Believe to Achieve

Just still upset that I was sick for this race because after signing up for Mt Nebo on Sept. 10th  last night I decided I am going to NOT run it and get my entry to another of their races.  I looked on the course tool and it drops over 3200 ft!!  2000 ft in the first 6 miles!!  that is INSANE.  I don't want to INJURE myself going down that steep of an incline 3 weeks  before SGM.  The Halloween Half doesn't even drop that bad and my calves were injured for days!!  so where do  I get my MORE honest 1:24?  btw yesterday and last night I finally began to SWEAT OFF my fever.  Still coughing up huge funness but at least it is out and not in.  I have also lost 5 pounds.  Apparently 5 pounds of mucus.  YUCK.  Slept REALLY well last night, AHHHH!!! since I can breath through my nose and my throat no longer hurts, life is good.  I still sound funny though.

Okay so  I was/have been feeling pretty sorry for myself that I slipped into a bit of a depression yesterday.  The antibiotics kind of due that to me too.  But the fact that I sound funny and my brain is still congested isn't helping.  But I AM FEELING BETTER. The sore throat is completely gone.  I am not coughing up as much stuff.  I did cough and got some junk out of my TEAR DUCTS!!!seriously, snot through my tear ducts!!  Apparently my FRONTAL sinus and maxilla sinus are the issues right now.  So when  I woke this morning (ABSOLUTELY NO SORENESS WHATSOVER!!!  HIGH MILEAGE BABY!!) but feeling kind of out of if, fuzzy headed and down.  I mean really I pictured August 20th so differently a month and even a week ago.  But I had to pick myself up out of the gutter of despair and SHAKE MYSELF silly.  GET OVER IT Julie!!  at about mile 5 after climbing a steady slight incline and approaching a steep incline I started to slow down and then caught myself and said "this is it Julie, you can't let this little sinus infection/cold get you down.  You can conquer this.  BE POSITIVE>  YOU CAN OVER COME THIS YOU HAVE COME SO FAR STOP WITH ALL THE MOANING AND GROANING.  There are other AUG 20ths out there and that was NOT THE DO ALL DIE ALL DAY.  KNOCK IT OFF.  YOU ARE OVER IT>  MOVE ON>  DO WHAT YOU HAVE TRAINED TO DO.  YOU can still run a 1:26 half and run SUB three.  It is so HAPPENING>   I CAN FEEL IT> IT JUST HAS TO.  Blah blah blah.  mome monologue......  So I did just that.  I kept pushing through the hills and forgot about my sinuses and did what I usually do and kept running.  I even added an extra mile and ran up a rolling hills course to the booth at AF canyon where I hit 8 miles and then turned around and ran back  the same way following the AF half course to AF high school then two more miles to my house.  AP gently rolling up for 8== 8:25.  AP  rolling gently down-- 7:17.  Last mile 6:57.  I am back.  and the GAME IS ON!!  for me anyway.  It is my game and I am playing it to the finish.  NO HOLDING BACK!!!  SUB THREE :D.   AP for 16 miles= 7:49.  Had to stop at a conveniently placed porta potty on 200 north AF (antibiotics giving me the runs) and at the golf course for the same problem.  Water at the golf course up and when I was coming back down.  Alleluyah!!  IT WAS VERY HOT!!    Side story:  On this run I  ran in to Amber Sandberg on the way up as she was running back down.  She told me Brandon told her that he was running up South Fork  when I passed him (I don't know him but he remembered me from his other van in Ragnar last year) running up it on my 11th mile of uphill running (my 22 miler two weeks ago with Mel and Julie) he said  to Amber- "I have never been passed going up South Fork". Well,  I remember after passing him and the other two  guys he was with and then all of the sudden he was right beside me and pushing the pace hard to pass me, so I let him. I thought "Hey I got 11.5 miles to go yet".  Apparently Amber said he totally paid for it  (at least his body did, that last mile up south fork is pretty steep) and she thought it was pretty funny that it was ME that had passed him..  I thought it was funny too and gave me a boost of how far I have come with running hills.  But how with this cold my hills have felt harder.  And now I am re-inspired to push the hills again.  No slacking when I see one up ahead.  PUSHING THROUGH ALL OF THEM.  : D.  At mile 12 coming out of the park where the hill is pretty steep, I was going to slow down but instead, NOPE I SAID YOU ARE PUSHING THROUGH THIS HILL DANG NAB-IT DO IT BY GOLLY YOU ARE  NOT GOING TO DIE!!  And you know what I did and it FELT GREAT!!  :D. 

4:40 am run for 7 miles at 8:15 pace around my darkened neighborhood.   No music just me listening to the sounds of my own shadow.  YIKES :D.  Got to work on time and was told I was to be at the other hospital.  The superviser forgot to call me.  Soooo got in my car and drove to Utah Valley's NICU.  Took care of some pretty cute premies!!  : D.

NICU again but this time I knew I had to work there so  I couldn't just show up a half hour late like yesterday when the supervisor forgot to call me.  We went to the BYU's Women's Soccer game.  We beat Univ. of Utah 4 to 0.  : D.  That was a great game.  It was very hot at the beginning.  I got off work just a mile away from the stadium in Provo.  It was nice that I was conveniently working at the Provo Hospital.  I met up with my kids and husband and tons of other people who had the same idea.  The alarm this morning definitely came too early (4:35am).  I almost talked myself out of it but I did some "you are almost to taper Julie then you can have a break" type of talking to myself and got my butt out of bed.  First mile 8:57.  For a while there my garmin was saying a 10 pace and I was like "surely you are lying!!"  I must have been soooooo tired that I thought I was exerting myself.  But somehow that little "rest" was the motor turning on.  I finished 6 at AP of 7:35!!!   THAT sure woke me up!!  :D. 

NOT liking the kids being back at school.  It is messing with my running schedule.  Since I was at work the last two days for the kids' first two days of school I couldn't leave my house at 6:30 to get in my 20 miler with MP.  But then I totally didn't feel like it right then.  I was nervous to run it by myself so I talked myself out of running 20 today and then I drove Courtney's carpool to school at 7:45am.  Stopped at my other daughters' elem. school to see if I could switch tracks and have my kids go on A track and be out of the house by 7:55am.  But nope.  No room for one of my daughters.  I also have no carpool since everyone in my neighborhood is on A track.  Anyway....TIME KEEEPS TICKING away and after I take Amber and Brooke to school at 9:10am I decided I would just do my 6 x 1000 meters and go over to the rec center since it is already in the high 80s outside.  Geez.  But I get there and the way my morning was going this just put the icing on my cake---THEY ARE CLOSED FOR CLEANING UNTIL AUGUST 29TH!!! seriously?  Melanie had run at AF because Lehi's Rec is also closed for cleaning and she said the TMs don't go fast enough, just to 10 mph.  Of course my goal was only a 6:15 for them but I just didn't feel like going to AF.  It is a VERY CROWDED little TM room.  Blah.  Time is still ticking.  As I pulled in my driveway feeling HORRIBLY unmotivated I called Kelli.  Darn she already ran.  I whined to her about my UNMOTIVATED SELF and then Kim called me back and I WHINED some more.  WELL  I finally in my tired body DRUG IT TO THE SIDEWALK and thought "just put one foot in front of the other and see if you can run today one step at a time".  My goal was to run 4 mile warmup and do some 1000 repeats at AF high school.  WELL..... I ran a 7.1 mile warmup *AP= 7:48,  towards down town AF and by Good Earth and then North and then East and then on the new River trail, where I soaked my hat in water and continued a loop coming back to AF high school.  AHHHHHH cold water in their school.  I must put in here how I NEVER looked at my pace except when it beeped that another mile passed by.  I WAS UTTERLY in shock that my first mile was 8:20.  I told myself to slow it down but then  I ran an 8:00, then 7:38, 7:42, 7:41, 7:43, 7:31!!!! THIS IS IN SEARING 94 DEGREE HEAT (the sign at AF high school was such a welcome sight with THAT news).  I thought for a moment HOW CRAZY I was to even attempt some 1000 meter repeats (2.5 laps) but decided everyone already knows that so no biggie.  I  ran the first one (no watch peeking at all) and AGAIN SHOCKING--- 5:59 pace for 1000 meters at 94 degrees!!  I ran 1.5 laps in between at 8:11 pace and ran the second repeat at even faster pace--  5:54!!!!! HELLO. Ran 1.5 laps at 7:58 pace.  But boy was this SEARING dryish heat  giving me a VERY dry scratchy throat!!  I ran inside the school and got some cold water to drink and dipped my hat again.  I also ate a gu chomp.  I took four with me on this run.  This was my third one.  They helped a lot.  Then ran the third one at 6:03!!!!  HELLO!!!  WHAT is the deal??    this WHOLE no looking at the GARMIN thing is so GOOD FOR ME!!    I have to say that the third one I started out too fast because some guy was staring at me from under a shade tree but he was gone by the second lap.  That quicker start made me overshoot and slow too much.  But I also have to say I NEVER FELT TAXED aerobically.  My breathing was even.  The only problem was when I stopped I could tell I had been sweating a lot because I got that feeling you get in your body when it is trying to cool you off so you don't have heat stroke-- your arms feel tingly etc... and you feel a bit cold but shouldn't because it is hot out.  Sooo  I used that as a good excuse NOT to run anymore 1000 meter repeats today.  Went inside the school  for more water as all the kids were coming out for lunch/recess so I was definitely glad I didn't run any more laps.  Ran 3.65 mile cooldown to my house.  AP 7:52.  MASSIVELY HOT NOW!!!  Probably 96 degrees for sure.  Not sure why I am running faster lately more easily and especially in the heat. Weird.   All in the name of SUB THREE BABY!!! :D.   Oh the best part about this run was the finish.   I rubbed an ice cube all over my body then a half hour later iced myself in the river for 9 minutes. VERY REFRESHING :D.

Since I am changing MP to next weekend I ran this conservatively and THANK GOODNESS I did or I would have been admitted to the hospital for IV fluids.  HOLY MOLY did the TEMPS start to sore.  Again I had to be there for my kids this morning so I didn't leave my house to drive to the mouth of the canyon until just before they left with my husband to school at 8:50am.  I arrived at 9:02.  Left for the ascent at 9:05 am and ran up 6.5 miles!!!  I ran so slowly because the first few steps I was completely thinking I should go back home and forget the 20 miler today.   I just wasn't into it.  There was a great WARM  head wind for the first four miles up and the sun was intense in the unshaded areas.  I tried to stay focused and didn't care what my pace was.  My legs began to feel light and fluffy.  And my shoes (not my new ones) were like I was on squishy pancakes.  After a while it became harder and harder to run in these old pair of mizuno precision with well over 500 miles on them.   You should see the "nonexistent" tread on them, especially the forefoot.  They felt way too squishy.  No shock abosorbment going on.  Just squish.  I fatigued way too early in this run and when I hit the valley in the 94+ degree weather--- survival run is what became the point here.  I stopped at the bathroom at the Golf Course bathroom and put my hat  AND shirt under the faucet.  In fact I already had stopped six times before this point, although they were short for the most part, less than a minute except at the top.   I was utterly losing it in this heat.   When I finished leg cramps hit me hard so I knew I was not getting enough water.  But I did at the finish take in over half of a 32 ounce gatorade.  I got on the scale and had lost over 3 pounds!!!  NOT good.  So I kept drinking and drinking but then felt like puking.  So I took slow sips.  The water at the high school I gulped and gulped and gulped and couldn't get enough.  It was ICE cold and amazingly refreshing, but I still had almost two miles to go. 8 stops.  What a wimp.  One was only a half mile from my house under a shade tree.  My body was begging to be cooled down.   But you know what, heat is a curse for a runner.  It is not easy to run in the heat.  My gatorade at my car (mile 13) was PUTRID warm   and I took 5 gu chomps and ate one every four or so miles.  This run was only easy until mile 6.5.  My six MP miles downhill were fine but I was too hot.   My muscles didn't ache, my legs just weren't in the mood to turn over.  So at least I averaged 6:42 for those.  I thought  I might try two more but that was enough.  The valley heat was just too intense.  The only other people I saw out there was one couple and several bikers enjoying the cooling wind when riding downhill fast.  AP UP NICE AND EASY, it really did feel quite wonderful after the first .5 miles--6.5 miles at 9:04 AP.   1/2 mile easy downhill before starting  the  6 MP miles.  Then 6 miles @ 6:42 AP--splits:  6:56, 6:58 (can't seem to run fast), 6:43, 6:40, 6:35, 6:33.    The rest were 7:30s until the last four or so miles at  8  (8:02, 8:02, 8:02, 8:18)  with the last .8 at 7:56.  DOWN AP for 13.8 miles= 7:27 AP.  Total miles 20.8 @ 7:56 AP.  Talk about heat killing my pace.  I guess in the heat like this you are to factor in being at least 30 to 60 seconds slower per mile so I will try to be positive here.  What a morning!!!   Leg cramps gone now.  Totally hydrated.  I even sweated up a storm vaccuming.  My AC is on so I must be a bit hormonal here. 

6.1 miles @ 8:28 sleepy tired legs pace.  Well at least the first mile I was in a slump (9:15) but it was UNbelievably HOT out.  I sweated ENTIRELY way too much in this run.  I was so sticky and slimy.  VERY WEIRD.  Then after a cold shower as I drove to work it was MUCH cooler all of the sudden as the clouds had drifted away and revealed a starry sky.  I must say that my left foot has been in pain for the last week.  Shooting nerve pains through my third and forth toes coming from the metatarsal.  I think I have a neuroma.  It feels like glass poking in my foot at times.  VERY sharp and sudden.  YIKES.  I am able to land okay running that I haven't noticed it while running.  It acts up GREATLY after I run.