A Lean and Hungry Look

Shoreline with Maya (my dog).  EZ pace throughout (Maya, who loves to push the pace, but only for about 400-800 meters, kept me from blasting the last 2 miles as I normally do on this route).  Gorgeous morning, everything felt good (although the first two miles hurt, as always).  First time running the Shoreline this year.  I've missed it.

AHR 157.

10 x 2-min repeats at Liberty Park, with goal of holding pace between 5:25-5:30.  Splits were:

1. 5:14 (too fast)

2. 5:09 (way too fast)

3. 5:29 (hurting already)

4. 5:26

5. 5:42 (why did I go out so fast?)

6. 5:39 (just holding on)

7. 5:23 (found someone to chase, which seemed to focus me)

8. 5:38 (back to hurting)

9. 5:43 (probably tried to save up a little for the last one)

10. 5:18 (felt pretty blown by the end of this one)

I think I'm clearly lacking endurance from having missed so many key workouts over the past month, especially long runs.  Brooke got into SGM, so I'm going to have to be extremely disciplined to avoid missing workouts as we try to juggle our training.  Plan is for me to run early enough so Brooke can be out by 6:15.

Planned day off.

I did my long run today because I'll be pacing Duane Newman for 13-15 miles of the Ogden marathon on Saturday at 3:00 pace and figured I would need an easy day in between.

Ran up Emigration at comfortable pace (around 8:00), then turned around with goal of maintaining MP the rest of the way.  Splits were:

Mile 6: 6:00 (169)

Mile 7: 5:50 (180)

Mile 8: 5:50 (182)

Mile 9: 5:47 (184)

Mile 10: 5:39 (185)

My ipod didn't work (I was going to listen to it on the hard miles only), so I was left to listen to the clomp of my shoes and my rapid breathing.  I had to work pretty hard to keep the pace and never felt like I could throw the hammer down.  In the final mile, on the hill just past the zoo, I was hurting pretty bad and felt my pace slowing.  Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of the steeper downhill after the post office and make up some ground.  I felt pretty tired but not destroyed afterward.

AHR 169.

Sugarhouse loop at EZ pace with Maya.  She did well until about 3 miles, when she slowed down and let me drag her home.  Tried to keep it slow so I could recover from yesterday's tempo run and get ready for tomorrow's pacing duties at Ogden.

AHR 161.

Plan was to pace Duane and Tyler at the Ogden marathon to a sub-3, a first for both of them.  Picked them up at 8 miles.  My instructions were to hold pace at 6:50/mi through mile 14 (between 6:45-6:52).  First mile: 6:50. Second mile: 6:52.  At that point, Duane started falling off the back just a little, so I held back to stay with him while Tyler slowly pulled ahead.  Duane held right around 7:00 through 14, then hit the big hill with a 7:30 mile, which was according to plan.  However, Duane started cramping (calves) right after we crested the hill, so we slowed down dramatically.  He tried to gut it out for a while but finally told me that he was done and asked me to try to catch Tyler and take him in.  Tyler was well ahead of us at that point, so catching him required some effort.  My first mile trying to catch Tyler was just under 6:00.  When I still couldn't see him up ahead, I slowed down and paced one of the lead women for a mile or so (should have asked her name).  At that point, I saw Tyler up ahead, so I pulled away and caught him.  He was starting to hurt (we were around 18-19), but he was still holding at 6:50-7:00.  By mile 20, he started cramping (calves and quads), so we slowed down a bit.  The initial wave of cramps passed pretty quickly, so pace wasn't affected too much.  However, by 22, he was really hurting.  At 22.5, he looked at his watch and determined that he still had 60 seconds "in the bank."  He quickly calculated that he could give up 15 seconds per mile and still stay under 3:00.  His mind changed pretty quickly, though, when his cramps came back with a vengeance, and he had to start taking walk breaks interspersed with slow jogs.  Since it was clear that the goal was no longer in sight, I left Tyler at mile 23, where I was planning to stop (since my longest run in over a year until today was 10 miles).  After a minute, though, I saw the woman I had paced earlier, and she looked tired but still strong.  I jumped back in and ran with her for another mile.  She was fading.  Had to take a potty break at about 24, so I left her again.  When I came out, I saw Tyler again, so I decided to help him limp home.  He was still hurting, but he was able to take less frequent walk breaks over the final mile or so.  He finished in 3:11.  Duane finished in 3:19.  I felt bad that they missed their goals, but they both took it in stride and are planning to spend the summer tweaking their training in hopes of taking another shot at the goal in the Fall.  It felt great to be in the middle of a marathon again after having not run one myself in 2.5 years.

AHR 166.

Easy 6 to 27th South and back.  Comfortable throughout.  Only residual pain from Saturday's pacing activities was in my big toenails.

AHR 157.

Sugarhouse loop with Maya.  AHR was 157 (which indicates an easy effort for me, even though the rate probably looks high).  I switched up my schedule and will do speed work tomorrow morning.  I had a 7 am school community council meeting and didn't have time for the whole speed routine.

Maya was really slow this morning from 3 miles on.  I may let her run with Brooke exclusively from this point on (at least through my marathon training), because I feel like I'm abusing the poor dog as she drags behind me on the wrong end of the leash, and also because I don't like the sensation of pulling extra weight up the hill on my way home.  She's a great running companion for Brooke and seems more comfortable at Brooke's pace, so I think my days of having her trip me the second she spots a sprinkler off in the distance (she's terrified of water and bolts when she sees it) may be over until the off-season.

AHR 157.

I woke up with some tightness in my left Achilles, so I decided to put off my speed workout until tomorrow and focus on stretching and doing my strengthening exercises instead.

Tightness in Achilles was gone, so I went ahead with my planned workout of 6x3-min repeats with 3 min rest between each, plus warmup and cooldown, all at Liberty Park.  Unfortunately, my Garmin battery died in the middle of my warmup, so I had to guess on my repeats based on past workouts.  I think I was reasonably accurate, but who knows?  I felt stronger than the last time I did this workout two weeks ago, which is not hard, since I felt absolutely awful then.  My guess is that my pace was between 5:30-5:45 for the repeats.  I noticed very mild tightness in my right Achilles, but not at the insertion point where I've had problems with my left.  Need to watch that and be more diligent about doing my stretches and strengthening exercises on both legs.

Easy run along Shoreline with Maya.  Trail was packed with hikers and their dogs today.  Maya is scared to death of other dogs, so the high number of off-leash pooches made things a little more interesting than usual.  One of them almost took my legs out trying to get at Maya as we were coming off a steep hill, but fortunately we all avoided injury.  Brooke has decided that Maya pulls her too much and that it's making her "a worse runner," so she doesn't want to run with her anymore.  I can't take Maya on my hard workouts or anything longer than an easy 6 because she drags behind me, so I'm going to try to use my easy days to do more trail running.  She loves trails and my pace is slower on them, so it works for both of us.

No Achilles pain at all today.  AHR 159.

I headed up Emigration but didn't get out until 9:00 (had to wait for Brooke to return from her long run), so I competed with about a million cyclists and a couple of car/motorcycle clubs that seem to like the way their souped-up engine noise pierces the stillness of the canyon.  Although the temperature felt hot (I should have brought water) and I was nearly rammed into the guardrail by a few novices in spandex, the run went relatively well.  Splits on the descent were:

Mile 7: 5:41

Mile 8: 5:57

Mile 9:  5:52

Mile 10: 6:00

Mile 11: 5:52

Mile 12: 5:44

I was a little disappointed that the pace wasn't a little more consistent and a little faster, I can feel myself growing stronger.  It's going to take some work, though, to make 5:40 feel sustainable for 26.2.  Good thing I have all summer to devote to it.

Ran the neighborhood 5k with Jacob.  As usual, he started a little fast and was feeling beat up by 1.5.  He pushed through it, though, and finished with a strong kick to beat his buddy.  I ran the course a second time to get my mileage.  Nothing interesting to report.

Took my day off early because I didn't drag myself out of bed early enough to finish before Brooke would be leaving for her run.

10 x 2-min repeats at Sugarhouse Park (I decided it was time to start incorporating some terrain into my speed work).

Warmup: 1.02 mi

1: 5:11/mi (171 bpm)

2: 4:54/mi (177 bpm) (these were way too fast, so--spoiler alert--bonk ahead)

3: 5:31/mi (180 bpm)

4: 5:48/mi (179 bpm)

5: 5:29/mi (172 bpm)

6: 5:21/mi (176 bpm)

7: 5:24/mi (177 bpm)

8: 6:21/mi (180 bpm) (this one started at the base of the long hill on the south side and I was fried by the time I got to the top but still had about 1:30 to go on the repeat)

9: 5:27/mi (176 bpm)

10: 5:19/mi (180 bpm)

Cooldown: 1.5 mi

Because my 305 doesn't give pace information during intervals, I had no idea how fast I was going on any of the repeats.  However, I blew up so bad on #8 that I thought I'd be lucky to stay sub-7.  I clearly need to work on pacing myself on the early repeats so that I don't pop later in my workout.  I was surprised that my HR stayed below 180 most of the time.  That usually indicates that I'm not working hard enough, but I felt pretty hammered from #3 on.  It seems like my legs were more of a problem than usual today, probably because of the introduction of hills into my speed work.  All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by most of the splits.  Based on how I felt, I thought most of them would be 5:45 or slower.  The 4:54 was a complete anomaly and clearly hurt me later.

Ran down to 17th South, then up to Wasatch around the zoo, through Research Park and back home.  The hill on 17th hurt, as always.  Other than the hills, pace felt comfortable.  Gorgeous morning to be out.  Felt slight tightness in my left Achilles on the way up 17th, but no pain.  Good reminder to stick to my exercises and stretches.

AHR: 163 bpm

Easy out-and-back in Holladay after work.  Wind was blowing hard and temp was a little warm for my comfort, but the run felt good.

AHR: 152

Jacob had an 8:00 am game today and I was up past midnight, so I didn't make it out for the early run.  While doing yardwork later in the morning, I managed to hyperextend my right knee.  It hurt throughout the day, so I was a little worried about doing my workout.  After that, Jacob had a piano recital and Kaela came home from Korea, so I just didn't have the time to go out for a modified run.  I need to see if I can work in an additional long run next week, if for no other reason than to keep my confidence up going into Wasatch Back in a few weeks.

Sugarhouse loop. Listened to This American Life and found myself laughing out loud several times, so my pace was clearly relaxed.

Fortunately, I didn't feel any residual pain from hyperextending my knee on Saturday.  That was a relief.

AHR: 155

It's Jacob's 10th birthday today, so I couldn't justify an early run because he was already up and raring to open gifts.  Brought my stuff to work and ran an easy 6 at lunch.  Same route as Friday's after-work run.  I love having access to a shower at work.

Scheduled day off.

6x3-min repeats at Sugarhouse Park with target of 5:30/mi pace with warmup and cooldown and active rest.  Splits were:

5:27/mi (171 bpm)

5:28/mi (180 bpm)

5:26/mi (179 bpm)

Potty break (had to wait for the grounds crew to unlock the restroom)

5:29/mi (171 bpm)

5:14/mi (175 bpm)

5:16/mi (180 bpm)

The last two repeats had a little downhill but no uphill, which contributed to the faster pace.  It felt good to finally hit all of my splits at or faster than my target pace (it's the first time since I started doing speed work in late March).  The best part was that I set my pace based on perceived effort as opposed to speed.  Since the 305 doesn't display pace during intervals, I've struggled to find my pace without going overboard in early repeats, then crashing later on.  Today was a needed confidence-booster that should help me make my quality days more productive going forward.

Easy pace on nice, overcast morning.  I was going to head up to the Shoreline but the legs felt a little heavy from yesterday's speed work, and I have a long run tomorrow with the second half at MP, so I took it easy.  Other than feeling a little tired from yesterday, I felt good throughout.

Ran up Emigration almost to Pinecrest.  Emigration Canyon Half was underway and it was fun to see a few friends mid-race.  Kept the pace easy all the way up, then tried for MP at the turnaround.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 8: 5:50 (163 bpm)

Mile 9: 5:54 (170 bpm)

Mile 10: 5:55 (171 bpm)

Mile 11: 5:57 (173 bpm)

Mile 12: 5:55 (176 bpm)

Mile 13: 5:42 (178 bpm)

Used final mile as cooldown.  Although my pace on the tempo section wasn't as fast as desired (target was 5:45), it was hard to hold.  I don't know if that was due to the climbing that preceded the tempo, the overall distance, the fact that I missed my long run last Saturday, or just that I'm coming along more slowly than anticipated.  I'm hoping to see some improvement over the next few weeks in my tempo pace, but overall I'm pleased with my progress.

Easy 6 on new loop.  20th E to 21st E to Parley's Canyon under freeway to Stratford to 17th E to 17th S to 16th E to Emerson to 17th E and back home through the neighborhood.  Exactly 6, so it might be a nice alternative to the Sugarhouse loop that is getting a little old.  Felt good today.

AHR 159

10x3-min intervals at Sugarhouse Park.  Target was around 5:30-5:40.  All but one or two of the intervals involved one of the two hills at the park, and every time I felt sapped by the time I reached the top.  Although it tends to hurt my splits, I still prefer to incorporate hills into my interval workouts because I think it helps me mentally when I encounter terrain in a race setting.  Enough philosophy.  Here are my splits:

1. 5:35/mi (166 bpm)

2. 5:36/mi (172 bpm)

3. 5:41/mi (175 bpm)

4. 5:56/mi (175 bpm)

5. 5:45/mi (177 bpm)

6. 5:37/mi (178 bpm)

7. 5:27/mi (175 bpm) (I think this was the first one without a hill)

8. 5:47/mi (177 bpm)

9. 5:48/mi (175 bpm)

10. 5:59/mi (174 bpm) (the long hill in the NEC of the park came about 2:00 in and wiped me out)

Looking back at my HR for the workout, I think I may have been overly cautious in my pacing.  I should have been closer to 180 bpm, especially in the final 3-4 intervals.  I was nervous that I would pop after 6 or 7 intervals, since I hadn't done more than 6 3-min intervals before today.  Although I was tired at the end, I have felt far worse in speed sessions over the past several weeks.  I had more to give, so I'll try to give more in my next interval workout.

Scheduled day off.

Took Kaela to an early violin lesson and couldn't drag myself out of bed at 4:45 in order to fit my scheduled run in before the lesson.  Fortunately, she moves to a summer schedule after this week that won't conflict with my running schedule.  The lesson went great, by the way.

10 miles with 8 at HMP effort.  Drove 2 miles from my house into Emigration and parked the car.  It was cold up there--probably in the low 40's.  Should have brought arm warmers and light gloves.  Oops.  Ran 4 miles up with last 2 miles at a target HR of no higher than 173.  I was slightly higher than that even though the splits were only 7:00 (172 bpm) and 7:33 (174 bpm).  Effort didn't feel hard, but HR was high.  I don't know why.  At turnaround point, I rested, walked, and stretched for 5-7 minutes before starting the fast downhill section.  Target was to stay under 5:55.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 5: 5:45 (167 bpm)

Mile 6: 5:48 (174 bpm)

Mile 7: 5:53 (175 bpm)

Mile 8: 5:46 (177 bpm)

Mile 9: 5:36 (179 bpm)

Mile 10: 5:21 (181 bpm)

I felt much better than on my Emigration run last Saturday.  The brisk temperature may have contributed to that, along with the fact that my ipod worked this time.  I prefer not to race with music, but it seems to help me pull a little more out of myself on some of my harder training runs, so I'll probably keep doing it, at least until I feel like I can hit my targets consistently without the help of music.  The effort felt good.

I started out planning to do my scheduled long run (12 miles with 10 at MP), but after my first mile of tempo I could tell that another 9 at tempo wasn't in the cards, so I turned it into a 6-mile recovery run instead.  Yesterday's tempo run was great but probably took more out of me than I realized.  I'll have to do my long run early tomorrow instead.

Plan was to do 1-mile warmup, then 6 at HMP, then 1-mile cooldown.  Drove to Liberty Park so my pace would be honest.  Unfortunately, it was a little too honest for me--the pace was much slower than the effort felt.  On top of that, I was only able to handle 4 miles before popping.  Not sure what was going on, but my heart rate was way higher than it should have been for the target pace (5:55), and the actual pace was far slower than my target.  I have to admit that I questioned the accuracy of the Garmin today.  (I did update the device software over the weekend and initially had a problem with it.)  Compared to past interval workouts at Liberty Park, it seemed like each of today's mile splits came about 0.1-0.2 later than I was expecting.  It was probably just because I was going slower than the effort felt, though.  At any rate, here are the tempo splits:

Mile 2: 6:00 (167 bpm) (I expected a split of 5:40-5:45)

Mile 3: 6:13 (178 bpm--way too high if the split is correct)

Mile 4: 6:11 (180 bpm)

Mile 5: 6:08 (181 bpm)

With my HR so high and my splits so much slower than my target, I decided to cut the tempo short and cool down.  Maybe I'll have to do Wednesday's tempo somewhere else where I know the mile markers so I can figure out whether I was just off today or whether the problem was the Garmin.

Planned day off.

Ran 3 miles up Emigration at a comfortable pace, stopped and stretched for a few minutes, then turned around and did the remaining 3 at what was supposed to be half-marathon pace, but ended up being more like 5k pace.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 4: 5:29 (167 bpm)

Mile 5: 5:26 (180 bpm)

Mile 6: 5:22 (182 bpm)

In the last mile I felt myself going anaerobic, so I backed off a little.  Tired but not wiped out afterward.  Good warmup for WBR on Friday.

Easy 3 without Garmin, just enough to keep loose for Wasatch Back tomorrow.

Trading Paces (#449) was 3rd in the mixed category.  Results don't show overall place, but I think we were around the 13th fastest time once the all-male teams are factored in.  Our team roster was as follows:

Runner 1: Lisa Madsen

Runner 2: Heather Mastakas

Runner 3: Jed Burton

Runner 4: Angie Welder

Runner 5: Lori Allen

Runner 6: Patrick Bodnar

Runner 7: Bobbi Heaney

Runner 8: Andrew Bybee

Runner 9: Jake Thompson

Runner 10: Ryan Bybee

Runner 11: John Moore

Runner 12: Alli Thompson

Leg 3 (4:30 p.m.)

Temperature was in mid-80's, but after the cool spring we've had, this was my first in warm weather, and my heart rate was ridiculously high, especially in light of the slow pace.  Splits were horrendous:

Mile 1: 6:20 (175 bpm)

Mile 2: 6:27 (181)

Mile 3: 6:36 (183)

Mile 4: 7:13 (181) (had a pretty nasty side stich hit me out of the blue--I never get them--so I slowed down in order to have better control over my breathing)

Mile 5: 7:20 (181)

Final 0.6: 6:59/mi (185)

I hadn't felt this awful on a run in years.  The terrain was relatively flat with a slight rise, but there was a headwind most of the way and the temperature just killed me.  I also realized that I hadn't eaten lunch, which may have also contributed to my problems.  Disappointing way to start the race, as my target pace for the leg was between 6:00 and 6:10.

Wasatch Back Relay: Leg 15 (11:30 p.m.)

Temperature was about 55, terrain was gently rolling with a slight overall rise.  This leg felt great.  I put in a solid effort but it didn't feel nearly as hard as the first leg, and the pace was closer to my target.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 1: 5:55 (167 bpm)

Mile 2: 6:04 (177)

Mile 3: 6:05 (178)

Mile 4: 6:06 (177)

Mile 5: 6:06 (177)

Pace was still a little slower than I would have liked, but this was an exhilarating run, just as the nighttime run always is for me at WBR.  I took two wrong turns, so my overall distance was 5.07 instead of 4.9.

Wasatch Back Relay: Leg 27 (7:45 a.m.)

This leg had some steep uphill and downhill and was pretty challenging overall.  Beautiful scenery, though.  As usual, I got less than an hour of sleep, so I wasn't running on a full tank, but I was pretty pleased with my performance under the conditions.  Splits were:

Mile 1: 5:47 (downhill) (165 bpm)

Mile 2: 6:07 (flat) (174)

Mile 3: 6:19 (flat until the end, where the climb began) (171)

Mile 4: 7:38 (steep climb) (174)

Mile 5: 7:34 (up and down) (176)

Mile 6: 6:50 (174)

Mile 7: 6:43 (173)

Last 0.9: 6:20/mi (downhill) (173)

I think my overall pace would have been between 6:20 and 6:30 under better conditions, but I wasn't disappointed under the circumstances.

The makeup of my teams changes every year, but we had several returning runners this year (Andrew and Ryan Bybee, Angie Welder, Patrick Bodnar and I were third-timers; Jake and Alli Thompson and Heather Mastakas were second-timers; Bobbi Heaney, Lori Allen, and John Moore were first-timers to both our team and the race; and Lisa Madsen ran with us for the first time after running it several times with other teams).  Team dynamics were great and everyone performed close to and in several cases better than our projections.  The only disappointment was in a botched exchange at 24.  Somehow we got confused in Van #1 and slept at Exchange 25 and left Alli waiting at 24 for 10-15 minutes while we threw everything in the van and went back.  We were about 13 minutes out of second place when the dust settled, and our mistake may have been the difference.  For future reference, 18+6=24, not 25.

I was a little disappointed in my personal performance, but it gave me an idea of where my weaknesses are and should help focus my training for the rest of the summer as I start looking toward St. George.

 I was planning to get up early for 10 miles with some tempo, but had a rough night with one of the kids and didn't crawl out of bed early enough.  Took the two older kids on a hike to Grandeur Peak (from Church Fork in Millcreek Canyon) and had a great time.  I was going to try to run later in the evening, but ended up having to work on the house (had some water problems in the garage that had to be addressed) all afternoon and evening.  By the time we finished, it was about 9:00 p.m. and I was exhausted.

Easy 6 (21st East Loop).  Very little residual tightness from WBR, feeling pretty good.

AHR: 151 bpm

Allergies were out of control today, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to manage a run.  Decided to try it anyway, so I ran an easy 6-mile loop after work that began at Sugarhouse Park.  I didn't feel great, but the heat didn't bother me quite as much as it did at WBR last Friday.

AHR: 154 bpm

Ran home from work.  Another afternoon run in the heat.  Allergies still bugging me but not quite as bad as yesterday.

AHR: 154 bpm

Ran to work with backpack on.  It wasn't too heavy, but it still bugged me.  Took it easy all the way in.  Legs felt tired.  I'll probably take tomorrow off before doing some tempo on Saturday.

AHR: 155 bpm

Planned day off.

Easy 6 around 21st East loop.  Left Garmin at home and focused on loosening up the legs after Saturday's Grandeur Peak hike and a few days off from running.

12x2-minute repeats at 5k pace (goal of around 5:20/mi).  I did these at Sugarhouse Park, and the wide swings in pace are due primarily to the hills at the park--the very fast ones included downhill and the very slow ones included uphill.  Even so, I was pretty inconsistent today.

1-mile warmup

1. 5:03/mi (165 bpm)

2. 5:12/mi (171)

3. 5:45/mi (174 bpm) (started at the bottom of the long hill on the southwest side)

4. 5:38/mi (171) (hill on northeast side)

5. 5:06/mi (170)

6. 5:17/mi (172)

7. 5:30/mi (177)

8. 5:33/mi (173)

9. 5:07/mi (170)

10. 5:37/mi (171)

11. 5:02/mi (171)

12. 5:41/mi (177)

Roughly 1-mile cooldown.

Average pace for intervals: 5:22/mi

I was surprised that my HR stayed as low as it did.  That's a good sign.  My legs were pretty tired, though, particularly on the intervals that included climbing.  On my last few runs I've felt something a little weird in my right knee, mainly in the tendon on the outside but also just inside the patella.  It's hard to explain but it's as though I feel the tendon moving around.  No pain at all, but probably something to watch.

Scheduled rest day.

Drove 2 miles up Emigration, then ran up 4 miles at a comfortable pace (HR stayed below 160 most of the way).  Stopped and stretched for a few minutes, then turned around and came down.  Target pace was 5:50/mile.  Splits were:

Mile 5: 5:45 (162 bpm)

Mile 6: 5:48 (171)

Mile 7: 5:42 (174)

Mile 8: 5:54 (175)

Mile 9: 5:44 (177)

Mile 10: 5:23 (181)

Although the split for Mile 8 was a little slow, I was able to maintain a pretty consistent pace below target with a reasonable effort.  In past Emigration workouts, I think I've put more on the line and, as a result, have had difficulty recovering in time to run my Saturday workouts on target.  Instead of keeping the pedal to the floor today, I tried using cruise control until the last mile, and it felt better.  Hopefully that will translate into a better Saturday run this week.

Everything felt good today.  I didn't feel anything in my right knee, so I'm thinking that whatever it was may have been left over from the Grandeur Peak hike.  I'll keep an eye out for it, though.

Tonight we levae for Sheep Valley (near Fish Lake) for a quick camping trip/family reunion, so I'm hopeful that I can find some decent terrain for my tempo run on Saturday.  In any event, it should be fun, especially for the kids.

I ran on the trails around the Sheep Valley property.  We didn't arrive until 2:00 a.m.--due to some bad directions, an attempt to take the minivan on terrain that would challenge a 4x4 and resulted in hitting a tree and getting stuck for a while at midnight, but I digress--and I didn't get more than about 2 hours of sleep.  The run felt hot and exhausting.  I realized, after completing the run, that the elevation was about 9500 feet.  That, coupled with a lack of sleep, may have led to the overall crappy feeling.  It was spectacular country, though, and the drive home only took 3.5 hours instead of the 7.5 it took us to get there.  Call me Clark Griswold.

AHR 157

We didn't actually make it home from our camping trip and July 4th festivities until midnight on Saturday, so I broke my rule and, for only the second time in my memory, did my long run early Sunday morning (I had meetings starting at 7:30).  I'm counting it as Saturday mileage, though.  To help me justify transgressing a personal boundary, I did the run sans-iPod (I can't remember exactly where that exemption is found in Exodus).  Drove to Mountain Dell Golf Course, then ran past Little Dell and up the back side of Little Mountain, down Emigration to Crestview, up Crestview to Wasatch, around Wasatch to 13th, down to Foothill and back home.  Plan was to do the first 4 easy and the remaining 10 at a target of 6:00/mile.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 5: 6:28 (included last part of Little Mountain ascent) (157 bpm)

Mile 6: 6:01 (156)

Mile 7: 5:55 (159)

Mile 8: 5:58 (163)

Mile 9: 5:57 (166)

Mile 10: 5:55 (171)

Mile 11: 5:52 (172)

Mile 12: 5:55 (173)

Mile 13: 5:54 (included Crestview hill) (175)

Mile 14: 6:02 (177)

Although the first mile was surprisingly slow, I settled in to my pace and felt strong (strong enough to bark at a couple of cyclists who were leisurely riding two abreast and almost pushed me off the road during Mile 12) until the last half mile along Foothill, which is slightly uphill.  With about a quarter mile to go and needing to cross the road to get home, I was anaerobic and stopped for a minute to wait for a gap in traffic.  Otherwise, the AHR for the final mile would probably have been closer to 180.

I was late for my meeting, but the run went better than expected.  I don't know that I'm strong enough yet to hold 6:00 pace over terrain that isn't downhill, but I feel like I'm getting stronger each week.

Due to the shift in my long run, I'll plan to rest tomorrow and move my scheduled 6-miler to Wednesday (my scheduled rest day) instead.

Scheduled day off.

10x3-min intervals with 2 min rest between each at Liberty Park.  Goal was to maintain 5k pace of around 5:20/mile.  I pressed the wrong button on the Garmin after finishing my warmup and starting my first interval and ended up going 3:36 or so before catching the mistake.  I reset the Garmin after that and think the splits seem accurate.  Here they are:

1. 5:30 (guess)

2. 5:30 (172 bpm)

3. 5:22 (175)

4. 5:39 (176)

5. 5:32 (173)

6. 5:42 (174)

7. 5:52 (176)

8. 5:24 (175)

9. 5:57 (178)

10. 5:38 (175)

I looked down at my Garmin after about the 6th interval and thought, based on how I felt, that I must only have about 1 left.  The legs felt tired, the effort felt hard, and I just never really got into a zone.  Looking back on my numbers, I'm a little discouraged that I wasn't able to hold my target pace for even one interval.  I hope Thursday's tempo goes better.

AM: Easy 3 to work out some of the soreness from yesterday's intervals.  I'll plan to do another 3 tonight.

PM: Easy 3 with Brooke after the kids went to bed.

Plan was to do 10 with 8-mile tempo at HMP at Sugarhouse Park.  Started with a 2-mile easy warmup around the outer loop, then moved to the inner loop for the tempo portion.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 3: 5:55 (168 bpm) (one hill)

Mile 4: 6:05 (176) (two hills)

Mile 5: 5:59 (177) (one hill)

Mile 6: 6:22 (179) (two hills and the wheels are coming off)

Mile 7: 6:13 (178) (one hill and the wheels are completely off)

I only made it another 1/3 mile before calling it quits on the tempo.  My legs were burning, I felt anaerobic at the top of every hill, and there just wasn't anything else in the tank to hold tempo.  I finished out the 10 miles at an easy pace and tried to figure out what was wrong.  Here's what I came up with:

I've been getting adequate sleep at night and have been drinking a lot of water at work to stay hydrated.  One thing that may have factored into today's difficulties is the fact that this is my third all-out workout in 5 days (Sunday morning's 14-miler with 10 at MP, then Tuesday morning's intervals).  I think the problem runs a little deeper, though.

This was really only my second attempt to maintain tempo on anything other than downhill terrain, and I think it revealed the inadequacy of my base, which I've been able to mask by doing my tempo work running down Emigration.  I'm a pretty good downhill runner, so I've kind of been cheating myself by using downhill runs and counting them as true tempo.  I feel like I'm trying to build a 2:30 SGM on a base that would only support 3:00.  Compared to 3 years ago, when I last trained for a marathon, I feel like I'm lacking in the base mileage to recover properly from one hard workout to the next and to sustain a hard pace for more than a few miles on honest terrain.  I think it might make sense to reassess things and increase mileage for a month while pulling back on the frequency and duration of intense workouts, then try a workout like today's again to see whether the increased mileage has made a difference.  When I last trained using the kind of workouts I'm trying to do now, I had a solid base built over the course of the winter plus a dozen or more runs of 20+ miles (including 4 marathons) over the previous 6 months.  When I did tempo at Sugarhouse with that foundation underneath me, I was able to sustain a hard pace for 6 miles (I don't recall ever doing a longer tempo run there) with little trouble.  The focus then was on increasing turnover.  I feel like I have better speed now but a far lesser ability to sustain it.  Compared to those workouts, today's felt like a death march.

Easy 6 to Sugarhouse and back.  Had to leave at 5:00 so Brooke could make it out for her long run before I left for work.  Left shin pain for first 1/2 mile or so.  Iced it afterwards.  Need to remember to massage it before bed each night.

2x10k at target pace of 6:30-6:40/mile with warmup and cooldown.  Ran out along 20th East to 45th South, then down to 5th East, then up to and around Liberty Park, with cooldown back up the hill on 9th South (not the best cooldown, FYI).  Splits were as follows:

1st 10k (started at 21st South and 20th East and ended at 45th South and 5th East):

Mile 1: 6:32 (163 bpm) (ascent 516; descent 748)

Mile 2: 6:34 (167) (a 147; d 118)

Mile 3: 6:21 (170) (a 72; d 88)

Mile 4: 6:33 (168) (a 56; d 102)

Mile 5: 6:20 (164) (a 52; d 148)

Mile 6: 6:29 (165) (a 73; d 91)

Last 0.2: 6:53/mi (oops)

Total: 40:15

2nd 10k (started at 45th South and 5th East and ended with almost 1 lap at Liberty Park):

Mile 1: 6:32 (160) (a 680; d 681--that can't possibly be right)

Mile 2: 6:28 (168) (a 62; d 68)

Mile 3: 6:32 (168) (a 107; d 72)

Mile 4: 6:28 (174) (a 94; d 128)

Mile 5: 6:26 (173) (a 114; d 107)

Mile 6: 6:12 (177) (a 102; d 135)

Last 0.2: 6:20/mi (177)

Total: 39:55

The first couple of miles of the first 10k were harder than expected--they didn't really hurt, but I had expected it to feel relatively easy and it didn't.  It required focus to keep the pace, which felt solid but doable.  The last mile or so of the second 10k felt pretty hard.  The "cooldown" going up the 9th South hill from Liberty Park felt lousy, and I was pretty spent when I got home.  As I was stretching, I realized that because I cheated and slipped in Sunday morning's run into last week's mileage, my actual mileage for the past 7 days was just over 60, which is the highest mileage I've run in a week in over 3 years, and 4 of those days were hard workouts.  That, plus the fact that I didn't get out until after 7 this morning and it was warm and muggy, may explain the overall fatigue I'm feeling.  I'll take it easy the rest of the day and tomorrow.

21st to Stratford loop at easy pace.  Felt some lingering fatigue in the legs after last week, but no pain anywhere.  I should have gotten out at 5 am as planned, because it felt hot out there.

AHR 153

Did a VO2 test this morning to get a better idea of my heart rate zones for use in tempo training.  The preliminary results seemed to confirm that I've been going out too fast on tempo that isn't on a downhill course, which results in my going lactic and hitting a point of failure soon thereafter.  The goal will be to reset target pacing for my tempo runs and to gradually raise my threshold over the next 8-9 weeks.

Results of test: Blood lactate levels will start to rise rapidly at about 178bpm.  VO2 Max at 74ml with a heart rate of 185.  Anaerobic Threshold at 172.

Sugarhouse Park loop at easy pace (7:18/mile avg).  Gorgeous morning for a run.

AHR 159

3 sets of 5k each, with target HR between 172-178, not to exceed 178. Ran to Sugarhouse at an easy pace (a little over 2 miles), then stopped and stretched for a few minutes before the first repeat.  Had to slow pace every time I hit the hills tin an attempt to stay in my target zone, but I still jumped above 178 multiple times.  Paid no attention to pace but looked at HR frequently.  I seemed to be pretty comfortable cruising at 175 on the flat sections.  Here are the details:

Set #1 (actually 3.16 miles) (around Sugarhouse): 19:32, avg pace 6:11, AHR 172, MHR 186

Mile 1: 5:58 (166 bpm)

Mile 2: 6:09 (175)

Mile 3: 6:29 (177)

Last 0.16: 5:50/mi (174)

Set #2 (around Sugarhouse): 19:11, avg pace 6:12, AHR 175, MHR 188

Mile 1: 6:03 (170)

Mile 2: 6:09 (176)

Mile 3: 6:21 (179)

Last 0.1: 6:21 (179)

Set #3 (from SW part of Sugarhouse loop and up the hill back home): 21:02, avg pace 6:47, AHR 173, MHR 182

Mile 1: 6:38 (170)

Mile 2: 6:54 (175)

Mile 3: 6:54 (176)

Last 0.1: 5:54/mi (178)

Although the last set was all mildly uphill, I think it was still slower than it should have been, probably because I spent too much time above 178 on the second set and the legs had too much lactate coursing through them.  Still, I enjoyed focusing on HR instead of pace from a mental standpoint--I was pretty frustrated last week when I wasn't able to hold my target pace at the park.  The terrain at the park makes it hard to get into a zone and set cruise control, but I like the fact that doing tempo there forces me to recover (mainly from the hills) on the run.

Easy 6 at Bear Lake over rolling terrain.  I didn't leave until after 10 am because I was waiting for Brooke to finish her 16-miler, so it was pretty warm.

Pace: 7:30/mi

AHR: 159 bpm

Out-and-back at Bear Lake.  I headed north from the cabin (on the northeast side) and ran along the rolling hills to North Beach Road, then along North Beach Road (pancake flat) to the 8-mile marker and back.  First 6 at easy pace, last 10 at MP effort (target of 168-172 bpm).  AHR and mile splits were as follows:

Mile 7 (flat): 157 bpm/6:27

Mile 8 (flat): 167/6:26

Mile 9 (flat): 167/6:16

Mile 10 (flat): 170/6:21

Mile 11 (flat): 167/6:27

Mile 12 (flat with slight rise at end): 170/6:31

Mile 13 (rolling): 171/6:47

Mile 14 (rolling): 168/6:46

Mile 15 (rolling): 173/6:46

Mile 16 (rolling): 175/6:19

I took a Hammer Gel around 30 min (raspberry--disgusting), 60 min (orange--gross but not disgusting), and 90 min (tropical w/caffeine--gagged and involuntarily spewed most of it out), and finished off two Amphipod flasks (could have used more but didn't remember to bring extra flasks).  My energy felt pretty consistent throughout and I wasn't wiped out after the run the way I normally am after a long run.  I wish I didn't hate gel so much, because the Enervitene I prefer to use is prohibitively expensive, so I'll generally only buy it for races.  Maybe if I keep forcing myself to gag down gels during long runs I'll get used to the sensation of sucking flavored mucus.  No more raspberry, though.

Stayed up too late on Sunday night and missed my Monday run.  Darn vacation.

Easy 6 at Bear Lake.  I ran south from the cabin at a very easy pace for the first three, then picked it up slightly on the last three.  Managed to beat the sun, heat, and cars and enjoyed watching the rabbits skitter across the road in front of me.

Pace: 7:22

AHR: 152 bpm

Scheduled day off.

I headed up to Arapeen and ran through Research Park, down Wakara and along Foothill to Wasatch, then worked my way through the construction on the U of U golf course, through Federal Heights to 11th Ave, then along 11th Ave to B Street and back.  It felt hot enough that I ditched my shirt after 1/2 mile and spent the next 9 miles burning the eyes of the public (but it sure felt better!).  On the way home I ran along North Campus up to Wasatch, then through the old golf course (it looks like they've turned at least some of the upper holes into a frisbee course now--I should take the kids sometime) and back.  Opened it up a bit during the last 1/2 mile or so and felt good.

Should have taken some water with me, because I've been sucking it down like crazy ever since.

Pace: 7:30

AHR: 161 bpm (lots of hills)

Decided to break out the Nike Frees and try an easy 6 using more neutral form.  Legs and feet felt fine, but I didn't get out until after 10 am (Brooke ran 18 this morning and I was hanging out with the kids), so it was hot and miserable.  I felt pretty lousy start to finish.  Just one of those days, I suppose.  Didn't take Garmin along, but I'm sure HR didn't exceed 160.

On a more positive note, I am nearing the end of Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, and I've loved every page of it.  It's made me want to experiment with barefoot running (or at least to try out the Vibram Five Fingers) after St. George and to see if some barefoot exercises could help my wife and two of my kids, all of whom have either completely flat feet or bad arches.  I was fascinated to read about Alan Webb starting as a freshman with a size 12 foot and, after a few years of barefoot exercises, being down to between a 9 and a 10, then later setting the American Record in the mile.  The studies about, among other things, the direct relationship between rate of injury and cost of shoe, have also been provocative.  The stories themselves (about the Tarahumara Indians, Caballo Blanco, Barefoot Ted, Scott Jurek, Joe Vigil, Bill Bowerman, Nike, and a host of others) have been absolutely fascinating.  If you haven't read it yet, you should.  It's a quick and highly enjoyable read.

Plan was to run 7 miles up Emigration and turn around, with the first 4 being a warmup, then the next 10 at MP effort (HR between 168-174 bpm).  I stopped at the 4-mile mark and ate a bag of Jelly Belly Sport Beans, which tasted great but wouldn't work as race fuel due to the effort required to chew them.  The next 3 were at MP effort but slow because I was trying to keep HR below 174.  I stopped again at the turnaround point and downed a PowerBar gel (Vanilla).  After last week's trouble, I decided to try sipping instead of gulping.  The flavor was so sweet that I had to drink a lot of water, which would also disqualify this stuff as race fuel.  Fortunately, though, I kept it down just fine.  After finishing the gel and stretching for a few minutes, I headed down the canyon, where I focused 100% on HR and didn't think about pace.  Here are the splits for the entire 10 miles:

 5-7 (still climbing Emigration)

Mile 5: 7:16 (168 bpm)

Mile 6: 7:28 (173)

Mile 7: 7:28 (174)

8-15 (down Emigration)

Mile 8: 5:33 (165) (I pushed the pace hard here in order to bring HR back up after my rest)

Mile 9: 5:50 (173)

Mile 10: 5:59 (173)

Mile 11: 5:58 (173)

Mile 12: 5:59 (174)

Mile 13: 5:51 (175)

Mile 14: 5:56 (175)

I felt tired but not wiped out at the end.  Still feeling some tightness from water skiing at Bear Lake on Tuesday, but otherwise no problems.  I suspect that my pace would have been faster had I not done so much climbing before the tempo section, but hopefully the climbing is good preparation for Veyo to Dammeron Valley at SGM.

Easy run along 21st East to Stratford and back via 16th East neighborhood.

Pace: 7:10

AHR: 155

I finished Born to Run yesterday.  What a fun read.

Plan was to do 10x3-min intervals with target HR of 178 and recovery jog of either 1 minute or until HR dropped to 130, whichever was later.  Unfortunately, it took forever for my heart to recover to that level, so the recovery jogs took far longer than expected and I ran out of time and had to cut my workout short.  I did the workout at Sugarhouse Park.

2-mile warmup around outer loop

1: AHR 165/MHR 177 (5:21/mi)

Recovery jog of 6:21 (are you kidding?)

2: AHR 169/MHR 181 (5:26/mi)

Recovery jog of 5:56

3: AHR 172/MHR 179 (5:17/mi)

Recovery jog of 5:38

4: AHR 171/MHR 181 (5:39/mi)

Recovery jog of 2:34 (no idea why it got so much shorter)

5: AHR 171/MHR 181 (5:45/mi)

Don't know how long recovery jog took--had to restart workout on Garmin

6: AHR 173/MHR 180 (5:44/mi)

Recovery jog of 2:18

7: AHR 174/182

Recovery jog of 4:20 and HR was still around 140

I don't know what to make of this workout.  I think the faster intervals, in addition to being at the beginning of my workout, included only 1 of the Sugarhouse hills, while the slower ones included both, which may explain the wide variation in pace.  I have no idea why it was taking my heart so much longer to recover during the early intervals (and again after number 7) than on 4-6.  I should note that the Garmin does not display HR when in interval mode (I forgot to set a target HR when I programmed the workout), so I was guessing except on the recovery portion, where it displayed how far above my target I was.  It seemed like I was able to get down to around 140 bpm within a reasonable amount of time, but the drop from 140 to 130 took a long time.  Maybe it would make sense to make 140 the threshold for starting the next interval.  Finally, I was tired after the workout but not nearly as tired as I would have expected.  Since I only did 7 repeats and not 10 and since I had tons of recovery in the early part of the set, that was not surprising.

Scheduled day off.

This was supposed to be an 8-mile tempo run with a target AHR of around 175 bpm, not to exceed 178.  I had planned to drive 6 miles up Emigration, but Brooke stayed at her mom's last night with the kids, so I didn't have anyone to take me back to the car.  Instead, I drove to Sugarhouse, did roughly 2-mile warmup, stopped, stretched, then started tempo.  There was a pretty stiff wind out of the northeast, so the south side and northeast hill were more challenging than usual.  After starting the workout, I exceeded 178 every time I hit a hill.  By the time I hit 4 miles, I had exceeded it at least 8 times and my pace was suffering.  As a result, I called it for the tempo section and finished the mileage out with an easy 4 or so. 

HR data and splits for the 4 miles of tempo were as follows:

Mile 1: AHR 170 (5:54)

Mile 2: AHR 177 (6:29)

Mile 3: AHR 176 (6:27)

Mile 4: AHR 175 (6:57)

Although AHR for the first mile was only 170, that was due largely to the fact that I had stopped and stretched after the warmup, so it took a bit for me to hit my target.  By the second hill on that mile, though, HR had hit 180.  It hit at least 181 in the second mile.  Even though I slowed dramatically on every hill (down to 8-minute pace or so), HR still jumped over 178 within a few seconds every time, then wouldn't come down until around 10-15 seconds after cresting the hill.  With the hills only about 1/2 mile apart, I was barely able recover from one and get back into a rhythm before I'd hit the next one.  

After calling the tempo run, the remaining 4 miles didn't feel great.  Sugarhouse may not be the best place for me to do tempo work while I'm trying to increase my pace.

Ran up to Wasatch then south along Shoreline Trail to turnaround point and back.  Felt light and easy today.

Pace: 7:07/mi

AHR: 155 bpm

Drove to Washington Terrace and ran past Mtn. Dell GC, over to Little Dell, up Little Mtn., down Emigration, up Crestview to Wasatch, down 13th South to Foothill, then along Foothill to Sunnyside and over to Steiner Aquatic Center (the kids had a swim meet).  Ate a banana on the way.  Plan was to do 4-mile warmup, then 2x10k at MP effort (171 bpm target).  Unfortunately, when I got out of the car and started getting ready to run, I realized that I'd left my Garmin at home.  I did my best to guess at distance and effort, then went back later and clocked the mileage.  Here's what I found:

Warmup: 4.3 miles to the T that turns up Little Mtn., then 5-minute rest plus refueling (1 pack lime Jelly Belly Sport Beans)

10k #1 ended up being...drumroll, please: exactly 6.2 miles.  Except for first 1.5 (up Little Mtn.), pace probably ranged between 5:50-6:00.  Effort felt like high 160s to low 170s.  Stopped briefly and downed another pack of jelly beans.

10k #2 ended up being short, but only by 0.1.  Pace may have slowed a bit at the end, but probably not by much.  With about 2.5 miles to go, I sipped a Strawberry Banana Power Gel with caffeine.  Suprisingly, although sweet, the gel went down quite well with a little water (need to remember that for future reference).  I didn't notice a spike-and-crash like I've felt in the past with caffeinated gels.

When I finished, I was tired but not wiped out.  I recovered well and never really experienced the heavy fatigue that sometimes accompanies long run days.  In fact, I was no more tired than after a 10-mile day.  I wish I'd had my Garmin to give me an accurate picture of my splits, but it was kind of nice to try to gauge my pace and HR by how I felt as opposed to relying solely on the device.

Headed out for an easy 6 along 21st East to Stratford.  On my way down Stratford, a group of three runners, two guys and a woman, crossed just in front of me, with the last of them about 3 feet away from me.  He looked at me and I said hello.  He just turned the other way.  No headphones or anything.  This is one of my pet peeves--I go to the effort of saying hi and get a snub in response.  A couple of minutes later, when I had just gotten over the snub, the same group emerged onto 1700 East about even with me.  The unfriendly studmuffin barked something to the other two about picking it up, so all three crossed the street at a much-intensified pace onto my side (I assume they were just finishing up their run at Sugarhouse Park, which was about 100 meters away).  I've never been passed on a training run and was not about to let my unsocial comrades have the satisfaction, so I calmly turned on the jets for about 1/2 mile.  By the time I looked back, I couldn't see them and assume they stopped at the park.  Funny what pride will do to a guy.

Other than my run-in with the Unfriendlies, the run was totally uneventful and relaxing.

Pace: 7:26

AHR: 156 bpm

Plan was to do 15x2-minute repeats with a target HR of 180, with recovery jog in between each until HR dropped to 140 bpm.  I went to Liberty Park to avoid the issues I was having last week at Sugarhouse (HR spiking on the hills and not recovering quickly enough).  Unfortunately, I programmed the Garmin wrong and only did 12.  (For some reason, when I use the repeat functon in the "Advanced" settings, it always seems to end up short.  I think instead of repeating the named steps the specified number of times, it is including the set being repeated.  I need to make note of that for future workouts.)

I focused today on trying to bring HR up to my target of 180 as quickly as possible, then holding it to the end.  I was never able to get it that high in less than 20-30 seconds (which explains why the average is low on every set), and on almost every repeat I ended up exceeding it, even while slowing down in an attempt to hold it steady.  However, I was relatively pleased with the workout.  The legs were pretty tired during the final few repeats, though.

Here's what the workout looked like:

Warmup of about 2.4 miles

1: AHR 163/MHR 175 (5:16)

-recovery of 3:12

2: AHR 175/MHR 182 (5:06)

-recovery of 3:19

3: AHR 173/MHR 184 (5:05)

-recovery of 3:48

4: AHR 173/MHR 183 (5:23)

-recovery of 2:05

5: AHR 173/MHR 183 (5:19)

-recovery of 2:55

6: AHR 174/MHR 183 (5:17)

-recovery of 6:15 (no idea)

7: AHR 171/MHR 181 (5:05)

-recovery of 2:58

8: AHR 172/MHR 181 (5:20)

-recovery of 1:28

9: AHR 172/MHR 183 (5:14)

-recovery of 1:29

10: AHR 174/MHR 183 (5:31)

-recovery of 3:50

11: AHR 170/MHR 181 (5:25)

-recovery of 2:47

12: AHR 172/MHR 181 (5:23)

-recovery of 4:17

Short cooldown

Scheduled day off.

Drove to Liberty Park and warmed up for about 2 miles, then did 2x5k with a target HR of 176 for each, with recovery jog in between until HR dipped below 140 bpm.

5k #1: Overall AHR 176/MHR 182/Overall pace 6:01

Mile 1: AHR 169 (5:53)

Mile 2: AHR 179 (6:07)

Mile 3: AHR 180 (6:04)

0.1: AHR 180 (5:46/mi)

Recovery jog took around 8 minutes until HR dipped to 140 bpm.

5k #2: Overall AHR 179/MHR 186/Overall pace 6:04

Mile 1: AHR 174 (6:05)

Mile 2: AHR 180 (6:09)

Mile 3: AHR 183 (5:57)

0.1: AHR 183 (6:09/mi)

Cooled down for roughly 1 mile.

During the last mile or so, I started to feel a slight twinge in my right arch.  I've never had any pain there before and I was instantly concerned about possible plantar fasciitis.  As a precaution, and because I just finished Born to Run, I took my shoes off and cooled down barefoot on the grass and the wood chip path.

As for the workout, I was pleased that I was able to hang on at an effort above 178 for over 2 miles of each repeat.  I stopped looking at my monitor after about the first 1/2 mile of the second 5k because it was clear that I was going to be well above the target of 176 if I wanted to hang on to any kind of respectable pace.  The effort felt solid, but I never felt anaerobic--in fact, my breathing rate was still at a pretty reasonable level at the end of the second repeat.

The fact that my pace is still so slow after several months of reasonably hard training is puzzling and a little frustrating to me.  It seems like my body is not responding or adapting to the training as well or as quickly as it has in the past.  Maybe it's because I turned 35 last week and, now that I'm an old man, need a longer buildup, a bigger base mileage, or something else altogether.  I guess I have to keep reminding myself that it's been almost 3 years since I last trained hard for anything, and I should expect it to take longer to achieve a lofty goal than it would have if I had been able to build on my success from 2006 without more than a short break.  I'm starting to wonder whether I need to revise my goals for St. George this year to something challenging but realistic.

Stepping back for a moment, I love that I'm able to run at a pretty decent pace without pain and that I've been able to stay so healthy thus far in my training.  I love getting out and running before it gets light outside and being done with a hard workout before most people have even gotten out of bed.  I love being able to run hard for mile after mile and still have enough energy to play with my kids all day.  Even when my goals seem a little out of reach, this is a great sport that pays amazing dividends, and I'm grateful that my family and schedule allow me to pursue it.

Stayed in Park City overnight, so I decided to run on the Rail Trail.  Plan was to do 16 miles with 10 at MP effort, with a target AHR of 171.

Drove to Trailside Elementary and parked, then ran approximately 2 miles east to the Promontory trailhead and headed north on the trail toward Wanship.  Temp. was only around 60 even though I didn't get out until 10 am, and I only saw one other runner and maybe 20 cyclists the whole time (a nice change from the crowds in Emigration).  The 6-mile warmup felt very light and easy, and HR was hovering in the low 140s.  When I started the tempo section, it took a while for HR to reach target, and it still felt easy.  In fact, I was feeling so good that I decided to add a little distance (since I missed yesterday's run due to having a busy day that started at 5 am and didn't ever slow down).  That changed when I turned around at Wanship and headed back.  I haven't looked at the elevation profile yet, but it felt like a slight uphill on the way back.  In addition, there was a pretty stiff headwind.  My pace slowed considerably even though I continued to push in an attempt to hold a higher AHR for a sustained period.  I suppose the elevation may have contributed to a higher HR relative to my pace, but I certainly didn't feel that during the warmup.  At any rate, here's what the tempo splits looked like:

Mile 7: AHR 160 (6:01)

Mile 8: AHR 169 (5:55)

Mile 9: AHR 172 (6:00)

Mile 10: AHR 168 (6:28) (this was a fueling mile where I slowed somewhat to eat my Jelly Belly Sport Beans, which taste good but require a lot of chewing, and also where I turned around into the wind)

Mile 11: AHR 173 (7:18) (stiff headwind)

Mile 12: AHR 174 (7:11)

Mile 13: AHR 174 (7:16)

Mile 14: AHR 172 (7:17)

Mile 15: AHR 173 (7:06)

Mile 16: AHR 174 (6:30)

Although the pace was slow on the way back, I was pleased that I was able to hold my effort above target most of the way.  I didn't feel any hint of the arch pain that came out of the blue on Thursday.  Only pain was in my tendon on the outside of my left hamstring behind my knee, and that was more tightness than anything.  It was gone after about 4 miles.

Easy effort out along 21st East to Stratford.  Still tight behind left knee, particularly for the first mile or so, but it loosened up after that.

AHR: 157

Pace: 7:21

Plan was to do 15x1-minute repeats with goal of hitting 180 bpm or above, with recovery jogging in between each until HR dipped to 140 bpm.  Drove to Liberty Park, ran 2-mile warmup at easy pace, then started repeats.  In order to see how high HR went, I have to upload the workout to the Garmin Training Center, so I'll add the MHR data after I've done that.  AHR will be low because it took 30 seconds or so to bring HR up to target.  Here are the splits:

1: AHR 154/MHR 172 (4:38/mi)

-4:40 recovery

2: AHR 167/MHR 180 (4:42/mi)

-1:25 recovery

3: AHR 167/MHR 180 (4:43/mi)

-2:19 recovery

4: AHR 167/MHR 181 (4:58/mi)

-3:23 recovery

5: AHR 165/MHR 179 (4:53/mi)

-5:33 recovery

6: AHR 164/MHR 178 (4:55/mi)

-3:35 recovery

7: AHR 166/MHR 180 (4:57/mi)

-1:38 recovery

8: AHR 166/MHR 180 (4:43/mi)

-2:14 recovery

9: AHR 166/MHR 178 (4:49/mi)

-5:55 recovery

10: AHR 163/MHR 174 (4:51/mi)

-3:06 recovery

11: AHR 164/MHR 176 (4:59/mi)

-3:16 recovery

12: AHR 164/MHR 177 (5:06/mi)

-1:30 recovery

13: AHR 164/MHR 178 (4:52/mi)

-1:27 recovery

14: AHR 165/MHR 179 (4:56/mi)

-4:40 recovery

15: AHR 163/MHR 177 (5:21/mi)

-1:43 recovery

Cooldown of a little over a mile at around 6:45/mi pace (had to get home).  While the recovery times were pretty inconsistent, the pace seemed pretty steady.  Legs felt pretty tired by the last 10-15 seconds of each repeat.  Overall, though, I felt good.

Scheduled day off.

Left Garmin at home and ran at a comfortable pace up to the Wasatch section of the Shoreline Trail and across Parley's to Millstream Lane and back.  Still feeling some pain in the outer part of my left knee.  It doesn't feel like ITBS, but I can't quite tell whether it's in the tendon or muscle.  The pain isn't severe and goes away after a few miles, but I'd like to figure it out because it's hanging around a little longer than I'd prefer.

Stratford loop without Garmin.  The knee pain is still there, so I iced it for 20 minutes after the run.  I felt a little fatigued today for no apparent reason.

Plan was to do 20 miles, with the first 5 as warmup, the next 12 at MP effort of 171 bpm or above, and the final 3 at 180 bpm or above.  Unfortunately, I didn't dress for the weather and ended up calling it a day after 14, when I was feeling a little hypothermic and was starting to chafe and blister after running the entire time in a cold, drenching rain.  I started the run at Washington Terrace, then ran past Mountain Dell, up to Little Dell and toward Big Mountain until I hit 7 miles (started the MP effort at the 5-mile mark), when I turned around and headed toward Emigration.  At the top of Little Mountain, I stopped for a minute and took a gel and decided that I might do more harm than good if I were to finish the scheduled run.  Called Brooke and asked her to pick me up, then ran a few more miles down the canyon until she met me.  Here is the data for the MP section:

Mile 6: AHR 163/MHR 175 (6:41) (up)

Mile 7: AHR 172/MHR 176 (6:51) (up)

Mile 8: AHR 167/MHR 175 (5:59) (down)

Mile 9: AHR 169/MHR 173 (6:01) (down)

Mile 10: AHR 169/MHR 173 (6:55) (up)

Mile 11: AHR 171/MHR 175 (7:25) (up)

Mile 12: AHR 149/MHR 173 (6:15) (after 10 min. rest and down)

Mile 13: AHR 156/MHR 162 (5:43) (down)

Mile 14: AHR 162/MHR 167 (5:45) (down)

Although I was disappointed to cut the workout short, I was pretty pleased with how I felt, minus the bleeding nipples and the frostbitten hands.  I'll do the workout again next week and will compare the splits.

Easy run down 9th South, through the Gulley to 15th East, around Sugarhouse, up Parley's Canyon, and back along 20th.  Gorgeous morning with perfect temperature.  Still a little stiffness in lower left quad.  Need to do more massage work.

AHR: 161

Pace: 7:11/mi

I'm trying to drop a few more pounds before SGM, so today is my first day of being a little more careful with my diet.  I'm hoping to drop down to about 158 by race day.  I'm around 162 right now.

Repeat of last Tuesday's intervals.  Drove to Liberty Park, then ran warmup of a little over 2 miles, including a few pullouts/strides. 15x1-minute repeats with recovery jog between each until HR dipped to 140 bpm.  Target was to hit 180 bpm during intervals.

1: AHR 154 (4:44/mi)

-2:26 recovery

2: AHR 166 (4:55/mi)

-1:43 recovery

3: AHR 168 (4:43/mi)

-2:31 recovery

4: AHR 168 (4:39/mi)

-4:57 recovery (no rhyme or reason for this)

5: AHR 166 (4:51/mi)

-2:24 recovery

6: AHR 168 (4:48/mi)

-2:29 recovery

7: AHR 168 (4:56/mi)

-7:00 recovery (!)

8: AHR 166 (4:37/mi)

-5:52 recovery

9: AHR 164 (5:06/mi)

-2:01 recovery

10: AHR 167 (4:38/mi)

-2:08 recovery

11: AHR 168 (4:44/mi)

-6:01 recovery

12: AHR 167 (4:50/mi)

-1:20 recovery

13: AHR 167 (4:48/mi)

-1:55 recovery

14: AHR 168 (4:54/mi)

-4:10 recovery

15: AHR 166 (5:01/mi)

-3:14 recovery

Cooldown of a little over a mile.  I lost count about halfway through the workout, but by the time I hit about the 12th repeat I thought I was done, so the last 4 were a little tough mentally.  I was pleased that so many of the recoveries were so short and puzzled by the long ones.  Legs felt pretty worked over by the end.  Still having a lot of tightness in left quad extending down toward the knee, which is understandable since I haven't done massage work for a few days on it.  I iced it down for about 15 minutes when I got home and it's feeling a little better now.

Scheduled day off.

Easy run across U of U campus and along 11th Ave to B Street, then back along Shoreline Trail above Popperton.  Still feeling tightness around left knee, but it's now mostly in the outer tendon behind the knee and not so much at the bottom of the quad.  It loosened up after a mile or so.

Pace: 7:38

AHR: 150

21st East to Stratford loop. Semi-easy pace without Garmin to track the effort.  Tried out a new pair of Kayanos today, thinking that maybe that would help me get rid of the nagging tightness in my left leg.  It was still tight today.  I don't think it's ITBS because the tightness is more in the tendon behind the knee than the one that attaches to the side of the knee.  I assume it's based on tightness up the line, as usual.  I need to start stretching before bed again.

Post-run weight was 157.5 today.  I've been limiting my calories to 2000 per day this week, and it seems to be making a difference.

Drove to Washington Terrace and ran past Mtn. Dell GC, up past Little Dell toward Big Mtn., then turned around at 7 miles and went up Little Mtn. and down Emigration.  Plan was to do first 5 at easy warmup pace, next 12 at target HR of 171, then last 3 at 180 or above.  (Same plan as last week, when I DNF'd at 14 due to the cold and rain.)

Still had some tightness in the tendon behind my left knee.  It felt better after a few miles, but it was still hurting when I stopped at mile 5 to stretch.  I felt it intermittently throughout the run.  It never got painful, but the tightness really never left.

Here are my splits:

Mile 6: AHR 168/MHR 179 (6:30) (up 152, down 73)

Mile 7: AHR 173/MHR 176 (7:35) (up 237, down 31)

Mile 8: AHR 168/MHR 174 (5:54) (up 83, down 211)

Mile 9: AHR 169/MHR 175 (6:03) (up 83. down 234)

Mile 10: AHR 171/MHR 174 (6:41) (up 132, down 60)

Mile 11: AHR 172/MHR 176 (7:38) (up 228, down 48)

Mile 12: AHR 172/MHR 178 (6:28) (up 95, down 228)

Mile 13: AHR 171/MHR 173 (5:44) (up 27, down 229)

Mile 14: AHR 169/MHR 173 (5:54) (up 72, down 232)

Mile 15: AHR 169/MHR 174 (6:00) (up 23, down 204)

Mile 16: AHR 173/MHR 176 (5:58) (up 18, down 120)

Mile 17: AHR 174/MHR 177 (6:11) (up 29, down 151)

Mile 18: AHR 179/MHR 183 (5:41) (up 107, down 245)

Mile 19: AHR 180/MHR 183 (5:46) (up 52, down 202)

Mile 20: AHR 183/MHR 186 (5:54) (up 40, down 169)

Last 0.23: AHR 179/MHR 184 (6:01/mi) (up 17, down 48)

I didn't feel like I had much more to give during the final two miles, and the last mile was pretty tough. I wish the splits would have been a little faster, but I was relatively pleased over all.

Easy effort on 21st East to Stratford loop sans Garmin.  I did massage work on both quads over the weekend and iced my left a few different times, and it seemed to help with the tightness.  The issue in my left leg seems to be migrating a bit further around the back of the knee, almost like it's a calf issue that's driving the tightness now.  I'll try to do more stretching today at work and will fit in some quality time with the Stick tonight.

It was the first day of school, so I decided to swap my Tuesday and Wednesday schedule so that I could be there to hang out with the kids before they left.  I got to bed late last night, so the extra sleep felt great, too.

10x1-min reps at Liberty Park, with goal to raise HR to 180+ on each and recovery jogging in between reps until HR dipped back to 140.  Warmed up for roughly 2 miles, including some pullouts to get the legs going.  After having some dull pain in my left leg behind the knee during much of the day yesterday, I stretched, spent some quality time with the foam roller and the Stick, and iced it.  During the pullouts, it was feeling pretty good, so I went ahead with the workout.  Splits were:

1. AHR 155 (4:41)

-1:45 recovery

2. AHR 167 (4:43)

-1:42 recovery

3. AHR 169 (4:34)

-1:51 recovery

4. AHR 167 (4:40)

-2:25 recovery

5. AHR 167 (5:03) (seems wrong--I don't think I would have slowed that much)

-3:10 recovery

6. AHR 167 (4:51)

-3:18 recovery

7. AHR 167 (4:43)

-6:59 recovery (and I finally had to stop and walk for 10-15 seconds to bring HR back down--probably a monitor malfunction)

8. AHR 165 (4:41)

-2:52 recovery

9. AHR 166 (4:41)

-1:53 recovery

10. AHR 168 (5:01)

-1:43 recovery

Roughly 1-mile cooldown.  Felt good afterward.

Easy effort across U campus to 11th Ave, then over to B Street and back along 11th up to Shoreline Trail, then over to Fort Douglas and home.  The only exception to the easy effort came just after the fire station on 11th Ave., while I was taking it especially easy so that I could eat my Nutri Grain bar (couldn't find a spare Power Gel).  A guy I didn't recognize started to pass me going around 6-minute pace.  Since I have never been passed while on a regular training run, I decided today wasn't the time to start, so I upped the pace enough to stay with the guy.  It made the Nutri Grain bar a little hard to eat, but my pride was at stake, so it was worth it.  He continued down toward City Creek at my turnaround point, so that was it.  In the end, although I let him stay about 10 feet in front of me, I am not going to count this as a pass, since I kept pace with him quite easily and just didn't feel like passing him back, thereby making my childishness even more obvious.

Although the final push above Popperton (before the trail turns to dirt and descends into Dry Canyon) hurt as much as it always does, the Shoreline Trail was particularly spectacular this morning.  I love having it so close by.

As far as the pain/tightness in my left leg is concerned, I felt better today.  It didn't hurt throughout the day yesterday after my interval workout, presumably because of the effort I put toward massaging, stretching, and icing it the night before.  I did a shorter version of it last night, too, and will try to continue doing so for the next week or so in hopes of eradicating the problem altogether.

Pace: 7:30 (with the one on 11th Ave at 6:00 and the final mile in 6:20 or so)

AHR: 151

Ran around Liberty Park with Brooke for our Friday night date.   Last lap was on my own and was probably around 6:00 pace.  The first 4 were very slow and easy.  Ate dinner at Chanon Thai following the run.

Ran up to Wasatch, then out along Shoreline/Wasatch out to around 5500 South on Wasatch and back.  Took Enervitene at around 5 miles and again around 10 miles.  For some reason, the run felt lousy start to finish.  No pace work today, though, so it was a good day for a crappy long run.

Easy effort along Sugarhouse loop.  Inhaler is empty, so I need to refill the prescription before tomorrow's speed work.

Pace: 7:34

AHR: 159

Plan called for 12x2-min repeats with target of 180+, followed by recovery jogging until HR dipped to 140.  Went to Liberty Park and did roughly 2-mile warmup, including pullouts.  Stomach didn't feel great and I just didn't feel quite right.  About halfway through the first repeat, that feeling was magnified considerably, but I usually feel awful during the first couple of repeats, so I kept going.  After 5 reps I had to make a pit stop, and for some reason it took forever for HR to come back down to 140 after I finished the pit stop and started running again (a full lap of 1.3 miles or so at a snail's pace).  I ground out 4 more reps and called it a day, due to the fact that I was feeling really lousy and also because I was out of time.  Not sure what was going on exactly, but just a general kind of malaise that has continued for the two hours since I finished the workout.  I got almost 7 hours of sleep last night and more than 8 the night before, and I'm pretty sure I've been hydrating properly, so I'm not sure what to blame it on.  I guess you just have a bad day sometimes.

Here are the splits:

1. AHR 164 (5:10/mi)

-1:12 recovery

2. AHR 171 (5:09/mi)

-1:41 recovery

3. AHR 174 (5:12/mi)

-3:38 recovery

4. AHR 175 (5:11/mi)

-2:03 recovery

5. AHR 175 (5:13/mi)

-12:00 recovery (here's where things really broke down)

6. AHR 169 (5:23/mi)

-1:12 recovery

7. AHR 174 (5:08/mi)

-2:15 recovery

8. AHR 173 (5:16/mi)

-5:12 recovery

9. AHR 173 (5:09/mi)

-5:04 recovery

Because I was feeling so out of sorts and because the last two recovery jogs were so long, I called it a day without doing any additional cooldown.

I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised by the splits.  Based on how I was feeling, I expected them to be 5:30 or slower.  Although today wasn't my best day, the shorter speedwork I've done over the past 3 weeks seems to have helped with the turnover.  I'll try to focus on that instead of being too disappointed by the fact that I didn't finish the workout.

Scheduled day off.   Tried to sleep in a little in an effort to get rid of the bug or malaise that's been hampering me for the past few days.

Easy pace up to Wasatch and across Parley's to Millstream Lane and back.  Took 1 Enervitene at the turnaround.  At the 7-mile mark, I pushed the effort the rest of the way home, but I stayed on Foothill instead of going up to Wasatch.  Splits and HR for the tempo section were as follows:

Mile 8: AHR 176 (5:27)

Mile 9: AHR 181 (5:47)

Mile 10: AHR 182 (5:40)

I had a good song playing during Mile 8 and I found myself really pushing the pace.  HR got into the 184 range for a bit in that first mile of tempo, so I tried to back it off a little so that I could hold on.  I didn't feel any of the malaise that I felt on Saturday and again on Tuesday, and the tightness in my left leg around the knee hasn't made an appearance since last week.  Both good signs.

Stratford loop at comfortable pace.  Left Garmin at home.  I slept in a little in preparation for tomorrow's big run in St. George.  I probably won't get there until 10:30 or 11:00 tonight and will be leaving early in the morning, so I thought it made sense to sneak in an extra hour os sleep today.  I felt a little bit of tightness in my left achilles (the one that gave me fits for a couple of years), so I need to remember to stretch it out and do my strength exercises.

Weight is down to around 156, which is about what I weighed when I graduated from HS, and about 20 lbs less than I weighed at the end of winter.  Hopefully the lower weight helps in the race next month.

Drove to about the 3-mile mark of SGM and ran the course to the finish (except I ran on the trail from Snow Canyon to the church on Bluff Street).  First 5 at easy pace, next 12 at MP roughly MP effort, next 3 with goal of 180 bpm or higher, then last 3 at super-easy cooldown pace with my little sister, who was finishing an 18-mile run on the course.  It was pitch black for the first 5 or 6 miles and there was a lot of traffic on the roads, presumably due to the Red Rock Relay, the fact that it was a holiday weekend, and the abundance of SGM runners training on the course.  I felt pretty good until about mile 14 or so, when my energy started to ebb.  I had eaten a banana before the run, then taken Enervitene at mile 5 and mile 10, and I took my last one at mile 15.  That seemed to help some, but I still felt pretty wiped out by about mile 18.  The ascents and descents on the trail are far more severe than on the actual course, and that undoubtedly affected how I was feeling.  The temperature was pretty mild but it was quite humid due to a significant rainstorm the night before.  I felt like I was sweating like crazy and that the sweat never evaporated.  That may have also contributed to a feeling of greater depletion than I would have expected.  Finally, I wonder if the 2000 calorie/day regimen had me toe the line with fewer reserves than normal.  I only slept a couple of hours the night before, but I got great sleep two nights earlier.  At any rate, here are my splits for the hard miles:

Mile 6: 6:27 (AHR 162) (this started about a mile past Veyo on the climb into Dammeron Valley)

Mile 7: 6:36 (AHR 175)

Mile 8: 6:29 (AHR 173)

Mile 9: 6:06 (AHR 171)

Mile 10: 6:17 (AHR 167)

Mile 11: 5:55 (AHR 167)

Mile 12: 5:53 (AHR 161) (I think this was the mile that headed toward Snow Canyon--it would have been faster, but I caught up with Brooke, my wife, and ran with her for 200 yards or so)

Mile 13: 5:48 (AHR 172)

Mile 14: 6:01 (AHR 171)

Mile 15: 6:31 (AHR 172)

Mile 16: 6:14 (AHR 172)

Mile 17: 6:13 (AHR 169)

Mile 18: 6:03 (AHR 177) (this one had a lot of big clims and steep descents along the trail and really beat me up)

Mile 19: 5:42 (AHR 180)

Mile 20: 6:18 (AHR 177) (for some reason, my Garmin showed the church on Bluff Street as being .65 short of 20 miles, so I continued down into the neighborhood for a while, then ran back up the hill to finish at the church, and the combination of feeling like I was already done and running uphill killed my pace in the last half mile)

I should note that I didn't keep to my 2000-calorie/day commitment during the 3 days of vacation.  I didn't eat like a pig, but I allowed myself to enjoy a burger at In-N-Out and some pizza.  I must say that I was a lot less grumpy than I had been during the previous week or so!

Later in the day, we took the kids hiking (I carried Eli in the backpack) and spent a couple of hours hanging out at some natural pools outside of Hurricane.  We had a great time and my energy levels stayed pretty high until late in the afternoon.  Little to no soreness (at least before I pulled out The Stick and found some in my quads) that day or the day after.

Went on a 10.5-mile mountain bike ride on the Green Valley Loop with my brothers-in-law before spending all day moving my parents' things out of their St. George place.  The first 4 miles were downhill and technical, with little aerobic effort involved, especially because the group kept stopping to chat.  The last 6.5 were rolling and uphill, and I pushed myself a little because I knew I wouldn't be able to get my scheduled 6-mile run in.  Total time on the bike was a little under an hour.  It was fun to do a little cross training for the first time in 5 or 6 months.

We didn't get home until after midnight from St. George last night, so I missed my scheduled workout and decided to run an easy 6 at lunch instead.  Ran around Holladay through Haven Lane, along Cottonwood Lane, and back to Extra Space.  Very comfortable pace.  Temperature was surprisingly mild, so it was a nice midday break.

Pace: 7:46 (!)

AHR: 148

12x2-minute reps at Liberty Park, target 180, recovery jog to 140.  Got to the park around 5:30 and finished reps before it got light.  Although I'm embarrassed to admit it, it appears that my HR recovers much more quickly in the dark, most likely because I can't see all the people around me, which prevents my HR from increasing as I look at people I want to pass, etc.  Childish, obviously, but apparently physiological as well.  Anyway, my recoveries were much quicker than usual today.  In the past, they've been quick until it's gotten light outside, then they've slowed down.  What a dork I am sometimes.  At any rate, I did roughly 2 miles of warmup, including some pullouts, striders, and high-knees, then went for it.

Here are the splits:

1. AHR 157 (5:09/mi)

-1:02 recovery

2. AHR 165 (5:29/mi)

-0:56 recovery

3. AHR 168 (5:09/mi)

-1:18 recovery

4. AHR 171 (5:19/mi)

-1:21 recovery

5. AHR 171 (5:16/mi)

-1:34 recovery

6. AHR 170 (5:25/mi)

-2:11 recovery

7. AHR 169 (5:29/mi)

-1:25 recovery

8. AHR 169 (5:10/mi)

-1:51 recovery

9. AHR 168 (5:33/mi)

-1:31 recovery

10. AHR 162 (5:24/mi)

-1:11 recovery

11. AHR 169 (5:13/mi)

-2:59 recovery

12. AHR 169 (5:10/mi)

-1:08 recovery

Roughly 1-mile cooldown.

I felt far better this morning than I did on this workout last Tuesday.  My only disappointment is that I didn't bring my HR up as high as I should have on most of the reps.  Not sure why it was, but the legs just didn't seem to want to give more.  I'm not convinced that the average pace information is correct for all of the splits, because I felt like my effort was pretty consistent throughout.  Perhaps the short recoveries led to a few slower reps, I don't know.  Over all, though, I was pretty pleased with the workout, particularly because I still felt pretty good by the end of the workout.

I yielded to Brooke's training schedule this morning and had to take Kaela to violin at 6:30 a.m. anyway, so I didn't run until 8:00 p.m.  Because I had a big workout planned for 10 hours later, I took it easy and ran without the Garmin.  Stratford Loop with a few modifications.

Ran up Emigration to about 1/2 mile above the Pinecrest turnoff and back.  First 5 at super easy pace, then tried to maintain HR at 171 or better the rest of the way.  The first 2.6 of the MP effort section were uphill.  Took a PowerGel (strawberry-banana w/caffeine) at 5 while I stretched for a minute and one Enervitene at 10 on the run.  Here are the splits:

Mile 6: AHR 163 (7:11) (uphill--temp was pretty chilly, which probably made it harder to raise HR to target)

Mile 7: AHR 169 (7:25) (still up)

Mile 8: AHR 171 (6:48) (0.6 up the steepest part of the run, 0.4 down)

Mile 9: AHR 164 (5:36) (back down, felt really relaxed)

Mile 10: AHR 167 (5:48)

Mile 11: AHR 164 (5:50) (I lost focus a little on this mile and got a little too relaxed)

Mile 12: AHR 169 (5:41) (I re-engaged)

Mile 13: AHR 170 (5:43) (focused but relaxed)

Mile 14: AHR 172 (5:37) (still feeling good)

Mile 15: AHR 175 (5:25) (felt HR rising, but still felt strong)

This was the first tempo run I've done in a long time where I felt strong and relaxed all the way through.  Over the past several weeks (even months), I've felt pretty spent on these runs.  Today's run was a nice confidence booster.  I was comfortably tired at the finish, not at all wiped out.

I'm pacing Clark Hirschi in the Wasatch 100 tonight from Brighton to the finish, so I'm going to focus today on getting my calories and hydrating.  The last time I paced Clark (in 2006) he finished 7th overall in less than 23:30, and he's hoping for a similar result this year, so I need to be ready to do a little work.  I'm supposed to meet him at Brighton around 9:30 p.m.  Good luck, Clark!

Paced Clark Hirschi from Brighton Lodge to finish of Wasatch 100.  Left at 11:30 p.m. and finished at 7:15 a.m.

Easy run around Holladay over lunch break.  Quads and calves have been fairly sore since pacing on Friday night--the crazy descents were much harder on the legs than I remembered--but felt pretty good during the run.  It was a relief to be covering ground at road-running pace instead of ultramarathon pace.  I don't know if I have the patience to be a 100-mile guy--there are times when it just feels so boring to be going 3-4 miles per hour.  Who knows, though--I'm not counting out a Wasatch 100 sometime in the future.

I headed over to Sugarhouse this morning for 15x2-minute intervals.  During my 2-mile warmup, I felt the pain in my left ITB that was bugging me a few weeks ago, only it didn't seem to be getting better as I warmed up.  After 2 miles, I stopped and stretched pretty thoroughly, then tried a few pickups to see how it felt. 

When the pain continued, I stopped and thought about what to do.  I remembered that I had felt pretty significant ITB pain during the first 10 miles or so of pacing at Wasatch 100 on Friday night, particularly on the killer descents.  I forgot to write anything about it on the blog, probably because I didn't blog the run until the next day and was still recovering from the sleep deprivation.  Because this has been a recurring issue over the past couple of months and because the race is so close, I decided that I needed to pay attention to signals my body was sending and that it was more important to get to the starting line as healthy as possible than to get another interval workout in today.  I called the workout and drove home.

I took 3 prednisone tablets and spent the next 90 minutes stretching, massaging, and icing in an effort to zap the problem as quickly as possible.  I'll do more of the same tonight and will see how I feel tomorrow.

I took my scheduled day off instead of trying to make up for yesterday's skipped workout.  Spent more time last night and again this morning stretching, rolling, massaging, and icing the leg.  It's feeling pretty good, so I think I'll return to the normal schedule tomorrow after more therapy tonight.

After spending more time stretching, massaging, and icing the legs last night, I was feeling pretty good this morning, so I did the scheduled easy 10 miles (up to Wasatch, across Parley's and out to Millstream Lane and back).  I felt mild pain in the ITB, but it was clearly better than a couple of days ago.  I took it easy until the final mile, where I opened it up a couple of times with 30-second bursts, just to test how the ITB would respond to some turnover.  It felt fine.

I'll continue with the stretching, massaging, and icing regimen, but I think I should be back on track now.

I got a call from a volunteer for SGM yesterday asking if I'd like to run as an elite.  I immediately responded that I would, and I'm looking forward to the convenience of having my own water bottles available, since I always spill Gatorade in my eyes and struggle to get enough in me when pushing the pace.  My favorite part of the conversation was when she explained about the Ibigawa trip for the winner and how I would need to have an answer ready on race day as to whether I could go or not.  I told her that a lot of people would have to fall down and drop out before that eventuality would ever play out, but she dutifully went through the whole routine anyway.  The elite entry was a very nice surprise.  It will be my first experience running with the elites, and I'm excited for it.

Easy run to keep the legs loose for tomorrow's 10k leg of the Daybreak Tri.  ITB felt good (I did more stretching, massaging, and icing last night), but I felt some pain in my left arch.  I felt it a little yesterday, too, but it felt more like muscle fatigue than anything else.  I'm not sure what to make of that, but hopefully whatever it is will wait a couple of weeks before giving me any real trouble.

Daybreak Tri.  I did the run leg of the Olympic relay.  Warmed up for about 4 miles, including several pullouts/strides to get HR close to race effort (180+).  The swim leg got drastically modified at the last minute due to the presence of roundworm in Oquirrh Lake, so John Karren only got to swim 75m, then run about 1.25 miles to the transition area.  He was first out the pool and second into the transition area.  Elliott Smith smoked everyone on the bike leg, so I took the chip in first place by a significant margin.  I held my HR above 180 throughout the effort, but my splits were slow.  The course was two loops along a path that winds around Oquirrh Lake, and it felt like about 2 miles of each lap were slightly uphill and into a stiff headwind.  I hope that was what slowed me down so much, because I was at least 30-45 seconds per mile off my projected pace.  Splits were as follows:

1: 5:39 (AHR 181)

2: 6:06 (AHR 184)

3: 6:10 (AHR 184)

4: 5:54 (AHR 183)

5: 6:17 (AHR 183)

6: 6:23 (AHR 184)

Last 0.35: 5:45 pace (AHR 186)

We won the relay by a huge margin and beat the first solo guy by about 8 minutes, so it wasn't ever close.  Still, I was very disappointed with my performance.  There is no good reason why my HR should have been up in the clouds at such a pedestrian pace.  Anyway, I'm going to concentrate on the fact that I held my HR above 180 throughout the race and still managed a modest kick instead of focusing on the pitiful splits.

After the race, I cooled down for 6-7 easy miles around Daybreak while we waited for the awards ceremony.

Still feeling some fatigue/tightness in my left arch.  It was present throughout my warmup and cooldown.  Didn't notice it during the race.

Relaxed effort along 21st East/Stratford loop.  My left ITB was feeling a little tight yesterday, so I did some massage and stretching last night.  It was slightly tight in the early miles this morning but felt pretty good.  Still feeling something in my left arch, but it's not really painful--feels more like muscle fatigue.

12x2-minute repeats with HR not to exceed 176, recovery jog between each until HR dipped to 140. Drove to Liberty, ran 2-mile warmup, then did some strides to get the legs moving. Splits:

1: AHR 158/MHR 189 (5:35/mi) (I slowed way down after HR spiked)

Recovery: 0:55

2: AHR 145/MHR 177 (5:33/mi)

Recovery: 2:39

3: AHR 171/MHR 179 (5:18/mi)

Recovery: 1:32

4: AHR 172/MHR 182 (5:34/mi)

Recovery: 1:32

5: AHR 169/MHR 178 (5:29/mi)

Recovery: 1:34

6: AHR 169/MHR 178 (5:33/mi)

Recovery: 2:15

7: AHR 171/MHR 180 (5:22/mi)

Recovery: 1:20

8: AHR 170/MHR 179 (5:16/mi)

Recovery: 2:01

9: AHR 171/MHR 180 (5:29/mi)

Recovery: 1:42

10: AHR 172/MHR 180 (5:17/mi)

Recovery: 1:54

11: AHR 171/MHR 180 (5:21/mi)

Recovery: 2:34

12: AHR 172/MHR 181 (5:21/mi)

Recovery: 2:19

Roughly 1.3-mile cooldown. I felt pretty relaxed from start to finish today. Legs felt strong, effort felt comfortable. I tried to keep the effort below 176, but it looks like I exceeded it on pretty much every rep.  However, I had my Garmin set so that it would notify me when HR hit 174, and that was usually about 45-60 seconds in on each rep, so I don't think I spent much time at the excessive HR. Temperature was brisk (probably high 40s), which helped considerably. Didn't feel the fatigue in my left arch that's been nagging me lately until near the end of my cooldown, and it was very mild. No ITB pain.

Scheduled day off.

I got up with Eli at 1:00 a.m. and didn't get back to sleep until around 3:30, so my plans to run at 5:00 a.m. went out the window.  I took an early lunch and ran from the office down to Murray Park and back.  The plan was to do 5 miles at a harder effort, with AHR not to exceed 176.  I started the effort at the 3-mile mark.  First 2 miles were downhill and were right on in terms of AHR and pace, but the next 3 were slow and AHR jumped a little high.  They were on a gradual incline into a headwind.  Also, I forgot to take my inhaler, which may have contributed to a higher than usual AHR.  Cooled down for the final 2 miles, which were also uphill.  It was warmer than I expected, but the effort felt pretty good, even when HR jumped too high.

As part of my "race preparation," I slept in this morning and got a little over 8 hours.  It was beautiful, but it meant that I got up too late to run, so I brought my stuff again and ran at lunch.  It was a little warm outside, but the run was relaxing and invigorating. 

Got plenty of sleep and left for the run around 7:30 a.m.  Went up to Wasatch, across Parley's and down to Millstream Lane and back.  Easy, comfortable for the first 7, then picked it up a bit for the last 3 to get HR up around 170.  Gorgeous morning.  Legs felt great.

AHR: 151 (avg for last 3 was 170-171)

Pace: 7:20 (avg for last 3 was just over 6:00)

Slept in after going to bed early (got almost 10 hours!) and ran an easy 5 out to Parley's Canyon Drive and back.  Feeling good.

Drove to Liberty for last interval session before SGM.  Warmed up for 2 miles, including a few strides and high-knees, the did 5x2-min reps with target HR not to exceed 178.  Splits were as follows:

1: AHR 163 (5:19/mi)

-1:45 recovery

2: AHR 170 (5:29/mi)

-2:11 recovery

3: AHR 173 (5:10/mi)

-5:33 recovery (?)

4: AHR 172 (5:04/mi)

-2:09 recovery

5: AHR 170 (5:27/mi)

Cooldown of a little over a mile.  Temp was surprisingly warm (in advance of an expected storm this afternoon), but everything felt great.

Scheduled day off.

Relaxing 4-mile loop with Maja (our dog).  I hadn't run with her for months due to the fact that she doesn't like to go much faster than 7:30 pace and wears down after about 6 miles, but it was great to have her with me this morning.  With a little snow on the ground, I had to put on long sleeves, gloves, and a hat.  Happy October!  We're heading down to St. George this afternoon, so my next entry will be a race report early next week.  Good luck to everyone down there!

Easy jog to keep the legs loose.  Opened up briefly on the downhill in the final mile.  Everything feeling good.

I'm writing this 2 days after the fact and after thinking things through for a while.  With that in mind, I guess I should start with the positives: (1) I got a new PR by about 60 seconds; (2) I ran some pretty strong miles along the way; (3) I took a risk early on and managed to hang on without completely crashing; (4) I managed a PR even after having my hamstrings start cramping at 18; (5) for my first marathon in 3 years, I did pretty well; (6) Brooke (my wife) BQ'd by over 5 minutes; (7) Katie (my sister) finished her first marathon; (8) I had lots of support from friends and family; and (9) it was a gorgeous day for a marathon.

Now for the gritty details.

As usual, I hardly slept on Friday night.  I went to bed early and fell asleep relatively quickly, but there was still a fair amount of activity all around me, and I woke up a couple of times and had difficulty getting back to sleep.  When I did fall asleep, it would only be for short intervals, followed by seemingly long periods of wakefulness.  I tried to stay relaxed, but I didn't succeed too well.  When my alarm went off at 4:15, I was up immediately.  I ate half of a plain bagel for breakfast and started sipping water.  Brooke, Katie and I got on the bus around 4:55.  I was feeling pretty upbeat and excited about the race.  I ate a banana and kept sipping water.  I didn't chat too much on the bus, but went over my race strategy a few times in my mind.  For the record, this was the plan: (1) 0-7: relax and keep pace between 5:35-5:38; (2) 7-14: on the hilly section, don't obsess about pace or splits--just recognize that I'll give a couple of minutes back here and don't kill myself trying to maintain even splits; (3) 14-20: ease back into marathon pace of 5:40 or better; (4) 20-24: start hammering and take advantage of the strong downhill; and (5) 24-finish: give everything I have left.  If everything went perfectly, I wanted to run under 2:30.

Here's how things played out in reality:

Warmup was great.  I loved having access to the elite runner area, particularly the favorable runner-to-port-a-potty ratio.  The easy access to the fire barrels was also nice.  About 45 minutes before the gun, I ate half of a Power Bar (some orange smoothie thing that actually tasted better than disgusting for a change) and started stretching lightly.  About 30 minutes before, I started some light jogging in the elite corral.  About 5 minutes before, I decided to ditch the long-sleeve tee-shirt and get rid of my drop bag.  The drop bag area was a bit of a disaster, since everyone seemed to have waited as long as I did to discard their gear in an effort to stay warm.  A huge mass of humanity was crowding the two U-Haul trailers, and as the gun time approached, people just started hurling their bags in the direction of the trailers, sometimes hitting fellow runners in the process.  After I had discarded mine, I felt like a salmon swimming upstream trying to get back to the corral.  Fortunately, I did so without getting trampled or smothered, and in plenty of time to get a good spot near the front.  I had decided to run with my Garmin but without my HR monitor strap.  (I didn't want to fuss with it and wanted to focus on running based on feel, not on data.)

After the horn, I took off at a reasonably quick clip, hoping to avoid any early jostling or tripping.  No problem there.  About 400 meters in, I heard Sasha's voice coming up behind me, saying, "Dallin, I think that's a little fast," or something like that.  Figuring that Sasha would run a first mile of 5:10 or so, I figured that my pace was way too fast, so I backed off a little.  As Sasha caught me, I said hello.  I never saw him again until the finishing area.

Mile 1: 5:50 - I didn't look down for this one and wasn't going to worry about my first split, since I just wanted to establish a good rhythm).

Mile 2: 6:09 - I turned on my Garmin light and saw this one and panic set in.  I had just settled in with a small group whose pace felt just about right.  When I saw how slow this mile was, I realized that 2:30 was not in the cards for this race.  Even this slow pace felt very quick.  Nevertheless, I was not willing to throw in the towel this early, so I threw in a surge to see if I could recover from a slow split without killing myself.

Mile 3: 5:36 - I suspect my HR jumped quite a bit on this mile, but I felt okay.  However, for being my first split in my target range, it certainly didn't feel relaxed.  I knew at this point that I would be working for a more modest goal, but figured I'd just do my best to follow my race strategy to the half, then reevaluate there.  I took my bottle from the elite station and ripped off my first Enervitene packet.  I ran with it for about a mile, then took a couple of small sips.

Mile 4: 5:35 - Still not relaxed, but feeling pretty strong and still wanting to run as close to 2:30 as possible.

Mile 5: 5:42

Mile 6: 5:24 - I think I passed a couple of people during this mile, which would explain the increased tempo.

Mile 7: 5:30 - Took a few sips from my bottle and grabbed my second Enervitene packet.  The crowds in Veyo boosted my spirits.

Mile 8: 6:40 - Veyo.  I got passed here by a guy I had passed during mile 6, but I didn't care.  The plan was to avoid going anaerobic up the hill and to prepare for the real start of the race at 14.  I took a full packet of Enervitene here.

Mile 9: 6:19 - I think this was the point at which I started to feel a headwind.  It wasn't terribly strong, but strong enough that I wished I had a group to share the work with.

Mile 10: 6:11 - Still trying to work the hills without blowing up.

Mile 11: 6:40 - The hill here wasn't as steep as Veyo, but it felt pretty challenging, especially with the headwind.  I took a few sips from the bottle again and held onto the next Enervitene packet.

Mile 12: 6:17 - Still watching the guy who had passed me on Veyo as he traded leads with a Latino runner who had a very distinct, forward-leaning form.  Gradually finished another Enervitene.

Mile 13: 5:53 - Finally done with the hilly section.  Starting to warm up the pace a little.

Half: 1:18:42 - At this point, it was clear that 2:30 would have to wait for another year.  After taking a little inventory, I decided that running under 2:35 was a worthy goal that was within my reach.  I decided to give myself a little bit of a buffer on the next section, figuring that as long as I could hold between 5:40 and 5:50 through 20, I'd have enough energy to really hammer the final 10k.

Mile 14: 5:56 - I don't remember what happened here except that it took me a lot longer to get my gloves off and safely stored in the rear pockets of my shorts than it should have.  I passed the guy who had passed me on Veyo but couldn't see the Latino runner anywhere.  I never saw him again, so I assume he must have really turned it on from about 13 on.

Mile 15: 5:40 - Right on pace.  Took a few sips from my water bottle at the aid station and held onto the next Enervitene packet.

Mile 16: 5:32 - 2:35 still felt well within reach.  Starting to feel the burn, though.  I think this is where I passed a new guy I hadn't seen before.  As I caught him, I asked how he was doing.  He replied, "Just one of those days."  I offered him my Enervitene, but he said he was okay.  I think it may have been Dave Holt?

Mile 17: 5:43 - Still going reasonably strong.

Mile 18: 5:52 - I started feeling some real tightness in my right hamstring, about halfway down.

Mile 19: 6:23 - I think this is where the hill takes you up beneath the Ledges Parkway overpass.  As I climbed the hill, I really felt the effort, and my right hamstring started to cramp.  I used a good portion of the water in my bottle to spray on my leg in an effort to ease the cramping.

Mile 20: 6:02 - The cramping started in my left hamstring here.  I've never had cramping in a race before, so this was surprising and disappointing.  I started to feel my stride shorten as the hamstrings seized up, and my pace slowed commensurately.  I came through 20 at 1:59:04.  From this point on, I started taking a water cup at almost every aid station and splashing it on my legs.

Mile 21: 5:45 - This would have been much faster (probably 5:25 or so) without the hamstring problems, since the grade is pretty steep.

Mile 22: 6:11 - I got passed here and had no response.

Mile 23: 6:08 - I was just trying to hang on at this point, but the pain had affected my stride enough that I couldn't seem to squeeze more speed out.

Mile 24: 6:04 - Passed again.  Why did I choose this sport, anyway?

Mile 25: 6:22 - Really hurting, and pretty oblivious to the time.

Mile 26: 6:15 - Trying to pull a little more speed out.

Last 0.2: 6:07/mi pace.  And that was with a bit of a modest kick through the finishing corral.

Finish: 2:37:04.  This is petty, but I am pretty mad that I didn't find 5 more seconds so that I could tell myself that my new PR was 2:36 instead of 2:37.  The Garmin displays only hours and minutes, and I couldn't see the clock (I am near-sighted) until it was too late, but that probably didn't matter anyway--the only thing I cared about at this point was finishing the stupid race.  Still, it bugs me.  (My old PR was similar: 2:38:02.)

Had I finished under 2:35, I think I would have called the race a near-complete success.  Although I am pleased that I managed a PR in spite of the hamstring problems, I am disappointed to have put an entire season into training for this event only to have found another 60 seconds at St. George.  I'm going to take some time to think about where to go from here.  Right now I'm considering a few tweaks to my training.  First, I think I need to rotate between hill work and speed work.  I lost all kinds of time on the hills and my training consistently showed that my HR jumped when I was climbing.  I think I need to address that weakness if I want to hit my goal.  Second, I think I need more long slow distance and higher mileage.  I felt exhausted and lethargic during much of my training, and I think that may have been a result of doing too much training at high intensity and not enough mileage at a comfortable pace.  For me, I don't train as well when I'm not enjoying myself, and much of my training this summer felt like drudgery.  I want to rediscover the joy of running, and for me that means more time at a lower intensity.  Third, I think I need to swallow my pride and incorporate some shorter racing into my training.  As it is, my goal race pace feels like 5k or 10k pace to me, and that's no way to run 26.2 miles.  I need to get back to a place where 5:40 feels slowish, and where I can run a 5k at a significantly faster pace than I can run a marathon.  (Keep in mind that I ran a 10k 2 weeks before St. George at a pace of slower than 6:00/mile.)

I am toying with the idea of running the Grand Slam again.  I love the new schedule with only 4 races, and especially the fact that it no longer includes D-News and that Top of Utah is an alternate.  It is tempting to run it again and to try to race myself into 2:30 shape.  However, I worry that 2:30 is near the top of my ability, and that running 4 marathons in a year may not allow me to run at my peak at St. George.  I need to give it all some additional thought.  For now, I'm not thrilled with the race result, but I am pleased that I didn't fall apart completely after being pretty aggressive in the early going.  I need to keep in mind that a PR is a PR, and that it could have been much worse.

Congrats to all the bloggers out there who ran great races!

After Saturday's race, I hobbled around for hours trying to be a dad and to watch Brooke and Katie come in.  Fortunately, I was able to cheer both of them on and the kids were super patient.  Unfortunately, I felt like I was walking on a 95-year-old's legs the whole time.  In spite of a great massage (thanks, Ivan!) at the finish, my hamstrings were still killing me and my left hip felt injured.  It got worse throughout the day, and I was concerned that I was looking at another layoff due to injury.  Fortunately, by the time I woke up on Sunday the real pain was gone and my legs just felt really stiff, just like they're supposed to after a hard race.  I hollered in pain when I got out of the car in Fillmore for a potty break on the way home, and again when we got home, but the hip just felt stiff, not injured.  As a result, I decided before going to bed last night that I'd get up and try some light jogging to warm up the legs and speed up the recovery.

For the first 400 meters or so, it felt like I had 15 people hitting my legs with sledgehammers.  I almost turned around and went home.  After that, though, I think the crowd thinned out and there were only 2 or 3 people swinging at me, so I decided to trudge on.  I should point out that what I was doing cannot really be called running, but I was managing to propel myself forward with some daylight under my feet, so I guess I satisfied the technical definition.  By the final mile, I was getting closer to normal form, although the hamstring tightness felt similar to the last 6-8 miles of the marathon.  Fortunately, the run warmed the legs up enough to allow for some quality stretching after I got home.  Hopefully the effort will help speed up my recovery.

By the way, I ate a juicy burger and fries on Saturday night and a steak on Sunday.  Oh, the joys of post-marathon gluttony!

Wow, it was chilly this morning!  I should have worn gloves.  The legs are recovering nicely now, and I probably felt 50% better this morning than I did at the best point of yesterday's 3-mile spasmodic lurch in a generally forward direction.  I ran down 900 South through the Gulley, then down 15th to Emerson and back up the hill to 17th and home.  As I emerged from the Gulley, I saw a guy running south along 15th East with a briefcase, apparently trying to get to his bus stop.  He was moving at a nice clip, especially for being in a suit.  The funny thing is that he continued at the same clip on 15th East just a bit ahead of me all the way to 15th and 15th (passing several bus stops along the way)--he was still cruising along at the same clip when I turned on Emerson.  Admittedly, I was not breaking any land speed records this morning, but I never gained an inch on him.  Wish I could have figured out who he was.

What a beautiful day for an easy jog!

Slept in and called it recovery. 

Relaxed pace with Maja in tow. After running with Brooke most of the summer, she does much better at holding a steady pace and not stopping dead in her tracks when she sees sprinklers within 200 meters or so. Beautiful, brisk morning. Right hamstring is still pretty tight, but legs are otherwise recovering nicely.

Took another day off in the interest of recovery.  Right hamstring still feeling pretty tight.

Easy, relaxed pace up to Wasatch, across Parley's and out to Millstream Lane and back.  Listened to This American Life on the way out.  Although it is usuallly my favorite podcast by far, this particular episode just didn't do it for me.  The entire thing was based on conversations 9 TAL producers had with travelers at a rest stop about 90 minutes north of NYC.  Some of the stories were mildly interesting, but the cumulative effect on me was boredom and a really slow pace.  As a result, I listened to Coldplay on the way back and picked up the pace.  By the final half mile, I was moving along pretty well.  Right hamstring still bugging me, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty good.

Easy effort with Maja.  As I was leaving, Brooke asked me to turn around because she thought she had seen something on the back of my right leg.  It turns out there's a pretty dark bruise in the vicinity of where I've been feeling tightness.  I wonder what that means--a tear, maybe?  Feeling a little concerned about it, I took it easy on the run and kept my stride purposely short.

Took yesterday and today off after setting up an appointment with a physical therapist (Ryan Fuhriman) to have the hamstring looked at.  I went in today and learned the following:

• It was probably a cramp that slowed me down around 18 or 19 of SGM, but when I kept running on it, I did some damage to the tissue.  There was a palpable difference in the quality of the tissue in the area  where the pain has been.  The bruise Brooke noticed was several inches below where the damage took place, but gravity does that after a few days.  Ryan was sure that the bruising was caused by the strain.
• The damage is pretty minor and will not require time off, just a temporary reduction in mileage and intensity while it heals.
• I had some pelvis alignment issues that Ryan addressed through different releases and adjustments.  It's unclear whether the alignment issues were a cause or effect of the hamstring problems.
• After the releases, the alignment issues improved considerably.  Ryan wants me to come back next week to see if the alignment problems return.
• I have neural stress that could be a contributing factor to the hamstring problems.  Ryan gave me some exercises that should help me improve in that area over a period of several months.
• I should be stretching twice a day.  I'll try to do that by stretching after my run and before going to bed.
• Another contributing factor may have been lack of strength in the portion of my hamstrings that failed.  Ryan gave me some exercises to work on (with a T-band) that should help improve the strength.  One of them involves doing butt-kicks with the two ends of the band around my ankles.  He suggested mixing things up with this one, doing some "intervals" where I jog in place slowly for 1 minute, then up the pace for 30 seconds, etc.  These are supposed to be pretty difficult at first but should get easier as my strength improves.
• He had an assistant do an ultrasound treatment on the hamstring to speed the healing process.

That's all I can remember.  I'll get back to running tomorrow, but will try to keep the mileage down for the next week or so, and will start doing my exercises and stretches tonight.

Easy effort around neighborhood Memorial Day 5k loop with Maja.  Didn't notice any tightness in the hamstrings.  Did the prescribed stretches after the run.  It was gorgeous this morning, with what my kids used to call a "fingernail moon" in the east and a temperature that was perfect for shorts and a tee with gloves.  Too bad it won't last long.

I dropped Kaela and the rest of her carpool off at Sunnyside Park 45 minutes before their game on Saturday, then parked the car and ran from there.  I headed north and ran across the U campus, through lower Federal Heights up to Popperton Park, then up to the Shoreline Trail and all the way over to Sunnyside and back to the park.  The weather and temperature were perfect, the fall leaves were spectacular, and the run was invigorating.  I picked up the pace a little once I got off the trail above the zoo.  I had a little pain in my left hip during the faster portion of the run in the same area as in the final miles of the marathon and the rest of that day.  I probably need to spend more time stretching, but it's a little crazy right now with Brooke's family in town for her sister's wedding this afternoon.

I took Maja again and we enjoyed a very relaxing early morning run.  The pace was all of 8:00 per mile, and I tried to work on the form a little while running in the Nike Free's.  I had lunch with Chad and we chatted briefly about his experience training in racing flats.  I like the idea better than going straight to the VFF/barefoot approach, and may try it out the next time I'm ready to buy shoes.  I remember my old Nike Waffle Racers from high school (and still have one from the pair I wore when I broke 4:30 in the 1600 as a HS soph--pathetic, I know) and how much I loved wearing them, so I'm looking forward to trying it out in the next couple of months.

As I was getting ready to leave for work, Brooke told me that Janey (our 4-year-old) had told her before going to bed that the glow-in-the-dark bracelet she was wearing was "not magich, just a coincidence."  (That's not a typo--it's how she says "magic.")  I have no idea what she meant, let alone where she picked up the new vocab word.

After yesterday's run, I had a little nagging soreness in my left Achilles tendon (where I've had the problems before) throughout the day.  The pain was an inch or two above the insertion point, so I don't think it was the same as the tendinitis that gave me fits in 07 and 08, but I don't want to take a chance.  I skipped my run this morning and will probably limit myself to three runs this week, focusing on doing my stretches and toe raises morning and evening in an effort to stave off further problems before I start building my winter base.

Still feeling some soreness in the AT (mild), so I kept the mileage low.  I stretched and did toe raises twice yesterday.

Pace: 7:30.

The niggling soreness in my left AT is still there, but it feels different than the problem I had before--higher and largely on the outer edge as opposed to the insertion point on the inside edge.  In addition, it really doesn't bother me while running--I just have a very mild pain throughout the day.  While I'm a little concerned about it, I suspect it's one of those pains that will just go away after a couple of days as opposed to something chronic, so I'm going to keep running low miles unless it starts to get worse or hangs around for a few more days.  I ran in the Nike Free's with Maja and tried to focus on a more neutral stride.  The temperature was perfect for shorts and long-sleeve tee, and the run was relaxing, at least until I developed a blister from the shoes on the outside edge of my left foot, just behind the midpoint.  I think my feet may be a little wide for the Free's, because the blister seems to have resulted from my foot hanging slightly off the edge of the insole.  I've always hated Nike running shoes, but I got a great deal on the Free's and the concept intrigued me.

I woke up with a head cold, so I took it pretty easy on the run.  I brought Maja along and she did pretty well, even when I picked it up a bit over the final mile.  We went up to Wasatch and across Parley's and back. 

Felt sick all weekend and again this morning, and the left AT is still bothering me, so I slept in a little and skipped the run.  My grandma (my dad's mom) died on Friday, so my mom is coming home from Korea for the funeral (Dad has to stay with the missionaries).  She arrives tonight and will stay until next Tuesday.  It will be great to have her here!  Now I just need to figure out how to avoid sharing this cold with every member of the family while we're spending time together.

I took a full week off due to illness, a desire to give my AT a chance to rest, and the fact that my mom has been visiting from Korea for my grandmother's funeral.  I was hoping to start my winter base training today, with the goal of working up to 60-70 mpw by December, but I started easy today to test out the AT.  I'm still puzzled by the sudden reemergence of the tendinitis and am hopeful that it's not going to get any worse, but I definitely felt the same tightness--not pain--that I was feeling in the week that led up to my week off.  It's not painful, but the fact that I'm having issues again on so little mileage gives me concern.  I may call Ryan Fuhriman to have him look at it and see whether it requires treatment.

The run itself felt fine, although I can tell that I've lost a step as far as my aerobic conditioning goes.

On a brighter note, congrats to Meb on the big NYC win!  Although I think Al Trautwig is a total weenie who has no business offering his opinions on endurance events (he is atrocious on the Tour de France coverage), I had a ball watching the rebroadcast of the race with my wife last night.  I was hoping Ryan Hall would have a big day, but seeing Meb pull out the win and having 6 Americans in the top 10 was fantastic.  I was especially impressed with the way Ryan fought back from 9th to 4th over the final 3-4 miles.  I felt bad for Paula, who clearly wasn't feeling right, but it was great to watch a classy veteran like Tulu win the race.  I just hope my form doesn't look as disgusting as Petrova's (who was a total warrior, by the way) when I'm 41.  It's probably efficient, but it's just ugly!

Took Maja out for an easy jaunt on a beautiful morning. Still feeling some tightness in left AT on the outside edge about 1-1.5 inches above insertion. I started dialing the PT yesterday to make an appointment, but decided, based on the mildness of the issue, to run all week to see if it goes away on its own. I need to get back to my early morning routine--I've grown lazy since the taper for SGM and haven't been getting up as early as I should.

I finally got up at a decent time (5:30) for my run.  I headed north through the U campus, through Federal Heights, and up to Popperton Park and back.  Because the Free's gave me a blister the last time I ran in them, I was careful to pay attention to any rubbing and to modify my form so that the rubbing went away.  By the end of the run, the shoes felt incredible.  My pace was very relaxed and the run was highly enjoyable.  I noticed mild AT pain on the uphill sections, so I did my stretching and exercises after the run.  On the final climb up to Popperton, I was wheezing a bit, probably due to the presence of leftover fluid in my lungs from last week's cold.

Since it's just a $15 copay, I decided to go back to the PT to see what he says about the AT issue.  I was supposed to go back for a follow-up appointment on my hamstring anyway.  I just hope we can catch this round of apparent tendinitis before it really gives me problems.  The layoff the last time I dealt with this stuff was way too long and frustrating.

Easy loop with Maja on another gorgeous morning.  Very mild AT pain again.

I saw Ryan Fuhriman about the Achilles issues today and he found some inflammation.  He did some work on it for 10 minutes or so and recommended that I continue with the ecentric loading exercises, but only once a day.  He suggested doing two sets on each leg, gradually increasing the number of reps and sets.  He also recommended stretching against a wall, not on a stair (since the muscles contract when stretching that way, which increases the strain), but also suggested folding up a small towel and standing either on the outside half or the inside half, which allows the stretch to focus on the inside or outside of the Achilles.  Because the tendinitis is in the early stages and because the ecentric loading seems to be helping, Ryan didn't think I needed to come back for more treatment unless things started to get worse.  However, he wants me to limit my mileage while I work on getting this healed.  He said to give it 3-4 weeks while faithfully doing the exercises and stretching, and to call him if it doesn't seem to be getting better by then.  In that case, he may try ASTYM treatment.  As for my training, he wants me to let pain be my guide.  If I can run 3 miles without pain, do that for a week, then add a mile the next week, but back off if the pain persists.  This is likely to be a little frustrating, but I really want to be in a position to ramp up my mileage this winter, so I'll do as he says.  I may have to incorporate some cross-training to stay sane.

I had to share this link to The Onion's article on Meb's victory:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_york_marathon_winner_tests

Although it was another beautiful morning, perfect for a long run, I tried to be good by keeping the mileage low.  I noticed a little pain during the last mile, which was uphill, but it was mild.  I stretched and did 2x10 ecentric exercises on a stair with knee bent, and also did a little massage work on the AT in the evening.