During my run Saturday evening I had so much going through my head that I couldn’t decide what I was going to title this post, so this is actually a combination of all of the possibilities.

Faster than a bunny: I was running on the rail trail, and startled a bunny out of his hiding space, and we ran together for 30 seconds or so. And I wasn’t faster…little bunny definitely won this race

Camelbak: It was hot, and I was going to need some sort of hydration on this run, so I decided it was a good opportunity to try the Camelbak shirt I picked up on woot.com for $20 a couple of months ago. Despite the uncomfortableness in driving in it, I got used to the feeling while running within half a mile. There was no noise or sloshing, which was good. All-in-all, I was pretty nice. I will wear again.

Instant Negative Splits: Guaranteed way to get negative splits – run uphill, into the wind, mostly in the sun, then turn around. Run downhill with the wind at your back, mostly in the shade. Trust me – the second half of your run will be faster

I went for a lunchtime run on Friday. It was so much fun! A quick 5 miles on my favorite loop from the office. I often come in to run it on weekends, but very rarely have done it any other time. I wasn’t expecting any clients in the afternoon, so I didn’t feel bad getting moderately sweaty (or the slobber kisses I got from a rottweiler who would have happily run with me instead of his owner). Got back to the office, stretched, ate lunch…I have to find a way to make this a habit, at least weekly if not more often. But given that nothing happens Friday afternoons anyway, maybe I should stick to Friday lunches.

Had our Ragnar Wasatch Back team meeting last night and decided on legs. I’m doing *the* Ragnar leg this year! We’ll see how the Piriformis takes it. I’m going to prepare by running a couple of major hills in the next couple of weeks. My total mileage is just about what I’ve been doing, so I don’t have to worry about that.

Okay, I can’t decide if it’s sick or allergies, but whatever it is, it’s kept me from running since Monday. My throat is on fire!

Saturday I had a 45-mile relay race. It was meant for 5 people, but they were lenient with #s if you had kids since the race benefited the education foundation. I ran with a couple of friends and their 3 kids. The two youngest kids each did one leg (actually, one filled in for her mother for a couple of miles, too), and the older did two legs. My friends have been running and preparing, but as we all know, it’s hard to train for your first relay race. You’re never prepared for how hard that second run of the day is going to be.

Since I’m ‘the runner’, I did the two longest legs – 6.2 miles and 5.8 miles. Which would have been fun and doable in the best weather conditions…

We woke up to snow Saturday morning. It was snowing at our start time, snowing at our second stop…then the weather turned cloudy, then the sun peeked through, and by the time my first leg started, I was cursing myself for not changing into shorts and thinking about ditching my shirt for just a sports bra! But no fail, this is Utah…it got windy, then cloudy, and then I fought snow flurries and wind for my second leg. It was almost entirely on trails, and I followed a sheriff (isn’t it great the sheriff’s department had a team?) for the entire leg. I caught him on the trails, but he pulled away from me…fast…when we hit the pavement for the last mile. I barely made the cut-off time! I didn’t even know we were in danger of missing it, but I was the last runner to make it. By the time we finished, it was snowing again.

It was fun – no doubt about that, but I have to say the weather was the most aggravating thing I’ve had to deal with in a long time. There was no way to be prepared from the start to the end of any given leg, and I spent a good deal of energy worrying about what I should be wearing. But, it all worked out! Unfortunately the ‘party’ at the end wasn’t as well attended as it would have been had it been nice…

My calves were pretty tight that evening, but I’m fairly impressed with the fact that I wasn’t sore Sunday – not a bit! (This really bodes well for the Ragnar coming up in 3 weeks). I really wanted to head out for a run Sunday, but was determined to let my legs rest. Of course, Monday I woke up with my throat on fire, and haven’t been out since.

Yep, that’s it. The title of my post says it all.

After we left Zion, we spent two days at my sister’s timeshare in Vegas. The workout room was great (okay, the whole place was great!)- four treadmills, two ellipticals, three or four bikes, weight equipment, towels, water, tv’s…Chris and I decided Monday afternoon (after time at the pool, lunch, and just sitting there reading in the room) that it was time for a workout. My legs had been pretty sore, but were feeling spry by the time I was getting dressed for my workout. So I head to the workout room, where Chris was just about finishing his run.

I turned on the TV. Game shows work as running fodder (plus I couldn’t figure out how to change the channel). I couldn’t get the first treadmill to work, so I tried the next. Woo hoo! Success! I started out nice and easy…but it was so easy. There was so much oxygen! I kept turning up the speed on the treadmill, a bit every couple of minutes. Before I knew it, I was running faster than I have in months, and still felt fresh and ready to go! Since it was an ‘easy’ workout, I held down to 35 minutes, and ran 3.55 miles.  But it’s always just so shocking how easy it is to run at 5000 lower in elevation than you live and train.

Chris and I left the office early on Friday for our post-tax season vacation. We headed first to Zion National Park, and camped at a mega-campground right outside the entrance Friday and Saturday. We hiked about 6 miles Saturday on various trails. I really was a little tired from that, so I didn’t do quite as much mileage as I had planned. But both Saturday evening and Sunday morning, I got the honor and absolute pleasure of running in Zion NP. It was great. I ran on the Pa’rus trail (short of 3.5 miles regardless of what the park maps say) with short side trips onto the Watchman trail for some extra mileage.

I have to admit Saturday evening I was a little weary about my run. It was hot. I was tired. But it was a great opportunity to try out my new Nathan handheld water bottle holder…thingy. The first 1/3 of the run was, as expected, really hot. But the upper part of the trail is well-shaded, and by the time I got back to the lower part the sun had just barely dipped below the western cliffs. I passed many walkers, some bikers, and just one other runner. (We gave a head nod and a ‘hey’ as we passed. I believe there was an understanding about how lucky we were to be running in the park).

But the great thing? On the shuttle back to the campground there was a woman with her husband who I could tell was kind of looking at me. The next morning (I did a much more extended version of the trail, starting at the campground and going back past it for a total of about 6.8 miles), I saw the woman and her husband out for a run on the Pa’rus trail! That made me quite happy. I hope she saw me out running and said ‘honey, that’s what we’re doing tomorrow!’

Running in the park was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous, especially since I picked not-too-hot times to try it. Warning – DO NOT attempt this between the hours of 10AM and 4:30 PM from April to October. You wouldn’t make it.