Running For Trevor

10 miles in Las Vegas.  28 degrees which is cold in Vegas but of course felt quite toasty to me.  Just did an out & back from my brothers house.  First 5 miles were all uphill and I thought I might die.  I think I literally stopped like twice just to catch my breath. haha I thought it would all be better once I turned around but quite honestly I just felt completely flat and had no energy at all.  Oh well you win some you lose some.  10 miles in 1:19 I have no idea what pace that is.  So much better than running in 0 degrees!

 -2 degrees in Payson according to my phone.  Geez Louise!  Off to the gym I drove.

25 min weights - I have turned into a noodle and had to decrease all of my normal sets by 5lbs.

9 miles on the treadmill.  2.2 mi warmup, 4 x 1 mile repeats with 800 recovery in between 6:22, 6:22, 6:18, 6:15.  1.8 mile cooldown.  I actually felt really good for this workout which was a nice change because my confidence as far as speed goes has been completely waning.

PM:  15 min elliptical.  Random thought while I was ellipticizing for 10.5 seconds that seemed like an eternity.  Is 15-20 min of easy recovery pointless?  I often do really short recovery jogs or xt after a hard morning workout because I feel like it really helps after sitting all day.  When I am not working and walking around more I do not feel it is as necessary.  But after sitting for 8-9 hours I think it really helps speed recovery.  But is 15-20 min enough or is anything less than 20 min just a waste of time?

20 min upper body weights - shoulders

8 mile recovery run on the treadmill, 63 minutes.

I am having a difficult time transitioning from junk/base mileage pace (7:25-7:50) to workout/recovery mode.  Anything faster seems forced and anything slower just seems awkward.  haha I'll figure it out!

PM:  3 miles easy.  Barely made it to 3 because my stomach was not happy.

20 minutes Strength Training - planks/pushups & bi's/tri's.  After a terrible 10 day streak of no ST I'm finally starting to get back on track and it feels good.  I'm not sure about the upper body lifting but I really do think the core work helps my running.

10 miles on the treadmill - 3.5 mile warmup (fairly fast 7:33 AP), 4.5 mile steady tempo in 29:30 (6:33 pace), 1.5 mile cool down.

I'd like to be able to hold the 6:33-6:35 pace for the Pheonix half on February 17th and although a 4.5 mile tempo isn't much I think I am on track.

Payson Canyon out & back from my house at 8am tomorrow morning (11-14 easy miles?).  The plan is to jump in my clubhouse indoor hot tub immediately after the run. :)  Let me know if you want to come and I'll send directions your way. It is very easy to find and is not that far south I promise!

11.5 miles out & back up Payson Canyon starting from my house with Christie & Jen.  -6 degrees but not really any different than the 10 degrees we ran in last Saturday.  I only really noticed it was freezing when I looked over at Christie & Jen and they're iced over faces.  haha oh and the cars that would point and laugh at us.  My watch died at 5 miles but Christie said we did 11.5 at a 7:53 pace so I'll take it.  Fun run with great company and the best part was jumping into the hot tub after the run.  Such a great way to warm up. :):)

Who wants to come to Payson and run now?  :)

PM:  30 min clubhouse elliptical.  Just easing my way back into the doubles and shooting for that 30 min mark.  Ironically I felt amazing on the elliptical tonight and like I could win some sort of olympic elliptical event or something. ha!  Must have been the diet coke and costco icecream. :)

50 minutes lazy Sunday running.  Wore a new pair of lighter weight Mizunos that I bought awhile back and felt fine.

Now to tackle the mountain of laundry that winter running seems to create.

20 min Strength training including ITBS rehab

Treadmill run:  9.3 miles in 68:30.  5.3 easy & then 14 x 1 min on/off.  On's at 10.0-10.3 mph (6:00-5:49 pace), off's at 7.1.  I normally watch channel 2 news at the gym but today I had a treadmill without a TV so I was listenning to the music channel.  Towards the end of my workout everyone on the front row of treadmills turned around and started starring at me and I realized I was singing out loud.  "Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long."  haha I was totally belting it out.  Speedwork makes me crazy! 

PM:  3 miles easy. 

8 mile orchard loop with Jen.  We set a new CR of 56:54.  Jen & I had both done Speedwork yesterday so we had no intentions of moving fast but just gradually picked up the pace and ran the last 4 miles at sub 7.   6:58, 6:53, 6:47, 6:38.  We were talking up until about the last half mile and I feel like this was a really good workout on fatigued legs from yesterdays SW.  We were both completely trashed by the finish.  Doing a tempo the day after SW is not something I would normally do or recommend but every once in awhile I think it is okay to practice running hard on tired legs.  I added a slower 2 mile cooldown afterwards.  I will definitely be taking it super easy tomorrow.  Anyone up for a recovery jog? 

10 min foam rolling and lower body ST. 

PM:  3 miles nice & easy.  I was dreading this run all day for some reason but it felt great to shake my legs out. 8:20 pace

30 min weights - planks, pushups, upper body

60 min easy running on the treadmill, 7.6 miles.

PM:  3.4 mi easy 2 x 30 second strides to finish. 

9 mi easy recovery on Jen's hilly route in Salem, 7:50 pace.  Warm but way windy out in Salem.  My training is all sorts of mixed up right now and since I ran fast mon & tues I decided double recovery days were in order.  I should probably put together some type of structure or plan but the "just go with the flow" mentality sure is fun. :)

I am feeling pretty good and my body seems to be handling the higher volume quite well.  I think I am finally starting to get excited about racing in 2013.

I actually planned a workout this morning but it took me 40 min to drive 10 miles to the gym so I had to modify.  I wanted to do a LR of 13-14 miles with the last 4-5 starting at MP and finishing at HMP.  Instead I ended up with 11.2.  First 6.2 easy and then 4 tempo miles 6:39, 6:35, 6:31, 6:27.  I was a little dissapointed with how hard this felt but I still think it was a good workout.  It is really hard mentally to maintain a tempo pace on the treadmill.

Total run time:  83 min

Total commute time:  75 min....and that does not count the drive home!

12.5 miles on the treadmill in 1:34 I think.  Just a boring progressive run.  Metetarsalgia starting to reappear towards the end of the run.  ugh!

20 minutes strength training - planks/pushups

30 min clubhouse elliptical

2 hours helping my Mom with nursery.  8 kids under the age of 2....holy crap that was hard!

A little over 32 min jogging at the indoor track.  A nice soft surface for recovery but too much turning for my IT band so I kept it short.  I decided that based on my internal 8 min pace the track is 10.5 laps for a mile instead of 13 like my Dad told me.  Either that or I was incredibly slow yesterday. 

40 min walking with my parents and the pups. 

20 min strength training - planks, pushups, upper body and ITBS rehab.

9 miles on the treadmill in 68 min.  Progressive run starting at 8 min mile and finishing with a 6:53.  Glad I had Lily to talk to for the first 20 minutes.  Thanks Lily!

My IT band is feeling really good and does not seem to be bothering me at all.  The rehab I've been doing really helps and getting it scraped by Josse helps even more....even though I have bruises the length of my IT. ;)  Hopefully it heals up before I put my bikini on to pace the St. George half this weekend.

Unfortunetely my metetarsalgia continues to be a problem when attempting speed + distance.  I may be taking the year off of marathoning unless I figure it out.

PM:  3.5 easy

Kicking it way old school this morning.  Met up with Jen at the indoor 8 lap cement track in the basement of Springville HS.  Totally brought back nightmares from when I was overweight in HS and barely made the cutoff for the presidential fitness mile.  I think I ran like a 12:49 with a good 11 second cushion for the 13 min cutoff.  HS was not my glory days!

Anyway the place was packed and we realized it would not be easy to get a workout in but we were there so we were going to try.  Jen hadn't done a speed workout since MichelleL moved and the last one I did was a ladder workout so we just decided to go with that.  2-4-6-8-10-8-6-4-2 with 200 active recovery.  400 recovery after the 8's & 10.  No stopping ever and Jen was a jack rabbit when it came to the recovery.  Way faster than I'm used to which was probably a good thing.  40-1:25-2:12-3:00-3:48-2:59-2:14-1:30-41.  Josh jumped in with us for the 2nd half of the workout.

These numbers are not great and I could make up all sorts of excuses like the wrestling team doing walking lunges with 25lb dumb bells on the inside lane, the insane amount of swerving we did around walkers, and did I mention it was a cement track?  But the point is the effort was there and that is all I was going for.  The workout took an hour total with warmup & cooldown.  The constant turning with these short tracks is just probably not the best for my IT band so I added 2.25 CD mi on the treadmill at the gym.

30 min lower body strength training - I figured that since my legs were already toast from the cemment track workout it was a good time to do weighted lunges & squats. 

62 min on the treadmill easy recovery, 7.5 miles.

PM:  3.5 mi easy

7 miles with Jen in Salem.  We almost got hit by the Sherriff, and a bus, and the winder milk delivery guy.  Salem was hopping at 6am today!

PM:  4 easy

30 min weights - upper body and core

2 x 3 mi tempo workout.  1.5 mi warmup 6:37, 6:31, 6:25, half mile (4 min) recovery 6:33, 6:27, 6:22, 3:05.  I added an extra half mile because I was feeling good and wanted to push myself a bit.  1.5 mi cooldown.  Tough workout for me but I am happy to have it done.  It went really well besides the fact that my feet started bothering me towards the end.  I hate doing these tempos on the treadmill because I feel like it is cheating but the roads in Payson are just too icy for fast running so it was the best option.  The workout was definitely aided by my new discovery of Pandora on my phone.

Headed to St. George this afternoon to pace the St. George half so it should be a fun weekend.  Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Fun weekend in St. George!

1 mi warmup with Christie

Paced the 1:50 group for the St.George half marathon.  Came in a little early at 1:49:37.  I hate being off on my pace time but I think I did a good job and hit every mile within 10-15 seconds of the goal split.  This was a good forced recovery pace for me.  We had TONS of people running with us the entire race and I think I helped a lot of people reach they're goals.  Very popular time!

3 or so miles cooldown most of it with Scott & Spencer and all of it with Christie.  Christie wanted a fast mile and I was feeling lazy but told I would do it with her anyway.  We hit a 6:30 or something I think.  I felt really good about this considering I haven't run more than 13 mi total since TOU in September.  I am feeling really good and it feels good to feel good!  I am glad I took the time off my body needed and looking forward to jumping back into the racing scene.

Congrats to everyone that ran so well over the weekend and especially my training partner Jen who ran 18:20 in the 5k.

AM:  7 miles on the Santa Clara river trail in St. George.  Beautiful morning in sunny st. george.  7:20 pace

Drove Christie out to Sand Hollow to ride the bike portion of the St. George Half Iron Man course.  That girl is an animal.  While she rode for 3 hours I went shopping. :)

PM:  5 miles on the half marathon portion of the half Iron Man course with Christie.  It is such a tough course but Christie was an animal.  I cannot even fathom the thought of running uphill after biking 50 miles but she seemed just fine.  We finished with a 6:16 mi on the downhill portion.

Such a fun weekend down south and a big thanks to Christie for letting me crash her condo for the weekend.  It was so nice to run in shorts and a tanktop!

30 min strength training

8 mi boring progressive run on the treadmill.  Started at an 8 min pace and finished with a 7 min pace.  60 minutes

So hard to be at the gym after a fun and sunny weekend down south.  I am really starting to hate the gym.  Nearly every single treadmill is broken and some of the guys that do weights there are just down right rude!  The only thing that kept me from poking my eyeballs out today or tripping a meat head was a nice chat with pregnant little Merri! :) 

PM:  4 miles easy, 8:04 pace.

Fun (did I really just call it fun?) workout at the BYU indoor track this morning.  Jen & I were planning to meet up there and found out Melody, Julie, Josse, Melanie, & Emily would be there doing a workout.  Perfect because Jen & I were just planning on jogging around for an hour. ha! 15 x 1 lap on/off's.  I have no idea what the distance is for one lap?  61, 62, 62, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63, 63, 63, 64, 64, 63, 63, 62.  Not sure what that pace would be but it was definitely a good push for me.  Considering I am coming off of lots of high mileage I felt pretty good about this workout.  A big thanks to Melody & all of the other girls for pushing me this morning.

1 mi or so warm-up (sheesh those girls warmup fast!) and 2 mi or so cooldown.

PM:  2.5 mi shake out run, 22 minutes.

Who knew the circus lasted until 10:30pm?  Didn't get to bed until almost midnight but it was fun! :)  I tried to sleep in but my body is just used to waking up early so I got up and went to the gym.

25 min weights - lots of rest breaks

Slogged through 7 miles in 56 min on the treadmill.  My only goal was to run at a pace slow enough that I didn't sweat enough to have to wash my hair.  I definitely did not have the energy to wash my hair! 

PM:  3.5 easy, did not feel good.

Easy with Jen in Salem, 7:50 pace.

Started running outside this morning but fell before even getting out of my condo complex.  I was going VERY slow!  I'm sure it would have been better once I got out on the roads but I just decided it wasn't worth it.

20 min weights at the gym & 7 mi on the treadmill, 7:35 pace.  I was feeling pretty drained today, thank goodness for pandora!

I really hope the roads clear up tomorrow so that I can get a tempo workout in.

Due to icy roads I opted to do this workout on the treadmill. I had a bad attitude about it but wanted to get it in. Quick 1.5 mi wu and then I got down to business, just wanted to get it over with. Eased into the tempo with .5 @ 6:53 pace then did a 6 mi progressive tempo 6:39, 6:35, 6:31, 6:27, 6:27, 6:22. 2.5 mi cd for a total of 11 mi. Tough workout for me but ultimately I'm glad I pushed through it. My tv on my treadmill was broken and my cellphone died (no pandora) so it was mostly a mental battle today but a good reminder of what it feels like to really push when you really dont want to! Sweatiest Fest I've had in a long time, crazy how much I sweat on the treadmill.

Pm: 3.5 easy shake out mi OUTSIDE. Still lots of icy patches but perfect for some easy jogging.

6.5 mi santaquin orchard loop. Way overdressed this morning, it was warm!

Pm: 20 min jogging at the indoor track with the pups. 40 min walking.

20 min strength training

8.5 on the treadmill.  I feel like I raced over the weekend or something, major heavy leg syndrome.  Ran pretty slow but it felt hard.  haha just one of those days.  Did about a half mi total worth of strides towards the end at 10mph. 

4 miles easy outside.  7:35 pace.  So so very sunny and nice out. :)

Orchard loop with Jen. 3.5 mile unplanned tempo, a little icy in spots but we were careful. Eased into it with the first .5 6:30 pace. Then 6:16, 6:10, 6:12. Overall pace for the run was 6:58 which was pretty speedy considering the first mile was 8:02. The last tempo mile nearly killed me (very gradual uphill) but I'm happy we decided to do the workout. Thank goodness I have Jen to push me. I definitely earned myself some very easy jogging tomorrow!

20 minutes weights & stretching at home.

30 min strength training - planks, pushups, myrtle, lunges & squats

8 mi recovery on the treadmill, 2% incline 8:15 pace.  A few faster strides towards the end but they felt a little forced so I didn't push it.  My legs really needed an easier day.

Hilly route in Salem with Jen easy, 7:36 pace.

6 min 30 seconds on the elliptical to catch the traffic & weather reports.  Cross-training....booyah!

PM:  3.5 easy 8 min pace