Cool Runnings!

AM - 4 miles by myslelf at average 7:40 pace, then 2 miles with Sparky at average 8:30 pace.  I started off nice and easy on my run, but my legs just had that "pop" in them today and I could not keep from running faster.  I felt good, I can tell I haven't lost much fitness, cardio-wise.  This gives me hope for being able to run good times at both the ADT 1/2 as well as at St. George.  The run with Sparky was nice and easy, nothing worth mentioning.  Looks like I am back on track, thanks to Lybi's continued work on my calf.

AM - 10 miles on the good old treadmill.  Woohoo!  This is the best my calf has felt in weeks.  I feel I owe it to Lybi and her patented "torture" techniques.  Thanks to her, I am down to a tiny sore spot in my calf that is not real sore, I can just feel it when I stretch.  We are going to continue to scrape and massage until there are no more knots or tender spots.  Back to the run - it felt really good.  No problems with the leg on the run, I felt the "pop" in my legs as well.  I felt like I could have easily doubled the run without problems, as long as I fueled good enough.  I have also decided to change my fueling strategy at the ADT 1/2 and at St. George.  I had previously alternated between gatorade and water, but have decided this may have led to fuel issues.  I am going to plan on taking only gatorade.  In addition, I am going to take a gel every 5-6 miles.  I think that this will help me to ensure I have enough fuel.  I am going to stick with 6 miles/day this next week, with a 12 miler for the long run, putting me at 42 miles next week, and will bump up the long run the week after to 14-15 miles, leaving my daily miles where they are.

AM - 6 miles on my own today.  I was planning to run with Sparky after 4 miles, but I looked for several minutes and couldn't find his leash.  Sorry, honey!  I really wanted too, though.  Anyways, back to my run.  I felt really good today, really had a good rhythm going.  Started out real easy and slowly worked my way into my pace.  First mile in 8:13.  Second mile in 7:35.  Still felt really good, no soreness, no tiredness, no straining in my breathing or anything.  Third mile I just kind of took of without meaning to - I had kind of considered doing a little tempo just to see how it felt, but hadn't planned on running as fast as I did.  Third mile in 6:42.  Oops.  I'm probably gonna get it for that when I get home.  So it felt good to my legs, they didn't hurt, they didn't feel tired, but my lungs could definitelyl feel it.  I really do need to get in some good tempo work, both for the ADT 1/2 as well as for St. George.  I am aiming at a pace of between 6:30 and 6:40 for the ADT 1/2, and am hoping for a pace of 6:50-6:55 at St. George.  I am planning on integrating a nice 6-8 mile tempo into my long run this Saturday.  Still anticipating more torture from Lybi too :)  Actually, I am really grateful for the time she spends working the knots out of my calf.  I think she has helped to salvage my ability to run St. George this year.

AM - 4 miles by myself, average pace of 7:55/mile, then 2 miles with Sparky, average pace of 8:35/mile. Started out nice and easy on my run (sound familiar?), slowly got into my pace, but today I did not deviate from it, except a little bit on the last mile. First mile 8:25, second and third miles 7:50, last mile 7:35. The last mile didn't feel any faster or harder than the second two miles, and my calves didn't complain at all, although they were a little bit tight after the run. We went to see Prince Caspian at the dollar theater for family home evening, so we didn't get home until late, and I had to go shopping, so I didn't get the chance to have Lybi work her magic on my calf last night. She has her ward missionary stuff tonight, so I will have to see what time she gets home tonight to see if she will be able to spend some time on my calf tonight.

PM - 6 miles outside in the evening heat . . . temperature was 99 degrees at the start of my run, and that contributed, I think, to my legs feeling kind of dead and the run feeling more difficult (plus it was fairly windy).  Average pace of 7:59/mile, no fast miles, just wanted to get in the miles.

AM - 4 miles on my own, then 2 miles with Sparky.

Started off at a nice easy pace, then slowly picked up the pace until I was at about 7:30-7:40 pace.  At the 2 mile mark, turned around and picked up the pace, 3rd mile was 6:55.  Still felt a little harder than I was expecting - I will contribute this to the heat.  Final mile was 7:12, I had planned on slowing down, but it just did not happen like I wanted.  Since this is below my pace for a BQ, I will consider it MP, although if truth be told, it actually felt a lot easier than then previous mile.  Still planning on a long run this Saturday with 6-8 miles at MP.

PM - 6 miles on the treadmill.  It was pretty hot out, so I didn't want to wear myself out in anticipation of the big workout the following day.  Nice and easy, felt good, average pace of 7:59/mile.

AM - 3 easy miles with Sparky.  Did not have time to do my big workout this morning.

PM - big workout.  10 miles on the treadmill, 8 miles of which were at MP.  Started off nice and easy, at 8:30 pace.  After 1/2 mile, sped up to 8:00 pace, then to 7:30 pace after .75 miles.  Then got into my workout.  8 miles at MP - 6:53/mile.  I had two goals going into this workout:  1) see how long I could maintain my regular breathing rhythm and 2) see how long I could maintain good form.  I was hoping for both goals that I would be able to maintain throughout.  I did pretty good with the first goal - after 6 miles, I had a few instances where I wasn't able to maintain my breathing rhythm, but I got back into it and was able to pretty much maintain throughout.  For the second, I also started having little issues with my form after about 6 miles.  I could tell that I was straining a bit for the last couple miles, and my legs were starting to feel tired, but I was able to finish it out.  Cooled down with an easy mile at 8:30 pace.

AM - 4 miles on my own, then 2 miles with Sparky.  Legs felt a little tired and sore from the big workout on Saturday (plus Lybi did some more scraping last night), but nothing out of the ordinary.  It is interesting that the knot that was in my right calf seems to have moved into my left calf, in exactly the same spot.  Perhaps I was compensating a bit . . . average pace for the 4 miles was 7:45/mile.  Came back in and got Sparky, average pace with Sparky was 8:36/mile.  Depending on how I feel, I might do some more tempo work on Wednesday or Thursday during one of my runs, but I am shooting again for a good tempo run during my long run this Saturday.  I am hoping to be able to get in 15 miles on Saturday.  I also need to attend Leader-specific trainin that morning for my calling as Webelos leader.  Busy day.

PM - 2 miles outside with Sparky, average pace 8:10/mile.  Felt pretty good, although it was still pretty hot out.  Then inside to the treadmill.  1/2 mile warmup at 8:00 pace, then into a 3 mile tempo at 1/2 MP - 6:40/mile.  Managed to do pretty good with both my form and my breathing.  We had had a brief power outage this afternoon, and the air conditioner stopped working for a small amount of time, enough for the house to heat up to 83 from its usual 78 degrees.  It was still fairly warm inside when I did my run.  Cooled off the last 1/2 mile at 8:30 pace.  Average pace on the treadmill of 7:02/mile.  Legs feel good, instead of getting them scraped this evening, I actually had Lybi massage my shoulders, which had been feeling very tense.

AM - My legs, especially my inner thighs, were sore after last night's tempo run. Slept in a little, woke up at 5:30 and ran 2 miles with Sparky at average pace of 8:22/mile. It was very muggy out - 84 degrees and about 50 percent humidity (that's extremely high for Arizona). Will plan on another 4-5 easy miles on the treadmill tonight.

PM - 4 miles on the treadmill.  First mile was a warmup at 8:30 pace, legs were a bit stiff.  Then cranked up the pace to 7:30 for the remainder of the run.  Ran another 0.5 miles to and from the local gas station to pick up a bottle of Gatorade, as we were all out of powder.  No time on the last 0.5 miles.

PM - 4 miles outside at average pace of 7:25/mile.  It had just rained, and the temperature had falled all the way to 82 degrees, so it was quite nice, although extremely humid.  6 miles just isn't going to happen today, folks.  I was lucky to get in the 4 miles - I was doing some work this evening and ended up with a big delay, so I figured I might as well run while I was waiting.  Either 6 or 7 miles tomorrow, depending on how I feel, but I'm not too fussed either way.  Planning on 14-15 miles on Saturday, including a big 10-mile MP tempo run in the middle of my long run.  We'll see how that works out.

AM - 4.5 easy miles by myself, average pace of 7:57/mile.  Started off easy and slowly picked it up.  Temperature was quite nice.  Came back home and took Sparky for another 2 miles, average pace of 8:35/mile.

AM - woke up a bit early so that I could get in my entire run before I went to Webelos training.  It was already 82 degrees at 4:45, so I made a snap decision to not do a tempo run this morning, and instead would just get in the whole run.  The plan was to do 14 miles on my own, and then 2 miles with Sparky.  Took some gel and gatorade before starting off, ran 6 miles, came back to the house to get another gel and some more gatorade.  Ran another 8 miles, then stopped at the gas station to get a cold bottle of Gatorade, which I promptly guzzled most of as I walked home.  Ran 2 miles with Sparky, untimed.  Not sure of my pace either, but it felt pretty slow.  My legs were pretty tired out.  Average pace for my 14-mile run was 7:47/mile.  I had one mile I am going to count as MP, not sure of the split because the Garmin was not charged, so I just used my regular watch and didn't try to guess splits for miles.  After the run, I just had time to shower and grab a quick bite to eat before heading over to the church for my Webelos leader training.  Very tired now, but my legs feel pretty good - no sore spots.  We are thinking about heading up to Payson next weekend with Lybi's grandpa who has a cabin up there, which would allow our boys to spend some time with him, while allowing me to get in a bit of altitude training.

AM - 4 miles by myself, average pace of 8:05/mile, then another 2 miles with Sparky, average pace of around 8:20/mile.  It felt good to get out after Saturday's long run, but my calves were pretty tight.  I will need them to be worked on tonight by my personal massage therapist . . . :)  Planning on putting in 7 miles a couple days during the week, and hoping to do 18 miles this weekend - we will see.  Either way I am hoping to get in 50 miles total for the week.  Next week will be a taper week for the ADT 1/2 marathon, no tempo miles, just easy runs each day.

PM - 7 lovely miles on the treadmill while watching Star Wars Episode IV.  It actually made the time go by extremely quickly.  I have always loved the Star Wars movies.  Average pace slightly slower than 8:00/mile.  First mile was 8:35, then sped up to 8:00/mile for the next 6 miles.  Legs felt good - I ended up having to scrape my calves last night on my own, as Lybi needed to get in her run.  We will not be going up to Payson this weekend, so I will be planning on doing an 18-miler early Saturday morning.  Yeehaw.  This will be my longest run this year, and absolutely necessary in preparing for St. George.  Things may not end up working out in Colorado Springs due to unforseen circumstances - if they don't I will end up replacing that with a 20-miler.

AM - slept in a bit, woke up at 5:30 and took Sparky for 2 miles. Average pace of around 8:20/mile. Will have to do the rest of my run this evening due to lack of time this morning.

PM - 6 easy miles on the treadmill, average pace of 8:06/mile.  First mile warmup in 8:36, last 5 miles at 8:00 pace.  Felt good, although I could still feel my dinner.  Funny - Hebrew National all-beef hot dogs on whole wheat buns, and home made fruit salad with cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and grapes.  Although the hot dogs weren't the absolute healthiest thing, I wouldn't consider them to be terrible.  Legs felt fine, no soreness, no twinges in the calves.  Finished watching Episode IV on the portable DVD player.  I always find it interesting how easily you can tie the Force in with the Spirit of Christ.  And trusting our feelings - being in tune with the Spirit.  All in all, a good flick.  Looking forward to my long run this weekend already.  I will just plan on 6 miles the next two days with no fast miles so that I am fresh for my long run.  I think that I will plan on only trying to do the last 6-8 miles of the long run at MP to see how my body handles it.  Gotta remember to get 3 gels and an odwalla bar to mimic what I will do at St. George.  The plan for me is to take a gel right before the start, and then every 6 miles. 

AM - woke up at about 5:00, planned on doing 3 miles on my own, then 2 miles with Sparky.  Got going and felt good, nice easy pace.  However, just before I hit my turnaround point slightly after 1.5 miles, I had major scary experience where I saw (again) what looked very much like a mountain lion.  It was crossing through an open lot at the NE corner of Sossaman and Guadalupe.  I turned around and hightailed it out of there.  Probably the fastest mile I have run in a while.  At one point I was hitting about 5:30 pace, totally pumped full of adrenaline, and then the fatigue started to set in.  Although the Garmin is currently set to autolap only at mile intervals, I had about a mile or so where I was right around 6:00 pace.  Finally got myself calmed down, slowed down and cooled down the last 1/4 mile.  Then I took Sparky out for what was supposed to be 2 miles, but I was still feeling so paranoid that after 1 mile I called it quits.  Makes me want to go out and buy something to be able to protect myself with.  I dunno - I'm not thinking too rationally right now, but I am also not feeling particularly inclined to run in that direction for a while.  Will plan on a couple more miles this evening if possible.

PM - 4 easy miles on the treadmill.  I was unable to get in any more miles yesterday as I came down with the same thing Lybi did, and felt pretty rotten for about 24 hours.  No nausea, just head feeling really weird, feeling kind of weak, a bit of a fever, but not much else.  Just like her, after a good night's sleep, I already felt much better.  Not sure what it was, but it seems to be gone.  Not sure how I am going to do my long run tomorrow - I am still a bit leery of running outside, but also don't want to wake Lybi up with my pounding on the treadmill.  I might just sleep in a bit until about 6:30, then run on the treadmill.

AM - 2 easy miles with Sparky at 6:00 AM, then I came inside and ran on the treadmill.  12 miles total (so far), 7 miles at 8:00 pace, and 5 miles at MP (6:49/mile).  After the last MP mile, I came to the conclusion that a) I am still a bit worn out from being sick and b) it was much  more humid inside from running on the treadmill, which wore me out quicker.  I know I could have kept going, but I would have been useless for today, and probably would have stressed my body too much to prepare adequately for the 1/2 marathon on Labor Day.  I plan to still get in  4 miles this evening sometime to bring my total for the day up to 18 miles, total for the week of 47.2 miles.  Next week will be all easy miles, probably 6 miles each day.

AM - 2 easy miles with Sparky, average pace 8:15/mile. Didn't get to sleep until 10:30 and didn't want to run off only 6 hours of sleep, so I slept in. Will get in another 4 miles this evening. Felt very good this morning, legs felt loose, had some pop to my legs this morning. I hope to be able to have that same pop next Monday morning when I run my race.

PM - 4 more miles outside.  The temperature was phenomenal - we had had several thunderstorms move through the valley today, and it was only 84 degrees at 8:30 PM.  It was wonderful.  As a result, I was kind of over-excited, and ran a little faster than I had planned on.  Average pace for the 4 mile run was 7:30/mile. 

AM - 3 miles on my own, averge pace of 8:08/mile, then 2 miles with Sparky, average pace of 8:39/mile.  The run this morning felt much easier than last night, although last night's run wasn't really hard - it just wasn't easy.  It was a balmy 74 degrees this morning, but the humidity was unreal.  Even at that temperature, I was sweating buckets by the time I came back from my run.

PM - 1 more mile with Joey, in 11:30.  We got to run outside this afternoon - it was only 95 degrees out!  He did a great job, and it felt good to my legs - let them loosen up a little bit.  My calves are still a little tight, and I think a little more scraping and massaging will be in order this evening.

PM - 4 miles on the treadmill, fiddled around with the incline settings, went up as high as 3, then back down to 1 for the last mile.  Last 1/2 mile at MP.  Then another 2 miles outside with Sparky.  Last 1/2 mile with Sparky was right around MP as well.  It was 84 degrees outside this evening when I ran, but today was extremely humid by any standards, and especially for Arizona - 81% humidity - that's crazy humid here.  However, I am glad for the rain.  We have already gotten an inch more rain this monsoon season than we got all last year's monsoon, and we still have a few weeks left, with more storms on the way this weekend.

PM - after having not run at all yesterday, I was not real motivated to run today, especially since a) we were traveling all day, and I was fairly tired and b) I had eaten a large plate of spaghetti with seconds :)  However, reason prevailed on me, and I ended up at least doing 2 easy miles with Lybi.  My stomach complained the entire second mile, and after having planned on doing a few more miles after I dropped Lybi off, I determined that this would not be a good time, and I did not want to puke up my entire dinner, so I called it quits after 2 miles.

PM - this is a pre-emptive blog here in Colorado Springs.  Mike and I are planning on going over the first half of the out-and-back 1/2 marathon I am running on Monday - me on foot, and him on his bike.  I am going to make sure that I take these miles nice and easy - 8:30 pace.  My only desire for this run is to acquaint myself with the 1/2 marathon course other than just via a map so that I know where the turns are and such, and have a better idea of what the elevation will be like.  More detailed blog to follow.

Update: disaster struck!  So I went for a nice easy run with Mike riding his bike alongside me, so that I could get a good idea of the course and better know what to expect.  The first 1/2 of the course was all gravel trail.  Other than a first mile that was a little too fast, I was right on my target pace of 8:30/mile.  However, I think that two days straight of travel, combined with the altitude, ended up doing a number on my calf.  At the 3.5 mile mark, I got a monster cramp in my calf - not a pop, but boy did it hurt!  I ended up walking a bit, and then finished the run at a slower pace.  Needless to say, I was extremely upset and worried I wouldn't be able to run the half on Monday.  After vigorous massage and scraping, it started to feel better on Sunday, but I was still worried.  See race report on Monday for full details.