Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Ran at 7:00am with Sasha in the snow. The snow was not too bad but the wind made it miserable down by the lake. It was almost blizzard conditions along the lake front. Ran easy the majority of run except for a mile where we were trying to catch another runner that had passed us earlier. Averaged under 7:30 pace but ran most miles close to 7:00 pace as we started at 9:00 pace for the first 1.5 miles running with a neighbor of Sasha's. Legs felt flat today but no soreness to speak of.  

Went to see chiropractor today but will not get the results from x-rays and test until tomorrow. We will see what he has to say tomorrow.

I took my son James who is 12 to the BYU indoor track to run this evening. He wanted to do a mile time trial. We did 3.1 miles total. We did a 1 mile warm-up in 8:00 minutes and then did his mile time trial. James was motivated to run fast because some of the BYU runners were there including Josh Rohatinsky. He ran his best mile time by 24 seconds. He ran a 6:29 mile so his daily 3-4 mile runs are starting to pay off for him. He was pretty excited. The track is 5 laps to the mile and his splits were 1:18, 1:18, 1:19, 1:20, 1:14. 

Easy Provo River run at 4:45am with Sasha. Legs are still a bit tired and heavy feeling so decieded to just keep it easy today. Maybe run something faster tomorrow but will wait and see how I feel. 10 miles in just under 7:30 pace overall. 

Rode 12 miles on mountain bike in the hills. Worked hard on the hills and felt the burn in the quads. Good workout for the quads overall. Did 60 push-ups and sit-ups.

13.4 miles total this morning. Did 10.4 with Sasha along Provo River as usual but we did 1 mile in 5:44 and then 4x400 in 1:23, 1:21, 1:20, 1:18 with a 400 jog rest between. The rest of the run was easy. Then did the normal 125 push-ups and sit-ups at the BYU indoor track followed by 3 miles on the track with last mile in 6:35. Averaged just under 7:20 for the total 13.4 miles. Legs were tired today but not as bad as I thought they would be after last nights mountain bike ride. Just over 36 miles of running and 12 miles of mountain biking in the first three days this week. I plan on running the Striders 10K this weekend but I want to keep my mileage up. I can't afford to drop mileage for these races when my real goal is to get the miles up this year and lose the last 10lbs that still needs to come off. This years races are not as important to me as the return to high mileage and my previous weight. I figure I need a good solid year of higher mileage to get back to the level of fitness I was at two years ago.

Easy 10 mile run with Sasha on normal daily route. One of these days I will convince Sasha to run a different route. Legs felt pretty tired today. 

Easy 7.1 miles in the snow this morning. The snow could make the conditions for the 10K in Ogden tomorrow interesting. I crashed my bike on tuesday while avoiding being hit by a car. At the time I did not think much of it but I noticed yestreday that my left shoulder, left knee and left foot were a bit sore and bruised. I was wondering why they hurt and then it dawned on me that is the side that I hit the ground on when I crashed. Better hitting the ground and getting a few bruises than getting hit by the car that made a left turn without looking. Only did 50 push-ups and sit-ups this morning followed by 30 minutes of shoveling the heavy wet snow out of the driveway. See all those going to the Striders 10K mountain race tomorrow morning.

A tough course and a cold day made for a challenging day. I felt very flat during my warm-up an the quads were tired just trying to do strides. I was hoping that they would feel better as the race progressed but they did not. The legs felt very heavy and dead even on the downhill sections. I never truly felt winded but felt like I had hit the wall in a marathon pretty much the whole way. Overall this was a tough day for me. That's ok though because it is good to just be able to get out to the races and at least get to know everyone a little better. I have not really set any goals this year time wise so I keep having to remind myself to not be disappointed in the results right now. My first goal is to get the mileage back up to at least 100 miles a week before the end of the year. My second goal is to run a sub 2:45 marathon this year. I figure if I accomplish the first goal the second will happen as a result. I am up to 70 miles a week the last two weeks on single runs so things are headed in the right direction. Next week I will shoot for 75 miles and then take a drop down a little the following week. I have found that three weeks of building or maintaining higher mileage followed by a week about 10-20% lower works well for me and lets me recover enough to build again for three weeks. I hope to be up to 85 miles a week by the first week of May and maintain that through most of the summer before increasing the mileage again after TOU Marathon. If all goes well I will be at 100 mile weeks during the month of December. Well there you have it my year long progression plan. Hopefully it all works out so next year I can start going after some PRs at the age of 39.

Congratulations to all for finishing today and especially to all of those that actually had a decent race. I am not sure how tough the 10 miler will be in a couple of weeks but I hear it is another tough one. It sure would be nice to run one of those fast downhill courses that Utah is famous for because so far the only two races I have run in Utah have been two of the toughest courses I have ever run. Here's hopeing that tough race courses equals faster racing in the future!