A clydesdale no more!

Another cool morning. Felt really good this morning. The last 4 miles I decided to bump up the pace each mile. Started at marathon pace and ran the last mile at 1/2 marathon pace. Other than a small ache in my right hamstring, everything felt really good.

Felt very sluggish and tired at the beginning of the run. Planned on using only water today but took 1 GU packet with me just in case. Ended up taking the GU at mile 9 and once it kicked in I felt a lot better. Finished the run with 2 miles at marathon pace. Was only going to run 14 today but went a little long so that I could finish the week with 50 miles. Felt a twinge in my right calf every once in a while just to remind me that it's still not 100%.

After a 2.25 mile warm up ran 4 miles at tempo pace (6:35, 6:35, 6:23, 6:19). Cooled down for a couple miles then ran the last mile at MP-10 sec. I was surprised at how good that I felt.

Easy recovery run.

Ran to the Bountiful Temple and back. Tough hilly run that I haven't run for 2 months due to injury. I was interested to see how my body would respond to a punishing run. It took me 30 seconds longer to run it this time than it did last time. My uphill splits were a little slower but my downhill splits were faster. There were quite a few runners out this morning so it motivated me to push a little harder on the downhill sections. I would have liked to hit the uphills a little harder (the steepest mile was 38 seconds slower this time) but I am happy with the effort and how I feel after the run.

Very easy run. Legs are a little fatigued from yesterday's run.

Ran to Bountiful Lake then to Farmington Bay then back home. Ran 6 miles at a little faster than marathon pace. Could feel myself getting a little lazy a few times and really had to focus on holding my form.

Ran to the end of Farmington Bay then looped around the county building and headed home. It was very quiet running a long the bay. The dirt road was very easy on the legs so I may run this more often. Maintained a relatively easy pace the entire run (started at 8:30/mile and finished at 7:20/mile).

Warmed up with 2.25 miles. 3 X 1 mile at a little faster than 5K pace with 1/2 mile jog between each repeat. Did the repeats on a 1 mile stretch of road that is mostly flat (20 foot elevation change). Miles 1 and 2 felt pretty good (5:58, 5:55). Felt good at the start of the 3rd repeat but was 5 seconds behind at the half way point. Started to push but was only able to make up 3 seconds the last half (6:02). I would have liked to finish a little stronger but feel good with the overall workout. Finished with 1.75 mile cool down.

Just your run of the mill general aerobic run. Total time: 55:30. A little fatigued from yesterday but felt pretty good for the most part. I really want to put in more miles but know that I need to start backing off in preparation for TOU and SGM.

Felt wiped out when I woke up this morning. Took it easy today and just put in easy miles (avg 8:05/mile).

Some high school punk made a comment about my shorts. It's not like I was wearing split seam racing shorts. They go to the middle of my thigh and aren't much shorter than "normal" shorts. I just don't get it.

Warmed up with 2 miles then ran 5 miles at marathon pace (avg 7:19/mile). Splits were all over the place and were dictated by the wind and terrain (some miles were uphill into the wind others were downhill with the wind). Effort felt pretty even throughout. Finished with an easy mile to cool down.

Was planning on running an easy 5 but decided to take an extra rest day instead. With TOU 1 week away I am erroring on the side of caution.

Moderate effort today. Started out at 8:00/mile pace then bumped it up to marathon pace around mile 8. Finished last mile in 7:00. With the change in weather, all old injuries are aching a little (achilles, calf and knee).

Temperatures this morning are about what they are forecasting for TOU next week so this was a good practice run. There was very little rain most of the run but I did get hailed on for about a mile.

Moderate effort run. Felt pretty comfortable. Ran the last 2.4 at marathon pace. Feels good to be running in the cooler temperatures.

Ran 2 miles at MP. Had a hard time settling into a steady pace. I was either too fast or too slow but averaged MP for the 2 miles (7:17/mile). Felt really good and feel ready for TOU.

Cold and rainy. Ran to the golf course and back. This was the slowest 4 miles that I have run in a long time (8:48/mile avg). I usually take the Wednesday before a marathon off but decided to put in a few easy miles.

Another cool and rainy morning run. My stomach is a little unsettled and I had a hard time controlling my body temperature during the run. Hopefully it is just nerves and not the flu.

Another cool and rainy morning. Ran the 2nd mile at MP and it was a little more work than it should have been. Feel better than yesterday but I am still not at 100%. Hopefully I can shake this in the next 24 hours.

This was marathon number 4 of 5 of the Utah Grand Slam series. I ran Park City 4 weeks ago and will finish the series in St. George in 2 weeks. I started getting a little achy and my stomach was a little unsettled a couple of days before race day and feared the flu was coming on. I wasn’t overly stressed and figured if I did get sick I would just run this one easy and have extra energy for St. George. Went to get my usual pre-race meal at Fazoli’s only to find out that it had gone out of business. I had to settle for some nasty pasta dish at Ruby River. Got up at 4:00 a.m. on the morning of the race and after getting everything together realized that I couldn’t find my Garmin. After looking for 10 minutes I finally gave up and went with the old fashioned Timex Ironman. The stars weren’t lining up like I had hoped they would.

It was very cold the morning of the marathon – about 26 degrees at the start. The first 14 miles are run down Blacksmith Fork canyon. It is a gentle downhill with only a few uphill bumps. Starting at mile 18 the course flattens out with a few climbs. I expected to run a slightly positive split because of the nature of the course. I ran this as my first marathon in 2004 where I went out way too fast and ended up walking quite a bit the last 6 miles. I planned on holding back a little in the beginning so that I didn’t have a repeat performance.

Averaged 7:08/mile the first 4 miles (so much for holding back). I felt good but mentally I thought it was a bit too fast. I made a conscious effort to back off and averaged 7:27/mile for miles 5-7. My pace was all over the place the next 5 miles (7:10, 7:05, 7:25, 7:27, 7:17). I’m not sure how much of this was due to terrain and how much was from my inability to hold a steady pace. Somewhere during the 12th mile I started experiencing a little intestinal distress. I decided that at the start of the 13th mile I better address the issue. Hit the POP and lost 1 minute. I was frustrated that this happened and started running angry (not a good thing this early in the race). Started moving up quickly on the group of people that passed me and got even more frustrated realizing that these are people that I had already passed earlier. Mile 13 split was 7:59 but actual running time was 7:00 (half marathon in exactly 1:36:00). Ran mile 14 in 6:45 and caught the runners that I was with when I made the pit stop. I made up the lost time in 2 miles which was probably a mistake. I was still feeling good so I continued pushing it a little and ran mile 15 in 6:59.

We were now out of the canyon and running through rural towns. Miles 16 and 17 were both run in 7:07. This was the last of the downhill and about where I started to fade in 2004. Saw my wife and son at mile 17 and tossed my long sleeve shirt to them. It was still a little cold but I was afraid that I would overheat if I left it on. Was still feeling good and continued to push. Splits for miles 18-20 were a little slower but were dictated by the terrain (7:17, 7:23 and 7:19). I felt strong and wanted to push harder but felt that doing so would be a mistake (I started to push at mile 18 at Park City and paid for it later). I was constantly moving up on other runners and picking them off one at a time. It was fun to feel so strong at points where I felt near death two years ago.

Started doing some quick math to see how reasonable a PR was. Felt that with the upcoming hills I would miss my PR by about 2 minutes. Mile 21 was a little fast (7:03) and I’m not sure why – I think portions of it were downhill. Miles 22-24 were slightly uphill and it shows in my splits – 7:28, 7:37, 7:29. I knew that despite the slower times, I was still in good shape because I was still moving up on other runners. As I would approach them, I would notice how slow their stride turnover was and knew that I could get by them. Mile 25 was a little slower than average (7:27) because there is a short but nasty climb and also because it is mile 25. For some reason, my mile 25 splits are always slow. I think that this is where I start to give into the pain. I really need to work on being mentally stronger. With 1.2 miles to go I realized that a PR was within reach. It would take a little work but it was definitely doable. Ran mile 26 in 7:06 and the last 0.2 in 1:21 (6:45/mile pace).

Finish Time: 3:10:43 (a 53 second PR).

Overall Place: 74/2,005

Gender Place: 69/1,071

AG Place: 8/123 (my first day in the new 35-39 age category having turned 35 the day before the race – I would have taken 11th place had I run the race 2 days earlier)

Grand Slam standing: Maintained 7th place overall and extended my lead over 8th place.

Even though I had already qualified for Boston, I felt as though I had gotten in through the back door. I qualified at age 34 with a 35-39 age qualifying time because I aged into the higher category. I really wanted to qualify for real before running it. I have no idea how much running I will do between now and the St George marathon in 2 weeks. Most likely will shoot for 40 miles this week and 20 miles the week of the marathon. If I can recover fast enough, I will be shooting for another PR in 2 weeks.

Mile splits were:

1 0:07:03

2 0:07:07

3 0:07:12

4 0:07:10

5 0:07:27

6 0:07:31

7 0:07:22

8 0:07:10

9 0:07:05

10 0:07:25

11 0:07:27

12 0:07:17

13 0:07:59 (bio break)

14 0:06:45

15 0:06:59

16 0:07:07

17 0:07:07

18 0:07:17

19 0:07:23

20 0:07:19

21 0:07:03

22 0:07:28

23 0:07:37

24 0:07:29

25 0:07:27

26 0:07:06

26.2 0:01:21

Ran a nice easy run to test the legs. Started out slow and picked it up as the run progressed (averaged 8:15/mile). Felt really good. Quads are a little sore, especially on the downhills, but I feel much better than I thought I would. I have been feeling a little nauseous all morning.

Amy bought me a heart rate monitor for my birthday so I am going to start tracking this. Average HR=141. I'm not sure what my max HR is yet but based on the formulas it is 187 putting this run at 68% of max. I will hit the track in a few weeks to find out what my true max HR is.

Legs are still a little sore so I took it easy again today. Threw in a few 100m strides just for fun.

Avg Pace: 8:13/mile

Avg HR: 146

Very tired this morning and wasn't really looking forward to running. I know that it is times like these that I really need to get out and run. 1 mile warm up then 5 miles at MP followed by 1.3 mile cool down. Once I got going, it felt good to be out running. A little residual soreness but feel pretty good.

Avg HR = 156

Total Time = 54:55

Super easy recovery run. Considered taking the day off because I have been feeling pretty tired the last couple of days. I always feel better after a run so I decided to put in a few easy miles.

Avg HR = 139

Total Time = 34:46

Started out slow then picked up to marathon pace. Ran the last mile a little slower (8:00). Feeling a little better today. Not nearly as tired but still not fully recovered from TOU. No soreness but joints are a little achey. I should be fine for St George with 1 more week of easy running. The cushioning in my shoes is gone. Time to take them out of the rotation.

Avg HR = 153

Total Time = 55:00

Very weird run this morning. I had 12 scheduled but knew that I needed to back off a bit as the recovery from TOU is taking a bit longer than expected. When the run started, my mind felt a little foggy. Not sure what the deal was but I felt a little hypoglycemic. Of course, when this happens my mind starts to wander. Headed over to Farmington bay and my imagination started to take over. There was no moon light and it was pretty dark. Started having thoughts of a serial killer in the bushes waiting to surprise a runner. Once I got to the entrance there were a lot of pick up trucks with dog kennels which means that there were a lot of hunters out. Started thinking of the possibility of being shot by a stray bullet. Then on the way home, I saw a shadow run across the road. Pretty sure it was a dog and my wild imagination assumed that it was rabid. Stopped and tried to figure out if I had enough energy to out run Cujo. Once I hit civilization again, I felt a little better and ran the last mile in 6:40 just to make sure that my issues were all mental. It felt good and think that I am ready for St. George.

Avg HR = 140

Total Time = 1:23:20