Every Run is a Great Run!

A melancholy monday morning run at work in the wind and a bit of rain. Kinda bummed out that Kim's IT band isn't behaving very well. Also got a touch of sore throat and cold the last couple of days. But I guess better now than next week. Still hoping for the best for both of us and that we can run to full potential at SGM but it looks like that might not quite happen exactly how we were hoping. Hopefully we can be smart and do all the right things between now and then and hope for a little race day magic.

I actually felt pretty good today but not until I was 4 miles into the run. I had the stupid left foot flapping thing going on pretty much upto the 4 mile point. Left hamstring also still sorta buggy but getting better. But the good news is that pain behind my big toe is almost gone. Been putting some callus-remover pads over the pain area and that seems to do the trick. Felt really good the last 2.2 miles and the sub-8 pace started feeling as easy as it is supposed to feel.

Ave pace: 8:10

Ave HR: 153

Tomorrow I'll try the marathon pace run test again to see how the legs feel about running a couple miles or so in the 6:45-7:15 pace range. If they still whine I suppose I'll hit the elliptical again.

AM: Well today was a test day to see how the legs would respond to some miles in the HMP to MP pace range (6:30-7:15). Ended up being a good-news/bad-news type of run but overall I'm happy that my legs seem to be responding pretty well to the taper and cross-training regiment. Kim joined me on the bike as she is diligently nursing her IT band.

So the good news is that my legs felt pretty good for the faster miles. I didn't get the signals I've been getting the last couple of weeks that tell me I need to quit the workout early. I warmed up for 2 miles, did some light stretching then eased into a pace that felt like an HMP to MP pace. Plan was for 2x2 miles with .5 mile jog/rest in the middle. First 2 miles were slight uphill and into the wind. Last 2 miles were just the opposite.

Mile splits were 6:57, 6:56, (rest .5 miles), 6:37, 6:48.

Now the bad news...running at this pace felt much harder than it should have! Felt too much like 10K pace rather than marathon or half marathon pace after the first mile, so I'm counting them as threshold miles. Makes me feel kind of out of shape and it wasn't just a matter of my brain being asleep, I wore the HR monitor and it pretty much agreed that I was working in what would be more in line with a 10K pace effort. But I can't imagine that I've really lost much fitness in the last week or 2 so I'm willing to chalk it up to the cold I've had the last couple of days and also not getting the best sleep last night.

Average/Max HR for each mile is as follows:

173/182, 183/186, (HR down to 140s during .5 mile jog) 181/185, 185/189.

Doesn't HR in the 180s seem pretty high for 6:40-7:00 pace? I would think around 170-180 to be more reasonable, assuming my Max HR to be in the 190-195 range. It will be interesting in the coming weeks/months to monitor HR and see what happens during both good and bad training runs and races. Trying to decide if I want to wear the HR monitor during SGM or not.....

PM: 12 minutes on the bike + core workout. The more and more I look at my run today the more I'm getting bummed about my prospects at SGM, even for sub-3.

Noon: Solo run at work 5.1 miles.

Ave pace 8:14. Ave/Max HR: 153/174

PM: 2 miles easy with SF running club annual Moonlight Run.

AM: Ran the river bottoms 5+ mile loop solo as Kim is resting her IT band. Nice fall morning this morning, warmer than the last couple of days and I was fine with just a short sleeve shirt. Legs/body feeling a little better each day and the cold is almost gone now. My HR still seems awfully high for the paces I've been running lately, but I suppose I'll refrain from arriving at any conclusions until I have a few weeks/months worth of data to chew on. My resting HR seems to always stay consistently in the 45-50 range.

Ave pace: 8:57. Ave/Max HR: 151/174 (up heartbreak hill)

Late AM: 10 minutes on elliptical plus core workout. 

So with my running being off through the summer and not running so great lately I've changed my SGM goals. Originally my gold/silver/bronze goals were Gold:sub-2:50, Silver:sub-2:55, and Bronze:sub-3:00.  My revised goals are now Gold:sub-2:55, Silver:sub-3:00, and Bronze:PR (anything sub 3:17).

My plan is to run something along the lines of the table below (from the course tool, with smoothing checked and crazy grade cutoff set to 7%). But I'll use these splits simply as a guideline to keep me in check the first 13 miles. Foremost I plan on running by feel and hopefully these splits will feel about right. If I'm still feeling good after the 1st half I'll start pressing on the downhills and if I'm lucky enough to still feel good at mile 20 I'll push for the sub 2:55. Should the wheels fall off and I don't get the sub-3 I'll TRY really HARD to be happy with a PR.

Off work today and kids out of school so Kim and I enjoyed sleeping in until about 7. Ran about 5K easy while Kim rode the bike. Actually she is still out riding, I think she has some pent up energy with not having run all week other than a couple of miles on Monday.

Ave pace 8:34. Ave/Max HR: 150/163.

Kim and I ask for your prayers today as my brother and sister-in-law and family deal with a very tough set of circumstances. My neice's wedding is this afternoon in Mapleton. My brother and his wife (the bride's father and mother) left California Wednesday with plans on stopping in St. George and then arriving at our house yesterday where they planned on staying during all the wedding and reception doings. My sister-in-law had been battling cancer and just finished up chemotherapy and had been doing well. However yesterday morning some complications arose that have resulted in her spending much of yesterday in the ER in Cedar City and last night in the ER in Provo.

We are really hoping and praying she will be able to at least attend the wedding but it's not clear at the moment what will happen. Life just seems pretty unfair at times, she had been doing so well. Just 2 weeks ago her father passed away so they came up and stayed with us for the funeral. At that time she was doing pretty well healthwise and had improved steadily since then until the sudden turn of events yesterday. Her son is also getting married in just a few weeks. We so much just want her to be able to have enough health and strength to be able to enjoy and celebrate these special occasions in her children's lives.

Happy Birthday to son #2 Tyler - 18 yrs old!

Met up with the SF runners at the usual meeting spot. Kim is on docs orders to take it easy today so she "had" to sleep in (poor girl!). Glad the SF crew wised up and moved the start time from summer to winter hours at 6am instead of 5am. Just ran nice and easy for the most part but threw in a couple of flat marathon-ish paced miles (around 7 min/mi) near the end. I was glad that the MP miles felt better than on Tuesday but it still seems like running 7s feels about like what running 6:30 used to feel like earlier in the year. Oh well we just do our best. I can tell the taper is doing it's thing as the lingering aches/pains are lessening but not all the way gone. Hopefully with another week of heavy duty taper and the race day magic will be there in full force come Oct 4!

It was good to see Pat L out this morning and hear that he is going to be able to run SGM. He got injured a month or so ago while water skiing and was going to bag the marathon, but it sounds like with some good rest and working with the sports doc that he's going to be able to give the race a shot, albeit a little slower than usual for him. Hope things go well for him. It was nice getting some last minute advice from a guy who has run numerous marathons in the 2:50-3:00 range and who seems to get better with age. His marathon PRs have been run in his 50's.

Ave pace:  8:30. Ave/Max HR: 146/183

MP miles were 6:57 (HR 162) and 7:02 (HR 179)