El Burro Blanco

8.15 miles in the afternoon with the team.  Nothing fancy today.  I am doing a mini taper for the half this weekend.  Want to make sure the legs are fresh for what I would like to do.

6 easy miles in the morning over into Santa Clara.  Nice temps.  Needed to wear a shirt.

4.25 miles in the afternoon with the kids.  Ran around a little while the kids did hill repeats.  Nothing fancy.

Nice easy 3 miles in the morning with the kids in my new racing flats.  I love the Fastwitch shoe!  Really looking forward to driving all afternoon up north.

I wanted to do a half marathon before St. George and I found the Huntsville Half which fit in to my schedule.  It is also where I used to live before my family moved to St. George 13 years so I thought it would be fun to go and visit my grandparents and get a decent race in.  The half marathon goes on a lot of the Ogden Marathon course.  It is a honest course with absolutely no downhill.  It is flat and rolling.

The goals for this race were to initially hit marathon pace miles (5:20-5:25) but I decided on the drive up last night to just use it as a decent workout and not stress that much about time.  I wanted to get the win and not be that sore after the race.  Those were the two bigger goals.

I did a 3.6 mile warm up before the race in the wonderful 39 degree weather!  I was a little tired from the drive but oh well.  I met up with Ben VanBeekum and talked with him for a little bit.  I didnt see anyone I recognized so I decided to sit back and see what would happen at the first of the race.  Some college kid went out blazing fast at the first so I decided to sit on his hip and see how long he would last.  About 1 mile in to the race he was sucking a lot of wind so I decided to go around him.  I just relaxed and by about mile 3 I couldnt hear him at all.  I decided at about mile 4 I would shut it down and not worry about time.  I relaxed and enjoyed running by my old house and all the old stomping grounds from when I was younger.  I did look back at mile 10 to see if anyone was close and I was totally running solo.  I was feeling great and happy that I knew I had more in the tank.  I got back to the park and ended up finishing with a time of 1:13:08.  Nothing spectacular but I was happy with the run.  I didnt want to overdo this race due to the big one in a couple weeks.  Happy to get the win and get some decent awards.  My favorite thing about the race was the tech shirt.  The race went by the Huntsville Monastery so the shirt had a picture of a monk on it.  One of the best shirts I have ever got from a race. 

I did a 4 mile cool down with Ben and then called it a day.  Spent the rest of the day with family enjoying the cooler weather.  We had fun taking Norah to the park and pushing her in the swing.  It really felt great to get out of the heat for a couple days and see family again. 

Just a few more weeks!

8 easy miles in the morning over into Santa Clara.  Felt nice.

4 miles in the afternoon.  I finished at my parent's house and then hopped in the pool.  Felt great.

12 miles this morning from the high school over to Staheli Farm and back.  I had to get creative with my VPB this morning which made the run quite eventful.  Not wanting to get that crazy with the mileage.  Looking forward to a good workout in the morning.  Couldn't run this afternoon due to the meet.

Nice workout this morning with Dave and sort of Clyde.  3 mile warm up and 2  mile cool down.  The workout plan was a brisk 8 mile progression run.  We did 2 miles around 6:20, 2 miles at Tinman (6:00), and then 4 miles at 5:26, 5:29, 5:27, and 5:28.  The last 4 miles were not how I wanted to finish but my legs felt like peanut butter.  I was feeling the effects of last Saturday's race.  Maybe to soon for some speed work.  Oh well.  

I did an easy 5 miles with the girls today.  It was nice to talk a little race strategy with them and also help with some mental aspects of running.  They are doing well right now.  Hopefully we can keep things rolling.

8 miles in the morning.

5.3 miles in the afternoon.

I ran 5 miles early this morning and then did another 3 miles with some of the kids.  It was fun chatting with them for a little bit.

Speed workout this afternoon with the kids.  We did some 200s with really focusing on using it as if we were sprinting at the end of a race.  Did 12 x 200m with 200m recovery.  Cooled down a little bit with some of the team as well.  Nothing fancy but a solid workout for the kids.

I got a day off of work due to doing the Red Rock Relay with some buddies of mine from high school and some of their family members.  We didn't have the fastest team but it was still a lot of fun.  I was scheduled to do legs #7, 19, and 31.  All of them are up hill or long so I knew my splits probably wouldn't be mind boggling.  I also have been getting over a head cold so I was curious to see how that would do.

The race starts up at Brian Head (over 10,000 ft. elevation) and runs down through Cedar over into Enterprise and then down the marathon course.  It winds through St. George and then goes through Hurricane and LaVerkin all the way to the finish near the entrance of Zion National Park.  Absolutely breath taking.  I was excited to do this because I knew it would be a great workout for me.

My first leg started at close to 10,000 ft. elevation and was straight up the hill.  It started just before Duck Creek Village and went up to Navajo Lake.  The total mileage was 5.85 miles.  I had a lovely head wind to deal with the entire time but pushed through it and averaged 6:33/mile.  It felt like I had 100 lb. bricks sitting on my chest due to the elevation.  Really enjoyed having people honk as I went by.  I did a little bit of a cool down after wards.  I ended up starting this run at about 4:30pm.

We went to the next major exchange in Cedar and grabbed some dinner.  We maybe got an hours worth of sleep and then we went over to the start of our 2nd leg.  The car is slowly starting to stink bad.

I started my second leg around 12:30am.  I had 8.3 miles from Newcastle to Enterprise.  I was really tired from the lack of sleep but was optimistic to see how it would go.  I talked to a volunteer at the exchange and he said that there were about 6 or so cattle guards to watch out for on the run.  That is exactly what I wanted to hear when it is pitch black and I am trying to do well on the run.  

The run was long with a little bit of up hill.  I literally had to stop and walk over all of the cattle guards.  I thought about doing a steeplechase jump to get over them but quickly decided against that.  It wasn't worth it.  I ended up hitting 5:39/mile which I was happy with.  Nothing spectacular but got the job done.  I almost lost my dinner but luckily survived without no harm done.  

After our van got done with all of our runners we went over to the Washington City Rec. Center and napped for about 2 hours.  Some of my buddies went to take a shower and I found a lawn chair and immediately crashed on the spot.  This all occurred at 5:30am in the morning.  I woke up and started getting ready for my 3rd leg.  It started at the Rec. Center and then climbed up to Coral Canyon along Telegraph and then went all the way up to the Chevron by the highway.  I was running on 3 hours of sleep and not feeling 100%.  I ended up averaging 6:03/mile for the 5.25 miles.  The up hill is starting to get old.  The weather is also slowly starting to get hotter.  Saw the Bull at the gas station and talked to him for a little bit.

I thought I was done but we had a guy drop off the team last week so a few of us needed to pick up those extra legs.  Yeah!  I ended up doing a fourth leg which was the second to last leg which was 6.7 miles from Virgin along the highway to just before entering Rockville.  I took my shirt off for this one because the temperature was brutally hot.  My body and mind kept telling me to stop and I just kept telling both my body and mind, "Sorry!"  I tried to keep it nice and steady for the gradual up hill climb and finished with a 5:57/mile average.  Not to shabby considering I was pretty much running on empty at this point.  I finished this leg and was extremely dehydrated and dizzy.  My teammates brought me a cold rag to put on my head and also a lot of fluids.  I felt better once I got this taken care of.

Once again I thought I was done for the day but my good friend had 7.5 miles left to finish the relay.  It climbed all the way into Zion and the heat was really bad.  I did just over 4 miles of jogging with to finish the race while dumping water on him and carrying fluids for him.  He ran through the pain and finished with the rest of the team.  I was happy to run with him because it made sure my legs didn't tighten up. 

We finished the race as a team just over 27 total hours.  It was a long journey but I was glad I did it.  A lot of the women on our team are doing the marathon for the first time in a couple weeks so it was fun answering questions that they had.  Had a lot of fun with old and new friends.   Got a big lunch after wards because I only had granola bars, beef and rice, and lots of Powerade and water for the entire relay.  I was famished!

Really happy with how I ran.  By far some of the toughest legs on the entire course and decent times with over 31 miles in two days on 3 hours of not so great rest.  Nice finish to the week.  I will probably hit the course next week for 14-16 miles and then just maintain everything until the race.  Still pretty optimistic with what I can do.  We will have to see!

Hot 8 miles this afternoon with the boys.  I can't believe the weather right now.  I had a little bit of tightness from the weekend but overall felt okay.

8 miles with the girls this afternoon.  We jogged over to Little Valley and did 800m repeats in the grass.  It helped to have the sprinklers on so it wasn't extremely hot.  Overall a good workout for the girls.  

I tackd on another 4 miles after practice.  Some of the kids saw me running "extra" and thought I was crazy.

6 miles with the boys today over into the industrial area by Blue Bunny.  We went out into the desert a little today and it really made the boys a little tired.  Another scorcher this afternoon.

I did another 6 miles after practice.  I started at the school and then went over to the DC trail.  I drank some of the trail side water which was lukewarm.  It was refreshing in a weird kind of way.

Workout this morning with Dave and Clyde.  We did an 8 mile brisk progression run.  Splits were: 6:18, 6:01, 5:46, 5:31, 5:25, 5:21, 5:27, and 5:16.  The 7th one was a little bit of a glitch because I literally almost stepped on two skunks.  They came right in front of me and stayed right on the trail.  I stopped and hollered at Dave and Clyde to stop as well.  Dave was my knight in shining armor and jogged ahead to see if they were gone.  We got close and one of them had its tail straight up in the air!  We waited a couple minutes and then just eased back into it.  I finished the last mile strong which made me very happy.  

Happy to have not been sprayed by the skunks and happy with the workout.  Nice morning for running.

5.25 miles with some of the girls this afternoon.  We did a little warm up and then did 1-1, 5-5, 4-4, 3-3, 2-2, 1-1 (one hard and then same amount easy).  It was a mainly on grass around the high school.  Good workout for the kids.  Now for dinner and a movie with the Mrs.

We did our fundraiser run this evening.  I didn't want to run a ton but did help pace some kids to get their money.  I did two 3 mile mini runs with a few boys.  One I paced to go under 19:30 and the other was to hit 16:30.  Tacked on some slower miles to let the legs relax.  Lots of fun but really tiring.

Met with the guys to hit the marathon course one last time.  I was going on 1 1/2 hours of sleep so I was curious to see how it would go.  Only wanted to get a good run in and not stress about pace.  Kept everything nice and relaxed and ended up hitting 6:20/mile overall.  Body is a little tired so it will be nice for the next 2 weeks to really "sharpen the saw" and get mentally ready for the marathon.  It is crazy to think it is already here.  Fairly optimistic with how things can go.  I haven't raced a ton this year but I am feeling ready.

8 miles with the boys this afternoon.  Kept the pace nice and steady.  Really warm out.

6.5 mile speed workout with some of the boys.  I did 4:00 min. pick ups with them.  They did really well with this.  Not to big of a workout.  

I did another 2 miles at home pushing Norah.  She fell asleep pretty quick in the stroller.

6 miles in the morning over into Santa Clara.

6 miles this afternoon at practice.  I ran with the girls today and kept it nice and easy.  I ended up doing a mile on the treadmill for kicks and giggles.  Nothing fancy.

3 easy miles with the kids today.

I got a massage from April and it will help me out for sure.

Ran an easy 4 miles this morning over into Santa Clara and back.  I was a little tight in the calves from the massage but it felt great to get out.

2 mile warm up with my kids at the Nebo Invite to show them the course.

We were in Salt Lake today with the team so I got up early and ran from 5th South up to 9th East and then all the way down to 45th South.  I came back the same way.  The scenery consisted of a lot of cars, 3-4 Smith's, and a scuba shop.  I did a progression run looking for 7:30s, 7:00s, 6:30s, and 6:00s.  I ran relaxed and hit my times.  I averaged 6:39/mile overall.  Good last medium long run before next week.  I am excited and a little nervous at the same time.  It should be fun!

4 miles in the morning over into Santa Clara. Nothing fancy. Had to deal with dinner from last night a little bit on the run but I survived :)

7.80 miles with some of the boys this afternoon. 100+ does not feel that great but we all survived. I did 2 x 1000m during the run to get the legs moving a little. I did 3:10 and 3:09. Nice to get that in. It was good to see the kids push through the lovely heat today.

6 miles with some of the team this afternoon.  It was really hot today.  We did a 1.5 mile warm up and then ended up doing 4.5 miles on the track.  We did a 400, 800, 1200, 1200, 800, and 400m run with 400m recovery in between.  I pushed my girls today and they did great.  It was one of the more tougher workouts we have done this year.  I am excited to see what the team does on Friday.

Easy 6.40 miles with some of the kids this afternoon.  Ice bath tonight just to make sure everything stays okay and is fresh for Saturday.  It looks like it will be pretty warm!

Easy 3 miles this afternoon with the kids.  Two days away now.