Every Race is an Adventure!

Kent, Kurt, Larry, and I went to the track this morning. Kevin ran some miles on his own then met us at the track as we were finishing up.

Larry and I did three 1-mile repeats while Kent and Kurt were doing 1/2-mile repeats. My legs were still a little sore from the long run on Saturday. I was trying to focus on form and mechanics more than on just speed. I felt strong and ran within myself, and my legs felt pretty good. My times for the mile repeats were 7:01, 6:59, and 6:39.

After 1/2 mile warmup I ran the next three 1/2 mile sections at 7:53/mi, 7:10/mi, and 7:24/mi. I then met up with Kurt and Larry. Kurt headed home after running the hill on 2000 N for bio-related reasons. My legs felt pretty tired this morning. Larry and I ran a fairly easy pace, but it didn't really feel all that easy.

In the morning I ran the normal Wednesday hill run with Larry. We didn't push really hard but the hills are never easy.

At noon I ran the Lake View run. It was pretty warm. I averaged 8:08/mi for the 2.5 miles out and 7:29/mi back.

My legs (muscles and joints) have seemed somewhat tired and sore this week. I haven't been getting enough sleep either. I decided to take today off to rest and recover a little.

I chose to cross train this morning and go to morning basketball with my son Andrew. I had a lot of fun seeing old friends again and getting my workout in a different way. Unfortunately, Andrew landed on someone's foot after shooting a 3 pointer and sprained his ankle (he made the shot). He walked it off and continued playing for a while, but it was pretty sore by the time we got home.

I would have really liked to have run the Provo River 1/2 marathon this morning. It was in one of my favorite places to run, and was a good distance for my training (and it turns out the weather was great), but my running budget didn't allow it this year.

Instead I decided to run repeats of 3 miles around the 1/2 mile loop (around the block) in front of my house. I warmed up for one lap and recovered one lap in between repeats. I planned to do at least 4 repeats, maybe 5. However, shortly into the 3rd repeat I felt serious blisters beginning to form on the balls of both feet. I kept going for a while, but decided to stop the damage after 2 miles into the 3rd repeat. I averaged 7:15/mi the first 3 miles, 7:41/mi the next 3 miles, and 7:33/mi the last 2 miles.

My goal today was to focus on form, not time. Each time I felt myself slowing or tiring I would refocus on running smoothly and efficiently. I was trying to get comfortable with how it would feel to run at my goal marathon pace for a long time.

I averaged just under 7:30/mi for the 8 miles I completed, and still felt pretty strong. I ran slightly faster than my target pace (7:38/mi), and the marathons have a lot of downhill where this course was level.

I'm a bit mystified by the blisters on the balls of my feet. I was running in the same Saucony Grid Tangent shoes I ran St. George in last year (I normally save them for races and ocassional speed work so they are not worn out yet), and was wearing similar socks. I normally put SportShield on most potential problem areas of my feet prior to long runs. I did this again this morning, but I think I missed the balls of my feet, probably because I haven't had any blister problems there for a long time. I also think maybe focusing on holding my form for such a long period of time may have had an impact. It increased my foot turnover rate and I think it affected my foot strike position slightly.