4 is better than 2

4 miles at the Jeremy Ranch road.  These were very slow miles, my quads are incredibly sore today, but I was planning on it so it was not so bad.  I will hit a few more aggressive downhill runs in the upcoming weeks to make sure my legs are conditioned.

I ran six of the most painfully sore miles I have run in many years - thanks Bill!!  Hopefully the soreness will have peaked today and I can get some good mileage in the next few days.

Still very sore, but managed to run a very slow 7 with Taha.  Good to get out, but I am about done with being sore.

A very easy 11 this morning.  Ran up dry creek canyon for a while and then turned around and came back home.  The soreness is dissipating, it was still nagging, but overall I felt much better.  The heat and the hills got to me by the end, but it was good to get out a bit longer.  Ice Bath after I finished, always refreshing!!

am 7 miles on the JRT.  It was sooooooooo hot!!  I jumped in the river upon completion of my run.  Did not feel great on this run, really sluggish, but not as sore, just heavy legs.

pm 4 miles on the treadmill - felt much better, a nice run.

4 easy miles this morning - my left knee at the hamstring insertion was pretty sore, but I think it will be ok after some stretching and maybe some ice.

Met Bill out in Magna at 5:00 this morning - it was already 85 degrees.  My knee felt fine for about the first 6 miles and gradually got tighter the more I ran.  As I sit here it has gotten very tight.  I have had this before and it usually takes a few days to recover.  I am still paying for last weeks downhill bash, my quads were trashed coming back down the hill.  I bonked too, but it happens and I did get what I wanted this morning.

Easy run this morning - knee feeling much better, but still pretty tight after the run.  Quads a little sore from Saturday, but nothing compared to the week before.

Met at SugarHouse Park and ran 10 x 2 min today.  Felt ok other than my legs are still feeling a little beat up.  The heat got bad late in the set, but I managed.  Glad to have run the set today, I had a hard time getting motivated to run hard today.

Ran a nice easy 7 with Mike tonight, it was nice and we got a little rain, what a great change!!

I was a little limited on time this morning, but I really wanted to take advantage of the cloud cover, what a great change!!  I warm-up for 2 miles easy and felt completely miserable.  I was wondering how I was going to complete my three mile tempo.  After a quick bathroom break I did some strides and decided I did not feel too bad.  I took off down the road and felt comfortable for the first almost 2.5 miles, for the last half there is a slight climb and I did start to struggle.  I knew I only had a half mile left to run and just sucked it up and finished with what I had left.  Tempo time - 17:20.  I cannot complain too much, it was better than the last one and I actually felt really good while cooling down.  Overall, a very positive run.

I do not know about anyone else, but tempo runs for me are very difficult to run solo, I run substantially better when I am with someone - go figure!

am 4 miles very easy. I was feeling pretty sluggish this morning, but better after I got going a little bit. I will plan on more later.

pm 4 miles - felt a little tight at the start, but moved well at the end. 

Met up at Jeremy Ranch road for a nice little jaunt.  This is one of my favorite runs, it is always so nice up there.  Started with a whole gang, but soon it was Dennis, Bill and I.  Fortunately the Canyon to Canyon half marathon was going on and the aid stations where still open.  The volunteers were kind enough to allow us some water, and that made a big difference.  I ran the last 3.5 miles alone, Dennis left me and Bill stopped for a bathroom break, but I felt good the entire run and am not really that tired.  It feels good to finally have a little longer run not crush me.  Sat in the river for a few minutes after the run, just the icing on the cake!

An easy 8 this morning.  Actually was a little tired to start, but by the end I was feeling pretty good.  

Met up with Mike and Taha this morning at Sugar House park for a dose of 2 minute reps.  I was actually hoping for 4 minutes, but I was outvoted and quite honestly grateful for it.  I felt lousy on the warm-up and even worse during the first 3 reps.  I actually got dropped on the first two, what a disappointment.  Taha bailed after the second rep leaving me to either suck it up or get dropped by Mike.  After the 4th rep I felt like I was moving much better and I actually got stronger each rep after.  The last couple reps ended on the uphill sections of the park, but I attacked aggressively just to get to the top.  Overall it turned out to be a good set, and much faster than last week.   

Easy run up city creek canyon, it was a bit warm this evening, but it was nice to run the canyon.

Ran down to Mike's house for what I thought would be an easier run than

it turned out. We did five hill repeats in the sugar house area, the

reps were maybe a minute long, but the hill was steep. The goal was to

maintain good form and try to accelerate through the reps. I felt fair

early on, but better as I got to the end of the first five. It was

really hot already and I was struggling with the heat a bit. We ran

from there down to Sugar House park did 2 laps and then 5 more hill

repeats on the sizzler hill. These were all pretty good, but the heat

totally cooked me. We ran home, but it was all I could do to get back

up the hill to my house. I was a little nauseated from the heat and

immediately got in a bath of ice to cool my core down. I really need to

to do a better job hydrating, the heat has always been an issue for me

and today I suffered.

Much better this morning, not nearly as hot. Ran very slow and easy. I would like to say I could taper for Draper, but taper from what? I will be there with the intent of just trying to run a good solid race. I have the San Francisco half next weekend so I am more interested in putting together a good effort tomorrow with a little extra mileage, it will be fun none the less.

PM 3 miles easy around wheeler farm - nice slow and easy - loved it! 

Lately I have been experimenting with how to run even slower in a 5k, today I made my first attempt at walking - not once, but twice. I can honestly say it is a very effective way to run slow. I cannot really say what went wrong other than a major case of wussitis. I came through the first mile in 5:06 feeling fair, not great, but not bad. I came off the hill and just decided I had enough. I stopped and grabbed a drink, and then tossed another over my head, then the guilt set in. I took off again and ran with Bill for a little while, but wussed again a few minutes later. I walked for a little more and then took off running. I keyed on keeping Bill in sight and just cruised in. Like I said, I cannot really say what happened, mentally I just completely imploded. To say that I am frustrated would not even begin to cover what I am feeling now, but I will get back with it and try to determine why I caved so early. I walked for about a minute total, maybe a little longer so I can honestly say my pacing was probably not too bad, just not all together. Congrats to all the other bloggers who had great days, and a special thanks to Sasha, Paul, and Cody for entertaining me during our warm-up.

Other than the still bruised ego, I actually felt good this morning, no watch, nothing but peace.  I am going to run the first 5k of des news tomorrow as a tempo tune-up for the half I am running this weekend.

The plan this morning was to go out and run a good 5k this morning with the Des News race.  I knew it would be fast and a good opportunity to run some good miles and rebuild a little confidence from Saturday.  Even though there is a lot of downhill I believe this was a good course of action after the debacle on Saturday at Draper.  The field was pretty stacked at the start, I am always a little worried at this race because the first half mile is chaos.  The pace was quick right from the start and immediately I was passed by a ton of people, I tried to keep my wits about me and just try to run comfortable.  I had no idea what kind of pace we were running until we came through the first mile in 4:52, much faster than I was planning or even expecting.  I kept plugging away hoping to bring some people back, and a few did, but it still seemed fast, second mile in 5:11.  I kind of mentally imploded in the first part of the third mile, but regained my composure about half way through and ran more aggressively in the second half of this mile. Mile 3, 5:42.  I felt like I was starting to move a lot better coming through the aid station and entertained thoughts of running through to mile 4, but I decided it was best to stay with my original plan and pull out at the 5k.  My 5k split was 16:18, I am happy with that, and it is much faster than the split I recorded last year.  There is no doubt that if I continued all the way through to the 10k I would have dropped off a bit, but still felt I was probably somewhere in the 33:30 range, but who knows!!  I feel better about things today, but I know I need to work on staying more in the game with my head, I had a tough go for a little bit today, but was glad to be able to run through it.

am 4 miles easy - I feel fine after the tempo effort yesterday, left calf was grabbing me a little, will watch it and make sure it stays calm

pm 5 miles in the rain.  What a great change, nice and cool - a great evening to get out and run.  Both runs were pretty slow, but I felt good. 

Ran a very easy 7 with Taha around Sugar House Park this morning, it was slow and easy, and a lot of fun.  These are the kind of runs that keep me coming back, peace through movement and good friends.

Easy run on the JRT, felt lousy to start, took about 4 miles to feel good.  Finished feeling really pretty good.

An an easy 5 miler prior to the San Fran Half marathon.  Felt pretty good about the run, would like to have gone a little farther, but I erred on the side of caution.

A fair day, but course was very hilly and windy, The course reminded me of the Striders 10 miler fo those of you who ran. I ran much better the second half than the first. The course starts pankcake flat for the first 3 miles, and than has some short steep climbs. About the four and half mile mark you start the climb to the Golden Gate Bridge, it is a pretty long climb and steep. You keep climbing until the half way point of the bridge and then decend down to the turnaround. On the way back across the bridge you are climbing back across into the wind and then decend hard off the bridge followed immediately by an aggressive one mile climb to just past the 10 mile point. Another hard decent to mile 11 and then 2 miles of steady climbing with the last .2 miles down to the finish.

Race start is 5:30, an early start. I warm-up about three miles with hopes of also getting some mileage in. At start, I felt a little sluggish just hard to get moving, but I figured it would pass. Came through the mile in 5:48 a little slower than it felt but not bad. The wind was in our face the entire first 4 miles, not blowing hard, but enough to feel you were working to push through it. The next couple miles proved to be the same, not really moving well. After the first of the climbs I was a little demoralized but kept at it. As I started the climb to the bridge I started to move a little better and by the time I got to the other end of the bridge I was moving well. I powered my way across the bridge into the wind and started the hard drop toward the water. The climb to mile 10 is brutal, but I never felt horrible. Decending to mile 11 felt great, but the climbing for the next few miles felt like I was going backwards. I finished hard and felt good at the finish. I finished feeling like I could have run much harder than I did and that frustrates me. I know I was way to conservative at the start and could have run the first 5 miles much faster, but got comfortable and lazy.  Overall I feel ok about the race, but I had expectations of running 1:18 or better and I think if I had been more agressive from the start I may have had a chance, but this seems to be the pattern of my racing right now.

Mile1	5:49	5:49
Mile 2	5:51	11:40
Mile 3	6:11	17:51
Mile 4	6:07	23:59
Mile 5	5:57	29:56
Mile 6	6:55	36:52
Mile 7	6:00	42:52
Mile 8	5:52	48:45
Mile 9	6:16	55:01
Mile 10	6:35	1:01:37
Mile 11	5:44	1:07:22
Mile 12	6:42	1:14:04
Mile 13	6:38	1:20:43
.2	1:05	1:21:49

Very slow run, everything was pretty stiff, but at least I got to run a little.  Nothing hurting too bad today.

Still in San Fran