AM - 9.2 miles. Clarke/Glovers lane loop. 61 degrees, partly cloudy. Moderate pace.

So much nicer to run in the morning.

 2nd run. 6.4 miles. From the shop, Golden Ave/Wasatch loop. 80F by the time I finished. Started this run less than 3 hours after finishing my first run this morning. A little tired at the start but felt better as the run progressed and had energy still when I finished.

 69.4 miles for week ending today.

Early lunch run. 82F, mostly sunny. From the shop, Golden ave/wasatch loop. 

Felt really fatigued all morning. Probably from logging 49.4 miles over 4 days, that's a lot for me. So I was happy to get 8 miles today at a decent pace. Today's run was definitely a case of mind over matter. I just did not want to run until about 3 miles into it, then everything sort of clicked in my head. My body/legs were still tired but I felt this surge of strength in my mind. Good feeling.

Lunch run. 80 - 84F, sunny. Golden ave/wasatch/emerald park.

Started out feeling great, struggled the last 3 or so miles. Ran mile 8 barefoot on grass at emerald park, where I also filled up on water. 

AM. 6.8 miles. Clarke lane loop. 64F, clear.

Very tired this morning.

PM. 4.5 miles. Late lunch run on the fire break road. Sunny, 90+ degrees. Felt much better than I did this morning.

Yay! My first ever 80 mile week! It went like this:

Sat. 21 miles, Sun. 5.3, Mon. 7.5, Tues. 15.6 (double),  Wed. 8.3, Thurs. 12.2, Fri. 11.3 (double). Total = 81.2 miles.

I'm going to run tomorrow and Sunday, then take Monday off as the start of my taper for TOU.

10 miles. 80 degrees, mostly cloudy, light wind from WSW.

5 mile tempo (target pace 8:30). After 2 mile warmup: 8:42, 8:34, 8:36, 8:12, 8:16, (42:20/8:28 avg.). Then a couple of recovery miles, then last mile in 8:33.

Felt sluggish to start but really strong once I got into a rhythm.

1:28:28/8:50

10:30 AM. 8.3 miles. 80-ish degrees.  Good wind out of the South gusting to 14 mph.

Easy does it today.

Rest day. Ran 3 with the dogs. Tried to run 2nd mile fast, got 6:45. I figure on a good day, with fresh legs, cool temps, and someone to pull me along I can get under 6:30. I think if I work at it, I should be able to break 6:00 in 2010.

Early lunch run. 8.5 miles. Sunny, 70F,  it felt warmer.

Easy eight.

11 days in a row and today seemed like a good day to take a break from running...and so it is.

5:04:16 AM. 14.3 miles.  Clear, 60F.

4 mile warmup followed by 3 x 2 miles with 1 mile recovery in between. Pace for 2 mile intervals were 8:22, 8:02, one mile easy, 8:27, 8:28, one mi. easy, 8:04, 8:15.  2.3 mile cooldown.

  2:06:08/9:00

Early lunch run. 5.3 miles.  Sunny, 77F. 9:12 average pace.

The cut back in mileage this week is feeling good. The marathon is a week from tomorrow. My tentative plan is to run tomorrow, take Sunday off, run Mon. Tues. and Wednesday (maybe a short easy trail run).  Off Thursday, and maybe a two or three mile run on Friday. Total miles for next week, before the marathon, in the low 20's.  If any of my thousands of dedicated readers see some glaring flaw in my planned taper, or have any words of wisdom to impart please don't hesitate. I need all the help I can get.

2:00 PM. 7 miles. Sunny, 85F. LPT.

Good old fashioned fun.

Early lunch. 10 miles. 80F, windy. From work out and about. Easy.

Test driving the marathon shoes.

AM - 3.7 miles. Mostly sun, 64F, light breezes. Short progression run around the workplace.

9:04, 8:12, 8:01, + .7 @ 8:00

30:49/8:21 avg.

AM - 7 miles easy around the hood. 67F, breezy.

I read on an experienced runners blog yesterday how his legs always felt sluggish during a taper, so I'm not going to worry about how sluggish my legs are feeling during this taper.

Bib# 405

No run today. A real short and easy run tomorrow.

I've run 3 marathons in my life. I was 31 yrs. old when I ran my first. My time was 4:23 - ish. My second was four years after that and my time was 4:21 - ish. My third was four years after that. I developed an injury in my foot and by mile 18 I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for the medical van to pick me up. It never came so I walk/jogged to the finish in 5:18 - ish. That was six years ago. My training for all 3 marathons consisted of very little training. I ran at most 4 days a week. I think I once ran a fifty-five mile week. I did manage to run at least one twenty miler a month before each marathon. But really, what was I thinking? So this time I've trained much differently than before. I'm 14 years older than I was when I ran my first marathon. Should be interesting to see what happens the day after tomorrow.

PM edit: So I'm mostly packed. Trying to prepare for all contingencies. I anticipate it being rather chilly up Blacksmith Fork Canyon before the marathon, with maybe some wind. So I want to bundle up well, then strip down right before the start because it will probably nice and toasty by the time I'm halfway through. Better to be under dressed than overdressed while on the run IMO. I'm charging my garmin and making pancakes for dinner. Why am I blogging about this? Just nerves I guess.

AM - 3.6 easy miles. 2nd mile @MP. Around the hood. Nice morning.

This thrills me more than woulda, muddy old river or reclining buddha...

Splits: 1)8:17 2)8:06 3)8:19 4)8:28 5)830 6)8:37 7)8:35 8)8:16 9)8:26 10)8:37 11)8:38 12)8:30 13)8:18 14)10:57 (long awaited POP stop) 15)8:30 16)8:35 17)8:30 18)8:54 19)9:48 20)11:21 21)9:17 22)10:07 23)12:06 24)12:10 25)11:00 26)10:42 +.45) 4:05 (9:00 pace)

I ran the first 18 miles in 2:35:10 (an 8:37 avg. pace, including 2+ mins. POP break). I ran the last 8.45 miles in 1:30:44 (a 10:44 avg. pace!). BONKAGE! Still, I had me a pretty good 18 mile tempo run today, with a long cooldown.

Yikes! Well, in spite of not getting a 3:45 like I had hoped. I did get a 15 minute PR, and I'm ten years older than when I ran my previous PR (albeit without training). So, I feel like it wasn't a complete disaster. At mile 18 I was on pace for a 3:45:45, then the wooden wheels began to crumble. The aid station at mile 19 resembled a war scene with runners walking, stopping to stretch, groaning, and no conversation going on. I knew I was in trouble. Even if I hadn't crashed, I wouldn't have run the last 8 miles fast enough to reach my goal, as the previous 18 miles were downhill, and mile 19 is where a lot of uphill began. I ended up taking walk breaks somewhere in mile 22, and they increased in frequency as I got closer to the finish. Yeah, good stuff. Marathons are fun!

 So, a great experience for me. I got to meet some bloggers finally. Thanks to Paul for graciously offering a room at his house, AND for feeding me. I believe Paul's performance today had a lot to do with his new coffee maker. I was pleased to meet Ashbaker, as he stayed there too. I also met Allie and Redrooster at the pickup. At the start I got to tag along with the local elites on a journey to Oz (line - free bathroom facilities!), where I also met AdamRW, Cody and Sasha.(I don't know how I missed Jon, looking forward to meeting him down the road sometime).  Everybody was great and offered words of encouragement and advice to me. I really think we have a group of outstanding individuals here on the blog. 

I'm looking forward to running another marathon again and improving on my time. I'll need to train better so I can maintain through those last 8 miles!

As part of my recovery regimen, I did precisely one load of laundry today.

It was remarkably easy to come to the decision to NOT run today.

 5 miles/9:02 average. 9:27, 8:44, 9:38, 8:42, 8:43.

First run post marathon. Ideal weather with sunny skies and 60 degrees. Ran from work around town. No muscle soreness to speak of. After 2 miles a general fatigue seemed to wash over me but after about a mile the worst of it passed and the last two miles felt good.

6 miles. Sunny, 70F. From work, amongst the cars.

52:25/8:44 avg.  9:25, 8:56, 8:46, 8:44, 8:44, 7:50.

The only conclusion I can come to is that Saturdays marathon really was just an 18 mile tempo run, and the 8 mile death march was the ideal cooldown. That plus 2 complete days of rest and I'm feeling pretty good.

5 miles for lunch. Sun, 75F. Everyday gets a little warmer...

42:44/8:33 avg.  8:59, 8:34, 8:31, 8:17,  8:24

If you've got a couple of minutes, go check out Will's race report from last weekend. Read all his race reports. Good stuff. 

PM edit:

I've been mulling through the race predictor here on the blog. It puts me right around 3:46 or so for the marathon, which I feel is right, it hits my 5k and half almost dead on. On a perfect day, I should be able to break 3:45. It just wasn't my day last Saturday at TOU. So I feel better about my current fitness being what I've worked towards. Now I just need to figure out why I ran out of juice at TOU. Fuel? Bad taper? Poor hygiene? Monster trucks?

3.2 miles. Sun and 65 degrees. Today felt like a marathon recovery run. Legs heavy and tired.

28:32/8:55 avg.  9:29, 8:44, 8:40, + .2@8:14

Easy eight. Sunny, 76F.

With AW riding along on her bike.

9:03 avg.

Early lunch. 5.1 miles/43:15/8:29 avg.  Sunny, 73F.

Still tired, from the marathon I presume. I feel strong, just don't feel like going long.

Splits: 9:15, 8:20, 8:26, 8:29, 7:56 + .1@7:50 pace.

4.3 miles/8:54 Mostly cloudy, windy, 76F.

Nothing there today. Recovering from marathon, not training for anything, so I let this one go.

Splits: 9:04, 8:46, 9:25, 8:33, + .3 @ 8:25 pace.

9.5 miles/8:34 avg.  Lunch run. Cloudy, light drizzle, 44F, light breezes. From home/glovers/clarke lane.

Nice running weather. Ran in shorts, long sleeve tech, gloves, and baseball type cap.

  Got the old furnace at home up and running.

Splits: 8:37, 8:21, 8:37, 8:47, 8:31, 8:32, 8:42, 8:26, 8:38, +.5 @ 8:25 pace. This run has approx. 1,000 ft elevation rise/drop.