Relentless

One more day of rest.  Yesterday was marked by sleep and a distinct soreness in my jaw.  I hope this cold doesn't move into my ears - I get the worst ear infections and it could still be there all the way to the SGM.  So I figured take another one off and get it better.

AM - 10.25 Arctic Circle x 3. All right! Back at it today. What an amazing morning for a run. An awesome lunar eclipse made it nice and dark, so you could see the Milky Way so clear. Then as we started a huge shooting star streaked across half the sky! Very Cool. And I feel quite a bit better. I didn't take it hard, and won't for a day or two. Maybe a short run this evening to top off the ol' 30th b-day. (cumulus red 301.35)

PM - 5 Washington Parkway. After a glutton of cake and M&M's (and Chocolate Soy Milk!) went out for an easy 5 on the Parkway. Good run and had some good energy. Hopefully it will stick around for a few days, and I can get better all the way. (Landreth 411.9)

AM - 11 2450 x 2 and Arctic Circle with a few laps thrown in here and there.  A little sluggish at first, but it felt okay.  This will be my only run for the day as we have a meet in Cedar and I don't want to push it too much just yet until I am sure I am feeling better all the way.  (cumulus orange 345.4)

As I ran, I thought back to previous years and realized that I often get sick at this time of year.  Last year, I am not so sure (Pre-blog and didn't keep that good of records), but it seemed like I developed a bit of an ear-infection around this time that affected me for about a week.  2005, I was pretty sick for 3 weeks leading up to Top of Utah, and it really wiped me out.  I think it is a combination of things: not as much time to rest (being at school), being in close proximity with many kids, and needing more rest because teaching really takes it out of me.  Now that I am seeing a little trend, I will watch out for it next year and try to prepare for it better. 

AM - 6 Treadmill at decline. 1 mile warmup and then Drago and I went for a little jog at 7:03 pace. Decent run as I watched the World Championships - that Lagat 1500 is something! Bone Spur on left foot has been giving me fits the last few days, so I am back to ice, ice, ice... which I really shouldn't have left off anyway. (Landreth 417.9)

evening - 10.7 Powerline with Clyde.  Great run that started out with a boom.  Just as we hit the trail a flash of lightning hit within a few hundred yards of us and I screamed like a girl and jumped into Clyde's lap (we can't post what Clyde said!).  We recovered and headed up the trail in the rain.  Hoped a turtle might be out, but no such luck.  As we made the turn onto Millcreek, the rain had compacted the sand perfectly and we made a nice 6:10 pace out of it all the way home (about 6 miles).  My best run since Provo.  (Cumulus orange 357.3)

AM - 10 Arctic Circle x 3 with a little track between groups and some extension on the 2nd and 3rd.  Not really a fast set of runs today.  In fact, the kids were ditching me.  But it was good to get out and go with them.  (Cumulus red 311.35)

More details later when I get some time, but for now... I suck. Goal was to go out at marathon pace with Clyde and hit 5:40's. To keep it simple, I was struggling to hit anything even right off the bat. And then it got worse. And I really think it was one of my worst runs ever.

Okay I feel a little better about the run (at least its not as bad as originally thought) now that a few days have passed.

Splits:

3.3 warmup 

1-5:40 right on and felt okay. 2-5:51 a mostly uphill mile. 3-5:31 mostly downhill section. 4-5:47 a lot of rolling ups and downs, I can't hit a very good flow. 5-5:39 Clyde is leading most of it and I can't really get up to take a turn to help. 6-5:44 hit a GU at the water just before 6 to see if it helped.  (water stops were a joke). 7-5:45 just fighting too hard to bring it down. 8-5:44 One last push to try and stay with Clyde. 9-5:52 starting to fade. 10-6:30 let the hill own me.  11-6:09 Decided to just sit back and hit 6:00's as to not spend too much energy (I want a good workout Monday). 12-6:28 decided if Dustin caught me, I would let him just go by. 13-6:59 pathetic finish. 13.1 6:40 pace.

2.2 cool down to go help my bro finished.  Like the rest of us, he is dehydrated and struggling on this last difficult section of the race.  (Paramount 18)

Now to analyze why I struggled.  (These aren't excuses, just stuff I think happened that led to the poor run.): #1- I was not in the racing mind set.  I only thought of this as a workout and even just wore trainers.  So I had to magic.  #2- dehydration.  The heat and improper hydration set in quick on me.  #3- weight loss.  I weighed myself before the run and was only 147 - where I am usually at 153 give or take 2 pounds.  After eating and drinking a load and getting home, I only weighed 145, so I bet I had dropped to low 140's by the end of the race.  Some of this was from being sick, but most of it was poor eating at the end of the week.  I had missed a couple meals and had small meals a couple times for various reasons.  Those are some of the reasons - Need to focus on taking better care of myself.