop because of a train.  I wish I lived out in the country.  I didn't push it to hard and the run felt great.  I was up in Ogden Valley and did another 6 in the afternoon.  It was overcast and the wind was blowing quite a bit so the pace was slow (6:52 overall).  It was nice not running in really hot weather.  I really hope it rains.  We could use the moisture!

I did all 12 miles together today.  The weather was terrible.  The rain was coming down hard and sideways with the wind blowing all over the place.  I decided to stick to the treadmill today instead of killing myself outside in the middle of the week.  I started out at a 7:30 pace and moved all the way up to a 6:39 pace at the end.  It was good putting all the miles together today.  I was watching Sportscenter and then the rerun of Scripps National Spelling Bee came on.  I have come to the conclusion that I am not smarter than a 12 year old.  Those kids are smart!  Serrefine was the winning word.  May I have the definition please?  I am glad it is raining because we needed the moisture.  Hopefully I can get back outside tomorrow. 

I did 6 miles this morning.  I started out at a 7:30 pace and did that for 2 miles and then moved up to a 6:18 pace for the last couple of miles.  It was a nice run.  I am glad that the rain is clearing up.  I am going to go and do some 400's at the track this evening after work.  I am planning on doing 12.  The rain was really nice to have but I am looking forward to more beautiful sunshine the rest of the weekend!

I got out and did some interval work on the track.  It was great!  It has been a while since I have done it.  I started out with 2 miles to warm up and then hit it hard.  I was shooting for all under 1:20.  Here they go as follows:

1- 1:11                     7- 1:14

2- 1:14                     8- 1:15

3- 1:10                     9- 1:13

4- 1:12                     10- 1:13

5- 1:10                     11- 1:12

6- 1:12                     12- 1:15

I was really pleased with my times.  I felt really good.  I did each 400 with a 200 meter recovery jog in between.  I finished up with a mile cool down and then called it a night.  I will make sure I do this once a week.

I did two easy recovery runs today due to the speed work from last night.  I did 6 miles in the morning and then another 4 in the afternoon.  I am doing the Cache Valley Biatholon with my father-in-law tomorrow.  I am running the 5 miles and then he is biking the 16 or so miles.  I did not want to push it to much.  My father-in-law wants to do really well tomorrow.  We shall see!

I did the Cache Valley Biathlon with my father-in-law today.  I ran the 5 miles in just under 28 minutes.  It was a nice VO2 max run for me.  I came in second and felt good considering I was going to do another 10 afterwards.  My father-in-law is close to 60 years old and biked 16.5 miles in 49 minutes.  Our total time was 1:17:10 or so.  I think we took 15th place overall.  My father-in-law had tears in his eyes because he beat a lot of younger hot shots on their bikes.  He has a bad neck and usually rides a recumbent bike but this year he did the ride on an upright.  A little side note.  My wife did the whole thing by herself and did awesome.  It was her real first race ever.  I am so proud of her.  The race was in Wellsville so I ran from there all the way back into Logan.  My legs were feeling good so I pushed a few miles at threshold pace.  The entire run was at a 6:07 pace.  It was a great run.  I thought I was going slower but I was cruising along for a while at marathon pace.  I think the speed workouts are helping.  It was a great day of running and biking for the Fielding family!  I was really happy to hit 75 miles this week.  It felt good.  

6 in the morning.

6.5 in the afternoon.

I was a bit tired this morning so I did not push it to much.  I did the 6 miles at a 6:26 pace.  I also knew that I had a long day of work ahead of me so I wanted to take it a little slow.  I got out the door at 8 PM.  The wind was blowing a bit but I was surprisingly not tired.  I did a tempo run for the first 3 miles.  I was just under 18 minutes.  I slowed down just a little and finished with an average pace overall of 6:11.  I was a little taken back considering their were a couple hills with the wind.  I'll take this run.  It was a nice start to the week.  Something interesting did happen on the run though.  3 birds came really low and started following me and continued to chirp at me for about a quarter of a mile.  It was really different.  Hopefully I didn't hurt there feelings and make them mad!

8 miles in the morning.

6 miles in the evening.

I did a nice slow recovery run this morning at a 6:58 pace.  It loosened up the legs and felt really good.  I ran into those crazy birds from yesterday again.  I don't know what the deal is.  I was pretty tired after work but once I started running, I was feeling really good.  I did the first 3 miles at a 6:20 pace and then did the last 3 miles at marathon pace.  The sun was still beating down and it was fairly hot.  The legs were feeling really great tonight.  I was quite surprised considering how tired I was.  Another good day of running.

7 in the morning.

7 in the afternoon.

The morning run was pretty decent.  I did it at an average pace of about 6:30.  I didn't push it to much but it did feel good.  After work I was going to do a little bit slower paced run but I ended up having to go faster than I originally wanted due to church responsibilities.  I pushed at threshold pace for a mile or so and ended up with an overall pace of 6:18.  Not to bad of a day for running.

6 miles in the morning.

8 for the speed work out.

I did a nice slow run this morning.  It was pretty hot but I was glad to get out anyways.  I did the entire run at about a 7:10 pace.  I did  12 x 400m this evening at Weber High's track.  I did 2.25 miles to warm up and another 1.25 miles to cool down.  Here are the times as follows:

1- 1:12         7- 1:11

2- 1:10         8- 1:10

3- 1:10         9- 1:09

4- 1:10         10- 1:10

5- 1:09        11- 1:10

6- 1:10        12- 1:10

I did 200m recovery runs in between.  My times were faster than last week which made me very happy.  I got to my speed work a little late tonight because I was out with my wife.  It was nice to get this in though.

I was a bit sore this morning and slept in a bit.  I had to pick up my Mom from the airport so I didn't get my first run in until about 10:30.  It was hot to say the least.  I did my run at a 7:06 pace.  I will probably do another 6 miles this afternoon.  I have my "redneck" family reunion this evening and it goes all day tomorrow.  I went out after work and ran a 5 mile trail run at about a 7:15 - 7:30 pace.  It was a good run.  I kicked a black animal that came out of the bushes.  I think it was a bird but I was pretty scared.  Hopefully I didn't hurt it!

My "redneck" reunion got started off last night with lots of people drinking.  I wasn't amused and went to bed.  This people are still family and I only see them once or twice a year.  I woke up at 5:30 and went out for a run from Cherry Hill.  I went through Farmington and got all the way to Centerville.  I could not believe how many rolling hills their were.  It was quite a hilly run.  Some hills were pretty steep and went on for close to a mile or so.  I tried pushing it and was only able to hit VO2 max pace once for half a mile.  I would be running along and then another big hill would come up.  I tried pushing it up the hills and it was a nice workout.  My overall pace was 6:31.  I was really happy with this week of running.  I found out the other day that I am doing the Wasatch Back Relay next weekend.  I am doing it with my friend's brother-in-laws.  It will be something different and should be fun.  I have the 1st, 12th, and 25th legs.  I was pleased with my running once again this week.  I am slowing trying to increase my mileage per week.      

8 in the morning.

7 in the evening.

I did the morning run at a slow pace.  I did not want to "kill" myself on the first run of the week.  I started out a 7:30 pace and slowly worked my way up to a 7:08 pace.  It was a nice run to start the week off.  After working outside for most of the day I was a touch tired.  I got some water in me and took a short break.  I got going and was feeling pretty good.  I decided to do some marathon pace miles this evening.  I went out and my first mile was 6:15 to warm up.  I then did 5:58, 6:01, 5:58, 5:54, and 5:55 for the marathon pace miles.  I then cooled down with a 6:34 mile.  Overall time was 42:35 with an overall pace of 6:05.  It was the perfect weather to go and do a run like this.  It was nice to have it not so hot today.

8 miles in the morning.

7 miles in the evening.

I went out and the weather was great.  It was not to hot and not cold.  I thought the weather was perfect.  I did the run with a 6:39/mile average.  I saw a couple dogs and thought they were going to come after me but they didn't.  They were really harmless.  I am going to do my speed workout tonight because I have the WBR this weekend and want to have some time to rest the legs with some slower paced runs before the race.  I got to my speed workout late again.  My wife and I had some money issues we were talking about.  I went up to Weber High School again and did my workout.  I did 2.25 miles to warm up and then did 8 x 400m with 200m recovery jogs in between.

1- 1:08     5- 1:08

2- 1:10     6- 1:10

3- 1:10     7- 1:11

4- 1:10     8- 1:11  (legs were really sluggish)

I then did 4 x 200m.  The first two were :33 and the last two were :32.  I then did 1.25 miles to cool down.  I was pretty tired tonight but glad that I went out and got this workout done. 

6 miles in the morning.

8 miles in the evening.

The morning jog was pretty much a recovery run at 7:24/mile.  I couldn't run as much as I wanted to because I had to get to work.  I ran this evening at about the same pace as this morning.  Nothing to exciting about either run.

6 miles in the morning.

6 miles in the evening. 

I did another nice run this morning. I am not wanting to push it to much because of the WBR tomorrow. I found out that my team name is Soar Feet. Our starting time is right at noon. I am the first runner so it will be nice and hot! I did another easy 6 miles this evening.  I am excited for the weekend.  The WBR will be something different.  It should be fun!

I was the first runner on my team (Soar Feet).  We were in the mixed division.  My team had a couple women on it that have done a few marathons and also a couple men that have done a marathon or too.  One guy on the team has done a bunch of ultra-marathons.  He and I were in the same van so I talked with him about the possibility of doing an ultra-marathon.  I got a lot of great input from him and will most likely pace him during the Wasatch 100 in September.  He is a really nice guy.  The 1st leg was really hot starting at Noon but it was nice to get us started off on the right foot.  I ran the 5.1 miles at 5:48/mile.  It got really hot quick.  I didn't want to go and kill myself right at the first.  It was fun to get going with the race though.  I was in the first van and we got done about 4:30 PM.  We took a short break and then I ran again at 7:50.  I ran the downhill section (13th leg) from Snowbasin.  I was flying down the mountain at a good pace.  I hit under 4:00/mile pace and realized I was going way to fast.  I was moving and ended up with 5:13/mile pace.  It was the longest section of the relay (7.8 miles) so I was glad to do that for my team.  The first van got done and then we tried to get some sleep before we started again in the morning.  I maybe got an hour in before I had to run.  I ran into Ruth and Ally from the Pine View team.  They recognized my singlet so we chatted for a little bit.  Dave is going to have a really good cross country team this year.  He has a couple of really good runners!

I started my last leg (25) at 4:10 in the morning.  I was still really sleepy but I was fine once I got going on my run.  I was at about a 5:30/mile pace when a mile into it I got a really bad side stitch on my right side.  I was rubbing it out and trying to take short quick breaths to get rid of it.  I had to slow down a bit which made me really frustrated.  I was passing a younger guy and he pulled behind me and drafted for a little bit.  The wind was blowing right in my face and I wasn't feeling the best but I was not going to allow this guy to let me do a bunch of the work for him.  I got going and left him really fast.  The side stitch went away a little bit but I wasn't able to go very fast.  I ended up doing 6:36/mile pace for the entire thing.  It was up hill and with the wind blowing it didn't make for the most enjoyable run.  I was bummed out to have a bad last leg but oh well.  I enjoyed this race a lot.  It was something totally different and I met some really nice people.  I had no idea who was on my team except my friend's two brother-in-laws.  I wanted to run a little more this afternoon but ended up sleeping because we went to the RSL game.  They got the first win of the season which was fun to be at.  Congrats to all who ran and especially the Marathongis.com team!  Nice job on the 3rd place finish.

8 miles in the morning.

8.25 miles in the evening.

I got up this morning feeling a little sore.  My hip flexors and quads had most of the pain.  I got out and did a nice recovery run.  I was between 7:10 and 7:30 pace for most of the time.  It felt good to get out and loosen up the muscles.  My legs felt better after the run this morning.  I took a nice cold bath which helped out even more.  I came home from work and took a short two hour nap and then went out again when the sun was going down.  I went out towards Marriott/Slaterville.  The weather was perfect and I did this run at a 7:00/mile pace.  My legs were feeling much better but my quads were still a touch sore.  I just enjoyed this run and did not push too hard.

8.25 miles in the morning.

9 miles in the evening.

I did the same run as last night.  I was at about a 7:30/mile pace the first 3 miles and then started getting some spring back into my legs.  The weather was pretty warm and I ended up doing the entire run at a 6:40/mile pace.  It is always nice once the legs don't hurt as much.  That is always a good thing.  For one reason or the other I ended up doing my evening run on the treadmill.  The weather was really hot outside so I decided to run on the treadmill.  I warmed up at 7:30 pace for one mile and then bumped it up to 7:03 pace for the next three miles.  I then bumped it up to 6:39 pace for three more miles and then 6:15 pace for the last two miles.  My legs felt really good this evening.  I think most of the lactic acid build up is gone.  Thank heavens!

5 miles in the morning.

16 miles in the evening.

Nothing to exciting to report about the run this morning.  I am planning on doing something a little different this evening.  I did a fast hike/trail run up to Ben Lomond Peak.  I went with a friend and started at the North Ogden divide and went up.  It was absolutely perfect weather.  It was just me and him with three motorcycle riders that we saw.  I got blisters 2 miles in but I felt fine when I ran instead of hiking.  It gave me a good excuse to run though.  I wasn't worried about pace but just wanted to enjoy this run.  It got kind of dark on the way back and I almost rolled my ankle a couple of times.  I was careful and everything worked out.  I was pretty tired after this fast hike/trail run and will probably not do it to much.  My friend really wanted to do it so we tried it out.  It was nice to do something a touch different for a run.  I will definitely call this my hill workout for the week.  I hope I can get some mileage in the next couple of days because I am going to Youth Conference for the next couple of days.  It should be exciting!

8 miles in the morning.

I woke up and ran at about 5:45 this morning because we left for Youth Conference a touch after 7.  I procastinated the "day of my packing" so I wasn't able to do many more miles.  I did the miles at a 7:30/mile pace and was just happy to get in the miles this morning.  I was still feeling the effects of last night's run a bit.  We arrived in Manti and went with the youth to the temple to do some work there.  It was amazing to be there.  It was really peaceful to be in Manti.  It is a really small town and we pretty much had the place to ourselves today.  We played a lot of games and ate some good food.  I feel really lucky to work with the youth.  They are so amazing!

6.5 miles in the morning.

I wasn't planning on running at all today but their was a young man that ran in high school who is getting ready for a 5K on the 4th of July.  He asked if I wanted to go.  I knew I should have brought my running stuff.  I did have my old running shoes so I borried some shorts (they were way past my knees!) and went from Manti almost to Ephraim.  It was nice to get out and run with him.  It wasn't at a fast pace but we were probably between a 6:30-7:30 pace the whole time.  We saw a couple of dead snakes on the side of the road that made me jump.  I think they were diamondbacks!  I hate snakes with a passion.  I am glad that he got me going.  The lesson I learned is to take my running stuff with me wherever I go.  I know better than that.  We got back to camp and then went on a 3 mile hike with everyone and saw some petroglyphs that were nearby.  We played more games and then did a "Faith walk" at dusk.  It was a great experience that I will always remember.  We also had a judge from the town of Manti who came and told us the history of how Manti was established and also how the temple came to be built.  I was once again taken back by how wonderful the youth are in the ward.  They all get along and have such strong testimonies.  It has been a great Youth Conference.  I am glad that I could be a part of it.

13 miles in the afternoon.

We got up and had a yummy pancake breakfast, packed our stuff, and then drove home.  I had a nice nap which was much needed.  I hope all of the youth had a good time at Youth Conference.  I know that I did.  I got home and wanted to run a fast 13 miles.  I warmed up at a 7:18/mile pace for 2 miles and then went right into 9 miles at marathon pace (6:00/mile).  It felt really good so I went up to 5:45/mile pace for a mile and then 5:27/mile pace for half a mile and then up to 5:12/mile pace for the last half mile.  This run felt really good and I am glad that I got it in.  I am looking forward to the Blacksmith Fork 15K on the 4th.  I hope to do well in it.  I am glad that I reached 80 miles this week.  I was looking to doing more but Youth Conference came into play.  It was a nice work.