Every Run is a Great Run!

Wow what an absolutely beautiful day today! I guess it's "In like a lamb" for March this year. This was my first official non-St. George short-sleeve shirt day for 2010. Weather and the rest day yesterday had me feeling perky for the run and I probably ran a little faster than I should have.

Plan was for a fartlek run - 4 x 5 minute segments throughout the run at a "comfortably hard" pace, around 10K pace or a little quicker. I pretty much worked it so at the beginning of every even mile I'd take off for 5 minutes. So plenty of rest time in between fast segments, I think I ran mostly 8-8:15 pace during the "rests".

Overall AP/AHR: 7:29/162

AP/AHR for each 5-min burst: 6:20/175, 6:23/179(uphill to finish out this one so it was harder than the 6:23 would indicate), 6:16/183, 6:17/183.

Felt great during the run and still feeling the love afterward. Sunshine and endorphins are great!

Another nice day although a bit cloudy. But I'll save the complaining for the next couple of days when it's raining/snowing. Did a recovery mini-long run. Had a hard time finding any kind of comfortable running rhythm today.

With 3 miles to go I ran into Nate and ran with him and finally seemed to get into a better flow. Interestingly the 3 miles with Nate that felt better were in the 7:30-7:45 range where the other 9 clumsy miles were around 8:15-8:30.

AP/AHR: 8:14/146

Mother Nature was a trickster today. Sunny and high 40's when I left in shorts and short sleeves but when I got to the mid-point of the run, which also just happened to be the farthest point away from the finish point, she decided to throw some wind and rain my way. This lasted most the rest of the way except at the end of the run the sun came out again for a brief appearance. I'm sure about this time Ma Nature was having a good giggle. The hands and arms were a bit chilled and it took me a good long time to get myself out of the hot shower.

Ran 7 peaks hill route. Decided to do the steep hill sprints early in the run instead of later. This seemed to work better for me and I think I'll always do it this way now. Ran 10 x 10s sprints and felt pretty good.

AP/HR: 8:27/148

Warm day again today but a bit blustery. Plan was for 2 mile warmup, then 2 x 15 min. @ HMP with 1 min active recovery. Not sure what my HMP is but I figure 6:45-7:00 is in the ballpark. The wind was bothersome on the 1st interval and helpful on the 2nd.

Looking at my HR it's a bit high for HMP for me so I probably did these a little too fast considering the wind. On the 2nd one out of habit I think I pushed a bit just so I could be done. The logic seemed good at the time but now it occurs to me that DUH! - on a timed interval vs. distance it does no good whatsoever to speed up when your running 15 min regardless of pace. Just made me work that much harder than I needed to. Guess I'm not used to doing timed intervals.

Overall AP/AHR: 7:36/164

Interval 1: AP/AHR/Distance: 6:54/175/2.18

Interval 2: 6:42/185/2.24

Busy day at work today so I wasn't able to get out until afternoon. But that did mean I was able to get the better side of the weather and even see a little sun. Did 30-min XT warmup (S/B/E) then 5 miles real easy outside.

8:30/141

Didn't have alot of zip today so I took it pretty easy. Kim and I met up with the SF group at 6 then ran the usual route to bishops and Osbournes. At around 8 miles most folks turned around and I went a bit with Bob and Dave then solo for a few. Then it worked out I hit the water stop the same time as Tyler and the great Clay RamboJr Simmons. Tyler was headed home but I got to run  with Clay for 4 or 5 miles. I was grateful for the company during that stretch since I was a bit sluggish and it helped to chat with Clay and be distracted away from my slug running. After parting ways with Clay I met up with another guy whose name I don't remember and ran with him back to the stake center then headed home. 

Even though I felt a bit sluggish today I enjoyed the run and with the slower pace it's nice to feel not too worn out as I write this a few hours later.

AP/AHR: 8:50/144 

Beautiful sunny day with a touch of a breeze. Plan was for 4 x 6min intervals @ 10K pace with 3min rests. I was able to complete the workout but it felt harder than it should have. More like 5K pace. I was also seeing 190 HR during the last 2 repeats - for this workout I really shouldn't get that high, too close to my Max HR of around 195. Not sure what the deal was. Probably legs still a bit tired from the 18-miler Saturday in combination with maybe not eating/drinking ideally yesterday.

I plan on doing an easy mini-long run tomorrow but then take a recovery week split between the last half of this week and first half of next week with the Rex Lee 10K on Saturday right in the middle of the "recovery".

Splits average pace/HR info:

1 - 6:28/178 (8:28 pace during 3-min rest)

2 - 6:26/183 (8:55)

3 - 6:24/185 (9:33)

4 - 6:28/187

Overall: 7:40/165

Got busy at work after the run and just finally getting a chance to log the run. Had a very enjoyable easy mini-long run today. Got into a good relaxing rhythm and pretty much ignored the garmin. Pace ended up toward the slower side but probably about right for a mid-week 13-miler.  Mother Nature must have felt guilty for last week's mid-run good-to-bad weather switcheroo trickery - she decided to do the opposite today and give me glorious sunshine instead of the rain I was expecting.

Had positive vibes going - just feeling very, very thankful for all the good things I've been blessed with in life. Thankful for my job, hobbies, that my aging body can still enjoy the active lifestyle. Thankful for friends and neighbors, in particular my tax-man neighbor who told us we're getting a sweet refund. Thankful for small expressions of kindness - like today during pit-stop at the convenience store where the cowboy with the broken arm told me how much he admires us "jogger folks" who can run so far. Then there was the cute little elderly couple, out for a walk, struggling just to achieve a 60-min/mile pace. The old man yelled to me "I wish I could run like that!". I told him I was running the next mile for him and his sweetheart.

But mostly thankful for my family, and especially that little cutie from Manti.

8:28/146

7 peaks hill run. Did 10 x 10s hill sprints around mile 3. Windy day today, had a stiff headwind the last 2 miles that put me at a snail pace. Brrrrrrr....,,

8:39/146

Warmed up with 25-30 min XT (S/B/E) then outside for 5 mile run. Felt pretty good today and had a little zip. Did 8 x 30s pickups throughout the run. Nice to see my HR acting more normal, it's been higher than usual most the week.

7:34/158

Kim picked me up from work and we rode down to the lake for a nice 4 mile run in the sun on the PR trail. A quite enjoyable run. Wish the weather forecast for race tomorrow was more like today!

**** Update: They finally posted the race results. Looks like I got 1st in AD and 1st overall Master's. Woo hoo! Also Kim got 2nd in her AD and overall Master's and 206 out of 1526 overall including the men. Nice!

Been going non-stop since the race - just finally getting a chance to make the report. Not sure on my actual time or place since we had to leave quick after the race and they haven't posted anything online yet. I was a little slow turning off my watch at the end of the race so chip time might be a little quicker.

Ok so whoever the BYU math whiz was that measured the race distances must have been smoking something banned by the honor code. Either that or maybe some over-zealous sunday school teacher trying to teach a point..... perhaps making the 10K only 9K had something to do with us paying our race tithes of 10% of the race distance. And maybe the 3.28 mile 5K was teaching us we should go the extra .18 mile. Anyways the race handling was a mess but at least the money went to a good cause.

So as far as my race: I felt like it was an OK race for me. Time adjusted to last years course which I had measured at 6.10 miles I ran it nearly identically, so probably worth around a 40:20-40:40 on the old course.

At the start I didn't see hardly any runners that looked Master's AD age except for Lawrence Mancuzzo who just happened to be last year's 45-49 winner. I just beat him last year (I was 44) during the last mile as he did what many runners do on this course and go out too fast on the 1st uphill mile then die the last mile or 2. Knowing this I decided not to worry about catching him until the last 1/2 of the race. Turns out he must not be in as good of shape this year  as I passed him shortly after mile 1 and never saw any sign of him again.

Mile splits/ave-HR and commentary:

1 -  6:57/174 Starting line moved back a bit so not quite as much uphill as last year. As expected lots of runner go out to fast and leaving me in the dust for now. I pass Mancuzzo at the end of this mile.

2 - 6:22/184 First .25 is uphill then it's roller coaster time as we get the fun downhill. Time to just relax and let gravity do it's thing. I just love running downhill and now it's my turn to start passing all those young coeds who went too fast up the hill. Mile markers are bogus and meaningless.

3 - 6:03/185 Yee-haw!! Loving that downhill running, passed a few more runners. Downhill ends at the end of this mile.

4 - 6:38/187 Flat to slight uphill mile. Mostly running alone now and missing the downhill. Start to lose focus on this mile. Also I see now my HR was approaching190. Whenever this happens in a race it means I'll be in trouble in the next 1-2 miles. Good thing that's all I have left to go.

5 - 6:54/188 Lazy mile for me. This is when the serious pain starts in a 10K(9K in this case) and I lose interest in racing and start slacking for a while. Also confused with the messed up mile markers, not sure if there is going to be some surprise addition the last mile to make the race get to 10K or if it's going to be short. Only one runner passed me the whole race and it was during this mile (#4 or 5 woman??). I did close the gap near the end but couldn't ever catch her.

5-5.6 - 3:51(6:39 pace)/190 We merge in with the 5K runners. This is good and bad. Good because the extra crowd snaps me out of my stupor. Bad because the 5K runners are going slower pace so lots of weaving thru runners. I'm really hurting and actually quite happy that the race is going to be short. I'm able to drop the pace closer to goal and push to the finish.

Overall average pace/HR: 6:35/184

Kim had what I think is a possible PR 5K race finishing in somewhere in the 24:00-24:20 range. Of course we don't know for sure because the 5K was .18 miles long so her official time is 25:30. Check out her report for more details.

Another nice sunny day. Looks like we're in for a treat weather-wise most days this week. Legs are feeling great after the race, so maybe I'm getting my marathon legs back. Now if I can just find a way to squeeze a little more aerobic fitness out of this old body and bump the speed up a notch.

Ran with Nate for 6 miles at around 7:35 pace. This pace always feels much easier to me running with Nate than when solo. Then ran 4 more solo miles at a pace probably more appopriate for me for the first run after a race.

AP/AHR: 7:51/161

Easy mini-long run down to the lake and back. Had a bit of upset stomach the last few miles for some reason that slowed me down.

8:26/146

Seven peaks hill run. Felt real sluggish today. Maybe had something to do with the fact I was running to the bathroom all afternoon/evening yesterday with GI distress and serious case of the trots. Strangely enough the 10 x 10s hill sprints I did felt pretty good.

8:33/151

Guess I've had some kind of stomach virus or something the last couple of days giving me the GI problems and a bit of achiness. Because of this I decided to bag the planned fartlek workout and just do an easy 8-mile run in the sun. Good choice. I felt good for about 5 miles but then the gut started gurgling and my HR shot up.

8:26/146

Go Cougs!! Just pulled it out in double OT!

Warmed up at the gym with 20 min. XT then Kim and I drove over to about the mile 5 point of the PCHM and ran a 5 mile loop that mostly covered miles 5-10 of the race. Stiff headwind from the NW the first half was kinda annoying but the run back on the river trail was pretty nice. Stomach issues seem to be better but legs still feel a little clunky. Hopefully I'll have enough umph to run a decent 16-18 miler tomorrow.

9:15/129

Not too many runners out this morning. Guess everyone is down in St. George or Moab. Kim and I met up with what few SF runner showed up at 6 and did the usual route until Osborne's. Sure was dark out the first hour now that we're saving our daylight for later.

Still felt a bit sluggish at first like I have all week except for Monday due to the stomach flu. But no GI issues today and I got feeling better as the run progressed so maybe I'm finally over it. Plan was to run easy for 1 hour, then do 15 x 1 min intervals at MP with 1 min rests, then 30-60 minutes more easy. Figured that would put me at 16-18 miles and I ended up with 17.

I thought I was counting how many intervals I had done correctly but as I look at my watch I can see I did 16 instead of 15. Oh well, they felt fine. This workout isn't supposed to be particularly difficult and it was hard for me to keep the pace in the MP range (7-7:25ish) and about half of them were under 7-min pace.

After that I met up with Pat and Chad again at Osbournes and ran a few with them. They were pushing the pace pretty good between 7:15-8:00 so I'll count a little extra as MP pace.

8:44/149

Busy day today I had to hurry up to SLC after the morning run to go to a work-related conference, so haven't had a chance to log the run until now.

Ran in the morning due to SLC work stuff. Turned into possibly major bummer race season-ending run. Actually the run was great up until the moment I felt my left upper calf seize up on me.

Up to that point I had done my planned workout - 4 miles easy then 5 x 3min hill repeats @ around MP but 5K effort with the uphill factor, in between reps jog easy back down hill. I felt really good doing the repeats, felt like all the hills I've been running recenly and especially the steep hill sprints have given me more power with my usually weak uphill gear.

Split info (distance/pace): .41/7:24, .42/7:15, .42/7:13, .42/7:10, .41/7:10

But then on the dang very last repeat about 5 seconds from finishing I felt the grab in my calf and knew something not good had happened. Tried stretching, massaging to loosen it up so I could jog home but I could never get it to feel very good. It's been bothering me most the day and it didn't help to have to be on my feet much of the day in at the conference in not-so-comfy dress shoes talking to customers.

Tonight I've been doing all the R-I-C-E stuff. I'm pretty good at the I-C-E but lousy when it comes to the 'R'. But I have vowed to do things right in regards to this injury and let it heal up properly. I'll attempt some cross-train to see if anything works without aggravating the injury, eliptical seems like the best bet (swimming is not an option for me).

For future reference I want to review everything I think I did wrong to lead to this apparent injury.  I ran a 9K race on the 13th. I am aware of the rule-of-thumb that says 1 easy/rest day per mile-of-the race in the days after the race, and had actually planned that into my next week, but I messed up the following Monday because I felt better than usual after a race and I ran faster than I should have when I ran with Nate. So that's Mistake #1. Mistake #2 was doing the steep hill sprints on Wednesday since that is when I first noticed the "twinge" in the calf. Mistake #3 was doing another hard uphill workout today.

So there it is. I'll try the crosstrain tomorrow or the next day and see how that goes. No plans for running until I can do a 45-min walk or XT workout without any pain. 

This is probably as good a time as any to do this. I've had a little bout of PF going as well (I get this about every 2-3 years) so this will give me a chance to nip that one in the bud as well. 

 8:10

Well maybe I was overly dire in my assesment of my injury yesterday. I fully expected when I got out of bed this morning to hardly be able to walk, but to my pleasant surprise I felt pretty darn good. I'm thinking Dale was correct in his comment to me yesterday that these calve issues can seem much worse than they really are.

Nonetheless I decided to be extra cautious and take the day off. Didn't do any cross-training either but I might go for a walk in a little while. Tomorrow I'll try some combination of cross-train and light running and see how it goes. At any rate I'm feeling very gracious to the Man Upstairs for small miracles and tender mercies, even when I haven't done much to deserve it.

Today was the first day to officially test out the calf. Looks like I dodged a bullet and I'm going to luck out in the injury dept.  I first did about 30min of crosstraining, mostly on the elliptical but some on the bike and stairs. Everything felt great, no pain in the calf but definitely still a tender sensation and a feeling like there's a big knot in there. A little massage work may be in order. I'm still a little nervous stretching it very much.

Since the XT went well I decided to go for a nice easy run. Thankfully things went very well and ended running 8 miles. The calf gradually loosened up and felt best at the end of the run. Mentally I was feeling a bit sluggish, probably due to being on my feet all day in lousy shoes the last couple days in SLC and eating too much garbage food at the conference. It's too hard to turn down all the chocolate stuff they have at the desert table.

So for now I'll stick with the training program as far as mileage, but for the next few days until I feel like the tenderness/knotiness is gone, I won't do any steep uphill running or anything any faster than MP pace and mostly all in the very easy range.

8:50/139

Felt a little perky starting out so I got a little daring with the gimpy calf and did some MP miles in the middle. Felt good until the wind kicked up and ruined the moment. Plus my calf started giving me hints that I better not push my luck and HR was creeping up higher than it should so I slowed way down for the rest of the run. Hopefully I didn't overdo it.

I'm still considering adding more cross-training to my regiment and maybe dropping my running days to 5 or even 4 days, at least until the calf feels fully healed. This goes along with guidelines that Brad Hudson suggests for masters runners. Just wish the cross-training was a bit more enjoyable.

8:01/160

Decided to follow Andy's wise lead and bag the run today in hopes of increasing the odds of having a positive long run experience tomorrow. Looking at the weather makes the choice look even better.

Friday is kind of an optional-run/crosstrain-instead day for me anyway so I figured I'd see how much gym action I could mentally tolerate. Ended up getting 75 minutes, probably worth around 8 miles running.

Did 45 minutes on elliptical, 15 min bike and 15 min stairs. No calf pain whatsoever. I was surprised the calf didn't complain about the stair machine but I felt great throughout, other than the boredom factor. Sure is hard to get the HR up though.

Thankfully I had some tunes to help out, good mix of old and new bands... Beatles, Steve Miller, Journey, Green Day, Foo Fighters, etc. Today's winner as far as best use of creative rhyming in a song lyric goes to the tune where the attempt is made to rhyme "Texas", "facts is", "justice", and "taxes". Can anyone name the band and the song?

AHR: 132

I was nervous about this long run today what with all the issues with the calf this week. So what a pleasant surprise to enjoy the best run I've had all week and the calf felt the best it has since I tweaked it. Good to know that a strategic extra rest day or cross-train day here and there can work wonders on my aging legs.

With UVM approaching I was eager to get up the canyon and start running the course. So today I drove up to near Bridal Veil, ran up about 4.5 miles then down mostly on the course route 15 miles.  I wasn't sure how safe it would be to run on the road but it turned out fine. I waited until it was pretty light and ran against traffic. Turns out most of the road coming down the canyon has plenty of extra room on the side for runners/bikers so there is a good margin of safety.

I think this will be a great marathon course. The middle section has some tough sections with the up/down rolling hills but the last 6-8 miles are nice gradual downhill with just a couple of "bumps". I look forward to checking out the first 10 miles of the course in the coming weeks.

Pushed the pace just enough to beat the 8-min man.

7:57/164

Had a hard time today deciding whether I should do the planned harder workout today like I usually do or start doing them on Tuesday now that my Saturday long runs are getting near the 20 mile+ range. Decided to go ahead and try it since the legs were feeling good and I slept really good last night.

May have made the wrong choice as I struggled to hold pace and ultimately cut the last interval short. Legs felt good but couldn't quite get my brain and legs to coordinate very well. I think combination of lingering fatigue from Saturday long run and warm conditions (around 60 degrees) did me in. Not used to those kind of temps just yet.

Plan was for 3 x 15 min progression intervals w/ 1 minute rest. First one should be MP (7:05-7:25), 2nd MP-HMP (6:45-7:00), last one HMP-10KP (6:25-6:45).

Did 10 min XT warmup (E/S).

Felt good on the 1st interval, 7:08 pace, 2.11 miles. AveHR 170. This is about right although HR should probably be a little under 170. Rest 1 min 9:30 pace jog.

2nd interval felt good for 1st half, but then something doesn't feel right. HR already creeping into the high 180's and feels too hard. 6:54 pace, 2.17 miles, AHR 183 (too high!, should be under 180). Thinking of bagging #3 but decide to walk for most of the 1min rest and see what happens.

3rd interval feels ok for about 1 minute then too hard. Can't hold sub-6:45 pace just try to hang on to sub-7. HR creeps near 190 after 5 minutes and I decide to only do half the time (7 1/2 minutes vs. 15).  6:56 pace, 1.09 miles, AHR 186.

Overall: 7:43/168 - HR much to high, should only be around 160 for this pace.

Oh well, just one of those days. I think I just need to run toward slow end of pace range when it's warmer like this. Need to get used to running in warmer as mostly like the marathon will get pretty warm toward the end.

The good news is my calf is nearly healed up, probably 90% at this point. No pain but I can still feel tightness when stretching and still a slight feeling of weakness. I'll  hold off on uphill running for a few more days.

Also happy that all the hill training seems to have me in good shape for downhill running. Wasn't sore in the shins/quads at all after the downhill canyon long run. Yahoo! Looking forward to 3 or 4 more runs dowm the UVM course before the race. Anybody want to join me?

"Time will turn us into statues...eventually". I was considering this song lyric today as I ran on my cement-ish legs and lamenting how I don't seem to recover from hard runs as quickly as I used to. The other thing I was thinking about was a facebook friend who commented yesterday that "Some call the wind Miriah. I call it annoying!!!". Amen to that.

Ran just over 4 miles with Kim early this morning. Then 7 more just before lunch at work.  On the way back to work the wind really kicked up (headwind of course rather than tailwind) and I slowed to a crawl. I was way glad I got the 4 in with Kim mostly without wind so I only had to do the 7 alone with the hairy winds.

8:45/143

The weather wasn't so inviting this morning. Called Kim under the pretense of giving her some motivation to get out the door when in reality I think I was looking for some motivation myself.  It was snowing lightly when I got to the gym. Had a 10-mile easy run planned but decided to substitute 20-min of XT and run 8. Plus the XT gave me a moment to warm up and also remind me how boring the gym is and how much better running outside is, even in poor weather.

Actually the weather wasn't so bad. Light snow that dropped off after a while but NO WIND, which is always a joyful thing. Decided to really put the calf to the test and did some steep hill sprints. 10 x 10s. No calf pain whatsover and surprisingly the hill sprints felt the best they ever have. Nice to have my hill legs and happy calves! However I ran the sprints hard enough I was pooped the rest of the run and I notice my HR shot up even with my speed moving downward.

8:45/145