A Balance, Redefined

Today ended a very long journey started on Oct 27th, 1997. Overall I've always been active, be it hiking with my family on vacation, or swimming with my sister at the public pool, or any of the other numbers of activities my mom and grandma shuttled me to growing up (soccer, judo, karate,  wrestling, track, CC, etc.). So my body has probably accomplished this goal twice over. However, it wasn't until the above date that I actually started keeping a running journal. In any case, as I finished my run this morning I officially completed a loop of the equator at 24,901.6 mi in 4,388 days or 5.67 mi/day. I took advantage of the time change and put in the full distance this morning before church. I ran mostly on the marathon course. With the changes made on the course last year it is nice that running up to the course puts me right on track with the mile marks. I ran the 3rd through 9th miles (let's hear it for Keller Ln!!!). Avg. 8:38 HR 133

I did not want to wake up this morning and I probably shouldn't have. The day did not start well, mostly due to work related problems. However, all and all it was an "ok" day. I did have to go back into lab after the girls went to bed so I ran to the Memory Grove overlook. It was a very nice night for a run ~50F and calm. Avg. 7:51 HR 148

Just the right amount of chill in the air. Commute run via SH. Avg. 8:26 HR 150

I got enough sleep but just feel very fatigued. I worked again last night and that could have something to do with it. I'm only about half done with what I wanted to accomplish by this point this week but so it goes. With the feeling of fatigue the run was more or less a death march. The only saving grace came in the last three miles there were a number of other people out in this stretch and seeing other runners often lifts my spirits. To top things off I met a new runner Steve Gonzalez. He is a grad student here at The U training for marathons. I'm sending him the blog info to hopefully get him on board. The run was a longish commute run via Memory Grove and then an extra mile to Steve's building and back to mine. Avg. 9:37 HR 133

Still feeling pretty tired. All four of us at home have been coughing/stuffy the last few days and I'm sure that is playing a toll. I had to work again last night and I think three long days in a row isn't helping any... The run this morning was fine. The weather was great. I did a Foothill extension on the Commute Run via SH. Avg. 8:51 HR 136

A goose egg but what do you do? I had planned 6 miles this morning but when I woke up at 2:30am with a splitting headache and coughing opted to turn off my alarm. About an hour later my little one also woke up crying so two wake ups. Good news is we all went back to sleep and didn't get up until 8:30am. I had planned on taking today off work as I have family visiting so it was nice to be able to sleep in before the day of low key but nice entertainment.

Quick update. Better night's sleep. Out the door early to get the run in before family activates start. Ran MM 02-11 then straight back. Sluggish but otherwise ok. Avg. 8:27

Partly as punishment because I haven't completed my work yet for tomorrow but mostly because my cold is still lingering a little. I slept in this morning and will take today as a rest day. Today should be relaxing with homemade pancakes, greeting at church, some family play time for the girls with their grandparents and finishing up work for tomorrow's meeting. 

No sleep = No run

Commute run in. 

Today did not shape up too well. My family had to return to Chicago and things at work did not fall in line. I wanted to run hard tonight but between a lingering congestion and the fatigue of work the last few days is just didn't happen. Oh well tomorrow is another day. Big home loop. Avg. 7:19 HR 161

AM: Knee was not happy about the attempted speed last night. It took me 4 mi to even loosen up. The weather was still good this morning but with the wind and the forecast our days of a nice fall are soon coming to an end. I was up early and did the Memory Grove Overlook run from lab. Now to make today better than yesterday. Avg. 9:33

PM: Much better run this evening. It was a typical fall night, 40F, light rain, and light wind. Overall it was just an enjoyable run. Avg. 6:51 HR 161

Goose egg, again. Everything at work took three times as long as it should have. Then at night it was movie with my wife or run, I chose the movie.

Finally, I got in a good day. The pistons were all firing and I just got the wheels turning. I had to get into work at 5am to get some stuff done so that I had time to also get in my run before family time. The lab stuff went fine, but took a little long. When all was said and done I only had two hours to get in my run. I was afraid I was going to have to cut it short but decided to try and maintain ~7 pace to get it all in. Started off fine 7:09 and only one mile was slower (Mile 13; 7:35) which happened to also have the most climb in it (163 ft). Overall I managed to keep it under control over the run. My fastest was only 6:27 (Mile 8) and that happened to have the most decent in it (152 ft). Overall one of my best runs this year, the knee even behaved itself. It was great seeing so many people out even though it was snowing. There was one group of ladies that even commented that I needed to slow down, entertaining. Avg. 6:49 HR 165

Two good runs in a row. Up at 4:55am again. Then out the door. It was very cold (21F) but felt nice anyway. I saw a shooting star within the first two miles and then just enjoyed the run. Very random route SW and back. Avg. 7:50 HR 144

I had trouble sleeping last night but otherwise all is good. I have a huge blister on my left heel that is making both running and walking not so fun.

Details to follow. Held the lead through mile 2.75. When I was passed I just couldn't respond. Overall the race was fun though. The guy who beat me was nice. I did a portion of my warmup with him and then we did part of the cool down together.

Details.

I'm currently in Orlando for the the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. It's a meeting of about 20,000 people. Of which 530 ran a 5K and a number of others walked a mile this morning. The race is hosted by Novo Nordisk. For the race we did a loop of the SeaWorld parking lot and then went into the park before they were open for the day for a loop of that as well. It was pretty warm and very humid (my glasses fogged during the race!). A far cry from the snow and 21F that I left Salt Lake City in. With the time change and heavy meals (we went to a Brazilian steak house the night before), I was not expecting much. I met the eventual winner (Chip) on my way to the start and after a brief conversation knew this meeting race I was going to have a lot more competition than at the ADA in New Orleans. At the start ~20 guys busted out from the start. They kept the lead for about 300m and then I took the lead and kept it through about 2.8 miles. I heard someone coming up behind me at about 2.5 mi and just did not feel it. I was happy with the effort and was not going to kill myself for this race. When I realized it was Chip coming up I was not anymore motivated. He had told me about his previous marathons (and Ironman) and I did not feel like duking it out to the finish. In hind sight it might have been fun but the race was a good experience either way. I ran from the hotel to the start and after the finish back to round out the mileage for the day. Also, yesterday I did see the tail end of the rocket launch from the convention center.Tomorrow I present two of my studies and that will end the meeting...

Mile 1: 5:30 HR 186 (not sure if this HR monitor is also going...)
Mile 2: 5:49 HR 193!...
Mile ~3: 5:36 pace HR 194

This race had to have the most turns of any race I have ever run in my life. Leading in that was tough but it was fun running in an amusement park.

Link to pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/funwalkfunrun2009

Another hard night of sleeping. After a great dinner I would think I would be out like a log but I do not do well sleeping while traveling. That being said I slept in instead of an AM run. Then went to my poster session. It went super well. The only problem was that both my posters were in the same session so I had to run back and forth. After my session (and an extra hour of discussion) I went for a run. It was hot and humid but nice. When I got back I went straight to the pool and jumped in to cool off. Very nice way to end a run. Now back to the meeting for the final sessions... Avg. 7:42 HR 153

Up at 2:30 am SL time (4:30) to catch a cab at 5am FL time. I'm not one to sleep in transit so I worked on the plane. When I got back played with Kristen for a while before getting Kaitlyn from school and taking her for a SH run. I was very tired and only did one loop. Then had to make it into work for a few hours. Luckily tonight I will be able to catch up on sleep.

I forget how much travel puts you behind. I caught up on sleep but one night doesn't cut it. Very brain dead today. Didn't make my run as planned but was able run run with Kaitlyn while we picked up dinner and a movie.

It is always fun going long. My quads were not feeling it today. At least the weather held out for the run. I was afraid I was going to wake up to snow and it was still pretty nice and clear when I started my run. Avg. 8:22 HR 134

Typical Sunday. A nice night's sleep. Breakfast, church and then a run with Kaitlyn. We went south and did a fairly large loop before stopping to play at the park for awhile. Avg. 9:08 HR 125

Woke up at 4am this morning but managed to fall asleep for an additional hour. I guess I got too much sleep the night before. Into lab and then ran to City Creek. It is so nice in the new snow, very quiet in the canyon, a little too icy but that only added to the "excitement". It was also nice that winter waited one additional day for me to get in one last park run with my daughter yesterday. It was chilly this morning but with relatively no wind and proper clothes it felt kind of nice.

Otherwise, nothing too special about the run. Quads a little sore, knee was aching last night but "ok" today, just keeping up the positive attitude and enjoying the increased mileage. Work has been less than productive today but I guess you can't have it all.

 I did have a Chad sighting this morning but it was only a hi yelled across the street as he ducked behind a bus.

Avg. 8:29 HR 135

Not really the best day. I opted to do some cross training and carry lead weights while I was running this morning. Oops, my bad, those lead weights were my legs. I just never got moving. Then got to lab to an e-mail that my recent manuscript submission was not accepted. Oh well. Many of the journals we submit to accept less than 25% of the submission so it wasn't too surprising. Now for a rewrite and a couple more experiments and toe the line again... SH commute run in. Avg. 9:37 HR 128

AM: Strange morning. I woke up at normal time and went to step out of bed and my right calf cramped up something fierce. I opted not to run on it and slept for the extra time. Now 4 hr later it is still sore but not cramped anymore... Hopefully it will be good for a PM run.

PM: Well my calf let up a little. Today was much better than yesterday. I was still pretty fatigued. On top of it I got my seasonal flu vaccine today so we'll see how that hits me. I just did the OHL after the girls went down. Avg. 8:11 HR 136

This is my second time running this race. The last time, two years ago, I ran a 21:07. For some reason I had remembered only running 21:37 but in either case this year was slower. I'm not too surprised and even though I was almost a minute slower than the last time I ran this course I was still relatively happy with the effort.

I was up at 5:15am as I had to work for about 2hr before the race. Fortunately this race doesn't start until 9am. The course is interesting. The first ~2 miles are "flattish" and then up City Creek for about 1 mi. Then we turn around and blast our way all the way into Memory Grove. Needless to say I'm pretty familiar with most of the course.

My main objective today was to just run into some of my fellow runners that I haven't seen in awhile and try and do something hard to start getting back into the racing/training mindset. I feel I accomplished both.

I parked by the finish and then went up the hill to the start by the Capital Building. Then down the course. About 1.5 mi into my warmup I ran into Chad and JD and went back up with them to finish off the warmup. It was great getting to talk with both of them.

At the start it was obvious a number of college students were in town for the holiday and there was rumor going around that Josh S was going to show up. About 2 min before the start he and Megan did make their grand appearance :). I tend to underestimate my fitness level and today was no exception. I really had no clue what I would be capable of and really just ran on feel I could have imagined running 6:30 pace or 5:30 pace. Luckily I was closer to the later.

By about 1/4 mi into it the runners had more or less settled into their places. Josh was running easily and smoothly up front. Followed by three younger looking guys. Then me, Chad, and a few others. We continued to string out as we started the climb up City Creek. 

Mile 1: 5:59.20 HR 179   Up 156ft Dwn 59ft

The climb was taking much longer than I thought it should and I just kept hoping to see Josh coming down the other way to give me a clue of how much more to go. We made the turn around and started back down. There was the mildest of headwinds and it was a bit chilly but overall felt fine.

Mile 2: 6:19.52 HR 187    Up 167ft Dwn 63ft

The down is always nice and I tried my best to pick it up. My calf was still pretty tight from the cramp yesterday but the "race adrenaline" kept it from bugging me too much.

Mile 3: 5:19.85 HR 186    Up 22ft Dwn 221ft

Being an out and back course it is nice to have the other racers cheering you on going down, it always lifts my spirits. As far as the race went I was more or less just running hard. 4th place was out of sight and I didn't hear anyone immediately on my heals.

Mile 0.84: 4:18.64 HR 185 (5:09 pace)    Up 49ft Dwn 221ft

Total 21:57.21 Pace 5:43 HR 184

I was glad that I was still able to continue to accelerate down the last section. Goes to show I still was holding back a little too much early on. But with the type of goals I had for today I'm not too surprised.

After the race I got to talk briefly with JD, Josh, and Megan. Then had a bit more discussion with Albert W. (who didn't race today but I enjoyed hearing in person about his Chicago race) and Chad as we went to get our warm-ups.

Then I cooled down back the way the race went but without the climb up City Creek. All and all a good experience. I would have to say that the discussions with people outweighed the race for me this morning though. Now just cooking for dinner as we are having our first stay at home Thanksgiving dinner.

Since today is technically a day off I slept in a little before going into work and did my run from lab. I don't think I got enough of Memory Grove yesterday so went there again and did the MG loop. Surprisingly my knee and calf felt better today after the race than yesterday, but I'm not complaining. Avg. 8:30 HR 135

Pitbulls are not your friends. Did a long run on the marathon course. Starting with my usual mile 3 on. Around mile 7 into my run (~9MM) I hear a dog coming up fast behind me. I turn around to see a pitbull going full speed toward me. It is funny how the mind works but I first stop my watch then I run into some landscaping. There is a medal post that I immediately try and rip out of the ground as I turn and start yelling back off at the top of my lungs. I can get the post out so I next pick up a ceramic pot. I'm just about to launch the pot at the dog when I guy comes running out and gets the dog. He's like "sorry man" and walks away. I was so high on adrenaline I just kept going and didn't say anything else. This is a road I've run down dozens of times in the past without problems. The next mile was my fasted of the run 6:40. The rest of the run I tried to stay between 7-8 min pace. The slowest was the first mile at 8:22. Otherwise the other 19 mi were all in my target range. The last four miles I picked it up a bit and did them in 7:09, 7:01, 7:19 (underpass by 80), and 7:01. Overall a good training run. My goal was to run the 21 mi today in my goal time for this spring (<2:39) so at 2:37.01 I'm happy with the effort. Avg. 7:28 HR 150

Just a relaxed Sunday. Did a home loop after the girls went down. The best thing is that my knee is behaving itself after the workout I've given it over the last four days. Avg. 8:09 HR 135
 

I am Garfield. I just can not stand Mondays. Not sure why. But they seem to be horrible at a number of levels. I trudged through a home loop. Avg. 8:27 HR 131