dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I haven't blogged about my running in a long time.  I wasn't running consistently, and when I did run I didn't run far enough to justify blogging about it.  At the same time, I have been dealing with a number of different personal trials over the last few years which have led to the development of depression.  Depression can cause people to lose interest in things that they really enjoy, and on many occasions I didn't run simply because the motivation to do so wasn't there.

However, there is lots of research that shows exercise can be helpful as a treatment for depression.  Knowing this, I wanted to start running more consistently, however it was really difficult to find the necessary motivation to get out the door on a daily basis.  On top of the lack of motivation, I was in poor enough running shape that I knew I could not run farther than a couple miles on a daily basis or risk injury.  Unfortunately, the prospects of a daily 15 minute run which seems to finish right after it has started didn't help to increase my motivation.

Eventually, I did find the motivation to start running consistently again.  I had been praying a lot, asking the Lord to help me finish my dissertation and find a job.  Over the course of a few weeks, as I prayed I did not receive direct inspiration regarding the dissertation or a specific job, instead I consistently felt prompted to start running again.  These promptings helped me to find the extra motivation to really make the effort to run consistently again.

I had previously been running approximately two miles once a week or so, with a couple weeks last summer in which I ran more frequently, and many weeks in which I did not run at all.  I wanted to keep the daily mileage low until I was running 6 days a week in order to avoid potential injuries.  I started in late January by running 2 miles per day, 3 days per week.  By the fifth week I was running 6 days per week, and I have only missed one day of running since (a red-eye flight, subsequent nap, and six hour drive round trip with temple attendance trumped running that day).  Once I was running 6 days per week, I started to slowly increase my mileage.  It took me until approximately the 13th week to get to where I was running 3 miles a day, and I am now at the end of week 18, having run 4 miles per day so far this week (20 miles total; Mileage during weeks 14-17 was 20, 19, 21, 22).  I am not sure yet how high I will push my weekly mileage, but for the foreseeable future I plan to continue slowly building mileage/fitness.

Today's run:  4 miles in 30:38.

I helped with some testing and validation for the XXXXXXXXXX watch (edit: I removed the watch name just to stay out of trouble with the manufacturer), and since we appear to be mostly finished with that work, my advisor at ISU gave me one of the watches yesterday.  I won't speak about our test results as I'm sure my advisor signed a non-disclosure aggreement, but I plan on providing some commentary about the watch as I use it on a daily basis.

Today I ran the standard 4 mile route that I have been running lately (measured using the blog course tool), however the watch was measuring things slightly shorter so I ran just a little farther to satisfy my desire to see 4.00 miles appear on the watch face (I measured the route on the course tool afterwards at 4.05 miles, which is within the range of error I would expect from a device like this, especially since my course tool measurements are not 100% accurate either).  However, once the run was uploaded to XXXXX (edit: also removed to stay out of trouble), it changed the distance to 3.9 miles for some unknown reason (Possibly related to my fumbling with the pause button when I resumed running after stopping at a stop light?  Tomorrow I will try the auto-pause feature instead).  During the early portions of the run, my HR was reading about 50 bpm high as well (I was measuring my HR manually, so my own readings were crude, but 50 bpm is a lot).  This problem seemed to go away about halfway through the run as my HR on the watch dropped from about 190 down to about 140 (this was similar to what I was measuring by hand).  I will watch this to see if the problem repeats itself.

4 miles in 26:xx.  I started off at around 8:00 pace but then decided to speed up, and slowly picked up the pace until I was running sub 6:00 pace during the last mile of the run.

Regarding the new watch: I learned today that I can't start running immediately after hitting the start button on this watch as it can take some time for the software to get started (maybe related to auto-pause since this didn't happen at the start yesterday?).  I had been running for maybe 10 seconds before the watch actually started timing me.  This repeated itself both times I stopped at a stoplight, as each time, auto-pause stopped the time immediately after I stopped running, but failed to start again until I had crossed the street (maybe 8-10 seconds later).

HR measurement issues popped up again as well, except today HR bpm started in the 90's (it should have been in the 130's), and then it jumped up into the 180's before finally settling at a more accurate approximation just over a mile into the run (better then yesterday I guess).  Step count was off today as well, as during the last mile of my run it dropped as low as 102 steps per minute even though I was running sub 6:00 pace while chasing two people on bicycles.

4 miles in 28:17.  

The watch again had some lag on starting, but not as bad as yesterday, maybe only 1-2 seconds.  However, it took a long time to find a GPS signal (maybe 15 minutes) and I ended up closing and restarting the app multiple times before it finally decided to find the GPS signal.  The step cadence was again messed up today.  The watch cadence read zero when I checked it during the run, and is recorded as zero online as well (with a giant but brief spike partway through the run), yet somehow the total step count measured by two different apps on the watch (including the built in app that measured the run) seemed to be fairly reasonable.  Who knows what was wrong there.  HR again had issues during the first part of the run, alternating between 90 and 190 bpm, before finally settling in a reasonable range just before the halfway mark.  Total distance was a little better with auto-pause turned off, but still only measured 3.98 miles for a course that measures 4.05 on the course tool.

My initial thoughts are that that there is no way I ever would have paid for this watch.  As a watch it is nice, but as a dedicated sports running watch it is garbage.  The GPS is not bad, but is not as accurate as I would like.  The HR only works about half of the time, and is still a little noisy when it does work, and I can't even trust running cadence to be measured accurately.  I can't help but think that I could have done a better job if I were developing the filtering algorithims myself.

4 miles in 31:03.  I felt a little tired today, so I just took things easy.

Regarding the watch, I was able to fix the step count problem with a restart of the watch.  I'm still not sure why it bugged out on me to begin with.  HR again was off for the first mile of my run, recording values below 100 bpm, and above 200 bpm, however it gave me reasonable values thereafter, except for a few instances when there was some obvious noise in the signal and there were brief dips or spikes in the recorded HR.  I wish that I could get my hands on the raw data to see what is causing problems as I wonder if I could devise a filtering routine that could fix things.

The distance run is consistently measuring short, as over the past 4 days the watch has given me a total distance run of 4.00, 3.94, 3.98, and 3.96 miles (measured on the course tool at 4.05 miles), while each of the individual runs is showing as 3.9 miles when uploaded online by the watch.  Part of the variation I am seeing in distance is due to some of the inherent limitations of consumer GPS devices, and I can't complain too much about the amount the recorded distance is off, however there are still some issues that I would change if I were in charge.  I would allow for more user control by allowing the user to force the sample rate to increase to 1 Hz.  Currently, data is only collected when movement is noticed, which means that sometimes there is a 1 second gap between data points, and sometimes the gap is 2 or 3 seconds.  That is not adequate when you are shooting for peak accuracy.  I would also try to improve the TTFF (time to first fix) so that it would not be necessary to wait for so long before collecting data, and improve the app start time so that the app started recording immediately when data collection was initialized.  I would also smooth out some of the pace readings.  Currently, pace is recorded on a more absolute level so that any inaccuracies in the GPS show up as large variations in the pace being run and make the pace readout look silly.  I would smooth out these curves so that the absolute pace being run is actually displayed as a running average over multiple data points.  This would tend to smooth out some legitimate brief surges in pace, but would also eliminate the crazy changes of pace where it looks like the running pace has changed by 1:00/mile from one second to the next, and would make this type of data more usable.  Finally, I would allow for data to be collected even without a GPS signal.  Currently, the watch will not save a run if there is no GPS output from the watch.  Sometimes I might want to use a treadmill, etc, and it would be nice if the exercise time could still be saved in these instances.

4 miles in 31:52.  Feeling a little under the weather.

I'm not going to comment much more about the watch accuracy, unless I see something notable, as the lack of accuracy for the HRM is fairly consistent, as well as the decent but not perfect accuracy for the GPS.  Stride rate is the one sensor where I got bad data randomly, but a restart fixed that problem.

4 miles in 33:53.  Still feeling under the weather, so I ran super slow in order to get the miles in but not make myself feel worse.  I did have two brief pick-ups during the run.  One because an unaccompanied dog was running towards me, and another to get across the street before the light turned red.

4 miles in 29:40.  I have been feeling sick for the last few days, so I was happy to feel a little better today, although I am still not completely over it.  I ran a little faster as a result.

5.4 miles in 41:56.  Watch measured the course I ran at 5.31, and the course tool on the blog measured it at 5.42.  I trust the accuracy of the course tool more than I trust the accuracy of the watch.  This makes a difference of about 10 seconds per mile for the average running pace during the run.

5 miles in 38:15.  I ran easy for most of the run, but added a couple pickups during the second half of the run, with the first just being a mild acceleration for about 10 seconds, and the second being a full sprint up a fairly steep hill, lasting 20-30 seconds.

4 miles in 29:23.  My runs the last couple days have been a little faster since I am no longer feeling the effects of being sick last week.

4 miles in 30:20.  I have only been running fast when I feel like it, no planned speedwork since I have just been working on building a base and gaining aerobic fitness again, but I may actually plan a speed session for tomorrow... if I feel like it :).

5.1 miles in 35:06.

During the run I ran 2 x 1 mile hard (0.5 mile recovery between) in 5:55, and 5:49 (recovery in 3:57).  My watch consistently measures distance short, leading me to think that the mile repeats were actually between 1.01 and 1.02 miles.  This would mean that the first repeat would have been between 4:48-4:51, and the second between 5:42-5:45.

It was kind of windy outside, and I had more noticable headwind during the second repeat, so I was surprised when this repeat ended up being faster than the first.  I could also tell during the second repeat that I had not done a workout like this in at least 3.5 years, as my legs felt weak, so I was happy that I was able to speed up, rather than slow down.

On a side note, temperatures were in the low to mid 80's during the run, despite running in the early evening, and I felt dehydrated by the end of the run.

4 miles in 32:35.  I took things pretty easy since I ran harder yesterday.  I didn't feel any soreness, nor did I feel excessively fatigued due to the workout yesterday, so I was happy with that.

5.1 miles in 37:06.  I threw in 4 surges between about 3.5 miles and the finish just to help my legs remember what it is like to run fast, so no more than 5-10 seconds for each stride.  It was pretty windy out today (23 mph when I got home), and I had mostly a tailwind during miles 1-2, and more headwind than tailwind for the last three miles, so I slowed down some as the run progressed (plus I have to run up a hill with an 8% grade in order to get back home!).

5.1 miles in 39:20.  I felt lethargic so I just took thinks easy, and didn't get going much faster than 8:00 pace until that last mile, which I ran in the low 7:00 range.

4 miles in 32:10.  I started to feel some abdominal cramping shortly before 1.5 miles, and I steadily slowed down for the remainder of the run thereafter.  I was a little surprised as I have not dealt with cramps like this in a long time.

On a side note, I emailed my shoe company contact about the problems I have noted regarding the watch I have been using.  We ended up emailing back and forth for a while on Monday.  They are already working on fixes to some of the problems that I have noticed, so I am hopeful that eventually this watch will become much more accurate out of the box than it is currently.

5.1 miles in 36:09.  

I made it to about 4.1 miles in 30:07, then sped up the last bit, running 6:09 pace the rest of the way to the house (6:02 for .98 miles).  My goal was to try and run close to a 6:00 effort, however there is a large hill that averages an 8% grade (assuming that the internet is correct) that lasts for about 0.1 mile which slowed the pace down.  Total elevation gain for the last mile was approximately 50 ft.

4 miles in 30:10.

4 miles in 29:57.

Starting at about 2.25 miles and ending just before the finish of my run, I ran 5 short pick-ups that I am estimating were about .05 each.  I just wanted to get my legs moving fast without putting a lot of stress on my body.  As I get back into shape, I feel like I first need to learn how to sprint again, and after that I can focus on learning how to run fast for an extended period of time.

As things are right now, because my aerobic fitness is still not great I will go anaerobic at moderate speeds, so I feel like I need to increase my general aerobic fitness first before I start running longer tempos, or longer intervals.  This isn't to say that I won't run longer intervals (see last Saturday), but I feel generally like I need to focus more on the short stuff at present.

5.1 miles in about 46:27.

My parents are in town for Enloe's baby blessing (born on Mother's day), so I ran with my dad and my running pace was slower than normal.

5.1 miles in 44:30.

Running with my Dad again before he goes back to AZ this afternoon.

5.1 miles in 37:46.

The kids were doing "mileage club" at school where they would run during recess once or twice a week, and then get prizes (like a rubber wristband, etc.) for each 5 miles that they ran.  My first grader ended up running 15 miles over the course of a couple months, while my kindergartener ran 13 miles.  Because the kids enjoyed it so much I decided to do something similar at home.  The kids will run a designated route that I set up, and they can run (or walk) as fast or as slow as they want to and they can stop whenever they want to.  Once they fill up their mileage club card I will get them a prize.  I hope that my kids will learn to love running just like I do.

5 miles in approximately 38:50 (not 100% sure on total time because I was messing around with the pause button at the end of my run and it added some time).

I ran 1.5 miles to the track to try and get an idea of where my fitness is at currently.  It was somewhat windy, and I was worried that the wind would adversely affect my workout.  At the track I ran 2 laps with a few strides thrown in to finish my warm-up and then ran an all out 400 (running start, probably running 7:xx pace prior to the start line).  Thankfully, the wind died off just before I got to the track, so I don't think it affected the 400 at all.  I neglected to use the lap button to time the 400, and I didn't catch my exact split, but I think it was somewhere between a high 61 and a 62.  I was really happy about this as it was faster than I thought I could run.  I was worried that I wouldn't even be able to break 70.  In the future I would like to get my 400 down into the 57 second range if possible.

After finishing the 400 I ran 3 laps in about 6:26 as recovery before running an 800.  I wasn't sure how hard I would push this because of how hard the 400 was, plus the wind picked back up again during this repeat (I first noticed it had picked up at around the 150m mark).  I ran the 800 in 2:37 (1:19, 1:18).  My legs still felt dead at the beginning of the repeat, so I just tried to get moving as fast as I could without pushing myself excessively.  During the second lap I started to push myself a little harder, and while I was still not going all out the effort was definitely harder, so I was a little disappointed that I only ran 1:18 for that lap.  I would guess that the wind during the 800 probably cost me 1-1.5 seconds.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how things went.  I would have liked to run the 800 a little faster, but I will take the time I got considering the 400 went much better than expected (and my legs were already fatigued for the 800).

On a side note, my watch did a horrible job of measuring distance for this run.  For a 5 mile run (maybe a little more), the watch measured 4.79 miles, with the online service connected to the watch claiming that I ran 400m in 69, with a half mile in 2:56.  The 2 miles I ran on the track (I added a little to make it at least 2 miles and not 3200m) were measured at 1.89 miles, which is unacceptable in my mind.

4 miles in 32:00.

I kept the run pretty slow throughout since I ran part of my run hard yesterday.

5.1 miles in 37:39

5.1 miles in 36:51.

I was planning on running a little slower than this, but I got excited because there were a lot of people out this morning due to a bike "race" and a 5k run that were both being held on the same trail that I was running on.  I ended up running the 3.13 mile segment around the lake in 21:55 (7:00 mile pace)

5.1 miles in 39:31.

I felt super slow and stiff this morning and I was content to run slow, so I did, running my first mile (downhill) in about 8:30.  My body finally started to wake up about three miles into the run, and I ran the final mile (uphill) in about 7:26.

5.1 miles in 35:42.

I ran 3 x 1/2 mile hard during the run with 1/2 mile recovery between each one.  I used my watch to measure the distance for each repeat, which meant that each repeat was actually longer than 1/2 mile (the watch did an exceptionally poor job of measuring distance today measuring 4.90 miles for the run which then showed up as 4.8 miles in the online service).  Based on the actual distance I ran during my loop around the lake, I estimate that the repeats were actually about 0.52 miles.

I started out a little easier on the first repeat to try and work into the repeats slowly, total time 2:54 (recovery 3:58).  The second repeat felt like I was running into more of a headwind than the first (less tree cover), while I increased the effort a little, total time 2:51 (recovery 4:03).  I pushed myself a lot harder on the final repeat, which had similar wind to the second.  My legs felt dead near the end of this repeat, total time 2:43.

I think this workout highlighted my current lack of true fitness (the fatigue during the third repeat was excessive considering the moderate effort on the first two repeats), but I was happy with how things went, and my legs recovered quickly after the final repeat was finished.  Based on my estimations for distance I would subtract about 7 seconds from each repeat to actually get a half mile time, so 2:47, 2:44, and 2:36.

5.1 miles in 39:09.

I am finding that my achilles is taking longer to warm up at the beginning of my runs than it used to, especially when I run hard the day before.  I don't feel any soreness, and I don't feel particularly fatigued, but the achilles feels tight, and tends to take about a mile or two to get stretched out.  As a result my run started out pretty slow again today and I went through the first quarter mile in close to 9:00 pace, and only ran the first mile in 8:10, even though I was running downhill for most of the second half mile.  During the last quarter mile of the run I did a short pick-up just to get my legs moving a little faster.

5.1 miles in 37:40.

Near the beginning of my run I saw another runner pass in front of me running fairly quickly, so I sped up (it felt awkward as I was not completely warmed up yet) and shadowed him for about a quarter mile just to see how fast he was going.  I timed an approximate quarter mile in 1:29 (probably slightly shorter than a quarter).  My best guess is that he was running between 6:00-6:20 mile pace.  I remember when I used to do all of my easy runs at 6:40 pace or faster.  Oh, to be young and not know the meaning of a recovery run.  I ran the rest of my run at a fairly moderate pace until the last quarter mile when I sped up briefly just to remind my legs what it feels like to run faster.

5.1 miles in 37:34.

I ran 4 x .25 hard during the run, at approximately 2.0, 2.75, 3.75, and 4.85 miles.  I didn't want to run too many repeats since I am still getting in shape, and I also wanted more of a sprinting non-aerobic stimulus from the repeats, thus the long rest.  Since my watch does such a poor job of measuring distance I just ran 1:20 hard and called it a quarter for the first three repeats even though I knew it was a little farther.  For the last repeat I actually ran a quarter as I had previously measured on the course tool where 0.25 miles from my house is.  I ran the final quarter in 1:14 (slowed some by a 90 degree turn near the end as I turn onto the street I live on).  My best guess is that the other quarters were at a similar speed/effort as the last one.  My achilles on my short leg was sore the rest of the evening, making me think that despite my efforts to not overdo things, this workout may have been a little too intense.

5.1 miles in 40:26.

I may have been a little too worried about how my achilles felt yesterday, as it felt fine when I woke up this morning and didn't hurt at all during the day.  As a precaution I ran my run really easy, only going under an 8:00 pace average during the end stages of the run.  Despite feeling fine running today I may take next week easy as well.  I don't want to overdo things before my body is ready, and I think that I have been ignoring some signs lately that I have been getting too fatigued, probably due in part to stress.

5.1 miles in 39:43.

Easy run today.  Nothing special happened.  I decided to stop using the GPS watch that I was given about a month ago, and go back to a basic stopwatch.  The HR data was useless, the GPS was too inaccurate (almost always off by at least 2% for the total distance run, and sometimes double that), the cadence would frequently drop when I would run harder/faster while giving me an inacurrate step count during daily activities, and even the time spent running couldn't be trusted because it would frequently change after the data was uploaded online (plus the lag at the start meant I couldn't actually start running when I pushed the start button, which was annoying).  So, basically my $25 watch does a better job as a running watch (it at least gets the time right) then a dedicated running smartwatch that retails for approx $300.

5.1 miles in 37:16.

I ran 1.5 miles hard in the middle of the run in 8:36ish.  The goal was to run just slightly faster than 6:00 pace, but I got too excited and ended up pushing harder than I probably should have, as it was 86 degrees out and sunny with 62% humidity.  I could tell that I was pushing too hard for the conditions when I started to feel like I wanted to slow down to a jog and I still had over a half mile left.

My legs felt kind of dead the last two miles to my house, which was not what I was shooting for.  The goal for the fast section of the run was to run faster than normal but not have it be too taxing on my body as the short fast stuff recently has felt like like it has taken a toll on my recovery.  Instead I feel like this workout may have had the opposite effect.  Oh well, back to easy running for the rest of the week.

It is so much easier to train well when you are already in shape than it is to do so while getting back in shape after not running consistently for a few years.

5.1 miles in 42:12.

I kept the run super easy today.  It was mid 80's with high humidity just like yesterday, and my legs felt dead again.

5.1 miles in 41:19

5.1 miles in 39:35.

My legs are starting to feel a little better and it is showing in that the effort for my run was no harder today than it was the last two days.

5.1 miles in 40:15.

My legs are still feeling off.  Today I felt achy, and my back felt stiff.  At times I felt like I could run smoothly, and at other times I felt like my legs were kind of dead.

5.1 miles in 39:20.

I was running pretty slow at the start (9:00 pace or slower for the first quarter), and then about half a mile into the run I suddenly started feeling like it was easier to run and I sped up quite a bit with only a minimal increase in effort.

5.1 miles in 38:08.

At the start of my run I saw another runner heading the same direction I was going in.  I had to try really hard to not chase after him, but as he continued in the same direction as me I couldn't help but speed up a little.  About a mile into the run he stopped to fix his shoe and I passed him.  For the next three miles I then ran just fast enough to stay in front of him until he finally stopped again near a bathroom next to the lake we were both running around.  I should have just relaxed and let him pass me earlier in the run, but he looked like he should be slower than me and I think I was maybe just a little too prideful to let that happen.

5.1 miles in 41:48.

I felt tired and lethargic again.  I am wondering if how I feel is more closely connected to how much I eat than I realized previously.  Sometimes I don't eat enough, and when that happens I lose weight pretty quickly (I can drop a few pounds in a couple days) and I then have to really eat like a horse in order to put the weight back on.  I wonder if this is contributing to me feeling off lately.

5.1 miles in 40:29.

My achilles felt really tight for the first part of my run.  I felt fine otherwise, but the achilles felt too tight to speed up much.  It finally loosened up a couple miles into the run, and I felt pretty good thereafter.

5.1 miles in 40:04.

I was worried that my achilles would feel extra stiff this morning since I did my run yesterday in the evening, and today I ran in the morning.  Thankfully that did not happen and my achilles felt better throughout the run today than it did yesterday.

5.1 miles in 34:25.

I was in a time crunch this morning, so I kept the pace brisk throughout.  The effort wasn't too hard but due to my lack of fitness I am calling most of the workout a marathon pace effort.  I started slow like usual (2:16 for the first quarter) in order to let my achilles stretch out, and my overall pace for the first mile was still fairly slow (8:06).

After I hit my estimated mile mark I sped up substantially, and I hit the 2 mile mark in approximately 14:45 (6:39 mile), and made it to approximately 3.5 miles in 24:26 (9:41 for the 1.5 mile split).  At this point I saw a runner in front of me that was running pretty quickly, and I decided to catch her.  I would guess that she was running 6:30-6:40 pace, so I sped up to sub 6:00 pace in order to catch her.  I made it to a mile to go in approximately 27:56 (3:30 for the 0.59 from the 3.5 mile mark, which is a 5:55-6 average), followed by running the last uphill mile into a headwind in 6:29.

Overall pace for the run was 6:45, with a 6:26 average after the first mile.  This is the fastest run I have done on this course since I started running on it a month or so ago.  I was happy with how I felt during the run, although at times I longed for the pace to feel as easy as it used to when I was in much better shape.

5.1 miles in 39:39.

I felt decent after the weekend.  I was less stiff than I expected.  I feel like the things I have been doing to try and get myself to feel better have been working (mostly just eating more).

5.1 miles in 38:56.

I hit my estimated mile marker in 7:58 this morning.  It is the first time in the past few weeks that I have run the opening mile of my run in under 8:00.  My achilles didn't feel too tight either (that is usually why I have been starting off so slow).  Focusing on eating more in general, but also eating more of some specific foods seems to be really helping lately.  I also wonder if just taking things easy and not running any speed workouts has also helped my body to adapt better to the mileage I am running, as despite the low overall mileage I am still running consistently more than I have at any point in the past 3.5 years.

5.1 miles in 38:46.

I felt pretty good while running today despite starting the run with a temperature of 83 degrees, and finishing the run at 86 degrees.  I just kept things easy like I have been for a few weeks, starting off with an initial mile of 7:49, followed by averaging 7:34 per mile for the rest of the run.

6 miles in 47:47?

I ran 6 miles this morning and finished in 47:47 according to my watch.  However, I am a little confused because at about 4.4 miles I thought I was about 90 seconds under 8:00 pace, but by 5 miles I was only about 20 seconds under 8:00 pace.  Either I looked at my watch wrong at 4.4 miles, or I mishit the watch button when I tried to stop it to go to the bathroom.  This is one area where using the GPS watch would have been beneficial, because it would have recognized that I stopped and recorded it as such online even though I have the auto-pause function turned off.

5.1 miles in 39:30.

It was cooler this morning than it has been on other days lately as we had a big rain storm last night.  It felt nice.

6 miles in 44:55.

I ran the same route that I ran on Thursday.  I was very surprised when about 4 miles into the run I had a guy pass me.  Normally I don't ever have people pass me, even when I am running close to 9:00 pace early on in my runs.  I sped up and followed him for a minute or two, and then continued to run a little faster than normal because there was a race going on and I got excited even though I was running in the opposite direction of the race participants.  As a result, I ended up averaging close to 7:00 pace for a 2+ mile segment of my run.

6 miles in 45:50.

It was cooler this morning than it has been on average recently.  It felt nice.

5.1 miles in 38:30.

6 miles in 47:05.

I had a late night yesterday trying to get my final computer model up and running (actually a lot of late nights lately).  I'm trying to get as much data processed as I can before I move, and this particular step will take almost 2 days to run.  I finally worked out the bugs late last night, but I didn't get home until about midnight, and I wasn't asleep until about 1am.  Since I was working on campus and not from home, I also didn't eat enough during the day as I thought I would only be on campus for a few hours and it ended up being closer to 10 hours.  As a result, I was pretty tired this morning, and it took me a while to get going.  I tried not to push myself at all, and eventually I started to feel a little better.

6 miles in 43:50.

I needed to be a little faster this morning because of a child's Dr. appointment, so I kept the run a little more brisk.  I didn't start too fast, hitting the first mile just slightly under 8:00, however I then sped up and averaged 7:02/mile for a 2 mile stretch in the middle of the run, while averaging approximately 7:12 pace for the last 5 miles of the run.

5.1 miles this morning before moving. I finished in 38:xx minutes... I think. In the rush to finishing packing I misplaced the watch that I wore today, and I can't remember the exact time I was running for. I'll have to find that watch this weekend.

Edit: found the watch. Run time was 38:22.

At least 7.2 miles this morning (maybe a little more?) in 51:43.

I wanted to run a 5k time trial before I moved, and despite feeling exhausted from packing and moving all day yesterday I decided to run the time trial today because it was the last chance I would have before I leave on Monday morning.

I ran about 2 miles to the lake from where we are staying temporarily and after a trip to the bushes I started the time trial. I ran a full figure 8 around the lake, which I have measured on the blog course tool at 3.13 miles. A cyclist passed me just after the start and I latched on to draft. It got me started faster than I had planned, but it did not feel too hard. After about a quarter mile I passed the cyclist and then pushed on alone for the rest of the time trial.

I timed a 1.5 mile segment in the middle of the time trial in 8:38. I knew that I had started faster than that pace, and I could tell I was slowing down even more. I wished that I was in a race with people to compete against to help compensate for my lack of speedwork longer than a mile, and my general lack of fitness due to low mileage, plus the fatigue from moving, etc. As I got about a quarter mile or so away from the finish, I was able to find the strength to speed up some, and I finished in 17:53, which would give me approximately 17:45 for 5k.

Overall, I'm happy with the time and effort. It gives me a good benchmark on which I can gauge future improvement, even though I will probably never get back to where I used to be.

5 miles in 39:36.

This was my last run in Iowa before moving.  It is bittersweet leaving Iowa, as I leave with many good and bad memories of my time here.  Additionally, while I look forward to what the future might bring I can't say that I am all that excited for the present, as moving without a permanent home to live in, without a job, and without having finished my degree does not lend itself to great amounts of optimism.  But, I do have faith that in time everything will work out.  Trying to be patient.

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).

7 miles in 52:29.

I ran easy, but not too easy as I wanted to get finished a little faster than normal.

Total time of 55:34 for approximately 7 miles.

I ran in the evening today.  I ended up running pretty slowly.  I'm not sure if this was because I am just fatigued or if I just happened to run slow today.

Total time of 53:55 for approximately 7 miles.

I felt tired and slow for the first half mile or so, but then sped up substantially while running downhill after turning onto Willow Creek Rd, and felt pretty good for the rest of the run.

7 miles in 57:22.

Not a fun run today.  I was feeling tired to begin with, so I started off a little slower than usual.  I started to speed up some after I got past the massive hill that finishes shortly before the 2 mile mark of the run, but then I began to feel a very urgent need to void.  Not.  Good.  At.  All.  I slowed down just past the three mile mark to try and avoid soiling myself and I started looking for a bathroom, but I could not find anything.

The need to void became more urgent.  I slowed even more, and started to hobble.  I almost felt like I was limping at times.  I considered walking until I found a bathroom, but I did not want to prolong the misery.  I set a goal to make it to the high school where I hoped to find a porta potty by the baseball fields.

Just before the 4 mile mark (still .25-.5 mile from the baseball fields) I decided that I could not wait any longer and I climbed up some rocks to try and hide behind some trees.  I was still visible from the street, but I was at least out of direct view from drivers, unless they were looking directly towards me.  I rushed to empty my bowels before I was spotted, but in my rush neglected to get situated correctly, and I urinated all over my shorts.  Oh well, at least it wasn't poop.

I climb back down the rocks with random plant parts stuck all over my leg hair and shoes and began running again.  I found out that there were no visible bathrooms at the baseball fields.  I stopped to extract the plant parts from my leg hair (not painful, but annoying).

I continued running very slowly as by now any motivation on my part to run faster than 8:00 pace was completely gone.  I stopped again just past 5 miles when I discovered the worlds stinkiest porta potty by the hospital (I could smell it from the street 20 ft away) and I stopped to void once more.

After sitting in the porta potty for what seemed like an eternity (it smelled, but at least it had tp) I started running once more.  I get past the 6 mile mark, and I begin having stomach cramping once more as my body was adjusting to the lack of material inside it.

I slowly trudge home, and walk my stinky soiled self into the house.  I extracate myself from my urine soaked clothes and I take a shower.  I decide to write in excessive detail about my annoying bowels on the blog because... why not?  Life is more tolerable when one is willing to poke fun at oneself, so I might as well embarass myself publicly (plus I bet that most people on the blog have had/will have a similar experience at some point).

7 miles in 56:00.

Thankfully there was no repeat of the issues I had yesterday.  I felt sluggish again, and I kept expecting to naturally speed up without increasing the effort as normally happens after a half mile or mile of running, but for some reason it didn't happen until I had already been out running for 5 miles.  I did feel good those last two miles, so it was nice to finish the run on a good note.

7 miles in 54:17.

Last run in Prescott before we leave early tomorrow morning to drive to Utah.

No run today.  We got up before 5:00 AM to drive to Utah.  We arrived in the late afternoon, and then picked up my three kids from daycare.  By the time we got back to where we were staying and had gotten situated with our things unpacked, kids fed, scriptures read, etc, it was already past 9:00 PM, and time to get the kids in bed.  I didn't have time to run until it was closer to 10:00 PM, so I decided to skip the run for today.  I had thought that this might end up happening, so I was kind of planning on not running today anyhow.

Total time of 56:17 for approximately 7 miles.

In Alpine.  I ran towards the mountain, and ended up running up the mountain as I entered the national forest and hit a hiking trail about 0.6 miles before it was time for me to turn around.  Going up the mountain it was all I could do to just keep running, with estimates from my watch indicating that I was running anywhere from 11:00-15:00 mile pace while going up the mountain.  I ended up gaining between 1200-1300 ft elevation during the run, with almost all of that coming during the first half of the run.

Running down the mountain was tricky due to the steep grades and rocks, but I ended up staying on my feet.  I picked up the pace a little bit after I got back on the roads and had run another half mile or so down the mountain, as a loose dog was wandering around and I did not want it to get too close to me.  My legs felt kind of thrashed from the steepness of the grade I was running downhill, so I will probably be a little sore tomorrow.

Total time of 55:19 for approximately 7 miles.

I was still a little sore after running up (and then back down) the mountain on Saturday, as the downhill messed up my quads.  It wasn't too bad, but just noticable enough that I had no desire to run faster than a slow jog.

Total time of 51:41 for approximately 7 miles.

I felt much better today than I have for the last few days, and the run was quicker than usual.  I did have stomach issues at the end of the run, which put a bit of a damper on the end of the run.  I had to slow down a bit during the last mile and then hurry off to the bathroom after finishing.  Otherwise, the run was rather nice.

Total time of 58:02 for approximately 7 miles (likely longer)

yesterday and today were days of contrast, while yesterday I felt strong, and running at mid to low 7:00 pace felt easy, today I felt like I was running through mud even while running slower than 8:00 pace.  Something has been off lately more often than not, and I can not quite put a finger on what the problem is.  I have been feeling tired regularly, and I have had trouble getting out of bed in the morning even when I have gotten 10+ hours sleep.  I also had stomach issues again at the end of the run and I had to rush into the bathroom as soon as I finished.

The run itself would have been nice if I weren't feeling yucky.  I was able to run on a mix of paved and dirt roads, with some single track trails thrown in for good measure.

Total time of 47:41 for approximately 7 miles.

After I felt like I was running through mud yesterday I thought about things and decided that I needed to resubscribe to the thought process that if I feel crummy it must be because I am not eating enough.  So, I ate dinner twice last night, and I made sure to eat a little more for dinner tonight as well (I have been running in the evenings lately, and tonight I ran after dinner but yesterday I ran before I ate).  I don't know if that was really my cure, but I did feel a lot better on my run today.  Since I was running after dark, and since I felt good, I decided to keep the pace brisk today, and I was running sub 7:00 pace by approximately the half mile mark of the run.  I kept the pace fairly steady thereafter until I had about 2.25 miles left in the run, at which point I ran about 1.25 miles hard (sub 6:00 pace) before slowing and cruising in the last mile (slightly sub 8:00 pace).

Approximately 5 miles in 36 minutes.

I planned on running 7 miles, but I got out of the house later than planned, and then had to make an emergency pit stop at a gas station.  This problem was confounded when the gas station bathroom was occupied and I had to wait for a while to use it.  As a result of all of this, I had to shorten my run to 5 miles this morning.

56:40 for approximately 7 miles.

I got out earlier this morning than I did yesterday and I didn't have to make a pit stop, so I was able to run 7 miles.  My average pace was on the slower side as I was running up in the hills.

Approximately 7 miles in two segments.  First, 5 miles in 34:40, later 2 miles in 15:30.

I got out super late this morning as it was cold and I could not find my running pants.  After 20+ minutes of searching my wife remembered that she had put them in the garage.  As a result, I only had time for 5 miles before the kids went to school.  Later after they had all been dropped off I went out for two more miles.

Approximately 7 miles in 53:23 (maybe a little short this morning as the GPS was acting wonky?)

I ran pretty easy for the first half of the run this morning, and then picked up the effort some during the second half.  Early on in the run I considered running a mile tempo near the end of the run, but just didn't feel like it when the time came.

Total time of 55:02 for approximately 7 miles.

Total time of 52:03 for approximately 7 miles.

I ran approximately 1 mile hard (a little farther, but I'm not sure how much as I am not sure how accurate the watch was today) near the end of the run, with a total time for the hard running between 6:20-6:30.  I averaged 7:30-7:40 pace for most of the remainder of the run.

Total time of 49:16 for approximately 7 miles.

I ran mostly the same route that I ran on Saturday, except during a portion of the run near the halfway mark where I turned right instead of left to run up a moderately steep uphill grade instead of running on a mild downhill grade.  I noted that without really trying to run more quickly than I ran on Saturday, I was running a fair amount faster.  This made me curious, as I felt like I had to work harder than I anticipated during my fast mile on Saturday, so I decided to run the same mile fast again.

My little experiment was interesting, as according to my watch I ended up running this mile about 17 seconds faster than I did on Saturday (6:02 vs. 6:19, with approximately 50 ft elevation gain, plus the suspicion that this is actually longer than a mile), however I feel like I was breathing much easier throughout, and I definitely felt fresher at the end.  Unfortunately I can't really come to any conclusions about things, as neither effort was maximal, the HR monitor on my watch is garbage so I can't say for certain that my HR was lower, while today I also knew what to expect and I was watching my watch more closely than I was on Saturday to make sure that there were no lapses in concentration.  Oh well, at least I felt good running today, as I haven't been able to say that regularly lately.

Total time of 53:20 for approximately 7 miles.

Easy run.  I felt better and ran a little quicker than I thought I would.  I felt run down and tired all day today despite getting plenty of sleep the last few nights.  Normally when I feel this way my runs tend to really drag on, and I struggle to even run faster than 8:00 pace.  Today however, that was not the case, and I was running 7:30 pace for a good portion of my run without feeling run down and tired.

Total time of 54:00 for approximately 7 miles.

Easy run this morning.  I saw a lot more people out exercising than I normally do.

Total time of approximately 53:30 for 7ish miles.

Easy run out and back.  Nothing special happened.

Total time of 54:34 for approximately 7 miles.

I was expecting to feel pretty tired while running today, so I purposefully kept the run slow, but after about 4 miles I realized that I had started speeding up without trying to, so I decided to not worry about how fast I was going, and just run.

Total time of 54:35 for approximately 7 miles.

Somehow I ran within 1 second of my time for the run yesterday.  I started out a little faster today, but slowed down a couple miles into the run as I started running uphill into a headwind before getting a nice downhill tailwind after turning around.  I considered running a mile tempo on the way home, but I was disuaded by a need to void, which tends to be exacerbated by running fast, so I ran more slowly and was able to make it home to use the toilet.

I woke up not feeling so well, so I decided to get a little extra sleep and skip the morning run.  I was feeling better later on, and I would have run reduced mileage later in the day (I was thinking about running 4 miles) but I didn't have time until after 9 pm, so I ended up just skipping the run completely.

Total time of 53:12 for approximately 7 miles.

I ran out towards Lone Peak High School this morning.  I found a nice trail to run on there, but unfortunately I was almost at my turn around point by the time I made it to the trail so I only ran on the trail for about a mile (0.5 mile out and back).