Training in Montana

4 earlyish miles before an all day meeting. Beautiful outside.

4 hot miles after a half day meeting. 80F

6 on the TM at lunch, too smoky outside from the Canada wildfires. I walked a lot.

Early run before a busy day. Anyone else's gps watch screwed up this week? Mine has measured short on distance both times from my house. So odd.

Woke up at 6 to go run but it was a steady downpour. Went back to bed, then ran on the Y TM at lunch time while watching Forrest Gump. Stupid is as stupid does.

"The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind." I found the answer this morning.

AP: 8:17

6 windy miles at lunch. 

AP: 8:14

10 moist muddy miles this fine Friday the 13th morning. I forgot my Dirty Girlz Gaiters so my feet filled with small pebbles as I learned which road not to run on after a rainstorm. I thought it would be hard packed but that was only true part of the time. 

Great weather though, 37F with a slight breeze and only a few raindrops. Snow on the ground a mile up from my house, but only a little bit of slushy stuff so it was pretty.

AP: 8:34

Fathers son campout near Columbus, so I got up not early and went for a run. Ran along a 65 mph two lane highway with a large shoulder and cars and trucks were giving me 20 feet of space, like I might suddenly dart into traffic like a deer. So weird to me why people do that.

When I started my Garmin was whacked again. It had me running an 11:00 pace but I know it was more like 9:00. I reset it and it seemed to work well the rest of the way. What up with my watch all of a sudden?

AP: 8:34

4 warmish miles at noon from the Y. Forgot a headband, lots of eye sweat. Legs were dead, a product of more miles last week than in a while, and a busy weekend.

AP: 8:50

I intended to do 8 but my legs weren't having it. Nearly turned around at mile 1 but kept going. I need more rest and sleep to do 8 tomorrow.

Double fail today. Set my alarm for 5:30 to get up and do 8, but when the alarm went off my body and mind screamed "No!" and I listened and slept until 7. Hit the Y at Noon, intending to do 6, but at mile 2 my lower back spasmed so I walked a bit, stretched, ran a bit, walked, stretched, and finally got the back feeling well enough to return home, but slower than I began. Need to go to the chiropractor.

In other news, I learned this morning that I got in to the St George Marathon and I'm stoked. Finally something to look forward to. Flights are booked, mom knows we're  coming, now I just need to get in shape again.

I cannot wake up this week. Not sure if I'm just being a wuss, or what, but I tried to get up at 5:30 and do 8 but I could not get myself to even think about rolling out of bed. So weird. I'm getting old. Thankfully no lunch meetings, so... 6.5 at lunch, ran up to the rims (really tough up), along the rims for a mile or so, and back. I thought about doing 8 but with it being lunch time I wondered, then while plodding along at a turtle's pace I realized I need to save some gas for tomorrow.

This getting in shape thing is going to be tough. Only 18 weeks until the marathon, that's not very much time. Woulda coulda shoulda. Oh well, I'll do what I can.

AP: 9:41

I had an all morning commitment so I planned to arise at 5 am, run as far as possible, return at 7:45, and be off. Granted, I got to bed late, after 11, but when my alarm hit it was like a 600 lb man was sitting on me. I actually got out of bed and sat on the john for a while like normal early morning routine, but after a few minutes I knew I'd be useless on the run and the rest of the day so I went back to bed until 7:45. Even more frustrating is that I was exhausted by 6 pm and could've gone to bed. What in the world? Last year at this time I was running 4+ hours on Saturdays. 

Got myself out of bed for a short run. Wind in my face didn't help, but even without it I would've been slow. 

After getting home my Facebook feed pops up from last year. On this date 2015 I ran 28 miles in 4:29. So frustrating, especially at myself that I didn't keep up my fitness.

6 miles on the same route as Friday, 17 seconds per mile faster. 

AP: 8:57

6 miles this morning from home. Loved it! Not in great shape, but it will come. Cooler at 45F with a breeze into my face, but when I got back I was drenched in sweat; dripping from my headband, and my shirt soaked almost down to my belly button. Awesome.

AP: 8:17

6 miles up to the Rims and back at lunch. It was warm, 69F, and humid for us 38%. I don't know how Joe and others in the actual heat do it. Wearing a black singlet didn't help, but it wasn't all that bad. It's a big climb and it's the 3rd time I've done it in a couple weeks and I love how much progress I've made in that short time. Greatest part about running is when you do something repeated times it gets easier to do.

Not sure what's up with the Garmin watch. It again went wacky on me, said I was doing 7:30 miles on my warmup mile. Turned it off and started over, and it was fine, but mile 2 had me doing 10:30 miles on the flat. Seems like it figured everything out okay though as mileage is where it should be. Do I need a new Garmin? Maybe so.

AP: 9:17

14 from home. Haven't gone this far in almost a year. I missed it.

AP: 9:18?

On the sixth grade trip with Dylan's class so too early for a run. Grabbed a few rough miles on the hotel TM while the kids swam/splashed all the water from the pool.

Legs felt rough so I walked a lot. That stunk.