Nothing else better to do than run.

Man! What a miserably cold and windy morning. We met at the Riverton river bottoms for a nice run along the Jordan River. It was just as the sun was coming up. The scenery was incredible with the snow covered trees and ground and steam coming up from the river. I visited with Peggy, Jody, Mike, Cheryl, Cheris, Cal and a newcomer Rachel. It turned out to be a nice run. I put in about 8.5 and then called it a morning.

Later that day I returned to participate in the 4Life Research New Year's Day 5K. The shirt was long sleeved with a cow running with a scarf around its neck. The cow's udders were sticking out and it looks quite comical. It was just as miserably cold and windy. I ran into some old friends and familiar faces and had a great time visiting. The race went well for an old guy running against the wind. I finished in 25 minutes even. About a 8:10 pace.

The thing I learned today was that weather doesn't influence what kind of a day you will have. If you are around great people your day can turn out to be incredible. 

Very breezy this afternoon but fairly warm. Thought I had better get a run in before the snow starts to fall. It has been a fun week spending time with friends and family. Kind of sad to see the holiday season come to an end. Well, there is always next year.

This morning, Alan and Jody met me for a run at the Olympic Oval. The numbers were few but we enjoyed each others company as the miles seemed to fly by. It is amazing how running around something as boring as a track can be manageable by staying with friends. We ended up putting in 10 miles and Jody stayed to put in an even 12 miles. 

I ended up being .8 miles short of my weekly goal so after dinner was taken care of I ran around the neighborhood loop. It feels great to met my weekly mileage goal for the first week of the year. Hopefully this will set a good habit for maintaining the rest of the year to come. 

Early morning! I usually run with Rob in the morning on a couple of routes we have picked out. He called yesterday and mentioned because it was only to be 10 degrees if we might opt for the gym. I think in my old age I am wimping out because I agreed with him. This is the most indoor running ever during the winter. I know the BBK group would run -40 in a white out but I will leave that experience for tomorrow morning. The time went by really fast and ran into a couple of friends that I had not seen in quite a while. I invited them to come back to running group, it is kind of like re-activation efforts for those who have lost their way (getting lost in the gym rat routine).

I am also bummed because the locker room at work is being remodeled for the next two months so I am struggling to find a solution to keep on running without grossing out my co-workers.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how to successfully run at lunch time without taking a shower? I have thought of towels, wet wipes and cologne but there has got to be a more effective way. 

Super busy day without a moments time to sleep or run. Ran around my neighborhood about 5:00am and proceeded on to work. I have been listening to Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - A Memoir". This book is very funny and talks about life in the 50's. Sounds like a magical time that has passed us by.

Ran around the neighborhood this morning and then an afternoon run. It was so warm this afternoon and I was over-dressed! It must have been 45 degrees and I was wishing for shorts and a tshirt! What a beautiful day, too bad I had to spend most of it cramped in an office.

Not much sleep but I had a lot of fun. What a crappy morning, it was so windy and slippery that I was a bit nervous about running. Running group was huge this morning! Several new faces and some old. It was great to run with Cheris, Alan and Kim who were gracious enough to keep my old slow butt company. Ended up with a bit over 9 miles which was fantastic! I love running with these people, they are all addicted to running just like me. It just goes to show that misery really does enjoy company.

Went for a very quick run up the canyon. My goal was not to get passed up by the speed demons that run the hills everyday. I accomplished my goal but not without the price of being dog tired and not being able to feel my legs. By the way, I listened to Sepultura on my ipod which gave me enough motivation to keep going. 

This morning I was late to running group. I thought meant at 6:30 meant to meet at 6:30 but everyone else started at 6:30 which means that I was late. I parked at the finish and run up to the start which is a little under a mile away. Thank goodness Dean Bullock was close so he could tell me where everyone was. I caught up to the main pack about mile 2-3 and held with them for another 2 miles. Everyone had tons of energy this morning and kept about an 8-8:30 pace. I slipped to about 9-9:30 pace the last half. I wish I would have brought some headphones to listen to some music along the way.

It was very cold near the river bottoms but warmed up as soon as I got off the trail. I needed to make up some mileage so I added a two mile loop and as soon as I was a mile away from the finish along came the slower group and I ended up finishing with them.

Kim had brought homemade frosted sugar cookies which were absolutely great. Mine was in the shape of a Stegosaurus with pink frosting. Very good! I had three, what a pig I am! I needed to put in 15 today to meet the mileage goal for the week and was able to do that. So far I am 2 weeks for 2 this year. It better pay off dangit!

I swam early this morning, about a mile I am guessing. It is easy to loose count when doing laps in a pool. My abs and pectorals are pretty sore so at least something was getting a work-out.

 Later in the afternoon once the Sunday stuff was taken care of I went out for a leisure stroll around the neighborhood. 3.11 miles in 27 minutes. Nothing spectacular but it felt good and I am 3.11 miles closer to my weekly goal. 

I met my friend Rob this morning at 5:00 am and we put in about 7 miles and then I put in an additional mile getting back to my home. It was a nice morning for a change, in the upper 30's which is a switch for the last couple of weeks. I have noticed that the inversion is starting to settle in so I am getting anxious for a snow storm to settle in.

After the run I did the ab work-out that is posted in the latest issue of Runner's World magazine. I really enjoyed the metronome exercise it reminded me of my childhood rolling around on the floor goofing off.

The article mentions that core strength will build speed so I am committing myself, here on this blog in front of all you rabid runners that I will build my core strength come hell or high water. If I fail you can tease me mercilessly, but if I succeed I might be able to keep up with Peggy and the front of the pack.

 Time for dinner! 

Great run this morning. It was not too cold and I even took off my jacket for this morning's workout. It was great to see so many friends out and running. It was great to see Debbie back at the running group and get caught up on the holidays. Looking forward to getting back into core training and it seems that several others are interested in doing the same. It will be great to have people checking up on how the workouts are going.

Some are going to Painter's this weekend, Alan and I are opting for Butterfield Canyon to run on some ice and snow. Crazy yes, fun… of course!

Quick run at lunch time. Nice temperature and clear. Was mearly mauled by a dog before the owner got to me. One bite and a couple of licks. It mostly just jumped up on me and put it's paws on my chest and licked me. You never know what the dogs temper will be like. . Man, I hate other people's dogs when they are not on leashed except for the ones that run with our group. Those dogs are cool.

Did not make it to running group this morning, Dangit! I got up and immediately my head felt like it was going to blow-off my shoulders. After taking some decongestant medicine and letting it work for a couple of hours I felt well enough to do an afternoon run. It was a very pleasant six miles. People are starting to come out again and enjoy the trails which is nice to see. The air is very nice and clean in the canyon.

 I am absolutely looking forward to running Butterfield Canyon this weekend. Hopefully it is not too slushy or icy, it will be a surprise whatever it is like. I am bringing my new trail running shoes with me and hopefully it will make it a bit easier to navigate.

Hopefully the rest of the group will have a fantastic showing at Painter's this weekend. It will be fun to get all caught up after the weekend. 

Woke up early this morning and man it was cold! My next door neighbor had just finished his run and boy was I jealous that I couldn't just walk into a warm house, my work had not been completed. One positive note, with it being so dark I couldn't see the inversion or the air that I was breathing. This time of year wreaks havoc on my lungs.

 This afternoon I did make it up City Creek Canyon for a quick run. I really pushed as hard as I could. I averaged a nine minute mile up the canyon which I feel pretty good about. It seems to be building strength and the downhill is helping to improve my feet turnover. Oh, another plus was that the air is clear up the canyon. These afternoon runs have been great! 

I am going to sound like a broken record but man was it cold this morning! I asked if anyone wanted to run Butterfield Canyon this morning and I had two other takers. So, this morning about 7:00am, Rachel and Alan braved the snow packed road with me. It was challenging running on the snow, it was very uneven all kinds of different textures.

It was a challenging run but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We made it 4 miles up the canyon before it was so darn steep that it was faster to walk than to try to keep up anything that resembled running or jogging for that matter. We caught our breath and congratulated each other and then headed down the canyon.

I expect that it was in the low 20's inside the canyon. At the bottom of the trail it was 25 degrees. Hopefully there will be more takers for the run when everyone gets back in town. 

 Third week in a row that I have met my mileage goal of 50 miles. I need to take next week easy and get a few recovery days so I might not hit 50 next week but I should be pretty close to meeting 200 miles for the month if I keep things up. 

Did someone turn on the air conditioning or what? It was very cold this morning, about 16 degrees. Hopefully just a few more weeks of running in an icebox.

I met Rob this morning for a run, we put in eight and a half miles together. Most working on a tempo pace. Started out comfortably and ran the last two miles pretty hard. Rob is a lot faster than I am so it is good to be gently pushed without me getting too far behind.

I ended up putting another 2 miles getting back to my house. It felt really good to have my workout over and done with so early in the day.

We are 22 hours into today and I am finally taking the time to fill in my run for the day. I ended up staying up late working on a project and overslept my chance to meet with the running group. I am very sad because everyone went to St. George and ran so hard that they were all going to be sore and slow enough for me to keep up with them.

The air quality is also horrible lately and my doctor has advised me not to run because of exercised induced asthma that flares up from time to time. I did end up running at lunch time which was nice because once I got above Memory Grove the air was much cleaner and it was actually quite a bit warmer as well.

 I tried to press as hard as possible and ran an average of 9:10 to 9:30 running up hill and averaged 8:00 to 7:30 minute miles coming down. Hopefully the hills will build strength and the downhill will help my foot turnover.

Also, this month's Runner's World magazine has one of the coolest workouts listed for working on the core. One of the greatest is the metronome. Check it out, not only is it a lot of fun it can kick your butt too.

 Okay, I have run my mouth long enough. Till next time…

This evening I put the kids to bed and took off to the gym to swim and run. I did about a half-hour of each to say at least I ended up doing something today besides sitting behind a desk. I found one of my old albums from a Swedish band "Carcass" and listened to it while I ran. It is fast and heavy and very motivating.

Early morning with the BBK group. Arrived for the early workout and ran through some neighborhoods near Bingham High and then did some loops around the parking lot.

The air was simply awful and I could taste it which made me cough and spit to try to keep my mouth clean. I did not start to wheeze which was surprising to me. I am officially done running outside in the city until this air cleans up. I took a peak outside the canyon and it is starting to fill-up with garbage air too!

On a good note, it was great to see everyone out this morning. We have a great group to run with.

It was very foggy this morning. The creative team thought it would be a great idea to take some pictures and video of the spires of the Salt Lake Temple from the observation deck of the Church Office Building. The problem was that we could not see the temple which was probably only a hundred feet away. We waited off an on for a couple of hours and gave up. This is probably some of the thickest fog I have ever seen, very creepy and disorienting to say the least.

 The the fog lifted it left the air in much better shape. I ended up running along South Temple and it was very nice. It is good to be running outside again and not choking. 

Saturday morning. My wife was leaving out of town later this morning so I had to get up extra early to get in my mileage for the week. Okay, week four and I am about dead. My butt hurts and going up and down stairs hurts also. I am about 20 miles away from my monthly goal so next week I will just run with the group and focus on stretching the rest of the time.

The first ten miles today went very quickly and then I started to fade. This is the hardest part about distance running for me. Is it the long-runs that help build endurance or is it conditioning? Or is it a combination of both? Finding out the answer to this question is going to make all the difference this year with marathon running.

The air seemed to be much cleaner this morning than it has been in quite some time. I could see all the way the Ochre mountains and then some but the East side still looks crappy. It was raining off and on which probably helped clean the air. I am actually excited about snow coming early next week.

 I have babysitting duty all day long while my wife is at a Women's Conference with her friends. The kids have mentioned that they want to make a home movie with the video camera. Could be interesting, I will have to report on how this all pans out. 

Nothing much going on today. Church, helping the kids with homework etc…. I did have a chance to swim for about 40 minutes. Great workout!

For some strange reason I was all full of pep and energy at 5:30 this morning and went for a run in the freshly fallen snow. It was so fun and I really tried to push it. I have heard from a lot of people (including Kelli) that the only way I am going to get faster is to actually run faster! So I decided to put it to use. Every part of my started to hurt but it was a good satisfactory hurt that bring progress.

 I really want good things to happen this year and I must be willing to put in the effort. Can't wait to do some of those track repeats. Bring on the Marquis De Sade!

 This afternoon I ran to the office of one of my clients and it was fantastic. Steep uphill heading out and very fast downhill on the way back. Oh, and did I mention that the air is finally clear!? What a difference a couple of storms make.

Too darn lazy to get up this morning. Still trying to shake this sinus headache that has been going off and on for weeks. I have been popping Sudafed like candy but to my surprise, running seems to loosen things up.

 Waited till 9:00pm to go for a run. It was cold dark and windy, but hey, a runs a run. 

Wow! Do I feel crappy! I woke up this morning feeling so sore and hungover (sinus infection induced) that I rolled over and went back to bed. I felt really bad because I have not seen my friends from running group in over a week. I wish things would improve, but the weather probably needs to warm up.

I went ice skating with the Young Men on Tuesday evening and it was a ton of fun but it obviously working some muscles that have not been used in quite a while. If I got in the habit of skating my core would get really strong pretty quick. Not a bad idea, I might start taking my kids. But the next couple of days I have been really sore and it will take a while for it to wear off.

 I am going to Indiana this weekend to see my niece be blessed so I will miss out on the weekend workout but will hopefully get a run in with my brother.

This afternoon I did go out for a run up the canyon. Loaded up on sudafed and Diet Coke I was feeling no pain and ready to go. It was a really slow work-out but felt good to ease back into things.

My trip to Indiana was a welcome break from the normal routine. It was very cold and they had an unusual amount of snow but the air was absolutely clean!

It was great to see my brother's family and meet my new neice. She is a keeper! We had a great time and crammed as much stuff into three days as possible.

 This morning I woke up and it was -8 outside. I called my brother and asked if he wanted to wait a little while for it to warm up. When the temperature rose to a balmy 10 degrees we headed out for a run. We can through the country passing barns, farm houses and little narrow country roads. Simple beautiful. The BBK's would love training out on the hills because there were plenty of them.

I am getting excited to come back in December and run the Tecumseh Trail Marathon in December and experience it all over again.