What ever it takes!

Promised my wife I would not run on this Sunday, so I lived up to my word and took a true day of rest.  Hopefully the day off will prepare me for some good quality training this week, mileage is down to 85 from 100, hope to get some good speed work in.

5:00 am.   Did my whats becoming weekly Monday 10 mile progressive ladder workout.  Started the treadmill at 8.5 mph (7:00/mile) and every 5 minutes bump it up .2 mph for 10 miles.  Ended up doing my last mile in 5:40.  Heart rate never got above 165 even at top speed, so I felt really good about this workout.  It was on the schedule as being a 10 mile General Aerobic run but I felt good and like to start my week out with a good tempo run.

Hit the weight room after my run, I haven't done that in quite some time,  did some leg presses, leg extensions, and leg curls.  I think doing weights is good not just for the strength aspect but it also seems to stretch me out more then just normal stretches.

 I have alot of work today getting ready for a month long trip to San Francisco next week so I'm not sure how I will fit in my 5 mile recovery run today, but I'll try.

4:45 am.  6 Miles on the treadmill in 41:00  6:50/mile pace avg.  Then I went outside and ran the rest of my 15 miler.  9.1 miles in 1:03:00  6:55/mile avg.  

I sure like the cool weather, but don't care for the dark.  And I hate running with a headlamp for long distances, it gives me a headache.

11:45 am.  Ran 6 miles on the River trail with Ryan for lunch.  Very hot, very windy.  The heat made it feel much harder than a normal recovery run about 95 degrees out, but I always say I need to practice running in heat.  Although I think I should have worn sunscreen.

6 Miles in 45:45  7:37/mile avg pace.

4:45 am.  9 Mile general aerobic run on the treadmill.  I've been trying to run these general runs a little faster than normal, did the first 7 miles in 46:30 6:38/mile avg.  I then did my treadmill version of 8 x 100's.  Starting at 13.1mph (4:34 pace) incrementing up to 13.8 mph for my last stride (4:20) with 0.1 mile jog in between.  The speed work was pretty rough going the first few sets but seemed to get easier as I loosened up.  Felt pretty good about the workout.  

9 Mile total run in 1:00:15 6:41/mile avg pace.

I then swam 600 meters in the pool in about 20 minutes, didn't actually time it, I have no real concept of how fast I "should" be swimming.  I just do it to relax when I have spare time.

11:45am. 5 Mile recovery run.  in 39:10.  7:50/mile avg.

5:00 am.  8 Mile very slow recovery run.  I've decided a slow 8 miles is just as hard if not harder than a 10 mile fast run.  It takes the same amount of time but seems to drag on forever. 

I started out very stiff this morning just couldn't get things to start moving, I went out in the dark with my headlamp on and went South on the River trail instead of North, you have to go up through some neighborhoods because the trail does not go all the way through, which is a very steep up hill for about 1/2 mile.  Got to the park at 123rd South and really needed to stop for a restroom break but the doors all had code locks on them.  Just because I was desperate and upset they where locked I typed in my ATM pin code to see what would happen, and sure enough the door opened right up for me. Craziest thing ever, when I was done I tried other random codes and none of them worked, an absolute miracle.  So anyway, after that I felt much better and was able to pick up the pace a little bit but was still sluggish.  I was glad the whole run that the schedule said recovery run today so I didn't have to feel bad I was running slow, cause I sure couldn't have gone much faster.  Once you get set into a pace it's really hard to pick it up.

Tomorrow is suppose to be a 10 mile race simulation day, anyone know of a 10 mile race tomorrow at 5:00am?  I'm planning on just going to the treadmill and trying to run my fastest 10 miler ever.

8 Miles in 1:04:00  8:04/mile avg pace.

5:45 am.  So the schedual wanted me to do a 10 mile race simulation today, I'm not exactly sure what that means, I was planning on just going the the gym and trying to do a sub 1 hour 10 miler.  Then last night my wife reminded me that my 3 year olds preschool open house was this morning and I should go.  So I took advantage of this and slept in till 5:15 :).  I wandered around the house for a bit stretching out and then when there was a shimmer of light outside I went off for my run.  Decided to just do my normal easy 10 mile loop around Smiths and back but to try and do it as fast as possible.  The first 2 miles went really fast down the hill averaged about 5:40's for the first 2, then I hit the construction on 92 and had to slow down through the mud, when I got to Bull River road (my normal tempo run route) I picked it back up again trying to hover around 6:00/mile.  Couldn't quite maintain that pace the whole way by mile 5, the turn around I was at about 6:15 average.  Coming back is normall faster, with the tail wind and downhill but I was pretty spent and could only keep it around 6:15 - 6:20 pace.  At mile 9 my overall average was 6:18/mile.  Coming back up the hill back home always slows things down a bit, I tried to just keep it around 7:00 pace but I think I was probably slower. 

Ended my total run in 1:03:00.  6:22/mile pace.  I feel pretty good about this, it's not an easy run my any means and I feel that I kept my HR up at tempo range the whole time. (didn't wear a monitor though)

Tomorrow I have to do my long run alone since Ryan is doing Hobble Creek.  Good luck all you Hobble Creekers.  I wish I could be there but my wife wouldn't allow it since I'm leaving on business for the next month.

5:15 am.  Decided to run my nemesis 18 miler today, down around the point of the mountain, up the Draper side of Suncrest, down the Utah County side and back home.  2500 foot climb in 4 miles.   Felt OK the whole time, my legs were a little soar but didn't really feel like it was keeping me from running at a pace I wanted.  Going up the hill was pretty tough this morning, strong headwind the whole way up,  took a quick gel and water break at the top and then started back down.  I started down the 8% grade pretty fast (5:30/mile pace) and felt like it was beating me up a little to much, I tried to slow it down to around 5:50 pace just cause I didn't want to pay for it to much later in the run.  I did pick up the pace when I passed the cyclist coming up, just to look cool :).  

Did the whole run in 2:10:?? 7:16/mile avg pace.  Which I thought was pretty good, but I just looked back at the last time I did this run in April, training for Ogden and I did it 2 minutes faster back then,  so now I feel bad.  There are a lot of other factors but it looks like I did the downhills a lot faster back then but I did the uphill faster this time. If I remember correctly I thought I was going to die after that run in April,  I'm going to go mow the lawn now.   I did say just the other day, that I feel like I was faster back training for Ogden but I have a lot more endurance now.  Hopefully the trade off will work in my favor 4 weeks from today.

Just found out that my training partner Ryan Jonson who just turned 40 2 weeks ago took first place in the Masters Catagory at Hobble Creek.  1:14:07.  That's pretty dang fast for an old guy.  Since I can't convince him to blog I thought I'd put in a word for him, good job Ryan.  Hope I don't slow you down to much in Logan.