Believe to Achieve

Kill me now run.  Still intensely fatigued.  DRAGGED myself out of bed at 710am.  Waited for Courtney's girlfriends who were dressing her up in a fairy costume, doing her hair in pig tails and ribbons and taking her to breakfast at McDs for her birthday (11 yesterday).   They were giggly and Courtney was VERY surprised and happy.  I wish that was what  I was up to but no the dreaded 16 miler I have yet to do was hanging over my head.  So I put one foot in front of the other and walked out the door then picked it up to a jog and eventually I was running.  An extremely miserable take off.  Just all around grossness.  AHHHHHRGH!!  I do not like to make long runs out of these days.  This ranked up there in the top 5 worse runs I have done.  Thank goodness my effort paid off and can feel halfway decent about the pace.  Big mistake was not eating anything since last night at 8pm and that was birthday cake/ice cream.  I hardly drank either cause I was feeling soooooo bloated.  Anyway knew I would pay for it as I ran to the mouth of American Fork Canyon and 3.5 miles up it to total 8.2 miles UPhill and then 8.2 miles downhill (except there and back at mile 4 going into the canyon is this big dip down, which on the way out means a BIG dip UP, total turtleness here as it was now 9:30am and the sun was a scorchin'). The first half in the canyon was head and sidewind city.  I was spent but pushed it as several bikers sped by me.  I was the only runner up the canyon.  Got to marker 11 and turned around.  The three markers from 8 to 11 were my pacers.  My uphill pace here was 9:13, 9:29 (steep), 9:30 (steeper).  Over, turn around please!!  Downhilll pace:  6:52, 6:37, 6:47.  Way hard on the hips and metatarsals (no flat areas)  plus way hard after Saturdays workout.  Stopped running fast after this.  Too tired.  No water.  Big uphill out of canyon, turtle speed.  Last 3.4 miles at 7:52 pace.   Average pace up for 8.2:  9:23  Average pace way back:  7:53.   Total mileage:  16.4 at 8:34.  If things don't turn around soon I am going to have to check myself in to a rest home.  SOS.  I need a vacation from all cares in  the world.  Not happening,  I work tonight.  Who would have thought? 

Recovery from 16 miler and all nighter last night.  Soooooo obviously no running, just household chores and keeping the kids happy.  Heat wave needs to end soon.

Working on my aerobic base after reading Endurance Training book and seeking the advice of great friends (Kim especially).  I am overtrained and very burnt out so I am cutting back on pace and mileage and trying to heal.  With working nights I am becoming way overtrained as I try to squeeze in my workouts without much sleep and my body is completely rebelling.  The fatigue is intense and my allergies have greatly worsened sooooo I have decided to try the heartrate function test and not overdo it there and use my races for anaerobic training.  Something's gotta give and since running is not much fun right now I am taking a yoga moment and reevaluating my abilities right now.  I still hope to PR at SGM and according to this book I can and with much less training.  Sasha told me to work on my aerobic base and I didn't quite understand it until Kim gave me this book to read.  It is sooooo me and I need to watch myself so I am.  I still plan on racing Hobble Creek and doing my long runs (substantially slower if that is what my heartrate dictates on the day I run them).  I am soooo looking forward to running healthier and getting stronger.  When I no longer work nights my body will be better at recovery.  Someday soon I will be parttime.  Crossing fingers : D    Ran  easy 3.8 at 9:36 pace, maximum aerobic function.  See how badly my heart has been crying out?  As the fatigue lessons this will improve.  Sleep is the big factor.

Same old story....massive fatigue, unable to move well at all.  Slept well last night, 8 hours solid, no medications needed.  I don't take ambien or sleep aids.  Soooo, I battled all day wondering "what the heck is wrong with me?"  I decided not to run at all.  All day at  Lagoon yesterday in the heat was enough.  I was tired there too.  Intensely.  Then today the barometric pressure dropped, winds picked up and smoke replaced the clouds.  Not a good combination for me and explains the fatigue and later the headache/muscle aches.  I went to a three hour long staff meeting.  One seat, three hours : (    A hope for a better day tomorrow.  Melanie is trying to keep me focused on still doing our 18 miler Saturday.  We are going down Provo Canyon.  The kids will be on a daddy-daughter campout.  Since I have no sons, I will be ALONE.    Yippee.  What to do, except get paranoid of all the night sounds in my house with noone to blame them on?  Yikes.  Same thing happened last year.  Didn't sleep well all alone.  Anyway, if I run in the on Saturday am it will be according to my MAF test I plan to do on Kim's treadmill tomorrow.  MAF equals max aerobic function.  I am doing the shorter version of warmup (highly encouraged), three miles at MAF then a cool down.  Warmup and cooldown are about 15 minutes each. 

Hungry before leaving because started out late at 9:10am as Kim was trying out her new sneakers on the treadmill in prep for her MIDNIGHT HALF MARATHON tonight down Hobble Creek.  I ran 1.45 miles to her house at a considerable warmup pace of 10:20.  Oh yah. Felt sooooo good.  Got on her treadmill for the Heartrate test after placing on Kim's garmin heartrate monitor around my chest.  We couldn't put the mode to read the heartrate in larger lettering so I had to stop the treadmill to read the heartrate.  The lettering is miniscule, no kidding.  So that part was inaccurate, as jumping off the treadmill to the sides probably increased my heartrate.  I also tried stopping the treadmill to read it, that was doable but took 15 to 20 seconds to get back to pace.  Anyway, my max aerobic heart rate should be 145.  180 minus my age, and add 5 points for running for the past two years no injury and progress in races.  So my aerobic mile started at a pace of 8:00 minutes/per mile.  Second mile slower (expected, and done right if warmed up enough), at 8:13.  Third mile 8:20.   Pretty accurate to my 5k outcome and the books prediction of heartrate.  The book says after time my MAF pace will be quicker and should be tested every three weeks.  No speed necessary until aerobic base obtained then just run races to get anaerobic buildup or run downhill to not go past MAF but get neurological benefits of speed.  As downhill running doesn't increase your heartrate much (for example my 5:48 mile at Bryce, I felt like I was flying, heart not working much at all).  Cooldown by running home 1.45 miles at 9:28 pace.  Downhill on the way back so held back greatly for this to be a real cooldown.  This smokey air is giving me quite the right-sided headache.  OUCH. 

Okay so Melanie and I  opted to run our 18 miler with a little twist.  We decided to drive up and do the Provo Half after a good warm up.  We ran down from the start to mile marker 2 (some white 2 on the ground, no obvious other signs so went by watch, ran nice and easy, 9:30 to 1000).  Then ran back up just in time for the start of the race that was supposed to start at 630am but started at 705am.  We were thinking we would be trampled but we made it back up in time.  We were supposed to take it easy.  Well I did and it paid off for me.  Melanie booked it in at 1:25:38.  If she were really racing she would have won because the top three girls were right in front of her.  I was going easy on the downhill, unsure of pace because no markers until mile 5.  At mile four some guy told me we had just passed it a few seconds ago and my watch said 29 minutes flat.  So I guess I was going at a 7:15 pace.  I thought I was going slow cause many a woman was passing me in the early miles.  Eventually I kept pace and counted off numerous women.  Eventually I had to count just men because the women were far spaced the last few miles.  My last mile was about a 6:40!!  I ran until I could see the timer but slowed a few hundred yards before that cause I didn't want to accidently cross the finish line and the ending is on the crowded Provo River path.  I saw the time at 1:33 something so I was good with that.  My friend I passed just at the last mile came in at 1:34 flat and I saw him booking it in as I turned around at a slow jog.  So sorry I was a "bandit", but they closed the race when Melanie and I got back from Bryce.  We wanted a good workout with our 18 so we took advantage of the course at our feet.  Ran a 9:30 cooldown mile.  Total mileage: 18.6.    We would have rather been official. And after seeing Sarah at the end of the race she told Melanie we could have told Sasha and we could have got in.  Oh well.  Great weather today too.  I am feeling better about my abilities as this race felt quite easy, my heartrate went into anaerobic zone only in the last 4 miles when I pushed the pace.