My Saturday and Sunday this week were total opposites. Saturday was very busy and Sunday I did next to nothing. I woke up on Saturday morning fairly early to fuel myself properly for the 22 to 24 mile run I would be doing a couple of hours later. Normally I have toast and jam but recently I have been eating PowerBars mainly because our toaster broke and it’s a pain to grill the toast in the oven. I also have a cupboard full of PowerBar stuff so I need to get through them sometime so the toaster breaking has given me such an opportunity. On the longer days of training, I get through a bottle of some sort of sports drink (usually PowerBar Endurance) along with my coffee. I always know if I am hydrated enough if once I start to run, I need to pee. We usually stop 10 minutes in anyway to relieve ourselves so I'm never too uncomfortable. We met at Woody Mountain Road for the run and put our bottles and gels in Greg's bicycle basket (he's rigged a big basket with bottle holders on the back of his bike so we can just grab the drinks as we need on the run. I felt pretty good once we started as we were going nice and easy and it was good weather outside. Greg was having a tougher time than us as the road had got very bumpy over the past week and that didn't make for an easy cycle. The group split up pretty quickly with Brett, Jordan and myself a little bit in front so Greg was cycling between groups to give them all fluids. Jordan turned around at an hour and Brett and I continued to the 10 mile mark. We had run fairly easily out to the point (66 minutes) so we picked it up on the way back a little which felt good. I had a gel strapped to my bottle but I wasn't sure about taking it as it was caffeinated and I wanted to take a nap once I got back but in the end I decided to wait for the hill and until I was out of breath to take it down so I could practice swallowing it down when I am working hard. Of course I split it right down the side again and lost half of it but I got a couple of mouthfuls and swigged it down with my drink. My hands were really sticky so I ended up running most of the way back open handed as it was annoying when my fingers would stick when I made a fist. We got back to the start in 62 minutes (2.08 for 20 miles) and then I continued on a 5 km road loop around the Gore offices. This brought me to 23.5 miles for the morning and I called it a day. Instead of doing the usual drills, strides and stretches, I had to jump straight into the car and head back to the house as Julie was taking me to my birthday helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. I got out of the car and my hip had already stiffened up from how bumpy the road was. I was hoping I could ease it out in the shower and not be limping all day. I got out of the shower to find Julie had made me a huge spinach omelette, which filled me up for the morning.

We drove out to the canyon and arrived with plenty of time at the heliport. Julie gets travel sickness so she bought a dramamine to help with that and then we climbed into the helicopter. I think I got the worst seat on the helicopter as I was facing backwards and my legs really crammed up. Julie was really lucky and got the front seat beside the pilot. It was all judged on weight where you sit so I should have tried to lose a few pounds to get a better seat! The ride was amazing. I only got a little squeamish when we got to the edge of the canyon as the helicopter started to sway with either a temperature change or an updraft. I was fine for the rest of the ride and it wouldn't have mattered anyway as I would have been too distracted with how amazing the ride was. We flew over to the North Rim, where there was controlled burn going on, and then around a bunch of peaks and then back onto the track we flew into the canyon on. We had such a good time and decided to stop by McDonald's for an ice cream and then headed back to Flagstaff. My hip was feeling really bad but I knew it was just really tight so it wasn't going to lead to anything if I stretched it out. We got back and headed to church with Julie's family and then rushed home so Julie could make a bean dip as we were going to our friends house to hang out.

We drove out to the other side of town after I got pulled over by the police for driving too close to the right hand side of the road. I always seem to do this as I learned to drive with the steering wheel on the other side. The cop just wanted to know if I was drunk or not so he quickly let us go and we got out to Ponderosa Trails only 15 minutes late. We rang the doorbell and saw a flash from inside. No one came to the door so I rang again (Julie hadn't pressed it hard enough) and then the door opened. We were totally taken aback as a bunch of our friends were all sitting on the stairs shouting "SURPRISE!" They had put together a surprise bridal/wedding shower for Julie and I. We couldn't believe that they had put it all together for us (it was supposed to be the next weekend but I had changed my plans so I could race the Great South Run that weekend) and Julie's parents were even there. It was such a good night with a bunch of question games and embarrassing moments with gifts such as a tuxedo thong for me! It was such a great way to end a really good day. We were so tired when we got back that I don't even remember getting into bed.

Julie woke up early on Sunday (very unlike her) and I slept until 9.30am (very unlike me). Julie was running with her friend Carriee out on the other side of town to some trails that I had never been on so I said I would come out with her and check them out. We didn't leave until about 11.30am which was a lot later than I would have liked as I had to get in another run later on and wouldn't get that much recovery in between the runs. I wouldn't normally be to bothered but I still had a little soreness in my psoas so I wanted to give it some good recovery time. We finally got on the run and we hit some great trails that I had never been on before. I was glad I came out to see the trails as I know where to go if I get bored with trails near our house. I got 10.5 miles done and had to really slow down over the last half a mile as my psoas got sore. The girls would be another 10 minutes behind me so this gave me the chance to get some good drills and stretches done to try and ease it out a bit.

Once we got home, Julie's parents came around and Julie made a big batch of chocolate chip and apple pancakes. This was just what I needed after the morning's run and it made me brighten up a bit. Once Julie's parents left we sat in front of the TV for a couple of hours watching a Modern Family DVD and basically just being lazy. Once we got to the end of it I decided to head out for my second run. It was just getting dark so I was going to have to run round the streets next to the lights to see where I was going. Of course as soon as I stepped outside, it started to pour down with rain and I got soaked. I just ran very easily for 5 miles as I didn't want to aggravate my psoas and it actually felt ok once I got back. Julie had made some curry while I was out so I scoffed down a big plate of that before we relaxed in bed reading and fell asleep.

I would be training on my own on Monday as everyone else was heading down to Sedona for a track workout and I just had a 90 minute run. I left a little later than usual but that was good as the temperature was a little nicer. I got a nose bleed after one mile so I ran over to Buffalo Park to grab some tissue to stuff in my nose. It stopped pretty quickly and I could get on with concentrating on my run. I ended up running 15 miles in 91 minutes and it felt fairly easy. Usually I would be pushing it a bit at that pace but I was very relaxed and didn’t feel like I would be tired from it. The last 2 miles were all uphill so that slowed me down a bit and that actually ended up really tiring me out. I got home and had a big breakfast before falling asleep in bed and getting a good rest.

I woke up a little later than I would have liked so I quickly made some tea and answered as many emails I could for work before heading down the road to the YMCA for our core workout. We did our usual routine and then headed out for an easy run. The guys were only running 30 minutes so I ended up heading up to Buffalo Park and adding on another half an hour. That was my biggest day of mileage so far in this cycle with 24 miles for the day and it didn’t feel any different to any other day so I took that as a good sign. I headed down to the store right after to pick up some groceries and then picked Julie up from work as it was pouring down with rain outside. We had some leftover curry for dinner and then caught up on the TV shows that we had recorded for the rest of the night. I had a really tough time falling asleep for some reason. I think that I just wasn’t tired and I ended up wriggling around for 30 minutes before finally falling asleep.