Denouement

 "easy" is uphill loafer canyon to the gate at 10:30 ave pace, downhill @ 8:30 ave pace

9:44 pace

Up Payson Canyon 2.25 miles then down 8.25 miles

9:30 ave pace

8:25 ave pace

Loafer Canyon

35:04 to gate (including down to stop sign and back)

13:34 from gate to top (PR for this year by about a minute).

I felt really good, like I had something to prove after the disappointing 5k last week. 

It was a great start to the week.

8:58 ave pace,

significantly slower at beginning and significantly faster toward the end.

Watch for speed workout tomorrow!

1200 repeats - always a good time.

First time doing this interval length this year. 

Did them on the track, mostly alone though some running buddies were doing 800's so I shared some laps when I could. 

gave myself a slow .5 mile rest since this was a first time for 1200s

times:

1 - 4:41

2 - 4:43

3 - 4:41

4 - 4:33

It felt great to have some left over on the last repeat. 

I am not sure what would be best for the next 1200 work out I do, but since the marathon is the major race, I will probably keep a long rest and increase reps to 6 next time (probably in a month - will do other interval reps in between).

Down Payson canyon,

7:22 ave pace, just slightly better than last all downhill Payson (Jun 14 at 7:26 ave), but didn't do it as fast as the downhill portion of last week's Thursday Payson run (7:16 ave).

My legs felt tired, probably from the speed work out the day before.  I was disappointed at pace but after looking at past payson canyon runs I wasn't that off. 

Dead legs.  Hope to have them back by tomorrow.

8:20-9:30 pace, 8:55 ave.

Up loafer just to gate, then tagged some miles on at the end to get to 9 in a bear free zone.

Tom and I pushed each other up it, 16 seconds faster than last week, 34:49 to gate, including going to the stop sign first.

I spent an hour installing sprinklers after the run so was quite dehydrated by the time I got in the house and got some water in me.  I need to be more careful to not push it too hard at the beginning of the week like last week.

9:19 ave pace, had water within 15 minutes, a banana within 50 minutes, and even took a short nap as Sasha suggested yesterday.

Had 4.5 hours of sleep last night, so I adjusted my speed workout.  I wanted to do a 400, 800. 1200, 1600, 800, 400 ladder, but decided just to do the 400 to 1600 part of the ladder

400 - didn't get the watch to work, dang it, but the pace was likely around 90 sec.

800 - 3:02 (went by the track, two laps, Garmin measured .54)

1200 - 4:46 (went by the track, three laps, was disappointed but the Garmin measured .78)

1600 - 6:07 by Garmin, by completing the 4th lap on the track fast I came up with a 6:23, I felt very tired starting the mile and was tempted to quit it, but I decided to hang on and see what the first quarter split was.  When it was 92 I was encouraged and felt better for the rest of the mile.  I think it is just daunting to do mile intervals, even if its just one (someone please comment to me that I am a wuss and need to buck up!).

The track is the SF track and has plastic fencing right against the inside curve to protect the precious grass, and the plastic fencing often spills over into the middle of lane one.  I have heard runners say the Garmin goes crazy on a track.  I would think any Garmin error would be cutting corners and thus measuring a lap short.  My Garmin measuring the laps long seems to indicate it is quantifying the extra distance I have to cover by running in the outside of lane one instead of hugging the inside lane.  Any feedback from others on this?

All in all, I would prefer to do my speed on the road but am afraid if I go on my own on the road I won't go fast enough or will cut out reps.  Even when I am on my own at the track doing the repeats, I have running buddies witnessing the workout and that is usually enough to keep me going.  Any tips on how to mentally gear up for a road speed work out?

Down Payson Canyon.  Felt better than last week.  My legs are only sore after Payson, not at the top of the canyon, while last week I was sore before I even started.

Ave pace 7:16, so a little faster than last week.

I felt like I was taking it easy for the most part, but toward the end felt more challenged.

9:13 ave pace

easy shorter "long" run since I am bumping my miles down this week. 

I am bumping them down for two reasons:

1) when you are increasing your miles, it is my impression that you should increase by 5-10% a week, but drop down every third week so that the increase is not a steady march upward.

2) I am running Speedy Spaniard on Tuesday and want to not be pooped out for it.

Just an easy run because of the 10K (Speedy Spaniard) I plan on running tomorrow.  I ran the Speedy Spaniard in 42:43 last year, so I just hope to be able to beat that.

OK, so the good news is that I didn't totally give up. 

The bad news is I did worse than last year, and not just by a little.

Here are my splits:

1 - 6:50

2 - 6:50

3 - 7:04

4 - 7:28

5 - 7:15

6 - 7:11

last little bit 54 sec.

So I felt good at the starting line.  I was nervous, but able to relax with effort which is about usual for a race start.  I guessed that I would be able to beat last year's time, but thought my place would be worse because of three ladies that didn't race last year were racing this year that I thought would beat me.  The first mile is uphill and I hung with Hal and Gina.  I was hoping for 6:45 splits but could tell by mile 2 that 6:50 would be about the best I could do.  And by mile 3 and especially mile 4 I just wasn't strong enough to keep up pace.  I tend to get weak mentally as well in the middle of races. 

By the middle of mile 5 I knew I had just over 1.5 miles to go and started to pick it up (admittedly from my slow 7:30ish pace).  I wasn't able to keep up a strong pace through that entire period however.  With a mile left I found myself asking, "Why do I race for fun?  Why is this my chosen hobby?  I could be making beaded jewelry or canning fruit right now."  By .5 miles to go I knew I needed to pick it up to at least finish strong, and I told myself out loud, "Come on!  Come on!"   Funny, that didn't help much. 

I was trading places with another girl for the last two miles and was able to find it in me to pass her with .25 to go and was able to kick it in. 

I was 43 seconds slower than last year, about 7 seconds a mile slower.

I am seeing the wisdom in focusing on endurance instead of speed since this seems to be my race weakness.  I guess I should do my speed in the form of long tempo runs and only occasional long intervals on the road.  And keep my miles above 60 throughout the summer.

The good thing is that races tell you where you are.  By knowing where I am, even though it seems I am slower this year, I can run races smarter and refocus my training.

I was surprised at how sore I was today.  Normally on the racing day I feel tired all that day, but yesterday I didn't feel tired, but just nauseous all day long.  I was downing Pepto for much of the day.  So I didn't notice any fatigue or soreness.

That is, until I got out to run this morning.  My hamstrings were especially tired.

I ran for .6 miles then stopped and stretched.  Then I went on.  At times I was able to go under 9 min pace, but averaged 10 min pace. 

Payson canyon downhill run.  7:21 ave pace.  Wanted to take it easy today because of tired legs from the 10K.  So slower pace in general, but did one 6:27 mile on mile 6.  I felt a little pain in one hip for a while but it went away and I haven't felt it after running. 

Took an easy run.   I have been running my slower runs at a slower pace than I would like, so I tried to push just enough on the first mile to get me around a 9 minute pace.  I think that worked like a charm because it helped se the tone for the run and I was able to stay under 9 minute pace without too much effort for the rest of the run.

8:42 ave pace.

My legs are still tired but not "dead". I should be able to run a long run tomorrow without trouble but want to keeep the pace mellow (around 9 minute pace) for the first half so that I can do it.  I have never run more than 18 miles in one day.  I plan on going 18-19 tomorrow. 

8:57 ave pace long run.

I took it nice and easy, especially since I got only 4 hours of sleep for sundry reasons.  The sleep deprivation made the first 5 miles quite difficult -- I remember closing my eyes for a few seconds at a time to see if it would help me feel rested.  Amazingly, I felt pretty much like it was a normal run the second half, like the lack of sleep was not affecting me.  Perhaps it was the gu I took:  I ate half at mile 9 and the other half at mile 11.

This is the longest run I have ever done, but not the longest I will ever do ;)

Loafer Canyon

for some reason, my watch missed .15, so extrapolated time to the gate, including going down to the stop sign was 35:56, not close to my fastest this year.

I went up the last steep part beyond the gate in 13:55, close to my fastest for the year. 

I felt like I was running it great, though it was hard to keep up pace the last mile before the gate.  I think I could have done better if I had someone pushing me, but I was mostly alone, with my three running buddies finishing behind me.  In the end, though, I of course am responsible for my own pace.  I think I might try running up Payson Canyon with those who run up and down, but I am slower than them (they are a faster bunch), so again I will be alone.  I sometimes feel like I am in no-man's land!  I think the Payson Canyon run would be more helpful because it is not as steep and I can run it longer without resting (they normally go up 5.5 miles without resting, I think).

Ran with the early SF group.  Nice easy run.

9:06 ave pace.

I gave up caffeinated sodas, cold turkey starting last Sunday.  I am hoping kicking this habit will help my running, but it sure isn't going to help my ability to wake up for early runs in the near term.  I think I will take a nap today!

Easy mileage, though it is funny how much my "easy" pace can fluctuate during a given run.

8:46 ave pace.

In keeping with my desire to build more endurance, I skipped the track today and plan on doing a tempo-like pace up and down Payson Canyon with the fast folk (at least I will meet them and then try to wait a mile or two before they pull away).  We will see how it goes . . .

Ran up Payson Canyon approximately 5.5 miles, then down and tacked some extra on on the end.

I ran with some speedsters.  For me going up was a tempo run, though they were running more at training pace.  I was able to keep strong the whole way up.  I fell a little behind those I was running with at about 4.25 up, but I didn't give up or reduce my effort much.  My time to the turn around is 46:10, about an average 8:54 pace up. 

I tried to run the downhill hard for the first three miles down, but naturally with working hard uphill, I found it hard to keep my pace even at the pace I normally run the canyon when I do an all downhill run.  My splits for the first couple of miles were about 6:50, 7:07, 7:40 (bad mile!), then 7:22.  I then slowed down to cool down to more like a 8-8:30 pace.  My legs, surprisingly my hamstrings especially, felt tired those last couple of miles.

Overall I think that it was a good run.

8:49 average pace

I put on my heart rate monitor for my Garmin for the first time today.  My HR to start was alarming:   at an 8:36 and some downhill my average HR was 167.  Thankfully it dropped after the first mile, and the average HR for the workout was 148 (or 78% of 190 since I am 30).

Does anyone have experience with MRR and the efficacy of the 220 - age calculation?

I remember in college my HR in workouts seemed to be higher than others, so I am wondering if my MRR is not actually higher than the formula.  On Wikipedia it is noted that MRR has been studied and there are many formulas and they all have a standard deviation.  Hmm. 

My goal today was to run about 15.5-16.5 and to run 5 miles marathon pace somewhere in the second half.   Overall pace was 8:11!

I started the marathon pace after 7 miles.  Ran on average 7:25 throughout the five miles.  The first mile was a 7:29 which was disappointing but for some reason the Spanish Fork winds were stronger than usual and we were headed straight into them that mile.   THe next mile we dropped to 7:17, then the third had the hill before Osborns so 7:24 for mile 3.  Mile 4 was a 7:19, and mile 5 had the Zephur hill and then a gradual uphill beyond that, so the best I could do was 7:35.   Our water/gatorade drop off was in the middle of the 5 miles, so that is cheating somewhat to have a break (probably 4 minutes) in the tempo run, but I'll make it harder next time I do this by waiting until after the break. 

The marathon pace miles reduced my overall pace, but my pace was faster than last week, not considering those miles, probably about 8:30 average.  I think I will try to do these "marathon pace" tempos within my long runs every other week.

Now that my faithful Loafer Canyon buddy is in foriegn lands, I needed to figure out what to do with myself on Mondays.  I have been running up a canyon called Loafer Canyon.  Because a long, 4.5 mile hill can tend to spread out runners you really need to run with someone you are close to, pace wise.  Running alone is not very appealing since it is dark half of the time and there have been bear and wild cat sightings. 

So, I called another friend who doesn't like Loafer (imagine that, he doesn't care for 4.5 miles uphill).  Actually, Loafer Canyon is not an ideal uphill training run because it is so steep that for me I am fighting just to stay under 10 minute pace going up, and going down is so steep in some places I don't dare risk running down hard.  So I think the Payson Canyon up and down run will start to be more frequent on my running circuit.

Back to my run today, I ran long hill repeats with my friend Mark S.  We did a gradual uphill on Spanish Fork Center street, starting at Main and ending a mile to the east.  It is very gradual except for three steeper parts.  We ran the following paces:

mile 1 7:36

mile 2 7:24

mile 3 7:38

I think this workout will be great to add to my training.  Mile repeats are nice and long and can't be faked too well.  Add a gradual hill and you get one tough workout. I will try to add more repeats to get the endurance I need.  As it was today, the third repeat was very difficult to maintain pace.  I think next time I will try to keep at around 7:35 each time, and try to add one.  I won't be in town next Monday so this workout won't be repeated until the following Monday.

Slow and easy 9:30 ave pace

Wednesday morning we were to load up the car and head off to Keystone, CO for vacation.  I thought I could wake up early and get in a long run and do a tempo run while at it.  My goal was to run 12 miles with a 3 mile fast 7:00 tempo pace. 

However, I got bad sleep the night before (tossed for the last hour I was supposed to be sleeping--I hate that). 

As I started running I calculated how much time I had and realized I would have a tough time fitting in even 10 miles.  I started in Salem and headed to Payson.  I started my tempo right after mile 5, when I was heading North East on highway 89/189 (not sure what the name is).  Unfortunately, I had the Pettiteneet Academy hill in that first mile, fortunately there was a downhill after the uphill, but the first mile took alot out of me.  7:02 first mile. I started the first mile ok, but toward the 1.5 mile mark I started to lose steam and then started to question myself.  This is why I don't like to do speed on my own.  By 1.75 miles into the tempo I had given up on the tempo run (my pace for the .75 was about 7:35/mile). 

I seem to not have the toughness to do speed on my own.  This run was so frustrating.  When giving up I consoled myself with the thought that I would try to do a 4 mile tempo run on the treadmill while in Keystone at about 7:05 pace. 

Our drive to Keystone was bad, with lots of construction and delays on I-70 and a few sprinklings of boy squeals, fights, crys, whines, from the back row.  We rented a fullsized car so the three rascals were right next to each other.  It sure makes you appreciate the minivan where all the kids can be separated. 

Keystone CO.  Temperature at run start: about 45 F!  Elevation: over 9300!

Ran 8.02 in the morning.  Even though I often run at 4500-5000 elevation, the elevation here is about double, so I decided to take it easy and walk/run if necessary this morning.  It turns out I had a nice slow morning run.  It included trails, stairs, and only some walking in the first mile or when I tried to figure out where to run next.  I ran along the base of the ski slopes.  Then I followed the Snake River on the southside on a nice dirt trail, and came back up the Snake River on the north side on a bike trail.  My pace varied quite a bit.  The last three miles were about 9:30 and I felt pretty comfortable with that even given the elevation.  Overall pace ended up being 9:59. 

Went up the ski lifts with the family (my little boys were so brave!) and we planned to hike all the way down, but it ended up being 7 miles down on the mellow graded road.  A kind Keystone worker advised us of a hike called 11-7 (probably because the elevation at the peak was 11,700.  The hike was just a gradual uphill then gradual downhill loop.  Probably 3 miles (took us 1.5 hours with the kids).  I counted it as 1.5 miles on the log.

Ran from Keystone to Dillon and back on the bike trail which follows the Snake River then the lake by Dillon (is this Dillon Lake?).  The weather was cool.  The air was thin.  This is the not so favorable running route where you go downhill the first half of the run, then go uphill to get back.  I tried to run easy the first half so that getting back at all was feasible.  Thankfully the second half of the downhill is more rolling hills, with up and down.  I planned on turning back at 6 miles but was also hoping to hit the grocery store in Dillon for a drinking fountain before turning around.  At about 5.8 miles I was concerned but the grocery store came into view at 6 miles and I got there by 6.4 miles. I didn't get whacked too bad with the grade coming back up to Keystone; generally the first half of the run was worse than the first because the expectation of the uphill back was worse than actually running the uphill.  I was able to keep my pace under 9 minute/mile, which I was pleased about.  The average pace was 8:54 for the whole thing.

Ran two miles outside.  It was cold (still in Keystone CO).  Then ran .5 on the treadmill as an additional warm up, then ran 4 miles at 7:08 pace.  At times I felt like I could go faster but my breathing was the bottleneck-it's probably the altitude.  I would think that this would translate into a 7:08 tempo pace on the roads at home (today's was easier because of treadmill but harder because of altitude, probably offsetting).  The first half of the tempo was harder than the second, and I think the second half was easier just because I knew it was half over.  I think that my competitive running psychology tends to be anxiety over fast/hard running to come.  I think tempo runs will help me to learn to be comfortable with faster paces not only physically but mentally too.

Easy run in Denver before heading back to Utah.  Ave pace 8:45.

Ran with SF group.  Went a little faster than they normally do, at about 8:40 pace after the first mile.

I  was supposed to run with a friend but they didn't show up :(.  It's much harder for me to run alone than with a friend, especially since I didn't have my mp3 player because I thought I would have a companion.  Hmm.

These can only be categorized as easy miles because they are slower than marathon pace, but I was pleased with being able to keep up a faster pace on an easy long run.  The average pace after the first mile was 8:07, with some variation (fastest mile was 7:48 and slowest was 8:23).  It felt harder than an 8:45 pace, my most common area for an easier run.  I was able to keep to the three steps per breath (in or out) in general, though actually timing it according to the steps seemed an effort to me.  Anyone know whether a marathon should be run at 2 or 3 steps per breath?  It seems to be kind of in between the two patterns to me. 

Ran up Payson Canyon.  Was lucky that Craig showed up.  We ran together for the first four miles before he had to turn around.

1 - 8:35 warming up, feeling good

2 - 8:06

3 - 8:11

4 - 8:17

5 - 8:43

.38 - 8:44 pace

Total time up - 45:10, 8:24 pace, much better than two weeks ago (see Aug 2 blog) where ave pace up was 8:54.  I looked at each split going up from Aug 2 and I was better today on every leg (9:20, 8:50, 8:17, 8:44, 9:20, something like that - my husband just snatched the gps from my hands).

Once I turned around and headed downhill I didn't push it at all (just under 8 minute pace coming down).  I think I will do all downhill Payson run next Thursday, going downhill faster,  and switch off between these two workouts for the next month.

This was an easy run, but I chose an especially hilly route without thinking about it.  Started uphill and thus gave myself a big fat 10:28 first mile.  Then I was running down Harry's Hill in Salem so pace picked up.  There were dark clouds to the north around Springville/Mapleton/SF.  By mile four I am down Zeffir hill and it is sprinkling.  Mile 5 brings a huge downpour, and I was wondering if I was going to get shocked in the ears because I had my MP3 player on but thought that maybe the action of turning it off would be more dangerous than leaving it on.  While it was raining hard a biker passed me from behind, and tried to say something to me.  I didn't see him (or hear him) until he passed me and had his head turned toward me.  I let out a huge scream, because it gave me quite a fright and I am a scaredy cat.  The poor guy, he probably had something very witty to say about the downpour that got swallowed up in my scream.  Well, that showed him!  Did I mention yesterday that I flagged down a car down Payson Canyon because there were two dogs on the side of the road barking at me and I was afraid?  My husband was not pleased I was more afraid of the dogs than a stranger.

My overall pace was 8:52, including the slow first mile.

Tomorrow is my first EVER 20 miler.  Does that mean I get to eat whatever I want today or tomorrow?  I am still trying to lose weight which means I probably shouldn't do either. 

I did it!  I ran my first 20 miler!  Overall pace 8:08.

So we started at 5am at the Stake Center in SF.  I thought we started rather fast (mile one and two were 8:27 and 7:57).  I did loops when people stopped because I think the group stops too often and/or too long and I want to shorten the breaks to make the long training runs more like a race environment.  I ended up running with Alison and Craig for quite a bit of the run.  At Osborns (6 mile point) we met up with Gina and McKenzie, Pat Loss, and a fast couple from out of town.  I had planned on doing some marathon pace miles after Harry's hill (a 1 mile hill), but these fast runners were right ahead of me, and Pat encouraged me, so I started my tempo portion and he and I caught up to them (7:13 mile for mile 8), then the uphill started and my pace slowed but I was able to hang on to the fast crew ok up to the top of Harry's (splits were rather slow though, 7:55 for mile 9 and 8:44 for mile 10).  Mile 10 included some recovery jog.  Then when we started downhill and I pushed my pace again through the Salem stake center (7:30 mile 11 and 7:05 mile 12).  After this we slowed down a bit but kept to about 8:10 pace overall, with some faster and slower miles.  At 18-19 miles I felt pretty tired and like I was hitting a wall, but Alison was a great motivator and encouragement.  At the 20 mile mark I stopped and gave Alison a hug, I was so excited to have done it.  Then we split and she headed for home and I headed for my car.  On the last mile or so alone I got a funny image in my head like I was Forrest Gump and I was running like when he first run and his leg braces fell apart as he run and flew off him.  Only I imagined that my legs were going to be the pieces falling off me, perhaps at the hip bone, perhaps at the knee.  My legs were tired by the end!  I guess this is what the 20 miler is for.

When I got home I filled my tub with all the ice in the house and cold water.  I got in the tub and lined it with three plums, three fig newtons, and a bottle of water and told myself I couldn't get out of the tub until it was all gone.  So that served two purposes.  I forced myself to start refueling and I got my ice bath in.  After a hot shower, I got into some jeans and when I tried to put my second leg on I fell onto the floor.  While having a still damp foot may have had something to do with it, I couldn't help but to giggle at myself because my stiff legs probably are the main culprit for my clumsiness.  So, I also took 800 mg of ibuprofen.  I am hoping I can recover sufficiently for training next week.  We'll see!

Side note, I am down 17 pounds from tax season and am only one pound away from a realistic weight, but I will try to lose throughout my training if I can because my ideal racing weight is probably still 16 pounds away.  Every pound should help!

My legs felt good waking up this morning, just a little sore from Saturday's 20 miler.  I do have some dull lower back pain, I think from the 2.5 hours of trenching and sprinkler work I did Saturday.  I took some Ibuprofen before my run. 

I ran a variation of the hill workout I did two weeks ago.  Two weeks ago I did mile long hill repeats, but I read in my Competitive Runner's Handbook that the distance for the hill repeat was too long because it makes the rest too long.  So I went to the hill and figured out how to shorten it during my warm up, which works well since both ends of the hill (beginning and end) are mostly flat, so the hill becomes shorter and steeper on average by shortening.  I started at 200 East and went to the Junior High sign, which is .67 or 2/3 of a mile.  I wanted to go just under 7:30 pace, since 7:26 is my goal overall marathon pace, and this is uphill.  That means the hill should be 5 minutes or less going up.  I wanted to do 6 reps, which I knew would be mentally tough because I was on my own, and two weeks ago I did mile repeats but only three.  So I decided that I would likely need a potty break somewhere in the middle so I would break up the workout into two sets of 3, thus making the workout somewhat easier but still a challenge for sure.

I got two miles of warm up in before starting the reps.

1 - 4:50 (7:16 pace). 

2 - 4:50

3 - 4:51

Between rep 3 and 4 I ran 1.37, including running to a gas station for a pit stop and running to the bottom of the hill.

4 - 4:58 Let myself zone out a little in the middle.  By the end of rep 4, jogging down the hill I told myself that I couldn't think about both the following reps right now, just try to do well on 5 and 6 will have to take care of itself.  Legs feeling tired (my quads are feeling it, not sure if from this workout or from Saturday).

5 - 4:51 I watched my pace closely in the middle which helped me stay on track

6 - 4:49 I again watched my pace but it was horrible at the start of the rep (headed for 8 minute pace at the top of the first steep part at 300 E).  I just watched my watch and didn't give up and shaved my pace down little by little.  The steepest part of the hill is at the end and I pushed it up not sure if I would even break 5 minutes but pushing hard, and actually got my best time.

Overall I am pleased with the consistency of the rep times.  Sure rep 4's time wasn't so great but I was happy I brought it down for 5 and 6.   I am hoping my endurance at higher speeds will be improved by these types of workouts.

8:50 overall pace.  I was planning on a nice easy recovery run today and my body sure told me it needed one.  9 minute pace was sure feeling good.  My legs didn't want to go any faster so I didn't try to, other than just trying to keep below 9 minute pace.

800's on the road tomorrow! 

This is my first non-hill interval workout on the road.  I wanted to do 8x800m @ 3:15 since my goal pace for the marathon is 3:15.   I met with Allison in SF and it was windy, but we warmed up toward the non windy side of town.

I did about a mile before meeting up with Allison, then we warmed up another .76, then started the intervals.

This is where a GPS watch is so useful.  I just have the lap pace in the big window and make sure that is 6:30 or better. 

1 - 3:14 (felt hard but like had to hold back to not overdo the first one)

We stopped and stretched after the first one, and jogged 2 minutes, then

2 - 3:08 felt much better than first one, fast because going downhill on Scenic Drive

3 - 3:12, felt good and like was still holding back

4 - 3:14, felt good but now starting to work to keep pace

5 - 3:16, had a hard time snapping into the fifth interval, so my pace was off on the first half and ran a significant negative split to close the gap, ran up the hill from river bottoms to upper SF neighborhoods during rest between 5 and 6

6- 3:14, was still cresting the hill by the time it was time to start this interval so had a little bit of uphill and I didn't feel quite rested, but felt better in the 1/2 half of the interval.

7 - 3:06, felt good

8 - 3:08 still felt good!

So I felt good about the workout overall.  I need to work on starting my middle intervals faster, but only went over my target of 3:15 once and that was by one second.  I guess next time (perhaps in two weeks) I will be doing 10x800m on the road. 

Ran down Payson Canyon.  Before deciding to go I ran downhill by my home a couple of times to make sure my knee could handle it.  Yesterday I started to feel some tenderness in one knee, not while running but after.  I couldn't feel the knee so decided to do the run.

From the start my legs felt sore, probably from Saturday's 20.8, Monday's hill repeats, then yesterdays 8x800 workout.  I just took the run nice and easy, staying in the back of the pack.  My average pace down was 7:28, with three miles 7:05 or faster. 

I felt fine except for sore legs.  I had an ice bath when I got home and plan to pop some ibuprofen.  I'll need to take it easy tomorrow so that hopefully I won't have dead legs for my race on Saturday (I am doing Top of Utah 1/2 marathon).

Easy run, my legs were very sore from Thursday.  I shouldn't have done the Payson Canyon downhill run yesterday for optimal performance on the half marathon tomorrow, but I wanted to train through this so I guess my legs are ok being a little sore.

I ran about a mile before the race at a very slow pace to wake my legs up.  Had Ibuprofen before the race because my legs are still sore.  I did some good stretching.  I met a couple of guys that are on the blog.  It's always nice to meet people face to face.

The Top of Utah is a great race, superior to Hobble Creek because there were plenty of buses toward the end and plenty of bathrooms at the top, and even bathrooms along the route (fortunately I didn't need one, but just knowing it is there is comforting). 

My low level goal was to be under 7 minute pace.  My higher goal was to break 1:30, which meant being quite a bit under 7 minute pace.  I didn't think that I could beat my best ever 1/2, 1:28:51 at 2006 Hobble Creek just because the course is not as down hill.

My strategy was to be at about 6:45 for the first 6-7 miles so that I could use that under 7 minute pace time on the remainder flat miles if I needed to go slower than 7 minute pace, so that I could average 7 minute pace or better.

1 - 6:40 this was a good start, but I could feel the jolt of starting into a fast pace, it took a couple of miles to feel comfortable

2 - 6:50

3 - 6:40

4 - 6:47

5 - 6:36

6 - 6:40 I took 1/2 a gu at 5.5 miles

7 - 6:30 last good downhill mile, got flat after this mile

8 - 7:01

9 - 6:54

10 - 7:00

11 - 6:56 feeling tired but strong.  This mile had some uphill in it, at this point I knew if I stayed strong I would break 1:30

12 - 7:24 suckiest mile, there was some uphill, sun in your face (thus sweat in my eyes).  I was headed for a 7:40 at first but just told myself if I could finish with a split of under 7:30 I would have a good time, so the second half of mile 12 was faster than the first half

13 - 6:36 crested the hill and went downhill.  I think I could have pushed this last mile about 10 seconds faster but just didn't feel like it at the time.  I was happy to decrease my time so much from the prior uphill mile.  I guess I was still a little weak.

.1 not sure, I measured the course a little short (13 miles and 89 feet).  They had the timer right at the corner and I stopped at the timer, only to see the finish line around the curve ahead about 10 yards away, this probably added a couple of seconds.

So the course is not as fast as Hobble Creek, but I ran it faster!  And with sore legs!  This is an overall 1/2 marathon PR for me and I am very happy with it overall.

My goal was to do a 10 mile recovery run after the 1/2 marathon Saturday.  I have never really considered that "recovery" and "10 miles" could describe the same day, but since my mileage has been high for the last month or two, and I see the big dogs (yes that's you, all you guys who are always on the top mileage boards) doing that many miles or more each day, I thought it could work.

I think it did.  The first mile my legs were pretty tired, but they alternated between feeling tired and feeling good throughout the run.  My legs felt sore before the workout, but not as sore as last week after the speed one day then downhill Payson Canyon the next.  They never fully recovered for the Saturday race, so my legs feel better as I walk around today than they have since last Tuesday. 

The average pace for the 10 miles was 8:36.

Had to workout alone. Warmed up 3 miles then started into mile repeats.  My legs are still a little tired from the 1/2 marathon Saturday, but they were ok.  During my warm up I headed out for the farm roads, but it was pitch dark at 5:20 still and I got spooked by dogs barking who seemed to be approaching me and I couldn't see them so I turned around.  I stayed on Salem Canal road for the rest of the run.  I don't like running so much in the dark.  So I picked a mile on the Canal that I could do both directions.  My goal was to be 6:40 - 6:45 each mile.

1 - 6:44 going east, felt the 1/2 marathon in my legs as I got started

.5 mile rest

2 - 6:33, going west felt better on #2, which seems common

.25 mile rest and potty break

3 - 6:41 going east, I was happy to break the time from the first mile

.52 mile rest

4 - 6:46, heart breaking because I felt like I was going hard enough to break it, I thought I was going to be a couple of seconds faster.  This mile I had a hard time getting to the correct pace, and it felt hard to keep it once I got there.  I was close but off!!!

Ran just over 2 miles cooldown. 

So although I was sad to not be 6:45 or faster on the last one (can anyone say A-type personality?) overall I was happy to be able to do a speed work out on my own in the dark.  I would have waited until Wednesday to do speed, but my hubby needs me back early tomorrow so I won't be able to get in as many miles.

Had to run early this morning and get back early because my husband had a meeting to get to this morning. 

I was very surprised that I was able to hook up with different fast runners throughout the run.  This was good because I only had an hour to run. 

Ended up with a couple of miles under 7:30 and 8:02 overall pace. 

Was planning on running down Payson Canyon with three miles fast (below 6:45), but we ended up not having a driver up so we had to run up and then down Payson Canyon, with the Boy Scout camp as the turn around. 

Going up the first four miles were pretty easy slow (9:05, 8:49, 8:36, 8:41).  The fifth mile going up the canyon gets steeper and I pulled away from the group to try to do that mile hard.  I obviously didn't do the uphill at tempo pace, and when I do it's that fifth mile that is hard for me.  I ran the fifth mile in 8:38, which is actually faster than my last split for that mile during a tempo run.  I then had a slower .44 to the top (9:20 pace) and another .37 of circling around while waiting for the others to be ready to head down.

I told Mark when we started down, "I'm going to try to run this first mile under 7 minute pace since the first mile is the only serious downhill."  Well, I didn't see him much after that, but started seeing more runners coming up, including our own prodigal son, Tom Lee.   I ran that first mile in 6:00, I think my first 6 flat mile in 9 years, even when considering downhill (and this obviously was downhill).  I continued to push the second mile down but it was flatter and my split was 6:45.  After two miles down I knew I would slow if I didn't have company so I looped back for Mark who was running awesome, and we ran 6:46, 6:53 miles together.  He pulled away on the third mile and I had a 7:01 split for that one (dang, that sucks to be just over 7 minutes).  Once we got down to the bottom I tacked on another couple of slow miles (around 9 minutes). 

Overall, had 13.58 miles in 1:49 (8:02 ave pace)

Ran the Payson Canyon 10K route and continued west into the foothills to tack on more mileage.  Ran a varied pace, but over all it was 8:30, with a 9:05 first mile and one in the lower 7's in the middle, so I'm going to chalk that up as a marathon pace mile. 

The 10K course is very flat, which surprised me.  It goes through farm land to the west of the city.  I am happy about the flat nature because it should make it a great fast tempo run with Tom on Monday.  There is a slight uphill for the last mile, but I will try to forget that real soon.  I think a 6:45 pace for the 10K is doable but will be quite hard for me since I have been focusing on the marathon training -- lots of miles (at least by my standards) and tempos and speed geared toward the marathon. 

 Long run with the SF group.  Kept it easy because of 10K on Monday.  My goals for today were to bring my week up to 70 miles, and to only push one mile, up Harry's Hill (about a 1 mile incline) but I think the pace wasn't quite MP still, and I had to jump into the bushes for a potty break on the way up so it didn't go quite as well as I was hoping up the hill.  My pace up the hill was generally 8:30 about the first 2/3 up but slowed to about 9 min after the potty break. 

2:57 for 21.03, 8:25 pace.

My first 70 mile week since 1998!!!! 

Well, this race was kind of a mixed bag.

Tom and I were planning to trade off 1/4 miles leading and drafting.  I think that it went really well.  It felt good to be behind him on my off quarters.  I am not sure if it is the actual drafting or the emotional support, or how that prevented me from going out too fast, but I think it was a great help.  We stuck together for the first 4 miles right on pace or a couple of seconds faster for the mile splits, but somewhere in the fourth mile and then the fifth my watch went crazy on me and showed me a pace much slower than we were going.  I told Tom, "I think we have slown down," but he assured me we were on pace for another 6:45 (this was toward the end of the fourth mile).  He led the first quarter of the 5th mile, and I let him go.  There was a slight uphill at that point, and I was confused by my watch but most of all I was not tough enough to hold on!!!!!!!  Dang it, I shouldn't have lost touch with him.  Well, my watch was still screwy for the rest of the race so I couldn't gauge my pace well, but I caught a guy in the fifth mile and I think another one in the sixth.  I should have caught the last guy between Tom and I, but I just didn't have the drive to finish the race well. 

On the flip side, this is my best 10K in years.  I did a 43:24 on July 24th, and my fitness has come a long way since then.  On the 24th race, I slowed down in mile 3, and slowed further to a 7:28 in mile 4 and never went below 7 minute pace again.  On this race I stayed on pace through mile 4, and slowed to 7 minute -7:10 pace for mile 5 and 6 (I don't have reliable splits but extrapolating from the beginning miles and my ending time).  When I finished the race, my distance said 6.00 miles, and Tom's watch caught 6.19 miles so there was something up with my watch.  My time on my watch was right on though with the runnercard results.  My overall pace for the race was between 6:45 and 6:50, so I was close to my overall goal for the race, and I won the race which was also a bonus. 

Since this was to be mostly a training run, a tempo run, I suppose I should be happy.  The race puts me just under 3:10 for the St. George so that's in line with my expectations.  I am still not sure what to target for St. George.  The SF 1/2 marathon this Saturday should help since it is a flat hard course.

Easy recovery run in SF.  My legs are feeling kind of worn out.  I am a little concerned about the effect of the weeks of high mileage, so I did less today since my runs for the next couple of days will have over 10 miles each.

8:46 ave pace.

10x800m with Craig.

My goal was to do 3:10's with 3:10 as a rest.  We did not do the same 1/2 mile for each repeat, but there were some hills throughout.  This makes the splits less even and comparable, but it is hard for me to find someone to train with, and I haven't found anyone willing to do the repeats on the same stretch. 

We warmed up for 2.27 (starting at 10 minute pace, dropping to 8:30ish) 21:00 to Osborne corner in SF riverbottoms.   Then we started our repeats.

1 - 3:05 slight downhill (3:06 rest)

2 - 3:04 flat (3:03 rest)

3 - 3:19 steep uphill for part, slight uphill for rest (up Zephyr hill for those who are from SF/Salem area)  this one was a disappointment time wise, but I wanted to keep the effort consistent since I had so many more reps ahead of me (3:11 rest)

4 - 3:04 reverse of rep #3 (3:07 rest)

5 - 3:08 flat (reverse of #2)

6 - 3:13 slight uphill (reverse of #1)  this one made me mad because I was on target for sub 3:10 for the first half but struggled through the second half of the repeat (3:13 rest)

7 - 3:00 downhill and flat - this is the hill down to treeline road from Osbornes (3:13 rest)

8 - 3:03 slight downhill and flat (3:05 rest), was raining now hard and I was running toward the storm and the lightening.  I was thinking, "Why am I running as fast as I possibly can into a storm?. . .If lightening comes at me, would I be better off with my feet on the ground or off the ground?"

9 - 3:13 slight uphill (3:14 rest)  Heavy downpour during the first half of this repeat.

10 - 3:05 slight downhill (reverse of #9) Rain lighter on this one.

I only had .6 or so warm down because I was already late for getting home so hubby could go to work.

Even though I didn't hit my target for every rep, I was feeling good (though tired) in my last reps.  I felt stronger than the 8x800m workout from two weeks ago.  I averaged 3:07.4 per rep, compared to 3:12 average two weeks ago.

I am writing this up in the evening and my legs are slightly sore but not too sore which I think is a good sign.  I am feeling upbeat!

4 -

Ran down Payson Canyon.

I first ran up the canyon one mile (9:07 mile 1) while waiting for the driving situation to shake itself out, then got picked up and was driven to the top.  It was cool at the top but no wind or rain.  I wore a long sleeve shirt and was soon regretting that choice.

The first mile down  (mile 2) was easy and still warming up (7:39), then miles 3-8 were under 7 minute pace, with the fastest mile at 6:37.  I then pulled back to about 7:20-7:30 pace so that the run wouldn't hammer me too hard. 

The run was very enjoyable and seemed to go by quickly. 

Overall pace was 7:07 for the downhill portion (11 miles at 1:18:18) then jogged to corner and back to the car.

easy run @ 8:35 ave pace.

SF half tomorrow.

Well, this race was really a good one for me.  I felt good, and I ran according to how I felt.  My primary goal was to be 7:15-7:20 pace (marathon pace) during the first half, even allowing myself to slow more for the uphills.  My Garmin proved unreliable again in this race (should I return the dang thing?), showing a pace slower than the what my actual time between mile markers showed.  I will post my Garmin splits though they are generally slower than my time between mile markers (my overall distance according to my watch is 12.95, and I am sure the course was dead on).

I warmed up 2.5 miles before the race.  I bought new running shorts yesterday with three mesh pockets in the back, and I put a gu in one and I lost it somewhere in my warm up!  I was assured there was gu on the course.

1 - 7:04 I felt good but felt like I may be getting myself in trouble by going out too fast.

2 - 7:17 I think this was the first mile that measured significantly longer than the mile marker, the real pace for this mile was probably more like 7:12.  I started to run with a man from Hawaii.  He was too small of a frame to draft much off, but he was a great companion.

3 - 7:21 according to garmin, but 7:10 according to pace from marker to marker

4 - 7:11, there was the uphill to Osmonds in this mile, stayed strong, fell behind Mr. Hawaii in the uphill but caught up on the gradual downhill

5 - 6:59, gradual downhill and flat, felt good, started to think that perhaps I would do much better than my projection of 1:34ish

6 - 7:20, (7:10 by marker) Zephyr hill in this mile and water station.  There was a water station at about 5.6 miles but NO GU!!  Mr. Hawaii heard me ask for one and was kind enough to share one with me.

7 - 7:18 (7:26 by marker) crest the final hill and suddenly realize I am over halfway done, and I am looking forward to a couple of downhills.

8 - 6:41 - downhill baby! I pass Mr. Hawaii.

9 - 7:01 still feeling good, and I pass Hal as he slowed down too much at the water station.

10 - 7:01, some downhill, I close the gap on Hal and Mr Hawaii, but never quite get them, but I kept them in touch and ran the same pace, which was an improvement on many races where I just let people pass me and then the fact that they pass me encourages me to slow down.  So am toughening up.  My next step is to actually catch up to them and give them a run for their money.

11 - 7:08 I realize I will break 1:32 if I keep around 7 minute pace

12 - 6:56 I am feeling good

13 - 6:37 pace for the last .95 my Garmin recorded.

These splits were generally slower than actual because my Garmin measured short, but they show that I did do negative splits.

I kicked at the end somewhat but Hal and Mr. Hawaii stayed ahead.

Overall pace is 6:59.4 (yes, Tom, the .4 matters and it matters that it was under 7 minutes).

I then ran .6 cool down then had to get home.  When I got home I ran really slow to the nearby park for a pancake breakfast as part of Woodland Hills Day, still in my running outfit.  I wasn't very hungry (one sausage, half a big pancake, and some toxic Sunny D) so when the boys wanted to play I said "Sure" and I did the "Sasha", I ran around the park while my boys played and got in about another 1.5 miles.

I wonder if the "flat 1/2 marathon" on the race predictor means a flat 1/2 marathon or if it nets flat (has uphill and downhill but starts and ends in the same place).

This race and others predict me under 3:10 marathon in St. George (this one predicts 3:06!!) but I am afraid to go out planning for under 3:10 since it is my first marathon ever.  Tom has given me a spreadsheet that gives projected splits which takes elevation gains/losses in account, but I am not sure what my goal ending time should be.  I surprised myself with the race today, but I don't want a negative surprise in St. George.  I am going to need some advise on this topic.  Help!

Ran easy but long with Tom this morning.  I was a little concerned about meeting him for an easy run, that perhaps he or I or both would push the pace, but we averaged 8:38 by my watch so that was just right.  I wanted to go 10 miles this morning but took us out a little too long, and I got home 12 minutes late for my husband :(

My legs feel a little banged up, but I don't think its the race but the hard training, at least hard for my body, compared to what I was doing 1/2 a year ago.  I just hope I don't get injured before St. George.  This will be my last week of high mileage.

Went with "Coach's" advice and did a four mile tempo today instead of intervals.  I met Tom at his house.  We warmed up for 2.1 in 18:04, then started into our tempo.  The problem with doing the tempo at marathon pace is, what the heck is my marathon pace.  We decided that 7:05 would be about right.  But then in my heart of hearts I knew that would feel awfully slow, at least from a tempo perspective.

Four mile tempo

1 - 6:56

2 - 6:59

3 - 6:51

4 - 6:45

I compare this to my attempted tempo run in early August where I ran one 7:02 and then couldn't keep the pace and bagged the tempo at 1.5 miles, and I feel good about my progress.  It always helps to have a running partner.  When I run alone its all too easy to end a tempo run early.  I appreciate Tom's willingness to tag along.

We finished out the workout with 10.57 in 1:24:15, or 7:58 pace.  My first ten mile run in less than 8 minute pace average (excepting races, of course).

My legs feel much better.  I'll be doing an uphill tempo on Thursday which will be the next hard workout. 

Asics (10)

Ran easy today, except for about a mile with the fast ladies when I found them.  That mile was just under 8 minute pace and they were speeding up, so I pulled up and ran alone.  Ran around the SF golf course and boy was that windy.  I also got carried away for 1/2 mile when Going the Distance by Cake came on.  That is a great song to download if you are looking for more good running songs.  It's hard work to run slow with that song.   But I was mostly 8:30 or slower, averaged 8:26.

I just got out my shrink wrap so that I don't have to choose between typing with two hands and icing my knee.  It is official that my knee is bothering me.  It is not severe or even painful when I run, but there is a slight pain occasionally on both sides of my left knee cap, but more pronounced on the outside.  I can feel it most often when I go up and down stairs.  I have felt it occasionally for a couple of weeks, but more consistently for the past five days or so.  I am not very injury prone, so I don't know what it is.  Its good this will be my last week of high mileage.

Up and down Payson Canyon.

Ran with fast guys for the first four miles.  Then struggled through the hardest uphill alone.

1 - 8:45, slower than last time did a tempo up, but it was good to have a slower pace because it allowed me to warm up.

2 - 8:00

3 - 7:44

4 - 7:56

5 - 8:31

.37 - 3:20, 9:05 pace, not so great, I guess the middle miles got me

Overall up 44:18, best for the year by 48 seconds.

I took it easy coming down to prevent my little pains from becoming big pains.

1 - 7:29

2 - 7:19

3 - 7:29

4 - 7:24

5 - 7:34

and then there was a partial mile that didn't get timed right

Overall, I think the run went well, though I didn't do as well on the last 1.4 up than I wanted.

Asics (22)

8:48 ave pace.  I felt low on energy.  My left knee bothered me more than it has in the past, but still not the point of pain when the foot strikes the pavement, but it might be making it harder for turn over.  My lungs felt kind of clogged too, though I am not aware of any smog or bad air advisories.  Hmmm.  Better luck tomorrow.

Mizuno (8)

Did my last long run!  It actually felt good.  Kind of dogged it up Harry's Hill, but I ran with an overall strong pace, 8:17 ave, which is 10 sec/mile faster than my 21 miler two weeks ago.  We were conversational pace the whole time unless there were hills, then it dropped off.

I took shot blocks which I liked more than gu (2 at mile 7, 1 at mile 9, 2 at mile 12, 1 at mile 15, then I took 2/3 of a gu at mile 18.7).  The only downside is that the shot blocs I took didn't have caffiene.  I will look for some of those for the marathon. 

I am looking forward to tapering!  Next week I will be doing 15 miles or so on Saturday, with 3 miles being a 5K after a hefty 10 mile warm up.  Please give me advice about whether racing the 5k could hurt my marathon or whether I should do it at 10K pace or marathon. 

Asics (44)

Ran 7.06 at 8:04 pace.  I ran these miles a little faster than my normal easy pace because I was a little short on time.  My legs are feeling good, not really tired from Saturday. 

Mizuno (15)

Ran 4x1 mile with Tom this morning.  The goal was to be between 6:20 and 6:30.  Seemed reasonable but was quite faster than my pretty mediocre mile repeat workout from 3 or so weeks ago, which I did alone.

Warmed up for 2.39 miles to Osborne's. 

When we started our first repeat we quickly realized that it was still pitch dark and we still couldn't see the road surface, and that we were risking our ankles.  It made it hard to want to kick into the faster gear for the repeats but we did the first 1/2 in about 3 minutes, then we eased up to make the first mile 6:20.

1 - 6:20, slight consistent downhill, 4:43 rest (.5 mile, .25 out and back so that we could retrace mile 1 for mile 2)

2 - 6:25, slight consistent uphill, the opposite of mile 1, 5:01 rest (.5 mile)

3 - 6:10, flat part of tree line road, then slight downhill toward bishop's storehouse.  In the middle of this repeat I was stuck at about 6:23-6:24 target, which frustrated me and I tried to pick it up, pleased to seek I was able to. 5:20 rest (.5 mile)

4 - 6:15, slight uphill and headwind to make the last interval twice as hard and more sweet to complete successfully. 

The first two miles had positive splits when comparing the first 1/2 with the second, and the third was negative, and the fourth was even.

I think this was a great workout for my mental strength.  It is always nice to be able to to better in a workout than your goal and to make the final intervals faster than the initial ones. 

I am really grateful to Tom for hanging with me on this work out.  He is a great running partner!

Ran easy, 8:08 pace, happened upon the fast ladies and ran with them for a while.  It feels good to do less than 10 for an easy run!

Ran in the evening on treadmills trying to choose one, working the treadmills to 6 min miles.

Mizuno (33)

Run down Payson Canyon.  I forgot my GPS watch!!!  I felt lost and confused.  Actually, it was a good thing because I didn't want to take it too hard, just wanted to run a couple of miles at marathon pace.  That was hard to do in the first half because it was so very, very dark.  I felt some strange sharp twinges behind my knees, like the bottom of the hamstrings, on various foot strikes down the hill.  I could feel some tenderness in my knee but nothing sharp or painful.  I stopped at Beer Can (nice name for a spot, eh?) which is 8 miles down at 56 flat, then ran back up to some runners.  They drove me to the bottom where I ran up toward the canyon for .5 mile easy and back down .5 easy. 

A good female runner I have run with a couple of times crossed paths with me today and it turns out we are targeting the same time at St. George, 3:10 for the first half (so actually slower than 3:10 because of negative splits). 

Evening:

What the freak!!!!  My ankle started hurting around 5:30 pm for no aparent reason.  It is on the outside ankle bone area and hurts when I walk normally on it or even when I tiptoe on it.  It is true pain, but not sharp, more like a tendon or muscle.  I have been icing it and it seems to be calming down somewhat.  I hope it feels better in the morning or I will be taking the day off.

Woke up this morning to some pain in ankle, but less than the night before.  Decided I would get out and see what it felt like to run.  If it hurts while walking, then see if some running won't make it better, eh? 

I walked for about 50 yards, but it hurt at every strike.  Started jogging, hurt for first .25 mile, then started hurting less.  By .35 I wasn't sure if the ankle was numb or magically popped back into place, but it went from a numb feeling to just a potential problem spot by mile 1 and the rest of the run it felt no different than just a weak spot like my knee sometimes feels.

Overall pace 8:54

As I walk around this morning my ankle will occasionally hurt a small amount but it seems much better so far. 

Ran 7 miles to warm up, including running the course backwards.  Not really high quality miles for half of them.  I was the race director of this event for the past four years, so this was the transitional year of me handing it off, so I had to check in with the registration area and make sure everything was flowing smoothly, so I just didn't have the time to get in the 10 miles before the race that I wanted to.  I should have woken up earlier.

The race starts up a long hill.  I am not sure on the grade but it's enough to slow you down and give you a nice downhill afterward.  I wanted to stay within sight of the BYU lady pack (about 7 runners) but I knew they would be ahead of me.  I also met a young lady at the starting line named Whitney (junior in college) who lives in the town next to me who has beat me in a couple of races.  She is a strong runner.  I wanted to be around 6:45 pace up the hill, then keep below 6:30 for the downhill and try to keep the 6:30 for the flatter end. 

Up the hill I was feeling winded but fairly strong.  I kept the fast girls in my sight.  I was at about a 6:25 pace at the top of the hill at about .65 into the race.  Right after the hill (at .84) I accidentally turned off my watch  when my watch showed 6:14 lap pace so far (no mile markers that I could see) which messed up my split, but I realized it later.  So my first split on my watch for 1 mile probably occurred at 1.3 or so and was 6:16.  I felt strong going downhill in the second mile but kind of like in foreign territory, hard to keep up the pace for two miles in a row.  My second split for mile 1.3-2.3 was 6:22, still pretty strong.  I pass one BYU runner (YES!) in this mile, but get passed by another.  In the last mile or so I found it hard to keep up pace, but knew I would break 20 minutes if I kept up my effort.  With about .5 to go I passed Whitney from my neighboring town and another runner or two.  My watch shows my last split as .84 in 5:14, or 6:14 pace. 

19:36 baby!  Best by far since college.  I have not broken 20:30 since college so this is great!

I ran another 3 miles after the race, again low quality running around the track area, waiting for the awards, and my son who ran the .5 mile kids race wanted to stick around for the drawing.

Woke up at 2:30 am and couldn't fall back asleep!  That is so annoying and better not happen before St. George.  So I finally got on my running clothes around 4am and figured I might as well get in the measly miles I am supposed to do for taper and then try to take a nap afterward. 

This was my first tights day, and I had a windbreaker on and a hat because it looked like the rain may come back but it didn't and I felt like I had a wind parachute on.  I also chose a rather hilly loop which stunk going up but finally got a marathon pace mile toward the end on the downhill.

Overall pace 8:29.

Mizuno (65)

Tried to post this twice already so will keep brief.

Did a taper level speed workout, down a ladder.  Wanted to hold back to prevent freaky injuries/reduce risk this close to marathon.

Temperatures 20 degrees lower than a week ago.  Legs never warmed up.

Arms like frozen chicken wings, legs like frozen pork chops. (Temp 35 and I made the mistake of wearing shorts).

1 mile - 6:30

.5 rest

1200 - 4:45

.25 rest

800 - 3:07 by Toms watch, mine when cuckoo

.25 rest

400 - 81 sec

Asics (51)

8:14 ave pace, had to hold back to keep that pace.

Feeling good! 

Bottom of hamstrings just a little bit twingy.

Mizuno (70)

Tom is a punk because he hasn't posted his workout this morning!!!!

I know he is waiting for me to post, just as I have been waiting for him to post.

Here's the deal, we planned on a 3 mile tempo run at 6:55-7:05 pace.  This is the pace/effort for a 3 hour marathon.  He will be pacing a blind participant at that speed.  I wanted the tempo to feel easy and give me confidence and to just see what the 3 hour pace felt like.  Well, my Garmin was 20-25 seconds per mile slower than his, with my mile laps beeping way down the road after his did.  From the SF 1/2 marathon I know that my Garmin sometimes measures miles long and thus gives me slower than reality splits.  Tom's miles for the tempo were about 6:36-6:42 if remember correctly, while my miles were 7:05, 7:02, and 7 flat.  It felt more like Tom's pace, it did not feel relaxing.  So I wasn't able to accomplish my goal for the workout, though it seems it went well.

I want to throw my Garmin down and jump on it a couple of times.  I would understand a couple of seconds variation, but how am I supposed to gauge my pace by that thing?  I think it is often right on with pace, but how could I know for sure?  I guess I will just have to watch the total time elapsed and calculate my mile splits in my head--the old fashioned way in St. George.  This help eleviate my fears of getting bored on the road.  I often get quite stupid and it can take me a couple of minutes to do the calculations if I am feeling extra loopy.

Had a nice short "long" run this morning.  Tried out new flavors of Shot Blocks, with 1/2 and full caffiene to see how they felt.

Pushed the pace below 8 minute for several miles, two in the 7:30's. 

Felt good, enjoyed the conversation, still feel twingy behind one knee.  Will continue to ice and ibu.

Any advice on what days, how much running to do next week?

Asics (63)

8:34 ave pace.  It was 42 degrees, right in between cold and warm weather clothing.

Mizuno (82)

Slept in this morning (7:30am!!!).  Unfortunately, I woke up at 6:08am on accident and had a hard time falling back to sleep, but eventually suceeded for a bit then my alarm went off.  I ran at 10am, with the temperature around 47 degrees.  It was strange to have the sun out and shining down on me during the run.  It was harder to see cars since their headlights aren't prominent. 

It felt a little too late to run, I felt sluggish, yet was running rather fast on the easy miles and had to hold back.  I guess my horses are neighing a little.  Wierd to have that and the sluggish feeling simultaneously.

I wanted to throw in a marathon pace mile inside a easy run.  Here's my splits:

7:50

8:13

6:53 (had to hold back to make it a true marathon pace mile)

8:01

Asics (67)

Ran 4 miles easy at 8:40 ave pace.

Did a mile out and back with 4 strides coming back.  Didn't feel great, but know that's just the deadleg taper.  No GPS watch.

I am very excited about Saturday.  I am starting to pack!

Well, I had a great time running my first marathon!

My SF running buddies saw me hanging out right behind the elite section and pulled me into the back half of the elite section which was great because it kept the first mile from being overly crowded. 

I wore a 3:00 marathon bracelet as guide of splits that would be too fast, since my races predicted me around 3:04.  I wanted to run by feel and ideally wanted to break 3 hours, but I also knew that my training was not quite there to get me there.

My legs pretty much went from frozen for the first 10 miles to sore from miles 13 on.  I took one shot block every water station from 5 - 23, and took mostly water but sometimes gatorade and never really felt sloshy or stomach problems.

Splits (garmin mostly behaved itself but some splits are my pace as I hit the lap button a couple of times when it got off):

1 - 7:07

2 - 7:03

3 - 6:39

4 - 6:37

5 - 6:44

6 - 6:34

my legs never really got loose or felt great, but I realized I was running even below my 3 hour bracelet, but figured I would race it that way since I was already on track.

7 - 6:30

8 - 7:48 Veyo baby met up with a running buddy from BYU I haven't seen in 5 years, and we ran together until my potty break

9 - 7:06

10 - 7:08

11 - 7:26

12 - 7:12 amazingly enough, my potty break was in this mile

13 - 6:52

13.1 split 1:31:20

14 - 6:50

15 - 6:34 took 2 ibuprofen, legs sore, I wish I had more to take

16 - 6:32

17 - 6:35

18 - 6:50

19 - 7:11 this hill was hard to take, but I passed some people and crested strong

20 - 6:41 feeling sore but still strong, knew I would break 3:00 if could keep 6:50 or so

21 - 6:33

22 - 7:02

23 - 6:53 starting to hurt, my husband and kiddies were there to cheer me on

24 - 7:01 starting to really hurt but know I can do it if am about 7:05 or so, have to go to the bathroom but knew there was no way my legs would bounce back if I stopped

25 - 7:09,  at 25.2 had 7:12 to finish last mile and still break 3 hours, my husband and kiddies were there to cheer me on again.

25.2 - 26.2 last mile: 8:09 - Tried my hardest, talking to myself, pathetic and ineffective efforts, but was just so done, my legs just would not cooperate.  I did manage to pick it up at the end so that I was under 3:01 per the official clock

1st split (taking out chip to timer difference) 1:31:04

2nd split 1:28:37  (1:27 difference)

My husband said that I looked much different between mile 23 (he said I looked great) and 25 (he said I looked terrible).

In retrospect, I feel like my first half was probably too fast for my legs, but my 1/2 marathon split gave me the confidence to go for the 3 hour mark, so I am not sure that my fast first half did me harm.  Sometimes your mental state is as important as your legs.  If I had gone out slower, I could have gotten the more typical 4-5 minute negative split, but I am not sure that I would have gotten a faster time overall.  I feel like I could not have done better and laid it all down.  I would think that if you have to hit the wall, it's better to do it around mile 25 instead of mile 20.

I think that I learned alot and I had a great time, except perhaps for the last three miles. 

I will not bore you with all the bad things I ate today, but I will go back to being good tomorrow :)

I will say that my legs hurt so, so bad.  I can pretend I am not a marathoner if I concentrate on my walk but going up and down the stairs is a feat and trying to grab something off the floor is almost more than I can bear.

It was great to meet so many bloggers and appreciate you all coaching me through my first marathon.  I could have not done so well this season without you.

Do I get to write on the blog if I haven't run today?  Is this a sign that I am a serious blog addict?

My legs are so sore!  Quads are the worst, then hamstrings, calves are mildly sore and I even feel a little soreness in my lower back and abdomen.  I guess I worked everything except my arms. 

I forgot I wasn't supposed to go in the hot tub after the marathon and went in for a good 20 minutes Saturday afternoon. I guess that wouldn't help.

I think I will just go out tomorrow morning and see how it feels to do a little jog.  I have a 60 minute massage scheduled for tomorrow evening.  The 15 minute massage right after the marathon was so heavenly.  So I got Paul (my husband, not any of you other Paul's out there) to try to give me a massage, and I guided him on what to do based off the volunteer-massager's moves.  It turned out to be totally hilarious because if I said harder he would add 40 lbs of pressure, and if I said softer he would use his fingertips, then I would tell him to move my leg and he would start turning it in circles.  We were both rolling because the massage attempt was so pathetic.  I still think it probably did some good.  But he better not quit his day-job.

Ran, or shuffled is probably more accurate, 2 miles easy this morning.  I shuffled for 100 yards, then let myself walk while figuring out my mp3 player, then jogged some more, stretched at .5 miles (hamstrings seemed to be what was holding me back while jogging). 12:03 first mile!  My legs had moments, just moments, of feeling better in the second mile.  Mile 2 10:53!  I think I am not ready to jump into training. 

Easy run, ended up averaging exactly 9 minutes/mile.  Walked and stretched after running.  My quads are still quite tight and made it hard to keep them moving, but there has been dramatic improvement since Tuesday.  I am hoping to feel good enough by Saturday to get in 12 miles. 

ave 8:47 pace.  Calves, leg quad, and right hamstring still tight from marathon.  I guess I will still need to take it easy for a while.

1:11:06, no garmin today. 

Ran in SF at a nice pace, stopping often to socialize.  It's nice to not have to get in 20 miles so I actually can stop without getting stressed about the time.

Mizuno - 101

My legs are back!  8:13 ave pace, though the first half was faster than the second.  I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I still could run a decent pace.  So I think I'll be able to do a tempo run this week.

Asics - 110

8:14 ave pace.  At times under 8 felt good, at others it felt hard and I had to back off, but there were three miles below 8 minute pace.

Tempo tomorrow!

This was my first speed work of any kind since the marathon.  The plan was to go on a 5 mile tempo run, starting at about 7:10 and trying to go down from there.  I ran it with Tom (Tom, I assume its ok to say who I am running with if its you, is that ok?  You have my permission to do likewise).  Anyway,

The first two miles were led by Tom and I was ok the first mile (7:04) but was just kind of hanging on for the second mile (7:07).  I had to make a VPB during mile 3, but Tom went ahead then came back for me.  The break must have done me good because I felt strong in mile three (6:46), then felt good for the first 1/2 of mile 4, but then I gradually just started to feel weaker.  Mile four ended up being 6:55 and 6:56 pace for the last .85 (came up short because of VPB).  I was going until Tom's watch beeped 5 miles, and I actually picked it up with about 1/3 mile to go just to make sure the mile was under 7 minute pace, and I thought we were done, and asked Tom, "Are we done?" He said no, and I suffered through the last .10 mile.  This type of workout would be impossible for me to do alone and am grateful Tom pulled me through the workout and didn't leave me in the dark but circled back for me after my VPB :)

I could definitely tell that I am not fully recovered from the marathon, because when the tempo run was done I almost felt like I had finished a race and my legs felt sore.  However, I think it was good to get out there and help my legs remember that they aren't meant for a 9 minute pace.  But something tells me I might be close to that for recovery tomorrow. . .

I had the brilliant idea of doing a hilly loop that takes me up into Elk Ridge.  The long hills turned out to a little too much for me.  Ave pace 8:21, but here's the crazy splits:

1 - 7:45 downhill

2 - 7:55 slight downhill

3 - 9:23 uphill

4 - 9:34 uphill

5 - 7:15 downhill

6 - 8:02 downhill then more uphill than downhill

7 - .39 - 8:54 pace, uphill

So this was not terribly fun, but it worked me over pretty well.  Hopefully in another week or two I can do this again with better uphill times.

Had a great experience running with a new running mate (no offense to my standby running mates, of course).  We ran 10 miles in the riverbottoms, at times jumping and screaming because of meowing cats, sometimes, running off the road while being blinded the brights of some cars, but a great run overall.  We gradually racketed up the pace to below 8, with even a 7:14 thrown in there.  It felt harder than a standard easy pace, but its the pace I would like to run for an easy pace.  We were able to stay conversational, though at about 7:30 pace I couldn't form a full sentence between breaths.

7:50 pace overall, I think my best non-tempo 10 miler pace since college!

Nice Saturday run.  There was a good group of faster runners, including some new recruits to the SF group.  It was nice to meet and run with Josse from the blog.  The pace was faster like yesterday, generally under 8 minute pace, which felt fine until the last mile or two and then I started to feel tired. 

7:58 ave pace.

Mizuno (131)

Brrrr.  It was cold today, especially with the Spanish Fork wind.  I make fun of those who live in Spanish Fork because the wind makes winter running so miserable, but then I am the greater fool because I DRIVE IN to Spanish Fork to run with those who live there, so I am still getting the wind. 

I ran with a fast friend and we managed to be under 8 minutes most of the time, but I think the couple of miles that we ran up toward SF canyon where it was windiest were more like 8:20, so our average pace was 8:03. 

I do feel totally recovered from the marathon now.  No lingering muscle pains.

I have started ab workouts last week.  My goal is to get a six pack and to lose a couple more pounds so that I might even see some of the pack stick out behind the fat layer.

BTW, I was 153 in mid-April after tax season (I am 5'5", so no, it wasn't pretty), I have weighed under 130 for the 4th time this morning.  129 baby!  If I get much lower I'll be where I was in my college glory days.  So I am totally happy with the way I look from a fashion standpoint, but for running ideal would be more like 115-120, which I don't think I'll ever get to, but the lower I creep in the 120's the easier it will be to run fast.  I really don't try to obsess about weight, but for what it's worth, that's my periodic update.

Asics (129)

Easy, ave 9:03 pace, with SF group.

Well, these didn't feel like easy miles, but they weren't marathon paced, either.  I ran alone for about a mile, then met up with the fast Salem ladies.  We ran through farm country, had a dog decide to get in a morning jog with us, and trip one of my running mates.  I realized I needed to turn around about 5 minutes too late, so I turn around and have about 3-4 miles on my own to get to my car and about 20 minutes in which do it.  I was able to pick up the pace somewhat but was tired by this point (7:30-7:50 pace).

Ave pace 8:05 but it felt faster than that, I guess I must have run the first couple of miles slow.

I have had less than good sleep for the past two nights, and a sinus issue for the last 1.5 weeks, but only this morning did I start to feel some effect from this.  I just felt sluggish and not really sick but not well this morning.  Usually I feel excited for a workout and ready to run, but  not so today.  The plan was to do a 6 mile tempo run at 6:45-7 minute pace, but just thinking of that this morning caused me concern.

We warmed up slow for three miles then started.  It didn't go too badly for the first two miles.  (6:52 and 6:51). Tom played the voice of reason by holding back when speedy girl (yeah, I haven't asked her if I can post her name) and I tried to go out a little too fast.  Mile three got tough for me and I lost touch with the other two, and I think Tom's right that this portion is uphill.  When they turned around and then came up on me I turned around too to get the benefit of the group running.  I was probably 10 seconds back on that part (mile 3 - 7:02-too slow).  Felt stronger after we turned around and stuck with Tom and speedy, but that was probably the downhill talking (mile 4 6:53).  Around the mile 4 mark we had to cross a busier road and they went ahead of couple of trucks & cars that I didn't feel comfortable jumping in front of.  I really should wear glasses since my sense of speed and distance is diminished in the dark.  So I ran to the side until I could cross but by then I was behind them and on my own, which is where I would have been if I hadn't turned around early.  So mile 5 and 6 were hard.  Mile 6 for the first 1/2 was a 7:07 pace, but I convinced myself to do a negative split on that mile to come up with a decent but not great time for that mile.

Tempo splits -

1 - 6:52

2 - 6:51

3 - 7:02

4 - 6:53

5 - 6:57

6 - 6:57

Ave 6:55 pace

I felt spent like I had run a race afterward.  It felt harder than I thought it should feel.  I think I need to not go longer on tempo's until I can do 6 miles well.

Ran with speedy girl and the run felt good.  I went into the run feeling blue, had absolutely dreadful sleep last night, but the run really helped me feel better.  Got to love it!

Had a nice run with the SF group.  A nice new girl came out today and enjoyed interacting with her.  It's always great to get to know new people.  Josse-I missed you!  And I am so sorry I wasn't better at communicating with you this week.

Ran easy up Goosenest road toward Payson and then got lost in Payson.  Wierd that I could lose my bearings and not know that I was running north when I thought I was running east.  Soon I course-corrected and found my way back.

I didn't wear a gps!  I woke up early to get in a mile or two before the SF group meets, and I tried to run fast during that time because I realized the loop I chose was probably a little too long to meet the group promptly at 5am.  Good thing the group is usually tardy forming!  I probably got in two before the group started then 7 during the group run.  We started slow but me and speedy picked up the pace for the second half, then we found Tom in the riverbottoms and ran with him for two miles.  1:17 total time.

Ab workout in afternoon.  It is so hard to motivate myself to do this so I am going to start making myself accountable by logging it. 

Ran 10.82 with speedy ER girl.  8:06 ave pace.  I am happy that 8 minute pace has become my new "easy" pace.  It is still hard to talk in complete sentences, depending on the elevation change in a given mile, and the pace of each mile varies, but it is great to be able to fit in 10 miles in 80 minutes instead of 90.  I hope to be able to keep up that pace as it gets colder, which means I'll have to get in a little better shape since cold can slow down your pace.

Yeah Baby!  My marathon recovery is now complete.  It felt so good to do my first interval workout, even though it was a set of long intervals: 3x1.5 miles at 10K goal pace.

It was Tom, Jamie, Speedy A and I.  We warmed up just over 2.5 and started our first over toward Leland.  We did basically the same stretch, switching directions.  The 1.5 mile stretch is like a rolling hill, so each direction has uphill the first half and downhill the second.  The uphill is like a realistic race uphill, not steep enough for hill repeats or to slow you down too much, but you sure feel it.  The downhill is similar, enough to help, but not enough to help a whole lot.  Speedy A is just starting to run with us and hasn't done alot of speed, so during the intervals it was basically Tom, Jamie and I.

1 - 9:54 (6:36 pace, this is actually my 10K goal pace), held back because I knew I had two more ahead of me

.51 rest, 5:09

2 - 9:41 (6:27 pace) started more agressively then just held pace

.5 rest, not sure time, got my watch off a little

3 - 9:31 (6:21 pace) the first mile was a 6:30 and then booked it for the last half mile.  I truthfully thought Tom was trying to catch me and I wasn't going to let him.  (He beat me on the first two reps, but its the last one that counts ;) ). My legs felt strong and I felt pretty euphoric on this last one.

I felt almost like chucking after the last one, but just felt so much better than the tempos.  We were lucky that the water fountains at the ball park were still on.  It is great to have mild weather relative to the time of year.  

Mizuno

Did Abominal Abdominal workout this afternoon. Penance for eating kids chocolate halloween candy.

Josse, Amber and I hooked up with Tom for the middle of his long run.  I didn't get enough sleep last night and felt pretty sick through the night, so I think I am still fighting some type of sinus infection or cold.  I worked on running slow enough to talk in full sentences, and was mostly successful, but sometimes had to talk really fast :)  We looped around the SF golf course and got a nice dose of SF wind, but thankfully it was contained to the areas closest to the canyon. 

Goal with Halloween candy:  not eat any all day, and if I succeed up to the evening then I can have two pieces of chocolate when the kids go to bed and Paul and I put on a movie.

Ab workout in the evening.

Was good with the halloween candy during the day but ate four chocolates when watched the movie at night.

8:05 ave pace

Asics

8:07 ave pace.  Ran with the SF group.  I thought I would be able to slow it down some for this long run, but speedy ER girl and Amber came and there was a good group of 7 or so who ran 8 min ave pace for several miles. Hal and ER girl were the only ones to run the whole way, and Hal was as talkative as ever, though we did have some good discussions where he got drawn in, so that was nice.  It's too bad he can't train in the morning during the week. We slowed it down toward the end.  It sure got cold in the Salem farm country this morning.  It was just a shadow of things to come. . .

Mizuno

Well this rates as a first class sucky running day.

I was planning on meeting someone in Salem who hasn't met there before, so when I arrived I wasn't surprised she wasn't there yet.  I took my cell phone on a warm up jog as I waited for her.  I promised I would bring my cell in case she got lost on the way.  20 minutes later she still wasn't there and my hands were freezing (from holding the cell phone, my hands always get cold when I have to hold something).  I am sure she had a perfectly reasonable excuse for not showing, but I haven't been stood up in a while so I was caught unprepared.  So I got in 2.12 miles slow (8:59 ave) and I decide that since my hands were cold, I didn't have my mace or my mp3, that I would take my new (used) treadmill on its first spin.

I get home and have to maneuver the beastly thing (a used monster sized Star Trac bought from the Ogden Gold's Gym) to plug it in.  It didn't work when I press start.  Plug it in in another location, and it still won't start.  Well, then I looked and found an on/off switch by where the plug goes out of the machine. 

I turn it on and I am in business, trading off between 7:47 and 8 min pace (depending on the song on the radio, of course) at 2 % (I think it is percent) grade.  about 3/4 a mile into it I remember that treadmills are incredibly boring, and in the fifth mile on the treadmill my son wakes up, as he doesn't understand the glorious opportunity daylight savings gives us of sleeping in, and my morning run is aborted.

GRRRR.

Asics.

Evening -

I walked my kids to the park by our house and ran in circles on an asphalt path that borders the park while my kids played.  In my first mile they each ran with me for a part of the time.  My 3.5 year old ran .2 miles with me at 10 min pace.  So my first mile split was around 10 min, and the next two were in the low 8's while my kids amused themselves by getting tangled in the soccor goal mesh.  I shouldn't have let them play with it, but they were reluctant to go to the park at all, so I just felt lucky that they would stay entertained for 27 minutes.  3.08 at 8:50 ave.

Easy run with SF group.  I ran with the speedier girls at first, but then I had to hit the bushes.  I got a foot into some wetland type of area and screamed--way over-dramatic.  So I am in the bushes and right away hear the guys in our group who were taking the pace easier.  I wrap up and jump out again getting my foot wet, and the guys were still 100 meters away.  They didn't even recognize me when I ran up to them.  Mark said, "Good morning" to me and I had to introduce myself. 

After the run I go grocery shopping, and I tend to get sick from not eating or drinking, so lately I have picked up a powerade.  I picked up a new powerade light (that's not the name but it is lower calorically).  It was ok, but had that fake sweetener taste.  I had to get some breaded fish fillets for this fish taco recipe I make (Recipezaar #10078, very easy and good), and I swear I had to touch every fish product in the frozen food section before finding the only one that isn't half fat.  My body temperature just kept dropping and dropping.  I'm ok now, but I think I will need to start bringing a parka for these shopping trips.

Mizuno

evening abs

Eight .5 mile repeats.  Ran with Tom, Jamie and Amber, though Amber wasn't doing our 800's. 

1 - 3:05, 3:18 rest

2 - 2:59, 3:05 rest

3 - 2:58, 3:02 rest

4 - 2:56, 3:20 rest

5 - 2:55, 3:14 rest  (By this time I am thinking, "oh, yeah, this is what under 6 minute pace feels like, I had forgotten but I remember now".)

6 - 2:55, estimated 3:30 rest

7 - 2:56, 3:05 rest

8 - 2:54  And we are done! 

Though I lead the group through all but the first and the last, I could NOT have done this workout alone.  It takes group pressure to pull these numbers (not impressive by some people's standards, but my best workout since college for sure).  On #6 and #8 I felt like I was in college again, seeing what my body would do for me and pushing it to puke point.  It was great.  Either Jamie or Tom said something about whether or not speed is fun, and I have to say in some ways it is not fun, but in others it is exhilerating.   I am sure my Friday run with Sasha will beat some humility into me but for now I am really pleased :)

Ok now for advice solicitation:   I am on a cycle that is trying to go strong through January, since Feb-April have to be my slow down period for work reasons.  I want to peak for the Painter's 1/2 marathon in mid January.  So I want to do 1-2 quality hard workouts a week, but the cold means we have to be more careful about injury and warming up.  I warmed up over 3.5 miles before starting today.  I want to do intervals over the winter.  Are intervals a definite no-no as the temperature drops?  At what morning temperature do tempos or fartlek become the only safe bets?  I always want to train 95% safe.  100% safe means not training, eh?

Mizuno

Ran with large group today:  Amber, ER speedy, Jamie and Tom.  We went uphill at first around Goosenest and into Payson.  It was a nice run and it is great to have such a wonderful group of runners to run with.

ave 8:27 pace

Asics

afternoon abs

So I ran the Sasha's Uneventful 1/2 Marathon with Sasha, Ted, and Jamie.  Jamie and I met at Sasha's house at 6am to warm up before Sasha and Ted's warm up because we were intimidated and wanted to be ready to go.  We ran 2.26 miles, then went in Sasha's house and waited around for about 10 minutes (I guess we should have run 2.75 or 3 then came to the house).  Sasha let us into his home at 6:20am and we hung out in his family room.  It just shows how dedicated his whole family is to running and how patient and tolerant Sarah is. 

Well, let me preface the run with the fact that I went to the BYU vs. TCU night game last night.  We left toward the end of the 3rd quarter because my husband is coming down with something and I was happy to bow out early to get some decent sleep, but then our 7 year old son went to the game with a school friend, they stayed for the whole game, and thus got stuck in game traffic and he got home at 12:20am, two hours after we got home.  It was my first experience staying awake for a child to get home, and he is only 7 years old!  If he was old enough to have a curfew he would have broken it for sure.  But it shows a lack of judgement on my part that I let him go, so I have learned something. Ok, so the point is I fell asleep at about 1:30 am (was wound up) and woke up at 5:20 so less than 4 hours sleep.  You know you are in trouble when you are telling yourself--"You need to fall asleep or you will crash in burn in your run tomorrow!! Go to sleep right now!! You have to relax now!! Go to sleep right now!!"

Ok, my goal was to be around 7:15 pace, which would make for a slower but very long tempo run.  Well my laps seemed pretty screwy on the watch.  In general they were close to the mile markers but some of the splits seemed way off.  Here's the splits from the gps:

1 - 7:15, just warming up, included a stop to wait for Adam who arrived a minute late.

2 - 7:30

3 - 6:54

4 - 7:30  see what I mean about splits being screwy?  In actuality we were going about 7:15 pace for miles 2-5, conversational but not full sentences, really enjoying the run, seeing the leaves falling in front of us, soaking up the experience of running with Sasha and Ted.

5 - 7:08 probably right on, we ran on the river trail toward the lake and turned around at 5.05 miles, a near crash between Jamie and Sasha? at the 180 turn around point.

6 - 6:58

7 - 6:33 yeah right, I don't think this one was that fast, at around mile 7 Sasha and Ted started doing strides.  I tried to pay attention to what they were doing but my concentration started moving to trying to keep pace

8 - 7:03 see what I mean about screwy splits?

9 - 6:58 By mile 9 I am really needing some water.  I brought shot blocks but didn't know how taking them without water would go, so I didn't take one.  I don't run 15 miles without fuel normally so my body was starting to feel it -- or was it the pace my body was feeling?  At the 9 mile marker we found we had 24 seconds (if I remember right) to catch to get the 7 minute gal for the run, so we picked it up.

10 - 6:47 in the 10th mile Jamie drops back a little and it starts to be Sasha and Ted encouraging me through the last portion of the run.  I am tired and am entering race mode - giving everything I have and wondering if I am going to break

11 - 7:04 tired but hanging on to them.  Sasha is giving out 100 m, 200m 1/4 mile splits

12 - 7:06 I don't think these last two splits were right.  I think they were right at or under 7 min.  Sasha said I could break 1:31 if I did a 6:30 and I said yeah right and just tried to hang on.

13 - 6:35 pace, but my watch showed 12.93 for the whole distance, off by quite a bit.  Sasha had a 6:20 for the last mile, and they know this course really well so I'll take his word for it.  I know that I surged when I could, within the last .6 or so I had strong and weak points but was able to squeak it out:

1:30:52 BABY!   6:56 ave pace, better than the SF 1/2 marathon race. 

I am so grateful to Jamie who pulled me through the middle miles and Sasha and Ted who were so positive and encouraging in the last three as I tried to not fall apart.

This was definitely a race level effort from the mile 9 marker on, and probably even before that, since you need to stay relaxed and in control in a 1/2 marathon or marathon through those middle miles anyway.  It's kind of embarrassing to be putting forth race level effort while the guys you are running with are relaxed and conversational, but they were great and didn't harrass me about my breathing, etc.  :)

I have to say a special thank you to my husband, who got up with the kids and got the two older ones off to school, even though he stayed up until 12:30am last night, and even though he was sick, so that I could do this run.  I wish I could come up more often, but am grateful for the chance to do it this time.

Ran with the SF group.  It's great to have a big group to run with.  Kelly ran with us and that was fun to push his pace a little.  He seems hungry for more.  We saw two fast guys from Salem and Josse went crazy with them for a couple of miles, but Tom and I hung back.  Seemed like Tom's horses were neighing because running behind Josse and her male posse we kept speeding up until I would try to slow it down.  At one point we were chatting and I was having a hard time holding the conversation, looked down and we were doing about a 7 minute pace and I put on the brakes.  In retrospect I should have cut Tom loose because he should have been running with the faster crew.  I don't feel really sore from yesterday, but didn't feel like pushing the pace today either.  I toyed with the idea of running 15 today, but thought 10 would allow me to rest better.

Ave pace 8:03

Asics

Ran with TAJJ (Tom, Amber, Jamie, Josse) this morning.  I was running on empty from undereating and undersleeping yesterday.  I think my stress is catching up to me and I better baby myself a little more of I am going to crash and burn.

I didn't feel good during the run.   Kind of tingly and lightheaded.  Usually I get this nich runners high and get all jazzed about running but right now I just feel like crawling back into bed, so I think I will.

8:21 ave pace

Ab workout.

Mizuno

Met up with the SF group, but did some miles early with Tom.  Today is the run before the crack of dawn so I can also go grocery shopping before the kids wake up morning.  This plan worked well when I was running 7 miles on Tuesday, but now that I am trying to get ten in a day the early morning gets even earlier.  Amber said she'd join me next week before 5am so that will be good.  About 1/2 way through the river bottoms I asked Amber and Tom if they were up for striders, and they agreed to do some.  The rest of the SF group bawked at the idea.  We were kind of on training wheels, didn't really track seconds or distance (my gps was dead anyway), but I think they were 20-30 seconds each.  I didn't even keep a good count of how many we did, but I think it was 4-5.  We focused on form, and I guess that worked ok.  I don't think I know what perfect running form is, but I tried to focus on efficiency and effectiveness of my movement.  Hmmm.

Like I said, no gps watch so I had to guess the distance.

Ab workout.

Asics.

After laying in bed listening to my son cough in his sleep for an hour, I thought, "The best thing for my running is for me to get another hour of sleep, but since that isn't happening, the next best thing would be to get in a couple of extra miles."  So I rolled out of bed and threw on the running gear. 

Boy it was colder this morning.  I would say the coldest morning yet.  About 28F (shows what a wuss I am, it will get much colder soon).

I met McKenzie and Amber in Salem after a couple of miles and we got nice and lost in Payson--well, I was lost but McKenzie knew her way around and led us back.  It's great to have good running buddies to share workouts with.

ave 8:03 pace

evening ab workout.

Mizuno

Met with TJ and did a tempo workout.  I wanted to keep it at threshold-1/2 marathon pace, so Jamie took off when we started the tempo after a 2.75 mile warm up.  I ran with Tom for the first two miles then he dropped back and I was on my own.  My watch was beeping way after his so my splits aren't reliable, but Jamie drove the course and knew it was four miles.  Total time:  26:55, or about 6:44 ave pace.  Not a stellar workout, but I don't feel bad about it either.  Then we did a wandering route around SF neighborhoods to get more miles in.  Poor Tom checked out early because of an oncoming migraine.  I have never had one but my husband gets them and they seem just terrible!

Asics.

Wee hours of the morning run because of training in SLC and have to meet a group to carpool.  I don't know about you all, but I really dislike forced carpool chit chat.  I would rather read a book or listen to the radio.  I think I will bring a book and see how it goes.  I am reading Shirley by one of the Bronte sisters (not sure which, actually).  Ran a little faster today.  I was surprised when bolted out of the gate with a 7:01 first mile.  It was just me and my mp3 player and I let the song set the pace.  7:15 mile 2. 7:23 mile 3.  My mp3 ran out of juice at around mile 3 :(.  So it's just me and my thoughts from then on, not too bad, I guess.  7:26 and 7:27 for miles 4 and 5, I guess my thoughts are not that stimulating.  It was interesting feeling out a faster slow pace.  I don't think I am ready for that pace for a 10 miler, but perhaps someday soon.

ave pace 7:19

mizuno

Easy somewhat long run this morning in SF with SF group.  Kim made a surprise breakfast for Tom so that was fun.  Paul's male buddies Paul T, Terry and Kerry drove down to run and be part of the festivities.  It was great to run with them and be able to talk with them. The only problem was we had to get there before he did so I didn't quite get the 65 miles I was hoping ot get this week :(  Close but no cigar!   I will work hard to get it next week because of potential Turkey Day damage.

I don't have ave pace because I forgot to turn off my watch.  Probably ave 8:10.

Asics