What ever it takes!

Rode from my office up Big Cottonwood, for some reason I thought it was 14 miles to Brighton, turns out it's closer to 16 from my office and I started running out of time.  I went to mile post 15 which is half way between Solitude and Brighton, then turned around for a really cold descent.  Not sure if this should only count as a 15 mile ride since I pretty much coasted all the way down.

There are people on Strava that average 15mph up that canyon, I didn't average 15 for the total ride.  Crazy.

I wasn't really thinking and took my bike in for a tuneup yesterday.  I kind of thought it would only take them 1 day at  most but it's not going to be ready until tomorrow so I went to the gym.

1 hour on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights.

Hey, guess what I did today?  I ran.  5 miles in 48 minutes.  I'm going out of town for the next week and a half and wont have a bike or gym so I figured I needed to figure out how to run again.  Not sure if it's a great idea but I need to do something.  There was discomfort pretty much the whole run but I wouldn't really say it hurt, and I never felt like I was making anything worse.  Just did 5 miles then 20 minutes on the elliptical, then some weights.

This is how I feel.

I haven't been blogging not because I'm a disgruntled injured runner (although I am that). The reason I haven't been blogging is cause I've had a crazy busy schedule.  Last Friday I drove up with the family to Yellowstone and stayed at my wifes family cabin at the East Yellowstone gate, we spent the weekend hiking around Yellowstone then Monday morning my wife drove me up to Billings to catch a plane to Barcelona Spain for a 4 hour meeting on Tuesday.   We thought it was a waste to fly to Barcelona and then get on a plane back home the very next day so we actually planned in a site seeing day on Wednesday.  I suggested renting bikes, to my surprise everyone there (our client) liked the idea so I rented a bike the night before so I could go by myself and then go meet them at 10.  I went on a nice 20 miler around Barcelona down to the beach and around all the sites. I then met up with them and started out doing the same route, they were all pretty in-experiences bikers and their idea of biking was stopping every 2 miles at a beach bar for drinks.  I was very glad I went out alone cause we pretty much spent the rest of the day riding for 10 minutes stopping for drinks riding some more.  By 4:00 PM our main contact was so drunk he had to walk his bike back to the hotel.  Not my typical ride but I think I probably ended up riding about 35 miles today that day.  Anyway, this story is getting long so I'll move on.  We had fun, I'm a horrible schmoozer cause I don't like to drink apparently but I think it went OK and I still have a job.

Anyway, I got on an early Thursday flight, flew back to Billing MT, my Father in Law came and picked me up and now I'm back in Sheridan Wyoming with the rest of the family for Rodeo Weekend.

Today we did the Sneakers and Spurs 5K for the 4th year in a row, this year the entire family ran, plus Grandma.  I ran with Bradin, Britt ran with Ethan and Grandma ran with Zach.  Perfect morning, it rained a little bit and there was nice cloud cover for the start.  Goal was for Bradin to beat last years time but Fastrunning blog was down this morning and I couldn't check.   He ran 25:59 at the Thankful 13 so that was the goal, he did good, I started him out at 7:30 pace cause I thought he was in better shape this year and 1 year older, he started hurting and complaining about his calf so we had to slow down a bit.  He was a real trooper and sprinted the downhill main street final 400m, screaming the whole way.  I finished with Bradin circled back and ran Ethan in, he was crying but I made him finish strong, then I circled back for Zach.  Zach is my real running kid I think, after 3 miles I made him sprint the last 200 m,  that kid just has natural running form even when he's tired.  And he was the only kid smiling the whole way.

Final times.

Bradin/ Me - 25:33  (26:36 last year)

Britt - 28:00

Ethan - 28:08

Zach - 34:3?

The first year we ran this race I remember about 50 people lined up wearing cowboy boots and cutoff jeans, this year there were over 500 participants and it's really quite competitive, I think all the high school teams come in from up to 200 miles away to run this now.

Oh, I forgot to mention I actually ran.  I think I'm going to start running again.  Alternate between biking and running for a while.

West Lehi loop before work, hot and buggy!

I woke up in probably my favorite city to run in, so I had to go run.  I flew into San Francisco last night for a quick meeting today, I fly back home tonight so I needed to get at least a little run in.  Ran from the hotel down to Embarcadaro street, out around to Fort Mason, walked up the hill cause running uphill still hurts pretty bad.  Stopped at the top to watch a cruise ship come in under the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog and then ran back.  I love running here early in the morning, the temperature is always perfect for running, I love the cool humidity and the sea level.  Probably the longest non walk break run I've don't since Big Horn.  It felt really nice to run again, but I remember running that route in the best shape of my life before so that is hard to want to run fast and can't.

Work is a mess lately, I'm actually in the market for a new job.  Not because I don't like my job but because things seem really un-stable, and I need stable right now.  One of my options is a complete career path change.  I kind of like the idea of learning a new trade but it's pretty scary at the same time.

Bike ride over Suncrest and out and around Alpine.

I'm on the verge of insanity, and most of it has to do with not being able to run.  I'm not sure why the bike isn't compensating but for some reason I just don't get out of biking what I do from running.  I've noticed that running downhill doesn't seem to hurt at all so this morning I decided to experiment.  I went to the gym, set the treadmill to -3% and started running, and it worked.  Essentially no pain at all, even at a decent pace.  My fitness is so far gone weather or not running with a decline is cheating isn't really even an issue, just running is the primary goal.  So I ran 6 miles in 47 minutes with no stopping, and felt good when I finished.

From my house up to Timp Cave entrance.  There was big a group of about 20 right behind me going up the Canyon.  I felt like I was the break away in the Tour, kept me motivated to keep my speed up :)

If I thought I could even run 26 miles I would go down and sign up for Des News right now.  An old High School buddy called me yesterday asking about the course, he is trying to run a Boston Qualifying time of 3:15, I really wish I could go run with him.

American Fork Canyon, to the top and back home with my best friend Dave.

6 miles on the treadmill with a 3% decline, 30 minutes on the eliptical.

West Lehi loop.

Well, that was an interesting Bike ride.  This shows how much of a runner I am, I had no idea today was my favorite 1/2 marathon.  Started out aimlessly this morning and finally just decided to ride up American Fork Canyon for the 3rd time this week, got to the base of the Canyon and saw about 5 school buses coming out of the canyon, then I saw the flashy sign saying Canyon closes for runners and then I realized it was that time of year. I got to the base and asked the police man if it was OK for bikes to go up, he said yes so I headed up.  Started seeing the Full Marathoners coming back down right away so I had a good time cheering them on,  at about mile 5 of the 1/2 I saw the first 1/2 marathoner, who just happened to be Scott Keate, and he was flying with 1 guy right behind him,  I'm sure I should know who it was but couldn't tell at the time, guess I'll find out in Scott's report.  They had at least a 5-6 minute lead on anyone else already, I continued up cheering everyone on looking for familiar faces, saw Andy, James (run me happy) Toni.  I planned on riding to the fork and turning around to cheer them all on again but when I got there the police said I couldn't go back down.  So I kept going up for a while, turned around, when I got the the police cars again they still wouldn't let me by, so I went back up to Granite Flats, came back down and it the tail runners at mile 5, they still wouldn't let me ride by.  Well I had to get home cause my wife was waiting for me so I did the most logical thing, I got off my bike, took off my cleats and ran the next 3 miles out of the canyon in my socks.

Fun morning, perfect weather for a 1/2 marathon. I was really jealous I couldn't run but it was fun to see it all.

1 hour on the elliptical trainer followed by weights.

22 mile West Lehi loop.  I wont be doing that ride anymore this summer.  Pig stink and a think fog of bugs made it absolutely miserable.

I can't believe people build houses out there.

I attempted to run today but it was way too painful, not sure why today was worse than normal.  So I went and changed into my swimsuit and swam 32 laps in the pool instead, followed by weights.