Running For Trevor

4 mi in Mesquite soaking in some vitamin D.

25 minutes weights and strength training

8 mi on the treadmill.  I was just planning to run easy today but I got bored so I threw in some fartlek type efforts & messed around with the incline.  I was a complete sweaty betty by the time my 60 min were up.

7.5 miles total.  Ran the extended route up to the Junior High to vote, waited in line for an hour and then ran the short way back home.  The run took less time than the waiting but at least I got a sticker...... :)

Me & JulieC are meeting at the Orem City Center at 6am to run in the morning if anyone wants to join.

PM:  3 miles followed by chasing around my nephew while trying to take care of a newborn and a hyper dog simultaneously.

8 miles in Orem with JulieC and the last 3 or so with Melody.  We ran up Provo Canyon and it was a perfect fall morning for a run.  I have to apologize to Melody for changing our meeting location late last night and not updating my blog.  Hopefully I can make my way up to Orem at least once a week to run with these guys.  Running with friends is so enjoyable to me that it does not even seem like a workout.

25 minutes weights at the gym.  Worked shoulders & chest and then did the usual planks/pushups.  Loving the lifting I've been doing lately and hopefully I can stay committed all winter long.

PM:  30 min elliptical.  I just realized today that I only have about 20 miles left until I hit 3,000 for the year.  CRAZY!

10 min weights working triceps. 

20ish min elliptical talking to Kira & Lily

6 mile boredom buster on the tready.  15 x 1 min on/off intervals.  On at 6:00-5:49 pace and off at 8:27 pace.  This was really hard and made me feel really out of shape.  I want to try and run sub-20 at the turkey trot and clearly I have some work to do to get there.  Crazy how much speed I've lost since TOU!  With a nice 2 week training plan I'm hopeful I can pull off a sub-20 but we shall see.

Off to Vegas this afternoon to run Las Vegas Ragnar.  I want to be excited (and I am) but between work, school, and traveling out of town every weekend I am so burnt out.  I need to find a sleeping bag, and get packed, and get me some dang diet coke after work.  At least I get to meet Nick Symmonds! :)

5 miles in the morning around the suburbs in Las Vegas.  A little windy but a perfectly relaxing shakeout run before the Ragnar festivities began.

3rd year running Las Vegas Ragnar Relay & for the 3rd year in a row I absolutely loved it!  New course & new team for me this year but still the same old fun that comes with a Ragnar.  I know a lot of people think these ragnar things are stupid and I completely get where you are coming from if you are a serious runner.  But until I grow up I will keep running them and keep having fun!  We had a really fun team this year including 800 meter superstar Olympian Nick Symmonds who was completely down to earth and incredibly humble.  Our team was laid back, not serious at all but yet pretty dang fast at the same time.  Perfect combination! 

I was runner #9 and admittedly had quite possibly the easiet leg of the relay.  Normally I like to take the harder legs and challenge myself but with the injury cycle I've been riding for the past 2 months I thought it would be wise to take the safer route. 

Leg #1 - 2.9 miles at 6pm, 6:53 pace.  I have to admit I worked pathetically hard for that 6:53 pace.  It was ridiculously windy and there was a net elevation gain of about 100 per mile which was just enough to make me have to work really hard and feel completely wiped out after only 19 minutes of running. haha

Leg #2 - 3.5 miles at 2am, 6:26 pace.  Net downhill of about 200 feet but a pretty relentless headwind the entire run.  Happy to hit my goal 5k pace for the turkey trot.  This leg was fun because we were starting to catch teams and I passed like 30 people in the 25 min it took me to run this one.  My feet were on fire the last 1.5 miles which was not a good sign considering I had 9.5 more to run the next morning.

Leg #3 - 9.75 miles at 10am, 6:24 pace.  Now don't go thinking I'm all super human or anything.  There was A LOT of downhill in this leg....like 1200 feet or something.  It was a perfect 1-2% downhill gradiant the entire time.  Seriously find me a marathon like this somewhere.  This was by far my favorite leg of the race and it felt really good to run for more than 20 minutes.  My feet were on fire the last mile but other than that a perfect run and I felt great.

Our team ended up finishing in a little over 24 hours.  We were projected to finish in 23:47 which would have been way cool but there is always next year to crack the 24 hour mark.  I think we took like 7th overall and I can pretty much garauntee you we had a lot more fun than anyone else.  I'll get our Nevernudes video posted when our captain Ryan gets it edited.  Another awesome Ragnar experience in the books!