Don't wanna be FAT!

Workouts like this one get me excited.  Ran with Riley, Jason, and Bret.  Warmed up 3 miles then did 6x1 mile repeats jogging for 2:30 in between. Then 3.82 miles of cool down.  

Mile Splits:  5:06, 5:05, 5:03, 5:04, 5:03, and 5:14.  (I've added a few seconds to each because my watch is a little bit inaccurate).

This is the most speed work I've done since college.  Very happy with it.

Last night I woke up at 11:00 and went to the bathroom then went back to bed.  When I woke up again I checked my watch and it was 5:38.  That is the longest I have slept without waking up at all since before we had the baby.  It was awesome!!!  This morning's run went well, the first couple of miles were really slow as I was tight from yesterday's workout, but as things loosened up a bit I felt a lot better.  AP:  7:12.  

Nice and easy run this morning in the fog.  AP:  7:04.  

I decided that I'm going to run the St. George 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks.  I wasn't going to race this soon but several factors made me want to run this race.  

1.  I'm excited about how my workouts have been going and I really want to test my fitness level.

2.  I think it will be fun to get away down to nice sunny St. George and I don't have to work the following Monday because it's Martin Luther King Day.

3.  The real selling point is that they have a kids race.  My oldest who turns 4 in April has been begging me to get him in another race since he ran the kids k at Hooper Tomato Days and I'm glad to see him excited about running races.  There aren't very many kids races in the near future so this really sold me.  

I know the competition will be stiff down there and it will be fun to see how I stack up right now with some of you great runners!

6.5 easy, 3 mile tempo, 1 mile jog, 3 mile tempo, 6.5 easy.  

1st 3 mile tempo miles:  5:19, 5:26, 5:22

2nd 3 mile tempo miles:  5:24, 5:47, 5:34

I had hoped to run between 5:15 and 5:20 pace but that was before it snowed.  After seeing 1/2 inch of snow on the ground when I woke up I considered not going hard at all but decided I would just give it my best effort and not worry about times.  The second mile of both sets had 4 sharp turns and I almost had to come to a complete stop to make sure I didn't go down.  The other miles were straighter, but I was spinning my wheels pretty good.  So while the times weren't even close to what I wanted to run, I felt that the effort was good.  

My knee was pretty sore right after, but I worked on my i.t. band and it seems to be feeling better.  It is something I'll need to watch.

Easy run.  My I.T. band was a little sore, but I think that is because I rubbed it out so aggresively over the weekend.  My knee and everything else felt great.  AP:  7:11

9 miles easy.  Nothing special to note.  AP:  7:09

2 up, 10 mile power run, 2 down.  Weather affected the run a little bit, but not much.  There was a skiff of snow on the roads, but not to slippery.  The bigger factor was snow blowing in my face and in my eyes at times.  I'm guessing it slowed me down 2-3 seconds per mile is alll though.  10 mile power run was really good.  Average pace was 5:30.5.  Target pace was 5:30 so given the weather conditions I was very pleased with the overall average pace.

Power run splits:  5:14, 5:30, 5:36, 5:41, 5:25, 5:33, 5:30, 5:38, 5:33, and 5:25

Funn story,  the reason the 1st mile was so fast is because instead of having my pace displayed on my watch where I usually have it I had my clock displayed instead, but I forgot that it was my clock being displayed instead of my pace.  So I kept looking down and seeing 5:50-something and thinking that was my pace.  I kept thinking to myself 'shiz, I feel like I'm running a lot faster than 5:50-something, this is going to be an awful run.'  I finally figured out my problem part way into the 2nd mile.  

Easy run.  AP: 7:29

Had to be extra carefull this morning because the roads were covered in black ice.  AP:  7:29  

Ran with the Ogden crew. The company was great. I was planning on running 20, but I was feeling really fatigued so I stopped with everyone else. AP: 6:34

9 miles easy. I was still feeling a bit sluggish. I'm not sure what it is but both this morning and Saturday morning I didn't feel quite right. Hopefully that feeling subsides before Saturday. AP: 7:30

2.38 warm up, 10x1k (1:15 walking rest), 3.75 cool down. Target was to do 10-12x1k@3:10. Ran on the roads which made it difficult to get in a rhythm because all of them had slight downhill and/or slight uphill.  I also ran in my trainers rather than flats because I didn't want to be too sore from them.  Next time I do this workout I think I will go to the 21st street pond and do them in my trainers.  I averaged 3:12.3

1k spits:  3:15, 3:24, 3:13, 3:18, 3:09, 3:09, 3:08, 3:10, 3:11, 3:06  

Not a great workout, but not bad.  The good news is that I didn't have that sluggish feeling I've had on my last couple of runs.  My legs feel good too.  

I really enjoyed looking at the moon as I ran this morning, it was beautiful. Nice easy run. AP:  7:16.  

One interesting note is that my first mile was faster than my second mile this morning which never happens.  It might have been because I had about a 200 meter race with a dog during the first mile.  At least I'm going to give the dog the benifit of the doubt and assume he wanted to race and it wasn't that he wanted my femur bone for a snack.  Luckily I won the race so I'll never know which one it really was.  

Nice and easy run.  Did 4 strides towards the end of the run just to get the legs rolling for a minute.  I'm excited to race on Saturday!

I was actually giddy on this run. Being down in beautiful St. George running in clean, warm air just felt awesome. I really wanted to keep running. But decided just to keep it short as I really wanted to have a good race the next day. I ran from my parents house in Coral Canyon across Telegraph Road onto the road across from the Coral Canyon golf course that goes to the dump.  If you go up this road for about a 1/2 mile then turn off onto a dirt road it takes you to a pathway that goes down the gorge there.  Help me out Southern Utah guys I don't know the name of that pathway.  But, I took that and for just a little ways and then turned around and headed back.  I really wanted to keep going though because that running down that gorge is just absoluletely beautiful.  AP:  7:04.  

Great race to everyone! I was thrilled with a 3rd place finish against such tough competition. I did about a 2.5 mile warm-up then some strides.  My goal for the race was to run under 1:11 so I didn't want to go out any faster than 5:20-5:25 effort knowing the first couple of miles were uphill I was okay with them being around 5:30.  I just want to disclose that my watch measures each mile about .015 short, so as I list these mile splits my miles were actually about 1-2 seconds slower than the time listed.  Mile 1 5:31,  I ran this mile with Dave Olson the leaders already had a decent gap on us.  I thought there were about 9 ahead of us.  Mile 2 5:27, The gap kept getting bigger.  I thought Dave was feeling okay but somewhere near the end of this mile he dropped back from me.  Mile 3 5:23,  I was running right where I wanted to be and I was feeling great, but my I was starting to lose patience.  Mile 4 5:12  this had some downhill in it so I wasn't too worried about it being a bit fast.  I think 2 guys dropped out of the race at this point.  I'm not sure what they were doing.  The gap on the group behind Bryant was getting pretty large at this point and I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to be able to catch any of them but I was working on catching up to Matt.  Mile 5 5:13 this was a good mile I passed Matt probably about 1/2 through this mile and I don't think the gap got any bigger betweem me and the pack.  Mile 6 5:27 this was a tough uphill mile  I felt like I handled it pretty well though.  Mile 7 5:28  despite being a little slow I felt like I was closing the gap.  Mile 8 4:52 this had the huge downhill it, but I still probably ran this mile too fast I probably would have been better off at the end had I ran it a bit slower.  According to my watch I reached 3:20 mile pace going down the steep hill. I made up huge ground though on this mile though and passed Dave Holt (I'm not going to lie I feel a bit of a healthy family rivalry there) at the end of that mile.  There was just a little bit of a gap between Clyde and I at this point and a another little gap between Clyde and Mike, and I felt like Ben was within range at this point.  I knew that Bryant was long gone by now and I really had no aspirations of catching him.  Mile 9 5:04 I passed Clyde early in this mile but I was not closing the gap very quickly on Mike at this point.  He had a really strong mile there as did Ben.  Mile 10 5:12 I was still running well but I could feel myself running out of gas.  I passed Mike somewhere in this mile but I could feel his presence and knew he was close to me for the next 1.5 miles or so.  At the end of this mile I kind of gave up on catching Ben and made the decision to just try and hold on the best I could and try and take 3rd.  Mile 11 5:21 I was just doing my best to hold on.  Mile 12 5:17 still holding on for dear life.  Mile 13 5:14 Finished a little stronger than I thought I was going to be able to based on how I was feeling at Mile 11.  It was a tough but fun course and overall I was really pleased with my race.   I thought it was lame that I didn't get a prize (besides a plaque) for taking 3rd overall for as big a race as it is I was at least expecting like a $50 gift certificate or some socks or something.  I think it is a great starting point.   I won't be happy if I don't run a lot faster in a few months.  I cooled down about 3.5 miles after the race.

The highlight of the day was watching my 3 yr old Mitchell run the tough kids 1/2 mile race.  He was so excited to run it and he did so well.  He ran the whole entire way.  He was the only one that was under 4 years old in his race and he took 6th out of 24 kids and he only got beat by 5 and 6 year olds.  His time was 4:48.1.  I was so proud of him!

I was still in St. George we really enjoyed being down there for several days. I ran from my parents house in Coral Canyon again and started going down that pathway down the gorge that I don't know the name of. Then I turned right where the pathway splits and came out of the gorge by Washington parkway.  I took Washington parkway until just before reaching the freeway.  I then got on a trail that took me under the free way and connected me to Grapevine trail (dirt road)  ran on that for a little bit then got on Prospector trail which I took for a while and then went back under the freeway and looped back to me parents house.  I enjoyed running on some trails in nice weather.  AP:  7:51.  

Hard to be back home again. I really had a hard time pulling myself out of bed. The run was cold the air was gross. I was sore. AP: 7:36

When I woke up this morning I didn't feel well at all so I went back to sleep, hoping I could get my run in later.  I felt weak all day long so I didn't run.

Ran home from work.  Did 2 miles of warmup 4 miles of aerobic builder then 5 miles easy.  I was hoping to run 8-10 miles of aerobic builder but I was feeling real weak again and my left calf was really tight so I called it quits on the builder after 4.  Mile splits for the builder were:  5:26, :25, :23, and :35.  Just having one of those weeks.  Still planning on racing the Salt Lake Winter Series 5k on Saturday.

Ran to work.  Ran nice and easy.  Calf wasn't as tight this morning.  I spent a lot of time last night rubbing it out.  I didn't feel nearly as weak as I've been feeling either.  Felt better about things today.  AP:  7:19

Woke up early and did 9 easy miles from my house.  Met up with Riley, Amy, Dave, and Albert and rode down with them to the race.  Ran 3.5 miles of warm-up.  Then ran the race.  I wanted to average 5:00 minute miles.  The gun went off and I did good being patient for about a 1/4 mile then I got antsy and took off.  Moved into 3rd place for little bit as I was just barely ahead of Bryant and Scott.  Riley and Jason already had a pretty good gap.  The first mile was about 4:52.  Bryant and Scott then passed my and started to gap me little by little but Jason looked like he was coming back so I thought I might have a shot at him.  The second mile was about 4:59.   I forgot how painful 5k's can be it's weird you think it is going to go by so quickly and then you get about 1/2 way done and you think to yourself wow I'm only 1/2 way, I've still got a long ways to go.  So the last 1.1 miles I was just doing my best to hold on.  At some point I gave up on trying to catch anyone, Jason found another gear and went by Bryant and Scott, and I was just trying to hold onto 5th.  Well that didn't happen because Jake went blowing by me with about 1/4 of a mile to go in the race.  I heard him coming and I wanted to respond but my legs weren't having it.  3rd mile was about 4:58.  Making the last 1/10 about 46 seconds.  Overall I was very happy because I was right around 5:00 minute mile pace which was the goal.  The only regret is that I was so close to beating such a great runner but I ended up getting passed by him in the last little bit.  It was fun though to be in such a competitive race.  Great race guys!  Ran 3 mile cool down after the race.

I felt really strong this morning.  Definitely the best I have felt since before the STG 1/2 .  My calf felt almost completely better too.  Things are looking up.  Ran up to the rail trail, weaving my way there so I wouldn't be stopped at any intersections, ran on the trail for a little while then turned around and went back the same way.  AP:  7:04.  

The plan was 2 mile warm-up then 5 miles @ 5:40 AP then no rest and straight into 5 Miles progressive going 5 seconds faster each mile then 2 mile cool down. I did 2 miles warm-up then 5 miles @ 5:35 AP then I messed up the progressive part by going 5:15 on the first mile of the progressive. So on that part of the workout I ended up going 5:15, 5:15, 5:22, 5:23, 5:12.  Then did 2 miles cool-down.

So it didn't go exactly as planned but I was happy with the workout 5:26 average for 10 miles with no rest at all and going much faster for the 2nd half then the first half was great!  The idea behind the progressive was to help me go faster at the end of my races as I have not been pleased with my finishing strength in my races so far.  I was happy that my last mile was my fastest.  The progress is starting to slow down which I knew was going to happen, but there is still noticeable progress from a few weeks ago.  

The conditions were great outside this morning.  

Recovery run. Ran out and onto the Syracuse trail and then back. I'm still feeling strong this week. AP 7:23

I laid in bed thinking how awful the conditions were going to be because it had rained real hard the night before so I was thinking all that rain was probably now frozen on the roads and I convinced myself to go back to sleep. It turned out that it wasn't even bad outside, but I did enjoy the sleep in day.

Enjoyed a nice loop this morning south into clinton east to the rail trail north to 5200 S then back home.  Everything is feeling good.  AP:  7:23.  If any of the Ogden Crew needs to get their run done early tomorrow morning, I plan on running 25 miles and starting at 5:15 a.m.  I've got a busy day tomorrow and need to get it done early.  Let me know if you want in.