Run Derneld, Run!

5.28 miles outside at work. It was nice to go outside, but still so cold and windy out in the flat flat desert. 6x30 second strides.

4.5 miles on treadmill at home after work.

Hamster wheel at work (called "The Curve")

4.88 miles outside on the hill. I've been missing that almost daily climb.

90 minutes easy on the treadmill early in the AM

This was a weird morning...

Hopped on the treadmill in the apartment clubhouse around 5am to start a 15 mile marathon pace workout. Did a 1 mile warmup at 8:34/mi and then locked in at 7:42/mi. About 50 minutes in, the building fire alarm started buzzing, so I grudgingly paused my workout. I could've transitioned to my warm clothes faster, but I figured I would check the mail by the clubhouse and maybe the alarm would turn off by then. It took about 7-8 minutes from turning off the treadmill to get out on the road in warm clothes to restart my workout. Outside I maintained a pace around 7:49 very consistently, which I think equates fairly well to 7:42 on the tready, considering also some of the obstacles faced outside. I finished with a 0.2 mile kick at the end, which was exciting and felt really good.    I ended up doing more like 15.6 at marathon pace, but I did get that fire alarm break in the middle. 

The fire alarm was so random. I'm about 99% certain that I was the only person in the building. The building is still there and as far as I can tell the office is open today. I swear I didn't pull the fire alarm...

Also 1.8 mile cooldown at the end

5 miles on the treadmill at work. Felt abnormally sluggish for the pace, not sure why.

4.5 miles at home. My normal easy pace still felt a little too hard...

5 miles easy on the treadmill at work. Felt significantly better than yesterday.

5 miles at work on treadmill. 30+ mph winds outside and still below freezing temperatures. March winds are rolling in!

4.5ish miles outside on the hill. The winds were astounding to say the least.

5.22 miles outside at work. Did a 20 minute tempo, 10 minutes head first into the wind, and 10 minutes with a lovely tail wind.

4.5 miles at home on the hill. Also windy, but it's warm!

Just 9 days until my first race of the year! Canyonlands Half Marathon, here I come. Also, in other news, we bought a house in Idaho Falls and should be moving in sometime in April, so that'll be a busy month.

5 miles at work on treadmill

4.5 miles at home after work on treadmill

15 mile progression run. I stopped about 10 paces from the beginning to retie my shoe, and paused the garmin. I didn't remember to start it again until about 0.4 to 0.5 miles in, so I just manually entered my lap where I knew the first mile would end and autolapped each mile after that. This was my first time trying a progression run, and I found it to be as good of a mental exercise as a physical one. I definitely have some room for improvement in the pacing department. Miles were: 

I really enjoyed pushing myself. It was exciting to feel some fuel left in the tank after 13 miles, and I really tried hard to let it all out in the last 2 miles, with a nearly all-out quarter mile at the end.

5.02 miles at work easy. Beautiful day out in the desert, saw a good number of other folks running.

4.5 miles on treadmill at home. Will do a small workout tomorrow, and then I will just stay warm for Moab this Saturday. Also got the inspection done on our house, and there were no (major) problems! 

5.01 miles at work, outside. Close to the end, I did 12 miles @ LT. Averaged 6:47 during that time. I definitely feel I'm getting better. I'm not sure my training would've changed if I hadn't started participating on FRB, and I'm pretty sure I never would've gotten better if my training hadn't changed. Sure am grateful I found this!

3 miles very easy on part of the hill today.

4.23 outside at work easy

2.27 outside at home after work, also easy. Less than 3 days til Moab.

Easy miles on treadmill. Travel day.

Hiking in Arches National Park. Tried to keep it pretty mild, but I am the only person running a half marathon tomorrow.

The prettiest course I have ever run, even better than the Grand Teton Half that ends at Teton Village north of Jackson, Wyoming. It was also a PR for me, which is something I've been unable to get to since my Huntsville disaster in 2015. 

The day before the race I took my family to Arches National Park to enjoy the scenery. I probably hiked a little too much and stood out in the heat too much as well. We also went to a local diner that only seems to sell deep fried food. I had a veggie burger there and mostly had bagels for the rest of the day. 

I woke up with an uncomfortable stomach and lots of nerves, and the race wasn't going to start until 10am. The starting line was so cold. I opted to bring a hoodie, but no sweatpants (which is half-nice since I forgot to grab my gear bag afterwards), and I was still freezing. I did a half mile warmup about 40 minutes before the start and drank my last sample of UCAN. I stood close to the front with the 1:30 pacer, and the clan formed around him. He told me that in the first mile (the biggest downhill in the race) he would try to run in 6:40. Five minutes after the race started, the pacer and his clan already had 20 to 30 seconds on me. I felt like they were going too fast, and confirmed that when I finished the first mile in exactly 6:40. About halfway through the first mile we ran into the first sunlight from over the cliffs, and the temperature difference was immediately noticeable. I knew that hydration would be very important in this race. With the exception of the first aid station, I grabbed a water at each station, drank half, and poured half on my head. I figured this would work very well in the super dry weather of Moab, and it turned out to be the case. For the first 3 miles I got passed by a few people and passed nobody. I stayed calm and stuck to my personal goal of keeping under 7:10/mi. From miles 6.5-8.5 I took a raspberry clif gel.  During the second half of the race I passed 20-30 people; most of those were in the last 4 miles. With 2 miles to go, I felt really good and I was fairly confident I would be able to PR and also catch a few more people I could see. My last two miles were both under 7. I really tried hard to muster a kick at the end, but I didn't really feel much faster during the last bit.

I think the big change that made this race better was increasing my easy miles. Around Christmas time-ish last year, I tried to really up my weekly mileage and took a few weeks off of workouts, except long runs. After maintaining around 60 miles/week, I slowly started adding some small workouts. It seems to have worked well so far. Looking forward to the Salt Lake City full next month!

I recorded the race as 13.17, which seems consistent with some other race reports on FRB from previous years. Anyways, here are the splits:
 

5.06 miles outside at work. 

4.5 miles at home on the hill.

5 miles easy on treadmill at work. Feeling tired today, and will probably forego my evening run.

5.52 out in the desert

4.99 on the hill. Still enjoying recovery time this week!

Ran at work in the windy windy weather. I felt meh this afternoon (possibly sickness coming on), and just decided to play with Ellie.

Easy running split between a lunch run at work and one at home in the PM

Treadmill workout:

-Warm up at 8:34/mi for 30 minutes.

-Goal marathon pace at 7:42/mi (adjusted for treadmill) for 90 minutes.The last mile was done at 7:30/mi.

-Slowly transitioned into cooldown, going from 7:30/mi down to 8:34/mi over 10 minutes. In total the cooldown was 30 minutes.

Total distance: 18.81 miles, Time: 150 minutes

3.5 miles - on The Curve (dubbed "the hamster wheel")

4.96 miles on the hill this evening after a really nice nap on the bus

5.95 miles easy out in the desert.

4.33 miles on the hill. Pushed Ellie in the stroller, and averaged a 9:30 pace.

5.78 mile workout in the desert. Lactate threshold steps with 1-minute rests in between: 1 km, 1 mile, 10 min, 1 mile. Paces on each, respectively, were 7:01/mi, 7:02/mi, 6:59/mi, 6:53/mi.

4.5 miles easy on the treadmill in the evening

5.39 easy miles during lunch

4.5 easy treadmill miles at home after work

5 easy miles on treadmill during lunch

4.5 easy miles on treadmills just before dinner. Gnocchis!