Running Log

I was SO tired today from the last two runs that I literally couldn't run farther than three miles. I guess I'm in worse shape than I thought I was because the last two days absolutely killed me. I couldn't believe how tired I was during my run today. Anyway, add to that the fact that I started working full time this week, I started doing AbRipperX to strengthen my core this week, and I started doing push ups as well, so literally my entire body is sore. Anyway, these are just excuses, but I physically couldn't run more than three miles today. 

I was just lazy today. I had time to run, I just didn't, partly because of the same reasons that I talked about yesterday, but mostly because I was just lazy. It feels bad to miss a day so I need to do better. 

I only ran three today for the same reasons as Wednesday. I'm still totally exhausted for some reason, and I just couldn't run. Part of it is definitely that I've been sleeping poorly this week. 

Long run today. After Tyler's baptism this morning, I went home and took a three hour nap, and that was the best decision I've made all week. I'm starting to think that I was so tired this week mostly because I haven't been getting enough sleep. I took that long nap and felt totally fine after that, so I went out and ran for 100 minutes. I don't actually know exactly how far it was because I don't have a GPS or anything, so I just ran. I felt pretty good until the last 15 minutes of my run. I totally hit a brick wall and died at the end, but I feel good about my run. I started on state street in Provo and just ran until it ended, and then I ran through a bunch of neighborhoods in Provo between the freeway and the lake that I didn't know existed. It was a good run and I feel good about it. 

I got my book in the mail this week, "Marathon Training for Dummies," and while there are a lot of things that I already there are definitely a lot of things that I don't know and things that are good to know. After reading a section of that book, I realized that last week I was more than likely overtraining because I was really tired all day every day but unable to sleep at night, and apparently those are symptoms. And the fact that I was so tired on Wednesday-Friday. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I just pushed it too hard. This week I wanted to build up my mileage without pushing it too hard, so I'm still trying to run a lot but just limit the hills and slow down a bit until my body can adjust to running 60+ miles a week. I figure if I run 60 miles a week for two straight weeks my body will probably be more or less used to it. So because of all of this, today I ran about nine miles at 7:30 pace (approximately) and it felt good. It wasn't too hard but it wasn't easy either.

Today was exactly like yesterday. I did the exact same course actually but backwards. This run was interesting because it was raining the entire run and I was COMPLETELY DRENCHED by the time I got home. And I was pretty cold too. It was a good run despite all of this though. I wasn't going to let rain ruin my run.

I was pretty tired today (even though I've been taking it easier) the last few days, and it was raining again, and I didn't feel like getting drenched again like yesterday, so I ran to the indoor track and just did 6.5 easy miles at about 7:30 pace. It felt good to do a shorter run. 

Today was a really good run. I actually just ran to the starting line of the fourth of July 10k from my apartment and I ran the 10k course. It wasn't a time trial obviously, just a normal run, but I was feeling pretty good and my time for the 6.2 miles averaged about 6:30, so I felt pretty good about it. 

After work today I got home and was pretty tired so I took an hour long nap, then put my running clothes on and my shoes, stretched, and right as I was about to leave, my friend Collin called me and said that he would be at my apartment to pick me up for a party at his house in five minutes from that time. I had already committed to going so I had to skip my run today. I thought the party would start later. If I knew I would have to miss my run to go, I wouldn't have gone. 

I don't know exactly how much I ran today, but assuming I ran an average 7:00 minute pace, which I can usually do pretty easily, I would have gone about 14.5 miles. This run actually felt really good. I started around 5 pm, and it was eighty degrees, so it was actually pretty hot, but I stopped at a few drinking fountains along the way so it wasn't too bad. I barely missed running 50 miles this week, which is pretty disappointing because I've been trying to do that literally for months now, but I felt good about my run today. This week I will run 50+ miles no matter what. 

This past week I've decided to invest in some running things, so this week I'm most likely going to buy a GPS running watch, some real running shorts, and probably some GU so I can test it out on my long runs on Saturdays to see if I would want to use it during the marathon. I've also been reading my marathon book (slowly but surely) and I think this week I'm going to start doing some tempo runs. The past few weeks have been pretty much all long, slow distance, but now I feel pretty comfortable running about ten miles a day, so I'm going to try to add some speed work into my runs. We'll see how it goes. I just need to be careful that I don't over train!

 I also realized this week that because I ride my bike to and from work and to other random places in between, I'm riding my bike about 50 miles a week. I'm not sure if that helps or hinders my marathon training, but that's another added dimension.  

I set out today anticipating to run ten miles, but I did an out and back and I ended up go to far out, so I obviously had to go all the way back, so I ended up running 13. It felt good even though it was three miles more than I wanted to run. I ran at about seven minute pace. 

I was actually kind of sore from my 13 miler yesterday, so I just did an easy run today, but was actually pretty hard because I had a "charlie horse" in my left calf the whole way, and my shoe started cutting into my ankle for some reason and it started bleeding (that's never happened before in these shoes). It was fine though. I'm going to do my first tempo run of the season tomorrow. 

Today I did a pretty difficult trail run with my friend Adam Jenkins, who just got home last week from a mission in Sweden. It was a hard run, with lots of hills, so I called it good at nine miles. 

Today I was literally so tired that I struggled just to keep myself from walking during this run, which warns me again that I could be overtraining and/or not getting enough sleep. This run was terribly slow and hurt a lot, just because I was so exhausted. 

Same story as yesterday with being tired, and I didn't think the run yesterday was worth it, so I took a nap instead but didn't have enough time to go for a run before a date that I had. Luckily, part of our date was to hike the Y, so I did that, and I'm just counting it as two easy miles. 

I set out today with the goal of running seventeen miles, but I don't know exactly what pace I was running. I ended up running for two hours and twenty eight minutes, which is longer than I intended, but I felt pretty good. I struggled for the last twenty minutes or so, but overall it was a really good run. Like I said, I don't know my exact pace, but if I had to guess I would guess that I averaged about a 7:30/mile pace, which would put me at roughly twenty miles for the day. I feel really good about this run and where I am right now in my running schedule. 

This upcoming week will be the biggest test of my motivation. This is my only "vacation" week of the entire summer, so we'll see how diligent I can be this week. I'll be in Southern California with some friends from Monday-Thursday, and then at the Piccolo family reunion from Friday-Monday, so this week is going to test me to see how willing I am to sacrifice time to get good runs in. I'm planning on running just as much...about sixty miles this week, so we'll see if I actually am able to do it. 

I was at Six Flags all day today in Los Angeles, and I could have gone out for a run at about 9pm when we got home, but it wouldn't have been worth it because I was so tired, so I decided not to go. 

Four miles at about 6:30 pace. Tonight we went to an Angels game and got home at 11pm, so I just ran for 30 minutes and called it good. 

I got a better run in today this morning before we went out and did all our fun stuff for the day. I was pretty tired because I had to wake up early, but it was a good run. It's fun to run around in Southern California. 

I got home from my trip at about 5pm this evening, but I only got four hours of sleep last night because we had to wake up pretty early, so I got home and took a nap. This is for sure the last day that I'll miss. 

At the family reunion this week up in Idaho, so I couldn't get out until late, so I just did three easy with Steve. 

Got out kind of late again because of the family reunion. Today was my last vacation day of the entire summer, and  because of that, I should be able to resume my normal schedule on Monday and be ready to go for the rest of the summer. It should be fun! Oh, I averaged 6:32/mile on this run. I finally got my GPS watch in the mail and I'm loving how much it helps already. 

Not much to say today. We're still at the family reunion, but we're coming back tomorrow, so tomorrow night I should be able to get in a ten or eleven mile run. Half marathon is in thirteen days from today, and I definitely don't feel ready, but hopefully this week I can get in 60+ miles, and that will help. 

Got home from the family reunion today, but I'm sick with a sore throat and stuffy nose.....too sick to go running, so I was forced to take the day off. 

Still sick. I really want to run but don't think it's a good idea. I'm not super sick, but I don't think running would help me get better. It would probably make it worse. 

Still sick. With every day that goes by without running, I just think of how this is going to affect my half marathon time next Saturday. I'm at the point where I'm saying that I'm going running tomorrow, unless I'm sicker tomorrow than I am today, which won't happen. I have to get out tomorrow.  

Nothing again. Too sick. 

I was still sick today, but I couldn't skip another day of running, especially with the half marathon next week, so I just decided to go and see how I felt. I felt pretty much normal and my cold didn't really affect me at all, which means that I probably could have been running this whole week. That's good to know for next time. I ran 9.61 miles at 6:37/mile pace, so it was tough, but I actually felt really good until the last half mile or so.