Second Wind

Rest.  Back is still bothering me today and I am not planning on running at all next week based on how I am feeling today.  I guess I will get back on the NSAIDs until this thing calms down a bit.

Rode 15 miles on the bike today with Meg in a little over an hour.  Pretty good workout but not as good as running.  We had one section with a 2-3 mile uphill that tested us a bit and we really tried to push and get the aerobic system working and it went well.  Coming back down was fun as well.  Time for this ride was just over an hour which would be around a 7 mile run at an easy pace.  I don't think I am going to log my cross training miles on here since I don't want to mix and mingle biking and running.  So even though I will be last on the mileage board, at least I know I am still working hard.

Time:  1:02:17

Another 15 miles on the bike today.  Backside was a little sore this morning since I am still getting used to sitting on the bike for an hour.  I imagine I will get used to it after a few days but today it was a little tender for the first few miles.  Same route as yesterday with a really good hill from about mile 6 - 8.5 it's about a 400 ft climb.  Spent about 1.5 miles out of the saddle pushing pretty hard.....felt good.....not to mention saved my backside from saddle sores :)

Time: 1:01:52

Another 15 on the bike today.  I am starting to sound like a broken record I know.  It was pretty windy today and it was right in my face for the entire uphill section of the usual course.  Backside is still sore and sitting in the saddle is painful, hopefully my butt builds up a tolerance to the seat soon or I will be standing for the whole ride.  I guess all new cyclists have to deal with a few saddle sores in the beginning.

Time 1:02:44

Didn't make it out today because it was too windy.  Long night last night.  We have a boy in the ward staying with us who's single mother is in the hospital.  He caught the stomach flu that has been going around and didn't make to the bathroom in time last night.  Needless to say we were up for a while cleaning up that mess and then decided not to get up.  Hopefully I will have a chance to go out after work tonight.

Well, I obviously never made it out yesterday so today I stepped it up and went 20 miles on the bike.  The weather was perfect with absolutely no wind.  Was able to keep the speed and heart rate up where I thought they should be to reap some benefits and averaged just over 15 mph for the ride.

Time: 1:18:46

Nothing exciting to say, just didn't make it out today.

Rest.

Finally decided to go out for a run.  Felt good to finally go out and get in some miles on my feet as opposed to on the bike.  The miles were few and slow but felt good.  I plan to keep it slow and short this week and see how it goes.

PM

Road 9 miles on the bike with Michael and he did great keeping up with me the whole way.

768 (220.91)

Kept it pretty easy today again for the most part.  Picked it up to about 7:30/mile for a quarter mile a couple of times during the run just to test the back and see how the pain was.  Everything feels pretty good and it feels great to get out and run again but I will continue to keep the low miles this week just for caution sake.  The back still hurts if I move the wrong way, it has a way of reminding me that it's still hurting.

768 (224.91)

No running today.  Call it laziness or just the nasty winds.  Nothing wrong with a day of rest.

Kept it short and simple today.  The first couple miles the back felt a bit tight but started to loosen up by the end.  Each mile got a little quicker from about 8:45 - 8:15 by the end.

 767 (386.5)

This was the start of three 5 mile runs within 24 hours as sort of a preparation for WBR next week.  I did a couple of miles in the 7:15 range just to simulate race pace and the fatigue that I will feeling by the second and third runs which will happen tonight at 8:00 pm and tomorrow morning.  I know my three legs will occur in a shorter time frame (probably around 18-20 hours) but this is close enough for me.  I will also have the benefit of sleeping in a bed tonight where in the WBR I will be trying to sleep in a cramped and smelly van.  The next 23 hours or so should be an interesting experiment.

The run felt really good today and it actually felt good to pick up the pace again.  The back did seem to loosen up again about 2 miles in or so.  I don't know weather it lossens up or just goes numb, whatever it is it does tend to feel better.  Hopefully I will be able to say the same about tonights run.

768 (229.91)

PM:  Did another 5.25 miles at 8:00 pm with the team.  By the time we finished it was dark and I'm glad I brought my flashlight because there were no street lights in a lot of places.  We kept the pace really slow the whole way and just logged the miles.  I could tell the legs were a little tired due to my lack of training the last couple weeks and the fact that I have never run a double even though it was only 5 miles each time.

767(391.75)

Met up with the WBR team again this morning at 5:00 am for my third run in about 24 hours.  We did a nice out and back 5 mile run with the first half being generally uphill and the return trip a speedy down hill.  Averaged just under 8:00/mile for the run and picked it up a bit for the last two miles to about a 7:15 pace.  The back was not feeling real great at the start and I was starting to feel other aches and pains here and there as we got going but everything seemed to warm up as we went along and felt pretty good by the finish.

768 (234.91)

Rest.

No running today.  Decided to try and get a little more healing in before I kill myself in a few more days at WBR.

Still keeping it pretty easy with just 2 miles today and very slow.  Only a couple more days until WBR!

768 (236.91)

Took it easy again today.  Decided to add one small up and downhill section to test out the hip/back to see how it will feel.  I think it will be alright but it hurts a little to really lengthen out my stride so I will just have to keep it short and increase my turnover.  Was really worried about my injury last night because I tried to do a crunch on my ball and it hurt like heck, but today's run assured me that I am no worse for the wear.

768 (240.91)

Ran with Dad again in St. George on our way up to the WBR.  Nice easy run a bit later in the morning than I like, it was hot.

768 (244.91)

This was my first time doing this race or any race like it and I hope that I can do it again next year. After the obligatory “NEVER AGAIN” at the finish line, I began to wonder if we/I could do better next year. The beauty of running for me is there is always something I can improve upon and I guess that’s what keeps me coming back for more.

I was runner 11 (same as AndyB). Leg 11 (3.8 miles) started for me at around 9:40 pm and had one tough 900 foot climb with a 350 foot descent for the last mile. I slipped on the rarely worn racing flats looking for any little advantage I could get (I call them the ruby slippers because they are the red saucony grid type A2 shoes and if I click my heals 3 times maybe they will take me home). Said hi to Mr. Ibesleepy for two seconds at the start and then was off up the mountain. Had a fair amount of road kill on the way up but then became road kill to a couple of runners that just blew by me like was standing still……HOLY CRAP!! Was glad to finally reach the summit and then it was everything I could do to squeak out a 6:20 average mile on the other side.

I think on of the guys flying by me was from the BYU team because I ran into a few of the FRB team at the end of my leg and the end of leg 12 and they were still waiting for their guy.  We starte the WBR at 2:40 and I think all the really fast teams started at 5:00.  I knew they would catch us but I didn't think it would be quite that soon.

Grid Type A2 (11.9)

Leg 23 (4.6 miles) started at around 6:15 am Saturday morning and after a night of basically no sleep and eating carb loaded energy food, I was not feeling real great. Spent some quality time in the infamous honey bucket before the start and then was off again. Had some more road kill on this leg but once again became road kill to one guy who was just plain flying. My stomach started to cramp about midway through this leg and I wasn’t even able to get it up to “puke pace” although puking might have helped at this point. This leg was my only leg that had anything one might consider flat, but for a guy from the flattest spot in Vegas it was hilly.

Was able to get about an hour of sleep (it felt great) in between these two legs but as you will see from leg 35 it didn't do me much good. We slept on the wrestling mats on the floor of the South Summit high school gym along with many other stinky sweaty runners.

Leg 35 (6.9 miles straight off a dang cliff 2000 ft elevation loss) I knew this leg would be steep but I had no idea I wouldn’t be able to average faster than 8:10/mile all the way down. By this point in the race my legs and body were completely shot, I had no energy, no sleep and I was afraid if I got going too fast I would eat pavement. So in order to stay upright I had the breaks on the whole way down the hill. I have never been this miserable during any run including the finish of any marathon. By mile 4 the guys in the van could tell I was hurting and were asking if I wanted someone to finish for me…….NO WAY!!! I stuck it out and made it through and thought I was going to die at the end. As unbelievable as it may seem, I didn’t get passed on this leg but had quite a bit of road kill. I guess everyone else was hurting just as bad as I was. Even though this leg is mostly down hill it has a couple of sections were it goes up some short but steep hills and switching from down hill to uphill mode proved to be impossible for me as I found myself walking the last uphill section in order to survive.

In retrospect, I really had a good time and enjoyed the guys I was with and the fun things we did to keep ourselves entertained. This team was put together by a member or our stake presidency and included men of all ages from the stake from 17 years to over 50. If asked, I would do it again. I know I would do some things different, like get more sleep and change up the diet a bit. I would also like to be better trained on the hills because my calves and quads are killing me right now.

You know I am a real running nerd, I already have the white Ragnar sticker on the back window of my car.

Final Results:
Time: 26:33:35
Overall: 105/535
Mens Open: 18/81
Not bad at all for a team of RAGNAR rookies from sin city.

768 (256.31)

Recovering from WBR, feel like crap.

Still recovering from WBR, feel worse than crap.

Still recovering from WBR, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Decided to take one additional day to recover, who knows, may take the whole week.

Got up and took it really slow this morning.  Planned on going about 3 miles but my left calf still feels really tight so I called it a day after 2 miles and went home and did some extra stretching.

768 (258.31)

Took it really slow again today.  Did the loop outside our neighborhood which includes the freeway overpass....not Veyo hill but better than no hills.  Avoided a dog incident today as we were running up a street we had never run up before we noticed a large dog outside the fence rather than try to go by on the other side of the street we just turned around and ran the other direction.  After our last incident a few weeks ago I don't even mess with dogs anymore when I can avoid them.

Time 44:59  9:00/mile

768 (263.31)

It's sad but this is the longest training run I have had since a 17 miler on April 5.  I can't beleive I haven't gone long for so long.  It really showed today too as I had to stop and walk at mile 10 for about a half mile.  It was also very hot this morning, I guess we will need to start getting into our early early morning routine on Saturdays to go for our long runs.  It's probably time to start building up for St. George but after today's run I feel like I can't even do a marathon.....what a wimp.

Time:  1:47:02  8:55/mile

768 (275.31)

Rest.

Today's run was just blaugh!  Didn't feel all that great the whole way.  Temps were in the upper 80s and it was trying to rain to the humidity must have been pushing at least 2% (actually it was 11%).  I have just had no energy lately.  I think my lackluster training and on and off injuries may have something to do with that.  At least I go through the planned mileage and didn't die from heat stroke.

Time:  50:56  8:29/mile

768 (281.31)