Everything Counts

April 25, 2024

15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

South Weber,UT,

Member Since:

May 09, 2012

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Personal Records:

800 Meters 1:50.14 (Track-BYU)

1500 Meters 3:42.07 (Track-Stanford) Likely the best race of my life; converts to a 3:59.85 Mile

5000 Meters 14:20 (Track-Stanford)

8000 Meters 23:53 (Cross Country-Pre Nationals Iowa)

10000 Meters 29:57 (Track-Stanford)

Half Marathon (Mesa-Phoenix Half) 1:05:11

Marathon (St George) 2:16:09

Short-Term Running Goals:

2017 Races:

Mesa-Phoenix Half - 3rd Place 1:05:11 PR

Ogden WRC 10-Miler - 1st Place 55:46

Provo City Half - 1st Place 1:06:33

Ogden Marathon - 2nd Place 2:25:46

Long-Term Running Goals:

My main goal is just to stay healthy. I was injured every year in my college career except for one. I would like to reverse that trend and always stay injury-free.

Personal:

I am a family man. I am married to my beautiful wife Amy (who also ran at Weber and is quite the runner). We have four beautiful daughters named Evelyn (6 years old), Hannah (4 year old), Nora (2 year old), and Iris (5 months).

Twitter handle: @RunnerRiley7

Instagram RunnerRiley7

I am supported by Brooks

I am a Generation Ucan elite athlete

Click to donate

to Ukraine's Armed Forces

Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00
Salomon Pro Wings 2 Lifetime Miles:						161.10
Brooks PureCadence 5 Lifetime Miles:						101.85
Brooks Adrenaline 17 Lifetime Miles:						161.85
Brooks Transcend 4 Lifetime Miles:						219.45
Brooks Ravenna 8 Lifetime Miles:						225.10
Brooks PureCadence 6 Lifetime Miles:						188.10
Brooks Launch 4 Lifetime Miles:						107.50
Brooks Glycerin 14 Lifetime Miles:						101.47
Brooks Hyperion Lifetime Miles:						92.13
Brooks Caldera Lifetime Miles:						31.10

Sat, Feb 16, 2013

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
4.27	16.00	0.00	0.00	20.27

LONG RUN

I drove to the Dee Events Center and started my long run there so that toward the end I could watch the Strider's Winter Circuit 10k as I finished up. I warmed up two miles and during that stretch ran into Paul Pilkington (Current Weber State distance coach and former 2:12 marathoner and LA Marathon winner http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-07/sports/sp-31105_1_los-angeles-marathon). Paul was an assistant coach while I was at Weber. He asked what I had coming up and I told him PHX marathon in two weeks. He then asked what I was doing this morning and I said 20 miles with 16 around 5:45 pace. He got wide-eyed a bit and I said is that too much. He said yeah I never went more than 15 miles two weeks out. So, I should probably listen to a 2:12 marathoner and coach right? Well....I'm stubborn. I did my 20 miles still!

After the warm up I did 16 miles at a 5:42 pace and then ran the last hellacious 1.5 miles of the 10k with my sister McKenzie. She did awesome, ran a 44:11 on that difficult course off of 25 miles a week and six weeks back from a stress fracture.

Oh and this was my first time ever breaking 80 miles in a week!

Asics GT-2000 Miles: 20.27

Weight: 151.40

Comments

From Bam on Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 12:01:00 from 89.126.28.24

What does a 2:12 marathoner and coach know about things:) Love it. Nice run Riley. Congrats on breaking 80. Now ease up.

If you don't eat between now and the marathon you might not need to stop for a bathroom break:)

EDIT - just read the article: great stuff. You mountain folk are all nuts:)

From Jake K on Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 14:01:17 from 67.177.11.154

Well the thing to remember is that everyone is different in what works for them in the last 2-3 weeks before the marathon... do what makes you feel good and be confident in that!

From RileyCook on Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 14:04:36 from 65.130.67.114

I agree Jake (but it is interesting to see what a former national marathon champion thinks).

And he did say, "Well I don't know what you've been doing" when I told him I wanted to go 20.

I feel like I have over-tapered before, so I want to scale the taper back a bit this time.

From Matt Poulsen on Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 19:30:35 from 74.143.181.234

Nice run Riley! You are ready for a great marathon in 2 weeks. Interesting advice from Paul Pilkington (I've always been a big fan of his), but congrats sticking to your original plan. You know your body best, and you will be just fine.

From Derek D on Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 20:19:18 from 68.109.132.154

Awesome run Riley. Yep, we're all different so whatever makes you feel best. Such an impressive cycle you've had.

From scottkeate on Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 22:17:06 from 71.199.4.146

Fantastic effort! 5:45 for 16 miles at the end of an 80-mile week. I'd say you're ready to pound out a great marathon.

I'm excited to see how well you perform on a course that is not as steep as most of the Utah marathons--you tear up the gradual downs and flats.

Super impressed with the way you've attacked this season.

From AngieB on Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 17:33:49 from 65.130.68.66

Haha I thought of you today after reading jakes blog and coming upon that little dog chasing you. That dang dog gets me every time right there. Last week I even let out a big scream. I had my earphones on and didn't hear him til he was right there haha. Nice job on the 80 wow you doubled mine.

From bdase on Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 05:55:47 from 67.214.231.170

I think it's great you are experimenting still and scaling the taper back this time. You are in excellent condition and are primed for a great one. That's crazy you're running so incredibly well and this is the first time you've broke 80 :). Everyone is different indeed. Great workout!

From Bam on Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 06:18:22 from 89.126.28.24

I was thinking about your long run and the taper and something struck me - no, it's wasn't something the wife threw at me - although you've broken 80 miles for the first time, your mileage is relatively low for a handy marathon runner. Perhaps the reason why you haven't got the balance of the taper right is because your mileage tends to be lower than most of those who run at your standard. I think the shorter taper will work in your favour and the long(ish) run will prove to be a smart move.

From RileyCook on Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 09:57:15 from 65.130.67.114

My mileage is certainly lower than most runners with similar accomplishments. I have a paranoia of increasing my mileage too quickly, due to three stress fractures and a scoped knee in the past from raising volume too quickly.

So, I have slowly, very slowly worked my way up from 40-50 miles a week last spring to 50-60 over the summer and 60-70 toward the end of St. George Marathon training last fall. And now I'm in the 70-80 range.

After PHX I will try to get closer to the 80-85 range in the next cycle.

Bam, I agree I likely overtapered because I wasn't really running far enough to worry too much about a big taper. Also, I recover very well/quickly, so I don't think I need as long of a taper.

My plan this time with the taper is to keep the intensity of the hard workouts up but cut the volume of the hard workouts. So, tomorrow instead of 8 mile aerobic builder I will do 6 miles.

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