Dallen

5 miles is not the best way to start out the year, but at least it is better than nothing.

For the first time in many months I went running outside my house at night. Usually I go to the treadmill if I have to run at night.Unfortunately this happened across the street from my apartment a few minutes after I left home.

Needless to say that my wife freaked out when she heard gunfire right after I left and looked out the window to see people running everywhere and several people laying in the street.

Glad that I didn't run that direction. I went the other way, like I usually do.

I suppose that I can no longer claim that my neighborhood is safe despite its shady appearance.

I should also probably stop returning snide remarks to the kids who comment on my short shorts or my Forrest Gumpishness.

14 miles all on the treadmill. No one should ever run this far on a treadmill, but I have some excuses. Several inches of fresh snow outside do not mix well with the longest run in several months. I also managed to get a good amount of studying done while I ran. I have a huge test in a few months and I have a whole lot of stuff to learn. Running on the treadmill allows me to multitask.

Averaged 6:58 pace.

This makes two days on a row of actually writing on the blog, although I technically wrote yesterday's entry today. Maybe I should try to keep the streak up. If you didn't read yesterdays entry, you should, it is much more interesting than today's.

10 miles. Some of it through lots of snow. I am sore from yesterday's excessively long treadmill run.

5 miles on the treadmill. I wanted to run outside in the "blizzard", but that is not a good idea after the recent shootings. Today the bad guys win.

Back on the treadmill again. This time 8 miles with 4x800 at 5:30 pace with about 2 minutes rest. The first one was tough, but after tht m body must have remembered how to run fast and they were relatively easy.

As a side note, it is possible to read at 5:30 pace. Though the comprehension is not 100%.

11 miles, at least three of these miles were through a foot of snow. The rest was on the slick stuff that the plow didn't get. It is nice to have a path to run on that actually gets plowed as soon is it snows. One of the perks of Chicago. Too bad it's the about the only safe place to run in the city.

It was windy, snowing, and about 10 degrees, but a whole lot of clothes kept me hapy.

I never got around to reviewing last years goals. I don't believe in New years resolutions, but this is a good time of the year to make plans and new goals. He we are with last years results.

Goal #1: Chicago Marathon in 2:35. Didn't hit the time goal, but still got a PR of 2:39:14. This came in 80 degree weather one day after working an unexpected 24 hour shift. Ideal conditions would have left me new the goal. I will call this success. 

#2: Beat longstanding 5K PR of 16:20 and half marathon PR of 1:14:45. Didn't get those PR's, but did get PR's in mile, 8K, 10 miles and marathon. Not bad. Maybe half credit.

 #3: Run at least 15 races. Ran 10.

#4: Total of 3500 miles. Ran 3505.

#5: Run 500 quality miles (races, intervals, tempo runs, etc). Only about 350.

#6: Average 100 miles a week for an 8 week period before the marathon to see what high mileage could do for me. Only did 2 consecutive weeks, 4 total for the year.

#7: Win a race. Won a little race in D.C.

#8: Develop and stick to a good core training plan. Failed.

#9: Improve my diet. Failed.

Total: 4.5 out of 9.

This years goals will come soon. I'm still working on them, but they are sure to be almost identical to last years, which were almost identical to the year before.

Today's run, 5 miles on the treadmill.

16 miles on the treadmill. 6:50 average pace. I am learning to like long runs on the treadmill. As long as I have some good reading material.

10 easy miles outside. It's still cold.

On treadmill

Outside in the cold.

7+6. PM run with 3 miles on the treadmill at 10.3 MPH

All of this on the treadmill again. It's interesting that my body handled this much better than last week's 16 miler and that was better than the previous week's 14 miler. Next week's 20 miler should be a piece of cake.

The building got new treadmills. There are only two of them, and the previous 2 kept breaking. Possible because too many stupid people whoud crank the incline up to 15% and then hang on to the front of the machine and let it pull them uphill. I've seem multiple people do this crazy antic. One guy did it for an entire hour. Anyway, the new treadmills are not much of an upgrade. Made by some company called Matrix. The distance readout only to one decimal point (0.1 miles rather than 0.13 miles). The machine only gives speed in MPH with no way to show pace per mile. 

Ethical question: If a person enters the gym and someone else is already inside, is it appropriate to turn off the air conditioning without asking the opinion of the person who was in the room first? Apparantly I must have looked quite cold as I was running along today. Maybe he thought my clothes were all wet because I had just come in from the rain or something. Actually, the stupidity and lack of courtesy of the people in my building never ceases to amaze me. Another example: the guy who holds the front door open and stands in the doorway to smoke because it is too cold outside. (You can smoke in your own apartment, but state law prohibits smoking in public areas.) I actually asked this guy to quit it, so he stepped outside, closed the door and then opened it back up when I had walked away about 10 feet. I dropped the issue, but I should have walked up to him, turned around and farted as loud as possible.

Rant over.

Didn't really feel sore from yesterday's long run, but also lacked the energy to run at anything close to a decent pace.

3 mile tempo run on treadmill at 5:49, 5:49, 5:43.

6x1:30 on treadmil at max speed (12 MPH). This is faster than my body is currently able to run effeciently so it was not a very smooth workout, but hopefully I will be a little better off next time I try to run fast.

First 20 miler Since September. It was finally warm outside so I didn't use the treadmill like I did on my prior 18, 16 and 14 milers of the past 3 weeks.

I averaged 6:45 pace for the first 16 miles, probably too fast, especially since several of those miles were over snow and ice. This I did a mini crash and could only maintain 7:00-7:30 for the last 4 miles. Averaged 6:49 for the entire run, excluding the untimed 1 mile warm-up and cooldown.

I won't be bumping up to 22 miles next week. I will stay at 20 until I can handle the distance a little better.

8 miles outside this morning before work. It has been a long time since I have had the willpower to get up early to run. I didn't run very fast, but at least i ran.

It is suprising how fast I recovered from yesterday's run. I was hobbling around all day yesterday, but now I feel fine. I couldn't put in a great speed workout, but I feel normal.

5+5. PM run on treadmill with a 3 mile tempo run at 5:46, 5:46, 5:42. This was a tough run, mostly because I ate too much macoroni and cheese before running. Next time I will have to remember to have my second plate after the run.

10 easy miles outside. I am possibly getting used to running in the severe cold, because it didn't feel that bad.

I was wrong. I still don't like running in the cold.

10 miles. 55 degrees. Lots of melted snow.

Needed an easy day, so I didn't run much.

10 easy miles. Felt much better today.

I did wake up with a sore tendon above my right ankle because I rolled my ankle yesterday. This same thing happens to me occasionally, but luckily I never actually injure myself.

8 easy miles in 60 degree weather.

5+9

4 mile tempo run on the treadmill. Originally I was feeling lazy and ploanned to to 4x1 mile at tempo pace with half mile rest, but after a few minutes I felt really good, so I decided to switch to 3 continuous miles. After about 2 miles I still felt pretty good and pushed it to 4 miles. By 4 miles I was exhausted. 5:56, 5:46, 5:42, 5:40.

5+5.

10 easy miles. I couldn't do the south route along the lake because they have half of the city shut down for Mr Obama to come home for the weekend.

Laziness. Was planning on doing 20 today, but didn't get around to it.

20 miles. All on the treadmill. I really should have just run outside, but I wanted to study while I ran. I had material in front of me the whole time, but I don't think much sunk in. The brain shuts off after a while.

First 10 miles in aproximately 6:40 pace. Not sure on exact pace because I accidentally hit the huge emergency shut off button which loses the time and distance.

Next 10 miles at 6:31 pace. It was getting painful by the end.

I have to remember to go outside next time. Extremely boring.

Sore from yesterday. Not the good kind of sore, the almost injured type. No more long treadmill runs for me.

8+5

Wanted to some some quality work today, but the hamstring is still feeling a little weird and I'd rather not risk it.

Tried to do a 4 mile tempo run on the treadmill, but 2 miles at 5:46 was all I could handle today.

10 miles outside, while the laundry was going inside. It is cold again.

5+5. Did the night shift last night so doing everything off of very little sleep. Did half on treadmill a 5% and 7 mph. Other half outside in the dark which resulted in me taking a nice spill on the ice.

7 very slow miles in some windy, cold, snowy weather.

10 easy miles. I ran a little faster than normal and felt much better than normal. Probably not a coincidence. I need to run a little faster on my easy days.

10 easy miles. Long run tomorrow.

Today was a big run. 22 miles. I got lucky and it was a fairly nice day. Almost 50 degrees and sunny. Unfortunately this is Chicago and there was a lot of wind.

With the wind at my back I did the first 10 miles in 1:04:30, 6:27 pace. (after a 1 mile warm-up). I planned on trying to hold a 7:00 pace on the way back, and happily discovered that what I thought was a tailwind was at least half crosswind. Did the next 10 miles into some wind in 1:05:10. Total 2:09:42 (6:29) for 20 timed miles, 22 miles overall.

You might ask, why is this dude running 22 miles in February? (Assuming anyone actually reads this). It is because I am planning on doing a 50K on April 4th.

How did I end up running a 50K? Well, I was planning on doing Boston and enven signed up. Then I decided that I didn't have the time or energy or ability to properly train while trying to study for the massive board examination that I am taking in June. I also don't really have the money to spend to get there. I figured instead I would do something easier and locally. You ask, how is a 50K easier? Well, I don't care so much how fast I do it so it takes a lot of pressure off. It will be kinda like a long training run.

Of course, I am too competitive to completely take it easy, so I decided to aim for a 3:20 (6:27 pace.) This would win the race about half of the time. If I slow to 3:30 or 3:40, oh well. (This would still win the race about half the time.) I really don't have any idea how it will go because I have nothing to compare it to. I tend to die in the last 6 miles of a marathon, but I also run those first 20 miles at close to 6:00 pace. Hopefully I can survive to 31 miles by running slower.

5 very easy miles, pretty beat up from yesterday.

While wasting time on the internet this week I came across something called the "Uphill Challenge" where some of the top trail/ultramarathoners competed on treadmills to see whho could climb the best. 15 minutes at 15% grade, runner controls the speed. The best guys did something like 1.63 miles. I managed 1.44 miles. Not bad for a first try off of abzolutely zero hill running. Started at 5.5 MPH and gradually moved up to 6.0 MPH. A little faster for the last couple minutes. I'll have to try this one again to see how the improvement goes.

Not a lot of time for running today. The in-laws are in town for for my son's first birthday party today (Birthday is actually tomorrow).

10 easy miles in cold, windy, snowy weather.

5+10

Tried to do an afternoon run outside, but it was too cold and windy so I wimped out after a couple miles and went to the treadmill. Did a 4 mile tempo run in 22:58.

It seems like I have re-injured my right hamstring. Originally hurt it during the Chicago marathon. It acted up again a couple months ago, and now it's really bothering me. Yesterday's tempo was too much for it. I'll take a few days off.

Test run to see if the hamstring can take it. It failed, did discover that it does not seem to be affected on the elliptical.

10 miles worth of effort, only 3 miles on the treadmill, the rest on the elliptical. Felt much better than yesterday, but couldn't pass 6.5 MPH without feeling like I could reinjure myself.

Getting better. 10 miles of effort, half on the treadmill, half on elliptical. Worked up to 7.5  and then 8.0 MPH without too much discomfort. Will continue to ease back into real running. It's a tough situation becasue I am running a 50K in 4 weeks. I would like to put in a couple more long runs, but don't need another setback. Will see what happens.

all outside, felt pretty good

10+5. First 10 outside, no pain. Then tried 5 on the treadmill, with 3 at 6:30 pace pace. Felt comfortable, no signs of reinjuring the hamstring.

7 easy miles, mostly on the eliptical. I am resting up the hamstring for tomorow's planned long run. I never do this, but I am concerned about the plausibility of doing a long run on a gimpy leg.

Big long run. 24 miles. I've never run this far in training and I am dealing with some sort of hamstring injury so I was somewhat worried going into this, especially since I do an out and back for my long runs, essentially committing myself to the distance if I go halfway.

1 mile warm-up easy. Decided to go try to do the first half at a relatively easy 7:00 pace. (I like to do my long runs hard.) A tailwind made it a little quicker and I hit halfway at a 6:49 pace. I felt really good. Probably because I usually would have gone out at a 6:30-6:40 pace. Still no hamstring problems.

Started pushing the pace a little on the way back. Pushed it a little harder after 3/4 of the run. Whan I hit 20 miles I was still feeling great considering the circumstances. Pushed a little more and did the last 2 timed miles (#22 and #23) in 6:24 and 6:18. 1 mile cooldown jog for 24 miles. 2nd half at 6:36 average pace into a tailwind. Getting close to my wishful projected 50K race pace of 6:27. 6:42 acerage pace for the 22 timed miles 2:27:37.

Trrowing in the two easy miles I would have done 24 in about 2:43. A couple more easy miles would have made it a sub 3 hour marathon. Not bad.

I actually thought about doing those 2 extra miles, but the intelligent part of my brain thankfully won the internal struggle. I don't need to push it right now.

10 very easy miles. No pain from yesterday's run which is a very pleasant suprise. I am a little sure and somewhat stiff, so I took it easy. No need to injure myself on a recovery run. Since I handled a lond run without reinjury, now I am wondering if I can throw in another couple tempo runs. I'll probably try something this week and keep my fingers crossed.

Taking it easy today. I need some recovery.

10 easy miles.

10 miles by myself. Then 5 with the stroller a few hours later. 70 degrees outside. Very nice.

Run A: 10 miles with a 3 mile tempo run. Was going to do just 2 miles, but I felt good so I kept going. 17:20.  I can tell that something is still wrong with my hamstring, but it is not really bothering me.

Run B: 5 easy miles with the stroller. This current warm streak is over and I rhink the the stroller is going back into stowage for a while. My wife is not happy, she really likes the time alone when I take Jonah out with me.

10 easy miles. Most of this was on the elliptical to rest up the hamstring for a long run tomorrow.

Took yeaterday off. Delayed the run untin the evening and then Jonah started vomiting.

Long run. 20 miles. By the mile markers along the lake I ran 6:32 average pace. Garmin said that I did 6:38. Probably somewhere in between.

It is 2 weeks until my 50K. I'm not sure if it is smart to do a hard long run this close to a race, but I am trying to see how my body reacts to a shorter taper. I'm taking a low key approach to this race, so I figure that I can experiment a little.

I did get some learning value out of the run. Normally I gradually work  into a hord pace on my long runs, but I went out hard from the start (after a mile jog to the path). My body needed the warm-up. My legs were feeling rather shot halfway through. On the bright side, I was not wearing down at all cardiovascularly.

10 slow miles. Not feeling too bad considering the 20 miler yesterday.

3 mile tempo run on the treadmill. 17:15 (5:46, 5:46, 5:43). This felt relatively easy. I felt like I could have done a couple more miles without too much difficulty, but I held back for my mini taper.

I intended to do half of this run with the stroller, but right after leaving I noticed one tire was a little flat. I subsequently pulled a 1 inch long thorn out of it. Hissssssss. Jonah will have to go out with me another day.

This run involved a trip to Navy Pier to visit the Shamrock Shuffle expo. I am not running the race, butI needed to but a few things so I made a run out of it. Made it back home with a bag full of Gu and jelly beans. Couldn't find the shorts I wanted. I am in need of some race ready shorts. I have a pair, but they just don't quite fit right. I could use the pockets for the upcoming 50K. Where else will I stuff all of those jelly beans and Gu that I bought today. I guess thet I might end up going with the old shorts.

10 miles on the treadmill at 6:27 pace. I was trying to simulates race conditions. The speed was accurate, hopefully, but it's not going to be 75 degrees and windless. Actually I wanted to test how my shorts felt with 2 gels and 3 packs of beans. After a mile or two I no longer noticed them.

Flying to Utah tonight to look for housing. Only 2 1/2 more months here in Chicago.

In salt lake.

6 easy miles. It is very difficult doing this taper. It is hard to be here in salt lake and not try to to some mountain running. Unfortunately that would be way too taxing on my legs in the days before the 50K.

Also very difficult is the carbo load. I like to do the traditional depletion/load 2 phase carbo load. I finish 2 days of depletion today. Avoiding carbs is hard when I am eating out 3 meals a day, especially when my wife understandably wants to east normal food.

4 easy miles this morning before starting the carb part of the carbo load.

Since the race is only 70 hours away I can staqrt to look at the weather with at least a mild level of confidence. Currently the conditions look perfect. Low of 35, high of 48, mostly sunny, 8 mph winds. Unfortunatly the situation looks precarious - rain on friday and sunday with 28 and 16 MPH winds. I really do not want to run 31 miles on a cold, rainy, windy day.

50K tomorrow. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate. Race conditions should be 40 degrees, sunny and only 8 MPH winds.

Having never run anything longer than a marathon I am not exactly sure what sort of results to expect. Therefore I am stuck with several goals.

First, some background. This is the worlds flattest 50K. Pancake flat. 3 out-and-back loops along the lake. Kinda boring, but a good way to jump into the ultra-marathon world. Previous recent winners of the race have been in the range of 3:12-3:40.

Goal A:  Time of 3:20 = 6:27 pace. I highly doubt that I will achieve this. Why? Because I don't really want to start out quite that fast and I would end up having to do a negative split race, something that I don't really see happening. More likely I am shooting for a 3:22-3:23. I think this is a legitimate goal based on recent long runs of 22 and 24 miles at 6:29 and 6:42 paces. The other slight problem with this goal is that I intend to go out with whoever wants to lead this race. I don't really want to take off solo unless I have to. This could result in a somewhat faster or slower pace.

Goal B:  3:30 = 6:46 pace. This would be a nice finishing time on a day that didn't go exactly as planned. Assuming a goal pace on the first 2 loops I could do the third loop at about 7:30 pace. I would still be happy with this.

Goal C:  3:40.  As slow as I could go without experiencing absolute disaster. Disaster is always possible, especially considering that I have no idea how my body will react to those last miles.

For completeness I should summarize my recent training. Over the last 12 weeks I have averaged about 70 miles week. I have done long runs of 14, 16, 18, 20, 20, 22, 24 and 20 miles. Verly little speedwork thanks to an unhappy hamstring, only about 6 tempo runs in the 3-4 miles ranges with a couple other random workouts. Incidentally the hamstring feels perfect now, but I expect to reinjure it during the race. Short taper 75, 60 and 15 miles for the last 3 weeks.

Lakefront 50K. 3:29:15 (6:44 pace). The weather wasd almost perfect for the race. Low 40's and sunny, but there was a 15 MPH wind coming from the north. This means tainwind on the out segments and headwind coming back. 3 loops. There was a very laid back atmoshere at the start. A couple hundred people just standing around. Only about 5 of us lined up within 5 feet of the starting line. A couple of guys next to me were discussing the prior year. Apparantly one guy went out at 6:20 pace last year but faded after mile 26 to 7 minute pace. I figured that I might be able to handle that type of competition if I was having a good day. Then they discussed that he ran another race whose name I did not catch. He said he did it in 38 hours and was 21st. I figured they were talking about a 100 miler and that isn't all that great of a time for a 100 miler. I figured I could possibly take him. (I looked him up after the race, turns out that the 38 hour race was Badwater. 135 miles through death valley. That is a good time.)

 Anyway gun goes off and we take off. I wore my Garmin and was glad I did, otherwise I would have had no idea what pace I was going, especially near the end. I went with Badwater guy and nobody else joined in. About 30 second in I looked at Garmin and it said we were doing 5:40 pace. I figured it was off. After a minute it still said we were at 5:40 and so I wisely let Badwater guy go. By mile 1.5 I couldn't even see him anymore. He was going to have to seriously crash for me to beat him.

The problem with him being out of sight was that I had no one to follow and he took the lead bike with him. Luckily I got the course map yesterday and scouted the course on the google satelite photos. I had a couple near misses including once where a volunteer had to yell at me as I went the wrong way.

With the wind at my back I am doing miles in the 6:17-6:25 range. A little ahead of 6:27 goal pace, but I will need it coming back into the wind. At the 5.17 mile turnaround Badwater guy has a lead of 3 minutes on me and I've got about 2 minutes on the next pack of 4-5 guys.

Aid stations are set up at both ends of the course and in the middle. I stopped at every one to chug a glass of gatorade. I carried 2 gels and 3 bags of sport beans with me. I took a gel at mile 5 and tried to eat a bag of beans between mile 9 and 10. I got it down, but they were harder to eat in a race than they were in training and they seriously interfered with my breathing. They also made annoying sound as they shook in my pockets.

The headwind between miles 5 and 10 was tough. I slowed to about 6:40-6:45 pace despite a stronger effort. Hit the end of the first loop about 30 seconds behing goal pace, but feeling good.

I picked up the pace on the second out segment. 6:15-6:25's. The gaps between me and everyone else kept growing. It looked like a sure second place. Hit the halfway point probably right near goal time. I don't know the exact time since garmin doesn't give seconds after passing 1 hour. By this time I was feeling some soreness in the legs, but not too much. Cardiovascularly felt fine.

I pushed it pretty hard in the second headwind segment. I was really trying to stayt in the 6:40-6:45 range. I succeeded, but it took a toll. At the end of then 2nd loop Badwater had about 8 minutes on me and my lead on the next pack was about the same. Planned on taking my second gel at this point, but it was no longer in my shorts. Not sure if it fell out, or if I never put it in there. I didn't even feel like attempting to eat more beans.

 On the third out segment I could only manage 6:35-6:45 pace despite the tailwind. I knew the A goal of 3:20 wasn't going to happen, but I knew a good time was still in the cards. At the turnaround Badwater was about 2 miles ahead of me. No chance of passing him. I don't yet know his finishing time but it was a good one. Still had about 8 minutes on the next guys, but they were no longer in a pack.

Passed the marathon mark a little under 2:53. I was wearing out and miles 26 and 27 were 7:01 and 7:03.  Somewhere around mile 28 I hit the wall. No more energy in the tank. Each mile I calculat how fast I had to maintain to finish under 3:30. Each time I barely made it. Was starting to worry that I would get passed, but it never happened. Finished somewhere around 3:29:14. Still need to see the official time. 3rd place was about 5 minutes behind.

Mile splits:

 6:15, 6:28, 6:27, 6:31, 6:23, 6:33, 6:28, 6:38, 6:41, 6:44

6:21, 6:17, 6:25, 6:29, 6:16, 6:34, 6:28, 6:33, 6:47, 6:44

6:51, 6:36, 6:46, 6:44, 6:46, 7:01, 7:03, 7:14, 7:39, 7:52, 8:06, 0:17.

Aftermath and analysis tomorrow.

After the race I was feeling quite exhausted. It took all of my energy just to walk back to my car. After a couple minutes I started shivering excessively. It was cold, but not that cold. I think it was somehow hormonal, or neurologic, somehow related to the end of severe stress. That fixed after a few minutes in my warm car.

After the race I had a really sore right knee. Somewhere in the region of the pes anserinus. The tendon on the top of my right big toe also hurt. Both of these went away after a few hours. Strange. I didn't feel either of these during the race.

By the end of the day I was feeling a similar level of tiredness to a hard long run, just a little exagerated. This morning I found that I was not nearly as sore as after a marathon. However the soreness that is there feels like muscle damage and tendon pain rather than normal soreness. Suprisingly I did not reinjure my hamstring.

Only one blister. Under my right second toenail.

I think I will delay my analysis until tomorrow. I need more time to analyze.

Time for some analysis.

I think I ran about as good a race as my training allowed. No major mistakes to slow me down. This is a little suprising since it took me three tries at the marathon before I managed to do things correctly.

I am glad that my ultra debut went well since I have been strongly considering jumping in headfirst. Now I am convinced that I can do it. My opinion is that I will be able to do well in ultras because I have a short efficient stride that should minimize the effects of repetitive pounding. Now I've got my eyes o nthe Squaw Peak 50 miler next June. If that goes well I will try something even better.

Lesson #1. I think the major thing that prevented me from running a little faster was lack of training. I only went over 10 miles 7 or 8 times in the several months preceding the race. I averaged about 70 miles a week for the 8 weeks before the race, but the weeks prior were much lower. Also, a fair amount of that milage was done on the elliptical since it didn't aggravate my hamstring. I suspect I was only in shape to do a 2:45 marathon, if lucky.

Lesson #2. I ran too slow in training. most of my training was in the 7:30-8:30 pace range. I did very little speedwork and I really only ran race pace on a few of my long runs. I needed to do more of my daily runs at the planned 6:30 race pace. I realized this when about a week before the race when I did to 10 miles at 6:30 and it made me rather sore. If I can't do 10 miles easily, 31 isn't going to happen.

Lesson #3. I'm going to need to do some strength training if I am to try longer races. I failed to mention this earlier, but my shoulders and neck were and still are really sore. As for my legs, they seen to mostly be suffering form tendon weakenss which weight training would help.

Lesson #4. I did pretty good with my water intake. The 4-6 ounces of Gatorade every 2-3 miles didn't upset my stomach and I only dropped 3 pounds during the race. I probably could have taken in a few more calories, but I carried the wrong stuff in my pockets. I need to try a bigger vriety of stuff in training. Gels work OK, but after a while they are not very palatable. As a side note my body can handle GU, but I think powergel upsets my stomach. 

Lesson #5. Blisters. I didn't get any on my feet, but I did get then under both of my second toenails. Same thing happened in last marathon. I'm gonna have to figure out how to deal with this. They didn't bother me in the race, but I bet they would have become a problem if I had kept going.

I suppose that's all I've got for now. I'll add more as I think of it.

10 easy miles. I haven't made a entry in over a week. Oops. Recovery from the 50K was easier than a marathon, but still took a while. I'm probably 95% now.

2 mile tempo run on the treadmill at 5:44 pace. This workout was really just meant to see if my body was recovered and ready to handle some quality. I think it went OK.

easy run. Felt really good for the first time since the race.

6 on my own then picked up Jonah and the stroller for 5 more and a total of 11 miles.

Did 10 miles with 5x90 second fartleks. The point of this workout was to get back into the groove of speedwork. I really haven't really done anything faster than the occasional tempo run for quite a while. Seemed to go well. Hopefully next week I can start putting in some serious training.

10 miles with Jonah and the stroller in 73 minutes.

This has been a terrible spring. So far I have only been able to go out with the stroller 4-5 times and taoday was really the first time that it was legitimately warm enough to do so. I am not going to miss Chicago.

Took the day off

10 + 5

PM run on the treadmill with a couple miles in the 6-8% grade range.

AM: 9 on treadmill with a 2 mile tempo run. Didn't go that well. Just didn't have the energy i needed. Was completely spent after two miles at 5:49, 5:46. Planned to do 4 but wisely cut it short.

PM: 4 miles in a praking garage. I need to get some hilly running in to prepare for the terrain in Utah, and this is the biggest hill around.

14 mile runn on a hilly path outside of town. Hilly is relative. I think this is a good at it gets around here, but it's not much. Left the legs feeling like I did a long run.

5 alone, 5 with the stroller.

10 miles, half of it with the stroller including 4x0.3 miles.

Fribsee workout. 4 miles there, 4 miles back and a little over an hour playing.

10 easy miles. Feeling really sore all over from frisbee yesterday. Not unexpected. Also got rained on.

10 more easy miles. I got rained on again. At least it wasn't as bad as yesterday.

8+8

For the PM run I went to the treadmill for a tempo run. Wanted to be able to do 4 miles. Last week this didn't go too well and I had to stop after 2 miles. Today was the exact opposite. Felt great the whole time and ended up adding an extra mile. 5 miles in about 28:30. Increased the pace 0.1 MPH each mile going from 10.3 to 10.7 MPH. 5:50, 5:46, 5:43, 5:40, 5:36. At the end I felt like I probably could have managed a few more miles (except that I really needed to go the the bathroom).

10 easy miles.

AM: 4 easy miles

PM: 10 miles with 8x400. Did the first 3 on the track in 80, 79,78. Then the high school people showed up so I left and did the rest on the roads so I don't have any more times. The track doesn't belong to the high school, but these guys are not really good at sharing. Sprinters.

10 easy miles

PM: added 5 more miles with Jonah in the stroller

10 easy miles with Jonah in the stroller.

Wanted to hit 90 this week, but I suppose 85 is probably a bit more of an intelligent buildup.

10 relatively easy miles with the stroller. Stroller said 71 minutes. It's a little off, I think.

Hamstring is a little off again. Doesn't hurt, but isn't normal.

10 miles with a tempo run on the track. Wanted to do 4 miles, ended up doing 2. Quit because I was slowing down and starting to have hamstring discomfort. I don't want to cause more future problems just to foce myself to finish the workout. This was my first tempo run on the track this year and I went out a little too fast. 5:44, 5:50 on a windy day.

AM: 16 miles. 2 loops of the the best hilly 8 miles loop I know of. Averaged a 7:18 pace, which is pretty good considering the terrain. In a few months I would consider this a flat run. It's all relative.

PM: 5 miles with Jonah

10 easy miles in the morning before work.

10 miles on my own, then 5 more with Jonah in the stroller. About 10 minutes between the runs. Just enough time to ride the elevetor a couple times and collect the boy.

5+7

4 mile tempo run on track in 22:58. Pretty even splits. A moderate amount of wind. No real hamstring discomfort. 10 miles total

Also added 2 miles with Marie and Jonah.

Essentially took the day off. I did walk/run about 2 miles with Marie and Jonah, but I won't caount any of this as I doubt it gave me much benefit and it was mostly walking.

AM: 10 easy miles

PM: 10 miles with 3 x 1mile on the lakefront path. 5:35, 5:28, 5:44. (about 4-5 minutes rest)Headwind on #1 and #3. I really suffered on the last quarter of each of these. I haven't done hardly any VO2 workouts lately. The funny thin is that I can tempo run just a few seconds slower per mile. I suppose to my credit these were done after 15 miiles of running today.

AM: 8 easy miles

PM: 10 miles with Jonah and the stroller in 69:10. I've been pushing the pace a litle with the stroller because the odometer is right there in front of me and it is hard to ignore it.

12 on the treadmill. Average pace of 7:10. I need to do more treadmill running in the next couple weeks because I've got a the big test in a couple weeks and I get good studying done while running.

AM: 5 with Jonah. I was going to go alone, but he woke up early so he got to come along.

PM: 10 on my own. I originally planned to do a tempo run, but I somehow wore myself out on the treadmill yeaterday. Hopefully tomorrow.

AM: 5 easy miles

PM: 10 on treadmill with 3 x 3 miles tempo run (17:13, 17:00) with 1 mile jog between (7:45). Did the first tempo at 5:46 pace, felt pretty easy, not really winded at all at the end. For #2 I frogressively incresded the pace 5:46 for mile 1, 5:43 for mile 2, then 5:40-5:27 for mile 3. Still felt like I could do more, but that was enough for today.

AM: 6 easy miles then about 90 minutes of frisbee. I'm calling it 12 miles total. There was a smaller than normal turnout and I covered two people on defense so I did more running than usual.

PM: 5 miles with Jonah in the stroller

Nice week. Most miles this year, and this is after taking Sunday completely off. I'm also glad to see a nice string of good weekly mileages coming together.

Next week. Soldier field 10 miler on Saturday. I'll probably do a couple days of mild tapering and finish the week with about 80 miles.

AM: 5 with Jonah

PM: 10 easy miles. I am feeling a little beat up. This is understandable since I just finished 112 miles in 7 days. I am fairly sure that this is a record. My "official" week record is 101.

AM: 10 easy miles

AM#2: 5 more easy mile with Jonah and the stroller.

When I do doubles I usually just refer to the two runs as AM and PM. In truth, the runs are often only a few hours apart. I currently have a strange schedule and I need to fit things in when I can. For example, today's runs were at 5:45 AM and 9:45 AM.

AM: 10 miles with a 2 mile tempo run on the track. 5:54, 5:46. I kept it nice and short because of the race this weekend. It started a little slow with a 1:31.5 first lap, but I gradually sped up. Pretty windy. I am not used to doing any type of difficult workout early in the morning.

PM: 5 easy miles with Jonah in the stroller

2 separate 5 miles runs, both with Jonah in the stroller.

8 easy miles this morning with Jonah in the stroller.

5 easy miles. I'm doing a little taper for the Soldier Field 10 miler tomorrow. I'm not sure what kind of expectations to have. The only race that I have run all year was the 50K, so I have nothing to base myself off of. I am going to try to break my 10 mile PR of 57:49 that I set here last year, but I don't know if it is possible. I was probably in better shape at this time last year.

According to the current forecast I do have some nice weather conditions to look forward to. Mid 60's and 5 MPH winds.  Thiat might be a little warm, but I am fairly sure that 5 MPH would be the friendliest wind speed I have ever seen on a Chicago race day.

This morning was looking like a great day for a race. Not windy and relatively good temperatures in the low 60's. Did a couple mile warmup before the race which involved me running to the start from my home. Wasted too much time in the bathroom line, but I actually needed to go.

The race started a few minutes late which is a rare occurance in Chicago races which are "required" to start on time. I think that we were waiting for our lane of Lakeshore drive to be blocked off.

Mile 1: Tried to go out relatively easy and not blow the race in the first mile. I have a habit of doing that. Noticed that the race was a bit more competitive this year as I was 14th last year and there were too many people in front of me to count. Halfway into this race we enter a half mile tunnel so GPS becomes relatively useless. (Same tumel that used to be part of the Chicago marathon. Some may remember Khalid Kannouchi dropping his competition here in his 1999 Chicago marathon world record run.) Anyway, I was now running in a bit of a group, trying to keep back so others would face the mild wind. Mile 1 in 5:42 by Garmin, 5:49 by mile markers. I think I will stick with the GPS times as I think they were actually more accurate.

Mile 2: Feeling pretty good. 5:40.

Mile 3: My group was falling apart and there was a nice pack of 4 about 5-7 second ahead so I made a surge to catch them. Probably pushed a little too hard and caught them in about half a mile at about 5:30 pace. Recovered for the second half of the mile.  5:38

Mile 4: Hanging with the same group. Clock said 5:53, garmin said 5:43. I think GPS was more accurate, but the other guys in the group saw a slow mile and started pushing the pace harder.

Mile 5: I couldn't intelligently stay with the guys in the group and they go about 10 seconds on me by the turnaround at about mile 4.8. As I  turned I wishes I was with them because I instantly realized that the wind had picked up and we would be running the second half into a decent headwind. 5:41. 5:17 by the mile markers which were definately off. I didn't even notice the 5:17 at the time. Halfway in about 28:20.

Mile 6: I did some math and saw that I could PR by holding a 5:54 pace. Sadly I was alone in the wind and struggle to hold 6:00 pace. 5:59.

Mile 7: There were two guys from my old group about 10-15 seconds ahead of me. I wanted to catch them, but my efforts were futile. 5:58.

Mile 8: Realizing that there will be no PR today as I can't get the pace below 6:00. I am on the part of the path were I run almost every day. I suppose this could be considered a home field advantage, but it didn't helm much. 6:03

Mile 9: Somewhere in this mile a guy in spandex flew by me. I had been hoping someone would catch me so that I could latch on, but this guy was going way too fast.  He eventually slowed a little but it was too late for me to benefit. For much of this mile I was using an old lady on a bike as a nice target to chase. 6:00. 6:12 by mile markers, definately off.

Mile 10: I picked up the pace on this mile hoping to catch a guy who was fading a little. I never caught him, but he made a nice target. The race finishes by going through the tunnels into Soldier Field (home of the Bears) and then weaving onto the field and finishing at the 50 yard line (at the edge of the field, not in the middle). It's not very efficient with about 8 turns in the final 1/4 mile, but it is fun. 5:42 by garmin, 5:48 by mile markers, not sure which to trust with all the turns and tunnels.

Final time: 58:18. 30 seconds off a PR, and pretty close to what I expected. Not trying to make excuses, but without that headwind I would have definately set a PR. I'm happy. Now back to studying.

Added 7 more easy miles in the evening. Suprisingly felt pretty good. Also felt a lot of residual urge to run hard, but mostly refrained.

AM: 10 easy miles along the lake. Felt relatively good considering yesterday's race.

AM: 10 miles then frisbee. I won't count it as much today because I didn't run much.

PM: Added 10 more easy miles

2 separate 5 mile runs with Jonah in the stroller. He really like that thing. He frequently tries climbing into it on mornings where it looks like he might get a chance to go out.  Anyway, I'm taking it a little easy today because I am feeling a little beat up.

8+5

AM: 12 miles with a 4 mile tempo run in 23:15 or so. At the end of the run I was assaulted by some high school kids. I did nothing to provoke it.  Not going to write any more about it for now.

PM: 8 miles with Jonah in the stroller

10 easy miles

AM: nine miles and then 90 minutes of frisbee. I will call it 13 total. I really think that I underestimate this mileage. It's a good speed workout.

PM: 4 miles with Jonah in stroller.

This puts me at 102 miles for the week. Most ever. It sound great, but it was accomplished with a lot of doubles. I need to make my primary workouts more significant.

AM: I am in Louisville to take my boards tomorrow. I got in at 1 but couldn't check into the hotel until 3 so I found a park and ran 12 miles.

PM: got bored so I went out for a few more miles.

This was a serious PR month for miles. About 50 more than I have ever done. The body seems to be taking it quite well. 

Took the boards this morning. Assuming I pass it will be the last real test for the rest of my like. I've been studying hard for this for the past 6 months. There was a lot to know. Rusult on friday, probably.

After the boards I ran 12 miles in Louisville. Multiple loops through a hilly park.

AM: 10 miles with an attempt at incline mile repeats on the treadmill. Tried to start at 6:40 pace and 7% incline. Made it about 4:30 before absolute failure. I think I bit off more than I can handle.  After a few minutes of rest tried 7:20 pace and 8%. It wasn't as hard, but I was shot after about 1:30.

PM: 5 easy miles with Jonah.

10 easy miles

AM: 10 miles with Jonah

PM: 6 miles with Jonah.

I was Mr Mom today so this was how the running got done.

AM: 5 easy miles

PM: 12 miles with 4 mile tempo run on the path in about 23:30.

Got the results to my board exam. I passed 8 of 11 sections, which means that I have to take the 3 again in November. This should be rather easy because the volume of material is much less and I have studied for it before.

Needed a day to recover. Went out with Jonah, but it started to rain so we quit.

7.5 and 5.5 mile runs, both with Jonah.

AM: 5 easy miles with Jonah

PM: 20 miles in the hilly forest preserve. Average of 6:51 pace. Miles 17-19 at 6:10 average. I haven't done over 16 since the 50K in April, so this was a little bit of a jump, but it went fine.

AM: 10 with Jonah.

8+5, all easy

12 miles. 10 mile warmup then 1.53 on the treadmill in 15 minutes at 15% grade. Much better than the 1.44 miles I manages in the same workout in february. I'll attribute half of the improvement to improved fitness and half to experience. Last time I started too slow (5.5 MPH) This time I knew I could start at 5.8 and be up to 6.1 for most of the run. Finished the last 5 minutes gradually increasing the pace to 6.6 MPH. This is becoming a favorite workut of mine.

5+10

AM: 6 easy miles

PM: 6 with Jonah

AM: 10 easy miles

PM: 9 miles with Jonah with 5x800. (2:52, 2:47, 2:53, 2:55, 2:58) . The last 3 were pushing the stroller into the wind. I was pretty suprised that I could go that fast. I figured that 3:00 was a good goal, especially into the wind.

AM: 11 miles with Jonah in the stroller. I have never gone over 10 miles with Jonah before, but my path home was blocked by the police because Obama is in town. A large detour got me back home eventually.

PM: 5 easy miles with Jonah.

Tomorrow I load the moving truck and Wednesday we start driving to Utah.

AM: 10 miles. This was a run to go get my moving truck.

PM: Tired of packing so I did 6 miles in a parking garage. Why? It was raining and I needed some hill work.

6 easy miles in the morning before loading up the truck.

Somewhere in Iowa

8 hilly miles in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

10 miles up and down the canyon. 45 minutes up, about 38 minutes down.

AM: 10 miles with about 1500 feet of vertical gain

PM: 5 miles with Jonah

AM: 14 miles. Up Bells Canyon. Turned around at 6400'. This place is really too steep for good running.

PM: 4 with Jonah.

10 easy miles

16 miles. From my house up the little cottonwood canyon trail. Made it to 6450'. Averaged 7:31 for the run. (8:22 up, 6:40 down).  Throwing out the 4 miles on the trail itself and I averaged closer to 6:45. 

12 easy miles this morning. I had stopped at 10, but when I got home Jonah was begging to go outside so we made a quick run to the park.

10 easy miles.

AM: 7 mile bike followed by 2 mile run

PM: 10 mile run

10 easy miles a few miles up big cottonwood canyon. Was going to do a 20 miler, but slept in and just wasn't feeling up to it today. Maybe tomorrow.

A couple hours later did a 5 mile park run with Jonah.

Got up early and put in that 20 miler. From my home to big cottonwood canyon (3.5 miles) thin 6.5 miles up the canyon. Went fron 4550' to 6950'. Then back home. Average 8:33 pace on the way up anf around 6:30 on the way down. Could have pushed a lot harder on the downhill, but chose to preserve some ability to walk this week. Did throw in a 5:37 mile 19.

12 miles along bonneville shoreline trail

5 easy miles with Jonh as a taper for some race tomorrow.

AM: 20 up emigration canyon. Did a two mile marathon pace tempo on way back down.

PM: 4 easy with Jonah

8+4

11+6

5+6

10+4, both with Jonah

AM: 12 with 3x800 hill (3:26, 3:25, 3:24)

PM: 4 easy

AM: 10

PM: 2 after bike

20 miler up city creek canyon. Kept going up the trail after the paved portion ended. Discoveredd that this was not a great idea. The trail is not maintained and the last 3 miles up were mostly through bruch. Legs got pretty beat up.

ON the way back down did miles 17-19 at marathon effort (5:40, 5:45, 5:35).

6+4

21 miles up little cottonwood canyon fron bells canyon trailhead. Planned to do 20, but wanted to hit 9000 feet elevation and it took an extra half mile. Took in easy on the way down and ran in the 7:00-7:15 range in hopes of not completely trashing my legs. Still managed to take a nice fall on the way down, tripped on something.

Sore from yesterday, but could be worse.

I haven't really been posting it, but I have been training for a triathlon. Pure running is getting a little boring. The race is in a couple weeks so I made a practice run this morning.

Swim in the apartment pool. I didn't time this because I have no idea how long the pool is, I just swam for what seemed like 500 meters. Then 12.4 mike bike ride which included 6 laps of the flattest roads around, still 100 feet gain and loss on each lap. 36:20. Then a 5K over the same loop. 18:25 (5:53 flat, 5:45 downhill, 6:15 uphill).

It was a tough race, but not hard enough to really be considered a "toughest". Of course, most races in Utah are downhill so even a flat 10K might be one of the toughest.

This race looped all the over the Soldier Hollow cross country ski area. Never ran the same section twice, but never went more than about 3/4 mile from the start/finish area. 90% of the race was on a mowed down underbrush and trail mixture. Lots and lots of up and down but no more than a couple hundred feet at a time.

 A high school kid took off a wee bit too fast for me, so I let him go. I followed another kid for the first mile then dropped him. The leader stayed about 15-20 seconds ahead of me for almost the entire race. In mile 5 I put in a big unsuccessful effort to catch him and it ended up pushing me over the line. Struggled over the last mile and got beat by about a minute.

This was a great race that I would definately do again. Still not that tough because I was only 4-5 minutes slower than a flat 10K. Would have been even easier, but I only have about 4 weeks of hills in my legs. I have a tough time on the uphills and I don't yet have the skills to go all out on the downhills.

10+5

10+5

10+5

9+6

AM; 3x800 hill 3:27, 3:22, 3:17

Practice triathlon. Estimated 500 swin in about 10:30. 12.4 bike in about 36 min, but this was slowed a lot by traffic, turns and bumpy bridges. 5K run in 17:54 (5:38, 5:48, 5:52, 36).

16+4

AM: 16 in city creek canyon. Thought about doing some hard downhill miles, but decided to save my legs for Triathlon on Saturday.

This was my first triathlon so I didn't know exactly what to expect. Over the last few weeks I kept lowering my expected bike time and fluctuating my expected swim time. In the end I just wanted to do as good as possible. My only set goal was a sub 18:00 run. This was a great race because my wife, 2 brothers and 2 sisters-in-law were also doing it. Also a cousin.

It turned out that the race was on the coldest day of the summer. We were at the start standing in occasional rain and 55 degrees. The major thought before the race was that I didn't want to get into the water and that I knew I would freeze on the bike.

Swim: The water was cold, but not too bad. Once we were swimming it was actually a great temperature. In the pook I could do 500 yards in 9:20. It was not going to be that quick today. Since I am a relatively slow swimmer I decided to hang near the back at the start. There were about 125 guys in our wave and this resulted in a huge bottleneck as we did two 90 degree turns about 100 and 125 yards into the race. I got boxed in and could only manage a very slow doggie paddle for the 50 yards around those turns. I estimate that I lost a couple minutes there. The rest of the swim went OK, except that my goggles were completly fogged up so I couldn't see anything and I was also spending a lot of time and energy weaving aroung slower swimmers whe were in front of me. If I could do it again I would go all out at the start of the swim and take the rurns wide if I had to. Swim time 11:54.

T1: I declared before the race that I wanted to have the fastest transition time. Most faster swimmers have a wetsuit to mess with, but I didn't. There was a decent amount of running to get to the bikes and I went full speed. My shoes were already attached to my bike so all I had to do was put on my helmet and number/bely and take off. Did the transition in 1:01. 10 seconds faster than any of the other 500 people. Cool!

Bike: The first 3 miles were mildly hilly with a net downhill. I was passing a lot of people.  Some of them in my race, others in the olympic distance that started 25 and 30 minutes before us. The next 5 miles were relatively flat. I don't live by any flat roads and I was amazed how fast I was going. I was also amazed to discover that I was not cold. The rain quit and the sun was trying to come out. I was averaging a little over 23 MPH, which was 1-2 MPH faster than I thought I would do. At the turn around I discovered why I was going so fast. Tailwind. I then had three miles into the wind at about 19 MPH. Last mile was a nice downhill mile with a crosswind. The spring course as a litlle long (12.8 miles rather than 12.4), but the olympic course was supposedly certified and accurate. My time 34:18. I passed a ton of people on the bike without getting passed. My cousin is a biker and he got within a few seconds of me, but I held him off.

T2: Disaster. I entered the transitian and ran to what I thought was my towel and shoes. Turned out to not be mine then I looked aroung and could not see mine. I think I wasted about 20-30 seconds searching, but it felt like forever. Once I got there it was a quick application of shoues and I was off. Somebody shouted that there were about 10 people in front of me. T2 time 58 seconds.

Run: This was awesome. It is really fun flying by people in a race. I was mad (and a bit rested) from my terrible transition and I took off like crazy. At half a mile Garmin told me I was going about 5:15 pace.I did not feel like I was 45 minutes into a race. Eventually the agrenaling lest and I slowed a little. I passed about 7-8 guys, butI had no idea how many others were in front of me. Turned out I was in 4th at the end. Splits 5:30, 5:38, 5:44, 52. The run was a bit long, verified by several garmins and a good look at the course map. (The certified olympic distance did 2 laps, but the start/finish were a little past the turnaround). Run time (about 3.15 miles) 17:44, equivaly to a 17:26 5K by my calculations. Not bad considering my best 5K in the past 4 years is 16:51 and my 10 year old PR is 16:30. Maybe I need to do a flat fast 5K, I might set a PR. I had the fastest run by 40 seconds, and that included my terrible T2 time because the timing got messed up.

Total time: 1:05:54. 4th overall. 3 minutes behind first place. Pretty good considering that I have only been biking and swimming for about 6 weeks. I am definately hooked on triathlon and will be making much bigger training effort next year. I really liked the training variety and the many new possibilities of seeing myself inprove in new areas. But for now I need to focus on the marathon training.

Special awards I made up for myself. Fastest run. Fastest T1. 1st place in the non-shaved legs division. 1st place in the relatively cheap bike division (not completely sure about this one). Fastest bike/run time.

10+4

22 miles. 9.5 up mill creek canyon + about 1.5 up trail then down. Miles 13-17 at marathon pace effort  (6:02 half trail, 5:25, 5:34, 5:35, 5:36). Very tough. Exhausted at end.

10+8

10+6. Both with Jonah in the stroller.

Am: 10 easy

PM: 3 on treadmill. Tried to do 15 minutes at 15% and 6MPH. Had to quit after 6 or 7 minutes.

10+5

From mouth of Mill Creek to top of some mountain - Grandeur Peak I think. 3000 feet elevation gain. 2:20. No Garmin. I'm calling it 16 miles, possibly slightly shorter, but more effort.

22 miler. 11 up and down Big cottonwood canyon. Did the first 6 down at marathon pace effort. This beat me up pretty good. Averaged 8:38 up, 6:26 down. 7:28 overall. Gonna be sore.

8+4

10 miles with 3x800 hill in 3:26, 3:26, 3:22.

AM: got up early to take on a long trail run. Drove up Big cottonwood canyon to Mills D trailhead. Then ran up the road about 6 miles to Wasatch crest trailhead. Several miles bordering on 10,000 feet. I was a little disappointed that I was only able to max out at 9975 feet. Then it was a nice downhill back to the car. 16 miles total. Averaged 8:58 pace, but was not pushing myself considering the 22 miler 3 days ago.

PM: ran to the park with Jonah, 4 miles. Not the best idea considering the 99 degree heat, but I manged. Actually I'm pretty acclimated by now and it isn't so bad if I'm not pushing too hard.

10 mile run and 21 mile mountain bike ride.

10+4

5+5

Tried a tempo run, but it wasn't my day.

Only 3 mile run, but I did set a 500 swim PR of 8:55.

8+4

15+5.  AM was up and down millcreek.

AM: 5 easy

PM: 9 on treadmill with 4 at tempo pace. Since I have a chest cold and haven't done a good tempo in a while I started slow and sped up. 6:00, 5:56, 5:52, 5:49. Actually have to quit about 30 seconds early to prevent throwing up. Probably a combination of fatigue and the pre-run root beer.

8+2

10+4

AM: 7 easy

PM: attempted to run up to the top of the Pffiferhorn (11300 feet) from white pine trailhead (7700 feet). Ended up losing the trail at about 9700 feet and went the wrong way. Quit at 10300 feet when I hit a dead end ridge. This run was more for fun than training purposes.

8+4

I've been really bad at updating and managed to get 3 weeks behind. Oh well.

Today was probably the last good workout before St George. I have been feeling like my training was not where it should be. I have put in a lot of miles, but not much speed work, I like to do a half marathon 3-4 weeks before a marathon, but couldn't fit one into my schedule this time around. Today I tried to put in an equivalent effort.

22 miles. 11 up big cottonwood canyon at 8:42 average pace. 2700 foot gain. A few seconds slower than the last equivalent run a few weeks ago, but also more of a headwind. Also I've been sick for the last 2 weeks and am still dealing with a fair amount of chest congestion. Then I did 10 marathon pace effort miles downhill. 57:25. The 2500 foot drop helps a lot, but honestly anything over 3-4 % starts to become counterproductive for me. Too much braking. I was fastest on the gentler slopes.  Slowest mile was on the 10% drop.

Very nice run that didn't really didn't leave me too beat up. Good sign that I might survive St George.

4+6, both with Jonah

treadmill 4 mile tempo (5:52, 5:49, 5:46, 5:42) much easier than a week ago

10+5

Made a second attempt at making it to the top of the pffiferhorn. Made it, but the a lot of the time wan't remotely close to running. Still worth it. 11300 feet from 7600.

8+4