running for my mind

8

1:07

8:20

Met Scott up at his house to run an 8 mile route he had planned out. Neither of us had a goal pace and I know I am not fully recovered from the marathon. We ended up going south on Wasatch up to the mouth of little cottonwood canyon. Scott has attacked that hill a few times in his training this year, but it was the first time I had run up it. It is definitely a great hill to gauge one's fitness. We didn't push the hill too hard, but I could feel  my calves being a little tight by the end of the run. Interestingly, the back of my right knee hurt on and off the rest of the day. I reckon all the little niggles are residual issues from the marathon.

10.5

1:22

7:48 average pace

Took off from my house with Scott at about 6 am. Didn't  have any goals for pace. We ended up running a totally new route than I ever have from my house. Was nice to mix it up a bit. Felt great that it was very little effort to hold that average. I am going to try and pay attention to the next couple weeks of running to determine what my plan will be for training for Boston.

5.5 miles

40:47

7:24 average pace

Ok, so I got some flack on Saturday for not updating my blog enough lately. It is true, I took some serious time off from detailed updates from the blog. But, I am committed to being back on more consistently. As many know, I took the time away from the blog to study for the bar. I am glad that is behind me and I never have to study for that thing again.

This morning I went out solo for an easy loop. I don't really know what I will be doing for any plan these next few months. My next major race is Boston, so I think I am just going to average around 4-5 days a week to maintain some decent fitness for now.

It was a brisk morning, but felt good in shorts and a long sleeve. I don't have specific split data because I am borrowing my mom's Garmin until mine arrives (my 610 fell off in my last marathon and broke so I ordered a new one). I know my first mile today was close to 8:00 but then I just felt like I needed some faster miles. I have not really pushed the pace at all since the BCC Marathon on 9/14. It felt good to have a little quicker turnover and the last 3 miles were around 6:55. Nothing too crazy, but a little quicker.

6

46:43

7:47 average pace

It was fun to get out on a run this morning with Adam and Scott. Both Brayden and Tyler were maybe going to join us as well, but they bailed. Would have been a good sized crew for a Tuesday morning.

I was super surprised to see 64 degrees on my phone when I woke up. Yesterday was only around 43. It is the warm before the storm I guess. It was good to run with Adam again. It has been a few months at least. We ran the typical 6 mile loop from my house with a slight modification north of Spring Ln. It brought back a lot of cold memories from last winter. I don't know if I am ready for early dark cold winter runs yet.

Overall, I felt good. My legs seemed a little slow at the beginning even though we started at a little slower than 8:00 min pace. I think I was a little fatigued from yesterday's quicker couple of miles. At about mile 5 I noticed my lower back was feeling pretty sore as well. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but I think I am going to focus on some core exercises to see if I can strengthen my back a bit.

I took this AM off from running. I slept in only about 30 minutes more than when I run and decided to do a little stretching for my back and neck that have been hurting lately. There is a disease that runs in my family called ankylosing spondylitis. It is likely the cause of much of my lower back pain. Thankfully, running is the one thing that I have found that makes it feel the best. Stretching helps as well and I am going to try a little strength training over the next couple months to see if that helps as well. I might get out for an evening short run but we shall see.

6 miles

44:40

7:27 average - mile 4 in 6:39

Was glad the rain had subsided by the time I went out at 6am. Met Tyler and Scott at my house and did a 6 mile loop. We had contemplated a little faster mile or so in the middle and we decided to toss that in at mile 4. It felt nice to clip along at that pace. I think next time I do this workout I will go for 2-4 at tempo. I am going to do a little interval day next week as well.

I still don't know what my plan is for the next couple of months before I start another training cycle in preparation for Boston. Going in to my last race, I averaged about a 7:45 pace on my "easy" runs. I think i might try and drop that down to 7:30 and see how that feels. I also think my plan of 4-5 days a week for the next couple of weeks is going to be good for me mentally. If anyone has some thoughts on how to spend the next two months of "off season" without losing too much fitness let me know. thanks.

My back felt pretty good on the run but it is definitely still sore. One of the triggers of inflamation for me is stress. I tend to live a pretty stress free life, but the weight of not having a job is starting to take a toll on me I think. It is constantly on my mind, even when I am running and it should be the furthest from my thoughts.

Took another morning off. Not because my back hurt, it actually feels better today than any other day this week. Whit flew to San Francisco yesterday morning so I have my daughter Grey. I am going to take her in the stroller tomorrow, but I just couldn't make it work this morning with time constraints.

I am going to go hiking with Grey this evening if the weather holds. Going to head up Neffs probably if anyone is interested.

10 miles 

1:25:56

8:36 average

AM - Met Scott and his daughter just after 8 and ran with Grey in her stroller. I would like someone to tell me exactly how much more difficult it is as far as effort goes when you are pushing a kid in a stroller. Especially when there is a headwind and you feel like you are pushing a parachute!

We obviously were planning on taking it easy, and I was actually pretty surprised with the average pace when we were done. There were some hills and a few windy sections that I felt like I was putting in quite an effort. 

After the run I hurried home and changed and went to a friends to help him move. I tossed Grey in the backpack and lifted boxes from a basement to a truck for two solid hours. I consider this my cross training for the month! Grey was a champion and didn't complain once the entire time. 

PM - Headed up to Summit County to my folks place and got in the hot tub before heading to bed. My parents' hot tub is a machine at massaging. I focused a lot on my back because it had been so sore at the start of the week. 

6 miles - Met up with Jake and tested a few pair of Sauconys. It was fun to notice and feel the difference between shoes. After he took off to meet some other people, I ran another three miles to make it 6 total.

Legs felt really good and I averaged just under 7:30. Going to do a workout tomorrow of some quarter mile pickups on a 6 mile loop. I am excited for that workout and need to figure out before then how fast I want the quarter miles to be. Because I am not focusing on really getting faster at this point in my training, I will likely shoot for about a 6:00 pace for each of them.

6.5 miles - 2 mile warmup, 6 quarter mile repeats with quarter mile rests, cool down back home.

Met up with Scott and Brayden for this run. It was nice to have company for some repeats. We ran a loop through the Holladay area. I had originally planned on keeping the repeats around a 6:00 pace, as I noted yesterday, but when we ran the first one it just felt perfect at 5:30.

We stayed consist with 5 repeats that were all between 81 and 83 seconds. We pushed the last one a little bit and started out a little faster and I progressively picked up the pace and clocked a 70 sec, roughly a 4:40 pace.

My legs felt great and I was pleased that the 5:30s felt easy. I figure if I keep up my "time off" running the next couple of months with some speed work like today tossed in every now and then I will be ready to ramp up for Boston when the time is right.

6.75

49:13

7:19 average

Ran a modified loop through Holladay this morning solo. Didn't really focus on my pace much and just ran to enjoy it. I don't have splits because I am still wearing my mom's Garmin while I wait for mine to ship. I have thought about syncing hers to my account, but then I don't know if there is a way to deactivate it from my account and get it back on her account. Anyone tried this before?

I know my first mile was in the 7:50s. Mile two was in the 7:40s and I progressively got quicker with the last few right around 7:00 or quicker.

I am just going to play tomorrow by ear and see how I feel. If I wake up and don't feel like running, I will take the day off. We might stay up in Park City Friday night. If so, I will do a longer fun Saturday morning up in Summit County. Maybe I will run on the mid-mountain trail to mix things up.

5.15 miles

40:20.22

7:50 average

I was contemplating taking this morning off for no real reason at all, but Scott text me last night and wanted to do a short run. So, I met him at his house at 6 and we ran some rolling hills. Always nice to finish a run before the sun comes up.

My quads were feeling the hills a little bit. Nothing serious at all. Maybe just some lingering tension from the repeats on Tuesday.

10 miles

1:11.42

7:10 average

Met up with Josh and Scott and ran on the Jordan River Pkwy trail. We had planned on starting around a 7:45 and progressing faster from that down to 6:45-7:00.

The first little while was pretty cold and it took me a couple miles to feel like I was hitting a rhythm. I felt like I was breathing with a lot more effort than needed until about mile 3. Josh and I talked about how it takes until 3-4 miles to really feel dialed in and in a groove. I guess that was the problem with the first few miles. After that, I felt great. The pace came with little effort. Mile 8 was 7:07 and then we turned it up just a bit and finished 9 at 6:31 and 10 at 6:25. Always feels good to finish with stuff left in the tank.

4 easy miles. I wasn't going to run at all today. I purposely ran a little longer and harder yesterday knowing that we were spending last night at Deer Valley. However, the last couple of days have been mentally taxing, so I decided to get out for a quick 4 miles before we had family pictures. 

If you have followed my blog this year, you may remember when my wife and I took our daughter to Jackson in the winter for a last minute photo shoot. Well, we found out today that she is on the cover of the new Pottery Barn Kids catalog. Kind of cool. 

7.21 miles - Met up with Brayden and Ashley at their house at 6:30. Normally when I meet them, we head out on our typical 6-8 mile out and back. That route is pretty flat, with a gradual up the last couple of miles. They decided to mix it up this morning so we headed straight up to Wasatch from their house for a 7 mile loop. We climbed a little over 400 feet in less than 2 miles.

After the climb, it leveled off as we ran North on Wasatch to Skyline High. We worked our way through the neighborhoods north of Skyline down a gradual hill and then back south to their house. It was a fun loop and we ran it a little faster overall than we had originally planned. We just clipped along at a steady pace and enjoyed the conversation.

Going to do a 6-8 mile loop from my house with some pickups thrown in tomorrow morning if anyone is interested.

8 mile loop through Holladay with John, Scott, and Tyler. It was a solid group for a solid run. We warmed up at about an 8:00 pace and then did 6 quarter mile repeats with quarter mile rests. Our first two repeats were up 6200 South. John decided to kick it in to gear for the 4th and we kept the progression for the last couple. Splits were:
1:25
1:23
1:21
1:12
1:10
1:09

I officially get sworn in as an attorney today. So, that is neat.

5 miles - 3 loops around what I am now calling the Van Winkle loop. I ran this loop on Saturday and liked the grade a lot. It has a roller in it with a gradual down and the rest is mostly flat. It makes it easy to avoid any traffic as well.

Time was 36:48.91 - which is a 7:22 average pace. I have been working on my "easy" pace and have mentioned that I would like it to sit right around 7:30. I am feeling really good about this goal. Overall, on today's run I just enjoyed it and was in a nice rhythm. I think if I can feel comfortable between a 7:30 and 7:45 on my easy days and I can start to feel slightly uncomfortable yet tolerate 6:30, I will be in good shape. I will likely shoot for a short tempo this week at the 6:30 pace to see how that is feeling.

At least this sounds like a decent plan for now.

8 miles - 7:53 avg. -  Met up with Scott at his house and conquered the hill up to the mouth of little cottonwood. In general, the hill is not horrible, but it is a decent climb and I was feeling a little sluggish this morning. In about 2.5 miles it climbs just under 400 feet. The main hill is .6 of a mile and climbs roughly 200 ft.

I was considering doing a tempo run tomorrow, and I still might, but today's run gave my quads a decent workout so I might hold off tomorrow. I am still just running by feel and trying to enjoy it for another couple months before I get into another training cycle. I don't want to set any hard and fast expectations or goals for my workouts right now so I can prevent getting burned out in Feb. or Mar. before Boston.

14 miles - Solid group this morning for a 6am start. Scott, Tyler, John, Brayden, and I. Took all I had to get John out of bed before the sun came up!

We averaged a 7:43 pace and just kept it conversational the entire time. Was fun to run with that large of a group. It sure makes the miles and time pass by quickly.

I am writing this about 5pm and the bottoms of my feet are aching a little. I don't know if it is from the run or the time I have spent on my feet since then. I spent the afternoon up big cottonwood canyon taking pictures of some triathletes. I think it is more due to the run and the mileage on my Kinvaras. I think I might retire them soon. They don't show a ton of wear, but perhaps it is time. This is the first time I have had this soreness on the bottoms of my feet, and I wouldn't really expect it from only 14 miles. 

7 miles - 7:17 average - 2 miles at marathon pace in the middle.

This was an odd run for me. I didn't really ever feel in a good groove, but decided to just run two at marathon pace in the middle anyway (6:26 and 6;29). I still am planning on a tempo run later in the week with John, but I just wanted to log a couple quicker miles today.

During the two at MP I felt like I was sucking wind the entire time. My legs felt great, but I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. Who knows what was going on. Isn't there something crazy that can happen with the barometric pressure when a storm is coming that causes a lack of oxygen? Totally joking, but those were really my thoughts when I was running the 2 miles at MP! And here is a little proof to back it up - http://www.rotech.com/respiratory/forms_docs/BEWeather.pdf

7.5 miles with Scott this morning. Ran a good loop through Holladay in a light drizzle. After a 2.5 mile warmup we did repeats of 1 min on and 1 min rest. I have not uploaded my watch data so I don't know how many repeats we did exactly, but it was at least 10. We went for a progression with our pace, despite there being a few rollers here and there. Splits started at about a 5:25 pace and the last one was 4:30.

I felt like it was a solid effort for a fun speed day. The last repeat I hit what was my current max speed at the 4:30 pace. I have run faster than that in the past, but today's repeats coupled with yesterday's run made me feel like I was pedal to the floor and wanting to go faster but couldn't on that last one. I guess that means it was a good workout.

7 miles with Tyler and Scott up by Scott's house. Was considering doing a few tempo miles, but none of us felt that great. My stomach was killing me. For whatever reason, I woke up at 4am with stomach pain and didn't fall back asleep unitl 5:30 just in time for the alarm to go off at 6.

I didn't eat enough last night and part of my problem at 4am was that I was way hungry. I also think it may have been some bad food that I ate because when I woke up I feeling really sick with lower back pain etc. 

Was glad I still got out, but it didn't feel great.