Journey from 238.5 lbs to 2:38:30

Ran with large group of cheetahs on a loop through Orem this morning.  We did some hill work, then some tempo work.  Splits were 7:17, 6:47, 7:27, 6:45, 6:21, 6:02, 6:22, 6:06, 5:58, 7:50 and another slow miles of cool down and warm up. 

I started having some quad strain after the run which turned into a race monday.  So took Tuesday off to rehab it alittle.  Went out in the AM for an easy 8 at a 7:46 avg pace.  Then went out for a trail run in the PM for another 7 over trail 51.  Followed Wes to keep my pace in check, then took a nice spill down trail 51 coming into dry canyon on the permafrost under the trail.  Ice is not my friend.  Trails were fantastic other than this 100 yard stretch of treacherous trail.  

Met the morning crew for a "recovery" run which ended up being 10.5 at a 7:02 pace.  A little faster than I would have liked this morning trying to take it easy on the quads, now the other one is starting to act up.  Lots of large knots in the quads that don't want to go away.

Ran the BST from the gun range almost to BattleCreek and back.  The trail was busier today than I have ever seen it, ever, in summer, spring, fall, and it was dusty like an August run after a drought.  Fantastic temperature to be out, nice inversion setting in.  When you look at Suncrest it looks like a wave of filth billowing over suncrest into Utah County.  

Did a new Loop through Lehi with Scott, Matt and Melanie.  The snow was a nice change of pace.  We averaged a 7:20 pace.  Felt good through the whole run, left leg is still not 100%. I then went to Jonathon's half marathon to help out.  Jody won the hilly, windy, meandering course.  

Couldn't get to sleep, woke up early.  Love those days.  So got up at 3:30 and headed out to meet the guys at Matt's at 5.  Matt lives 2.75 away so I ran there this morning to meet Matt, Jody, Reed and Scott for 10.   It was nice being warmed up before we started.  Did a couple of tempoish miles in the  middle.  Had to pull it back a little with the outside left quad still having a large knot in it and for the sub 6 mile the ache on the inner quad by the knee started coming back.  Hope to have a lot of miles to run this week, so toned it back for the last few.  Ate a bowl of cereal before I left and no gu's but did a Nuun and some gatorade slush during the run which barely got me back home again.  I felt like I should have gu'd up at some point the last few miles, but I figured I'd get home okay and fueled back up in hopes of a 2nd run this afternoon.  

 Ran 7 with Wes at lunch out to Utah Lake.  First half sucked the farther we went.  Was starting to bonk, by the time we hit 3 I was done.  Took some calcium pills, S-Caps and honey stinger chews.  By the time we hit 4, I was feeling good again.  

Got to bed earlyish, alarm seemed to go off 2 minutes later.  Made it out the door quick enough on my way to Scott's to park a couple miles away and run in to meet at 5.  Scott, Reed and Matt, out on our 10 mile Alpine loop.  Matt headed back after 3ish, hamstring issues.  I had a rough time getting going at a decent pace this morning.  Guzzled my gatorade at mile 3, gu'd at 5.  It was a recovery day so I don't think we went anything below 6:50, mostly around 7:10 I think, will have to check the watch later.  Will probably head out for at least 6 more later.   

Dragged myself out for 6 more.  Left leg is tightening up more, will have to spend some quality time with it tonight. 

Went out this morning with Scott with the intention of doing some speed work.  Did a five mile warmup around a 7-7:30 pace.  Then off to the races, for about 20 seconds.  Then the death march commenced.  

Headed back out for 9.25 meandering through Lindon with Wes.  A comfortable 7:44 pace.  Pace has been getting slower as the week goes on.  gee, wonder why.   I thought today was thursday for most of the morning, guess I was wishing it was thursday.

Ran a 1:36 almost half marathon this morning.  The first ten with Scott, Brody, Matt and Melanie.  Felt much better for that first 10 than my 10 yesterday morning, Running just over a 7 minute pace, just guessing on this one, wasn't too bad.  Was a bit nippely out this morning.  Puttered around the neighborhood for 3 more.  

Went out for a few more and was feeling pretty good.  Same loop as yesterday, just extended in a couple of spots.  Did a 5:57  at mile  7, was a little uncomfortable due to fatigue, but not too bad.  Can tell the legs are getting stressed, feel a few muscles on the verge of cramping.  2nd run at a 7:14 average with a 760 foot ascent/descent 

Ran 11 in the AM with ScottKeate.  Thanks Scott for keeping me motivated for these early runs.  Makes them much easier to do.  Another good morning run, not particularly fast, 7:24 avg, but good enough.  Calves/Achilles tendons very sore/creaky this morning, took 15-20 minutes stretching/walking around the house to warm them up.  

Did 9.5 on the PM run with a modified Lindon  loop from yesterday, mostly with Wes.  Last mile I was really feeling it.   7:41 average, average heart rate 132

Finished a week of 2 a day's to get to at least 20 a day with a 20 miler Saturday morning.  Ran with Jake and Andrea's group from Tanner park.  Rode up with Scott and Matt who have really helped me stay motivated and break new ground this week.  I am very surprised at how I have felt doing this kind of mileage and at a not too bad of a pace.  We averaged 7:09 for the 20 miles this morning with 1700 (garmin) feet of elevation change. It was fun running with a new group.  My right hamstring started to tighten up a bit yesterday, was able to stretch it out enough before the run that I didn't feel any effects from it during the run. Both my achilles tendons and calves are getting very tight and sore while I sleep, will need to spend some time with them in hopes of working out the soft tissue issues.  

Ran in the wind with Scott and Reed in Alpine

10 miles south on the JRT with Scott.  Hammy still pretty tight though going the 7:02 pace doesn't seem to bother it much.  Chiro will hopefully help make things start working properly. 

Loop in Highland

Loop in Highland in AM and South on BST for lunch.

Loop with Reed, Scott, Matt and Chad through highland, AF and cedar hills.  Legs still not 100%.  hammy tight, lots of calve issues, and left foot inflammation. 

South on the JRT with Reed

Missed yesterday with tight Hamstring, Hoping it will work properly come saturday.  

Ran Loop in alpine with Scott. 

Ran the Hale 10k course with Scott, Brody and Melanie, plus an extra 2.  Did a quarter mile pick up to see how the legs would feel, have been avoiding speed the last couple of weeks hoping the calves and hamstring will heal up.

Did an easy four around the neighborhood, with some strides thrown in .  Feeling pretty decent.  Legs finally feel recovered, still some sore spots in calves and hammy isn't 100%, but close enough, and things will work.  Looking forward to another large week next week.

Ran the Hale Freezes Over 10k for the third year in a row.  Always a fun race.  I knew going out that I wasn't going to be winning this one, but had hopes for a second place finish.  The last two weeks after my 126 mile week, I have been trying to overcome a lot of leg issues, hamstring tightness, calves locked up/cramping, foot inflamation, quad tightness, sore left knee, so have been pretty much tapering and just trying to get the legs back under me for this race.  

As the gun went off and we headed out the usual young crowd of high school kids who love to tear off into the lead never materialized.  Scott Keate slowly took the lead and began to pull away from the pack.  At about the .5 mark I heard someone running next to me, and I looked over and it was Clark.  He had won this race in October of 2010.   There was one guy maybe 20 feet in front of us and Scott maybe 150 yards in front by this time, and still pulling away.  I mentioned to Clark that we were going to get our butts kicked, and he asked if the lead runner was doing the 10k, I said yes, then Clark took it up a notch to try to chase down Scott.  I wished him luck with that and settled in behind the third place person.  Of course these first 2 miles you don't know for sure who is running the 10k and who is running the 5k. There are usually between 1 and 5 5kers in front of me through the first two miles before the head back down 4th north.  As we approached the split I noticed the one guy in front of me I didn't know was running the 10k or 5k was kind of listing towards a left turn, and sure enough I was in 4th heading down towards geneva.  He wasn't gaining on me anymore and I just hoped that as we hit the up hill I would be able to use that to my advantage again and catch those in front of me.  As we headed back up the hill on 4th north I caught the 3rd place guy and was gaining on Clark.  I was about 10 feet behind him as we hit the intersection when he attempted to cut the intersection tangent after crossing half way across and the cop directing traffic yelled at him, he put the breaks on to head around the cones and I caught him then, he mentioned how he should have run the 5k since we had a big lead on all the 5ker's, we chatted briefly and I continued on pulling ahead by a little bit.  I must have gained on him up the next steep hill and was able to hang on a decent pace until the finish.  I ran 17 seconds faster than in October, so still improving, though not as fast as I would like.  Guess I need some more focused, faster speed work.  My endurance seems to be significantly up since then.  I had thought Scott was going to run around a 34:20 or maybe a 33:50, but I made the mistake of telling him I thought that, and as is usually I found his speed button and he destroyed the course in 32:20ish.  Awesome race and always good to have your training partner humble you and give you something to strive for.  

Ran 12.5 with Scott, Melanie, Brody, Jody and Reed.  We did six half mile pickups.  First one was slow, 6:13, I think I didn't hit the lap for awhile, 2:46, 2:47, 2:37, 3:06, 2:46.

I guess if I go by the Yasso theory I should be able to do 10 of these at a 2:37 pace in order to run a 2:37.  Well, one out of six ain't bad.  Legs were really feeling it from Saturday after the 2nd pickup.  Felt like a much harder effort than the race.

Did six and change with Wes in the PM.  Picked a good route with some well timed unwanted stops.  Hoping the legs will hold up for another long week. 

Ran from my house to Matt's, ran 10 with Matt and Scott, ran home.  Bonked really hard just as I finished.  I guess I should pay more attention to eating when going that long.  Nice recovery run.  Have some tight spots in the quads, and right hamstring.  Hopefully they won't get too aggravated.

Ran from Work to the Mouth of provo Canyon with Wes at lunch.  Was a nice day to be running, a little headwind.  Did one mile at 5:58. 

Did a run with Matt, Scott, Jody, Reed and Melanie around Orem.  Great day for a run. 

10 miles loop in Lehi with Scott, Matt, and Chad.  Legs feeling pretty decent, though right hip seems a little out of place. 

Met up with Scott, Matt, Reed, Skip, Toni, Walter, Fritz, Jake and about 25 other people to run the Riverton half course plus some more mileage afterwards.  Felt pretty decent through most of this run.  Was a lot of fun to run with this large group and try to keep up with the speedsters.  I averaged 6:39 pace for the run.  

I was so warm after the first 13 when we got back to the car, picked up a new shirt and gloves, due to the 4 pounds of water stored in my shirts/gloves, I ran shirtless for a half mile or so to cool down.  Comfortable for me for  a few minutes, very uncomfortable to everyone else around me, and those driving by.   Sorry world for subjecting you to that.

 I had thought about making this a 100 mile week, but then it was either having some sense and building back up to it, or lazyness and not getting out for a couple of two a days. Not really sure which.  But then calling running 85 miles in a week lazy, not so sure about that either. 

Ran with the crew, tried some speed work.  During the first 800 my right leg froze up, tight quads, tight hammies, and the knee started to tighten up.  I could tell that the quads were causing the knee pain.  

Did 10 in the morning, south on the jrt, then ran the bst with Wes.  Knee wasn't getting any worse after spending a long time yesterday massaging out the knots in my quads.  Seems to have helped alot.

Ran with Scott, Jody, Melanie, Reed and Brandon.  Was a nice day for a run.  Leg still not getting worse.  

Did 10.5 in the morning and 5.5 on trails in the afternoon.  Muddy, icy, mess up to rockpile

Ran 20 south on the JRT with Scott and Toni.  Was a pretty decent run.  We did around four miles of temp work during the last 8 miles.  Completely bonked at mile 19.  

Loop in Alpine with Scott and Reed.  Muscle tightness has shifted to a new muscle for the 3rd or 4th week in a row.  Inner thigh now on both sides.  

Ran with Scott and Matt in Lehi.  Left leg quit working going up the gully, upper right quad still tight.   Great morning for a run, a little icy in a few spots.  

Did a 5:47 mile at mile 5.  Then a 6:27 mile at mile 7.  Right hammy and quad were tighening up, probably due to si joint being out.  Left leg still doesn't feel right either. When I stopped to turn around my right leg quit working, could hardly walk, got my SI joint back in and then leg had power and no pain.  Would be nice if this thing stabilized in the right place.

 Did 8 on the BST above Lindon in the PM.  Some Mud, puddles, snow, but who cares, the trails are awesome.   

Nice easyish run with Scott and Reed in Alpine.  We found ourselves doing a couple of miles in the 6:40 range so had to slow down a couple of times.  Great morning for a run.  Right leg, hamstring and upper inner thigh still got tight around the 5 mile mark.

Ran 7 with Seth Hales on the BST in the PM 

Ran 12 with Scott, Chad and Matt.  South on the JRT.   Legs felt almost good for most of the run, just a little residual tightness.

Met the large group at JulieC's house in PG this morning.  Was a bit more nippy than most of us thought it was going to be.  We started out slow and did a nice progression run for many miles.  At around 11, my right hamstring and quad started tightening up, again, this is getting very old.  Keeps slowing me down and have to back off for awhile.  It eventually loosened up a bit and I was able to pull out a 5:56 mile at mile 19.  Had five miles around a 6:30 pace, would have been nice to keep the faster pace with the speedsters longer, but the legs won't have any part of it, for now.  Good times with good people.  Thanks JulieC for the course, organization and food.  

I averaged a 145 heart rate for 20, the 5:56 mile, the heart rate was approaching 170 by the end of it, so probably could not maintain that for much longer than I did, but had plenty of cardio left in the tank for most of the run.  

Met at Chris's house to run with Chris, Reed, Bill, Melanie, Calvin, and Jody.  I think that was it.  Very cold this morning.  Much better to run from AF than Lehi.  My streets were covered in snowy ice, but AF the roads were nice.  Did a couple of loops through AF and Highland. Right leg still tightening up after a few miles, hammy, quad and inner leg all start to tighten.  

Did 10 miles with matt in Lehi.  Leg didn't get too tight this morning.

Went part way up lake mountain this morning. Turned around a little after the snow wasn't packed down anymore. Did 6.75 miles, Climbed 2193 feet in 41 minutes, Mile 1 10:18, mile 2 11:03, mile 3 12:12, .31 4:52., then made it back down in 20 minutes. Mile 7 was at a 5:37 pace and the next half mile at a 5:21 pace. Awesome day to be on the mountain.

 Ran 10.29 in the PM with Wes.  Circled Geneva.  Apparently it is 10 miles to go around Geneva, that is if you go the way we did.   Ran a 6:12 mile at mile 16 for the day, with a 5:49 half.  Incredibly warm this afternoon.  

Ran with Jody and Toni in Orem this morning.  Wind was a nice touch.  Right leg tightening up after yesterday.  It actually felt really good all day yesterday, but IT band is tightest, then hammy a little and quad. Nice progressive run. 

10 miles south on the JRT with Matt.  Nice morning for a run.  Ended up being warmer than I thought.  Right leg still full of tight spots from Wednesday.  Need to spend more time working it out today.  Meeting at my house at 7am for an out and back on the JRT.  I'm thinking of doing 20-22 miles.  

Ran 22 south on the JRT into saratoga springs.  Started the day with Toni, Matt, Chris, and a couple of Scott's friends that showed up, Davey, and don't remember the other guys names.  Davey, me and Toni had planned for 22.  Everyone else was doing around 12-16 I think.  Day went pretty good, weather was warm, headwind for at least 20 of the 22 miles.  I just love it when the wind switches directions just as we turn around.  It is my favorite.  We had 7 miles around or under 6:20 pace.  Total time was 2:29:30 for 22.  It was really difficult to get going again today after a couple of potty stops, felt like a 90 year old man for a quarter trying to get things moving again.  Feels like a slight groin strain that has been popping up all week seems to get worse when I stop for a few minutes, but then loosens back up.  The right hammy started getting a little tight around 5-6 but then seemed to loosen back up.  Most of the tighteness/soreness I had yesterday was pretty much gone for most of the run.  My left foot felt very constricted today, though my shoe seemed to be loose enough, it sure doesn't feel like it, feels like I have some compression inflamation starting in there.

My right big toe got infected in the cuticle, can hardly walk, let alone run. did some "cross training"  abs, legs, yoga

Toe getting better, more cross training, abs, legs, yoga, cardio

Overdid the squats, now top of hammies are very sore, tight 

Ran with Matt from his house.  Toe is mostly fine, left foot is still a little inflammed from Saturday's run.  It didn't get worse, need to try icing that spot I guess.  

Ran 7 miles out to Utah Lake with Wes.   

Ran 8 with Jody, Toni, and Melanie, Ran 2 more with Mel, then 4 more in Orem.  Nice and icy this morning.  Toe is 100%, still have splits in the callouses on my feet, mostly the grand canyon on my left foot, fortunately not much pain from that one right now.  Top of hammies still a little sore, but running seems to be fine.  Not feeling too much other tight spots at the moment.  Thinking of running around Suncrest on saturday.

Got a nice 10.25 mile run in the snow with Chad. Chad's crocs wouldn't stay on when we headed back, so he ran five miles in inches of snow, in his wool socks. Wool rules!  South on the JRT

Ran 6 miles with Wes, the Lindon Loop.  Legs would not get moving.  Very sluggish.  When I pick it up I feel a bunch of tight spots I need to work on.  Groin muscles still giving me problems.

Met at Smith's for a up suncrest and around the point of the mountain run.  Bill, skip, toni, nick, jonathon, jody, mike, travis.  The hill climb wasn't particularly fast, but felt pretty easy.  Jody, Toni, Mike and I went around the mountain, everyone else did an out and back and headed back to smith's.  We took it fairly easy coming down the 10% grade, I started to slalom down the road to try to disperse the weight distribution on my quads, and that seemed to help a lot on not trashing my legs coming down the hill.  On our way up the frontage road there was an oversized crane on it's way up the hill, so I started a little push up the hill and we ended up catching the crane and it's chase vehicles.  We headed back to Smith's for the 18 mile version so Jody could top off his water, gu etc. for the last of his 4 hour run.  I almost bagged it when we got back, but he said he was only going to do 6 more, so I went back out with him.  We had a nice slow out though Highland.  And started to pick up the pace the last couple of miles.  Was feeling pretty good by the time we finished.  Jody did 6 before we started.  Great day for a run over the mountain. 

Ran south on the JRT with Jody, Scott, Matt, Reed.   Nice morning for a run.  Felt decent, we did a couple of faster miles.  Some fast buttons got pushed this morning.

Ran with Matt in Lehi.  Legs still sluggish.

Ran on the BST in the Lone Peaks.  Trails were in pretty good shape, still a few pockets of mud.  First mile and a half or so I was very sluggish, not feeling right at all, but finally pulled out of it and started to push the pace a bit.  Pushing the pace on a trail run is always hard to judge, especially when I am doubling back on occasion, then it makes it hard to compare to previous runs.  But I felt like I was pushing the pace pretty good, considering trail conditions, they are still very chewed up from all the traffic while muddy.  1300 feet of ascent and descent in 9 miles.  

Ran from Orem soccer park with Jody, Melanie, Reed, Brandon.  Did a couple of 800's at a faster pace.  I think one around 6 min pace and one around 5:45 pace.  Right hip tightened up pretty good, not sure if it is just sore or if there are some issues starting up.

Ran south on the JRT with Matt, Reed and Chad.  We averaged a 6:54 pace.  Felt comfortable, other than some lingering tightness in the legs.  I think my weak hamstrings are causing some of my pelvis/hip/low back issues, so starting a new regiment of strengthening the hammies.  Hopefully that will help some things.

Ran south on the jrt with Jody, Toni, Melanie, Reed, Matt and Chad.  Matt headed back after a mile or so.  On the way back I did 3 miles at around 6:00 pace with the heart rate peaking at around 163 or so, going from memory, then slowed down for a mile then another 6 min pace mile with Toni.  Had to cut the run short this morning due to daughter's knowledge bowl.  So the faster pace was nice.  Felt more refreshed than I have in awhile, and the pace wasn't too difficult, just all the little injuries rear their heads during those pushes.  Hoping they don't turn into anything worse, particularly the foot inflamation and the ab strain.  And it would be nice if the right hip would work properly for more than a day or two.  But it was a very nice day to be out and run.  Isn't it always?

Ran the trail 51/33 loop from the gun range, up dry canyon, over a bunch of snow.  It was a blast plowing through the snow, post holing, through freezing mud puddles.  Great run.  

Ran 10.16 from Reed's house in AF through Alpine.  Nice run, did a few miles of pick pace, 6:29, 5:59, 6:18.  They all felt fairly easy. 

Ran with Wes at lunch, the extended Lindon loop on the canal road.  

South on the JRT.  

South on the JRT

Met at Get Fit in Alpine with Jody.  Ran 10, ended up on the dirt road behind cedar hills.  Trying to taper and get my legs working for next week.  Been fighting sharp left hip pain, and low back issues.  Go from being okay to hardly being able to walk with tons of sharp nerve pain.  Just hope it works enough to race next week.

Ran 10 on the JRT, taper week.

Ran the 8 mile loop through Lindon.  Had a nice 1 mile mud run in the middle.  

Ran the 6 mile Lindon loop with Wes, taper week.  44:41 for 6

Had planned to do 4, but after going to the chiropractor yesterday I decided to test out the working legs.  I guess it is a good sign when you have to keep slowing yourself down.  Ran the same 6 as yesterday in 40:41.  threw in a 6:35, 6:22, and 6:31 mile, on accident.  Hope the legs/hips/back hold together for Saturday.  Looks like saturday's race will be the battle of the buffalo run 25k all stars.  Lots of guys who have placed over the years seem to be in.  Will be a great race, great trails, looking forward to a nice run. 

ran 2 this morning to get and keep things moving.  Hoping things stay working for tomorrow.  

I have been looking forward to this race since I decided not to do the 50 mile version of it back in November, or whenever it was I decided to try for a faster marathon before I did the longer trail races.  I was going to do the 50 miler and count it as my 40 for 40, a few weeks early.  But not this year.

 Anyway, I signed up for the race late and was on the waiting list, but fortunately got in.  I noticed that the field this year had a lot of the past winner's and top placers in it from previous years, so I figured this would be a good test of where I am.  I figured Albert Wint would end up winning, which he has the previous times he has been in the race, and Kevin Tuck (a very fast 56 year old trail runner), who beat me at Timp trail half 2 years ago, and some other people that showed up on the list that I figured would make the race interesting.  My main goal was to have fun, run hard and beat Kevin.  I figured if I could stay with and beat him I was doing pretty good.  

This year they moved the start of the race up the hill to the main parking lot, which added almost half a mile to the course, which a nice uphill finish.  The course was long to begin with, and this just added some more pain at the end.  As the race started we took off down the hill and immediately someone took off out in front, and was dropping the crowd rather quickly, I figured that would be Albert, which was confirmed about a minute later as we went through the fence and immedately all went off course, we all forgot to turn left, and Albert was cruzing up the hill.  Kevin yelled at him as we all looped around the aid station set up there in the corner and headed up the hill.  I found myself in front of the pack and heading up the 2 mile climb that starts the race.  I was expecting Albert to blow by me again but he didn't.  I soon lost the sound of pattering feet behind me and about mile 4 as we started to catch the 50kers who started 30 minutes in front of us I finally heard Albert come up behind me.  He stayed right behind me until mile 11.  After passing the aid station at elephant head the trail narrows to mostly single track until you get back to the aid station, which is about mile 10 or so.   I had to continuously ask people to move to the side for miles up the switch backs and through all the trails back to elephant turn off.  I had figured that as soon as we hit the bottom of the steep hill and back to the wide trail Albert would take off, and that is what he did.

He took off, though not super fast, he had a minute or two lead, apparently he was kind of upset at all the runners we had to go around, which he has not had on the previous years he has run this race due to changing starting times last year.   I kept trying to push as best as I could since I had no idea how far behind me Kevin or anyone else was and didn't want to give up my position the last mile or two. So I kept going as fast as I could, hit the last little hill up to the finish and just dragged up that hill.  Of course I forgot to stop my watch so I had no idea what my time was until the awards ceremony.  I thought I had noticed that it hadn't flipped over to 1:55 yet, which I was pretty happy about.  I had hoped I could make it closer to 1:50, which I guess I would have been closer without the extra .4 or so of distance that was added, but still would have been short. 

 I had planned to only take a single 20oz bottle with me for this run, hoping that I had drank enough before hand and that it wouldn't get too hot for it to last the whole way.  And it did, barely, I could tell I was feeling dehydrated about mile 13, and started to finish off my water, better to be inside than carrying it around.  I ate a honey stinger waffle about an hour before the start, due to hunger, and a half pack of chews before the race.  A gold pack at 45 minutes, and half a gold pack at about 1:30.  Energy was okay, but could tell I was pretty drained the last few miles.  I had hoped with the mileage I have been doing that my stamina would have been higher at the speeds I was going.  Maybe for the marathon it would be without all that extra climbing thrown in.  My feet got trashed with blisters the last 5 miles.   

Ran in to Fritz after he finished and won the 50k.  He looked hammered, but put in a very strong race.  I think he did his first loop a few minutes faster than what we did ours in, which is awesome.  Nice work Fritz.   

It was fun to chat with everyone after the race.  Great time, good trails, love the island. 

Lap Pace HR  ele change

 1   6:33 168     +121

2 7:41   172 +354

3 6:50  171 +129

4 6:07 171 -69

5 5:58 173 -173

6 7:44 175 +149

7 5:18 175 -464

8  7:53 177 +159

 9 8:54 175 +310

10 7:41 173 +69

11 6:53 170 -7

12 6:15 170 -265

13 7:40 172 +111

14 6:31 168 -178

15 6:56 170 -78

16 6:30 169 -167

 .47 3:19 174 -10

Quads are kind of trashed from Saturday, so pretty hard to walk downstairs, and hurts to walk at all, so I figured I'd go try to run 10 with Reed and Scott.  The first mile was pretty painful at a 8:06 pace, but we were able to pick up the pace and ended the run at at 7:06 average with a 6:33 thrown in at the end.  Feels fine to run once I am warmed up, but still hard to walk.  My left knee, on the inside of the leg, I think from the sartorius or one of the other quads that attaches on the inside part of the leg is getting a little inflammed.  The knee is getting a little sore there.    

Ran a nice easy 6 with Wes on the Lindon loop.  Up is fine, straight is fine, down is painful .  

Ran 10 south on the JRT with Reed, Scott and Matt.  Nice to have the group back together for a run.  Legs still sore, knee is much better, spent an hour massaging it last night which seemed to help a lot.  Did a few, short sub 6 pickups for a bit the last mile to see how things felt. 

Did a 10 mile 1800 foot climb, mostly on sections of the timp trail half course.  33 and 51 still have snow on them in places above the rock pile.  Wore the Lone Peaks.  Very comfortable, though the calves were complaining a little, feet were happy.  

Ran 8 with Scott, Matt, Jody, Reed, and Brandon.  It is Brandon's birthday, so he was running at least 36k.  I decided to do some extra with him.  We then ran up to Bridal Veil Falls, from the soccer park, at which time I could tell I was very drained so I turned around as he headed up to Vivian.  I had a nice slow run down the canyon, trying not to strain my right quad any more than it was strained yesterday.  and I was tired and didn't feel like trying to run any faster.  The race, plus this weeks mileage and yesterday's climb certainly caught up to me this morning.

Ran 8 with Scott and Matt in Alpine.  Legs very sluggish.

Ran 6 in Lindon with Wes.  Still a little sluggish, mile 4 was at 5:46, headwind first 1/3, then aided 2/3.  Felt good to go fast, hips are not working properly, again.  Frustrating.   

Met Scott, Reed, Brandon, and Reed at Timp High school to run down to meet at runner's corner for their waffle run.  It was a nice 4 mile warm up.  We ran the next 9 or so at an avg 6:29 pace.  Ate waffles, ran like a 90 year old man for a mile until the body decided to start moving again.  Our fastest mile included a 6 min pace up a very steep long hill.  Was a nice push.  

This concludes my first month without missing any days running (Sunday's excluded).  It feels nice to be consistent, and not hurt enough any day to just get out and run.   

Ran with Scott, Jody and Reed this morning in Highland.  Wind was pretty strong on and off through the run.  Woke up having very tight calves, and could feel a slight inflamation in the heel from the tight achillies/calve.  Wondered if it would loosen up enough for the run, as well as the ab strain, which appears to suddenly have gotten much worse, as well as switching sides from where it was a week ago.  Almost turned back after the first 2 miles.  After mile three Scott and Reed took off on some fast pace which I had no motivation to try to keep up with them at the time.  After their fast 800 and Jody and I caught back up to them we hit the slight decline going through Alpine and I started to feel pretty decent, so we started picking up the pace.  Hit mile 6 at a 6:10, and kept pushing the pace as we went into mile 7 at a avg 5:32.  Put in a surge with a 5:16 quarter which pushed my breathing over the edge.  The day certainly turned out much better than what I felt when we started.  Finished the run for a 6:50 total average. 

Then did a 1 mile slow cool down with Scott. 

 I watched Chariots of Fire last night, which I haven't seen in probably 20 years, love running movies.  Nothing like a little motivational movie.

 PM.  Ran 6 with wes in Lindon.  My last mile was a 6:33.  Right hip acting up again.  Legs felt pretty decent during run.   

Ran 10 with Jody and Scott, south on the JRT, then another slow cool down mile afterwards.  Right hip still not working properly, feels stuck forward.  

Ran 6 miles with Wes.  BST from bridal veil falls south.  Tripped on a rock and about fell on my face.  Right hip very locked up, took it slow up and down to try to not to strain it too much. 

Ran with Matt, Scott and Reed in Lehi.  Hips still messed up, I think I got my sacrum to move with about a half mile left, last little bit felt a bit better than the first miles.  When we hit the big uphill from the gully I can always tell how much trouble I am in when I try to push up the hill and my legs try to give out or get sharp pains in the hips on a strong push off.  Nice morning for a run.

Orem Loop with the morning crew.  Good run

South of the JRT with Scott and Chad.  Coming back north was  20 mph winds and snow coming in sideways.  Took a snowflake to the eye, about once every 5 seconds.  Awesome morning for a run. 

Went to Wallsburg with Scott, Jody and Toni.  Planned on 22 back to Jody's house.  I was hoping for a few groups of pick up miles, hoping to stay around MP for some good temp miles.  

I started us off too fast of a pace, we usually like to have the first mile be around 8 min pace or so to ease into the run.  But it was 11 degrees, and I was cold, so I started off going a little faster than normal.  We hit mile one a 7:13, then dropped down to 6:35, then 6:30, and other than mile 20 didn't go slower than 6:40.  Averaged a 6:26 pace for the 22 miles.  Heart rate was looking good most of the way, was concerned that I was just more tired the last couple of miles than I wanted to be.  After looking at the splits and heart rate I was far off of "pushing" it most of the miles, even trying to maintain a 160 heart rate which is what I ran uvm 2 years ago looks to be a huge improvement over that speed.  Will be interesting to see how things go the next couple of months.   

 1 7:13       125 bpm

2 6:35 138

3 6:30 136

4 6:38 149

5 6:38 149

6 6:28 151

7 6:14 145

8 6:34 146 

9 6:15 147

10 6:03 153

11 6:11 147

12 6:34 139

13 6:10 148

14 5:59 151

15 5:52 157

16 5:54 162

 17 6:22 148

18 6:20 170

19 6:28 151

20 7:06 154

21 6:39 153

22 6:28 155

.15 1:19 137 

Ran 8 in the AM with Scott in Highland/Alpine.  Was feeling decent, hips still not where they should be, legs felt pretty decent after saturday's run, though the last couple of miles I started to get a pain on the top of the knee cap, seems like it is some quad tendonitis, or something like that.  One of the quad muscles that attaches to the outer/left side of the kneecap is very tight/sore, causing the knee pain.  Stretching, icing, massage, hope it rehabs quickly.  Did 2 1 mile pushes.  6:00 pace and 5:48.  Both felt decent, though the strains on muscles on the inner thigh really start to inhibit speed at around a 6 min pace.  

Ran 6 easy miles with Wes at lunch, knee giving me more problems, had to stop and stretch a few times to try to loosen the knee, almost turned back after the first mile, but still pushed on.   

Have some tendonitis in my knee.  knee was getting tight as the run went on so turned around at mile 2

Well, not the 40k or 40 miler that would have been more symbolic.  Knee started getting tight again, but later in the run.  Ran a 5:38 mile on my 40th birthday.  

Ran Lehi loop from  Matt's house.  Knee allowed me to go farther, felt it get a little sore a few times, but wasn't getting worse.

South on the JRT.  Left leg still recoverying, not 100% but not getting worse at this point.

Ran from Tibble Fork in AF canyon to my house in Lehi.  My wife dropped me, Ryan, Jody, Scott and Brandon off.  I was worried about the downhill causing my knee issues, but we were taking a reasonable pace which helped.  We ended up averaging an easy sub 6:30 for 18 miles. Mile 17 was 6:05 pace and mile 18 was 5:54, which was a nice push, heart rate went up to 170 on the last mile.  Not sure how I feel about trying to keep that pace for a long time.  Great run, weather was awesome.  Canyon was real and it was spectacular.  Ran on some snow the first few miles which is always fun.  

Ran from Scott's in Highland.  Did a 5:34 mile which really stressed my quad causing tendonitis in my left knee.  

Knee pretty tight and sore.

Ran in Lindon, knee started getting tight so turned around. Trying to minimize inflamation hoping to still pace SLC marathon

Ran in Orem with the guys.  Knee still a little stressed by workable.  

Took day off to let quad/knee rest for tomorrow

Paced the marathon today at a 3:15 time. I had a nice group with me for the first 14-15 miles.  Then it was just Dan and I for the most part until mile 25.  He fell behind on the uphill on State Street.  I had given myself an extra tenth, plus 30 seconds on time on my virtual partner as well as being about .15 ahead of that when I hit the finish chute.  I was about a minute ahead of schedule so I did some slow motion running and when I got to the mat I stopped and waited to see if Dan would make it under 3:15 which was his goal time.  He hit the chute in plenty of time and made it across with about 10 seconds to spare, then I crossed after him.  Pacing was a blast and it was great to have company for almost the entire race.  The knee went through periods of tightening and then feeling ok.  The fact that I never had to push the pace really helped to minimize any further inflamation to the knee.  It was great to hang out and chat with Fritz, Seth, Andrea and everyone else who had a great race today.  

Legs were a bit sore from the marathon Saturday.  Knee/quad combo seems to be mostly better.  Though now new strains/tightnesses are emerging, as is usual for a new week.  They always seem to migrate every week.  

As I was leaving this morning at 4:45 to head to Scott's two little car jackers suddenly emerged from the darkness and pulled my driver door back open just as I had closed it to give me a goodbye hug..  My two oldest girls had heard me leaving and ran out to say good bye.   

Did 10 miles with the morning group from Scott's.  Did a three mile tempo around a 6 min pace, I think one of them was around 5:45 pace.  

When I got  home Janika wanted to go run a mile around the block, and then Makayla chimed in that she wanted to come too, so after a pit stop we got ready to head out and my 3 year old came down the stairs and started crying because she wanted to go run too.  So we all headed out and ran around the block 2 times for a nice mile.

Ran 6 with Wes in the 80+ temps of the afternoon.  Was nice to be out in the day, and in the heat.  I think I need to continue heat training this year.

After the easy 6 my left calf tightened up and had a very sharp pain in it for a few hours.  Ended up going to the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving point and walking around there for a couple of hours.  At the end there is a steep grass hill that all the kids like to run and roll down over and over.  So I raced the kids down and up the hill a couple of times.  Ran up the hill with Kierra on my back.  This didn't help the calf much, so spend awhile icing it which seems to have helped.

Issues with Calves this morning, took day off from running.  Finally broke down and purchased some compression sleeves.  Immediately noticed difference in calves after I put them on.  Not sure why I waited this long.

Met Wes at Timp park to run the Timp trail half marathon course.  We loafed along for awhile having a good time.  After we hit the gun range park lot I started to pick up the pace a bit to see how I felt over the next 2.5 mile climb.  I did stop to wait for Wes a few times so I wouldn't get too far ahead, but was with the compression sleeves on my calves felt so much better and different than usual when running the trails today.  I hit the climbs at a pretty decent pace and at some point realized that if I picked up the pace I could break 2 hours on the training run.  I haven't pushed hard on this course since I raced it 2 years ago.  I hit the downhill miles under 6:30 pace, hoping to not tear up my quads too bad and things were feeling pretty good.  I am loving the lone peaks, and loving them more with the compression sleeves on.  Just wish they were a little lighter.  The last half mile down the gravel road into timp park was at a 5:19 pace.  This was a good confidence boost run. Looking at the trail marathon times from last year I was at least 6 minutes faster on the first 6 miles, which are the ones we were loafing on this morning.  Ended the run 3 minutes faster than my race from 2 years ago with only going "race paceish" the last half of the run.  Was an incredible morning for a trail run.  

Loop in Lindon

Pacing the half today.  Did a 2 mile warm up from my house.  Talked to lots of good people before, during and after the race.  Always a good time to hang out with good people doing a good activity.  I think this half may be the toughest "road" half in the state, but it is also one of the most scenic and fun.  Got to the finish line a bit early, planned for a long course, and it was a little short.  

Ran 10 in Highland/Alpine with Scott, Reed, Matt and Jody.  Nice recovery pace today for Matt and Scott.  

Ran with Matt in Lehi.  Nice easy recovery pace.  Not sure what I am recovering from.  

Ran the Timp Trail half marathon course again this morning.  Wes and Jody came with me, we ran into Seth at Dry Canyon.  Jody was a bit in a hurry so we picked up the pace.  Today's run felt much harder than last week. We started pushing about the same place and I ended up running it in 1:50:06.  Looking at previous runs/races on this course, if I happen to have working legs, no mud and a cool morning I may be able to pull off a sub 1:45.  Heart rate seemed much higher in spots and just much less energetic.    

Orem up provo canyon, left Hip starting to get tight on me

Did a nice progression run with Matt and Reed on the JRT.  Through 14 was around 7:00 pace, last 6, 6:57, 6:53, 6:35, 6:31, 6:15, 6:11.  Felt pretty good, other than left hip getting tight again, getting concerned this is a serious issue starting up.

Highland/Alpine Loop with the group.  Did 2 miles of temp at 5:47 and 5:58. Pace wasn't too bad, just hip bothering me.

A nice Reed tempo run.  5-9 were Reed temp of around 6:30's to 6:40's.  

Took off yesterday to let hip rest, been trying to stretch and massage hip hoping to get it working properly.  Did 2 easy miles to see how hip felt. Wasn't getting much worse (only 2) but still an issue.  

Wanted to run a few today to see if I thought doing 20 tomorrow was a good idea.  Well, I'm still not sure it is, but today's run was decent.  I can tell the hip isn't 100%, though it didn't really get worse while I was running unless I pushed uphill from the thigh instead of the lower leg. Wes turned around at 3.5, I turned around at 4, then I decided to see if I could catch him.   I didn't want to go faster than MP to see how that felt down provo canyon trail.  Didn't have HRM on today so went by feel, and breathing, which was actually nice to do for a change.  

Did 5:46, 5:51, 5:52, which all felt decent, and not too fast, didn't seem to aggravate the hip going downhill which was nice, and breathing wasn't out of control.  

Jumped in the river afterwards to try to cool the hip/legs down. 

Skipped Saturday hoping the inflamation would go down.  And it seems I might be in this for the long haul.  Ran 2.5 slow miles this morning.  Some hip/bursitis pain.  Did a little Yoga, plyo, 10 burpees, jumped rope for 5 minutes. Some other hip exercises.  Thinking about getting some cold lasers to try treating this thing.

Went out to test the leg/hip today, and it was getting pretty sore/tight early during the run, ended up cutting it a little short.  Went and saw the doc, not bursitis, which is good, just a bunch of other inflammed stuff  and started on a medrol pack.  Hopefully things will calm down quickly.

I can tell some inflammation has gone down already, though the pain has shifted farther to the front of the hip, maybe hip flexor as well as farther to the back and deeper.  The hip actually feels better going faster, or I just don't notice it as much, or maybe just a runner's high, but chased Matt to a 5:16 mile, breathing was riding the edge at that pace for that long.  

Ran in Orem.  Still making some improvement, though something still not right on the left side.  At the end of the first 8, Toni had gapped the group and I unsuccessfully tried to catch him with about a half mile to go.  Did a 1:23 and then a 1:16 quarter trying to catch him.  Added four more with Brandon.  I am beginning to really wonder how things would be at this point without all of this nagging injury crap I have been dealing with for months.  

easy 6 in lindon

Went out to get some miles in, and push a few times.

Had some serious pains in my sciatic nerves during a few stops along the way, felt like electric shocks going down both legs.

Averaged 7:06 for 20.   

still having pain in my let hip, did some easy miles

Ran a portion of the timp trail course. Easy trail miles.

8 miles north on JRT.  Path is finally almost finished, they just need to pave it now.  

The past two weeks of dealing with my hip injury/pain (now I think it is gluteus maximus tendonitis) started to get into my head a little as this race approached, I wasn't sure how it would do or if it would just get more inflammed as I ran.  I iced it this morning, took some anti-inflammatories, ate breakfast, drank some chia/vitamin drink on the way to the race.  

I got to Timp Park fairly early so I could run a couple of warm up miles. I found Wes and had him set my skull after I adjusted my hips.  The race starts of going straight up a hill, and hitting that hill cold just seems like a very bad idea.  I ran into Jody who is running Squaw Peak 50 next week and he came to just run the race for a good shake out before next week.  

This was my first race using the Altra Lone Peaks.  I decided that the possibility of some calf soreness, which I hoped to alleviate by using calf sleeves, would outweigh the toe pain from blisters from my other shoes, and I wasn't disappointed.  

 We lined up on the hill and the race started.  I took off up the hill and took the lead.  There was a younger kid who stuck with me most of the way up the hill and then someone else (
Steve) pulled up next to me on the piperoad to the canyon glen turn off.  He stayed behind me through the valley and once we hit the long flat road he took off in front of me.  I kept him fairly close, maybe 50 feet or so, and once we started down the staircase I peeked behind me and saw someone running in black.  I thought it was David, who came in 2nd behind me at Nebo.  So I kept pushing the pace and trying to stay with the leader.  I had noticed that I had gained some distance on him on the uphill through the valley, so I wondered when we got to dry canyon if I would have an advantage for that climb.  

We screamed down the staircase to the gun range and blew through the aid station.  My heart rate was in the upper 170's most of the time and getting into the oxygen debt range, which was way too early in the race to be pushing that hard, but didn't want to lose the leader.  As we made our way through the rolling uphill to dry canyon, I heard a voice behind me say my name, and realized it was Jody, not David behind me.  I relaxed for a second, then realized that I still had someone to catch.  We were just catching the leader as we got to dry canyon parking lot, and he took a left turn instead of a right turn, so we started yelling at him to turn around.  Jody later mentioned that he took several more wrong turns during the next few miles which Jody was kind enough to get him back on track.  As we hit the steep sections of dry canyon Jody as in the lead, which gave me a couple minutes to ease the heart rate a bit, but eventually I was feeling better and passed him.  As I hit the steep concrete covering of the pipe at the rock outcroping I looked behind me down the hill and noticed that both Jody and the other guy were hiking up that steep hill.  At that point I realized that as long as I built up enough of a gap before we hit the road again I should be able to hold him off.  So I pushed up the next mile of hill or so trying not to totally red line, but ride the red line as much as I could.  This part of the course feels so much harder when racing the first half versus how I felt on it a couple of weeks ago when we only went fast on the second half of the course.  

When I finally got to the end of the major climbing I had a sense of relief and hoped the lead would hold. Started blazing down the single track and holding speed as much as possible.  When I hit the road I started to feel a little light headed and hoped that wasn't going to cause problems the last mile or two.  I kept pushing down the road and saw Seth Wold who was out destroying the full course record by 35 minutes or so on the cliff trail below me.  I had wondered if he would have gotten ahead of me with the perfect trail conditions that the full course had this year and sure enough he was killing it.  As I turned down the cliff trail I knew I was in trouble and was just hoping I'd make it to the end of the race.  I was pretty drained and light headed, and just hoped I wasn't going to pass out or soming on the cliff trail and take a tumble off the cliff.  I slowed a little to make sure I didn't die, and finally hit the gravel road the just blazes down to the finish.  Kept pace as much as possible and finally hit the finish line in 1:41:17.  After stumbling around like a drunken pirate for five minutes trying to get my body and mind to respond properly, I was very excited to have the body work for the entire race and hit pretty close to the time I thought I could hit if all things went smoothly.  I had figured that I should be able to go under 1:45 and be close to 1:40.  I hadn't felt this spent at the end of a race in a long time.  Eventually ran another mile cooldown with Wes.  

I love this race.  The course is always beautiful, even if it could be marked a little better in places, maybe some ground paint or something.  Going fast downhill there isn't much looking up involved to look for ribbons and many people made wrong turns.   But the race is always run great.  Starts on time and has the perfect venue.  Feel grateful the body held together for this one! Will post splits and HR later.

The Garmin app shows both + and - separately per mile and has the total ascent/descent at 2800 feet.  Where sport tracks must combine them or something and shows 2100 feet total.  

Split pace HR Elevation change from Garmin App

1. 7:04 168 +288  -61

2. 7:01 172 +161 -53

3. 8:36 177 +377 -102 

4. 6:46 174 +132 -97

5. 6:30 173 +68 -107

6. 5:41 173 +31 -295

7. 7:20 176 +207 -140

8. 9:41 177 +413 -65

9. 13:21 179 +893 -153

10. 7:08 176 +105 -229

11. 6:29 171 +37 -510

12. 6:37 172 +48 -270

13. 6:35 172 +25 -456

.45 2:19 170 +16 -217

I signed up for this race to run in remembrance of my good friend Jared Budge who passed away a year ago.  After being fairly still, sore and hips not working particularly well since my race Saturday, I had intended to take this one fairly easy.  I got there pretty early, which was a good thing since my registration didn't seem to make it onto the list.  They got me put on and I did a couple miles of very slow warm up.  Had a few sciatic twinges and was pretty nervous that my legs weren't going to hold up.  

I ran into Jared's wife Monica and a couple of their kids, as well as a few old co-workers that worked with me at Verizon Wireless, which is where I had worked with Jared, before the race to say hi and chat for a few minutes.  It was awesome to see them all again.  They were all running the 5k.  

Toni showed up to run the 10k and we lined up together pretty early and had a few minutes to chat.  There were a couple of  BYU track guys standing next to us, one of whom is running nationals next weekend so he was taking it easy. The other one wasn't. The 10k started a couple of tenths farther back from the 5k, so we had to make our way around and through the 5k crowd after the race started, that was pretty entertaining.  I started off fairly easy, Toni headed off in front of me, and the faster I went the less I felt any of the pain or soreness I had been feeling, so I kept pushing the pace.  My Garmin conveniently showed my heart rate at 212 for the first mile or so, so that was pretty useless.  But Toni wasn't putting any more distance on me so I figured I must be feeling ok.  About mile 2 the course is climbing through American Fork and I caught Toni going up the hills and gained a little on him.  At mile 3 I asked the aid station guy how many were in front of me and he said 2.  

I could see only one guy way off in the distance so the other one must have really been moving.  As we hit the cemetery with about 1.5 to go a couple of younger guys blew by me whom I guess were running the 10k, just not sure were they suddenly came from at this point of the race.  The last couple of miles is a nice down grade so kept up the pace.  With about a quarter to go Toni caught up to me and began to pass me.  So it turned into a sprint to the finish between as he would gain a little, then I would gain a little.  I'm pretty sure we came across the finish line at the same time.  It was great to race with Toni again.  He is a great training partner.  

I'm just guessing at this point that I ended up 5th overall and first in age bracket.  I never saw them post results anywhere.  Toni and I ran a 2 mile cool down and almost had a helicopter land on our heads.  

It was a great morning to remember a great man and a good friend, and to see some old friends again.  

Loop in Lehi from Matt's house

North on JRT

Dam to mouth of canyon with Wes.  

Janika's soccer game to home in Lehi

Highland Loop

south on jrt

north on jrt

north on JRT

Well, that sucked.  With the horrible week I have had with back and hips, which I got fixed yesterday, I almost pulled out of this race due to body just not working.  But saw a new chiro, son of chiro I usually go to, and he fixed me up pretty good yesterday.  Haven't felt this good in a long time.  So I decided to go ahead and run and see what happened.  Went with trying to maintain around a 6 min pace for as long as possible.  At around mile 7 the wheels fell off the bus.  All energy in my legs left, and then the 20 mph headwind started for a big pile of miles.  I guess not running much for 2 months tends to lose some endurance.  I thought about DNF'ing a few times down the canyon, but figured I'd just keep going to experience a great blowup.  And it just kept getting worse.  Sour stomach for a few miles, leg cramping the last four.  Walked a bunch the last four.  I think at mile 22 or so I was still holding onto a sub 3 hour pace, but when the leg cramps started I threw that out the window, and just didn't have the energy to maintain a 6:51 pace anyways.  Really glad it is over.  I'll have to check the splits and HR later.

1 5:58 170

2 5:52 165

3 6:00 157

4 6:02 160

5 6:06 163

6 6:17 164

7 6:11 165

8 6:49 168    Headwind Started

9 7:00 167

10 6:30 162

11 6:40 161

12 7:04 162

13 6:38 162

14 6:27 162

15 6:14 163

16 8:37 150 Pit stop

17 7:01  164

18 6:51 158

19 6:45 157

20 8:13 145

21 7:27 153

22 8:08 146

23 10:18 126 Cramping started

24 9:41 132

25 9:45 132

26 8:51 133

.35 2:35 146 

north on jrt

south on jrt

Ran down Avon.  Went to Chiro right before race hoping to have a semi working body for wasatch back and alleviate some of the pain in my right leg, mainly in adductor, but also in both front and back of hip.  After visit felt pretty decent, though I could tell within a few minutes the adjustment hadn't held and I would be in trouble eventually during the weekend.

 The first leg has about a mile climb up avon then a 3 mile decent of around 1200 feet then some more less steep decent for 2 miles.  

We started later in the day than we have the past two years so we had just caught our first roadkill on leg five shortly before our runner got to me at the exchange.  There was also an ultra team that was really close to us at this point as well.  He ended up being right behind our guy at then exchange so as I headed up the hill, I thought at a pretty good pace I was surprised to hear him catch up to me and stay right behind me the last part of the climb.  And as I bombed down the dirt road he kept right on my heels for the three mile decent.  At about the start of the fourth mile I noticed that my left heel was on fire and the skin on about a 2 inch patch of my heel was sliding around already.  I started trying to compensate my gait to maintain pace while staying off my heel while still dropping at a steep angle.  This threw my pelvis/sacrum way out of wack and caused great pain my 2nd two legs.  As we came off the hill onto the pavement I pulled away from the ultra guy and came into the exchange.  I had the aid station put on some moleskin, which I'm pretty sure made the blister spread even farther out under where the moleskin was placed.  I was hoping that the heel skin would readhere by the time I had to run again.  Fortunately my next run was up hill and I could stay off of the heel for the most part.

1 6:37   for a +108

2 5:21 -425

3 5:11 -507

4 5:28 -293

5 6:06 -57

6 6:18 -74

.3 1:52 +3 

As I was getting warmed up for this leg my hip/pelvis/right leg were very tight, walking was very painful, as well as the left heel was on fire.  I just hoped things would loosen up as I went so it wouldn't be so painful.  I like this nice 8 mile climb.  There are usually lots of tail lights to run down to keep the mind occupied.  There were less than normal, but enough to keep me motivated to keep going.  The most painful part of the two days of running was after the 8 mile climb they had moved the exchange from the road down into the park, so I had to run down some steep road/trail into the park and between the heel and the hip I was hoping someone would hit me with a car to make the pain stop.  Ran the 8.2 in 59:28  Around 15-20 seconds a mile slower than last year.

The last leg was a little 2.5 mile flat run in Heber.  15:30, 6:22 pace  Still very painful, was almost done by the time things loosened up enough for the pain to mostly recede.  Was very glad to be done.   

After finishing the leg I noticed a chiropractor doing adjustments next to the massage people.  After talking to the chiro and him doing a few muscle tests he determined that my issue with the right side of my body was due to my right brain being turned off, so he ran a red and white vertical stripped piece of paper in front of my eyes a few times to turn on my right brain.  Interestingly I noticed some improvement over the next two days, but nothing lasting.   My right brain must be atrophied.

1 7:08 -8

2 6:49 +27

3 7:02 +97

4 7:04 +44

5 7:17 +76

6 7:10 +47

7 7:56 +214

8 7:39 +108

.2 1:18 -99

1 6:24

2 6:23

.43 2:42 

Loop in Highland with Scott

Orem soccer park up provo canyon

Ran in Diamond Fork canyon.  Great trails going up and down, didn't care for the road section, but it was very enjoyable to have a decent feeling run.

First time in months I have had a whole run essentially pain free.  Went to chiropractor yesterday.  This confirms to me nothing permanently wrong, must all be soft tissue problems, or muscles that are turned off.  Finally reached conclusion that going to Scott's Chiro in Syracuse may be last hope for lasting help for my body which will not stay working for very long.   

South on JRT

Highland loop from Scott's

Loop from Reed's.  The first five miles were very painful, again, getting so frustrated with the pain in the right leg, almost not worth it to keep putting myself in pain.  After mile 5 the boys started picking up the pace, which actually starts to feel better.  Last five mile progression, 

6:38

6:20

6:16

6:03

6:05

The end of this run gave me some hope that I haven't lost as much as I have feared, and that if I get the results I believe I will from Dr. Rowlin I will be back stronger than ever, without constant pain. 

Highland loop.  Ran a painful 5:56 mile at mile 9.

Lehi loop from Matt's

North on JRT with Scott

Big Springs!!!! Love this run  Should have run it twice. 

Went for my second hour of treatments from Dr. Rawlin.  Initially, in my lower body, he found 61 muscles that weren't "firing" correctly.  After doing research the past couple of years into trying to self-treat, educate, and figure out why I get in pain, where the pains come from, and ways to alleviate my own muscle aches and pains, after seeing the long list of muscles that aren't doing their jobs, I finally fully understand all the issues I have had of a lifetime of back and leg issues.

I understand why a few months ago, in particular after I did the 126 mile week, and then after SLC marathon, why I started to get all these very lingering and rotating muscle pains finally settled into certain spots and just became more and more aggravated.  I ran out of muscles for the body to use to compensate for muscles that don't fire correctly.  This also explains why anytime I try to do speed work and reach into a real pushing harder zone my hamstrings seize up and shut down the effort.  For the past three years I have been able to get the cardio and efficiency working without ever really pushing the body into new speed zones.  

From what it seems to me, the body has compensated its way into working pretty efficiently for the parts that do work, but when you ask your body to push past the limits of the muscles that are in compensation mode that's when the tightness, in particular my hamstrings hits and I have to slow back down.

After he got done activating muscles today the retested them to see what I had left to activate.  And while he was testing lower leg muscles I understood why my adductors had had so many problem recently, they have been compensating for most of the muscles in my lower legs as well as quads and hamstrings.  When he would try to get me to use the lower leg muscles the adductors would try to take over to make the movement happen.  So thinking about all of this, I wonder about how when a muscle is off and we don't realize it, but we recognize that we have some muscle weakness, and try to strenghten it in various ways, whether at the gym or various ply exercises if we are just strenghthening the compensating muscles to make them be able to keep compensating in the plane of movement that they shouldn't have to work in, which enables us to go faster or go longer using the wrong muscles.  

south on jrt

Highland/Alpine loop from Scott's

Murdoch canal trail from matt's

Soccer park in orem up provo canyon

South on JRT

Soccer Park up South Fork with Brandon, Fritz and Scott.

Bonked hard with 2 or 3 to go.  Got a good five mile tempo run in which felt decent.  Still pain/tighteness in hip 

Did 5.5 miles barefoot on grass in the park.  Grass drills, sprints, ladders, sideways, backwards.  Very enjoyable run.

South on JRT

south on jrt

Provo Canyon to south fork with Wes

Ran from Scott's up AF canyon with Scott and Brandon.  Did a 3 mile tempo run after we turned around.  6:17, 5:34, 5:17 (includes half at 5:01 pace)

Hip still not where it should be, but adductor not bothering me too much 

Ran the Speedy Spaniard course this morning.  Met Brandon before the race and did a 3 mile warm up.  Still having some hip problems, wasn't really expecting much given the previous few months.  Things went better than I thought they would, and was only 30 seconds slower than last year.  Haven't lost too much. 

Ran with Scott and Reed.  Hip completely gave out a few miles into the run so cut it short.

Ran in Orem

Ran most of the Sogonopmit marathon.  Had to stop every few miles to loosen the hip.  I finally figured out that it is the psoas that is causing all these hip issues that I have been having.  Most other issues are resolving, but this one is difficult.  Some internal snapping hip syndrome.

Ran during 95 degree weather in the afternoon up provo canyon.  After two days of hip massage, made it through the run without too much discomfort.

Ran 10 miles south on JRT with Reed, Scott and Matt.  Hip tightened up pretty bad the last mile. 

Ran with Scott in Alpint/highland.  Hip was mostly feeling better today.  Had a calf muscle turned on in each leg and started to feel some bounce in my step.  The left psoas was turned on as well, which isn't the one that hurts.  Will see how things progress.  Felt pretty good through this run, did stretch a couple of times.

Ran in Orem with Scott, Matt and Reid.  Using a headlamp going up a few of us were dizzy, possibly from the odd light patterns from the lights.  On the way back down coming up out of Nunns was feeling decent so picked up the pace up the hill.  Scott joined me and we headed down the great grade for a pickup.  We did a mile in 5:18, I hit oxygen deprivation and slowed down, Scott did 2 more miles of tempo.  Hip was a little tight, but not too bad.  Hopefully stretching the psoas will continue to help it improve.  

Ran Big Springs with Wes.  Love this  run!

Ran with Scott, Jake, Fritz, Andrea, Devra, Justin and Annie at Jeremy Ranch.  Great road to run on.  Hip tightened up the last few miles.  

Ran in Alpine

South on JRT

Orem, up Provo Canyon with the boys

i was able to get my psoas to release last night around 10:30 so i decided to jump in the race and see where i am since i have not been able to do the mileage or speedwork for months, so this was a push it some to see where i am and what other body parts are still having issues.

i parked a couple of miles from the start and ran up to the start, hoping to feel good enough to run back as i am in dire need of a good long run with tempo miles.  the less tightpsoas  was definately an improvement from the last few weeks or months, though it is till inflammed and tight, just not as tight. 

the first couple of miles i ran with jon kotter, toni and a couple of other fast guys as we warmed up down the hill.  we were behind sasha and the leader a ways, but i was happy to not push and just enjoy some good feeling miles.

after about mile 2 jon and his friends took off and i stuck with toni for another 4 miles or so.  my right hamstring was getting tighter so i slowed a bit, have tightness around the entire top of my right leg, just not as severe as it has been.  was able to keep a good pace with a fairly low heart rate for the speed.  endurance is way down from where it once was, but not unexpected.    if i had been registered i would have come in 5th and 1st in masters.  hoping i can get thing loosened back up for hobble creek next week.  psoas seemed to be tight once again which causes a severe limp when i stop running.  had wes drive me back up since leg wasnt cooperating.

south on JRT, hip locking up

Forgot watch today.  Ran up provo canyon at lunch in 95 degrees

south on JRT

Ran the Hobble creek half marathon today.  After last weeks tempo run of provo river half I knew I could still put up a decent time even with all the hip issues I have had recently, if I could get the sacrum back where it is supposed to go beforehand so the muscles wouldn't all lock up during the race.  If I can get this thing figured out, eventually, I will be a much happier runner.  

Caught a ride with Scott Keate, Matt Poulsen and his wife Elaina, to the buses.  Scott and I caught a bus and did a warm up from where the buses dropped us of up to the start.  I could tell the hip would probably hold up during the race, but not sure after.  We did another mile or so warm up, and hung out with a bunch of friends at the start.  It was great to see a lot of my early morning running friends all gathered for one race.  I saw David Taylor whom I have beat in a couple of races this past year, Nebo and Timp Trail half, and knew he would probably be my biggest competition for winning masters, either him or Curtis Eppley.  With my lack of base I was pretty sure I wouldn't have the stamina towards the end of the race, but nothing like running the race to find out.  The race actually started on time, which was really nice, and we took off down the canyon.

  David took off to a screaming start the first mile, I think he said it was like a 4:55 mile, with Scott on his heels.  My first mile was a 5:19 and felt pretty good.  I had bought some new Kinvara 3's the night before that I was wearing, hoping to find a replacement shoe before the end of the year and my launches are discontinued. They performed great through the downhill and the race.  My heart rate through the race never got too crazy, but I also didn't feel like I could push it any faster either.  I usually gu before the race and  halfway through a half marathon but elected not to take one half way through this time and see what happens.  I think I would rather have taken one so the last couple of miles may have felt a bit better.  

I kept David in sight most of the race, though probably at least a minute behind him.  Matt passed me at mile 7, Toni passed me a couple of times, he had to stop to retie his shoe after his chip started falling off.  Brandon blew by me around 11 or so.  I got chicked with .5 to go, but just had nothing left in the tank to do anything about it.  I ran a few miles with Curtis who caught up to me during the middle miles.  After pushing through the hilly trail miles he had to slow down for a little recovery and never caught back up.  We had reeled David in a little bit here and there, but eventually we had nothing left to catch him.  It was fun to see our early morning running group take 5 of the top 12 spots.  

The hip really tightened up the last mile or so as the energy waned, and after I crossed the line I was in full limp mode with the tight psoas, or maybe illiacus. I eventually got it stretched out so I could walk normally again.  Will be fun to see how things go if I can get the body to hold up for longer periods of time.  Since David won masters I got the 40-44 age group award.  

 1 5:19 157 avg. HR

2 5:30 168

3 5:39 167

4 5:38 168

5 5:40 170

6 5:42 172

7 6:00 173

8 5:50 173

9 6:06 174

 10 6:06 175

11 6:14 175

12 6:10 175

.87 5:32 176 

South on JRT with Reed, Scott and Matt.  

Ran from Matt's with Matt and Scott.  

Went to Mumford & Sons concert at Salt Air last night.  Awesome concert.  While standing there for several hours I started to notice a bunch of tightness in the SI joint on the right hand side, so moved and flexed enough stuff down there and eventually moved it back where it belongs, at least most of the way.  Muscles immediately started feeling better and strength returned to my right leg.  

Got up and ran a 2 mile warm up, then did some 800's around my block.

2:58, 2:55, 2:50, 2:46, 2:44 

Ran out of time to do more since I got a late start, but they felt good.  Nice to do some actual speedish work for once.   

Ran to Stewart Falls with Wes.  Very fun trail, short, but fun.   (Hip messed up again, arg)

Ran With Scott.  Had to take the shortcut due to right hip shutting down and tightening up.

Hope to Hobble.  Been wanting to run this for years.  Wish I had felt better.  Stomach issues, hip issues, but great run.  Looking forward to doing it again next year.

North on JRT

Orem with the guys

Hip issues

Ran from Sasha's house to south fork.  

Ran with Reed up Dry canyon to Great Western trail to rock pile.  Awesome run.  Hips jacked up, couldn't go fast up or down.

North on JRT

Orem with the guys.  Turned around at 4 trying to taper a little.  Hips still jacked up.

easy 3

I have wanted to do this race the last two years.  It always sounded like a great trail and a lot of fun.  Unfortunately my body has not cooperated much in the last few months and didn't want to cooperate very much during the race.  Before the race started I knew that my right hip/si joint was not fully functional and would cause some issues.  I hoped they wouldn't migrate back into my newly fixed psoas, so I decided to take the race fairly east to try to not damage anything further, which mostly worked.  

The race starts up in Deer Valley by the Stein Erickson lodge.  It does a one mile loop around the city streets to thin out the crowd and then back on the mid mountain trail until the Canyons.  I picked up my packet around 6:45am.  It was a little cool, but very manageble temperature. They opened the Silver Lake Lodge at 7am for some nice comfy warm bathrooms.  Much nicer than the typical porto-potties at races.  The race was organized very nice and started pretty much on time.  The start was a blue line drawn on the ground.  I ran into Steve Cuttitta who I ran against in the Timp Trail Half in May.  He looked like he was going to go out strong and probably win this one.  

As the race started I bounced between 4th and 7th through the first mile and kept around 5th place through the first 7 miles or so.  The trails were marked very well, at least through every part of the race other than where I took a wrong turn around mile 22, though obviously marked well enough for most people. I loved all of these trails. Very well maintained, the grades are easy both up and down.  They got fairly rocky in a few spots, in particular after the 3rd aid station it got very rocky for a couple of miles, but still manageble.  There were some mountain bikers out on the trail and they almost all graciously moved to the side of the trail to let the runners by.  The aid stations were all manned by very nice and enthusiastic people ringing cow bells and cheering.  It was nice to hear them from quite a distance to know how close other runners were ahead and behind by the sound of the cow bell.  You can never have enough cow bell.  I started having stomach issues around mile 13 that continued through the end of the race which certainly didn't help anything.  I had planned to gu up every 30 minutes, but only managed to eat one gu at 30 minutes and it took me another hour starting at hour 1 to eat a package of honey stinger chews.  

After mile 7 my psoas started to tighten up more so I slowed down a bit to keep from hurting too may things during the run.  I slowly started to get passed over the next 11-13 miles or so.  I think I was around 10th place around mile 22 when I took a wrong turn and ran at least an extra half a mile.  I stood around awhile at a crossroads wondering where the markings were, and headed down another wrong trail for a couple of minutes before I decided I must have missed something before, so headed back up the mountain.  I lost a good 10 places during this little bypass and probably 10-15 minutes of time.   The leg kept me from keeping any decent pace the last 4-5 miles of downhill to the finish, but it was a great time.  Loved this trail and look forward to running it again someday when in better health.  

Loop from Matt's

jrt

Felt decent today.  Did a 5:49, 5:37, 6:05 coming back down

Wallsburg to Orem.  Felt pretty good.  Had fun chasing Brandon down the canyon. Good run with Matt, Scott, Fritz and Brandon

tried running from Scott's, only made it .5 before hips tightening up too much

Tried from Matt's, made it 3 and had to quit.  Trying not to redamage fixed hip flexors.

6 in morning 5 at lunch

Orem run

10 in Orem with guys, 6 in PM with Bill, Chris, Calvin and Wes.  Good to see Chris out trying to run.

South on JRT

Not sure what it is about Monday's, but hips never work.  cut run from Scott's short, again.

Hips really messed up, really tearing up all muscles attached in Pelvis, again.

Orem run, 5:52 and 5:42 mile

Ran from Scott's, had to cut it short again.  Good thing this run has lots of bail outs to cut out distance.

Ran south on JRT with Matt, Scott, Reed and Toni.  Finally got hips put back in that lasted longer than an hour to two.  Felt pretty decent other than already strained muscles from running with twisted pelvis all week.