El Burro Blanco

What a day.  I was feeling pretty good going into this race and was optimistic I could do well.  I didn't race at all in 2009 because I was injured and then in 2010 (coming back from injury) I slowly wanted to work into it.  I hit some solid workouts throughout the year but didn't race as much as I would have liked.  Still felt like it would be good today.

The horn went off and the pace was nice and relaxed.  Clyde, Dave, Pepi Petersen, Peter Vail, Aaron Metler, Daniel Moody, and me were in the lead pack.  Everything felt great for the first part of the race.  Aaron took off at Veyo but he was still within reach.  Dave and Daniel pushed the pace a little bit but I wanted to relax.  I was sitting in 4th place just before the half and then passed Daniel Moody about half a mile before the half.  I slowly started to pick it up right after the half  and was in 3rd place about 100 yards behind Dave passing mile 16.  This is when everything went south.  About a quarter of a mile before mile 17, my stomach tightened up and then hamstrings, quads, and calves tightened up worse than it has ever happened before.  I slowed the pace a little but my body was not responding.  I knew it would have been a drudge march for the last 9 miles.  I stopped at mile 17 and tried to stretch but the nurse said I should lay down on the cot.  As soon as this happened, I felt pain all up and down my legs.  I started to get a little cold and they put a blanket on me.  It was really hot with the weather so I am not sure what happened.  I was really embarrassed waiting for the shuttle to take me back down to the finish line.  Hopefully that doesn't ever happen again.  It took them over an hour and a half to come and get me. 

I sat and watched everyone go by and knew that my day was over.  I am not sure if it was the heat or if it was something else.  I don't want to make excuses and will just accept the fact that I didn't get it done today.  It really has been a frustrating last 2 years with running.  I feel like I have some good races left in the legs so I will try and learn from this and move on.  At least I can still walk.

Big congrats to Aaron for winning the race.  He totally deserved it and I couldn't be happier for him.  He has trained very good this year.

Licked the wounds from the marathon and ended up doing the stationary bike for 20+ minutes to loosen up the legs.  A little stiff today.

Easy 3 miles this afternoon with some of the kids.  We had to be creative and run some in the school and then hit the track for a couple more due to the crummy weather.

Easy 6 miles this morning over into Santa Clara.  The temps are great now.  It was low 50s and it felt good to get up and get a decent run in.

6 easy miles with the kids this afternoon.  Nothing fancy.  We are going over to run the region course to get ready for next Tuesday.  It should be exciting.

I went the team out to run the region course in Hurricane.  It is not even close to a cross country course but it is what we have to work with this year.  I am excited to see what happens next week.  I pushed the boys in a workout today and will come back out tomorrow to push the girls. 5.75 miles total.

Another workout on the region course with the girls this morning.  It felt good to push them.  Nice end to the recovery week.  I am thinking of doing a half by the end of the year in order to finish the year on a good note.

4 miles in the morning.

8.5 miles in the afternoon.

Ran nice and easy through Santa Clara this morning.  Temperature felt great.

3 easy miles with the kids this afternoon and then did a loop over towards Clyde's house.  Stopped and talked with him.  Kept it just over 7:00/mile overall.

Had our region meet today and it was nice to see both boys and girls qualify for state.  I had 4 boys in the top 10 for the JV race, 2 boys in the top for the Varsity race, and 2 girls in the top 10 for the Varsity race.  Also, my top girl won the individual region title.  I was really proud of everyone today.  

I didn't run this morning because Norah was up all night being sick.  I came home and went out for an 8 miler in the dark.  I put my reflective vest on and just got into a groove.  It felt nice and actually was quite enjoyable even though it was later in the evening.

10 miles in the morning with Clyde.  We did an out and back into Bloomington Hills.  It was actually a little warm this morning but felt good.  Nothing fancy but kept it nice and relaxed.

4 more easy miles this afternoon with the kids.  I wanted to do a recovery run after yesterday.  Almost 90 degrees this afternoon!

4 easy miles this morning.  I had to wear a long sleeve tech shirt for the first time this cold season :)

7.15 miles this afternoon with some of the kids.  We kept it nice and easy and discussed some of the things we want to try and accomplish up at state.  It should lots of fun and I really think we can do well.  We will see.

I took my varsity kids up to Pine Valley this morning for the last workout before state.  We did a 6+ mile loop with some pretty good hills.  I ended up getting a little bit more mileage because I lost some of the girls for a bit.  I found them so it was not worse case scenario.  We saw a ton of deer and the sunrise was breathtaking.  It made for a really fun morning.

I did a nice and easy 4 miles around Ivins this afternoon.  It was a little warm but still cooler than it has been.

Met up with Clyde this morning and did our loop over towards the Washington bridge and then back on the river trail.  The plan was to warm up for about 3 miles and then do 10 x 2:00 min. hard and then do 2:00 min. recovery.  All of the 2:00 min. pushes were under 5:10 pace but most of them were sub-5:00/mile.  We did right at .40 miles for each 2:00 minute push.  We finished the fast stuff at 6.33 total miles and it ended up being about 6:00/mile for that section (not bad considering the 2:00 minute cool downs were pretty slow).  Kept it nice and easy back to Clyde's house.  Happy with this workout.  First decent workout since the marathon.

I will keep the mileage about 70 miles for the next little bit but have shorter, faster workouts and really focus on the half marathon for now.  On a lighter note, the sunrise was once again breathtaking.  I wanted to hold Clyde's hand and have a moment but he didn't want any part of that.

Slept in on my day off and did an nice out and back on the Snow Canyon Parkway.  Lots of people out this morning so it was nice seeing that.  Due to the rain last night it was nice and cool.  The scenery was beautiful.  I averaged 7:02/mile overall.  Good start to the week.

I found a pair of Kayano shoes at DI yesterday for $4.  They were the exact shoe size I needed.  I was looking for some books and found these shoes which looked like they hadn't been used at all.  I did a nice 8 miles over into Santa Clara.  The temperature felt great this morning.  I finished the run with 8 x 100m strides.  It was nice to get some good turnover at the end of my run.

We made it up to Salt Lake for the state meet and did a nice 3 mile shake out the legs run through downtown.  I almost got hit once which got the kids a little nervous but I reminded them that drivers are stupid.  We then went to eat at Buca Di Beppos.  I will sleep very happy tonight.  I am excited to see how everything goes tomorrow.

Got up to this morning and did 12 miles through Salt Lake.  I ran with Dace Goulding this morning for about 4 miles and then he turned back and I extended a couple miles.  We started at the hotel on 400 South and then went up to 900 East and then headed south.  It was the same stretch of road I did the last time I came up.  A slight chill in the air but absolutely perfect running conditions.  Good way to start the day.

Great results from the state meet today.  My boys team (running at state for the 1st time ever) took 5th overall in 3A out of 17 schools.  This was great to see.  

My top girl runner, Darian Sharp, ended up taking 1st place overall in the 3A race!  She beat the Park City girl by less than 1 second.  She ran a perfect race.  It was so exciting to see this happen.  She flew under the radar this entire year and I knew she had put in the work and was capable of winning the whole thing.  I was so happy for her.  The girls team took 10th overall but should have been either 5th or 6th overall.  My 2nd runner was in 10th place and with about 400 meters to go she collapsed due to her legs giving out.  My other girls behind her eventually caught up and helped her slowly get to the finish line.  It was neat to see the comaraderie between the girls.  It wasn't how the girls wanted to finish as a team but it was a touching way to end the season. 

Long bus trip home!

Slept in this morning due to not getting home until 1am this morning.  I had a bunch of things to do after work so I came home and finally headed out the door around 8pm.  I went nice and easy over into Santa Clara.  Finished off with 8 x 100m strides.  Seemed to go by pretty quick.  Nice evening for a run.

6 easy miles this morning over into Santa Clara.  No watch.

Another 6 miles from the high school out into the Industrial Park and then park.  It was a little windy but overall felt good.  7:06/mile overall.  Nothing terribly exciting.  

Katey and I then went out to Anasazi Steakhouse for her birthday.  Yummy!

Great workout this morning with Clyde.  I wasn't quite sure if we were going to be running due to all of the rain last night.  It ended up stopping around 5am or so.  Clyde has been wanting to do a different loop where we could do mile repeats.  He mapped out a 1.3 mile loop near his house.  We decided to try it today. 

We did a 5.6 mile warm up and then did 5 x 1 mile repeats shooting for under 5:30 on each one.  It was really humid so after the warm up we actually shed our shirts and I was sweating (Clyde says it looks like I jumped in a pool a couple times :) within minutes.  We would do the repeat and then recover for just over 2 minutes and then start the next one.  I hit 5:11, 5:08, 5:08, 5:02, and 5:06 for the miles.  We then did a cool down to get over 15 miles for the day. 

I was very happy with this workout.  One of the better ones I can remember doing.  Great way to end the week and it really gave me some confidence towards doing a solid half before the end of the year.

6 miles easy over into Santa Clara.  Still a little warm in the morning.  Felt good though.

6 miles after school today over into the Industrial Park.  6:53/mile overall.  Nice and smooth for today.

Met up with Clyde this morning and did the Stone Cliff loop.  Really glad I took a long sleeve tech shirt.  It was 44 degrees when we started and I wished I had some gloves.  I eventually warmed up but it did feel good after a while.  7:16/mile overall.  Nice conversation once again.

I did weights at the high school after work today.  I haven't done them in a while but I think I am going to try them more often to see if it will help my running a little.  Didn't push it too hard today since I want to ease into it.  Nice way to finish the day.

I ran this afternoon after work.  The weather is so great right now.  This is the time to be living in St. George.  You cannot beat the running now.  I ran a new route over by the fields where I started at the high school and then meandered my way around the neighborhoods on the opposite side of Stone Cliff.  I found a good hill I will have the cross country kids run up someday.  Great run while averaging 6:58/mile.

6 cold miles this morning.  It was below 40 degrees this morning.  I had the light running jacket, beanie, and gloves on for the first time this winter season.  Yes, I have acclimated to this warm weather down here and complain when it gets below 50.  

6.05 miles this afternoon with one of the kids from the cross country team.  I ran with a kid on the team who just started running last year.  He was running 30+ minute 3 mile races last year and now is close to 19:30 for his 3 mile races.  He has caught the running bug and is doing great.  It was nice to talk with him about some things and keep him motivated to do track this season.  He will be a senior next year so it should be fun to see how much more he can improve.

Looped from the high school around Webb Hill on the trail and then back up along the golf course.  I felt a little frisky so I did a Tinman mile at the end.  Absolutely perfect running weather this afternoon.

I had the pleasure of welcoming Dave and Clyde out to my house in Ivins for a "little hilly" run out towards Gunlock.  We started at my house and then went out into Kayenta and just past the Gunlock turnoff.  It was good running out in my neck of the woods. 

It was a little random because we had a funeral procession pass us at about 7am in the morning.  It was totally random! 

We kept the pace nice and easy and then slowly picked it up on the way back.  I wanted to hit the last 5 miles at an honest pace.  The plan was to hit the first 2 miles at Tinman pace since it was all up hill and then see how I felt the last 3 miles.  I ended up hitting 5:25, 5:20, and 5:20 for the last 3.  I was happy with this run since it was my first 20 mile run in a while.  I did a little cool down to call it a day.  Another solid week.