Trying to improve my running

Went to run hills I am bummed that my watch was out of batteries and I misplaced the charger so I had to run without it. I did an up and back hilly route 4.21 miles 37:43. average pace 8:57 min/mile. The route had an elevation gain of 240 ft.

Normal flat run tried to do the last 2 miles faster. Splits 8:12, 8:07, 8:30 and 7:32.  Average HR 155

Only able to do 2 miles today d/t time. Tried to do them fast though. 8:04, 8:32.

Darn satelites didn't pick up at the start of the run so I only have sata on the last 2.73 miles and it threw off my pace b/c of that. Flat run at normal pace.

Same run as yesterday. i just realized that I need to run farther daily if I am going to reach my goal of 80 miles in january.

Nice run this AM. Started out fast then decided to do the steep hill by sombrero peak again. It was pretty brutal after going fast for the first mile. The whole hill (5% average grade) is 0.68 miles and the steep part (9.3% grade) at the end is 0.29 miles. 10:54 average pace and 13:06 pace for the steepest part. It was hard but felt pretty good. better than back in October.

Pushed my son in the jogging stroller so that added a new level of difficulty I am not used to. Average pace was still 8:35/mile.

Not able to go as far today but I have ran everyday this week. 8:29/mile average. 2nd mile was just 6 seconds slower than the rest.

Went out way to fast on the 1st mile. I think b/c the kids werre chasing me on their bikes and I wasn't able to keep up my normal pace. Here are my splits: 7:55, 8:51, 8:38, 8:49 and 7:39 average pace 8:31/mile. Had to rest a few seconds at the 2 mile point.

Tried working on hills today I will post the grades later. Beautiful morning for running in the Tucson mountains though just rained overnight and felt excellent. I was able to go a little later since I didn't have work, thank heavens for the federal government not wanting to work.

Today I did 4 miles it had a little hill. It was a little slower than I thought it would be. Maybe that is b/c of the barefoot shoes or maybe just that last week was more than I had done for awhile. Anyway splits were: 9:00, 9:06, 8:55, 8:45 and 9:24. The steepest hill was just after the 2 mile mark was 0.22 miles and had a 3.4% grade did it at 8:54 pace. The longer hill, which included the steep part, was 0.62 miles 2% grade and I did it at a 9:08 pace.

Wanted to go further but didn't have the time. It is probably best that I didn't I don't feel hurt but I have been putting in more miles lately than usual.

Tried to work on some small hills by home today. Had 76 feet of elevation gain. The main hill was 0.64 miles had a 2% grade. The steep hill was 0.25 and was 3.2% grade. averaged just under 9/mile.

Ran the hills up to sweetwater trailhead on Camino del Cerro. I had 647 ft of elevation gain. My average pace was 9:14/mile. 1 mile was on trails the rest was on roads the first 3.5 were uphill. My splits were 8:57, 9:31, 10:01, 10:40, 8:34, 8:40, and 8:13. 

Here are the Hills:

1/21/2012 Distance Gain Grade Pace

1st hill 0.78 97 2.4% 9:15

2nd hill 0.84 157 3.5% 9:40

3rd hill 0.8 179 4.2% 10:12

Steep hill 0.24 83 6.5% 10:50

4th hill 0.41 135 6.2%  10:45

The 4th hill was on trails. 

Did the run up wade road again. This is the run with some small hills. I ran a little further this time (another hill). had a total of 103 ft of elevation gain. Averaged 8:45/mile for the whole run the steepest hill (0.25 miles 4.6% grade) I did in 9:01/mile. The whole wade road (just over 1 mile and 2% grade) I did in 9:08. the downhill portion was a little faster.

Today I want to work on speed a bit more. I didn't have a lot of time so I tried a variation on Jared's workout. I did 0.5 warm-up and then 0.5 mile fast runs with ~90 sec active rest in between for 4 sets and then 0.5 mile cool down. I was shooting for a pace of 7:50/mile on the 0.5 mile "sprints". My splits were:

1 4:01 for 0.51 miles average pace 7:51/mile

2 3:54.4 for 0.49 miles average pace 7:59/mile

3 3:55.7 for 0.5 miles average pace 7:53/mile

4 4:01.7 for 0.5 miles average pace 8:04/mile

Today I ran the small hills again on Wade road. I tried to focus on going faster on the uphill portion of the road. I did the 1st mile at a slower pace (8:49) before getting to Wade road. I wasn't able to go as far d/t time as I did the other day but I did get the first hill. The road is an average 2% grade and I ran 0.63 miles up it today average pace was 8:30 (felt that I was going faster guess not). The steepest part was 0.22 miles 3.4% grade I did it in 1:52 (pace 8:29/mile).

I did the speed workout again today. I had a 0.5 mile warm up then 0.5 mile "sprints", trying for 7:50/mile average then 90 sec active rest. this time I did 5 sprints. Here are my splits for the "sprints"

1 4:07.5 for 0.51 miles, average pace 8:02/mile

2 3:52.4 for 0.5 miles, average pace 7:46/mile

3 3:58.4 for 0.5 miles, average pace 8:00/mile

4 3:57.8 for 0.51 miles, average pace 7:49/mile

5 4:14.8 for 0.54 miles, average pace 7:53/mile

Did the usual run up Wade road today. Nothing spectacular as I had to go to work today. I did to wade road (0.65 miles in 5:16, pace 8:06/mile) best time on that section yet. The hill that is 3/6% grade i did at 8:36/mile only 0.22 miles. felt pretty good. I was going to try and do another run after work but didn't get off until too late.

Here are my splits for the run:

1 8:48.6 1.00 8:49

2 8:20.2 1.00 8:20

3 8:16.6 1.00 8:17

4 3:54.0 0.46 8:25

1st run (5.63 miles)

Ran up wade road again today for the morning run. I went further today than usual trying to get 5 miles in, as I had more time before going to work. I guess the whole road had an average grade of 1.8%, it was 1.54 miles long  and gained 150 ft of elevation. My time for the road was 13:32, average pace 8:47/mile.

There were several steeper parts. The first hill that I run regularly is 3.6% only 0.21 miles, I did it in 1:49 (pace 8:39). One section of the road that felt pretty hard to me turned out to be 2.3% grade and 0.97 miles. I did it in 8:35 (8:51/mile). That section include the steeper hill. The second somewhat steeper portion was 0.63 miles also 2.3% grade. I did it in 5:35 (8:52/mile).

Overall the first mile was warm up the next 1.64 miles were uphill then back down for 1.64 and mostly flat for the last mile.  Here are my splits: 8:44, 8:46, 8:42, 8:04, 8:21, and 8:28.

2nd run (3.9 miles)

I did 2 runs today to try and prepare my body to run for the relay next month. My 2nd run was also a run I have done several times. the first half is on roads and the second half is on trails it is a great run. I also did about a mile around the neighborhood "warm-up" chasing my kids on their bikes (I didn't time this). The first mile I went out faster than I meant too it is really flat and I guess I didn't notice how fst I was going it turned out to be an 8:11 pace. the 1st mile ends right at the pavement and I turned up hill, kind of gradual at first but steepening quickly at about 1/3 mile. The steep part of the hill is about 0.31 miles long and gains 151 ft (9.2% grade), it is also a trail and has quite a few rocks and looks like they don't want people to go up that way anymore b/c they have now planted a bunch of cacti and debris in the trail. I ignored it. Today this steep part took me 3:40 to get up (average pace 11:49/mile) I had to rest a couple of seconds in the middle. This is a great improvement from last time 1/11 I did it in 13:03/mile.

So on this run the 2nd mile has the big hill and the 3rd mile is on the trail and a ton of rocks going down from the big hill. The last mile is on the roads again. I was kind of surprised at how much slower my pace is on the trail than on roads. If I am going to do the trail 1/2 marathon I guess I better train more trails. Here are my splits: 8:11, 10:20, 9:37 and 8:25

Today's run I did with the kids. They rode their bikes while I ran. It made the run interesting the first mile I was kind of chasing them but then they started to tire out and I had to keep going back to get them. It was a fun family activity though. I was glad to be able to do it with them. It was really good for them to get more experience riding. The last 0.7 miles I did after dropping the kids off at home I averaged 8:11/mile for that part.

Here were my splits: 8:34, 8:40, 8:34, and 8:09.

I think I was tired out fromt he other days 2 runs. I did the hills up wade again today. I was slower than earlier this week. I was trying to think about going fast but my legs just didn't seem to want to. Here are my splits: 8:56, 8:49, 8:46, 8:22, 8:39 and 8:13.

Ran up wade road agian. This run seemed pretty easy. I guess that is what a day of rest gets you. I did it at about the same pace as earlier this week just a little bit faster. The first mile was warm up mostly flat. the next 1.5 was uphill (gained 153 ft). then back to the start. Did a little bit extra at the end with the jogging stroller (dropping the kids off at school) so my wife could go out and walk/run. Here are my splits: 8:43, 8:42, 8:25, 8:06, 8:19 and 8:32.

Today I ran 0.5 mile sprints w/ active recovery. I did 4 of them. I was pleased that they were a lot faster than last time I did it on 1/24. I was again trying for 7:50/mile for the sprints. Here were my splits: 

1- 0.49 miles Time: 3:49.5  Pace: 7:45/mile

2- 0.51 miles Time: 3:49.4  Pace: 7:28/mile 

3- 0.51 miles Time: 3:54.5  Pace: 7:43/mile 

4- 0.5 miles Time: 3:57  Pace: 7:54/mile 

I wasn't trying to go fast today I just went out to run easy to try and recover from my foot pain from last week. I have been calling all of my miles under 8:30/mile as fast miles and all of them were faster than that today. I am not sure if I should change what I categorize as fast miles. I guess I will see how the rest of the month goes and then decide. Splits today: 8:23, 8:29, 8:12 and 4:41

Same run as yesterday. Splits: 8:18, 8:28, 8;12, and 4:02

Nice run this AM. A little slower. My feet don't hurt as bad as earlier this week. I don't know what to make of that. Particularly my plantar fascia felt great. Splits: 8:33, 8:20, 8:08 and 5:44.

Same as the rest of the runs this week. A little bit slower, but still felt pretty good. Splits: 8:33, 8:38, 8:06 and 8:01. 

I didn't have to be to work until 8 so I went a little farther this AM. Felt pretty good. I wish I had more time to try something else more fun. hopefully when it starts getting lighter earlier or I can get some time off on a weekend I will try something offroad. Here are my splits:

time moving time dist Gain Loss Ave pace moving pace Best pace Ave HR Max HR

1 8:29.9 8:29:00 1 14 11 8:30:00 8:29:00 7:03:00 167 179

2 8:36.6 8:33:00 1 92 0 8:37:00 8:33:00 7:32:00 155 165

3 8:44.4 8:36:00 1 86 0 8:44:00 8:36:00 7:10:00 158 162

4 8:16.4 8:09:00 1 0 103 8:16:00 8:09:00 7:15:00 149 154

5 8:05.0 8:01:00 1 0 68 8:05:00 8:01:00 6:26:00 152 156

6 4:18.9 4:19:00 0.52 0 1 8:19:00 8:19:00 7:20:00 159 161 

I wanted to go further today and went further up the hill on wade then usual. I felt really good at first. The second mile uphill (3rd mile) was pretty slow but no pain. Later in the day i had some hip soreness. I am not sure what that is about. I did bike on the stationery bike for 40 min on Saturday and it was feeling sore after that. Here are my splits: 7:58, 8:44, 9:00, 8:09, 8:24 and 8:21.

Thought I should take it easy today so I only did an easy 2 miles. AP 8:19.

Nice run today up wade road. I drove to start the run so that I could go further uphill the last part of this run is pretty steep. It was good and a beautiful area to run in. The first 2 uphill miles were only a 2% grade. However, the last .44 miles was an average 4% grade and was even steeper than that at parts. 

Elevation gain 289

AP: 8:28 

Just did a couple of miles nice and easy this AM.

2.39 miles 

AP: 8:30 

Got home a bit early so thought I would do a couple more miles since I won't be able to run tomorrow. I did these in my barefoot shoes

2.95 miles

AP: 8:31 

What a beautiful run today. I wanted to get a couple of things done go for a "long run", do some trail running, and get some elevation. This was perfect. I did the run I have done several times up camino del cerro. the first 2.7 miles were on the road which is fairly steep at times. Then there is a trailhead at the top of the road and I took that for another 2.6 miles. The trail was much different than running on the pavement. My time was much slower. It was a lot steeper than I am used to additionally having to deal with moving rock and uneven terrain slowed me down a bunch. It was really fun though. I think I am going to try and do a good amount of off road running coming up.

Here are my splits:

Nice short recovery run this AM. I was stiff to start but loosened up pretty well. Felt pretty good by the end despite my cold.

AP: 8:25 

Easy run today. It was a little bit harder since I have a cold going on. I am glad that i was still able to run.

AP: 8:17 

Ran 5k this AM. Hopefully it will help my cold to go away faster. It made the run a little harder but I think it is working. The cold isn't progressing into my chest yet like it did w/ the rest of the family.

 AP: 8:20 

Nice short run this AM. did some pretty good hills. The last mile was a 3.4% grade. There were 2 steep hills 6.3% and 7.2%. My pace uphill was 9:22/mile. It was much faster downhill.

 AP: 8:32

Wasn't able to run until after work today (after 13 busy hours). I wasn't feeling it but I didn't run yesterday and felt I needed to today. After I started I felt pretty good and was in the end glad I did it.

AP: 8:32 

Nice run this AM. I went slower than usual. I think it might be because of the long work weekend.

 AP: 8:34 

Nice slow pace this AM. I was only able to do 3 miles because of morning conference. It was a beautiful morning for it though. It was starting to think about raining and had that nice smell of spring in the air.

 AP: 8:41 

Nice run this AM. I tried to keep my HR down under 160 so my pace was a little slower, which is Ok I was only going out to keep the legs and feet loose. Nice morning though.

 AP: 8:48 average HR: 150 bpm. 

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 

Pretty flat run just wanted to do somwthing quick this AM before going to work. All of the miles were faster than 8:30. I tried to push the last mile extra and the split was 7:54.

AP: 8:10/mile 

Wanted another quick run with a little more distance and a bit more of a hill. I was still able to go out pretty fast on this the average pace was still 8:10, even though there is a bit more of a hill on this. Interestingly I used to feel like this was such a hilly route. Today I was trying to get the 2nd mile the one with the main hill under 8:30, it was 8:32/mile.

AP: 8:10, Vert 110 

Ran on the trail through Saquaro park by my house again. I was able to run the steep hill much easier than prior. it felt really good to do. I wish again there was a better steep hill that didn't have so much loose rock for me to fall on. I seem to slip almost everyday on this trail. Saturday I ended up with a bunch of cactus thorns in my ankle and arm I didn't even notice all of them until several hours later. Today my fall was more of a stumble I went down but not to painful. I guess that running trails is good to get used to all of this stuff.

AP: 11:12/ mile. The second mile with the most elevation gain had an AP of 14:24. 

Nothing special (Wade road to the pass) on paved roads. The first mile was a little slow, I think just warming up 8:39 the third mile had the big hill in it and was 8:54. I think 2/3 was uphill and 1/3 was down hill.

AP: 8:21/mile 

Did a new steep hill that I found not too far from my house. Here is the course on Garmin. This hill was really hard not as hard as some of the trails but I couldn't blame not running on the difficult terrain it is a dirt road but smooth. It was good training though. The grade of the hill from the gate was 13%, with the steepest part of the hill (about 0.25 miles) being 21%. I wasn't able to run the whole thing I will keep trying it until I am though. it was almost as slow coming down as going up b/c I thought I would fall and kill myself.

AP: 11:05/mile, Vert 342 ft (334 in 0.5 miles).

Wanted to do a long run today. I decided to go out on the trail by my house and see where they go. The first part I have ran a bunch and I went up the steep hill to the saddle by sombrero peak then I went down the other side and ran over the back of that ridge into Avra valley and decided to run up to the hill with the radio towers I did yesterday and see how hard that is after having run for a while. The first hill I thought was less steep then the second hill but it turns out it is just as steep (15.5% 361 feet) as the overall hill up to the radio towers (13% 334 feet). It was a nice run through the dessert with a bit of scenery I haven't seen. I then did a little hill just after 4 miles that I used to feel was quite hard, it seemed like nothing today. A little blip after having gone 4 miles. It didn't slow me down hardly at all. It is amazing the different perspective. the radio tower hill was quite hard after having gone just over 6 miles to get there. I ended up walking a lot more of it than yesterday. I did try and push it as much as I could though. Then I jogged home on the roads. Great run. I need to remember to put on sunscreen though. I forget how long it will take me to do these runs I was out for almost 2 hours and got a little burned.

AP: 10:37/mile. Time 1:51:28

Hard to get going today. just run flat stuff. with small hills. was going to take it easy in my barefoot shoes. nothing spectacular.

AP: 8:19.mile 

I ran the loop by my house climbing to the saddle of Sombrero peak, with the second smaller hill on the way home. I was able to run further than last time, and the second hill on the way home wasn't very hard at all (no walking). I was only slightly faster than when I did it a couple of weeks ago  (11:16 today vs. 11:24 prior). It felt really good today though.

AP: 11:16/mile 

Ran the hill up to the radiotowers again today. I was trying to focus on running further up the hill. I made it a lot further than I did last Saturday (not surprising considering Saturday I ran 6 miles before getting to this hill). Additionally today I went back and ran up the hill partway after coming down. I think that will be my plan there is a gate partway up the hill and I will try and gage how far I can run past that gate and then run it again a little further each time. Today I was able to run 0.05 miles past the gate. On the second run I went back to the gate. I think I will try and run it again this week and maybe try and do it a couple of times a week until I can run the whole thing hopefully. Here is the Course.

AP: 11:41/mile 

Did the same hill today about the same results as yesterday. i probably should have taken a day off in the middle but I wanted to do something quick and i wanted to do that hill again this week. I was able to go a little further before having to walk today. I decided I am going to from now on do the lap from the bottom of the steep part til I get to the top and see what the split is that will give me something better to track.

 AP: 11:48

This was a road run up Wade road some small hills. Felt really good in the Merrell barefoot shoes.  The 3rd mile was in 8:41 and had the most elevation gain 123 ft. O/w all of the miles were under 8:30.

AP: 8:11 

This was a beautiful run in the drizzle this AM. I ran on these trails out in Saquaro NP about 3 miles from home. I didn't realize that there was much elevation gain, but I guess it turns out there was a decent amount it was just gradual over several miles. The loop was really nice and relaxing though. I was tired after playing basketball last night I think that and the run convinced me to not try and climb Sombrero peak today.

AP: 9:38 

Ran up Wade road today. Unfortunately my watch ran out of batteries halfway. I know it was 3.6 miles and had about 100 ft of vert it took me about 30-35 minutes. I was super tired and wasn't feeling it today. So I am just glad I got out there and did something.

Ran the local loop and part way up Sombrero peak saddle. Felt pretty good. Probably b/c I took yesterday off d/t sickness. Still feel sick today. would have liked to go all the way to the saddle and make the loop but not enough time/energy.

AP: 10:17/mile 

Ran the Saquaro park loop by my house today. I did backwards so I hada bit steeper up hill and then after that had the steep uphill climb up to the saddle of sombrero peak. I wasn't able to make it as far up the saddle as yesterday, I think mainly that was because of my cold. However, doing it backwards may have added some difficulty as well. On the way back I took a longer route to add on some additional miles.

AP: 10:17 

Ran up the radiotower hill again. I did more of the uphill than before after coming back down. I don't feel like I was able to go much further up the hill (without walking) to start than previously though. I think from now on I will start tracking how long it takes me to get up the hill as a measure to quantify if I am getting better.

Today it took me 6:48 to get up the hill and it was an average 16% grade.

Ran on the trails out in Saquaro park it was beautiful though it is really starting to get hot down here now. I was getting pretty wiped by the end. I think it was close to 90 when I finished. I guess I am going to need to bring more water with me. Another interesting factor I hadn't really thought of for these trail runs is snakes I stepped right over the top of 2 snakes that were basking in the middle of the trail. I didn't see them until I was on top of them. Fortunately they weren't rattlesnakes, but I think I am going to have to be more careful and pay closer attention when running the trails now that snakes are out.

AP: 11:13/mile 

Wasn't able to sleep really well last night So I got up earlier and ran the Sombrero saddle loop again today. I went a bit of a longer way and I added in an extra hill on the way to the saddle to get some more vert. I still didn't get much further up the saddle actually than I usually do but I was able to get to the same spot despite having ran the other hill prior. I was also happy that I made it up the first hill without stoppiing since I wasn't able to do that prior.

AP: 11:56/mile 

Ran up the Radiotower hill again. I was able to go up a decent amount further than on the previous run. I ran the steep part of the hill in 6:24 which was 24 seconds faster than last time.

I ran the loop around Saquaro park today. I did it the normal way I do without climbing a hill before getting to the hill to go up to the saddle. I was able to go a bit further. I guess it turned out to be only 0.05 miles further, but there was 42 additional feet of elevation gain in that short distance. If I can keep making a little progress like that each week it will only take me another 5-6 weeks before I can get all the way tot the top without stopping. I guess that is a goal.

Ran up Wade road in the Merrells. I was trying to go fast to see how much I have changed since I started running. I compared it back to a run that I did up Wade road back in the first of january that time I didn't go as far up Wade so had about 60 ft less of elevation gain. and it was a bit shorter 4.2 miles. I did it at that time in 37:47, AP: 8:58. Today I did a little bit further and went further up Wade road my time was 38:29 AP: 8:13. My slowest mile which had the steepest portion of the hill in it was at 8:35. That was a bit encouraging I am hoping to get faster still. I think the hills are helping.

I did 2 runs today the first one was a family run. I pushed Lucy and Chase in the jogging stroller and Juli pushed Ella in the other stroller. I think it was pretty fair because I had the 2 heavier kids (100 lbs) and she didn't want to run very badly. we ran down Pima farms road, which is nice and flat. It is only a bout 1 mile down it, so I took some detours into the various neighborhoods and ran up scenic drive at the end. Juli's Phone said she did 2.2 miles and I did 3.5. I finished a little bit before her and went back to push her in the last little bit. It was fun to go out as a whole family though and the kids were happy to get out of the house after being cooped up all week d/t Lucy's sickness.

AP: 8:26/mile 

The second run was up the radiotower hill again. I made it 105 ft further up the road. I think I can make it all the way to the top of this in the next couple of weeks.

ran the radiotower hill was only able to go just a bit further than last time. no more than about 100 feet though. I was able to run 100 miles this month. I ran 6 days/week for almost every week this month as well. I only missed 2 days. My goal for the next month is not to get so many miles but instead to focus on vertical feet. In April I was able to run 8800 feet. In March I was able to run 11,692 feet, a good portion of that (1700 feet) was in Utah in 1 day up to flag rock. I am going to go for 13,000 feet this month. I think I will be running this route a bunch it is short and a good amount of vert. 

Ran the local Saquaro loop today except I ran up the smaller hills a couple of times each to add a little more vert. my watch died towards the end so I think it is about 4 miles fortunately I was done with the vertical gain before it died.

Ran radiotower hill again I was able to go about 55 feet further up the hill than prior and felt pretty good. I think I should be able to get all the way up this hill in the next couple of weeks. I think then I will start doing multiple loops up the hill.

Ran radiotower hill again. a little further up the hill than last time I also was able to go further up on the second lap then prior. I felt pretty good about the run despite not sleeping well last night.

Ran the Sombrero Saddle trail again today. I woke up early so I decided to tack on an extra jaunt up the side of sombrero peak. I was a good bit faster, to the saddle, this time from last (8:43, previous 9:15 for 0.5 miles). It felt really pretty good. The extra jaunt added an additional 342 feet over 0.29 miles for grade of 22%. I won't lie I ended up walking most of that. It felt really steep. Hard coming down as well I almost feel like I have to go slower coming down then going up to avoid falling. The hill has a lot of loose gravel.

Ran up Beacon hill this AM. Don't usually run on Sunday but I had to work today and I knew I was going to need a run if I was going to survive the shift. I wasn't able to get as far as last time, unsure why because I had yesterday off. I was able to run more of the hill than prior on the second time up it however.

Ran the hill again tosday I was able to get about 150 further up than yesterday and it was about 50 feet further than I have made it before. today. I was also a minute faster up the hill than yesterday. I still wasn't quite as fast as on the 3rd, which is my fastest time up yet. The second trip up I ran about the same amount as on Sunday as well.

Very nice run this AM. I ran the local Saquaro loop except I am now pretty much always running the extra hill at the first and middle of the run to make it not so much of a loop as an out and back. I made it the same distance up the saddle as prior and felt pretty tired doing it. I was a little discouraged that I couldn't get any further up. However, on the way home I was able to go 8:28/mile on the last mile. That is better than I have been able to do in the past.

Didn't have work today so I went further up Sombrero than usual. It is really pretty steep after the saddle. I would like to work up to running up the whole thing. Maybe by the end of June. The last mile I was able to get down under 8:30/mile part of that was on pavement.

 AP: 13:29/mile 

Happy birthday to me. I got new shoes (Altra instinct) for my birthday. I went running on the treadmill in them because I was staying in a hotel on the strip in vegas and didn't feel like running there. I did the hill routine that the treadmill had and had an average of a 3% grade for the whole run. I did get up to a 9% grade at the steepest part.

AP: 8:30/mile 

Ran with my borther up to the top of griffith peak. It was a great run/hike. It was challenging d/t the altitude started at 7600 ft and went up to 11,044. Very fun I want to climb more peaks.  The trail up there was fantastic well defined with hardly any loose gravel.

AP:18:27/mile took 3 hours 4 min. 

Ran the local loop today. It felt super tough. I think partly d/t the cold, and partly the run this weekend and sore muscles. I was able to go as far as before though I wish I could have gone further but I am glad I at least got out since I didn't feel very good.

Did beacon hill today. I wanted to do it twice. It was super windy and I wasn't feeling great yet again. I didn't get as far up as I have in the past so I only did it once. Hopefully I get over this cold soon so I can do better. I will really want to be able to get all the way up this hill without walking before the end of the month.

Ran the local loop feeling better today hope to get all the way up sombrero peak this weekend.

Finally I made it to the top of Sombrero peak the peak right by my house. This is not ideal for running up. the first half is good though very steep with loose gravel. The last 3/4 mile is more like a scramble and rock climb than a run. I am glad to have made it to the top though finally. I think I will now stick to running up to the saddle or just the base of the cliffs for elevation gain as the last part wasn't very helpful for running training. I made it to the top in just under 1 hour.

Ran up to the top of Wasson peak for the second time. This time I ran up the backside of the mountain it had a little less elevation gain compared to last time, but the trail is so much nicer. I was able to run essentially the whole way up, with a couple of stops to rest. Last time I had to walk a large portion of the run. I felt great getting up there. This also brings me over 13,000 feet of vert for this month, which was my goal. I guess adding in the 3 peaks in the last week will do that for you. I think I will shoot for 20,000 ft to finish out the month.

 Here is a comparison of this trip and last also the tracks for last trip. 

Summary May 19 backside Mar 17 front

Beacon hill again today. I was able to make it 0.2 miles up the hill before having to stop to walk today. In addition I ran the whole hill except for a 400 foot section. Next time I will do the whole thing. It felt pretty good.

I ran up Wasson peak on the backside again this AM. I was able to get out there in time to watch the sunrise it was fantastic. It was a great run. I felt really good and was able to run nearly the whole thing did it 5 min faster than Saturday. The best part of the run is it was so peaceful out there no one on the trail early in the morning the sun coming up seeing the occasional lizard or rabbit. It was great. A good reminder of why I like running.

Ran in Saguaro park the same trail I usually run by my house. today was kind of exciting because just as I turned a corner there was a rattle snake coiled up on the side of the trail. I didn't notice him until I was past him. Boy that really woke me up and got the blood pumping. Probably my fastest time up that little hill. The rest of the run I was a bit slower though because I was looking closely at the sides of the trail for more friends.

Same trail again today as yesterday. I thought I should get back out on it before I totally syked myself out from running there anymore (after yesterdays rattler).  No sign of snakes today. I am starting to not like this trail a ton anymore though because the steepest hill on it is so hard to run up d/t all of the loose rocks. It is the best thing right by my house though.

Ran up Wasson peak again. It was not as great as the previous time. I tried to check out a couple of extra new spots to geta  little more elevation and just explors a little bit. So I was kind of surprised when at the end of the run despite having gone further and gone up and down some extra hills I had less vertical feet then previously. I am not sure how Garmin calculates that. It was a good run though i was able to run the whole thing today for the first time. I did stop a couple of times but didn't walk at all. except when trying not to fall going up rocky parts (Not much). Lots of wildlife out today. I actually stepped on a lizard that tried to cut across the trail under me. I can't believe how many reptiles there are here.

Ran up beacon hill today. I was able to run the whole thing it felt really good. this brings me to almost 20000 feet for the month.

Ran the local trail today. felt pretty good. I was able to average under 8:30 on the last mile (a little over half was on pavement).

Ran back up to the top of Wasson peak. I really like this trail. I was slightly faster than previously (4 min overall). I felt like I was more tired than previously but I guess I was ok.

  6/2 5/26 5/22

I started off this morning going to do 0.5 mile sprints with 90 sec rest in the middle. My warm up 0.5 mile was 8:12/mile So then i decided after the first rest to modify it slightly and just see how fast I could go for the whole run.  Here are my splits:

Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Calories Summary 27:04.0 26:51.0 3.46 21 26 7:50 7:46 6:35 165 231 402 1 4:07.5 4:06 0.50 0 0 8:12 8:09 6:35 189 231 10 2 1:14.6 1:08 0.13 0 0 9:41 8:49 7:26 170 181 19 3 4:40.4 4:41 0.62 12 4 7:31 7:32 6:39 160 176 80 4 1:17.9 1:16 0.16 0 12 8:00 7:49 7:18 149 152 21 5 7:33.7 7:34 1.00 10 0 7:34 7:34 6:35 159 164 129 6 Tue, Jun 05, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 6.31 6.31 Yesterday felt great to go fast. Today I decided I should go 10K and see how fast I could do that. I decided to run up wade road because it has some decent hills. My time to 10 K was 50:41 AP: 8:15/mile. I think I will make my goal for the month to be sub 8 minute mile for 10K. I am going to break 100 miles and work on hills and speedwork to accomplish this. Here are my splits: Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Calories Summary 51:32.3 51:14.0 6.31 250 237 8:10 8:07 5:47 158 180 827 1 8:12.5 8:11 1.00 13 11 8:13 8:11 7:06 162 180 98 2 8:22.4 8:18 1.00 93 0 8:22 8:18 7:16 153 160 138 3 8:33.0 8:32 1.00 105 0 8:33 8:32 7:09 157 162 144 4 8:05.6 8:02 1.00 30 77 8:06 8:02 5:47 160 166 136 5 7:40.4 7:36 1.00 0 121 7:40 7:36 6:30 158 161 128 Comments From TheMr.K on Wed, Jun 06, 2012 at 20:48:03 from 166.147.88.19 As long as you feel good it's probably not a big deal but be careful doing too many speed workouts. Your body needs time to recover. I always get hurt doing speed work because I push too much. From TheMr.K on Wed, Jun 06, 2012 at 20:48:20 from 166.147.88.19 Good work though. Wed, Jun 06, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.74 0.00 7.74 Ran up Wasson peak again today. Unfortunately my watch died after 2 miles. I was a little faster than prior I did it in 1:39 previously 1:41. It felt really pretty good today though. I think I need to do some quad strengthening because I am getting some patellofemoral pain from all the downhill. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2000.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.74 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.74 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Jun 08, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 0.00 2.00 Ran up Beacon hill again today. Was able to get all the way up the hill. Felt pretty good. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 363.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 2.00 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Jun 09, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 6.63 1.00 7.63 Went up Wasson peak again today. I felt tired from being up too late last night I did make it and felt good after the first couple of miles. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2090.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.63 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.63 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 205.00 Mon, Jun 11, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.17 0.00 2.17 Ran up beacon hill today. Not a ton of energy nor time so only went up once. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 367.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.17 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.17 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Jun 12, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 4.05 7.05 Had an hour before work so ran out for 30 minutes then came back turned out to be about 7 miles. My average pace was 8:22/mile. I was trying to not go too fast. I averaged just over 8:30/mile on the uphill miles and around 8:00/mile on the downhill miles. total time was 58:39. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 338.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 7.05 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Jun 13, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 1.00 4.00 Ran the loop through the park again today. I took a different trail for a little bit until it turned into a very rocky stream bed. I would like to see where the trail goes sometime. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 254.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.00 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 15:52:29 from 205.122.217.206 Watch out for rattlesnakes. There have been a lot of them around here so I'm sure they are bad down there. Fri, Jun 15, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 4.77 4.77 Nice run this Morning. It had too little hills but mostly flat and on pavement. AP 8:10/mile. Felt really good not too fast I felt. My HR jumped up for the first 0.5 miles then dropped back to 140s and got up to about 160 by the end. I was actually pretty surprised at the pace since I wasn't trying to push it at all. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 147.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.77 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Jun 16, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.92 0.00 2.92 Ran up Beacon hill this AM. I wanted to go further but had to go to work so only did an extra mile of flat at the end. I felt pretty tired and wasn't able to make it all the way up the hill. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 399.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.92 Weight: 206.00 Mon, Jun 18, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.04 0.00 4.04 Ran the local trail today. I don't know if it is the heat of the amount I am working but I don't feel as much energy and excitement as I did a month ago. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 406.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.04 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 11:17:07 from 67.164.204.6 That happens. I felt that way a few weeks ago myself. The excitement will come back but until then keep plodding along so you can take advantage of it when it does. Also, try mixing up your routes, run something new. Tue, Jun 19, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.30 2.00 3.30 ran a loop today part trail part road. It was nice. I think I either need to come up with a better goal to motivate me or else just need to relax and run for fun I am not sure which. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 193.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.30 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Jun 21, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 5.01 5.01 Nice run wanted to go for 5 miles. Ran up Wade Rd. I do think the heat might be the problem with my motivation after this run I was drenched in sweat. I did feel better after today's run it is nice to see the progress I've made over the last 9 months. I wouldn't have been able to run for a whole 5 miles let alone up this road which I felt like had some steep hills on it. Now 8 minute miles for 5 miles without being too wiped out afterwards. Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Calories Summary 40:53.7 40:33.0 5.01 151 142 8:10 8:06 5:58 155 176 673 1 8:08.2 8:07 1.00 14 0 8:08 8:07 6:50 155 176 135 2 8:30.4 8:25 1.00 80 4 8:30 8:25 7:30 152 158 139 3 8:29.6 8:25 1.00 58 45 8:30 8:25 7:25 155 159 141 4 7:39.4 7:36 1.00 0 82 7:39 7:36 5:58 153 155 122 5 8:01.0 8:00 1.00 0 11 8:01 8:00 7:23 158 161 134 6 :05.2 :00 0.01 0 0 7:52 -- 7:34 160 160 2   Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 151.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.01 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Jun 22, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 4.08 4.08 Nice run. Felt pretty hot today. I am too tired to wake up earlier to go running though.  AP: 8:05/mile splits: 8:10, 8:23, 7:37, 8:01.  Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 112.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.08 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Jun 23, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.03 1.00 6.03 Wanted to run up Wasson peak today but decided to take Ella out for a run on a flat trail instead to let Juli sleep in for her birthday. did 6 miles it is harder pushing the stroller still AP was 8:33/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 52.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 6.03 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Jun 25, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 5.01 5.01 Another pretty flat route. I think I need to average about 4 miles everyday to finish out the goal of 100 miles this month. I did 5 today to give me a lead since I am traveling at the end of the week and am unsure how much running I will get to do. AP: 8:03/mile Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 120.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.01 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Jun 26, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 4.45 4.45 ran up wade rd. I was pretty happy with the speed. I averaged 8:09/mile. My slowest mile was 8:16/mile. I was also comparing this to my old runs from back when i started running 9 months ago. I didn't ever run up wade rd then but a similar distance run my AP was 9:20/mile. I was looking back to the end of January when i had been running regular for 5 months and my AP on this same route was 8:42/mile and I remember it being significantly harder then. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 122.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.45 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Jun 27, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 5.23 5.23 I wanted to try and compare where I was back when I started running to where I am now so I tried to run a similar route to one I did in Sep shortly after starting running and at the time felt was pretty hard. I got a little lost on the run and didn't do the exact same route this one was a mile shorter. I will do the other route tomorrow. AP was 8:10/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 63.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.23 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Jun 28, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.61 5.00 6.61 So I figured out the route from yesterday and tried to go out and see what improvement I had made. I decided to try and do 1 mile sprints followed by 90 second slow runs. I did ok for the first 3 then I was too tired to keep going with that. so I just finished out the last couple of miles semi easy pace ~8:30/mile. the first 3 splits were 7:57, 7:47 and 7:56. I am not sure why I tired out maybe it was too fast a pace and not slow enough on the 90 second recovery or maybe the heat it was ~90 this AM. Anyway I compared to the time I ran the same course on 9/3 at that time AP was 9:39/mile and I had to stop about a half mile from home b/c I was too tired to finish I also seem to remember resting a decent amount in the middle. today the AP for the course was 8:14/mile and I was tired by the end but no problem finishing the run. I am pretty pleased with that improvement. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 72.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 6.61 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 01:04:54 from 67.164.204.6 Nice job. Makes me jealous, sitting here with my leg wrapped up. I would say that it was probably the heat. You did ~4.5 the other day at 8:09, which is only 10-20 seconds slower than your sprints today. Try it again in September, I'll bet your faster than you were today. Mon, Jul 02, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.00 1.24 2.24 Ran during my night shift I was only able to go for a short distance b/c I got paged in the middle of the run. I ran around the block at the hospital and then up the parking garage ramp to get a little vert. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 80.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.24 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Jul 03, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.19 0.00 2.19 Ran the same loop as the previous night. It seems like I always get paged at the same spot. I wanted to try and run up another parking garage but had to go back b/c of the page. Oh well it woke me up for the night. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 50.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.19 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Jul 04, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.85 0.00 7.85 First run: Ran durign the night shift again. No page this time and I was able to run up the larger garage. The gps doesn't track elevation at all in the garage. So I think I had at least 60 feet of vert in that garage. It was a hot night. Second run: I ran after I woke up in the evening. I went to run up Wasson peak. I didn't get all the way to the top because the sunset and I didn't have a headlight. It was a nice run though, it had rained earlier that day and was probably cooler than it was at 2 am this morning. I did only 5 miles 1000 ft of vert. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1055.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 5.05 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 5.05 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.80 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Jul 06, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 1.01 4.01 ran the local loop again. Can't remember much about it nothing too spectacular. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 379.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.01 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Jul 07, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.01 0.00 2.01 ran up beacon hill. I wasn't able to make it all the way up. I don't know if that is because I am tired from working so much. my training hasn't stopped. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 408.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.01 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 2.01 Weight: 0.00 Sun, Jul 08, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.93 0.00 3.93 local loop hard time staying motivated to keep running up the hills I think the work hours are getting to me. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 361.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.93 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 3.93 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Jul 09, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.06 1.00 4.06 ran the local loop. I decided I need to keep doing this until I don't feel like it is kicking my but. plus it is easy to do this and get some offroad vert since I don't have to drive anywhere. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 375.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.06 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.06 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Jul 10, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 0.57 3.57 didn't go as far on the local loop as before. so tired of working 12 hour days. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 267.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.57 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 3.57 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Jul 11, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 1.26 3.26 couldn't get up to run this AM. I wanted to run everyday this week though so I went after work it was probably 105 degrees and 20-30% humidity. This added a level of difficulty. I was still able to do the last couple miles (flat) at 8:18, 8:20. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 244.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.50 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 3.26 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Jul 12, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 4.07 4.07 I was pretty happy with my pace today I ran up wade road I felt tired but still was able to go pretty quick. here are my splits: 8:17, 8:30, 7:42, 8:17. AP was 8:11. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 150.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.07 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Jul 13, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 3.00 3.00 wanted to go at faster than 8 min/mile pace for a flat run today. I did 3 miles AP 7:59. splits 7:56, 8:03 and 7:57. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 22.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.00 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Jul 14, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.00 0.54 7.54 super humid this AM but cool I ran up wasson peak again. I felt like i wasn't able to go very fast and wasn't super happy with how fast I was going most of the time. I also felt pretty winded when i had to go up hills more so than usual. when I got done though I saw that I was on pace with my usual times up the mountain. I did see a rattlesnake coiled on the side of the trail. I will try to post a pic of him later. Here is the comparison: ies Remove Wasson peak Running Sat, Jul 14, 2012 7:09 AM Remove Wasson Peak backside Running Sat, Jun 9, 2012 7:23 AM Remove Wasson peak backside Running Sat, Jun 2, 2012 7:00 AM Summary Distance 7.54 mi 7.63 mi 7.59 mi Time 1:30:40 1:33:57 1:32:39 Avg Speed 5.0 mph 4.9 mph 4.9 mph Avg Pace 12:02 min/mi 12:19 min/mi 12:12 min/mi Calories 1,333 C 1,255 C 1,279 C Moving Time 1:28:05 1:31:44 1:29:45 Elapsed Time 1:46:44 1:47:09 1:40:03 Avg Moving Speed 5.1 mph 5.0 mph 5.1 mph Avg Moving Pace 11:41 min/mi 12:01 min/mi 11:49 min/mi Max Speed 8.5 mph 8.6 mph 8.7 mph Best Pace 7:03 min/mi 6:59 min/mi 6:51 min/mi Elevation Gain 2,121 ft 2,090 ft 1,763 ft Elevation Loss 2,095 ft 2,100 ft 1,760 ft Min Elevation 2,982 ft 2,976 ft 2,962 ft Max Elevation 4,664 ft 4,664 ft 4,714 ft Avg HR (bpm) 152 bpm 148 bpm 150 bpm Max HR (bpm) 166 bpm 160 bpm 163 bpm   Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2121.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.54 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.54 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Jul 16, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 4.00 4.00 Ran again tonight at work. was going to go last night but couldn't get the energy. Tonight felt really good. I did 4 miles and was able to run up 2 parking garages without getting paged. my AP was 8:13/mile splits: 7:58, 8:40, 7:48, 8:25. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 150.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.00 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Jul 17, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 4.00 4.00 ran up the parking garage and around the neighborhood at the hospital while at work. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 145.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.00 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Jul 18, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.39 0.00 2.39 Only able to getin about 2.4 miles before getting paged last night. did make it up the parking garage 1 time. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 127.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.39 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Jul 19, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 2.00 4.00 nice night run around the neighborhood. up the big parking garage no pages.  Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 159.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.00 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Jul 20, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.76 1.00 3.76 Ran a little different route tonight. it was nice did the parking garage one time. and then around the block. nice night. there was kind of a lot of police in one area not sure what that was about. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 175.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.76 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Jul 21, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.92 0.00 4.92 Nice run this evening up at snowbird. I found this single track trail and took that for a ways I went up the slope a little bit, but they were having a shooting competition so I wasn't able to go to the top of the mountain. I love runnign in these mountains it was so nice and refreshing. The garmin was a little off at first It thought I started the run at the top of the hill. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1385.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.92 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Jul 23, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 9.12 0.00 9.12 I did a nice hike/run this AM with the family (the family started hiking and I made a deposit at the trailhead and then caught up). It was pretty slow but I was able to jog to the top of Sunset peak at 10654 ft. I then agreed to hike all the kids back down to snowbird while the other adults hiked over the top into Brighton.So the hike down was pretty slow. In the afternoon/evening I decided to take a run to the tram. I left it was nice and cool out. I felt pretty good for the first mile I was able to run the whole thing. I had 650 vert ft over that mile average pace 15 min/mile. The next mile was slower and the garmin freaked out on the elevation so not exactly sure about the elevation I think it send me down and back up 1000 feet in the second mile which didn't happen. I did have to walk some more during the second mile still a 16:50 min/mile. After about another 1/2 mile it started pouring rain. I was drenched in 1 minute.  I decided I would turn around and head back. I was probably about 1 mile from the chair lift and 1.5 from the top. It was a pretty fun run though. On the way down after the downpour stopped I really loved running in the mud and the drizzle. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 3250.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 9.12 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 9.12 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Fri, Aug 03, 2012 at 19:31:51 from 67.164.204.6 Nice. I love running in the rain. Wish I could have made it up there with you. Tue, Jul 24, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.27 0.00 3.27 this was a nice hike I only ran for a small portion of it. the first half was with the kids and was really really slow. the second half though I did with older nephew and neice and sister in law so I did push that part faster put I felt bad just leaving them so it was still just walking. I did run short distances to the summit of Mt Baldy by snowbird. Then again down the other side and back up the other side to hidden peak and the tram.  Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1893.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.27 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 3.27 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Jul 25, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.40 0.00 4.40 This was a super fun run. It was harder than I wanted it to be. I did the run with my brother in law Nate Cook. He hasn't been running but is in better shape than me at baseline. I was able to run the first 2 miles with only 2 times of walking. The last couple of miles was a different story. I was able to run some but it was super steep for a bunch of the distance and I felt pretty impressed that I was even able to walk. Hopefully if we come up to snowbird next year I will be in good enough shape to be able to run all the way to the top. It really helps to have someone else running with me to push me along. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2900.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 4.40 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.40 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Jul 27, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 0.00 4.00 I couldn't pass up a final chance to run up at snowbird even though I am running the 10K tomorrow. I did this awesome single track trail, part of it was the trial for the wasatch speedgoat race. I am really going to miss running in these mountains. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 816.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 4.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.00 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Jul 28, 2012 Race: 10K for the Spudman (6.21 Miles) 00:50:34, Place overall: 25, Place in age division: 4 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 6.21 6.21 This was a really fun race. Looking back I kind of wish I would have pushed it a little harder, it was my first time racing this distance though so I was happy. I could have gone faster but I was chatting with a fellow racer for a couple of miles and lost track of my pace. I was shooting to be under 8 min/mile it turned out to be 8:09/mile. I want to do another race at this distance and focus on going faster. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 98.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 6.21 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Jul 31, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 6.50 0.00 6.50 Well first day back in Tucson.It is hot (90's at 7-8 am). It apparently hasn't rained quite a bit as well. I was going to run up wasson peak but found that all the roads to get to it are washed out from the monsoons. I decided to just run some of the trails in saguaro park that I haven't tried before. It was a great run until I found a rattle snake on the single track trail and almost stepped on him. When I threw rocks at him to get him off of the trail he didn't even rattle which was a little disturbing. I then got off the trail and a little lost and had to bushwhack back to the trail. I was kind of nervous going off trail since I knew there were rattlers out here. So I went really slow til I got back to the trail. I think I am going to have to lay off the trail runs until the snakes go back into hibernation.   Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 500.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 6.50 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 6.50 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Mon, Aug 06, 2012 at 16:34:59 from 168.179.185.33 No kidding! Stick to pavement. At least they are obvious on the pavement. Wed, Aug 01, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.02 0.00 2.02 ran up beacon hill today. I had decided I was going to make my august goal to get 20000 vertical feet in august so i started with this hill. after today I decided that is going to be to ambitious. It is too hot here in August. I am just going to go running everyday and see what I can accomplish. Vertical feet will also be hard to get if i am not able to do very many trails and most of the trails are washed out from the monsoons and the snakes are also a bit of a problem. hopefully i can still get 100 miles this month. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 419.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.02 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 2.02 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Aug 02, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.91 0.00 3.91 ran the loop through the park today. Parts of the trail are pretty washed out. No snakes though. I will have to try and to this trail at least 1x per week to keep the trails as part of my training. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 375.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.91 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 3.91 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Aug 04, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 4.00 8.00 My foot was hurting after thursday's run so I took friday off. I decided I need to do roads for a little bit because the pain is in the ball of my right foot and I think it is from stepping on rockon the trails and I need to let it recover. I did 8 miles today it was a nice hot run even though I started before 7 am. It was 80 when I started and closer to 90 then 80 when I finished. I was hoping to do closer to 10 miles but between the heat and my bleeding nipples I decided I should cut it a bit short. my average pace was 8:40/mile the last 4 where down hill and had an average pace of 8:15/mile the first 4 miles had all the elevation gain and were closer to 9:00/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 413.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 8.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Aug 06, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 4.15 4.15 This run felt super good this morning. I did a mostly flat and paved route and was able to have an AP: 7:56/mile. My calfs were pretty sore afterwards I think that was close to my limit at least in this heat, it was only in the 80's but  muggy. Splits: 7:46, 8:03, 7:51, 8:06, and 7:51.  I will take it a little slower tomorrow. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 70.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.15 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Aug 07, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 0.00 4.00 just ran the local trail this morning. The watch ran out of batteries so I had to guess on the miles a bit. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 264.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.30 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.07 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Aug 08, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 3.11 3.11 Didn't have too much time so i decided to go out for a quick 5k. I was trying to push this to see how fast I could do a 5k. this is the best time I have ran 1 in since I was 20 years old. time was 23:01. AP 7:24/mile. I am pretty impressed with that since a year ago I would have not been able to do a 1.5 mile run in 8 min/mile (for the AF PT test). hopefully I can do as well with another year of training and get down under 7 min/mile. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.11 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 12:36:10 from 168.179.185.33 That is a good time! I see why you wanted the name of that book now. If you do those intervals and speed training along with longer rest runs I think you could easily take that time down another 24 seconds per mile by next year. Fri, Aug 10, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 5.18 5.18 wanted to go for 10k today but I started to late and had to turn around a bit early to get my daughter to school. I was pretty happy with the time though. i think i am going to start working some interval training and see if that can get me faster at least until it cools off and I can get back out on trails more regularly.   Splits: Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Calories Summary 41:55.6 41:49.0 5.18 178 163 8:06 8:04 1:27 154 164 692 1 8:05.7 8:03 1.00 14 12 8:06 8:03 1:27 137 153 119 2 8:15.8 8:16 1.00 76 0 8:16 8:16 7:20 156 161 139 3 8:13.0 8:08 1.00 78 22 8:13 8:08 6:37 159 163 141 4 7:48.9 7:49 1.00 0 99 7:49 7:49 6:52 157 159 130 5 8:07.3 8:07 1.00 10 29 8:07 8:07 7:30 160 164 140 6 1:25.0 1:26 0.18 0 0 7:56 8:01 7:04 162 163 23   Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 180.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.18 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Aug 11, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.00 2.20 3.20 Ran around the block at work. this kind of feels like a second run on Friday since I haven't really been to bed. but it was Saturday morning so i will log it there. I ran up the parking garage and around the block until I got paged and had to come back.. AP: 8:30/mile. I am skeptical about the first mile though i don't get good reception in the parking garage. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 120.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.20 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Aug 13, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 0.00 4.00 ran the local trail again. it was nice I can't wait for it to cool down a little bit here so I feel comfortable back out on the trails. The ball of my foot hurt today. I am not sure why that is maybe I need to let it recover some more. It only really hurts wehn I run trails. It might be the shoes. I may try running the trail in a different pair. Anyone have any thoughts? Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 256.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.00 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 12:33:29 from 168.179.185.33 I always have problems with the ball of my foot when I run in Brooks shoes. I went through a few different types of trail running shoe before I found some that worked for me. Shoes are a very personal thing I think. One size does not fit all. You may need to just keep trying different types until you find what works for you. That said, trail running will definitely make the ball of your foot hurt more than road running. Maybe your feet aren't tough enough yet. Don't push it and try some different shoes and see if that helps. Maybe try your Merrel Trail Gloves too, just to see if it's your feet or the shoes your running in. Tue, Aug 14, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.34 0.00 4.34 Ran this in my instincts same route as yesterday. It did feel a little better on the ball of my foot. I think I am going to lay off trails though for a while. The ball of my foot and my plantar fascia was pretty sore all day after this run. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 382.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.34 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Aug 15, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.21 0.00 5.21 I was debating last night about not running today because of the pain. I decided to go out and just do slow miles on the road. I decided after the 10k at Burley that I will change my time for a fast mile to 8 min/mile. I started out good at a slow pace and things loosened up really nicely. I felt really good. This made it so I pushed it a little too hard at the end, I wanted to keep my Hr at less than 150 bpm. It got up close to 160 by the end. I do feel good though. No heel pain all day and only some mild muscle soreness on the left (side of plantar fascia iritation). Here are my splits: Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Calories Summary 43:30.9 43:11.0 5.21 116 117 8:21 8:17 7:02 151 164 692 1 8:53.1 8:52 1.00 30 13 8:53 8:52 7:24 138 152 119 2 8:09.2 8:07 1.00 20 19 8:09 8:07 7:17 149 154 132 3 8:12.8 8:07 1.00 36 14 8:13 8:07 7:02 156 158 137 4 8:13.2 8:07 1.00 19 53 8:13 8:07 7:31 155 160 135 5 8:17.5 8:14 1.00 12 17 8:18 8:14 7:42 158 164 139 6 1:45.1 1:44 0.21 0 0 8:20 8:15 7:35 158 161 30 Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 116.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.21 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 19:07:30 from 67.164.204.6 When you say heart rate, do you mean average heart rate? If not, I would have to walk to keep my HR under 150 the whole time. From trickydick on Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 21:15:18 from 67.1.145.210 I do mean average hr. Thu, Aug 16, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.31 0.00 4.31 Slow run today for 4 miles did some of it on a gravel road. felt pretty good. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 120.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.31 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Aug 17, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.00 0.00 7.00 Ran up wade rd today had a decent hill for Tucson on asphalt. I did it nice and slow to try and continue to give my plantar fascia time to recover. AP: 8:34 one downhill mile got up to 8:08. The first 3 miles my HR stayed at 150 or less than it crept up because of the steep hill and stayed around 160 for the rest of the run. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 322.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 7.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Aug 20, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.74 1.10 2.84 First attempt at real sprint intervals. I have done 0.5 or 1 mile at a tempo pace in the past but I was trying to do these at sprint pace. I don't have a track anywhere near my house so I did these on a pretty flat road right by my house. My pace for the 3 0.25 mile sprints was 6:02, 6:13 and 6:19. I would like to get that down closer to a 5 min/mile pace. Here are my splits: Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Calories Summary 22:48.9 22:30.0 2.82 8 16 8:06 7:59 1:36 147 172 346 1 7:33.2 7:30 0.96 8 16 7:53 7:49 4:18 138 157 108 2 1:40.5 1:39 0.28 0 0 6:02 5:57 4:45 151 166 25 3 2:35.1 2:31 0.28 0 0 9:06 8:52 8:11 139 165 34 4 1:34.2 1:31 0.25 0 0 6:13 6:00 4:50 154 168 24 5 2:13.5 2:11 0.23 0 0 9:48 9:37 8:20 152 163 37 6 1:35.1 1:30 0.25 0 0 6:19 5:59 5:11 161 172 26 7 5:37.3 5:38 0.57 0 0 9:55 9:56 7:50 155 172 92   Altra Instinct Miles: 2.84 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 15:30:32 from 168.179.185.33 Sasha, the guy that set up this whole blog, told me that the key to faster intervals, aside from more practice at them, is more consistent distance. After looking at my blog, he told me that I should be trying to run 7 miles a day and 14 on the weekend and doing some of those miles at tempo. Then, after a while, start sprinting again. just a thought. From TheMr.K on Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 15:31:10 from 168.179.185.33 But nice job on those splits. I'm pretty close to 1:30 for a 400 myself. Or at least I was until I injured myself. Wed, Aug 22, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 6.55 0.00 6.55 wanted to get in a longer run today. I started out slow but was able to keep a pretty steady pace the whole run. I was at first trying to focus on keeping my HR down but it crept up with the hills in the first part of the run and then didn't want to go back down to less than 150. AP:  8:27/mile Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 242.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 6.55 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Aug 23, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 0.00 4.00 Ran the local loop. It was really nice mud on the trail from the rain and beautiful clouds (will try and post a pic) I was kind of sucking wind though. I think some of that might have to do with donating blood on Saturday. Anyone know how long it takes to get back to normal after that? I would think 2-3 weeks.  My AP was 11:02/mile that felt really slow. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 436.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.00 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Aug 24, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.21 0.00 4.21 Just wanted to get in 4 more miles today. My plantar fascia had been bugging me a lot this week I think it was a combo of being on my feet a lot more at work with the running. I really don't want to stop running alltogether I just thought if I did more roads this week and less trails it would hopefully get better. I am pleased to report it does feel a little better now. I am going to try to do Wasson peak tomorrow if I can get to it I have wanted to do it all month but haven't been able to. I guess I will see how it feels after that. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 120.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.21 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Aug 25, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.01 0.00 7.01 Wanted to run up wasson peak but the road was closed so I decided to run up the road and see what the problem was or was a little washed out in spots but I think it is passable. Nice run despite the heat. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 710.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.01 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.01 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Aug 27, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.01 0.00 5.01 Ran over the saddle by sombrero peak. That trail is terrible. I don't know if I would ever be able to run the whole thing just because of the loose rocks it is worse since the monsoons as well. It is a beautiful area though. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 686.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 4.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 5.00 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Aug 28, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.29 0.00 4.29 Nice run this morning. My new neighbor is a runner and we went together. We were pretty equal. It is nice to have someone to run with. I would have liked to push it a little bit more. Next time. AP: 8:29/mile. I think I was slower because of the plantar fasciitis. I. Not sure what to do about it. It only hurts for the first 0.5 miles. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 105.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.29 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 11:59:07 from 168.179.185.33 I have been having a bit of PF issue too. Mine only hurts first thing in the morning, when I'm climbing out of bed. After I stretch it and get moving it goes away. I think it's because of the added miles I've been doing, maybe yours is for the same reason? I'm hoping that it will eventually get conditioned to the miles and go away. From trickydick on Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 12:17:41 from 174.235.192.169 I have a list of several exercises to strengthen the foot muscles and stretch the plantar fascia. That worked for me in the past, I haven't been very dedicated with the exercises this time yet. Wed, Aug 29, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.18 0.00 3.18 Did 3 miles slow. the watch died halfway through the run. So not sure on the time. I decided to take it nice and slow to let my plantar fascia to recover some. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.18 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Aug 30, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.88 0.00 3.88 Ran the loop around the park. I only did the uphill one way this time because I took my neighbor for the first time. It felt good the trail was nice. Not very much plantar fascia pain.   This month didn't get quite as much accomplished as I wanted too. The road to Wasson peak was closed so I wasn't able to get there to run up that at all. also with plantar fascia and foot pain didn't  get quite as many miles as I hoped to. I think the heat isn't helping a ton either. It will be nice when it starts to cool down some. I am going to go hard this next month to get ready for the half in November. plus I am at the VA this month so I should be able to get some longer runs in during the week. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 290.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.88 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 3.88 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Sep 01, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.49 0.00 7.49 I was finally able to make it back up wasson peak. I was slower by about 10 minutes from my previous runs. I guess I rested more this time than the other times. The trail was overgrown some in spots which made it a little bit more difficult. I still like this backside trail better than the other trail up the front. I hope to be able to do this a couple of more times before the half marathon in November. Hopefully they will open up the direct route to the trail soon. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2039.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.49 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.49 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Thu, Sep 06, 2012 at 11:48:53 from 168.179.185.33 I'm not planning on hitting the trails until middle of October, if that makes you feel any better. Mon, Sep 03, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.55 0.00 5.55 I debated about doing wasson peak again but my feet were pretty sore all day saturday and Juli had projects for me to do today. So I didn't think I could spare the time. I was able to get in a nice run with my neighbor though. AP: 8:41/mile Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 249.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.55 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Sep 04, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.25 0.75 3.00 This morning did some interval work I did 3 400 meter sprints I was going to do more but I felt exhausted and didn't think I could force myself to. My new running partner was significantly faster at the sprints then I am. I started off the first one way to fast and crashed and burned by the end.  the other 2 though faster at the first were more consistent. my times were: 1:26, 1:30, and 1:31.5. My running partner was probably 6-7 seconds faster than me each time. Anyone have tips on how often to do these? I would like to try them a bit more often to get faster but don't want to get hurt. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.00 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Sep 05, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.10 1.00 5.10 Started out on the roads w/ my neighbor. He had to go back early. so i went and ran the trail for a couple of miles. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 219.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.90 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.10 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Sep 07, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 4.00 7.00 This was nice and quick. went with my neighbor it really helped to push me and keep me going. the AP was 8:07/mile and finished in 56:50. The route was mostly flat. My pf was aggravated afterwards. I wanted to run wasson peak again but we are comping tomorrow so this was a nice alternative run. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 92.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 7.00 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 05:14:37 from 67.164.204.6 I've found 2 things very useful for PF issues. First, get a Strassburg sock and wear it to sleep. Second, if you know or suspect your PF is going to be sore, tape it with kenisio tape before you go. That stuff is magical. Good job on the run. 7 miles in 56 minutes is pretty quick. Sun, Sep 09, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.58 0.00 3.58 Ran around the hospital while on call. ran up a couple of the parking garages around the university. The garmin is not super good at keeping track of this. I mapped it on google to get the distance the AP was 8:20/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 160.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.58 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Sep 12, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.77 0.00 3.77 ran around the hospital again on call wanted to do it every night but I have been pretty sick this week and could barely get the energy to go to work running was definitely out. ap: 8:49/mile Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 100.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.77 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Sep 13, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.00 0.00 5.00 ran at work again. I had to stop 1 mile in for a page but then was able to go for the last 4 w/o interruption. AP: 8:36/mile. starting to feel a little better. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 100.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.00 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Sep 14, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.73 0.00 3.73 this was my run at work for my last night on nights. This week was brutal with the cold and the nights. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 86.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.73 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Sep 15, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 8.39 0.00 8.39 Didn't think I could do the wasson peak summit today since I have been sick. Iwas supposed to get in about 8 miles though so I went and did that on the trails by the house. I ran to the saddle of sombrero peak and then around behind the mountain down a nice new trail I haven't tried before it was a nice run. really slow but I was able to go for the 8 miles. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 910.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 8.39 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:32:58 from 168.179.185.33 Are you following a training plan? From trickydick on Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:40:06 from 152.132.9.198 Kind of. I found one online and then just changed it some as I thought would fit. Mon, Sep 17, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.00 0.00 7.00 I was feeling better after a day of rest and some sleep over the weekend so i decided I should try and do Wasson peak since I didn't have to go in to the VA until 9. It was a beautiful morning to go running I was able to get almost all the way to the top and essentially got all the vertical gain out of the run before I has to turn around so I wouldn't be too late for work. the run was slower than it was back in July but it felt good. I am not sure what happened to make me slower I think a combo of the cold, nights, pf pain, and donating blood have taken it out of me. Hopefully I can get built back up to where I was in July. below is the comparison of July to this run. Wasson peak Running Mon, Sep 17, 2012 6:12 AM Wasson peak Running Sat, Jul 14, 2012 7:09 AM Summary Distance 7.00 mi 7.54 mi Time 1:32:31 1:30:40 Avg Speed 4.5 mph 5.0 mph Avg Pace 13:13 min/mi 12:02 min/mi Calories 1,205 C 1,333 C Moving Time 1:28:07 1:28:05 Elapsed Time 1:38:36 1:46:44 Avg Moving Speed 4.8 mph 5.1 mph Avg Moving Pace 12:35 min/mi 11:41 min/mi Max Speed 31.9 mph 8.5 mph Best Pace 1:53 min/mi 7:03 min/mi Elevation Gain 1,942 ft 2,121 ft Elevation Loss 1,948 ft 2,095 ft Min Elevation 2,979 ft 2,982 ft Max Elevation 4,575 ft 4,664 ft Avg HR (bpm) 150 bpm 152 bpm Max HR (bpm) 177 bpm 166 bpm Avg HR (% of Max) 81 % of Max 82 % of Max Max HR (% of Max) 96 % of Max 90 % of Max Avg HR (z) 4.1 z 4.2 z Max HR (z) 5.6 z 5.0 z Less Detail Laps Split Time Distance Avg Pace Time Distance Avg Pace 1 11:49 1.00 11:49 10:42 1.00 10:42 2 18:04 1.00 18:04 16:31 1.00 16:31 3 15:18 1.00 15:18 14:30 1.00 14:30 4 16:40 1.00 16:40 15:26 1.00 15:26 5 10:31 1.00 10:31 10:33 1.00 10:33 6 11:48 1.00 11:48 9:39 1.00 9:39 7 8:21 1.00 8:21 9:05 1.00 9:05 8 :03 0.00 12:38 4:14 0.54 7:51   Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1942.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.00 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:31:00 from 168.179.185.33 eh, that's not that much slower. A couple of higher per mile times but I'm sure it's just a fluke. From trickydick on Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:41:25 from 152.132.9.198 The run in July was 1:30 and I made it to the top so an extra 0.5 miles today it was 1:32. Tue, Sep 18, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 0.00 2.00 Didn't feel like a long run I decided to try and do radar tower hill since it is short but has the awesome hill. It was super hard and my motivation isn't super great.I wasn't able to run all the way to the top without stopping but I did stop when I was too tired and then ran the whole way up. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 361.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.00 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Sep 19, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.05 1.25 3.30 Did 400 yd sprints this AM. My times weren't as good as last time. I had a bad night the kids were up a bunch and am still getting over the cold. The first split I forgot to start my watch so it was 0.2 miles in 1:12 the rest of the splits were 400 yds and were thus: 1:33, 1:37, 1:37 and 1:39. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.30 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:32:01 from 168.179.185.33 are you doing these on the road or a track? when you get to feeling better you should try 800's as well. From trickydick on Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:37:56 from 152.132.9.198 doing them on the road. all the tracks are far away and locked up early in the morning. I will have to try and do the 800's sometime. Thu, Sep 20, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 1.33 4.33 Nice run this morning. Plantar fascia was a little tight but things loosened up after the first couple of miles. the last couple felt really good. and the pf is doing well today.  Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 111.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.33 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Sep 21, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 9.24 0.00 9.24 This was the long run for the week. I have to work all weekend so won't have time to get one in. I was going for 9 miles made that. Just for fun I thought I would throw Beacon hill in in the middle it is the 20% grade hill (325 vert feet) I have ran multiple times in the past. I got to that point at mile 4 and wasn't able to get all the way up it without walking after the hill I felt pretty wiped out but was still able to finish the run. It helped to have my neighbor with me he really pushed me to keep going.  Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 517.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 9.24 Weight: 0.00 Sun, Sep 23, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.47 0.00 3.47 Nice slow run pushing the baby because she woke up early this morning.It was a good recovery run. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 37.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.47 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Sep 24, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.53 0.00 7.53 Ran up Wasson peak again this am. I felt much better this time. I tried to focus on pushing the pace and the overall time, since I didn't have a lot of time today. I am still a bit off the time from July but my overall time was almost the same as in July which means I stopped less. Wasson peak Running Mon, Sep 24, 2012 6:09 AM Remove Wasson peak Running Sat, Sep 1, 2012 7:01 AM Remove Wasson peak Running Sat, Jul 14, 2012 7:09 AM Summary Distance 7.53 mi 7.49 mi 7.54 mi Time 1:40:07 1:37:30 1:30:40 Avg Speed 4.5 mph 4.6 mph 5.0 mph Avg Pace 13:18 min/mi 13:01 min/mi 12:02 min/mi Calories 1,293 C 1,337 C 1,333 C Moving Time 1:35:38 1:32:40 1:28:05 Elapsed Time 1:49:20 1:58:33 1:46:44 Avg Moving Speed 4.7 mph 4.9 mph 5.1 mph Avg Moving Pace 12:42 min/mi 12:22 min/mi 11:41 min/mi Max Speed 20.5 mph 21.4 mph 8.5 mph Best Pace 2:55 min/mi 2:49 min/mi 7:03 min/mi Elevation Gain 2,090 ft 2,039 ft 2,121 ft Elevation Loss 2,082 ft 2,014 ft 2,095 ft Min Elevation 2,990 ft 2,993 ft 2,982 ft Max Elevation 4,667 ft 4,666 ft 4,664 ft Avg HR (bpm) 153 bpm 148 bpm 152 bpm Max HR (bpm) 182 bpm 165 bpm 166 bpm Avg HR (% of Max) 83 % of Max 80 % of Max 82 % of Max Max HR (% of Max) 98 % of Max 89 % of Max 90 % of Max Avg HR (z) 4.3 z 4.0 z 4.2 z Max HR (z) 5.8 z 4.9 z 5.0 z Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2090.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.53 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.53 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Sep 25, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.77 2.50 4.27 did some tempo work kept the middle 2.5 miles at sub 8 min mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 67.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.27 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Sep 26, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.85 0.00 3.85 Easy miles today. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 58.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.85 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Sep 27, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.55 4.00 4.55 Pushing for 4 miles at 8 min/mile after0.5 warmup. Turned out to average 8:06/ mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 113.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.55 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Sep 29, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 10.00 0.00 10.00 Neede 10 miles today did it on trails to get ready for the half. Went up wasson peak again did a different trail that was longer and had another 1000 ft of gain. I need to start bringing food on long runs. I was wiped out at about 7 miles a little something to get extra energy would have really helped. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228084422 Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2987.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 10.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 10.00 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Oct 01, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 2.20 6.20 10k today. I felt pretty good during the run. After the run though my plantar fascia and lateral foot were very painful all day. I think I. Going to have to take sometime off unfortunately I have been resisting taking time off. I think I am going to be forced to now though. My time was pretty quick though ap: 8:28. Last 2.2 at 8/mi,e. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 150.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 6.20 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Oct 03, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.32 1.50 3.82 Had to take yesterday off because of the plantar fascia. Today did some sprints I did 6 0.25 mile sprints not as fast as i would like but pretty steady with where I have been and the plantar fascia pain came back at the end. I think I am going to have to take more time off.  Splits: 1:27, 1:35, 1:32, 1:26, 1:33, and 1:37. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.82 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Thu, Oct 04, 2012 at 17:41:34 from 166.137.156.24 Have you tried taping it because that fixed the problem for me. Thu, Oct 04, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Took the day off and rode the mtn bike to give the foot some rest. 7.5 miles in 31 minutes. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 7.50 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Oct 05, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Another day on the bike 12.3 miles in 51 min 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 12.30 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Oct 08, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 6.20 0.00 6.20 I hadn't ran since last Wednesday, because of the plantar fascitis today's run wasn't too painful. I used kinesiotape and have been icing it all weekend. AP: 8:32. I also did 15.2 miles on the roadbike since I didn't have to go to work today. I think i am going to buy the roadbike.  Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 224.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 6.20 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 15.20 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Oct 09, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Did 10 miles on the roadbike today.  2012 Biking Miles Miles: 10.01 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Oct 10, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.57 4.00 5.57 Did a tempo run. I wanted to do the middle 4 miles at faster than 8 min/mile. my splits were 7:55, 7:56, 7:51 and 7:58. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 101.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.57 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Oct 13, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 12.01 0.00 12.01 needed to do 12 miles today. The foot felt pretty good for the first 6 miles. I did the first 7 miles on the trail by the house so I didn't get too far away from home if the foot started acting up. The foot tightened up after the first 6 miles. I was able to keep running but I had wanted to do the road miles faster. I wasn't able to get them much faster than 9 min/mile. the GPS didn't start tracking right at first So it added about 300 vert feet tot he run/ Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1000.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Oct 15, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 3.51 5.51 Ran up Wade road again. Feet felt pretty good with the tape. I ran it in the Asics, which helped some as well. AP: 8:07. First and last miles were slower than that. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 167.00 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Oct 16, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 0.33 4.33 Hit the local trail again. It was a good run felt pretty good the feet weren't too sore a little bit more tight than yesterday. I ran it in the lone peaks. AP: 9:44 Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 374.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.33 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.33 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Oct 17, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.18 2.25 3.43 sprints felt Ok. The foot was tightening up towards the end so I cut it off after 5 instead of going for 7. Times: 1:33.2, 1:29.8, 1:35.5, 1:33.4 and 1:34. Weight: 0.00 Thu, Oct 18, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Did the bike today to give the feet a rest for the long run this weekend. Average speed was 15 mph. This was on the Mtn Bike. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 12.01 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Oct 19, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Another bike day. 15.4 ave speed. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 7.40 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Oct 20, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 11.06 0.00 11.06 Great run on the trails around Wasson peak. I wanted to get 12  miles but one of trails I have never taken before was washed out and I got a little lost and ended up back at the road earlier than anticipated and when I got back to the car and realized it I didn't have the will to keep going. I was able to run the whole way to the saddle at 4.5 miles than I hit the wall and had to walk a good portion of the steep hill. This was an accomplishment because it is more than what I have been able to do in the past. felt really good. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2603.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 11.06 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Oct 22, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.79 0.00 3.79 Did the local Trail run. It was nice I was able to keep the average pace down to 10:23. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 377.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 3.00 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Oct 23, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Nice bike ride on the mountain bike. Speed 15.2 mph. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 9.40 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Oct 24, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.54 4.00 5.54 This was a tempo run did a 1 mile warm up then did 4 miles trying for 7:50 pace. then last 0.5 miles was cooldown. Initially felt pretty good. I was able to do the run at the pace I wanted but the foot started to get pretty tight towards the end. I didn't get to ice it afterwards which made it worse all day as well. Here are my mile splits: 7:47, 7:55, 7:41 and 7:50. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 163.00 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Oct 25, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.10 0.00 3.10 Slow run today. I ran it in my Asics the plantar fascia didn't hurt too bad. Weight: 0.00 Fri, Oct 26, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Nice bike ride. First time on the new roadbike since I bought it. the handlebars came loose towards the end which made the last 7 miles interesting and certainly slower than I would have liked. the bike rides nice though and look forward to more rides. Ave speed: 15.5 mph. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 14.73 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Oct 27, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.58 0.00 7.58 Ran up Wasson again. It was a great day for it. It is nice and cool down here now. It was a bit windy today but felt really good. It was kind of fun today i started with some hikers and they asked how long it takes to do the hike I told them I was hoping for about 1:40, then told them i was running it though. On the way down I saw them about 1.75 miles into the hike. That felt really good. I walked a touch more then I felt like I did last week, maybe because of the longer bike ride yesterday. My time is back down to my July time though I am happy with that. I'm excited for the half this weekend. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2156.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.58 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 7.58 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Oct 30, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.27 0.00 4.27 Run while at work overnight. AP: 8:34. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 94.00 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Oct 31, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.00 2.20 3.20 Did some miles while on call trying to go sub 8 min mile. forgot to bring my watch so used the nike plus app. splits were 7:47, 8:05 and 7:45. Weight: 0.00 Thu, Nov 01, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.28 0.00 2.28 Run while on Overnights at the hospital. Just a short loosening up run prior to the trail race on the weekend. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 35.00 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Nov 03, 2012 Race: Moab Trail Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 02:31:25, Place overall: 193, Place in age division: 30 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 13.10 0.00 13.10 This was a super fun race. I have been looking forward to running it since last year when my brother ran it and raved about how fun it was. It was great. I was really happy with my time. I think if I hadn't been hampered with the plantar fasciitis issue I could have trained more this past month and performed slightly better. However, my initial goal was just o finish the race. and secondarily I had hoped to do the race faster than a 12 min/mile pace. I was able to do that AP was 11:32/mile. I think there is plenty of room for improvement next year. I will keep up the trails as soon as the plantar fascia gets better. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1840.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 13.10 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Nov 06, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 7.52 0.00 7.52 I had thought that I would take a week off to recover from the race. However, I took this day off not knowing how long we would hang out in Moab or take to drive home. I could have gone back to work early but decided to relax instead and go for a nice run. I went up Wasson peak. It felt really good going up. However, after about a half mile coming down I started to get alot of patellofemoral pain. I was worried I was going to have to walk. I stopped for a minute and stretched it out. I was able to finish the run but was a little tender there for the rest of the day. I worry about developing another problem now. I will have to work on strengthening my quads to prevent a problem before it starts. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 2088.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 7.52 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Nov 07, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Road bike ride. ave speed: 16.9 mph. time 33:55 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 9.54 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Nov 09, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.02 0.00 4.02 Ran a couple of easy miles. 2 of them were on the trail by my house felt pretty good. The plantar fascia seems Ok as long as I don't push it too much and give my feet a couple of days off in the middle. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 266.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Nov 12, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.49 0.00 5.49 Slow run on pavement. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 99.00 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Nov 14, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Road bike ride. Wasn't able to do anything yesterday because I was called in for urgent procedure at 2 am. A little tired today. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 8.84 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Nov 15, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 similar route to yesterday. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 8.32 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Nov 16, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 This bike ride had a nice hill on it felt really good to push up the hill. The best part about biking uphills is coming back down. So much easier than running abck down. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 9.77 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Nov 19, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.87 0.00 3.87 Ran with my sister today. It was a fun trail run at sunrise. I felt really good since I hadn't ran since last Monday. we did the run nice and slow for her. Beautiful morning. I love trail running! Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 215.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.87 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 12:20:29 from 67.164.204.6 It's pretty cool you got her on a trail. I tried to talk her into it for a while up here but she never wanted to do it. I need to get down there for some winter training soon Tue, Nov 20, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 0.00 0.00 0.00 Well this morning I was all ready to go for a run with my sister again. However, she had a headache so we passed and I decided instead to go on a long bike ride. I hope to ride my bike to work several days a week starting soon. So today I rode the route I will take to get to work at least until I ran out of time it turned out to be 20 miles. felt pretty good. If I do start riding to work it will be 17-18 miles each way. I averaged 15.9 mph. 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 20.43 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Nov 22, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.22 0.00 5.22 Did some slow miles before work today. I was just going to do roads but at about mile 2 I was at the trailhead so I decided to take it because I was feeling pretty good. The trail was beautiful it was again right at sunrise, which is such a great time of day to be running on a trail. Plantar fascia felt pretty good a little tight later in the day. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 347.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.50 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Nov 23, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 0.00 3.00 3 mi,es before work. Nothing special 8:24 AP Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 34.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.00 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Nov 24, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.16 0.00 5.16 Ran before work I was pretty tired from working so much in November. Was able to do it though AP 8:31 Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 123.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Nov 26, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.05 0.00 3.05 2.5 this am. The other 0.5 was tonight with the kids my daughter wants to learn to run longer so I took her out for a little run to try and help her build endurance. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.05 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Nov 27, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.08 0.00 2.08 Hard time getting motivated today. Just did the 2 miles for the challenge I'm doing with the family. AP 8:23 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Nov 28, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.22 0.00 4.22 I decided I should try and go at least 4 miles/day if I have time. I did just that today and was able to get up a little trail in the middle for some vert Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 235.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.00 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 4.22 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Nov 29, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.02 0.00 4.02 Barely made the 4 miles today. I felt pretty good after I started but it was hard to get going. It is harder for me to go downhill with the plantar fasciitis. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 112.00 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Nov 30, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.06 0.00 4.06 Nice run was able to get on the trail for better than half of the run. I was able to keep all the miles at 10:00/mile or better. Went biking with the kids I should have ran though because it was slower than the run in the morning. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 229.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.30 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 2.93 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Dec 01, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.17 0.00 3.17 Wasnt able to go this morning because I worked until midnight. It felt pretty good for a night run though. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.17 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Dec 03, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.67 1.00 3.67 I was able to get the 1st mile under 8 minutes no pain. The hills were in the second mile and it was pretty dark so I couldn't really see the trail too well. The last part mile was at nearly 8/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 159.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.00 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Dec 04, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 2.08 4.08 4 more miles. AP: 8:05/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 68.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.08 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Dec 05, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.53 0.00 3.53 Not as far as yesterday but the streak is still alive. AP 8:26/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 68.00 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Dec 06, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 3.03 5.03 Felt pretty quick today. AP 8:05/mile. 3 miles were less than 8/mile Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 165.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.05 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Dec 07, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.64 0.00 3.64 Streak is still alive. The trail was very dark and made it slow this morning. AP 8:50/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 179.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.50 Weight: 0.00 Sat, Dec 08, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 6.11 1.00 7.11 Did this run pushing Ella in the stroller. I think that slowed me some. Still able to keep the AP at 8:18/mile. I felt really good the foot didn't really bother me at all. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 138.00 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Dec 10, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.09 2.00 4.09 4 miles up wade road. I was a le to get the downhill miles under 8 / mile. AP 8:09/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 107.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 4.09 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Dec 11, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.04 0.00 4.04 4 more this morning. It was really cold for Tucson today (35 degrees). I wasn't able to go as fast as on previous days not sure if it was the cold or just tired. AP 8:24/mile. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 60.00 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Dec 12, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.60 0.00 3.60 Nice morning run 2 miles on local trail. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1.91 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.60 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Dec 13, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.00 1.69 2.69 Just keeping the streak alive. Only had 20 minutes to run so couldn't get 3 miles in. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 23.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.69 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Dec 14, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.79 0.00 2.79 Only had about 20 minutes to run again. The streak is still alive though Weight: 0.00 Sat, Dec 15, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.10 0.00 3.10 Ran at 130 while at work. It was kind of hard since I essentially hadn't slept since the run on friday Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 53.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.10 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Dec 17, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.11 0.00 2.11 It was so hard to get out today. I was exhausted from the weekend and didn't sleep well last night. I didn't have more time because I slept in. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 17.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 2.11 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Dec 18, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.14 2.00 5.14 Had the morning off so I was able to get more miles in today. Felt pretty good. It is so much nicer to run in the light. Average pace 8:19/mile Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 150.00 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 10:55:23 from 50.8.73.99 your schedule sounds like it sucks, but at least you don't have to run in the snow. I'm jealous. Wed, Dec 19, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.47 0.00 3.47 It was a great morning for a run. It rained the prior night and the air felt and smelt great. It was so peaceful. I actually really enjoyed running in the dark adn enjoying the peace of the early morning. I was focusing on going slow because of foot pain. I was only planning to go 2 miles. I ended up going almost 3.5 because I felt so good. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 20.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.47 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Dec 20, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 1.00 2.86 3.86 Ran with my neighbor up Wade road. He really pushed me. AP: 8:02 and the last mile was 7:26. I felt better going fast as i got an MRI yesterday. I wasn't able to go through everything, but I did make sure that I don't have a stress fracture. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 68.00 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Dec 21, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.44 0.00 3.44 another slow run today. Not as slow as wednesday but thought I should take it easy. The temperature is finally right this morning it said 42 in Tucson and SLC was at 24. all is right with the world. I hope the world doesn't end I want to get more running in tomorrow. AP: 8:29. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 23.00 Weight: 0.00 Comments From TheMr.K on Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 11:49:06 from 50.8.73.99 I've been thinking about telling my boss that I'll be working from AZ for the next 3 months so I can attend training camp at your house in Tucson. It's hard to motivate one's self to get out and run at 5am when the temp is 19. Sat, Dec 22, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 3.21 6.21 Started this morning wanting to average about 8 min miles. as I got to 4 miles. I realized I could get a PR for my 10k time, which I guess is kind of sad. Anyway I decided to push the last couple of miles to get a PR. I ended up finishing in 49:48 which is better than my prior by 47 seconds. I should try and push it harder I think I could better my time if I do another race. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 214.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 6.21 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Dec 24, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 4.00 1.64 5.64 Great trail run today. It is so nice to run in the daylight. I saw a deer that even had a spike on it this morning. The weather was perfect today. My last mile and half were pretty fast sup 8 min mile. The foot was a little tight by the end but not bad. Later int he day I went on a hike with the family up the mountain and my foot was super tight then and started hurting pretty good. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 340.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 4.14 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 5.64 Weight: 0.00 Tue, Dec 25, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.00 1.22 3.22 Great Christmas day run. Chase wanted to go with me so he rode his bike. He had a slow start but did great was able to ride the whole way and we were able to break 8 min/mile for the last 1.2 miles. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 35.00 Altra Instinct Miles: 3.22 Weight: 0.00 Wed, Dec 26, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 5.16 0.00 5.16 Had some time this morning so I did some trails in the daylight it was a great run. I felt really good the foot is still tight every morning, but it isn't too bad. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 323.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 2.50 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.16 Weight: 0.00 Thu, Dec 27, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.24 0.00 3.24 Today Fei was visiting us and wanted to try and go running. So I took him with me it was a really slow run I was able to go a little but faster then him by going up and back down the side streets. I averaged 8:52/mile. I am sure Fei was closer to 12/mile. Altra Instinct Miles: 3.24 Weight: 0.00 Fri, Dec 28, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.14 0.00 3.14 Only time for 5k before work. Weight: 0.00 Sat, Dec 29, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 3.00 2.40 5.40 Did a little over a mile (half with Lucy and the half with Chase) jogging slowly with the kids this morning that was really fun. I am excited for when they get older and we can run together. They did pretty good they were able to run for most of their respective half miles. I then did 4.5 by myself a short stretch on trails to get some vert. I was able to go after after having warmed up. Later went on a hike with the kids up sombrero peak they did great Lucy made it all the way until we had to turn back because of time. Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 1400.00 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 1.50 Altra Instinct Miles: 5.40 Weight: 0.00 Mon, Dec 31, 2012 Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 2.44 0.00 2.44 Only had time for 2.44 miles I have been staying up late everyday with my friend in town and had to go to work early. Altra Instinct Miles: 2.44 Weight: 0.00 Totals Slow miles Fast miles Total Distance 850.73 303.88 1154.61 Merrell Barefoot Miles: 48.25 Vertical Feet 2012 Miles: 105160.51 Off Road Miles 2012 Miles: 437.63 Altra Lone Peak Miles: 399.92 Altra Instinct Miles: 343.38 Wasson Peak Summits 2012 Miles: 11.00 2012 Biking Miles Miles: 148.38 Weight: 209.53 Debt Reduction Calculator Featured Announcements Utah Valley Marathon, Half-Marathon, and 5 K Race Promotion Rules Most Recent Entries: Ethan Cannon Rob Murphy Sasha Pachev ben Blake Bennion Mark Fishon New Kids on the Blog (need a welcome): Maddy Pachev Tyler Yokoo Kristi Ben Klingle Eric Heidi Felix Boera Lone Faithfuls (need a comment): Toby Clay Fishon rexter Dustin peds endo doc Andy O Recent Comments: