Craig's Running Blog

So the questionable weather turned into a decent snowstorm. I met the group at 7:00, and considered not even showing up due to the weather. About 8 of us showed, and  we decided on a 5 mile loop instead of the planned speed/tempo workout. After the 5 miles, I hit the Jordan River Parkway on the way home and did another 5 to even out the mileage at 10.

Snow and ice everywhere. 31 degrees. Not too cold, but you have to make sure to stay on the road without getting too close to the side.

I was anxious to get in a decent workout, so I did the Wasatch/Pepperwood loop of 7.5-8 miles. Fortunately, the cars were minimal. I left the house at 5:45, which beat the morning commuters.

I felt a slight twinge in the right knee like the old ITB injury that I had 2 years ago. It went away after a while, but that is something to keep an eye on.

A little warmer this morning. Shorts were in order. I scaled back just a bit knowing that racquetball was coming at lunch.

Had an insane day at racquetball. I was on. Took the series: 15-6, 12-15, 15-13, 15-2. My strategy was to be patient and wear the opponent out, which I did as the score of the last game was 15-2.

I knew that I had to get out for a run. I went snowboarding in the morning, but that just doesn't cut it.

I went to the YM activity at 7:00 and got home about 8:00. I decided it wasn't too late, so I got dressed and out the door by 8:15. The thermometer said 40 degrees. Perfect.

I didn't think I would see anyone else out on the paved trails around 9:00 at night, and I was mostly right. I passed a lady running in the other direction about 1/2 way through. That was eeerie.

It was a perfect run, though. Everything was smooth. I played the latest Interpol album on my ipod, which is perfect at night. Man, what a great album.

Missed the run yesterday due to snowboarding. I went 2 days in a row, and the achilles on the right leg was starting to bother me. Fortunately, I woke up this morning and it felt normal again.

It was raining consistently, but warm at 40 degrees. I decided to go out in shorts, which was ok. I wasn't planning on the shoes getting soaked, which they did at mile 2. I don't have to watch for puddles as much in Utah as I did in Norther CA, but this morning was certainly a puddle day.

Tomorrow should be interesting, as we're planning on some valley snow. Maybe like last Saturday?

This run was awesome. I got out early in the snow- about 6:00am. It was coming down pretty hard, but I had some good amber lenses on the glasses to keep it out of my eyes. It was amazingly soft. I had to get back for a morning Christmas party, so I didn't meet the group.

Again- a great morning for a run in the snow. I hit the pipeline and porter rockwell trails, knowing that there would be little or no traffic on the new snow. Sure enough- they had plowed it the night before, but there were a couple new inches on the trail. Perfect.

Man- it's just too cold and icy to run outside right now. I was supposed to meet some friends around Murray Park for a 5 mile run, but I went to the gym instead. Good thing. I heard it was awful on the busy roads among the ice.

I pushed it fairly hard between a 5:40 and 6:00 pace most of the time. It felt fine, but I took a swim and relaxed in the steam room afterwards to keep things loose.

Wow. Cold morning. 20 degrees as I headed out. I dressed for it, though.

Just a generic 5 miles, knowing I'd be at the gym at lunch for racquetball.

For some reason, I have been feeling the worst when I take a day off and then try to run the next day. That was yesterday's story. Today was better.

Still very cold, but not quite as bad as yesterday. 22 degrees. Things felt pretty good, and got progressively better up through mile 6. I was starting to get pretty cold in the hands the last 1/2 mile, even with 2 layers of gloves. I guess I'll have to put on the heavier ones Saturday morning when we're out in the cold longer. I ran a few times last year with a ski mask as well, and that worked surprisingly well (if you don't mind what you look like).

Full day of snowboarding, topped off with an easy run. It was surprisingly nice up at Brighton, as they had just opened Great Western the day before. We had a recruiting firm pay for a full day and lunch. Nice.

Again, I was thankful for my running because it gave me the endurance to be out for a full day while many of the others were done at 11:30. In fact, they started drinking at 11:30, had lunch with us at 12:30, and then kept drinking the rest of the afternoon. I don't know how they made it down the canyon.

Wow- tough hill. I met with the group. There were 14 of us, including the dog. We took that huge 700ft hill as hard as we could. The cold nearly killed us.

A nice early morning run before the sun came up on the porter rockwell trail. Nobody else was up, of course. Everything felt really good. Hands got cold by the end, but I'm not complaining.

Again- I had the opportunity to run with friends at 6:30 around Murray Park... or hit the treadmill. I hate the treadmill, but the thought of dodging ice on busy roads in the dark didn't appeal to me either. So I got a new pair of shoes at lunch and hit the gym. 6 miles, mostly at a 6:00 pace. I'll call it marathon pace because it's easier on the treadmill without the wind resistance and rolling terrain.

Yesterday on the treadmill wasn't horrible, so I tried it again today. Mentally, it was tough. Physically- no big deal. For some reason, they couldn't find me in the system and I didn't have my bar code tag with me. I'll have to make sure I take that with me from now on, so we don't spend 15 minutes trying to find me in a retarded system that only lets them search by name.

My racquetball buddy Adam is out sick- likely for the rest of the week. So I was watching these guys play while I ran on the treadmill. I watched this one guy play with a different style than I've seen before, and he had some decent success against an arguably much better player. He aced the guy several times on his serves. I think I'll try out a couple of his serves next time I play.

Wet morning. Rain- not snow. I slipped on the way down the hill and on the way back up. That's not something that happens very often. Reminded me of living in California, where I was dealing with wet shoes and mud all winter.

Anyway, I went out for a quick 6.5 miles, most of which was fast. I had to get back for an early dentist appointment at 8:00.

I spent this morning on the mountain. The snow was great- about a foot of fresh powder. Went up there with Rory and Hilt. We didn't want to come back to work, but decided we should.

Unusually warm day in the valley. But the storm came in suddenly about 4:00. I left work about 5:00 and it took me an hour to get 5 miles. As I passed the gym, I figured it would be a good idea to stop and get some miles in. So I did 5 on the treadmill.

The problem with treadmill running is that I get bored and I end up running faster than I probably should. Today was no exception. Even in my fatigued state from this morning, I ran at a 6:00 - 6:15 pace. If I was on the roads, I could have slowed it down to a 7:00-7:30 pace and done a couple extra miles. I'll have to work on that.

Man- I love fresh snow on the trail. Perfect. I got bundled up and wore my ski goggles for this morning's run. The snow slowed me down to a 8:00 - 8:30 pace, because they hadn't plowed the trail yet. That's fine. I was the first and only one on it, so there was no surprise footing. I did have a hard time finding the trail in a few areas because the snow was deep. I'm guessing 12 inches.

I didn't make it back home unti 7:30, then I took my time and didn't leave for work until 9:15. There has been some buzz on the Internet about the republican candidate Ron Paul, who shares my Libetarian views. So I did some research and got some good info on that front. Something to talk about at work, anyway.

Tough morning workout in Kearns. Bill planned it out with a 2 mile warmup, 10x200 sprints, 10x400 hill repeats, and a 1 mile tempo.

I promoted fastrunningblog last night, but I was still surprised to hear that about 6 of my running friends had joined up. Good deal.

Spent the afternoon on the mountain again snowboarding. Got Kristian up on the mountain for his first time. Zoe has been up a few times, so she didn't want a lesson. She should have still taken one. Man, I was beat when I got home.

The thermometer read "36" at dawn, so I knew it would be a shorts day. I decided to get in a couple extra miles because I had time. Took off on the pipeline trail and ran to the end, then came back on the porter rockwell trail.

Interesting thing- I've been running more miles this winter, and I haven't gained the usual winter weight that I put on by Christmas. In years past, I would be running 20 miles a week this time of year rather than 40+, so I think that makes a difference. If I can drop 5 pounds by March for the Moab 1/2, that will be ideal.

Another snow storm came in this evening, which means fresh snow on the trails in the morning. That's always a bonus.

Well, I wish I had something clever to say since this was Christmas day and all. I kept up the morning routine and got out of the house around 6:00 or so. Nice, fresh snow from the previous day's storm, which made the run slow and soft. Not a huge effort, but it was serene.

Got back to the house in time to be there when the kids woke up. That's always a good time.

It was a slow day, but that's only because the roads were nasty. On top of that, they didn't plow the trail yesterday because of Christmas. So I had to choose between a tracked out trail or main roads that had been plowed. I chose a little of both. Neither one was pleasant. I did the Sasha dance at one point, but caught myself before I fell.

I'm going out to Vernal/Roosevelt tomorrow with the family. I was looking at the weather out there- very cold. The high temp for today was 14 degrees (the low was 0). I can't imagine running in a climate that cold, but I'll just have to dress for it. The upside- after running in that for a few days, it will feel like spring out here.

The trails were plowed, but it was a day late. There was a remnant crust of ice and snow which made it ok to run on, but only in trail shoes. I hope this clears out for the group run on Saturday, which I won't be around for. I told everyone that the city plows these paved trails, and they normally do, but the snowfall on Christmas Eve screwed things up.

After I got back, we started packing our stuff for the trip out to Teresa's parents house near Vernal. I noticed the high temperature today was 14 degrees, with the low about -5. Not a good sign, but maybe I can get a couple runs in after dressing properly. Better yet, I may split the run up into 2 segments (morning and evening), so that I'm not exposed to the cold at one time.

As usual, we didn't get out of the house on time. We eventually left close to 3:00. We made a couple stops on the way, the last one at Teresa's sister's house in Duchesne, which added a couple hours to the trip. Finally got in near 8:00, had dinner, then hooked up the xbox and played Rockband until well after midnight. So much for a consistent sleep schedule.

Freezing. Completely freezing. I waited until 8:00 for the temperature to get up to -4, but I'm not even sure that was accurate because the thermometer was in the sun. I am so glad I don't live out in the basin.

I took a run around the lake. I had to keep moving, because stopping would cool me down to fast. To get out to the lake, I had to wade through a foot of snow. Needless to say, I got snow in my ankles and shoes. I felt like I had dirt in my shoes the whole run. When I got back to the house, I took my shoes off and saw the snow in there. It didn't even melt. Bad.

Another run around the lake. Same temperature- somewhere a little below 0. The low temperature in Roosevelt the night before was -25, so I hate to think what I was running in. My face mask was a completely solid piece of ice. It started rubbing against my neck and left a nasty wound.

There's a good marathoner from Roosevelt that has won St George in the past (I think he was in the top 5 this year). I wonder how he trains in this.

Ah- good to be back home. I took the trail out through Draper, and was glad to see about an inch of good snow on the ground. Temperature was a nice, even 25. I had enough time to do a full 7 mile loop, and felt great after about 2 miles. I wish it didn't take so long to warm up.