The Plague Cometh!

Or cameth... didthsth comthesteth.

Something.

So the last sentence of my last post started with "I feel stronger and more capable already"

Which of course should have made me realize that it wouldn't last.

Wednesday I was in pain from a rib or something being out, along with a tickle in my throat and WHAM that night the Fever hit me.

Thursday was horrible - practically hallucinating with feverish weirdness and coughing.

Friday I felt like I could function a little, but I still had a fever and was coughing like mad.

Saturday? Well of course I got out and into the mountains trying to get above the inversion!

My sister didn't feel like running so she watched the kids while Kakes, Ben and I went up Farmington canyon. It had been warmer, but it was still icy down under the inversion - but once we got out of that, SLUSHY MUSHY MADNESS!

Definitely a workout.

Went 4.5 miles up and coming back down was a chore because it kept getting slushier as the day got warmer. Still it was a good three and a half hour workout getting that 9 miles in!

Made it to Yoga today - and my cough lessened some more - so I'm glad I went.

Hopefully I continue on this upward trend.

Now to decide when and where to run this week - I'm a half mile away from 60 miles for this month, which is already the largest distance month ever for me!

Buffalo Run Training Continues!!

This morning as I dragged myself out of my warm bed into the FREEZING cold, I wondered, "What the heck am I doing - this is WAY too early!!"

I was also late getting to the parking lot - so the other guys that were there were gone already!

Another piece of the general awesomeness that always happens when I'm not asleep in my bed in the morning-dark... I forgot my headlamp again!

So alone with no light to share, I headed up the canyon.

At about 3 miles the air finally clears up - you get out of the nasty inversion and it doesn't hurt to BREATHE anymore. At the same time 2 guys came back down the canyon, they were only going 6miles this morning, and they mentioned I wasn't THAT far behind the other 3 guys (my brother, MVH, and Steve - none of whom knew I was planning on going) so I took off and tried to up the pace a bit to try to catch them.

They were so close and so far away for the next mile when I finally Tarzan-yelled across the canyon at them and they decided a little break might be nice and they let me catch up.

Although it was 5° when I started - I was warmer after the run than I was last week when it was 10°.

Sir Frosty Lashes of the Monty Python Knights again!

Weird.
10 miles in under 2 hours - Most vert in a month according to Runkeeper - and the month isn't even done!

Saturday morning I ran the same canyon, same route, ALMOST the same distance but we added a mile running back up a part of the canyon looking for my Brother in law who had decided to take a shortcut without telling us. Nice to get an extra mile in I guess!

It really is amazing how beautiful the sky is once you get out of the inversion - check out some of these pics!

In the nastiness

Leaving the Nasty Muck behind!

SNOW NINJA POWER!!

Seriously the air was SO nice. Like that article on Inversion I linked to earlier says - it's like 30+ above the crap, and 10° down in. COLD! 11 Miles, 2 hours 47 minutes.

Friday was crazy busy with Yoga, Rock Climbing, and a crazy Crossfit workout that was tough. I don't like Walking Lunges! I have a feeling they'll be useful though.

I feel stronger and more capable already - although sometimes it is REALLY hard to get up in the morning!!

Revenge of the Snow Ninja!

Revenge is probably a bit too strong a word to use...

Especially since that guy is SLOW. (At least I feel that way!)

But at least he doesn't have to worry about SNAKES in the winter!

So since the last post (and even before!) I've been fortunate to do some great stuff.

Since I signed up for the Buffalo Run 50k I wasn't too worried about training for it any more than I have been.

My older brother texted me one day saying "Hey, have you adopted a specific training plan for the 50K? :)"

I responded "Why yes, yes I have! It's called run when I can and do a lot of yoga and BJJ!!"

Then I googled "50K Training Plans" and the shortest one was 16 weeks, and had a LOT of miles. I looked at the calendar and realized it was just over 10 weeks to the Buffalo Run - and NOW it's only 9 weeks from Saturday!

So I decided to start running a bit more throughout the week and not just relying on my Saturday group runs for training. I started back on the 10th, with a 7.1 mile run along the icy/snowy Legacy Parkway. I definitely don't like running on flat paved trails now that I'm so used to other trails... I got a couple mean blisters as a result!


Also got some BJJ in that day - we worked on Escaping when somebody 'has your back'.
That afternoon a big storm hit and I spent a LOT of time over the next couple of days shoveling snow! Snow shoveling and some pullups were all the exercise I got that Friday - and that was plenty!

Saturday we had our brunch n' run - we ran from Kaysville along the BST up to the waterfall up Adam's Canyon. Lots of people out, we helped one person get out of the icy parking lot before the run, and two more after! All trucks who thought they were tough and wouldn't get stuck. Ha! 5.5 miles of pretty crazy snow and ice!

Monday Yoga was definitely needed but we learned that the Wednesday class was being canceled so they could focus on other wellness needs. Dang! I still have 2 times a week that is 2 times a week more than none! So I'm still happy.

Tuesday morning I woke up to run with a bunch of people from the internet. I'm part of a county trail runners group and they said they were meeting to run up Farmington Canyon which is currently very nicely packed down by snowmobiles and perfect for trail running. 7 people showed up, it was funny that 4 of us had run the Farmington Flag Rock run in July! I was the slowest finisher of that group and I was 11th then!
Five miles up, Five miles down - it's actually a very nice run. I was slow going up, so I only made it 4.75 up, a total of 9.52 miles with VERY cold temps and very pretty frosty lashes!

Yeah... one guy ran in sub 10° weather in SHORTS! CRAZY!
Then later that day I learned about breaking closed guard in BJJ. Talk about fatigued legs during that lesson! I still was able to perform fairly well while sparring against Micah, but I of course didn't win!

Yesterday they did an ab/core class in place of Yoga, so I went to that. It is nice to do JUST ab work since I haven't focused specifically on abs in a long time - they've always been part of a more comprehensive workout. It wasn't too hard, but I'm definitely feeling the soreness, which is awesome!

This morning I had a few options for running. One was to start at 4 am and run 20 miles with the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers crew,  another was to run up Farmington Canyon again with the same group at 5:30 am, and the final option was to wake up whenever and run by myself.

I liked the 'wake up whenever' option best - I feel I need to increase the amount of sleep I've been getting! I got myself up at 6:35ish and was running on the BST/Firebreak from Freedom Hills to Rick's Creek before turning around. Made a measly (but difficult!) 3.34 miles before heading home to shower and come in to work. (The snake picture is from this morning)

Side note: As part of my 50k training and to keep in touch with other crazy runners - I joined fastrunningblog and you can see my running-specific blog here. As if I didn't have enough blogs! I actually have a few of my BJJ Training Notes-type entries typed up (but without Video links, and I like videos on that!) but I haven't decided what to do with them yet... I definitely won't be starting another separate blog for them, but I might put a tab or something on this blog for them... We'll see!

2013 - Plans and Desires, Wishes and Dreams!

2013 looks to be even more fun than 2012!

And that's saying a lot, because 2012 was an AMAZING year!

Also after writing that Giant review post... I think for my recap at the end of this year I'll just do a "Top 5" or "Top 10" instead of tons of pictures and text for every month.

So what's in store for the year Two-Thousand-Thirteen?

A LIST of course!

PLANNED: things I am FOR SURE doing

• Official Things:
• Buffalo Run 50K in March. And preparing for that.Basically I have to run a lot more than I normally would to prepare. I guess I don't "have" to prepare too much - I mean honestly I am not worried about finishing the 32 miles. My goal for this, and why I need more preparation, is I want to be able to move around the days after the race without TOO much soreness. I don't want to be stuck in bed because I can't move from running over 30 miles!
• Spartan Beast - I have like 16 people on my team already - some of the same people we did Tough Mudder with last fall - and people they have invited. I may try to put together some training times much like Justin and I tried to do. I also probably won't do a 'we stick together the whole time' for this... because I don't want to have to wait for people who haven't prepared! I love obstacle races!
• Unofficial or Non-event Things: 
• Yoga, yoga, yoga! We enrolled my beautiful wife in Yoga teacher training - she starts in March. It will be a bit of a sacrifice for a few months where she will be BUSY and learning - but in the end I'm sure I'll learn a lot too! I'll also continue Yoga classes at work.
• Climb more - at least one time outdoors with somebody experienced! (and with more equipment than me!)
• Bag more Peaks - one possible course I'd like is to make it up to Bountiful Peak from the Davis Creek trail
• More HIIT workouts! Pullups! Backyard Exercises! Utilize my awesome pullup station AND improve on it
• Continued BJJ classes at work.
• Slacklining - I got TWO of these for Christmas - so I'll definitely be doing as much of this as I can!

Desires: These are things I would like to do, but haven't signed up or anything official. Still a good chance of doing! These could be possible!

• Dirty Dash - I LOVE the Dirty Dash. It's not hard - it's just good clean DIRTY fun! With a group, and even better, with a photographer - you can have a BLAST. Like I said - I do love the obstacle races!
• Bairgutsman - I wanted to do this last year - hopefully I'll find a way to do it this year!
• More to come!

Wishes: Things that would be nice, but might not be doable.

• BJJ Gym membership - If we can get our finances are a bit more in order I'd love to add some sort of official BJJ along with the stuff I'm learning with Micah. Maybe even at Unified BJJ where he teaches the kids class.
• Ninja Warrior/Parkour style equipment - I plan on improving my outdoor workout equipment - but I'm not sure I will be able to do THIS type

Dreams:Yes... any of these would be awesome! (unfortunately not that likely!)

• Yoga on a Caribbean Island...
• Try out for American Ninja Warrior
• Buy some land away in the wilderness(ish) and create an ultimate obstacle-course/workout/training/adventure course!

Previous years staples that AREN'T on the Docket:

• Ragnar - there is still a chance this could happen - there are almost always people looking for team members last minute. We'll see what happens but I've already done 4 of these... I'd be okay not doing one this year.
• Yeah that's pretty much it that we did last year that we aren't doing!

Other thoughts:

I've been thinking a lot lately about why I do what I do, fitness-wise. I've said my MAIN goal is to be ABLE to do whatever I feel like doing - and to be CAPABLE enough to ENJOY doing it - not beating myself up too much doing what should be FUN. That definitely hasn't changed.

Secondary to that is for Aesthetics. I'll admit I am plenty narcissistic. I want to look a certain way - and I know what I DON'T want to look like.
I admire Tony Krupicka and his abilities - but I don't want to look like him.

Anyway... This year will definitely be great!

A Look Back - 2012 In Review!

It really is amazing to look back a year ago and think "WOW... that really wasn't that long ago!"

But so much happened last year - it was a great year!

In January we started our expedition into PRIMAL living - a slightly modified version of the Paleo or Caveman lifestyle - and we have loved it! Not much happened in January other than that... I didn't even keep the blog updated or anything! Total Running miles tracked that month - 5.02!

In February I did a bunch of Crossfit along with Primal living - and much to the annoyance of pretty much everybody due to the freakin number of pictures I took in it... I accomplished the Peacock pose!
Here's the first ever - in me underwears!

Total running mileage increased (which isn't hard from 5 sheesh!) to 14.4.

In March I again increased my running miles to a Marathon for the month (26.3) including a 2nd place finish in a St. Patty's day 10k. I think I can do better!

I tell ya I do this everywhere now!

 

In April I turned 33 year old,

We got Giant Tires for workouts;

The family trail runs started to pick up momentum and frequency,

AND my wife and I finally got a picture of us doing Astavakrasana together!

While the frequency had increased, the total mileage for April only went up a little, to 26.9

May was a fantastic month. I went to BJJ for the first time with Micah, and that has been one of the experiences I'm most glad I started this year!
The Running with Ed Relay was a disaster, we were not the slowest team at all - but they had us scheduled late, so we were the very last one on the course, and they took down most of the exchanges before we even got there! Still had fun running with the family, but I kind of don't think we'll be doing that one again!

 After RWE we had a GREAT vacation up in Park City where we were reminded of the awesomeness of Ninja Warrior - with nonstop American Ninja Warrior. I even got some Devil Staircase in after a trip to the swimming pool:

I still need to find a good place to train that more! Total running in May - 48.3 miles!

June had two big events that were a TON of fun this year.
First up was our first Dirty Dash - Such a blast to do this with my beautiful wife and these pictures even won us an entry into the Fall Dirty Dash!


Our 'official' pics were so awesome that we had to buy them too... we look great!

Next up in June was the Ragnar! Clan McRagnar was a lot of fun! (I still like pirate themes more!)

 

I like my Hulihee Beard! It's great!
Total running miles for June - 54.6!

July was another busy month. I FINALLY finished my pullup bar in my backyard (and look forward to using it more when it gets warmer again!)

I ran up to Flag Rock for the first time AND got top ten in the Flag Rock Run 7 mile trail race

 The family trail runs got even MORE frequent, even though the reason for them (Ragnar) was done

We even got my family to do some crazy HIIT workouts with our new tires and sledgehammers and pull up bar!

 Dang this is making me miss summer!

July was a fantastic month. It was my record month for monthly distance so far with just one more mile than June - 55.7 miles. A big part was preparing for the Flag Rock run, and then a run my brothers and my dad and I did at the end of the month after witness amazing performances at the finish of the Speedgoat 50k. That was a beautiful 11 mile run along the peaks of the mountains past some way cool lakes. I need to do that trail again this year!

At the beginning of August I realized how awesome the influence of constant fitness has been - I mean I am shocked at the differences from 2007 (left) to 2012 (right)

 We thought we were in shape!
Also in August we got dirty again with Cahoots! GO MUD PIRATES!! We were awesome super-heroes.

I hope that company continues improving - they have a good idea going - required team cooperation! The lines were a bit silly. (Okay... they were ridiculous!)
August marked the beginning of more constant BJJ exposure for me - I finally overcame more of my trepidation at just grappling - getting in there and LOSING! (99% of the time anyway... that's starting to change a little!)
Family trail runs continued, but with vacations and general end-of-summer busyness, they tapered off some, so I ended up with 32.7 miles for the month. Lots of other fit activities though, so it was a fantastic month.

We started September off good by getting people to join us for more HIIT workouts in our backyard and others' back yards as well!

We also ramped up on Tough Mudder training - usually it was just me and my buddy Justin who came to these - and in the end it really helped us out!

There was still a decent amount of trails run, and we felt (and looked) fantastic!

September also added the 3rd mud run of the year to my resume - Dirty Dash take TWO. This time they turned the course around and it was a great time. Next time we do it we'll make sure to get a big group - THAT one is a fun group run.

 

We recorded a few videos during BJJ in September which were very useful - but after those the guy who was doing it had to stop so we lost our camera man.
The very end of September had one of my absolute favorite adventures of the year. The Narrows in ZIONS!! I want to go back there very badly!

 14.7 miles total for the month - but almost half of that was technically hiking the Narrows. SO COOL.

October bumped the mileage up again mostly from TWO events alone.
The first was TOUGH MUDDER. I mentioned before that some of my HIIT trainings and workouts I'd done were in preparation for this event. I did NOT want to fall on Funky Monkey (I didn't) and I wanted to make it up Everest (I did!). Honestly the workouts were definitely useful - Justin and I were a LOT more prepared than the other guys.

It was a lot of fun - but we could have done it in half the time. I also was not a fan of the last obstacle - ElectroShock Therapy. I'm not currently planning on doing a Mudder again for a while!

One week after Tough Mudder - the other event happened. My brother ran the Pony Express 50 miler, we were his crew and his pacers. I ended up running 19 miles straight and definitely had over 20 miles total running back and forth that day! It was a lot of fun to crew for him - and we probably will again this year!

Finally - for Halloween I was Wolverine. That's always a fun costume. I didn't go to work like this:

Although that might have been fun! October Total Mileage: 43.3


In November Micah gave me my first BJJ Gi (older used one,s sure, but I still almost cried!)
The weather stayed fantastic, and we were able to still keep heading up into the mountains, and it was hot!

We ran in the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Leg - I improved my time a little bit to 21:33 and achieved my goal of beating my younger brother!

The day after Thanksgiving was my first run (since the Half Pregnant Half Marathon in 2011!) with the (now called) Wasatch Mountain Wranglers! The name was actually decided on during this run, which came to be known as the Black Friday Bushwhack! Somehow the trail got lost! We still had fun.

November finished with 27.2 miles - still more than March and April!


That Black Friday run kind of set the tone for December - I actually made it to the tops of some peaks running with those crazy fellas. Grandeur Peak, View Benchmark, Mount Olympus, Lake Mountain - all were a lot of fun, and the first 4 summits possibly ever for me! Crazy fun and you can scroll down a bit if you want to see pics and the entries!
I finished out December with a few more wintery runs up to Elephant Rock in Mueller Park

and along the BST to Fernwood Castle on New Years Eve:

Total Mileage for December - 4th Highest month with 48.7 miles! It was a LOT more fun than I thought could be had running around in the snow as well. It's amazing how beautiful it is!

I just realized that I didn't mention yoga much in this recap... which is a shame because without Yoga I don't think I could have made it through this year. I have been able to very consistently attend Yoga 2 to 3 times a week almost the entire year and it has made a HUGE difference. I don't know that I 'progressed' too much, or as much as I thought I wanted to with specific poses or anything - but that's not really the point of yoga! I am still a little disappointed that I didn't spend as much time learning handstands as I thought I would!

2012 was a fantastic year. Runkeeper shows me at 402 miles for the year - and that's just what I tracked - I know there were a few runs I didn't track, and I'm okay with that. I think 2012 was a great springboard into this year and I am SUPER excited for what is to come this year.

In some ways I'm still figuring out what I WANT, but I'll share my plans and thoughts in the next entry!

Onward Two Thousand Thirteen!!!