Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Picked up Sasha today at 5:00am and headed up to SLC for the Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon. The plan going in was to run a relaxed tempo and be careful not to aggrevate some nagging issues that have bugged me toward the end of this week. The good news was my right lower leg problem was not hurting at all but the bad news was during the warm-up my right upper hamstring was feeling very sore and tight. Other than the high mileage I do not know why it was sore but it felt bad enough that I was pretty concerned before the start. So I decieded to run an even more cautious run as to ensure that I did not really tear up my hamstring. At the start my weeekly running odometer was at over 87 miles. The course starts on a slight down for about 200 meters and then begins a pretty nasty 4 mile climb of 800 feet to the top of little mountain at 6300ft. I really started out at an easy long run pace and was glad to do so as the hamstring still needed more warming up. I was behind the top two female runners for the first 3/4 miles and then passed one of them. I gradually caught up to the top female runner at about the 1.5 mile mark where the hill started to really get steep. I was still not putting too much effort in at this point and was happy to run with the lead female at this point. I ran with her and talked a bit until near the top of the hill at just past the 3 mile mark she dropped behind a bit. The top of the hill came at 4 miles and then the downhill kicks in. The first 2 miles of down is pretty steep and I was again trying to be as cautious as I could without breaking against the hill too much to try and not beat up the hamstring. I could feel the hamstring the whole way but decieded as long as it did not get any worse then I would be ok. My goal at this point was to just cruise on the downhill at what felt like a comfortable marathon pace. The miles went by pretty quick and I was still feeling ok overall but not wanting to push things. When I hit the 10 mile mark the downhill was not as steep anymore and I decieded to go ahead and push things a little harder and see how the hamstring responded. I could feel it a bit more as I picked it up it was still comfortable enough that I did not think it was doing to much damage. I guess we will see over the next couple of days. I ended up running my fastest mile of the race on mile 12 and mile 11 was my second fastest split of the race on on what was not as steep of a section of the course. The last mile was more of an a gradual uphill to the finish. The lsat mile was short according to the GPS and the course ended up short as well. THe GPS measured 12.97 so about .13 short overall. My splits, etc from GPS are below:

Mile	Splits	Avg. HR
1	7:09	152
2	7:33	165
3	6:41	163
4	6:58	169
5	5:35	160
6	5:39	155
1/2	42:30
7	5:51	155
8	5:43	158
9	5:48	158
10	5:45	159
11	5:35	163
12	5:25	165
12.97	5:27	170
Total	1:19:10(36:40)	160

Overall I am pleased with the run. I ended up with a 5:50 negative split. I felt like I ran a good marathon pace long run and I don't think I aggrevaeted my hammy too much in the process but only time will really tell as far as the hammy is concerned. I think this course is slower than the Provo 1/2 by a few minutes and I still ran a bit faster. Things are progressing in the right direction as long as I can fight off the injury bug. 102 miles for the week. First time back over 100 in almost 3 years.

Congrats to Sasha for another victory. He won pretty easy and ran a new course record I think. I will let him tell you exactly how he did.

AM - I took James and Elizabeth to the Payson Onion Days 5K. Ran some warm-up and cool-down and paced james during the 5k for a total of 12.1 miles. All easy except the 5k with James was at 6:19 average. James set a PR on much slower course than Magna. It is a very slight down hill for the first mile and then from 1.5 to the finish is a slight uphill the whole way. He ran 19:39 today with mile splits of 6:15, 6:26, and 6:25. Elizabeth ran her first ever 5K and ran 31:53 which is much better than she anticipated. I will let them both tell more on their blogs. It is exciting to have the family out and running at races. I am heading to St. George and will get a few more miles in this evening when I get there.

PM - Drove to St. George and ran from Ramada around Dixie State College up to the temple and looped around it 4 times and back to hotel for an easy 6.1 miles at just under 8 minute pace.

AM - In St. George met up with Clyde at Ramada Inn at 5:20 and headed out for a 13 miler. We ran along the river trail all over the place in the dark and had Clyde left me I would have been lost for a long time as I had no clue where we were for the majority of the run. It was a pretty nice run along the river but it was not without some adventure. There were several rough parts along the trail that made it interesting in the dark. I saw what looked like a fox dart across the path in front of us so a new type of wild life versus the Provo River Trail. There was one part of the trail that was washed out and there was a barrier blocking the path. Clyde went right to go around it and I went left. However in this case I should have "chosen the right in the path before me" as when I went left I quickly came to a screaching halt as there was a metal fence attached to the barrier that was not visible in the dark. Luckily it gave a little and it was kind of like running into a big net or at least that is what I thought. We continued along and a few miles later I noticed a burning on my forearm and realized I had cut my arm a bit and it was bleeding and the sweat was making it burn a little. No big deal just a small cut and a little embarassment. Ended up with 13.3 miles at about a 7:21 or so average pace. Thanks for the run Clyde!

PM - Drove back from St. George and made it in time to join James for his cross country race. Did a total of 6 miles mostly easy with a 1.28 mile cross country race as a rabbit of sorts in just under 6:00 pace. James did very well running 7:42 and getting 3rd overall and 1st in his age group. This was a big improvement from last year and he beat three older boys that he has not beaten before. This was good considering he ran a PR in the 5K the day before. Time to crash as it has been a long couple days.

AM - Ran the standard Sasha House 10 Miler easy with Sasha at 5:00am. We got caught in a bit of a thunder storm with some lightening strikes a little closer than I like. It rained off and on but was at least cool out. Average pace about 7:48 for 10.1.

PM - Joined James for his cross country practice. We did some warm-up and then 20x150m uphill strides and jogged the down. Added more miles at the end as well for a total of 7.4 miles at about a 7:35 average overall.

Legs are feeling pretty tired this week but it is mostly because of the lack of good sleep due to travels and such this week. Hopefully all goes well the rest of the week. 

AM - Met with Sasha, Jeff and Adam at 6:00am this morning. It was actually on the cool side this morning as it was only 57'F. Sasha and Jeff were going to do a 12 mile Tempo so I just did the 4.88 mile warm-up with the group and then continued on to run 13.15 miles. We started slow and then I picked it up as I went after the 5 mile mark. Averaged 7:20 pace for the whole run. I will add more tonight with the kids.

PM - Ran 1 mile with Jared and towed him along to a new PR of 7:38. Then ran 2 miles with James in the hills around our house. Then added 4 more miles just for fun. A little over 7 miles at 7:42 average overall. A hilly run around my house up near the Provo Temple. Legs are tired but that is expected right now.

AM - Due to an early morning meeting I had to run a bit later so I was on my own. I ran from my office on BYU to the end of the Provo River Trail and back plus a little extra around campus totalling 14.6 miles at an average pace of 7:12. Felt relaxed and easy and legs felt ok today. I will run more tonight.

PM - Added 5.6 miles tonight with James and Jared at an average pace of 7:30.

I am trying to figure out what to do for a run tomorrow. I can just head out on my own for a 16+ mile long run with Sasha joining me for about 6 of it. Or I can got to Spanish Fork and jump in the half to get my long run in. Or I could even jump in the Provo River Marathon for 16 or so miles. I guess the last option would be to run Alta in the afternoon but I am not too keen on running on such a steep downhill course with the high mileage week. Any thoughts?

AM - I decieded to help out with the Provo River Run today so I started at Breidal Veil Falls and ran a 15 mile run to the finish area and helped set up the finish. I ran easy the first 5 miles which was the downhill part and then slowly picked it up the rest of the way. I am calling it all easy miles because I never really felt like I was at marathon pace effort. The last 5 miles were at 6:30s and the overall average was 6:43 pace for 15.1 miles. Looking at splits from Garmin the first 5 was 36:00(easy downhill) the second 5 was 33:30(flat) and the last 5 was 32:30(flat). I will run some more tonight with James.

PM - Ran a mile with Jared then another mile with James and decieded to do a 2 mile progressive tempo with James. What I call a progressive tempo is where every quarter is faster than the last quarter and you finish close to your mile pace for the last quarter. James did great and accomplished the goal running every lap faster. We hit two miles in 12:50 with the last mile in 6:08. He is really starting to get in great shape and is able to make me have to work a little as well.

This puts me over 115 miles for the week.

Ok, I'm not sure anyone will read this or will be interested but I will post all this week and see if there are any takers.

On Saturday I want to do one last long run before St. George and am looking for anyone that wants to join in. All are welcome even if we are going seperate paces we can at least start together and if enough show maybe even have a couple of groups. Anyway the proposal is to run up at Deer Creek and get a good 20 miler in. There is a great dirt road along one side of Deer Creek Resevoir that is rolling hills at about 5600 feet. The plan would be to do an out and back along the reservoir (out for 6 miles) and then when we get back to the top of the resevoir, where we started, then we would head down the Provo Canyon for the last 8 miles. We would finish at the Breidal Veil Falls parking area. If my estimate is right we would hit the parking lot at mile 19 and then do a 1 mile loop back up to the falls and back to make it 20. I think this would be a great final preparation run for St. George and it would allow us to have water at the 12 mile mark since a car would be parked there. If there are any takers we could meet at the Breidal Veil Falls parking area and then carpool up to the start by the resevoir.

If anyone is interested reply this week. I am looking at starting at 6:00am as I need to be done as early as possible. If I end up with no takers I guess I will be on my own and have to have wy wife drop me off at the resevoir. 

AM - 14.1 miles relaxed this morning along the Provo River Trail from BYU. I met up with Sasha at his house 2 miles into the run and then ran with him until about the 13 mile mark of the run. Ran fairly relaxed although Sasha started to pick it up gradually as we went. I was trying to make sure it stayed relaxed and easy as I want to do a MP run tomorrow. Overall averaged 7:10 pace. I will get some mroe miles tonight.

PM - Added 6.3 miles tonight. 1 with Jared and 3 with James then the rest on my own. Overall averaged 7:30 pace. Legs are a little tired still.

Oh yeah also did 60 push-ups; 60sit-ups and some core strength work. Weight at 135lbs.

The plan is for this week to be my peak mileage week prior to starting a taper for St. George. I am aiming for 120 miles on six days this week with a 20 miler on Saturday. After that I will start a moderate taper and some fine tuning for St. George.

Ok, I'm not sure anyone will read this or will be interested but I will post all this week and see if there are any takers.

On Saturday I want to do one last long run before St. George and am looking for anyone that wants to join in. All are welcome even if we are going seperate paces we can at least start together and if enough show maybe even have a couple of groups. Anyway the proposal is to run up at Deer Creek and get a good 20 miler in. There is a great dirt road along one side of Deer Creek Resevoir that is rolling hills at about 5600 feet. The plan would be to do an out and back along the reservoir (out for 6 miles) and then when we get back to the top of the resevoir, where we started, then we would head down the Provo Canyon for the last 8 miles. We would finish at the Breidal Veil Falls parking area. If my estimate is right we would hit the parking lot at mile 19 and then do a 1 mile loop back up to the falls and back to make it 20. I think this would be a great final preparation run for St. George and it would allow us to have water at the 12 mile mark since a car would be parked there. If there are any takers we could meet at the Breidal Veil Falls parking area and then carpool up to the start by the resevoir.

If anyone is interested reply this week. I am looking at starting at 6:00am as I need to be done as early as possible. If I end up with no takers I guess I will be on my own and have to have wy wife drop me off at the resevoir.

AM - I have been doing a lot of miles but not much quality so I decieded to do a tempo this morning to see how things would go. The plan was a 5 mile tempo at about 6:00 pace which I was hoping would feel like marathon pace effort. I had no idea what to expect as I have not done any workouts at this pace for a long time. If all went well then I would try and do a progressive tempo starting at 6:00 pace and get a little faster each mile if not then at least try and hold 6:00 pace. Warmed up about 4 miles and started on the standard Sasha 5 mile tempo route on the Provo River trail. Started very relaxed and it almost felt too easy. Hit the first mile dead on 6:00 with all quarters right at 1:30. This felt very relaxed and controlled at this point. The next mile I again focused on staying relaxed and easy. I hit the second mile in 5:58 again with very even quarters. So far so good as it felt like a relaxed marathon pace. I hit the 2.5 mile turn around at 14:58, right where I wanted to be and feeling good. At this point I figured I might as well start picking it up and try and hit a negative split for the last 2.5 miles. Mile three was a 5:53 and still felt pretty relaxed. With 2 miles left I figured I might as well put in more of a threshold effort and see what happens. The fourth mile was a 5:40 and this started to feel more like threshold pace. For mile five I wanted to just stay focused but as relaxed as possible at threshold pace. I finished the last mile in 5:30 and the total for 5 miles was 29:01 giving me a 14:03 for the second 2.5 miles and a 55 second negative split. Splits were (6:00/5:58/5:53/5:40/5:30) finished off with a 4 more miles. Overall I was very pleased with the run considering I am in the middle of a 120 mile week following 115 miles last week. I am not sure what to think of it as far as what it indicates for St. George. I think I am in better shape than Ogden but I'm not sure what that equates to for St. George. Although I am pretty sure a sub 2:40 is well within reach. I guess I will know in just under 4 weeks. Looking at Garmin afterwards I am also pleased to see that my heart rate was very resonable. Even at 5:30 pace it averaged about 170 which equates to about an 86% max heart rate for me. Plan to run more this evening.

PM - Added 7.5 more miles this evening. Ran with James for a little and then did a Sasha training event by running while watching Jared's soccer game. It gets very boring looping around the soccer field but I was able to get 6 miles in during the game all on the grass. Averaged 7:30 pace for the whole run.

Below is a link to an interesting read on running economy.

Running Economy 

AM - Ran from BYU to Sasha's house and then ran with Sasha and Jeff. Easy run of 10 miles when I got back to BYU. Then did some push-ups and sit-ups with cadets and headed out for 4 more miles. Overall average pace of 7:35. More tonight as usual.

PM - Joined James at his cross country practice and got a decent workout I was not planning on. After a couple mile warm-up we did 10x300 with about a minute rest between reps. They were all in the park on the grass rolling hills. All of the reps were about 5:20-30 pace. Legs felt ok, tired but ok once they got going. Then a few more miles cool-down. Ended up with just over 21 miles for the day.

AM - 14.1 miles total average pace 7:13. Joined Sasha and Jeff this morning and Sasha convinced me to do 2x1.5m tempo. I was a bit hesitant as I have had two workouts in a row and was at 62 miles in three days. So the first 1.5 was fairly conservative at what felt like marathon pace. 1st 1.5 miles was 8:48 or 5:52 pace. Felt ok so I figured the second one at about the same pace would be good. The first 1/4 was a 1:23 and felt ok so I just focused on relaxing and trying not to push too hard. Second 1.5 miles was 8:28 or 5:39 pace. This felt more like threshold pace. After getting back to Sasha's I added 6 more miles on my own. Add more tonight as usual but it will be very easy.

PM - I was not very motivated to run tonight as I was pretty tired from a long day at work and the miles are adding up this week. However, after I forced myself out and got about 3 miles in to the run it was not as bad. I ran a total of 6.8 miles at 7:25 average with one with James and Jared and Jared set his new mile PR of 7:30.

It looks like Jeff and Adam are going to join me for the Deer Resevoir/Provo Canyon 20 miler on Saturday. We are going to meet at the Bridal Veil Falls Parking lot at 5:45am and then carpool up to the resevoir so we can start the run by 6:00am. Any others going to join in?

AM - Ran from BYU for an easy run for a total of 13.2 miles at average pace of 7:42. Ran 3.5 miles than joined Sasha for another 5.5 miles with his kids. Then I finished up with another 4+ miles on my own back to campus. Felt good to just run easy today after three days of miles and some decent quality. Plan on adding more tonight.

PM - 5.8 miles in hills around my house including 1 mile with James and Jared. Average pace 7:37, very easy and relaxed the whole time.

Good news is weight is now 133lbs so I am almost back at what I consider my racing weight.

Well this week I set 3, 4, and 5 day all time running mileage highs with 62 miles for 3 days, 83 miles for 4 days and 102 miles for 5 days. I will finish the week of with a 6 day all time high of at least 122 after tomorrow.

Sasha and I discuss the topic of sleep and the importance of it while running high mileage. I found an interesting article on it.

Sleep

AM - Headed up to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon and met with Adam and Jeff at 5:45am. We then jumped in the back of Adam's truck and drove up to Deer Creek Resevoir. We ran very easy in the dark along the resevoir i the rolling hills. There were a few rocks scattered on the road and while it was dark Adam seemed to be hitting them all. He hit a big one and went down and I tripped over him and went down with him. Scratched up my arm and leg a little but was ok. I think Adam came out ok as well. We continued along at an easy pace until it started to get light out. At the 6 mile turn around Jeff and I gradually started to pick it up to 7:00 pace along the rolling hills but still pretty easy at this point. We got a drink at 12 at the top of Deer Creek Resevoir and then headed down the canyon. We started to pick it up at this point and put more of a marathon effort in, for me at least. It still felt relaxed and we were actually chatting the whole way. We picked it up the last 4 miles even more and then I guess it felt more like true marathon pace at this point although I was still able to talk most of the way with Jeff. Afterwards jumped in the car and headed down to see James run his cross country race. Added another 2 miles cheering James on and cooling down with him. So 22 miles for the day and 124 miles for the week. Overall pace average was 7:04 per mile for 20 miles. First 11 average was about 7:46 average then the next 9 miles we averaged about 6:13 pace with the last 4 miles at 5:58 average. Splits below:

1	8:44	Avg HR 140
2	8:47	150
3	8:07	145
4	8:07	145
5	8:12	150
6	7:51	155
7	7:22	150
8	6:59	155
9	7:00	160
10	7:09	160
11	7:07	155
12	6:30	150
13	6:25	150
14	6:25	150
15	6:20	140
16	6:25	150
17	6:04	155
18	6:05	160
19	5:54	160
20	5:50	165

AM - Easy 12 mile run along the Provo River Trail with Sasha. First 2.5 miles with sone James as well and then just Sasha and I chatting while we run. I have been very surprised by how I have felt after Saturday's run and today. We averaged 7:18 pace for the 12 today and the whole run i felt pretty good and had to hold back to make sure it was an easy run. With 124 miles last week and 22 miles on Saturday I expected to be more tired. Even on Saturday I had a ton of energy all day and the legs felt good after running 22 miles. I'm not sure why but I will enjoy it while it lasts. Plan on running a few more miles this evening but this week will be only 100 miles then about 75 miles next week in preparation for St. George.

PM - 5.2 miles tonight 2 with James, 1 with Jared and 2 on my own then 5xstrides. Almost feel like I cheated today only running 17 miles.

AM - 12.1 miles total this morning at the very dark hour of 4:30am with Sasha. I really do not like running this early but sometimes it is necessary. It is very hard to get going in the dark at this time of the morning and to do a fast workout makes it even tougher. The plan was to do 6x800 on the trail all in 2:40 with a 400 jog. This sounds easy enough but at 4:30am it becomes a bit more of a challenge. This morning was interesting as it was dark enough in places on the trail that we could not see the actual trail very well and at faster paces it makes you a little nervous trying to make sure you stay on the path. We warmed up 4 miles and then started the 800's. Splits for 800s were 2:35, 2:36, 2:37, 2:37, 2:39, 2:37. Sasha let me control the pace for most of them. The first 800 I felt smooth and in control and was a bit surprised with the time as we hit it in 2:35. After that one I wanted to make sure I stayed like at this effort and remained at a controlled pace. I did not want to feel like I was pushing all out on any of the repeats. All of them felt pretty good and were at what felt like 5K effort overall never pushing to what would feel like top speed. Afterwards we did about 4 more miles back to Sasha's house. Overall I am pretty pleased as I was well under my 2:40 goal but the effort was what I wanted it to be. I am also happy as running at this time and in the pitch black makes it much harder and I'm pretty sure slows one down a bit. A few more miles tonight with the boys.

PM - Added 4.3 miles, 1 with Jared, 2 with James and rest on my own. Easy miles and only 16.4 total today.

Interesting read below continued from a previous article.

Link to Part two of a series on running economy!

AM - Very easy 12.4 today. Under 8:00 pace but not by much. Felt very relexed and easy. Started at 4:30am ran to Sasha's and then ran with Adam and Sasha for awhile and ran into Jeff who joined us along he way. I headed back to BYU via Bulldog and then ran about 3 more miles with cadets at BYU. Overall I was very tired when I got up this morning and had a hard time getting going but once I woke up and got moving things felt pretty good. Right hip was bothering me a little bit but that is a fairly common problem of mine. More planned tonight with James at his XC practice.

PM - 4.4 miles at James' XC practice. All sub 7:30 on grass. 4xstrides as well.

Thanks to Sasha we have a discussion forum now. I think this will add a lot to the blog!

AM - Well today the plan was to do another 5 mile tempo run on the standard Provo River 2.5 mile course. For those that like the bottom line up front I ended up running 28:07 (5:37 avg.) for the 5 mile tempo which is a big step forward for me. The rest of the story follows.

I wanted to try and run about 5:50 pace at first and then drop to 5:45 or so depending on how things felt. This was based on last week being able to average 5:48 after starting the first 2.5 right on 6:00 pace. I figured if all went well I could average about 5:45 or so this time. Sasha and Jeff were with me today and volunteered to help take turns leading quarters. I was a bit concerned that they would push it too fast on their turns as this would be a fairly easy pace for them. After warming up about 4 miles we started into the 5 miler. I led the first 1/4 and hit 1:27 so pretty much right where I wanted to be and it felt very relaxed and easy at this point. We went through the first mile in 5:47, a bit ahead of plan but it felt very relaxed. Sasha and Jeff were doing a good job of hitting fairly even quarters at this point when we traded off. Things picked up a little the second mile as we went through it at 5:41. Again it felt a little faster but still relaxed. This started to feel like threshold. Sasha picked it up a bit on his next uphill quarter and I could feel the difference. Jeff then put us back on a more reasonable pace again. We hit the 2.5 mile turn around in 14:20 and I was thinking if I could maintain this then 28:40 for 5 miles would be a good time today. I was still feeling pretty decent so I knew it was possible. We hit the third mile in 5:41 again and I could feel it a little bit but still feeling like threshold. At this point Sasha and Jeff started to push the pace a bit more on their quarters and I could feel the difference but was willing to push and see what I could do. We did a 5:28 for mile 4 and this was a bit tougher and started to feel like I was definetely dipping under threshold. This was feeling more like 10K effort now. I asked Jeff and Sasha to not push too hard the last mile or they would drop me. They complied and maintained a pretty even pace. We did mile 5 in 5:30 with the last two quarters in 1:23 and 1:20. Overall 5 mile tempo was 28:07 today which is 54 seconds faster than last week. This was a big surprise as I did not really expect this. Finished off with 4 more miles cool-down and for 13 miles averaged 6:59 pace. So splits ended up being 5:47, 5:41, 5:41, 5:28, 5:30. Sasha is telling me I need to shoot for a sub 2:30 at St. George based off of this workout but I am still not convinced I am ready for that yet. I need to figure out what pace to run but I am still leaning on going out no faster than 1:17 but Sasha says I need to go out in 1:16 for the first half. Well, a couple more weeks to make that decision I guess. A few more miles planned tonight.

PM - Ran 5.6 more easy miles tonight at James XC race helping set up course and running with James during warm-up and cool-down. More than I planned but that just means tomorrow will be easier.

AM - Standard Sasha House 10 Miler with Sasha and Adam. Very easy relaxed run today. Although I am coming down with a cold or something as my throat was very sore all night and this morning and my glands are swollen. I'm goign to hit the Emergen C pretty good and hope to just get over it quickly. The good thing this morning is that my legs felt good. They were not tired at all from yesterday. We averaged 7:25 pace with the second 5 in 35 minutes. Only 2 more miles tonight so a low mileage day of 12 miles today.

PM - 2 miles with kids. Sick as a dog and it stinks!

AM - Total of 20.9 miles this morning. Met Sasha, Jeff and a new runner Brad who is one of Jeff's roommates running St. George. We headed up the canyon at a easy pace but I am still very sick so I felt pretty bad. I was up all night with sinus headache and body aches so it was not a fun night. I was not really looking forward to running for some reason. I figured if I did not puch it then it would still be ok. First 8 going up felt very easy and under control. Sasha and Jeff took off on the way down. I ran with Brad at what felt easier than marathon pace and just gradually picked it up each mile until the last three or so felt closer to marathon pace. Splits for the lsat 8 miles were 6:08, 6:24, 6:15, 6:09, 5:53, 5:51, 5:35, 5:44. So an average pace of 6:00 for the last 8 miles and it felt very relaxed. The cold and sinuses sucked but legs were ok. I then went and ran the 1/2 mile with Jared at the Cougar Run. He ran 4:12hiw ch was a little slow for him but his first real race. Then I jumped in with James and paced him on the 5K. He ran 19:46, almost a PR on a hilly course. So I ended up with three more miles at close to marathon pace of 6:14, 6:08 and about 6:40. So 11 marathon pace miles and about 10 easy. Now the real taper begins, yeah!!!
 

AM - Ran the standard Sasha House 10 Miler with Sasha and Brad. We ran easy the whole way and on the way back did 8x100m strides at about 18-19 seconds with an easy jog 100m between. Just do these to feel leg turnover during the taper but not meant to be hard. Average pace of 7:31 for whole run. Felt ok considering how sick I was yesterday. I was still sick but hopefully on the upswing. I was totally wiped out on Sunday and spent most of the day in bed or on the toilet. Today just some lingering congestion so far.

PM - I bagged my planned run this evening. I was only going to do 2 miles tonight but the way I am feeling it would not have done me any good. Congestion is getting better although as I am drying up I am dealing with some sinus headaches and the body joints stsill ache a bit all day today. So better to just rest tonight and hope things feel better in the morning. I have just under two weeks to recover which is a good thing as I usually kick these things quicker than most. 

AM - Well I was feeling a bit better this morning which hopefully means I have almost kicked this illness. The plan was to do the normal 10 mile route but to throw in a 3 mile marathon pace tempo in the middle. I had to run early, 5:00am, so I was on my own which probably was a good thing anyway as I would not be tempted to push too hard while I am still trying to recover and get healthy. I decieded that I would not look at my watch at all today. I would start the watch and then just run by feel and afterwards see what the watch said. I figured this way I would not push myself too hard. I ran the first 5 miles very relaxed and easy as a warm-up and then figured I would work my way into what felt like marathon pace effort. It was tempting to want to look at the watch but I refrained from doing so until I was done with the entire 10 miles. The first mile felt a little slower than marathon pace but it was what my body wanted to do as it was very dark and cold (37'F). I held this same effort but it started to feel too easy as I went along so I focused on relaxing and trying to pick it up to something closer to marathon effort during the third mile. The third mile felt closer to marathon pace effort but still pretty relaxed and comfortable. I definetely could have gone alot faster but the goal was to keep it easy and relaxed but get something close to marathon pace at the same time. So when I stopped the watch and looked at it for the first time at the 10.1 mile mark I saw that my average pace for the entire run was 7:06. Pulling up the splits the first 5 miles was about where I would have guessed being around 7:40 pace once I got going. When I started to pick it up for the three mile section the splits were 6:23, 6:23, and 5:55. The first two were a little slower than I would have wanted but the third was a little faster than I would have guessed. It did not feel like I picked it up very much at all. This was an easier effort than I origionally planned but again that is probably good as I need to get healthy this week. I ran easy the last two miles but still did them at 6:40 pace and felt like I was jogging. I saw Sasha and Jeff right before I finished. Plan to run some more easy miles tonight as long as I am feeling ok.

PM - Added 4 miles running on grass during Jared's soccer game. 2 with James, 1/2m with Jared and rest on my own. Very easy.

AM - I have almost shaken the bug that hit me, just a little congestion remaining at this point. Only 8.2 miles this morning, all easy averaged 7:30 pace overall. I met with Sasha, Jeff and Adam at 5:00am. We ran 6 together and then I was off to BYU for physical training with ROTC and ran a couple more miles with them. I am starting to feel a lot better and am starting to fell the taper kicking in. I am feeling rested and the legs are starting to feel pretty good. As Sasha would say the horses are starting to neigh but in my case it is only one horse starting to neigh right now. Maybe next week it will be horses neighing. I will get some more miles tonight at James' cross country practice.

PM - 5 miles at James XC practice on the rolling grass. Easy run nothing exciting. We did one stride at the end.

It is looking like we have a winner for a new FastRunningBlog slogan. It seems most are really liking "Run. Blog. Improve. Repeat." and more importantly Sasha really likes it. If you have not yet checked out the discussion forum you should check it out there is some good topics going.

AM - Sasha joined me at BYU to run with the Ranger Challenge Team. I put together an 8 mile loop that would give some gentle uphill for the first 4 and then gentle down the second 4. We warmed up together as a group for the 1st mile very easy and then gave them a fartlek workout of 1 min hard(H), 1 min easy(E), 2(H), 2(E), 3(H), 3(E), 4(H), 4(E), 4(H), 4(E), 3(H), 3(E), 2(H), 2(E), 1(H), 1(E). For them the plan was for them to try and hit the hard portions at about there 1m race pace. For me I wanted to do the hard parts at about threshold pace to ge 20 minutes worth of threshold in but broken in to smaller chunks. All of the fartleks for Sasha and I were between 5:20-40 pace looking at the watch afterwards. Overall felt ok and the pace felt like threshold for the most part. I estimate we covered about 3.6 miles of threshold running. For Sasha it was not hard as it barley approached marathon pace for him. We had two cadets that were not too far behind. They run the 2 miles in about 12 minutes. I added a couple more miles afterwards. Averaged about 7:15 pace for the whole 10 miles and that was with two very slow miles. Averaged 7:00 pace for 8 of the miles. I am still dealing with the lingering effects of this cold bug. Hopefully it will be completely gone by next week! James has a XC race tonight so I will get a few more miles in tonight.

PM - 3.7 miles at James XC race on grassy rolling hills. 3K(measured 1.97 on the GPS) during race with James in 11:42. James went through the first mile in 5:50 on the grass and held on pretty good. So 2 miles at marathon pace the rest very easy.

AM - Very easy run with Sasha on the river. We did 4x100 strides just for fun. I still have some lingering cold effects but hopefully they can clear by next saturday. I'm at the point were I really do not feel like I am running very much at all even though I will be at 75 miles this week. This is a good thing.

More importantly my desire and motivation to want to put the miles and hard work in to achieve the most I possibly can in the marathon has returned. I am looking forward to some high miles this winter and am starting to feel much more optimisic about being able to exceed my previous fitness levels and PRs next year. Until recently I was not sure I would surpass where I once was but now I am confident that it will happen. I'm not sure how St. George will go but I am actually more excited about getting the miles back up after St. George. Some people might think I'm crazy but I'm actually looking forward to doing 120 mile weeks all winter and next year. The desire to train hard and go after PRs is back and that is the key ingriedient that I have been missing for awhile so I am excited.

PM - 3 easy miles with boys. I just can't wait to shake this cold for good!

Nice quote from Haile G. on his goals:

"I feel that I can achieve something outstanding in Berlin," said Gebrselassie, who increased his weekly mileage in the surroundings of Addis Ababa during the buildup to Berlin to 250km (156 miles). “To become stronger in the last part of the marathon I increased my speed in the final part of my training runs."

During much of the press conference Haile Gebrselassie remained cautious regarding a time goal. But at the end he was asked to start a marketing campaign for adidas, in which runners are asked to show their motivation for running by a drawing. Haile Gebrselassie did a line drawing, showing himself and then wrote underneath it: ‘2:03:00 – I will show you.’ Then he explained: "Well, 2:04 would be okay as well. You always have to aim high."

Interesting website: http://www.wearenotjoggers.com/home 

AM - 10.5 miles in the Provo River Canyon with Steve and son James. Sasha was sick so he did not join us. We did a 2.25 mile warm-up going up the canyon and then did the 3 mile tempo route down the canyon. We let James go with a 3:30 head start with the goal of running no slower than 7:00 pace. The plan was to run the 3 miles at about 5:45 pace or somewhere close to marathon effort. I wanted to run by how it felt. We were a little faster but the good thing is it felt like marathon pace effort at least until we picked it up the last 1/2 mile. 1st mile was 5:35 and it felt very relaxed, we had a pretty strong headwind coming down the canyon as well so it negated some of the downhill effect for sure. Tried to stay steady the 2nd mile and even though it has a small uphill stretch for about a 1/4 we hit another 5:35. With a 1/2 mile to go we started to pick it up as we could see James in the distance. We all finished at almost exactly the same time which mean James ran pretty fast. Our last mile ened up being 5:29 for a total time of 16:39 and the lst 1/2 mile was 2:41. The last 1/2 mile felt like threshold pace. Steve and I then ran back to the top and then back to the car again to end up with 10.5 miles with an average pace of 6:47 for the last 10 miles. Steve wanted to pick it up again for another mile back to the car and I felt decent so wnet along with him. We ended up running the last mile in 5:40 which felt like marathon pace effort again. So overall 4 faster miles of 5:35, 5:35, 5:29, 5:40 which all felt pretty comfortable today. I will get a couple more miles tonight with Jared. I'm glad Steve was there as it was nice to have someone to chat with for the run. Steve seems pretty fit as the pace never seemed to bother him much and he was able to carry a conversation the whole time. St. George is going to be fun seeing how well all of the bloggers run and meeting everyone at the pasta party.

PM - 2.4 in the snow, 1 mile with Jared. Wow it was 59'F for this mornings run and this afternoon it was 37'F and snowing!

GEB Shatters Marathon World Record!!!

2:04:26!!!

4:44 Per Mile!!!

Link on discussion forum.