Second Wind

Felt a bit better today than yesterday and was able to pick up the pace some and felt good about it.  It was still a lot of work but at least it felt better than yesterday.  Been doing a bit of extra stretching in the hamstrings whenever I have the chance and although it has not cured my issues in the lower back it does seem to be helping somewhat.  Feels good to be out putting in some good quality miles again, let's hope it continues.

Time: 57:14  8:11/mile

768 (288.31)

Very nice easy run today.  Tried to keep the pace slow and treat it like a recovery run.  Plan to get 40 this week so will probably keep it pretty easy the rest of the week and then 12 on Saturday.  If all goes well, this should be my best week of training since Ogden.  Continues to be very warm here, temp was 84 during our run this morning.

Time:  44:11  8:50/mile

768(293.31)

Another fairly moderate run today.  Other than the heat here in Vegas everything is going pretty well.  I keep waiting for this injury of mine to really flare up and give me serious problems but so far I have been doing fine, keep your fingers crossed.  Just trying to keep the miles right at 40 this week so I will only do 5 tomorrow and then go for a 12 mile medium long run on Saturday.  It's funny, a year ago I thought 40 miles a week was this huge amount of miles and now it's just an average week.....but it's still nothing compared to those runners doing 80-100+!!

Time:  41:51  8:22/mile

767 (396.75)

Decided to switch the long run to today instead of tomorrow because my daughter is getting baptised tomorrow and I figured it would work out better this way.  This long run felt a bit better than last weeks but not by much.  I felt really good for the first three miles and was even able to pick up the pace to sub 8:00/mile for a couple miles but then something happened and I just started to run out of energy.  I'm not really sure of the cause, it could be a number of things, the heat, light dinner, hydration.  Well at least I got through the run without walking this week and was able to maintain a pace that I think I should be running for my long runs, I just don't think they should be this hard.

Time:  1:42:51  8:34/mile

768 (305.31)

Run today felt okay but was pretty labored considering it was a recovery run.  Glad to be done with my first good quality week of running in several weeks.  I am hoping to build consistently from here all the way to St. George, we will see how it goes.

Time:  43:40  8:44/mile

768 (310.51)

Rest.

Felt really good today and was able to run at a slightly faster pace than normal.  Gait felt smooth today for once instead of the usual clunky junk.  Dropped the last mile to just slower than marathon pace.  We go to duck creek this week for the annual family reunion.  Should be interesting to see how the runs go at 8-9,000 feet.

767 (402.75)

Time:  48:29  8:05/mile

Kept it easy today since during this run we decided to get our long run for this week out of the way tomorrow so we wouldn't hav to do it at Duck Creek.  I don't mind running at Duck Creek but a long run at 8,000 feet and running along the very busy and scary highway is not my idea of fun.  We have run on some of the trails up in that area in the past but they are ATV trails and usually not in really good condition for runners.  So I guess we will just stick to the 6 milers around the campground while we are there.

Time:  52:09  8:41/mile

768 316.51   767 402.75

These were 14 very long, very hot, very slow, very hard miles.  The temps the last few weeks have been hovering around 82 degrees when we go out for our 5:00am run.  This morning when we stepped outside at 4:25 for our 14 mile long run it was 92 degrees.  Granted there is basically no humidity but it is weird to see the temps that high in the pitch black morning.  When we got done around 6:30 the temp was 99 degrees and the sun was up.  Couldn't keep the last 3-4 miles under 9:00/mile pace.  Hydrated well during the run with about 24 oz of gatorade and ran through a few sprinklers to cool off but I think a combination of the heat my lack of conditioning the last couple of months contributed to this slow, tough run.  Was glad to get the run in and it is nice to know I was able to get it done without any major problems other than fatigue.

Time:  2:04:31  8:54/mile

768 330.51   767 402.75

Nice easy recovery run this morning in sunny St. George.  After yesterdays sick run I was glad to be out running in about 73 degree temps and at a slow recovery pace.  Legs were a bit heavy and there was a little bit of soreness but other than that it was a nice run.  Headed for cooler temps today up a Duck Creek, hope I don't freeze to death, should be nice.

768 330.51   767 408.75

Good hard workout up at Duck Creek on this day.  Accross the highway fromt he campground is an old dirt road which goes up over the hills to Navajo Lake.  We decided to jump on that and go for 3 miles and turn around and come back to make 6 for the day.  The hills were relentless as we climbed nearly 600 feet to just above 9000 feet and had a great time doing it.  We came to a flat section that went out across an open meadow and we could have continued on that flatter road but decided to continue up over the hill to Navajo Lake.  The run to the lake ended up being 3.5 miles so we ended up with 7 miles for the day.  Not a really fast run but a great hill work out both up and down.

Time:  1:06:44  9:32/mile

768 330.51   767 415.75

This was another good run today as we did the same trail as yesterday only instead of going up over the final hill to Navajo lake we continued on the flat section and only went out 3 miles and back 3 miles.  This is the best I have ever felt running up at Duck Creek for our family reunion.  Turned out to be a great weekend.

Time:  56:14  9:22/mile

768 330.51   767 421.75 (retired)

Rest.

Today turned out to be a pretty good run at a pretty good pace.  I haven't done much fast running lately as I have been fighting the injury bug, but today we stepped up the pace to around 8:10 for most miles and I did a couple of miles right around 7:30 pace or better and felt pretty good.  The legs didn't feel as fatigued as I thought they would after running the hills up at Duck Creek which was a plesant surprise.  The nice thing was that I felt pretty good so I stepped it up.  I think I like not planning a strict training program for myself and then feeling obligated to do a tempo run or hill run on a particular day.  If the body feels good then I will just do it, if not I will log the miles at a comfortable pace.  This may be the wimpy way out of doing some serious training but with the constant injury problems I have had lately I think it works best for me.

Time:  55:56  7:59/mile

768 330.51   768 (new) 0

Today was a bit of a pull back from yesterdays pace.  Took it moderately easy and added a couple of fast striders in the last mile just to break it up a bit.  Still remains very hot in the mornings with the temp at 82 degrees at 5:00 AM.  Ran in the new shoes this morning which is always a good thing.

Time:  59:18  8:28/mile

NB768 330.51   NB768(new) 7.0  Saucony A2 11.9

Today I did the freeway overpass workout, or in other words the hill workout.  The closest hill of any consequence is a freeway overpass near my house.  After about a 3 mile warm up we arrived at the hill and I had in my mind I wanted to do 3 round trips back and forth across this thing.  One round trip over an back is just over 1/2 mile.  The goal was not to sprint up this thing or go at any kind of faster pace but just to hold a nice steady, strong pace and really work on my downhill form for SGM.  The workout went well and I feel like my downhill form is improving.  It is still a bit clunky and my feet still slap the ground on occasion but I am trying to learn not to dig my heal into the ground and just let the hill carry me down with a nice mid-foot landing.  Weather was warm again today, but what else is new.

Meg and I had a close encounter with two dogs this morning.  During our first mile, when you are still waking up, two dogs came running out from the side of a house barking and acting like they were going to eat us.  Meg jumped behind me and I stood there like a statue not knowing what to do.  Luckily the owner came right out of the garage and was able to call them off and apologized several times at which point the dogs took off running around the neighborhood.  I hope she had to spend plenty of time catching them.  Dang dogs!!

Time:  51:50  8:38/mile

NB768 336.51   NB768(new) 7.0  Saucony A2 11.9

Legs felt a little heavy the first couple of miles, then things started to loosen up a bit.  Did a couple of 200 meter strides during the 4th mile and then decided to pick it up to a compfortably hard pace for the last mile.  Decided not to track my pace on the Garmin and just run at a pace that felt hard but sustainable for a few miles.  It ended up being a 7:06 mile.  I guess that is about where I figured my fitness would be about now based on my lack of training.  I'm glad I still have a couple months to SGM to do something about it.

Time:  48:32  8:05/mile

NB768 336.51   NB768(new) 13.0  Saucony A2 11.9

Today was all about recovery.  Kept the pace really slow and just tried to have a nice run.  Didn't really work out that way though becuase I felt pretty crappy throughout the whole run.  Everything just felt kinda tired.  It's been a pretty good week of running so I imagine that might have something to do with it.  Stress at work right now may also be adding to my fatigue.  I hope I have something to give tomorrow for my long run.  It's been at least a couple of months since I have run 16 miles so it ought to be interesting.

Time:  53:09  8:52/mile

NB768 342.51   NB768(new) 13.0  Saucony A2 11.9

Faster than normal long run today.  Started off pretty easy and by my 3 I figured I was feeling pretty good so I would pick up the pace a bit.  Was able to hold the remaining miles pretty close to 8:00/mile.  Really started to fade by the end of this run but was able to maintian a decent pace up to the end.  I don't feel like I could have gone much further today than 16 miles but it is definately coming along.  Hopefully the recovery is good to do it again next week.

Ended up going with the 11 year old scouts on a 5 mile hike up at Mt. Charleston about an hour after our run this morning.  It was about 70 degrees at the start up on the mountain and the hike was great.  Perfect morning to go up and get out of the heat as it was 106 when we got back to Vegas at 12:30.   BLAUGHGHGH!!!

Time:  2:10:37  8:10/mile

NB768 342.51   NB768(new) 29.0  Saucony A2 11.9

Rest.

Kept the pace fairly slow today and it all felt good after last Saturday's long run and hike with the scouts.  The hike may have even helped with some of the recovery.  Legs only felt slightly fatigued today and I felt like I could have easily gone faster but resisted the urge.  Tomorrow I am going to make an attempt at adding some 800 intervals into the mix.  The plan is to have Tuesdays be the interval day and Thursday's be the tempo run day.  I plan to start out running the intervals and tempos slower than I think I could in order to let the body slowly get used to the work out over the next 2-3 weeks.  If things go well I will try to increase the pace and go from there.  If I am going to make a serious attempt at a BQ (3:15) at SGM then I am going to need the extra speed and tempo training to get me there.

Time:  50:54  8:29/mile

NB768 348.51   NB768(new) 29.0  Saucony A2 11.9

Today was the first trial run in a long time with the 800 meter intervals. Since it has been several months, maybe a year since I have done these I decided to take them relatively slow. Started out with a 2.5 mile warm up and then planned to do the intervals at about 6:50/mile pace or 3:25/800 meters. Splits for the 3 intervals were 3:24, 3:24, 3:23. I felt like I could have gone faster and also could have done at least a couple more intervals but happily did not even think about it. Did a 3:25 jogging recovery between each interval and had no problem recovering during that time. As we get closer to the marathon I plan to eventually pick the pace up to a maximum of 3:15/800 meters but for today my times suit me just fine. Did a little cool down at the end to make it an even six miles and went home to do some extra stretching. I think tomorrow will tell the tale of how hard these things are going to be on my body but for now I feel just fine.

Time: 50:06 8:21/mile

NB768 348.51   NB768(new) 35.0  Saucony A2 11.9

Well, today was scheduled to be a bit of a recovery run and it was to some extent but as is usually the case we get progressively faster with each mile during the run and it ended up being a bit faster than recovery pace. Maybe my recovery pace is getting faster though because everything felt really good today and it was a pace I felt like I could have maintained for a long time. Tomorrow is another test for the injuries and the fitness. I will try a shorter tempo run of about 3 miles with the pace a bit slower than I have run tempos in the past. I am looking for the pace to be somewhere in the 7:15 range where in the past I have hit miles as fast as 6:50 for up to 6 miles. Hopefully it will turn out as good as yesterdays 800s. I was getting worried yesterday afternoon as it felt like I was starting to stiffen up in my hip and back area but this morning everything felt fine. Hopefully easing back into like this will not make it any worse.

Time: 50:53 8:29/mile

NB768 354.51 NB768(new) 35.0 Saucony A2 11.9

Another big test for me today on my semi-injured back and hip, decided to do a tempo run. Did a two mile warm up and then started the 3 mile tempo. As of yesterday I was thinking a 7:15 pace would be pretty good for a first tempo run in a while. Splits were as follows: 7:11, 7:09, 7:08. I would say this was a fairly hard effort for me. I think I could have done them a little faster but I don't know, I was working hard. Near the end of the two mile warm up I was thinking my legs didn't feel very zippy today and was contemplating backing out and just running at a medium pace. I'm glad I stuck with the plan because it was a good work out and now I can see how my body reacts to this small amount of tempo running. I have a 10K on Saturday that I plan to treat much like this tempo run so keeping the pace under control today was a good thing.

Time: 46:29 7:45/mile

NB768 354.51 NB768(new) 41.0 Saucony A2 11.9

Boring old recovery run today.  Legs felt a little fatigued but everything else felt pretty good for the most part.  I'm glad that the faster running is agreeing with my body so far, cross your fingers and knock on wood.  I think I have decided to run tomorrows 10K at somewhere between yesterdays tempo pace and marathon pace 7:10 - 7:30.  I'm not sure if I could go much faster than that anyway and don't want to risk injury for a race that doesn't have much importance for me.  Just run it for fitness and fun, it would be a first if I could actually do that.  We'll see.

Time:  51:17  8:33/mile

NB768 360.51 NB768(new) 41.0 Saucony A2 11.9

Got up at the usual time of 4:00AM for our Saturday morning long run and got on the road sometime around 4:40.  Ran the first 6 with Meg and kept the pace right around 8:35/mile.  Weather was very hot and humid this morning with starting temp at 85 and lightning in the Eastern sky.  Got done with the first 6 in time to jump in the car and head over to the church for our 1st annual Tule Springs Stake 5K and 10K fun runs.  This was not much of a real race as far as races go, just an excuse to go out and have a good time with friends.  They did have a couple of aid stations along the course with water and the timing was someone at the finish line shouting out times.  The course turned out to be a little short but I was fine with that as I was pretty spent by the end.  The goal was to keep the pace somewhere between 7:10 and 7:30 and I came pretty close but the fatigue, heat, humidity, wind and lack of drive got the better of me.  Finished the race with a couple more very very slow miles as my legs started to tighten up.  Pretty good workout overall and now I think I'll go lay down.

10K Time:  46:09  7:35/mile

Total Time:  1:57:21  8:20/mile

NB768 360.51 NB768(new) 55.08  Saucony A2 11.9

Rest.

Felt really tired today.  It's been a long weekend with family in town and all the church related festivities.  I think I still had some lingering fatigue from the 10K on Saturday because the legs took forever to warm up today and didn't feel as zippy.  Meg had to drop off th pace because she has been having some groin issues, hopefully it doesn't get worse.  Temp was 84 and still a bit humid this morning.  Only about another month of this before we get 2-3 months of really great running weather leading up to the St. George and Las Vegas Marathons.

Time:  58:28  8:21/mile

NB768 367.51 NB768(new) 55.08  Saucony A2 11.9

Another set of 800s today.  This week I did 4 intervals and tried to up the pace 2-3 seconds per 800.  Started with 3 miles of warm-up and then started into the intervals.  First one felt pretty good and under control.....surprisingly.  I take these intervals one at a time and evaluate how my body feels and then decide whether or not to continue with the next one.  I think the 3 mile warm-up really helped loosen things up and made these intervals go fairly smoothly.  Here are the splits:  3:21, 3:20, 3:19, 3:19.  Eventually I will try to work these down to 3:15 each and up to 10 intervals before St. George, but increasing the reps and the pace together can add injury risk so I will probably not look to increase the pace for the next few weeks.  Finished off the run with the remaining half mile to make an even 7 for the day.

Time:  57:36  8:14/mile

NB768 367.51 NB768(new) 62.08  Saucony A2 11.9

Fairly slow recovery run today.  Slipped in a couple miles that were close to the 8:00/mile range but overall it was a good recovery run.  Felt surprisingly good considering yesterdays interval workout.  Hopefully that trend continues up to the marathon.  Actually a couple degrees cooler than usual today....82.  Hills, or should I say overpass repeats, tomorrow.

Time:  50:12  8:22/mile

NB768 373.51 NB768(new) 62.08  Saucony A2 11.9

Hill workout this morning.  The majority of my running is on the flat roads right around my house.  Every Thursday from now until the marathon on hill day.  The closest hill to my house is about a mile away and is a freeway overpass.  It's about a .75 mile round trip over and back.  We did 4 round trips and I tried to push the pace a little on the up and down hill sections.  My garmin died (forgot to turn it off yesterday) right at two miles today so Meg let me use hers so I could keep track of my pace, what a nice lady.  I think all three hill miles were right at or just under 8:00/mile.  The warm up and cool down miles were pretty slow.  Legs felt a bit tired after the workout, hope they recover by tomorrow.  That makes 197 miles for the month of July which is my second highest total ever.  My highest ever is 200 miles in February (short month) and I ended up injured for the month of March and messed up my training for Ogden.  I need to continue to be cautious and listen to my body so the same thing doesn't happen again this time around.

Time:  50:44  8:27/mile

NB768 373.51 NB768(new) 68.08  Saucony A2 11.9