Winning Back What I Lost

Late evening tempo run: 1M warmup; 7M @ 7:38/mi pace; cool down.  This was a struggle.  I didn't feel like I was locked in until about 4 or 5M into my tempo run.  I picked a route w/ some rollers that sapped my speed a bit which may have had something to do with that.

Lunch:  Moderately paced recovery run during lunch.  Temp was mid-80's but I was surprisingly energetic despite last night's hard tempo run.

845pm:  Temp in mid 80's but overcast until sun went down around 10ish; slow first 6 miles then MP after that w/ some hydration breaks.  I really hammered the straightaways and my last mile was probably my quickest.  I thought I'd be sick b/c it was my wife's b-day today and I ate some ice cream and cake immediately before the run.  I'm thinking this is a good sign given my historical stomach issues.

8pm: I jammed in a recovery run in between the BBQ and fireworks; Just short of 6M at sub MP and it felt really easy, even in 90 degree heat- another good sign that my increased mileage is paying dividends.  I got a nice little cut and rash where my hydration belt was cutting into my "love handles."  I guess they're not so much love handles anymore, more like love safety straps.   

9pm: Temp 75-80 degrees.  Slow, easy pace.  Took a nice a little spill while running through the park behind MVHS.  Some kid had left his skateboard in the middle of the running path.  I was looking everywhere but the road in front of me and stepped right on the end of it.  I got my hands down in time to save my face but I'm picking a few rocks out of my right palm.  I'm such an idiot. 

9pm:  10 milers on consecutive days which is probably a first for me.  I'll have to check my log to verify.  Temp was in lower 70's but a bit breezy which made it difficult during the back portion of the run.  Slow and easy pace just concentrating on having good form. 

AM:  4.66M. A bit sore and stiff this morning; Trudged my way through it knowing that this evening will be tough to get a longer run in. 

PM: 4.86M. Slow miles.  Same route as in the morning w/ a slight addition at the end. 

6AM:  4.55 slow miles.  Kind of chilly this morning.  Horrible stomach cramps the last 1.5M.  Just barely made it home in time. 

9PM: 7.3 slow miles w/ some MP miles between 3-5.  Not really feeling well. I may be coming down w/ something.  My usual MO is to ward off anything but I still feel lethargic until my body ejects it.  Could be worse, the wife's been sick for the past 2 weeks.

630AM: Took me 1.5M to actually wake up but I felt great after that.  Some good pickups at HM race pace (7:30/mi) or better to stretch the legs.  Averaged 7:55/mi after the warmup.  No workout tonight.  I'm running the Fit for Life Half tomorrow morning.  Hoping to hit 1:38 but I'd settle for anything sub 1:40. 

So this is the first non-5k that I've run more than once.  I was interested to see what sort of improvement I would see over last years race, which until today was my HM PR (1:45).  Going into today my A goal, as Jeff Shadley likes to say, was 1:38 and my B goal was anything sub-1:40. 

I dragged myself out of bed about 6:30AM and took way too much time getting ready.  Not sure what I was thinking b/c the race started at 730AM and is clear on the other side of the Valley at Boise Hawks (Cubs Single A farm club) Stadium.  I left the house at 7:05 and had to drive like a demon to make it there by 720, warmup and hit the starting line. 

Lots of runners this year, 200-250, so the start was a little frantic and crowded once the runners funneled onto the relatively narrow greenbelt along the Boise River.  One guy actually lost his shoe and stopped right in the middle of the mass of humanity.  I heard some lady yell, "Dear Lord!" and watched her run smack into the guy, luckily I just barely grazed her but I can't be sure that someone behind me didn't smoke them. 

I settled into a nice comfortable pace early, passing maybe 10 people between the first and second mile.  After that, I got in behind a girl that seemed to be running my pace and followed her until mile 11.  We leapfrogged each other a couple of time before that and then I turned it on.  I don't have any splits b/c my Garmin crapped out, AGAIN!  Don't know what's up w/ that thing b/c it read "Battery Charging is Complete" when I left home.  I do know that I picked it up after mile 11 and held a much faster, for me, pace the last 3/4 mile to hold off that girl that I had followed and sneak in under 1:38, just barely, as I crossed home plate.  This makes me think that MAYBE I could have run faster had I pushed it a littlle earlier.  No complaints though.  I've now run a 5k, 10k, 2 Halfs, and Marathon this year and established PR's in all but the 10k and the other Half (both were trail runs w/ a LOT of elevation gain). 

630AM: 4.82 easy miles.  Legs were stiff this morning.  I had some stomach issues again after a weekend camping and eating a ton of trail mix and about a thousand smores w/ my little girls.  Good times.  I pondered my race on Saturday, and while I was pleased w/ the result I was a little humbled by the fact that I've set a goal to run that pace for the entire TOU marathon in 2 months.  This will be a daunting task.  I currently project at somewhere near a 3:24 marathon.  IMO, I'll need to increase my weekly mileage base to somewhere around 65-70 mpw and probably drop at least 12-15 lbs to get that extra 9 mins I need.  I will be difficult but I believe its within reach. 

1015PM: 6.3 miles at roughly 8 min pace.  Legs felt light and springy.  A noticeable improvement in my base cardio pace.  Looked at the official results on Blue Circle Sports for Saturday's run and I picked up 4 seconds from what was reported at the event!  Four seconds is four seconds. 

I don't like to run this late because it makes it that much harder to get up for my early morning run, but I had to wait for my wife and son to return from their run.  Ran into a half dozen sprinklers which isn't too big a deal but a little surprising when it comes in the dark.  I can't believe how many businesses, schools, parks etc. set their sprinklers to water the pavement.  Besides being a safety hazard its a huge waste of scarce water resources. 

Started a fundraising website for my next marathon, Top of Utah.  I'm hoping to raise at least 1k dollars for the Family Advocate Program here in Boise. 

645AM:  Hit my snooze a couple of times and I almost didn't get up.  I started making bargains w/ myself that I'd run 10M this evening.  After about 5-10 mins of internal debate I finally rose and quickly got on the road.  3.8 slow, easy miles.  About a 60% effort was all that I could muster this morning.  Same stomach issues as yesterday which dissuaded me from venturing too far from home.   

Still having problems w/ my GPS (Garmin) watch shutting down for no discernible reason.  I keep forgetting to do the 'hard reset.'  I'll do it after I post this entry and see if it solves the problem. 

8PM: Temp in the upper 80's; 2.5M fast miles at the start and then some slow, easy miles to finish it up as I got dehydrated and fatigued; I wanted to stretch the run out a little longer but as is often the case, time wasn't on my side.  Mick Jagger is full of it!

640AM: Nice temp this morning, low 60's, w/ a little breeze and bright sunshine.  The kind of morning that makes it easy to run.  My Garmin failed on me again but after a hard reset it worked the last 3.5M or so.  I'm so familiar w/ my running routes now that I don't even have to do a google map search to determine my distance.  4.6M easy, slow miles overall.  My slow pace has improved to around 8:40/mi.  It was 20 seconds slower back in April/May.  As I noted on the discussion board, I've seen speed gains by consciously avoiding speedwork and increasing my mileage.  One would think that you have to run fast to get faster but apparently there is more benefit to be gained from running more miles.  I imagine that changes once a runner reaches a certain fitness level of running 80+ mpw. 

1030PM:  Extremely late start tonight.  I was more than a little sluggish from eating a ton of pizza & breadsticks for dinner tonight.  Slow, easy pace that picked up a little after 3M or so.  I keep telling myself that I'll start getting my diet squared away again but its so difficult when there's so much grub around. 

Got a physical tonight for the upcoming Boy Scouts' High Adventure Trip to the Frank Church in a couple of weeks.  Been awhile since I've had to turn my head and cough and  I could go at least another couple of decades before doing that again. 

930PM: Waited until the temp at least got down to around 90 degrees before venturing out.  I'll be camping w/ the family again this weekend so I had to get my long run in before leaving for Ketchum/Copper Basin tomorrow night.  There's a fair chance that I'll actually get a run in early on Saturday so I'll try to squeeze a short one in tomorrow morning.  Its 1130PM as I'm typing this message so I'll probably get somewhere near 5 to 5 1/2 hours of sleep which is not nearly enough but sadly its the norm for me.  Easy pace throughout which quickened in the middle miles and then tapered off as I stopped at the convenience store 3/4M from my house to stock up on G2.  I went through a full 12 oz bottle of water and then downed a large G2 as if it were a dixie cup.

645AM: 3.9M easy recovery run this morning.  My knees are a bit sore, the right one especially. I need to roll out the IT band real good, been awhile since I've done that.  The temp outside read 68 degrees when I left the house but I swear it felt more like 80 degrees. No breeze whatsoever and apparently a farmer to south, probably Kuna, is burning his ditches because there was a nice haze of smoke to make breathing even more of a chore. 

Didn't get out for a run this Saturday.  Took my shoes along but no dice.  We did some hiking up and down Trail Creek and Corral Creek.  Picked up one really nice rainbow and a bunch of small brookies lots of fun w/ the family. 

640AM:  I actually felt rested this morning.  4.57M at slow, easy pace.  Got smoked by quite a few sprinklers again.  I wasn't so concerned about getting wet because it was relatively warm but I was a little worried that all the water would short out my ipod.  I've got a cover/armband protecting it but the sheer amount of water was similar to jumping in a pool.  My garmin watch is still acting funny.  It shuts off after 3/4M or so and then it seems to work OK the rest of the run.  It's a refurbished model so maybe its just reached the end of the line?

9PM:  Ran to the nearest Redbox (5 Mile and Overland) to pick up a couple of flix and back.  6.21 easy miles.  I was nearly home and just about to celebrate the fact that my Garmin didn't spontaneously shut-off when it powered down immediately after I tried to turn on the backlight.  The power button and backlight are the same button so I may have held the button too long and shut it off myself. 

845PM:  Did not make it out of bed this morning so I had to stretch out a mid-range run this evening; temp around 90 degrees when I started and a little, not much, cooler after the sun went down; Nice, easy pace with a couple of water breaks mixed in; the last mile as I was nearing my house there was an overwhelming smell of BBQ pork in the air that made me nauseous, other than that it was a good run. 

640AM: 4.7 easy miles this morning; I felt surprisingly good for it being only 8 hours after my 10 miler last night; still having problems w/ the Garmin; don't know what I'll do in the short term; It would be a bigger deal if I weren't so focused on building base and consciously avoiding the speed workouts;  I'll probably just continue to use it until it completely fails and fill in the gaps w/ google maps; this means I'll have to stick to actual roads and not canal trails or greenbelt paths where google cannot measure the distance.

930PM: 5.43 not so easy miles in 90 degree heat; brutally hot today; more or less slogged my way through the entire run.

9PM:  Another slow, easy run in hot weather; temp around 90 degrees again until the sun went down then down to a chilly 85 thereafter; no run tomorrow because I'll be fishing Silver Creek w/ my cousin whose coming in from Portland; leave Boise at 4am to get to the Creek when the sun comes up and hit the Creek's famous midsummer early morning trico spinner falls.  Can't wait.  Hoping to get in a long run of around 15-16 miles on Saturday.

1015AM:  Took yesterday off to fish Silver Creek in Sun Valley; didn't get back home until midnight so I had to push my long run off until the evening; my wife had other plans and didn't return home until late and by that time I was not willing to run until 1AM; the day off gave my legs some extra juice; I could have gone longer but I didn't bring water and it was still pretty hot even though it was late evening. 

8AM:  6 slow, easy miles; last workout this week; my son and I are leaving this afternoon for a week backpacking in the Frank Church Wilderness (Soldier Lakes/MF Salmon River); IT band is flaring up; its been awhile since I rolled it so I'll have to roll it and ice it before strapping on my gargantuan 70 lb pack.

Hiked from Josephus Lake to Soldier Cr.

Hiked Soldier Cr. to Cutthroat Lake

Cutthroat Lake back to the Josephus Lake Trailhead.