Training for Top of Utah 2011

Yesterday I weighed 176, the most in a while. Mostly from too much rich food. This morning back down to 173 and need to take it easy on the food for a couple weeks.

Tough night with Nova last night. She just kept waking me (us) up. I ended up doing this run on the TM. Ran for 1 hour exactly. basing the miles on effort and heart rate.

Hope to get outside tomorrow.

My upper inside lip is still a mess from Turkey bowl football. Hard to eat much of anything without pain, so doing a lot of drinking.

Not much sleep again. That takes it out of me. Another easy TM workout this time 56:00 minutes. Tomorrow going to do a hill workout of 2 miles with 5 easy outside no matter what. Carter is anxious as his mission call is in the mail and probably will be here today.

Not much sleep last night with Nova and on top of that Amanda is sick so she was getting up in the night as well. I think I am coming down with something too. No run today. Will get the hill run in tomorrow.

Was up all night again with Amanda sick and Nova making her usual baby noises. No run this morning. Ran when I got home at 5:45ish. Wow was it ever dark going up the parkway.

3 mile warm-up at pace of 8:54

1 mile hard up hill pace of 7:45

2.75 mile cool down jog at 9:00 pace

It sure felt good to be out and off the TM however it wasn't all that fun running in the dark. Especially when I was on the parkway there are no lights at all except the cars coming by. When there were no cars it was so hard to see where the trail was.

No run today. will do some walking to ease up from yesterday's run.

Late last night our son Carter opened his mission call and he is going to be serving and learning to love the people of New Hampshire. He leaves March 4 for the Missionary Training Center. We are all very excited for him to be able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others on a full time basis for 2 years.

9-10 mile trail run planned for tomorrow.

Missed the trail run because of a lack of sleep for me and Heidi. To give her a break I stayed home and watched the kids while she slept. These are TM miles unfortunately. Really missed the trail today. It will be great at some point to get some sleep.

Nice to get in a run finally. Sunday always off. Monday got up and took care of Nova so Heidi could get some sleep. Tuesday need some sleep myself. Wednesday got up early to take Joe and family to airport.

TM run this morning. Easy with about 10 minutes of moderate speed in the middle.

TM run again. Snow outside and I didn't feel like freezing so into the garage again.

Hit it hard for about 3 quarters of a mile.

Ate too much homemade toffee tonight as well.

It was too cold to run outside. I've got a million excuses these days. It was cold enough that the treadmill buttons weren't working right. It was hard to work up a sweat because it was an easy run. HR monitor had a heck of a time functioning. It took about 20 minutes for it to settle in. All this at 20 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be colder.

TM run. Boy do I love these shoes. Whenever I'm running in them it always is easier. Brooks doesn't make them anymore but maybe they will have them on sale like when I got this pair. Easy run as Bruce and I are going to do a 15 mile trail run on Sat.

That could be an interesting run with Snow, possible wind and icy rocks and roots. Another cold morning, but at least it is clear. We may get up to 6 inches of snow tomorrow. Looking to do some crosstraining tomorrow.

Just some pushups and core exercises and then some stretching.

TM miles. Easy run in prep for 15 mile trail run on Sat. Probably should get my head checked for going on a trail run in this weather. Hopefully it's not snowing and/or blowing. 

Going to do smoke some pork butt if it's not too windy on Sat. for BYU's bowl game. Probably nothing tomorrow just to rest up. 

Just finished up a nice walk with Amanda in the snow. Getting ready for hot chocolate now.

Just takin' er easy today in prep for 15 miler in the snow and cold, on the trails at Cougar Mtn. Sort of looking forward to the challenge, but not overly so.

Last night went to the Temple with Carter for his first time. That was about as good as it gets! Then went to his favorite restaurant, Las Margaritas in Issaquah with the whole crew. Bishop Smith, Boyce Goff, Mara Sundwall, Susan and Larry Shaw and Grandma and Grandpa. The only ones hardy enough to brave the weather to come. I'm officially Carbo-Loaded for a few days after that meal.

Nova picked last night to be up all night long. We called off the morning run due to single digit temps. Then I decided due to queasyiness to not do a trail run. Bruce went and did 7.75 and said it was extremely tough on him with ice snow and trail conditions. He brought me a nice plate of fudge. Delish! Did TM run with a 2 mile hill and speed run for 5 minutes toward the end.

TM run. Tons of snow outside, OK a decent amount and it doesn't take much these days to keep me inside the garage where it is sort of warm. Actually I barely worked up a sweat. Will try to get in a total of 4 runs this week.

We were going to try a trail run today but there was way too much snow so we went snowshoeing! That was awesome. It registered at 4 miles but for running purposes I am marking it as 7 miles for time and HR.

That was so pretty I wish I had taken a camera.

I know that this seems weird but these shoes are so good. It feels that I could run longer and faster with these because they are so comfy!

TM workout due to slush on the roads and no sidewalks are free either.

2 5 minute hill segments during the run. Felt really good. Probably because I haven't done much this week. Our snowman took a dive backwards with all the rain coming in.

Cold, Windy and Rainy(with snow mixed in). Lovely weather for a TM run inside the garage.  A little speed at the end.

My daughter went outside and ran a couple of miles and said she couldn't see during parts of her run as the snow/rain mix was pelting her hard.

Hill Workout day on the TM. Wow! This is getting boring running inside!! Not enough to get me out in the Cold, Dark, and Wet yet. I can handle 1 and sometimes 2 out of the 3, but not all 3. According to my fancy new inside/outside thermometer that I got for Christmas it was 39 degrees outside.

25 minute warmup then the plan was to run 3 - 3/4 mile hills at a steady state pace with inclines of 3% 5% and 7%. Ended up doing 3,4,5% just to be sure I could finish strong.

HR High on the 3% incline topped out at 162 then easy run of 5 minutes HR down to 137

4% HR high was 167 then after 5 minute easy was down to 141

5% HR high was 171 then after 5 minute easy was down to 143

Then about a 8 minute gradual cooldown.

This run felt great and I could have done more but it's been a while since doing any hard hills.