I think I'll find a lover...

Well I first off like to apologize because it has taken me forever to actually post something, you could say that I was being be lazy. I would have all of these good ideas that I wanted to share but then I would just forget about it, I blame summer school.  Life is great, I really can't complain about too much but I have actually been able to run the past three weeks, yeah I know what most of you are thinking. Why did he start running two weeks ahead of schedule? Here is my reasoning, I had only ran once in two weeks before I saw the doctor so I just decided to count that on and I had been itching to go running since after the marathon.
The first time I went running was a really weird experience for me, I was just waiting for something to hurt or for the wheels to just fall off. But it did not happen, my legs felt great and it felt as if I had not missed anytime at all. My legs felt and still continue to feel great, my upper body and stomach on the other hand have been a work in progress. For the first time I am actually semi-enjoying running and I had a cool experience that helped me realize just how much I should love running. I got to see the band Augustana in concert a few weeks ago, you know the band that sang the song "Boston". As I was sitting there and enjoying the music because they were playing a lot of new stuff that I had not hurt, I noticed something. I noticed just how much they love doing what they do, the lead singer was so into it and had a huge smile on his face. I realized in that moment if I truly loved running, that I should smile and enjoy it while I can. I am not saying that every run should just be a nice bag of sunshines and rainbows but I should enjoy it.  I want that feeling, I want to finish a nice long run with a smile on my face, but I feel that day is still a while off.
Another thing that I have realized is that when running is tough or I am just starting to get back into shape that my life is better. All of those hurting minutes on the road take all of my stress away, I can take it out on the streets instead of the people that I love or work with.  If I am having a bad day, now I can just hit the streets and destroy everything. When running is hard, it helps me appreciate everything else in my life such as my mom, family, girlfriend, friends, and work.
Wearing a watch while I run just bugs the crap right out of me, I just get paranoid as I run. But as I am working my way back, I need the watch to make sure that I am not pushing myself too hard. I am becoming a Nazi, I won't let myself run too far or too hard. I don't want to be without running again in my life. It was not enjoyable for me or my family, you can ask my mom about that one. I am staying away from any races and just want to find that love. This week should be a great week, I am excited to push my mileage up a bit and just get that feeling of being in shape.

26.2 for two?

When life gets you down, what do you do? Do you go for a run or a nice bike ride? Or do you just sit on a couch and think about what might have been? I am pretty sure that I have done all of those except for the whole running thing and Taylor Swift seems to make my blues go away. So the day has come and gone, the Salt Lake Marathon happened and I was a spectator to one of the greatest things that I have ever seen. I had never seen so many runners/walkers in my life but there was really only one person that I was really interested in seeing, Devin Duncan. With every runner that passed, I thought to myself could I beat them? How much are they hurting right now? Are they enjoying their marathon experience? Watching others run gave me more motivation and fuel so that when I get back running that I will do it right so that I will be with them the next time around.  I feel like I am just blabbering on now but there is a point to reading this.

This whole past week my mind was going crazy and I was thinking about the marathon, running, and what I should I do. As some of my mission companions know, I tend to receive some pretty good inspiration in the shower but this week it was just full of crazy thoughts like I should just show up and run the marathon. I am sure that my mind was not registering the fact that it was 26.2 miles and I had not run that much in the past month.  I wanted to run so bad, every time that I heard the word marathon, my stomach just dropped. Waking up Saturday morning and going to watch the marathon was one of the hardest things that I have done lately, I just didn't want to see something that I could not participate in. Worst part was that I got a message from Dev in the morning telling me that he had been throwing up but he was going to finish no matter what, what a STUD! As I drove down, I felt some peace that everything would be alright and I needed to just be happy for all the runners. When I am at a race, I am not one of those guys that is shouting the whole time and cheering for everyone. I am the silent guy who just sits there and watches people, I can tell when people are hurting and when they are faking to make it. Seeing some people at the end of marathon was pretty awesome, some people just looked drained but they were so determined to finish. I also saw a crap load of people walking the half marathon, not a fan but that is a different story for a different day.  After about an hour, I saw a youngster running with a white Brooks jersey and I knew that it was Dev. That was about the first time that I had said anything and I am sure that my voice squeaked, I am pretty sure that some people laughed. He looked tired but who wouldn't be, he was killing it when he had thrown up early that morning.  He told me to get to the finish, and I jokingly told him to catch a big group of ladies running in front of him. He just smiled and kept running! As I was walking to the finish, I realized that my first marathon is going to be hard, something that I can not imagine right now. Dev was super tired and just laid on the grass, I don't blame him but I look up to him a lot from that 3 hours and 55 minutes that he endured a lot of pain and suffering.

These past few days I have had the chance to think about running and how much joy, pain, and frustration it brings me. I want running to be fun, and I am just dreaming about running some trails and just doing what makes me happy. Seeing one of your best friends achieve one of you life long goals seemed hard at first but it was one of the most rewarding things in my life. Knowing that I got to run with him a few times just makes me happy, I helped him just a little bit. The best is yet to come, 26.2 will get owned sooner or later. So it was not 26.2 for two this past weekend but it will be soon...

Suffering is inevitable...

I was reading this article the other day about how the Kenyans were gearing up to have the best 8 days of Marathons which included the Rotterdam, Boston, and London marathon. There has been a bit of disappointment because the front runners have not ran well, I am sure that the Kenyan Olympic committee is shaking in their boots right now. But this weekend was suppose to be my greatest day of marathoning, because it was going to be my first. I don't put much thought into the first time that I did some thing like kiss a girl, score a goal, first A in school, and other small things but this was different. Maybe because I was doing it with one of my best friends or maybe it was the fact that I looked forward to doing it for a year or so.  The reason that I have not written about this earlier is because I had a lot of emotions and I just wanted it to be perfect.
I do not like going to the doctor but going I had to give in and finally realize that I could not fix my knee by myself, I was only making it worse. I am pretty sure the doctor knew exactly what was wrong with me the moment I told him the things that had been going on. When he came back, after telling me that my right leg was super weak, he explained that I had a problem with my IT band and that me running a marathon was not a smart idea. In that moment, I felt like something was ripped out of me, I just didn't feel the same after I left his office. I was angry at someone or something and I was not about to think I was the reason for this.  The next few days were probably hard for the people around me, I was not a happy camper to say the least. I just didn't feel like anyone knew how I was feeling and it just sucked, plain and simple. After a few days, I looked in the mirror and just realized that I was the one that had over trained and tried to push myself way too hard so that I could be ready for the marathon. I did everything that I knew was wrong, I was upping my mileage at a crazy pace and just not really thinking about what I was doing. Once I realized that I was the one to blame, it made it a bit easier to deal with that I was not going to accomplish my goal. I miss running a lot, it is really always on my mind. Since the injury and my little time away from running, I can be driving and see a long dirt road. I fall into a day dream about running that and just how it would feel, I may seem crazy but when I have those, I just realize how big running is in my life.
May 14th cannot come fast enough but I am starting to understand that I needed this break from running, I needed to know exactly how much I miss it. I have also made some promises to myself that I am going to make running fun and not something that I have to labor at all of the time. I want to go on a run and not worry about how far I am running or how much time I have run. I want it to be a peaceful experience. This Saturday will be a great day, it will be a day that I get to witness a great friend accomplish something amazing. Hurting my knee was not the end of my running life, it was only the beginning...

Provo Canyon Pain

Well I am back writing and I know that it has been a long time but I have been working more and really just sulking in the fact that I have  not been able to run all that much of late. A lot of things have been going on and a month or so ago just went I thought training was about to take off and I was going to hop on the track and do a small workout, my knee started to feel a bit different. By the end of the week, I was the most sore that I had ever been and could barely walk after runs, I looked funny. I just kept pushing through the pain but it got to the point were I could not even bend my knee so I decided to take a few days off to see if that would help.  I also decided to buy some new running shoes, my Nike Skylons have around 800 or so miles on them, not recommended at all. I was so excited to get out and just hit the road again, I had missed the peace and thinking time that it gave me.  That week went pretty good, but the pain was there, but icing my knee actually made a big difference and I felt that I was on the way back. Dev wanted me to go on a 18 miler up Provo Canyon with him, so I agreed and was prepared to take a whole lot of medicine.  I don't know if I was more scared to run 18 miles, because I had never ran that far or that my knee may act up and I may be stranded in the middle of no where for a while.
Well Saturday came and after a late night of watching "How I Met Your Mother", we woke up early to embark on this epic journey.  I felt fine, my knee was not hurting but more like just buggy for the first little bit. Dev was probably sick of me talking but I had to keep it up so that I did not have to think about my knee.  Provo Canyon is so pretty and the trail is so amazing, probably the best place that I have ran in a long time, conversation was great as well. We saw an old lady that was running with her dog, she looked like she could out run both of us. This was turning into one of my best runs in about 2 and a half years and we even went shirtless as we ran up a road that was off Provo Canyon. We were a bit scared of getting attacked by a Cougar but it was all good. The first 9 miles were alright, my knee was not all that bad but then we started to run downhill and you could say that everything just fell apart.  As we stopped for water at 11.5 miles, the pain that I felt in my knee was off the wall and I could barely walk. I told Dev to keep running and I would catch up, so how did I overcome the pain. I started to sing some primary songs, it was pretty funny but it helped and I was able to catch up to him. After seeing some guy just tear it up with Crocs on his feet, it gave me the motivation to keep on going, but Mile 14 was the last straw. I stopped and about to fell to the ground, the pain was so much so I told Dev to finish up and I would just be waiting there for him to finish. Yeah, it sucked because other than my knee being super bad I felt so good, it was the best that I had felt in a long time and I was excited to see how I could push myself those last 4 miles.

The Ice bath in the Provo river made things feel a bit better but I was sure that I was going to be sore but I just did not know how much.  The water was so cold and I was glad that Dev went first so I could just know that he had felt the same pain but the pain was only about to come. When we got back I could barely walk but the worse thing was that I had a date to go and watch the BYU baseball game. After a Denny's run, which was amazing, I headed to the game and just limped around. I wonder what people were thinking, I looked goofy. I have yet to recover from that so I had not ran until last Saturday when Dev and I had prepared to run 14 miles but this time was a different story. I made it about a mile, then the knee just took a crap on me. Yep, it means that I got to go the doctor, just pretending that it does not hurt doesn't cut it anymore. The marathon is a month away, so something has to get fixed or it will be the second marathon that I have registered for and won't be able to run.

Small Loop, Big Fun!

Well I am back in the game, I no longer have strep so that means that I can run a bit now and it was a good weekend for that. Running always makes like a lot better, or at least for me. Somethings have been happening especially with the Salt Lake Marathon and as of right now, we are have no idea if it is going to happen. So Dev and I have done a bit of research to see some other marathons that same weekend and as much I would love to run the Gunnison Marathon, I would prefer the Salt Lake. We have already paid so I do not know what they are going to do if they cancel it. I also signed up for "The Tough Mudder" this past week thanks to Billy and Brance Brown. It was my Valentine's present to myself, but I really am excited to put a bit of spice in my running in October.

My first run back from strep was alright, just a nice little 3 mile run that felt pretty good but I was kind of unsure how far I would be able to go on Saturday. Dev was fighting bit of a cold so we decided to do the small Morgan loop and do 9 miles, 2 shorter than we did two weeks ago. It was a beautiful not so cold morning, 22 degrees, and we started off. A nice surprise was that there was a lot of people out and running. Some of them knew me which was kind of weird but I think alot of people know that I am a runner and usually roam the streets. I wonder if anyone ever missed me while I was on my mission? Or just wondered where the goofy tall kid was? It is really good to be back and the run started off great, we decided to do the hills first so that was kind of nice to get out of the way. I think one thing that I have learned to love is just the conversations that you can have when you run. You can really talk about anything, we chatted about our goals of running the Boston and other crazy exotic marathons. I hope that those goals can be fulfilled when I get older. One of the best moments of the run was when we passed this guy who was outside of his house and the only words that he said were "You guys are crazy" and then Dev turned to me with a smile on his face. He loves when people say that and later on the road he told me that is one of the many reasons why he runs, because people think we are crazy. Running in Morgan is beautiful, it is so open and the mountains are just great to look at as you run. This run hurt a bit more than the 11 miler that we had. I really had to go to the bathroom but I just held it until we got back to my house. As I run and start to hurt, I love to think about the marathon and about those last few miles that may bring me a lot of pain. I need to prepare myself for those moments, and I just love the feeling that I get after a nice long run.Of course we continued with the tradition of eggs and Tiger Woods golf after the run. Dev is 2-0, I wish I could putt better but hey I feel that I am on my way to run a good marathon.

The 1st Long run

That title has nothing to do with the Super Bowl that was just played but I was a little upset that the Patriots did not pull it out in the end. I love Tom Brady and just the way that he conducts business on the field but hey you got to give the G-Men some credit, they did what they needed to do for a second time to shut the Patriots down just enough. This blog is not about the NFL, this blog is suppose to track my life and especially my training for the Salt Lake Marathon that will go down in April. Every time I go on a run, I am thinking about that race and how I need to prep myself for those last few miles. I have never ever ran that far but I am so ready for the challenge that it is going to be. 
The funny thing is that I decided that I wanted to run this marathon on my mission, what was I thinking? Those were the words that kept going through my mind as I got back and started to running in the altitude, it was pretty bad. I had biked and ran a bit my last few months in the mission so I knew that I was in better shape than the runs were telling me but I would get done and just want to die, just lie on the floor and die. But this past week something happened to me, I think I actually fell in love with running and it all started with me not wearing a watch. I think when I run, I put to much emphasis on how fast I am going and all that stuff. I decided to leave the watch home and I was so much more relaxed, and running did not feel so painful anymore. I was just running because I wanted to and it was actually a lot easier, it felt so much better. But my friend, who I am running the marathon with wanted me to run a 12 miler with him on Saturday. I thought about that all week, because even though my runs were good they were not anything that showed that I could hold my own on a long run.  He slept over at my house on Friday and we stayed up and just talked it, it had been along time since we had just talked about the good old days.
Waking up the morning was not that hard but I had a feeling that it was going to be pretty cold but his Iphone told us that it was 25 degrees so we both had hope that it would warm up. We did not factor in the wind but it was alot colder than it said it was but I was excited to get my run on.  I started off a bit and turned to Dev and asked him at what pace we were running, he told me that it was about 7:17. I was super shocked, it was way to easy for that pace but I decided to slow down because I would rather slow down then crash at the end. But it was still a steady pace, the farther we got on the run, the better I felt. I realized something, that running was not as hard anymore because of all the stuff that happened to me on my mission. Even though I felt some pain in those last few miles, it was nothing compared to the doors that I had slammed in my face, rude jokes, people lying, and all that good stuff that happened on my mission. My mission helped me with my running and we had one last little hit to tackle before we were done and I just hit it pretty hard, I wanted to see what I had left and it felt pretty good. I don't think it was that fast but it was a great time and a huge confidence builder for me, I am in better shape than I thought. But I still have a long ways to go so that we can have a good marathon. Life is getting better, and running is my new love!!!