Second Wind

Nice start to the new year.  Wasn't sure if I was even going to make it out running on new years day but finally just sucked it up and went at around noon.  Nice run and fairly easy pace.  Ran outside the complex today and did the big loop up to my kids school and back.  Traffic was fairly light most of the way and the run was just the way I like it, uneventful.  Went to dinner with Meg and we talked about our new year resolutions for fitness and running.  We both want to shed some weight, (me about 20 lbs.) and I have a goal to stay healthy and BQ this year at St. George.  We also want to work on strengthening our core muscles by doing a good core workout each night before bed.  Should be and exciting and eventful year if all goes as planned.

Time:  8:18/mile

Legs were a bit tired this morning and the run was a lot of work.  Still feeling it a bit from yesterdays run I guess.  One eventful item this morning was Megs Garmin 301 freaked out and clicked off 4 miles in a matter of about 10 seconds.  Even when we stopped it kept counting up the miles.  We both wear the 301 and hers is always behind mine at each mile.  I'm not sure why that is but it does seem to have its share of problems each day.  We may try calling tech support or try sending it back to Garmin for fixing.  So according to her 301, her fastest pace today was about 740 mph and she ran 7 miles in 21 minutes.....nice eh!

Time:  8:38/mile

Still feeling a bit worn out today.  Took it relatively easy and ran pretty slow.  Legs just don't seem to have any zip in them.  I think the holidays, time off and poor diet have been factors in helping me to feel so yucky.  Now that the holidays are over and I can get back into my usual weekly routine my hope is that the running will start to feel better.  Weather continues to be relatively mild here with todays temp at 41 and very light breeze.

Time:  8:39/mile

Today was the best I have felt all week for a run.  Meg talked me into cutting the run short today and spending some extra time after the run stretching.  Seeing as how crappy I have felt all week I decided that it may not be a bad idea.  We ran at a fairly moderate pace for the entire run and then spent about 20 minutes stretching and I did some rolling and massage on my calfs and shins.  I actually feel rejuvinated and hopefully tomorrows long run will be a good one.

Time:  8:22/mile

Nice easy long run today.   Skies were very cloudy today and the starting temp was around 52 degrees.  Needless to say, we were overdressed for the occasion so after the first five mile loop we passed by the house and I shed my coat.  All I had on was my SGM 2006 shirt and some sweats.  I would have like to been in shorts today but didn't feel like changing mid run.  Felt really good most of the way today and the except for the breezy weather everything was nearly perfect.  I would have liked to step the pace up just a little bit faster today but Meg was not feeling all that great so we kept it easy.  May run a couple more miles later this afternoon with Cory as he continues to prepare for the Painter's 5K in 2 weeks.

Time:  8:40/mile

Rest.

Got a little bit of a late start today so I decided to push the pace a little more than usual to get my 7 miles in before taking the kids to school at 6:40.  Didn't have much time to stretch before hand or after so I will spend some time this morning at work stretching.  Just took off and got going as best I could.  That first mile is always the toughest to get the breathing under control and find a semi-comfortable pace.  After 3 miles I had to stop in at the house for a bathroom break and then finished off the last 4 at a fairly decent pace well under 8:00/mile.  Weather was warm again today at 45 degrees and very little breeze.  I had to shed my top layer so I didn't overheat.  I was glad to shed a bit since it is nice to run without so much extra weight.

Time:  7:50/mile

PM:  Ran 2 miles with Cory in 20:02.

Another standard 7 miler today.  Did get chased by a couple of small dogs for the first time in a long time.  When they catch you by surprise it really puts a hop in your step until you figure out that you could just step on them and crush them.  Probably not a good idea when the owner is out there though.  It really bugs me when peoples dogs chase me and the owner won't put them on a leash and can't control them.  People like that deserve to have there dog stepped on or kicked by and unsuspecting runner.  Anyway....it finally cooled off a bit today again....38 degrees.....so I didn't over heat today in my usual attire.  Felt pretty good throughout.

Time:  8:33/mile

Decided to pick up the pace this morning.  About a half mile into the run I was feeling really good and told Meg I needed to pick up the pace today to take advantage of feeling good.  She stuck with me for about another 3/4 mile and then decided to ease off a bit.  I tried to keep the pace around 7:30 for the rest of the run and most of my splits were just a few seconds shy of that.  By the last mile I was really working hard to maintain the pace.  I can tell I need to do more of this faster work if I am ever going to be able to maintain this pace for a full marathon.  My heart rate was higher than normal (for this pace) today too, I think my average for the run was around 173 when it usually would be in the 165 range.  Oh well, there are probably too many outside factors that effected the heart rate today like: the wind, overheating in my jacket, etc., to worry too much about the heart rate.  Overall it felt like a good effort and it's nice to get some faster miles in.

Time:  7:41/mile

Decided to log a couple extra miles today since I didn't have to drive the kids to school today.  Took it pretty easy for most of the run.  Picked it up a little for the last few miles but all in all kept it easy.  Have a little twinge in my left knee this morning and I'm not sure what it is.  It didn't bother me at all during the run but now when I finished and now that I am sitting here at work I feel a little tightness just to the inside of my right knee cap.  I felt it ever so slightly yesterday too but it didn't really bother me at all.  Maybe with the miles building up my knees are starting to revolt.  It's a good thing next week will be a mini taper week for the Painter's half.  Maybe that will give it a chance to get feeling better.  Temp was 38 degrees again today and very very light breeze.

Time:  8:24/mile

With the knee still aching a little and the time short today I decided to cut the distance but kept the intensity up a bit.  Don't know if that really helped or hurt but it felt good.  First four miles were around an 8:15 pace and then decided to pick it up hard for the last mile and ran a 6:30.  Weather was good and knee felt good during the run but is again a little tight as I sit at work.  It actually feels good to get up often and loosen it up a bit by walking around but going up and down stairs causes it to ache a little more.  The reading I have done seems to indicate that its a case of "runners knee" and that I should be able to run through it but that I need to cut the number of miles.  After my long run tomorrow I plan to taper next week for the Painter's half and then I will be starting the second week of Pfitzingers 18/55 marathon training plan which has the miles in the mid 30's for that week.  Hopefully that is enough of a decrease to let this thing heal.  Pfitzingers plan has you running 5 days a week for most of the plan and I usually run 6 days but maybe I will cut it to 5 as well for a while to see if that helps as well.

Time:  7:56/mile

Fairly uneventful half.  Decided to do 3 miles at a sub 8:00 pace to test out my speed late in a run and also to see if the knee is going to hold up for next weeks race.  Good news is that both went well.  Felt like I could have gone faster and the knee seems to be holding up okay.   As I am sitting here typing this I have taken two doses of ibuprofen and iced, compressed and elevated today.  It still feels tight but doesn't seem too bad when I am running.  I will most likely take it very easy this next week and hope to alleviate some of the stiffness and soreness.  I think Pfizingers 18/55 marathon plan starts out the first week around 32-33 miles so that will be a nice cut back for me.  Let the training for Ogden begin.

Time:  8:23/mile

Rest.

Decided to give my knee another rest day since it is still tight.  I don't want to push it with the race coming up this weekend.  It is starting to feel a little better, thank goodness.

Decided to give my knee another rest day but it is getting really close.  I may try to run a few miles tonight to see how it feels.

Kept it pretty simple today with a nice three mile run.  Ran with Megs patella strap to see if that would help at all and it didn't seem to do a thing for the knee.  I had run with the strap last year sometime and remembered that is would always slip down my leg slightly and give no support to the patella.  Well that was pretty much the case today.  I wanted to give it a test under race speed conditions so I picked up the pace on mile 2 to 7:50/mile and mile 3 to 7:30/mile.  It was no good so I will probably abandon the use of this strap anyway for the race on Saturday.  Overall the knee is feeling a bit better and is not as tight as it has been.  I'm just afraid if I try to log too many miles it will tighten up again.  Good thing it's taper time and I could afford the couple extra days off.  A couple more easy runs over the next two days and I should be ready to go on Saturday.

Time:  7:59/mile

Still resting the knee and also trying to recover from a Chiropractic neck adjustment issue that really had me worried but as I am typing this several days later I feel fine.  After the adjustment I ended up having some numbness on one side of my face and was thinking everything from nerve damage to stroke.  I was on the verge of going to the emergency room to have it checked out but you know how we men are and always put things off.  My face and neck are feeling fine now but my stinking knee is still stiff.  I don't think I will be going back to visit the chiropractor.......ever!!!

Nice easy run in preparation for Painter's tomorrow.  Knee was still aching a bit but seems to be doing better and is less stiff.  I'm sure after painters I will be icing and popping the ibuprofen.

Time:  8:30/mile

Well, things went much better than expected today.  The only disappointment I have is that I think the course was short by almost .2 miles so my adjusted time for the course would have been somewhere around 1:38....oh well whatcha gonna do??

I decided to start the race in the middle of the pack this year just so I was forced to hold back a little and not go sprinting out like I tend to do some times.  I was very pleased with my first mile as it came in right at my goal pace of 7:30.  My splits were all very even through most of the race except for a couple of miles that included some nice hills and steady inclines but my slowest mile was only 7:52 which included the steepest (but not very long) hill.  I felt very strong through most of the course but was a little gun shy to push the pace much beyond my goal for fear of overdoing it and then fading at the end.  My desire to hold back and stay with my game plan seemed to work well as I finished feeling strong and with a time that was right where I wanted it to be.  It's not a PR but for this course it is a 20 minute improvement over last year for me.  To run this pace on what I consider to be a very "honost" course I have gained more confidence in my ability to BQ this year if I can stay healthy and continue to improve my training.

Meg dropped out of the half to run the 5K with our son Cory and she finished in 22:22 which is a PR and good enought to take 5th overall and 2nd in her age group.  She earned a nice piece of hardware for her efforts (a baseball size diamond shaped trophy with all the info engraved on it).

Time:  7:30/mile

Rest.

Well today is when things start to get serious about training for Ogden.  I am going to give Pfitzingers 18/55 marathon training plan a try and see how it goes.  I will be modifying it somewhat because the first few weeks he has you running only 4 days a week.  I will continue to run 6 days a week but will look to decrease miles and intensity on his so called rest days.

The legs were a little bit fatigued during this mornings run but not nearly as sore as I expected them to be, in fact, not really sore at all, just a little tired.  Took it pretty easy as the knee is still a little tender.  I have started taking glucosamine and chondroitin again to see if that has any affect on my knees.  I stopped taking it several months ago to see if it really was doing me any good, apparently my experiment shows that I should keep taking it.  I originally started taking it not long after I started running because my knees were always bothering me.  When I eventually got back into shape I stopped taking it thinking that my knees had adapted and I didn't need it anymore.  Now I will start taking it again and if my problem goes away I will continue to take it forever.  I know the science is still a little weak in the area of the effectiveness of these supplements but I have had good success so I will probably keep using it.  One encouraging thing is that after a quick pit stop at the house my knee was not stiff when I started running again like it has been when I allow it to cool off for a couple of minutes.  Maybe I am on the downhill slope of this thing......maybe.

The weather was pretty nice this morning at about 43 degrees, almost too hot for my usual running attire.  I had to unzip my jacket to let some breeze in.  I guess I should enjoy the mild weather as I will be complaining about the heat before too much longer.

Time:  8:42/mile

Fairly easy five miles today.  Picked it up a little for the last mile but pretty much took it easy again today.  Meg had a friend come over and run with us this morning.  Her friend doens't run as fast as we do so we spent some of the time averaging over 9:00 miles.  I don't know if this will be a daily occurance but I hope not and I don't think Meg enjoys it that much either as she is working to improve her speed.  I guess we'll see how it goes.  The knee continues to be on the mend and seems to be feeling a little better each day.  Still a ways to go before we get to 100% though.  Weather continues to be nice at about 42 this morning and a light breeze.  We really haven't had the 1-2 weeks of sub 30 temps like we did last year, hopefully it won't happen and spring will come a bit early.

Time:  8:29/mile

This is the first time I have ever done a 10 miler in the middle of the work week.  Had to get up at 4:00 am this morning in order to get done in time to get the kids to school and get to work.  Pfitzingers 18/55 plan calls for several of these mid week "longer" runs and I honostly think these will be a big help for my endurance or at least that is the theory.  Run went well and was able to maintain a consistant moderate pace throughout.  Run was supposed to be a general aerobic run and I am still trying to decide my best pace for these runs.  I imagine somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30 is probably about where I should be right now for this type of run.  Knee pain is still there but as usual is not really much of a hinderance when I run so I am still hopeful it is on the mend.  Another mild temp day at 39 degrees and very light breeze.

Time:  8:19/mile

A rare wet and rainy day today.  We've been so spoiled with good weather lately that I guess it is about our turn to have something out of the ordinary.  Rain was coming down pretty good for the duration of my run and I came home soaked from head to toe.  Felt a little fatigued today and the legs just didn't want to get going this morning but I continued to push along at a decent pace and got through it.  Knee continues to be on the mend and moving in the right direction so I am encouraged by that.

Time:  8:19/mile

Took it really really slow today and just went for a run until the last mile when I picked it up to marathon pace.  Felt a little worn out this morning and since this was supposed to be an easy day I took it really easy for once.  The first four miles my average was around 9:20/mile and it felt really good to just run for the sake of running.  When I decided to shift gears and do my last mile at 7:30 I found it a bit difficult to get it into gear.  I had second thoughts about picking up the pace but decided to go for it anyway.  Sometimes that pace just feels hard and sometimes, like last Saturday's race, you feel like you could run that pace forever.

Time:  8:53/mile

First half of the run was great today.  Everything felt good and the legs finally felt like they had a little spring in them.  After we stopped in at mile six for some gatorade we decided to pick up the pace for the second half of the run.  For whatever reason I had a really hard time getting the pace to stay in the 8:15 range and so ended up running most of the last half of the run at about 8:25-8:30/mile pace.  The second half of the run was very frustrating because I felt like I was working pretty hard and wasn't seeing the benefit (i.e. 8:15/mile) on the garmin.  8:15 has seemed like a tough pace for me because I hate working that hard and not seeing sub 8:00/mile on the garmin.  I think I can blame most of how I have felt this week on my relatively slow recovery from Painter's.  I don't think I should still be feeling the effects of the race a week later but maybe my recovery just hasn't caught up.  Tomorrows day off should help and hopefully I will be back to normal on Monday.  The knee wasn't a factor at all today during the run and I think full recovery is only a week or two away.

Time: 8:37/mile

Rest.

Lactate threshold run today and it would have been a perfect morning if it hadn't been for the wind.  The temp at the start was 48 degrees but the wind was pretty steady and a bit gusty at times.  Started out with a three mile warm up with Megan and then picked it up for the 4 mile tempo run.  Wanted to run these miles somewhere in the 7:15/mile pace but with the wind I figured it would be pretty tough to maintain a steady pace.  Splits ended up being 7:20, 7:19, 7:24, 7:21 for an average of 7:21 for the tempo section.  Not too bad considering the conditions.  I would guess that the wind cost me at least a few seconds on each mile so the 7:15 effort was probably there, just not the time to show for it.  Cooled down with one more mile and felt like the run was a success.  The knee continues to improve and although my back still bothers me from time to time it wasn't a big factor today.

Our stake had a preparedness fair last Saturday and I was approached by a couple of guys about joining their team for the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay team.  I felt a little bad because it is a male only team and Meg would not be able to join the team but she was all for it and told me join up.  I still have to check my schedule but it sounds like a good time.

Time:  8:00/mile

Nice and easy semi-recovery run from yesterdays tempo run.  Legs were only slightly fatigued this morning.  The pace was probably a little fast for a recovery run but I just tried to run at a pace that felt good.  I stopped taking the anit-inflammatories for my knee on Sunday night and the pain has not gotten worse so I am hopeful I will not have to continue to use the drugs and the knee will continue to improve as it has been.  The temperature was 15 degrees colder than yesterday at 33 so I had to go back to the full warm running gear.  Now that we are coming up on February, the warmer temps should start appearing since January is on average the coldest month for Vegas.  I look forward to running in shorts every day again but not the heat of summer.

Time:  8:25/mile

Medium long run today at a general aerobic pace.  We went outside our usual neighborhood loop today and ended up dealing with a lot of traffic.  When we finished our first six mile loop and made it back to our neighborhood we ended up having a few close traffice encounters as well.  Just one of those mornings I guess.  Knee was a little sore the first couple of miles and then it loosened up and felt great the rest of the way and is still feeling great as I am writing this.  The weather is still staying a little cool with a temp of 35 this morning and a steady breeze out of the north making it feel a little colder than that.  Picked up the pace for the last couple of miles and ended up running the last mile at 7:50.

Time:  8:27/mile

Word of the day is sssslllloooowwww!  We ran with one of Megans friends today who runs at about a 9:30 pace so we took it pretty easy today.  After our long run yesterday we decided it would be okay to have a nice easy recovery day.  After 4 miles her friend decided to head home and we picked it up for the last mile and averaged about a 7:45 pace.  Everything felt really good and talking and breathing was very easy with the heart rate under 140 at times.  The last day of the month brings the mileage total to 186 which is good enough for second on my all time monthly mileage.  My highest month was July 2007 when training for SGM with 193 miles.  I was injured in August 2007 right after my highest mileage month and I am trying to avoid that this year as February will be close to 200 miles.  The weather continues to be cold in Vegas with 32 this morning.  Thank goodness it is dry because I couldn't hack running on the ice.

Time:  9:09/mile

Kept a nice steady pace throughout the run today and it felt good.  It was almost scary how good the knee felt.  I was worried at the beginning of the week that I would need to start taking the NSAID's again but now by the end of the week things are looking up.  We pushed the pace a little more during mile 5 and we were just under 8:00/mile when the garmin gremlins struck and we went from 8:00 min pace to 8:30 pace.  We had to run about 15-20 seconds past our usual 5 mile finishing spot to hit 5 miles on the garmin.  Oh well, what are you gonna do (I usually mumble and grumble a bit and then get over it).  It just makes me feel like a boltushka (as Sasha likes to say).  The weather was nice again today with temps around 35 and no wind to speak of.  I'm looking forward to runnning with the group of guys doing the wasatch back relay tomorrow to kinda gauge myself.  I don't know how much of a guage it will be though because by the time I meet up with them I will have already run 8 miles of my 14 mile long run........long warm up I guess.

Time:  8:16/mile

Today was the big day to run with the wasatch back group for half of the run.  Meg and I got out by about 5:10 and got in 7 miles at an 8:35 pace, then I jumped in the car and met the group at the church for their 6 mile training.  Having never run with any of these guys before I didn't know what to expect as far as pace goes.  So we took off and I just tried to hang with someone in the 8:00/mile range.  Our pace for the run actually ended up being 7:43 average.  It was a little faster than I probably should go for a long run day but oh well, felt good.

Time:  8:10/mile

Rest.

Great run today, everything felt really good and the quicker than usual paces didn't seem much work at all.  These days are nice to have once in a while, I would prefer them much more often but I will take them when I can get them. 

We woke up about 4:10 today so we could get our 8 miles before I had to take the boys to jazz band.  Turns out we didn't need to get up quite that early because of our faster pace.  My daughter came in right at 4:10 though with a bad dream so we decided to just tuck her back in and get going.  Lucky for us she usually just goes right back to sleep. 

We are following Pete Pfitzingers 18 week schedule with some of our own modifications and today called for an 8 mile aerobic pace run with 10x100 meter strides.  We ran our first four miles at and 8:10-8:20 pace and continued to pick up the pace in miles 5 and 6 which is where I started doing my strides.  My strides ended up being a little faster than Megs so I ended up leaving her behind for the rest of the run.  I didn't think the strides would take much out of me but with only 100-200 meters recovery in between each one I was pretty tired by the last one.  I don't know for sure how fast I should be running these but by the time I accelerate in the first 70 meters I am going pretty close to mile pace or faster.  At which point I kinda float for the last 30 and coast to a stop.  I guess the point of these is to maintain good form and stay relaxed while running fast in order to teach your muscles to run more efficiently at higher running speeds.  When I checked my Garmin at the end of the run my max speed during the run was 5:15/mile pace so I imagine that would have been the max speed of my strides.

Meg's friend Nan came with us again today but since we were running a faster pace we kinda left her in the dust.  We circled around behind her at a few points so that she didn't feel completely abandoned.  Is that mean to do?  I don't know.  We are pretty poor company for her since she runs a bit slower.  Thankfully she seems okay with letting us cruise ahead.

Time:  8:02/mile

Cold and windy today.  Didn't feel real great for most of the run probably due to lingering fatigue from yesterdays run.  Took it pretty slow in hopes of having a nice recovery for tomorrows run.

Time:  8:43/mile

Uneventful 10 miler today.  Stayed inside our neighborhood for the full run today doing 1.45 mile loops.  Nan joined us today again but since we were doing our usual 8:15/mile pace it was a bit to fast for her and so we ended up leaving her behind and looping back around behind her in a few places along the way to check in on her.  Everything went better than anticipated this morning.  I figured since I ate bunch of garbage after dinner last night that I might run low on energy today but I felt pretty good, probably just fatter.

Time:  8:15/mile

Kept it really slow the whole way today for our easy recovery run.  Heart rate was in the low 140's and pace ended up being in the 9:30 range.  I still have a hard time keeping the pace slow on the easy days but after how I felt by the end of last week recovery wise, I am starting to see the benefits.  Keeping the easy days easy allows me to work harder on the hard days and get more benefit from the workout.  I would typically keep my easy days around 9:00/mile but we were with Nan again today and this is about her pace which is just fine for me after the 10 miler yesterday.  The weather is continuing to improve each day and we may see 60s for the high by the end of the week.  Spring is just around the corner for us here in Vegas.

Pace:  9:28/mile

Picked up the pace today compared to yesterday.  Everything felt really good and I can almost say the knee is 100%, but not quite.  When I stretch my quads I still have very light tightness, I can live with that.  Picked up the last mile to under 8:00/mile so called it a fast one.  It was 42 degees this morning with a light south breeze.  If the temps are in that range tomorrow I will be running in shorts and loving it.  Gave the final word to the Wasatch Back relay team captin yesterday that I will be part of the team so it looks like I am in for sure.  We are the "Tule12."  Not much of a creative name, our stake is the Tule Springs Stake so we are the "Tule12."  Someone suggested we go with "The Quorum" and then the name "Quorum of the 12" was suggested.......lightning was seen brewing in the skies.  I look forward to coming up north in the summer and getting out of the Vegas heat for a few days, should be fun times.

Time:  8:17/mile

Today was a 15 mile long run.  Felt pretty worn out by the end.  Legs were getting fatigued and lower back was tightening up a bit.  I can't wait to get back into marathon shape again over the next several weeks.  Despite the slower pace I was able to pick it up to about 8:10 for the last mile and it actually felt good for the legs to switch it up a bit and extend a little further.  Next week will be my first week over 50 miles since the second week of the year.  Should be a good challenge as the tempo runs and intervals start to come back into play over the coming weeks.  Ran in shorts and long sleeve shirt today because it was 47 degrees out, the high today is supposed to be close to 70.  It appears that spring is just about here but I imagine we will get another cold spell or two before it really arrives.

Time:  8:33/mile

Rest.

Tempo run today and of course it's breezy as usual.  Not as bad as the last tempo run but breezy all the same.  My last tempo run was 8 miles with 4 at tempo pace and my tempo pace was around 7:20 per mile with the wind.  Today I was shooting for 7:10 or better pace for the 4 miles at tempo pace, ended up being 7:06/mile.  Did a three mile warm up and then started the tempo.  Splits were 7:10, 7:05, 7:06, 7:04.  Felt pretty good until the last mile when my breathing got a little out of sync due to pushing a little too hard the first half.  I can tell that my lower back problems are creeping up on me again as the marathon training starts to get into the intense mode.  Hopefully I can keep it at bay this time around and not over do it again.  Started extra early today to get home in time to watch kids for a friend who is having surgery today.  Temp was 49 at the start but the breeze made it feel colder than that.  Sure am enjoying running in shorts again.

Time:  7:49/mile 

Recovery day today with five miles at an easy pace.  My back was feeling better today and the legs still had some energy after yesterdays run which may be a good sigh.....either I am getting more accustomed to the routine or I didn't push hard enough yesterday.  During our run this morning we came upon a guy who had crashed on his moped on his way to work.  He was down laying next to his moped with what looked to be a broken leg.  He says he hit a rock while rounding the corner......that is why I will probably never own a motorcycle.  When a rock can put you to the ground I don't want any part of it.  I'll take the relative protection of my car thank you very much.  That was the only real excitement during the run as it was a run of the mill recovery run in preparation for tomorrows 10 miler.  Wind was blowing again today but the temp was 52 and it felt really good outside.

Time:  8:36/mile

Good moderate pace 10 miler today.  Weather was perfect at 46 degrees and no wind.  My legs felt pretty well recovered from the shorter day yesterday and Meg and I really did a good job of holding a nice steady pace today.  We had a couple of miles that came in right around 8:00/mile.  The knee is at 99 percent and the back is slightly better than average so today was a good day for a moderate pace medium long run.  Today I am signing us up for Ogden so I guess it will be official now.  I look forward to running more than just one marathon per year as I have done the past two years.  The other ones I plan to do this year include St. George and Las Vegas.  Supposed to be really windy over the next couple of days so I hope to get my runs in without too much problem.

Time:  8:12/mile

Recovery run this morning and a good thing too because I was kinda hurting toward the end of the day yesterday.  I think I spent too much time sitting at work and didn't follow my normal routine of stretching and walking periodically through out the day.  I did feel better this morning but took it fairly easy and kept the pace in the slow range.  The wind really kicked up bad last night with gusts in the 50 mph range.  This morning the winds had calmed quite a bit so I was able to get out and log the miles.  Suprisingly everything felt pretty good except for some lingering fatigue in the legs from yesterdays 10 miler.  Meg didn't run today because her achilles is bothering her and I didn't want her to push it on a recovery day when she gets plenty of walking at school each day and that could serve as her recovery.  I hope the winds go away by Saturday.  17 miles in high winds does not sound fun at all.

Time:  8:45/mile

A half recovery half aerobic 5 miler today in preparation for the big nasty tomorrow.  Weather continues to be a bit cold and windy today but is supposed to be fairly nice tomorrow with light winds.  Everything felt really good today and the energy in the legs was up with no aches and pains to speak of.  So far I am liking the results I am getting from the Pfitzinger 18/55 training plan.  I was (and still am) a little leary of these 5 mile recovery days but I think for me it is working well or at least appears to be.  I find myself alot fresher for my hard workouts which allows me to work harder on those days to hopefully reap more benefits.  I think as time goes on those 5 mile recovery days could be extended to 6 or 7 miles but for know they are working fine.  Ogden will be a good marathon for me to test the results of this training.  If I can improve upon my 2007 SGM time of 3:39 at Ogden then I will feel confident that the training is working.  My current goal for Ogden is anywhere under 3:30 which should be doeable but we shall see.  With the elevation and less downhill I am not quite sure what to expect.

Time:  8:35/mile

What a fun and rewarding run today.  It was truely a confidence builder for me.  I planned to go out easy for the first 6 miles and run at about 8:45 pace.  The next 6 miles I would step it up to 8:15 or better pace and the final 5 I would crank it up to full BQ pace.  Every part of the plan worked perfectly and by the end I felt really good like I could keep going at BQ pace without too much trouble.  My splits for the last five miles were 7:40, 7:21, 7:22, 7:22, 7:18. 

Sometime during mile 14 my Garmin freaked out and recorded my mile at 5:28.  Luckily I was on a part of the course that I know the mile landmarks and was able to determine that the Garmin shortened the mile by about .25 and I was able to add the quarter mile to the end of the run.  If I only had to run 3/4 mile for every mile in the marathon I might be able to keep up with some of you elites......wishful thinking.

In the my past long runs I have relied on carbohydrate gels with water for energy.  Today, and on several of my past longer runs (including Painters) I have been relying on Gatorade only.  I find that it is easier to swollow than a gel and tastes better, I seem to get all the necessary energy I need (my body seems to process it well) and I won't have to pack those dang gel packs in my pocket for the marathon.  I need to see how my theory works on one of my upcoming 20 milers and make a final decision before Ogden.

Time:  8:11/mile

Rest.

Today begins a so called "recovery week" in the Pfitzinger plan so the total mileage for the week will be around 43 but I plan on running just as hard as any other week.  Today was no exception other than I slept in and got a late start.  Since it's president's day today I didn't have to go to work so I slept in and ran around 8:00 am in the light for once.  Since meg got up at the usual time and went with out me I was on my own.  I didn't feel real great for most of the run but stuck with it and got through it.  I still had some lingering back and hip pain from the Saturday long run and just didn't feel in sync.  Added in 8 100 meter strides which helped me to pick up the pace for the last four miles of the run to end up with a pretty good overall average for me.

Time:  7:58/mile

Nice easy recovery run today.  Still a little achey in the lower back region but seemed a little smoother today than yesterday.  The pace of my runs seems to picking up without any extra perceived effort on my part.  I'll take that as a good sign.  Hopefully the "harder" running doesn't translate into more back trouble.  With this being a recovery week I am trying not to over do it too much, just maintain where I am before shifting gears for the next few weeks.  The weather here continues to improve with most morning temps hanging out in the 45-50 range.  I'm glad to be back in shorts (hopefully for good) since I don't own any running tights and the old slick sweat pants just don't do much for me.

Time:  8:19/mile

Today's run was a bit tougher than usual.  I agreed to ref a couple of church basketball games last night at 6:30 and 7:30 and it's been a while since I have run up and down the hard court.  I don't know why it is but my legs seem to get more fatigued running up and down on the wood than running on the pavement.  It may have to do with the shoes I wear or the wood or the occasional sprinting, or more likely a combination of all three.  All I know is that this morning I felt pretty beat up from the first mile all the way to the last.  The fact that I was able to maintain a decent pace I guess I can credit to my stubborn personality.  I expected to average at least 8:15/mile today so by dang I was going to do it.  The next couple of days are five mile days and one of those will be a slower recovery day so I hope to be feeling better over the next couple of days.  The back was also a bit tighter than usual this morning which I attribute to the reffing last night as well.  Maybe I will have to think twice about reffing again.  I don't much like listening to the know-it-all's anyway.......  Temp was 53 this morning with just a slight breeze.  The weather is supposed to get rainy over the next couple of days, should be fun running in the rain.....not.

Time:  8:11/mile

Based on how crappy I felt yesterday (and today) and realizing that this is supposed to be a recovery week in preparation for several very hard weeks ahead, I took it very easy today.  We decided we better get some recovery out of this so called "recovery week" so we took it real easy today and will probably take it real easy on our Friday and Saturday runs as well.  I don't remember the last time my calfs and quads felt sore but they are sore now, probably due in part to the infamous church ball officiating from Tuesday night......still.  The weather was near perfect today with no wind and 44 degree temps.  We were approached again by our famous ankle biter dogs which came at us at a dead sprint.  Not even an appology from the owner until I retorted "it's okay" to which she responded "I'm sorry!"  Should I have had to say anything for her to appologize? 

Meg and I had a lengthy discussion on the state of our youth these days.  I was commenting to her about scouts last night and the complete disrespect shown by some of the boys who sit there and play with there cell phones, listen to their music, sit in groups by themselves to have their own little conversations, wear pants that hang below both butt cheeks with boxer showing, and all this while the young mens pres is trying to teach us the requirements for the family life merit badge.  Granted, it was a small number of priest age boys who were the culprits but what kind of respect is this?  What are we teaching these kids?  I realize the leaders probably don't want to get upset and look like the bad guy but I think these boys need to learn to be respectful of other people who are giving up their time away from family and other interests for them.  We came up with no solutions other than to reflect on how our leaders treated us as youth.  I remember getting out of hand one time and the leader grabbed me by the hair and made me sleep with the leader for the night.  Maybe not the most appropriate method for teaching respect.....but very effective.  Anyway, I digress.

Time:  8:54/mile

Picked up the pace a little bit today from yesterday but not much.  Don't want to push the pace too much the rest of this week, just get the miles in and stay healthy.  Was very tempted to stay in bed this morning and almost did.  Got up really late but still made it to work with 5 minutes to spare.  Weather was overcast today with a breeze from the south and temps at 51 degrees....it was nearly perfect.....glad I got up.

Time:  8:28/mile

Just a relatively short medium long run today.  Nothing too exciting, just putting in the miles.  Did run out to Arbor View HS to drop off my share of the entry fee for the Wasatch Back relay team.  Wind was in my face for most of the 3ish mile run out to Arbor View so I was happy to return home with the wind at my back and picked up the pace a little for a couple of miles to near marathon race pace.  Meg has some nasty bronchitis brewing so she decided not to go with me out to Arbor View into the wind.  When I got back to our development she was just coming in too and told me that she was having trouble breathing.  After we got done we sat outside and she told me about her experience during her run when she stopped and sat on the curb and contemplated flagging someone down to take her home (it was that bad).  Long story short, she made it home and then when we came inside her lungs tightened up again and she thought she might pass out.  We gave her a breathing treatment with some kind of medicine (don't know the name) and machine that we had borrowed from a friend for my other son.  I hope she is not developing some kind of asthma and that this is just bad bronchitis.  It seems like she has had congestion for quite a while so we will see what happens.

Time:  8:27/mile

Rest.

The tempo runs are starting to increase in distance in the training plan.  Today was a 5 mile LT run with a three mile warm up and a two mile cool down.  My goal going into this thing today was to keep the tempo pace miles under 7:10/mile.  During the warm-up miles I decided to see if I could average under 7:00/mile for the tempo miles because I was feeling good and wanted to really see what I could do.  Here are the splits:  7:01, 6:51, 7:02, 7:04 and 6:58 with an average of 6:59/mile.  I may have gone a little too fast on that second mile but you never know for sure with the Garmin if you are slightly off on the mileage.  The longest tempo run on this training program is 7 miles and I think I could have maintained that pace for a couple more miles but I don't know for sure.  I would like to eventually bring that tempo pace down into the 6:50/mile range but we will just see how the training goes.  Fought with a little bit of a breeze this morning on the north facing sections of the course but other than that the temps were perfect at a balmy 46 degrees.  I am finally starting to see some movement in my weight again (in the downward direction) and hopefully it will keep going down as I am about 14 pounds from my current goal of 160.  If I ever hit 160 (and that's a big IF) I will have to reevaluate to see if I should go any lower or not.  With 12 weeks until Ogden things are still looking good.  The next two weeks will give me the bigger picture as they are some of the highest mileage weeks I will have ever run with 56 this week and 59 next week.  This will be the point were my body will break down and risk injury so I will be trying to run smart and stay healthy. 

As it turns out, today is a 10 mile (training) PR for me as well.  It was a better run than I thought.

Time:  7:41/mile

Just a nice easy recovery run today.  Had a little residual fatigue and sorness from yesterdays run but not as bad as I have felt it in the past.  I'm finding these easy lower mileage days to be a huge help in my recovery for the longer, harder days.  I'm still getting the running six days a week but I am getting better recovery for the runs that count.  Temp was 52 this morning but it was a little breezy even more than yesterday.  I don't mind the wind as much on a recovery day and pace is not an issue, so I just enjoyed being out and about today.

Time:  8:18/mile

These medium long runs can really throw a wrench in your schedule if you don't get starte right on time.  We got started about 7-8 minutes late today and then I had to make a quick pit stop at about mile 5 for a few minutes so I really had to crank out the last few miles so I wouldn't be late getting the kids to jazz band practice this morning.  I have typically tried to keep these medium long runs at around an 8:10-8:15 pace/mile put this morning with the rush I averaged 8:01/mile.  Things felt pretty good for the most part, not alot of aches and pains to contend with other than some minor back acheage.  The aerobic system seems to be doing pretty well lately as it has become easier to maintain this pace without going anaerobic.  I ran most of the run without Megan because the pace was a little too fast and she continues to struggle with a few of her own aches and pains.  Amazingly she still get the miles in most days and guts it out. Temp was 51 degrees today with slightly breezy conditions....again.  I guess the wind just comes with the desert.  Can't complain too much though, spring is upon us.

Time:  8:01/mile

Took it pretty easy today and made this a nice recovery run.  Instead of running the prescribed 5 miles today I ran 6 because after tomorrows run I will be at 200 miles for the month instead of 199.  Just couldn't live with coming up one mile short of the ever elusive 200 mile mark.  My previous longest month was July of last year with 193.5.  After that month I spent August recovering from injury.  I don't anticipate that being the case this year but you never know when something will jump up and bite you in the butt.  Another beautiful morning with mild temps and a fairly light breeze.

Time:  8:17/mile

Well.....I finally reached it.....200 miles in a month.  I ran my 200th mile today in symbolic fashion.....15 seconds faster than goal marathon pace just to prove to myself that I could.  I'm glad to have that milestone behind me so that I can now concentrate on the task at hand and that is train as hard as possible for the next 2 months while not getting injured.  If I can do that I will be going for the BQ at Ogden.  I was looking at the Ogden and SGM 2007 results for the 35-39 age group to see what percentage of men qualified for Boston in each race.  There is a wider gap than I expected.  Ogden had 10% or 13/129 and SGM had 23% or 108/465.  I guess I could come up with several reasons for this rather large difference but I won't even waste my time.  Ogden looks like a great course with some small uphill with mostly flat and downhill sections near the finish.  The plan right now is to at least start out at BQ pace at Ogden and see how far I can go.  The way I see it is if I don't at least try, I will never know if I could have.  What's the worst that could happen?  I would have to try again at St. George?  I can live with that.

Time:  8:02/mile

Very difficult long run for me today.  Today ends the highest mileage week ever for me and February was the highest mileage month ever.  I guess it stands to reason that I am a little fatigued and didn't feel refreshed and ready to tackle 18 today.  The main thing is that I got through it at a fairly respectable pace for me but suffered a bit of pain getting there.  The lower back muscles were screaming and my energy level was low.  I look forward to a the one day of rest before going 59 miles next week.  Weather was perfect for the run today with temps in the low 50s and no wind to speak of.  Ran most of the run in shorts and a long sleeve shirt.  I think its official....spring has sprung.

Time:  8:31/mile

Rest.

Regular run of the mill 6 miler today.  Added 6 x 100 meter strides today during miles 5-6 so had a couple of faster miles today.  Ran a course that I usually save for the weekends today and really enjoyed breaking up the monotony of going around and around our development.  Plus this course has a couple of gentle hills to add a little challange and variety.  Temps were a little cooler than they had been all last week at about 45 degrees and a 10 mph wind out of the north.  My back seems to be bothering me a little more as the grind of training is starting to wear out my clunky old body.  This is about the time in the training cycle when the wheels have come off the last couple of times I have trained for a marathon.  I hope to at least keep the wheels on this time even if they are wobbling a bit.  Part of the reason that this time might be more of a struggle is the increase in miles that I am running compared to the previous two training cycles when I didn't even reach 50 miles in a week.  If I can survive this week I will be feeling pretty good about making it through at least the following two weeks since they will be a small cut-back in mileage.

Time:  8:06/mile

Another mid week medium long run.  Pfitzinger is famous for these and they are really starting to wear me down.  I had to make two pit stops during this run so needless to say I was way behind schedule this morning getting ready for work.  Legs are feeling pretty wiped out today so hopefully I will get some nice recovery before thursdays LT run.  It will be the most brutal so far on the plan and I am feeling the worst so far on the plan.  Like I said, I hope to get some good recovery before then.  Weather continues to be a little cooler than last week but I can't complain with 45 degree temps and very little wind.

Time:  8:26/mile

Gusty windy day.  Body needed a day off.  Whatever excuse works.....no running today.

Taking yesterday off turned out to be a good move although I was highly doubting it at the time.  Sure it was windy yesterday and my body was screaming for me to take a day off and get some recovery.  I didn't even sleep that well after I made the decision not to run and went back to bed.  I kept waking up every 10 minutes thinking "I should just get up and go running."  Our minds are very powerful things and sometimes our minds want to do what our body is telling us not to do.  So in the end I think I made the right choice to get a little more recovery. 

Today I was scheduled for a 6 mile tempo run.  I hadn't really made up my mind how fast I wanted to try and run the tempo miles today but by about mile two of the warm up I decided I would shoot for all tempo miles under 7:00/mile pace.  If I crashed and burned at least I gave it a try.  And I really like this quote:  "You'll never know if you don't try. And never knowing comes with its own unique torture."  So needless to say, I went for it.......and here are my splits:  6:52, 6:50, 6:56, 6:58, 6:57, 6:58.  That last 6:58 was a lot of work, I really had to give it up for the last quarter mile to squeek in under 7:00.  I think this marks my longest and fastest tempo run to date.  It was a hard work out but rewarding to know that I could run a 10K at a 6:55/mile pace or better.  My goal for the upcoming Spectrum 10K is to keep it under 43:00.  With the generally downhill course I think I have a really good shot.  The weather was pretty good this morning at about 45 degrees and 5-10 mph breeze out of the north (as is usually the case).

Time:  7:34/mile

Took it really easy today and had an enjoyable recovery run.  Finally a day with now wind and comfortable temps.  Will spend the day loading up on a few carbs in preparation for tomorrows 20 miler.  Oooooooooo.....can't wait!!  Nothing else exciting today.

Time:  8:41/mile

Doing the big nasty today!  The first 20 miler of the season and I would say it was a pretty good success.  Learned a couple of things that I really need to work on more.  I appologize if this is yucky but I had to stay fairly close to home for the first few miles due to needing the facilities twice within the first 10 miles.  What the heck!  At least I had the sense to stay close to home but......what the heck!  I think my mini carb load on Friday night went a l ittle too far and I ended up paying for it today.  When I prep for the marathon I will begin carb loading 2-3 days in advance and will not eat like a pig in the process.  Other than that minor stick in the spokes everthing seemed to go really well.  Took it pretty easy the first 15 miles where we averaged about 8:37/mile.  Then Meg started hurting and I wanted to pick up the pace for the last 5 so like a bad husband I left her and decided to see if I could keep the pace under 8:00 to finish off the run.  My final 5 splits were as follows: 8:02, 7:56, 7:57, 7:45, 7:28.  I wanted to pick that last mile up to marathon pace just to get a feel for marathon pace on tired legs.  I was amazed at much easier that pace is becoming.  A good sign that the training is working for sure.  I was also amazed that I felt so much better during the last 5 miles than the first 15.  I can't explain why going faster felt better but it did.  Maybe it was the change of stride, pace, effort, whatever but it seemed to really help me feel better and run easier.  For the first 20 miler of the year, I am happy.  I'm also happy that I am still relatively healthy at this point in the training.  Let's just hope it continues.  By the way it was a beautiful morning for a run.  When we started it was 52 degrees with a 5-10 mph breeze.  After about the first two miles there was little to no wind and the morning was perfect.  Couldn't have asked for better running weather.

Time:  8:24/mile

Rest.

Nice and easy recovery run today.  Didn't feel all that easy as I still had some lingering fatigue in the legs.  My back has also continued to bother me more than I like.  The end of this week represents the half way point of the 18 week training plan for Ogden and I feel like it's gone well so far.  Hopefully the back holds out for a couple more months.  The weather was nice again today with only a light breeze and temps in the mid 40s.  My longest mid week medium long run of the training plan is tomorrow (14 miles).  That distance will require me to be up by 3:30 and on the road by 4:00 to have a chance of being done by 6:00.  I guess we'll se how that goes tomorrow.

Time:  8:51/mile

I am so glad that this is the one and only mid week 14 mile run of this training program.  Waking up an hour earlier than usual is a lot more painful than it sounds.  The first words out of my mouth this morning as I stumbled out of bed were "this is crazy."  I have been having a little tightness in my calf the last few days as well as the usual back pain and I wasn't feeling really great yesterday so getting up this morning I didn't know what to expect from my body or what it could handle.  The first few miles felt much easier than expected and as those long runs progress and you get into a good rhythm the aches and pains tend to numb away into nothing.  Well I wouldn't say they numbed away into nothing but they were bearable and I was able to handle the run without too much trouble.  The weather was really good this morning with no wind and the temp at 55 degrees.  The rest of the week is pretty light which will be good for preparing for the Spectrum 10K this weekend.  Hopefully give my body a chance to mend itself a bit before the race.

Time:  8:17/mile

Took it really easy today in order to have a true recovery day.  Still a little concerned about the lingering tenderness in the left calf and shin area.  Will continue to take it easy for the next couple days leading up to the race to hopefully give it time to heal up.  Weather was great again today with the temp around 55 and a light breeze.  Nothing else exciting to report.

Time:  8:50/mile

Nothing bugs me more than missing a day of running, well I guess being injured bugs me more, that's why I missed a day of running.  This darn nagging calf muscle just won't go away.  I'm pretty sure it's not serious because I can still run on it without earth shattering pain but I keep thinking I better not push it or it might get worse.  I don't know what this does for my chances and the Spectrum 10K this weekend, maybe it will feel better by then.  I guess one thing I've learned in my short 2 year running career is it's much better to be slightly undertrained for a race than to arrive at the starting line with nagging injuries.....and it's much better to let the injuries rest sooner rather than later.  So with that, we will see how it goes tomorrow.

Took it really easy today and just tried to test out the calf.  Still a bit painful and as of right now I am not sure how I will run the race tomorrow.  It may come down to a starting line decision as to how fast to run.  If it's still painful at least I will be able to run with my dad and sister and that is not a bad choice at all.

Time 8:51/mile

Arrived at the race a little before 8:00 a.m. and did some light running to test out my calf.  It was feeling pretty good.  Probably due to the cool weather, adrenaline, or race day jitters.  Ended up doing a couple miles warm up before boarding the busses for the starting line.  It was nice to meet some of the fellow bloggers on the bus.  Ended up meeting Steve Hooper, Mike Warren, Dave Holt and Clyde Behunin.  Man those guys are in good shape.

The starting line was fairly well organized and felt much more organized than my prior two St. George races (Painters and Snow Canyon).  I did see several people hikning back down the hill from where they had been told the starting line was at including my wife, dad and sister.  Anyway with the good organization we knew when and where the race was going to start and the staggered buses to the starting line allowed us to get our mandatory trip to the POPs over without too much of a wait.

The start went as anticipated....very fast.  Having run the Snow Canyon half a few months ago I knew what to expect from the downhills.  The race didn't start as high up the canyon as the half but the first mile was still pretty steep and fast.  I think I did a pretty good job of keeping my legs and pace under control and came out of the first mile feeling pretty good about a 6:18 split.  The second mile is when the rolling hills started popping up.  They aren't very long or steep but they are often and they have a tendency to throw off your rhythm.  So I struggled for the next couple miles going up and down and up and down these little rollers.  Finally about mile 3 we got into a fairly gentle downhill and I was right at 20:00 at mile 3.  The little rollers were over but the longer hills were still ahead not really all that steep but enough to make you know your working.  (I run on almost perfectly flat roads every day of the week so any kind of hill is work for me).  The nice thing at the 4-5 mile point of the race is I still feel pretty good and I am able to actually get some people in my sites and pass them.  The last small climb started at about mile 5 and I knew the finish would be generaly downhill/level so at about 5.7 I started to pick up the pace and got one more guy in my sights and picked him off.  At about 6.1 he snuck back in behind me and picked me off right at the finish.  I thougt I had him put away but somehow he came back and nailed me.  That stinks!  But I am still happy with the results overall and happy about the effort.

The calf is a bit sore after the race and I have kept a compression wrap on it and elevated for most of the day.  Luckily this next week is a recovery week for Meg and I in our marathon training so it will give me a chance to really nurse it along and try to get better before the final big push for Ogden.

As usual the fast running blog made a great showing with several runners in the top 10 and MarcieJ winning the overall womens.  Great job Marcie!  Gimpy hamstring.....bah!

Rest.

AM

35 minutes on the elliptical this morning and probably another 30 tonight if I can get to it.  I may spend this whole week on the elliptical depending on how the calf injury is coming along.  Will hopefully find time for some additional cross training as well.

PM

Another 35 minutes on the elliptical tonight.  Man that thing is harder than running.  When I get off my legs feel like jello.

AM

60 minutes on the elliptical this morning.  I am amazed at how tought this work out really is.  I get my heart rate up to around 140 and the resistence is tough.  I also did some leg extensions and some crunches on the ball.  Calf is feeling better with the break from the pounding but still got a way to go to get where I want it to be.  Hopefully with the tough elliptical workouts I won't lose too much cardio and can jump right back into marathon training when I'm healed.

PM

30 more minutes on the elliptical.  Really good workout.  More core work and a few leg extensions.

60 minutes ont he elliptical again.  Calf seems to be improving as I am feeling less pain when going up and down stairs.  Iced the calf and knee last night for about a half an hour, maybe that helped a bit too.  I'm not going too crazy yet because I am satisfied with the level of difficulty for this workout on the elliptical.  The perceived effort is equal too or greater than running and the cardio seems to be right there.  At the peak my heart rate can get up close to 160 which for me is about an 7:50-8:00/mile effort.  It's not running but it's good for the moment.

60 Minutes on the elliptical this morning.  Tried a couple of different pre-programmed workouts just to mix it up a little.  They were not as hard as the original workout I had been using but still a good workout.  Got a minor blister on my right foot, probably from trying to push it to hard and that's what happens when you are running in place.  The calf is about the same as it has been and still not ready to run on.  I may take a complete break tomorrow and just do some weight and core training.  I don't know if the elliptical is irritating it or helping it.

Took a day off just to let the calf rest and hopefully allow it more time to heal.

Another day of complete rest. Hoping to get this thing healed soon.

Rest.

Got out and went for my first run since Spectrum this morning. Calf felt better than expected but still not where I want it to be. Stride and pace felt very clunky, which I guess is expected after a week off. May continue to run very low miles for the rest of the week just to evaluate the situation. It was nice to be out running again.

Got in three more slow miles today.  Spent some time after the run doing some good stretching.  Still not sure where I am with this thing.  I guess if I can continue to run some short easy runs like this I will keep doing it and see if the situation improves.

Well, I've started a slow progression back to the world of the living.  Another slow run today but was able to pick up the pace slightly keeping the average under 9:00/mile for the run.  The calf is still a little bothersome but seems to be on the mend a bit.  It feels really good right now and seems to come and go throughout the day.  I have a feeling all of this is related to my on going lower back issues.  I had back surgery at 21 and have had spans of good and bad times ever since.  Hopefully things will settle down back there and I can get back to normal.

A slow 6 today.  Still keeping things pretty easy just trying to see how my body handles a few extra miles.  Things went fair today.  The injury is still a bit bothersome but doesn't seem to be getting any worse.  It's hard to tell if it's getting any better because it has felt about the same for the past 4 days when I run, however the pain during the day seems to be easing up a bit (even without the drugs) so that's a good sign.  Still in the wait and see mode.

Rest.

Ran with the group of guys doing the Wasatch Back relay in June and actually felt pretty darn good.  I was amazed at my recovery and how I am still feeling a couple of hours after the run.  Hopefully this is good news that I am on the mend and will continue to get better.  I will probably keep the distance and intensity pretty minimal next week as well so as not to mess up a good thing and that will leave me with 3-4 good strong weeks before Ogden to get the mileage and intensity back up.  Seems like I always run a little faster with these guys and our course was out and back with wind and uphill on the out and no wind and downhill on the back.  The last 5 miles were all right around marathon pace.  The elevation gain was around 475 according to the Garmin.  Good run, good course, will have to try that one again with Meg sometime.  Good mild hill training.

Rest.

Trying to get back into the swing of things this week.  I will not get back on to the Pfitzinger program this week but will try to start to bring my miles back up to around 40 or so.  Will probably be looking to just keep the intensity pretty low and just log some miles and try to get back to where I need to be with only 7 weeks out from Ogden.  The calf tightness has become bearable now but it has caused my arch to start hurting a bit so I am doing a series of stretches each day to try and keep everything loose in that leg.  I'm not better yet but I am better than I have been.  At least now I am able to run without excruciating pain.  Hopefully the trend continues.

In a month were I was planning on running 234 miles I ended up with 139....95 short of my goal.....but happy to at least have gotten the miles I got and am now hopefully on the mend.

Wanted to run 7 or 8 today but the leg didn't cooperate and I just couldn't find a good rhythm.  So stopped at 6 and went inside to stretch out really good for a few minutes before getting ready for work.  Just when you start to think things are looking up you have a day like this when it seems like the injury is worse.

Rest.  Decided to sleep in and take a day off.

A fairly good 6 miler today.  Felt good for most of the run and really  enjoyed myself.  Still had enough pain to know that I am not through this thing yet and still need to be carful about how much speed and mileage I add but at least I felt like this was one of my better runs in the last couple of weeks.

I have the corporate challenge 5K coming up on April 13 and am planning on running it but am still a little up in the air about how fast to try and run.  Part of me wants to try for something in the mid 20s and part of me says take it easy because Ogden will only be a month out at that point.  I still have 9 days to decide and a lot can happen in 9 days so we shall see.

Planned on going a little further than 4 today but Meg was stopping at 4 and I needed to start getting ready for work so I just decided to wrap it up and save whatever I had in the tank for tomorrows long run.  I am still feeling some aches and pains from the injuries but I feel like things are progressing and getting better day by day.

NB 767 (336.2)

WOW!! What a difference a new pair of shoes can make.  I made the decision last night to pull out the new NB 768s and use them today.  My NB 767s have about 350 miles on them so they are very close to the end, but I wanted to see if the shoe change would help with some of the aches and pains.  From the very first 1/10th of a mile I could tell this was going to be a great run.  I couldn't beleive the absence of pain in my calf and hip.  When I started this morning I honostly had no idea how far I was going to run.  I figured I would run until I thought the pain was getting worse and then stop at whatever mile that was.  At mile 10 I still felt strong and thought, maybe I should just go 20 today since I missed a 20 miler last week.  Well, the good news is, I feel like I am getting back my pre-injury form and the pain is on the downhill slide, the bad news is, my arch is flaring up in its usual spot but at least I know that a cortisone shot from my podiatrist will cure that really quick....I just don't know if I can wait the week and a half until the appointment.  With three more strong weeks to go before the taper I hope to regain some of the fitness I have lost during my time off and reduced running these past few weeks.  I don't feel like I have lost much and if healing continues to go well I think I can get there.

Bad news for Meg.  Her knee really started hurting her bad around mile 11/12 and she gutted it out to mile 14.  I finally convinced her to stop cause she is so tough and would have finished the run at the risk of doing serious damage to her knee.  She is so ready for Ogden, I just hope she has the patience to let this knee heal up well in the next 6 weeks even if it means sacrificing a little of her fitness.  I think she is fit enough to run a sub 3:30, but not with her knee in its current condition.

NB 768 (17)

Rest.  And ohhh what a restful day it was, slept in, took a nap and enjoyed both sessions of conference.

Man I am slow!  Part way through this run today I decided to do a little trial run to see how fast I could run a mile.  We have the Corporate Challenge track and field event coming up and I wanted to get an idea of how fast I could run a mile.  Well, the answer is, not very fast.  After a three mile warm-up I ran the mile in 6:35.  I could make up all kinds of excuses like the wind, still recovering from Saturday long run and my nagging injuries, etc., etc.,  but the fact is, I am just plain slow.  Luckily there is another guy at work who will be running the 1600 and I will do the 5K the day before.  The fact is, I was planning on trying to run the 5K in the 20 minute range, but with that kind of performance in the mile, I doubt I'll make it.

Overall, I felt pretty good today and the majority of my pain lies in my arch near the heal.  Hopefully the cortisone injection I will receive tomorrow will knock that out with no problems.  I have had this shot 3 times previous over the past two years.  It seems like every 7-8 months the pain comes back and I get it done again.

Time:  8:17/mile

767 (342.2)

I don't know that I would call my three miles today "fast" but they were under 8:00/mile and they felt pretty good considering the naggng arch (can't wait for the cortisone today at 11:00).  Felt pretty crappy for the first lap and speaking of crappy had to stop in at the house for a couple minutes for a potty break.  The second lap wasn't much better but after that, things started to loosen up.  The legs began to feel strong and my breathing felt effortless.  I felt like I could have picked up the pace even faster than I did, but decided against it considering all my nagging issues of late.  Ran in the new shoes again today and they really felt good.  Don't know if it's the shoes or my mind but I do feel better when I run in the new shoes.  Will probably try to do tomorrow run a bit faster as well and then just log the miles for the rest of the week leading up the Corporate Challenge 5K on Sunday.  I'm not overly excited about running on Sunday, my usual day of church and rest, but my team needs my time and points, hopefully I can come through and earn some points.  We shall see.

Time:  8:07/mile

768 (24)

Tried using a lightweight neutral racing flat today (Saucony Grid Type A2).  I have never worn a shoe this light before for running.  It tips the scales at a mere 6 ounces and almost feels like it's not there at all except for the fact that it provides a very good cushioning.  It's also a very "loud" shoe in the sense that you cannot miss these ruby red slippers on my feet.  Luckily I run early in the morning when it's dark and don't have to flaunt these babies out in public.  I was contemplating wearing these for the 5K this weekend, and still may, but I feel a bit timid wearing them in public and not having the speed to live up to the shoes potential and show.  I'm glad I decided to run in them at least once before racing because I discovered I will need to make sure I tie them very securely with double knots (even though I had them in loose double knots for this run) or they will come loose part way through the run.

Today's run was supposed to be a recovery 5 mile run but since I wasn't really recovering from any brutal runs I decided to go out and give these shoes a fair trial run.  I decided to do a progression run where I increased my pace from 8:00/mile to 7:30, 7:00, 7:30, and back 8:00.  The 7:30 paces felt good, like something I felt like could hold for many miles.  The 7:00 pace felt a little labored this morning for some reason and was glad to get back to the 7:30 pace and finally ease off with the final 8:00.  Everything felt really good this morning on the injury front.  The arch is doing better now that it's got the corisone working full force and the left hip, knee and calf, seem to be feeling better each day.  My right leg is a work horse right now, boy it would be nice if both of my legs felt like my right leg.  Hopefully I'll get there before Ogden.

Time:  7:34/mile

Grid Type A2 (5)

I had intentions to go 12 today but my arch is still very tender after the cortisone injection on Tuesday so I ended up cutting the run short becuase it was effecting my gait.  This injury bug sure isn't making things easy for me right now.

Time:  8:47/mile

768 (30)

Took the day off due to continued tenderness in my heal/arch.  Hopefully it will be good to go for the 5K on Sunday.

Another day like yesterday.  Heal/foot is still in too much pain to run.

Well, my heal/arch was still a bit achey this morning but I wasn't going to miss a race short of being totally lame.  Today was perfect running conditions, with absolutely no wind and perfect temps.  I ran this race last year (same course) and ended up with a 23:10 so to come up with a  1:15 PR for the course today is something to cheer about.  After crossing the finish line and looking at the distance on my Garmin I was not pleased to find that the course is 3.25 miles.  I thought I was running faster than 7:05 miles and infact I was.  Again, according to Garmin my average pace for the run was 6:44/mile.  I knew I wasn't ready to run a sub 20 5k yet but I figured a sub 21 should be very possible even with my nagging foot.  I spoke with several other runners with garmins and my response from everyone on the distance was 3.25 miles.  I even went so far as to talk (very nicely) to the timing guy about the distance and he assured me that he certified the course distance himself and that the reading on my Garmin didn't really matter......ya right.

I was still very pleased with my overall run and time.  It is a new PR even though it's still not the PR I know I am capable of.  I will be running another 5K on this same course in 2 weeks, I wonder what Garmin will say then.

Will take a few days off to rest the arch and other minor aches.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Don't remember much about this run just really late in logging it.

Disneyland.  Walked about a zillion miles but no running.

Disneyland.  Walked another zillion miles and ran two easy miles with Meg around our hotel in Santa Ana.

Disneyland again and another zillion miles walking.  Ran 3 good quality miles around the hotel and feel like the aches and pains are getting a little better.

Disneyland.  Walked some more but no running.  Disneyland is wearing me out.

Last day at Disneyland and then we leave for home.  No running today again but plenty of walking.

Ran 6 really good miles today with Meg.  All miles but one were under an 8:00/mile pace and it felt good to get back into it a little bit.

This was the same course that I ran on a couple of weeks ago for the Corporate Challenge so I knew it would be long.  After a week at Disneyland and very little running and eating like crap I didn't expect much today.  Warmed up for a mile before the race and wasn't feeling real great.  Legs and body was feeling a bit fatigued and it was getting hotter by the minute.  Conditions for the race were warm and breezy with a steady head wind for about a mile of the course.  Finished just under a minute slower than my time in the Corp Challenge and was a little disappointed with my effort.  Just seemed to run out of gas the last mile and had no one in reach to catch at any point in the race so I kinda ran on my own, which is tough.  The best I could do was hold off a guy who was trying to catch me.....succeeded.  Should be going into a three week taper for Ogden but I have nothing to taper from.  Will probably try to build back up over the next two weeks to around 45-50 miles and then do a one week mini taper before Ogden.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Still suffering from a little arch pain but nothing I haven't been able to ease with ice and ibuprofin.

Spent all day today at a softball tournament that my daughter played.  Her team played 6 games over two days and ended up the consolation runner-up.  It was a tought tournamant for our girls we lost a catcher and a pitcher to injuries.  The catcher got her hand stepped on while trying to apply a tag at the plate and our pitcher caught a line drive with her nose.  It wasn't pretty but they played great and finished strong despite being very worn out.....along with all the parents.

AM

Man, I don't think I can finish a marathon the way I am feeling right now......I take that back, I can probably finish, just not with the goal I am aiming for.  These nagging injuries just won't let up and I don't know if it's even worth the effort to make an attempt at the marathon and risk additional injury when I am fairly sure my BQ goal is out of reach.  Meg and I talked about running to finish and running to meet a goal today.  I have already finished two marathons, finishing is not my goal anymore, I want to run at a certain level and if I can't (due to injury) I look at it like.....what's the point?  Anyway, I will give it the rest of this week before I make a decision.....what a bummer.

768 (64.51)

PM

Had the corporate challenge walk race this evening and this is the 5th year in a row that I have participated in this race.  Race walking is an interesting sport but you look like a total dufus doing the walk if you do it right.  The whole hip movement is really......well strange.  I didn't do any specific training for this race other than my usual running.  Usually each year I go out two or three times just to get into the rhythm and build up my shin muscles.  The shins can really get sore from speed walking if you haven't built up those muscles.  I wasn't really sure how I would do with my nagging injuries as well but while I was warming up I felt almost no pain at all so I figured I would just go for it.  Long story short I averaged 10:25/mile (exactly the same as last year) and took home another gold.  In the five years doing this event I have won 4 gold and 1 silver.  The year I took silver I lost by 2 meesly seconds...doh!  Overall very fun event and I am not really feeling any ill effects from it....thank goodness.

767 (359.53)

Decided to keep it short and nice and easy this morning after yesterday's walk race event.  I wasn't sure if my muscles would be all cramped up this morning and surprisingly they were pretty good.  I still took it very easy with only 3 miles and about and 8:50 pace and was suprised to find that my nagging injuries were actually feeling a little better this morning.  Maybe it was a result of the wicked hip movements in the walk race :) or maybe it is just a fluke.....whatever it is, I'll take it.  I am going to try and run another easy 3 this evening just to get in 6 for the day.  As of today, Ogden is still on.

768 (67.51)

PM

Made it out for another 3 miles this evening.  Ran one with Cory at about 9:30 pace and then ran two more on my own at not much faster.

767 (362.3)

Another easy morning.......only because I woke up late and didn't have time to go any further.  I am still feeling some pretty good soreness from the walk race on Monday.  It's amazing the different muscles you use for walking versus running.  My shin muscles are pretty sore as well as my glutes and hamstrings.  I don't think all the soreness had kicked in by Tuesday when I did my 3 miles in the morning, that's probably why it felt so good.  Hopefully by tomorrow most of the soreness will be gone and I can get back to feeling good.  Hope to run another 3-4 easy miles tonight to make up for waking up late this morning.  Somehow I managed to get just over 100 miles this month.  Not all that great but not the worst either.

768 (70.51)

Finally got up on time this morning and was able log an medium/easy 6 miles.  Didn't make it out last night as planned due to the court of honor running late, high winds, and my legs just didn't feel good.  I'm glad I passed on the extra miles last night because this mornings run felt pretty good for once.  Wanted to go 7-8 miles but decided not to push it just getting back into again.  If I continue to feel good I think Ogden is a go, but like I said before, it's still up in the air until after Saturday's run.  I think I may try to log at least 12 on Saturday and maybe more if I am feeling okay.  I would like to try a couple miles at marathon pace if my body will allow but mostly I just need the base miles at this point.

768 (76.51)

Just another relatively easy 7 miles this morning.  Everything still appears to be looking good for Ogden but tommorrow and the subsequent recovery will hopefully tell me all I need to know.  I don't have an exact mileage in mind for tomorrows run but I am thinking something between 10 and 15 miles.  If I am feeling good I will go the whole 15 if not I will do something less but whatever it is I will try to listen to my body and obey......for once.  My sons are getting up around 2:30 am tomorrow morning to go on a band trip down to Disneyland to play in a festival and enjoy the day at Disneyland.  Those lucky buggers......we just got back from disneyland 8 days ago and they get to go back again already.  After I get them off on the bus I think Meg and I are just going to go for our run rather than go back to bed.  I will really need a nap tomorrow.

768 (83.51)

Well, todays long run didn't work out as planned.  I just wasn't feeling it from the very first step and since I told myself I would listen to my body very closely today and not overdo it, I decided to stop when things didn't improve in the first three miles.  It was kind of a bummer to cut it short and I could have kept going but it wasn't worth the additional injury risk so I called it a day and went home to ice.  Meg made it seven before her knee started to have a little pain and she decided to cut her run short to so as to not risk additional injury.  Man we are a couple of sorry souls right now trying to come back from our injuries.  At this point I am thinking Ogden is still up in the air but if I do decided to run it will be at more of a training run pace than BQ pace.

768 (86.51)

Rest.

Felt quite a bit better today than on Saturday and by the end of mile 7 I was wishing I had 30 more minutes to do the 10 miler I had hoped for on Saturday. It's encouraging to know that I can still run and feel good on a good day. My arch is still bothering me but seems to warm up and feel better as the run goes on. I also have the usual lower back pain and some lingering calf issues but all in all I can't complain to much, heck at least I managed 7 today.

768(93.51)

Still feeling pretty good today.  I could tell that my legs were a little tired today from yesterdays faster paced run (8:15/mile) so we kept the pace a bit slower today in the 8:30/mile range.  Everything seems to be shaping up okay for the marathon in less than two weeks.  I won't be breaking any speed records but I think I can at least finish now.  I am hoping to up the miles to at least 40 this week and then back it off a little next week as we taper off for the marathon.  I am still not 100% or even 90% for that matter but I am glad to at least be running with tolerable pain levels.

768 (100.51)

I see a trend here.....7 7 7......maybe I better go to the casino tonight and see if I can line up some 7s and win big........just kidding.  Had another nice run today and felt pretty good throughout.  I can tell that my legs are not back up to where they need to be to run a fast marathon but I feel confident that I can at least finish a marathon even though I may need a couple of walking breaks.  I plan to up the mileage the next three days to 8-9 miles my legs and body will allow.  I am hoping to end the week somewhere in the mid 40s and then back it off next week to around 25-30 leading up to Ogden.

768 (107.51)

Decided to break the pattern today and go with an extra mile. My arch seemed like it was a little tighter than usual during the first mile today, after that it seemed to loosen up a bit. Hopefully I will be able to get in a really good quality run tomorrow because my sons and I are going to our ward father and sons campout on Friday night and I refuse to run on the trails up there. The trails and roads are usually in very poor conditions and I would sure hate to roll and ankle or worse at this point. I may try to squeek in a run after we get home before we go to the Las Vegas 51s baseball game but we will see. My daughters fast pitch softball team gets to sit in the teams dugout during batting practice and then lead the crowd in "take me out to the ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch.....sweet!

768 (115.51)

I was on my own today as Meg's knee has been bothering her a bit again so she decided stay home and do some yoga/stretching.  I don't seem to run as well on my own and today's run was no exception.  Had a hard time maintaining the pace I was hoping for and the legs just didn't feel fresh.  I know I am just getting back into it from an injury and this has been a relatively heavy week so far by my standards so I guess the tired legs are somewhat expected.  Overall I am happy with the run but if I were running the marathon today it would be a very long day.  Tomorrow it will be tough to get my run in but I will try when I get home from father and sons.  I guess this next week will be a bit of a cut back week to try and let the legs freshen up for Ogden.  I did throw in one mile today at 7:40 pace and it felt too hard, not real encouraging for running some 7:26 miles at Ogden next week.

768 (125.51)

Didn't make it out for a run today. The day was literally packed from start to finish with stuff, stuff and more stuff. Got home from father and sons around 11:00 at which time we unloaded the truck, washed the truck, cleaned up and headed over to Cashman field for a tailgate party with my daughters softball team. We were at the field from around 2:30 - 9:00 pm ughghghghg! Needless to say it was a long day. We got to go to the baseball game, watch batting practice and play in the "kids carnival" before the game. At about 9:00 my wife was talking to my 14 year old son who didn't come to the game with us. He was walking to our home with a friend and as they arrived at home they said they noticed the light turn off in my girls bedroom. Needless to say we were all a bit worried and left the game immediately while talking to the 911 operator all the way to the car. It took us about 20 minutes to get back across town to our home and surprisingly we beat the cops to our house. The cops did a quick search of the house only to discover that no one was there and nothing had been disturbed. Don't know if it was just my son and his friends wild imaginations (and they are wild) or if it was legitimately something. Better safe than sorry I guess.

Well, the fact that I didn't get a run today was okay with me, after all it is taper time and with my injury pron body I can always use the extra healing time.

Happy Mothers Day!

Got started a little late today so I only had time for 5 miles, which is only one short of what I had planned on. To compensate a little bit I did the last two miles at a pace just a bit faster than maraton pace (7:28). I think the rest of my runs this week are going to be relatively slow and easy with decreasing miles to hopefully get some good healing. Everything felt pretty good. I still feel some minor aches and pains but nothing alarming. Should be good to go by the weekend.

768 (130.51)

Another pretty good day.  Felt pretty good through out the run except for the arch area which was tight for the first couple of miles and then was barely noticable the rest of the way.  Picked up the pace for one mile to 7:38/mile and felt good.  I think my plan at Ogden is to go out at my goal marathon pace 7:26/mile, hold it for as long as I can and then see what happens.  I know an even pacing strategy would be better for overall time but I want to see where my fitness is and this would be a good opportunity to evaluate it.  At this point I would imagine I could do the first 8 miles which are slightly downhill at this pace and then see where we go from there.  We leave for Ogden on Wednesday night after my sons band concert.  We will be stopping in St. George at my parents for the night and then on to Logan the next day to stay with her mom on Thursday night, then we are in a hotel in Ogden Friday night.  The weather looks to be sunny and warm, hopefully with no wind.

768 (136.51)

Nice easy five today.......Oh......except for the freaking German Shepherd dog.....HOLY CRAP!  So we are running our usual route and taking it nice and easy, about a half mile in we come upon a couple of dogs barking at each other through the fence.  Obviously the German Shepherd is the one outside the fence.  Initially it looks like we will be able to go on by without incident but then he spots us and so we start telling the dog to go home......and it looks like he may just do that.....then he starts to get aggressive, gritting his teeth and standing in his aggresive stance.  My wife jumped up on the trunk of a car and now the dog knows he's got us scared and starts moving in for the kill.  All the while, a guy in the house with the dog behind the fence is leaving for work so he pulls out in his truck and starts herding the dogs away from us by honking and yelling.  Thank goodness for him becuase I think we would have become breakfast.  I know one thing is for sure, I will never approach a German Shepherd again......ever.  The last thing I need is to get mauled by a dog on a run.

Anyway, the run went okay.  Meg is still very bothered by her knee and is already prepared for the fact that she will probably not finish the marathon.  I am still a little bothered by a couple of little nagging pains but I think I have a good shot to finish, although probably not with a blazing fast time.  We leave for St. George tonight.

768 (141.51)

I am typing this from my parents computer in St. George.  Arrived in St. George kinda late last night, around 10:30 Vegas time.  Slept very well for sleeping in a different bed.  Got up and went for a nice easy run with my Dad.  He took me on a really nice course with some very minor rolling hills through some of the new neighborhoods around his place.  We kept the pace just under 9:00/mile and for Dad that is a little faster than he usually goes.  We leave for Logan this morning and hopefully will be getting some good rest after our 6 hour drive.

768 (145.51)

Ran these miles in Logan today while staying at the in-laws.  We took it real easy and just enjoyed the run.  Starting to get a little nervous about the marathon and not really sure what to expect for tomorrow.  Hopefully things will go well and I will be able to run the whole thing and Meg's knee will hold up.

768 (148 .51)

I finished with a PR and am feeling pretty good.  More later.

768 (174.91)

Rest

Walked 3 miles today with Meg.  Felt pretty good to get out and get the blood flowing again even if it was only a walk.  Tried some very slow jogging for a couple of little stretches and was still feeling pretty tight and sore so stuck with the walking.  May try a slow jog tomorrow.

768 (177.91)

Real easy 5 today.  I was pleasantly surprised today when I started to jog slowly, I wasn't in any real pain.  Sure I was slow (9:30/mile), but it didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it was going to.  Looking back at my training log after the SGM I did 7 miles in the week after the marathon and 50 the second week.  I'm not sure where that explosion came from but I am not looking to repeat it this time around.  I have noticed that my recovery seems to be easier than SGM 2007.  Maybe it has to do with the killer hills at St. George or maybe my body has grown more used to the rigors, probably a combination of both.  Felt good to be back running again today and feeling good.

768 (182.91)

WINDY!! I am starting to realize that running in the wind is not all that bad if you just suck it up and do it. You may not be able to go out and run as fast or as far as you want but at least you don't turn in a donut for the day. Today's run was another good recovery run and I was able to run it at about a 9:00/mile pace which was a little faster than yesterday. I think I am pretty much recovered and will look to start the "Sasha" training plan in the near future. I am giving up on following training plans in books, at least for now. Since all my marathons to date have included getting injured about 2 months before the race I need to try something different and go with what my body will allow for that day. When I have followed a training plan in a book I have felt pressure to get out and do the workout/miles regardless of how I felt. I think I will start running more by feel and listen to what my body is trying to tell me so that I can cut back sooner if I need to before a real injury happens. I'm not planning on doing any speed work this time around except for tempo runs at pace that is about :30 seconds faster than marathon pace. I also intend to run more miles at marathon pace when I am feeling good. A lot of rambling today but I just wanted to write down what I was thinking.

767 (367.3)

windy in lower case today because it was not as windy as yesterday but still a bit blustery nonetheless.  I stopped taking the anti-inflamatories I had been taking for a few weeks before the marathon and a few days after and I was really feeling it my lower back today.  I don't know what I am going to do about this dang thing.  It really is the biggest cause of all my running problems right now and I could sure use a solution.  It could be some residual strain which has carried over from the marathon so I will give it a few more days to see if it clears up but if it doesn't I think I may need to start seeking the advise of a doctor as much as I hate to say it.  Anyway, the run went okay and the pain was bearable so life is good.....right?!?!

768 (187.91)

Finally a day with very little wind.  The wind we did have was also coming from an odd easterly direction.  Anyway it was nice and cool with pretty good cloud coverage, great conditions for running.  I was still feeling the pain in the lower back today but it didn't seem as bad as yesterday.  Picked up the pace to about an 8:00/mile for the last mile and it felt pretty good.  I am feeling like I am pretty much recovered from the marathon, no muscle soreness just some lingering staleness in the legs which I'm sure will be gone by next week.  Tomorrow I will be running with the Ragnar team up at Mt. Charleston at about 5,000-6,000 feet and on hills, should be a good workout.

768 (193.91)

Well, if nothing else, today has been interesting.  I was debating last night about going up to Mt. Charleston and running hills at elevation with my Wasatch relay team because my back was really bothering me.  Ever since I quite taking the meds I can feel everything.  I layed my clothes out just in case and come 6:00 am I finally decided I would get up and go.  Met the group at Arbor View HS and we drove the 30 minutes to the Mt. Charleston lodge and then proceeded up the mountain at a snails pace for three miles.  According to garmin we went from 6,800 feet to 7,600 feet in those three miles and averaged about 9:30-9:45 pace.  The way back down was a lot quicker and I averaged about 7:40/mile for those three miles.  It was pretty chilly up on the mountain and we even saw a few snow flakes and some fresh snow on the ground from the night before.  It was a tough run but very enjoyable.

Came back to town and I decided to go out and run a few more miles.  While I was running the neighborhood loop my kids came running up and told me Meg was having a problem with my car (2003 Ford Focus).  The stearing wheel had locked up and you couldn't even turn the key.  So I went to investigate and had absolutely no luck getting that thing to work.  So we had the car towed in and am now waiting to hear what the damages will be to repair that problem.  Had to know it would happen like this, I just sent in my tax rebate money to ford credit to pay off my car and now this happens.  Murphey's law or something.  Luckily my wife had only driven the car over to a friends house so it was close by and I was able to log some miles going back and forth from our house to theirs while waiting for the tow truck.  Not a bad mileage week for me after a marathon.  I hope to add a few more miles next week but not go crazy.....maybe 40.

768 (203.91)

Rest.

Happy Memorial Day!!  It is a beautiful day here in Vegas.  The weather this morning was perfect for running (60) at the start and a bit too warm (70) at the finish.  Only plan today was to run 7 miles.  At the two mile mark I decided to pick up the pace a little bit to just under manrathon pace and hold it for 3 miles.  Averaged 7:18/mile for these miles and they felt too hard.  I think I may still be feeling the effects of my run on Saturday on the hills and at elevation.  Back is still bothering me but everything else seems to be doing okay.  Will plan to finish the rest of the week with relatively easy miles unless the body allows otherwise.  Not planning on following any set training schedule except what my body will allow.  SGM is only 19 weeks away, where does the time go.

Time: 55:30  7:56/mile

768 (210.91)

Planned on running 7 this morning but was only able to fit in 6 due to a late start and a mid run bathroom break.  Surprisingly everything felt pretty good this morning except the back again.  It was really bothering me pretty bad last night and didn't think I would be able to even run this morning.  Once I got going everything loosened up and I felt pretty good.  Took it nice and slow today and will continue to keep it slow until things start feeling better.

Time:  51:57   8:33/mile

767 (373.3)

Due to the continued pain in my lower back I decided to take today off and give it a rest to see if that will help.  Hopefully things will be looking up tomorrow.

Nice easy run today.  Started out fairly slow and built up to about 8:15 by the last mile.  Felt pretty good the whole way and didn't really feel any additional back pain that had been feeling in previous days.  I had my wife rub my back on Tuesday night pretty aggresively and I'm afraid that may have aggrivated it more.  Hopefully it is just some lingering muscular issues from the marathon and it will eventually pass.

Time:  59:18  8:28/mile

768 (217.91)

Another nice easy run today.  I continue to be surprised by my back.  It doesn't seem to effect my running that much but is very painful if I move it just right while laying in bed or bending over.  It seems to be more in the upper hip area than the lower back.  I wonder if maybe I have strained a muscle in that area and it is trying to heal.  In any regard, running doesn't cause much pain at all unless I really push the pace and stretch out the stride.  I guess I will just continue to give it time and see if gets better or worse.  Beautiful day for running except for the breezy conditions.  Temp at the start was 66 and finished at around 73.

Time:  1:09:03  8:38/mile

767 (381.3)

Woke up this morning and my back was killing me and I had some numbness in my right foot.  Typically my pain has been down my left leg and left foot area but it seems to have shifted to the right side as well.  Since things are not getting any better I decided not to run today and just take things on a day by day basis.  I think biking will be on the menu at least for the next week or so until this thing calms down and I have a chance to see the doc and get a professional opinion.

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)

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