my makeup may be flaking

Up Emigration to the top. Took me 1:29:56 to go up. I was rolling at about an average of 6 flat pace on the way down when my garmin died...whoops.

10.9 (1:20:05) New Route! Up Sunnyside, Des News loop, back down.

5 

27:51 for the 4.7 miler

Avoided the snow in Provo.

Woah. Ran no slower than 6:27 the last 9 miles. 6:47 overall. Although I generally felt great (and didn't even feel like I was pushing the pace) there was a bit of a niggling in my right achilles. Over the last 9 months I have been trying to straighten out my form. I think that my right leg isn't used to being used properly. I'm going to have to be careful tomorrow probably. Clearly in great shape to start out the year though.

Biking

Biking

Biking+Elliptical

Yes! Running again. After about 1 mile I started to get sore but the pain leveled off and was in an "acceptable" range.

Felt ready to run a little further. My achilles was totally fine but got sore afterwards. This was kind of a hilly run so I was pleased that I made it through.

Lifted Afterwards. 

AM 7.6 Miles running with Allie. I felt pretty sore to begin with and was considering stopping. My achilles "loosened up" (pain receptors got bored). We kept it pretty flat and slow in Liberty Park

PM Decided to hit the gym. Warmed up for 10 mins on the bike before hopping on the elliptical: 16:09 5k YEAH! Very tired after this one. 

On the elliptical. The plan was 1 hour but the elliptical programs only go for 45 mins. I did a 15 minute cross country program (2.1 miles) and this felt pretty terrible because the resistance was all over the place: it kept shooting up to 17!

Anyway after 15 minutes of that I put it on manual and started chugging away. First mile was 6:17 and then I gradually picked it up. I was running about 5:30 pace at the end when Allie came and saved my from myself.

Unfortunately I overexerted myself on the elliptical and couldn't handle doing any other exercises as I was passing out. 

I was a little concerned about my ability to make it through 14 miles, but my achilles was fine. I ran the last two miles of the run in 11:46. I wanted to get moving after doing very little the last two weeks. I didn't feel great, but it was ok.

30 laps at the fieldhouse averaging about 6:10 pace. It was hot up there and I didn't feel good at all. I'll probably start running more sensibly as I get back into daily running. My achilles wasn't perfect but if it was better than the start of my run yesterday.

Got up at 4:30AM to run with Allie because I wanted a ride to school :). My achilles did not hurt but I ran pretty slowly. After three straight days of running it was creaking quite a lot.

In the evening I did some leg weights and then did 5.9 miles on the elliptical. This was slightly under 6 mins per mile (5:58 to be precise).

Elliptical

10miles

Hard.

The ellipticals at the fieldhouse only allow you to go for 45 minutes at a time so I decided that I would go 30mins, take a swig of gatorade and then restart the machine to finish 10 miles.

The goal was 58mins (5:48 pace). I did the first mile in 5:40 but then decided to raise the resistance by one notch (from 7 to 8). My second mile was a 5:23 (uh oh). The nice thing about the elliptical is that it's just you versus the machine. On the other hand, it's the elliptical...so that kind of bites. Anyway. I kept clicking off 5:30ish miles and after the first half hour I had done 5.46 miles (5:29.7 pace). To this point my stride rate had only dropped below 240 a couple of times, but my legs were starting to tire.

Starting up the machine again sucked. I made it through a 5:37 mile to start out my second segment, but then I started to hit the wall. Fortunately my pace didn't dip too much as I was still able to keep my stride rate in the 230s. The last few miles sucked but I still kept up a reasonable pace and finished with a 55:33 for the whole 10miles.

Altitude adjusted that's a 54 low which is about right based on the effort. Obviously different machines are calibrated differently (which is why I always use the same type of elliptical at the gym), but it does seem like I can just about match what I'd be able to do running on the elliptical. The difference is that my quads get really tired when I do this. I think this is a good thing as I think I have relatively weak quads...anyway.

AM 10 with Allie

PM 3 on elliptical. (in 17:47)

I think my ratio of running to non running might be a little off here.

In the afternoon I felt quite a bit of creaking (crepitus?) in my achilles.

I had resolved to take a few days off to let me achilles recover a little better but after today's run there is less creaking. I'll have to see how it progresses throughout the day. I took some ibuprofen before going to sleep which may have helped.

AM 9 with allie.

Lifted some weights an d then put some work in on the elliptical: (6:14,6:02,5:47,5:33,5:31) Afterwards, did some running on the track. There is no trace of tendinitis but I don't trust it. I think I will run the 5k tomorrow and see what happens.

I clashed horribly in the gym today, it was great.

My only real goal for this race was to test my achilles. I hoped to also break 17, but meh.

I have done basically no fast running over the past 3 week so I was pretty sure anything under 6 min pace would feel terrible. To begin with I felt like I had the speed in my legs to run with Fritz and Jake but I figured they were going low 15 pace and that I should just ignore them. The race was on for 3rd between me and my old nemesis, Jon Gauthier.

I felt pretty terrible for the 1st mile but I just wanted to see how fast I was going before slowing down. I hit the 1st mile in 5:11 before a wave of fatigue washed over me and I drifted into the 5:40 range. I didn't have the typical turnover that I have in 5ks and that basically doomed me. Also I just felt generally off and oft of sync. I was happy that I managed to hold my pace after my initial slow down not get passed. I dropped Jon at the mile and then was a bit ahead of the pack the rest of the way.

I "only" lost to Jake by 1:40 which means that the race was not awful for me. I probably should have been able to run 16:20-16:30 today. The most important thing is that my achilles held up.

When I got home I noticed that it was a bit sore so I iced it. Now as I write this it is very slightly tender. This is good news as it is clearly better than it was a few days ago despite the 5k. I think this may be due in large part to my ibuprofen consumption. 

Started out with Jake, Fritz and Allie. After about 6 miles my achilles started to indicate that it might not be able to go another 10+ miles. It gradually became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to keep going uphill. Allie and I turned around and ran back (thankfully mostly flat or downhill) to the car. I don't think it was much a setback, because I stopped when I did, but I do now that I'm going to have to take some more time.

6.84 miles in 40:00 on the elliptical. My achilles was VERY sore and creaky today.

These elliptical workouts really cream me. We tried to lift afterwards but I almost blacked out doing hamstring curls (same thing happened last friday :( ). Allie had to carry me back to the car.

8k on the elliptical. 27:00 (5:26 per mile)

Mile splits 5:27,5:28,5:31,5:23, 5:11 for .97 (5:21 pace)

17:02 at 5k-27:15 pace,

9:58 final 3k-26:34 pace.

PM 10.5 miles in 30mins (Biking, but still).

8.54 miles on the elliptical in 1 hour

immediately followed by 14 miles on the stationary bike.

I felt pretty terrible during this workout. It is hard to be on these machines for that long.

I'm not sure what this machine is, but I don't like it.

AM 7.6 miles RUNNING with Allie.

PM 5.4 miles in 30 mins on the elliptical. 

Ran to the fieldhouse and back...and guess what I did?

Half marathon on the elliptical.

I started out with a couple of warmup miles (5:59 and 5:40) and then kept the rest of the miles in the low 5:20s. I ended up doing the second half a minute faster than the first to finish in 1:11:26. I did the first 10 miles in 54:42 before closing in 16:44 the final 5k. It felt about as terrible as doing this on the road would be. 

Got out and ran again. Slightly conscious of my achilles, nothing major.

8.2 miles on elliptical in 45 mins. (uh yeah, it was hard)

1.8 miles running to get to 10.

21 miles on the bike (in just over an hour)

2 miles running

PM Ran home and did Allie's double with her.

JAJA run in the morning. Last night I used my gua sha tool to rub out my achilles. I succeeded in rubbing it pretty raw (skin came off). In my experience this is ok. During the run it felt a little sore and I wasn't sure if it was from actual tendon pain or from the raw skin. I honestly still can't tell, BUT it didn't feel any worse after the run than before.

Another factor in me running again (6 straight days!) is probably the superfeet insoles that I got per Rossy's suggestion.

PM: 10.4 miles cycling in 30 mins (heart rate in the 170s for the 2nd half.)

Did 4.97 miles on the elliptical

5:05,5:06,5:20,5:18,5:06 for final .97 (5:16 pace). Total time=25:55. Died pretty badly just before the 2 mile mark but I hung on to break 26.

Afterwards did 4 miles on the track at about 6:45 pace. I felt fine until the last lap when my hip started to hurt.

 PM 5.9 with Allie.

The outside the ice 5k turns out to mean that it is an indoor 5k going around an ice rink. This was actually a pretty cool venue for a race and I'd like to see more races there. Obviously there was a difficulty of lapping people but it wasn't all that bad.

Anyway my goal today was just to test out the achilles to prep myself for the half marathon tomorrow and I figured that I would pace Allie as well. I kind of had fun sitting back and picking people off as we kept a really even pace. We started with a 1:43 lap and we stayed in the 1:42-1:44 range until running the last two laps in 1:41,1:35. I think the funniest part was that the leaders almost lapped us after about 6 laps but then stayed about the same distance back the rest of the way.

As for my foot, it was fine and I even felt like I was pushing off my right foot fully. I think that the superfeet insoles are stopping me from yanking my achilles too much. Additionally, the fact that it is pancake flat was very kind to my feet. The one issue that I got was a blister due to the hole in my sock and the insoles which make my feet sit slightly differently in my shoe. I bet that this will become really bloody and gross tomorrow, but I look forward to it.

Last week I ellipticalled a half marathon in 1:11:23. I'm going to be happy with a 1:16 low tomorrow. Half marathon history (you have to go down very far to get to my altitude half pr)

1:11:14 (Utah Valley 2011, aided) 

1:11:15 (Seattle 2009, Sea Level)

1:11:23 (Elliptical 2012, Um..Elliptical)

1:11:24 (Mercer Island 2010, Sea Level)

1:11:36 (SLC 2009, Aided)

1:13:08 (Seattle 2008, Sea Level)

1:13:37 (Seattle 2011, Sea Level)

1:13:56 (TOU 1st half split, aided)

1:14:00 (Des News 1st Half split, aided)

1:14:14 (Seattle 2010, sea level)

1:14:29 (Boston 1st half split, aided sea level)

1:14:31 (Salt Lake Half 2011, Aided)

1:14:54 (Freedom Half 2011, Aided)

1:15:01 (Sale Lake City Half 2011, aided+short)

1:16:18 (Provo City 2011)!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Clearly my altitude PR is soft. I think that this will be tough to get tomorrow but it's at least possible. 

I had planned on doing this race for about a month. Everytime I thought about, I thought "I'm probably going to regret this". Anyway, I told myself that I had a shot at my altitude PR yesterday and figured that I could get the Wasatch Running Center some good exposure.

I was never on pace for 1:16. After about 5k it became apparent that I was not going to run very fast (like no faster than 1:19). I just clicked off the laps as my left leg became gradually more and more sore. Again, my achilles was fine and my breathing was fine, but my quads were toast.

Anyway, I definitely slowed down by maybe 10-15 seconds a mile toward the end but I was happy with how I did.

Best Pace Guesses

1595m=5:51 (5:54)

3367m=12:20 (5:53/5:53)

4696m=17:15 (5:54/5:57)

6468m=23:54 (5:56/6:02)

8240m=30:37 (5:58/6:06)

9569m=35:44 (6:00/6:12)

11341m=42:34 (6:02/6:12)

13113m=49:21 (6:03/6:09)

Final 7974m in 31:14 (6:18 pace):Ran out of memory

I estimate that I could have (in the latter stages) been losing roughly 15-20 seconds a mile weaving around people. I think this could have cost me maybe as much as 3 minutes. It's actually difficult to say. Anyway, I'm glad that I tried this race, but my legs are really trashed now.

Did 2700S loop with Allie. I was very achy from my race and I also had some blisters from using superfeet in my flats. It was good to be able to do this run without my achilles bothering me. It was very creaky again after this run, but I know from experience that creaking is ok if no accompanied by pain. It still is a little tender to the touch, so I'm not going to give up the cross training just yet.

A sorry day. I got to the gym and did a 5k on the rowing machine. Then I went up to the track and tried to run, but my legs were too tired and my blister hurt so much that I started crying (ok, not really). Then I tried to ride the exercise bike but I just could not get it going.  I probably need a day to let myself heal a bit anyway.

2*4.7 miles. One in the AM, one in the PM. Both runs felt pretty good and I didn't have to think too much about my achilles. Hopefully more running this week.

AM JAJA run and it felt great. Andrea is clearly antsy so it seemed like we ran faster than normal (or maybe I'm out of shape). In any case it was good to get in a good workout that didn't involve watching numbers slowly tick by on a screen. I really hate watching numbers tick by on screens.

It started to snow, so we decided to cut the run .8 miles short (also we didn't really know how far we'd gone). Then we went to the weight lifting. Despite my sore quads I still managed 125lbs. I'm now up to 95lbs on the hamstring curls. My achilles is slightly creaky today, but it is not as bad as it was over the weekend. Maybe things are getting better? Maybe. I know that the creakiness by itself is not necessarily that bad as I've had it linger before. Still, it's a clear indication that I'm not ready for high intensity/ high volume yet.

Something is wrong with my quad.

Ran home but had to stop a few blocks from my house due to my quad.

AM 5 With Jake, Adam and Allie. I then headed to the fieldhouse and ran in circles until allie showed up and we could live. (3 more)

PM 4.8 in 31:25 (6:30 pace). Leg started to hurt at the end, but my Saucony Mirage felt like really great. 

AM 3.6 miles

PM I decided that I wanted to see how fast I can walk.

I did two miles in 8:23,8:24. The main issue I had was that power walking seemed to hurt my quad more than running so it became difficult to maintain form. I think that I could easily have gone sub 8 pace if my quad wasn't sore.

So a 16:47 2 mile walking. That's about 15:40 for a 3km, which is 660 points according to the IAAF.

Equivalents to a 15:40 3km Walk vs my PR

Equivalent	My PR
2:04 (800m)	2:03
4:38 (1mile)	4:28
9:15 (3km)	9:07
9:58 (2mile)	9:51
15:52	15:26
33:47	32:30
1:14:36	1:11:15
2:42:01	2:32:27

 Umm....maybe I'm a much more talented walked than I am runner? 

Managed 7.4 on the JAFAJ run and then went another 2 at the fieldhouse while waiting for Allie. Those last 2 miles felt pretty good as I was running around 6:00-6:20 pace with no real effort.

Anyway, my achilles was creaky but not painful afterwards and I was able to do some leg extensions. I think I should be good now.

Anyway, I'm going to shoot for 50 miles of running this week. At 25.4 right now with 3 days left.

Leg seized up on my run again. This is pretty lame. I'm going to have to take another weekend off. At least I got in some running this week.

After some time off, running with Allie again. Can I get string together some running this time?

Another JAFAJ run cut short. :( I really have to fight the urge to go for a 2nd run. I know that I can go run 10-15 miles right now, but I'm trying to get my weekly mileage up again. Grrr.

Ow!!!! First long run in a while. Average about 6:40 pace, it was really difficult.

PM Started at 7:10 pace, got down to 6:10 pace and it actually felt good this time. Ran a couple miles of SlC marathon course

Ran to school and then did a 9-miler in the evening on the shoreline trail. Now my hamstrings are sore.

Ran with new Adam, Kevin Smith, Allie, Rob, Jake, Fritz. I struggled pretty much the whole time. Things got ugly when we headed up through Tanner Park and I was dropped hard. I didn't care though. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger...or leaves me paralyzed from the neck down. A hiller 14 miles at a 7:18 avg pace. It should have felt hard for me.

My body said it was ready for more again today so I obliged. 15.1 miles 6:54 avg. Ran up sunnyside, then along the MillCreek Township 8k course, then down 33rd South and back along 5th east. Finished up running some 6:30 miles on the flat. This was again difficult, but I'm getting there.

Des News Death Loop (up Sunnyside to Hogle Zoo, along Wasatch to Thunderbir, back on Foothill and down Sunnyside). 10.9/7:54 avg.

AM To work via the avenues/shoreline trail. 8:35 pace!

PM Home via Des News Loop. Starting to feel good on longer runs.

AM First non-Gimpy JAFAJ run in a while.

PM Ran home.

Ran pretty slowly this evening. Body starting to feel tired from all this running.

OMG! I'm somehow doing striders half and SLC full, what is wrong with me. Oh, it snowed today and stung my eyes while I was running. Ran with Allie. We went fairly fast because we wanted to be done.

The plan was to run 5:45 pace in the early miles and then just hang on. I didn't really know how I would respond, but I figured that a 1:16 was probably the best I would be able to do.

The response was that I felt like I was running in Molasses. I don't just mean that my legs felt heavy, but also that I was heavy a hard to breathing because Molasses was going up my nose.

The first few miles were reasonable fast (5:27,2&3 5:38 avg,5:35). My legs were willing but I felt like I was redlining it aerobically. As the road flattened out I had a hard time maintaining and ran 5:48, 5:55 for mile 5 and 6. I knew that I was in trouble as those two miles were still going downhill.

Normally I welcome gentle rollers and I was happy to see them today, but my breathing kept getting totally out of control. I pushed really hard in miles 7&8 but only got 6:03 and 6:04. At this point I was weaving all over the road. Still, I told myself, these are maybe the fastest miles I've run in months and I just ran 8 of them in a row.

I kind of slowly lost it the last 5 miles and I knew that I would have to work hard to beat my 1:19 from 2009. Glancing back a few times, I could see that there were people behind me getting closer. I ran 6:23 for mile 9. I remember surging on an uphill on mile 10 and managing 6:14. Looking back I could see people were closer and there were 3 miles left.

I was waiting for the inevitable at this point. I slowed again to 6:22 for 11 and 6:32! for 12. I was pretty out of it at this point, but I didn't think I had much left. With 1 mile to go, I was maybe 20secs up on MarkP and I felt confident I could hold onto that. I raised my pace as much as I possibly could: a measly 6:16 last mile.

Despite those terrible final miles I still managed to average 6 flat pace. Even though this is pretty bad for me by typical racing standards, I'm not upset at all. For one thing, I just got back to running. For another, I ran like 10000miles this week. And for yet a third, this race was at even higher elevation than I'm used to and I've always had difficulties with altitude (stupid low VO2 max).

Positives: If I had run 1:16 I still would have finished 5th, but if I had run 2.5 mins slower, I would have finished much lower down. Anyway, I'm currently beating Jake in the Circuit so HA!

Also, running this race early gives me something to compare future races to.

Finally, I didn't feel any problem today with my knee or achilles. My calves are sore, which is something I need to be careful about, but they are sore in a good way.

After the race I cooled down with Devra, Allie, MarkP and Tera. To me, this was just as hard as the race as I could barely keep up with them. 

Ran the SLC 1/2 course with Jake, Andrea, Allie and Fritz. Apparently, they all wanted to take shortcuts in their training so we cut .5 miles off from Liberty Park. I felt a little weak today and when I was done I felt like I'd gone 20 miles instead of 12, but I'm still chugging along here.

AM 11.5 in 1:24:02 (7:18 per mile)

AM2 To school

PM 4.7 (7:27 pace)

Math loop about 18:10,12:20,19:20,12:20 for a total of 62:10. Not great, but not terrible either. I felt really terrible because I was thirsty and sore. Compounded with being out of shape and you'd expect a poor showing. The reality is that 62mins is "ok" and it is actually pretty promising when I put it in context. When in good shape, I would probably be able to manage a 59 given my current workload and the conditions. (It was also really windy, which left me parched after the first few miles).

6:27 avg. (Flat equivalent=6:13)

Jafaja run: 9 miles and 3 step.

I'm thinking of starting the following mini-slam

"Indian Summer Quad Masher Tour"

July 14th Bryce Canyon Half (1800foot drop)

July 28th Timp Half (1800foot drop)

Sept 8th Mt Nebo Half (3100 foot drop)

The nebo half is ideal prep for the main event:

Huntsville Full Marathon: 3800 foot drop

Finally it all ends with:

Halloween Half (2200 foot drop)

I guess I could just make it Timp, Nebo, Halloween Half and call it "Quadsterf*$!". The races that combine inane logistics with absurd courses, whatever.

Anyway, I decided last night that I will be most likely running SLC full as a workout. I will attempt to hit half way in 1:22-1:25, after that I'm not sure what will happen.

PM Home Via Des News Loop. Felt really good today!

AM 8 miles with Allie. Blue Boutique/Red Mango Loop

PM Around Campus

Low key pre-marathon 5k. I wanted some honest competition so I enlisted my friend Andrew to come race me (I figured Fritz would crush me).

Anyway, I knew I was in trouble right off the bat as I was having trouble breathing going up the first hill. When I'm training hard (read slightly overtraining), I tend to have difficulties maintaining a high heart rate. I was forced to back off considerably and I fell back into 4th place behind Levi Pace. I feel kind of bad for Levi, because every time I race him there is always someone (his dad) yelling at him to go faster at every turn. It kind of stresses me out. Anyway, I stuck with Levi the first mile, which was the hilliest and hit a 6:04, putting me some 40 seconds behind fritz and maybe 20 seconds behind Andrew.

I started to push hard as the downhills came and it seemed like I was making up some ground. I ran 5:34 for the second mile and Andrew was still far away. My stride felt pretty smooth but I was having trouble with my turnover. Anyway we turned the final corner and I made a bid to catch Andrew. I almost caught him, but he heard me coming and had a little something left. I didn't have the normal turbo-boost today (maybe not enough to ear, i.e. nothing?) and he left me in the dust. I was happy he was there though as he kept me running fast in the last 1.1 (6:09 5:35 pace). I ended up not very far behind Fritz in the end (~30 seconds) so that's a good sign. Time wasn't great but the course was tough. I'm also beginning to think that my slow time was more that I am having difficulty with the mileage rather than being totally out of shape.

Afterwards I ran home 10 miles through Tanner Park. 

AM Progression run with Allie. Starting at 9:30 pace we were running close to 6 flat at the end. Ran the last two miles at a faster pace than Allie's 5k from the day before!

PM 2 loops Liberty Park 

Math "10 miler" (17:40,11:28,18:45,11:24)=59:17 (6:10 pace)

Last week (18:10,12:20,19:20,12:20)

Ran about 3 minutes faster than last week. It was much cooler today, but my legs still didn't feel great. First run in my new NB400s. I like the feel of them, I had a nice smooth midfoot strike going on without too much stress on my achilles. Seems like a good lightweight trainer and a good shoe to use in SLC.

My legs are getting used to the pounding of running again, but I'm definitely not going to pop a good tempo run with all the mileage I've been ramming into my legs. Also, I'm clearly a little rusty aerobically. I definitely feel good about the fact that my performances are going in the right direction.

Pre marathon 10k JAF run. We kind of ran around at random but it wasn't that different from normal.

Expo! The major sign telling people where to go was facing a wall. It was only readable if you were leaving the expo. It was kind of funny. No goody bag, no chip confirmation. The board with the numbers only went up to Sch. Things seemed mostly ok, but with this race...

I caved and tapered a little. My plan is still to run conservatively through the half. Most likely this will go out the window in the first few miles, but whatever. My best case scenario is something like the following splits. Shooting for a 6:10 "flat pace".

Like I've said, I had low expectations for this race. The plan was to run 1:22-1:25 through the half.

I ran the first couple of miles with Bill Cobbler and we settled in just a bit slower than I had intended but it felt pretty difficult. First couple of miles were 6:00,6:17,5:58,5:57. Each split was about 10 seconds slower than the "plan", but my legs were feeling pretty tight and I just didn't feel like I had much "go".

I lost Bill right before entering Sugarhouse Park. There were ALOT of marathoners in front of me. There was orange boulder guy about 2-3 minutes ahead along with Steve Andersen. Rossy was even further ahead. In addition Dennis was about a minute ahead of me. I entered the park right behind shirtless dude, white t-shirt man, bandana man and curly hair.

It was kind of cool to be back in the pack struggling for position, but I was definitely struggling. I kept falling behind on the uphills in sugarhouse but in hindsight I was probably conserving my energy better than those around me. We picked it up relative to the pace chart in this section as my pace drifted into 6:00-6:05 adjusted pace (when I had been doing 6:20). Shirtless guy was toast after before we left the park. Bandana man, white t-shirt man, curly hair and I ran as a little pack as we made our way through the half marathoners on 1700East.

White t-shirt guy was chewing on a Gu at this point and seemed very relaxed. I figured that he would be a tough nut to crack. Turning onto 2700S we away from the half marathoners and I could see Dennis ahead about 30 seconds ahead. White t-shirt guy seemed unaffected by the hill and opened a gap on me. We got a little downhill after the next turn and I caught back up. I was definitely straining here and my splits show that these were my fastest splits considering the terrain.

White t-shirt guy and I pulled away from the pack and continued this pattern of yo-yoing. He would take a big lead on the hills and I would get it back on the downhills.

Splits 5-12 (5/6 12:27,6:11, 6:20, 6:32 , 6:15 ,5:55,6:17) 

At about mile 12, we climb another hill and here white t-shirt dropped me and caught dennis. Michelle S. was doing recon out on the course and told me that I was 4-5 minutes down on Steve A and that I was in 8th overall. I was actually feeling good at this point, but I knew that with Steve and Fritz so far out there, I would have to run a massive negative split to catch them. I had a weird feeling that my legs were turning over well, but my body was also telling me that I would have fueling issues if I tried to push it any faster. This wasn't a great sign given that I had 14 miles left. I realized that I was only going to get money if there was mass carnage in front of me.

But the choice of whether or not to go for it was made for me. I lost a ton of ground on Dennis and white t-shirt on final uphill before the half and the ensuing downhill. I split 6:34 for mile 13 6:18 for mile 14 and 6:04 for mile 15. I was happy to see the 6:04 because that mile felt very hard. My quads were very fatigued and they did not like that downhill. By the time we reached Van Winkle Dennis and white t-shirt guys were little specks on the horizon. Dang it! I soldiered through Van Winkle and realized that I was entering "how am I still doing this" mode. Mile 16 felt like I was crawling but was a 6:18 (6:30 adjusted). Here I took a Gu and I immediately felt life returning to my legs. I ran 6:17 from mile 17 even though it was a flatter mile. Final Van Winkle mile has an uphill and I did 6:25 but this was 6:20 adjusted.

Here I was starting to get hot and my concern became dumping water on myself. Got myself good and soaked at the mile 18 aid station and then turned onto 5th south. Here I was met by Kevin Smith, which was amazing. He ran with me and told stories for the last 8 miles. I was kind of glad I wasn't in the money, because I wouldn't have accepted the help if I had been. I was starting to feel a little better anyway as the pounding of the downhill was working it's way out of my legs.  Mile 19 was  6:19. Still trucking along!

Kevin remarks that I'm running faster than he had been going. Well I'd sure hope so, he was doing a long run. Anyway in the 20th mile, it's orange boulder guy. He's coming back to me very fast. I get a burst of adrenaline and manage...a 6:25. Still I pass him and I know that he's not coming back. I would end up beating him by 10 minutes.

Mile 21 has a little rise. I definitely lapsed mentally a little here because I know downhill is coming. This mile is 6:43, my slowest mile of the race in both real and adjusted terms. The good news was that I kept getting faster from there.

I ran 6:34,6:33,6:29 for miles 22-24. I've basically only slowed down 10 seconds a mile from the start, I can't really expect any better than that. I can't see ANYONE ahead of me though, no steve, no rossy, no dennis, no white t-shirt guy. It's kind of hard to keep the effort up but I'm just trying to shoot for a 2:45 at this point.

Mile 25. Passing half marathoners then suddenly I see someone moving much faster than everyone else. Is that...could it be? Yes! It's white t-shirt guy. Oh so cruel! I pass him right as we run by Radio Shack.

Now I'm just counting down the blocks. I'm suffering a lot on the uphill but mile 25/26 are two very strong miles. Considering the terrain, I picked it up by about 10 seconds a mile.  Running down South Temple took way too long, but I saw the clock tick 2:45 and I knew I had it.

Anyway, my 2nd slowest marathon ever, but honestly I don't think this is cause for concern. Had I called this a "tempo run" then I would have considered it very good. I came in with the dubious combination of no base AND trashed legs. I also had some minor fueling issues that I need to iron out. These are probably due to the fact that I'm coming back to higher mileage. Two weeks ago I CRASHED in a HALF MARATHON and I ended that race slower than I ended my race today. Progress.

I love how we totally dominated today. Andrea, Fritz, Ben VB, Steve A, Allie, Emily B,Rossy. Also Redd for pacing me. FRB 4 eva! 

About a 3 mile walk. My legs are actually pretty beat up.

My legs aren't recovered yet. I think this pretty much rules out the Provo City Marathon. I don't want to miss all of May recovering.

Still sore, but noticeably better.

Back to doubling today, though it was a meager one. I'll be running the cookie chaser 5k this weekend. Hoping to set a yearly best in the 5k (sub 17) and beat my 2k time from last year (6:22).

Ran to and from school.

In the PM did 3*(1min hard-2min easy) going around liberty park. My average pace was around 6:40 so perhaps 8min pace for the "easy" section and 4:00 pace for the hard? That seems way too fast.

Sugarhouse 10K loop with Allie.

Had to go back to Riverton to defend my 2k and 5k crowns.

We didn't arrive nearly early enough to get a good warmup in which is obviously a problem for any race, but definitely a problem for a 2k. I also didn't manage to start my watch in time so I don't know what I ran for the 2k yet (6:35?).

At the start of both races there were tons of little kids who wanted to sprint the fast 100meters, so I went all the way over to one side of the road so I didn't step on anyone. I ended up losing a ton of ground to one guy in the mad sprint at the start and I never was able to close it. It's probably the fastest I've run for an extended period of time in a while and my lungs were burning by the end.

We didn't have much turnaround before the 5k and so I just went back to the starting line. The 5k was truly massive this year, it seemed. People started out slightly less crazily in this race and I was up with the leaders after about 400meters into the race. The winner of the 2k (Billy) was running next to me along with two highschoolers and a guy in blue. The pace felt really slow to me but I just couldn't find another gear and I was definitely thinking "oh yeah, I just ran a marathon". Anyway I just tried to keep pushing and hope that my steady pace would be enough to drop everyone. It wasn't.

The course is an out and back. About 400meters before the turnaround there is a little downhill and Billy took a substantial lead on me. I was around 8:30 at the turnaround with blue guy about 1-2 seconds back and Billy in the lead by about 5 seconds. Billy quickly faded in the 2nd mile and soon it was blue guy and I running side by side. With about a kilometer to go he managed to pick it up just a little and I was already running as fast as I could. I did end up negative splitting by 10 seconds but it wasn't enough, I ended up 8 seconds back.

Anyway, I was happy that I got my goal of sub 17. It was not an optimal day in terms of warmup, temperature, etc.  

Met Fritz at Highland High, but I had to go back home because I had forgotten my running shoes. Yep...I'm training to be a math professor.

We ran through the avenues and downtown, it ended up being a nice morning. Despite some slow early miles averaged 7:04 pace. I was really happy with how my legs felt today. Time to kickstart another training block. 

AM To school, took a longer route.

Midday Run:4.8 in 34:22 (7:10 pace)

PM:7.1, home

Ok, three runs in one day is tough. 

AM Up Sunnyside to Foothill, along SLCHM course to foothill, then home. 8.7 miles

AM2 To school

PM From School

AM KAFJAJ run 10.7 miles with a 7:29 avg. I think I sold everyone on the benefits of three-a-days.

PM 4.6 miles around campus. This loops is pretty difficult (Equivalent length 4.83 miles) so my 27:34 actually is pretty decent. I ran 6:54,5:57,5:34,6:02,3:06 for last .6 (5:10 pace). This is actually represents an even effort. The first mile gains about 300ft and also has lots of stairs and grass and things.

PM2 Home

AM1 2XLiberty Park

AM2 To school up Sunnyside

PM 7

AM 6.2 Wilford Woodruff House/Ute Crossfit/Sherwin Williams Paints run. Provo City Quarter Marathon tomorrow. Legs feel better than they have felt, but not expecting much from myself. Allie and I will be running a relay together.

Ran the 2nd half of the Provo City Half. I think the final time was about 1:15:20 but I'm not certain of the time. 

Warmed up about 6 miles because I was feeling a little tight. Then I stood around for a while because the half ended up starting late. This was actually kind of cool because it meant that I had a ton of marathoners to chase in addition to the half marathoners. Allie brought us in on around 1:19 pace (maybe) and so I had some fun chasing down Emily Bates and some of the other guys. I passed a guy on track for 1:17 at about mile 10 and I beat him by over minute so that was kind of neat. I felt pretty guilty passing these guys though because I had been running for so much less than they had.

The mile markers were all over the place and there were no clocks so I had no idea how I was doing until I saw the clock ticking 1:15:xx at the end. I found an extra gear to make sure that we hit out goal. I was kind of surprised that we ran so fast because I knew I wasn't going faster than 5:30 pace.

Anyhow, definitely a good workout. We crushed the other relays and set the relay record by over 10 minutes which was pretty sweet. This would have been a good day to wear my Garmin though. 

JAFKAJ run this morning. 10.5 miles 7:25 avg. I felt cold and hungry, but my legs felt great.

PM

From Office to mouth of canyon (road by the zoo): 2.58miles in 16:35 (6:25) 5:50 adjusted

Up 1st six miles of emigration canyon: 41:34 (6:56) 6:02 adjusted

Down 6 miles : 37:11 (6:10 pace)  6:32 adjusted pace

From mouth of canyon to school: 2.62 miles (took a small detour) 18:25 (7:09 pace) 7:25 adjusted.

The plan was to run up Emigration HARD and then cruise down. By the time I got to the top, my legs were burning and so the run down was brutal. I managed to hold on to low 6 minute pace until I got back to the zoo. After that I just jogged it in because I was pretty done. 

AM AAFJJK run

AM 8.6 miles (8:27 pace) Blue Boutique Loop

PM 4.1 miles to school

PM2  A "workout" at the U of U track (I stayed in lane 9 because I'm considerate of wear and tear.)

6X400m with 90 seconds rest 78.2,76.0,73.1,75.1,73.4,73.4

3X200 with 60 seconds rest 33.0,34.2 (into wind),32.8

The track was windy and  my legs were pretty tired from the 12 miles already in them, so I was just hoping to hit 5k pace or a little faster on the 400s. Unless my 5k pace is sub 15, it looks like I did. Ran home afterwards-6 miles total 

AM 14.6 with Allie. Non-looping loop. Foot was a little tight, but it loosened up during the run. I think it's a good day to take the afternoon off.

Out and back on Jeremy Ranch road with Andrea, Chad, Jake, Kevin and MarkP. It's a nice tough run. My foot is still tight but it was definitely better than yesterday. My body is still kind of in shock from Tuesday so it may be a few days until I do anything intense. My mileage has been great so far this month though.

800m repeats:2:34 avg

Included a 26min powerwalk 5k

Started Allie's long run with her then ran home. Finished off the run about 6 flat pace for the last 5 miles. 

400-600-800-600-400-400 with a 200 meter jog.

Felt pretty bad during this workout and the results were bad, but the effort was there.

(:36,1:16,1:55,2:44!!,1:57,33,30).

I was definitely feeling my allergies on the 2:44 800, but I was warmed up at the end and able to run some respectable 200s. 

Ran the "waterwheel" loop with Allie to begin with, then struck out on my own. I wanted to get in a good long run prior to Ragnar just to make sure my foot can handle it. Everything seems fine, again, but I'm still just waiting for the next thing to break.

First 4 miles in about 35:00 (8:45 pace). Last 12.6 at just under 7 min average.

AM Plan was to do a fartlek but I just felt awful. Ended up just doing 8.5 miles at 6:40 pace. Ran last mile in sub 6 to get myself going.

PM Much cooler in the evening (weirdly) and so I decided to do my campus tempo run.  5:57 avg, 5:40 adjusted.

May 2nd (6:54,5:57,5:34,6:02,3:06)

Today(6:54,5:58,5:34,5:53,3:03)

Half mile splits 

(3:19,3:34,3:07,2:50,2:45,2:48,3:09,2:43,2:31)

AM Waterwheel loop+detour to bathroom (hence extra .1). I felt really terrible to begin with but I wanted to get some faster miles in as a confidence booster prior to Ragnar.

First couple of miles were 8:30-9 flat pace and my legs were feeling awful. Seven miles in I saw that Allie and I were now running sub 8 pace and I was feeling OK. I dropped Allie on the big Climb up 3900S dropping my pace to about 7:30. Then I stopped to go to the bathroom (we started running about 5 minutes after I got out of bed) and Allie caught back up.

Anyway, after the bathroom stop, my legs started feeling much better and I averaged about 6:15 pace from there on out. I ended up completing the loop in 2:03:59 (7:15 pace).

10.6

Yay! Now I'm sick

Such as miserable run. Too soon to attempt a long run.

Triple!

AM FRAJKAJ run.  I actually felt decent today. The cooler weather definitely has helped.

I was curious to see if we can spell a word yet, so I used the internet anagram solve (I, rearrangement servant)

No matches yet, BUT James Richard Moore=Semi Major Hardcore or A Jihad Sorcerer Mom or His Radar Creme Mojo

AM 7 Miles, ran to meet allie during her long run then ran around campus when I got to school.

PM 8.1 Miles, tried to do a tempo run but my shin started to hurt at about the halfway point. I had to limp home for 4 miles

Up Sunnyside to research park along the shoreline trail to popperton park. Then along 11th avenue to city creek. Up to the waterstation and back.

The idea was to avoid my disaster from my last long run by sticking close to home and drinking fountains. I actually averaged 7:20 pace for the run but that doesn't really tell the story. I lost my hearing about 8 miles into the run and figured it was just altitude, but then I couldn't get my ears to pop. I started dousing myself with water at every opportunity but it wasn't much help. My breathing was pretty ragged for the last few miles and I was pretty sure I was suffering from heat stroke. I eventually had to start sitting down at the intersections while I waited for the lights to change, but I made it back and immediately took a cold shower.

I'm not too concerned about the outcome today, I think I just got severely dehydrated. 

AM KAJJA run 9 miles. We all seemed to be dragging this morning. I personally felt terrible and was definitely glad for the company.

PM 4 miles running home. 

AM 10 miles, 2700S loop with allie. My legs are way too tight at the moment, but it was actually nice weather this morning.

PM Shoreline trial 

AM 10 

PM 6.2 miles in 38:15 (6:10 pace)

Brutal 20-miler in 100 degree heat. Ran with Allie for about 15 miles and then ran 6:43,6:27,6:36,6:45,6:30 for the last 5 miles. Not bad considering the hot weather.

AM 10.7

PM 6.5 

Back in Utah after my Honeymoon with Allie.  After a decent run yesterday I had a complete meltdown on my run this morning. Almost passed out at the end of the run despite running at a pretty normal pace. Not really sure what the problem is but this has happened to me three times recently.

After a bit of a recovery, I went to the field house and lifted weights.

PM Ran home.

Tried to do a few marathon pace miles this morning but everything feels off. Mostly, I just am extremely tight and my hamstring is bugging me a little. The run went better than yesterday's though.