El Burro Blanco

I got home a touch early from work so I decided to go for a little longer run.  I went out along Snow Canyon Parkway and then ran down the trail going over towards Albertson's which runs under Sunset Blvd.  It was a touch chilly this afternoon but it felt good to just go nice and easy.  I averaged 7:23/mile and just enjoyed the run.  Another wonderful day in sunny St. George!

It was still really cold this afternoon when I went out for my run.  The wind didn't help but I knew it would be bearable.  I went out towards Kayenta and ended up running along the old Highway 91 out past the Shivwits Indian Reservation.  I kept it nice and slow but it felt great to be running.  I warmed up after a little while and it was nice running once again in beautiful St. George.

6 miles in the afternoon.

10 miles on the club run.

I went from the high school out along River Road out towards the Arizona Strip.  It was getting out before the club run. 

The club run consisted of Dave, Clyde, James, Wildbull, and Matt (from Leadville).  We started at the Dixie Center and ran over towards the mall along the trail.  It got nice and crisp once the sun went down.  It was fun talking with the guys and just being out and running.

Katey and I had another baby class this evening.  She will be here in a couple weeks.

I went out for an easy 10 miles along the Snow Canyon Parkway after work today.  It was great weather and turned into a quite enjoyable run.  I kept it nice and easy because of the relay race tomorrow.

Wildbull called me a couple nights ago and asked if I wanted to run in the inaugural Expedition St. George Relay.  I told him I haven't done much with speed work all year but I was willing to do it.  Dave, Wildbull, James, Hayden Hawks, and me were on the St. George Running Center team.  I thought we should have been called "The Wildbillies" but it wasn't meant to happen.   The race started at the St. George Leisure Arts Center and ran all over town.  I had the first leg and decided to get into the holiday spirit.  I wore a long, blonde wig with a Santa wig for my leg.  (Check Bill's Facebook page for pictures.  I am sure he will have them up!)  It was about 4.5 miles and extra chilly early this morning.  I started at the Leisure Arts Building and then ran up to the pond over by the softball diamond on Snow Canyon Parkway.

The leg went well and I did a cool down before I hoped in the car.  I ended up running a couple extra miles in between everyone's legs just to stay loose.  My second leg was about 5.2 miles ant started at Toyo tire and went over on the DC trail into St. James Place.  It was along the river so it was cold.  I pushed the pace and felt pretty good finishing.

It was really fun hanging out with the guys and just enjoying each other.  It was nice seeing Hayden and see how well he is running.  The legs felt great doing a little bit of speed.  I had to cut out before the finish because I had to attend my little sister's cheerleading competition.  Yeah!  We ended up taking first place with a time of 4 hours 48 minutes.  I had a blast.

This was a nice finish to the week.  I felt great considering I didn't get out in the mornings.  It was just way to cold.  I know I have only lived in St. George one year but my body not ready for the "cold" weather down here.  I just need to bundle up more.  Happy to hit 70+ miles for the week again.

4 easy miles this morning in the light rain.  

It rained nonstop in St. George today.  I was going to go out again this afternoon but it was way to wet.  I decided to get caught up on painting for the baby room.  I needed to get it done.  Thank you crazy rain!

I woke up this morning to seeing the Red Mountain, Utah Hill, and Pine Valley covered in snow.  It was really fun to see this with all of the red rock.

Katey drove me to work today so I could run home from the high school.  It was pretty chilly this afternoon but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.  I started at the high school, went over to the DC trail into Bloomington, then towards Tonaquint Intermediate, and then along Dixie Drive until I hit the trail that went up towards the Snow Canyon Parkway.  I then took the parkway all the way back to the house.  It was a great run and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  Averaged 7:05/mile for the run.  I couldn't ask for a better day than today.  Nothing but blue skies and beautiful surroundings.

I didn't run yesterday because I was busy painting around the house and trying to finish with the baby room.  I ended up doing the same run this afternoon where I started at the high school and then ran home.  I tacked on another half mile around Ivins.  Another cold afternoon.  Happy to get the long run in though.

It was snowing on the drive over to the Bloomington Loop.  As soon as we got started on the trail it stopped and the temps were perfect.  Clyde, Dave, Paul, and I went out on the trails towards Utah Hill.  We did the loop twice out there.  It was one of the best runs I've been on.  Their was just a little bit of snow on the ground which made great cushion for the feet.  It was fun chatting with the guys and ending the week on a high note.

I have another training mistake for missing a run that Sasha needs to put on the list.  Getting baby room finished with the in-laws in town!  I really do love my in-laws though. 

Slept in this morning and decided to just run this afternoon.  I ran from my house over along the Snow Canyon Parkway out towards the old running store.  This is becoming one of my favorite routes.  I didn't get out until about 5:30pm but the temperature was awesome.  It was much warmer today than it was all last week.  Hopefully it stays the same for the rest of the week.  Just took it nice and easy.

I did my Kayenta Hilly Loop run this afternoon.  I ended up going through Kayenta and then out along Highway 91 out past the Shivwits Indian Reservation.  The road was a little sketchy once it got dark.  I enjoyed all of the cars putting their brights on to see if I was an animal or something.  I wasn't but they decided to keep the brights on.  Lovely people!  Overall it was a nice run.  Happy to have it in the books.

4 miles this morning around the wonderful streets of Ivins and Santa Clara.

13 miles this afternoon.

I decided to go and run Barrel Roll this afternoon.  The weather was awesome so I hurried home from work and threw on the shoes.  I ran into Kamm riding his bike.  He looked like the Utah version of Lance Armstrong.  He was all decked out!  I had the trail to myself.  It was a little soggy in some spots but it made for an enjoyable run.  You can't beat the 50 degree weather at this time of year.

Club run this evening.  I ran from the high school and did a few miles before we all met up at the DC.  We looped around Stone Cliff and then back down onto River Road.  It was fun seeing the guys again and chatting about everything.  Decent longer run.  Legs felt good.

I started at my house and then ran along Snow Canyon Parkway.  I had to push the pace a little bit because we had a work Christmas party.  I ended up doing the last 5 1/2 miles between 6:00-6:30 pace.  The legs felt good and it was nice to do a mini speed workout that wasn't originally planned.

Met up with Clyde this morning at the DC.  We started out by doing the Bloomington loop and then went out and did the same run by Stone Cliff that the club did on Thursday.  We started talking about possible races again for next year and the pace dropped quickly below 6:30/pace.  It was absolutely perfect weather this morning.  I was running in a long sleeve tech shirt and shorty shorts.  Awesome!  I will be in Logan all next week visiting Katey's family so I will miss the warm weather quite a bit.  Hopefully I can get some runs in with the Logan guys again.  It has been a while.

I am up in Logan all week spending the holidays with Katey's family.  I woke up this morning not feeling very good so I decided to hold off on my run.  We all went to lunch and it seemed to help get some food in my stomach.  I got back to the in-laws and decided to head out.  I ran over to Sky View High School and then back the same way.  I saw 5 deer on the run and a decent size buck.  That was pretty cool!  I only had about 2 miles left and good old lunch decided to come back up.  I don't know if it was me being sick earlier or all the crap in the air (Logan had the worst air pollution in the entire country today!)  I felt better after wards and took it nice and easy all the way back to the in-laws.  I averaged 7:08/mile which I felt pretty good about considering I wasn't 100%. 

Hopefully it snows soon so the air gets cleaned up. 

I started at the in-laws again and ran over to Canyon Road and then did the 1st part of the 1st leg from Ragnar up through River Heights.  The air quality wasn't the best again but their was a fair amount of people out running this morning.  It is nice being able to sleep in and then go for my run.  Hopefully it snows later like all the weather people are saying.  7:04/mile for the entire run.  Happy considering their were a few decent hills on this run.  Felt much better today.  I must have eaten something bad a few days ago.

Ran an easy 4 miles early today before I met up with Paul.

I ran with Paul Petersen this afternoon.  We did the Providence Hill Loop while doing the first part at a decent pace.  It was nice catching up with Paul on a lot of things.  It has been a while since I have seen him.  I was dragging a bit at the end but Paul helped me in.  It was only supposed to be an 8 miler but it turned into a 9.75 miler.  Oh well!  The new snow helped clear up the sky.  I was able to look across the valley and see mountains and even some blue sky.

It was a balmy 21 degrees when I started on my run today.  I did the same run as a couple days again when I ran along Canyon Road and out towards River Heights.  Lots of sun today which felt good.  It was nice seeing a fair amount of people out running.  Kept it nice and relaxed.

I had a change in family plans late last night so I needed to do my run early this morning.  I didn't sleep very well and was out the door by about 6:30am.  It was a nice 11 degrees when I started.  I ran over towards Hyde Park and back to the parents.  Spooked a few big deer out of the trees.  It was cool seeing them.  I got home and I had ice all over me.  My eyelashes and beautiful moustache were covered in ice.  Katey took a picture after I got home.  I need to get it posted.  Total of 10 miles for the day.  The rest of the day will be spent with family.  It will be a lot of fun.  It is always fun seeing the kids get really excited over the smallest things.  Note to self.  Don't buy expensive gifts.  Kids will like the box or wrapping paper much better.  Looking forward to running with Paul again tomorrow morning.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Boxing Day tomorrow!  Don't drink to much egg nog :)

I ran with Paul today over by his house in Smithfield. We started at his house and then went to the end of Smithfield Canyon Rd., then came back and jumped up on Upper Canyon Rd to add a little more distance.  We then went around some neighborhood streets to add a little bit more mileage for the run.  The temperature was not above 10 degrees and the air was kind of yucky so we cut the run a touch short.  We averaged 7:01/mile for the run.  

This was a great run to end the week.  I was happy to get in some good runs while surviving the cold weather in Logan.  It was also quite nice to be around family for the week.  One more family party tonight and then Katey and I can focus on getting ready for our little girl to come in a few weeks.

To much inversion up in Logan today so I decided to not worry about running.  I got a little sick over the weekend so I didn't want to chance anything.  Planning on hitting some long runs this week due to not having any school.

3 easy miles this morning.

18 miles around noon.

I ran with Clyde today out in Warner Valley.  It was a nice dirt road that went out a ways.  We ran all the way out to some dinosaur tracks which we didn't know were out there.  They looked like parent and child tracks.  Lots of big ones and then some little ones.  It was really cool to see these.  We had a little headwind going out and we hoped that we were not going to have any headwind on the way back but we did.  We did some up tempo miles on the way back and it was a good push due to the headwind.  We were low 6:00/pace for a while.  It was fun exploring new running routes.  Nice to be back in the warmer St. George weather. 

I went exploring a little bit in the rain today.  I ran up along the Red Mountain and found a trail that is a decent 6 miler.  I ended up working my way into Tuacahn and really enjoying all the beautiful red rock.  I did some extra stuff around Ivins to get just over 10 miles for the run.  Cooler temps with the weather we had today.  Kept it nice and easy.

Clyde came over to my neck of the woods and we did some exploring along the Santa Clara River.  We found tons of Indian Art and even collected some fancy rocks.  We did a little bit of power hiking/climbing.  Overall it was a fun run to end the year.  We both realized we live in one of the most beautiful places around.  Happy to end the year on a positive note.  Really looking forward to a much better 2010.  I will have to see how it unfolds.