running for my mind

Another easy 4 this morning but I did push the pace for about .2 just to see how it felt. Was alright.

Spent a couple hours at the spa last night and got a massage thanks to a free entry to Kura Door in the avenues. I think it helped my legs feel better overall.

Headed down to St. George after work to watch the half ironman tomorrow. Should be a tough day with the heat.

LONG DAY! - 4 miles along the parkway in St. George in the eveing to cap it off. 

Drove down to St. George yesterday after work. Got in about 10:30. Couldn't sleep well for whatever reason. I woke up every hour. I think I was worried about missing my 4:10 alarm. Arose at 4:10 and got to the lake at 5. Spent the entire day in the sun chasing athletes around and taking pictures. My sister-in-law completed her first half ironman.

At about 9pm I decided to head out for a short run. I was going to just do an easy 4-6 because I was pretty beat from being on my feet all day. A friend suggested I head to the parkway to run. I didn't know it was a bunch of rollers. Where I started from it was downhill with a slight tailwind. Ended up at a 7:15. Ran the second in 7:07 or something back up the hill and into the wind. Then slowed to an 8:05 going up a steeper hill into the wind. Turned back downhill and pushed the pace just to test how I would feel this coming Saturday on the downhill 5k. Didn't push too hard and ran near 6:30. Ended the run with a hike to the top of the DIXIE rock to take a night picture. 

6 pretty easy along legacy parkway pushing Grey in the stroller. 7:55 average despite the headwind and stroller. Took it mostly easy, but tossed in a couple of pickups just to see how the legs were feeling. Did one .5 at about a 6:30. 

I think I am going to shoot for a 5:30 first mile on Saturday and then try and hangon. I am only worried about the set of 20 stairs shortly after mile one!

4 easy on the treadmill this morning. I didn't wake up early enough to get out longer than the 4 miles. 

Nothing hurts when I run, but I am still having some left hamstring pain as I sit at work throughout the day. I heated it yesterday and will do again today. Hopefully it helps. Probably need to try and roll it as well. Ideas?

6 along the parkway with Josh. 4 strides tossed into the last mile. I have been trying to work on my form a little bit lately. It started to fall apart during the last pickup for sure. When I was reaching my top speed, I went into sprint mode and I am glad that Josh pointed it out. At that top speed I tend to hunch more and tense up. 

4 easy - I was feeling super tired this morning and almost crawled back in bed. I figured if I got an easy 4 in it would help my legs feel better. That's how my bed lost the argument. Took it easy on the treadmill and then hit the foam roller for a bit before leaving for work. My left hamstring is still aching a bit and I don't know why.

I am trying to figure out how I can get a good warmup in on Saturday before the 5k. The race starts at 6:30 and the bus leaves at 6:00. Obviously the bus doesn't have to drive far, but I might try and warmup a little before boarding the bus and then a little right before the race. I don't want to leave it all to before the race and have the bus show up only 5 minutes before the start. Now I am rambling.

Sure, the time was a PR for the 5k for me, but it was aided and poorly executed. I am glad I did it because it was a learning experience and that is the mode I am in right now, learning. I am happy with a second place finish, but recognize the field was not that fast. Golden Harper (altra founder) took first. He was hoping for sub-16 and ended up in the 16:30s I think.

I am not going to bother to put split times because I don't know if my watch was working or what was going on. I went out too fast and slowed considerably. I have no excuses other than I couldn't make it happen perfectly today, but below is the story of how it transpired. 

I got to the race with plenty of time to grab all the runmehappy gear (tent, banner, chairs, etc) and walk them to the finish line where the booth would be. I warmed up just a little because I didn't know how much time I would have after the bus dropped us off. Ended up that we had about 20 minutes at the start so I did my official warmup there. I walked up to the starting line at about 6:27 and there were cones setup but no timing strip. The one guy there said that it would be there soon and that we would start in about 5 to 10 minutes. 

I turned and jogged up the canyon to keep moving. About 100 yards away, I hear a horn go off and look back to see runners starting. I cruised it to the start and asked the guy what happened. He told me that he got a call that simply said, "Start in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." He explained that we were running off of the 10k start instead of waiting for the strip and our times would stop when we crossed the finishline strip. Ok, whatever.

For whatever reason when I saved my warmup session to my garmin, it lost satellite, or so it appeared. I stood there at the start and told the guy I was not starting until my watch was working and that I would just record my time. It seemed like it took forever so I finally just told him I was going to go. He said the race clock was at 3:31 and I told him to say go at 3:45 so he would know that is when I started.

I was obviously all alone at this point. I looked at my watch a few times and it was reading in the high 3:00s and then 4:00s. First mile was 4:54. Like I said, I have no idea if that is accurate, but it could have been. It was steep and I could tell I was going too fast, but just didn't trust what my watch was saying. 

I slowed considerably and didn't feel great the last mile. I finished and after making it through the finish area I kneeled on the grass. A few minutes later I vomited once. That made me feel quite a bit better and within 5 minutes I was not really nauseated anymore. 

So, there you have it. A few lessons learned. 

I don't handle disappointment well. 

Sometimes, 6 easy miles makes me feel quite a bit better.

6 on the parkway with Josh - 7:10 average

I got into the St. George Marathon and have a goal to run sub-2:50. I think with the right cycle of training I can pull it off. There is a good group of us that got in so it will be fun to train and run it together. 

I am going to take the next couple of weeks easy and see if I can get all of my little nags and niggles to heal up before I start my cycle June 1.

AM
6 - through the neighborhood and then south on the parkway. First time I made it directly home from a run without making a wrong turn in the new neighborhood. Slowly I will learn the street names and not get lost.

PM
hiked up and ran down Mt. Wire. Pretty rough going up, but felt nice to open up on the way down. I have not uploaded my watch data yet. I am interested to see what the vertical climb was in those first 2 miles.

7 along the parkway going north with Josh

I thought my calves would be worse this morning from last night's hike, but they were ok...not great. 

Quads are pretty sore. I assume it is from the hike the other night. I pounded out some pretty fast miles on the descent. I might do a few easy miles tonight, but probably not. My brother-in-law has asked me to run the second half of the Ogden Marathon with him tomorrow so I will be doing that unless he changes his mind before then. Honestly, I hope he decides not to run it!

12 along the parkway. 8 were with Adam and we did one mile at marathon pace for fun.

My quads are crazy sore. I think running easy today helped but I still feel like what I assume an old man feels like while walking down stairs.

4 easy on the mill - If you have Netflix, I recommend you watch Rising from Ashes. It is a documentary about a Rwanda cycling team. Pretty cool story with quality cinematography and music. 

6 along the parkway north with Josh and Adam.

6 through the neighborhood and onto the parkway. It was another success in that I didn't get lost coming home. Tried to focus on my stride and form today and just be steady and relax. Josh and Adam looked a lot more at ease than me yesterday. It was a good exercise for me this morning to try and keep my breathing in check and my heart rate down. Ended up averaging a couple seconds faster than yesterday though I was not focusing on pace and it felt easier today. 

7 easy on the parkway going south with Josh and Adam. I am liking the morning runs with the morning crew. Perfect weather and great company. 

50 minutes on the mill. I'll consider it 6 miles. I am excited for this weekend and a couple of long(er) runs and enjoying the holiday up in Park City.

Josh, John, Scott, and I drove down to Orem and met up with a big group that ran part of the Utah Valley course this AM. We ran from Wallsburg to Orem. Fun to run with so many people. I need to get my hands on the video of 14 of us funneling out of the mini van!

20 total. We did the first 7.5 at a 7:12 average (which was a little faster than I was originally planning, but I was happy about it in hindsight). The next 10 I had planned on at "marathon pace," which I don't really know how to define right now. I was thinking I could handle 6:45 and didn't want to end up slower than that. Ended up averaging 6:39 for the tempo, which I am pleased with. So, 6:54 average for 17.5 and then the last 2.5 I jogged in slow and steady to cool down. 

I feel like this was a great run to see where I am at right now and where I need to be by the fall. This was the fastest 20 mile training run I have ever done. Usually I reserve my long runs for a moderate pace without any type of workout thrown in. This cycle, I am going to mix that up.

4 easy on the mill to shake out the legs from yesterday and loosen them up for tomorrow.

I watched the crossfit regional games for a bit because my cousin is competing this weekend. It is odd.

13 with a great group this morning in Jeremy Ranch. Jake, Josh, Rob, John, Fritz, Collin, and I.

Big thanks to them for dragging me along.

Took the AM off. Might take the entire day off or might log a few easy tonight. Not too concerned as I don't really have a set schedule for another week or so when I start my fall marathon cycle.

I put in a decent effort over the weekend, so a rest day sounds quite nice.

PM - Ended up not running. My neck and back have been giving me some issues so I spent some time doing some stretching and yoga and got in bed early.

8 from West High Track up Memory Grove and around the Aves with Josh and Adam. It was fun to run around the neighborhood where Whit and I spent the first 4 years of our marriage before taking off to law school. 

It was hot this morning. I wish it was 25-30 degrees cooler. Oh well. It will come back in a few months.

There has been a lot of talk of Crossfit in my family lately because my cousin just competed in some regional competition in southern California. I figure THIS is worth sharing.

7.5 - 2 mile up, 4 progression tempo, 1.5 down.

I had not planned on a tempo. Was going to just toss in some strides near the end of the run. But, mile 3 ended up at 6:50 so I just went with it. 6:29 average - 6:50, 6:28, 6:27, 6:13

I might just start linking a video a day - This is why biking scares me.

6 easy on the parkway going north with Josh and Adam. Solid morning crew with a few really good laughs.

Speaking of humor, I just spoke to a client on the phone and she used the phrase "Up to my ears in alligators" to describe how busy she has been. I had never heard that before.

Tough workout to end the week. Goal was 16 miles with one or so fast at the end. Wanted to hover between 7:30-7:45 on the way out and near 7:20 on the way back but mostly off of feel. Then one mile sub-7 and perhaps a half near 6:30.

Ran the parkway North for 8 miles with Scott (avg 7:28). Scott's stomach started acting up so he backed off. First few heading back felt good (7:14, 7:12, 7:13) and then a strong headwind came out of nowhere. I upped the effort to maintain (7:18, 7:22, 7:17). Pushed hard for the last effort and came in at 6:57.

Though it was a little slower at the end, I am pleased with the effort and being able to push through.