Second Wind

The plans in getting ready for LVM include a 20 miler this week and another in two weeks.  So today was the first of the big nasties.  My original plans included going out and warming up for a few miles and then hitting some marathon pace miles to finish it off.  I decided to scrap the marathon pace miles and stick closer to the 10-20% slower rule based on this high mileage week.  So during the course of running I decided I would at least run the second half faster than the first half.  The first 10 came in at 1:22:45 and the second 10 came in at 1:20:59 for a 1:46 negative split.  One of my many weaknesses in the marathon is fading off really bad toward the end so I really wanted to buckle down and concentrate on running at least an even split and I accomplished better than that today.  Overall I am happy with the run and have no worries about being ready for LVM in 5 weeks.  Just keep the injury bug away, thank you very much.

This concludes only my second 60 mile week ever, glad to be done with it.

Time:  2:43:44  8:11/mile

Rest.

Just an easy 8 today.  Took it pretty easy today, still feeling a little muscle sorness and fatigue from Saturday's 20 miler but not bad.  Actually felt much better than I thought I would today.  It was nice to see the sunrise today.  With the time change the sun is finally coming up by the time we are finishing our run.  It finally cooled off here over the weekend and our morning low was below 60 (56) with no wind.

Time:  1:08:00  8:30/mile

Tempo run today.  Decided to up the tempo miles from 3 to 4 this week and slipped on the racing flats to see if that made any difference.  I think they definately helped mentally and I'm sure they also helped physically because those things are feather light.  After a two mile warm up I started on the the 4 mile tempo and ran the following splits:  6:53, 6:47, 6:48, 6:45.  I actaully kept the speed up until 6.2 miles so I could see my 10K time which was right at 45:30.  Nothing to write home about but not bad for having two slow warm up miles.  I was a bit worried at the start of this run becuase I still felt some soreness and fatigue in the legs but once I got going, I didn't really notice any problems other than sucking air.  Temp was 58 and the wind was very light.

Time:  1:00:44  7:35/mile

It was a bit more chilly this morning (50) than it has been the past few weeks and we had the wind to contend with.  Luckily it was a recovery day so we just took it fairly easy and enjoyed a nice run despite the wind and cold.

Time:  1:06:59  8:22/mile

Goal marathon pace miles today.  Original plan was to go 8 miles with 6 marathon pace, but once I got going I decided to mix it up a bit.  After a one mile warm up with Meg I started into the marathon pace miles with the goal to keep all remaining miles under 7:28/mile.  As I started to click off the faster miles I decided that since I had the time I would go 9 miles and run 8 at marathon pace since I need all the practice at GMP that I can get.  Things went really well.  I feel like I am learning to relax a little better at that pace.  I can't say that 7:28/mile is easy, but my body seems more able to put up with it for longer.  In other words there is a level of pain going that speed, but the pain doesn't really get much worse as I progress through the run.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, mission accomplished.  All 8 miles were 7:28 or better.  Colder yet again today, 47 with a light breeze, but it felt better than yesterday.

Time:  1:07:58  7:33/mile

Nice, easy recovery day.  Twas a beautiful morning today and it felt really good to just be out running.  Hopefully these recovery miles do the trick in time for tomorrow run because I am starting to get a bit worn out.  I know I have only been at these higher miles for a couple of weeks now but coming off one marathon and getting ready for another is hard work.  I am starting to understand a tiny bit what it takes to run the grand slam up in Utah.  Don't know if I would have it in me to keep it going all year long.  Temp was 50 and the winds were fairly light today.

Time:  1:08:41  8:35/mile

I'm finally getting around to blogging this run.  What a blaugh run!!  Legs just felt dead for the first several miles.  I was really dragging along at a bout an 8:40 pace when I finally decided to give myself a kick in the butt and get moving.  Surprisingly this fater pace seemed to help.  I don't know that I have ever experienced faster running feeling better than plodding along but I really needed a change of pace.  So I ran the last 8 miles better than 8:15 pace with the last 6 at better than 8:00 pace and the last mile at 7:09.  Was gunning to finish the run under 2:21 on that last mile and just squeeked it in.  One more week of these heavy miles and then I will start the taper.

Time:  2:20:54  8:17/mile

Rest.

Well, this is the start of the big nasty week.  Started off pretty well.  Felt really good for most of the run today and probably ran it a little quicker than I should have considering Mondays are usually my semi-recovery days.  Oh well, I ran at a pace that felt comfortable.  Plan for the week is to run 9s every day and then a 20 or more on Saturday.  Plan to run a tempo run on Tuesday and a marathon pace run on Thursday with a slow days inbetween.  I was really starting to feel the fatigue at the end of last week so I hope I can make it through this week.  I was surprised at how well I felt today considering my tired week last week.  Weather continues to be very good with the temp this morning at 49 and a very light breeze out of the east.

Time:  1:12:40  8:04/mile

Survived!!!  The last nasty tempo run before LVM is done.  Glad to have it over with and glad I was able to accomplish my goal for the run.  Broke out the Saucony racing flats again today, I love these shoes, they are so light and bright!!  Wanted to keep the 5 tempo miles all at 6:50 or less and was able to do that.  Warmed up with 2 miles and then started the tempo miles, here are the spilts:  6:48, 6:47, 6:46, 6:50, 6:42.  I started wheezing a bit by the end of the 4th mile and was concerned that I might not be able to make 5 miles.  Somehow I was able to relax and get my breathing under control and got into a good rhythm.  I think the relaxing really helped me to run better as the 5th mile split shows.  So much of running is mental and I think I proved that to myself today.  I just need to be able to carry that tough mental aspect of running through an entire 26.2 mile race.  Cooled off with 2 more miles and called it a day.  Very nice day for running again with the temp at 51 and a light breeze.

Time:  1:06:34  7:23/mile

Legs were absolutely dead this morning.  Couldn't get going at all and felt drained for the entire run.  This is what I was afraid of this final week of hard training.  I'm sure yesterdays tempo didn't help much but I expected today would go smoother than it did.  Hopefully the legs found some recovery today and will be ready to go tomorrow.  Temp was 55 and there was a steady breeze from the north.

Time:  1:15:46  8:25/mile

Decided to scrap the marathon pace run today and stick to some less intense running.  My left knee started acting up a bit yesterday so I didn't want to push it today and risk making it worse.  It didin't bother me during the run today at all so that is a good sign.  I will keep it simple again tomorrow in hopes of getting enough recovery to finish off the last 20 miler on Saturday.  The temp said 58 today when we started our run but it felt a bit colder with the wind blowing pretty hard from the north.

Time:  1:16:57  8:33/mile

Finally was able to talk some sense into myself this morning and decided to run a true recovery run.  Everything about my mind and body is just wasted.  I don't know if I will even be able to complete a full 20 miler tomorrow.  I have definately found my current limit and three weeks in a row at the 60 mile/week range with tempos and GMP runs is my limit, at least right now.  I know there is a lot of fatigue and mental breakdown involved with marathon training but this time around seems much worse than ever before.  The plan after tomorrow is to take the taper as it comes and really give my body a chance to recover and heal.  It's good to know that I have pushed my body to what I feel is a safe limit but man I feel very suckish as a result.

So anyway, I digress, back to the run.  I was able to slog through the miles and was glad when I was done.....nuff said!  Temp was a warm 66 with a pretty good wind out of the north.

Time:  43:33  8:43/mile

Oh ye (me) of little faith.

Yesterday I had no faith that I would be able to finish today's 20 miler.  Everything hurt most of the day yesterday and I just didn't have any confidence that I would be able to gut it out today.  I haven't had sore muscles caused by training in a long time but I have actually had some soreness or some extreme fatigue, whatever you want to call it.  I guess yesterday's easy recovery 5 miler was a really good decision because once we got started today things began to feel really good.  Meg and I were able to find a really good rhythm and just keep it going for the first 15 miles.  At mile 15 I decided to pick up the pace to goal marathon pace and see if I could maintain it to the finish.  Mission accomplished!  The final 5 miles came in at an average of 7:28/mile.  I felt like I could have kept up the pace at the end for a while longer, but who knows how long. 

I am so glad this training cycle is over.  I am really looking forward to cutting back the mileage and hopefully get nice and healed up for the marathon in three weeks.  This has been the hardest 3 runnning weeks of my short running life.  This weeks mileage is a PR for mileage at 61 miles.  Next Saturday I will be running the Valley of Fire half marathon and will most likely just be going out for a nice easy run, not racing.

Time:  2:43  8:09/mile

Rest.

Nice and easy recovery type run.  Plan to do 7s each day this week with a moderate effort at the Valley of Fire marathon on Saturday.  Felt some tightness in my right achellies area when I woke up this morning and even during the run.  Will keep the pace easy until this new pain goes away.

Time:  59:49  8:33/mile

Another fairly easy pace run today.  Still felt the tightness in the achellies but I don't think it is anything to be concerned about at this point, it was less than yesterday.  Still going to be fairly cautious this week just in case.  Picked up the pace a little bit from yesterday but nothing close to what it should have been for my tempo run.  Oh well, main concern for the next three weeks is to get completely healed, if I can maintain fitness during this time it's a bonus.

Time:  57:40  8:14/mile

I'm gonna sound like a broken record this week but another easy 7 this morning.  Achillies felt good and things feel like they are slowly starting to heal.  Maybe tomorrow I can muster up enough energy to mix it up with a faster paced run......we'll see.

Time:  58:57  8:25/mile

Well, finally got around to doing some faster running even though it was only at GMP pace (which is actually still pretty fast for this old man).  After the first mile warm-up I started in with the GMP miles and ran them to the end.  Was able to keep the GMP miles all under 7:28/mile and really didn't have much problem doing it, everything really felt good today.  Plan to take it fairly easy tomorrow in preparation for the VOF half.  I know VOF is a tough race with lots of hills but I really don't know what to expect having never been to VOF.  We'll see what Meg wants to do that morning and go from there.

Time:  52:35  7:31/mile

Pace today was a little quicker than intended.  Run was kinda wierd, felt like I was crawling but was actaully moving along pretty good.  Oh well, with no taper and no goals going into VOF I have no worries about ruining my run tomorrow by running too fast today.  Weather continues to be amazing in Vegas with the starting temp at 55 and almost no wind.

Time:  57:57  8:17/mile

Well for better or for worse here it is......

We left home around 5:30am so we could get to the race in time to pick up our stuff and then do the obligitory wait in the POP lines.  Everything went well with the race organization at the packet pick up and start and I was very impressed that the race started very close to on time.  Plan was for Meg and I to run together the entire way.  I was not going to leave her side for any reason.

This race starts off with a huge climb in the first mile so needless to say we were forced to start off pretty slow.  My Garmin lost the signal somewhere in this mile so I know my first mile split is jacked up by about .2 miles.  I was figuring on finishing at 13.3 according to Garmin.  This race was just as advertised, very hilly and very tough.  It is an out and back course which starts and finishes at the same elevation but all the climbing and decending can really do a number on your legs.

Here is a quick look at the splits using Megs Garmin:

8:32, 8:16, 7:37, 7:58, 8:43, 7:52, 8:08, 8:33, 8:38, 9:07, 8:42,  the remaining splits included my miles at home, 7:59, 7:46.  Not exact, but you get the picture, it was hilly.

At mile 2 or so, I knew we needed to take a side road, which is on dirt, and do a little 1 mile out and back section.  So I was watching for the turn off and when we arrived at the aid station with the turn we were asking the volunteers if this was the turn off and they said no it was only for the 10K runners.  So I thought, well, maybe there was a last minute course change and we'll make up the extra mileage somewhere else.  Besides, I had plenty of daunting hills staring me in the face, I didn't have time to worry about figuring out the course.

So we continued on our hilly little journey and just kept steaming up and down the hills and enjoying the view, which was very beautiful by the way.  The red, pink and white rocks and cliffs were simply stunning.  Anyway, as we arrived at the turn around I noticed we were very short of 6.55 miles and wondered again if we had missed a turn.  At this point Meg and I didn't really care if we missed a turn we would be fine if the course was short, this thing was a beast.  I also had Pron8r aka Don Bigger in my sights and I would watch him to see if he turned off anywhere.  Well long story longer, we (as well as many runners) missed the turn off on the dirt road that we were supposed to take on the way back to the finish line.  If there were signs, I didn't see them, if volunteers were signaling the way, I didn't see them either.  I was a little disappointed to arrive at the finish line with my Garmin showing just under 11.5 miles but then again, this was just a training run for me so I was good with it.  The only other dissappointment I had was that there was no electrolyte drink on the entire course.  Every aid station was well stocked with water and luckily we found one with a hammer gel that we shared.  I prefer to take my race carbs in liquid form so it was really a bummer not to have Heed or Gatorade or something, anything.

The Good:  Race shirt fits and is really cool.  Course was just as advertised, beautiful and tough.  Aid stations were well stocked and overall race organization was good.

The Bad:  Need better signage on crucial turns, like the dirt road.  Definately needed Heed or Gatorade drinks at every aid station.

The Ugly:  Me at the end of the race.  I had the faux hawk hairdo going on.....Sweeeeet!

Tracy, the race director, was there and chipper as ever, going a  little crazy I might add.  I think Bemo dropped out of the race to help Tracy as a volunteer as she appeared to be needing extra help.  I chatted with Rob and Mindy Waite and also talked with Don Bigger for a few minutes after following him for most of the race.

Overall a good race, don't know that I will do it again, I will tell you tomorrow when I am able to feel the full brunt of the damage.  Right now I feel really good and honestly didn't feel as horribly fatigued at the finish line as I have felt in other races.  It was simply awesome to run with Meg the whole way and push her a little bit in some tough sections.  She did awesome!  And the time, on a course like that, was really really good.  That reminds me, I came home from the race and ran another 1.65 miles to make up for what we missed in the race so the time is not exact or official but it's close to what it would have been, and that's close enough for me.

Rest.

Feeling a little sore and stiff from the VOF half yesterday, but not too bad.  Hopefully tomorrows run will go smoothly.

Nice easy recovery run today.  Felt much better than expected on this mornings run.  A few muscles were a little sore and tight but for the most part, running was not a problem.  Weather is getting cooler as it dropped down to 47 this morning and there is potential rain in the next few days.  Lets just get the rain out of the way now before the marathon.  I really don't want to go through another SGM monsoon at Las Vegas Marathon.  Started breaking in a new pair of shoes today.  Maybe that is why things felt so good.  These will be my marathon shoes so they should be ready to go in a couple of weeks with 30-40 miles on them.

Time:  43:02  8:36/mile

The final tempo run of the training cycle today.  Wasn't sure if my legs would be completely recovered from Saturday so it was a run time decision about whether or not to run this tempo today.  Everything felt good this morning so I went ahead and kicked it up after the first warm-up mile.  Here are the splits:  6:43, 6:47, 6:40 and I continued the pace for an extra .1 miles just so I could call it a 5K.  I think my time would have come out to be right around 20:45 or something which is a PR for me.  So I guess that means that my tempo pace is probably a little bit fast since it should be closer to my 15K  pace.  Oh well, it was a great work out.  Cooled off with one more mile and got done way earlier than normal today.  Spent the extra time stretching and cooling off.  Temp was 53 today which is warmer than yesterday but it was cloudy and it must be the calm before the storm that is on its way.

Time:  36:37  7:19/mile

Holy memories of SGM monsoon Batman!!!  We woke up about a half hour later than usual cause neither Meg or I slept real good last night.  So as it turns out we got up just in time to catch the brunt of the rain coming through town.  Conditions were exactly like SGM.  Wind out of the south, plenty of rain, chaffing nipples, 60 degrees and soaked to the bone.  Luckly we only had to spend 45 minutes in it.  Was worried about the Garmin crapping out again in the rain so I kept it covered up with my long sleeve shirt and wasn't able to monitor my paces.  It was interesting to see that my last couple of miles, when the rain was it it's worst, were my fastest miles at just under 8:00/mile.  I think I was wanting to be done by then and was pushing a little bit.  We are headed for St. George this weekend to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and nice long weekend.

Time:  41:24  8:17/mile

Oh ya, almost forgot!!  This is the first time these legs have been beyond 200 miles in a month and the month ain't over yet!

Fairly easy run today in St. George for Thanksgiving.  Just took it easy and enjoyed a nice turkey trot before feasting on the turkey.

Time:  0:41:58  8:24/mile

Another fairly easy run today with a faster mile on the last one.  Still in St. George and did all of the black Friday sales before this run.  First stop was Wal-Mart.....Holy Crap!!!  Then I went to Radio Shack and GameStop.  Found some great deals and got lots of shopping done.  Then topped it of with this nice little run.

Time:  40:42  8:09/mile

Really easy final long slow run before LVM.  Still in St. George and running before the sun comes up can be a bit of a challenge where my parents live.  We ended up looking for roads with street lights and circling around and around for 11 miles.  Kinda nice to just go out and say "oh let's turn left here, oh lets turn right here" and have no set course to run on.  Kept the pace really slow and just tried to enjoy a good run.  Headed up to Cedar City after the run to take advantage of a screaming deal on a shot gun for my oldest son for a Christmas present....hope he likes it.

Time:  1:38:25  8:57/mile

This caps off my highest mileage month ever at 223 miles.  Hopefully I can see the benefits of it at LVM.

Bad News!!

I seemed to have injured my right calf muscle today playing capture the flag with the kids.  Can't run on it, can't walk on it without a limp.  Been icing, elevating on wrapping as well as anti-inflammatories and rest.  Didn't happen due to any hard movements that I am aware of it just started hurting like maybe it was a charlie horse and hasn't let up all day.  Unless this thing makes a miraculous recovery in the next few days, the marathon may be out.  Right now I am just taking it a day at a time, hoping for the best.