It's just that simple

Run to pick up my car - 27:05

Left my car at the Golden Star after dinner to ride home with Emily. Ran to get it at 9 p.m. If I hadn't been car-less, I would have just gone to bed.

Canal banks + neighborhoods - 55:40

Pretty good progression run tonight: 7:43, 7:24, 7:04, 6:56, 6:35, 6:17, 5:57, and then another quarter mile at 6:00/pace before a 5 minute cooldown.

Neighborhoods - 25:40

In the morning before heading to Twin Falls. Part solo, part with Emily. Did some drills and laps around the grass at Grace Jordan.

Canal banks - 37:20

Moderate/easy pace with 5 x 30 second pickups the last 2 miles. Not much sleep last night so I wasn't sharp at all, and it was pretty hot out too.

BK Track - 28:55

Pretty easy run in the dark with 8 x 100m strides at the track.

Run to pick up my car - 32:04

Started the run at 10 p.m. in the dark. Ran super, super easy the first 2 miles then picked it up a bit and did a few strides during the last mile.

Run to St. Al's - 28:04

Had to pick up my car at St. Al's. Did some short, quick pickups (10-15 seconds each) every 2 minutes to mix things up. Rainy out this evening, but really nice to be outside.

Borah track - 28:58

Ran down to the track and did 4 x 200 strides (40, 40, 38, 37) and a steady 800m (2:47) at 10k effort. Nice evening out again. The weather, while not hot for June standards, has been nicer than it's been all spring.

Canal banks - 56:20

Really slow pace. Tried to just get out and cover a few miles. Need some sleep in a serious way.

Valley Hi loop - NT

Did some walking earlier in the day and about 4 hours of outdoor work - mowing, weeding, digging, watering, etc. I was fatigued and didn't feel like running. Most of my days are spent at a desk, so 4 hours of manual labor is out of the norm. But it was a beautiful evening so I just jogged the basic Valley Hi loop and called it good.

Canal banks - 28:05

I felt pretty good today so I did 6 x 1:00 pickups during the run.

Canal banks - 30:49

Not on my "A" game tonight. Just a few hours of sleep last night and busy all day today. The pace was slow (7:40's range) but it still didn't feel easy.

Cassia Park - 50+

Ran with Rebecca. We took the canals to Cassia and came back by Borah and then hit the canals again. We had a good run and a nice chat too. Finished off with a couple of fast striders down the street.

Warm Springs - McBride Creek loop - 1:03

Great run from the cabin. It was a warm, beautiful afternoon and I enjoyed being out. Much better than last month when I had to walk for a couple of minutes on the uphills. Hard effort to run on hills for an hour at this point, but nothing better than being on the back trails.

Fire roads - 46:23

Ran with Rebecca from the cabin. Good run. Nice to get back out on my favorite trails again.

Treadmill - 40:07

Ran at Gold's on my way out of town to Cascade. Splits were 8:16, 7:21, 6:55, 6:29, and 6:11 before a cool down of less than a mile. Really fatigued and sleep deprived.

Trinity Pines trails - 29+

Up in Cascade for LDI workshop. Took an early morning jog around the trails and felt absolutely horrible. No sleep last night (well, maybe an hour or two). Loudest snoring person in history was my roommate, so I had to take my sleeping bag to the hallway at 3 a.m. and try to sleep. Brutal.

Borah track - 41:25

Jogged with Emily and Nica down to the track. I did about 20 minutes, then we all ran home together. Felt horrible when I started, but great by the end.

Borah track -27:30

Hot out this evening. Ran down to the track and did 8 x 200 in about 38/39 and ran back home again.

Run to pick up my car - 22:02

Late night run (10:30 pm) to get the car at Nica's gymnastics center. Didn't feel great tonight.

Treadmill - 36:50

Mostly easy with 10 minutes at goal half marathon pace (6:20/mile).

The big question for me this week is: "How fast can I run a half marathon off 6 months of 20 -25 miles per week?"

Signing up for this half 3 months ago seemed like a good motivator, but it didn't really turn out that way.

Run in Seattle - 53:40

Ran from the Sheraton Hotel before my conference started. Did the first 28 minutes with Emily and Nica down to Pike's Market and along the waterfront, then ran to breakfast, back to the hotel and then solo to the Expo and back. Kind of a random run all over the place - a good way to see the city of Seattle.

A little longer than I'd probably typically run 2 days before a half marathon, but I jogged most of it.

Treadmill - 17+

Slow jog on the Sheraton treadmill (32nd floor) before the conference got underway this morning. Legs feeling OK for the race tomorrow - a 7 month taper will do that for you!

Seattle Rock n Roll Half Marathon - 1:19:51 - 59th place

I would have to say I'm pretty pleased with this race result. I came in hoping for about a 1:22, but not knowing what was really going to happen. I am usually pretty objective about my fitness and race goals, and the data wasn't pretty: 22 miles per week average for 2011, only 1 run over 11 miles and very limited workouts. The past 3 weeks have picked up a bit, but I still haven't cracked 40 miles a week yet.

When I found out I'd be at a work training in Seattle, I checked into local races and thought this would be a good motivator to get me back in shape. It didn't really happen, but here I was, so I had to make the best of it.

I warmed up from the hotel in Renton by jogging and walking about 35 -40 minutes to the start line. It was an ideal race day - cool and cloudy. I worked my way through 26,000 people just before the race started to get my spot in corral 1 behind the elite folks.

I started out conservatively, and it felt great to be in a race again. I was shooting for 6:20's and maybe a little quicker in the last few miles. A couple of minutes in, I was buried behind at least 100-200 people, but the upside was that I figured there would be people to run with the whole way.

Mile 1 came in 6:08, and I found myself with 3 Club Northwest runners: one older guy who seemed to be running pretty easily pacing 2 quick looking women. I stayed near them and passed mile 2 with a 6:12. They pulled away a bit on an uphill mile 3, which I clocked in 6:17. I picked it up and ran with them for about the next 15 minutes. I hit a 6:04 mile 4 and then 12:05 for miles 5 and 6.

I used the momentum on a steep downhill to open up a little gap on them and slowly started passing more runners. Along a flat, winding road along Lake Washington, I ran with another female runner for a couple of miles. I ran mile 7 in 6:00 and mile 8 in 6:09 and was feeling really good. I knew, however, that I was running on borrowed time and that the fatigue would be setting in soon.

Just before mile 9, there's a short, steep uphill that leads into a highway tunnel. I got passed back by the 3 Club Northwest runners and another runner in short order. Mile 9 was a 6:17 and my quads were starting to feel it. To top it off, my shoelace came untied while we were running through the tunnel and I stopped to tie it and lost a few more seconds.

The upside was that the last couple of miles are a net downhill. I ran 6:19 for mile 10 (shoe tie) and then quicked up my cadence to run 5:59 and 5:25 for the next 2 miles. Some quick math told me I would probably break 1:20, but my legs were just destroyed from the concrete and lack of mileage so I just kind of cruised in the last mile, counting down the minutes. My final time was a 1:19:51 for a 6:07 average.

 Thoughts: #1 It was a great day to race. I wish I could have been fit. You don't get opportunities for PRs often, and this could have been it. The course is hilly, but it's fair and ends with some downhill. It was a deep field as well - 1:03:51 for the winner and 60+ runners under 1:20.

#2 I am now really motivated to start running more. I think I can run 1:15 by late fall if I can just get my mileage up. Being able to run within 3 minutes of my PR off such little training really helps my confidence.

#3  I need to lose some weight. I felt like Andre the Giant out there. I'm pushing 185 lbs....170 is a good racing weight for me.

#4 Seattle is a fun city to knock around in for a few days. Lots of fun and interesting things to see.

Running path in Renton - 33+

Jogged really easy in the morning with Emily and Nica. There was a nice system of paths and trails right from the hotel so we had a nice family stroll. Legs are fairly destroyed, but they have felt much worse after races.

P.M. - Biked 25 minutes easy/steady on the road bike after flying back to Boise (= 2 miles running).

Run home from Rosehill house - 30:40

Really warm afternoon, which I am not used to. Legs feeling a lot better. Overall pace of 7:32/mile.

Run to Gold's and back - 28:13

Pretty easy pace running. Also did 10 minutes on the ellyptical and 20 minutes of steady circuit (alternated exercises, so no rests). The circuit included:

2 x 20 weighed crunches; 2 x planks; 2 x 30 weighted oblique twists; 2 x 12 captain chair raises; 2 x 8 step-ups; 3 x 8 lunges; 2 x 12 calf extensions; 3 x 8 dumbbell shoulder press; 2 x 10 machine chest press.

Boise bench + greenbelt - 45:31

Ran 27 minutes to Jon's house, then drove down to the greenbelt and jogged with Nica and Emily for a bit under 2 miles. On the first part of the run, I did 6 x 1:00 easy pickups (just under 6:00/mile) and 3 x 20 sec harder pickups. Legs feeling pretty good.