Every Run is a Great Run!

OK so maybe after a year+ of runningblog-free living, and with the start of new year and new age division (45-49) it's time to fire up the blog again. Taking a "rest year" has been good for me and has me feeling rejuvenated and hopefully a bit wiser after learning a few lessons, mostly the hard way.

Running lessons learned include figuring out that doing months and months on end of high mileage (which for me is anything over 55 miles or so a week) is counter-productive. I seem to be ok with a base of 50-55 miles or less with maybe a bit of cross-training thrown in. But the 60-70+ mile weeks only work for me for a few months, so I'm best off saving them for the months right before a marathon.

Even with the relaxed approach 2009 still had a few positive running surprises - like running my lifetime 5K official race PR in June at the Nestle 5K. Unfortunately I got sick the next day which also happened to be the week of the race I was really training for which was the UV Marathon. After being sick much of the week, UVM ended up being a total disaster and I got to experience my first migraine-aided voluntary marathon DNF. The other high of the year was running SGM from start to finish with Kim. It was a great day, great company, and I much prefer the sunny and pleasantly cool conditions to the monsoon conditions of 2008.

Well enough chit-chat --- started out the year right with a dandy 8.2 mile easy run with Kim. Nice in-between-storms day with the temps in the afternoon being pretty dandy for a January day. Hope 2010 is a great year for all.

Ran in the early morning with the SF group, mostly with Hal and the Barneys who were visiting for the holidays. Temps were warmer than I expected but a bit of breeze from the west. Hal talked me into running up Harry's again and as usual he pushed the pace back to Osbornes so I'll count 2 miles as MP.

Ave pace: 8:29

Ave/Max HR: 158/185

Had intended to do a speed/inteval workout today but the dumb garmin did it's thing where the battery loses its charge for no apparent reason. So I bagged that idea and did a nice easy 9 mile run instead. I'll try again tomorrow on the speed.

Nice day today although a bit nippy, but the sun was shining and I quite enjoyed the run. Since I had no watch/pace to think about I worked on a few Chi running focuses and ended up getting into one of those zones where I space off and then I suddenly find myself surprised to be at the end of my run. Felt like I could have run forever today, wish they could all be like that.

Ave pace probably somewhere in the 8-8:30 range.

Also did some cross-train stairstepper/elliptical - 10 minutes or 1 mile equiv.

Ave pace 8:12. Ave/Max HR 160/189.

Not a good workout today. Didn't sleep well last night and tired before even starting the planned speed workout. But in the spirit of Coach Hudson's advice to at least give workouts an attempt even on bad days I gave it a try. Warmed up 10 min on the stairs/elliptical then 1 mile on the 'mill. Then went outside for 8 miles including the attempt at speed.

Plan was to do a drop-down ladder interval workout. Warmup run for 2 miles including some drills/strides, then do 1 x 1m, 1 x .75m, 1 x 1km (.62m), 1 x .5m, and 1 x .25m, with 90s run/walk active recovery in between. Finish with 2 easy miles. Ideally you start around 10K pace and work toward 3K pace which for me is somewhere a bit below 6 min/mi. Did this same workout about 6 weeks ago with paces of 6:29, 6:15, 6:08, 6:01, 5:40.

First mile interval didn't feel right, by the time I was done it felt too hard, too much like it should be the last interval. Gunky inversion air didn't help. Next .75m interval felt worse, starting to feel nausea and GI yuckiness toward the end. Notice my HR is higher than it should be at this point. Started the next interval but bagged the whole think after .25, just feeling queasy so I loafed back to the gym.

Oh well better luck next time. Wish garmin would have worked yesterday when I was feeling good and was supposed to do the workout.

1m interval: 6:29, Ave HR: 179 (90s rest, 10:43 pace)

.75m: 4:47 (6:22), Ave HR: 182 (90s rest, 11:32 pace)

.5m - quit after .25: 1:30 (6:20), Ave HR: 185

So I've been doing an experiment since mid-October. Thought I'd try switching gears and do some 5K specific training rather than usual marathon. Wanted to see if/how it would affect my speed.

Verdict: It helped some for a while, but sub-32 temps and 5K training don't go well together. Also 5K-style workouts are not much fun, too much feeling like puking or actual puking. Helped me remember why I haven't done 5k training for a few years.

My 5K PRs are still all during marathon or half-marathon, higher mileage training cycles usually toward the end of the cycle when reaching peak. Much more enjoyable to me to get faster on this kind of training than doing cruddy 400/800/1200 interval type training. Will Painters 5K be any different?  Guess we'll see. Looking forward to post-Painters and starting up the UVM marathon training cycle.

Busy day today so pre-blogging the workout. Plan is for 2 crosstrain miles (bike/stair/elliptical), then 7 easy, hilly miles. Somewhere in the middle 8 x 8-10 second hill sprints.

8:20, 150/170

Felt sluggish at first then better as the run progressed.

Felt pretty good today. Warmed up 10 min crosstrain-stair/elliptical, then 1 mile tmill. Then hit the roads. 2 miles easy then 4 miles tempo then 2 miles easy to cooldown.

During the tempo run I tried to focus not so much on the pace but more on holding form and running at perceived effort in the 1/2 marathon to 10K pace range.  Was happy that pace improved as the run progressed with last mile being the quickest. Strangely enough the last 2 miles felt alot better than the 1st 2 even though I was 10-20 seconds faster. Much better workout today than Tuesday.

Pace and ave HR for 4 mile tempo: 6:52/175, 6:51/181, 6:37/184, 6:34/187

Overall: 7:30/167/190

30 minutes x-train bike/stair/elip, then 6 miles nice easy and relaxing on the roads. A bit nippy but the sunshine was glorious.

AP: 8:13 HR: 146/159

Ran with Kim and the SF group for a while then me and Hal for our weekly jaunt up Harry's. Toward the end Kent joined us for a couple of miles. Mostly easy, had a couple of faster miles that qualify for MP.

AP: 8:35

Kind of a strange workout today. Was supposed to be my 5K race peak workout. 5 x 1K repeats at 5K pace with 60s active recorvery. Warmed up with 10 min XT and 1 mile treadmill at the gym before heading out into the gunky air. I was feeling really good to start, usually means I'll have a pretty good workout. Did 2 miles easy including drills/strides before starting the repeats.

Felt pretty good the first 2 repeats but then suddenly in the middle of the 3rd I got smacked with a wave of nausea and GI distress and my form went all to pot. I started the 4th repeat but I quit after .25 and decided to just keep the workout medium difficulty and then do a couple quarters later on if I felt like it . Turns out I did feel like it.

I'm thinking the nasty air may have been the culprit. Even as I write this an hour later I can still taste the gunk in my mouth and kind of feel like I smoked a few cigs. For all I know I did more damage than good running in this kind of air. Oh well..... for Painters 5K I think I'll go out at 6:10-6:15 pace and see what happens. I was hoping to be closer to 6:00 average and sub-19 but we'll just have to see how it feels after the 1st mile.

Splits:

1 - 3:48 (6:08) HR 175 (1 min active recover - 10:55 pace)

2 - 3:51 (6:13) HR 180 (1 min AR - 12:05)

3 - 3:53 (6:17) HR 181 (1 min AR mostly walking - 14:04)

4 - quit after .25

Later on..... 2 x .25 around 6 min pace.

AP: 7:31  HR: 167/187

Better air today thankfully. The nasty effects of yesterday's run-in-the-gunk lasted through the day and night. I think I still even have a little aftertaste in my mouth today.

Today was a fun run with Kim. Maybe more fun for me than Kim because the plan was for her to do the same workout I did yesterday (5 x 1K @ 5K pace with 1 min active recovery) but at her pace, that we're thinking is around 8 min/mi. I thought this would be a challenging workout for her but she surprised me and seemed to hammer out the repeats without much discomfort. I think she should be able to run sub-25 at the Painter's 5K no problem.

I'll list her splits here for future reference:

1 - 4:55 (7:58/mi), 60s rest (11:16/mi)

2 - 4:55 (7:58), (11:10)

3 - 4:54 (7:58), (11:05)

4 - 4:49 (7:55), (11:14)

5 - 4:44 (7:39)

AP: 8:48, HR: 137/163.

Easy hills day today. Beautiful day with most the gunky air gone as near as I could tell. Did 20 min XT warmup (S/E) at the gym then out on the roads for 7 miles including 6 x 8-10s hill sprints toward the end.

AP/HR 8:08/158

I quite enjoyed the run today, even though the weather was kinda dreary. But temps were fairly mild and the air didn't seem too grungy. Warmed up with 10 minutes XT (S/E) and 1 mile on the treadmill. Then did a 2-2-2-2-2 workout. 2 miles easy, then 2 miles around HM to 10K pace, then 2 minute jog rest, then 2 more miles at HM-10K pace, then 2 miles easy cooldown.

Like last week I tried to not pay so much attention to the garmin, but rather tried to focus on keeping good form, breathing and relaxation. During the tempo I had this mantra in my head...."Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin like a fool w/yo pants on the ground.....". If you saw Idol last night you know what I'm talking about.

Splits/HR for tempo miles were 6:44/176, 6:41/182, (2 min jog rest - 9:26 pace), 6:35/181, 6:30/187.

AP/HR: 7:27/167(189max).

Easy run on a cold morning in the foggy foggy dew. 3 miles with Kim then 3 solo. Now off to St. George!

LSD run on the V.R. trail in Dixie. Went 10 miles with Kim then solo the rest of the way. A little chilly and cloudy at first but by the end it warmed up and cleared up nicely to where short sleeves were just dandy.

AP/HR: 8:53/135

Ran in the late afternoon, 3 miles with Kim then 5 solo including 6 x 8-10s hill sprints. Went later than usual because we were waiting for Tyler's phone call from the airport! Yesterday he left the MTC to head over to Denmark. We had a great chat with him and look forward to hearing about his experiences with the Danish.

Felt sluggish on most of the run. Oddly the hill sprints felt really good compared to usual. Taking a rest/reduced-mileage week this week.

AP: 8:38

Beautiful day today for January. A little breezy but I'll take it any day for this time of year. Warmed 10 min. XT (S/E), then did 7 miles outside including a 5K tuneup workout: 1 x .75m @ 5K pace, 1 min active recover (i.e. slow jog), then 6 x .25m @ 5K-3K pace with 1 min active recovery.

Felt ok but the repeats were harder than they should of and my HR reflected that. Perhaps the 2am call from the airport in Austria had something to do with. But I'll trade an off workout for a talk with my missionary boy any day!

Splits:

1) .75m - 4:42 (6:16 pace, ave HR 172), 1 min rest (10:14 pace)

2) .25m - 1:29 (6:03, 173), (1min rest 9:46)

3) .25m - 1:29 (6:00, 178), (10:10)

4) .25m - 1:31 (6:04, 179), (10:34)

5) .25m - 1:29 (6:01, 178), (10:21)

6) .25m - 1:28 (5:58, 181), (10:32)

7) .25m - 1:26 (5:54, 179), 

AP: 7:45, Ave/Max HR: 160/193 

20 min XT (S/B/E) warmup then 6 miles easy outside hills. Nice day again.

AP/HR: 8:09/151

No running today. Instead did 50 minutes x-train (10 min stairs, 10 min bike, 30 min elliptical).

20 minutes XT warmup (S/B/E) then 5 miles on the roads. Felt sluggish today, maybe it was the pizza party at work yesterday. Looks like we're going to bag the trip down to SG and skip Painters.

AP/HR: 8:24/145

Felt pretty good about the race, I'm happy anytime I'm under 20 minutes for a 5K and elated when I can sneak into the 18's. Kim also had a great race with close to PR time of 24:30 and 2nd in 40-44 women's AD.

We almost didn't make the trip to St. George when we looked at the weather forecasts. But then we looked outside and saw sunshine so we decided to take our chances - which proved to be the right choice, as we didn't really have any weather problems the whole trip. Plus we still had things to do at the condo to get it ready to rent out here starting in a couple weeks.

I had no real expectations for this race, especially since my speed workouts the last few weeks have been dismal. But in past years I've usually run well at Painters so I figured I'd go under 20 minutes and have a shot at under 19.

Probably went out a tad too fast but I was pleased that the close to 6 min pace felt as good as it did since lately in workouts I've been dying to hold that pace for a 1/2 mile. I'm sure being at 2500 ft and a touch of race magic helped.

I kind of wimped out the 2nd mile, I ended up in that situation I hate in races when I get stuck with nobody around to push me or key off of and I slack. But I was glad I was able to pick it back up the last mile and even pass a couple of runners (and manage not to get passed).

Felt really good shortly after the race and ran a few more miles including running Kim in at the end, so I suppose that means I probably could have pushed a little harder. But what the heck....I'll take the (barely) sub-19 when I can get them since they occur so rarely.

I thought Kim did a great job, near PR on only around 20 miles a week and a touch of speed work. She should have a great year this year.

Splits were 6:07, 6:17, 6:07, :30 (last .10, 5:55 pace).

I think the race distance was pretty accurate.

Time to switch gears and begin the marathon training cycle. Enough of that 5K training foolishness. Although the 5K race itself wasn't so bad, I think 5K training is the pits, especially in the winter.

Focus for the next few weeks will be mainly on building base and working weekly mileage up in the 60's instead of 40's and 50's. Also extra emphasis on hills. Not much speed work or tempo runs yet, just some occasional strides or maybe take off for 5-10 minutes when the horses are neighing.  Also a race each month for fun and to get a feel for where I'm at.

Had a very enjoyable, relaxed run today out toward Utah Lake. I was pleased to see my HR average in the low 140's while the pace was close to 8 min miles. Seems like I haven't been able to do this for a while.

AP/HR 8:05/143

Seven peaks hill route. Did 6 x 10s hill sprints in the middle.

AP/HR 8:08/146

Warmup 10 min XT (S/E) then 8 miles easy on Kuhni road.

AP/HR: 8:11/146

Just over 10 miles out toward the lake and back. Picked it up toward the end so I'll count a little bit as marathon pace.

AP/HR 7:58/147

XT 30 minutes (S/B/E) then 5 miles on the roads nice and easy.

AP/HR: 8:11/143

Had some things going in the morning so I had to get out earlier than usual and forgo running with the SF group. Nice morning today, no wind, humongous full moon. Did a lot of hills throughout the run and finished with just over a mile pushing it up Canyon Road hill. I'll count that last 1.25 as MP.

So this wraps up our "Hundred for Haiti" week our family. Last Monday in FHE we were discussing some things we could do as a family to help the quake victims. We decided to see if as a family we could cover 100 miles this week in the form of running, walking or playing sports/exercising. Then we'll each donate some $ amount per mile that we each contributed.

For anyone trying to figure how best to donate funds to help the Haitians, here are a couple of links where you can donate and your dollars will be well spent.

https://secure3.convio.net/ldsp/site/Donation2?df_id=1861&1861.donation=form1&s_src=14703

http://healinghandsforhaiti.org/

AP/HR: 8:16/156

Hello February! Man what a nice day today, just had shorts and long sleeve shirt but would have been fine with short sleeves. Did 10 min warmup XT (S/E) then just over 8 miles on the roads with 8 x 30s strides sprinkled in at around 5:30-6:30 pace.

AP/HR: 8:02/150

Nice day today, not as nice as yesterday but not so bad for a Groundhog Day. Just an easy & relaxing 11 miles out to the lake and back. The dumb garmin died on me so no official stats, probably all miles in the 8-8:30 pace range.

Another beautiful day. XT 10 min warmup (S/E) then ran the 7 peaks hill route. The cool thing about this route is not only do I pass Seven Peaks water park during the run but I also just happen to run up/down 7 hills during the run. Felt good today. Toward the end I did 8 x 8-10s hill sprints.

AP/HR: 8:06/154

Coach Hudson tip of the day:

"Simply put, there is no single training formula that works perfectly for every runner........Adaptive running becomes the natural way to train when you recognize that training must be customized to you individually and adapted every day based on your response to recent training."

I need to share these tips with myself every so often so I don't get tempted to blindly follow-to-the-tee-no-matter-what my marathon training plan.

Moderate progression run today. Plan was to start easy and gradually drop the pace until the last mile is around marathon pace, which for me currently is probably around 7:00-7:20.

If I do this right my HR should stay below around 165 until the last couple of miles and should never get over 180 and I shouldn't feel too hammered at the end. Looking at my splits I did a pretty good job although I probably dropped the pace below 7:30 a little too soon. Also not sure why I slowed down in mile 3.

Mile average pace/HR: 8:18/134, 8:09/143, 8:18/144(?), 7:38/156, 7:48/161(hill), 7:27/160, 7:27/163, 7:27/166, 7:14/172, 7:03/179.

Overall: 7:41/157.

Hudson TOTD: "My approach to traning encourages far more spontaneity--not arbitrary changes to the plan, but informed changes based on how the runner has responded to recent training...........every workout should be planned in pencil, not ink."

XT warmup at the gym (S/B/E) then 5 miles easy outside. Felt sluggish today. I wore the Landreths that I haven't worn for a while, they're heavier than what I usually run in and they felt like army boots. Guess I'll stick with the Speedstars and lighter shoes.

AP/HR: 8:32/142

Hudson TOTD: "Making an effort to learn, understand and base your training on our sport's 'best practices' will give you the most solid possible foundation for success........having said this.......it's also important to analyze conventional training methods witha skeptical eye, because there are some common practices that don't make a heck of a lot of sense under close scrutiny."

A bit of a drizzly day today but not so bad since it was mostly just a light mist and gentle rain. The dang puddles were aggravating though, I hate wet feet! Ran with Kim and various others from among the SF group for the first 8 miles. Then solo the rest of the way. Pushed it at the end coming up the hill so I'll count last 2 miles as MP.

AP/HR: 8:30/155

Sure do enjoy running in the sun. Felt good today, did a mostly easy run with 8 x 40s strides sprinkled in throughout the run. Probably in the 5:30-6:30 pace range.

AP/HR: 7:52/154

Hudson tidbit: "When it's done right, the long-term training process is like an asymptote. The line that the training process moves toward but never reaches is 'perfect training'.....while it's impossible to train perfectly, it is possible to train better and better."

Team party at work today during my usual run time so I went in the early morning. Pretty dark morning I could hardly see the road much of the time. I certainly prefer running later in the day this time of year. Hopefully I've earned my filet mignon at Ruby River for lunch.

AP/HR: 8:28/156

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMRON LEE!!! I can't believe I have a 22 yr. old kid.

Hudson TOTD: "...there are only three components of running fitness: aerobic fitness, neuromuscular fitness, and specific endurance. And there are only three types of training: aerobic-support training, muscle training, and specific-endurance training."

XT warmup 10 minutes (S/E) then outside for seven peaks hill run. Felt good today, I'm sure the sunshine helped, these sunny Feb days have been great. Toward the end I did 8 x 8-10s hill sprints.

AP/HR: 8:04/156

Coach Hudson WoW: "Training for a peak race is kind of like undertaking a long sailing trip. The shortest distance to your destination is a straight line, but the fastest way to get there will involve many zigzags........if you insist on executing every workout exactly as you planned it many weeks ago, you probably won't achieve your goal."

Did similar workout as last week, I guess what you'd call a moderate progression run. Comparing to last week I ran it in almost identical time but for some reason my HR was higher today. Maybe because it was colder or perhaps because I didn't get quite as good as sleep as usual? I didn't really notice feeling much different than last week except maybe the last mile felt harder than it should have.

Mile average pace /HR: 8:17/137, 8:05/145, 8:05/151, 7:53/155, 7:51/164(hill), 7:32/166,  7:27/171, 7:24/176, 7:19/179, 7:01/185.

Overall: 7:41/162

LAST WEEK:

Mile average pace/HR: 8:18/134, 8:09/143, 8:18/144(?), 7:38/156, 7:48/161(hill), 7:27/160, 7:27/163, 7:27/166, 7:14/172, 7:03/179.

Overall: 7:41/157.

Coach Hudson tidbit: "You must not train exactly the same way in consecutive training cycles......Put another way, you need to take advantage of the success you had in your last training cycle by creating a new training plan that demands even more from your body."

Did some XT warmup (S/B/E) then outside for easy 5 miles. I felt surprisingly good today. I usually feel like a slug on Fridays plus I had a fairly unhealthy, greasy breakfast this morning so I expected to fill like crud. Always nice to be pleasantly surprised.

Maybe it was the new shoes I tried out for the first time today. I was worried because they are heavier and stiffer than what I usually use (and very expensive!) so I thought they might feel like boots but they felt quite good actually. So maybe the young punk runner who analyzed my gait and told me I needed these shoes actually knew what he was talking about.

AP: 8:01

Hudson WoW: "The running volume that is most appropriate for you depends on your next peak-race goal, your capacity to absorb and recover from frequent runs and longer runs, and your training history. As a general rule, I recommend runners consistently maintain a moderatly high volume relative to these individual considerations."

Did a run similar to last week but a bit quicker. For some reason Chad was pushing the pace early on (in the MP range), and I probably should have done these miles slower as I ended up being more out of gas than I like to be on the last mile. Seems to work better to start real easy and then mildly progress toward MP at the end of the long run.

AP/HR: 8:18/162

Looking forward to a recovery week next week (20-30% reduction in miles) with a nice little 5 mile race/time-trial on Saturday (Dam 2 Dam).

Coach H TOTD: "Based on the proven effectiveness of both approaches, I like to split the difference between the extremes of volume emphasis and intensity emphasis.......Most runners will get the best results by finding a balance between quality (intensity) and quantity (volume)."

Nice run mostly with Kim today. Easy pace for the most part with 8 x 1-minute accelarations sprinkled in at 5:45-6:15 pace range. Felt really good today.

AP/HR: 8:22/142

Coach H WoW: "It does no harm to maintain a relatively high volume year-round. As long as you take one or two breaks each year and reduce the overall workload of your training when appropriate, you won't wear yourself down."

Nice run down to the lake and back. Weather was a little dreary at first but got better and better as the run progressed and I notice not so coincidentally my pace got faster and faster as the weather and run progressed.

With a mile to go I noticed I was right at 8 min pace so in honor of Terry, who I know hates to be over 8 min pace, I sped up just enough to get the AP under 8.

AP/HR: 7:58/152

Coach H blurb: "Another benefit of maintaining moderately high running mileage more or less year-round is that it reduces injury risk."

Warmup 10 min XT (S/E) then ran hills. Felt pretty good again, I'm glad the hills are starting to feel a little bit easier. I've found I'm a pretty lousy uphill runner but it's good to know with practice I can get better.  The sun couldn't manage to make an appearance today but I guess I can't expect everyday to be perfect weather. So far Feb has been pretty darn nice weather for Feb in Utah.

Also did 6 x 10s hill sprints toward the end of the run.

AP/HR: 7:59/152

Hudson blurb: "I believe it's extremely important never to allow any single aspect of your running to fall too far behind the others in your training, because they are all so deeply interdependent."

Warmed up with 20 min XT (S/B/E) then outside for a dreary weather run. Turned out being a quite enjoyable run despite the clouds.

Although I've been giving a lot of lip service to Brad Hudson running ideas lately, I gotta admit the stuff I've learned (and still learning) from my Chi Running book has been great in helping me learn how to relax, listen to the body, improve form, and find a flow, particularly during easy runs, that gets me into that "zone" where the running just feels natural and effortless, at least for a while. While I don't buy everything the author has to say, I have to admit once you get past all the new age-ish, Eastern thinking mumbo-jumbo, there are a few jewels of wisdom to be found.

Decided to run mile 5 faster than the others, I purposely ignored the watch, just tried to focus on being relaxed, good form and find a pace that feels like it might be right for the 5 mile race on Saturday (Dam 2 Dam). I'm hoping that pace will be below 6:30. Today's "test" mile pace: 6:29. Of course I would have liked to see that pace be lower, and feel a little easier, but that's what felt right today. So I think Saturday I'll go out just under 6:30 pace and see what happens. That should put me around a 32:00-32:30 finish.

AP/HR: 7:56/152

Hudson stuff: "The most important ramification of the principle of specificity for competitive runners is that race-specific fitness requires race-pace training."

Tough race for me. I forgot this course is a little slower than it looks on paper since much of it is on dirt/gravel road and you typically get some wind in the middle miles. And today we got LOTS of wind in the middle miles (mostly 3 & 4), plus these miles have some rolling hills. So between the wind and uphill I died during these miles and could only salvage the barely sub-34.

Should mention with all my complaining on the wind it didn't seem to bother Kim at all. She blew away her goal pace of sub-43 and ran a 41:35. Turns out we both got 2nd place in AD so that was kinda nice. After I died I tried to at least hold on enough to break the 45-49 course record which I new was 34-something. Good news is I was able to break the old record, but at that point the guy in my AD who beat me today had just set the new record.

Mile 1 - 6:25: This mile is net downhill and wind is a tailwind on dirt/gravel road.This is probably the right pace overall but at the .5 mile point I was at 6:00 pace - too fast - I think it cost me later when I hit the wind.

Mile 2 - 6:34: Still feeling OK but nasty headwind begins at the end of the mile. I had been tagging along just behind #2 woman runner but she has more mojo when the wind begins and I lose her as we start mile 3. Dirt and gravel ends and pavement begins.

Mile 3 - 7:02: I die somewhere in the this mile. The headwind and uphill hammers me. I do manage to pass a guy who is dying worse. All pavement for this mile. Hilly.

Mile 4 - 7:05: Another dying mile. I pass another guy who died but I also get passed by 1 or 2 guys who look like 40+ runners. Bummer. Pavement and headwind and hilliness finally end at the end of this mile.

Mile 5 - 6:43: Manage to recover a little. Wind is now a cross-wind but running on dirt/gravel section of Dam#2. Just trying to hang on waiting and wondering if the finish will ever get here.

It was great to have Tani and Tia and Mother/Father-in-law cheering at the finish. After the end I caught my breath then ran Kim in her last .5 miles or so. She sure did great, she's in better shape than I thought.

Nice run today. Felt pretty good. I guess the nice thing about races on gravel/dirt roads is that although they slow your pace a little, they're also gentler on the legs and make for speedy recovery.

Did a moderate fartlek workout today. Basically run first 2 minutes of every mile starting at mile 2 at a decent pace, but not full speed. "Comfortably uncomfortable" is how I've heard it described. Somewhere around 10K pace or a little quicker.

My average pace for the 8 2-min bursts were 6:24, 6:22, 6:20, 6:21, 6:21, 6:14, 6:23, 6:14. I didn't really focus on pace but rather on just trying to run relaxed, good form, etc. and let the pace end up wherever it does.

Overall AP/HR: 7:40/160

Coach H: "In the adaptive running system, the sharpening period denotes a short period at the end of the training cycle when runners emphasize challenging race-pace workouts."

OOPS! I did a loop I thought would be 12 miles but it turned out to be 13. Oh well at least the sun was shining bright and I enjoyed the extra mile.

AP/HR: 8:05/149

Hudson: "A runner's body can only progressively adapt to race-specific training for a few weeks until a limit--that is, a peak--is reached. Trying to prolong race-specific training beyond a few weeks is almost certain to result in a premature peak or failure to peak at all. For this reason, I begin the sharpening period of training just four to six weeks before the athlete's peak race occurs."

This quote rings particularly true to me and I think explains some bad marathons I've had where I peaked early.

Wasn't very excited to go out today looking out the window at the snow/rain falling. Called Kim for motivation and that seemed to do the trick to get me out the door. Since I went longer than planned yesterday I took it real easy on pace.

Ran 7 peaks hill route with 8 x 10s hill sprints (actually it might have been 9, I was having trouble keeping track of how many I had done). Did the sprints a bit more gingerly than usual, probably shouldn't even call them sprints.

Turned out actually not being too bad a run. I did get a bit wet but by the end things had cleared up a bit.

AP/HR: 8:41/143

Hudson: "One factor that tends to delay a performance peak is maintaining balance in one's training. A peak tends to occur when you push your fitness strongly in a single direction by heavily emphasizing a particular type of training."

Ran 3 easy miles, then 3 mile progression, then 3 more easy. Didn't want to kill myself on the 3 fast miles but wanted them faster than marathon pace. So decided to try and keep them under 7 min pace. Run was OK, I felt good but not great.

Miles 4, 5, 6 ave pace/HR: 6:56/170, 6:46/180, 6:38/186.

Overall AP/HR: 7:45/160.

Hudson on steep hill sprints: "These short, maximal-intensity efforts against gravity offer two key benefits: First, they strengthen all of the running muscles, making the runner much less injury-prone. They also increase the power and efficiency of the stride, enabling the runner to cover more ground with each stride with less energy in race circumstances."

An absolutely beautiful day today. And my running partner wasn't too bad either! Kim was able to join me after her work for a noon-time run in the sun. I also did a bit of XT warmup and cooldown (30 min - S/B/E).

AP: 8:56

Hudson: "Hill running is the only "weightlifting" my runners do....They do some exercises to develop strength in their abdominal muscles and lower back, but that's it."

Whoa! Mega-windy day today! I think that may have been the hardest 9:20 pace run I've ever done. Had a hard time getting out of bed today and hearing the tornado sounds outside wasn't help the motivation factor.

But Kim and I finally got going about 7:30 and promptly headed west so the wind was at least at our backs for the first while. It was actually quite pleasant those first miles until we had to finally turn back east and head face-first into the wind. Not so fun coming back up through the river bottoms and up heartbreak hill.

Parted ways with Kim around 10 or 11 miles then finished up with 6 more solo that mostly felt like a death march, even when the wind was at my back. Just glad to get this one in the books. But I won't complain much, for the most part February was good to us runners as far as weather and I quite enjoyed most every run. I actual enjoyed much of today's run as well, other than the death march section.

AP/HR: 9:20/143

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

So much for March going out like a lamb. Lots of crazy weather today on the run. I had lots of wind, some calm, snow, including a 1-min blizzard, and even 5 minutes of sunshine. Gotta love springtime in the rockies!

Weird thing was just before finishing up I saw Sasha driving some red sports car! He stopped and talked to me for a bit. I was surprised he was eating what looked to be an In-N-Out double cheeseburger with a Red Bull to wash it down. He was like "Dude! why you running out here in this bad weather, you should have taken the day off!. Don't you know you should only run when it's convenient? You really should take more days off!". I told him I'd consider his advice. Then he gave me a "Peace - OUT" and was on his way. Kinda strange.

Did the same hill repeat workout (5 x 3 min @ 5K-effort/MP-pace) that I did a week ago last Monday when I tweaked my calf. So thankful the calf is healed and I had no problems with it today. What I did have problems with was GI distress during the last 3 repeats. That lovely feeling that tells you you may need to find a bathroom REALLY SOON! I have learned from past experience that if I slow down a little the feeling usually subsides, and thankfully that was the case today, although the slower pace of the last 2 repeats was the compromise.

Splits: (AvePace/Distance/AveHR): 1) 7:19/.41/172 (3:39 jog back-down rest, 8:14 pace), 2) 7:16/.42/177 (3:42/8:20), 3) 7:20/.41/179 (3:37/8:26), 4) 7:32/.40/179 (3:33/8:33), 5) 7:30/.40/180.

I can't really compare this to last weeks workout since I was running a different hill with wind in my face.

Overall: 8:13/155

Nice & easy & enjoyable don't-care-about-pace 4 mile run with Kimi. A bit nicer day than the last couple days but still a bit nippy when the sun went behind the clouds. Hope the weather isn't too nasty tomorrow for the 20-miler.

Also did 45-min various crosstraining at the gym.

My first 20-miler of the year is in the books! Yahoo!

Wasn't very excited about the morning running prospects during the night as I laid in bed and listened to the hurricane-like sounding winds outside. But by the time Kim and I got up at 5:30 the winds seemed to have calmed down a bit. So we got ready and headed over to the stake center to meet up with the SF running group.

It was great to see our long-lost good running buddy who now lives in SoCal, Mr. Mark Shelley. Had a pretty good size group today despite the weather. We lucked out for the most part, the winds mostly behaved and besides a few episodes of snow pellets in the eyes the weather wasn't too bad. Ran with a variety of folks for the first 8 miles, then caught up Dave and Allison running up Harry's and stayed with them for a while, then last 5 miles solo.

I was pleased with how I felt today,  I think I'm starting to get my marathon legs back. This week's 20-miler and last week's 19.5 miler felt better than most the 15-18 milers earlier in the year. Hopefully I kept the pace and effort at just the right level for positive training and no injuries. Looking forward to General Conference in just a bit!

8:36/157

Not having the greatest day today. Lots of stress at work and then when I got to the gym I realized I forgot my running shorts. Luckily they usually have a few "loaner" items (don't worry they've been through the laundry) and so I got to run in some super-huge basketball shorts that looked like bermuda shorts on me.

Plan was for a 3-3-3 workout. 3 miles easy, then 3 mile progression run starting at MP and ending up at 5K pace, then 3 miles easy cooldown.  Based on my HR I think the effort was there, maybe even harder than called for as ave HR on the high side.

What messed everything up was the dang-blasted wind! Right in my face for the 1st half of the run and especially during the 2nd faster mile, must have been gusts of 20-40 mph, I was having trouble holding sub 8:30 for a time even though HR was over 180. At least I had the tail wind for the last mile or so.

Splits/AHR: 7:31/171 (headwind), 7:26/180 (very strong headwind the first half, then tailwind), 6:14/188 (tailwind).

HR was pegged at 190+ the last 1/2 mile so I'll count that as V02 max. Since I had a strong tailwind this last mile it seems like I should have been able to do better than 6:14 but it is what it is. Seems like lately I'm getting my endurance legs back but the speed seems to have left me. Also not sure why my ave HR is always high the last while, resting HR a bit high too. Oh well....patience....

Overall: 7:54/161.

Got a migraine for a while after getting back to the office. Thankfully it's gone now. I really don't like migraines so much.

Did a mini-long "recovery" run today out to the lake and back. This will probably be my long run for the week this week as I'm doing a 10K on Saturday. I'll do a mini-taper between now and then as well and make this a rest week.

Another day of all flavors of weather: wind, rain, wind, snow, wind, and even finishing in the sunshine. Did I mention there was also some wind? I do so love the wind.

8:46/141

Ahh....spring is back! Nice sunny run this morning (albeit a bit chilly for April!) with Kim. Helped pace here on a 6 mile progression run, mostly in the HMP range. She surprised me the last mile with 7:30-ish pace. Nice.

Finished up with 10 x 10s hill sprints and another easy mile. The sprints felt great, I use to hate hill sprints but the last couple weeks I'm quite enjoying them.

8:22

Nice AM run in sunny St. George in short sleeves on the river trail, mostly with Kimi and the bunnies.  Absolutely gorgeous day down here today.

After 2 mile warmup I did a 1-2-3-2-1, where the numbers are how many minutes of running with rests in between. It occurs to me as I type that I did the rests wrong, I was supposed to rest for however many minutes the previous repeat was but I spaced and just did 1 min rests for all of them. Oh well..I suppose that just slowed me down a bit on the later repeats. 

Mostly ran by feel not paying attention to watch, but should be in the 5:45-6:15 pace range, which appears to be exactly where I ended up.  Just trying to get the legs used to the idea of running faster on Saturday for the Run 4 Kids 10K. Kim's doing the 5K and our daughters are running the 1K. Should be fun.

Splits (Ave pace/HR): 5:56/156, 6:08/169, 6:15/174, 6:06/181, 5:47/179

3 miles nice and easy on a beautiful sunny desert morning with Kim. Only problem was our bodies seemed to have switched to R&R mode. Very sluggish and hard to get moving after a couple of late night, sleep in days. We'll have to see if we can switch from Rest & Relaxation to Run-a-Race mode by tomorrow morning. But if not what the heck, having a great spring break with the family.

My only goal for tomorrow is to try and hang with Nate for as long as I can.

On a side note....here is the best Bohemian Rhapsody cover of all time:

Well first the GOOD news for the day: 1) I didn't die, 2) I have a great wife and kids, 3) Tani & Tia ran great 1K races today, 4) Kim ran a PR 24:02 5K on a tough hilly course and 2nd in AD, 5) Weather was perfect, 6) Lovin our stay at the condo the last few days.

I guess the other bit of good news was that I had a pretty good race going up to the 6 mile marker, on track for a just over 40 min finish since the 2 guys I was running with ran 40:02 (Nate) and 40:10 (some guy I don't know).  Not quite up to what I ran 2 years ago (38:40) but I was in the best shape of my life then and I find it's pretty tough to do at 45 what I could do just 2 years ago at 43. It was great to run with Nate for most of the race. He did great just barely missing the sub-40.

Now the BAD news....right around the mile 6 marker, just about the time me and another guy were battling, making that final .2 downhill kick to the finish, then it happened.

Something kind of popped, snapped and/or ripped on the bottom of my left foot and I was done for the day. Tried to run a few steps but no-go. Had to limp in and almost bagged even crossing the finish but Kim coaxed me to go ahead an complete the race.

Looks like I've really torn the planter fascia good on my left foot. Funny thing is it's been my right foot giving me all the trouble off/on over the last while and right foot is usually well behaved. Pain was excruciating afterward trying to put any weight on it. Went to the doc for x-ray just to make sure no bones broken and thankfully they gave me some crutches.

So I think I'm done for a while. The rest of my planned spring races will have to wait another year. Just wish I hadn't paid for them already.

Funny thing was I still got 2nd in AD. Maybe there were only 2 or 3 of us in my AD, I was happy to see Wild Bill have a good race and pick up 1st, although it was tough to see him and many others fly by me at the end while I watched helplessly.

We'll just have to see what happens. My first order of business is to 1) do absolutely nothing for at least 2 weeks, 2) try not to go crazy.

Just thought I'd give an update on the foot injury. It's been very helpful to me to read the experiences of other bloggers who have dealt with a similar injury in the past. So I figured the least I could do was chronicle my experience and maybe help someone else down the road. Hopefully I'll provide an example of what TO do rather than what NOT TO do.

So after the weekend on Monday it was still quite painful to walk and I was having to use the crutches for anything longer than a walk down the hall. Scheduled an appt with the sports doc yesterday afternoon and came up with a game plan.

Dr. Rich agreed that it was almost certainly a torn plantar fascia. We discussed the pro/con of getting an MRI to better determine the extent. But decided to wait a couple weeks first since regardless of the MRI outcome the treatment would be the same for the first 2 weeks. And also since I'm not in a big rush to overcome this in absolutely the quickest amount of time possible we decided to take the slow, deliberate approach to dealing with it.

Also discussed options for the next 2 weeks: cast vs. boot vs. crutches, etc. Decided to go with the boot for now with the option of using crutches if pain is uncomfortable without them. I feel better today than the last couple of days but still prefer to use crutches if I'm walking more than about 50 ft. I'm also supposed to follow the typical routine of R-I-C-E throughout each day.

After 2 weeks we reevaluate. He said recovery from these type injuries can vary greatly from person to person, anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months for full recovery. He also confirmed what Teena had implied in her comments to me that when the plantar "pops" like this in can actually have the same effect as surgery (i.e. the "poor man's surgery") and oftentimes after this happens to someone they find they are cured of plantar fasciitis in that foot forever. That would surely be nice if that were the case.

Most likely after the 2 week period I'll lose the boot and start into the PT and slowly start working in some type of cross-training.

We didn't really talk about the mental aspects of recovery. So far I'm doing well in that department but I'm sure it will get tougher here soon. Just really going to try and focus on all the innumerable positive things in my life and avoid the woe-is-me self-pity depression cycle and not turn into a grouch.

Here is my question of the day: So how come even though I'm doing no exercise, my appetite doesn't seem to be diminishing whatsoever?

Just thought I'd make a quick update on the injury situation. Slow improvement, foot is feeling a little better every day but nothing dramatic. Still wearing the boot most of the time. Using crutches less than before, mostly for longer walks or when I want to move at quicker than 30-min/mile pace.

I'll probably use the boot through the weekend. Might try some gentle biking next week as well. Appetite is still pretty strong, whatever part of the brain controls that still seems to think I'm in training, I would hope that calms down a bit soon or I'll be adding some serious lbs to my frame. Probably up a pound or 2 already.

Doing better mentally than I expected, probably helps to be pretty busy at work right now and also to have great support at home. But starting to feel a bit like a slug and having some of the nervous energy and antziness like you get a few days before a marathon during heavy taper time.

One day at a time....

Injury update....foot a little better each day but progress is slow. I've ditched the boot and crutches but still walking very gingerly and with a limp.

With the way things have gone for me and with what I've googled lately on plantar fasciitis vs. plantar tear or rupture I'm pretty sure I've got a major tear or rupture. Recovery will likely be similar to stress fracture or possibly a little longer, 2 - 3 months. But as I've mentioned before the good news with the rupture is that once it heals there is a very good chance I won't have PF problems in that foot every again. If that's the case maybe I should try to rupture my other foot as well!

I'll go see the doc again the end of this week or early next week to reevaluate and decide next steps. I probably won't try any cross-training before then just to be on the safe side. I sure don't want to reinjure it and be back to where I was a week ago and have to go back to the boot and crutches.

Feeling very tired and sluggish the last couple of days. No major depression or anything yet but mentally this week will likely be tougher than last week. But I'm trying to keep perspective and Kim has been a great support. I am enjoying my "coach" role with her and helping her get ready for the 1/2 marathon in a couple of weeks.

Injury update....about the same as before, getting a little better each day. Slow going but as long as each day is a little better than the one before I'm pleased.

Surprisingly I'm not completely-bonkers-stark-raving-mad-lunatic-man like I thought I would be at this point. Got over the very sluggish and tired phase, and my appetite has finally calmed down a little. Today I actually weighed at 138 which is right around the weight I usually hover when I'm in race shape. I'll be happy just to keep any weight gain to 5 lbs or less.

Thought I'd just mention the factors that I believe have helped me stay sane during this period of pretty much ZERO exercise for almost 2 weeks:

1) Great supportive and patient wife and family.

2) Been very busy with other projects, mostly work stuff where I've been under the gun the last while.

3) Keep perspective by comparing my situation vs. a zillion other people in much more dire circumstances.

4) Run vicariously through Kim's running efforts in my role as "Coach Tom". I'm excited to play the cheerleader role when she runs Provo 1/2 marathon next week.

5) Stay spiritually focused - in the words of Elder Busche whose youtube video I link to at the bottom of my LT running goals in my profile: "When you are physically sick, tired or in despair, steer your thoughts away from yourself, and direct them in gratitude and love towards God".

Probably be going back to the sports Doc early next week. I'll update again then.

Injury update....

Mostly still improving little by little each day. Was bummed out Sunday because it seemed I had taken a step backward but now I'm thinking it was just my lousy Sunday shoes. I've vowed to get some nicer shoes before the end of the week. I've seen Birkenstocks recommended, also my neighbor sells SAS shoes. If anyone reading has a suggestion let me know.

Went to the Sports Doc today to check on progress and make gameplan for next few weeks. Decided on the following:

- Try some easy biking, move on to more aggresive or eliptical in a week or 2 if things go well.

- Start some PT - ultrasound and mild foot massage moving on to more aggressive massage, stretches and strengthening.

- Do a 1 or 2 week round of steriodal anti-inflammatory - Prednisone I think.

I'm still hanging in there mentally, it will be nice to do some biking and remember how to sweat. Probably gained 2 pounds or so but that's within my 5 lbs or less goal. Looking forward to seeing how Kim does on Saturday.

First day of post-injury crosstraining. 30 minutes on the exercise bike at the gym. They were showing Avatar which Kim and I just saw Saturday so I grabbed the MP3 player and listened to some tunes.

The biking was boring but it did feel good to sweat and I'm feeling good afterward. No complaints from the foot. HR already higher than what I used to see for biking but I suppose that's to be expected.

Just to experiment I tried a few steps on the eliptical and stair machine but I could tell it was a no-go for anything but bike for now. When I can walk normal without pain or any limp then maybe I'll try other stuff.

I just don't know if I can be diligent like last time I had to crosstrain and like Riverton Paul and get in 90 minutes on weekdays and 2 hours+ on Saturday.  Especially with only bike as the option I don't think I can do more than 45 minutes or so. For now I'll just take one day at a time, maybe try 35 or 40 minutes tomorrow and see how it goes. Maybe they'll let me do something in the pool at the PT's office.

35 minutes on the awesome exercise bike.

Went to see Von my physical therapist this morning. He had them do a bunch of stuff - ultrasound, e-stem, massage and ice. Hoped to have some time to do some biking as well but the other stuff took a while so only had time for 15 minutes on the bike.

After massaging both feet Von said he could see a noticeable difference between the plantar fascia on the left (torn/ruptured) foot vs the right foot. He thinks I am correct in thinking a large portion of the plantar on the left has detached at the heel. He says this isn't necessarily a bad thing but I'll need to take care to always use shoes with good arch supports to make up for the lost functionality of the PF in the left foot. Otherwise I run the risk of losing my arch, getting flat feet (at least the left one) and having all kinds of nasty problems that come with that.

Von is a great guy (also a childhood bud) and excellent PT. I highly recommend him.

PT in the morning, same type stuff as Friday. Foot felt a little worse over the weekend but Von had told me I might hurt a bit after the first few PT sessions. But today I feel the best I've felt so far, maybe my 80 yr old walk is down to 75 yr old.

Also 40 minutes on the bike at the gym at work. Felt easier than last week and I was surprised to see my HR work it's way up near 150 by end.

I will be glad when I'm done with this round of Prednizone. I don't like the way it makes me feel, anxious and stressy. Also seems to bring out the mental basket case in me. I thought it was ironic that the 1st song that came on at the gym was Basket Case. Thanks Kim for being patient and understanding with me.

Another weird thing at the gym. I was listening to My Sharona on the headphones and I notice the guy next to me is jumping rope exactly to the beat.  I was sure he would get off after a few seconds but he stayed on beat the whole time he was jumping through 2 full verses of the song. Kinda strange.

45 minutes on the bike. Don't think I can stand going any longer than that on the bike. Hopefully in another week or 2 I can add on some eliptical minutes.

Foot is feeling pretty good today, I may even be down to a 70 yr old walking gait. Also pleased to see my weight hanging around 139-140 the last couple of days.

Feeling good today. The prednizone-aided funk I was in the last few days is gonzo, hopefully for good now that I'm done with the steriodial meds.

Went to PT this morning and hadn't planned on doing anything else since I've been buried at work, but I had a bit of a breakthrough work-wise, so I decided to do a quick 30-minutes on the bike.

Felt great, dare I say I actually enjoyed the bike? Guess it was only 30 minutes and it helped that the tunes I was listening to were mostly upbeat and cheery to go along with my sunny disposition.  All the Small Things (Blink-182), Rise Above This (Seether - I like the line "I'll mend myself before it gets me"), and Cheer Up Boys (FooF). Also some slow, trippy Pink Floyd tunes.

Was able to work my HR up into the high 150's.

45 minutes on the ex bike. Not as enjoyable as yesterday's workout but not too bad. Been fighting a headache all day. I think the biking is helping the foot healing process move along a little quicker. Maybe getting more blood to the injured area?

Had some good tunes going including some songs I like to listen to before races or during a race to get some motivation to endure to the end or pass that guy just in front. Today's running song-of-the-day is "Just A Job To Do" by Genesis, a fine 70's/80's band.

The song is about a hit-man but a few choice lyrics apply nicely to racing...."I got a name I got a number, I got a line on you.....I got a name, I got a number, I'm coming after you!"......"cause the harder they run, the harder they fall, I'm coming down hard on you"...."Keep runnin keep runnin"......"the footsteps close behind"....

Almost at 4 weeks now since the injury. Went to PT this morning. Von had me do an "exercise" for the 1st time if you can call it that. More like a game. I'll call it the lost-my-marbles game. Pick up marbles with my toes and put them in a cup. Of course Von couldn't give me a regular size cup he had to super-size it. I was significantly better with my right foot than the left. Not sure if that was because I'm right-footed for because the left is the one with the big tear. Maybe a little of both. I think I'll time myself next time and establish my baseline PR.

45 minutes biking at the gym. Notable bands/songs on the playlist today include GrooveLily - Are We There Yet? and Rewind (Calling All Aliens?), Journey - Be Good To Yourself , and finally that fine band Queen with this little song that pretty much describes by present training regiment.

Yahoo - the foot is feeling great today! I think I'm walking pretty much normal now and I can put full weight on the left foot. Went to PT this morning to do the usual routine (US, E-stem, marbles, massage, ice) and talked with Von about whether I should try anything beyond the bike. He suggested we wait 1 more week then try some upbeat treadmill walking next week. Sounds good to me. I surely don't want to be too aggresive and re-tear and be back to square 1.

46 minutes on the exercise bike. Felt good. Playlist include Cake, AC/DC, Van Halen, Billy Squier and this fine little running ditty from Tom Petty.

47 minutes on the bike. Still feeling good. Mostly newer, post-80's tunes on the player today. Lots of greasy kids stuff. Green Day, 311, FooFighters, Weezer. This Collective Soul song wins the prizy today for capturing the spirit of the good vibes I had going.

45 minutes on the bike. Crazy busy at work I was lucky to get away at all. Almost kinda hoping for the layoff lately.

47 minutes on the bike. Wide variety of tunes today. Starting to hear the same songs over again so I must have just about covered my whole play list.

Today's workout tune-of-the-day is another fine one-hit-wonder 80's tune by The Vapors. Dale may question why this is on my playlist and I'm really not actually sure how it got there. It's in honor of my son Camron who is currently visiting Japan, and who interestingly enough actually turned Japanese on his mission (in a good way :)). 

30 minutes on the bike at the gym in our SG condo complex. Wanted to go longer but that's all I could handle on this type bike. It looked brand new and expensive but it was one of the exercise bikes where you pedal with legs horizonal rather than vertical and it strained my back and quads in a way that I couldn't get into any kind of rhythm. Would much rather have run with Kimi on the bunny trail this morning.

Absolutely beautiful day today in St. George, especially during the morning hours. Haven't been able to bring myself to ride the bike today but I did do a little walking this morning on the river trail, about a mile. Some while Kim and running then the last 1/2 mile or so with Kim as she cooled down. Nice to see that sunshine, don't get any of that on the exercise bike.

Also probably walked another mile or so during the course of the day. Nice to be able to do that now although Von (PT) didn't want me to do much until Monday. Hopefully tomorrow the feet will be forgiving. I feel OK now but my left foot does get tired pretty quick. Not really painful but more just feeling of weakness.

Been enjoying the Ogden race reports. Congrats to everyone who ran, sounds like the conditions were ideal.

Maybe I'll walk over to the clubhouse where Kim and the girls are playing racquetball and watch them as I pedal the exercise bike a little :)

Walked 1 mile on the TM (whopping pace of 17 min) then 45 minutes on the bike. No tunes today so it was tough battling the boredom factor. No pains in the left foot while doing stuff other than a pain on the non-injured outside edge which I'm sure is a just a side effect of walking too much on the outside of my foot over the last 5 weeks as I've babied the injured area.

I'll stick with the walking/biking routine this week then mid-next-week Von is going to have me try some pool running.

Trying to decide if I should count walking miles or not? I haven't bothered with trying to figure out biking equivalent miles and logging anything besides the big goose egg since the injury.

About the same as yesterday. But also tried a minute each at the end on stair machine and elliptical just to see how it compared to last time I tried a couple of weeks ago. Much much better. No pain at all where 2 weeks ago I new immediately it wouldn't work. 

I think I'll slowly start adding in the stair/elliptical minutes and back off the bike and get to where I getting around 80 minutes total workout with 20 minutes each on bike, stairs, elliptical and walking. I've promised myself that I won't attempt any running (besides pool) until after our cruise at the beginning of June.

I think I'm starting to see the light at the end....

20 min walk on TM (1.2 miles), 40 min bike, 5 min each both stair machine and elliptical. Watched Sherlock Holmes.

70 minutes of various stuff. 20 min TM walking (incline = 7), 30 min bike, 10 min stairs, 10 min elliptical.

TM Walk - 20 min, Bike - 20, Stair - 15, Elliptical - 15, 70 minutes total. Watched most of the the movie "Jumper".

Went for a 20-min walk outside with Kim. Weather was unsettled but it was nice to be outside and nice to have Kim with me.

Had a great time with my daughters on our daddy-daughter overnighter last night. Went with John and Nate (3 daughters each) up to Nate's parents ranch up in Elkridge. Girls had a ball riding horses and 4-wheelers.  Probably ate a bit too much but what the heck.

Had planned to do an 80-minute gym quadrathlon including TM walking, biking, stairs, and elliptical, 20-mins each. But when I got to 20-min on the stairs some guys were still hogging all the elliptical machines so I ended up with 28 min on the stairs and 12 on the elliptical.

Legs feeling good and foot still improving week to week. I'll likely try my first steps of running in a couple of weeks. Looking out the window at the snow I was thinking that if I have to be stuck in the gym during May, then cold and rainy/snowy May 2010 is probably a good one to choose.

Opted for the radio today. Channel surfed but mostly listened to K-Love.

Pressed for time today. Crazy under pressure at job. Did 60 minutes XT split across bike, stairs, and elliptical. Hopefully it will work to go for a walk tonight.

PT in the morning. This will probably be last session unless something flares up or goes south in the next while. Everything is looking good and Von gave me the go ahead to try a little running starting in June!

Later I did 60 minutes of XT at the gym. Got wild and crazy and mixed up the order: Elliptical 1st, then bike, then stairs. I'll go for a walk in the evening with Kim.

60 minutes XT (stairs, elliptical, bike). Listened to a little bit or reggae & calypso music to get me in a cruise mind set. Then again we're going Mexican Riviera this time not Caribbean. So maybe mariachi would have been more appropriate.

Same ol, same ol - 60 min XT (bike, elliptical, stairs). However that is 3 or 4 days straight now where I've mixed up the order of activities.

Watched a good old-fashioned John Wayne western. Not sure what the name was. John and his bros saving the family ranch and hometown from the evil dudes in black trying to buy up and take over the county using underhanded methods. Good stuff.

I've been taking walks at night most of the week also but haven't always been logging it. Last night I walked 2 miles. I'll probably walk 1 or so tonight then maybe 4 or 5 tomorrow morning.

Walked out to Osbournes and back plus just a hair more for a total of 5 miles. It was nice to be out on a cloudy but beautiful Saturday morning. Also nice to chat with the SF runners if only for a bit.

At Osbournes I met up with Steve K who had also switched to walking mode since his hamstring was acting up. So it worked out nicely to have a walking buddy for most of the walk back home.

Everything feeling good as far as the feet. No pain. Only pains are in muscles mostly above the knee that haven't been used much for 7 weeks.

Heading out today to travel to LA to get on the big boat so this will likely be my last blog entry for a week or so. Time for some serious R&R!!  And when I get back it will be time for some NON-serious first running steps!

Day at sea on the ship. In the morning did what would be the usual routine throughout the week. 60 minutes XT (bike, stairs, elliptical) with some walking around the track on Deck 11.

60 minutes XT at the ship gym plus lots of walking.

Had fun at Lover's Beach and doing some Snorkeling in cabo San lucas.

Got daring and added some 10-20 second jogging-with-Kim segments into the walk around the deck 11 track routine. Feet felt great and no problems so decided to experiment through the week and add a bit more running each day up to 2 or 3 miles max. Also 60 min XT in the gym.

Today's excitement was the Zip-line in maZatlan way out in the boonies by this sleepy little Mexican town (pop. 150) that looked like it came right out of an old Mexican Western movie.

Ran a full mile with Kim around the deck 11 track! No problems whatsoever with the feet, although a few other muscles complained that haven't been used for 8 weeks. The XT is nice but it sure ain't running.  Also picked up another .5 miles here and there during the walk. Hit the gym for 50-min XT.

Went Parisailing in Puerta vallarta. Very fun stuff!

Day at sea. XT 50 minutes and 2 full miles running with Kim and the feet feeling just dandy! Another .5 here and there mixed with walking. Numerious aches and pains in the lower hamstrings toward the side. I remember last time I was injured being sore in this same area when I first started back running and it went away after a few days.

Ran a nice little 5K with Kim on the ship track. This was our last full day of the cruise. Also did around 50 min XT and walking. I will hold at no more than 3 miles running/day for the next week. I'm really happy with the feet and NO PF pains!

The bummer of the day was Kim getting slammed with some kind of flu that has blossomed into pneumonia. She was so diligent with the running on the ship and logged 180 laps around the .2 mile track on deck 11. That ends up being 37 miles. Sure hope she recovers quickly and is able to feel well again and do her 1st WBR.

Walked 2 miles and ran 3. Kim is really sick and is stuck in bed trying to recover from the Montezuma's Revenge flu and pneumonia she picked up in Mexico. Hopefully I can take care of her as well as she did me when I was on crutches that first while with the foot injury. But of course us guys really stink in the "mothering" dept.

I feel way out of shape (probably because I AM way out of shape). I'm always amazed how quickly the running fitness drops off during injury/rest time. Of course my major chow-down food-fest on the cruise ship all week didn't help. Looks like I'm up 3 or 4 lbs on top of the 3 or 4 I had already gained while injured. But hey they just had too much good stuff to eat on the ship. Ate truckloads of seafood and actually mostly healthy stuff, but lots and lots of it. I also ate a bundle of desserts.  But if I had to do it over I'd do the same thing, except for maybe cut back a little on portions at the Johnny Rockets meal - that was our 1 unhealthy indulgence.

Kim was rewarded for her diligence and didn't gain any weight. Actually with the nasty flu the last couple of days she may have lost some weight. Gotta look for those silver linings but I'm pretty sure Kim would be happy to take back a few pounds in trade for not having the pneumonia.

Stats for my run today: AP 9:34, AHR 152. The 152 is pretty sad for that pace, when I'm in shape I can run 7:30-8:00 pace with 152 AHR.

Plan is to hold at max 3 miles/day this week, maybe longer on Saturday if the legs/feet approve. Then very gradually build up over the next weeks/months to 5-10 per day. No speed work and no racing for the rest of this year. Cut back and/or rest at the first sign of any abnormal pains. I want to try getting a good mileage base and holding it for a few months without doing any hard stuff and hopefully that will set me up for a nice racing year next year and give my legs/feet the strength they need to not be so injury prone.

Walked 1/2 mile then 3 miles nice and easy in my spiffy new shoes. Feet and shoes felt fine and dandy. Finished with 1/2 mile walk. This will probably be it for the day, maybe another walk sometime later if there is time.

Kim seems to be doing a little better today with the flu/pneumonia, hopefully that trend will continue. She's hanging tough through all the misery.

Walked around 2 miles in the evening.

AM: 3 miles running, 2 miles walk

PM: 1 mile walk.

AM: 3 mile walk, 3 mile run

Decided to not run today and save my legs/energy for tomorrow where I'll try a 5-6 mile longer run. Instead I did 60 min XT (bike, elliptical, stairs - 20 min each) at the gym.

Listened to the rain falling pretty good around 5am and wondered if I really wanted to venture out. But then I remembered Kim running in rain (and snow?) seemingly most days all May so I ventured out at 6. Not a single person showed up from the SF group at the usual meeting place. Saw Hal in his truck and talked a bit but other than that didn't see a single other runner out. Don't remember the last time that happened on a Saturday morning. Maybe a couple were doing UVM but I don't think most were. Very strange.

I survived the 6 mile run experiment but I sure am out of shape. HR averaged 160 for 9:20 pace. But just happy to be able to run without pain. Sure is a bummer that when I can finally run then Kim gets pneumonia and can't get out. Happy to see her slowly getting better but we're not sure when running will be a wise thing.  She has done really well dealing with it though, very inspiring and I'm proud of her.

Afterward went to the Provo Mall to see the marathon finishers. Seems like most people did well and achieved their goals. It was great to see all the bloggers come in, especially my old bud Terry 'old' Bean who I had sold my entry to. He did me proud and got his sub-3 and still looked pretty good afterward. Good job!

Early AM: Walked .5 miles, ran 3, walked .5 more. Feeling pretty good. Ran with major master's speedster Carl H for a bit and slowed him way down.

8:50/157

Late AM: 45 minutes XT at the gym (eliptical, bike, stairs).

Glad to see Kim was successful in her try-and-run-after-being-way-sick run test today! So nice to see her doing better and looking forward to having some company for tomorrow's run.

Nice 2 mile walk and 4 mile run in the early morning sun with the lovely Kimi-loo.

Early AM: Nice 4 mile run with Kim with a little bit of walking (.3 miles?). 9:20/145

Late AM: XT workout 45 minutes at the gym.

Ran 4 miles with Kim then walked 2 more. Beatiful sunny morning, albeit a bit nippy for June.

Early AM: 3 miles at don't-care pace with Kim on another beautiful morning.

Noon: 45 minutes XT at the gym.

Every run is a great run but today was an extra great run! Best I've felt post-injury. Kim and I slept in a bit then ran in the sun around river bottoms and powerhouse rd. Didn't worry about pace much just tried to go with the flow, which turned out to be around 9 min pace.

Did a few hills today to test out the foot and get the HR cranked up for a bit. Feet felt great and felt like I could have gone a few more. Kim was feeling great too, nice to see her nearly completely over the flu/pneumonia and her back behaving (meaning... having her back pains not being problematic, NOT that she had been misbehaving :)).

Had the roads nearly to ourselves with so many runners doing WBR. Hope things are going  well for all the relayers.

Early AM: Ran 3 miles with Kim, walked 1 mile

Late AM: XT 45 minutes (elip, bike, stairs).

AM: Ran 6.3 miles with Kim then walked a couple more.

Early AM: 4 miles.  Ran a bit with Kim but she was having weird pains and thought she better walk a bit and stay close to home. So ran solo for a bit but was able to meet back up with Kim around mile 3 and was glad to see she appears to be OK.

Late AM: 45 minutes XT at the gym (E/B/S).

It was nice to open the Des News this morning and see this article about FRB long-timer Paul Petersen on the front page of the Sports section.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700042453/Runner-makes-wrong-turn-right.html

Ran 5 on a beautiful morning with Kimi then walked another mile and a half. Glad to see that my legs/feet seem to be handling the ramping up the mileage without any signs of any problems.

Still keeping everything in the easy pace range, mostly around 8:30-9:30. That pace still feels harder than it should and HR still awfully high but I know with time all that stuff will take care of itself. Same with my weight which really seems to want to get stuck about 5 lbs above where it gets to when I'm in race shape. Just need to be smart and Continue in Patience.....

AM: Ran 3 with Kim then walked a bit over 1.

Noon: 45 minutes XT (E/S/B).

Ran 9 miles, mostly with Kim and some solo. Longest run yet since the injury and first 30 mile week since April. Everything OK so far especially as far as the feet, so nice not to have foot pain so much of the time. Legs & lower abs doing OK too although the familiar areas complaining a bit at times (high hamstring tendon-butt-itis and sport hernia area). Those darn scar tissue areas just don't ever seem to completely be happy, but I've found they do alot better being active than when doing nothing.

Ave pace was exactly 9 min/mi. and felt pretty good, although average HR was still through the roof for this pace at 162.

Ran 3 with Kim this morning and walked around 1.3. Sure has been nice out these recent June mornings and nice to see some sun while the days are still long. Soon enough we'll be running in the dark again I suppose, but we'll probably want to be out of the sun soon enough with the temps headed up towards 3 digits the next couple months.

Later at the gym at work did 45 minutes XT (E/B/S). I wish the x-training got easier (mentally I mean) after a while. I guess it has gotten a little easier since I first started but now that I can run I compare it to that, and stuffy gyms with no change of scenery just aren't very fun. But I really think doing a bit of XT most of the the training cycle will do wonders with keeping the injuries away while helping push the aerobic conditioning along. So we'll keep plugging away with the M-W-F XT routine.....

Nice little 8 miler (1 mile of it walking) with Kim around the Leland/ballpark loop. Starting to warm up in the mornings, we were glad to have some clouds the last miles. Also especially windy today but we're pretty used to that in SF.

9:17/147