Trails!

What was your HR in the beginning, and what was it on the last few miles?

I averaged 183 on the first 3 miles, then it slowly dropped to 179 ave by mile 11 and 12. Mile 13 it climbed to 183 ave and then averaged 187 for the last .1. I think the ave dropped as a result of the pace dropping. My heart had more to give, my legs didn't.

How did you do on sleep the week before the race? What about general stress level in your life - was it any higher than normal?

Sleep has been lacking lately. New baby in the house...up for feedings at all hours of the night...sick 2 year old...family in town this weekend...work busy as usual...so yeah, its been a long week. In fact, its bed time now...

Don't be too hard on yourself, I think a 1:21 isn't bad at all a week after pouring it on in a hot relay race. So even though you're a little disappointed, I'm saying good race.

Hey, be proud of that. This shows some real strengths in your running and workouts.

Cody - I think we have two things going on. One - you aerobic base is still not quite developed, even though you have been doing good training. It will just take some time. Two - neural fatigue from a one-two-three punch - Ragnar Del Sol, a drive home, and the lack of sleep during the week. Two small kids is actually very hard, I'd say harder than 5 even though the youngest match the age because you do not yet have the experience. We lose a lot less sleep with our kids now than we did when we had only two.

Do not be fooled by the feeling you lack the mental toughness. It might feel like you are slacking or quitting, but all there is to it is the brain being fatigued and not firing hard enough to push the heart and the muscles to their usual limits. It is very frustrating as you watch your competition pull away, you feel good, nothing really hurts bad enough to stop you from running faster, and yet you cannot keep up. But it is not something you have much control over at the time of the race. I've had many races where I had what I would call a bad attitude, I came not wanting to push, and ended up running hard and well. On the other hand, there were many races where I intended to give it all, and gave it an honest try, but did not run very fast and finished fresh. You bring 95% of your ability to push to the starting line, and a lot of it has to do with your training and with what you do in between rather than with your mental toughness. Good mental attitude is important, but it alone will not give you more than 3 seconds per mile.

Some ideas for the training - ease off big time on the easy runs - 8:00 pace will do great for building your aerobic base, while the nervous system can rest. I suspect 7:00 pace from day to day wears it down gradually. But do hard tempos a couple of times a week.

Cody, your time still calculates out to about a 2:50 marathon. I think you are right on track, and if this is a "disappointing" race, then I think you are looking good!

With a few more weeks of consistent training, and then a proper taper, sub 2:50 should be a strong probability.

Sasha has a good point in that easy runs should be easy and hard runs hard. Stick with the a tempo and a cv once a week, and then the rest are easy runs with some striders here and there.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I love to get feedback on my training and racing! That is why I joined the blog.

I feel bad that I have given everyone the impression that I am upset about this race. I did not mean it that way. I do wish I had run faster, but I still feel like I ran well.

I am excited to run Ogden and show some major improvement over my TOU 2006 time. I know that I have a lot of improvement left in my body and I plan on seeing how much.

I agree with the advise I have been given and plan on making my Easy Days easier and my hard days just as hard or harder. I feel I am on a good training plan and I plan on continuing with it.

Thanks again for the comments and feedback. I love it.