dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Planned day of no running today.  After loading the truck yesterday, we drove until 11pm last night, and camped at a reservoir in Nebraska.  Today we woke up at 6 am, and drove to Utah.  Due to the frequent stops associated with driving with a newborn we did not arrive in Alpine until after 11 pm.  We finished unloading the truck at 2:30 am, and went to bed at 3 am.

I was originally planning on running after arriving in Prescott, AZ this afternoon, but traveling was slow enough that I decided yesterday to take another day off today.  After going to bed at 3 am last night, we woke up at 8 am this morning.  We then packed up our car, returned the moving truck, and drove to AZ.  We finally arrived in Prescott at 10 pm at night.

We will be staying here for the next few weeks as I try and find a job and a place to live in Utah.  We also need to wait for the courts in NV to give my step daughter approval to move to Utah since her father (who is living in Iraq) has refused to grant us approval to move because he wants to be "rewarded" if he grants us permission to move to Utah (he has stated that he wants to never be required to pay child support ever again... while he is currently over 12 months deficient despite only being required to pay $250 per month currently).

Running time of 43:38.  Watch claimed distance of 5.55 miles.  I will estimate that the distance was 5.7 miles as the watch always measures short.

I had my first run in Prescott today.  I have run here previously, but never for more than 2 miles.  I can surmise running in Prescott in one word... hilly.  According to my watch I had about 600 feet of elevation gain during the run.  I probably pushed myself more than I should have considering I am not used to the elevation, nor am I used to the hills.

Running time of 45:45.  Watch measured distance at 5.67, which I will estimate at 5.8 miles due to watch innacuracy.  Once I find a route that I like I will measure it with the course tool so that I have a more accurate measure of how far I am running.

This run was hillier than yesterdays, as I had almost 700 feet of elevation gain during the run.  The biggest hill started just over a mile into the run, and gained almost 250 ft of elevation over the course of a little over 0.6 miles (maybe 0.65?).  I did a better job today at not pushing myself too hard up (and down) the hills.

Total time of 1:14:09.  I got lost.  The watch claimed a distance of 9.49 miles, so I will estimate the run to be 9.65 miles.  Edit:  I was curious enough about the distance that I mapped it out on the course tool, and it ended up measuring at about 9.67-9.68, so my estimation was almost right on.  As I prefer to round my run distances I will just leave it at 9.65.

I had looked at a map breifly before I left to go running, and unfortunately I forgot the name of one of the streets I needed to turn on, and I went in the wrong direction for a while.  I eventually figured out where I was at, and started heading back home, however the run ended up much longer than I had planned (6 miles planned).  To top it off, I had been heading downhill while running the wrong way, which meant I had to head back uphill again to get home.  I gained about 400 ft net elevation from 6-8 miles going from about 5200 ft to 5600 ft.  There were a few short downhill stretches during that two mile segment, so I actually had more climbing than just the 400 ft elevation change.  I had over 1000 ft total elevation gain during the run.  Over the last few miles I was running pretty slow because I was trying to not push myself too much, as I have not finished a run this long at least since early 2014, and maybe since mid 2013.  My legs felt pretty tired at the end of the run.

6 miles in just under 51 minutes.

After running longer than planned on Saturday I did not feel sore at all when just walking around, however when running this morning I could feel that I am not completely recovered yet, so I took things really easy and slow this morning.

6 miles in 45:14.

I ran in the national forest near devils canyon in Southern Utah this morning. The run was above 7000 ft elevation, but I felt surprisingly good considering that a week ago I was living at about 950 ft elevation. I saw a bunch of deer while out running, but unfortunately I also saw 3 dead deer later while driving

6 miles in 46:50.

I ran up in the mountains West of Boulder, CO this morning after arriving in Boulder to attend a conference for the American Society of Biomechanics. As I was camping up in the mountains, my run was over 8500 ft elevation. Even more so than yesterday I was surprised at how relaxed my breathing felt. I was worried about bears due to seeing lots of signs warning about them, so I went running with a large knife just in case. I'm not sure how much good it would have done me in the event that I did have a bear encounter.

6 miles (maybe a little more) in 45:11.

I felt a little tired this morning, maybe because I was walking around a lot at the conference yesterday, and didn't get enough sleep last night. I ran down in Boulder on a trail going through the city. There were a lot of people exercising on the trail, plus a lot of homeless people too, I was surprised by the shear numbers of them all.

My friend Harsh wanted me to try out his hoka's, and I ran in those. It took a while to get used to running in them as I felt uncomfortable for a good portion of the run. Harsh then gave me the shoes, so I will get a little more time to decide what I think about the shoes.

6 miles in 43:20.

I ran down in Boulder again, with the run above 5000 ft. I felt really good today, and I was cruising along at low 7:00 pace for most of the run. I picked it up some for a bit later on in because an older guy sped up to follow me after I passed him, and his music kind of irritated me.

6 miles in 42:56.

I ran in Santa Fe, NM this morning on my way back to AZ after ASB. This was the fourth state I have gone running in this week. Elevation for the run was over 6500 ft, and yet again I was surprised at how easy it felt to run at higher elevation. After running I finished driving to AZ, arriving around 5:00 PM.

Total time of 47:52 for an estimated 6.1 miles.

Back to the super steep hills of Prescott again.  These hills really slow my runs down, because I feel like I am constantly either running up, or down, a 10-12% grade, and running uphill slows me down and lot more than running down speeds me up (constantly slowing down when running downhill to avoid destroying my legs).

Total time of 54:14 for approximately 7 miles (maybe a little more?)

I'm still looking for a good route to run in Prescott.  There are some areas that I have liked running in, however they tend to end too quickly, and I worry about dogs getting loose and coming at me as happened to me last Monday (a vehicle driving by bailed me out as it distracted the dog long enough for me to get away).  Today I ended up running along busy roads for most of the run.  I can't say that the smell of car exhaust was my favorite thing.  I did find a few trails about halfway through the run, but they only went on for maybe a quarter of a mile.

Total time of 47:30 for approximately 6 miles.

I went exploring down a dirt road this morning, but unfortunately it turned into a single track trail and then ended abruptly.  As a result of my goofing off, and meandering about trying to see if the trail started up again, the first half of my run was very slow, approximately 26:00 minutes for the first three miles.  I then ran the last three miles in approximately 21:30.

Total time of 47:30 for approximately 6 miles.

I almost got hit by a car today.  I was about to cross a street, and as I was entering the intersection I was watching a driver that was approaching me.  I noticed that the driver was not slowing or looking in my direction at all even though there was cross traffic and the driver was about to turn.  I jumped out of the road and sure enough, the vehicle just blew straight past me without even noticing that I was there.

Also, today's run took the exact same time as yesterday... except online it somehow loaded up after the run claiming that I had finished the run 15 seconds faster than what the watch stated at the end of the run.  It bothers me when this watch does this, and if it weren't for the fact that I am running different routes every day, as I can't find a running route in Prescott that I actually like, I would just wear a stopwatch and end the confusion.

Total time of 54:26 for approximately 7 miles.

I ran a 1.6+ mile loop three times during the run, plus additional distance to get to 7 miles.  The loop has a massive hill in it that rises about 250 ft (iirc) in a little over 0.6 miles.  Total elevation gain for the run ended up being around 950 ft, with almost all of that occurring by the 6 mile mark, as the last mile was downhill.

I ran in the Hoka's that my friend gave me again.  I figure that making a time and a place for everything has it's benefits, so even though I mostly run in minimalist shoes I feel like going to the opposite end of the spectrum on occasion could be a good thing.

Total time of 1:02:33 for approximately 7 miles.

I ran with my dad down in Gilbert this morning, so I kept the pace pretty slow.

Approximately 6 miles in 45:44.

I ran out approximately 3 miles (downhill) in 22:39, and then ran back 3 miles (uphill) in 23:05.

Total time of 50:52 for approximately 7 miles.

Running in Alpine, UT this morning.  The run was a lot flatter than what I have been doing lately, and I think that I got excited a little bit by the change in environment.  There was a good sized car crash on Timpanogas Hwy that I passed by during the run.  Thankfully it didn't look like anybody got hurt seriously, but the bumpers on multiple cars were pretty crunched up.

Approximately 7 miles split into two runs, with a few minutes break in between to use the bathroom.  First 4 miles in 29:15, last three miles in 21:18.

Running in Orem/Provo today.  I got excited again and probably ran too fast.  During the last three miles I saw some BYU (?) runners who I chased briefly to try and get a feel for how fast they were running, and I ran the last half mile of the run in close to 6:00 pace (maybe just a little bit slower?).  I also had some stomach issues this morning, and I went to the bathroom three times (before starting, after 3.5 miles, and after 4 miles).  Unfortunately, a guy on a bike passed me as I was using leaves to clean up during the second pit stop (thankfully the other two times involved toilets), which was kind of embarassing.

7 miles in 54:40.

I ran with Sasha this morning.  We ran the first 5 miles with Jacob, and the last 2 miles with Joseph, William, Stevie, and Zack (or Zach?).

7 miles in 53:06.

I ran with Sasha again.  We ran the first two miles with the same group as yesterday (plus Jacob).  After two miles people started to split off (they either stopped running or ran more alone) until the four mile mark when Sasha and I were running alone.  At my request we ran the last half mile hard (we didn't start timing exactly at the half mile mark, but Sasha was able to catch the split from 700 to the finish; 2:18). 

Total time of 52:28 for approximately 7 miles.

Back in Prescott again.  I slept in and ran a little later in the morning.  I think it was already over 80 degrees outside.  I think that I have been running too hard for a good portion of the week, so I will probably need to back off some next week.  Today I saw my mother in law driving into the neighborhood just as I was, and for the sake of my daughter who was in the car, and for the sake of competitiveness I sped up and ran pretty hard down some steep hills to the house in order to try and beat them home (it was kind of a tie as I was ahead coming up to the house but I started to slow down so that I wouldn't crash into the bushes and we ended up getting there at about the same time).

Total time of 59:00 for approximately 7.5 miles.

I thought I saw some trails running by a nearby lake recently, so I ran out that way today to take a look.  It ends up that there are trails there, and I got distracted looking around so I turned around later than planned (original plan was 7 miles).  A look at maps after getting home makes it seem like the trails do not actually run completely around the lake, which is disappointing, as my rough estimate is that the trails only run 1.5 miles or less in either direction from where the road meets the trail.  I'm still looking for a good place to run in Prescott.  Hopefully I find one before I move again. 

Total time of 54:53 for approximately 7 miles.

I think that I may have finally found a route that I am willing to run regularly, although I may adjust the start/end slightly once I measure the route using the blog course tool.

7 miles in 54:18.

I ran the same route as yesterday, measuring the route using the blog course tool right before I left.  I was glad that I did so, as the GPS cut out a few minutes after starting, and didn't start measuring distance again until I was almost two miles into the run.  My watch ended up measuring the run over 1.4 miles shorter than the actual distance that I ran.

The measured route ended up being 6.9 miles in length, and I added approximately 0.1 miles onto the run to get to 7 miles.  This was just a slight contrast to yesterday when my watch measured 6.73 miles for the same route and I added .17 miles extra, assuming that the watch was measuring short.

7 miles in 53:11.

I decided to see how fast I could run up the massive hill (approx 250 ft elevation gain in 2/3 mile) that is on my running route today, and I made it up the hill in 4:51 (approx 7:15-7:20 pace).  My breathing seemed to be more of a limitation than my legs, and at the sections where the hill flattened briefly I struggled to switch gears and speed up before the grade increased sharply once more.  I estimate that the grade was between 10-12% during the steeper sections of the hill.  I might try to run this hill hard again if I have time to do so before I move again.

About 2.5 miles into the run I ran into a dog outside it's house.  Initially I couldn't see the leash preventing it from coming after me so I ended up stopping for a minute or so and slowly walked past on the other side of the street.  My watch was stopped during this section, so my run was probably artificially fast by about 15-20 seconds or so (the time it would have taken to run the section that I walked).