El Burro Blanco

The wind was out of control last night so I committed myself to run on the treadmill this morning. I ran 10 miles on the treadmill at the the high school. The music from the radio was nice but it was not very enjoyable. 

I ran 4.5 miles this evening in California with the rest of the team. We are down here for the Footlocker race. The weather will be nice.

Dave and I woke up early and ran from our hotel and then just explored our area around where we were staying. We ran into a huge hill which had a ton of oil rigs digging up oil from the ground. It was right in the middle of a residential area. Kept the pace nice and easy. Tons of traffic in California made me not ever want to move here. Dave agreed with me. We dealt with a number of big hills which was lots of fun. We did 17 total for our run.

3.1 miles to check out the course at Mt. Sac. It was nice to hit the big hills and the see the reactions from all the kids. They are in for a treat tomorrow.

We spent the rest of the day at the Museum of Tolerance and then went over to Santa Monica Pier.

Dave and I got up again and did a nice 8 mile run. We didn't have time for more but it was nice to keep it short this morning. Nice and enjoyable. 

Happy to get in a solid week of running even with coming to California. Hopefully I can continue to have some solid weeks of running over the next little while. I think Dave and I decided to do the Zion 100 instead of the 50 in May. Should be exciting.

6.50 miles this afternoon. I looped from my house over to Snow Canyon Parkway and then back along Pioneer Parkway towards Santa Clara to my parent's house. Lots of family stuff going on tonight. 6:44/mile overall.

Ran later in the evening tonight. I went from the house and ran through Ivins over to Highway 91 and then back. 6:51/mile. A little chilly.

Ran with Clyde this morning in balmy 21 degree weather. We did his Bloomington Hills loop for a total of 11.6 miles. Yeah!

Another 6.5 miles this afternoon in beautiful weather. I ran from the school over to River Rd. and then back on the DC trail. I cut it a little short since I needed to get home. I hit some rebar that just happened to be in the middle of the road which was kind of a shock. I feel flat on my face and cut up my knee. I survived to talk about it but I can't believe this was in the road. Yikes!

Slept in this morning. It was a beautiful afternoon for a run so I went a little longer. I extended my River Rd. to DC trail loop and then to Bloomington loop out on the actual Bloomington Loop and then came back the usual way. Nice and warm this afternoon. 6:43/mile. Enjoyable run.

Ran my usual loop from the high school backwards. Gorgeous afternoon for a run. The fun part about the run today was running by three 10-year-old girls playing in the leaves. One of them said, "You are doing good and you are skinny." She made my day. Usually people are saying really stupid comments while I run. Here parents should be given a gold medal.

Dave and I went out to Virgin and ran part of the Zion 50/100 course. We ran on part of the Jem Trail I have never done before. We ended up exploring and went over on the Goulds Trail by Diamond Ranch Academy and then flipped it to come back. Decent climbing and lots of rolling hills. This was quite an amazing run with the terrain and the lunar eclipse we saw. Really excited to do this inaugural race in May. It will be sweet. Great finish to the week. Happy with hitting some solid mileage again. 

Slept in this morning and ended up running my DC loop a little shorter this afternoon. Monday mornings are tough to get up for now. A little bit of rain this afternoon.

Woke up and ran out and back on the Snow Canyon Parkway for a total of 10 miles. Quite chilly this morning but it felt good.

8 miles in the afternoon opposite of what I did yesterday. Beautiful sunny skies this afternoon.

Great run this morning with Clyde and Dave. We did Clyde's usual DC loop. We averaged just over 7:00/mile overall. I think we saw over 10 shooting stars. Quite a special morning that I will never forget. 

Only had time for just over 6 miles this afternoon so I just looped around Webb Hill. 6:52/mile. Just getting in the miles now.

Did my Bloomington and DC trail loop in reverse today. I kept relaxed and just tried to enjoy the run. Nothing to exciting to report.

Slept in this morning. 50+ degree weather this afternoon so I went a little longer and faster than usual. I did my DC trail loop but extended it out on to the Bloomington Loop. 6:37/mile overall. Beautiful afternoon for a run.

Woke up late this morning for my run with Steve, Clyde, and Dave. They were nice enough to wait for me though. It was a long night. We started at the DC and then did the new St. George Half course and then looped around the trail. The course will be tough for anyone running it. We kept the pace honest and had an enjoyable run. I tacked on two more miles after wards since I showed up late. 18 is not the new 20. Solid run to finish out the week.

Happy to get in another week of good mileage. I hope I can keep it going. I saw April this afternoon and she was not nice. Yikes! It helped out a ton though.

Ran my DC/Bloomington Loop this afternoon. I extended it on to the actual loop and then enjoyed my nice little climb back to the high school. Just caught the 7:00 min. guy at the end.

Ran my Bloomington/DC trail loop reverse today but did not extend on the actual loop. A little cooler this afternoon. I decided to do some up tempo stuff once or twice a week. I started out a little slower but then got the legs moving and hit a couple sub 6:00/miles. I averaged 6:25/mile. Happy with the effort due to the last 3 miles being slightly uphill.

Today is my 6 year anniversary. I am lucky I found Katey and she is willing to let me run like I do. Best 6 years of my life!

10.20 mile run with Dave and Clyde this morning. We were running all over the road this morning. We seemed to be a little tired. Clyde had a new loop for us to try so it was different than the usual. Clyde said I pushed the pace but it was him while we finished the run pretty hard. Decent effort for this morning. 

13.40 mile run this afternoon. I did my Bloomington/DC loop in reverse like yesterday but I extended it on to the actual loop. I just relaxed and enjoyed the run and didn't worry about anything except just running. I am going to try and get some miles on the legs to have them practice running tired. I will see how tomorrow morning's run goes.

Good news of the day is that we found out we are going to have a boy! If anyone is reading this, I would like to take a vote for names. Here are the choices:

1- Donovan

2- Taine - (short for Prefontaine)

3- ESPN

4- Leroy

5- Samuel

Please cast your vote by Sunday, December 25th and then that will be the name of the child. Thank you for your time.

I wanted to go a little longer this morning before we head up north but it didn't happen. I started at my house and then hit the Barrel Roll Trail. It has been way to long since I ran this. I had to deal with my favorite element on the run (wind). Nice little headwind for most of the run. Beautiful day for a run though. Now I get to run up in the frozen tundra for the next week and a half (Heber and Logan). Yeah!!

We are up in the mountains in beautiful Heber City for the next two days. We pulled in last night and the gate at the bottom of the mountain said that their have been quite a few cougar and bear sightings. I guess that is perfect stuff to run in! I ran down the mountain into Heber and then came back up to the cabin. The last 3.5 miles were over 1500 feet of climbing. Over a mile of that was in snow. I felt like Rocky minus the snow boots. Low elevation was 5600 feet and high elevation was 7850 feet. It was a balmy 10 degrees while I ran. Got to love this weather. It was very pretty.

I talked to the lady at the gate after my run yesterday and she said that saw two cougars just two days ago. I was not going to take my chances. I had my Dad drive me off the mountain so I would not be fresh meat. It was much warmer today. I was 30 degrees on the run. It was quite enjoyable. I ran down more in the valley but ended up climbing back up for close to 7 miles.

Happy to finish off the week with some solid runs at higher elevation. Lots of climbing over the last two days. My legs are a little sore but they need it. Now I go up to Logan to spend more time with Katey's family. It should be fun.

I am in Logan for the next four days spending time with Katey's family. It should be a lot of fun. I was shocked with how warm it was when I started my run today. I ran from the in-laws up into Smithfield. It was a nice out and back. A little hilly which is what I need to be doing more of. 10 miles total.

Another warm day in Logan. Love it! I ran from the in-laws, down the Canyon Rd. and then over to River Heights Elementary. 6:53/mile. I almost took the shirt off but I did not want to scare the women and children.

Same run as Monday except it snowed a little bit. It was actually more like rain but enjoyable none the less.

One last run in Logan. It was 46 degrees when I went out. I did the same run over to River Heights Elementary. I cannot believe how warm it is.

I was supposed to run with Dave this morning but my alarm did not go off. Sorry Dave. Lame excuse. I knew I was in for a long haul all by myself. I started over in Virgin and then did the Hurricane Rim Trail, Jem Trail, Goulds Trail, and extended on to the Goulds Rim Trail. I almost made it down to the highway for the first 15 miles. I passed some mountain bikers on the way down and decided I was going to catch them. I had a good one mile climb and then caught them after about two miles. It was fun chasing them down. I passed a ton of mountain bikers today. The temps were 61 degrees when I ran so I shed the shirt. It was just a great day for a run. I felt great until about 26 miles and then my body decided to shut down. The last 4 were a bit of a drudge fest but I survived. 

I really needed to get home but I forgot to turn off my lights in the truck so it was dead. I had to wait around for about 5 minutes and some mountain bikers came and helped me jump start it. One of them asked me, "Do you know Clyde Behunin?" I replied, "Who doesn't know him?" They noticed my running center sticker and said that they thought I might run with him. I talked to them and found out they are his cousins. Small world! A big thank you to the Behunin Family (Clyde was there in spirit) for the assistance.

Happy with a solid 30 mile run. I realize I need to eat more on my longer runs. I noticed that I drank plenty of fluids but I need to just eat more. I burned 7,440 calories so I will spend the rest of the day eating and relaxing. I love the holiday break!