All it takes is all you've got

Aaron and I met with our friend Danny in North Salt Lake to run together.  I was a little nervous about running since my last run on Friday caused severe knee pain.  Taking Saturday and Sunday off seemed to do a LOT of good though.  We started off very slow and my knee felt fine until we had to go across some cruddy snow at around mile 4 and then my knee started nagging.  After another mile it was slowly nagging more and I decided to bow out at mile 5.75 since we just happened to be running by Aaron's Sister's house.  I didn't want to push it and injur my knee more.  Need to get that knee feeling better so I can race on Thursday and get my training back up to speed.  Aaron and Danny continued on for a total of 13.1 miles.

Went to the Bountiful Recreation Center to work out since I heard its like smoking a pack of cigarettes if I run for an hour outside in this cruddy inversion air.  Question: if the air is so horribly damaging outside, would it really be THAT much better in a large building with doors opening and letting that air in every 13 seconds? 

I did a 2.25 mile warm up on the treadmill and my knee was pretty tight.  Not wanting to make it tighter, I stretched well and jumped on the elliptical.  I pushed it up to level 14 and kept my heart rate over 140 so as to make the workout equitable to running.  I did 4X45 seconds hard, then 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1 minutes hard with one minute rest between pushes and a cool down afterwards.  I got my heart rate up to the 170s for a bit, at least.  Felt great on my knee and worked some weaker inner thigh and outer calf muscles differently from running. 

Went to the Bountiful Recreation Center again since it was snowing hard and I didn't want to run on the slippy surface that seemed to agitate my knee in the first place.  Ran 6 miles on the treadmill averaging about 8 min. pace.  Felt GREAT!  Small bit of twinging behind my knee but not the same tightness across the top of my knee as I had been struggling with previously.  SO grateful for the 6 miles of actual running I could get.  Didn't want to push my luck, so stopped there and lifted weights for a bit.  Did a set of 10 pull ups and another set of 9.  Very happy about that as I usually just settle for two sets of 7.  Did some other lifts and core work.  The workout really lifted my spirits and put me in a good mood.  Traveling for an entire week with the kids and staying with other people throws me out of my routine and I start feeling blah because I don't eat as healthy and my sleep is not good either.  Working out always lightens my mood though.  The blah lack of routine is worth it though because I get to visit with loved ones and enjoy catching up with my family and friends.  Sunday evening I was sitting in the home where I grew up in Bountiful.  My parents built that home 31 years ago and raised 5 children there.  There we all were, 5 children and their spouses, Mom, our step-father, Owen (I'm sure Dad was peeking in on us in spirit), and 14 crazy grandkids running around us.  It was such an amazing energy of love, support, and understanding in the room as we reunited one last time in our home where we all grew up.  Mom and Owen have purchased a new home together and will be selling the old family home soon, so its the last time we'll all be together in that home.  But I don't mind.  Home is wherever we are.  Home is where family is.

Ran in the Beat the New Year 5k at 11:30 p.m. in Sugarhouse park in Salt Lake City.  Before the race Aaron and I played games with his sisters and their husbands, Ashley and Matt and Emily and Adam.   I fueled up on pizza, peanut M&Ms, soda, raspberry sticks, and apples.  At least I resisted the pie and other sweets I could have been puking at the race.  And I resisted eating after 9 pm so as to have a chance at a settled stomach for the race.  Aaron and I talked Ashley, Emily and Adam into coming to the race with us even though they weren't registered; we figured they could just bandit run it and enjoy the unique exercise of racing to the New Year.  Matt volunteered to stay home with the sleeping kids in the home.  We all left for the race at 10:45ish and got to Sugarhouse park around 11:10.  20 minutes to race start.  Jogged to the race number pick-up and were handed some nice long sleeve tech t-shirts and a race number the same as everyone else: 2010.  Upon learning that everyone had the same race number and there were no more race pins so the volunteer handing out numbers just told us to put it in our pocket, I knew it was not really a "timed" race but more of just a low budget fun run.  All the better! No pressure!  They did claim to give a prize for overall winner and COLDEST runner though, so of course I was after the win and Aaron was after the coldest runner award.  We jogged the 1.25 mile lap of the course together to warm up, took our outer layers off (which included everything except short running shorts for Aaron), and jogged the other half mile to where the race start was. The race was basically two and a half laps around Sugarhouse park.  Aaron looked AWESOME in his bare feet, bare chested outfit in the 20 degree darkness.  He got lots of comments about how crazy/awesome he is.  Right as the race was about to start, my Garmin froze.  Aaron quickly took his Garmin off and gave it to me but when the race started I pushed the wrong button anyway and didn't start the timer until about a quarter of a mile in when I realized I had pushed the wrong button.  So I just forgot about the pace and time anyway and just ran.  There were 4 or 5 men that went out ahead of me, most of them shirtless.  I settled into a comfy pace and really enjoyed the energy and uniqueness of the event.  Finished the race with 12:12 to spare before the New Year which means I ran a 17:48 for the 5k.  Grabbed our camera and took a pic of Aaron finishing.  I got the overall female trophy and he got the Coldest runner trophy!  We celebrated for a couple of minutes and I jogged back to run in with my sister-in-laws, Ashley and Emily.  We hooted and hollered our way into the New Year while running in together.  Such a FUN way to bring in the New Year!!!  Happy New Year Everyone! 

Stayed up way too late last night.  Felt tired from running at midnight.  Didn't feel at all like running.  So I didn't.  Took the kids to Classic Fun Center to play in the bounce house, jungle gym, and bomb zone for a couple of hours with our good friends and their daughter.  Noticed a big white van with a fastrunningblog.com sticker on the back while driving and knew it had to be Sasha.  Pulled up beside them to say hi and Sarah mouthed, "Are you from the blog?"  I bet they get that a lot.  We gave her thumbs up and waved but Sasha didn't seem to get a good look at us.  Good thing...we didn't want to cause an accident or anything.  So Aaron posted a comment on his blog to let him know it was us.  He figured it out anyway because of our Colorado plates.  What were the odds of both of us traveling North on I-15 at about 10600 South at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day?  Random.

YEAH!!!  I LOVE LONG RUN DAY!!!!!

My legs were feeling a lot better this morning than they have felt all week.  Left knee is not an issue anymore.  I think the rest and lower mileage was well needed.  My inner thighs were a little tight for the first couple of miles but after stretching at the 20 minute mark everything loosened up and I felt GREAT!  Took the pace easy and just enjoyed the sunshine.  North Salt Lake sunshine was not as refreshing as Denver sunshine as it had to pass through a film of inversion air first, but still better than cloudy or snowy air. 

14.5 miles in 7:51 pace.  Ran from my Sister-in-law's house in Foxboro, NSL (Redwood Road and I-215ish) to my Alma Mater, Bountiful High School and back.  The route was up Center street in NSL to Orchard Drive.  North on Orchard all the way to 500 S. in Bountiful.  Went into the field house at Bountiful High to get a drink of water and use the restroom.  That place is still the same as when I went there 11 years ago.  And probably the 20 years before that.  Isn't it about time for a rennovation?  Ran back from Bountiful High on residential streets with no traffic so I could run on the road instead of sidewalks.  Decided to add on a little bit at the end to bring my weekly mileage at least up to 40.  Kind-of a pathetic week for mileage.  But I guess my body could use a mini-break every now and again.  Actually my knee was forcing me into it, so I was just following orders.

All in All, our trip to Utah was way fun.  We spent some quality time with all of our in-town family and some friends too.  Stayed up way too late every night playing games and chatting with family.  Ate too much junk food.  Ate some yummy meals too.  Ran a fun race together.  Exhausted our kids with fun overload.  Endured many fatigue-induced kid trantrums and one candy-induced kid puke as well as a philipino food-induced Aaron puke.  Visited some fun kid locations (Discovery Museum in the Gateway Mall and Classic Fun Center in Sandy).  Saw a way cool movie (Aaron and I stuck away one afternoon without kids and saw Avatar).  Visited some nostalgic places (the ward where I grew up, my former High School, and the Bountiful Temple where Aaron and I were married 7.5 years ago).  We also saw some extended family at a dinner at Gardner Village, went to Downtown SLC to get some things at the Church distribution center and visit Aaron's Dad in his office.  So yeah, it was a busy week but a memorable week.  And now I'm glad to be home.  Back to my own bed.  My own routine.  My kids normal sleep schedule and normal moods.  And back to the Colorado sunshine and pleasant running trails.  :)