Running For Trevor

I had to start this run way earlier this morning since I had babysitting duties starting at 7:30 am.  I did a 4 mile warmup jogging to the Payson HS track 8:30 pace, dragging the entire way and dreading the track workout that lied ahead.  haha

12 x 400 meter repeats.  First 9 @ the track with 200 meter rest all around 90 seconds.  I did not reset my watch for each rep so I don't have exact times but they were all right around 90 give or take a few seconds.  I did the last 3 on the way back to my house since I was running late.  This workout was HARD and made me realize I need to do these shorter repeats more often.  Once a week from here on out.  I am committed...to the track. :)

Overall pace for the run including the very slow cool down and warm up was 7:42.  Looking back I wish I would have just taken the time to time each repeat but there is always next time.  That is a lot of times I just included in one sentence. ha! 

PM:  2.5 miles with my sister pushing my nephew in the jogging stroller. 9:56 pace.  My right shin was bothering me a bit on the run which is not a good sign considering I was barely jogging. 

5.4 miles outside easy recovery santaquin loop.  legs were SO heavy from the speedwork yesterday and didn't really start working until the 4th mile so I just took it nice and easy. 8:35ish pace.  Not sure if it was the neon green long sleeve I was wearing or the fact that I was going so slow but I had a car pull right behind me and start honking like I needed to get out of his way?  What the heck dude you had the entire road!

25 minutes weights at the gym. 

I noticed there were all new treadmills at the gym so I decided to try them out.  2 miles 8:03 pace.

PM:  2.4 miles easy.  I am suffering from some major heavy leg syndrome.  I'm guessing it must be from the SW tuesday.  So the plan is to take it really easy the next few days.  I'll be icing and foam rolling while I watch this Jazz mess I guess.

20 minutes weights working triceps and situps.

7 miles easy.  Legs felt a little less heavy today so that is good. :)

PM:  3 miles easy.  I did 4 1 minute efforts at 5k pace and it felt really hard. ha!  Not a great sign but I'm just going to shake it off. 

I am LOVING how early the sun is rising.  8.55 miles nice and easy around the farms in Payson.  So so nice out this morning!  Now to just run about 2 minutes per mile faster than I did today for the 5k tomorrow.  Piece of cake right?

Anyone interested in planning a LR on the UVM course one of these next few weekends?

Provo City 5K today.  I kind of jumped in on this race at the last second after realizing I was recovering really well from Boston and deciding I might as well just go for it.  I did two mini workouts in prepration and other than that I was just banking on the fitness I had built while training for Boston.  I made it quite clear that I wanted one thing and one thing only out of this race....SUB-20!!

Parked at the finish and jogged up to the start.  Today is my brother Trevor who passed away in 2009 24th Birthday so I was kind of emotional jogging up.  I started running about 8 months after he passed away because I was having such a difficult time dealing with his death.  Running turned into my coping mechanism and I never expected to be good at it but here I was going for sub-20 on his Birthday!  I was excited.  Met up with Jake, Andrea, Kevin, and Merri at the start.  Jake and Andrea were doing a bunch of drills...what the heck teach me guys?  I acted like I knew what I was doing and probably looked like a complete idiot. ha!

Mile 1:  There were about 50 people that sprinted out in front of me.  I felt like I was dying the first quarter of a mile (see why I need to learn to do strides) and the fast pace was a complete shock to my system.  I stayed with Merri almost the entire mile.  It felt a little too fast but it was so nice to run with someone.  6:09

Mile 2:  Slowed it down knowing that I was a complete idiot for running the first mile so fast.  I felt freaking great!  What the heck this is a 5k you aren't suppose to feel good?  Oh well just keep trodding along.  Passed Billy and Janae and they cheered and I wished them good luck.  6:22

Mile 3:  It was starting to hurt a little but not too bad.  Just kept weaving in and out of half marathoners.  Ran into a kid from my HS running the 5k that started out way in front of me. Tried to stay with him and talk to him for a minute.  6:20

.12:  Kind of suprised it was already over and definitely did not kick soon enough.  I heard my parents screaming my name and picked it up into the finish.  6:06

Very excited that I hit my sub-20!!  I know the course was slightly "aided"  but common I don't think it was that aided.   I am definitely mad at myself for not negative splitting but I still reached my goal and it is also a great indication that I have more potential.  Honestly I have never felt that "good" running a 5k.  Sure the last mile hurt a little but I felt really good overall.  I still have lots of learning to do as far as running goes and I am excited to keep working hard and see what I am capable of.

Congrats to Jake and Andrea who completely swept the race and are just amazing people and runners.  Seriously you guys make me want to keep working hard thanks for the motivation.  Also congrats to Kevin who ran awesome taking 2nd and major congrats to Merri who ran 19:57 with hardly any training.  I am so glad I talked her into running this with me!

I missed the awards ceremony because I went to run the last 7 miles of the marathon with my friend Julia.  It was definitely a tough marathon course and we were all alone the entire time.  It felt so weird after being used to the crowds in Boston.

AM:  6 miles easy

PM:  3.25 miles easy

Legs feel great considering I ran a 5k yesterday.  No fatigue at all.  Time to tackle some UVM training in the next 3 weeks. 

Pushups & planks

Ran 10 miles around the orchards in Santaquin.  First 4 miles were easy and then I kind of impulsively decided to do a few MP tempo miles.  I was freezing and realized I needed to go faster than a 8:30 pace to get home and get to work in time. ha ha 7:19, 7:15, 7:11, 7:10.  Not much of a workout but it did help stimulate what marathon pace will feel like.  It felt controlled and maybe maintainable?  Cooled down 2 miles back to my house.  I didn't want to push myself too hard today since I am still recovering from the 5k Saturday but I think this workout, although short was just what I needed.

PM:  2 mile shake out jog with the pup. 8:45 pace. 

40 minutes weights at the gym.

7.6 miles on the treadmill easy, 2% incline.

PM:  3 miles jogging with my sister and my nephew pushing the jogging stroller. 9:26 pace.  I must say I am getting much better at pushing the jogging stroller.  My nephew is no longer afraid for his life because of my inability to stear. haha!

Track Day!!  I am really committed to this track thing.  I didn't want to do shorter reps because my hamstrings are still a little tight from the 5k so I decided on 5 x 1 mile @ 10k pace with 400 meter of active recovery.  Goal was a controlled 6:45 pace.

Jogged up to the track 2.5 miles.  Did a lap of drills to warmup.  High knees, butt kicks, and some stretching.  Splits were 6:39, (The new workout became negative splitting.....I am not competitive at all) 6:35, 6:33, 6:31, 6:28.  The effort on the last 2 repeats was probably much harder than it needed to be but that is my own fault.  A good workout none the less.  Jogged back home.

Planks & pushups at home.

PM:  2 mile shake out run. 8:45 pace  Legs are tight but the shake out felt good.  I am going to take it super easy tomorrow.

20 minutes weights at home working triceps & biceps with my little 10lb dumbells.  Mostly just trying to wake myself up for the run. :D

8 miles easy recovery.  I wore my compression sleeves to run this morning because my calves were a little sore.  Felt great once I got going.  The effort felt really easy but the pace was faster than my normal recovery pace. 8:04.  I'm going to blame it on the gorgeous morning.  Something about nice weather seems to naturally make me run a little faster I think.

PM:  3 miles easy.  More easy miles tomorrow and then a good long run with MP tempo miles planned for Saturday. 

30 minutes weights at the gym.

Ran from the gym to the Spanish Fork river trail and did one lap around the trail and then back to the gym.  Kept it easy and felt kind of sluggish on the run.  I'll blame it on the overcast weather. :D 

Back to double digit runs.  I was up early to get this one in before heading to Logan for the day with my family to celebrate Mothers Day.  I had 2 goals for this run.  The first was to not stop my watch the entire time and practice fueling while running (something I suck at). And the second was to hit at least 6 miles at marathon tempo pace.

Ran from my house to the mouth of payson Canyon (6 miles), and then 4.5 miles up the canyon.  Then turned around and ran back to my house.  Tough run with all of the uphill followed by the pounding of the downhill.  GREAT practice for UV marathon.  First 10 miles were easy and last 8 were at tempo effort elevation adjusted for pace.  7:51, 6:55, 7:09, 7:06, 7:22, 7:19, 7:01, 7:23 (was going to quit the tempo at this point but decided to push it once I got halfway.)  Overall pace for the run was 7:43. 

Aerobically I felt great the entire run but my legs (quads & hamstrings) started to give out towards the end.  Probably a combination of the high mileage this week and the uphill running.  Oh and I did the entire run without an ounce of water which was really stupid but I just forgot to drop waters last night.  Overall a great training run for me!

PM:  2 miles shake out 8:40 pace.  I definitely did not need these extra miles but my legs were SO TIGHT after being stuck in a car most of the day and it felt so so good to shake them out.  Definitely tight and fatigued from the canyon run this morning.  But nothing is injured so that is good. :)

6.6 easy miles, usual Sunday route.  Gorgeous morning. :)

2 mile warmup and then 3 x 2 miles @10k pace.  My goal was not to run this all out but to hit around 13:45 for each set.  I did the same loop three times and started each first mile on a gradual incline.  I am always trying to figure out negative split pacing and this seemed like a good idea (6:56, 6:41), (6:55, 6:38), (6:46, 6:37).  I did a full mile rest inbetween each set which is probably way too much but it kept things consistant.  I must not have slowed down too much for the rest periods because my overall pace for the run was 7:26. 

Considering I did not feel like running at all this morning this turned out to be a pretty good workout.

PM:  my 4:30 meeting got cancelled today so I took it as a sign I should probably go running.  4.5 miles easy.  hot!  Legs were toast, 8:15 pace.  Felt much slower than that.

40 minutes weights at the gym

Ran from the gym to the river trail and then back to the gym.  Easy 8.2 miles.  1 mile on the treadmill when I got back to the gym to catch up on the news.  Legs were tired this morning so I kept it nice and easy.

PM:  2 miles easy.

Track workout!!  I'm still feeling a bit fatigued from Monday's hard tempo and I am planning another MP tempo for Friday so I knew I needed to keep the workout today relatively simple.

Decided on 15 x 200's with equal floating active recovery.  I kept the 200's between 42-45 seconds and felt good.  I really enjoyed this workout and feel like it wasn't too taxing on my body which was what I needed.

PM:  3 miles easy, felt good which is a good sign that I didn't push the workout this morning.

30 minutes weights working biceps/triceps & pushups/planks.  110 pushups today.  Amazing how when I first started doing pushups I could barely handle 10 and now I'm up to 110!  Woohoo!

7.5 miles on the treadmill, 1.5-2.5% incline.  Easy miles while watching the news.  My right shin always seems to bother me when running on the treadmill.  It does not bother me at all when running outside.  weird!  Maybe I am changing my form or something who knows but for the time being I think I'll just avoid the treadmill.  I only ran on it today because I forgot my garmin which is a lame excuse.  Should have just ran outside for 60 minutes.  Why is it so hard to run without knowing how far you go?

PM:  2.5 miles easy.  legs felt tired.  I am planning a LR tomorrow so hopefully they hold up. 

I debated about where to do this LR but ultimetely decided just to run up the dam canyon again.  I didn't go up quite as far as last Saturday but just a little ways passed the park.  First 9 miles were easy but not too easy just my regular 8 minute pace and then I started the 8 mile tempo. 7:01, 7:03, 7:06, 7:09, 7:05, 7:08, 7:16, 7:01.  Hobbled my way up over the overpass and back to my house.  I was freaking toast!  I had time to add on and make this a 20 mile run but ultimetely decided my body would benefit more from a 10 minute icebath than an extra 1.5 miles.  Overal AP for then entire 18.5 was 7:36.  I'd by lying if I didn't say this was one of the toughest runs I've done in awhile.  I was struggling the last couple of tempo miles.  The wind was picking up and I was sweating so bad I ripped my freaking shirt off.  Wearing a long sleeve shirt was a dumb idea.

Glad to have this one out of the way and I even made it to work on time. :)

Oh also I wanted to mention that around mile 15 the bottoms of my feet started to feel like they were on FIRE!  Much like at Boston but it was not hot enough today for this to happen?  It hurt and did not go away until I slowed down for the cool down.  Anyone have any ideas what this might be from?

AM:  7.5 miles easy with Kira & Lily.  Halfway through we picked up Jason and Jessica.  What a fun morning and thanks ladies for running with me at 6am. :)

PM:  4.5 miles after I got back from babysitting.  Wore the new Kinvaras and loved them.  I felt like I was running way slow but somehow paced 7:36. 

7 miles along my regular Sunday route - 7:33 pace.  Not sure why I was going so fast this morning but my allergies were driving me crazy so I was just trying to get the run over with I guess.  My legs feel great after the test run in the Kinvaras last night.  I am hoping to make the Kinvaras my UVM shoes since they are about 2.5 ounces lighter than the Mirages.

2 miles at the track with the pups - 8:15 pace.  Hot out!

Pushups & Planks

Todays workout did not go exactly as I had hoped but with that said it was still a great effort and I am not too dissapointed.  I wanted a 10 mile MP tempo progression run starting at 7:30 and gradually making my way towards 7:00.  1 mile warmup and then straight into the workout 7:24, 7:22, 7:26, 7:07, 7:07, 7:05, 7:17 7:05, 7:11, 7:04. Now that I actually look at the splits it wasn't all that bad and I felt pretty good and controlled except the last mile that was into a headwind and I felt like I was pushing a bit to hit that pace.  Completely unaided route with only a few gradual uphill/downhill sections.

After today I feel more confident that I am capable of holding a 7:24 pace (3:15) for the duration of a marathon.

PM:  2 miles nice and easy.  Legs feel suprising good considering the tempo from this morning.

8 miles nice and easy around downtown Payson.  Lots of car dodging this morning.  I felt tired so I kept it really easy today.  I am babysitting 6 kids between the ages of 3mo-3yr today so the goal was to waste as little energy on the run as possible.  I'm going to need all the extra energy I can get to keep up with the chaos!!

30 minutes weights at home.

PM:  survived the babysitting adventure.  Man that is hardwork.  1.5 mile run with the pup.  barely shuffling my feet.  I am exhausted!!

Speed workouts are so freaking mental for me!  I knew that I wanted to do 6 x 800s this morning but kept trying to come up with excuses to skip or shorten the workout.  The closer I got to the track the slower I jogged. haha!  Finally got there and continued jogging all while giving myself a pep talk.  Who cared if the workout was a flop?  Who was I trying to impress anyway...the HS kids sleeping on the football field, the PTA club all decked out in they're hydration stations huddled in a circle around the mini van talking, the barefoot runner boy running stairs?  Duh....who freaking cares just run! 

And with that ground breaking pep talk and the promise to myself of a pina colada slurpee on the way to work I was off.  3:03, 3:03, 3:03, 3:01, 3:00, 3:00  400 meter untimed recovery in between sets.  I hate 800s but this workout wasn't all that bad.  The most dissapointing thing about the morning is that I got stuck in traffic and never got my slurpee!

PM:  3 miles easy, 8:34 pace

30 minutes full body weights.  My arms are turning into noodles with my lack of lifting lately. haha

7.1 easy, boring miles on the treadmill.  2% incline.  I have a cold, or allergies, or both?  Stupid freaking hay fever!!

PM:  And I officially have a cold.  Wa, wa, wa!!  Better now than the week of the marathon I guess, and this is what I get for babysitting sick kids all day Tuesday.  I should have seen it coming.  Anyway ran from my house to the city building to drop off the city bill and then up to Walgreens to buy some cold medicine.  5.5 mile round trip but I stopped and walked the last half mile because I felt like crud!  I was planning to do my LR tomorrow.  I really like getting it done on Friday but now I am trying to decide.  I guess we'll see how I feel in the morning.

Anyone running long this weekend in Ut county?  15-17miles?

8.3 miles easy.  Windy but probably not as windy as it will be tomorrow for the long run so I guess it was good practice....  Still fighting off this cold and my head is feeling a little foggy so I am glad I decided to wait and do the LR tomorrow.  Plus I have ran by myself so much lately it will be nice to have some company. =)

Me and JulieC are meeting at the movie theatre in the River Bottoms in Provo around 6:20 a.m. for 15-16 miles out and back up Provo Canyon.  Anyone is welcome join.  Relaxed pace and if we get done in time we'll head up and watch everyone racing the 5k/10k. 

Woke up feeling much better this morning.  I am so glad I waited an extra day to get over the cold plus I had awesome company in JulieC!!  Running with someone else is so much fun when you get really used to running alone. 

We started out slow running up Provo Canyon, first mile was like 8:45?  I felt good the first 9 miles and even the steep uphill mile up south fork and then all of a sudden I started having shooting pain on the inside of my left foot.  It just felt like my shoes were laced WAY tight and cutting off my circulation or something.  Very weird and it continued for the remainder of the run.  We had planned to tempo the last 4 miles but both of our left foots were hurting so we decided to just run and not worry about pace.  Which is totally the way to go because we were running tempo pace (for me Julie is much faster) and I did not even realize it.  Aerobically it felt easy but I just wanted to get the run over with because my stupid foot was killing me.  Anyway pace up the canyon was 8:11 and pace down was 7:21 for an overall of 7:46-7:47 depending on whos garmin you look at.  :)

Now back to the dumb foot.  Julie is thinking it is PF and that does seem right.  This was my 3rd time wearing the Kinvaras, 1st time on a LR.  I did wear them for speedwork on wednesday and had no problems.  Do you think it is the shoes?  Just asking anyone and looking for opinions.  I am not freaking out too bad because I had similar problems before Boston and it ended up just being nerve related.

Okay enough about me!  After the run we rushed up to Orem park and barely missed Melody's finish.  She won by a long shot running in 36 minutes. wow, wow, wow!  So fun to meet her.  Did not get to see Jake becauce he was out running but congrats to him as well.

Longest non race report ever.  sorry!!!

5 miles nice and easy.  Wore my Mirages and my foot feels about 75% better.  I am assuming I either hit a nerve funny and irritated it or it was just the Kinvaras and the jarring of the downhill.  Either way I am glad I felt better today.

My plan for the 10k tomorrow originally was to run half marathon pace.  New plan is marathon pace.  If I feel good after the first 3 miles and have no foot pain I will reasses.  Since my hard workout for tomorrow is 6 miles at MP tempo the 10k fits right into that plan. :)  I just really feel like I need to be smart and stay healthy in these last two weeks before the marathon and considering the foot pain I had Sat racing does not really seem smart.

PM:  2 miles easy.  After a huge breakfast followed by a long nap, followed by a huge lunch and another nap I felt like the laziest person alive!  So I ran 2 miles to work up an appetite for my huge dinner. ha!  I love Sundays.

It is very cool that 26.2 puts on this race and it really is a lot of fun.  I woke up feeling incredibly congested from this cold I am still getting over and was so glad I had a race that was going to force me to get a good workout in.  Otherwise I think I would have skipped my workout today because I felt crappy!  I did not wear racing flats and just wore my Mirages. I was worried about my foot and was not planning to take the race too serious anyway.

Picked my sister up who was running the 5k and headed to AF.  I was planning a 2-3 mi warmup but I just kept running into friends and people I knew.  This truly was a "fun run".  I got a little over a mile jog before the race start.  Whatever I was just there to have fun and get a good workout in.  My only real plan was to hit HM/MP tempo.  I heard the course was hilly which I was really excited about because I figured it would be a better workout for UVM.

Mile 1:  6:50 oops to fast!  In my defense of the fast split this mile was complete chaos!  They started the 5k about 100 yards in front of the 10k and there were about double the people running the 5k.  So this mile was spent weaving in and out of strollers, dogs, and herds of walkers.  Passed my Sister and wished her good luck.  Then passed Julie and her daughter.  Julie yelled at me to catch up to Kim and Jane. haha yeah right Julie - I'm not racing this remember!

Mile 2:  6:56 okay that feels better.  I feel relaxed and smooth just keeping a consistant pace.

Mile 3:  7:20 Felt good and passed about 10 people on the hills.  This mile was literally all uphill.  It just kept climbing, and climbing, and climbing.

Mile 4:  6:58 More hills!  I just kept thinking this must be great training for the marathon. :)

Mile 5:  6:44 One last hill to climb up to the cemetary.  I was honestly kinda shocked to see this split.  Whatever!  I was all by myself during this mile except one boy I could see about a quarter of a mile ahead.  Lots of weaving in and out of 5kers.

Mile 6:  6:25 Saw my sister cheering for me, asked her how she did and she ran with me for a minute.  I was shocked to hear she finished the 5k in 27 minutes!  20 weeks pregnant and no training.  She rocks!

.2:  1:12 6:02 pace  Saw my cute parents cheering and kicked it in to the finish.

Overall pace was 6:50.  This was a really fun race and I think that if I would have been more focussed and actually trying to race I could have finished about 60 maybe 75 seconds faster.  With that said it was definitely a solid workout!

Had to leave fairly quick after because my Sister is off to Disneyland so I did a 3 mile cooldown on the river trail in SF followed by 40 minutes of weights at the gym.  Legs felt good during the cool down.

7 miles easy recovery around the Orchards in Santaquin.  I am still feeling really congested and not sure if at this point if it is still the cold or allergies.  I seem to get allergies really bad when I run the River Trail in SF because of all the cotton floating around.  I may have to avoid that area for awhile I suppose.

20 minutes weights at home working shoulders.

PM:  1.5 mile jog with the pup.  I am trying to keep my routine as normal as possible during the taper.  I am having a harder time than normal with this Taper.  I think it is just because I have more time on my hands than normal.

Skipped the track workout this morning because my calfs are still feeling tight.  I'd like to blame the soreness on the race Monday but I honestly think it is a residual effect of wearing the Kinvara's for the LR Sat.  My calfs were way tight during the race monday too!  After the marathon I am planning to figure out a way to ease my body into lighter weight shoes. 

Anyway 5.4 miles easy.  The weather was perfect this morning.

Planks/pushups and then 15 min cooldown on the elliptical.

PM:  2 miles easy with the pups (yes plural I am dogsitting) at the track.  Yay for school being out and no one being at the track.  I wanted to go longer but settled for a nice 1 mile walk instead.  Blasted my music as loud as I could so I didn't have to listen to the pups yap at each other.

Such a nice morning, I am really digging this weather! 

Warmed up 3 miles and then did 11 x 1 minute on/off.  I felt really good and running faster felt good.  Today was one of those workouts where I had to pull the plug on myself because as Jake would say "The hay is already in the barn".  No need to push too hard in these final workouts.  Jogged home 2 miles.  Overall pace for the 8 miles was 7:28.

Since my always faithful JulieC bailed on me I am looking for someone to run the last 6-8 miles of UV marathon with me???  I will repay you with icecream, cookies, cake, whatever you want!  Okay who am I kidding all of the food in the world would not be worth the agony of dealing with me for over an hour.  Any takers??

PM:  went to the gym to lift.  30 minutes upper body weights.  1.5 mi cooldown on the treadmill.