Rhett

TM MP Tempo run

2 mile warm up @ 8:00

9 miles mp @ 6:40

2 mile cool down @ 8:00

13 miles 1:32:00 

Still recoverining from the fast half 9 days ago, but felt pretty good once I got into a rythm.

PM- 30 minutes jump roping in my Vibram 5 fingers.  That really worked my calfs big time.

Lower body weights

Ab and core work

12 minutes stair speed intervals at which time my left calf started hurting (probably from the jump roping last night) so I quickly stopped and switched over to the elliptical for 20 more minutes.  That felt much better.  With my marathon coming up this Saturday, I figured I better not press my luck.

PM- upper body weights and ab work while watching the Cougs dismantel TCU

Today was mile repeat day.

I started with my normal warm up.  My left calf felt a bit tight, but I figured it would loosen up as I warmed up.  Instead it only seemed to get worse, so I aborted todays run just past the one mile mark.

Elliptical 20 minutes

Stationary bike 40 minutes

Iced my my calf when I got home.  It feels fine now walking around the office.  I hope it is just a little muscle strain that will be better in a day or 2.

Still feeling a slight twinge in the left calf walking this morning, so I avoided all calf work today.

Lower body weights, minus calf work

Ab and core work

30 minutes stationary bike

I decided I better go out for an easy test run this morning, so I did 2 easy miles.  I was really worried at the start, but I never had any sharp pains or much pain at all in the calf.  It did feel funny though.  And I definitely had the feeling that if I had started running fast, something might pop.  I'll say I was at 80% this morning.  If I can get another 10% improvement by tomorrow morning, I should be good to go for a nice easy flat (I'm now glad they had to change the course to the flat one.) marathon.  I'll just have to be really carefull that if it starts to hurt, I stop immediately.  I hate taking a DNF, but it would be better than being laid up for the next few months.  Anyways, I'm heading to Death Valley this afternoon.  I'll report back after I get home.

As many of you know, I strained my calf pretty good on Tuesday and was not sure if I was going to race this race.  Friday morning I gave it a 2 mile test run, and I was still not sure if I was going to race.  I knew this wasn't a goal race and I definitely did not want to cause any serious injury.  

All day Friday I kept changing my mind if I was going to race or not.  I must have definitely decided to race or not to race 20 times.  I also had the option of switching down to the 30K, which I decided to do a few times as well.  I figured I better carb load since I could be possibly running a marathon the next day.  As I ate I laughed that I might just be making myself fat, since I might not run.  Pancakes at IHOP was my carb loading dinner.  YUM!

We made it to Death Valley about 8 pm  and settled into our little hotel room.  After getting in bed I laid there debating on wether or not to run.  I decided I would get up in the morning for a test run and that if it felt the same as it did when I ran Friday morning, that I would not run and would just spend a fun day with the family in Death Valley.  If it felt better than it did Friday morning, but not 100% I would do the 30K, and if it felt 100% I would do the full marathon.  As I dosed off, I fully expected that I would be doing the 30K.  

I slept really well and then got up about 5:30 and went for my test run.  To my utter surprise, I had zero pain or tightness or discomfort of any kind.  I even did a few sprints just to make sure and it was all good.

Doone and the kids dropped me off at the race and I met some nice runners.  Runners have to be the most friendly people in the world.  It's like you are instant buddies with all these people you've never met before and will probably never meet again.  They bussed us the the race start.  We were running the alternate course on a dirt/gravel road that runs through the lowest place in northern hemisphere.  It was very flat, but the road was seriously rutted and the gravel rocks were big and hurt your feet.  It was hard to ever land properly.

I had no real goal except to get in a good training run, have fun, not injure myself, and not be sore the next day so I could continue my Boston training.  My game plan was to find someone running a nice easy pace and run with them.  I did just that, running with a nice guy from LA.  We were hitting pretty consistent 7 minute miles and I was surprised when we hit the turn around at 1:32:00 and we were tied for 4th place.  We headed back and our pace picked up a bit, running in the 6:50s until at the 20 mile aid station I missed the water and stopped and went back to get some.  By the time I got going again he was a good 50 yards ahead of me.  I thought about speeding up and catching him as I was still feeling good, but then my mantra "Training Run" popped into my head and I decided this was a good time to let him go and just coast in for the final 6 miles.  I did just that averaging a little over 8 minute miles for the last 6 and finished in 3:08:53 feeling really good and happy with my effort.  

I ended up getting 5th overall and 2nd in my AG.

I spent a fun afternoon with my family seeing Death Valley.  We decided we needed to come back when we had a few days to spend.  The kids had a blast that morning playing in the sand dunes and doing a few other things.

My legs feel great today.  I have absolutely no soreness or discomfort anywhere.  And I am still amazed how my calf improved overnight.  I'm going to be careful with it the next week or two though. 

Back at it this morning after sleeping in and taking the day off yesterday.

Lower body weights

Ab and Core work

40 minutes stair speed intervals.

Legs felt great!  I'm ready for a good run tomorrow.

PM- Upper body weights

I did 8 easy miles this morning @ 8:00 on the TM at 1%.

I had absolutely no soreness in my legs, but my legs did not have the same bounce they usually do.  I was thinking about going farther, but since my legs seemed tired and I'm trying to stick with the "Nothing Stupid" montra, I cut back to 8 miles. 

Lower body weights

Ab and core work

25 minutes elliptical

The hot water wasn't working at the gym this morning.  Burrrr! That was one fast shower.

Looks like I should have a long lunch break today.  I'll try and squeeze in a second workout then.

LUNCH

30 minutes on the row machine.  That was a first for my and my shoulders were definitely sore afterwards.

Upper body weights focusing on chest.

When I left the house this morning all I knew was I was going to run between 10 and 16 miles.  As I got started I really felt good and was in the mood to run fast, so I settled on 10 miles and ran a nice quick pace.  It was a really fun run.  Now I think I'm ready to get back to my real marathon training plan next week with higher miles and more specifice runs.

10 miles  AP 7:08

1 hour stationary bike

I'm getting to were I can go at higher resitance for longer.  I guess that is good.

Warmed up for a few miles before hitting my hills course.  Ran the loope sprinting the hills and going easy the rest of the way until I did 16 hill sprints.  Then did a few extra miles for a total of 13.2 miles.

AP 8:12

Wow the weather here is amazing right now, hitting about 75 during the day and 50 at night.  I'm loving this.  Last night after playing hoops with my boys for a while, I jumped on the trampoline with my daughter for a while and then we just layed there on the trampoline and watched the sun set over the lake and then the stars come out.  We must have layed there talking for 45 minutes.  As a father, it was a memorable evening that I hope will be repeated many times.

Today:

Lower Body weights

Ab and core work

25 minutes stair speed intervals.

I couldn't sleep last night.  I finally got up in the middle of the night and went for a nice long run.

20.2 miles  2:30:03 AP 7:27

I bet I sleep well tonight.

I thought about doing some upper body weight training last night, but decided that it is time to stop my upper body weight training until Boston.  I guess I'll have to be scrawny boy for a little while so I don't have to carry any extra weight at Boston.

I slept great last night and didn't get up until 6:30 this morning.

1 hour stationary cycle.

PM-- Lower body weights

Ab and core work

30 minutes elliptical

TM tempo run at 1% incline

3 miles warm up at 8:00

10K tempo pace at 6:18 (39:10)

3.8 miles cool down

Total run 13 miles  1:33:35 

Feeling good. 

I headed out for a run around the island this morning looking for a nice flat run to do some mp miles.  It was crazy windy out there and raining.  After a warm up mile I tried to hit mp and did on the first mile, then with all the rain my watch started freaking out so I had to lock the bezel which made it so I couldn't activate the light.  I just had to run by feel after that and look at my splits when I was done.  With the wind blowing so hard I felt like I was stopped in my tracks when I was running straight into it, I never could get a good steady effort or pace.  It was a tough mp run.  I did a total of 10 mp pace miles and then did 2 cool down miles.  My left calf started hurting near the end of the run.  I think I may have a bit of tendonitis in it.

Anways, 13 total miles 1:32:20

AP of the 10 mp pace miles was 6:52.  Not where I wanted them to be, but with all the wind I guess I'll take it.

PM- did some light jump roping to see if the calf would loosen up.  It felt a little better by the end. 

I shaved my calf and put on some KT tape last night.  The stuff is magic and I fully expect it to make my calf better by run time tomorrow morning.

Lower body weights

Abs and core work

40 minutes elliptical

My calf felt fine on the elliptical.  I guess the tape is already working it's magic.  :)

The more I thought about Teena's comment yesterday, the more I knew she was right.  It wouldn't kill me to take another easy day before my next run, so I decided to put off my next run until tomorrow.

45 minutes elliptical

When I woke up this morning I could feel some pain in my calf before I ever got out of bed.  I thought oh boy, another day without running.  When I got up and walked on it, it felt fine though, so I did some calf raises on it and it still felt fine, so I decided to give it a go.  

I went to the gym for some TM running so I could quit at the first sign of discomfort.  I broke out my heaviest shoes and even added some heel lifts in them to take a little more strain off the calf.  I wanted to do some speed work, but didn't want to go overboard (Nothing Stupid!) so I stole Teena's speed workout from the other day.   

TM 1% incline

2 miles warm up @ 8:00

3 progressively faster miles 7:30, 6:45, 6:00 repeated 3 times

2 mile cool down @8:00

Total run 13 miles

No calf discomfort at all while running. It will be interesting to see how it feels later today.  I did get a little blister from the heel insert though, and it was a weird feeling running in them.  With those and the heavier shoes, I felt like I was running with leg weights on. 

Really crazy day today.  Busy at work and then I went and did a local radio show with Kerry from our FRB.  We was supposed to be talking about eyes, but we ended up talking about running about half the time.  It was real fun.

My kids watnted to go running when I got home from work so we went out for a little jog:  1.5 miles in 15 minutes.

Then I had to shower up and go pick up pizza for the High Priest group social.  It was fun and got over around 9 pm.  It was a beautiful night and I knew that Saturday was going to be crazy, so I decided to get a little head start on my Satruday long run which started Friday night, but ended Saturday morning.  I'll blog it on tomorrow's page.

So I started running around 10pm Friday and headed out for a long run.  I ran a course I have never run before.  It was a fun adventure.  I had a few twinges in my calf, but nothing that ever bothered me much.  My stomach wasn't feeling quite right since I'm used to running in the morning, not at night after having gone to a H.P. group social.  I wore my fuel belt with just water and took 3 Gu's with me.  I finally remembered to take the first Gu at mile 7 and then didn't think about it again until about mile 17, so I just didn't take the other 2 since my stomach felt a little queezy. 

Anyways I did 18.5 miles, AP 7:33 and got home a little after midnight.  I slept like a baby and then was up and seeing my first patient at 8am this morning.  It's just after noon now, and I have to drive up to Bullhead City (about 1hour and 15 minutes) to have a meeting with my partners.  I can think of way better ways to spend my Saturday afternoon, but I guess I better go and get it over with.

Oh my calf feels perfectly fine today!!!!

PM--I finally made it home from a long day of work and Cade wanted to go running, so we did 2 miles together nice and slow.