Rhett

Well, the plan for tonight was to do 7 laps of my hill repeat course for a total of 21 hill sprints and a 9.5 mile run.

I slowly ran over to the loop and made my way to the first big hill which is almost exactly 1 mile into the run.  I sprinted the first hill, and half way up I realized my legs were not going to allow me to do my planned run.  I made the decision to turn around and jog slowly back down the hill and do that 10 times.  I became well aquainted with that hill.  It's just under 200 yards and is approximately a 10% incline.  I averaged around 41 seconds up it each time, and it apears I did just over a mile of sprinting and just over a mile of downhill jogging.  After the sprint session I jogged easy for a few miles and made my way home.  I felt like crap when I got home.  Total run 5.8 miles.

Last night as I sat there recovering and feeling all beat up I decided I better have a recovery week.  For the last 5 or 6 weeks I've been running hard and averaging in the mid 50s on milage.  I wanted to do one more hard week and go about 60 this week and then take next week as a recovery week, but my body is dictating otherwise.  I hope to make all my runs a bit slower and shorter this week and then pick it back up again next week.

This mornings easy run 4.4 miles AP 8:37

At the beginning of the week I had a 9 mile at 6:40 tempo run planned for tonight. Since I decided to make this an easy week I cut tonights run to 6 miles at 6:40. I was suprised how easy it felt the whole way through. A few more days of easy then I get start running hard again.

In sticking with my easy week, I did 4.1 miles at AP of 8:06 this morning.  Nothing too exciting.

Wow my legs felt great this morning!  I guess this rest week is paying off.  I kept it down to 4.1 miles this morning and had to force myself to keep it slow.  AP 7:45 

Tomorrow I'm going to do my full 20 miler, but I am going to try my best to keep it at 8:00 pace and not speed up to my normal pace on a 20 miler.  Then next week I get to start going fast and long again!!!!!!!!!

I know it is Monday morning, but this is the first free moment I have had since my 20 miler I ran Sat. morning.  I awoke at 3:45, got ready, planted water bottles, and took off and ran.  I made myself keep it easy trying to honor my easy week.  I was trying to keep it at 8:00 and did pretty well at it.

Total run 2:38:55  AP 7:57

Legs felt great.  I'm ready to run hard again.

I headed out for Tuscon at 8 am about a 6 hour drive so I could be at the blessing of my brother's baby on Sunday.  Then retruned home late last night.  Legs still feel great!!!

I got a late start on my run tonight. We did FHE at a friends house and got home a bit late. I didn't get out until around 8:30. As I was getting ready I felt very tired so I broke out a double caffinated Gu that I usually reserve only for race day and downed one. It really worked and gave me the mental edge I needed to get out there and run.

Than plan was to run 14 marathon paced (6:52) miles and 1 cool down mile. That is 4 laps plus a little bit around the island. Here are my splits.

1 6:36

2 6:33

3 6:48

4 6:50

5 6:49

6 6:48

7 6:51

8 6:51

9 6:40

10 6:43

11 6:50

12 6:49

13 6:45

14 6:38

15 Cool Down

Total 14 miles 1:34:29 AP 6:45

Looks like a started a bit fast, but then settled into a nice pace and finished strong on the last mile. I felt great the whole way. Who knew how much an easy week last week would help? I may need to start mixing in a few more easy weeks into my marathon training.

Another beautiful day is Havasu.  As I ran back home and looked over the lake with the sun rising behind me, I felt like the luckiest man alive.  I love it here this time of year.

7 mile  AP 8:00 exactly.

As Paul predicted, tonight was take the kids to the gym with me and run on the TM night. My legs were still feeling a bit sore and tired from Monday nights hard 15 mile effort, but I got started anyway. I did one warm up mile at 8:00 then set the TM for a run speed of 10.0 (6:00) and a jog speed of 4.3 and got started. The first mile felt fast and tough, but then I got into my rythm and never felt cardiovascularly pushed the rest of the way. My tired legs did make me wonder a few times if they would hold up though. I did up my rest time to 4 minutes between repeats since the legs were tired. I was feeling good on mile 6 so I upped the pace to 10.3 for the last 2 minutes of that mile and did it in 5:55. All running was done on 1% incline.

At the beginning of tonights run I was wondering if I would get it all done, but I did it!!!!

Another beautiful day in paradise!  Nice 7 mile easy run this morning.  Legs felt great!

AP 7:52

My son wants to start training for the 5K that is run at the same time has the Havasu Half so I told him I'd go on a run with him when I got off from work today, so I'll get in a couple more slow miles this evening.

I had a little spring in my step this morning.  Nice easy run on and incredibly gorgeous morning.

7 miles AP 7:37

I had a blast with Chase at the MWC tournament last night even though my Cougs lost.  We got home around midnight and I had to work at 9 this morning so I awoke around 5:30 to get my 16 miler in.  Instead of doing my normal slow out and fast back I decided to keep an even, strong but easy pace for the whole run.

I went out in 59:34 and back in 58:42 for a total run of 16 miles in 1:58:16  AP 7:24 so I kept it pretty even the whole way even though I had to climb on the way back.

Now for the bad part.  I had a big time scare this morning.  It was still dark and about a mile and a half into the run I stepped on something and twisted my ankle.  It sent quick sharp pains to my ankle and a little to my knee for a little while, but I was able to run it off and within half a mile it didn't bother me any.  On the way back I looked to see what it way and it was about a 6 inch mound of asphalt they must have accidentally spilt as they have been working on the roads lately.  I iced it after my run and it is definitely tender now along with my knee a bit.  Luckily my next run isn't scheduled till Mon. night, so with some RICE over the next couple days hopefully I will fully recover.  It sure scared me at first though and I had visions of having to pull out of Boston.

It was good that I had a full 60 hours of rest since my Sat. morning run after twisting my ankle and knee. Suprisingly my ankle never really swelled or gave me problems, but my knee was painful enough to keep my hobbling Sat and Sun and wake me up a few times in the night both nights. Luckily it felt much better today and by my run tonight was not bothering me at all.

I did 7 laps of my hill sprints course for 21 total sprints and 10 miles. I didn't feel my knee till right at the end of the 7th lap. AP 8:10, 2.5 miles of hill sprints.

I ran a nice easy 10 miles on a very hilly course this morning.  It was another beautiful day!  I can't remember a year when the weather has been so amazing for so many weeks in a row.

10 miles AP 7:53

No knee pain!!!!!

Gym- Treadmill 1% incline

1 mile warm up 7.5 (8:00)

9 miles 9.0 (6:40) total time 1 hour

1 mile cool down 7.5 (8:00)

Felt pretty good until the last 3 miles (20 mins) when I had to start running it in my mind 5 minutes at a time. By the end I was still feeling pretty good and probably could have convinced myself to keep running at that speed in 5 min increments for a little while longer.

8 recovery miles this morning. AP 8:03.

Tonight I'm running with Chase again so I'll get in a few more easy miles today.

Did 2 easy miles with Chase after work. My 4 year old boy and 7 year old girl wanted to come along so they road their bikes by us. It was a family affair and it was a lot of fun.

Started out 3 miles easy up hill for the first 2 1/2 came back at about 10 sec per mile faster than MP.  Total run AP 7:33

It was a nice easy run to get my legs ready for tomorrow.

This morning may have been my best 20 mile training run ever. I did a different run than I normally do for my 20 milers. It was a very large rolling hill course. My goal at the beginning of the run was to keep it easy, but not to run any miles over 8:00. I blew that on mile 2 (all uphill) when I ran 8:02. Anyways I was feeling good and decided I should continue. :-) I finished my first 10 miles in 1:16:10 (AP 7:37) and then started on the second half of my run as was feeling strong still. At mile 15 I decided to go to marathon pace for the last 5 mile since I still felt good. My splits on the last 5 miles were 6:49, 6:50, 6:27,6:25, 6:33. (6:37 AP for last 5 miles). The second 10 miles were done in 1:11:35 (AP 7:09)

Total run 2:27:45 (AP 7:23)

This afternoon Chase wanted to go out and run the island. All the other kids wanted to come so I loaded up a bicycle for Cade and Tally and a stroller for Lane and we did a lap around the island. I pushed Lane in the stroller. It was hot (90 degrees) and very windy, but we all survived. My legs felt great. I thought they may be a little tired from this morning but felt fresh. We did 4 miles slowly (10:00 AP). Running with the kids was a great way to finish off my first 70 mile week in a year.

HOLY SMOKES!!! SOMEBODY PINCH ME!!! AM I DREAMING!!!

I set out to do a 14 mile marathon pace run tonight on what ended up being a perfect night for a run, 64 degrees with a light 5 to 7 mph breeze. This afternoon it was blowing crazy, but the running Gods must have decided to take it easy on me toningt.

Anyways I did a nice easy 0.2 mile warm up and then started out for a marathon paced (6:50) run. It was dark so I couldn't keeep track of my pace accept at the mile splits so a little into the first mile I decide I would just run tonight completely be feel and not let my split times affect the speed I would run. Here are my splits:

1 6:48

2 6:29

3 6:33

4 6:42

5 6:30

6 6:38

7 6:34

8 6:47

9 6:36

10 6:41

11 6:31

12 6:49

13 6:41

14 6:17

AP 6:37 Total time 1:32:36

Then I did a 0.8 mile cool down for a total of 15 miles

As you can see, what started out as a mp pace run, turned into a 14 mile tempo run. I have never done a 14 mile tempo run before. Wow, that felt great!!!!!!! Especially considering the hard run I just did on Satruday. I am definitely peaking right now. I hope to be able to hold onto it for the next 4 weeks.

Last night around 6:30 I realized that I was a bit stuffed up and I wanted to be able to breath on my run, so I decided to pop some psuedafed. I dug around the medicine cabinet and all we had was the 12 hour variety, so I took it. Remind me never to do that at night again. I got home from my run around 10pm ate, showered, hung out with the wife for a while, ate again, posted my run and then tried to get some sleep about 11:30. I laid there staring at the ceiling until about 2 am when I got up went to the restroom walked around the house bit, had a snack and tried to go back to bed. I still couldn't sleep so I got up and read my scriptures, that always puts me to sleep... not this time. (By the way Alma Ch 5-7 are wonderful chapters on our Savior Jesus Christ that I completely enjoyed and recommend reading.) After reading I prayed for a while. That was nice, but still not sleepy. I got back in bed and laid there until about 5:15 when I decided I might as well get up and get my run in for today.

10 EZ miles on big rolling hills AP 8:04 Felt great.

I'm sure I'll be crashing soon right in the middle of an exam or something.

I did the same mile repeat work out as 2 weeks ago, but I only did 3 min. walk breaks instead of 4 min.

1 mile warm up 8:00

6 1mile repeats at 6:00 with 3 min walk breaks in between

1.8 mile cool down 8:00 pace

All done on treadmill at 1 % incline

The final fast mile was tough. I used a new jedi mind trick. The 4th and 5th min of the mile I upped the speed to 10.2 and then the last minute when I thought I was going to die I put it back to 10.0 and that felt slow after being at the faster speed for 2 minutes.

The best part about tonights run is, it is my last mile repeats workout before Boston. Yea!!!!!

The legs were a bit tired this morning after last nights tough workout. So I did 10 very easy miles, but on big rolling hills. AP 8:16

Chase wanted me to run with him when I got home from work so we did 2 easy miles in a crazy 30-40 mph wind storm.  It was kind of fun though.

I did a nice easy run this morning, getting ready for tomorrows Boston simulation 23 miler.  During the last mile of my 5 mile run I did a 3 minute all out sprint that has left my lungs sore for a few hours.  I do that to kick off my carb loading following the Aussie Carb Loading Plan.  Then I started my high glycemic index carb loading as soon as I got home with a bowl of mashed potatos.  Now that I'm doing the whole foods thing, it is not quite as fun to carb load.  No more PopTarts, cereal bars, or other processed foods, so I'm sticking with baked potatos, mashed potatos from my potato pearls in my food storage (yum), beagles, white breads (which I don't usually eat), and plain Chex (rice and corn mixture) cereal.  I may mix in a bit of pasta tonight as well. 

This will be my first long run of this training cycle that I actually did any carb loading for.  Hopefully I'll feel great tomorrow.  I'm going to try and do as well as Smooth did in simulating a Boston course and I think I will even take GUs every 4 miles like I do in the marathon.

Four weeks ago I had dead legs and decided to take an easy week. Since then I have had 3 break through weeks in a row. I did my carb loading thing yesterday and boy was it nice to run on fully carbed legs today. My goal for the day was to simulate Boston as closely as possible and to do the first 18 miles with AP of 7:45 and the last 5 miles at MP 6:50. I did a course with the first 15 miles of rolling in hill then two mile with 4 decent hills in them which I named the Newton Hills of Havasu, then 5 miles of more downhill than up hill. I felt so stong the whole whay, probably because of the carb loading. I 6:02 too fast on the first 18 miles with an AP of 7:25 then I kicked it into gear for a strong MP paced finish with these splits on the last 5 miles:

6:31 mostly downhill

7:02 mostly uphill

6:49

6:40

6:33

For an AP of 6:43 on the last 5 miles

Total run 23 miles, AP 7:16

It was a great way to finish of my longest week ever. Now all I have left is to taper and hope I haven't over trained.

I decided to do pretty much this week what I did 4 weeks ago when I did my easy week so I ran a mile to a nice long steep hill and did 10 hill sprints with very slow walk jogs back down then did a few easy miles for a total of 6 miles. I don't think I will do any more hill repeats before Boston!!!!!

6 easy miles this morning.  It was an incredibly beautiful morning.  Mid 50s, sunny, light breeeze.  I love it!!!!

AP 7:33