Rhett

30 minutes jumping rope this morning. 

30 minutes deep water running tonight. 

30 minutes jumping rope this morning. 

Core work tonight.  

Calf feels pretty close to 100% but I won't know till I run on it.  I will probably give it a test tomorrow. 

I ran this morning!  No pain, no tightness, felt perfect.  I only did 4.5 miles, but did a really hilly run.  If it still feels good throughout the day and tomorrow morning, I'll go a little farther tomorrow.  I hope this means my calf will be 100% for UVM in 10 days.

I drove up to the Hualapi's for an altidude run this morning (approx. 7000ft). I ran for an hour about 7 miles (super hilly).  Calf did great!

6 easy recovery miles with Blake.  Calf still feels good.  I broke out a new pair of shoes today.  I think I will wear them in the marathon next week.  

I got up early and drove to the foothills of the Hualapai mountains for a run at about 4500 feet.  I ran most of the 10 miles at marathon effort although it was pretty hilly so it wasn't quite as fast as goal mp.  Which brings me to...I have no clue what I'm going to shoot for next Saturday.  Usually I'm going for a sub 3, but with having taken the time off to get the calf better I'm thinking somewhere between 3:10 and 3:15.  I probably won't decide till race morning. 

4 easy miles with a 1 minute stride at about 1/2 mp pace thrown into each mile.  I felt really good this morning. AP for the 4 miles was 7:15. Maybe that is a sign that I should shoot for a 3:10 on Saturday as that would be mp pace for a 3:10 marathon...or maybe I should be going faster since that felt pretty easy this morning...or maybe I should be going slower so I don't crash at mile 20. So confusing!

Rest Day

I started out with 3 easy miles followed by 2 miles a mp then 1 more easy mile.  The goal was to try and feel a nice pace so I can decide how fast to run Saturday.  I felt like I was going really easy on the 2 mp miles, but I ended up running them at 7:05 then 6:59.  They were both a mild net decline though.  I'm thinking 7:15 pace for Saturday, but I may still back that down to the 7:20s.  My BQ time is 3:15 which is 7:26, who know? I just hope it isn't too hot Saturday.  That would definitely make me back down the pace.  Best news is, there doesn't seem to be any aches or pains.

2 miles with some strides just to loosen up the legs.

I threw caution to the wind today and golfed 18 holes with my good buddy who I hadn't seen for many years.  I seemed to have escaped without hurting myself too much for the race. Probably being in the sun for a few hours was the worst part of it.  I don't think the actual golfing took much out of me.

UTAH VALLEY MARATHON 2015

I signed up for this race the day I took a DNF because of a calf injury at Phoenix Marathon.  Training was going well until 4 weeks out when I had a recurrance of the same calf injury and then I was not able to run again until about 10 days before this race when I basicly just did a 10 day taper. I left my home Wednesday night and drove up to Cedar City so I could sleep one extra night at altitude.  Thursday morning I did a 2 mile easy run with 4 strides of about 100 meters each, then drove up to Provo.  Friday I golfed 18 holes up in Midway with a good buddy of mine who I had not seen for many years...not the smartest thing the day before a race, but freinds a more important then even runnning and I'm glad I did it.

Saturday morning I picked up my brother-in-law Dan at 3:45 and we headed to pick up the bus.  After a LONG bus ride we got off and found a fire to sit around and chat until the race started.  While dropping off our race bags I said to Dan, "The only thing that I wish, is that I would have seen Smooth."  I took a few steps away from the Uhal and there was Smooth. I gave her a big hug and me pre-race was complete.  I'm so glad I got to see her.  She looked great!

We lined up and realized there was no pacer for 3:10 or 3:15.  Dan wanted to run 3:15 so I told him I would be the pacer. We were standing around, and I was waiting for some anouncement or the national anthem and all the sudden we heard a gun go off and people started running.  So we were off without any fanfare. 

The first 7 miles of this race are super easy with a pretty steady downhill.  The key here is not going too fast.  We kept our pace nice and easy.  Then the hills start.  For the next 10 miles it is up and down the whole way.  I forgot how many climbs there are on this course.  

Digressing a bit.  Around mile 6 my calf started tightening up.  By mile 11 it was hurting bad enough that I told Dan, that if I didn't finish because of my calf, I would just meet him at his house after the race.  

We hit the halfway point at 1:38:11 (7:30 avergae pace), a little slower pace than I thought we had run, but besides the growing pain in my calf, I felt perfect, like I had just had a good warmup.  Now I knew I had to run a negative split to reach the 3:15 BQ goal, so I dropped the pace when possible (on the downhills) for the next 6 or 7 miles. Unfortunately that dropped Dan right away as well.  Right after the halfway mark I remembered a text that Jeff sent me the day before the race.  He said "quit thinking about your calf and go BQ."  I started thinking about how great and powerful my good calf felf with every single step and before I knew it I wasn't feeling pain in my calf anymore.  It was amazing.  

I hit mile 21 at 2:36:06, an average pace of 7:20 over the miles since the haf point. My calf still felt fine, but I was starting to hit a mental dark place so I downed the 5 Hour Energy I had with me and within a half mile I was back in a much better place mentally.  Also right about mile 21 a guy creeped paced me and said a word of encouragement.  I tucked in behind him until I felt better and then he started to fade a bit and I ran up just past him and said, "Lets do this together and finish strong."  We worked together the rest of the race. We were a perfect team. When one of us would start to fade a bit the other would push the pace and we just kept switching back and forth.  At mile 25 my calf started aching again and I tried focusing on the good calf again, but it only helped a little this time.  I was just hoping and praying that I wouldn't give out so close to the finish and it didn't.  I happily crossed the finish line right behind the guy I was working with in 3:14:27 for a 7:23 pace over the last 10K and a 1 minute 55 second negative split!

While this was far from my fastest marathon I have run, I think it was the best marathon I have run as far as maximizing  my finishing time relative to my fitness level.  I think if I had run the first half of the marathon any faster I would not have had made my 3:15 goal.  I did BQ, but I highly dought the 33 seconds faster than my BQ time will be fast enough to get me into Boston next year.  

After a week of deep water running and a bike ride, I deemed myself recovered from the marathon and headed out for a trail run this morning. I wore my new Sportiva trail shoes I picked up while up in Utah at the marathon.  They have a rock plate in them, unlike my other trail shoes, and it really helped keep my feet from feeling all bruised up by the end of the run like they normally do. 

A few miles into my run this morning I saw a big snake laying in the trail. I stopped and kicked rocks at it to see if it would move.  It just layed there, so I ran around it.  I don't think it was a rattle snake.  I ended up running 5 miles.  It was a good run for my first run after the marathon.

It was 90 degrees when I headed out into the desert for a trail run at 6:30 this morning. I kept the pace nice and easy and ended up going 10 miles.  It was almost 100 degrees by the time I finished.  I guess I'll have to start running earlier.  No snake sightings this morning.

I broke out the heart rate monitor for the first time in about a decade and decided to try and run while keeping my HR under 140 (The Fat Burning Zone for me).  I did it on the trails which means lots of ups and downs.  I was actually better at keeping it under 140 on the ups than downs.  Whenever my HR would go over 140 I would walk until it went back under.  I did a lot of walking out there. It took me an hour and 25 minutes to run 7 miles.  I felt really great when I was done though.

5 easy trail miles keeping HR under 140.

20 mile bike with Blake this morning before we went down to the lake to ride jet skis and play with our families. 

9.5 miles on the trails keeping HR under 140. Then cleaned church. Then took my boys golfing. Now I'm lounging around watching soccer. Feels nice to do nothing for a bit. 

I started off with a MAF Test for baseline purposes of my new training where all my running for a while will be with my HR at 140 or lower. This consisted of a half mile warm up followed by 3 miles with a HR as close to 140 without going over as possible:  Mile 1- 8:02, Mile 2- 8:30, Mile 3- 8:40.

I then headed to SARA Park and ran the trails for another 6 miles keeping the HR under 140.  It was humid because of the rain storm last night and 93 degrees, so I became a bit dehydrated on the last couple miles and it was really hard to keep my HR under 140. I had to do a lot of walking at the end to keep the HR down.

I woke up at 5 am with the sun and checked the thermastat as I was getting ready for my run. It said 97 degrees.  I didn't believe it, so I checked the weather ap, and sure enough it was already 97.  I packed extra water bottles and electrolyte tablets in my ultra direction hydration vest and headed out to run the trails.

Today's run was more of an adventure than a run. I was running along and saw a trail that I had not yet run and decided today was the day. It quickly turned into a very steep uphill climb and before I new it I was hiking straight up a rocky slope that was even tough to walk up. It was so steep my feet kept slipping out from under me. Eventually I reached the top and then I was going along on the side of a steep rocky peak for a while. After about 20 minutes of that I finally found a trail that looked runnable and off I went down the backside of the small mountain.  About an hour and 25 minutes into the run, I ended up down by the lake, so I stripped down to just my shorts and jumped in for a few mintes to cool down.  Then I got dressed and headed home which was right about an hour more.

11. 5 miles

2:25:58

Avg HR 140