I am one with the levee and the levee with me

I must have the worst timing ever. I spent a good chunk of the day fixing our closet, which collapsed on itself, and another chunk at my nephew's baptism and the family get-together afterward, so my run got pushed till the evening. I left about five minutes before the snow hit, and got to run about an hour in heavy, driving snow while being dressed for the springtime weather we've been having. Bleh.

So I was frozen to the bone with about two miles left, at least an inch of snow built up on my head, looking pretty miserable when this girl pulls over and asks if I need a ride. I was seriously worried about losing body parts, but I actually said no -- partly because I needed the miles, and partly because I didn't want my wife to be mad at me for getting a ride with a strange girl. I still consider myself something of a newlywed, so I'm not always sure how my wife will react to things like that. I figured I'd rather be miserable for 15 minutes or so than all night long. I mentioned it to her when I got home, and she said I made the right choice!  :D

AM - Wow, perfect running weather today! I got in a relaxed 3 miles before work (20:20). I'm hoping for a good week of training and that the ankle holds up well. This week is really the test on whether or not it needs more time. 

PM - Ran the 7.3 route to Springville. One of the missionaries that was in the MTC with me recognized me at an intersection and we had a nice chat. I was impressed he recognized me since it's been 2 1/2 years since I've seen him, and I'm sure running atire looks a lot different on me than a suit and tie. Average pace for the run: 6:51 - things are still feeling good.

AM - Did the usual 3-mile run this morning. I'm trying to keep myself under control, but the legs are itching for speed and average pace was 6:44. I'll run home again from work today, I'll try for 7:00 pace and no faster.

PM - Ran the 7.3 mile route home at 6:50 pace... I guess without snow on the roads my training pace has picked up a little. Plus I needed a bathroom in the middle, so I hustled a little over the last mile or two to make it home. I hate stopping to use public bathrooms... nothing can beat using your own toilet.

AM - 6 easy miles before class. 41:58 total time.

Later AM - 4 more miles down the same route. I have to laugh every time I run down this trail because of the huge ice mountain that's been growing all winter. The guy who lives there must be doing it on purpose because he put up a bunch of signs to keep people away recently. One says, "Ice is dangerous. Keep off!" and another, "Please don't break the ice." But my favorite, and this kills me every time,  is the one that says "Danger, ice is radioactive." I need to take a picture for my blog.

Total time was 20:11.

AM - 3 easy miles (20:45). The legs are feeling pretty good and the ankle has gone from feeling tendinitis-ish to just feeling like a minor sprain. Tomorrow I'll probably try for a 2 or 3 quicker miles, just to test things out and get the legs back up to speed.

PM - 6.8 miles around Springville. I didn't have a destination in mind, I was just out running. Total time was 47:20.

I headed down the trail this morning in my flats to do a couple miles at tempo pace. The goal was to keep it at 5:30 - 5:40 pace since I was expecting my legs to feel pretty stale, plus I didn't want to stress them too much at this point. I ran a 2.5 mile warm-up and did some strides to loosen up. The strides felt stiff, but I loosened up pretty quick once I got into tempo pace.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the first half in 2:35. I passed Sasha and Jeff going the other way between the half and mile, which I hit in 5:12, and flipped a 180 and headed back. I eased off the pace a bit to around 5:30 - 5:33, but Sasha and Jeff joined in once I passed them. We sped up a little over the last half mile, maybe 5:20 pace or so, and finished with 10:38 as the final time. Second mile in 5:26.

That first mile got me pretty excited, it felt so good. I thought I had lost a lot during the swimming phase, but I think I'm still in pr range for 5k. If the Rex Lee run is measured correctly, given the slight hills it's got, I think I can dip under 16:00.

After the short tempo, I finished up with Sasha, Jeff, and Matt, who joined with us, for about 5.5 more miles.

Met with Sasha and the gang this morning, there was quite a group. We started out close to 9:00 pace and went down from there, I had the average pace at around 7:40. A very nice run, the weather was great, and it was great to meet some other members of the blog.

Ran an easy 9 miles this morning, avg. pace 6:58. I was tempted to do a long steady-type run, but decided it's still too early to push things too hard. I think the ankle will be fine from here out, but I want to be sure I'm healthy before doing too much.

All in all, it was amazing weather and a great run. I'm crossing my fingers that the snow will stay away from now on.... but I know that's wishful thinking.

AM - 5 easy miles along the river trail. I headed up north towards the canyon this time for a change of scenery. 6:58 avg. pace, the legs are feeling peppy, and I'm looking forward to Saturday's race. Hopefully some BYU guys show up, I want a fast pace from the gun, and there are a couple guys that I might be close to. Hopefully the good weather stick around that long.

PM - I ran through Springville, total time at 47:30, so I'm calling it 6.9 miles. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day.

I ran a new PR for 4 miles today (21:58).... I love tempo runs. I went out on the river trail and wanted to run 5:30 pace to see how it felt. The weather is perfect today, about 43 degrees and overcast, so after 2.5 mile warmup and a couple strides I got right into it.

The first mile was pretty uneventful, I started on top of the final bridge before Utah Lake, I think it's about 4 miles out from the lake. Anyway, I went through the mile in 5:30 on the nose, feeling good. 4 miles still seems like a long ways to me for a tempo run. I get nervous that I'm going too fast or that I'll burn out before the end, so today I was just trying to relax and enjoy my first full tempo outdoors.

The second mile seemed to come quickly, 5:28 (10:58) and still feeling good, I did my 180 and headed back the way I came. The first two miles must be slightly downhill, because it was harder to hit the times on the way back. The third mile came and went in 5:34 (16:32), and I was still feeling alright. Getting tired, but still good.

I think I need to be getting more sleep, because the fourth mile was a challenge, and it shouldn't have been. The first half was okay, 2:45 kept me on pace, but the last half made me tired. I'm still tired. I really, really wanted to get under 22:00, so I tried to pick it up a little without going crazy. Another 82sec. quarter kept me at 5:30 pace and just over 22:00 pace, so I pushed in the final quarter at 76 to barely break the 22:00 mark in 21:58. I had the weirdest sensation in my arms that last half, like I was waving around giant balloons instead of arms. Kind of a cool feeling. I felt lightheaded the last 200m... I'm pretty sure sleep is the issue here.

Anyway, the overall pace was probably a little under threshold pace, but it give me a lot of confidence all the same.

AM - 3 easy miles, 7:21 pace. Legs are a little tired, but it feels good.

PM - 7.3 miles from Provo to home - 7:15 pace. I picked up my race packet and the adrenaline is starting to flow. It's impossible for me to stay calm.

I ran a little bit of the Rex Lee 5k course and then headed to Springville. The legs were a little tired, but should be okay.

It’s about time. I could barely consider the 9:12 3k as a pr, but finally I’ve broken one of my long-standing marks. My old 16:06 was run at the qualifier for the state meet, it was my senior season and a last-ditch effort to make it to state. 16:06 was a pr by 43 seconds, and it’s always been somewhat of a revered mark for me.

So it’s especially sweet to finally break it. The race started fast, but this time I made sure to hang back at my own pace. With most of the first mile heading up a long, gradual hill, it would have been easy to burn out my legs before half the race was done. By about a half-mile in, I settled into 6^th place, keeping those in front of me in sight. Aaron Robison was especially easy to pick out, he’s so tall, and I thought I could catch him if I raced right.

Mile one passes quickly – no mile mark, so no way to know the exact time. Mile two is mostly downhill, trying to dodge the 10k runners and keep the front guys in sight. It heads up a steep hill and finishes there; the marker was there and I had 10:16 on my watch. A little slower than I wanted, but the last mile had a good amount of downhill, and I figured I could make up some time on it.

During mile 3, the front runners begin to come back to me (well, except the winner, he maintains a large gap from start to finish). I pass a guy in a big T-shirt on the downhill stretch, and he passes me back at the bottom. I should be pressing the pace more, but I'll hang on to him for a stretch. We pass another guy, now I’m in 5^th. I’m still with Big T-shirt, and another guy comes back to us. 4^th place, Robison is coming closer. We head into the track I pass Big T, now Robison 10m ahead. Now 5m. It’s 320m to go, and I think if I can sneak up on him, I can kick past with 200m to go. At 300m to go, Big T charges passed, spooks Robison and they take off. I don’t respond, and they get too far ahead to catch. It's weak of me to let them go, but I can't find that next gear...

Sometime around 170m to go, I look at my watch and it reads 15:32, my brain isn’t working so well and I think I should be under 16:00 easy. I try to kick, but no one is coming up on me, and I still can't find that next gear. I cruise into the finish, see 16:00 on my watch, and feel happy about the PR, but frustrated I didn't break 16:00. Obviously, I get a surge of joy when I see they had me at 15:59.08. Luckily, my kick was enough.

The race went well, if anything I feel that I was too conservative. Plus, that last mile was kinda weak. By my watch, I ran 5:12 pace from Mile 2 to the finish, and there was a steep downhill right at the start. That last mile should have been at slowest 5:00, I had enough left to push that pace. Anyway. this is a good stepping stone for the rest of the season.

Wimpy, I know. I'm finishing up with midterms - there just wasn't time today.

AM - 5 easy miles. The legs are just a tiny bit sore.

PM - Added the 7.3 mile route home to Springville. Nice day, no watch, fun run.
 

AM - 5 miles around campus at about 6:50 pace. I wanted to do some 800m or mile repeats on the track, but no time.

 PM - Again, no time for a track workout, but I ran 5 miles at a decent clip. The first three were at about 6:00, the last two at around 5:35. Total time was 29:06.
 

AM - 6 easy miles at 7:13 pace. I didn't get a chance to stretch my IT band after yesterday's run, and it was acting up a little today. It should be okay, though.

Met up with Sasha this morning, we headed out for a 5-mile tempo. The goal was 5:30 pace, Sasha was set to pace us through the run. I ended up at 27:22 (5:28.4 pace), and this was a great run for me. Also a PR over 5 miles.

We went through the first mile in 5:25 feeling good, and I made Sasha back off the pace a touch for the second mile. I kinda spaced out here, though, and didn't notice two miles when it came and went (Sasha says we passed in 10:55). In fact, when we reached the turnaround, I was still thinking we were in mile 2, so it was a nice mental boost to see we were half way done.

Mile three passed in 16:27, and compared to last week's tempo, I was feeling pretty good. I started to get the funny heartbeats during this mile - it makes me a little nervous since a few people have suggested PVCs don't happen at high heart rates. I've only averaged about 5 hours/night of sleep, so I'm sure that is contributing. Anyway, with about 1.5 left I was starting to feel more tired, but I was still surprised at how good I felt.

We passed mile 4 in 21:57 (another PR!), and I wanted to push the last mile as much as possible. I find that at the end of races I'm too conservative about pushing the pace, so these tempo runs are a good chance to focus on a fast last mile. Even so, the last mile wasn't that fast, at least not as fast as what I felt it should be. I tried to go by Sasha a few times(who was puking all day yesterday, by the way) but he wouldn't let me and kept a decent gap. I didn't open the throttle too much until the last 200m (see what I mean? I need to push sooner.), and by then Sasha had about three seconds on me. I closed the gap, but didn't quite catch him.

 So huge confidence booster here. These were the splits: 5:25, 5:30, 5:32, 5:30, 5:25.

Ran a half with Josse and the gang, she ran awesome, especially for being sick. Anyway, it was a nice run, good weather -- I got to meet a few others of the FRB group. Total time was about 1:34:50.

AM - 5 easy miles towards Hobblecreek Canyon. We got a second car, so I can do some of my runs from home now, instead of running from BYU at 6:30. I like it. Total time, 34:48.

PM - Got in 6 more miles around Springville. It was a very warm night and a nice run, I'm hoping the weather stays nice from here on, but I'm sure that's wishful thinking. Miki has been out running with me (that's my wife).She wants to get in better shape, since she sits in an office all day, and I'm trying to talk her into starting a blog, but she's not enthusiastic about it. We're starting at 15 minutes a day and increasing from there... I'll bet a month of this will make her a total addict. She's done well gutting out the runs so far.

AM - Squeezed in 3 uneventful miles this morning. Should be a nice day.

PM - I went to Springville High's track to do a 4x1600m workout. It was dark out and I was feeling really good, so I wanted to start at 5:00 and work down to 4:52 and 3:00 rest between. The first one I was off pace right from the start with a 79 quarter, then 2:35 at the half... I finished at 5:10.

I geared up for a faster second rep, and I went through the quarter in 73, but then hit the half in 2:33. I finished that one in 5:06.

Doing the reps in the dark wasn't working for me, so I walked off the track. I've never walked away from a workout before, but I figure I can finish the workout better on Wednesday. I'm thinking either 4xmile starting at 4:57, or 2xmile with the first in 4:40, second in 4:40-4:43. Either one should be good.

AM - 5 miles this morning past Springville High. It must have been around 40 degrees... downright toasty. 

Later AM - I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad I walked away from yesterday's workout. I did a much better workout on the track today, and it gave me a mental boost that 4x5:05 miles wouldn't have. I warmed up about 15 minutes towards around the BYU track facility. Some of the lady sprinters were working out, but their coach said I would be okay to do my workout. It was very warm today (60 degrees, I think?) and there was only a slight breeze on the track. Nice conditions.

As I was putting my spikes on, this guy came up to me and asked me if the track was open to the public at the moment. I told him what I was doing, and he asked if he could join me, and of course I said yes. He ran a 16:03 5k recently, so we're in comparable shape. It turns out his name is Anthony -- he's from Michigan and ran a 4:09 indoor mile at a smaller college up there. He was just visiting family here and is trying to get back into shape.

So I decided the 2xmile workout and it was great to have somebody running with me. I was so excited that I started with a 65 second first lap. Yikes! The 800m came at 2:17, but then we slowed quite a bit. The second 800m was 2:29 and we finished in 4:48 for the mile. I didn't realize we had slowed that much, but I was feeling fantastic... I think I could have tacked on another 4:48 mile if it we'd kept going.

Anyway, 5:00 rest may have been too much -- I was ready at 3:30. But we got underway for the second mile, again with a 66 second first lap. The 800m came in 2:18, and I slowed a little on the third lap, but not by too much -- the 1200m was 3:31, I think. I picked it up a little on the last 400m (69 seconds), and finished the mile in 4:41.

Anthony suggested that we do a few more 400s, and I reluctantly agreed. We did 4 with 1:30 rests that went 66, 65, 64, and 62. I was surprised on the last two, I went through the 200m in 30 seconds -- apparently my speed is a little better than I thought. I'll have to try a mile time trial sometime soon.

So I was pleased with this workout. We were a little sloppy with the rests, but I was happy with how good I felt and with the faster times.

2x1mile:

4:48 (5:00 rest)

 4:41 (6:00 rest)

4x400

66 (1:30 rest)

65 (closer to 2:00 -- sloppy)

64 (1:30)

62

AM - Ran 7 miles down the river trail... it's a little breezy out today, bleh. My calves are pretty sore from yesterday's workout since I haven't done much in spikes recently. I took the run pretty easy: 7:25 pace out against the wind and 7:13 pace back with the wind. I have to babysit my brother's kids tonight, so I'll probably get the rest in later tonight.

PM - Got in another 28:30 at around 10 pm. The pace was pretty relaxed, so I'm calling it 3.9.

Met up with Sasha this morning at 9 and warmed up two miles with Benjamin, who ran some blistering splits. I think his second mile was 6:54, and he looked like he was taking it easy.

After that, we headed to the 5-mile tempo start and got going. We started at about 5:25 pace, going through the half in 2:43 (Sasha was a second or two ahead of me), but I lost focus a little and slowed through the mile in 5:30.

So I got my mind together and focused on keeping up with Sasha's pace, and the quarters started rolling by. Soon we reached the two mile (10:57) and then the turnaround (13:41, I think, so a 2:44 half). We picked it up a little after the turnaround and reached 3 miles in 16:24. I was feeling way better than last week's tempo, and at 3 1/2 we picked it up to 5:20 pace, reaching 4 miles in 21:47 (PR!!), still feeling good.

I picked it up over the last mile, reaching 5 in 27:06. Last mile in 5:19, last half was 2:38, but I didn't catch the last quarter. Next week is the BYU Invite, I feel that with any luck, I should have a big PR.

Mile splits:

5:30

10:57 (5:27)

16:24 (5:27)

21:47 (5:23)

27:06 (5:19,  5:25.2 avg.)
 

Met with Sasha and Jeff this morning for an uneventful 15. This makes a mileage PR for me, and a few more weeks in the 70-80 range will be beneficial. The run started with Sasha asking us how many grams of vodka it takes to get legally drunk....

I was feeling pretty tired from the week's work, so I made them run slow for me. I think we ended the 15 at around 7:30 average, then Sasha and Jeff and the new-found Matt went on for some more. We picked up Matt about 11 miles in... well actually, he caught us.

Sooo..... I'm pooped. Time for nap.

Actually, I just checked Sasha's blog and he says it was 15.1, so even bigger mileage PR!

AM - I set my alarm for 6 pm by mistake and woke up way late, so I missed the early morning run. I got a few miles in before work, so I'll have to squeeze in more tonight. I think average pace was around 7:00 - 7:05.

PM - Added 4 miles late tonight... I'm feeling some scratchiness in my throat, no other symptoms than that but it's kinda irritating.