dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I got a lot of sleep last night, but I have been yawning all day. Oh, well. At least I am not tired.

Surge - 242.65

Ohana Racer - 209

Speedstar - 109.9

I ran part of the Des News marathon course with Sasha and Seth this morning.  I am not running the marathon with them, but I figured it would be a good workout anyhow.  We drove up to the start of the marathon and after I dropped them off I ran back down to the three mile mark where I ran a one mile warm-up before waiting for them to make it down to me.  The reason that I didn't run the first three miles is because it is a nasty downhill, and I didn't want to beat up my legs or put in as many miles.  Anyhow, I ran from there to the zoo which is about 12.75 from the 3 mile mark.  My total time for 12.75 was 1:16:57 and overall it didn't feel too hard.  My mile splits were:

5:10 - just finishing off the steep downhill, then a slight uphill.

5:23 - a mix between up and downhill, mostly down.

5:51 - starting to head up the hill before we get into immigration canyon.

6:36 - uphill pretty much the entire way.  Sasha asked us to back off a bit.

6:07 - mostly uphill, but it flattened out near the end and even headed down a bit.

5:19 - downhill mile.

 5:52 (40:18 for 7 miles) - has a couple downhill sections at a low grade, and one uphill section between the downhill.

After this we backed off to about 6:00 pace for a bit and then slowed down a bit more from there.  We made it from mile 13-15 (10-12 for me) in just under 13:00, so we didn't slow down too much, but it was downhill so it made it easier.  Overall the workout didn't feel like it was too hard of an intensity and we were moving pretty well so I am happy with it.  I was also pleased to see that I was still chatty while going through the main uphill section that we ran.  Seth was asking me about what my background was with running and I was chatting away for a while.

I ran easy with Sasha and Josse this morning. The run felt different at the beginning this morning, as I felt like we were going faster than we really were. There was really no soreness from the workout yesterday, but my quads did feel just a little tight for a decent portion of the run. We ran 10.1 finishing at Sasha's house, after which Josse and I ran two more miles to finish up with a total time of 1:35:10 for 12.1 miles.

We took it easy this morning. I ran with Sasha and we met Matt out on the trail. We ran to the end of the trail and back and we pretty much ignored pace the entire time. Finished in 1:20:34 for 10.1 miles. My foot was hurting more today than yesterday. I am not sure why.  I iced it after I got home from running and if it feels better I am going to run to work instead of biking to get a few extra miles in, miles that I would have gotten this morning if it wasn't hurting. I think it should be fine, but I'd better be careful just to be safe.

So, I iced my foot after running today and I took some ibuprofen.  By the time I went to work it felt fine, so I ran there in the afternoon.  It took me about 14 or 15 minutes to get there.  After work I ran home while Kimia biked along side me.  Coming home was a bit slower and we finished somewhere in the 16-17 minute range.  I am very pleased with the effort that Kimia has been making recently to eat healthier and to exercise.  She started coming to my work in the evening and riding the bike home while I drove so she could exercise and this week she has been running and walking a little as well.  Today, since I ran to work she rode the bike to my work and then rode it home while I ran.

I ran with Sasha this morning and we ran 10.1 together pretty easy.  We finished a little faster than we have been recently because we started a bit quicker than normal.  I think it might be due to the fact that Sasha is running fewer miles right now.  Anyhow, we finished in 1:17:55, so it was still pretty slow, but we started off a little faster than normal (we hit about 8:45 for the first mile compared to 9:30 or so yesterday).  After we finished I did another 3 miles alone to finish with a total time of 1:40:11 for 13.1 miles

I ran with Sasha this morning and we kept the pace about the same as yesterday, but we made it through the first 3 miles a little quicker so our overall time was faster. We finished 10.1 miles in 1:16:39. After this I drove home and then ran 2 more miles from home to finish up with 12.1 miles on the day with a total time of 1:31:48.

I ran a little with Kimia in the evening, about a half mile.  She does the run walk thing, but she ran for almost 5 and a half minutes without stopping today which is about 3 minutes longer than she has ever done without stopping.  It is a little step, but I am still proud of her.

Nothing special to report. I went to a little community 5k because Seth told me on Monday that they paid $100 to the winner. Well... they don't.  I got a plastic trophy worth maybe a dollar if that counts for anything. They did raffle off some gift certificates worth as much as $50 depending on what you got, but I didn't win one. So, I thought it was lame that here they are raffling off all of these gift certificates yet they don't give anything to the winner when they paid $100 last year.

Anyhow, I am just bitter because I thought I was going to win some money and I got nothing. The race was nothing special. It went through some neighborhoods and down a small trail similar to the provo river trail then back through some streets to the finish. There were no mile markers, so I have no clue what my pace was per mile. I think the course was also a little short by as much as 10-20 seconds but I don't know by how much (one guy had it at 3.04 on his GPS but I don't know that his GPS was right as the race people told me that they measured it at 3.1 with a GPS, so it is probably somewhere in between). I think that it was a good race considering my effort was not all out the second half due to lack of competition, (second place was Ryan Bybee, 39 seconds back) and I have been feeling pretty tired the last couple of days. I just would rather spend money on a race that is accurate, with some competition if I am not going to get anything out of running it. I could have run 3 miles hard on the river trail if I really wanted to and saved myself the $20. But, I guess I am just spoiled since I have gotten used to getting into races for free; maybe this will help me be more appreciative of the freebies I do get.

I ran another 15.1 miles a little while after the race once I got home.  I wanted to keep the pace right around 7:00 per mile.  I was pretty much right on pace for the majority of the run and at 12.1 miles I was 9 seconds ahead of the 7:00 guy.  Then, I stopped looking at my watch and I accidentally sped up a bit and averaged just over 6:50 for the last 3 miles.  Still right in my acceptable range for the run.  Finished in 1:45:08.