Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 8 miles up to work.

Feeling some pep in my step after a fun weekend playing outside in Moab. Updated the last couple days w/ some pics...

Saturday - Arches

Sunday - Canyonlands

PM - 8 miles home w/ 12 x 1/4 mile (hot/cold). The "hots" were on average ~4 seconds faster than when I did this on Friday. Amazing what a weekend playing outside will do for you.

AM - 7.5 miles up to work. 

PM - 5.6 miles to SHP, then walked w/ Andrea for a while. 

AM - 10.5 miles up to work w/ 6 mile uphill tempo in 34:31 (5:45/mi). Net uphill of ~300 feet - course tool says 5:45 pace on this route is equivalent to 5:25 pace on flat, which seems like about the effort I was running. Got the HR into the right zone w/out pounding the joints.

My plan for the next two weeks is to ease back into the workout routine without pushing it too hard. I feel pretty good right now, but I know the well isn't bottomless... I probably only have a few (hopefully two!) good races left in me this year, and I want to make them really count. A short but higher-intensity cycle from mid-October to mid-November, then 2 competitive half-marathons. I'd really like to end this year w/ a half-marathon PR.

PM - 5 miles down to SHP, met Andrea there. 

AM - 8.5 miles up to work.

PM - 4.7 miles down to SHP w/ a 2 mile pickup in 10:23 (5:12, 5:11). Then 8x8 second hill surges (not quite fast enough to call them sprints yet) on the grass (north end of the big field). Walked backwards back down the hill in between efforts.

Mountain Stoke that popped up in my Google Reader - Rae Lakes Loop. We were there two summers ago - Day #9 of the JMT.

Running Stoke - check out this article Running Times just posted on Dathan Ritzenhein: Whatever it Takes. Incredibly interesting. That guy works his tail off. I hope he can finally run the marathon up to his potential this weekend.

AM - 3.8 miles slowly, then rode my bike up to work.

PM - 5.7 miles on the grass at the Horsepark. 

Today we had a work "retreat" (at the Red Butte Gardens, about 3/4 of a mile from our building). But that meant free breakfast, lunch, outside time, and heading out for my bike ride home at 2pm. Not too shabby.

I had a free entry to the Great Pumpkin Run to Benefit the Utah Council for Exceptional Children joins the Derek Zoolander School for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too 2.97 mile XC race at Wheeler Farm. I decided to go since the race started at 9am (so I could get my 10 hours of sleep) and if I ran from home, I would have just jogged 9 minute miles this morning instead. My goal was to run an average pace faster than the TOU Marathon, which seemed like it might be quite a challenge. 

I warmed up a bit w/ Andrea and didn't really feel like running hard. I thought I would just cruise and win easy but then I saw Nate Hornock and realized he would probably kick my butt (which is what happened). I was also shocked that Allie and James weren't there. Aren't Saturdays for 5Ks?

The course is 2 laps around the farm on the dirt path. Our first mile was 5:16, and it felt harder than the opening mile of the marathon a couple weeks ago, despite being the exact same pace. Then Nate surged and opened up a big gap on me! Second mile was 4:58 and he put about 10 seconds on me. I was content to go back to cruising along at that point... my body does not want to run sub 5 pace yet. Plus we had to dodge lots of strollers - who takes a stroller on a XC-style course?!?! The last "mile" was 4:54 but I'm 100% sure it was short. Definitely not a 5K! 

Fun to shock the system a bit as I get myself back into the style of training that shocks the system all the time. All things considered, this is actually a good indicator that I'm bouncing back pretty well. Nate ran really strong today (14:59)... congrats to him. 

I'm also glad I did this race instead of a tempo run on the roads - the softer surface is still better for my legs right now. Also, I won a $25 gift card to Buca de Beppo. Score!

PM - 5.2 miles w/ Kevin and Roller-Andrea. Stopped and chatted w/ Fritz's sister and we all agreed that he is a marathon slayer. Great running by so many of the bloggers at StG today! Looking forward to reading some recaps of how it went down.

We took an afternoon hike up to Mt Aire today. Its a short but steep one (climbs about 2K feet over ~1.8 miles). Perfect weather up in the mountains and the fall colors are popping in certain spots... 

AM - 13 miles. First part w/ Andrea (who is looking smooth again!), then a bunch of loops around the horsepark, and finished w/ the Home Depot mile in 4:51. Definitely my fastest mile ever wearing capri pants (or as my girlfriend desperately wishes I would call them - "3/4 tights").

Feeling pumped up today after seeing so many friends run well yesterday at StG, then watching the last part of the Chicago webcast this morning. Two minute PR for Ritz is huge... if he can figure out the nutritional aspect of the marathon and not fall apart at the end, then I can too! Watching Kebede jump around while waving to the crowd just minutes after running a 2:04 and shattering the course record was pretty funny. Simply amazing what the top guys can do. 

PM - 4 miles easy. Achieved my goal of running less than 100 miles (98) for the 5th straight week. Its going to be a challenge, but I'm going to try and keep this streak going.

AM - 9 miles up to work.

PM - 6.2 miles down to SHP and a loop around the park. 

AM - 8.5 miles up to work... a couple of them w/ Andrea and Allie.

PM - 6.2 miles down to SHP w/ 4 mile tempo in 20:50... first three downhill, last one uphill - 5:10, 5:14, 5:09, 5:17. Essentially this was another hamstring test. I didn't feel it at all, so it passed.

Tonight = 9.79* 

AM - 10 miles up to work.

PM - 4.5 miles down to SHP, then 8 x 8 second hills on the grass. 

AM - 9 miles up to work. Uphill efforts: 1 - 3/4 - 1/2 - 3 x 1/4 mile w/ 1/4 jog. Can't remember exactly what the splits were, but they weren't fast.

PM - 4.5 miles down to SHP + 8 x ~50m strides on the grass. 

AM - 4.3 miles on the grass at SHP, most of it w/ Andrea... then took the bus up to work from there... no need to run up the hill today, I'll get my fill of that route tomorrow.

PM - 4.3 miles down to SHP.

Tomorrow I'm doing the old Half-Marathon / 5K double at the Fittest State Festival to try and move up in the circuit standings. Since I missed a lot of the early races, and the schedule wasn't very robust this year, I sort of abandoned the idea of trying to place high... until a few weeks ago when I realized it was possible to run both the half-marathon and 5K. So I don't even think its mathematically possible to win the overall since I won't be able to get in 7 races, but I should be able to move up from 5th place, unless some guys double back from St George :-) These are the current standings...

Races Total
Ken Richardson 7 247
Riley Cook 7   238.25
Albert Wint 7   199
Benjamin Van Beekum 6   161.25
Jake Krong 3   157
Nathan Hornok 4   128.25 

I've also always wanted to run a race that follows my route up to work, straight up the hill :-)

The last chance addition to the circuit brought out pretty much everyone trying to place in the money! As I said yesterday, I was trying to bump up my total # of races and maybe move up a few spots while getting in a decent workout. Running a Half/5K double a month after the marathon isn't exactly advisable, but it ended up being a pretty fun morning. Allie and Devra were doing the same thing as me, so we all shared the misery of finishing a half marathon and then having to run a 5K 30 minutes later :-)

Besides the circuit points, my goals for today were to - 1) Beat Andrea's PRs, and 2) Not get hurt. Mission Accomplished! 

Half-Marathon: 1:15:50 (2nd place) - We started in pitch darkness. Brett H was there so I knew at some point he would pull away and I would be running by myself, but the first 2 miles were nice and casual as we chatted and laughed about how the flashing motorcycle lights were going to give us a seizure. Then the stupid motorcycles led us off course (onto the marathon route)... luckily we realized the mistake after about 30 seconds and turned around. We then had to catch everyone who had gone the correct way, but that only took another mile or so. Brett was long gone after 3 miles and I was just trying to get in a nice steady run. First 5 miles (actually like 5.2 b/c of the detour) was 31:46 (~6:20 pace), and then the last 8.1 miles was 44:04 (5:26 pace). Then we had about a half-hour to get nice and tight before the 5K...

5K: 16:57 (2nd place) - I was not responsible for plowing over any of the little kids who lined up in front of us. Ken R opened up about a 20 second gap in the first half-mile, and that was it for me. Splits were 5:58, 5:21, 5:04, :35. I'm glad I got second in both races because I'm not sure how I could have entered "1.5th" place into the race report form.

Overall a good workout and a fun morning with friends. Devra won like 6 medals... I also won that many but only came home with two. Somehow Kevin (despite not being in any of the races) ended up with 2-3 medals as well. We'll probably melt them all down and make a sword. And major kudos to Andrea for beating her 5K goal time by 4 minutes! 

Oh, and the courses were super easy...

So there you have it - the Fittest State Festival was a smashing success. Rumor has it that we passed Alabama to move into the Top 5 fittest states, but official results won't be up for a few more days. And I'm definitely not ready (mentally) to run fast / race hard yet. Its gonna take another week or two for me to get that edge back and feel totally recovered from the marathon.

Some other nuggets... 

-Favorite part of the morning was the group cooldown run back to Allie and James' house. Its been a while since we've had a big crew running together.

-Least favorite part of the morning was nearly getting taken out by cyclists riding the bike tour on almost every single turn of the course!

AM - 9 miles. Horsepark loops. First couple w/ Andrea, then a few more solo and ran home. Felt better than I expected.

PM - 4.5 miles. The neighborhood kids think Andrea and I are racing when I am running and she is rollerblading... and they root for her. Today a whole pack came running towards us yelling "GO ROLLERBLADER!!!"

Went up Little Cottonwood Canyon for a free tram ride and some outdoor fun this afternoon. Gorgeous day up high... yellow is the main color in LCC right now and there is a dash of white above 10K feet...

AM - 8 miles up to work.

PM - 8 miles home. 

Another week, another doping story. This is a guy who I raced against in June (State Street Mile) and he crushed me. I just don't get cheating at all... I don't understand how these guys can justify it.

Mario Fraioli's blog on how this all went down is worth a read. 

AM - 9.5 miles. 10K Tempo in 32:37 (5:15/mi avg). Splits - 5:15, 5:20, 5:19, 5:11, 5:12, 5:13, :67. Pace was between aerobic threshold and lactate threshold, but more importantly - I think ~5:10/mi is my hamstring threshold right now. It didn't hurt, but I don't feel confident cranking the pace down much faster yet. I'll continue to play it safe and err on the side of caution with it.

PM - 4.5 miles down to SHP, really slow. 

AM - Off, besides a short walk/jog to the bus stop. No sense on taking any chances. I have very little to gain from an easy 8 miles, but a lot to lose if I let this hamstring issue go too far.

PM - Went for a walk around SHP w/ Andrea. A few hours earlier, it was the XC mecca... while we were walking, it was deserted. Congrats to all the guys and girls who ran awesome races today at states - several of the top HS runners in the state are on this blog.

Shaved my legs when I got home. That took forever, because its been about 5 years since the last time I did it.

Keep the Kennards in your thoughts.

AM - 7.3 miles up to work.

PM - 4.5 miles down to SHP. Hammy felt OK on both runs, but now my back feels like someone hit me w/ baseball bat.

On a much better note, check out the latest Run Utah Magazine. It features Rachelle, Ben, and Kassi. Great stuff!!!

AM - 7.3 miles up to work. I would say there is a less than 1% chance I'm going to run the 5K tomorrow. I know its possible to move up in the circuit again by racing, but its just not worth risking blowing this "niggle" into something major. On that note, and mainly for my own record keeping purposes, I want to type out the etiology of my current hamstring/back issues and thought process about what I should do about it. It goes back a month...

After warming up for the TOU Marathon, while putting my clothes in my drop bag, I had a crazy back spasm. The whole thing tightened up. After about 30 seconds (but what felt like 30 minutes) it relaxed and I was fine. I'm not sure if this had anything to do w/ the hamstring issue that followed, but its worth remembering (even though it wasn't worth writing in my race report).

15 miles into the marathon my right hamstring locked up and started to hurt. If I was doing a workout, I would have pulled the plug and stopped. But for obvious reasons, stopping wasn't an option at that point. Unless my hamstring ripped off the bone, I wasn't dropping out!

The hammy was noticeable for 5-6 days, improving every day. By the following weekend, I didn't notice it anymore. Andrea cautioned me that "even though the symptoms are gone, that doesn't mean its healed." I knew she was right - its not like I got tight in the final sprint... I ran hard for another hour after pulling it.

For the next 3+ weeks, no problems. I didn't push any runs too hard, but did some light workouts and I had pretty much forgotten about it. Then I felt a little twinge towards the end of my tempo run on Tuesday morning. By the evening, it reverted back to post-marathon week status. The Fittest State double last Saturday was probably enough to weaken it, and the tempo run put it back over the edge. A couple days later with a day off, I'm feeling better again. But... I know its not healed. And I also think I pulled something in my back, probably due to compensating for the hamstring. That's what is really bothering me right now. It will probably feel better in a couple days, but I'm afraid of letting this become a recurring issue.

AM - We went for a powerwalk around the neighborhood bouncing training ideas for the next cycle off each other. 

Andrea worked some PT magic (ie. basic stretching) last night and my back feels somewhat normal again. So naturally I'm already second guessing the decision I made when I was feeling terrible and frustrated yesterday morning. I'm sure no one saw that coming :-) But I'm sticking to the new plan... rest now and then huge marathon breakthrough in the spring.

PM - Another walk.

PM2 - Another walk. Tripled today... boo yah! 

AM - 4.4 miles horsepark loop, then walked for a bit w/ Andrea. PT before and after. Since Andrea knows more about back/hamstring issues than anyone with a degree in medicine, I've hired her as my rehab coach... since she doesn't have any responsibilities as taper patrol for a while. The plan for next couple weeks is lots of stretching / massage / e-stim / etc. Jogging is allowed on a minimal scale (no doubles, keep the runs ~30 minutes this week), and we'll do a bit of cross training* too. 

The absolute earliest I would run another marathon is March, and that is sooooo far away. There really isn't much point in trying to "maintain" right now... its OK to get a bit out of shape at this point. I've already been thinking a lot about how I'm going to approach the next training cycle... in fact I'm excited to get going already! Just gotta wait until Thanksgiving or so. Hopefully by that point I'll be able to run faster paces with no fear of re-tweaking the hamstring. I think if I stick to the plan, that won't be a problem. The last thing I want to do is be pressing through any structural discomfort... there's no fun in that for me.

* = Sorry Rachelle, that doesn't mean crossfit :-) Or yoga, Kevin. Although its very tempting to follow Allie's new training plan for a couple months. With 2+ feet of snow in the forecast this week, maybe we'll be skiing soon!

AM - 5 miles in the research park area. Been over a month since I drove up here... instinctively I drove my running route, which is definitely not the fastest way at 5:30am.

Yesterday we spent about 2 hours at Teena's house. I'm sure Andrea will write a lot more, but Teena did a great workup and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what is going on with that poor girl. I was incredibly impressed by Teena, she is going to be an amazing PT. Well, she already is in my opinion. I came away feeling very optimistic and that this is the beginning of the end of Andrea's injury cycle. So for the next couple weeks I'll continue to run in the mornings, and then spend the evenings doing whatever it takes to help get Andrea back up running strong. It will be good for me as well to mix things up a bit and work on some of my own weaknesses.

We already moved our coffee table out of the living room and turned the entire space into a PT area. All this ancillary stuff is exhausting - its so much easier just to go out for an easy 10 miler!

PM - 30 minutes of pool running and then an equal amount of time hot-tubbing. Tonight was all about range of motion and getting loose. 

AM - 4 miles.

PM - 35 minutes of pool running + loosening up in the hot tub. After 2 straight nights at the gym (probably the first time inside a gym since college?), I remember why I prefer exercising outside. Not a fan of being inside the box... but the pool is definitely beneficial for the time being and outdoor pools don't sound too appealing right now. Its amazing how many people just sit around and do nothing!

AM - 7.5 miles, horsepark loops.

PM - 40 minutes of pool running. 

The USATF LDR banquet is next Friday (Nov 2nd). If you're planning on going, it would be really helpful if you RSVP'd this week. Here's the information / flyer. I should have a tentative 2013 schedule to announce at the banquet... just waiting on confirmation from a few races. A lot of this year's races will be returning (although a few are dropping) and we have some GREAT new additions to the circuit. Also, we'll be raffling off free entries to some of next year's races.

AM - 7 miles. Snowy, slippery run around campus.

AM - 7.5 miles. We got down to Springdale last night, so this morning I ran from our hotel to the park and then did an out & back along the Parus Trail. Just a stunning run.

And the rest of the day was even better... hiked Angel's Landing (which Andrea had never done before) and then spent some more time exploring around. Fun day.

AM - 7.5 miles, almost the same run as yesterday along the Virgin River. Lots of deer were out munching on grass right next to the trail... they definitely were not afraid of people.

Most of our hiking today was exploring Hidden Canyon - a very cool area! We were going to go up the narrows, but we agreed that we would have been way too cold to fully enjoy it. Next summer we'll do the whole thing from the top down.

AM - 7 miles in Springdale. Found a dirt trail along the river and ran there.

We spent the day up on the East Rim of the park before heading home. The thing that I wasn't expecting on this trip was the stunning fall colors... exploring the Clear Creak area was awesome... the brightest red trees I've ever seen.

The drive home wasn't bad at all - once the Lion King soundtrack hit the CD player, it was basically a 4 hour sing-a-long.

AM - 7 miles around campus, back to regular life. A 3-day weekend was a perfect little break. 

PM - 30 minutes of pool running while Andrea tried to qualify for the synchronized swimming / water dancing world championships. 

Some more Zion pics... I forgot how much I love this area...

AM - 9 miles up to work. I know I'll be tempted to run home this afternoon, but I plan to take the bus and keep my streak of singles going for a while longer. Everything is feeling really good - I can't remember the last time I woke up in the morning and felt so bouncy within the first minute of being out the door. But I don't want to start making any concrete plans (although I have lots of great ideas running through my head) about next year until after the USATF annual meeting, when we'll maybe find out the new trials standards / window. So until then, just loafing around for another month or so :-)

AM - 7 miles, upper campus.

I like the website Athletics Illustrated, and I also find a lot of things Steve Magness has to say very interesting. So, Athletics Illustrated's interview w/ Magness is a good (short) read. Lots of interviews that you can learn something from on that site if you poke around a bit.

PM - Horsepark walk. Bathroom repairs.