Every Run is a Great Run!

Happy Easter everyone! Hope everybody is having a great day. Posting my tentative running schedule for the coming week. I'll be cutting back slightly on the length of the tempo runs this week but not the intensity as we get closer to Strider's 1/2 on 4/5. As always I reserve the right to change things up during the week based on how I feel on a particular day, i.e. if injury pains or sickness, etc. pop up. Shooting for 60-70 miles.

Mon: 6-8 miles AM, 4-6 miles at noon. Base pace (7:15 or slower). Circuit/weights.

Tue: 2 miles warmup, 6 miles at half marathon pace (6:15-6:40), 2 miles cooldown.

Wed: 5-6 miles AM, 5-6 miles noon. Recovery pace (8:00 or slower)

Thu: 6-8 miles AM, 4-6 miles noon. Base pace. Circuit/weights.

Fri: 2 miles warmup, 8 miles at marathon pace (6:40-7:00), 2 miles cooldown.

Sat: 8-12 miles @ recovery pace.

I have a theory on the lower abdominal pain/strain I've been dealing with but that now seems to be on the mend. I noticed the last couple of weeks I did my circuit/weight training (which includes some lower ab work) immediately after doing my hard tempo runs. I think doing this when my body was already in a weakened/drained state was not so smart and may have caused the lower ab muscle strain. This week I'm dropping the ab exercises entirely from the routine and we'll see how it goes.

AM run - 3.5 miles solo then 4 with Kim. Nice morning, huge moon, but of course the stiff canyon breeze to keep things from being too comfy. But all-in-all a nice start to the week. I think all miles this morning were in the 8-10 range. Planning 4-5 more at lunch in the bright spring sunshine.

Noon Eagleview 5.2 mile run with Paul and Bill R. An absolutely beautiful spring day. Had a great run with great company. Ave pace 8:19.

Did some circuit/weights afterward minus any abs stuff.

Went out just before noon. Two mile warmup, 6 mile HMP tempo run, 2 mile cooldown. I was missing the sun most the time as it was overcast for most the run but then it finally made an appearance toward the end. Body felt good but not great today. For fun I wore my super-light Asics Pirahna flats just to see if they did any better than the Adidas flats as far as blisters. Probably about the same but I think I like the Adidas better for longer distance as they don't seem to have as much wobble and they only weigh about an ounce or 2 more.  I just need to remember to wear the right socks and maybe put a bandaid or moleskin over the problem areas for the race.

Ave pace for the tempo 6:26. Splits were 6:28, 6:30, 6:27, 6:28, 6:26, 6:16.

AM: Went 6 miles with Kim. Nice morning for a run, temps fairly mild (40 degrees?) with little or no wind for a change. We ran down/up some hills and also threw in a few striders. Ave pace around 9:55 if I remember correctly. Planning on 5-6 more at lunch.

Noon: Eagleview run with Paul and Will. I felt pretty braindead and lethargic today and felt like I was sleep running so I probably wasn't very good company today. Ave pace 8:17.

AM: Got a bit over 5 with Kim then around 3 more solo miles afterward. Another fairly peaceful, mild morning. From the weather report we thought it might be stormy but the skies were pretty much clear and best of all NO WIND!!! Ave pace with Kim around 9:55 (we typically start slow then speed up each mile finishing around 9:00-9:30 pace). Ave pace solo miles 8:00.

PM: Had intended to go the gym at work and do my circuit/weights workout and then maybe a couple of miles on the treadmill. However I got engrossed in the last section of a movie and had to see the end and ended up doing almost 4 miles. I think the name of the movie was "August Rush". I need to rent it so I can see the whole thing, I thought it was pretty good. Ave pace: 7:57

Noon run on the much beloved Kuhni road. Two mile warmup then 8 miles mostly at marathon tempo pace then 2 mile cooldown. Had a hard time getting into the run for the first 3 or 4 miles. Kind of a dreary day with some headwind the first 4 tempo miles that made the run feel harder than it should. But after turnaround I had the tailwind to make the last 4 miles go much nicer/faster and feel easier than the first 4.

Time for 8 miles 53:51, ave pace 6:44. Splits: 6:44, 6:55, 6:49, 6:45, 6:45, 6:43, 6:36, 6:31.

Just some thoughts on running form..... I've noticed sometimes it takes me 4-5 miles of running before I can seem to get my form to feel half-decent. I don't have particularly great form ever, but I notice starting out on these tempo runs often I can just tell my form is bad but sometimes there is nothing I can do to immediately improve it. I seem to have to just keep running and then after a few miles my brain will finally decide to kick into gear and I finally feel like I'm running with half decent form.  Anybody else ever notice anything like this? Anyways just kind or rambling a bit today, must be a boring-not-motivated-to-work-on-Friday thing going on.

Easy 8 miles with Kim down in Manti this morning.

We will be in Ephraim all day cleaning out my Dad's house as we get ready to sell it :( It will be pretty strange to have someone else live in the house I grew up in. But it looks like my niece might buy it so that would at least keep it in the family.