A clydesdale no more!

My legs felt heavy and tired.  The run was a bit of a struggle.  My foot was more painful than it has been.  I think that when my legs are more tired, it force my feet to do more of the work which causes the higher discomfort.

I was very groggy when I got up this morning.  Not sure what is going on but it seems I feel this way every once in a while.  Kept the pace very slow and just put the miles in.

Just did a mini hill run today.  I took a pumice stone to my foot last night and it seemed to help.  It is still a little sore but I think that this will take care of the issue.  My legs are still a little on the tired side for some reason.

Cold and rainy.  The weather this year has been crazy.  Felt alright during the run.  Had to cut the run a mile short because I am going on a field trip to Wheeler farm with my girls.

Felt decent today.  My achilles tendons are a little tender.  I used to have chronic achilles pain but they haven't bothered me for a couple of years.  I had spurts of good running this morning.  It's weird how sometimes I feel real smooth and fluid when I run and other times I feel clunky and awkward.

What a cold and dreary morning.  Not your typical June weather.  I didn't feel particularly great to start the run so I decided to take the first loop easy.  Averaged 8:00/mile for the first 9 miles.  Stopped and got a drink and checked on the kids and headed out for the second 9.  I ran a different loop and it was a little hillier but I ran it 5 minutes faster.  I did have to stop a couple of times to rub my foot out but other than that I felt good.  I am going to make an appointment with a podiatrist to find out if there is anything that I can do about my foot.  Does anybody know a good "runner friendly" podiatrist?

Perfect morning for a run.  Ran down to the Legacy Parkway trail which is still under construction.  This should be a good place to run.  There were a few more bugs flying around than I would have liked.  Once I hit the trail, I kept the pace at 7:00/mile or faster.  Pace felt very comfortable.  It seems that running at a slightly faster pace forces me to have a little better form.

Warmed up with 3 miles then ran a 4 mile tempo run.  The tempo miles were very inconsistent.  The first 2 miles were gravity assisted and the last two were relatively flat.  Splits were: 6:19, 6:25, 6:13, 6:19.  I have no idea why the second mile was so slow and why the 3rd mile was fast.  Cooled down with 3 more miles.  

Very easy paced miles.  I should have run less miles because 10 miles is a little too long for a recovery run.  I'm not sure if it is better to run 10 a day or go 10, 12, 8, 12 , 8.  I guess the better solution is to run 2 shorter runs on the easy days but time constraints make that a little difficult.

It must be Wednesday because it is rainy and cold.  Ran up to the Bountiful temple and back home again.  The downhill form is starting to come around.  It is still a little sloppy but I am beginning to feel like I have control of myself coming down.  My legs are still feeling a little worn out but I guess that is an indication of decent training.

Felt good during the run this morning. It was supposed to be a 10 miler but I miscalculated the route and ended up a little short. My left knee and hamstring started to ache towards the end.

I thought that I was done for the day.  When I went to take my son to school I realized that I locked my keys in my car.  I didn't have time to look for the spare set of keys so we rode our bikes to his school.  I couldn't find the spare anywhere in the house and I had to get my daughter's to their end of year kindergarten testing so I put them in the stroller and ran them to the school.   I was in street clothes, non-running shoes and it was not a jogging stroller.  So I got an extra 3 miles for the day.
 

Ran out to the Legacy Highway trail and ran on it for a couple of miles.  My feet and ankles are a little sore from running in dress shoes yesterday. 

Ran to the Parish Lane trail head of the BST to meet the South Davis Road Runners. I underestimated how far it was and ended up missing them. I ran the trail and was able to see a couple of the guys as they were on their way back. This run had a lot of hill running in it. This was a good test for the legs that I have been assigned for the WBR. The uphill was slow and painful and it has me worried. The last couple of miles were a bit of a struggle because I pushed too hard on the hills. I would have liked to have felt a little stronger at the end but it was still a good run.  I saw a lot more runners on the road and trail today than I normally do.  It seemed like there were a lot of "running couples".  I'm not sure if this really was the case or it is just something that I noticed because of my state of mind.

Warmed up with 3 easy miles then ran a 4 mile tempo run.  Averaged 6:17/mile and was able to maintain a consistent pace throughout the run.  Effort felt good and I was happy with the workout.  Cooled down with 2 easy miles.  Mileage will be low this week because of WBR.

My legs are completely dead today.  Kept the pace very slow.  There seemed to be a lot more people out exercising today than usual.

My legs are still completely dead.  I cut the run short because I want them to be fresh this weekend.  After 4 miles they started to feel a little better but they still felt pretty heavy.

Had a little more pep in my legs this morning.  They still feel a little heavy but they are getting better.  Ran the first half carrying 3 curling irons (don't ask).

I hadn’t planned on running WBR this year (translation: I don’t have enough friends to put a team together) but a coworker had a couple of last minute dropouts from his team and asked if I would be interested in running with them.  Turns out that this was Cal and Marcie’s team which was a neat coincidence.  I was in van 2 but we drove up to the start to pick up the packets and see van 1 start the race at 10:20 a.m.  We pulled in right as the 10:20 runners were starting so we really didn’t get to see the runners off.   We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things then drove to exchange 6 to wait for our turn to run.  It was really hot while we were waiting at the park and I was really concerned because I’m not a very good hot weather runner.   After a couple of hours of hanging around the park, van 1 came in right when we were expecting them and we were off.  

My first leg was a 3.9 mile run from Pineview reservoir towards Snow Basin.  The first 3 miles climbed 900 feet and the last 0.9 miles dropped 350 feet.  My plan was just to bear down and plug along for the climb then let it rip once I hit the downhill.  I started at 5:10 p.m. and it was very hot.  I told the van to meet me at the 2 mile marker for some water.  I quickly realized that this was a mistake because I had a dry mouth immediately.  Fortunately, the crew also new this was a mistake and was waiting for me at mile 1 and gave me a water bottle.  For the first 3 miles I just focused on passing runners ahead of me or counting down until I got to the 3 mile marker where I would hit the downhill.  I think that I had a decent effort and was close to puke pace much of the climb.  I did hold back a little because I knew I had two more legs to run.  Once I hit the peak of the run and started the downhill, I opened up a lot and was able to push the pace coming down.  I was surprised at how well my downhill running was.  Averaged 5:27 pace for the last 0.9 miles and 7:25/mile for the entire run.  I ran the entire leg in 29:18 which was about 20 seconds faster than I planned so I was happy with the results (I passed 18 runners).

After runner 12 finished, we drove to East Canyon reservoir and crashed until it was our turn to run again.  I didn’t sleep at all but was able to relax for about an hour after eating before it was our turn to run again.

The entire time that our van was on for the second leg, I was very nauseous. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was so tired or if I was just getting car sick. It was probably a combination of the two. Every time that we would stop to support a runner, I would get out and walk around to see if I could shake the nausea but it didn’t seem to help. My second leg started at 1:15 a.m. and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was 4.6 miles and had a net elevation gain of 112 feet (dropped 200 feet and climbed 312 feet). I took off a couple of seconds after another fastish runner. This turned out to be a good thing because my GPS didn’t grab a signal so I was able to use the other runner to push the pace. He would gap me during the slight down grades and I was able to gain on him during the uphill sections. We played this game for the first 2 miles until I was able to finally move past him. I used the fear of him passing me as motivation to maintain a decent pace for the entire run. I was able to estimate my distance based on my time and picked it up for the last mile. I ran this leg in 30:15 which was 1 minute faster than I predicted (passed 7 runners during this leg – the competition was really thinning out at this point).

We were lucky enough to spend our downtime between legs 2 and 3 at a cabin in Midway. I was able to get 2 hours of solid sleep until it was time to head to the final major exchange. Saw Logan and Adam here and was able to get an update on the FRB teams.
My last leg started at the top of Ragnar and was 6.9 miles of mostly downhill. The first mile had a slight elevation gain and I thought that the rest of the run was all downhill. My only goal for this leg was to avoid being passed by the FRB. I knew our projected finish times were close (even though they started 6.5 hours later) and I thought that they would catch us during the last 2 legs. Our runners that had to run up Guardsman Pass (legs 33 and 34) were incredible. In fact, they were too fast because as we were approaching the top of Ragnar, I knew that if I waited in the van I wasn’t going to have enough time to take care of business. I got out of the van and ran the last 1/4 mile to the exchange so I could spend some quality time in the Honey Bucket. As I exited the Honey Bucket, I could see Cal approaching the exchange. I ran down to get the bracelet and took off. I felt bad for blowing this exchange after Cal worked so hard powering up Ragnar. There was a decent climb to start and I was immediately at puke pace. This was way too early to feel this way. I was able to hold it off and was relieved to hit the downhill. As I started running downhill I was hit with a nasty side stitch from all of the jarring. This lasted until the 2 mile marker and was very frustrating because I could never get in a groove. Hit a good uphill section at mile 2.75 which I didn’t expect. It was very difficult to transition from the severe downhill to the steep uphill. I got nauseous as soon as the uphill started and wasn’t able to shake the feeling until I started going downhill again. My downhill pace wasn’t as fast as I hoped. At 3.5 miles I about died when I saw the hill that I had to climb. Once again I struggled with the transition from downhill to uphill running. I crested the last hill at mile 4 (picked off 2 runners during the climb) and was pretty sure that the rest was all downhill. I could see one runner a little ways ahead of me but wasn’t sure if I could catch him. I decided to use this as motivation to push the pace. Once I saw the 1 mile to go sign, I finally was able to open it up. I was closing the gap on the runner ahead but thought I was going to run out of road. Eventually got past him and kept the hammer down so he wouldn’t pass me again. Ran the last mile in 5:45. Unfortunately, the other 6 miles were quite a bit slower than I planned. Total time for the 6.9 miles (Garmin measured 7.1) was 45:39 which was 5 minutes slower than projected. I think that the projection was a little too aggressive and didn’t take into account the fatigue factor due to sleep deprivation.

I had a really good time and the team I was on was a lot of fun but I'm not sure that I really enjoy relays. After the Northwest Passage relay next month, I'm not sure if I will do another. The first FRB team came in just a few minutes after us and the second team was coming in as we were leaving and I'm glad I was able to see them finish.

I am so sore.  It's not the same kind of soreness as post-marathon soreness but my legs hurt all over.  I'm not sure if it is from the brutal downhill or poor post race diet.  I didn't eat until late Saturday and realized last night at 8 o'clock that I hadn't eaten anything all day.  Not the best way to recover from a race.  I was going to do 2 5k's in the next couple of weeks but have now decided to skip the 5k this weekend and only run the 4th of July 5k.  

I can not believe how sore my legs are. I was planning on getting back up to my 10 miles/day schedule but my legs refused.  I'm just going to take it easy this week so my legs can fully recover then hit the training hard.

Starting to feel a little better but my legs are still very sore.  I was able to get a lot of sleep yesterday/last night so I think that I am all caught up with sleep now.  Not it's just a matter of getting my legs recovered.  Ran along the LHT which is getting closer to being completed.

Still not feeling well.  Not as much leg soreness but felt yucky all over.

A little better every day.  My muscles aren't sore anymore but I do have some discomfort in my left knee and right tibia.  First 7 miles were good but I started to wear down towards the end.  At least I feel as though I am heading in the right direction.

Ran up to meet the running club and 400 North and Davis Blvd which is a bit of a climb from my house (4+ miles).  Ran along Davis Blvd with a few runners in the club.  It was nice to run with others as I'm sure I would have struggled if I were alone.  Averaged 7:30/mile for the 7+ miles.  Ran the 4 miles back home and started to really struggle during the last mile.  I had an insatiable hunger and felt hypoglycemic.  It was a real struggle but I plugged along and made it home.

It feels like I'm starting to loose my mojo (not sure that I had any to begin with).  My desire to run in waning.  I know this most likely stems from my feeling lost in general but I always hoped that running would be a good refuge. 

Drove up to the mouth of Mueller Park canyon and ran up to elephant rock.  This has always been a good therapeutic run for me and I was hoping that it would help clear my mind.  I felt really good going up.  I just wanted to run at a nice comfortable pace.  Got to the top and hung out for a little while and enjoyed the view.  On the way back down, I turned a corner and there was a huge moose right in the middle of the trail.  Fortunately, it was more scared than I was and it took off down the canyon.  Pace felt really good coming down also.  This was a lot less death defying than last time I run up to the rock because there was no snow.  A good run overall and I think it served it's purpose.

My legs were a little tired from running last night.  I decided to try a tempo run anyways.  Warmed up with 3 easy miles then ran 3 miles at tempo pace (6:23/mile).  I was planning on 4 but my left hamstring started to get really sore and I thought it would be ill advised to proceed.  Ran 4 more easy miles home.

Finished June with 268.9 miles and 1,645.5 for the first half of the year.  This is 235 miles more than last year.  I'm running more but don't really feel like I'm improving. I guess all of those miles are going somewhere and will pay off in the long run.