Forgetting (to post that is)

Last post was a week ago... yikes.  I don't even know for sure what I did as far as workouts go... Pretty sure last Wednesday we ran 7.5, Thursday lifted, and Friday ran 7.5.

Saturday... Rich was out of town for the weekend, so I planned on taking it a little easy and do an 8 mile run alone.  The run was very enjoyable Started around 8:45 I think... it's nice running alone every once in awhile so I can just listen to my Ipod and zone out mentally (no jokes with that one please).  I ran from home up to the Canyon Glen bridge up Provo Canyon.  It was very cold and the wind really was hitting me in the face up until the turnaround.  The last mile to the turnaround (plus the mile coming back) the bike trail was very icy and slippery but I managed.  At one point my body felt really good and could have just run forever.  This lasted for a bit and then my body started not liking it... I think it was the pounding of the asphalt that I'm just not too used to anymore.  I started thinking 'Man, this is a tough 8 mile run'.  Well, the next day at church, I was speaking with Craig Perry who asked how far I ran and where.  When I explained where I ran, he said "that's not 8 miles... that is more like 11 miles).  After thinking about it, he was right... I don't know what I was thinking.  No wonder it seemed like a tough 8 miler.  Deer count: about 4 two-legged dear's that were running on the trail.

Monday- went during lunch and did core workout with Rich and Dave Runnells.  Found out my brother is coming into town on Thursday... will be good to see him and his family...conference weekend- so we know the bad weather is coming.

Tuesday- got up at 5:15 (was butt freezing cold) and did our 7.5 mile run in the hills.  Felt pretty good... other than having 4 hours of meetings in the afternoon, so was pretty tired (just glad I didn't snore out loud).  Found out this morning my co-worker turned her notice in... so I am going to be a very busy guy handling the workload until a replacement is hired.  Deer count: only 2

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

JIMMER!!!!

Jimmer is the man!  What a great game knocking off Gonzaga... I'm sure the West Coast Conference is crapping their pants with BYU entering their Basketball world.  Good luck against Florida.

Last Thursday, we did an hour of treadmill work (5 min run and 5 min hike at an incline of 10).  Friday we did core work at Elevate... Dave Runnells joined us... 3 circuit of Tri work, did the straps with pushups, etc.

Saturday... ended up doing 18 miles in the hills with 4 others, so 6 of us total (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.... took about 4 hours... I could run about 24 miles on the road in the same amount of time which shows the difference between trail running and road running).  Started at the water tower and ran down to 800 east, to Cascade Golf and down to Provo River Trail.  At Mt. Timp park we went up hill and went to about Nunns Park, then went uphill through Blue Rock valley and then back onto fire road and back to water tower...that was about 10 miles.  We had parked our car at this junction so we could eat, refill water, change or discard clothes etc.  Rich had bought some Coke- aaahhhh!! tasted good to take a swig.  Also, changed my socks to get a fresh pair and avoid any blistering.  We then headed along the Great Western trail over to the P.G. area.  Got a little tiring on the way back, but I could have ran another 2-4 miles... felt really good and body was numb or in the zone... one or the other.  Weather was great!  Just a little cool, but warm when running.  First 6 miles was in the dark.

Funny thing... this 18 was easier than the 14 miler from last week.  Deer count: about 8

Monday- did the 5:30- 7:00 a.m. standard run... was a little tough getting the legs moving after the 18 on Saturday.
Tuesday- We did some core work in the gym... did it during my lunch break and only had an hour.  I did 50 bench reps with 135 lbs... did 6 sets of 7 with 1 set of 8.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Alternating the routine

Well, we skipped Monday... we are going to have to change our schedule to match Richard's school schedule... so when he has early morning seminary class, we'll try and do core/weight lifting during the day and on the non-class days, we'll run.

Tuesday- we did our regular run route... Steve and Robert (came on Saturday and used to train with us) showed up while we were running up the road to the water tower and ran the rest with us.  Didn't realize that daylight savings happened on Sunday... so now getting up and running from 5:30 to 7:00 is now dark for most the time again.  Deer count- Zero.

Wednesday- Today we met during lunch and did core/weight workout.  We were joined by a nice person, Dave Runnells, who used to workout a lot with Rich.  Planning on running tomorrow... but weather is supposed to rain and even snow, so might do the treadmill workout at Elevate.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Slacker time

Okay, Rich couldn't go Wednesday morning so we skipped.  I started feeling sick throughout the day Wednesday with the cold/flu bug.  So, we skipped for me on Thursday.  Friday, Rich couldn't go in the morning.  So, 3 days off!  It was good since I'm still fighting the bug and it's the type that's putting pressure in my skull, so workouts would probably not be too good.  We did watch the BYU game Friday night...and will all the jumping around and yelling we did, that could be considered a workout, right? (BYU beat N. Mexico and Jimmer had 52!!  What a game to see!).

I was a little worried how I would hold up on a long run, not fully recouped yet.  We got up at 6:00 to run...Rich had a few others that were going to run with us (Also, Rich's B-Day--- what an old man!).  Turned out to be like 11 of us total.  We started at the Watertower and did single track trail running with plenty of hills (first 2 miles is part of our midweek training runs) for about 7-8 miles (about 5 runners turned around at 6 miles and headed back) and then ran on the street for about 1 mile to connect to the canal road (dirt, yes!) in P.G.  I was feeling good, but the canal road is very rocky (me no likee) and fairly flat...so running 7 miles like that is a lot different than the hill running we are used to running.  The last 2-3 miles I really started feeling it in my feet and head (I should have taken a few advil pre-run).  We finished at Rich's house after 14 miles which felt like 18.  The nicest thing about the run was the weather was very nice!  Just a little cool for most of the run.  Bring on spring!  I'll be wishing for fall when running this summer I'm sure.

Deer count:  around 30-35. 

Came home and crashed for a few hours... gotta do some chores (like check facebook, tell Alyxis jobs to do, tough stuff like that) and get ready for the BYU Mtn West Championship game at 5:00.  Go Jimmer!!! (and Cougs too).

Lace 'em Up! Chainsaw

Tired

Went to the gym at 5:15 today (snowed last night).  Did warm up stuff... did 3 sets of 20 squat jumps, did our set of, well, I'll just call it the TRX bands (push ups, run in place, hip extensions) that pretty much wiped us out!  We did some lunges with weights and then did some leg exercises and something close to crunches.  We were both not 'feeling it' and just tired out... I think it was either from starting with the hard TRX bands or from the 14 miles on Saturday followed by 6 1/2 on Monday.  We cut it short today.  We'll see how the run goes tomorrow morning.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Early Bird...

Now I know why the early bird always gets the worm... it rained a lot Sunday night.  Guess what comes out during and after the rain?  I'll tell you what, the asphalt has never felt so soft under my feet!  Killed a lot of them creatures under my shoe.

Anyways... we ran at 5:30a.m. ... did the 6 1/2 mile run in the foothill route.  I thought it would be tougher than it was following the 14 miler on Saturday.  Other than the first big ascent, I felt good and was able to push it and keep a steady pace for all the hills.  We had a good conversation about the Oregon Coast where Rich grew up... I've gotta take a vacation trip there sometime.

There were some higher clouds against the mountain... snowline reformed overnight half way down Baldy Mountain.  We also had a few clouds that we were running in... so couldn't really see many deer for my deer count other than like 5 closer to the end of our run when it got lighter and we weren't in the clouds.

Lace 'em up! Chainsaw

Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each is to succeed.

Slow melt

The slow melt is both from the weather changing/warmer and also for my legs.  We ran today from 6-9:00a.m. and had planned on doing 12 miles.  Great cold weather at the start that warmer nicely for the end (our was it just that we were warming/sweating so much that it seemed that way...?). 

The start of our run was mostly uphill running and we thought that the last half would be mostly downhill. 

Logic defied... now my Dad used to tell me 'the stories' of walking uphill in snow both ways to school, which I thought was a joke.  But somehow, Rich and I both commented how could our run go uphill on the way back too?!  I'm not lying.. it was!

About mile 7, Rich told me that he'd tricked my and we were going to run 14 today instead of 12.  I didn't mind too much since I was feeling pretty good and we have to take advantage every chance we can to run long.  The end of the run with all the uphill running was brutal... my goal was to not stop and run the whole way, which I/we did.  Monday is going to come too soon and will hurt...

Four legged deer count... about 15.  Going to relax, watch Havyn (Suzette working most of the day), and hopefully watch the Coug's get back on track with a win over Wyoming.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Opps...

Kind of got busy last night going with the Young Men/ Young Womens group to the Carl Blach Art Exhibit at BYU last night.  It was very inspiring... very gifted man with his many paintings of Jesus Christ.

Wednesday... we did the 6 1/2 mile trail run at 5:30 a.m.  Again, we saw about 25 deer along the run.  It's fun seeing the sun start coming up a few minutes earlier every time we run.  We were able to increase our pace from Mondays run by about 1 minute per mile...  so was able to do that run about 6 minutes faster than Mondays run (We had also done Mondays run about 3 minutes faster than our first run).  So, our legs and lungs are starting to adapt.  It was just a touch warmer... still close to freezing, but we could tell the trails were a little softer on the feet.

This morning, we headed to the gym at 5:15 (okay, okay... 5:20- I was late picking up Rich by 'accidentally hitting my snooze button).  We did a core workout again... stretch/warm up and ball transfers to start, then we did 3 sets of 20 pull ups (lay on your stomach on an inclined bench that rolls up and down- you grab a bar like you would on a regular pull up), 3 sets of 30 lat extensions/pulls on each side with a 45 pound dumb-bell (no, not you Rich), and then did 3 sets of 10 bench presses (35 weight on each side, so total of 115 pounds) with 20 'raise to heavens' (on back on bench and hold hands behind head and raise legs up toward the ceiling onto your upper back).  I felt really good on the bench, so I did a 4th set with 15 reps.  We tried doing some regular pull ups... but I could only do a few and Rich could do a few more than me... so basically, are arms were just spent and we couldn't do it.  So, we did some bicep dips on a bench, just one set of 20, and called it a day.

All these early mornings have worn me out, so I suggested to Rich that we skip our swim workout on Friday morning, which Rich quickly agreed to (which surprised me a little).  He did say our 12 mile run on Saturday is going to be rough, so a rest day would be good.  My hamstrings have been really tight all week...from running the hills, so I am going to try and just go for a slow run, maybe even walk, some at the gym tomorrow to loosen them up a little.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Core

Today was a day to work on core from 5:00 to 6:30a.m.  Let me say here that in the future I won't go into as much detail on core workout days... this is just to give some idea of what they consist of, although core days do vary, let me assure, they are all very difficult.

After we did some stretching and ball transfers, we did something close to the following (you have to understand that I'm barely awake so remembering everything is tough-- and frankly, I try and forget the workout & pain as fast as I can so I could have forgotten something)... :
3 sets of 20 squat jumps
3 sets of 20 single leg squats on each leg (so 60 total on each leg)
3 sets on the TRX band/straps- basically it holds our legs about a foot off the ground- of the following sequence: 20 knee to chests, 20 push ups, 20 count of running in place, and 20 hip extensions (legs come in, hands on ground and hips/butt goes up in the air about 2-3 feet).  Each set is done with no break...meaning your hands/arms support your weight that whole time, not easy to do- especially when you're supporting more weight than what you're wanting to be carrying.  It was especially tough to finish that third set! 

That was something that Rich and I were both surprised a little that we were each able to do it-- that basically burned our arms out bad.  But do you think that would be it... not with Rich at the helm.

Next we did 3 sets of another sequence with a 45 weight bar (bench or squat bar with no weights): 10 upright rolls, 10 clean and press, 10 squat and back press, and then 10 bent over rolls.

Last we did 20 sits up from a inclined bench (very inclined) where we threw/passed a medicine ball (weight? probably 15 pounds?)back and forth between us after each sit up.

We were both pretty spent and probably would have done more, but I needed to leave (you know, to get home and get to work on time)... saved by the bell!  Great core body workout! We'll be running the trails tomorrow.
Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw