Cool Runnings!

1.5 miles so far with the boys - .9 with just Samuel, pushing Joseph and Adam in the jogging stroller, then another .6 with both Samuel and Joseph, pushing only Adam.  No time.  Will hopefully get another couple miles in when Lybi gets back from her run with Christine.

Ran another 3.1 miles on my own when Lybi got back.  Knee did pretty good.  My glutes/piriformis area started to get a bit sore after around 2 miles, but I was actually able to find the trigger point while I was running to provide a bit of relief.  Knee started to tighten up a bit around mile 2.5, but appears to have been related to the glutes - once I released the trigger point, my knee felt better.  Nice easy pace - I was breathing very easy the entire time.  Maybe I haven't lost too much fitness :)

1.5 miles with Sparky, then another 3 miles on my own.  The first 2.1 miles were shod, then I decided to be adventurous and try another lap barefoot.  It felt better than last time - at least my toes didn't get bruised, but I stepped on several small stones that bruised my forefoot a little.  I may continue the adventure to toughen up my feet a little and see if it helps with my hip pain.

3 easy miles this evening with Sasha, first two also with Lybi. Based on her run tonight, both Sasha and I are pretty confident that she can come close to or even break 2 hours tomorrow. I will be pacing her from mile 3 to 8.

Paced Lybi through miles 3-8, pushing our Adam, and Sasha and Sarah's Joseph.  I got a pretty good workout, too, what with all the wind.  Lybi was doing great, she slowed down a little bit with all the wind, even with my doing my best to break (I mean block - he he) the wind for her.  But I can't help feeling she was looking and feeling stronger and more relaxed than I was pushing that heavy old stroller.  I was sad that I had to run ahead at about mile 7.4, but Adam was really crying quite a bit (I think that his feet were cold, because he didn't have any shoes on, just socks, and the blanket that was covering him had come off his feet).  So that was the first five.  Drove back and picked up Sasha for him to pace Lybi through the rest of the race, then drove back to the Pachev's, dropped off Joseph and picked up Samuel and our Joseph to go back to the finish line to greet Lybi.  I tried to get a couple of good shots, but none of them turned out well :(  I was so darn proud of Lybi - don't let her fool you - this was a big accomplishment for her.  She did a marvelous job, especially on just around 30 miles/week.  Ran another mile later on with Samuel, Joseph, Julia and Sasha.  Joseph did about .5 miles while Julia was dusting them with her speed, and Sam did almost an entire mile.  Time to get ready for Priesthood session now . . . did I mention how proud I am of Lybi :)

Drove all day today from Provo back to Mesa.  Set a new record - 10 hours, including stops.  Was pretty worn out when we got home, ran with the boys individually.  After discussing with Sasha, we decided to take Samuel back down to 1 mile, but have him run faster.  I held his hand and helped him to get his legs going.  Ran a mile in 10:05.  Ran .6 miles with Joseph in 7:18 - 12:00 pace.  He did pretty good with that - I will keep him at that pace for now.  Then did a little bit with Adam.  Celebrated Lybi's birthday today - I'll let her mention what she got if she wants . . .

Was too worn out to run any more than what I did.  I am going to keep taking it real easy until I get my miles up past 40 again, then will start to incorporate some tempo miles into my schedule.  Somebody hold me to that . . . :) 

Ran 1 mile with Samuel in exactly 10:00.  He did much better than yesterday in every aspect.

Ran 0.62 miles with Joseph in 7:00 (11:15 pace).  He did extremely well also

Ran a very short distance with Adam (not recorded).  He didn't want to hold my hand and fell flat on his fact about 20 feet before we finished :(  Poor little guy . . .

Ran another 3 miles by myself (with Sparky) at 8:44 pace.  Felt a slight bit of twinging in my knee for about 30 seconds, then it went away, just a very slight achy feeling after that.  Otherwise felt good.  BTW, while we were at the Pachev's, Josse came over and scraped my knee - got some real good bruising there :)  Thanks, Josse!  She also showed Lybi how to perform the technique, and we will be ordering our own soon so that Lybi can continue to inflict torture on me :D (j/k - it really wasn't that bad)

1 mile with Sam in 9:35, then abort 0.5 miles with Joey. Another 2 Miles on my own with sparky at 8:35 pace. My knee was a little hurty for the last mile.

Ran 1 mile win Sam in 9:25 (wow!), then 0.65 miles with Joey. Will hopefully get the chance to run some more later, but if not, oh well.

Ran 1 mile with Samuel in 10:15, then 0.65 miles with Joey at 11:15 pace. Then another 3.35 miles on my own at 8:30 pace. Legs felt good, my knee started to get a little tight towards the end, but nothing big. Happy am I!

Ran in the afternoon, it was pretty hot out, but it felt good.  Good news and bad news about my run:  The good news - I got in 5 straight miles without feeling any pain in my knee.  The bad news - I could not force myself to run any slower than about 8:15 pace, try as I might.  I am okay with this, but would prefer to keep my pace slower to aid healing.  Based on this week, I am going to work on getting in 5 miles/day in the coming week, and see how my knee feels.  I will keep all the miles slow and easy.  Running with my boys definitely helps with this, since I have to run at their pace.

PM - 1 mile with Samuel in 10:13.  Then another .65 with Joseph at 11:05 pace.  0.15 with Adam (untimed), then another 3.2 miles on my own later on for a total of 5 for the day.  Knee felt great, no pain at all.  I didn't have the Garmin for my portion, and the laps I was running were about 1.5 miles, so I wasn't real sure about my pace until I finished.  Blog calculator puts me at about 8:10/mile, not to bad since I didn't have the Garmin to gauge my pace and I just went basically off how I felt.  However, this is really at the end of the spectrum of how fast I want to run while I continue to recover.

On another note, I put in my registration for the SGM lottery.  I wasn't able to get a reservation with the Coronada Inn like I have had the past few times, but did get a reservation at the Travelodge (somebody, please tell me it is not too bad there!).  I may still try to get in at the Coronada Inn (I like how close they are to the start, and the rooms are not bad at all), but at least I am covered as it stands right now.

PM - 1 mile with Sam in 10:00 exactly, then 0.65 with Joey at 10:50 pace.  Another 3.35 by myself at about 8:20 pace.  My knee started to feel a little hurty during the last mile.  I am starting to wonder if the shoes have anything to do with it.  When I wear my Saucony Grid Tangents, my knee does not seem to hurt, and when I wear my old Adrenalines, my knee ends up hurting.  Probably time for new shoes.

PM - 3.1 miles by myself before dinner. The boys had friends over, so I haven't taken them running yet. Average pace was 8:21/mile. Legs felt good, better than yesterday, but I felt a few twinges occasionally after mile 2.

Another mile with Samuel in 10:25 (it was windy, and he was wearing pants), then 0.65 with Joey at 11:35 pace, and another .15 with Adam.  Leg felt good.  Samuel did real well, he said he was feeling stronger.  I take that as a good sign.

PM - ran 1 mile with Sam in 10:09, then 0.65 with Joey at 11:35 pace, then another .15 with Adam. I don't think I am going to have a chance to run any more tonight. We had pack meeting, and Lybi has missionary correlation and splits.

Was able to get in another 3.1 miles, no time.  Now off to bed. 

Woohoo!  A good night's sleep!  1 mile with Samuel in 10:09.  I made a deal with him today - when he can run a 10 minute mile without holding my hand at all, I will take him to the dollar store to pick out a toy.  0.65 miles with Joey at about 10:50 pace.  I made the same deal with Joey - but his was for running his 0.65 mile loop at 11:00 pace.  Needless to say, both of them are very motivated right now.  I am already seeing the benefits of helping both of them to run faster - the other day, it was really blustery out, and I made some comment to Sam whilst running with him, and he said "I don't care!  I'm tough enough!"  I thought to myself, wow, this is really helping him!  BTW, these miles were done in my "pool shoes".  I ordered a pair of Saucony Progrid Guides yesterday, and until they arrive, I am only running on either the pool shoes or my Tangents.  Bye bye, Adrenalines.

Another 3.55 miles, 2.25 of which were with Sparky.  8:21 average pace.  Felt good, no pain in the knee.

AM - 3.4 easy miles with Sparky at 8:15 pace. I was cruising along at around 8:20-8:25 pace and then picked it up a bit for the last mile or so. I hit a couple quarters around 7:40 pace, and they still felt good. Left arch has been a bit sore waking up for the past couple days, I am going to stretch it out and roll it, and potentially use the sock if I need to.

PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel in 11:30 (he was not holding my hand, as I was pushing the other two boys in the jogging stroller, and we had just had dinner not too long ago), then 0.65 with Joey in 7:26 (11:26 pace).  Puts me up to a total of 5.05 miles for the day, and 30.05 miles for the week.  Feeling pretty good, looking forward to getting my PG Guides on Monday.  They are almost as light as my Tangents - the tangents are 9.4 oz, and the PG Guides are 10.8 oz.  About the closest non-performance stability shoe I could find.  We were planning on taking Lybi to the local running store to have them perform a gait analysis this evening, but that didn't work out.  We will have to try another time soon.

PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel in 10:00.  We were averaging slightly slower than 10:00/mile, but he started to whine at the very end, so I sped up with him a bit.  Then ran 0.65 with Joey in 7:03 - 10:50 pace.  He did really well.

Ran another 4 miles by myself - average 8:14/mile.  Makes a total of 5.65 miles for the day.  I'll keep this up the rest of the week and probably do a 7-miler or so on Saturday depending on how I feel.  Looking forward to getting my new shoes today - too bad they didn't get here yet for me to run in them today.

On a side note, went to the Road Runner Sports store today during lunch, had them do their shoe dog analysis to confirm the type of shoe I should be wearing.  Barefoot analysis showed I have normal arches, and tend to overpronate.  Then barefoot gait analysis on the treadmill showed I have a pretty normal gait and nice even toe-off, but that my achilles' are a bit too flexible (imagine that!) during heelstrike.  Anyways, suspicions confirmed, I ordered the right kind of shoe.

PM - got my new shoes just before I was about to head out the door with Sam, so I took a moment to put them on and work on getting them broken in. Went out with Sam, ran 1 mile with him in 9:52. He had a fairly long segment that he ran without holding my hand, while still keeping the same pace. Then ran 0.65 miles with Joey at 11:00 pace. Lybi's missionary correlation and visits got switched to Tuesday nights, so I will have to take the boys in the double jogging stroller later.

PM2 - After getting the boys ready for bed, allowed Sam to stay home and read (with the doors locked, of course), and took the other two boys for a run in the double jogging stroller.  4.15 miles, felt good, no knee pain except for a few occasional twinges.  The shoes felt good.  Average pace was 8:17/mile.

(Progrid Guide: 5.8 miles)

PM - after dinner, Lybi and I ran with the entire clan - me pushing Adam and Joey in the stroller, with Sam running and Lybi holding Sparky. Sam ran 1 mile in 10:06, about half of which was not holding on to my hand or the jogging stroller. He is doing really well. I think he is going to get that prize pretty soon. Then Joey got out and he did really well too, 0.65 in 7:15. Our boys are definitely getting stronger and faster. Before we know it, Sam will be running too fast for Lybi on her slow runs.

After getting the boys to bed, I ran another 4 miles by myself. The run felt good, my legs felt good. I am still having a fairly hard time keeping the pace slow - my legs keep wanting to go faster and I have to really concentrate on running slower. Average pace 8:13/mile.

Another mile with Sparky, untimed. 

(ProGrid Guide - 12.45)

PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel in 10:01, then 0.65 with Joey in 7:04 (10:50 pace).  Was pushing the other two boys in the jogging stroller while holding Sparky at the same time.  Then another 1.5 with Sparky at 8:15 pace, and another 3 by myself.  Total of 6.15 miles for the day.

PM - 1 mile with Samuel in 9:59 (a little bit of whining involved), then 0.65 with Joey in 7:12.  Both were with Adam in the jogging stroller and Sparky at my side as well.

PM2 - 4.1 easy miles by myself at 8:20 pace.  Run felt good, knee felt good, I felt like I was trying to hold myself back deliberately the entire run. 

AM - Lybi picked up a babysitter early this morning, and for our date, we went for a long run.  8.5 miles together at average pace of 10:21, although for most of the run we were at about 10:40 pace, and picked it up the last mile or so.  It was very enjoyable to run with Lybi on multiple levels - we had time to talk, time to spend together, and it was actually relaxing.  No knee pain whatsoever.

AM - 5 easy miles before work. I changed back from my 9 hour shifts so that I could run in the morning and have more time to spend with the family after work. Total time - 41:00, average pace 8:12/mile.  Felt good, just ran by feel as I didn't have the Garmin.  Felt a few small twinges in my knee during the second half of the run, unless it was all in my head . . .

PM - ran 1 mile with Sam in 10:07, small amount of whining involved.  Then ran 0.65 miles with Joey in 7:13.

(ProGrid Guide - 24.85)

AM - 3 miles with Sparky in 25:15 (8:25 pace), then another 2 miles by myself in 16:10. The run felt good, but my knee gave me a few twinges again. I need to make sure that I am stretching out good after my runs.

PM - ran 1 mile with Sam in 9:55, then 0.65 with Joey in 7:05. 

AM - ran approx. 3.35 miles with Sparky in 27:31 - average of 8:13/mile. Not 100% sure about the distance, but I will take the approximation. Left arch was a little sore, so I decided to have that be it for this morning, and will do my miles with the boys this afternoon.

PM - ran 1 mile with Sam in 10:08, then 0.65 with Joey in something like 7:08.  Felt good.

(ProGrid Guide: 29.85)