Lily please sleep

Okay Lily, I know you take after me and only need 5-6 hours of sleep a night. But the others around you need more sleep or all of our lives are miserable.

1. Don't wake up Graci - She was so nice to let you come share her room when you started having nightmares. But lately she's been talking about giving you the boot because you wake her up all the time. We can't let that happen because if you get the boot I'm probably going to lose my man cave. Most dads dream of having their own man cave. I know its hard for a 3 year old to understand. But I really need you to keep Graci happy.

2. Don't wake up mom - She is 7 months pregnant and needs all of the sleep she can get. I know this is also hard for a 3 year old to understand, but if momma's not happy non one is happy.

3. Come wake up Dad - Nevermind you're already pretty good at that. But please fall back a sleep by 5, so I can go running.

Graci's new princess shoes

As I opened the box to my new Pearl Izumi running shoes, Graci beamed with excitement. She was not excited about my new shoes at all. She was excited the cardboard shoe inserts inside the shoes. "Hang on dad I need some supplies," she said. She came back with glitter, glue, scissors and a steak knife. "These are going to be my new princess shoes dad." I watched as Graci and Lily took turns applying the glitter.

Over the last 10 years, I have worked with many creative people; graphic designers, marketing people etc..... Graci may have one of the most forward thinking, creative minds I have ever seen. Now I just trying to figure out how to give her opportunities to cultivate it.

Wasatch Back Relay Recap

The Wasatch Back Relay has been in my plans since December and has been the race I have looked forward to more than any other race. It probably was one of the top 5 experiences of my life. It could be described as a marathon, scout camp, girls camp, and frat party rolled into a day and a half. The only person I knew real well in my van was my neighbor and friend Brandon Moses. I had graduated from high school with his older sister Angie, but we didn’t figure this out until we had our first team meeting. Angie was on the team along with Megan (Brandon’s wife’s friend), Amy (Megan’s friend), and Charlie (Brandon’s boss). After 32 hours together, we are all pretty good friends.

(Megan, Rob, Brandon, Angie, Amy, Charlie)

We met at Brandon’s at 11:00, wanting to be in Liberty and ready to go by 1:00 PM. We waited and waited and waited, then finally began running at 3:15 in the afternoon. Angie was first to run and she did very well considering the heat and the time we were waiting. During Angies run we stopped in the Maverick parking lot. I was so hungry. I wanted something hot and with a little more mass than a cliff bar or energy gel. I looked over the Maverick hot case and the only thing that looked good was a jumbo jalepeno and cheese corn dog. My team gave me soooo much grief about eating that thing 90 minutes before my run. It was so good. I would eat it again if I had to do it over again; maybe I would eat two. The exchange went from Angie to Amy to Megan to Charlie. All of them ran fairly close to 8 minute miles in 90 degree heat.

Then it was the moment of truth: me and old Snowbasin road, oh yeah the jalepeno corn dog in my gut too. My goal was to take down the next 3.8 miles and 900 feet of elevation gain in 35 minutes. With the heat, I knew it was going to be a tough goal. I tried to pick out a runner ahead of me to pass. I would push until I passed the runner then I would try to find another and so on. It was going pretty well, I had passed four people a mile into the leg. I pushed hard until I reached the summit at the 3 mile mark. My watch was reading 29 minutes it would be hard to make my goal but I pushed as hard I could. I ended up finishing the leg in 36:20. I passed 9 people and was passed by 3.

Brandon took us the rest of the way up to Snowbasin. He actually went a lot further because the second van missed the exchange. They met Brandon as he approached Trappers Loop. We rested for the evening at Shastas parents in Peterson. The spaghetti and hospitality was great. I tried to catch some sleep but that was not happening, so I sat in the front yard and watched runners pass by. At 11:00 we were back on the road up to East Canyon Dam for our next exchange.

At 12:15 we were waiting in the van for the exchange to go to Angie when we got a frantic call. Angie had dropped her back light into the porta jon and needed a new one up at the exchange. Shortly after that, a runner was up at the exchange without a bib looking at everyone’s bibs. Suddenly she sees Angies bib # 500 and slaps the band on her wrist and says go 500. Angie then produced probably the best quote of the race, “who the hell was that!” The runner who was going to exchange to her had been injured so this girl had finished leg. Angie ran a strong leg up around East Canyon Dam. Amy ran 7 miles downhill into Henefer. Her husband was pacing her on bike. At the end he was really cold because he had only been breaking the entire way down the hill. Megan had close to a 10 mile leg from Henefer to Coalville.

At 4:00 AM in Coalville, I exited the porta jon to find the Nutraceutical Mullet Mobile. I helped design and print the mullet wrap they used on their vehicle. It took quite a bit of time to pull off, but it broke up the monotony of everyday label printing. I was fired up because Nutra started almost four hours after us. Their runner was about 5 minutes out of the exchange. I told the guys in my van not to let anyone in a mullet wig pass you. I knew they would pass our team, but I wanted it to be while the other van was running.

I took the exchange in Wanship and felt totally energized. I was running on zero sleep, an energy drink and the fear of being passed by my co-workers. As I approached Rockport dam, I met up with a member of the Davis High X country team. He was keeping a strong pace and I just filed in behind him tried to keep up. I was going faster than I had planned, but I was passing several people and felt great. Soon I could see the exchange outside of Peoa and I turned on the after burners. At the end of the exchange, I looked at my watch. I had just run 7.3 miles with 600 feet of elevation gain in 59 minutes! (My goal was 1:05) I was so pumped! I passed 15 people and was passed by 5.

At the Oakley rodeo grounds I tried to sleep. It wasn’t going real well. I think I slept for about 90 minutes. When I got up, my stomach was pretty upset. I needed to eat but didn’t know if my stomach would take anything. I tried fruit, cliff bar, pasta salad and nothing was settling. We stopped at the Smiths in Heber for our final exchange. I wandered the isles looking for anything that sounded good. The only thing that even remotely sounded good was Canadian Bacon. Once again the van thought I was crazy. So I didn’t eat it for a while. I finally was feeling so bad that I decided I couldn’t feel much worse. So I threw it down the hatch. Within ten minutes I was feeling so much better. Megan started the ascent up Gaurdsmen Pass. There was a funny moment when she passed a runner on the U of U team. We had to talk trash because she went to BYU. Charlie had the second leg up the pass and it got brutal. Everyone was walking and he passed dozens up people.

I took the exchange and ran another half mile up hill to the summit. I was in the clouds in the middle of a thunderstorm. I decided I needed to get out of there quickly. The road was so steep downhill, it was hard to put on the brakes. I was loving the down hill until I arrived right below The Stein Erickson Lodge. The road suddenly went back up hill at a 15% grade. It was a huge shock to the legs. I went into pass people mode and did alright but it was by far the hardest half mile of the race for me. I then realized I had a few miles left and the race was over for me. I gave it everything I had, which is difficult going steeply downhill. I mainted control and handed off to Brandon in the Deer Valley parking lot. He ran his leg so strong that we barely had time to park and get to the finish line.

Our team finished in 32:38. I was so happy with how every runner in our van performed. Everyone trained and I thought we got along pretty good. Now I need to find something to motivate me like this race did.

Shoe Dilema

A few weeks before the Ogden Marathon I purchased a new pair of running shoes. Unfortunatly I broke a few of the major rules in running shoe shopping.When you run heavily it is so important that you buy shoes that match how you pronate when you run. Strider's in Layton will measure how you pronate for free. I know that I need light stability shoes, but there was a really nice pair of Pearl Izumi trail runners on sale.

Rule #1. Do not base running shoe purchasing decisions on price or whats on sale.

Rule #2. Don't buy shoes that may not work well with how you pronate. Trail running shoes are typically really stable shows with little flexibility

Rule #3 Don't buy shoes based on looks! - Pearl Izumi shoes are the best looking shoes on the market. I love how reflective they are and they just look nice.

To make a long story short. A month after purchasing my Pearl Izumi Syncro Seek 2's, they were completly worn on the left heel. So 5 weeks & 150 miles after their purchase I was back buying shoes. This time it was not about looks or price, I just wanted the shoes that would work best for me.

They brought me out 10 pairs of shoes to try. At the end of the day, I chose the Brooks Switch 2. It fit my foot like a glove and 3 weeks into their purchase the wear seems to be much more even. I feel really comfortable with these shoes heading into the Wasatch Back Relay. They don't look as cool, but they feel right.

Old Snowbasin Road Quit Haunting Me

For the past two months, I have been having reoccurring nightmares about my first leg of the Wasatch Back Relay. One day I will go into details about the many reoccurring dreams I have. The most common reoccurring nightmare is the elderly, Asian, English professor that fails me and keeps me from graduating from college. Seven years after graduating it still has me as scared as ever. I don’t know why running up old Snowbasin road has haunted me more than the old Asian professor the last few months, but it has.

Yesterday I decided to leave my house at 6 AM to run that leg of old Snowbasin road. It had been many years since I had been on that road. Snowbasin is my local resort of choice. As a youth I had season pass to Snowbasin, and remember the treacheries of climbing that road in the winter. Since the Olympics, there is a much better route to the resort from Trappers Loop.
As I started, the goal was to take it easy and keep my heart rate in check. There were a few walk breaks along the way, but I felt really good. At the first big switch back I looked at my watch; it read 6 minutes. I could tell at that point it was going to be easier than it played in my head. I was listening to a podcast of the Dave Ramsey show on my ipod. I am sure listening to tunes may have spurred me on faster than a talk radio show about personal finance. I just wanted to see what I could do with a nice easy pace.

A few more switch backs down, and I knew even with the easy pace I was going to reach the ridge just over 30 minutes. I reached the ridge at just under 32 minutes. The ridge is exactly 3 miles and 900 feet higher than the start. The last mile of the leg is down hill. I did that in an easy 7:45, to finish my leg in 39:40. I feel really good about the time considering the easy effort I put forth. My goal for this leg of the race is to finish it in less than 36 minutes.

Here is the map and elevation profile for the 1st leg of the Wasatch Back relay.

Graci Tee Ball

Graci came to us a few months ago expressed desire to play tee ball. My sister Nat was going to coach, so we put her on the team. I have joked for several years that Graci was born with two left feet and a very left brain. She is probably the most creative person I have ever met, but when it comes to coordination thats a different story. If there is something to trip over or run into she seems to find it with little difficulty. I was worried that she inherited my eye sight, but when we went for the pre-kindergarten eye exam, her eyes were fine.

The last few weeks of tee ball have been a really fun experience. For the first few games, she would chase the ball after she hit it. After a few failed attempts to correct the problem, we devised a plan. I told her that the ball was a poison apple and she needed to smash and then run to first base for safety. If you explain things in princess terms she gets it. It seems to be working and she has been getting better with each game. She loves to be the second baseman so she can sit back and make patterns in the dirt. We'll just have to take it one step at a time.

Monday 5/25 Training

Planned Workout - 1 hour 30 minutes easy pace with 500 feet of elevation gain
Actual Workout - 1 hour 46 minutes 11.2 miles 600 feet elevation gain
Body - good
Mind - strong

I felt really good this morning. Originally, I wanted to go run up old snowbasin road to get ready for the Wasatch Back relay. I didn't get much sleep and didn't feel like making the trek up there. So I decided to run as far as I could up the East bench. It was great weather and I actually felt really good. I tried to push up the hills and not take a walk break till I got to the top. It had been a while since I had been up on the bench. I have some pretty good memories of delivery newspapers up there as a kid. I always remembered Karen drive because its my mom's name and I had to ditch my bike at the bottom and walk up it because it was so steep. 20 years later it still kicks my butt.

The route can be found at: http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ut/ogden/645124328548998011

Saturday 5/23 Training

Planned Workout - 40 minutes easy effort
Actual Workout - 37 minutes - 4.5 miles night run
Body - fair
Mind - tired

I put on the reflector vest and head lamp and hit the road just after 9:00. I still felt a little sore, but handled it okay. I like running at night, but I do worry about being seen by cars.

Thursday training Log

Planned Workout - 35 minutes at an easy pace.
Actual Workout - 3.5 miles in 35 minutes
Body - sore
Mind - Kind of mad it is taking me this long to recover

It was nice to put my feet on the pavement. I took it nice and slow. I can't wait until I feel good enough to get after it!

Wednesday 5/20

Planned workout: 30 minute easy run
Actual workout: 10 minute run 10 minute mile pace. 20 minute walk 15 minute mile pace up 15% incline.
Mind - Strong. Eager to get training
Body - Extremely Sore

I wanted to run outside today knowing that soon it would be way too warm. I headed out the doors of the gym and my legs indicated that they were not ready yet. So I went back inside and hopped on the dreadmill. I ran very slow for ten minutes, bumped up the incline and did some fast hill walking.

Total miles: 2

Ogden 1/2 Marathon 5/16/09

It had been 15 + years since I had ran more than a mile or two. It was December 2008; I was 225 pounds and trying to get fit and healthy. I started to talk to a marathoner that attends my gym and decided to give running a go. It has been so long since I ran cross-country as a sophomore at Bonneville High School. I finished dead last in the 1993 Region 1 cross-country championships. It was a huge blow to my 15-year-old ego! I had the flu and was in no shape to be running, but the coach had me run. The moment of crossing the finish line sick, dehydrated, delirious and minutes after everyone else had haunted me away from ever running competitively again. You can’t talk to my mom about running without her bring up the story of me spending more time in the restroom than on the cross-country course. I think I heard it 3 or 4 times in the week leading up to the Ogden ½ marathon.

Saturday May 16, 2009 started a new era for competitive running and me. My very aggressive goal was to finish between 1:45 and 1:50. To hit the 1:45 mark, I would need to turn 8-minute miles. My friend Brandon and I caught one of the last buses up to Eden park. We still had about a 90 minute wait in 40ish degree weather. We lined up at the start and were off a few minutes after 7:00. One mile into the course we hit the only big hill we would see all day. We managed to take it in good stride and kept right to our pace. At mile mark 3, I saw the first port-a-jon and used it. I tried to catch back up to Brandon after but he was out too far. I felt fantastic at mile mark 5 running over pineview and was right on schedule averaging 8 minutes per mile. Once I was in the canyon, I tried to take full advantage of the downhill. With the tight canyon walls and roaring river, this part of the course may be prettiest running route around. At the mouth of the canyon, I still felt great and 10 + miles into the race was exactly averaging 8-minute miles.
Then the wheels seemed to come off the bus in the next mile. The muscles started to get tight and I could feel my pace slowing. Mile 11 came in at a 9 minutes, followed by 10 minutes at mile 12. One mile left and 11 minutes to hit the top end of my goal. Mentally I thought no problem this can be done. Physically I had to take walking breaks and I knew it was going to be a slow mile. We exited the walking path and told myself I was going to run the entire 6 blocks to the finish. By the third block in, I was taking a little walking break. I knew I would be just over my goal if I took it strong to the finish. With two blocks left I saw Glen an OPD officer who also works with me. He spurred me on and I was picking up steam. I then saw my mom and my two girls and forgot about the disappointment of not finishing under 1:50 and finished the last five strides as hard as I could. My final time was 1:50:31.

Brandon, who I had not seen since mile 3 finished with a strong 1:43:50. He was waiting just inside the finish line. His wife Shasta said I looked like I was going to vomit. I want to thank the Standard for capturing that moment so I can review it forever. Next up is the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay June 19.