What ever it takes!

8 miles on the treadmill all alone in a crowded gym.

Not sure if I was just having a bad day or I'm not in as good of shape as I thought I was.  Plan was to run a test tempo run at 6:20 pace.  Started with a 2 mile warmup, then bumped up to 6:30 pace.   I ended up pulling the plug after 1 mile, it just kind of hurt and made me sick so I just slowed down and finished my run at 7:30 pace.  I did do 5 X .1's at sub 5 pace the last mile just to feel better about myself.

I would have ended up at the gym this morning but last night Bradin asked if he could go with me this morning on his bike.  What a cool kid, what 10 year old volunteers to wake up at 5:30am and go on a bike ride in the cold with his dad?  7 miles out and back on the JRP, I put my really bright bike light on his bike and he rode behind me lighting the way.  It was really nice.  We had to stop 2 times to try and find GeoCaches, but it was a really nice run, just a bit cold.  I feel bad I didn't go run Just Cuz today, it would have been perfect.

Decided to use the time change to get some extra miles in this week,  it was nice to wake up at 4:00am and feel like I'd slept in.  14 miles on the treadmill in 1:41:30.

I signed my entire family up for the Thanksgiving Point Thanksgiving day 5K, and kids race for my 5 year old.  So I have turned the Rohde residence into a high altitude training camp. (without the EPO) I've got Bradin and Ethan running at least 2 miles every day, and somehow I need to turn my 5 year old sprinter into a distance runner in 3 weeks.  Last year he destroyed the 5 and under field in the 75meter kids race in American Fork, somehow I need to get him to concentrate long enough to run 1/2 a mile now.   My plan is to pace Bradin to a 24 minute 5K while pushing Zach in the stroller, and Britt is going to run with Ethan.  I suspect if Ethan keeps up his training Britt may be the weak link in that group.

P.M.

1 mile with kids, 3.5 miles with my wife.  We'll call it 4 even since there was walking involved.

14 miles in 1:45:something.  Pretty easy boring run so I ran 5 x .1's for the final mile with .1 rest at 13.1,13.2,13.3,13.4,13.5 mph.  It's funny how you can run short distance at pretty much any speed.  I think the faster you go the quicker its over with and your bodily functions don't have enough time to shut down.

If it influences you in any way for your voting today, I know first hand that Romney wears Vibram 5 fingers when he works out.  It was hard for me to get over at first but I have learned to forgive people for their short comings.

Well, since I can't control the outcome of our nation, I went to the gym where I could control something.  The treadmill.  

Slow Progression run, I didn't hit goal marathon pace until mile 12 but that was good cause 2 miles is about all I can run my goal marathon pace right now.

FYI, goal marathon pace = 6:30 - 6:20.  I used to think it was 6:00.  I have learned better.

14 miles in 1:38:26.

P.M.

1 mile with Ethan, .5 with Zach, 3 miles with Bradin on the new Traverse Mountain Elementary 5K route.

Nice day to run outside, but.... I went to the gym anyway.  16 miles in 1:56:50, last mile in 6:20.

I fly to Anaheim tomorrow, the weather in So. Cal should be slightly nicer than Utah this weekend.

My 8 year old Ethan decided he wanted to join the blog too, so now both Bradin and Ethan are bloggers, and pretty serious about their running lately.  Their Principal challenged all the students at Traverse Mountain Elementary to run 7 laps around the soccer field (1 mile) everyday.  The Rohdes are blowing that number out of the water.

P.M.

4 laps with Ethan, 1 lap with Zach, 8 laps with Bradin, 3 laps alone to make it an even 20 for the day.

That was crazy, it was 57 degrees and windy when I got to the gym, 32 and blizzard by the time I got to the airport.

12 miles in 1:26:00 last mile in 5:52.   On my way to warmer weather, I hope.

The Airport security asked me if anything in my suitcase was toxic, or flammable.  I told them maybe my gym clothes.  They didn't think I was funny.

I really didn't feel like running 18 miles today, but last night my co-worker/best friend and I went to the new James Bond movie so I didn't get my planned afternoon run in.  And I couldn't not get my 100 miles in since I was so close. 

I'm in about the best place I know in the world to run a long run anyway so it worked out good.  We are staying in Garden Grove about 2 miles from Disney Land, usually I'm right by Disney so my route was a bit different today, I ran out Chapman, and found the Santa Ana River trail and ran West this time.  I thought it would be fun to run all the way to the beach, but when I mapped it out that would have been a full marathon round trip and I definitely wasn't in the mood for that.  I started at 5:00 so it was really dark and spooky, I wish I would have waited for more light but it was fine.  I have seen Bobcats on that trail before but haven't ever been bothered by them.

I ran out till my watch said 9 miles and turned around, luckily there was a strategically placed McDonalds at mile 8.5 with a really nice bathroom so that came in real handy.  I was really tired by then end of the run and my feet and hip were pretty sore, but I did it and am a better man for it I'm sure.

Is bumping your mileage 100% from 50 miles to 100 miles in 1 week recommended in any of those fancy running books?

Nice easy run down to Disneyland, 1 big loop, 1 downtown Disney loop and back.  Kind of chilly this morning but not bad after I got moving. 

Now off to a busy work day, that's the problem with my job, since conferences always start on Monday it means I always have to work on weekends to get ready.

Perfect morning for running, we had an early work start today so I had to run in the dark but I didn't want to wear a headlamp so I just ran lots of various sized and shaped loops around the happiest place on earth.

12 miles in 1:26:23, last mile in 6:32.

Same magical route as yesterday with a slight modification to keep from having to do laps around the hotel parking lot to finish off an even 12.  I was a tad slower today, it took me a little bit longer to get into it.  Plus I seemed to hit more red lights this morning.

12 miles in 1:28:20, last mile in 6:28

Here is my route just in case anyone wants to know how to run 12 miles on well lit streets while visiting Disney.

I'm so happy with my new early morning route I did it one last time,  my legs must have been feeling peppier than normal cause it was my fastest time yet.

12 miles in 1:24:20 last mile in 6:12.

We have another show coming up in Vegas the week after Thanksgiving that needs a bunch of the equipment we have now, so we have decided instead of stressing about it getting to Vegas in time we are going to rent a mini-van, bugger on out of here tonight and drive the equipment to Vegas and then home.  Not sure if I'll get a Vegas run in tomorrow, I guess it depends on how late we get there tonight.

3 loops around the Wynn golf course in Vegas. I got in at midnight, slept for 5 hours got up and ran now we're in the car headed home. I'm tired.

12 progressive miles on the Lifetime treadmill.  Last 3.1 miles in 19 minutes.

 12 miles in 1:19:00

Driving home from Anaheim in our rental car the other day I came up with a plan to surprise my wife with a fun date.  We never go on dates, so I arranged a babysitter,  texted my wife and asked her out on a date, Rented a really cool Mustang GT 5.0, and shopped around for a place that could give us both massages at the same time.  Well, the only place I could find on that short of notice was at Cliff Spa at Snowbird, way, way too expensive for a massage but I decided to splurge anyway, and then since we were already going to be at Snowbird I made reservations at the Steak Pit.  Britt informed me that restaurants with the name 'Pit' in them were not good date places.  Anyway, since this story really isn't going anywhere I'll end it.  We drove the cool car up the canyon, had average massages for 3X what they were worth,  had a steak dinner for about 2X what it was really worth, ended up spending over $500 for a date.  A little bit disapointed with the whole thing, I guess next time we'll just stick to Applebee's and a movie.  The car was totally worth it though.

12 progressive miles on the treadmill in 1:24:06. before taking the car back to the airport.

Afterwards I realized that this week was actually my wife and I's 13th anniversary since our very first date.  So that made it more worth it I suppose.

14 progressive treadmill miles in 1:33:13.  Felt pretty good, I do have some random aches and pains that I should probably pay more attention to.

Now a fun day of Christmas light hanging.

Ran with Scott, Dan, Mike, and Toni on the JRP this morning.  Was it hot, was it cold?  I really didn't know.  I was cold but somehow overheated.  On the way back Toni took off ahead, I decided to chase him down and Dan came with me.  After passing Toni, Dan and I went on about a 2 mile tempo run.  He broke me going up a hill but then slowed down at the top to let me catch him. I was thankful, and then started thinking about turkey dinner.

Even up until last night I thought about doing a treadmill marathon this morning, I pretty much knew it wouldn't be good and this morning as I hobbled out of bed I just wrote it off.  Went to the gym and just did my normal 12 mile progression run, I wore my heart rate monitor today for the first time in a long time which confirmed I wasn't ready for a treadmill PR anyway.  Last year I ran the entire 26.2 miles with an average HR of 160, mile 9 I did in 6:27 with an average HR of 162, today I hit mile 9 in 6:25 (progression to get there) and my Avg HR was 168.  So that verified that I'm just not in as good of shape as I was back then.  Which I already knew but now have the data to back it up.

12 miles in 1:25:33,  Avg HR 157

Oh, I forgot to mention I did 5 X sprints 13.1,13.2,13.3,13.4,13.5 MPH for the last mile so that probably brought the average up a bit.

I think this is funny http://thankful13.com/5k/5k-time/.  Apparently "The average person runs a 5K in about 33 minutes at 10 mph."

The average person must get lost a lot.

I was up until 12:00 last night putting together and early Christmas present that I thought would be fun to have for the whole family who are coming over for Thanksgiving today, (an air hockey table) so I didn't think I'd go to the gym this morning but I woke up at 4:15 anyway and couldn't get back to sleep so I went.  For the last mile I wanted to see what my 5K pace was, so being very optimistic I bumped it up to 5:27 pace, after 1/4 mile I realized that was more my 1/4 mile pace, slowed down for a quarter then tried 5:42 pace, that was a little better but realistically 5:50 is probably all I'm good for in a 5K.

The entire family is going to run the Thanksgiving point 5K this morning, plan is to run with Bradin while pushing Zach in the stroller while Britt runs with Ethan.  If I get there and look around and think an 18 minute 5K could win me a Turkey I may go for it, if not I'll stick to the plan of running with Bradin.

10 miles in 1:12:30

Pretty good races today, it was very cold and windy at the start.  I headed to the front of the line with Bradin and Walter was there.  I talked to him for a bit and he told me he was going to go out hard.  I decided to start out fast too, I was feeling good and like the cold, I told Bradin to just run like we have practiced cause I wanted to win a turkey.  I went out fast, but not as fast as Walter and 4 others, I was going about 5:05 pace and realized that was a bad move so I slowed down a bit.  Right around then I really started having issues with the stroller, the wind was blowing it all over and the break lever kept falling down.  I'd kick it back with my foot but it wouldn't stay.  I about over turned the stoller a few times cause it just wouldn't run straight at that speed.  Eventually I just gave us and waited for Bradin.  Kind of a bummer cause Walter wasn't official and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place were 20 minutes, I know I could have run sub 20 without the stoller. O'well, Bradin, Ethan, and Zach all did awesome.  I'll let them write their own reports.

Gave up my morning run so Britt could go shopping with Bradin.  Pretty rare occasion when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV at 6:00am.

Guess I'll go pull out the ol' Christmas Tree now.

Afternoon,

Finished my Christmas chores and rewarded myself with a nice easy run on a perfect day for running.  My right foot is hurting on my heel, feels kind of like plantar fasciitis, which really sucks.

I have no idea what my deal was today.  Went to the gym and got on the treadmill planning on running 14 but I just never really got into it, I didn't hurt, I don't feel sick but I just had no legs and just felt out of sorts.  All I can explain it as is tiredness I guess, after 3 miles I stopped and went to the elliptical for 30 minutes, tried to run again but didn't feel any better so I just went and lifted weights instead.

This next week is going to be pretty rough as far as running goes, I fly out to Palo Alto California tomorrow and throw a quick 1 day Google conference together, then on Wednesday I hop on a flight to Prague for 10 days, then I come home and can hopefully enjoy the rest of the year.

About as good a run as they come this morning.  I did the Ryan Hall run, probably not as fast as him but same run.  I'm staying across the street from Stanford University, I figured out this loop last time I stayed here and was pretty excited when I found out I was staying in the same hotel.

1 loop around the Campus loop is 3.5 miles and about .75 miles to the hotel, I ran 3 loops, my headlamp strap was broke but I remembered there was a 1/2 mile stretch with no light so I carried my headlamp in my hand just to navigate that section, I'm glad I did cause it's so dark through there you could easily just run right off the road.

There is just something about cool moist sea level air that makes you run fast.

12.25 miles in 1:26:00 7:02 avg pace. 

2 loops around Stanford this morning cause I thought I was in a hurry, but when I got to the conference space we are working at the doors were all locked up anyway, I hate it when I waste time not running.

I had a job interview yesterday, I'm guessing they will offer me a job since they took me out to dinner after the interviews.  I'm also guessing I wont take it unless they offer me a rediculous amount of money. 

Pretty pathetic little run this morning, 1 Stanford loop.  I think I saw the place Fritz told me to run but it was very dark, I forgot my headlamp, and it was raining.  So I called it quits early.  I just wasn't feeling it today, work has me stressed and I have to go sit on a plane for 18 hours today.  Yuck!

I'll just call this week a recovery week.  I got into Prague yesterday afternoon, slept OK on the plane but pretty out of it.  Last night I went to bed at 8:00pm and drugged myself to make sure I slept through the night and ended up sleeping in until 7:00am, so I didn't have much time to run.  Went down to the hotel gym and ran for 35 minutes.

8 Km in 35 minutes.