A Balance, Redefined

Happy Easter. What a wonderful morning for a run. Out early so as to get it done before the festivities. Saw two deer and two other runners. Knee the same. Avg. 8:39 HR 133

I stayed up a little too late last night/this morning. But I finally got my manuscript draft to my boss. I've been struggling with writers block and this thing for a couple months. I decided the extra hour of sleep was worth it so I got into work a little later than normal. I decided though that I had worked enough over the weekend and also came home a little early so that I could run Kaitlyn down to SH. Avg. 8:04 HR 141

6.5 continuous hrs of sleep. That is always nice. The day was a beautiful spring day meaning it was mid-50s F and rained on my the entire run. Much more of a drizzle and actually felt pretty good. I did a new loop from work, past Chad's up Memory Grove and then did about 1.5 miles of trails before hitting the road to finish things off. Both of the miles that included trail portions were slower than 9min otherwise a pretty nice (EASY) pace. Avg. 8:43 HR 141

Well another day being reminded why I should run. Bad news is my daughter was up a good portion of last night. Good news is my wonderful wife took care of her and I didn’t even know about it until this morning. I got into work early and it was raining. I was planning on setting up one thing and heading out. I decided to set up three things and I’m glad I did. By the time I finally got out the door it was snowing! So I decided to run up the not so Dry Creek. It was just amazing, the snow, the water running down the creek. Despite the water logged feet the run was great. Of course it was slow in the mud and snow and climbing (fasted mile, 9:08) but it was still great. I was so tempted to keep going but am sticking to plan. A couple weekends ago when my mileage started picking up I planned my weekly mileage through the rest of the year. I did this for two reasons. 1. I wanted to think about training and 2. Before I was fully healthy I wanted to lay down a “sensible” plan. So I should not hit 60mpw until the first week in June and I won’t hit 80mpw until the first week in January. I will adjust but only down if pain. Even with the apparently conservative mileage if I keep to it the total mileage for TOU (18wk prior) will still be in my top three for any marathon. Knee about the same. Avg. 9:57 HR 136

Where start. I drafted a pretty lengthy entry in my head during the run but due to time constraints this is what you get. Up at 4:40am and couldn’t (didn’t want to try) to go back to sleep for the extra 30 min so I just headed straight into work. I worked until about 7am then out the door for my run. It is funny that the other day one of the excuses that I gave Kory for not running on flatter courses around here is that most are boring. However, I tend to run the same or very similar courses every day. Then when I do find a new course I run it to death as well, speaking of which I ran my new Chad/MG/Work loop. I even saw Chad this morning on it… I was so lost in my thoughts though I almost ran past him. This time I didn’t get off the trail in MG like I did last time so it was an easier loop. Avg. 8:07 HR 144

It is amazing how different children can be. For the most part we are treating the two girls the same. However, Kristen really has a different idea about sleep. We had three great nights but the last three have been very hard, all three for Sandra but only last night for me. I was up from ~2:45-4:15... I still managed to wake-up at my "normal" 5am and get into lab. Got stuff going until about 7:15 when I headed out for my run. It went well. Even with the fatigue my legs were feeling pretty good. Also, the weather (though upper 30s) felt nice. I hit the FH mile at 6:07 everything else was my now typical jogging. Looking forward to a good weekend (and hopefully some sleep for Sandra). Happy Friday! Avg. 7:39 HR 154

The day started out right with Kristen sleeping her longest stretch since she was born, 9hrs! A welcome surprise to both of her parents who were at their wits end after the previous three nights. Got up a little later and get dressed to go out to cheer on the runners. Started to go up to Foothill when I released the course was changed to run down 22^nd instead. It cuts out the fastest mile but also cuts out one of the slower miles. Only problem is they make up for it at the end.
Stood around talking to Scott. Saw one of my colleagues on her training run, Robin. Then the runners started coming. Waited only for a few of them and then headed to SH, with the course change I was going to be hard pressed to beat any down. Luckily they make a loop of the park first so I was able to see at least the full marathon leaders on their way back out. I missed the half leaders at that point. Runners I was able to cheer on included Sasha, Jeff Mc, Albert Wint, Steve A, James M and others. I waited longer than I should have and then continued down 21^st. I cut back across and joined the half-marathoners.
I started running with this one guy Eric (BYU student) and just paced him through their 11 mile mark, and then he told me to go ahead. I should have known I’d have no self control with all the excitement going on around me. I caught up to and started pacing two other guys (never got their names) and took them through their 12.9 mile mark then peeled off to go look for the finishers. Didn’t catch many. Saw the guy Eric and he thanked me, I told him he should join the blog and then I headed home.
I had mistakenly thought I would be home by 9am. I saw Walter and briefly said hi. Then I saw James and Sasha doing their cool down and going to back to look for Jeff who was running the full. I joined them for about a mile. Then they stopped when the leader passed to let know Jeff know how far back he was while I continued up the hill home. I didn’t see Jeff. Not sure if I missed him or what. In any case I ended up running one extra mile today (not the end of the world) and getting home half an hour late (not a problem either as Sandra knows if it is a race or “one” more experiment in lab I never judge my time correctly).
After a good stretch we started family fun and that was the rest of the day, shopping and a 2+ mile walk in the beautiful spring weather followed by a grilled dinner eaten outside.
Running details, finally: The first nine miles I pushed harder than I should have but didn’t even look at the Garmin splits and was just going by feel. My breathing never got hard. My HR went up there but the breathing was controlled. My second mile was very quick as I was trying to get the park, 5:51 fastest in a while. I also had two 6:11 mixed in there. First nine miles were at a 6:26 average with an “easy” effort. The remaining miles were slow either talking with people or making the climb back up to 22^nd East. Total Avg. 7:17 HR 161

Overall, happy with the experience. Always fun to go and cheer on friends and it was motivational. Good to know my legs are still attached to my body and aren’t too worse for the wear after the abuse today. Plan is still to take it easy until June with no “real” racing until July. Still struggling with if Des 10K is the right race back, all that downhill on a bad knee???

Great job to all.