Running With LeMire

Ran 6 miles this morning and at least it was 29 degrees unlike the last couple of mornings that were in the teens. Overall the run felt pretty good and my body was definitely rested from the last couple of days off. My body obviously needed it and yesterday I slept in and took a nap.

Ran with the Runner's Edge Group for the first time in a long time and was pleasently surprised by the outcome of this long run. I set out with 14 miles in mind but of course the rest of the guys were planning on running 16 miles. Therefore if I wanted to run out 7  with everyone my choice was to then run the 7 back all by myself. That would have sucked so I fell to peer presure and ran 16 with a group of 5 guys. GReat run catching up and running pretty darm fast! I had some gps issues with my watch but when we got back two of the guys had 7:21/mi total average for the 16 miles. With that being said there had to be some pretty damn fast miles since the first mile was around 9 minutes. UGH that mile sucked but it is part of the Coaches new training philosophy and non of the guys want to hurt his feelings.I would have to say this run definitely made me feel good about my endurance (marathon training) unlike the mile time trial that I completly sucked at last weekend!

Woke up this morning with the idea I would run 6 miles outside but then I looked at my phone and saw 9 degrees!! Holy crap thats cold so my treadmill was calling out to me STAY INSIDE!! Instead of getting all bundled up I put shorts and  a tee shirt on and stayed  indoors. Did pretty good on the treadmill today put the 2"x4" under the back to get a little downhill training in as well. Started off a little slow but slowly raised the speed up and finished the last 1.5 miles at 9 mph and a sub 7 minute mile. Felt good and I stayed warm!!

ran 3 miles on the treadmill with one mile warm up then 6 200's at 12 mph on the treadmill. It was hard but overall pretty good.

ran 6 miles on the treadmill tonight at a pretty good clip 46 minutes so that equals out to a 7:38 per mile pace. Not a bad way to finish off a very cold day here in Kansas.

5 miles on the treadmill. Workout of the day was 2 mile warm-up, 2 miles at goal pace 6:40/mi (9 mph) then easy 400, goal pace 400, easy 400 and then final 400 at goal pace again. Overall the workout went pretty good but cannot believe I put 20 miles this week on my treadmill. 

13 miles this morning with the run group. 9 degrees this morning with a forecasted -9 wind chill. Thank God that the wind was not as strong as forecasted. With that said I was over dressed & ended up running most of the run without my windbreaker on. My fleece west, under armor cold gear long sleeve and another light long sleeve was plenty of warmth. Most of the run I didn't even wear gloves even though the beard had icicles growing on it. Had a great run & we started with 11 guys together for first 5 miles then it split up on the hills a bit but finished running with 5 guys. 7:38 average pretty darn good with the hilly course we ran.

Splits:      8:37, 8:10, 7:44, 7:35, 7:32, 7:45, 6:51, 7:29, 7:08, 7:30, 7:27, 7:16, 7:14,

6 miles on the treadmill at a progressively faster pace every mile starting at 7 pmh and finishing with a 9 mph last 400. Majority of the run was ran at 8 to 8.5 mph. Felt good and these miles were ran with the wood under the back to pund the quads.

3 easy miles on the treadmill. Nothing special but got a few miles in after work.

Ventured outdoors this morning in the 19 degree weather. Yes it was chilly but at least it was no wind! Overall I just took it easy and logged some miles at 7:55/mi average.

Easy 6 miles this morning before work at a 7:38/mi average. Not really fast but not to slow either just a strong run.

this weekend I didn't have a group run to go to & Jamie had to work Saturday morning at 9am so I decided to take Jacob to hockey and help coach. After hockey I picked Nathan up at the neighbors and the boys chilled out the rest of the day therefore not getting a run in. Since I didn't run Saturday I felt guilty so I got out of bed and put in 10 miles. I kind of made up my route as I went this morning and even ended up getting a few miles on a gravel frontage road. I always dread long runs of greater than 6 miles by myself but today the time and miles flew by at a 7:21/mi average. Overall I think I had a successful run and ran faster then I thought I would solo. Right now 4 weeks into my training program I am running average mile paces faster then lasted 4 weeks in and I have 1 mile more ran in those weeks. It looks like I should have a good training session if I can stay healthy. It would be awesome if at the end I could be running my daily miles at 7:00 per mile like back in the college days.

Ran 6 miles this afternoon since I had MLK day off. IT was a pretty good run considering I did not really prepare for an afternoon run. I ate lunch at 11:30 and was still burping the Pei Wei I ate at lunch 4 miles into the run. I also spent 12:30 -2:00pm at Open skating with Jacob. It was definitely a fun and busy day but I still managed to run those 6 at a 7:21/mi pace. Not super fast but but a pretty good clip after a busy day and 10 mile run at that pace yesterday.  

Ran 6 miles this morning before work. Jamie worked to 10pm last night so I did not get to bed early at all and my 5:30am alarm clock came way to fast. I was definitely a little groggy at the start of this run and my legs felt pretty good considering the last two days of running, skating and everything else I did at home. This definitely was not my fastest run but it felt good to slow it down a bit. I averaged 7:58/mi. but my first mile was 8:58 so that really hurt the overall average. 

Easy 4 miles this morning before work at a pretty slow pace.

6 miles on the treadmill this morning because Jamie had to be at work by 6am for inventory. I ended up running this with a 2x4 under the back of the treadmill to help with preperation of the downhill portions of the Boston course so that once I'm passed Heartbreak hill my legs can handle the next couple of miles downhill into Boston. This method of training worked for me last year so I have been trying to incorporate all or most of my treadmill miles. There was absolutely no pain in my right shin this morning.

This was a fun day and a complete estimate on the overall mileage.

We headed up to Brookings South Dakota for the first ever Jim Emmerich/Alumni Invitational in the brand new Indoor track facility at South Dakota State. When I was at school we were DII and now they are a full fledged DI program with the facilities to support that program! It was an amazing facility to walk into comparied to the old indoor facility we practiced at back in the early 2000's. The meet hosted 8 teams, the alumni mile and 4x300meter relay and a Little Jackrabbit 60 meter dash. The alumni mile was the 4th event following the Little Jackrabbit 60m dash that both of my boys participated in and ran great! I followed the 2.5 year old down the track and there was a great crowd of approximately 400 people watching not counting the athletes. The LEMIRE Boys represented well and had a blast.

Alumni Mile was quite the field with 24 alumni toein the line ranging from just out of college to 50 years old. Majority of the field was 30-34 years old with a handfull of 24-27 year olds and some 40 year olds that still have wheels. This field held one Olympian the SDSU Mile record holder and multiple DII All-Americans. I knew the race would go out fast and it being a 300 meter track the race is 5.33 laps around the track. The first 100m I went out in 18 seconds and was 10 meters behind majority of the field.  That was an oh shit moment and I thought what did I get myself into! I felt stronger and thankfully my strategy was opposite of most and I continued at my pace and passed people on every lap. I was about halfway around the track when the leaders hit the bell lap started and I pick it up even more because I didn' want to get lapped. I passed one of the older guys with 300 to go and then was gaining on a kid 7 years younger than me. As I hit his shoulder and I was pushing it to try and pass him with a little authority he layed down a 150meter kick that dropped me like I was standing still. DAMN 26 year old YOUNG LEGS!! I finished strong gaining on people with every lap and if this was a 3,000 meter race I think I would have finished pretty high up there but I still managed 13th out of 24 in a 5:21 mile. Not to shabby and most important is that I didn't get hurt in the firstrace of the day. Afterwards I felt as if I could have ran harder but I was definitely satisfied with that time.  

Next up 4x300 meters with just under 2 hours of rest. Now this was interesting because it's been awhile since I put two hard efforts in like that in on the same day. The alumni group met up and divided up into 5 relay teams and some young guns that just graduated put together a team that completly dimolished the other 4 teams. I spent a good portion of this time running around the track with the guys catching up and cooling down from the mile. Then after about a half hour of that we sat around and caught up with everyone. Sitting there the hamstrings started to tighten up which was a little worry some. We then warmed up as a group again and got ready to try and run as fast as possible. I ended up running a 47 second split of the relay which was not the slowest on my team but was not the fastest either. It was definietly funny to see all of these old guys running around this brand new track facilityand fun to see the young guns benefiting from the dollars donated to SDSU by Alumni. This facilty was constructed in most part by Alumni donations and yes I donated money for it and am proud to have done so and make SDSU a better place to run and attend school!   

Ran 6 miles over my lunch break today. With the events of the weekend I'm on a well needed kick in the butt and boost of running excitement through my veins! Went out in the beautiful weather here in KC on the usual route from work here and laid down an impressive time. I must still be running on that excitment because my average mile time for this run was 7:08. Amazing what a little healthy kick of compitition will do to you.

Miles went like this: 7:19, 6:58, 7:17, 7:09, 7:06, 7:01.

Overall no new aches or pains from the race weekend except a little groin tenderness but what do you expect running at speeds not matched in over 10 years.

Ran 6 miles over my lunch reak and today's workout was suppose to be a stength building exercise of a warm-up, 2 fast miles and then fnish it off at a consistant faster than easy day pace. I ran the typical course from work so I thought the 1st mile will be a little easier then mile two I would run hard and then at 2.5 I hop onto the trails so there through 4 I would take it a little easier than push it in for miles 5 & 6. The workout finshed with an average mile pace of 6:56. The miles broke down like this:

                                7:08, 6:12, 6:58, 7:14, 7:02, 7:01

Overall I felt good and the first 3 were with the wind and the last 3 were with the wind in my face probably around 5mph and the weather was upper 40's low 50's. I wore shorts and the sun was out and warm on the face. Oh ya, last night I shaved the beard off so that must have been why I ran so fast, more areo dynamic!!

6 easy miles on the treadmill since I had to come home early to watch Nathan since he is sick. I started off at 7 mph then each mile increased the speed by 0.2mph & had the 2x4" under the back to get my downhill running for the week. Overall I felt really good and was barely breathing until the last mile. The last 400 I picked it up to 8.4mph to get a little kick at the end.

Easy 4 mile run this morning in the blistering cold since I didn't get a run in yesterday. It really wasn't that cold but when the past week has been in the 40's, 50's and even 60's on Wednesday 23 degrees with a little wind chill is fing COLD!! IT was good to get a couple of easy slow miles in this week also.

IT was a great day to run here in Kansas, NOT!! 34 degrees and rain is not what I call ideal conditions to run 14 miles in but I actually did do a really good job in dressing appropriately so that only the last 2 miles were miserable. The workout for today was 14 miles with 5 miles at goal pace. I did not quite get the 5 miles at goal pace but I did run the first 7 with the guys then pushed the next 5 on a pretty hilly course then finished with 2 easy miles at the end. For running the 5 harder miles by my lonesome they all were right around 7 minutes.  Overall with a first mile and last two miles over 8 min/mi the overall average pace was 7:25/mi. Overall it was great workout for being such a mserable day.

Splits:   8:03, 7:37, 7:24, 7:32, 7:21, 7:47, 7:13, 6:55, 7:08, 6:55, 7:10, 7:16, 7:51, 7:40

This morning the wind was wipping and the temps were in the low 20's without any windchill considerations. Therefore, I decided to take my workout to the treadmill and I ended up running a 2 mile warm-up downhill then took out the 2"x4" and ran 4-800meter repeates with 300 meter jogs at 6mph inbetween each repeat. My heart rate seemed to catch up and it allowed me to run these at 10mph and/or 3minute/800m pace. These are not the fastest 800 meter repeats but all of them were performed at the exact same pace which is still alot faster then marathon goal pace. Overall this pace felt fast but that's the treadmill. After the workout I did some push-ups, back raises, and elbows to knees from the pull-up bar. Great workout and now I'm tired!!!

Easy 4 miles on the treadmill after work. Was planning on getting 5 miles in but was tired and a little sore from yesterdays speed workout. Then unpacked all of the fun weight lifting items that we purchased to create out own little CrossFit gym in our basement. I was thinking we should name our little basement gym something and make a little sign for it. My ideas as of now are LeMire X-Fit, or maybe J²-Box. So far we have a squat rack with pull-up bar, barbell(45lbs), bumper plate sets of 10,15,25, gymnastics rings, ab mats, and then the treadmil and eliptical that we already owned. We can also have our road bikes on our trainers. The womens barbell(35lbs) should be delivered today and we are waiting on some kettle bells to be delivered also. Once we get those we will pretty much have a full crossfit gym in the basement. It is going to be a blast!! I have a lot of ideas on how to deck this little gym out which will be fun doing over the next year. 

6 fairly easy miles on the treadmill and my legs felt better then yesterday evening. I did the usual progressive pace on the treadmill were I up the speed 0.2 mph every so often and then finished off the last mile at 8, 8.2 and 8.4mph to wrap up an early morning run on the treadmill. I might just take tomorrow off and rest up for my long run otherwise I might just lift weights.

Saturday was 18 miles of fun on a very hilly course through some pretty nice parts of Kansas City. This route takes you through some of the very high end mansions which house families with the last names of Block, Helzberg and Kaufmann which are all owners of companies named after them or former owners major league sports teams. The homes are rediculous and one was for sale for $15million and below is a link to the map my run site for this route.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/628029228

The weather was amazing for the first week of February 34 at the start and finishing temps in the 40's. At the start there were a couple of slick spots but then it was pretty smooth sailing besided the hills. We have been doing this slow first 1mile then a little fast 2nd mile then finally hitting pace about mile three. Today this was driving me crazy the first around 9 the second a little faster then we started hitting 7:05/mi pace for quite a few miles but when you start so slow your average time is jacked up. My average was 7:33/mi on my watch and that is using auto pause at thrughout the run. I finished with Terry who perfers to use the manual stop button and his average was 7:26/mi. The total difference in our running time using the two various functions was quite supprising at approximately 1:30. My watch read 2:15:++(mid) and his was at 2:13:++ (low). Either way with the hills that we ran and the first 2 super slow miles that is a pretty darn good average and if I through out those first two miles I'm sure the average would be in the low 7's. I may just have to figure that out if I ever find some time.

Splits: 9:03, 8:08, 7:38, 7:34, 7:10, 7:34, 7:05, 7:24, 7:28, 7:12, 7:38, 7:33, 7:35, 7:37, 7:25, 7:19, 7:03, 7:33

6 easy miles this morning with temps at 34 and a slight breeze. Overall my legs felt good after Saturday's long run but my stomach had a few issues and I had to make a pit stop at mile 5! I have been trying to eat better the last couple of weeks and this weekend I did not and I paid for it this morning. Overall average was just over 8/mi which is were I wanted it to be on this easy day.

6 mile run this morning that was suppose to be a fartlick run but turned into more of a progression/tempo run. I just wasn't feeling the Fartlick workout that was proposed on the schedule and after not having my hill legs on Saturday I decided I would run the hills harder instead. Which is always a good conversion for any run. I ended up with a loop record for this 6 mile course from home even with an easy pace to begin the run at 8:28 for the first mile. My average overall ended up being 7:17/mi for this route and the previous record was 7:18/mi average. Doesn't seem like much but when you start with an 8:28 mile the rest of the miles are pretty fast as shown with my splits:

           8:28, 7:22, 7:16, 7:03, 6:45, 6:43

Once I was warmed up the legs were just moving and it didn't feel all that fast. Feels great to wip out a faster run than usual at times.

Ran 6 miles this morning and my intentions were to try and replicate Tuesday's run since I was feeling good. Good thing I looked at my phone before I headed out the door because I made sure I had my mask, winter hat, gloves, wind breaker, compressions socks to knees and my warm tights! My ohone said 16 degrees not counting the wind chill and man that wind was strong right from the north. I started off feeling good and my first mile was about 10-15 seconds faster than Tuesday's run then the second mile you could feel the cross wind and the gusts hitting your side as I headed east. Then at mile two I turn north for a mile in which I was planning on running that hill hard which I did but my time doesn't reflect that because of the wind. There were a couple of gusts that felt like they almost stopped me in my tracks and even without those gusts my jacket was wipping in the wind. Then at mile 3 I turn and head west again in which that stretch running on the north side of the road you are protected for most of the way but when you hit the open areas that wind was cold on my face because I pulled the mask down and put it right back up. Then mile 5 is straight south in which I ran a sub 7 easily and a few of those gusts gave me some good pushes. Overall even with the wind I still managed a 7:23/mi average. When I got home Jamie had the news on and the reports said 10 degrees with -3 wind chills in our town. Don't know what I was thinking since I have a perfectly good treadmill in the basement but at this rate Boston may still have snow on April 20th so this was definitely a run that builds character.

Well my watch is not working so when it does I will provide my splits but today was the fastest 14 miler I have probably ran since my College days back in the flat frozen tundra of Brookings South Dakota. The day ended up being pretty nice compared to what the weather reports stated although the wind picked up the last two miles drastically like the forcast stated. I started out with the group and ran the first 6 miles with everyone then the group started to fracture and split up into each persons individual workouts. At mile 6 some people started their 6-3x2 minute fartleks at 10k pace where I'm sticking to what worked for me last year a 6 mile goal pace run. Even though these miles were not all at the same times I tried to keep the effort level equal between the ups and downs on the course which I have provided the route map below. My overall mile average pace was 7:03/mi which is defintely faster then last years workout. I know the first mile was around 8:24 so I was definietly flying on the way back to get that avearge to drop almost a minute and half in just 14 miles.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/632851970

 Splits: 8:24, 7:46, 7:31, 7:17, 7:09, 7:01, 6:38, 6:25, 6:43, 6:43, 6:29, 6:34, 6:55, 6:58

Put together a little CrossFit workout in the basement today while Nathan napped and Jacob relaxed this afternnon. It wasn't a very grueling workout but it is definitely a good start in the at Home gym.

 3 Rounds of each Lift:

Cleans 5 reps at 75 lbs

Snatch 5 reps at 55lbs

Squats 5 reps at 75 lbs

Ring Pull-ups 5 reps

Ring push-ups 3 reps

10 Abmat Sit-ups ( last round did 15)

4 easy miles on treadmill this morning I just wasn't feeling like heading out into the cold this morning even though I should have. I'll try squeezing in a few more mile over lunch or after work this evening.

Over lunch I ran home and put 3 more miles on the treadmill. I started off at 6.8 mph and increased every quarter mile by 2mph. The last 400 was at 8.8 mph and then the last 200 I upped it to 9mph which is equivalent to my goal pace of 6:42. This run seemed to go a lot better than this mornings run.

Easy 5 miles on the treadmill this evening. This weather is killing me though being so cold!!

Since I couldn't get my butt up out of bed this morning I ran right after work & it still was only 18 degrees with a little breeze. Tried to stay on side streets to be protected from traffic since most of the sidewalks had not been cleared yet.  Average for this run was 7:23/mi. Not bad with the cold.

last night it had rained & then dropped to around freezing which was going to make this mornings 18 mile a little interesting. The group run got delayed by a half hour to hopefully allow some of the roads to defrost s bit. Well that didn't quite work as well as planned. The roads were in completely different conditions every which way we turned. We ran through the Sprint campus and those roads were glare ice then the roads were good for a couple of miles. We turned east then which should have or I thought would have been good conditions that street was terrible!! 133rd was terrible for 3 miles and it was just enough that you slipped at the end of every stride. We turned off that and the neighborhoods have lots of trees that where basically raining on us. We zagged and zagged through these neighborhoods of ice slush and very few good traction places. Some people ended there runs early because it was a little strenuous and took a lot more effort than typical conditions. I knew people would modify their plans so I ran 2 miles before the group then 12 with a group then 4 miles by myself at the end. The last couple miles were very difficult to get through but I did my 18. Mentally I needed to since I have a few 20 milers coming up the next couple of weeks. Average pace for the run 7:45/mile. Still not bad considering the conditions.

  http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/636835514

Sunday's CrossFit workout at (X-Fit LeMire) was made up of a little warm up then a 25's workout. 

Warm up: 15 air squats, 12 mountain climbers, 9 thrusters, 6 push ups, 3 ring ups

WOD: 25 kettle bell swings (American)

            25 push ups

            25 squats (45 lbs)

             25 burpees

             25 abmat sit ups

WOD time for me was 9:10 

5 pretty easy miles on the treadmill this morning since my phone said it was 10 degrees and felt like -2 degrees. Today is suppose to be a recovery run anyways so there is no point in trying to go outside in the cold to run. Ran the first 3 miles with the 2x4 under the back to get some solid downhill strength training.

Easy 4 miles on the treadmill at a progressively faster pace starting at 6.8 mph and going up to 8.4 mph. I'll try getting a few more miles in after work on the treadmill. This cold weather and wind the last week has been hard to handle!! 

a very easy 4 miles outside since it was 27degrees and 21 with wind chill. Compared to rest of the week this is warm.

4 downhill miles on the treadmill this morning. Everything I have been reading lately on the Boston marathon has been about how the downhills hurt athletes more than Heartbreak Hill so every treadmill run has had some portion of downhill incorporated. Our group runs here in the KC metro area are always very hilly so I'm confident that those runs will help with the smaller rolling hills of the Boston Marathon.

This weekend was  16 mile run with some GP miles within the run. It didn't quite end up being that kind o a run but more of just a warm up and then tempo run. Overall run was 1:53:16 which ends up being a 7:09/mi average. The forecast for this morning was wind and cold with snow starting around noon. But it ended up being in the 20's and around mile 7 it started to snow. I would say the wind was about 5-10 mph but it wasn't to bad and I ended up running about the last 5.5 miles on mine own pushing the pace on my own. Well looking at the watch after the run I was more or less just keeping the pace not pushing it.  Below is the link to the course:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/638740334

Miles went like this: 8:27, 7:48, 7:46, 7:28, 7:14, 7:13, 7:04, 6:44, 7:06, 6:55, 6:48, 6:50, 6:33, 6:45, 6:54, 6:53 

Overall it was another good workout with no major issues.  

CrossFit wourkout at LeMire X-Fit: 4 minute walk on treadmill then stretching. We introduced a strength portion which was 3 sets of 10 hang cleans at 65 lbs. Then did 3 sets of 5 front rack squats at 75 lbs. Then we started our WOD which was for time of 40, 30, 20, 10 reps of each excerise: kettle bell swings (Russian), push ups, air squats, abmats. This took me just over 23 minutes to complete.  It was a very hard workout and my body was starting to fail at the end.   

4 easy miles on the treadmill, 2 of which were downhill miles with the 2x4 under the back. Body was pretty sore & tired from yesterday's CrossFit workout.

 the temps this morning were in the upper 30's but there was 17 mph winds which made it a little cooler. The legs and body definitely didn't feel as tired as yesterday but I had stomach issues this morning requiring a little modification through a couple yards to make it home quickly. Besides the requirements for a quick bathroom break all else was good.

The longest run of this years trainng session is now in the books! It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid 30's to start and rising fast into the upper 40's. The course we ran was very challenging since it had huge hills at the start middle and end to deal with in both directions. Some of these hills were so steep it almost felt like we were walking up them and going down them you had to keep yourself in check. A couple of them I jumped onto the grass to run down to try and lessen the pounding effect on the legs. With that in mind it didn't really work since since my quads feel like I ran a whole marathon not just 22. There was also a 5-10mph wind that when it was in your face it was cool but then when you had it at your back in got a little toasty out there on the trails. Overall it was a successful run and I felt bad at the end but not as bad as I have felt in past years on the long runs.  Below is a link to the course:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/643942638

Mile splits: 7:51, 7:56, 7:37, 7:36, 6:32, 6:33, 6:51, 6:53, 7:52, 7:29, 7:35, 7:41, 7:29, 7:35, 7:41, 7:29, 7:30, 7:14, 6:51, 6:49, 7:06, 7:57, 7:33, 7:59, 8:16

Legs were still really sore from the 22 miles on Saturday so I decided that I should probably take the low impact approach today and jumped on the elliptical for 30 minumtes after work. This really did help loosen up the muscles.

After how bad my legs felt the last 3 days from the 22 on Saturday I thought maybe today's planned workout may not be in the cards today. I started out down the street which was to my suprise not very painful compared to what I expected which was great so maybe at mile 2 I would be able to get my 3 hard miles in at a little faster than last years workout. My plan was to try and start workoing on being more accurate on my goal pace so that was what I set out to do. First mile was 6:45, then 6:42 and I felt pretty good so I decided to push the third mile a little harder in 6:22 to wrap up my faster miles. I rna tese with about 2 minutes of rest in between each repeat with a little stretching as well. Then I headed back for the final 2 miles. Overall it was a suprising easy workout and faster one at that compared to last years same workout.

4 easy miles after work in 70 plus degree weather. Man was it nice to run and felt weird to desire water on such a short run.  Overal pace was 7:24/mi with two easy miles and two sub 7 min miles. Overall felt pretty good once I warmed up.

5 miles after work at a pretty good clip since I only had a short time before I had to go get the boys from school and daycare. Ran a warm up mile then picked the pace up and ran miles 3 and 4 around 6:35 each then finished it off with and easier mile to wrap it up. Total time was 35 minutes and some change which averaged out just over 7min/mi.

16 miles on Saturday with the run group on what I would call rolling hills with a few short steeper ones in the mix. Started off with the group and was going to run this workout based on feel and not necessarily what the schedule had planned. I have also been thinking about my mental toughness lately and that most of my runs this training session have been with others that kind of just pull me allong and I haven't really had to many runs in which I had to push myself for long periods of time. So at the turn around a few were dropping off and a few were going to make a bathroom pit stop so I decided to turn around and run the 8 miles back on my own. I picked up the pace instantly and ran 7 of the 8 miles back pretty hard. I thought maybe I could catch Brian whom started his 8 miles at goal pace at mile 4 but that did not happen. I did make it close because though and I pounded out so good strong miles. I don't have my watch with me as I write this but I ran some ggood miles on this course that can be viewed on the link below:

 http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/649636326

Overall a great run and I felt refreshed at the end compared to last weekends long run of pain!

 7:19/mi average: 8:18, 7:58, 7:18, 7:35, 7:30, 7:14, 7:14, 7:16, 6:45, 6:39, 7:03, 7:09, 7:03, 7:04, 7:17, 7:42

ran 5 miles over my lunch break in the 70 degree sun but 14 mph winds with gusts even higher. Overall still a lot better than the treadmill or the freezing cold of a month ago. Average pace was 7:24/mi.

Miles: 7:54, 7:24, 7:13, 7:10, 7:21

7 fairly easy miles today since it was 20+ mph winds this morning. I was suppose to run 3 faster miles but with the wind those faster miles were only around 7:20 pace not sub 7. Oh well got my miles in and it wasn't as bad as it could be.

Today's workout went pretty good considering I woke up hungry and didn't know if my stomach was going to hold up for the 2 mile warm-up, 3 mile tempo run (pace or little faster) and then the same 2 mile cool down. The weather was 38 degrees and it had been raining lightly since yesterday morning and at the time of my run it was not raining until the last mile of the tempo and the cool down were it was just a very light sprinkle. As I started off my legs felt pretty good and the weather was nice but I was a little over dressed with my wind breaker on but the winds were forecasted at 8mph. Which there was wind but not very strong and only for a portion of the mile tempo route I was running. Got up to my tempo area start took off my wind breaker and wrapped it around a stop sign post before I started my tempo miles and that was a great call because then I was dressed perfect. I started the tempo run and thought maybe I would run these in 6:30 but I would see how I felt and I wanted to make sure that I didn't go out to fast on the first one. So watching the pace a little closer than usual on this loop I came through at 6:30 for the first mile. It felt good so I thought I may be able to go a little faster so I watched the pace again pretty closely on the second mile lap and finished number 2 off at 6:25. I started the third mile of my tempo run feeling good and thought I would be able to push it a little harder but still not over due it and I may have checked my watch twice on that mile lap and came through at 6:18 for the third mile of the tempo run. Feeling good I grabbed my wind breaker and threw that back on before my cool down. It felt like a great workout and I definitely felt strong even in the cool down. Overall mile times for this workout went like this:

8:05, 7:35, 6:30, 6:25, 6:18, 7:21, 7:07, (last mile I added 2 hill sprints up the last 2 hills since I felt strong)

16 mile run in Lawerance Kansas the home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks. This weekends route was two seperate smaller loops one being around campus and a lot of hills then back past the starting location and over to the Kansas river gravel/dirt trail on the levees for the final 6 miles. On these 6 miles we started a fartlick type workout with 3 minutes on at aproximately 10K pace then equal rest. I was not feeling it the first 3 repeats so those were at 6:30 pace and I didn't do the easy part so it was more like 3 goal pace miles. The final 3 reps I decided I would make myself step it up and stick with the group which I did at about 6 min/mi pace on those repeats. The further we went the better I felt. Overall time for the run was 1:59:+ change. One more hard week of training and then it will be time to start backing off the mileage. Overall I am standing at 448.7 miles of training in this marathon cycle which is 79 miles more than last years cycle.

5 easy miles this morning around 7:43/mi average. Nothing special just an easy Monday run to stretch out the legs and log a few miles.

5 miles on the treadmill this morning since there was a thunder storm going on outside with lighting and hail as I got dressed this mroning. So I hopped onto the treadmill and ran 2 miles downhill as my warm up then switched into my 6-800's with a 200 meter slow rest at 4mph inbetween each rep. The 800's were all performed at 9 mph which is equivalent to 6:40 mile. I ran this workout on 2/4/14 before my last marathon and I ran those at a considerably slower pace on the treadmill because of snow last year. Kind of crazy that this workout has been canceled due to weather for 2 straight years now. Overall a successful run.

Ran the same workout as last week 7 miles with 3 pace miles in the middle. This week though the morning did not start off as good I slept through my alarm then felt rushed to get out the door and get my workout in. Overall it was still a good workout just a little bit slower than last week. This weeks 3 miles were 6:31, 6:30 and 6:23 with a total average mile pace of 7:02 for the entire run. My cool down back home was a little faster then last weeks run though. Legs felt strong but a little tired from Tuesday's treadmill workout and downhill warm up. 

Today was my last long run before the April 20th 119th running of the Boston Marathon. I was looking to have a good run to build confidence in the training that I have put in the last 15 weeks. In doing so I ended up running 20 miles in 2:18:44, which equals out to a 7:01/mi overall average on a super hilly course. If you think I'm kidding check out the profile and elevations on the map my run link below. This was definitely a run that my mental toughness was on cue and did not waver. Some people were not to happy today with me because we did run faster than we usually do but it was necessary for me to be able to go into Boston on a high note on a course that definitely challenges Boston's if not hillier.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/662581024

Miles went like this: 7:17, 7:31, 7:27, 7:21, 7:10, 7:07, 6:25, 6:42, 6:20, 6:37, 6:59, 6:57, 6:53, 6:52, 6:30, 7:29, 7:10, 7:05, 7:21, 7:21

Overall a very successful workout! I felt good at the end unlike the 22 miler or any of last years long runs. I did have one 20 miler last year at 7:01 average pace but really struggled the last 2 miles of it. Then it was off to Jacob's first soccer game and then back home to his 6th Birthday party with friends. Man it was a busy day from 6am to 5 pm!

Today's workout was a 2 mile warm-up, 3 fast miles followed up with 2 cool down miles. Overall the workout was good but not as fast as I would have wished. My legs were still just a little fatigued from Saturday's 20 mile effort. Even with that though I still was able to nail 3 goal pace miles pretty easily at 6:41, 6:41, 6:40 for the harder effort miles. Overall workout the average pace per mile was 7:12 for the 7 miles which is pretty darn good for me after Saturday's workout.

8:14, 7:40, 6:41, 6:41, 6:40, 7:15, 7:12

I squeezed 5 miles in over my lunch break today since it was storming and hailing this morning during my usual runing time. Therefore I did not really get the complete workout in that I was expecting but I still ran some good miles. Workout was suppose to be 3 goal pace miles like I ended up doing on Tuesday. Todu's miles ended up being 7:27, 7:06, 6:54, 6:52, 6:51 for an average overall pace per mile of 7:02. Felt strong even though it was sunny and in the mid 60's for temps. I think my marathon time is going to be completely dependent on weather and it could be a PR or it could be just a fun run. We'll see what the weather has instore for us. 

14 easier miles this weekend compared to last weekends 20 miler. This weeks run consisted of 5 goal pace miles in the middle of the run between between 6:40 & 6:46 which if I average the high end it would put me in the 2:57:30 range which would be awsome at Boston.  Total average pace for the run was 7:14/mi. Miles went like this:

8:44, 7:54, 7:30, 7:22, 7:01, 7:07, 6:42, 6:46, 6:40, 6:41, 6:45, 7:19, 7:21, 7:25

Overall the pace felt pretty comfortable and we made some final descisions on how we were going to tackle Boston. Drake is going to come back and start with me and the pace is going to be 6:40-6:46 for the first 16 miles then we will see how we're feeling and everyone can do their own thing. Brian didn't even make it to the run his shins are bothering him and he's been battling hamy and back issues so he's going to try a stick with us but we'll see how that goes. Brian has also ran 2:53 before so my pace will be easier for him. There is also another fast guy that wants to join us at the begining and try sticking with us so that means I currently have a 4 man pace group to keep us honest and on pace for over half of the race. They have all ran Boston before and preach about conserving at the start so we'll see if they can practise what they preach or I'll have to beat them down!

Ran 3 miles on the treadmill over lunch with the 2x4 under the back. My mileage is dropping off this week for the taper but I want to make sure I also include the downhill running to be sure that at mile 22 I can actually use the downhill bonus to compensate the slower mile up Heartbreak Hill. LEgs feel good after that so far will run a few more miles downhill next week at least.

Had a rough time getting out of bed this morning but still managed to get out the door and run 6 miles. I ran 2 mile warm up which wasn't really needed since it was 64 and about 95% humidity! It was pretty nasty out there and I definitely noticed it in my breathing. My legs were a little bit sluggish but I still managed 2 miles at goal pace followed by 2 miles back home to make the total 6.

The usual taper workout trying to get the marathon pace down, 2 mile warm-up, 2 harder and then 2 back home.

8:01, 7:24, 6:45, 6:41, 7:23, 7:17

4 easy miles this morning at an average 7:16/mi. Leg felt good and I had to slow myself down.

Today was a little tricky on planning a run because initially I thught I would replicate race day as far as food, wake up time and so forth but then some pretty good storms rolled into town. I was up early but eating donuts for breakfast with the boys is not an ideal pre-race meal. It was raining pretty darn hard all morning and the wind really started to pick up so I thought about shelfing the run. I finally decided to go and the plan would be to zig zag through the neighborhoods and try to stay out of the 20+ winds. I started around 10am which is race start time and the first 2.5 miles were a struggle and when I headed south it was crazy tough. Running north was a breeze!! Overall though it ended up to be a good test run of apparell since it was 57, cloudy, windy and then sun at the end turning it into a humid last couple of miles. Average pace was 7:17/mi.

7:51, 7:17, 7:26, 7:23, 7:02, 7:00, 7:08, 7:13, 7:11, 7:13,

Easy 4 mile this morning at 7:38/average pace. Overall legs felt pretty darn good after yesterday's 9.5 miles.

Ran 5 miles this morning after waking up at 4:30am this morning wide eyed and nervous already about Boston. So I got out the door to run 2 mile warm up then 1 goal pace then the 2 back again. Goal pace mile felt easy at 6:39 which is a tad fast but felt great. Feeling good overall & very excited to run Boston.

4 easy miles this morning. Felt great!!!

Ran 2.5 miles easy as a little shake out for the Boston Marathon tomorrow. Spent Saturday walking around in my old Hoka One One Bondi's to keep my legs and feet feeling good. LEgs felt really good on this run and I feel ready to go!!

Welcome to my 2015 Boston Marathon Race Report in which the statement I'll start off saying all of the cliche quotes about the Boston Marathon are 100% TRUE!!    This is the average person's Olymipics, Only One Boston, Boston Strong, and whatever else you want to say this is truely the most awe inspiring event I have ever took part in. I have played hockey in front of maximum capacity 8,000 seat hockey rink, floor level at rival college basketball games, many conference championships, state cross country and track meets, KC Chiefs games at the loudest NFL venue which holds world records for noise and many other events.

The Boston Marathon is better than all of these!!

My race day started with an early wake up call with a peanut butter sandwhich, water and a little Diet Coke to get me going to the bag drop off and bus loading at the Boston Commons. There I meet my friend Drake (KC) and Ben (ran with in AZ) before boarding the bus. The bus ride was long but at this point I was still calm and relaxed! We reached the Athletes village that was filling up fast and we claimed our ground under a tent to stay nice and dry since it was already raining. For the next  hour to 1.5 I laid around on the ground relaxing. We took turn hitting the bathroom to not loose our spots which was a great idea since the tents were filled!! The time was passing fast and it was time to change shocks and do my last preperations to protect my feet.  The Wave one announcement was made and our .7 mile walk to the start began. Even on this walk people cheered and were handing stuff out to people which was cool.  Then right before the starting area came the sea of Porti-Potties which we made one last stop before jumping into our coral that I would start with Bryan and Drake.

It was now game time and the starting announcements and intros occured in which Meb got a huge roar from his fellow runners. We were close enough that we could here the gun go off and the mass started to slowly move forward. The race started off slow and the roadway felt packed and confinned. We stuck to the right to let the morons going out to fast go by since we were planning on running as even splits as possible. Our first mile was 7:10 and that felt more like 8 something per mile. The rain had stopped as we walked up to the start but now the rain was coming down lightly again until about mile 4. Around mile 4 it down poured and everyone was soaked!! Some people were yelling and complaining about it but it lightened back up and would stay pretty consistent till the last couple of miles.  We entered Ashland and the town center was packed and they channted USA,USA,USA!! This chant it me hard and I was feeling full of pride and a sharp jolt of adrenalin!! That was by far the coolest point on the race but there were plenty of more awsome spots as well. Every town was packed and screaming along the way and we kept pounding out the miles side by side with Bryan and Drake. We were on cruse control and had to check it going through just about every town and every downhill. Wellsley passed and the girls put on a great show with signs and kisses to whomever wanted them. One little Asian girls sign said "Kiss me I'm fun Size" another said "Kiss me I use tongue!" The half mark came in 1;28:08 really easily and we were off to mile 16 checking ourselves on this downhill and keeping it strong up the hill immediately following it which is probably the largest hill on the course. Next thing I new we turned in Newton at the Fire Station and running the famous hills of the course. These hills were not that bad but they did slow me up a little more than I thought they would but I still ran the mile with Heartbreak Hill at a 7:11 mile as scheduled in my plan at 7:10. Once I got up that I tried to shift it back into high gear and flew down mile 22 at 6:37 along Boston College which the college kids were fun to watch taunt a runner that started walking with Run, RUN, RUN which got louder and louder. I passed the guy walking then I heard a huge roar which I assumed was him starting to run again. I hit the bottom of the hills and turned towards the famous Citgo sign on what felt like a pancake flat never ending roadway!! At this point my right calf and left hamstring siezed up some where in mile 24. My pace dropped and the last couple of miles were tough. Just before the Citgo sign I heard my name and it was a friend from high school, then my Dad right at about the sign, then my wife and mom a little further down the road. The last mile I pushed it hard! Turninging on Heresford Street some moron came to a stop on the turn in which I took tight and he got a nice hard shoulder in his back. Then I started to excelerate again to make the turn on Boyloston Street for the 2.5 blocks that I pushed in at about 6:24 pace according to my watch. The last 10K I had been calculating out paces, finish times, and PR's hoping to break 3 and I did finishing with a chip time of 2:59:11 qualifying me for next years race!! Overall a great experiance another PR in less than IDEAL conditions. Future looks GREAT!

Below are my watch splits that very from my chip time:

Three easy miles in the beautiful weather over lunch. Legs felt pretty good on this little run considering it was my first since Boston. Legs felt a little heavy but otherwise even the breathing was still good at overall average pace of 7:33/mile.

easy 3 miles this morning before work. Legs still feel a little tired but kept a good pace at 7:37 average per mile pace. Could of just been the CrossFit workout on Saturday morning or the lasting effects of the marathon still. Not sure what it is but I'm going to try running & lifting this summer.

Four easy miles this morning before a busy day of waterslides with the family.

6 miles this morning at 5:15am and it was a little chilly at 42degrees. My legs felt like they were totally recovered from the Boston Marathon and everything was clicking. Ran the first mile in 8:05 then everything else was low 7 or faster with a total per mile average of 7:13 whcih I beleive is the fastest time I have run the College Blvd loop of 43:00 flat. Feeling good and sit 4 weeks out of the Hospital Hill Half Marathon on my Birthday.

Ran this morning and it was nice and cool again but today I decide a light long sleeve would be a better option in 42 degrees. Legs felt good for a second consecutive day and I ran at a average mile pace of 7:03 for the day. Great run!

4 miles on the treadmill this morning since it was storming out. I ended up making this into a 200 workout in which I ran 8-200's at 10mph. The pace felt pretty good but by the end I was a little fatigue but good infusion of speed.

14 miles with the run group this morning in which I also brought Jamie along to try out the group run as well. It was a very humid morning in which thankfully there was also a good breeze. The wind on the last 2 miles was pretty bad but as soon as it was to your back you started to cook!! Average pace for this run was 7:31/mi which is pretty darn good for my first long run since Boston.

4 miles over my lunch my hour at 7:32/mi. Legs were a little sore after Saturday's long run nothing bad just tightness.

Ran 2 mile warm up then ran 4x400 at 1:14-1:16 which is approximately 5 minute mile pace.

Four easy miles at 7:55 average pace

7:28/ mi average

4 easy miles in the blowing rain 7:58pace

Easy 4 miles at 7:37 average pace.

9 miles this morning before a busy day of birthday parties (2). Ran a little bit of a new route based on my usuall 6 mile loop that added another big hill. Miles 4 and 5 on this route are about 90% uphill. It was a gruelling climb that reminded me of Havasu but I didn't run 2 miles downhill for that uphill run. Overall it felt pretty good for a longer solo run at 7:20/mile average. 

4 easy miles this morning after having a hard time getting out of bed.  With this run I did reach the 600 mile mark on the year which is pretty amazing for me to hit by the 1st of June.  I'll be running Hospital Hill on Saturday, my Birthday, then I'll be focusing on 5K speed. I would like to run a sub 18minute 5K on the 4th of July in northern MN while visting my parents cabin.

5 miles this morning before work. This morning my knees were a little stiff and sore but I stuck with the plan to run 2 warm up miles stretch a bit then hit 1 mile hard and finish back home with 2 miles. The 1 mile hard felt pretty darn good in both the legs and breathing. I ended up putting down a 6:11 mile comfortably. If I wasn't running a half marathon this weekend I probably would have taken a 2-3 minute rest then hit another hard mile.  Overall average pace for the run was 7:11.

3 easy miles this morning at 7:43/mi average. 68 degrees and very humid this morning which definitely is not ideal running conditions for me.

Ran this years Hospital Hill on my 34th Birthday in 1:29:14 for 5th place in my age group and 28th place overall. Started out with 6 other guys from the run group that all wanted to run sub 1:28-1:30 and I told them I would be willing to pace them along for a few of them to run course PR's of under 1:30. The first 6 miles were a bit on the slow pace in which I just didn't feel like I had it in me. Around that time to just over 8miles the 1:30 pacer was with us and at that point you have 2 miles of slight downhill miles in which my stride finally felt good. We picked up those miles a little and miles 10-12 are all up hill but those hills seemed pretty easy and I past the first place women around mile 11 then caught a few more guys over the last 1.5 miles before on last steep uphill and 3/4 of a mile blazing fast downhill to the finish. Overall I ran about 4 to 4.5 minutes faster than last years Hospital Hill race in the rain. This year is was 72 at the start with 80-90% humidity with cloud cover luckily.

Played Ice Hockey for the first time in over a year and only the second time since moving to KC. I think I just over did it this weekend with a half marathon and ice hockey! My whole body is sore!!

this run felt awful and was awfully slow!! Oh well my legs are feeling better now being later in the day.

Another horribly slow run in which my body just doesn't want to run anything faster than 8:30average pace. Not sure why my body feels so bad this week but I think it may be a combination of last weekends half marathon and hockey schedule with not enough sleep. Hopefully this weekend I make some better choices on my sleep schedule and kick this crap.

Played Hockey again tonight and at least my whole body is not shaking and in pain yet. Hit the Ibprofin before bed to help easy the pain in the morning hopefully. 1 assist in the tied game at 2.

Four easy iles this morning at around 7:38/mi which is a lot better than last weeks runs. I think last weeks runs were just a combination of to much birthday weekend fun mixed in with running a half marathon and hockey. Overall after the first 2 miles my legs and body started to loosen up. My groin thou is a little sore but that is from skating and is something I'll have to watch over the next week.

Ran 4 miles over my lunch break in about 80 degree temps and 70% humidity. It was one of those days that it took a while to cool down from the run and a quick shower to get back to work really didn't help. Overall it was a pretty good run in which I ran out 2 miles did a few stretches then headed back in.  Overall it was a 7:09/mi average pace for the four miles. Breathing was a bit harder in the heat and humidity.

3 easy miles since the LeMire family was up so early and the rest of the crew at the lake were all still sleeping. Once I finished up my run Jamie headed out to get her 3 miles in. This was nothing special of a run just nice an easy to burn some calories because we will be eating and drinking on the lake all day.

4 easy miles this morning at a pretty slow rate.

Easy 4 miles this morning at a pretty good pace. I can tell I haven't been running much though because my knees were a little sore and just not use to the pounding. I need to start adding the weights back into the program along with more mile. I have been having a really hard time staying motivated since the Boston Marathon and getting my butt out of bed.

4 easy miles this morning just trying to get back into the roll of getting my butt out of bed and running. Average pace this morning was 7:34/mi. It is overall pretty nice temps in the morning its just so humid out that you get coated in sweat fast. Added some push ups and back raises into the mix after the run as well. Hopefully I'll start adding some weights again into the program.

15 mile bike ride this morning with Jamie in which we averaged just over 15 mph. It was a nice and easy ride with some very big uphills into a 15-20 mph wind. The wind definitely help keep you cool though and not over heat.

Played hockey also again this evening: 1 goal, 1 assist playing defense. Not to bad of a night.

Easy 3 miles at 7:34 average pace over the lunch hour. It was pretty darn humid, windy and 83 degrees. Satisfied that I got out the door and actually ran.

While up in Minnesota to pick up the boys over the 4th of July we headed over to Cross Lake Mn to participate in what turned out to be a great family event. Joining me in the 5K was Jamie, my sister, and cousin Jason followed by the boy's, my nephew and cousins daughter running the kids races. Was a great time even though my race wasn't the greatest but considering my lack of training over the last month it was still a pretty good time. The one issue I had was my left calf upper achillis cramped up something feirce with about .5 mi left in the race which dramatically slowed me down. I ended up second in my age group and 7th overall to a bunch of high school kids 15 & 16 years of age and the 2nd overall place was a 31 year old. Not a bad showing by 2 30 year olds placing in the top 10. The cramping may have been caused by to much fun in the sun Friday along with beer. GReat event overall!

I decided today that I was going to get my butt back into working out since I slacked off the whole month of June this year. I decided I was going to go old school and repeat myself into shape. Which means I'm going to run more intervals and kind of race myself into shape quickly which should work since I'm not in bad shape I'm just lacking the motivation to run far at this time. Hopefully this will also allow me to add weights, biking and hockey into the schedule.

Today's Treadmill Workout: .5 mi warm up, 5x200m at 10mph, 200 rest at 6.5 mph, then cool down to 2 mi's was reached.  Followed that up with 20 hanging knees to elbows.

3 easy miles this morning and I don't even know what the pace was but my guess would be around 7:40-7:45 pace. Felt pretty good though and my left calf was feeling better but not 100%.

Did the same workout as week on the treadmill but added a little bit more of a warm up and one more 200 making it 6 total. Workout was .75 mile warm-up, 6x200m at 10mph with 200m recovery at 6.5 mpg, then .75 mile (400's @ 7, 7.5, 8 mph) cool down making it a total of 3 miles.

Followed the workout with 2x10 knees to elbows and 2x10 Power cleans 65lbs.

Woke up this morning and did a Crossfit Workout:

- 1 mile warm up

WOD: 3 Round for Time

9 - box hand stand push-ups

12- KB swings 35lbs

15- squats (45lbs) -focused on full movements with lighter weights

18 - Abmats situps

Finished with stretching for 5 minutes with Jacob. I did not really time myself since I'm just starting back up but I tried to just move from one movement to the other with out to many breaks. The box hand stand push-ups were the most difficult when round 3 came along. I will be sore from this workout so I need to make sure I hydrate and stretch throughout the day.

The Insane Inflatable 5K was in town this weekend so Jacob (6), Jamie and I participated in the event with one of Jacob's friends and Mom. As we are driving up to the race a nice sized rain storm rolled through making everything slippery and very wet. The start of the race is done in 15 minute waves so the starting obstical was covered in mud and slick as can be after you just been standing in mud up over your shoes.  Jacob did not enjoy the first obstical and mud but from there her was a trooper and kept a pretty good runnning pace for half of the event. They said it was a 5K but it definitely felt longer than that to me. Did not wear a watch but it took us about 70-80 minutes to complete and we had to wait at 2 obstacles to get through the course. I would have to say I was very proud of my little guy for trying hard and having fun. He showed a lot of stamina and determination and probably could have ran more if we didn't have his friend that needed to walk a little more than I expected. Overall he had a great time and said right after it he would do another race!! Future runner in the making!

Played Hockey again this week. I'm really starting to feel more comfortable out there and everytime I'm on the ice a little bit more of that rust shakes off.

4 miles over my lunch day in the scorching heat of the day. Did I mention the humidity was 89%! Yes it was a cold shower day & my body still wasn't cooled off. Overall still a good day at 7:37 average pace. Felt good & body was a little stiff from hockey yesterday.

Ran over lunch today again but stayed indoors on the treadmill to run my 200 workout again. Started off with 0.75mi warm-up at 6.5 mph, then 6x200 at 10mph with a recovery of 200m at 6.5mph. Finished up those and ran each of the last 3 quarters at 7, 7.5 & 8 mph to finish off the 3 miles.  Overall the legs felt pretty good considering running and playing hockey this week and a late night yesterday at the Royals game.

Ran 4 miles after work since the boys and Jamie are gone for the rest of the week in South Dakota spending time with her mom and step dad. Started off with this run being an easy 4 mile trip but it ended up feeling pretty easy but rounded out as a 7:23/mi average pace.  I wouldn't consider that necessarily an easy run but not really a hard run either. Overall felt pretty good but my achilles lower calf was a little stiff. I have come to the conclusion that the New Balance flats are the issue since I ran in those at the 4th of July 5K where the initial pain started and then again for yesterdays 200 meter treadmill workout. Looks like I'll refrain from wearing those for awhile. Overall I feel pretty good and am trying to get a little bit of everything into the workout schedule at this point.

2 miles on the tradmill over lunch at 7mph for 1.75 mi, then 8mph last 400. Felt pretty good considering I have not ran in over a week. Then did 20 hanging knees to elbows to wrap it up and get back to work fast.

Easy 3 miles on the treadmill first mile at 7 mph and next 2 at 7.5 mph.

6 miles on the College loop and it was hot and humid at 7am. A mile and a half in and I was coated in a sweat slim layer that I have not had in a long time. Overal pace was 7:43/mi pretty good for the lack on running I have been doing but I was definitely tired after it.

Easy 6 miles this morning in about 68 degrees and a lot less humidity then there has been in the last couple of months. I debated on weather only to run 4 miles or do the full 6 mile College loop then I walked outside and litterally made the descision based off the great weather that it was 6 miles no matter what. It was a good descision also since todays run was at 7:23/mi average which is 20 seconds faster than Sunday mornings run. It's a little crazy to think that I felt so much better this morning then I did on Sunday but the weather must have played a large part in that. No I need to add some speed in prep of October 6th SDSU Classi Cross Country meet. Goal is to not come in DFL and beat some young college punks!

Today is our 9th Wedding Aniversary so we did a CrossFit workout together. For our warmup we ran for a half mile, 10 power cleans and a few stretches.

3 RFT ( 3 Rounds For Time): just under 8 minutes

9 Shoulders to Over head - 45 lb bar

12 Overhead Kettle bell swings - 35 lbs

15 Squats - body weight

18 Abmat Situps

Cool down half mile run and some stretching. Overall it was a pretty darn good workout.

Ran 6 miles again this morning via the College loop at 7:13 average pace. This maybe the fastest time I have every ran this loop in. My legs felt pretty darn good considering we did a CrossFit workout yesterday. My upper body shoulder, biceps, traps and neck definitely felt yesterdays CrossFit workout more than the legs did. 

Mile splits were: 8:05, 7:06, 7:03, 7:03, 6:54, 7:05

Miles 3 and 4 have the most hills on the route so to be able to keep those down right around 7 is pretty darn good. So far almost 4 hours after my run my legs and body are still feeling good.

Ran 6 miles on the College Blvd route again this morning in cooler and less humid coditions again. Body was a little stiff from yestreday's cross fit workout. Even with that brutal workout I still managed to run the route at a 7:35/mi average. The first mile just to get warmed up and loosen up was a 8:20 mi so that really killed the average.

Played Hockey: 8 penalty minutes and 2 assists.

6 pretty easy miles my body was a little stiff and sore from yesterday's hockey game. Pace was around 7:43/mi again. It was a bit on the humid side with some breeze but overall a good run.

Today's workout is a bit unique and but together to get a little speed, strength and fit into the schedule.

Today I got off at 3:30pm so I could pick Jacob up from school since there are after school child care issues which is another story. I walked up to school and walked home with him and the other kids then jumped on the treadmill for a quick 2 miles before having to go get Nathan at daycare. Therefore I ran the first mile easy then ran the last mile with 4 200's at 10 mph and equal jog to make it to mile 2. Then we were off to pick up Nathan and return home till Jamie returned from work and the Cross-Fit wourkout began:

- Agility/Plyo Warm up exercises

25 - Kettle bell swings 35 lbs

25 - Push ups

25 - Squats 45lbs

25 - dead lifts 75lbs

25 - abmat situps

followed by 2 sets of 10; shoulder to over head presses at 55lbs

College Loop in an average mile pace of 7:26 for those miles with an 8:12 for the first mile.

Cross-Fit Workout: this wa a prety brutal workout in which my pace dirastically changed (slowed) as the workout went on. Afterwards my body really felt the effort put forth.

.5 mi warm up and stretching

5 Rounds of 7 Reps each for Time (16:30)

7 - push-ups

7 - Deadlifts (95 lbs)

7 - Knees to Chest (hanging)

7 - Ring Rows

7 - Burpees

7 - Kettle bell swings (35 lbs)

7 - Kettle bell Squats

Ran the College Blvd loop this morning at an average 7:35/mi average after yesterdays hard CrossFit workout. Not to bad considering the first mile was at 8:20. It took that long for my body to shake out some of the stiffness from yesterday's workout and then by time I was done and back home stretching the legs were a little tired and stiff. Did some stretching and the left hip was pretty stiff. Nothing injured just stiff and tired.

6 total miles this morning with 2x1 mile repaets at a harder pace. Overall the weather was in the upper 50's some humidity but chilly to begin the run and by 2 miles I was warmed up and ready to go.

1- 8:22

2- 7:32

3- 6:22 - legs felt like they were just getting moving

4- 6:10 - overall it was pushing the pace some but did not feel like I was redlining it the entire time.

Overall a little better than I thought it was going to go. My goal was around 6:20 for each rep so I guess I'll have to adjust that goal for the next time I do mile repeats. I think I might also have to allow for a little time after the warmup to loosen up a little more so these two miles are a little closer in times, consistency is the goal.

6 easier miles after yesterday's workout at an average mile pace of 7:43. Legs felt pretty good just a little tired. I pulled out a new pair of Hoka's to run in as well.

0.75 mi warm up then ran the last 200 of each 400 at 10mph (6min/mi) pace to get a little change of speed in. Then started a strength workout of 3 sets of pull-ups (assisted), squats (55lbs), deadlifts (95 lbs), then one set of 10 power cleans (55lbs). then played pirates with the boys for 15 minutes before moving the playtime to outside from the basement.

4 really easy miles this morning my body was pretty tired and I had a really hard time getting out of bed this morning. Average pace was over 8min this morning but obviously my body needed an easy day.

CrossFit Workout: 4 Round for Time

400m run: this we ran down our hill on our street turned around and came back up the hill.

20 Kettle Bell (over head) 35 lbs

15 Air Squats

10 Push Ups

Closeout 100 Abmat situps

Repeat 4 time. The running part was actually pretty tough being the second half of it is up a pretty good size hill. Yes we did everything in the driveway and pretty much all of the neighbors watched us do this workout.

4 easy miles this morning bright and early since I woke up early because Nathan fell out of his bed and I couldn't go back to sleep. As I laid in bed my body was just getting stiffer and stiffer from yesterdays workout so I just went for an easy run. It was definitely not fast around 8min/mi but it did help me shake out the legs.

6 miles this morning in the nasty humidity (96%) and high 60's temps making it feel more like 80 then the true temp. I definitely felt the struggle to breathe today versus some of the temps I was running in just over a week ago when it was down right chilly on my morning runs.

This morning was yet another very humid day in which I my legs are still stiff and my upper body sore from Saturday mornings Crossfit workout. So I set out to possibly repeat the 2x1 mile repeats but my body was not having it. Therefore I did the 2 mile warm up then ran one mile at a comfortable but faster pace which ended up being 6:22 and I didn't look at my watch once on the repeat just based it off of effort and tried to have it feel good. The humidity was really getting to me so I just ran back home after the harder mile and called it a day. My hips are seemed really tight the entire run.

CrossFit workout: On the 2's

7 burpees 

5 Cleans (75 lbs)

3 Ring rows

Finished 8 rounds then did 50 abmat sit-ups 

4 miles and still fight a cold.

Ran 4 miles this morning in an average mi pace of 7:28 on the typical Woodland out and back course. Temps were down but the wind was 14 mph with even harder wind gusts but luckily the wind pushed me out of the neighborhood then was on my side until I returned to my neighborhood for the last .6 miles. Overall my body felt good and I felt strong just need to get back on the consitancy train.  

1 mile warm- up at 7mph on treadmill

4x400m repeats at 10mph with a 400m recovery at 6.5mph on treadmill

Followed by a CrossFit Workout: 3 rounds for time (didn't time)

9 - Shoulders to Overhead Press (55lbs)

12 - Russian Kettlebell Swings (35 lbs)

15 - Air Squats

18 - Abmat Situps

Overall the 400m repeats felt pretty good once I got passed #1 and even thought about doing a 5th repeat but decided I shouldn't really push it to fast on this workout with the lack of running I have been doing over the past 2 weeks. The CrossFit workout definitely was not as easy as the last time I did this workout but I also didn't run 400 repeats right before the workout. I'm going to try and keept this combination of speed and strength at least one day a week.

So I couldn't get my but out of bed this morning so I decided I would run over my lunch hour and try and get 6 miles in whit 2 mile repeats. Overall that was a pretty pour choice since it had been raining off and on and was 86 degrees out with 19mph winds.  With humidity the radio on the way back to work said it felt like 98 degrees. No wonder why I was dead by the end of the run and way over heated!!

2 mile warm-up; 7:24, 7:05 way to fast but this was with approximately 1 mile with the wind at my back.

2x1mile with 3 min rest: 6:09, 6:17   pretty good but I was definitely over heating by the end of number 2. I thought about quiting after the first one since it was so hot but then I really only have 2 weeks before the alumni race and with being sick this month my training feel apart for this race so I need a jump start with speed workouts like I have had this week. Overall legs were a little tired still from Tuesday's speed and strength session but no pains. Took the 2 miles home in a lot slower pace around 7:45-7:50/mi. Had a watch malfunction so I dont have a total overall time or pace.

Woke up this morning & brought Jacob to hockey and had fun coaching the kids. Then ran Jacob over to Sunday school & back home to get 4 miles in. I didn't wear my watch today because I wanted to make sure that I took it easy. It was a little rough since we stayed up to late & drank to much but I got out the door! 

With time running out on being prepared for the 8K at the SDSU Classic I decided to hit the streets again this morning for a hard 2x1 mile repeat session. The weather was good with barely any wind compared to last weeks double digit winds every day. Ran the first 2 miles as a warm up at 8:13 and 7:28. Felt pretty good so I thought I would run then evaluate how I felt after number 1 (6:12). I was felling pretty good so I decided to run a second interval as well and through that one I felt strong until maybe the last few yards that my form was starting to crumble but I heald it together for a second mile at 6:05. Then I ran the 2 miles back home in 7:26 & 7:21 for an average pace over the entire run of 7:08.

I signed up for this upcoming Boston Marathon so this training will have to continue. I think I'll focus on speed until January before I really up the mileage.    

Easy 2 miles on the treadmill as a shake out after work.

Ran my 2x1 mile repeat workout again this morning after yesterday's off day and it went pretty good. Started of with the usual 2 mile warm-up a few stretches and then off for the first hard mile. My form felt good and the weather was in the low to mid 60's with a good dose of humidity but not to over whelming. Ran the first mile in 6:05 and thought I felt strong and that I could run a second today in probably about the same speed. Stretched a little in my 3 minute recovery and then was off for interval numer 2. Felt strong through the first half mile and pushed it up the slight hill from 0.5 to .075 marker. This hill was definitely a little tougher the second time around but I pushed it in and finish repeat number two in 6 flat. Felt strong the entire way and definitely didn't have any help so I'm feeling pretty good about the 8k in just over a week. The goal is to be as close to 30 minutes as possible and do better than the 32:54 from 2 years ago. I feel like I have more speed then I did at that point so hopefully we have some nice weather.

Well this race was a complete mess. First off it was not an official race now because the County Parks Officers shut it down because the group putting on the race didn't have the right permit. Not to Officials out there don't shut down a race the morning of the race. The only reason the County Parks officer was out there was because they new someone had a permit for the facilities it just makes you look like A--HOLES!! Let the group go on their way and make the organizer come in and fill out the right permit Monday morning.  All you do is wreck people from having a good time and now yu have 70 runners out there and what do you think they are going to do? Run of course!! So it turned out to be an unofficial  race that everyone started together right in front of the Parks Officer. The big finish line clock did not start but everyone has a watch and nows what they ran the course in. So the start of the even started about as good as the rest of the race for me.

Within the first 2 miles I rolled my ankle slightly which made me think about slowing down but of course I did not. Mile one was at 7:20 pace which is 40 seconds fast than last years average mile pace for the entire race. I was feeling good so I continued along. I crossed the stream crossing and was continuing on strong then the trail got even rockier and the shadows and bright sunshine were making it more difficult to see the topography of the ground more difficult. I would say somewhere around mile 4 I missed a step and rolled the ankle really hard. It was one stopped me in my tracks. One uy passed me and asked if I was ok of course I said I'll be fine. Then I started to walk then back to a slow jog. At this point I was in pain practically walking now and dealling with a lot of rocks and shadows and I still have to cross the stream again in which the footing is difficult to control.  Got through the water again then from there you get a 1/4 mile on a bike trail then a little easier trails with more dirt then rock. At that point my pace picked back up into the 7:20's but the damage to my time already happened. Needless to say I would say I finished strong considering and got my little goody bag even though it was not an official race!  Ran home showered put a compression sleeve on my ankle and ran to hockey with Jacob.  Now just trying to heal up before this coming weekend.

Tested out my ankle this morning to make sure that I can run tomorrow morning. It felt pretty good even with the fartliks so I should be ok. The true test will be how it feels on uneven grass on the golf course.

Ran in the SDSU Classic this weekend for the second time since graduating college and the last time I ran was 2013. My time in 2013 was 32:58 and this past weekend it was 32:10 on a swollen ankle from last Sundays trail run. Overall it was a pretty good race in which I felt strong until about mile 3 then the last 1.92 miles felt pretty tough. At that point in the race I was kind of stuck in no mans land yet again which the guy in front of me was just over a minute and I ran the last 2k by myself. Two young college punks did close the gap between me and them in the last 200 yards but I had built up just enough of a gap that they couldn't get me but it was a close call.  It was fun to see some old friends and toe the line with some super fast kids that will probably be running at the NCAA Division National Championships this November.

Ran 2 mile warm up, 8K race then cooled down watching the Divisions I Lady's 5k in which there are some fast chicks. SDSU represented well in the meet and it was nice having the boys cheering me on since it was a loop course they got to see and cheer for me a lot. Loops 1k, 1k, 2k, 2k, 2k = 8k

We finished  off the day with tailgating before the big SDSU NDSU football game in which we lost but had fun.

My ankle held up good but is a little stiff and still a little swollen.

4 easy miles around 30 minutes I did not wear my garmin on the run. I figured it was just as good shake  out run from this weekends rough race, fun, and travels.

CrossFit workout after work with Jamie. She found a tough workout and then we modified it because we don't have every piece of equipment or multiple items to keep the workout going without having to waite for each other so we modified it.

Workout was a decending ladder of reps 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 in which you perform each exercise then when the other person is doing their set you run on the treadmill.

10- Deadlifts (95 lbs)

10- Gobblet Squats (35 lbs)

10- Knees to chest (hanging)

Run- 8 mph while Jamie performs her set of 10

9- Deadlifts, 9- squats, 9- knees to chest, run and so on.

This workout took us approximately 18 minutes to perform then we did Russian Ab Twists (20) and 3 30 second planks with equal rest to finish off the workout. Overall it was a great workout and we ended it before we destroyed ourselves. We will try this workout again and see if we can get to a round of 3 reps next time or all the way down to 1 rep in the decending ladder. Great overall workout and even turned it into more cardio with the run modification.

On the ice with Jacob and the U-8 kids this evening. (1 hr)

On the ice with Nathan helping the really little guys.

Very busy day in the life of Dad today. Started the morning off with Jacob's hockey practice at 8:20am then droped him off at Sunday school on the way home. Got home showered up made lunch to go and went to church from 11-12 then came home Jacob changed and it was off to soccer. I ate my lunch in the car on the way there and Jamie and Nathan had a picnic at the game. Then it was back home to rest for an hour before yard work and gardening began.

Ran 4 easy miles this morning aound a 7:47 per mile avaerage. Was a little tired and stiff but I got some miles in.

4 easy miles at 7:34/mi average pace. Felt pretty good once I got moving since it was on the chilly side. My ankle is still a little stiff when I wake up in the morning so I know it's not 100% yet otherwise no issues while running on it.

Another 4 mile run this morning and I woke up a little late to run so I pushed the pace a little more than I have been. Couldn't find my GPS watch either so I just ran with my Garmin Vivofit in which showed the run took me 29 minutes +or-. It definietly felt as if I was running that fast if not faster but still felt under control.

2 easy miles on the treadmill to blow off some steam. My legs were a little tired but Ive already spent an hour at hockey & soccer today with another hour of hockey to come.

Hockey: first men's league game of the winter session that stretches thru the spring. This was a pretty tiring game since we played every other shift.

3 easy miles on the treadmill. Nothing special just run and get it done. Body was a little sore from hockey Sunday nigth still.

Another 3 miles on the treadmill at a little faster pace but body feeling better. Followed the run up with 3 sets of 10 deadlifts at 90lbs and 2 sets of 5 squats with 65lbs.

6 easy miles on the College Blvd loop. It was pretty slow but it was also raining out.

Hockey Game #2: 1 assist and 1 goal. The goaljust happen to be in the shoot out to win the game as the final shooter (6th) for both teams. This game was a little rougher then last weeks.

4 miles out to Woodland and back. IT's amazing how much looser my legs are at the start of runs when then are performed later in the day. Anytime I run first thing in the morning is takes me a solid my plus before my legs loosen up. Today's run was at a 7:08/mi average with the first mile being sub 8 minutes which never occurs in the AM. Overall body was a little stiff from hockey yesterday but not were close to the soreness of last week after playing hockey for the first time in a couple of months.

This evening Jamie & I did a CrossFit workout as well which focused more on total body strength. The workout was a circuit of 3 rounds (RFT) of each of the following lifts:

9- Overhead Push Presses 45 lbs                Reps: 27

12- Russian Kettlbell Swings 30 lbs           Reps: 36

15 - front squats 45 lbs                                Reps:45

18 - ab mat situps                                        Reps:54

                                                           Total Reps: 162

4 easy miles this morning around 7:44/mi average. Legs were just tired this morning but that is understandable after yesterdays workouts. No pains just tired.

Set out this morning on a run in our first cold morning of the year in which the current temp at 7:50am is 34 degrees.  I ran this morning at 5:30am and it definitely felt chilly but did not know it was down at freezing. The forecast said temps dipping below 40 but not at 30. I was prepared though and had to break out the pants, jacket and stocking cap. This morning run I ran the College Blvd loop and was thinking that it might be on the slow side but my legs felt pretty good and I ended up putting down a 7:17/mi average with a 8:07 first mile and to miles just under 7 minutes to finish up the run. Overall felt pretty good the siatica fared up a little so i focused on some stretching whe I got home.

Easy 4 miles run this morning with Jamie. We ran the first 1.5 miles together then she turned around and I ran to the 2 mile turnaround. When we split I picked up the pace and ran pretty fast. It was like getting a little speed workout on a nice easy run. Last mile was 6:53 with some good hills on it.

Hockey Game tonight occurred during the beginning of the World Series game and ended during the 6th inning so I made it home to watch the 8th, 9th and extra innings of the Royals Championship game.  By the way I had 1 goal and 3 asists.

4 easy miles around 8 min pace.

Hockey Game: We played by far the fastest team we've seen so far this year. The problem was they had a pretty bad goalie. I ended up with 3 out of the teams 4 goals with another shot out goal in overtime to win the game. I also had a penalty for interference which was a pretty lame call.

6 miles in which I ran the first in 8:14 then and tried to run the uphills harder then usuall working on my form and keeping the pace faster. I ran miles 5 & 6 harder and definitely focused on form. Overall felt pretty darn good considering I played hockey last night. Average pace 7:38/mi for the entire run.

Ran the College Blvd loop again this morning just trying to build my mileage up for a long winter of training preparing for Boston in April. This morning I started off with a 8:13 mile then the rest around 7:23/mi with mile 5 right around 7min for an average pace of 7:23/mi for the entire 6 miles. I think that is a pretty good pace for me at this point in the year and my legs did feel a little tired from yesterday.

Ran the College Loop again this morning and it was another day this week of different weather. This morning it was 43 degrees out but with 17 mph winds which made mile 2 easy but mile 4 was directly into a stiff head wind. The rest of the miles where more of a cross wind which wasn't really to bad. Overall even with the heavy winds and wind chill at 32 degrees the run was at an overall pace of 7:33/mi. My hips are still tight so I'll have to watch that and make sure I stretch and ice again this week.

Ran the 6 mile College loop again this morning in 32 degrees and light breeze. Legs felt pretty good considering I haven't ran this many miles in a while. Overall it was a good run with an average pace of 7:24/mi. Felt good overall and spent some time stretching after the run.

Men's Hockey Game at 10:10pm, way to late for this guy!!! Overall it was a pretty easy game and not to rough except when this big old guy decided to full on check me against the boards. He ended up with a 5 minute major in which we scored a goal and he still had to sit in the box for the rest of the 5 minutes. I scored the first 2 goals of the game then an additional one in the 3rd period with at least 1 assist in the books and 2 minutes in penalty minutes for tripping. It was a pretty lame call just playing defence and the guy went down. Oh well we won 6-2 and had fun.

Ran the College Loop after work today since I didn't want to get out of bed during the wind and rain we got over night. Winds over night and early morning were 20+mph with rain at the same time. That did not sound like an enjoyable run so after work run it was.  It's amazing how much looser my body is after work than running first thing in the morning. It doesn't take my body 1+ miles to warm up I can just go and today proved that by opening up with a 7:35mi, 7:07mi (rolling), 6:56 (large uphill), 7:11(rolling), 7:05 (into wind 5-10), 6:52 (hilly). Overall this run was a 7:08/mi average which I beleive is my new record for this route. I thin the previous record was around 7:13/mi average. Overall felt pretty good in the misty weather conditions.

This mornings run was a tough on to get out the door on since I just ran last night and am not use to the quicker turn around. I did switch up the shoes and this morning it was not raining at all but it was even stronger winds of 13+mph making it feel like low 30's even though air temp was 42 degrees. Overall the legs felt a little tired but no real pains. It took my awhile to get warmed up and my muscles never really loosened up. Today's run was definitely not as fast as last nights and I tried to keep a more even easy going pace. I averaged a 7:49/mi pace on this run which was actually a little faster than I originally thought I might run more like 8/mi after yesterdays fast run. 

Ran the College Loop again this morning and do not know my official time since my watch battery died with about a quarter mile from home. I figure it was around a 7:30 something pace this morning though based on what the first 5 miles were. Overall the legs felt pretty good considering it was my 3rd day in a row of running.

Hockey Game: it was again at 10:10pm, which is to late for me. We played a team from the Open (A) league which means they are tipcally very competetive and usually guys that have played a lot of hockey. My team is in the B league which has a little bit larger spread of talent levels. The team we played was pretty good skaters and our team definitely gave them some competition but they held me to only 1 goal which is not good for my team. My teamates had some difficulties against the better skilled players and scoring goals. Overall it was definitely a good workout and fun but we ended lossing 5-3.  1 goal, 1 assist; 2 pts

After a bit of a late start getting out of the door because my 3 yar old was awake at 5:20am I decided to modify my plans. I was originally going to run the College loop (6mi) but then decided I could change it into a 2 mile warm up, 2 mile tempo and 2 mile cool down back home. So I ran out to my typical speed workout location on Iowa and started my 2 mile tempo. I thought if I could keep it just under 7min/mi I would be happy. I started out on the first mile loop and it felt pretty easy at 6:39/mi which was a lot faster and easier than I expected. The second mile of the tempo I started to feel the wind more but the pace still felt pretty good and not to hard. The second mile of my tempo was a 6:32/mi. I am definitely happy with that effort and not really feeling like I was redlining it while doing it. Ran the 2 miles back home and got ready for work.

6 Easy miles

The odd mileage is because I was trying to stay out of the wid as much as possible through the neighborhoods then running the typical 6 mile loop.

Hockey: men's league game was pretty rough this week. We ended up losing 4-2 and we were short people and the team played awful. It didn't help that I was not playing even close to 100% since I have been battling stomach issues since Thanksgiving night. Yes, I woke up in the middle of the night and had stuff coming out of both ends!! IT was horrible and I ended up staying in bed or the bathroom until 2pm Friday afternoon. Those issues continued speratically through Saturday but then Sunday I felt alot better but was still being carefull. I barely ate anything all weekend so I was playing on very little fuel!! Still had 1 assist on our first goal to get us on the board but my team really needs me to score goals also to be able to win.

After the long Holiday weekend of not feeling good I was not going to push my luck with running to far or to fast so I had a nice easy 4 mile run. Overall pace was over 8 min/mi and it felt good so I have no complaints about the easy run. The conditions were also not the greatest it was 30 and icy since it also rained from Thursday to late Monday night. Finished up with some stretching when I got home before hitting the shower and off to work.

Played Hockey again this week and we lost. It was a pretty good game but I just could not score a goal if my life depended on it, nor could my teamates that I set up multiple times for great oppotunities.

4 really easy miles this morning. Nothing really felt good about this run but m legs did start to loosen up after 2 miles.

This weeks hockey game is tonight at 10pm which is going to be hard to make it to.

5 miles on the treadmill. Started off at 6.5 mph for 400m, then cranked it up to 7.0 mph till mile 2 mark. Then raised it up to 7.5 mph for mile 3. Mile 4 and 4.75 I ran every other 400m at 7.5mph or 8 mph. The last 400m I ran the first 200 at 9.0 then the last 200 at 9.5mph. Overall it was a great workout and my body was definitely tired and stiff.

College Loop: today was a planned easy day since it's my third day running in a row and that hasn't happened yet this month. Even with that my legs felt pretty darn good. The worst part of the run was the 32 degree temps with 16mph winds that blasted me the last 3 miles. I should have ran the opposite direction of what I typically do on this route to help protect me from the winds a little better. It would have been better for at least 2 of the last 3 miles. The new neck gator that I purchased was used and it was super warm.

College Loop: my legs were pretty tired today but no pains that would imply anything wrong. I was a bit sore so I took it easy again. The average pace was 8:01/mi but that was with about a minute of time adjusting my heart rate monitor strap in the first mile. Yup, I tried out my Christmas present today which is a new Forerunner 620 Garmin watch. This mornings weather was 22degrees with only 2 mph winds which felt so much easier then yesterdays 16 mph winds.

College Loop: 6 miles at 7:39 pace with temps in the teens and light breeze, 4 mph winds. Got the watch up running a few more data sets and today's run was at 151 average heart rate for the 6 miles, max was 163. Overall my legs were stiff and sore but they didn't really feel that tired and this was my fast run of the week and my fastest two miles we the last 2 miles of the run. We are heading out of town to MN to do some family Christmas things since we haven't reall done Christmas with my side of the family since 2006 just before we moved to Arizona.

Iowa Street  2 mile tempo run with 2 mile warm up and cool down for a total of 6 miles. Felt pretty good but my legs just don't seem to have the turnover over the last couple of weeks that I had in November. Ran 2 easy miles out then ran a 2mile tempo at a  little faster pace (7:04, 7:02) to try and get the legs moving faster again. There was no break just warm-up right into two harder miles. There was a little bit of a breeze but overall it was warmer than last week by a good 10 degrees. Average pace for the 6 miles wa 7:29/mi, avg heart rate 154 with max at 174bpm.

College Loop: pretty easy run this morning at 7:44/mi average pace. I tried to run some of the hills a little harder and try and not slow down to much on the climbs. Average Heart Rate 153 with a high of 180 this morning. This mornings weather was 48 degrees, 9mph winds and almost 100% humidity. I was over dressed and everything was wet but at least it was not slick.  

College Loop: ran the loop again this morning and got a little bit of a late start out the door but I was feeling good so I ran a little harder than I have most of my runs this week. On this mornings run my averages were 7:24/mi, 154 avg heart rate with a max of 165. It was 36 degrees out with 9 mph winds making it feel like 30 degrees. The wind was not to bad except for on mile 5 otherwise I was pretty well protected. In the last mile I yelled out 3 times to a lady that I was coming up from behind since she had a dog and she didn't move over or do anything and of course she had one of those stupid retractable leashes. She finally stops as I'm right by her and locks the dog leash which then the young puppy turns and goes sideways right into me. It was not a very gracefull hurdle but I managed to only get one leg caught on the leash. I didn't go down but it didn't feel great the last half mile I accessed my body & I don't think I hurt anything but I'll watch it.

Met up with Drake, Jimmy and Ben for a mile time trial and a few extra miles after that at Shawnee Mission East High School. It was a good time running with a few of the guys again it had been quit awhile since I have ran with anyone from Runner's Edge or anyone at all. THe weather was just about perfect for a mile time trial a slight breeze and even just a few sprinkles on the 2 mile warm up. Then we stretched changed shoes and hit the track. I ran about 10 seconds faster than I did last year at our time trial, 5:32 mi. It felt pretty good but it definitely wasn't an all out effort so if training goes well between now and the end of January I think I could possibly reach lower 5 minutes for the indoor mile in Brookings. We then hit the roads for an easy additional 6.4 miles at just over 8 min/mi pace which seemed really to easy on a pretty hilly course. After our run we headed out for a quick bite to eat then home to be with the family by 10am. It was not the fastest of run but it was a great day to get out and run.   

4 easy miles on the treadmill this morning before work. Yesterday evening some light rain rolled in followed by freezing temps and a dusting of snow. Thought it would be wiser to run inside on the treadmill instead of taking on the roadways and 32 degree weather with 16 plus mph winds. I dread the treadmill but I got it done and got some good stretching in before I hit the shower then shoveled the driveway.

College Loop: after yesterdays snow storm and colder temps I decided I was going to brave the elements with a maybe fun or terrible run. Temp was 18 degrees with a feels like 9 deegree temp with 4mph winds. Sounds like a great idea doesn't it. Well I also decided it would be a great day to use my YakTacks for the first time. The Yak tracks worked great the problem was 4.5 miles of the route did not have sidewalks cleared and the plowes pushed crusty hard ice chunks onto them as well.  The conditions definitely make this a fast run at all or even a consistant run. Parts of the sidewalks had snow drifts, ice or just 2" of pluffy snow making this run more like a run on a soft beach without the sun and 3 layers less of clothing.  The average pace for this run was 8:59/mi but I got my miles in for the day.  I only saw 1 other person out on this run and for half of the run I was the first person to make tracks thru the snow.

Treadmill Workout: since everything was melthing yesterday I figured the roads would be really icy and I needed to get a good workout in so I hit the treadmill in the basement before work. Started off with a 1 mile warm up at 7 mph then started my 6x400 meter intervals at 10 mph (6min/mi pace) with 400m rest at 7mph. The first interval was the hardest and I was wondering if I would even be able to make it to interval #3 let alone 6. Each interval seemed to get a little easier as I went along which was a good feeling and at #6 I was starting to get tired so I shifted it into a cool-down pace (7 mph) then periodically upped the mph by a few notches to 7.7mph, then 8 mph to end the workout. My legs were starting to get pretty tired so I called the workout at 5.5 miles even though I wanted to make it 6 but I also didn't want to over do it this early on in the training cycle.