Marathon Top 10 Finishes: 7 Bridges ('15), Utah Valley ('13), Salt Lake City ('08), Top of Utah ('07), and St. Louis ('04). Ran around the equator (24901.55) in 4,388 days.
And my largest challenge to date, raise $20,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my cancer survivorship and in memory of those lost to blood cancer...
DONE! $26,403.70
Grew up outside Chicago and joined the blog while I lived in Salt Lake City. Now living outside Birmingham. I am married with two daughters. Wife thinks I'm crazy for doing marathons. And yes I am crazy I'm a scientist for a living...
AM: Active recovery, 6 mi, Avg. 10:11, HR 131. Another night of sleep. Took a total of 50hrs off and slept nearly 18 hr in the two nights. I never felt bad but didn't want to take a risk after Saturday's "fun". Since it was the holiday, I got in a little later, helped a student set-up and then went out for my run. We finally had a dusting of snow, this helped clear out the air a little and made it so I could run up Dry Creek. With the snow there was a little traction on the ice sheet that had formed on the trail. It was a nice and easy run. My Garmin had a hiccup with the elevation and had the first 1/4 mile at sea level so the summary said I run had 5494ft of climb in the first mile, I'd say I'm a beast doing it in 10:21 :)...
PM: More active recovery, 6 mi, Avg. 8:38, HR 143. My legs are pretty tight, mostly my right quad. Ran random blocks.
AM: Right leg still a little funky. Plan this week is just easy through Saturday and then try a harder longer run with the week of rest in me. The weather was crazy this morning. Started with slightly clear skies, 20+ mph but warm (Weather Channel said 39F/29F WC). That was for the first two miles. Then it started raining, turning into sleet, hail, and finally large flakes of snow. The final few miles were very pleasant. Even ran into Chad and talked briefly. Mi 8 Avg. 9:47 HR 136
PM: More easy miles. Still not feeling that hot. Mi 6 Avg. 9:31 HR 143
AM: I am just not feeling it.Continue to not get up with my alarm and right leg is still tight. Trying to stretch it out as best as possible but I've felt off since Saturday's run. It wasn't that hard so I do not get it. Mi 5 Avg. 9:43 HR 142
PM: Sometimes not training is harder than training. After looking over the last few days I decided I have to step back from my mileage goals and focus on my training goals. At least for now it looks like 70mpw are better than even low 80mpw. We'll see how this changes but I'm taking tonight off and cutting back for tomorrow. Hopefully that will make things good for the workout Saturday, if I can still muster it.
I'm continuing with my reassessment of my body and schedule.
It appears that my body does not like 80 mpw. It is strange that I could do 70+
for seven weeks in a row with no problems. But with only two weeks at 80 mpw I
seem to be collapsing. This could be work/training stress combo but at least
for now I’m going to plan to stay under 75 for the remainder of my marathon
training for April and focus on intensity if I need “more”. We’ll see how this
goes, I’ll change as needed. Because of the 40+ mph wind gusts I opted to run
on the treadmill. Avg. 8:00
I think my leg is a little worse instead of better. Even with the low mileage days the previous two days. I'm just frustrated at this point. I did two miles on the TM as a warm-up then I stretched and did the home loop. My right leg just didn't want to loosen up. 2mi @ 7:10 6mi @ 7:27 HR 146
I've decided I'm going to take two days completely off. I'll see how my commute run goes on Tuesday...