What ever it takes!

5:30 am, set out to do 8 easy miles today, after 4 my leg felt like it was going to explode and I had to stop, went to the Elliptical for 5 minutes and got bored with that so I went and hit the weight room and did some resistance stretches on my leg and some core workout.  I'm really sick of being a gimp,  I feel like I'm going to start loosing fitness if I can't start running normal again.

Oh, I played flag football last night with Elders Quarum.  I'm really bad at football, but it felt good knowing I could outrun everyone on the field.  We have an ex-superbowl NFL player in our ward and I could run circles around him.  :)

 Oh! one more thing, Good luck to all you St. Georgers.  Wish I could be there.

6:00 am.  Based on how the last 2 weeks have gone I woke up this morning thinking I was making one of the worst decisions of my life, but I told Ryan I would go on his long run with him and I try not to ever no show when I commit to something. 

We met at the Maverik and ran our normal 18 mile loop out to Utah Lake back along the River Trail though Willow Park around Thanksgiving point and back to the Maverik.  We had a few contingency plans to shorten the run in case my leg started acting up but I actually felt really good the whole time.  Not to say I didn't get tired towards the end but my leg held up and actually feels better now than it has in weeks.  When we got back to the car Ryan needed to get an extra 2 miles in for a 20, I didn't want to push my luck and quit.  Plus I told my wife I'd hurry home.

Feel very happy that I got out and made myself get a long run in, almost doubled my weekly mileage on one run :).  Pace wasn't horrible either.

18.15 miles in 2:10:00  around 7:10/mile avg pace.

4:45 am.  Thought I was going to have another 4 mile crash and burn like last Friday,  Took it really easy to start,  It took about 3 miles just to get everything moving right.  At 4 miles I took a quick water break and after that I felt pretty good.  First 4 miles in about 31:00 minutes.  Second 4 miles in 26:15.  7:09 average for total run.  Felt pretty good by the end, as long as I start out easy and give my leg a chance to stretch out I can get going pretty good.

I'm amazed that just 5 weeks ago I was putting in 100 miles/week, now it's about all I've got to pump out an easy 8.  Oh well, I've got time on my side, nothing planned for a while, I'm sure it will all come back to me some day.

5:00 am.  Dressed in running clothes this morning but when I got to the gym decided swimming seemed nicer.  1600 M in about 45 minutes, I really need one of those clocks that hang over the edge of the pool to track my time and laps better if I'm going to keep swimming.

Lifted weights for 30 minutes afterward, and then talked to Riverton Paul about St. George.   Found out it was pretty hot down there.

So I'm sure anyone (all 2 of you) who actually reads my blog are really sick of hearing about "my leg" cause I know I'm sick of talking about "my leg" so I have decided that today is the last day I will talk about "my leg" unless "my leg" gets ripped off in a car wreck or eaten by a shark, something news worthy, I'm done talking about"my leg".  From here on out any slow or pathetic workouts are no longer the fault of "my leg" it is simply because I'm being a wimp that particular day and just need to suck it up.

4:45 am.  Great workout this morning, slept really crappy last night, was very congested and couldn't get to sleep so I was very happy when it was time to get up and go to the gym.  I wanted to push myself a little bit today but wasn't sure how far my body would allow me to push it.  Started out at 7:00/mile pace for the first 10 minutes and then progressively got faster every 5 minutes for the next 50 minutes.  Ran the last 5 minutes at 5:40/mile pace.  1:04:25 total time,  6:26/mile average pace for entire 10 mile run.

The other good thing that happened this morning is that I got a side ache.  Why is this good? Cause finally I ran fast enough to get a side ache :)  Plus, nothing tells you it's time to get off the chocolate and ice cream diet like a good side ache in the morning.

4:45am Since I'm not following any formal schedule at the moment I just kind of have been winging my workouts, will I swim?, will I run?, will I lift weights?  I never really know until I get to the gym.  Makes life exciting. 

So I have this master plan in my head,  here is the plan, "get faster" more specifically 30 seconds per mile faster, at everything.  So my recovery runs I want 30 sec/mil faster my general runs 30 sec/mil faster, Marathon pace miles ....... you get the picture.  I've noticed that my body just kind of naturally falls into a 7:00/mile pace when I'm on a run and start getting tired or loosing concentration.  I attribute this to the fact that I probably do 90% of my runs at that pace.  So for 2011 I want 6:30 to be the new 7:00.  I want my marathon pace faster obviously and my 5K pace even faster.  I just want 6:30 to be the slowest pace my body wants to go even when it's tired and in autopilot.

So, to the point, this morning I decided to start re-programing my body.  Plan was to just hop on the treadmill set it to 6:30 pace and run that pace for 12 miles.  Sounds great on paper but what actually happened was slightly different.  Started out hurting a little bit and kept having to stretch and slow down, took me about 20 minutes just to get my body up to 6:30 pace, then I spent the next 35 minutes trying to make up for lost time, which got me very hot, tired, and achy, not to mention the fact I was coughing up flem balls the whole time.  So by the time I hit 1 hour and had to reset the treadmill I'd only averaged 6:35, but then after the reset I just never really had it in me to get back up to pace for my final 3 miles.

Anyway, managed to do the 12 miles in 1:19:40  6:36/mil avg.  off target a little bit but more importantly not the workout I had imagined at all.  I'm sure my original plan would have been much easier. and shaved off 1:40 from my time.

5:30 am.  Well I did my "fellow-shipping" for the month.  A couple of guys from church are training for a 1/2 marathon and my wife thought it would be a good idea for me to run with them, to make new friends :).  I had talked to one of them before about running and he told me he could run at about an 8:00 pace, that must be his 100m pace.  They were going 12 today, their longest run building up to the 1/2, and the furthest they had ever ran before was 8,  so I knew it would be pretty slow going and was ready for that, what I wasn't ready for was over 10min/mile pace, Oh my goodness it felt so slow,  they kept telling me their legs were hurting, I just thought to myself, mine are too.  If we could just pick up the pace they wouldn't hurt so bad. 

It's really funny how relative it all is, 2 years ago 10min/mile was my pace too, now it feels like I'm walking.   The body is a really strange thing, looking at the 3 of us together you would probably guess I was the slowest, these guys aren't in bad shape, and I'm taller, weigh more and probably have a higher fat content.  So what is it that really makes someone run longer and faster than another?  And if I was able to go from a 10min/mile avg pace to a 6:30min/mile avg pace in 1 year, then why can't I get to a 5:30min/mile avg in 1 year?

Anyway, 12 miles in 1:55:00  9:34/mile avg.

5:00 am.  Not sure how this keeps happening to me but some how I woke up once again in California.  This time in Palo Alto right across the street from Stanford University.  Little did we know that there was a Stanford vs. USC game @ Stanford last night when we got in.  That was a big mistake, trying to get to our hotel right across the street from the Stadium. 

My plan was to just run on the hotel treadmill since I have no idea where I am or where to run, got the the gym at 4:45 only to find it didn't open until 6:00am.  I hate hotel gyms that aren't open 24 hours, next plan run across the street and run on the Stanford University Track, got there and it didn't open until 8:00 am.  So I just started aimlessly running around the campus, found a road called campus loop and just started following it, it was pretty well lit all the way.  I kept trying different little trails that looked interesting but they kept leading to dead ends.  So I really have no idea how far I went, how fast I went or even where I went, I'll try and plan a better route tomorrow.  I was out for 45 minutes and am just guessing 5 miles due to stops and turns.

Oh, I left my Garmin at home with my wife, that's why I have no idea what I'm doing.  Maybe I'll try an iPhone app tomorrow to get a little in site into what I'm doing.

5:15 am.  Mapped out a loop around Stanford University last night so I would know where I was going today.  It is 1 mile from the hotel to the loop, and 3.5 miles around the loop, the first time around I still had to check my maps a few times to figure out where I was so I was a bit slow, the second time around I knew where I was going and tried to push myself pretty hard for the 3.5 miles.  Stupid iPhone app didn't give me very accurate spits but I would guess around 6:45 pace for my second loop.  Perfect morning temps for a run, I really enjoy that route, will probably do the same route for the next 3 days I'm here.

5:00 am.  Almost considered not running this morning, worked pretty late last night and knew I had to wake up early to take my co-worker to the airport, but my body woke up at 4:30 even though my mind didn't, I figure if my body is ready to go even if my mind isn't I should probably go.  Didn't have time to do the Stanford loop twice so I just did it about 1 1/4 times for 5 mile and then 1 mile out and back from the hotel.  My hamstrings where pretty tight this morning so I never really pushed it, but I did try to concentrate on a steady pace.

7 miles in about 50 minutes.  7:08 avg. 

Thursday is a day between conferences so I think I will try and get some speed work on the Stanford track Thursday morning.  I've never ran on a real track before. I know pretty sad.

5:15 am.  So I put together an off season schedule so I at least have something on the calendar so I know what to do each day when I wake up. It's a 1/2 marathon schedule aimed to get me a 1:15 1/2 marathon time.  Today was suppose to be a 7 mile run with 5 at 5:54 pace.  Since I don't have a watch I went and did the Stanford loop and pushed myself for the only distance I thought I knew.  I thought it was 3.5 miles around the loop, so I jogged to the loop stretched for a minute and then took off.  The first 2 miles of the loop is slightly uphill and the second 1/2 is down.  I felt like I was pushing pretty hard, up the hill but knew I probably wasn't at 5:54 pace figured I would make it up on the downhill.  So coming down I pushed it as hard as I thought I could.  Ended up doing the loop in 24:40.  I was pretty disappointed with that thinking it was 3.5 miles.  So I came back and re-calculated and found it to be 3.72.  So a little better but not 5:54 pace.  6:35 I think, so disappointing, I blame the hill..  I really need a watch for these sort of workouts.

Yesterday in my down time at work I researched recovery methods and kept coming across articles about ice baths.  I thought the idea of an ice bath sounded way to intense and thought I would never try it,  But last night I got back to the hotel and the power to the entire hotel was out, so no gym, no TV, nothing to do.  So I did the natural thing in that situation and filled my tub with ice and cold water, and hopped in.  Sat there for about 20 minutes, it's really not as terrible as I had invisioned.  So this morning after my run I did it again.  Only had time for 10 minutes but it actually feels really good right after a hard run.  I'm going to try it for a week or so every day and see if it will help my leg pain.

6:15 am Got done with 1 of 2 conferences last night and have a day off today, so I got to sleep in, very nice.  Last day at Stanford so I did my loop once for a total of 4 miles and then noticed that the track was open. I went to the track and just started running around.  My watch malfunctioned so I didn't get any splits, I just ran 12 laps and a pretty good clip to get a feel for the track.  There was some really young track girl that decided to use me as a pacer I guess, she got out in front of me and every time I started catching up to her she would surge ahead.  I decided on my 12th lap I would pick it up and pass her but she stopped at 11.  It was like I was in a race but didn't know how far I was running.  Kind of funny but it was fun to have someone to keep my pace up.  Rested for a few minutes and then did 2 x 400's just for fun.  I did get those splits, 1 in 75 and 2 in 76.   I went out way to fast on both more like 100 m pace and then kind of died for the last 200.  I'm sure with practice I could get the times down.

Off to San Mateo tonight, not sure if there are any good runs there.  I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Last night I was sitting in the hotel hot tub with another couple and complained that this hotel was terrible cause it was surrounded by freeways and there where no good places to run.  They told me there was a bike trail about 6 miles away up in the hills between San Mateo and Half moon bay.  So I came back to my room, and found it on a map.  Borrowed the rental car keys from my co-worker and this morning set out at 5:30 to find it.  It was very dark up there and I considered turning around and just coming back to the hotel treadmill, but when I found the trail head there were already about 7 -8 cars there so I decided that there were at least 7 or 8 people crazier than me running in the dark in the woods so I put on my head lamp and headed off.   The first 1/2 was pretty spooky, lots of critters running around in the bushes watching me run by, but by the time I got to the turn around point, (a Dam) it was starting to get light.  The run back was amazing,  I could really see what I was missing, on one side was a really pretty lake and on the other side was a game preserve, there where deer all over the place just standing on the side of the road as I ran past.  Quite a few people out for morning walks too,  amazing that a place like this is just 5 minutes away from one of the busiest freeways in the country.  I definately want to go back and try it again in full day light.  Perfect running temps too, about 45 degrees out.

 10.2 miles in about  1:10:00.

 
   

6:30 am.  Absolutely awesome run this morning, set out to run the same trail I did yesterday but I wanted to go the whole 6 miles to the end and I wanted it to be light.  So I waited in my hotel room until 6:15 and drove to the trail head, sat in the warm car for about 5 minutes and noticed there where quite a few people already walking the trail so even though it was still pretty dark I set off without my head lamp.  It was light enough to make out the outline of the trail and within 20 minutes it was plenty light.  Very nice cool morning here in Northern California, my kind of running weather, planned on just taking a nice easy 12 miler the whole run today, got to mile 5 where I turned around yesterday and took some pictures of the lake with the sun coming up and fog hovering over the trees.  It was really neat.  From mile 5 to 6 it was a very steep uphill out of the valley so I just tried to keep a nice even pace going up.  Got to the end of the trail mile 6 in about 43 minutes, took a potty and water break and turned around, coming back down the hill was very fast, without even thinking about it I hit mile 1, or 7 which ever way you look at it in 5:30.  Decided then that since my legs where moving I would do a 6 mile tempo run back to the car.  Everything felt great, lungs felt good, legs felt good and I was just enjoying every moment.  There where starting to be tons of people on the trail, which made it easier to keep my pace up to try and pass people.  At mile 9 a bike casually past me so I started pacing off of him.  I hit mile 5 of my Tempo in exactly 30 minutes, right where I wanted to be, then my wife called and told me the elders quarum was looking for me to play football this morning.  That slowed me down a bit, but I had my headphones in already and didn't have to stop to answer the phone.  Ended my 6 mile tempo in 36:48.  6:07 avg pace,  Very happy with that, total run was around  1:20:00.  Excellent morning, now off to work. 

Pretty busy the rest of the trip so I doubt I will make it back to that trail this trip.  Hotel treadmill from here on out :(

6:30 am.  I lied about going back to the trail,  my co-workers wanted to see my cool trail that I found so I told them I'd meet them in the hallway at 6:15 this morning.  Only 1 of the 3 actually showed up so we headed off.  Very nice morning, cloud cover made it warmer that the past 2 days.  Ran 1 mile in 10 minutes with him and then he told me to go ahead.  I ran out to the 2.5 mile marker and turned back around.  Caught back up with him at mile 4 and slow jogged with him back to the car.  5 miles in 40 minutes.  

5:30, I was finally reduced to the Hotel Treadmill this morning.  Not to bad, I made it almost 2 weeks on the road without using a treadmill.  Last day of conference, a long day ahead of me and then home for a few weeks.  I'm really excited about that cause our office is moving and I don't have an office to go back to, so I get to work from home.  Bad thing is the new office isn't by Lifetime Gym, so I have to make the decision of staying at Lifetime or a new gym up by the new office.  Anyone have any experience with "Excel Fitness" in Holiday?

7 miles in 45:32  6:30 avg pace.

Worked late last night finishing up but still wanted to get my run in, So glad to be going home finally, feels like I've been gone for ever.

Pretty much exact same treadmill run as yesterday except I ran the last mile in 5:50 just to add some kick to the run.  At the airport now, flight is delayed but that is to be expected out of SFO on a foggy fall morning.

7 miles in 45:30  6:30 avg pace.

6:00 am.  I must be on California time, very late start.  But that's OK cause I don't have an office to go too :). 

Today just goes to show you can do anything a little piece of paper tells you to do.  Workout called for 7 miles with 3 x 1600's.  1600's at 5:30 pace.  I thought there was no way I could do it since I've only done 1 5:30 min/mile before and that was going downhill at the Provo River 1/2.  Ran 3 miles at a 7:00 pace to warm up then set the treadmill to 11mph which was actually 5:27 but who's counting.  Made it through the first one did a 1/2 mile jog and then did the first 1/2 of my 2nd set at 5:27 pace and the second 1/2 at 5:21 pace  5:24 avg.  1/2 mile jog and then my final stride at 5:18 avg.  Totally amazed myself.

Came home from the gym and Britt wanted me to run with her pushing the stroller with Zach for another easy 6 miles at 9:30 pace.

5:30 am.  Ran with Riverton Paul for about 1 mile but he was running to fast and blew out the circuit on all the treadmills and had to leave so I ran my last 6 alone.  Didn't get the exact time of my first mile I'll just say 7:00 then I ran the 38:50 for a total time of 45:50 for 7 miles.  Last mile at 6:10 pace.

Waiting for my wife to get home from volunteering at the school so we can  go run 8 on the river trail from Willow Park.  I have preemptively added the miles assuming we will actually go do it.  I'll remove it later if we don't :)

Well, the trail ended up only being 3.5 miles to the end, and the Garmin battery died.  Britt was mad about the Garmin before we started and I asked her how fast she wanted to go, she told me 8:00/mile pace so I told her I would pace her right at 8:00 and see how long she could hold it.  Using the mile markers I found the 8:00 pace exactly and stayed right there, she would surge ahead sometimes and then fall back.  Did the first 3.5 in 27 minutes, the drinking fountain was turned off which made her angry so she started hauling back, then died a bit towards the end.  28:30 for the return trip  Ended up averaging 7:55 pace.  Pretty awesome, she is going to rock the Halloween 1/2, she has never ran anything more than a 5 K.  I think 1:45 is totally possible, she is a very competitive person and may even do it faster if the hill doesn't kill her.

5:30 am.  Decided to give my legs a break today, thought being #3 on the mileage board wasn't a good thing since I'm suppose to be taking it easier.  So I swam 1600meters instead, in 43 minutes.  No world record but it felt good to swim, haven't done it in a couple of weeks.

I just noticed that I converted one of my neighborhood friends over to the Blog,  everyone go say Hi to Carina, she didn't think she was cool enough for the blog, but she totally rocks.

5:00 am.  Really didn't want to run on the Treadmill this morning but I promised Britt I would be done by 7:00 so she could go on her run and I really didn't feel like running in the dark. I know, I'm a wimp.  

So my 1/2 marathon PR is 1:19:01 I set out with grand plans of either matching or beating that time on my 13 mile run this morning, but after doing the math and figuring out exactly what that meant I changed my mind and decided to just go as hard as I could and still feel OK.  Started out at 6:50 pace for the first mile to warm up then kind of settled into a 6:40 pace for a few, after things got loosened up I started bumping up the speed every 5 minutes up to 6:10 pace by mile 10.  Ran my last mile in 5:50.

Legs were a bit achy but lungs and heart felt good the whole time, came home and took an ice bath.  I think the ice bath has really helped a lot.

13 miles in 1:22:47,  6:22 avg pace.  Not to shabby, my plan this week was to keep all my runs around 6:30 avg, same next week and then I drop it down to 6:25.

No run today, I just wanted to give a shout out to Ryan Jonson running the Dublin Marathon tomorrow. Wish I could be there.

Good luck!

5:00 am.  My schedule has me running only 7 miles each day,  I don't ever feel like I even get into the run until mile 4 so 7 miles doesn't quite do it for me.  I decided my new plan this week is to race the treadmill, just see how far I can go in the 1 hour before the treadmill resets.  Very short warm-up at 7:00 pace for 2:00 minutes then went to 6:40 then bumped it up .1 mph every 5 minutes for 1 hour.  which worked out to 5:50min/mile pace for the last 5 minutes.  

9.56 miles in 1:00:00, 6:18 avg pace.  

I'm feeling really good lately, lower miles has really helped.  Feeling the fastest I've ever felt.

5:30 am.  Woke up 3 times last night with an icky stomach, I sure hope I'm not coming down with that stomach bug everyone is talking about.  Anyway, icky stomach = icky run.  Very happy to stick with the scheduled run this morning, every once in a while I would try to bump up the speed but quickly turned it back down when my stomach started flip flopping.

7 miles in 46:17, 6:36 avg pace.  pretty decent on paper considering how I felt and a 10 minute warm up, but it really wasn't an enjoyable workout.

lifted weights for about 20 minutes, then hot tub and steam room for 20 more.  Tomorrow is a hard run so I hope I'm feeling better by then.

5:30 am.  Wow, that was an insane workout, I have been dreading today since I put it on the calendar 3 weeks ago.  Schedule called for a 5 mile tempo run at 5:50 pace,  So I did a 2 mile warmup at 7:00 pace and then set the treadmill to 5:52 pace, first mile felt good so I bumped it up each mile.  After about 4 miles I was really amazed how easy it was, it gave me confidence knowing I could run more than a mile at this pace.  Decided to make it a 7 mile tempo run at that point.  Actually could have gone further but didn't want to push my luck.  splits went like this.

Mile 1     5:54

Mile 2     5:49

Mile 3     5:46

Mile 4     5:42

Mile 5     5:39

Mile 6     5:36

Mile 7     5:30, really pushed myself this final mile.

Total tempo run 7 miles in 39:55  5:42 average pace. 

Came home and filled the bathtub with fresh snow and cold water, 15 minute ice bath.  Brrrrrr!!

1600 Meter swim in about 37 minutes today, then lifted weights back, legs and core.  May get a 4 miler in today but just taking it easy.

10:00 am.  did 4 easy miles with Britt at 8:19 pace, she was angry cause she thought my course around Thanksgiving point was to hilly and hard and wanted to get a fast run in.  I told her that is my fast route, not a good thing to say.

6:00 am.   Planned late start due to work schedule.  Wanted today to be a good hard run, and since I wont be able to run tomorrow I wanted to get my long run in.  Thought 6:30 pace for 15 seemed hard enough, so that was the plan.

Things not moving as fluid as they did last Wednesday, but I pushed through it even though it hurt a little.  Just to make sure I was totally destroyed at the end I ran the last mile in 5:42

15 miles in 1:35:45  6:22 avg pace.

K' can I get my supportive husband medal now?  Woke up at 4:30am, got the kids out of bed, dressed and in the car with drinks and snack, drove Britt and her friend to the finish line to catch the first bus up, went to Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast for the kids, yeah I'm a good dad.  Drove home, made "Go Mom Go" signs with the kids to hold up. Watched it's a great pumpkin Charlie Brown, got every one back in the car, drove up to Bridal Veil falls in time to watch to leaders, only had to wait about 25 more minutes before Britt came by, right on schedule behind the 1:45 pacer.  Ran back to the car and drove to the finish line to get more pictures and hold up our signs.  Britt ended up finishing with 1:48:?? not to bad for her first 1/2 marathon and longest run ever.  I think my first race was probably only 1:46 or something, I better watch out.

I wore my Steve Prefontaine costume at the finish line, side burns and all.  I don't think anyone knows who "Pre" is.