my makeup may be flaking

Wow! What a great way to start the new year. I went around the island in 1:24:54 and it felt very smooth and relaxed. I've done this run many, many times over the year. My best was 1:18 in an all out super rested for effort last winter. Other than that my best time was 1:24:30 as an all out effort the summer of 2007. Other than that a fast day is anything under 1:30 (or at least it was in college). This effort wasn't that tough and I ran alot more even than I have in the past. Anyway, the pace was a little under 6 minutes which was not easy, but I was not in any kind of difficulty and was actually kind of zone out listening to music the whole way. I signed up for the SLCTC series and the striders series today (yeah I missed the cheaper price by one day because I'm stupid). I don't know if I'll do all those races but for any of you who want to win, you better I hope I don't show up. Bwahahaha!

Very relaxed.

Went around the island across the bridge and around the slough in about 2:12, a hair under 7 minute pace. I'm trying to pick up the pace on my long runs.

I'm frontloading this week so I decided to do another marathon pace workout. I felt really strong on this run and was able to hit the pace despite a bit of snowfall. The first seven miles are uphill (43:00, 6:08 pace) and then I really pushed hard on the last 5.5 miles (29:30, 5:21 pace)

Total time was 1:12:28 (about 5:48 per mile).

I was understandably tired today. I did two pretty slow runs. 9.2 in the morning and then 5.5 in the afternoon.

Short easy run today in the morning. Mucho plans for the day and somehow I'm still on vacation so I'm still being lazy.

Hah! Ran around the island in 1:15:55. I wanted to save myself for this weekend but the weather (48degrees and raining) made me want to crush some workout so I did this 13.5 mile run in 1:15:55. Yes that's right, it's totally legit that converts to 1:13:40 for a half and I wasn't really that tired after it or really pushing all that hard during it. In fact i ran solid even splits. I was getting slowed down by cars and mud and stuff. It just confirms that I really didn't have my best day at the Seattle half (despite it being my best official performance). Previous best for this time trial was for this time one year ago. (2 and a half minutes slower).

A little slow to get started on my runs today. I did 10.3 in the AM and 5.5 in the afternoon neither where really that fast. I felt some pain in my ankle at the start of the second run nothing much. Tomorrow was a scheduled easy day anyway.

Nice and relaxed in preparation for tomorrow's festivities.

Did two races today. First went to Magnuson Park (on the Western Shore of Lake Washington) to run the Winter Grand Prix series #3. It's a similar idea to the SLCTC series except as the races are 2miles or 3k, you can expect alot of high school and college kids.

I was initially planning to do the road race on the 20th but I scrapped that idea because the roads were too treacherous. This led to me trying to run an XC race (a 3k no less) in flats. The course was mostly fine but there were some tough areas for me where I lost a lot of ground and I couldn't make it up. I split 5:08 at the miles and I think the two big loops that we did were in exactly the same time. Brett Winegar won, a teammate of Sean Sundwall at Club Northwest. He looked very controlled and I think he would have gotten the better of me even if I had had spikes. I also recognized Bruce Jackson, who beat me. I did beat James Conrick though, who won the Conference I ran in my first year of HS xc. He was about 3 minutes ahead of me then (that was 8 years ago, wow!). Anyway definitely a good sign, and I'm confident that I can break 9:30 in my upcoming two mile.

I went home and regrouped, took a shower, had some lunch then headed off to Kirkland's Bridal Trails State Park. This was the sight of the Seattle trail running festival (the name was something like that). There was a 5mile a 10mile and a 50k. The 10mile seemed to attract some good competition year in and year out so I jumped into that. There seemed to be a good knot of 5 or 6 good runners. However, a hilly muddy 10 mile race plays into my hands. I surged away on the first uphill and no one made a move to catch me. Instead they all ran a more tactical race for second (so I was informed by the 3rd placer, Leif Kohler). I'm sure those guys were not happy to be racing the Seattle Half runner up! I blitzed through the first half (5.2 miles I believe) in 29:30 or so. This was only a couple seconds off of the record for the "5miler". It was raining hard and I was basically fighting not to lose my shoes in the muddy trails. I lost some time in the middle of the second lap. I had a ton of energy left at the end to close hard, but there just wasn't enough dry trail and I ended up running 1:00:24 to miss the 10mile course record by 1 second! Or so I was informed. The course record was from 2006 by Andy Edick who had placed 3rd in State that year.

Yeah, missed my flight and spent the day on the phone so no run. But that's alright.

Ran in City Creek today. My left arch felt a little bit sore but it was fine to run slowly.

Did a single loop of Sugarhouse park in the morning. It was very cold, but there was still alot of snow which made the run annoying. My foot still hurt, but it seemed better than yesterday. I iced it for 20 minutes after the run. In the evening I did three loops of Liberty Park.

I started my run this morning but I didn't like how my foot felt so I turned around and went home. I iced it for twenty minutes and then again in the evening.

My foot seemed better so I tested it out for a mile on the indoor track (nice and flat), then got in 45 minutes on the stationary bike. Then I did another mile on the track and it was again fine. Tomorrow I will test it properly and try to make a diagnosis.

Did a short test-run this morning. I was fine for about a mile, then I started to feel some pain that remained the same for the remainder of the run and for a little bit after. There was very little discomfort in my foot before hand, so clearly running made it worse. As I right this in the afternoon my foot feels mostly fine but it's clearly not healed.

As my foot is basically ok, it's difficult to diagnose, but I believe I have an abductor hallicus strain, albeit a mild one. What's the cure for this? Rest and Ice! What a shock. I can also try to tape the foot. 

Tried running in the morning and then again in the afternoon. My foot still didn't feel right but it was ok.

Tried running a little but it seemed worse than yesterday so I decided to rest it again

Taped up my foot and went for a long run. It was fine to begin with but became quite painful, I'm not sure whether the taping helped or not

Went to see a doctor today, he didn't think there was anything that wrong. He took an xray (no fracture) and recommend that I just try to run on it.

Ran on the track at the fieldhouse. I also did a bit on the elliptical. My foot seemed ok, but I wanted to make sure that I could ice after running and get some advil before I started running alot.

Just did an experiment to see how far I could run without pain forcing me to stop. I made it about 3 miles before needing to stop. I walked a few meters then was able to run again, but the pain returned after about 2 minutes.

Ran again until pain forced me to stop to see whether it got better or worse on the second consecutive day. This time the pain never reached the level of the day before but it was still not comfortable so I stopped after 5.5 miles.

Did the same as yesterday, felt pretty good again actually.