Run fast

Ran around Millcreek and Sugar House.  The weather could not have been better and the greenery is very nice.

First softball game of the year tonight. The knuckle ball will be in full force.

This is what you don't want to do in the steeplechase.  Ouch!  A BYU runner did this last weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibtcWbxoXNU&rel=0

JAKAJF - Kevin is the new addition. I put that in the anagram solver and we still can't spell a word.  We need some more vowels.

12 miles through Tanner Park, north to the Zoo and back.  Perfect weather.

cross training day

Ran over to the gym for a few miles on the treadmill.  I think/hope the hamstring will hold up ok in the half tomorrow.  I can't tell you how excited I am to wake up at 3:30 AM.

All time dumbest song that a guy I work with insists on playing every Friday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzfQwXEqYaI&ob=av3n

Left my house at 4 and arrived in Provo at 5.  On the bus by 5:15 and got to the starting area by 5:45.  This left just enough time (75 minutes) to huddle on a bench in the picnic area and tie my shoes.  As 7 o'clock neared I found out that the half would start 15 mins after the full which meant that my plan of waiting until the last second to ditch my drop bag failed.  Fortunately I had my homemade cut off dress sock arm warmers to keep me warm.

Before the race I saw Teren, Jon Kotter, Brandon H., Riley, Steve and Seth.  I just assumed they would all be running the half but turned out that Jon and Brandon were running the full together and Steve was running it for......he likes running I guess.  Riley has been running really well and Teren is always tough so I knew from the beginning that Seth and I would be battling for the 3rd spot. 

We started out down a steep hill at a blistering pace and after only a half mile I was already struggling to stick with the pack.  I had to surge several times just to keep up.  I knew that wasn't sustainable for 13 miles so I let the three of them go as we turned onto the parkway at about mile 1.75.  They quickly put some distance on me as I slowed to a meager 5:36??? for mile 3. At that point I had basically written off 3rd place so my focus turned to running my pace and just holding a good effort until the end.  With that frame of my mind and backing it off a bit my legs started feeling better (amazing, huh?) to the point that a few of the middle miles were actually enjoyable.  On a few of the straight aways I could see the pack of 3 in the distance and at about mile 6 I noticed that I wasn't losing much ground and Seth had fallen a few seconds behind Teren and Riley.  This renewed my motivation although I still couldn't tell if Teren or Riley were getting faster or if Seth was slowing.  After a few more turns Seth started getting bigger so it was then that I knew I could possibly catch him.  At mile 8 I was about 30 seconds back as we turned onto University Ave.  It wasn't long until I noticed I was gaining on him faster and at around mile 9 I finally passed him.  He was gracious enough to give me a backward low five.  After the race I found out that he had won a 50k in California last weekend which was only a week after finishing 2nd at Salt Lake.  So not only was showing up and running a 1:11 impressive, he was super gutsy to hang with Teren and Riley for 7 miles.

After passing Seth I just focused on staying smooth and not letting my pace slip too much.  Scott joined me at mile 10 (I apologize for my lack of chattiness...I was tired) which really helped me get over the last little hill.   As I approached the finish I had no idea what pace I had been running and it looked like the clock read 1:10....  That wouldn't have surprised because of the painful start but fortunately as I got closer the 10 miraculously (attributable to Provo?) turned into an 8 and I finished in 1:08:57.  This is an aided half marathon PR but still 10 seconds slower than my half split at CIM. 

Despite the less than enjoyable start, I am happy with how the race turned out.  I cooled down 4.5 with Riley then did another 3 on my own.  After the cool down I chatted with Steve, who had just finished an "relaxed 2:40 marathon", Riley (2nd in half), Jake and Andrea (speedy winners of the 5k), Allie and James (winners of half relay), Kevin (2nd in 5k) and Emily B. (winner of the half).  Except for the treasure hunt for the bags, the race was very well organized.

Time to cross train and mow my lawn.

Splits:

5:02, 5:04, 5:36, 5:18, 5:16, 5:14, 5:15, 5:16, 5:15, 5:16, 5:24, 5:17, 5:14, 0:30

Ran with JAJAK this morning from Highland.  A bit sore and tired from yesterday's race but that should probably be expected.

Before the run there was a Rob siting.  I can't quite understand why he had decided to wake up at 3 and run 30 miles on the treadmill while watching Sportscenter.  So, if you have any questions about what happened in sports yesterday Rob should know.

Monday gym day.  A bit sore from the weekend.

Ran trough Holladay 6200 S. and back.  I saw Jake and Andrea running the other direction for the first time 2 years.  Today I am presenting on the cost of stocking out.  Exciting stuff.

JAJAKF run around Millcreek.  Back to the convention center for more conference fun.

Ran around Sugar House then ended up at the Highland track for a mini mini workout of 4 x 400 at about 70 seconds.  Pales in comparison to Riley's 31 at around 67 but it's a start.  All this talk about workouts/practice reminds me of Iverson's famous words of wisdom.

"We are in here talking about practice. Not, a game, not a game, we are in here talking about practice....what are we talking about?  Practice? We ain't talking about the game.  We are talking about practice."

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/allen-iverson-infamous-practice-rant-10-years-later-165030496.html

Cross training at the gym.  Instead of running the Susan B. Komen 5k tomorrow with a bunch of people in pink I have decided to run my own 5k on the track.  

Got a late start which is typical when I am not running with a group.  I saw Rob as I passed Highland on my way to the track at around 11.  He figured I was just finishing up my run but little does he know that my late starts actually have a better training effect because it's hotter outside, plus I don't have to run as far to get a tan.

Jogged a couple of laps then started my 5k.  I know my first split was around 5:05 and I finished in 16:19.  This means I slowed a lot in miles 2 and 3.  Not a great run but it still served it's purpose of shocking the system at an uncomfortable pace.  Last year I ran a 16:45 5k the week before Ogden and my last track 5k was 16:33 so at least this an improvement over those.  Now the big question is, should I run the first 5k at Ogden at a faster pace?  Last year my first 5k was 16:33 which was plenty fast so I think the answer is NO.  Ogden should be negative split and a super fast first 5k wouldn't help me do that.

Cooled down on the track for a mile then wandered around Sugar House.

Afternoon ran around the block to see if that will help my legs feel better tomorrow.  It's just a test.

Ran north through Sugar House to Liberty Park and back.  Looking forward a few lazy days to absorb the training and recharge before Ogden.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the amazing moms out there!

1 mile of rowing on my off day then weights.  Days like this are great except that I get into work too early and I still end up leaving at the same time.  Dumb, I know.  Workout this afternoon involves tackling the sprinkler I couldn't fix yesterday after 3 trips to Home Depot and drenching two pairs of clothes.

Fairly casual run up to Foothill, north to 13th and back.  Legs are feeling pretty good and most importantly I have no lingering aches or pains.  The hip is an ongoing work in progress but it has improved since SLC.    

Sprinkler is operable once again.  I might be to the level that I can add sprinkler repair to my resume.

Standard easy day 3 days before the race.  Ran into the JAJAK crew as they finished up their track workout.

Great article about Abdi the 35 year old 4 time Olympian who owns 20 pairs of Air Jordons.  This is already posted elsewhere but wanted to take record of it here. 

Standard day off with the exception of stretching and weights at the gym.

A few pre-race miles on the treadmill in my new blue Lunar Racers.  Now I am much more color coordinated.  Mixed in a few fast 400s.  Legs are feeling good.  Rain tomorrow?   That would just be a repeat of the race in 2003.  

Good luck to everyone running tomorrow.

Today was the eighth time I have run this race (only missed 2005, 2006 and 2008) and every year I do it I like it more. The weather was perfect once again and the organization was flawless as usual.  I got off the bus at about 6:30 and then spent a much reduced time of 5 minutes tying my new blue shoes.  I jogged about a quarter mile past the start and then lined up.  Ben, Seth, Steve, and Paul were all there as well ready to go.  The gun went off and I soon found myself all alone.  I didn’t really think I was going to fast so I just didn’t look back and kept going.  I went through the first 5k as planned (slower than the Fritz 5k time of 16:19 from last Saturday) but 4 seconds faster than my 5k split from last year. I was feeling just ok at this point but once I hit the flats I my stride started to smooth out.  The rollers at mile 9 and 11 through 13 slowed me down but I didn’t want to push it too much and I knew that I had banked some good splits in the early miles. I went through the half in just under 1:11 which was about 20 seconds faster than last year; fortunately I don’t think I had to work as hard to hit that time. This is where my buddy bike pacer Corbin from last year picked me up and I told me that it was his job to make my second split faster than last year.  It felt doable at that point but how much better was TBD.  The 14 mile split up the hill was 9 seconds faster than last year which was a good sign until I hit the peak. My quads felt trashed. It took about .5 miles to get the lactate acid out of the quads but I guess that could have been worse.  At this point I kept hearing cheers behind so I thought someone was gaining on me. I didn’t dare to look back nor did I ask Corbin so I guess I will never know if someone was there.  I just kept motoring on around the damn and then tried to push the down hills as much as possible.  Maybe I got a little carried away because mile18 was a 5:09 compared to a 5:19 last year.  At this point I hadn’t had a gel in about 5 miles so that became the most pressing concern.  Fortunately the aid station had mile 20 had one but I executed the grab terribly and had to stop to turn around to get it.  Then once I grabbed it my new blue shoe traction failed me and I slipped to my hands.  No real damage done, except for losing exactly 9 seconds J (stay tuned for why that matters). The next miles felt good and I was doing my best to hold back something for the last few miles.  Unfortunately I hit mile 23 and suddenly my right hamstring got really tight.  A strained or torn hamstring was the last thing I needed at this point but there was really nothing I could do but keep going.  I slowed quite a bit as my splits would show, mostly as result of the flattened terrain, fatigue and to a lesser extent the hamstring.  My biggest mistake at this point was not looking at my watch because I really had no idea at that point how close I was to coming in under 2:23 and rivaling Seth’s course record of 2:22:51.  I pushed the last mile as much as could and then as I approached the finish saw the big clocking ticking 2:22:55,56, 57….Bummer!  I pushed through the line and saw 2:22:58 on the clock and later the announcer said my official time was 2:22:59 (exactly 8 seconds off the CR).  RunRaceResults shows 2:23:00….which is el wrongo :)

Although it wasn’t flawless I am still very happy with the 2 minute improvement over last years’ time and the 30 second PR.  Of course it would have been cool to also get the CR but I guess that will just have to be a goal for next year. 

After the race I ran into Scott, who put up a big PR in half, Seth (2nd in marathon),  Bryant (1st in half), Riley (2nd in half), Chad (big PR in marathon), RAD (huge PR in marathon despite the bum knee), Rossy (close to PR I think) and marathon man Steve (4th overall and master’s #1). Once again Ogden put on a great event and I can’t wait to do it all over again next year.

30 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes of cross training.  Except for the sore hamstring I feel better than expected.  I plan to take the dusty road bike for a spin tomorrow which will be the first ride of the year.  Pathetic I know.

5 miles on stairmaster.  ROAD BIKE ride this afternoon.

Someone at work opened my brand new chocolate milk that I had put in the shared fridge this morning.  If they wanted to be sly about it why didn't they just take some from the opened container that is still half full?  Apparently this person is both inconsiderate and dumb.

PM: Road up Millcreek Canyon to the Gobblers Knob trail head.   It was great to finally get out on the bike.

Cross training again because the hamstring doesn't feel operable yet.  First test will be this evening because I will have to run the bases in softball.  No pitch runners are allowed.  

30 minutes on the bike, 5.5. on stairmaster and 1 mile running.  The hamstring hasn't gotten better which is a bit concerning.  I have rolled the h e double L out of it, stretched, hot tub jet, etc. and it isn't improving.  I will start breaking out the ice I guess.

No attempt at running today to see if that will help the hamstring (specifically the lower part of the bicep femoris, I think).  Ended up doing 60 minutes on the bike.  10 minutes warm up then 10X 2 min off 3 min on intervals.  Kept the "on" intervals at about 110 rpms and over 260 watts.  The rpms seems accurate but I have no idea about the watt reading. 

Cross training again because the hamstring isn't working and it's hard to tell if it is getting better. booooo...

Spent all day yesterday shivering in a 30 degree cabin and get outside t mountain bike.  Decided to leave today instead of freezing some more.  checked out some baby buffalo in yellowstone then got on the road.

 PM: I was about to go stir crazy after sitting for 2 days so I went to the gym for a short workout. Managed .25 miles of walking on the TM at 11 min pace at the end.  Maybe I should take up race walking because I sure can't run.  Probably will see the PT about my hamstring this week but before I do tomorrow I plan to hit BC or LC Canyons on my road bike.  Anyone is welcome to join me. 

Road up Big Mountain instead of BC or LC because I figured it would be a bit warmer.  I flew up Emigration because I had a huge tailwind which meant coming down I would get the wind in my face.  A guy passed me as I was descending Little Mountain so I latched onto to him and we traded off breaking the wind until we got to the zoo.  Perfect day for a ride.  I love the greenery.

View from the top 

Bike and stairmaster.  I am considering not playing softball today to avoid aggravating the hamstring.  Of course anyone can hobble around the bases but when it comes down to it, is rec softball really worth delaying the recovery.....?  If only I could hit home runs or strikeout at every at bat.

30 minute bike and 6.5 hard miles on the stairmaster.  While my running fitness is deteriorating my stairmaster/bike fitness levels are coming back.  Great but not so great.

I skipped out on softball last night which was probably a good thing because we lost 25-2.  "The other team was really good."  Excuses are dumb. 

Mixed it up today and went with the elliptical workout.