El Burro Blanco

I drove up early this morning too Logan with James.  I woke up at 5 to get there.  We met up with the ATK running club and mooched off their food and drinks.  Thanks again Jon to you and your friends.  We started at mile 3 of the TOU marathon course and ran up to the starting line and then back down Blacksmith Fork Canyon.  James, Jon, Paul, and me ran at an easy pace at the start to get loosened up.  Had to stop twice to get the port-a-potty duties taken care of.  Paul and I went out for a fast 9 miles.  Paul wanted to hit under 5:20/mile pace for a while.  The first 11 miles of the run were at about 6:55/mile pace.  They splits went as follows when Paul and I took off: 5:24, 5:22, 5:18, 5:19, 5:14, 5:34, 5:20, 5:31, 5:34, and then 5:41 for the last quarter mile.  It got hot really fast during the run.  We stopped around mile 18 and downed some water and gatorade.  I slowed down a bit because the quads and calves were a little sore.  Paul went out about 30 to 40 yards ahead of me and then slowed down for the last mile or so for a short tempo run.  Paul and I agreed that it will be nice to not have to many more of these workouts.  It was nice running with Paul and really pushing the pace.  St. George is just a little over a month away!

6 miles in the early morning.

12.50 miles in the evening. 

I wanted to sleep in a touch today but I woke up at 5:30 to go for a 6 miler because I was going golfing with my father-in-law. I wanted to keep the pace slow but ended up have to push it a little bit to get home on time. I averaged 6:38/mile pace for the entire run.  I went couch shopping all day with Katey and the in-laws.  I was pretty tired so I was able to take short mini naps while they did most of the shopping.  Labor Day is busy with people couch shopping all over town.  I decided that if I fell asleep quick that should be the couch we need to buy.  I think I fell asleep a couple times in the couches that cost over $2,000.  Go figure!  I got back to the in-laws and took a nap to really get refreshed.  I went out around 7:00 and went almost all the way to Sky View High School.  It was a nice out and back 6 mile route.  Their are quite a few steep hills and then a few down hills.  It really got the legs working.  Lunch wasn't sitting to well but I survived.  I did the run at 6:42/mile pace.  Nice start to the week.

16.00 miles in the early evening.

Tonight had to have been one of the most interesting runs I have ever done.  I was getting ready to go out for my run when I saw the thunder and lightning.  I went straight back inside and waited for it to go away.  About an hour later the sun came out and the weather was nice and cool.  I got about 4 miles into it and the rain and wind came pretty quick.  I was running up towards North Ogden and eventually made it over into Pleasant View.  I got to Weber High and found shelter for about 15 minutes under the ticket booth.  It was down pouring and the wind was really bad.  It "cleared" up just enough for me to go back out.  I got another 3 miles of just wind and then the lightning and rain came back.  Luckily my cousin and her fiancee lived close by and I stopped at their house to wait for it to "clear" up.  I went back out after a 10 minute wait and finally made it home.  I was not worried about pace at all today.  It was more about survival.  I realized once again tonight how crazy us runners really are!  I was happy to get the 16 miles in though. 

16 miles in the afternoon.

I did the same route as yesterday except today their was no thunder and lightning.  There was a little bit of wind though.  I did the first 8 miles up to Weber High at a 6:23/mile pace.  The wind made me push a little harder.  I felt great and decided to push it home.  I did 5 miles at about a 5:51/mile pace.  Today's run felt really good.  I did the entire run at 6:12/mile pace.  It didn't feel to bad and I am glad to have another good long run in.  I think I will do my track workout tomorrow sometime.

4.00 miles in the morning.

13.00 miles in the evening. 

I did a nice and easy 4 miles this morning. I did not worry at all about pace. I had to put a long sleeve shirt on because it was pretty cold. I haven't worn a long sleeve shirt in a long time.  I knew I had the big workout ahead of me this evening.  I did 6 easy miles to get warmed up and then went over to Ben Lomond High School after all the football games were done.  I did interval work that I did with Paul.  It has seemed to work really well.  I did a half mile warm up around the track and then did 8 x 1000m with 200m recovery jogs in between.  I had to stop for a second or two after the second one because I got a side stitch.  I rubbed it out and it felt alright.  Here are the times as follows: 3:07, 3:08, 3:09, 3:10, 3:09, 3:10, 3:10, 3:09.  I was real happy to keep all of them under 3:10.  It was a nice push.  I had to deal with some punk kids that were standing in my way and trying to take my picture on their cell phone.  I had the shirt off and I'm sure they were wanting to post it on MySpace or YouTube.  I "politely" asked them to get off the track and they were nice enough to do it.  I ran back to the house for a nice cooldown.  I was happy to get this workout in. 

I went out for a relaxed run. I realized that I have not gone out and not worried about pace. It was really hot this afternoon but the pace was slow. The heat made it easy to go slow. I went out by the BDO and then through the fairgrounds. Nothing to exciting to report. Glad to get in the miles today.

I had to get out quick this morning because I had a bunch of duties that I needed to do at my cousin's wedding. I went up too North Ogden and got the wonderful uphills and downhills. These will help for St. George. Glad to hit 100 miles again for the week.

I came home from work and took a short nap.  I felt really good afterwards and decided that I wanted to take it easy for a few miles and then hit a couple miles below 6 minute pace just to get the legs moving.  I did my usual route up towards North Ogden.  I did the first 7 miles at a 6:50/mile pace.  The wind picked up a bit but I still decided to push it.  I did 4 miles at: 5:50, 5:28, 5:26, and 5:19/mile pace.  It was nice to really move with a little bit of wind.  I am getting excited to join the pacing group for Jon on Saturday.  I hope we can help him out.  I averaged 6:24/mile for the entire run.  The weather was perfect.

5 miles in the morning.

10 miles in the evening.

Easy 5 miles this morning on the new treadmill.  I just wanted to try it out.  I prefer running outside to the treadmill.  It will work though if I ever need to use it.  I went out a little late tonight and did my route on some fairly decent hills.  I think this will be the last hill workout before TOU.  I did the entire run at 6:32/mile pace.  I am pleased with that considering the hills.  The legs felt good tonight.

6 miles in the morning.

9 miles in the evening.

I did a nice relaxed run early this morning at a 7:24/mile pace.  Once again, nothing terribly exciting to report.  I got home from a long meeting after school today and kicked myself out the door.  Their was a huge fire on the mountain just above the house.  It wasn't fun breathing this in.  I decided on flat roads today.  I went out into the BDO and then came back.  It was a relaxed run at 6:50/mile pace overall.  The legs are feeling alright for Saturday.  It should be fun.

6 miles in the morning.

6 miles in the evening.

Another easy 6 miles this morning when I woke up.  The fire was still burning quite a bit.  This doesn't help with the air quality when I am out running.  I went up too Perry and ran along the canal trail with James.  It was a nice, slow pace.  He was sick and got rid of a ton of excess fluid.  Hopefully he starts feeling better.  I will probably run a couple miles tomorrow and be set for TOU on Saturday. 

4 easy miles when I got up too Logan just to keep the legs loose.  Katey and I went over too Paul's house for the runner's blog dinner.  It was nice finally meeting Steve, Sasha, Kory, Adam, and the others.  Tomorrow should be good.

I was going to write a huge report on this race but today was all about Jon. He typed it up very eloquently on his blog so I will let you all look on his blog to see how the race went. I will mention that it was nice running with Paul, Adam, Steve, Bill, and Jon. I did do 1/2 mile warm-up before and after the race. I got a PR on a training run and it felt great. My legs weren't that sore and it made me that much more confident to let it loose and see what happens at St. George. A couple side notes: Paul had to use the potty twice and I had to use it once! At least we were both well hydrated. Also, Paul's time was 2:39:22:50 and my time was 2:39:22:54. He stuck his neck out just a little farther than me. My consolation for taking 3rd in my age division was a smaller moose trophy! Paul and I decided that we should each take a turn keeping the 2nd place trophy in our houses. Paul is so kind. The Garmin measured a little long due to all of the tangents during the race.  Here are the splits that I had but remember to check out Jon's blog:

1-5:54 14-5:46

2-6:02 15-5:54

3-5:53 16-6:02

4-5:48 17-5:58

5-5:59 18-6:07

6-5:54 19-6:12

7-5:54 20-6:20

8-5:48 21-6:08

9-5:52 22-6:13

10-5:56 23-6:21

11-5:51 24-6:24 26-6:33

12-5:57 25-6:31 .2-2:44

13-5:25 = catching up after the potty break!

6 miles in the morning.

9.15 miles in the morning.

My legs felt great this morning.  I wanted to be safe anyway so the pace was around 7:20/mile.  No soreness in the legs after TOU is a great sign for St. George.  I need to really let it loose in a couple weeks.  I didn't get my run in until later in the evening because I mowed the lawn and was cleaning house for the Mrs.  I started out with 3 miles at 7:24/mile pace and then bumped it up to about 6:35/mile pace for the next 3 miles.  I was feeling good so I went up to 6:00/mile pace for a couple miles and then finished with about a half mile at 5:42/mile pace.  Not really a big push but I wanted to get the week started off on the right foot. 

6 miles in the morning.

10 miles in the evening.

I woke up and did an easy 6 mile run.  The temperature are really getting cooler in the mornings.  Yikes!  I figured today was my easy day so I did a relaxed 10 miles this evening at a 7:13/mile overall pace.  It felt nice just to get the blood flowing.  The run was nice and controlled.

16.25 miles in the afternoon.

I slept in this morning but didn't do it on purpose.  Oh well!  I knew I had a big workout for this afternoon so it didn't bother me too much.  I got home after a big meeting and then got the workout started.  I wanted to do the first 10 miles at a easy pace and then push it up to see if I could go below 5:20/mile pace for 6 miles.  I did the first 10 at a 7:13/mile pace and then was able to knock out a 5:18/mile average for the last 6 miles.  I did a short cooldown and called it a day.  I was thrilled to do the last 6 miles at that pace towards the end of a long run.  This is a good sign.

5 miles in the morning.

12 miles in the evening.

I woke up and was a touch sore from the workout last night so I made sure that it was a slow paced run this morning.  Legs actually felt better after I was done.  I got some of the yuck or lactic acid out of them.  I didn't want to push this afternoon due to the 5K on Saturday and big run on the St. George course.  I went for a 12 mile run and ended up doing it at a 7:24/mile pace overall.  It was a nice slow run for me.

6 miles in the morning.

I got up and put some sweats on.  I don't usually wear sweats but I thought I would bring back the 80's style a little bit and see what would happen.  I wasn't planning on doing anything fast so I wasn't worried.  It was really cold so I didn't mind the sweats one bit.  I was happy to get in the 6 miles because Katey and I are driving too St. George this afternoon.  I might get in a couple miles later this evening.  I will have to wait and see.

I woke up this morning and it was raining a little bit.  I ran from my parent's house to the start of the race.  It was my 1.15 mile warm-up.  The rain stopped and I was really happy.  I met up with the St. George guys at the start.  It was good seeing them again.  Their were a lot of high school cross country kids there.  I didn't recognize too many other people.  I really wanted to go sub-16 today so I went out quick.  I went out front and had the lead for the entire race.  I heard a couple guys behind me but told myself just to focus and not worry about them.  I had to smell gas of the 4-wheeler/"lead car" because it stopped a couple times as I caught up to it.  The wonderful smell of gas!  I came around the last corner and knew that I would be close to 16:00.  I crossed the finish line in 15:54.  It is not the fastest course due to 2 decent hills on the course so I was very pleased with my time.  They clocked me in 15:52 but I will go with my Garmin.  I was happy to get a new 5k PR.  My splits were 5:12, 5:08, and 5:03.  I went back and ran with my wife and sister until they crossed the finish line.  I won a free pair of shoes at Rebel Sports.  I will probably use it to buy another pair of trainers.  It makes the trip worth it.  The St. George guys did well in the race.  Great job guys.  Steve Hooper, Dave, and me went up to run part of the marathon course afterwards.  It was raining really bad but we decided to do it anyway.  We started up at the turnoff for the Snow Canyon State Park.  I was hoping to push the pace but the rain slowed us down a bit.  We went down too the finish line of the marathon.  We went 10.5 miles at a 5:59/mile pace overall.  The rain was so bad at times I couldn't see.  Also, we were running in 2-3 inches of red dirt water at times.  The shoes got pretty heavy.  It was fun running with Steve and Dave though.  I decided to run from the finish line back to my parent's house in Santa Clara.  I added another 6.25 miles to make the run a total of 16.75 miles.  I was happy to get in the miles and run part of the marathon course.  I am real excited for the marathon in 2 weeks.  It should be lots of fun.

4 miles in the morning.

8 miles in the evening.

We had a long drive back from St. George yesterday due to all of the rain.  We got home close to 10:30 and I was hammered.  I was really tired this morning but still got 4 miles in.  I am looking to do about 70 miles for the week.  Tapering is nice.  I got another 8 miles in this evening at about a 7:24/mile pace.  Just getting the miles and getting mentally ready for St. George.

I got home from work and took a 2 hour nap which really refreshed me.  I did 12 miles in the evening because I slept in a bit.  I did the first 6 miles at 6:40/mile pace and then the last 6 miles at 6:00/mile pace.  I was pleased the effort today and am just chomping at the bit to get down too St. George.  It will be a great race for a lot of people.

5 miles in the morning.

7 miles in the late evening.

I woke up and did an easy 5 miles this morning before work.  I will have to get my evening run in late due to parent teacher conferences.  I had a really good parent teacher conference.  It was nice talking with the parents about their kids and what they are doing in school.  None of them were disgruntled so I can't complain.  I did my 7 miles at a 7:13/mile pace overall and then hurried over too my cousin's house because she wanted to feed me pasta.  You got to love family that will feed you free pasta!

6 miles in the morning.

6 miles in the evening.

Another wonderful 6 miles this morning.  Just trying to hit 70 miles for the week and get mentally ready for St. George.  It will be exciting.  I got home at did another simple 6 miles at 6:40/mile pace.  Not much of a push but happy to still just get the miles in.

4 miles in the morning.

7.75 miles in the afternoon.

I got up and did a slow 4 miles in the morning.  I am going to run with the cross country team this evening.  I've wanted to help coach and the administration is finally coming around to the idea of me helping out.  The head coach has been here for a while but might not be here much longer.  He is a younger guy like myself so it should be a great experience.  I would love to take over but we will have to wait and see.  The season is almost over but this is perfect timing considering St. George is a little over a week away and it won't effect my training.  I've met some of the kids on the team and they are great.  It should be fun.  The cross country team had a short run of 3.5 miles with 1 minute pickups so it was nice and relaxed.  I am going to have fun helping them out.  I did some more miles after practice was done.  I averaged right under 6:00/mile with 2 miles at about 5:30/mile pace.  It was a nice short push for me.

I was up at 4:30 running because I went down with the cross country team to a meet in Orem.  I did the first 6 miles at 6:40/mile pace and then finished up with the last 6 miles at 6:00/mile pace.  Suprisingly, I wasn't too tired getting up this early to run.  It felt good.  I still didn't know to much about the kids on the team so it was nice to see where everyone is at during the meet.  Their are a lot of young freshman and sophomores so hopefully within the next couple of years we can make some noise and get them better.