Hurt so good.

Met Riley and Jason bright and early at Kneaders parked my car then drove up to Bues trailhead on 46th where we met Matty and Denver. I was doing my last semi-big workout today before UVM. Riley has been nice enough to alter his runs for me to be able to get my workout done on something similar as UVM.

Warmed 4K with the group. Jason and I was doing the workout and everyone was going easy.

Once the workout started Jason lasted about 4K with me then bailed. He did the Lewis Peak run on Monday and was pretty hammered.

Workout was 10K @ MP, 1K cool, 8K @ MP.

Avg pace for 10K was 3:27 per K or 5:33. 8K was 3:27 avg per K or 5:33 so perfect pacing today.

Workout went fairly well, though I wasnt feeling the best today. Legs felt heavy and tired but the mentality going in was that if this is what I am going to feel like the last 10K of UVM then doing this workout will give me the confidence that I can still push thru tired legs.This micro-cycle has been a great motivator and feel that I can run with anyone at UVM.

1K cool down

Ran solo in North Ogden. Felt really good today and the weather was spot on. 

Easy 10 out on the Canal Rd. Saw a couple of blow snakes on the path today. Got the heart rate going that's for sure. 

Ran with Jon this morning. Had a busy morning with a yard sale, so there wasn't much time to run today. Plus rest I think is more important with a marathon 1 week out. 

Slept in an extra half hour today so I ended up running solo. Started my run from Smith's off of 42nd. Ran 3 miles up to Skyline and Woodland, proceeded into a 4 mile marathon paced tempo down woodland and oldpost. Cooled down 2 miles around the hospital.

Well I think I have successfully nailed a solid microcycle and maybe even increased some fitness for the marathon on Saturday. I am hoping and praying that the work that I have put in will show in the race on Saturday. The weather is looking to be nice. Starting in the upper 40s and finishing in the low 60s. Should have no excuses.

Splits-5:22; 5:28; 5:29; 5:21

pace 6:23 min/miles

Nice and casual this morning with Denver and Matty. Weather was spot on this morning with a little chill and cloud cover, maybe I will luck out and the weather will be the same Saturday. 

avg pace 7:49 min/miles

Solid showing at the pond this morning. Jared, Jason, Ken, Riley and I. 

Headed 4 miles up to the canyon

2 mile pickup @ MP(5:29;5:26)

2 mile cooldown

Crazy weird this morning. Before we started our run we were waiting for Ken to show up. This guy comes off of 21st street and starts shining a flashlight at us from a distance and slowly starts making his way towards us and doesn't say anything. Ken finally showed and the guy starts walking towards Ken's truck and starts staring at Ken. I ask the guy if he needed help with anything then out of nowhere he pulls a knife out and starts pointing it at Ken and is saying stuff then puts the knife to his own neck. Ken called the cops and the guy is slowing walking away from us still pointing the knife. Well 10 minutes later about quarter mile up the road we see 4 cops and the dude pinned to the asphault in handcuffs. Guy was tripped out on some good stuff thats for sure. Man I love Ogden! 

Easy out and back on the canal rd in the heat of the day. 

Easy out and about north Ogden. 3X100 meter strides

Solid outing today. First race that I have gone under 2:30 in the Marathon other than St. George Marathon.  Will write more when I get home. 

Okay so brief race report. Going into this race was probably my best build up going into any marathon so I had high hopes that I would do well. 

Race started out and the 5 Kenyans and Anthony, Bryant went out blazing fast! Nate Krah, Mike Nelson and I hit 5:24 and we couldn't even see the lead group. Had to gone out sub 5 or close to it. Nate, Mike and I worked together thru 6-7 miles which is when I had to use the unfortunate pit stop. For some reason  the system took awhile to wake up probably do to the 3:00 am wake up time. At this point I still had a solid time going and wasn't to upset. Looking at it I had lost maybe 40 seconds for the entire race and maybe one position placement which I still would've been out of the money. Came out of the bathroom and could see Nate ahead and just focused on him. Around mile 8 I passed a Kenyan that dropped out of the race already I wanted to encourage him but I really didn't feel bad for him at all and was hoping that more would drop but none did. I came in around the half point around 1:13:20 or so. Legs were feeling good still, had some pop. Still was averaging around 5:30 pace. Well came up to mile 15-17 and a steady headwind came. Seems like every time I have ran this race I get that headwind. Slowed the pace just a tad  and maybe lost 10-20 second per mile for those 3 miles. We had a slight headwind for the rest of the race but it wasn't to terrible. Just had to run and deal with it. Around mile 20 I finally caught Nate and we worked together for about 2 miles. I got a slight gap on him and managed to hold him off by 10-20 seconds. Overall I felt pretty good the entire race. I can tell that the workouts that we had done benefited tremendously and if I can stay healthy during the summer I think a fall marathon is going to be a good one. 

Couple days off from the marathon and the legs are feeling back to normal. Amazing how I felt after this marathon compared to others. Not as sore and heavy as usual.

Today was just an easy 5 just to flush some garbage out the legs. Should be back to normal daily mileage by the end of the week. 

Easy run around North Ogden. Legs felt great but it was quite hard to breath for some reason. 

Easy out and back theough the farmland of Napa Idaho. Weather was a balmy 45 which actually felt really good. Been having some toe pain on my 2nd distal phalanx. It's been hurting for over a month and today it hurt pretty bad for the majority of the run. Feels like nerve pain but not sure what's going on. Think a doctor visit might be coming in the future if it doesn't settle down soon. 

Still up in Napa. Did the same route as yesterday but threw in a couple 800s at Marathon pace. Overall feeling really good and recovery is going well. 

Avg pace 6:20 min/miles

Good group run with the fellas this morning. Had a nice friendly conversation about Riley's man crush Monday LeBron James. Haha! A week off from the morning group was way to long, love the conversations. Congrats to the Cavs on the Championship. Now the Olympics need to start so I have some type of sport to watch.

Went back to the usual Monday morning route. Might've gone a tad to far today, legs were pretty heavy. But also glad I got the mileage in.

avg pace 7:22 min/miles

Nice morning run with Matty, Riley, Jason and Brandon. Pace was relaxed  and casual today. Ran through the terrace for 8 miles then Matty, Riley and I added a couple more to finish off the morning. 

Really excited to get my body recovered and start hammering out some high Summer miles. 

PM

Doubled up with my 2 boys. 2 miles with them; 2+ solo. 

Met Ken and Jason at Kneaders to drop a car off, then headed to Ken's office to start our run.

Ken, Jason, and Riley were doing a workout today. I just went easy and will start workouts up again next week. 

Legs are recovering well, can tell not 100% yet but should be good to go by next week.

PM

Easy 3+ from the baseball diamond. It was hot and the body couldn't get going

Nice group this morn. Brandon, Moss, Matty, D and I headed to the top of 46th and headed South down into Uintah and South Ogden. Another nice morning for a run.

avg pace 7:32 min/miles

Easy run through North Ogden with Jonny Boy. Have the pleasant view 5K tomorrow with Riley, should be fun. I have done zero 5K training this year so should be interesting. Most likely will be 5K @ marathon pace. 

Met Riley at 5:15 to get some distance in before the 5K. We ended up getting a little over 10 miles before the race started but due to registration and bathroom breaks we couldn't get in more. 

Race started and I tucked behind Riley knowing what pace he was running. I figured if I could hang with him for a mile then it would set the race for me. Came in through the 1st mile @5:06. 2nd mile is bombing down and by now Riley had made his gap so I was racing for 2nd. Mile 2 was @4:46. Last mile starts out with a solid climb and rollers to mile 3 then a steep downhill finish. Came through @5:06. Then finished up the race with a time of 15:17.4

I knocked about 30 seconds off from last year so that was awesome to see. Finished up the day with a 1 mile cool and 3X8 second hill sprints. 

7 guys this morning for an early Monday run. Nice 15 mile loop that started on the east bench, headed down to the parkway and came up threw Riverdale. 

Matty ran great today. Solid 15 for him that was 10-20 seconds slower than MP for him. 

Avg pace 7:10 min/miles

Met Dave, Matty and Riley at Smiths. Headed into Uintah and South Ogden today.

Did about 11 with Matt and Dave. Riley and I added on a couple miles and also did 4X8 seconds hill sprints with 2 min full recovery.

~First day back for workouts. Just started a 4 week intro block of paces that are a little faster than MP. The goal for this block is that it will help my body adapt to longer rep workouts when I begin the MP phase.

Met Ken at our usual meeting spot Kneaders then headed up to his office to meet Riley. We did a 2.50 mile warm with a couple strides. I need to mention that it was very warm out this morning. 78 degrees when we started.

Todays workout was 10x90 secs on/off + 10 x 1 min on/off + 10 x30 secs on/off, no goal in mind on pace or recovery. The idea of the first workout is to get me running at a good clip and to let my body know that I'm back in the game(words of Mr. Starrett).

Workout Averages(min/mile)

90/90- 4:53/6:17

60/60-5:01/7:04

30/30- 5:02/7:31

Overall introduction to this phase went well. I could feel it in my legs that I haven't hit these types of paces for quite awhile and naturally I wanted to slow to MP but couldnt give to the fatigue. Paces slightly dropped on the on portion but still had a 4:59 average for the workout. Now recovery is a different story. Mentally I was thinking I could average 6:20 pace for the off portion but was getting pretty tired towards the end. 6:57 average for the off, so still glad to see sub 7 pace. Have some work to do thats for sure. But overall it was something new and different, and I liked it.

1 mile cooldown with Ken and Riley

Nice recovery paced run with Riley and Jared from Rileys place. Ran through the neighborhood of South Weber. Weather was nice and pleasant this morning. Clouds were awesome!

avg pace 7:30 min/mile

PM

Just time on the feet. Warm but not to hot.

Avg pace 7:50 min/mile