What ever it takes!

5:15 am.  Plan was to do a 10 mile General Aerobic run.  4 mile TM 6 miles trail. 

After about 2 miles on the treadmill I started feeling a little bit frisky.  Started out at a 7:00/mile pace and then every 5 minutes I bumped up the speed about 10 sec/mile for 1 hour.  So by mile 9 I was at 5:43/mile pace and then finished the final 1/2 mile at 5:30.  essentially this turned out being an 8 mile Tempo run.  This is a workout I used to do all the time training for Ogden but since I have been running more outside it is very hard to simulate something like this.  Definately the fastest 10 miles I have run in training I think.

Over all 10 miles in 1:02:30 6:15/mile average pace.  I figure if I can run at this same effort on Saturday at Provo River 1/2 taking into account downhill and tailwind I should be able to hopefully run a 1:18.  According to the Race Time Predictor I need to run 1:16 to pull off a 2:40:00 at TOU.  Not sure I have a 1:16 half in me yet.

HR. Started out at 140,

Avg. HR 158

Max. HR 172 (LT zone)

11:45, 6 mile recovery run for lunch, with a peanut butter/honey sandwich, and Muscle Milk to wash it down.

6 Miles in 46:00.  7:39/mile pace.

5:15 am.  10 Mile VO2 Max run.  Definitely out of my comfort zone this morning.  As opposed to just going for a long run, with some short sprints schedule had me do 6X1200’s today.  First time I think I’ve ever done “formal” 1200’s.  My new least favorite workout, I do feel really good now that it’s over.

¼ Mile splits looked like this.

1-    79.7, 81.9, 84.0   1200 total 4:06     Max HR 167

2-    82.2, 84.0, 85.9   1200 total 4:12     Max HR 170

3-    82.9, 84.2, 85.9   1200 total 4:13     Max HR 171

4-    83.1, 85.1, 84.9   1200 total 4:13     Max HR 173

5-    85.2, 85.7, 84.9   1200 total 4:15     Max HR 172

6-    81.6, 83.0, 83.9   1200 total 4:09     Max HR 172

At the airport on my way to Anahiem now, hopefully I can find a good run tomorrow morning.  It looks like there is a river trail about 3 miles from the hotel, I think I’ll drive down and try it out.

5:30 am.  Probably one of the coolest things about Garmin Connect is that you can look up other people runs and bike rides.  So I knew I was going to be in Anehiem California today and did a search around Disney and found a bike trail about 3 miles away by the Honda center and the Angels field.  So I drove out and found a nice safe place to park and took off running the unknown.  It's amazing how in an urban city you can find a trail that is continuous for 20 miles without stops.  Plus it had drinking fountains about every 3-5 miles which was nice. 

Was planning on going 15 miles but at 7.5 I got to a pretty big park, I wanted to find a drinking fountain before I turned around and ended up going 8 miles to water.  Worth the extra mile.  Not especially scenic route but nice morning for a run, cool, light breeze, a little humid.

16 miles in 1:49:00

6:50/mile avg pace.

I'm suppose to run 5 for lunch, but doubt it will happen since I'm on a work trip and have lunch plans with a client.

5:45 am.  General Aerobic run.   Back in Utah, got a late start cause I was going to run outside but decided it was too muddy to do my normal 10 miler.  Went to the gym and did 4 miles on the treadmill in 29:15. 7:18/mile avg.  Then I went out to the trail, after about 1/2 mile of eating bugs decided to leave the trail and find a new route.  Ran up to the South Jordan Temple and looped around the golf course and back to the gym.  Ended up being 6.5 in 47:00 7:15/mile avg.

Question, does a 13.1 mile race on Saturday equal an 18 mile run?  Or do I need to run 5 more miles after I'm done.

11:15 am.  Went with Ryan on the river trail for lunch.  He was doing 10 but we decided to do 6 on the trail and then he finished up on the treadmill.  It was a little bit hot and a little bit windy but a good run overall.

6.15 miles in 45:45.  7:30/mile avg pace.

4:45 am.  10 Miles Recovery.  I woke up earlier than normal this morning cause I knew that a running group meets at the gym on Friday mornings at 4:30.  There where actually about 10 people waiting in the lobby, I asked if I could go with them, they said sure.  They said they were slow, I said great.  I ran with them really, really slow for about 5 miles and then when I saw they where going back to the gym I split off and went by myself for another 5.

10 miles in 1:20:12  7:56/mile avg pace.

400 meter swim in the pool after and a soak in the hottub to loosen up.

Legs feel pretty good, I got a really good massage from Britt last night so hopefully I can perform tomorrow.  Is anyone else out there going to be at Provo River 1/2?

I'll do a more detailed report later, just wanted to give a quick update.  Pretty good day, I have had a side ache the last 2 days which I was worried would act up today but I held up pretty well.  My legs felt amazingly well after another almost 85 mile week so I felt good going in.  There was a lot of confusion at the start line this morning so I just hung out with Sasha figuring the race wouldn't start without him :).  We got started about 10 minutes late which was amazing it started that close to on time considering how confused everyone was.

I did about 2 miles of warm up in the hour and a half I had to wait, just ran up and down the canyon a few times and up the hill for bathroom breaks a few times.

My plan was to just go for it from the start, I figured I do 13 miles everyday so worse case if I blew up I could just slow down to a normal run pace and still finish good.  I did start out very fast for me, but felt good and kept the pace up through the entire canyon to Vivian park, slowed down a bit there and then going back up the canyon was really slow, partially on purpose mostly because of the wind.  At the turn around I picked it back up which I was glad I could do, I was afraid the slow pace going up would cause me to slow down.

Coming back down the canyon it started to get uncomfortably hot, I was hoping to hit the 10 mile marker in under 1 hour, but I hit it at exactly 1 and knew I didn't have an 18 minute 5 K left in me.  I pushed as hard as I could for the last 5K but frankly was pretty shot, I think because of the heat. I don't run in the heat enough.  Actually managed a sprint finish trying to catch the guy in front of me, but I didn't take off soon enough.  He probably got me by about 5 seconds.   Anyway, 10th place overall (again)  my wife thinks I'm in a 10th place rut.  Not a bad rut all things considered.  My Garmin said 1:19:00, the timer was off at the finish so I don't know official time yet.

Splits went like this

Mile 1-  5:34.66  Most likely my fastest mile split ever. 

Mile 2-  5:48.86

Mile 3-  5:57.62

Mile 4-  5:42.17

Mile 5-  6:07.42

Mile 6-  5:59.74

Mile 7-  6:24.96  Not as bad as I thought going up the hill.  I guessed 7:00

Mile 8-  6:25.51

Mile 9-  5:57.18

Mile 10- 6:00.91

Mile 11- 6:05.78

Mile 12- 6:09.29

Mile 13- 6:13.75

Last 0.1- 1:19.04  Garmin says I hit 4:40 pace on final sprint, I felt fast :)

Total time according to Garmin 1:19:04

Side note:  I ran this race last year as someone else in 1:40:??  at the time I thought I totally rocked it.  So I figure all I have to do is improve my time by 21 minutes for next year and I'll break 1 hour.  :)

 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43808217