Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Ran a total of 13.2 miles this morning with an overall average of 6:40 pace. Met Sasha for 4:45am run as usual and he wanted to do a tempo as well. He wanted to do 5 mile tempo but I decieded a 2.5 mile tempo for myself was good. I actually felt ok today. Not what I would call great but not bad either. I ran the 2.5 mile tempo in 13:55 which is my fastest time. Mile splits were 5:39, 5:35 and last half in 2:41. I had about a one minute bathroom stop just before 2 miles so it probably helped the last half mile but I still feel I was faster than my previous best time of 14:08. Finished run back to BYU and did 135 push-ups and sit-ups followed by 3 more miles on the BYU indoor track. Last three miles on track were 7:22, 6:45, and 6:21. Gradually picked it up as I ran and felt ok even at 6:21. It was nice to have a day where quads were not feeling totally fatigued.

Easy 10 miles from Sasha's house at 4:45am. Average pace was about 7:33. We did 8x100m strides during the second half. I ran the 100m strides in about 18-19 seconds each. Legs were a little tired and could feel some soreness in the quads throughout the run. Right groin is bothering me a little as well. Sasha is planning 12x400m hard tomorrow so we will see how things go for me as I want to make sure I do not push it to hard.

14.15 miles total today. Met Sasha and did 6x400m with 200 jog on the trail in middle of run. 400s were hard but not all out. Splits were 74, 73, 74, 74, 75, 75. Quads still a little heavy and right groin and hip still bothering me a little. Ran back to BYU and did 150 push-ups and sit-ups followed by three more miles on indoor track at 7:06, 6:53, 6:27. Relaxed but gradually picked up as I felt ok. I have increased the push-up/sit-up routine to the following. I do sets of 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 of each for a total of 150 each now. Previously I was only doing 125 each. Only rest is the time it takes to switch between push-ups and sit-ups after each set. Trying to keep mileage up this week but will probably not run more than easy runs the next couple days before the 10 miler to give myself a chance at running at least a good tempo on Saturday.

Ran a very easy 8+ miles. Decieded to not run 10 today as the right groin and hip are still bothering me. We kept it very easy the whole time today between 7:30-40 pace. Not much else to write other than it was a balmy 39'F today.

Another easy day of only 6 miles and did 4xstrides just for the heck of it. Hip and groin still not 100%. Another grueling hill race in Ogden tomorrow! Should be a good workout at least.

Finally felt ok during a race. I felt pretty good at the start and decieded to just go with a faster pace and see what happens. I did not run the hills very strong but was able to recover and run well on the down and flat sections. Overall I am pleased with the result for where I am at in my training right now. Ran 3.1 warm up and a little over 4 miles after the race. Course was at 9.93 miles on the GPS. It was noted that we turned a block early around the 3 mile mark so that is where the .1 difference was lost. 17 miles for the day puts me at about 70 for the week as well.

Oh yeah my GPS mile splits were 1=5:53 (this felt very easy and actually caught Sasha's group and told them they needed to speed up); 2=5:12 (11:05) (mostly downhill but still very fast as I was trying to hold on to the tail end of Sasha's pack); 3=5:45 (16:50) (slowed down this mile as I knew this was a more realistic pace with all of the uphill running to come , at this point I was pretty much running by myself the rest of the racee); 4=6:05 (22:57) (this was a gradual uphill mile but not too bad); 5=6:39 (29:36) (this was when the road started to go up and only got worse as we went); 6=6:55 (36:31) (this mile would have been even slower but the last 1/4 mile was a slight down, this was a pretty tough 2 mile stretch); 7=7:18 (43:49) (pure pain right hear! monster hill that I just went into survival mode on and realized that I am not very strong on hills right now, OUCH!); 8=5:20 (49:09) (I recovered well and was able to really get moving again on the downhill at least for this mile); 9=5:55 (55:04) (I could feel the headwind on this mile and was not really enjoying it at this point); 10=5:32 on the short GPS mile but clocked a 5:58 actual last mile per course marking which I was happy with considering it had another good hill in it; overall 60:36.

Went kayaing on the Provo River for about an hour and a half in the afternoon. Kayaking is a great upper body workout and believe it or not it actually worked the cardiovascular as well. However the water is very cold at this time of year so my feet and hands were pretty frozen by the end. Two weeks until the Moab Adventure Xstream team race that I am racing. It should be pretty fun and very challenging.