Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

AM - Easy 8 miles on the Provo River trail with Sasha. Sasha seems to be doing ok after being sick. We did 6x100m strides on the way back just to keep things sharp. It is nice to be tapering but it really feels like I am barely running at all. The remenants of the cold are almost gone, only very minor lingering congestion being spit up now. A few more easy miles planned for tonight.

PM - Easy 3.5 miles with boys and 5 x strides with James. I'm glad today is not race day.

At the link below you can see a story on Team Hoyt. If you have never heard about this man and his son he is truly an amazing father. I met him at Boston the year I ran it, if I remember right, and I was very inspired. Anyway I thought I would share.

Team Hoyt

Possible Logo for FRB merchandise such as singlet/t-shirt whatever, I have posted on discussion forum for feedback.

Ok, for those that read my blog I will put a daily qoute from Emil Zatopek who had a way with words. I love this one because it is so true about the marathon.

"Men, today we die a little."
Emil Zatopek at the start of the 1956 Olympic Marathon.

AM - Ok, typing this for the second time as it did not save the first time, which really stinks. Met up with Sasha, Jeff, and Adam this morning and ran on the usual Provo River Trail route. We ran a very easy 3.5+ miles and then did 2 miles at marathon pace. Sasha and Jeff went first and then Adam and I started a minute or so later. Adam wanted to try and hit 6:00 mile pace for as long as he could so I started at 6:00 pace and went through the first 1/2 in 2:57. I then picked it up just a little to what felt like marathon pace effort, maybe a little fast but comfortable considering it was a slight uphill section of the river. My mile splits were 5:48 and 5:45 for 11:33 for two miles. Still not feeling 100% but getting there. Overall pleased with the taper so far but not really enjoying it per se. I actually miss the high mileage weeks and feeling tired after a run for some reason. Well it is all pretty much easy from now in. Maybe a few strides and pcik-ups but other than that nothing much. A few more miles planned tonight and then I am headed to Cedar City tomorrow afternoon.

PM - 3.5 miles on grass at Jared's soccer game. Most with James and also did 5 x strides up a small hill. Last double run for the week. Three singles of 6, 4, and 3 miles left this week.

Ok, yesterday I decieded to put a few inspiring quotes from Emil Zatopek each day so if you missed yesterdays then I will post it and another one today. Also a FRB logo for possible use on merchandise such as singlets/t-shirts is also below. I posted it on the Discussion Forum as well for any feedback, psotive or negative so feel free to comment there as well. Enjoy!

"Men, today we die a little."
Emil Zatopek at the start of the 1956 Olympic Marathon.

"When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem." Emil Zatopek

AM - Ran 6 miles with Sasha at 5:00am. Easy run just talking about Sasha's 100m sprint Marathon limit prediction theory and such. At the end I wanted to do about 3 minutes hard to stimulate a carbo loading phase. I figured I would give it a try but three days out versus the day prior as the study indicated that it would still work and the body would hold the carbos since one is not running much the last couple days. So we did the last 1000 meters hard but not all out. We hit 2:40 for the last 1/2 mile, felt decent but not too hard. Then I went home and started the carbo load. I figured I need to take in around 600g of carbos today. That is a lot. However, I have a high carbo drink that will help me get the majority in. No run tonight so below is the Zatopek quote for the day. Well actually four quotes since I am not sure I will have access to a computer the next couple days. See everyone in St. George!

"I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me.
But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known."
Emil Zatopek describes his marathon win at the Helsinki Olympics

When asked about his tortured expression during races,
Emil Zatopek said,
"It is not gymnastics or ice skating you know."

Two more Zatopek classics:

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys."

"Great is the victory, but the friendship is all the greater."

I especially like this one as I think it is so true. It is the journey we all travel to get to the marathon that I will remember the most and all of the great friends I have made along the way. I think that is what is nice about the blog as it allows us to develop those friendships and share our experiences with one another!

Easy 4 mile run in Cedar City with two easy strides at the end. Felt a little sluggish but that is normal for me after carbo loading.

3 easy miles with Kory in Cedar City. The wind was howling this morning at about 25-35 mph and if the race was this morning it would have been a straight on head wind. Pray for the wind to shift or cease by tomorrow!

Ok, where to start! First I had a great time and was very glad to meet a bunch of the bloggers at the pasta party Friday night. This was the highlight of the weekend! Thank you very much Clyde and especially Mik'L for holding such a great event and giving me the place to stay! I look forward to reading the race reports of the FRB runners as I know a lot had good days. The FRB ended up with at least 9 of the top 23 overall spots as well.

Before I get to my race story and results I have to mention that the Lord blessed me on the way home. The weather was bad and I hit a patch of ice and slid out of control off the road and over a very steep embankment. My car was totaled and I walked away without a scratch! When the ambulance and police saw my car they were amazed that I did not have a scratch on me and was feeling ok. If I had not had my seat belt on I would have not survived that is for sure but even with the seat belt they were surprised I walked away as I did. I rolled and flipped the car twice to the best of my recollection. I ended up at the bottom of the embankment on the other side of an 8 foot high fence. I did not go through the fence though because the fence poles were only bent at about the 6 foot mark indicating that when I flipped over the fence I was at least 6 feet in the air. The roof is crushed in on the front of my car the windows were broken out and the entire right side of the car was smashed. The front of the car is smashed along with the fact that I had to kick my door open to get out of the car. All of the shocks were completely blown out and the frame was bent. When the dragged the car up it the entier bottom was dragging ont he ground. When I hit the ice I knew I was in trouble as the back end of the car spun completely around and when I tried to counter steer there was no reaction. At this point I went off the embankment backwards and believe it or not said a quick pray asking heavenly father to protect me from injury. The next thought I had was instinctive from being a pilot to brace for the crash by tensing up all of my muscles and bracing for the worst. As the car came back around I think I rolled once down the embankment and then flipped over the fence, again this is the best I can recall as at this point I was just wondering when it was going to be over and during the final sequence I remember telling myself to stay conscious as I did not want to go out. When I stopped I remember quickly assessing for injuries saying, "no blood, no instant pain or feeling of broken bones, ok my hand hurts a little but no blood!" Then I looked around and saw air bags deployed and my stuff all over the place including things hanging out the window. Next I started looking for my cell phone and found it under my foot. I quickly called my wife and told her I was in an accident and totalled my car but I think I was ok. I then discovered that I could not open the door. I did not see anyone around at first so I thought I was on my own. I pushed the door open with my legs and climbed out again assessing for injuries, but found I was still ok but my adrenaline was pumping. At this point a man was on top of the embankment and yelled down to see if I was ok. He said there were two more cars off th road in front of me and I saw that two more cars had also slid off the embankment a couple hundred meters in front of me. I told him I was ok and he said he called 911 as two of the passengers in the other cars were hurt. I walked around the car and found a bunch of my belongings strewn all over the place and picked them up and put them back in the car. It started to snow and I was getting cold so I managed to climb the 8 foot metal and barb wire fence and went and got in a car to stay warm until the police arrived. Well, that is my exciting story for the day. The marathon story will seem quite boring in comparison. I am counting my blessings that is for sure! I will post a picture of my car when I can. We will see how I feel tomorrow after a marathon and a major car accident! Oh yeah during a 30 minute period I found out from the police that 9 cars had slid off the road in a 15 mile section of the highway and four people were on the way to the hospital.

Marathon story to follow:

Overall, I was vey pleased with my result, 2:32:58 with a 1:18:50 1st half and a 1:14:08 2nd half. Especailly considering I never really felt good today even from the 1st mile. It was a struggle most of the way. I never felt like I was working at or near marathon pace as far as breathing was and I felt converssational the entire way. I never felt like I hit the wall or ran out of fuel which was good as well. However, the legs felt flat the whole way and I was dealing with a nagging hamstring cramp from mile 15 onward. I just kept hoping it would not get worse. It didn't but it never went away either. I was in a just hang on mile to mile mindset and hoping to not completely cramp up. I was very glad to have the FRB guys to run with. I ran with Chad, Cory, and Chris for a large portion of the race and then we ran caught James and ran with him for a bunch as well. I caught our other training partner from Provo, Jeff, at around 22 as he was cramped up but convinced him to run with me to the finish which helped having someone to talk with. Chad had pulled away for a few miles and then at the end I caught him as he cramped up just before the finish but told him to come with me and he responded and we ran to the line together racing the clock and dipped under 2:33 together. I thought we tied but the chip gave me a slight edge, we were trying to cross together. It was awesome to see that Paul and Logan qualified for the trials and an so great. I was dissapointed for Sasha as he missed his goal, but I know he will make it two years from now. Again it was great to meet everyone and see everyone run well. My splits will follow: (not from GPS and I missed a few)

6:03

6:09

5:50

5:52

5:49

5:33

18:32 (miles 7-9)

6:08

12:22 (miles 11-12)

5:49

5:45

5:39

5:21

5:38

11:32 (miles 18-19)

5:55

5:10

11:18 (miles 22-23)

5:44

5:45

5:46

1:08 for .2 miles

Congrats to all and thanks to everyone for the support, friendship and good memories!
 

AM - Met Sasha at 6:30 for an easy run. I had no plan distance wise and was just going to run by feel. The legs are sore and stiff but once we got going they were ok, still sore and stiff but managable. We ran 8 miles averaging about 8:10 overall with a very slow start and actually ran the last mile in 7:01 and did not realize that we had picked it up. I will be sore and stiff most of this week but it seems like it will be managable at least. My neck, left shoulder, back, right forearm and head are very sore and bruised from the accident but don't seem to bother me when running at least. I have discovered a few more bruises and sore spots that I did not know about at first. I may or may not run a mile or two with the kids tonight, we will see how I feel.

No PM run. I tried to run with Jared and James and it was too painful so I just let them run. 

AM - Easy 6 miles with Sasha and Adam. Very easy mostly 8-9min pace but that is all I want to do this week anyway. As Paul mentioned in his blog that dang horse and his barnyard friends visited me as well but I am discovering that not only did they stomp all over my legs but they decieded to work on my neck, shoulder, head and right rib cage as well. It has been interesting because I am still discovering sore areas in my upper body from the wreck that I did not notice at first, such as my lower right rib cage. I am itching to get back to some serious training but I know I need to take it easy for a week or so until all of the soreness is gone. After that it is time to train again!

PM - 1 mile with Jared in 8:30, very painful and slow. Legs are still trashed.

PM - 6 miles on the grass at James' XC practice. Ran easy and averaged 7:30 pace so feeling a bit better leg wise. Still sore but getting better each day. However, I skipped the run this morning as I woke up with a sore throat and felt some tightness in the chest. Neck is feeling better from the accident but my back and right ribs are still a little sore. I may go see the doctor just to get checked out.

AM - Easy 8 miles with Sasha, Jeff, Adam and son James. James really surprised me as he pretty much set the pace the whole run trying to make us sore marathon runners hurt a little. He has really started to get in great shape. We averaged 7:33 pace for the 8 miles and the last mile he picked it up and made us work a little faster than my legs wanted to hitting a 6:35 mile at the end. My left hamstring was not very happy at the sub 7:00 pace. The legs in general are feeling much better but my left hamstring is still very tender in one particular spot. I could really feel it as we dipped under 7 min pace. So no fast stuff for me for awhile.

Easy 7 miles with son James, Sasha and Adam. Left hammy still has a knot in it so not fast stuff for awhile still. Busy day so gotta go!

Easy 7 with James tonight after getting back from spending the weekend training with cadets. I have been very sick yesterday and today. Super congested and spending way too much time in the bathroom. James ran well again as we averaged 7:38 for 7 miles and he did 4x400 and 8x100 during the run.

AM - Easy 10 miles from Sasha's house. We ran 7 miles with son James and then added 3 more. Overall average was 7:39 for 10 miles with the last three at close to 7:00 pace. Overall I am starting to feel decent again. My left hammy is not 100% but it only starts to bother me when we go under about 7:00 pace so at least I know I can continue to run easy until it heals fully. I was sick all weekend congested and could barely talk but things seem to be on the mend in those reagrds as well. I hope to get 70+ miles this week if the body cooperates. Also did 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups this morning and my shoulder and neck seem to be ok, not 100% but almost. I will run an easy mile tonight with Jared.

PM - Added 2 easy miles, first with Jared (8:28) and second with James (7:26). Feeling a bit better.

AM - Finally back up to the standard Sasha House 10 Miler with jeff and Sasha at 5:00am today. Jeff and I just ran the 10 miles easy in 75 minutes (7:30 pace) while Sasha took off for a 7.5 tempo at just after 6 miles. Felt ok today, cold is subsiding and legs are coming around. Still not ready for anything fast but getting there gradually. Plan on running more tonight with kids.

PM - Family run tonight with James, Jared and Ebeth. We all paced mom to a new mile PR of 8:56! Elizabeth actuallly ran the 1st quarter in 1:50 so eventually with time I think she has some potential to run pretty fast. I then ran with James for the rest and did 6xstrides and some drills at the end.

AM - Easy run with Sasha on standard {Sasha House 10 Miler} Felt a lot better today. We averaged 7:12.28 and finished with the last 1/4 in 1:19. The good news is the hamstring did not seem to complain about the speed so it looks like things are healing up nicely. Plan to do more tonight with James and Jared.

PM - 1 mile warm-up with son James then we did 3x800 with 400 jog. Paced James but he is fast enough to make me run at threshold or slightly faster now. 800s were 2:49, 2:48, and 2:45. Then ran 1 mile back to my office. Busy night with scouts tonight so time to go.

AM - Ran with the Ranger Challenge Team today. It is nice to be able to combine some work with my running on occasion. We warmed up a mile to the Provo River Trail and then I had them do 1/4 mile at their 2 mile race pace followed by and easier 1/4 but not a jog we did this 16 times or for a total of 8 miles and then 1 mile cool-down back to campus. I then ran back and picked up the rest of the group so I ended up with 12 miles at a 7:00 pace average. The 400s felt very relaxed for me on the trail in the dark. I ran them as follows:

1:28, 1:29, 1:26, 1:27, 1:27, 1:27, 1:26, 1:27, 1:27, 1:27, 1:26, 1:27, 1:26, 1:27, 1:26, 1:25

Very consistent marathon pace effort. Will run more tonight with James and Jared.

PM - 4 miles easy; 1 with Jared then 3 with James and 6xstrides and drills.

AM - With Sasha for 12 on the river today. We did 8x100 meter strides as well. Sasha did them faster I did them about 20-21 seconds each just nice and relaxed. More tonight with the boys.

PM - 5 miles with boys, 1 with Jared and 4 with James in the hills. Left hammy still not 100%.

AM - 4 miles on my own in the hills then picked up James ran to the track and did a 2 mile tempo pacing James. James ran 12:41 with splits of 6:26 and 6:15 gradually picking it up as we went. We then had to run the 3 miles home up the big hill by the temple. Day started at 6:00am and will not end until late tonight so gotta go. I leave for New York tomorrow so I'm not sure I will be able to keep up with the blog or not. Hoping to get some good runs in while I'm there but we will see how my schedule works out.

AM - West Point New York run along the Hudson River and then on the track for 5 miles last 4 in 6:14 average with last 2 in about 6 pace. 13 total at 7:00 average. Time to go.

Busy out in NY but managed to get a workout in today after none yesterday. 3 mile warm-up then 2 mile in 10:49(5:27/5:22) 800 jog at 8min pace then 1 mile in 5:20 then 800 jog at 8min pace then 2 miles in 11:15(5:47/5:28) then 800 jog at 8 min pace then 1 mile in 5:17. 4 mile cool down. Back to one last event tonight then up at 3:00 am to get to the airport.

Back from NY nothing special just an easy 12 miles at around 7:00 pace for most.

AM - Ran with Sasha for 13.1 also did 8x10 strides with first 4 in 21 secs and last 4 in 18 secs. Sasha and I picked it up the last 1/2 mile as well with a 1:29 followed by 1:18 1/4 splits. Felt pretty good at faster speeds.

PM - 3 miles easy, 1 with Jared and James and Jared ran his best with a 8:02.

Plan is for 20 miles with Sasha tomorrow. Should be painful to say the least. 

AM - Ran the 20 miler with Sasha from his house on the PRovo River Trail up to Breidal Veil Falls and then return. Started relaxed and easy with Jeff and Sasha just talking and gradually picking it up. It got a little tougher when we hit the canyon as it was already cold but then we starting hitting a very strong head wind. I could feel it in my legs a little climbing and fighting the head wind and was concerned about the turn around as Sasha wanted to pick it up to at least sub 6:00 pace. My goal ws to try and stay with him at close to 6:00 pace for as long as possible. I was pretty pleased as after we turned I was running faster than I thought we would and actually hung in with Sasha trading quarters for around 6 miles or so. Legs were very tired the last couple miles but cardio I felt pretty good. Our splits are below according to the Garmin along with my HR data. First 10 miles a gradual up of 1-3% and then back down on the same 1-3% heading home. Average pace for 20 miles was 6:21 with average HR of 158. Average pace for 1st 10 miles was 7:01 with average heart rate of 150. Average pace for last 10 miles was 5:42 (57:00) with average heart rate of 168. 10-15 miles 5 mile split was 27:54 and last 5 miles was 29:06. Overall pretty pleased with the run, it was tough and painful but a good fitness test.

Mile	Split	HR Data
1	7:54	127
2	7:28	140
3	7:13	143
4	6:45	150
5	6:57	150
6	6:45	155
7	6:55	155
8	6:51	157
9	6:40	160
10	6:46	163
11	5:35	165
12	5:31	167
13	5:35	170
14	5:35	168
15	5:38	170
16	5:43	170
17	5:49	171
18	5:49	171
19	5:58	171
20	5:47	172

Just looked up some training history and discovered that this was my second fastest 20 miler that I have ever run and this one was at 5,000ft altitude. In addition if you take my last 15 miles it was my fastest ever training run times for miles 6-15.

Afterwards went to James XC race and ran another mile cheering James on around the course he ran his best time of the season for 3K by 25 seconds.

AM - Easy Provo River run with Sasha although things were a little faster than normal as we average 7:13 pace for 13.1 miles. We also did 8x100m strides again. I tend to start these easier than Sasha t 20-21 secs versus he does 18-19 secs then the last 4 I am with him in 17-18 secs. Overall feel good with no signs of soreness or much fatigue from the 20 miler on Saturday. I still need to get my right hip fixed as it has been a continual problem for several years now. I just need to find a the right person to fix it. More tonight with James and Jared. I'm looking to get around 100 miles this week but it will be a busy week so we will see how things turn out. In fact the next couple weeks will be pretty busy but hopefully I can still get 100 miles in each week.

PM - Ran 7.5 miles total with James and Jared. Jared did 1 mile at the end with James and I. James and I did 1 mile warm-up then 12x200 with 200 jog (jog at 8:00 pace) 200s were all very even pace trying to teach James how to relax at faster speeds. 200s were as follows:

40, 39, 39, 38, 38, 38, 38, 38, 39, 38, 38, 37

Then finished with three easy miles. Doing these workouts with James in the evening are good as he is fast enough now to make me work a little but also allows me to focus on him which in turn helps me relax as well. Some dads play ball with there kids I guess it is kind of neat that I get to run with mine. 

AM - Woke up very groggy this morning and was not very excited about running today. Joined Sasha at 5:00am for his big workout day. I knew from the get go that it was not going to be a big workout day for me as I was very sluggish. We headed out on the Provo River Trail (no surprise) and did just over 6 miles warm-up and then started the tempo. Sasha was doing a 7.5 mile tempo and I pretty much decieded early on that I was only going to do 2.5 miles of the tempo. The pace felt ok and I could have kept going but just did not feel up to pushing that hard today. So after 2.5 miles in 14:18 (5:43 pace slightly uphill) I backed off and ran pretty much dead on 6:30 pace the rest of the way which felt like a jog. Ended up with 14.5 miles at a 6:41 average total. More tonight with the boys.

PM - 5.3 miles, 4 with James and then one more with James and Jared. The 4 with James were at 7:30 pace average and then we did 6xstrides and drills.

AM - Easy Provo River 10 miles with Jeff and Sasha. Average 7:30 pace overall. More later today with James and Jared.

Happy Halloween!

PM - 4 miles with James on XC course and did about 1 mile worth of random Fartlek.