What ever it takes!

I found a great place to stay in Vegas, the Marriott Chateau.  It's technically a Marriott Vacation Club but you can rent rooms like a normal hotel.  Easy access to the Airport, no stinky casino and a really great gym with all LifeFitness equipment.  My new go to place to stay while on business in Vegas.

Set out to run 10 this morning but my legs were too soar. 8 miles a day was tough but it feels so good to be able to do it again. I think I'll max out at 8 per day for a while and work on getting speed up.

Embarrising admission here but I joined a neighborhood weightloss pool at the start of the year.  Because yes, I got fat over the past 4 years.  Funny enough this challange seems to have done the trick to get my butt back in gear, so far I'm down 18lbs since January 2nd and am in first place in the neighborhood pool :).  I just hope I can keep it up, I really want to be in as good of shape as I was 4 years ago.  My goal for the year is to qualify for 2018 Boston.

my legs were pretty sore today so after 1 mile I gave up and went back to the elliptical.

nice little morning run at the cabin, so amazing up here looking down over the inversion in Heber.  It was 15 degrees which scared me at first but is actually quite nice if there is no wind like there always is at home.

I was all excited to come to Sanoma California envisioning myself running through vinards on nice little dirt trails.  Nope, it's not like that, not my favorite town by any means.

Treadmill run in the stuff hotel gym.

Another treadmill run in the stuff hotel gym.  Why do hotels think the gym should be set at 75 degrees?

That was hard!

I ran outside today, it was hot.  February?

somedays I start running and my body just says "no"

felt good after taking it easy yesterday 

Running up at the cabin on frozen slushy roads.

Another run at the cabin this morning, the roads were quite chunky with Ice and the elevation really is noticable but I love running in the mountains.

So my middle son started Jr. High this year and wants to run track like his older brother, Great!! I got an e-mail from the school a few weeks ago asking if any parents could volunteer to help out with the track coaches.  I responded and said sure, I'll help out.  Well I went to the coaches meeting last night and it turns out none of the teachers at the school wanted to coach track this year, and me and 1 other mother of 5 are the only ones that showed up, which all of a sudden made us the Track coaches for the Jr. High.  WTH, I've never even ran track, never ran the 200, never used starting blocks, never held a shotput, never jumped over a horizontal bar and now I'm the track coach.  Ahhhh!  Help if you have any advise for me!

Biggest mileage week since June of 2013, wanted to do 10 today and make it a 50 mile week but my legs were burning a bit.  I think 50 feels like a pretty good number, maybe I'll start working on speed and keep mileage around here for a while.

I flew into Philly last night and have a 2 hour meeting today and then fly home, no time for a run, plus I didn't really want to go running around cold Phillidelpia this morning so no run.

My flight was late getting in last night so I slept in and waited for the kids to go to school before going out to run.  Nice easy run on the dirt trail, there was about 1" of trackless snow, which is kind of like running on the beach in the sand but colder.

3 more miles with 'my' track team.  First day of being a couch went well.

6 miles outside again, I'm definately enjoying my un-timed outdoor runs in the cool air.

I'm way excited about my new system I have for my track team.  I've come up with individual Running goals for them and have made sticky labels for them to wear on their shirts telling them the 100m splits they need to run to hit their goals.  I've always watched Jr High kids run and they alway go out way too fast, die in the middle and then sprint to the finish line, I really want to teach them young that pacing throughout the whole race will give them the best result.  Not sure it will work, but it's worth a try.

6 miles outside, then about 1 mile trying to teach 13 year olds how to pace themselves.  Much harder than it seems, I went and spent my own money on cheap stop watches for them so they can practice pacing.  Not sure if that was a good investment.

I didn't run yesterday cause we were at the cabin so I got my workout in moving 6' snow drifts instead.  So I deciced to head out this morning and get an early run in. 

Weigh in day for my neighborhood weightloss contest.  Currently I'm in 3rd place at 12% lost since Jan. 1st.  I ran longer to try and loose an extra pound before weighing in.  3 weeks to go.

Really good run, it's definatelty getting easier and easier, and running is starting to be fun again.

5 miles outside

1 mile pacing kids at track practice.

Ran to the Jimmy Johns, they were closed so I turned around and ran back home.
 

3 miles down to drycreek with the track team so they could show me the rope swing.

7 miles on the treadmill, and I'll be generous and give myself 1 mile during track practice, 2 laps + other running around.

Just wasn't feeling it this morning, lack of energy from staying out late watching the BYU Ballroom championships. 

Don't you hate it when you have a tailwind going out but just think your feeling good and then have to deal with a headwind the whole way back?

What started as a morning walk turned into an easy 6 mile run, that turned into 8 miles cause it felt so good.
 

Treadmill run since I have to fly to Denver for the day, pushed it pretty hard the last mile.

First track meet for Lehi Jr. today, they did awesome.  I can't believe how fast some of my kids are.  I have a couple of Twin boys whom I can't tell apart.  I gave everyone goals for their 400M 800M and 1600M time based on some workouts we did.  They missed the day we ran the mile in practice and when I showed them their goal was 5:50 they were completely offended and told me they could run way faster than that.  I told them to prove it at the meet, well they did, those 2 are pretty incredible runners, smart and fast.  They took 1st and 2nd.  Lehi Jr. is the only Jr High that does not have 9th graders in Alpine school district since the 9th graders all went to Sky Ridge but my kids definately held their own against the older kids.  It's a bit unfair, I don't think we can ever actaully win a meet since we have no 9th graders but I'm really proud of all my runners.

My normal lazy 6 mile route to Harmons and back.  I figure I get extra miles in at Track practice every day so don't feel too bad about not doing 8.

3 miles with the track team.

I felt like I needed a good treadmill workout to keep my pace up even though the weather was perfect for outside running today.  Maybe I'll attempt a bike ride today if I can find the time.

Treadmill workout again.

Perfect morning for a workout, I would have run forever if my legs would have let me.  Nice bright moon lighting the trail this morning.  Out to Smiths and back.

6 Easy miles in the wind.

55 degrees is my perfect running temp, when my thermometer says 55 I know it's going to be a good run.  Woke up early and ran the Murdock trail, now I'm headed to Orlando.

I assumed it was hot muggy Florida outside so I went to the hot stuffy hotel gym and ran 6 miles, I then decided to go outside for a couple of miles only to find out it was absolutely perfect running temps.  So tomorrow I will do more outside.

weigh in day for my weight loss challange. 13 miles with no food or water since yesterday in Orlando. I don't feel so good ;)

8 miles on the treadmill

3 miles with my track team, today I made them run to Drycreak park and run 10x hillsprints up a 12% hill.  I decided to do the workout with them cause if I just stood there with a cool glass of lemonade while they were running they wouldn't respect me.  Seriously I think that was the hardest workout I've ever made myself do, I've done hills before but usually long slow runs, not sprints.

I was hurting from the hillsprints, took it easy today.

Treadmill again, I ran the last mile in 6:00 just to see if I could do it.  I haven't ran an 6:00mile in over 5 years.

I have a coaching questions, my son is a 14 year old 9th grader going to SkyRidge highschool, that kid can really push himself, last year he was around a 6:00 miler, he runs a big PR every trackmeet and last night ran a 5:02.  Problem is his splits went like this.  73,77,90,62.  He runs every race like that, starts out pretty perfect starts slowing down and then runs a 400M sprint passing up half the feild.  I try to tell him to just run 73's and he'd be running sub 5:00 everytime but I can't run a 5:00 mile to show him.  It seems like he's only a freshman and has plenty of time to figure it out, the coach doesn't seem to care, she's more worried about the Jr's and Sr's.  Should I just let him keep running like that?  He's seems to be enjoying himself.  On the other hand on my team I have 2 8th grade twin brothers, those 2 pretty much just run 80 s laps no matter what, they never PR just run 5:20 everytime, they refuse to run the 800 for me but I'm guessing they'd run it in 2:40 if they did.  Which is better?

awesome run this morning, I started on the treadmill cause it was dark outside and I'm afraid of alligators.  Once it got light I went and ran the perimeter of the Shingle Creek golf course here in Orlando.  Absolutely beautiful out this morning, lots of birds and amazing sunrise.

Early flight back from Orlando but I was able to get in a quick run after getting home.

A little bit chilly this morning but a pretty nice run.

I signed up for the Big Cottonwood marathon this week, hoping to qualify for Boston.

8 miles on a perfect morning,

Tried to run the last mile in <6:00 but couldn't quite hang on, slowed down and ended up running it in 6:15.

10 miles out to Smiths and back, pretty chilly morning.  I got a new Garmin and had to test it out.  I've been using my Apple watch for the last year or so but it was always off about 10% so I decided to go back to an actual GPS watch now that I'm trying to get serious again.

I woke up feeling like a cold is coming on but still managed a 10 mile early morning run. Really cold for shorts and short sleeves but no wind and really cool moon.

Almost didn't run this morning but forced myself into it, and am much happier not because of it.

Alpine days today, I ran the coaches 4x100 at the end, we lost and I hurt myself :). I've never actually "raced" 100m before.

Nice Spring morning run, in a freakin' blizzard.

I missed a run yesterday cause I was camping with scouts so I decided to make it up today.

Didn't feel great this morning but forced myself to run 10 outside since it was such a nice morning.  very slow, exactly 9:00 avg pace, I know this cause I stopped my watch right at 10 miles and 1:30.

8 miles on the treadmill followed by weights.

It's funny how 55 degrees with wind seems freezing but 41 degrees with no wind is warm.  I can't ever get my running wardrobe quite right.

10 miles out to Smiths and back, ran the last mile in 7:05, I was trying to keep it at 6:45 but it's hard to do on an uneven dirt road.

Beautiful morning, 10 miles to Smiths and back.

What do people think about the Sub 2 hour Marathon attempt tomorrow? 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2017/may/04/nikes-two-hour-marathon-project-reveals-technological-inequities-in-sport

Lake loop at Cabin.

Lake Loop again.

8 miles on treadmill.

10 miles out to Smiths and back

I'm in New Orleans for the day, years ago when I used to travel more I came to New Orleans and saw people running down the middle of the train tracks on St. Charles.  I thought they were crazy at the time cause "Mamma said never run on Railroad tracks" I've since figured out that running down the tracks is the thing to do in New Orleans, just stay on the left side so you can see the train coming, they are only going about 15 - 20 MPH so it's pretty easy to just step out of the way and they only come about every 10 minutes. 

4 miles exaclty from the hotel out to Autubon park, 1.75 mile loop around the park, I ran a little further to make sure I got 10 in and then 4 miles back.  I was feeling a little sick towards the end, I'm not used to running in hot humid.

10 miles on the treadmill cause it was a blizzard outside. 

I'm in Sunnyvale for the rest of the week, ran 1 mile on the hotel treadmill and decided that was no fun and went outside to find the river trail.  Very nice run, I love it here because there are trails everywhere and the temperature is always perfect in the morning.

Same trail run as yesterday but I went 1 mile further.

nice run around Santa Clara. 

Lazy week so far, I think alergies are keeping me down.

Ran out to Smiths and back, wicked headwind coming back. I ran into Carina on my last mile and ended up chatting with her for a bit and got an extra 1/2 mile in.

Convinced my 15 year old to go running with me today cause sometimes you have to teach them about the tortoise and the hare.  He always is calling me slow cause I can't keep his 5:30 pace when we go for short runs but today I made him stay with me, then guess who was laughing on the final mile.  :)

More hiking than running around Timberlakes.

More hiking than running this morning, alergies are just making it really hard to run lately.

Treadmill before heading to the Airport

Was only planning on 8 today but I ran into Carina and ran a little further with her.

I decided I needed a long run to make up for my lazy week.  At mile 8 I was really starting to wonder if I'd make it home.

8 miles around East Heber, it's really hard to get a good run in at the cabin, too many hills so I drove down to where it was more flat.

Not a run, just an early morning hike around the cabin.

8 miles at the gym, I though it was going to be windy this morning so I planned a gym day.  I needed it anyway, I get lazy when I run outside.

Nice run in the rain this morning, it felt good to stay cool.

6 super easy miles this morning.  9:00 avg pace.  I start my "official" training program for Big Cottonwood on Monday, I'm still about 20lbs over weight, hopefully following a program will shed that pretty quick.

Ran with my son this morning, we had a lot of fun pretty windy but I got some good faster miles in just trying to show off.  He can waste me the first 4 miles but then after that he kind of dies and I finally get warmed up.  Hopefully making him get a long run in once a week will give him an advantage come Xcountry season.

First day of following a training program, I dusted off an ond one I found from 5 years ago called "easy" I picked it over the "hard" once cause the hard had up to 95 mile weeks and I aint ready for that.  I don't think milage wise it is much different than what I was already doing, just has some speed work built in. 

Today was 8 miles with 10x100's.  along my run there is a 1 miles stretch on the path that is pretty straight and pretty flat, maybe a slight downhill so I choose that to do my speed work.  I had to go off my garmin for distance so I just did 10X .6 miles on and .4 mile rest for 1 mile.  it's had for the Garmin to settle in for only 6/10's of a mile but I was somewhere between 4:00 and 4:30 pace for all 10, much faster than I do on the treadmill so I felt pretty good but am going to be sore tomorrow.

I'm not just to fix my typos, just going to share my excuse.  I was putting in a new sliding door at my moms house this weekend and had to cut some carpet to fit it in, I ended up cutting more than carpet and chopped of the tip of my finger.  So I have a huge bandage on my left finger and literally fat finger alot.
 

Half running Half hiking

Jog/Hike around Timberlakes, I saw 2 fox, 1 moose, lots of deer. 
 

I was kind of dreading todays run, 12 miles with 6 @ marathon pace, granted marathon pace ain't what it used to be, right now 7:30 is about where I'm at cause that's what I need for a BQ, hopfully in another 2 months that will be down closer to 7:00.   6 miles up to Highland then just tried to keep around 7:30 on the way back.  was able to run the last 3 a bit faster.

8 miles on the treadmill before flying to Toronto for the week.

Easy 6 mile run in the rain along Lake Ontario in Toronto Canada.

8 miles along Lake Ontario today, schedule called for 4 miles of LT but I forgot my Garmin and just wasn't feeling like pushing too hard this morning.  There was a lady on a bike that I stayed with most the way back which helped push the pace.

Last day in Toronto, found a really neat botanical garden along the lake to run through, very nice run in the rain this morning.
 

an old friend from high school posted on Facebook that he needed a running a partner for a 20 mile training run today.  I told him I'd run 14 with him, so I woke up at 3:30 this morning with my son and we drove to Layton.  Nice run along the new trail in West Layton,  I think we went a little fast for my friend and he ended up just bailing out when we were done at 14.

hike/jog around Timberlakes

way fun run with my son this morning, had my wife wake up early and drive us to the top of Lake Creek Rd in Heber where it turns to National Forest, then we barreled straight down hill for 7.5 miles to the entrance to Timberlakes.  There was maybe 100 yards of uphill the entire run.  Very good time, perfect weather, perfect views.

5 miles around Timberlakes

Same route as yesterday

I'm staying in a brand new hotel in Plano TX, so new it's not even open yet so I can't use the gym.  Ran outside and discovered this is a dreadful place to run, no shoulders on the roads, sidewalks that just dead end into fields, pathways that go nowhere and very hot and humid.  Wondering how I'm going to get a long run in this week.

So I mapped out a nice 7 mile loop on Google Maps last night, set out at 5:00am this morning in the dark.  I was very hot and I was pretty much hating life, at about mile 4.5 I ran out of sidewalk and realized I should be getting closer to the hotel not further and decided I better turn back and and go the way I'd came.  Good thing I did cause after retracing my route I'd missed my turn by about 2 miles and was completely running the wrong way.

I'm not sure if I was suppose to or not but this morning I went and used the gym in this new un-opened hotel.  pretty cool being the first person to ever use the gym, I was tempted to run 1 mile on each treadmill just to be the first person to use each one but that might have been weird.  Wanted to run 12 this morning but I didn't want to get caught using the gym if I wasn't suppose to be there so I stopped at 7:00.

I'm staying about a 1/2 mile away from the Frito-Lay head quarters, I've seen what looked like a trail on Google Maps but never went down that way cause there are no sidewalks and the road was always really busy.  Today is Sunday and there was no one on the road so I headed down that way.  There were signs all over than said Private Property no tresspassing on this perfect little running trail through the woods, over bridges and around lakes so I ignored the No Tresspassing part and just honored the running trail part.

Woke up early and ran on the Hotel Treadmill.  Today is opening day for this hotel if everything goes perfect I get to go home.

Elliptical trainer before flying to Sheridan Wy.

Woke up really early and had a nice run in the country here in Sheridan Wy.  Really nice morning glad to be out of the heat of Texas.    After my 10 mile run I woke up the kids and made them go do speedwork at the HighSchool track, had them do 10 x 400's, I want my 15 year old to win the local 5K on Friday so I had him run them in 80s, with 30 second rest.  He ran the last one in 63 to show off to some girls that were working out there :). I ran 8 laps with my 13 year old at around 8:00 pace.

Early 6 mile run before the Sneakers and Spurs 5K in Sheridan.  I ran with my 13 year old, he did OK, had to have a walk break at the 1/2 way point and ended up getting 24:3x, not a PR but it was really hot.  My oldest son took 8th place overall, which was good but the winning time was only 17:45, really surprised he couldn't run a sub 18:00 but he complained of being too hot also.
 

Long run with my son out Big Goose road in Sheridan, one of my favorite places to run,  nice rolly hills, net uphill going out, net downhill with tail wind coming back.

6 treadmill miles before flying back to Plano TX.

It's going to be a rough running week, 80 degrees and 90% humidity at 5:00am, and the hotel gym isn't that much better.  Ran 1 mile on the treadmill and thought I was going to passout so I just did the elliptical for 1 hour.

I just can't convince my body to run in the heat so I just did elliptical again.  I feel wimpy about it but maybe I needed a few days off from running anyway.

Hot muggy miles, but there was a super cool lightning storm all around me.

5 miles hike jog around Timberlakes

Out to Jimmy Johns and back, felt better than I have for the last week.
 

Really nice run in the rain this morning, warm but the rain felt good, I was suppose to do speed work but I seem to get hurt when I do that so I'm going to just try and get milage in.

Out to the drinking fountain and back, that's a long way to run just to get a drink of water.

I actually don't even remember this run, but I'm prettys sure I went 8.

Quad pounder down Lake Creek Rd in Heber. Bradin and I got a ride up to the top where the national forest starts and started out slowish cause we didn't want to hurt again like the last time but by mile 6 we decided to start having some fun, ran the last 2 miles at sub 6:00 pace, with about 1/2 mile to go he past me like I was standing still, I looked down and I was running 5:35 pace so I have no idea what he was doing.  He beat me by about 200M.

4 miles of hiking with the family after the run.

Still very sore from Saturday's run, fairly painful 10 miles very early in the morning out around Smiths and back.

Out and around Xactware and back. When is it going to start cooling down in the morning?

Went to they gym to rest my legs, they've been sore all week.

Today was scheduled to be a 15mile run but my wife signed the family up for a 10K at Skyridge, so not a normal long run.  Went to the gym early and did 9 miles on the treadmill followed by weights and some laps in the pool.  The race started at Skyridge Highschool at 8:00 am, I could already tell it was going to be way too hot so I just planned on trying to keep a 7:30 pace.  My son was also running it, you could pretty much tell at the start line he didn't really have any competition so I told him to just go out fairly easy (6:30) pace for the first 3 miles and see where he was at that point.  I kept a 7:20 average pretty good for the first 4 miles but I could tell the earlier 9 miles and the heat were getting to me, I knew I was the 3rd place male cause I could see my son and 1 other guy ahead of me at the 2 mile turn. I got passed by a guy at around mile 3 but that only lasted about 200M before he died off, he must of burned up trying to catch me, I then passed the 2nd and 3rd place women at about 3.5.  The last 2 mile were up hill back up to the school and it was very hot, I really struggled and probably would have started walking but I knew I was 3rd place and that's the only think that kept me going.  My son took 1st place with a time of 39:1? 2nd place was 5 minutes behind him so great day for him, especially since his Xcountry couch told him today was a Xtrain day and no running.

Treadmill workout with 5x intervals at 6:20 pace.

11 miles around Smiths and back

woke up early and got my long run in today since I will be at the cabin tomorrow morning and 18 miles is pretty impossible up there.  Too many hills. Ran out of time and was a mile short of scheduled but glad I got it done

For some reason my Garmin was totally dead when I went out this morning even though I had it on the charger all night. It was actually nice to go for a run without a Garmin, I still knew where the 5 mile turn around was. 

I tried to do some speed work but it was pretty random, just ran hard until I got tired, slowed down until I felt recovered and ran hard again.

Elliptical at the gym

out and around Smiths.  Nice coolish morning

Just went for a morning walk with my wife, no run.

Didn't have anyone to run with, didn't want to make my wife drive me somewhere at 4:00 in the morning, so I just got up and started running.  Ran up the Murdock trail to Smith's then just kept going up SR-92 to AF Canyon, made it about 2 miles up the canyon until my Garmin said 11 miles then turned around and took a more direct route home for a total of 21.  I was expecting it to be lighter at 5:30 when I got to AF canyon but it was pitch black and I didn't have any lights or anything reflective so it was a bit scary with all the Saturday morning traffic but I managed to not get ran over.

Lousy run today, just wasn't fully recovered from Saturday. 

Woke up late and had to get a quick run in.

6 miles on the treadmill, finished off with 5X 100's

16 really slow miles, todays run was harder than last weeks 21.  Last long run until marathon day, glad to get it over with.

Hamstring is a bit sore so I just did Ellipticl at the gym, and then off to the airport to spend the week in Chicago.

Treadmill miles in the hotel gym, hot and stuffy but I made it through, finished with 3 X 1600's at ~7:00 pace.

I couldn't bring myself to run on the Hotel treadmill again today, so I did Elliptical instead.

Hotel Gym Treadmill run.  Blah, ready to go home.

4.5 miles up Dry Creek and then back down at ~5% grade

treadmill run before flying to Oakland.

Im in Berkeley California this week, I found an amazing hiking trail up in the hills above Berkeley, I started pretty early and it was dark, there was a sign that said "warning Mountain Lions in area" but I figured I'm in Berkeley and the Mountain Lions are probably vegetarian.  Once I got above the fog layer it was pretty amazing, the moon was full and I could see out above the entire Bay Area. 

I am disapointed with my result, but since this was the first Maraton I've run in over 4 years I really didn't know what to expect, my training was OK but I am still about 20 lbs over what I wanted to be for this race so I can't complain too much it's my fault.  I wanted to get a BQ so my plan was to try for 3:15 which would give me a 10 minute buffer.  I'm really kind of annoyed with the 3:15 pacers,  I was going to run with them but I ran mile 1 in 6:50 and they passed me, I heard one of them say the next mile should be 7:23 which I thought would be easy enough but they ended up running that in probably 6:45, I was about 6:53 so I gave up on trying to keep up with them.  I ran the first 1/2 in 1:34.41 and honestly don't think was over doing it, it is really steep and I just kept running at what I felt was a comfortable pace.  At mile 18 I was still feeling OK, but I could tell my legs were falling apart and then we left the canyon and started running up Wasatch Blvd. the sun hit me and I knew I was done for, I hadn't done any training runs in the sun.  I trudged up the hill and actually caught up to the 3:15 pacers at the 21.5 turn around but I stopped for a water, GU and stretch break which I think was my demise, after that I could never get my legs to function properly, the final 5 miles was a sort of death march, I had heat exhaustion couldn't get enough water down and then at the final turn to head down Fort Union the 3:25 pacer passed me and I know it was over with only 2.5 miles to go, at that point I mentally gave up and just kind of walk jogged the rest of the way.  Anyway, I'm not overly upset, I really hurt today but for the most part I was just happy I could finish a marathon again after 3 years of not even being able to run.