Solo 11 Miler

Today I headed out by myself to conquer 11 miles. It has been awhile since I have done a decent long run and I needed to get out there before I totally lost motivation. Tom is nursing an injury and Todd is living it up in Vegas for New Years so I was on my own. But I was determined to get it done.

Because it has been awhile since my last long run, and I have been sick in between, I wanted to run somewhere that would boost my ego a bit. So I went to the Ogden Parkway to do these 11. I wanted flat and not many hills.

I started at Timbermine and made it to the Walmart on Wall Ave. I was going to continue going west but because I was alone I didn't want to get too far away from people. So I turned around and headed back. By the time I got back to the Timbermine I was just under 7 miles. I still had to come up with 4 miles. So I turned around again and two miles out put me at Washington Blvd where I turned around and made my way back to the car. Not ideal but not bad either. The last few miles were definitely a push for me. The last mile it was pure determination to get me back to my car that kept me going.

**STATS**

Distance: 11 miles
Time: 1:45:18
Pace: 9:34/min/mile
Temperature: 30 degrees
Time of Day: 9:45 a.m.


BEFORE

AFTER (red cheeks)

Without their CAPTAIN

I would like to say they fall apart when their captain is not around but they actually did OK without me.

We were all supposed to go out the Monday after Christmas for a 10ish mile run but I wasn't feeling good again so I had to back out. My dad was also feeling sluggish so I told Todd to get a hold of our bro-in-law and run with him but I guess last minute my dad decided to go out.

All I heard about this run was that my dad ran as much as he dared with his pain issues and then Todd continued on. Here's their stats.

**STATS**

TOM
Distance: 4.01
Time: 0:42
Pace: 10:21/min/mile

TODD
Distance: 7.55 miles
Time: 1:17
Pace: 10:14/min/mile

Temperature: ? But it was nice and warm
Time of Day: Mid morning

9 in the Hills

Today we headed out for 9. I was a little worried about how I would do because just a few days ago I did 8 and it was basically the same route. And this route is full of hills. My legs are still sore from the other day. But we all did well.

We started out by running around McKay Dee as our warmup, because it is the only decent flat area around here. Then we headed up Glassman Way and across 89 into the neighborhood. We headed down towards the water pad and into the bowl. We circled the bowl two times and before we headed back out the way we came, silly me challenged Todd to a race up the BIG hill that leads out of the bowl on the opposite side we came in. Now mind you, I have only made it up this hill a few times without stopping. But I thought for sure I could at least make it up further than Todd. As we rounded the bowl the second time I pulled up in front of Todd just enough but kept a modest pace. At the base of the hill I tried to keep an even pace with keeping Todd in my wake. At the halfway mark I sped up a bit but then I realized how stupid this challenge was. A few seconds later I was huffing and puffing too much and stopped. Todd flew past me but then stopped a short bit later. He turned to me and asked why I stopped. I said there was no way I was going to make it to the top. He laughed and said, "good, there was no way I was going to make it to the top but I wasn't going to let you beat me either."

We keep joking with Todd about his insistence that he is going to beat us in the marathon. I tell him I am sure that will be true but it will be us feeling a heck of a lot better at the finish line.

We headed back the way we came and added a few streets to get our 9. Every time Todd saw my dad, who was the leader, turn down another street he kept saying, "another one". The hill challenge was a mistake. I think that knocked out our sails.

All in all it was a great run. And a great day to run. The weather was perfect.

**STATS**

Distance: 9.03
Time: 1:30:30
Pace: 10:01/min/mile
Temperature: 28 degrees
Time of Day: 2:30 p.m.

8 of My Own

Today I set out to do my 8 mile run. I went from my house to my parents' house and back with a few laps around the bowl. I thought it would be lonely by myself but I did alright. It was a bit chilly but luckily I quickly warmed up. I did pretty good considering I was sick this past weekend and didn't get to do any maintenance runs.

**STATS**

Distance: 8.25
Time: 1:20:06
Pace: 9:43/min/mile
Temperature: 23 degrees
Time of Day: 1:00 p.m.

8 By Himself

We were supposed to set out for 8 miles today but I have the flu and Todd, well he decided to do it down at his house. Do you think he did though? Nope.

But Tom went out all by himself. He is disciplined. :) He said it was a good run. He didn't give me much to talk about. I happened to be over there and did snap a picture right before he went out. Hopefully I will start feeling better and can get in 8 of my own.

**STATS**

Distance: 8.15
Time: 1:22
Pace: 10:03/min/mile
Temperature: 30's
Time of Day: Afternoon

Hills in the Snow *

Today we stuck to running around 7 miles but we added hill play. I got this from Jeff Galloway's book: Marathon You Can Do It. We did about a 3 mile run around McKay Dee Hospital and then found a hill where we could run up and walk down. We would run uphill for a certain distance and walk back to the starting point. We did this 6 times. Then we took off up and down and back up Glassman Way. Then we turned around and ran back down and then up Glassman again and headed back home.

Heading up Glassman towards home I kept running and didn't stop again because I was ready to be home and was afraid that if I stopped I wouldn't get going again. Todd was a little behind me and Tom was a little behind him. Tom's time actually would have been closer to Todd's but he started walking right at the 7 mile mark because he didn't know me and Todd kept going to 7.25.

By the way...we did all of this run while it was snowing. Earlier this week it looked like Sunday was supposed to be the better day to run but it turns out we were wrong. It wasn't cold but the snowflakes on the eyeballs start to hurt after awhile. I'm proud of us. We easily could have backed out of this run but we ran right out the door and didn't look back.

**STATS**

Distance: 7.25 miles
Time: ME 1:12:26 TODD 1:12:43 TOM 1:13:45
Pace: 9:59/min/mile
Temperature: 30 degrees
Time of Day: 2:30 p.m.

New Route

This past week my dad and Todd both went out of town for Thanksgiving. My dad sent me this picture of him before one of his midweek runs in Laughlin, Nevada. Check out that scenery. Todd also did a run in St. George. But no pics.

Tom got home Friday so today we went out for a long run. I wanted to try a new route that I had in my head. I have ran pieces of it but wanted to see if I could come up with 7 miles. We started at Cami's house and headed out to Hwy 89 (where washington and harrison blvds come together). We ran west for a few miles and then headed south into a neighborhood. Finally we ran down towards the Ogden Athletic Club and into the "bowl" as I call it. Then up and out and back towards Cami's.

I felt like this route was a ton of hills. Not necessarily steep hills, although a few I would have liked to have walked, but a constant uphill nonetheless. My dad acted like he couldn't feel them at all. Normally when we run a long run we run the first mile as a warm-up and then start our 5 run - 1 walk ratio. But this time my dad suggested we just walk as needed to see how we feel. I told him I would let him judge on when we should walk. He chose NOT to walk AT ALL. There were a few steep climbs that I thought for sure he would stop and walk on but he didn't! Way to go Tom. He rarely makes it up a steep hill without walking. That's not being rude. It's just what he does. I think he has a mental block when it comes to hills. Plus he doesn't really need to run uphill because his walking stride is faster than my running when it comes to the uphill battle. There were a few times when I wanted to stop and walk but I kept telling myself that if he wasn't going to walk then neither was I. The only walk break we got on the entire 7 mile run was the hill coming out of the bowl. But I don't count this as a walk break because this sucker is so steep there is no recovery while on it.

Way to go dad. Today I can honestly say you pushed me pretty hard. Great workout!

**STATS**

TOM & ME

Distance: 7.05 miles
Time: 1:09:22
Pace: 9:50/min/mile
Temperature: 35 degrees
Time of Day: 11:00 a.m.

Another 7 @ Ogden Airport

This morning Todd and I tackled the Ogden Airport again. We are doing a few weeks of 7 miles to make sure we have a good base of 7. Our training schedule starts us at 7 so we need to be comfortable with that. We ran in the opposite direction than we did last week. This gave us more uphill. We were supposed to run yesterday but the weather wasn't that great so we put it off until today. Unfortunately Tom couldn't make it at the time we went so he took off later today and did 7 around his neighborhood.

The run was great. Todd did much better this week. He seemed much stronger and more consistent than last week. He pushed me hard on the uphill. Usually I slow down on the uphill but he kept us at our normal pace.

As we were getting ready to start Todd tells me he got me something. I was like, oh how sweet. Then I started laughing when I saw what it was. It was his high school soccer captain band. My dad and Todd tease me about being the "team captain" because I am the one who coordinates everything. Hey! Someone has to pull these guys together or they would never be prepared!

**STATS**

TODD & ME

Distance: 7.00 miles
Time: 1:08:37
Pace: 9:48/min/mile
Temperature: 33 degrees
Time of Day: 9:30 a.m.

TOM

Distance: 7.01 miles
Time: 1:09:00
Pace: 9:50/min/mile
Temperature: 35 degrees
Time of Day: 12:00 p.m.

When Todd jumped out of his car he yelled, "I'm a runner now!" He was all proud of the new running pants and shorts he got. He has new shoes coming for Christmas. He said he totally felt a difference in temperature control.

Luv'd runnin' with ya bro! (wow! not a great pic of me)

Good until the SNOW came

Well yesterday's run started out good until the last 1.5 miles, which we ran in blowing snow. We went around the Ogden Airport again but extended the loop and ran it in the opposite direction than we usually do. We got a little more downhill this way.

I think we all felt OK. Tom got stronger during the last mile whereas I was done. I think Todd would have been happy stopping at 5 or 6. I found out that he lifted weights and did an ab workout before our run. Last night he ended up in the emergency room with constant throwing up and severe pain. Don't worry, he's OK today. It didn't help that we were all sick this week with colds but I think he had the worst of it. Next time maybe he won't do the other workouts. Running is hard enough by itself. Next week will be the same distance so hopefully we will all be recovered by then.

**STATS**

Distance: 7.00 miles
Time: 1:10:34
Pace: 10:05/min/mile
Temperature: 32 degrees
Time of Day: 11:30 a.m.

If you look closely you can see the snow blowing sideways. My eyes were stinging because they kept getting hit with snow. It was really hard to see where you were going.

The Team is Back Together...with a new member

Meet our new member: Todd...my bro. He's done a few half marathons and wanted to try a full this time.

We got together for our first run together in a long time. It felt good to get out there...even though it was so cold. I don't know if I am ready to run in these temperatures just yet. Our official training doesn't start for a few more weeks but I wanted to get started to make sure we had the base we are supposed to have and to get in rhythm with our newest running partner.

We headed off to the Ogden airport to do a 5 miler. All in all I think we are good to go. Hopefully we can complete this training with no injury. Here we go....

**STATS**

Distance: 5.00 miles
Time: 49:54
Pace: 9:59/min/mile
Temperature: 32 degrees
Time of Day: 8:30 a.m.

We are a good lookin' bunch

We're at it AGAIN

Yup! That's right. Tom and I decided to sign up for the Ogden Marathon again. I'm not sure what the motivation is to do it again but we signed up anyways. We also signed up for the Striders Winter Racing Circuit again.

From what I understand many of my family members are signing up for the half marathon again too. My sister-in-law Shay and her friend are also doing the full and the running circuit. So it should be another good year of running.

Stay tuned to read about each of our long runs and anything else I decide to throw in here. Oh and also to learn who the newest member of the Daddy Daughter Running team is going to be.

Perham, MN

The goal on our road trip was to get in a few runs. We got in 1. Nice. To our defense, it was REALLY humid. But a better excuse was that we were just too tired to get our butts out of bed. I'm glad we at least ran once because even though I lost 10 pounds of water it was a really cool run.

My mom, aunt Kathy & aunt Jodi ran part of the way with us and then made their way back. Tom and I ran out to the lake to see if any of our family would be awake and then we headed back and zig zagged through town while Tom told me stories of the "olden days".

It was a cool run because we started out in the quaint city of Perham and ran out to the lake which felt really country. Tom chatted with a cousin who was the only one awake while I jumped in the lake to cool off. Before we left back to town I had my dad's cousin squirt me down with the hose! It was that sweaty. We headed back into town and made our way through the neighborhood. Our pace reflects our walking through town.

**STATS**
Date: 7/17/2011
Distance: 7.95 miles
Time: 1:34:13
Pace: 11:52/min/mile
Temperature: 75 with 94% humidity!
Time of day: 6:22 a.m

I forgot to take pictures when we got back to the hotel so I stole some pics off the internet to show some of the things we saw.

Where Perham, MN is on the map

More or less our route

Starting line...our hotel

Sites we saw as we ran through town

Little Pine Lake. It didn't look like this when we got there. It was hazy with the humidity!

My grandma's house when she was a child. We stopped here and spoke with the current owner.

Awesome run. Too bad we only did it once. It was way too hot...even at 6am.

13 miler

I had planned a 13 to 14 miler (whatever it would end up being) for me and my dad to run. I wanted to revisit the Ogden Parkway. The last time we ran there it was a bit rough on my dad (remember he fell?). I wanted to conquer the entire path. I told my dad I would be at his house right after he got out of church because I knew it would be getting hot later that day. But my dad took his sweet time getting home and by the time he walked in the door I wanted to call off the run. It was already getting hot and frankly I was mad he took so long getting home. He put on his sweet face and talked me into still doing the run. He said it would be "good for us" to run in the heat. He always tells me that when he was younger he would get off work and go running in the high heat. He always thought it was good to train like that. hmmmm OK

When we pulled into the parking lot and the car said 88 degrees I told him we were crazy. Luckily we both packed our large water bottles but I will tell you it didn't matter. I needed to carry a water cooler! By mile 3 I was stopping to jump in the river. I ended up diving into the river a total of 5 times to cool off. I had to force my dad into the river in fear of him overheating. I don't know how he didn't keep getting in the river because every time I got in the river it bought me my next mile. When we made it to the pond I told my dad we should just run around the pond two times instead of going all the way to the end of the parkway because I needed to stay near the river. I can't remember what mile it was but we hit Washington Blvd and I had to ask the owner of a restaurant if he would be kind enough to fill my water bottle because I had run out of water and I seriously started feeling lightheaded. The cold ice water revived me a bit and we continued on. But within a few miles we were walking the majority of the time. I was determined to make at least 13 miles, so that's what we did. But most of the end was of us walking.

After we were done Tom told me I was right and that really was dumb! Geez, sometimes I have to teach my dad some stuff.

**STATS**

Distance: 13.00 miles
Time: 2:36:39
Pace: 12:03/min/mile
Temperature: 88!
Time of day: 10:43 a.m

10 Miler

Well it was supposed to be a 10 miler. But for me it ended up being a little less. Let's just say I had issues again. As Stacey yelled at me and Tom (because he had issues of his own), "YOU GUYS HAVE GOT TO GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!"

We ran through Ogden. Up and down, back and forth. I love running through Ogden because the streets are all shady from the trees and the roads have no traffic and the houses are really cool to look at.

Super proud of Stacey because this is the farthest she has ever ran. She did awesome too!

**STATS**

ME
Distance: 9.13 (8.13 + 1.0)
Time: 1:36:00
Pace: 10:30/min/mile

TOM & STACEY
Distance: 9.79
Time: 1:45:04
Pace: 10:44/min/mile

Temperature: ?? Warm but not bad
Time of day: 7:00 p.m

Life After the Marathon

Surprisingly I think me and my dad have recovered well. It took a few days for my knees to stop being mad at me but I wasn't miserably sore. That's not to say I wasn't sore. I was hobbling around for about 3 days. But it was the good kind of sore. Stretching hurt but felt so good. It was funny watching my family try to do anything for a few days because we were all hurting. I tried a roller out on my brother's leg and he moaned in pain. It was great.

My first run was 1 week after the marathon. I did a little over 5 miles with my sister. My left knee killed me. I don't think it was smart running on the hills that soon. My second run was the mud run a few days ago. I felt great but we walked a lot of it and didn't focus on running. It was more about the fun of it. And my latest run was yesterday with my dad. We did 3.5 but it was so hot. The route was great because it was slightly hilly but not enough to hurt my knees. But it was too hot. We walked about half of it. It felt so good to be out there though. We both talked about keeping up on running and some "future" plans.

I think signing up for the mud run and a few other runs I have coming up was a smart move on my part because it made me think past the marathon. I couldn't just say ok get to the marathon and it will all be over. The marathon was great and pushed me to do a distance I never would have done otherwise, but these other races keep me going. I think without them I wouldn't run again.

So stay tuned to see what else we end up trying.

The Dirty Dash & Piglet Plunge

Yesterday we completed a muddy mess of a run. It was a 5k mud run. I wanted to sign up for something that was shortly after the marathon to force me to keep running. Last time I ran a marathon I didn't run again for over a year and this time I wanted to do something that would keep me going. I thought this mud run would be perfect. Something fun and not at all stressful yet somewhat challenging. I recruited a lot of family in the process which makes any run funner!

I'm including this run in the daddy daughter journal because Tom was supposed to run this with me, but at the last minute things came up and he wasn't able to join us in the muddy fun.

**STATS**

Distance: 3.1 miles

Time: 55:09 (Me) & 55:12 (Jer)

These are our really good friends, Dan & Julie and their daughter Emma, we met in California. We have been friends for 5 years now and Ava and their daughter have been freinds since they were 2 1/2. They were excited to get down and dirty with us.

The beautiful course

Our audience and babysitters are in place

And we're off! We were 1 of many waves.

Getting ready to make our way up a big climb to the slip n slide

Heading to the finish line

Mom, Stacey, Jodi, Erin & Todd making their way to the final mud pit

Mom made it through the mud pool to the top of the hill, now she just needs to go down the mudslide and she is home.

Aunt Jodi and cousin Skyler

Todd & Erin. Todd was determined to get everyone but himself muddy by kicking and throwing mud but at the end he did a cannon ball into the final mud pool so I think he was the muddiest.

Cousin Cari and her friend

A huge reason I wanted to do this run was because they offered a Piglet Plunge for the kids. At our last mud run in Monterey we thought there was a kids mud run and Ava was so excited for it, she even "trained" with me at home. It turned out to be nothing. I couldn't wait for her to finally get to do her own mud run. The kids got to run up the same muddy hill we started out on and then took a short cut over to the slip n slide and then ended by wading in the last mud pit. Ava loved it. Ady wasn't so sure.

Tanner wasn't so sure either