track fan

1:58:24 (1:03:26/54:55).  Last 4 miles @ ~ 1/2 marathon pace: 7:34, 7:25, 7:18, 7:05, 1:20 (last 300 meters or so).  I got a later start than I wanted.  Despite having two days  last week were it did not get up past 65F, I knew it was going to get into the 80s today.  Sure enough, when I finished (at 11:30 AM) it was 79F with full sun (no shade on the run).  Luckily, I paced just right to run pretty comfortably -- yea.  today was all about practicing the last 4 miles of the race next week, get a little tired and practice running fast the last few miles.  With the heat, I would have been pretty happy with anything between 7:20-7:30 pace.  I actually start this run a little less than a 1/4 mile from the first mile marker, so my first mile split on the way back is always a little slow, since only about 3/4 of it is at actual pace (I use it to work my way into pace).  I have mile markers every 1/2 mile so I can keep on pace.

The reason I got a late start is that I was reading about the London Marathon, and about some of my friends experiences at the Country Music Marathon yesterday.  Yea for Andrew Lemoncello (one of Gregs athletes, from GBR who was a steepler in college), he ran a 2:13:40 debut at London yesterday!  On the womens side, Kim Smith (NZL) ran an awesome debut at 2:25:21!!!  It is going to be an interesting 2012 Olympics!

AM: (10.5 miles, 1:27:11). Cruise interval workout: 5 x 1000 w/200 recovery + 3 x 200 w/200 recovery. Target pace (4:18 - 4:25, 6:55-7:04/mile). 4:25 (1:10), 4:21 (1:12), 4:21 (1:15), 4:16 (1:15), 4:23 (1:16) + :48, :49, :49 (7:04, 6:56, 6:56, 6:51, 7:01/mile pace for the 1Ks + the 200s which really aren't worth calculating the mile split for).  So cool that I did the same workout as MichelleL today (again) -- although hers were WAY awesome and fast ... good thing was, if we had done this workout together it is short enough that she wouldn't "quite" have been able to lap me ;-).  I felt the same way afterward -- this is a fun workout, it is fast enough to be a challenge, but short enough that it doesn't really feel that hard.  And you certainly feel like you could do a few more.

I can't believe how badly I suck on the 200s, I guess it probably didn't help that I threw down a :48 first 200 on my 4th kilo ;-), I couldn't help it ... my competitive nature got the best of me, there was a guy who was jogging on the track and he jump on right behind me as I was finishing the last 200 meters of my third K, well when I hit the finish and jumped over into lane 3 to do my recovery he ran past and said, "I was right on your heels". Since my recovery was so short I started about 10m behind him, and I just couldn't help myself I just ran really hard to blow by him. I never did "slow down" the way I should have and hit the first 400 in 1:39, a little fast for what I was supposed to be running. The most annoying thing about this run though, was that when I hit the start line EVERY SINGLE TIME I got a huge bug in my eye, there must have been a swarm of them there -- it was pretty hard trying to concentrate on keeping my 200 split in the right pace when I couldn't see out at least one eye, after about the first 400 I could squeeze out a little tear and it would at least get it out of my field of vision ... but I swear, every single start!!

PM: (4 miles easy).

Happy Tuesday bloggers .... we are supposed to have our first 90F day today ... I am not really all that happy about it, to tell you the truth. But, it could be worse (it could be July and 120F).

52:21.  Nice, warm, run up the Yeatman trail.  I almost fell today, I tripped on a rock.  I am considering it a good omen that I was able to stay on my feet, even though I am a little worried that I pulled something in the attempt ... if I had fallen (my hands were about 2 inches from hitting the ground) I would have fallen on a huge bed of rocks ... ouch.  

I hope you all have a wonderful day -- I am quite busy today, but it is my last formal lecture of the semester so I am sure I will be in a good mood despite all the meetings!

44:42.  Easy, albeit a little hillier than I would have liked, run.  My foot was killing me yesterday so I went to therapist #2 to see if she could work the magic spot that John found last week ... now I have a big knot in my bum, but my foot feels better.  I told her what John had said, and she knew right away what it was.  My sciatic nerve is getting inflamed around the area of the piriformis muscle -- there are two little muscles below the belly of the piriformis and the sciatic nerve runs between them and the piriformis itself.  Somewhere in there I have some adhesions (knots) and it is all inflamed.  So the sciatic is causing my problems all the way from the hip area to my foot.  It is pretty painful - I guess I don't mind the knot in my bum as much as the pain in my foot ;-).  I am also hoping I can block this all out come Saturday morning ...

I am in a hurry to get some work done and then head to the airport.  Good luck to all the bloggers on their races this weekend -- I hope you have PERFECT weather in Utah and beyond. 

easy 30 (32:12 actually) - I ran the first and last 4 miles of the race course.  The winds were gusting ~20mph -- it was frightful. It is supposed to die down by tomorrow ...

They had 3 races, the runners 1/2, a walkers 1/2 and a 5K.  The race was run on a 32 mile bike path -- actually the California International Marathon runs a bit on this course.  It was pretty flat, a few short hills but nothing serious.  The race got started 20 mins late - which was not fun.  They told us "we will be starting late so you have time to jog around a few more minutes".  What I heard was "we will be starting late so you have time to run over to the bushes for one last bathroom stop" - about 15 of use (2 women 13 men) took off to the woods ;-)  it was pretty funny.  They had a bagpipe procession that was pretty cool - but would have been cooler if it had happened 10 mins before when the race was supposed to start ....

Finally, we took off, I started pretty close to the front, because I knew this was bike path and getting a good position was critical since there was not a lot of room.  

My splits:

mile 1: 6:58 (way too fast - I backed off after this first mile)

mile 2: 7:18 (good pace - there was a woman running next to me who was already starting to sound like she was having an asthma attack - I really felt like saying - "you do realize this is a 13 mile race don't you? -- she actually hung with me until mile 5, breathing super hard the whole time, I never saw her at the finish).

mile 3: 7:18

mile 4: 7:18

mile 5: 7:18 (starting to see a trend here)

mile 6: 7:18 (wow).

mile 7: 7:16 (finally out of my rut ;-))

mile 8: 7:16 (new rut)

mile 9: 7:19 (gu - feeling tired, but told myself I did not even have to do a fast finish, I just needed to hang on for a PR) - was running with about 4 guys, I wanted to drop them, but I was scared because I was getting tired)

mile 10: 7:22 (water stop to wash down the gu, it took me two tries to grab water, both times the water spilled all over me -- it was warm so it felt good).

mile 11: 7:11 (I want to stop running - tried to figure out if I could still PR if I walked in, unfortunately, I did not think so -- the wind started picking up here - headwind, of course).

mile 12: 7:17 (windy - no shade, I felt bad)

mile 13: 7:10 (tried really hard to get the woman in front of me, but my legs were getting pretty rubbery)

0.1: 42 (tried to do a sprint -- still couldn't catch her!!!)

Very very easy cool-down jog, I was so tired ... but pretty pleased.  Wished I could have found 7 more seconds to break 1:35, but a 1:30 pr is not bad so I won't complain!

Congratulations to all the PROVO 1/2 bloggers - it looks like you had a great day.

GOOD LUCK in EUGENE ALLIE!!!