Running on Eddie: This Week in Running 6/25 - 7/12

Friday, July 13, 2018

This Week in Running 6/25 - 7/12 - Back In Utah

Miles to Date: 1010.75

Life

Things were a little rough in Arizona of late. The temperatures kept climbing and my running seemed to suffer.

My plan was to get up at 5 AM most mornings, run 4 - 7 miles and get it done. For a while this worked. Temperatures were in the lower 80's and by the time it hit 5:30 AM, the sun was blazing. Most mornings I could tolerate but by the end I was pretty dehydrated.

Once July hit there was another level of hot. At 5 AM I found it in the low 90's and 4 miles suddenly became challenging.

To compound matters, I just found myself kind of bored. After my run or race on the weekends, I'd find myself updating my blog, taking a nap, and then going to a restaurant and eating way too much food. Then I'd come home, watch some more TV, nap or sit by the pool. I was 100% bored. It wasn't fun going outside and I wasn't willing to drive 2 - 3 hours one way each weekend to seek out cooler temperatures.

In short, Phoenix wasn't a good fit for me.

Finally, I don't think the new job fulfilling my dreams either, but that's another story.

So after some soul searching, I opted to return to Salt Lake City. I hadn't sold my house (or even listed it here) and I was renting a room from my brother, so I had very little reason NOT to return to SLC. Some of my best years were here and I felt like I had traded down instead of up.

So I made a phone call or two and managed to return to my old job and my house. In writing this, I have been here only a few days and I feel a huge sense of relief. I have my old bike trail as well, which I love.

Running

I am a little behind in terms of overall mileage as to I'd like to be. One of my goals was to hit about 2000 miles for the year. I came in about 10 days shy. I haven't ramped up for any mega races (marathons) but I have been running fairly consistently. I haven't been able to get the mileage in that I'd liked to have had either in Arizona due to the heat.

On the plus side, though, I have been focusing on shorter races. The start of the year found me doing a ton of half marathons -- in the middle of summer -- I have been focusing on 5Ks. This has translated into focusing more on speed than endurance. Unfortunately, even getting in a 7 mile run since returning has been challenging. I've lost a bit of my endurance. So I'll be focusing on building that back up.

Hiking

One of the first thing I did upon returning is to visit Little Cottonwood Canyon to see the wildflowers. I had been thinking of this canyon ever since July had rolled around. Usually around this time of year the wild flowers are in full bloom.

With time in between jobs, I opted to do a my 5 mile jaunt. It was quite a workout at that altitude, but the altitude didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

I got some fantastic pictures and I was so thrilled to be back home.