What ever it takes!

5:00 am.  First time on a treadmill in over 2 weeks,  but I didn't feel like running in the dark this morning plus it seemed kind of windy.  Did 4 miles at about 6:45 pace, then decided to do a quick 5K sim.  I started out trying to hold a 5:40 pace but that only lasted for about 1.6 miles, had to slow it down for 1/4 mile and then got back up to 5:50 pace to finish it off.  Ended up doing the 5K in 18:42.  I'm sure I could have done it in 18:00 but I went out to hard to start.  Need to stop doing that.

 Just put my 12 week training schedule together for TOU.  Pretty Brutal, up to 100 miles a week,  and considerably more speed work than my last schedule.

Started a speed and agility class yesterday as kind of a filler before training for TOU begins, my legs hurt more today than after Ogden Marathon, squats and plate pushes for an hour.  Today was more upper body and core. 

Ran a really, really slow 5 miles before class started this morning..  Hopefully it all pays off in the end.

5:00 am.  Ran 4 miles on the treadmill while it was still dark, after 4 miles I decided to go hit the river trail, took it to the end and back which was 5.4 miles round trip.

Nothing like a mouth-full of bugs for a high protein breakfast.

Going to speed class for lunch today, I have muscles I didn't even know I had hurting all over my body.  Must mean it's working huh?

Ran 5.25 before speed training this morning,  2 miles in class, according to Garmin.  Glad this week is over, I hurt everywhere.  Going camping tonight so I may not get a long Saturday run in this week.  Not really worried about it.

Stayed at the Spruces campground up Big Cottonwood canyon for Father Son's outing last night.  Woke up at 5:30am freezing cold and figured there where 2 ways to get warm, go make a fire with wet wood, or go run.  Luckily I had left my gym bag in the trunk of my car and had running shoes with me.  So before the kids woke up I headed up the canyon to Brighton ski resort.  Pretty tough climb 7% grade in some places starting at 7500ft ending at 8500.  I didn't have my Garmin with me so I'm just guessing on the distance but Map my Run says about 5 miles total.  Did it in about 40 minutes.  Not as far as I would like my Saturday run to be but at least I got something in.

Short little run around the neighborhood with Nelle on a beautiful Sunday morning,  5 mile trail loop.  Nelle was only good for about 7:30 min/mil pace which was fine.   Had a skunk incident,  so I had to put her on her leash for a while which slows me down a bit.

Ended up with a 7:22 average.

Was planning on running 8 miles this morning, ran 3 at in 20:30 then I decided I would like to swim today as well so I took a quick water break and then tried running an 18min 5K.  Ended up doing it in 18:24, Started out at 6:19 pace for 2 minutes and then bumped up to 5:30. I just can't seem to hold that 5:30 pace for longer than about 1 mile at a time.  Next time I'll just try holding a 5:50 the entire time instead of trying to make it up late in the run.

Did an easy 1/2 mile swim to try and relax the muscles, then sat in the hottub.  

5 1/2 miles before speed work class today, 2 miles during class.  Feeling much better this week, I can actually walk.  May try and get in another 5 at lunch.

Met with Ryan at the Gym for lunch, he wanted to run 8 getting ready for Ragner next week so we ran the trail to the dead end and back for 6 miles at a steady 6:45 pace, I normally don't run at lunch so that was the first run in the sun I've done in a long time.  I definately need to do more of those and get used to running hot.  We finished up on the treadmill, I suggested we run the last mile in 6:00, we kept pushing the button up and up and ended up doing it in about 5:45.

Ran to work today, it wasn't real pleasant.  My legs where burning when I woke up, I thought it would go away after a mile or so, but it never did, they fought me the entire way here. Kind of windy and a lot of trucks at 5:30 in the morning.  Now I know why that isn't my normal running route.  Between my burning legs and the wind I did it in 1:21:07.  

Got a call at 4:00 pm Thursday saying I needed to fly to California for an EA Sports event,  Worked until 3:00 am Friday morning and then had to be back at 6:00 am.  Worked the event and missed my flight by 10 minutes so now I'm stuck in LAX for 4 hours and don't get home until Midnight.  That is 3 hours of sleep in the last 44 hours, I don't think I'll get my run in tomorrow either. 

Hope this sort of thing doesn't happen when I start my TOU Training or I'll be in pretty bad shape.

Wow, that was the longest I've gone without running in over a year, to be honest I should probably take time off more often, I felt great, legs where fresh and I felt very comfortable. Did speed class after an easy 6 mile run.

Pretty much the same loop as yesterday morning, out around Thanksgiving point golf course and back on the JR Trail.  Tried to pick up the pace on the trail and ran 2 miles at 6:30 pace, didn't want to over do it before speed class.

No speed class today so I decided to go out for a midweek medium run.  Planned on going 12 miles from home around the Traverse Mountain trail system and out to the Smiths and back.  Ended up only being 11.2 miles in 1:19. It was a nice morning for a run, had a pretty good headwind the first 1/2 which irritated my eyes a bit. The return was nice, difference of about 10 sec/mile between a headwind and a tailwind for the same effort. 

My knees hurt a little bit too, which I have never had knee problems before so I hope that was a 1 time thing,  I think I really need to do something about my heel though, I can't go through another training regimin with it hurting every morning like it is.  Anyone have experience with Planter Fascittis, I saw a doctor about it and he thought I could fix it with shoe inserts but they don't seem to be doing anything.  I think I may need to break down and get a cortisone shot.  I have never had one before, anyone else out there have experience with this?

Went swimming this morning before speed class, a little over 1 mile.  I lost count of laps after about 5.  

Speed class we did the "Beep test", basically 50 Yard sprints between beeps with 10 second breaks, every time the beeps get faster.  I have no idea how long between beeps to figure out how fast I was but I got up to level 15.4 whatever that means.  I gave up at 15.4 cause everyone else had already dropped out and were just watching me, plus I was exhausted.  I wanted to max out my heart rate, only got it up to 182, I have had it to 192 before.

Then we did some strength, and core stuff, pulled a neck muscle (bad news) and then we did 5 X 400's with 15 second rests in between. 

Felt pretty good today, I'm glad I swam instead of ran before class. 

Ran the Jordan River trail below Thanksgiving point, I was feeling pretty good this morning and the cool air made me want to pick up the pace a bit.  Averaged 6:45 min/mil over 7 miles.

Today was lower body day in class, lots of squats and lunges, may be hating life on tomorrows long run.

5:30 a.m.  Went out for a 12 mile run, ran out to Smiths and back on the Bull River trail.  Averaged 7:00 min/mil through out the run, I didn't want to get above 7:00 average so when I hit the hill up to my house I tried really hard to keep at 7's.  Actually found it to be quite a bit easier than that hill used to be, which is a good thing.  Took Fox Hollow road home which actually goes above my house then there is about a 10% grade from the top to my house for a 1/4 mile.  I pushed it really hard coming down the hill and hit 14 Mph for about 30 seconds.  4:17 min/mil pace.

When I got home my 8 year old was on the couch crying because he wanted to go on my run with me following on his bike.  So I headed back out the door with him, drove down to Cabelas and ran the trail 1.5 Miles out and back for 3 more miles.  Seems there is a big difference between 12 and 15 miles.  I can go out for 12 on an empty stomach first thing in the morning but that last 3 really took a toll on me, I really could have used a gu pack, and a Powerade after 12.

5 Mile easy run with Nellie.  She seems to be getting back into shape.  I didn't have to drag her up the hill this morning.

Off to Europe tomorrow, hopefully will get some awsome runs in there.

5 easy miles before a 14 hour flight

Drove from Paris to Baden Baden Germany, Sat in the mineral pools for 2 hours last night, which felt really good after sitting on a plane all day.  Went for a 7 mile run down the river trail in Baden Baden then came back and Britt wanted to try running with me.  1 mile with her around an aquestrian park.

Stayed in St. Goar Germany last night.  woke up at 5:00 am and ran down a bike trail along the Rhine river.  Beutiful morning.  I will post Garmin map later

8 miles from hotel in Fussen Germany up to neuschwanstein castle.  There was a lake down from the lake with I ran part way around too. Beutiful run, a pretty good hill climb up to castle.

6 easy miles on lake trail from hotel in Fussen

Wasn't going to run this morning but wanted to do a short run around Lake Lugano before we left. Beutiful place, it is very cool to see different cities early in the morning when noone else is awake yet.

I'm in my favorite place in the whole world today. Lauderbrunnen Switzerland.  Went for a great 9.2 mile run this morning up the river and back then my wife and I set out on a 15 mile hike up the Eiger and JungFrau Alps.  5,000 ft elevation climb in 4 miles up the face. I'm only logging my running miles but I'm sure the 15 miles of hiking counts for something.  I have Marathon toes after that decent.

Ran up my favorite little trail here in Lauterbrunnen again, I started out pretty slow due to our long hike yesturday, I was suppose to get in 14 today but didn't want to kill myself since I knew we had another long day of hiking plus I was running late for Breakfast.  Did the prettiest 2 mile section of the trail 3 times to get my 13 miles in, it's only 8 miles to the end and back.  I kicked it up a gear coming back to the hotel the last 3 miles due to being late and it was a slight downhill on a beutiful cool morning.  Ran the 13 in 1:25 last 3 miles in 18 minutes.

We went out for another good hike today, 9.3 miles round trip.  My wife sprained her angle so we cut it a little short.

7 miles recovery run. Ran up to Stechelberg and back.  Two big cows where standing in the trail and gave me incentive to cut my run to 7 instead of 8.  If I've learned anything from this site from the Elite running it's that I run my recovery runs too fast.  Tried really hard to keep a 8:00 min/mil pace.  It is supprizingly hard to slow down hopefully it pays off later and I can do my fast runs faster.

7 miles in 55 minutes.