Training in Montana

4 miles to start off a 50 mile week. Here's to hoping that everything goes well this week as my next 3 weeks have my long runs at 22, 22, 24 before a step back week then the 50K the following week. I'm not excited. Not at all.

AP: 8:23

Noon: Boot Camp. Sweatfest 2013, even in my St George Running Center singlet. I tried not to go too crazy hard as this will be a big mileage week, but the competitive juices get going when getting yelled at. Good workout.

Happy 12th birthday to my second son! I'm taking a half day as he wants to go to the shooting range to shoot his new .22 rifle. Should be a fun time. He passed Hunter's Safety and Bowhunter's Safety in the last two months so if he's unsafe there's no hope.

Woke up early to get my miles in so I could help my wife make his Birthday breakfast. It worked out great as I got home just after she woke up. I pushed it a bit more than normal as I had a curfew and I needed that extra push. Almost to the turnaround my stomach let me know that 4 miles more would be very sketchy, so I used the emergency wet wipe I had. Thank goodness for country roads and wet wipes. Ew. Still managed to finish in 1:04:xx and I'm normally above 1:05 so a good run. Would've been even better without the pit stop. Too busy to check my watch for splits when I got home.

Had a fun day yesterday with my son shooting guns. His new .22 a bunch of times, 15 shots with the 7mm-08, 2 shots with my 30-06, and 15 or so with my .40 handgun. I was impressed he shot the -06 twice as he moved quite a bit when he shot it. He's also flinching with the 7mm-08 so we'll need to work on that as last time out he hit paper every time but now that he knows the kick he only hit the target a few times. Practice practice practice.

Got out this morning for a beautiful run. 48 degrees, clear skies, and zero wind. After 3 hot days (92, 93, 86) the dirt roads are dusty. With no wind the dust billowed straight up and hovered over the road and settled into the low spots, staying for 10+ minutes. It was cool to see but nasty to run through. I ran up my Veyo hill to get some hill work in for the week. I did it fairly strong which made me happy. I'm turning into a decent hill runner. Not great, but decent and I'm cool with that. The last two miles I kept under marathon pace and I'll take it. It was a bit of a sprint to get back home as the last mile I hit some gastric distress. Barely made it home in time. Note to self: don't eat jalapenos the night before a run. I've noted that before but I forgot. 

Total time: 1:05:35 AP: 8:11

Rest day tomorrow, 10 on Friday, and 22 Saturday. I'll be in a mountain town Saturday for a Fathers/Sons campout, so I'll get up at 5 am and run up Beartooth Canyon 11 miles then turn around and head back to camp. I'll smell good I'm sure.

10 miles on my loop. I haven't run it in a while as there's quite a bit of road running and I've wanted dirt roads instead. I will hit this one a few more times before my race as I'd forgotten what a doozy it is. I'm feeling pretty tired right now and my normal 10 mile out and back leaves me energized.

Got up at 5, out the door by 5:30. It rained last night (cancelling soccer games) but thankfully ended long before midnight so the dirt roads weren't squishy. Temps were perfect, 51F with no wind, so shorts, short sleeve shirt, and gloves. This loop heads me downhill, so after my daily .75 to the main road I headed downhill where I normally head uphill. It's an undulating downhill with mostly down, but a couple of ups. I hit the valley bottom at 3.5 miles then it's climbing for the next 5 miles. 1 mile is on the main road, but then turned off that for the meat & potatoes on a gravel road. This leads to a brief killer climb then a couple miles of up and flat before another brief killer-er climb, followed by another mile or more of up before finally hitting some downhill once again. After writing this I realize why I'm more tired as this route is pretty unforgiving.

Overall a good run. AP: 8:42

22 tough miles this morning on the same trail I ran last Saturday. I just uploaded to Garmin and now I see why I struggled so much - gained 2400 feet elevation, lots of up and down, up and down. That's tough to do that up and down thing. I didn't realize we had a real trail like that near town so I plan to use it quite a bit especially when preparing for Bighorn. 

Tried to pick it up on mile 21 just to see if the legs would respond, and they did to some degree. Got to a 7:30 pace but then hit some undulating trails and gave up that extra speed in a hurry. On the flat I think I could've held it okay but on sandstone uneven surface and other up and down stuff it was a no go. Tough to finish it out but I held on and got it done. It rained a ton yesterday evening and then a ton today from Noon-4 so I got lucky and squeezed this in between storms. Sounds like I was a lot luckier than Ogden folks. 

AP doesn't really matter on a trail run, but since it's recorded: 9:46. Total time: 3:34:55.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/314573504