What ever it takes!

Pure torture, after 2 weeks of running in the most beutiful places in the world it ends with 12 miles on a treadmill in a stuffy, hot, humid hotel gym.

12 miles in 1:25

Another run on the hotel treadmill before getting to the airport to catch our flight home.  Vacations over, back to work.  I'm just glad I was able to still get all my miles in this week.

Got home from Paris yesterday afternoon, good flight.  Tried to get some sleep last night but woke up at 1:00 am wide awake.  Forced myself to lay in bed until 4:30.  I had made plans with Ryan 2 weeks ago to run at 5:30 this morning or I would have just gone to the gym.  Wish I would have gone now since Ryan did a no show.

Cut my run way short due to absolutely horrible running conditions.  40 - 60 mph wind gusts make for a miserable run.  

Planned on going 17 miles around the Suncrest loop, ended up just doing my regular 10 mile Bull River trail run.

12 Mile run with 5 mile tempo run.  This was suppose to be a 10 mile run but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get in a 4 mile recovery today since we are doing 5th of July celebrations today.  

This was really one of the first non-treadmill tempo runs I have done, started out doing my normal Traverse Mountain trail loop, then at 4 miles when I hit the Bull River trail I started my Tempo out around Smiths and back,  My splits looked like this.  6:12.46,  6:18.53, 6:17.55, 6:06.50, 6:06.84.  I felt like this was pretty good since the trail is part dirt and gravel with a little bit of up and down roll to it.  I know I have done tempos faster on the treadmill, but they really don't compare.  Coming back was a little fast due to slight downhill, and a tailwind out of the canyon.

I am trying to get my Threshold miles down to between 5:30 - 6:00, I think I need to find a flatter non dirt road next time.

Well, I guess the pain starts now.  Started out early at 4:45 on the treadmill for 9 miles while it was dark.  Pushed it a little harder than I probably should have, 9 miles in 58:00.  I then head outside and ran 6 miles out and back on the river trail from the gym.  That was the painful part, I felt like I was in slow motion the whole time.

5:00 am Treadmill, 6 Mile recovery run in 48 minutes, 8:00 min/mil pace.    It is very easy to get bored and want to pick up the pace, but I can tell with the amount of miles I am working up to, these recovery days are going to be very beneficial.  I feel really good now, I have been having pain in my right Hamstring but this run seems to have loosened that up nicely.

12:00 pm , 5.5 mile recovery run with Ryan for lunch on the trail 7:45 average pace.  Very nice relaxing run, was only suppose to be a 4 miler but it seemed like such a waste to change all my clothes and all for a 4 mile run.

5:20 am, 12 miles on an absolutely beautiful morning.  Was 1/2 an hour late for work but I really wanted to run outside.  Did my normal 12 mile Bull River trail run out around Smiths and back.  Tried to maintain a 7:00 average pace but my tight hamstring kept slowing me down a bit.  Ended up with a 7:09 average but I'm not complaining,  Good run.

5:15 am Treadmill run.  8 mile General Aerobic run with 10 x 100's.  Tried to keep my HR around 135 this seemed to be about a 7:00 min/mil pace it did creep up to about 145 by the end of 6 miles before I started repeats.

Dreaded the thought of repeats today since my hamstring is still tight, but after the first one it seemed to loosen up and then I really enjoyed them, they make the miles go by faster.

400 meter swim in 10 minutes after my run just to relax a little bit.

5:30 am. 17 Mile run with Ryan out to Utah lake and back on the Parkway trail to Thankgiving point. 2:00 exactly 7:04 Min/mil pace. Great morning, didn't even get hot after the sun came up.

The family wanted to go for a run together when I got home so I did another really easy 1.5 with them.

 Really happy with this week, My longest week getting ready for Ogden Marathon was 76 miles and I did 1 more than that this build up week.  I remember feeling like I was on deaths bed that week of Ogden training, but other than some soreness in the legs I felt really good today on this long run

6:00 am.  5 Mile easy recovery run with Nelle.  8:10 pace.  Very nice morning, light breeze with ocational rain sprinkles. 

Watching the Tour De France, poor Lance.  I blame his team.

5:00 am, 8 Miles of General Aerobic followed by 10 x 100's.  I was planning on running on the treadmill for 2 miles until the sun came out and then hitting the trail, but it's so convenient sometimes to just stay on the treadmill.  I tried to keep a pace where my HR would stay at or below 145, I started at about a 7:20 pace for 1 mile and then went to a 7:00 pace.  Held that for 5 miles my HR stayed about 142 for most of the run but the last 2 miles it was between 145 - 150 so I kept slowing the pace to get it back down.

Took a quick water break at 8 miles and then came back and hit some hard repeats.  Started at 4:30 pace for the first one and slowly worked up to a 4:15 pace for my last.  I think I actually did 11 repeats, for some reason math doesn't add up correctly all the time when your pushing hard.

11:45 am.  4 Mile Recovery run for lunch.  Yummm.  Here is a fun game on an otherwise boring recovery run.  Pick a heart rate and try to keep it there at the same pace.  I choose 130 as my target at an 8:00 min/mil pace.  Started out around 125 for 2 miles then it got up close to 129.  I would mess around with different breathing methods, different stride lengths and incline and decline on the treadmill.  I did hit 132 a few times but was able to bring it down pretty easy by changing things up a little.  It's suprising how you can  control your heartrate by changing your thoughts or music.

5:00 am 15 Miles.  I wanted to give today a little bit harder effort, for 2 reasons.  I felt like the last few days I ran pretty easy, and I had to catch an 8:30 flight to Irvine CA.  My goal was to average a 6:45 pace over the entire run, which isn't so hard on the Treadmill, but the trail can be a little more difficult. 

I started out on the Treadmill for the first 5 miles waiting for day light,  Did that in 33:30.  6:42 pace.  Then I went out to the trail for the remaining 10.  I had to pretty much run the length of the trail out and back twice.  Was averaging about 6:40 for the first 7 miles but I started bonking a little bit the last 3, struggled really hard to keep it below 7:00 pace for that last 3.  I think it had something to do with the sun coming out and temps going up a little.  Ended up averaging 6:45 exactly for the 10 so if I do the math right I beat my goal by about 2 seconds/mile.  Yea.

At the Airport on my way to Irvine right now, anyone know good places to run there?  I saw there was some Laguna Park about 8 miles away with mountain bike trails may get a taxi to take me there and try it out if I have the time.

Avg HR 158

Max HR 169

6:00 am, An awesome morning recovery run here in Southern California.  I don't understand why more people don't live here.  Oh wait they do.

Followed a bike trail from my hotel out to Newport beach, my Garmin battery died about 1 mile into it so I didn't have anything to pace off of.  I was trying for 8:00 min/mil but I felt to good down here with all this oxygen and I'm sure I was much closer to 7:20's.

I wasn't going to take my clucky phone running with me but decided I should since I'm in a new place and never know what to expect.  I'm glad I did cause I ran into this guy just walking up the trail 10 feet from me.  He didn't even care I was there, pretty neat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-omdbMv-78

5:30 am. 14 Miles.  Well no Bobcats today fairly uneventful.  Today was considerably warmer than yesterday and more humid here in So. Cal..  I followed the same trail from the hotel down to the bay, but this time instead of turning around I continued on the road out around the bay.  The signs kept saying "loop" but I never saw anything that looked like it looped.  This road looks like a pretty popular training route for some pretty hardcore looking Tri-atheletes and runners.  I was going to post my Garmin run but my Macbook has a design flaw, I can't have my EVDO card and Garmin plugged in at the same time.  Anyway, 14 miles in 1:35.

6:49 min/mil average.  Didn't bring my HR strap with me but wish I would have.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/40608648

5:30 am. 10 Mile General Aerobic.  Back in Utah, did my normal 10 mile trail run out and around Smiths.  Very nice cool morning for a run, glad to be back. 

Avg Pace 7:21

Avg HR. 146

Max HR. 165 (coming up the hill home)

Added my cool Newport beach run to yesterdays post.

5:30 am.  Met with Ryan in the Cabelas parking lot, he actually beat me there so I figured he must have been really excited to run 20.  Ran down to the Legacy center out center street to the Lake back to Willowpark on the river trail continued around Thanksgiving point back up the horrible hill to Cabelas. 

Very nice first 1/2 of the run before the sun, but after about mile 12 it got warm, probably the hottest run I've done all year.  No comments people down in Arizona and St. George.

20 miles in 2:21.  7:06 avg. pace I think is what it said.

I think I convinced Ryan to run Deseret News Marathon next week as a training run, so I'll see you there.

5:30 am. Very easy 6 mile recovery run with Nelle.  Started out pretty stiff but loosed up about 2 miles into it.

6 miles in 48 Minutes

Avg. Pace 8:00

4:50 am.  Tempo Run day, I was actually pretty scared for todays run,  pretty bad when you have a hard time sleeping the night before just thinking about a dumb training run.  Started out on the treadmill for 5.5 miles.  Did it in 39:30 avg 7:10 pace.  Then I went out to the trail, my goal was to run 5 in 30 minutes flat, didn't quite reach that goal my first mile was on track but after that I just couldn't hold onto 6:00 min/mil pace I kept catching myself slowing down, I'd try to pick it back up but found I couldn't quite hold it.  My mile splits for the 5 looked like this.   5:58, 6:12, 6:17, 6:20, 6:16.  Total time 31:13 Avg. overall. 6:13 min/mil.   I'm not really to upset with the run, I feel like I got out of it what I needed, I'll just have to try to get faster each time.  Pretty much kept my heart rate at a constant rate the entire run which I think is the point of a Tempo run.

Avg. HR. 170    85% of max

Max HR. 172

11:30 am. 5 mile recovery run on the treadmill for lunch.  Avg Pace 7:18, ran a little faster than I probably should have on a recovery run and ended with a 800m sprint in 2:40 to finish it off which probably wasn't that great an idea either but I was feeling pretty good so figured what the heck.

3:45 am.  I would like to say it was a nice morning for running, but I'm not really sure, it was pitch black the whole run.  I had to go to Cub Scout camp this morning so I needed to get my run in before we met at the church at 6:00.  I was suppose to do a 15 today, but I seemed to be about 30 seconds/mile behind pace (I blame the dark) so I ended short, I'll try and get out for a quick 4-5 this afternoon.

It's kind of creepy running that early in the morning.  All sorts of critters staring at you as you run by, it's hard to tell who is more scared them or me.

14 Miles in 1:41:00  7:16 min/mil pace.

 5:00 pm.  Decided to whip out a quick 4 mile recovery run on the treadmill before bed.

4 Miles in 32:00 8:00 min/mil pace.

5:00 am.  Much needed recovery day, if 1 year ago someone would have told me a 12 mile day is a recovery day, I would have laughed at them (6 miles at lunch today too).  Anyway 6 miles on the treadmill in 45:45   7:37 min/mil average.  I was running an 8:00 min/mil but picked up the last mile to get the kinks out.

1200 M swim in ~30 minutes after the run and a good soak in the hot tub.  Hoping for a massage tonight, we'll see.

11:15 am. Had a lunch appointment at noon so I was in kind of a hurry, ended up only doing 5 miles instead of the planned 6.  5 Miles in 36:45,  7:21 min/mil pace, so shorter than it should have been and faster. 

5:10 am. Ran to work today, have I mentioned that I hate that run,  it takes so much more out of you to deal with traffic, wind and dust.  Anyway, felt pretty good, I struggled to decide on an adequate pace, I wanted to push it a little bit but I wanted to save myself for Saturdays Marathon too,  so I pretty much ended up halfway between where I should have been and where I could have been.  Which was a good feeling to be in control of my run and know I had more in me if I wanted but had some breathing room.

14 Miles in 1:38:00  7:00 min/mil average. 

Avg. HR 150

Max. HR 160

I had Britt give me a massage last night.  It is amazing how much a good massage will show you how bad off you really are.  I thought my legs where dealing with this 100 mile week pretty well so far, but man when she started digging in and finding all the knots in my muscles it made me realize that maybe I have just learned to deal with constant pain more than I thought I had.

4:30 am.  Was going to get a late start today and run around my house but when I woke up up at 4:00 I decided it might be nice to get my workout done early and spend some time in the hot tub so I headed to they Gym for some Treadmill work.  When I got to the gym there was a running group meeting in the lobby ready to run outside.  I asked if I could come along and they told me I was to fast for them.  I told them I had a marathon tomorrow and am in no big hurry, so anyway I went out with them for a very peaceful 5 miles at about 8:00 min/mil pace.  I only caught 3 of the names, (Bruno from CapeTown, Liz from Sandy, and Eric from California)  After the 5 mile loop I split off and ran the trail for an extra 5 at about a 7:40 pace.  Whole run 10.1 in 1:1913.

Avg Pace. 7:49

Avg HR. 140

Max HR. 149

A little nervous for tomorrow I'm not sure why, I have told myself 100 times its just a long training run but there is always the deep down excitment of being in a timed race and wanting to do good.   I would love to just get a sub 3:00 marathon under my belt and not hurt to bad the next day.

OK,  I finally got a chance to sit down and compose a race report.  It’s been a busy weekend. 

I had not really planned on running this race, my schedule only had me down for an 18 this Saturday but last week on my 20 mile run with Ryan Jonson we decided we both felt pretty good and it might not be a bad idea to get a 26 miler in on a assisted course.  This run would also put me over 100 miles for the week, I had contemplated cutting some of my other runs to at least to a little bit of a taper but decided to stick to the schedule which would keep me in the mental mindset that this was indeed a training run.  So we both signed up last weekend on kind of a whim.

Friday night I told my wife I was going to go sleep in the basement as to not wake her when I got up early,  It was probably a good idea. I don’t think I slept real good at all despite the fact I went to bed at 8:30pm, I didn’t even need my alarm clock to wake up at 1:40am.  Pretty sad. Got up, got ready, drove to Ryans to pick him up at 2:30 and we headed to the Energy Solutions arena and caught the first 3:15 bus up.  As soon as we arrived at the top I headed for the “Honey Bucket”  I did this a record 5 times in the 1:30 hour wait for the start.  I tend to have  a blatter problem only before races though.  It was a very nice morning, a little  on the cold side but beautiful view of the valley and the moon setting in the West.

Finally the infamous bagpipes started indicating the race start was about to begin, Quite a few laughs at the expense of the bagpiper but I thought it was cool since I had read it was tradition.   Lined up at the front, talked to a couple of interesting people.  When they would ask me what my goal was I would simply say “to have a fun time and a great race” my real goal was to get through it with a major blowup like in Ogden earlier this year.  5:30 prompt the race started.

Mile 1 – although I did line up towards the front I didn’t even attempt to keep up with the leaders, all I knew is they took off really fast, I’m guessing sub 5:00’s for the first mile or so.  I just got into a comfortable stride worked my way around a few people and caught up with Ryan.  There was a girl if front of us I thought was Allie at first.  I knew she was around  2:55 last year which is about where I wanted to be so I told Ryan to stay with her for a while and get into a good rhythm.  It was still pretty dark so I couldn’t see my Garmin but at mile marker 1 I looked down and saw 5:48 first mile.  We had said we would start out at a 6:30 pace J

Mile 2- about the same, feeling good hit marker number 2 and looked down at another 5:48.

Mile 3 – started running with the girl that I thought was Allie, talked about the blog and Sasha, she looked at me like I was nuts.  I asked her if she was Allie, she said “No, I’m Jenn.  Who’s Allie?”  Turns out it was Jenn Shelton the infamous Ultra runner party girl from the “Born to Run” book.  Found out right away, that she had a really foul mouth on her, must have been raised by sailors. Anyway we told her Allie was the defending champ from last year, she told us she hadn’t really trained for this properly just running her normal mountain dirt trails.  She was pretty upset that there where a bunch of Kenyans ahead of her, we told her we were pretty sure there was only 1 girl, so second wouldn’t be bad.  Hit Mile marker 3 at 5:53,  so a little slower but still way faster than planned.

Mile 4- I thought to myself, I can’t keep this up this is how Ogden started, flying down the first few miles feeling awesome and then blowing up at the end, told Ryan we should slow down a little, hit 4 at a 6:10 pace, more because if flattened out than anything.

We lost Jenn at an aid station, we ran through, she slowed down for a drink, must be an Ultra thing.   The course flattened out, I felt good still but could tell we were definitely slowing.  The next couple miles splits went like this

Mile 5 - 6:29

Mile 6 - 6:46

Little Mountain started, I had read how bad it was, we did slow down a bit, but there was a nice cool wind out of the canyon, which made it very pleasant.

Mile 7 - 7:28

Mile 8 – 6:58

Started coming back down the back side, I knew it was good downhill for a while the pace picked up.  I could see the Kenyan girl coming down in front of us on one of the hairpin turns about 400m in front of us.  Looked behind and could see Jenn about 200M behind us.

Mile 9 – 6:17

Mile 10 – 6:39

Mile 11 – 6:15

I had taken 6 gel packs with me on my race belt, slowly they kept falling out of my belt, I had not even had one yet and was already down to 4, so coming down the hill when I lost yet another one I actually stopped and turned around to get it.   I knew it would be bad news if I didn’t eat them.  At some point along here we had to run up the canyon about ½ a mile and then back down so we could actually see who was in front of us and who was behind.  Saw that the Kenyan girl was still about 400 M ahead, Jenn was catching up. 

Mile 12 – 6:25

Mile 13 – 6:37

13.1  about 1:24:00  Slower than Ogden ½ but I was actually happy about that cause I thought maybe I was taking it easier.  Still feeling good.  Started to get some sun though.

Jenn finally caught us around 13, I thought she was going to blow right by us, but she actually stayed with us.  I think she enjoyed the company since she had been running alone for a while.  I could tell she was a bit annoyed with our stupid questions though cause she was obviously starting to hurt a little bit.  We ran with her off and on for the next 5 miles, she slowed down on the up hills quite a bit. (another ultra thing)

Mile 14 – 6:32

Mile 15 – 6:24

Mile 16 – 6:21

Mile 17 – 6:27

Mile 18 – 6:52 through the neighborhood, some hills.

We where about 100M behind the Kenyan girl at 18 Jenn was about 50 behind us, I turned around and told her to hurry, we could catch her.  We actually slowed down a little bit to let Jenn catch up we hit Foothill and made a little surge to catch her.  Passed the Kenyan somewhere around 19.  I told Jenn at mile 20 Sasha was going to meet us to pace us in so to keep with us. She dropped back at that point.

Mile 19 – 6:26

Sasha was waiting right at the 20 Mile marker,  he must have recognized my blue tanktop cause he ran right out to meet me,  I quickly introduced myself and Ryan to him and off we went.

Mile 20 – 6:42

Mile 21 – 6:58

Mile 22 – 6:11

I started getting a side cramp, Sasha told me to ignore it.  Next downhill it went away.

Mile 23 – 6:43

Sasha is amazing, I can barely keep track of what I’m doing with a full out computer on my wrist telling me every detail.  He somehow predicted every mile we would hit and gave me my final time within 10 seconds, 6 miles before I even got there.  My Garmin doesn’t do that.  J

Mile 24 – 6:32

I started hurting pretty bad after 24, it was getting hot, and I was hurting.  Sasha pushed much harder than I would have let myself run these final miles.  He kept making me give him high fives every 200 M or so, which where making me crazy, but took my mind off of all the other destractions that could have stopped me.

Mile 25 – 6:36

Mile 26 – 7:06

I obviously died a little bit here, Ryan took off ahead of me for the first time all race.  Sasha was getting annoyed with my slowing down (which I do feel bad about) He wanted me to surge to the finish in a sprint.  I swear I tried but didn’t have much left.

Mile 26.2 Final Time  2:51:36.

Ryan finished 2:50:53

Jenn finished 1^st place womans over all in 2:54:23

Allie finished 2^nd place womans over all in 2:54:35

Anyway, awesome day, awesome race.  So many great things happened today. 

Thanks Sasha, and thanks Ryan.  I would have been a stranded lost sheep if I had been out there alone.

Sorry for such a long race report.  I had a great time reading others before this race, I hope someone will get something out of mine.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41906478

5:10 am.  Got on the treadmill and  immediately knew that wasn't going to happen, so I hopped on the elliptical trainer for 15 minutes then decided to give the treadmill another shot.  Managed to start running at a 10:00/mil pace and slowly built up from there for a very painful 7 miles in 55 minutes.

Finished off with a soak in the hottub and a few laps in the pool.

Finally met RivertonPaul after my run today, he was doing the elliptical (smart man). He is much thinner in real life than his pictures.  You know what they say Paul, the camera adds 100 lbs,  or was that Photoshop adds 100 lbs?  I can't remember.  Anyway good meeting you today.

11:45 am.  Another slow yet painful 6 miles on the treadmill at lunch.  6 miles in 47:30

5:15 am.  4 Miles on the Treadmill in 30 minutes, then I went out and ran on the trail for another painful 8 in 1 hour.  I am feeling better than yesterday, funny thing is I can run much easier than I can walk.  People probably think I'm nuts when they watch me running 8.5 mph and then stop and practically fall over just trying to walk to the drinking fountain.

12 in 1:29:37  7:30/mil pace.

5:00 am.  6 Mile Recovery run on treadmill, starting to get my legs back, I can finally walk down stairs. The first 2 miles where a little slow and stiff, but I worked it out.  

600 M swim after my run in about 15 minutes and then a soak in the hot tub. 

I'll be back for lunch.

11:30 am.  6 Mile Recovery again for lunch.  Exactly the same time as this morning, not planned, it felt faster.

6 miles in 45:36  7:36/mil pace.

5:15 am, 5 Mile run in 34:20 on the Treadmill, tried to pickup the pace a little bit to get the legs moving.  Then I went out to the trail to attempt a 4 mile Tempo Run.  I could tell right away that my legs aren't completely back yet, I wanted to keep a 6:00 /mil pace but my legs just weren't up to it.  The mile splits went like this  5:58, 6:28, 6:33, 6:32.

(10 days ago I did a 5 mile tempo run on the same trail at 5:58, 6:12, 6:17,6:20,6:16) So a bit sluggish today to say the least.

Avg Pace for Tempo, 6:22/mile

Max HR for Tempo 176  90% of max (only for 5 seconds so it could be a misread)

Avg HR for Tempo 168  84% of max (LT runs should be between 157 - 174, so good)

Avg Pace for total 10 Miles 6:48/mile

Forgot to mention I went water skiing last night with elders quorum, first time I've been water skiing in probably 20 years,  may have had something to do with my slow run too.

5:15 am.  General Aerobic run.  Ran 4 miles on the treadmill in 27:10 then went out to the trail to the end and back for another 6 in 43:18.  Water skiing 2 days ago took a lot out of me.  I'm feeling muscles in my upper body that I haven't used in years.

Nothing special, just trying to get it done with enough energy for a long run tomorrow.

Overall 10 mile average 7:02/mile

5:00 am. Exceptionally special run today :) 

 Not really, I was pretty trashed for most of it.  Started from my house at 5:00 and ran down the dirt road and along the frontage road in the dark for 3.75 miles.  Met Ryan at the Maverik to do our 14 mile loop.  We both were in a hurry to get home for other family plans today so we tried to keep the pace up, it just wasn't happening for either of us.

Schedule was an 18 mile run today, I would have been happy with 16 but we took the long way around Thanksgiving point and almost got the full 18 in.  I'm sure I'm better for it.

17.35 in 2:06:??  about 7:15 pace, I'm to tired to get off the couch and actually look.

Did a neighborhood service project as soon as I got home digging a drainage ditch along a new trail.  That's going to make me hurt as much as the run I think