El Burro Blanco

8 miles in the morning.

I ran with the XC team this morning.  It was a nice and easy run and nothing to exciting to report.

I was at the new high school today and finally got a tour of the place.  WOW!!!  It is awesome.  I have a nice, big classroom and also found out that I have a coach's office in the P.E./gymnasium building.  How lucky can a guy get?  I am unpacking everything and getting more excited for school to start on August 12th.

I got home and did another nice and easy 4 miles with 8x100m strides at the end.  Now it is time to get out and celebrate our new house and new school with Katey over dinner.

I woke up early this morning to go and run part of the marathon course again.  Bill and Dustin did 15 today while Dave, Eric, and me did just over 18.  We kept the pace conversational for the first 8 miles and then stopped to get some water and then take a GU.  We started easing into the tempo and finished the last 6 miles right around 6:00/mile.  Eric pushed it the last 3 and really kicked it in.  Once again it was nice seeing a ton of people running out on the course.  Lots of people getting ready for the marathon this time of year.  I took a nice nap right after I got home.

6 miles in the morning.

16 miles in the evening.

I ran an easy 6 miles with some of the kids on the XC team.  It was good to get the legs moving.  We started mandatory practice this week and it was great seeing a ton of kids out. 

Big workout this morning with Clyde, Dave, Aaron, and Eric.  We met up at the DC and started to battle the elements.  We did a 4 mile warmup, 8 mile tinman tempo, and then a 4 mile cooldown.  A 1/2 mile into the run into started to rain a ton.  The rest of the run consisted of jumping over frogs and praying that I didn't get struck by lightning.  It made the run extremely interesting.  Here are my splits during the 8 mile tempo: 5:44, 5:52, 5:51, 5:51, 5:42, 5:55, 5:46, and 5:47.  I was very happy with the run due to the weather and being very tired from work all day.

12 miles in the morning.

I ran 4 miles before XC practice and then a 6 mile run with 8x100m fartleks today.  It was nice seeing so many kids push it this morning.  I only ran once today because I got another massage from April.  My groin was a little tight so she loosened that up as well as both hamstrings and calves.  It felt really good.  These seem to help out a ton.

4 easy miles in the morning.

16 huge miles in the evening.

I ran an easy 4 miles with the XC team this morning.  It was somewhat hot which was quite surprising to me.

I had a big day at work and got a lot accomplished.  I met with a lot of parents which helped out a ton to get more information on their children.  I met up with Clyde this evening at the DC for another one of our big workouts.  We did a 3 mile warmup, 2 miles at Tinman tempo, 7x 1mile repeats with 200m recovery, and then a 3 mile cooldown.  It didn't rain on us but the wind was blowing extremely hard during the workout.  We ran back and forth on the trail from the bridge out towards Bloomington and then back again.  Here are my mile splits: 5:08, 5:19 - tons of wind, 5:11, 5:07, 5:08, 5:06, 5:04.  I was very happy with the workout this evening.  It was nice chugging along with Clyde and sweating all over the place.

12 miles in the morning.

8 miles in the evening.

I woke at 4 am in order to get 5 miles in before XC practice.  I then did just over 6 miles with the team which included about 2 miles worth of a ladder workout.  It is very similar to an Indian run.  It was a great workout for many of the kids.  They did awesome.  I then did a 1 mile cooldown after practice to call it good.

Club run tonight which consisted of 7 miles with James, Aaron, Eric, and me.  I then added on another mile in order to get my 20 for the day.  For some reason my legs were quite heavy on the run.  I survived though.

6 miles in the morning.

I gave the XC team an easy day so I went out and explored some new trails for some of our runs.  There are a ton of great running trails around the new school.  I hope the kids like some of them.

I got home from a long day of work and went out for a nice and easy 8 miler.  The weather was nice and I was very happy that it wasn't hot.

20 mile run this morning.

I woke up late for some reason and everyone was nice enough to wait for me.  I hopped in the back of Mike's truck because I knew I was in the dog house.  It was cold riding back there.  I deserved it though.  I ran 20 with Bill, James, Eric, and Marci.  My Garmin was acting up so I turned it off and just ran.  I didn't have anything special workout wise but just needed to get the miles in.  Bill took off like a madman and I never saw him until the end of the run.  Eric and I stayed together and slowly picked up the pace at the end while finishing with 8x100m strides.  We had great cloud cover which made the run very enjoyable.  We dealt with a lot of roadkill this morning.  It was quite messy!

15.50 miles in the morning.

6.5 miles in the afternoon.

I woke at 3:30am for my run with Clyde this morning.  We meet at the DC and did a 4 mile warmup, 9 miles at tinman tempo, and then 2.5 miles for a cooldown.  I had to cut the cooldown a touch short due to a meeting I had this morning.  It was nice and dark which made my depth perception all jacked up.  I averaged 5:51/mile for the 9 mile tinman tempo section.  It was nice.

I did an easy 5 miles this afternoon with the XC team.  It was new for many of them having to run in the heat of the day.  They will get used to it though.  I added on another 1.5 by myself in order to try and figure out a course around campus.  I can't believe school starts tomorrow.  Where did the summer go?

10 miles in the morning.

8 miles in the afternoon.

I went out for a nice and easy 10 miles this morning.  Nothing to great but it did feel good to get some easy miles in.  It always seems to refresh the legs.

I had the XC team do a time trial for practice today in order to see where everyone is at.  I was surprised by a lot of kids which made me very happy.  It is great to have 9th and 10th graders be excited about running.  I know I wasn't that pumped up to run at there age.  I ended up doing 8 miles this evening with Hayden.  It was good talking with him.  We ran up into Kayenta which made it really nice.

Big workout this morning.  We were up nice and early.  We are having to do this due to school starting back up.  There seems to be less time each day for me to get everything done.  I met up with Clyde and Dave over at the track.  We did a 3 mile warmup with 2 miles at tinman tempo.  We then hopped on the track and did 8x1000m with 200m recovery.  My times were: 3:08, 3:08, 3:08, 3:09, 3:06, 3:08, 3:09, 3:07.  I was slightly disappointed with the workout.  My times were a little bit faster two weeks ago but I was happy to keep them fairly consistent.  Dave and I did a nice little 4 mile cooldown afterwards.  Very happy to be done for the day.

8 miles in the late evening.

I can't remember the last time I slept in so I figured I out to do it this morning.  I was extremely tired and I wasn't not feeling like running at all.  My legs could use the rest so I wasn't too concerned.  We had the first XC meet of the year for Desert Hills.  It was loads of fun.  I am very excited for this season.  3 of my girls placed in the top 8.  The girl who took second was right up with the front runner.  The boys did well also.  We are young and this was the first XC meet for many of them.  I am really looking forward to the meet on Saturday at Hurricane.  I need to scope out the 3A competition. 

I was so motivated by my kids that I went out for my run when I got home kind of late.  I ran 8 miles up into Kayenta.  The moon was out and it was extremely beautiful and serene.  I could have kept on running for a while but I needed the sleep.  I miss the occasional late evening run.

10 miles in the morning.

8 miles in the afternoon.

I was feeling pretty fresh this morning especially with the quick turn around from last night's run.  I went out towards the Shivwits Indian Reservation on old Highway 91.  It was quiet without any of the cars.  This made the run quite enjoyable.

It was nice and toasty this afternoon.  I kept it real easy and just went out in order to get the miles.  Got honked at twice though by crazy people.  You got to love them.

I woke up early and met up with Dave and Clyde for our run this morning.  We had to go early due to the cross country meet out at Hurricane.  We started at the store and ran all the way out to the Shivwits Reservation and back.  We kept it nice and relaxed for the first 15 miles and then dropped the pace a little bit each mile for the remainder of the race.  It felt good but I was fairly tired once I was done.  Very glad to be done with the week.  Next week the mileage will be cut back and I will be able to get some much needed rest.  Alright! 

16 mile workout this morning.

I was supposed to do 3 miles of warmup with 2mi-1mi-2mi-1mi-2mi at LT with a couple minute rest in between with 5 miles of cooldown.  I woke up and my stomach was not feeling that great.  I was a little nervous going into the workout.  I hit the first 5 miles at: 5:17, 5:19, 5:20, 5:21, and 5:27.  They weren't the times I was looking for this morning but I really wasn't feeling that great.  I ended up stopping and puking for about 5 minutes on the side of the road.  I was really dehydrated and figured I give the next mile a go.  I hit 5:36 and knew that I was spent.  I bagged the last 2 miles and jogged back home for a 7 mile cooldown instead of a 5 mile cooldown.  I haven't felt that great throughout the day so hopefully I can get some more fluids in me and get better.  I was a little disappointed with the workout but I guess you can't do much when you are sick.  Bummer!  You can't always have great workouts though.

12 miles in the morning.

5 miles in the afternoon.

I woke up feeling pretty good this morning.  I went from my house out through Kayenta and then on to Highway 91 for about a mile.  I couldn't believe how big Kayenta is.  There are also some really big houses.  I felt good and kept it nice and relaxed.  I picked it up at the end of the run just a bit.  Not too much though!

I ran with the team a little bit this afternoon.  It is nice seeing a lot of these young kids progress and improve.  It seems like they are improving on a daily basis.  I am having them do more speed work within their runs which is something totally foreign to many of them.  I hope it brings good things for the future.

5 miles in the morning.

8 miles in the afternoon.

I slept in a touch and ran 5 easy miles up towards Snow Canyon State Park.  I was thrilled to sleep in.

I ran a good run this afternoon with the cross country team.  We did 5.5 miles w/ 8x20sec. fartleks thrown in there.  I am slowly increasing the amount of speed workouts with the team.  I don't want to overdo it though and get them burned out.  I tacked on a couple more miles by myself aftewards.

I did a nice and easy 10 miles this afternoon in the heat.  Nothing to terribly exciting to report.  The body is responding well to the lower mileage week.

Another nice and easy 9 miles this afternoon.  I was hoping to run the TOU 1/2 tomorrow but I have a meet up in Cedar.  It should be a good one.  I will most likely do some sort of progressive tempo run tomorrow morning in order to simulate the race I would have done.  Yeah!

16 miles in the morning.

4 miles in the afternoon. 

 I only had time for 16 miles this morning due to the cross country meet up in Cedar.  I kept the first 8 miles leisurely but had to make a couple potty stops (3).  I don't know what is up with my stomach.  I started having some issues so instead of the progression run I decided to do 6 miles at tinman tempo.  I was able to hit 6 miles all right around or just under 6:00/mile.  I wasn't feeling that great but was happy to survive the run. 

I got home from the meet and went out for another 4 miles.  I wanted to get at least 2 good miles in so I hit the last 2 miles at 5:29 and 5:14.  I was happy with this considering it wasn't the best week of running for me.  Now it is time to watch the Olympic Marathon and get motivated to keep training hard in order to get ready for Twin Cities.
 

12 miles in the morning.

6 miles in the afternoon.

I ran my usual route up through Kayenta out to Highway 91.  It was nice and cool this morning so it made the run very enjoyable.  Almost had a run in with an owner and his dog but I survived luckily.

I ran a couple fartleks with the XC team this afternoon.  I then tacked on a few more miles and then did 8x100m strides at the end.  Today was a great day of running.  It was a much better start to the week than last week.

10 miles in the morning.

4 miles in the afternoon.

I had a nice run this morning.  My Garmin was acting up and actually started subtracting mileage instead of adding it on.  I figured it out and everything was fine.  I am glad that the watch isn't messed up.  I rely on my watch so heavily. 

A nice and easy 4 miles with the XC team this morning in preparation for the meet tomorrow at Cedar.  Hopefully the team can do well again.

16 miles in the morning.

5 miles in the afternoon.

Big workout this morning at the DC with Clyde and Dave.  We did a 5 mile warmup and then did 7 miles at MP tempo with a 4 mile cooldown afterwards.  It is really weird running that early because it is so dark and difficult at times to figure out depth perception.  I didn't want to hammer it but just hit sub-5:30/mile.  I averaged 5:26/mile overall and hit the last couple miles at 5:20 pace.  This felt good and I didn't exert myself to much.  I am feeling really good right now for Twin Cities.  I hope I can have another month of solid training before the marathon.

An easy 5 before we headed up to the XC meet at Cedar.  It was nice and toasty.

12 miles in the morning.

7.35 miles in the afternoon.

The usual run out through Kayenta.  It was actually cool this morning.  It felt really nice.  Nothing to exciting.  I saw 2 shooting stars though.

A hot 7.35 miles this afternoon.  I went exploring around the high school for new runs.  I found some good ones that the kids will hopefully enjoy.  It was nice and toasty.

12.75 miles in the morning.

6 miles in the afternoon.

I did another nice and easy run this morning.  I ran down by Snow Canyon High School into the valley and back again.  It felt good.  Nice seeing a lot of people out this morning. 

Another hot 6 miles in the afternoon.  I did a hill repeat workout with the team by the school.  They weren't too happy about it but they all did awesome and it was nice to see them push each other.  Now it is time for a nice long weekend.  I have lots of yardwork to do and plenty of sleep to get caught back up on.

Met up early with a bunch of people at Vernon Worthen Park and drove up the marathon course.  Clyde, Dave, and I had a big workout for today.  We did a 4 mile warmup, 10x2-min. at CV pace with 1-min. recovery, 3 mile tinman tempo, and then cooldown for the rest which was about 3.5 miles.  The warmup went by pretty quick and then we got into the nitty gritty stuff for the run.  I stayed relaxed and focused on pushing the 2 minutes strong.  I looked at my watch and at times it was showing 4:15ish pace.  I stuck between 4:20-4:50 pace for the 2-min. sprints.  These felt really good.  The tinman tempo felt really easy today and then the legs were really tired during the cooldown.  My quads were trashed afterwards but I got a decent stretch in and called it a day.  I should be ready to go for another big week next week.

Now for yardwork for the rest of the day.  Yeah!