Believe to Achieve

WRRRU (was real recovery run UNTIL).  Well ran to rec center 4 miles at easy pace 9:06. This route has a 1/2 mile 7 percent grade uphill.  I love to wake myself up on it.  Then I couldn't stop there.  I ran a TM hillwork starting on 3 % and increasing by 1/2 % each minute to 7 %  x two minutes then back down to 3 in 1/2 percent decreases then back up in increments to 7 % x 2 minutes and ending back down at  2.5 % times one minute.  Total mileage here 4.1 at 8:49 avg.  Sweating grossly.  Have  capri sweats on and I am dripping.  Ran home at avg pace 8:22.  Third mile home was 7:35 with that hill.  I was trying to go easy down it but like I said it is steep.  Really feel all joints today.  Just the over forty feelin'.  12.1 miles total today.  Really didn't want to run at all so I should be glad I got in 12.  : DDDD   I want to eat a lot.  So I think I will.

The no sleep run.  2 1/2 hours I think of awareness sleep.  Just got out there and trudged along.  Lonely me on the PG/AF/Cedar Hills map.  Off for three nights so sleep will be in overdrive starting tonight.  And  now that the adrenaline zapper--The Olympics-- is over  I should fade quietly into oblivion : D.  Once again my 5 turned into more than five.  I just keep falling for the same old mind games.   8.4 miles at 8:41 avg pace.  

Progressive 14 miler with 1 mile cooldown.  Thought I'd give it try. It seemed doable.  Especially if you start out reeeallll slow (Burt try starting out at 15 minute miles, for sure you could do that!).  Anyway had to slow myself down.  I was worried I would run out of cushion for my last miles.  I didn't want too many fast miles.  It's not speed work day.  I just wanted a MLR workout I would not get bored doing.  It really got me anxious though.  I didn't feel like running fast or slow.  My achilles is starting to burn again.  The shoes are the problem.  I fantasize about pounding the heck out of them and running in comfy shoes again.  At least all the pounding will be over before SGM.  New shoe purchase probably going to happen in April before Ogden if I can hold out that long.   Well here are my splits--oh yah I decided progressive runs are like the "speed of light", the faster you go the less progress you make, meaning the less change you notice like the speed of light when it  (light) comes back to you the world hasn't really changed much (think Back to the Future).  How's that for weird science?  Splits: 9:40, 9:10, 8:58, 8:47, 8:33, 8:25, 8:12, 8:06, 7:50, 7:42 (pushed hard as there was a nice uphill out of lone peak park), 732, 7:25, 7:11,  6:45 and cooldown at 8:01.  Obviously I had some gas in me as I improved my pace by 21 seconds from mile 13 to 14.  Avg pace for 15 miles = 8:09.  Should have gone for that 6:30 last mile that would have brought my avg to 8:03.    Oh well.  It was up hill and through my neighborhood and I love cooldowns.  They work for my body.  I think I like the progressive workout.  I will eventually start out quicker and finish stronger sometime when I am in the mood.  

When can I squeeze in SW with all this running?  I hate hate hate, did  I mention I hate SW, especially on the track.  So I faced my demon by jogging, literally to the AF High School track.  No one on it until an older bigger lady began to walk.  She became my cheerleader on the final one.  Ran there with some warmup laps to equal 3 miles at the turtle speed of 9:28 avg pace.  Yup not at all in the mood.  I have my ankle aced wrapped and still it burns.  Blah, blah.  So I have an achilles heal.  A weak spot.  And I am determined to fight it.  But April you are right I should go sooner than later to get a new pair.  I will.  I will.  Today was 6 by 800 meters.  Basically I set my garmin to 6 intervals at 1/2 mile.  I was not up for ONLY a 1:30 rest so I put  it at 3 minutes recovery running.  I was so lame and didn't want to be near puke zone that I got quite the slow start.  Eventually I neared max VO2 but not to it.  I was holding back.  I did NOT want to enter puke zone.  I wanted the laid back zone and I am happy to report that all of them felt rather NON-pushed.  Ooops.  Well hey my ankle remember?  I was babying it and switching directions every one and running on the outside lanes to avoid too much edging.  Here are my not so wonderful splits for my 1/2 mile repeats:  6:35, 6:17, 6:22, 6:18, 6:17, 6:12.    The last one felt real easy.  See how mental the track is to me?  I knew it was over so I could relax already.  Avg for the last 5 repeats = 6:17.  If first one included avg = 6:20.  I will scratch the first like they do in olympic scoring.  Basically,   I have no race guts except in endurance runs.  I am so wimpy.  Why would anyone want to be in puke zone?  Avg pace for last 7.77 miles = 7:46 (SW plus rest intervals plus cooldown)  

TM miles due to the HEAVY snowfall, like 8 inches or more.  Geez.  Yesterday I was wearing Springtime wear.  Left leg IT/achilles really fired up.  Totally bummed.  I need two right legs.  Will take a rest day tomorrow after working tomorrow.  I also work Saturday night, of course.  Ran 8 miles at 8:10 avg @ .5% incline.  Nothing big.  Wore my heavy clothes on the TM as I orignally planned to tackle the snowfall so I sure was over dressed in a big way-- turtleneck and leggings and extra shirt. 

No good sleep.  Lots of nerve pain (pain score 7 at moments) from my hip to my achilles--IT, piriformis syndrome, sciatica?  Who knows.  All I know is it hurts greatly and unsupportive shoes and more running right now would not help.  Bummer.  Now I guess I will just eat, try to sleep and go back to work tonight. 

Toughed it out at work.  Man was my whole left leg on the left side burning from my left lower back down to my ankle.  Took ibuprofen.  Gradually over the shift around midnight the pain began to let up.  I am glad I didn't run as I would have been worse off.  That last run was not a good idea since it hurt the entire run.   Trip to the running store happening tomorrow. Slept only 3 hours so far today.  Daughter home from church with the dreaded headache sore throat the rest of the family, except me, had last week.  I feel quite good health wise despite the lace of sleep.  Where do  I find another right leg?  I would like to turn in my left, it is my problem leg.  

Fun run turned funnier.  Really I started out in my three pairs ago running shoes.  The only decent ones I could keep for yard work without too much toe missing and heel gone.  So not running in the zeroes.  Since they felt fine when I put them on they were good to go.  Ran my route I take to the Rec center but ran out 5 on Locust just to the Lindon City park where I was approached rather viciously by a medium sized dog.  Just when I was feeling so good at my 7:15 pace and just at the 5 mile turn around.   He was not going to let me get by again without being chased and me yelling didn't seem to back him off too far.  Basically this zapped some of my "stored" adrenaline and getting back to that pace felt more labored.  I still held it though and managed to get 8 miles after two mile warm up at  7:33, 7:15, 7:17, 7:18, 7:10, 7:22, (7:51 breather mile), 7:09.  Then was going to do a one mile cooldown but literally ran in beside my neighbor pushing her double jogger with two kids inside it and decided to run with her.  She was picking up her other daughter  at preschool just past the Mt. Timp temple on 700 north.  I helped her run a 20 miler two years ago about two weeks out from SGM.  She trained for only a month or so and still ran under 4 hours.  So I just jogged leisurely and wonderfully by her.  We walked the major up hill and when her daughter didn't want to ride the scooter at times.  But I got in another 5 miles of running and about a mile or more of walking.  Achilles began to burn on this part of my run.  Acted up a little on the way back at my 10 mile turn around.  I will probably pay a price tonight at work as my muscles had to learn again to run in different shoes.  But that's the price I pay to be prez of the NAIRC.  Smooth and I trade off in this position.  I will be her wing-woman anytime : DDDDD   

OFFICIAL REST THE ACHILLES ETC....day.  Probably not enough to just take one day off, but a runner's gotta do what a runner's gotta do.

I got this crazy notion to glance at my training schedule I sometimes try to follow.  6 x 400 meters with 1:30 rest and repeat.  2:30 rest interval between sets.  Well....I got a crazier notion to go out and run it.  At first I was going to take my long route to the American Fork High School track but began to add even more on passing by the old Albertsons in AF and going up 4th east to 700 north passing the baseball park.  As I passed it I got the notion to run my 400 meters on that straight-away road there.  So I ran into the park about .35 miles and peeled off my water bottle pack and ate a half a gu.  I was going to need it.  The headwind on the bend into the park was atrocious.  That meant however I would get a bit of a tailwind at the start of my first 400.  That was fine with me as I was in no mood to run these.  The rest, with the exception of two repeats (I needed to get back to my water) I ran on the straight-away where there was really not much wind in either direction due to tree cover.  The second one into the wind back to my water I basically gave up and walked the last few feet.  It was ridiculous, Mount Everest-like.  Anyway here I go with my splits: 86, 87, 104 (there's that headwind, do I really need water?), 89, 94 (180 degree turn around), 93, rest for 3 minutes, 91, 90, 110 (should have put my water at the bridge, this headwind was UNbelievable. I just HAD TO walk near the end), 90, 93 (180 degree turn around), 91.  Warmup was 4.63 miles at 8:47 pace.  Cooldown was 4.7 miles at 8:21 pace.  I am about to take a warm shower.  Healthily eat a lot.  Work two nights in a row.  And take another rest day.  The achilles is mad at me again.  

Recovery run.  Running in my old shoes from 1 1/2 years ago had been changing how my muscles in my legs land and is allowing my achilles to heal.  Even after yesterdays run my form in the shoes helped my legs adapt to my old ways and today I am just sore in my quads, a bit in my left hamstring and hip, no achilles pain.  Yay!! This tells me that zeroes are not for me and also ascics are the style of shoe I need since I have had no major injury with them for the past 3 years.  If only I could find this same shoe new again.   I will try to look it up and see if its out there somewhere.  The new years model which I wore for the 850 plus miles the past few months did not fit the same way and caused issues with blistering and awkward fitting so going up a model may not help.  Saucony has too many grids on them and they angle inward, or at least the two I have run in in the past have.  I am thinking I am on the mend.  Just tight now.  Ran 7 miles at 8:20 avg pace.  6 th mile 7:29, got carried away.  The run ended up being a short progressive one.  Start slow 9:09, 8:41, 8:31, 8:27, 7:59, 7:29, 8:09 cooldown.  Wind still intense in places.  Cold unfortunately. Slept only 3 1/2 hours, the usual.  Off to work again in a few hours.  The NICU is so busy they are putting babies in the C-section rooms and the staff lounge.  Crazy.  

Was going to run 3-4 miles after waking but got back from work at 8am, in bed at 830am.  Slept three hours.  Had a case of food poisoning, threw up on my Wednesday night shift after eating some food someone brought in from Costco then this morning had a major case of GI issues, not fun.  No fever or body aches, yay!! The warm day passed me by but for a good reason.  Old friends of mine won four tickets to Disney On Ice at a 4pm show today and they were here without kids from Idaho.  They gave us the tickets and off we went, taking the kids out of school early.  We had a great time until the way home the two youngest fought and  lost privileges.  This made the rest of night miserable for them and us at times.  Choices.  Anyway, still nagging GI issues but don't feel wiped out amazingly considering I have slept 6 hours in the past 72 hours.  Go me : D.  Trying.    

 I wasn't going to write this as a race entry but figured I'd better buck up and face reality.  A reality that I need to work on a few things.  First of all, I don't deserve to start at the front of the pack and this only causes me to have an anxiety attack as I can't possible stay up with them but for a few feet.  I learned this last year at Art City, but they don't have chip times there so it is better to start up front.  But this run was chipped so I should have started in the back and picked off runners instead of taking off at a one time speed of 6:06 that lasted a few feet when I looked at my watch in shock and slowed the heck down.  HELLOOOOO!!! I am not that fast and will die soon.  Well the uphill mile was difficult and was as fast as my 5th mile so that tells me I burned it too much on the first hill.  I am now going to get back out to the hills for some speed there.  Second by the time the downhill came my adrenaline was washed a way that I panicked how I would feel at the flat to uphill ending.  I didn't push it there because I was too scared.  Anxiety building and darn it my quads are aching.  They had been hurting since switching back to my really old shoes.  At least my achilles problem has been fixed and I would take the sore quads over that pain anyday.  Passed some BYU boys and told them "don't worry I am a girl" and "don't worry I am also over forty".  This usually gets the guys moving.  They were a little shocked and by the end I could see even in all the chaos of 5k and 9 k runners the same boy passing me the last .1 miles with a pretty good sprint.  I had nothing left at the end.  The track was filled with slow runners and I was already too disappointed with myself and the course foul-up that I didn't care to sprint much at all.  Hence the poor  .6 mile end pace of 7:01.  Silly me.  I just wanted an avg pace of 6:46 and the stars were not quite aligned for me. Will try harder next time and fuel better and not be sick.  Met some fun people at the race.  Got cold quickly, rain turned to sleet turned to snow.  Spring has yet to Spring.

Splits to follow...So the GI problems got worse and thought I could shake it off by running fast...but my fast wasn't really fast.  I warmed up for 3.2 miles easy then ran a 5.6 mile time trial.  But after the first .2 miles my body felt achy, no adrenaline and basically wiped out.  The 5 of 7 night shift routine isn't helping but at least I am a bit faster than last year on the same schedule.  I was cancelled more last year and this year I haven't been cancelled.  Disney on Ice was fun then we went to the eatery at the Gateway.  Has anyone noticed the PERFUME they inject into air at the outdoor mall there?   I have noticed it each time.  So much for going GREEN at the Gateway.  Such was the start of my time trial.  A lot of guys and gals with perfume.  Mainly the men at the front of the pack and I noticed what house uses what detergent the whole way.  When I lack sleep my extra-sensory perception is even more heightened.  It took my breath away and my heartrate reacted and sped way up and my breathing was way off, never to come back to a groove.  Body felt light but unattached.  Tried to move my arms quickly and they were like marshmallows.  The Riverton 1/2 should be interesting.  I will try for a 7 minute mile pace considering the rolling hills and possible headwinds.  I won't even be sore from this time trial.  I never entered the lactate zone.  Has anyone ever tried to run fast with the stomach flu and major lack of sleep?  It is not easy.  Here are my splits:  7:10(big uphill), 6:49, 6:29 (big downhill), 7:01, 7:09, .6 @ 7:01.  Total mileage 9.  Was going to run a cooldown but it was much colder and I felt very weak, dehydrated.  No gu, one sip of water for the run.  Oatmeal for breakfast.  

10 mile "Recovery Run".  Ran up 1100 north (very steep) to the canal and ran 6.4 on the muddy in some parts trail, did some jumping and weaving but managed pretty well.  This was an out and back run.  I ran to 5 miles on my garmin and turned around just behind and a little west of Deerfield Elementary.  Thought I was going slightly uphill on the way  but when I turned around I realized the uphill was on the way back  (lovely) until the 8.5 mile point where I hit the steep downhill for .6 miles.  That's where I put in a 7:09 mile but no faster as the quads were angry.  Must have been the SW last Wednesday and 9th East at the "Time Trial" Saturday in Provo.  Also I have been only running in my old yet comfy, cushiony shoes since last Monday!!  They have a ton o' miles on them.  Waiting for my new ones to arrive if I can figure out how to order them.  There is a problem with the place I am ordering from and ebay not allowing the third party payer.  Blah....  So glad to be running on the trail again.  Managed a pretty good pace on dirt.  First mile 8:59.  Avg pace= 7:51 for 10 miles.

Ridiculously slept 3 hours from 7am until 10am.  Thought I would sleep longer with daylight savings getting me home at a darker moment but nope.  Frustrating.  So I got up and ate and strolled around and decided to head out for 10 miles.  Wasn't sure where to go but just got out and began to run towards American Fork on 1800 north.  The weather was lovely, Spring in the air and music keeping me alive.  Told myself not to look at my garmin and to actually run a recovery run especially feeling zombie like.  The longer I went the better I began to feel.  At mile 5 I was surprised to see my pace at 8:30.  I thought for sure I was running 10s.  I got the thought to run to Melanie's house in Lehi and surprise her.  I haven't seen her in a while.  So I ran a scenic run there adding on a two mile country run on farm roads.  So nice.  I definitely surprised Melanie and she was so nice to give me powerade and a ride home after we both had her visiting teachers give us this month's lesson.  Nice.  Ran 10 at exactly 8:30 pace.  Now Melanie is super mom.  She is doing all this stuff for her kids for St. Patricks day including rainbow cupcakes with a white cloud (whipped topping) and a gold coin on top, Lucky Charms with green milk in the morning and a "catch the leprachaun" game.  So of course I need to improve in the fun mommy category so I am off to the store while my girls our at dance.  Thanks Melanie for helping me see the light : D.

SW day.  The joy. Ran to the AF track 2.53 miles at way easy pace of 9:07. Oh great, spectators.  There was a frisbee class going on and some non-commited teenagers on the bleachers and a student teacher just standing at the side of the track watching.  I am not good at running fast in front of people.  It reminds me of those dreams you have when you are naked in public.  I feel very exposed.  I get anxiety from it and feel almost suffocated like but of course I try to have confidence in myself.  I am in shape. I am over forty and I am running intervals on the track none of the spectators  over half my age can run.  They look unfit most likely from too much texting and too many twinkies from the vending machine.  They weren't fat, just their skin and muscles looked hungry for real energy.  Anyway... I am soooo judgmental.  I really wanted to call out to them to come join me but they seemed surprised to see a person work out.  I mean to the general high schooler, what is working out?  Here I go again.  Okay here is my work out.  I shot for below my goal after the first lap.  I was grossed out with a "no way do I want to hit puke zone feeling" that I made an improvised goal I could handle mentally with the public viewing and my lack of motivation for track work.  Ran 1 mile @ 6:25 (5:36 max speed ), 400 meter RI,         2 miles @ 6:42 avg pace(5:31 max speed), 800 meter RI,   1/2 mile @ 6:06 avg pace (5:23 max), 400 meter RI, 1/2 mile @ 6:08 avg pace (5:23 max).   Cooldown miles home 3.25 @ 8:38 avg.   Total mileage 10.35.  Not including some walking I did for the RI.  I am an old lady.  Need my walks sometimes : D.     My goal for the mile was 6:20.  Two miler 6:40.  1/2 miles 6:10.  Odd that I got closer to my goal with each interval.  It takes a bit for my body to "wake up" to the work involved.  

6.5 hours of skiing in place of running....so nice up there in the pines.  The weather was very nice, not too warm but not  ever cold either.  Occasional sun with nice clouds rolling by...WHAT A VIEW!!  We went to Brighton.  We took the kids out of school.  With my schedule this was the best thing to do.  More time to be with the kids was needed.  Was going to run at 6am for an hour and was up then but said "what for?".  Really just lied in bed in a state of non-involvement.  OF course there is always tomorrow.....   :  DDDDD

Fell asleep at 930 pm after a fun-filled day of skiing yesterday and woke at 3 am in the mood to run.  Like really?  You've got to be kidding?  I tried to fall back to sleep, to no avail.  Kim, Jane and Kerri were running 15 miles at 5am so I thought maybe I could hold out til then.  Sometimes my initial feelings for running are crushed with a zap of tiredness.  But I was still wide awake an hour later.  I figured I might as well get up and go for 20 miles today.  I ran over to Kim's the long route starting at 443am for 2.2 miles and met up with Kim and the others.  We ran a route Kerri had mapped out for us with varying terrain from PG, AF, Highland, and Cedar Hills.  At first the sky was crystal clear with the stars shining and then the storm rolled throughout the run as the winds picked up and the snow began to flurry.  Seriously?  First day of Spring tomorrow and this is what we get today?  It seemed the storm cloud followed us on our route.  Ran their 15 mile loop and took off at the end for another 2.8 miles to get 20.  Avg pace 8:08 for the 20 miles.  The splits:  8:38, 8:23,   group start 8:29, 8:34 (uphill), 8:25, 8:01, 8:17, 8:33 (uphill), 8:23, 8:03, 8:10,  8:11, 8:20,  8:15,  8:02,  7:45 ( sl. downhill), 7:34 (downhill), 8:08,  7:28,  7:19 (uphill finish : ()  )    Ate two gus.  Needed them.  Nerve pain in thighs came on around 13 miles.  C'est la vie.  

This whole daylight savings has played a ton with my internal clock that was already messed up .  Stayed up at work totally well until 520 am when I got a bit tired.  Got home at 645am and got in bed at 7am.  Put on a sleeping mask and ear plugs and yet as I awoke I looked at the sides of my curtain to see the brightness of the sun.  Yay, did I sleep until 11am?  4 hours?  Oh no, it was ONLY 940am!!  HELLOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  Are you kidding me?  just over 2.5 hours of sleep?  Have I truly turned vampire-like?  Got up cause I had to pee badly and I felt hungry.  Well, all of a sudden "something" pops up out of my bed.  My husband was still asleep!!  Sleeping away while I couldn't.  errrrrr!!!!  Ate a little organic pop tart, if there is such a thing, sweet : D.  I love costco.  They make anything "organic".  I was feeling pretty awake but I made the mistake of logging on to the computer to check the Spectrum status (no results then) but I stayed on longer and became tired again.  This was only 15 minutes but it was zipping my zap.  But my tired wasn't enough to lull me to sleep so I felt the air outside and the "warm" sunshine with a breeze and decided to get my short run in, determined to go progressive and get under 8 pace.  It was hard at first as my muscles were fast asleep and the garmin took over .4 miles to register the ummph I was putting into my run.  I mean seriously I did not start out at a 11 pace.  Why does my garmin at times take so long to register?    Oh well, at least it went according to plan.  Splits:  8:20, 8:17 (gradual long uphill), 7:59, 7:37, 6:57.    One mile cooldown in 8:17.  Avg pace 7:50.    New maximum pace met of 5:20!!!!  Wow, that's high school days 800 repeat pace!!  I wasn't very good at track so I guess that's not saying too much except that I am much older.  I  am pretty happy with this run considering it was sleep deprivation mode.  OFF to shower, eat and hopefully sleep.  Work again tonight.

Speedwork day.  Yesterday after work I slept only three hours again.  I even made to church for all the meetings at 1pm yesterday.  No headache.  Didn't fall alseep until midnight.  Ridiculous.  Plan today run 3 x (2 x 0.75 mile, RI 2 minutes) repeats, 4 minute RI between sets.  I ran three miles to the PG rec center (8:40 avg pace).  I was going to run on their track outdoors but it still is too strong for me ( the new rubber track, gross).  So I ran the TM.  Should have gone to the AF track, so much nicer!!  The TM shook like mad but got it done.   Goal was 6:15 pace.  Here is how it went after a 1 mile warmup on the mill:  6:18, 6:18, 6:15, 6:15, 6:18, 6:13.  Not quite to my goal but this workout was hard for me with the mill shaking and the perfumed air.  Not too mention being out of shape for this pace, obviously hitting max VO2, not sure how to tell but I felt almost nauseated.  Form pathetic the last few as my shoes were way loose and my feet were moving all around in them.  They are still my 3 year old shoes.  You would laugh if you saw pictures of them.  But hey, no injuries : D.    4 mile cooldown to my house @ 8:38 avg pace.

Since my 445 am  20 mile run Friday morning I have slept only 16 hours (avg 4 hours a day, during the day, mainly) including todays three hours.  I knew I should just kick back and rest because somehow someway I am going to get that sleepin' feeling.  You see I haven't been tired, more hyper.  Almost ADHD.  That's why some ADHD people improve when they get on a schedule with good sleeping.  I am not ADHD just sleep deprived.  But I am functioning better than I ever had with little sleep unless I have an impending 1/2 marathon to "conquer".  So.... I broke down and took a higher dose of a antianxiety pill I rarely take and "voila" I slept another 3 1/2 hours this afternoon.  Alleluyah!!  Skipped on running.  Did the mommy carpool kids to dance thing and make dinner.  Not sure of my plan Saturday other than start out easy as to not "zap" my adrenaline and gain on myself over the course.  Kinda wish I was running Antelope instead, an endurance run works better for me.  But I need to help my speed for Ogden.  Goal there is probably 3:15.  Plan to run a brief tempo with total miles at 10 tomorrow.  Busy day with Visiting Teaching, Orthodontist, and work again for two in a row.  Miles this week will dwindle as I better conserve or be roadkill at the race.  ALSO forgot to mention that I started doing upper body work (its been over 8 years) Saturday night at work.  I brought 3 pound weights there and took 15 minutes to work the arms.  I knew I had to start with the arms as after I ran the other day I was doing "air lift" weights with my arms (no weight except body) and my muscles were burning.  I talked to Kim and she told me to do some guy pushups.  She could only do 10 at first and now can do over 30.  I took the guy pushup test and sadly could ONLY DO 2,  that's right 2, very wimpy!!  I then did 10 girl ones.  Since Saturday, and especially at Monday's SW on the Mill my arms were  sooooo sore.  Pretty funny and pathetic considering they were ONLY 3 pound weights.  So, I am going to get serious now and work on my upper body and core.  Perhaps this will help my form and improve my speed?  Time will tell.  Did a brief arm work out last night at work, same weights and could do 3 boy pushups before bed this morning followed by 10 girls and then 3 boy then 10 girls.  Maybe it has to do with sleep deprivation and muscle power.  This post is getting too long.  END.

I tried to surprise the women again that were leaving at 5 am as I couldn't sleep past 4am.  However this time I was wasted as I left the door.  "Hang over" from the medication yesterday.  Basically I must have missed them as I got there at 5:06 per garmin and no one was around.  I kept on running not waiting around as I saw Jane's truck and they always stay outside.  I thought maybe I would find them and I was a little leary of running in the lonely scary darkness alone.  I kept coming up with runaway plans if I was approached.  Not a fun way to run.  Woke up around mile 3 but still not feelin' it for MP.  The darkness played with my eyes and footing so my pace felt harder than usual.  Most like due to dark, cold, lack of sleep, loneliness and fatigue....but even though I told myself to quit I ran the three MP miles--7:12, 7:15, 7:12.    This pace felt so easy about a week and 1/2 ago when I slept a good 10 hours before.  Here's hoping for some good Zzzzzsss but if not I plan to take my 1/2 marathon pace down to about a 7:30.   Work tonight for two in a row.   No more upper body until after the race.  Busy day.  Soccer practice starts today just after piano, and my littlest has dance, soccer tomorrow.  All splits: 9:14, 8:43,  8:31,  8:07, 7:12,  7:15, 7:12, 8:12, 8:02, 7:39. AP 8:01 for 10 miles.

415pm windy run here and there and everywhere.  Took the farm road up to Cedar Hills after varying loops in PG.  Garmin died the first .22 miles.  I had just charged it but I must have left it on the whole time.  Don't they shut off automatically if you don't press "start"?  Well that left me to my own judgement for 5.5 miles to make 30 even so far this week.  I felt like I was trotting literally.  I was soooooooo nauseated from lack of sleep and varying eating times that I just wanted to make this as easy as possible so "trotted".  The last mile I must have picked it up quite a bit because I gained on my neighbors over 1/4 mile away quite quickly.  Pace is off starting garmin time and ending verizon wireless time.  I am assuming they are using the same satellites for time.  As for distance it was back to course tooling, my old friend :D.  Avg pace 8:45.  So nice, so relaxing.  I went over so that's a bonus, to 6.75 miles.

Got off work at 630am and walked to my car.....De ja Vu...high winds and a bit of snow, for real?  If it is like this for tomorrow's race I draw the line.  I will just drive up and get my shirt and turn around to my house.  NO WAY am I racing in pelting snow.  I don't have it in me.  I am sooooo wimpy right now, my fight is stagnant.  You see after all these nights in a row the exponential affect gives me a serious confidence wipe out.  BUT NO WORRIES I AM sure the REAL JULIE will step forward come 6am tomorrow and prove to herself she is NOT a quitter and somehow plant her feet at that starting line, come HAIL or TORNADO.    JULIE #2 , the imposter, forgot one thing,  JULIE #1 knows where she (doesn't) sleeps!!   Obviously no workout today, all energy consumed in a ball, hopefully rolling into a larger and larger one as I count the hours down to the moment of truth, true story : D.  I am not even sure any of this made sense.  Oh well.

I DID IT AND I TOOK IT EASY,  at a controlled pace.  I call this 1/2 marathon my sleep deprivation pace run.  I had a plan that I mostly followed.  I was going to make it a progressive run and vary it with the all the hills I would encounter (4 good ones, apparently).  But  instead I kept it even for most of the run not pushing it.  I did have to slow myself down at the beginning when I saw my garmin read 6:59.  So I did.  I ran a smart race for me considering my sleep deprivation.  It was important to not go out fast and burn the minimal adrenaline I had.  Check, check.  Second, I just didn't want to make it hurt.  I didn't want to feel winded.  I wanted to be in control.  Check, check.  Third, I wanted to be first master.  Check, check.  Forth, I wanted to sprint to the finish line the last  .1 miles even if my limbs felt like they would fall off.    Check, check.  So here are my splits.  Looking at them I was pretty happy.  They were pretty much even except at the four hills.  I gave myself allowance for these.  I didn't want to get my heartrate too up there and have a race "panic attack".  I was on no reserve and mentally couldn't do that to myself.  The play by play:

Warmup for 3.5 miles very easy pace.  (8:58)

1-  7:24  Not sure how many women in front.  Probably a handful.   I was going to take it easy.  It felt really nice.

2- 7:25  Still so nice.  I asked some spectators how many women were in front.  Someone said five or six.  Okay then.

3- 7:05  Ahead of where I wanted to be but it felt okay and the hill was coming up so I better store up some seconds.

4-  7:37  The hill.  I was trotting up it.  No need to waste energy, although I did talk to a guy I passed on the way up.  Actually  I passed several guys the past few miles.  I never got passed the whole race.  That was nice.

5-  7:19  Going by the starting line.   I threw my headband to a spectator that answered my question if anyone could take it to the finish line.  Thanks : D.   I took my gloves off at mile three and put them in my tights around my waist.

6-  7:17  Nice downhill then 1/2 mile on dirt.  Some tire treading to avoid but totally not a problem.

7-  7:20

8-7:20  Another hill.  Crept up it.  Moved legs in short strides. Passed two girls just after this.  Was worried it may have been too soon but they looked beat.

9-7:22  There's that marathon pace again.  It sounds strange that my half marathon pace is my marathon pace but by Ogden I will have had three nights off to sleep and 7 more weeks of training.  So I definitely think it is doable.  This pace felt nice and the course is not an easy one.

10-  7:24  Big  uphill  portion here and I had just passed who I thought was women number three based off spectators and two guys who also confirmed this. 

11- 7:42  An unexpected hill. This was a slight mental block for me.  I looked ahead and saw it and was hoping the guy climbing it ahead of me was deleriously running off the course.  To no avail.  I had to run up it.  Dang. 

12-  7:32  Recovery mile and it is a steady up hill.  Not big but just consistently inclining over the entire mile.  So close to the finish I could taste it.  Time to get it in gear already, Julie, this is a race.  I blasted my tunes in my ear loud enough to wake myself out of my dream pace to finish a bit stronger.

13-   7:03. 

.1-  6:10 pace  (max hit 5:36 at this portion).  This is what I envisioned or rather said to myself  as I thought of actually sprinting to the finish line.  It is a line from the movie New Moon.  Jane says to Bella just before she is about to try to "hurt" her with her mind:  "This might hurt a bit" as she makes an evil smile.  Yup that's what I said and that's exactly what it felt like, but only for a bit : DDDD.    I bore down with all my strength and tucked my arms close to my sides and booked them forward and back passing one guy along the way and almost getting to pass a second one.  It felt great to finish strong.  It felt great to be done. 

2.5 mile cooldown at a very easy pace talking on my cell phone to Melanie (9:12) going backward on the course, coming back to the finish line in a square. Total miles 19.1 @ 7:54 pace.  Those six other miles were real easy, so average pace nothing to speak of.  Worth the relaxing miles though.  It made the pace run that more enjoyable.  The rest of my day consisted of watching three soccer games and trying to get in some nutritious food.  Sleeping tonight will be a welcome treat.  Alleluyah!!!  PS I was really forth overall.  Someone counted wrong.  Had I known I may have tried to catch the girl I got a glimse of in front of me, but probably not.  I didn't want to hurt and only the last .1 miles hurt.  YAY!!

Should have been smarter.  But I only have so many days in a week when I don't work the night before.  But man oh man when I started on this run I wanted to run back into my bed.  Slept 10 hours Saturday night.  Broken sleep last night, but total 8 hours.  Night sweats since Friday night.  Estrogen depletion.  An age thing.  But it sure zaps me of my strength.  My estrogen level is menopausal, but medications make things worse so I try diet and exercise.  So probably doing my scheduled SW today was not the thing to do.  But I did do it.  Let me inform you of how uncomfortable that was.  The schedule was  .63 miles, 1.25 miles, .63 miles, .63 miles.  (basically  1k, 2k, 1k, 1k, 400 meter recovery).  I set my garmin up and away I went after a 3.5 mile "warm up".  The whole time thinking of turning around and heading for home--running a 4 mile easy run and be done already.  Do I have to be that difficult?  Yes.  The first three I was okay with but then gonezo with the adrenaline when I saw the time for my last one I stopped part way thru and walked.  Dang.  I am zapped.  Called it a day but wait maybe I could just do it on my way home on the scenic by way.  Well I did but still goal was way off.  It was hilly and I was spent on hills Saturday.  Here are my dreadfully wiped out self splits:  .63 miles @  6:12 pace, 1.25 miles @ 6:29 pace,  .63 miles at 6:25 (losing ground now),  .16 (6:44, I was giving up, why am I doing this?),  jogged around the track started home,  .63 miles at 6:40 (a little improvement so done), ran home.  Avg pace for 10 miles = 8:03

Got up after four hours sleep.  Knew the wind was fierce as I left work this morning.  Was told it would get more so.  The wind was a warm one though as I stepped out on my deck.  Decided to go out in it.  Have fun with it by trotting a long.  I decided to go up to the canal via 2600 North PG.  Got on and decided to go UP to the Bonneville Shoreline instead.  EXTREMELY steep incline to get there but so worth it.  Scenic trail overlooking the valley.  High winds but thankfully not bone chilling high winds.  I was envisioning my possible 50 miler coming up.  No word yet if I am in or not.  No one is off the wait list yet.  I'd better get doing tons of trail runs.  And they are calling my name so I am headed that direction.  It felt so nice on dirt even with the wind.  As I finished I looked back up there and now it is a dirt haze from all the wind.  Was  I running in that?  I think I beat that.  I had good visibility.  Pace so nice so very needed.  One part of a mile I walked as the incline was intense and this was an easy run.  So avg pace a wonderful 9:48 for 7.2.    Came home, showered, made a delicious healthy treat---a smoothie with ice cubes, orange juice, milk, marionberries (blackberries), blueberries, raspberries, banana, oatmeal and flax seed.  So delicious.  I am going back for more.  I made a lot.  My kids love my smoothies.  They don't even notice the flax and oatmeal.  

Soooooo.... I  got the kids off to school and into my running clothes thinking should I go to the gym?  should I TM it?  Should I stationary bike?  ARGHHHH!!  I dislike this weather.  It is playing with my mood.  I felt depressed looking out the window again to winds and blowing snow.  Geez....will this ever end?    I then quickly changed my thinking..."that's it I am going to the JRP (Jordan River Parkway) and running up to the end and back where we started our 18 miler a month ago". The weather wasn't going to stop me.  Nor the route with the two miles of awesome incline.  Well, I did just that.  Starting out in to a great headwind.  I was thinking well that's fine I will get a tail one on the way back (the wind died down a lot on the way back, so no tailwind at all).   Started out easy and then gradually my pace was pretty good for winds, snow and rolling hills.  I was like "for real?".  The hills actually felt very easy to me, not like I remembered them.  Basically that is because the race last week prepared me for many a hill.  Bring them on now.  Can't wait to run Suncrest.  When there is a view I will get up there.  Today visibility was low.  I could just barely see the freeway in the distance at the point of the mount.  It was surreal and so peaceful on my own on JRP.  The only nut out there (until I came upon a guy strolling on the JRP, he looked normal, pheww!!, I said hi and told him I was glad I wasn't the only nut, we passed again when I turned around).  There was still that dirt to go over but it was flattened.  However because of the wet snow the dirt was all mud.  I had about 3 inches of mud  on my sneakers after running through both times.  It was at miles 0.5 and 9.5.  My shoes are currently drying out.  I will slam them together tomorrow to get the caked on mud off.  Splits:  9:12 (mud hoofing and stomping easy mile), 8:22, 8:03, 8:29 (big uphill section, but brief, keeping it real),  8:11 (good ascent felt very easy, I thought my garmin was lying), 7:21 (kept the breaks on, doing speed with Kim tomorrow),  7:31, 7:30, 7:24, 7:39 (muddy adventure again, slowed me).  This run was exhilarating.  Very easy.  Must have been my recovery run yesterday that made this possible.  No longer depressed.  Love that it stopped snowing when I got back home.  Avg pace for 10 = 7:58.