What ever it takes!

5:00am.  After 2 days off of running I was feeling exceptionally frisky today, had no plans for speed work this week on the schedule but after reading the race results for the Halloween 1/2 I couldn't help but ask myself the obvious question, could I run back to back 5:00/miles on a downhill grade??  Humm, I've never ran even 1 mile in under 5:20 so wasn't sure how it would turn out.  Ran a 3 mile warm up then set the treadmill to -3% grade and 12mph, could tell right off that the main problem was my body wasn't used to running that fast, felt really unstable like I was going to crash, tried to concentrate on just keeping good form, kind of got into a grove and kept it up.  2 miles was fairly easy but started hurting after that, my legs started feeling tight, especially the calfs.  Decided to make it an even 3 miles to held on until 3.  Pretty happy I was able to go that far, definately couldn't have gone another 10.1 at sub 6:00 pace after that but still happy.  Ran another 3 mile cool down for 9 miles total. 

The other thing I did was dust off the old heart rate monitor for todays run.  I stopped wearing it around mid summer, but decided I wanted to start wearing it again to see where I was.  I was very pleased with the results, I was able to run at 6:20 pace at around 155bpm, at the begining of the year 155 is where I was at 7:00 pace so definate improvement there, the other suprising thing was that I didn't break 170 until about 2.5 miles into the tempo run.  170 is about 85% of my max and just barely into Lactate threshold zone, or the top end of Marathon pace.  I knew I was feeling really good lately at higher speeds but now I have validation that I am in fact feeling better :).

Run went like this.

3 miles in 19:35  6:31 avg pace

3 miles in 15:00  5:00 avg pace -3% decline

3 miles in 19:40  6:33 avg pace

Total 9 miles in 54:15  6:01 avg pace

Very fun run, lifted weights for about 20 minutes after.

Sitting in my fancy new cube with an awesome view of downtown Salt Lake and Parleys canyon.  Excited to try out some new lunch running routes up the cottonwood canyons.  

5:00 am, Yesterdays run beat me up quite a bit more than I thought it had, I was pretty sore and slow going this morning, did 10 minutes on the eliptical just to loosen up, then did 7 miles in 45:04 on the treadmill 6:26 avg pace.

5:00 am. When I woke up this morning my Hamstrings kindly asked if I could please give them the day off, not wanting to get in an argument with my legs this morning I complied and swam laps instead.  1600 meters in 35 minutes, I don't really keep track but that seems considerably faster than I usually swim 1 mile, didn't really feel like I was pushing it, just enjoying myself trying to relax.

Lifted weights, stretched and some core work for 30 minutes after.  Wouldn't mind trying to get a midday easy run in but not sure if work will permit that today.

5:00 am.  Nothing special, just an easier than normal steady run.  I'm paying the price for my little 5 min/mile stunt I did on Monday, nothing bad just sore in the calves and hamstrings, it just feels like I did a hard leg workout but I sure hope it's gone by Saturday.  Ran my last 1/2 mile in 2:50 just to remind myself what 5:40 pace felt like.

8 miles in 53:45 6:43 avg.

5:00 am.  Easy 5 mile run in 36:00 and then did 800 meters in the lap pool. 

I got a quick leg massage last night and am feeling pretty good.  

Bitter sweet victory today, more sweet than bitter but I’ll get into that later, this is how I all went down.  Starting weeks ago, so be prepared.

So after my fairly disappointing TOU performance in September I had to take some time off, I went into that race injured, ran it anyway and really beat myself up physically,  it took me almost 4 week to get to where I could run normal again, when I finally decided I could once again follow a formal running schedule I decided to focus on speed over quantity so I started following a pretty aggressive ½ marathon plan, with a race date of December 31^st.  I couldn’t actually find a local race on that day so it was more theoretical.  I’ve been loosely following that schedule for about 4 weeks now,  I was actually feeling really good 2 weeks into it, the best I had felt all year actually and really wanted to enter a race. I wanted to do the Provo Halloween ½ last weekend but was told I couldn’t since it was my wives race and I needed to support her.  I was running with my neighbor a few weeks ago and he told me he was training for a ½ marathon in Pocatello the following week (Today) so I looked it up and decided it might be fun.  The race was sold out at the time so I sent an e-mail to the race director asking if there was a chance of getting in, about 2 hours later I received an e-mail from him saying he had just opened up 10 more spots.  I hurried and registered via iPhone while drive (passenger) in a car, and got into the race.  When my wife found out about me signing up for it (behind her back) she was furious.  I told her I just really needed to see if I could redeem myself.  My plan was to just drive up by myself early this morning run the race and then drive home, but to my surprise when I got home from work last night my wife said “lets all drive up tonight and stay in a hotel so the kids can play in the pool” so I agreed, threw the quickest marathon bag together in history and off we went.

Got to the hotel pretty quick, only took about 2.5 hours to get there and went to the pool, while playing with the kids a guy walked in with his kids and my wife came over and said “that guy looks fast” I went to talk to him and see if he was running the race and found out it was none other than Rob Murphy,  small world.  We talked a little bit and then I went off to get some sleep.  Slept lousy, probably should have stayed home in my own bed, but it was nice to not have to run after a 2.5 hour drive.  Not really sure which is worse but I woke up with a pretty bad kink in my neck and went down to the hotel hot tub at 5:30am to loosen it up.  That helped a bit.  Had a small breakfast at the hotel and then packed the car to go to the finish line for packet pickup, we were way early so I decided to just have my wife drive me to the start line instead of waiting for buses.  She actually told me “you better win this thing, I didn’t drive all this way for nothing”  I told her, there was a fat chance of that happening, but thanks for the encouragement anyway,  Got there about 1 ½ hours early but it was warm up there and I had first shot at any Portapotty, nice.  I took advantage of that about 3 times and then found 1 bush as well.   Rob Murphy showed up shortly after and I talked with him some more, he gave me lots of encouragement and good advice for my running career, about 30 minutes before the start Rob introduced me to Jeff Shadley, we all ran down the canyon about ½ a mile together and chatted.  That was a lot of fun to meet other bloggers in a new setting.

Headed to the start line, lined up with Jeff and Rob, I pretty much figured it was the 3 of us that would lead, Jeff told me the first mile was quick and he had done that section in 4:45 before, I thought “oh crap” then he said he wasn’t going to go that fast today though.  “Oh good” since I wanted around 5:30ish.  Gun went off without even a count down and we took off,  a few guys flew by us but it looked like they were just screwin around so no one really responded,  Jeff took off very fast, Rob and I ran together and talked between my heavy breathing.  He told me to run the tangents to run the shortest route possible, so I tried to follow his advice.  

Mile 1 – 5:00.  So much for Jeff not going out in 4:45, I’m guessing that’s about where he was, cause he was at least 15 seconds ahead by mile 1.  I was a little scared about this pace, but felt good and enjoyed running with Rob.  He told me we could run a 1:05 at that pace :)

Mile 2 – 5:15  Still very fast but feeling good and enjoying myself still.  Rob broke away a little bit here at 1.5, but not to far, I could see both Jeff and Rob the whole time, less than 1 minute ahead at any time.

Mile 3 – 5:47  Course leveled out a bit, with some rollers

Mile 4 – 5:47

Mile 5 – 5:44, heat started to get to me, I considered taking off my shirt, plus there was a hill in here somewhere that really took a lot out of me.

Mile 6 – 5:52, still hot,  I’m a little miserable at this point, but seeing Jeff and Rob still ahead kept me pushing.

Mile 7 – 6:04, not sure what that was, I remember lots of rollers and feeling really hot.

Mile 8 – 5:53, finally some more steady downhill, I really tried to get my pace back up on the downhills no matter how much the ups slowed me down.  My wife and kids where waiting at mile 8 and that really helped me get back into it, plus I think a cool tailwind hit us in here.  I really got re-energized at this point.  Also I saw Rob pass Jeff around here,  this was the first time I thought I maybe had a chance of catching Jeff too , since I had pretty much stayed the same distance behind Rob since he left me.

Mile 9 – 5:57 pretty rolly at this point, focused on taking the ups easy and pushing the downhill, some guy came out of nowhere right behind me that I had no idea was there, which made me speed up.  I actually caught Jeff on an uphill here but  mentally didn’t think I could pass him on the uphill so I waited to the top, got my his side and ran with him about ¼ mile.

Mile 10 – 6:04  Hit mile 10 in 57:30, I looked over at Jeff and told him I had never done 10 miles in under 1 hour before.  He told me good job and I pulled ahead feeling pretty good about myself.

Mile 11 – 6:20,  at Mile 11 aid station some clown (literally a guy dressed as a clown) jumped out in front of me and told me to stop and eat a dingdong and get my picture taken.  considering I was now in 2^nd place and feeling pretty good I thought that was a really stupid idea.

Mile 12 – 6:25, course got very brutal in here,  very steep hill that just kicked my butt, the guy that snuck up on me past me and I expected Jeff to pass me at any second, but then at the top of the hill just 10 yards ahead of me the guy just stopped, he didn’t have a number on and I wondered if he was just some guy out for a morning tempo run.  It was strange, I passed him back up.  He ended up taking second place.

Mile 13 – 6:31, more up hill,  ahh!  who designed this finish,  I was struggling but knowing Jeff was still hot on my trail I pushed myself with everything I had left.

Mile 13.1 - :30  5:49 pace.  Nice downhill finish, I sprinted it out as much as I could.

Crossed the finish line, and my wife came up and high fived me and said “you did it”  I thought, of course I did it, I can run 13.1 miles.  Then she said, “You won”  I said “ Really, where is Rob?” she said I was the first one in.  Immediately I knew what had happened,  at mile 11.5 there was a left turn that wasn’t marked well at all and no one directing traffic.  I knew then that he had missed the turn.  I felt awful and went and told Jeff about it.

Got a few pictures, went back to the hotel for a quick shower and returned for the awards ceremony.  Ethically, I’m not sure I know what I should have done, I know that Rob beat me, but I’ve never won anything in my life that I actually worked for so I didn’t want to just give it up.  Plus, my wife would be mad at me if I didn’t win.   So I guess all I can do is say “Rob, I’m really sorry, I didn’t want to win this way especially when you ran so well, some day I will give you a chance to redeem yourself”

Anyway, I had a great day, I redeemed myself for TOU and proved I do at least have a 2:40 marathon in me somewhere.

Great race, great food at the end and an all around good trip.  Worth the time and money to drive up there.

Oh, one more thing.  90 second PR on a much harder course than Provo River 1/2 I believe.

Rob Murphy,                                                Rob Rohde,                                Jeff Shadley 

5:00 am.  Still a little bit sore from my 16 minute 5K, and 10 mile Tempo run on Saturday but not as bad as I would have thought I'd be.  Did the eliptical trainer for 15 minutes and then ran on the treadmill for an easy 5 miles in 36 minutes, 7:11 pace.  Lifted some weights and stretches for a bit and then sat in the hot tub.

5:00 am.  My right calf is pretty sore today, I got on the treadmill and took it real easy at first, ramped up to about a 7:00 pace but it never really got any better, right about the time I decided this run was doing more harm than good the treadmill reset on me, I took this as a sign and finished my workout on the Eliptical for 30 minutes.  I'm not to worried about it, since I really have nothing coming up and it's probably a really good thing for me to take it easy the rest of the year before build up to Ogden begins in January.

5:15 am.  Today was suppose to be a tempo run day but I really felt like I needed one more day off of running so I opted to swim instead.  2400meters in right around 1 hour,  now I feel incredibly refreshed, I think at least 1 day of swimming per week is a great way to recover. 

I'll shoot for that tempo run tomorrow.  Maybe!  I may start following the Ryan Hall training schedule.  

Woke up early this morning 4:00am and figured it wasn't worth going back to sleep so I just got ready and went to the gym.  Feeling only about 80% recovered from Saturday I really had a hard time getting motivated but my non-motivation gave me enough motivation to kick my-self in the butt and say "Rob, get out there and do that Tempo run"  I've been such a sludge this week I really wanted a good run. 

Did a 3 mile warm up in 20 minutes  6:40 pace

Then kicked it up and did 5 miles in 28:55  5:47 pace, which really wasn't as pleasant as it sounds, legs were crampy, stomach hurt, and all in all a little awkward feeling.  But I did it and I'm sure am better for it.

Then I did an easy 1 mile cool down in ~7:30.

Got done way too soon, and didn't really feel like doing a 13 milear so I stopped, talked to Paul for a bit, lifted weights for a bit, sat in the hot tub for a bit, and now I'm at work for a bit.  But I did get a fancy new iPad yesterday, so that should keep me occupied for the day,  I head out to Portland for the week on Saturday,  I hear Portland is a great place to run, anyone have experience?  I'm staying at the Marriott Waterfront, I'm guessing right on the Waterfront, where ever that is!!

Keep waking up at 4:00 am all stuffy and yucky feeling and can't get back to sleep, seems that the only way to get over it is to get up and move.  Happy that today was an "easy" day got ready and headed to the gym.  It's always comforting that there is a happy place with other crazies that wake up at 4 in the morning to keep me company.

8 miles in 51:35  6:27 avg pace, last mile in 6:00.  I hope to get an outside run in tomorrow morning, maybe I can convince Ryan to go with me.  Then I'm off to Portland, oh by the way I love my new iPad, I spent way to much money in the iTunes store yesterday and got some good running books to read on long plane rides, say to Paris in 3 weeks.

5:45 am.  Met Ryan at the Maverik to do our 13 mile Lehi, Willow Park, Thanksgiving point loop.  I wanted to try and maintain a 6:30 - 6:40 pace, that lasted about 5 miles, both of us seemed to be dealing with poor pre-run dinner choices last night and around Willow Park really started to struggle,  after I dealt with my stomach issues I felt a little better but never really could get myself back into it.   Ended up just really struggling to want to even finish, then to make matters worse construction had totally torn the heck out of the trail and really got us out of a groove.  I joked that I can't run anywhere anymore without construction getting in the way and that one morning I'm expecting to show up at the gym and find construction tape across my treadmill :).

Ended up cutting our losses and taking the shortcut back to the car,  11.1 miles in 1:16:30 about 6:52 avg pace, but with all the stops that's not really an accurate number anyway.  Oh well, can't always be 100%.  I really feel like I'm coming down with a cold or something, I hope going to a more humid sea level climate for the next week will help.

Was really excited to get out and explore running in Portland,  I got a running guide from the hotel front desk which showed running trails mostly along the river front so at 6:00 am I set out in to the unknown.  Followed the trail and then it just ended, I had to run up to a main road and then it lead me back to the trail,  this happened a few times and I was pretty disapointed in the river trail.  at about 2.5 miles I got sick of it and was in a pretty industrial part of town and decided to head back, at about 3 miles in I noticed a guy coming up behind me pretty fast so I slowed down to wait for him.  He was going about 6:20 pace when he caught me and I think a little suprised that I was able to keep up with him.  I asked him if he knew where the heck he was going and he said yes, so I asked if I could follow, he said "sure" after about 1/2 a mile I think he really started having second thoughts about going so fast to catch me, I could tell the 6:30 pace was killing him, but I was really enjoying myself, found out his name was Alex and he worked in town for Nike.  I was glad I had my Nike Frees on today :)  He should me a trail across the river and the trail was actually much nicer on the other side.  Perfect running weather today, cool, misty.  around 45 degrees out.  

Probably will try the same route with variation tomorrow.

Well, I woke up planning on running outside but it was really rainy and cold looking, and for some reason when I was packing for this trip I thought West Coast = California, noone told me it's rainy in Portland!!  So I headed to the hotel gym, that was a mistake, most miserable 7 miles ever, hot, muggy, and I'm sure I ended up being just as wet as if I would have just gone outside.  Lesson learned,  tomorrow outside rain or shine, well I doubt it will be shine at 5:00am so rain or dry I guess.

7 miles in 47:50   6:50 avg pace

5:00 am.  Well I stayed true to my word and went outside this morning,  luckily it was perfect running weather, a bit cool just standing around but perfect once I got moving.  Today's "plan" was an 8 mile run w/6 miles @ 5:50 pace.   So I set out down the river trail and crossed the bridge that my Monday's friend Alex showed me back on the other side of the river and back across the bridge to the hotel.  I was hoping it was a 3 mile loop it ended up only being 2.6.  So I took the first loop easy averaged 7:05 I think is what my Garmin said then I took off trying to keep a 5:50 pace, it was actually pretty easy with a good tail wind I probably averaged 5:45 the first mile, then across the bridge there was a probably 10 mph headwind which slowed me down to about 6:10 pace, plus going up and over bridge ramps kept slowing my pace down.  Anyway I did that loop twice, plus a little further up the trail to end at an even 8 to make my tempo run 5.4 miles total in much slower than the goal pace, probably closer to 6:10.  I was pretty disappointed that I had such a hard time keeping my pace up on for the most part an ideal flat course at sea level.  I just wasn't totally all there today.   This would be an absolute perfect 5K course if I could figure out an extra .5 miles.  

9 miles in 59:20 total.  6:35 avg pace.  Garmin's website is down so i can't get accurate tempo run times at the moment.

I doubt I will get out again, conference ends today so I will be working late to tear down and then I have a 7:30 am flight out tomorrow.  Pretty good trip here to Portland,  It's not quite as neat of a town as I had imagined for some reason, but there are a ton of pretty fast runners out early on the trail.

4:30 am. 5 quick yet easy 5 miles on the hotel treadmill before my early flight out.  Sitting in the PDX Crown room now eating bagles and banana muffins.  Glad to be going home.

 5 miles in 33:50.  6:48 avg pace.

5:30 am.  Trying to get back to a home schedule, again.  I sure don't have the motivation to get going that I did this time last year, once I get going I'm fine but for some reason the thought of that first mile every morning is pretty tough, I've never really had such a hard time getting out of bed.  Anyway, made it to the gym, told myself that a nice easy run would be fine and just get through it.  But like I said once I get going it's not so bad.  I did the first 4.7 miles in 31:00 and then the treadmill reset on me which always makes me angry.  I went to another treadmill and tried to pickup where I had been interrupted at about 6:20 pace, about 1/2 mile into it I decided to see if I could run an 18 minute 5K so I started bumping it up, first mile in about 6:15, second mile in 5:45, third in 5:37 and then .1 in :33.  So I did it in 18:10, not to bad, I'm sure if I would have decided earlier that I was running a 5K that I could have done the first mile in 6:00 pretty easy.  

I'm contemplating running a 5K turkey trot for Thanksgiving but haven't decided which one, I wish I was in a little better 5K shape but I think I could push out a 17:30 in race conditions.  I've never "raced" a 5K so I think it would be good to go see what I'm made of.

On a different note, I hung Christmas lights on the house last night.  Arguably the most dangerous winter sport in the world.  But since it's suppose to snow next week and I'm in Paris for 2 weeks after Thanksgiving I figured I should get a jump on it on the last good weather day.  Glad to say I survived yet another year of light hanging.

6:00 am.  Very enjoyable run this morning with Ryan.  Met at Maverik for our "normal" route but since it had rained last night we decided to try and find a new winter route, meaning no mud.  Headed down past Legacy center out to Utah Lake and then instead of running the trail back used back roads.  Perfect morning, perfect temperature.  I was actually over dressed, the wind this morning threw me off in my apparel decision, but it was actually very warmish.

14.07 miles in 1:36:??  Garmin said 6:51/mile avg.  Very happy with today's run compared to how awful last week went.

5:15 am. Very frustrating run today, I was suppose to run 9 but for some reason the stupid treadmill kept reseting on me.  I don't understand why some days it does that and some days it doesn't.  I've ran faster for a longer time before but for some reason every 10 minutes when I started getting into a grove it would reset on me.  After 4 resets and 3 different treadmills I got mad and went and lifted weights instead.

I'm calling it 8 miles in 51:00  6:22 avg pace.   I actually think if I could have run straight through I would have averaged better than that, but a 6:25 pace was the plan anyway.

5:15 am.  See, I don't get it, same treadmill and it went the whole 9 miles without resetting once, yesterday I went through 3 treadmills at the same pace.  I don't understand, anyway felt pretty good today, progressive run starting at 6:50 pace ending my last mile at 5:52 pace.  

9 miles in 57:10  6:21 avg.  and then a 1/2 mile cool down.

I really wanted to run a Turkey trot on Thursday, more for my kids than myself, my 8 year old has actually been training pretty good, 1 mile on the treadmill almost everyday.  He's down to a 9 minute mile average, he could probably do it faster but I'm trying to teach him to pace himself and go out slower.  That is a hard concept for a kid.

5:30 am.  Tried to come up with every excuse not do to my 6 mile tempo run this morning. "I had to shovel snow, My legs are sore, My stomach is flip floppy, What if I decide to run a 5K in -1 degree weather tomorrow?  But when I finally got to the gym I told myself that I could just warm up slow and see how things were after 2 miles.  Even if I only did a 4 mile Tempo that would be OK.

So started out at 7:30 pace, 2 mile warm up in 15:00,  Bumped it up to tempo goal pace 5:50/mile.  That went OK so I kept bumping it up every mile, ran the whole 6 miles and ended up not dieing.  So now I'm 2 for 2, survived the terible blizzard of 2010 last night, and survived yet another tempo run.  Yea me.  Splits went like this.

Mile 1- 5:52

Mile 2- 5:49

Mile 3- 5:46

Mile 4- 5:42  Cheated and put the treadmill at -1% for mile 4 and 5

Mile 5- 5:39

Mile 6- 5:27

6 Mile total 34:17  5:42 avg pace.

Rest day, went to the Gym early and swam 1 mile in 43 minutes, sat in the hot tub and got back home before anyone even knew I had left.  Got back in bed and took a 1 hour nap.  I couldn't convince my kids into going to run a Turkey trot this morning.  It looks very nice outside for it,  I think their mother is the one that got it in their head that it is "to cold".  Oh well, not going to fight it.  Now helping get the turkey ready for dinner, looks pretty yummy.

Well since the gym didn't open until 6:00am,  my wife woke up at 5:00 and decided to go shopping, so I ended up being a Black Friday Baby sitter.  Fun Fun.  This week isn't working out so good for running, hopefully Paris has some nice running routes next week.

Hope Everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and didn't get to fat.  I think I'll go have some left over Peacan Pie now.

5:00 am.  Boy 2 days off really takes it's toll, Ryan was out of town so I had to do my long run alone,  wimped out and went to the gym.  

14 miles in 1:29:08  6:21 avg pace.  Last mile in 5:40.

What a morning, woke up at 4:00am so I could get to the gym and get my run in, about 200 feet from my house figured out my car wasn't going to make it so I turned around and took my wifes 4x4.  Made it to the gym and ran as fast as I could so I could hurry home and shovel out the driveway before leaving for the airport.  Took me 2 hours to get to the airport but now I'm here and weather seems to be much better now.  Hopefully my next run will be in Paris.

9 miles in 56:12, last 1 mile in 5:45.  Avg pace 6:14.