El Burro Blanco

6.75 miles in the morning.

Ran with the big boys at practice today. We looped around Webb Hill. Solid group with a solid pace.

6.25 miles in the evening.

Had a huge paper to do for graduate school so I was busy all day and did not get out until about 8:30pm for my run. Ran around Ivins a little bit. It felt good since the sun was down but it was still quite hot.

7.05 miles before practice this morning. Ran from the high school and looped on the DC trail over by the Man of War Bridge. It is always nice running along the trail in the morning. Nice and cool. 

6.50 miles at practice. We ran down to Webb Hill and then had our first day of Meat Grinders. I did 8x1:00min. repeats with the top boys. I ran a couple with some of the girls as well. Solid workout for them. 6x100m barefoot strides on the turf after wards. Big day for the team.

3.60 shakeout miles in Huntsville near Snowbasin. Up here for the 4th of the July. Ran with Katey for a mile and then kept going. I had a huge deer jump out in front of me and cross the road. It was dark so I was scared to say the least. Survived to tell about it though.

6 miles early this morning running around Huntsville. Love running up here. You cannot beat the smell of the trees and hay.

Ran the 1 mile race at Huntsville Park with Norah and family. It turned out to be more a walk but it still was fun.

5 more miles after running to come back in with my sister who did the 10k. She did great and it was fun to see a lot of old faces from when I lived up here.

Happy 4th of July everyone. We truly are lucky to have the freedoms we do. God Bless America.

Met up with Ben Vanbeekum this morning at the North Ogden Divide. We ran to the top of Ben Lomond Peak. He has never done it before so it was quite the experience for him. We started at about 6100 ft and climbed to 9720 ft. Good climbing up to the top and then enjoyed the downhill on the way back. Happy to get a great trail run in this morning. Overcast conditions with a little bit of rain made for one of the best runs of the year.

It has been way too long since I ran with Ben. I think he is part billy goat!

Slept in this morning because I felt like it. Watched the rest of Sherlock Holmes 2 and chilled with Oliver all morning. I love little getaways. We are in Logan for the weekend and I finally got out around noon. It was more hot and humid than expected. It was cooler than St. George so I am not complaining. Took a nice long drink at Lundstrom Park at the end of the run. 

I didn't go as long today because I am doing a longer trail run with Cody and Joe tomorrow. It should be fun.

 Trail Run!

I waited until Cody posted on his blog and then copied and pasted his post. I did tweak it a little though.

Today I was graced with the presence of Mr. Joe Furse and Mr. Cody Draper. Yep, I felt honored.  It was nice to be able to enjoy the sweet trails around Logan with some fellow running nerds.  

My personal goals were to enjoy the run and see some wildlife. On the drive up we saw a cow moose on the side of the road and then when I was leading the parade, two cow elk ran across the trail. Mission accomplished!

Today's mission was to run a large section the Bear100 course (why not?).  We had to do a bit of a shuttle to get the cars all set up, but we still hit the trails just after 6.  We ran from Temple Fork (mile 45.1) to Logan River Aid (mile 69.5) then continued on down the Franklin basin road (2 more miles or so) to the car. 

(This paragraph is from Cody but I still think it is pretty funny). Before we ran today, I looked up Jon's 2010 race splits so that I could have a "ghost runner" so I could get an idea of how fast one must run to break 21 hours on this brutal course.  (* Disclaimer) To be fair, we sort of skipped the first 45 miles and 12K feet of climbing he did before he got to Temple Fork. Plus we called it a day at mile 70 when he got to keep going.  So, even though we destroyed the splits of his ghost runner, he shouldn't feel too bad.

So, the splits I got were these:

Temple to Tony Grove - Jon - 1:45 - Us - 1:15

Tony Grove to Franklin Aid - Jon - 1:50 - Us - 1:27

Franklin Aid to Logan River Aid - Jon - 1:45 - Us - 1:28

Jon - 5:20 - Us 4:10

Yep, your math is right, we ran 2:51 seconds a mile faster.  Take that Ghost Jon! (*see disclaimer above).

Thanks Joe and Cody for a great time!  Joe and I threw down some sub 6 miles over the last 3 miles leaving Cody slightly in the dust. Not by much though!

T-4:26 (10:00)

Elevation: (not that anyone cares...)

5404' vert (Bear100 site)

5800' vert (SportTracks)

5650' vert (Garmin Connect)

Solid end to the week and happy I could get two great trail runs in this week. I think this Logan trail run was one of the best trails I have ever ran. I need to get back up there again. Happy with this quality type of running while on vacation. I am ready to get back and get a solid week of running in with the team before we head up to our summer running camp. It should be fun.

5 miles with some of the boys this morning out in the desert. It is going to be a hot week.

6 more miles in the blazing heat this evening. It was at least 110 degrees when I started but I got lucky with a little bit of cloud cover so it wasn't as bad. I finished my run at my parent's house and then jumped straight into the pool. 

Big workout with the kids this morning. Meat Grinders!!! 8x1:30min. so it was a little longer than last week. Bunch of billy goats on the team this year. Added a mile or so after practice on the track and then took an ice bath.

Way too busy with everything today so only the one run.

Showed up this morning but the Circle was MIA. Still did Clyde's loop by myself though. Nice and warm with 80+ degree weather at 5:30am. I ended up locking my keys in my car. Oops. Thanks for saving me Clyde.

6 more miles with the boys today. We did the Webb Hill extension. The boys ran well considering how hot it was. I am tired.

4 more hot miles this afternoon on my way over to my parent's house for a nice swim. Yeah!

6 miles this morning with the team. We did some baby meat grinders on McGruff's Revenge by the middle school. The kids did very well today. I am getting slow and old. 

4 miles this afternoon with a little bit of cloud cover. Ran over to the parent's house and jumped in the pool. Felt good today.

Ran 3 miles with some of the girls today. Hopefully they keep working hard and improving. Like I mentioned before, I am cautiously optimistic about them this year. I tacked on another 3 miles over to Hidden Valley after practice. 

Body has just been tired lately. I don't know what it is. I got in a nice 7 mile loop in the rain this morning from the high school over to the Bloomington Loop and then back along the DC trail before I ran with the kids. I met up with them and we ran from the DC did a 7 mile loop towards Bloomington. This rain was nice due to the 60 degree weather and lots of rain. It was a nice surprise from all of the 110 degree this week. One of the most enjoyable summer runs I have ever had before. 

Decent week but need to stop being so tired all of the time.

Ran 6 miles with the boys this morning over towards Jake Powell's house in Little Valley. 

Added a little more looking at a sweet dirt loop to do repeats on by Hidden Valley.

Ran 6.5 miles this morning with the girls. We did a warm up to The Spectrum and then did 4x2:00min. dirt repeats by Hidden Valley. Should have made them a little longer for the girls but did not want to over do it with them. Kids club after wards. 

6 more miles in the afternoon in Ivins. Not as hot this afternoon.

Was supposed to run with the Circle this morning but was up until after 2am getting stuff ready for camp. Sorry guys! 

First day of camp up in Brian Head. We set up camp this morning and then went for a good run. I went with the boys for 7 miles. We started at the Lodge and then went out on the Sugar Loaf Mtn. trail. It was relatively "flat" but a solid push for the boys. Nothing like running at 10,000+ ft. to open up the lungs.

I could tell the kids were a little zapped from the elevation so we drove up the main road 3 miles and had the kids run back down to the cabin. They thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess I enjoyed it too.

Woke up early this morning and ran up to Brian Head Peak (11,307 feet). It was absolutely gorgeous up at the top. Ran into a herd of sheep and also a giant buck deer. After the 6 mile run I thought, "I need to come up to Brian Head more often."

We shuttled over to Panguitch Lake and ran a touch over 6 miles. It was a little overcast so it made for an enjoyable run. Glad we made the trip over. It was about 55 degrees for the run!

Had a fun relay race tonight in downtown Brian Head. I found a half mile loop and the teams used sticks as batons. I covered for two teams since they were uneven. I ran just over 3 miles. Solid day.

Got up early again and did another 6 mile run around Brian Head. I explored some trails which was kind of fun. Another cool morning temperature wise.

Ran a good 7 miles this morning with the boys. We went down on the flat section just below the cabin. Their are no flat runs in Brian Head but this was pretty close. Kept the pace solid and enjoyed running by everyone's camp who were making bacon. The boys wanted to stop and ask for some every time.

Glad to have a solid camp in this year. I wanted to go another day or two but it did not work out this year. I am very excited to see what the team does this year. I like the team goals and traditions they set for the year.

5 miles around the high school waiting for the kids to show up.

7 more miles with the team from the DC and doing the trail backwards. A little on the muggy side this morning. Yuck. 

Decent week. I plan on getting at least 70 miles a week. School is really starting to get busy. I hope to just keep getting in the miles.

14 miles this morning. 

6 before practice doing the Webb Hill extension. It was nice and humid so I was drenched from the get go. I didn't know St. George had a monsoon season.

Just over 5 miles with some of the girls. We did 4x1:00min. hard/1:00min. easy in the middle. Great little push for the kids. Core and weights after.

I then did another 3 miles over to Hidden Valley and back. Muggy this morning!

Hot and humid morning run with Clyde. We started at his house, looped around Little Valley Park, caught the DC trail over to the Bloomington Loop, did the loop, came back on the DC trail to River Rd. and then back to Clyde's house. Quite the morning. Luckily we had a few places to enjoy water. We both needed it. Not a dry spot on my shorts this morning. We had to outrun the thunder and lightning which I did not like very much but we both survived. 

Always nice to run with part of the Circle.

9 miles this morning with the boys. It was nice and muggy once again. I cannot believe how muggy it has been. We ran from the high school and into Industrial Park but ended up having to come back a different way due to the flooding in Ft. Pierce. Their is no way we could have crossed the river. It was flowing pretty fast. We did 4x1:30min. hard/1:30min. easy in the middle of the run. Solid push for the A group boys.

5 miles this morning with some of the girls over into the reserve and under the freeway.

6 more miles this afternoon. 3 of them were with the team. Nice cloud cover made the run bearable this afternoon.

4 miles with some of the girls along the golf course. 

Did another 3 miles over to Hidden Valley and back. Nicer temps this morning but still hot.

Ran this afternoon from our house over to my parent's house. I hopped in the pool after. It felt great. Opening ceremonies were a little lame in my opinion.

Ran down the STG marathon course this morning with the guys. Started half way up Veyo Hill and ended at the church. I had to go a touch shorter because I needed to get home for some family stuff. Mostly ran with Clyde and Aaron today. Aaron took off a few miles in and Clyde and I put it into cruise control. We picked it up in some spots but just kept it relaxed. Clyde had to stop for the potty so I took off and pushed the last little bit. 6:15/mile overall. Happy with the effort.

This run may have convinced me to try and do St. George this year. Maybe?

6 miles doing Webb Hill Extension before practice.

4 miles with some of the girls. They were going longer but I had to cut back sooner because of a school retreat I needed to attend for my graduate classes.

3 miles before practice by BHNP.

8 miles with the boys. We did a 3 mile warm up and then did a ladder workout at BHNP. 1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 3:3, 2:2, 1:1. Finished off with a 2 mile cool down. I was very happy with the effort from everyone. The boys continue to impress me.

Easy 3 miles with the team this afternoon. The cloud cover has been great lately.