Don't wanna be FAT!

4.3 mile warm-up, 5k time trial, 4.4 mile cool-down.  5k time trial was done on hooper tomato days 5k course.  I ran it in trainers for the extra cushioning.  About 1/2 mile into it I felt my left calf get real tight so I ran it at about a 95% effort rather than 100%.  Splits were:  4:57, 5:09, 5:23, and :42 for the last .14.  Total time was 16:11.  I was disappointed with how much slower I got as I went.  It was a good effort though and I think it was good for my training.  

Recovery run nice and easy. Nothing exciting to mention. AP:  7:15

4.75 miles ap: 6:50, 5 miles hard splits were:5:32, 5:33, 5:32, 5:33, and 5:27 into the wind, I took about a 60 second rest as I turned around then did 5 more miles hard splits were: 5:21, 5:27, 5:28, 5:27, and 5:26 (with the wind), then did 4.75 more miles back home ap: 6:38. this was a strong work out. The ten hard miles were done on the rolling hills of the Syracuse Trail. The legs and cardio felt great. The only problem was I didn't start until 8 this morning and it was really hot. I was feeling quite dehydrated by the end. Have been pumping fluids in since. this will be the last hard workout I do until the Ogden marathon. I will do a couple of workouts next week but they will just be maintenance workouts. I was glad to get one last good one in.

Easy run. Skipped my run yesterday because I couldn't get out of bed after a long night with a screaming baby. On today's run I felt tight to start but the further I went the better I felt. AP: 7:06

2 up, 8 marathon pace, 2 down. Target was to run this at my target marathon pace for the flat sections of the marathon which is 5:30-5:35. Splits were: 5:34, 5:30, 5:32, 5:38, 5:32, 5:32, 5:37, 5;20.  AP: 5:32.  So I was where I wanted to be for most of the miles not sure what happened on miles 4 and 7 just lost focus I guess.  This was a little harder than I thought it would be.  May adjust target range to 5:34-5:38 range for the flat/rolling sections of the marathon.  

I was proud of myself this morning. I had an early meeting at work so I had to wake up at 5:15 to do this run. That's pretty darn early for me.  AP:  7:00

4.75 mile warm with strides, 12x400 60 seconds walking recovery, 4.25 down. Target pace was 70-72. I was having a hard time holding back. Legs felt really good. Splits were: 69.48, 70.61, 70.01, 69.40, 69.19, 68.68, 71.39,69.99, 69.87, 70.66, 70.97, 66.27, held back on the last one until the final stretch then I let loose. 1 more week.

I was planning on doing 10 easy today, but I was going to have to do it in the afternoon or evening because I had to leave really eary in the morning to travel to Sidney Nebraska for work.  Unfortunately our bags didn't make the transfer from Denver to Cheyenne so I was without running clothes and shoes.  They didn't deliver our luggage to us until 10:45 p.m. so I ended up taking the day off.  

6 miles easy and 2 miles in the middle at marathon pace.  It was cold out here in Sidney NE.  There was not anywhere flat around my hotel so I ended up doing the run on rolling hills.   Everything felt great.  Legs should be super fresh and ready to roll on Saturday.   

6 miles easy on a dirt road with little rollers here in Sidney NE.  Nice to run on the soft dirt road.  I like running through farm country.  

Easy 4 miles.  My legs are feeling antsy and ready to race.

2 miles easy.

Let me start by saying I was very proud of my race today.  I didn't quite reach my goal of 2:25 and I might not have ran as smart as I could have, but I know that I could not have ran any gutsier.

Before heading up I had a bowl of cereal.  Once I got on the bus I had a banana, and at about 6:00 I had a snickers marathon bar.  I also had 32 oz of water before starting the race.  during the race I tried to get water at every aid station and power aid at a couple.  I had a cliff gel at about mile 7 which didn't settle well, but as I was running very low on energy at about 16 and 20 I had a couple more cliff gels. 

Good to see lots of friends before, during, and after the race.  

My mile splits are based off of the course markers.  First mile was measured short with the second mile being long but together they were right on.  Fritz took the lead from the get go. Bryant and Jason started to go with him but ended up dropping back with me and Jace.  First mile was 5:20  second mile read 5:53. So we were a little slow those first two miles but that was alright with me.  We then started getting in the groove I wanted to be in running the next miles in 5:28, 5:24, 5:29.  Somewhere in there Bryant and Jason started breaking off from Jace and I.

In hind sight I probably ran the next several miles too fast.  I passed Jason and pulled up to Bryant.  The next several miles were 5:22, 10:47 (for two miles I missed a split).  That ended the downhill miles.  

The next 5 miles they were rolling and flat mile.  I really wish I would have ran them slower.  I think it would have helped me overall.  Bryant started gapping me a little over the next 5 but not by much.  They were 5:32, 5:23, 5:40, 5:33, and 5:34.  I hit the 1/2 marathon mark in 1:11:52.  

The next couple of miles were quite slow as they had the big hill in them.  Bryant started gapping big time at that point.  Those next tow miles were in 11:38 I missed hitting the split at 14.  Just before mile 15 I started to get cramps in my right calf and I thought I was in real trouble.   I said a little prayer to myself that they would go away for at least a while and I was able to make it about 3 miles before had more cramps.  The next three miles were in 5:34, 5:35, and 5:25.  The 5:25 mile had the big downhill coming down off the spillway and that's why I was able to run a little faster.  So at mile 18 I was a little ahead of where I was hoping to be and still on pace for sub 2:25. 

Then things started getting real rough I started hurting bad and was just trying to run 6:00 minute pace.   I thought I would be able to run around 5:30 on the canyon miles as they were downhill but they next 4 canyon miles ended up being 5:45, 5:52, 5:49, and 5:31.  At about mile 22 a half marathoner said to me to keep going because 2nd place wasn't that far ahead of me.  I thought they were crazy because it had been about 6 miles since I had last seen Bryant.  But, just before coming out of the canyon I finally saw Bryant clear out ahead of me and that gave me a little bit of life. 

With about 3 miles left I was getting some really bad cramps in both calfs and up into my hamstrings they felt terrible.  I even started crying a little bit at about mile 23 or 24.  I was in a lot of hurt.  But I noticed that Bryant was slowly coming back to me so I kept pushing through.  The last 4 miles were in 5:32, 6:18, 6:02, and 5:51 with the last .2 in 1:23.  I think I passed Bryant with about 1.5 miles to go at about that same time I started feeling dazed and confused.  In the last 200 meters I had a real difficult time staying concious.   

As soon as I finished they put me in a wheel chair and took me to the med tents.  I had a temp of 103 and was very dehydrated.  The pumped two large bags of fluids into me using an i.v.  I was in bad shape.  I was stinking proud of the race I had just run though.   Anytime you beat Bryant it's a good day even if he isn't 100% which he wasn't.  There were many other really good runners in the race as well like Fritz and Jace and Justin.  So I was absoluletly thrilled with 2nd place.  

Congrats to the many others that had great performances today in both the full and the half!

I walked just .75 miles to church and then back home after church.  I was obviously very sore I hoped the walking would help.  Walking home was a little much.  

Just got out and shuffled along at an AP of 8:38.  The purpose of this run was just to try and get some of my stiffness loosened up.  

Once I got going this run didn't feel too bad. AP: 7:28.  

For some reason I felt a lot better yesterday then today. I woke up with some lower back pains and just never really loosened up during the run. I'm not worried about it though because I planned on spending this whole week recovering.  AP:  7:35.  

Ran this one pushing Payson in the stroller. AP: 7:41.

Did a strenuous 4.5 mile back ride up the canyon and back down where we were camping.  Then later I did a strenuous hike carrying Penny.  

About a 4 mile hike with the whole family. It was very nice weather and a beautiful hike.  Great family time!

It is time to get back to the grind I think I am recovered now and it is time to get going. I didn't run yesterday because of two bad nights in a row sleeping. Penny is not a happy camper and I was up for over half the night with her two nights in a row while camping.  Luckily she slept much better last night, being in her own bed.  This morning it felt good to get out and going again and hopefully I can get going with my training again now.  AP:  6:55.  

I Couldn't get my butt out of bed this morning in time to do more than 7.5 miles after another long night with the kiddos (This time it was Payson that was up for much of the night). I finally got out of bed around 6:30 and pushed it to get 7.5 miles in before I needed to get ready for work. I ran a couple of miles right at 6:00 minute pace.  It felt good to open up and run a little faster.  This is the fastest I have run since the marathon.  AP:  6:35  

Well I couldn't get my butt out of bed again this morning so this ended up being a late night run.  After going to my son's t-ball game and being barefoot on the grass I decided I wanted to do something faster barefooted at the park near my house.  So I did barefoot mile repeats on the grass at the park at 9:30 p.m.  

I warmed up 2 miles then did 4x100 meter strides, then 4x1 mile repeats with 1/2 mile jogging recovery inbetween, then 2 miles of cool down.  Splits were 5:05, 5:09, 5:06, 5:12.  Considering this was my first workout back after the marathon and that they were done on the grass I don't feel bad about this workout at all.  I was hoping to do 5 and I might have been able to, but my bowels simply would not allow it.  I find that I almost always have bowel issues when I right at night.  Overall I was pleased with the workout and pleased to find that my legs have recovered.  

This was a recovery run.  I started this run exactly 8 hours after the time I finished my workout last night.  Probably not the smartest move, but I wanted to get back to running in the mornings right away.  Once my legs loosened up I felt great.  AP: 7:00.

I only ran 13 miles, but they were hard miles. At first I started from the corrals at North Fork Park and headed up the trail that goes up to Ben Lomand Peak.  I only made it about 3.5 miles up before I started getting into a lot of snow.  I turned around at 4 miles and came back down as I was doing more hiking than running at that point.  I gained a lot of elevation in that 4 miles and only averaged about 11 minute mile pace going up and about 7:45 pace going down.   

After getting back to my car I drove up to the top of the North Ogden Divide (about a 10 minute drive) and took the trail off to the south that goes up to Lewis Peak.  For the first .5 miles this trail isn't bad, but it then gets very steep after that for the next 2 miles.  I averaged about 13:30 pace for those 2.5 miles up.  At one point I was going 16:45 pace, but my heart rate was way up.  I averaged about 8:45 pace coming down because it was too steep and technical to go any faster.  

Both of these sections of trail are part of the Skyline Mountain Marathon which I plan on running in August.  Even though my paces were slow and I only ran 13 miles total, given the effort I feel like this was probably worth the same as about 20 miles at 6:45 pace on the road.  Just a different currency.