Believe to Achieve

13 miler-- up to the mouth of the canyon from my house then down on the trail behind Lone Peak High School and around/through Art Dye Park.  Slow and steady at first.  Starting to feel that twitch in my calf again.  I think it is due to my new running shoes, same model/year as I had but the inside of the right heel feels like it is raised a bit more in the shoe.  Since I am noticing it every time I think it is a flaw in the making of the shoe.  I wore my older ones in the marathon and had ABSOLUTELY NO calf pain during or the whole week after the race.  ODD.  AP for 13 miles 7:46.  Time 1:41:06.  It is always amazing to me to see that my EASY but hilly training runs are at the same pace as my LONG ago (1995) RACE PACE was for a downhill half marathon.  Just sayin'.   I think I ran my first Provo Half Marathon in 1:43 in 1995 and then ran Hobble Creek two weeks later in 1:41.  An older friend/Dr. I worked with ran a 1:39 and I thought she was so amazingly fast.  The body can be trained to do what the mind tells it to.   So SUB THREE is MY GOAL.  Seriously I was watching Joan Benoit Samuelson (my running heroine) last  night on  You Tube finish the first Women's Olympic Marathon and RE-INSPIRED myself.  In 1984 (the race she won) I was 14 and very depressed/down about my life and I just turned on the TV in time  to see her finish.  She was/is so inspiring.  I wasn't even much into running then, just for sports (field hockey, ski team, track--YUCK), but something flamed inside me from watching her and in my mind I had this thought that I wanted to be a runner.....

1 min front plank, 45 seconds side, left and right.

A little speed work with Kim, Jane and Mel.  Warm up for 2.52 miles at 8:29 AP.  Ran to AF track.  Potty in the school and water fountain, YES! : D.  Ran 10 x 400s.  5 one way  5 the other.  Ran 400s in between at 7:33 to 8:11 pace.  Here are the splits for .26 miles =  5:57,  6:00, 5:57, 5:59, 5:59,  5:56, 5:49, 5:50, 5:39, 5:40.    This felt very manageble and NOT all out.  We were trying for 6:00 AP.  Mel ran 4 of them and went on a longer run.  Kim and Jane were always the same distance ahead after each one, so they were always about 3-5 seconds ahead but during the cooldown I was able to get closer to them so that was nice.  It was hard to see them take off a few seconds before me and wait until I got to the line but I am not too worried about my pace being slower since it has only been 10 days since UVM.  These felt rather easy.  Yay!!  Some nagging pelvic pain/pressure, so much be careful.  I tend to have marathon alztheimers.  I forget so easily what I put my body through and think I can head right out there and run 10, then 14 then 13 then 11 miles.   Like did I take it easy yet?  Well I did NOT run Sun thru Wed. after the marathon that counts for something.  I did work three of those days however, two of them 13 hour shifts and one 7 hours.  Hey and I didn't run last Sat. or Sun.  I worked two 12.5 hours shifts instead :D.  So see I am being good to myself.  : DD  Big hug.  Total 11 miles today.  Ran 3.5 mile cooldown VERY easy pace so the AP for the last 8.5 that incl. SW dropped to 7:24.  Felt so nice to NOT care about pace and chat away with Kim and Jane.  Nice of them to run easy with me. Oh, btw today is MY 14 th Wedding Anniversary.  The longest day of the year!!!  And the first DAY OF SUMMER !!   Oh and I FINALLY did some ARM work it has been at least three months!!! (and even then it lasted maybe two days): straightups, side raises, front raises, biceps (2 types), overhead triceps, rows, lay down overhead raises, dips and push ups with legs on the ball (6,6,4,4,7).  I am such a wimp.  But I am determined to stick with doing upper body at least twice a week and stop this lower body focus thing I have got going on.  Seriously.  

I think that 10 days post  marathon is the magic day for me.  After starting yesterday's workout I was not sure I should have run it, with a few sluggish warmup miles and 10 days post marathon but two hours later instead of feeling sluggish and tight I was ALIVE again.  My legs were feeling wonderful.  Troy and I took the girls to 7peaks and unplanned we ran into Kim and then Melanie there with their kids.  We stayed 3 hours relaxing in the waters.  The kids not so much going from place to place.  I did go down the new head first Avalanche ride that 8 people slide at once to "race" each other on mats.  Pretty much the heaviest person wins that one.  Later Troy and I went out to dinner at PF chiangs and because we told them it was our anniversary we got  a free dessert and man was it so delicious!!  It was pineappe/coconut ice cream drizzled lightly with caramel with berries in a circle around the bottom (black, straw, rasp) and 6- 2in  banana slices cooked in crispy spring roll crust.  I am telling you HEAVEN, even though I was stuffed with lettuce wraps, crispy honey chicken, brown rice and chicken mu shu wraps I just had to eat my half of it.  It reminded  us of  Hawaii, where we went on our honeymoon.  Later we went to see Source Code.  Anyway, today ran an easy 10 miler-- 5 rolling up, 5 rolling down.  I risked my life today running on Canyon Rd from 1100 north, but hey at least at times there was a safe shoulder made of dirt/rocks so it felt like trail running.  So nice to turn into Cedar Hills Golf Course at the crest  and up around the circle and down through the paved trail by Cedar Ridge Elementary.  Bathroom is open so I got to get  a drink and potty stop, when I stretched a bit.  Felt so good.  Added on 1 mile today because I work the next two days and am wanting to just go 4 instead of 5 on Friday before work to save up for Saturday's run down AF canyon.  I need sleep.  So running shorter in the morning will help with that.  AP today 8:29.  Just took it nice and easy, the first five miles were about a 9 AP.  Oh Yah now I realize how much you use your arms while running since mine are quite tender from finally doing weights yesterday.  Today I did 1:30 front plank, 45 sec on the sides with a lot of stretching : D.

eazy squeezy lemon pleazy....5 at 8:49 pace before work.   Nice and slow so I could sleep and run.  JK.  Long day at work.  Sleepy. 

easy 4 before work at 8:42 pace. Not sure what I am capable of at the half tomorrow. Tried to sign up legally and even have a 52 year old man's number, but they said it was too stressful to switch the names even though they added on 15 names today. Oh well. So I won't be wearing a number just racing it incognito with Kim. Goal would be 1:26 something if my body is ready. It is a 1740 foot decent mostly decending the first 7 miles so will definitely be interesting. Then it does some little rollers and then flattens then rolls down then flattens then ends slightly uphill. Worked all day today. Tired. But legs feel better than before the marathon.

This had to be the FUNNIEST preparation race I have ever run and I ran a PR.  Seriously ridiculous comedy of errors.  First of all I got a number for the race and my plan was just to get on the bus with it because they couldn't change my name yesterday even though they let over 15 runners into the race yesterday.  Oh well.  Less pressure. Sleep was probably 2 hours.  Just have been going to with my eyes wide open unable to drift to sleep.  Just a little bout of insomnia this week.  I picked up Kim and we drove to the finish line at AF high school.  Got to the race start about 5:35am.  I ran a two mile warm up about 8:40 pace on the dirt.  Realized on the bus ride up the my garmin was reading low battery.  Mel tried to console me that her low battery garmin can last for 20 miles.  Well apparently mine was extremely low (it is having trouble with charging lately, I had charged it Thursday).  My garmin died .02 miles into my warm up.  So I ran SANS WATCH and threw my garmin in my bag.  But then I missed the bag pickup truck and a nice camera guy for the event let me put it in his car.  I got in an extra .7 miles an hour after the finish running to his car parked quite a nice jaunt from the finish.  He gave me his keys and I went looking for his white car.  I finally had to just press the unlock of the trunk button and suddenly I found his car.  I just thought that was funny.  Incendentally I AM NOT EVEN SORE TIRED WHATSOEVER.  I could have run another 10 miles (not at the same pace).  I don't even feel like I raced it that hard.  I HAD NO IDEA WHAT MY TIME WAS  UNTIL MILE 10!!!!!  I finally had to yell at three guys (they didn't have music on) "HEY COULD SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME A SPLIT HERE?  GEEZ."  I got a split read to me at the 10 mile mark as 1:04!!!!!!!  HOLY MOLY THAT IS UNDER a 6:30 pace.  I decided to round that to 1:05 which makes that a 6:30 pace.  So I just told myself "just relax and do 7 minute miles Julie and you still will PR in the half".  Of course not having my garmin I had no idea if I did that but I felt like I slowed briefly but then picked it up the last mile.  I did waste a lot of energy probably talking to Cliff and then asking about 10 people along the way what time we were at.  At one point I asked a bunch of bikers how far the first girls were ahead (mile 6) and they said "about a mile" and I was like "yah right".  But since I lost MEL, KIM and Jane after the first mile warm up (that's all they did) I was out there on my own, no watch and no friends.  Until Cliff a coworker running up the course turned around and ran with me for about 3.5 miles.  I asked what he thought my pace was (I met him at mile 2.5) and he said I think you are going pretty fast (he doesn't have a garmin).  Finally I got him to tell me the split from mile 3 to 4 which was 6:35.  HELLLOOOO like I had plans to be about 6:50 for the first few miles. Another problem were my tangents.  Cliff was telling me I was not cutting the corners and was adding on.  Well that is just how I am used to running down the canyon, like there are cars that will zoom by at any moment.  He then said "okay then just run what you like to do".  I guess I better get better at TANGENTS. When the gun went off I was about 40 to 50 seconds from the start  and I stopped just before the finish (there were two timing mats and I felt guilty crossing since I am not a male 52 years old) but the first mat surprised me so after dead stopping right on it and EVERYBODY yelling at me that it wasn't the finish line I decided I better cross, shyly saying "but I am not official", bowing my head saying to myself "dang it"  I didn't want to cross.  Needless to say I missed the clock time but it was recorded as 1:26:42 (would have been 1:26:30 with that dead stop at the first mat about 100 feet from the finish line) and then all the time before crossing the start (I was way back looking for my three girlfriends).  So I am guessing about under 1:26 based off the fact that the girl in front of me got 1:26 flat and I started after her and she finished just a few seconds in front of me.  Any way I was sixth overall (I believe.  I will change it if I read differently) and first master.  GOOD NEWS-- I went up to the HR guy for my hospital, who I know and have known for several years, and said "Brent, I am not evil, I didn't know there would be two time mats and since I crossed the first I ended up having to cross the second", I told him I didn't want to screw up the results for the 50-54 guys so he could take his name off.  But what he ended up doing SO VERY WILLINGLY AND POLITELY is taking his name off and putting my name in.  He said it would be VERY easy to do and no problem whatsoever.  SO COOL.   YOU WON't see that happen everyday.  So basically SANS watch, unofficially but really OFFICIAL NOW I ran an awesome PR and I feel incredible.  I don't feel sore (just a little cramp in my right calt again) but NOTHING ELSE.  NO SCIATICA not hamstring tightness nothing.  Since the course was changed from what we thought, adding on quite the uphill for .2 miles and not knowing where the finish would be I was in shock when I saw the finish as I am fiddling with my iPOD for the 50th time I was like "oh my heavens, forget the garmin Julie and actually try to kick it in.  It was hard not knowing what my time is but I did ask the last water station (just after mile 11) guy the REAL time of day, since the race started on time, he told me it was 7:10.  I knew I couldn't be that fast so I guessed about 1:11-1:12.  I am so happy that it went well.  With MORE CONFIDENCE AND MORE POSITIVE SELF TALK I THINK A 1:24 at BRYCE AND HOBBLE CREEK IS GOING TO HAPPEN.  Plus I will be more recovered from the UVM.  Recovery at over 40 is a lot different than 20s and 30s.  Time will tell but I am pretty sure that SUB THREE AT SGM IS SOOOOOOO HAPPENING : DDDDDDD   Since my friends are all sore and I am not apparently I didn't push myself hard enough.