It's over, man. Let her go.

Biked to and from work today, so another 11.5 miles or so.  I wasn't planning on running today, but the kids wanted to go for a bike ride and since I knew my son would be slow due to his developing skills, I decided I'd run beside him.  He was plenty slow and I probably shouldn't really even count the miles since it was more of a jog...wait...jog...wait..."take a break"...jog...

Did some stretching as was suggested and it seems to be helping.  Glad it's not ITB...or IBS for that matter!  :-)

Today was a biking day.  Rode to and from work.  The end.

You want more?  Ok, today's entry is titled:  "Hey Mayflies, it's JULY!"

On my ride to work today at about 7am, I came to the trail that runs by the river.  I ride the trail to work since it's flat, no traffic, and it's relaxing by the river.  As I turned onto the trail head, about 15m in front of me, I see what looks like the whole trail covered with small leaves.  I don't think much of it, except to think, "I wonder why the trees dropped so many leaves all of a sudden.  After the first few seconds of running over the "leaves" and hearing them "pop,"  I looked down and realized that they weren't leaves at all, but mayflies!  None of them moved or flinched as I approached, "popped" them, or as I went by.  I felt really bad for them, but they were everywhere and I couldn't avoid them.

After about 100m of that, they became more sporadic and from there until I got to work, I saw less and less.  I don't know how many I killed today, but they should have known it's July and not May.

We went to the Pirates game tonight at the last minute.  We won, but the cool part of the evening was that near the end of the game when the lights were on, you could see the mayflies swarming the lights.  I'll blame the malfunction of the bug's clocks on global warming.  Or maybe on all the Phillies fans that came to the game tonight.  Sorry to hand you your second loss in as many games here in Pittsburgh.  Let's see if we can beat you two more while you're here.

Daughter biked while I ran.  Took a flat route running along the river trail.

Biked to and from work.  Getting ready to head out to Utah tomorrow morning!  Daughter is LOVING EFY so far!!

12 hours in the van...Utah is a long ways away!

We stopped in Laramie, WY in enough time for me to hit the treadmill while my wife and son hit the pool.  I had to put in a couple of miles and then I could get in the pool.  I'm glad the pool was so cool!

We're only about 400 miles from Snowbird, so tomorrow we'll be there!  Yeaaa!

We made it!  Resort is awesome!  I got a trail map from the front desk so I'm looking forward to exploring a few this week.  There's a Mt. Baldy (11,068' elevation).  I'm going to take the tram up there and then run the Mt. Baldy trail to the top, take my picture, then head back down.  Maybe tomorrow...  Should be awesome!  :-)

Great day today!  We had to be at BYU at 7am to pick up my daughter from EFY.  She had an AWESOME time!!  She really wants to go back next year.  My wife and I both graduated from BYU and we've encouraged our kids to get good grades so they can get in there, but it's always been a bit abstract for them.  Now that she's been to BYU and enjoyed hanging out with all the members, and seen the campus, she's definitely fired up to get in!

After we picked her up, we took photos at all the statues and highlights of our BYU experience and walked around the campus some.  We hit the bookstore right when it opened at 10am and I got the family out of there with some room left on the credit card, so that was positive.  :-)  We then drove by some of the places we lived, showed Annalee where she was brought home to, and just checked stuff out.  Then we hit La Casita in Springville, some of the best Mexican food around, BTW. 

We thought about doing a few other things but we were all exhausted and we decided to go back to the resort.  The kids really wanted to do the alpine slides, zipline, mechanical bull, etc. so this was the only day we'd have time to do it.  We headed back and the kids and I got all-day passes.  My wife decided to pass on the rides and just got a ticket to ride the chairlift.  We all rode up the chairlift and enjoyed tossing a few snowballs around, taking a ton of pictures, etc.  We rode down and then enjoyed riding the slides, I got both kids to do the zipline (they're both scared of heights), and my daughter did the mechanical bull.  I did as well, but I won't be posting pictures.  LOL

We had a great time.  Being the guy that I am, after a couple of runs on the alpine slide, I decided that I should go all-out.  My wife was taking pictures, and I was hot dogging it, giving the victory sign, etc. and since I was going so fast, after passing her, I hit a sharp corner and flipped it.  I got some pretty good road rash as I slid down the track trying to get back on.  I ruined one of my nice polo shirts, but it was worth it!

Wonderful day today visiting with my wife's almost 90 year old grandmother.  She is an awesome lady, still drives and is still sharp as a whip!  We then visited with my uncle, who had picked up my daughter from the airport and delivered her to BYU for us. Great day!

No miles, but after hiking Timp, we visited with one of my wife's friends from BYU and her family.  They had a membership at Lifetime Fitness so we went to the pool there.  Annalee convinced me to do an hour water aerobics class.  I was the only dude in the class.  It was a great workout.  This was the first time I've done water aerobics and I was surprised it was such the workout.  The instructor was obviously a runner, and probably a darn good one at that, based on her legs.  I didn't have the guts to go up and talk to her, but she did say I did really well as I walked by.  LOL

She did apologize for her comment though.  When we got in the pool, we got in the 5' 6" deep area.  It was deeper than it should be for Annalee, so the instructor told her to move down to the 4' 6" deep part.  After the first half of the class, she told Annalee that the rest of it would be done using the water weights and so she could go back down to where her boyfriend/husband was.  She looked at me and I said, "um....daughter, maybe?"  And she turned totally red and apologized.  A couple of the other ladies immediately said how they thought she was my girlfriend since she had big sunglasses on and they couldn't tell how old she was.  I thought it was a compliment, but I am not sure it was.

Lagoon all day today.  Had a great time but I'm exhausted...  Tomorrow is the "rest" day so I may get to sleep in a little!

Finally got to sleep last night about 1:30am.  I woke up to the "Cliff Club" kids making a ton of noise outside our open sliding door.  That was better than waking up to the exploding can of flavored seltzer water yesterday morning.  I decided to stay up, grab some breakfast and sit out on the deck in the nice cool mountain air reading a book I brought.  

After an hour or so of just relaxing (loved it!) I debated for about 5 minutes on whether I wanted to go for a run or not.  I forgot to mention that during my water aerobics class I got some hamstring and calf cramps and they've been sore since.  So I was wondering if I wanted to run or not, but I knew I'd kick myself all the way back to Pittsburgh if I didn't run a Snowbird trail if I skipped out on the only morning I'd have to do it.  So I went and it was a wonderful run/walk jog.  Beautiful scenery, cool air, and except for the trail nazi that told me I couldn't run the trail below the heavy machinery doing the trail repair 1/2 way up the mountain from there, it was a fun run.  The altitude still was killer, but not as bad as the first day or two.  I have total respect for you Utah runners!  I'll be glad to get back to my 800' elevation so I'll feel like I can run a mile and not die.  :-)

After running, I enjoyed a nice relaxing stretch on a flat rock overlooking the river.  It was a great run!  I'll be sad to leave.

Brother in law and I ran around the base of Devils Tower a couple of times.  It was pretty sweet!  It was so dark, but I had to run it.  Super slow but it was awesome.  I didn't run it the next day but we hiked the same trail.  Awesome pictures!

We drove up to Bowman, ND to stay overnight since none of us had been to ND before.  New state for everyone.  We hit the county fair last night and drove out to the Bad Lands of ND this morning.  Stopped off at the geographic center of the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) and got photos, then down to Mt. Rushmore.  We'll be here tonight and tomorrow then it's starting the journey back to PA.

Ran from the hotel, through the Bowman Cemetery, down a side road until it became dirt, turned down another dirt road, and came back.  It started raining and lightning as I left, but this was plenty.  Nice run, fun scenery, and an interesting place.

Having a great time!

Ran on the treadmill at the hotel while I watched The Soup and waited for the laundry to be done.  Blew the fuse twice.  I know it must be their electrical system since watching the TV and running at a 10:00 pace isn't going to blow anything.

Driving, driving and more driving...

No running, just driving all day to get home before Midnight.  Back to work and a consistent workout schedule starting tomorrow!  :-D

Finally got in about midnight last night and into bed by 1am.  Had to be at work at 7am this morning, so not much sleep.  I dread coming back from vacations.  The email inbox is out of control, everyone has meetings scheduled to where I'm double and triple booked, and well, it's work!  But, it was good to be back.

I got up and decided I wanted to ride in to work today.  I threw some clothes in the backpack, laptop, etc. and headed to work.  When I got there and was getting dressed after showering, I realized I left my belt at home.  Fortunately, I gained almost 10 lbs on the trip, so my slacks weren't falling off me quite as much as they would if it were 2 weeks prior.  I felt like a loser though.  Plus, my slacks were a little wrinkled, so that just added to the embarrassment.  Oh well, fortunately all but one of my meetings was online anyways.

The ride was good and I was feeling good.  Glad to be back in the 'Burgh!

Darn insomnia!  I couldn't get to sleep until almost 2am and had to be up super early to get in to work and get caught up on things.  I rode in again today and it was a great ride.  It sure felt hot though.  Once I was done getting dressed and headed to the office, I looked at my phone for the first time this morning.  I had 4 text messages.  Hmmm, wife and kids won't be up for hours, I wonder who it is.  Oh, it's the Weather Channel letting me know (at 2, 3, 4, and 5am) that there's an extreme heat advisory for today.  That could have been useful information BEFORE I left.  Oh well, I'll get my exercise in today while sweating off a few of the pounds I gained.

I was talking to another runner in the locker room that rides his bike in every day.  I asked if he keeps up his same running schedule on the days he rides.  He said "of course."  I haven't been able to run when I've ridden since it feels like my legs have gotten their workout for the day.  I need to start making sure I get in my runs or I'm not going to be prepared for the Half in Sept.  I think the biking has been good, it just hasn't improved my running at all.  Of course, I've hardly put any running miles in for a while, so maybe it has.  lol

I am lazy.  I had every intention of getting up this morning and running, despite going to bed at 2:45am after hitting the drive-in with the kiddos.  I figured I'd sleep until 8, go for my run, and likely just go back to bed.  It's been HOT and HUMID around here, so it would have been nice to run at 6am, but that wasn't going to happen.  I woke up at 8, sat up for a few minutes, and decided to sleep a little longer.  I woke up again about 9.  Sat up and figured the fam would be sleeping in until about 10:30 or maybe 11, so I had time to sleep a little longer before heading out.  The dog woke me up about 10 (yikes!!) but when I took her out, it was freakin' hot and humid and I was still tired, so I just bagged it.  I'm disappointed, but when it's 75-80% humidity and already 80F, it was just too hot.  I may try running tonight when it's cooler even though there are predicted thunderstorms.  We'll see...

Just a little preview for tomorrow's post.  I hope to get photos from the trip up with a little dialog.  :-)

Goal is to run 5+ days this week, and 20+ miles.  Gotta get back into this running thing.

Well, I'm on my way towards my weekly goal.  I drove in to work today since I was running late after not sleeping well.  I ran my 4.15mi route after work.  It was about 82F and 45% humidity.  Not too bad, but I was struggling.  Course was flat and my goal was just to run a comfortable pace (shooting for about 9:00-9:15) and just wanted to run without walking if I could.  I ended up walking about 4-5 times for about 0.05mi each time.  I averaged about a 9:50 which was disappointing.  Most of the running time was about a 8:30, so the walking killed my time.  I only logged 3.8mi of actual miles since I'm not counting my walking.  Considering the weight gain (it's coming off, thank goodness) and the lack of miles the last several weeks, I shouldn't be too hard on myself, but I was going to register for the Half in Sept and now I'm reconsidering.  I'll likely do it, but I need to get a couple of good weeks in or it's not worth spending the $.

On my way back, about 3.0mi into my run, I saw a stellar runner from work with another guy on their run coming towards me.  They were cruising along quite fast, both smiling and laughing, looking like the killer runners they are.  They looked so fluid, long, beautiful strides.  They said Hi to me, of course (I can't be missed with my doorag), they're nice guys.  I wasn't feeling that great at that moment and I know I didn't look like much of a runner either.  I was probably jogging at a turtle's pace.  I'd love to run with my friend from work, but until I get my times down and my endurance up, I'm too embarrassed to ask him to run with me.

I seriously need to run in the AM before work.  Trying to fit it in during the day or after work is just too hard.  Maybe after I get caught up again with work it won't be as bad, but with changes at work, there's just too much work to be done to justify taking off in the middle of the day and I could stay until 9pm and not get everything done I need to do every day.  Sigh... 

Ran the same course as yesterday but did it early in the AM.  Better splits, only walked twice and felt better despite the little sleep.

Went to the track and did some 800m intervals.  Tried to keep the rest pace at 9:00, the speed pace at 8:00, no rest between.  Walked once for 100m.

Splits:  4:29, 3:59, 4:30, 4:00, 4:27, 3:59

Thanks to the Garmin, I kept it almost right on target.  Walked 600m & then stretched.

Today was a good day.  I ran the same route I ran M-W.  I get to count the full 4.19mi for the first time this week since I didn't walk!  In addition, I rode the bike in this morning then did my run immediately before leaving tonight.  This is also the first time I've ridden my bike and run in the same day, so I was surprised I wasn't more exhausted when I got home.  Felt good, but that could be from my rest day yesterday.

I was a little tired after the run, but I focused only on running a pace that would allow me to run the whole route without walking.  Didn't watch the Garmin except for the .5mi splits (forgot to change it from the 800m intervals from Wed) and my HR.  I decided to track the HR to see how it compared to the pace and effort and see if I could keep it consistent.

Here are my .5mi splits with avg HR:  4:24 (141), 4:20 (155), 4:30 (156), 4:30 (156), 4:34 (156), 4:31 (158), 4:30 (159), 4:33 (161), 1:51 (162)

Looking forward to my "long" run tomorrow.  I'm shooting for 6-7mi.

I got up a little late today, but got out while it was still cool.  I ran one of my standard routes and although I walked a couple of times, I felt pretty good about it.  I haven't pulled up the Garmin yet, but the splits should all be in the 8:40-9:10 range, I think.  I don't think any were too much slower than that...except for the walking.

I met my goal for the week without being too sore.  I saw this and thought maybe someone was looking to move to Pittsburgh and didn't know who to call.  I thought of calling her up and just saying hey.

The rest of the day was spent helping my BFF install blinds for his clients since he decided to have an appendectomy a couple of days ago and is still recovering.  Service...but I get paid for it.  Not a bad combo.

Edit:  Oh, and thanks, Burt for your two players in exchange for our 3.  My kids and wife are so angry they could spit that they got some hot shot catcher.  Their fav player left after all the other trades (Sanchez, Bay, etc), was Doumit...the catcher!