Seeking a better country...

I thought about doing a plank, but then I changed my mind.

Interval Wednesday--the target was 4x1600 at 6:15 with 800 jog recovery.  I totally hit the 800 jog recovery, except some of it was walking.  Mile 2-3 were into the wind, mile 1-4 were with the wind.  To quote Kai,  "Let's do the numbers."

5:56, 6:15, 6:23, 6:14

My legs feel different than usual after 10 miles.  More lead-weighted and dead.  Great workout.

11 miles, 99 minutes.  That says it all doesn't it?  I am still a bit thrashed from the mile repeats, and didn't have any mental toughness to gut out this run at a better pace.  I did 8.5 with the boards, to simulate the downhill running.  My calves are pretty sore.  I rolled them out along with glutes and feel some improvement. 

The weeks are flying by...

I'm not sure which shoes I wore...

My daughter accompanied me on her bicycle to Freedom Hills.  I ran laps around the park until she got bored of playing in the water, and we headed back home.  By then I was at 3.5 miles short of 16, so I did laps around the soccer field, with no shoes.  The grass was dry, warm and soft.  There was only one part that was a bit spongey.  Or is it spongy?  Anyway, it was a great afternoon run; what a difference a week makes!  Last week I was trudging around in a snowstorm.  

I didn't go very fast, but the park laps include several climbs, so I'll blame my lack of speed on that. (3100' of climb for the run)   Overall pace was 8:16, which included some visiting time with my support vehicle. 8:16, 7:49, 7:56, 7:54, 8:03, 7:52, 8:28, 8:04, 8:43  (drink break?)  8:15, 8:12, 8:42, (putting my clothes back on) 8:28, 8:32, 8:06, 8:17.  No burners, that's for sure, but at the end of this week, I'm satisfied to put the miles in the bank.

I'm not sure about doing another 20 miler next Saturday.  Burnout?   

2.2 episodes of "24" later, I complete the run.  Then I pull speaker wires in the basement, and I have 6 new holes in the drywall to show for it.  Followed by a blizzard drive to Clayton to watch my neph portray Captain Von Trapp.  I wouldn't call this my best run, or day.

8 miles downhill. 

5 downhill miles at 7:30, the rest were uphill while I chatted with my mom on the phone.  (10 mm) 

My 2nd left toe is jacked up.  Blisters, now infected, and swollen so it's .25" longer than my big toe.  If your second toe is longer than your first toe, do you still call your first toe the big toe?  I think so.  It's sore enough it woke me up in the night with the throbbing.  I'm considering amputation.  What's a toe among friends?

10 miles, 87 minutes.  Poor Jack Bauer.  I did no downhill running today.  My toe is doing better.  Morton's toe and continuous downhill running don't get along.  

Today we went to the ultrasound.  It's a boy, due July 30th.  Everything looks to be in order, which makes me relieved.  I'm so excited and grateful about the good news all around.

Tomorrow is the 10 miler in the Ogden winter series.  I want to keep it under 7:30 pace.  It'll be my tempo run for the week.

The race, followed by 10 additional miles on the trails between the Events Center and Ogden Canyon.  I stopped by my sister's to identify her fruit trees on my way back.  What a great Saturday!  Too bad the 20 miles made me so thrashed all I could do was lie about all day.  I'm still waiting for race results online so I can include placing and exact time.

So with .2 miles to go, I had reeled in the green shirt guy in front of me.   He had earbuds in, so he didn't hear me.  I wanted to see if he had any in the tank, hoping I could maybe outkick him.  As soon as I came alongside him, he took off like a frightened deer.  I should have waited, and maybe could have got past him.  It turns out I should have chased a little bit, because our chip times were 2 sec. different.  I could have "beat" him, without really beating him.  Rookie mistake, I guess.  Overall pace was 7:25, with which I am satisfied.  I could have come in quicker, but knew I had 10 more to do, so I was a little on the lazy side.  I'm in striking distance for 2nd place in my age group for the cumulative time, but only cuz the leader leaped into the overall standings.  I'll run the half, but will probably forgo the final 30k the Saturday after Boston.  We'll see how I feel.

I left work early enough to come home and do this 10 miler before dinner and leaving for the Jazz game.  Lucky--our neighbor had spare tickets.  They blew a 21 point lead before winning in overtime.

So I had been reading blogs all day, and was feeling pretty punchy.  I went pretty hard the first five miles, walked and ate jelly beans for a 9 minute #6, then alternated hard and laid back coming home.  My son came on his bike, and got one of his 10 mile rides done for Cycling merit badge. 

Overall pace for the run ended up at 7:30, which is bugging me.  Take away one lazy mile, and I look really good.  Add it in, and it's a fairly pedestrian run on a much easier course than the one I ran on Saturday.  I need to step it up a notch mentally, I think.

For snacks I had sour patch kid watermelons and hershey kisses.  11 miles, 89 minutes.  I varied the incline with a several miles of downhill, but mostly flat and slight uphill.  This run was quite momentous, as I completed Season 1 of "24".  On to season 2, although it won't be that treadmill time of year much longer.

Following the run I gorged myself on fajitas at Chilis.  I highly recommend this recovery meal.

After we went to the food bank to finish off community service for my son, I came home and watched the BYU/Wofford game while running 10 miles. 79 minutes, to keep average pace just under 8:00.

What's with Jimmer jacking up that long 3 with 8 seconds left? Not a real classy move, if you ask me. The game is out of reach, nobody is playing defense; just dribble out the clock. At least it was a miss. I hope karma doesn't bite back.

BST to the private road in Farmington, then home via Freedom Hills.  It was pretty cold.  I was gassed from aerating lawns all morning, so I never got on top of this run--obviously, since it took me 90 minutes to complete.  No punch, no spring, no lightness, just plodding along willing myself not to walk most of the time.  

After cleaning up yards for 5 hours, I hopped on the TM for my scheduled 10 miler.  The sun came out, so after 10k I hopped off and finished outside in the wind.  I should have ran south to start, because fighting the headwind home was un-fun.

4 weeks to Boston.  One 20-miler looms this Saturday.  I'm not sure if the piece of hamburger that is masquerading as my 2nd toe agrees with the training plan.

 Oh yeah, something momentous happened on this run.  For the first time since I started 3 years ago, my shoe came untied during a run.  I may have to go back and read all those stupid runners world articles about how to tie your shoe.  Then again, maybe not.

So, this run didn't start off to be much.  But it turned into something better than expected.  Monday I found a leaf raking muscle in my right hamstring area.  It's been very sore.  I rolled it out during Biggest Loser on Tuesday, and it was still sore Wed.  I figured it would curtail my run a bit.  Furthermore, it was my daughter's b-day, plus Court of Honor, etc... so by the time run came around, I thought it would end up a half-a$$ed effort.  I checked my training plan, and saw an 11 miler with 6 miles at 6:44 on tap.  Oh joy.

 I got on and warmed up slow for 2.  I decided to split the fast miles into 2 threes.  But instead of wimping out, I kept going and did them straight through.  

 The cooldown was nice.  I enjoyed one of my 40 cent purple powerades, and ran an extra mile for good measure. 

One thing I love about running is it shows me I can do more than I think I can. It may not always be wise, and you have to pick your spots, but there is better than we think inside of us.  Without running, I would never get a chance to tap into this hidden reserve.

This run was brought to you in part by La hacienda, sour patch kid watermelons, powerade and "24" season 2.

11 miles, 90 minutes TM.  I started a new pair of shoes today.  They stayed tied.  This run was brought to you in part by gross chicken wings and meatballs.

I still haven't figured out a game plan for the 20 miler tomorrow.  I thought about running up and down City Creek, but I don't want to add commuting time on to an already too long activity.

The final long run, looming for 13 days, is over.

I met up with Spence for the first 10 on the Blvd.  Spence is a solid runner, like a metronome, hovering around an 8:45 pace.  We did the first 10 in just under 90 minutes.  I dropped him at his house and met my sister for the last 10.  These were downhill and flat miles on 1500 S., Legacy and Pages.  She saw me drinking a 5 hour energy and got nervous, but we ran pretty easy for the second 10 in 83 minutes, including a failed pit stop at Maverick.  (clock was running)  So we picked it up a bit, but can attribute most of that to the downhill.  I'll take a negative split anywhere I can find one.

The whole run was 8:36 pace, which is 40 seconds behind recommended.  I'm not sweating it much; they are miles in the bank.  I thought long and hard about aborting this run, but I'm glad I completed it.  I feel 70% today than I have after any of the others I attempted this cycle.  Maybe it's the slower pace, fueling or something else.  In any case, it's nice to have 20's in the rear view mirror.  I'm beginning to hold the opinion that it's pointless to run 20 miles unless it's in a marathon.

Thus ends my peak week.  Ahhhhh.  The taper.  This isn't much of a taper compared to previous plans.  We'll see how all this work pays off.  My sister talked me into backing off and running the winter series half easy next week.  Save it for Boston, she says.  I'll save it for Boston.  The winter series will be there next year.  I'll go all out for that 1:25 another time. 

Following the run, I had an easy ice bath with SNOW from the back yard and a much needed shower.  The offending clothes are already in the washer.  It's so nice to be done at noon and feel like I may be able to accomplish something besides lying around the house and moaning about my sore feet and legs.   Enough. 

Ah, the treadmill.  Jack Bauer found the nuke, but it turned out to be a decoy, so LA is still under threat of an explosion.  Oh, the horror!

I ramped it up to 7:20 pace for the last several miles.  Overall time was 80 something minutes.  I dropped my shirt and pulled the magnet and lost track of the time.

After Tyler and I finished the backsplash, it was finally time to run.  We cleaned up the saw, and the temp was so nice, I decided to do half outside in the dark to take advantage.  Out and back to Cutlers.  After that, I did 5 more on the tm and watched Biggest Loser with Tami.  

Around sunset, I ran to my dad's to watch opening day.  Kershaw outdueled Lincecum.  We ate some cheetos.  The run was hard.  It's a good climb.  

I've been going back and forth all week about the race Saturday.  Should I go all out, or save it for Boston 16 days later?  On the long run last Sat, my sister talked me into taking it easy.  Since then I've changed my mind and am planning to go pedal to the medal.  The way I'm feeling this week that might not translate into much.

 On a separate note, those Fusion shoes might be done for all but the shortest of runs.