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...
So much for my best laid plans. Initially I wanted to front load this week but when all was said and done I worked until nearly midnight last night and still had to work a bunch today so I slept in to get some rest and decided to bag the run so that I could still manage some family time. Now work...
Nothing too eventful. Asleep an hour early last night up at
4:30am and into work. The run was nice but slow. Surprising number of people
out there. Just down into Memory Grove and back. Avg. 8:28 HR 138
Well I’m continuing with my week, as if you have a choice.
Things are hectic but as good as they can be. I was able to co-op at my
daughter’s school this morning and that is always fun. Then we had a farewell
party for a student who is leaving the lab on Thurs so at 1:30pm I finally
started my day. Needless to say it was brief. I had decided to sleep in and
skip my run (twice now this week) but wanted to make it up at night. However, I
forgot my wife needed the car and me to be home for her to go to book club. So
I decided last minute to hammer a run after my daughter’s went down for the
night but before my wife left. So that gave me exactly one hour and I wanted to
hit 8 miles. I decided I would do the “original home loop” which was the first
run I went on when we moved to Utah. I did one mile warm up and then wanted to
hammer the next three miles like a time trial. Sometime during the second mile
I decided I would make it into a time trail and tack on the extra 0.1 to make
it a 5K. So here is my non-race race report.
Warm-up it was cooling off and I felt a strong crosswind.
This had me nervous as I knew that would be a headwind going into mile 1. The
first mile is all downhill and should have been my fastest mile.
Mile 1 5:34 HR 184
After that I turned onto 13th and it is still net
downhill but about half the decent per mile as the first.
Mile 2 5:45 HR 179
I think I let up too much at the turn but got back into a
rhythm after crossing 13th/13th intersection.
Mile 3 5:40 HR 187
I was feeling it and I was starting to get a stitch in my
side. But go figure it has been awhile since I really hit a run. The final 0.12
by my Garmin for the “finish” is the only uphill as I turn up 21st
at the Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Mile 0.12 0:41 HR 188
TOTAL 17:38 Avg. 5:39
(now to string 26 of those together for a sub-2:30…)
Overall I’m happy with the time and relative effort. I’m
coming back…
Avg. 6:49 HR 174 for the total 8 miles and I made it home in
54 min 37 sec so my wife even had time to spare J…
Work stress continues to wreck havoc on my mind. However, it
is just a matter of remembering baby steps are steps none-the-less. My sleep
was also interrupted a number of times last night after a few peaceful nights
so that added to the fun. Into work early and had my stuff set-up and I was out
the door. To keep things moving in the right direction I planned to run up Dry
Creek and kept to plan. It makes it hard to do anything but easy miles when
running up (UP!) a dirt/rock trail. I know Jon could make it into a hard run
but I’m still learning that skill. My way up I was averaging about 11s and on
the way back about 9s. Avg. 10:12 (Just a little slower than yesterday, :))
HR 135
Commute run. Day was going well but slowed down too much in the end. Run in was fine but slow. Legs sore but not as bad as I was expecting from Tues. No sleep tonight, have a personal deadline for tomorrow hence the late blogging. But break time is over back to it. Avg. 9:01 HR 138
Working till 1am and up early for our flight. Then a run in the flood planes of IL. It is nice have oxygen and moisture but there was a lot of water on the ground. I ended up going through ankle high water four times. Very tired but good.
Up till past midnight and up early. I had planned 15 for the day hoping for 16 on the DPR trails but between two nights of no sleep and even worse flooding out on those trails I ended up with 12 miles. Did most of my run in Lincolnshire instead and can you say too much money. I'm happy because the bike paths were nice with sufficient bridges etc. but wow talk about excess... I did try and brave the DPR N for awhile and went through one 50m stretch of calf high water. I made it through that but then I got to a river crossing I made it too the bridge but on the other side the water was quad high and I made it about three steps but opted to turn back when the current started to move me sideways (about mile 2). The rest of the run with soggy shoes was fun but I like it out there I just wish I could have been more on the trails than the bikepaths... Then being back in the midwest stopped and Dunkin Donuts and picked up a dozen and some good coffee. Scarfed 4, now 5 of them because the rest of the fam only wanted one each, yummy!
