Philippians 4:13

8M on the treadmill at home instead of outside on the slick roads.  Stayed up late with friends for new year's and slept in a bit.  First 3M were tough, but then I got into the run and finished feeling good.  Now have a 4 day weekend to spend with the family.  (Statos 2)

6M on the TM at home after my wife went to work early.  Official start of my taper for Disneyworld marathon on 1/11.  Took a couple of miles to get into the run and I am looking forward to the taper from a physical and mental perspective.  My mileage has not been all that high going into this race, but feeling good and pretty fit.  (Stratos 2)

8M on the TM at the gym.  3.5M w/u and c/d with some MP pace in the middle miles.  Mile 6 at target MP (6:00) and 1 quarter at the end of mile 7 at 5:33 pace.  Good run.  2M on the TM at home as the family was getting ready to go the gym, my wife to workout and my kids and I to swim.  It is a beautiful day outside but on the cold side, so I should have run outside.

5M on the TM at home before the kids got up and before Church.  Watched the remainder of "The Last Samurai".  Feeling pretty good but glad it is taper week to get refreshed for running physically and mentally.

7M run on the TM at the gym this morning.  Easy to start, then 2M at 6:22, then a mile at 5:56, a cooldown 1.5M then 0.5M at sub 5:40 pace for the last 0.5M.  Good run even though it took me about 3M to get into the groove.  (Stratos 3)

7M on the TM this morning, 5M at easy pace (6:40ish) and 2M at MP between 5:45-6:22 pace.  Overall felt good, just getting tired of the TM!   It is too darn slick outside to get in any decent speed work so I have been inside.  Hoping the combination of warmth and lower altitude and just being outside to run will make this weekend's race come off well.  I ran 2:39 last year in Phoenix off of similar training at slightly higher altitude so hopefully I can beat that time. 

8M on the TM at the gym.   It was warmer outside this morning, but windy and still very slick so I decided to stay in to get in some last speed work before the race.  1M w/u (6:40) the 6M between 5:33 - 6:25 pace (most between 5:56-6:07) which felt pretty easy.  1M c/d to end the run for the day.  Feeling pretty good and rested right now, no real taper madness just excitement for the race and the vacation in the warm weather.

6M on the TM at the gym.  I seriously thought about going outside this morning as it was 37 degrees with some good winds, but decided against it since there are still a lot of slick spots on the roads and pathways and I did not want to risk a slip or fall or twisting of something days before a race.  So, nice and easy 6:40ish paced run at the gym which felt good and easy.  It took about 3M to get into the run but finished feeling refreshed.  We leave for Ogden today to spend the night with some friends and fly out tomorrow around noon.  Warm weather here we come!

Got into Orlando at 10:30 and stayed up until about 2am with my friend Kevin and only got about 4 hours of sleep.  Man am I tired!

Only about 3 hours of sleep as I was over tired and my daughter was coughing really bad most of the night.

Final time: 2:40:32  16th overall, 4th Master Overall, 2nd in my Age class.

Overall a good race that is well supported and pretty well laid out.  Mostly flat but with some smallish hills late in the race that you really feel.

5M: 30:00  (6:00 pace)

10M: 59:23 (5:56 pace)

1st half: 1:17:49 (5:56 pace)

20M: 1:59:54 (6:00 pace)

Last 10k: (6:32 pace, ouch!!!  Need more longer distance training runs!)

2nd half: 1:22:43 (6:18 pace)

Overall pretty happy with the race, but my lack of any really distance training since October combined with the 2 previous nights with 4 hours of sleep affected my second half.  1st half ran steady with young guy named Samuel, but lost the pack at about 14M and really started to slow down about 20M or so.  Running as 1st master through the half, then got passed between 15-25M to slip to fourth.  Lesson is that going out too hard after short training just doesn't work and I need to try to get better sleep the days before the run.  Legs were just dead afterwards, but not painful just out of fuel and endurance.  I just need to work on my last 10K finish stamina by running longer training runs at a faster pace and also by carbing better during the race.  Overall I am mostly happy with the result as it is what I thought I was trained for and I competed in the master's class as well.

splits:

1  6:12  Running easy with Sam Jurek, easing into the race.

2  6:02 Starting to pick it up and enter Epcot.

3  5:58 Get to target pace and start passing folks.  Running through Epcot at this point.

4  5:48  Now we are on track and feeling good.  See a large pack (7 guys or so) ahead and plan to catch by mile 5

5  5:51  We catch the pack and tuck in and go on cruise control.

6  5:51  Cruising down the roadways with the pack.

7  5:50  Still feeling really good at this point.

8  5:53  Coming up on Magic Kingdom, pass the Contemporary resort.

9  5:51  Running steady and feeling good.

10  5:51  We enter the Magic Kingdom. 

11 5:47  Run throught the castle.

12  5:52 Leave Magic Kingdom. On the backroads again and now am working a bit harder.

13  5:56  Hit the half mark in 1:17:49 and the pack is begining to split up.  I am starting to feel the lack of sleep and long training runs so I let the pack move up a bit.  Don't know if this was smart or not.

14  5:53  Still keeping the pack in sight.

15  5:57  Still about 15 seconds behid the pack.

16  5:56  Enter Animal Kingdom.  Pack is out of sight now on the turns in the park.  I am passed in here by 2 guys, one of which I see later walking on the road.

17  6:08  Now I am feeling the training.  Running in Animal Kingdom, but don't remember much about this park.

18  6:02  Ok but not the greatest pace.

19  6:09  Starting to see the pace slip as I am feeling the lack of endurance.

20  6:19  Legs are feeling lethargic.  We are running on the highways again and at this point have to go up a slight incline on an overpass and then do a 180 turn.  See Sam J. heading the other direction, about 2 minutes ahead.

21  6:14  Still trying to push, but it is getting harder.  This is where my pace really suffers and I start to get passed from here to the finish.

22  6:24  Run up another overpass here.  See a guy who passed me walking on the side of the road.  Enter Hollywood Studios in this mile, I remember running down through New York section of the park and seeing Frozone and the toy soldiers from Toy Story. 

23  6:50  Oh, bad mile!  But, I do pass one of the youngster's from the initial pack I was running with. Lots of turns through the Studios.

24  6:09  That's better!  Head into the Boardwalk in this mile and feel a bit of energy.

25  6:41  Enter Epcot again.  Energy fading, nothing much left, just hanging on.

26  6:38  I get passed in the last mile, which sucks.  Think about kicking but don't want to crash and burn this close to the finish.

0.41 2:32 (6:16 pace) (this is the distance on my GPS)

1M w/u before the race.  Afterwards, showered and spent 12 hours walking in the Magic Kingdom (count as 3M easy).  Managed to stay up to watch the fireworks (mostly awake even!).

12 hours in Animal Kingdom, count as 3M easy.

12 hours in Epcot, count as 4M easy.

2M run early, then 3M in Hollywood Studios.

3.5M run early, then 12 hours in Magic Kingdom (3M easy). 4M run after getting back to the hotel.

3.5M run early before breakfast and heading to the park.  12 hours walking around Epcot, 4M since this park is so big!

A really late night as my son came down with an ear infection as we were in Epcot and it was hurting so bad he was in tears as we were leaving.  We were up until midnight between visiting the local emergent care facility and trying to find a Walgreen's that had the drugs that were prescribed.  Just something you want to do on vacation.

3M walking around Hollywood Studios.  No run this morning as we had to pack to check out of the Disney hotel and I was tired from the late night with Justin at the doctor last night.

No run today, travel day to get home to IF.  Family is ready to be home and is tired.

No run today as I am sick as a dog, puking and body aches all over.  Ugh!

8M at lunch today on a beautiful day.  Temps pretty good (20ish) with just a light breeze.  Easy first mile (7:10), then 5M at about a 6:40ish pace, followed by 2M easy again (7:10ish).  At 6.5M started having intestinal issues from the cold yesterday and my calves started getting tight.  May have pushed a bit for being sick yesterday, but it felt good to be out.

6.5M on the TM at the gym at a 6:40 pace and 2.5% incline.  Legs and stomach still a bit on the mend but it was a decent run.  Almost went outside in the calm 12 degree weather, but thought I would stay in to get fully over the cold.  (Stratos 1)

Short 4.5M run on a beautiful day at lunch.  Nothing special, not fast (7:00pace) as my energy level was just not there.  (T2)

7M early on a warmer morning (16 degrees).  It has been a while since I did an early morning outside run and I forgot how hard it is to get going in the cold!  This was not a fast run and I never did quite get into a groove.  My stomach is still a bit topsy turvy which did not help.  (T3)

7M at lunch on an overcast but warmer day.  Stomach issues still hanging in and the energy level is still a bit low, so this was just another slow recovery run.  Planning on a good run at lunch tomorrow with Pat followed by a 18 miler on Saturday with McKay and Andrea.  (T2)

10K at the gym this morning at 6:40ish average pace at 2% incline.  Not the greatest of runs as my back was a bit stiff and I never got into a good groove.  Watched the Australian Open and Roger Federer looking tough!  It was warm outside (30 degrees) at 4:30, but we had 4 inches of new snow and I did not feel like trying to plow through this deep stuff on the pathways.  Got home and had to shovel for about an hour!  (Does this count for mileage?)   Planning a good run at lunch with Pat B.  (Stratos 1)

8.5M solo at lunch.  Pat decided to do some nordic skiing in the park due to the snowfall so I went alone.  Ran down to the South Tourist Park extended and to the southern gravel pit and turned around.  Overall the pathway was mostly clear the whole way (the city usually does a good job with the plowing) and the temp was pretty warm (31 degrees) so it was actually a pleasent run, just slow (7:28 pace) recovery run.  (T2)

16M run on a very snowy morning.  Started off about 8am just when the snow was starting and by the end we were running in 2 inches of snow.  Luckily I brought my waterresistant trail runners so my feet stayed a bit more dry.  Ran the first 9M with Dan, Andrea and McKay.  Then Dan dropped off and we finished 12M when Andrea headed back.   Ran to just over 13M with McKay then picked it up a bit back to 15M.  1M cooldown after connecting with folks to say goodbye.  Overall it was a good run at an easy pace (7:40ish) on warm but slushy and deep day so the running was a bit tough. 

We also met with the editor/photographer of the local IF Magazine for pictures for an article they are putting in their next edition about IF runners going to Boston!  Kinda cool. 

7M early on a warmer morning (32 degrees).  Roads and paths were a mix of wet/slick and sloshy, so this was just an easy pace run in about 53 minutes.  Feeling good after yeterday's wet run.

6M at the gym this morning early.  4M at easy pace (6:35ish) and 2M at slow MP (6:25ish).  Had to get going so cut it short as I leave for business travel early this morning.  Hope to get a few runs in the next couple of days while on the road.  (Stratos 1)

8M after meetings and checking in at the hotel.  Left hammy is sore after the plane flight and it progressive got more sore as the run progressed.  Started of pretty good but got slow at the end to finish in 56 minutes.  (T3)

8M in the morning before breakfast and all day meetings.  Left hammy still sore, so this one was slow.

6M after work today before dinner and drinks with my coworkers at the meetings.  Hammy a bit better, but still sore.

6M before heading out for some last meetings and flying home.  Hammy a bit better today.

7M on the TM at the gym this morning.  Hammy better but not quite awake after traveling so motivation was low, but I got it done.  (Stratos 1)

5 slick miles on a cold day at lunch.  Nothing much to talk about...did I say it was cold and slick?  Hammy felt good but probably because it was frozen!  (T2)

10M early on the TM at the gym in 1:07 flat.  Started off easy, then ran for about 4M at a very slow MP (6:30ish), then eased back to finish off the run.  Hammy was good and I felt better at 10M than I did at 3M so I am glad I pushed through for the full run.  

After dropping off the kids at school, my wife and I went back to do weights and show her how to use all the new machines that the club installed recently.  A good weight workout (which I haven't done in a while, so I am going to be sore).

10M on the TM at home this morning in 1:06:30.  My wife had to go to work early today so I couldn't get to the gym or go outside (it was 6 degrees, so that isn't bad) so I could stay home with the kids.  First 3M were less than motivating but started feeling better about the run as I hit 6M.  A little sore from yeterday's lifting session since I hadn't done that in a while. 

We went over to a friend's house last night for some sledding (it is a whole lot easier getting back up the hill when you had 4 wheeler's to climb, plus it is fun to gun it up the hill!) and bumped my left calf getting teh 4 wheelers loaded, it hurt!  We played "Guitar Hero" for several hours.  They only had the guitar which is fun, but waiting to play it again with the drums as well!