Hurt so good.

Ogden Loop with Ken, Dave, Riley, Matt and Denver.

Can't believe how much destruction that the wind caused over the weekend. Trees were down everywhere. I'm grateful not to have that much damage done to my place. I will take a shattered patio table anyday then what most people went thru.

Nice morning for once. Ran some chilled miles with Denver, Matty, Dave, Riley and Jason.

Even ran some trails this morning. Which was sort of enjoyable, but at the same time it was plenty and got my trail fix in for the month.

Another day and another workout in the books.

Met Riley and Jason at Kneaders on 21st. Left a car there and headed to 36th. We ran a 3 mile warm up, I did a couple of strides to get loose.

Workout plan was somewhat progressive. I wanted to hit around 5:50-6:00 min/pace for 14 miles.

Splits at first were nice and progressive. Starting a little over 6 min pace then worked down into the 5:30s. I was feeling pretty fatigued the last 3 miles and coasted in around 5:45-5:50 pace.

Overall workout pace was right at 5:50 so exactly what I wanted today. Though I didnt feel that easy, glad I gutted it out.

1 mile cool

total miles- 18.05

PM

3 miles easy on the TM

Easy recovery run with Matt and Denver around Uintah and South Ogden

Nice run in Mesquite. Threw in a mile pickup @ 5:15 around 4.5 miles into the run. Feeling good. Doing the run portion of the STG ironman tomorrow. Should be a great time. Excited to see some pros dominate tomorrow. 

Ran the ironman portion of the STG 70.3. Kept the pace as close to marathon pace as possible. I ended up having the 2nd fastest time of the day. 1st was the overall winner of the pro division. Our relay team took 2nd overall. STG is always a great place to visit. 

Time on course was 1:13:58 

Easy 12 with Riley, Dave did almost 8. Matty and D did between 5 and 8. Marathon is upon me, just a wait game now. 

Good group run with the Crew. Dave did a little over 7. Matty and D did 8 miles. Jason, Riley and I did a little over 10 for the day. Started from the hospital and headed west for a bit and did most of the run in the terrace and South Ogden. Stomach was killing me this morning. Haven't had one of these days for quite sometime. Need to hydrate better during the day most likely. Weighed in @ 149.9 after my run today. Lowest weight I have been since 2009. Hopefully it will play out to a great race next weekend.

Workout|Wednesday

Last semi-big work before the marathon next weekend.

Met Jason and Ken at Kneaders to leave a car then drove up to Bues and Skyline to meet Riley. From there we did our typical warm of 4K. Then jumped into the workout.

Workout was 10K @ goal Marathon pace, 1K rest, 8K at goal marathon pace, 2K cool.

Splits for the first 10k were- 3:34; 3:32, 3:34; 3:30; 3:29; 3:27; 3:23; 3:14; 3:21; 3:23.

Overall time was 34:27, avg KM was 3:27 or 5:33 min/mile.

Splits for the 8K were- 3:20; 3:13; 3:35; 3:22; 3:17; 3:17; 3:20; 3:19

Overall time was 26:43, avg KM was 3:20 or 5:22 min/mile.

2K jog back to the car.

Workout felt really good today. Really felt like I was holding back for the first 6K of the workout then decided to go with the flow for the rest of the way. I am feeling really good going into next weeks race. Legs are feeling good, workouts have been great, weight is the lowest its been in years. Its been a fun build up, hopefully the marathon will be just as fun.

8 easy miles with Matt and Denver. Out and back on Old Post and Combe.

Out and Back on the Ogden Parkway with Taylor, Riley and Dave. 

Solid group this morning. Met at Lee's in North Ogden headed to the canal then did 2X2 mile. Goal was marathon pace but I ended up a little quicker which was fine. Felt way comfortable. 

Splits- 5:37, 5:24, 5:19, 5:13. 

Loop around Uintah with the Crew. It is race week and I couldnt be more excited for this race. Weather is shaping up nicely. The work has been put in, its just time to rest and let it all out on Saturday.

7:06 avg 

Pond run with Matthew, Dave, Jason and Riley. 

Headed east to the Canyon, 4 miles, then did a 2 mile pickup, 2 mile cool.

Pickup splits were 5:30 and 5:20. Felt really calm and relaxed today. Good sign hopefully.

Easy 6er with Brendon, Riley and Ken.

Nice temps this morning, marathon is looking beautiful.

4 miles easy with Jason and Riley. 2 days!

5K shakeout this morning. Did an out and back to Coldwater Canyon from the house. Around 2 miles in I threw in 4X100 meter strides at marathon pace to get the legs ready for tomorrow. 

RACE REPORT

I've had a couple days to recover and try to gather my thoughts on what the heck happened on Saturday. Going into this race I had alot of confidence, mileage has been at an all time high, workouts have been spot on thanks to Riley and Mr. Starrett. But I never thought that we would get dealt with the weather that we did on Saturday.....

Met the Crew at the buses early. Weather was perfect! No wind, no rain, temp was in the mid 50s. Great way to start the day to see that. Ended up gettting to the start of the race with 90 minutes til go time. Riley brought up a tarp and space blanket which was perfect. We were able to stay warm and relax. Then we started to get a light drizzle which was fine because that was expected in the forecast. 45 minutes to race I took a double dose of UCAN which setttled in the stomach perfectly. Ken< Riley and I ended up doing maybe a half mile warm with a Secret Bathroom stop and now I was ready to roll.

The race started a tad early which caused for a little confusion. Bryant almost didnt make it to the start on time but he did so it was good to see that. The group immediately seperated about a half mile in. Lead group was Anthony, Riley, Bryant and Collin. Ken and I were the chase and that was it. Early miles flew by, we were hitting between 530-540 splits. Felt really easy even though we were fighting a 10-15 mile an hour headwind and pooring rain. I had high hopes still that this was going to be a great day. Around 7 miles Ken had to pull off the road for a quick pit stop. So now I was on my own for the remaining part of the race. Hit the rollers in the Valley in the 540s which was fine, I felt relaxed and still felt really good. Came thru the half way point around 1:13:30, perfect! Could see the lead group just slightly still but had some work to do. Well as I came around to the quick 90 degree turn just after the half point all Hell just broke lose. It became an immediate monsoon! The roads were rivers and on top of that we had 50-60 mile an hour microburst winds come thru with the rain that dropped the temp down to low 40s and it just became a battle against the elements. 

At this point I thought to myself I just need to get to the canyon and I will be okay. At 14 I took another serving of UCAN and was ready to power thru. Mile 15 I almost got put on my back a couple of times, the wind was so strong! I literally started to praying out loud to myself, praying that the weather would ease up and that I would be able to feel strong to the finish. As soon as I was done praying, a huge gust of wind shifted me like 2-3 feet, and I was like HOLY SH*%!!!! COME ON! REALLY! From there it just got worse for me. The rain started hitting my skin and it felt like daggers. My pace started slowly decreasing going from 5:50s to 6 min/pace, now my vision was getting blurry, my arms and fingers locked and I couldnt move them, I started shivering and couldnt stop then around mile 18 I blacked out for a couple seconds which put me into a walk. As soon I started walking my legs started seizing on me and I was done for and called it quits for the day! I flagged down a police officer which at first wasnt very nice. I asked him if he had a phone and he told me to walk to the next aid station and took off. I ended walking to this cabin that was off the side of the road to find out that Bryant had dropped out as well. We were both shaking and couldnt stop. Paramedics were called and the police took Bryant and I about a mile down the road where we met them. I had a temp of 93 and I had to strip my clothes whiched helped alot. They gave me warm blankets and dried me off. Temp rose up to 96 and the shaking was limited. From there they stuck us both on the bus and we had to wait for another hour or so to get out of the canyon where I got some food, and dry clothes and met my wife and kids. What an awful morning!

I ran into Riley and found out that he had won the race by over 10 minutes and ran an awesome time in crazy conditions. Any other day the course record would have been destroyed. Was really happy to see him win he had worked crazy hard and deserved that win more than anybody in the field. 

Plan from here is to gather myself and press forward with the Utah Valley Marathon in 3 weeks. I feel that I am in really good shape still and I need to test my fitness again and nail a fast spring race. 

Congrats again to all the finishers that gutted it out. This was by far the worse race conditions that I have ever seen.

Easy 7 miles with Denver and Dave then added on an extra 8 more solo. I felt exhausted yesterday and could hardly stay awake during the day, just felt destroyed. But I think the extra sleep helped alot because I didnt feel to bad this morning. A little tired but managed.

avg pace 7:17 min/miles

Easy 7 with Dave thru the tempo loop. Added on an extra 6 on the east bench of Ogden.

~Workout|Wednesday

Workout -Continuous 10x(800m @ HM pace - 800m @ MP), 16KM for workout.

Met Jason at 4:45am, left his car at Kneaders on 20th and washington. Headed 42nd at the top of Skyline and started our warm from the Bues trail head.

Warmup was 6K and then started into the workout alternating between half marathon pace and marathon pace every 800m. Workout went as followed:

Split 1    2:40    2:52
Split 2    2:38    2:50
Split 3    2:38    2:48
Split 4    2:33    2:44
Split 5    2:30    2:48
Split 6    2:30    2:54
Split 7    2:32    2:45
Split 8    2:49    2:47
Split 9    2:35    2:46
Split 10  2:34    2:48
Overall   2:35    2:48

Workout went fairly well, which I was shocked! Goal was to hit 5:20 for the on section and to hit 5:40 for the off. Overall avg was 5:10 pace for the on and 5:36 for the off. This is a great booster for the next two weeks before the redemption marathon.

Ken and Riley were down on the parkway doing there run so they cooled down 1.2 miles with me. Riley was nice enough to take me back to my car.

Fun group run this morning with Ken, Riley and Jason. The crew was live and funny this morning. Some of the things we talk about are beyond me, but it's funny stuff!

Besides the goofing off, legs were pretty tired today but the pace was relaxed so it wasnt to taxing on the body. 

Met at Dave's and ran the birdsong trail to the north canal and back. Beautiful mid morning run with the guys.

10X(1K @ HM - 1K @ MP)

Workout went as good as it could get. Felt really controlled for the 1Ks at HM. Pace was around 5:10-515 per K, MP was around 5:35 per K. 

Another workout Wednesday then another mini taper for UVM. 

Ran a 9 mile loop from my house with Jared. Hit the New BST section which is in great shape. Plus with the rain last night the pines smelt so good. 

Easy going with Matty and Riley. Nice route today with a mixture of trails and some roads. Legs were pretty beat today.