Running Log

Rest day

Ran to and from work.

Pushed it pretty hard on these miles and felt really good afterwards. Best run of the week by far. 

Ran to and from work. 

Pushed it on these miles just like Tuesday and established a really good pace....not too slow, not too fast. 

To and from work. 

I ran these at about 8 minute pace/mile. Pretty easy. I wanted to do more but didn't have time. 

Rest day. I'm going to run outside from now on now that it's finally getting warm. 

To and from work

I was on campus on day today, so I got home and went for a run at midnight, but was too tired to go any more than two miles. 

To and from work

Really good, fast tempo run. I felt really good during this run. 

To and from work

I don't know exactly how far I went, but I ran for two hours, so if I was running at an eight minute mile pace, which I think I was, it would be fifteen miles. It was really hard and it hurt really bad by the end, but it feels really good to be able to run that far. 

Rest day. I'm pretty sore from my 15 mile run yesterday, but not as sore as I thought I would be. I finally bought new shoes yesterday (I got a really good deal; they were only $30) so hopefully I like them. I feel good about this week except for Tuesday. This upcoming week my goal is 50 miles or more. 

To and from work. I found out that it is 3.5 miles from where I live to Mommy Bear, so I run 7 total miles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 

To and from work

To and from work

This past week was the worst week I've had for a long time when it comes to running. A bunch of unusual things came up so I only ran 21 miles this week. My goal is to run 50+ this upcoming week, so we'll see if I can do it.  

To and from work

I got sick again this week, so I didn't run today. 

To and from work

I was still sick today, so I rested again. 

To and from work

Today was interesting. I ran a low key relay race with some friends called the "Wasatch Front Relay." We ran from the Provo Temple to the Salt Lake Temple. I had three separate legs. The first was 4.4 miles and I ran that in about 26 minutes, which is 6:00/mile pace. The next leg was exactly a 10k, 6.2 miles, and that was in 38 miles flat, so 6:06/mile pace, and that hurt really bad because the course was hard and I was already tired, but it felt really good to know that I could run that fast for that long. Then my last leg was about 5 miles and it was pretty slow because I was really tired. I didn't even time it, but it was still hard since I was already so tired. It was definitely a confidence booster. 

36 miles this past week. I was disappointed that I got sick again. I'm sick of being sick! But this week unless I get sick I'll be running 50 miles at least. I feel pretty good about where I am based off my relay race yesterday. 

I am still VERY sore from my relay, so I just ran five miles easy today, mostly to loosen up my legs. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow. 

Ten miles on the indoor track. I am still pretty sore from my relay, so I ran about seven minute pace, which I actually felt pretty good about. I was encouraged by this run. 

To and from work

I ran on the track again today. I was tired just from lack of sleep, but I threw in a one mile "fartlek" if you can even call it that. It was a six minute mile, and the rest were seven minute miles. 

To and from work with a detour on the way

I was wimpy today mostly because of conference all day, so at eight when Priesthood session ended I just went out for a quick run. 

I felt pretty good about this past week. Every single day this week was a good run except Saturday, which was way too short. I still have yet to hit 50 miles in a week, so I'm still going to keep that as my goal, which will be hard because of two papers I have to write this week. I'm looking forward to the end of the semester so I can focus more on training for this marathon. My original goal was top 10, but I really do think I can get top 3 unless some random Kenyans show up on race day. My goal when school ends is to run at least 70 miles a week. 

To and from work.

I had to write a 7 page paper today, and it took all day. I'm disappointed that I didn't get at least a short run, but I had no choice. I can't wait for school to end!

To and from work

I honestly don't remember how many miles I ran today. It was on the indoor track. 

I ran to work, but I got a new bike this week, so I went home and put it together, and then rode that home from work, so I only got four in today. 

These were on the indoor track again, which was really boring, but it was super windy and kinda cold outside, so I ran on the track. I felt pretty good though. I ran about seven minute pace the whole way and felt pretty good. 

This last week was average. This week finals start, so I don't expect this week will be much better, but that fact that finals start soon means that the semester is almost over. My goal is still 50+ miles, but I won't be surprised at all if I don't have time to run that much. 

I ran at a good pace, about 6:50/mile and it felt really good. It was on the indoor track. 

This whole week I was studying and doing stuff, so I didn't run. 

Nothing again

Nothing

Nothing

This run was really slow, but a little hard since I haven't run for several days. 

This past week was ridiculously lazy for me, and I'm not very proud of it. I did have finals, but I had time to go on at least some short runs. Anyway, the end is finally here. Finals end on Wednesday, and after that I am committed to not missing a single day of running until my marathon on August 31. It's going to be fun, and hard, and a good experience I think. I'll never have a week again like I did this past week. 

Right in the middle of finals week, so I just ran a quick seven miles at seven minute pace. 

I studied for a final all day today, then took that final tonight, so I didn't get to run. 

Same situation as yesterday. Studied for and took my last final today. 

I started full time work today, and then I got home and cleaned and was just kinda lazy. I regret not running today because I definitely could have. 

Same situation as yesterday. I was just really lazy and could have easily gone for a run. 

I was really wimpy again today. I was up really late cleaning my apartment for cleaning checks so I was really tired all day, and I found a bunch of excuses to not go running. Later in the day my roommate invited me to run up the Y with him, so we did that together. It was really hard!

Sabbath day. Tomorrow starts my serious marathon training. My goal is at least ten miles a day, so it's going to take a lot of time, but hopefully it will be worth it. 

Ten good miles at about seven minute pace. This was up in the hills on the benches of Provo, so it was actually pretty difficult. There was a lot of uphill and then some really steep downhill. It was a really good run. 

Another run on the benches of Provo. I was pretty tired from yesterday, so my pace was noticeably slower than yesterday. I ran up to a trail in rock canyon, and that wasn't very good so I won't do that anymore. The trail I was on ended after about a mile. 

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. 

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. 

This was inside on a treadmill because it was 104 degrees today. I ran a normal run, with two tempo miles in the middle at 6:00 pace, which is my target marathon pace. This was a really tough run, I'm not sure why. 

Five super easy miles today to do a "taper" for the 10k. 

Nothing today because of the race tomorrow. I actually wanted to do about 3 miles today but decided against it at the last second. 

I felt pretty good about this race. I ran it at about the same pace as the half marathon a month ago, which is interesting both because that was a month ago, and because this race was half as long. The overall times were several minutes slower this year though, so I'm not worried about it. I feel like I'm doing pretty well for where I am. This is my last race until the big one....the Pocatello Marathon on August 31, so I shouldn't miss any more days until then. I can look forward to that now. 

I just did four super easy miles today. I'm actually not very sore from the race yesterday, but definitely tired. Also, I want to have a good long run tomorrow. 

I was VERY happy with this run. I got out at about 9:15, which was later than I wanted to, but I really needed the rest. Anyway, I did a 9.5 mile loop twice. The first time around I started really slow, my first mile being about 7:40. I was stiff and tight from the race, but I knew that would go away a few miles into the run. To make a long run short, I ended up running 6:54/mile, and that is easily the fastest I have done this year for a long run like this. My best before this was a sixteen mile run at 7:00/mile, so I was really happy about this. I felt really good the entire run until mile 15 or 16, and then the last few miles were a little harder, but honestly I probably could have run farther than I did. The run made me super optimistic where I am in my training right now. 

My overall mileage this week is nothing impressive because of the race, but starting next week I can do my normal workouts up until the race in August, so I'm glad for that.

Based off today's run, I feel very confident that I'll be able to easily break three hours in Pocatello, assuming I don't get injured and that I feel good the day of the race. I'm excited about where I am in my fitness right now.  

Rest day

Nothing today

Slow

Nothing again

I finally got a decent run in, 7:03/mile. 

Slow

My original goal for today was to do about 20 like last week, but by mile 6 or 7 I was already totally wasted and I wasn't even going very fast. This week has obviously been incredibly bad for me. I have been lazy, haven't got enough sleep, and I have several reasons for not running, none of which are acceptable. Anyway, I guess every athlete has setback, but I feel like this week was a "self inflicted wound" for me. I'm looking forward to next move to prove that I can be better. 

Rest day

This one was really slow and was in the heat. It was about 95F when I went out. It wasn't too bad though and I got through it just fine. 

Super slow.....injured.

Injured, exhausted

Still injured, still exhausted.

Getting better, not as tired. 

This one was at a decent pace, 6:57/mile. I left my apartment having no idea how far this run would be because I haven't run much all week and I got out at about 10am, so it was already like 80 degrees outside when I left. I ended up going about ten and I felt really good, but it was too hot to keep going. 

So this past week, I guess the past two weeks actually, I've lost a lot of motivation for some reason. There are several different reasons, but I'm honestly getting to the point where I'm almost sick of running. I think the main factor in this feeling is because I run at night rather than in the morning, so I'm always tired. to change that, starting on Monday I'm going to run in the mornings rather than after work, and see how that is. Another thing that plays into that is the fact that my left IT band has been hurting for about two weeks now. It's just tight, so I'm stretching as much as I can, and the rest has definitely helped it, but it still isn't completely better. I have also failed to get enough sleep this past week, mostly because I have been less diligent about getting to bed on time than I need to be. I'm hoping to run a full week this upcoming week and see what difference it makes to run in the morning instead of after work. I'm still really excited for the marathon, so we'll see what I can do this week. Also, I started going to the gym three times a week, so we'll see how that affects my running. 

I don't know how far I ran today. I slept really poorly last night, so I was really tired, and we played soccer for FHE, so I just accepted that as my run. I ran a lot during soccer and got really tired, so it actually wasn't too bad. 

Still really tired

This was a tempo run at 6:45/mile pace, and it felt pretty good. 

REALLY slow. I was really tired from yesterday's run

Nothing

For some reason I was dead today, so I had to cut my run short

Another tempo run. 6:44/mile. It felt good

Lazy

Still exhausted

Tired

Felt ok

Just 10 today. The month of July totally ruined me when it came to running. The most I ran in a week was about 40 miles, which should be the MINIMUM that I run in a week. Anyway, I think because of that my long runs have suffered because I don't have the fitness to run for that long at a high pace. Anyway, I keep telling myself that "next week I'll do better," and so I'm hoping that next week I really will do better and run like 70, but we'll see. 

Went on a hike today for FHE, so I decided not to run. 

I don't remember............

Don't remember 

I don't remember.......

I played ultimate frisbee and football for about two hours today

8.82 miles at 7:05/mile pace. It felt pretty hard, partly because I went at 5pm when it was hot and partly because I've been slacking off big time lately. 

I don't remember exactly how far I ran this week, but it wasn't very much. I have been so lazy and because I've got to bed late a lot of the time, I tell myself that I'm too tired to run and it would be worthless if I tried, so I've just stayed home. I am definitely suffering the consequences of the laziness. There is a noticeable difference in both how fast I can run and how far. With the marathon only three weeks away, the next two weeks have to be extremely focused if I want to have any hoping of breaking three hours in this marathon. 

This was an "easy" run, 7:04/mile. I wasn't planning on running this fast, but I felt really good, so I just kept going at that pace. 

This was a tempo run. I warmed up for three miles, then ran 7 tempo miles averaging probably 6:10 per mile, then a two mile cool down. 

Easy run today, really slow. 7:30/mile. 

Same as Tuesday, 3 mile warm up, six miles of tempo at about 6:00-6:10 pace, then a two mile cool down. 

I planned on running five easy today, but I moved out of my old apartment and into my new one today, so by the time all of that happened, it was too late. 

I did a 20 miler today. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't very fun, but in the end I averaged 6:49/mile, which is under the pace I need for a three hour marathon, so I'm really happy about that. I'm a little worried because I don't think I would have been able to keep that pace for six more miles, but it was a good run. I think I'll finish just under three hours in the marathon. It's just two weeks away now, which is weird! 

So I got just over 60 miles last week, which is good. These next two weeks will just be taper weeks, and of course the marathon on the 31st. It's weird to think that my college running career ends in two weeks. 

I was still pretty tired from my 20 miler on Saturday, so this was REALLY slow. 7:45 pace per mile. 

I was still exhausted today, so I decided to play basketball and go swimming instead of running. I actually got a pretty good workout swimming a few laps, and I shot hoops for about an hour which wasn't bad exercise either. 

5 slow miles today. I'm finally getting over the exhaustion from the 20 miler, so this run was 7:05 pace. Still pretty slow, but a lot better than Monday. 

I didn't feel very good this morning, but I was still able to get in 9 miles at 6:59 pace. I think I'm over the 20 miler tiredness finally, I just didn't sleep particularly well last night, so I was a little more tired than usual. 

Just four easy miles today, 7:10 pace. Tomorrow is 12 miles at marathon pace, then next week is just a taper week. I'm getting excited!

12 miles at 6:40/mile pace.

5 miles easy. Just tapering for the marathon this weekend. 

7 miles pretty easy, still tapering. 

I decided to take the day off today....

Another day off.....

Two super easy miles

Today was the Pocatello marathon! I've been training for this race since January 1, so after 8 whole months of training the race finally came, and I was able to run pretty well. I went into the race a little bit worried about the lack of sleep that I had this week, but the morning of the race I felt pretty good, so I was excited for the race.

I was lucky enough to be on the front line at the start (I stood next to the man that got first place overall). The race started and it was a very steep downhill for the first few miles. My first mile was 5:58 and I felt like I was jogging. For almost the entire first half of the race, which is almost completely downhill, I felt like I was jogging. For a lot of it, I probably could have closed my mouth and breathed only through my nose. That's how easy it felt. At the half way point, my pace was 6:35/mile. I felt really good about that. I did feel some soreness in my quads though from the downhill. 

At mile 15, I was forced to take a bathroom break, but I timed it and it only took 30 seconds. As I kept going, I got more and more tired, and I knew I was slowing down. At mile 21, there was a really good sized hill, and that's where I really started to feel it. The last six or so miles I felt like I was going to die. It hurt so bad to take every single step, especially because at that point I had a huge blister on the bottom of my foot that hurt really bad. I just kept pushing though knowing that under 3 hours was still a possibility. Those last few miles were probably the hardest thing I've ever put my body through physically, but at the mile 25 marker, I was at 2:51, so I knew I still had nine minutes to run (my goal was to finish under three hours). Finally, I turned the last corner into the home stretch, where I finally realized that I was going to break three, and I was so happy! It felt good knowing that with all the time and effort I put into this marathon I did what I had gone there to do, and it was one of the best feelings I've probably ever had. It was the hardest thing I've ever done physically, but in my opinion, it was worth it.