sicko- no, not me

Well... not only was I still fighting the head junk, but Havyn was sick most of the week...the kind where she stayed up all night not sleeping...coughing and feeling not well.

I believe it was Sunday night that she didn't sleep and I was up with her... did a partial day at work and came home early to be with her on Monday.  Stayed home with her all day Tuesday and Suzette stayed home on Wednesday.  So the week didn't start off well with training.

Monday, Feb 13- nutt'n  Tuesday- nutt'n
Wednesday, 5 miles at track (while Lex was a Bball practice).  Mod pace.
Thursday- racquetball for 1 1/2 hrs with friends.  We'll call it cross training...
Friday- 1 hr. core/strength/weights at rec center.
Saturday- Did 12 mile long run... pace, not the best at 10:45.  But finished and felt pretty good after.  I feel okay about the pace as I'm just in my base building phase.  I'll work on picking up the speed/pace later; after I've dropped about 10 pounds.  I think I need to do some hill work- both running hills and walking them.  Oh yeah, saw 14 deer at 3:30ish on the side of the hill under the water tanks/above the cemetary.  So unexpected deer count!

Went to lunch on Friday with Paul K. who is also doing the Wasatch 100.  He's been able to keep up the miles pretty well since Squaw Peak.  He's signed up for Zions 100 in May... he might drop to 50 though.  He's also possibly going to run the Antelope Island 50 mile (or 50k) next month.  He ran 26 on Saturday... he said his hip has been bothering a little bit lately.  He's running mostly in the foothills...even in the snow; like I was doing last year (this year, not so much).

Lace 'em up!
Chainsaw

Remotivated

Of course I would get re-motivated after getting into Wasatch 100.  So, here's how the week went:

Monday, Feb 6-  Core/lift/stairs 60 min.  So, between some sets, I would run some stairs at the rec... would run up and down about 10 stairs, five times for a total of about 50 stairs.  Did the 50 stairs about 5 times.  Should help with the Wasatch mountains/elevation gain... (I hope).

Tues & Wednesday- Sick... head crap- sucks

Thurs- 40 min lift/core, ran 2 miles on indoor track

Friday- Ran 5.25 in hills (mod pace).  Did this after work- GREAT weather!  Did part of the alternate Squaw Peak race from Rock Canyon over past Y mountain.  Hit mud, snow, and ice.  But was great to run on trails again.

Saturday- 6 miles on road (moderate pace).  Still had the head junk on Fri and Sat, but not bad enough not to run.  Also, Lexy had a Bball game... she did awesome! Rebounds galore and made 10-12 baskets.

Lace 'em up! Chainsaw

WASATCH!!!

Let me skip to Saturday... goofing off... I mean shopping at Kohl's with Dave and Risa and Suzette, while I traveled via a store wheelchair.  Well, I jumped right out of that chair went I got a text from a fellow Ultrarunning friend Paul Killpack "We're in the 100!".  I'm sure any passing shoppers were thinking 'It's a miracle..he can walk'.  Or more likely 'look at that immature fool'.  Either way.... I got my golden ticket to the WASATCH 100 in August!
Here's my training for this past week:
Monday, Jan 30-  lift/core 35 min.  2 mile run indoor track.
Tuesday, Jan 31-  lift/core 40 minutes
Wednesday, Feb 1- took lexi to Bball practice at Orem Jr. so I ran 4 miles while waiting... It was dark and cold.
Also, went to a dance studio after this for YM/YW and did some more cardio via dancing... and I suck at dancing.
Thursday, Feb 2-  Nothing...took day off.  didn't have enough time after work, but I had wanted to... went with Kynia to the BYU Bball game versus Gonzaga.
Friday, Feb 3-  core/lift 40 min followed by a 2 mile run on indoor track.
Saturday, Feb 4-  Ran 10 miles outside on the roads.  It was a little cold and windy, but the sun was shining so I was warm once I started running.  Probably averaged just over 10 min per mile.  At this point, I'm just trying to slowly increase my long runs but take it easy on them.  Plenty of time to work on speed later.  Felt good afterwords with just slight muscle soreness.  Ate dinner at Chili's with Dave/Risa/Suzy-- was good!
Oh yeah.... did I mention that Saturday night, I found out I'm doing Wasatch 100!?!?!?!

Lace 'em up!
Chainsaw 

Forget starting new

So, I was going to try and do better huh?  Yeah right.

I'm going to try and catch up the past 3 weeks:

Monday, Jan 9 through Sat, Jan 14.  I'm guessing a little here for the weekday workouts.  But I'm sure it's close to this:  Mon. core/lift   Tues. run 3  Wed.  swam for 30 minutes (then played with Havyn in the pool).  Thurs. nothing (had a cold)  Friday nothing  Saturday- did a slow 8 miler on the road (approx 10.5 min/mile). went slow due to being sick.

Monday Jan 16 to Saturday Jan 21
Monday- climbed Baldy mtn early in the morning.  It was Martin Luther day so had day off.  2 neighbor boys- Dallin and Brad suggested that we do it.  I thought it was cool that these young men would get up for something like this in the cold on a day off.  I stayed up pretty late playing at Massey's and go home at 2 a.m. and didn't sleep til 3:00a.m.  So, the 8:00a.m. start was tough.  I struggled and couldn't climb fast due to the 8 miler on Saturday, no sleep, and still getting over the cold.  But it was fun.  Total distance was 7 miles.  About 1/2 mile from the pike, it started snowing and the wind was howling.  A lot of ice on the back side due to shade; kind of like a little blizzard at the top.  On the way down, the new snow covered the ice patches... so, was fun watching the other 3 sliding/slipping, etc. that 1/2 mile!! Wish I had my camera.
Tues- nothing...took a break- legs tired
Wed- lift/core 30 min  Ran 30 min (3 miles)
Thurs- Raquetball for 2 hrs
Friday- Nothing- laziness I guess?
Sat- 4 miles/indoor track (rain).  Ran out of time due to going to Jazz game.

Jan 23 to Jan 28
Mon- lift/core 30 min.  Run 3 miles (30 min)
Tues- nothing
Wed- 20 min on stationary bike followed by 2 mile run (20 min) on indoor track
Thurs- raquetball 2 1/2 hrs
Fri- lift/core 40 min, run 2 miles (20 min) on indoor track
Sat- did 8 road miles @ moderate pace

There... up to date and feels good to get it logged in.  This week: continue to build core/muscle and good runs.
Lace 'em up! Chainsaw

Long lost friend

Well-  It's been a while.  I have a 100 miler this year to do.  I sent in for Wasatch 100... hope to get draw for it.  Will find out beginning of February.  If not, I will find another one.

Also, hoping and planning on doing a sprint triathlon with Kynia.  Not only will it be fun, but it will help me to cross train and to not just overdo my running.

Other goals for the year.... marathon in June- hoping for Utah Valley Marathon, and probably one other race for training purposes.  It will depend on which 100 I'll do... but would like to do a 50 a few months before the 100.

I'm going to do better at posting once a week to help keep me honest and report on the prior weeks results.  It's nice to have the start of a new year also be the start of the training season.  Here go's it:

Monday- 3 mile run (in mountains).  This was a test run following some medical concerns that kept me from running for about 2 weeks (long run got up to 12 miles in beginning of December, so I feel like I'm starting over).

Tuesday- 1 hour weight room

Wednesday- 3 mile run (easy pace on track) with Kynia.  We dropped Alyxis off for B-Ball practice and so while she was in the gym, we decided to go run in the dark and cold around track.  Was enjoyable!

Thursday- 30 min weight room followed by 2 miles (easy pace) on indoor track.

Friday- 30 min swim (followed by swimming with Havyn for 1 1/2 hour... was fun!).  Swimming was done on short lanes--- I don't like the short lanes.

Saturday- 7.6 mile run (in mountains).  I did this with an easy pace.  From my home to the dry canyon trailhead, then to Kiwanis Park in P.G. as the turnaround and back.  Had snow on parts of the trail, but mostly clear trails.  Deer count: 4

Lace 'em up! Chainsaw

Just 4 wheel'n

Here's how the week went:

Wednesday- no YM/scouts due to campout. So, did 6 miles heat training right after work.  It was hot but the running felt good!

Friday- 3 mile run barefoot (with Vibrams of course).  Hoping to implement and run in them at least once a week for foot strength and a kind reminder how I should run.  Can home and cleaned the downstairs carpets with a rented Rug Doc.

Saturday- Busy day... did all the upstairs carpets, got the 4 wheelers ready for the first time this year!  Havyn, Suzie, and I went for a ride up by Strawberry.  There are still tons of wildflowers all over the place.  It was the start of one of the bow hunts, so we saw lots of camping groups.  Havyn was excited to see: cows, horses, 2 deer... one of them right in the road in front of us and was a spike, and a moose!  We stopped by Heber and got a slushy and some Wendy's. It was a great/fun ride!  Note: Kynia was working at Seven Peaks and Lexy was with Grandma Sue for the day doing back to school shopping, as their tradition.  I mentioned to Suzie that we should go to a movie since I knew Havyn would crash early tonight (she was falling asleep on the 4 wheeler).  But we missed all the 7 shows and didn't want to go to the 9 shows since we'd both probably fall asleep.  So, I decided to go on a run.  I did 4 miles... saw 3 deer.  1 momma and 2 baby deer crossing the trail  right before dusk.
Deer count for the day: 5.
Lace 'em Up!  Chainsaw

Post 50 miles

I felt better after doing the 50 miler than after running the marathon last year.  Crazy.  Don't get me wrong... I was very tired and sore.  I had indegestion and really couldn't eat well or sleep well the night after my run.  But overall, not too bad.

I took off running for 3 days and on Wednesday, went and worked out with Rich at the gym.  I told him of my hurt knee but it was feeling a little better.  We did some leg work and did some sprints on the treadmill.  I should have told Rich no and refuse and listen to my body and not him, but I am dumb and didn't.  My focus had turned to the 100 miler and wanted to get back on track with training.  The next day my knee really started to hurt again... it did not get better the next few days after that either.  It was hurting even when walking so I was scared it was something major.  Again, I should have recovered more.  I was getting a lot of recommendations to go get it checked out by doctors but really didn't want to go down the surgery road. 

So, basically, I took about 1 month off from running knowing that this really shot my chance at the 100 miler... at least for this year.  I would try running like 3 miles here and there when my knee was feeling good, but at about 3 miles everytime it would begin to hurt again.  I was getting very frustrated!  Any runner would know this feeling.  Well, eventually I was able to run 3... then 4, 5, and finally I got up to 7 miles.  This was good since our scout troop was going to be hiking King's Peak Aug. 10-13.  Well, we did it last weekend!! King's Peak is the highest peak in Utah at 13,500 elevation.  We backpacked in (my backpack weighed 44 pounds) for 9 miles to base camp.  We then summited on Friday (12 miles total that day... it was tough with the last part really steep, just bouldering with no real trail to follow) and then backpacked out on Saturday.  So, a total of 30ish miles.  I kept waiting for my knee to act up, but it didn't.  I am very glad!  We saw a few runners while backpacking down and a few when we were summiting... after getting back, I found that there was a small informal run up to King's Peak that runner's were doing in 1 day.  I also found out that a runner named Davy Crockett (funny eh?) did a double King's Peak in 19 hours.  Probably the first to do this.... almost 60 TOUGH miles in 19 hours.  Started me thinking it would be fun to run that too... not a double, but just the 30 miles in the same day.  We'll see.

My future: Since my 100 is shot this year.... I'm looking for a shorter race this fall- either a 50k or another 50 miler.  Maybe I'll do Antelope Island 100 in March... there's also another 100 in May of next year. 

Also, I get the Ultra Runners magazine and was really looking foward to get the issue with the Squaw Peak 50 miler, my first Ultra Race, results.  Well, there was a mistake and they put in the race results for last years race... I was disappointed.  Well, I emailed the editor and she said they were going to republish and asked me to write a short blip about the race to be included.  So, looking forward to seeing that.... I am now published ;)

Here's what I summarized for Squaw Peak 2011 race:

Due to 300 - 400% of normal snow pack, this year’s race was done on an alternate course due to washed out roads/trails and the inability to get volunteers to certain aid stations.  The changed course was an out and back, so it was good to see the leaders coming back as well as say hello and give encouragement to other runners.  The course was just as tough, if not more tough, than the normal course and seemed to add 30 to 60 minutes to past runner’s normal course times.  There was over 12,000 ft. in elevation gain/loss.  Another item that was tough for runners was the hot temperature on race day.  Race day saw one of the first warm/hot days of the year and became tough for some runners due to their lack of any heat training prior to race day.  There were 195 finishers and 38 DNF’s.  One of the finishers, Bill Peck, broke his nose coming down Rock Canyon somewhere between mile 6 to 11, but went on to finish.

Lace 'em Up!  Chainsaw