my makeup may be flaking

AM 10.1 miles with Allie. We gradually picked it up and were moved pretty well coming down Sunnyside. Never look a middle schooler in the eyes as they walk to school...so much pain.

PM 5.5 Did not enjoy this run much as I ate a late lunch (5egg omelette) and so I was a bit nauseous.

AM 4 around Liberty Park. Standard pace.

Not to be overly dramatic but I almost cried both during and after this race. I have fallen apart in every half marathon I have done this year. Sometimes it was more extreme than others.

Anyway, this race was my first half marathon in 2008. I ran 1:19:12 and it hurt like hell. I DID stop twice to go the bathroom, though.

I went right to the front at the start. My plan was to do some damage to the field in the first 4 miles (which are upupupup) as I was confident that I could hold it together ok on the downhill.

Jon Gauthier had other ideas though as he stayed right on me through the first two miles. I kept trying to shake him, but he would have none of it. Right before we started to climb little mountain proper he bolted ahead and started to surge up the hill. I couldn't decide if this was an incredibly savvy move or a dumb move. It started to look smarter and smarter as he moved away from me up the hill.

I had a major advantage in that I knew when the hill was ending and as the hill was coming to a finish I kicked up my intensity. I could tell that I was going to be able to catch him and I let the gap remain at about 15m for about a minute. He glanced back to see how much distance he'd put on me and saw me still right there. That gave me some confidence.

We crested the hill and I immediately closed the gap and passed him. He latched on to me and we flew down the next mile. I had a 4:46 on my watch. I asked some other people at the end what they got and no one had an anomaly quite like that, so I figured it was legit. I think it probably came from my ability to rapidly accelerate after the hill when most were catching their breath. It's XC racing 101!

Anyway Jon stuck with me through most of that mile but dropped hard right after that. I was actually concerned that he had passed out on the side of the road because I looked back and he was GONE. He later said that he had taken a wrong turn! I mean that sucks and all, but I don't know what he was thinking. He apparently went up Burr's lane, which he should have recognized from the freedom half. Oh well. If he lost that much ground to me that fast, he was truly spent and wasn't going to be a threat.

With Jon gone I settled into a rhythm down the canyon. I actually felt a bit nauseous (too much downhill) but it didn't really affect me. I kept clicking off solid miles but I definitely fatigued toward the end. This race is a good highlight of my strengths and weaknesses. I don't necessarily hold my pace well on long downhill stretches, but I can run very fast with very little effort for short downhills. Hopefully this is something I can work on though and try to get stronger.

Splits 6:22,6:40,6:20,6:42,4:47,5:13,5:22,5:21,5:24,5:31,5:29,5:31,5:51(1.2) 

Ran from my house to the top of little mountain and back. A really fun run, I started pushing the climb after I passed the fire station (about 5 miles from the top). Reached the top in 1:33 and then cruised back down in 1:14 (6:30 ish pace). I was running consistent 6:20s for a while in there but I certainly slowed down a lot the last miles. I had intended to take some Gu with me but I left it on my kitchen table. I didn't realize this until I reached the top and looked in my pocket for a Gu. I was pleased that I didn't crash despite not having eaten.

Maybe I should do another marathon soon? 

Pretty sore today from two runs down Emigration in two days. Put on my compression gear and did some loops of liberty park. Then Allie and I hiked up Mt Wire. (We were going to be more ambitious but we were scared off by thunderstorms)

Also, I signed up for the TOU marathon...

I'm definitely not in killer shape at the moment, but my last two 20 milers have shown me that I can comfortably make it through the distance without falling apart.

Main reasons for doing TOU are

-1. To get some more experience with the marathon. I like to learn a little bit from all of my races, and I really wasn't sure what to make of Des News.

-2. To maybe win some money. Don't know who will be there (Paul, Sasha, Kenyans and ???) but money may be nice.

-3. To get another Utah marathon under my belt. I don't know how much longer I'm going to live here and I wanted to do Des News, TOU and Ogden before leaving.

Supplemental reason-

Maybe I can PR. I will probably run pretty conservatively, but I will try to put myself in position to PR and go sub 2:30. I honestly don't know how my body will react though.

AM 11.5 Decided to start timing runs again. Maybe this will be interesting. 1:27 (7:34 pace)

PM 4.8 Didn't time it.

AM 9.5 in 1:11 (7:28 per mile)

PM 4 miles in 26:30 (6:38 per mile)

Right before my PM run, my mum called to tell me they had put our cat charlie down. Apparently his kidneys had stopped working and he could no longer eat anything. I knew that he had to die sooner or later but he didn't seem to have aged at all in the last ten years. Charlie was born in a cupboard on December 20th 1994. He was one of 3 kittens that our cat Brindle had that day and the only one we kept. A few months later, Brindle had six more kittens and so for a time we had 8 cats. One of my favourite books when I was little was the 101 dalmations and this was kind of like that.

When we moved to America in August 1997, we naturally brought Brindle and Charlie with us. I guess I should add that we adopted Brindle in September 1993 when she had just been weaned. For two years we rented a house with no cat flap and so we had to leave the cats out at night (because they were outdoor cats). We lived in perpetual fear that they would get eaten by raccoons, which we discovered were not as lovable as cartoons had led me to believe.

My cats were both incredibly friendly. They would leap into the laps of complete strangers. I thought this was normal behavior for cats for a very long time until people became to comment about how nice my cats were.

Brindle and Charlie were very different from each other. When Brindle was hungry she would go hunt and I would often see her at the park while out running. She would bring dead birds to my sister. When Charlie was hungry he would kind of wander around the and meow pitifully, then roll onto his back to make sure we could see how helpless he was. It was unclear why he did this as we always fed him at the same time everyday. Brindle was an efficient, gracile, killing machine. Charlie was kind of a wuss, but what can you expect from a neutered tom cat?

In 2003, Brindle was mauled by a giant stray tom cat and had to undergo surgery. She had to wear the "cone" of shame for a few weeks and I had to give her medicine. Trying to get cats to do things that they don't want to do is incredibly difficult. Brindle hated taking her medicine, but she would always let me catch her and do her best to swallow it. She recovered briefly but when I returned from my freshman year of college she was clearly dying. She had lost a lot of weight and had very little energy. She couldn't keep any of her food down and a couple of times she was found collapsed in the park before some kind soul took her to the vet.

During this whole time, I kept insisting that my parents put her down. The other option was a $50000 operation that may not have worked. In any case, I didn't like seeing how much she was suffering.

One day, I came home from running and found that Brindle had collapsed while while trying to go through her flap. I carried her upstairs and gave her some water. She died a few hours later.

Charlie, on the other hand, soldiered on for another 7 years and was closing in on his 17th birthday when he started to go downhill. I told my parents in no uncertain terms that this time they were to put him down.

Anyway RIP charlie, I'll miss the watching you hunt dragonflies.

AM 10.1 mile tempo run. (30:58,29:06 (19:49,9:17))=60:04

Wanted to push this run hard and see what kind of shape that I'm in.  I last did this run all out during my taper for Des News and only managed a 60:30 (31:40,28:50). Mileage the day before was 13.5 this time vs just 2.5 in July. In addition there was some crazy wind this time which could have reasonable cost me about 1 minute (maybe more).

In the past I've done this run later in the day after giving my body longer to warm up. Earlier in the summer I ran 59 flat, in Jan 2010 I ran 59:59. In Oct 2010 I ran 57:50. In short, I think I am close to the shape that I was in when I ran 1:11 and 2:32.

PM 4 (28:11=7:03/mile)

Dragged myself out of bed a bit earlier this morning to run with Allie. (6.2 miles in 51:36=8:19 pace). The nice thing about only deciding to do a race two weeks out is that you don't drive yourself nuts thinking about it. I suppose I need to start tapering at some point soon.

Layton Classic 5k. I got second last year behind Jamal and I really wanted to come away with the win this time around. Of course Trace Fifeld had to show up!

I took off much faster than last year and I already lost Trace before the mile. (Which we hit in 5:08 vs 5:13 last year). There's a long climb in the second and third miles and I was trying to keep the race close, hitting 5:18 for mile 2 (10:26). I was now 24 seconds ahead of my pace from last year and feeling pretty good. At the same time I was concerned that the mile markers were in the wrong place.

At 3 miles trace had about a 20 second lead on me and it looked like I might catch him. I hit the third mile in 16:31, still ahead of pace from last year but falling back.

The fourth mile is downhill again and now I was really closing in. I ran 5:17 for this mile (which was again slower than last year). I pushed really hard in the crucial 5th mile but I couldn't make any headway. Trace seemed to be pulling away again. This mile was only 5:46 which kind of stinks. I figured that mile was probably off as I didn't feel like I had really slowed down any from the previous miles.

I was now trying hard to break 34 mins but it's hard to keep your momentum up at the end of this race. You have to go around a lot of 5kers and there are some twists and turns. Somehow I still managed a 6:28 for the last 1.22 (5:18 pace). This may have been short.

It doesn't matter. I gave it my best shot and still came up short of Trace by about 15 seconds. It was hard to be frustrated because even though my time from last year would have won, I had considered that to be a very good race. Also, at the time, I was focusing on 10k specific workouts in my training. This course is somewhere in the region of 2 minutes slower than Des News, so I was right where I should be.

AM Two loops Sugarhouse. 11.5 in 1:23:44 (7:17 per mile)

PM Two loops liberty park 4 in 30:21 (7:35 per mile)

4.8 in 35:39 (7:26 pace)

7.8 miles in 48:56 (6:16 pace). Interesting that this run didn't really feel that much harder yet it was much faster. I started the run a little later in the morning, but the main reason was probably the rest the previous day. Pretty interesting I think.

Ran in Liberty Park. Did slightly harder than marathon effort between some markers on the ground that indicated they were 1 mile apart (5:42,5:37). Not it appears that they may have been a little bit long. Stupid markers. Anyway, even if it wasn't wrong my goal pace for Saturday is about 5:53 flat pace so it doesn't matter.

Didn't feel great today, my hips were sort of tight. I think I can PR saturday if I only have an average day.

Had to run to school today because I got distracted. (It's faster than taking the bus).

I've been timing my runs recently and I thought it might be a good idea to start recording my resting heart rate.

I did it this morning it was 45, but I'm not convinced that is resting because I just got 46 sitting at my desk right now.

I took my pulse right after my second mile yesterday and it was 170 (6 seconds /17 beats). But I could feel my pulse slowing down as I was timing it.

Not really sure that I need it to get lower. (It's been 48 or lower for a long time.) It will be a good sign that I'm overtraining if it starts to rise though. This is something that I really want to avoid.

Two weeks ago I did a 22+ mile run and ran some 6:20 miles at the end and decided I should do TOU. To be honest, I had absolutely no reason to think that I was in PR shape as I had not done any marathon specific work and my races just didn't seem to be indicating that my base speed was all that great.

The result was this morning I was standing on the start line with Sasha and Glen Tucker ready to go for sub 2:30. I thought that I was probably NOT in 2:30 shape but, hey, I'm probably close.

At the start Paul shot out to a very fast first mile and Sasha and I followed in 5:26.

We were caught by Glen in the 2nd mile and ran 5:35,5:34,5:34. At this point Sasha asked how I was doing and I said that I was kind of "maxed". This was pretty true, I wasn't ready for such a fast pace right from the start and my body was frantically trying to equilibriate.

Sasha and I then backed off the pace slightly and it looked like we might just let Glen (and sub 2:30) go. I wasn't quite ready to give up just yet. And our group stayed together as we ran 5:39,5:42,5:45. For the next 3 miles. These weren't great splits for the effort and I could feel sub 2:30 slipping away.

Right here I shed my gloves and arm warmers (as I was not warmed up) and I suddenly felt new strength enter my body. I decided that I wanted to push the pace to get us back on track and I rattled of splits of 5:32, 5:40. Sasha was repeatedly saying "too fast" and part of me thought he was right. I was probably pressing a little bit too much. Another part of me thought "this is it, do or die". I figured that if I was going to be a hero, I should probably wait another 6 or 7 miles. I let the pace slow once again.

Two miles in 5:50,5:49 brought me back to the front. I felt like my legs had more to give and that I was running kind of lazy. I once again pushed and we ran 5:38 for mile 13. We were then at just under 1:14 at the half. At this point Glen got a little gap and Sasha told me to wait until 17 to try to catch him. At this point I felt like I could easily close the gap if I wished but decided to listen to Sasha. Mile 14 was 5:35, but 15-17 were 5:45,5:50,5:52. I turned to Sasha and indicated that I was not able to push to catch Glen. Just to prove it to myself, I tried to "take off" at mile 18 and only managed 5:52. It was here that I lost sight of Glen and sub 2:30.

With 3rd place pretty much out of the question the wind left my sails a little, at exactly the wrong term it turned out. I knew that mile 19 and 20 were uphill and that I was about to start slowing exponentially. Mile 19 was only 6:20, and Sasha passed me and gapped me. I shortened my stride and increased my turnover and got back up to his shoulder but at this point I felt like I had only one bullet left in the chamber.

Mile 20 was a bit easier and was 6:14. These miles were not so bad but my legs were locking up pretty badly. I would have been a lot happier if there were 3 miles left instead of 6. The clock at mile 20 told me that in order to PR I needed to run around 6 flat pace over the final 6 miles. Well mile 21 was downhill and I was still pushing and just about managed a 6:04. Sorry, there will be no PR today, I thought, as I knew there were more hills coming. my attention was now slowly on Sasha. He seemed to be hanging on just fine but was doing just that "hanging on". It was here that I really layed an egg 6:28 and 6:26 for the next 2 miles. Granted we had a little climb, but that shouldn't have happened. We passed through the aid station at mile 23 and about 30 seconds later there was a cheer for another runner coming behind us. I turned around and saw the familiar figure of Nate Clayson bearing down on us.

"Here comes Nate" I told Sasha and I immediately snapped out of my malaise. We turned a couple of corners and I looked back to see that Nate was not any closer. This was good, I knew I could hold him off! The 24th mile features a nice downhill and here I got the tiniest gap on Sasha. I decided this may as well be the time to bury him. Mile 24 was 6:10 and I turned onto State Street with a solid lead on both Sasha and Nate (in fact, I could no longer see Nate). I whipped up the pace as high as I possibly could running 6:11 for the 25th mile. As soon as I turned off the main road though I could feel myself hitting the wall. This was tough as know I couldn't even get my legs to turn over. Fortunately I only had to stick it out for 1 mile 6:25 and the final 1:16. I ended up 22 seconds ahead of Sasha and 2:15 ahead of Nate who told me he died the last 3 miles.

Very happy with the place today, as good as I could have hoped for. As for the time, it was pretty much exactly what I would have expected. The result highlighted to me a very important concept.

There are two types of endurance:

1-How long can you maintain your high-stepping easy-gliding marathon-pace (so around 5:30-5:50 miles for me depending on terrain.)

2.-How long can you keep running "fast" (as fast as you would run on a typical run.) For me around 6:20-6:30 pace.

I felt like once I defaulted to my 6:20-6:30 pace that I was "safe". It seemed unlikely that anything else was going to happen however I was not able to maintain my faster pace and it seemed like no matter what strategy I employed, I was not going to be able. This, I think, is fixable by actually doing some marathon specific workouts, which I did none of prior to this race. Anyway, I'm probably good for marathons for a while now. Now for some 5ks! (And 1 half.)

Ran very slowly to Allie's house this morning. So slowly, in fact, that it probably didn't even count as running. This is certainly the least sore I've felt after a marathon, but I still want to be cautious.

Allie and I then spent the morning walking (me) and limping (her) around Liberty Park. We talked about a lot of things, mostly about how great I am (our fav subject) but we also talked a lot about all the awesome people that we know in the running community.

I was so grateful yesterday to have Sasha to run with the whole way. Pretty much everything I know about the marathon, I've learned from listening to Sasha and Paul (and Allie, actually).

I also wanted to express my gratitude for Joe Wilson's pacing job. He also had two younger guys help him out at the end. They were the same guys who had stopped several times to give me water during the Red Rock Relay.

And that's just really beginning to scratch the surface of all the people that are so supportive here. I've never been very good at communicating online, so I don't always leave a bunch of comments but it means a lot to me every time someone writes something.

Anyway, back to our walk. Just after I talked about how cool it was to run with Sasha, but Jeff Shadley walks up to me to congratulate me. My first thought was "hey it looks like jtshad". This is just the kind of thing that happens here.

Now that I've done TOU I've participated in almost every major Utah event. I've done Striders, SLCTC, almost all the circuit short races. I've done SLC half, UVHM, Des News 10k and marathon. I've also volunteered at Ogden (that kinda counts right?).

Anyway, this could very will be my last year in Utah, but at this point I don't want to leave at all.

Two loops of liberty park. Felt pretty good. (30:49=7:42 per mile)

Actually felt very good today. Should be able to get back into it pretty fast, but I'm not going to rush. (56:13=7:18 pace)

One loop of Sugarhouse in 1:06:05 (6:57/mile). This run felt pretty hard for the pace. Probably due to the fact that I hadn't eaten anything all day. My legs felt good most of the time but my right leg tightened up a little in the last mile so I slowed down quite a bit.

Felt good running this morning in the cool air. First mile in 7:50, then the last three at about 6:40 pace. Two loops of liberty park (27:42=6:56 pace)

5.3 miles with Allie (45:55 = 8:40/mile)

6.2 miles by myself (40:53 = 6:36/mile)

Felt very nice to be back at Sea Level

Still on Mercer Island, with Allie on the South End of the Island.

Did 14.7 mile run along Jordan River trail. Not ideal conditions as i waited to run until dark and also until after I had eaten dinner. Best time on this course is 1:26:13 from about a year ago.

1:27:58 (5:59 pace)

Splits

3.8 23:00(6:03)

3.8-6.9 18:28 (5:57)

6.9-9.9 17:45 (5:55)

9.9-14.7 28:45 (5:59)

Very steady run. Effort was easy until the last couple of miles when I started to cramp up a little.

Pretty sore this morning and so my run took me 1:20:43 (8:30 pace). I find it hard to believe that I was running that slowly but I'm pretty sure the distance is correct.

In the afternoon I ran around campus and then ran the course for the alumni 5k this weekend. I ran with Andrew Egbert from the math dept and he wanted to go for an hour. I forgot to stop my watch though (7:30 pace??)

Two loops of Sugarhouse in 31:12 (7:48 per mile). First two miles 17:00 (8:30 pace). Last two miles 14:12 (7:06).

9 miles on the shoreline trail (1:10:12 =7:48 per mile).

Not really how I planned to start my day. Allie and I were almost done with our run when something bad happened to her foot. 53:40 for 6.1 (8:47 per mile)

PM Two mile warm up in 15:25. Then I alternated .75 miles fast and slow on the wood chips at liberty park.

4:18.6,5:33.7,4:13.7,5:47.4,4:06.0

Gradually got fasted for each one which is good. Effort was pretty high for the last one, but I should be able to do 5 and average close to 4:10.

Total time for the run was 50:16 (7:10 pace). 5:36 average pace for the "fast" sections 7:33 for the "slow" sections.

6.2 miles in 48:38 (7:50 per mile). I'm eerily consistent with my average pace even though it varies a lot on each run.

Felt a little bit of soreness in my glute at the end of this run. Need to watch that.