Morning Runs

I try to go with a group of Davis County runners early mornings at least once a week.

They meet at 5:30 AM at various places and range around the trails - and it's awesome.

Seriously how often can you run for 2 hours in the morning getting around 10 miles usually and still be to work on time?

Awesome.

Even though they are HARD.

On Tuesday morning we ran up what is affectionately known as 'The Wrong %*$(%* Trail!' to the wrong side of 'Chinscraper' (which is a part of the Wasatch 100 Trail race)

It's the wrong trail because if you continue straight (heading behind Fernwood Castle - yes I would buy that if I had the money!!) you are on the RIGHT trail for the Wasatch 100!

And just like the elevation profile on that chinscraper link, starting around mile 5, that's the type of vertical gain on this trail too!

Still it's a beautiful trail - and we had a lot of fun. Took us 2.5 hours to got 6.2 miles!

One of my hiker friends was amazed we were able to do it that fast.

Sunrise!

Tiptoe through the Tulips!

The Cabin!

Almost lost my hat to the wind!

Heading back down

As a result of this ... my quads are STILL killing me. They hurt to touch! Tomorrow I'm going to run again even though it hurts because I need to work it out.

I've done Yoga and BJJ and weights and bodyweight stuff - my legs still work fine, they just hurt!

BJJ is going great. I can't believe I've been doing it for over a year now! My elbow is still a bit funky from an armbar a month or so ago - and I keep slightly re-tweaking it, so I'm trying to be careful with it. We are also getting some new people out to do BJJ - today we had 6 people!

Next week is Ragnar. The Week after that is Spartan Beast.

I need to take a vacation - but even without one planned I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this summer!

I AM going to have to be shaving everything throughout the summer to make sure I don't have any ingrown hairs on my chest and arms and legs... I'm NOT looking forward to that very much.

But who knows - maybe we'll like it!

Time Flies

It has definitely been a busy past few weeks!

Right after my last entry the sickness I mentioned hit me full force. Fever, Ear infection, shakes, weakness, sore throat, coughing.

Nasty. Then the ear infection caused a major cloggin in my noggin that even STILL hasn't fully gone away. The congestion is mostly gone, but there is still a slight lessening of hearing in my left ear. Very annoying.

Needless to say that cut my fitness pursuits significantly for a few days.

Running wise - I have started using Strava along with Runkeeper to track my running. One thing I really like about Strava is the 'segments' that they have, allowing for a little bit of friendly competition, and giving you goals to beat.

Kind of fun to hold 'CR's' (Course Records I think?) for a particular segment.

During the sickness I did not run as much as I wanted, but I did have a couple good ones.

Went on a nice run with the Davis County Group on the upper and lower Farmington Terrace Trails as well (These pics are on my instagram - yay!)

 

Beautiful Morning runs with that group - especially now that even with a 5:30 am start, you don't even need a headlamp!

After 2 weeks without BJJ I was very happy to get back to doing that - and even happier to see that when we started working on omoplata's  I wasn't completely lost and I was able to pick things up possibly faster than I had before! Yay!

Preparation for the physique contest in September is moving along - I'm still not sure what I want to change in my current routines to improve in certain areas like ab and arms definition...

Here's a torso progress picture from May 20th:

 

As you can see one of the major things that will happen before any competition is a spray tan and some other tanning lotions! If you know of any deals let me know!

I have added P90X Ab Ripper and plan to add a day of the Insanity Abs program into my weekly routine. 2 nights a week each program one time - should add a nice little hit to the abs. I haven't done those programs in QUITE some time - my first time doing Ab Ripper X the other night left me sore for longer than expected.

I love it!

On Saturday the Refuse2Quit guys (who I run with a lot, especially since one of them is my brother!) finished the Bryce 100 Mile race. I love the last line of the last paragraph before the video. (Which is awesome, you should watch it!)

We certainly have other friends and brothers who still need to run 100 miles. Time to make plans (Brent and Aaron).

HA! 100 miles is a REALLY long run. Like 24+ hours of running without really stopping!!

Maybe I'll do a 50 miler this year though... Who knows!?

So What's Next?!

I finished my first Ultramarathon.

Sure it was just a 50K, but I DID it, and I'm very happy about that.

But now what?

I feel like there is an ever-present gloom shadowing me right now... And it is very frustrating because things are GOOD!

Had some busy birthdays and lots of time spent with family. We even set up both of my slacklines in my sister's backyard - using the 25m line to almost it's full 82 foot extent! We ended up putting the monkey cage climbing thing in the middle because it was too loose.

Me and my son on the blue ENO line

Mayurasana on the 82ft Gibbon line!

BJJ has been going good - I think I'm getting places where I can avoid and escape submissions -but I still am not very good on the offensive!

So what can I do to get rid of the FOG OF DOOM that is lingering at the outskirts of my life right now?

Should I sign up for another 50k? Maybe bump up to a 50 miler? Maybe sign up for a beginner BJJ Competition? Ooh or I could sign up for a Natural Bodybuilding Men's Physique contest!!

No matter what I do - I need to use some of my accrued vacation time and get out and commune with Nature!

BJJ and Climbing for a 'Big Celebrity'

This week I've done a LOT of BJJ
Which is good because I need lots of practice!

I trained Tuesday at work after having run 6 miles that morning. My feet were bugging me and there was a possible meeting earlier than normal so I turned around at 3 miles. I really hope I'm NOT developing a bunion on my left foot.

Wednesday morning I went to work early to meet Micah to train, and we trained with Gi's, which is nice to do when possible as it is quite a different type of workout, and methodology that can help the no-gi grappling.

Anyway I was invited to go to Fusion again around lunchtime to train so I did that. More Gi time! The more I spend training in the gi the more I'll get used to it.

At Fusion we started with a few bouts of 3-5 minutes straight (3 for the first couple, 5 minutes for later when there were 4 of us rolling). You can see me rolling with Tony (black belt) here and here, and you can see me rolling with Micah (brown belt and my main teacher) here and here. If you watch this video you can see all the different ways I was submitted or choked (usually via Triangle or Armbar). Tony is good, and as soon as his legs are in triangle I can't move them! The 4th guy Gavin is a blue belt (almost purple) who is the closest to my size that I've wrestled, and he's good for a blue belt, so I have trouble with him because I'm not used to it!

My new sweep from under the mount! (It needs work)

Watching those videos makes me realize I should probably get some new gi pants sooner than later... those are HUGE on me!

Today I trained with Mark and Matt because Micah was going to be gone, and we did random finishes and dirty/mean moves to do in self defense situations... which are fun...

Tomorrow I had the option to go to Fusion again - which would be an awesome end to a week of fantastic BJJ training - but I was asked by my workplace wellness coordinator to climb on the gym climbing wall during a tour by a visiting celebrity so he can see our awesome fitness facilities in use. So I'll be climbing, some others will be doing bootcamp classes and other weight-lifting things. I was hoping to climb tomorrow anyway - so that's what I'll be doing! Climbing for a Big Celebrity (which we're not supposed to talk about or anything at the moment, but I'll probably be able to talk about it more later. Yay!)

I think it is great that we are showing off our facilities this way, but I do think it is a bit silly as well.

Mount Olympus and Rolling Out of My League!

I ended up with 61.7 miles for the month of January! Not too bad to have the first month of the year be my longest ever month of running.

However with getting over the sickness that hit us last week - I was unable to get out and do much more... until Thursday, Friday and Saturday!

Wednesday morning I did try to go to an early morning BJJ class, but because of snowfall traffic was horrible so nobody made it. I got on the treadmill instead and made it a whopping TWO MILES in fifteen minutes. Gross. I do NOT like treadmills. Oh well, at least it got me up over 60 for January!

Thursday made it back to BJJ finally and learned some good attacks and from having them in the guard. I haven't put the detailed BJJ technique breakdowns up here for a while, I'm trying to decide how to do that. I like typing them out and explaining it because it helps me figure out what to do a bit better - to think it through and get that down. But I might have a separate section for that, or a big entry with a monthly list of techniques something like that.

Friday morning Yoga and climbing was great, and THEN I went to Fusion BJJ with Micah to roll with another brown belt and a black belt Tony. Crazy! I'm like barely a white belt, so I felt a bit like a slightly resisting wrestling dummy... completely out of my league!

At least having me there meant they were constantly grappling instead of one guy having to wait it out. Tony took some video on his ipad and put them on his youtube channel - if you'd like to waste some time you can see the highlights, (That's me standing in the white gi at the beginning) with an awesome bit of me getting my trash kicked from 5:00 until about 5:30, where I finally get a rear-naked choke, because he TOLD me that he was open for it! You can also see two of the 5 minute grappling rounds here and here, but unless you know BJJ they aren't the most exciting.

Between the two days of BJJ - and as you can tell if you watched the bit where I was tied into knots and stacked on my shoulders, I did something to annoy one of my ribs, so it slowly spread pain and immobility up into the right side of my neck. Seems to happen every couple of weeks lately.

Because I was hurting I decided I would take it easy...

And I got up at 5AM Saturday morning to head up Mount Olympus again!

Had a ton of fun in that 6.7ish miles - and I'm really looking forward to the full video by ThePsychicSasquatch - here's a preview:


Dang! While I didn't do a flip - I DID jump out of that tree! But my phone wasn't being quick so we didn't get any pictures - but it should hopefully be on the video!

Craig Flipping!

MVH Jumpin!

Mayurasana again on Olympus peak!

Me in the tree! I broke that smaller vertical branch... doh!

At the trailhead after

Definitely a fun trip! And I am REALLY impatient for the full vid!

After driving back to my brother's house, we went out again to run with the wives, because my wife was hoping to get a bit more of a run in. She's awesome! It was a beautiful day and we made it about 4.8 miles - so my total for the day was 11.5! Nice!

White sandy beaches?

It was seriously nice enough - I took off my shirt for a bit!

I love my wife!

All in all the last couple days of the week made up for the sloppy beginning!

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!

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!!!