Everything Counts

7 miles easy on base perimeter road.  The weather was pretty pleasant this morning with the exception of the wind, but hey I'll take this in early Feb!

QUALITY LONG RUN

I got up at 4:30 am and got ready to head out.  I drove to the Dee and from there ran 18.5 miles to Ben's house.  Ben then drove me back to the Dee and we watched the Strider's Winter Circuit 5k race.  The run wasn't as good as I had planned/hoped.  I realized early on that Thursday took more out of my legs than I had originally thought.  I planned to do 5:35-5:40 pace after a 2 mile warmup.  But that wasn't in my legs today, so I settled on a 5:49 average for 16 miles.  Still a good, quality run and I suppose it gets the job done still.

The race was strong in talent, but the guys mostly just did it as a workout so it wasn't as fun to watch as it could have been.  But, I don't blame them; if I ran a tough hilly race with nothing on the line I'd use it as a workout too.  Steve won in just over 17 minutes followed by Hales and then Bryant.  My sister did awesome and broke 22 minutes after only three weeks of running (she's been off for 10 weeks with a stress fracture).

12.17 miles easy on the base perimeter road.  It was extremely foggy, but it wasn't too cold.  Also, the roads were very clear, so what more can you ask for in Feb? I ran in my new shoes, Asics GT-2000 (my prize for winning St George Half - well my prize took care of 5/6 of the shoes, I still had to pay $20), and I like them, although they don't seem much different than the Asics 2170s I used to have.  We'll see if the durability is any better; I love Asics but they seem to last the least amount of time out of any brand I have worn.

12.04 miles easy.

LONG RUN

Got up early and was supposed to meet Ken on base.  After waiting 10 minutes I called him and woke him up...oops.  He said sorry and that he would meet me 8 miles into the run on the other side of base.  So I headed out.  Those first 8 miles were dark, foggy, and lonely.  Then I met Ken and he joined me for the rest of the run, which was nice.  We threw in a 5.35 mile pickup toward the end of the run and I averaged 5:27 pace for that stretch.  I'm glad to have gotten this run in, I was kind of dreading it.  I wanted to run about 23.5 miles this morning but ran out of time and had to get into work.

AM: 7.5 miles easy before work.  I may try to get in a few more miles at lunchtime.

Lunch: 5.64 miles easy.  The sun was shining! I repeat the sun was shining.  I can't remember the last time I ran in Northern Utah and the sun was shining!

5.68 miles easy around South Weber.  It was 41 when I started and probably 25 with high winds and heavy snow when I finished.  It's crazy how fast the weather changes.

Well I decided at 8:00 this morning that I would head down and run the SLC Winter 10k.  It's part of the USATF circuit now, and I wanted to run it.  But, I wasn't going to run it if the weather was bad and the roads were slick.  So, I waited until this morning to make the call.  It didn't snow last night and wasn't this morning at 8:00, so I headed down.

The drive was under clear skies, but once I registered it starting snowing pretty heavily.  I was hoping that it wouldn't stick to the roads.  I ran into Albert and he and I warmed up 3 miles together.  Heading east wasn't too bad, but turning around and heading west was into a nice headwind with snow blowing in your face.  This is going to be fun I thought sarcastically.

At the starting line the snow was beginning to stick to the roads and I wasn't too happy with that.  I decided that if it got slick, I wasn't going to chance a slip and fall.  So, I was going to run easy if it got slick.  Luckily, after the first tenth or so it was pretty clear.

The race started and I dashed out to the lead.  Jake was alongside and from the sound of footsteps I figured another 4-5 guys were with us.  I took the first mile somewhat easy to get a little warmed up.  I had only done one half-hearted stride before the race, so  an easier first mile was in order.  I came through in 5:08.

At the mile I picked up the pace and I didn't hear footsteps coming with me.  Second mile was 4:55.  I kept it rolling for the third mile and started dreading the turnaround where the headwind would be in store for me.  Mile three was 4:56.

At the turn, I almost started laughing at how much of a difference it was running into the wind.  I looked over and saw Jake about to make the turn and figured I had 10-15 seconds maybe on him, though it was hard to say for sure.

The pace immediately got slower but the effort still felt right.  Mile 4 was 5:15.  I thought that might be a little too slow, so I picked up just a tad.  I figured Jake would have to run 5:00 flat or faster into the wind to catch me, and if he did that then he definitely deserved to win.  So, I settled on about a 5:10 pace.  Mile 5 was 5:09.

Now I just had 1.21 miles to go.  I was tempted to look back and see how much of a lead I had, but I avoided that temptation and just kept trying to roll along.  Mile 6 was 5:08.  At mile 6 I figured I better turn and look and make sure no one was coming up on me.  With the strong headwind I wouldn't be able to hear if someone was coming and I didn't want to get caught off guard.  So I looked and I didn't see anyone close.  I was relieved no one was close, but I wish I hadn't of looked back, because once I saw my lead I allowed myself to coast in.  I finished the last .21 at 5:22 pace.

Once I crossed the line the race organizers told me I had tied the course record.  Dang!  Why did I coast in?  Oh well.  It was a good race and I felt surprisingly good running into the wind.  Jake finished second and Matt third - a one-two-three sweep for the blog!

Afterward I cooled down with everyone and during the cooldown I felt a weird pain shoot through my lower leg about 1.5 miles in.  So I stopped and rubbed it out a bit and turned around while the others went a tad further.

I'm glad I got up and raced despite the bad conditions.  It was fun.  My 10k PR of 29:57 is starting to get scared and it should be if I can make it down to sea level for a flat or track 10k!

AM: 12.27 miles easy on the base perimeter road.  It was pretty cold running into the canyon wind for first half of the run, but the second half was fantastic.  I felt pretty good this morning (must be that gallon of ice cream I downed over the weekend).  It's getting lighter earlier too and that is nice; less time having to run with my headlamp on.

Lunch: 5 more easy miles on base perimeter road.

AEROBIC BUILDER

I met Ken, Hales, and Bryant at 5:45 to do an aerobic builder.  We warmed up two miles and then got into the builder.  Hales and I went a bit quicker than Ken and Bryant and didn't see them again until the last mile on the way back.  We averaged 5:24/mile for 8 miles.  We cooled down one mile afterward and then I drove to work in my heater-less car...brrr.

10.73 miles easy.  I drove into Ogden to meet Bret and Jon at 5:30 am.  Jon has had achilles problems for several weeks now and he went 5.5 miles with us.  Bret and I went back out after Jon left and got another 5+ miles in.  The pace was just nice and easy.  At one point we were running toward a young kid in downtown Ogden and kind of startled him and he clenched his fist ready to strike (until he realized we weren't threatening him).  It was kind of funny, though had he actually struck, it may not have been.  This is a typical scenario for running in downtown Ogden...gotta love it.

AM: MILE REPEATS

I actually ran these in my own neighborhood from my house rather than on base.  Luckily the canyon wind was pretty calm this morning, which very unusual for South Weber.  And 32 degrees felt like paradise!  I found a relatively flat loop that was about 1.25 miles and just did the repeats there with a 2-minute jog in between for rest.  I did 5xmile.  Splits were 4:58 4:56 4:52 4:51 4:50.

PM: 5.33 miles easy on the base perimeter road after work.  Just getting ready now to head to the "Purple Palace" to see Weber vs. Montana in basketball; it's a big game for the Wildcats.

6.35 miles easy.  I hit the snooze button a few too many times this morning, so I had to go a little shorter and faster than I planned.

LONG RUN

I drove to the Dee Events Center and started my long run there so that toward the end I could watch the Strider's Winter Circuit 10k as I finished up.  I warmed up two miles and during that stretch ran into Paul Pilkington (Current Weber State distance coach and former 2:12 marathoner and LA Marathon winner http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-07/sports/sp-31105_1_los-angeles-marathon).  Paul was an assistant coach while I was at Weber.  He asked what I had coming up and I told him PHX marathon in two weeks.  He then asked what I was doing this morning and I said 20 miles with 16 around 5:45 pace.  He got wide-eyed a bit and I said is that too much.  He said yeah I never went more than 15 miles two weeks out.  So, I should probably listen to a 2:12 marathoner and coach right?  Well....I'm stubborn.  I did my 20 miles still!

After the warm up I did 16 miles at a 5:42 pace and then ran the last hellacious 1.5 miles of the 10k with my sister McKenzie.  She did awesome, ran a 44:11 on that difficult course off of 25 miles a week and six weeks back from a stress fracture.

Oh and this was my first time ever breaking 80 miles in a week! 

12.06 miles easy.  I met up with Bret and Bryant at the 21st Street Pond in Ogden.  It was nice to sleep in a bit later and get the entire run done without a headlamp!  We just ran around downtown and West Ogden at a leisurely pace.

AEROBIC BUILDER

This was my last scheduled aerobic builder before the marathon next weekend.  My goal this week is to keep overall volume relatively high and keep "hard workout" paces the same, but to cut the volume of the hard workouts.  So today instead of 8 miles fast I cut it down to 6 miles.  I did the run with Bryant and Hales and was grateful for the company.  We ended up with a 5:20 average for the 6 miles.

6 miles easy around South Weber.  I got up kind of late and had to be to a conference early, so only 6 this morning.  I will see if I can find time to get in a few more miles this evening.

12 miles easy for the day.  It was a pretty busy day, but I managed to get in some decent miles (as opposed to yesterday).

LIGHT WORKOUT

This is my last workout before the marathon.  I will do a mile or two at goal marathon pace next week but everything else will be just easy miles.  I wanted to get in a decent effort today, but not overdo anything.  The goal today was maintain fitness, not improve fitness.  I ended up doing 2 by 2-miles at 10:10 and 2 by 0.5 miles at 2:20.  I jogged a mile after each 2-mile rep and then rested 2 minutes in between the 0.5 miles reps.

9 miles easy.  I met up with Ken, Bryant, and Bret to do 9 miles easy in Ogden.  A nice, warm 15 degrees with a strong canyon wind at the start...when do I get to Phoenix?  The bad news is I woke up with a sore throat yesterday morning and again this morning.  Bad timing for a cold to hit, hopefully I can kick it before Saturday.  I'm pounding the Zinc lozenges and vitamin C.

8 miles.  6 miles easy and 2 miles in 10:36.

7 miles easy.  I ran to the Las Vegas Strip and then along the Strip to Walgreen's, went in, bought more zinc lozenges, and then headed back to the hotel.  I felt extremely drained, but it was great to do a morning run in decent temps.

Scheduled off day.  I got in a great 2-hour nap, very nice.