Training in Montana

4 slow miles this morning. Legs are trashed from helping my brother put in sod on Saturday. That is a beastly task! Happy Birthday to my 11 year old son. He had an awesome birthday party on Saturday. Boys love to shoot each other with airsoft guns while amped up on Mountain Dew.

AP: 8:44 

8 miles on my 8 mile course. I pushed it more than before and really pushed it the last 4 miles. I'm doing 8 tomorrow and I'm sure I'll be sore but this was fun.

AP: 7:58

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178450222 

Same 8 mile route as yesterday and the past couple weeks. My legs were dead from pushing it yesterday and I never really could get going. It was a struggle all the way home.

AP: 8:36 

Great article today about Levins, the runner at Southern Utah. Amazing mileage.  

10 miles up my much-steeper-than-Veyo hill. I used to call it my Veyo hill in prep for St George but I've come to realize that it makes Veyo look like a blip. It is beastly. I felt rested today and made it up the hill without stopping, and kept it at a 10:20 or so pace during the toughest climb. Going back down that hill I was doing a controlled 6:15 pace and when I've pushed it in the past I can do 5:30 or so, and I'm not fast. Needless to say, it's good hill training. Chased some cows around today - they are really dumb animals but taste delicious (they were on the other side of the fence - no need to run from me boys & girls!). Overall, felt good and hopefully I'm ready for tomorrow's 22 mile effort. I'm taking the Boy Scouts camping tonight but there are 3 of us leaders so I'll ditch them in the morning and try and get my run in before breakfast is over.

AP: 8:47 

22 miles today while camping with the Boy Scouts. Afterwards I couldn't imagine going 10 more, like I will in 3 weeks. Then again, I did 10 yesterday so between the two days I HAVE gone 32 miles so that makes me feel better.

I wore my Nathan backpack for the second time and I like that I can carry all the fluid I need for a 3:30 run. I filled it to 60 oz which I quickly realized was too much so I sucked in and spit out a bunch during my first 1/2 mile. I headed towards a town called Absarokee running on the shoulder of a fairly busy 60 mph highway. After 3.5 miles there was a turnoff to a local reservoir and I took that, guessing that it was the same road I'd been on at the reservoir and it would have gravel after a bit. Turns out I was right. After 3 more miles of pavement the gravel began. Awesome. I was pretty tired, probably because I've not been getting enough sleep, but I trudged on. My splits are decent. I also climbed a total of 850 feet but I didn't realize it so that surely slowed me down as my times coming back were much better. It was a great place for a run, beautiful morning, good cool down after, and made it back by 9 am and breakfast was just getting cooked so perfect timing. I'm glad for country roads also as I had my second morning constitutional on my run. And of course, the wet wipe I've been carrying for over a year didn't get transferred to my backpack so I used long grass to wipe. Thank goodness it rained last night and the grass was wet. What a pain. 

I hope everyone did well at Ogden today. 

 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/179874266