Maybe I'll Blog, Maybe I Won't

Easy run.

50:11 (6:52/mi.)

*at 11:30 PM:  Just realized that I cleared 2000 miles for the first time in my life today!  That's an average of 62.5 miles per week for the past 8 months.  Definitely the best and most consistent training I have ever done.  Maybe 3000+ miles is a good goal for the year.

Scoped out the TOU course today.  Had my cousin shuttle me up Blacksmith Fork and I just ran the whole way back.  Tried out this new drink mix stuff that my dad's cousin (or aunt?) sent me to try.  Seemed to do a good job.  It's called Solistic Revive or something...basically just a bunch of electrolytes (Ca, Mg, K, Na, etc, with some fructose and glucosamine and stuff).  She wanted me to test it out for her.  Anyway.  Pace was fast for a training run of this distance.  I hope I didn't push too hard.  I have two weeks to recover though so as long as I remain injury free I think I'll be fine.  I wanted to simulate the feel of how it's going to be so I wanted to push fairly hard.  Learned some things about the course.  I am so ready for this!  Can't wait.

 2:24:00 (6:41/mi.)

Easy easy run.  Tired, but not too bad considering the difficulty of yesterday's workout.

56:15 (7:30/mi.)

AM:  Peach Days Fun Run.  Used this mostly as a workout, since it was pretty low key.  Wanted to be a good hard workout, and significantly under MP.  Got that taken care of.  Actually, the awards are done by how close you come to your predicted time.  No watches allowed.  I predicted 40 minutes for 7.2 miles.  The course ended up being long though (I thought my final time sounded much slower than it should have been, so I used both the Course Tool and another source to clock it and both gave me 7.6 miles).  At 7.2 miles at my pace I would have been at 39:54--so I was actually pretty dang close.  But I didn't really care.  Just got a great tempo workout in so that's fine with me.  More running tonight.

42:07 (5:32/mi.)

PM:  7 more easy miles before going to the rodeo.  No watch.

2 miles very easy with my little brothers.  If I can get them to run on a regular basis they will both be really good runners.  But we'll see.  Then 5.5 miles on my own.  No watch.

Easy run.  Nothing special.  Broke in the new shoes.  It feels good to not feel every pebble in the road.

1:16:36 (6:39/mi.)

Easy peasy run.  Achilles tendon randomly started hurting like the dickens at about 2 miles.  Then at about 3 miles it quit.  Feels a hair tight at the moment, but not bad.  Weird.  Will keep an eye on it.  Probably just one of those taper-time phantom injuries.

41:58 (7:29/mi.)

Sluggish, sore run today.  Doesn't make much sense.  I don't know why, but my body is really not liking this whole rest thing.  I have felt more sore and tired this week than any of my hard weeks.  Maybe it's the new shoes?  Same as old ones, but I guess after 1000 miles in the same pair a new pair might take some adjustment.  Achilles tendon is still sore, although the pain is no longer sharp and has moved more down into the ankle.  It is an improvement though.  Hopefully it's back to 100% within the next couple of days.

59:27 (7:09/mi.)

Felt much better today.  Achilles is still sore, but noticeably stronger than yesterday.  Didn't hurt after a little time warming up.

Got up early and ran before work.  Run was great.  Achilles feels near 100% again.  No problems.  Whew!

Easy run.  Final few days before TOU.  Feeling pretty good right now.

49:41 (7:18/mi.)

Warmed up for a mile or so and then put on a mild tempo pace for about 2 miles then went slow again for a few more miles.

40:38 (6:53/mi.)

Easy run.  

40:43 (7:08/mi.)

Taper mode slow slow run.  Legs are finally feeling rested.  :)

 32:45 (7:16/mi.)

I am ready.

Ok, here's the big report:

Got up at 4:30, ate a small breakfast and headed out.  Me and my friend Jamie, who was running her first marathon (she would go on to take 9th in her division in 4:04:30--pretty good for the first time) drove together to Merlin Olsen Park and waited in line for the buses .  We got underway at about 5:50 and got to Hardware Ranch and the starting line at about 6:30.  Lines at the portajons were super long and slow.  But I got my stars earned for the race just in time to run down to the starting line and shuck my extra clothes and get ready to go.  Temps were chilly at about freezing, but I didn't notice it.  Focused on the race.  Start was uneventful.  I was somewhat worried about starting off at a pace as fast as I needed to, worrying that the shock would be too much, but it wasn't bad at all.  First mile was right on target at 5:44 and felt like a breeze.  After that I knew that I could do it and didn't worry about the pace being too much anymore.  

5 miles:  First five miles were uneventful.  The Kenyans and Sasha (who I met for the first time in person) took off after about 2 miles.  I settled in the loosely formed chase pack of about 6 or 7 guys.  We spread out a little bit, but everyone was mostly in sight for most of this portion. Came across 5 miles about 30 seconds slow, but I didn't worry about it.  

 10 miles:  Our pack kinda split up, with three guys going ahead quite a bit, one Master between, and me and an 18 year old local boy bringing up the rear.  Can't remember my 10K split, and the results are messed up so I can't tell, but I think it was 35:something or 36 minutes.  10 mile split was 59:20ish.

15 miles:  Dropped the 18 year old like a rock, and pulled in the Master and one other guy that had gone with the first part of our now defunct chase pack, but now he looked like he was hurting.  Hit the half in ~1:17:10.  15 mile split was 1:27:--, so back on pace.

20 miles:  Cody hooked up with me right at the 15 mile aid and gave some much needed company and support for a couple of miles, which I much appreciated, as I was starting to become quite conscious of the pace.  I had also become aware of a slight twinge in my right hamstring, but more on that later.  Pace was still fast, hitting 5:45s or so pretty consistently.  After Cody pulled off, things got rough in a hurry.  I could see Sasha ahead of me, and I was closing pretty quickly, but I was also really starting to feel fatigue.  The spectators, including my crazy roommates helped motivate me though.  Some jerk was also burning very smoky weeds right after mile 18--as I was climbing Millville Hill--making breathing difficult.  But I got through the hill and apparently had made up a lot of time as my 20 mile split was fast by nearly a minute at 1:56:-- (good for 2:34 if I could hold it).

Final 10K:  (aka, the Death March)  Made it through mile 21 or so in good shape, but was really feeling the fatigue.  Legs were gone and I still had one big rise to conquer.  Pace was still decent though.  Just trying to last through it and reel in Sasha.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  That twinge in the hamstring became a major problem somewhere between mile 22 and 23.  Each stride felt like my hamstring was going to tear in half.  I was even tempted to walk, but my pride and the knowledge that it wouldn't do me any good kept me going.  Pace became rather horrible at this point, but I had to keep going.  Sasha was long gone by mile 25, and I almost got run over by some dingleberry who apparently didn't realize that there was a marathon going on and decided to gun it through the course right in front of me.  I was pretty cranky at this point, but I managed to keep my reaction PG-rated.  Got through the last mile and finished in 2:38:15. 

Overall I am very happy with this race.  I feel like I ran a smart race, and gave it everything I had.  PR by over 15 minutes, although it has been 2 years since my last road marathon.  I feel great about my performance, but I know I can run faster without a badly tweaked hamstring, so my next goal is sub-2:35.  I haven't decided yet what my next race will be, but Ogden is looking like a good candidate.  Anyway, great day, great race!  Looking forward to the next one.

This was all I could muster today.  Still quite sore, although yesterday was absolutely miserable and today probably is out of the miserable range and more in the fairly sore range.  Right hamstring is pretty painful though still.  I was able to run, but had to favor it heavily.  Legs have nothing, but my right leg feels decent, as I'm sure the rest of my left leg does besides the hammie.  Still no juice whatsoever.  But that's to be expected.  I just hope I can recover in time to not have Jon drop me like a rock on Friday even though he will be running 100 miles to my 15.  

23:16 (8:57/mi.)

Took the day off.

Another rest day.  Will run tomorrow.

3 miles easy easy.  Still very tired with not a lot of juice in the legs, but it's not generally painful and I feel worlds better than Monday.  Hamstring is still sore, but is strong enough to run on as long as I don't do anything crazy for awhile...which I'm not.  I think I will be ok for my pacing duties tomorrow.  My fitness is still great, running still feels natural and good, I am just tired.  I can deal with tired.

25:02 (7:49/mi.)

Jon's Bear 100 Crewing Report Version 2.0

It was fun pacing Jon for 15 miles.

Ok, ok, Cody, if you insist I'll write more.   I got up at the lovely hour of 7 AM and threw all my stuff together to get ready for my pacing and crewing duties today.  I was pretty excited to see what this 100 miler thing was all about and excited to see Jon finally do this.  Drove to Leetham Hollow and there met Cody, Paul, and Dave and got instructions (or at least a review of the 45 pages of printed material sent to me at sundry times by Jon) on what I was supposed to do.  I was a little nervous at first hoping I would do everything right so that Jon wouldn't have to worry about anything, but my duties proved fairly easy to handle.  Got Jon thru the aid station in the lead pack and looking like he wasn't a bit tired.  Good sign so far.  Hung around for a few more minutes trying to help out as best I could, and then left to take care of my crewing duties at Cowley Canyon.  Stopped at Quizno's in Logan on the way to grab a sandwich for lunch.  Got to the Cowley aid about 20 minutes ahead of Jon and chatted with some of the other crews there and made acquaintances with some.  We would be seeing a lot of each other for the next 12-15 hours or so.  Jon came through still looking very strong.  He was chatting with some of the other runners and seemed to be in high spirits. On pace for his "fast" goal of 20 hours. So far so good.  Got him in and out in probably 1-2 minutes, as this was a pretty easy aid.  Packed up and drove down the canyon to Right Hand Fork and prepped everything.  Cody and Marci showed up and helped me finish while I did my own preparation for my pacing duties.  Jon came in still looking pretty strong.  Definitely tired after 35 plus miles, but looking very spry and chipper for having run that far.  After a quick shoe change we took off.  We immediately realized that we had forgotten sunscreen so I ran back and grabbed it.  Took me a good 5 minutes to catch Jon, as he was still maintaining a very good pace.  Going up Willow was pretty easy and we maintained a steady pace all the way through to Mud Flats.  Jon was chatty and seemed to be in good spirits.  We talked about how he wasn't going to do like the other guys and go out crazy fast.  His strategy proved to be sound later in the race.  We caught one of the RDs (I think) just before Temple Fork and then I ran ahead to fill the Cody and Dave in on Jon's needs.  After a brief pit stop we hightailed it out of Temple Fork and started the long climb up Blind Hollow.  This section proved difficult for Jon and we slowed to a hike for most of this section.  I could tell that the fatigue was setting in, especially when he had me pull out the elevation chart and add up all of the climbing for sanity's sake.  If I'd have known we were going to be doing math I would have brought some of my Calculus II homework for us to work on.  Live and learn.  We did figure out that at the top of Blind we would have done over 2/3 of the total climbing for the course, which I think Jon found to be heartening news.  We finally summited and Jon started to pick up the pace descending into Tony Grove.  I struggled again to build a gap enough to give some warning to the crew because Jon was going so fast.  Got to the aid and got Jon and Cody on their way.  My pacing duties were over and I was famished so I downed my entire sandwich and a couple of granola bars.  The rest of the day/night were spent going from aid to aid and making sure Jon and Cody's (and later Dave's) needs were met.  I think we did a pretty good job...I hope I did anyway, seeing as how this was my first time doing anything like that.  It was really an eye opening experience to watch Jon at the different stages of the race.  I can't say enough about how much I look up to him in accomplishing something of that magnitude.  I think it taught me a lot about life as well, but I'll spare you my pontifications on the subject, as this report is becoming lengthy.  It was great to finally see him run across the finish line at 3 AM and I am very grateful that I was able to contribute in some small way to his success.  Great job Jon!

 Final note with regards to my hamstring injury:  it was sore, but I think that it is improving every day.  I am no longer worried about it.

 Over and out.

Same loop as the other day.  Was pretty sore all over to start out, but things got better as the run progressed.  Didn't take a watch.  Just took it easy.  Hamstring feels decent.  Still sore though.  But better than yesterday.

This was really my first run back from TOU where I actually felt like myself again.  Not that I felt like breaking any land speed records today, but I actually felt good and motivated for the first time since the race.  Hamstring is still a mite tender, but I wouldn't say it hurts anymore.  I'm going to shoot for 50 easy miles this week and see how that feels.  Also, I'm going to register for the Provo Halloween Half-Marathon (Oct. 30) once payday rolls around.  I think it will be a good way to keep motivated for the next few weeks.  I've noticed that the month or so after a marathon-distance race tends to be extremely difficult for me mentally and motivation-wise, so this should help by giving me something to look forward to.  At the same time it is pretty low key as far as how serious I'm going to take it, so it won't be a temptation to overdo things while I'm recovering.  It will be my first half as well.  Anyway, that's the plan for the next little bit.  Recover, while still maintaining a good level of fitness so that I can have a productive winter in preparation for a likely spring/early summer marathon. Ogden? Boston? (if I'm feeling rich--not likely), something else?

56:54 (7:17/mi.)

I was able to work harder and move faster today, although I still didn't really push it that hard.  Hamstring was unnoticeable.  So far, so good!

1:10:24 (6:31/mi.)

Easy run.

No watch.

Hill workout today.  USU campus, BST, North Logan loop.  Felt good to work hard today.

1:02:34 (7:11/mi.)