Crawling Across America!

I have been following Dean Karnazes as he runs across America in 75 days. I am motivated by individuals who test the limits. It always inspires me to do better! I also just finished his book. Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner. It was very enjoyable to listen to as I was out running myself!

"Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must, just keep moving forward and never give up!" - Dean Karnazes.

Crawling pretty much describes my workouts this week. I didn't miss any workouts and I enjoy getting out, but I just seem to be slower than usual. I continue with the allergies. They started out early this year and have never really gone away since February.

The highlight of the week was getting out in the foothills. Even though it continues to be wet and stormy, the snow has melted off a bit higher so some of the lower trails were in decent shape on Saturday. I decided to take the trekking poles with me on the trail and see if I could run with them. I knew I would be able to run much anyway due to this being my first trail with any significant elevation gain this season.

I was glad I took them. I have written before about how for regular hiking that they are great. They take a lot of pressure off the knees and allow you to get up the hills faster having the arms and upper body there to help out. In the stretches where I could run, I found that they weren't too cumbersome. I got into a rhythm where for each pole plant, I would take two strides. I could push off with the poles slightly and was similar to cross-country skiing. I will probably try them again. They definitely helped with balance as well.

Here is a picture not far after I had reached the top of my climb and started heading back down. The cliffs you see off to the left are the mouth of Provo Canyon. It is a lot prettier when things green up and the sun comes up first thing in the morning, but it was still an enjoyable view.

Several shout outs are over due. Hillary, great job in getting your weight down to pre-kid levels! Martha and Gordon are looking good and keeping in great shape. We may even make a runner out of Gordon yet! :) Bill continues to amaze with his ability to run incredible distances every week (day!). Todd gets in some great workouts every week! Clyde doing his 30 day challenge has done great in consistency and improvement as well! Those who ran Boston, way to go! Oma and Opa, keep up the exercising! Great job! Mark A. is staying true to his commitment as well! Hang in there and I will too!

Warmer Weather

More of a laid back week. It was spring break for our school district so we packed up the van mid-week and headed down to Arizona to visit my oldest daughter and her family. We had a great time visiting and it was workout heaven for me. After being a long and cold winter and spring, it was nice to go out running not long after the sun was up just a shirt, shorts and my running shoes. The warmth felt wonderful! Looking forward to that happening back up here but I will have to wait at least a week with rain and snow forecast again for most of the week. There is even a flood watch out for those who live close to the creeks and rivers.

I am still fighting a cold and allergies at the same time. I will sure be glad when I am back up to snuff and not have to sniff! I am glad that it hasn't been bad enough to keep me from working out. Just gotta keep going within reason.

A side note: A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about hiking the 'Y'. A friend posted this video on Facebook about the making of the 'Y' (Thanks Jason S!). Watch this if you are interested.



Hope you all had a great week! Hope your weather is drier and warmer than what we are having. I am really excited to get out on the hiking trails! I enjoy reading others blogs and post on daily mile. Sounds like you are all doing great! Hang in there and I will too!

5K - Making a Comeback of Sorts

After my physical therapy was over and I got a few long runs under my belt, I decided to train for a 5K. Based on the training schedule, I found a nearby 5K being run on Saturday, The Midvale Kiwanis 5K. I had hoped to meet one of my goals of the year by running this under 30 minutes. I was able to get the proper mileage and training in, but my speed wasn't coming along so I didn't have much hope in making my goal. To top it off, I haven't been feeling good for over a week now and I was really dragging on my taper before the race. I just made up my mind to not push to hard and make myself feel even worse, but would go and just try to run a steady race. I was not only not disappointed, but ended up being happy with the results.

Even though I didn't hit my personal goal, I came close at 31:30. I also came in 22nd out of 106 runners who showed up in the wet, cold and snowy run. And I came in third in my age group. Great progress considering I had to start over because of injuries at the first of the year.

Keep up the great work everyone. You all continue to inspire me as I hear and read about what you are doing! Hang in there and I will too!

Get Back Up!

All of us have times in our lives where we fall down. Whether it's physically, mentally or spiritually we have let downs. The important thing is what we do after we fall down. The important thing is to GET BACK UP!



We are all in a race of some sort or another. Most of you who read this blog are trying to do better. You are trying to eat better, exercise more, be better to your family. If you have fallen short, fallen down, GET BACK UP! You can do it! You aren't in a race with others but you are in a race for your life. GET BACK UP and get moving forward!

I had another great workout week. I got my training runs done and enjoyed them even though I was dragging a bit mid-week. I had a good Saturday hike. Up above the campus of BYU, the have a big block Y on the mountain. There is a well established trail to the top of the Y.



It is a mile long series of steep switch backs. I can't run up it yet, but I still get a great workout just by hiking it up without stopping. For those that haven't had a cardiac getting to the top, there is a trail which continues on to the top of Y Mountain. I still had plenty in the tank so I kept on going.

I made it up to where the snow level was that day. I say that because we got 5-8" of snow the next morning! I trotted back down and put in another mile and a half on the BST to get some mileage in. I was beat but happy I went. I am excited for more hiking adventures this coming summer!

Shout outs to so many of you! Great job Clyde on getting some serious mileage in this last month and being so consistent. Mark A is putting in some serious mileage as well with his Will's to Will's route. I follow a lot of running/tri blogs and am so impressed by how well people are doing! Reagun thanks for dropping by. Keep up the great work and let's hope for warm weather to come and stay. Hang in there and I will too!