Everything Counts

12 miles easy from the pond with Ken, Bret, Bryant, and Dave.

7.5 more miles at lunch on base in the wind.

AEROBIC BUILDER 3-2-1

My plan this morning was to do 4-3-2-1, but 38 degrees and pouring rain was not cooperative weather. When you're warming up and the topic of conversation is how you in particular severely under dressed for the cold, that's a bad omen.

By the time we finished the warm up my clothes weighed an extra five pounds and my shoes and socks were drenched. I wore shorts and I just could never get moving the whole run. It felt like I had taken an ice bath and then got out and tried to do a workout. On the first set it was very clear I wasn't going to be hitting my goal paces. So, rather than just completely throwing in the towel I adjusted to 3-2-1 and slowed the paces down by 10-15 seconds more than I originally planned. I did 3 miles in 16:18, 3 min jog, 2 miles in 10:20, 2 min jog, and then 1 mile in 4:57.

The 3-mile cool down was completely miserable! The good thing was I had a warm car to get into immediately after, oh wait I take that back the heat in my car doesn't work! Yeah...I'm still cold even now!

PM: 5 miles easy in South Weber

12 miles easy on the Riverdale parkway with Ken, Jon, Dave, Bryant, and Bret. Without rain 37 degrees actually felt decent.

5.25 more miles easy at lunch.

MILE REPEATS

I met Ben and Dave at the pond. They ran my warm-up with me and then did a few strides and a couple more miles while I got into my workout. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get this workout in or not. After Tuesday's run, my calves were incredibly tight, like worse than at the end a marathon tight. I had a hard time walking even without pain. I got a massage that afternoon from Sariah and then kept compression on the calves for the next 48 hours straight basically. So, this morning I wasn't going to attempt a workout unless my calves felt ok. They felt decent warming up so I decided to give it a go. I stayed in trainers as opposed to lighter shoes to help the calves from tightening up. If at any point they got tight again I was going to call off the workout.

The first rep went fine, slower than I wanted, but the calves felt ok. So I continued the workout and in the end did five reps with 2:30 rest. On the last one my right calf tightened up pretty good, but for the most part I think I got through it just fine.

The workout was slower than I wanted. That could be due to the recent calf tightness, wearing trainers, being in the middle of my highest volume week ever, or just plain wimpiness on my part. Maybe all combined, who knows. But even though it wasn't a great workout it was adequate and good enough to keep the train moving forward.

Splits:

1- 4:54

2- 4:54

3- 4:55

4- 4:54

5- 4:52

Now I get to stay home and play stay-at-home dad. Amy and Evelyn were both up until 3:30 am with flu-like symptoms. This definitely throws a wrench in our weekend plans. Amy was going to race Snow Canyon Half and I was going to pace Ben and Dave on the half too. But, now it's questionable if Amy can run and it's also unlikely we'd leave our sick kids with her Aunt to watch over the weekend. So, Snow may be a no-go now, we should know for sure by the end of the day. I am holding out hope that at least Amy can run, even if I don't run and stay on kid-duty. She's worked too hard to have to skip this race. Hopefully she can get tons of rest, fluids, and calories today and still salvage a race out of it.

7 miles easy in St George from my hotel over to Ben and Dave's and back. Didn't get out until 9 pm. I got pretty sick yesterday and wasn't sure I was going to be able to run at all today. We had also called off the trip down here since our whole family had gotten sick. So I slept in and felt ok when I got up. Amy was also feeling better so we packed up and drove down. I didn't get around to running until late. Felt like garbage most the run, still weak from being sick. Amy is going to still race while I watch the kids tomorrow, then I will try to get a decent run in later in the day.

I had planned my first 100-mile week this week, but that'll have to wait now. I have plenty more chances to do it.

AM: I had several duties this morning for the Snow Canyon Half: babysitter, bus driver, elite bag drop, cheerleader, and photographer (didn't do as well at this as I should of due to duty number one). I dropped Amy, Ben, and Dave at the start line and then cheered at a few spots. Everyone did great! Fun to watch.

After awards they all went to get lunch and I started a run in 70 degrees and bright sunshine. It was hot! It was a climb too out of Snow Canyon up past Bluff and up on top of Red Cliff Parkway I think the name is. One mile at 8% grade climb and I rolled a 6:30. I was happy with that. I got dehydrated later in the run and the sun drained me. So I ended up with just 13 miles. I may head back out later tonight.