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7.3 miles in 1:27:54 at a rate of 12:02/mile, 125bpm, 132bpm max.  I'm nursing my knee again.  It seemed to flair up after Friday's football and softball and then Saturday's long run.  So, I took yesterday off.  Ran gingerly today and it didn't really hurt until the last mile.  I'm not meeting my mileage goals, but the main goal is not to disable myself to prevent me from running the St George marathon.

4.62 in 56:14 12:10/mile at 125bpm, 133bpm max.  Cutting way back on the training and apparently losing fitness.  That is mostly due to nagging injuries, but partly due to lack of time as we prepare for the trip to Chicago tomorrow for Brian's white coat ceremony.

Charles leaves on his mission Aug 17, then Alma and Ben start school and then Elisa starts BYU.  Maybe we can breath easy then.  Trouble is that it will almost be taper time before I ever get into marathon shape.

6 miles at 12:16 / mile (126bpm, 134bpm max) along Lake Michigan.  I started out in the rain, but nothing would stop me from this unique opportunity.  This was truly a "run in the park" with beautiful lake views.

Karen and I stayed at Brian's apartment in the Hyde Park area of Chicago (where he is starting medical school at the University of Chicago).  Coincidentally, Obama is also from Hyde Park.  He would have been in the majority in the area.  Based on the runners I saw, I believe that the area must be about 75% black.

This run was to make up for Saturday's long run.  Once again, I ran along Lake Michigan, but much further.  My goal was to run to the sky scrapers, which I did.  I passed up the new Soldier Field stadium before I turned around.

I'm pretty sure I was the slowest runner, even though my heart rate was higher than normal at 129bpm.  Average pace for 13.16 miles was 13:11 per mile.  Maybe I can blame it on a sore throat that I picked up, or the humidity, or the old age, or just flat out of shape.  But is was still a neat experience and a neat view.  They are in the midst of park improvements, which meant there was an official detour on the running path.

4.62 miles in 1:00:55.  13:12/mile, 126bpm, 134bpm max.  Nothing good to say except that I ran.  Maybe I'm losing fitness with the reduced running these days.

We arrived back in Orem yesterday, so this was a normal running route.

6.35 miles in 1:20:42  Average pace 12:43/mi, average heart rate 125bpm, max 133bpm.  My favorite constellation, Orion is back on the eastern horizon before dawn!

Two runs back to back.  First run was 12:31 per mile for 6 miles with an average heart rate of 126bpm.  Second run was 9:03 per mile for 7.5 miles with an average heart rate of 160bpm.  Besides the faster speed, the second run was much more difficult.  Mostly uphill, except for an extremely steep decline at the end where most of my energy seemed to be used for braking so that I wouldn't fall.

7.3 miles in 1:07, give or take a minute.  GPS had a dead battery and so timing came from my cell phone today.  The run felt pretty good after a difficult run on Saturday.  I'm thinking I won't be doing very many more slow runs until after the marathon at this point.  I need to get the miles in at somewhere close to my target marathon pace, which is 9:10/mile.  That was also my approximate pace today.

10.19 miles in 1:27:05 for an average pace of 8:33/mile and an average heart rate of 154bpm, max 172bpm, max speed 6:23/mile.  I ran this kind of like a race to see what I could do.  These were my mile times:  9:25, 8:42, 8:38, 8:33, 8:29, 8:32, 8:45, 8:22, 8:14, 7:59, and 7:45 for the last fraction.  I was especially pleased with how I finished off.  But I was probably going too fast for anyone to see. :)

5.51 miles in 48:43 for an average pace of 8:50/mile.  Heart rate monitor didn't do its job today and it didn't much matter because I'm done with the slow running for a while.

We delivered Charles to the MTC (curbside drop off) on Wednesday and Elisa will be off to BYU in four days.  Alma and Ben start school on Monday as the only ones left at home.

Well, I thought I was done with slow running for a while.  It took me 3:01:39 to run 18.1 miles this morning and it wiped me out so much that I couldn't stand up in the shower.  I didn't worry about the heart rate, which averaged 144bpm, but I tried to keep a decent pace.  Overall average pace was 10:02/mile.

5.09 miles in 48:20;  Average pace 9:30/mile, 150bpm;  Max pace 6:11/mile, 165bpm.  This was my climb the mountain and then roll down route.  Being the first day of school, it was a little earlier than usual.  Orion was still easily visible as I arrived home.  I also saw what must have been a meteorite flash across the sky in front of me.

It seemed like an easy day was the best choice for today.  Even though I had decided to stop the low heart rate runs, maybe it makes sense once in a while.  I ran 6.4 miles in 1:19:04 for an average pace of 12:22/mile and average heart rate of 125bpm.  Max pace was 9:06 and max heart rate was 132bpm.  Sometimes its better not to tear your body up running hard.  At least that's what seems right to me.

GPS was dead today.  Ran hill route of 5.1 miles in 46 minutes, give or take a minute.  That comes out to about 9:01/mile, which I consider to be a decent average for that route.  Ben wants to get up early and run with me tomorrow.  I'm excited about that.

Ben wanted to run with me today, for which I was excited.  I figured low heart rate would probably work out pretty well, but he started out so fast that my heart rate went up a little more than the 130 threshold.  Then he slowed down a lot.  With both knees hurting, I dropped him off back home after two miles.  It was still his longest run ever, though.  After that, I continued for a total of 5.67 miles in 1:07:09 at 11:50/mile with an average heart rate of 125bpm, 135bpm max.

Ben was asleep by the time I got home, but this could be the beginning of something very good.

20.13 miles up and down Provo Canyon in 3:16:11  Average pace: 9:45/mi, Average heart rate 147bpm, max 164bpm.  Very tough run, but better than last Saturday in terms of speed, distance, and energy left afterwards..  Hope to do it once more in two weeks before I start the taper.

No GPS today, but I ran with my brother who had a GPS.  Our average pace was 9:56, which we maintained throughout.  I enjoyed running with the "master", especially in his weakened state after his Saturday 28 mile trek to the summit of King's Peak and back.

5.54 miles in 49:05 (Avg pace, 8:52/mi, Avg hr 148bpm)  Max pace 6:35/mi, Max HR 164bpm.  It was a good run with a generally increasing pace:  10:13, 9:01, 8:31, 8:24, 8:30, and 8:20.