Every Race is an Adventure!

I have a dentist appointment at noon so I ran a little longer than normal this morning. I did a solo loop through Orem, basically down to Costco and back. The temperature was in the high 20's. I averaged 9:00/mi for the 8.5 miles. I must be cold blooded because I sure seem to have a hard time getting going when it's cold.

Still, the legs felt pretty good. I'm feeling a little PF and mild neuroma in my left foot, but neither of them really interfere with my running. I'll have to keep an eye on them.

I hope my body hasn't started to fall apart. I'm going to the dentist today because a tooth broke off while eating popcorn last week. I must have already had a root canal on that tooth, because it hasn't hurt at all. Both my parents wear dentures. I come from a long line of bad teeth.

I'm also going to an orthopedic specialist this morning to have him look at my right shoulder. My adult son had his right shoulder scoped earlier in the year and they said he had a congenital defect in his shoulder bone. They ground off a small hook on the bone. I've had chronic shoulder pain in my right shoulder for years, but it has recently gotten worse. My dad has also talked about having chronic shoulder pain. I'm curious if I have something similar to what my son had, but mostly I just want my shoulder to stop hurting.

I ran six easy miles with Larry through Lindon. It was cold, but mostly it was dark. It took a lot of faith at times to keep running into the darkness. We only averaged about 9:30/mi. I think the pace might have been considerably quicker if we could have stepped forward with more confidence. I'll either have to start wearing my headlamp on dark mornings, or convince Larry to run on the better lit streets of Orem. I think one of the issues is that Larry's dog runs with us, and the streets of Lindon are a little safer (less traffic).

I did a solo run through Orem this morning. The temperature was in the high 30's. Instead of feeling cold this morning, I felt a little invigorated. I only averaged a 9:00/mi pace on Monday and 9:30/mi on Tuesday, both easy days. This morning I pushed a little and averaged 7:50/mi, 6.5 miles in 50:59. My mile splits were 8:23, 7:47, 7:45, 7:47, 7:36, 7:51, 3:47 for 0.5 (7:34/mi).

I did a little reading on Tinman tempo runs (http://www.therunzone.com/BasicTerms.html) and the formulas are (using a 20 minute 5K, 6:15/mi, as my 5K pace):

long tempo run (60-80 minutes) = 5K pace / .87 = 7:11/mi

medium tempo run (40-60 minutes) = 5K pace / .90 = 6:57/mi

short tempo run (20-40 minutes) = 5K pace / .93 = 6:43/mi

So to make things easier for me to remember, I'll say my target long, medium, and short Tinman tempo paces are 7:15, 7:00, and 6:45.

Today's run was roughly 51 minutes, so to be a Tinman tempo run my pace should have been 7:00/mi instead of 7:50/mi. If I take out the first warmup mile, my time drops to 42:36 and my pace drops to 7:45, but that doesn't help all that much. The good news is I've been trying to ease back into my training after the marathon, so I wasn't pushing all that hard this morning. Maybe next week I'll give it a little more effort so I can get a feel for what "Tinman tempo" effort feels like.

At noon, I had a nice surprise and was able to run with Darin Cable, Bill Rieske, and Will Peterson (although Will only went a couple of miles with us). None of us was in any big hurry and it was great talking with them. We ran the 5.2 miles of the Lake View run in 42:40 (8:12/mi).

Larry and I went 5 easy miles this morning. We had to cut it a little short because Larry had to get back early. I hope to be able to get out at noon again today.

I explored a new route solo this morning. My goal is to find a 6 mile route that is close to home, well lit, and doesn't cross any busy streets that might be dangerous for Larry's dog Ozzie. Our normal routes into Lindon are too dark this time of year, but Orem streets all have street lights.

I did pretty well for not having studied any maps in advance. The route I ran basically zig zags west through residential streets to 400 West and back for 4 miles, then zig zags east through residential streets to 210 East and back for another 2 miles.

On the blogs of the elite runners I've noticed comments about doing striders during easy runs, and they sound like a good idea, but I've never really done them before. I tried some (8) today during my easy 6 mile run (8:32/mi). I liked being able to focus on form, efficiency, and foot speed without too much worry about overdoing it and getting injured.

I started the day by running 6.2 easy miles with Larry. We ran up past Cascade golf course and back and averaged 9:34/mi. Larry is hosting a young Japanese visitor for a week and had to get back for some morning activities.

I had planned on doing around 14 miles to make sure I got over 50 miles this week, so after a short walk with Larry and a quick pit stop at my house I headed out again. I decided to head up the Main St. hill to Oak Canyon Jr. High and then get on the canal road and head north until I got to 4 miles and then come back. I was toying with the idea of trying a few marathon pace miles on the way back if my legs felt up to it.

Today I was trying out the new shoes I bought yesterday, Brooks Axiom 2's. They felt great while running with Larry, and as I ran north on the canal road I continued to feel pleased with my selection. So much so that I decided to a little over 5 miles out, and do 4 miles at marathon pace effort on the way back. I had averaged around 9:30/mi with Larry, and just under 9:00/mi for the first 5 miles of my solo run. I decided that 8:00/mi would be a good goal for my tempo run, but I was going to focus on form at a marathon pace effort and let the pace be whatever it turned out to be.

One of the ways I try to maintain marathon pace effort (not too fast and not too slow) is by monitoring my breathing patterns. My breathing pattern is normally 1-2 1-2 at marathon pace effort, inhaling the first 1-2 and exhaling the second 1-2, while maintaining good form and foot turnover. I did this for my 4 tempo miles and my splits were 8:10, 8:02, 7:59, and 8:07. I was a little disappointed with the 8:07 at the end, and I had about a half mile of canal road left before my turnoff, so I picked up the pace and switched to my faster 5K/10K breathing pattern of 1-2-3 1-2-3, exhaling on 1 and inhaling on 2-3. I averaged 7:33/mi for this stretch. I then slowed down to 8:45/mi pace for the last 0.7 miles home, feeling quite satisfied with my 16.45 miles workout this morning. I enjoyed my run with Larry, my solo run on the canal road, my new shoes, and just being out on a brisk, beautiful, and sunny fall morning.

I think I may even enjoy putting up the Christmas lights today. I have to get on my high roof to do it so I want to get it done before winter settles in. I usually do it the first good weather Saturday in November, but it's close enough to November, and with me getting shoulder surgery on Tuesday it may be a while before my shoulder feels up to putting up Christmas lights again.

(Axiom 16.5 miles)