Chad's Runs

April 2012

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Location:

Lehi,UT,

Member Since:

Jun 03, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Marathon Finish

Running Accomplishments:

Top of Utah 2010  -  4:25

Short-Term Running Goals:

Run a sub 4:00 marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

Run consistently and have fun doing it.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Mizuno Elixer Lifetime Miles: 999.10
Mizuno (I Forget) Lifetime Miles: 755.98
Asics 1140 Lifetime Miles: 791.16
Altra Instinct Lifetime Miles: 534.45
Saucony Mirage Lifetime Miles: 705.00
Kinvara Lifetime Miles: 6.10
Nike Pegasus Lifetime Miles: 304.00
Total Distance
154.00
Saucony Mirage Miles: 71.00Asics 1140 Miles: 9.00Altra Instinct Miles: 64.00Mizuno Elixer Miles: 10.00
Total Distance
5.00

Short 5 today because of a new pair of shoes.  I got a pair of Saucony Mirages.  I like them so far.  These are the shoes I'm planning on running Utah Valley in so I better like them. I also got a late start because I couldn't get to sleep last night.  I don't know why. 

I missed yesterday because I just blew it off.  I got up just after 4 and we had the windows open so it was freezing in the house.  It also sounded like the wind was howling.  I didn't want to run in freezing wind.  I stepped outside and it actually wasn't too bad and I was disappointed.  So I went back to bed anyway.

I only got 148 miles last month.  I wanted a whole bunch more.  I'm shooting for 200 this month but I'm off to pretty bad start.

Saucony Mirage Miles: 5.00
Comments(4)
Total Distance
9.00

I felt real sluggish when I started this morning. I figured it was going to be one of those days. I had time for 9 if I could keep up a decent pace, but I couldn't, until mile 5. I suddenly warmed up and my pace dropped by more than a minute per mile. That's a long time to get warmed up, approaching an hour!?  But I got it going and finished strong.

Asics 1140 Miles: 9.00
Comments(4)
Total Distance
15.00

A fun 15 miles in St. George. I went down there for Easter to visit my mother-in-law. The weather Saturday morning was perfect, absolutely perfect, it couldn't have been any better. It was a really nice morning for a run. Did I mention the weather was perfect? I ran 15 miles without water. I know, that wasn't very smart, but the weather was perfect, and I was relaxed. I couldn't stop going. I told my wife I'd be gone an hour and a half or so but I actually planned on 2 hours, easier to get forgiveness than permission. But when I actually got out there, the weather was perfect and I couldn't stop. I ran out to the entrance to Snow Canyon State Park. I wish I would have even had more time, but I was pushing it with the 2 plus hours I actually ran. There was no crash like there was last week. I think a big part of the difference was my diet. Last Friday night I had a big steak, this time I had fried rice, the week before when I had that nice 18 miles I had pasta the night before. I hope it is that simple. Well, my running has been a little sparse. It couldn't be helped. Thursday I had to be into work early and home late and Friday I had more work than I could fit in before leaving for St. George. So it was a pretty crappy week. It is actually Monday now when I'm writing this report and I missed this morning again because we got back late last night. I have a huge work week again so I don't know that I will get very many miles in this week. The marathon will suffer but that is the way it goes.

 Here is a picture of the road up to Snow Canyon State Park.  I sure would have liked to keep running. 

Altra Instinct Miles: 15.00
Comments(2)
Total Distance
10.00

I kept waiting for my body to warm up and feel strong. It never really happened. It did a little bit starting around mile 5 again, but not to the point of last week. I tried to keep my pace relaxed because I'm planning more 10s Wednesday and Thursday. I'm waiting to see if I get stronger or weaker.

Saucony Mirage Miles: 10.00
Comments(2)
Total Distance
8.00

I haven't done any speed work since last December. I have just been concentrating on building my mileage back up since my ankle issues. I have changed some things in my form since then and decided to try and work on increasing my cadence instead of straight up speed work.  I've never been able to even get close to the recommended 180.  I'm not even sure that is practical or even feasible for me because I'm tall and have long legs.  Does that cadence change for tall people with long legs?  I don't know, but I think it should.  So, I downloaded a metronome onto my iPhone, set it at 170 (actually at 85 so the beat would only be on my left steps), and turned up the volume.  I ran the first mile with metronome off.  I should mention that I did not want to be up this morning.  I almost didn't get out of be, then I almost went back to bed, then I almost turned back before the end of the first mile.  I was not in the mood to run, consequently my first mile was barely a shuffle, I could have almost walked faster than the 11 minute mile I ended up with.  My plan was to run mile repeats at the 170 tempo and just see how it went.  The first mile was easy and real slow.  I figured something was wrong because 170 is not slow for me.  I checked the metronome and it was set at 160 instead of 170.  Oops.  So the second me was better.  The pace was good and sustainable, maybe a little too easy.  I ran another.  After those were done I turned around and decided to run two miles at a time instead of just the one and that turned out to be fairly easy as well.  I'll have to bump it up next time.

Altra Instinct Miles: 8.00
Comments(1)
Total Distance
20.00

What a great run.  It was so much better than the 20 miler I attempted two weeks ago.  This time I had great company, RAD, Toby, and Karen.  The only negative was the brief TMI girl talk that took place.  Other than that it was nice to run with the ladies, although it would be nice if a guy would come along every once in a while.  Anyway, I felt strong the entire way.  This is very encouraging for the upcoming marathon.  I don't know if I'll get my sub 4, but I'll get close.  After this run I feel like I'm getting the stamina, the question is can I got some of the speed back that I had last December over the next 6 weeks.  I'm going to work on that.  There is also a question of how much training time I'll be able to do.  I've been too dang busy, much busier than I'd like which is impeding me from putting in the miles I'd like.

Saucony Mirage Miles: 20.00
Comments(1)
Total Distance
8.00

8 miles in the cold, it was much colder than I expected.  My hands were freezing.  I was slow too.  I tried to put in a decent pace but it just wasn't going to happen.  I shuffled along, hopefully due to the 20 miler on Saturday.  I also put in the other inserts into my Altras.  They come with two sets, one traditional and one designed to strengthen your feet.  It's pretty much just flat.  I could tell that my feet were getting worked and tired.  Maybe that had something to do with my slower speeds this morning.  Probably not.

Altra Instinct Miles: 8.00
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Total Distance
10.00

10 miles at marathon pace.  I felt better than yesterday.  This makes 930 miles on these shoes.  They're pretty trashed but I want to end on a nice round 1000.

Mizuno Elixer Miles: 10.00
Comments(6)
Total Distance
14.00

14 miles before work. I'm booked on Saturday with yard work and want don't want to be wiped out. I need my energy to get stuff done, so I did my short-long run today. Does that make sense?   It was my long run for the week but it is a smaller rest week so it isn't a 20+ miler.  I felt great.  I got stronger and faster as the miles went by and ended with the last mile the fastest.  I didn't plan on a progressive run.  I wanted to get in a comfortably quick groove without burning myself out.  As the miles went by I found that I was going to have plenty left so I kept on picking it up.  I hope I'm functional today.

Saucony Mirage Miles: 14.00
Comments(4)
Total Distance
8.00

8 miles that started out more as a shuffle than a run.  My first mile as 11:08!  11:08?  Holy crap!  Well, I didn't have time to run 8 miles at that pace so I picked it up.  I was feeling tired legs after yesterday's 14 miler.  But I slowly started to warm up.  The rest were high 8s and low 9s except for the last one which I ran in at just under 8.  Cool considering how I felt when I started this run.  My hands were cold.

Altra Instinct Miles: 8.00
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Total Distance
6.00

Crappy run this morning. I don't know why. I've had 2 days rest but my legs were dead this morning. I felt similar to how I felt after donating blood last month.  I hope things are better tomorrow.

Altra Instinct Miles: 6.00
Comments(5)
Total Distance
9.00

9 miles into Saratoga Springs and back. I was slow again this morning and I still don't know why. I started to feel better the last mile or two but I didn't want to push it because I'm running my long run tomorrow night. I slept through yesterday's planned run. My alarm clock snooze button just broke so I must have just turned it off although I don't remember doing it.  Maybe I should have done that again today because I was up past 11 last night watching the Jazz game.  11 to 4:30 isn't a good night's rest.  So I was on my way back from Saratoga Springs on the first section of the JRP.  This area doesn't border the river it just has the road on one side and a fence on the other.  It is more just a paved sidewalk than anything else.  Anyway, I heard a noise right next to me and when I looked down I saw a skunk running right there, two feet away, as someone might run with their dog.  I jumped into the road and hauled ___ trying to put as much distance between me and the back of that thing as possible.  That sight did much more to elevate my heart rate than the run.  I got home and my wife asked me if I'd been sprayed by a skunk.  Crap, I didn't think I had but I must have got something because she smelled it as soon as I walked in.  Now my bathroom smells like skunk and its been 4 hours since I changed and took a shower.  My laundry went straight to the washing machine but the bathroom still smells bad.  Now I'm paranoid.  Do I smell like this now?  Maybe I should hide and not talk to people today.  I now I didn't get a full spray, I mean how could you miss that, but I got something.

Altra Instinct Miles: 9.00
Comments(6)
Total Distance
22.00

There is only one thing good about this run, its over and I got in all 22.  Now I'll list the bad things.

First, it felt like I had ankle weights on the entire run.  I've felt like that all week but this run was the worst.  I don't know what the problem is but I'm taking a few days off.  I was going to take them off anyway because of a very busy schedule but now there is a reason besides that schedule.

Second, my feet ached.  It is probably related to reason number one.  Everything below my calves ached after mile 4 or so as if it was already on mile 20.  What is the deal?

Third, mile 9 or 10 I started to have stomach issues.  I didn't want gel or chews.  I did have some apple slices stashed on the trail at about 13 that I ate and those helped a little but I still didn't feel well.

Forth was the wind.  My planned route was to park at the bridge and run north up the point of the mountain an back to my car.  This would give me a rest stop at mile 10 where I could stash water, etc.  Then I had another stash on the trail 4 miles south near my house.  So instead of running 6 miles out from my car and back to make up the remaining 12 I ran further south and back so I would finish my 22 at my house.  If I was running north past my house with 4 to go until my car I might just stop at 18 and call it quits.  Ending 22 at my house removed that temptation.  So, back to the wind.  I run 13 miles south and 9 miles north.  More miles into the wind just plain sucks.

Fifth, the storm.  So for most of this run while I was fighting the wind I thought that at least the last 4 miles would be with the wind even though the 9 with was less than the 13 against.  Wrong!  Thursday night's storm started coming in shortly after I turned back to the north.  And of course it was a north wind.  THE DANG WIND CHANGED DIRECTION.  I WAS RUNNING AGAINST THE WIND AGAIN.  And not just wind but either cold bullet fast rain drops or soft hail, either way it stung.  I couldn't even run straight because the wind kept blowing me around and the last two miles was a down pour.  I was soaked.  However, the storm did give me an extra boost of adrenaline.  Before the storm I was barely moving along at a shuffle then the storm brought me out of that stupor.  I picked up the effort just to try and get out of the storm.  I was also yelling and cursing the storm.  I won't quote what was said (or yelled at the top of my lungs) because it isn't appropriate for this blog.  It's funny though, because of that wicked wind all that effort didn't increase my pace at all.  I still had a shuffle pace even though my effort was fueled by motivation and rage.

Number six is that I just plain felt crappy when I was done.  I was afraid to eat when I got home because I was sure it was going to come back up, so I went to bed.  It was around 9:30 or so.  I was also shivering.  I wasn't cold from the storm, my body was just messed up.  I don't know what the medical reason for it was but I needed some sleep.  I woke up around 12:30 feeling much better, but hungry and thirsty.  So I got up and had milk, cereal, ibuprofen, and ice cream.  I went back to bed and slept again till 8.  A good 10 hours sleep does wonders.

And now back to the one good thing.  I finished.  Its over.  There is something satisfying (and probably masochistic) about pushing your body to its limits and then pushing it some more.  I felt like shasdf;kjt after this run but I was upbeat with a smile on my face because I finished it in spite of all the obstacles.

Saucony Mirage Miles: 22.00
Comments(5)
Total Distance
10.00

10 fairly uneventful marathon pace miles. I ran south into Saratoga Springs again only I ran on the street instead of the 1/2 mile or so section of trail where I ran into the skunk. I don't want to go through that again. I've had the skunk shoes outside for 4 or 5 days now and they still stink. I ran in them today and the stink didn't transfer to my socks.  I don't know when or if I'll be able to bring them back inside.

Altra Instinct Miles: 10.00
Comments(3)
Total Distance
154.00
Saucony Mirage Miles: 71.00Asics 1140 Miles: 9.00Altra Instinct Miles: 64.00Mizuno Elixer Miles: 10.00
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