Everything Counts

AM: TEMPO WORKOUT

I woke up a little later than planned (the olympics are killing my sleep schedule) so I wasn't able to warm up and cooldown as much as I wanted to.  I will have to double today.  But, I did get the 4-mile tempo run in, which was the main part of the planned run this morning.  Two miles uphill into canyon wind and two miles back down with tailwind.  4 miles in 20:56

PM: TRACK WORKOUT

I've been itching to do a speed workout.  So, I headed to the track at 4:00 pm and got in a very high quality workout.

I did two sets of 600/400/300/200 so 3,000 meters total.  Rest was 2:30/1:30/1:30 and then 5:00 between sets.  Goal pace was 1:33/1:01/0:45/0:29

Here were the splits: (1st set/2nd set)

600 Meters: 1:33/1:31

400 Meters: 1:01/1:02 

300 Meters: 0:44/0:46

200 Meters: 0:28/0:29 

Cool down barefoot on the infield.  This workout hurt bigtime, but it was the good hurt! I thought the hardest interval would be the second 600 but it was actually the second 400.  I think I will need to sleep in my compression sleeves tonight to help the calves recover.  Overall, it was a great day!

6 miles very easy.

8.36 miles easy.  I got some easy miles in at lunchtime.  My calves are still a bit sore from Wednesday's speed workout.  I have a 10k tomorrow, so hopefully they will feel a bit better by then.  Speaking of 10ks, the women's 10k final is today! Track has final arrived at the games.

SOUTH WEBER 10K

I run this local race annually.  It's a great little race and it's less than a mile from my house.  It's a hilly, point to point course with 255 feet of climb (mostly in first 2.5 miles) and 320 feet of drop (with like 60 feet of it in .05 miles). 

I wanted to run faster than last year.  Last year I ran 32:27, but the course was a tad short last year.  This year they added a tiny bit and it ended up perfectly measured on my watch. 

Splits: 5:12, 5:18, 5:22, 5:12, 5:05, 5:01, and 59 seconds for last .22 (4:33 pace) 

I negative split the course, which quite frankly is how the course is set up: 16:26 1st 5k and 15:45 2nd 5k.

I warmed up and cooled down with Ben, who won the 5k and also a bit with Angie who won the women's 5k.

They announced I had won $50.  I didn't open my envelope until I got home, and I was expecting to see a Grant in there, but was suprised when I saw a Benjamin instead! But hey, I'm not complaining!

AM: 6.19 miles easy around the hills in La Jolla and along the beach. 

PM: 5.13 miles easy around Balboa Park.

9 miles easy.  I ran around La Jolla again and headed up to catch a glimpse of Torrey Pines Golf Course.  I found it and saw part of the course from the road.  All I can say is, "I want to go to there!"  I then ran along some cliffs overlooking the ocean.  Basically 9 miles of exploring.

Easy miles.

6.36 easy.  I have felt horribly sluggish all week long.  I think it's a lack of sleep, I've been averaging about 5 hours for the last week.  I am going to skip a morning run tomorrow and get some extra sleep.

17.1 miles along the coast in La Jolla.  I think this is the most I have ever sweat on a run, crazy humid.  My shirt was dripping five miles in so I took it off.  By the end, my socks were squishing with sweat and you could see sweat seeping out of my shoes with each step, gross.  I threw in a few tempo paced miles toward the end 5:20-5:30 pace.  The run itself was beautiful and the temperature wasn't bad at all, just crazy humid.

AM: 10.5 miles.  It was good to be back to running in the dry climate of Utah!  I did a 4-mile tempo in the middle of the run.  The goal was to average 5:15 pace with a constant pace.  I met the time goal but not the consistency goal.  I decided to not look at my watch and try to do it off of feel.  I started out too quickly and then slowed a bit too much, but overall it was a 5:14 avg pace: 5:04 5:08 5:19 5:23

PM: 4.28 miles easy and way too soon after dinner.

10 miles easy.  Met up with Ken, Dave, Steve, Bret, and Bryant for a run on the Riverdale Parkway.  It's always good to catch up with the guys.

8.3 miles easy on the north base perimeter road.

INTERVALS

10 by 800 meters at the Hill AFB pond with 2 minutes passive rest.  The goal was to run these in 2:26, but I got off fast on the first one and even faster on the second.  By that time I was locked into a faster pace, so I just went with it.  In the end, it turned out great. 

Splits: 2:21 2:16 2:17 2:18 2:20 2:18 2:20 2:19 2:18 2:14 (avg. 2:18)

2 mile warmup and cooldown.

AM: 7.44 miles easy on the north base loop.  Feeling pretty decent and ready to throw down a great long run tomorrow with Ben and Ken.

PM: 4.5 miles easy.  I didn't get up early enough to run as far as I wanted this morning, so I added a few this afternoon to make up for it.

BIG WORKOUT/LONG RUN

22 miles at 5:47 pace.

Met Ken and Ben at 6 at Rainbow Gardens to drive up to Monte Cristo for our run.  We essentially ran 22 miles of the new Huntsville Marathon.  The goal was to get some faster downhill training in for St. George preparation.  The run was absolutely beautiful, Huntsville may end up being a popular marathon with the downhill and the scenary!

We decided to do Ben's patented marathon workout.  It's 3 miles at marathon pace, 2 miles at half pace, 1 at 10k, 1200 at 5k, 800 at 3k, and 400 at mile pace.  You run equal distance in between each one for recovery (so 3 miles easy after 3 mile pickup and 2 miles easy after 2 mile pickup etc.)

Here were the splits:

3 miles: 5:30 5:33 5:31

2 miles: 5:02 4:59

1 mile: 4:51

1200: 3:36 (4:48 pace)

800: 2:20 (4:40 pace)

400: 1:04 (4:16 pace)

The 3- and 2-mile pickups were conversational.  The mile wasn't too bad but not quite conversational, and then the 1200 down were much more difficult.  I'm very happy with this run, clearly it was very aided but still it was a solid effort.  Ken and I were talking at the end how we could run 4.2 miles more and slow down over a minute a mile and still both crush our marathon PRs.

This was another weekly mileage PR for me at 76 miles!

AM: 10.5 easy and achy miles.  I ran an out and back on the base perimeter road.  My quads are quite sore from Saturday's monster run, but I managed to still shuffle my way to 10.5 miles.  I'm getting sick of seeing this horrible air quality.

PM: 6 more easy miles with Ken and Janae by Mt. Ogden Park and through Weber State.

AM: 9 miles easy on the Riverdale Parkway.  I met up early this morning with Steve, Bret, and Jed for a nice easy run along the parkway.  It was nice and cool this morning.  My legs are still a tad sore and definitely tired.  Hopefully they'll bounce back by Saturday's Half Marathon.

PM: 3.41 miles easy pushing Evelyn in the jogging stroller.  She absolutely loves it and told me not to stop but I was ready for dinner.

AM: 8.64 miles.  I did two miles at tempo pace: 5:11 5:01.  My legs and body in general just feels fatigued.  I guess it's from the increased mileage I've done lately.  I hit my weekly mileage high last week and hope to match it this week again, so fatigue is to be expected I guess. 

PM: 3.5 miles. Another easy evening run pushing Evelyn in the stroller around South Weber.  She insisted I go "really fast" at the end, so I threw in a quick stride to finish it off.

8 miles easy. My legs feel better today and a bit more fresh, although my resting heart rate was elevated a bit this morning. That means I should likely back off a bit today and tomorrow, which has been part of the plan. I planned on frontloading the week with mileage so that I could still hit high mileage for the week but also try to have somewhat fresh legs for Saturday's race. We'll see how well that plan works come Saturday.

5 miles easy just around the neighborhood here in South Weber.  Ran by the park and did some strides on the grass around 4:40 pace-ish, just to get a tiny bit of turnover for tomorrow.

I am running TOU Half tomorrow morning and don't know what to expect.  My mileage is the highest it's ever been in my life the last two weeks.  But, I've hit some really good interval workouts, so I could have tired legs or I could be in for a fast surprise!  Time will tell.  I've never run up there in Logan but I hear it's a great course and faster than the elevation profile would indicate due to a tailwind that is usually present.  The main goal right now is St. George and finishing a marathon in a respectable time, so I'm training right through this half and next week's as well.  Tomorrow should be fun with some great competition.  Good luck to everyone that's running!

Well I wasn't sure what to expect going into this race.  I had hit some good workouts, but I was also pushing my mileage to the highest it's ever been and have had fatigued legs all week.  In the end, I am quite happy with the result.  But, it was a grind today.  Never at any point in the race, even early, did I feel comfortable.  It felt hard to whole way, but I just kept at and kept grinding it out.  And now my calf muscles feel like someone hit them with a sledge hammer!

Ken and Janae were nice enough to let Ben and I stay with them at her parent's house.  So, that was nice to have a free place to stay close to the race.  It took forever to get on a bus and we didn't arrive to the start line until 6:35.  So, Ben and I found a secret bathroom to skip port a pottie lines and then got in a quick warmup before heading to the start.

The race was out quick.  Jake went hard from the get go and Ken and Jason Holt also pushed that first mile pretty hard, while Ben and I backed off a tad.

I passed Jason during mile 2 and came within 7 seconds or so of Ken.  Ken kept the gap until the end of mile 5 when I decided I needed to get up to him and start working together.  So, I did and then I pulled ahead a tad on a flat section and then he pulled ahead again on a downhill.  We didn't do much running "together" as in side by side but we did plenty of pulling and pushing and kept encouraging each other verbally.  Miles 5, 6, and 7 had a really good tailwind and then I never felt it again really after 7 (there was actually a slight headwind for the first 4 or so, but nothing too bad).

At the turn out of the canyon, I measured Jake's lead and it was 45 seconds.  During the next section Ken put about 7 seconds on me again while I backed off a tad to conserve a bit for the uphill section.

About this time my stomach started grumbling and I was scared I may need a pit stop.  As we turned to go uphill at 10.5 miles the lead was still 7 seconds.  During mile 11, the most difficult mile, Ken started to slow so I made an effort to catch him and did right at 12 and told him to hop in behind and let's go!

Ken and I were teammates and Weber and are almost like brothers.  He's the only person in the world I would encourage instead of try to break when passing at mile 12.  Ken responded and went with me. We picked up the pace and then my stomach started hurting bad again.  I had to slow down to avoid an embarassing moment and Ken got 5 seconds on me again.  Luckily the stomach pain went away and so I made a hard surge and caught Ken at 12.7 or so.  Ken turned and asked, "What's the plan? You want this one? Or are we kicking?"  I answered, "Let's finish it together." 

We continued to pick up the pace and did basically a synchronized kick for the last bit.  We both finished 1:07:44 (Ken .2 ahead of me for 2nd).  It's a one second PR for me, so I am happy with that.  Ben then finished 4th only a minute back for a huge PR, I was so happy for him.  He's been wanting that sub-1:10 for quite awhile and it was sweet to see his hard work finally pay off!

Garmin Splits: 4:59 5:07 5:08 5:11 5:01 4:57 5:01 5:08 5:16 5:17 5:25 5:23 5:05 and 40 for the last .15 or 4:32 pace

It was great to see several friends and bloggers at the race! 

AM: 13 miles at a moderate pace.  Met up with Ken for 13 miles before work.  My legs aren't sore, which is a good thing (I slept in my compression calf sleeves Sat. night which helped) but they are a bit tired still.  Afterwards did 8 minutes of abs.

PM: 6.2 miles easy.  Just an easy afternoon run around the neighborhood.  It was still pretty hot out, but definitely bearable.

9.69 miles easy.  Met up with the guys for an early morning easy run.  I was pretty tired and a bit sluggish today, but luckily none of the guys pushed the pace.

AM: LIGHT INTERVALS

I met up with Ken, Ben, Jon, and Cam at the 21st Street Pond for some intervals.  The goal was to do low volume but get some fast turnover.  We settled on doing two sets of 800/400/200/1,000; the goal is to do 800 at goal 5K pace, the 400 at goal 3K pace, the 200 at goal mile pace and the 1,000 at goal 10K pace.  Here were my splits:

                   1st Set         2nd Set

800               2:20              2:20

400               1:05              1:05

200               0:31              0:30

1000             2:58              2:51   

On that last 1,000 Ken wanted to pick up the last 200 meters, hence the faster split.  Overall it was a good workout.  Usually I do three sets of these followed up by 4x400, but with the higher mileage, the race last week, and the race this weekend we figured two sets was adequate.

PM: 6.2 miles easy around South Weber (same course as Monday afternoon).  I am TIRED!

8 miles easy. 

5.55 miles easy.  I snuck a quick easy run in before lunch on base.  My legs feel a bit better and they feel better this week than they did last Friday.  So that's good.  I am running the Wildcalt Half Marathon tomorrow up in Huntsville.  The goal is to run under 1:11, it's a relatively flat course with soft rolling hills.  It should be fun.