Met with Paul after running around the neighborhoods a bit. We ran on the planet walk...of course, and then did a loop at Blackhawk park and back. Easy pace. Sure was nice to have company though. Taking it easy today.
Workout day. 12.5 mile Young Ward via landfill loop. Today's workout kicked by butt. I had decided to do a mile warmup and then 8 miles of Tinman Tempo then about 7's the rest of the way. My goal was to have the tempo miles be between 6:25 and 6:30. Things started out ok, but quickly went downhill. I ran a 7:03 warmup mile then went 6:25, 6:26, 6:29, 6:30, 6:34, 6:37, 6:39, 6:51. I could've sworn that there was a headwind the whole way (even though I ran west then south, then east). I was fighting to keep the pace under 6:30, but by the end I had nothing. Very miserable run. I tried to maintain a decent pace for the rest of the run, but that was a challenge too. I finished with 7:05, 7:22, 7:20, and 7:20 pace for the .5. Good to have that done, but man was that miserable. Some days you got it some days you don't.
Total time: 1:25:00 (6:48) 162 ave
PM: Easy run with Jon to shake out the legs. I met him halfway into his run. He was doing some tempo work on the Canal Trail. We ran a nice easy pace cause I said so. Stood in the canal afterward to ice the legs. Felt wonderful.
I let my body run the pace today and not my watch. My legs are hurting. Major soreness and fatigue from the higher mileage. Ran Providence-Millville loop very easy. A new record for the slowest time on that course.
Ran with Paul today on Ant Flat Road. Nice dirt/gravel road to run on. Mild grade, but lots of loose gravel. No traffic and cool temps made for a great long run. I whined and complained the whole time (according to Paul) about how tired and sore I am but we still did prettty good for that road. That is pretty standard for me to whine, but still love it. Weird.
2:25:15 (7:38) 153 ave
* Another High mileage week record for me (78 Miles)
Met with Jon, James, and even Dan for a nice 12 miler in Green Canyon. 6 miles up and 6 down with 4.33 on singletrack and 1.66 on a dirt road. Great trail up until the last mile then it was too overgrown and rocky to run well on it. Easy up and fast down. ~2000 feet of elevation gain over the 6 miles (5200 to 7200 feet). Once again, it sure was nice to have company on such a long run (time-wise at least).
I will have to remember to not run that last mile up next time. Not worth it.
Workout day. Easy warmup to mile 20 of the TOU course barely breaking 8 min pace for the 3 miles. Jumped right into my tinman tempo to the end of the marathon course (6.2 miles). The first mile has a nice downhill into providence which helped me get the motor running. After that, it wasn't too bad. I met up with Paul about mile 22 and he kept me distracted enough to keep the pace steady. I went: 6:16, 6:23, 6:21, 6:20, 6:20, 6:20, and 6:09 pace for .25. I went by the garmin and not the mile markers. Mile 22 had the marker about 7-8 seconds past my beep and the rest stayed about the same distance. Either that mile is long, or my tangents were bad. Probably tangents as there are lots of turns there.
I am happy with the workout as I was able to hold that pace without overextending myself. Finished off the run with 2 miles back to the house at about 7:30 pace.
Another typical recovery 8-miler(Providence-River Heights). Felt lousy until the 6th mile then finally broke 8 min pace. Legs are sore. I need to stretch them better.
Workout Day. Ran 1.5 miles over to Paul's house to meet him for a run. No sign of him, must have not received the e-mail. I was feeling ok for the warmup. My left knee was hurting again, but it got better as I warmed up. I was around 7:30-7:45 pace right off the bat, so I was excited for a good day. I decided to do 2 miles of tinman tempo to warmup for the CV's (as that was Paul's original plan and I thought it was a good one). I headed out toward the Planet Walk and hit 6:14 and 6:24. Cruised by Paul's house again and no sign of him so I headed up toward first dam via the canyon road. I did 5x 3 min at ~CV pace with 1.5 min rest. They got progressively harder as the road is a gradual uphill and the wind was fierce coming out of Logan Canyon. I hit:
.52 in 3:00 (5:49)
.51 in 3:00 (5:54)
.51 in 3:04 (6:01)
.49 in 3:02 (6:15) Nasty wind here. I swear it was the same effort level. I decided here to hold off on the last one until I hit the bathrooms at First Dam and run it with the wind.
.54 in 3:02 (5:37) Much nicer
That put me at the canal trail so I decided to run home on the canal trail via the Blvd. I wanted to hit some "brisk" pace miles as Paul calls them so I stayed comfortable and cruised home. (6:50, 6:31, 6:08 (down Blvd), 6:28). Good workout hitting MP effort to Threshold effort.
Met Paul and Logan for a long run up Blacksmith fork canyon. We started at the west end of Hollow Road and ran 10 miles up and back. The pace was conversational but hard. We hit a brutal headwind going up the canyon that made the 7:15 - 7:30 pace feel way too hard. I was thankful for the turn-around point (~700 feet elevation gain) to be able to run with the wind and downhill. Ahhhh.
Miles up were: 7:35, 7:10,7:27, 7:37, 7:13, 7:19, 7:09, 7:00, 6:57, 7:01
Coming down the canyon, we (they) were doing really well, but I was again suffering. I need to stop running with super stars. They kill me. But they pulled me along at MP for most of the way down. I was dropped when those two started to actually work (during mile 18). Until then, we cruised along enjoying the downhill and the tailwind. I was never happier to see the car.
Note: I counted all my miles faster than 6:30 as "fast" miles. This run set the record for the fastest training 20 miler (downhill or out and back). I only needed to do a 37:30 10K to get the same time as my Ogden Marathon time on a harder course. Good training for St. George.
Total Time: 2:15:17 (6:45) 159 ave HR 174 max HR
* Good week of training with some solid workouts. I dropped my mileage a tad, but I needed a good week to recover from the previous milege increases and it gave me a chance to do some quality workouts. All my ~70 miles were from singles.
AM: Slow mile getting going this morning in 8:30 to meet with Paul. We ran the Landfill loop together shooting the breeze. Picked it up a bit from my first mile. Nice morning for a run.
Total Time: 52:20 (7:29) 7 miles 145 ave
PM: River trail with Paul, Jon, and Dan. Sluggish on the uphills and much better down. Typical.
Total Time: 55:36 (7:56) 7 miles 150 ave
I always wonder how you can run the same run with someone and have such different splits. If you compare my time to Paul's there is an 11 second per mile difference, but we ran together. It happens every time, I swear. Weird.
Big workout today. I did a 2 mile warmup to the end of the Planet walk then did 1.5 miles at tinman tempo pace (6:27 pace). Once at Logan track, I did 7x 1600m at LT pace (Daniels calculator puts that at 5:56) with 200m rest inbetween. I went:
Mile 1
5:53
Mile 2
5:56
Mile 3
5:48
Mile 4
5:55
Mile 5
5:58
Mile 6
6:01
Mile 7
5:47
I felt ok starting out. Paul showed up on my third repeat and as he passed me, I sped up a bit and that caused a faster time. The 5th and 6th were pure torture. I don't know how I can hold this pace for longer than a few miles. The 7th, Paul joined me and it helped a ton. I gave a kick the last 100m to finish strong. After a lap to recover, we ran me back home at 6:30 pace. I am dead, but feel good. Another workout in the bank.
AM: Very slow .75 to meet with Paul (8:30 pace). We ran a combination of many runs to create a new one. Planet walk, past Blackhawk park, across both highways, onto the TOU course and back through river heights. Tired and sore today.
9.1 miles 68:33 (7:32) 149
PM: Ran with Jaxon in the stroller with Paul and James. Slow pace but not easy as a result of the stroller. Nice and hot.
Ran over to Paul's and we ran on a Campus to North Logan Loop. Had some good hills interspersed all throughout. Started out easy and picked it up as we went. Threw in 6 100m striders during the run. My form felt terrible today during the striders. Picked it up from mile 8 on in. Went 6:45, 6:25, 6:44, 6:46, 6:12, (dropped Paul off here and continued home), 6:25, 6:39(.5). Many of those miles were at Tinman tempo pace and felt pretty good. Blew past the 7 min guy during the last mile.
Another saturday, another long run. This is starting to get old. Todays run was nice though. Jon invited us (Dan, James, Logan and I) to his work running club where today they had drinks and food for everyone. Sweet catering service, all free. My kind of run.
The course was out in the middle of small town cache valley. I loved the course though. Very quiet roads, and lots of boring fields to look at. Other than taking a quick break every 3 miles or so for more powerade, we kept the pace honest. We started out uphill for the first half and downhill the last. There was 500 feet of elevation gain so pretty flat, but there were a few rollers in there to throw you off. I ended up running 9 miles at 6:30 pace or faster with miles 15, 16, 17, and 18 in 6:28, 5:56, 6:00, 6:19. I was pretty much in race pace mode again for those miles so it is not getting easier, but I am sure it is paying off somehow. We added a couple of miles to make it 20 even.
Good company, good food, good run = good saturday morning.
Total Time: 2:15:17 (6:45 ave) 159 ave (upper 160's during MP miles)
* Another record high mileage week (81 miles). I am looking forward to a mini taper for TOU half this next weekend. I will also be traveling all week, so it will be tough to get the runs in anyway. I will do what I can.
AM: Easy 5 in the morning in San Francisco before meetings. I am staying at the Grand Hyatt next to Union Square. The hills of San Fran are not too bad as I can breathe so easily here. I ran from the hotel thru china Town to Fishermans wharf and around that area. I ran along the backs of fish wharehouses on Pier 39. Kind of a sketchy neighborhood but pretty cool. This is my first time here so I get to do a lot of my sightseeing out running. I hope to get in some more tonight.
Didn't make it out again last night. Meetings went until about 7 and then we walked about 4 miles around the wharf. We did eat at a nice seafood place (Pier Market). I had some yummy mussels and salmon and other varieties of seafood.
This morning I ran with a co-worker down to the wharf and along it for a while. We ended up covering 6.5 miles in 53 minutes (8 min pace) counting stops at intersections. Easy pace, and it felt great. My leg (knee) was pretty sore after walking around so much on it last night. It did loosen up and get better as the run went on, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better long term.
Tomorrow is a longer run out to the Golden Gate Bridge and back by myself. I figure it will be 12 miles or so. I am excited. It looks like we might hit a game tonight.
PM: Didn't make it out to do a run as we went to the Cubs/Giants game. Pretty good game. They blew it in the 9th inning. I did make the mistake of eating garlic frys. Tasty going down, but made me feel awful after and all night/morning. Fun stuff.
Funny story - After the game, we were walking back to the car when a bicycle gang cruised by. The leader was riding this cruiser style bike and was rapping into a PA system. He had the sweetest lights and accessories on the bike. I don't remember what he said exactly during his rap, but it was basically a play by play of what he was doing. The girls in the gang were following along behind thinking they were hot stuff.
Not long after that, we watched a jeep pull into the bus lane and hit the brakes. Just as he realized that he was stuck in that lane (small curb on both sides), a bus came flying up behind him. We were ready for a spectacular crash, but the jeep hit the gas and sped down the street. Luckily no cars were coming the other direction as he flew through the red light. Good entertainment.
Golden Gate Bridge run. Started at the Hotel and ran down to the piers. I then followed the shoreline over to the Golden gate bridge state park. There are some nice gravel trails over that way. Cool area. I made my way up the bridge and experienced a tremendous view. The top of the bridge was covered in fog and the sun was rising over my right shoulder. The large barges were passing under me. Awesome. I ran across the bridge and turned back. I noticed that I was running late so I kept the pace hard back to the hotel. I ended up running 5 miles at sub 6:30 pace and most closer to 6:15. The rest of the miles were sub 7 effort (a few miles were pretty steep). Great run. It felt good to sweat out the garlic and grease. Time to eat better now.
Ran with Brad around golden Gate Park and up and over the bridge. He drove back to the Hotel and I ran. (5 miles). So 5 miles really easy (8:30 pace) and then 5 miles easy (7:30 ave).
Early morning shakeout in the fitness center at the Hotel. I rode the bike for 25 mins at an easy effort. (115 ave HR). Last day of meetings then flights and travel today. Yuk. I am supposed to land at 1:30am tomorrow morning. Should be fun getting up for the race.
Top of Utah Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:16:01, Place overall: 7, Place in age division: 2
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
5.50
13.10
18.60
Top of Utah Half Marathon. I have been out of town all week and didn't get much running in while I was gone so I ended up having a pretty good taper for today. The downside is that I hit my pillow at 2 am (due to flying home last night from San Francisco) and had to get up at 5. I don't think that affected me that much though. My goals for the race were to PR (I knew I could easily beat my best of 1:21:45) and to break 1:18. I was excited for the race to see where I am at so I can set a realistic goal for St. George.
The race conditions were ideal 48 degrees at the start with a couple of miles of nice tailwind down the canyon. Good day for fast times. I started out just behind Jon. Paul, Logan, Walter and James were ahead of me. I tried to keep up with Jon but when he started to crank out some 5:20 stuff, he dusted me. About that time Taha came up on me and we ran together most of the race. He took off after James (all the other guys were way ahead by then) on hollow road and dusted me. I was able to work my way back to him on the millville hills and pass. I couldn't quite catch James as he held me off. I did get chicked though on the millville hills. Cynthia Fowler was right behind me (15-20 seconds) the whole race and she did a good job on those hills. I kicked at the end of the race to catch her back but couldn't quite pass her. We ended up less than a second apart with James a few seconds ahead. I am pretty pleased with the result as I killed my goal and my PR by 5 min and 45 seconds.
Mile Splits:
5:33
5:43
5:45
5:49
5:36
5:43
5:41
5:41
5:49
5:56
6:04
6:22
5:39
:35
Total Time: 1:16:00:73 (5:48)
Ave Hr: 178 Max HR: 187
7th overall and 2nd in 25-29 (as Paul and Logan and Jon won overall)
Ran an easy 2.5 warmup and 3 miles for the cooldown
* Fast running bloggers did great. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th overall. (RESULTS)
AM: Feeling pretty sore still from TOU. My knee isn't hurting too bad, just tight leg muscles. I have been using the stick every two hours or so and it hurts, but I think it is helping. I ran nice and slow starting out and then by two miles I was hitting 7:30. I ran the landfill loop and added a quarter mile.
48:53 (6.25 mi) (7:50) 146
PM: Ran on the river trail with Jon, Paul and Dan. Easy pace. Lots of chatting.
Providence hills into Providence canyon. Hit the hills pretty hard and took it easier on the flats. Was sub 6 pace on much of the downhill. My whole family is sick and I am on the verge but doing ok so far so I am hoping for the best.
AM: Well, the whole house has a cold and no one slept well last night. It was pretty miserable. I was planning on a Big workout today, but thought I had better not. I ran the planet walk easy with no watch. It felt pretty miserable. I hope I am feeling better later to get more miles in.
PM: I was feeling a bit better in the afternoon so I took Jaxon in the stroller for a run. Slow pace != easy pace. I guess my form must be awful as 8:30 pace was equivalent to 7:30 without the stroller. I am sure sickness is a factor too. 5 miles in 42:47 149 ave HR
Big workout day. AKA Tempo run death march. I ran from my house (starting at 5:10am) to the TOU course and jumped on it going backwards. I did 5 miles warmup (7:24, 7:05, 7:06, 7:04, 6:50). That brought me to about mile 18 of the course (on the HWY). I then proceeded to attempt to run tinman tempo pace (6:20-6:30) 2.5 miles up the course then the whole 7.5 miles home. I went: 6:30, 6:40, 6:29(half up then turned around), 6:22, 6:27,6:49, 6:46, 6:35, 6:31, 6:24
I am happy with the results as I am still sick (but getting better) and felt weak. The 6:40's were uphill so not a big deal. The 6:30's should have been faster, but it was all I could do today. I am still worried about crashing in St George like I did in Ogden, so the more workouts I can do like this for the next 3 weeks the better.
Total Time: 1:41:00 (6:44) 164 ave (tempo miles in 168-175 range)
Ran over to the planet walk via the aquatic center and lo and behold, I ran into Paul. He was doing the landfill loop so I tagged along. I was dragging butt today and was only planning on 5-6 so it was nice to get some company to push me to do a bit more. It is always easier to run with someone than by yourself. Easy pace. No watch, but Paul did say we hit at least one 7:30 mile so we probably averaged 8.
***
I literally copied a page out of Paul's blog today. I just saw his posting about his mileage increase over this year and the correlation to his improvement and decided to copy it to give me a quick glance of where I have come from in the short amount of time I have been training. Great Idea Paul. I think we all should do this as it is an eye opener. (I wish the blog automatically did this but no big deal).
As you can see, doing some actual running sure helps out the times. What was I thinking in 2005 "training" for a marathon running 50-90 mile months? No wonder it was a survival just to finish. That difficult experience took 6 months to forget before I actually decided to run for real. Now it's the year of PR's and one more chance to blow past the 2:50 and the 2:40 barriers at the St. George Marathon.
