Cheesey bottom crust

Greensprings. Started off feeling pretty bad but by the halfway point things felt better. Lunch wasnt sitting to well in the stomach though. Got pretty chilly by the time the sun started to set. Guess its time to break out the winter running gear. Which would be gloves and maybe earwamers. Got to love the desert weather.

Treadmill. Not a pretty run tonight. I was completly dead and kept turning the speed down more and more. Ive done 12 milers in the time it took to go this 7. Yuck.

13.57 - Got up early with the intention of doing my long run. I knew it would be chilly so I got all bundled up and headed down to river trail to head into Bloomington. By the time I got to River Rd my hands hurt so bad from the cold I was almost in tears. I guess the cheap Walmart gloves dont help when its really cold. I decided to get off the trail and away from the river and see if that helped warm things up a little. Nope. Still cold. Decided to just bag it and get home as quick as possible. In my frozen state I decided that going up over Formaster Ridge would be the best way home but turns out it wasnt. So to sum up, 5 am cold, Walmart gloves - not super helpful, Formaster Ridge - bad idea.

10 - Club run up river trail towards Washington and back. Good run.

Grapevine and then on the new portion of the parkway and back. Kept the pace really easy and relaxed. Its a nice road, especially right now where its closed to traffic, but its sad to see the areas where I spent so much time playing as a lad now being paved over and developed. Guess you cant stop "progress".

Had a blast today at the run. Its easy to have fun when your running with such talent as Dave, Logan, Hayden and Billy Boy. Watching Dave, Logan and Hayden bust out these amazing minute per mile times with what looks like no effort is inspiring.

 Bill was nice enough to give me the 2 shortest legs today which was nice cause my legs where tired coming into this. First leg was on Skyline Dr. above town towards Middleton. Had a pretty good climb the first .5 that really slowed me down but I was able to pick the pace up for the rest of the leg and dispite the fact that I could tell that I was working it felt good. Second leg was from Sunriver into Bloomington Park. I wanted to just gun it the whole way as it was only 2 miles but the legs didnt want anything to do with that. I was able to run a pretty good clip the whole time but 2 miles was all I had in me.

 It was fun to hang out with everyone and survive the car ride (im looking at you Dave and Bill) in one piece. I can tell that I really need to do speed work if im going to bring my race times down like I want to.

Middleton. Ive gotten cold the last few runs so I made sure to double glove for todays run. If they where water proof gloves it might have done some good today. Light rain when I started out so I thought it might be a good time to run up Millcreek while the sand was wet. Bagged that idea when I saw how muddy it was going to be just getting to the sand. Went out into Middleton instead. Stayed pretty warm and was feeling good until about mile 5. It started to rain harder and the wind was now in my face and I was soaked through within a couple of minutes. Kept the feet mostly dry until about mile 7 when I had to go around a car at an intersection and went into a deep puddle. From there on out I didnt even try to dodge any water I just jumped right in. Aside from my hands being frozen when I was done I had fun.

Fields. Started out going with a nice pace and just kept it there for 9 (6:28 avg) and then eased up for the final 3. A little chilly but i'll take dry cold running over wet cold running anyday.

Parkway x2. Decent run tonight. Took it easy and just tried to stay warm. Tendon on the outside of the right quad (ACL?) was tender for most of the run. Its been sore since Mondays rain run. I think the water soaked shoes caused me to run weird that night. Hopefully not a big deal.

Club run. River trail into Bloomington and then the back way into Bloomington Hills to the Super Crazy Christmas Lights House. Wow! They probably pay more on their electric bill than the average person makes a month. Good run.

City Wells and home via Main street. I usually take this one slow for the first half because its uphill the whole way but today I wanted to go a little harder. Felt good so once I turned around I sped up and did 5 tempo miles back home. The legs where reallly turning over well and it felt almost effortless. The downhill helped with that Im sure but it still felt good. Put on the tights for the first time today. I dont like to wear them but I could tell a difference in how my legs worked because they where warmer. Boy do I look like a goofball in those things. My skinny chicken legs cant fill them out so Emily says shes going to find me some in the womens section and maybe those will work.

Parkway then up Millcreek past the top pump house. Wasnt planning on going that far, in fact I really didnt want to go running at all. Once I got going I just turned my brain off and the music up. It was nice to get out on the dirt away from civilization and enjoy fresh legs. Missed last weekends long run so that week was low on miles but in this economy Ive got to take work when it comes around. Hopefully this week will be better.

Telegraph up into Greensprings. Got close to home and saw I was only at 9 so I went out towards the parkway and back to add a couple more. Went nice and easy the whole run.

Highland in reverse with an out and back added in at Grapevine. Went out a little faster than normal and decided to try to hold that pace up the hill and over the next 2.5 up to the water tank. Did pretty well but I was burnt out after that. Ran the last 2 at an even faster pace to try and teach the body to hold together when tired.

6 - River trail out to the bridge. Slow and steady.

10.5 - Club run. Along the river then out into the fields and looped around Stonecliff. Nice and easy pace and it felt good.

Fields to the park. Ran a bit faster than the last two day. Not a bad run but the legs are tired which should make tomorrows long run interesting.

Fields and out towards Little Black Mountain. The first 10 felt good and I was so warm that I was down to just shorts. Emily and Ada drove out and gave me some water and bread w/penutbutter and then I started back. There was just enough of a breeze to have to put my clothes back on and the legs started giving out. By 15 I was dead. I kept hitting my knees together and kicking my left ankle which happens when my legs are really tired. I was able to keep the pace up but man were my legs shot. This puts me up into the 80s for the first time since summer I think and I can feel it.  

Treadmill. It was kinda chilly out and I was pissed off at the day so I just got on the treadmill and ran. Ok run.

Down to Main street and then up to Mustang Pass and did half the loop. Legs where tired but it feels so much better running on the road than the treadmill. Didnt have any plan when I started but I figured I need to start pushing myself or Im not going to improve. Ran up to the top at a much faster pace than normal on this route and the legs where protesting. Averaged 7.31 for the first 7 miles. I thought if I can get up that fast on tired legs I wonder how fast I can get down on them. I pushed pretty good and was able to average 6:22 for just shy of 7 miles. Felt good to push and it was a fun run except the stupid dog that was running after me and kept getting tangled in my legs. Its a good thing I didnt have something in my hands or I would have stopped and beat that stupid animal to death right in front of its owner.

Out through Middleton and up past the water tank. It was a little bit brisk this morning but once I got warmed up it wasnt to bad.

City Wells. Pretty yucky run. I felt a off yesterday and today was worse. Had to really slow down to keep from throwing up or doing other less plesant things. Hopefully just a few day bug that will be gone quick. Hope everyone has a great Christmas! Thanks to family and friends that helped make our kids Christmas enjoyable.

Fields to the old airport. Good run and didnt have any issuse like the last two days. The last few miles where pretty tough.

Grapevine and did three hill repeats then continued over into Coral Canyon. Went out to the junction and then came back on the old highway. I was glad I put on a long sleeve and gloves and ear warmers as it was pretty chilly today.

Landfill. Found a dirt road that runs along the boundry of the landfill so I followed that for a couple miles. Ran across the foundation of an old building, lots of lumber and a huge beam. Wonder what it could have been. Slight head wind on the way back so it got pretty cold.

Treadmill. Actually had a good run on the machine today. The last several treadmill runs have been way to hard but todays wasnt to bad. The whole fam went up north and left me alone for the weekend. Woo whooo!!!!! Bachelor life once again. The sad thing is that usually consists of a lot of sleeping and thinking about working on my car but not actually doing it.

Ended up with almost 1000 more miles than last year but not the huge improvements in race times I was hoping for. Ogdens 8 minute pr came with less training than St Georges 1 minute pr. Im thinking its more about quality of miles and not so much distance. The trick is finding that balance I guess. Im going to try and work more on speed this coming year and see what happens. Its been a fun year of runs and lots of races and even a couple of wins. Yay me. Highlight of the year was having Dave run me in at St George. It would have been nice to have had something left to see how much he could have pushed me but it was still fun. Hes a great runner so any time I can be with him in a race I'll take it. I just hope I can keep that passion and love of running going and enjoy it for years more.