run, run, run

Spanish Fork, UT

Ran into work again today. Went up the slant and then over to Main St. Mapleton and across the top of Springville to 4th N. I saw a new brand of roadkill this morning. A dead fox on the side of the road. That's a new one for me.

Spanish Fork, UT

Ran in to work today. Wanted to get started on the day and felt kind of tired, so I went straight in on Hwy 51 instead of going up to Lindon. Ready to go home.

Boise, ID 6:30 am

Forgot to tell Randy that I was in town until late last night. So I waited in front of his house for a few minutes and then left on my own. I ran with music this morning. I need to do that more often. The podcasts are interesting, but might be slowing me down sometimes.

Meridian, ID 6:30 am

Took a little modification of my Meridian loop. I went up Cloverdale to McMillian and then down Locust Grove to Ustick.

Boise, ID 6:30 am

Meridian, ID 6:30 am

Boise, ID 6:30 am

Keeping up the sevens this week.

Boise, ID 7:15 am

Took it slow and easy. I went over to Maple Grove and down the trails to Chinden and back up the hill. Nice morning for a run.

Boise, ID 6:30 am

One last run before leaving town for a while. Picked up the pace for this one. Avg pace was 7:52. Haven't been under 8 for a 7-miler in a long time. I really need to start pushing myself more.

Boston, MA 6:30 pm

The last time I was here, I tried to run to the temple in Belmont and I got lost over and over again. This time, I came loaded with enough electronic navigational gear to mount an arctic expedition. I had my Garmin watch, the GPS from my car, my cell phone and a camera (I know, an iPhone would do all of these things, but I'm just too cheap). I used the GPS several times to stay on track getting there. I would have never made it on my own.

The run was ok. Pretty slow, but it was warm, then rainy and I was going off of about 3 hours sleep the night before. I stopped and got some Gatorade twice on the way back. My legs were kind of hammered by the time I got back.

Boston, MA 6:30 am

Since this is my third week in Boston and I hadn't seen most of the historic sights yet, I decided to bring my camera and run along the Freedom trail. It's marked with a big red line, so I didn't get lost until I got to the end of it and then it didn't take long to get back on track.

I saw some good sights, Boston Common (I've run through there many times already), the Mass 54th monument from the movie Glory, Paul Revere's house and statue, the Old North Church (I wanted to yell "The British are Coming!" but there were people around), The USS Constitution and Bunker Hill. At the Constitution I stepped over a little fence and got yelled at by some sailors.

It was a short run, but took a long time because I stopped a lot and didn't run very fast.

Boston Common

Paul Revere

Bunker Hill (self-portrait)

Norm!

Boston, MA 6:30 am

Went along the Charles River this morning. Got turned around by some construction but otherwise uneventful.

I went by Bill Rodger's Running Center last night and chatted with Charlie for a while. Great guy and he gave me a free t-shirt.

Meridian, ID 9:00 am

I really pushed it this morning. My pace was just under 8 min. per, but I didn't haven't been sleeping much this week and I ate pretty early last night, so I felt like I was giving it a pretty good effort. Now I'm tired.

I signed up for a race in Bountiful on July 24. I'm planning on using it as a good hard workout for Top of Utah. Maybe I'm ready to finally get serious about things. Maybe.

Boise, ID 6:30 am

Got in a morning run with Randy before leaving town. Got the avg. pace under 8 just before getting to the finish.

Grantsville, UT 7:00 am

Vacationing in Grantsville, UT (doesn't everybody?). I left the house and ran to the end of the subdivision and then along a dirt road that goes along the edge of the Tooele Army Depot, went 3.5 miles and then turned around and ran back. A lot of nothing out there. Just sagebrush and a bunch of bombs and stuff.

I felt really slow and sluggish during the first half of the run. Couldn't keep my pace below 9 min. per mile. Didn't understand why until I got to the end and turned around. I saw a nice view of Grantsville below me -- I'd been running uphill the whole way. Gained about 500 ft. So, when I turned around and ran back I felt good and ran much faster. Amazing how that works.

Bountiful, UT 8:00 am

Went 3.5 miles down Bountiful Blvd then turned around. Kind of dragging today. I spent all of yesterday with the kids at the water park. A lot of time on my feet.

Bountiful, UT 8:00 am

I ran down Davis Ave. Didn't want to go to far with the half coming up on Saturday. I started out kind of slow but then picked up the pace on the way back. I pushed it pretty hard trying to get my avg pace down below 8 for the run. I finished at 8:01. bummer

I was in Utah for the week, so I decided to enter a race on Saturday morning. I wasn't up for the full Des News Marathon, so I entered a half in Bountiful. I took the kids to a baseball game the night before and stayed for the fireworks. Not thinking things through very well, I downed a Diet Coke in the late innings. That kept me up all night. I wasn't sure how I'd do on this one. I've felt kind of out of shape lately -- as out of shape as you can get running 30-50 miles a week. But, the last couple of weeks I've decided to get more serious.

The race was kind of strange, but fun. Only about 100 runners and about a mile into it a bunch of us got stopped by a train, so I lost about a minute and a half. I also had to stop at a traffic light near mile 11. Cars were going by and there wasn't anyone there to block traffic. The mile markers were off too. Miles 3 and 6 were off by about a quarter mile, then at mile 9 my garmin read 9.9 miles. But, the final length of the course was correct.

With such a small field, there weren't many people around. One woman was running about the same pace as I was (in the 7:40's) and we traded off chasing each other for about 10 miles. Then after mile 11 I started to fade a bit. Mile 11 was 8:11, Mile 12 was 8:31 and Mile 13 was 8:28. The woman I had been runing with held her pace and fell back. The only other person around in the last four miles or so was a guy I passed at mile 10.

I should have tried to kick it in the end, but my legs didn't have much left in them. I only sprinted for the last couple hundred yards when I saw the finish line.

 This wasn't my fastest half, but it was fun and I felt really good about my time considering my training lately. Plus, the small field made for a good place. I got a little handcart as a prize. Then I spent the rest of the day driving the family back to Idaho.

Boise, ID 6:30 am

My flight out of town wasn't scheduled until 3pm, so I went for the usualy MWF run. My legs still felt kind of heavy after the race on Saturday and a bike ride on Sunday.

Boston, MA 6:00 pm

Had the flight from hell last night. Two hours on the plane in SLC before they unloaded us, made us wait and put us on another plane. Landed in Boston at 3:30am, slept 3 hours and went to work. Then, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to go for a run.

It wasn't a bad run. I kept up an 8:30 pace most of the way, it just seemed like it took forever. I ran down to a greenbelt type thing. Some signs said it was a rive, but it didn't seem to be moving at all and parts of it stunk like a swamp. But it was shady and I appreciated that.

Boston, MA 6:45 am

4.77 Miles

Got out a little late today so I ran short this morning. Nice run along the Charles River. Achiles was hurting more than usual.

 6:30 pm

3.25 Miles

Since I didn't run very far this morning and because I couldn't think of anything else to do after work I decided to go out and do a couple of easy laps around Boston Common. Once I started I decided to run faster and see how fast I could crank out a 5K. Ended up with a 22:57. Not too shabby for me. Better than a few of the races I've run.

Boston, MA 5:15pm

I ducked out of work a little early and took a cab to an airport hotel and went for a long run. My first one as I prep for Top of Utah. I went down the road to the beach and then ran along the beach for several miles. That was really nice. They had a sand castle competition going on. I wished I had my camera, then realized that I was running 20 miles and decided that no, I'm actually glad I'm not carrying it.

Then the road crossed over to a retail area. There was a big accident on the road (something else I might have taken a photo of). Apparently a tow truck ran into another car and caught on fire. This part of the run wasn't very fun. Kind of crowded, lots of cars and really stinky in a few places.

At about mile 7 I turned off on to a causway sort of a thing. Mostly just a path along the beach that lead out to a place called Nahant which put me at just about 10 miles. Nahant is a nice little town that reminds me of a little New England island community -- because it is a little New England island community.

After turning around at mile 10 I stopped at a little grocery store to buy a Poweraide. I brought it up to the counter and found out that they don't take credit cards. I asked the clerk if there was a place I could just get some water and he surprised me by saying that he would buy the drink for me. One of those moments that restores your faith in mankind.

The trip back was more of the same but the other direction. I stopped near mile 17 and bought a Gatorade and did the turn on the Garmin while I'm stopped, turn it off when I'm running thing, so my timing is off a bit.

The last few miles were rough, but not as bad as some runs, so that helped my confidence. I got back to the hotel and jumped in the pool. It was freezing, but just what my aching legs needed.

Now I get to spend tomorrow morning flying home. Good thing I got upgraded. Five hours in coach with fidgity legs might have been the end of me.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42467530