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Utah Valley Half Marathon

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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

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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
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
28.480.0014.610.0043.09
Asics GT-2000 (Yellow) Miles: 13.10Adidas Supernova Sequence Miles: 7.00Pearl Izumi EM Road N1 Miles: 22.99
Weight: 153.85
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.100.000.000.008.10

8.1 miles at a snail's pace.  I started getting sick Satruday night and I felt pretty crappy this morning; I just had nothing.  Hopefully I can kick this by Saturday's race.  I'm sick of getting sick a week out from races!

Asics GT-2000 (Yellow) Miles: 8.10
Weight: 155.40
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Stayed home, slept a lot! No run.  I still feel pretty horrible.

Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.000.000.000.007.00

AM: Still not feeling well.  If I feel any better throughout the day I may attempt a 5-mile easy run or so.  I really would've liked to stay home from work again to rest but I got too much going on.

PM: 7 miles easy.  No watch, but I assume it was almost as slow as Monday.  I still have extremely low energy levels and my throat hurts a bit when running.  But hey this morning it felt like someone had taken razorblades to my throat and on the run it merely hurt a bit, so that's progress.  If I don't feel well by Friday morning I will likely call off UV Half on Saturday.  I don't see any value in running it while being this sick.  But I got my fingers crossed that I will feel better by then.  I am pumping in the zinc and vitamin C like an addict!

Adidas Supernova Sequence Miles: 7.00
Weight: 153.40
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.580.001.500.006.08

I woke up feeling a bit better than the last two mornings, but I was still extremely stuffed up.  The throat wasn't sore for the first time this week though, so that's good.  I met up with Albert, Bryant, Ken, and Bret at 21st Pond.  I wanted to test my energy levels to see if racing Saturday was/is feasible.  We did a 3-mile warmup and then planned a 2-mile tempo.  I wanted to hit 5:00 pace since we were running with tailwind and a very slight downhill.  If I couldn't hit 5:00, that would be a good indicator that I just didn't the energy to race Saturday.

We started the tempo and I felt pretty sluggish but the pace was good.  I took a wrong turn and had to stop dead in my tracks and turn around so that likely cost me a few seconds.  My mile split was 4:52.  But things got bad quickly after that and I felt really tired and fatigued, like the tank had gone from full to empty in a matter of seconds.  So, I decided to stop at 1.5 miles.  My 1.5 mile split was 7:27, so I was like 5:10 pace or so for that last 0.5.  Afterward I was just done and had a hard time working up the energy to cooldown 1.5 miles.

It's pretty frustrating.  I feel like I just can't get consistent training in, something keeps setting me back.  I haven't decided what to do yet about Saturday.  I know what I should do, but what I want/hope to do and what I should do aren't aligned!  Anyway, I won't make a final decision until I see how I feel tomorrow morning.  But, I know that had today been raceday, I would've had either a DNS, DNF, or 75-minute+ time.  So, things really need to get better in the next 24 hours for me to have confidence I can race and have a decent showing.

Pearl Izumi EM Road N1 Miles: 6.08
Weight: 152.80
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

5 miles easy on the base perimeter road with 3 strides at the end.  Well I'm still on the mend and I think I'm about three days out from being over this nasty cold.  I feel a bit better each day.  The sore throat is completely gone and now it's a really just a stuffy nose and some occasional coughing.  The energy seemed ok this morning but I kept the pace slow enough to keep my heart rate under 140 bpm; so, it's hard to say for sure running that easy.  My resting heart rate is still up 4-5 bpm too this morning, but it was as high as 7-8 bpm above average early in the week.  So, progress is coming.  The question is, how much progress will I get in the next 24 hours. 

Who am I kidding though, I'm pretty stubborn and it's very likely I'm going to race tomorrow come hell or high water!  In the past I've run sick and/or injured and don't see why I should stop now.  So, I'll likely give it a go tomorrow and just see what happens.  If I run poorly, then I run poorly and I just move on.  But if I run well it will be a confidence boost and it will serve as a good workout two weeks out from Duluth.  I'll just have to be smart and if I feel really weak and fatigued in the race I will have to force myself to back off.

So as of now, that's my plan. 

Asics GT-2000 (Yellow) Miles: 5.00
Weight: 153.80
Comments(3)
Race: Utah Valley Half Marathon (13.109 Miles) 01:10:12, Place overall: 4
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.800.0013.110.0016.91

UTAH VALLEY HALF MARATHON

Well I knew this might not be a great race for me with how sick I've been all week.  It's funny if you asked me Thursday to predict my time I would've said 1:15.  But, this morning I convinced myself I could do 1:07.  So it ended up being in between those two.  But, I had to go in with confidence or else why even race?  I decided I would run as if I were not sick and just see what happens.  Worst case scenario I would fade and just get a decent workout out of it.

So, I went out with the mindset of trying to win the race.  That was my goal before I got sick, so I still wanted to see if I could do it.  I thought I could manage sub-5:00 pace for the first 8 miles or so (with the exception of mile 3) if I was feeling well.  Well, I didn't get a single mile at sub-5:00 so I knew pretty early on I was maybe in for a rough one.

We started the race and I found myself in front solo for the first 1/4 mile or so.  That really surprised me, considering the depth of the field.  Then Nate Hornock came up alongside me and we chatted for 200 meters or so and then Jon Kotter showed up as well with Josh McCabe.  Nate fell back before the mile mark and Jon, Josh and I formed the lead pack for the first 4 miles.  During mile 5 on some really good downhill, Josh picked up the pace and he and Jon pulled away from despite me running 4:31 pace down that hill.  I caught back up briefly on a slight uphill but only managed to stay with them for 200 meters or so and then just started to really "lose it".  I felt really sapped of energy and slowed down subtantially.

I looked down at my watch and saw I was running 5:13 pace downhill.  I shook my head is annoyance and thought to myself, "Surely I'm going to get passed here pretty soon if I don't get moving".  I didn't get moving and I did get passed almost immediately after that by Jake.  I was now running in the 5:20s and felt like garbage.  Even though I was still in 4th place I was almost ready to step off the course, I really felt weak. 

For the first time ever in a half marathon I took some form of fuel.  I knew before the race that I might have low energy levels this morning, so I packed some clif shot blocks with me.  I took two of those at this point, and I think it helped me finish the race.  At least that combined with the slower pace helped me keep going despite feeling pretty awful.

Once we got out of the canyon I was just really holding on.  I just tried to take it one mile at a time and remind myself that I do 8-mile tempos at this pace almost weekly no problem, so just try to keep moving.

I kept getting slower and feeling worse and I thought surely someone was going to pass me soon.  That fear kind of kept me going.  With two miles to go I glanced back and couldn't see anyone, which was a relief.  The problem is it also takes away my fear and "need" to keep running hard, and mentally I just gave in a bit and slowed down even more.  That's the problem with looking back and why you shouldn't do it!

So I finished up in 4th and still on the podium in just over 1:10.  Just like everyone else I had like a ten second discrepancy on my watch time and official, but at this point it really doesn't matter. 

So, it wasn't a wasted day, but man it wasn't pleasant.  I kept wondering why I talked myself into running when I knew deep down it was going to be a struggle. But, now that it's over, I'm glad I did.  It should serve as a great workout for Duluth in two weeks.  Plus I think trying to run hard when you feel horrible is great practice mentally to stay tough and hopefully that will pay dividends in the future.

Splits: 509 505 518 504 500 513 521 523 525 527 537 530 539 54 (last .17)

Pearl Izumi EM Road N1 Miles: 16.91
Weight: 0.00
Comments(14)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
28.480.0014.610.0043.09
Asics GT-2000 (Yellow) Miles: 13.10Adidas Supernova Sequence Miles: 7.00Pearl Izumi EM Road N1 Miles: 22.99
Weight: 153.85
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