Denouement

7.19 in 7:50 pace

6.99 in 7:57 pace, PM: core workout

3.46 warm up (Tyler, Mack and Holly), then changed to type A racers, and then started Yasso workout with Tyler.  He was so strong, where he thought he might have to bail after 6 or 8 he did all 10 stronger than me.  I don't know why I am still surprised at how strong of a runner he is, but anyhow rests are in parentheses:  1 - 2:49 (2:52), 2 - 2:51 (2:51), 3 - 2:50 (2:50ish), 4 - need split from Tyler on this one (2:51), 5 - 2:50 (2:52), 6 - 2:49 (2:51), 7 - 2:49 (2:56), 8 - 2:49 (2:51), 9 - 2:50 (2:50), 10 - 2:45 - letting me see how fast I can go. The 7-9 were a struggle but I did a much better time being consistent than last time, and a bit faster too (assuming at 2:50 for the fourth then ave pace is 2:49.2, all 2:49-2:51 except last one).  3.21 cool down (about 1 min cool down for Tyler, had to get home so Kellie could run). 

PM: 5.08 miles at 7:53 pace 

7.33 in 8:12 pace, core in PM

6.49 miles @ 7:43 pace.

Just for Luz----

Provo City Half.  I was instructed to do this at marathon pace, which I figured was about 6:30-6:35 for this course and elevation.  Then I could go faster at the end if I wanted to.  Of course I wanted to!

Warm up- found Mack and Aub, and Josse, and Holly, and Luz, nice crowd of ladies that are very important to me.  2.83 @ 9:46 pace (must have had some stopping in there :D).  Good stretching, switching shoes.  At the starting line Marianne was kind enough to taunt me about whether I would be getting her course record (no, neither she nor I are in shape for that, unfortunately).  Cassie Anderson (Harmon?) was there.  I wasn't interested in jetting out, so at the gun a nice girly pack took off and I held back.  Pace felt very conversational for about 2 miles Miles 1-6 (6:23, 6:28, 6:29, 6:27, 6:30, 6:26 pass a female relay girl, closing on Marianne). Mile 7 includes the tight turn onto the rivertrail.  Luz was there!  She could see my goal, Marianne 10 sec ahead  Miles  7-10 were 6:27, 6:26 (passed her here), 6:33, 6:28.  Plan was to pick up the pace starting mile 11, let's see how that went:  6:29, 6:28, mile 13 started great, in the 6:teens, but the overpass then the long long stretch to the end (at a slight incline) obviously kept me squarely in the marathon pace zone--Mile 13 was 6:28, I had .17 at the end at 5:55 ave pace.  Total race time 1:25:10.  So 13.17 - probably imperfect tangents.  Third place, so $75 prize.  Cooled down with MacK and Aub, Aub was sick most of the way and I was sick by the end, really should have eaten more before the cool down.  4.02 cool down in 8:34 pace.  Then hung with Luz.  She watched me eat and wouldn't partake, unfortunate for her since she missed out on the Magelby's syrup.

Ice bath when I got home.  A good workout, but my time stunk. 

Core in PM 

Slept in and ran after the kids went to school. Wanted 14 miles in 1:45, so made sure I kept around 7:30. 1:46 total run, 7:25 ave pace.

PM: PT appt, worked on left arch, which bugged in the 5th mile of my run this morning, and SI joint, which had tweaked a couple of times in the run, and hamstring. Paul was there getting PT at the same time, we drove down together--a PT date

5.04 at the ElkRidge park with MacK while JJ had a soccer game, then core after dinner

9.6 miles in 7:56 pace.  Raining first half, sprinkling second half.

Met Emily and TylerS for a workout today, my first with Emily.  Met at SF riverbottoms and went toward the mouth and back to bishops for the warm up (3.7 warmup).  Tempo was 3 miles toward the mouth of the canyon, then 180 for 3 miles back.  I wanted 6:15-6:20 pace.  Mile 1 - 6:23 (slight uphill so just right), 6:25 (slight uphill still ok), 6:31 (slight uphill and unpleasant headwind, I am behind Tyler and Emily by now), 6:22 (slight down, tailwind, having a hard time transitioning to faster pace), 6:13 (that's more like it, Emily is done), at 5.2 I took a perhaps 30-40 sec break for an emergency pit stop, dang it, stopped my watch.  Jumped right back into tempoing and got 6:15 for last mile, including the climb at bishops, so it was net flat, though I did get the potty break to catch my breath a bit.  So the verdict is 6:21.5 ave pace, not quite what I wanted.  I felt deadlegged, and my left quad was especially tightish, but I am proud I pushed through.  The real winner today was Tyler.  He's an animal.  I wish I could bust out workouts like he can.

Took a mini morning nap, then went to AF to put my car in the shop.  Ran AF toward Alpine for 40 minutes in perfect mid 60's weather--i was sport-braing it.  It was liberating :)

Dragging dead wood from our forest to the road for bonus exercise, then core workout at 8pm. 

Legs are tired.  Ran with MacK, nice and sunny and warm.  8.29 @ 7:50 pace

Met Josse, Mack, Aubrey and Ericka at the mouth of the canyon.  ericka waited for Luz and Smooth.  We ran a leisurely 5 up (net clime on these miles wer about 34, 71, 86, 108 and 57), then 5 down at higher effort but still easy pace, then Aub Mack and I kept going, back up the canyon then back down, getting to 18 miles, then I dropped them off.  We kept a faster pace, but I knew I wasn't feeling it on the energy side of things, so was nervous about the last 6 miles on my own. Went back up the canyon for 3.5 (to get to the bathrooms, then back down). My solo uphill miles were 7:57, 7:48 and 7:57.  Then the half up and down was 7:26, then did 6:54 and 7:04, and .2 at 6:40 to finish up (my splits got off in the middle).  Ended up walking .5 to get back to my car.  My stomach/sugar levels felt off for the last 6 miles.  Only did 2 gus in the run, probably should have had three.  Last few miles felt more like the end of a marathon than my last 24 miler, but being almost done made the last few miles easier than 17-22.  Went in the river for a nice freezing soak afterward.  It was nice to do the Provo River. I wanted some up and downhill since my marathon has some of both.

Early morning work meeting, then raced back to Salem for Ben's 5th grade Hershey track meet.  Missed his 100m, but saw his 200m (got 3rd place in his prelim, was strong, wore my waffle shoes).  He also did the 4x100, had a horrible hand off but he did great on his leg.  I ran 7.15 in 55 min between his races.

Jogged .5 with the kids after a walking warm up, to start to condition Ben and Mickie for their track season (it is just starting, should have started this a month ago).  JJ, my 6 year old ran with us and was really spazzy with the pace, speed up/slow down.  It was fun.  Cooled down with a short walk then came inside.  This was a great warm up for my legs so I could do a nice evening stretch.  Some rain, anyone?  It rained a bit during our evening run, just glad it will clear up for the weekend.

Horrible sleep last night!  Have had some good email chats with my coach over last two days.  I am shooting for OTQ in three weeks.  I will be resting as much as needed, trying to make every decision a marathon-helping decision.  Today I was going to go into work after my PT appt, and I will still drop in, but I need to head home for a hairy nap given my sleep last night.  

AM: warm up, stretching, then 15 x 1 min on/off, 5:41 ave pace for on bits, pretty even throughout.  11.32 miles total 

PM: 4.56 with Mack @ 8:00 pace. 

Ran with Mack.  7.83 in 60 min (7:41 ave pace).  Hams were both tight.  Got them massaged out well, but right one is still tight.

Met Emily, MacK and Aub in SF.  Warmed up 3.94 miles in 7:49 ave pace, some stretching, then 8x2 min 10k pace/1 min easy. Pace for fast bits averaged 5:51 and were: 5:56, 6:04, 5:49, 5:54, 5:43, 5:32, 5:48, 5:59.  I felt during it like I was unsuccessful since Emily was a second or two ahead for most but my paces were just where I wanted to be if not a bit faster--I guess I am just not used to a girl ahead of me! Glad to have her push me.  Soaked through at the end.  Will be glad to have the cold rain phase of spring done.

PM: 4.76 @ 8:09 ave pace, core workout

Seussical the Musical at night 

After searching in vain for Mack Aub and JulieC in my car, I parked at Osbornes and ran toward pretty little road.  Found them and ran with them for 5 or so miles.  Sprinkly but not as bad as yesterday. 8.11 in 7:31 ave pace.  PT appt.  Turns out tight right ham has alot to do with my adductor. Got a new stretch.

Drove up to Ogden to do my workout along this course (up and down, 18 mile run with 8 mile tempo at the end).  The plan was to start at Lincoln and 30th, a mile further than the finish and run up the course, so that my 8 mile marathon goal pace tempo had 4 downhill and 4 flatish miles.  However, Lincoln and 30th seemed a tad seedy, so I parked closer to the finish, planning to still run the end of my run to Lincoln and 30th, but I miscalculated my run so ended up with 5 canyon miles and 3 flatter miles (mile 18-26 tempo).  It was fun to cheer on the halfers.  Saw TylerS, Beth, Josse and Ericka.  Cheered on almost constantly, saying "You look sassy" or "switch into downhill gear" as I got to the top of the canyon.  Got alot of "you are going the wrong way!" I had planted water up the canyon in two places last night, but lost one bottle so did bum some water on the course.  Had a gu while going up the course (at about mile 5-6 in my run) then a 5 hour energy shot right before my tempo started (at mile 10).  Drank the shot while running easy, hard to chug down without some going down the chin, but it was good practice.  Stomach handled it well.  I hoped to be 6:00-6:10 down the canyon and 6:20 out of the canyon.  Splits were 6:03, 5:59, 6:00, 5:58, 6:01, 6:16 (some downhill but not as steep), 6:23, 6:13.  My seventh mile was so hard to keep pace.  First it was hard to care.  I told myself I had to practice caring even when tired.  Then you are on the river trail, where it is narrow and crowded with casual halfers and rolly.  I survived it ok and was able to adjust gears in the last mile and cut under 6:20.  6:07 ave pace for the tempo.  Felt really good and proud of myself.  Then walked the course backward, looking for top marathoners.  Saw Stephanie take it, close to her prior record.  I walked a runner with a bad ITB in.  She was running for her brother (her whole family was) who passed away a year ago from cancer and was a marathoner.  She was nice to talk to, and she jogged in the last two blocks, a real trooper.  Again really enjoyed cheering in all halfers.  I kept yelling at them in their last mile that I wanted to see some vomiting at the end, to give it their all.  Got some good response from that.  Not the traditional "good job", though I did plenty of that too.

6.42 miles in 50 min (7:47 ave pace).

Met Mack, Holly and Tyler for workout.  3.94 warm up at 7:52 pace, then 10x1 min on/off.  On bits were supposed to be slightly faster than 5k pace. Averaged 5:28 for fast bits.  I would say that's faster than my 5k pace :D 2.39 cool down. PM Core workout.

6.09 in 45 min (7:24 pace).  Feeling good.  Liking the taper :D

Ran .5 then stretching, then met with TylerS, Emily and Jen. 1.53 additional warm up.  So glad they came out because when we were warming up it was GUSTY!  It was headwind that made talking futile at times.  The 5x1600m with 400m between sounded horrible with the wind, so we did it on the roads, starting with a crosswind for .5, then tailwind for .5 on the first one, then did a valley back and forth twice, so that the beginning of each repeat was downhill and the end was uphill.  Wanted 5:50-6:00 pace.  Here's my splits 5:53 (2:25 rest), 5:54 (2:29), 5:54 (2:38), 5:57 (2:52), 5:46, as the splits show the wind died down quite a bit, allowing equal splits. then had a 5 min break while getting back to the track, to do 3x200m fast.  Did 35,35,34.  Then 1.75 cool down.  Core workout in PM.  PT appt.  Had them work on my right adductor and my right foot.  Right foot has felt tight so far this week, like it's not flexible.  They worked it really good.  Foot felt work at one pain point for a couple of hours after the appt, but has felt better and more flexible since.

5.63 in 45 min (8:00 pace).  Shaking out yesterday's workout.  Can see why afternoon runs after a hard workout are useful.

Plan was 12 mile run with last 6 miles at marathon pace. Marathon dress rehearsal.  Wore the shoes but not the clothes since I've worn my race outfit many times and know it works.

Met MacK, Holly and Aub and ran from the Salem Stake to Payson and up Payson Canyon a couple of miles.  This gave me some half downhill miles, half flat.  I figure I need to practice the transition from downhill to flat like in the marathon.  Even though the run is short enough to not need a gu, I planned to take one at 9 miles and take water to practice doing both at a fast pace.

Ave pace up was 7:55, took a potty break then turned around.  Holly did the first three miles tempo with meet then peeled off.  it was great to have her.  Could even talk quite well for about 1.5 miles.  Splits were 6:02 (nice downhill), 6:02 (nice downhill), 6:09 (some down and up, includes choking down a gu and grabbing a water bottle, opening it with my teeth and choking down some water), 6:16 (very gradual uphill, almost flat, after a short downhill at beginning of mile), 6:40 (had a bathroom break in this mile w/o stopping watch, didn't go quite as quickly as I hoped and was so hard getting back into rhythm), 6:12.  Last two miles were going north on salem canal road so pretty much flat but the elevation does creep up a bit.  My last mile I was at 6:25 pace at .5 to go, so picked it up for the last half mile.

Drove back on the run to grab my trash, bought some ice, did ice bath, then family started arriving for our bbq.

Core in evening. 

5.81 miles with Mack after "sleeping in" til 7:00.

Massage, nap, packing, laundry, cleaning car, and more resting.

Warmed up 2.15 in 17:28, then did 10 x 25 sec strides/ 1 min rest. fast bits were 5:12 ave pace. Then cooled down 1.36 @ 7:33 pace

After run went to the post office to pick up a box. Ended up being from St. G running center! It was like xmas! Marathon racing shoes (new Saucony ST racers), some black shorts like the elites wear (short tight shorts with a center pocket on the back) and gu.  We were leaving for San Diego today so I was so glad to get the box.  I wore the racers during the drive and all night at Las Vegas (where we were stopping over) so they got about 4 miles of walking on them.  Will do my workout in them tomorrow.