Relentless

AM - 8 Green Springs with extensions. A little fatigued - not as good a run as last week. I will try and get a solid week in even with State Track. That means probably a little bit early in the week. (Landreth 128.5)

afternoon - 9.5. 2 mile DI loop with team to warm up. Then they did their 4's. After I did a big loop to get the legs moving again and went into my workout (200,400,600,800,1000 w/ equal jog distance to run between each). 200-33.45, 400-1:09 felt pretty good about the 2 and 4 but maybe overdid it a little and got pretty spent, 600-1:54, 800-2:39, 1000-3:25. Then I got home and did 2.5 more on the treadmill to finish the cooldown. (Stratus red 309.5)

I spent some time reading what I had done last year while I was in this phase because I feel like I am not doing very well right now. Unfortunately, I am right. Last year I was running quite a bit faster. 200's (sets of 10+) at 31 and 32's. 400's (sets of 12-16) at 1:16's. The turnover I used to have just isn't there anymore - even in just a year I feel it slipping.

afternoon - 12 River Trail.  Not the best of runs.  Started off with the boys team and they turned back after awhile.  Then I just kept trodding along.  Hopefully the end of two stressful and time consuming things (school and track) will get me mentally and physically back into the groove.  (Cumulus blue 192)

AM - 8 Middleton. Forced myself to get up. My mind and body just aren't into it right now. A change will be good. (Cumulus silver 472.62)

afternoon - 6.25 Foremaster with Austin and Jeffrey. It was pretty hot, and I am not used to it. (Stratus 415.55)

AM - 15 Fields run. Pretty nice run mostly because it is so nice to run in the mornings in SG in the Spring. Temps are perfect, little traffic, just really nice. To bad my running isn't as nice! But I think the longer run today and getting back into some longer ones will do me some good. (Landreth 143.5)

afternoon - 8.75 (I think) went with Austin from Lehi HS into American Fork and did a little tour of the area. A pretty nice little run. (Stratus red 318.25)

PM - 13.50 Lehi to near Point of the Mountain by way of Redwood and back through some fields. Actually not a bad little run. Pretty eventful however. Saw all sorts of wildlife, including 8 deer, a wretched pig farm, and rabid dogs that wanted to eat me alive. But it is always needed to go out and run after the first day of state track and just get away from it. Ruth did awesome and won the 1600, but then we had a couple disappointments - oh well, that's life. I probably won't get out tomorrow. (Stratus red 331.75)

2nd day of state track.  No run.

Goals for next week:  It is time to get real again.  I will be entering a Speed Phase for the next 1 1/2 months (an idea I have been toying with in my training for the past while).  Mileage for this phase will be between 85-100 with 2 days of hard speed stuff.  This is based upon what I guess might be called the Kenyan model where after a long base building period (this past winter) the athlete switches to a 6 week speed phase with 2 hard speed workouts/week then transitions into a marathon specific phase for about 8-10 weeks and then the taper.  This idea follows a lot of my own personal philosophy that to run a fast marathon you have to be able to run fast in the first place and then teach yourself to translate that into marathon specific running.  We'll see how it goes.