Why Not?

6x800 workout -- was planning on going 2:30's but not quite...

2:32, 2:31, 2:23, 2:21, 2:17, 2:34 (this one I backed off to try and run 2:35)

Felt crappy at the start, better as we went along.

3 Miles in the PM with Sammy Dog

4 easy miles

5 miles with some hills at Sundance.

Park City Mountain 5k 16:48 5th Place

Felt like crap the 2nd half. Not in very good shape.

Ran 6 miles post race.

AM: 8 miles rather hard around PC, Old Ranch Rod, trails, etc.

PM: 5 easy on the trails up Mirror Lake with Sammy.

AM: 12 miles, 2 alone and then 10 with the PCCC team -- Lost Prospector Loop.

AM: 6 miles by the Jordanelle Dam, Provo Watershed Trails, felt pretty good,lots of bugs and overgrowth though.

PM: 6 miles (2 with Sammy).. Road the bike for about 12 miles also/

12x400 on the grass at North 40 Fields in PC (took the GPS and this course is about 12 feet short)

69,68,68,67,67,68,68,67,66,65,63,58

Felt okay, pretty darn good at the end. Better at the end than the start actually. The last 4 were barefoot, which is why they were speedy.

PM: 4 miles with Sammy. A great night for a run, cool weather with a nice breeze.

AM: 10 mile run from the Jordanelle Dam to Dutch Trails and back down River Road. Hills, trails, and pavement, it had it all. I was dying in the heat for the last 2, need to wake up earlier in the morning. About 67:00 for 10.

AM: Graveyard Hill in PC x4  yuck. Legs hurt.

Followed up by a 8 mile Mt. Bike Ride.

Long Run Day -- planned around the canyon to canyon 1/2

Got their at 6:10AM. Ran for 40:00 warmup on some ATV trails before the race. Changed shoes and ran the half. Felt terrible 3 miles in and wanted to turn around, but decided to gut it out. By mile 5 I was okay. hit the first half (6.55) in 44:45.

Either the way back was more downhill or I got some sort of second wind. I felt much better, to the point at which, 10 miles into the run, I was running 6:00 pace and feeling great. I had a PowerGel at 6, that might have helped. Ran the second half in 41:20 -- over 3 minutes faster, which the last 3 being the fastest.

Concluded the day with a 2.5 mile cooldown and my legs still feeling okay. I could have went more today even, but 21 was enough considering my LR before was somewhere around 13.

PM: Biked 12 miles on the roads with Erica. Legs still okay, though I wasn't really pushing it.

6 easy at Dutch Hollow with Sammy Dog. It got hot at the end, but there was some breeze and some shade. No real ill effects from Sat. yet.

AM: Lost Prospector Loop out and back up Chatham. the first 30:00 went by really fast, the last 40:00 not so much. I was hurting at the end, and was slowing down. Now the question is, Des News or No News?

PM : 3 miles easy with Sams 

Sick sick sick all day 3am til I went to bed at 10. Felt a little better at about9. Couldn't even walk the dog around the block. Maybe food poisoning?

AM: 5x800 with PCCC.

2:33, 2:30, 2:25, 2:25, 2:22

Felt okay, still a little nausea from yesterday lingering. And I didn't eat any food yesterday, so I was a little weak. Legs felt great though, no problems at all.

6 total in the AM

6 hot miles in NOLA

10 miles in NOLA

11 in NOLA

3 miles in NOLA before flight.

2 in the AM with Sammy Dog.

4 at night. Legs felt great

6x600 on grass

1:51, 1:50, 1:47, 1:47, 1:47, 1:48 Pretty solid. I felt great for the last 3. Plenty of rest, ran on a 5:00 cycle. DesNews on Friday.. Yikes

3 miles easy. Des News tomorrow

Des News Marathon

I signed up last week on a whim. I wanted to get something long in, and I decided that I would use a marathon as training, and take it easy - you know -- like run 7:00 pace and feel okay.

7:00 pace certainly wasn't happenin once I got going. The first 4 miles are downhill, screaming downhill, and I was easily putting away 5:40's  for the first 3. (5:35, 5:39, 5:41). I let the lead group get away (after all, I was taking it easy). My plan was to just pick up people as they fell off the lead group and run with them a ways. This, also, did not happen.

The first 6 were pretty friendly, I slowed down for 5 and 6 and was 34:44 at 6. Then came the big hill and I obviously slowed down. I was hurting even, I picked up 3 guys moving into 6th place and was dead at the top of the hill. I didn't remember it being that hard when I ran it a couple times last year. I wanted to recover over the top, and I did somewhat, but by 9 miles I wasn't feeling great.

I took my 2nd PowerGel around 12 and kept chugging along. By this point I had settled into 6:10's or so. Honestly, it was the longest 10 mile I've had in any marathon. Generally, I fly through 10 and don't even know it. This time, by 11,12,13, I was feeling it. 6:10's were still coming along but I knew it was going to be a long day.

By 16 I was still running, but started to slow down. There were a couple hills in there that took it to me and now I was worried about the field behind me as I knew 2 guys weren't far back. The runner in front of me dropped out before 16 so I moved into 5th.

By 18 I had 8 of my toughest miles. Each one was rougher than the previous. I tried to eat some gel and drink some gatorade and managed a little. I somehow made it to 20, then 21, then 22. It's easy to type, but these miles were incredibly, incredibly hard. No idea on pace. Erica kept giving me gatorade and water and I kept putting one foot in front of the other.

23 was shambles. At 24 I was sure I was going to get passed. I must have been running 10:00 pace at that point. 25 was pure hell, I was ready to walk about 50 times. 26 was worse, I walked a few steps, turned around, saw I had about 200 yards lead, and decided I couldn't just throw it away.

Final time was 2:46:43   Halfway I was 1:21:20. The splits seemed a helluva lot worse than they were. I would have guessed I slowed down over 10 minutes. Instead, it was only 5. 

I was really happy with my time and my effort. On my training, there was nothing more I could have done. Only 1 week over 70 miles this year, a lot crappy weeks, etc. So I am more than pleased, and was happy to get 5th.

Now we'll see if I can walk tomorrow. 

Bike for about 25 miles

Biked some tough hills, about 50 minutes. Still can't run.

Legs are feeling much better. Biked about 15 miles easy today. I will try to get in some miles tomorrow.

8 easy with Sammy... Hammy still hurts