dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

No running today, but the skin on my right leg still stings a little from my crash on the track yesterday.  It doesn't feel like there is anything more than superficial damage however, so I am not really concerned, I am just whining because my leg stings.

So, yesterday before I started my tempo run, I saw the missionaries out on their bikes.  They challenged me to a "race" and I jokingly told them that they would loose.  I went through a stop light, and after they caught up again I took off and "raced" them for a bit until they had to turn.  Today at church I saw them again, and they told me that they clocked me at 15mph (4:00 mile pace).  That surprised me because my 800 pr is only 2:07, but I felt like I could have maintained that effort for longer than 800m.

Testimony meeting was, and always is good.  The comfort that I feel from knowing what is in store after this life has been on my mind a lot recently, and that seemed to be a theme of sorts during today's meeting. 

I woke up at 4:40 this morning to run since Kimia had an interview so that she can become a citizen and her interview was at 7:45.  Because I was running so much earlier than normal my body did not want to wake up, and I made it through the first five miles over 1:30 slower than 8:00 pace.  I finally woke up during the second half of the run, and I finished in 1:18:38.

Easy run this morning.  My right leg was hurting some yesterday during the run, so I massaged it out some last night and it felt a little better this morning.  I took it easy just to be safe.  1:05:03 for 8.6 miles.

PM: I ran most of the way home from school before Kimia picked me up.  She had been out on a walk with a friend, so she was in the area.  I kept the pace fairly quick during the run because surprisingly my leg felt better when I was going a tiny bit quicker than normal.  My leg hurt a little more than it did this morning, but was still feeling better than yesterday.  Ran for a total time of 46:04 and what I will call 6.2 miles.

I ran to school this morning and at the beginning of the run my leg was feeling pretty good.  I decided to test it and see how good it was really feeling, so after 3 miles I ran a mile hard in 5:13 to test out the leg.  There was no pain during the hard mile, but right after I finished my calf tightened up and I could feel some pain in my tibia where the calf was pulling.  My leg felt like this off and on for the rest of the run, but in general the pain was minimal.  It felt similar to how my leg felt last night.  1:03:52 for 8.6 miles.

PM:  I ran home from school.  8.6 miles in 1:05:49.  I took it slow so as not to hurt my leg worse.  It didn't feel too bad, as it hurt less than it did this morning (after the fast mile).  My hips may be getting out of alignment again, which may be part of my problem with the leg. 

I ran to school, 8.6 miles in 1:04:29.  I kept the pace easy.  My leg was bothering me a bit, but not in the same place as usual, and it wasn't too bad.

PM: I ran most of the way  home from school, running approximately 6.3 miles in 48:xx.  My leg didn't feel too bad, just a dull ache in the tibia. 

As I have not really had the chance to run hard this week, I wanted the chance to run hard and fast while still giving my leg a break.  So, I decided to run on the alter-g treadmill in the lab at school.  I ran 10 miles in 50:57, starting at 7:30 pace, moving up to 6:00 pace, and then holding steady at 5:00 pace from the 3-4 minute mark of the run until I had been running for 9 miles.  I started off setting my weight at 50% of normal, and I steadily moved it up until I was at 70% of my body weight 8 miles into the run (went from 50 to 55,60,65,and then 70%).  At the 9 mile mark of the run I started cranking up the speed on the treadmill until I got around 13 mph.  At 9.7 miles I started to bring my body weight back to normal despite running near pr pace for the mile.  I brought my body weight up 1% for each .01 mile I ran from 9.7-9.9 miles.  At this point it was getting too hard to run and change my body weight so I just left my weight at 90% for the last .1 mile.  I finished the last mile in 4:42.

I decided that this week I would run an "easy" 20 miler, meaning that I would not hammer out a long tempo run at a fast pace.  I still wanted to get the run done however, so I was not about to take my time to run 20 miles.  I made it through the first 5 miles in 35:56.  I passed 2 sets of missionaries during these miles.  The second set of missionaries was going the same direction as me, and they were on bikes.  They were surprised to see a guy pass them while on foot.  I made it through the next 5 miles in 34:28.  I suspect that this 5 mile section may have been a little long.  Total time of 1:10:24 at the turn around.  The next 5 mile section took me 32:50 (1:43:14 for 15 miles).  I timed myself over a two mile stretch that was measured on the road during these miles in 12:26.  That is part of why I think that this 5 mile stretch may be long, but I can't be sure unless I measure it.  I passed a third set of missionaries during this section of the run.  I am not sure if seeing all of these missionaries was a good thing or not.  On the one hand I know that they were out working, which is good, however seeing them out also means that they were not inside teaching anyone, which is not so good.  On the bright side, at least I know that they were out trying to find people to teach!  I finished up running the last 5 mile section in 28:25 to finish 20 miles with a total time of 2:11:39.  The last 5 miles was downhill, so I really was not pushing it that hard, but I was happy to go under 30:00 by as much as I did.