What's With The Helicopter?

My buddy Scott and I decided to hit the hills last night after work. We were hoping to put in about 10 miles and the weather turned out to be absolutely perfect! We ran on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Draper and although it was still quite sloppy, and somewhat slippery, we didn't have too many problems keeping a running pace.

While making our way towards Corner Canyon, we heard a helicopter approaching from behind, flying low. It zipped right by us, then turned around and came back in our direction. Strange. We thought maybe they were searching for something (or someone), but then it stopped and hovered right next to us. We noticed it was a news helicopter, so we joked around saying we might be on the news. It hovered there for a good minute or two, then finally went off into the distance.

The run went really well and we got in a good amount of vertical. We were both pretty spent by the end of the run. I finally got home and started making dinner when I hear my phone ring. It's my sister Brittany.

She asks, "Did you run after work?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Did you run in the mountains?"

"Yes."

"Were you wearing a red jacket?"

"Yes."

At this point I thought for some weird reason that she was driving somewhere near the trail - not even close to her home, mind you - and she saw me.

Then she says, "I saw you on the news."

I laughed, completely forgetting about the helicopter. (Yeah, I'm a bit slow after a hard workout!) I didn't think it was really newsworthy, but we do live in Utah :)

Anyway, here's my 5 minutes of fame. (ok, so it's more like 10 seconds)

24 seconds in...

Antelope Island Training Run: 2/12

It's been a crazy week so I haven't had much time to write.  I've even neglected my daily logbook for about a week as well.  Time to get back on it I guess! 

Anyway, I was able to get out to Antelope Island last week for a training run.  There was a pretty solid group of 30 or so people that came out.  Good times!  I stuck with my buddy Scott for the whole run.  When I do these longer training runs, I like to take it easy and enjoy myself, rather than suffer by pushing myself too hard.  I do enough of that during the week!  So we took it at a steady pace. A few pictures for your viewing pleasure...

All in all a great day; beautiful weather, and 23 miles under my belt.  Starting to feel fit and ready to race in about 5 weeks!

On The Upward Trend

I really look forward to this time of year.  Daylight extends ever so slightly each day, temperatures slowly start trending up, and training comes into full swing.  OK, so this is only the second time I've run through winter, but you catch my drift!  I'm rousing with life again and feel as though I'm just coming out of hibernation.  It's not to say I haven't been running through winter, because I have.  The momentum though, is finally on the up and my energy is in a focused, entirely positive direction.

Another exciting aspect of this time of year is finalizing a schedule for the upcoming year.  The major piece of my running puzzle was completed on Saturday when the lottery for Wasatch was held.  Unfortunately, it's not happening for me this year :(  I was a bit bummed at first, but now I have the opportunity to run the Bear 100.  Since it happens two weeks after Wasatch each year, I don't know that I ever would have done them both in the same year.  So I'm stoked to be able to run the Bear this year!  It's a new challenge on what will be a completely new course for me.  Plus I'll probably end up running most of the Wasatch course in training this summer, so I can't be too bummed about it!

Training is going about as expected.  Been hitting some weeks in the 50 mile range, and I'm hoping to hit 60 this week.  Could be interesting though, as I got my annual cold last week and skipped a few days running.  I'm glad it hit now instead of later!  It feels nice to just about have it out of my system, though.  I'm less than 7 weeks from the Buffalo Run so now's the time to step up and knock out some good runs.

I've also decided to do a run of marathon distance or greater each month this year.  I got my January run in the last Saturday of the month.  It was a perfect day and I was able to bang out my 26.2 pretty easily.  I was trashed afterwards since I didn't hydrate very well or take in enough nutrition, but that's beauty of training... Teaching your body to go without, which in turn makes you stronger.  Not everyone subscribes to the aforementioned philosophy, but it seems to work for me!