10 miles / 8:52 avg. rio grande/whisperwood - from weaver lane. 

WT 49.3 miles

one twenty-eight

5 miles - very extremely easy pace. from work. nice sun and temp, north wind. mandated "low ebb" still in force this week.

WT 45.8 miles

one twenty-nine

10 miles / 8:41 avg. commute home. busy day, no lunch run so i decided to run home after work. got started around 4 pm. overcast, 68F, a little warm but the cloud cover made it nice. feel almost back to normal finally. still going to run short miles tomorrow, then we'll see how saturday goes.

WT 50.9 miles

one thirty

TWO MILES! from work. progression run. when i got through the first mile and turned around to head back, i saw that i had run it in 10:37, so i knew i was really going to have to dig deep if i wanted to make this a progression run. luckily i had a tail wind for most of the trip back. 10:16 avg.

splits: 10:37, 9:55.

WT 46.5 miles

one thirty-one

6.2 miles / 9:15 avg. from work. felt good today. i've had three low mileage weeks in a row now (43.9, 47.4, 47.1) and hope i can build back up to seventy mile weeks by the end of the month.

WT 47.1 miles

one thrity-two

13 miles / easy relaxed pace. bigger western loop. sun, 55F.

WT 49.7 miles

one thirty-three

7 miles / 8:52 avg. from work. feeling much better these last couple of days. looking forward to running again.

WT 53.2 miles

one thirty-four

5.2 miles, from work. warm temps. feeling the 3+ hours of yard work and bicycle maintenance yesterday. busy work week ahead.

WT 48.4 miles 

one thirty-five

12 miles / 9:10 avg. commute to work. beautiful birds chirping, horses galloping, old ladies walking four abreast on the parkway morning.

WT 55.4 miles

one thirty-six

6 miles, easy. came to work early and got a run in first thing. 8 x 30 sec. hill repeats on golden ave.

WT 51.4 miles

one thirty-seven

7 easy. third early morning in a row...hope i can keep it going. i forgot how nice it is to run early and have the streets to oneself. like yesterday, i drove to work extra early and ran from the shop. i ran up to "emerald park" to check the water and bathroom facilities - they're both up and running!

WT 56.4 miles

one thirty-eight

8 miles / 8:08 avg. unintentional progression run. again with the early before work. ran from the shop and a couple of miles on the high school track.

splits: 8:57, 8:30, 8:26, 8:05, 8:02, 7:39, 7:35, 7:52

WT 58.2 miles

one thirty-nine

11 miles - from home / big western loop - got started at 8:17 am, early for me for a sunday.

WT 56 miles 

one forty

4 miles from work before work. 

WT 53.2 miles

one forty-one

11 miles / 9:06. from work before work. emerald park loop.

WT 59 miles

one forty-two

8 miles - 9:00 - from work before work. rio grand parkway. it was near 70F before the sun came up!i was really dragging this morning - my confidence has been shot lately because of the "deep fatigue" episode i experienced a few weeks ago. i'm definitely feeling much better these last couple of weeks, but every time i feel just a little tired i start worrying that it's coming back. anyway, after two very slow warmup up miles i ran a ladder of minutes @ 10k - HM pace: 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 / with a minute easy between each interval. the second i began my first interval i felt 100% better. by the time i got to the 5 minute step, i was feeling like an actual runner again, but steadily lost strength after that to the finish.

splits: 9:55, 10:22, 8:34, 8:16, 8:02, 8:46, 9:17, 8:51

WT 55 miles

one forty-three

6 miles / 9:08 - before work. 12 x 30 second hill repeats on golden ave.

WT 55 miles

one forty-four

7.4 miles / easy. before work. early morning multiple front porch smokers loop. planned to run 8 miles but was waylaid by a gusty, rainy storm front.

WT 55.4 miles

one forty-five

am - 4 miles / old man stride. from work before work. hoping for more later.

pm - 10 miles / 8:40 avg. left work at 12:30 and ran home. i ran a couple of "2's" @HM to try and perk up my sorry *ss a little bit. splits: 9:21, 9:18, 9:08, (8:02, 7:55), 9:00, (7:47, 7:46), 9:16, 9:14.

WT 61.4 miles

one forty-six

2 miles - easy on the grass at the MFT - mostly just working on form. knees high, mid foot strike, arm swing etc. really inspiring stuff.

WT 52.4 miles

one forty-seven

10 miles / 9:20 avg. from work before work. aggressive 3rd star in waiting run.

WT 58.4 miles 

one forty-eight

8 miles / 8:29 avg. from work before work - rio grand parkway.

3 miles easy then 3 miles @ HM pace, two miles cool down.

splits: 9:27, 8:50, 8:45, 7:52, 8:00, 7:51 (7:55 avg - just what i was looking for), 8:48, 8:24.

WT 55.4 miles

one forty-nine

5.4 miles / vreezy. from work, early, etc.

WT 52.8 miles

one fifty

14 miles / 8:38 avg. early, from the shop - rio grand parkway north. 

4 miles easy, then 5 miles @ HM pace, then 2 easy miles, one more mile @ attempted HM pace, 2 miles easy. 5 mile tempo averaged 7:53 per mile. 1st mile was too slow but i made it up in the remaining 4 miles. all i had this morning before the run was one banana, coffee, and water. i had plenty of energy throughout the run.

i'm relieved this workout went well today. it's been a weird several weeks with the running and low energy, and really slow paces, so it's nice to get a decent workout in. the best part is that i don't feel beat down afterwards! my warmups are slower and longer now - i don't know if that's going to be permanent or if it will pass. i hope it passes.  going to take an easy three days then run a half marathon on monday!

splits: 9:53, 9:39, 9:55, 8:25, (8:07, 7:52, 7:51, 7:50, 7:46), 9:20, 8:54, (8:01), 8:52, 8:39.

WT 60.8 miles

one fifty-one

6.2 miles / 9:40 avg. recovery run early from work. nice quiet streets this morning.

WT 59.6 miles

one fifty-two

6.3 miles / easy. ran at the high school track. mile 4 @ 7:39. form drills in the last mile.

WT 51.9 miles

one fifty-three

5.5 miles / easy. red barn/fairground loop. clouds, some wind, rain. felt great after the first couple of miles.

WT 55.4 miles

one fifty-four

half marathon official time 1:42:51.4 / 7:51 avg.  (my garmin actually came up with exactly 13.12 miles)

last thursday i signed up for this half because i needed a race for the month of may. it was close by my work, and run on a parkway that i use a lot in the winter - so why not. i didn't expect to pr today but i ended up beating my best half by 47 seconds. the last half i ran was the salt lake half in april of 2011 (which is where i got my previous pr). at my age and ability, i'll take a pr, no matter how small!

sleep last night was ridiculous. apparently the universe prefers i don't sleep but 2 or 3 hours the night before a race. a good book kept me up later than usual. then shortly after falling asleep i awoke to mr. constipation knocking on the back door, which is always good for about an hour or so of work. after that i was just restlessly tossing and turning, stressing about how much sleep i wasn't getting. when i finally did fall asleep i had a dream that i slept through my alarm and didn't make it to the race. good stuff.

it was a relief to finally get up and get going. i ate a half banana, coffee and water before leaving the house. i drove to a park about 2.6 miles from the starting line of the half, parked there and ran a slow warmup - along the course. there were pop's set up along the way so i had a good mid-warmup session. no lines. in fact i'm sure i was the first one to use the facility and was definitely dwelling in the land of the freshy fresh. i got to the start (at jensen park) with about ten minutes to spare.

the whole course is pretty flat. the first couple of miles felt great (7:31, 7:33), which was a relief. there was a runner off my left shoulder for those miles, who i'll refer to as "slappy" because of the volume of his foot strike, whereas he could refer to me as "the breather" because of the volume of my...breathing. he finally passed me around mile 3. i glanced at him and he looked to be maybe a couple of years older than me. i stayed with him for mile 3 (7:41), and throughout the next 7 miles we would trade places.  there was a young couple who i'll call "the strollers" because though they passed me and stayed ahead of me all the way to the finish, they were chatting away the whole time and looked like they were merely on a stroll through the park. meanwhile i was working hard to keep my pace below 8 minutes per mile.

so there we were, slappy and the breather, working our tired old bodies through the miles. splits for miles 4 through 9: 7:50, 7:34, 7:51, 7:53, 7:52, 7:54. there was a 180 degree turn around just before mile 7 - before the leaders came by i briefly entertained the thought that i might get an age group placing, i knew there were only twenty or so runners ahead of me, and i figured ol' slappy and i were the only oldsters up front. then i was duly mocked by observing, as the leaders passed, that 5 out of the first 7 racers looked to be in my age group! lol! i was having a good chuckle over that. it was in mile 10 (8:11) where my mind started to get the better of me. it was at this point my good friend slappy (we hadn't spoken a word to each other, until after the race) began to widen the gap and pull slowly away. he got about 20 yards ahead, and there he stayed all the way to the finish. i was still feeling intellectually challenged during miles 11 and 12, and limiting my pace to 8:12, 8:08. the last mile is always easy to accept and i ran 7:50, the final .12 showed up as a 6:31 pace on the garmin, so i must have kicked in to finish.

i spent about ten minutes after the race chatting with Cathy while hydrating (i hadn't taken any fluids during the race). then ran slowly 2.6 miles back to my car. i was pleased to feel pretty good during the jog back. all in all i got some good miles today, an accidental pr, and a solid workout.

Striders always puts on a good race -

WT 63.7 miles

one fifty-five

4.2 miles / 10:32 avg. mellow recovery run before work. so glad i'm back in the habit of running in the AM.

WT 59.9 miles

one fifty-six

9.2 miles / 9:50 avg. still in recovery mode - took a nice and easy commute in - such great weather!

WT 63.7 miles

one fifty-seven

2 miles / crawling. this morning i woke up feeling like a slice of stale burnt toast. i think the lawn mowing yesterday finally did me in. naturally i was feeling much better after running two miles but decided to go ahead and just stop. no sense in going more today.

WT 51.2 miles 

one fifty-eight