Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 20 mile long run at Jeremy Ranch w/ Nate, Josh, and Rob. Double out & back. Averaged 7:00 pace. There were more dead snakes than usual.

AM - 7 miles. 

PM - 7 miles + 8 x 100m strides.

AM - 8 miles. 15 x 1 minute fartlek (1 min easy). Averaged 5:12 pace on the efforts. Some were uphill, and I'm not throwing my faith in Garmin paces, but still... this was really slow. Essentially one minute efforts at marathon pace. Jogged home and decided it was time to throw in the towel on the spring season (ie. don't go to Duluth). 

PM - 1.5 miles w/ Andrea.

AM - 1 mile w/ Andrea.

Saucony and Runner's World teamed up with Brian Vernor to make a documentary called Finding Strong - A journey to uncover the transformative power of running. I had a chance to watch it already... it's very good! So block off 20 minutes later and check it out.

Online release is this afternoon, here.

AM - 5 miles.

AM - 6 miles.

Got bloodwork results back this morning: Hematocrit, Hemoglobin, Ferritin at all-time lows.

Not surprising based on how I was running. Those variables aren't the sole cause, but they tell part of the story of the past six weeks - along with lack of confidence, mental fatigue, work stress, drastic (unnecessary) change in training, lackluster nutrition, etc... I went past the tipping point and blew up. All those things really can add up.

In any case, I decided earlier this week to take a break from training for a while. We weighed the pros and cons of another race this spring, but ultimately couldn't find a reason why traveling to a very competitive race when I know I'm not anywhere near my best would help me turn things back around. Instead I'll take a (longer) break now. I'm not setting any timelines, but I hope to be fit enough in time for some of the local summer races and use those as a springboard to a breakthrough fall marathon season.

Lazy Saturday.

AM - 5 miles.

PM - 4 miles. 

Mountain biking on the Pipeline trail.

AM - 5 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

AM - 7 miles.

Before my senior year of high school and during that winter between seasons (we didn't have an indoor track program), I ran a couple local road races in upstate NY where I got absolutely smoked by some home-schooled kid named Josh McDougal. He would go on to become one of the great NCAA runners of recent history, and then his career was derailed by some mystery injury. After 5+ years of being on the sidelines, Josh returned to racing over the weekend. He started a blog that has details like you would find on FRB... the kind of stuff you typically don't see from a guy who has run 13:20 for 5K. Hopefully he keeps posting as his comeback continues.

2001 Old Chatham 5K. Josh (blue) is ahead of me (yellow)... he beat me (RESULTS), but I beat Bill Rodgers.

AM - 6 miles.

PM - 5 miles.

AM - 7 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

I've been doing some short runs, leisure walking, the occasional mountain bike ride, watching Breaking Bad, and developing a rawpaleoveganwarrior smoothie made of beet juice, venison, and Kool Aid. Eventually I'll add carbonation so it can go on this map.

AM - 5 miles.

PM - 7 miles.

USATF-Utah update.

Kinvara 5s are sweet.

This afternoon on my run I was escorted by an ElliptiGO. I rode it for a little while too and actually liked it.

AM - 17 mile long run. Zoo/Tanner loop. Averaged ~7:00 pace.

AM - 3 miles. Ran some trails around the lower section of Snowbird for 30 minutes.

Had a very nice weekend, especially thanks to this Twitter giveaway on Friday afternoon...

Good week of running. A handful of 5-7 mile runs during the week, then went for two hours on Saturday. Working on re-developing a routine of good habits (ie. ancillary work). I'm in no rush to start ramping up intensity or mileage too quickly.

AM - 7 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

What's your favorite Tim Duncan article?

AM - 7 miles.

PM - 5 miles.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 5 miles.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 9 miles.

PM - 7 miles. 6 + 10 x 30s hills.

I couldn't think of anything more interesting than fake Tim Duncan articles to post this entire week. Maybe this?

AM - 18 mile long run. Wasatch Blvd / BCC 7-11 loop. Averaged ~6:45/mile. Got pretty thirsty towards the end. Probably won't be starting longer runs at 10am for the next couple months.

AM - 12 miles w/ Josh and Adam(s) C/H. BST West from City Creek.

PM - 5 miles on the dirt paths around the Old Ranch area of Snyderville Basin.

Broke these out for the first time in the morning. Finally retired my original Peregrines.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 10 miles. Finished with 16 x 200m on the MHS track (36.3s avg).

PM - 5 miles.

AM - 10 miles.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

Thrilling finish by Molly Huddle last night at USAs. Watch the last lap.

Unplanned day off... got really sick in the middle of the night (food poisoning?) and spent the entire day in the hurtbox. This was worse than lavender poisoning. Beets and/or kale/spinach medley were the likely culprits, which raises the question - how can the healthiest foods also be the most deadly?

AM - Ran for 2:07. To clarify, that is two minutes and seven seconds. Then walked back home at roughly the same speed. Feeling less awful than yesterday but definitely not back to normal yet.

PM - Ran for 2 miles with about 5 walking breaks.

AM - Didn't even try. Still feeling rough. I really capped off June on a high note these last couple days!

PM - 7 miles. Started off really slow and then "noticeably slowed down" over the second half of the run, according my bike escort. On the positive side, I didn't want to walk until the last mile!