A clydesdale no more!

Chose sleep over running so I had to cut the run short.  Glad that I did because I felt like complete garbage.  No energy at all.

I really want to get my mileage up but things just keep coming up.  Short on time once again.  Debated whether or not to run at all but I know that 5 miles is better than no miles.  A little quicker pace than usual and it felt really good.  I hit that HR sweet spot where you know you are putting in a good effort but it is not destroying you.

Walked out the door to pouring rain.  The rain drops felt very cold so I went back inside to grab a jacket.  I normally do not mind the elements but the first exposure of the year is always a little more difficult.  After a mile, it was no longer raining and I realized that the decision to wear a jacket was a bad one.  Ran the rest of the run with the jacket tied around my waist (something that I hate doing).  Pace felt good throughout the run but it ended up being much slower than I thought.  I'm going to try to get my mileage up to 225/month for the next couple of months.  My mileage this year has been dreadful.

Hilly run up to Bountiful Blvd.  I added an extra mile to the run as I am trying to up my mileage.  The pace was ridiculously slow.  I guess speed is not my focus right now.  Just trying to get back to whwere I once was. 

A cold and rainy run.  Shortened the run a bit because I was already running late then had to wait for a train.  Still not happy with my average pace.  I think that I just need to adjust my expectations.

A good brisk run.  Short on time (again!) so I made do with what I had.  Broke out the gloves because it is getting cold.  A run where I am wearing shorts, long sleeve shirt and gloves means that it is an ideal temperature.  Felt very good.

Just a nice steady paced run.  Didn't take any fuel with me so I knew that 15 miles would be my limit.  Ideally I would have liked to put in a couple more miles but this will do for now.  My legs started to fatigue at mile 12 but never got as tired as I thought they would.  First time in a long time that I finished a week over 50 miles.  Hopefully this is the start of building back up.

It is getting cold.  Form felt a little unnatural for some reason. 

Just getting out the door was a victory for me today.  One of those mornings that took all that I had to convince myself to run.  Once I got out I actually felt great.  The rain was annoying but the temps were perfect.

I lost the battle today.  Sometimes the need to maintain employment outweighs the need to run.

I started out late but I was not going to allow myself to shorten the run today after missing yesterday.  Effort felt good although I couldn't find my Garmin so I am not sure how fast I actually ran. 

Hilly run.  Feel pretty blah. 

My girls soccer game for today was rescheduled so we decided last night to run the Undead race this afternoon.  It is a 5k and I am not expecting much.  I can tell that I am not in very good 5k shape right now.  Just hoping to keep it under 20.  I put in a few miles this morning just so that I can get some mileage today.  I would like to get a few in tonight too but do not think it will happen.

The Undead Race

The race was a mess so I won't spend much time on the report.  You could either sign up as a human or the undead with the human's getting a 2 minute headstart.  Emma and I ran as humans and Becky and Gracie ran as zombies.  They decided to change the course after 1/2 mile.  I am not saying that the course was different at the 1/2 mile mark but they actually changed it while we were running.  Because of this everybody ended up running different distances.  I had no idea how much I was going to end up racing and really lost focus at this point and just cruised the rest of the run.  It was so crowded that it was impossible to get into a good groove anyway.  My race ended up being 3.3 miles while Becky only ran 2.5.  I hit the 5k mark at 19:36 which was slow but the time that I expected.  It will be interesting to see how the organizers handle this since they were offering cash prizes.  I don't know why people insist on making things so much more difficult than they need to be.

Got a late start so I could only get a few miles in.  Ran them at a brisk pace and it felt really good.  Knees and ankles are sore - probably from the change in weather.  It was an absolutely perfect fall morning run.  The air was clean and crisp from the rain last night and the temperature felt good (maybe a little on the cool side).

It's almost time to break out the running pants. Felt like a put in a decent effort but the form was very clunky. Could not get my legs to move correctly.

Started with 2 easy miles to the LPT then ran 4 tempo miles on the LPT. Goal was to keep the pace under 6:40. These extra 15 pounds have slowed me down. Splits were 6:37, 6:39, 6:41, 6:36. Form felt decent during the run but it took more work than it should have. I think that it was just the perception of work because I have done very little work at this pace and am not accustomed to what it is supposed to feel like. After the run was over, I recovered quickly and felt fine during the 2 cooldown miles.

Gave in and wore running pants and a jacket this morning. Ended up being a mistake because I was too hot towards the end of the run. Legs were a little tired but the run felt good otherwise. Random sighting of the day: a fox crossed the street in front of me. No, not that kind (although there were a acouple of those). A real life fox. I wasn't sure if I should be concerned for my safety or not. Foxes aren't dangerous are they?

Just a run. Nothing more.

Dropped my girls off at a bridal shower and took my car to get new tires.  I decided to make good use of my time waiting for the car and get in a few miles.  I hadn't had anything to eat or drink all day so I knew that I was running the risk of crashing hard.  Fortunately, the run went well and only the last 2 miles were a struggle.  It was a tad warm but it felt good to be outside. 

Short on time means short on miles. 

Felt morbidly obese and incredibly sore during the run this morning. 

Six measly miles.  Wonder if I will be able to hit 200 for the month.

Ran the Halloween Half Marathon as the 1:40 pacer with Rob and Kris.  1:40 was perfect for me because it is very close to my natural training pace so I would be able to lock in the pace easily and the run wouldn't be too much of a push. 

I will get all of my complaints out of the way here.  Traffic in Utah County is a mess, the packet pickup was a complete joke and waiting for the busses for an hour was ridiculous.  This race was way too big for one person to handle.  If he wants to maintain the size, the RD needs to bring in help.  There are a few very simple things that could be done to clean up the biggest issues.

The race started and it was very congested at the start.  Once we started rolling, I could tell that Rob and I had a very good sense of what the pace was supposed to be (with the help of the Garmin) but we had to reel in Kris' youthful exuberance.  I was very glad to have Rob there with his jokes (even though they were corny) and the pace band he created.  Here are our splits compared to the target pace.

Mile	Split	Target
1	7:19	7:21
2	7:06	7;20
3	6:58	7:09
4	7:13	7:06
5	7:28	7:25
6	7:59	8:01
7	7:51	8:08
8	7:47	7:51
9	7:36	7:36
10	7:42	7:52
11	7:48	7:45
12	7:51	7:50
13	8:37	7:48
0.1	1:07	0:47
Total	1:40:22	1:39:59

We had a 45 second cushion going into the last mile (due to miles 2, 3, 7 and 10) so we told the group of people running with us to go ahead.  We then tried encouraging the runners behind us to catch up to us.  We lost more time than we planned but the course was long so in reality being 20 seconds late was due to the extra 0.05 miles that we ran. 

This is a great way to participate in a race without having to punish yourself during the run.  There is a part of me that feels like a quitter for not actually racing this race and finding an excuse to not push myself.  I'm definitely in one of those funks again where I don't feel like much of a runner and am having a hard time doing the things necessary to become a runner again.  Overall it was a good experience and I would definitely do it again.

My calves were a little tight at the beginning of the run but they loosened up after a couple of miles.  Felt decent during the run but I can tell that I am very dehydrated.  I don't think that I drank any water yesterday and the Coke that I had at the movie probably did more harm than good.  Finished a little short of my mileage goal for the month but that was due to a couple fo missed runs last week.  I was finally able to get back to 200+ which is a step in the right direction.  November needs to be another solid month of base building.