Nothing else better to do than run.

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.