AM: Did a 2 mile warmup, 1 mile with Kim before we separated so I could do hill repeats and she could meet up with a new running buddy.

My legs were feeling surprisingly good after the busy weekend but I figured with the lack of sleep factor and general Monday blahs that I might not be in top form for doing hills. This was indeed the case as I think I wimped out a bit on most the repeats. However I was still happy I was able to complete the entire set of 8 x 2-minute repeats with 3-min active recovery. I figure it's better to slow down a bit and finish the entire workout than try to force the pace but quit half way through. Ave pace (of entire workout, hills ave was faster or course) 8:55.

I'm slow blogging the run today as I got one of my ugly migraine headaches about an hour after the run that is just now finally wearing off. When I get these I can't hardly see straight and doing any computer work is almost impossible. So my first hour of work has been a wash, mostly sitting in the dark with eyes closed, massaging the temples and trying to quicken the recovery. I'm so glad I'm now finally feeling better.

Noon: Ran with Paul, Nate and Bill out toward EagleView but going straight rather than up the ugly hill. Wasn't sure how it would go after the migraine this morning but things turned out OK.  Fortunately this was a recovery run for everyone so the pace stayed in the easy 8-9 range.  I didn't want to push my luck with miles today so I left the group and turned around after 2.5 miles to make 5 total (they were doing 6 miles). Ave pace 8:31.

AM: Recovery day for me. I ran with Kim down to the river bottoms and then joined her for her hill repeats - 6 x 2-minutes with about 3 minute recovery. It was impressive to see Kim charge up the hill for the full 2 minutes, over and over again. I believe her first rep was the slowest and last one was the fastest so she sped up most every time up. I was remembering how just a few months ago when we would go up even a pretty tiny hill she would often walk most or all the way. Now she rules the hills. Veyo beware. I guess maybe it's time to pay a visit to Harrys hill, perhaps on Saturday. Ave overall pace for the 7 miles today around 10 min/mi.

No more running for me today. I may do some core workout stuff later at the gym.

AM: Drizzly morning solo run.  Warmed up for just over 2 miles then did 8 x 2-minute intervals with 3-minute active recovery then 1.5 mile cooldown. Wanted to keep the pace in the 5:30-5:45 range and was mostly successful but it was harder than I wanted it to be. This is the first time doing this type workout in the morning and I think it's just harder to get the legs moving fast in the early AM. Looks like I covered .35-.37 miles per interval. Splits were 5:43, 5:38, 5:37, 5:39, 5:39, 5:43, 5:47, 5:40. Overall ave pace around 7:40.

Noon: Ran 5 more miles in the rain with Paul. I was sure glad he showed up at the last minute, I was thinking the rain had scared everyone away. Ended up being a real nice run I thought, the rain was a non-factor and philosopher Paul was at his best providing wit and wisdom. Ave pace 8:24.

AM: Another dandy rain run with Kim. That's 3 runs in a row in the rain, I hope we can see some sun the next couple days. Ran just over 6 with Kim including a half dozen or so 2-minute speed-ups just for fun in the 7:10-7:40 range. Tacked on a little more at the end to finish off with 7 miles. Ave pace 9:28.

No more running today, I'll save it for tomorrow as I'm planning on getting in 20. I'll probably do some core work at the gym later.

AM: Did 1 mile warmup nice and easy then 14 miles a bit quicker. Nice to not be running in the rain for a change. Ave pace 7:45.

Noon: Ran Lakeview 5.15 mile out and back route at work. Wasn't sure how I would feel after the long run this morning. Actually felt pretty good. Ignored the garmin. Saw some cool birds. Ave pace 8:28.

Went 14 miles with Kim, Kay, Ludlow and Alan N. Another very wet morning as the rain started up just after we started and never let up the entire run. We were all soaked to the gills with frozen hands by the end! Actually I'm still having trouble now getting my hands/finger to function adequately to type this report!

Kim got her first taste of Harry's hill and ran it quite admirably, didn't look like she was even breaking a sweat. I guess I need to take her up Loafer mountain next time. I wasn't sure what my legs would feel like after the 20 miler yesterday at mostly sub-8 pace, but I was pleasantly surprised that I felt great the whole run and found our mostly 9-10 min pace to feel quite therapeutic.

Ave pace: 9:44 

AM: Nice morning run but a bit nippy for June. Of course the SF canyon winds were doing their thing as well. Went around 6 miles with Kim and then 1 solo mile after Kim met up with her new running buddy to finish off her run. We did what will be the last of the hill repeat workouts. Since this week will be a slightly reduced mileage week (55-65 miles for me) and since we have a race on Saturday we didn't do as many hill reps as last week (5 for me, 4 for Kim). These were timed reps, 2 minutes up the hill, 3 minute rests coming back down. I was pleased I got quite a bit further up the hill than last week, of course it helped that I was only doing 5 reps instead of 8 and wasn't still recovering from a weekend of no sleep. As usual Kim was looking strong coming up the hill not far behind me. Ave overall pace 9:33.

PM: Ran the Lakeview 10K loop with Paul. Nice sunny day, almost on the verge of being too warm but I'm not going to whine about the heat quite yet. Ignored the garmins, had some good chit-chat and just ran by feel keeping it easy and comfortable. Ave pace 8:12.

AM: A bit of a sleep-running morning today with Kim. Couldn't seem to completely wake up and get going. Ran the 6+ mile river bottom loop. Beautiful morning today even with the wind. Kim was feeling some pain in her right hip adductor muscle so we went a bit slower than normal. Pain is probably due to the long run on Saturday followed by sort-of-long-run yesterday with hill repeats. My bad--perhaps Coach Tom needs to mellow out a bit. Ave pace around 10 min/mi.

Late AM: Ran 4 miles out toward Lakeview, paid no attention to pace, ended up being around 8:30 pace.

Also did some core work at the gym.

AM: Solo 8 mile run. Felt OK but as always it's a little hard to get the legs moving in the early morning. Did some dynamic stretching exercises before going out that helped with the warmup factor. A bit nippy again today, but no wind, no rain, so no complaints. Ave pace 7:53

PM: Ran the Lakeview 10K loop with Paul and Darin. Nice run, at first it looked like the weather might be nasty but it turned out to be a pretty nice day, albeit a bit windy. I felt better than I expected to after the morning 8 miler. Ave pace 8:12.

AM: Sleepy head 5.1 mile run with Kim around the neighborhood.....mile road, BSRools road, windmill road, etc. Another chilly June morning, felt more like April, but not too bad after a warmup mile or 2. Kept the pace on the easy side and no hills, wanting to make sure Kim's thigh pain stays on the mend. Ave pace around 10 min/mi.

Late AM: Ran just over 3 miles easy at work. Felt lethargic. Did a couple of striders in the middle to try and wake my legs up but it didn't help much. Also did some core work afterward at the gym. Ave pace 8:20.

Ran 6 miles nice and easy on this brisk and windy morning. Just over 2 miles with Kim then a few more solo. Ave pace 9:20.

I don't have any particular goals for the 5K tomorrow. I mainly would just like to see Kim's name get drawn for the SGM entry. I haven't tapered much if at all this week so I'm just treating this as a tempo run. Hoping my body will let me run around 6 min pace or slightly under for at least the 1st 2 miles, but I'll just play it by ear and take what my body is willing to give me.

My efforts in getting completely over the lower abdominal and groin strain/pain have been so-so. I feel great some days and other days the pain is annoying but bearable. It doesn't seem to get any better or worse regardless of how slow or fast I run. In fact oftentimes I feel better after faster workouts than slower ones. I know, I know...probably time to go see the Doc/PT and see what he says. After WBR if I still feel the same or worse that is what I plan on doing.

YAHOO!!! KIM GOT HER GOLDEN TICKET TO SGM!!! CONGRATS KIM!!!

Now as far as the race...... I would say very so-so for me. But certainly better than the Ephraim 5K a few weeks ago. I'll give myself a C+. On paper I should be in the 18's but lately I've had trouble getting below 19. Thing is at the end of the race I really felt like I'd given a hard effort and felt about as spent as I ever have for a 5K. Kind of a bummer that my 5K and 10K pace is so similar. I guess it was a little warm and most runners I talked to who had run it before were off on times. Kim says I'm being too hard on myself with the C+ grade but I'm sticking to it! Heck I've run an 18:36 5K in training in March so I should be able to go sub-19 regularly in a race environment I would think!

So need to figure what the issue is. I think most likely it's just weariness from building up mileage recently (quite a few 70+ mile weeks as of late, plus I didn't really taper for this race), but maybe even more so are these lingering lower abdomen and groin pains that I've had since the back-to-back 1/2 marathon & 10K races in April (Note to SELF: DON'T DO UNPLANNED RACES A WEEK AFTER ANOTHER HARD RACE!!! This may work when you are younger but for a Masters guy I don't think it is WISE!). I didn't feel like the abdomen/groin pains affected me while I was racing but I think maybe they affected the nervous system side of things. Sorry WBR teammates but I think I will be needing to run a bit less aggressive than usual this year.

I DID like leaving the garmin at home and just using a regular stopwatch and doing more of run by feel. Interestingly enough through the first 2 miles I ran almost exactly according to what I had planned on doing with the garmen. Go out just under 6 min pace and try and hold it as long as possible.

So I was 5:55 at mile 1. Perfect, felt about right but I was bummed I lost touch with the large group ahead of me that included Bill Cobler, Suzanna Thomas and basically the crowd that performs around the level I would like to be at. They must have been around 5:45 for this mile I think.

Hit mile 2 marker at 12 minutes (total time). OK a little off where I wanted to be (was hoping for another 5:55) but still averaging 6 min pace so OK.

OK now the dang hills of mile 3. This is where I died. This is where the mental toughness thing is just so hard for me. It didn't help that I found myself in a no-mans-land with no other runners close enough in front of me to provide motivation. I try thinking in my head what Paul told me about "Embracing the Pain" and kept thinking to myself "Embrace the pain....embrace the pain". It helped for a while but I still feel like I kind of gave up on the uphill.

Also tried Sasha's grunting routine during the last 1/2 mile or so. I think this did help me recover a bit after the uphill but I need to toughen up a little sooner. I was thinking I was going to finish without being passed by anyone but DANG another master runner (57 yrs old it turns out) blew past me the last 1/4 mile. I tried to catch him the last tenth and closed the gap but I couldn't overtake take him.

I forgot to notice my mile 3 pace but I figure it must have been around 6:30 to end up with the 19:13 overall.

Tough field today in all age divisions. Would have liked to have been top 3 in 40-44 but I didn't earn it so 5th place seems about right. I was excited Kim got 4th in her AD, I think that is way cool she can do that on just 9 mos. running.

As usual enjoyed spending time with all the blogger folks, we had a pretty decent sized group. Also was proud of my son Jansen for doing pretty good on his 5K with pretty much no training (just over 24 minutes I think).

AND A HUMUNGOUS THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PUT IN KIM'S NAME FOR THE SGM TICKET!!!! JANSEN, KIM'S BROTHER JEREMY, BRENT & SYLVIE, THE 3 PACHEVS (SASHA, BEN & JENNIE) AND ANYONE ELSE WE MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT. THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH!!! I HAVE A VERY EUPHORIC HAPPY WIFE AT THE MOMENT (WHICH USUALLY MEANS GOOD THINGS FOR ME AS WELL ;))!!!!!

AM: Ran 14 nice relaxed miles, did a slightly modified version of the Krishna Temple loop with a stop in the middle at the ball fields for a drink. Don't remember a lot since I guess I was doing the sleep-running thing most of the time. Legs feeling pretty good after the Saturday 5K (thanks Kim for the awesome Father's Day massage last night!!!). Ave pace 8:26.

With WBR this weekend the plan is for mostly easy miles the rest of the week. I've gradually worked up my long run the last few weeks to where I'm used to getting a 20-mile day in at least every other week so today with a 2nd run at noon it will probably be a 20-mile day unless my body says to do otherwise. Seems like when my mileage gets much above 70 mpw my body starts to rebel so I think I'll keep most weeks in the 60-70 range for now, with possibly a couple of 70-80 mile weeks at the peak of the marathon training cycle.

Noon: Let the heat training begin! Ran Lakeview 10K loop with Paul and Nate. Also another guy I didn't know whose name I can't remember joined us for the first 2.5 miles. We were all a little tired so didn't want to push too hard, but I was surprised considering the heat that we ran as fast as we did. Ave pace 8:05. 

Recovery day for me. Went down to the track with Kim to give her her first taste of a track workout. Decided to do 8 x 400s at around 3K pace which for Kim is around the 7:30-7:45 min/mi range. We jogged another 400 to rest in between.  But now after seeing how easy it seemed for Kim to run the 400s at this pace I'm wondering if her true 3K pace is a little faster as I think she ran all 8 reps a bit quicker than this. I think next week we'll try doing 10 reps and see how it goes.

No more running for me today. I'll likely do a core workout later today at the gym.

AM: Easy 7 mile solo run mostly around river bottoms. Felt very lethargic today. Kind of strange since all day yesterday and last night before I went to bed I was thinking how good my legs were feeling. Maybe had something to do with the alarm waking me up instead of waking up a few minutes before the alarm as is usually the case. Did a few 10-20 sec striders to try and kick-start the system but to no avail. Oh well...go figure. Ave pace 9:02.

Noon: Ended up running just over a mile and a half before turning around and coming back to end up with 3.1 miles. I did feel better than this morning and what felt like the same effort ended up being around 8:15 pace rather than the 9 min pace this morning. But as I ended up alone on this run and it was hot I just didn't feel like going any further. I hope Dale is correct in his comments. Ave pace 8:15.

I finally broke down and scheduled an appointment with Doc Takasaki check on the lower abdomen pains and see if by chance I have a hernia. The groin stuff seems to be on the mend this week but the gut thing can still be very annoying at times. Nice thing about Dr. Takasaki is that he's a runner so he "get's it" and won't give me any stupid advice like some non-running doctors are prone to do.

Last easy run before WBR. Glad I was feeling better today than yesterday (perhaps the company was better?). After around 1.5 mile warmup I helped pace Kim on a pair of mile splits with the goal pace being in her 10K pace range (currently 8:15-8:30, but I think perhaps closer to 8 min is more accurate). Did a 2 minute jog rest in between. I made her be conservative on the 1st mile which ended up at 8:15 with wind at our back. 2nd mile was into the wind and I didn't hold her back as much. Ran most of that mile around 8:10 pace but then she wanted to kick the last quarter so I told her to go for it and we ended up finishing the mile in 7:52.

I'm envious of Kim's "kick" gear, she seems to have a much easier time than me switching to the sprint gear. She thinks I'm sandbagging because oftentimes I can't keep up when she turns on the jets, but honestly it just takes my legs a good quarter to half mile sometimes to accelerate up to the speed she gets to in a matter of seconds. Oh well I guess  some of us are Porsches and some of us are dump trucks.

Ave pace 9:15.

Good luck to everyone running WBR this weekend! Looks like we're in for another HOT one!

Had some troubles this year at WBR, not such a happy (or fast) camper. Stomach problems, bleeding ulcer, etc. means I didn't have as much fun as usual. Oh well those are the breaks. More details later......headed to the ice bath at the moment.

 More details later......

AM: Ran 8 very slow solo miles. Playing it safe after WBR weekend. Very little sleep last night which was a bit unexpected after the exhausting weekend stuff. 

Legs actually feel the best they have ever felt following a WBR weekend. I suppose it helped that with all the stomach/ulcer issues I didn't run all that speedy.

Lower abdominal and groin pains are about the same as always. Going to see the doc tomorrow to see what he says. Even if he says I'm still good to run I've decided to bag the 3-hard-3-easy-workouts-a-week experiment (speed/tempo/long) and go back to the winter 2-hard-4-easy schedule.

I can't see that I've gained a thing by adding the extra speed day but rather have always felt partially injured or tired enough that I haven't felt rested the way I like to feel on hard days and my workouts for the most part have felt forced and unnatural. Recent races have all been off as well.

At this point I would just be happy to get back to where I was toward the end of winter. Don't know if sub-2:50 is in the cards this year with the lingering injury situation and apparent loss of fitness, but I hope at least sub-3 will be doable. If not I suppose there is always another year and I can continue to enjoy my Coach Tom duties and watching Kim's amazing improvement as she prepares for her very first marathon.

AM: Ran the Lakeview 6 mile route nice and easy with Kim. I have been in a bit of a funk the last couple of days so Kim surprised me after work yesterday and had planned a little one-night excursion to help snap me out of my bluesy state. Well I think she was successful as so far the day (and last evening) have been great.  Thanks Kim!

Ave pace 10:17.

I also went to Doc Takasaki today to check on the abdominal/groin pains. He confirmed that I do NOT have a hernia (hooray!) and that it's all muscular stuff that will just require the right balance of rest vs. training to fully heal. He said that continued training shouldn't make it any worse, so I should be fine to continue training for SGM, and he gave his blessing to my plan of going to just 2 hard running days instead of 3. Also said to just use common sense, adequate rest, ice, anti-inflamatories, etc. He gave me a prescription for some kind of once-a-day NSAID to try out that is typically easier on the stomach than ibuprofen or aspirin which sometimes give me ulcer problems.

PM: Just over 6 miles at work solo. Decided to run Kuhni Road since I did Lakeview this morning with Kim. Still keeping everything slow and easy. For whatever reason I felt more little post-WBR aches and pains today than I did yesterday.

Ave pace 8:56.

AM: Nice easy 6 mile run with Kim on a super-windy SF canyon "breeze" morning. Still in recovery, very easy only running mode. My legs and problem/pain/injury areas felt really good this morning, but I'm resisting the urge to do what I've done in the past which is to do a hard run just as soon as the body starts to feel good. I'm trying to maybe wait until I feel good for 3-4 days straight or an entire week before doing anything faster than very easy pace. I'll try and keep the pace in the 8-10 range until Saturday. If I've felt really good up until then I'll insert some sub-8 min pace miles on my 20-miler. Hopefully this will be the formula that gets me past the injury bug. Also I've decided no races until at least mid-July. Perhaps a 5K on July 12.

Ave pace 9:55.

PM: Ran 1.5 on the treadmill then 4.5 with Nate toward Lakeview in the HEAT. Good news is that I felt very good, didn't pay much attention to the garmin, and what I would have guessed was an 8:20 pace was closer to 7:55. So yes I cheated and went faster than the goal pace for the next few days of 8 min or slower. What can I say...Nate made me do it. Hope I don't pay for it tomorrow. At least I was only faster by 5 secs per mile.

Ave pace 7:55.

AM: Went over to Payson to give Kim her first taste of Payson canyon uphill/downhill running. As usual it was a little hard to get the legs to wake up in the early AM hours but after a couple of miles I was feeling pretty good. Kim must have also been feeling good because she kept speeding up every mile on the uphill. We ran 3.5 miles up then turned around where Kim starting doing 3 1-mile repeats back down with 2-minute jog rests in between. I've been wanting to do only very easy miles for a few days to try and resolve some lingering injury issues. So far so good although it was tough to stay in the easy pace range since Kim was cranking out some sub-7 min paces during stretches of the downhill mile repeats. Overall we did around 7:30 pace on the repeats. My legs are still feeling great so I'm thinking after another easy day tomorrow I will try to keep the majority of my 20-mile run on Saturday in the 7:30-8:00 range.

Besides seeing many deer and 1 fox (2 if I count Kim), there was also a sighting of fellow FRBer Marion (I could have included Marion in the fox count as well but wasn't sure if that was proper ettiquete!). She was running strong up the Canyon while we were coming down finishing up. Good job Marion!

Overall ave pace 9:22.

Late AM: Ran a couple slow miles on the treadmill (8:30 - 9:00) then did my core workout.

Morning easy run just over 9 miles. Started out with Kim and ran just over 2 with her then finished the rest of the miles solo. Legs feeling pretty good. Can still feel some discomfort in the lower abs but not much of any pain at all in the groin so I think we are making progress. Man it sure would be nice to be like Kim who never gets sore no matter what workout I put her through! Lucky!!! Oh to have virgin running legs again......sigh...

Ave pace: 8:56

Had a great 20 mile run with the SF group this morning. Kim and I and everyone ran together for a few miles before the various pace groups went their ways. After going up Harry's I got a bit of a runner's high and was able to have a few miles of easy, effortless, fun running in the 6:45-7:30 pace range. It's been quite a while since I've felt this good so I hope I didn't overdo it. No pains during the fast running but toward the end after slowing down and after finishing I am feeling the familiar pains in the lower abs and groin. I've been doing the R I C E treatment and an ice bath awaits.

Was wanting to keep the middle miles under 8-min pace if my body said it was OK. Ended up averaging 7:50 for the 15. Rest of the miles were mostly in the 8-9 range. Ran some of the faster miles solo and also some with a group consisting of Hal, Pat and Alison.

AM: Paid a visit to my old friend/nemesis Mount Loafer. Wanting to get the hills out of the way early this week with Kim and I running a 5K on Friday. First time running Loafer in nearly a year and hoped it would feel a little easier than past years but it was still plenty difficult getting it going on the uphill. Only went up to the gate and skipped the ugly 10% grade last mile. I haven't looked at my splits from previous years but I think I do think the whole run was probably faster than I've ever done it before so that makes me feel pretty good about the run. I had heard there had been a group doing Loafer on Mondays but nobody there today except for some run/walk Salem folks that I passed on the way up. Ran from Loafer school down to Salem Canal road, up to the gate and back down, then tacked on enough extra to get to 8 miles. It's hard to know how to log these hilly miles, going off effort I decided to log as 4 easy miles, 3 marathon pace, 1 threshold.

Uphill splits:  8:28 (included a bit of downhill at the beginning), 9:07, 9:24, 6:40 (.66 miles, 10:07 pace)

Downhill: 6:17, 6:44, 6:56, 7:14 (added some flat), 2:48 (.34 miles, 8:14 pace on slight uphill)

Overall average pace: 7:57.

PM: Ran with Paul out Lakeview direction 5.1 miles on a nice hot day. We decided to be wild and crazy and go on a few roads we don't usually run on so we didn't have to go on some boring roads we're tired of. Paul was pretty good to keep the pace calm but he cheated on mile 3 or 4 and we dropped below 8-min pace (Paul you don't mind if I blame you do I?).

Ave pace: 8:11