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.