running for my mind

5 easy miles with Adam this morning. It was good to have someone to run with again. Adam's knee has been bothering him, but he said it felt quite a bit better this morning. My quads were feeling a little sore. I think it is just part of a good run week. I am a little worried my long(er) run tomorrow will be more tough than I had hoped. Oh well.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	40:30.6	5.00	8:06
1	8:40.0	1.00	8:40
2	7:57.4	1.00	7:57
3	7:48.7	1.00	7:49
4	8:09.4	1.00	8:09
5	7:54.2	1.00	7:54
6	:00.9	0.00	7:58

12 miles - From my house past Oly high and back. I wanted to keep things under an 8:00 pace and gradually pick up the pace until the half-way mark. My 5th mile I slipped back on the pace a bit, but I am still happy with it because that mile has the longest hill on the route. I also wanted to run 2 miles at marathon pace so I am stoked that I got those in. The first 1.4 of those 2 miles had a slight downhill so I actually ran them a little faster. Overall I felt good, but was definitely sore by the end. My quads were feeling it which I think is just built up fatigue from this week. The good thing was that my calves didn't hurt at all which made me feel great!

I am glad that I hit my mileage goal this week along with my 400 repeats and the 2 mile tempo. I feel good at where I am in my training so far. 

Scheduled rest day today. It was a nice break. Crazy thing is that we went to bed last night at 8:30 and woke up this morning at 7:30. Yup, we all slept 11 hours! Took a hot bath in the middle of the day and did some stretching. Then I iced a little during the super bowl as I read a running book and worked on my training schedule.

Goals for this week:
45 total miles
800 repeats
Tempo run longer than this past week

6 easy miles this morning. I went out just for an easy run not worrying about my pace. I also wore my heart rate strap for the first time in a long while. (the last time I wore it I had all kinds of problems where I was getting a reading of 225bpm while at an 8:20 pace)

The heart rate strap must have been working this time. I averaged a 154. I actually felt pretty sluggish the first 3 miles. I think I have a mental block when I wear my heart rate strap. I start to worry too much about my heart rate even though I am not looking at my watch. I think this worrying naturally causes my heart rate to rise. By mile 3 I must have finally forgot I was wearing it and everything seemed a lot easier. I finally got in a rhythm and the next thing I knew the run was over.

I think part of feeling sluggish at the beginning was the fact that I took yesterday off. Might have taken my body a few miles to work out cobwebs.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	47:58.5	6.07	7:54
1	8:03.2	1.00	8:03
2	8:01.9	1.00	8:02
3	7:59.1	1.00	7:59
4	7:58.3	1.00	7:58
5	7:43.1	1.00	7:43
6	7:42.4	1.00	7:42
7	:30.5	0.07	6:59

6 easy recovery miles. Felt nice to just mope along after the 800s yesterday. 

8 miles - 2 mile warmup, 4 mile at marathon pace, and 2 mile cool down. 

Overall I felt pretty good on this run. It was the longest tempo I have done. I was super glad to have Adam there to help pace me. If I was solo I probably would have slacked when it start to get tough. My heart rate peaked on the tempo at 177 and probably averaged in the low 170s for the 4 miles. Full HR data.

My quads are pretty tired and sore so I spent the last hour rotating from the sauna to the steam room and stretching and massaging. Hopefully I can hit the foam roller for a bit tonight and get a good night's sleep.

5 easy miles on the treadmill. Woke up and fed Grey and then it started to rain/snow/sleet. Decided the treadmill sounded nicer than having to get bundled up to run in the elements for an easy run. Felt good overall. Gave the new shoes a go and really liked them. I think I might wear them on my long(er) run tomorrow.

AP - 8:15 

12 easy miles - some with Brayden. This was a weird run where I didn't feel 100%. Now that I am writing this almost a week later I know why. I was getting (more)sick. I wanted to go out and not worry about my pace and just cruise at what felt comfortable. Tyler suggested this at lunch on Friday. As it turned out I ran slower than I thought I was going to. I just was feeling weak. I still averaged faster than my long runs in the summer last year so that is good. Full HR data.

Took a scheduled rest day today. Not feeling so healthy right now. On Friday and Saturday I woke up in the middle of the nights having sweated through the sheets. I am either hot or I am really cold during the day. I hope that taking it easy today makes me feel good enough to run in the morning and I can have another good week. 

 Overall, I feel really good about this week of running. I hit all of my goals. I wanted to run 45 total miles, do 800s, and get a 4 mile tempo run in. I am stoked that I did all of this!

Goals for this coming week (if healthy) - Maintain at 45 miles - 1 mile repeats - another 4 mile tempo. 

6 easy on the treadmill.

Wow! So almost a week went by without running. I was crazy sick with some odd virus that I couldn't kick. I am glad for modern medicine that finally got rid of it.

It was good to get back moving again. Chose the treadmill so I could bail and just come upstairs to bed if I needed to. I felt pretty good, but could tell I was still weak. Will be interesting to see how I feel on tomorrow's long(er) run. I am not stoked that I lost 4 days of training, but I have been feeling lousy since the first of December and was in a really bad way at the beginning of this week. I don't think the time off will really have any negative effects on my training because I have a decent amount of time left before my race. At least that is what I hope.

AP = 8:26   - Full HR data.

12 easy - Fun run in bear lake. Was more frosted than I have ever been by the end. Felt good overall and held a decent pace. Felt good for just coming off of the sickness. This run helped build my confidence. Going to try and post a pic below. Hopefully it works. 

planned rest day up here in bear lake. good to rest and get away.

7 easy

Felt good on this run. I just went for it and didn't worry about my pace much. I knew I went out a little fast so I backed it off, but then just ran the rest of the run by feel. 

AM - 4 miles - 2 mile warmup, 1 mile at 6:00, 1 mile cooldown. - Ran this across Wasatch because the tracks are all covered in snow still. Felt decent, but was a little bothered by how hard the 6 min mile felt. 

PM - 4 miles on the treadmill - 2 mile warmup, 1 mile at 6:00, 1 mile cooldown. - Because I wanted to get more in this morning but didn't I hopped on the treadmill for round 2. I would have liked to do the 1 mile a little faster but my treadmill maxes at 10mph. Once again I felt pretty burned out by the end of that mile. I think my legs were feeling sore from this morning. Looking forward to an easy day tomorrow.  

6 easy on the treadmill at 8:37. was nice to just get the legs loose. watched part of the count of monte cristo. that is a good flick. maybe I will finish it on my next easy run if I hop on the treadmill again.

7 miles

fun run this morning with Adam. It was good to run with someone again. I have had a lot of solo runs lately. We kept it casual with some faster burts here and there. It is always good to run fast with Adam because he pushes me down under the 6:00 pace. Opted for this workout over a tempo segment. I think it is good for me to mix it up every once in a while so I don't get so bored and burned out.

5 miles - 2 mile warmup and then 2 miles where every .2 miles I sped up the treadmill .2/mph. Got up to 6:40 pace and ran that for a half mile, then did a 1 mile cooldown.

Opened the door to join Adam for a run and was upset to see the snow falling. Decided it was better to hit the treadmill.  

I listened to the podcast yesterday that Adam posted by Rich Roll with him talking to Brian Mackenzie. Interesting stuff in there. I might try and pick up Mackenzie's book. The thought of crossfit endurance does not sit very easy with me yet though.  

12 miles - today felt good. glad i woke up and got out when i did. the storm and wind rolled in right after i finished. my left hamstring started to hurt yesterday but it was not impeding today. it took a few miles for it to loosen up and for me to not notice it anymore. I mixed up my route a little bit and it caused for the first half to be almost all a gradual uphill. the climb was not miserable but it was about 375 ft. with a couple of long hauls. I feel really good about my splits though and my AP of 7:48. I just ran off of feel again and didn't look at my watch. I would hear it beep every mile and would resist looking. I am looking forward to the coming week and the speed workouts that I have planned. 

Planned rest day today.

I am feeling pretty good in my training. I have been a little surprised because I feel like I am having to fight more pains and aches than last summer. I need to be better about stretching and icing. That is one of my goals for this week.

Weekly Goals - 45-50 miles - 400s - tempo run 

7 miles with Adam. 

Had a good 7 mile run with Adam. We averaged a 7:38 pace, which I was stoked with because we were just taking it easy and chatting along the way. We mixed up our route a little, but we still covered some of the same miles. We ran our first mile almost 40 seconds faster than we normally do. Our "hill" mile we ran considerably faster too. I can't remember the exact time, but will post the splits when I get home from work. 

Feeling pretty good overall. My hamstring didn't act up at all on the run so who knows what that little thing was that I felt over the weekend. Glad it is gone though. Maybe the light kicking around the pool and hot tub at the Lion's club on Saturday night helped.  

9 miles with Adam.

This was an intense run with a mega hill going up fort union blvd. Total climb was 487ft, give or take.

We had set out to do some 1/4 mile repeats hoping to do 8 of them, but the snow changed that plan. When we started it was not coming down too bad and we thought that after the hill at the half way point we would be able to pick up the pace and get the repeats in. The snow worsened as we went. We clipped the last 4 miles off at a decent pace, but didn't get the repeats in. That is ok though. We had a great run, it was a great workout, and we will sneak the repeats in on Thursday.

Going to head to the steam room and sauna and stretch and relax a little in between my classes today. I always look forward to that! 

5 easy with Adam. 

We ran our normal route today and it was a lot of fun. It was fun to have dry roads to enjoy. Interestingly we just kept an easy pace and chatted along the way but our average pace was 7:32. I was way stoked for this because I think it shows that I am getting faster. This is still a crawl for Adam so I am glad he doesn't just ditch me!