Running

An easy 2.50 miles this morning with Mark around the block.  It was probably a little more, but we'll stick with 2.50.  Finished right over 20 minutes.  Legs were heavy and this was more of a struggle than it should normally be.  Tomorrow will probably run 16-19.

Got up and went to the Provo River Trail at the mouth of the canyon.  Ran up to where the trail was blocked, so we turned around to head out of the canyon.  However, we saw a big group of runners going up and we decided to turn around and follow them to see if they would go through the barricade.  They did go through, so we just followed them and let them pace us.  It turned out to be 5 or so people who are on the blog (Josse, Michelle, Adam, and I can't remember the rest).  It was nice to get talk with them.  They are fast and it looked like they were breezing through this run quite easily.  We split from them at Vivian Park and went up South Fork up to the first park.  When we got back to Vivian Park, we decided to run the road instead of the trail.  We got back to the cars and Mark went to work and I turned around and did an additional 5 miles I beleive.  Overall, we pushed the pace pretty good and I felt ok.  

 Total time was 3:07 and I think it was 20 miles.  Mark will map it out and let me know for sure.  We need to get the Garmin fixed or get a new one.

Lifted weights for an hour at the gym.
 

Mark and I did our standard route this morning starting from the house. We went 6.37 miles in 46:10, which is our fastest time on this route by about 1:30. It felt like we were going fast and it was a bit uncomfortable, but it felt good.

I did an additional 2.50 miles after stopping at the house for a second.

I will try and get in more miles at the beginning of the week and then drop off a bit towards the end so that I feel good for the 1/2 marathon on Saturday.

Did 5.12 miles in 39:21.  Mark was with me until about 1.50 miles and then he turned off to head home cause he wasn't feeling good.  Several times throughout the run I would get to about 6:40-6:50 pace and hold it for a bit just so that I could feel the pace that I'm hoping to run this Saturday at the race.

Lifted weights for 45 minutes and then did 3 miles on the treadmill in right over 24 minutes.

7.91 miles in 1:02:49.  I took things pretty easy as I have this constant fear that I'm not going to have any energy for the race this Saturday if over do it.  Still felt pretty good overall today.

5.06 in 37:39. 

3.02 in 23:13.  Feeling pretty good for tomorrow.  Hope it doesn't rain.

This is by far the best I've run in a race.  I felt good for a good majority of the race and was able to hold on for the last two miles.  The goal was to finish in 1:30.  My watch showed 1:27:13, but the race clock showed 1:26:43.  I'll stick with my watch time.

Miles 1-5: 6:16, 6:23, 6:35, 6:42, 6:59

So the plan was to find Josse at the beginning and try and run with her.  I knew she was planning on 1:30 or less.  I spotted her and a couple of other about a quarter of a mile into the race and caught up with them.  It was great to run with a group.  The first 4 miles flew right by and we were kicking along at a pretty good pace.  Honestly, our pace at the beginning gave me a lot of confidence for the rest of the race.

Miles 6-10: 6:45, 6:16, 6:04, 7:20, 6:23

Still feeling pretty good.  Don't know what the 7:20 mile was all about.  Perhaps the mile markers were off a bit.  At mile marker nine I took some Gu and stopped at the water station.  I was starting to feel pretty tired.

Miles 11-13.1: 6:37, 14:49

Mile 10-11 was rough.  There were some switchbacks and I was really feeling it pretty good.  I knew that if I just went at 8:00 for the last two miles that I would make the 1:30 mark.  Surprisingly, I was able to hold on a little better than I thought I would be able to.  I got passed in the last half mile by two people I beleive, but was able to pass a couple within the last mile.  I was very pleased with the way things went.  I had some serious doubts that I would be able to sustain a sub-7 minute pace throughout the race.  Hopefully I can cut some minutes off at Hobble Creek in a couple of weeks.

Lifted weights for 30 minutes in the evening and did the elliptical for 30 minutes.

6.37 miles in 47:00.  Felt pretty good, especially once we hit the halfway point and turned around to come back to the house.  Was going about race pace (6:30-6:55) for about the last 2.5 miles.  I pulled ahead of Mark and finished about 30 seconds faster, but he was keeping a good pace.

9.02 miles in 1:09:39.  This was a tough one.  My legs were sore, but Mark seemed to be pushing the pace a bit.  Leave for vacation tomorrow in Florida.  I should be able to get a lot of running in while down there and hopefully it will get me ready for Hobble Creek.

Lifted for about 45 minutes in the evening.

10.0 miles in 1:34.  Good news is we found a trail to run on.  The bad news is that it is really humid here.  I took my shirt off after about 6 miles and was able to wring a ton of water out of it.  Needless to say, we had to stop and walk a lot.  The lungs felt good, but the humidity just kills me.  At least we got through it.

2.0 miles this morning on the beach with no shoes.  This was a dumb move and I now have 4 blisters on the right foot and one on the left as a result.

4.5 miles on the treadmill a bit later on.

4.0 miles this evening on the beach with shoes on.

I will not disclose the time it took to do these runs as it is ridiculous.  The humidity is a whole new ball game and just kills me.  It doesn't help that I'm a sweater anyways.  I love the dry heat back home.

4.0 Miles along the beach with shoes on.  Motivation to run down here is slipping away due the humidity.  It just kills me.

16.08 Miles in 2:13:03 I think that's what my time was.

Needless to say, I'm glad to be back in the Utah weather and away from the humidity of Florida. Our trip was cut a day short due to the hurricane that was coming our way, so I took advantage of the day off of work to run up the Provo Canyon.  I was surprised to see the trail was open all the way.  I ran 8 up and 8 back.  I headed up South Fork once I hit Vivian. Legs were pretty sore at first, but then I started feeling better.  Hit a couple of miles at the projected Hobble Creek race pace of 6:30-6:50.

Lifted weights for 50 minutes. 

7.86 miles in 1:02:53.

Ran from home today with Mark.  He turned around at the 2.5 mark to go back home and I continued on for a bit more before turning.  Legs were sore and I had to hold back a bit.

4.12 miles in 30:03.  Trying to cut the miles back a bit today and tomorrow so that I'll feel fine for the race.  Legs are still a bit sore.

3.11 miles in 23:54. 

Goals for tomorrow's Hobble Creek run are to try and finish in 1:25.  I figure that the course will be a little bit faster than the Provo River course, but I know I'm going to have to really push myself.

This was a fun race and I finished about 2 minutes faster than my PR at Provo River two weeks ago. Can't beleive I finished first in my age division (this must have been a slow year or something). I will double check the overall and division places when the times get posted. I got passed from about mile 10 (the second to last water station) by several people. I had to stop and walk at about mile 12.5. I was just done at that point and I didn't care if anyone passed me. Did not feel good at the beginning, but was determined to try and go at 6:15-6:30 pace for the first six miles. Overall, I don't think the vacation (and sunburn) I was on within the last two weeks helped me with this race or all the food I've eaten over the past 2 weeks for that matter.

After checking the results, I really took 2nd in my age group as the winner was also in my age group.  However, I guess since he won the race they don't technically include him in the age group. 

Here are the splits:

6:24 - 1

5:59 - 2 Little scared to see below 6

6:22 - 3

5:58 - 4

6:09 - 5

6:12 - 6

6:28 - 7

5:57 - 8 Mile marker must have been off

6:30 - 9

6:39 -10 Wheels are coming off and I can tell I'm not feeling well

7:15 - 11 Hanging on

7:26 - 12 Pretty much done

7:53 - 13.1 Not feeling well

Ran an additional 4.75 miles in 39:45 with my brother Ryan in the evening after lifting weights for about 40 minutes.

6.40 miles in 49:04.

6.28 miles in 46:06.  Everything changes for me this week because school starts up again for the fall.  I'm not sure how it will affect things, but it certainly going to make it tougher to get up in the mornings after being in school from 6-10 in the evening.

5.0 miles alone from the house.  Out and back.

6.50 miles in 48:00.  All alone this morning on the typical out and back.  I never feel good at first, but then after about a mile I am fine. 

3.60 miles in 25:34.  I was surprised at how good I felt this morning, so I tried to push myself for parts of this run.  I am deciding if I want to run the Swiss Days 10K up in Midway tomorrow.  I think it would be fun, but I would like to run the Provo Canyon as well to try and get ready for the Mid-Mountain marathon the following Saturday. 

16.0 miles in 2:04:24 7:47 minutes/mile pace

So the goal today was to run 16 miles at 8:00/mile pace. I never push myself on these longer runs, so I figured that I should try and do at least a little better. I started at the base of Provo Canyon by the gas station and ran up to Vivian Park. Then I went up South Fork. Once I reached the 8 mile mark I turned and ran back down. I felt really good and the best thing is that I was able to finish strong. Below are the splits:

1-8:33 Lots of wind heading up.

2-7:42

3-7:57

4-8:36 Stop at water fountain

5-7:29 Right on track for 8:00 miles when I hit Vivian

6-8:12 uphill

7-8:07 upholl

8-7:43

9-8:53 Bathroom stop

10-6:42 Downhill and trying to back off so that I don't die at the end of the run

11-7:18

12-6:58

13-7:48

14-8:01

15-7:01

16-7:17