Work will win when wishy washy wishing won't

13 on 1-1-11 with an added 1.3 walk at the end.  I had planned 10 - 12 but in order for us to find some decent roads to run on we ended up getting further away than planned.  I was hoping to have my son pick me up at 12 but he wasn't available.  So I pushed myself to 13 and decided a nice walk is always good too so I walked the up hill icey road home. 

Tom and I ran into Carolyn and Kay this morning so we ran a bit with them.  We just ran where we could find an eigth of a decent road.  (Couldn't find half decent roads.)  The sun is shining now so hopefully a few more roads will be clear for tomorrow. 

Six

Today Tom worked at home so he could run outside in the sun with me for my speed workout.  We weren't sure if the sun was ever going to show itself like it was suppose to but it ended up coming around 11:00 just as we were ready to get er going!.

It was quarter mile repeat day for me.  Goal:  6-8 fast/hard pace.  I did 6 and thought that was plenty, didn't think I could do another one.  But after the 1/4 recovery I wanted to try one more....Did it!  Then I knew I didn't want to do anymore.  : )

One mile warm up then 1/4 fast, 1/4 recovery and finished with 1 1/2 cool down home, while Tom went on to add some hill work and 5 more miles. 

1: 1:39

2: 1:41

3: 1:40

4: 1:42

5: 1:38

6: 1:42

7: 1:39

I felt good about the consistency, only 3 seconds between the fastest and slowest.  I know that 3 seconds means a lot to some of you, but to me I call that consistent.  My HR spiked at 181, with my average HR 153.

I'll just say that it is sure nice to have a dedicated runner sleeping next to me each morning!  I can see how hard it would be for someone who has to get up and go out into 10 degrees all by their lonesome each morning! 

It's been a busy morning running around with apointments and errands so I am especially glad the run is out of the way.

Final 5K time trial tomorrow in preparation for my first official 5K with 5K specific training.  Then 2 more weeks till I get to see what this 12 week training period has done for me.  Hopefully a sweet PR!

OK, I'm either setting myself up for a sweet PR or a trip to the ER!  Today was my last time trial in preparation for my 5K on the 22nd.  To recap, my current race PR is 24:04.  Two weeks ago I did my first time trial at 23:21.  Today I did my second time trial and got 23:09.  I wasn't sure I had the right mind set going into the trial today and the temps were colder than I had planned but it turned out good! 

5K Ave: 7:29/HR 164

7:32, 7:35, 7:21, .40 (6:58 pace)

I slept in a bit longer today while Tom went out and got 8 in before returning to get me.  Then he got 8 more miles in with me.  We did a 3.5 mile warm up, then the 5K and 1.6 cool down to home. 

We saw a cute little spoiled looking puppy in a pink sweater during our cool down time.  She looked lost and a little scared so we thought we'd try to see if she had a tag we could help her find her way home.  She layed down and acted like she wanted us to scratch her tummy but when we got close to her she about took our hands off!  She was a fiesty little gal!  We wanted to help her out but she was not going to let us.  I hope she found her way home safely.

Now off to a busy day of Primary duties and basketball games.  Have a great weekend!

Ten degrees on this 10th of January, I guess I should have ran 10 miles!  Oh well, 6 will have to do.  Tom and I were saying that we need to write the temps in our reports so next fall when it starts getting to 40 and we think we are cold we can look back and see that we really aren't cold then.  : )

Had to go up and down Center Street because most of the roads aren't too great.  Ran with Kay and Carolyn for a bit and said hi to Bob and 2 others, (I think one was Beth.).  Nice to see other runners out and about in the chilly morning. 

Lots of people leave for work around 6:30 in the morning.  The traffic on 11th east is crazy! 

The snow was lightly falling when the wind was at our backs.  It was the pretty, sparkley kind of snow.  But when we turned to go up hill into the wind the snow pricked our eyes and froze our cheeks. 

As always, very happy to have the run done for the day. 

Wow, yesterday was the 10th and it was 10 degrees when I went out.  Today is the 11th and it was 11 degrees.  With this trend does that mean we could actually have 31 degrees on the 31st of Jan?  That would feel tropical!  : )  But then would we get 1 degree on Feb. 1st and start all over again?  I just know that I will be happy to get this bitter cold stuff out of here. 

Anyway, Tom and I waited until 11:30ish because this morning's temp was predicted for 0 degrees.  The forecast says it is suppose to get to 24 today, but I'm not quite belieiving it will do it.

Today's speed work called for cut down, fast hard pace.  1 mile, 3/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile with 1/4 mile recovery between each one.  Warmed up for 1.5 miles.  Then did the best I could in this darn cold stuff.

1 mile: 7:23

3/4 mile: 7:23

1/2 mile: 7:22

1/4 mile: 6:50

Enjoyable recovery home while Tom went off to do his weekly hill workout.

This workout made me remember that my very first goal with all of this preparation for the 5K in a week and a half is to break 24.  There has been some speculation by me and others of the possibility of breaking 23.  I do not want to put that pressure on myself. I will be happy with anything under 24....the more under, the more happy, but happy just the same.  I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. 

With the temp trend of the past few days I was expecting it to be 12 degrees for our run this morning.  Pleasant surprise.....15 degrees and reaching up to 17 before the run was over!  Woo hoo!  My home town of Manti reached 22 below on Tuesday morning so I am just grateful the lowest we have had to actually run in here is around 4 degrees.

No school for the kids today so I could have slept in a bit and went out on my own, but I knew I would be happier if I just got up and went out with Tom.  The temps were warmer, but with the rain in the night and just under freezing temps the roads were a bit slick.  It's a good thing it was just a nice easy run scheduled. 

Tom and I went to the church to meet up with the SF group.  We were a couple minutes early so we went up around the corner (to the conveniently located porta potty) and thought we'd meet up with them as they came up around the corner.  We never saw them and looked here and there along our run with no luck.  It was a mystery in the fog.  We couldn't figure out how we had missed them.  Oh well, it was a nice run with the 2 of us. 

As we finished 8 miles we finally found them.  They had decided to go west today instead of east.  I guess they wanted to ditch us or something.  At 8 miles we were 2 miles away from home and I was finishing with 10 so I headed back at that point.  The group was only at 6 miles so Tom joined in with them for a bit to add a few and then did a few solo.

One week from today is my scheduled 5K after my 12 week training.  We'll see how the bitter cold training has gone.  At least the race will be in St. George where the temps should be quite nice. 

With the dream of a man many years ago we were able to have a little bit of a sleep in day today.  Thanks MLK.....for the day and the dream.

Tom did 3 then picked me up for my five.  It was almost 40 degrees...hard to know how to dress.  I was a bit warm, could had followed Tom's lead and worn shorts.  Oh well.  It rained for a bit on the last mile.  I was kind of wanting it to dump on us just for fun but it didn't do much.

4.3 miles with Tom and the big, full moon setting in the western sky.  Quite nice.

Four miles with about 10 strides thrown in to help me be ready for Saturday.  I will be running the St. George 5K with several other people but the only one I am trying to beat is myself!  Can I do it?......I'm hoping the answer to that is.,...Yes I can!

Three today.

Rest tomorrow.

Race Saturday.

I think 2 or 22 is now my favorite number!  Today, Jan. 22, I did my best 5K at 22:22!  My previous race PR was 24:04 so I would have been happy with anything in the 23s.  I was thinking I could maybe sneak in at 22:59....but I was able to pull off 22:22 and feel mostly good doing it!

Work WILL win when wishy washy wishing won't! 

Thanks to Coach Tom for helping me through this past 12 week 5K training cycle.

Thanks to you guys for your support!

OK, so my back has given me grief forever!  I am miserable from about 2 o'clock every single morning until I get up and start moving!  It has been driving me crazy so I finally decided to make an appointment for a chiropractor, even though they scare me.  My appointment is for this Friday.   This past weekend while we were at our condo in St. George I realized that I always sleep great down there on that bed.  So when we got home I had Tom and Camron change our mattress out with our guest bedroom mattress and I have slept pretty much pain free for the past two nights!  My other one was just too soft.  So now I'm thinking I don't need my chiro appointment.  Now the bad news....while we were down in SG Tom tweaked his back as he was carrying in a cooler and a suitcase at the same time.  So now he is having the back troubles and wasn't able to get out with me this morning.  : (  But the good news is, I have a chiro appt. available for Friday that he can now use.

Anyway, my run this morning felt great.  This week I plan to try really hard to keep all my miles 9:30 or slower.  Then off to work on my new goal....

Six miles today. Took the doggy out for a couple and then brought him back to finish the rest. He gets too worn out for 6 miles.

Today I was grateful I knew how to say "bathroom" in Spanish. : )

I miss my running buddy. Get better soon!

A couple with my short legged doggy and the rest solo.  The first few miles I felt like I was in slow motion and dragged along.  The last few were much more enjoyable.

Today I.....

slept in.... : )

ran in some sun... : )

learned from the chiropractor that I am going to have to make some changes with running in order to avoid serious issues down the road...  : (

went to the 4th grade rondezvous and got to help barter with pelts... : )

saved us $185.00 by fixing our toilet myself instead of calling a plumber.... : )

Today I wanted to get 12 but ran out of time as I was planning to meet for the search of Chad Stilson in Springville.  Got home just in time to take a bite to eat and a quick shower.  I have felt a strong desire to help out on this missing boy as he has the same last name as my maiden name.  I'm not sure if we are related or not, but I sure want him to be found soon.  I went door to door with flyers and information for about 3 hours.  For more information on Chad please go here.  http://helpthesechildren.ning.com/photo/chad-ray-stilson-12-1?context=featured

This morning I was planning on going over to Springville to do my run so I could keep my eyes open for the missing boy.  I logged onto fb for a minute before going out to check and see if there was any news....there was!!!!!  He came home this morning!  He has a lot to deal with now that he's home, he left because some pretty serious issues and then added some huge issues onto it by leaving and having to have a search party.   BUT.....he is home!  I'm glad he was brave enough to come home and face the music.  Kind of sad that a 12 year old is in such situations.  : (

So anyway, I changed my plan and zig zagged all over the south east end of Spanish Fork instead.  I had one big dog threaten me.  Luckily he stayed on his property though.  Then 3 stupid little rat dogs that just about learned how fun it is to get kicked back to the future!  Dang!  I was pretty mad at the owners!  I wish they would have been outside, but NO.....no owners in sight!  GRRRRRR!!!!!!!  I hate dogs that are not on leashes! 

The first 3-4 miles were about the worst feeling miles I have ever ran!  I actually had to stop twice in those miles to stretch and try to get my mojo going!  After about 3 1/2 everything clicked into place and I enjoyed the sun and warmth and then the cold and biting wind and then the sun and warmth again and so on and so on!  At least there was some sun and warmth in there....I think the next two days are just going to bite! 

My first 3 ave. 9:00 pace and my last 5 ave. 8:30. 

This morning around 5 o'clock I heard the wind a howlin' outside my window and I reached over and turned off my alarm clock.  I didn't have any desire to go out in that!  I decided to go back to sleep and find time later today to get the run in.  However, at the time my alarm clock was suppose to go off my internal alarm went off.  So since I was up I decided to check things out a bit closer.  I looked at weather.com and it said it was going to be the same or worse the rest of the day so I just did it!  And I'm glad I did! 

Since I knew it was going to be around ZERO degrees plus wind this morning I didn't worry about an alarm clock and getting out early.  I was glad I didn't have to get out early also because our son was sick and kind of kept us awake those precious few hours before time to get up.

My plan for today was a 2 mile warm up then a 4 mile tempo at ave. 7:45 pace.  The bad thing about my run today was the warm up and first 1/2 mile of the tempo were all with the wind but the rest were all into the wind.  At 3 miles I wanted to quit but I decided to push until 3.5.  At 3.5 I decided I would try to go to 3.75.  At 3.75 I decided I was DONE!  I used the last .25 for a slow recovery home. 

3.75 tempo ave pace 7:43

Six miles alone today then off to spend some time with my brother for the afternoon.  Very nice, but came home to sad news that our friend Terry's, oldbean.fastrunningblog.com daughter had a stroke caused by a brain aneurysm yesterday while playing church ball.  Any extra prayers you have would sure be of help!

I hope today will be the last day that my running buddy stays in bed while I head out on the road.  Tom's thinking he might be able to see how things go on Monday. 

I met up with the SF gang.  Started out with just three of us with 3 or 4 joining in along the way.  The first three miles were with the group at 9:08 pace.  The next 2.5 miles I did by myself at a 7:49 pace.  Then 3 more home with an 8:54 pace. 

Every single second, every breath, every step is a gift that we must appreciate fully!  How many times do we forget the many, many blessings we have in our lives?  Each of us have struggles we have faced, are facing and will face in the future.  It's a part of life here on earth...as a mortal...This past weekend has been very spiritual with many reminders of the blessings I have been given throughout my life.  We had a wonderful stake conference with Elder Kicuchi and Elder Wheeler.  I think our whole stake will be better for the opportunity of having them in our midst for the weekend. 

This morning on my run my thoughts were with our cute friend Cambrey and her dad Terry and mom Taunia along with the rest of their family.  I also noticed that Burt has his cute daughter in the hospital too.  I also thought of our neighbor who is waiting for a liver transplant and a friend who is in the beginning stages of finding out she needs a lung transplant (never smoked a day in her life).  Then there is my friend who burned her hand very badly a few weeks ago.  And just the flu that has got people down so much lately.  And Bonnie's black eye... and oh so many more things. 

Moral of my story...we need to make the most of each and every day....each and every talent...each and every opportunity to help someone or share a smile.  I hope I can remember the things I have felt and learned this past weekend to help me be a better person. 

I wasn't sleeping well last night and saw the snow so I turned off my alarm in case I happened to be sleeping when it was suppose to go off.  I knew I had other times today that I could get my run in so I wasn't too concerned. 

I WAS actually sleeping and the sun was shining later so it all turned out to be a good choice.  I was planning on going out for an easy 6 so I was going to say "One fun sun run done" for my report.  But since it was later in the day and the sun was shining I decided to get tomorrow's speedwork done......therefore, the 'one fun sun run done' is not exactly true anymore.  Speedwork is only fun when it's done.  So I can say "One DONE run, (which happened to have some sun)"    BTW:  much too overdressed for speed in the sun!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 

I took a few extra rest days last week for sick leave.  It was nice to get back out today even though the wind was as strong as ever!  It was especially nice that my best running buddy was able to go out with me for the first mile and run pain free!  Woo Hoo! 

Oh the wind.  It was a bit nippy as we started out but once you get use to it it's just something to help give you a better workout.  Tom went out for 3 miles this morning.  I wanted him to go more with me but he wanted to err on the side of caution and keep things gradual.....probably the smart choice. 

On my last three miles I took it straight into the wind for a mile and a half and then enjoyed a fast mile and a half home.  I saw Doc. Ludlow up about a block ahead of me in my last .75 and my goal was to catch him before he turned to his house about .20 from my home.  It was getting close, he was almost there, I was just behind and I said "Hey Ludlow!"  Which made him turn just enough for me to reach my goal of catching him before the turn.  OK, I cheated a little bit, but not much.  : )

Six miles today....5 of them with Tom!  The wind was there but so was the sun!  It actually made me wonder how we are going to run as it gets warmer! 

Ave. 8:49

I'm sad to have been logging some big fat zeros lately but I am trying to avoid pneumonia again!  This dang cough gets really worked up when I go out and run in this much wind.  The temps are actually warmer but with the wind I end up regreting the run.  Hopefully by Monday things will be doing better. 

Yay for sunshine!  And yay for President's Day!  Sleep in a bit and then run in the sun with the hubby who gets the day off!  Yay!  Also a great letter from the missionary this morning!  Great way to start the day and the week! 

Tom and I did our 6 mile loop.  About 2 miles into it the sun poked over the mountain and into our eyes!  It felt good to have it as a companion, especially when we turned the corner and it was on our shoulders instead of our eyes!  At the end of the loop I added one more mile around the neighborhood.  The cough is pretty much gone now.  Another yay for that!

So much for the "yays" of yesterday's sunshine!   This morning we had to go earlier when the sun was still sleeping yet the wind was out with all it's glory!  Back to all the layers.....looking forward to getting all the winter gear put away for a couple seasons!  This morning we decided it's ok to keep running in cold when cold was all we knew, but then we get those little teasing beautiful days that make it very hard to handle many more cold, windy mornings.  Oh well, any day we can get out and run is a good day....right!?  : )

I was just watching the BYU game and realized that I sat and commented on other blogs today but forgot to blog my own run.

Tom and I got to go out in the sunshine today since he worked from home.  It was a bit chilly when we started but by the first mile I had shed the long sleeve and was in shorts and short sleeve.  Nice for today, probably won't be doing that for awhile again.

I planned to do some quarter mile repeats.  Tom still wants to keep things nice and easy so he was around but I was doing them on my own.  I didn't have the umph that I had last time I did quarters but the seven of them ranged from 6:54 - 7:09 pace.   I actually thought I did 6 until I got home and looked at the gamin.....if I would have known I was on the 7th I would not have done it!  Oh well, I guess that last one was good for me!

Snow, schedules and maybe a little laziness tried to make Tom and I do the "Do Run Run" without the "Do" and without the "Run" today!  But in the long run, our long run happened.  We ended up with a pretty good snow storm pelting us in the face, but it was very enjoyable anyway!  So happy that snow, schedules and laziness did not win out today!  Tom finished at 9 but I decided to add one more.  I was tempted to go to 11 but a belly ache told me I was done.

Now let's go Jazz!  Let's give Coach Ty another W!

It looks like February is a wrap!  It threw a few curve balls at us with some weather and sickness and injury.  I for one am glad to have it in the history books. 

Tom and I joined in with the howling wind for a beginning of the week 6 miler.  The last part of the third mile is uphill and into the wonderful wind!  The first turn at the top makes us a little happy as the wind goes from head on to a cross wind.  But the next turn is our favorite!  Turn west and the wind is at our back! 

The crosswind section and the turn west was really hypnotic today as the wind was blowing the snow from the fields onto the road ahead of us making all kinds of crazy designs for us to run on.  Spring, oh spring.....please come soon and be nice and long for us!

I tried to come up with a little ditty for today's windy run.  This is the best I could do.

W...is for the way you blow...at me!

I..is In my eyes consis..tent...ly.

N....is nearly, nearly....eve....ry.  Day.ay..ay...ay.

Wind is here for you and me!

(You gotta sing it like the kid in Little Rascals)

OK, so I mixed a few striders or fartleks in with this run.  I also added a little less than a mile tempo in.  Most of it I just endured it with Tom enduring right along beside me! 

But even a kind of miserable run in the wind is more enjoyable than no run at all!  : )

I just didn't want to get out and run this morning and since I had time later in the day I told Tom to go without me while I stayed in bed for another hour.

I didn't really want to just zig zag around the neighborhood to get 6 miles in so I decided to run to Springville to see my friend, Lesa, at her furniture store.  I wasn't exactly sure how many miles it is to Springville but decided that if I didn't want to go all the way I could turn around and come back any time.

I decided to just go for it.  It was 5.27 miles from my door to Vaud Hank's Furniture store door.  I said hi to Lesa and her dad for a few minutes and got a drink of water and headed back home. 

On the way home I realized that the run over must have been more down hill than I thought because the run home was more uphill than I was expecting.  At one point I decided to walk up a pretty good hill.  I turned my watch off while I walked it.  When I got home it was exactly 5 miles so the hill must have been .27. 

5:27 AP: 8:19

5:00 AP: 8:35

Aahhhh!  A very nice 6 mile run with Tom this morning.  There was no wind so we were able to go south east to start out and head out to the river trail that we avoid during the very windy times.

Most of this run was with Tom and Doug B.  Tom made a little detour with me to the new convenience store on the south end of main.  It is now my favorite "convenience" store!  I wasn't sure if we would find the group again, but we did and ended up running with Doug again.  Nice up into the wind and then down and around away from the wind. 

Now it's Jimmer time!

Tom and I love it when we go out for our run and the wind is NOT there waiting for us!  Today that was the case so we decided to change up our normal "run away from the wind" route.  (Of course our run away from the wind route always means we get to hit it head on at about 3 1/2 miles!)  But today...not much wind there!  Ahhh...so nice! 

Same running buddy,

same amount of miles,

same time of morning,

same kind of weather,

slightly different route. 

It's what I do.

Happy Tuesday!

: )   : )   : )   : )   : )   : )   : )

Shorts and short sleeves!  Woo hoo!  Nice to do a fartlek workout in today's conditions and with my cute hubby who understands me even when I don't understand myself! Thanks Tom!

4.5 on this very sad day!  Tom and I have many friends in Japan!  I hope they are all ok, but even if they are, there are so many who are not! 

Great morning to get up and go for a run with Tom and the SF gang!  There was a nice size group out today plus lots of other runners out and about!  Nice sunshine for the last few miles as the sun poked it's pretty little head over our beautiful snow filled mountains!

Whoa! It was d-a-r-k this moring!  Tom and I got a nice scare from a deer that we couldn't see who decided to bound out from hiding just as we approached!  Gave us a little heart rate hike and then a little chuckle! 

Good ole' 6 mile loop in the dark and wind with Tom.  : )  One kitty came running out in front of us...luckily it was just a regular old kitty and not a pew kitty! 

A good ole hill repeat workout with my good ole hubby. 

6 x long hill repeats.

The first two miles we were able to enjoy a beautiful full moon! 

The next two miles we were able to enjoy some of the meanest canyon winds uphill and into our faces. 

The final two miles we were able to enjoy a very stiff help home. 

Down in the river bottoms we passed an old woodshed that is usually dark but had lights in it this morning.  So Tom starts telling me stories of ax murderers while the wind is howling and the beautiful full moon is now set behind the western mountains.  Just a bit spooky! 

Monday morning I am starting something fun!  : )

What a great way to start this Saturday!  Tom and I joined in with several of the SF runners this morning for a lot of somber and fun chit-chat!  Doc. Ludlow just returned from Japan on Wed.  They were actually in the Sendai area, luckily about 6 miles in from the coast.  He had a lot of first hand accounts to tell us, some heartwarming and some just sad.  We are grateful him and his wife were able to return safely and leave knowing all of their family were safe.  We have also been able to hear from most of our Japanese friends and learn of their safety.  What a week.  And what a road they have ahead of them!

Later in the run we got to have the laughter buttons pushed several times!  Can't help but have fun when you run with Bob and Dave!  I swear I want to make a comic strip about those two and their running adventures!  British Bob and Cowboy Dave! 

Hurried home to get girls ready for piano judging and final performance of Robin Hood.  Later we will enjoy some time with Jimmer and the BYU gang.  Hopefully they can continue to dance their way into the final 16 and beyond! 

Looking forward to having our oldest boy and his cute Japanese girlfriend with us for the day!  Can't wait to give them a hug!  We've only talked to them on the phone since all this craziness has been going on.  Her family lives in Japan and her sister was in the Sendai area when the earthquake and tsunami hit.  They were not able to hear from her for a few days and feared for her safety. 

Kimmer, signing out!

This morning Tom and I started out a bit earlier than ususal so I could get started on my new fun thing!  Tom and I did 5 miles then he continued while I went to the church to meet up with 18 ladies who wannarunna 5k!  I have gathered this group together for a 9 week training program to a 5k.  These are mostly ladies who have never done any running.  It was so fun to get them together this morning!  I hope they all stick with it. 

After I got home from that I got the kids off to school and the phone rang.  One of the ladies who had planned to go this morning had accidentally slept in.  She wanted to go out and do day one so I told her I would come down and do it with her.  So since I did the training two times and then came home and took my doggy for a quick little run I am going to combine that to make my 6 for the day.  Each of the trainings are just under 2 miles right now. 

Whoa....the wind and the snow are suppose to go away now, right?  They were there for Tom and I in full force this morning and tried their best to get us to turn around and go back to bed.  But they did not win!  We are glad we stuck with it because it all seemed to settle down after the first few miles and we were able to have a nice, enjoyable run.

This morning I met up with my "iwannarunna5k" gals for thier day number 2!  I was so proud of them!  All of them showed up plus one more even when it was chilly and windy!  So there are 19 following my little training here in town and a few others following along in other areas!  This will all lead up to their first 5k on May 21st!  Sad story today though.....one gal fell.  She was so cute, just smiled and jumped up and finished the workout.  It was dark out so she couldn't really see what she had done to herself.  She just knew that she had scraped up her hands a bit.  Well...I just got an update from her....she went home and found gravel in her hands and as she started trying to wash it out she realized her knee was hurting....long story short.....she had to have 8 stitches and a tetnus shot!  : (  How sad.....but she said, "I love this and I'll see you Friday morning!"  What a trooper!

Later Tom and I went out for our run in the sunshine.  Unfortunately there was still more wind than we wanted, especially for a tempo run, but that's life here in the windy city.  We did a 3 mile warm up and then a 3 mile tempo with a 2 mile cool down.  Ave. Pace for tempo 7:40.

Since I have to get up a bit earlier to get my run in before I meet with my little 5K training group I was able to meet up with Kay this morning.  Tom decided to catch a few more Z's and head out on his own.  It was fun to get 5 and a half miles in with my buddy Kay!  I will probably meet up with her at least on Fridays for a while.

Today was the end of week number one for my little followers!  They are doing so well!  I'm proud of them getting out in the early morning and in the wind and cold!  There were a few missing this morning, but hopefully they will be here Monday!

Tom came up for a good name for my little group.....Kim and the Kardio-dashians!  How's that?  I thought it was pretty clever!  I might have to suggest it to my Ragnar group!

Fourteen maybe felt a little more like 15 or 16 with the gusty, cold wind that joined us yet once again!  For some reason though...it's all still fun!  Enjoyable company, nice places to run, healthy legs and bodies....ya gotta love it!

I got 5 miles with Tom, then one more on my own while he went a different direction to get 5 more.  After my 6 I was able to meet with my cute little running group.  They are doing very well!  The start of week 2 is looking good!  I can tell that one week behind them has already done them much good! 

.

Met up with my Kardio-dashian sisters this morning.  There were 14 there today.  One has a son going into the MTC today, one had sick kids through the night, hopefully the others had a good excuse too.  We started out with 18-19 last week, so I hope we keep our numbers up.  They are doing well.  Next week will be a big test for them as the schedule will kick them up a few notches.  They seem to be having a good time and I am enjoying the time with them too. 

Tom and I went out around 10:30 to do half mile repeats.  Here's the rundown.....

3:37 (2:32)

3:37 (2:43)

3:36 (2:52)

3:39 (3:02)

3:38 (3:13)

3:32

The plan was to do 6 - 8.  Six was good for me!

I thought I was just meeting up with Kay earlier this morning so Tom decided to sleep an extra 1/2 hour and go on his own.  We ended up meeting with Dan and Carolyn also. 

After my run with them I hurried to the church to meet up with my "iwannarunners" for thier training.  I kind of like that nice 25 minute cool down I get with them.  They have 2 weeks down, 7 more to go.  I have a consistent group of about 12 with others coming here and there.  They are going to have to choose to be there consistently if they want to run their 5k on May 21st.

Today's 15 miles was much more enjoyable than the last one mile of 14 last Saturday! Does that make sense?  In other words, I would rather run all 15 miles today than mile 14 alone of last week's run.  Everything went well this morning. 

Tom and I met up with a nice big SF group.  Two of the guys had started out a bit earlier and were down in the riverbottoms when we got down there.  They decided it would be funny to hide in the shadows and come out with a loud roar.  Well, I guess it must have been funny because I was the laughing stock of the group for the rest of the run!  They were impressed with the loudness and duration of my scream.  They were also impressed that instead of running from the source I was coming after them with vengance! 

I enjoyed session one of LDS conference this morning, however, I think I may have had a few too many z's during the afternoon session.  That will be my first session to read in the Ensign when it comes out.  : )

We were lucky enough to get 6 or so inches of snow yesterday and some cold temps and wind for this morning.  Tom and I got out early so I could meet up with my 5Kers in training.  We ran just over 3 together then parted ways so he could add in and I could head back towards the 5Ker meeting station.  I was able to get 5.75 in before meeting up with them. 

They completed day 1 of week three of their training.  I am very impressed with them!  They were worried about today and they all passed with flying colors!   Next week is going to be the tricky week as it is spring break and everyone is heading different directions.  I hope they will commit to following the plan on their own for the week!  We have about 11-13 of the original 18 who are keeping the resolve so far!  Plus about 4 or 5 in other towns who are following on their own.  It's lots of fun to help these ladies achieve something they thought was impossible for them to do!  Many of them didn't even think they could do what they did today! 

My run back home took my own mileage up to six.  So very cold when I got home....my little doggy wanted his turn to go out with me but he will have to wait till later.  I get sweaty on my run and then slow down with the ladies and freeze!  But I think after this week the freezing part should be gone.  At least I hope so!

It was a dark and windy morning......blah, blah, blah....

Today I met up with the "iwannarunners" before going out to do my workout with Tom.  It ended up being a perfect day for running!  A few of my ladies were worried about this morning so they called me last night and told me they got today's in then.  They should have waited...it was perfect!  Most of the gang is hanging in there and doing a great job!  I'm worried about a few who are missing too many of our scheduled workouts.  Unless they are doing them on their own, I'm afraid I'm going to be losing them.  

Tom and I went out after we got the kids out the door.  He actually started while I was getting kids ready and had a few miles in before coming back for me.  We had a hill repeat workout planned...6 - 10.

It went well and we ended up with 11.  At the end of 11 I was done, done, done.  But after a few minutes of breathers I was ready to finish the trip home.  The pace quickened as we headed home and it all felt great!  Woo Hoo!  Better than the blah, blah, blah of yesterday!  : )

Ditto what Tom said in his blog for today :)

Tom and I decided to change things up a bit from our normal running route.  Today we ran past a few orange groves, a grapefruit grove, a cute little lemon tree and the beautiful Redlands Temple!  Very enjoyable!  : )

The nice thing about traveling with teenagers is that they can be at the hotel with younger siblings while mom and dad go out for a nice morning run! (OK, there are probably other reasons to like teenagers too.)

Last run around the "happiest place on earth" before heading back to the REAL happiest place on earth....HOME!!!!

There's no place like home!  As much fun as it is to go on vacation, it sure is nice to get back home! 

After a long car ride home yesterday (which included a car sick child the WHOLE way home) it was nice to get a good night's rest in our own bed and then get out for a run in our own stompin' grounds! 

We went out an hour later than our usual Saturday mornings and saw many more people out and about!  I don't know if it's cause it was a bit later or that more people are getting out with the nicer weather.  We actually had a Curtis sighting...don't usually see him since he seems to have to do most of his runs later in the afternoon. 

The animals and birds were out and about today too!  My favorite today was the big ole' rock chuck!  I thought he might be an otter there by the river, but as we searched pictures on the internet when we got home we think he was a rock chuck.  He didn't chuck any rocks at us, but he let us know he wasn't too fond of us getting very close to him.  There were also a few deer, some cows on the road a woodpecker and various other birds.

Now to my nephew,Weston's, wedding.  And a happy birthday to my cute SIL, Heidi and my equally cute neice, Jamie! 

The run itself felt OK to start with but really good the last half!  Nice to be able to get that in after a crazy week!

This morning was perfect for running! The rain held off till I was done with my run and my "Iwanna" run. 

Tom and I started at about 5:20 and did our regular route.  It was very dark out this morning!  At 4 miles Tom went one way and I went another so he could get ten in and I could meet up with my group. 

I had 6 1/2 miles in before meeting up with the ladies.  There were 10 ladies there this morning.  Two of them ended up walking but the other 8 are keeping to the schedule and hanging in there.  This Friday they will have their first long run....20 minutes running with no walking.  They are nervous but excited. 

Running back home after the workout with them gave me seven miles.  Everything felt really good today. Nice to feel that way after a week of vacation!

It's good I have a persistent hubby or I may have stayed in bed this morning.  And that would have been bad because I don't have any other time today to get a run in.  So even though I was grumpy about it, I'm glad I got out in the rain and ran.  Luckily the rain only stayed with us for a mile or two.

Coach Tom helped me out with some speed work on the track this morning.  Nice to run into our buddy, Stephen, down there doing some good speed work of his own.

The plan for today was 5-6 x 800 @ 3:30 - 3:45 with 1/4 mile rest of about 3 - 4 minutes.

Here's the run down:

3:38, 3:37, 3:31, 3:30, 3:29, 3:28. All the rests were in the 3:00-3:30 range except for the first one which was 2:5 ish.

After we were done there Tom went to add 4 more miles while I went to put my Coach Kimi hat on to help my Iwannarunna5k ladies.  They are doing so good!  Many of them have never ran at all and today they ran 8 minutes at a time twice!  It's fun to see their improvements!  We are half way through their 9 week training.  I still have about 10 - 12 consistent girls here in town following the program and four others outside the area. 

I am more excited today about my "Iwannarunners" first 20 minute run than I am for my own regular ole 6 miler! My run was nice too, Tom and I enjoyed the dark morning, but my ladies ran 20 minutes straight! Most of them started this program 5 weeks ago without ever running more than a few yards! I am just thrilled with their progress! A couple are starting to ask me if I am going to help them get to a 10K after this 5K training. I have also had many ladies ask me if I am going to start another 5K training when I am done with this one so they can start up. Maybe I should start charging.....hmmmm.... :)

Weeks go by so quickly! I can't believe it is long run day again already! Tom and I met up with a large, fun Spanish Fork crowd. A bit nippy at first but a very nice morning for a run! We get very few perfect days for runs so I will put this one in that category.

Around the 8 mile mark Tom went one direction with the speedier guys while I went on the trail with the rest of the gang. Some people left here and there but 4 of us went back down to Bishop's storehouse which meant we had the last mile and a half up hill all the way.

Not a bad run at all, especially after crawling into bed at 1:30 and out of bed at 5:30. Hopefully a nap will be in the schedule sometime today.

Today has been one long workout!  I am ready for some Zs!  Ran with Tom and then with the Iwanna girls.  Then off to St. George to paint our condo.  My mom and dad are here helping me while Tom is keeping the fort together at home.  I thought we were going to be able to get away without painting the ceilings, but when we got here we realized the ceilings needed it too.  I'm not sure how Michelangelo (sp?) did his amazing work on a ceiling like he did....my neck and shoulders are sore just from what we did!  Still more to do tomorrow.  I hope it looks good when we are done.  Painting seems like an easy thing to do yourself, and it is, but it's also hard work!  So glad I don't do it for a living!  We'll see if a run happens tomorrow or not.

I was able to get 5 miles on the bunny trail in St. George this morning before getting back to the painting. Bunny count was only one. And it was just the cute little cotton tail end of the bunny as it hopped behind a bush.

The sunshine was fabulous to run in! I think I could get use to that! Today was perfect down there. I'm sure you southern Utah guys and gals wish it could stay like that for awhile and not get up into those hundreds!

But here I am back in good ole Spanish Fork...hopefully I won't be being pelted with hail tomorrow morning!

My mom, dad and I got a lot done at our condo the past few days! They are awesome! Their prices are good too....they just work for food! Thanks mom and dad! Love you!

Spanish Fork is different than St. George.  Had to wear warmer gear here this morning than I did yesterday morning down south.  Started off a bit sluggish but started feeling it toward the end of the run.  Missed my speed work this week.  Maybe I'll add it into part of my long run on Saturday. 

6.75 on my own this morning since Tom wanted to sleep in a bit longer than I could. It was actually quite perfect while I was out.  It had been raining but had quit and the wind was not bad at all. 

Then I met up with my Iwannarunners.  Today was their first 25 minute run with no walking!  I am so proud of them!  The ones who have made it this far are doing very well!  Almost every single one of them use to think they could not even run for 5 minutes!  They went about 2ish miles.  Since I run back and forth between the lead group and the final group to help cheer them all on I am taking one of those two miles to add into mine. 

And now it is snowing and sticking to the ground!  Grrrr!  I don't want to run in snow anymore! 

Waking up at four forty AM on a wintery April 30th to run in snow is just wrong!  Wrong, but still fun.  We had to go early today because we had to be in Ephraim by 9:00 to get a seat for   Snow College graduation.  Congrats Cam and Rurika!  Camron graduated in arts and his darling girlfriend, Rurika, graduated in science.  Such a nice day for them!  

Even though it was winter again, I must say, winter sure can make things beautiful!  Running up the trail with the snow covered trees around us was just as pretty as it could be.  There was a hawk sleeping in a tree about 4 feet above our heads.  We stopped to take a closer look at him.  He let us look for a moment but then swooped down and over the field to a new tree where no one was staring at him.  He gave us quite a little startle!

Track day!  Plan: Cut down mile, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 fast, hard pace.

I had a bad night with my back.  Just when I think I have it figured out it goes and changes on me!  Usually I can figure out what caused my back to hurt so bad through the night...(sitting on hard chair or in car too long, bend over work, bad shoes, etc)  but yesterday I didn't do anything that should have made it flare up.  So waking up this morning was a bit hard since I didn't sleep well.  But getting up is always the key to helping me feel better.  I do better to get up and go run than to try to stay in bed. The pain goes away with movement.  

We drove down to the HS track and started with a mile and a half warm up.  To start off my speed work I took off the long sleeves, the ear warmer and the gloves.  Shorts and short sleeves and my red racers were perfect for the workout!  Saw several friends out getting some speed work in also.

 Last time I did this workout it was Jan. 11.  I think I reported that it was 13 degrees.  (And that was waiting until the sun came up.)  This morning was great!  A little wind but not bad at all!

I don't have the time for each segment, just the pace:

Mile: 7:36

3/4: 7:15

1/2: 6:53

1/4: 6:11 

After a few more laps for a cool down I headed up to be with the Iwannarunna ladies while Tom took the long way home.  

I still have 11-13 hanging in there with my start up running group!  Just two and a half weeks until their big day!  They are doing so good!   

Decided I wanted to run on my regular rest day.  

Went out alone today.  Thought I might find Kay, but didn't.  Had a nice run by myself anyway.  Met up with the runna group.  They only have 2 full weeks left of their 5K training.  I think we will end up with about 12 for race day.  Pretty good I think.  We started out with 18.  

Last night we got to have fun at the daddy/daughter date.  Tom and Tia got to go because they were the daddy and daughter.  Tani got to go because she was my helper and I got to go because I was in charge of it.  Turned out to be a very fun evening!  It was a 50's crazy sock hop.  I love to see the daddys out there with their cute daughters dancing and having fun!   

Tom and I met 3 others at the church thinking we were going to be with a small group today but ended up picking up quite a crew before long!  Ended up with around 15 runners!  Always fun to chat and have some company on the long runs!  It was also nice today because we shook up the regular ole route and did something different.  It was fun but made the water stop come after 9 miles.  With the warmer temps everyone was happy to find our water and Gatorade there waiting for us.  

It was fun to go slowly past a protective hawk today.  He (or she) was screeching and watching that nest intently.  We had no desire to cause any ruckus there!  

Anyway, a nice enjoyable 15 miler!  Felt great throughout, except maybe the tingling in my toes which I don't love.  Came home to a family eager to help out around the house and took advantage of that!  

Looking forward to a fun Mother's Day/My daddy's birthday celebration tomorrow with family from both sides coming for BBQ in the rain.  

Ave pace: 8:45

Out in the rain with Tom for 4, a few more on my own and then met up with my Iwannarunners!  I was nervous that the rain might scare them away but I still had 8 ladies out there to do their first 30 minute run!  They did so good again!  I did 6.5 before meeting up with them and then a lot of back and forth among them so I added an extra 1/2 mile for the 30 minutes with them.  

Yesterday was a great Mother's Day!  We had about 23 family members from both sides here for dinner!  So nice to be with everyone!  The highlight of the day was Skyping with our missionary in Denmark!  He seems to be doing very well!  Only a little more than 6 months left till we see him!  I think we are getting ready for that!  We tried not to sound too anxious though!  We want him doing his best this final quarter of his mission!

This morning we checked in on the St. George lottery.  We put Kim Lee in and it said I wasn't in, then we put Tom Lee in and is said he wasn't in.  We were fine with that and then we thought, hey, maybe we need to add our middle initial....and when we put Kim S and Tom N Lee in....there we were!  So we are in!  If we didn't get in we were going to do TOU instead.  Now I think we will go up to TOU 1/2 and enjoy our 25th anniversary that weekend.  I think it sounds fabulous!   

Detention isn't such a bad thing.  Our son has to work off some tardies toward the end of each term so he has to get down to the school early.  It works out well for us because we have him take our van down to the HS and we get to go on a nice run with no up hills at all to pick it up.

We went down the river bottoms and then along the river trail.  Lots of high water coming up into some beautiful back yards!  I wonder if they really thought they would never have trouble like this?  Seems like a crazy place to build a house to me.  I hope they all make it through these next few days and weeks with not much damage.

This Saturday I am going to try my hand at a 5k again.  I haven't raced one since my PR in January. I would like to think I could get close to that same time again, (22:22) but I still can't quite believe I did that in the first place.  I guess we will see.  This is a fundraiser for Japan so I'm not sure how official things will be.   

No rain while we were out this morning. Wet roads and a little chilly at the beginning but otherwise quite perfect!  We did 5 miles with 6 strides thrown in.  Then we went separate ways while he added to pick up our van at the HS and I went to run with my ladies.  They continue to do very well!  We have one more day of week 8 and then the final week!  Their Iwannarunna 5k will be on Saturday,  May 21st.  I think they are all starting to believe that they really can do this!  Not many of them thought they would ever be able to run a 5k!  

Tended my niece's little girl today.  What a cutie! I'm glad I was here when they brought her because I had forgotten I had told them I could help them out today.  

We got to sleep in a bit and do a shorter, recovery run today!  Ran the course my Iwannarunners will run next week.  I need to make some fun little signs for them to read along the way.  

Three very easy miles.  Then a bus ride with a bunch of 4th graders...walking all around This is the Place Monument....then a really fun bus ride home with same noisy 4th graders!  Fun day with my cute daughter!

Kind of an interesting little race.  I've been in 5Ks that are short, but not quite this short.  Not sure how they managed to be a whole mile short...oh well, it was just a fun run to raise money for Japan and that's all that counts.  Unfortunately they didn't have a huge turn out.  It would have been nice to have more so they could be sending more to Japan.  

Tom went with the SF running group and did a long run.  I missed being with the gang but it was fun to go do something a bit different too.  I was going to go for a few more miles afterwards but the  prize drawings went on forever and I needed to get back home.  I figure it's good to have a lower mileage week/Saturday.  

I'm excited to see my cute little boy, (ok, he's not so little anymore, but he's still cute and he's still my little boy) getting all decked out in his Jr. Prom tux and heading off in a limo tonight!   

This morning Tom and I started out together but only ended up with about two before we each started with our own thing.  It will probably be more like that nowadays since he will start kicking into his own gear instead of staying in mine.  

The Iwannarunna ladies were out in abundance today ready to kick off their final training week!  Today they went out 17 minutes and back.  They will run Wednesday and then rest up for their big day on Saturday!  I'm so excited for all of them! 

Six miles with Tom. Kids off to school.  Hurry up to Ogden to help my brother move.  Come back to get girls to piano lessons.  Down to the church to help with Pinewood Derby.  Hurry home to Ragnar meeting at my house. Night time rituals with family. Blog. Next....Head to bed. 

Today's miles were all at a very easy pace.  Nice to have just a fun, non thinking day of running.  3.1 of this run was with one of my Iwannarunna girls who won't be here for our official run on Saturday.  She did so well!  I am happy for the girls who have been able to stick with our little training program!

This Saturday is my Iwannarunna 5K that I have been helping train some ladies for so I won't be able to get my long run in then.  I usually take Thursday as a rest or short mile day because it is my work day and it works out well that way.  However, today I had to take the day off because it is my dear friend, Lesa's,  father in law's funeral and I wanted to be there for her.  So since that gave me some extra time this morning I decided to get er done.  

I was hoping to meet one or two out at 5 and run for an hour with them before sweeping back around to pick up Tom at 6.  But the rain must have scared them off.  I have to admit it ran through my head a time or two to crawl back into bed also.  

So off into the dark, cold, rainy morning by myself.  There were too many puddles and it was too dark to see them so it only took a few yards of running before my feet were soaked.  I got almost 6 miles in and then picked up Tom who had a drink ready for me.  Tom went 5 with me and then I finished up on my own.  Didn't really care about puddles anymore, already soaked clear through from head to toe.  

When I got in the house my girls looked at me kind of strange and asked me "Seriously, how can you call that fun?"  

Anyway, it's nice to have the long run out of the way for the week.  I am looking forward to seeing how my ladies will do on Saturday.  I will be blogging a race report for that for their sakes.  

It's Tuesday and I'm finally getting the chance to sit down and tell about my Iwannarunna5K from Saturday.  

It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful morning for my ladies to run their very first 5K! After running all week in the rain it was a very welcome sight for all!  

Nine weeks ago when we started this training we had 18 ladies show up.  I had no idea what would happen in the next 9 weeks, I just kept hoping that at least one or two would make it to the end and that hopefully one person would want to continue on with a running program when they reached this goal.  Saturday morning I had 13 ladies show up ready to conquer something they never thought they could achieve! 

Race time was 6:30 sharp!  All of them were lined up and ready to go.  I didn't have a cool gun or blow horn or even a whistle to start them off so it was just a good ole, On your mark, Get set, Go!

They were off!  I didn't run with them (the blog made me put a time in to publish this so I put the first gal's time in) but I jumped on a cute orange bike and went back and forth with them till the water stop at the turn around point. There I stopped and handed out water to all of them and then hopped back on the bike to get to the finish line before any of them showed up.

I had nice little 5K medals there to put over each of their heads as they crossed the finish line!  It was so fun to see their faces and watch the joy (and pain) as they accomplished their goal!  the first one across the line was 34:57 and the last ones were 44:59.   

Every one of them pushed themselves more than they thought possible!  And every one of them wants to carry on!  They made plans afterwards to keep meeting together and encouraging each other on!  I told them I will show up here and there but it was totally up to them  to keep themselves going!

We had all brought yummies for after the race and each of us brought a prize for a drawing.  They had all gone together to give me a nice night out with Tom for dinner and a movie. So thoughtful of them!  

After I left them I went to get my own 5k in. 

Later that day was the Weight Watcher's Walk It Challenge in Lehi so I continued my running service day there.  I am a receptionist at WW in Provo and really love my job! There was a fabulous turnout there on a beautiful trail on a beautiful day!  Many of them were probably wishing the day would have been a bit cooler or overcast.  I am very impressed with everyone who took the WW challenge!  I was the sweeper on this race so I ran to the one mile point and cheered as people went both ways until the final people when past.  Then I ran the rest of the way and went back and forth behind the two final ladies as they made their way to the end. One of them used a walker to do this whole 5K.  I ended up with 5 miles on this since I had to keep going back and forth.  

Over all it was a wonderful day of watching and helping people do something very big in their lives!  It was all very inspirational!   

Everything from yesterday was suppose to be on this day.  May 24th is Jansen's birthday.  Monday Tom and I were down at our condo getting things ready to rent it out.  We spent our running time doing manual labor instead.  

This morning Tom and I drove out to Harry's Hill for some Ragnar preparation.  We both went up and down ole Harry three times.  This was my first time for that particular hill workout this year.  The first time up I was thinking I should have warmed up a bit more before starting.  But by the time I was at the top I was feeling good and the workout turned out great.  

I'm a little happy/sad that today is the last day of school.  It's always nice to have more time for other things, but it won't take long for the kids to start saying, "I'm bored."   

OK, that was fun.  I haven't done just a good ole very easy run for awhile.  Did a few on my own then helped a few of my friends who have continued with the running program.  Six miles with an average pace of 10:15....nice to do once in a while.

Our family likes to go down to Ephraim for Scandinavian Days each year.  The parade starts at 10:00 and it takes us about an hour to get there, so we had to get up bright and early to be able to get the long run in, get cleaned up and get down there in time.  

Tom and I ran about 8 together and then met up with the rest of the group.  At that point he took off with the speedy guys and I could either lag behind them or go with the slower group.  I chose to stay with the slower group but they didn't have much mojo today so I took off and ended up doing most of the rest of mine alone.  

Then we enjoyed the day down with family and friends.  This was the first time in many years that the weather was just about perfect for Scandinavian Days!  Not too hot and no rain!  

Had lunch at Roy's Pizza and Pasta with the Lee clan and sat at the park all day with the Stilson clan...the best of both family worlds when you grew up in the same area!  Very nice day, but we are now tired! 

So nice to have the choice to sleep a bit longer today and avoid the rain!  Also very nice to sleep without back pain last night!  I'm hoping it is going to be in it's happy phase for awhile now.  I never quite know what my back is going to like and what it's not going to like.

The rain was pouring at 7:00 but at 8:00 it was nice and by the last few miles the sun was shining and it was an absolutely beautiful morning for a run.

A big thank you to all who have ever given in any way to help me live in a free country! Especially grateful at this time for my cute nephew Ben who is being deployed in the next few weeks for his THIRD trip to war!  Leaving his sweet wife Megan, 4 year old son Aiden and year old Felicity.  

Seven miles with two of my regular running buddies....Tom and Mr.Wind.  Luckily Mr. Rain decided not to join us today!  Even though it was VERY windy it was a very beautiful morning to be able to get outside with my hubby and just run!

Later I rode my future daughter-in-law's bike down to the cemetery to help with the flag put-away.  They had over 1200 flags with crosses and names that were set up for Memorial Day to honor the veterans.  It was an honor to go help put them away and look at some of  the names.  

Coming back from the cemetery on the bike was up hill....not use to riding a bike.  I think I might have to get mine up to par so I can do a little biking here and there.

Six on a perfect morning by the river trail. 

Enjoying beautiful St. George!  We came down yesterday with tickets for The Little Mermaid but were informed that it was cancelled due to technical difficulties....how sad.  Luckily St. George is a fun destination to be stuck at so we are still having a good time.  Just very sad we didn't get to enjoy the show.  

Tom and I just did four miles around the neighborhood.  Tomorrow we will wake up early and try to get 15-16 in before the sun heats things up too much.  

Plenty of swimming, mini golf, shuffle board, basketball, volleyball and hot tubin' today!  Can't complain of this life.  Too bad it gets over so soon.

Oh what a beautiful morning!

 Oh what a beautiful day!  

So fun to wake up in St. George and know that we are going to run with great weather!  We were out the door a little before 6:00.   I was a bit nervous that we were getting out too late for our long run and we would be too hot.  I was also nervous that we were running 15ish miles in St. George without planned water stops.  We were hoping that we would just come across water fountains whenever we needed them.  Not smart, I know, but it actually worked out!

From our condo it takes about 2.25 miles running before jumping on the trail towards Snow Canyon.  We just stayed on that and enjoyed the beautiful red rock and desert landscape!  The roadway by the Entrada area is so pretty!  I have never really liked the desert landscape look but I decided it was because I am use to seeing the Utah County "idea" of desert landscape.  The people down south know much more how to pull off that look!  

There were several others out enjoying the morning with a run, walk or bike ride.  We noticed there were still many wearing "longs"....figured they were the locals who might still be thinking 50s is cold.  : )  Fifties were actually just perfect!  The final few miles ended up a little warm, we were happy we were not going to be continuing in that!

We were lucky to find water fountains along the way to keep us nice and hydrated and to wash down a few Car Booms.  Had a gritty, yucky one around 7 miles and then tried out one  with caffeine around the 12 mile mark.  I have never tried those, but I think I liked it and will try in on the last few miles next week at the UVU half marathon.

Over all the weekend at St. George was wonderful.  Just sad that we had to miss The Little Mermaid.  Luckily it will be going on for a few more months and we have a great place to stay down there so maybe it will still work out to see it before the season is over.

I didn't go out and do hills with Tom today because of the UV half coming up on Saturday.  I slept a bit longer and then went out and joined in with a few different people along the way.  I was fine outside, but now that I am indoors the allergies are hitting me hard!  

Tom and I did the out and back river trail this morning.  We ran into an old friend who moved from here to St. George and now back.  We had to laugh at her as we were in shorts and she had long pants and THREE layers on top!  Ha ha!  She did admit to missing good ole hot St. George.  To us this morning was perfect running weather.  

Six miles down in the west end of town while Tom did speed work on the track.  

Jump in the shower.

Throw in a load of laundry. 

Primary Presidency Meeting.

Hearthstone Manor Relief Society Meeting. 

Furniture shopping for the condo.

Pick up lawnmower at fix-it place. 75 dollars later...no more borrowing new lawnmower to the neighbors. : ( 

Laundry. 

Make a sandwich for lunch.

Mow front lawn.

ALERGIES hit!  Down for the count!  : (

Benadryl......  : )  

More laundry.

Details later....potty break and helping a collapsed runner cost a minute maybe.

 *Tom took the liberty to come in and give that quick report for me.  I will know finish my report.

It's always crazy that we end up having very little sleep when we do these things.  I had to meet the bus between 3:30 and 4:30 so I planned to wake up at 3:15.  I woke up at 3:13 by being elbowed in the face by my sleeping husband who "claims" he was dreaming about being chased by a dog.  (Should I believe him or turn him in?)  

I got ready and headed into Provo all by my lonesome.  Tom was running his own 18 miler into the finish line to watch me come in.  It was kind of lonely going this all alone.  Even up at the start line I hardly saw anyone I knew.  

Sat on the bus by a nice kid named Dan.  We did the regular old pre race chit chat. I also like to listen to all the people around and the things they have to say.  You can learn a lot by sitting and listening...sometimes too much!

I had to wait over an hour up at the start line.  I hit the POPs twice and just wandered around by myself.  

The first mile was hard to weave through everyone of course.  With it being just one lane of the road it was quite crowded and no one ever lines up according to their pace.  It was a lot of fast/slow/back/forth movements to get through there.

Then my right shin started tightening up real crazy like.  I don't usually get that kind of thing.  It gave me a mental issue I had to deal with the rest of the race even though the tightness went away.  

Coming up on mile 6 I was needing to hit a POP.  I didn't really want to but knew life would be happier if I did.  So just before the mile I forced a Carb Boom down and washed it down.  Luckily there was an open POP so I was able to make a very quick stop.

After getting out I wanted to make up time but it had some up hill so I'm not sure if I made up time or not.  One thing about this race is that I wanted to get in around 1:45 but I didn't really know what I had to do each mile to make that happen.  I was mostly just running how I felt.

Just before the 10 mile aid station I decided to take my last Carb Boom.  Uhhg!  It was hard to force that one down...almost lost my cookies there.  Luckily I got it down but I had to stop for a bit to force in two cups of water  to help get it down.  

Up till here I had found one lady who I would pass, then I took the POP, so I passed her again, then I stopped for water so I passed her again.  Each time she told me "Good job!" and was so nice.  I had just passed her again when I saw a guy in front of me doing  very non running type of moves.  I notice the two guys next to him looking at him and then he was going down.  Luckily he didn't hit the ground.  We all lowered him down and that really nice lady was the next one up.  She didn't even hesitate and said, "I'll run back to aid station 10 for help."  I told the two guys that I would stay with him and they could go finish for their time.  But the one guy said that he was not even registered for the race so for me to carry on and he would stay.  The poor guy that was down was in pretty bad shape.  It was hard to leave him.  He had a very sickly green color and was talking but not making any sense and couldn't focus on us.  I hope he is ok.

I must have turned my watch off when I stopped to help him.  I wish I wouldn't have, I didn't notice until about a half a mile later so my last 5K I don't really know my splits.  

I was happy to see the finish line but you could see it for quite awhile before getting there so that is sometimes hard.  

As I was coming in through the finish chute there were lots of people lined up to watch but no cheering.  Grrrr!  I raised my arms and told people to give me some love and help me to the finish line.  It was fun as they all obliged and I got some nice good cheers to give me what I needed to get through to the end!  I could hear Tom out there shouting my name that always feels great!

I waited at the finish area to watch for my new best friend/hero who had went back for help.  She came in just under 1:50.  It was nice to talk to her.   

So I ended up 5th in my age and lucky for me they were giving away prizes 5 deep in each age.  So I got to stand on the little platform for my 2 seconds of glory.

I had a Mother/Daughter Activity at 10:00 that I was trying to get to, while at the same time trying to get my award.  Awards started at 9:30 and they did ALL the men FIRST!  What ever happened to women first?  I had my friend take my daughter and told her I would get there asap.  I hurried home, did a mucho quicko half clean up and got down just about 20 minutes late and was able to enjoy the rest of the 2 hours with her.  However I had thought it was going to be a brunch and it wasn't and I was starving!  

After the activity we took the kids to Applebees and had some nice family time with all three kids still at home.  We don't get that much anymore since one of them is 17 and needs much more time with friends than with family.

Sorry this ended up so long.  It is mostly for my benefit, but thanks for reading if you did.  : )

Here are the splits that I do have:

1 8:30 (weaving game)

2 7:59 (shin starts acting up/mental games start)

3 8:21 (one of the hills I was expecting)

4 7:30 

5 7:18

6 7:22

7 8:44 (this one started with the potty break and then had a hill)

8 7:41

9 8:02

10 (turned watch off about 10.2 so from here on out I'm not sure.)

 One last thing....the canyon sure was pretty today!  : )

 *We just looked at the official results and it has me as 4th in age instead of 5th.  Thought I better change that for posterity!  : )

I took a few days off of running since the half marathon on Saturday.  I figured with Ragnar this weekend I ought to give my legs a break.  Tom, Jansen and I went down to St. George for a couple days to finish up the details for our 1 bedroom condo.  It's all ready for renters now and I already have a week and maybe 2 - 4 more days that are being asked for in June.  I think this is going to be a fun little addition to our family.

This morning I was planning on an easy 7 with Tom.  But his easy and my easy are not always quite the same.  I could tell in the first half mile that I was having some hamstring issues that surely didn't want to make worse.   So I told Tom to go on without me and I went to find the faster of the "Iwannarunna5K" group.  Their pace was just right for me to have someone to run with that wasn't too slow or too fast.  It was nice to catch up with LeAnn and Colleen.

Yesterday our girls found out their parts in the summer play they doing.  It is Alice in Wonderland.  Tani is the Cheshire Cat and Tia is the DoorMouse.  They are both excited to have some more drama fun! 

.

How do you even try to write about something like this without writing a whole book?!  This was my first experience as a runner in the Wasatch Back Relay.  I have volunteered for Tom's teams 2 or 3 times so I have been able to see it from that angle, but running it and being a part of a team is a whole new angle!

Tom and I were on a coed master's team officially named Spanish Fork Running Club #2 but self proclaimed as "Run like Hal" after our team captain and great runner Hal Amos!  We were with the very first teams to start at 5:00 am Friday morning.  So with the early start and Hal and Tom being the runners right before me passing people I was never around more than 2 people throughout most of the whole race.  I was also the only legs with all three runs that I could not have my van support on. 

As I waited for Tom to come in and hand off the slap bracelet I all of a sudden started feeling a bit nervous.  I've never been on a team with running before.  It's always just been for me, not a team.  Tom handed off to me and I was off.  I knew this was going to be uphill most of the way.  I wanted to run it without walking.  I did it.  The first mile was a bit too fast to help me love it to the top but I made it.  The first mile had some level at the beginning and then up hill the rest of the way. Mile 1 8:54, Mile 2 10:38, Mile 3 11:39, last .16 11:06 AP: 10:26, Overall time: 32:57. I was happy to be able to pass people on this leg.  I think I passed 5, and one sandbagger (or speedy guy on slower team) came flying past me.  After this leg there were never many in my area to pass or be passed.  I was pretty happy to see my team and especially Doug who would now start running!

Leg #23 started just before midnight.  I was nervous about running in the dark and getting lost out there.  When Tom handed off to me at this exchange I could tell he was really worried about me going off on this.  I found out later that his leg had really creeped him out.  See his blog for the details of that. www.tom.fastrunningblog.com  It's good I didn't have time to listen right then, I just started off into the dark night.  Luckily while I was running the big, full moon came up over the mountain and was absolutely gorgeous for me over the water for my whole run!  

This leg had lots of memories for me....While I was still starting to get use to running in the dark on my own I was going up a hill concentrating when I hear a man's voice yell out to me.  I can't even remember what he said but I let out a scream!  He was on the other side of the road in the dark and scared me to death.  I'm pretty sure he was cheering me on, but it creeped me out because there wasn't suppose to be any vehicles stopped along this road. Then I started hearing phlegm boy behind me.  It was about driving me crazy, I couldn't wait for him to pass me.  (for two reasons...one so I didn't have to hear him behind me anymore and two so I would have someone in front of me so I didn't feel so alone.)  He passed me and got enough ahead of me that I didn't have to worry about him spitting all over me but I could keep him right there to follow.  This was also "Skunk Row". Holy cow!  I thought for sure I was going to be sprayed and I wouldn't be allowed back in the van!  I could smell skunk pretty much the whole run.  My favorite memories are of the beautiful scenery that followed me through this run.  The moon, the water, the mountains....I just kept wishing I were an artist who could go home and paint the scenes I was seeing!  This turned out to be an amazing time for me....one of those runner high times!  Even after getting back into the van my teammates could tell that I had a great time on that one!  Mile 1 8:53, Mile 2 9:20, Mile 3 8:29, Mile 4 8:05, Mile 5 8:02, Last .55 7:27  AP: 8:27 Overall time: 46:56

After getting a few hours of something we tried to call sleep we were up and running again.  It was fun to cheer the team on again.  Especially Hal on "you've got to be kidding me" and Tom on Ragnar.  They are both awesome runners and did great on these hard legs!  It was very fun to watch them Run Like Hal!

At the end of Tom's leg I was there waiting for the exchange with the funky snow sculptures and abandoned snowmobiles.  I got a nice salty kiss from him and started up the rest of that hill thinking this was the only part of this final leg that would be up hill.  (I was wrong).  I got up feeling good and started letting it go on the downhill.  However, it was very downhill so it was scary.  I didn't want to 1.go rolling down the hill or 2. trash my knees.  So I was trying to run fast but keep in control.  I could hear someone behind me flying down...I just hoped he wouldn't run right over me!  He went screaming past me and I never really saw him again.

 Then I could hear one more person behind me.  He ended up passing me on that downhill then I passed him on some flat, then he passed me on some down then I passed him on a major uphill.  I thought he would pass me on the last big down hill but I had won the battle!  I came in plenty before him!  I am glad he was around though because I would have been completely alone without him.  Mile 3 had a hill I wasn't expecting and I had to walk a bit there.  My team happened to be able to see me feeling a bit frustrated there and tried to cheer me on a bit from the van.  Then they saw where I was going to have to climb a huge hill that I REALLY wasn't expecting and they tried to wait there for me for a minute to cheer me on.  They were'n't suppose to stop much on this road so it was kind of tricky but they knew I was going to need a little cheering.  However, I don't think I accepted their cheering in a very happy way when I was having to go up that hill.  I wasn't feeling the love and I wasn't giving the love back either.   It was here that I passed that guy again though.  And now that I think about it, he passed me one more time after this on a down hill but then I passed him one more time before leaving him for good.   I never saw the "one mile to go" marker on this so when I saw the people who were calling my number into the finish line I was pretty thrilled I was almost done.  It was fun running fast into the final chute!

 Mile 1 9:10 (uphill) Mile 2 7:06, Mile 3 7:23, Mile 4 10:04, Mile 5 7:42, Mile 6 7:23, Mile 7 7:15 and the final stretch (last .08) 6:08  AP: 7:59 and overall time 56:30

Passed to Doug and the rest of us hit the shuttle to the finish line.  Van one went home when they were done so we ran through the finish line looking like an ultra team ha ha!  Then the next cool thing was to see the clock that said our time was 23:39:29.  How cool is that?  Except that it was 6 hours wrong.....they had us with an 11:00 start instead of 5:00.  So our real time is 29:39:29.

Last night I was finally able to walk down stairs without pain! So this morning I went out and found one of my speedier Iwannarunna 5k ladies to hop on board with for a slow run. She was happy I was there to push her and I was happy to have someone to run slow with. Thanks LeAnn!

My legs are still not quite the same after my 2 downhill weekends.  I'll keep it easy this week and hope things kick in a bit better next week.  I'm still just grateful that it seems to all be regular old muscle fatigue and no injuries.  

We took our girls to the Kid History Episode 5 release tonight.  Kind of funny how some guys silly little videos have done so well!  We were at the 5:00 sold out show and they had another sold out show at 8:00. 

Five slow but not as slow as yesterday.  : )

Today was the best I have felt all week.  Tom and I started out at 5:00 and got around 7 miles in before we saw any of the rest of the gang.  At that point Tom took off with the speedy guys while I enjoyed some chit chat running with a group of about 7.  Had some fun laughs.  Two of the ones I ran with this morning were on our team so it was fun to share the memories.

Here is a picture of Tia as the Dormouse and Tani as the Cheshire Cat with Grand ma-ma and Grand pappy!  The did a fabulous job in their performances yesterday!  Our two little drama queens!

I met Kay on Center Street this morning and did some up and down the city street with her.  Had a nice run and a nice chat.  : )

I went to bed last night with the plan to wake up and do 7 miles.  During the night my back decided it was time to really make me uncomfortable and keep me awake.  When the time came to get out and run I was tired and my back was not helping me feel happy.  I almost decided to try to crawl back in bed but I know that it's the laying down that makes it worse.  So I decided to lace up the shoes and start out with Tom.

I could tell in the first few blocks that my back was not loosening up for me as quick as I would like so I told Tom to go ahead without me.  At that point I thought I MIGHT make it out a mile and turn back.  At a mile I decided to see if going down heartbreak hill would help loosen things a bit.  By that time I decided I might as well get to 2 miles and then turn around.  But by the 2 mile mark I was finally feeling better and ran up to Canyon View Park to meet up with Tom.  I think he was surprised to see  me...he didn't think I was going to make it that far today.  We got to run back home together and I was feeling much better and running more like an actual human being again.  I won the battle this morning! 

I decided I need to give my back an extra day off this week.  I had a bad night again last night...maybe the two weekends of down hill races jared my back more than I thought. 

Just have to mention our son, Camron...he just placed 7th in a national business competition in Florida!  He is really getting some good experiences with this competition, I just wish they were handing him a little more moola for schooling with the awards....Oh well.  Good job Cam!

Six miles on the bunny trail with Tommy!  

I was very happy that this morning I woke up after the best night of sleep of the week. No back issues!  We wanted to get our long run done today because of late nights tonight and tomorrow night.  Tom and I started out at 5:00 in beautiful SG!  We were happy to feel the cool temps at that time.  It actually stayed pretty much perfect for the whole run.  Tom added 4 more to make another 20 miler for him.  Sixteen is plenty for me at the moment.

I hope everyone is having a fun and safe 4th of July!  We always have a fun time back in my old home town of Manti with family and friends.  Today was the first year none of our kids wanted to go with us.  : (  Tom and I enjoyed ourselves though and the kids enjoyed being home.  

I was planning on 6 miles today but I left home with not even nearly enough water in my system. So I could turn around at 3 miles to get home with six or go another half mile to the water fountain at the park and end up with seven.  I had to choose the water....I was so thirsty today!  Very warm, muggy and windy.  I met up with Tom when we both had about 2 1/2 miles left.  I'm glad I had him to run with or I may have done some wimping out on those last few miles. 

Tom and I are trying really hard not to complain about the heat!  At least when it's cold out we can layer and warm up, but when it's hot there is nothing you can do.  All of you who are running in even more heat than us....you rock!  

This morning I tagged along with Tom to run up and down Payson Canyon. We started at Beercan Flats and went up 4 miles. The last .20 or so going up I started feeling sick!  Between pushing up hill and seeing the creek out of the corner of my eye and hearing the water roar I just felt yucky!  But I pushed to the top and took a little breather for the journey back down.

Going down felt much better until about half way down when I over extended my knee or something and got a bit nervous.  I stopped and started but it hurt.  So I told Tom to go on ahead and come and pick me up.  After he left I was able to start back up slower and it actually felt fine the rest of the way.  So I made it down after all.  Poor Tom....his main running partner always has some kind of issue....but he never complains.   

Kay was my running buddy today.  It's always fun to be with her.  We went out to the river trail and up to Canyon View Park for a drink.  Lucky enough to have a Kellie Shepherd sighting on the trail.  : )

Slight rubbing on the side of the left knee in the last .30.  I'm a little nervous about the IT band this year.  I've had good luck with it for a few years but have been feeling some little things here and there that I am going to keep and eye on and be very careful with.  I do not want ITB issues! 

Today was a day when the "plan" and "what actually happened" are not the same.

 I had planned to join in with the SF running club for 5 miles before heading off on my own towards Springville for 7-8- more miles to watch Tom come in at the Hobbler 5K.  

The plan started right.  I met up with a good sized group and did our regular route.  The first three miles I ended up in conversation with Ken and Chad which meant I was in the lead group. It was actually feeling really good, in fact I was doing much of the talking and it was going great. But somewhere along the way my right achilles decided it didn't like what I had done.  On the next three miles I was going slower but it was burning pretty good especially when I went up Heartbreak Hill.  

That is where the plan changed.  I decided to take the last mile home slowly and then jump in the truck to go to Springville instead.  I thought I might be able to get a few more miles in over there while I was waiting for things to start but it didn't feel right so I didn't.  

I'm thinking that with the UV 1/2 then Ragnar the next week I haven't quite given myself the rests I have needed as a still fairly inexperienced runner.  I am going to watch this carefully and try to get it better before it gets worse.  I may be a little over protective this next week to see if that helps.  I hate to do that because I have been enjoying too many treats this past month and I need to run to make up for all of them!  : )

It was very fun to watch Tom at his finish line though!  Whenever we both run I never get to be there to cheer him in.   

Three run miles.  Last mile feeling kind of the tight/burning feeling in my right achiles area.  Walked 3 miles.  Felt fine while walking until the last quarter or so.  Then some pain from walking.  I will continue to take it easy and see what happens.  I would rather err on the side of caution here.  

Tom and I had to visit the ER with our 17 year old last night.  He wrecked on his bike.  He is a stunt rider but was just on a casual ride on the river trail when he wrecked.  Messed up his cute face and his knee a bit.  Hopefully he won't be down for long.  He isn't the kind of guy who likes to be stuck at home for very long, but he doesn't have any desire to do much today.  He is a sad looking boy.  : ( 

Wow...that's not very fun to write .25, especially when I only got to write 3 yesterday.  

I went out a bit later than usual but the temps were nice because of the wind and overcast sky.  I started running and noticed pain in the achilies right from the get go.  So I gave it a quarter of a mile and felt like it's not a good idea to push it right now.  So I turned around and walked home.  I grabbed the rickety old bike we have and went on an 8 mile bike ride instead.  I would have liked to get at least twice the amount of miles on the bike as I would have running but my neck, shoulders and bum need to toughen up a bit more for me to get that.  

Of course I never see many bikers while I am out, but today when I was on the old bike and looking very newbie-ish I had to go right through a gang of fancy dressed, fancy biked people who were stopped for a water break.  

Tested a little bit with Tom but decided that I needed to do some run/walk stuff so left him to do his own thing.  I was able to get some walk/run in for about 1.3 miles but it didn't feel good so I decided I would just get a good long walk in today.  After another mile I decided it was too boring to walk alone so I went back to get my rickety bike.  After biking I finished up with a little more walking with my doggy.  So I ended up with 3 miles walk and 5 miles bike.  Not impressive by many standards but at least I got out and propelled myself in one way or another for awhile.  

This week I have been introduced to pool running.  Tuesday I ran for one hour, yesterday for 70 minutes.  I took my HR at the end of the first day and it was 144 so I felt good with that.  I hope running will come back easily to me again.  I need one more week of rest and then I should be ready to try the roads out again.  It will be 4 weeks of rest when I start back up.  Hopefully that will be just right to be healed enough to run and not re-do the injury.  We'll see what happens with  Hobblecreek and SGM  when they get here.  

We had a super nice baby shower last night for a darling couple from Madagascar who are coming to BYU for a few years.  They left home, family, country, everything but $250.00 and came to a strange, foreign land.  They are going to have a baby in September and thought they were going to have nothing for him.....now they have everything they need to help get his little life going!  They were so sweet and so humble!  It was so fun to see how everyone rallied around to help someone in need that they didn't even know. 

Update:  I have been doing some pool running to keep the cardio alive.  This morning when I went to the PT he put some heat and then ultra sound.  After that I did my stretches then he did the scraping and more stretching before hitting the pool.

Today he decided to tie me to the side of the pool and do some swimming, mostly kicking along with my pool running.  While I was doing the pool running I stayed tied to the side.  It seemed to give me a good workout.  Only problem today was that the thermostat on the pool was messed up and the pool was 99 degrees!  I actually almost passed out after 60 minutes of working out in there.   I had wanted to get 70 minutes but I couldn't wait to get out at 60!  Oh ya, he also had me spend the first 10 minutes in the 4 foot area and just try to run with the closest form I could with actually touching my whole foot down.  Throughout the week he wants me to go to more shallow each time until I am at waist deep.  Then I have been given permission to run on Friday or Saturday.

5 Minutes walk/5 Minutes run/etc for 6.2 miles.  Pain in the right high ham string because I haven't been running but otherwise felt good.

Home/stretch/ice/Meloxicam 

Waited till afternoon to run since I had taken some Meloxicam late morning yesterday.  I wanted to make sure it was out of my system before trying day two.

This time I stuck to 40 minutes like the PT had told me.  I didn't feel the soreness in the right bum/leg.  

Pretty much the same as yesterday only in Payson before my PT appointment.  Hard to find any level running roads in Payson!  It is all hills.  I kept it very easy and felt good.  Had a little shin splint in the right leg and a few other muscles trying to remember how to run but not too bad.  

Went in for my last PT appt.  Darin talked a lot to me about the importance of rest days and stretching, especially as we age and wanting to be able to be active for the long haul.  

Some things I tried to commit to:

• If I can't commit to running only 3-4 days a week I will at least make sure my easy days are EASY days!
• Walk 5 minutes and quick stretch before each run.
• Slow stretches after runs.

This week I will take tomorrow off, run Friday and Saturday with the runs getting to 20 minutes with 5 minute walks.

Next week:  Monday run, Tues, try 10 miles with some walking breaks. Wed. rest, Thurs, run, Friday rest, Saturday, Hobble Creek 1/2 as a training long run only! Still take walking breaks. NO RACING! 

I got to run with my cute hubby again!  Thanks Tom for doing a slow easy run with me today!  I ran 20 minutes twice with a walk before, 5 minute walk between the two sets and a walk after, which my little doggy was very grateful for.

Tomorrow I will try to do 2 sets of 30 minutes with a five minute walk break.  I'm taking it nice and easy to get back to things.  I have already planned that Hobble Creek and SGM will be very different than what my plan was back in July.  Before injury I was feeling like I could PR in both now they will both be very gentle and just for fun.  Possibly I will go for my WR (worst record) in both of them.  And that will be just fine! Just being out to run again is enough.  I don't want to do anything to set me back again right now. 

The good thing about not having the pressure of a 20 miler today is that I got to sleep in a bit longer than a usual Saturday.  Got out the door around 6:30, I guess that is still early for most of my neighbors.  Today's plan was to run 30 minutes twice with some walking before, between and after.  Every once in a while I feel a slight twinge on my left knee (IT band area) so I will continue to keep it easy.  But the good news is...my achilles is doing great!  I even went up hill a few times today and it felt fine!  Yea!

Now....lots to do to get ready for 2 weeks of guests from Japan with a wedding to finish off the month of August! How exciting!  Hope I can handle it all.  Maybe that is why I was hurt so I wouldn't have the marathon pressure hanging over me during these next few weeks.

Went out to do the 4 mile loop for the first time in a while...I was with Tom until mile 3 where we split for him to get more and me to head up the hill for home.  

Tomorrow I try 10 miles.  I hope it works.

Soon I am off to the SLC airport to pick up our 4 Japanese guests.  I am excited to have Rurika and her mom, sis and friend stay with us!  It has been 2 years since Rurika has seen her mom and sis.  The only sad thing is that her dad can't be here too. 

Busy day....Started off with my first 10 miler post injury and it went great!  I started off with Tom and we were able to run together for 3 miles.  At that point he went his way for his workout and I  went mine.  I went up around the golf course and down the trail.  In order to make it 10 miles before reaching home I had to add a second up and down of the trail.  It was a very nice morning and I was so happy to be running.  The last mile and a half or so my right ham string was letting me know it was there so I just slowed things down a bit more and it felt fine.  Today it has stiffened up here and there as I have had to drive a bunch.  I am icing at the moment and I will take tomorrow off.

 Went to SLC today to be with my son and his future bride for their pictures.We had them taken at the International Gardens in SLC.  What a nice place.  I've never been there before. They had their pics done with her in her dress and him in his tux.  I know some people don't believe in the groom seeing the bride in her dress before the wedding, but I am so glad they did it this way!  They were darling!

After that we were able to show our Japanese guests more of SLC including Temple Square. 

I came into this race after a week of being  back on the road after 4 weeks down time.  My main goal was to make it without re injury.  I wanted to play it smart but at the same time give a good effort.  I think I managed to reach my goals.  

This was the longest run I have had since the 2nd of July.  The last four miles I kept it in the 9:00 to 9:30 range and it felt a little bit harder than I had wanted it to, but still felt better than a regular 1/2 marathon when I have pushed harder.  I took walking breaks through 2 water stops and just before the turn into the neighborhood with the water stop.  It was there that I was excited to see Tom!  I was happy that he had already finished and had ran back this far to run me in and looking like he was doing great!  Unfortunately I was wrong...when I met up with him he said he had turned around in the 12th mile or so and came back to run in with me because he had a major crash and burn.  That made me sad....but it was nice to have him run in with me. 

The last half mile was fun as there were several fans out cheering and many people called out my name!  Great to have the support!  I was grateful to hit the POP afterwards as I was very well hydrated the whole race, but I wasn't quite as grateful as the lady who came running in after I was done....I am glad I was on my way out or I think she might have thrown me out she was in such a hurry!  I felt bad for her....not a fun feeling....been there, done that!  : )

Anyway, I was 9 to 10 minutes slower than I had planned on when I signed up for this race because of the down time, but I am fine with that.  Just glad I was able to come back.  The achilles and everything else felt fine during the race.  The achilles felt a little tight afterwards, hopefully it will be fine in the long run.   

Our friends were getting rid of their treadmill so they gave it to us.  I hate TMs so I haven't done anything with it.  Today since I only planned to do 3 slow miles I decided to try it out after the kids went off to their first day of school.  I hated every step of it.  Did not enjoy it one bit.  

Kids were all happy to head back to school.  Kind of bittersweet time when they all leave me again.  This is a very busy week as our oldest son will be married on Saturday.  So happy to have Rurika officially join our family!  : )

Six enjoyable miles mostly by myself...got to chat with Wynette for a few minutes and then with Tammy who is doing her first half marathon in a few weeks (Disneyland 1/2).  She is excited but nervous.  I am proud of her because she hates running and is doing all the work anyway!  I hope the 1/2 will help her find a little love for running and she can start enjoying it more.  Because it is fun to enjoy!

Ran into Tom and saw an owl.  That's the excitement for today's run.  Busy wedding stuff now.

Just by my lonesome on my 45th birthday, in the dark and windy morning the day before I became a mother in law.  : )

A little bitter/sweet today as we say goodbye to all our guests and a chapter of our life but welcome back to our regular ole way of living.

I was pretty wiped out last night as I wasn't able to get to bed much before midnight again so I didn't even plan on getting up for a morning run today.  I didn't even hear a single sound as Tom got up to the alarm and went out for his run.  So nice to just sleep till 7:00.  I was even willing to forget all about a run for today if I never felt like going.  However, after everyone left for the airport I decided I would go out and try for anywhere from 0 to 7 miles.  I think it was 90 degrees or so at that time.  I hope I never go to H#%^ or even to Arizona for that matter...I don't think I would be much of a runner in either of those places!

I was able to muster 7 miles...luckily there was a drinking fountain at the half way point.  On the second to the last mile when I'm sure I was looking pretty ragged I saw two birds circling overhead.  As they were flying they looked like hawks.  They landed in a field just ahead of me so I looked over to check them out a little closer.   They were vultures!  OK, maybe not real vultures, but the ugly bird that looks a lot like them!  They were there waiting for me to go down so they could have me for dinner!  I like when someone has me over for dinner, but not if I AM the dinner!  I swear they were thinking I was going to be their next meal!  And with all the eating I have been doing the past few weeks I would have fed them both very nicely!  It gave me just the right amount of umph that I was needing to finish my run home. 

I am lucky enough to have the option of sleeping in a bit and going running after kids head off to school so this week I have been taking that option. The sleep has been needed.

Perfect morning except for the darn grasshoppers!  Not liking them!  

I am kind of liking the idea of getting ready for a marathon with no pressures.  Whatever happens will happen.  Main goals of SGM....Have fun, help others, make it without injury and get a PW!

Wow!  I don't know where August went!  But it has been a great month.  Now on to September.  

I had planned to do 16 to 17 today but that plan changed.  Tom and I went down Provo Canyon for our long run.  We each did our own thing and met up toward the end.  I think I did the first 10 miles too fast down hill and my legs weren't ready for that.  So by 14 I wasn't able to run with good enough form to keep from feeling like an injury was about to occur so I decided to walk the last mile and a half to the van.  

This has helped me realize even more that there is no way I can compete against myself this year at SGM. (since that is the only person I usually compete with I won't be worrying about competition this year!) 

I am going to SGM to HAVE a good time not to GET a good time.   If I try to GET a good time I am going to end up not HAVING a good time and most likely not GETTING a good time either because with the month down my legs are just not ready to do more. 

On the bunny trail in SG....now back home in SF.  Hard to leave the weekend.

With the mighty wind today....but no grasshoppers out to bug me!  Yeah!

This week went much better than last week. 

Changes I made were

1. took 1/10 to 2/10 mile walking breaks every 2 1/2 - 3 miles.

2. didn't leave my shot blocks in the car

3. didn't do the steep 4.3 mile downhill to start, more uphill instead.

 I hope I will be able to get a 20 miler in next week.  Would have been nice to be able to go into SGM the way I had planned earlier in the year, but I am actually thrilled to be where I am at this point after taking 4 weeks off just over a month ago.

After my run this morning I came home to our missionary's 10th to the last letter before coming home!  Can't wait to see that boy again!  But I am so grateful for the wonderful experiences he is having right now!

My run this morning was very patriotic in my head.  Lots of thinking about yesterday and how we were feeling 10 years ago.  I am so glad we have 10 years of healing behind us...those days after 9/11 were very scary....we all wondered what kind of world we were now living in or if anything would ever be "normal" again.  

Eight miles on the trail on a pert-near perfect September morning!  So nice to see so many others out enjoying the morning too!  Our perfect days are limited, I want to enjoy each and every one of them!  

(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´ ¸.•*¨)¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´(¸.• (¸.•´¸¸.•¨¯`•.¸¸.♥ Happy Birthday to an amazing 14 year old girl! Tani Loa Lee! I am a lucky mommy! ♥ ♥ ♥ `*.¸.*´•¨¯`•.¸¸.♥  Got some fun up my sleeve for this fun girl!¸.•´ ¸.•*¨)¸.•*¨)

Well, I finally got a 20 miler in before the marathon.  I would have preferred to have 2 or 3 by now, but I am happy with this one.  Tom dropped me off at the top of South Fork in Provo Canyon and I got to enjoy absolutely breathtaking views with crisp, clear air and perfect temps! Can't ask for much more than that for my 20 miler.  

I felt good through the whole thing.  I did, however, cramp up when I finished and started stretching.  Ouch!  Thighs and calves!  Glad that didn't happen during the run and also glad that I had a personal massage therapist traveling with me to help me get the cramping under control!  Thanks Tom!

We had a fun Kid History surprise party for our 14 year old last night.  Had lots of fun and I even ate a hot dog for dinner.  I don't like hot dogs except for every once in a while they call my name and I really want one.  So I had one last night not knowing what it would do to my run today.  Seems that nothing happened unless the hot dog was the cause of the cramping.  Luckily it wasn't stomach cramping though!  : )  Two weeks till SGM.  I guess I'm as ready as I am going to be.   

A lovely six miles this morning.  A little windy as I started which made it a bit cold, but ended up great!  Must have been the right time of the morning to avoid the grasshoppers!  Didn't see a one!  Yippee!

Today I found the silver lining.....or at least the silver anniversary!  EEeeeek!  How could it already be 25 years!?  Love you Tom! 

Whoa!  For some reason that was a really hard run.  Didn't have my head in the game today!  But I got er done!

Today is my sweet mother-in-law's birthday.  Too bad she has been gone for 18 years.  We sure do miss her.

I ran 3 miles this evening down to the running club Midnight Run/Pizza party.  While there I got the other 3 in with the gang.  Always nice to get the families together.

Five on Grasshopper Lane with Tom.  Nice Tom, Dang grasshoppers!  

I wanted to make sure I didn't end up with speedy people today because I didn't want to push the pace at all.  Well, when Tom and I met up at the church, who do we find?  Speedy Chad, Speedy Ken, Speedy Pat!  So I told them I would go the other way to the Storehouse and meet them there to see if any slower people showed up.  Down there  we got Speedy Hal and Speedy Kevin to join in!  Luckily not quite as speedy Stephen was there too and Tom decided it wasn't smart to push things with the racers this morning so I was able to run with them for a bit.  However, Tom and Hal pushed a bit more than I wanted and Stephen went off to talk to Mother Nature, so I ended up alone again. 

At Osborne's Tom finally realized he really didn't want to push the pace with the racers and stuck with me until a little less than a mile when he wanted to push again just to get home!  So my run today was with Tom and without Tom. 

T minus one week and counting!

Today I ran 2 miles with my friend, Tami, and then 3 alone in Mapleton.  Fun to have some new roads to run on but there is a bunch of construction going on there so it was hard to avoid big tractors and trucks.

I love to go on our trail but if I run from my house and all the way up the trail and back it is 7 miles.  So today I drove out a mile and did a nice 5 mile run on the trail.  I tried really hard today to not look down at all the ugly grasshoppers.  I did pretty good too.  One did hit my leg and I let out a small eek, but I think I handled myself quite well.

Happy Birthday to our son, Tyler, who turns 21 today!  He is in Denmark serving a full time LDS Mission and will return on Nov. 22 of this year!  I can't wait to see him again and give him his birthday hugs for when he turned 20 and 21!

Went to Mapleton to run a couple miles with Tami again and then 3 on my own.  I'm thinking that will be the last of my running until Saturday bright and early at the starting line of SGM.

So my 4th marathon is in the memory bank.  It was my slowest marathon to date, yet I feel good about the whole thing considering what I was able to bring to the table for this one.  I had assumed that I would probably be in the 4:15 - 4:30 range, I just wish that it would have felt a little bit easier than it did.  

In July I hurt my achilles and took 4 weeks off when I should have been ramping up my miles, this past Wednesday I decided to start getting sick and the weather was nice and warm!  So I feel very good about how things played out.  I took it easier when I felt like something may be on the verge of getting hurt and I ran a bit faster at other times.  I was diligent in taking some walking breaks as I had promised myself and my PT dude. 

My parents and our daughters were at the finish line for us this year.  It's the first time my parents were able to come to a marathon and watch.  I was excited to see them as I ran to the finish line but I never saw them and they never saw me.  : (  There were a lot of people coming in when I was coming and I must have blended in with the crowd.  They were able to see Tom and Terry come in though.  

It was hard to see lots of people go down or have to be shuttled off the course this year.  I'm curious of how many DNFs there were.  

 It was fun to have Terry and his family with us at the condo again!  It was also fun to meet Jeff Shadley and his cute family who stayed in our condo next door.    

I am writing this report back at home on Sunday and feeling quite well.  For some reason I don't get quite as stiff and sore in my muscles as most people.  I will take things easy this next month and then I think I will put some time into 5K speed work again like I did last winter.

Yesterday Tom and I went over to the PT pool and did an hour of pool running.  

 This morning I went out for a short and sweet run.  Short=3miles, Sweet=slow, feel good, perfect temps!  I have been feeling very good since the marathon.  It was nice to go out and feel good today.  I'm afraid this may be the last day of the perfect temps for a bit.  Hopefully more will come after this cold spell that is approaching.

An hour of pool running yesterday with Tommy and 8 miles today with him.  Very nice to get out and enjoy a beautiful morning run together.  

 Later enjoyed an afternoon with several 10 and 11 year old girls for Tia's birthday party.  Lots of fun!  Now I will try to watch football with Tom.  

Six with Tom in the glorious fall weather!  LoVe It!  

Today we heard from our son in Denmark that he has been transferred for his last 6 weeks.  I'm sure that is hard to have a change like that right then, but he has a wonderful attitude and is doing some great things!  Can't wait to see that boy!

On my own with my own thoughts today.  Kind of peaceful.  Enjoyed the river trail along with many others.  I'm always surprised how bundled up everyone gets when it's 50 degrees though.  I'm in shorts and short sleeves and they are in layers of longs!  

Beautiful days don't get much better than this.  Absolutely gorgeous outside today!  Tom and I enjoyed the trail and there are only a few grasshoppers left...that helps make it even more beautiful!

After my run I usually take my doggy out for a walk around the neighborhood.  Today I was lucky to bump into 3 gentlemen from my neighborhood and sat out and chatted with them for a bit.  Ben, Phil and Richard.  Two of them were having fun telling me all about their running and pole vaulting days.   The other one had fun telling me his "running from the cops" stories.  They all had lots of stories to tell and were so excited for a new audience to listen!  They were giving me quite the chuckles!  The thing is, two of them are older and have health problems and the one that is probably 8 years older than me is dying of liver cancer.  And yet, today as they talked and remembered their glory days they were all very happy and you would never know that any of them had any health issues at all.  It's amazing how stopping to listen can help someone in need.  I need to stop and listen more often.  Not only to neighbors but to my very own wonderful loved ones!

Just an all around, feel good run with the hubby in the beautiful fall weather today.  Not much to talk about but lots to enjoy!

Tom and I have been taking advantage of him working at home and going out in the later morning in the sunshine for our runs.  This morning we decided to get out in the dark morning with the SF gang.  It was still shorts and short sleeve weather though so it was nice.  And the big ole moon up there lighting our way for the first while was quite enjoyable! 

Not many with our group this morning, just us, Hal, Doug and Lori and their son,Tyler.  Even though there weren't many in our group today there were lots of people out and about.  Lots of fun to see people enjoying health, beautiful weather and beautiful surroundings!

Six in the dark with head lamps and reflectors and some light misty rain.  Not bad at all for Oct. 17th!  

This morning there was a mighty chill in the breeze to start with. I just ran around wherever the wind blew me. It was kind of nice to mix things up a bit. Still able to be in shorts and short sleeves. Love it!

 I went out with Tom into the dark, chilly, windy morning.  We decided to start out going west so we wouldn't have to run straight into the wind at the beginning.  We headed down to the ball park where I was happy that they keep the bathrooms open.  Then we turned east but the wind wasn't as bad now that we were warmed up.  As we headed up into the river bottoms we noticed a little red in the sky between the east mountains that told us eventually there would be some sunshine coming our way.

We went up 5 mile hill and back toward home.  Tom was finishing with 6 but I was doing my long run so I ran around the block while he went in the house to bring me a drink.  It was nice that I didn't have to take the time to go into the house...that seems to make it hard to get going again.

I headed back out and the sun was starting to shine.  I went back down into the river bottoms and up the trail.  It was so pretty with the colored leaves all over the trail and the golden corn stalks shining in the sun.  Then looking through the trees and up to the mountains covered in all their colorful glory...who could not enjoy a morning like that!?  It made me realize that I not only love to run, I love that I CAN get out and run!  And I love that I'm out enjoying one of  the beautiful seasons God has created for me!

At the top of the trail the mighty wind was just a howling!  I grabbed a drink at the fountain and let the wind push me back on my way.  A pebble hopped aboard in my right shoe with about 4 miles left.  I really didn't want to get it out so I kept doing the shuffle kick to get it somewhere that it didn't bug me too much.

Over all a really enjoyable 14 miler! 

I decided that since Tom would be doing his own thing today I may as well wait till the sun was shining to go out since I would be alone either way.  It was a good choice, but it took too long to get out the door.  I knew that once I was out there I was going to enjoy things, I just had a hard time taking that first step today.  

But true to my thoughts, it was very nice to be out there!  This kind of beautiful day isn't going to be around much longer here in our parts.  I am happy I was able to go out and run in the crunchy leaves!  LoVe It!!

Same as yesterday only this time with Tom.  : )

This morning I went to my friend's house and did some circuit training.  I am hoping to be able to do that a few times a week.  After sending the kids off I went out for a run.  Next week I hope to start throwing in some speed work.

Waited around till just before lunch to run with Tom.  I love when he can work at home!  

Our good neighbors just remodeled their already-nice-house.  So today they came to ask us if we knew who could use their "old" sofa and love seat.  ME!!!!  I so needed them in my basement!  I am so excited!  Yay!  Thanks good neighbors!  

Well I didn't have to pay for this or actually race it and I didn't get a bib number and I didn't get an official time but I did run it as a pacer and I did get a shirt and a medal so I will call it a race.

 Tom and I paced the 2:30 group which was actually quite fun.  A little different experience for both of us but we really had a good time with it.  

Wow!  I can't believe it is already November!  Three weeks from today we get to go to the SLC Airport and pick up our son who has been serving a church mission in Denmark for two years! We are so excited to see him!  It is nice to send them out to serve a mission but it is much easier to get them back home!  

This morning when it was dry outside I went to my friend's house and did some circuit training inside.....then when the rain was pouring down I went outside to get a run in!  I was so wet it did not even matter that there were little flash floods at the intersections that I had to run through!

The last mile and a half turned to a heavy, wet snow!  I felt like I was carrying 10 extra pounds. When I got home I decided to step on the scale with all my wetness to see the difference.  It was an 8.5 lb. difference.   I had to step into the tub to take all the wet gear off.....and guess what?....this is just the beginning!  We have a whole winter ahead of us!

This morning I signed up for the 2012 Utah Grand Slam and for the Ogden marathon which is part of the grand slam.  

Tonight we get to do our part and feed our local missionaries....I guess I'd better get back to work getting the house clean and the food ready! 

Got totally lost today...how strange.  Must have been lost in my thoughts and mixed up!  Or maybe I was trying to hide my face from the cold wind so much that I didn't watch where I was going.  Whatever the case...it was a little weird!