A Lean and Hungry Look

Shoreline with Maya (my dog).  EZ pace throughout (Maya, who loves to push the pace, but only for about 400-800 meters, kept me from blasting the last 2 miles as I normally do on this route).  Gorgeous morning, everything felt good (although the first two miles hurt, as always).  First time running the Shoreline this year.  I've missed it.

AHR 157.

10 x 2-min repeats at Liberty Park, with goal of holding pace between 5:25-5:30.  Splits were:

1. 5:14 (too fast)

2. 5:09 (way too fast)

3. 5:29 (hurting already)

4. 5:26

5. 5:42 (why did I go out so fast?)

6. 5:39 (just holding on)

7. 5:23 (found someone to chase, which seemed to focus me)

8. 5:38 (back to hurting)

9. 5:43 (probably tried to save up a little for the last one)

10. 5:18 (felt pretty blown by the end of this one)

I think I'm clearly lacking endurance from having missed so many key workouts over the past month, especially long runs.  Brooke got into SGM, so I'm going to have to be extremely disciplined to avoid missing workouts as we try to juggle our training.  Plan is for me to run early enough so Brooke can be out by 6:15.

Planned day off.

I did my long run today because I'll be pacing Duane Newman for 13-15 miles of the Ogden marathon on Saturday at 3:00 pace and figured I would need an easy day in between.

Ran up Emigration at comfortable pace (around 8:00), then turned around with goal of maintaining MP the rest of the way.  Splits were:

Mile 6: 6:00 (169)

Mile 7: 5:50 (180)

Mile 8: 5:50 (182)

Mile 9: 5:47 (184)

Mile 10: 5:39 (185)

My ipod didn't work (I was going to listen to it on the hard miles only), so I was left to listen to the clomp of my shoes and my rapid breathing.  I had to work pretty hard to keep the pace and never felt like I could throw the hammer down.  In the final mile, on the hill just past the zoo, I was hurting pretty bad and felt my pace slowing.  Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of the steeper downhill after the post office and make up some ground.  I felt pretty tired but not destroyed afterward.

AHR 169.

Sugarhouse loop at EZ pace with Maya.  She did well until about 3 miles, when she slowed down and let me drag her home.  Tried to keep it slow so I could recover from yesterday's tempo run and get ready for tomorrow's pacing duties at Ogden.

AHR 161.

Plan was to pace Duane and Tyler at the Ogden marathon to a sub-3, a first for both of them.  Picked them up at 8 miles.  My instructions were to hold pace at 6:50/mi through mile 14 (between 6:45-6:52).  First mile: 6:50. Second mile: 6:52.  At that point, Duane started falling off the back just a little, so I held back to stay with him while Tyler slowly pulled ahead.  Duane held right around 7:00 through 14, then hit the big hill with a 7:30 mile, which was according to plan.  However, Duane started cramping (calves) right after we crested the hill, so we slowed down dramatically.  He tried to gut it out for a while but finally told me that he was done and asked me to try to catch Tyler and take him in.  Tyler was well ahead of us at that point, so catching him required some effort.  My first mile trying to catch Tyler was just under 6:00.  When I still couldn't see him up ahead, I slowed down and paced one of the lead women for a mile or so (should have asked her name).  At that point, I saw Tyler up ahead, so I pulled away and caught him.  He was starting to hurt (we were around 18-19), but he was still holding at 6:50-7:00.  By mile 20, he started cramping (calves and quads), so we slowed down a bit.  The initial wave of cramps passed pretty quickly, so pace wasn't affected too much.  However, by 22, he was really hurting.  At 22.5, he looked at his watch and determined that he still had 60 seconds "in the bank."  He quickly calculated that he could give up 15 seconds per mile and still stay under 3:00.  His mind changed pretty quickly, though, when his cramps came back with a vengeance, and he had to start taking walk breaks interspersed with slow jogs.  Since it was clear that the goal was no longer in sight, I left Tyler at mile 23, where I was planning to stop (since my longest run in over a year until today was 10 miles).  After a minute, though, I saw the woman I had paced earlier, and she looked tired but still strong.  I jumped back in and ran with her for another mile.  She was fading.  Had to take a potty break at about 24, so I left her again.  When I came out, I saw Tyler again, so I decided to help him limp home.  He was still hurting, but he was able to take less frequent walk breaks over the final mile or so.  He finished in 3:11.  Duane finished in 3:19.  I felt bad that they missed their goals, but they both took it in stride and are planning to spend the summer tweaking their training in hopes of taking another shot at the goal in the Fall.  It felt great to be in the middle of a marathon again after having not run one myself in 2.5 years.

AHR 166.

Easy 6 to 27th South and back.  Comfortable throughout.  Only residual pain from Saturday's pacing activities was in my big toenails.

AHR 157.

Sugarhouse loop with Maya.  AHR was 157 (which indicates an easy effort for me, even though the rate probably looks high).  I switched up my schedule and will do speed work tomorrow morning.  I had a 7 am school community council meeting and didn't have time for the whole speed routine.

Maya was really slow this morning from 3 miles on.  I may let her run with Brooke exclusively from this point on (at least through my marathon training), because I feel like I'm abusing the poor dog as she drags behind me on the wrong end of the leash, and also because I don't like the sensation of pulling extra weight up the hill on my way home.  She's a great running companion for Brooke and seems more comfortable at Brooke's pace, so I think my days of having her trip me the second she spots a sprinkler off in the distance (she's terrified of water and bolts when she sees it) may be over until the off-season.

AHR 157.

I woke up with some tightness in my left Achilles, so I decided to put off my speed workout until tomorrow and focus on stretching and doing my strengthening exercises instead.

Tightness in Achilles was gone, so I went ahead with my planned workout of 6x3-min repeats with 3 min rest between each, plus warmup and cooldown, all at Liberty Park.  Unfortunately, my Garmin battery died in the middle of my warmup, so I had to guess on my repeats based on past workouts.  I think I was reasonably accurate, but who knows?  I felt stronger than the last time I did this workout two weeks ago, which is not hard, since I felt absolutely awful then.  My guess is that my pace was between 5:30-5:45 for the repeats.  I noticed very mild tightness in my right Achilles, but not at the insertion point where I've had problems with my left.  Need to watch that and be more diligent about doing my stretches and strengthening exercises on both legs.

Easy run along Shoreline with Maya.  Trail was packed with hikers and their dogs today.  Maya is scared to death of other dogs, so the high number of off-leash pooches made things a little more interesting than usual.  One of them almost took my legs out trying to get at Maya as we were coming off a steep hill, but fortunately we all avoided injury.  Brooke has decided that Maya pulls her too much and that it's making her "a worse runner," so she doesn't want to run with her anymore.  I can't take Maya on my hard workouts or anything longer than an easy 6 because she drags behind me, so I'm going to try to use my easy days to do more trail running.  She loves trails and my pace is slower on them, so it works for both of us.

No Achilles pain at all today.  AHR 159.

I headed up Emigration but didn't get out until 9:00 (had to wait for Brooke to return from her long run), so I competed with about a million cyclists and a couple of car/motorcycle clubs that seem to like the way their souped-up engine noise pierces the stillness of the canyon.  Although the temperature felt hot (I should have brought water) and I was nearly rammed into the guardrail by a few novices in spandex, the run went relatively well.  Splits on the descent were:

Mile 7: 5:41

Mile 8: 5:57

Mile 9:  5:52

Mile 10: 6:00

Mile 11: 5:52

Mile 12: 5:44

I was a little disappointed that the pace wasn't a little more consistent and a little faster, I can feel myself growing stronger.  It's going to take some work, though, to make 5:40 feel sustainable for 26.2.  Good thing I have all summer to devote to it.

Ran the neighborhood 5k with Jacob.  As usual, he started a little fast and was feeling beat up by 1.5.  He pushed through it, though, and finished with a strong kick to beat his buddy.  I ran the course a second time to get my mileage.  Nothing interesting to report.

Took my day off early because I didn't drag myself out of bed early enough to finish before Brooke would be leaving for her run.

10 x 2-min repeats at Sugarhouse Park (I decided it was time to start incorporating some terrain into my speed work).

Warmup: 1.02 mi

1: 5:11/mi (171 bpm)

2: 4:54/mi (177 bpm) (these were way too fast, so--spoiler alert--bonk ahead)

3: 5:31/mi (180 bpm)

4: 5:48/mi (179 bpm)

5: 5:29/mi (172 bpm)

6: 5:21/mi (176 bpm)

7: 5:24/mi (177 bpm)

8: 6:21/mi (180 bpm) (this one started at the base of the long hill on the south side and I was fried by the time I got to the top but still had about 1:30 to go on the repeat)

9: 5:27/mi (176 bpm)

10: 5:19/mi (180 bpm)

Cooldown: 1.5 mi

Because my 305 doesn't give pace information during intervals, I had no idea how fast I was going on any of the repeats.  However, I blew up so bad on #8 that I thought I'd be lucky to stay sub-7.  I clearly need to work on pacing myself on the early repeats so that I don't pop later in my workout.  I was surprised that my HR stayed below 180 most of the time.  That usually indicates that I'm not working hard enough, but I felt pretty hammered from #3 on.  It seems like my legs were more of a problem than usual today, probably because of the introduction of hills into my speed work.  All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by most of the splits.  Based on how I felt, I thought most of them would be 5:45 or slower.  The 4:54 was a complete anomaly and clearly hurt me later.

Ran down to 17th South, then up to Wasatch around the zoo, through Research Park and back home.  The hill on 17th hurt, as always.  Other than the hills, pace felt comfortable.  Gorgeous morning to be out.  Felt slight tightness in my left Achilles on the way up 17th, but no pain.  Good reminder to stick to my exercises and stretches.

AHR: 163 bpm

Easy out-and-back in Holladay after work.  Wind was blowing hard and temp was a little warm for my comfort, but the run felt good.

AHR: 152

Jacob had an 8:00 am game today and I was up past midnight, so I didn't make it out for the early run.  While doing yardwork later in the morning, I managed to hyperextend my right knee.  It hurt throughout the day, so I was a little worried about doing my workout.  After that, Jacob had a piano recital and Kaela came home from Korea, so I just didn't have the time to go out for a modified run.  I need to see if I can work in an additional long run next week, if for no other reason than to keep my confidence up going into Wasatch Back in a few weeks.