What ever it takes!

I had all my Cycling gear ready to go this morning, but when I woke up it was all windy and rainy.  Well I was in no mood to get all wet so I changed plans and went swimming instead.

48 laps in about 60.

55 degrees is the perfect running temperature, I want to live where it is 55 degrees every morning.  Oh!  That's Anaheim and I don't want to live there, humm what a dilemma.

Anyway, I slept in this morning and told work I'd be late just so I could run my dirt trail route, ran from my house up to Highland on the dirt trail and back.  Averaged about 8:00 pace which I'm torn about, I think that is the pace I should be training at for my race in 7 weeks, but it's very discouraging that it is actually the pace that I feel most comfortable at right now.  I'm going in for an Ultrasound guided cordizone shot today, I have high hopes that this will actually help since the first non guided shot got me at least running a couple times a week again.

If anyone is looking for a nice bike I found this in my search, the frame is ugly and I would probably get a new one but just the components on this bike are worth way more than they are asking for the whole bike.  These are the new electronic Dura Ace, pretty sweet deal if you want a high end bike.

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/lechamp_cf_team_di2_xi.htm

Crazy Story!

 I went to the doctor for my ultra-sound guided injection into my hip, I really liked this doctor, he has done multiple ulta-marathons and said he was actually the teacher of my other 2 doctors so I had a lot of confidence in him just going in.  We talked a lot about running, he asked me all my history, which makes this blog great, I can give him exact details for 3 years back.  Anyway, I hopped up on the ultra-sound table, asked if it was a boy or a girl, he said it's always a boy :) then he pulled out the K-Y.  Anyway, he shot the heck out of me, at least 6 different various really long needles, on one of the shots he told me it was really close to the Femeral Nerve and if I needed to sneeze let him know first.  He told me I wouldn't be able to use my leg normal for a while, I asked if I could go on a bike ride this morning and he said, yes, the local anesthetic only lasted 6 hours.  He finally finished poking me, I just off the table and realized I couldn't feel my left leg at all, no pain but not great for walking.  I managed to get to my car and drive home, leg didn't work the rest of the night.  I woke up at 1:00 and seemed to be able to walk so I decided to continue as planned.

Drove to work, got out, got on the bike and realized my left leg couldn't peddle at all, weirdest thing, if I tried to stand up and peddle I could not do it, it didn't hurt at all my leg would literally not move.  Weirdest thing, I could ride sitting down but my left leg basically just worked like a pendulum.  I was about to call it quits but didn't have anything else to do so I met the group told them I wanted the less hilly loop since I can't stand up so we did the Hoogle Zoo loop, I was afraid of Sunnyside but figured if I couldn't make it I'd turn around and just take Foothill back.  Anyway, I made it the full loop, I was by far the weakest link in the group today but pretty happy I did a 25 mile ride with 1 leg.  Well maybe not happy, but amazed.

Oh, and Jake, I did the Zoo mile in 3:00 flat, with 1 leg!  Take that.

Forgot to mention, this doctor doesn't think it's Bursidis.  He thinks I have nerve damage and said he is only doing this to get me through the race and not to think it is a fix.

Hip feels really good today but I decided to give it one more day off and try for a long run with Ryan tomorrow.  

36 Laps in the pool

Lifted weights afterward.  There is some Bad Ass tattooed chick that has started going to Lifetime every morning lately, she seriously just sets the treadmill to 9.0 - 9.2  and cranks out 6:30 miles for at least an hour or more every morning.  I went and talked to her this morning and asked what she was training for.  She said "Oh!  I don't run races,  I just like to run"  Serious, you come run a 1:25 1/2 every morning and don't do races.  She said she is a forest fire fighter and doesn't have time to run in the summer.  I told her she should try and do the Provo River 1/2 since I don't think it sells out very quick.  I also told her about the blog but didn't catch her name.  I'll try and find out.

Ran with Ryan today, I had high hopes that today would be a good run, my hip was feeling great this morning and I felt good, but as soon as we started I could tell it was going to be a long run, stride was way off, hip wasn't really hurting but I had range of motion issues.  We had a really strong tail wind for the first 1/2 of the run, turned around at the Jordan River Parkway and ran the rest back is a really strong headwind.  at mile 10 I remember thinking my hip had finally loosened up, at mile 14 I had a full body breakdown and knew I wouldn't be able to finish 18 today.  We ran into Dan Varga, Reed, and someone else, I would have liked to go with them since they were headed the same way but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep their pace so I didn't even try.

Pretty bummed I fell apart so bad, I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the lack of actual running miles I've been doing.  Cross training just doesn't simulate long runs.

30 minutes on the elliptical waiting for light and then 6 miles on the JRP.  Focused on "gliding" while I ran to try and minimize impact.  Actually felt pretty good this morning, hip always starts out stiff but gets better as I move.  Crazy week this week, I'm off to Brazil on Wednesday.

Went to meet my bike group at 5:30 and no one showed up, so I just decided to go it alone.  Did the Big Cottonwood, to Little Cottonwood, Wasatch to DimpleDell loop.  Freezing cold this morning.  I looked forward to uphills just to get warm.

On the way back I passed the group so they started a whole hour late today, probably waiting for it to get warmer.

I made a pace chart for the BigHorn50,  Not sure how accurate it is, it's meant to be more of a guideline.  Google Docs is really stupid cause you can't lock cells like in excel.  It's either all or nothing, so if anyone happens to go look at it please only change the goal time.

Pretty fun little run this morning, I decided to hit the trails up behind my house and do a little exploring.  I've never been back there before mainly because of the big signs all over that say "No Trespassing, no Hiking, no Mountain Biking, Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law"  but this morning I wasn't going to let a little ol' sign get me down.  I mean, really, what is the punishment for trail running?  Besides the obvious foot blisters and road rash.

I found a great 4x4 road that I feel simulated what Bighorn will be like, steep, rocky, and very secluded.  I was hoping it would go further, I thought I might be able to come out at the flight park or SunCrest or something neat.  But it dead ended about 3 miles up and I didn't want to bush wack so I turned back.  On the way back I noticed a white truck opening the gate at "the sign" and didn't want to test my luck so I hightailed it up a very steep hill into the upper part of our neighborhood.  Wanting to go further I found another dirt trail that eventually did take me to the hangglide park.  I stopped a minute, took in some great views and headed home.

It was a perfect morning, and perfect run.  My hip is actaully feeling very good, I think the injection is starting to do something finally.  There is no way I could run 50 miles in the Minimus shoes though, the rocks really started bothering the bottom of my feet.

In the crown room waiting for my 20 hour flight to Brazil now.

There is a really nice path that runs along the river here in Sao Paulo, the map shows it being 16km long,  I've been really wanting to try running on it since I was here last December, well my Co-Workers and I walked and walked yesterday trying to figure out how to get to it, turns out there are only 2 places to access it both at train stations, and you have to have a bike to go on it.  What kind of trail only allows bikes?  What is it the Alta of trails.  So anyway, I don't really see anywhere else to run in this crazy town so I went to the hot humid hotel gym this morning.  8 miles in 63 minutes, leg was sore but completely runable.

1 hour 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer, I will try and get my long run in tomorrow, my leg just wasn't up to it today.

So frustrating, I got a room key from our customers hotel room since they stay in the nice hotel and make us "vendors" stay in the looser hotel down the street so that I could use the nicer gym.  Well this gym has really strange hours, 6 am to 10 pm Wednesday - Saturday and open 24 hours Sunday - Tuesday, so I was all ready this morning to wake up at 4:00 am and go get a really long run in.  Well I woke up at 3:30, got ready, stretched and walked over to the hotel when I got there there was a huge party going on on the pool deck which leads to the gym so all the doors were locked unless you went to the Party that had been going on all night.  I went and asked if there was another way to the gym and they told me it wouldn't open until 7:00.  I argued and said it says 24 hours on Sunday, they said well this is still Saturday night, I asked them how it could be open 24 hours on Sunday if it doesn't open until 7:00 am, this question was apparently lost in translation.  So I came back to my junky hotel gym and it is literally just a guest room with 2 treadmills in it.  I thought it would be rude to start running at 4:00am with guestrooms on either side so I went back to bed until 5:45.  Got a little over 1 hour in on the hot humid guestroom treadmill, I was really glad I didn't try to run for 3 hours on it.

Couldn't sleep last night, thought about going to the gym at 3:00 but then decided against it, right about then I went to sleep.  Woke back up at 4:30 went to the gym, ran really slow cause it's really hot and miserable in the gym, did that for 2 hours and then I decided I better go find out why 1/2 my network was down.  Network is down cause they turn the power off at night in Brazil for some reason, I should have ran another hour.  Or slept.

1 hour on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights, and a really long day of work ahead.

Pretty happy with my run this morning, I was planning on running 20 but I actaully got a good night sleep last night and woke up later than planned.  2 hour progressive run on the treadmill. 

We are finishing up some loose ends at work today and then trying to fly to Rio for a bit.  Should be fun, but the locals are telling us how dangerous it is there so that takes some of the excitement away.  If all I do is hike to the Christ statue and walk on the beach I'll be happy.

Wow!  Life doesn't get much better.  Don't let my wife know I had 1 fun day this week.

 Flights from Sao Paulo to Rio leave every hour and are pretty cheap, even for last minute so we jumped on a plane last night and flew on up.  I timed it, from plan take off to the taxi dropping us off at the front door of the Hotel was only 1 hour, pretty sweet.  This morning I woke up at 4:00 went up to the hotel gym, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, then 1 hour 24 minutes on the treadmill.  at around 6:15 it started getting light outside and I saw runners.  I was dieing to go run on the beach but wanted to get 10 miles on the treadmill first, then I went to the beach.  Ran on the bike trail to the end of Cococabana beach and back for 3 miles, then I noticed my co-worker running in the sand, so I took my shoes and socks off and ran after him, caught up with him and ran another 1.5 miles with him in the sand and waves.  Then we jumped in the ocean for some body surfing.  Pretty amazing day so far and it's only 8:00am.  Now we are headed to the Christ Statue and then back to catch our flight home.

A 70 mile week, with international travel, not to shabby.  Got home from Brazil last night and called Ryan to see if he was up for an early long run, he's always in.  We started out at a nice 7:30 pace, settled into a 7:30 pace, finished at about a 7:30 pace and averaged about a 7:30 pace.  20 miles in 2:31 I think Mr. Garmin said.

My leg is feeling great, I'm planning on still doing my 50 miler with absolutely no expectation what so ever, I think that's the main key, no pressure.

Going to try for a pretty big mileage week next week and see how it goes.  Just slow easy long miles, hopefully work cooperates.

Now I'm going to read Ogden Race reports.

6 easy miles with the pup on an absolutely perfect morning.  

The idea this morning was to get some sort of Tempo run in so I decided to hit the LifeTime treadmill, did a 2 mile warm up and then started my progressive tempo, my tempo run started at a pace that I used to consider my recovery pace and ended at a speed that I also used to consider my recover pace. I did that for 4 miles and realized I just wasn't enjoying life at all so I hit the stop button at 6 and finished outside on the JRP for another slow, enjoyable 6.  It was pretty chilly this morning.

I would like to try and get a lunch time run in but not sure that will happen.

5 miles on the treadmill, 7 miles on the JRP.  Much warmer than yesterday and way buggier.

I'm not exactly sure what I thought a slow 30 miler would feel like, but that sucked :).  I had a few plans for today, Plan A 18 in the morning 12 in the afternoon, Plan B 18 mile run to work 18 mile run home from work (I decided I didn't want to get stranded at work and not want to run home)  Plan C, just wake up early and get it over with.  Plan C worked best for me since I wake up at 3:30 pretty regularly.  So I got up and just started runnin' ran from my house up Timpanogos highway, up American Fork canyon until my Garmin said 15 miles and then turned around.  I was actually going to run 32 miles but a few un-expected bathroom breaks put be behind schedule so I was about 1/2 mile sort of Tiblefork Resevoir when I turned around.

Great morning, perfect temperatures, I really lucked out, I was scared coming down the canyon that when I got out of the canyon it was going to be sunny and hot, but right about then the clouds came and started raining on me which was great.  I actually had a head wind going down which was un-expected but felt good.

I did a few things different this morning, I hardly ever run with fuel, and I have never carried water but this morning I wanted to practice fueling while running so I took enough gels and power blocks to eat every 5 miles, and I carried a small running water bottle that I filled at every opportunity.  Seemed to work out OK, I remember the thought of that 20 mile gel made me sick but I choked it down and managed to keep everything I ate down so that's a good sign.

Anyway, I'm happy with the run.  I had 4 of these runs scheduled in my training plan, I'll be lucky to get 2.  It was hard but not nearly as horrible as St. George was.  Now I'm at work sitting in a cubicle all day, I'm probably going to cramp up.

30 miles in 4:07:17 so no speed records set, but that wasn't really the goal.

Boy, I'm pretty hammered today.  Legs actually felt really good this morning for having just run 30 miles yesterday, but overall I'm just pretty fatigued.   Nice morning for a run, pretty chilly at first but then it felt nice.

12 miles on dirt trails in my minimus trail shoes, my feet hurt now.

I took this picture in Rio last week, anyone want to meet here for a track workout?

11 easy miles in cushy shoes on gravel roads.  I got wet!

Nice early run with Ryan around our standard loop, averaged 7:27 pace for the entire run, which I'm almost positive is a faster average pace than I've ran any distance for at least the last 5 months.  Felt good after finishing an almost 100 mile week followed by a long drive with the family down to Disneyland.  I have to work, they get to play.

2 small loops and 1 big loop around Disneyland park this morning.  Tomorrow I will need to run out to the trail instead, the Disney loop seems to take forever.

My fast long run on Saturday seemed to beat me up a bit, my hip was complaining this morning.

Ran along the Santa Ana River trail this morning, formally known as the Bunny trail, now known as the Bug/Possum/Racoon trail.  I wanted to get a longer run in today but had an early work start so I was cut short.  At the 6 mile turn around I noticed I was behind schedule so I did a bit of a 6 mile Tempo run back to the hotel.  Averaged around 6:40 pace going back, which is very fast for me lately.  Everything felt really good this morning, when I got back to the hotel I had a sweat mark on my shirt that looked just like Mickey Mouse, my wife found that amusing.

Perfect morning for a run, Anaheim has by far the best morning temps for a run every day no matter what time of year.

I like the River Trail better than loops around Disney but the bug factor turned me away today.  2 big loops + 1 small loop for a total of 8.5.  Lots of runners out today, you can tell when a Google conference is happening, that is one fit company.  I bet they have fitness day once a week.  They had a 5K for Google employees this morning but I wasn't invited cause I have to work :(