my makeup may be flaking

Ok, kicking off the new year with a bang here.

Just ran around the Island in 1:19:44 today. (it's a pretty hilly half marathon). I had some weird aches and pains in my legs so I started out slowly running only 20:34 for the first 3.2 miles. (I have weird markers here on mercer Island). I then ran 59:11 for the next 9.9 miles (5:59 pace). Given the hills this was the equivalent of 5:46 pace. This was all depite a punishing headwind for the last 4 miles and some driving rain. In fact I picked up the pace a little at the end despite the lousy conditions. I felt like I definitely could have kept this pace going for quite a bit more!

Easy day. I had a few aches and pains to begin with.

Did 10.4 miles in 71 mins (6:49 per mil)

First day back in Salt Lake City. I was greeted by my roommate chris with this one line poem:

Cauliflower dipped in chocolate makes my toes runny.

I started to train in earnest for a big race so I had to develop some tendonitis above my foot. This is at least the 6th time I've had this injury and it seems to be hitting me once every 8 months. I just stopped running and walked home. I'll need to take a couple of days off to get over this.

Took today "off". I still played racquetball for two hours though.

Tried a little running on my foot today. I ran 7.5 miles at just over 7min/mile and everything felt fine.

I ran 10.4 miles in the morning. Total time was 65:33 (33:14,32:19). (6:18/mile). This required some concentration because of the ice and cold but it wasn't really much of a strain.

I did 4.7 around campus in 33:11. The construction on HPER highway is going to be a mjor problem for students this semester, this is very poor planning by the university.

I then played some racquetball afterwards.

I was quite sore today. That combined with the snow led me to a pretty slow pace (7:45/mile). I had some pain in my groin (no, it's not a hernia) as well as my hamstrings.

I felt much better today. I did 10.4 in 67:51 (35:56,31:55). So I started out much slower (as I was still sore) but I got into a comfortable rhythm and didn't really have much trouble with the hills in the latter part of the run.

I did three loops of Liberty Park in the evening. I went back and forth between grass, snow and pavement and gradually increased my pace as I went (unfortunately I didn't time it. The main problem with this run was that I was very hungry when it was over.

10.4 74 mins

4.8 (29:56) around campus

3 Running home

14.8 miles in 1:31:05 (6:09 pace). This run was interesting as it seemed to get easier as I went. I got to ten miles in 1:02:08 (6:13) then ran the last 4.8 in 28:57 (6:02 pace). I sped up and started to feel much better. In the fall I ran close to 1:28 in flat and this run was in training shoes. Today's run was also much colder and earlier in the day. Hopefully in flats I'll be able to do this run in 1:25 or faster.

Did 10.4 in the morning in 79minutes (42 then 37). Then I did 5.5 in the evening in Liberty Park.

A new record for this course in trainers. (I ran quite a bit faster in flats before). I ran 64:50 (34:09 followed by 30:41). I actually started out quite slowly. I was about 1 minute behind what the course tool said I should be at halfway and then I hammered home. This is still not very fast (6:14 pace). Breaking 60 in trainers would be nice, but very difficult.

Run took me 2:12 (7:40 pace). That's pretty slow considering that my legs didn't really feel that bad. It was kind of cold but really smoggy, I think that may have slowed me down quite a bit.

Ok, I'm gradually getting closer to where I should be on my base runs. The day after a two hour plus run I did my regular loop. I started slowly and then gradually picked it up as I went. I ran 1:04:19 (33:50,30:29) for the two halves (6:11 pace). This was despite being at close to 7 minute pace through two miles.

Ran in the morningin flats, 8miles. Then ran to and from school. Then I ran at school.

One loop of sugarhouse. Yay! No snow!

An unexpectedly busy day. I ran 4 in the morning then did 6.5 uptempo in the evening. (5:58/mile).

Combination liberty park/sugarhouse park run. I was running 7:30 pace at the beginning but then I finished up with some miles at under six minute pace. (7:02 per mile)

Three loops of sugarhouse. Still no snow!

I ran to and from school. Then, in the evening, I ran 10.4 miles in my flats. I felt surprisingly good. I ran only a slight negative split (30:30, 29:28) which is what you'd expect from the terrain. Overall time was 59:58 (5:45/mile) which is the fastest I've ever done this course. I think I'm going to need to be able to consistently about two minutes faster than this by Boston. That being said, this was not terribly difficult for me.

Just two loops easy around sugarhouse park.

9.5 in the morning

then 4 on the track in the evening.

Miles 5:54,5:44,5:37,5:39

I ran three loops of liberty park in the morning.

In the evening, I did two loops of Sugarhouse starting from school. I tried to do them pretty fast. First loop in 11:32 second in 11:10. I took a 3minute breather in between. These felt pretty fast but that was probably because it was dark. I didn't feel that tired afterwards, so I think I'm just not really used to shorter faster stuff at the moment. This shouldn't be too surprising. Hopefully, when things warm up I'll be able to get under 11 again.

One loop of sugarhouse park.

THINK ABOUT IT run. My epic run across the Salt Lake Valley and back again. The plan was to start out relaxed, then try to pick it up as I approached the turnaround and shoot for about 6:20 pace on the way back. Mission accomplished. I ran a pretty consistent 7mins per mile on the way out. I wasn't feeling very tired and its a flat run so 7mins per mile came kind of naturally. I was trying to keep it honest so that it would be easier to pick it up later. If I start out a long run too slow, it's hard to pick it up. Out in 1:18:14 (6:57 pace). Then I turned around and ran hard on the way back. Back in 1:11:18 (6:20 pace). This pace didn't feel especially hard but I had some aches and pains that made it not totally comfortable. I actually ran 6:10 pace for the very end when the course turned uphill but that was mostly due to it warming up enough to shed a layer I think.

Ran 5.5 in the morning

Then I did 9.7 in the afternoon.

Segment 1: 17:08 (5:43)

Segment 2: 11:18 (6:06)

Segment 3:  18:06 (6:14)

Segment 4: 11:10 (5:44)

Total time 57:42 (5:57)

I did the 9.7 in flats, I had to take several bathroom stops. I felt understandably fatigued, so I think it makes sense that this run wasn't especially fast.

Traveled to Claremont to the Alumni meet.

I ran 2:24 for the 1000 loop (just like last year). (Which is like a 2:05 800).

Then I ran the 2mile in an even split 9:50. As expected it didn't feel very difficult to me.

I ran in the high desert in Hesperia with my college team. I flew home and ran around Liberty park a bit.

4 in the morning,12 in the evening.

9.5 in the morning

4.8 in the evening

I felt really sick today, but I still ran a little.

I did 6.5 in the morning

Then I did 10 in the evening. I felt better today but still under the weather so I took it easy.

I felt really, really sluggish today. Hence no attempt to go race.

Feeling bad today, decided to take it easy.

I did 14 miles at about 6:30 pace. I was planning on doing more but I just felt too sick. I was doing loops of sugarhouse park also and it was really hard on my butt/hip/hamstring for some reason. Kind of a miserable run really.

My butt felt really bad today. It was really tight and I just got slower and slower so I cut my run short.

4 in the morning.

I did a run in flats today because that is easier on my hamstring. I did the math "10 miler" in 58:49. It should have been much faster but I needed to go to the bathroom the last four or five miles.

Ran down the bikepath to Sandy. I loosened up during the run and felt better than I had in a while. At the end of the run I was probably running like 6:30 pace.

4 in the morning

12 in the evening

I did the math 10 mile loop in flat in 60:41. I pretty much felt awful the whole time.

You know scene in hitch where Will Smith gets an allergic reaction and his lips swell up to a horrifying size? Well that happened to me Friday night and continuing into Saturday morning. It's a sure sign that I'm getting sick again! Which I could have known already because I've been feeling crumby all week. Anyway, I really wanted to do this race to see how my leg would handle some marathon pacework. On that front, things were good as my leg felt fine.

 At the start Fritz pulled away and I ran with Albert Wint and Jamal Tongo for a while. At 5k, Jamal easily dropped me and went on to win. I hung on to third place thanks to a 2 second negative split. Given that I was sick,it seemed quite reasonable to me that I could run this pace for a marathon.

Mile	Cumulative	Split
1	5:30	5:30
2	11:07	5:37
3	16:48	5:41
4	22:35	5:46
5	28:27	5:52
6	34:00	5:32
7	39:39	5:39
8	45:22	5:42
9	51:10	5:47
9.34	52:58	1:48

I was planning on doing a long run today, but I just am not feeling good. I've been sick for three weeks now. This is not fun.

No run today, I had a pounding headache. Ugh...

I went to see a Dr today, she said I have a sinus infection so I'll be on antibiotics for the next ten days and cutting my training down a little.

I went home and did two loops of sugarhouse, my leg kind of cramped up pretty badly about 9 miles into the run.

I did 4 miles in the morning in my waffle flats on the balls of my feet on the woodchip trail. It felt surprisingly easy and my calves weren't sore at all. (This is my version of five fingers training). I think I naturally run alot on the balls of my feet so a barefoot transisition should not be that tough for me.

I did 4 in the morning and 9 in the evening. I was not happy when it started snowing on me. I was actually rather angry at the weather. I'm trying to get better!!!!

Just trying to get my body together here. Everyday is a struggle right now as it takes me some time to loosen up in the morning.

Well this was a nice surprise. I did 14.8 miles at a hard pace in my flats. I only had to stop and stretch it my hip twice. I did not some tightness on the right side of my upper abs which was kind of weird.

Anyway I did the whole thing in 1:26:37 (5:51 pace). I split 58:22 for 10 miles (5:50 pace). This was faster than during my final preparation for the seattle half marathon a few months ago so I guess I'm doing reasonably well. It's especially good seeing as I feel pretty bad right now, if that makes sense.

I did two loops of sugarhouse. I was planning on three, but my legs did not feel good at all. Pretty pain in my right leg as the run went on.

Did 4 in the morning and 9.5 in the afternoon. I felt much better on both runs than yesterday, especially the second one. Had some localized pain in my thigh and also my groin. I finished out my run comfortably with only one strectching break. 6 weeks to go.

Felt really good on both of my runs today. I did 5.5 in the morning and then 9 in the evening. It looked like it might snow on me in the evening, but it held off.

Just did 8 in the morning and then played racquetball for the first time in two weeks. It wasn't too bad, considering.

I woke up this morning with a swollen face and a rash all over my body. My eyes were so swollen that I could barely see. Great! Wonderful! I have only one day of antibiotics left then its back to feeling terrible I guess. My plan today was to try a 20-miler in flats to see how it felt. I was unconcerned about the pace. I made it four miles but I just couldn't go any further, I felt terrible. I turned around and jogged back very slowly to the math department. I brieflly thought about doing laps of sugarhouse but decided that there was no point. All my muscles cramped up and I felt terrible. I really, really dislike how I feel right now.

I woke up feeling bad again and went to see the doctor. She gave me a hernia exam (negative) and then gave me a referral to a PT (I couldn't get an appointment until the 31st!). I described my other symptoms but she thought I would be ok and said that I should keep running.

I went home and ate some chocolate before going running. I ran to sugarhouse park and felt a little tight. When I got to the park I noticed that there was such a massive imbalance in my muscles that my right foot wanted to point almost totally out (at right angle to my left). I didn't like what this did to my knee. I focused on rotating the foot back straight (which is how it normally is) and all the pain suddenly went away. For the last 4 miles of my run I felt amazing. I didn't feel sick and my running for was smooth and fast like it was a few months ago. Quite a turnaround.

Miles	Time	Cum Pace	Split	Pace	Adjpace
3.8	24:14	6:23	24:14	6:23	6:23
7.00	44:14	6:19	20:00	6:15	6:10
8.15	51:18	6:18	7:04	6:09	5:53
9.5	59:30	6:16	8:12	6:04	5:59
10.1	1:03:08	6:15	3:38	6:03	5:53
13.35	1:23:38	6:16	20:30	6:18	6:07
16.85	1:45:18	6:15	21:40	6:11	6:06
18.6	1:56:10	6:15	10:52	6:13	6:14
20.6	2:08:34	6:14	12:24	6:12	6:15
21.5	2:13:56	6:14	5:22	5:58	5:53

Did a long hard run in the snow along the Jordan River. I felt goo until about the 10-mile mark when my butt began to get tight and I had to back off. The pace was surprisingly comfortable, however.

I felt really tired today and so I ran slooow.

I did 4 in the morning and then 10 in the evening in sugarhouse. My right knee felt very stiff (quadriceps tendon I think). I think this is the result of it have to work hard against tight muscles rotating my leg medially. It's all quite complicated.

I did 5.5 in the morning and then 9 in the evening. My knee was looser today.

I did 8 in the morning and then 4.8 in the evening before playing racquetball. I felt excellent on the second run.

I felt quite tired today as I've run quite a lot since saturday. My knee is about 90% right now and so I can focus on the butt tightness problem. These next couple of weeks are going to be epic.

In all sorts of pain today while running. Left IT band, right quadriceps tendon. My right leg is out of alignment...not sure what to do.

After everythin that has been going on, I wasn't even sure that I would run today. I decided that I would warm up and see how it went. In my first mile of warmup I felt some IT trouble in my left knee but it was not bad. After 4 miles I convinced myself that I was going to be fine.

At the start I didn't want to go with a group that was too fast but I didn't want to be stuck in noman's land either. The first three guys went out really fast and I didn't think I could handle it so I let them go. A fourth guy come up beside me and led me back to the leaders who still were going to fast. I looked back and saw we were destroying the field so I decided to just go with it and see what happened. After 1 mile one guy took off (Mangrum) and another guy dropped off the back so it was down to three in the pack (me,Darda and Winegar: my record against these guys is a combined 0-8 I think). Until about mile 3 we were clipping along together quite aggressively. In the 4th mile they quickly dropped me I could feel myself tensing up as I often do at that stage so I just tried to relax and keep the distance manageable. I came out of my funk at mile 5 and quickly surged and caught a struggling Winegar on a steep downhill.

Things started to get intense here. Darda was surging but I ran really tough to claw my way back to him over the next mile. From there on out I just pulled him along as I tried to catch the leader. I felt like I had him on the ropes the whole time even though he was on my shoulder. The course gets really hilly at the end and started to open a little gap but he didn't give up. He chased me all the way to the line but I had a strong finish to beat him by 6 seconds. Mangrum beat us by 40 seconds (he had that gap from about mile 5 onwards).

The course tool says ridiculous thing about my race, but I take them with a grain of salt.

Mile	Overall	Split	Pace	Predicted	Adj Pace
1	5:17	5:17	5:17	5:24	5:07
2	10:43	5:26	5:21	5:34	5:06
3	16:06	5:23	5:22	5:27	5:10
4	21:30	5:24	5:23	5:36	5:03
5	26:59	5:29	5:24	5:14	5:29
6	32:30	5:31	5:25	5:33	5:12
7	37:55	5:25	5:25	5:28	5:11
8	43:19	5:24	5:25	5:21	5:17
9	48:43	5:24	5:25	5:22	5:16
10	54:20	5:37	5:26	5:28	5:23
11	59:35	5:15	5:25	5:08	5:20
12	1:05:15	5:40	5:26	5:36	5:18
13.1	1:11:24	6:09	5:26	6:05	5:17

Nothing today, something not right with my foot.

Tendon on the top of my foot didn't feel right while running.

Better than yesterday but still alot of pain.

I had to stop several times during my run today to loosen up my foot

Foot felt quite a bit better but I still had to stop

Foot felt fine until mile 5, then I had to stretch it out.

My foot really started to hurt at the end of my run today.

I did 45 minutes on the stationary bike (16 miles).

I did .5 hours in the bike

I hour on the bike 22 miles

I hour on the bike-23 miles with about 3 miles at 6:10 pace on the track.

Two loops of liberty park

11 miles biking plus 6 miles running at 5:50 pace.

Starting to feel normal again!

Ran 6.5 in the morning and 9 in the evening. Evening run, the foot felt better.

Very nice run with no pain in my foot.

Did 4 in the morning and 9 in the evening.

Decided to jump in the run like health 5k. I wanted to see how my foot would respond to some fast running.

On the injury side, I started to experience some tightness with about a half mile to go. I felt my foot tightnening up on my evening run and stopped to stretch it each time. I'm not sure if it was the shoes or the fast running or not icing before hand. I'll have to figure that out in the next week.

On the racing side, it was actually a race this year as Fritz showed up. He took an early lead and I was having some trouble staying with him. I kept surging to stay in contact. At about 1.5 miles, he suddenly slowed down and I took the opportunity to throw in a very hard surge on an uphill. I kept a 10m gap until close to the end when I threw in a very fast last quarter to open up a 70-80m lead.. I stayed quite relaxed during the second half of the race as I was worried about my foot. I felt pretty good when I finished.

Races so far this year

SLCTC 15K 3rd

MI Half marathon 2nd

Run like health 5K 1st

Boston Marathon?? (Does DNF/DNS count as zeroth place?)

Yeah so I'm still not sure about boston. I really want to give it a go but I'm going to be smart.

I was feeling a little sick again today. Given that my foot was tight I decided to just take the whole day off.

I did 10 miles in my flats and my feet felt fine. I stopped halfway through to stretch them out but I'm not sure it was necessary. I think these shoes may be the cause of my problems, but I think I can get through a marathon in them and then they will get retired.

So let's review:

Sinus infection hits me in february, stalling my marathon training. Did MI halfmarathon after recovering and ran 1:11:24. Next day I got tendonitis. Two weeks of cross training, followed by a week of training. Then I got sick and recovered on thursday. On wednesday, doctors told me I may have a hernia and during my trip here my groin felt really sore.

Needless to say my expectation were low. At the start I stayed relaxed and just decided to try to pick it up until I found a nice groove. I gradually picked it up until the ridiculous 5:27 in mile 6. I shortened my stride and kept my pace pretty consisten for a while. I could feel myself gradually tightening up though. At mile 12, a competitor told me "There's a lot of guys up there James, see how many you can get", as I was so effortlessly cutting through the field. I responded that I wasn't sure how long I could keep it up. I was confident about sub 2:30 up until mile 19 when I went over 6 minutes for the first time. I realized that I had to average sub 6 the rest of the way and that I still hadn't hit the big one. I was also running out of people to pass at this point and climbed heartbreak all alone.

When I crested heartbreak I knew that it was make of break for me. I had to run sub 5:40 for mile 22 to have a shot at sun 2:30 I thought. I ran 5:52 and knew that it just couldn't happen. My legs were cramping up pretty badly and so I just decided to finish it out and place as high as I could. I still managed to pass more people during the final run into Boston and I managed not to slow down ridiculously.

I staggered across the finish line and almost toppled over but the medical staff was there to catch me. My legs felt totally trashed. This was what I expected from myself. I could tell that my legs were just not used to the pounding of running from the few longer runs I've done in the last month. I'm very pleased that I was able to still PR at BOSTON! despite these issues and I feel like I've got a TON of room for improvement. I'm going to get myself healthy and try again next year.

Before this race, I told myself that sub 33 would be a very good result, so I'm going to go with that, even though I feel that I should be closer to 31 mins.

I got up at 4am and ran 3 miles to the start. I misjudged my arrival badly, as I barely got to the start in time. I never really got into a good rhythm and my throat was totally parched after 800m (and my shoe came untied). On the first downhill I was passed by alot of younger runners and I felt that I would be able to pass them back without any issue. Sasha and I ran neck and neck through the first two miles as we moved slowly through the field.

Going down south temple I began to tighten up, running 5:19, 5:22 for miles 3 and 4 (after 4:48 and 4:54). I struggled mightily on the last section with a 5:28 for mile 5 and 7:02 for the last 1.2.

It's hard to know what to take away from this race, I rarely run well in my first race back. I ran a 16:57 5k in fall 2009. Also, it was my first time in new flats which is generally disastrous. It's a shame, because this is the only time I get to face a field like this in Utah.

After the race, I ran to the 20 mile mark and waited for Allie. She came by in 3rd place looking good and I asked if she wanted me to run with her. Apparently she did and she felt much worse than she looked. I ran with her until mile 23 when it looked like she was going to catch the leaders. I peeled off and ran to finish line to see the finish. Then I was tired. 

I did 4 loops of Sugarhouse, I was a bit sore in my calves and quads. I kept it kind of slow but tried to vary the pace occasionally to loosen up my legs. It got very hot towards the end, but I didn't really mind.

Just two loops of Liberty park my calves are still very sore.

AM One loop of sugarhouse, my calves are still sore. This is getting a bit boring really.

PM Did two loops of Liberty park.

Two loops of Sugarhouse park in the morning. I had to pick it up so I could suitably impress the Highland High girls XC team which has apparently just started summer practices. My calves were feeling much better.

AM I did 10 miles running up to the recycling center and dropping off some bottles. Then I crossed the street and did a loop in the hills above This is the Place.

PM Went to the track and did (as per Sasha's suggestion) 8x600. The rest was walking across the the football field (maybe about 2 minutes rest between each one). Before hand I thought that 1:48-1:52 would be good, but I just ran hard without looking at my watch.

1:47,1:50,1:47,1:48,1:50,1:49,1:51,1:53

On the last one I felt my form breaking down a little, which contributed to the slow down. It would be interesting to wear a heart rate monitor however. I also felt my calves getting quite sore as the workout went on so I called it a day instead of doing sprints and drills.

I guess based on this workout, I could go 15:40-16:00 for a flat 5k in SLC at the moment. My SLC 5k PR is 16:14 from two years ago.

One loop of Sugarhouse park. Calves a little sore from yesterday. I take this as a good sign.

Did three loops of Sugarhouse "hard". I felt pretty dead legged today, but I decided that I wanted to get my heartrate up a little. Ran three loops of Sugarhouse continuously in 11:40,12:07,12:03. I was in pain after about 400 meters, it was not great. Normally I might have just cut the workout short, but I decided that I should stick it out.

When i was done I went and stood in front of one of the sprinklers for a few minutes to cool off.

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.

AM 4 PM 4*2000 at 8 minutes repeat + interval.

6:41,6:44,6:44,6:41 (so less than 90 seconds rest each time).

This pace felt pretty difficult, but I was still able to hit the pace I wanted.

Did 4*100m after that.

AM 11.5

PM 4

AM 8

 PM 2 mile warmup then 4 loops of liberty park (5.4 miles) at about half marathon pace. Then 2 miles cooldown.

My laps were 7:30,7:42,7:39,7:34. Total time was 30:25 (5:37 pace) I was slowed down quite a bit trying to dodge many, many people walking (this is hard to do at 5:35 pace). Primary motivation for this run was to put some more miles in my type as to see how they feel. I've had some cramping problems in my races the past month and I wanted to see if it was the shoes. I felt great the whole time and could have easily gone a couple more laps, so its not the shoes.

AM 9.5

PM 8.5

AM 9.5 One loop of Sugarhouse

PM 4.5 Short run around campus.

AM 5.5

PM 10 To sugarhouse, I did two loops of the park and back to the department. Second half of the run was very fast.

As I still have no car, I took the train.

Poor planning this morning. I ran left my house running at about 6:20am without eating anything. I was quite hungry when I got to the train station and quickly bought something from a vending machine. I sat on the train eating and drinking gatorade and realized I'd left my number at home!

Anyway, I was nauseous from eating to soon before the race, but, as usual, told myself to try my best and also not to puke in front of little children or hot women.

It looked like I might be have no competition until Jamal Tongo showed up right before the start. Nate H. was with him but didn't run. I feel like Jamal is following me around. I've done 6 races this year in Utah and he's been in 4 of them!

At the start there were the usual sprinters but I took the lead after about 200m. About a minute later, Jamal came up on my shoulder and we started to pull away from everyone else. We hit the mile together in 5:13 and I stayed with him a bit longer, but then he chose to really pick it up on a little steep section.

The second and third miles are really big hills and I ran 5:33 and 6:00. Then we started to head back down and I ran a 5:11. Jamal ran 5:24,5:51,5:05 for this section so he was pulling away at a pretty steady rate.

Mile 5 was 5:12 and at this point I couldn't see Jamal because we were running through the 5K runners. He had the benefit of a lead bike to clear his path (he told me this had helped him afterwards) but I was ducking and weaving quite a bit. I felt pretty strong at this point, just quite sick. I did the last 1.2 in 6:23, which is about 5:13 pace. This is pretty impressive because this was a flat mile and had a lot of twists and turns, in addition to the human obstacles.

Anyway, I ended up 1:10 behind Jamal, which is about how much he beat me by at minuteman, except that was a 10K. This was certainly my best 10K ever as it adjusts (using course tool plus altitude) to a 31:42 flat sea level time. My previous best was 32:30. As a point of comparison, I ran 32:53 at Des News which translates to a 33:14 flat race at sea level.

Not only was this my best 10K, it is also my best non marathon/half marathon race ever and also my best non-tapered race ever (both by significant margins). I had been worried that my 5k and 10k were holding back my improvement, so I've been focusing my training in that direction with pretty good results.

After the race, I ran the 5k course, picked up my award and then ran to the farmington train station as an extended cooldown.

AM 5.5

PM Did 8*600 with 1 minute rest.

1:45,1:46,1:50,1:51,1:51,1:49,1:51,1:49

I'd been hoping for a 1:50 average and I ended up with 1:49.5. This was slightly faster then when I did the workout previously, but I had half the rest.

Afterwards, I did a long cooldown barefoot on grass.

AM 11.5

PM 5.5 with about 3 miles up tempo (I didn't time it).

AM 8

PM 10 From school I did two loops of Sugarhouse, I did about 4 miles of up tempo running.

AM 4

PM I did 6 by mile with 90 seconds rest.

5:18,5:19 5:20,5:21,5:24,5:22

 After the first couple, I was starting out quite slowly in each of these and gradually picking it up. I generally felt much better after the first 600 metes. I think that 90 seconds is about amount of rest to take.

Two loops of Sugarhouse park

Racquetball in the afternoon

I trained this week with absolutely zero intention of racing today, but how can I pass up a free 5k?

I was a bit lazy and did wake up until 7:15. I ran to the start line and got there at about 7:50. Unfortunately they were out of bib numbers when I got there, but they told me to go ahead and run anyway.

When I saw BJ (he is 6'7" so not hard to spot), I knew that I wasn't going to win anyway.

 At the start I took off pretty fast, much faster than was really intelligent. There was someone right on me however, someone wearing headphones. I mean really, I don't want to be a snob or anything, but I don't care how "hard core" your playlist is, it's not going to overcome the fact that I train harder than you. This guy stayed right with me until about 400meters in at which point he just stepped off the course and stopped. I just don't get that kind of behavior and it really threw me off. Now I was kind of hanging out in front by myself in front of the main pack, which is not what I really wanted to do. BJ caught me after about a mile and I stuck with him until the halfway point when he decided to pick it up.

I really felt awful through most of the rest of the run but only positive split the two loops by about 15 seconds. I was kind of amazed when I ran 16:05, but then I realized that they had just hoped the course would be 5k, when it clearly wasn't. There is a 5k course marked out at Sugarhouse, but for some reason (logistical probably) they didn't use it.

Anyway the race director decided to give me the prize for second place even though I was banditing because I had tried to register. I thought this was fairly generous of them.

Anyway, the course tool has this come out to about an even 5k, so it is right in line with all the other 5ks I've run this fall.

AM 5.5

PM I did 3*mile with 5 minutes rest.

4:59,5:00,5:02.

It was quite difficult to push myself to run this fast by myself. The pace did not feel especially painful, I am just not used to running at this pace mentally. It's a good sign though as this was much better than the last time I did this workout. I ran even or negative splits in all the miles.

Did 6*100 barefoot on grass then cooled down barefoot on grass also.

11.5 in the morning

5.5 in the evening,

AM 4

PM 10.5 I wanted to do a hard training run, but I started feeling dizzy about 3 miles in and just quit.

I felt really sick this morning so I was pleased that I at least ran this fast.

My blog has been kind of bleak recently as I've been struggling with allergies and illness.  I finally got prescribed some antibiotics and corticosteriods this week, but running has been pretty tough.

I decided that I would do the race today, but treat it as a workout. I hoped that I would win anyway, but like every week one really fast person showed up (Steve Shepherd).

I let him go right from the start.

Eh, I'll finish this later.

Did the run in 1:26:13. 58:43 through 10 miles. Couldn't believe I ran this faast considering everything.

Well, ok then that was a lot of miles. I'm now very tired. Now back to regularly scheduled half marathon training.

Three loops of Sugarhouse. 5mins rest in between.

10:28,10:38,10:24

I let down a little in the middle of the second one which was annoying. I did this in flat which would explain why this is so much faster than normal. I'm just glad that my allergies seem to be better.

Have to add about 10 seconds to get an actual 2-mile time. Still, is pretty good.

11.5 in the morning and 5 in the evening.

Did my math 10-miler with poor unsuspecting Kevin Smith. This is why, I run alone I guess. I advertised it as 5:50 pace. We hit 3 miles in 16:20 and Kevin says that's a litte fast right? I respond that the course is about to get much harder. He told me later that he started to despair a bit at that point. Apparently my workouts are really hard core, who knew?

Anyway, I felt great the whole way and he managed to stay with me without much trouble.

Section the 1st. 16:20 for 3 miles. Course tool adjusted pace was 5:38. Not bad.

Section the 2nd was 10:36. Adjusted pace was 5:21, rolling!

Death segment was 17:00 (very fast!). Adjusted pace was 5:22. I felt like I could go faster but Kevin was dropping back so I kept the effort even.

Final segment was 10:29. Not so sure about this segment because of construction, but adjusted pace still seems to be in the 5:20s.

Adjusted pace for the whole run was 5:27! Not tired at all! Those hard track sessions during 90-100 mile weeks have worked. Total crushage of the workout PR. I was THIS CLOSE to writing off the whole season as a lost cause, but that's three workouts in a row that I've totally crushed.

Not a very competitive race and I won by a lot. Race was on the road at Sugarhouse park, but it was still long despite the presence of a certified course. There were some high schoolers who thought they were going to take it easily and sprinted out at the beginning but I caught and passed them on the first hill and then increased my lead exponentially from that point on. I ended up winning by two minutes pretty easily.

Hmm, probably confused people who saw me running shirtless with gloves on. This is just how I roll.

2*(3 loops of Liberty Park on woodchips). The first one was pretty good (8:25,8:43,8:49) but the second was terrible. (8:36,9:06,9:10) I felt like I was moving pretty fast but it was quite cold which might have hurt me a little. I just couldn't get it going. Chalk it up to not enough rest.

I don't know where I get the idea that this will be fun. I decided to do 100 laps of the field house. I only took a split every other lap so that my watch wouldn't run out of memory.

Here is the gory detail.

Distance	Split	Pace	Cum	Avg Pace
	1:33.08		1:33.08
	1:29.89		3:02.97
	1:29.27		4:32.24
	2:14.92		6:47.16
	45.84		7:33.00
	1:30.82		9:03.82
	1:32.54		10:36.36
	1:31.05		12:07.41
	1:29.74		13:37.15
	1:29.67		15:06.82
	1:27.58		16:34.40
	1:28.98		18:03.38
	1:29.56		19:32.94
	1:31.04		21:03.98
	1:31.09		22:35.07
	1:30.15		24:05.22
	1:29.45		25:34.67
	1:29.70		27:04.37
	1:29.98		28:34.35
	1:30.66		30:05.01
	1:30.73		31:35.74
	1:30.70		33:06.44
	1:30.11		34:36.55
	1:29.40		36:05.95
	1:31.92		37:37.87
	1:31.74		39:09.61
	1:32.87		40:42.48
	1:32.58		42:15.06
	1:31.59		43:46.65
	1:32.50		45:20.15
	1:31.83		46:50.98
	1:29.92		48:20.90
	1:31.85		49:52.75
	1:31.55		51:24.30
	1:33.06		52:57.36
	1:33.14		54:30.50
	1:32.54		56:03.04
	1:33.86
	1:33.27		59:10.17
	1:31.12		1:00:41.29
	1:32.45		1:02:13.74
	1:33.30		1:03:47
	1:34.12		1:05:21
	1:34.10		1:06:55.26
	1:32.91		1:08:28.17
	1:34.47		1:10:02.64
	6:07.36		1:16:10.00