Seeking a better country...

I was supposed to go six, but felt pretty well, so added some distance.  My son came with on the bike.  We were lazy, and drove to the creek, avoiding .8 miles of tough climb.  Then we ran north on Shoreline trails into Farmington.  I forgot the garmin, but we were out for 85 minutes. 

I squeezed this run in between work and choir--out and back from work to 5600 W.  Pancake flat, southerly crosswind in shorts and a t-shirt.  I might have liked a long sleeved shirt.  My left toe started hurting, like a pulled something or other, between the toe and the ball of my foot.  It's a bit stiff this morning, but it seems like nothing more than the litany of aches that arise.  I've added quite a bit of mileage, and this week is a long week.  Next week is a stepback...Maybe I should switch things around.  My training plan dictates 4 runs of 20+ miles, with the first one coming up on Sat.  Maybe I'll scale back to three...I don't know.  I'll have to see how things feel.  I don't want to start wimping out.  Of course, a real injury would be far more disruptive than dialing things back a bit.  The classic conundrum. 

Home to Parrish, to Legacy trail, to Pages and back.  Everything worked.  Overall pace: 7:30.  I think I'm tired from the uptick in mileage the last few weeks.  I'm looking forward to a stepback week.

7:48, 7:29, 7:14, 7:34, 7:28, 7:27, 7:15.  I went to sign away my taxes, (refund is coming...maybe 6 kids isn't too many) and ran home.  It rained/snowed the whole way from Compton Road in Farmington home.  Since it was so raining, my shirt got pretty wet, and I noticed again that wet shirts and sore nips go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Ouch.  If that wasn't bad enough, the wind cut through my warmup pants like a knife, and, well, let's just say I felt pretty cold.

3.15 with my son, then 3 to finish up.  Fast miles were 7:00 and 7:20.  I know, they aren't that fast, but they are below marathon pace.  Besides, running 6 miles after shoveling 6 driveways worth of cement this morning is a pretty good accomplishment in itself.  I have more than a little dread about tomorrow's scheduled 18 miler.  Ugh.  I just dropped an ugh.  I'm on a horse.

Ugh.  This run is too long to list splits.  Overall pace was 8:10.  My sister came and met me for the last 8 miles.  Endless running along the Legacy trail.  Coming back, we jumped onto the Rio Grande path, past a road closed sign.  A half mile later, we saw why.  There was a huge ditch for an irrigation project.  I don't recommend long jumps after 18 miles of running.  I cleared the distance, but got a bit muddy on the landing.  Oh well.  Oh yeah, at the beginning, I was looking for different paths to tread, and ended up running down some gravel road, that led to nowhere, except wetlands.  I had to climb over numerous gates, through barbwire fence, and skirt the borders to keep dry, and then backtrack through the auto auction to get back on track.  Moral of the story:  Stick to the plan.  I ate gu (gag, almost tossed it) at mile 16.  I think it helped.  Running just gets more and more expensive.  Props to Shannon for coming along.  2.5 hours post-run, I feel all right.  No joint soreness, just tired muscles.  I'm looking forward to step-back this week.  52 miles is a lot for me.  

My son came for 5,  (44 minutes) then I picked up one extra running laps around the block.  He bailed early citing knee pain.  Poor kid. 

Post choir run.  Choir was a heavy diet of Rachmaninov in Russian, and Lauridsen in Latin.  I find myself running late so often, thereby wasting all the good chemistry.  Who needs feel-good stuff to fall asleep?  Pretty much the same run as last night, minus one kid plus a little speed.  It wasn't as slo as last night, but the gps was dead, so, let's put it this way; Monday night I never breathed laboriously, Tuesday I did.  

My legs feel heavy and leaden this week.  I lanced three blisters, and now my shoes fit better.  Thank goodness things lighten up a bit with mileage this week.  I need to rest and repair. 

Treadmill miles during the Jazz game.  The lingering effects from Saturday's 20 miler are swollen toes.  Both pinkies are blistered, so my shoes don't feel good anymore.  I guess I should be grateful that's the only issue.

My son came on the 4 wheeler and goofed off on Bonneville Trail while I ran.  It was nice.  Afterward, we got looking at google earth, and there are many many more unexplored trails...I feel a summer project coming on.

With the early daylight, I'm waking up much earlier.  (last day of that for a while)  Plus my daughter peed our bed, so that inspired me to get up.  I checked the weather, and decided to beat the rain with my run.  I ran to Farmington and back with some loops around Stewart on the grass to make up the distance.  Blisters on the toes?  Glide is the answer.  Everything felt pretty well.  I started off a bit over MP, and finished up with a sub 7 mile in mile #13.  24 oz of gatorade.  There were a lot of runners on Main, so it was fun to have someone in my sights, reel them in and pass.  One guy I followed for almost 2 miles before I got by him.  Now it's raining hard, and my nips are glad I'm done.  Overall pace for the run was 7:38.  That's 10 seconds over, but a good effort on a course that was anything but flat.  The hill heading north into Farmington is a lot like the one after the halfway point.  I'll be spending some time on it, getting it out of my head.  

I'm so glad to have another week under my belt...and already dreading next week's 20 miler.  7:56, 7:40, 7:33, 8:15, 7:45, 7:28, 7:38, 8:16, 7:19, 7:28, 7:44, 7:23, 6:57, 6:38.     

Ran in new shoes.  I felt punchy after no running since Saturday morning.  Overall pace for the run was 7:12.  Home, 400 E, chase, to reading, and home.  This was an encouraging effort, and it really turned my day around.  It's too bad I waited till 9 pm to run.  The chemicals did me a lot of good.

7:39, 7:10, 7:08, 7:06, 7:03, 6:36.  Oh yeah. This course had some climbs, definitely more uphill than the usual flatness. 

I ran with Ravi.  He said he wanted to go three, but then decided he'd go six with me.  But he got sick, like, puking in the middle of the road, so we went pretty dang slow.  Plus I had him pick the course, and we ran into some farmer fields and crap like that.  This was a very good recovery run, with interesting discussions of evolution and biological theories.  I'd go back to school if it weren't for the tests, tuition, and homework. 

A few lost miles on this run...I didn't push stop/start hard enough, and didn't notice till I was mostly home.  Thanks, mapmyrun.com.  Overall, this run felt all right, but my allergies are terrible right about now.  My eyes feel like they are full of sand, and my nose is dripping snot on the keyboard.

Mile splits I have include 7:22, 7:09 and 7:31.  The missing ones were along the same lines.  Home to parrish, legacy, pages to 400 e. and home. 

This was a weird run.  Me and T ran over to the rec center to watch my nephew in a swim meet.  1.5 miles.  2 miles on the TM.  The remaining miles came on the roundabout way home.  I couldn't run slow enough to stay with T.  It's harder to run at her 10 minute pace than it is to walk.  I'm not sure how beneficial this workout was, with the break for the swim meet, and the laboriously slow pace.

Ran to the temple and back, shoreline trail up, roads down.  The descent was worse than the climb, cuz it's so steep coming down.  The first mile was brutal;  average 9% grade.  Now I have to babysit 4 little ones under 5.  Ugh.  I'm dreading 20 tomorrow.  Maybe I'll cut it to 19.

Ugh.  I just dropped an ugh.  In hindsight, perhaps skipping yesterday's run would have led to a faster outcome today.  That said, I'm satisfied to be finished for the week.  This run was killer.  Winter temps came back; when I started at 6:30 a.m. it was 27 degrees.  I ran to 500 S. and legacy trail, then home for the first 9.6.  Everything was coming in around 8;30 pace.  Then I met my sister, and we headed up to the shoreline trail.  She was a great sport to come with, and those killer ascents were killer.  She kept saying, between gasps, "You shouldn't EVER have your watch on for runs like this."  Getting back to pavement for the last 5 miles was great, unfortunately she was going to be late for her son's swim meet, so we stopped at a friend's and called for a ride for her.  I still had two miles to go.  I got a bit of a boost, and did mile 19 at 7:30 pace.  

Although this run was slow, it probably did a lot for me.  The early start was good practice for race day.  Being tired from the beginning due to last night's effort made it so I was really feeling some stuff toward the end of the run.  I won't be in uncharted territory on race day.  I noticed bonking around mile 14.  It was so cold, I wasn't drinking near as much as my last 20 miler, so I was very depleted.  No gu this time, either.  It was good practice to just keep running.

The slow overall time doesn't bother me.  I had a pit stop at the rec center I left my watch on for, and those trail miles are really challenging.  I think they are doing me a lot of good.  I'd rather do intervals climbing hills than running circles fast.   

6 miles on Porter Lane, back and forth from the cemetery to the frontage road.  Overall pace was 7:22.  If I could complete this workout in under 40 minutes, that would really be something. 

I got home from choir and headed out around 10:15.  After a couple pretty hard miles, everything felt REALLY funny.  My legs were like squiggly blocks.  I walked for a bit, and tried to pull things together.  I started running, and it took me a mile to remember I hadn't eaten anything since the La Hacienda bomb at lunch.  After it made sense, I decided to "rise above it" and ran home hard.  I never felt good, but I got it done.  Overall pace was 7:40.  No splits because my kids ran the battery out on the garmin.

Same run as Tuesday night, only I ate a piece of toast before I left, and it wasn't pitch dark.  The distance was a little shorter than I thought.  I used the HRM for the first time in weeks; I want to see what information I can glean from that.  The first three miles were pretty much full out, without getting up on my toes.   7:08, 7:22, 6:44.  (Picked up a little downhill)  Heart rate was 170ish.  (Who really knows?  I had one reading around 195)  After that burst, I walked a bit, and finished up.  7:42, 7:20, plus the rest.  The overall pace for the run was 7:08.  Tonight I will run easy.  I need to get my son or somebody to come with me to visit with, otherwise I'll want to run harder than necessary.

Another late evening run.  The temperature was wonderful.  My daughter is in the kitchen making me orange julius.  There's got to be something entertaining on the Tivo.  Can life get any better?  I took a more hilly course than usual.  I was planning on 5, but it turned into 6.  Garmin was dead again, but mapmyrun and the clock tell me 6:50 overall pace.  That can't be right, can it?  I ran pretty strong on the hills, and didn't loaf on the downhill, so maybe?  I'm not a complete believer.  Anyhow, the run felt great.

I got up early to get this run in before work.  I hate pushes at work.  The overtime is nice, but I haven't seen my kids for 6 days.  Route was home to Farmington Pond via shoreline trail, then back via Farmington Creek Trail and Main Street.  It was cold this morning.  I saw one person on the trail, a couple tents of people freezing overnight, a red-tail hawk and two deer.  I ate a gel at mile 8.  By mile 11, I was feeling great.  Three of the last five miles were well under my goal marathon pace.  Once the gel wore off, things got very hard.  Mile 14 was 7:44, and 15 was 7:22. 

All the trail miles were much slower.  That's okay.  My heart rate was through the roof.  Some crazy lady almost ran me over by the cemetery.  She ran a stop sign, and didn't see me coming. That would have been convenient.  She rolled down her window to say sorry, at least.  I told her "Go to #$@## you old, dumb @#$%%".  Not really.  I said, "It's okay" and kept running.

Now I'm tired.  My recovery breakfast of McDonalds pancakes and sausage tasted very very good. 

I got home from work by 9:00.  Hopefully that is the end of it for a while.  My daughter was ready to track me on the BST on the 4 wheeler.  I thought the moon would be up, but it wasn't.  Fortunately the dust was reflecting enough city lights that I could see a bit.  I should have brought a headlamp.  Nena almost ran over a rabbit, and got spooked by some deer, so she stayed far south of me for most of the time.  I kept seeing her headlights and taillights, but it took me a long time to find her at the end.  My pace was slow, cuz I had to be so careful on descents, but I pushed hard on all the climbs.  This run was fun, but too windy.  Nena had a great time running gas through the Rincon.  I wish I could get her to run. 

Usual run to Reading.  I ran late enough that the wind died down, and the roads were pretty quiet.  I like running in the middle of the street while wearing reflective gear.  There are very few cars.  7:12 overall pace.  I must be hitting a plateau.  Or on a plateau. 

March is going out like a lion.  I'm leaving March like a lamb.  I didn't expect to be running in the snow...7:28 overall pace, ave heart rate 144.   Home to 1450 to frontage to pages and back.  

 I'm somewhat tired.  The past few weeks are taking a toll, as evidenced by this incoherent entry.  Why is Jillian Michaels staring at me?  Is biggest loser on?