Everything Counts

14.5 miles easy with Ben and Dave in North Ogden in some pretty awesome weather for Feb! My knee felt better than it has, but it's still a concern. I will stick to singles this week and may take a day off if I need to. I hope I can shake this before Phoenix next weekend.

HILL REPS: 6X400 & 2X200

I met up with Bret, Jason, and Dave at Smiths and we did 5+ miles easy then looped back to the end of Glassman Way by the hospital and did a hill workout, and it was a doozy. The hill was steeper than last week for the 200s.

400 Splits: 79 79 79 76 76 77 with 400 jog down for rest

200 Splits: 36 35 with 200 jog rest

Tough workout that really got the heart rate elevated.

No improvement with the knee but no setback either.

10.45 miles easy with Dave on the base perimeter road. I broke in my Brooks Transcend this morning. They felt pretty good and will serve as a recovery day shoe for me with its extra cushion.

My knee is a mystery. It feels 100% fine in the evenings and has full range of motion, doesn't hurt to fully bend or anything. You wouldn't even know it was aching. But then two miles into the run it hurts to bend it and my stride gets shorter to accommodate. I really need this to heal up. I may take more days off and if it slows me down a bit for phoenix so be it. I'd rather kill it at Boston anyway.

Well we're just over a week out until a big race for Riley. You know what that means! It's time to play spin the wheel of sickness and illnesses. That's right, this is where Riley spins the wheel to see which sickness/illness/disease he'll contract before his race this time. This is exciting folks, what will it be? Flu? Cold? Strep? The wheel is slowing down and it's stopped on...Shingles!

That's right Riley you've contracted shingles which means you may wake up looking like this:

With some of this going on too:

Congratulations, and have fun with your race next weekend.

No run today.

No run - shingles, knee issues, and travel day.

I woke up with my eye swollen shut, the worst it's been since I got shingles. I had planned on meeting the St George Crew (Clyde, Dave, and Logan) at 5:45, so I decided to still go out for a run despite my eye. It probably wasn't the safest drive, but I made it to the Dixie Center and met the guys.

After a few miles my eye started to open up more and I could see out of it a little better. The run was great, mostly a nice leisurely pace with a few pickups. They are a great group of guys to run with, the time went by quickly with a few good laughs.

My knee never hurt too badly during the run, so the two days off with shingles was beneficial to the knee. It's not healed fully but I hope it's on its way. I also think this run somehow helped my eye a lot with the shingles. Friday was completely miserable and my eye hurt all day long. I just wanted to keep my eyes closed the entire day. Saturday morning was bad too but during the run it got increasingly better and by Saturday night it improved a lot. It's still swollen but it's substantially better than it was, maybe the anti-viral is finally kicking in. I'm not looking forward to the blisters and scabs on my eyelid, eyebrow, and the rest of the area though!

I'm not high on my hopes for PHX anymore. I have missed a decent amount of volume with the knee. The shingles aren't as bad as a cold or the flu for zapping energy, but I'm definitely more tired and fatigued than when I'm fully healthy. I've also gained a few pounds by not changing my eating habits with the drop of volume the last three weeks. I thought I had read that eating tons of junk food, sugar, and eating out was good for shingles, but then realized I made that up when it was too late! But, I'm ok with PHX not going perfectly, if nothing else it will serve as a great stimulus for Boston and help me to figure out where I'm lacking and what I need to work on in the next six weeks. Also a poor performance more so than a great one will fuel my internal fire to run well at Boston. Don't get me wrong I am still all in on PHX and will do my best, but it may serve as a win-win regardless the outcome.