Going With The Flow

AM - 3 miles with Jake followed by a massage by Tim Pagoaga (highly recommended). He did some scar mobilization and it did not feel good. 

St. George Marathoners!! Some food for thought (note: I'm not sure where the commentary came from, but it was in my "Running Motivation" google doc) - 

"My entire focus was to run a smart race. The first few miles I felt were too slow, but thank God my coach held me back." - Mary Kate Bailey commenting on her 2004 Marine Corps Marathon victory. Please note that she felt the first few miles were “too slow”. That’s exactly how the first few miles should feel! If the early pace doesn’t feel “too slow”, then that means that you’re running too fast and you need to slow down! At the 4 mile mark of the 2004 race, MK was 2 minutes behind the women’s leaders. She went on to win the race by about 4 minutes.

“Well, the first two marathons I ran, I followed the words of my wise coach, George Buckheit, “Start slow, finish fast.” Both marathons I ran negative splits and the second half of Rock 'n' Roll I ran a half marathon PR." -Kristen Henehan commenting on her 2007 MCM victory and subsequent Olympic Trials qualifier at RNR Phoenix. Kristen played the ‘start slow, finish fast’ game perfectly in both of those races. And although she had not run many half marathons up to that point, she managed to run a half marathon PR in the second half of the Phoenix race! That’s proof that if you are patient early in the race, it is very possible to run extremely fast in the second half of the race.

Workout Wednesday w/ Jake A on the track: 2-2-4-8-8-4-2-2 w/ 200m jog after 2s and 400m jog after 4s and 8s.  The splits were 39-42-1:26-2:59-3:05-1:25-39-40. Jake and I took turns leading and were right on pace with goal splits, if not a little faster. We have been gradually increasing the overall distance of the speed reps each week and it is really helping my body adjust to workouts again.

I was worried if I could do a workout this morning because last night I felt terrible (from the scar tissue mobilization and psoas massage), but I felt much better when I woke up. Great way to start the day.

Scott Wietecha has a cool post today: 

How long could you run with the new world record marathoner Kipsang?

Couch potato: 20m (3.54 seconds)
Fairly athletic 12-year-old: 100m (17.69 seconds)
Five-a-day-eating, non-smoking, healthy adult: 200m (35.38 seconds)
Nauseatingly fit bloke you see jogging around the local park: 600m (1 minute 46 seconds)
The fastest person you went to school with: 800m (2:21)
A competitive county-level athlete: one mile (4:43)
Emil Zatopek, 10,000m world record holder from 1949 to 1956: 10,000m (29:18)
A professional half-marathon athlete: 13.1 miles (around 1:01.41)
Nobody, in the history of athletics: 26.2 miles - a full marathon (2:03.23)

Scheduled day off as part of my easy week. My psoas has been achy the last couple days so it is needed. Weights and leg strengthening exercises later.

Easy 3 miles.

We have a group running at Park City tomorrow morning at 9am if anyone is interested in joining. Let me know and I can give more info.

Nice run this morning in Park City with JAJANAK - 11 miles at 7:50 pace. Once the rail trail turned into sticky mud, my psoas was on the brink of cramping so I slowed down and was able to prevent that. We turned around at the scary cows and it was gradual uphill all the way back. I got tired at about 9 miles but made it to 11 feeling good structurally. While the guys continued on their long run, Allie and I were happy soaking in the hot tub.

7 miles with Jake in Park City, 8:25 pace. We ran along the McLeod bike path then turned right onto the dirt path by Quarry Mountain. It turns out that there is a nice dirt trail system that Jake and I didn't even know about! It's a beautiful area, and I can't wait to go back and explore the whole soft surface bike path. My right adductor and groin got pretty tired around 6 miles, and I decided to walk the rest of the way back after hitting 7 miles. 

The fall colors in Park City are awesome - lots of yellows and oranges on the Aspen trees. Love it.

3 miles easy with Jake. I did not wear enough clothes for 40 degrees and still cold. 

Not sure how this week's training is going to go...I'm heading to TN on Thursday for my brother's wedding. Between the traveling and all the wedding festivities, I need to be really careful not to overdo it. When I went home six weeks ago, I felt terrible for 5 days afterwards. I should be able to handle more now but having any type of mileage goals could just get me into trouble. 

Sugarhouse run with Allie and Jake. I felt really good today except my right achilles hurt. It bothered me a little on yesterday's run (for the first time ever) and then this morning it was tight, sore, and twingy. Hopefully, it's just another little problem along the comeback that will go away in a couple days.

Question of the day: What do you trust more for speed/distance - Garmin or treadmill? 

Wednesday Workout. I waited until lunchtime to make sure my achilles/calf was okay. It felt 90% during the warm-up so I think the problem was a knot I found in my soleus muscle yesterday. I jogged to the track then began 4 x (2 x 400)m with 200m b/w reps and 400m b/w sets. 80-83, 84-84, 84-85, 85-83. Although I slowed down, I was still significantly faster than my goal of 87 seconds. I am really happy because my fitness is what slowed me down today - NOT my injury. My achilles/calf got a little achy once I stopped running, but I'm not too worried. The next couple days are easy.

3.2 miles before my flight to TN. Is this the first flight since surgery that won't be a total disaster? I hope so!

4 hilly miles in TN. I did really well with the traveling yesterday but then spent several hours out with the wedding party last night which threw me a little over the edge. I was achy/twingy this morning. The weather here is amazing, so I couldn't resist a short run.

3.7 miles before heading to wedding stuff. Felt okay, just doing enough to feel good (mentally) and not bad (injury) at the same time.

4 miles in the afternoon. My groin is irritated a bit - a little more sore than yesterday. I should've worn my compression tights because it eases the jarring. I don't think the weekend set me back too much...I'll have to take a couple more easy days to recover then should be good to go. I only ended up with 30 miles for this past week, but that's how it goes sometimes. Honestly, I'm loving this relaxed version of training and think it's important for everyone to do it every once in a while. No stress about missing a few miles!

I had such a great wedding weekend with my family. In case you love wedding photos.....I have a new sister!

Ran 5.5 miles with Jake A while doing Saucony testing. I always feel sluggish the day after coming back to altitude, and today was no exception. 

This is why you should be very careful about taking supplements. Companies put whatever they want in them...untested drugs, steroids, you name it!

Horsepark loops with Jake, 6.2 miles. 

Wednesday Workout - 2x200m, 4x800m, 2x200m with 200m jog b/w 2s and 400m jog b/w 8s. Splits were 41-42, 2:53-2:54-2:53-2:55, 41-41. I am very happy with the workout times. The 800s were challenging, and it was hard to get my breathing under control during recovery. My speed is coming along nicely but I still lack quite a bit with endurance and mileage is low. Any guesses for what I can run at the SOJO 5K? I ran 19:13 five weeks ago.

3.5 mile recovery run at lunch. Right adductor and groin are sore from yesterday. 

Quote of the day from Kobe -

“I have self-doubt,” Bryant says. “I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it. You respond to it. You rise above it. … I don’t know how I’m going to come back from this injury. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll be horses—.”  He pauses, as if envisioning himself as an eighth man. “Then again, maybe I won’t, because no matter what, my belief is that I’m going to figure it out. Maybe not this year or even next year but I’m going to stay with it until I figure it out.” 

Day off. In hindsight, I should've taken yesterday off and today easy but that's okay. I'm still achy and sore in groin and adductor, so I will have to hold back on the track workouts more. We'll see how I feel in the morrning - I will race if I feel good but have no problem shutting it down if the effort feels like too much.

SOJO 5K this morning. I ran a longer 3.5 mile warm-up due to a late start time. I was a little worried about that but it was no problem.

The race started on grass with a neighborhood mile folowed by the Jordan River Parkway. The course was not marked at all after 2 miles so Jake, Allie, Jasmine, and I ran the course that was on the website (which apparently they changed?). At any rate, we had to run on a road with roundabouts, cars, and no sidewalk sections. The course was maybe a tiny bit (5 seconds) short.

I had no Garmin today, but I felt like I maintained a consistent pace throughout the race. Nothing held me back but my own fitness and that's great news. I ended up running right at 6:00 pace and am thrilled with my progress in the last 5 weeks! 

Afterwards, I cooled down for about 2 miles with Allie and Jasmine then watched James finish the marathon. Fun morning :)

Ran 5.8 miles with the JAJARS crew then they dropped me off at home and continued on their way. Groin and back are sore from yesterday but should feel good again by tomorrow.

I ended up with 36 miles for the week. Although I was aiming for 40, last weekend's traveling and the hard track workout on Wednesday caused a little more discomfort than I had expected. The goal this coming week is to get in a workout and a couple longer runs.

5.2 miles with Jake at Wheeler Farm. Beautiful afternoon with lots of sunshine :)

Monday Motivation - 

“When you begin to believe, that is when you will be on the right track to try and accomplish whatever you have set out to do.” -Bob Hodge

“One thing is sure: if you want running fast in competition, you must run fast in training. The problem is WHEN and HOW, not IF.” -Renato Canova

Tempo Tuesday! Ran 10 miles with Jake A with 5K in 20:59 (7:02, 6:38, 6:36, :43). The initial goal was to run the tempo at 7:15 pace but the faster pace felt like the right effort for both of us. Jake A showed me how to get from work to the JRP (2.25 miles - not bad!), and we ran on there for most of the run. My back has started to bother me a bit again since the 5K on Saturday, so I need to figure that out before it becomes a problem again.

Lunchtime 5 miles with a few breaks to help Jake with shoe testing. 

Thursday workout. I ran 2.5 miles to the Jordan High track only to find 50 high school kids so I had to modify the workout for the roads. There is a short section of the Sandy Rail Trail close to the track that has a start and 1/4 mile marker so I used that for the workout. I did 3 x (4 x 0.25 mi) with 1:00 recovery jog between reps and 2:15 between sets. Reps were all between 1:26-1:30 with ~1:28 average. It has taken me 6 weeks but I finally made it up to 3 miles worth of intervals! I hit the effort level that I was targeting and felt good. Beautfiul afternoon again - love fall!

Lunchtime 3.8 mile easy run. Groin and adductor are a little sore, as expected.

Sunday (10/27) run - 9am at Highland HS. We'll probably run ~10 and then add on if people want to get in some more.

The Professional State of Mind

Horse park loop - 5.5 miles, 4 with Jake.

10 miles around Sugarhouse. I started with the big group then decided to split off with Allie and Collin to run a more comfortable pace. Allie almost caught a leaf. Brunch was fun afterwards.

This was a great week for me - definitely my best since I got injured. I ran 46 miles with two 10 milers, a tempo run, and a track workout. I have three 5ks left that are spaced every other weekend so I'm planning to alternate harder weeks and lighter weeks. I anticipate around 30-35 miles for this next week and am running the Indy 5k on Saturday.

Took the day off from running and did 20 minutes of upper body. My right adductor is quite sore and I have a little discomfort around my knee. Just need an easy day!

Monday Motivation!

“When you begin to believe, that is when you will be on the right track to try and accomplish whatever you have set out to do.” -Bob Hodge

“Any idiot can train himself into the ground; the trick is working in training to get gradually stronger.” -Keith Brantly

Lunch run of 5.3 miles. I didn't feel great. My lateral knee area is still bugging me today - I feel like it's associated with my adductor and groin still very fatigued from Sunday. 

Wednesday Workout! I don't even know why I plan specific workouts because I always end up changing it once I get to the track. Ended up with 1600-800-400-400m with 400m jog recovery between reps (5:52, 2:57, 1:26, 1:25). The workout did not feel difficult but I wanted to be cautious so I didn't push it. I did hear the F-bomb at least 20 times by some really "cool" 15-year olds.

The Placebo Response - Belief, Expectations, and Why it Matters in the World of Sport

Easy three miles with Jake before work.