Trying to improve my running

I did a couple of easy miles this morning to wake up my legs before the race tomorrow.

This was a super fun relay. glad I was able to participate I was really happy with my results as well as our team results. It was a 50 mile relay and each team member did 2 legs. My first leg was 4.02 miles this was pretty flat overall with only a little hill in the middle. I averaged 7:47/mile, which is faster than I have done 4 miles since starting running again. the second leg was tougher. It was the last leg and they added a mile+ to it a week before the race started. That had me a little psyched out. It was supposed to be 6.4 miles but it turned into 7.9 miles. It also had a fairly steep hill in the middle. I decided to still do it. I did pretty well on this as well. I wanted to go slower since I new it was a longer distance so I held myself back at first to 8:30/mile then after the hill I had a couple of miles that were at 8:45/mile at mile 5 I started to pick it up again and the last ~3 miles were less than 8:30/mile. The last mile was faster still and it was really cool to have my tem come out and run the last couple hundred yards with me across the finishline. This makes me excited to do another race.

Just did a couple of miles tonight to loosen up after the race. I did it with my brother in law, but he mostly walked. It had some steep hills which I am not used to but I felt pretty good and was able to loosen up quickly.

Wanted to go running today, and was hoping to go for a longer run. However, my flight was delayed and I didn't have much time after i landed before I had to be to work. I did get to go out on some trails I ran through saguaro NP right by my house. There was a nice little hill on the run. They have also cleaned up the trail a lot since I last did it. Boy it was hot though I think it was high 80's today. I don't know what I am going to do this summer.

 AP: 9:14/mile Elev: 195 ft. 

Did a nice trail run today after work. I wanted to go farther but it was on trails I have never run on before and it was getting pretty dark so I decided I better go back instead of get lost in the desert. It is a lot slower for me to go on trails. I am going to need to get used to that. The majority of this run was through dry stream beds and had a lot of loose sand. It was a beautiful evening though.

AP: 9:20 Vert: 192 ft. 

Quick run this AM. It was pretty windy. I think that was part of the slow down for the first 2 miles.

AP: 8:30/mile 

This was a fun "run". I did the flag rock run with my brother the MrK. I said quote run because I walked about 3/4 of the uphill portion if not more. It was a hard run. I wish I lived up there to be able to get more elevation training. It doesn't seem like we have anything like that here in Tucson. I love doing trails. However, it is different than running on roads. 

 AP: 13:09/mile, Vert: 1711 

Just did the regular run today. It felt pretty hard maybe because I hadn't ran for a couple of days. Maybe because I was tired from the long travel week last week and the hard run on Thursday. Not completely sure.

AP: 8:22/mile 

Mostly flat with a bit of a hill at the half way point. I also did a bit of trail running not much before I had to go back to go to work. I felt better than yesterday.

AP: 8:44/mile 

Nice trail run in my new Altra lone peaks. This was beautiful day and a great trail to run on. It is close to my house and has Ok elevation gain for tucson maybe i will try and do this run several times a week until it is too easy. I did have to stop and rest a couple of times (30 sec a time). I like the new shoes and am excited to get more trails. I am thinking about getting a pair of road shoes with zero drop, except my wife might kill me if I tell her I want yet more running shoes.

AP: 10:10/mile 

This was a great run/hike up to Wasson peak in Tucson. I had to walk probably close to 50% of the way up. I think it is a great hill to practice on. I would like to get to the point I can run the whole thing.

AP: 13:46/mile 

I was so excited by the run on Saturday that I thought I would try and go up the mountain right by my house. I wasn't able to get all the way to the top because I ran out of time. It was a pretty hard run as well with a not very well developed trail for better than half of the way. Spent a good portion of the time walking and scrambling to find my way up. Just at the point I stopped the trail was getting very scarce. I want to try it again and see if I can get to the top.

AP: 15:45/mile

Nice run by the grand canyon this AM. It was freezing cold for a desert boy though. I had to go pretty slow at first to avoid slipping on the ice.  Towards the end of the run started feeling pretty good though. This was at significantly higher altitude than I am used to as well (6600 ft).

AP: 8:59/mile 

Fun run along the South rim of the grand canyon at sunrise. It was chilly with a good amount of ice on the trail that slowed me some. I think the altitude played more of a role at slowing me today as well (6650-7060 feet). Beautiful run though. 

AP: 10:22/mile 

Nice run this AM. I was able to tun the whole uphill portion and felt like it was faster on the trails than it has been in the past. It was also beautiful to see the desert starting to bloom.

AP: 9:42/mile Vert: 304 

I thought I would try and run the route that I used to run pretty regularly. It has a little bit of a hill that i used to feel like was pretty tough. After having run offroad for the last couple of weeks this run was pretty easy and I was about 30 seconds faster than usual. The uphill 2 miles were just about 8:30/mile and the downhills were 7:48 and 7:53. 

AP: 8:09/mile

I felt pretty sore today from the other runs this week. I thought I should take it easy today, I only went just over 2 miles.  It felt pretty good towards the end after I loosened up.

AP: 8:07/mile 

This was the offroad loop with an extra hill thrown in. I was able to run everything up until the steep part of the hill. I am not sure if not being able to run up the hill was because of being too tired to run up the hill or because of all of the loose rocks. It is hard to run on those rocks.  I feel like I wam going to twist my ankle any minute. The 2nd mile was the main uphill mile my pace was 14:45.

AP: 11:16/mile 

Ran the trail by my house. I was able to do all of the hills without stopping for the first time, still not super fast but better than in the past and the hills don't fill as bad.

AP: 10:10/mile