Rollin' THUNDER

Ran on the indoor track at the Icenter. That was a lot of left hand turns.

Ran on a treadmill today. Hopefully I don't make this a habit.

Again on the treadmill.

No run, played basketball instead.

Short easy run for the week. It was nice outside. I can't wait for spring to be here for real.

Long run for the week. I did it on the treadmill while watching a basketball game. I don't mind running on treadmills, especially if there is something interesting to watch. This run was obviously fairly uneventful. Lately I have been getting blisters around my right big toe. I could feel something and assumed I was just getting another blister. I got home and my sock had quite a bit of blood on it. My foot didn't hurt, but it sure bled a bit. It also bled on yesterdays run. I will treat it and keep an eye on it.

Windy. I felt good during this run up until about mile 9. My right achilles tendon started to hurt a little bit. My sock didn't fill up with blood today, thats a good sign. The blisters are feeling better and not bothering me at all. Hopefully this achilles pain goes away before tomorrows run.

10.27 miles. This was the first run in a long time that I felt like I was holding back to try and be around a 7:40 pace. My actual pace was 7:30, and that felt fairly easy for the majority of the run. My achilles felt good the entire run. It was sore this morning, and I was contemplating riding a bike or going swimming today just in case. I planned on doing a 2 mile loop to start this run and I would gauge how it felt. If it was good, Id keep going, if I was concerned I would stop and hit a bike. It felt fine. My blisters are also healing up nicely and there was no blood in my socks after the run.

This is a blister I had a few years ago. For some reason I only ever get blisters around my right big toe.

Both my phone and weather.com said it was 33º when I left. So I dressed like it was 33º . It didn't take long to realize that it was probably more like 43º , and I was too warm. I just dealt with it. After I had been home for about 5 minutes, my wife got home from the grocery store and asked how my run was. I said "hot". She said "I bet, it's way warmer than 33º out there". Currently both my phone and weather.com say its 39º , but while I was running I saw several people walking and carrying their coats in their arms. I doubt they would do that if it was under 40º .

After my run before I ate or drank anything, I got on the scale. I was 161 lbs. On December 31st before I went to the bathroom before bed I was 191 lbs. I know I can't compare the two because they were different times of day, dehydration, and an empty stomach, but it was still nice to see that my hard work is paying off.

Yesterday I dragged my feet and kept putting my run off. I had to do some repairs on the apartments, and they didn't go nearly as well as I was hoping. By the time I was done with those it was past 9:30 pm and I was frustrated, so I didn't go running. WHAT A WEENY! I decided last night that I need to go running first thing in the morning so I don't let anything else get in the way, including my laziness.

Today's run went pretty well. I felt like I had a lot of energy. I got to a part that had a long hill. It wasn't very steep, but it was pretty long. I wanted to try and run it at a faster pace, and at a minimum not let my pace drop below what it was when I started the hill. I did it very easily. Hopefully tomorrow's run will be just as good as this one.

I was a little worried about this run because of the blisters around my right big toe. I have found the easiest method of dealing with them is to sterilize the area and some tools, pop it, and cut the skin off. It hurts for a few hours afterwards, but it makes running easier than running with blisters. I had cut a blister off yesterday, so it was fresh, red, and kind of painful when I walked. Plus I had a couple more that were a few days old, so they were a little sore, but not too bad.

I woke up at 5:45, ate a banana, bread with jam, mint chocolate gu, and about 8 oz or gatorade (about 400 calories). I made 12 more oz of gatorade and put it in a bottle. I placed a peanut butter gu in my pocket, a bottle with water, my gatorade, an espresso gu, and a chocolate outrage gu on the bumper of my car.

I started at about 6:30 with a 5 minute warm up, then ran for about 20 minutes away from my house, then headed back home, ate the gu in my pocket (peanut butter) about 2 minutes before I got home, chased it with about 4 oz of water and 4 oz of gatorade, grabbed the next gu (espresso), then headed out for about 25 minutes, and repeated the process (last gu was chocolate outrage).

I was really pleased with this run. I didn't feel like I was pushing myself in order to maintain my goal pace (7:40), and about half of the time I was having to tell myself to take it slow and easy and not force anything.

25.51 miles in 3:15

5 minute warm up- .62 miles (8:01 pace)

3:05 run- 24.33 miles (7:36 pace with my watch running during 3 water/gatorade breaks and a bathroom break)

5 minute cool down- .56 miles (8:53 pace)

After the run I took off my sock and there was a nice orange goop in between my big toe and 2nd toe. It had the consistency miracle whip. I will have to make sure to keep it clean and dry the next couple of days.

I started this run on the ame route that I usually do. About 7 minutes in I decided that I didn't want to do an out and back like I usually do. I decided to warm up for a few miles, then run up to the temple. I decided I would run to the temple, jog back down to where it was flat again, and repeat. I did it 3 times. According to Garmin, from where I was turining around, to the temple was a 201' elevation difference in .98 miles. The half marathon and marathon I am doing this summer both have some long hills, so I figure I should probably try and get some long hill runs in. I felt good doing this run, but I was taking it pretty easy going up.

My average pace for the total run, including a 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down was 7:44.

Today was supposed to be an easy run for an hour. It has been a long time since I did any speed work/running faster by any means. I can't even remember if I did any speed work for my last marathon in September. Next Thursday I am supposed to do a speed workout, so I decided I would try it today and see where I am at. Well I have got a lot of work to do.

The plan was to warm up for 10 minutes, with the second 5 minutes of those 10 being around a 7:38 pace. The workout was to run for 90 seconds at a 5:12 pace, followed by 3 minutes at an 8:52 pace as recovery, and repeat this 10 times. Then 5 minutes at 7:38 pace, then 5 minute cool down.

Well.... the warm up and cool down went well    :)

My average paces while trying to hit 5:12 were: 5:35, 5:23, 5:19, 5:36, 5:36, 5:25, 5:34, 5:33, 5:29, and 5:29

My average recovery paces trying to be around 8:52 were: 8:09, 8:40, 8:45, 8:55, 8:48, 8:35, 8:43, 8:38, 8:50, and 8:59.

I have never thrown up from a workout, but I thought I was going to during this workout. I am out of shape and have a long ways to go, but I think this was a good start to getting there.

Total time was 65 minutes, average pace was 7:26.

This was an aweful easy run. I was putting way too much effort into my "easy pace". I did hills on Monday, a speed workout yesterday, and donated plasma this morning. All of those things combined today to give me a horribly hard run.

Average pace was7:36, but I was struggling to keep a steady pace. I was all over the place with my pace and never got into a groove. I have got to start running before plasma, except I did that on Friday and thought I was goint to pass out when I was done, but thats life.

This run went much better than yesterdays. I did have a slight discomfort in my left calf, so I will watch that tonight. I also got a good colon/anus/sphincter/what-ever-you-want-to-call-it workout for about 7 minutes. Before I left for the run I told my wife that my stomach didn't feel right. But what can you do? I couldn't wait around forever, because my wife also needs to get her run in.

As I could feel that my bowels were about to lose the battle I decided that I would turn right and go 3 blocks to Cal Ranch. I got to where I was going to turn, but I just kept running straight. I thought to myself "hmmmm, I was going to turn there". Then I remembered that Article Circle was only 1 block away. As I neared Article Circles parking lot I became aware of why I hadn't turned right. There was no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I would have made it to Cal Ranch, and I think subconsciously I knew that. I opened the door to Article Circle and hoped like crazy that the bathroom would be empty. Luckily it was.

I made it, and all is well.

Total time was 1:25:00, avg pace including warmup/cool down was 7:32.

Got up at 4:00 am to do this run. I've got a lot of things to do today, so I guess sleep has to be something I miss out on.

Nothing really note worthy about this run. I didn't listen to music, that's the first time in probably a few years that I have done a run having to listen to my breathing and feet hitting the ground. I don't seem to like that as much as some other people do. I did feel a lot better today than I did yesterday, and yesterday I felt a lot better than Wednesday. So I guess I feel great today.

This is the longest run I have ever done, by just under 2 miles. We are down visiting family this weekend, so I did this run starting at my parents house. I looked at the weather forecast, and starting from about 6:00 am to noon there was a 30% of higher chance of snow/rain. Some of my siblings are coming over around noon, so I wanted to get my run done before they arived, and I didn't want to run in the rain/snow when it was about 34 degrees. I like running in the rain, but not when its near freezing. So I decided that the best time to do this run would be at 2:00 am (and the weather forecast was wrong, it is really good weather right now (9:30, and has been all morning, and looks like it will stay nice for a while).

I went to bed around 10:00 pm, but we are sleeping in the same room as my kids and Kaylin was being crazy. All she wanted to do was climb in our bed and wrestle with me. After about 35 minutes of that I decided that I was going to go sleep in another room. My wife was supportive of that decision.

I woke up at 1:54 am (about 3 hours of sleep, STUPID weather forecast), 6 minutes before my alarm even went off. Got ready and headed out the door. I did 5 out and backs, 4 of which were about 45 minutes, and 1 of about 30 minutes. I ate the same pre run food as last week including the GU, and had a peanut butter GU at 45 minutes, espresso love at 90 minutes, and chocolate outrage at 135 and 180 minutes.

I ran without music for the first 3 hours. It was really dark so I was already down 1 sense, and didn't want to have music take away my hearing as well. I bought pepper spray specifically for when I run at my parents house because I have been chased by dogs several times. If a dog was going to be coming at me that I couldn't see, I least wanted to be able to hear it coming (I did have to pull it out once because of a big dog barking and running toward the road. Luckily (for the dog) there was a fence that I couldn't see because it was dark).

The first 2 hours and 10 minutes went great, and I couldn't believe how fast the time was going. But I started to get tired, and used the music as a distraction/motivation for the last 30 minutes.

I kept my watch running during all my water/gatorade breaks, but did stop it for about 6 minutes as I was paying a visit to the bathroom at Maverik.

Glad this run is done, and I'm glad I don't feel like I have been hit by a truck, but there is still time for a lot of soreness to sneak up on me.

5 minute warmup, 0.63 miles, avg pace of 7:57.

210 minute run, 27.01 miles, avg pace of 7:47.

5 minute cool down, 0.54 miles, avg pace of 9:19

Total of 28.17 miles in 3:40:00, avg pace of 7:49.

am: 8.65 miles. I wasn't able (motivated) to get a run in yesterday. So I will do doubles today and tomorrow to make up the miles. I was originally going to run about 14 miles this morning, but I will run 4 times around 8.5 miles each to get in yesterdays miles.

pm: 8.89 miles. I am really considering having my right big toe nail rmoved for good. It is coming off for the third time in 3 years.

am: 8.61 miles. My right knee hurts pretty bad at the beginning of every run lately. The pain goes away after about 3 or 4 minutes, but I almost stop and head home every time. Hopefully I can stretch/strengthen/baby it back to normal.

pm: went for a 2 block walk with the kids tonight. My knee was SCREAMING!!! I guess I will hit an exercise bike for a little while and try to let it heal up.

Day off. Tomorrow I will try a short run and see how my knee feels after 2 days rest. Depending on how that goes, I will either be camping out in a gym for the next few weeks using the bikes, or I'll get back to running. I am hoping for the second option. I have goals I want to reach, and they don't include biking. But I will do whatever it takes to keep my fitness level from decreasing.