Trying to improve my running

This was the 2nd time I have ran the egg nog jog and we ran it as a family again. it was a lot of fun yet again. This year i decided I should let my wife run unencumbered and push the stroller (which happened to have a flat tire). This slowed me down a significant amount. I was also feeling less than 100% due to a cold. I did manage to win the stroller division by about 10 minutes i saw the next stroller when i went back to find my family and they were back by my daughter who finished at 34 minutes.  My daughter and wife both had PRs 34:16 and 30:27.

Ran the local trail. It is nice to be able to go out during the daylight.

Easy run around the neighborhood with Juli. last 2 miles were faster because I had to run home quickly for a bathroom emergency.

Nice easy run with several guys from the ragnar group.

Ran up Wade Road.

Ran with the Grinders. i am kind of between groups especially with the cold. The people I usually run with were advanced up into a faster group. I attempted to keep up with them. I did pretty well at first but the last mile fell off about 10 seconds. we did 1 mile then 4x400 then 1 mile. I was supposed to do 6:35, 95 and 6:35. The other group I had been running with was doing 6:25, 93 and 6:25. I started with them and did the first mile at 6:24 my 400s were 96, 94, 93 and 94. the last mile I started out witht he group but fell off in the last half mile and finished at 6:34.

Ran on the nearby trail. Saw a dear it was still dark the new headlamp is pretty good but it is still difficult running on the trail in the dark.

Ran the 60 sec fast 60 sec less fast workout today. I did the workout up and down wade road for variety. The uphill segments were slower and I was a bit slower overall. I was able to keep my overall fast pace at 6:57 (7:09 uphill). Usually closer to 6:35 for fast on flat ground.

Easy run with the Ragnar group. I did the 2nd to last mile pretty quick (7:30) before going back to meet the slower group.

Easy run up Wade road. 7:58 pace.

Wade road post call. 7:38 average pace

Only time for 2 miles this AM.

Did the 60/60 for 3 miles up wade road again. Faster than last week just under 7/mile uphill and 6:48 pace overall for the fast.

easy miles in the AM. Different route today went over rattle snake pass.

Easy run pushing the stroller through the neighborhood before work.

Ran on the strip. This week I was at a conference so i ran every morning on the strip not great running but better than nothing. This day I went north from planet hollywood/Paris to the end of the casinos and back.

Went south on the strip today from Planet hollywood to the airport and back. This is a better way to run.

South on the strip again. This time a couple of guys from my program went with me.

Went south on the strip again. This time my roommate went part of the way with me.

Went south ont eh strip again. This time a different guy from my program went with me for the first couple of miles.

I ran up Wade road. It feels good to be back in town. I used the foot pod for the first time. It gave me my cadence for the run, which was 182 spm average. I dont know very much about it but the little paragraph garmin has on it says that is in the more experienced or faster runner zone. I guess I am happy with that. I guess I will see what it shows for the next while and see if I can read something about cadence and what I should be doing to get faster.

I was in Indianapolis today for an interview and the outdoor temp was 0 at 5 am. being warmblooded I knew I wasn't going to go outside and run in the wind and cold. So I was forced onto the treadmill. The treadmill I ran on was kind of cool though. It had a virtual run section. So I chose to run through the southwest trails. It was nice I did it with an average 6% grade. It made it somewhat better. My cadence was 170 spm average a little less than saturday when i was outside.

Short run in the morning.

Ran up wade road.

Up wade road

A longer run before leaving town. I went up wade and then across a wash and through several local neighborhoods and home. ran in the new shoes they feel pretty good.

Did several runs today the first was on an indoor track at the University of Minnesota. I did 4 miles there trying to focus on negative splits for the first 3 miles. my splits were 8:07, 7:37, and 7:13. The last mile was to try and calibrate my foot pod because according to the track measurements my run was slightly longer than the foot pod said.

The second run was outside I thought I should experience the cold since I may move here or will at most likely move somewhere colderin a couple of years and still want to run. It was really cold 19 degrees. I bundled up in hat, gloves, tights and longsleeve shirt. I still never really warmed up. It is weird to be sweating and still be freezing cold. Still the run felt pretty good considering the cold. the worst part of the run was the snow and ice and trying not to slip and fall. my average cadence was 178.

This week I was in phoenix for a training course. This run was in the evening. It felt really good to be back in the warmth. I think it was about 60 for this run. Nice and flat felt good.

Ran up the street by my motel before the training course. Felt good I decided to try and run twice a day this whole week since I was away from my family. average cadence was 182 spm.

After work I wanted to run up this mountain in central phoenix I think it is called Piestewa peak (used to be Squaw peak). It was a good run/hike. it was kind of a crowded trail at least towards the bottom. closer to the top the trail became very steep and technical not really able to run much at the end. Unfortunately coming down the trail it was dusk/dark and I didn't have a light so I took that kind of slow to avoid death. Nice to be on trail though. I wanted to run on some more of the trails in this area but it is really congested in Phoenix and took me 30 min to drive to this place which was about 10 miles from my hotel. I never made it back. For reference my average cadence was 130 on this run.

Am run south on central towards downtown. I also jogged through the park over the top of the freeway.

PM run went on the canal path. Almost got hit by a car on the way back to the hotel. Cadence was 178

Only able to run in the morning today because i went and toured the temple int he evening. average cadence 178.

Too tired to go further this AM. Average cadence 180.

Only time for 2 miles. I wanted to go further but with all the traveling the past couple of weeks i was too tired to get up early before work. i planned on running at work but didn't have the energy or time. 

Had today off to go to the Gilbert AZ temple openhouse. I ran the 1st mile with Juli then continued on up Wade and over onto picture rocks. It was a nice run. I felt pretty tired afterwards. I hope I can handle the multiple runs in the Ragnar in a couple of weeks. average cadence: 182 SPM. The first mile, which was a lot slower was 176.

Ran up wade road.

Ran this morning 8 miles up wade road. Felt good. Average cadence 180 SPM.

This evening I ran at Loma Linda Ca where I came for an interview. It was nice and warm. More congested with traffic and not as good of an area to run. No sidewalks in places.

Easy miles in Loma LInda before my interview.

Wade Road.

Wade Road.

I am super far behind on posting about my runs so these are all going to be short but at least want to put them in. I ran on the trail by my house today.

Wade road

Wade road

Wade Road

I did the Ragnar Del Sol race with some guys from church. it was a ton of fun. I'm glad that I had the experience. my leg distances were 7, 7.1 and 9. My times and paces respectively were 50:09, 7:08/mile; 54:31, 7:43; and 1:09:38, 7:45. The first one was all downhill 2% grade teh last 2 had decent uphill stretches.

Last 2 legs of ragnar were actually on this day.

easy post race run

Wade road

Wade Road in AM

Went running on the hills in NSL in the evening with my Bro. I really love utah so many trails and mountains.

Great run in the rain on the firebreak road in Farmington and a little exploring.

In the Am did a run on the BSL trail up above the avenues. it was nice and cold at first then got muddy towars the end as things started melting.

PM run with my brother on Firebreak road and BSL in farmington.

Ran a couple of miles with Juli while at my sons football practice. I also rode my bike to work but got a flat tire about 4 miles away from work. Fortunately able to get a ride with a coworker.

Wade road

Wade Road

Wade road

Wade road

Only had time to run to my sons football game this day.

I ran in the morning in Hershey PA by the hotel before my interview at PSU.

I was in DC for a conference for most of March. The house we stayed at was right by Rock Creek park. great running trails i had a blast. today did the Valley trail in rock creek park for a short distance. i went with my coworker Greg. i surprised him with the trail i don't think he was super happy he wanted to do something more flat.

Loved the trail yesterday so did the Western ridge trail today for a short distance around the house. It was great running a little confusing at times and I had to stop to look up directions several times.

Wanted to run to the LDS temple in DC. I looked on the map it was about 6 miles away. I thought I could run up there and then catch the subway to get almost back home. So i Went out and run thhrough Rock Creek Park up to the temple. It was a beautiful run adn i was glad I did it. I didn't want to run the 7 miles it turned out to be to get back home. So i looked to where the nearest metro station was. It turned out to be 3 miles away. i ran there and then got off where i thought I was closeest to home and ran/bushwhacked the last 2 miles home through a portion of rock creek park in the dark. I should have just ran back the way i came it would have been way easier. Fun exploring trip though.

Ran through rock Creek park to the monuments in downtown DC and then rode the bus home.

Ran on the west ridge trail for a while in Rock Creek park.

Traveled to Chicago today and ran on the waterfront down to soldier field and back to my brother in laws condo.

Couldn't run yesterday because I had an interview and then had to drive to cincinnati. Today ran along the river in Cincinnati both in Ohio and Kentucky.

Ran on a trail by my sisters house. It was really rough and lost the trail multiple times. pretty run and nice vert though.

Short run after my class around a lake in Cincinnati.

Got up and ran this AM before my class. It was really cold and I didn't have long clothes but i survived a couple of miles.

Great run in the snow. I ran along the western ridge trail in Rock Creek park. it is amazing that you can feel pretty isolated in the middle of the big city running in that park. great change for a desert runner.

Short run through rock creek park to find my hat which I lost the day before. It was still there on the trail. It was windy and cold and i didn't feel like going out. I guess it was good i lost my hat.

Wanted torun around the peninsula in Charlotte SC where I flew for an interview. It was a great run but turned into a longer run than i had planned.beautiful city.

Wanted to go and run some in Virginia. Unfortunately virginia is like 6 miles from my house. Oh well ran through Rock Creek park and joined up on another trail that let to the potomac and crossed over ran down the virginia side to Arlington Cemetery and then crossed back over into DC and rode the bus home from downtown. It was a very rainy run and slick in a lot of places. Also the trail cut through several streams that i think aren't really a big deal usually, but witht he storm they were pretty full and hard to get across.

Getting to the end of my time in DC. I wanted to run on a section of the Valley trail in Rock Creek park that I hadn't been on.

Had to travel to Pittsburgh for an interview today so I ran around by the university. It is a very hilly city.

Ran with Greg (coworker) to downtown DC to hopefully see the cherry blossoms before we leave. a couple of trees were blooming not much.

Last run in DC was unfortunately just up 16th street since I went sight seeing for the day. 

Back in AZ for the weekend. I didn't get to run saturday but I got to run through the dessert today it feels good to be back home. Regular trail run on Passey loop.

Ran in St Louis from my hotel down to the arch. It was fun It was cardinal opening day and there were a lot of fans out.

Wade road

Wade road

Wade road

Ran with the family post call just down pima farms.

I had been having abdominal pain since Friday night. This morning it wa worse and had moved to my RLQ. Hoping that it was just gas pain or something I ate. I thought I will go for a run and try and get this out of my system. I started running and the first mile was terrible. The next mile was much better. I stopped at my usual turn around point on Wade and almost puked. Unfortunately i was 2 miles from home. I ran back home very slowly and painfully then went to the hospital and was confirmed to have appendicitis. 

Finally got the go ahead to run again slowly by my surgeon so I did a couple of easy miles.

Another short run. Still recovering

Short run up wade. Building back up to standard distance.

went back up wade road the usual distance and felt pretty much all better. A little out of shape after not running for so long (10 days).

Wade road. still building up strength. This run was faster than others probably b/c I didn't run yesterday.

Also ran in the evening with my family. Trying to help the older kids build up to running throughout a 5k.

Ran Passey loop with my neighbors dog. He didn't like the trail very much.

Ran on the trail by my house again. Faster without the dog.

Wade road

Wade road

Wade road

Ran a 5k with my family for my birthday/mother's day. It was a fun little race depite being out of shape. I was 1.5 minutes of my PR and 2.5 minutes off of where I would like to be for a 5k but it was a nice run. My wife and kids all got a PR and my kids are getting much better they were able to run probably 50% of the race.

Wade Road

Ran around the hospital post call waiting for a study session.

Ran on the trail by my house.

Had to work early so ran around the hospital. It was 80 degrees.

Wade Road

Wade Road

Had to work early again so I ran on the rillito trail. Pretty morning saw a coyote.

Had to work early again so ran by the hospital. The last half mile was while carrying 12 donuts to the techs for helping me out this AM. I almost puked in Dunkin donuts because I had a lot of phlegm from the heat.

Wade road

Wade road

Ran with my son (6) for 1.25 miles. He is getting better. After that ran on the trail by my house. nice morning, but getting hot.

So I haven't ran up wasson peak at all this year. Just been too busy. A friend of mine that recently started running and had been wanting to try this is moving so I decided I should take him. I am out of shape compared to last year but the run felt great. ai need to do this more. Amazingly my time wasn't a lot slower than usual. I think having someone along with me really pushed me. I would have walked a lot more if he wasn't there.

After I got back I ran 1.3 with my kids.

Wade road.

Wade road

Ran on the trail by my house

Wade road

Ran up wade road for 6 miles.

When I got home My son wanted to run with me so we did another mile together.

Wade road

Wade road and artesiano.

A little exploring on the trail by my house.

Ran on the rillito river path.

Wade road

Wade road

Wade road

Wade road.

Wade road.

Passey loop.

Wade road.

Ran in dingle. took a turn up the side of the mountain and ran through the cow pastures didn't get all the way to the top because of the time and the cold.

Ran to the top of the mountain in Dingle with my brother.

Ran around Dingle pond while on vacation.

Ran around the town of Dingle with my brother.

Ran around Dingle w my bro.

Short run around the neighborhood. Tucson is so hot.

Wade road

Call run, I need to go furtherbut it is so hard in the heat.

Wade road

Ran on Passey loop for a short distance. It was over 90 degrees.

First only able to run 2 miles before work.

Then I ran 4 more miles while at work. It was much cooler after the sun went down.

Wade road.

Ran up Beacon Hill. I wanted to do a couple of laps, but to hot and tired. I did do a couple of quick "sprints up the hill after coming back down the first time I made it up 50 vertical feet each time about 30 seconds of sprint each.

Ran around passey loop and out to Ina.

Ran around the hospital while on call.

Ran on the trail by my house only a couple of miles before a 4th of July breakfast. It is humid now (not quite as hot though only 80s).

Ran up Wasson peak with a friend from church. It is so much better to go running with other people I am able to push myself more. Even though i haven't been training as much as last year my time was only 7 minutes off my best time for this run. I think the main reason is having someone to keep me going when I want to stop and walk.

Ran up Wade road to the pass on picture rocks road. I was going to just go back home from there but figured I would hike the hill right off of the pass for some extra vert. It was only a hike because it was very steep and rocky without a trail.

Ran up Wasson peak again today. I was 2 minutes slower than on Saturday, confirming what I thought about having someone to push me.

I was pretty tired this morning from yesterday's runa nd I played racquetball for a couple of hours last night. The run was slow up Wade road.

I was even more sore today from racquetball. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to get some hills so I did the trail by my house and went up the saddle of sombrero peak. I admit the steep parts were only a hike both up and down. Humid morning.

Ran up Wade and back down artesiano.

Wade road.

Ran up radar tower hill 2x.

Ran up Wasson peak again today. Nice rainy day very humid. I had a little knee pain coming down which slowed me up a bit. I was able to run more of the uphill than last time.

Ran 2 times overnight while on call. both were just over 4 miles.

Wade road.

Wade road. This was the fastest feeling run up the road since my appendectomy.

Ran up Tanque Verde ridge on the east side of town with John. It was a really great run very nice on that side of town haven't ever been over there. I will have to try it again. Legs are pretty tired this has been a good week with 7000 vertical feet.

Ran again in the evening up wade road. Still pretty hot even with the sun down.

Ran out to beacon hill and then went up it one time just for fun. I was slow going up the hill and walked a decent bit. I'm not sure if the 4 previous miles made me slow or the fact I still had 4 miles to get home did.

In the evening I did 2 more miles to bring my daily total above 10.

Ran up Wasson peak with Sean and his friend Mark Who showed up in a weight vest, long pants, long shirt and boots. I thought either this guy is going to kill us on this run or he is going to die because he has no idea what he is doing. It was the latter. The running time on the run was excellent, but we ended up waiting quite a bit for Mark. That is probably why the moving time was so fast. I ended up having to ditch them towards the end so I wouldn't be late for work. 

Oh yeah also saw the first rattlesnake of the year on the trail.

First run was while on call around the hospital.

In the evening I went out again and got a few miles in in the trail. It was made all the better because it was during a thunderstorm. It would have been better if it rained harder but can't have everything.

Tan up beacon hill 2 times. First time I have seen other runners there. A group of high school cc runners came at the end of my second trip.

In the morning I ran up Wasson peak. It was pretty muggy. So much so that there was a fog across the valley. That is my 6th trip this year. Maybe I will get as many trips as I did last year.

Second run was just after a pretty heavy rain. I went on passed loop and had a ton of mud with the trail washed out in several places. Fun run.

Wade road. Super muggy.

2 runs today the first was around the hospital while at work and the second was on the local trail. The second run was pretty hot at 930 AM.

Ran up Beacon hill to try and get closer to my total vertical feet goal for the month. I don't think i am going to make it but I got closer than I thought I would. I wanted to get 30000, which would have equaled my vert for the whole year to that point. I'm at about 25000 now.

Went up Wasson peak again. I went later in then i would have liked and it was hotter than usual. A little bit slower. I saw another rattlesnake on the trail. I may have to start carrying a snakebite kit with me.

Ran on the local trail saw a tortoise, which is better than a rattlesanke. My goal for this month was to get 30000 vertical feet. I had only been able to get 30000 for the entire year prior to this month so I realistically thought I would be lucky to get 20000 but I was able to get almost 26000. I guess we will see how next month goes.

Ran up artesiano and back home on wade.

Ran up to Romero Pass out of Catalina State park with John. It was a very steep trail and the last couple of miles were just hiking actually it was pretty tough even to run down. We did see a rattlesnake on the trail shortly after I told John I thought there aren't rattlesnakes up as high as we were. It wasn't acting very aggressive. We also ran out of water. John ran out with 2.5 miles to go and I ran out with 1 mile to go, Luckily it wasn't very hot. It was very humid though and we were soaking wet for almost the whole run.

Ran from the house out to beacon hill and up it then back home. I was trying to go a little bit fast but still never broke 8 minute miles. and after going up Beacon hill couldn't even break 8:30/mile.

Wade road

Ran up Wasson Peak this morning. It was a nice morning to run it fairly cook at least for AZ. There was a nother runner out on the trail. I felt pretty good because I was able to pass him.

Did Wade road today. Wasn't feeling very good when I left and turned out there was a good reason. At the half way point had diarrhea barely got squatted behind a cactus off the side of the road before I exploded. Not a great experience need to start bringing TP of the runs.

Ran overnight around the hospital for about 4 miles. After getting home went with my wife ond kids for a couple miles and then continued on to get a total of 6 miles. It was super hot for the daytime run 90+ to start.

Ran with John this AM. Wanted to do 2 trips up Wasson. I felt really pretty good the first time up and down. The second time up it was getting hot still not too bad but I think I was wiped out from my overnight shift 2 days ago and from not eating too well the day before i bonked pretty hard and had to hike even the easier parts the second time up. If it hadn't been for John i wouldn't have made it as far as I did. I had to turn back just before getting to the top because I was going to be late to go to the temple with my wife.

We ended up seeing 4 snakes on the run only 1 was a rattler.

Ran up wade road in the AM.

Ran around the hospital while on call just before midnight.

Ran around the hospital at 5 AM while on call 2nd run of the shift.

Wade road

Ran up Wade road to the Picture rocks pass.

Wade road

Wade road.

Ran twice overnight while on call.

AM run up Wade.

PM run while on call around hospital.

2nd run while on call.

First attempt at speedwork since my appendectomy. Nothing too spectacular just did 10 min tempo runs with 3 min AR. Was going for a pace of 8 min/mile and got pretty close. 7:50, 7:55 and 8:05 for the three tempo runs.

wade road

Ran up Kitt Peak. It was a great run I felt really good going up the back dirt road. It was steep in places but not too terrible. I decided to run back down the paved road and pick up the downhill pace to strengthen the downhill legs. I was a little surprised how fast it was going down. I was pretty sore after it was over i think the downhill legs really neede the speed workout.

Wade road.

Ran the loop around beacon hill. Didn't feel up to going up the hill.

Biked over to Beacon hill and then home. I only made one trip up in the middle.

Wanted to go up Wasson Peak, unfortunately the road is closed because of flooding. I ran up the road and a trail aways before going home to take the kids to school.

Wade road

Ran up Wrightson Peak with John. It was a good run we did the super trail up and down made it longer but it was much more runnable. I was able to run about 75% of the uphill.

Wade road to picture rocks

Rode my bike to the VA for work today. I rode it to the U for call at night and then ran while on call. A lot of exercise today.

Ran after call up wade road. Was planning to bike home but unfortunately got a flat tire.

Wade road

Passey loop out to Ina

Finally made it to Tumamoc hill here in Tucson. It is fairly popular I had heard. When I got there I was shocked at how many people were there it was 530 on Saturday and I pulled up and thought there must be a race going on. Nope it is the typical crowd of people that are there to hike/run the hill. It was cool to see so many different types of people getting out and exercising in the morning. We did 3 trips up and down the hill.

Wade road

ran up tumamoc hill a couple times before work.

AM Run: Wade road.

PM Run: ran around passey loop by moonlight got off the trail a couple times. The desert is peaceful at night though.

Wade road.

AM: Went camping with the family up in the Santa Catalinas. Ran up Mt bigelow and around the Butterfly trail. I wanted to go further but family responsibilites and the altitude did me in.

PM: Wade road.

Ran in the evening around the hospital

First run was while I was on call around the hospital.

The second run was after getting home. It was super hot (90+ degrees). 

Ran up Tumamoc hill with john 2x this morning. I was still pretty tired from call on sunday and was a lot slower than previously.