Running on Empty

I'll log 11 miles of elliptical equivalent though my foot seems to be mending.  Felt like I needed to do something before church and heading off with the scouts to Camp Steiner tomorrow. 

 At camp, since I'm not a scoutmaster, I'm hoping to get away to just run.

I snuck in 6.5 miles Tuesday evening while at Camp Steiner before it got too dark to find my way back.  It had been a long day, as very late Monday night we had to get special permission from the camp (rules and red tape) in order for me and the scout master to leave just after midnight in order to take home a boy who had lost his camp privileges.  Yeah, I'm so mean -- we actually told him he'd be going home if he couldn't follow the rules to keep himself and the other scouts safe.  He was shocked when we followed through.  Of course at 11:30 p.m. when he was throwing a fit and telling us that he couldn't go home because his parents had left for a mini-second honeymoon I was having some concerns.   You see, there is absolutely no cell phone coverage up there so we couldn't check until we had already hiked him out and driven back to Kamas.  Anyway, we caught him in yet another lie, which helped justify his return when we delivered him to his parents at 2:30 in the morning.  I was back up to camp bright and early Tuesday morning.

So, here is proof I was there:

4 easy late when I was back home after a long day at camp and opening day of Harry Potter (which I thought was hilarious and very entertaining). 

Still feel like I'm going around in circles by doing mostly elliptical so my foot can fully heal.  8 equivalent.

Mission accomplished.  The mission was to actually run and see if my foot bothered me in order to evaluate whether I might still run Des News Friday.  Initially, (I know this may surprise all of you but I used to do more outside running) I had thought to run up and down Emigration Canyon which I have done in the past.  However, I took a more reasoned approach and decided to run somewhere where I could do some loops so if my foot acted up I could end my run.  It had been years, but in the past I had done some Salt Lake Running  Co "teaser runs" along the Jordan River Parkway further north from my section in Riverton.  I thought this would be a good outside location because it has a lot of amenities, should they be needed, including water and restrooms.  This section of parkway had the added bonus of Galloway Training group water coolers, although I didn't take any of their stuff (I was tempted just to see what they had).   I thought I might run into cuz JohnnyV, but instead saw a couple of folks who don't actively blog and more pleasantly, ran into Teena.  We ran together a while, and I can testify that she is running strong and faster than she was last year.   I still haven't pressed the pace, which means my fitness is way down, but I did slog through 20.25. 

1) 8:04; 2) 7:32; 3) 7:38; 4) 7:10; 5) 10:41 (stopped here to talk to Rick Pearmain and then Teena and then we headed out -- I didn't stop the Garmin); 6) 9:23 (again forgot to stop Garmin for water break); 7) 7:55 (think at this point some guy riding his bike only wearing nude colored underwear and his biking shoes went by, very strange); 8) 8:20; 9) 8:11; 10) 7:59; 11) 7:51 (Teena busted out a strong finish to her run and we parted ways, she ran better than her marathon pr pace for 15, kudos to her on a very strong effort for a tough run); 12) 8:25; 13) 7:24; 14) 7:26; 15) 7:26; 16) 8:32; 17) 8:15; 18) 8:31; 19) 8:30; 20) 8:40; 20.25)  1:35 (6:20 pace just to finish).  

Any way my effort was good and the run was very reassuring.  Felt good to take an hour and a half after to mow the lawn and just let the legs relax.  Took precautionary anti-inflammatories and iced the foot, though no problems to report.

Pics of Jordan Parkway:

With a number of forks in the path, actually took a few paths and ran over one bridge that just lead to dead ends, oh well.

Sound of your feet on these sections is very cool.

Some dude came sprinting full speed towards us through an underpass like this past two women running the other direction and the dude was wearing jeans, not running gear.  (That rarely happens on the treadmill.)