On the road to BOSTON!

Starting my taper. Today I ran between a 9:00 and 10:00 pace and then mixed in some .10 to .20 mile sprints every once in a while. I was hitting between 4:26 and 5.30 pace on the sprints. If I could only maintain that kind of pace over a longer timeframe. I think that I will try to hit those times on wednesday morning for .25 to .50 mile sprints and start building up the distance I can hold the fast pace.

It was good seeing Clyde and Logan out on the trail this morning.

I went out and ran a couple of .25 mile sprints. 5:12 and 4:25 pace. I am trying to get a feel what it is to run that fast....... It was too hot for me this afternoon to push it longer. Maybe later tonight I will try a few more and longer.

Ran over Tonaquint picked up the bike path at the Dixie Center and ran to just short of the Post Office and returned back on the trail to home. 8.85 miles

Took a one hour break and did a 1 1/2 hour fast paced workout with tennis. I was running through the numbers and figured that I did at least 7 miles of short burst, side to side, up and back miles. May not be distance miles but for me they were miles none the less. (I logged only 5 of them).I did this instead of biking. The feet took a pounding for this workout but I feel great and very rested.

I have been mapping out my Wednesday morning run. I am looking at running the Snow Canyon Park road from the bottom of the park to the highway at the top. The plan is to take the run if if things are feeling GREAT, I will make the full loop (16.15 miles). If they are not do the simple down the hill to the car (9.00). This leaves me an out rather than running from the church and having to make the loop. I know Clyde and Logan did the loop on Saturday and I understand it is a tough run.....we will see how it goes!

Today I started running below the entrance to Snow Canyon Park. I ended up making the full loop. I am glad that is over.......a tough run this morning!

I have a litttl emore time now to explain my run:

Those hills going through Snow Canyon have some bite in them, especially the last couple of miles. I was sure glad when I got on top of Snow Canyon. The next 8 miles were great, not as fast as I had thought they would be but they felt good. I didn't look at my pace until I was completed with the run. The hard miles were the last 4 running along the Snow Canyon Parkway. I was tired and felt beat up on the last couple....had to do some walking.
When I started out the run my body hurt. The inside of my left knee was very sore as well as my left ankle and ball of my left foot. My left hip also hurt. (I think it is a combination of trying to shift my strike more to mid foot and getting adjusted to wearing orthotics). Once I g0t running they all went away and it is 3pm and my body feels GREAT!

Last night I was tired, not my body but me. The nrun in the morning took it out of me. At the same time my legs and feet felt great. I cannot believe how quickly the body can heal itself!

This morning I went for my normal 6.20 run around tonaquint to the Dixie Center and back on the trails through Bloomington and home. I took it easy and didn't push much at all and ended up with  9:14 pace. I even took a few walk breaks. 2 months ago I worked hard to get an 11:12 pace.

I am gettin more excited for the SGM. Hopefully the body and mind feels great that day and I can put up some good times. I feel very good about putting up a 4 hour run. The question is going to be can I have everything come together and cut that down to a 3:30?

I ran the exact run as yesterday morning. My legs were very heavy theis morning for the first couple of miles. Then all felt great! Headed for Ogden this morning and back tonight.....then run in the morning!

For starters I didn't get much sleep. I got home late from a fast trip to Ogden and back. My son had friends staying over for the night and they were making a lot of noise after 1am. My daughter was out late and is never quite when she comes home.....

I ran the final 12.13 miles of the SGM course. My body had a hard time getting going this morning. I almost stopped and went back to my car a couple of times. Then I finally realized that going back up hill was not a good option...

I had originally planned on pushing this run pretty hard to see what I could do. I abandoned that idea and decided to not look at my watch and just run what was very comfortable. Well when I got to the finish I was amazed to see that I had run an 8:07 average. That is 4 seconds slower than my Boston Q time. Of course I did run the easiest part of the course but I am still feeling very good about things.

I am going to officially start my taper now. I just couldn't do it this past week and I am glad that I didn't. The running I did this week has made me stronger and my body has mended very well this week from the minor pains that I have been having.