What ever it takes!

18 mile long run, Treadmill in Beijing.  6:22 average pace

8 Mile Recovery, Treadmill Beijing

15 mile med/long run. Treadmill, in Beijing

7 mile recovery run. Treadmill in Beijing

6:04am, Suncrest Loop.  Strong headwind going up the backside but came down the front much faster than I thought I had in me.

 5:44, 5:16, 5:33 mile spits coming down.  Now I just need to do that for another 23 miles

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30215157

4:57am.  10 Mile Race simulation.  5:53 Average

5:00am In SanMateo.  9 miles hotel treadmill.  

12:05pm.  Just flew in from San Fran, Ran down to Bull river path, ran 6 6x1600's back and forth on trail 3 times.  Burned out on first split since this was my first time running 1600's and didn't realize I can't run 1 mile at 5:30 pace.  Had a strong headwind coming back so 1/2 of my splits where barely below 6:00 pace.

 Overall not a great run, didn't feel real good and had stomach problems.  Attribute it to 3 weeks of travel.

5:41am.  14 mile treadmill run.  The dreaded Tuesday med/long run.  average 6:19 min/mile

6:14am 8 mile General Aerobic with speed.  8x100's

Decided since this was a recovery day I would swim instead.  1 1/2 miles in 1 hour.  Big run tomorrow and needed to get some new legs.

5:26am Last 20+ miler until Ogden marathon.  I started at the Maverik (so I wouldn't have to climb back up the hill to my house after 22 miles of running) ran out Center street to Utah lake, cut up to Redwood road, back north past Camp Williams (not a fun hill) and out to Bluffdale.  Back to freeway frontage road, realized I had errored in my route and had to have my wife come rescue me so I could make it to soccer games at 9:00am.

Averaged 7.02 min/mile which was slower than I wanted but not bad considering wind and hills.

9 mile w/5x600's. avg 6.22 min/miles.  Ended up running 9.22 miles in 58:41.  Tried to stay at 6:30 pace for first 6 miles, did 5 600m strides at 5:27, 5:24, 5:21, 5:19, 5:16 pace.

5:05am Medium/Long run.  Suppose to be a 14 miler but I ran out of time and cut it to 13.  Started at 6:40 pace, slowly increased to 6:19.  Average 6:31.

5:19am.  Recovery run w/speed.  Tried to keep HR under 140 for first 6 miles, I think 2 weeks at sea level has taken it's toll.  Average HR 145 at 6:40 pace, and then finished run with 6 x 100's 4:58, 4:55, 4:52, 4:49, 4:48, 4:46. pace.  Legs where a little shaky at that speed but I pushed through it.

Did a 1/2 hour of leg strength training and core exercises.

5:00am.  Pure Recovery day, feel like I am finally starting to get over jetlag.  Legs are feeling good after my run.  Was going to run 8 miles but decided to cut it to 6 and take a 30min swim.  (always good on a recovery day)  6:24 average pace, ran last mile at 5:39 (just because I felt good).  Good 3/4mile swim.

According to my schedule today was a "10 mile tune up race" day.  Well I searched all over the internet and couldn't find a singe 10 mile race going on a 5:00am this morning so in regular fashion I hit the gym.  My plan was to just run a pretty fast 10 mile run at about 6:10 min/mil pace.  About 2 miles into it I decided it would be fun to do 3x5K's instead since I hadn't ran 5k strides in a while.  My first one was kind of slow since I didn't decide to run 5K's until 2 miles into it.  I did it in 21:30,  I took a 2 minute break and then ran my second one in 19:22.  Looking back through my Garmin logs the last time I did a 5K run was back in Dec. 21st of last year in 19:38 so not to shabby.  I decided to go all out on my last one and try for an 18:00.  My math was a little bit off and even at a 5:30 pace for the last mile I ended up at 18:12.  By far my fastest 5K time.

 Legs feel pretty good, hope I have the legs to do my last long run of the schedule tomorrow, 18 miles over SunCrest.

SunCrest loop one more time.  Thought I was done with that loop for a while but Ryan wanted to try it out.  Perfect weather for it today, cool and misty not much wind.  Pace was a little bit slower overall than when I did it alone 7:10 instead of 7:05 overall, and we came down the back side a little slower to try and save the legs a little bit. But overall felt really good the whole run.  Officially start tapering now,  Ahhh!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/32090901

5:00 am.  Not a good way to start out my run, both my ipod battery and Garmin battery where dead when I started today.  Luckily it was only an 8 mile run.

General Aerobic, started out at easy 7:00 min/mil pace for 1 and then worked up to 6:20's, for 6 miles.  Finished off run with 8x100's.  Feel really good considering hill run on Saturday.

Finished off workout with some leg and core strength training.

4:55am 7.5 mile recovery run today, easy 7:00 min/mil pace for first 3 tried to keep HR below 140, averaged about 142.  Bumped up to 6:40 for 2 miles Average HR ~145.  Then for my final 1.5 miles I decided to speed it up a little, mostly cause I was bored.  Ran 5:47 final mile.

 Finished workout with a 1/2 mile swim.

5:00 am.  Today was scheduled to be a 9 mile run with 3x1600's, but last night I had nightmares that I was running Ogden Marathon in slow motion and no matter what I did I couldn't go any faster.  Since I started Marathon training last May I have had a goal to run 10 miles on the treadmill in exactly 1 hour before I had to do a reset, so I decided since today was my last day close to 10 miles it would be a good day to try it.  For what ever reason, because of warm up's water breaks whatever else I have never ran 10 miles in under 1 hour before.  I started out at 9.2 mph and gradually every 5 minutes increased the speed up .2 mph, I did take a quick 1 minute water break at mile 5, and by mile 8 I was up to 10.8 mph.  I actually felt really good, I started feeling a little shaky in the knees at that speed, but cardio and lungs felt great.   Ended up running the last 1/2 mile at 11 mph just to make it in time.  Think I ended up with 2 seconds to spare, but we'll call it an even hour.

4:45 am.  Wow, only a 5 mile run today.  I could get use to this tapering.  Ran 4 miles really slow,  7:20 pace, then ran my final mile in 5:45 just to get the kinks out.  Finished off workout with a 3/4 mile swim.   35 minutes total run.

Got a nice 1 hour massage from Britt last night, feeling relaxed and good.

5:15am, 9 Mile run with 2 miles at Marathon pace.

Found out I didn't get into St. George for the second year in a row.  Pretty upset about it,  It's kind of been my goal race for the last 2 years now.

6:00 am,  13 mile loop with Ryan, met at Cabelas and did the old out to the trail loop.  Wanted to run about 1 mile at Marathon pace so when we hit the trail we bumped up the pace a little bit to about 5:50 min/mile.  Ended up going about 1.5 miles like that.  Took the rest of the run fairly easy and ended up with a 6:40 average for the whole run.

 Felt pretty good, I know I could go do a 1/2 pretty easy, now I just need to do that twice.

6:00 am, somehow ended up in Monterey California this morning, not sure how that happened. We got in pretty late last night,  got to bed at about Midnight but still woke up first thing ready for a run.  Asked the Hotel Clerk where to run and he told me there was a really nice trail that ran along the beach.  So I headed aimlessly out,  temperature was perfect, found the trail and followed it until it ended which was about 2.5 miles and turned back twards the hotel, noticed that the trail extended the other way so I took that for another mile past "Fishermans Warf" and the SeaLions and then turned back for a total of 7 miles.

Great place to run, tomorrow I think I'll start out going the opposite way and see how far the trail goes that way. 

6:00 am.   Wow!! That's all I can really say about this mornings run, This is the reason we run, for mornings like this.  Perfect weather, ran along the coastal highway along the beach with the sun coming up over the ocean, waves crashing against the rocks.  I didn't have a camera, I may just need to drive back there to get pictures.

There were little hard packed sand trails that wound through wild flowers up on the cliffs looking down over the ocean.  Anyway, I'm not much of a writer but it was an amazing run.  Averaged 6:27 min/mile without even realizing I was running, wish I had more time before I had to work, I could have easily ran 20 today before I even realized I was working.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33128518

Really wanted to take one last run on the beach this morning, but was warned that traffic on the 101 that time of morning would be horrible and I wouldn't make my flight.  So instead I woke up at 3:30 am, caught the 6:30 flight home and did a quick 5 miler with the dog around the neighborhood.  Found a really nice trail I didn't know existed before, was pretty muddy, nothing like running with 6 lbs of mud on your shoes to get you ready for a race.

It always make me feel good about myself when I have to drag the Border Collie the last mile cause I ran her to hard.  :)

6:00 am. Recovery run today on the treadmill with a little speed work.  8x100's. Got a nice massage last night from Britt, felt really good and relaxed today.  Have a little bit of a head cold hopefully it's more of an annoyance than anything.  Got 2 days to get over it.

Easy 4 tomorrow and I should be ready for the big day.

4 mile easy warmup run

We will chalk this one up as inexperience on my part.  My goal was to get a 2:45, which should have been attainable based on my training runs.  I had a plan to go out fairly fast 5:40's for the first mile or so and then settle into an even 6:00 pace as long as I could hold it.  I started up towards the front right behind BJ, Jeff, and Fritz, which was a honor in it self to run with these guys, for 100 meters or so :).  Minus BJ who just took off, I was glad to find out he was doing the relay.

I started out following the plan pretty close, it went something like this for the first 1/2

Mile 1  5:45

Mile 2  6:06

Mile 3  6:03

Mile 4  5:59

Mile 5  6:06

Mile 6  6:12

Mile 7  6:04

Mile 8  6:12

Mile 9  6:26

Mile 10 6:21

Mile 11 6:38

Mile 12 6:33

Mile 13 6:41

It slowed down after 8 due to the course flattening out.  I was actually quite happy when I hit the 1/2 Marathon start line at 1:21.  I wasn't looking forward to the upcoming hills but knew that after that was all downhill.  I made it through the hills pretty easlily and feeling good, I even did mile 17 in 6:46, which I was very pleased with, since it was the big hill.  At about mile 18 I started feeling some tightening in the legs and decided to stop for a quick leg stretch at the next aid station.  This is when it all went down hill (not in a good way), I stopped and did a quad stretch and immediatly my hamstring cramped up in a huge ball of muscle.  After that the entire race quickly went down hill and all my goals slipped away quickly.  I couldn't get back into any rythm again and could hardly go 1/4 miles without stopping to stretch again.

I ended up with a 3:04:44, which is by far my PR, but very disapointing since I was so close and on track to meet my goal up until about mile 20.  Well lesson learned, I'll try and redeem myself this fall in Logan.

In DC for 2 weeks now and I think I'll take it easy for a while, maybe some short (non-Garmin) runs to get my mind back on track.

1 Mile recovery swim

Flew into DC last night, it was raining this morning so I decided to hit the hotel Gym.

3 Miles on the Eliptical machine.  I hate that thing but it is good when my muscles still aren't ready to run.

Woke up ready to go for my first run after the marathon on Saturday, looked out the window looked like a perfect morning.  Planed to go an easy 8.

This is why I run, and this is why I love my job.  Started out in Presidential Park on Pennsylvania Ave. Ran down 14th to the Washington Monument, ran down the national mall around the Lincoln Monument and across the bridge to Arlington Cemetary.  There where signs all over saying no Jogging in the Cemetary (Lame) I would have argued that I don't "jog" I "run" but figured that might get me in trouble.  So I circled back and followed some joggers down a trail that led me to a great boardwalk along the Potomic river,  There was some island that I'm sure has a name but I didn't catch it so I went across the bridge and followed a great dirt path through the trees that circled around the island for about 1 mile.  I then headed back basically the same path I came in on since I was a bit lost.

Run ended up being 9.5 miles in 1:05.  Fun run, excited to go out exploring more tomorrow.

 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33816793

One of my clients from Germany has never been to DC and was telling me he was training for a 1/2 marathon, so I offered to let him come running with me this morning.  Due to Jetlag he wanted to wait until 6:30am which I totally understood.  Waited for him in the lobby and sure enough he showed up, which quite suprised me.  Anyway, I should have known better last night when he opened up a pack of cigarettes and started puffing away after dinner.  But lets just say that was the longest 3 miler I have ever been on.  I think it took us 45 minutes to go 3 miles.  I ended up circling back and droping him off at the hotel and ran another 3 on my own.  Maybe it was good to slow down a little bit, but I think if he wants to come again tomorrow I'll get an early 10 in before meeting up with him :)

First longish run since the Marathon.  After about 8 I could tell I'm still not fully recovered, Quads still burn a little bit.  Followed a bike commuter trail out to the Airport along the Potomic River and back.  12.2 miles in 1:22:30.

 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/34009520

Da German's wanted to go running this morning, so learning my lesson from last time I went out early and did 7 on my own, I then circled back to the hotel at met up with "Da Germans" for a quick 5K (they don't understand miles)  Clemans, the newer one dropped out at 0.5K yeah (1/2), our 9:00 min/miles where to much for him, so I and Engin (the 1/2 marathon trainie) went another 2.5 around the Lincoln Monument and back to the hotel.  I actually enjoyed taking it easy after my 7 miles.  No stress, just a pleasant stroll around the park.

Had an early work start today so I knew I only had time for a quick short run.  I set out to do 8 and push it from the start.  I managed about a 6:20 pace for the first 3 miles but then the humidity got to me.  Also at that point I got a little bit lost, I knew how to go back the way I came but that would only give me 6 miles so I explored across the bridge into Georgetown.  Really neat place to run, but the intersections slowed me down.  I eventually ran into so other joggers and asked them the best way back, they pointed to a trail that took me right back to the Lincoln Monument.

From there along the pond the length of the national mall is almost exactly 1 mile so I decided to do a fast mile, started out at a 5:30 pace but had to slow down at about 3/4, ended up running the mile in 5:50.  needed to go another 2 miles to get my 8 in so I ran up to the Capitol building and back to the hotel, ended up going 8.4 in 53:00.

7 Mile Recovery run, kind of an exploritory run.  I wanted to try a new route but only had 45 minutes to do it in.  I had noticed on the map that there was a botanical garden on the other side of Capitol Hill, I wasn't sure how far it was so I just started running in that direction.  I started running into some areas that looked a little iffy and there was a lack of other runners in the area so I turned back before making it to the Gardens.  Looking at the map I was only about 1/4 of a mile away, but I needed to get back to start work anyway.

7 Miles in 47:39  6:50 min/mile pace.

Made an executive decision to take the day off of running. Went down to the hotel Gym and did some leg workouts and some core strength.  Then sat in the hottub for 15 minutes, Not quite as invigurating as a nice hard run, but I think I needed the break.

I decided this was worth logging, last night I went and met some friends for dinner up in Georgetown.  I took a cab there and between going to the CVS to get some cash for the cab, waiting in line for the cab, and then the actual cab ride there it took me 45 minutes to go 3 miles.  So after dinner I thought, I'm just going to run back to the hotel, so with my wallet in one pocket, iPhone in the other and some other various items I had bought from CVS so I could get cash for the cab I started running.  It was quite an experience to actually run to go somewhere instead of running in place or one big circle.  With traffic, tourists and other destractions I was still able to make the 3 mile trip in 22 minutes.  1/2 the time the cab took me.  I think I will try this more often.

Woke up nice and early to get 10 miles in before work started, Ran across the Arlington Bridge along the trail to Rosevelt island, ran the complete circle around the island, up to Georgetown, back to the Lincoln monument, back to the hotel.

10 miles in 1:10.  Had a hard time getting my legs to go this morning,  very humid here and lots of bugs, ready to get back to Utah.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/34722665

Quick 7 mile run before work, to Georgetown and back.  Much better temperature for running today.  7 in 47:22 6:45 pace.

Well a long 2 weeks in DC, finally get to go home today.  Before heading to the airport though I woke up early and threw together 2 weeks of exploring DC into 1 big GrandTour loop.  If you're ever in DC be sure and try it, it has a good mix of trails, scenery, and history.  15 miles in 1:42:45, it would have been 16 miles but Roosevelt island was really muddy so I turned back.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/34914104

Dedicating the next 3 weeks to speed work before official TOU training begins.   See y'all back in Utah.

Still on East coast time, usually don't run on Sunday but I was up at 4:00am with nothing to do and didn't want to wake the rest of the family so I went and got the dog (she doesn't get mad when I wake her up at 4:00am) and went for a nice easy 5 mile run around the neighborhood trail system.

That poor dog is out of shape, or getting old, she is only good for about 4 miles anymore.

My Garmin battery died at mile 1 so I ended up going on my old reliable 10 mile out and back.  We'll just call it 10 miles in 1:10.

5:00 am.  First time on a treadmill in over 2 weeks,  but I didn't feel like running in the dark this morning plus it seemed kind of windy.  Did 4 miles at about 6:45 pace, then decided to do a quick 5K sim.  I started out trying to hold a 5:40 pace but that only lasted for about 1.6 miles, had to slow it down for 1/4 mile and then got back up to 5:50 pace to finish it off.  Ended up doing the 5K in 18:42.  I'm sure I could have done it in 18:00 but I went out to hard to start.  Need to stop doing that.

 Just put my 12 week training schedule together for TOU.  Pretty Brutal, up to 100 miles a week,  and considerably more speed work than my last schedule.

Started a speed and agility class yesterday as kind of a filler before training for TOU begins, my legs hurt more today than after Ogden Marathon, squats and plate pushes for an hour.  Today was more upper body and core. 

Ran a really, really slow 5 miles before class started this morning..  Hopefully it all pays off in the end.

5:00 am.  Ran 4 miles on the treadmill while it was still dark, after 4 miles I decided to go hit the river trail, took it to the end and back which was 5.4 miles round trip.

Nothing like a mouth-full of bugs for a high protein breakfast.

Going to speed class for lunch today, I have muscles I didn't even know I had hurting all over my body.  Must mean it's working huh?

Ran 5.25 before speed training this morning,  2 miles in class, according to Garmin.  Glad this week is over, I hurt everywhere.  Going camping tonight so I may not get a long Saturday run in this week.  Not really worried about it.

Stayed at the Spruces campground up Big Cottonwood canyon for Father Son's outing last night.  Woke up at 5:30am freezing cold and figured there where 2 ways to get warm, go make a fire with wet wood, or go run.  Luckily I had left my gym bag in the trunk of my car and had running shoes with me.  So before the kids woke up I headed up the canyon to Brighton ski resort.  Pretty tough climb 7% grade in some places starting at 7500ft ending at 8500.  I didn't have my Garmin with me so I'm just guessing on the distance but Map my Run says about 5 miles total.  Did it in about 40 minutes.  Not as far as I would like my Saturday run to be but at least I got something in.

Short little run around the neighborhood with Nelle on a beautiful Sunday morning,  5 mile trail loop.  Nelle was only good for about 7:30 min/mil pace which was fine.   Had a skunk incident,  so I had to put her on her leash for a while which slows me down a bit.

Ended up with a 7:22 average.

Was planning on running 8 miles this morning, ran 3 at in 20:30 then I decided I would like to swim today as well so I took a quick water break and then tried running an 18min 5K.  Ended up doing it in 18:24, Started out at 6:19 pace for 2 minutes and then bumped up to 5:30. I just can't seem to hold that 5:30 pace for longer than about 1 mile at a time.  Next time I'll just try holding a 5:50 the entire time instead of trying to make it up late in the run.

Did an easy 1/2 mile swim to try and relax the muscles, then sat in the hottub.  

5 1/2 miles before speed work class today, 2 miles during class.  Feeling much better this week, I can actually walk.  May try and get in another 5 at lunch.

Met with Ryan at the Gym for lunch, he wanted to run 8 getting ready for Ragner next week so we ran the trail to the dead end and back for 6 miles at a steady 6:45 pace, I normally don't run at lunch so that was the first run in the sun I've done in a long time.  I definately need to do more of those and get used to running hot.  We finished up on the treadmill, I suggested we run the last mile in 6:00, we kept pushing the button up and up and ended up doing it in about 5:45.

Ran to work today, it wasn't real pleasant.  My legs where burning when I woke up, I thought it would go away after a mile or so, but it never did, they fought me the entire way here. Kind of windy and a lot of trucks at 5:30 in the morning.  Now I know why that isn't my normal running route.  Between my burning legs and the wind I did it in 1:21:07.  

Got a call at 4:00 pm Thursday saying I needed to fly to California for an EA Sports event,  Worked until 3:00 am Friday morning and then had to be back at 6:00 am.  Worked the event and missed my flight by 10 minutes so now I'm stuck in LAX for 4 hours and don't get home until Midnight.  That is 3 hours of sleep in the last 44 hours, I don't think I'll get my run in tomorrow either. 

Hope this sort of thing doesn't happen when I start my TOU Training or I'll be in pretty bad shape.

Wow, that was the longest I've gone without running in over a year, to be honest I should probably take time off more often, I felt great, legs where fresh and I felt very comfortable. Did speed class after an easy 6 mile run.

Pretty much the same loop as yesterday morning, out around Thanksgiving point golf course and back on the JR Trail.  Tried to pick up the pace on the trail and ran 2 miles at 6:30 pace, didn't want to over do it before speed class.

No speed class today so I decided to go out for a midweek medium run.  Planned on going 12 miles from home around the Traverse Mountain trail system and out to the Smiths and back.  Ended up only being 11.2 miles in 1:19. It was a nice morning for a run, had a pretty good headwind the first 1/2 which irritated my eyes a bit. The return was nice, difference of about 10 sec/mile between a headwind and a tailwind for the same effort. 

My knees hurt a little bit too, which I have never had knee problems before so I hope that was a 1 time thing,  I think I really need to do something about my heel though, I can't go through another training regimin with it hurting every morning like it is.  Anyone have experience with Planter Fascittis, I saw a doctor about it and he thought I could fix it with shoe inserts but they don't seem to be doing anything.  I think I may need to break down and get a cortisone shot.  I have never had one before, anyone else out there have experience with this?

Went swimming this morning before speed class, a little over 1 mile.  I lost count of laps after about 5.  

Speed class we did the "Beep test", basically 50 Yard sprints between beeps with 10 second breaks, every time the beeps get faster.  I have no idea how long between beeps to figure out how fast I was but I got up to level 15.4 whatever that means.  I gave up at 15.4 cause everyone else had already dropped out and were just watching me, plus I was exhausted.  I wanted to max out my heart rate, only got it up to 182, I have had it to 192 before.

Then we did some strength, and core stuff, pulled a neck muscle (bad news) and then we did 5 X 400's with 15 second rests in between. 

Felt pretty good today, I'm glad I swam instead of ran before class. 

Ran the Jordan River trail below Thanksgiving point, I was feeling pretty good this morning and the cool air made me want to pick up the pace a bit.  Averaged 6:45 min/mil over 7 miles.

Today was lower body day in class, lots of squats and lunges, may be hating life on tomorrows long run.

5:30 a.m.  Went out for a 12 mile run, ran out to Smiths and back on the Bull River trail.  Averaged 7:00 min/mil through out the run, I didn't want to get above 7:00 average so when I hit the hill up to my house I tried really hard to keep at 7's.  Actually found it to be quite a bit easier than that hill used to be, which is a good thing.  Took Fox Hollow road home which actually goes above my house then there is about a 10% grade from the top to my house for a 1/4 mile.  I pushed it really hard coming down the hill and hit 14 Mph for about 30 seconds.  4:17 min/mil pace.

When I got home my 8 year old was on the couch crying because he wanted to go on my run with me following on his bike.  So I headed back out the door with him, drove down to Cabelas and ran the trail 1.5 Miles out and back for 3 more miles.  Seems there is a big difference between 12 and 15 miles.  I can go out for 12 on an empty stomach first thing in the morning but that last 3 really took a toll on me, I really could have used a gu pack, and a Powerade after 12.

5 Mile easy run with Nellie.  She seems to be getting back into shape.  I didn't have to drag her up the hill this morning.

Off to Europe tomorrow, hopefully will get some awsome runs in there.

5 easy miles before a 14 hour flight

Drove from Paris to Baden Baden Germany, Sat in the mineral pools for 2 hours last night, which felt really good after sitting on a plane all day.  Went for a 7 mile run down the river trail in Baden Baden then came back and Britt wanted to try running with me.  1 mile with her around an aquestrian park.

Stayed in St. Goar Germany last night.  woke up at 5:00 am and ran down a bike trail along the Rhine river.  Beutiful morning.  I will post Garmin map later

8 miles from hotel in Fussen Germany up to neuschwanstein castle.  There was a lake down from the lake with I ran part way around too. Beutiful run, a pretty good hill climb up to castle.

6 easy miles on lake trail from hotel in Fussen

Wasn't going to run this morning but wanted to do a short run around Lake Lugano before we left. Beutiful place, it is very cool to see different cities early in the morning when noone else is awake yet.

I'm in my favorite place in the whole world today. Lauderbrunnen Switzerland.  Went for a great 9.2 mile run this morning up the river and back then my wife and I set out on a 15 mile hike up the Eiger and JungFrau Alps.  5,000 ft elevation climb in 4 miles up the face. I'm only logging my running miles but I'm sure the 15 miles of hiking counts for something.  I have Marathon toes after that decent.

Ran up my favorite little trail here in Lauterbrunnen again, I started out pretty slow due to our long hike yesturday, I was suppose to get in 14 today but didn't want to kill myself since I knew we had another long day of hiking plus I was running late for Breakfast.  Did the prettiest 2 mile section of the trail 3 times to get my 13 miles in, it's only 8 miles to the end and back.  I kicked it up a gear coming back to the hotel the last 3 miles due to being late and it was a slight downhill on a beutiful cool morning.  Ran the 13 in 1:25 last 3 miles in 18 minutes.

We went out for another good hike today, 9.3 miles round trip.  My wife sprained her angle so we cut it a little short.

7 miles recovery run. Ran up to Stechelberg and back.  Two big cows where standing in the trail and gave me incentive to cut my run to 7 instead of 8.  If I've learned anything from this site from the Elite running it's that I run my recovery runs too fast.  Tried really hard to keep a 8:00 min/mil pace.  It is supprizingly hard to slow down hopefully it pays off later and I can do my fast runs faster.

7 miles in 55 minutes.

Pure torture, after 2 weeks of running in the most beutiful places in the world it ends with 12 miles on a treadmill in a stuffy, hot, humid hotel gym.

12 miles in 1:25

Another run on the hotel treadmill before getting to the airport to catch our flight home.  Vacations over, back to work.  I'm just glad I was able to still get all my miles in this week.

Got home from Paris yesterday afternoon, good flight.  Tried to get some sleep last night but woke up at 1:00 am wide awake.  Forced myself to lay in bed until 4:30.  I had made plans with Ryan 2 weeks ago to run at 5:30 this morning or I would have just gone to the gym.  Wish I would have gone now since Ryan did a no show.

Cut my run way short due to absolutely horrible running conditions.  40 - 60 mph wind gusts make for a miserable run.  

Planned on going 17 miles around the Suncrest loop, ended up just doing my regular 10 mile Bull River trail run.

12 Mile run with 5 mile tempo run.  This was suppose to be a 10 mile run but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get in a 4 mile recovery today since we are doing 5th of July celebrations today.  

This was really one of the first non-treadmill tempo runs I have done, started out doing my normal Traverse Mountain trail loop, then at 4 miles when I hit the Bull River trail I started my Tempo out around Smiths and back,  My splits looked like this.  6:12.46,  6:18.53, 6:17.55, 6:06.50, 6:06.84.  I felt like this was pretty good since the trail is part dirt and gravel with a little bit of up and down roll to it.  I know I have done tempos faster on the treadmill, but they really don't compare.  Coming back was a little fast due to slight downhill, and a tailwind out of the canyon.

I am trying to get my Threshold miles down to between 5:30 - 6:00, I think I need to find a flatter non dirt road next time.

Well, I guess the pain starts now.  Started out early at 4:45 on the treadmill for 9 miles while it was dark.  Pushed it a little harder than I probably should have, 9 miles in 58:00.  I then head outside and ran 6 miles out and back on the river trail from the gym.  That was the painful part, I felt like I was in slow motion the whole time.

5:00 am Treadmill, 6 Mile recovery run in 48 minutes, 8:00 min/mil pace.    It is very easy to get bored and want to pick up the pace, but I can tell with the amount of miles I am working up to, these recovery days are going to be very beneficial.  I feel really good now, I have been having pain in my right Hamstring but this run seems to have loosened that up nicely.

12:00 pm , 5.5 mile recovery run with Ryan for lunch on the trail 7:45 average pace.  Very nice relaxing run, was only suppose to be a 4 miler but it seemed like such a waste to change all my clothes and all for a 4 mile run.

5:20 am, 12 miles on an absolutely beautiful morning.  Was 1/2 an hour late for work but I really wanted to run outside.  Did my normal 12 mile Bull River trail run out around Smiths and back.  Tried to maintain a 7:00 average pace but my tight hamstring kept slowing me down a bit.  Ended up with a 7:09 average but I'm not complaining,  Good run.

5:15 am Treadmill run.  8 mile General Aerobic run with 10 x 100's.  Tried to keep my HR around 135 this seemed to be about a 7:00 min/mil pace it did creep up to about 145 by the end of 6 miles before I started repeats.

Dreaded the thought of repeats today since my hamstring is still tight, but after the first one it seemed to loosen up and then I really enjoyed them, they make the miles go by faster.

400 meter swim in 10 minutes after my run just to relax a little bit.

5:30 am. 17 Mile run with Ryan out to Utah lake and back on the Parkway trail to Thankgiving point. 2:00 exactly 7:04 Min/mil pace. Great morning, didn't even get hot after the sun came up.

The family wanted to go for a run together when I got home so I did another really easy 1.5 with them.

 Really happy with this week, My longest week getting ready for Ogden Marathon was 76 miles and I did 1 more than that this build up week.  I remember feeling like I was on deaths bed that week of Ogden training, but other than some soreness in the legs I felt really good today on this long run

6:00 am.  5 Mile easy recovery run with Nelle.  8:10 pace.  Very nice morning, light breeze with ocational rain sprinkles. 

Watching the Tour De France, poor Lance.  I blame his team.

5:00 am, 8 Miles of General Aerobic followed by 10 x 100's.  I was planning on running on the treadmill for 2 miles until the sun came out and then hitting the trail, but it's so convenient sometimes to just stay on the treadmill.  I tried to keep a pace where my HR would stay at or below 145, I started at about a 7:20 pace for 1 mile and then went to a 7:00 pace.  Held that for 5 miles my HR stayed about 142 for most of the run but the last 2 miles it was between 145 - 150 so I kept slowing the pace to get it back down.

Took a quick water break at 8 miles and then came back and hit some hard repeats.  Started at 4:30 pace for the first one and slowly worked up to a 4:15 pace for my last.  I think I actually did 11 repeats, for some reason math doesn't add up correctly all the time when your pushing hard.

11:45 am.  4 Mile Recovery run for lunch.  Yummm.  Here is a fun game on an otherwise boring recovery run.  Pick a heart rate and try to keep it there at the same pace.  I choose 130 as my target at an 8:00 min/mil pace.  Started out around 125 for 2 miles then it got up close to 129.  I would mess around with different breathing methods, different stride lengths and incline and decline on the treadmill.  I did hit 132 a few times but was able to bring it down pretty easy by changing things up a little.  It's suprising how you can  control your heartrate by changing your thoughts or music.

5:00 am 15 Miles.  I wanted to give today a little bit harder effort, for 2 reasons.  I felt like the last few days I ran pretty easy, and I had to catch an 8:30 flight to Irvine CA.  My goal was to average a 6:45 pace over the entire run, which isn't so hard on the Treadmill, but the trail can be a little more difficult. 

I started out on the Treadmill for the first 5 miles waiting for day light,  Did that in 33:30.  6:42 pace.  Then I went out to the trail for the remaining 10.  I had to pretty much run the length of the trail out and back twice.  Was averaging about 6:40 for the first 7 miles but I started bonking a little bit the last 3, struggled really hard to keep it below 7:00 pace for that last 3.  I think it had something to do with the sun coming out and temps going up a little.  Ended up averaging 6:45 exactly for the 10 so if I do the math right I beat my goal by about 2 seconds/mile.  Yea.

At the Airport on my way to Irvine right now, anyone know good places to run there?  I saw there was some Laguna Park about 8 miles away with mountain bike trails may get a taxi to take me there and try it out if I have the time.

Avg HR 158

Max HR 169

6:00 am, An awesome morning recovery run here in Southern California.  I don't understand why more people don't live here.  Oh wait they do.

Followed a bike trail from my hotel out to Newport beach, my Garmin battery died about 1 mile into it so I didn't have anything to pace off of.  I was trying for 8:00 min/mil but I felt to good down here with all this oxygen and I'm sure I was much closer to 7:20's.

I wasn't going to take my clucky phone running with me but decided I should since I'm in a new place and never know what to expect.  I'm glad I did cause I ran into this guy just walking up the trail 10 feet from me.  He didn't even care I was there, pretty neat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-omdbMv-78

5:30 am. 14 Miles.  Well no Bobcats today fairly uneventful.  Today was considerably warmer than yesterday and more humid here in So. Cal..  I followed the same trail from the hotel down to the bay, but this time instead of turning around I continued on the road out around the bay.  The signs kept saying "loop" but I never saw anything that looked like it looped.  This road looks like a pretty popular training route for some pretty hardcore looking Tri-atheletes and runners.  I was going to post my Garmin run but my Macbook has a design flaw, I can't have my EVDO card and Garmin plugged in at the same time.  Anyway, 14 miles in 1:35.

6:49 min/mil average.  Didn't bring my HR strap with me but wish I would have.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/40608648

5:30 am. 10 Mile General Aerobic.  Back in Utah, did my normal 10 mile trail run out and around Smiths.  Very nice cool morning for a run, glad to be back. 

Avg Pace 7:21

Avg HR. 146

Max HR. 165 (coming up the hill home)

Added my cool Newport beach run to yesterdays post.

5:30 am.  Met with Ryan in the Cabelas parking lot, he actually beat me there so I figured he must have been really excited to run 20.  Ran down to the Legacy center out center street to the Lake back to Willowpark on the river trail continued around Thanksgiving point back up the horrible hill to Cabelas. 

Very nice first 1/2 of the run before the sun, but after about mile 12 it got warm, probably the hottest run I've done all year.  No comments people down in Arizona and St. George.

20 miles in 2:21.  7:06 avg. pace I think is what it said.

I think I convinced Ryan to run Deseret News Marathon next week as a training run, so I'll see you there.

5:30 am. Very easy 6 mile recovery run with Nelle.  Started out pretty stiff but loosed up about 2 miles into it.

6 miles in 48 Minutes

Avg. Pace 8:00

4:50 am.  Tempo Run day, I was actually pretty scared for todays run,  pretty bad when you have a hard time sleeping the night before just thinking about a dumb training run.  Started out on the treadmill for 5.5 miles.  Did it in 39:30 avg 7:10 pace.  Then I went out to the trail, my goal was to run 5 in 30 minutes flat, didn't quite reach that goal my first mile was on track but after that I just couldn't hold onto 6:00 min/mil pace I kept catching myself slowing down, I'd try to pick it back up but found I couldn't quite hold it.  My mile splits for the 5 looked like this.   5:58, 6:12, 6:17, 6:20, 6:16.  Total time 31:13 Avg. overall. 6:13 min/mil.   I'm not really to upset with the run, I feel like I got out of it what I needed, I'll just have to try to get faster each time.  Pretty much kept my heart rate at a constant rate the entire run which I think is the point of a Tempo run.

Avg. HR. 170    85% of max

Max HR. 172

11:30 am. 5 mile recovery run on the treadmill for lunch.  Avg Pace 7:18, ran a little faster than I probably should have on a recovery run and ended with a 800m sprint in 2:40 to finish it off which probably wasn't that great an idea either but I was feeling pretty good so figured what the heck.

3:45 am.  I would like to say it was a nice morning for running, but I'm not really sure, it was pitch black the whole run.  I had to go to Cub Scout camp this morning so I needed to get my run in before we met at the church at 6:00.  I was suppose to do a 15 today, but I seemed to be about 30 seconds/mile behind pace (I blame the dark) so I ended short, I'll try and get out for a quick 4-5 this afternoon.

It's kind of creepy running that early in the morning.  All sorts of critters staring at you as you run by, it's hard to tell who is more scared them or me.

14 Miles in 1:41:00  7:16 min/mil pace.

 5:00 pm.  Decided to whip out a quick 4 mile recovery run on the treadmill before bed.

4 Miles in 32:00 8:00 min/mil pace.

5:00 am.  Much needed recovery day, if 1 year ago someone would have told me a 12 mile day is a recovery day, I would have laughed at them (6 miles at lunch today too).  Anyway 6 miles on the treadmill in 45:45   7:37 min/mil average.  I was running an 8:00 min/mil but picked up the last mile to get the kinks out.

1200 M swim in ~30 minutes after the run and a good soak in the hot tub.  Hoping for a massage tonight, we'll see.

11:15 am. Had a lunch appointment at noon so I was in kind of a hurry, ended up only doing 5 miles instead of the planned 6.  5 Miles in 36:45,  7:21 min/mil pace, so shorter than it should have been and faster. 

5:10 am. Ran to work today, have I mentioned that I hate that run,  it takes so much more out of you to deal with traffic, wind and dust.  Anyway, felt pretty good, I struggled to decide on an adequate pace, I wanted to push it a little bit but I wanted to save myself for Saturdays Marathon too,  so I pretty much ended up halfway between where I should have been and where I could have been.  Which was a good feeling to be in control of my run and know I had more in me if I wanted but had some breathing room.

14 Miles in 1:38:00  7:00 min/mil average. 

Avg. HR 150

Max. HR 160

I had Britt give me a massage last night.  It is amazing how much a good massage will show you how bad off you really are.  I thought my legs where dealing with this 100 mile week pretty well so far, but man when she started digging in and finding all the knots in my muscles it made me realize that maybe I have just learned to deal with constant pain more than I thought I had.

4:30 am.  Was going to get a late start today and run around my house but when I woke up up at 4:00 I decided it might be nice to get my workout done early and spend some time in the hot tub so I headed to they Gym for some Treadmill work.  When I got to the gym there was a running group meeting in the lobby ready to run outside.  I asked if I could come along and they told me I was to fast for them.  I told them I had a marathon tomorrow and am in no big hurry, so anyway I went out with them for a very peaceful 5 miles at about 8:00 min/mil pace.  I only caught 3 of the names, (Bruno from CapeTown, Liz from Sandy, and Eric from California)  After the 5 mile loop I split off and ran the trail for an extra 5 at about a 7:40 pace.  Whole run 10.1 in 1:1913.

Avg Pace. 7:49

Avg HR. 140

Max HR. 149

A little nervous for tomorrow I'm not sure why, I have told myself 100 times its just a long training run but there is always the deep down excitment of being in a timed race and wanting to do good.   I would love to just get a sub 3:00 marathon under my belt and not hurt to bad the next day.

OK,  I finally got a chance to sit down and compose a race report.  It’s been a busy weekend. 

I had not really planned on running this race, my schedule only had me down for an 18 this Saturday but last week on my 20 mile run with Ryan Jonson we decided we both felt pretty good and it might not be a bad idea to get a 26 miler in on a assisted course.  This run would also put me over 100 miles for the week, I had contemplated cutting some of my other runs to at least to a little bit of a taper but decided to stick to the schedule which would keep me in the mental mindset that this was indeed a training run.  So we both signed up last weekend on kind of a whim.

Friday night I told my wife I was going to go sleep in the basement as to not wake her when I got up early,  It was probably a good idea. I don’t think I slept real good at all despite the fact I went to bed at 8:30pm, I didn’t even need my alarm clock to wake up at 1:40am.  Pretty sad. Got up, got ready, drove to Ryans to pick him up at 2:30 and we headed to the Energy Solutions arena and caught the first 3:15 bus up.  As soon as we arrived at the top I headed for the “Honey Bucket”  I did this a record 5 times in the 1:30 hour wait for the start.  I tend to have  a blatter problem only before races though.  It was a very nice morning, a little  on the cold side but beautiful view of the valley and the moon setting in the West.

Finally the infamous bagpipes started indicating the race start was about to begin, Quite a few laughs at the expense of the bagpiper but I thought it was cool since I had read it was tradition.   Lined up at the front, talked to a couple of interesting people.  When they would ask me what my goal was I would simply say “to have a fun time and a great race” my real goal was to get through it with a major blowup like in Ogden earlier this year.  5:30 prompt the race started.

Mile 1 – although I did line up towards the front I didn’t even attempt to keep up with the leaders, all I knew is they took off really fast, I’m guessing sub 5:00’s for the first mile or so.  I just got into a comfortable stride worked my way around a few people and caught up with Ryan.  There was a girl if front of us I thought was Allie at first.  I knew she was around  2:55 last year which is about where I wanted to be so I told Ryan to stay with her for a while and get into a good rhythm.  It was still pretty dark so I couldn’t see my Garmin but at mile marker 1 I looked down and saw 5:48 first mile.  We had said we would start out at a 6:30 pace J

Mile 2- about the same, feeling good hit marker number 2 and looked down at another 5:48.

Mile 3 – started running with the girl that I thought was Allie, talked about the blog and Sasha, she looked at me like I was nuts.  I asked her if she was Allie, she said “No, I’m Jenn.  Who’s Allie?”  Turns out it was Jenn Shelton the infamous Ultra runner party girl from the “Born to Run” book.  Found out right away, that she had a really foul mouth on her, must have been raised by sailors. Anyway we told her Allie was the defending champ from last year, she told us she hadn’t really trained for this properly just running her normal mountain dirt trails.  She was pretty upset that there where a bunch of Kenyans ahead of her, we told her we were pretty sure there was only 1 girl, so second wouldn’t be bad.  Hit Mile marker 3 at 5:53,  so a little slower but still way faster than planned.

Mile 4- I thought to myself, I can’t keep this up this is how Ogden started, flying down the first few miles feeling awesome and then blowing up at the end, told Ryan we should slow down a little, hit 4 at a 6:10 pace, more because if flattened out than anything.

We lost Jenn at an aid station, we ran through, she slowed down for a drink, must be an Ultra thing.   The course flattened out, I felt good still but could tell we were definitely slowing.  The next couple miles splits went like this

Mile 5 - 6:29

Mile 6 - 6:46

Little Mountain started, I had read how bad it was, we did slow down a bit, but there was a nice cool wind out of the canyon, which made it very pleasant.

Mile 7 - 7:28

Mile 8 – 6:58

Started coming back down the back side, I knew it was good downhill for a while the pace picked up.  I could see the Kenyan girl coming down in front of us on one of the hairpin turns about 400m in front of us.  Looked behind and could see Jenn about 200M behind us.

Mile 9 – 6:17

Mile 10 – 6:39

Mile 11 – 6:15

I had taken 6 gel packs with me on my race belt, slowly they kept falling out of my belt, I had not even had one yet and was already down to 4, so coming down the hill when I lost yet another one I actually stopped and turned around to get it.   I knew it would be bad news if I didn’t eat them.  At some point along here we had to run up the canyon about ½ a mile and then back down so we could actually see who was in front of us and who was behind.  Saw that the Kenyan girl was still about 400 M ahead, Jenn was catching up. 

Mile 12 – 6:25

Mile 13 – 6:37

13.1  about 1:24:00  Slower than Ogden ½ but I was actually happy about that cause I thought maybe I was taking it easier.  Still feeling good.  Started to get some sun though.

Jenn finally caught us around 13, I thought she was going to blow right by us, but she actually stayed with us.  I think she enjoyed the company since she had been running alone for a while.  I could tell she was a bit annoyed with our stupid questions though cause she was obviously starting to hurt a little bit.  We ran with her off and on for the next 5 miles, she slowed down on the up hills quite a bit. (another ultra thing)

Mile 14 – 6:32

Mile 15 – 6:24

Mile 16 – 6:21

Mile 17 – 6:27

Mile 18 – 6:52 through the neighborhood, some hills.

We where about 100M behind the Kenyan girl at 18 Jenn was about 50 behind us, I turned around and told her to hurry, we could catch her.  We actually slowed down a little bit to let Jenn catch up we hit Foothill and made a little surge to catch her.  Passed the Kenyan somewhere around 19.  I told Jenn at mile 20 Sasha was going to meet us to pace us in so to keep with us. She dropped back at that point.

Mile 19 – 6:26

Sasha was waiting right at the 20 Mile marker,  he must have recognized my blue tanktop cause he ran right out to meet me,  I quickly introduced myself and Ryan to him and off we went.

Mile 20 – 6:42

Mile 21 – 6:58

Mile 22 – 6:11

I started getting a side cramp, Sasha told me to ignore it.  Next downhill it went away.

Mile 23 – 6:43

Sasha is amazing, I can barely keep track of what I’m doing with a full out computer on my wrist telling me every detail.  He somehow predicted every mile we would hit and gave me my final time within 10 seconds, 6 miles before I even got there.  My Garmin doesn’t do that.  J

Mile 24 – 6:32

I started hurting pretty bad after 24, it was getting hot, and I was hurting.  Sasha pushed much harder than I would have let myself run these final miles.  He kept making me give him high fives every 200 M or so, which where making me crazy, but took my mind off of all the other destractions that could have stopped me.

Mile 25 – 6:36

Mile 26 – 7:06

I obviously died a little bit here, Ryan took off ahead of me for the first time all race.  Sasha was getting annoyed with my slowing down (which I do feel bad about) He wanted me to surge to the finish in a sprint.  I swear I tried but didn’t have much left.

Mile 26.2 Final Time  2:51:36.

Ryan finished 2:50:53

Jenn finished 1^st place womans over all in 2:54:23

Allie finished 2^nd place womans over all in 2:54:35

Anyway, awesome day, awesome race.  So many great things happened today. 

Thanks Sasha, and thanks Ryan.  I would have been a stranded lost sheep if I had been out there alone.

Sorry for such a long race report.  I had a great time reading others before this race, I hope someone will get something out of mine.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41906478

5:10 am.  Got on the treadmill and  immediately knew that wasn't going to happen, so I hopped on the elliptical trainer for 15 minutes then decided to give the treadmill another shot.  Managed to start running at a 10:00/mil pace and slowly built up from there for a very painful 7 miles in 55 minutes.

Finished off with a soak in the hottub and a few laps in the pool.

Finally met RivertonPaul after my run today, he was doing the elliptical (smart man). He is much thinner in real life than his pictures.  You know what they say Paul, the camera adds 100 lbs,  or was that Photoshop adds 100 lbs?  I can't remember.  Anyway good meeting you today.

11:45 am.  Another slow yet painful 6 miles on the treadmill at lunch.  6 miles in 47:30

5:15 am.  4 Miles on the Treadmill in 30 minutes, then I went out and ran on the trail for another painful 8 in 1 hour.  I am feeling better than yesterday, funny thing is I can run much easier than I can walk.  People probably think I'm nuts when they watch me running 8.5 mph and then stop and practically fall over just trying to walk to the drinking fountain.

12 in 1:29:37  7:30/mil pace.

5:00 am.  6 Mile Recovery run on treadmill, starting to get my legs back, I can finally walk down stairs. The first 2 miles where a little slow and stiff, but I worked it out.  

600 M swim after my run in about 15 minutes and then a soak in the hot tub. 

I'll be back for lunch.

11:30 am.  6 Mile Recovery again for lunch.  Exactly the same time as this morning, not planned, it felt faster.

6 miles in 45:36  7:36/mil pace.

5:15 am, 5 Mile run in 34:20 on the Treadmill, tried to pickup the pace a little bit to get the legs moving.  Then I went out to the trail to attempt a 4 mile Tempo Run.  I could tell right away that my legs aren't completely back yet, I wanted to keep a 6:00 /mil pace but my legs just weren't up to it.  The mile splits went like this  5:58, 6:28, 6:33, 6:32.

(10 days ago I did a 5 mile tempo run on the same trail at 5:58, 6:12, 6:17,6:20,6:16) So a bit sluggish today to say the least.

Avg Pace for Tempo, 6:22/mile

Max HR for Tempo 176  90% of max (only for 5 seconds so it could be a misread)

Avg HR for Tempo 168  84% of max (LT runs should be between 157 - 174, so good)

Avg Pace for total 10 Miles 6:48/mile

Forgot to mention I went water skiing last night with elders quorum, first time I've been water skiing in probably 20 years,  may have had something to do with my slow run too.

5:15 am.  General Aerobic run.  Ran 4 miles on the treadmill in 27:10 then went out to the trail to the end and back for another 6 in 43:18.  Water skiing 2 days ago took a lot out of me.  I'm feeling muscles in my upper body that I haven't used in years.

Nothing special, just trying to get it done with enough energy for a long run tomorrow.

Overall 10 mile average 7:02/mile

5:00 am. Exceptionally special run today :) 

 Not really, I was pretty trashed for most of it.  Started from my house at 5:00 and ran down the dirt road and along the frontage road in the dark for 3.75 miles.  Met Ryan at the Maverik to do our 14 mile loop.  We both were in a hurry to get home for other family plans today so we tried to keep the pace up, it just wasn't happening for either of us.

Schedule was an 18 mile run today, I would have been happy with 16 but we took the long way around Thanksgiving point and almost got the full 18 in.  I'm sure I'm better for it.

17.35 in 2:06:??  about 7:15 pace, I'm to tired to get off the couch and actually look.

Did a neighborhood service project as soon as I got home digging a drainage ditch along a new trail.  That's going to make me hurt as much as the run I think

5:15 am.  Plan was to do a 10 mile General Aerobic run.  4 mile TM 6 miles trail. 

After about 2 miles on the treadmill I started feeling a little bit frisky.  Started out at a 7:00/mile pace and then every 5 minutes I bumped up the speed about 10 sec/mile for 1 hour.  So by mile 9 I was at 5:43/mile pace and then finished the final 1/2 mile at 5:30.  essentially this turned out being an 8 mile Tempo run.  This is a workout I used to do all the time training for Ogden but since I have been running more outside it is very hard to simulate something like this.  Definately the fastest 10 miles I have run in training I think.

Over all 10 miles in 1:02:30 6:15/mile average pace.  I figure if I can run at this same effort on Saturday at Provo River 1/2 taking into account downhill and tailwind I should be able to hopefully run a 1:18.  According to the Race Time Predictor I need to run 1:16 to pull off a 2:40:00 at TOU.  Not sure I have a 1:16 half in me yet.

HR. Started out at 140,

Avg. HR 158

Max. HR 172 (LT zone)

11:45, 6 mile recovery run for lunch, with a peanut butter/honey sandwich, and Muscle Milk to wash it down.

6 Miles in 46:00.  7:39/mile pace.

5:15 am.  10 Mile VO2 Max run.  Definitely out of my comfort zone this morning.  As opposed to just going for a long run, with some short sprints schedule had me do 6X1200’s today.  First time I think I’ve ever done “formal” 1200’s.  My new least favorite workout, I do feel really good now that it’s over.

¼ Mile splits looked like this.

1-    79.7, 81.9, 84.0   1200 total 4:06     Max HR 167

2-    82.2, 84.0, 85.9   1200 total 4:12     Max HR 170

3-    82.9, 84.2, 85.9   1200 total 4:13     Max HR 171

4-    83.1, 85.1, 84.9   1200 total 4:13     Max HR 173

5-    85.2, 85.7, 84.9   1200 total 4:15     Max HR 172

6-    81.6, 83.0, 83.9   1200 total 4:09     Max HR 172

At the airport on my way to Anahiem now, hopefully I can find a good run tomorrow morning.  It looks like there is a river trail about 3 miles from the hotel, I think I’ll drive down and try it out.

5:30 am.  Probably one of the coolest things about Garmin Connect is that you can look up other people runs and bike rides.  So I knew I was going to be in Anehiem California today and did a search around Disney and found a bike trail about 3 miles away by the Honda center and the Angels field.  So I drove out and found a nice safe place to park and took off running the unknown.  It's amazing how in an urban city you can find a trail that is continuous for 20 miles without stops.  Plus it had drinking fountains about every 3-5 miles which was nice. 

Was planning on going 15 miles but at 7.5 I got to a pretty big park, I wanted to find a drinking fountain before I turned around and ended up going 8 miles to water.  Worth the extra mile.  Not especially scenic route but nice morning for a run, cool, light breeze, a little humid.

16 miles in 1:49:00

6:50/mile avg pace.

I'm suppose to run 5 for lunch, but doubt it will happen since I'm on a work trip and have lunch plans with a client.

5:45 am.  General Aerobic run.   Back in Utah, got a late start cause I was going to run outside but decided it was too muddy to do my normal 10 miler.  Went to the gym and did 4 miles on the treadmill in 29:15. 7:18/mile avg.  Then I went out to the trail, after about 1/2 mile of eating bugs decided to leave the trail and find a new route.  Ran up to the South Jordan Temple and looped around the golf course and back to the gym.  Ended up being 6.5 in 47:00 7:15/mile avg.

Question, does a 13.1 mile race on Saturday equal an 18 mile run?  Or do I need to run 5 more miles after I'm done.

11:15 am.  Went with Ryan on the river trail for lunch.  He was doing 10 but we decided to do 6 on the trail and then he finished up on the treadmill.  It was a little bit hot and a little bit windy but a good run overall.

6.15 miles in 45:45.  7:30/mile avg pace.

4:45 am.  10 Miles Recovery.  I woke up earlier than normal this morning cause I knew that a running group meets at the gym on Friday mornings at 4:30.  There where actually about 10 people waiting in the lobby, I asked if I could go with them, they said sure.  They said they were slow, I said great.  I ran with them really, really slow for about 5 miles and then when I saw they where going back to the gym I split off and went by myself for another 5.

10 miles in 1:20:12  7:56/mile avg pace.

400 meter swim in the pool after and a soak in the hottub to loosen up.

Legs feel pretty good, I got a really good massage from Britt last night so hopefully I can perform tomorrow.  Is anyone else out there going to be at Provo River 1/2?

I'll do a more detailed report later, just wanted to give a quick update.  Pretty good day, I have had a side ache the last 2 days which I was worried would act up today but I held up pretty well.  My legs felt amazingly well after another almost 85 mile week so I felt good going in.  There was a lot of confusion at the start line this morning so I just hung out with Sasha figuring the race wouldn't start without him :).  We got started about 10 minutes late which was amazing it started that close to on time considering how confused everyone was.

I did about 2 miles of warm up in the hour and a half I had to wait, just ran up and down the canyon a few times and up the hill for bathroom breaks a few times.

My plan was to just go for it from the start, I figured I do 13 miles everyday so worse case if I blew up I could just slow down to a normal run pace and still finish good.  I did start out very fast for me, but felt good and kept the pace up through the entire canyon to Vivian park, slowed down a bit there and then going back up the canyon was really slow, partially on purpose mostly because of the wind.  At the turn around I picked it back up which I was glad I could do, I was afraid the slow pace going up would cause me to slow down.

Coming back down the canyon it started to get uncomfortably hot, I was hoping to hit the 10 mile marker in under 1 hour, but I hit it at exactly 1 and knew I didn't have an 18 minute 5 K left in me.  I pushed as hard as I could for the last 5K but frankly was pretty shot, I think because of the heat. I don't run in the heat enough.  Actually managed a sprint finish trying to catch the guy in front of me, but I didn't take off soon enough.  He probably got me by about 5 seconds.   Anyway, 10th place overall (again)  my wife thinks I'm in a 10th place rut.  Not a bad rut all things considered.  My Garmin said 1:19:00, the timer was off at the finish so I don't know official time yet.

Splits went like this

Mile 1-  5:34.66  Most likely my fastest mile split ever. 

Mile 2-  5:48.86

Mile 3-  5:57.62

Mile 4-  5:42.17

Mile 5-  6:07.42

Mile 6-  5:59.74

Mile 7-  6:24.96  Not as bad as I thought going up the hill.  I guessed 7:00

Mile 8-  6:25.51

Mile 9-  5:57.18

Mile 10- 6:00.91

Mile 11- 6:05.78

Mile 12- 6:09.29

Mile 13- 6:13.75

Last 0.1- 1:19.04  Garmin says I hit 4:40 pace on final sprint, I felt fast :)

Total time according to Garmin 1:19:04

Side note:  I ran this race last year as someone else in 1:40:??  at the time I thought I totally rocked it.  So I figure all I have to do is improve my time by 21 minutes for next year and I'll break 1 hour.  :)

 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43808217

5:45am, 6 Mile slow recovery run with Nelle around the neighborhood trails.  6 Miles in about 50 minutes.  ~8:00/mile avg.   Very nice cool morning with a nice breeze to keep things cool. 

5:00am. General Aerobic 10 Miler day I decided to repeat last Mondays treadmill workout with my 5 minute ladders.  I start at a 7:00/mile pace and then bump it up about 10 sec/mile every 5 minutes.  I did this for 8 miles in 52 minutes.  (actually did an easy last mile to cool down for 10x100's)  6:32/mile avg pace.

I then did my modified treadmill version of 10x100m repeats.  Basically just to keep track of which number I'm on I start at 13.1 miles/hour for the first one 4:35/mil pace 13.2 for the second, 13.3...... up to 14 miles/hour for my last one.  I run for 0.1 of a mile each and jog for 0.1 mile in between, I figure the time it takes the treadmill to get up to speed I'm pretty close to doing 100's at ~full speed.  It's not really about the time, just getting the speed work in.

11:45am. Recovery run 6 Miles.  Kind of a strange workout, went to the gym decided to be lazy and just do the treadmill as opposed to the river trail in the wind.  Started out very slow and just felt "weird" not sore, not tired, just kind of almost dizzy.  At 3 miles I really needed to go to the bathroom so I stopped, got a drink and went down to my locker and grabbed a left over gel pack from Saturday, shot the gel got a drink and then went back to the treadmill for another 3.  Felt much better the second half.

6 Miles in 48 minutes.  avg pace 8:00/mile.

5:00 am, Ran to work today, we went to the Bee's game last night so I had my wife follow me to the gym and I dropped my car off there so I could run in today. 

The Bee's game was fun but the late night plus all the ice cream and candy I ate was a very bad thing the night before a long run.  I really wanted to try and maintain a 6:45/mile pace, with the tail wind and downhill start I thought it would be easier, but between my ice cream belly, dodging cars, and stopping at stop lights I just couldn't keep a steady pace going.  Plus at mile 3 I twisted my ankle trying to get off the shoulder of the road as a big truck wizzed by me which slowed down what should have been my fastest section.  Anyway, no complaints I got it done, I'm over 1/2 way through my race schedule from hell and I think with the exception of the week I decided to throw in an improptu marathon, this is my longest mileage week of the schedule.

15 Miles in 1:44:00  6:55/mile avg.

What a crazy day, 21 miles in the middle of the week?  Anyway,

12:00pm went to the gym and hit the treadmill for a 6 mile recovery run, started out a little bit stiff but worked it out.  Ryan showed up about 10 minutes into it so it was nice to have someone to talk to.  Decided to do a little something crazy at the end which I think I'm going to incorporate into all my treadmill recovery runs from now on as just kind of a personal challenge.  After my 6 miles I put the treadmill on 15 miles/hr just to see how long I could go.  It takes about .05 miles just to ramp up to full speed so I didn't run the whole thing at 4:00/mile pace but I made it 0.2 miles.  I'll try for .25 next time.

6.2 in 46:50.  7:33/mile avg.

Ahhh!  Much needed recovery day.  5:15 am, ran 6 miles on an absolutely perfect morning on the river trail, got back to the gym and went and did 400m in the lap pool.  Sat in the hot tub for about 15 minutes and stretched.  Feeling very refreshed now, I was pretty trashed after the last few days since Saturdays race.

6 miles in 47:30 7:55/mile avg.

11:30 am.  6 miles on the treadmill, I listened to my music extra loud today just cause it was fun.  I don't necessarily agree with people that say people that need music to run must not like running.  I just happen to like both, and sometimes I like my music loud and my pace fast.  :)

6.18 Miles in ~46:00 7:25/mile avg.

Did my experimental 15 mile/hour thing at the end of my run,  only made it .18 miles today, you'd think at that speed it would be easy to go a little extra further, but my legs couldn't take it.

4:45 am.  12 Mile run with 6 mile Tempo, Ouch!!!.  Started from my house went down the flight park road back on the frontage road, up to Cabellas and then out the trail to Bull River road.  (4 mile warm up).  Decided to do my Tempo run in Ryan Hall style and ditched my shirt.  Started out conservative since I knew I had blown up in the past on my Tempo's going out to fast, plus the first 1/2 is slightly uphill with a headwind out of the canyon, ran Bull River road out and around Smith's and then turned around at 3 miles and ran the same reverse route back.  Ran negative splits due to the return being slightly downhill with a tail wind.  Thought the whole no shirt thing would somehow make me run 4:50's like Ryan Hall, I was wrong.  :)

Tempo Run Splits went like this.
Mile 1 - 6:24  Avg HR-154  Max HR-161
Mile 2 - 6:24  Avg HR-161  Max HR-165
Mile 3 - 6:27  Avg HR-164  Max HR-167
Mile 4 - 6:11  Avg HR-165  Max HR-170
Mile 5 - 6:20  Avg HR-165  Max HR-170
Mile 6 - 6:13  Avg HR-165  Max HR-167

Total Tempo - 37:59  Avg HR-162  Max HR-170

2 miles, very slow up the hill back home.

Total 12 Miles 1:23:30  6:55/mile avg.

Very nice morning, saw a ton of shooting stars.  I sure like that the temperatures are going down.  I don't like winter, but love fall.

5:30 am.  Met at Ryan's house this morning, since he is going camping tonight he talked me into doing our long run to work this morning.  This is actually my longest run until TOU, not sure why it's 5 weeks out instead of 3 but it is.   We decided to run without headlamps which made the first 3 miles very slow, dodging construction cones and dirt holes in the dark,  Averaged around 7:30/mile for the first 3,   Went down around Thanksgiving point and headed out on the River Trail pace picked up to closer to 7:00/mile.  Headed out to Redwood road and up and over Camp Williams, that was rough but it was still coolish so not horrible.  Coming down Redwood from Camp Williams was very nice, we made up lots of time there.  Went and found the River Trail again and followed it in the rest of the way to work, there was a point at mile 19 where the trail ended and we had to go back up a huge hill through neighborhoods, very cruel joke. 

Ended up at the gym at 22.1 miles in 2:37:05,  7:05/mile avg pace.  Not to bad considering the slow start and all the uphill.  Very happy to have this run done and under my belt.  I can tell my high mileage is paying off, normally I bonk around 18-20 miles but even though I was definately tired by the end I never did bonk.

6:00 am.  10 Mile General Aerobic.  Went out for my yesterday's run.  Now I know why the long run should come after the medium run, not before.  I felt OK, a little bit drained from yesterdays run, but the perfect running weather helps a lot.  Followed the Bullriver trail out and around Smiths and back.

10 miles in 1:15  7:15/mile avg.

I will try and take the kids to the school for some 8x100's later today just so I can log a full 100 miles this week.  Wouldn't want to be short 1/2 a mile.

OK, I finally made it to the school with my 8 year old, Bradin after a busy day.  We layed out 100M on the pavement.  I had him time me using my iPhone clock which I know is not as accurate as electronic gates but hey, a 8 year old is cheaper than gates.  Ran 8 x 100's with a 100 m jog back to the start each time for a total of 1 mile.  My splits went like this.

15.4, 15.7, 15.0, 15.2. 15.6 15.9, 15.4, 15.3.  I was trying really hard to break the 15 second barrier but just couldn't muster it.  So according to these (very accurate) splits, and Sasha's calculator the fastest marathon my body will ever be capable of is a 2:30:00.

I think I would be OK with that, but I would love to prove him wrong.

Forgot to mention, Bradin's best time was 20.2 seconds.  Which I thought was pretty good for an 8 year old.  I didn't keep track of all his splits since 1/2 of them where on a scooter, and the other 1/2 he was a "rocket ship"  which ironically slowed him down quite a bit.

Promised my wife I would not run on this Sunday, so I lived up to my word and took a true day of rest.  Hopefully the day off will prepare me for some good quality training this week, mileage is down to 85 from 100, hope to get some good speed work in.

5:00 am.   Did my whats becoming weekly Monday 10 mile progressive ladder workout.  Started the treadmill at 8.5 mph (7:00/mile) and every 5 minutes bump it up .2 mph for 10 miles.  Ended up doing my last mile in 5:40.  Heart rate never got above 165 even at top speed, so I felt really good about this workout.  It was on the schedule as being a 10 mile General Aerobic run but I felt good and like to start my week out with a good tempo run.

Hit the weight room after my run, I haven't done that in quite some time,  did some leg presses, leg extensions, and leg curls.  I think doing weights is good not just for the strength aspect but it also seems to stretch me out more then just normal stretches.

 I have alot of work today getting ready for a month long trip to San Francisco next week so I'm not sure how I will fit in my 5 mile recovery run today, but I'll try.

4:45 am.  6 Miles on the treadmill in 41:00  6:50/mile pace avg.  Then I went outside and ran the rest of my 15 miler.  9.1 miles in 1:03:00  6:55/mile avg.  

I sure like the cool weather, but don't care for the dark.  And I hate running with a headlamp for long distances, it gives me a headache.

11:45 am.  Ran 6 miles on the River trail with Ryan for lunch.  Very hot, very windy.  The heat made it feel much harder than a normal recovery run about 95 degrees out, but I always say I need to practice running in heat.  Although I think I should have worn sunscreen.

6 Miles in 45:45  7:37/mile avg pace.

4:45 am.  9 Mile general aerobic run on the treadmill.  I've been trying to run these general runs a little faster than normal, did the first 7 miles in 46:30 6:38/mile avg.  I then did my treadmill version of 8 x 100's.  Starting at 13.1mph (4:34 pace) incrementing up to 13.8 mph for my last stride (4:20) with 0.1 mile jog in between.  The speed work was pretty rough going the first few sets but seemed to get easier as I loosened up.  Felt pretty good about the workout.  

9 Mile total run in 1:00:15 6:41/mile avg pace.

I then swam 600 meters in the pool in about 20 minutes, didn't actually time it, I have no real concept of how fast I "should" be swimming.  I just do it to relax when I have spare time.

11:45am. 5 Mile recovery run.  in 39:10.  7:50/mile avg.

5:00 am.  8 Mile very slow recovery run.  I've decided a slow 8 miles is just as hard if not harder than a 10 mile fast run.  It takes the same amount of time but seems to drag on forever. 

I started out very stiff this morning just couldn't get things to start moving, I went out in the dark with my headlamp on and went South on the River trail instead of North, you have to go up through some neighborhoods because the trail does not go all the way through, which is a very steep up hill for about 1/2 mile.  Got to the park at 123rd South and really needed to stop for a restroom break but the doors all had code locks on them.  Just because I was desperate and upset they where locked I typed in my ATM pin code to see what would happen, and sure enough the door opened right up for me. Craziest thing ever, when I was done I tried other random codes and none of them worked, an absolute miracle.  So anyway, after that I felt much better and was able to pick up the pace a little bit but was still sluggish.  I was glad the whole run that the schedule said recovery run today so I didn't have to feel bad I was running slow, cause I sure couldn't have gone much faster.  Once you get set into a pace it's really hard to pick it up.

Tomorrow is suppose to be a 10 mile race simulation day, anyone know of a 10 mile race tomorrow at 5:00am?  I'm planning on just going to the treadmill and trying to run my fastest 10 miler ever.

8 Miles in 1:04:00  8:04/mile avg pace.

5:45 am.  So the schedual wanted me to do a 10 mile race simulation today, I'm not exactly sure what that means, I was planning on just going the the gym and trying to do a sub 1 hour 10 miler.  Then last night my wife reminded me that my 3 year olds preschool open house was this morning and I should go.  So I took advantage of this and slept in till 5:15 :).  I wandered around the house for a bit stretching out and then when there was a shimmer of light outside I went off for my run.  Decided to just do my normal easy 10 mile loop around Smiths and back but to try and do it as fast as possible.  The first 2 miles went really fast down the hill averaged about 5:40's for the first 2, then I hit the construction on 92 and had to slow down through the mud, when I got to Bull River road (my normal tempo run route) I picked it back up again trying to hover around 6:00/mile.  Couldn't quite maintain that pace the whole way by mile 5, the turn around I was at about 6:15 average.  Coming back is normall faster, with the tail wind and downhill but I was pretty spent and could only keep it around 6:15 - 6:20 pace.  At mile 9 my overall average was 6:18/mile.  Coming back up the hill back home always slows things down a bit, I tried to just keep it around 7:00 pace but I think I was probably slower. 

Ended my total run in 1:03:00.  6:22/mile pace.  I feel pretty good about this, it's not an easy run my any means and I feel that I kept my HR up at tempo range the whole time. (didn't wear a monitor though)

Tomorrow I have to do my long run alone since Ryan is doing Hobble Creek.  Good luck all you Hobble Creekers.  I wish I could be there but my wife wouldn't allow it since I'm leaving on business for the next month.

5:15 am.  Decided to run my nemesis 18 miler today, down around the point of the mountain, up the Draper side of Suncrest, down the Utah County side and back home.  2500 foot climb in 4 miles.   Felt OK the whole time, my legs were a little soar but didn't really feel like it was keeping me from running at a pace I wanted.  Going up the hill was pretty tough this morning, strong headwind the whole way up,  took a quick gel and water break at the top and then started back down.  I started down the 8% grade pretty fast (5:30/mile pace) and felt like it was beating me up a little to much, I tried to slow it down to around 5:50 pace just cause I didn't want to pay for it to much later in the run.  I did pick up the pace when I passed the cyclist coming up, just to look cool :).  

Did the whole run in 2:10:?? 7:16/mile avg pace.  Which I thought was pretty good, but I just looked back at the last time I did this run in April, training for Ogden and I did it 2 minutes faster back then,  so now I feel bad.  There are a lot of other factors but it looks like I did the downhills a lot faster back then but I did the uphill faster this time. If I remember correctly I thought I was going to die after that run in April,  I'm going to go mow the lawn now.   I did say just the other day, that I feel like I was faster back training for Ogden but I have a lot more endurance now.  Hopefully the trade off will work in my favor 4 weeks from today.

Just found out that my training partner Ryan Jonson who just turned 40 2 weeks ago took first place in the Masters Catagory at Hobble Creek.  1:14:07.  That's pretty dang fast for an old guy.  Since I can't convince him to blog I thought I'd put in a word for him, good job Ryan.  Hope I don't slow you down to much in Logan.

6:00 am.  Very easy recovery run with Nelle on the dirt trails.  Nelle is my geriatric Border Collie, and she is getting very slow.  She used to be a great running partner when I was slower and she was younger but now she has to be dragged up the hill the last 2 miles of our runs.  Good arm workout for me I guess.

6 miles in 50 minutes.  8:20/mile avg pace.

5:00 am.  Had kind of a Wow!  where did that come from? workout today.  I did my Monday treadmill ladder workout today except instead of starting at 8.5 mph I started out at 9 mph (6:40/mile pace)  then bumped it up .2 mph every 5 minutes.  I did cheat by starting at -0.5 decline but just wanted to get the speed in.   I honestly didn't think I would be able to get through the whole work out like this but every 5 minutes I kept bumping it up and was surprised that I kept finding it in myself to keep going faster.  At 50 minutes I hit 11 mph (5:27/mile pace) which was pretty much my max, set the treadmill at -1.5 decline. and hung on for 6 minutes at this pace, which I'm sure is my fastest mile ever and that was 8 miles into the run.  at 56 minutes I just couldn't hang on any more and finished the run at 5:42 pace.  Entire 10 mile run in 59:42.  5:58/mile avg.

Glad to get in a really good run to start the week, I'm at the airport now headed off to San Francisco for 2 weeks, home for 3 days and then back for another 2.  Hope to get some great runs across the Golden Gate bridge in.  I'm going to try and get one more 100 mile week in before my taper.

4:30pm, 5 miles on the Parc 55 Gym treadmill, horribly hot and muggy,  I thought it would never end.  Hopefully I can get most my running done early mornings outside.

5 Miles in 40 minutes 8:00/mile pace.

5:15 am.  Absolutely perfect morning for a run here in San Francisco.  Ran down Market Street to Peir 1, along the Embarcadaro street around all the peirs to the beach, over Fort Mason Hill and down along the beach to Crissy park.  Awesome views of Alkatraz, and the Golden Gate bridge all lit by a full moon.  Temperatures where perfect probably low 60's.  I'm going to really enjoy my time here if the mornings stay like this the whole time.  I just hope being at sea level for 4 weeks doesn't mess with me when I get back home.

Muscle Milk for breakfast and now I'm off to work, we seem to already be ahead of schedule on work so I should be able to get in some short afternoon runs too.

12.4 miles in around 1:26:00.  6:56/mile avg.   My Garmin was a little confused in the city until I got to the Embarcadaro.

Well, now I feel stupid.  I set my alarm for 5:00am, woke up went for my run and 2 hours later I realized I set my clock for 5:00 Utah time.  I actually went for my run at 4:15am this morning.  Duhh!!  I could have slept in a whole extra hour.

1:00 pm, 5 Miles on the hotel treadmill for lunch.  That gym is awful, it's so hot and muggy if I where just deciding to start running and started in this gym after about 1 week I would decide running is way to hard and would just give up and do something else.  5 miles is an eternity in this place, I'm glad I only have to do my recovery runs here.

5 Miles in 40 minutes 8:00/mile pace.

4:15 am.  Same route as yesterday except I continued on across the Golden Gate Bridge today.  Big hill going up to the bridge but running on the bridge is amazing.  Great views, cool sea breeze and very fast.  Made it about 3/4 away across before I hit 7.5 miles to turn around.  Was pretty slow the first 1/2 of the run, 7:23 average on the way back I tried to make it up by running around 6:45. Came pretty close to that ended the whole 15 mile run in 1:46:20.  7:05/mile avg pace over all.

Pretty busy today probably wont be able to get my double in.

4:30 am.  Same route as the last 2 days and probably the same route for the next 3 weeks.  Just such a great run that early in the morning, it's nice and lit the whole way, and no stopping for traffic after you get off of Market Street onto the Embarcadaro.  Nice and cool morning around 55, and a nice San Francisco misty fog which feels really nice.  Just kind of took it easy for the first 1/2,  was planning on taking it easy the whole run but then I decided since work seems to be keeping me from getting my doubles in and I didn't really want to go further this morning that I would just run faster coming back.  Averaged 7:21/mile pace for the first 5 miles, and then on the return I started out fast, 5:56 for the first mile, 6:16/mile average for the entire 5 mile return.

I was flying up Market Street back to the hotel, which isn't easy since there is traffic, homeless people to dodge, and slightly uphill.  People where looking at me like I just robbed the bank, but it was fun.

I doubt I'll get my 100 miles in this week, but I wont feel to bad with 90ish.

7:00pm, Went to the hotel Gym after a pretty successful day at work to try and get in a quick easy 4 miles before bed.  Absolutely struggled from the start, couldn't catch my breath, got dizzy and just had sore legs that wouldn't loosen up.  I guess my body isn't use to working out this late.  I just wasn't having any fun at all and gave up after 2 miles in 17 minutes.  Pretty pathetic.  Did some core excersises and stretches and ate an apple from the gym basket.  Off to bed nice and early, hopefully I feel better in the morning.

4:30 am.  Another nice morning, seems to be getting a little cooler everyday.  It's kind of strange, you would think that clouds would make it darker but they actually reflect the city lights and create a glow everywhere so I have stopped wearing my headlamp, even going over Fort Mason there is light enough to see pretty good.

Took it pretty easy today since I have a long run tomorrow which I'm fairly nervous about, I'm probably going to have to leave at 3:30 am to get back in time for work.   I did get in some ~100M strides,  I called them lamppost strides, I calculated that up the Embacadaro every 5 lamp posts where about 100M so on the way back I sprinted 5 jogged 3, I think I got 8 of them in but lost track.

9.7 miles in 1:10:30  7:16/mile avg.

3:30 am.  So apparently there is a buffer somewhere between 3:30am and 4:30am where the Early morning risers and late night bar crowd can stay clear from each other.  There is way to much of a culture shock if the 2 groups meet.  I made the mistake of encroaching in on the buffer, I couldn't believe all the people out at 3:30, they were everywhere.  

Anyway, I was pretty disappointed with my run today, I have been thinking about todays run for the last month trying to figure out how I was going to get my long 3 week out run in right in the middle of my biggest work conference setup of the year.  Luckily I got to bed at a decent time last night and woke up at 3:15, had everything ready to go and was on the street by 3:35.  Had the whole 21 miles mapped and planned out which included going across the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very windy this morning which slowed me down a bit but I knew I could make it up coming back, got to the bridge at 4:30 only to find that the sidewalk is closed until 5:00am.  ahhh!  So I had like 30 minutes to waste, found a great little dirt trail that ran along the coast line but it was to un-even and dangerous in the dark, would love to run it in the day sometime, went back down the hill, mostly just wasting time.  Finally at 5:00 the gate opened right on time and I took off across the bridge, my wasting 30 minutes slowed my average time down to 8:00/mile so I knew I was going to have to run the rest of my run fast to make it up, got across the bridge took a gel pack and quick drink of water at the rest area and headed back.  Had a nice tail wind and pushed as hard as my tired legs would carry me all the way back to the hotel. 

My total run ended up only being 18.6 of the planned 21, I easily wasted 2.5 miles screwing around waiting for the bridge to open.  Actual run time was 2:19:30 7:30/mile avg.  Really wanted to get my full 21 in today, but I can't complain, I somehow managed to get in over 90 miles this week while putting in 12 hour work days on our biggest job of the entire year.

Lower miles next week, and then 2 weeks of tapper.  Looking forward to the lower mileage.

Took a day of rest. Ironic since I have to work anyway,  I wouldn't have even know it was Sunday except my legs hurt like it's Sunday :)

So I guesstimate that I walk 10 - 15 miles on these conferences each day.  I bought myself some Sketcher Shape-Ups, you know to get in shape.  Seriously though I am very impressed with them, excellent walking shoes for a long day of conference support.

4:30 am.  Ran the Embarcadaro route this morning just over Fort Mason Hill and back for an easy 6.5 mile run.  On the way out I mapped a straight path on the Embarcadaro that was 1/2 mile long since today was a 5 x 800's day.  I was really dreading speed work today but really wanted to get it in since I feel like I've slacked on it with all the long weeks lately.  On the way back I hit my start marker at exactly 6.5 miles so my Garmin must have been right on.  Wasn't quite sure what pace I could do 800's at, probably started out to fast on the first one and but finally figured out a pace I could maintain for 1/2 mile.  Ran back and forth 5 times for a total of 2.5 miles.  I kept waiting for other joggers to get about 1/4 mile in front of me before I started each one and used them as a rabbit.  I was able to catch all of my rabbits before the end of my stride each time, so that made me feel good.  Granted none of them looked like they were very fast and where just out for a morning jog, but still, it helps to have a target.

Splits for 5 x 800's (1/2miles)

2:41  (5:22 pace)
2:47  (5:33 pace)
2:46  (5:32 pace)
2:48  (5:37 pace)
2:46  (5:33 pace)

Actually had no idea what my times were until just now, I'm actually a little surprised to see them written down.  I was just trying to be under 6:00 pace so I'm pretty impressed with myself.  I really don't like speed work, I'm more of a just go out and run for a long time type of guy.

4:00 am.  Had to get an early start since we decided to start work at 6:00am this morning.  16,000 people attending this conference.  By far the biggest conference network I have ever deployed and supported.  

Ran my normal route out to the Golden Gate overlook park.  ( don't know what it's called, it looks like an old military base)  When I started out while I was waiting for my Garmin to find satellites some guy went flying past me, so as soon as my Garmin started I took off after him.  Ran my first mile in under 6:00 but still never caught him, he turned off at Peir 39 and I kept going, but he got my average for the whole run up.

Was planning on 13 miles, but I ran out of road and didn't feel like running circles to make up the difference.

12.5 miles in 1:23:57  6:43/mile average.

Good quality workout, kept my pace pretty steady the whole run.

Conference food is killing me.  Blah!! hope I can run tomorrow, I'm going to gain 10 lbs

4:30 am.  Running a little late today, slept in all the way until my alarm went off this morning.  Just a normal General Aerobic run this morning 10 miles out and back, there is a really neat overlook of the Bay and Golden Gate bridge at Crissy Feild  just over 5 miles out on my run so I stopped there for a few minutes and just took in the view and the beautiful morning. 

Had some nerve pain in my entire right leg this morning, can't really pinpoint where exactly it hurts just kind of aches all over.  I really need a massage.  Started out limp running the first mile and thought it would lossen up, it did a little but never felt great.  Just a good run to get the miles in, never very fast.

10.3 miles in 1:16:15  7:24/mile average.

5:00 am.  Went to the INXS concert last night for the party here at VMWorld, ate lots of really bad food and stayed out way past my bedtime.  INXS is actually really good, the replacement singer for Michael Hutchence is very good.  I saw INXS back in the 80's and I actually think the new singer is a better live performer.  He sounds all most exactly like Michael Hutchence but better.  Weird, anyway.  How does this relate to running?  Oh yeah.  So I got kind of a late start but that's OK cause it was a recovery day, my right leg was really bothering me today, I tried to stretch out extra good before the run, which helped a little but I was pretty much limp running the whole time.  I tried to take it easy, but probably went faster than I should.  It's hard to run the same route you have been running every day but at different speeds.  I went out to Fort Mason, but instead of going up the hill I went out to the end of the peir and took in the stars and view of the city for a minute or 2 and then headed back.  Stomach was pretty upset from all the finger foods last night too.

I have a 10 mile Tempo run tomorrow, not sure how that's going to go, I'm going to try and eat better today and stretch out as much as possible.

5:00 am.  Ah, finally done with our show,  1 down 1 to go. Finished up last night but not to late.  got to bed by 10:30.  Today was a 10 mile race simulation day, my leg is still bothering me quite a bit so I started out slow and just tried to work it out the first mile.  1st mile in about 8:00.  I stopped and stretched out a bit when I reached the embarcadaro, started out as fast as my leg would handle, I pushed through the pain and just tried to keep around a 6:30/mile pace.  Had a pretty good headwind when I hit Peir 39 but figured that would help on the way back.  After the 5 mile turn around point my leg finally got tolerable to run on but still kept my pace slower than I would want a Tempo run pace to be.

Ended up running 9.2 miles in 1:00:10  6:32/mile average pace, with the 1 mile warm up 6:40 average.

Not to bad considering how bad my leg was hurting, I can barely walk but can some how manage to run a 6:32 pace.  Funny.

I have my last long run tomorrow (17 miles) and then I'm officially in taper mode.

At SFO airport right now coming home for the holiday weekend and then back to San Fran next Tuesday for yet another 2 week show.  fun fun...

5:00 am.  Back home again, It's nice to be home.  Was planning on running the SunCrest loop again today with Ryan, but he bailed on me, some family reunion excuse.  So I started out my normal BullRiver route to Smiths, glad I didn't have to do SunCrest, my leg wasn't up for it.  My leg started out stiff but loosened up and felt pretty good after about 3 miles. 

2 Miles into the run in the construction zone on 92 I ran into 2 girls.  I startled them pretty bad and about got pepper sprayed in the face.  After I convinced them I wasn't some crazy 5:00am rapist out with a headlamp and running clothes I helped them down the cliff wall created by the construction and we ran for about 2 miles together.  I learned about one of their pet mice and listened to her apologize to some poor lady that she had butt called 3 times starting at 4:30am.  They complained that my 8:30 pace was to fast for them, so I left them alone and went out ahead.   Went up the Suncrest Road about 2 miles and turned East on Westfield, I had never gone this way before and found it very enjoyable.  Followed it out to Main Street in Alpine which was exactly 8.5 miles from home.  Turned around and took the same route home.  Ran into the 2 girls at the SunCrest/Westfield intersection and stopped to say Hi then cruised home.  Second 1/2 of the run was definately more fluid and faster.  My leg started hurting like it had just run 15 miles instead of just hurting for no reason.

Entire run was 17 miles in 2:03:30.   7:15/mile avg pace.  Not bad with the incredibly slow start.

 Really glad to get that run done, now on with the taper.  2 weeks to Logan.

6:00 am.  Met Ryan at his house, I told him to find a flat 10 mile route to do a semi tempo run.  I wanted to try and simulate my Monday 10 mile treadmill run.  Found out it's much harder to do outside.  We seemed to either go to fast or to slow, never could hit our splits quite right.  After the first 5 miles of pretty fast pace we decided to do the second half at just a comfortable 7:00/mile pace, my leg was hurting still pretty bad and neither of us could really quite get into it.  Ended up doing 10.2 miles in 1:08:37 6:45/mile average pace.  Not exactly what I wanted out of my run this morning but I can't always get what I want I suppose.

5:00am.  Came to the realization that my leg isn't going to get better on it's own, today was a recovery day so I made it such.  30 minutes on the elliptical trainer, and then 1200M swim in the pool.  Did some leg presses and leg extensions on the machines in between.  I tried to keep my heartrate up on both the elliptical and swimming.

I've come to a strange place in my training, I've spent the last 16 weeks obsessing over 1 marathon and now I've realized I've put in the time and nothing I do at this point is really going to get me any faster.  I've almost written it off now, and know that what ever happens is what happens.  I've already starting just wanting to get it over with so I can move on to the next level, what ever that may be.

At the Airport now off to San Francisco again, definately going to just take it easy the next 2 weeks, try and get some relaxing runs in but mostly try and get my leg feeling better for race day.

5:00 am.  Back in SanFrancisco, Probably should have done the elliptical again today but I knew I would spend the day feeling sorry for myself it I didn't get my run in. 

Today was suppose to be a VO2 max day 3x1600's but when I woke up I knew my leg wouldn't be able to handle that.  Ran my normal route out over Fort Mason, pretty windy, misty, cool this morning, but felt good.  My leg was hurting but I managed through it, on the way back with a tail wind I decided to get a couple of Marathon Pace miles in so I ran from the Crissy Field rest stop to Fort Mason at 6:10 pace, and then when I got to the Embarkadaro street I did another 6:05 mile.  Oddly enough my leg hurts the least at marathon pace, maybe I should just go everywhere at marathon pace.

9.5 miles in 1:06:10.  7:00/mile average total run.  My hotel this week adds about 1/2 mile to my runs.

4:30 am.  Another "recovery" day so I decided to not push it and went to the hotel gym and did the elliptical machine for 1 hour.  It said I went 7, so I put down 7.  My leg definately likes the elliptical more than running, I feel practically no pain on the machine so it's probably a good choice to try and recover with.  I pushed pretty hard, set the resistance to 12 and tried to keep my heart rate above 130, which is very difficult on the elliptical I've found. 

I would like to get out and run tomorrow and Saturday but I guess it all depends on how my leg feels each morning.

4:30 am.  So I had an apiffany yesterday and decided what I needed was a compression sleeve to wrap around my calf.  So after work I went on a 4 mile trek through the hoods of San Francisco to find the only Sports Authority in town.  They had exactly what I had pictured in my mind so I tried it on in the store and wore it back to the hotel.  I could tell that at least for just walking it totally fixed the problem. I went to bed excited that I may be able to actually get a run in today without pain.  Woke up, put on my sleeve and headed out for my normal San Fran run.  No pain walking to the door, but as soon as I started running it hurt again.  I put up with the pain down Market street for 1 mile and then stopped to stretch out on the Embarkadaro.  After that the pain got bareable, I found that toe striking totally  alleviated the pain, luckily I had dabbled in toe striking on some short runs so I started doing that, wishing I had worn my Nike Free's.  Ended up going 10 miles cause I wanted to make it to the drinking fountain at Crissy Field.  On the way back I actually felt good enough to get my lamp post 100's in did 8 of those.

10 miles in 1:12:00  7:11/mile average.

4:30 am.  1 week to go, I'm going to take a good long break after this race I think.  This morning really makes me wonder what is going to happen next week, I start out my run thinking I wont even be able to finish 26 miles let alone PR.  Then after about 5 miles everything seems to loosen up and I can run just fine.  Also it seems the faster I go the less it hurts, so I guess as long as it holds up for 1 hour longer than today I'll survive.

13 miles out to the Golden Gate view point, really nice morning for a run, probably high 30's clear skys with really bright stars,  there was a low fog under the Golden Gate bridge so they had the fog horns going.  It's really a neat experience early in the morning.  My Garmin died 3 miles into the run,  probably not a bad thing, I need more runs without it.  All I know is it is 6.5 miles out to that point for a 13 mile total run.  Don't even really know how long it took.  I'd guess 7:15ish average.

5:00 am.  3.5 on the Elliptical in 31 minutes.  Wasn't going to do anything today but not much to do in a hotel room at 5:00am when you can't sleep past 4:30am, so I headed to the hotel gym.  Did the elliptical and then some core exercises and stretches.  I actually feel like my leg may be healing.  Maybe another elliptical day tomorrow and then try and easy run Tuesday.

5:00am.  Was going to do my whole workout on the elliptical this morning but after 2 miles I decided my legs were feeling pretty good and decided to try the treadmill out.  Had a little bit of pins and needles pain at first but that went away quickly, after 1/2 a mile I started feeling really good, best I've felt in 2 weeks.  Probably went harder than I should have on a recovery run but it was so nice to finally run relatively pain free that I let it out a little bit.  Ran 1 mile at marathon pace but don't feel like it counts as a marathon mile cause it felt so good.  :)

2 on elliptical in 20 minutes.

5 on treadmill in 34:22  6:52/mile avg.

4:30 am.  Pretty fun run this morning, my Garmin battery was dead again so I just ran to run.  Last day long enough to go over Fort Mason so I tried to take it all in 1 last time, for at least 1 more year.  My leg started out pretty bad, but after 1 mile it was fine,  ran pretty easy out to the Crissy Field rest area on the way back once I got over Fort Mason hill  I picked up the pace to what I thought felt like a marathon pace but was probably slow at first, Then when I got to the Embarkadaro I picked it up quite a bit, I really wish my Garmin would have been working cause I was going pretty fast, I would guess sub 6:00 pace for the last 2 miles.  It felt really good and was really fun to run  fast, lots of joggers out this morning.

5:00 am.  6 on the Elliptical in 52:00.  Think I'll probably just stick to the elliptical this week for all my easy miles,  it definately is easier on my leg.  I'm feeling pretty healthy over all and my leg at the moment feels good.

Finally get to tear down this conference today, and fly home tomorrow.  I've been away to long it will be good to get back home.

4:30 am. Was going to do the whole workout on the Elliptical but my leg felt pretty good after 2 and I moved over to the treadmill for another 4 mile in 28:30. 

Finally going home, at the airport now waiting for my flight.  2 days to race day hopefully an nice relaxing day tomorrow.  Hoping to head up to Logan early to get aclimated.

5:00am went to the gym this morning and decided to just swim,  did 1200 meters in about 40 minutes.  Sat in the hottub and steam room for a while and then came home.  My wife Britt decided about 4 weeks ago to start training for the Halloween 1/2 with some friends.  (She won't let me run it) so she wanted to go for a run.  I told her I would come and push Zach in the stroller.  We did my Sunday recovery loop for 5 miles in 45 minutes 9:00/mile pace.  I was pretty impressed she actually held 8:30's for a lot of the time but the final hill did her in.  She told me she could only run a 10:00 pace so she is a liar.  The stroller got 2 flat tires as soon as we hit the dirt road so I ran with totally flat tires and a 60 lb "baby" the whole time.  Made the effort seem hard.

Taking the kids out of school early and heading to Logan around 12:00, show the kids my college stomping grounds.

Hope to see some of ya there tomorrow.

Left for Logan yesterday around noon, took the kids out of school early and headed up to look around, get checked into the Hampton Inn and get some swimming in for the kids and hottubing for my wife and I.  The Hampton Inn was a bit further away from downtown than I thought but when I checked in they told me there was a shuttle from the hotel first thing in the morning.  It was actually a very nice hotel and we had the pool to ourselves so it was really nice and relaxing.  Swam for about an hour then took an hour nap before packet pickup.

At 5:00 we went to the Packet pickup ran into a few friends, Ryan called at that point and said he was going to dinner at Fire(something) pizza and asked if we wanted to meet him, we invited our friends and he had some other friends ended up having 17 people meet at the pizza place for dinner, which was a bad mistake, we waited 2 hours for a table that big.

Got back to the hotel at 8:00, got the kids to bed and then me.  I fell asleep pretty easy but around 10:30 some kids were running up and down the hallway and woke me up, I never really did get back to good sleep after than.  Got up at 4:00 am with no alarm, got ready and went downstairs.  The hotel had provided a small breakfast for the marathoners starting at 4:15am which I thought was really nice.  I tried turning my Garmin on to see what time it was and saw that it wasn’t turning on, dispite charging it all night, this was really upsetting, Carina Heilner came down around then I told her about my watch and she told me she had her old one if I wanted to borrow it so I agreed.

Ryan had convinced his wife to drive him to the buses in the morning instead of taking the hotel shuttle so I caught a ride with them, rode the bus up with Ryan, he guessed that to win the masters category he would need to run a 2:43.  So at that point 2:43 was our new goal, but we decided to follow Paul Petersons course tool for a 2:40 finish giving us some wiggle room.  Got on one of the earlier buses and went directly to the portapotties then down to the warm tent.  At 6:30 we decided to hike back up to the portapotties one last time and then warm up a little.  The line was pretty long giving us only about 10 minutes to warm up.  My leg was bothering me a little so I decided to wear my compression sleeve more as a mental aid than anything.  Lined up at the front with Sasha, and the Kenyans, introduced myself to Allie and told her good luck.  The race started maybe 5 minutes late but I’d consider it on time.  The guns went off right in my ear scaring me half to death and we were off.  

I’m sure one of every rookie runners dreams is to be able to run with the lead pack of a marathon for the first mile or so, well lucky for me the Kenyans enabled this dream to happen, they took off surprisingly slow, my first mile goal was 5:55 pace the lead pack was only going at about a 5:50 pace so I with about 11 -12 people in the lead stayed pretty much together for the first mile, my leg was feeling decent I was afraid I would be limping the whole 1^st mile but it seemed to hold up.

Mile 1 = 5:53

Sasha and the 2 Kenyans started to break away a little bit, I was happy we hit our first split pretty much as planned, I had printed out the course tool to small to read while running but knew the second mile was suppose to be right around 6:00 still feeling good and content to let the pack naturally break up.

Mile 2 = 5:58 (right on track)

I counted, Ryan and I were in 10^th and 11^th place, I looked behind and there was already a big gap between us and the next person behind, I thought to myself this is perfect if I can just stay here for another 24 miles I’ll be perfectly happy J  (wishful thinking)

Mile 3 = 5:52 (11 seconds to fast)

The next couple of miles where just kind of pleasant, nice cool breeze and little rollers mostly down hill.  Even though I couldn’t read the planned splits I knew we were for the most part on track.

Mile 4 = 5:57

Mile 5 = 6:07

Mile 6 = 6:06

Mile 7 = 6:08

Mile 8 = 6:03

First signs of trouble at this point, my right hip and right thigh started acting up, I kept falling back from Ryan a few yards and then would try to catch back up on the up hills, up hills felt better at this point

Mile 9 = 6:14

Ryan slowed down a little bit for me, I felt bad and tried to get the pace back up,

Mile 10 = 6:08

I fell back about 5 yards or so, Ryan tuned and asked if I was OK, I told him my leg wasn’t going to hold up and not to wait, he left me at this point.  He was looking very strong and I was glad he left, I didn’t want to slow him down anymore.  Some times  a man just needs to be left to wallow in his own misery.

Mile 11 = 6:24

Mile 12 = 6:10

Coming out of the canyon a few things happened, first the sun started hitting me, which I’ve mentioned before I don’t do good in the sun, and second there were people on the side of the road cheering me on,  I kind of don’t do well with the cheering crowds it’s a little too emotional and I have a hard time focusing.  Got to the flat part and could really feel myself coming apart.

Mile 13 = 6:16

Kept trying to hold on, Hit the ½ mark at right around 1:20:00, only 30 seconds or so behind the plan for a 2:40:00 finish but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run on the flats at the same pace.  Around mile 14 the first person past me, I knew at that point I must really be slowing cause last time I had checked I couldn’t see anyone behind me.

Mile 14 = 6:10

My leg at this point was really bothering me, I knew I wasn’t going to hit my goal and could feel another Ogden crash happening if I tried to keep it up. I mentally told myself I needed to slow it down or I might not finish,  taking it down to closer to a normal training run pace really seemed to help and the pain went away.  So I changed gears.

Mile 15 = 6:24

Mile 16 = 6:17

Mile 17 = 6:31

Another 2 guys past me, a little demoralizing but at that point I didn’t care much about anything.  Thought OK, just 8 more to go.  I can run 8 miles in my sleep.

Mile 18 = 6:34

The uphill began, in a way it was a relief, the uphill change of muscles actually felt good on the leg but slowed me down a lot.

Mile 19 = 6:49

More uphill, don’t like it as much anymore.

Mile 20 = 7:11

The long uphill really took it out of me, it forced my pace to slow down a lot and I never really could get my legs moving again.

Mile 21 = 6:57

Mile 22 = 7:04

I started thinking my leg was going to cramp up, wanted to stop and stretch it out but told myself stopping would be the end of me, tried to take longer strides to stretch. 

Mile 23 = 7:20

Started running up main street, all the cars and commotion was mentally tough, Allie past me right at the 24 mile sign, I told her I was going to cramp up, she told me not to think about it.  I really wanted to catch up with her and use her a a pacer but she was flying and I kept getting slower.

Mile 24 = 7:27

Mile 25 = 7:19

Really not having a good time at this point, but knowing it was only 1 mile to go kept me focused and the thought of wanting my kids to see me finish strong kept me alive.

Mile 26 = 7:18

Turned the corner and saw the finish line, what a relief, very happy I didn’t ever let my mind totally take control and force me to stop.  A slower than hoped for finish is way better than an all out crash.

Gave my kids and wife a high five crossed the finish line in 2:52:30 according to Garmin, can’t remember the official time.

I thought for sure I would cramp up as soon as I finished, but I didn’t.  Went and got a free massage, which felt great.  Talked to Sasha a bit.  He made me feel better about myself by telling me it is way to hard to train for a marathon while on a business trip and then expect to perform well.  I really didn’t want to make excuses for myself., Like work or my leg pain, but they definitely all play a part.

I’m a little disappointed that all the time and effort I put into this didn’t pay off a little more, but there is always next year I suppose.  Going to take some time off of running now and try and recover.

Oh, forgot to mention.  Ryan finished in 2:45:??  didn't quite get the masters win, lost it by 30 seconds.  I hope I didn't keep him from the win, but looking at the splits he left me before we really got off track.

 
   

1600 M swim in 40 minutes.  Can't walk but swimming feels good.

30 minutes on the elliptical, some light weight lifting.

1200 M swim in 30 minutes. 30 minutes of weights.

 Finally I can walk almost normal, itching to get back on the treadmill but I know I probably shouldn't.  Going to give it until Saturday to run again, we are planning a family trip to Yellowstone and I promised my wife I would run 8 with her there so I will save that for my first run.

45 minutes on the elliptical, then 30 minutes of weights.  I was really tempted to get on the treadmill but told myself to stick to the plan. 

I've gained 8 lbs since Saturday, is that normal? 

2400 M Swim in 1 hour.  This was the first time I really pushed myself swimming.  I usually just do it to relax and recover, but today I decided to push it a little.  Also first time I've gone over 1 mile, not because I couldn't before, just because usually 1 mile feels like enough.

Got home and Britt wanted me to take her running on the Jordan Parkway trail, she was afraid to go alone she said. I was going to ride my bike with Zach in the trailer but last minute decided to try and run.  My leg hurt pretty bad but it felt good to run and it was a beautiful day.  We did 6 miles in 55 minutes, the furthest Britt has ever run before, she looked pretty strong the whole way, next run for her will be 8.  I've decided to take time off of my training and focus on getting Britt ready for her 1/2 marathon.  It's better on our relationship and on my leg.

5:30 am.  All I can say is I'm really glad I'm not running St. George this weekend.  I'm a complete wreck.  My leg still hurts, I pulled a muscle in my neck and I'm coming down with a pretty nasty cold.  This morning I was pretty sure I wouldn't even come to work, but at 5:00 am I woke up and decided to go to the gym and worst case just sit in the hotub and steam room.  By the time I got there I felt OK and started on the elliptical for 15 minutes, then was feeling better and decided to try running, so I did 3 miles on the treadmill at 7:30 pace.  Stretched out a little bit and went to the Hot Tub.  Actually quite happy I got out of bed and did some excercise, I'm sure I feel a lot better now than if I would have stayed home.

Taking double shots of emergen -C.  Last week I felt bad for myself cause I felt good but couldn't run because of my leg, today I just feel like crap.  Maybe my body is telling me something.

5:15 am.  Feeling a little better today, woke up a bit stuffy but not bad, I knew once I started moving it would get better.  Decided to just hit the lap pool today, did 1600m in 45 minutes.  Kind of slow but I worked on different breathing techniques and strokes.  Hopefully I will get a run in tomorrow, would love to be able to get a longish run in this weekend while the weather is perfect.

Finally, I'm human again. 

4:45 am.  Still a little bit congested and my leg started out stiff so I did 10 minutes on the elliptical to loosen up, then I went to the treadmill, started out at 7:30 pace to make sure everything still worked properly, then started kind of a progressive ladder.  It felt great to get my heart rate up again.

6 Miles in 40 minutes 6:40/mile average.  Ran my last mile in 6:10.  

Last night I had Britt totally strip my leg muscles, hurt so bad I started crying but I could tell it was helping, after today's run my leg feels almost normal for the first time in close to 4 weeks.  Really excited to be running again.

Ryan is running the Dublin Marathon in 4 weeks (lame, I wish I could go to Dublin) so he is already back to marathon training.  I told him I would try and tag along on his 20 miler this Saturday, we'll see how that goes.

So, due to all the recent single women runner attacks lately Britt wanted me to run on her long run with her, so I told my boss I'd be in to work late today stayed home and helped get the kids ready for school.  (I've never done that)  After we got all the kids to school I took Britt out on my 10 mile trail run, except we started at the bottom of the hill cause she was afraid she wouldn't make it home.  Went out on the Bull River Trail around Smiths and back,  It was only 7 miles when we got back to the car and she really wanted to get 8 in so I drove the car home and she ran up the hill through our neighborhood home.  

This is the furthest she has ever ran, and because of me pacing, the fastest she had ever averaged for any distance.  She did 8.05 miles in 1:14:00. 

This is good for me to help her get ready for a race for a couple of reasons, 1 it's probably good for me to run slower and get recovered, and 2 she feels like running isn't all about me for once.  I think she can totally do a 1/2 in under 2 hours, she just needs a 9:09 avg pace.

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!