Seeking a better country...

3:30 plank during Biggest Loser

I got home from work at nine.  Onto the TM.  1.5 warmup, then 3 @6:22 with 800 recovery between, 1.5 cooldown.  The last lap on each mile was pretty tough.  I wore the HRM but it seems I didn't push start.  Ah, the downfalls of technology.  Anybody running the Striders Winter Circuit in Ogden?

It was one of those mornings on the treadmill.  I don't know anything about those.  I've never run on the tm in the morning until today.  Now I'm super late for work, and still need to drop my daughter off at pre-school...I'm coming down with something in my throat.  I'm trying to knock it down with Ricola, emergen-c and colloidal silver.  I have enjoyed remarkable health since I started running 3 years ago.  I've never been knocked out for more than a day or two, and that's only happened 2-3 times.  

The first part of the run was a 5k.  Made it to Ogden by 7:45, grabbed my shirt, # and chip and got ready.  I had a very solid warmup for about .6 miles.  The "gun" went off and we were away.  This course is not a pr course.  It's hilly like crazy.  The first .5 went by quickly, then the climbing started.  .5 to 1.5 is mostly uphill, so there was lots of passing going on.  Finally we caught a break with some downhill to recover, followed by more wonderful uphill sections.  The last mile was mostly downhill, except for the lovely uphill finish.  Gosh, I LOVE THOSE!!  I held on, and valiantly fought the urge to walk several times.  I couldn't stand to have people I passed go by me because I felt a little uncomfortable and wimped out.  

So after the race, I got some *****ade, and ate a muffin half.  I was ready to go, and as I was driving away, saw a lady starting some miles.  Well, I'm supposed to do 20 today, so I asked her if she'd mind some company.  She kindly obliged, and we ran and chatted for another 4.6.  Turns out she ran at BYU with Nan, and is a killer runner.

 Then I drove home.  I changed my bottom shirt for a dry one, and headed out for 10 more miles.  I took the same course as last week, and it was killer.  No 5 hour energy, plus I'm a bit sick, tired and overworked this week compared to last.  I got them in, though.  Overall pace for the bonus, post race miles was 8:30.  This is a bit slower and fewer than my calendar calls for, but for today it's more than enough. 

Now I'm at work, furiously cutting more implant parts for a Monday deadline.  Hopefully I can finish today and not be stuck coming in again tomorrow.  (I mean that "hopefully" like, "come hell or high water I'm going to finish this stuff today")

Finally, a weather and air quality report.  It was a temperate morning for early Feb.  The air seemed clear.  I could see individual clouds, and even small sections of blue in the distance.  Airnow.gov puts us in the yellow/moderate range.  I'll take that.

I've been sick.  Even so, I had to get some miles in, after nothing on Sunday and Monday; unless you count Super Bowl bingeing as a workout.

So I mounted up the treadmill and ran a bit slower than usual, in deference to my upper respiratory tract infection.  I cranked it up for a 2.5 7:30 miles in the middle.   I coughed 2 times, and felt pretty well for the whole run.  My wife and I simultaneously watched Biggest Loser on separate tvs.  She handled the remote control duties, which was nice.  

My pre-run fuel was 2 chocolate chip cookies.  Recovery drink was the remains of a CrownBurger chocolate shake.  It thawed nicely during my 90 minute run.  

I can't figure out how much or if I should cut back this week until I get over this thing.  I haven't been sick for more than a couple days in the past 3 years.  This thing is going on 7 days now... 

This run was kind of sluggish because:

1.  I went to work on Wednesday at noon

2.  I came home from work Friday at 4:30 a.m.

I slept till noon Friday, woke up and had some lunch at Chilis, took another nap for a couple hours, then embarked on this run.  Home to BST to the start of the climb in Farmington, then back to Freedom Hills and home.  As usual, the climb up to BST was tough.  There was no hill I didn't do some walking on.  It took until I was heading down the switchbacks (around 6 miles) before my body finally accepted I wanted to run, and I was able to pick things up a little.  

This week has been a terror;  between being a bit sick and working the running has kind of gone off the rails.  I'll go long tomorrow, and hope that the coming week improves.  Meanwhile, I'm enjoying a leisurely Saturday trying to decide about tires, exhaust system and tie rods on my 16 year old Civic.  Ah cars, how I hate them.   

Each mile cost $180.  I dropped my car off to get fixed for "safety" inspection, and ran back to pick it up.  I'm beginning to feel recovered from the long work week.

It was such a nice day.  I had such good intentions.  My youngest daughters are both sick with a cold, so I stayed home from church with them.  After a big lunch and a couple hour nap, we were going to tackle this run with a couple kids on bikes for as long as they wanted.  That would have been nice, cuz someone could have carried supplies.  Instead, I ended up with my 42 lb four-year-old in the jogging stroller.  

We ran down to I-215 and back.  I got started later than I intended, and as the sun got lower in the sky, she started to get cold.  I called for a ride home for her at 500 south, which freed my from the constraint of the jogger for the last 5 miles.  I was glad to have her company for as long as it lasted.  Runs with Anna invariably feature peeing in highly public locations.  This time it was off to the side of LPT around mile 1.  I asked her if she needed to go potty when we passed two construction portapotties, and she told me no.  But 15 minutes later she was on the verge of peeing her pants.  I'm glad we got it taken care of, since she would have been a fair bit more cold for the last 3.5 miles if she was wet.  I'm sure she was bored, but she kept up a steady stream of prattle about everything in sight.  I guess it took my mind of pushing her a little bit, but at times I would have rather zoned out to some music. 

I drank about 24 oz of water, ate 5 packs of smarties and had a 5-hour energy at the turnaround.  The mile after I got rid of the stroller came in at 7:23, overall pace for the run was a surprising 8:16.  My training plan says I should be doing long runs around 8:00.  So one more longish run in the bank.  I'm anticipating a better week ahead, without being sick and having complete insanity at work.

I thought I'd try to get the staleness out of my legs with 4 slow miles.  It didn't seem to work.

Lunchtime run on Jordan River Parkway.  I saw one roller blader, (I followed her for 3 miles before finally passing and dropping her) several bikers, more walkers and no dead bodies.

Running during work is nice, but it's a long time to be punched out.  I stopped for tacos on the way back at Las Guerras, and my mouth is still burning.

I headed north for 1.5, turned around and exulted in the headwind for then next 4.5  Coasting back to my car with the wind at my back was definitely the best part of the run.  Overall pace was 7:33.  Mile #8 was 6:45.

This run was a battle royale.  I spent 5 hours shoveling driveways this morning.  After lunch and a bit of a nap, I tackled the BST, or rather, it tackled me.  10 minute miles, walking, gasping, spitting, coughing.  Around mile 3 I came across a couple of partially digested deer carcasses.  I ran to the upper road in Farmington, then headed back.  Without realizing it, I had run 4.5 miles with a tailwind, and had to fight all the way back.  Around mile 6 I felt a little bit warmed up.  I think it corresponded with getting out of the mud and snow and onto pavement again.  Miles 8 and 9 were the only ones I ran without walking, I think.  

So to sum up, 9 miles that pretty much sucked from a running standpoint.   The views were nice enough, though.  8:50 overall pace

8 in 68.  TM incline varied from .5 to 3.  Early miles were slow, the end ones were quicker.

This run has been looming over me for weeks.  10 miles, 8 miles at 6:53.  I know, that's a pretty relaxing pace for many runners. 

I didn't feel great getting started at 8:30 p.m.  I did the first mile at 9:00 and cranked things up to 6:53, figuring I'd just hold on as long as I could.  After 3 miles, I told myself to keep going until 4.  Then, "If you've gone 4 you can go 5," and so on to the finish.  

I don't know why I'm intimidated by these quicker workouts, or the 7:00/mile pace.  I've never failed on one of these workouts, and all my shorter races are below this pace.  I normally don't feel amped up enough to "race" a workout.  I guess that's not necessary.  If I can hold on for 8 miles at that pace on a night like last night, it should be doable anytime.

8 TM miles in 65 minutes.  1st mile was slow warmup; I made up for it with a couple quicker ones toward the end.

I've felt better than I do now.

OAP:  7:55

The beginning was better than the end.  I was pretty good until mile 14.  By then my 16 oz of gatorade had become insufficient to sustain an acceptable effort level.

At times like these I seriously question whether I'll do another marathon after Boston.  I'm sure I could be just as fit training for halfs, and much less beat to crap.  I just feel lousy.  I realize one should feel somewhat lousy after 20 miles, but this just seems stupid.  My day is shot, probably my tomorrow, and I have two more of these runs to anticipate.   Perhaps I'll have a more intelligent fueling strategy next time, and enlist some company for some of the miles. 

Maybe beating Lance isn't all that important.

I started my course specific training last night with the help of some molding.  I put a couple boards underneath the back end of the treadmill so I could run downhill.  I did 7 miles, then put it flat and ran 5 more.  Jack Bauer finally rescued his family, but now a new threat has arrived to endanger Senator Palmer's life!  Will this day never end?