Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

AM - jogged the dog around the block

noon - ran to the bank, then ran to the gym the long way through River Heights. At the gym, did 4x4-minute fartlek on the elliptical. Then did 2x10 with each leg on the 4-way hip @ 70 lbs, and 2x13 with each leg on the leg extension machine @ 40 lbs. Ran home, then back to work.

Ran the dog around the block. Then ran to the chiropractor for my final set of x-rays. I'll get results Thursday. Ran back to work. Averaged a little under 7:00/mile.

AM - ran the dog around the block, then ran to breakfast.

noon - did the First Dam Run 10K route as a tuneup for Painters. It's been awhile since I've done a real workout on the roads, so I wanted to make sure I still have "it" and push into LT pace. Mile splits were 5:57, 5:41, 5:52, 5:22, 5:21, 5:24. I started dragging the last mile, but it was still a solid run. I think with a little raceday magic, I might be able to pull out a 1:11 or 1:12 or so. Fitness/endurance is definitely not where I want it to be, but speed is okay. We'll see!

Recovery day. Ha. Just ran the dog a few times. We're driving to St. George in the afternoon, so want to save my energy!

I saw the chiropractor for the last time today, for final x-ray results. My neck angle is now 38 degrees, which is pretty good. The progression went: 18 degrees, 22 degrees, 33 degrees, 38 degrees. So my "arc of life" is restored. The only negatives were that my the bottom part of my neck didn't want to budge, so that didn't change much. And the x-rays of my lower back didn't show much change, so no increase of curvature there. However the disc spacing of the lowest vertebrae increased by 25%, which is a postive, since it was a bit too narrow before (potentially suggesting a bulge).

So that's that. No more Pettibon method. It certainly helped my neck, but didn't change my life or anything. My problem is auto-immune, and not mechanical. So fixing my posture will not fix my problem. However, bad posture can make the existing inflammation much worse, thus it was still good thing to do and will probably minimize posture-related problems. Plus, if my neck ever fuses, it will fuse in the correct alignment, so that my chin isn't stuck down in my chest or anything (I'm not kidding). yea!

Ran with Clyde on part of the Painters course this morning. It was quite nice to have sunshine and clean air. Averaged around 7:15/mile.

Painters Half today.

Mile	Split	Comment
1	5:40	out slow - good for me, since I hadn't warmed up yet
2	5:38	still a slow pace
3	5:17	the pack finally picked it up
4	5:19
5	5:35	up the big hill
6	5:15
7	5:19	cruisin'
8
9	10:57 (5:28 pace)	wearing down
10	5:16	must have been downhill...
11	5:31
12	5:24	trying to stay strong to the finish
13.1	6:11 (5:30 pace for 1.1)

It was a good race day. Weather was chilly early on, but was sunny with no wind, so pretty much perfect. Gloves, arm sleeves, and compression socks with shorts and a singlet were very comfortable, and it warmed up a lot as the race progressed.

We had a good group at the start, including Holt, Hayden, Sasha, Jeff Mc, and a few others who I didn't know as well. The race went out very slow, which suited me, because it usually takes me a few miles to warm up. After a couple miles, the pack of about 6-7 people really started moving, but I was feeling good and snappy by then, and just tucked in behind whoever was leading at the moment and tried to run good tangents. At mile 5, we went up the biggest and longest uphill stretch. Jeff(?) kept things moving along that segment, and I think Sasha dropped somewhere in there. So by Mile 6, it was just me, Jeff, Hayden, and Dave.

The slippery footbridge near Mile 6(?) again was treacherous this year, as it claimed Hayden.  He went down just behind me, but appeared to pop up pretty quick (he had some very nice war wounds after the race though). The fall caused Hayden to drop back, and we lost Holt soon afterward as well, so it was Jeff and I to the finish. Jeff was running strong, and picked it up to 5:15 pace. I was able to match for a couple miles, but started laboring, and he pulled away in the neighborhoods around Mile 8-9 (I don't quite remember). It wasn't so much one move, but just keeping a hard steady pace. My own pace dropped a bit, and he put on about 5s/mile for the rest of the race.

For the last few miles, I just tried to focus, keep my form good, and work as hard as I could. I was fairly pleased my pace didn't drop more than it did, given the training mileage I was doing. I knew I was somewhat fit, but not extremely fit, so holding 5:30 or faster was quite fine my me.

The course weaved to the finish, and I ended up at 1:11:31. Jeff barely broke 1:11:00. Hayden was about a minute behind me, then Holt, then Sasha. I think the chip spotted us a couple seconds, because my watch was slower, but I'll take it.

It was a good course. Honest, but not excessively hard either. There were certainly a lot of hills (more than I expected), but none of them were monsters, so we could keep a good rhythm going. A very fair course, and I liked it. Some parts of it were pretty as well, which is always bonus. I had fun racing with the pack of guys we had today, as I honestly had no idea who would come out on top. Kudos to Jeff for running a very good race and winning over what I thought was a solid field.

My goals coming in were to run in the 1:11-1:12 range (see Wednesday's blog), and I did that, so I am happy with it. This is my 5th fastest half marathon, and 3rd fastest on an unaided course. And I'll call it a post-A.S. PR.