El Burro Blanco

Same route as usual over into Santa Clara in the morning.  Nice and relaxed for good start to the week.

Ran around Webb Hill with some of the kids this afternoon.  Averaged right around 7:30/mile.  Absolutely perfect running conditions.

8 miles over into Santa Clara again.  I didn't wear a watch and just enjoyed the cooler temps.  I shouldn't have worn gloves and a hat.  Still warm enough to not wear gloves.  I finished with 8 x 100m strides at the end.

Ran with Clyde this morning.  For some reason I was feeling a little sluggish.  It worked itself out over the run but not as crisp as I have usually been.  We ended up averaging 7:12/mile which was respectable. 

Clyde and I have decided to run for county commissioner next time around.  Look out!  We are ready to change the world.  

I ran 6 miles this morning from the high school over by Clyde's house while doing a little loop.  I had to take a VPB which lasted 5 minutes.  Everything was okay.  I then came back and with the kids on their morning 3 miler.  Nothing fancy and exciting.  I wore my new compression sleeves this morning for the first time.  Absolutely love them!

Only run for the day due to morning Parent Teacher Conferences this evening.

6 miles in the afternoon running with the kids.  We did the Webb Hill loop backwards.  I was planning on running this morning but Norah was up at 3:30am.  I think she is getting more teeth.  Yeah! 

The weather was perfect and really great to run in.  I did another 2 easy miles around the track for kicks and giggles.

Met up with Clyde this morning to do the first part of the marathon course as a tempo run.  I wanted to go and run the Mesquite course but I am glad I ran with Clyde today.  The elevation is higher and the course is a little tougher.  We have wanted to run the 1st part of the marathon some what hard to see how it goes.  I wanted to make sure the run today had at least 4 miles of hills and this part of the course does.

We parked a couple miles from the start and ran up the starting line to get a decent warm up in (3 miles).  It was pretty warm and I knew I was going to have to drop everything on the way back down.  The plan was to do about 5:35/mile for 13 miles because that is all I am needing to shoot for in Mesquite.   This was planned to be the longest tempo run I have done all year.  A little nervous but excited at the same time.  I just relaxed until Veyo and then had to work for the next couple miles of up hill.  We ran into the start of the Snow Canyon Half which was kind of fun.  I was okay until about mile 10 and then really needed to push through.  I did the 1st half of the course in 1:13:51.  We finished with a 2 mile cool down.  It was nice to deal with the lady sitting in her truck smoking.  Nothing like a wonderful morning of running to be ruined by someone smoking!  Nothing spectacular but a very good workout heading into the half in a couple weeks.  I will take the time due to a couple big workouts already this week and not really tapering.  Happy to get this one in.

I couldn't believe how warm it was.  Crazy to think I was in a short sleeve shirt for most of the run.  Another solid week and I am happy with hitting only about 70 miles a week for now.  It seems to keep me more fresh.

6 miles in the morning with the kids.  Hidden Valley x 2.  The morning runs will be great with the daylight savings but I won't enjoy the darkness in the afternoon.  The weather will make me happy though.  I lifted weights after I ran this morning.  It felt good.

Ran another 6 miles with the kids this afternoon down along River Rd. and then looped back up along the golf course.  7:18/mile.

7.75 miles in the morning.  I did 2 miles by myself and then had to take a quick VPB.  I then did 3 miles with the kids and then finished off with another 2.75 miles to complete the morning.  Very successful.

I did 5 miles with the kids which included 8 x dirt hill climbs out in the desert.  It was a good workout and the kids enjoyed it.  They actually enjoyed a hill workout.  Yeah.  I had them lift weights after wards.

8 miles this afternoon with the kids.  We went up into the Industrial Park and keep the pace steady.  I got back to the school and did 2 more miles on the track.  Both of them were right under my Tinman pace.  It felt good.  Little bit chilly this afternoon.  7:14/mile.  

6 miles in the cold morning.  3 of them were with Darian.  This was the first time I had to wear my beanie, gloves, and long pants.  It was quite chilly.  I did Hidden Valley x 1 and then up to The Spectrum and back.

 I did 5.10 miles with the kids today.  I sent them off and then tried to catch them.  I didn't want to go crazy fast but ended up doing 6:36/mile which included 8 x 100m strides.  Perfect running weather this afternoon though.

6 miles in the morning.  Another chilly one.  I ran 3 miles with some of the kids over towards the bridge and then extended another 3 with Dace.  A great day to be alive.

6 in the afternoon (warm up/cool down).  Went over after work with some of my kids and ran a mock race with some of the Pineview kids.  Dave wanted me to push his varsity boys and I wasn't sure if I would be able to hold on.  This was officially my 2nd cross country race ever.  I did my first one in 2007 at the Footlocker Race and this was my second.  Boy did I forget how hard it is to push on grass and dirt!  My goal was to sit behind his top varsity boys and see what happens at the end.  I was in 4th overall for most of the race and just behind Trevor, Tyson, and Casey.  With about a 1/2 mile to go, young legs kicked in and smoked me.  Those 3 and then Dave's 4th guy (passed me with less than .25 to go) really showed me what it means to kick it in.  I finished with a 15:54 which I was pleased with.  Dave's boys were just a few seconds in front of me.  High school kids are fast.  I would have much rather ran 26 miles today rather than 3.

My place put me in Pineview's top 5 for varsity.  Maybe Dave has room for one more?  I have some eligibility left :)

Met up with Dave, Steve, and Bill and ran from the old store out into Ivins and then back along the Snow Canyon Parkway.  We kept it relaxed for the first half and then I needed to stop for a VPB (5 minutes) and then we picked it up.  We kept the second half all under 6:30/mile and finished with some Tinman miles.  Nice finish to the week.

I went and watched/volunteered at the triathlon today.  Katey and my brother-in-law did it.  It was a perfect day.

I am excited for next week.  We will see how it goes.

6 miles in the morning.  The bridge x 1 with the kids and then into Hidden Valley and back.  Nothing fancy but actually warm enough this morning to not wear warm pants for the run.

Nice 6 miles in the afternoon with kids.  We went out towards Little Valley Park and then came back.  We decided to call this one Washback.  I am having the kids name the runs now so we don't get confused on where to go.

3 miles in the morning over towards Hidden Valley Park and back.  A little on the chilly side again.  I lifted weights this morning instead of running more miles.  I am glad I did.

Big workout this afternoon with the kids.  We did a 3 mile warm up towards The Spectrum and back and then did a ladder workout on the track.  We did 1 min. hard, 1 min. easy all the way up towards 5 minutes and then came back.  We did this workout earlier in the season and it was a bruiser for most of the kids.  I kept everything under 5:30/mile to get a decent workout in.  The kids did amazing with this workout.  They were tired but pushed through.  We did a little bit of a cool down to help the legs a little.

2.20 miles in the morning.  I didn't go a full 3 miles this morning so I ended up doing some core exercises for a while.  Cold out.

6.40 miles in the afternoon.  We went for a run out in the desert on the dirt trails.  It was rolling and lots of fun for the kids.  I only lost 2 of them and had to go back to find them.  A couple more days until the half.  We will see how it goes.

3 miles in the morning with the kids.

4 miles in the afternoon with some of the kids which included 8x100m strides at the end.  Nothing fancy.  Still excited for Saturday's race.

3 easy miles this afternoon with the kids over towards Hidden Valley.  Excited about tomorrow's race.  Hopefully the weather holds out.

I wanted to end the year with a good half and I was really optimistic going into this race.  I was really shooting for 1:12-1:13 due to the course conditions.  It is a hilly course and not that fast.  I drove down with Katey and Norah this morning and welcomed the hour time change which gave me an extra hour.  I got my packet and then got to the starting line.  I knew I would be lucky to be top 10 due to all of the competition.  Kyle Perry, Brad Osguthorpe, Seth Pilkington, an Ethiopian and a couple other All-American collegiate runners were looking at me like I was fresh meat.  The weather was overcast and the wind started to pick up a bit.

I met up with Steve Shepherd and Steve Cuttika once the race started.  The wind really picked up and we continued together with the 3 of us taking turns blocking the wind up until mile 4.  Steve Shepherd and I took off and were together for about another mile and a half and then he put about 100 meters on me.  I looked at my watch and it felt like I was doing sub-5:30 pace but I was barely hitting 6:00 pace.  I decided to just run and use today as a $50 training run.  The wind was really blowing.  It was a true headwind of about 30-40 mph.  Absolutely yucky to run in.  I kept Steve in sight but with about 2.5 miles to go Steve Cuttika caught up to me and passed me.  I was ready to be done by then so I kept the legs moving and finished about a minute and a half behind Steve Shepherd. 

I was happy to be done but a little irked because I knew I could have stayed with Steve Shepherd.  I guess my "lean" body does not slice through the wind.  It was a decent run but wish the conditions could have been better.

I still have the Footlocker race in 2 weeks.  That should officially be my last race of the year.

3 miles in the cold morning over to Hidden Valley and back.  Extra crisp on the nose.

Easy 6 miles around Webb Hill with the kids.  The sun was out and it was a perfect day to be running.  I am glad I live in St. George this time of year.  The weather is supposed to get really crummy for the rest of the week.

3 cold miles this morning over to The Spectrum and back.  It took me some time cleaning off the ice of my truck.

7 miles with the kids this afternoon.  We did a big workout.  We did meat grinders up Webb Hill.  We only did 4 x 1/2 mile repeats.  It was a good push for the kids.  Happy to get this in.  Planning on getting some fun runs in over the break.  Hope everyone travels safely to wherever you may be going.

8 miles in the morning over into Santa Clara and back.  Lots of sun but really cool temps.  I averaged 7:18/mile.  Kept it nice and relaxed.

Spent a lot of time sitting around with family not doing much so I decided to do another easy 6 miles around Ivins.  A touch warmer this afternoon but not much warmer than this morning.  Overall a good day though.

I ran from my house over to Jacob Hamblin and met up with some of my XC kids to run the Barrel Roll trail.  We ran into Collins and his family so we talked with them for a while.  It was a beautiful morning and the trail was a nice change of pace for the kids and I.  They loved the trail and wanted to run more.  It is fun to see the kids getting more excited each day.  I ran back home and ended up running just over 13 miles for the day.  

Very grateful at this time of year for family and my health.  Can't complain about too many things when others are less fortunate.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Nice out and back run on Snow Canyon Parkway.  It was nice to see a few people out exercising rather than spending lots of money at the stores.  I never quite understood Black Friday.  Most of my family went to the stores last night at midnight to make sure they got the good deals.  I was sleeping until 7:30 in my nice warm bed and saved a ton of money in the process.  Yeah!

Met up with all the guys this morning (Dave, Clyde, Steve, Dustin, Bill, James) at Dave's house.  It has been a while since we all have ran together.  It was really fun running with everyone.  We went down on to the river trail, over to River Rd., and looped around Stone Cliff into Washington.  It was a good loop and a great morning for a run.  We kept the pace honest at 7:00/mile overall and pushed the last couple miles back to Dave's house.  It was a great start to the day.  Happy with how the week went.

To cold and windy in the morning so I decided to just hit the weight room this morning.  Nothing terribly exciting.

6 easy miles over into Little Valley with the team this afternoon.  Temps were a little cool but still felt very nice.

3 miles in the morning over to The Spectrum and back.  

7.5 mile trail run which included hills with the team this afternoon.  I think I might have actually found a decent cross country course for next year.