Age is just a number.

Hey! Fantastic 10 miler tonight. I hopped on the mill and decided to put in some VO2 max miles. Excellent workout considering it was in training shoes. Total time-21:26. I wish I could get in more miles but has been difficult lately, however I won't give up and eventually I'm going to get things arranged in my life so that they will work with me and not against me anymore. Major changes soon to take place that I hope will put my family and I on the road to prosperity and change. It's been an interesting year for personal growth as well as my running. The most important lesson learned is knowing I am not a victim of circumstance or what others may feel about their own life. Afterall Jesus said "Men are that they might have joy".  

 Happy New Year everybody and God Bless Everyone.

Just six easy recovery miles today. 41:13 total time with warmup and cooldown. avg 6:30-6:45/mi for the bulk of the run. THR-120-134 bpm. Feeling the effects of stress and a nasty cold still today. Treadmill at 1% incline.

AM-5 mile easy miles rollin out of bed onto the melting tundra this morning. No time. Rather muggy today considering it was warmer at 5 am than it was at noon yesterday. Or pretty close anyway.

PM-8 more miles this time on the 114th street bobsled run tonight. Easy, no time taken. I just feel like leaving the watch at home in order to relax and just get into the flow. Sometimes you get enough structure and routine in life without having to add it to play time. Yes, that's right I said play time. R and R = running and relaxation in my book.

Easy 5 miles this morning. Being up with the baby, the lack of sleep and a cold is taking it's toll right now. So I think it's wise to keep the mileage down while keeping the intensity up a bit to hold onto my fitness level. I only hope that it will still be there when we need it the most at the Del Sol relay.

Olympic Oval today for a rough and mentally grueling marathon pace run. It sure beats taking a chance of breaking something outside though. One thing I like about the track is that it doesn't lie, it is unfailingly fair and accurate. Good if your trying to get a handle on where your fitness may be at. However painfully bad for your morale if you believe that you are in better shape than you really are! 15 MP miles in 1:22:13 total time. Not feeling quite as snappy this week as vs last because of my recent sinus infection. So it is possible with the slowdown that almost inevitably occurs in the last 10k of a marathon that this is probably a true avg pace marker. If so I'll take it for a flat course at altitude any day.

No run today. I have decided to take today off. It feels good to feel in control of my running instead of the other way around sometimes. I like the feel of looking forward to my runs and enjoying them. I think to train for the sake of training is counterproductive sometimes. Maybe this is an excuse for my lack of mileage this week I don't know. On the other hand overall it's a good week based upon the fact that it was balanced with low and high mileage days, hard and easy days mixed with complete rest. So not so bad considering everything I guess.

Just 6 easy miles at 6:30-7/min pace on the mill tonight.

Olympic oval for a workout of 3x3 miles at LT pace. 5:12-5:20/mi with 2 lap recovery at 6min/mi. Last Saturdays workout left me feeling a little dogged tonight. Some funny guy made a comment about our FRB jersey, I told him to get used to it because he would be seeing the back of it a lot on the circuit this year! 

Another 6 miles easy for recovery at 6:45-6:50/mi.  THR-120-126 bpm.

Aerobic resistance run with 10 miles at 5:24-5:36/mi. Ran at the local shoebox track as the oval is scheduled to be closed on the running track  a few days for some reason. Bummer, I really like that track. This one is tough to run on especially since I have to slow a little on the turns and it is small and also not measured accurately. Based on my pacing and others though, it seems to be about 11 laps to the mile instead of the 10 that they have measured it out to be. So time and pace is close, but not accurate for this track as usual. I hit consistent 29-31 sec laps depending on how many people I had to dodge. Last year before Ogden I was running 32-33 sec laps at this time of year so improvement on my PR is on the horizon possibly.

An easy 6 miles tonight at 6:40-7/min pace. Easy jog at the end. Not much into it tonight as I struggled with some sleepiness before the workout. Managed to get with it after a bit and had a decent workout considering that I felt like Frankenstein this afternoon.

Easy to medium pace effort on the Jordan River Trail this morning. Most of the time I just meditated and tried to think of how I want to reconfigure my my training for a while. 6:30-45 pace for most of the run with 7/min mi pace for the first miles.

PM-4 miles easy. No time taken tonight. 

Olympic Oval tonight for a 6 mile LT run at 5:12-5:20/mi. last 800m in 2:34 at 164 bpm. Light stretching and cooldown aferwards.

AM-Easy recovery jog at 7:30-8 min/mi pace for 4 miles. HR a little high , however it was expected considering last nights Oval workout less than 12 hrs ago. Legs a little stiff but fine otherwise. THR- 60-70% mhr. 4 miles total.

PM-Decided to split up this mornings workout and run this evening also for better recovery. It always works better for me this way after doing a quality workout from the previous evening. 6 miles total in 41:36. 70-75% mhr. I ran a bit faster than I ought to have for a recovery day, but I chose not to run slower because I get really uncomfortable biomechanically running slower than 7min pace. I like to run to release stress and not just to train for the sake of training I suppose. To each his own right? 

Time for only one quick workout today. Went for a run in the shoebox track tonight and it went pretty well with pacing in the mid 5:20s to low 5:30 range. 10 miles total tonight.

10 miles easy at 6-6:30ish pace tonight. Not much to say.

Easy 5 mile run at 7-7:30 pace to be fresh for tomorrows VO2 workout.

AM-VO2 workout with a long 2 mile rep in the middle in 9:56. 2 miles of slower AT work around the 5:20/mi range and 2x1200m at the beginning in the 70-73 sec range in order to get the mind and body ready for the longer rep. 2 lap rest in between sets. Met up with Tony and a guy from Judge named Luke, I chatted with both for a while about various things. Luke looks like a stallion out there the way he runs. Dark Horse out.

PM- 4 miles easy jogging. 60-65% mhr on the treadmill.

AM-Managed to get up at 4:30 in the morning to make it to the oval for some long intervals. Session as follows; 3x1000m in 3:05-3:07 and 3x1200m in 3:43-3:47. 1 lap jog rest in between reps. Ran them at 5k intensity but felt lethargic and really had to force the pace in the beginning. I was amazed that I had a resting heart rate to begin with this morning. 12 miles total with wamup and cooldown. Time to cut the intensity and pile on more miles now that baby is starting to sleep through the night a little.

PM-8 miles easy this evening. Very easy effort with snow and ice being a danger everywhere.

10 easy recovery miles today at 65-70% mhr this morning.  Stretching and form drills for 20 min afterwards.

Tough workout tonight especially with all the woggers clogging up the inside lane. Even after you explain nicely to them the etiquette of the track they still just look at you like your from another planet. Mix that up with the herds of kids darting out in front of you and makes for one heck of a Chicken Run 3 miler!

On to the workout; 4x200 accelerations in 35-37 to get the legs loosened up. Main part of the workout is my 2 mile long interval in 10:14, a 1200m in 3:49, and 2x800m in 2:32 and 2:29. Took a 1 minute rest interval in between reps. I did not feel too hot tonight and the legs didn't feel speedy for some reason either. Could be a little worn out from work and all the snow or gee, maybe I'm starting to get a little crazy with the VO2 work lately. Maybe both.. I just don't seem to be able to do two a days anymore and so I have been trying to make up for the lack of mileage with the sheer intensity of most key workouts. I'm waiting for the wheels to fall off here any day and I actually think I heard the them squeel a little tonight! One more mile easy at 7min pace and then started a 4 mile stretch in my trainers for at 5:28-5:44/mi. Quick cooldown and then dashed home to dinner and bed.

Did a 11 mile aerobic recovery run with some quick fartlek pickups for fun at the beginning. 

My wife gave me a special anniversary gift this evening in the form of two tickets to go see the "Spirit of The Marathon" last night at the Century theatre. It was packed and we almost did not get a seat as we had baby and stroller in tow. Very inspirational movie about the quest for personal excellence in all of us with profiles of both everyday marathoners battling their own issues, to elites in their ever exhausting pursuit for victory. Deena Kastor was wonderful to watch and is a natural both on screen as well as the roads.  Excellent cinematography as it was done in HD and was bright and vivid throughout the entire movie making you feel as if you were really there. I could almost feel the heavy and dizzying fatigue watching them claw themselves to the finish in agony and ecstasy.   A little heavy there I know... but accurate.  I'm curious to know if anyone else saw it and what they thought of the picture also.  Gotta run,  Dark Horse out.

Easy hour of jogging tonight in the dark. Just needed to relax and take it easy to wind out the day.  I going to sit down tonight and draw up a plan for the next few months on specific mileage and workout patterns.  It's going to be ambitious and  it will take the sponsorship of a Japanese corporate team to make it happen. If I could have one wish in this life it would be that.  Hmm... I've really got my work cut out for me, but I say shoot for the stars and at the very least you will hit the moon. 

Oh, by the way I got tired of seeing that ugly fuzzy picture of me at St George this year so I put my bike up until I get a better profile of me.  Being winter I'm missing my bike so bear with me for a while. Dark Horse out.

Tough running today as it seemed tough to really get going in the beginning and that tells me that it's time to lay off the VO2 work and somehow find a way to get the miles in. Sasha ran very strong and that tells me that he has an excellent base to work with now.  With time throughout the season it is my hope that all FRB team members will make such gains also. Wouldn't be pretty cool to have a large pack of blue running after the chase vehicle through the entire race! Let's get to work and figure out how to do this. Maybe have some group runs on the weekends and do blog workout reminders like I suggested to Sasha.  I'm going to start right away and get in at least 80 miles in for next week.  Dark Horse out.

Easy 12 miles this morning at conversation pace. Just wish I had somebody to converse with this early in the morning. 65-75%mhr.  Dimple Dell hill loop.

AM-Easy 6 miles before the storm. I know it's coming but for now I don't want to think about it. 65-70% mhr.

PM-8 miles almost impossible to run at a decent pace with this muck.   Punch in, punchout...
 

Another workout logged. 9 miles easy 75-80% mhr. Question, Does spending all day shoveling snow and walking around count for anything? What if I moved with the shovel quickly getting my heart rate up.? Sorry, sounds screwy I know it's just the weather finally getting to me now!

PM-5 miles easy on the loop. 65-70% mhr.

Busy this morning seeing the doc on some issues so no morning workout but thats ok, it fits well to come back from yesterday evenings run and balance out the mileage and rest. This will hopefully set me up for some good workouts tomorrow or Saturday depending on which day will work best with the family.

PM-10 miles easy tonight at 6:30-7:00/mi. 70-75% mhr. Legs had some definite giddyup in them today, no doubt from backing off on the harder VO2 and AT workouts. Mileage is slowly coming up and hopefully I'll make 80 miles for the week with one medium pace and one MP workout this Saturday.