Journey from 238.5 lbs to 2:38:30

In 2009 I ran just under 900 miles.

In 2010, I ran just over 1900 miles.  

I hope to be much more consistent this year as I train to do my first 50k in March and the Timp trail marathon in May 

Ran in Lindon today.  A little chilly, but not too bad.  I did some laps around a couple of large blocks north of the HD. Ran the 10+ in 1:11:57.  Did a few faster miles at the end as I try to do most runs.  Ran a 7:04 pace overall.  Last 3 miles  6:36, 6:32, 6:28.  The last mile my heart rate went up to 170.  

Ran in my screw shoes around the neighborhood, did a bunch of laps.  Wasn't sure if the trail had enough snow/ice on it for screw shoes, but I knew the neighborhood was still mostly ice.  Had a couple of the screws poke through a little on occasion when I hit the pavement.  Running on ice is much easier and more comfy than pavement, the screw heads embed into the ice instead of into my feet.  And not having skunks was a plug.  Been looking for some 1/4" screws to replace the 3/8"'s so they don't poke me anymore.  If anyone wants some running humor.  I am a winter warrior.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw5MHsO-JI8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=theHXQP9Bo0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03dFMG8nR4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=167JQDwm_XM&feature=related 

Ran in 10 in Lindon.  First 6 miles with Wes.  The Lindon trail is mostly clear, though a bit of snowy/slush on the park hill.

Today I dropped off the car to get an oil change and went for a 10 miles run.  Went up to Grove Creek Canyon where I ran into the Facelessghost from this blog.  I was curious how the trails up the canyon were and he was very willing to tell me about them.  I ended up going a little ways up the canyon as well as along the snow packed fireroad the heads towards AF canyon.  It was a very nice 4 mile downhill run back to my car.

Went to Antelope Island and ran 17 miles.  This was one loop of the Buffalo Run 50k.  I bought some MicroSpikes last night to wear on this run, which helped with the snow and ice a ton.  It was very beautiful out there.  Saw some bison and antelope.  I met up with the race director of the buffalo run and about 10 other people who came out to run.  A couple guys did 2 of the loops and cut out the Elephant head out and back.  The largest group did the first loop and the out and back.  I met up with them after running the split rock on my way out to elephant head, as they were almost done with elephant head. I figured I had just enough time to finish the 2ish miles to the end of elephant head and if I hurried I could catch up to them before they made it the last 4 miles back to the cars.  After coming down the hill from the elephant head trail head I passed the 2 guys who did the split rock loop, then just as the large group got back to the cars I caught up to them.  Pushed the heart rate into the 170's to do it but it felt great to pick up the tempo the last 5-6 miles.  A couple minutes later my legs started cramping up which was not too pleasant.  Took a few tums which seemed to do the trick and they settled down so I could drive back home. 

Went above orem and ran along the snow covered BST past dry canyon for a bit.  Turned around and went up dry canyon a half mile or so, then ran back to the gun range parking lot and ran up the bst staircase for a couple miles.  The sun was going down and it started to get cold and I made it to the end of the road where they stopped plowing the road.  Ended up with some good climbs, and the microspikes worked really good on the trails over than a section of the fireroad that didn't have enough snow on it so the spikes didn't have anything to sink into.  But another glorious outdoor below 10 degrees run.

Ran around lindon.  First 6 miles with Wes.  Almost got hit by a car.  Lady pulling out of her driveway talking on her cell phone and not watching to her right.  Another winter run gone.  Much warmer today than yesterday.  Almost felt like summer in comparison.  Almost.

ran from mouth of provo canyon up canyon road, up hill past osmand lane, around provo temple, around byu, down to state onto river trail, behind movies 8, carterville back to mouth of canyon. added a mile at beginning and 1.5 at end. was icy and almost went down a few times

Ran in Lindon today.  It was like summer. 50 degrees.  Ran first six miles with Wes around an 8 minute pace with heart rate around 125.  Then next 4 miles at 6:32 - 154 bpm, 6:19 - 163 bpm, 6:25 - 163 bpm, 6:07 - 174.  There were some nice uphill slopes I was going up to help push the heart rate into the 170's.  Great day for a run.  When isn't it a great day for a run.

Ran around lindon and pg. Went from Home Depotish up to Grove Canyon trailhead.  There is a nice climb up 1500-1300 south in PG.   Last four miles, 6:03, 5:58, 6:25, 6:24. 

Yesterday was the first time I had run over 18 miles since St. George, so I thought I would follow it up with a 2nd 20 miler.  My first every 20 mile back to back.  There were times when I struggled with energy, consumed some of my home made snacks, which are okay for awhile, but towards the end just didn't seem to cut it anymore.  I took a back of honey stinger gummies, and it didn't take long for my energy to come back.

 Ran with Bill, Chris and Doug.  They were starting at Smith market place, so I figured I would just start a bit earlier and run to smiths.  It turned out it was 5.5 miles to get there, and I was a few minutes late, thankfully Chris had his cell phone and they hung out waiting for me.  

We headed towards suncrest and then through Alpine to Lambert park, in and out of neighborhoods along the edge of the city until we got to the mouth of american fork canyon.  Then headed down the running path there past the high school and down by the pond at the bottom of the ravine. And circled back to Smiths.    It was a great run, and as it turns out, if I had actually finished running back to my house, it would have been exactly 26 miles.  I don't think I could actually find that route again by myself, but it was fun.   

ran the hale center course.  at least the old one.  which was still .1 short

Did a loop in Lindon.  Did one mile at 5:52 to stretch the legs

Did a short run  in Lindon.  Tapering for the 10k.

I ran the Hale Center Theater, Hale Freezes over 10k, again for the 3rd time.  Ran it last January, in October and today.  I like this race.  It has gotten much larger very quickly.  

After my 2 20 milers last weekend, I decided to not run very many miles this week to try to recover for the race today.  I have been fighting my right leg not working on and off all week, and got it working enough for the race today.

 The moved the start of the race to a side street, I think to make room for all the people at the start, this also shortened the course by about .1 from the previous 2 times I have run it.  Map my run still shows this course to be 6.2 miles though, so I guess running the tangents, or not running them, not sure which, makes it come up .2 short on the gps.  

I lined up at the front for the start and headed out strong.  There was a decent sized group of people who started off quick.  One guy in particular who jumped about 30 feet in front of everyone else for the first half mile or so then he started pulling away from there.  One interesting thing about this course is that you aren't sure until the end of mile 2 who you are racing against since the 5k and 10k share the course to that point.  I was in six place coming into the split and only 2 people peeled off to the left to head down to geneva.  I just held on and was watching my heart rate to make sure I wasn't loafing the rest of the race.  The HRM freaked out the first 2 miles, as usual, it had me hit a 214 heart rate.  

So I knew I was in third place at that point.  My parents were leap frogging me on the course and at one point let me know that the 4th place runner was pretty far back, so at least I didn't have someone breathing down my neck the whole time.  1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, we were all spaced out at least 500 yards from each other, if not more.  I knew I was a bit faster than my ran in October and was very surprised when I stopped my watch and it had a 35 on it.  I went from a 40 minute 10k to get 2nd last january, to a 35:52 this january to get 3rd.  The competition has been getting tougher, but I have been fortunate and have yet to not set a PR on a comparable course since I started running 2 years ago.  I know this streak will eventually end, and it will be a sad day when it does, but I am very curious to know how much faster I can push this body before I stop setting pr's.   

My splits were,  5:38, 5:34, 5:58, 6:20, 6:29, 6:08

Did a large loop around Lehi.  Woke up at 4am, which was a whole 15 minutes before I had planned to get up.  I thought celebrating a good race on Saturday deserved a nice 20 mile victory lap, especially since I didn't do to many miles last week to recovery for the race.  And since I only have 8 weeks until my first 50k, I figured I may as well start really training for it. 

It was much colder heading north than the temp indicated, due to the very nice wind.  so I enjoyed the only 3 mile stretch of north run to begin with.  Heading south I couldn't feel any wind at all so actually kind of got warm.  I had sort of measured most of this loop once, but wanted to run it to see how far it really was.  It was a little icy in spots, in particular pioneer crossing concrete road was very slippery, so stayed on the sidewalk for that stretch.  And when I got back to the trail, back to familiar territory, and knew I had 5 miles left, that was a good place to be.  I ate nothing before hand, and had 2 of my freshly made chex/honey/almond/sugar snack cubes during the run, which seemed to be enough for today. I used endomondo on my phone today so my wife could track my run, which is where the map came from.  I made it back to the steps of my house when the battery died.  So between pandora and gps/endomondo, it made it 20 miles, and about 3ish hours out running.