dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran to school this morning.  I ran 6 x 10s sprints mixed throughout the run.  I finished 8.6 miles in about 1:01.

PM:  I ran home in 1:03:33.  I kept the pace easy.

I ran to school this morning and ran 2 x 1 mile in 5:07, 5:10-13 (missed the beginning split on the second one).  The first mile had very little wind (some cross-wind but didn't effect me much), while the second mile had some headwind which slowed me down.  Overall I felt much more smooth on the second repeat then the first, despite the wind.  As I got near school I also ran a half mile in 2:30.  I felt much less smooth during the half mile, but I started feeling better near the end of it.  Total time for the run was 1:00:26 (I think).

PM:  I ran home in the evening.  I ran another mile repeat near the end of the run with a time of 5:02.  There was a slight downhill during this mile.  I made it home in 1:01:41.

I felt tired this morning.  I ran to school in a time of 1:05:05.  At times the run felt easy and relaxed, but at other times my legs felt like dead weights.

PM:  I felt better this evening than I did in the morning.  Kimia was at the library so she picked me up after about 5 miles. 

I felt fine when I went to bed last night, but when I woke up this morning I could barely walk.  My right knee hurts, and there is point sensitivity on the medial condyle of the tibia.  Pain is also evident medially when the knee is non weight bearing and I flex the knee. The pain is worse when I rotate the knee externally as I walk, but it is not as bad when I rotate the knee internally.  

Later in the afternoon the knee was feeling better so I decided to test it out.  I ran about 2 miles (1 mile barefoot and 1 mile in sandals) just to test the knee out.  I didn't wear running shoes because I didn't want to mask any problems (or make them worse) by wearing shoes that may cause (or inhibit) rotation at the knee joint.  There was zero pain while I was running, but once I was finished my knee flared up on me within a few minutes of stopping.  

I'm not sure what to think of it.  The only stress I have noticed on the knee is one bad step I took during the second mile repeat I ran on the way to school on Wednesday as I felt a slight twinge in the knee as I made ground contact during a slight turn near then end of the mile.  However, I felt no pain as I finished that run, or on the way home that afternoon, or during either run on Thursday.  It seems so strange that I would just wake up to find myself injured.  It is frustrating.

On a more positive side I have had very minor knee issues in the past, and they always seem to clear up within a day or two mostly on their own.  Hopefully this will be similar. 

No running today because of the knee issue.  I looked more into what the problem might be, and my best guess so far is Pes Anserine Tendinopathy.  Probably due to what happened on Wednesday, and the running on subsequent days simply led to inflammation and pain at the joint line/medial tibial condyle.

Just a short run today to test out the knee after the issues I was having at the end of last week.  No pain during the run, but I felt like there was a degree of instability when I ran down steeper downhill grades.  I felt a mild ache in my knee after I finished, but no pain and the achy feeling went away after a few minutes.  Total time of 38:03 for 5 miles.

Seeing that today went fairly well I will probably try to run about 10 miles tomorrow.  Hopefully all goes well tomorrow, and I can get back to normal in a few days.

I ran an easy run this morning on the treadmill at school.  I wanted to be able to bail at any time if the knee flared up so I ran indoors today.  7 miles in 53:01.

PM: I ran 3 more miles as I had to collect video data for a class.  I wanted to do this on Saturday but as my knee was hurting I waited until today (I couldn't wait any longer because the assignment is due on Friday).  I was nervous because I had to run hard prior to taking the video, but I hoped that I would be fine.  The test consisted of running at a preferred speed (8.3mph for me) that was determined during a blind test, followed by increases of 15% every 2 minutes until failure.  I warmed up at 7-7.3mph for 2 minutes and then started the test.  I started at 8.3, then after 2 min I upped the pace to 9.5, then 10.8, then 12.0, followed by 13.3 (4:30ish pace) and finally 14.5 (4:08 pace).  I was not expecting to last the full two minutes at 14.5mph but somehow I did it.  I did know that there was no way I was going to be able to go up to 15.8 so I didn't up the pace after 2 min and instead maintained 14.5 for 11 seconds after the 2 min was up before stopping.  I honestly could have lasted a little longer, but for the purposes of my test I had done enough and my legs were dead.  I am not sure what to think of this, but based on the speeds I was running at I set a pr in the 800 (2:04) and in the mile (4:20) during this test.  It makes me wonder if I really have more speed than I have realized previously.  I also wonder if the treadmill moving underneath me might have provided a benefit that I can not duplicate when running on the track.  I guess that I can chalk these up as treadmill prs if that is worth anything 

I ran to school this morning.  I was actually sore after the test that I did yesterday, and my shins and quads were complaining just a little.  Overall the run was good.  1:01:53 for 8.6 miles.

PM:  I started to run home, and Kimia picked me up because I didn't want to run too much as I am still taking it easy after my knee scared me last week.  I only made it about 2.2 miles before Kimia got to where I was at.  I was planning on going a little farther, but it didn't bother me to keep the run short.

I ran to school this morning.  8.6 miles in 1:01:27

PM:  I ran part of the way home before Kimia picked me up.  3.8 miles. 

I stayed up really late last night finishing a project for school, so I ended up sleeping in this morning, and I cut my run a little short so that I could have enough time to get ready to go to Kimia's ceremony to become a citizen.  I ran a total of 9 miles in 1:07:58

I ran my long run this afternoon while Anita was taking a nap.  I have not gotten enough sleep lately because I have had a bunch of projects due at school and I could tell that I was not 100% today.  I ran out to Sunset park and took it easy until I had been running a little under 11 miles.  I then ran a hard loop of the park in 14:23 (just under 5:20 pace) followed by another easy loop of the park before I started running home.  I was originally planning on running 2 loops of the park hard, but I was tired so I decided to only run the one lap hard, followed by a little more speedwork on the way home from the park.  I ran 1.8 miles hard on the way home and averaged about 5:20-21 pace for 1.8 miles (9:37).  I finished 20.2 miles in 2:17:xx.  I was glad to be done.  Hopefully with spring break next week I will be able to rest and get a more normal running schedule in as my knee is not bothering me anymore.

I ran 10 miles this morning, running most of it on the grass barefoot.  I threw a few (3) surges in while I was running on the grass, although they weren't more than about 5-7 seconds each and were just to get my legs moving.

I am in Arizona right now visiting my parents as I am on spring break.  I ran 12 miles on the canal near my parents house.  Temps were in the high 70's when I started my run, so I imagine it was over 80 by the time I finished.  1:28:01 for 12 miles.

I ran out on the canal again, and during the run I ran a workout of 400-800-1600-800-400.  Distances were all approximate because I didn't have any markers on the trail to measure the repeats, and I imagine that for the most part I went a little long on my repeats.  Near the end of the run I ended up running one more hard 400 just to get my legs moving a little more.  Total of 14 miles in 1:37:48.

I felt tired today.  My legs just didn't have much in them, so I ran pretty slow and finished 12 miles in 1:31:39.  It was also hot.  Both yesterday and today temperatures hit a high of 90, and I went running during the hottest part of the day, so at best I was running in temperatures that were in the high 80's.

I felt a lot better today than I did yesterday.  Temps were only in the mid 70's when I finished, so that may have been part of it, but my legs felt like they had more spring in them too.  I hit the halfway mark of my run in 44:00 (vs 46:22 yesterday) and I maintained the same pace until about 9.5 miles.  Then, a lady came out onto the canal riding her bike and I was feeling feisty, so I decided to pace myself off of her.  She didn't start out too fast (maybe 5:40 pace) but eventually it felt like I was going about 5:00 pace, and maybe a little faster.  Eventually she started talking to me because she couldn't believe that I was going so fast, and we talked for a bit (while still moving close to 5:00 pace) until I had to turn off to go home.  Total of 12 miles in 1:23:37, with the last approximate 3 miles in 17:41 (some of this was running hard, and some of it was slow).

Today our stake put on a 5k as a big stake activity.  They had a pancake breakfast with eggs, sausage, bananas, and juice/milk after the race.  I got a gallon of gatorade and a granola bar as prizes for winning.  

I gave the granola bar away, and I don't plan on drinking the gatorade, but all in all I think that for a little "fun run" this race had more to offer than a lot of the 20-30 dollar 5k's out there that offer little to nothing to their finishers (lots of food here), and only give the "good" prizes in the raffle (thankfully no raffle here, despite being in Vegas).  They also had prizes for the ward with the most people that participated, for the ward with the most primary children participating, as well as some other miscellaneous awards (I was actually hoping to get the bubbles as my prize instead of the gatorade, but oh well).  Overall, I liked this race, because the focus was on the race (and breakfast) not on the raffle (and the race).

To top everything off, this race was free (thank you tithing funds) although I got the feeling that there really weren't many expenses other than for the food, as most everything else (labor, equipment, etc) seemed to be donated.  If one of those 20-30 dollar a head races put on the same kind of race I would bet that the entrance fee money would be more than enough to provide everything we had today.

Anyhow, as for the race, it was what it was, a "fun run" with minimal competition, an approximate distance, and no mile markers.  That was to be expected as it was put on by people that had never put on a race before, and these people were not runners.  The race started off, and I immediately went to the front.  Temperatures at the start of the race were perfect (mid 50's), but it was pretty windy.  On the plus side, we were running through neighborhoods, so the wind was blocked to a degree by the houses and trees, minimizing its effect, however the wind still slowed the race down a bit.  The race was an out and back that was mostly flat, but had a couple mild hills.  The course turned enough that there was a mix of headwind and tailwind during each half of the race, however there was definitely more headwind during the second half of the race (thus more tailwind during the first half).

I am fairly sure that the race was long but I am not sure by how much.  What I do know is that despite an honest effort, and what seemed like more tailwind on the way out I hit the halfway mark in 8:03 when I felt like I should have turned around at about 7:45.  On the way back, since I felt it was long, I wasn't as precise in following the line that had been chalked on the road and the distance was shorter (thus the equal time for the second half despite having more headwind on the return trip).  After getting home I used the course tool to measure the course on the way out and I ended up measuring it to be 1.6 miles (3.2 miles total).  I know that the course tool is not very accurate, but in this case I think it is accurate enough to know that the course was long.  Since I cut some corners on the way back I figure that I probably ended up running about 3.15 miles.

So, even adjusting for length, I ran this race in the low 15:50's, which is fairly slow for me.  The wind is probably mostly to blame, despite the fact that I did get a tailwind during some portions of the race.  I figure that the wind cost me about 20-30 seconds over the course of the race, but who knows if that is accurate or not.

After the race was over I ran the course again as a cool-down, while looking for Kimia (she was supposed to be walking the course but turned around early to see the finish and then missed it because she was inside).  After eating some food, and waiting for awards we drove home to put Anita down for a nap.  After bumming around at home for about 20 min or so, I finally headed out the door again to finish my run for the day.  I ended up running a 6 mile tempo to finish 20 miles.  Approximate mile splits for the tempo were: 11:53 for 2 miles, 5:54 for 1.05 miles (5:37 pace), 10:48 for 2 miles, 4:55.  The first 2 miles were almost all right into a nasty headwind, the third mile was a mixture of headwind and tailwind, the fourth and fifth miles had some tail wind, and some cross wind, and the final mile had a nice strong tailwind with added downhill to speed me up.  All in all, it gave me a time of 33:30 for 6.05 miles. 

I ran a mostly easy run today, but I threw in a couple 400's just to practice going fast.  The first "400" was uphill and into a decent headwind, and since I didn't have any marks measured out to get an exact distance, I just ran for 70 seconds.  I imagine that it was a little short, but the effort and the time were what I was looking for, so no worries.  I turned around at 5 miles (36:25) and I took it pretty easy on the way back hitting 10 miles in 1:14:02 (37:37 second half).  I wanted to run one more 400 that was actually measured, so I went over to the track and ran one last 400 in 64 seconds.  I was shooting for a 62, but it was still really windy so I figure that minus the wind the time would have been about right.  I ran home after that, and finished what I will call 10.75 miles in 1:19:06.

I ran to school this morning in 1:04:27.  I kept the pace pretty slow and easy.

PM:  I ran home from school in 1:01:03.  The effort was also easy, but I did need to run a little quicker than I really wanted to because I had to get home so that Kimia and I could go to the temple for our ward temple night.

I ran to school this morning in 1:02:07.  Not as much wind this morning as we have had here recently, which was nice.

PM:  I ran home from school today in 51:14.  On the way home I ran approximately 7 miles as a tempo run in 38:37 (5:31 pace).  The wind was nasty on the way home today (either a headwind or a crossing headwind the entire way) so I am rather pleased with the effort given the conditions.

I started my tempo after a warm-up of a little less than a mile.  I have measured this route multiple times in my car over the last couple months, so I have approximate mile markers that I use to gauge pace off of.  The first mile (5:35) had a crossing headwind, and I decided to not push myself too much at the beginning in order to allow myself to relax into the pace a little.  After 1 mile I turned straight into the headwind and spent the next 3 miles fighting the wind.  I increased the effort, yet I still slowed down in comparison to the first mile.  I couldn't remember exactly where my second mile marker was, but I hit the next two miles in 11:25 (5:42.5 pace).  I followed this up with another mile in 5:42, at which point I turned again and had a crossing headwind from here until the end of the tempo.  After I turned again, it still felt like the wind was slowing me down a lot, so I was pleasantly surprised when I split the next mile in 5:25, even with a slight uphill grade over the last 200-300m (the wind probably felt worse than it really was due to the crosswind).  After 5 miles I don't really have any mile markers measured off, but after a little more uphill (for about 2 min) the grade starts heading downhill.  Just after the downhill starts there is a mile measured by some race that is marked in the street, which I ran in 5:12.  Once I was only 1 mile from my house I knew that I was 6.8 miles into my tempo, so I estimated how long .2 miles would take (based on my last timed mile) and I ran hard until I reached that time.  So if my estimations for distance are correct I ran the last 2 miles in 10:30 (5:15 average).  There was a slight downhill the last 2 miles, but I stopped the tempo before I got to the bigger downhill, so I think that the downhill did nothing more than eliminate the effect of the wind.

Overall, I think that the day ended well.  I feel like I am really getting into good shape right now. 

I ran to school this morning, 8.6 miles in 1:02:36.  It took me a mile or so for my legs to wake up, but once they did I was cruising along in the low 7:00 range for most of the run.  I was surprised, as I was expecting to feel more fatigued after the hard tempo that I ran last night.

I ran 10 miles this morning in 1:14:38.  I kept the effort easy and felt relaxed.  I was glad that I didn't run home from school yesterday, as my legs needed a little bit more rest and I was better off today because of it.

I ran 20 miles this morning in 1:59:54.  This is the fastest that I have ran a 20 mile run in a long time, and I am happy that I finished feeling like I still had more in the tank.  To top it off it was windy as always, with the wind definitely affecting me over the course of the run (although the wind was stronger last Saturday).  I would have finished this run a fair amount faster if it weren't for the wind.

For today's workout the plan was to run 9.5 miles easy, followed by a 9.5 mile tempo, followed by a 1 mile cool-down to finish at my house.  I started off faster than I normally do, as there was somewhere we needed to be later on in the morning and I wanted to give myself a few more minutes after getting home to get ready.  I made it through 4 miles in about 27:30 after an uphill first mile in 7:22 (big uphill, that is why I never run hard the last mile of workouts... I don't want to run down it).  I then averaged about 6:35 or so on two loops of sunset park of 2.7 miles each (18:09 and 17:25).  I then ran an extra 40 seconds to get to 9.5 miles in 1:03:44 before the start of my tempo run.

I started my tempo, and I did the little loop of the park (1.1 miles) in 6:09 (5:35 pace).  I didn't push too hard on this loop, as I was just trying to get a feel for the wind, but I started increasing the effort at the end of this loop when I started the first of two big loops of the park.

Recently in trying to assess where I need to make improvements I have come to the conclusion that my quad strength is lacking, or at least my ability to utilize this strength while running hard is lacking.  I notice this the most when I am running in adverse conditions (i.e. against the wind or uphill) and as such I decided that when pushing against the wind I needed to try and better utilize my quads as power generators.  So, my tempo run today ended up feeling like I was running lots of surges, as I was pushing harder against the wind, and then just trying to maintain speed when the wind was more favorable.

I was not sure what to expect time wise after the first big loop of the park, but I was pleasantly surprised when I came through with a 14:22 split (5:19 average) for 2.7 miles.  I just tried to maintain the effort during the next loop and I split 2.7 miles in 14:13 (5:16 average).  Considering the wind I was very happy with this, as the effort felt pretty hard, but did not feel unmanageable.  I then left the park to run the last 3 miles of the tempo on the roads.  I split the last three miles in 15:35 (5:11 average) with individual mile splits of 5:17 and 5:05 during this section.  The wind was not as bad during the last three miles, as it was a cross wind the whole time that switched off and on from a headwind to a tailwind, but generally did not hurt me as much as earlier when I was running on a loop (it helps that the last 2 miles has a net downhill).

Total time for the 9.5 mile tempo was 50:19 (5:17 pace), at which point I slowed down to run the last mile home.  As I made it to the bottom of the hill I realized that I still had a shot at breaking 2 hours for the run, and I sped up quite a bit over the last quarter in order to break the 2 hour mark.

I ran easy this morning, running 8 miles out and back on the Pittman Wash, and throwing in 4 miles barefoot on the grass at the baseball fields after the first mile.  Total time was 1:28:22 for 12 miles.

I ran too and from school today.  I kept the pace easy in both directions.  I ran about 1:03 on the way too school, and 1:06 on the way home in the evening.

I ran on the Pittman wash today instead of running to school, as I am driving out to Utah in the evening.  I ran 10 miles in 1:10:48.  I ran a mile fast on the way home in 5:04 (2:40,2:24) followed by a half mile in 2:23 a little over a mile later.

I ran with Sasha this morning before heading off to USU to present my poster.  We ran a three mile tempo during the run, hitting mile splits of 5:20, 5:22, 5:31.  Sasha started to struggle during the second half so we slowed down a bit, but it wasn't a big deal to me as I was not planning on running anything fast today, and I had only gotten 4.5 hours of sleep due to the travel.  Total time of 1:11 for 10 miles.