I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 9.  New shoes.

PM- 6 more. 

AM- 9.5.  Just getting in the miles.

PM- 7 

AM- 8.5.  My blog is really boring this week.

No run tonight.

PM- 6.

AM- Ran with Paul and Cody on dirt roads/trails from Paul's house in Smithfield down to Logan Canyon and back.  About 20 deg and steady snow (2-3 inches fell while we ran), which was enjoyable but made for slow going.  I really love snow running, and this was the first of the year.  Saw the new fishing pond at Green Canyon- not sure what to make of it.  Paul had the great idea of doing a Green Canyon triathlon, though the swim would be short.  The bike and run would be fantastic, though.  I am jealous how many nice dirt trails Paul has right by his house. 

Paul did 15 miles, then Cody and I did a few more, including on the ice sheet known as Birch Canyon (note: do not run on it again till spring).  Cody even tested out the slickness with his hand and hip.  21.25 miles total, according to Cody, so I'll round down (yes, I do round down sometimes).  Total time was slow, over 3 hours- I think Cody said about 8:40 pace.  Thanks for the run, guys- nice to run on some good trails with the guys.

AM- 8.5.  Spent all weekend trying to fix my darn computer.  Hate viruses.  At least the Broncos won and Pittsburgh lost (maybe the only time I root for Oakland).

PM- Pizza night at Planet Fitness.  I downed 2 pieces before I even started running, and ended up eating 5 pieces.  Maybe 6.  Not sure.  But I am sure I ran 10.5 miles while watching a combination of MNF pregame, Seinfeld, and Cash Cab.  Not too shabby. 

AM- Over the past 2.5 months, I have done decent mileage but almost no speedwork.  I need to do some prior to the 100, so today was the first workout.  2 miles warmup, then 10 miles at 6:00 pace.  I'll admit it was very tough but I got through it.  .5 mile cooldown, then 2 bagels (courtesy of Planet Fitness).  12.5 miles total in 79 min.

Lunch- 12

AM- According to the Weather Channel, it was negative 10 deg F when I left on my run.  Without wind chill.  With wind chill, it was negative "you must have a death wish!"  So I did 14 miles on the treadmill at about 7:15 avg pace.

PM- 8 more. 

AM- A couple miles warmup, then 6x 1 mile at 5:45 pace, with .5 mile recovery in between at 7:30 pace.  Finished with 10 total miles.  Hamstrings are both tight, but otherwise I feel fine. 

PM- 5.  Just for kicks and giggles.  Happy Friday, everyone.

AM- Nice morning for a run, practically a heat wave.  It was a full 30 deg warmer than yesterday morning... although since yesterday was -14F, today was still only 16F.  Several inches of snow fell overnight and I convinced Cody to do a favorite snow run of mine- run from our house to Dry Canyon, then along Deer Fence trail to Providence Canyon and home.  Traction was iffy on the roads but lots of fun on the trail.  12.5 miles total, Cody says it was 101 minutes.  Good mileage overall for the week.

I was planning to do 95 miles this week with recovery week next week, but decided to switch them since I will have more free time to run next week.  Man, it was nice to sleep in till 5:45 this morning and not run!

PM- 10 miles.  Supposed to include an 8 mile tempo.  However, for some reason I got really lightheaded and dizzy during the tempo so quit it after 5 miles and jogged it in.  Not sure why that happened, but oh well.  5 miles at 7:30 pace, 5 miles at 6:10 pace.

AM- 8.

PM- 6.

With all due respect to Cody, my blog is much more boring than his.

AM- 9.  Snowing again.

PM- BW.  14 miles with 8x 1 mile repeats, with .25 mile jog in between each repeat.  All my mile times were between 5:42-5:49.  I felt very good during the repeats and afterwards (so good that I added an extra repeat to my planned 7), though my stomach wasn't happy and required multiple pit stops.  Good run.

AM- 6.5.

PM- 4 more.  Exciting, I know.

AM- Long run with Cody and Paul.  It was rather chilly- 16 deg with a very cold breeze from the SW.  We ran up onto the Millville and Providence bench to get out of the inversion fog.  It was rather pleasant and even sunny up top, but once we had to descend it was again foggy and cold, especially when running south or west.  Paul got over-eager a few times and pushed the pace as fast as 6:15/mile until we complained.  Then he would wait a few minutes and do it again.  Lots of good conversation and no one lost any toes or fingers.  It makes me look forward to spring and summer when the 3 of us can do more runs together in more favorable weather.  17 miles, 2:02:00 (7:09/mile).

Good end to a recovery week.  The next two weeks will be the hardest of my whole race build up and should be my highest mileage ever, including a double long run next week of 5 hr and 4 hr.  I made hotel and car reservations this week, so everything is 100% ready.  All I have to do is 7 more weeks of training (4 hard), then get on the airplane.

My running schedule had me running a back-to-back long runs later this week, but the weather forecast convinced me to move it up.  Today was ideal weather (36 deg, slight breeze), with 2-4 inches snow tonight which will affect my run tomorrow.  But, every other day for the next 10 days was either very cold (highs in the teens, lows near 0) or snowy, so I decided to just get this big workout over with. 

The plan was 5 hrs today (35 miles?), 3.5-4 hrs tomorrow (25 miles?).  Pace is about 100 mile race pace (8:30-ish), with a 2 min walk break every 30 minutes.  I drove to the IF greenbelt and started at 11 am.  Jeff Shadley ran with me the first 75 min, which made the first 9 miles pass very quickly.  Good to see him again, and we ran into Dan S, as well.  Then I was on my own.  I looped all around the various parts of the greenbelt, from Freeman park in the north to Sunnyside in the south.  I had a bit of a rough patch from miles 20-25, but then felt much better after that and increased my pace to 7:45/mile for a bit.  After 25 miles, my feet and knees were really complaining about the hard blacktop, so I ran the last 10 miles almost exclusively on grass/snow, which made it a bit harder and slower.  But, I felt good and enjoyed that part. 

I passed the marathon mark at 3:40, which coincidentally is 90 seconds faster than my 2004 Boston marathon time (that's a painful story for another day).  The last 90 minutes surprisingly seemed to pass quickly.  I slowly increased the pace and really pushed it the last 30 min, with 3-7:30 miles and a final mile of 7:12. Ran exactly 36.01 miles in exactly 5:00:01- 8:20 pace, faster than expected (especially since it included the walk breaks- I didn't stop my watch).

Celebrated the finish with Nestle Quik and a banana.  My fueling and gear worked great (no hot spots or blisters), and had no physical problems other than some slight twinging in my right arch which I'll monitor. Tomorrow will be a difficult run, since I'm not fueling a lot before then so I'll intentionally be glycogen depleted.  It will hurt like H-E-Double Hockey Stick, but that's the whole point- learn to run when tired.  Should be fun.

AM- Long run part II.  I was glad to see the predicted snow missed us last night, though it did snow a fair amount during my run.  Temp was pretty nice- 33 deg, though there was a strong breeze at times.  Plan was 3.5-4 hrs, 25-29 miles (depending on feel).

Run went fine for a while and I felt pretty good.  Ran 90% on snow/grass again, which was softer yet slower than pavement.  Jeff ran with me from about mile 11 till 17, which was very welcome.  Averaged sub-8:30 pace through mile 20, when I stopped to change my shoes, socks, and shirt in an attempt to get warm and dry.  However, during miles 20 thru 22 I made the mistake of heading out to the exposed Snake River landing.  The headwind had really picked up and the light snow turned into a driving sleet.  I was cold, wet, tired, and pretty miserable; in other words, I felt exactly as I had hoped during this run.  However, fighting the elements really sapped my strength. 

The weather improved markedly when I turned around, but right then my hips started hurting.  A lot.  I've never had hip problems before, so this was new territory (then again, I've never ran 60+ miles in 2 days before, either).  The pain slowed me to 9 min pace for 3 miles.  At this point, I decided discretion is the better part of valour and called it a day.  I slogged the final 1.5 miles back to my car at 10 min pace.  Total 25.5 miles in 3:41:25.

The next few days will be recovery and deciding if my hips are injured or just sore/tired.  The whole purpose of this week was this double long run, so I'll take as much time as needed to recover.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

AM- Back to work after 6 days of getting fat.  Went to a workout place here in Idaho (the pass got me in for free, Jeff- thanks).  Did 10 miles, about 1/2 treadmill and 1/2 elliptical.  Left hip still has some residual pain, right felt fine.  Elliptical didn't hurt at all, so I'll probably do a mix this week to help my hips.  For the record, based on the pain I think I had the beginnings of hip bursitis- not 100% sure on the self-diagnosis, but that seems to fit the symptoms the best.  As far as hip injuries go, that one seems to be about the best.  But I'm going to be very cautious for a few weeks.

PM- 7 more.

AM- 4.5 miles before both hips really hurt, then 5 elliptical miles.  Probably won't run tonight to give them a rest.

Year in Review:

Overall, I would call this a very good year for my running, though I only met a few of my goals from the start of the year.  I didn't run much Nov or Dec 2008, so my year started off slow and I didn't do as well in the Striders Winter Racing circuit as I would have liked, not even running the last race.  I really enjoyed the Wahsatch Steeplechase, but my sub-2:25 and top 3 place goal was very overly ambitious- maybe another year, but not when running it for the first time.  Logan Peak was definitely one of the highlights of the year, with a win and course record during a fun run with some great guys.  It was also the only trail race I placed top 3 all year, which was one of my goals. 

I then set my 5k PR (set back in HS) on the 4th of July despite minimal speedwork.  However, the Des News 10k was rather disappointing at the end of a hard month.  But I followed that up with a great Jupiter Steeplechase, taking 6 minutes off my time from 2008.  Unfortunately, it was my last trail race of the year.  I ran my first 100 mile week ever, and ended up with 4 of them this year.  TOU 1/2 marathon was a good race, only 7 seconds slower than my PR on that course last year.  I'm very happy with my 1/2 marathon PR.  The TOU marathon was another great race for me, finally breaking through the long-standing 2:35 goal and resulting in my retiring from serious road marathoning.  I really enjoyed pacing Davy in the Bear 100 the next week for 30 miles.

My next race was Ogden Valley 50 miler, my first ultra over 30 miles.  It went well, and I enjoyed Cody pacing the last 15 miles.  Then I ended the year with a bang, running the Grand Canyon R2R2R with Davy and company.  Awesome, awesome run.  I finished the year with 3357.5 miles (top 10 on FRB), and would have been 3500+ plus if it wasn't for my injury last week.  Despite the highest annual mileage of my life, I was the most injury free in many years... right up until my unfortunate hip injury last week.  I'm still working out what it is and if it will greatly affect me in 2010, including my Rocky Raccoon 100 race in Feb.  I only met my "top 3" goal at 1 of the 4 focus races, but that's ok.  My trail races, marathon PR, and long-planned transition to trail races were the highlights of the year.  Hopefully I can recover from my current injury and smash my way into the world of 100's.

Goals for next year:  Again, stay injury free and run 3000+ miles (no need to go higher than this year).  Planned races are Rocky Raccoon 100 (hopefully), Buffalo Run 50k or 50m, Pocatello 50, and Bear 100.  Probably throw a few shorter races in there, and maybe a few more 50's or 100's.  I'd like to place top 3 or 5 in some 50's and 100's.  But right now I just need to get healthy.

Happy New Years, everyone!