Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Jogged a block with the dog, then ran from my house to the canal trail to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail to Green Canyon, up Green Canyon to the end of the single-track, and then back home the same way. I tried to keep the pace honest and work the hills a little, but wasn't really looking for a killer workout today, just some good distance and some hills. Did 6x100m strides in the middle of the run, the last 3 as hill surges on the Bonneville Trail. I measured out the route to best of my ability on G-Maps, and figured I averaged about 7:30/mile. I feel pretty much recovered from the race on Saturday.

(Adrenaline blue: 50 miles)

AM - 6.5 miles with Cody (canal trail loop) and then 0.5 miles with dog. Pace varied between 7:00 to 7:30/mile. SI is a bit irritated, but I see the chiro this evening.

(Adrenaline black: 458 miles)

PM - Easy run with James and Jon. Talked about kicking dogs for most of the run.

(Adrenaline orange: 302 miles)

Raining buckets this morning, plus my legs felt like lead weights when I got out of bed, so I waited until about 5PM to run. My body is usually a bit more charged up by then, plus it had stopped raining (mostly). Today was my last Big Workout before the marathon (Big Workouts = hard workout that lasts over an hour and a half, usually 14-16 miles total). The workout today was 4-3-2-1 miles at MP, with 2:00 rest in between, so 10 miles at MP total. I ran from my office to Mile 24 of the TOU course and started the workout, running backward on the TOU course to Mile 18, and then turning around and coming back. I used the mile markers to get pace, although I'd miss one here or there. All my splits were in between 5:30-5:40/mile, which I was pretty happy with, considering how I felt this morning. Good workout.

(Adrenaline blue: 65 miles)

Easy recovery day. Once again I waited until it stopped raining, so weather was pretty good for running: cool and calm. Did the landfill loop via paved river trail. SI is still irritated.

(Adrenaline orange:  310 miles)

Boy, I'm glad today's run is over with. Mid-30s for temperature, wind, and snow. Gotta love that spring weather! Today was my last long run before Ogden, and we did virtually all of it on trail. It was not very fast, but we were out there for awhile. 18 miles in 2:30 or 2:35 or so. 8:30/mile pace, or something like that. James, Cody, and I met at the canal trailhead and ran the canal trail, then jumped on the Bonneville Trail, and then up Green Canyon. We went all the way up Green to the single track, and then almost a mile on the single track until it was time to turn around. Well over 1500 ft of net climbing. Coming down, we had a nasty headwind, and the snow picked up as well, to the pount where we were getting substantial accumulation, not only on the ground but also on our faces. Yuck! Once we got out of Green Canyon and back on the Bonneville trail, the wind died down a little, and so did the snow. It's as though Green Canyon had its own little microclimate today. I didn't feel particulary great today, and we were pretty miserable, but I was happy to get in the miles and complete my training clycle properly. Now it's time for a taper! 85 miles this week. 60-65 next week, and 30 the week of the marathon (plus the marathon). I'm looking forward to feeling fresh again. I've felt worn down the last couple weeks from the mileage. I don't know how you 100-mile/week guys do it...

(Cascadia: 88 miles)

Ran out-and-back on paved river trail nice and easy. Beautiful day. My legs feel better today than the last few days, so maybe they just needed a long, slow 18-miler in the snow to revitalize them.

(Adrenaline blue:  69 miles)

AM - easy 4.5 miles to end of paved river trail and back, then a block with the dog. Did 3x100m strides. Everything felt pretty good.

(Adrenaline black: 455 miles)

PM - easy 6.5 miles. Ran up the Center Street hill and turned off into River Heights, then into Providence. Stopped at the gym to eat pizza, lift a few weights, and cancel my membership, then continued home. Did 3x100m strides in the middle of the run. Average pace for run was 6:53/mile.

(Adrenaline orange: 316 miles)

Gorgeous sunny day up here in Cache Valley. My legs got spring fever and were in the mood for a strong aerobic run. Did the North Logan-USU loop in 65 minutes (6:30/mile). LT intervals tomorrow.

(Adrenaline blue: 79 miles)

5x1600m repeats at Logan High track today, LT pace. Great temperature to run at 6AM, plus no wind, so ideal for a good workout. I felt pretty decent, especially after the first few intervals. Cody showed up and ran with me on the 4th interval, during my first and last lap. Having someone there to run alongside me got me going a lot faster, and "primed" my engine for the last interval too. Interval splits were 5:18, 5:18, 5:19, 5:11, 5:11. Ironically, the 5:11's felt easier than the first three. 1 lap rest between intervals (2:00)

Cooled down a couple laps then did about three miles at 6:15-6:20 pace, then cooled down more with the dog. Good workout.

(Burn: 143 miles)

Ran up to the USU track from home, where I met Cody and James. Cody was going to make his sub-5:00 mile attempt, and James and I were going to pace him. Did a few strides, and then we started the time trial. Since I did an interval workout yesterday, I just paced Cody for the 1st and 3rd laps. My first 400 was a high 73. My second 400 (the 3rd lap of the 1600m) was a 75, so right on pace. They felt pretty good. Cody ended up at 5:00.00 for his 1600m, a 3-second PR.

Ran back home afterward and then did a block with the dog.

(Adrenaline blue: 88 miles)

Ran at noon from my office. It was pretty hot out, but I enjoyed a good sweat. Did the Landfill Loop. Legs were feeling good and wanted to do 6:20 miles, so I let them. Did 6x100m barefoot strides in the grass at LHS near the end.

(Adrenaline black: 461 miles)

Started at Dry Canyon and ran the Bonneville/Deerfence Trail down to Blacksmith Fork Canyon and back. It's about a 14-mile out-and-back. I used to call this route "18 miles", but that was back in the day before Garmins and G-Maps. This was one of my two "long runs" before the Ogden Marathon in 2003. Now it's one of my taper runs. My, how technology and better information changes things. Hopefully I will do better this year in Ogden than I did in 2003 (2:43:46). Twenty minutes faster would be nice.

The cows are out in the section between Millville Canyon and Blacksmith Fork. None of them got aggressive on me, but I did have to jump over their dung, plus the trail was badly trampled (rolled my ankle a couple times). I would consider becoming 100% vegetarian and dairy-free if it would get rid of all the cattle on my favorite running routes....

Legs are feeling good. It's been a couple years since I've done this full route, but the rolling hills seem a lot easier than before. I think all those Ogden races helped. Run took about 1:52:00 or so. Probably about 8:00/mile, a good pace for me considering the difficulty of the trail. Nice day.

66 miles for the week. The taper intensifies next week...

(Cascadia: 102 miles)

Day off.

AM - Got up early, ran a mile with 4x100m striders, and did a short track workout - 2x1600m @10K pace, with 1 lap rest (2 minutes). Intervals were 5:02 and 5:01. Everything felt pretty smooth and sharp, with fast recovery. Cooled down a couple miles. Will go a few more miles this evening.

(Burn: 149 miles)

PM - Did canal trail loop (6.5 miles) after work, then another half mile with the dog. 6:40/mile pace for the run.

I had a teammate back in college who always used to say it "hurts to run slow" when you're starting to peak. I think I'm getting near that point. Starting to get very excited for the marathon.

(Adrenaline black: 468 miles)

Easy 7-ish mile run in the afternoon. No watch. Need to adjust to heat to get ready for Ogden...

(Adrenaline orange: 323 miles)

Did the landfill loop, with a 5:45 tempo mile in the middle. Felt only so-so on the tempo. Near the end of the run, I stopped at the LHS rec fields and did 4x200m barefoot strides in the grass (34, 34, 34, 33). After the striders, I felt much better and much smoother. It's funny how barefoot strides always seem to do that. I think they help get the biomechanics in sync or something.

(Adrenaline blue: 94 miles)

Easy run with Cody on paved river trail.

(Adrenaline black: 473 miles)

For anyone interested, I've posted a map, profile, and discussion about the Ogden Marathon course on my personal blog.

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Slept in until 7AM, and then jogged out to LHS rec fields and did a couple easy barefoot striders in the grass. Jogged back home, and did a few blocks with the dog. The temperature is alarmingly warm for 7AM.

I just got another week increase in vacation, so will use a few hours this afternoon so that I can relax, lounge around, and take it easy before we head to Ogden. Also scheduled for a quick stop at the chiro for a final tune-up this afternoon. Will get a haircut as well, to make me more aerodynamic. So many pre-race preparations...

(Adrenaline orange: 325 miles)

Ogden Marathon. My watch completely died on me this afternoon, so I can't get at my mile splits, but I'll do the best I can off my memory. Here goes.

Cody, Dan, James, and I stayed at James' inlaws in Willard, so we had about a 15-minute drive to the race busing area. Weather in Ogden at 5AM was pleasant, but too warm for 5AM. T-shirt and shorts were comfortable. Fortunately, once we bused up 1200' in elevation to the start line, the air was much more brisk, and good running conditions. No wind either. However, the temps in Ogden served as bad omen for what it would be like during the last few miles.

The start line featured pretty much everyone I expected, so no big surprises there. After a false start, the race finally started for real, pretty much on-time. The first mile was slow, too slow: 5:42. I wanted 5:30s for the first 8 miles, which is a nice, fast, 1% grade downhill. So I sped up and no one sped up with me; I was all alone, and footsteps faded within a mile. My next 7 mile splits were pretty much all at 5:28. Seriously, it was weird, I was just locked into 5:28 until the downhill ended and we turned to go around Pineview.

Everything was feeling good, and it felt like I had build a decent lead, so I decided to to maintain the same effort on the rolling hills around Pineview Reservoir. Same effort = slower pace, but I was fine with this, as I assumed everyone behind me would slow down too. Sure enough, my 5:28's turned into 5:40s. I wanted to hold this until Mile 17 or so, when the course veers downhill again. I hoped to even- or negative-split the race. Went through the half marathon in exactly 1:13:00. This was right where I wanted to be, especially given the warmer temps. Still no headwind of any sort, which was good. I was afraid when I broke away and went solo that I might hang myself out to dry if there was any sort of headwind, but so far so good. I could tell by the roar of the crowd that the next runners were about 2:00 behind me. This is good; if I can maintain for the rest of rolling section and then go back to sub-5:30s on the downhill part, I doubted that anyone would catch me.

Did another 5:40, and then came to the only hill worth noting on the course. It is a decent climb, but nothing like Vejo; not too steep or too long. However, I had been experiencing mild stomach cramping for a little while, and it suddenly got a bit worse, to the point where it was slowing me down. I tried some breathing exercises, but the only thing that helped was grabbing my gut with my hand. Not an effective way to run a marathon. This resulted in a 6:10 mile and me walking through the next aid station. I knew that if I couldn't get back on track soon, my race was going south. It was frustrating because my legs still felt good. Walking through the aid station and taking a good amount of water seemed to help. I think my stomach was just upset from too much sugar from the Gu and PowerAid, and the water helped dilute it. In any case, after a bit more deep breathing exercises, I had worked the cramp out completely, and was rolling full-tilt again my Mile 17.

The course resumed a big downhill starting right before Mile 18, as it winds down Ogden Canyon (1.8% downhill gradient). Mile 18 was 5:28 again, which made me laugh a little. I can't remember all my splits, but most were 5:30 or under, with a 5:20 as the fastest. My quads were feeling fatigued by Mile 20, but the rest of my systems still felt good. I wasn't breathing hard, I wasn't dehydrated, and I didn't feel glycogen-depleted. Quite a bit of general fatigue, but I could mentally focus through it. At Mile 20, I mentally turned the race into a 10K, and then mentally turned it into a 5K at Mile 23. I was drinking quite a bit of water and PowerAid at aid stations, but was dousing my head and body with even greater amounts of water. This kept me wet and cool between aid stations, and also shocked my nervous system from the sudden cold, and caused me to increase my pace.

Ogden Canyon spit me out onto the Ogden River Parkway (a paved bike trail) around Mile 23. At this point I was smelling the barn enough to get excited about finishing strong, plus kept trying whatever I could think of to give me adrenaline surges and internal encouragement. I was dousing myself with even more water, and then doing double-fisted slam-dunks of the paper cups into the trash bins, while grunting. Seriously. The volunteers and half marathoners I was passing must have thought I was nuts, but I was still holding 5:30/mile pace, and that's all I cared about. I knew at this point from crowd response (or lack thereof) that victory was pretty much a done deal, but I really wanted to make sure to finish the race as hard as could, and potentially PR over my old St. George time.

The Parkway segment finally ended with less than a mile to go, the course finished on the road into downtown Ogden. It's pretty much dead flat, but the building were casting good shadows, which helped keep things cool. I knew that the race ended on 25th Street, and started counting blocks. 20th Street: 1000m. 21st Street: half mile. 22nd Street: 600m. 23rd Street: 400m. At this point, the crowd was completely lining the street, and was very loud in cheering me on. That was the final bout of adrenaline I needed, and kicked it in hard, finishing the the final 400m with a good sprint, and relishing the moment. I realize that winning a race like this is nothing to take to for granted, and this particular finish is something that I will remember for a long time. What a rush!

There was an issue with the timing due to the "false start", but I'm pretty sure my final time was 2:26:24-ish, which is a good 10-second PR from St. George in 2005. I thought after the Striders Half Marathon that I might have 2:25 or 2:24 in meon the Ogden Marathon course, and I think I do, but just not with the heat and with running solo. So as far as I'm concerned, I met my time goal, got a non-St George PR, and also met another goal of breaking the course record (2:29-something). My my primary goal was simply winning the race, and to be honest, I didn't even think about my PR until the last couple miles.

So with all goals met and with the thrill of victory, I'm ecstatic with today, and am so thankful just to get to run a marathon again. A year ago, I could barely hobble, and I wasn't even sure if running competitively ever again would be an option. This marathon was a sweet way to cap off the road to recovery and finish out my first full training cycle back. I look forward to building on this and gradually adding more mileage and more training cycles. I'm not sure which fall marathon I'll do to try to get my Trials Qualifier, but for now I'm going to take a few days completely off, reverse taper, and then start a 5K-10K mesocycle to see if I can get some speed back. Then start a marathon mesocycle in late July to add more endurance to that speed.

Steve Ashbaker outleaned Joe Wilson for 2nd (and his first sub-2:30 performance!!). Neal Gasmann was 4th with somewhere under 2:32. I forget who was 5th, but Sasha was 6th (I think) with 2:32:00. So a very solid field. Other bloggers ran very very well with some long-awaited performances and PR's, but I won't steal their thunder!

(Burn: 176 miles)

Day off. Quads are very sore, hammies very tight.

Day off. Quads as sore as yesterday, hammies are less tight. Usually it takes me two days to start feeling better after a marathon, so I expect tomorrow to be better. I've definitely felt worse, in any case.

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I've posted an entry on my personal blog weighing the pros and cons of running St. George vs. Chicago vs. Twin Cities as my fall OQ attempt. Read, if interested, and input is welcome.

Less sore today. Should be ready to run again tomorrow.

My legs are ready to go again (no soreness), but my body decided at exactly 3:30PM yesterday to become sick. It was amazing: one minute I felt fine, and the next minute I had a cold! The last time I was sick was last September (a benefit of not having kids), so I'm going to use a few of those 130 sick hours I've accrued (but never use) at work. This exact same thing happened after St. George in 2005. Combine a hard marathon with a little heat, and the result is a destroyed immune system, at least for me. If I improve over the day, I may do some jogging this evening, but no hurry. Rest.

PM - felt a little better, so ran the dog around the block, then ran to work and back, and then did the paved river trail. My hamstrings tightened up a little on the last part of the run, but other than that my legs felt pretty good.

(Adrenaline blue: 99 miles) 

Feeling a bit better today, but still dealing with the head cold. Ran 7.5-mile landfill loop, nice and easy. Hamstrings are still tight, but legs don't feel beat up anymore.

(Adrenaline black: 481 miles)

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I've decided on my fall marathon and am officially registered. Thanks for all your feedback.

Easy easy distance out to paved river trail and then to Blackhawk condos, where I stopped to feed my vacationing friends' cat. It's a nice kitty, but is no dog. Ran back the same way. Still pretty congested and yucky-feeling, but energy levels are returning.

(Adrenaline orange: 332 miles)

Ran to the Temple Fork sawmill from the parking lot off of hwy 89. The single-track trail is in very good condition, and the run finally felt good too. My cold is nearly over and so is my recovery week. Back up to 65 miles or so next week.

Played two hours of ulimate frisbee after the run and it kicked my butt. Lot of fun though.

(Cascadia: 112 miles)

Easy 6 miles along paved river trail to Blackhawk condos to feed friends' cat. The cat was glad to see me. I'm quite sore from frisbee yesterday, as I apparently used muscles I haven't used in years. As a result, pace today was around 8:00/mile.

After church, me, my wife, a group of friends, and a couple dogs are heading up for a one-night backpack trip up High Creek near Richmond. It's a beautiful area, although I'm crossing my fingers that there won't be much snow up at 8500 feet. It's not too bad of a hike though, about 3000' elevation gain over 5 miles.

(Adrenaline black: 487 miles) 

No running today. I'm pretty beat from the backpack trip, plus still have some congestion and phlem from being sick. I haven't been very motivated to run since the marathon, mostly due to just not feeling 100% with this head cold. I'm 80% leaning toward just not doing any USATF races until July 4, and focusing instead on getting a solid training foundation going again. 

The backpack trip was fun. We had 8 people and two dogs, and were able to beat up and intimidate all the other groups we came upon on the trail. We didn't make it up to High Creek Lake due to snowpack, but did manage to finally find a sweet spot about 50 meters off the trail at the base of Cherry Peak, after a bit of backtracking. Dinner always tastes better when you have to backtrack and wander aimlessly to find a camping spot.

Coming back today, we bumped into Dan, his wife, his father-in-law, and his dog, going the other way. Dan was wearing his Relay Del Sol shirt and I was wearing my Wasatch Back shirt. It was all very orange. The FastRunningBlog community is a small world, even in the backcountry.

Still very sore, but pushed out a slow 10-miler out onto the Logan Canyon river trail and back. My cold has developed into a bit of a cough as well.

(Adrenaline blue: 109 miles) 

AM - Providence Loop, 6 miles. Turtle-like pace, once again. I'm a little less sore than yesterday, still coughing some though.

(Adrenaline black: 493 miles)

PM - 4-mile out-and-back on paved river trail. Felt a bit better than this morning, and hit a couple sub-7 miles. Oh yeah.

(Adrenaline orange: 336 miles)

Out-and-back run on Mendon Road. Feeling a little better today, but still not very sharp. The miles that I clocked were in the 7:00-7:15 range, so much improvement from earlier in the week.

(Adrenaline blue: 119 miles)