Fuel SMART,Train HARD, Run FAST.

Walkabout with Emily.

6:45AM- Easy with ladies on Bountiful Blvd.

6.5 hours of landscaping. I am the worst at mowing lawns! And my arms are sore from using the weed eater! I  also had loads of fun digging in a garden barrier.  But the very most fun was using my neighbors power sprayer. I power sprayed everything wether it needed it or not, including my kids. Oh, then we raced up and down the street on their razor scooters. My kids beat me every time. My right leg is actually sore. What a crazy one-legged exercise.

PM: Day 2 of the 30 day ab challenge. Since I forgot yesterday, I had to do double- 35 sit ups, 22 sec plank, 13 crunches and 13 leg lifts.

6AM- LPT with Andy. The temperature read 74° when I woke up, but it wasn't quite that warm on the trail. I was worried about pushing anything today because I am sore from yard work, but like always, as soon as things warmed-up everything  was fine. We have been hesitant to add any true tempos or speed work to our Tuesday runs this year. We usually just go by feel and get more progressive by the end. We talked the entire time, usually an indicator could've pushed.  One of these Tuesdays I will feel like doing a planned workout:) Good to get out in good weather with someone!, too!

8:13, 8:10,  7:53, 7:48,  7:19, 719,  7:17, 6:46= 7:36AP or 7:34 AP (moving pace) I hate that my watch gives me an average pace and an average moving pace. I never know which one to go by because it doesn't reflect in the mile splits. There is an 11 second lapse in time.  Oh, the small things!

Then I drove straight to Big O Tires to get my car serviced. I ran home, adding another 2.5 miles. 

Day 3 ab challenge-  The kids volunteered to do this with me every day, we'll see how long it lasts. 25 sit ups, 15 crunches, 15 second plank (x2), 10 raised legs. 

5:30AM- This morning Allie and Nan met me at my house to run a "memorial" run around Nan's old stomping grounds here in Bountiful. More on this in a bit, but first, the morning started off crazy!

I decided to take some Naproxen Sodium when I woke up, but in my tired state I thought I accidently took a Tylenol PM. Tylenol PM in my system puts me down like a tranquilizer. I started to panic. Allie and Nan would be there in 15 minutes and I was going down! With desperation I started gagging myself in the toilet, to no avail. Ugh! I double check the medicine bottle to realize I did not take Tylenol PM, but Napoxin Sodium as I initially intended. Long story short, I'm a freak. What else is new.

Okay, back to the important stuff. I run outside and find the girls there right on time. We had a very hilly route planned. I had hoped my trail running would pay off. Hard.To. Say. We make our way to 400 N and started climbing to Davis Blvd. We ran along Davis at a comfortable steady pace then turned up East on Indian Springs Rd. The air seemed to get very thin at this point. Meanwhile, Nan is sidestepping and talking as though she's walking me like a dog. I don't know what Allie's doing, cause I can only focus on myself- one shuffled step at a time. I think I could have walked faster up the hill. I try to keep it together, and offer limited verbal feedback to Nan's story. I can't remember much of the conversation for that mile. Clearly, when she says "she's back!" that means she's back.

We make it up to Bountiful Boulevard and I suggest a nice breaking point to "stretch." We stop for a minute then continue again uphill on Bountiful Blvd. We picked up our cadence again and it felt great. We stopped inside the the cemetery for a bit, then continued past the Bountiful Temple to Vineyard. We passed Nan's childhood home. Then we made our way back to 400 E, then home.

I didn't offer much in conversation but did bring up Nan's TOU CR and Allie's threatening time in 2013. I tired to stir up a rivalry but they are both so modest. BORING! That's about all I offered, along with my story of trying to gag myself. I'm a real treat to run with.

The spilts are fun- 9:37, 7:47, 7:38, 9:30, 8:11, 7:31, 7:39, 7:17, 7:34. 9 miles, 8:02ap

Always a fan.

Day4 Ab challenge: Rest day scheduled. I just did  a variation of day three again. 25 situps, 10 crunches, 10 Leg raises, 1 min plank.

PM: 3 mile hike planned up the canyon with the youth again tonight.

AM- Day 5 ab challenge with the kids- 30 Sit ups, 12 crunches, 12 leg raises, 20 sec plank, 3.5 easy miles.

PM-Geocaching/hiking with the kids

5:00AM- What a great morning! I met Scott W., and brothers, Matt and Aaron W. at the Mount Olympus Trailhead, in Murray. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about today. It was about as hard as I thought it would be, but equally as fun. It felt like a tempo effort for the first two hours till we reached the peak. The last mile was the hardest, from a technical and cardio standpoint. Scott and I made it up in 1:40, the other two were ahead 5-10 minutes. The scenery was outstanding! We signed the log, took some pics and made our way down. Our moving time was around 2:45, 3:01 total with bathroom stops, pics and taking in the surroundings. I've never done anything remotely close to this! Such a great experience.

 My quads were a bit sore this morning when I woke up, so I ran 6 shake out miles down 400 E with Karen.

Day 6 abs- 35 sit ups/15 crunches/15 leg raises/25 sec plank.

2 mile hike to waterfall with family.

6:30AM- Fun group run up Mueller Park/Elephant Rock with Nan and Aaron, Allie, Cynthia, Kate, Jaime, and Jasmine. Nice and easy pace, except the person directly behind me was growling on the way down:) It seems most people were worn out with tired muscles from either racing on Saturday, or biking Little Red. Allie, Nan, Aaron and I added a little more at the end to get 8 miles.  

Day 9 abs- 45 sit-ups/38 crunches/38 leg lifts/30 sec plank + 30 push-ups.

AM- Day 10 challenge- 50 ups/50 crunches/38 leg lifts/30 sec plank+35 push-ups. Everything felt  harder today.

This week is going to be mostly outdoor cross training.

8x30 sec @ 5:00 min/mi

+ Day 12 abs

8 mi with Andy on LPT at 7:34 AP. Easy out, picked up on way back @ 7:16, 7:09, 7:03, 6:36.  Felt surprisingly good considering the last two weeks of colloquial jaunts, or lack thereof.

ab challenge continued after a brief hiatus- 45 sit ups/ 45 crunches/ 20 leg lifts/ 30 sec plank+20 push ups.

Today's word of wisdom- never lay ALL of your shoes out in the sun to dry. It shrinks them.

Ok, I am tight from yesterday's workout, which is no different from any other Tuesday run. I went to bed feeling like a corpse and woke up 10 hours later! I can't remember the last time I ever got that much sleep. Finding my mojo to run alone, has been hard to find. The desire to race is even harder to find. Otherwise feeling like a million bucks, just can't get excited about running. It seems a lot of people this year are feeling similar. What is going on!?

1.5 miles, 10:26AP. I've taken the past couple of days off from running. The other day when I was slack lining, I got the back of my leg spanked as I fell. Now I have internal bleeding, some might call it a bruise. Time off from a bruise! Huh, somehow it affected my fitness, too.

Instead, I'm going on a bike ride with the kids.

7 miles slow down Main Street. I am thinking of doing Big Cottonwood Half instead of the full this year. I am going to work on a workout calendar today to see if I can spark some excitement.

3 mile walk around the neighborhood with Stephen. Lots of talk regarding pros and cons of moving to various places for work next year.

This morning I ran up to Davis Blvd, up around some neighborhoods by Lewis Park, then up Indian Springs road. I walked mostly up the hill so I could look at the houses and land they were on. I continued up to Bountiful Blvd then ran past the temple down 400N. I was able to get some good downhill and speed without pushing much. Last miles were 6:46 and 5:50's.

My legs feel a little trashed from yesterday's hilly route, as well as a sore knee from last weeks slack lining accident. The back my leg looks funky  with bruising,  but the real annoying feeling is coming from the front of the knee. I put Kinso tape on my leg last night since it was aching. It seemed to help a little bit today. I met Andy at LPT for our usual eight miler. We both wanted to take it easy, especially since he just ran a great race last Saturday. For some reason, our pace ended up being not too far off from usually runs. I was tired though, 7:44ap.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/527573114

Easy progressive on TM at 0%

9:00, 7:40, 7:25, 7:15, 6:58. 6:44.

I was glad it felt easy given the days I've taken off and the junk food I have devouerd this week! I wanted to do more, but decided to stop and not overdo it since I was meeting up with people for the next few days.