Don't wanna be FAT!

Slept in the tent again last night and had a parade to get to so I didn't run until 1:00 in the afternoon. I pushed Payson in the stroller on this one. It felt hotter than I thought it would it was only upper 70's so I didn't think it would be bad. But, I guess I am spoiled and used to running in the lower 60's in the mornings. My back and shoulders ended up getting sun burned.  Also, my left achilles tendon started hurting quite a bit.  I may take a day off and ice that and try and get it better.  This was one of those rare runs where I felt better at the start of the run than at the end.  Stroller miles AP:  7:05.  

I took yesterday off as I woke up feeling super wiped out and I wanted to give my achilles tendon one day of rest after it was sore on Monday.  This morning I was hoping to do an 8 mile builder.  I made it through 2.5 miles of the builder before my lower calf started tightening up.  So the pain has moved up from the achilles tendon to the lower calf which I think is a good thing.  It wasn't super sore just tight, but I decided to stop the builder after just 4 miles because I want to play it safe.  This year I have been very conservative at any signs of unusual soreness.  I think it has paid off in the long run as I have gradually been getting better and haven't had to take more than 2 days off in a row for an injury yet (knock on wood).  

So I did a 2 mile warm-up with 4 strides.  Then 4 tempo miles:  5:17, 5:14, 5:20, 5:22.  Then 6.1 miles at an average pace of 6:41.  

I'm just hoping to stay healthy and motivated for 1 more month.  It would be a terrible blow to get injured now.  

Easy run.  Lower left leg felt good this morning hopefully it will be good to go for the Layton Classic race on Saturday.  AP:  6:47  

10 easy miles. Everything is feeling good. AP: 6:55

Woke up at 4:30 this morning and I kept waking up after that so at 5:30 I decided to just get out of bed since I wasn't sleeping anyway (my alarm was set for 6:00).  So I got over there and ran the course.  Then I got my packet and got my number put on my jersey and made a pit stop then jogged around a little more and did my strides.  

My race plan was just to go out and try and draft off the leaders through 5 miles and then try and make a move.  I didn't stick to the plan and I paid for it.  I stuck to it through 5k just sitting in the pack but then as we turned to go down the hill Jake made a big surge which I matched but then instead of slowing down and sitting I made a decision to just keep pressing.  It didn't work Jake was right there the whole time and Coyle and Jason both ran smart and instead of surging just slowly worked there way back up to us.  I got passed by both Coyle and Jake with about 1/2 mile left and didn't go with them.  I battled with Jason over the last 1/2 mile but then he turned on his major kick and passed me with about 50 meters left in the race.  It was a very well run race by the 3 that beat me.  I made some mistakes and now feel bad about complaining about taking 2nd place in past races.  2nd place definitely feels better than 4th :)!  

Mile splits were:  5:05, 5:27, 5:29, 5:00, 4:48, 4:55, 1:58 (for the last .38 on my watch).  

Ran 7 more miles after the race.  Got over 20 miles in for the morning with a great workout in the middle and I saw a lot of friends so overall it was a good morning.  Just a little disappointed with the race, but better to learn a lesson about sticking to the plan now than later in a bigger race.  

Woke up with no motivation at all to run. Forced myself out of bed started running then turn around and came home after 1/2 block then forced myself to turn around and start my run again. Never did get going I was at over 8 minute pace and decided to bag it 2 miles in and turned around and went back home and climbed back into bed. I don't have any idea what my problem was. It was all mental. My legs felt just fine.  I hope I can get some motivation back tomorrow morning.  AP:  8:13.  Pathetic.  

I got woken up early this morning by a cute little girl and I wasn't going back to sleep. So with the extra time I decided to do the workout I was planning on doing Saturday. I was hoping to get 12 mile aerobic builder. I did it a little faster than planned and got 11 instead of 12.  

2 mile warm-up w/ strides  

11 mile builder splits:  5:26, 5:16, 5:18, 5:16, 5:15, 5:22, 5:21, 5:25, 5:21, 5:28, 5:23 for a total of 58:52 and an average of 5:21.  

3 mile cool down

Good workout, but I was super fresh after slacking off for the last several days.  

Penny woke me up real early again (just before 5:00 a.m. I know that's normal for you Utah County guys, but I'm used to waking up around 6:00) so she got to come on my run with me.  It was a pleasant morning the moon was bright and the temps were nice and cool.  Stroller miles AP:  7:29.  

I'm feeling good physically, but I'll be the first to admit that mentally I have been a bit of a head case this week.  This morning I laid in better for 20 minutes after my alarm went off before I finally convinced myself to get out of bed and go for my run, hence the shorter run this morning.  I wanted to get 11 in this morning.  But, 9.25 is a lot better than nothing.  I just need to hold on for a few more weeks (until STG is over) then I will take a little break.  AP:  6:41.

My plan was to try and average around 5:50 pace for 16 miles on this one.  I didn't do a warm-up or anything just jumped right into it and my first mile was a 5:39.  For the next couple of miles I felt really good and ran 5:29 and 5:35, so I decided to just try and run 16 miles at close to marathon pace.  I ended up running 16 miles in a total time of 1:27:50 which is a 5:29 average.  

Mile splits were:  5:39, :29, :35, :28, :29, :30, :31, :25, :28, :23, :30, :36, :34, :24, :27, :20.  

This was an out-and-back on the Syracuse Trail.

This was a very good workout for me and a good confidence builder.  Weather conditions were very nice, nice cool temps and very little wind.  

I was feeling Saturday's run a little at first which is to be expected, but after about 4-5 miles I started feeling good.  AP: 6:54 but it took 5 miles before I finally got a mile under 7:00.  

Feeling good and strong.  The mental woes have subsided for now.  AP: 6:28.  

As an exciting side note, all 3 of our kids slept through the night last night.  I didn't think that would ever happen, it was glorious!

3.73 mile warm-up with strides up to Roy High, 4x1600 with 2 minutes active recovery ~250 meters jogging, 3.60 mile cool down back home.  Target pace was 5:00.  I was planning on doing 6, but I have had a really minor cold and after the 4th one I was feeling it in the lungs a little so I decided I better not over do it because I don't want this minor cold to turn into something worse.  I felt good on the 4 that I did though and definitely feel like I could have done 6.  Just playing things on the conservative side.  

Splits were:  4:57.99, 4:59.98, 4:59.96, 4:58.00

I was proud of how even they were, each quarter split was very close to 75.  

Started out the first few miles real slow and stiff this morning.  After about 4 miles I started feeling much better.  I was surprised to have been able to pull down the average to below 7:00 minute pace after starting out around 7:40 pace.  AP:  6:55

I wanted to run 11 this morning, but I couldn't get myself out of bed in time to run 11 so I settled for 9.5.  Once I did get out of bed and going I felt good.  AP:  6:45 

This was an awful run.  I was hoping to get 8-10 miles of aerobic builder in at around 5:25 pace.  I warmed up 3 miles with strides then got going with the builder.  I was giving it all I had just to maintain 5:30 pace through 3 miles and so I stopped because I could tell I was giving too much effort and felt like continueing would do more damage than good.  Then I had 6 miles to run to get home and I had to stop and walk for a bit.  I don't know what the problem was, but the energy just felt completely depleted.  I think I must have some kind of bug.  I just hope I can turn things around before SGM.  

Felt okay this morning.  AP:  6:45

I may have made a big mistake.  I ran an 8 mile aerobic builder today.  I felt good energy wise, but started to have some calf pain about 5 miles into the run.  By 6.5 miles in the pain was very intense, but because it had been a while since I had had a good workout I decided to push through it.  The pain got bad enough that it was radiating through the whole calf and even up into the hamstring.  I am now limping.

I did a 2 mile warm-up with strides, then the 8 miles in 42:50 (5:21.5 average), then 1 mile cool down.  Splits were:  5:19, 5:20, 5:25, 5:18, 5:20, 5:27, 5:16, 5:24.  

As bad as my calf is feeling right now I will probably be taking several days off so I can get it feeling good again before SGM. 

No run this morning.  Calf feels a lot better today than it did yesterday still painful enough  though that I have had a slight limp today.  I have been icing it every few hours.  With the amount of improvement it's shown in just one day I think I might be okay.  I just can't believe how much pain it was in yesterday when there was nothing wrong with it at all before my run.  

After taking 4 days off I finally decided to test the calf out.  It seized up on me less than .5 miles in and just kept getting worse as I went.  I won't be racing on Saturday.   It's a bummers, but I'm very greatful I was able to run many good races before getting injured like this.  I'll take a few weeks off and hope it heals so I can jump back into things.  Good luck to all those racing this weekend.  I wish I was racing with you all, but such is the nature of our sport.