Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Not bad - and a familiar face (but ??? name ???)

We did two laps at Sugarhouse this morning. It was a good run with a couple of extra walk breaks, but no big deal. I felt good about the pace. We ran 7 miles at 10:55mpm. I swear that I saw the boys' very first pediatrician running through the park, too. The trouble is that I couldn't remember his name! So, I'm going to look it up and remember it in case I see him there again. I'll approach him next time and thank him (again, again) for taking such good care of them in those first four weeks of their little lives.

Monday, April 26, 2010

First semester paper done....

I took three days off. That wasn't the plan. The plan was to take one day off to finish up my last paper. So, I got up at 3:30AM on Friday and worked on it while the weather outside was perfect and everyone slept. (I did get a lot done, though.) Then, the boys were up, and the computer was off for a while. Then, the rain started. Bub left the house, and (as much as I hate to admit it) I sat the boys down in front of the TV so that I could work on my paper some more. After she returned and the boys napped, I worked on it some more since it was still pouring down rain. When they woke up, the sun finally came out, and we went for a walk. I worked on the paper after they went to bed.

Saturday morning brought mor work on the project until we left for Salt Lake to check in on Grandma whose back is really bad right now. I took my laptop and worked on it until the battery died. Grandma was still in bed when we arrived, but eventually got up and about. Then, we enjoyed the nice weather by going to Wheeler Farm with Grandpa. After we returned home, I plugged the laptop in to recharge. We ran around the back yard in the meantime.

Saturday night brought "camping" in the front room. The boys slept in their pop-up tent while I continued working on that damn paper until I finally submitted it at 2:30am, Sunday morning. I camped out with the boys because I didn't want them to wake up and get freaked out since it was their first night in the tent....

2.5 hours later (yes, at 6am) I was up with the boys. I was hoping to go for a run before they got up, but that was when I had planned to go to bed before 3:30am. Sunday was a day for feeding the ducks, playing in the park (where we got along better with other kids, yeah! progress), and a trip to the store. During naptime, I worked on the DEVIL bush in the front yard, filling two garbage cans with those thorny damn branches. I hate that thing. Beer break, and then the boys were up and about. We headed to the back yard for some trimming and weed pulling and playing in the sand box and running about with their noisy little weed whacker and leaf blower toys. Then, another beer break.

SO, this morning's run started slowly, and my legs were tight. However, I managed to get up to 13th east in a fairly decent time. I powered up both hills in Sugarhouse and took my walk breaks, but I wasn't as tired as I have been sometimes. I only did one lap because I've got a lot of work and system testing facing me today. (Or, I was just being a pansy...) Anyway, I finished 5.5 miles at a 11:07mpm pace. Not horrible, but I would have done better if I had hydrated AT ALL over the weekend.

Oh, finishing that paper took a lot of sugar. I know, I know. It's all wrong, but I needed something to keep me awake, and I can't do caffeine. I have three weeks off, so I'm going to start again on the no sugar/eat sensibly/lots of fruits and veggies/less absolute nutritionless food plan.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

THIS is spring?

10.18 miles at 11:14mpm pace! It was SO hard not to turn around in the first mile because it was windy, and we were getting rained on. We pushed through and managed to get snowed on during our lap in Sugarhouse park. We ran up 13th East to 6th South, and then wound our way back to 21st South and back to work. It was a good long run. We would have done more hills, but Carol was really tired at the beginning, so we took it easy. It's supposed to rain for the rest of the day. I'm glad that we got it done early.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

not as fast as the ROTC

We decided to run slow and short today in preparation for tomorrow's long run. We did one lap at Liberty, but we did the outside perimeter instead of the wood chip path. This actually gave us .1 more mile (which makes me feel like a rockstar for some reason). So, our mileage was 4.62 @ 10:44mpm - so much for slower! But, we both feel good and ready for tomorrow. I think that we probably feel better than the ROTC folks who were there running some sort of time trial thing. They were all sprinting at the finish and gasping for breath. We need to do some of that, but I think that we'll wait to really seriously do it after Wasatch Back. Right now, we're training for hills (which will ultimately help our speed), but after WBR, I really want to train for speed.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

It's gettin' hot out here

58* and it feels so much hotter. It's going to take me a while to get used to this warmer weather. It would be easier if spring lasted longer than a week here in Utah! I think that I like running in the snow and cold much better.

Anyway, Carol and I ran a 7-miler this morning at 11:06mpm. We ran the outer perimeter of Liberty Park and up to 13th East. That hill (250' elevation change in two blocks) is a killer, but we're determined to get that kind of training done before Sapper Joe and Wasatch Back. We walked 2/3 of the hill, but on the bright side, we at least ran some of it! The rest of the run was cake. We both felt good and kept a conservative pace since we'll be doing a short, easy run tomorrow and then a long run again on Thursday.

It's gettin

58* and it feels so much hotter. It's going to take me a while to get used to this warmer weather. It would be easier if spring lasted longer than a week here in Utah! I think that I like running in the snow and cold much better.

Anyway, Carol and I ran a 7-miler this morning at 11:06mpm. We ran the outer perimeter of Liberty Park and up to 13th East. That hill (250' elevation change in two blocks) is a killer, but we're determined to get that kind of training done before Sapper Joe and Wasatch Back. We walked 2/3 of the hill, but on the bright side, we at least ran some of it! The rest of the run was cake. We both felt good and kept a conservative pace since we'll be doing a short, easy run tomorrow and then a long run again on Thursday.

Friday, April 16, 2010

stiff and sore recovery run

I am stiff after yesterday's intense run, but that's to be expected. I decided to run this morning just to flush some of the gunk out of my quads and hams. It was a good run. I was really stiff at the beginning, but I eventually got into a groove. I thought about doing two laps at Liberty, but I settled on just one knowing that I had a bunch of work on my desk and still lots of homework. I figured that the extra 15 minutes in the park could be better spent writing a paper. Although, now that I read that sentence, I think that the extra 15 minutes should have been spent running. Oh well. I was tired and sore, but by the end of my run my legs were on auto-pilot, so it was good. I forgot my watch this morning, so I'm basing my time off of what the clocks read when I left the building and returned. So, my approximate average pace was 11:07mpm for the 4.5 miles. Close enough.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Run to Ensign Peak

*What made this a quality run? The company, the scenery, the elevation change of 1220 feet, the fact that we freakin' rock!
*What made this a high effort run? The elevation change of 1180 feet - both up and down - and the distance of 12.1 miles, my longest distance in eight months (since Mesa Falls marathon in August '09).
We had originally planned to run up City Creek Canyon, but we missed the turn-off. We just wound our way through the neighborhood until the road up was gated. At that point, we turned west and ran some more. Then, we saw this little nature park in the side of the hill with a little trail that went up to something. Wanting to get some more elevation, we headed up the trail, but we didn't take the "little" trail, we took the longer trail thinking that it would quickly loop around. Well, it didn't. We kept going up and up and up until we reached the peak of the mountain. It was awesome. We never made it to the something that we had originally planned to see, but that's OK because the view from the peak had to have been better than what we would have seen. I'm so glad that I had my phone with me.
*Quads, hams, and calves were screaming at the end, and we took a lot of walk breaks, but we had a GREAT time!
Distance: 12.1 miles. Elevation change: 1180'. Pace: 11:51mpm (pretty good considering that we easily walked a mile; we walked the entire trail up; it was that steep!
(Oh, and I've lost five pounds in a week!)
View from Ensign Pean looking southwest

View from Ensign Peak looking south with capitol building in the lower left

Ensign Peak monument

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

free stuff - check it out

This post is for Lish and Roch since they are the only people that actually read this lame blog......
Check out this website http://mcmmama.blogspot.com/ for a chance to win some free GU products (gel, brew, chomps, etc.).

Well, in the insanely slim chance that anyone else reads this site, you're welcome to try and win some stuff, too, I suppose.

Slow it down....

We ran Liberty 1-lap today at a slower pace than we have been running. We both agree that we ran too fast last week, and that's why our long run sucked so bad. So, we have been taking it easy this week. We purposely ran slower today. I had to keep the pace down because Carol runs faster when she talks. :) We completed the 4.5 miles at a very consistent 11:05mpm. We both have gas left in the tank which bodes well for tomorrow. Our long run is being bumped up a day so that I can attend a meeting on Friday morning. We'll still run on Friday, but it will be a shorter distance. Now, I just need to remember to hydrate well today. Dang! Should have brought the Gatorade from home....

On a separate note, I think that we're going to go downtown for lunch on Friday and volunteer at the Salt Lake Marathon expo for a couple of hours.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Slushy run

It was raining at my usual run time, so I waited a couple of hours before going this morning. Carol took the day off, so I was on my own. It was BRIGHT! I haven't run in full daylight for a while, and it has been raining/snowing all morning, so the sun reflected off of the road and practically blinded me! Good grief! The wood chip path at Liberty was slush covered and soggy making it a bit harder to run, and the slush was melting off of the trees above the path and sidewalk. I got so wet that I should have just ran at 6am in the rain! Since it was during work hours, I had my phone and had to routinely check e-mails that kept buzzing through. I opted for just one lap again because I didn't want to be gone too long during work hours, but I could have done two laps. I completed my 4.5 mile run at a pace of 10:43mpm. Not bad!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Taking it easy

We took it easy this morning since Carol hiked 12 miles over the weekend. I did absolutely nothing, and even managed to squeeze a nap in between my activities of nada and zilch. She was quite tired, and I probably had too much to drink yesterday. So, we took plenty of walk breaks and slowed our pace a bit. We still managed to do 4.5 miles @ 10:54mpm. It has warmed up significantly; it was 50* when we started. It's going to take a while to get used to this. I would prefer to run at 38* all of the time.....

I think that we're going to really cut back on the pace this week considering how tired we both were at the end of last week and all through the weekend. We need something to get us back in a place where we have some pep!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Make it end!

This run was everything that last week's 10-miler was not.

Carol and I had planned to run 13. We were going to go from work, up to the capitol, and halfway up City Creek Canyon. I confessed my fatigue first thing this morning because I didn't want Carol to expect a blistering pace from me. She was was pretty wiped out, so we started out slow. It just got worse from there.

13 miles turned in to 12.5 which turned in to 12. When we got the South Temple, we decided to bag the canyon and run the hills at the UofU. We turned east. When we got to 1300 East, we decided to bag the hills at the U. 12 miles now turned in to 10. We were taking frequent walk breaks, and slogging it out wasn't fun. We were miserable.

At some point, Carol looked at me and said "You can't drag me to 2100 South. I'm not doing 10." At the very next walk break, I said "How important is 10, really?" We turned and headed back to work.

Our final mileage was 9.28 @ 11:15mpm. It full-on sucked.

Both of us hydrated well yesterday. I did a bit of carb loading last night (with the right kinds of food, not beer). We each only ran 4 days this week (including today). So, what the crap?

There were some good parts of this run. 1) We never run up by the U, so it was really fun to look at all of the old houses - especially over by the Avenues. 2) My new hydration belt (which was free, by the way) was really comfy. I did get a bit of rubbing on my stomach, but that's because my stomach is so flabby. Otherwise, it sat nicely in the small of my back and the bottles were easy to access.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

I'm so tired!

I had to pick Malcolm up at the airport last night, so I didn't get to bed until 10:30. Then, up again at 3:30 to do homework and meet the carpool by 5am.

Both Carol and I were tired today, and we have a 12-miler planned for tomorrow, so we opted for just a 1-lap Liberty loop. Thank goodness it was only one lap! Although we both felt like we were running through sand, our average pace for the 4.5 miles was still 10:45mpm! (We thought it was going to be closer to 11:15 or 11:20.) I think that what helped us was very short walk breaks, and a consistent pace. We didn't slow down or speed up hardly at all.

Oh, and I've lost two pounds as part of the Bring It! 2010 Challenge with Roch.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

My new shoes make me fast

: This run felt great for both Carol and me, and it's reflected in our pace. We ran the Sugarhouse (2-lap) route. Totals: 7 miles at 10:24mpm!!! WHAT?!?!?! Yeah, we rock. I wore my new shoes for the first time. They are the men's version, so they are a bit wide in the box, but the cushioning felt great. I really like the fact that they were on close-out and therefore $40 cheaper than my usual shoes!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Woo-hoo! Another goal achieved!

Carol held off today due to a migraine, so I ran by myself. I've had three days off and wanted to push myself for speed today. I did the Liberty (2-lap) route, and I finished the 5.85 miles at a 10:44mpm average pace! Yeah, baby! I have finally finished that route with a sub-11 pace.

So far this year, I've done a sub-11 on the 1 & 2-lap Sugarhouse route, the 1 & 2-lap Liberty route, and a sub-11 10-miler! YEAH!!!!

Now, for a new goal.....

Friday, April 2, 2010

First 10-miler of the year

In preparation for Sapper Joe's, Carol and I have decided to run our long distances on Fridays, and we are determined to get some hills and elevation in - no matter that they won't compare to the 2000' gain of SJ. Today, we ran 10 miles which included two laps in Sugarhouse (with those nasty little hills) and up to 2100 East. We had to wander around a neighborhood in order to get the distance in, but we managed a total of 10 miles with hills at - get this - 10:47mpm pace!!!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? I rarely run that pace on flat, short runs! Holy cow!
Our minimum elevation was 4250 and our maximum was 4600. I burned 1375 calories. It was no Sapper Joe, but it's a start!