Long May You Run

4.65 am miles.  running fewer miles yesterday really helped.  Felt pretty good this morning.  Things look good for tomorrows 20 miler.  I think I still have a little juice in the legs to get me through.

20 miles out and back from home along the I80 frontage road.  Saw a herd of antelope right at the western edge of the international center, about 25.  What the heck is that?  Where did they come from?  Do they swim over from antelope island?  This is one of the few, maybe even the first run since about Christmas that was ice on the face free.  Since January 6th, every weekend except one has been either a race or a 20 miler.  I feel pretty good about my training so far, even though I was quite a bit off my PR's in the Winter Series races.  This is my 5th 20 miler and I think it went well.  I was able to do the last 5 pretty hard.  My hamstrings are pretty torn up from all the hill running up and down the avenues.  Hopefully the snow on the track will be melted by today and I can log some flat comfortable miles there instead of all hills all the time.

My Garmin died at mile 19.95 and I still had a little over 2 blocks to go before I hit my driveway.  So at mile 19.95 my time was 2:45:47 total ave for the run 8:19.

9:13  9:19  9:05  8:54  8:29  8:35  8:22  8:27  8:22 8:15  8:24  8:22 8:02  8:12  7:55  7:46  7:36  7:45  7:29  7:06.

10 miles out and back from home.  Slow recovery run.  1:35:09  9:31 ave pace.  No desire to go any faster, no strength either.

8:26 ave pace

5.15 am miles  good run, felt strong, fast and light.

4.65 pm miles.  What a difference a few hours makes.  Sluggish, arms and legs were doing their own seperate things, nothing felt right.  I'm glad it was a short run.  

Warm day, wore shorts.  Looking to do a lot of miles tomorrow.  Maybe I'll hit 20 total. 

5.65 am miles 50:18   8:54 ave pace

14.35 pm miles 2:10:27  9:05 ave pace.  Up B St. over to the Capitol, back to 11th ave up to the gate above Shriners then home.  Lots of up and down.  I'd like to do 20 again tomorrow, we'll see.  I'm holding my mileage pretty well.  Monster March Miles! 

4.65 am miles 

10.65 pm miles slow pace about 9:20 ave.  I am hammered.  When I'm cruising around 8:30 ave pace I often wonder "how can I possibly have runs that hit 9:20 and sometimes 9:40".  Well, I'm hammered, that's why.  I glad I got these miles in.  My body seems to like the run-when-you're-exhausted formula.  Tonight was one of them. 

4.65 miles

10 miles out and back from home.  1:32:07   9:13 ave pace.  Still running slow.  I guess the training is working.  I did one of those roll out of be and 10 minuets later your on the road type of runs.  I like this because it gets my run out of the way early.  I hit the road at about 5:15 and home at about 6:45 just in time of have morning coffee with my wife.  The only problem with this type of run is that I am extremely regular with my morning bathroom visit between 6:15 and 6:30.  

The last few miles of this run was very uncomfortable.  I need to hit the road earlier or run shorter next time.  I was afraid that this was going to be an issue today and I was right.

I wanted 80 miles this week but fell a little short.  I should hit it this week because I'll be going 20 on Saturday. 

10 miles out and back from home.  1:32:15  9:14 ave.  Slow but felt good.  Did not want to push the pace, planning a lot of miles this week.  Felt strong, light and easy.  Shorts and sunglasses.  Spring looks to be here.

13.65 miles 2:03:28   9:03 ave pace.  9 of these miles were on the track.  soft and slow.  Lots of miles this week.  Tomorrow I will probably do the B St.-11th Ave-Capitol beat up.

4.65 am miles  9:09 pace.

13.1 pm miles 2:01:24  9:16 pace.   Last 5 miles were 8:24 to 8:54.  I was slow on the hills.  Not slogging so much at 9:30.  I guess that's a good sign.  I'm planning the same run tomorrow, hope I hold up.

4.65 am miles  42:58  9:14 ave pace.  Usually I'm struggling when I'm running at this pace, but this morning I felt strong.  Strange feeling, slow and strong.  Never been there before.

10.1 pm miles  1:30:07  8:55 pace.  B St. route.  Feeling very good.  the last half of this run  was about 8:45, 8:30's and last mile 8:07.  I'm happy about this.   I had to lop 3 miles off this run because I had to work late.  I'll make it up over my next 4 runs remaining in the week.  I feel good enough right now to hit 100.

6.15 am miles  9:02 ave pace 55:35  really felt great this morning.  

13.1 pm miles  9:29 ave pace 2:04:19  mileage catching up with me, every step was work tonight.  Hammered.  Looks like I'll hit my 100 mile goal.  The only question is how fast I can run my 20 miler.  I'd like to be able to do at least the last few miles at marathon goal pace.  

First run in Crocs in a long time.  From now until the Salt Lake Marathon, I'm only going to run short distances in these.  My achilles tendons are finally healed.  I think a few years of running in Crocs was too stressful.  Gotta spank out 20 tomorrow morning.  I will hit my 100 miles this week.  Then it starts all over again.  I'm happy to be able to hit a 100.  I didn't do this at all last year.

20.17 out and back from home, around the airport, through the International Center, along I-80 frontage road and back.  2:59:57  8:55 ave pace.  I was hoping to be under 9.  I think that was the best I could hope for capping off a 100 mile week, 27 days of continuous running and 6th 20 miler.  I looked back over the last two years and my 20 milers during the same period were 9:08 to 9:15 pace.  I'm taking this as a good sign for a possible PR April 20th.  Physically I feel pretty good.  I think I can easily keep my mileage above 80 for the next two weeks.  Maybe I'll go for 100 again.  I have a couple of non running things happening over the next two weeks that could prevent this from happening.  

9:38  9:29  9:40  9:30  9:00  8:58  8:56  8:58  8:57  8:56  8:59  8:48  8:44 8:42  8:32  8:36  8:29  8:36  8:38  8:12

I weighed myself just before I left and again immediately when I got home.  3lb loss.  It's all water loss, I take no water on the run.  So what do I do when I get home?  Guzzle hot coffee!

13.79 miles 2:00:52  8:46 ave pace.  9 miles on the track.  I wound up running a progression.  It's about a mile and a half to the track then I ran 9:00  8:57  9:06  8:52  8:53  8:56  8:42  8:38  8:32  8:20  8:30  8:19  

I took yesterday off.  First day off in about the last 27.  I sure felt rusty when I started this run today, like I had not run for a long long long time.  By the time mile 5 rolled around I started feeling pretty good and pretty normal.  I feel bad for taking yesterday off, it goes against my monster miles madness March month mantra.  I feel shame, like a ate a box of girl scout cookies. 

5.9 am miles 53:04  9:00 pace

14.15 pm miles 2:06:06  8:55 pace  9.5 miles on the track, the rest was the run to the track and home.  wanted to keep the pace under 9.  I'm planning the same run tomorrow, not sure if I will try to hold under 9.   Cant hit 100 this week, took sunday off and I'm not running 20 on Saturday.  Should be able to scare 90.

6.15 am mile  8:55 ave pace

14.22 pm miles 9.25 on the track 2:11:08  9:13 pace.  The mileage caught up to me.  this was one heck of a grind of a run.  I hope I recover overnight, doing this again tomorrow sounds impossible right now.

5.65 am miles  53:30 9:28 ave pace

14.35pm miles 2:15:16 ave pace 9:26.  Glad this one is over.  I decided to really beat myself up tonight and run "Capitol Mountain".  The run up B St wasn't too bad, actually nice.  I didn't really mind all the other uphill portions but the downhills were not very comfortable, especially coming down from the Capitol.  That downhill mile is an extreme body beat up.  I look to be in good shape to hit 90 this week.  I'm very happy about that.

6.15 am miles 58:04  9:27 ave  No evening run, what a relief.  I will spank out a 10 tomorrow morning to put me at 90 and I'll call it good.  Sunday is up in the air right now.  I didn't run last Sunday and I think it put me in a funk Monday instead of feeling refreshed, but who ever feels refreshed on a Monday?  

It's been a slow grind of a week, I'm trusting this will build strong legs to hold my goal pace for the last few miles of the marathon.  It's worked in the past.   

10 miles out and back from home.  Excellent run today.  Didn't think I had it in me.  1:21:23  8:08 ave.  progression run 9:29  9:06  8:55  8:38  8:14  8:09  7:46  7:18  7:07  6:50

I didn't think I had this in me today.  I thought I was in for a 9 and a half minute slog, like the other runs this week.  I feel like my training is working.  this run surprised me.   

4.65 miles 41:52  9:00 ave pace.  typical wanky Monday, felt weird, glad the day is over.  Had to work lake, no extra miles.

5.65 am miles 51:39  9:08 ave pace

13.35 pm miles 2:01:49  9:07 ave pace.  B St route.  My legs ache. 

5.65 am miles  51:24  9:06 pace

4.65 pm miles 40:27  8:42 pace 

6.15 am miles 53:45  8:44 ave  

6.15 pm miles 56:12  9:08 pace  felt like a slug.  I had time to put in a few more miles but I wasn't feeling up to it, plus, I'm going to go 20 tomorrow so I'll save what little leg juice I have. 

20 miles out and back from home.  7th and last 20 miler.  3:01:27 9:04 ave.  This 20 miler wasn't easy.  It reminded me of my 20 milers years ago.  These used to be difficult runs that were hard to complete.  Now, I can easily spit them out and the only question is how fast and how hard can I run the last 5-10 miles.  I kind of blew up on this run, I had the "I'm-undertrained-death-shuffle" going.  I knew this run was going to be tough, this whole week has been a grind.  I was hoping to tick off the last 10 under 9 and maybe finish the last two or three at least 8:30.  Not so.  I feel like a wuss.  I just didn't have it.  I'm not sure if this run was effective, mentally I wanted one more 20 miler before I start to plan my taper.  I think this will be a good run, I subscribe to the theory that running on dead legs is good marathon training.  Today was just that.  But I'm sure that there is a point of diminishing returns on this type of training.  If I crush my PR then I'm going to point to this run in my training as being a good thing.  My prior two weeks were 100 and 90 miles respectively.  I think I'm at 65 with this run.  I'll probably tap out a light, easy 5 miler on the track tomorrow to bring my week to 70.  Since I have the splits in my watch, I'll put them down for posterity. 

9:10  9:08  9:12  9:05  8:56  9:14  9:04  9:05  8:59  9:03  8:55  8:51  8:28  8:50  9:17  9:04  9:09  9:23 9:28  9:07  

I guess the hay is in the barn.   Marathon is April 20th, I don't think there is anything more that I can do to prepare, but I can screw it up if I don't taper well.  

8 miles out and back from home.  1:11:32  8:57 ave pace

68­° easy afternoon run.  Planted my tomatoes and basil.