EXTREME MAKEOVER 2012

This morning Kellie and I went to Spanish and met up with the Spanish Fork Running group.  we started at 5 am and it was already 78 degrees and kind of humid.  We ran as a group until the bottom of Heart Break and the Tom, Hal and Dan and myself went left around the golf course.  The wind was in our faces the for about 3 miles and then finally at our backs.  Tom and I ran into Salem up to Harry's Hill and then back through salem and then down power house rd.  Tom really picked the pace up, we then stopped for a drink and then continues down the river bottoms.  Tom's watch was .5 miles a head of mine so he wanted to push it hard until mile 17 so when he hit 17 I had to leave him while he jogged slow while I finished my last .5 at a 6:14 pace.  He said a good running partner would run the extra .5 with me but his legs were killing him from the payson canyon run.  I don't blame him one bit!!!  I am glad that I ran with him I felt great the whole run, my calf is starting to feel better as well.  I even found out that Tom is 1/8 Icelandic!!!!!  I am 1/4 Icelandic, I speak the language so I am going to make a deal with Tom.  I will teach him Icelandic on our long runs in trade for his coaching skills!!!  I think that I will be getting the benefit of the deal, because Icelandic is a tough language and he will never use it, and i will get to use his coaching skills on a daily basis.  My wife Kellie ran 18 with her friend and even found some new friends that she is excited to run iwth in the future.

ave pace 7:45

This morning I had intended on doing a 3 mile tempo run? How ever when I hit 3 miles I just kept on running! Kind of like Forest Gump :) Except I only ran 1 mile longer not across the United States.

Mile 1 - 6:17

Mile 2 - 6:10

Mile 3 - 6:12

Mile 4 - 6:04

Ave Pace - 6:11

I felt like at mile 4 I could have held a 6:10 for another mile or maybe I would have hit 4.5 and crashed???? Finished with a 2 mile cool down and then passed the baton on to my wife so she could get her run in for the day. It was very hot this morning as well.

This morning I ran into Pat and Kent, they were preparing to do some speed work.  Pat really didn't feel like doing speed right off the bat so we ran 3 miles together and then Kent started with his speed work and Pat and I ran out ot Osborne Corner and then Pat started his speed work out.  I didn't have time for a speed work out so I headed back home.  It was great to run with Pat and get some useful information from him and Kent.

ave pace 7:39

I am sick of running in hot muggy weather!  I am sure that the folks down south would trade us in a second.  The good thing is, is that it only gets colder from here on out???  Well at least I hope so. I left he house at 5:20 am and ran around Salem and eventually ended up back home so that Kellie could go for her run.

Ave pace 7:17

Today I borrowed my neighbors Garmin beacuse it has a heart rate monitor, I have never ran with one and really didn't understand how it worked?  Plus it is hard ot read when you are running.  I probably need to spend some time messing with the settings.  I tried several different paces 7:00 min pace HR 168 to 170, 5:53 down hill 165, flat 6:00 pace 178 for .5 miles and then 5:52 for half mile 180 bpm.  I would like to wear it on a speed day and see what it would read on a good tempo run.  Legs felt great today and have felt great for the week.

ave pace 7:03

Today I started the Garmin watch @ 4:25 am.  I wanted to get on the road early so that I could be home at a decent time.  I have 3 UDOT jobs that bid on tuesday so i have a lot of work to do.  I needed to make up some miles from Saturday since I didn't ge to run.  Kellie ran the Provo half so I woke the boys up and headed over to watch her finish.  She did awesome, she wanted to finish under 1:50, I thought she was capable of 1:45 and she finished under that at 1:44 and some change.  She did awesome, so I was glad that I made it over to watch her.

This morning was one of those mornings where you wish you had a bib on your shirt and a finish line waiting for you  at the end.  I felt so good today, I don;t know if it was because of the short mileage week last week or beacuse I am actually in better shape than I think.  I ran out to Osborne Corner dropped my 20 oz of water and then made two complete loops around the golf course.  I like the feeling when I can finally ditch the water off of my hips and run with out it for 10 miles.  I carried a little flash light with me, moslty to be safe but it was real nice for spot lighting deer.  I ran past 2 on power house rd that were with in 5 feet of me and about 12 others through out the river bottoms.  3 bucks and a lot of does.  One buck had the one side if his horns busted off and it was hanging in his face?  I don't know if he got hit by a car or just banged it on a tree?  It is to early for then to be fighting?  Oh well enough about deer, can you tell that I am starting to get into the hunting mode?

At mile 13.75 I decided to run up Heart Break and back down so I could get an exrta .5 mile in so that I wouldn't have to run past my house to hit the 20.  I saw Kim and Tom right at tree road, tried to stop and say hi, but they were on a TEMPO run and could not stop.  I ran under 7's the rest of the way home the last 6 miles.  I felt no fatigue today, maybe a little ache now and again but nothing serious.  I really didn't pay any attention to my watch today either just moslty ran off feel.  I checked my spit's when I was doing my cool down and I was surprised to see that I averaged my St. George pace from last year 7:15 on a some what of a flat course.  I felt like I could have ran another 6.2 miles with no problems what so ever. 

This week I am going to try and run more miles and try some good speed work.  We are going to the house in St. George this weekend I anticipate running 20 miles on the course on Saturday for a long run.  I am excited for Hobble Creek in less than 2 weeks.

Ave pace 7:15

Kellie ran this morning so I ran the PM shift.  I hate running in the evening, full stomach, tons of cars and always a little hotter than normal.  I ran north from my house down past the Salem sewer plant (lots of bugs hit you in the face) then East around the Krishna Temple and then back home. 

ave pace 7:22

This moring I met up with the Spanish Fork Running Club and finally did the Payson Canyon run.  I have been excited to run this stretch of road so I could use it as a guide on where I think I might be able to for Hobble Creek.  It was very nice of Tyler, Kim and Tom's son to drive us up and then take the car down the mountain for us.  That takes a lot for a 17 year old to get out of bed that early, especially when school starts in one week.

Tom and I ran together the whole way, legs felt good and breathing felt ok as well.  Tom and I averaged 6:27 pace for the 11 miles.  I don't feel real sore sitting here at work but I imagine it will start to work it way into the muscles as the day goes on.  It has been nice running with someone on these long hard runs, I hope that Tom doesn't get sick of me talking.  Over all it was a great morning and wonderful temperatures at the top 54 degrees.

ave pace 6:27

We got in late last night, so we didn't get to bed until midnight.  I had planned on getting on the road by 5 am and driving out to Dameron Valley and run towards the start of the course and then turn around and run back.  How ever I didn't even leave the house huntil 5:30 am plus I was still feeling a little fatigued from wednesday.  I decided to park at snow canyon and run out 5 miles and turn around and come back.  It took almost 5 miles for my left hip to loosen up, and my quad was a little stiff as well.  I felt a lot better on the way back to the car, so hopefully tomorrow will be a lot better.  It ws 82 degrees when I started running and 84 when I got back to the car. We have it pretty good up north for our early morning runs.  It will be a lot better for our last long run on the course in September.

ave pace 7:45

This morning was such a beautiful morning in St. George that I couldn't resist going for a run.  I left the house at Sun Brook and headed South and ran to the Snow Canyon Ball Park got a drink in the drinking fountain and headed back to the house.  I was tempted to keep on running, how ever it was Sunday and I didn't want to be away from the family for to long, plus the sun was starting to get high in the sky and HOT.  I felt a lot better today than I did on Friday morning, legs felt awesome and breathing was very easy today.  I hope for a good week so  will be ready for Hobble Creek.

We left St George and drove out on the course and picked up our water bottles from friday and saturday, and decided to drive the rest of the course.  There was a lot of the course that I had forgotten about.  I am glad that we went and scoped the first 7 miles out there was a lot that we didn't remeber.

ave pace 7:04

Last night we had our monthly badmitton tournament, with the whole family.  It is a tradition that we started in May and we have been really good about getting together and playing and visiting.  we played over in Spanish Fork so after the tournament I decided that I would run home back to Salem.  I knew that it would be close to 7 miles to get back home so I decided I would break it up into a 2 mile warm up and then a 3 mile tempo run at about a 6:30 pace. 

mile 1 7:11

mile 2 7:09

mile 3 6:34 - dodging cars along powerhouse road... and getting dark

mile 4 6:28 - starting to get a side ache from all of the water melon and water I drank while palying badmitton.

mile 5 decided not to continue with the tempo and backed off to get rid of side ache. 7:23

mile 6 7:24

mile 7 7:41

Legs felt great and breathing was good, I hate running at night on a full stomach.

Tonight Kellie and I decided to go for a run together. We took the kids over to my parents in Spanish Fork and then drove to the Stake Center in Spanish and ran down into the river bottoms down heart break and the east towards the golf course.  Kellie ate dinner and I on the other hand was going to wait until I had finished the run.  Well she got a side ache at mile 1.5 and tried breathing through it and even walked a little.  She then ran another mile and then asked if I would run back to the car and come and get her.  She was not feeling good at all!!! :(  So I decided to do some quick miles back and the sprint to the top of Heart Break.  Kellie had the watch on but I would guess that the last 2.5 miles were around 6:30 - 6:45.    The first 2.5 miles ?!#$**? (no idea on pace, doesn't really matter)  Kellie felt bad about getting sick and not feeling good, but I did get some good foot turn over miles, and it is a taper week for Hobble, so no big deal.

Today I could not drag my butt out this morning so I did not get on the road until 6:25, decided I was going to go down canal road and make a loop around pretty little road and back home.  It was nice to actually go running at 6:30 and have it be cool outside.  Legs felt good today, I really had to concentrate on my pace so that I didn't run to fast today.  On my way home I passed the stake center on canal road and saw Michell, she had locked her self out of her car.  I went home and changed and decided that I would drive by and see if she had made it home, she was still there so I stopped and gave her a ride home.  There was a lot of kids out waiting for busses this morning, kind of makes you want to be a kid again!! (NOT)

ave pace 7:48

Today I was hoping for a time around 1:20:00, I didn't run a lot of miles this week and was starting to feel like I tapered a little to much. My legs felt really shaky all day yesterday, so I wasn't for sure how they would hold up today.

Kellie and I picked up Heidi & Heidi this morning at 5:15 and then made a couple of stops and then we were on our way to the race. we ended up getting on the last bus and so when we got to the start we only had like 10 minutes to get ready for the race to start. I kind of liked that in a way, not a whole lot of time to think about the race and not a lot of sitting around.

I started the race with the second place female and a guy named Andy, we all stayed together until mile 3 and and then I started to get a side ache at mile 3 and fought it off until mile 6. After 6 and a drink of gatorade the side ache left and I pulled away from Andy, and then I was pretty much on my own until mile 10 when Darin C, came into view and I was glad that there was somebody that I could try and chase. I was feeling good at mile 11.5 but was wanting to be done with the race and was ready to get out of the heat. I caught up to Darin at mile 12 and we stayed together until about 12.5, he was getting dizzy and not feeling real good. I left him and finished the race, when I turned and seen the clock it read 1:18:58, I was surprised to see that i was under 1:20, and very excited. Here are my splits, my watch was a little short, I think that it was from running the tangents and some times it would lose signal for a second or two.

1 5:52

2 6:01

3 6:00

4 6:01

5 6:08

6 6:04

7 6:22

8 6:02

9 6:08

10 6:15

11 6:16

12 6:19

13 6:20

I wish I could have held the 6:15 the rest of the way in, but the heat was getting to me and I really didn't look at the watch after 11.5, just concentrating on my breathing and making sure that I didn't slow down to much. Over all I am happy with my time considering the small mileage weeks that I have had over the past month. Now I just need to stay healthy and injury free and I think that I will be happy with my performance at St. George

Today was my day to run the P.M. shift.  I wanted to run slow today, I am still a little sore form the race on Saturday, not as sore as I was when I ran down Payson Canyon 2 weeks ago.  On my way home from work I called my friend Mike L, he is a Foreman for me at work and has started running this year.  He has lost over 100lbs and is still loosing every week.  He is almost out of the Clydesdale class.  He asked if I was going running tonight and I said yes, are you?  He said yeah at about 8:00, I asked if I could go with him, that way it would force me to run slow and not hurt myself.  I met him at jusst after 8 and we headed up 300 W in Salem and then up past Loafer Elem, where we chased a Skunk for about 100yds, it would not get off of the road, finally it ran off into the bushes and we went on our way.  We hit the Highline Canal just above the power station and headed NE and ran clear to the Dream Mine and then down past BYU dairy and then past Orton dairy, and then back to his house which is near New Ways.  He ran so well, i am so impressed with his performance and fitness.  We didn't stop one time, not even for him to eat a GU, or take a drink of water.  I packed 10oz of water and didn't even drink all of it.  He packed 16oz and finished it off in the last mile.  It was a perfect night and a perfect pace for a post race run.  We averaged a 10:28 pace and believe it or not I burned 1700 calories, it was awesome to listen to him talk about running and how he has caught the BUG!!!  He wants to run Snow Canyon Half and Painters Half and he even wants to run St. George next year.  He thanked me several time for heloing him loose his weight, I told him I only gave you a plan and a goal and that he was the one that put the plan to use and made the goal come true.  This is what makes the sport so AWESOME, I am so thankful for my ability to do what I can do on a daily basis.

I would have to say that Kellie and I have the most screwed up running schedule out of anybody on this blog.  But some how, some way we always seem to make it work.  I left the house tonight at 9 pm and headed down to my 800 meter course that I have marked out down in Leland.  I took 2 glow sticks with me and broke each of them and set them in the middle of the road at both ends of the course so that I could see when I was getting close to the end of the 800.  I wanted to do only 4 800's and then a 6 mile easy run, last night helped by going slow, but I needed to get the legs moving again.

Warm up 2.5 miles ave pace 7:56

800's

1 2:38 (felt easy, but knew I had to slow down for the next 3)

2:00 rest

2 2:39 (still trying to get around the 2:45 mark)

2:00 rest

3 2:42 (learning to hit the pace I want and then timing it with my breathing and foot turn over, a lot to think about in a half mile)

2:00 min rest

4 2:45 (this still felt good, legs had no pains and they felt light, breathing pattern is a key part in doing these from what I am learning.  If you don't breathe consistantly from the start to the finish it makes your pace jump all over the board)

Next time I would like the split's to look the other way + - not -+, this is only my 3rd time doing these so I still have a lot to learn.

3 miles into Spanish Fork and back, 6 miles total. ave pace 7:46

I like doing these in the morning, with not a lot of food in the stomach and a little cooler temps.

Today I met my friend Dan, who is running the Wasatch 100 on the 6th of Sept.  He is tapering and needed to do an easy 10-11 miles today, not to mention I needed to get use to running on dirt because I am pacing him from mile 75-100 the finish.  I will meet him at Brighton Ski Resort on Sunday the 7th @ 1:00 am and the run 25 miles to The Homestead.  We drove up to the Soldier Hollow trail head on the North side of Deer Creek Res.  There is a trail that runs along the North side of Deer Creek, starting at the Dam and heading towards Soldier Hollow.  It is about 7 miles from one end to the other.  We did an out and back, 5.5 miles out and the same back.  It is a nice road base trail, there are mile markers and even a bathroom stop in between.  It is not a flat course, nice rollers most of the way.  It would be a great course to do a long tempo run and see if you could hold a 7-7:30 pace.  It owuld be tough becasue it is not a totally flat course.  Great start to a Thursday morning.

Today I was going to run a short 5 miles with Dan, but our schedules would not work together.  I had to met a paving foreman in Mapleton, so after we met I had him run me up to the start of the Habble Creek Half.  I left my truck at mile 10, so that I could run back to it.  I started running at 2:15 pm and wanted to try and average an over all 7:00 pace for the run.  It was kind of hot once I got out of the canyon and atarted running on the trail, and there was a head wind the whole way down the canyon.  I wsa glad that I didn't have to run another 3.1 miles today, now that would have been a hot 3.1 miles.

10 miles ave pace 6:46.

Today we met up with the SF running group, and Tom, Nathan and myself ran with Steve, Carl and Darin.  We ran out to Harry's Hill together adn then from there Carl and Steve dropped the hammer and cruised up that hill like it was a down hill run.  I ran with Darin and Tom and Nathan were right on our heels.  We then went over to Salem stopped and grabbed a drink and then went down around the Krishna Temple and into the ball Park.  Darin and I ran together from woodland hills dr to the ball park and Tom followed, he was still sore from his Wednesday Payson Cyn run.  We grabbed a drink and then headed in to the river bottoms and once again Steve and Carl left us in the dust.  Darin's knee was hurting so he cut his run short.  I follwed behind Steve and Carl trying to keep the in sight.  It was 2.5 miles @ a 6:45 pace up to Osborne corner.  we stopped for a drink again and then made our way around the golf course.  We did a 2 mile tempo run from 20-22 at a 6:10 pace.  Carl was just ahead of me and Steve was off like a rocket I would guess a 5:20 - 5:25 WOW.  We jogged slow the rest of the way back to the stake center.  I ran with tom until my watch hit 23 miles and then back to the church.  Kellie was not back yet, so I jogged back to heart break hill waited for a minute and then jogged back to the church.  I felt good today, no real fatigue or pains.  Ice bath and Endurox and lot's of peppermint and deep blue oil.

ave pace for 23 7:32

ave pace mile 24 SLOW