Denouement

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

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

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

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

PM: 4.56 with Mack @ 8:00 pace. 

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

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

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

Seussical the Musical at night 

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

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