Second Wind

Final shake out run before the big show tomorrow.  Nothing new or different, as usual, just a short, moderate paced run.  Looks like we could be in for a rainy run.  There is a 50% chance of showers and winds out of the southwest at 10-20 mph, ode to joy!  Well maybe there will be a drastic change between now and then cause I don't think my Garmin could handle another monsoon like SGM.  Well, I'll hope for the best and maybe we'll catch a lull in the storm before the race and it will be perfect, hey I can hope can't I!  Most of the soreness in my legs is gone but I am still feeling it in couple of spots, especially in my shins.  It seems like walking really does a number on my weak shin muscles.  Walked a mile or so with Meg today, it was nice to go out and visit with her just like old times.  She is still heavily involved in PT and rehab and is still in quite a bit of pain so I don't imagine she will be running any time soon.  She's been really diligent about hitting the recumbant bike at the YMCA every day though, so hopefully she will be able to come back with a fair amount of fitness when the time is right.

Time:  24:47  8:16/mile

Finished short of my PR but still a good race.  More later.

Let me just start off by saying DANGIT!  I am such a wimp!  I missed third place in my age group by 12 seconds.  The guys were right in front of me.  It's sad that I go back and kick myself for not passing those last two guys, I should have just sucked it up, passed them, and won the prize.....oh well, whatcha gunna do.

Drove up to St. George Friday evening and stayed at my parents house.  Got a great nights sleep and felt really good in the morning.  The weather for this race turned out to be almost perfect.  The rain never came but it was overcast the entire way.  The temperature was perfect.  The only bad part was the headwind we faced for several miles.

The course was a bit tougher than I had remembered with approxamately 3 miles worth of some pretty good hills.  There are a couple of miles with really fast down hill running but it just wasn't enough to make up for the headwind and the uphill parts.  Here are the splits, see if you can tell where the hills are:  7:18, 7:05, 7:17, 7:34, 7:26, 7:39, 7:45, 7:05, 6:37, 6:46, 7:38, 8:08, 7:11, :40.  In case any of you are adding the time, the splits don't equal the total race time.  My Garmin said 12.95 when I finished, so I finished the final .15 around the track at the high school.  Talk about OCD!  Miles 4-6 are a pretty steady climb, you jump off a cliff for a couple miles after that, you climb some more for miles 11 and 12 and then 13 is a flat foot race to the finish.

I ran with my same friend that I ran with from the Painter's half marathon and another one of his friends, Don Vines.  We stayed together for a while then we dropped my first friend who just didn't have it today and then his friend dropped me on the down hill section and never looked back.  He ended up beating me by about 2 minutes.

I had a hard time fighting off the demon's during miles 11 and 12.  My legs had just been turned to mush on the cliff and I just couldn't seem to get into a good rhythm.  It didn't help that we went from steep down hill to steady uphill, but I still should have been able to run some quicker miles.  I finally found a good rythm at about mile 12 when it flattened out and I knew I only had a mile to go.  I knew there were people behind me not to far back cause we had changed positions a few times in the race, but I didn't even look back, I just put my head down and gave it everything else I had in the tank.  I was pretty well gassed at the end of this run and don't know that I could have run it any better.  That's a good feeling.

In case you were wondering, I did sing "Rock You Like a Hurricane" several times during this race.  Thanks for reminding me Teena.  I wish I would have had the real version of the song for the last 5K of this race.

Overall I am pleased with the race and my time.  It is a course PR for me by 11 minutes from the race I did in 2007 and finished with Meg.  Meg walked the 5K today and finished dead last.  She could have easily walked faster and finished higher but she chose to hang back with some older ladies who needed her encouragement to get to the finish line.  She said it was a bit depressing to finish the 5K in last place but I call it a huge and very cool life experience.  How often does anyone get the chance to finish last in a race.  I checked the results for her age group and overall.  On a healthy day she would have won her age group and the overall 5K easily.  To me that last place finish is that much more significant.

Rest. Feeling surprisingly good today. Maybe I didn't run hard enough on Saturday....

Ran a mile with Jamie this evening in 9:13.  She needed to run a mile in 9:20 or under to get the presidential award in PE and she wanted me to pace her.  We did a great job of running a very even pace the whole way and then she had just enough left at the end to push a little harder and beat her goal by 7 seconds, she did great.

Just some nice relatively easy miles today.  The first mile today was a little slow cause I was finally starting to feel some of the soreness from the race on Saturday.  I have a little tightness in my quads and hamstrings but other than that everything feels pretty good.  Meg came out and walked our loop backwards today so I was able to see her a few times as we passed each other going in opposite directions.  I felt pretty good by the last couple of miles after my body had a chance to warm up.  I have been planning to run the Fontana since the beginning of the year but now with Megan's injury I don't know if she want's to go down and run it.  We'll see what happens.  I would love to have another crack at that race just to see what I could do two years later.

Time:  50:09  8:21/mile

Really didn't want to get up today.  I felt really tired and wanted to just lay in bed but I knew I would be kicking myself later if I didn't get up and go, so I did.  I'm glad I was able to pull my old bones off the mattress and get out because I always feel better after a run.  Other than the aforementioned fatigue, everyting felt pretty good today.  I don't know why I'm feeling so tired, I hate to think I am still being affected by Saturday's race, but I guess it could be.  Whatever it is, I hope I can get past it soon cause it kinda stinks.

Time:  49:38  8:16/mile

Another easy 6 today.  The rest of this week will be easy runs just to recover.  The legs felt better today and I wasn't feeling nearly as much fatigue but I am feeling a few aches and pains.  My left hamstring never wants to get better and yoga doesn't seem to be helping.  And my lower back took a pretty good beating on the downhill section of the Hurricane half so I am feeling it a bit there as well.  Hopefully these are minor enough things that they will work themselves out with some easy running over the next week or two.

I just reserved  a hotel for the Fontana half marathon next month.  I guess Meg and I are going to go down and have a mini vacation for our anniversary while she watches me run again.  I know it sounds a bit like torture for me to keep putting her through this but at least we have other plans over the weekend besides just the running.  I am excited to have another crack at Fontana though, I am in so much better shape than two years ago, I'm excited to see what I can do on that fast course.

Time:  49:39  8:16/mile

Picked up the pace just slightly today.  The first couple of miles were pretty slow and tough but after that I seemed to find a nice rhythm and just settle in.  It was a little windy today as it has been every day this week and the morning temps have started to turn toward warmer summer temps.  This morning it was 75 degrees at 5:00 a.m.  I know during the summer months we have some days in the mid to upper 80s in the morning so I should enjoy these slightly cooler temps while I still can.

Time:  48:53  8:09/mile

Felt really good today finally.  I think I am getting really close to being 100% recovered from Hurricane.  I was still feeling a little blaugh in the first mile or so but I seemed to warm up a lot faster today and got into a really good rhythm.  Since my new philosophy on training is to run harder when you feel good, I decided to put that into practice and log a few faster miles today.  All but the first mile were under 8:00/mile and the last mile was 7:22 with each mile getting progressively faster.  The reason I know I am not 100% recovered is that the last mile felt a little too hard for the pace.  I passed Meg a few times as she was out walking the opposite dirction this morning before going to the Y.  Always good to see a familiar smiling face when your out running.

I'm not sure when I will get my long run in tomorrow.  My son is starting his eagle project tonight and then we are finishing it bright and early Saturday morning.  He is painting a multi-colored map of the United States on the playground where my daughters go to school and my wife teaches.  It will sure be a relief when we get this project completed it has been a couple months in the making.  So I guess I will be running in the evening after the sun goes down and it's still way hot.....not fun.

Time:  46:38  7:46/mile

So much for getting back to 100%.  All the kneeling and squatting and bending at my sons eagle project has got all my muscles tied in knots.  It's amazing how poorly trained my non-running muscles are.  I really need to consider adding some cross training to my routine, but as is usually the case, I won't do anything different.  So needless to say I didn't make it out today but next week is another week and we'll start again.

There he is, the almost Eagle scout.

The final product turned out pretty good.

Still recovering from the eagle project with sore muscles.

Today is my 3 year running anniversary.  Three years ago I ran 1 mile and began my quest to train for the St. George marathon.  My time for that 1 mile was 8:45 and I only ran 2 miles that whole week.  At the time my only form of exercise was "Wednesday night basketball at the church,"  I was out of shape.  Over the next five months I built my weekly mileage up to a whopping 32 miles and was constantly dealing with injury, aches and pains.  I suffered through that first marathon in 4:55 and vowed that I could do bettter......what a difference three years can make.  In three years I have run 4,796.58 miles and am still looking for a BQ, hopefully this is the year.

I was still hurting a bit this morning from the infamous eagle project last weekend.  The first 4 miles were pretty uncomfortable and clunky but eventually I warmed up and was able to run a little smoother for the last couple.  Meg did her usual walk this morning so I got to see her 3-4 times during my run, always a good thing.

Time:  50:23  8:24/mile

Everything felt much better today.  Most of the soreness from the Eagle project is now gone except for some lower back pain....but what else is new.  The legs felt pretty good today so I picked up the overall pace and added in a couple of sub 7:50 miles just for fun.  Got the final confirmation that Meg and I are in St. George Marathon yesterday.  I already knew we were because of the runners series but it is always nice to see your name on the list.  Now I guess it's time to get serious about training hard and building up for the big day.  The 18 week plan starts here in about 3 weeks but I don't really have a plan other than what I normally do.  I think I will definately up the daily mileage to 7 or 8 in the coming weeks with maybe a 9 or 10 miler thrown in there once in a while.  I would like to put in at least 3 20+ mile runs between now and then with one of those runs at or near marathon pace.  I also plan to run hills and tempo runs along with 1600s as the body permits.  I would like to see my weekly mileage max at somewhere around 65-70 miles but again that all depends on how my body holds up.  Let the training begin!

Time:  47:24  7:54/mile

Decided to do something a little different from the norm today......I ran 7 instead of 6 miles.  I guess I should start doing that more often as Marathon training is right around the corner.  The lower back is continuing to improve each day of which I am very glad.  I never know when a little back pain is going to turn in to a lot of back pain.  It was pretty windy this morning but I really don't mind the wind as much in the summer months as long as it is a cool breeze.  Sometimes it feels like a hairdryer hitting you in the face and that is not good.  I think we are on track for one of the warmest Mays on record.  We seem to be about 10 degrees above normal every day.  I hope that doesn't mean record temps for the summer as well.

Time:  56:50  8:07/mile

Man I really got crazy today with an unheard of 8 mile run on a week day.  Decided at about the two mile mark that if I am going to run 26 miles at 7:28/mile then I had better start logging at least some training miles at that pace.  I ran the next 5 at GMP or slightly faster and then cooled off with one more mile.  The pace felt a little harder and clunkier than I was hoping.  It's a really good thing I still have plenty of time to sharpen up my fitness.  Feels good to be logging a few more miles than normal but I need to be careful not to do too much too soon.  Tomorrow I will be dropping it back to the usual 6 at the usual pace.  I am debating the distance for my long run on Saturday.  My longest long run this year is 15 miles so I am thinking that 16 would be a good goal to shoot for and then build that up to my first 20 miler over the next month or so.  As always, we'll see what the body will give me.

Tiime:  1:02:01  7:45/mile

Stayed up way too late last night plaing WOW and payed for it a little bit this morning by waking up late and feeling a little fatigued.  But hey, at least my paladin is level 60 now right?  what a nerd.....  Anyway, like I said the legs were a little dead today probably from yesterdays run and maybe from a little bit of stress I have had lately with the busy life.  Was still able to get through it and still make it to work on time.  Tomorrow my ragnar team is going up  to Mt. Charleston to do a hill/elevation run for training.  I still haven't decided if I want to go.  Part of me says I really could use some hill training and part of me says the down hills are going to be murder on your back.  I think I will probably go and just take it really easy on the down hill section.  I'll just do what I am supposed to do on long run days and slow the pace down a bit and enjoy the ride.  Hopefully some of this leg fatigue is gone by tomorrow so I can struggle through those major hills.

Time:  49:48  8:18/mile

Broke the run into two runs this morning.  The first run was 6 easy miles on my own.  Felt a bit sluggish and of course slow, like it should have, just without the sluggish part.  After this run I went down and met two other guys from my ragnar team and we went up to Mt. Charleston to get some elevation and hill training in.  The run started at 6800 feet and climed to 7600 feet for the first 4 miles and then we turned around and came back down.  Climb up was pretty tough although I wasn't having too much problem with the elvation or the cardio after the first mile or so which was surprising to me.  I felt like I could have gone faster but I decided to keep it under control and just enjoy a nice run in the mountains.  On the way back down we also kept the pace under control and never really pushed it until the last mile which we did in about 7:00.  I added on a little at the end to make it an even 8 to give me 14 for the day.  I had planned on going 16 but figured the hill training was a good enough work out so I didn't do the extra two.

First 6 Time:  50:54  8:29/mile

Second 8 Time:  1:12:28  9:03/mile

Rest.

Didn't really feel as much of the effects of the Saturday hill run today as I was expecting.  I really thought I would be more sore and suffer from more aches and pains.  I had a little tightness in my left achillies and calf, and of course the lower back pain that never goes away, but other than that everything felt pretty good.  Pretty nice morning for a run with light winds and temps in the mid to upper 70s.  I think I am going to start increasing the weekday runs to around 7 miles just to increase the weekly mileage and my endurance. 

Time:  58:09  8:19/mile

Felt pretty good today when I woke up so decided to run a few faster miles.  During the first mile I decided to run one mile at sub 7:00 then three miles at GMP (7:28/mile) or better and then another sub 7:00 and then cool down with the final mile.  Well as it turned out that last mile wasn't as slow as I anticipated and it ended up being a GMP mile as well.  The reason for the two sub 7:00 miles was to work a little bit on my goal Fontana pace.  I don't know what a reasonable goal is for Fontana but I almost want to say that a sub 1:30 is possible on that course.  Two years ago I ran a 1:34 on that course after having run a 1:45 at Hurricane that same year.  This year I ran a 1:35 at Hurricane so who knows what is possible at Fontana.  While an 11 minute difference this time around is way out of my league, a five minute difference may just be within reach.  Running 13 miles at 6:52 average seems crazy fast even on a downhill course.  I'll just have to see how the next couple weeks of training go and then it will probably be a decision I will make within the first couple miles of the race weather or not to hold back a little or let it all hang out.

Time:  51:54  7:25/mile

Just a nice easy run today.  Had some extra time this morning so I decided to add an additional easy mile.  I like to take advantage of any extra time I might have because it doesn't happen very often.  Started out a little slow and stiff due to yesterdays run but then settled into the usual pace and felt good the rest of the way.  Meg has been getting up at the same time as me and walking with another lady in our ward.  Having her get up at the same time as me is a huge help to get me moving in the morning.  Perfect weather this morning with no wind at all, although it was probably on the warm side for some of you northerners.

Time:  1:06:11  8:16/mile

Well, I decided to take Rhett's advise and get in a little hill training today.  I had to do my run later in the morning today because Meg went back in for her "manipulation" surgery today and currently is doing very well.  The doctor took some Polaroids of her during the surgery and she really can move her arm above her head!  After surgery she went directly tot he PT who gave her some new exercises and stretches to do and we were home by about 9:00.  He gave her some pretty powerful numbing meds in her shoulder so it is currently in a very jello-e state.  But she is resting well and will hopefully continue to move in the right direction this time around.  So anyway, back to the run, I started at about 9:00 a.m. and it was already 83 degrees with very little cloud cover.  The closest hills to my house are a freeway overpass and a side street that connects to the overpass.  One full roundtrip circuit of the hills is 3 miles and I ended up doing about 3.6 miles of hills both up and down.  I tried to push the pace on the hills, especially the downhills so I could really get the benefits of some downhill training.  My average pace for the hills miles was around 7:25/mile.  By the time I fiinished the temp was right around 86 degrees and I was burning up.  So here I sit, cooling off at my computer, ahhhhhhhhh!

Time:  54:20  7:46/mile

Nice and easy 7 this morning.  Beautiful overcast weather with a light breeze.  Everything felt really good today and the pace was a little more brisk than I would normally run but it felt about right so I went with it.  Megs procedure yesterday seems to have been very successful.  When I got home from my run today she was doing her PT exercises with "relative ease" compared with yesterday evenings very difficult exercises which she did with my assistance.  She seemed very upbeat this morning so hopefully things are on the mend and she will start healing much faster now.

Time:  57:09  8:10/mile

More Later....

Okay, it's later.  I was really up in the air about what I wanted to do today.  This week was a pretty good step up in mileage for me and I was a little concerned about over doing it.  I don't know what magic the number 50 holds but it seems like when I start running that distance week after week I start feeling more and more aches and pains.  So that was my debate, go over 50 or hold back.  Well as you can tell I had little will power today and went with my goal of 16 miles which is my longest run of the year.  This run was kinda weird again as usual becuase I interupted my morning run to go run with my Ragnar team.  I got 4 miles in and then I went and ran 7 with them at pretty good effort and then came back home and finished with 5 more after droping my car off at the shop.  So this wasn't a solid 16 but it was 16 with a couple of breaks to drive to places and then run again.  I didn't feel completely wasted at the end of the run and maybe the 20 minute breaks in between helped.  I guess in a way it is kind of a mini ragnar without the 5-6 hour breaks between running. 

Meg actually went out and did some very very easy jogging for 20-30 meter at a time to see how her shoulder felt and she said it felt okay but she had to keep it pretty tight to her side so that it didin't bounce much.  They have told her she can probably start jogging again in a week or two, I guess she is about as patient as I am.......go figure.

Time: 2:11:45 8:14/mile

Rest.

I finally cracked 20 minutes on a 5K!  What a dang tough race in the heat! 

I had a sub 20 goal in mind for today and was looking around for someone at the start who would be willing to pace me for the race.  I didn't have to look far, as a couple of my Ragnar teammates were looking to run at about that same pace.  The only problem was one of them was running the 10K but he is really fast and was looking to run a 40 minute 10K so the plan was to keep these two close.  I started off about 20 minutes before the race with a fairly easy 1 mile warm-up and also did a few quick strides in that mile to loosen things up.  I lined up behind a bunch of high school kids at the start and we were off, well sort of.  It seems some of the high school kids were a little over confident about their abilities so I found myself weaving through bodies for the first quarter mile.  Once we got out of the pack it was just me and one ragnar buddy and a few high school cross country kids out in front that we were never going to catch.  Our first half mile was pretty fast for this course as the first mile is very slightly up hill so we pulled it back just a little and our first mile came in about where I wanted it at 6:22.  By this time my second ragnar buddy had caught up to us and we were into a nice rythm, not feeling great, but surviving.  By some miracle I was able to hang on during the second mile and it came in right at 6:22 as well.  The third mile I really started to fall apart but so did one of my running partners.  We ended up dropping the first partner who was running the 5K but the 10K guy stuck with me and really kept me on pace.  He stayed with me until about a half mile to go when I decided it was time to put the pedal down and get the sub-20.    My Garmin pace during mile three read as high as 6:39 but ended up coming in at 6:31 thanks to the extra effort in the last half mile.  At the finish I had to warn a few of the 1 mile walkers that I was coming in and had to do a little weaving to get around them and at this point I knew I had it.  It was awesome to see the 19 still on the clock as I crossed the line.  The course was about 60-70 meters short according to Garmin but I think my time is still under 20 minutes even with the extra distance.  I think the only reason I ended up in first for the 5K is that many of the fast runners were running the 10K.  I'll take the first place finish even though it comes with no medals or prizes, a win is a win.  Sub 20 was my only goal for the day, the win only added a little icing to the cake.

Nice and easy 8 today.  I am still feeling a little bit of the fatigue and soreness from the 5K yesterday so I decided to really take it easy and just log some miles.  The first 3-4 miles were very slow and clunky but it was about that time that I started to get warmed up and feeling better.  The last 4 miles were at a little quicker pace but not by much.  Decided to add on the extra mile again today cause I had the time and surprisingly, by the end of the run, the legs actally felt pretty good.

Time:  1:07:25  8:26/mile

Picked up the pace a little bit today but was still feeling it a bit in the legs and lower back from the race on Monday.  I will probably keep it easy for the rest of this week in hopes that the legs will get past the fatigued feeling, by then it will be time to cut back a bit for Fontana next week.  Really noticed it is starting to get much lighter earlier in the day now.  This is my favorite time to run when it's not pitch black and not 85 degrees.  It's been a nice few days of running, hope it keeps up for a while.

Time:  58:11  8:19/mile

Carbon copy of yesterdays run except for the fact that I am really starting to feel much better.  I actaully considered adding on another mile today but didn't want to press my luck.  Yesterday I was just glad to log my 7 and be done.  The 5K left me a little more beat up than I would have liked but at least I can see some light today.  Actaully picked up the pace for each mile all the way to the end and felt good at the finish.  Like I said yesterday, I am going to keep the running easy from now until Fontana next week.  This includes me skipping our Ragnar training run up on Mt. Charleston this weekend.  I certainly don't need the killer hills a week before Fontana.  The morning temps continue to rise as the mercury was pushing 80 this morning with almost no wind to dry the sweat......ya it was a bit warm....

Time:  58:14  8:19/mile

SOS..SOS..SOS - I JUST GOT WORD FROM MY RAGNAR TEAM CAPTAIN THAT ONE OF OUR RUNNERS JUST BROKE HIS HAND AND WILL NOT BE RUNNING WITH US, WE NEED TO FIND ANOTHER RUNNER SOON.  IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN FILLING IN, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.  HE WAS SCHEDULED TO BE RUNNER NUMBER 1 BUT THAT MAY CHANGE IF WE MOVE PEOPLE AROUND.  ALSO, THIS IS A MALE TEAM , SORRY LADIES, I KNOW, JUST WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO ALL WEEKEND IS SIT IN A VAN WITH A BUNCH OF SWEATY GUYS.  THANK YOU.

Pretty much the same as yesterday only I did pick up the pace just a little bit, but not much.  Still on cruise control for the rest of this week and next.  Nice overcast morning but with a little humidity in the air.  Nothing too exciting, just the usual run and yoga.

Time:  57:04  8:09/mile

Not a great long run today, but not the worst either.  I just felt a bit worn down and ready for a rest.  I really struggled at times to maintain a descent pace.  I do think the miles for the last two weeks are starting to catch up with me.  It's a good thing that I will be cutting back this next week to give the body a much needed rest.  I started to feel a little pain on the outside of my left foot, but have been icing and taking it easy and it seems to be okay.  This is something I have had before and a little RICE always seems to cure it.  It's actually feeling much better this morning so I am not too concerned yet.

Time:  1:55:41  8:15/mile

Rest.