my makeup may be flaking

Down the Jordan River trail to 4500S. I felt pretty good and went fairly fast. Somewhat limited by my sore right hammy. My left knee felt weak at times, but this felt like a 4 mile run felt back in early June, which is a good sign.

Felt really good on my recovery run today. Ran two laps of liberty park. Did a couple of easy strides at the end.

AM 10 miles up to the recycling center, through the mountains and back.

PM I was planning on doing a tempo run around campus, however I locked myself out of my office and decided to run home. I added on two loops of liberty park. Total distance was 4.9 miles in 26:57 (5:30 pace).

Run around Sugarhouse and then ran to school. My right glute was bothering me quite a bit, it's been getting progressively worse for the last few days. 

AM Turns out 800mg of Ibuprofen cures what ails me. My glute felt much better while running today and I just kind of cruised down to 2100S and up to 1300E this morning.

PM Up to the track for 12X400.

I decided that I would do three sets of four with about 30 seconds rest and a lap jog between each set. I was thinking that I would start at around 72 and then try to slowly get faster. Even though I am fast my "base speed" is pretty average. Before track season my senior year of college I remember running some all out 400s and barely managing sub 70 (and I ran a 2:03 800 that year in my only shot).

Anyway first set: 69,69,69,70

Second set: 69,68,69,70

Third set 70,69,70,70

Each lap didn't feel so bad and I generally felt pretty strong coming down the homestretch. However, I definitely didn't feel like I was holding anything in reserve. I'm not sure what my heartrate was, but my breathing was recovered by the start of each rep.

I think this is a nice start but it would be great if I could average a couple of seconds faster.

I did a couple of strides afterwards but I was totally dead.

Still feeling very tired from previous day. None of the water fountains were working today in Sugarhouse (well, two in a row weren't so I gave up). Consequences of breaking in 5 different shoes at the same time? Giant blister all over my screwed up left foot.

I had planned on making this a faast finish long run, but that was perhaps a bit ambitious for my first 90+ mile week in quite a while. I actually felt decent at the beginning and in general there wasn't too much fatigue, but I definitely sagged towards the end due to the heat.

I had been wanting to get going earlier but I woke up to find that me new roommates desk had collapsed! It was a desk that I had provided and so I felt an obligation to pick through the pieces to see if I could repair it. This unfortunately made it so I was ending my run as the day heated up. Not only that, but the wind was with me at the end. Normally this would be good, but I overheated with no cooling breeze.

AM 8 miles

PM Ran from my office to the East high Track (2miles total warmup)

1600 in 5:07 (76,78,77,76) 30 seconds rest: 400m in 72

lap jog

1600 in 5:08 (77,78,2:33 last 800) 30 seconds rest: 400m in 73

 lap jog

1600 in 5:03 (77,76,77,73)

 lap jog

then 6x100 on grass barefoot all out

Overall, this workout proved not to be very difficult. I can probably add in more mile repeats and be fine.

Did two loops of Sugarhouse, I didn't feel particularly tired from yesterday and was able to finish at a fast pace.

AM 8 miles relaxed in the morning

PM Ran 1 mile to the track and then a short warmup.

2X800 with 30-60 seconds rest between (2:28,2:29)

After a lap jog I did 3*(400-300-200) I didn't time any of it. I just tried to focus on high turnover, even if it meant shortening my stride.

AM Did 11.5 going around Sugarhouse park twice. I felt really good this morning, I probably still was loose from last nights workout.

PM I played two hours of racquetball before running five (very slowly) this afternoon. I should probably figure out a good racquetball to running miles conversion. I'm not sure how much it really takes out of me though.

Did 8 this morning very slow. Not normally what I like to do the day before a race, but recovery is important. I course-tooled minuteman and it cam out about 30-40 seconds slower than flat. However, it was hard to tell if I had the start and finish in the right spots because of the map. I'll adjust that after the race.

In any case, a SLC 5K pr would be great as my best(unaided) is currently 16:14 from 2008.

Had this race been last week, I would have won my age group! Bah!

Anyway, I felt kind of crummy when I woke up, GI issues, dehydrated and my calves were sore.  I was sitting on my couch ready to fall asleep again when Allie showed up. (I actually had a dream in which a friend from Seattle showed up and drove me to the race, but she decided she wanted to go to a rug sale instead).

I felt sluggish warming up, no pop at all in my step, but I felt that I should still have a decent run in me. I saw quite a number of fast people at the start, but I was worried that they might all be too fast and I would have no one to run with.

After running step for step with Dennis for the first mile, he quickly dropped me when we got to a flat section and my calves started to tire. I was worried that I would go into a tailspin at that point but it ended up being ok. Some high school was glued to the back of me the whole second half (he would step on my shoe every 30 seconds or so which was ridiculous because it was just the two of us). I focused on trying to catch Dennis, but couldn't really gain any ground and in the end I got outkicked by the high schooler. I didn't really want to respond to his kick because my calves were in quite a bit of pain. He also was clearly not that tired as he had been stepping on my heels the whole race.

When I saw 15:25, I knew the course was short. It was not an easy course and with a time like that I should have been closer to Nate and Jamal.

Anyway, for those that ran. I measure it at 2.87-2.88. It ended up being 12 seconds a mile (for me) slower than flat. The course tool predicted a mile split (5:20) one second slower than what I actually ran (5:19)

Actual time 15:28

For a 5K:16:36

Converted to flat:16:00
At sea level 15:30-15:40

All in all, a decent run.

Further thoughts, pretty nice improvement over Des News

	Des News	Minute Man	Ratio
Patrick Rotich	29:05	13:52	2.10
Teren Jameson	29:25	14:06	2.09
Jamal Tongo	30:45	14:31	2.12
Danny Moody	31:22	15:06	2.08
Me	32:53	15:28	2.13
Rob Murphy	34:26	16:27	2.09
"Squishy Face"	38:33	17:27	2.21

I probably pull some other names when the results for minuteman are posted.

I ended up doing a tough 7-miler in Liberty Park in the afternoon.

Instead of taking a day off, I decided to do three loops of liberty park. I did not go particularly slow, but perhaps I should have seeing what I have planned for tomorrow.

AM 5.5

PM I was hoping to be able to duplicated last Monday's workout, but make it a little bit longer. I think I started this workout a little too late as I was mostly running in the dark.

I did 5*mile (5:16,5:14,5:18,5:21,5:24) with a lap jog in between. This didn't hurt too much (until afterwards). I felt that I had my breathing up very high, but I was not able to find a higher gear, not even a little bit. I guess I shouldn't be too worried as I have been doing quite a bit of mileage recently. Hopefully, I'll be able to adapt to this eventually. Did a long cool down barefoot on grass.

AM 9.5

PM 4

I really do need to time all my runs, not just my hard ones. I was being very good about this earlier in the year.

Instead of a track workout today, I decided to hit up an old favourite, my 10.4 miler going up 2700S. (It's actually 10.1 miles but it comes out to 10.4 on the course tool). I didn't feel especially good at the start. My glute hurt, my hamstrings were tight and my heartrate wouldn't get going so I was quite uncomfortable to being with. All the problems eventually became seconday to the fact that I was running a hilly 10 miler in 87degrees as hard as I could. I ran a slight negative split (33:09,31:01) which is not as dramatic as normal. About seven miles in, my whole body began to seize up (probably due to the heat). I was actually running about 5:30 per mile pace flat equivalent at this point, so that's ok. This meant that I didn't finish as quickly on the downhill as I often do. I ended up with 64:10, the fastest I've ever done this in trainers.

PM First time in a while, that I've felt good on a recovery run. I was upset to find the Shoreline trial has security guards. You can still get to it, if you run through research park however (9miles)

I did 6.5 miles in the morning. I did them in my flats to toughen up my lower legs a little. This run felt rather terrible. In the evening, I played racquetball for two hours, which I really ought to count as miles.

I did 9.5 miles today, once around sugarhouse. I decided to go pretty fast as I wanted to stay nice and loose for tomorrow.

First ran from my house to catch the front runner, then ran from the front runner stop to the race start.

This is an interesting race. It's a road race, filled mostly with high schoolers. It is primarily a time trial for Corbin Talley's Davis High School team.

The race went out pretty fast and I position myself just behind the leaders. I was breathing very hard and it was difficult for me to maintain contact, but I wanted to maintain contact, hoping that they were struggling just as much as me.

Before we got to the mile, a group of 5 had broken away from me and I was leading the chase pack. Four of the five were wearing Davis HS uniforms but it would turn out that one of those guys had already graduated (Logan Petty). I remembered the same group of guys passing me in Des News and they didn't come back, so I was a bit worried. I was pleased to hit the mile in 4:57 as that justified how stretched I felt. I knew that this was too fast for me.

At this point, a guy in a Utah State singlet (Austin Costely) passed me and we went back and forth a bit. Some of the leaders were coming back to us, which helped. At about the halfway he dropped me and went to catch the leaders. I was starting to feel pain in my shins, which happens when I'm not used to running this fast for this long. A younger guy (also on Davis) passed me just before we got to 2 miles.

My second mile was only 5:21 which wasn't too surprising as I'd been dropping back and my shins were cramping. I managed to find an extra gear and quickly passed back both the younger davis runner and Austin, followed by two guys that had fallen off the front pack. At this point, I realized that I didn't know how much was left and that also I'm just not very good at pacing myself for a 5k. A couple of the Davis guys passed my back, but once again I surged and this time I dragged them along. We were gaining on the third place runner and it looked like we would get him. In the end the all beat me because I started my kick too late and didn't really have enough confidence in the last 800 meters. This is the best 5k I've ever run at altitude and I really think that I can go faster than this.

After the race, they were appreciative that I dragged them along in the last mile, as they ended up recording some of the best times ever run by members of the team on the course. The top Davis runner (Austin Neuner) stayed away to get second in 15:49. Their next two ran 16:05 just ahead of me in 16:06. Logan (who had just graduated) ran 16:00. He was 9th in state last year and ran 16:11 in this race. Austin Costely ran 16:23 last year and was 10th in state. The fourth davis runner (who was ahead of me at 2 miles) ran 16:09. I told them that they had a pretty sick XC team lined up.

As for me, I'm happy as it was my best ever 5K at altitude. It also shows that I'm very close to my best 5K times ever, while doing training more geared towards a half and also while doing peak mileage.

After the race I decided to run to the front runner stop in Farmington. I ended up going in some silly circles, but I eventually made it.

Three easy loops of Liberty Park

AM Did 8 miles and felt really good. I decided to try to go fast and i didn't feel that bad.

PM 5*1000 4:30 total (repeat + rest)

3:06,3:08,3:12,3:09,3:09

Then I did six strides on grass before doing a cooldown on grass.

I felt very strong and fast on all of the repeats but I was definitely feeling maxed out. This workout was very hard while I was doing it but it may be possible to do two sets.

AM 9.5

PM 4.5

AM 6.5 in 38:54 in flats  (5:59 pace). I don't know why I bother doing workouts like this. I just tried to go 100% from the beginning without giving my body a chance to adapt. The result was that I felt pretty terrible, but I gradually felt better as I went on and did end up running fast the last mile and a half or so.

PM I ran up dry creek and felt awesome which is very encouraging considering the amount of mileage I've been putting in.

AM Did two loops of sugarhouse.

PM Played a couple hours of racquetball then did three loops of liberty park when i got home. I timed myself for a lap and I was going about 6:30 pace.

One loop of Sugarhouse.

Ran down the Jordan river trail to 5400 South. In the middle of the run my left knee was bothering me a little. This was probably because of running in dry creek on Wednesday. Uphills bothered my knee the most the summer. Also,this is my highest mileage week for a long time.

It was so so windy on the run today. I didn't feel like I was going all that slow, but I was actually over 8 minutes per mile for the first part of the run. The high wind also meant that I was parched by the end. I felt very good finishing out this run (at least my leg muscles did). In fact aside from the slight knee pain I feel great even though I did 102 miles. Probably a good sign, although I will certainly decrease the mileage next week.

AM 4 miles in the storm. Oddly not that many people in Liberty Park this morning.

PM Did my math "ten miler".

Phase 1 16:33 (5:31 pace/5:43 pace adjusted)

Phase 2 10:51 (5:51 pace/5:28 pace adjusted)

Phase 3 17:23 (6:00 pace/5:28 pace adjusted)

Phase 4 10:35 (5:25 pace/5:28 pace adjusted)

Fastest I've ever done this run.