I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- Today is Marci's birthday, so I took the day off work to celebrate.  Early morning 6 mile run before I made her breakfast in bed.  Easy miles, except threw in .5 mile fast to get ready for an afternoon workout.

PM- workout day.  Nice weather- about 45 deg and a bit breezy, but I wore shorts and a long sleeve shirt.  I ran the Providence hills loop and wanted to do 4-5 miles at a moderate tempo pace, though I wasn't sure what pace that would be since I'm not in great shape and since the whole run is very hilly.  Almost 3 miles warmup at about 7:30 pace, then started the tempo at the bottom of the Providence hill.  Tempo miles were 7:29 (very uphill), 6:24 (1/3 mile uphill, 2/3 down), 5:59 (mainly downhill), 6:12 (pretty flat), 6:07.  Cooled down till I hit 9 miles.  The tempo felt ok- the first big uphill was painful (I saw my pace as slow as 11 min/mile), the downhill was fast.  I really could have used someone to run with the last 2 miles- my pace was decent, but I could have gone faster.  I kept falling off pace and had to consciously push my speed back up.  6:10 pace is pretty good, but I could have done better.  I'll do another hill workout on Thursday- maybe repeats.  9 miles in 1:02:30.

AM- 6.5

PM- 8.5 more.  Saw Drew Michener running- he looks like he's doing fine.

My Saturday post-long run donut run has scientific backing.  If it works for the USA Olympic cross country ski team, it works for me:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-02-11-protein-recovery_N.htm

PM- Small workout today.  I planned to do hill repeats, .5 mile each.  I didn't want to run downhill, so I did it on the treadmill.  I did 2 miles warmup, then started the repeats- .5 mile at 6:58 pace on a 5% incline, then .5 mile recovery.  I only planned on 4 but felt good so I ended up doing 6 repeats.  9 miles total, and a good workout for the Striders 10 mile next week.  I'm counting the repeats as MP- I was working pretty hard.

AM- Easy 6, but I felt good and had time so made it 7. 

Today is our 5 year anniversary, so Marci and I are going to the Melting Pot in SLC for dinner- no evening run.  But I don't need it- my planned 60 mile week will already end up closer to 65... plus it should be a good dinner.

Wow, quite the adventure run today.  Paul and Cody were out of town, so I was on my own.  I slept in and finally started my run at nap time- 3:30 pm (with a barely-eaten PBJ and Mac and cheese digesting in my stomach).  It looked gorgeous and sunny out, though it was only 35 deg.  I wore shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt, with stretchy gloves.  As soon as I started, I discovered a brisk breeze was blowing that made it quite cool- I turned around 3 minutes into the run to trade my shirt for a fleece top, and to get my ear warmers.  I was very glad I did that, but I was still an absolute popsicle for 2/3 of my run - brrrrrr!!!  But at least having frozen legs and hands helps distract from how tired I was.  Wind chill was 25 deg when I finished, and I was in my shorts and thin gloves for all 140 minutes.

I ran to the canal and up into Logan canyon.  I took the mostly-snowpacked, sometimes rough, and occasionally very icy river trail almost to the end of the singletrack.  My average pace on the roads was about 7:30, and was about 8:15 on the snowy trail, though the last mile of very rough singletrack yielded a whopping 10:23 mile!  Wow, smoking!  And let me tell you, it was as hard as a 6 min mile on the roads.  I was glad to turn around, but discovered I now had a strong headwind that really chilled me even more.  I ran back along the canal and through River Heights and Providence to my old house, then to the church where I picked up my car.  The return miles on the road were 7:30-8:00 pace, and my legs were rather tired by the end.  Of course, I kept my donut streak alive by stopping by Macey's for a danish, even though it was 6:30 pm.  18 miles, 2:20:38 (7:48 avg- pretty darn good supposing I had 5 miles on snow and ice).

My left hamstring is very tight at the bottom and has been for a while.  I had to stop 3 or 4 times to try stretching it- it really slowed my down on the downhills.  I'll have to work on it. 

Last week I did 58 miles with a 16 mile long run, both of which were my longest since SGM.  So that means I broke both records again this week with 64 miles and 18 mile long run.  Next week will be ~65 miles and will include the Striders 10 mile race.

AM- Scrubbed my morning run because A) I couldn't fall asleep until midnight due to daylight savings and a Sunday nap, and B) I knew I would need extra time to get to work due to 6-8" of snow that fell last night.  It took over 1.5 hours to get to work- fun times.  I guess I'll get just one run in this afternoon.

PM- 18" of snow in 18 hours at my house, and it's still coming down.  But my lovely wife shoveled all the snow!  I planned to do a speed workout but my hamstring is still very tight and twingy, so I didn't want to aggravate it.  Ended up doing 10.5 easy miles.  And I scheduled a massage for Wed to get my leg worked out.

PM- 9.5 easy.  And that's all I have to say about that.

AM- 6 medium.  And that's all I have to say about that.

PM- 10 medium, followed by my one hour massage.  The masseuse said she had never felt a hamstring as tight as mine in 10 year of massage.  Both legs actually had quite a number of tight spots.  Hopefully my legs will feel better- I'll find out Saturday on the big downhills.

AM- 7.  With my 4:10 am wake up these past few days, I have only been getting about 5-5.5 hours of sleep a night and am really starting to drag.  I need to get to bed earlier for the next few days.

AM- It's been cold all week in Logan, with morning temps in the single digits.  This morning was 2 deg, windchill of -6.  Brrr.  6 easy miles.

Both my girls have been sick this week with fevers, coughs, and runny noses.  I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and it is worse today.  If I get sick again I will be very put off!

Race day.  Last year the Striders 10 mile was one of my 3 great races of the year (2nd place, 59:53).  With my reduced training and being sick a few weeks ago, I knew I wouldn't be near that time.  I was 2:38 slower in the 10k a few weeks ago then last year, so I figured reducing that gap would be a good goal for this race.  It is a very hilly course (931 feet climbing!), which would help me on the downs but my lack of training would reveal itself on the ups.  See Walter's blog for a great description on the difficulty of the course.

At the start I saw Fiddy, Walter, Trever Ball (who was running easy), Tim, Jeff, and Paul Pilkington.  Temp was about 25-30 deg, with no ice on the roads.  Here are my splits:

Mile 1 and 2- 11:37 (no mile 1 split)- running easy.  Walter, James, Paul, and Tim take off.  I am in a good group with Jeff and Trever for most of the race.

Mile 3- 5:58- rolling downhill

Mile 4- 6:14- rolling uphill

Mile 5- 6:50- big uphill- 12 seconds ahead of my 10k time from 3 weeks ago

Mile 6- 6:50

Mile 7- 7:26- finally the end of uphill.  Last year I ran a 6:58 on this mile.

Mile 8- 5:18- downhill.  Last year was 5:02.

Mile 9- 5:57- at the start of this mile, my chest really tightened up for some reason and I really had trouble breathing.  After slowing down a hair and relaxing for a few minutes, it loosened up.

Mile 10- 6:13- the last uphill on this mile is painful.

Trever pulled away on the uphill at mile 5.  Jeff pulled away on the ups and I passed him on the downs, up until my chest tightened when he caught me.  We were even at mile 9, but he pulled away and beat me by about 15 seconds.  But it was very nice being able to run near/with him for most the race.  I finished in 7th place overall (and didn't get chicked).  My time was 2:35 slower than last year, so I did close the gap by 3 seconds like I wanted, and on a longer course.  I am ok with this race, but it is hard knowing I was in so much better shape last year.  However, I got sick before the 1/2 marathon last year, so it will even out. 

Tim Wight took 2 wrong turns (his brain tumor has reduced his visual ability) but still beat me by a bit.  Trever is planning to do the whole series, as are Walter and Jeff.  They are all 3-7 minutes ahead of me, so my top 3 goal for the series will be very difficult.  But I will keep working hard and see what happens- 31 miles of racing left.

Good job to everyone today!

2 miles warmup and 4 miles cooldown with Walter, James, Twinkie (Matt) and others.  And in some good news, my hamstring didn't hurt.  Finally.  Now I get to spend the day painting my house.

PM- I had considered doing a little workout, but just a few steps into my run knew that my legs were still tired and a bit sore in the quads, so will wait for some speed tomorrow.  Instead I just pounded out 12 miles.

AM- It's a new morning run record!  I squeezed in 7.5 full miles before I had to jump in the shower at 5:30 am in order to catch my 5:45 vanpool to work.  4 medium miles, followed by 3.5 miles at 6:00-6:45 pace in order to get in all 7.5 miles.  Of course, now I just want breakfast and a nap...

PM- Small workout.  8.5 miles with some fast stuff- I did a descending tempo, with 5 min fast, 5 recovery, 4 fast, 4 recovery... down to 1 min.  The first tempo was 5:50 pace, second was 5:45, and I kept going faster on each one till the 1 min was 5:30 pace.  Felt real good although my legs were tired going into the workout.   

PM- easy run.  Ran with both kids and Marci to Willow Park, dropped off Marci and McKinley to play, and continued with Aspen to the end of Planet Walk and back.  Ran home as a family.  Nice day- sunny, 55 deg, with a slight breeze.  6 miles at a whopping 9:26 avg pace.

PM- I was supposed to do a nice Big Workout with Cody today, but work interfered and I got home rather late.  I finally got out for a run at 9 pm, so just wanted to get in a few miles.  It stinks I missed the workout- maybe I'll try to add a few fast miles during my long run Sat.  6 miles.  My missed workout also means I'll have to run tomorrow morning and night- grr, I was hoping to sleep in till 5 am tomorrow, rather than my 4 am running wake up.

AM- 6.5 uneventful miles.

PM- Willow Park-Planet Walk with family (in the future, I will abbreviate this as WPPWWF). 4.5 miles.

AM- Long run. Cody and I did planet walk, then picked up Paul and did the Hyde Park loop. Nice loop, though there is one rather long hill that definitely increases in steepness. Good temperature, 35-40 deg- shorts, long sleeve shirt, gloves. Dropped Paul off and ran home. 20 miles on the nose, 7:22 avg (2:27:13), with 3 miles under 7:00 (fastest of 6:42). My legs have been sore all week and were very sore for the first half of the run, but started feeling a lot better by the end. Kind of strange. I felt pretty good considering this is my longest run by 2 miles and my highest mileage week by 6 miles.  Finished off with a huge, delicious brownie courtesy of the Drapers.

Next week I plan to be 70-72 miles with another 20 mile long run, followed by a 60 mile week with a mini-taper leading into the Strider's 1/2.

PM- 10

PM- Medium workout.  Ran to the Aquatic center and met Paul- my legs were very sluggish right from the start, which was not a good sign.  We ran Young Ward loop.  We decided to do a tinman tempo- I wanted 5-6 miles, he wanted 8, so we settled on 6.  I wanted 6:15 pace, he wanted faster but talkative, so we did 6:15 and talkative.  3 mile warmup at 7:00 pace, then 6 mile tempo.  Tempo miles were 6:06, 6:15, 6:13, 6:11, 6:16, 6:13.  It was lightly snowing when we started but was coming down rather hard by the end.  We were rather chatty the whole tempo, which I'm sure hurt me a bit the last few miles.  The first 4 miles felt good but I was definitely working.  Mile 5 was harder, and mile 6 was much more difficult than it should have been. 

I definitely don't have my speed yet- I am naturally an endurance guy, not a speed guy, so really have to work on my speed once I have a base.  I am trying to build both right now, though my emphasis is on base.  Cool down took me to 13.5 miles in 1:31:45, 6:52 avg for the run.  Ok workout, but Thursday's will be better.

AM- 6, with 1 at 6:45 pace to get all 6 in before I had to go to work.

PM- 4 more.

I had a workout with Paul planned, but had to cancel.  I have been feeling a bit under the weather all week, and today I started getting real achy and a bit of a fever.  I figured it would be better to take a day or two off to hopefully nip this in the bud rather than fight through it.  I haven't had injuries this season, but sickness has definitely been my bane.

PM- 12 miles at about 7:40 pace- 1 with the jogging stroller, most with Cody, some with Paul.  It was sunny but just above freezing with a breeze- in other words, still rather cold, despite looking nice.  Felt tired and sluggish, which isn't a surprise supposing I haven't run since last Wed.  I did get some awesome farmer blows, though, and could breath thru my nose for the first time in 3 days.  Here is my route- I don't think anyone other than Cody and Paul can figure it out:  PW, PH, LH, CH, PW, MH.  I did the last 4 miles alone- it always seems much harder to finish off a run by yourself after running with people for the first part, esp. when you are cold and tired.

AM- I got in bed by 10 last night, but tossed and turned for over 3 hours, finally falling asleep sometime after 1. Annoying. Nevertheless, I got up at 4 this morning for my run. I think I am going to be tired today. Plus my company is laying off 300 people today- hopefully I am not one of them. 6.5 miles.

PM- I did not get laid off, but it is not fun at all to watch your friends and coworkers leave.  Just sad.  For my workout, Paul and I were going to do a tempo on the First Dam 10k course.  The weather was rather cold, with some intermittent wind and snow.  After 3 miles warm up, we were off.  My legs again felt sluggish during the entire run, just like the previous 2 weeks- not sure why, but I hope it goes away.  The goal was about 6:00 pace for the run.  I cannot say I ran with Paul during the workout- I just watched him progressively get further away.  My first mile was 6:29, then 6:49, then 7:04.  I had nothing.  Nothing.  The rest of the workout I struggled to hold 7:30 pace, plus had to stop for a bathroom break.  Paul finished his workout, ran home, showered, ate dinner, watched a few episodes of the Simpsons, got back into his running clothes and ran back to the park... and he still got there before I finished my workout.  2.5 mile slog home.

So I can declare today was one of the 5 worst workouts of my life.  Crap.  I either have to write it off, or else I will get so depressed about my current fitness that I would quit running, eat lots of candy, get huge, and have to go on "The Biggest Loser" in a few years just so I could walk around the block in less than an hour.  [Commentator]- "He used to be a 2:40 marathoner.  Now he just wants to lose 240 pounds.  Please welcome, Jon!"