Running Log

Long run day. Since I have my GPS watch I know exactly how far I'm going now. I decided just to run nine miles from my apartment straight up Provo canyon, and I got about a mile past Bridal Veil falls when I hit the nine mile mark, and then turned back around. For the first 14 miles, I averaged 7:00/mile, but I completely collapsed on the last four miles, which were about 8:00 minute pace, so my average pace was 7:27/mile. I feel really good about that though. It was a good run. 

I'm pretty sore today from yesterday. I guess that's because I hadn't run very much in the two weeks previous, so that 18 miler really got to me. I think I'll feel just fine by tomorrow though and should be able to have a good week to prepare for the half marathon. My cold is finally going away, so I should be completely healthy in that regard by the time Saturday rolls around. 

I was still pretty sore from my Saturday run, so I tried to take this pretty slow, and ended up running at 7:23/mi pace. I'm trying not to overtrain.....

I felt pretty good today, so I just did a good long run, not too slow, not too fast, and it felt good. Still a little sore.

This run was slow because I was tired from yesterday. I ran 7:37/mi pace. I'm really concerned about overtraining. 

Another slow day because I don't want to be tired for my race on Saturday. 7:48/mi pace. 

Ran really slowly today just to keep my legs loose and get ready for tomorrow. I'm excited for the race!

Today was the Utah Valley Half Marathon. I ended up in 24th place overall, but first in my age group, so that was pretty cool. I averaged 6:12 per mile, and I'm happy with that considering I still have almost three months to prepare for the full marathon. I thought I was going to slow way down at about the seven mile mark, but I kept pushing it and it turned out pretty well. I'm happy with my race, and now I can look forward to the 10k on July 4th. 

Rest day

This was just a slow recovery run from the half marathon. I am still pretty sore, especially in my calves and rear end, so I just took this one really slow, running about 8:00/mile pace. I'm hoping to top 70 miles by the end of this week.....

I had shin splints so bad today that I had to stop this run early to recover. I am still a little sore from the half marathon anyway, so it probably won't hurt me much in the long run. 

I bought new shoes today thinking that the reason for my shin splints might be old shoes, and they didn't go away with the new shoes, but they definitely weren't as bad as yesterday. Today was a tempo run day, so I did a three mile warm up, then a four mile tempo run at about six minute mile pace, then a three mile cool down. I felt really good about this run. I'm trying to train my mind to run fast. The spirit definitely is willing, but the flesh is still a little weak, and only time will fix that. 

"Slow" run today, a recovery run. 7:29/mile pace. Shin splints still hurting. 

This run was shorter than normal, but faster than normal. 6:51/mile. 

Long run for the week, and I felt pretty good. I averaged 7:09/mile, and I felt good about that. My goal for this run was 7 minute miles, but I'm fine with what I did. Because of my shin splints and the race last week I wasn't able to run as many miles as I wanted to this week, but I feel good about the week. My shin splints were all but gone yesterday because I've been rubbing them out and icing them, so they are healing. The one thing I worry about is getting a stress fracture, but other than shin splints my body is healthy right now. I'm trying to get more sleep than I usually do, like nine or ten hours a night, but honestly that rarely happens. I'm looking forward to a rest day tomorrow and a good week next week. 

I'm obviously not going to go running today, but I'm going to try to do as many physical things as I can just to stay loose and get a little exercise, like walking to church instead of riding, and I'm riding my bike to and from home for Father's day dinner, so that will give me a chance just to keep my legs active. I really like Sundays though because I always need a day to rest. 

Basic 11 mile run, 7:08 average mile pace. 

I tried to push it on this run a little, so while I could have gone faster, I went decently hard for several miles of this run. I averaged 6:55/mile pace.

Nothing today. I don't really have an excuse, I was just really tired and lazy and procrastinated so long that it was too late to get out and do anything. It doesn't feel good to post a zero. 

I went out and ran the course for the 10k on July 4th, and I pushed it pretty hard for about half of the course just to see where the most difficult stretches are on the course. In the end I averaged 7:00/mi pace, which doesn't seem that fast to me, but the miles I was pushing were close to 6:00 or 6:15 per mile, depending on the mile. 

I went out today for just a basic, slow run, and that's exactly what ended up happening. I haven't been getting enough sleep lately, so I've been more tired than I should be if I'm going to be fast. This run was 7:42/mile pace, which I was fine with. I'm gonna try to go about 18 tomorrow at 7:00/mile pace, so we'll see if I can do that. I think if I sleep well tonight I can accomplish that with some difficulty, but it's definitely obtainable. 

Like I said yesterday, my original goal for today was to run about 18 miles at 7:00/mile, and I ended up going only 16.27 miles, but my pace was exactly 7:00/mile pace.....no more, no less. I felt pretty good about this run. I didn't start my run until 10:30, which meant I didn't get home until about 12:30, so it was pretty hot by the time I got home, but I don't think the heat affected my run too much. I had to push myself a bit to run this pace, but I feel good about it. 

I'm still a bit disappointed about last week because if I had run on Wednesday I could have broken 70 miles in a week for the first time, probably of my entire life. That will be the goal this upcoming week. I feel pretty good about where I am though. I'm trying to add more speed into my workouts because I feel like my endurance is pretty good but I could use more speed. The good news is that I'm not sore from my long run yesterday, which means that I'm finally getting into pretty good shape. We'll see what happens this week, but I should be able to do at least 70 miles. 

Just a normal 11 miler, 7:14/mile pace. 

Another traditional run, but this one pretty slow. 7:31/mile. 

Really bad day today. I found a bunch of excuses not to go out today, some of them being that my shin splints have been pretty bad lately and it's been 100 degrees every day this week. It never feels good to miss a day. 

Another normal run. 7:25/mile. 

My ward went to the Manti pageant today, so I only had 30 minutes in between when I got home and when I needed to leave, so I just went out for a couple. Running only two feels just as bad as not running at all. I still have shin splints. 

I didn't get out until 9 pm today, so by the time I got out, I was already pretty tired just from the normal activities of the day. I ended up going for a pretty good run though and my friend Adam joined me for about nine miles of it, and that made it a lot more tolerable. I ran 7:22/mile, which isn't too good, but I felt good about it considering it was a night run. I hope the weather cools off a bit soon. 

Last week was kind of disappointing for me because I only got 50 miles in and my goal was 70. I'm doing what I can to eliminate my shin splints, so that shouldn't be a big problem in the future. I'm also trying to sleep more so I can run each individual run better. My biggest obstacle I think is being too tired to do speed workouts, and that's mostly because I don't get enough sleep. I'm excited for the upcoming race on July 4th. It should be a fun one.