Why I Oughta!!!

Today I ran my long run for the week with a tempo/race pace.  I did the first half of my run to yoga class.  The outside temp was 82 with a head wind, and to top it off, the course is all up-hill.  The stop lights were working against me and parts of the roads were under construction.  I did the run with an 8:41 pace.  Not bad for a slow, fat guy.

Yoga was good.  But it seems to only stress my tired legs for the run home.

The run home was cooler, down hill, and no wind.  The lights worked to my favor this time.  I did a 7:53 pace home.  Total miles = 11.6 miles (5.8 miles one way)

Yesterday, I rode 20 miles on my bike with a 3/4 mile swim in the middle of my ride.

I decided to run a new area of St George. My 11 & 13 yr old followed on bikes. We rode from bloomington up to the Green Valley Spa Area where the green valley loop trail starts. I ran the first 6 miles at a 9:03 pace. The trail really slowed me down because of steep drops, hard pan and rutty trail. My stabilitzer muscles will be reminding me of this run for the next few days. I was slower on the trail with a 10:54 pace for 4.5 miles. The last 2.5 miles I ran at marathon goal pace (8:31). Total time was 2:04:32 for a 9:35 pace. The trail was fun and beautiful. The boys can't wait to ride that course again.

Yesterday, I swam 46 laps. 30 laps I swam at a fast pace to see if my time improved. I did improve 1 minute for a total time of 15 minutes. Next time I will eat the fish taco, macho burrito, 2 regular tacos, and 2 cokes after my swim, not before... yikes!!!

My 11 yr old and I headed out for what he thought was an easy run.  We ran the first 2 miles at a 10:00 pace with 1 minutes rest breaks after every 4 minutes of running.  The entire 2 miles was up hill.  After that, it was all down hil for the next 5 miles.  I just relaxed and let my body feel the groove.  I ran the 5 miles at a 7:57 pace.  It all felt great!!  I would have ran faster but I'm a little gun shy of injury.  The 11 yr old dropped out with 2 miles left.  He wasn't feeling the same groove.  Total average run was 8:32 pace.

Rode bike to work, then home, then back to work, and then home for a total of 10 miles.  Easy ride!

Started as a leisurely run for lunch, ended with me running well under my marathon goal pace.  Ran 5 miles with an average time of an 8:16 pace.  I ran the last mile under an 8:00 pace.  I'm wondering if a 3:45 marathon goal will be too easy by October.

Swam 42 laps at the pool.  Swam my 30 laps in 13 minutes.  That is my fastest time yet.  I had a guy in the lane next to me motivating me to go faster.  Okay, okay... I had to beat him and I did!!!!  Did a 10 lap cool down after my 30.

Ran on a hilly course through bloomingto hills and around through the back way into bloomington.  Total average time was 8:40 pace.  Good run!

Ran easy for the first 2.5 miles.  My son wanted to walk a little, so I left him and I paced around a 8:10 for 2 miles.  I was suppose to take today easy... oh well!!!

Did a little speed work at the Dixie College track.  The sky was dark and the wind was howling.  The conditions were perfect!

I only did 4 reps at 1:30 pace per 400 meters with a 200 meter recovery between each rep.  Ran a 9:00 warm up mile and a 8:00 cool down mile.  Didn't want to over do it since I'm participating in a sprint triathlon this saturday.

Went to yoga right after the run.  That was a nice recovery!

This morning started with the SHAQ Triathlon.  I participated in the sprint for fun.  I should have tried harder, I got third in my age bracket... DOH!!  I smoked the swim, and I am not a swimmer.  The bike was headed to be a fast time until I got to the area to mount the bike and I was missing one shoe.... DOH!!!  A kind volunteer found my shoe, and after my 2 minute delay I was off on the bike.  I passed everyone... heehee!  Minus the disappearinng shoe trick, my time was better than expected.  The run was okay... I lost time in transition again because I wanted to wear socks for the run.  That killed another minute to minute and a half.  I finished with a time of 1:09:01.

I ran home after the race so I could get my extra running miles for the day.  I took it easy not knowing if I was going to bonk on the way home.  I averaged  a 9:00 pace for 8 miles.  This was a good day!  Taking it easy for the last 3 days must have helped with all this extra energy today.

Elijah and I got up at 5 am to run our loop.  We took it nice and easy up the hill for 2 miles (10:30 pace).  Then cruised the rest of the way home.  Average pace was 9:19 for all 6.5 miles.  We did a few fartliks and 1 mile marathon pace.

Biked to work and swam 50 laps at the pool.

My son Joshua bragged last night that he was the jugernant because he ran 5 miles in 38:30.  Not bad for a beginner.  So today, I ran my 5 miles in 37:56 (7:36 pace). heehee

Going to yoga tonight and rode my bike to work.

I started today with a 5:30 am run.  St George is getting into the mid 90's... too hot to run during lunch.  The City has been slowly resurfacing the trails along the Virgin river this week so I ran an old loop through bloomington that I use to run a lot.  I also decided to track my performance per mile.

Mile 1 started out as a warm up, but it has a slight down hill for the first 0.8 mile.  I ran it at a slow 9:24.  The last 0.2 mile had a sharp climb.

Mile 2 had the rest of the hill to climb with the last 0.3 mile with a sharp drop. 9:05 pace

Mile 3 was all slight down hill so I did an acceleration at 7:23.  I guess I didn't push myself hard enough because I still wanted to maintain the pace.  But this was not suppose to be a tempo run.

Mile 4 was just the momentum left over from the previous mile. (8:06) It was flat and slightly up-hill.

Mile 5 was my cool down, but not really.(8:48)  It was all slightly up-hill. The over-all run averaged out to an 8:34 pace.

My marathon goal pace for St George Marathon is 8:35 with a finish time of 3:45:00.  I'm getting that feeling that I may exceed my goal.  But I plan to take it easy with small increases in my training schedule. I'm swimming 2 or 3 times per week and riding my bike to work everyday. Yoga and weight training is included. Yoga tonight.

Yesterday, I did a light lower body weight training and swam 50 laps.  All this training sure makes it fun to eat!!  I'm loosing weight, must eat more!!

It was hill work today. I'm not sure if this work out put me into the threshhold category. I originally planned to do 5-6 hill repeats, but being the over-acheiver that I am, I did 8 hills.

Maybe I shouldn't count the first hill since it was during my warm-up miles, it was low (2-3% grade), and I only ran it at a 8:30 pace. After warming up for 2 miles I hit the hill on Piute drive. The section of hill I ran was about 500 feet in length. I ran the hill on both sides at an average pace of 7:00. One time I did the pace at a 6:30.

After the hills I took off to do some extra miles and of-course when I came apon a hill, I had to speed up. The last hill was the big one. A third of a mile long and probably a 7-8% grade. I kept a 10:00 pace so I could finish the rest of my run.

The next 4 miles was all slightly down hill and with the wind at my back for the first half. My pace ranged between 7:30 to 8:20. I just let my body choose the speed it wanted. I felt like I could have ran faster. The last mile I took a 0.1 mile walk break and then resumed a 8:30 pace home on a slight up-hill.

Good work out!!

5:30 am easy run today.  Average pace 9:21.  First 2 miles was a 10:37 pace and uphill.  Next 4 miles the average pace was 8:43.  The last mile was an 8:00 pace.

That evening I did a lower body and abs weight training.  Biked to work.

Just ran hard... Pace was 7:27.  Total time 37:11

Yoga was a nice post stretch and biked to work.

The whole run averaged 8:30 which is 5 seconds under my marathon goal pace. My run was late in the day because I choose to ride my bike this morning. I went to yoga and really put the moves on in class. Then I ran home. I know a ran a couple miles under an 8:00 pace. Running sure has felt good over the last 5 weeks.

Yesterday I swam a mile. I have been working up to that for the last 4 weeks. It got easier to swim the long I kept at it. I could have swam longer, but I didn't want to over do it.

I have biked to work every day this week and been doing more strenth training.