Everything Counts

MILE REPEATS

We had a good group to ring in the New Year with early morning mile repeats. Jason, Steve, Bret and I met at Smith's on 42nd and Harrison and warmed up just over three miles over to the tempo loop. The plan was 5xmile with 2:30 jog for rest. I ended up with more like 2:45-3:00 rest since we re-grouped after each one and made sure everyone got their 2:30 jog at least.

The first rep was more laborious than I anticipated. My goal was to average 4:50 and the first one was 4:50 right on the money, but it took a good effort. The second was a bit better in 4:47. Third rep was 4:50 and felt better than the first for the same pace. During the fourth my stomach showed up and slowed me down a tad in the last quarter mile 4:53. Luckily it wasn't quite as bad during the last one and allowed me to finish the workout. I ran 4:47 again for the last one.

With the close of 2013, I decided to do a just-for-fun 2013 Utah road racing awards. These are totally scientific and official ;-) Feel free to disagree with me and share your thoughts too. Just don't anybody take these too seriously if I overlooked somebody.

The criteria is based on racing inside the state's borders only and quality of the performances takes on a bit more weight than quantity of good performances.  There are four categories: Best overall runner, Best single race performance, Breakthrough Runner of the Year (this is someone who was good but just jumped up to a whole new level), and finally Comeback of the Year (someone who experienced a setback but came back stronger than before).

So here they are, the Riley Cook Utah Road Racing Awards for 2013:

Runner of the Year: Male - Bryant Jensen Female - Kassi Harmon. This was a tough call for both genders. When looking at a full year of racing results there are several runners that had some great races. But, Bryant had quality victories at the Strider's Half, Ogden Marathon, Utah Valley Marathon, and St. George Marathon. At first glance this makes you think this is a no-brainer. But looking at head-to-head against other top runners in the state makes it a lot less clear. Bryant was 0-3 against Jake in-state (1-0 out of state), 0-2 against Josh McCabe, 3-3 against Riley (1-0 out of state), 1-0 against Jon Kotter, 1-0 against Fritz, and 2-0 against Brett Hales. But, in the end the quality of Bryant's performances versus the rest of the guys puts him on top. Kassi had a crazy amount of first-place finishes, which also made her look like the shoe-in, but looking at head-to-head it got less clear as well. She was 1-1 against Devra, 1-1 against Christina Perrry, 0-1 against Emily, 1-0 against Sariah, 4-0 against Allie, but never faced Amber Green or Rosy Lee, which makes it tough. It was hard to count out Emily as, she only got beat at St. George Marathon I think. It's also hard to count out Amber Green who had wins at Utah Valley and Bryce Canyon and a quality runner-up at STG. But in the end the head-to-head and the quantity of big wins gives the nod to Kassi (who had an impressive non-aided 1:18 at St George Half as well).

Best Single Race Performance: Male - Bryant Jensen Female - Rosy Lee. Once again, a very tough call. Bryant's STG performance was challenged mostly by Miles Batty's Des News 10k. But in the end, the fact that Bryant broke the course record at a race that has deep fields year after year gives him the slight edge. For the women, (which I admittedly am much less knowledgable) Rosy's STG win over elite company in a crazy fast 2:37, beats out Allie's near-course record TOU win in 2:44. I think STG is a lot faster than TOU, but it's hard to say it's 7 minutes faster...like I said feel free to debate this politely. I'm interested in others' thoughts.

Breakthrough Runner- Male - Mike Nelson Female - Marilee Blackham. We knew Mike was a good runner, but knocking that much time off his STG Marathon to run 2:25 was impressive to say the least. Matt Paulsen was also strongly considered for this award, but the Thanksgiving 4-mile race in almost 20-flat put Mike over the top. For the women, it was a tough call between Marilee and Rachelle (there could be others I'm overlooking...fill me in if so), but Marilee really showed she is now a force to be reckoned with. She had good showing at Striders with a 3rd place finish (one ahead of Allie), 3rd at Ogden Marathon, 5th at STG, and 2nd to Kassi at Hobble Creek.

Comeback Runner of the Year: Male - Ben Van Beekum Female - Emily Jameson. It came down to Fritz and Ben in my mind. Both came back for PRs in the marathon at STG. But Ben's PR improvement was larger than Fritz's and he also PR-ed in the half. So very close call here and both very impressive comebacks, but nod to Ben. For women, yes I am counting pregnancy as a setback. That has to be hard to get back in shape from and Emily made it look easy with a win at Des News Half and 3rd at STG Marathon (next year the clear frontrunner right now looks to be Andrea).

So there you have it. Feel free to argue and enlighten me! But please like I said don't anyone get offended or take this too seriously. It was just for fun and I came up with it on one run without a ton of analysis.

AM: 11.05 miles easy in Ogden. I met up with Bret, Ken, Ben, Jon, Albert, and Bryant. After two miles though, Bryant took off on an aerobic builder and Albert started mile reps. The rest of us just ran easy and enjoyed the company.

PM: 4.8 miles easy from home in South Weber. I had to swing back by my house after two miles to use the bathroom. When it comes to me and afternoon running, I'm like a small child and a long car ride:

Dad: Can you go use the potty before we go?

Child: Dad I don't need to.

D: Ok, but can you please just try. I don't want to have to stop 20 minutes into the trip k?

C: Dad...ugh...all right.

two minutes later...

C: I tried to go but I couldn't.

D: (Sigh) All right let's go.

20 minutes later...

C: Dad I have to go potty.

D: What? I just asked you to go and you said you didn't need to.

C: I have to go bad. Can we stop please?

D: (Sigh) Yeah. This is why I asked you to go before we left though. Next time listen please.

C: Ok Dad sorry.

10.6 miles easy in Pleasant View and North Ogden with Ben, Albert, Bret, and wait for it...Dave. Yes, Dave was ready for an easy run coming back off his calf injury and he got through the run with no setback, so that's a huge plus for him. Great run with the guys.

LONG RUN: UNPLANNED PROGRESSION RUN

We didn't have any plans for what we would do today. We just met at the pond with Ken, Jon, Ben, Dave, and Jason all showing up. We started out pretty decent and I decided I wanted to at least get some miles in at low-6:00s. Well after some low 6:00s, Van Beekum felt great and pushed the pace. We let him get out in front a bit and running alongside Dave I said, "Well I better go up there and get him".

So I caught up to Ben and just let him dictate pace and ran alongside him. Dave caught back up briefly before Ben dropped it again. Then BV needed a pit stop. This allowed Jason to catch up and once we got rolling again, I convinced Jason it was all mental. From that point on he stayed with Ben and me as we continued to increase the pace until mile 14. At that point we shut it down and jogged (6:30 pace) it in for the finish. 

Everyone looked good today. Dave in his second day back to running was crushing 5:40s. Good stuff.

First 14 miles progression: 718 642 635 616 613 610 608 625 (pedestrain bridge was very icy; we were 6:00 flat pace minus the bridge slowdown) 553 550 540 540 533 522

Hit Wal Mart after for a delicious and much needed chocolate milk!

11.2 miles easy with Dave, Ken, Bret, Jon, and Bryant. Windchill of 0 but can't complain when Midwest has -30 windchill going on. Plus Albert sent me this link too: http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/siberian-man-runs-coldest-marathon-in-the-world-in-minus-38c/

4.3 more miles at lunch with Dave.

Some quick stats from my 2013 running season, which I didn’t get around to blogging until now:

2013 total miles: 3,772 (up from 2,611 in 2012 or 44% increase). Of the 3,772 miles, 913 miles were run at 6:00 pace or faster (24% of total mileage). Of those 913 miles, 699 miles were run at 5:30 pace or faster (18.5% of total mileage). And finally of those 699 miles, 189 were run at 5:00 pace or faster (5% of total mileage). Those same numbers in 2012 were 603 (6:00 or faster), 343 (5:30 or faster), and 130 (5:00 or faster).

20 races: 10 half marathons, 4 5ks, 3 10ks, and 3 marathons

PRs accomplished in 2013: Half Marathon PR at SLC Half (lowered it from 1:07:44 to 1:07:13), Half Marathon PR at Bryce Canyon Half (lowered from 1:07:13 to 1:06:15), Half Marathon PR at Top of Utah Half (lowered from 1:06:15 to 1:05:16), Marathon PR at Phoenix Marathon (lowered from 2:29:22 to 2:27:13), Marathon PR at St George Marathon (lowered from 2:27:13 to 2:22:56), Road 5k PR at Turkey Leg 5k (lowered from 14:55 to 14:49), Road 10k PR at SLCTC 10k (lowered from 32:11 to 31:46), and Road 10k PR at South Weber Days (lowered from 31:46 to 31:07).

If you’re into using conversions and calculators to compare races, here were my top five races of the year (using calculator at runworks.com to convert to flat, sea level races using garmin distance and elevation data, which admittedly isn’t accurate, but it is at least used consistently):

1. Top of Utah Half Marathon

2. Salt Lake Half Marathon (Garmin had the race over ¼ mile long, which helped this one look better than the time would indicate)

3. Strider’s Half Marathon

4. St. George Half Marathon (this one would move up to 3rd if you subtract quick bathroom stop)

5. Turkey Leg 5k

My best race in 2012 would’ve tied for fourth on the 2013 list.

Worst five races with number one being the worst and five being the fifth worst:

1. Ogden Marathon

2. Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon

3. Freedom Festival 5k

4. Phoenix Marathon

5. USA Half Marathon

That’s about all of the geeky stats for 2013 that I got. Goals for 2014 are coming soon.

AEROBIC BUILDER

It was just Jason and me this morning for the AB. This was the coldest temp I've run a builder in this winter I think and I had a hard time going the first three miles. After that I finally got down to the paces I wanted and felt decent the last five miles. Overall avg for 8 miles was 5:14 (5:12 for last 5). Driving to work after with no heat in my car was less than pleasant.

11.9 miles with some of the Ogden Crew: Ben, Jon, and Albert. We met at the pond and ran a new loop route into West Haven and Kanesville. Very pleasant run minus my lack of a brimmed hat, and hence little icy snowflakes piercing my eyeballs and temporarily blinding me about once a minute.

10K CONTINUOUS FARTLEK

I met Dave at the base gym for a hard workout, since the roads would be too slick. We warmed up three miles on the indoor track (a square track with nine laps to a mile, too sharp for fast running), hit the bathroom really quick, and then we hopped on some treadmills.

I decided to do the 10k fartlek. It's a year almost to the date since I last ran this. At that time I ran the workout in 32:23 but at 0% incline. Today I ran at 1% incline and wanted to see how far I'd come in a year for this workout.

Here is how it went:

1.25 miles in 6:00 (4:48 pace)

1 mile "easy" in 5:43

1 mile in 4:45

.75 easy in 4:12 (5:36)

.75 in 3:31 (4:41)

.5 easy in 2:46 (5:32)

.5 in 2:17 (4:34)

.21 in 1:07 (5:19)

.25 in 1:08 (4:32)

Total 10k time of 31:31 or 5:04 pace.

I'm very happy with this workout, as it gives me confidence heading into next weekend. It was hard, not going to lie. I was pretty spent at the end. But it was basically a 10k tempo at 5:04 pace the hard way!

10 miles easy with Ben on the Strider's 10-mile course. It was nice to sleep in a bit and run later in the morning. I needed to catch up on some rest, as it's been a rough week with my family being sick and my girls getting up in the night every night this week. I may double if the opportunity presents itself later this evening, but I'm not going to set time aside.  So if it happens great, if not, that's fine too. I wanted close to 80 miles this week going into race week, and a double would put me about right at 80 after tomorrow, but 75 will suffice too.

15.25 miles at a moderate pace (6:35) with Jon, Steve, Bret, Jason, and Dave. Great morning for a run with warmer temps, some sunlight, and a nice course through West Ogden out into West Haven and finishing up with a loop in downtown Ogden. Great turnout and run for the Ogden Crew. I'm still waiting for the day that we get everyone out on the same day. I think eight is the most we've done so far, but have the potential for 11 if you include people who come at least a few times a month (yes Jace that means you)!

8.1 miles easy with Ken and Dave. Well, that was a miserable run! I got sick Saturday night and felt horrible when I woke up this morning. But, of course being the stubborn runner that I am I was determined to not miss a run (what compels us to run no matter what?). I had zero energy and either Dave or me was stopping every few minutes to hack up a lung; we felt bad for Ken as we kept him running quite slowly.

The timing for this cold sucks, again. But I have almost a week to get rid of this cold and try to get back to full strength for the race! Come on EmergenC! If I had no choice but to get sick, I guess this is the right time, since I didn't miss any key workouts and only had a primer scheduled this week.

I got my first shipment of shoes from Brooks, complete with feeze-dried ice cream, because yeah Brooks is cool!

No run. I am quite ill. This isn't a regular cold man, it's really wiped me out. So far I've stayed on top of fluids and haven't lost too much water weight, so that's a plus. I'm holding out hope I can get well in time for the race...fingers crossed.

No run. Still sick, but I got plenty of rest last night and today. I may attempt a run tomorrow as long as I don't feel any worse. I don't have a fever anymore and haven't had cold shivers in over 24 hours, so that's a huge plus. I think I still have enough time to get well and get strength up for the race!

8.1 miles easy with Dave, Ken, Bret, and Jon. Still feeling fatigued and run down but this run was substantially better than Monday. As long as I kept my breathing light and shallow I was fine. But anytime I took a deeper breath it led to a coughing fit.

Right now the thought of racing 13.1 miles at 5:00 pace seems undeniably daunting. But I have three more days and I will just take it a day at a time and do whatever I can to get my strength up and my airways cleared.

ENERGY/STAMINA TESTER

I ran around South Weber in the late afternoon. I feel quite a bit better than yesterday. Still not 100% but maybe 70-75%. I did three half mile pickups to test my energy levels. One each at MP, threshold, and vo2max. The first two were harder than I expected or harder than it would normally feel. The first especially was discouraging. But then the third one felt pretty decent. Splits were 2:37, 2:29, and 2:15. The best news was no coughing fits, until after the run was completely over. So with 36 hours still I am more optimistic than I've been all week.

4.25 miles easy with some strides. I had a pretty rough night with several coughing fits. I felt horrible that I was waking Jason up...sorry buddy. Today my head has ached all day but the coughing is minimal again. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, could be great could be ugly. Either way it's always a fun atmosphere at these national champs! I'm happy and grateful to be here.

USA HALF CHAMPS

Well I think I need to implement a no racing when sick policy. I've done it a few times now and am just miserable the whole time. I just didn't have the energy I needed today. I went out hard shooting for 1:04:59, which has been my goal for this race for quite sometime. First three miles were 457 457 451. And then I just hit a wall, yes I hit a wall at mile three! It got ugly very quickly and I just wanted to quit the whole time. It was like the last ten miles of a bad marathon experience, just nothing in the tank. Oh well, not much I could've done about it so I won't beat myself up. Sometimes we get sick and sometimes the timing sucks. Full report will come later.

Meanwhile huge shout out to Ogden Crew Member Jason Holt who threw down a 1.5 min PR today in 1:07:02 and was top Utahn. I am bugging him to put a report on the blog here as he is a lesser known member. So look out for that and give him a big congrats..very well deserved.

Ok, I'm home and have a computer now so here is the report.

If you followed my blog in the last week, you saw that I contracted a bad cold/flu with a high fever, chills, headache, cough, fatigue, and runny nose. It was miserable. I hoped to get well in time to race and the fever did go away as did the chills, but the rest remained. I went back and looked up my UV Half report from last summer when I raced with something similar and it brought back memories of how awful it was. I tried my best to convince myself this would turn out better. I tried to believe I could still run to my ability level.

Race morning I sat next to Jon Coyle on the bus (Jason was assigned another bus) and then we met Jason at the start line. Port a potty stop, warm-up, port a potty stop, strides, and I was ready. Or was I? I felt terrible. I was sitting there staring off into space and Jason asked if I was all right. I snapped back to reality and told him I thought it may be a long, ugly day and that I didn't feel well. The warmup was taxing at 8:30 pace. But I tried to stay positive and push all that out of my head.

Right before the gun, I think I kind of had convinced myself I could still run fast. Maybe it was getting caught up in atmosphere/moment. So I went out hard and thought I'd hold high 4:50s as long as I could. A half mile in a kid yelled out "65 pace group right here for whoever wants to work together". So Jason, another Brooks ID guy, and I joined that group. It was a good group 8-10 guys. We ran as a pack for the most part for the first 5k. The first mile felt terrible and got me worried, but mile two felt actually pretty good and I thought maybe I just didn't warm up enough and that's why mile one was tough. But then mile three got really hard (the group did drop the pace 6 seconds a mile here and I fell off the back of the pack running 4:51, they must've been 4:49-ish). Miles 1-3 4:57, 4:57, 4:51.

So I fell off the back of the pack and thought that's fine, just stay at 5:00 pace. But with no one around I fell off pace much more than that. I ran mile four in 5:04. During five Jason passed me, he had fallen just a tad back off the pack before I fell off the pack. He encouraged me to go with him, but I was content trying to stay at 5:05. Because I wasn't even certain I could hold that and was pretty sure I couldn't go 5:00. I just didn't have any zap and I was working really hard (burning fuel/energy at a quick rate it seemed).

So already I was kind of solo. It's hard to believe but just like that after a 457 457 451 504 start I was toward the very back of the race, maybe 10 guys behind me including Jake and Coyle. It was crazy how fast even the back half the race ran especially at the start.

Mile five was 5:10 and I knew I was in big time trouble. I was bleeding a lot of time with more than half the race to go. I started coming up with excuses in my head why it'd be ok to drop at the next medical tent. Mile six was 5:14, still bleeding time and working so hard, so much harder than when I average 5:14 for 8-mile aerobic builders at altitude. I realized I wasn't even half way and I chuckled so as not to cry. Amazingly my 10k split wasn't terrible it was like 31:38 I think.

The first half of mile seven I looked down and saw that I was running 5:28 pace, I knew I couldn't slow that much of else it was really going to be a disasterous result. So I tried my best to speed up and hit another 5:14, so for one mile I had finally stopped the bleeding. If only I could've kept it at 5:14!

Mile eight was 5:19 despite my best efforts. Just after eight I heard footsteps and thought for sure it had to be either Jake or Coyle. Sure enough it was Jake. I wished him well and he was gone in no time. I didn't even attempt to hang on with him, as I was already hanging on the best I could to avoid 5:20s.

In the next mile I could no longer hold off 5:20s despite my efforts and ran 5:23 for nine and then 5:22 for ten. Mile 11 had some on the only downhill in the race and it was barely even noticeable but it helped and I ran a 5:19. But 12 had the uphill offset of 11 and I barely held off 5:30 and ran 5:29. During 12 some guy passed me running probably 5:00-flat pace. Not sure what he'd been doing all race until then but he was moving very quickly.

With one mile to go all I could think was 6:00 and I can roll over and die and lay down and whatever. Just 6:00 more minutes, hold on! I ran a 5:25 and then right before I was about to make the final turn for the last 0.1 I heard footsteps behind me. Right then the announcer also said, "we should see the top female turn that corner any second now". So I thought I was seconds away from getting "chicked". And just like that I went from 5:25 pace to 4:40 pace for the last tenth. As I approached to finish I saw the tape being held for her to cross and finished hard and just held her off. Or did I? Actually it was just another guy in the men's race and she was another two minutes back. I don't know why they thought she was ready to turn that corner, but it did help my time by 4-5 seconds running out of fear...haha us men and our egos.

After I finished I found Jason and found out he ran a monster PR. A few minutes after me Coyle finished and he did just manage to hold off top female by 15 seconds. He said at one points she was ahead of him after he took a pit stop and that he had to really work hard to get back in front of her, it was pretty funny listening to him tell the story. Then I had a terrible coughing fit and basically coughed up a lung. My chest was on fire and my throat was raw. I kept dry-heaving on all the mucous from being sick. It was a miserable five minutes after the race.

I didn't do a cooldown as I had no energy and I didn't want to experience another coughing fit. My throat couldn't handle much more coughing, it hurt pretty bad.

So, fun experience minus the actual race! It's so frustrating, but what could I have done differently? I just need to not worry about it and move on. My fitness is still very good, best it's been. This race doesn't reflect my fitness and I just need to remember that. I hope to kick this illness soon as I really need some sleep and just can't get any lately with waking up with a cough every 2-3 hours.

5.19 miles easy around South Weber. I felt pretty blah! Jason has his race report up, head over and give him a congrats http://jaserun.fastrunningblog.com

11.8 miles easy in Ogden with Dave, Jon, and Bret. I felt very sluggish and worn down still but they kept the pace easy for me. Still a decent amount of coughing during and after the run. I did sleep through the night for the first time since last Thursday...so thank you Nyquil.

20.2 miles easy and early with Jason, Dave, and Ben. Nice combo of our new West Haven loop and the aerobic builder course. Saw Bryant and Bret doing mile reps out on the course too. Coughing was very minimal and only occurred during first two miles and after end of the run. Energy levels are coming back too. Two or three more days I think this cough may be gone...fingers crossed.

400 METER REPS

I wanted to get some turnover this morning but not tax my body too much as it's coming off a race, sickness, and long run. So, I settled on just a handful of 400s, nothing too serious or taxing.

I met Dave, Albert, Bret, Jace, and Jon at the pond. We warmed up just over four miles and then Dave, Albert, and I did eight 400s while the others just continued on an easy run.

I felt really sluggish early on and it felt harder than it should but it got easier as I went.

Splits: 70.9 70.6 69.8 65.8 69.3 67.2 67.6 62.2 avg 67.9 with 400 meter jog for rest.

7.5 more easy at lunch with Dave on base.

11.65 miles easy with Bryant, Bret, Jon, and Dave in Ogden and Marriott-Slaterville. One of the colder mornings we've had recently. Looking forward to tomorrow's 5k despite having heavy legs.

SALT LAKE TRACK CLUB WINTER SERIES 5K

Amy and I dropped the girls off at my parents' house, where my brother Denver was kind enough to watch them for us. Then we met Steve, Albert, and Dave at the Park 'N Ride and were on our way to SaltAir. We checked in, use the bathroom and did our warmup (3.5-ish with 0.5 at 5:40 pace).

At the start line I did a few strides and wasn't feeling so great. But, I figured I'd be fine once we got going. The body knows what to do when it's racetime even if it doesn't feel up to doing it. The gun went off and I got out quite quickly. Jason was right on my heels and we came through the 1k in 2:54. That was a bit too quick, so I slowed it down some. We came through the mile in 4:44. Still a tad quite, but most of it was from that first 1k so I tried to just keep that speed. 

A bit after the mile Jason's breathing became more faint and I could tell he'd dropped back a few meters. At the turn, I had an ok-sized lead, but there was TONS of dudes within striking distance. So, I knew I needed to keep at it. I ran mile two in 4:50. I could no longer hear Jason and figured as long as I didn't slow down the race was mine. With about 1/4 mile to go, I turned and saw the chase pack but had enough distance to where I could coast in a tad and be fine. So, I kind of gave in to the pain and slowed a bit the last quarter. I know, that's kind of weak-minded and a bad habbit. Mile three was 4:52 and the last tenth was at 4:58 pace.

At the finish I turned and saw that Jason, Scott, and Bryant were closing like freight trains and were closer than I thought they'd be considering where they were with a quarter to go. I wished I had be able to watch their last half mile; it sounds like it was a good battle.

After Jake finished he asked if I wanted to do some 200s. I said, "Sure". Then Rob said, "Riley if someone asks you to do 200s right after a 5k race you don't say sure"! Dave and Jason joined us as well and we ran four 200s off one minute rest. Mine were 31, 30, 30, 28. On the last one Jason showed off his wheels and I'll tell you what I don't want that guy anywhere near me with 100 meters to go, because he can straight fly!

Nice cooldown after with same guys and also Keate and Poulsen. 

Great day for the Ogden Crew with five of the top eight spots (Me 1st, Jason 2nd, Bryant 4th, Steve 6th, and Dave 8th) all under 16 minutes. And my dear wife ran fantastic today with 19:04, another 20 seconds faster than her 5k in November. She's making great progress and I'm super proud of her.

LONG RUN

I met with Jason, Bret, Bryant, and Dave for a very early morning long run before I fly out to Ohio this morning. The weather is supposed to be 25 below zero with windchill out there this week, plus I will be working 7am to 10pm, so I may not get much running in. So, I figured I'd get a lot in this morning.

4.25 more easy miles on hotel treadmill before fitness center closed for the night.

12.25 miles easy on the hotel treadmill. The first run in Eastern time zone always feels terrible, but I'm happy to have gotten it in.

3.25 more miles easy on hotel treadmill after a long day of work. My legs feel very heavy; I think it's a combo of the long run yesterday and the lack of sleep the last two days. I had a workout scheduled tomorrow, but I may push it to Thursday unless I wake up feeling very good.

8.25 miles on the treadmill again this morning. I tried one mile at 5:20 pace to see if the legs were ready for the scheduled workout, but decided my body was too tired still. I will give it a go tomorrow instead.

Looks like SLC Marathon changed the courses substantially from previous years:

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/1077229/d8cfad9b61/521259849/5b711c7219/

AEROBIC BUILDER

I had planned on doing a 4-3-2-1 but it just didn't happen. I woke up and it was super cold out (10 degrees feels like 0 with windchill), but I couldn't stomach another treadmill run. So I headed out with the intent to do the workout. But then it was so cold running into the wind and I had a hard time moving my legs in the first warmup mile that I decided to bag it and just go easy. But, then I warmed up a little and decided to do it again.

Anyway after all the back and forth, I ended up starting the workout. I had mapped out a loop (2-miles long) yesterday that looked low traffic and safe. It was very hilly and had ice patches in a few places, but mostly it was good. I did four miles there at 5:21 avg and then three miles at 5:19 avg. At that point I realized I was out of time and had to get back. So I didn't get around to the 2-1 portion.

I didn't feel great and the paces felt hard, but I'm hoping that was the cold, wind, and hills.

7.15 miles easy before my flight home. Long travel day ahead, boo!

AM: I met Bryant, Bret, Jason, and Jon at the Dee Events Center parking lot, where Ben was just finishing his Strider's WRC 5k. We picked him up and headed out on a run. Bryant, Bret, and I were planning some mile reps. But as soon as we started running the snow started falling. After a four mile warm up Ben, Jason, and Jon headed out to finish an easy run and Bryant, Bret, and I started some mile reps.

Those two wanted faster reps with more rest, while my plan was high quantity on reps with very little rest. So we only ran the first one together. I was planning on 10 by one-mile at 5:10 with 1:00 rest. So I started on that quest. The first one wasn't too slick and I ran a 5:08. The second one got more slippery and I still managed a 5:11. But the third one got dangerously slippery and I decided it wasn't worth the risk of taking a bad fall to get this workout in. Plus it was extremely difficult to see with the snow blowing in my eyes. So after a 5:15 third one I called it off. Not finishing one workout is not going to kill my plans, while one bad fall could kill my plans.

It's frustrating because I feel like this week has been a waste. I wanted higher miles and I wanted better workouts. But, the week just felt blah and the workouts just didn't go according to plan. I feel like it was an important week in terms of PHX marathon prep and I just didn't really get the job done. I tried, but the travel, the lack of sleep, and the weather just didn't cooperate. I hope to get back on track next week as I feel I haven't had a good workout in like three weeks.

PM: MILE REPEATS

I couldn't help myself. I wanted to finish the workout I had to abandon this morning. So, I headed to the base gym and ran seven by one mile with 1:00 rest on the treadmill at a 1.5% incline (which according to this website is the incline most comparable to outdoor running: http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php) 

I ran progressive splits. I started at 5:10 and figured I would ramp it up a couple seconds each rep until I got to seven reps or couldn't handle the pace anymore off the short rest. It went very well: 5:10 5:07 5:05 5:02 5:00 4:57 4:51

I'm glad I went back out again and got in a good workout. I feel much better now!

LONG RUN

A little Ogden Crew long run with Jon, Bryant, Bret, and Jason. 25 miles on a very hilly route in 2:37. I felt strong.

10.2 miles easy. It was cold and slick out there this morning.

11.25 miles easy with Dave on a loop around base. It was quite chilly out.

HALF-MILE REPS

I did some half mile reps on the treadmill at the base gym on 1.5% incline and with 90 seconds rest. I ran eight reps ramping it faster on each one. It was an ok workout; nothing special but still some decent turnover. Splits were 2:25 2:24 2:23 2:21 2:20 2:19 2:17 2:14 for a 2:20.3 avg.

My knee has been bothering since last Thursday due to me trying to get too many miles out of a pair of shoes I should've retired already. I've been icing and avoiding doubles, and I thought when I woke this morning I was in the clear but it started aching a bit again at the end of my cool down this morning. So for now still no doubles, which stinks but gotta get this healed up.

10 easy miles with Ben. My knee is still bugging a bit but seems a little better. I may end up having to bite the bullet and take a couple days off and just get rid of it so it doesn't drag on and nag.

SLC TRACK CLUB WINTER 10K

I looked for every excuse I could yesterday to not run this race. I was already registered, but with my knee bugging me lately and the storm-that-never-was approaching I figured I would do an indoor track workout with Ben for his birthday (30x400). So, when I woke up this morning and my knee felt ok and the weather was pretty decent, I figured I had no excuses and I needed to head down and race. Sorry Ben (hope you enjoyed your 30-mile run that was your plan B).

Coming in I wanted to run a negative split and work on attempting to win a race without leading start to finish. I sometimes have a hard time when I want to win a race of being patient early and letting others get out to a lead. But today I was really focused on a negative split. Well, when I got out of the car at Salt Air I knew that wasn't going to happen as there was a ferocious wind that would serve as a tailwind going out and headwind coming back. So I settled on "negative" effort split, meaning even though the splits would be worse in the second half, the effort would be greater.

I had a good warmup, just shy of 4 miles with strides. The race started and Bryant got out quite quickly with Jason right behind him. I settled into 3rd and tried to remain patient and just run comfortably. By the mile I had caught up to Jason and was running side by side with him. The mile split was 4:59. I decided that was just a tad too slow with tailwind, so I sped up a bit. Jason dropped around 1.25 in and I was gaining ground slowly on Bryant. By mile two I caught up to him and after a minute or so of running with him I took a slight lead. Mile two was 4:55. I opened a tiny lead in mile three and focused on not getting too excited and saving some for the trek back into the crazy wind gusts. I hit mile three in 4:53 and I think the 5k was around 15:20 give or take a few seconds (I know my first four 1k splits were 3:07 3:06 3:03 and 3:02, so 15:20 is probably about accurate).

At the turn I immediately got hit with some strong winds. I saw that Bryant was only 2-3 seconds back and Jason and Jake were still in striking range as well. I tried to keep my head down and really work on that negative effort split. I hit mile 4 in 5:18, which may not seem impressive to any that wasn't at the race, but this was actually the mile that I put a good gap on Bryant and the race was really won in this mile.

The wind wasn't quite as bad in mile 5 and I was able to hit a 5:15. I tried to really work the last 1.21 miles to accomplish my negative effort split. I kept my head down in the wind and as I looked at the ground I just focused on eating up as much ground as fast as I could. I felt strong in the last mile and managed a 5:03. The last 0.21 I ran in 5:01 pace and finished in 31:41 with a course record and five seconds faster than my time last year. 

I had a good cooldown after with Bryant, Dave, Matt, and Spencer. It was a good morning and I am happy with the effort. I would have liked to see what I could run in good conditions, but it is what it is. I got ice on my knee immediately after the cooldown and it feels the best it has all week. So, hopefully with being off tomorrow it will be even better come Monday.

15 miles easy with Bret, Jason, Jon, Bryant, and Ken. Nobody wanted to be the last one up the toll road (long uphill with 300 feet gain in one mile) so it ended up being another good effort for that mile. The rest of the run was pretty chill though.

4.35 more miles easy after dinner and FHE. I ran the last 200 meters in 29.6 for a fast finish.

200 METER HILL REPS

I met Jason and Dave at the pond and 4 miles in we met up with Bret. We did just over 8 miles easy and then did 8 200-meter reps on a 5%-ish grade with about a 380 meter slow jog for rest. Splits were 34.2, 34.7, 32.5, 32.9, 31.2, 32.6, 31.2, and 29.9 for a 32.4 avg which is 4:21 pace.

We found Jason's favorite workout I think where he pulls me at the end. We ran first seven together and then he blew me out of the water for first 150 meters of the final one and then I made a little ground over last 50 meters but still finished a few tenths behind him. Fun workout with the good burn/hurt.

11.65 miles easy with Dave on the base loop. We held a pretty decent pace without trying or meaning to. Pretty nice weather minus a little wind.

AEROBIC BUILDER

I met up with Jason, Dave, and Jon at the pond. Three mile warm-up with strides and then into the builder. Jason and I started at 5:30 pace and slowly worked the pace down. I ended up hitting 10 miles in 53:03 or 5:18 average pace. It wasn't quite as fast or easy as I had hoped. But its a great workout 2.5 weeks out for PHX.

My knee hurt after the most it has since it started hurting, which sucks because I thought it was slowly getting better. I may take tomorrow off. I don't want to but it may be wise.

I am taking the day off. I hate missing days but I need to keep the long-term perspective in mind and not let this knee pain get any worse.

LONG RUN

I met Jason and Bryant at 5:30 at the Dee to get a long run in. We ran 9.5 miles looping back to the Dee to meet Dave and Ben for their warm-up for the Strider's WRC 10k. But then I realized how late it had gotten and I was on a time crunch to finish so Amy could meet her friends for her long run. So instead of doing the warmup with them, we picked up the pace to get the miles in faster. We did 8 miles at a 5:55 avg on some rolling hills. It's nothing special, but a decent pickup effort (not quite marathon pace, but not easy so I labeled it MP). Ben and Dave ran well in the 10k easily taking the top two spots on a brutally tough course! Nice job guys...Ogden Crew!

My knee is still pretty :(

14.5 miles easy with Ben and Dave in North Ogden in some pretty awesome weather for Feb! My knee felt better than it has, but it's still a concern. I will stick to singles this week and may take a day off if I need to. I hope I can shake this before Phoenix next weekend.

HILL REPS: 6X400 & 2X200

I met up with Bret, Jason, and Dave at Smiths and we did 5+ miles easy then looped back to the end of Glassman Way by the hospital and did a hill workout, and it was a doozy. The hill was steeper than last week for the 200s.

400 Splits: 79 79 79 76 76 77 with 400 jog down for rest

200 Splits: 36 35 with 200 jog rest

Tough workout that really got the heart rate elevated.

No improvement with the knee but no setback either.

10.45 miles easy with Dave on the base perimeter road. I broke in my Brooks Transcend this morning. They felt pretty good and will serve as a recovery day shoe for me with its extra cushion.

My knee is a mystery. It feels 100% fine in the evenings and has full range of motion, doesn't hurt to fully bend or anything. You wouldn't even know it was aching. But then two miles into the run it hurts to bend it and my stride gets shorter to accommodate. I really need this to heal up. I may take more days off and if it slows me down a bit for phoenix so be it. I'd rather kill it at Boston anyway.

Well we're just over a week out until a big race for Riley. You know what that means! It's time to play spin the wheel of sickness and illnesses. That's right, this is where Riley spins the wheel to see which sickness/illness/disease he'll contract before his race this time. This is exciting folks, what will it be? Flu? Cold? Strep? The wheel is slowing down and it's stopped on...Shingles!

That's right Riley you've contracted shingles which means you may wake up looking like this:

With some of this going on too:

Congratulations, and have fun with your race next weekend.

No run today.

No run - shingles, knee issues, and travel day.

I woke up with my eye swollen shut, the worst it's been since I got shingles. I had planned on meeting the St George Crew (Clyde, Dave, and Logan) at 5:45, so I decided to still go out for a run despite my eye. It probably wasn't the safest drive, but I made it to the Dixie Center and met the guys.

After a few miles my eye started to open up more and I could see out of it a little better. The run was great, mostly a nice leisurely pace with a few pickups. They are a great group of guys to run with, the time went by quickly with a few good laughs.

My knee never hurt too badly during the run, so the two days off with shingles was beneficial to the knee. It's not healed fully but I hope it's on its way. I also think this run somehow helped my eye a lot with the shingles. Friday was completely miserable and my eye hurt all day long. I just wanted to keep my eyes closed the entire day. Saturday morning was bad too but during the run it got increasingly better and by Saturday night it improved a lot. It's still swollen but it's substantially better than it was, maybe the anti-viral is finally kicking in. I'm not looking forward to the blisters and scabs on my eyelid, eyebrow, and the rest of the area though!

I'm not high on my hopes for PHX anymore. I have missed a decent amount of volume with the knee. The shingles aren't as bad as a cold or the flu for zapping energy, but I'm definitely more tired and fatigued than when I'm fully healthy. I've also gained a few pounds by not changing my eating habits with the drop of volume the last three weeks. I thought I had read that eating tons of junk food, sugar, and eating out was good for shingles, but then realized I made that up when it was too late! But, I'm ok with PHX not going perfectly, if nothing else it will serve as a great stimulus for Boston and help me to figure out where I'm lacking and what I need to work on in the next six weeks. Also a poor performance more so than a great one will fuel my internal fire to run well at Boston. Don't get me wrong I am still all in on PHX and will do my best, but it may serve as a win-win regardless the outcome.

10 miles easy out and back on the base perimeter road. After not running three of the last four days I had hoped my knee would feel a lot better, but basically feels the same as it did early last week again...frustrating.

On the shingles front, it hasn't hurt my energy levels too much. I'd say I have 80-90% of normal levels. My eye is much better and now I just have to put up with scabs on my face. That and my neck is super stiff from swollen lymph nodes. But I won't complain because the shingles is less detrimental to my running than I anticipated. So I'll take it.

Note: highest weigh in since June = bad news week of a marathon! I allowed myself way too many depression binges once I got the shingles. But Monday weigh ins are always high for me, hopefully I'll see a 153 or lighter tomorrow.

Fantastic group this morning for an easy run with a couple marathon-paced miles throw in the middle. We had Bret, Dave, Bryant, Jason, Jon, Ken, and Jon Coyle all show up. We ran Ogden parkway out and back. Two miles in 10:50 in the middle. I'm loving the earlier sunrises and warmer temps.

6 miles easy around our hotel in Henderson, NV.

4 miles easy with Dave and Jason down by the Mesa Riverview, while the family played at the Riverview Park. Feeling the typical taper fatigue and a little knee soreness, but otherwise I feel ok. I think my energy levels are at 95%, so hopefully by the time the race comes the shingles will not have even been a factor. The forecast calls for rain and wind from the South, which would be some headwind and some cross wind, but certainly not a favorable wind.

2 miles easy in Mesa. I felt surprisingly decent for a day before a marathon. Usually I feel like garbage...good or bad omen? We'll see.

PHOENIX MARATHON

FINALLY....a marathon result that I'm fully satisfied with AND where I didn't have to take any pits stops! Man, it's so much easier to keep a good rhythm and pace when you don't stop.

I didn't have high expectations at all for this race. I have been sick probably 40% of 2014 so far with that terrible cold/flu and then last week with shingles. My knee has also been bothering me and caused me to miss some mileage in the buildup. So, before even hearing about the bad weather forecast I was set on lowering my expectations (2:20) and shooting for the best place I could get (hopefully a win). But once I saw the forecast I was even more set on not worrying about time at all. I wanted a conservative start and just go from there being ready to race late in the race.

The forecast was basically a monsoon with 15 MPH headwind. It sounded awful. Luckily when I woke up the wind wasn't 15 MPH (although it was still a 5-7 MPH headwind the entire 26.2) and it hadn't rained yet. Dave picked me up and we met Jason and were off to the start line. I had 4 pre-race bathroom visits and an emergency 5th right before the start. Certainly that would be good enough right? No warm-up.

Minutes before the start, it started raining hard, and the rain continued through mile 5 or so and then it wasn't really a factor after that. For the first 5 miles or so Jason, Clyde, and I were trading leads in the wind every half mile or so. But, there had to be like 15 guys still right on our tails up to the hills at mile five. Splits 1-4 (NOT garmin splits; I knew from last year that garmin would measure this course 1/4 mile long, so I switched my autolap to 2 miles and just hit the split button on the mile marks) 5:30 5:23 5:27 5:17 

Jason and I got a little separation at five on the hills, still switching leads to break the wind. Jason got a bit antsy on mile 6 on the hill and I advised him to relax and conserve a bit of energy. I nursed a GU for 1.5 miles on this stretch. Miles 5-6 5:40 5:49

Now you have two more miles of good downhill and then it's relatively flat (actually downhill, but so little downhill that it seems flat). Jason and I still switching but at 8 we hear footsteps and have company before 9. Miles 7-9 5:13 5:37 (this split had to be long and the next short as this miles was good downhill - garmin had this split as 1.04 miles and the next as 0.99) 5:06

I lead for a good deal here thinking Jason was tired and wanting him to stay with me as long as possible, but after awhile he was like, "Hey dude, I can take it now". So I was happy to oblige; meanwhile third place guy is drafting like mad off us, but also breathing hard enough that I wasn't overly concerned. The three of us came through together at the half in 1:11:17 I think (haven't checked for sure). Miles 10-13 10:42 (no 10-mile marker on course so 10 & 11) 5:22 5:28

At 14 I went to pull Gu number two from my pocket and dropped it...dang. Luckily, I had a third I had packed and I pulled it out and nursed it for the next 1.5 miles (my new nutrition strategy, just a tiny bit at a time). Also at 14 we run by Jason's family and he gets a shot of andrenaline and drops me and third place guy. This strung us out and Jason had 8 seconds on me by 15 and I had 10 or so on third. Mile 14 5:23

The Gu started to kickin and I felt a resurgance. I thought, "Only 12 to go, I can do that at this pace. That's just barely further than a 10-mile aerobic builder at a slightly slower pace". I measured gap to Jason at 8 seconds and set out to lessen it. I think I caught up to him by 16.5 or so and said, "Let's go buddy!" After that though I think I put 5-10 seconds a mile on him for the next few miles. Miles 15-17 5:21 5:19 5:18

Now I was thinking, "I'm winning a marathon! Just keep this pace and it's yours. Don't let up. Keep on it, it's just a 9-mile builder". I just kept clicking off 5:20s give or take a few seconds and I felt pretty good. My pace was fairly constant the rest of the way.

With three to go, I started really getting encouragement from the half-marathoners I was passing. Grabbed a gel from aid station 23 and took 1/3 as a precaution, though I felt pretty good minus some calf fatigue. The last few miles dragged on but the pace stayed pretty good. I felt I could've gone another 3-4 miles if someone put a gun to my head, but obviously was more than happy to be done.

As I came through the last 2 tenths my parents stepped out a bit and I high-fived my Dad. I was so happy! I let out a scream as I crossed the line and was really elated. 2:21:42! Are you kidding me? I really didn't think that was in the cards at all today. Miles 18-26 5:20 5:20 5:22 5:19 5:19 5:26 5:29 5:16 5:31 (another garmin 1.04) and 5:07 pace for that last .22.

The Ogden Crew:

My biggest fans and support crew (Amy won Women's 10k!)

And the top three men, all with baby in hand

No running - my legs but especially my knee could use some off days. I felt pretty good immediately after the race but that 5 hour drive to Vegas, sleep, and then 7 hour drive the next day really tightened the legs up a ton. And by Sunday afternoon in the car almost home my knee was pretty sore and tender.

I am the most confident I've been to date that I don't HAVE to qualify for trials via half marathon route. I used to think if I wanted to go I'd have to break that 1:05, because 2:18 seemed out of reach. But now both seem obtainable.

I am anxious to get going again but really need to exercise patience and caution this week and get healed up. I'm historically terrible at taking downtime after marathons but I will try my best.

2.15 very light miles to get some blood flow to the leg muscles followed by another mile of walking, abs, stretching (which happens like once a year for me), and some pushups.

1 mile walk, 1 mile jog, and another 1 mile walk with Dave on base. Legs feeling a lot better and I'd consider resuming running tomorrow lightly, but I think the knee still needs time. We'll see tomorrow...play it by ear.

3 miles easy with Dave. We were planning on a walk, but it was pouring rain and we would've gotten way too cold. My legs weren't sore, but they were TIRED. Also my knee is not back to 100%.

So, with that in mind I think I'm shutting it down completely the rest of the week. I was going to pace Amy in the 10-miler, but now I don't think it's a good idea. I've had a few miles of easy jogging that has brought blood to the muscles and helped with recovery. But for the rest of the week I don't see a benefit anymore to slow jogging. So, nothing until Monday I think is going to be the plan and I really hope the knee is better by then.

If you're looking for some good reading material check out Bryant Jensen's race report of the Woodlands Marathon last Saturday. The race didn't go anywhere near as well as he hoped but he keeps a positive attitude and it sounds like he's learned something too:

Bryant's Report

No run - resting knee.

No run. Resting knee. I had a fun time spectating the Strider's 10-Miler and taking photos. Here's a link to the pictures.

My knee is more sore now that it was any other time this week. This is the first day that I can feel it when not running. Boo. I will continue to nurse it and see how I feel on Monday.

5.1 miles easy. Plan was 12-15 miles to get back on track for Boston training, but knee HURTS. I had to cut run short. I went to gym after and did a long core workout.

I would say with how much my knee hurt I may have to take the rest of the week off again and really hit the therapy hard. If I can't get a decent week of workouts next week I think I'll have to call off Boston.

I'm frustrated, but am looking at this as optimistically as I can. The timing isn't terrible. If you're going to have to layoff for an injury, right after a marathon is as ideal as you can get, as it lets the rest of the leg fully recover and rest up as well. Also, imagine how much more frustrating it would be if I was coming off a bad marathon race. At least I was fortunate enough to run a really good race before this. For that I'm grateful.

I can't think of any cross training I could do that doesn't affect the knee, as it hurts when it bends. So I guess I will stick to some core workouts in the meantime and really buckle down in eating well.

No run - knee pain. It feels much better today over yesterday. Lots of ice and compression lately oh and ibuprofin.

More great reading at our ogdencrew blog. Bret Ferrier has made a splash on the trail runnng scene in the La Sportiva Mtn Cup. He won the Hillbilly Half in Olympia, WA this last weekend and is in 2nd place in the cup overall standings. You can read his race report here. Also, on the blog Bryant gives an update on his training six weeks out from Boston.

Tried testing the knee and it failed the test. Turned around after a mile and then out of frustration ran the last 0.85 at 4:33 pace. Finished up with about 20 minutes of core at the gym.

I'm not going to attempt a run today, going to give the knee a day off. I got a massage from Sariah yesterday and hopefully that helped loosen whatever may have been pulling on the tendon and making it inflamed. If so, another few days and the inflammation should be gone. If not, I may have more serious issues at play.

I'll do some core work tonight while watching tv.

8 miles easy. I was actually able to run. The knee pain was still present but the pain was much much more tolerable. Now ice ice ice!

15-mile run from my house with Ben and Jason into Uintah and back. We did a 3-mile fast finish with a gradual uphill mile one, big climb mile two, and long grinding climb in mile three. The paces were marathon, but the effort was more threshold to be honest. 5:19, 5:24, 5:27.

My knee felt pretty decent for first 7-8 miles, hurt pretty badly from 9-12, and then went away with the fast push and doesn't hurt now either (30 min later). Hopefully with tomorrow off it will heal even more.

17 miles at a moderate pace with Jason, Jon, and Bret. Plan was 20 but my knee was done at 16, I jogged to 17 and then walked it in (another mile). The pain on the knee moved from inside to outside this morning. So I'll work the IT band tonight and hope to get this under control soon. I'm getting really close to pulling the plug on Boston. Avg pace 6:40.

No run. My knee hurts, but not at all where it was hurting before. It's in a completely new area and it feels like I twisted/sprained it or something. I do remember a step on the run yesterday where it kind of gave out a little and I stumbled a bit. I wonder if that is the cause. It was a half mile later that I couldn't run on it anymore. Hmmm. Anyway, letting it rest/heal today and maybe tomorrow.

No run - resting knee. It feels way better today than yesterday, but better safe than sorry.

No run - still letting knee rest/heal. Yesterday my knee was pain-free 99% of the day. I can only feel it when I swing my leg in and then back out (swinging right leg over my left leg and then back out...hurts when going back out, so lateral movement). So once I can do that motion with no pain, I will give a light run a try and re-evaluate at that point.

No run - see yesterday's remarks.

 No run - I will try a couple miles on Monday. At this point I figure I may as well take today off too and give it two more days (with tomorrow off also) before trying a run. That will be a full week off with no running, so hopefully it'll feel ok when I run on Monday.

3 miles easy to test my knee after a week of no running. Result = no bueno.

It's not as bad as last week, but it's also not nearly as healed as I had hoped. I guess it's another week of no running and if it hurts when I get back in town I will have to go get it checked out.

I'm basically going nuts not being able to run lately. Tomorrow I will give it a try for a few miles and hope the knee responds. 

Strider's Half Marathon is this upcoming weekend and I've written a post on how I feel is the best way to pace that race. Check it out here.

Keep your fingers crossed for my knee tomorrow!

4 miles on base perimeter. Felt ok for first two (minus breathing like a fat kid) and then the knee flared up a lot on way back and was sore after.

No run. I went and saw Dr. Matt Poulsen at his Draper location today and he gave me a cortisone shot. We're hoping that I can resume some light running late next week. We feared it may be a meniscus tear at first, but after examining my knee he thinks it's most likely IT Band Syndrome, although the meniscus was a little swollen as well and there's still a small chance it's the culprit. But for now we held off on an MRI and I'll do lots of stretching (boo), rolling (boo), icing, resting, etc. If after a week and a half I haven't seen any improvement we'll do the MRI and check for a tear. But it's not the same knee injury I had all of Feb and into the marathon. That (what I assume was tendonitits) was inner knee and is gone gone gone, not to mention is was much much less painful than this. This new pain started two weeks ago 15 miles into a run with a step where my knee gave out/buckled.

Matt is a great guy and a very professional doctor. I'd recommend him to anyone on here who needs similar help. It's always nice to see someone who knows how much you train and what makes you tick as a runner when you get injured, someone who thinks like you. Thanks again Matt.

So short-term goal is to limit ice cream intake from injury depression as much as possible so as to not gain too much weight. 

3 miles easy on base. First two miles felt normal, but then the knee pain started up during mile three. It feels slightly less painful than last week. So, there may be some really slow healing going on.

No run, but I did golf my second best 9 hole score ever, a two-over-par 38. I missed a two foot birdie on hole 9 to tie my best score ever, it was a pathetic choke putt. But I'm still happy with a 38. Nice to get out and enjoy the weather since I couldn't enjoy it while running. I'm going to try another 3-4 miles on Monday.

4.2 miles easy at 21st pond with Bret and Bryant. My knee is feeling slightly better each attempt to run. I'm hoping within another 1-2 weeks it'll be ready for daily running again.

It was invigorating to run at the pond with some of the crew again for first time in over a month, even if it was only 4 miles.

3 miles easy (6:58 ap). My knee felt great for 1.5 miles, ok for 0.5, and ached a tad the last mile. Progress is being made but it's terribly slow. We're talking a snail's pace. It is definitely better than it was 2-3 weeks ago.

The hard thing is I don't feel it at all doing anything else. I could do 8 sprints down a football field and not feel a thing. It's only after 1.5-2 miles. So it's hard to judge whether it's ready to resume running or not. You think it is, go run, feel great for 10 minutes, get your hopes up, then it all comes crashing down. So you wait 3-4 days and wonder if it's ready again because you haven't felt a thing.

Hopefully 1-2 more weeks, but I've been saying that for a month.

Drove around with Dave to watch the SLC Marathon and support Bret. Bret ran a great race for his first marathon. Here's all the photos I took with several bloggers included.

No run. I'll try one tomorrow. That'll be four off days and hopefully I'll see some progress.

After watching SLC Marathon over the weekend and following Boston today, which I was registered for, I'm kind of down. Not being there today was harder on me than I thought it'd be. It's tough to support your running friends while you're injured and can't run. But I'm trying my best to stay supportive for them and positive for myself.

But man there were some great performances out there today from runners on the blog, in particularly Josh Erekson and Amber Green. And Meb winning it was really cool, a great day for runners.

3 miles 6:43 AP

My knee is slowly healing. Best day yet, but a lot of healing still to go.

On the health front, there's a 50/50 chance I have shingles AGAIN. So stay tuned for more info on that front.

No run. My knee needs a few days. I'm trying very hard not to rush back too quickly so gonna error on side of caution. Plus I have shingles again and rest will be needed this week. What a year I'm having, 2014 is just too kind.

Terrible morning. Was going to run five easy with Dave if knee would allow. I hadn't run in a week and haven't felt any pain at all during that time. After 2.25 miles of regular, no-pain running my knee flared up big time. Had to stop. Made it back shuffling straight-legged at 8:00 min pace. But hey at least my second round of shingles is dwindling to an end.

MRI this morning. Results were negative for a meniscus tear, so that's great news. MRI did show IT Band Syndrome and I will continue to roll, stretch, ice, and do other hip strengthening exercises until this sucker goes away.

2.3 miles easy with a short stretching session in the middle. 2 miles is about the threshold below which I don't experience any knee pain. So for now, we'll keep it to around 2 miles with a really good stretching session before and something during like today.

Followed running up by wallking 18 holes of golf. I was 1 under par thru 8 and then some dude who lives along the course came from his house and asked to join us. I wasn't happy about that. I hate when people spectate my golf rounds. Long story short, I choked on the last hole with a penalty and ended with double bogey for a 37, one over par. This ties my best 9-hole round ever and I really think I could've at least hit even par if this dude didn't show up. 

1.25 miles easy from the hotel here in San Diego. Planned on two miles, but knee started hurting a lot and had to stop, turn-around, and mostly walk it in.

2.1 easy miles in South Weber. IT band felt substantially better than two weeks ago in San Diego, but I could still feel it some. I had to stop and stretch after a mile and then it felt a bit better the second mile.

It feels like it's 1-2 weeks away from being better, but I know better than to believe that by now (as I've said several times a couple months ago that I thought it was 1-2 weeks away). If it were healed in the next 3-4 weeks I'd be ecstatic. I'd love to salvage the autumn racing season at least!

0.75 miles. I didn't feel any adverse effects from yesterday's short run, so I figured I'd see if I could do another 2 miles relatively pain free. I found the answer out somewhat quickly. Nope.

2.1 miles easy in South Weber after work. I hadn't tried a run in two weeks and thought I'd give it a shot today. The pain was minimal; actually, it wasn't even pain. It was just noticeable that it's not quite 100% if that makes sense. I could sense its presence, but it wasn't painful. AP 7:06

Another 0.65 miles right afterward with my 3-year old Evie. She wanted to practice for the South Ogden Kid's K, which she is signed up for in two weeks. She did a 15:06 pace for the 0.65. The actual kid's K that she's running is more like 0.9 on a hilly course, so it'll be interesting to see how she does and if she wants to keep practicing for it.

2.3 miles at 6:47 pace. Knee hurts.

2 miles easy at 7:13 pace. Knee same.

2 miles easy at 6:41 pace. Been doing physical therapy last two weeks with ASTYM.

2.1 miles at 6:15 AP. I ran in South Weber, the same loop I do most days I test out the IT. Today it felt the best it has since the injury. I only felt it for like 1 minute in the middle and it wasn't as intense as before. I felt like a fat kid at summer camp though with my breathing. It was very heavy. I have quite a bit of fitness I need to regain, but hopefully I can begin that process soon!

1.7 miles, no watch. Well today was extremely frustrating. After Saturday's relatively pain free 2-mile run, I thought I was on the mend. This morning I attempted two miles again and right around 1.25 in the pain came on strong and by 1.7 I couldn't eve hobble, let alone run. I had to walk it in keeping my leg as straight as possible to avoid the pain of bending it.

I went from best it's felt in two months on Saturday to worst it's felt in three months today. Going on four months since I've had this and just no progress, so frustrated! Today was almost as bad as when the symptoms first started.

Physical therapy again later this afternoon...

1 mile easy 7:26 AP. Pain at 0.8 miles = end run early. Physical therapy this afternoon.

2.1 miles with lots of pain and stopping. Called Matt and schedule an IT Band Release for next Monday.

I had an IT Band Release this morning down in Provo. Matt was my surgeon and he went above and beyond to make me feel comfortable and informed. There was a lot of scar tissue covering the bursa under the IT attachment to the knee there. He also had to shave down the bone just a little bit where the IT band crosses over. This should help the band glide more smoothly over the bone there. I'm in a straight-leg brace for a week and then can resume weight bearing as tolerable.

8 weeks is the most likely timeline before I can resume running. I am very happy to get this done. I was sick of being in an eternal running purgatory of always thinking I was healing and never would. I had lost complete faith it was ever going to heal. At least now I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. This year has been a loss, but I look forward to training this fall and hoping for a bright 2015! Thanks for everyone's support and comments of encouragement you've given me over the last four months. And I especially have to thank Matt, he's truly been there for me through it all and has been not only professional but has really gone far beyond what you'd expect a doctor to do for you.

One week post-surgery and I don't think I could ask for better results at this time. So far, the recovery has been pretty good. Pain has been minimal to nonexistent. Straight-leg brace and crutches went away yesterday and after some initial stiffness and atrophy by the end of the day I had pretty decent range of motion back.

On a different topic, I think all should consider running the Classic Race in Layton on September 6. Ken and Janae Richardson put on a fantastic race with cash prizes and good competition.

There is a 5k and 10k and the 10k is on the USATF circuit this year. Register using code "URCLASSIC10" and get $10 off registration making 5k only $15 and 10k only $25. Register at https://registermyrace.com/register/the-layton-classic-10k-5k-kids-run/50

Quick update: It's been almost four weeks since my surgery. I haven't had any pain at all since the day I had it really. But unfortunately under the incision wound it has swelled up a great deal, so I'm limiting the range of motion again to try and calm it down. It may need to be drained, I'm guessing it will since it's about the size of a ping pong ball. So haven't done any cross training or running yet and probably won't for another 4+ weeks....to be continued.

Well I figured it's been a long time since I put an update on the blog. As many know I had surgery about 9.5 weeks ago, an IT Band Release. Well after the surgery the wound/incision kept filling up with fluid that appeared to be joint fluid. After getting it drained three times, it was concluded that I had joint fluid leaking from my knee capsule.

So I had to go back in for surgery again 1.5 weeks ago to stop that leak. Recovery so far has been a bit rougher this time around, but the range of motion is starting to come around. Matt has been incredible through all this as both a doctor and a supporting friend and I sure appreciate all he's done for me. Amy has also been a huge support and helps me keep from being down or frustrated.

I look forward to running again soon (4-6 weeks), as it feels like it's been forever. So that's the status update for now; wish me luck. And good luck to all running STG this weekend. I sure wish I could join y'all, but I am excited to see how it all shakes out down there!

Operation fat, has-been conversion back to elite runner is now commencing.

The long road back begins today! I planned only a mile or two to ease back in. Usually 1-2 miles wouldn't be worth driving to meet others, but I wanted my first run back to be with the crew at the pond.

So Dave and I met Ken, Ben, and Jon midway through their run and did two laps with them. 2.1 miles at 7:26 pace. Lungs burned, muscles burned, but it felt awesome. Knee felt wobbly and weak but pain-free.

After the run, Dave and I did 30 minutes of cross training at base gym and some core.

The path back is going to be slow and gradual and will require a lot of patience. That's going to be hard for me. So, if anyone sees me doing something stupid that doesn't jive with patient and methodical, please call me out on it. Last thing I want is another injury setback.

I'm excited to be back running, eight months is way too long! I feel like the best version of myself when I'm out running daily.

2 miles easy on base with Dave, avg pace of 7:45. After we did 40 min on the Arc Trainer and some core.

2 miles easy on base before work, avg pace 7:33. The weather has been awesome for November so far!

3 miles easy from my parents' house with Dave and my brother, Denver. We ran to the Purple Palace and back. The last mile uphill proved just how out of shape I am! Avg Pace 7:13

3 miles easy with Dave on base at 7:24 pace. We followed that up with 20 min each on the stair stepper and on the arc trainer. Lastly, we did some abs and light leg lifting, great morning. I can feel my right leg/knee gradually getting stronger. My heart rate is slowly coming down too with each run, but it's still a good 30 beats per minute higher than when I'm fit.

4 miles easy with Dave and Denver from Denver's place to the end of Old Post and back. Avg pace of 7:26. Feeling more and more like a runner again every day that goes by.

5 miles easy around my Sister-in-law's neighborhood. Avg pace 7:13. My cardio and breathing is coming along very well, but my legs still aren't accustomed to the pounding. Tomorrow is a planned off day and then I'll shoot for three miles Friday and four on Saturday.

Planned day off, but some pain on interior of my knee showed up, so would've been a day off even if it weren't planned.

Unplanned day off, interior knee pain.

Unplanned day off, interior knee pain.

3 miles with Dave at 7:51 pace. Plan was 4 but my knee hurt quite a bit on that interior there so turned around early.

I talked with my friend who's a PT and he said it's a plica band on the inside of the knee that's bothering me. Oh joy, more knee trouble. I guess my measly couple miles a day has been too much for my weak knee. So, I'll cross train the rest of the week and go from there.

35 minutes on Arc Trainer after the run.