dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Good run today.  I ran to Sasha's house and we ran our normal route out to the lake and then back to my house.  After a ~2.5 mile warm up we did a short 2 mile tempo.  I wasn't feeling up to a longer tempo otherwise we would have gone farther.  The plan was to go out in about 5:30 pace and to hold that, however Sasha went through the first quarter in 1:23 and it felt too slow.  I would have sworn that we were going 5:40 pace or maybe even slower.  So, I sped things up a bit, and by my watch we went through the mile in 5:22-5:23 and the second mile in 5:15-5:16 for a total time of 10:38 (Sasha had us at 5:24,5:15 for a 10:39).  Sasha could tell that I was kind of edgy because I was coming up to take my turn at the front a little early every time and he commented that the pace might even have been a little slow for me.  This is a good thing for me because it means that my top speed is coming back even though I have done limited speed work.  After this we ran to the end of the trail, and on the way back Sasha asked if I wanted to run an 800 at about 5:00 pace.  It sounded good to me, so at about my 8 mile mark we ran an 800 starting off with a 1:17 first quarter and then a 1:15 second quarter to finish with a 2:32.  We had a cold wind blowing into our faces the entire time we ran the 800 so if we take that into account then the 800 would be a couple seconds faster.  We then finished running to my house for a total time of 1:29:12.

I ran with Sasha and Hyrum this morning.  We dropped off Hyrum after 2 miles and then Sasha and I ran around the block a few times while we waited for one of Sasha's friends.  He never showed up so we ran out a little over 2 miles and then we came back. 

We did another 800 today at the beginning of our course for the 5 mile tempo so we could get a better feel for 5k race pace.  The goal was to go through 800 in 2:30.  We started off a little quick going through the first 100 in 18 seconds, which is on pace for a 2:24.  I then settled down and slowed a bit (though not much) to go through the 400 in 1:14 with equal 200 splits of 37.  The next 200 was also a 37 to give me a 1:51 through 600m.  After this I decided to speed up a bit over the last 200 and I ran it in 35 seconds for a total time of 2:26, 1:12 over the last 400.  So, it was a little faster than planned but I felt fine.  I felt like I could have held that pace for at least a 3000 or a 3200, but I am not sure how much farther I could have held it.  I feel like I have been getting a lot faster recently which is good seeing that I have not been doing consistent tempo runs or interval workouts.  I will see how good of shape I am in tomorrow at the law day 5k in Salt Lake at the U of U.  It would be fun to have a Cougar win a race on the Ute's campus.

So, Chad recruited Sasha and I to run a 5k for his law firm.  I guess they have an annual trophy that they give out to the fastest team composed of 3 men and 2 women.  The times of all five members of the team are added together and the fastest team wins.

The course goes around and through the U of U campus and basically goes up for the better part of the first half of the race, followed by a flat portion in the middle and then dropping significantly the last portion of the race.  Due to the team nature of the race and the early climb, we decided to hold back the first mile or so, trading 1 minute intervals.  This was Sasha's idea to prevent me from going out too fast so that I might take a shot at beating BJ Christensen, who was running on another team, with a fast closing second half of the race.

So, the race starts and Sasha takes the first lead.  Our second runner didn't take his interval at 1 minute so I pulled even with Sasha and I started to run with him.  After about 2 minutes I started to pull up in order to catch some of the runners on the opposing team.  I passed all of them and then passed the third member of our team shortly before the mile mark.  Coming up to the mile, Sasha put in a surge to pull even with me and pulled me through the last 50m of the mile to go through it in 5:26.  At this point I decided to put in a little more of a surge up the hill in order to try to gain a little ground on BJ and slowly close the gap.  I did this and I felt like I made marginal gains in closing the gap on him until we hit the top of the hill about 1.4 into the race.  At this point the road flattened out and stayed flat until about 1.8 or so when it started to drop.  I hit the 2 mile mark in 10:58 (5:32) and I could tell that BJ was now stretching his lead over me just a little at a time.  I started making efforts to make up ground on him, and although I did not feel too tired I felt like I was missing that extra gear to speed up much faster.  It went like this until the finish as I would try different tactics to try and make up some ground on him but he kept extending his lead just a little at a time. I went through the finish in 16:26.8 (5:28 for the last 1.1) whereas BJ finished 19.4 seconds in front of me in 16:07.4

So, I didn't win the race individually, but we did win as a team.  Although BJ beat me by 19 seconds, Josh (our second place finisher for our team) and Sasha both beat the number 2 and 3 runners on BJ's team giving us an 18-19 second lead before the women's times were added.  Our women sealed the deal by finishing a couple minutes in front of the women for the other team.  On a side note, Chad also beat the number three runner for the other team, so we really had 4 runners in front of the other teams number 3.  So, overall I think it was a good race.  The course is slow because of the climbing, and Chad measured it to be long on his GPS so we think that it really might be closer to 3.15 which makes my time more respectable.  I also didn't feel too fatigued at the end of the race so that is a positive for me because it means that my overall level of fitness should carry over well into longer races.

After the race we ran to liberty park and did a 3 mile tempo at Chad's marathon pace in 17:28 before running back to where we started to finish up our mileage for the day.

It was a good run this morning.  I ran with Sasha and Daniel.  Daniel turned around at about 3.5 miles and the rest was just with Sasha.  Part way through Sasha was experimenting with trying to push off the ground a little harder without speeding up.  He found out that he couldn't do it, but that he could run a 6:40 pace that felt like a 5:30 if he concentrated on pushing harder off of the ground.  After doing this for a bit we ran a 600 in 2:01 to see how 6:40 pace and a faster pace differed in how they felt as Sasha tried to push harder off of the ground.  After this we finished our run going back to Sasha's house.  Total time 1:16:06

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but in my defense I did get in bed 9 hours before I woke up.  I just didn't go to sleep because I was watching a movie, and after it finished I had trouble falling asleep.  The run this morning was good.  The soreness I felt on Sunday and to a degree yesterday is now virtually gone and I felt good although it took me a little longer than normal to really warm into the run and the pace this morning.  I ran with Sasha, Josse and Daniel this morning and Josse wanted to do the 5 mile tempo so we paced her through it averaging close to 6:40 pace for the first half and then slowing some the second half but still averaging faster than 7:00 pace.  At this point Daniel headed back and the rest of us added a couple extra miles before dropping off Josse after 10.  Sasha and I then went out a little over a mile and a half after which I turned around and headed back to finish up.  No watch today so I don't know the total time but I think it was fairly slow with the exception of the 5 mile tempo which we finished in 34:10

I am not sure why but I felt really tired today.  I had trouble getting moving this morning to get ready and then I fell asleep in class later on, thus the half hour nap.  Anyhow, Sasha and I met at 5:00am and we ran 6.25 miles in 47:51 and ended at Sasha's house.  We then met Hyrum and ran 3 miles with him in 26:20.  After we dropped him off we ran one more mile in 7:21 to finish in 1:21:32 for 10.25 miles.  For the most part I felt fine on the run, other than being a little tired.  I also have a bruise on my right hip because I ran into a wall playing racquetball yesterday and that felt somewhat sore, but as long as I was going faster than 8:00 pace I didn't really notice it.  If I slowed down it started to bother me but it was no big deal.  I think that it should heal fairly quickly.

I ran with Sasha and Daniel today.  We ran around the block a couple of times and then we ran out to the river trail.  Daniel turned around after a couple of miles and Sasha and I continued until we got to the end of the trail.  On the way back we did 2x100 in 14.2 and 14.7 seconds for me.  I felt stiff the first 100 but then felt more loose so I relaxed a little the second 100 and I ended up slowing down.  We then ran a 200 in 29.8 for me.  This would have been a little faster but the starting mark kind of surprised me and it took me a little longer than normal to get up to speed.  We then ran back to Sasha's house to finish.

I met with Sasha and Daniel at 6:00 this morning and we went out for an easy 10.1 with Daniel turning around after 4 miles.  Sasha and I went to the end of the trail and back to finish our run in 1:15:18.

The faster portion of our run came  at a couple different time periods as Sasha wanted to see how well I could sing while running at a faster pace.  To put this all into context, yesterday while we were talking the subject of singing came up.  Sasha asked me how well I could sing and I told him that I was probably good enough to sing a solo in church, but not as good as my younger sister who is an amazing singer.  Well, due to this conversation Sasha decided that he wanted to test and see how well I could sing while running.  First we ran a 600 in 2:03 (5:28 pace) and I sang the star spangled banner while we ran.  This was followed by Sasha singing the song while we ran about 8:00 pace with Daniel acting as judge to determine if my singing was better at 5:28 pace then Sasha's was at 8:00 (he determined that mine was still better).  I then sang the song again while we ran at 8:00 pace.  Later on we sped up so that I could get home in time and while running close to 6:00 pace we decided to sing the song one more time at that speed to see what the difference was between singing at that speed and the other speeds.  We then finished our run speeding up over the last 400-800 meters or so (I counted 600 but I wasn't really paying attention so I don't know).

As far as analyzing my singing goes and relating it to my overall fitness I have to say that I am doing well.  I noticed that while singing at 6:00 pace was harder then at 8:00 pace, the difference was not all that remarkable, which tells me that my heart does not have to work much harder at the faster pace then it does at the slower pace.  However, at 5:28 pace it was rather difficult to sing and the difference between that speed and 6:00 pace was a big one.  So, this tells me that my heart starts to work much harder at these speeds, but that my overall fitness is good enough to keep the stress on my heart down to the point that I can go for somewhat extended periods of time without breathing.  Maybe I will try this test out again in a few months and see if it becomes easier to sing at sub 5:30 pace or faster.

Today I ran alone because Kimia and I went dancing up in Salt Lake last night so I didn't get to bed until after 2am.  I was tired before we even got to Salt Lake a little after 10pm and by the time we got home I was having trouble staying awake no matter what I was doing.  So we slept until a little past 10am this morning which felt really good.

Anyhow, I started off running around 7:00 pace hitting 3 miles in 20:54 after that I didn't look at the watch for a while but I slowly sped up until I was going faster than 6:40 pace.  I held this pace until about 13.8 when I did a mini tempo over the last 2.5 of the 5 mile tempo.  I started out hitting 2:34 for the first 800 and then decided it was too fast and slowed progressively to 2:40, 2:45, 2:55, 2:57 for the last 4 800's.  I then finished running home making it back for a total time of 1:58:33 for 18.2 miles. 

I ran with Hyrum and Sasha this morning.  We made it through 3 miles with Hyrum in 24:39 and then Sasha and I went out for 7 miles more.  We finished in 1:15:52.  There was a little bit of soreness in my quads this morning that I needed to run out after running long on Saturday and then resting yesterday, but it was minimal and I barely noticed it after the first couple of miles.

I ran with Sasha, Josse and Hyrum this morning.  Hyrum turned around at 1.5 and the rest of us ran a 2 mile tempo at Josse's tempo pace we did mile 1 in 6:29 and mile 2 in 6:24 (total time 12:53).  We turned around at 3.5 miles and came back.  I then went out alone and ran 6 more miles I kept the pace easy and I made a conscious effort to keep the pace no faster than about 7:30.  I wasn't perfect but I was close.  Total time for 13 miles 1:39:55.  I am starting to feel some tightness in the groin on the left side, which I seem to get whenever I run too hard.  I don't feel like I have been running too hard but it might mean that I need to slow it down even more the rest of this week

I ran with Sasha and Hyrum this morning.  We did 3 miles with Hyrum in 24:17. We dropped him off and then ran 3 miles more in 23:38 (47:55 for 6 miles).  I then ran 4 more miles alone in 27:29 for a total time of 1:15:24 for 10 miles.  I did the last 4 miles a bit faster than I really wanted to because I needed to finish so that I could get to class on time.  Overall a good run.  The tightness in my groin in also less than it has been the last few days.

I met with Sasha and Hyrum this morning and we ran 3 miles together in 25:37.  I then ran 3 more miles with Sasha, running the last mile in 5:40 for a total time through 6 miles of 45:43.  After this I drove home and then ran 7 more miles from my house.  On my way home I ran three 100s over the course of the last 2 miles in about 15 seconds each.  I finished with a total time of 1:35:20.

I ran with Sasha and his son Benjamin this morning.  We ran 3 miles together, followed by another 3.125 with Sasha (we accidentally added an extra 200) for a total time of 49:10.  I then went home and I ran 5 more miles (minus the 200 I added earlier with Sasha) for a total time of 1:26:01.  My legs were feeling somewhat tired this morning even though I have gotten enough sleep the last couple of nights.  I wonder if I am not eating enough.  My left leg also was feeling kind of funny near the same spot where I had my stress fracture.  There is no point tenderness and the feeling I had kind of came and went, so I am hoping it is nothing.  I think I might take my long run a little easier than normal tomorrow just to be on the safe side.

My leg was feeling kind of funny yesterday so I decided to take it a little easier today and I slowed my run down.  Because I was going slower I also decided to cut my run a little short just to be safe.  I held about a 7:45 average through 7 miles after which I was feeling a little more reassured that my leg is ok and I picked up the pace slowly until I hit sub 7:00 pace around mile 11 or 12.  As I was nearing on my turn around before heading home I saw one of my friends that I knew in high school, and after I turned around I picked up the pace to try and catch up to him.  I did this for what I guess was about a half mile, at about 5:30 pace and as I was getting close to catching him he reached a stop light and went straight where I needed to turn.  So, it was all for naught but I'll probably see him on campus one of these days anyhow and I can talk to him then.  I then came home to finish up my run in 1:56:07.  Based on my final time it looks like I didn't slow down much over the last 2 miles or so because my average time per mile at the end was under 7:13 yet at my final turn around it was still over 7:25 with less than 3 miles left.

I woke up a little late this morning so I started from my house and I met up with Sasha, Hyrum and Daniel on the trail.  We ran out to the 1.5 mile mark and then back to Sasha's house where we dropped off Hyrum.  At this point I had about 250m less than 3 miles because I started from my house.  We then ran out to the 3.5 mile mark with Daniel turning around at 2.5 miles and we came back.  On the way back I continued on the trail back to my house instead of going to Sasha's house.  I finished in 1:22:33

I ran with Sasha, Josse, and Daniel this morning. We went out 3.5 miles then came back. We kept the pace really easy and we finished in 57:33. Normally I would have run 3-6 more miles, but my leg has been feeling weird. I finally pinpointed the place where it feels strange and it is on the medial side of my left leg about 6-8 inches below the knee. From probing around it feels like it might be at a muscle insertion point on the tibia and it felt sore after I massaged my calf and rubbed that area down after running today. I just iced the leg and I am going to rub it down again to see if starts feeling a little better. I think I will take it easy for the rest of this week and then increase the mileage back to where it was starting next week as long as I feel better.

So, I massaged the calf again and then iced it one more time after class.  I found some big knots in the calf earlier and I was working them out.  I have to say that working out tight muscles can be painful.  I am just glad that it appears to be nothing more serious than that.  I am trying to figure out the cause of all this, and after narrowing it down I think that it is being caused by riding my bike too hard and pushing off too hard with my calves while I ride to and from class.  I am going to keep massaging and icing it.  I think that I might use some heat as well and see how that affects it.

We took it really easy this morning.  I ran with Sasha, Hyrum and Daniel again and we ran 3 miles before dropping off Hyrum.  We then went out 2.5 miles and back.  Sasha was doing 200m repeats so he was usually visible but not with us.  Daniel and I finished in 1:04:05.

My leg felt a lot better today after being aggressive with it yesterday.  I couldn't feel as much tightness today and for the most part I forgot about it until there was about .5 miles left and it tightened up a bit.  I massaged it again after I got home and I will probably ice it later on today.  Hopefully I will feel good enough by the end of this week to run a long run so that my mileage for the week isn't too low.  Regardless of that I plan on being back to full mileage next week.

I took it easy again this morning.  I met Hyrum, Sasha, and Daniel again this morning. Hyrum turned around after 1 mile and then Daniel turned around at 4 miles.  Sasha and I went out to the end of the trail and then came back to finish the run in 1:19:54.

My leg is getting better.  Based on how it feels I think that I might still do a long run on Saturday instead of cutting it down to 10 miles like I was planning at the beginning of the week.  I still notice just a little bit of soreness, but it is minimal.  My right hip is a little sore because my hips were getting out of alignment again.  I did my exercises to fix the alignment issue and it seemed to work.  The exercises cause some stretching of the muscles in my hip, thus the soreness.  Hopefully that will go away in a couple days like it usually does.

I ran with Sasha, Daniel and Hyrum this morning.  We dropped Hyrum off after 4 miles finishing in 32:20.  We went back out and Daniel turned around after 2 more miles and Sasha and I turned around after 3 more miles.  We finished in 1:18:26 for 10 miles.  We were running close to 7:00 pace over the last couple of miles.

My leg still feels kind of weird and I am not sure if I am just imagining things or if there is still some lingering effects of what was going on early on in the week.  I felt fine while running today and I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, however later on in the day my leg felt like there was this dull ache to it.  Again, I am not sure if it is still not 100% or if I am imagining this all and it is fine, but I guess I will find out soon enough.

I ran the Magna 5K this morning. Sasha, Tyler, Steve, and I (plus my wife Kimia) carpooled up to the race and we warmed up together. At the start of the race the temperature was a little cooler than expected but not too cool, and there was a tailwind which helped. I went out behind the leaders and they put a quick gap on me. I was sitting in about 9th place at the beginning. Here are my splits.

Mile 1 - 4:34 - I was in 8th place by the mile mark with Tyler one second back and Sasha a second or so in front of me. This ties for the fastest mile I have ever run, tying with a mile I ran in practice once. This mile by far had the biggest elevation drop of any in the course which explains why it is so fast.

Mile 2 - 4:49(9:23) - I was in 6th place by this point, just a few seconds out of the money (only $20 but I still wanted it). Sasha was 3 seconds back and Tyler was 13 seconds behind me. This mile had a good amount of downhill near the beginning of it, however it flattened out after a bit and even had a slight increase in elevation over the last few hundred meters.

Mile 3.1 - 5:44(15:07) - I missed my time at the 3 mile mark but based on my pace from 2 miles to the finish I averaged about 5:10-5:11 pace. So, if I give myself a 5:11 I come up with a 14:34 at 3 miles. My official time was actually 15:08 due to rounding per USATF rules since it was not chip timed, but I know it was a 15:07 so I am counting it. The last mile continued the slight uphill from the end of the second mile then flattened out. There was a quick drop and then the course flattened out again to come into the finish. I sacrificed Josh (the 5th place runner and thus my sacrificial lamb for the day) shortly after the 2 mile mark to pull into the money after which I put 8 seconds on him by the finish. Sasha finished in 8th with a 15:25 and Tyler came in 9th at 15:28. Steve finished 10th in 16:06 (not bad for his first post injury race).

So, I am happy with the big PR, especially since I have not been training for short distances and I have done almost zero speed work. However, I am not as happy as I would have expected. I think I could have gotten a few more seconds out of my legs if I would have pushed it harder the last mile and now a big 'what if' keeps running through my head. I would like to eventually get under 15:00 and although I don't know if that was in my range of possibilities today I think that eventually I can. Anyhow, I am pleased with the race and I am looking forward to future improvement.

I need to leave so this will be quick.  Ran 8 miles in 1:04:12 then paced Julia through 1 mile in 9:23 followed by 3 more miles slow with Sasha.

I ran with Sasha, Josse, Daniel, and Matt this morning.  We met Matt a little over a mile into our run.  We ran out and back for a total of 8 miles in 1:01:02.  Daniel and Josse were done at this point, but Sasha, Matt, and I turned and went back out again.  Matt headed back home after 2 more miles and Sasha and I turned around to head back for a total of 12 miles in 1:32:41.

Well, last night my replacement didn't show up at work and I couldn't leave until someone else came, so I got stuck there until about 11:30 when the manager came in to relieve me. So, I got less than 6 hours sleep because of it and I am super tired now. I also got assaulted earlier in the evening by one of the guys I take care of, so it made for a wonderfully terrible day at work.

Anyhow, I ran with Sasha, Daniel, Hyrum, and Matt (for about a mile). We were with Hyrum for about 2.5 miles and then we started a 5 mile tempo with Daniel starting at 6:00 pace for the first mile and then hitting 5:58, 5:57, 5:51, 5:46, for a total time of 29:32 by my watch. I felt really tired this morning, and although the last 2 miles were slower than marathon pace they were at a marathon pace effort. We ran about 1 mile of the tempo with Matt as he met us on the trail and ran with us for a bit. After finishing and dropping off Daniel, we ran back to Sasha's house and then did a few laps around the block for 1.05 miles to finish up with 10.05 for the day. Total time 1:14:16

We took it really easy this morning.  I ran to Sasha's house and then we went out to the 8 mile turn around and came back to the start of the 5 mile tempo.  After this we went out again for 1.75 miles and then I ran back to my house for a total of 13 miles.  Total time 1:46:44

I ran with Daniel and Sasha this morning.  We met up with Matt about .75mi into the run.  We ran out to the 8 mile turn around and headed back until we got to the start of the 5 mile tempo.  At this point Daniel kept going and the rest of us turned around and went out 1 mile before coming back to Sasha's house.  Matt turned for home a little after our final turn around.  Total time 1:18:38.

My calf is still making improvements over how it felt last week.  It is still not 100% but it is close.  I think that with the knots that I had in it, that there was some pressure being placed on the nerves in my leg, which caused the funny feeling and the pain that I felt.  Now, I just need to let a sore spot on my other leg heal.  I got that from being kicked in the leg when I was assaulted at work on Tuesday.  It is already feeling better, but it is still somewhat tender to the touch.

Todays race was pretty low key.  It starts in the Provo Canyon on the river trail and it heads up past Bridal Veil Falls before heading back down the canyon to one of the parks off of the trail.  We got to the start and I was surprised at how windy and cold it was.  Back at my house it was so nice that I didn't think to bring an extra shirt to warm up with.  Anyhow, there was a nasty headwind coming at us down the canyon, so we decided to trade leads in order to minimize the effect of the wind on us until the turn-around when the wind would be at our backs.

So, the race starts and Sasha and I go out with this guy we met at the start named Bryan.  Sasha and I traded leads at one minute intervals, while Bryan mostly hung back behind us.  We went through 1 mile (all mile times approximate because some of the markers were off) in 5:42 followed by a 5:58 second mile (11:40).  Just before the 2 mile mark, Bryan made a move and took the lead for a minute or two.  He then fell back a little but still maintained contact with us until about 2.5 miles.  We hit the third mile in 17:53 (6:13).  I am pretty sure this marker was off and if I were to guess I would say we probably ran it about the same speed as the second mile.  We turned around and started heading back down the canyon just after 3 miles and with the downhill and the wind at our backs we really started to move.  We hit the 4 mile mark in 22:44 (4:51).  I think this mile was short, as the 3rd mile was long but it was still in the sub 5:10 range pace wise.  Just past the 4 mile mark Sasha started to fade and I upped the intensity a little more in order to drop him.  I started to grunt a little as I worked on dropping him, in contrast to Sasha's moaning, and I think it worked.  I might have started the grunting too soon because I starting hurting a little the last mile, but it wasn't a big deal.  I hit the 5 mile mark in 27:46 (5:02) and from there I just worked on maintaining pace through the finish.  I didn't catch my split at the 6 mile mark, but it took me 6:00 to make it from the 5 mile mark to the end which averages out to about 5:00 pace assuming the total distance was correct and the distance from the 5 mile mark to the end was also correct.  I finished in 33:46 followed by Sasha in 34:25, and Bryan in 36:28.

After the race we did the timing for the other runners, and then we went out to get the rest of our miles in for the day to finish up with 18.