What ever it takes!

Ouch!!

I was planning on swimming this morning but when I got there the lap pool was closed for cleaning.  They had the splash pool open and it has lanes but that pool is heated and I feel like I'm swimming in a swamp, so I changed back into workout clothes and went upstairs.

5 miles on the elliptical, and then I limped around the gym for 45 minutes doing various machines.

Saturdays race really has me perplexed,  pretty much proves the fact that I have no idea what the heck I'm doing.  I've been in much, much better shape before,  over the last 3 weeks of "official" marathon training I haven't hit any of my key workouts, I had a terrible 5K just a week earlier yet somehow I went and ran a PR,  and I didn't even feel especially great for this race, dealt with stomach cramps the first 4 miles and then had a bit of a crash the last 3.  So how is it that I ended up running the fastest average pace I've ever ran in a race before?  Was the course really that much faster?  Is it simply because I wasn't able to run all summer so my body was better rested?  Or did just having some crazy number like run a 1:15 in my mind give me enough motivation to run faster than I thought was possible?

I did run a bit smarter than other races,  I look at my previous 2 half marathons and I went off the line at a dead sprint close to 5:00/mile, this time I really tried to keep my pace at a level closer to where my average needed to be, even with the huge hill in the first mile.  I don't really have a large pool of races to go off of, so setting PR's isn't a big surprise, if I ran a race every month I'm sure I'd have a much better idea of what I'm capable of but I've really only had 3 or 4 races that I can even compare too.

Still a bit sore, but I stretched out and iced last night so this morning I gave myself the OK to go run.  I can't afford to take too much time off.

6 miles on the treadmill waiting for light,  then I went and did 6 really slow relaxing miles on the JRP.  Very nice morning, saw a family of Racoons and a Fox.  Felt like I was in a Disney film.

6 miles in 42:15 7:02 avg pace

6 miles in 49:41 8:17 avg pace

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Decided if I'm going to get over my phobia of running in the sun I need to go run in the sun, which means more lunch time runs while I'm in town.  Wasn't to hot but plenty warm, I wouldn't want to race in it for sure.  Ran from my office up Big Cottonwood canyon until I hit 3 miles and then turned around.  The coming down really hurt.

6 miles in 49:13 8:12 avg pace

Can someone please remind me what the end goal is???

1600 meter swim at the gym while waiting for the light, then 7 slow miles on the JRP, nice morning, a little warmer than yesterday but still pleasant.

7 miles in 57:58 8:17 avg pace

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I had every intention of running a short lunch run today, but when lunch time came around I just felt Blah! and didn't think running would accomplish much of anything, so I went to the shoe store and looked at new running shoes.  There are about 3 different ones I would love to try but can't afford $100 a pop.  

Progressive HR test run today, ran 9 miles on the treadmill starting at 7:00 pace and incrementing up every mile.   Just wanted to get an idea of where my fitness is based on HR from back when I feel like I was in my best shape, which I think was early March right before my stress fracture.  After 9 miles I realized I was anywhere between 5 and 10 bpm higher per given pace than I was back then and stopped.  Went outside and ran a slow 6 miles on the river trail to cool down.

Found an old similar workout from March to compare HR.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace	March Avg HR	Today Avg HR	Max HR
1	6:57	6:57	135	137	150
2	13:40	6:43	144	152	154
3	20:15	6:35	149	155	158
4	26:41	6:26	152	160	163
5	33:00	6:19	154	165	168
6	39:13	6:13	156	169	170
7	45:26	6:13	157	170	172
8	51:30	6:04	159	172	174
9	57:19	5:49	159	173	176
Total	57:25	6:21	152	161	176

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	7:53	7:53		152	157
2	15:34	7:41		155	157
3	23:17	7:43		154	156
4	30:43	7:26		152	158
5	38:26	7:43		156	158
6	46:22	7:56		155	157
Total	46:22	7:46		154	158

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I need to find a new lunch time route, running up Big Cottonwood canyon in the middle of the day in August isn't really a "recovery" run.

5 miles in 39:20 7:52 avg pace.

I had to come back and add one more line from my fancy new Quad Core Macbook Pro.  It's pretty sweet.

When I woke up this morning I noticed a very dull pain in my hip, doesn't hurt or alter my mobility at all but the fact that I can feel it at all bothers me.  I thought about swimming but then decided to just do an easy run and see how things went,  it didn't hurt at all running so I kept it up but cut the run a bit short.  Ran 8 X .1mile strides the final 2 miles at 12.1,12.2, 12.3......mph and then finished with stretching in the pool and hot tub.  I feel really good and refreshed right now.  Hopefully the hip thing isn't anything bad.

8 miles in 59:30 7:30 avg pace.

After last weeks race I wanted to experience the Sogonapmit marathon,  I met Ryan at his house this morning and we drove to a church about 3 miles from the base of American Fork Canyon, ran up the canyon until we hit 9 miles and turned around.  Very nice cool morning, I can definately see why everyone liked that marathon so much, I actually enjoyed the run up the canyon more than coming back down.

18 miles in 2:16:00  ~ 7:34 avg pace   Average going up was probably around 8:30 pace, 6:30 coming down.