Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

13.1 miles total for the day. I decieded to join Sasha for his 5x400, 3 mile tempo, 5x400 workout this morning. It was a tough workout but actually went better than I anticipated. We did not do it in the canyon so it was along the Provo River closer to the lake which is mostly flat with some very minor rolls. After an easy 2+ mile warm-up we started the first five 400s. I wanted to stay relaxed during the whole workout today and not feel like I was ever pushing all out and just see what kind of times that produced. Overall I am happy as my splits were a little faster than expected and I stayed relaxed the whole workout and always felt like I had a little more in reserve. Anyway the workout splits are below:

5x400 = 74, 75, 74, 74, 73 (200 jog between 400s)

3 mile tempo = 5:48, 11:33 (5:45), 17:11 (5:38) was able to get faster each mile without really feeling like I was having to push to do so

5x400 = 75, 76, 75, 76, 74 (200 jog between 400s) these were all on slight uphill so a little tougher than the first 5x400

 It feels good to finally get a decent workout in after a month of subpar training!

Easy Provo River run with Sasha. Legs were a bit tired from yesterdays workout. We took it easy and ended up with about a 7:42 average pace.

Total of 12.16, overall about 7:10 average. Sasha was doing a 5 mile tempo but my right achilles was pretty tight so I only did the first and last mile with him. 1st mile was 5:33 and 2nd mile was also 5:33. The second one felt better than the first. Overall an easy day with a couple faster miles just for fun. Oh yeah it was rainy and miserable at 42'. I was about as cold and wet as one could get so really not much fun at all.

Easy 10 with Sasha at 7:39 average. At least it wasn't raining bt it was a nice warm 37'F on the 4th of May.

Met with Sasha for 10 mile MP tempo on Provo River Trail. Warm up 2 miles and then hit tempo miles as follows. I knew it was going to be rough as the wind was really blowing hard. Hard enough to knock me off stride every once in awhile. Overall time was 62:32. Splits were:

6:03  (a bit on the fast side but felt easier)

6:11

6:13

6:14

6:13

6:24

6:18

6:24

6:18

6:14

Besides fighting the wind this was about MP effort, I guess. It is hard to tell with the wind. I really do not like the wind as I struggle more mentally than anything else. I would rather run in the rain and cold than the wind!
 

Normal 10 mile river run but we were much faster than normal this morning. Overall averae was 6:58 pace with the last 5 miles at 6:42 pace. Not much else to say.

Great weather this morning. I wish every morning could be like this morning. Ran with Sasha, well at least during warm-up and cool-down. We did just over a mile warm-up and then did a 5 mile tempo at slightly faster than MP effort. My mile splits were:

5:54 (very relaxed and easy)

5:51 (picked it up but did not feel like I did)

5:56 (this includes a 180 degree turn around)

5:57 (started to feel it a little but focused on staying relaxed)

5:56 (uphill mile had to push a little harder to stay on pace)

Overall 29:34 for 5 mile tempo with 2.5 splits of 14:45/14:49. I was very pleased with this since it felt a lot easier than the first 5 miles of saturday's 10 mile tempo which I hit in 30:54. What a difference not having a strong wind makes. I was also surprised as yesterday was not as easy of a monday run as we normally do. Overall 10 miles at 6:51 average. 

8 miles with Sasha along Provo River, average pace 7:23. Easy running and chatting until towards the end Sasha wanted to do a faster 1/2 mile pick-up. First 1/4 felt easy and I decieded to make a little surge at the 400 to get Sasha going. It worked and Sasha responded and I tucked in behind him. I had thoughts of testing his kick with 100 to go but decieded that it was not in my best interest to kick it into an all out sprint at this point in my training. We hit the 1/2 in 2:40 with 400 splits of 1:25/1:15. The strange thing is the 1:15 actually felt pretty good. Great weather again!

Long afternoon yesterday re-building the kids tree house. Made for very sore upper body and some stiff legs and joints today. Decieded to run an easier run today but still get some quality out of it. Ran 8 miles on Provo River with Sasha with middle 4 miles in 6:40, 6:30, 6:27, 6:15. Was running very relaxed and easy for all four and did not feel like I was approaching marathon pace effort until the last half mile which was 3:03. Another beautiful day weather wise at 6:00am lately it has been perfect between 45-50 degrees and no wind. Hopefully Ogden Marathon will be blessed with such great weather.

Easy run for the most part except Sasha wanted to do a tempo mile in the middle. He let me set the pace and at first I was thinking 5:45 would be good. However, I felt pretty good and just rolled with it thinking we were probably around 5:40 pace. Sasha tracked the 1/4 mile splits but did not give the times until we finished. Mile was 5:32 with 1/4 splits of 86, 82, 82, 82. Felt pretty decent. Average pace for whole run was about 7:15. Legs are feeling pretty good overall.

Easy running for 13.1 miles today up in the Provo Canyon. Paced my son James for his first ever 10K at 12 years old. The course was 3 miles up the canyon and then return the 3 down plus .2 finish up. Ran more afterwards with Sasha to get miles in. James ran 46:52 and outkicked an older runner for 10th overall.

For the most part an easy 8 mile run at 6:57 average pace. After 4 miles Sasha wanted to do a hard mile again like last Monday. He let me pace and he checked splits but again did not call them out. I tried to just run by feel. I felt slower today than last Monday and was very surprised at our time when Sasha told me at the end. I guessed we were a little slower than last week. Last week we did a 5:32 and I thought we were at about 5:35-38 today. However, we did a 5:17 for the mile this morning. I did not expect that at all. At the end Sasha wanted to make sure we beat  7:00 pace so we ran the last 1/2 at sub 6:00 pace with the last 1/4 in 1:26. Feeling pretty decent with the drop in mileage.

Just over 7 miles total at 7:09 average but all but 2 miles were easy. Sasha wanted to run a 3 mile tempo and I decieded to pace him during the 1st and 3rd mile with just over a 1/2 mile jog rest between while waiting for him to come back from his 2nd mile. Another strange day pace wise in the sense that I thought we were going much slower than we were on both of the miles. On the first mile I would have guessed we would hit a 5:35-40 and we hit a 5:26. On the second mile I was thinking anything under 5:30 would be tough because it was an uphill mile. When we were running the second mile I would have guessed it would be about 5:30-35 and we hit a 5:18. So two times a mile at 5:26 and 5:18 with a 1/2 mile jog rest today. I'm not sure what to think of my fitness level right now as far as what to expect but I know I am starting to run faster. If I can up the miles after Ogden and lose the last 10 pounds of extra weight things will be looking much better for a decent Fall marathon.

5.1 miles today very easy averaged 7:12 pace. Sasha wanted to do 1 mile at marathon pace and I was more interested in taking it easy so I let him go and just ran my own pace. I did not expect to be near marathon pace as I was just relaxing and running very easy. My guess would have been 6:40 pace at best. However I ran that mile in 6:15. I guess it is good when 6:15 feels like an easy morning run pace. Two more easy days and we will see how things go at Ogden. Goals are:

1. Finish with no major problems and be sub 2:50.

2. Run even or negative split race and sub 2:45.

I guess that's about it. 

Easy 5 miles this morning. Feeling pretty decent.

Easy 4.4 with Sasha sped up to marathon pace for a mile. Heading to Ogden with Sasha this evening.

 On another note I took my son James (12) to his first ever track meet. He wanted to run a mile but the longest events for his age group were the 800 and the 400. We signed him up for both with the 800 being first followed by the 400 about 30 minutes after the 800. I was not sure what to expect in the 800 but I told him to just go out and run hard the first 400 and see what happens. I was thinking he would run around 2:45. He took off at the start and after the first 100 was in second. On the back stretch he took the lead and started to pull away. He hit the first 400 in 78+ and was well in the lead. At this point I was hoping he could hold on. He was able to hold on to the pace pretty well running the second 400 in 80+ with an over time of 2:39.2 and had a pretty big gap on second place. He was very excited about it as he did not think he could run that fast. The 400 was next and James was not too excited as he was pretty tired from the 800 and there was  a boy from his school that had beat him in the 400 at school several weeks ago during PE. I told him to just run as best as he could but the key was to get a fast start and push the first 200 hard. He led from start to finish and won by about 2 seconds running a 72.11. What was even more impressive is that the wind had picked up quite a bit and was blowing very hard directly down the finish straight. He commented afterwards that the when he hit the last 100 the wind was killer. This was a great day for James and a big breakthrough for him. Sorry for going on I guess I'm just a proud father and was very surprised at how fast he ran.

Well the race is over and I am feeling a bit crippled right now. Things did not go as well as I would have liked but I cannot complain. One thing I know for sure is that I did not have enough long runs in training. The first 10 miles felt great and I was feeling like I was holding back, almost like an easy long run pace. However, just after 10 miles I got this weird kind of numbing sensation in my quads. This is what I remember feeling like when my glycogen stores are running low. In the past when I have gotten this feeling I have been able to hold pace for about 5-6 more miles before things get ugly. It is a hard 5-6 miles but I can hold pace. With this feeling coming on at 10 miles I knew this was not a good sign of things to come. As predicted I really started to struggle at about mile 15. I tried to hang on after that but I knew I was pretty much done at this point and was really in survival mode with the goal of just finishing. To overcome this in the past I need to do a lot more long runs where it seems as if my body learns how to adapt and store more glycogen. Besides the Striders 30K I think I only did one 18 miler. This is by far not enough for my body to be ready to run a marathon withouot crashing and burning. The good news is that I know what I need to get back to where I was and I think I am furhter along than I though I was. Now I just need to increase the miles and long runs and in doing so lose the last 10 lbs of extra weight I am carrying around. If I can do this then my next marathon should go much better. Well, enough rambling my splits are below. Also, thanks for James and Jeff (from Idaho Falls) for running together for the first 14 miles and helping each other stay relaxed. Conrats to everyone on the blog that ran today as well, especially Paul and Steve who both ran very well and finished 1-2. My splits below do not include the stop at mile 24 and 25 to drink so I could finish as I was pretty dehydrated and was worried that I may not make it if I did not get a couple full cups down at each of thse stops. I lost 1:03 during these stops.

1	6:09
2	6:04
3	5:59
4	5:56
5	5:56
6	6:01
7	5:58
8	5:57
9	6:11
10	6:15
11	6:19
12	6:08
13	6:19
1/2	1:20:00
14	6:09
15	6:29
16	6:17
17	6:20
18	6:04
19	6:19
20	6:28
21	6:32
22	6:28
23	6:17
24	6:57
25	7:31
26	6:55
.24	1:35
Total	2:46:48 with stops

 I made my goal of beating my first marathon time of 2:47 so that is a plus. However, we will see if I make it through the next couple of days injury free. Right now I am a bit concerned about a few things.

 Once again congrats to everyone and thanks for the support and kind words.

 

Well, Sasha drug me along on a 5 mile easy but painful run. My quads are pretty torn up and painful the whole run but slowly got better as we went. We averaged about 7:51 for the 5 miles and Sasha was headed out for 5 more. He said he plans on doing his normal tempo run tomorrow. I will not be doing any tempos this week that is for sure. Probably another easy 5 miles tomorrow is all I will be up for. I plan on taking this week easy and then trying to get things going again next week.

Another easy but sore run. However, I am a little less sore today so progress is good. 7 miles for the day at a 7:28 average. Nice and relaxed but quads still hurt throughout.

What really shocks me is Sasha doing his standard 5 mile tempo run this morning and it was like he did not even run a marathon on Saturday. He only ran about 20-30 seconds slower than normal and he was taking it easy. There is something wrong/weird about anyone that can do this so soon after a marathon. Sasha has something strange going on that is for sure. I was telling him that he should take up ultra running as I think he could do very well and possibly be one of the best in the nation. 

Slowly but surely the soreness is fading away. Just a little bit of soreness remaining in the outer quads. Each day has gotten a little better. I think by tomorrow all of the soreness should basically be gone. Ran an easy 8 miles with Sasha at a 7:42 average pace.

10 Miles with Sasha today. Legs are feeling about 90% today which is probably one of my faster recoveries from a marathon. Ran warm-up with Sasha and then he wantedt o do his normal 5 mile tempo again. I did not feel like I am ready to push it quite yet as I do not want to risk an injury as I have been injury prone following psat marathons. However, after warming up I started to gradually pick it up and hit middle 4 miles in 6:49, 6:37, 6:24, and 6:05. Sasha and I then ran cool-down together and ran into a couple of other runners and joined them for the last couple miles. They are both very good runners one being Nick McCombs and the other a local fast tri-athlete. Overall average for the 10 miles was 7:03.

Son James (12) did 3x1 Mile yesterday afternoon with a 400 jog rest in 6:35, 6:34, and 6:15. The last mile was an 11 second PR after running 2 hard miles. He is really starting to show some progress from his consistent 4 easy miles per day for the last 4-5 months. He is a great example of how consistency pays off. What is great is he has run 4 miles a day on his own every day. My goal has been not to push him but just let him go out and run on his own. Now that school is out I will try and run with him at least a couple days a week. I think I will have him start posting on the blog now that school is out as well.

Normal Provo River 10 miler from Sasha's house. Legs still ok. A few minor things lingering but not bad. We averaged 7:05 overall but the first 5 average was about 7:17 and second 5 average was 6:52. Not much else to write about today.

Took my son James up to Magna with Sasha to run the Magna 5K. I did not want to race today but rather help James run a PR in the 5K. It is a fast course and James has really started to run pretty good lately so I expected him to do well. I was thinking a sub 20:00 was possible but I was not sure if he would really run that fast. Took off with James at the start which is the fastest part of the course and we hit the first 1/4 in 1:23 and then settled down into a more comfortable pace for him. He hit the first mile in 5:56 and was looking good. This is a downhill mile but that is the fastest he has ever covered a mile. The second mile starts to flatten out and the last 400 is actually on a slight up. He ran the second mile in 6:22. The third mile is all on a gradual uphill except for one section at about the 3/4 mile mark it goes down for about 150 meters. His third mile was a 6:48 which is pretty good for a mostly uphill mile, this one actually surprised me the most as I expected the hill to slow him down a little more. He finished in 19:45! So he broke the 20:00 mark with room to spare. Not bad for 12 years old and his first year of running. James was pretty excited and he finished strong passing about three people over the last 500 meters. It is one thing to run and race yourself but it is even a greater feeling being able to see your son run so well and be so excited about it. That was the highlight of my running day today.

I ended up running just over 10 miles for the day total. My right hammy, knee and hip are still bothering me a little so I will have to be careful not to push it too hard until they feel better. Feel like crud today as I started coming down with a major cold last night. I am totally congested and miserable this afternoon. Heading out to the range to take the kids shooting. It is fun to get out and shoot every once in a while and destroy some paper targets and clay pidgeons.

Easy running today as I am still very congested with this head cold. I am also having problems with my right hamstring still so need to be careful as well. Went with Sasha to a 5K in American Fork and paced his son Benjamin to a new PR of 22:49 while he and James paced his daughter toa new PR as well. Total of just over 11 miles for the day.

Met with Sasha at 6:15. We waited as we were expecting some others to possibly join us. Sasha invited David Bell, Nick McCoombs, and Steve to join us. However, it was just the two of us as usual. Sasha did his norml tuesday 5 mile tempo but I am still recovering from a cold and ran much easier. Legs felt good overall. Ran 10.2m miles total at an average pace of 7:00. Afterwards I picked up James and put my youngest son in the baby jogger and ran 3 more mile with James pushing the baby jogger. My youngest is almost three years old and when we were done he wanted to run so he ran 100 meters in 37 seconds.

Normal Wednesday 4:45am run with Sasha. 10.04 miles at an average pace of 7:12 with second half at sub 7:00. Overall feeling ok except for the head cold.

Ran four more miles with son James this evening. Paced him for a 3K on the track at BYU. It was suppossed to be a race but he was the only one entered so he did it anyway as a tempo run and ran 12:18 with about a 5 second negative split and a last lap of 1:27. 

Met Sasha at the Provo Canyon for his 5x400 alternating down/up hill followed by a 3 mile tempo and then another 5x400. Warmed up and did the first 400s in 71(down), 80(up), 74(down), 80(up), 71 (down) all with a 200 jog rest. I ran these relaxed and tried not to push much as my right hip still has some issues along with the fact the I am in the final stages of getting over this head cold. We then jogged to the start of the 3 mile tempo. Sasha gave me a 30 second head start so he could chase me down. I was shooting for anything under 16:30 or 5:30 pace per mile. I hit the 1st mile in 5:20 and backed off a little as I was afraid it was a little fast. The 2nd mile was a 5:28 but I was feeling ok still so I picked it back up the 3rd mile and tried to hold off Sasha. Sasha caught me right at the very end but I ran another 5:20 for the 3rd mile and ran a 16:08 for the whole three mile tempo. Sasha ran a 15:38 and he said he thinks that what you run on this 3 mile tempo is about what you can run on the Magna 5K course. With that assessment I am pleased with this effort. We then jogged back up to do the second set of 5x400. I decieded to just do 200s instead and pace Sasha for the first 200 of the 400s as my hip was still nagging me a bit. The 200s went as follows: 32(down), 36(up), 33(down), 36(up), 33(down) this time I finished out the 400 as well and ran a 68 for the down quarter. Overall I am pleased with this workout. The only issues I am concerned with are my right hip problem and my right foot, possible PF problem, acted up a little today. If I can get past these two issues things are looking positive for the future.

I was planning on racing the Heart of Holladay 5K but will not be able to as I am the Scoutmaster for our Boy Scout Troop and we have a campout that weekend. So I am done racing for awhile as I will be out of town from 15 June until 4 August as well. The next planned race for me looks like the Provo River 1/2 Marathon ont eh 11th of August. Between now and then my focus will be getting in as many miles as possible. I hope to get up to about 90 miles a week during this stretch. We will see how things pan out when I return in August.