Believe to Achieve

12 EASY pace miles at 7:12am on a NICE HILLY COURSE.  VERT unknown but up there.  I just kept laddering up the side of Orem and then found my self far from home.  Could have gotten in 12.4 to my house but I decided to stick to the plan and stop at 12 miles and walked  the rest of the way home in the cool, but sunkissed frosted morning.  Wore my trail shoes on the road.   They are more bulky and lately I can feel the rock plate in the  left forefoot.  It is not painful just bumpy.  I am wearing my trail shoes from time to time to strengthen areas in my leg muscles by switching shoes, an uncommon occurence in my past running life.  I chicked a guy who looked in shape.  I don't think he liked that.  He tried to stay with me.  I feel sorta bad.  But I am sure he just started running again or something.  This run felt easy until the last two miles when I was just REALLY hungry.  Lately I have been getting really hungry during long runs and THIRSTY.  But no way will I carry water!!  I did that for the Antelope Island 32 miler but will not on a regular run.  What to do?  Water stations should open up soon I hope.  One park  I ran by at mile 4 had a working water spout.  YAY!!!  AP today 8:19.  

Met Melanie at the Legacy Center (where she usually works out) and we ran a 3.55 mile warm up outside of course, first mile 8:54.  AP 8:12.  Then she needed to do 6 x 1200s while I needed to do 7 miles of LT (15k to 1/2 marathon pace).  My original plan was 2.5 miles x 2 then 2 miles (with 1/2 mile easy pace in between) for the finish but I felt SOOOOO good the first two miles that I ran a 5K instead.  We ran in a large FLAT, COUNTRYSIDE SQUARE however mile two was ferocious--- a significant head wind yet no wind at the legacy center two miles away!! We of course hit that part during the speedy  part each time and had a tail wind on recovery going south.  Dang.  But we toughed it out and tried to not think of turning around instead of turning north  :  D.  I ran this workout  with NO fuel or water, just two swigs of powerade zero (not the best AT ALL.  I would have rather have had water).  But hey they were on sale and Mel and I have a bunch (.39 for a 32 ouncer).  Anyway we laughed at the finish cause we got lost from each other because Mel extended on in a straightaway and when she came back on course she could not see me so she ran a different way and then well....we met up within seconds at the Legacy Center oddly, coincidentally enough, having run roughly the same amount of miles.  Both of us stopped during the final cooldown miles wondering where each other was??????  toooooo funnnny!!    At the end we stretched in the Legacy Center and did some planks (2:15, and 30 sec each side).  Arms frozen from the elbows to the shoulders.  We ran in shorts and I wore short sleeves after our warm up.    Almost forgot,  here is what I ran:  5K in 20:31 (splits 6:33, 6:38, 6:39, 6:35 for .1)  FELT AWESOME and since this was LT I felt I could have run this quite a bit faster.  I was shocked when my garmin read 6:31 pace consistently for the first .7 miles, I knew for sure I better slow it down.  After the "5K" I ran 1/2 mile at 8:31 pace and then pottied real quick as Mel sped by me finishing one of her 1200s.  Second set (two miles):  Pace 6:37, 6:45 (0.75 miles in the headwind going north, bummer!!),  then 1/2 mile recovery at 8:40pace, then went right into the third set (two miles):  Pace:  6:42, 6:43. AP for 7 LT miles = 6:40!! : D.  Ran back to Mel's road (1.7 miles) and could not find her.  Took another swig of powerade then headed back to the legacy center stopping to pick up my tights etc... on the fence still wondering where is Melanie?  Low and behold there she was standing next to her van as I was getting to my car.  Cooldown I ran 3.6 miles at 7:48 AP.  

6 miles BEFORE work at 430am because AS SOON AS I get off work we are heading for St. George for Spring Break.  AP 8:54.  Easy run after Tuesday's big work out and the fact that it is ridicuously EARLY!!!  It was chilly.    I arrived home at 6:45pm and we left in our car IN TORRENTIAL HIGH WINDS (63 mph) at 7:15pm.  I was wishing we could just leave in the morning.  An hour into our 4 hour drive we were driving in an INTENSE BLIZZARD!!!  going mostly 30 mph sometimes slower.  What in the heck?  IT IS SPRING BREAK AND WE ARE HEADING SOUTH?????????   Amazingly since we only stopped once for 10 minutes we arrrived at our place (grandpa's trailer) at 1130pm!!    Got to sleep about 1215am.  VERY tired!! to say the least.

Just following the plan.  10 miles at 7:52 pace leaving the trailer and heading UP Snow Canyon for five miles and turning around (Got to run inside the park for .4 miles to get to 5 miles).  VERY HILLY CLIMB.  Ran at 7:45am.  Felt good but slightly fatigued due to lack of sleep and working/running A LOT!!  Hiked in Snow Canyon with kids to THREE PONDS.  For one mile is was PURE SAND.  We were pretty tired of sand by the end of this trail.  My kids were QUITE the troopers.  The other part of the trail was sandstone and rock formations that were fun.  It got kind of warm but the breeze was GREAT!!  This took us 2.5 hours total, 3.5 miles.

5 miles easy (8:41) with Troy at 7:30am before heading out to ZION's National Park 40 miles away.  Was feeling tired the first mile (9:59) but finally felt fine by mile 5 (7:30).  A little worried about HIKING ALL DAY (and yesterday for that matter) then running 22 miles with SPEED STARS Jane and Kim tomorrow.  Hiked Angel's Landing to Scout's Lookout ( I  do not trust my 8 year old up any higher.  She has NO fear that's what's scary!!).  This HIKE climbs 1400 feet in 2 miles (total 4 roundtrip).  I love the going up.  On the way down I purposely WALKED as turtle-like as I could so as to not use too many of my DOWNHILL muscles before tomorrow.  My girls were huge troopers.  Amber led us the whole way.  Brooke, due to lack of sleep, complained more than she normally would.  We later hiked a short steep climp to Weeping Rock and then we strolled down Temple of Sinawa to the Gateway of the Narrows (another total 2.6 miles).  Hello!!! I am running in the morning with SPEED STARS!! Did I say that already?

A breakthrough run for me.  Not sure of what to completely think about it.  Troy drove Kim, Jane and I  22 miles from the finish of SGM and up the course.  He dropped us off (so about mile marker 4.2).  We dropped off water/gatorade and gu at four places along the route (3.25,  8.8, 14, and 19.2, I have a good memory : D)  We took off at 6:30am.  The sun was edging its way over the canyon.  It was very beautiful.  So nice to not be in race mode at SG.  I have never run the course without it being race day.  So this was a real treat.  My plan was to stay with Jane and Kim for as long as I could.  I didn't want them to slow for me so I let them do the pacing.  I stayed with them the whole  way which was SHOCKING!!  AND I felt REALLY strong at the end pushing them at just before the true 24 mile marker of the course where we stopped for our last swig of gatorade (19.2).  After that I felt even stronger but BIONIC Kim and Jane ALL READY for the PROVO MARATHON in three weeks with all their Max VO2 workouts were even stronger, like I felt like "hey, is this the marathon and I am fading ????  NO!! because I see my watch reading 6:34, and then 6:34 again and they are 15 seconds ahead of me?  what in the heck!!! ??????   The last mile I slow to 6:51 cause oddly my car odometer is off and we were at 21.5 miles at the finish and NOT 22  (MY MENTAL PROBLEM) so we had to go right by the finish line and add on uphill and turn around.  Jane and Kim at this point are over 40 seconds ahead from when we took off from 19.5 miles and I am HIGH FIVING them as they fly by me at the turn around to finish the run  just back at the FINISH LINE and I still have to make the turnaround.  AMAZING!!!  If they are moving WELL today that would be even MORE amazing!!  I had no plans of ripping up those last few miles.  I have never run that fast at the end of a 22 miler and IRONICALLY never that fast on the SGM course!!!  It gave me HOPE to finish strong come OCTOBER 1st!!!  Here are the splits (all of us the same until mile 19.2):  WARNING THIS IS RIDICOULOUSLY ODD FOR ME!! FASTER THAN MY MARATHON PR AVERAGE PACE.  WEIRD.  I am weirded out!!   7:21, 7:15, 7:44 (coming upon VEYO), 8:03, 7:28, 7:35, 7:27, 7:01, negative splits coming up : D,  7:04, 6:52, 6:44, 6:41, 6:44, 7:01 (that hill at mile 18 during the marathon), 6:45, 6:41, 6:54 (not sure why Kim and Jane are slowing and I feel like I am going to trip over them since I have been running two paces behind them the whole way), 6:57,  I feel really like I should be running faster but they are still going easy.  Maybe on purpose?  I put my music on at mile 14 because I could no longer hear them with all the speeding cars going by.  6:46 (I ran past them because  I SO LOVE THIS MILE OF THE MARATHON-- where all the spectators stand and put their hands out to cheer you on-- AND I FELT GREAT ONCE AGAIN : D), here is the shocker---- 6:34, 6:34, then my slower mile, feeling defeated-- 6:51.  But I wasn't defeated this was a great, fantastic MENTAL BOOST for me.  AP for 22 miles at 7:03 (7:02.7 to be exact : D)!!!  I am in shock.  Completely.