dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

So, I am finally caught up enough that I can get back to blogging my daily runs rather than giving weekly summaries.  I ran with Sasha this morning.  We finished 10.2 miles in 1:22:XX (I know that Sasha is probably counting it as 10.18, but I am just going to round things off as I probably undercut myself on mileage more often than not when I run from my house).  We did run a couple fast 200's during the run ranging from a 31 to a 28 (or even a high 27).

I ran from my house this morning, and met Sasha on the trail.  I ended up finishing 10.1 miles in just under 1:18:00.  Nothing too special to report.

Kimia and I went to the temple last night, and we got home late, so I slept in this morning and ran in the evening.  I ran 10.1 miles and finished in about 1:16:00.  The run felt pretty easy.

I ran with Sasha again this morning.  I finished 10.1 miles in just under 1:17:00.  My calves felt somewhat tight in the afternoon so I was massaging them some.  I was surprised to notice in the evening that my right calf was kind of tight as well as the left.  This is rare for me.  Tightness is almost always felt exclusively on the left side in my case.  It is probably because I ran about 8 miles on my forefoot yesterday, and ran maybe a couple miles like that today as well.  Nothing too serious as far as tightness is concerned.  I actually suspect that my experimentation of this kind is partly why my foot and knee have mostly healed now.  I think that changing my form on occasion helped to give my foot and knee a little rest that they otherwise would not have gotten.  I am still waiting to see if this type of running will help strengthen my calves so that they become more injury resistant.

I started off the run a little quicker, and hit the halfway mark in 35:15, but I slowed down during the second half to a more reasonable easy run pace and finished in 1:14:21.

I ran a little earlier than I normally do on Saturday, because Sasha had to be somewhere.  Added to this is the fact that I ran late yesterday evening, and I was finishing over 30 miles of running in about 13 hours.  In hindsight I probably did not eat enough yesterday evening knowing that I was going to run a long run in the morning.

Anyhow, the goal was to start of at a brisk pace in the 6:30-6:40 range, and to slowly speed up over the course of the run.  Things started off well and we made it through the first quarter of our run to the first turn-around in 31:15.  We made it back to Sasha's house to finish about 10.18 miles in 1:01:35 (30:20) and I took off my coat, hat and pants.  After I got rid of the excess clothing I felt like I was barely making any effort and I was running considerably faster.  Sasha kept having to ask me to back off the pace just a little bit so that I would not drop him.  We finished the next quarter of our run in 29:11 (1:30:46) and I am thinking that I definitely would break the 2 hour mark for a run that I will round down to 20.35 miles since we do not know the exact distance due to the construction.  Sasha ask me to take him through the 6 mile mark (of the last 10 miles) at which point I would take off and finish faster.  However, once we hit the marker I could tell almost immediately that something was wrong.  I felt like there was nothing in my legs to really get going faster.  So, I made no effort to hit 5:20 pace like I was planning, but I instead only got into the mid 5:30's.  I made it a mile and a half at this pace, and then really started to hurt.  I realized that I was running out of fuel, and I struggled to get back to Sasha's house as quickly as possible, running the last mile in 6:51 (10:01 for the last 1.5) and finished the run in 2:01:18.

So, on the positive end of things, I still averaged under 6:00 pace for the entire run despite crashing, and I felt really, really good until it was time for me to speed up (about 16 miles in).  I wonder if I could have avoided the crash altogether if I simply exercised some caution and never took off.  On the negative side of the spectrum, I ran out of fuel after only about 18 miles of a 20 mile long run that never got very fast.  That is a negative sign for my marathon hopes unless I can really get healthy enough to put in some serious mileage.  When I ran out of fuel, I also crashed hard, and I crashed fast.  Within 2 miles I was already barely breaking 7:00 pace.  If this was a real marathon I would have definitely gotten into the mid 8's before I finished.  However, I did run a 10 mile run that I didn't finish until after 8:30 last night, I didn't eat enough yesterday evening, and I didn't take any fluids at all during the run, all things that are going to lead to a higher likelihood of a crash.  So, maybe things will be alright after all.

Post run my left heel and foot are pretty sore.  It is all due to calf tightness I am sure, although the primary sore spot is on the calcaneus where the achilles tendon attaches, so the location is a little different than normal.  I think that I will spend some time massaging it out this evening.  I will rub some wintercrest (I think) on it as well which I got from the St. George Marathon.