track fan

AM: (9 miles, 1:15:05).  27:04wu/26:42cd 11 x 200m w/200 recovery.  Greg said to do 10-15, I wanted to do 15 but it was 94F and sunny with 10 mph winds... it was painfully  hot.  I meant to do 12 (as a compromise) but somehow I must have miscounted.  The 3 miles uphill home was almost indescribably miserable.  It really is a tough climb under the best of circumstances, and when it is this hot it is even worse.  Dean always says, "you just can't be in a hurry".  So, my body and mind were at odds.  My body knew that I was bordering on dangerously overheating, but my mind wanted to get out of the sun so badly.  So I would speed up and then feel sick to my stomach and slow down ... and this coupled with the fact I wanted to try to find a saguaro cactus or telephone pole to stand in its shade made it a not very fun run.  When I looked over my splits I realized in part it was because I did not slow down enough on my recovery bits.  My splits ranged from 46-50 and then :59-1:06 for the recovery (with most of the splits at :49/1:02  -- almost 6 of them!).  I thought that starting at one end of the track would be better (because of the wind, but the first 2 laps -- which were the :50s by the way -- were really tough with a headwind down the back stretch; I realized that starting into the wind around the curve was easier, so I started in a different spot after the second one).  I am very glad this run is over -- and that I won't be running in this kind of heat for 4 weeks!  By the way, this was at 7AM!!  we overslept (the alarm did not go off this morning) -- it was already 88F at 6AM when I jumped out of bed all freaked out.

PM: (4 miles easy).

 Have to go work on my grant a little and this afternoon we have to close up our house, get things packed and get ready to go to Flagstaff tomorrow!!  We wanted to leave today, but we have things to do and it is way to hot to be starting out after about 9AM.  There are a lot of mountains to climb and you can't usually run your air conditioner when you climb them, last year it was about 116 and we had the dogs and they had a rough time in the heat.  So .... we will get an early start tomorrow instead.  YIPPPEE.

I hope you are all having a wonderful start of the fiscal year ;-).  We have to pick the days we are taking for our furlough ... I am going to be making a political statement, I hope I don't get fired. 

1:01:40 ... I did an abbreviated version of my usual Saturday run.  I took an organic apple that a friend of mine had given me because there is a very cool horse that I see on this run.  He "ran" with me one day (he ran in his area along side me ... so I stopped to pet him, he is very friendly (but HUGE, so a little intimidating to me).  Anyway, I decided to solidifying our friendship with an apple -- he seemed to really like it.  I hope he remembers me after 5 weeks of not seeing me.

Well, we're outta here!  See you in the cool pines -- I am trading relentless heat for no oxygen (we will soon be at 7000ft) - a fair trade I think!

Have a wonderful Friday bloggers.

Oh, I finally found a good chiro and got my SI joint put back in place yesterday, I can't tell you how much better I feel.

AM: (8.5 miles, 1:17:35).  Our house for the next 4 weeks is right on the pipeline trail -- very very nice.   Today I ran on the trail for about 1.5 miles to Buffalo Park, and then did 2.5+ laps (5.5 miles, each lap is 2 miles but I cut off a .5 mile section the last one) and came back.  This is awesome.  I had some problems on the uphills, but overall I just slowed down and the altitude did not bother me too much (Buffalo Park is marked every 1/4 mile, I was at 9min/mile or slightly under the first lap and a tiny bit faster than that the second; this surprised me, I guess I am running a little faster than 9 min pace on my usual runs, because I definitely was taking it easy on this run. 

PM: (3.5 miles even easier). 

Greg has me running doubles every day this coming week, they were supposed to be short, I think to acclimate to the altitude, but I will ask him tomorrow (at the team BBQ) if I need to do that if I am doing ok.  But either way, I am SOOOO happy I can sleep in and still run in nice temps!

Happy Weekend bloggers!!

1:51:36.  12:39 to Buffalo Park, 5 x 2 mile loops, 17:23, 17:17, 17:29, 17:28, 17:11, 12:06 from Buffalo Park.  I wanted to do some of the really cool trail runs (although none of this run was on the road, only the first and last 1.5 miles is actually on "trail" - the rest is just dirt road) -- but this was my first long run at altitude and ALL of the other trail runs are up mountains, most of them climbing from 500 - 1000ft (from 7100 where I am to ~8200 and some even higher).  I decided to acclimate before I tried any of those.  Plus, I did not want to worry about water (the altitude makes me thirsty).  So, I ended up running the boring, but probably the smarter, course.  The hills were a little tough, but I just slowed down and made sure I ran super easy at the beginning ... you could tell where I started to get tired of not having enough oxygen :-) - but then I rallied. 

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!

AM: (9 miles, 1:18:52). Beautiful run, from the Easy Oldham Trail to Fat Man's Loop on the Pipeline/Forces of Nature Trail.  It was an easy trail, not too rocky and not too much elevation gain (maybe 500ft overall). 

PM: (easy 4).

Down to the wire with my grant -- just one more day ....

I hope you are all having a wonderful July!!

1:04:32 (31:29/33:02).  Pipeline Trail to Fat Mans Trail and back.   Not sure, but I think the overall net elevation gain was around 600 ft (starting at 7100 and going up to 7700) - most of it on the way back (as you can see from my spits).  All and all I was pretty much equal effort for both the out and back portions, it was a great run.

Final grant sections for the day include the introduction to the resubmission (where I get to point out to the reviewers how much their tearing my grant apart last time made this one so much better -- which is true actually), and final finishing touches to my research plan.  This submission is very much improved from last year.  Then I have a month to rewrite it a little to submit as a different type of grant in August.  One of these will get funded, of that I am positive.  There are pluses and minuses to each type of funding mechanism  .... either way though, it will be all good, and make a significant contribution to GI Cancer research! yippee.

Have a wonderful day bloggers, hope you are just warm enough to feel happy!

I forgot to tell you about the BBQ at Coach Greg's house the other night, it was really fun.  I got to talk to Ian Torrance about his most recent (of 7 I believe) Western States race, Brett Gotcher about his training in general and a whole bunch of new faces on the McMillan Elite team -- it is going to be a good year for them, they have really got a bunch of superstars!!

AM: (10.5, 1:29:34).  Ran up the Lower Oldham trail to Buffalo Park.  Ran one loop, was very slow, 18:13.  I was debating what to do today, Greg wanted me to take it easy this week and try to acclimate to the altitude, but I have been feeling good (other than not being able to breath going uphill) - so I was thinking maybe I would just run some 200s. But after seeing that pathetic first lap (after running 5 of those on Sunday almost 45 secs faster) - I decided to just push it a little.  I guess I ended up running a improptu Steady State run - albeit 25-35 secs/2 miles slower than my usual ones would be.  I ran a 16:04, 16:01 (~8:02/8:00 pace), not bad for 7100+ ft I guess.  It felt ok, not hard, but not as easy as my 18:13 did ;-).

PM: (4 miles easy).

We drove down to Phoenix to see the miracle worker (John), we drove down with Haim.  Haim is an Israeli elite athlete who has been training up here with Greg and his group for a few months now.  He is a very funny guy and the 2 hours went by very fast!  On the way home it got late so Dean stopped on the side of the road and waited for Haim and I to run our afternoon run.  Haim was sweet and ran with me the whole time, even though I was running way too slowly for him! We almost drove Alicia Shay (nee Cragg) too, which would have been awesome, I have been dying to know when she will be racing again.  Anyway, she wanted to get down before 2PM so she drove on her own.  We did see her there (John saw us all at his house!! what a doctor!).  Pretty cool, Alicia looks fit and hopefully we will see some fast 10Ks this fall!!

 My grant was sent off to the bean counters at the U of A yesterday - they will be electronically submitting it this afternoon (I hope) and then -- I can forget about it for 6 months until the reviews come back! yippeee~

1:10:06.  Could have been 8, so I am splitting the difference.  OUCH.  I decided not to take the easy trail today and instead climbed up (and I do mean up) the Rocky Ridge Trail (the name says it all) toward the Schultz Creek Trail.  My legs are fried, my lungs are fried.  I am just plan ole fried.  Life is good.

Happy Friday blogger friends!

AM: (8.5 miles, 1:16:48).  Yikes ... I tried to take it easy today, but the hills are everywhere and it is hard to find any trails that don't climb.  Today I went to almost 8000ft - it was gradual, but it was hard.  I was having such a hard time the last 10` of the run that I am either going to not run my 2nd run today or only run 90` tomorrow.  I am just not recovering the way I should.  I really want to try some workouts next week, and I think I might sacrifice some mileage to ensure I can get some faster stuff in next week.  

Another weekend, another BBQ ... this one is a going away BBQ for Haim and Dafi - who are heading back to Israel next week.  We have a very special guest coming into town tomorrow -- you guys know her, we'll see if you can guess who she is ... she (and her children) will be staying with us for a week while she trails with the McMillan Elite and other fast runners up here!

If I run later, it will be ~3.5 miles ...

Have a very nice weekend bloggers!!

1:51:23.  Thunderstorms, hail, what an exciting run!  I had goosebumps because I was cold, how great is that?  It is July and I was cold!  Unfortunately, I was cold all day!  By 5PM the sun was back out, but for a while there I thought it was Winter/Spring.  I love Flagstaff!

MichelleL arrived!   So FUN!

1:04:34.  Took it really easy - I am moving my schedule around so I can try to do a workout with the McMillan group (and MichelleL) tomorrow.  I probably won't go as fast (compared the other runners even my fastest is slow ;-)) as I usually do because of the altitude, but it will be fun to run with a group.  And then  Michelle and I will run a PM run together tomorrow.

I hope you are all having a great day!  I have a conference call this afternoon, I hope to just relax and work on things I want to work on (fun types of things) afterward.

AM: (10.5, 1:30:54).  21:04/19:04 wu/cd. I ran with Dafi this morning - she was doing a 6 mile steady state (her marathon PR is 3:32 so her steady state pace should have been about 8:09 or so, with altitude adjustment).  She took it out really slow, and I was trying to push her every mile - miles 2, 4, and 6 have a serious uphill, the splits were: 8:14,  8:26,  8:17,  8:21,  8:13,  8:11.  She did great since her goal was 8:30's for the first miles.  I wanted to take off the last two miles, but she was struggling and I felt it was better to push her ... I will see if next week I can push it myself a little harder.  I was not actually running 'easy' - but it wasn't really hard either.  Dafi has been running by herself for over 4 months while her husband trains, I really thought she needed some company today, I am in awe of her, I usually don't run near the elites -- I come and watch and cheer them on sometimes, but I don't run with them.  I think it takes a lot of guts and determination to workout with them all of the time, especially since most of the time she ends up running by herself.  But -- not today!!

PM: 4.5 miles easy with Michelle, I introduced her to the Pipeline trail!

Brett Gotcher ran a 10 mile Steady State at about marathon pace - man he was fast.  MichelleL ran with some super fast women and had a lot of fun!

1:02:21.  Bagel Run!!  A Flagstaff must do!  about 25 runners, 3 Olympians (Ryan Hall, Lemmoncello, Martin Fagin), most of Greg's athletes, me and 2 other "regular Joe/Jane's" .  Ran from Biffs Bagels out the Urban trail ... very cool.  I ran with Ryan Hall for about 3 blocks and then ran with MichelleL, Ian Torrence, Stephanie, Jamie, and Emily, for about 1.5 miles before they sped up.  I could have stayed with them for another mile or so, but since it was only about 14 mins into the run, I decided to just stay where I was!!  It was fun. 

Have a happy Thursday bloggers!!

AM: (~9 miles, 1:21:28).  30:48wu/31:58cd + 10 x 200 w/200 recovery.  Might have been a little longer than 9.  Michelle and I ran on the trail to Buffalo Park and then ran almost 1/2 loop (1 mile) together in the park then she took off to run a little faster, and I finished my warm-up.   My workout part was 'about' 200 meters, I measured out :45 and then used that as 200m.  It was slightly downhill for  5 of them and slightly uphill for the other 5.  Felt pretty good. I did another 2 mile loop and then came home.  I really need to run much much slower for the next 3 runs so I can recover for my long run.  I have been running faster than my usual "easy" pace the past week.  It is fine as long as I can recover ...

PM: very very easy 4.

Have a great Friday!!

AM: (8 miles, 1:10:25) 35:07/35:17.  Not bad considering the hills on the way back ... I ran pretty easy, therefore, I felt pretty good.  Although I have some weird thing going on with my quad and my knee.  Hopefully John can fix it this afternoon.  Dean and I are driving down to Phoenix with one of Greg's athletes.

PM: 4 miles easy.

Bummer, the Lowery clan left today ... it was a fun week!

2:00:15.  These were not easy miles.  I ran near the Campbell Mesa area (like I did last week), but this time after a 2.5 mile connector trail I got off on the Arizona trail.  There are two Arizona trails at this trailhead, named C and D on the trail maps, but not named at the trailhead.  I was going to run on the D - and it is supposed to head up along the Walnut Canyon area (this is an area that has some really cool Indian Cliff Dwellings).  Anyway - the C trail looked really hard on the trail map, so I chose the D trail (only 500 ft elevation gain).  Hurump.  So, I found the trail, good. Then I ran for about 2 miles and all was great, it was a relatively easy trail and I was only at 6800 ft, so my breathing was pretty good - my thought was an hour out and an hour back.  The next thing I knew I was loosing elevation fast ... the trail got rough and there were tons of switchbacks.  I ended up at the bottom of the canyon!!!  It was pretty, but I dropped at least 500 ft in about a mile, then the trail started heading back up the mountain on the other side!!  Crud!  This is not what I was expecting.  I kept telling myself, "man, if this is the easy trail I can't even imagine what the hard trail looks like!".  I ran up for a while, I couldn't breath and the footing was tough.  Finally, I looked at my watch and realized I had only gone about 5 miles!  If I kept up with this and turned around in another 3 miles I was going to have a tough time on the way back (plus it was about 88F and I did not have water with me).  So, I decided to turn around and then finish my run on the "Mesa" where I ran last week.  I felt completely demoralized.  Despite knowing that I am not completely acclimated to the altitude I was disappointed at how much I was sucking wind, and criminy - this was supposed to be an easy trail (well, the D trail is called "moderate" for hiking).  After I got to the Arizona trailhead, I realized I had turned the wrong way and had been running on the C trail -- whew!!!   I ran on the C trail (only about 300 ft elevation gain over 2-3 miles, much nicer, and only at 6400 ft).  Still, my legs were shot from the 2 miles on the other trail and I really had to mentally regroup during this run.  I had stashed some water that I was able to get at mile 9 or so, and that helped a lot (I think I was dehydrated at the start). 

 A nice thunderstorm rolled in during my last 4 miles, which made it much cooler (because of the cloud cover) -- but I swear at one point it seemed like the lightening struck right next to me!  As soon as this happened I remembered that the fire that had burned on Campbell Mesa two weeks ago was caused by lightening!  HA.  I think I ran faster after I remembered that -- I couldn't wait to get to the burned part of the forest, because I figured, statistically, the lightening wouldn't hit there again this week ;-).

So goes my 3rd awesome long run in Flagstaff -- one more to go, next week Schultz Creek trail!

Happy Sunday bloggers, I hope you are enjoying your day with your family!

AM: (10.5 miles, 1:33:12)  32:28 wu/30:39cd + fartlek 10 x 1` w/2` recovery. Ran to Buffalo Park and did one 2 mile loop, then did my fartek 'workout'.  Felt good to run fast, I really needed the extra minute recovery.  I talked to Greg yesterday and told him that although I feel pretty good, I wasn't sure I wanted to do another slow steady state run this week - but last year I was able to do some 5 min pickups pretty well so maybe something a little shorter, but really fast.  So, we decided that I would do a fartlek for one workout and then a progression run with the last 5` super fast for my second workout.  I think that will be good for getting my legs turning over a little without overdoing it.  

PM: 4 miles super easy.

It is feast or famine I suppose.  Last week there was never a dull moment with the pitter-patter of little feet and sweet voices of the Lowery guys.  This week it is me and Titus, and the dogs (Dean went to Tucson for the week).  I don't have cell phone reception from the cabin so last night (about 10PM) I drove 2 miles out to the main road to call Dean and say good-night.  Well, my battery died.  CRUD.  I finally flagged someone down and they gave me a jump, but my battery is just dead, my lights barely worked so I had to slowly drive home in the pitch darkness with very very very dim headlights.  When I got home the car died.   Dean is calling AAA for me this afternoon to have them come out and check it out, but they won't be able to call me or anything --- they will just show up (I hope they show up ;-) ).  Life is not dull bloggers, and thank heaven for that!  And, I am glad I finally got AAA (about 2 months ago!).  It is too funny that this had to happen when I was up here in isolation all by myself!

1:11:45 (could have been 8? but is was a trail run and I ran easy so I am counting it as 7.5). Ran a "new" (to this trip) set of trails, I ran on both the Valley Fort and Schultz Creek trails.  They are pretty easy and I enjoyed myself immensely! 

I have a new *car* battery, and my *cell phone* battery is charged, so I won't need to flag anyone down today ;)  AAA was great, they came out in a hail storm and replaced my battery, checked the alternator and electric system and got everything functioning again.  Awesome, I just can't believe I waited this long to become a member!!

I am way busy today, apparently my PhD student is not able to work independently at all, she has been working on a problem for 6 weeks and has not made ANY, I repeat ANY progress.  To make matters worse, she is supposed to be presenting this at a conference next week.  So, I have to throw something together for her to present (stuff that I did a long time ago) ... ARG!

Happy Wednesday bloggers!

AM:(10+ miles, 1:25:33). I am calling it 10+ because I had a little extra jogging getting to the start of the marked course.  Sort of a progression run but more like a run hard with the last 5` even harder.  I started out a little fast and actually wanted to get close to 7:00 pace for the last 5` so I actually tried to "recover" in mile 9 (even though I should have pushed the pace).  This is a hard loop to do hard training - the hill in miles 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 is pretty brutal,even without the altitude problems.  Anyway, it felt good to run hard and I think it was a solid effort. My splits were: 8:53, 8:52, 8:23, 8:35, 8:21, 8:26, 8:19, 8:45, 8:31, 8:11 (the last 3/4 of a mile was at 7:05 pace).  The course has 1/4 splits so it was nice to be able to get constant feedback.  I was pretty tired by the fourth loop, there is only about 1/4 mile downhill portion that is just before the tough uphill so it doesn't help much with pace.  The fastest part of the course miles 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 still has about 1/2 mile gradual uphill which comes right after the hill ... it is a good mental workout, even though it was not the fastest.  According to Jack Daniels (who lives up here, but will be leaving soon for a new coaching job -- at 70!!) it is about 15% cost in pace at 6500 ft., so I guess I am pretty happy with today -- even though it is hard to see such slow splits when I am pretty sure I would have been in the 7:30 range at home - and I wouldn't have gotten as tired by 8 miles either!  it just kills me!  BUT -- the weather was awesome, thunderstorms again!! 

PM: easy 4.

After a day of getting my students poster done yesterday, today I REALLY have to get to work on grant #2 of 3 that is due by the end of the month.  I love working without a phone or distractions though, I can't tell you how much easier it is to concentrate without meetings and people knocking on the door all the time!!

 I hope you are all well, and trying stay cool in your respective heatwaves! good running and healthy days bloggers!!!

HOLY COW, Andrew Wheating just ran a 3:30.9 1500!!! And Alysia Johnson is the current WL for 2010 in the 800 -- the Diamond League is just HOT this year and USA are rocking it!!! (props to Shannon Rowbury and Anna Peirce for PBs and SBs, respectively). 

1:11:32.  It was bound (statistically) to happen ... I have been running predominately on these rocky and hilly trails for almost month now ... today I had my first fall.  It was a doozy.  I was going at a fairly good clip and went down really fast, so fast as a matter of fact that I did not have time to put out my arms to break my fall (which was good because I would have rebroken my wrist I am sure).  The air when "Pfffst" out of my chest ... I had never felt that before, seriously, all the air was expelled from my chest.  The good news is that my legs, knees, hands and wrists are fairly unscathed.  The bad news is that my side and my face took most of the brunt.  I fell exactly 1/2 way through the run, so I had to run 3.5 miles back.  All the while blood was dripping from my cheek and lower lip ... and, best of all?  I either cracked or severely bruised a couple ribs.  I can barely breath ... I will need to go get something to wrap it up with so I can run, it doesn't hurt nearly as badly when I put a lot of pressure on it.  

It was funny because all the way back to the car I was thinking, "well, even if I need stitches, having my face messed up won't keep me from running ... and then ... hmmmmm, maybe that pain in my chest isn't just from the road rash on my torso ... wow, that really hurts when I have to breath hard going up the hill".  I saw a woman on horseback on my way back and she asked if I was ok, I said, "yes, just a little spill, I will be fine" -- she looked at me pretty funny (I was sure it was because there was blood literally dripping off of my face).

 Well, I don't have time to cry and whine, I have to go visit Tracy McMillan's office today, make some phone calls, and go to lunch.

Have a great day bloggers!
 

1:03:11. Easy run to Buffalo Park.  John Ball (our handy dandy ART guy) came up with his son, Jayden, and his wife for the weekend.  Yesterday, I slowly and painfully got out of bed (I could hardly breath) and got ready to run.  Then I took off my shoes because it hurt so bad, then I put them back on ... and repeated this about 5 times throughout the morning.  The whole time John was telling me all the reasons I shouldn't run (had nothing to do with the pain).  Then we compromised, he said, "I will write you a script to get an x-ray at the med center, and if your ribs are not broken, then you can decide to run later".  I thought this sounded good, so I went for a walk with them instead in the morning.  Then, all the runners in Flagstaff (except those that were racing -- Bix run was yesterday, which was the USA 7 mile championship -- Ryan Hall won a car -- though I think he took the money since he is sponsored by Nissan and the car was a Kia -- and Lindsey Allen of McMillan Elite was 5th woman and won $5K!! yea Lindsey) came over so John could work on them.  He set up shop on the porch and we had a steady stream of people all day.  Alicia Shay brought brownies and everyone seemed content (I did not have one since by about 3PM I had given up on running).  I did get an x-ray but either they did not read it yesterday or they were not fractured, because they never called John. Then last night we went out to a great Thai restaurant (Fasil Bizuneh came along too, he and John ran at Arizona State together way back when) -- it was great.

I feel a little better today, my face looks horrible but what the hey, I still can't roll over on my right side without screaming but I am moving much better than yesterday.  So, I decided to try a run.  It basically feels like I am running with a constant side-stitch that won't go away, but it only brought tears to my eyes when I breath hard or go downhill.  I ran over to Buffalo Park and it was fine as long as I ran slow and did need to breath hard at all.  Apparently the pace that I can essentially run with my nose and not my mouth (which is my poor womans guide to heart rate and effort)  is 9:05 on the hills and about 8:55 on the flats.   I am icing my poor ribs/muscles now, but I am convinced that nothing is broken, just bruised.  So, I am hoping it will heal in a couple of weeks (or even faster if I don't overdo it)  ... For now, I am just happy to run at all.  Side-stitch level pain is ok  ;-).

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend, CONGRATS to all of you on your impressive races this weekend!!  Allie just rocked her marathon, and man oh man you people who ran Des News have posted some amazing race times!!  I hope I can catch up on your blogs next week (as soon as I finish getting my students poster done and this one last grant finished up).

 Just a little update from the "Flagstaff contingent"

BIG congrats to McMillan Athletes Lindsey Allen (5th at Bix - USA 7 mile championship), Ian Burrell (6th) and Andrew Carlson (9th).  Huge 3rd place to Stephanie Rothstein at the Wharf to Wharf race this morning in Santa Cruz (31:43 for the 6 mile race) -- she was the first American and missed 2nd place by 10 seconds!!  More impressive, this was her first race back after 13 months and she is not even in race shape yet!!  Expect big things for her going into her marathon debut this year!  Finally, Kelly Liljeblad (coach for McMillan Running) is currently in 5th place at the Ironman Lake Placid!! She was 6th coming off the bike, and since she is a 2:31 marathoner, the run is her strongest event - early in the marathon she has overtaken the 5th place female and might be on her way for a top 3 finish if she runs as strong as she has in the past!!  wow! (UPDATE, Kelly got 5th. she struggled at the end, but still had a great showing!)

AM: (10 miles, 1:30:17). I don't want to miss any more of these awesome days ... so I ran on the "infamous" Fort Valley Trail -- I did not quite get to the scene of the "accident" because I ran from the house (on the Lower Oldham trail).  I was nervous about running on these trails, but my face aside, this trail is one of the easiest around here ... so, I got back on the horse/bike/whatever.  It still feels like I have a serious side-stitch, but since it is not really a "running" injury, it does not hurt any more while I am running (though it does hurt quite a bit afterwards) and I don't think I am doing any more damage -- it is mainly about how much pain can I take to run -- and I have a pretty high pain threshold.  Especially when my legs want to go faster and farther because they are so fresh.

PM: (I really really hope to be able to do 4 easy tonight unless the pain gets worse than it is right now).

 Another busy day -- one draft of a grant almost finished, another needs to be done by this weekend -- and then we are on our way to the big stat conference in Vancouver next week.  I also have many lunch dates ... bye-lunches.  So sad.

I hope you are all doing well!!  Run happy!

1:00:01. + at least .5 mile chasing horses off the the trail so the elites could do their workout.  hmmmmm.  Apparently my "bonnie mile" estimated pace of 9:00/mile is a little off.  This is a marked trail and I ran 5.5 on the trail in 46:48 + 13:12 from the house to the park (which I think is about 1.5 miles).  Interesting.  Anyway -- on with the story.  Today was an easy day for me, and I wanted to watch the group workout.  So I ran to the park and did a couple of laps slow and then saw them race by me for their first lap (some people were doing 4 miles at threshold, others were doing 10).  On my 2nd lap I noticed some horses that seemed to have escaped from someones property.  They were trail horses, so they enjoyed standing right in the middle of the trail ... I knew that the fastest runners were going to be going about 5:15 pace, so it wasn't going to be good if they had to navigate around these huge horses.  So I ran down to where they were and pushed, prodded and pulled them off of the trail.  The guys flew by.  Then Jamie and I stayed there for their 3rd lap too (I thought they were all doing 6 miles so I thought we were done) and then we jogged back to the start.  Well, 3 of the guys (Olympian Andrew Lemmoncello, Fasil and Nick Arciniaga) were running 10 miles (5 laps) and on their 4th lap they yelled that the horses had been right in the middle of the trail.  So, I ran over and moved them again, and stayed there until they came by for their 5th, and final, lap (in 5:00 pace).  They looked good!!!

 Many of you bloggers read this on my FB yesterday, but I will tell everyone.  I tied for 1st place in the LetsRun Prediction Contest for the Paris track and field meet (there was $20, 010 on the line sponsored by Puma -- we picked 1st/2nd/3rd place for a few select events - including field events - I got the Women's high jump completely correct for all 3 places, along with the Mens Steeplechase, M 800 meter, M 100m - the Women's 1500 was my downfall). Unfortunately, rather than split the money they had a tie-breaker (I think there were actually 3-4 of us tied for 1st) and the winner was the person who had correctly guessed the highest number of 1st place winners.  I missed out on $20K by about 2 picks!!! I had guess more 1-2-3 than the winner, but he had more 1st places overall (I don't think he had any 1-2-3s!).  WOW.  Anyway Wejo (the owner of LetsRun) is going to see if Puma will at least give us some swag for coming so close!! Cool eh?  Wejo wanted to know what my strategy was ... ha ha ha.  I said, "I read Track and Field News every month, watch every track meet on TV or on my computer and am a fan ... ".  I also told him rather than swag I wanted "quote of the day" -- but I need to think of something good to say ;-) ... I don't know if he is going to give it to me ;-).

I hope you are all doing well bloggers!!

My chest still hurts, but it does not hurt any more today after yesterday, so I think I am going to try a workout tomorrow.

AM:(9.5 miles, 1:22:12).  23:51wu/17:59 cd + 5 x 5` w/3` recovery.  I could only get "exact" 1/2 mile splits for 3 of these just because of the way the mile markers were situated in relation to my stop and start.  The first one was way too fast at 7:05 pace (altitude adjusted about 6:50 pace), I slowed down on the second one, because I was trying but also because it has the steep hill - 7:50 pace, the 4th one was better @ 7:20 pace (I am pretty sure the 3rd one was this pace too, it was a much easier effort than the first one); I have no idea about the 5th one, though I hit the 1/4 in 1:45 so it might have been too fast as well.  All and all I was pleased with the effort, especially at 7500 ft and with all the hills.  I felt relatively 'acclimated' to the altitude and my ribs only really ached on my cool down -- and now after I have stopped.

There were some of the men's Northern Arizona University team at Buffalo Park today, they weren't as fast as the elites from yesterday (since they had 2 Olympians) - but they were cooking nonetheless! 

Now I have to finish packing up the car for the drive home.  Hopefully, if all goes well, we will be home in enough time for me to pick up Keiko's (the Ridgeback dog's) prescription, get dog food for their kenneling starting tomorrow, and still make it home in time for an easy 4 miles.  We will be traveling on Saturday so I will miss my PM run, I am hoping to get an extra 4 in tomorrow instead, especially since I missed my long run last weekend.  Sunday I will do my long run at Stanley and Spirit Parks - should be nice.  By the time I get back home and do my first workout back in Tucson Greg says I will feel like a  million bucks and my workout should be better than I have ever done  (we'll see, I am skeptical but ever trusting in my coach!).

Have a wonderful day bloggers!!

AM: (7, 1:05:26).  A little longer than 7 miles, but not quite 7.5.  My legs feel like cement today.  Funny.  I thought I was running at about 10 min pace, but I timed my last couple of miles (based on a street as a landmark) and I was running what I always run for that section.  Lungs were happy to have so much Oxygen, but legs are just plain dead.  We had a tough drive home yesterday.  It rained (actually there were flash flood alerts all the way from Flagstaff through Phoenix, the emergency warning system kept interrupting radio broadcasts).  It took us nearly 3 hours just to inch through the Phoenix area, so what is normally a 4 hour drive was at least 6, I barely made it home in time to run last night. My ribs are killing me today, I don't know if it from my run yesterday or just sitting in a car all day, but ouch, it is almost like last weekend again, except a little more localized (last week my entire side hurt, now it seems to hurt in one specific place).  Anyway ... I still hope to sneak a run in this evening.

PM: (easy 4).

We have to unpack and repack, we are leaving tomorrow for Vancouver.  We are just "jet-setters" ;-).

Have a great Friday and weekend bloggers! 

1:12:56. A little better than yesterday, but my legs just feel dead lately. It is humid here because of the monsoons ... I like it, even though I get super sticky. I like 80F and 70% humidity better than 100+ any day, dry or not. Have to finish packing ... I bought a new battery for my notebook computer, so now I have ~ 9 hours of battery time between the two batteries (one 4-cell and one 9-cell), so I can can work on both of my flights without charging up ... yeah!

8 days post "big fall" and I still can't: 1) take a deep breath, 2) lay on my right side or 3) get up out of a chair without wincing  -- but my face is healing up nicely, hopefully people will quit looking at Dean suspiciously ;-)  

Have a great weekend bloggers!