Rhett

I was up coughing much of the night and was in a medicine fog when I finally got up, but I went out and slogged through 10 miles at a recovery pace when I got up anyways.

Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow for my long run.

22 easy miles with Blake.

AP 8:18

4 easy miles with Blake to help the legs recover from yesterday's long run.  Overall felt good after I got out a few kinks at the beginning of the first mile.

10 easy miles this morning...felt good.

1 mile warm up followed by 1 mile at tempo effort with half mile recovery jog...repeat 5 times then an extra half mile cool down for a total of 9 miles.

I had my sights on doing 6 repeats, but on my fifth one my time dropped to marathon pace, so I called it a day.

10 more easy miles.

Nothing exciting to report.

4 recovery miles nice and slow

10 mile bike ride.

My legs really enjoyed that bike ride this morning. I missed both my rides last week as I am trying to get in 2 rides a week.

23 miles with Blake between seminary and work this morning after a night being up with Tally who was throwing up.  I feeling it now. Hopefully I survive the work day.  Good thing it's Friday. I'll need the weekend to recover.

AP 8:19

I woke up to thunder and lightning and a rain storm so the morning ride with Blake was unfortunately cancelled.  Instead, I went to the gym and rode the stationary bike for 30 minutes and then ran easy on the TM for 4 miles.

This was my first week to hit 60 miles in about a year...plus I got in 2 bike rides.

8 easy miles on a nice calm overcast morning.  Legs felt really good after the rest yesterday.

1 mile warm up, followed by 1 mile at tempo effort with 1/2 mile recovery jog repeated 6 times.

My mile splits were all over the place with my slowest at 6:36 (2nd repeat) and my fastest at 6:19 (last repeat).  My average pace on the repeats was 6:28 though.

Total run: 10 miles

I was very happy with today's run and think it will be a nice confidence booster for the final 6+ weeks of my marathon training.

8 recovery miles, nice and easy.

4 more easy miles followed by a 10 mile bike ride through the hills at SARA Park.

Biking sure makes my legs feel good.

HOT AIR BALLOON HALF

Before you start reading this blog, you should know that this is not a real race and I was the only participant. :)

This weekend is the Hot Air Ballon Festival in Havasu and it started this morning with a mass assention of balloons at about 7:30. I decided I would run my own personal half marathon and try to do it at my goal pace (6:52) for my upcoming marathon.  I had to drop off some stuff for my son at the high school on the way to the race, so I was a few minutes late for the 7:30 start. Luckily the race organizers waited for me before they started.  After warming up my legs with some active stretching, the race started.  The first couple miles felt difficult for marathon pace and I was have trouble settling in on a nice consistant pace, but I finally started to find my groove about mile 4.  After going around the island once I crossed the London Bridge which was packed with race watchers (actually people watching the balloons) cheering me on.  I headed out London Bridge which goes along the lake until the halfway turn around were I was at 44:38, just a little ahead of goal pace. 

I turned around to head back toward the London Bridge and there must have been 40 to 50 balloons up in the sky over the lake. It was really pretty.  Nice of them to all be up there in honor of my race. On mile 8, I lost my focus and had my only mile over 7:00 for the race.  I regained focus quickly though and was back on pace as I crossed back over the London Bridge where I had a nice pick me up from the even larger crowds that had gathered to see the finish of my race.  Then I just had one more time around the island.  I was now having to work a bit, but all my splits were in the high 6:40s as I pushed through to the finish to win the inaugural Hot Air Balloon Half in a time of 1:29:49 (AP 6:51). 

I would like to thank all the Balloon pilots for their efforts in making this race so fantastic and scenic, and all the spectators who came out to cheer.  As the winner and current champion, I think I will start training hard so I can defend my title next year. 

Seriously though, I wasn't sure if I could hit my marathon pace for 13.1 especially with no taper or carb load or anything special.  I'm hoping to continue to improve over the next 6 weeks and be able to maintain that pace for a whole marathon.  Only time will tell, but this gives me the confidence that it is possible.

It has been a crazy Saturday. I didn't get to my workout until8 pm.

30 minutes in the stationary bike followed be 4 recovery miles on the TM. Legs felt great after yesterday's half.

I didn't have to teach an early morning seminary class this morning since it is a school holiday, so I was able to sleep in an extra hour and still have time for a 12 mile easy run before work.

1 mile warm up followed by 1 1/2 miles at tempo effort (goal 9:45) with 1/2 mile recovery repeated 4 times, then 1 mile cool down for a total of 10 miles.

All 4 mile and a half repeats ended up being exactly 9:42. I was mostly running by effort with the occasional glance at the watch, so I thought it was odd that they all were exactly the same.

It was really windy and warm (61) this morning.

10 miles- Keeping it easy

4 recovery miles followed by a good hilly 10 mile bike ride.

Before I write this I want to put this diclaimer.  I know that is not a normal or recommended method of training for a marathon, but Blake and I decided to give it a try, but with much respect to the distance keeping things nice and easy.

Today we ran 27 miles, AP 8:25.  For Blake, he set a marathon PR by about 8 minutes!!!! We were at 3:40:20 at 26.2.  I felt great for the entire run and felt like I could knock out a bunch more miles at that pace when I was done.  Now I just need to make sure a recover properly from such a long run.

30 minute bike ride with a Tabata thrown in the middle

4 mile TM easy run. All felt good.

My legs felt better this morning for my easy 10 miler than I think they have felt on any of my easy 10 milers recently. I ended up being about 15 seconds per mile faster than normal or than I wanted to be. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me tomorrow when I am actually supossed to be running fast.

1 1/2 mile warm up followed by 3 x 2 mile tempo effort (goal 13:00) with 1/2 mile recovery jog then cool down to 10 miles.

I did the first two repeates too fast and paid for it on the third, but still averaged 12:54 on the three 2 mile repeats.  Overall felt pretty good.

Another easy 10 miles

4 recovery miles followed by a 10 mile bike through SARA Park.

The bike always seems to reinvigorate my legs.

It was a rainy morning! I was excited to get out and run in it.  Blake and I headed out for a long run. About a quarter mile into our run, a school bus drove by and hit a puddle and soaked us from head to toe. It was cold, but we didn't have to worry about tip toeing throught the water any more since we were already soaked.  The first 15 were really easy and fun, just chatting and running, then we tried to go for mp pace for the next 5.  I was shooting for 6:50, but only managed and average of 7:10 over those 5 miles. It was a net up hill of a good 200 ft though and the last 1/2 mile was about a 5% grade, so it probably wasn't as far off mp as the numbers say.  Then 1 mile recovery where Blake and I met up again.

Total run 21 miles, AP 8:05

30 minutes on the stationary bike with a Tabata thrown in, then an easy 5 mile recovery run on the TM.