Psalm 91:1 NKJV He who dwells in the secret place

Today I wasn't real motivated to get out and run for a few reasons.

One: I stayed up after midnight for the third straight night and finish my final web project for my College course (I can got to bed early tonight!!!!!!!).

Two: My mind my body was tired from the late nights and a lot of work put in for this conversion at work.

Three: I can't remember when I've been so depressed that I can't run the Ogden Marathon, it's put me in a sad,"feel sorry for myself" mood. I think this is the biggest reason of all that I was unmotivated.

But I quickly got over my immature attitude and headed out the door. Even though I was tired and lacked energy, I decided to stick to my training and do 6 yasso 800's but instead of jogging 800m's between each one I experimented and only did 400m's between each one. I wanted to see what I could do with a tired body and make it tough, because this what's going to make a difference in a marathon

The splits are not impressive, but I guess not bad for a tired body.

1. 2:54

2. 3:01

3. 2:56

4. 2:58

5. 2:55

6. 2:54

Then I did some running afterwards, and ran a few marathon pace miles. I will have to get my Garmin to get the rest of the statistics for the run. I used my stopwatch for the track splits and my Garmin for the overall run. Total 10.01 miles.

I also ran and walk 2 miles with my wife, dog and the kids.  Just kind of a fun run.

Today was my easy run day after the track work yesterday. I wanted to run a little longer than I usually do so I ran 13.1 miles at a 7:11 pace in 1:34 on mostly a flat course. The winds kicked up to 16mph, but didn't seem to affect me any (not after experiencing 30 mph winds in Boston). I was extremely hot at 50 degrees. I'm going to break out the tank tops now.

I exactly got a full 8 hours of sleep last night and went to bed at 9:50, because I was so tired and weak yesterday. I'm going to do the same thing tonight, because I think my body is starving for rest which I haven't allowed to happen, because of the busy schedule.

My plan for this week is to probably run around 80 miles. But I don't know. There's actually a marathon I can run on June 3rd but it's not a Boston Qualifier this year because they changed  the course somewhat this year. http://www.dammarathon.com/pdf/courseelevationmap.pdf It was a Boston Qualifier last year, but because of the change in the course it takes a year to get re-certified. Or I could run the Des News Marathon on July 24th which is a certified course. It don't really matter if it's certified or not, but if I run a better time than what I did at Boston it would be nice to use that time to register for Boston next year.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

Today I ran twice trying a little experiment with running. I ran two tempo runs in one day.
Not really pushing them as hard as I could because I knew I would run twice.

First run I ran 11.1 miles at a overall pace of 6:25 in 1:11:23. This was the worst weather and hardest stretch I've ever had to run for two miles. The winds were up to 50 mph and it was pouring rain. Good think I had my waterproof North Face jacket on that I bought at the last minute in Boston for that marathon. I felt for two miles that I was jogging rather than running and the wind several times knocked me clear off the road. I've never experienced anything like this before. This is the first time I wanted to quit the run and go home. Where are Dorothy's Wizard of OZ slippers when you need them.


7:06 (warmup mile)
6:36 (warmup mile)

Tempo miles
6:00
6:02
6:04
Okay here is where it starts to get ugly 6:18
6:51
6:23
5:57 (finally was away from the wind)
6:09
7:05 (cool down)

This afternoon I ran 7:40 at a 6:36 pace in 48:34. The wind was still there at noon but not as bad as this morning. I felt pretty fresh in this run considering it was three and a half hours later.
6:54
6:31
6:14
6:14
6:11
6:33
6:53

Totals 18.5 miles

Tomorrow I will do the same thing (maybe depending on the weather) but with easy runs.

Guys I need some advice I'm thinking about running the June 9th Teton Dam Marathon http://www.dammarathon.com/pdf/courseelevationmap.pdf or July 24 Des News. marathon. I feel pretty fit to run on June 9th, but the Des News was a fun one last year too. Or should I just run both?

Two easy/recovery runs today.

 AM:   11.52 miles  done in the city at a 7:39 pace.  Really an uneventful run. I ran up and down blocks near my house.

 Lunch Hour:  done in the city again and around Bartz field.  I did a lot of hills on this run.

10.10 miles  at a 7:32.

 

I got up at 5:30am to run today what was suppose to be a marathon pace run, but I ran faster because we had to be in soccer tournaments in Idaho Falls by 7am.

 6:20, 6:03, 6:05, 6:03,6:04, and 6:15.

Ran with the dog later for three miles  (8:25 pace)

Three mile marathon pace with warm-up  6:28, 6:24, and 6:24.  We had to be at soccer tournaments again in Idaho Falls, and I got up late so I didn't run very long. 

Later went to Church (If I did 9 more miles today I would hit a 100 miles for the week.  My week totals start on a Monday.
 

Monday
Ran two runs today. This morning 11.3 miles at a 7:09 pace in 1:20. This run I did my standard hill course. Although, I ran a lot more rolling hills on this run by changing my route today.

Lunch Hour: I ran for 41 minutes didn't have my garmin, but it was probably 5.5 miles. I ran around our College campus just enjoying the nice weather.


Total for the day 16.8 miles

Today I ran with the dog for one mile to warm-up.  The dog (pure breed Golden Retriever) set a new PR at 7:50 for the mile.  I let him open it up a little.  Before I've always held him back just so he learns control.

 Then I ran to the track and did 11 x 400's with a 200 jog in-between.  My Ironmen watch only holds eight splits so it overwrote the first three.  I also had my Garmin on to keep track of the mileage and overall pace.  I know the first one was  78, then the fourth split on 100,84,88,89,86,86,88,87.  I know these are not that great, and I need to try to push harder. I was very tired still from the weekend and not getting enough sleep again, but that's no excuse. Then I went into a three mile tempo run 6:17 and 6:15.  I did these two miles on the track, and because I hate the track so much I really wasn't focusing on running any harder, so the last mile I went off the track and ran to my house and around the block (I live only one block from the track).  This last tempo mile I did in 6:06. 

 
This type of running session has really helped me I think develop more stamina to get more out of your body and push for that extra speed.  I would have never thought you would ever try a tempo run after speed work.  Ted and Sasha gave me the idea, thanks guys.

I really feel I have a long way to go to get where I want to be.  I really need to start to run some small races (5k, 10k, 20k) unfortunately there's not a lot around Idaho.

 Totals 11.2 miles at a overall 6:38 pace  1.14 time for the total workout.

This morning I  ran 11.01 at a 7:12 pace.  Three miles of it with my dog who set a pr at 7:40 pace, of course I've been holding him back.  I'm sure he could do 4 minute miles if I let him go.  Pretty much this run was around the city, and it took me about 4 miles to really get into this run.  I did a couple fartlek's in the middle of the run just to see if that would keep me interested during this easy run day.

 Lunch Hour:

I ran 4 miles on my lunch hour at marathon pace, exactly a lot slower but will call it near marathon pace (6:37).  Did this around the city and it was extremely hot.  I definitely like the morning runs versus the afternoon heat.  I ran by a lot of construction, we are finally getting a Chili's and Texas Roundhouse restaurant here.  The run was with little effort and I felt really relaxed.
 

Five mile tempo run was on the schedule today.  I ran the first three miles with the dog, which is a loop three times around my block. Then my wife has been coming out and grabbing the leash so I can start on the tempo portion of the run, or whatever run I'm doing that day after my warmup.  When she seen me coming after the third loop she informed my that I got a call from work that our remote access was down (Cisco acs what a headache).  I went in the house and brought that back up in 5 minutes and then started immediately into the tempo portion.  That really wasn't so easy to do after stopping and starting. But my tempo times were for 5 miles  6:07, 5:59, 6:02, 5:47 and 5:53, then I wanted to slow down just a bit and not do a cool down mile yet so I ran a  6:19 the next mile.  Totals 10.3 miles for the day.  I feel I'm getting faster on the tempo runs, but sometimes it feels like an all out effort.  I hope some day that a 5:50 pace feels totally comfortable.

Today I was going to do a 20 miler, but I didn't get much sleep last night. There were three cop cars across the street from are house and from 1am to 4am they were making a lot of noise, shining their huge spotlight, and racing up and down the street. We didn't know what was going on. When I did get back to see I slept in too long to prepare for the 20 miler, and would have been way late for work. I decided to do 11 miles and mix in near marathon pace miles (6:33, 6:35, 6:34, 6:35, 6:38, 6:31) . I did a loop around a portion of the city and the wind was blowing very hard which made the effort harder than I wanted. Especially since I'll run a 20 miler tomorrow.

Totals 11.6 miles at a 6:43 pace in 1:18.
PM 4.5 miles at a 6:51 pace.  I run by the ISU Track where the ISU track was having meets with other colleges such as University of Oregon.  I ran by a few of them as they were warming up around the college.  I wanted to run at a slower pace, but I had to hurry a bit because my daughter had a tournament soccer game, which I'm very proud of her because she scored the winning goal with just minutes left in the game.  I ran right from work, and around the college back to my work.

20 miles this morning on an up and downhill course. The wind was awful at about 20 to 30 mph and made the run tough. I did run some marathon pace miles, and the overall average for the whole run was 6:47 pace. But the wind really had its way with me on this run.

Two hours later I run with the Dog for hree miles. 23 miles for the day.

8pm tonight.

Well this day even gets more interesting I just ran another 1.6 miles with the dog at a 7'43 pace. My cousin bought a Garmin 301and she is in a panic, because she and my other cousin are going to run the Ogden half marathon and she came to my house saying her Garmin skipped from mile 4 to mile 16. The only thing that I noticed different from my wife's and hers was the auto trigger wasn't set. I set that to "on" and went out for a run, but I didn't noticed a problem with it. She said it started acting up at mile 4 and then skipped and displayed "distance" 16 miles. It has the latest software/firmware upgraded on it. Has anyone else experienced this problem? She's not quite experienced enough yet to know what pace she's running at without the device. I've helped her train and she's shooting for a 1:50 time.

 Okay after Iooking at my blog and totaling my miles I was only 2.6 away from hitting 100 miles.  I've never hit a 100 miles and it was one of my future goals to do so in one week (now you know where I'm going with this.  I went back out and later ran 3.5 easy miles to get over the 100 mark for the week.  Now normally I don't care about bolstering my miles, but I was so close why not.

Three easy miles eventful run.

Monday
Today I run 8.3 miles in the morning at a 6:58 pace in 58:15 minutes on my standard Satterfield hilly course. I couldn't run as long, because I had to take my daughter to the dentist. I wanted to end the last four miles on the run at a faster pace and I achieved that (6:31, 6:13, 6:23, 6:40).

Lunch Hour:
Ran 2.3 miles on my lunch hour on the treadmill at the gym. This was just a warm-up so that I could do some strength training. The only excitement was watching ESPN while I was running. Can you guys believe the news about Brett Farve? He does deserve a better receiving group, and getting Moss would have really helped their changes this year. But you shouldn't whine about it and asked to be traded... if that's true.

Total miles today 10.6

Today I decided to do hill repeats since the Teton Dam Marathon has a section that has a gradual uphill for a few miles. I did 9 x 400's and sprinting down the hill every third one. The first few were tough and my legs felt a little tight (time for an ice bath). After that I started running home and half way through the mile I thought I will make this a two mile tempo run

first mile 5:53 (this could have been a 5:30 mile if I didn't decide halfway in the mile to make it a tempo mile. The next mile I had problems I had to stop at traffic for about 40 seconds so I only ran a 6:14, then I almost got it by a car pulling out a side street (great way to end the run). I followed that up with some cool down miles.

Totals 12.02 miles at a average pace 6:47 in 1:21.

Lunch

Today I suppose to mow my grandpa's lawn on my lunch hour so I decided to run there and back from work. One way is only 1.5 miles. I took it easy with splits of 7::14, 6:52, and 6:40.

 Tonight:

My wife wanted to run tonight and I decided to run with her.  We dropped my daughter off at soccer practice and decided to run home which is 2.7 miles.  I ran at her pace which is around 12 minute miles. She ran 3 miles yesterday so it was cool that she did back to back days.  It was kind of nice to run with somebody.  Pretty much every mile I run is by myself so it was nice tonight. 

Easy run day:

11.21 miles at a 7:18 pace in 1:21.  I ran the first 3 miles with our dog, and then handed the leash to my wife and kept going.  Very eventful run.  I didn't get run over or anything like yesterday.  I'll only run once today, because I want to be fresh for the tempo run tomorrow.  My calf's are a little tight so tonight if I get a chance I will foam roll my calf's.

Tempo run today of 6 miles. I did a couple things wrong with attempting this tempo run. 1. I didn't get enough sleep last night. I was up working on programs for our system conversion on Saturday past midnight. 2. I only did one warm-up mile when I was already tired and should of warmed up longer. 3. (I know I said only two but I thought of another one while typing) I did my run on my Asics DS trainers 12 that already have 400 miles on them and I could feel it in my feet today.

Tempo miles

5:59
6:03
6:12 (just felt fatigue and tired... basically being lazy no excuse)
5:47
5:54
6:37 (stopped tempo)
5:49 (decided I would do another tempo mile)

The last mile was the easiest, but most of the run I felt tired. Tomorrow recovery run Saturday 18 miles with some tempo and marathon pace miles mixed in. I might try this run on my Mizuno Idaten shoes that are 7oz, their racing flats.

Simple easy/recovery run of  10.4 miles at a 7:21 pace in 1:16.  This is my 19th day running in a row, but that streak will end this Sunday.  Three of  the miles I ran with the dog at about a 7:48 pace, he's starting to do really good to not jump out in front.  At the end of the run I did 3 x 100 strides.

 Good luck for all of you that are running the Ogden Marathon/Half-Marathon.  I know you all will do well, and I wish I could really be there.
 

Ran 20 miles today, and treated part of it like I was running the Ogden marathon since I couldn't run it today because of work.

Consecutive marathon pace miles were 6:20, 6:23, 6:25, 6:19, 6:17, 6:18, 6:20, 6:16, 6:20, 6:12, 6:04, and 6:14 (avg. 6:17). I also ran a 6:39 for the next mile, but is was suppose to be a cool-down mile but it really isn't because of the pace time. I don't know how to classify it. I should have just ran another MP mile. The threshold mile felt pretty easy and comfortable. The course was flat with rolling hills.

I had a rough morning before the run. I woke up at 1am and vomited my Chinese dinner, but I got up at 5am thinking I can still do this even though I felt weak and tired. I ate a bagel and half a powerbar and headed out the door. I was very optimistic how I would perform, but the run went well.

I felt like I could hold this pace for 26 miles, but training doesn't count you have to do it in a real race situation. I really felt I could have performed well in Ogden if I was there, but I probably wouldn't have been as fresh as I could have been because of the high mileage.

Overall average for the 20 miles was 6:33 in 2:11:40

After working about 26 hours in two days for our system conversion I didn't want to get up this morning.  But my legs felt real fresh, because I took yesterday off.  I decided to mix in some marathon pace mile in my run, or lower than marathon pace miles: 6:13, 6:13, 6:02, 6:12 and 6:22.  I only did 8.6 miles today because I needed to get to work earlier.  I felt really good, no soreness after my 20 miler on Saturday.

Totals: 8.6 miles at a 6:36 pace in 57 minutes.

 I'm shooting for June 9th to run the Teton Marathon, so this week I'll probably hit around 80 miles .

I'll do yasso 800s'm tomorrow and maybe mix a couple tempo miles after afterward.

Wednesday: an easy  run:  I'll probably run a course that has a lot of up and down hills.

Thursday:  Tempo run (not sure yet how many miles)

Friday:  Easy run (at least 10 miles)

Saturday: 18 miles and mix in some marathon pace miles.  I'm hoping to do this run on the Pocatello Marathon course.

Today I did 5 x 800's in a strong wind along with a few temop/mp miles afterwards at the track.

Again my 800's are not very good  2:54, 2:50, 2:54, 248, and I messed up on the last one.

Then I ran another 5:50 6:05 and 6:24 tempo/p miles.  I totaled 11.4 miles at an average pace 6:31 in 1:14.  I didn't run anymore today, because I didn't take a lunch and I didn't get home until late.  I worked over 12 hours today on putting little fires out from our system conversion.  I so looking forward to this 3 day weekend.

Ran an easy run today... 12.1 miles at a 7:07 pace in 1:26. Ran the first 3.5 with the dog at a 7:17 pace. My golden retriever is getting very easy to run with, and he does a good job of not allow anything to interfere with the run. I ran up Satterfield hill which is a 500ft climb and then back down the other side to get practice on the downhill. I did mix in 3 MP miles in this run.

I've started experimenting with my stride. I noticed if I take shorter step per minute my pace is faster because of the rapid return and pushing off more. I also experimented with this yesterday in my speedwork. I don't want to make changes in my stride right now, but has anyone else experimented with this.

I haven't registered for the Teton Dam marathon yet, but I will run a 18 miler this weekend to get that last long run in. I'm not sure how I'm going to approach this training run yet. Last week I did 12 MP on my 20 miler.

Lunch hour  4.1 miles at a 6:50 pace. 

What a rough night last night... my youngest daughter we found out has strip throat, my wife and son were vomiting all night, and to top it off I had the worst headache last night and still had it this morning. I wasn't sick I just think it's all the hours I've been putting in at work and not getting rest.

My oldest daughter was at an end of the year soccer party, and she was fine.

I wanted to run a 5 mile tempo run today and I thought with a headache I would be alright. The first mile wasn't to bad 5:59. The second mile seemed to be a lot more effort 5:50. The third mile I turned into a 25 mph wind and I couldn't hold the pace in the 5's 6:10, previous to this point the wind was pushing from the side, and it kept pushing me off the road. The fourth mile I turned with the wind at my side, but still the effort was hard 5:52. The fifth mile the effort again felt hard and not easy 5:49. Then I did a couple MP miles after that 6:19, 6:13.

I really wish running in the high five minute miles would get easier, but it still seems tough at this point, and I know it takes time and dedicated training. My headache is still there and I want to run a 18 miler Friday rather than Saturday. But maybe after a hard tempo run it might not be a good idea.

Faith is something you can't see but you must believe in and trust that God is with you.  My faith has really been tested this week.  First off on Monday my Grandma was admitted into the hospital, because her right leg/hip has a spur that is being touched by a nerve.  This was caused because her back alignment is out of place.  Also her left leg was fractured about a month ago, and it's healing up good.  But she was in so much pain Monday that I had to help my Grandpa admit her in the Hospital right in the middle of all faculty/staff at work coming online on our new system.  If you can't rely on God in these situations than there is nothing else that matters.

They moved her over to physical therapy yesterday to see if that will help, if not than the alternative is to have surgery to remove the spur.  Which isn't good because she's 85 years old.   Well last night she was trying to get out of bed, and the nurse didn't put the bed rail up so she fell out and completely broke her wrist.  This happened at 1am I went up and stayed till 5am.  They had to reset her wrist and cast her arm so this might delay the physical therapy.  I owe a lot to my Grandma because she paid for my first year of college, when I was trying to save enough money to go.  She didn't want me to wait to long to go because she was afraid I'd change my mind.  She's always been a hard worker and an inspiration to me, and I would do anything for her.

Run 5 miles with the dog at an easy 8 minute mile pace then ran three miles at MP pace. I ran around the city very uneventful run.  I did do 5 x 100 strides at the end of the run.

Usually I don't run on Sunday, but Monday I wanted to take the wife and the kids on our ATV's  so before church I ran 10.28 miles at a 6:44 overall pace.  The first 4 miles I ran with the dog then

I did some tempo miles and marathon pace miles.  I really wasn't trying to go for to much intensity today (6;25, 5:57, 5:59, 6:06, 6:03, and 6:15). Very hot for 8am in the morning.
 

I ran 2 miles with the dog.  Today was my day off.

Today was one of those days where I didn't have a planned idea what I was going to run. I didn't really want to run too slow so I ran 7 MP miles one threshold mile.

Total 9.3 miles at a 6:36 pace overall.

Since this is a taper week I probably will run around 50 miles. Thursday I'm thinking about either doing 4 x 1600 mile repeats or 8 x 400's with a 200 jog. What do you guys think?

My focus has been more on my grandma in the hospital right now than on the running. I've seen her every day, and she's starting her physical therapy treatments today. I really hope with her age she can rebound. But I will stay focused and be okay.

Starting last night I started getting a sore throat by morning it move in the state of a terrible sore throat. I ran 8miles I think at a 7:16 . The first 4 miles I ran with the dog which will always be slower, but this was an easy run for the taper week. I hope my sore throat comes with nothing else.

Update:

I've started to caught some type of bug.  Along with a sore throat I've now developed a stuffy nose.  This is not good 9 days before a marathon.  I haven't registered yet.

Well this morning I woke up with I believe a cold.  I was little warm, had a sore throat, and a nice full stuffy nose. Going to the track was out of the question because my body also felt weak.  What a time to develop a cold almost a week before the marathon.    I did run though and I probably could have gone to the track.  Even though my head felt like it wasn't even in the run but asleep, my body seemed to know what to do.  

I ran the first three warmup miles with the dog  7:31,7:15,:7:07.  Then dropped the dog off back home,and right in the middle of the fourth mile I thought I would do 3 mp miles. First mile (since I started so late in this mile)  was 6:36.  Then I decided to pick it up a bit 6:08.  Well might as well pick it up some more 5:50.  Then in the middle of the last cool-down mile I changed my mind and wanted to finish with a MP mile 6:29.   I did 7 miles overall, and I still feel hot, tired and weak, but I will get some rest tonight and see how I feel tomorrow.