My Running Log

5 easy with my boy in the stroller.

35 for the week. I wish I would have run further this week. 

I ran my yearly July 4 10K in Provo. I was really psyched for this race, but my performance didn't go as well as I hoped. They changed the course a bit, so it had a slightly net elevation loss. But my time was two minutes slower. It seems like most runners' times were 1 or 2 minutes slow than last year, so maybe it was the humidity. For me, I was wearing lighter shoes and no watch in an attempt to offset the extra 6 pounds I was carrying on my torso and my lower fitness level.

I felt pretty good in the race. But I just couldn't push myself very hard mentally. I didn't push myself into the next gear that I know I have. Not sure why I couldn't get myself there. But it was fun anyway. I love the festive spirit.

There was only one complaint with the race, but I'll keep that to myself.

I'm going for 50 miles this week. It will be harder if our baby comes this week, but that's still my goal. 

Too busy these days...but six miles...enough to get by.

Ran one mile to restaurant to pick up dinner.

My wife has our baby girl today. Beautiful little angel. 

AM - Ran 11 miles on the Jordan River Parkway while my wife took a nap at the hospital. Each mile was under 8:00 pace. Nice and muggy outside.

PM - Ran 8 miles on the treadmill at home. Trying to see if I can still hit my mileage goal for the week.

I ran 17 miles today (after 19 yesterday). 13 miles in the afternoon and then needed to help with the kids. And then 4 miles of intervals in the evening. Felt pretty decent at the end, which was a pleasant surprise.

As of Friday morning, I had 14 miles for the week. But I was able to finish off the week strongly and finished with 50 miles, which was the goal. I'm really proud of sticking with that goal, even though it was a challenge. I need to consistently get 50+ mile weeks if I'm going to reach my goals the rest of the year.

Next week my plan is at least 50 again. 

8.1 miles on the treadmill, pushing the pace fairly hard. I had to back off a little at the end. Averaged about 7:25 pace overall.

Another harder effort. 7.1 miles. I don't feel I'm progressing much in my fitness lately. So hopefully some higher mileage will help with that over the next few weeks.

1+2.55+4.55=8.1

Treadmill miles. Did some short intervals, but legs were pretty dead so didn't push too hard. Excited about training lately. 

8.1 miles in 65 minutes for about 8 minute pace overall. Pushed the pace the first half but then wasn't feeling great, so I slowed down. This is my best Mon-Thurs in a long time.

I got up at 5 am to do a long-awaited trail run. I wanted to explore some of the trails near Alpine, UT. I parked the car in Highland and run a few miles to the trailhead. But I got lost in trying to find it, so I ran a few extra miles there. So I only did the first part of the trail. It was very steep, but it was awesome. The views are incredible, and it is just always amazing to be in the Utah mountains. When I got back to my car, I realized I had locked the keys in it, so I had to run home. That part was difficult because it was hot by then. 

3.9 miles from Highland up to the Schoolhouse Springs trailhead.

3.8 miles detour on Alpine Blvd because I took a wrong turn

1.8 miles on trail up to First Hamongog (1500 ft elevation gain).

1.8 miles on trail back down.

3.9 miles from Schoolhouse Springs trailhead to Highland.

6.8 miles from Highland to home.

Total: 22 miles (4 hours)

For the week, I ran about 53 miles. That's my best of the year. It was hard to fit that many miles into my schedule, but going on Saturday morning was good. I think that 50-60 miles is a great amount for me to get in shape but still be able to take care of other things. If I need to, I can always up the intensity. So my goal is to run at least 50 miles every week until my St. George taper.

Yesterday and today, I have been very sore! I could barely walk up. I guess that mountain running did it to me.

But surprisingly, I was able to run 7 miles on the treadmill, averaging about 8:15 pace. I actually felt pretty good. 

Nice treadmill run averaging 7:30 miles for 7 miles. Still pretty sore, but getting better.

7 more on the treadmill. Really struggled with this one. About 8 minute pace average.

7 miles on treadmill

7 miles on the treadmill for the fifth time this week.

This was my last run of the week because I fell asleep on Saturday night before I got my run in. So I didn't get my mileage goal for the week. I will do my best to make up for it next week. 

Got up in the morning and ran 11.3 miles on the treadmill. Felt pretty weak by the end, but that's OK. I sweat so much that my shoes were making squishy sounds at the end.

Congrats to all the people who races this weekend. 

I've only run 4 races in the past year. I plan to do more this time around. 

40 minutes of tempo on the treadmill averaging 7:25 pace. Then a cooldown. 6 miles total. That's a good distance (if I weren't training for a marathon).

I'm going to start doing mile repeats regularly. I ran some today over by Thanksgiving Point. There's a wide road with few cars that is good for night running. I ran back and forth 3 times. Actually, I ended up doing 4x1mile and 2x1200 meters (approx). Boy am I slow! I wasn't hurting too bad, but I just couldn't push the pace any harder. It was strange. But I'll keep working on it. It's definitely an area I can improve. Below are my splits.

6:43

6:31

6:31

6:25

6:25 (1200)

6:11 (1200) 

9 miles on the treadmill. 7 miles at 7:25 pace average. Then 2 miles at 8:30 pace for a cooldown.

A couple days ago Kelli mentioned on her blog that she was going to run the Sogonapmit Marathon. I hadn't heard about it until then. It was the Timpanogos Half Marathon run in both directions (hence the name which is Timpanogos backwards). You start at American Fork High School and run to AF Canyon, run up to Tibble Fork Reservoir, turn around at the starting line, and run back down. The elevation gain on the first half is about 1800, I believe. I was excited to run this race because I don't like all my races to be downhill ones (as are so common in Utah).

24 people ran the full marathon. We started at 3:20 am. The goal was to get to the starting line and turn around before the 1300 half marathoners started and then outrun them to the finish. Several of us did that, but then we found out the half started a little late, so we were a little less excited about beating them.

It was a fun atmosphere. It was nice to chat with Kelli and Julie on the way up. Much easier than the parts when I was running up the steeper parts of the canyon by myself in the dark. I felt quite relaxed, surprisingly the whole way up. The downhill was good too. I tried to just stay relaxed and feared that at some point I would crash and burn. That never happened. I had some moments when I struggled to keep my pace, but most of the downhill miles were 7:30 pace or faster, even at the end. (My Garmin wasn't super accurate in the canyon.)

The winner was Seth Wold, a very fast marathoner. He took it easy, stopping at aid stations for awhile to chat, stopping at the halfway point for maybe 10 minutes to chat with a friend, and running for awhile with some of us. Cool guy.

Once we got out of the canyon, Kelli and I ran together. This was very helpful. We were wanting to run about the same pace, so we pushed each other to stay on pace. If she didn't have to stop for two bathroom breaks, she probably would have beat me.

In the end, I got second place. It was fun to place that high, even though the race was small. I'm satisfied (but not thrilled) with that time on a fairly challenging course. I ran about 1:55 up and 1:36 down. Most of all it was fun to run on a gorgeous course and enjoy the company of other runners. Much better than trying to do a long run by myself.

One thing I did differently from other marathons was to stop at almost every aid station. My goal was to keep my blood sugar high and stay hydrated enough. I think it made a big difference for me because I didn't crash at the end. So it was good to experiment with this before St. George.

I had a good mileage week. Passed 60 miles, which was good to make up for last week and my highest mileage week in over a year.