The King of Controversy

PM - 3 miles. I got back from my mission yesterday and I ran with the team today. I just ran their warm up and cool down and watched them do the workout. It was fun. I'm glad to be back, running again, seeing Coach Holt and Roberts and other good friends. But my main boys are off at college or still on missions. Bummer.

AM - 7.5 miles. 50-60ish minutes with some workout thing (4x1:00 repeats at varying paces, 3 times). I ran the workout with the team this morning. It was a good workout and felt good to push a bit and it didn't kill me as much as I thought it would, being in the shape I'm in.

Hey everybody, I’m back. Well, I’ve been home from my mission for a month already and have been running a bit but this is my first time back to the blog. I don’t really know if I’ll ever bring back my controversies but we will see.

AM - 4.25 miles. 35 minutes with fast finish. My sister woke up late this morning so she missed her long run with the team so she came out with me and got a short run in, at least.  The pace for me wasn’t very fast but I know my sister felt it. Hopefully, I didn’t kill her. My body is feeling good for only running a little bit on my mission, I’m still in okay shape. I ran a 5:30 mile my last week in the mission field if that gives you an idea of where I’m at. I gained like 15 pounds on my mission but it wasn’t bad weight. It just gave me the fat back that I didn’t have when I was a runner. So I’m not fat. 

AM - 3.5 miles. 30 min easy. A bit faster pace than yesterday but still a very chill pace. I ran up Foremaster hill. I felt good but running up foremaster was definitely tough. 

PM - 3.5 miles. 30 minutes. Late night run. It was fun but I was tired so not super fast. I am just so happy to be able to run as much as I have since I got home as I didn't run much on my mission.

PM - 4.5 miles. 32 minutes. A late night run by myself. I'm pretty busy with life so when I don't get my run in in the morning, it either doesn't happen or it's late. But it was a good run. I kept a fast pace because I was feeling fresh. I also just started using a new watch (at least new to me) although it is an old watch - the Garmin Forerunner 610. I actually haven't had a watch since I've gotten home so I've just kind of run and did whatever for a month. The new watch is great though. I have never had a Garmin which I regret because it is just so much nicer than my other watches.

PM - 3.5 miles. 30 minutes with 3x1 min. fartleks with 1 min recovery and 1 mile race. I ran over to this Fun Run that my good friend, Logan Hall, was doing for a project to help homeless students in the Washington County School District. I honestly wasn't planning on racing this thing so I did a small fartlek workout before. I found out that Evan Boyer wanted to race though so I ended up racing him. I was already tired before the race but he was tired too so mid race, I surged and tryed to see if I could break him and for a little bit I thought I had but he didn't give up and gave a killer last 400 meters to beat me and I didn't have the guts to out kick him. It was fun to race someone again. 

Well everyone. Controversial Cam is officially back. Today's controversy is small and mostly a warm up for what is to come but don't let that stop you from getting in on it. I'm really bugged over this whole Christmas Music before Thanksgiving argument. Does it even matter what time of year we listen to Christmas Music? It seems so stupid that people get worked up over people listening to Christmas Music immediately following the close of Halloween. Why can't I listen to Christmas Music in June or on Valentines Day or on Presidents' Day. 

PM - 5.25 miles. 42 minutes easy. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I'm not in the habit yet. It was a good run today after work just as the sun was starting to set. It was super beautiful as I ran up Turkey Farm Road and got out of the city. It got kind of dark but I liked it. I'm feeling pretty good right now. I've mostly just been building up mileage slowly over the past couple weeks just to get back in the swing of things but I just want to start running faster and farther already. I'll probably pick it up some more in the coming weeks.

PM - 5.5 miles. 47 minutes easy. 

PM - 4 miles. 33 minutes easy. By myself again.

PM - 6 miles. 50 minutes. I went out by myself to run Mustang Pass. It was serene and beautiful. I love Saint George trails.

PM - 3.75 miles. 30 minutes with 2x2 min fartleks. It felt good to push a bit

PM - 5.25 miles. 43 minutes long run. 

PM - 3.25 miles. 30 minutes easy. I ran with my ten year old brother Austin. He really wants to get as fast as Ben Beitler so he always wants to come running with me.

It felt good to race again. I didn't get to the start line in time so I got stuck in the middle of a ton of slow people, but it made my start really fun. I was just weaving in and out of people for the first 100 meters, trying not to plow any kids over. I eventually caught up to Carson and stuck with him for the rest of the first mile but then he picked it up and I couldn't keep up. I kept a pretty good pace going and tried catching this guy who was only 25 to 50 meters ahead of me. I closed the gap a bit but didn't finish the push off. I was definitely tired during the race but what got me was my right IT band which started giving me issues. I don't really know what I was expecting to do today. I wasn't sure what kind of shape I was in so this was a good race to see where I'm at. I won a pie for being 2nd in my age division (20 to 29) so that was cool. But probably the coolest part was that the race was almost the exact same course as the Saint George 5k so it was a very nostalgic race for me. It made me miss guys like Nick Hill, Preston Warby, Paul Gaona, and Dallin Gillespie who I have raced with at the Saint George 5k in years past.

3.75 miles. 30 minutes easy. Just a nice recovery run after the race yesterday. My legs are a bit tender but I enjoyed the run.

AM - 7.25 miles. 60 minute trail run. I got back to one of my favorite trails for the first time in over 2 years - the glorious Prospector. It was such a splendid run in the wonderful Saint George weather. I gave a hitchhiker runner a ride as I was driving home.

PM - 2.5 miles. Just a short run today since my legs are still a bit beat up from last week's increase in miles. So I took it easy today just to be safe.

Controversy of the Week: This one has been bugging me for a while now. I don't understand why people request you to knock on their door even when they have a doorbell that works. Why have the doorbell? And is it really that loud that it wakes up their napping kids? I mean come on. How ridiculous is that?

AM - 4 miles. 30 min easy. I have had a bit of a rough week. I’ve been exhausted so I haven’t been getting up early enough to run before work and then I have come home and fallen asleep almost right away so no runs for a few days. I finally got up this morning and got one in. It felt good. 

2nd Controversy of the Week - Well to make up for my poor running week, here’s another controversy. Stop Signs. Why does America have so many stop signs? No one actually stops fully anyways so they are pointless. In Finland, they use Yield signs instead of Stop signs and it works really well. It’s basically the same as a rolling stop that most people do on stop signs here.