Fly on the Wall

5 ez w/ 6x100 strides at moderate effort.  Ran on the Virgin River Trail in Bloomington. 

I'm very happy with my effort and time, heck(guess I've been in Utah a long time) I'm thrilled with both! But I did not go sub 3. My time was 3:01:48* This is a 7 minute PR and over an hour off of my first marathon time, 4:06 @ TOU 2004 and I trained hard for that 4:06. This was only my first attempt at sub 3 (I can't even remember how many tries it took me to BQ) and I think I'll have a good shot next year!

I had a great time today. Lots of smiling friendly faces at the campfire. Lots of sweaty runners after the finish line. To me both are a good thing. I looked for more friends at the finish but unfortunately only found a few, yes I did stick around.

I started with a strong effort and worked hard for every mile there after. I think aerobically I was good. But I think my biggest limiting factor today was leg strength. The last few miles I felt like I was running on stumps, tired stumps. And throughout the race I just couldn't keep my legs moving as fast as I wanted to even though my heart rate was kind of low. I started with the sub-3 pace group but just couldn't hang with them. I lost them before Veyo and ended up less than 3 minutes behind them.


*They had new chips this year and mine didn't work. Apparently you can not fold the loop flat against your shoe but need to leave a big floppy bow. Oh well now I know. The marathon took my Garmin time as both my chip and gun time and said they would verify it on the photos. Lucky for me this is one of the very few times I've remembered to stop my watch at the finish. I'm guessing my Garmin time was within a few seconds of what my chip time would have been. But I'm glad I wasn't a few seconds within a sub 3!

1 6:58 154bpm
2 6.56 166
3 6.41 165
4 6.43 162
5 6.48 165
6 6.35 162
7 6.34 162
8 7.48 164
9 7.20 165
10 7.08 166
11 7.29 167 (quick pit stop somewhere in one of these miles)
12 7.05 166
13 6.58 166
14 6.45 167
15 6.24 169
16 6.23 167
17 6.34 169 (these last 3.1 miles = my 5k PR )
18 6.47 167
19 7.13 169
20 6.51 167
21 6.34 168
22 7.11 168
23 6.59 166
24 6.53 168
25 7.15 169 (legs hammered)
26 7.16 172
.23 7.17 171

6:56 ave pace. 166 bpm ave.

I should have run yesterday.  Today I feel like I have some sort of flu or cold- achey, stiff, hot, and tired.  Beyond that my legs are still tired and my left ankle still hurts when I run.  This may be my only run of the week.  My mom is watching the kids and my wife and I are headed to the Oregon coast tomorrow.  I've never been before and I'm really looking forward to it.  I just hope I feel better.  C'est la vie.  

I survived 700 school kids visiting at work last week, survived what ever illness hit me at the end of the week, had a wonderful trip with Mrs. Fly to the Oregon Coast, and now I'm ready and roaring to run.... I went down to the locker room to change and found two shirts but no shorts, DOH!  I briefly considered running in my briefs but quickly decided that could be dangerous on this section of the JRP.  Oh well, tomorrow.

The Oregon Coast was absolutely stunning.  I think it is one on the most beautiful coastlines I've ever seen.  This got my thinking about what coasts I have seen:  up and down California, Puget Sound, Baja Mexico, both sides of the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula in mainland Mexico, east Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina (sound and outer banks), New Oreans, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Cape Cod, Boston, Oahu, Molokai, Kauai, Hawaii (big island), Cameroon, Nigeria, Abidjan (Ivory Coast), England, France, Spain, Italy, Great Salt Lake, Lake Erie, and?  Yikes that leaves a whole lot of beaches to see.  I'd better keep moving.

4 EZ on JRP with friends.  Feeling really good and looking forward to running further and faster.

Yesterday I went to the Dermatologist.  I went asking about some blotchy patches on my chest and back.  She said they are Tinea Versicolor.  After diagnosing that the fun started.  "What's this red blotch?  Looks cancerous.  We'd better do a biopsy..."  I left with a hole in my shoulder and on my scalp, a couple of stiches, and a frozen spot on my eyebrow.  I guess that's what I get for 41 years in the sun.  Luckily nothing looks like the scary kind of cancer (no melanoma).  I'll get the biopsy results in a week.

Ran on the JRP.  Started slow but built up some steam and ran fast enough to sweat well.  The sweat part was per doctor's orders, "Take 2 tablets by mouth, work up a sweat and don't shower for 24 hours, then repeat in a week."  This is to treat the blotchy skin on my chest and back, tinea versicolor.  Sorry, more than anyone would want to know, but this treatment makes me laugh.  Just be glad you can't smell me from there.  You can't smell me can you?

What an incredible day to be outside.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  Ideal weather for a run.  I ran the trails behind my house up to the communication towers way up and north of the capitol.  I chugged up and ran a cautious pace coming down.  Lots of turning leaves.

 I hope you all made it out to enjoy the day!

About 5 miles on JRP.  The fast guy was with us today. We started at a good clip and kept picking it up.  7:46 ave for the run but that included stops at road crossings and a longer stop for someone to cough up a bug.  A very enjoyable run.

Biopsy results:  I have small basal cell carcinoma on my shoulder.  I will go back in next week to have more cut and burn done on my shoulder to make sure all the nasty cells are removed.  This is the most common type of cancer and the most common type of skin cancer.  It rarely spreads to other areas of the body and is easily cured, I'm reading 90-99% cure rates.

The mole on my head has some long name that translates to not cancer but not normal cells.  To be on the safe side the doc is cutting out more of my scalp as well. 

So not the end of the world but I'm not thrilled about surgery, even as minor as this.  I thought about having a pitty party for myself but I better save it for something worse.  Oh well, onward into the fog.

About 7 miles on JRP.  Just a nice run at a nice pace.

Left the office at a slow pace and not feeling great, not really bad either...  Turned around after 3 miles and headed back.  Then I saw the fast guy headed out.  We passed, he continued on, turned around, and then caught back up to me.  At that point he was breathing hard.  We ran the last couple miles in together during which his breathing returned to normal while mine escalated.  Here is my pacing:  9:03, 8:47, 8:53, 8:40, 7:00, 6:35 followed by a bit of a cooldown.  Speed is relative.

about 6 miles at about 8:17 ave pace on JRP

A friend was running 36 miles for his 36th birthday.  I joined him for about half of  it. 

About 4 hours.  Very EZ pace on trail from the upper Aves to Red Butte.  

JRP.  No real plan today but ended up running a 10 mile progressive pace run:  9:25, 8:56, 8:45, 8:28, 8:33, turn around 8:26, 8:25, 8:08, 7:57, 7:37. ave 8:28.  about a 15 mph tailwind headed out.

5 miles moderate to ez pace in blizzard like conditions.  I kept thinking, why am I running in this?  But when I finished I felt so much better than before I ran.  So I guess that's why I did it.  

Strided six seriously splendid, slightly short sets sans significant speed.  Satisfied.  Satiated.

Time to go get cut.

5.5 miles with 4x400 (1/4mile) intervals w/ 400 recover.  Felt fine, other than wanting to puke at the end of the intervals but that is good or at least normal. 

Interval splits:  ~81 sec, 82, 80, 83 (ave 5:22 pace).    8:12 ave pace for run (I should dig my heart rate monitor back out).

I don't enjoy intervals but this was a nice run.  I went with 2 co-workers and the short intervals meant we weren't too spread out at the end of each.

About 13 miles in about 2.5 hours on trails.  I ran to North Salt Lake then to City Creek, up canyon, and back home.  A cold and gray day.  Some muddy and snowy sections.

Before my run I went to my kid's school today for there Halloween parade and feast.   I didn't have much of a costume, just a real band aid over a tattoo that looked like a large open wound on my forehead (plus the real whole on the top of my head ;)  Out of the context of a Halloween party, it looked real from a couple of feet away.  I saw a few people while on my run and I wonder what they thought? 

7.5 steep trail miles.  City Creek to towers and home.