Running

9.0 in 1:11:53.  7:59 avg pace.  Started at 4:30 in the afternoon and ran out towards Saratoga Springs.  The heat was a killer.  

10.50 in 1:22:52.  7:54 avg pace.  Lots of hills for the first 4 miles.  Legs are dead right now.  No zip in them.  Hopefully they will come around because I'm suppose to run the Provo River 1/2 this Saturday.

PM Lifted for 20 min and then 5 miles on the TM.

5.50 on the standard route.  Thought I was going to end up on the TM cause it was raining pretty hard, but then it just stopped.  My body is protesting the miles this week.  I may have done too much too soon.  Today I just turned the watch off cause I felt horrible.  I might need to back off.

7.0 in 53:43.  7:41 avg pace.  Finally a good run for me.  I felt really good this morning, especially compared to the rest of this week.  It was cooler and there was a south wind along with some occasional rain.  Ran a random route so that I could stay somewhat close to home in case it got too bad weather wise.  First time running in the Kinvaras and I loved them.

PM 4.50 on the TM.  This wasn't a good run.  I had to get off after about 2.30 miles cause I was dizzy and light headed.  Started feeling better and got back on and finished with a couple more.

5.50 no watch.  Nice and easy out towards Saratoga Springs.  

Goal for the Provo River Half tomorrow is to beat last year's time of 1:24:18.  If I have trouble I should at least be able to get some good miles in at marathon pace. 

Goal was to beat last year's time, which was 1:24:18.  If nothing else, I knew I would at least get some really good miles in today.  I love this race because it is so organized (joke), and I love the course.  I know exactly what to expect on this thing.  Splits:

1-6:06 Right away I'm running with no shirt guy

2-6:09

3-6:23 Still no shirt guy, me, and red shirt guy.  We are picking off a few people, but I can't believe how much better I'm liking running in a group.

4-5:56 Feeling pretty good still and making our way onto the path. 

5-6:31 Our group of 4-5 has dissipated.  No shirt guy drops back and red shirt guy made a move.  I should have went with him.  It would have been a bit painful, but I think it would have helped me in the long run.  I'm running solo for pretty much the rest of the race. 

6-6:23

7-6:49 Make the turn on to the old highway and there is a really good headwind.  Mentally, I think this is where I would have benefitted from having people to run with while going up the hill.  Andy-where were you this year?

8-6:45 Hit the turnaround and realize Melanie B. is about 15 sec. behind me.  Dang she's fast.

9-6:50 This is where things turned bad.  We go under the freeway and I have to pee real bad.  Red shirt guy is up on me by about 35 sec and I have a couple guys about 15 seconds behind me.  The first bathroom is locked in the campground, so I run to the next.  I probably lose about 45 seconds and a good rythem (spelling??).  Last year I ran this mile in 6:16.  Looking back, this pee stop kills me.

10-6:28

11-6:33 Running with another red shirt guy and hoping we can push each other, but then he surges and gaps me by about 20 seconds.

12-6:45 Holding on.

13-6:37 Wanting to walk..............but I don't.

.10-0:52

Finish in 1:25:11.  Overall, I'm not too disappointed.  It was a good race.  I got some very good marathon pace miles in and fought through some rough patches.  The pee stop killed any chances of finishing ahead of last year's time, but what do you do.  I should of hit the bushes as that would have been faster. 

The only disappointment I have is that it feels like I've stalled in my progression lately. Hopefully the marathon from two weeks ago is still in my legs and that is one thing to blame, but I need to start doing some training miles at a faster pace.  At Hobble Creek I'm going for 1:20 right from the start.  I may bonk and end up walking the last 3 miles, but oh well.  Good run today overall.

PM Lifted for 45 min and did the elliptical for 15 min.

9.50 in 1:16:13.  8:01 avg pace.  Ran the short cemetary loop.  Really good weather this morning and I just took things nice and slow today.  Lots of hills throughout the run, and my legs are still a bit fatigued from racing on Saturday.  Only run of the day as I would like to try and do some form of a workout tomorrow morning.

2 mile warm-up.  Stopped and stretched for a bit.

4 mile tempo at marathon pace (between 6:40-6:50).  Splits: 6:27, 6:30, 6:30, 6:29.  The entire route is pretty much flat and I knew I needed to hit the first mile or else I would get disappointed.  My splits were more like half marathon pace for me.  The first two were a bit uncomfortable, but then I started feeling good.  I have a hard time motivating myself to do tempo work in the early mornings, but I think if I could have slowed myself down to marathon pace that I could have done a longer tempo.  Good workout for me today though.

Cooled down with 3.15 miles to get back home.  I was almost cold during the cool down.  Great weather this morning.

Bruise on top of left knee is a bit bothersome.  I nailed it against an end table a week ago Monday.

PM 5.85 in 46:52.  8:01 avg pace.  From jr. high out towards Willow Park.  Nice and easy.

7.25 in 56:26.  7:47 avg pace.  Went out towards the old church and a little bit towards the freeway.  Came back via 1100 West.  Felt better than anticipated.  I usually have a really rough time the morning after an evening run.  Still great temperature this morning.

12.25 in 1:36:37.  7:53 avg pace.  Medium cemetary loop starting at 5:15 am.  Ran the first 5 miles in the dark, which I really like.  Some good hills for the first 4-5 miles and then it levels out and then I get a little downhill.  First 5 miles were all over 8 min (mile 5 was over 9 because I stopped at the water ftn).  Most of the miles after that were in the 7:20-7:30 range.  Legs feel thrashed right now.  Left knee is sore.  In fact, left leg is sore.  Good run for me on a weekday though.

6.0 in 47:34.  7:56 avg pace.  Standard route with a couple of laps around Wines Park to get me to 6.  Hopefully by taking it easy today I'll feel better for tomorrow's long run.  Hoping to go 20 up and down Provo Canyon.  Left leg is still giving me some problems.  Knee is sore, but it feels like I have a knot in my left calf and that it pulling on my left hamstring.  Will keep an eye on it.

20.0 in 2:36:12.  7:49 avg pace.  Started at base of Provo Canyon and was planning to run 10 up and then back down, and hopefully have a "fast" finish (maybe the last 5 or so faster).  Everything was slow going up.  Hit 5 miles at 42:14 and then hit 10 at 1:24:22.  This was 8:26 avg and there was some good climbing going up South Fork.

Started back down and there were lots of people out, which I like.  Took it easy coming down South Fork.  Saw a moose off to the side of the road.  I hit the next 5 miles all around 7:30.  Split for 15 was 2:02:13.  8:08 avg pace.

Then I hit a good groove.  Next splits were 7:03, 6:57, 6:42, 6:42, 6:31.  I got lucky here.  Sasha and hit 2 guys came flying by around my 17 mile mark.  I tried to keep up with them, but couldn't do it.  With about 2 miles left I realize that one of Sasha's guys had dropped back.  I was catching him and finally got him with about .75 left.  His name was Mike and we talked until I finished up.  He definitely made me keep the pace up.

Good run for me.  I ate aweful yesterday, but I didn't bonk on the run today.  My legs are through for the week.  I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of maybe having some problems with my left knee and my feet.  This is the most mileage I've done in one week I beleive.  I will scale it back next week a bit and hopefully run well at Hobble Creek next Saturday.

9.25 in 1:10:36.  7:38 avg pace.  Did the short cemetary loop.  One of the best morning runs I've ever had.  Things just felt really smooth and easy.  Felt like I was almost gliding and that I didn't have to do much to get the pace up.

Not sure how this week will go.  Would like to hit around 60 miles, but I would also really like to run well at Hobble Creek, so I may scale things waaay back on Thursday and Friday.

Tempo day.  2 mile warm up out towards Saratoga.  Stopped and stretched for a bit and then got in to my tempo.  Plan was 5 or 6 at marathon pace (6:40-6:50) hitting the JRP and coming back home via 700 South.  Very flat course. 

Splits: 6:36, 6:39, 6:31, 6:36, 6:39.  Avg for tempo was 6:37.  It's like I get so scared I'm not going to hit my times that it makes me run faster.  Oh well.  I had to work at it this morning pretty good to keep myself going. I think if I could just relax a bit more and slow down maybe 7-10 seconds more that I would be a bit more comfortable.

Cooled down with 1.50 back home.

PM Elliptical for 25 min

9.0 in 1:15:26.  8:23 avg pace.  Wow.  I was really slow this morning.  Very tired and worn out for some reason.  Will try to scale way back the next few days and hopefully some "pep" will be in the legs on Saturday.

6.25 in 50:33.  8:05 avg pace.  Ran the new Pioneer Crossing Rd.  Went 3 miles west and turned around and came back.  The road isn't open to cars yet, but is practically finished.  It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be to run it.

5.25 no watch.  Standard route.  Nice and easy.

Was hoping to hit 1:20, but I'm finding that that might be way out of my league for now.  Plan was to try and hit low 6's or sub 6's in the canyon and then try and hold on until the end.  Splits:

1-5:56

2-5:43

3-6:02  I'm settled in with a nice little group of 4-5 people.  Pace is fast and a bit uncomfortable, but I'm going with it.

4-5:45

5-6:09

6-5:49

7-6:43  About the 6.50 mark I find that I got to pee.  I lost a good minute at Provo River half to a pee stop and now it's going to happen again.  Probably lose about 40-45 seconds on this mile because of the stop.  Mentally this killed me.  I just kept thinking "not again."  I've never had this problem in the past, and now it's happened in my last 3 races. 

8-6:07  Passing same people again that I passed a mile previously.  By now there is about a 40 second gap in front of me to the next people and no one behind me.  It's lonesome.  I hate that.

9-6:41  Hit the trail portion and I'm fading.  The little uphills are killing me and the heat is getting me.

10-6:39  I spent a long time at the aid station right after this mile marker.  Mentally I'm done.  A little more mental toughness and I think I could have got the 2 guys that were in front of me here.

11-7:15  Feel like I'm giving up.  Legs are dead.  A guy catches me and he's flying.  I'm interested to see how long it takes him to get the group that's a good 45 seconds up on us.  He eventually got them before the 12 mile marker.

12-6:36  Don't know where this came from.

13-7:15  Walked a couple times in here and feel like I'm just jogging it in.  Legs do not feel good.

.10-0:41 One more guy passes me right here. 

 Well, overall I guess it wasn't too bad.  This is about 90 seconds slower than my last year's time at this race.  Why does it feel like I'm getting slower?  I wonder if the DesNews Marathon is getting the best of my legs.  Maybe it was jump in mileage a week ago.  At any rate, I got a good 11 miles in at marathon pace or way better.  Hopefully a couple more weeks of good training and solid mileage will lead to a good Top of Utah Marathon just below the 3 hour mark.

14.75 in 1:56:43. 7:55 avg pace.  Ran the long cemetary loop this morning cause I have no work today.  This route takes me up into Highland for a while.  All I wanted was a longer, slower run to get the week off to a good start.  I felt pretty good for the most part.  Legs started to wear down around the 10 miles mark, but they held up better than I thought they would.  I didn't even catch the 8 minute guy until around mile 12.

Saw lots of people out running.  Stopped and talked to the Crack O' Dawn group of 6-7 for a bit and then saw Melanie B. from the blog and talked to her for a bit.

8.50 in 1:05:45.  7:44 avg pace.  Ran out towards Saratoga and connected up to the JRP and came back via 700 South.  Legs were sore, but was able to get into a good groove and cruise along.  It was cold.  I could have worn a long sleeve shirt and gloves and been good.

9.50 in 1:11:35.  7:32 avg pace.  Short cemetary loop.  I wanted to get in some good miles at just a bit slower than marathon pace.  Ran 2 easy miles and then did 6 faster ones.  Splits were 7:14, 8:06 (two brutal hills), 7:01, 7:25 (another hill), 6:50, 6:55.  Cooled down with 1.50 to get back home.

3.0 on tm in hotel in Burbank, CA.

5.0 in the afternoon after returning home.  Miserable run.  The heat got the best of me.

6.0 in just over 48 minutes.  It was about 8:05 avg pace.  Very tired and it was miserably hot and humid this morning.  Standard route with a bit added on in the middle to get to 6.  Hoping to run around 20 tomorrow morning.

20.0 in 2:33:00.  7:39 avg pace up and down Provo Canyon.  Same route as 2 weeks ago, but finished about 3 min 12 sec faster this week.

Perfect weather for the run.  Rained a bit the last 2 miles.  Tons of runners on the trail, especially on the way up.  I started about 5:30 am.  I wanted to take it a bit easy going up, but I wanted to throw in some surges to try and keep the pace more honest than I typically do when I climb up this route.  Hit 10 miles in 1:21:47 and was very encouraged by this split.  

Turned around and had to take a pit stop at 12.50.  Took it pretty easy coming down South Fork, but still kept a good pace.  Tried to stay relaxed and my splits just kind of naturally stayed in the low 7's or upper 6's all the way down to the car.  Last 10 mile split was 1:11:11 or 7:07 avg pace. 

Overall, a good run for me.  But to be honest, my legs were feeling it the last 2 miles.  If I had to do another 6.2 today I could have been in trouble.  Hopefully this is due to the two halfs in the last 3 weeks and another 20 miler 2 weeks ago.  I think the legs will come around over the next 3 weeks.

7.50 in 1:02:03.  8:17 avg pace.  Standard route but finished by going out by the new jr. high and then home via 700 South.  Very slow and sluggish.  Knees and feet hurt a bit.  Lots of wind as well.

PM 4.0 on the TM at about 8 min pace.

9.25 in 1:11:19.  7:43 avg pace.  Short cemetary loop back via Center Street.  Felt okay today.  Legs were a bit tired and fatigued, but nowhere near like they were yesterday.