Day 50

Today was my rest day, which was well needed. My hip/upper leg still has a small pain in it, so I may take 1 more day off to try and get it to heal a little more.

Day 47

Today was a rest day and I worked a bit later than I normally do, so I woke up and made everyone breakfast. After work, we were invited by my friend Ryan to go over to his Mom's house by Granite High to hang out and watch fireworks. We had a great time, although I shouldn't have eaten 3 hot dogs. Now it's late at night the night before I am supposed to run 12 miles and I am still awake. I just loaded up my camelback with some powerbar sports drink and put it in the fridge so that I can just grab it and go in the morning. This will be my first time running with it, but I won't be able to carry enough to take me through the run otherwise.

Day 43

Today was a rest day, after work I did a little bit of yard work, we took the kids to a park with their scooters and let them ride around for a while, then we came home and made banana smoothies. Not too bad of a day. I also weighed in at 178.8, which is down from my high of 204 at the start of the year.

Day 40

Today was a rest day, which helps after running 8 miles in the last 2 days and then getting ready to run 7 miles tomorrow, all in my first week back from taking time off to let my knee recover. My body feels great now, no pain at all which I am thankful for. I really like my new shoes, they are much more comfortable than my Nike's. I'm going to try to get to sleep early tonight because besides running 7 miles, I am taking my kids fishing in the morning as well.

Day 36

Well, today was a rest day, so naturally I went for a hike. I took the day off and we all went on a hike up to Timpanogos Cave. For those who don't know, it's a 1.5 mile hike each way with a 1000+ rise in elevation. I carried my 3 year old Ella the whole way up and down while Sarah carried our baby Jocelyn in a baby carrier. The other 3 kids (Lindsey-5, Emery-7 and Robbie-9) hiked the entire thing, I was very proud of them.

Day 22

Today was a rest day which was nice because I was exhausted this morning. I didn't get much sleep last night, so I reset the alarm about a dozen times this morning. I'm going to hopefully get to bed earlier tonight so that I will feel a lot better in the morning when I go out for my run. I just hope that it isn't raining while I run.

Day 19

Today is a rest day, and it certainly is nice considering I've been pushing myself a little faster this week, not to mention that my last 2 rest days were spent doing yard work the entire days. I've been at work all day, and then we are going to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate the kid's last day of school. I have to work tomorrow as well as get a 5 mile run in early before work, so hopefully I will be able to get to bed somewhat early (ie:before midnight) tonight. I am thinking about driving down to a trail head and doing my run on the Jordan River Parkway. It will depend on how early I am able to get up though.

Day 15

This was another "rest day", I've got to stop doing this. I working out in the yard for about 9 hours today, better that the 12 or so from my last rest day, but still too much. I started just meaning to dig up the chinese elms that keep sprouting up everywhere, but I ended up going along the fence and digging up grass to make a flower bed (there were already rose bushes along that fence, but surrounded by grass. My back is sore, I'm glad the training only calls for an easy 3 mile run tomorrow, I just hope that the rain stops by morning.

Day 12

Well, today was technically a rest day, but it ended up only being a rest day in terms of not running. I was outside from about 8:30 this morning to about 9:00 this evening doing a mountain of yard work that I have been putting off. I ended up drinking about 80 ounces of Gatorade, 32 ounces of water and 16 ounces of milk, plus I had a huge chicken fajita, turkey sandwich and a slim fast shake this morning. Oh yeah, and Sarah made homemade chocolate chip coconut cookies and I had 2 of those. Even after eating that mountain of calories and drinking all that, I am lighter right now that when I got up this morning. I am going to go watch a movie with my kids and have my feet in a foot bath/massager for about an hour, so hopefully I won't be too sore during my long run tomorrow.

Day 8

Today is another rest day, but I am working today so I still was not able to sleep in at all. That Yoga/Pilates workout I did yesterday must have been pretty good because my abs have been sore since. I know these rest days are important and will help me stay healthy, but they sure are difficult sometimes, I just want to get out there and run, but I will stick with the program and keep my eyes on the long term goal.

Day 5

Friday's are rest days designed to have you rest up for the longer runs on Saturdays. It works out well for me because I have got a busy day today taking Robbie to to the Pediatric Surgeon for a consultation about his hernia. I also had a filing come out last night when I decided to have a couple of dots candy that I had bought for the kids when we walked to blockbuster, so I also need to get into a dentist, but I am waiting to find out what goes on at the consultation this afternoon with Robbie before I schedule anything for that.

Day 1

Today is the official start to my training schedule, although it is a rest day. In the training plan, Hal Higdon says to spend this first day "contemplating the training that will begin tomorrow." I'm excited to start training, I just hope I am able to stay injury free and make it to September 19th. I think the thing I will have the hardest time with is making sure I get enough sleep and that I am able to get myself out of bed each morning. I've got to work on my core strength also to improve my running and endurance, so if anyone has any suggestions for core excersizes other than crunches, I'd love to hear them.