Believe to Achieve

8 miles at 630am.  Love that the sun rises early now.  AND that it is warm enough for me to wear shorts at this hour.  First time this year!!!    I was cold during the race in my arms from my elbows to my shoulders.  They were numb the entire race.  Today, NICE.  Wore gloves the entire run but shorts and short sleeves.  YES.  Ran an out and back run past AF high school and then the AF hospital half backwards from there to mile 11 and back to my house for 8.  first mile 8:26.  Last mile 7:18.  AP 7:50.  THEN quickly took daughter to school with her "baby".  She had the mechanical baby that stayed with her for three days and three nights.  It cries and you have to feed it or change it or rock it.  She had a computerized wrist band on so it knew if you didn't take care of the baby.  He was up every 1 to 3 hours each night.  My daughter is soooooo tired.  We brough him to my sisters last night as my mom flew into town.  My sister who has 7 kids and the youngest our twins almost five took over as mom for a bit.  It was funny.  He actually makes swallowing sounds when he eats and he burps after feeding and if you didn't fix the problem he keeps crying.  Fun experience for Courtney.  She should be a great baby sitter now as she was very patient (most of the time).  After I dropped off Courtney I went home and realized Courtney had an Orthodontist appt so I had to drive back up and get her.  We got there just in time.  I was supposed to meet Donna for a 3 mile run.  I was a little late but she was good, doing chores around the house. She is training for her first half marathon (AF hospital). I am going to train most days with her and actually run it with her. I won a free entry but it is ONE WEEK after my second marathon in three weeks so would not be wise to race it.  So I am excited to slow it down and help her.  She rocked our three miler-- 9:24 ap.  Tmr 4 miles.  : D.  This is gonna be good.  So happy about this.  ALSO going off white sugar/flour STRICTLY...NO CHOCOLATE CHIPS!! day two.  I am following the Paleo diet.  I am actually going off wheat completely for one week to see if it helps with my joint pain.  Started back up on my liquid iron yesterday (no worries KASSI).    She lectured me about my iron taking me after the race on Saturday.  I haven't taken my liquid iron for four weeks-- was at disneyland for one week (ran out the day of leaving), then I had the flu, then I just kept forgetting to pick it up the third week and then last week I did go to Good Earth to get it and saw a cheaper brand (pills called hemaplex) and thought cool I will try these.  BIG mistake.  INTENSE stomach cramps (this was last week tuesday and wednesday before the race) and it gave me anxiety.  Yup GREEN TEA extract was in it.  25 mg.   CRAPOLA.  I felt awful. After the first day I thought maybe I was imagining it but after day two it was obvious.  Green tea has a good amount of caffeine in it.  I asked the Good Earth guy and he said no that is just the extract that has the caffeine.  WRONG.  Looked it up-- green tea in any form has caffeine.  I wonder if that played along with my fatigue Saturday as I couldn't sleep thursday or friday night as well along with tuesday and wednesday night.  To make up for my iron problem I ate out at Texas Roadhouse-- 8 ounce sirloin steak.  YUM.  It was Brooke's half birthday so we took her out.  Just her and her parents.  We had a great time. 

okay i am thinking my pink mizunos are starting to wear down and playing a role in my right toe joint aching.  377 miles....hmmm.  I rotate.  anyway...no plan until I awoke and thought about it.  Was thinking a three mile time trial on the roads but opted for a worse option...THE TRACK.  I ran the ladder workout.  Man my mood is not into it.  I am depressed for some reason.  Well...there are reasons but I don't blog about them.   So....just know that this run was done under stress.  Basically I need to know this.  I struggled to see things not go easily for me.  Track never does so who am I fooling?  Here is the breakdown:

2.5 mile wu- 8:23ap to the track and one lap around.

200 meters- 39.52  (garmin pace will be in parenthesis 0.13 miles 5:24)

200 recovery.

400 meters-1:27.12.  (5:37, 0.26 miles)

400 recovery.

600 meters-2:14.97 (5:50, 0.39 miles)

600 recovery

800 meters 3:02.97  (5:57, 0.51 miles)

400 recovery (should have taken longer for this old body, what was I thinking?)

1000 meters 3:55.20  (6:14, 0.63 miles)   Crud this time is slower by 6 seconds from last November with Rachelle....need Rachelle to keep me going.  HOWEVER I will state that there was a signifcant headwind in the wrong direction.  You would think well then there is a tailwind too right?  well with 1000 meters you hit it THREE times since it is 2.5 laps AND the other side of the track is protected from wind as it is closer to the school.  I went backwards for a bit and didn't feel a headwind.  This is AF track.  I am just whining cause this workout was going sour!!!

600 recovery.

800 meters-- Total BABY here I stopped when I saw my time at 1:33 at half way so only 400.   I just didn't want to brave the headwind one last loop and fail.  WHAT a complete baby. I really should have done it.  I could have done it on goal.  Goal for 800s 2:59 to 3:07.8.  I would have done 3:07 if I ran the same lap again.  Geez.  Not good that I had my previous splits in my pocket to compare to.  COMPARISON is the THIEF of JOY.  MUST REMEMBER THIS!!  Thanks Kelli :D.    ALSO I must admit I was very very HUNGRY.  I have been on a CLEAN diet-- no white flour, flour at all actually and no sugar except in fruit.  Today I added whole wheat flour back in so I don't plummet.  BUT not a lot of my diet will come from it.  Okay that was a long post.  MOVING ON.

No recovery.  Just simply meditated what to do next since my failure.  Okay.

600 meters- 2:16.15 (5:52, 0.39 miles)

200 recovery

400 meters 1:30.38 (5:48, 0.26 miles)

400 recovery. 

200 meters 40.35 (5:24, 0.12 miles). 

Jogged 200 back to starting line, picked up gloves and jogged around track BUT when I got to the 200 mark I decided to try one more 200 for "fun" mainly cause of my earlier cop out on the finish of the 800.   SO...

200 meters 42.17 (5:40, 0.12).  I felt faster than last one since I didn't have the head wind so I assume I slowed near the end making the time shoot down quickly.  Who knows.    Maybe I just delayed hitting my stopwatch.  Felt better at least. 

Ran home 2 miles 7:58 ap.

40 minutes later:  ate breakfast before heading out-- 3 eggs, 1/4 cantelope, half a bagel with dap of butter.  Met with Donna for her 4 miler.  Ran a nice loop towards AF and back.  4.3 miles at 9:31 pace.  Nice run.  GREAT talk.  : D.  THANKS  DONNA : D. 

After thoughts...I think I forgot that I just ran a WICKED half marathon course on Saturday. DUH tired legs, ya think???  Seriously, I felt like jello.  My brain was so far ahead of my body in the speedwork.  Then I realized it had only been three days.  THREE.  I usually have four days in between tough workouts.  I work tomorrow so that makes it hard.  IN fact I work the next 4 of 5 days-- wednes, thurs and sat sun.  BLAH.

10 miles at 415 am before work. couldnt sleep so this waz good cause i want 70 miles this week. yup first 70 mile week in a very long time....like a year.  no worries this kind of hat tricks work for me. still dont know which marathon i am "racing".  time will tell. ap for ten today was 8. first mile 9:10. last mile 7:29. felt very easy. went right into 753 pace after two miles like i was jogging. maybe i should run at 415 every day.   

7 miles at 640. put on call last night. ap 7:48. 7 x 0.1 miles random strides. paces sweet for me.   then came home started laundry after kids off to school.  went to rec ctr witb troy. 4 miles easy on tm. started at 8:57 pace. ran 0.25 miles at 5:54 pace. then a little later 0.12 miles at 6:44 pace to 4 miles. i was bored and hungry eve. though i ate in between both runs. healthy though. sugar detox not easy.  ap 8:12.  upper body weights x20 min.

Plan 20 miler up/down Provo Canyon starting at Kneaders in Provo with 8 at marathon pace at the end.  Noticed Flag at maceys going west in the wind.  But not too badly.  But that always changes in the canyon.  Had to delete garmin 15 secs into run as it said memory was full.  Off to a slow start here.  It is 8:32am.  Stopped tried to figure out watch and quickly deleted data from over a month ago.  Sure hope I didn't delete things I hadn't downloaded yet.  Oh well. No time to delete individual activities.  I got to get started. Start out with my skirt and two layers on top with gloves.  Removed gloves at three miles and top layer at 8 miles.  The first few steps of my run I was seriously considering my sanity.  My legs ever so slowly moved.  I just said come on Julie you were ready yesterday.  Kept putting one foot in front of the other.  Passed the first water fountain at mile 2 and was like hey it is only mile two and there is a water fountain at the base of south fork.  WELL unfortunately it was not turned on nor were the bathrooms unlocked, except the outhouse ones which I quickly used.  I spent time walking from building to building trying to find an on spicket.  NOTHING.  This bummed me out.  I was now running my entire run with no water til I get back to about mile 17 and 18 where there are two.  Even the bathrooms at the campground were locked and the water was off.  I only took 10 seconds to check there.  So on up I went. That first mile into south fork was dreadfully hard.  I was wanting out right then but I pushed through and made it to 10 miles not even noticing the park I passed at mile 8 with a water fountain!!!  I was in a zone but I found it on my way back just before mile 12 and my 8 miles at marathon pace.  Halleluyah!!!  I was in heaven.  Took a gu at mile 5  and 10 (the turn around on top) and was thoroughly parched without water with it.  So thankful for that fountain.  It is at the start of the Provo Half and Marathon tomorrow.  Perhaps that is why it is on.  AT mile two of marathon pace miles I nearly finished the whole run.  I struggled to keep under 7.  It is where the steep downhill turns FLAT for a mile.  My body was not happy with the sudden change.  I had read an article in the runners world last night about positive thoughts and that negative really hampers your efforts.  I put it to the test and began with some positive voices to myself instead of the IMMENSE amount of negative self talk I was giving myself the entire run.  AND guess what???? it REALLY worked.  I surged and I didn't die and I felt better.  I had to purposely change my thinking several times in those 8 miles.  I was SO very close to quitting....but once I made the change... I believed in myself and I actually was able to run better and finish strong.  Splits---8:24, 8:06, 7:52, 7:53, 7:58 , 7:53, 7:37, 8:14 (200 feet elevation gain), 7:48, 7:53, down hill but easy pace no effort here the next two miles-- 7:25, 7:23, Marathon pace-- first mile too much downhill I had to slow myself down-- 6:44, 6:56 (that flat mile), 6:46, 6:48, 6:45, 6:46, 6:50, and 6:40.  Iced in Provo River up the canyon a bit.  Had to drive there.  8 minutes.  Ahhhhh.  Felt great.  Got in car and accidentally left my running shoes on the roof.  I saw flashes of Pink through my rear view mirror.  I did a U-ey on the Provo Canyon Highway and went back for them.  So glad I saw them or they would be Hamburger by Now.  Funny sight. 

rewrote this.  last entry too depressing. heel pain back.  but will just stop there.  8:39 pace before work.  5 miles.  recovery from 20 miler.