Second Wind

Rest

Nice easy day on the stake pres loop.  We call it the stake pres loop because we pass the stake presidents house about half way through the run.  It is a nice run up Tropical to Jones and then on some back roads through some open ranch land that bring us back to Tenaya and home.  Since it was a holiday we decided to break out of our usual 1.45 mile rut around our develpment and have some fun.  I swear we have almost run a rut in the ground where we run every morning around our place.  The weather was perfect and run was nice and easy as we start to taper for Fontana.  Went to Mt. Charleston with the kids and went for a short hike up the bristlecone trail near the ski resort.  Very nice to get out of the 90s and into the 60s.

Time: 8:54/mile

Nice run today, perfect weather and okay pace.  Another easy run to go along with our taper for Fontana.  Still debating about what time to shoot for at Fontana.  With marathon training starting the Monday after I don't want to push it so hard that I have to take a week off to rest the quads due to the pounding but with the downhill course I am excited to see just how fast I can go.  With 18 weeks until St. George I am tempted to just go for it and see what the body is capable of doing.  I think a sub 1:40 is possible on this course for me and I'd like to shoot for at least that time.  We'll see how the taper progresses and go from there.

Time: 8:39/mile

Another low mileage and slow taper day.  The weather here has been incredible, 70 at the start of the run with little or no wind.  This may be considered warm by some but for us Las Vegans, low 70's are a treat in the summer.  Still I think the temps are a bit above average for this time of year.  I imagine next month we will start seeing some warmer early morning temps.  Run felt good today with only slight pain in the calfs and a tad in the knees.  This month will end up being my highest mileage month since I started running last year, this may explain why my calfs and knees complain from time to time.  Still looking forward to Fontana with a goal time to be decided in the next couple of days.

Time: 8:33/mile

This run finishes off the month with the most miles for me in my running career with 152.8.  My previous record was 151.1 a couple of months earlier this year in March.  As the training continues through the summer and if I can stay injury free I expect this record will be broken several times over.  Good smooth run today with very little effort.  Nice taper run to allow all the little aches and pains to heal a bit.  Calfs are feeling stronger everyday and knees are feeling good too.  One more short taper run tomorrow of 2 or 3 miles and then we'll be all set for Fontana.  I still haven't decided on a goal time but I think it would be something like this:

Happy 1:45     Very Happy 1:40     Ecstatic 1:35  Any of these times would also be a half-marathon PR so life would be good in any scenario.

Time: 8:40/mile

Just 2 slow miles today to keep the engine idling before the Fontana half tomorrow.  I am excited about the race and as always have butterflies in the stomache.  I have confidence that I can PR tomorrow but by how much remains to be seen.  The weather in Fontana looks to be mostly cloudy in the morning with some clearing later in the day and temps during the race in the 60-70 degree range with light 5-10 mph winds.  Sounds like a great day for a run.  Body felt good today and I can almost feel the healing in my calfs as I have tapered this week.  Amazing what cutting back on intensity and distance will do.  Will also try to work on my mental strength tomorrow during the race in telling my body to keep going even when it gets tired.......not to sure how that will go either, sometimes I turn in to a real case by the finish line.  Should be fun....can't wait!

Time:  8:38/mile

Wow!!! What a great day for a race.  The weather was close to perfect at the start.  I have no idea what the temperature was but it was perfect.  Very light breeze......just enough to shimmy the leaves on the trees a tiny bit.  Lots of friendly runners and a very helpful staff of volunteers who ran a very organized race from my perspective.

Boarded the buses at about 5:30 and got up to the camp ground around 6:00 and well....you all know what happens before the race.  Spend time in lines waiting for the POPs (at least twice).   Anyway......I ran a bit and stretched...you know.....the other important pre-race stuff.

Finally....the horn sounded and we were off and running like the wind (or at least it felt that way as we began cascading down the hill back to the Inland Empire).  Heard several friends telling each other to "slow down we are going out to fast" and as it turned out many of them did as we passed several walkers with beat up calfs and shins along the way.

Mile 1:  6:53
Oops!! Went out a lot faster than anticipated!  I was hoping this wasn't going to kill me later in the race.

Mile 2: 6:59
Still didn't learn from the first mile and decided to try and put on the brakes a little just to conserve energy.

Mile 3: 7:09
Much better......this is the pace I like and and as you can tell tried to stick to it for the remainter of the race.

Mile 4: 7:11

Mile 5: 7:09

Mile 6: 7:08

Mile 7: 7:04

Mile 8: 7:04
End of the down hill and now a stretch along the loneliest road in the world.  The field is so spread out and there is nothing but weeds and bushes for the next 2-3 miles.

Mile 9: 7:09

Mile 10: 7:08
Finally back to civilization and decided to walk through the aid station to hydrate, power gel and gear up for the last 5K.

Mile 11: 7:19
Can tell body is starting to feel the miles and decide to take one more drink at this aid station.

Mile 12: 7:37
Starting to lose it here.  Should have skipped the drink, stomach is now feeling it.

Mile 13: 7:23
Ran past a business cooking something that didn't agree with my nose but they had the music turned up and it helped me to refocus a little bit.  Are those balloons getting any closer?

Mile .17?: 1:09
Not sure what happened with the Garmin but ended up with 13.17 miles.  I imagine running through canyon may have messed up the signal here and there.

Over all felt really good throughout the entire run and am totally excited about the new PR.  Not really sure if a generally downhill course really counts for a PR but I never even dreamed of averaging 7:13/mile so I don't really care if it counts or not.  Old PR was 1:45:58.