my makeup may be flaking

Yay! A new year. It's difficult to make plans for the new year until I can run again. This afternoon my knee felt pretty tight. I"m not really sure what to do at this point.

Summary for January.

My knee didn't seem to be healing at all, even after I took a full week off and only swam. I continued to swim and started to do PT

Swimming, rowing, cycling, elliptical.

Highlights: 3000yds in 64:47,1500yds in 31:16,400yds in 7:48

24 miles (cycling) in 30 mins

6000meter erg test in 25:23

26flat 8k and 16flat 5k on the elliptical

Well, yes, I suppose I am "back".

It finally seemed like my knee might allow me to run further than 2 miles. I have only ventured over the 15 minute mark running two times since mid January and I was hoping I wouldn't exceed that by too much today.

What have I been doing the last three months? All will be shortly revealed, but suffice it to say that this entire week I have been woefully, pitifully sore and today was really no different.

I did a very brief warmup on the trails near the start to get shelter from the wind, but I'm not sure that really hurt me. I think the biggest factor in my poor performance today was the extreme fatigue in my calves. I felt great the first half a mile or so, but my calves got tired at about that point and I had to shorten my stride up. I gradually lost the main pack and slipped back through the field but I didn't lose too much ground all things considered.

Mile splits were 4:53 and 10:10, meaning that I ran somewhat like a high schooler, oh well.

After the race Allie and I went to the field house:

Hamstring 3*15 @90lbs

Quads 3*15@115lbs

Abductors 3*15@85lbs

Adductors 3*15@80lbs (felt weak today)

One legged Eccentric Leg Press 3*10 @ 160lbs (each leg,right glute sore)

Back 3*12 @45lbs

Internal/External Hip rotation 3*15 @ 20pounds (each leg)

Bridging with extension 15*(5secs each leg)*2 sets

Plank (Front/side/side) 90sec/60/60*3 (Last set alphabet+trunk twist)

Reverse Leg Raises 4*25 each leg

Soon! Sooon!

Elliptical,swimming, cycling,pool running and actual running

Increased time on the elliptical and transition to pool running including 10miles pool running in 55mins (very draining). Started to run on the treadmill for 10-15mins at a time.

Lifted today

AM 60 mins pool running

PM 8.5

PM 9 miles

Did weights at the PT center today:

Hamstrings,Quads,Leg Press (eccentric plus bilateral)

Plank (10.5 mins)

Bridge with leg raise

Fire hydrant with theraband

Back hyperextension 3*15 45lbs

AM 5.5

PM 8.5

AM 40 mins pool run.

PM My shoreline trail loop, actually felt good. I'm getting it back!

Weight Routine:

Hamstrings 3*15 @ 90lbs

Quads 3*15 @ 115,115,120

One legged eccentric leg press 3*15 @ 165,170,170

Abductors 3*15 @ 85

Adductors 3*15 @ 85

Calfraises (2,2,3)*(9*15)

Plank 3*(1:30,1,1)

Back 3*12 @ 45 pounds

Internal/External Rotation 3*15 @ 20 pounds (both legs)

Ran to school in the morning.

PM Ran through the mountain, actually between Mt Wire and Promontory Point, to Ruths Diner up Emigration Canyon. This trail was like a roller coaster, which I decided was good because that point is to beat up my legs. Why? It is a secret. So nyah...Ran down Emigration Canyon and back to school.

AM 30mins pool running.

Ran the first 7.5 miles of the SLC half. Felt pretty bad quite honestly, but my knee felt good enough that I decided to sign up.

AM 8.5 miles

PM Ran to Sunnyside from School. There was a track meet at East high, so I ran from Foothill to Guardsman twice (and ran back up in between). I managed a 3:31 and a 3:34 despite a vicious wind picking up during the second one. The distance is .71 miles or there about, but it is downhill (equivalent to about 5:20 pace).

Two loops of sugarhouse Park in 22:08 (10:59.11:09).

Legs feel very meh.

Bwahahahahaha!

That's really all I could think during this race. I came in thinking that I would run 1:13 to 1:16 and I knew that a sub 1:14 would make me very happy.

Sometimes the reverse taper works well for me and sometimes it is hell. This whole week my legs have been really feeling it and that manifested itself today big time. Big time.

I planned to take it out "easy" the first couple of miles and I did. At least, I thought I did. But I somehow hit the mile in 4:52, yes it was downhill but I was right there with Teren running side by side with him. I even felt like I had another gear that I could go to if I needed, but that I really should wait.

As soon as we reached the second mile mark and the race started to go steeply down, my legs started to burn. Just burn! I slowed down a little so that I was only at 15:30 at 3 miles. Ha! But I could tell right then I was in for a long day. I was still on 1:07 pace but I started thinking that 1:15 would be good. I just tried to keep my turning going as I got passed first by Riley Cook, then the marathoners, then Steve Anderson and Walter then Justin Park then Brian Summers. At no point did I really feel comfortable, it  was like the last 11 miles of a marathon...on a bad day, but I soldiered on knowing that I could still finish about where I predicted I would.

On State Street I got passed by Rob Murphy, with whom I'd planned to run before the race, and he seemed to be having difficulties of his own (see his report). On the worst of days, I will still put up a fight all the way to the finish and I managed to motor away from him in the last mile.

And then there was the lifting:

I didn't do adductors today, they just had no strength. I did do fire hydrant with a theraband as well as bilateral leg press. I also did my four way knee stabilizer exercise.

Also calf raises, plank, quads, hammies, adductors, back, internal/external rotation and one-legged bridging.

In the afternoon I went to the track and did a lap in 72, thn did 7 laps of in and out 200s (the 200s were in about 32-33 seconds).

Did weights and Plyos afterwards.

AM Two loop Liberty Park

PM Ran to Sugarhouse Park two loops hard with 5 mins jogging in between, (10:33,10:32). Pretty solid effort all things considered. My legs did not feel great before or after,but during the felt fine. It should be noted that at some point of both loops I had a tailwind, so the workout doesn't count for record purposes.

Ran back to school and met Allie for lifting and core work.

Made the most fantastic pizza today. Spinach, feta, artichoke, asparagus, tomato, roasted garlic and bruschetta with a base of minced garlic and grapeseed oil.

AM Ran to school

PM Two loops of Sugarhouse Park from my office.

This was supposed to be a liminal workout. I love those. I was going to retire my Asics Hyperspeeds from long tempo runs and at the same time debut a new hard "ten miler". Well, turns out I only had one of my hyperspeeds sitting in my office, how does that happen?

My options were: One hyperspeed and one barefoot, my Zoom Waffles, the most beaten pair of asics 2100s in existence, another pair of asics 2100s with the heels cut off and a pair of worn down mizuno Waveriders. I decided to go with the waveriders. I also decided to run in the morning so that it would be cold...so that I would have a reason to wear tights...so that my knee wouldn't be too cold. It makes sense.

Anyway, like all of my tempo loops, it's a beast. At the pace I was going, it's 14seconds per mile slow on average.

 Segment #1 is 4km. I start at my office, cut through campus to foothill(500S) and follow it up to Sunnyside, then I run up Sunnyside to the Zoo. The 4k mark is right before the second entrance to the parking lot. I hit this mark at 15:34 feeling good. This was an adjusted pace of 5:41.

Segment #2 is to join the Des News course at about mile 15.5 and follow Wasatch Drive until it ends. During this section fatigue crept into my legs. You then turn on thunderbird and start running along foothill. I felt very much like I did on Saturday and my pace was about the same. Segment 2 ends after you cross Kensington. I did 21:50 for those 6km which is 5:50 pace adjusted.

Segment #3. Just continue down foot hill. You have to cross the street twice, first at Sunnyside and again when Approaching the Stadium. The 14km mark is directly between Transformers in the Parking lot of Rice Eccles. I lost some impetus here because the downhill was hard on my legs and I was facing a head wind. (Which had probably helped me quite a lot in the first segment). I only managed 15:12 for these 4km which is 6:10 adjusted pace.

Segment #4 Now turn the corner and run along 1300 East then down South Temple. I was starting to feel ok on this section again, probably because I had gone so slow on the previous part. I only went down South Temple to 900East so although grade was daunting I only had to endure it for four blocks. That's right at 900 east I turned around and ran straight uphill back to my office. This was really a test of my aerobic capacity and I felt like I did ok. I did the entire final section in 15:33 (also about 4k).

Total time 68:10

Did my rollercoaster trail run with Allie. We then ran up to Emigration then back down to my office. I did the last 5miles or so at an uptempo pace. I felt surprisingly good on this run. Total time was 3:00:59. We were 1:50 at the top of little mountain.

AM Two loops Sugarhouse from my office

PM Warmup in the fieldhouse and around campus.

Ran from 1300East to 700East on South temple (.9miles) in 4:23

Then I ran back up and ran from 1300East to 600East(1.06miles) in 5:02 (split 4:13 at 700 East). That's 4:45 mile pace (5:11 adjusted pace). Didn't feel especially hard. I was just trying to get my legs under me on the steeper part.

Then ran back to the fieldhouse, did a bunch of plyometrics and lifted.

3 by mile on the Highland High Track with 1:30 rest. My thinking was 5:15-5:20 especially given the steady wind.

Did 5:02,5:19,5:16. The 5:02 had me a little worried, my calves were already tired to start the workout and felt pretty dead after that one. I decided that it was all about effort though and just finished it out.

While I was running there was a dad running on the track with his two kids. He was constantly yelling at his daughter to go faster to the point that she was almost crying. It made me slightly annoyed. One of the reasons the dad was yelling was because he had headphones in. I don't understand why you would listen to music when running with your kids for a mile on the track.

Ran back to school and had to stop a couple of times because of my knee. The ol' knee is still not a fan of running extended periods of time without tights.

Afterwards did some lifting and core with Allie.

In the morning ran in Nike Free's for the first time. Not much to report about them for now. My calves were tired after wearing them,but they've been tired all week.

In the evening did a staple workout of mine:2700S loop as hard as I can. Managed 59:08 (29:40,29:28). That actually represents a significant slowdown as the second half is downhill. This was my second best time on the course I believe, but it was far behind the best time. I actually ran the first half slightly faster than before but I lost a lot of time on the final climb along 1900S. This was 5:52 pace overall with an adjusted pace of 5:40. Certainly this gives me some confidence in my ability at the half but I'm still a few weeks away from a really good time.

Easy run.

A quirky little race. Featuring lots of girlscouts and people dressed as Cookies. If you beat the cookie you win a free hat. You also win a free box of girlscout cookies as a prize. And ALSO there are two races (2k and 5k) and they encouraged everyone to do both.

I had somewhat high hopes entering this race. I wanted a fast 2k and a meh 5k. The weather was kind of cold though and there was no way that I was going to run a fast 2k without a decent warmup. I was also a little thrown off because there was no Allie to challenge me. I did happen to see Lily in her first race post injury. It's defintely more fun than going to a race y yourself.

Anyway first up was the 2k and I was certainly not adequately warmed up. There were a lot of kids sprinting next to me for the first couple hundred meters or so. Then there was a 15 year old in spikes who followed me up until about 400. After that I started to open a bigger and bigger lead. I was 3:14 at the 180 degree turnaround and then did my best to fight my way through everyone coming the other way. I tried to make it hurt twoards the end and finished in 6:22 (which is about 5:07 pace). Didn't feel like I really accomplished anything other than tiring myself out for the 5k.

The 5k seemed to start almost immediately afterwards, except this time there were a lot more people. I started out much slower this time and had more people chasing me at the start. Mr Thin Mint pursued me until 500m in and then fell back. I was very quickly all by myself and suddenly lost focus. I reached the turnaround at 8:25 and realized I was going to have to close hard in order to break my prerace goal of 16:30. I pushed all the way back down but I had to weave in and out of people once again (really not too bad). In the last kilometer I bagan to regret my choice of racing shoes as my calves were very tired and I seemed to have no drive left in my legs.

Afterwards Allie and I went to the field house and she biked while I ran for an hour. Then we lifted/stood around chatting.

This little race gets a thumbs up from me.

Tough run today, but I think runs like this are an important part of my marathon training. Definitely not feeling fresh this morning but not feeling terrible either. I decided to try to beat my time up city creek canyon from 2 years ago. By the time I reached the trail head I was feeling quite hot so I stripped down to just my running short and tied all my excess clothes around my waist. Later on I was very glad I had them.

Anyway, it's pretty hard to map out the road going up city creek, but there are mile markers. I hit the first mark in about 6:49 (compared to 7:07 from my record). I was kind of disappointed about this split because I felt like I was really moving well. The course tool now says that this is really like a 5:40 or so because of the steep grade which makes me feel a bit better.

One issue with the first marker is that I'm not really sure where mile "zero" is. In hindsight I should have used the kilometers marked on the road from various races. Anyway, I reached the mile 2 marker in 14:00 which was really dissapointing and I began to lose confidence. The course tool says that this was still sub 6 equivalent pace. I got to the 3.5 mile mark in 24:23 which is about 5:50 equivalent pace overall and still ahead of my best time. At this point I felt like I was going to get my record and started to pick up the effort. It looked like I was going to do it, but for some reason the road was not plowed all the way to the top. They came up about 800meters short. I decided to try to pick my way through the snow but the final 800meters of this run are pretty brutal anyway as it is about a 7% grade at almost 6000ft. Eventually the snow became waist deep so I decided to hit my watch and turnaround. I figured that I stopped maybe .1 miles short of the summit but it is hard to say.

On the way back down I was running about 5:45-6:00 miles but my legs were really tired at this point so I wasn't really expending much energy. When I got back to downtown I managed to maintain around 6:20 pace. Overall the run was 6:37 pace for 18.75 miles.

AM 5.5 Miles

PM 11.25

Included 3 by mile with 200m jog on the U of U track. Lifted at the field house afterwards.

AM One loop of Sugarhouse

PM Did 6.2 miles hard in in 35:21. Ran down 500East to 2100S, then up to 1300 E, then down 900S.  Half way is right at 1300E and 2100S and I split 17:58. The course tool says that I was right on with my splits and that the run was 5:31 pace overall.

Today was one of those races that was all about effort. Going in I thought that the primary competition would be Teren and Fritz. At the Salt Lake Half I had started out with Teren and Fritz for 2 miles before blowing up badly. I decided that today I would go with Teren and Fritz if it seemed reasonable and face the consequences.

At the start, Teren sprinted out to a lead and Fritz followed. It seemed like they were going fast but I felt pretty comfortable sticking about 20-30m behind them. Brian Summers was also right next to me as I went through the mile at about 5:11. I was concerned that this was way too fast but I just wanted to see what would happen.

What happened was that it got very hard very quickly. Brian and I pushed each other the second mile but we only managed 5:38. I made a little surge here to try to get into a better pace and catch Fritz. Somewhere around here Jake Krong passed me. I wanted to try to stick with him to catch fritz but here my calves and shins cramped up really badly. This often happens to me in races and it goes away after a few miles but it was certainly not welcome at this point.

Thanks to Jake pushing me, mile 3 was 5:31 but once I lost him I started to become conscious of my allergies. This was not a good combination for me and I could feel myself drastically slowing down. I suddenly knew that this race was going to be slower than Salt Lake City. When I passed mile 4 with a 5:50 I knew I was in trouble and I entertained the thought of dropping out. Right around here I got caught by UVU grad Jared Keller (who was apparently running his first ever half) and Brian Summers. As they moved to pass me I glanced over and saw that they were running hard. (When Jake passed me he looked very relaxed). I knew that I could beat them if I pushed myself.

How do I beat people in races? Generally by throwing in surges at really awful times. We turned on to Center Street and faced a 2.5 mile long stretch with no turns. I surged away running 5:44 for mile 5 and 5:41 for mile 6. We left the street and turned on to a little trail. My legs were getting pretty tired and I was feeling a little bit nauseous. When I slowed down, Jared caught me again but he didn't pass. I thought to myself that he was either struggling to stay with me and couldn't pass or he just didn't want to make me surge again. My pace was pretty erratic on the trail as I seemed to go through good and bad patches once every 30 seconds or so. Never really finding a rhythm.

We left the trail and came out on to the road and I decided to surge again, hard. I got another lead on Jared and reach 10 miles in 56:50. I had kept my pace up on the trail much better than I thought. I was really crumbling at this point. I was having difficulty controlling my breathing for some reason, possibly a combination of the higher altitude (which always seems to hurt me and my allergies) plus I hadn't had any water and was getting pretty hot. My lead over Jared seemed to be growing though so I wasn't worried as I hit mile 11 and 12 in 12mins even. My last 1.15 was 7:30 which was not great even though there was a hill in it. I definitely fell apart pretty badly in the last 5k. I ended up well behind Fritz (close to 3 mins) but I beat Jared by over 30 seconds and Brian Summers by close to 2mins.

Trying to put this race in perspective: My first thought was that I was dissappointed I was faster than SLC. Well, that course was .06 short, this one was .05 long. That course was also lower elevation (about a 20-25 second difference). Plus this course is about 80-90 seconds harder in terms of elevation. Add that all together and you get a 2 to 2.5 minute difference.

Is that reflected in the times?

Here are the top ten people that ran both

Person	SLC	Provo	Difference
Teren	1:08:51	1:09:44	0:53
Fritz	1:12:34	1:13:24	0:50
Brian Summers	1:13:30	1:18:02	4:32
Me	1:15:00	1:16:18	1:18
Michelle Lowry	1:21:20	1:25:10	3:50
Eric Peterson	1:23:19	1:27:02	3:43
Mel Lemon	1:26:47	1:29:32	2:45
Demetrio	1:31:29	1:34:27	2:58
Skip Morehead	1:27:06	1:35:21	8:15

So a really, really good race for Teren then. I had thought after the first two circuit races that he was on the decline, but he seems to be rounding into form. Fritz also bounced back nicely from SLC and so did I, to a lesser extent.

Long run to 4500S, up to Wasatch BLVD then along Parley's trail and finishing at school.

Felt pretty good on this run and gradually picked it up. Splits are only very approximate but give a general sense.

Miles	Mins	Split	Pace	Cum Pace	Adj Pace
2.5	23	23	9:12	9:12	7:43	7:43
5.3	43	20	7:09	8:07	7:15	7:30
6.2	50	7	7:47	8:04	7:43	7:32
7.1	55	5	5:33	7:45	5:30	7:17
9.7	75	20	7:09	7:44	6:38	7:06
11.5	88	13	7:13	7:39	6:46	7:03
14.6	107	19	6:08	7:20	5:43	6:46
17.4	126	19	6:47	7:14	6:23	6:42
19.0	136.5	10.5	6:33	7:13	7:23	6:45

Lifted afterwards.

AM 5.5

PM Ran to sugarhouse park and did three loops. (10:30,10:26,10:47). I did full recovery in between, but I had GI issues during the last one (actually the whole workout). Given that and the cold wind blowing the whole time (which was the reason I did this instead of a track workout) I actually feel pretty good about this workout. I felt pretty relaxed the whole time an my legs didn't feel bad afterwards.

Ran through the mountains to emigration canyon road and then down following the des news course. Included about 8miles at tempo pace.

Went down to Moab to run the 1st ever Red Rock Relay with Kevin Smith, Steven Gonzalez, Abbie Tuomi, Kim Capalbo and Erica Anderson. Despite not being a "stacked" team, we were in the last group to start and we were gunning for the win.

Kevin led off and got us out to a big lead quickly and Steve extended it. However, like I said we didn't have a "stacked" team and we were being chased by an all-male team from a running store in Colorado. After Kim's first leg we were 6.5 mins down and it was my turn. I had a 5.5 mile leg that gained 1000ft (the course tool said it was more like 6.5 miles equivalent). I passed 16 people on my leg and cut our deficit down to 3.5mins but that would be the closest we would get for the rest of the race. I felt pretty good about my leg because the guy from the running store was someone that Kevin had competed against in college and I managed to make up 3 mins in 5.5 miles. My total time was 35:26 which is 6:24 pace. That comes out to 5:25 equivalent on the course tool. This is similar to my best efforts on tempo runs.

The lead was back up to about 10mins after the next leg and it seemed like we were toast. To have a realistic shot at winning we needed Abbie to make up at least 5 mins in her 3 mile leg against a competitive male runner. To her credit, Abbie barely lost any time but it was time to stop worrying about winning.

Legs 7 and 8 were truly horrific as we climbed up to 8300 feet. Steve gained 1100 feet in less than 3 miles and later climbed to have blocked out the entire memory.  Kim had the next leg and as we were driving it quickly became apparent that this would be a really hard leg so I jumped out of the car to run with her. I think Kim was feeling quite a bit of pressure because she was pushing herself so hard that she was hallucinating and getting faint. We put a lot of distance on some teams in this leg simply because she was able to finish without walking (climbing mile long hills at 8000ft is tough).

On Erica's leg were started to roll by teams again and at this point it was all about how many teams we could pass before the finish. Kevin blitzed the final run through the mountain at about 5:30 pace, passing 14 more teams and he handed off to Abbie who ran her leg at 6:30 pace passing 16 people.

I had been assigned the last leg with the thinking that I would break the heart of the running store team if we were anywhere close. By that point, we were over 30 minutes down most likely so I was just out for blood. I had a 7.6 mile leg with a 1000ft drop. I took off like a mad man and was quickly feeling the not only the effort of my first leg, but also the affects of dehydration. My teammates gave me water about 15 mins in at which point I had passed about 5 people. Everytime someone came into view I simply surged until I caught them, barely paying attention to the fact that I could barely swallow. I barely needed my team to give me more water but they had to speed to the finish to be sure to cross the line with me. Fortunately, a few other vans sprayed water in my face and it seemed like everyone was cheering me on as I passed team after team. The last couple of miles were on a dirt trail that had a lot of turns and rather questionable footing. At several point it seemed like I was running in sand. Just before leaving the trail I passed my 20th victim and my thirst for blood was sated. Running through the small town of Moab I caught one more team to get myself to 21 and then I entered Swanny park where the race finished. There was another team taking a victory run down the finish chute. Our whole team sprinted by them to steal their thunder and give me my 22nd roadkill for the leg. I crossed the line in 43:26 for 7.55 miles (course tool 7.45). So 5:45 vs 5:50 adjusted.

I was extremely done after this effort as the sun had taken quite a bit out of me. Overall it was a good experience and makes me excited for Wasatch Back.

Got back from Moab and the wind was blowing like crazy. Seemed like the perfect time for a long run so I ran down to 4500S on the Jordan River Trail. I felt ok but not great. Total time was 2:10 which is about 7:40 pace. The wind definitely died on the way back which was annoying because I didn't get the tail wind that I deserved.

AM Two laps liberty park.

PM Another really bad allergy day had me scaling back my PM workout plans. I did two loops of liberty park with 90 seconds rest (8:22,8:18) with a bunch of running in the park tacked on. Loops of the park on the woodchip trail are tough!

AM 5.5

PM 11.2 Des News Finish loop (6:49 pace)

AM 6.2

PM 9.5

After running 15+ miles three days in a row I wasn't sure how I would handle a 20miler this morning. I had no specific plan on how I was going to run, the plan was to see the DesNews couse and see how my body responded. Allie sweetly volunteered (or maybe I bribed her with yogurt and grapefruit juice) to drive me to the top of Big Mountain so I could run the first 20 or so miles. There was a slight snag when we saw that the road was closed. I wondered aloud what the road is even for other than Des News (not a lot according to the map).

So here was my alternate "20" miler. I started at Little Dell Golf Course under the bridge and ran straight up Little Mountain then I turned around and ran back down the hill...then I turned around again and ran back up. On my second time up I managed to notice the "6M" painted on the road, so I knew I had about 15 miles or running left.

Anyway I climbed up Little Mountain at 6:48 pace which is actually pretty good. The hill is definitely in my "wheelhouse" both in terms of length and grade. I was feeling pretty good coming down the other side and very easily ran 5:40 pace between the summit and the turnaround. I decided to add on the little section in the neighbourhood and noted that it took my a little under 4 mins. That means that I should be able to see all the leaders come race day. It's a really good addition to the course I think.

I rolled down Emigration Canyon still clicking 5:40s (apparently...I didn't calculate my speed until later) I felt untroubled by the pace and felt that it would be a very sensible marathon pace. At about mile 14, a little past Ruth's, my achilles started to fatigue a little, which was not surprising but definitely something to watch out for on this course. I also saw a mile marker for the first time since Mile 6 and it told me that I had average about 6 min pace since that point. I was very pleased about this as I knew that included a fair amount of climbing.

Turning off Emigration Canyon by the zoo I was pleased with how my legs responded to the hill and when I passed the 16 mile mark I noted that I had gone about 11:40 for the last two miles. (Perhaps faster as I was not cutting tangents). In Mile 17 I started to feel a little bit more fatigue in my glute and I actually stopped and gave it a quick massage. I was very pleased that on that two mile stretch I was still sub 6 minute pace.

When I got to foothill I realized that it was probably sensible to try to hold 6 minute pace the rest of the way as I was almost done. I was a bit surprised to see that Mile 19 was so slow (6:01) but I attributed that partly to the lack of tangent and also to the 180 degree turn you have to make during that mile. Indeed, with a similar effort I ran sub 6 again for mile 20 which is theoretically a slower mile. I felt really good as I climbed the big hill in mile 21 and going down 500S didn't feel as bad as I expected. My calves were pretty tired hear and I was now heel striking and slapping my feet quite a bit (fortunately my quad didn't feel bad at all!). I found that I could still get some good tempo going if I shortened my stride. I turned off 500S and into the parking lot of Rice Eccles and my legs immediately complained about the lack of downhill. I found myself shuffling a little before semi recovering. I finished with a steep uphill to bring myself in front of the fieldhouse.

All in all it was an excellent, excellent run. Judging from my course analysis I ran 15 miles of the course at a pace which would predict a finish time of 2:33-2:34. That makes me feel like my goal of sub 2:30 is actually realistic, but will also be hard. In general my taper can give me an extra 5-10 seconds a mile in the race as compared to my long tempos. That means if all goes well and there are no disasters (beyond the inevitable slowdown past mile 20) that a 2:30 is a very practical goal. However, a lot can happen between now and pioneer day and I have to just be careful and make use of everything I've learnt in the past couple of years.

Here is a summary of my splits.

 

Miles	Split	Pace	Total	Total Pace	Notes
2.1	15:50	7:32	15:50	7:32	Long hill running from Little Dell to base of little mountain
3.6	10:35	7:03	26:25	7:20	Up Little Mountain
5.1	8:50	5:53	35:15	6:55	Back down...
6.6	10:12	6:48	45:27	6:53	And up again!
8.33	9:47	5:39	55:13	6:38	From summit to turn off into neighbourhood
8.63	2:06	7:00	57:19	6:38	Up to turnaround point
8.93	1:48	6:00	59:07	6:37	And down again
14.93	34:15	5:43	1:33:22	6:15	Down Emigration
17.4	14:59	6:04	1:48:21	6:14	From Zoo to foothill
21.2	22:24	5:54	2:10:44	6:10	Down foothill/500S to Fieldhouse.

AM Allie and I went up to Ogden to volunteer at the Ogden Marathon. I had a bit of time to run before the runners came by so I checked out the trailhead that was across the street. It was pretty nice and the cool morning air helped get some MUCUS! out of my nose.

PM Pretty relaxed run around liberty park. It was one of those "nice" days to run. ie, there were a lot of people out running because it was sunny outside. I would have preferred it if it was raining but most people would have said it was ideal weather.

Three loops of Liberty Park. It was pretty windy but a great temperature. My Nike Frees felt really good.

AM Two laps of Liberty Park

PM Ran to Sugarhouse park and did 4*800 on the Highland High School track with 90 seconds rest (2:31,2:28,2:31,2:31). I was pretty sore before starting and it was quite windy so I pleased with this. Then I went and ran one loop on the road in 8:00 (5:58 pace, 5:46 adjusted). Came back and did two sets of 3*200m with a lap jog in between.

Ran back to school and went for a workout in the fieldhouse.

Wait hold on a second. You're telling me that I can't just take 4 months off, start doing a hundred miles a week and then throw in a sprinting workout without being sore? Bunk! I say!

Well anyway I was very sore today, but I didn't really care. I spent my runs today scoping out the course for the state capitol half this monday. In the morning I ran up through the avenues until I got to the JCC.

In the evening I ran from my office to Red Butte Garden and then along the course. I was very sore so running downhill meant some very slow running. Let me tell you, the last 5 miles of this course should be seriously fast. If I can't close the last 5k under 18 minutes, something is seriously wrong with me.

Had some real sinus issues today. I really need to take care of that.

AM 2*Liberty

Decided that I would try my first fartlek workout in a couple of years today. I was feeling kind of sore and allergy but I managed to do it ok anyway. Did 10 mins warmup then 5mins hard, 5mins easy running to Sugarhouse park and back. Not really sure what to make of my paces as I wasn't 100% today but I was down in the 5:30-5:40 range it seemed for hard section.

Met Allie for some lifting and plyos. I am very proud of the fact that I have never seen anyone do more than me for the back extension. In fact, Allie does the same as these big lifter types.

Another very Allegirific day today. So much so that I broke down and got some nasal spray after my run. I try to avoid using this stuff as it is habit-forming but there was no other option.

Anyway my run today was just to go along foothill to 2300 East and then follow the State Capitol half marathon course (again). I had to do a lot of improvising because the of construction on the course. It was unclear how the race was going to be able to deal with this.

After the run I got an email from the race director saying the race has been postponed until the 4th of July. Well I guess I already ran the course so it doesn't matter.

Went down to American Fork today to run a Memorial Day race. Given that this was one of 26.2 running company's "Platinum" races I thought there would probably be some good competition. I had pretty low expectations as I had planned on doing a low key half marathon today that got canceled.

I saw quite a few runners with 26.2 running co. singlets at the start so I figured I probably wouldn't be competitive. The 5k and 10K started together and so I was content to let the pack get away a little at the start. After about 800m, Brandon Hebbert flew by me and went to the front of the pack. He looked strong and I could only hope he wasn't running the 10k.

Right at the mile (5:11, it was a bit short) I was starting to catch up to some people when the 5k and 10k split. Suddenly it was just Brandon ahead of me (by over 20 seconds). I started to cramp up a little and feel a bit nauseous. Glancing back I saw 3 or 4 people within 20 seconds of me so I knew I had to keep pushing.

The next couple of miles were uphill and I slowed down quite a bit (5:32 and 6:04). These miles were both slightly short by a few seconds and the slowdown was mostly due to the uphill. I reached mile 3 (2.94 miles) in 16:48. The course tool said I should be at 17:08 here based on my finish. That meant I lost 20 seconds in the next 2 miles (which included a steep down and a steep up). I was feeling fairly nauseous still and also my shoe came untied. I was also out of sight of both first and third place now so I had entered more of a tempo mode.

In the last mile I picked up the intensity a little but I didn't feel fantastic and there were now a lot of people to weave in and out of. In addition a lot of the 5k runners from the lead pack were now doing a cool own going back along the course and getting in my way. Even though they could see me coming I was forced into oncoming traffic a couple of times. Maybe I needed to be wearing one of those neon green singlets the 26.2 guys had. Anyway I achieved my goal of a sub 34. The course was certainly short but this was probably off set by the hills.

Although this was a free race I find it a bit ridiculous that prize money only guys to people on the 26.2 racing team (yes I asked to be on this team). (Prize for 2nd was $50). Of course Allie won the 5k and the prize for that should have been $100 (along with the $100 from SLC half marathon) so I shouldn't complain. Allie and I split the $25 coupon to Costa Vida that Seth Wold handed to her for her efforts.

Anyway, about 5 mins after I finished the 10k I found myself lining up to do a mile. I didn't even time this for myself so I don't know but I would guess 5:15-5:20 (based on Fritz's 4:55). It felt ok, it just wasn't enough rest after running a 10k.

Went down to American Fork today to run a Memorial Day race. Given that this was one of 26.2 running company's "Platinum" races I thought there would probably be some good competition. I had pretty low expectations as I had planned on doing a low key half marathon today that got canceled.

I saw quite a few runners with 26.2 running co. singlets at the start so I figured I probably wouldn't be competitive. The 5k and 10K started together and so I was content to let the pack get away a little at the start. After about 800m, Brandon Hebbert flew by me and went to the front of the pack. He looked strong and I could only hope he wasn't running the 10k.

Right at the mile (5:11, it was a bit short) I was starting to catch up to some people when the 5k and 10k split. Suddenly it was just Brandon ahead of me (by over 20 seconds). I started to cramp up a little and feel a bit nauseous. Glancing back I saw 3 or 4 people within 20 seconds of me so I knew I had to keep pushing.

The next couple of miles were uphill and I slowed down quite a bit (5:32 and 6:04). These miles were both slightly short by a few seconds and the slowdown was mostly due to the uphill. I reached mile 3 (2.94 miles) in 16:48. The course tool said I should be at 17:08 here based on my finish. That meant I lost 20 seconds in the next 2 miles (which included a steep down and a steep up). I was feeling fairly nauseous still and also my shoe came untied. I was also out of sight of both first and third place now so I had entered more of a tempo mode.

In the last mile I picked up the intensity a little but I didn't feel fantastic and there were now a lot of people to weave in and out of. In addition a lot of the 5k runners from the lead pack were now doing a cool own going back along the course and getting in my way. Even though they could see me coming I was forced into oncoming traffic a couple of times. Maybe I needed to be wearing one of those neon green singlets the 26.2 guys had. Anyway I achieved my goal of a sub 34. The course was certainly short but this was probably off set by the hills.

This was a free race which is awesome and I wasn't too concerned that the course length was off. Allie and I split the $25 coupon to Costa Vida that Seth Wold handed to her for her efforts.

Woke up with a little bit of a scratchy throat today. That combined with my allergies led to a certain amount of misery. I felt a bit better after my AM run but then worse after teaching (ahh, chalkboards).

I had been planning on a four mile tempo run but 45 seconds into it I decided to just slow down as I wasn't feeling good at all.

AM Woke up feeling sick again. Definitely sick, not just allergies, and this made me feel better. I waited until after teaching to run.

PM Two loops of Sugarhouse Park with a short detour to Allie's new place.

Wow, what a race!

I was just hoping to use this race as a confidence booster because I've been having trouble with my half marathons.

The start of the race was a little bit of a mess. There was a guy mumbling ready set go and that seemed to be a good indication for me to start. Riddle me this race director. Why have chip times if you aren't going to have a timing mat at the start? I hate it when races do that.

I'm not sure what my first mile was because I didn't start my watch in time but I think it was something around 5:35. This didn't feel very fast (it was a bit downhill) but no one was around me. Mile 2 was 5:41 and and I took a glance behind me to see that there was one guy trailing after me. After 3 miles there was a turn off Wasatch Blvd on to a pedestrian bridge. I managed to find it because I had reviewed the course before hand. Yes there were a lot of volunteers, yes I asked them if that was the right way to go, but none of responded to me.

Anyway on the bridge I could see there was one guy about 30-40 seconds behind me and I was starting to feel kind of crappy. Mile 3 had only been a 6:11 but that was ok because it had a pretty big hill. Mile 4 was 5:46 with several sharp turns. Miles 5 and 6 were the worst for me. My legs were starting to seize up and we were making these interminable turns through this neighbourhood (a lot of up and down). I did 5 and 6 each in about 5:55-6:00, which was more a function of the terrain than me slowing down.

I knew I was going to get caught from behind but it took him so darn long. Mile 7 had more climbing before finally getting to some nice downhill and I did 5:46. Mile 8 had a ton of down but did include a big uphill. This is where I finally got passed by the eventual winner,even though that mile was 5:17 for me. My legs were seizing up like crazy at this point and there was just nothing I could do about it. The next couple of miles were straight downhill and should have been super fast but evey step was painful for me. Somehow I was managing to stay just about ten seconds back.

I got to ten mile in about 57:30, the lead now up to maybe 20 seconds. This race ended in Sugarhouse park. The course had done some sharp turns so I briefly lost sight of 1st place. There was a sign pointing me left when I got to the inner road so I followed it and started to run downhill. It was then that I saw 1st place guy (and the lead cops) had gone the OTHER way. I cut through the grass to get back on to the correct course. Then before I knew it I was finishing, about 30 seconds back of the leader.  Despite going the wrong way I had managed a sub 7:30 final 5k, but amazingly it wasn't enough to catch the leader.

It was a tough day, but it ended up being a huge PR for me.

Seriously though. This was ridiculous. This race was terrible I'm guessing around 11.2 miles and then the people at the finish line acted like it was my fault.

I'm annoyed at this race for a couple of reasons. 1st) they did a terrible job. I payed $60 which should be enough to ensure some kind of competence. 2nd) I don't understand why I keep crapping out in all of my recent half marathons. I tried my best today, but that doesn't even remotely resemble what I am capable of on a "good" day. I know this because last weekend my 10K didn't feel this bad and I was running faster over terrain that was just as hard.

Legs felt very odd today. On both runs, started out running ok, then started to feel terrible then felt better by the end. My legs just felt hollow, as if they have no real strength. It's not an unfamiliar feeling for me during high mileage and I guess it shows that Saturday's half took more out of me than I'd like.

AM 4.7

PM 9.5 This one was very hard. I ran in Sugarhouse park and the first climb up the "hill" from 1300 E to 1700 E was extremely difficult.

Didn't feel great today. I didn't feel terrible either, just normal. In the past I've been able to come up with great performances after only one easy week. I feel like I'm kind of taking a big risk here, hoping to go from zero to hero in the span of 5 days.

AM 4

PM 10

In the afternoon met my teammates for WBR. After eating dinner with them, I'm really looking forward to it. Just one other blogger on the team, Weber State Alum Jace Nye. I'll try to get some converts though.

Actually felt...good! Such is my training that running 28 miles in two days actually helps me recover. That's got to be a good sign.

AM4

PM9 On the shoreline trail. Before doing this run I watched Galen Rupp and Kara Goucher do 20*400m with 90 seconds rest. They were doing the workout at the U of U track (they are staying in Park City at the moment) . Kara (with Adam pacing her) ran 68-69 sec 400m. Galen was crazy fast. He was 57-58 until the last one was in 55. The man must be in 3:50 mile shape right now. Mo Farah claims he is in 26:40 shape, which seems quite believable.

This race was an important confidence booster for me. As a background here is a quick list of my half marathons.

2008:1:19,1:13

2009:1:19,1:11,1:11

2010:1:11,1:16,1:14

2011:1:15,1:16,1:14

Basically I had run 5 straight half marathons 3 minutes+ slower than my PR. There was an excuse for each of them. For the first one, I was recovering from a Sinus Infection. The 2nd one I was inexplicably sore (to the point that I couldn't sit down) for a week prior to the race. The 3rd 4th and 5th were since injuring my knee in December.

Today was the first day that I had actually felt good on the day of a race in a very long time (probably 8 or 9 months) and I was not really sure what I was capable of. I knew that the course would be aided and that I might be able to run a monster time (like a 1:07 or a 1:08) and I also knew that the downhill might make my suffer through a 1:16. Honestly, anything was in play.

My prerace plan was to run with Justin Park, who is a very smart runner, but I didn't have enough confidence to follow that plan. At the start the leaders went out very conservatively and I tucked in behind them. A pack of 4 (Kyle Perry, Brandon Hebbert, Brad O. and Fritz) picked it up after a half mile and I was content to watch them dissappear into the distance. I had another runner with me: a 14-year-old called Connor. To begin with I thought he was being an idiot but he looked increasingly comfortable throughout the first couple of miles.

Anyway, my first couple of miles were 5:21 and 5:19. In the 3rd mile there is a sizable hill and it was here that I began to gap Connor and gain a little on Fritz who had fallen off of the front group. That third mile was only a 5:39 despite making up ground. As we crested the hill I was only 1 or 2 seconds behind Fritz and it seemed like if I could make contact with him, then it would be good for both of us.

Those last couple of feet to Fritz proved to be Stubborn however and my legs started to object. It was the same dead, weak feeling that has been creeping into my legs on all my races this year. All of a sudden I was losing ground again and I was bracing myself for a full scale meltdown. I hit the 4th mile in 5:08 (a BIG downhill) and that made me feel much better. That should have felt hard for me. The feeling in my legs continued to worsen however and I I was losing more ground on Fritz. I could tell that my legs would be gradually tightening up between here and the finish and it was just a matter of holding on. Mile 5 was 5:11 (more downhill craziness) and then we settled into some flatter (but still aided miles).

The next few miles were fairly uneventful, but that was good. I kept a good pace going running 5:23,5:25,5:27,5:26 for miles 6-9. I was really starting to hurt in these miles and it was during the 9th mile that Justin finally passed him. I gamely decided to try to stay with him, but trying to run his pace was too much of a shock to my system and I was already very paranoid that my pace was going to stray over 6 minute per mile. He dropped my very slowly (putting less than 10seconds a mile on me over the last 4 miles) but there was no energy left in my legs at all.

Over the last couple of miles I tried to remind myself that even though I was slowing down, I was still running a great race. I first became convinced I could break 1:15, then 1:14, then 1:13. I thought I had an outside shot of sub 1:11, but a 5:36 followed by a 5:43 (slightly uphill) torpedoed those thoughts. I pulled it back a little with a 5:35 to avoid a blowup. The last mile seemed to take forever and I actually underestimated myself as I found I had a good deal left in the finishing straight. My last 1.1 was 5:58 (5:25 pace) to barely miss my PR by 2 seconds.

Clearly this was a big, BIG comeback for me. I finished much better relative to other guys than I had earlier this year. I still feel that I have more in me and I think I can absolutely smash my PR on July 4th. (That will be a very aided race though). Given that this race is aided I think it is still 1.5-2 mins off my best half marathons (which have been hilly beasts). Very pleased with the result though.

AM 1loop of sugarhouse

PM Ran Glenwild loop in Park City

This year I did the Wasatch Back Ultra Relay as part of the Wasatch Running Center Team. They were the defending champs and I would be taking the spot of Nate Hornok (a bit intimidating).

It was a bit surreal at the start as I remembered the areas we were going through so well from three years ago. I've been running competitively for over 11 years now but 3 years ago I was a totally different runner, I could not have imagined doing what I did this weekend. That was also in the Hey Day of the blog as a running community I think, with people us forming two full men's teams that year.

Anyway, I had a van of myself, Brick Bergeson (an All-American mid-distance runner from USU) Trent Jensen, and Allie Scott (we graciously allowed her to stay up all night driving us around).

I had made a pace chart using elevation data to give use a schedule and also to give each leg a goal. The pace chart had us finishing in 22:20 to give us an average pace of 7per mile. At the start we were informed that last minute changes had made some of the legs longer (more on that later).

The first Van came in about 10minutes ahead of schedule at around 8:15pm and Brick managed to put us a couple more minutes ahead in his first leg. I figured that Brick and I would need to make up quite a bit of time on our legs as we were the strongest runners. I was also not super confident about my final leg (more on that later too).

My first run was pretty lonely as I only got 3 roadkill (I had a prerace goal of 200). The leg was pretty uneventful as I ran 42:40 or so for 7.1 miles. I felt pretty good about that as I had picked up more than 5 minutes over the form chart and I didn't feel like I had exerted myself very hard. At this point were 20minutes up total and I began to think that we could place pretty high overall.

Trent's leg was a very tough climb (over 1000ft elevation gain), he was able to make up another 2 minutes or so.

It was time to go sleep.

I took a brief nap and when I woke up I knew that I was going to be having bathroom issues all day. We were hoping that Van 1 would again pick up some time so we were up at 1:45 AM in case they came through at 2:15 or so.

It turned out that they didn't come in until 2:51 just 55 seconds ahead of the form chart. It was clear that I was going to have to put in a pretty serious effort on my leg to keep us on schedule. I didn't anticipate us picking up any ground on the final Van (those last few legs are brutal) so I figured we would need about 20 minutes buffer at exchange 24.

Brick once again picked up a lot of time (7 minutes in 10 miles).

My leg was already the longest of the whole race, but for some reason (probably high water) they had to add .7 miles to it bring me to a nice 17.6. This meant that the leg should have taken about an extra 5 mins.

The second leg is an eerie one, as it takes place in the dark. In this case a large portion of it was on a trail and there were a lot of times when large boulders or gates would come out of nowhere. In addition to that, there is no Van support on this leg so it is just you and the other runners as flashing beacons of light.

During the first section (leg 21) I passed 46 runners. I completed the 10 miles in about 1:01:20 and then took a 40 second bathroom break. I didn't have to go very badly but I told myself that if I was under 1:04 (which was my projected finish for 9.3 miles) then I was allowed. I also had a stone wedged in the bottom of my shoes which I didn't want to become an issue.

I covered the 7.6 miler in about 47 minutes to give me a finish time of 1:49. I had picked up 9minutes on the leg, but it was really more like 14 as it was .7 long. I passed another 48 people to bring my total to 97.

I was very happy with my overall pace, although I definitely started to cramp up the last couple of miles. I hadn't taken water at any point during the leg which probably contributed. Also there was the fact that this run took place from 4am to 6am.

Trent picked up another couple of minutes on his leg (another toughie) to give us the 20 minute buffer of so we figured we needed.

I didn't bother to sleep before my next leg figuring that it just wouldn't be worth it. I curled up briefly in the front seat of the Van while waiting for Trent but that was it.

Van 1 finished up again at 10:27 AM putting us 4 minutes ahead of schedule (actually 9 minutes of the real goal: sub 7 pace). Brick saved his best for last picking up 10 minutes in his 10 mile section and passing 115 people.

Now it was time for Ragnar (or Ultra Ragnar if you will). The pace chart call for me to run 1:03:23. The course record just so happens to be 1:05:58 by a certain Mr Nate Hornok. In addition this leg combines to things which I'm not very good at (very steep hills and elevation running). I was thinking that I might lose quite a bit of time here but I just wanted to limit the damage to 7 minutes.

I could already tell I was in trouble about 1 mile in. The hill was proving to be way to steep for me. I thought that it might better for me to start walking but I decided to keep trucking at my very slow pace. Whenever the hill flattened out, even a little, I used to opportunity to get into a faster rhythm. To my great surprise I was only down a minute or so when I reached exchange 33. When I passed through this exchange pretty much all the vans started to cheer me and I had 5 or 6 people pass me water or spray me.

The last couple of miles were pretty much impossible for me. I have difficulty running when I get over 5000ft, so the 8800ft that I was facing felt like someone had stuffed a sock down my throat. Somehow I finished this leg in just under 38 minutes to give me a total time of about 1:07 flat. I had passed another 95 people to give me 192 total. I had also lost less than 4 minutes.

Trent's leg was another one that is harder than the profile would imply but fortunately we had 16 minutes to spare and we finished 6 minutes ahead after over 190 miles and 22 hours.

Two loops of Sugarhouse, surprisingly didn't feel very tired.

AM 4

PM Des News Finish Loop

1:07:24 (6:01 pace/5:48 adjusted)

Splits (16:00,37:30,52:05) very even.

One loop of Sugarhouse

In the evening I ran in Deer Valley. Towards the end of this run my knee started to bug me.

Mile	Split	Pace	Total	Total Pace	Notes
2.1	15:17	7:17	15:17	7:17	From  Little Dell Bridge to Bottom of Little Mt
3.6	10:00	6:40	25:17	7:01	Little Mt
5.33	9:46	5:39	35:03	6:35	To turnaround
5.63	2:03	6:50	37:06	6:35	Up
5.93	1:49	6:03	38:55	6:34	Down
11.93	33:53	5:39	1:12:48	6:06	Emigration
14.4	14:45	5:58	1:27:33	6:05	To Foothill
16.7	13:43	5:58	1:41:16	6:04	To Sunnyside
18.9	13:21	6:04	1:54:37	6:04	5S and 13E
20.4	8:43	5:49	2:03:20	6:03	South Temple
22.5	12:34	5:59	2:15:54	6:02	Downtown

AM Two loops sugarhouse. My knee felt a little sore today, still.

PM Running around campus.

Wasn't planning on doing this race until yesterday. I woke up feeling pretty dehydrated and also pretty groggy. I also didn't get a great warmup in as I couldn't figure out where the course went and it was slightly unclear when the race would start.

The race played out pretty much like any other 5k with weak competition in that I cruised to a 16:45. The problem was that the police escort wasn't inspiring much confidence so I didn't want to get way out in front and then go the wrong way. There were two police officers on scooters and at the very first intersection one went one way and one went another which is actually a bit confusing. At the second intersection the police officer went the wrong way and pulled over to the side to shout instructions at us. Then he waited before catching up to the leaders again, which was enough time for me to take a wrong turn. After this I asked him to stay in front of me because I don't know where I'm going. (There was no map available.) From then on it was fine and I just worried about running fast. I actually was able to about a 5:15 for the last mile which I was pretty pleased with and won by 45 seconds.

Afterwards and ran back and looked for Allie who was trying out a new race strategy. 

This race was primarily to see how I responded to "Des News" type conditions. I had initially hoped to run sub 1:12 and I thought that a sub 1:10 was in play. I had all but ruled out those possibilities before the race even started however.

I got up at 4am and sat on my couch eating artisan bread with hummus and watching South Park while drinking water (traditional pre race routine). Something was not right however, I was parched. I needed to keep drinking water to stop myself from getting cotton mouth and I felt like there was no realistic way to drink enough water before the start.

I left my house at 5:25am and I remember thinking how HOT it was. I jogged through salt lake city to get to the start and I could feel my body overheating, I was not sweating at all, there was nothing to sweat out. We were bussed to the start line and I remember wishing that I wasn't decked head to foot in the Union Jack. I wanted to ask another runner if I could have some water as I was desperate.

At the starting line up the canyon it was still a little warm but it was cooler and there seemed to be very little sun. I looked around for some water but...no luck. I kind of threw my prerace plan out of the window and decided I would take it easy until the last 5k.

There were quite a few good runners there that I recognised from this summer but from talking to them I had the impression that they were making their half marathon debuts. "I want to hit 5:40s and come in under 1:20" one said. Does not compute. There was a general consensus of taking it easy at the start because it would be hot. I advised to hit the last 4 miles hard because it was a downhill finish...damn my good advice.

Anyway, after the 1st mile it was just me and one other guy at 5:34 and I was feeling very relaxed. In the 2nd mile I opened a little lead and so I started throwing in some short bursts to shake him entirely. Thanks to the surges, that mile was 5:13. I relaxed a little running 5:26 for the third mile. I looked back and could see that I had already had about a 30 second lead built up and I was starting to feel pretty confident. Mile 4 was only 5:44 as I slowed down a little to drink some water but I looked back and saw he was now close to a minute back and almost out of sight. I decided to see what I could do on the next mile and have it still feel "sensible". That turned out to be a 5:20 and at this point I was sure that the race was over. I was not cramping up badly and I had a rapidly expanding lead.

In the last canyon mile I started to become aware of the heat and my own thirst. I slowed to take water again and ran 5:41 for the 6th mile and I was on about 1:12 pace halfway through. It was at this point that I noticed the race was departing from the course map. Instead of going through this is the place we ran down sunnyside a way. I had a good idea of what was coming next, a long climb up to the shoreline trail and I was right. Suffering from the heat I climbed the hills fairly conservatively and I was certain that my pace had veered over 6 minute pace. I didn't take another split until mile 9. That was 17:19 for the 3 miles uphill which seemed plausible but I was certain I had been slower.

I climbed the little switchback on the shoreline trail that represented the last hill and now I could see a runner in blue moving very fast at the base of the climb. He couldn't have been much more than a minute behind me and he had been nowhere in sight before. I knew that, even accounting for the hills, my pace had slowed dramatically but there didn't seem to be much I could do about it. I just kind of hoped that I would be able to hit the last couple of miles fast enough that he wouldn't catch me.

Unfortunately miles 10 and 11 combined were only 12:04 despite what I perceived to be high effort. (Afterwards I thought the course might have been long, but it also might have been due to my fatigue). I still held the lead as I turned on to the final loop around city creek. It was a downhill finish and looking back I couldn't see the guy in blue anymore. Then, right as we the course doubled back I saw him about 10 seconds behind my closing very fast. We had about a mile to go and I was weakening but not completely. I found a little bit of extra juice to hold on to those final few seconds but he caught me right as we came in sight of the Capitol Building.

NOOOO! A voice yelled in my head, you cannot let this happen again! My legs were burning but I asked them "can you kick?" and they responded "just tell me when". I should add that as the guy in blue passed he gave me a nonchalant "good job". Please, don't ever do that to someone who you are about to pass in the last mile of a half marathon. It's kind of a dick thing to do, although I'm sure he meant well.

Anyway I stayed close enough and finally turned on the afterburners in the 100meters. I blew by him and then almost fell going around the final turn before sprinting again to get the win by 2 seconds. Very tough race, my first ever half marathon win.

Not sure what to make of the time. Not totally encouraging to run 1:14:54 when your goal is sub 2:30. I think with some better handling of the logistics I can do it.

A good race, ultimately quite well run with an interesting course.

I did two loops of Sugarhouse Park in the heat of they day...probably dumb.

In the evening, three loops of Sugarhouse with Chris and Allie.

Ran from my office to Sugarhouse then up to Tanner park, along the bike path and back via foothill. A nice 13 mile loop that I think will be added to the rotation.

In the evening (10pm) did two loops liberty park.

Ran with Lily, Allie, Merri and Susan around Spanish Fork on the Speedy Spaniard Speedway. I was very sore today and probably would have run slower by myself. Afterwards Breakfast at Ruths

Last 20 miler prior to Des News. Allie was kind enough to drive me all the way to the start so I could experience the Big Mountain prior to race day. In all honesty I was not expecting much from today because my legs were pretty sore from the half marathon on Monday and I had hit my biggest mileage week of the year.

Anyway, I decided that this was good practice for me as it would force me to try and run the downhill in a way that limited the damage to my quads (which complained loudly when anything was asked of them today). I found that if I took short, extremely fast step then I could avoid the braking that normally trashes the legs. This was pretty mentally challenging but I'll probably only have to do it for the first 2-2.5 miles of the race. I obviously was not cutting tangest but I reached the 1st mile mark in about 5:45 and mile 3 in 17:05. I began to stride more normally after that I got to the mile 4 mark in 22:58 and mile 5 in 28:49. These miles are all just approximate as I was sticking to the shoulder on the left hand side of the road. However, they showed that as the road flattened out, I did not slow much because I was quite fatigued.

In fact, those first couple of miles were so terrible that I found myself looking forward to climbing little mountain. Allie met me just before the turn and offered me some powerade. The plan was to have her meet me here and then every two miles starting at 14 to simulate what it would be like on the race day. The 6th mile is actually quite a climb and I made the turn toward little moutain averaging 5:48 pace.

I dug in climbing little mountain and I did start to feel "better" because I wasn't breaking but my legs were very sore and my calves were tightening up from overcompensating. I stopped briefly when I got to the top and gave them a massage before downing a GU and heading off again. Now it was time for some long, lonely, painful miles dowm Emigration before I could see Allie again. I reminded myself that once I got out of the Canyon I would almost be done, so it wasn't really that bad. I actually was only about 5 secs per mile slower then two weeks ago going down the canyon when I felt much better. Today, I didn't really try to force it, just to take what my legs could give me and I managed to hold it together down the canyon just fine running low 5:40s. At 14 miles I saw Allie again and that reinvigorated me. In the marathon, that would mean 12 miles to go. Today it meant 6 to go and that was a much easier thought mentally.

I'm very happy with how I run the last section of the canyon and today I carried that momemtum up the Crestview Drive hill. In fact, I attacked the whole Wasatch drive section very well. Besides being somewhat less than efficient with my Gu and drinking (and some construction on the sidewalks that caused several detours) I managed the same time as my last tempo. I turned on to Foothill and realized that I felt great. I was running basically 2:35 pace at this point and felt that I could have run strong through the finish. I contented myself to run the foothill section strongly and once again this proved to be a good section for me.

Once I got to Sunnyside I decided to jog down 500S to the fieldhouse to finish my run. Even though I had felt strong, stopping at the light made me realize just how much I had tired my legs out.

I think that the fatigue in my legs cost me 1 minute in the opening miles, and using the rule of thumb that the taper gives me 10-15 seconds a mile, I'm thinking that I can get 2:28-2:31 on the day.

Even after my first day off in 4 weeks, my quads still felt pretty sore today. I ran to the mouth of emigration canyon and ran miles 16-21 of the Des News course while plotting my strategy for beating fritz. I may try to roller blade the first 4 miles.

After sleeping on some blocks of ice for the past couple of night, I feel a little better.

Ran bits of the Des News course. 16:08 from the department to the zoo. 14:30 (2.5 miles) from the zoo to foothill. 13:20 (2.3 miles) down foothill.

With Allie

I had been eyeing this race all summer as an opporunity to finally break 16 in SLC on a fair course. I've broken 16 twice at running of the leopards and also 4 times on the track at sea level.

All week my legs had been feeling pretty tired from running down big mountain on Saturday so my expectations were low. I had no real reason to think that I would be able to approach the barrier. I saw a bunch of fast guys at the start and I just throught that I would stick my nose in there and try to compete. The result was...compelling.

I've had this nasty habit all summer of running these wonderfully relaxed opening miles at super fast paces and then fading badly. I have started with the leaders at EVERY circuit race i have done this year. At the start today, I was simply outclassed. There was Teren, obviously. There was Jamal Tongo, who typically beats me by a minute in the 5k. There was Brandon Hebbert (1:05 and 1:06 half marathons this summer and also a two minute crushing of me on Memorial day). The "slow" guy was Jake Krong who has run 14:37 and 2:21 this summer. And yet in the first mile there I was running with them. My legs felt very tired, with my quads still feeling some fatigue, but that was my only discomfort. I was a little confused as my breathing was fine and my stride felt natural and I was running next to some of the best road racers in the state.

I thought that maybe we were starting out slow, but this was not the case. I fell off the leaders right before the mile, which I reached in 4:53. On that course, a 4:53 first mile corresponds to about a 14:59. I assumed the first mile must have been downhill, but it was actually uphill. Anyway in the second mile and could feel my legs just loosing power. I just do not have that type of speed endurance.

I actually maintained a decent pace the rest of the race and only got passed by Nate Hornok. I barely missed out on sub 16, but I was totally shocked at how well I did. In fact, I was convinced the course was .1 short until I got home and measured it. The course tool reported that it was maybe 15 seconds slow compared to flat. This is pretty exciting as I wouldn't even call this an especially good day or anything but it is close to my best ever 5k (15:26 flat, sea level).

I think that after I recover from this marathon (hopefully at some point in 2011), I will work on my speed endurance a little. Once that happens, I will hopefully be able to stay with these guys all the way to the finish (and beat them).

10.1 in 60:31 (31:41,28:50)

I remember telling myself all summer that just because I, in theory, could, break 2:30 here, that 2:35 would not be a disaster.

Well let me tell you 2:35 was a disaster, at least it felt like a disaster, and I couldn't believe I salvaged the time that I did.

First off, I should say that I really need money at the moment so I was hoping that I could at least bag the $500 for 2nd place. Allie dropped me off at the buses and I immediately ran into Steve Andersen, who told me that John Kotter was running. Ha! Oh well. I found John at the starting line to tell him how much of a jerk I thought he was, which was tough because it turns out he is a very pleasant, humble guy. I told him to not go too crazy at the start which I suppose he didn't, he really is just a lot faster than me.

Anyway, I'm going to do this race report Paul/Sasha style because I think it warrants it.

Mile 1 (5:02.58): Yes that's very fast, but for those that don't know this is very fast, downhill mile. I was in 5th after the first mile and was probably much closer to 6th and 7th than the 4th place runner. My pacing sheet for Des News said that this mile was 20 seconds too fast so I decided to try to slow it down.

Mile 2 (5:16,10:18): This was right on the pace that I wanted to hit. I remember feeling a little bit of a twinge in my shin in this mile and also really wishing that the downhill would stop.

Mile 3 (5:16,15:35): I really tried to slow it down this mile and I did (relatively speaking) as this should have been faster. My legs were already suffering from the pace and I didn't really know what to do about it. Also I really needed to pee! I do a time check during this mile and I see that I'm 1 minute behind John, Fritz and Rossy. The 4th place guy is still extending his lead.

Mile 4 (5:27,21:02): I still need to pee. I also am kind of feeling the water sloshing around in my stomach. On the plus side, I am still hitting the splits that I want. Effort wise, the pace feels fine, but my legs feel very tired.

Mile 5 (5:40,26:43): First sign of trouble here as I can't find a good rhythm on this flat section. 4th place runner is now coming back to me very fast losing maybe 20 seconds to me in this mile.

Mile 6 (6:01,32:45): The first of three miles of uphill here. I pick up a little bit of time here as I surge to catch the 4th place runner and then push hard on the uphill. I can now see the road up little mountain and I watch for the figures of fritz and John climbing. There are almost 3 minutes ahead. (Note Fritz was 2:34 ahead of me at mile 6).

Mile 7 (6:34,39:18): Relative to the performance chart, my strongest mile of the race. I wanted to see faster than this or for it to feel easier. This is the a major worry for me as I have now slowed to tempo run pace with the same effort. The altitude is causing me problems.

Mile 8 (6:11, 45:30): I clearly slowed down quite dramatically here as this mile should have been faster. However I was trying to get my breath back and get into a groove so it makes sense. It was still right on pace.

Mile 9 (5:26, 50:56): Pretty relaxed downhill mile and I started to feel very good. I caught Rossy in this mile and we ran together until Burr's lane. This was the 8th mile in a row for which I had hit the split that I would have considered "ideal" with 5 or 10 seconds. I was now needing to pee though. Also, this was the mile when I was supposed to take my first Gu but I didn't feel like putting anything in my stomach.

Mile 10 (5:42,56:38): I got a boost in this mile as I saw Fritz and John at the turnaround. They still looked good but their lead did not seem insurmountable. I knew that they must be on a killer pace and I still had a shot. I was 3:38 back at this point.

Mile 11 (5:29,1:02:07): Did not feel comfortable in this mile at all. I'm not sure how much this mile cost me, but I definitely surged on this mile which was a mistake. I had planned to wait until mile 13 to surge, but I didn't want their lead to get insurmountably large.

Mile 12 (5:35,1:07:42): I was still on my goal pace (almost exactly) but I was having to push pretty hard to do it. My legs felt empty in this mile and I felt like I was slapping the ground rather than the smooth, silent turnover that I can normally achieve. I have 14 miles left! I also not enjoying the downhill as I'm beginning to feel nauseous.

Mile 13 (5:41,1:13:24 Half 1:14:00):Exactly where I want to be at the half but all systems not functional. I remember how I felt at halfway in my last two marathons and it was not like this. I take a Gu out of my pocket and take one suck before throwing it down in disgust. This would turn out to be a wise decision.

Mile 14 (5:45,1:19:04): Somehow I'm still holding it together pace-wise, even as my stomach starts to churn and my legs begin to falter.

Mile 15 (5:43,1:24:52): The plan on miles 14-18 was to attack every uphill and I'm still doing that here, but it is merely delaying the inevitable. I'm still on pace for a 2:30 at this point, somewhat miraculously.

Mile 16 (5:48, 1:30:41): I really cannot believe that I'm still hitting sub 6 at this point. I've decided at this point that I'm stopping at the next bathroom. I'm not sure it will help, but it seems worth a try. As I turn off the canyon road I'm told that the leaders are 5:29 ahead. (Fritz was 5:57 ahead at mile 16).

Mile 17/18 (12:11.1:42:52): I missed the split at 17 because the aid station was right next to it. There was no one there to give me water even though I was yelling to get there attention. There was just a "sorry, 2 more miles." Not what I needed. I'm pretty sure that 17 was still sub 6. In the 18th mile there is a hill that I have run many times this summer and attacked with a vengeance each time. There was no attack this time. My breathing was getting a little ragged at it was clear that my strength was leaving me.

Mile 19 (6:00, 1:48:52): I had given up on sub 2:30 at this point. As I knew that trying to gut it out would be a disaster. I knew that unless I had another dramatic drop off that I might still salvage 2:33-2:34. By the way I'm still looking for a bathroom.

Mile 20 (6:12, 1:55:04): I'm just trying to hold it together here. I keep stumbling and tripping.

Mile 21 (6:47, 2:01:51): I cease holding it together here. In hindsight this mile is not so bad but I feel pretty terrible and I could really afford to slow down anymore. This mile is uphill but it should only have been 20 seconds slower than mile 20 not 35 seconds. And also mile 20 was pretty bad too.

Mile 22 (5:51, 2:07:42): Ok, where is there going to be a bathroom, this is getting ridiculous. Downhill mile but I'm clearly still surviving.

Mile 23 (7:03, 2:14:45): This mile included a 44 second bathroom break so the running part only took my 6:19. I'm still holding it together. The fact that I took a stop this close to the end tell you just how bad I was feeling. Felt much happier after this.

Mile 24 (6:14, 2:2059): Out of the frying pan, into the fire. In this mile I felt half the skin rip off of my right heel forcing me to limp for a bit until the pain numbed. It's unclear how I ran a 6:14 here as I felt like I was walking down south temple (in my tempo run this mile was sub 6 pretty easily).

Mile 25 (6:24,2:27:23): A sub 2:35 slipped away during this mile but in my defense the other half of the skin ripped off of my heel at this point. I was now counting down the block.

Mile 26.2 (7:59,2:35:22): This mile is a little harder so I held it together about as well here. I almost burst into tears at the end of this race, it was quite an ordeal.

Immediately saw Allie and Allie's grandparents which was nice. I was then interviewed by the paper which was exciting. I held back my tears during the interview.

I wasn't sad about the race, or even angry. The race was a disaster, but a 2:35 is NOT a disaster for me. I know my body and I know my training and I know that it was reasonable for me to run 2:30-2:32 today. I anticipate a speedier recovery than previous marathons to back up this assertion. So why did I run 2:35?

First my legs felt bad from the beginning, around mile 2. This often happens in races, but clearly I do not handle the sustained downhill very well. I'm good at using downhill it short bursts but it is becoming clear from my racing history that downhill makes me suffer.

See (ROTL 2009/11, Striders 2009, Boston 2010, Des News 2010, Freedom Half 2011)

Also let's look at some of my best performances:(RNR 2009 (hilly), Seattle Half 08/09 (Hilly), Striders 10 mile 2009 (very hilly), MI half 2010 (Hilly), ROTL 2009 (downhill, but 5k), Draper Days 2011(hilly), Classic 10k 2010(hilly))

It's clear that I am not a proficient downhill runner, which is unfortunate given that I live in Utah.

2nd, I felt nauseous. I ate very little before or during the race but I think that this might be the problem. I normally eat quite a bit before a marathon (bagels. chips, rice crackers) but this is normally about 4 hours before. Having my stomach contain only Gu and gatorade was probably not a good idea.

3rd, the skin ripped off of my feet...Well, you know what, that's just the Des News Marathon.

Positives:

-I did hit my pace for about 16 miles. Sasha often says that the training gets you the first 16 miles and the rest is a matter of the day. Clearly I'm doing something right in traning.

-Oh right also I didn't run in Jan, Feb, March because of a knee injury. I had a bit of a knee scare this week but it was actually fine during the race.

-As I mentioned earlier, I am hoping to recover faster from this race as I didn't run on pace the last few miles (famous last words).

-After the race I lay down on my couch feeling ill. Allie came over, brought me some smoothies and gave me a massage until I fell asleep.

Lifting and plyos too.

I have a love/hate relationship with my saucony type As. I like the built in sock and the hook on the back to help you pull them on. I also like the colour. I like that they are light. Whenever I wear them for hard efforts, though, something always seems to go wrong.

I figured that this race would be pretty low key so I thought it would be a good day to put some miles in on these shoes. This turned out to be pretty silly as the trail part of this race is slightly rocky and the soles are pretty thin. I'm not quite sure how Allie managed in her Hattoris.

Anyway, this race goes up and down city creek. It's a great course that I have wanted to race on for quite some time. I felt great from the start and I was all alone after just a few minutes. I attacked the trail pretty viciously and I enjoyed the burning in my lungs. It's been 19 days since Des News but that feels like an eternity without a hard workout.

I reached the end of the trail portion at about 17:00 and started to sprint down the road as hard as I could. This part was about 2.35 miles and I covered it in 11:49 which is 5:02 pace. This was not too surprising as it is a solid downhill and I have split 5:20 for this stretch during tempo runs.

After the race, I cooled down with Allie and Kam and then reenacted Freedom Half.

This is my 6th victory of the year! Previous high was 4 in 2009. Want to make it to double digits.

Also the largest margin of victory of any race I've ever done. (4:01)

Allergies were acting up a little bit today, it was also really hot. I was dissappointed not to break 16 but I was happy with my effort.

I put myself in the lead pack in the first mile and we would stay together until 2.5 miles. I hit the mile in 5:00 which was faster than I wanted and it felt too hard. I was chopping my stride a little bit and felt generally tight. I cramped up pretty badly in the second mile (5:23) and fell back from the group. I closed pretty strongly and recaught the group. I was running side by side the final mile with Skylar Williams and Brayden Cromar from Davis HS. We kept passing each other back and forth (probably due to my inconsistent surging). With about 800meters left I heard Skylar mutter an expletive under his breath as I surged by. He then let out a primal scream and started to kick. At this point Austin Neuner flew by all three of us, knocking me into seventh at the 3 mile mark. I kicked hard by both of them to take fifth.

The field was very similar to last year.

2010 (from memory)

1.Jared Ward (BYU, Davis Alum) 15:29

2.Austin Neuner (Davis HS, now starting at USU) 15:49

3.Logan Petter (Davis Alum, UVU) 16:00

4.Brad Nye (Davis HS) 16:00

5.Joe White (Davis HS, now BYU) 16:05

6.James Moore (me) 16:06

7.Preston Johnson Davis HS 16:09

2011

1. Jared Ward 14:43

2. Brad Nye 15:33 (Look Out World!)

3. Joe White 16:00

4. Preston Johnson16:05

5. James Moore 16:17

6. Skylar Williams 16:19 (16:22 last year)

7. Austin Neuner 16:23

8. Logan Petty 16:41

9. Brayden Cromar 16:43 (16:35 last year)

Possibly the race was slower this year due to heat? Hard to say, I'm at a much different point in my fitness.

Ran an agonizing cooldown with Allie. She is do strong for me.

AM 8.5 This included 11 1min pickups with two minutes rest in between. This one a fun workout to do. I did the whole workout running around liberty park. I did the easy bits on the woodchips and the pickups on the grass to get some firmer footing. Each time I picked some landmark and tried to make it there before my watch beeped. Definitely looking forward to more Fartlek type workouts this fall.

PM 6.2 10k loop to 2100S. I did this late in the evening (starting around 10pm) or so and it was still too soon after dinner. I didn't feel nauseous but I felt pretty sluggish. Someone I managed to push myself to a respectable pace.

AM After I ran, ate breakfast, showered and rolled my muscles out with the stick I realized I was going to be late for work. The fastest way for me to get to school is running, even with a full backpack. So I completely undid my shower by running to school at about 9am as the morning was heating up. Gross.

Probably my last circuit race for the year. I have been obscenely consistent after a few hiccups at the beginning.

ROTL-12th,SLCHalf-10th,PCHM-4th,(UVHM-should be on LDR-6th),Draper Days-6th,RFTC-5th

I was debating with myself whether or not to do this race right up until the last moment. So much so that when I went to pick up my packet, they found my name added in pen to the bottom of the sheet written, no doubt, with ink made from the tears of the race director as she contemplated why people make her life so hard.

Umm,anyway,yes, I wasn't sure about this race because I knew I wasn't really ready to race a 10k. I can kind of gut out a 5k (see last week's effort) but a 10k is really just about pure fitness. I've been close to getting some money everytime at one of these races so I thought I should give it a go.

The competition was pretty good up front. There was Teren, Nate H., Riley Cook, Ken Richardson and Dennis Simonaitis. When I saw this lineup, I though to myself "if I am smart, I can get top 3". It was hot and I do not do well in the heat, but there would be shade and otherwise I was feeling pretty good.

At the start I let Teren go and settled into 4th behind Nate and Riley. The pace felt easy (as I've come to expect) and I was getting antsy but then my breathing just kind of ran away from me and I couldn't get it out of control. That's really a sign that I have some work to do base wise. I started to slowly lose ground right at the mile mark which I reach in 5:16. This mile should have felt a little bit easier than it did so I started to worry. I had a prerace expectation of 33 high, but I felt that I was capable of maybe sub 33 which is 5:18 pace. I figured that was out the window after this mile. I found a new rhythm and go my breathing under control. The second mile was 5:34. This is about what I would expect from myself at threshold pace and I hoped to be able to hold onto this pace.

Well, not so much. My third mile was very slow-5:49. I got passed by Ken R. I knew that 5:49 is not good and that I should try to stay with Ken. My spirits weren't very low however, as I could see that I was not the only person struggling. In the 4th mile there is a turnaround and Teren came back the other day with death all over his face. No one was any further ahead of me than I would have expected so I kept clipping along. I was hoping that my strength would prevail, but I was dealing with a bunchof 30-35 year olds so I figured they were all running pretty sensibly.

Anyway, for the last three miles I chased Ken and tried to hold off Dennis. Mile 4 was 5:46 and mile 5 was 5:42.  I put in a 6:43 for the last 1.22 which is about 5:36 pace (I think). The last couple of miles have a gradual decline which  accounted for my increase in speed.

Anyway, times were slow all around by about a minute it seems. I was 2:53 behind Teren and only 0:56 behind Riley. Earlier in the year I was 1:09 behind Riley in a 5k. I'm happy with my effort, it shows that I'm still on the upswing despite taking some down time these last couple of weeks. I'm still, possibly, 45-60 seconds away from my previous best.

After yesterday, I decided I need to stop thinking and go out and run some solid miles. My races indicate that I have the speed I just need to build up the strength again. Looking at Jake Krong's amazing performance also made me realize that I need to start doing more. I need to worry about my miles first. My performances always seem to coincide eerily with the length of my long runs.

I charged up Sunnyside and turned onto Foothill. Started to run the death segment in reverse and was just getting ready for 2 hours of pure torture when I ran into Rob Murphy. He was running a decent clip and asked if we could run together. I decided that this was probably wise. We still ran pretty fast the rest of the way and I ended up averaging just under 7 minutes per miles after a  surge in the last 4 miles.

Felt great on my PM run today after feeling sluggish all day.

AM 11.5

After a short warmup I did 6*5mins 'on'-5mins 'off'. The off minutes were probably around 7:30 mile pace and the on minutes were probably 5:30 ish. I ran to Sugarhouse Park, did two loops then ran home.

PM 5.5

Weights+Core

AM 10.1 miles with Allie. We gradually picked it up and were moved pretty well coming down Sunnyside. Never look a middle schooler in the eyes as they walk to school...so much pain.

PM 5.5 Did not enjoy this run much as I ate a late lunch (5egg omelette) and so I was a bit nauseous.

AM 4 around Liberty Park. Standard pace.

Not to be overly dramatic but I almost cried both during and after this race. I have fallen apart in every half marathon I have done this year. Sometimes it was more extreme than others.

Anyway, this race was my first half marathon in 2008. I ran 1:19:12 and it hurt like hell. I DID stop twice to go the bathroom, though.

I went right to the front at the start. My plan was to do some damage to the field in the first 4 miles (which are upupupup) as I was confident that I could hold it together ok on the downhill.

Jon Gauthier had other ideas though as he stayed right on me through the first two miles. I kept trying to shake him, but he would have none of it. Right before we started to climb little mountain proper he bolted ahead and started to surge up the hill. I couldn't decide if this was an incredibly savvy move or a dumb move. It started to look smarter and smarter as he moved away from me up the hill.

I had a major advantage in that I knew when the hill was ending and as the hill was coming to a finish I kicked up my intensity. I could tell that I was going to be able to catch him and I let the gap remain at about 15m for about a minute. He glanced back to see how much distance he'd put on me and saw me still right there. That gave me some confidence.

We crested the hill and I immediately closed the gap and passed him. He latched on to me and we flew down the next mile. I had a 4:46 on my watch. I asked some other people at the end what they got and no one had an anomaly quite like that, so I figured it was legit. I think it probably came from my ability to rapidly accelerate after the hill when most were catching their breath. It's XC racing 101!

Anyway Jon stuck with me through most of that mile but dropped hard right after that. I was actually concerned that he had passed out on the side of the road because I looked back and he was GONE. He later said that he had taken a wrong turn! I mean that sucks and all, but I don't know what he was thinking. He apparently went up Burr's lane, which he should have recognized from the freedom half. Oh well. If he lost that much ground to me that fast, he was truly spent and wasn't going to be a threat.

With Jon gone I settled into a rhythm down the canyon. I actually felt a bit nauseous (too much downhill) but it didn't really affect me. I kept clicking off solid miles but I definitely fatigued toward the end. This race is a good highlight of my strengths and weaknesses. I don't necessarily hold my pace well on long downhill stretches, but I can run very fast with very little effort for short downhills. Hopefully this is something I can work on though and try to get stronger.

Splits 6:22,6:40,6:20,6:42,4:47,5:13,5:22,5:21,5:24,5:31,5:29,5:31,5:51(1.2) 

Ran from my house to the top of little mountain and back. A really fun run, I started pushing the climb after I passed the fire station (about 5 miles from the top). Reached the top in 1:33 and then cruised back down in 1:14 (6:30 ish pace). I was running consistent 6:20s for a while in there but I certainly slowed down a lot the last miles. I had intended to take some Gu with me but I left it on my kitchen table. I didn't realize this until I reached the top and looked in my pocket for a Gu. I was pleased that I didn't crash despite not having eaten.

Maybe I should do another marathon soon? 

Pretty sore today from two runs down Emigration in two days. Put on my compression gear and did some loops of liberty park. Then Allie and I hiked up Mt Wire. (We were going to be more ambitious but we were scared off by thunderstorms)

Also, I signed up for the TOU marathon...

I'm definitely not in killer shape at the moment, but my last two 20 milers have shown me that I can comfortably make it through the distance without falling apart.

Main reasons for doing TOU are

-1. To get some more experience with the marathon. I like to learn a little bit from all of my races, and I really wasn't sure what to make of Des News.

-2. To maybe win some money. Don't know who will be there (Paul, Sasha, Kenyans and ???) but money may be nice.

-3. To get another Utah marathon under my belt. I don't know how much longer I'm going to live here and I wanted to do Des News, TOU and Ogden before leaving.

Supplemental reason-

Maybe I can PR. I will probably run pretty conservatively, but I will try to put myself in position to PR and go sub 2:30. I honestly don't know how my body will react though.

AM 11.5 Decided to start timing runs again. Maybe this will be interesting. 1:27 (7:34 pace)

PM 4.8 Didn't time it.

AM 9.5 in 1:11 (7:28 per mile)

PM 4 miles in 26:30 (6:38 per mile)

Right before my PM run, my mum called to tell me they had put our cat charlie down. Apparently his kidneys had stopped working and he could no longer eat anything. I knew that he had to die sooner or later but he didn't seem to have aged at all in the last ten years. Charlie was born in a cupboard on December 20th 1994. He was one of 3 kittens that our cat Brindle had that day and the only one we kept. A few months later, Brindle had six more kittens and so for a time we had 8 cats. One of my favourite books when I was little was the 101 dalmations and this was kind of like that.

When we moved to America in August 1997, we naturally brought Brindle and Charlie with us. I guess I should add that we adopted Brindle in September 1993 when she had just been weaned. For two years we rented a house with no cat flap and so we had to leave the cats out at night (because they were outdoor cats). We lived in perpetual fear that they would get eaten by raccoons, which we discovered were not as lovable as cartoons had led me to believe.

My cats were both incredibly friendly. They would leap into the laps of complete strangers. I thought this was normal behavior for cats for a very long time until people became to comment about how nice my cats were.

Brindle and Charlie were very different from each other. When Brindle was hungry she would go hunt and I would often see her at the park while out running. She would bring dead birds to my sister. When Charlie was hungry he would kind of wander around the and meow pitifully, then roll onto his back to make sure we could see how helpless he was. It was unclear why he did this as we always fed him at the same time everyday. Brindle was an efficient, gracile, killing machine. Charlie was kind of a wuss, but what can you expect from a neutered tom cat?

In 2003, Brindle was mauled by a giant stray tom cat and had to undergo surgery. She had to wear the "cone" of shame for a few weeks and I had to give her medicine. Trying to get cats to do things that they don't want to do is incredibly difficult. Brindle hated taking her medicine, but she would always let me catch her and do her best to swallow it. She recovered briefly but when I returned from my freshman year of college she was clearly dying. She had lost a lot of weight and had very little energy. She couldn't keep any of her food down and a couple of times she was found collapsed in the park before some kind soul took her to the vet.

During this whole time, I kept insisting that my parents put her down. The other option was a $50000 operation that may not have worked. In any case, I didn't like seeing how much she was suffering.

One day, I came home from running and found that Brindle had collapsed while while trying to go through her flap. I carried her upstairs and gave her some water. She died a few hours later.

Charlie, on the other hand, soldiered on for another 7 years and was closing in on his 17th birthday when he started to go downhill. I told my parents in no uncertain terms that this time they were to put him down.

Anyway RIP charlie, I'll miss the watching you hunt dragonflies.

AM 10.1 mile tempo run. (30:58,29:06 (19:49,9:17))=60:04

Wanted to push this run hard and see what kind of shape that I'm in.  I last did this run all out during my taper for Des News and only managed a 60:30 (31:40,28:50). Mileage the day before was 13.5 this time vs just 2.5 in July. In addition there was some crazy wind this time which could have reasonable cost me about 1 minute (maybe more).

In the past I've done this run later in the day after giving my body longer to warm up. Earlier in the summer I ran 59 flat, in Jan 2010 I ran 59:59. In Oct 2010 I ran 57:50. In short, I think I am close to the shape that I was in when I ran 1:11 and 2:32.

PM 4 (28:11=7:03/mile)

Dragged myself out of bed a bit earlier this morning to run with Allie. (6.2 miles in 51:36=8:19 pace). The nice thing about only deciding to do a race two weeks out is that you don't drive yourself nuts thinking about it. I suppose I need to start tapering at some point soon.

Layton Classic 5k. I got second last year behind Jamal and I really wanted to come away with the win this time around. Of course Trace Fifeld had to show up!

I took off much faster than last year and I already lost Trace before the mile. (Which we hit in 5:08 vs 5:13 last year). There's a long climb in the second and third miles and I was trying to keep the race close, hitting 5:18 for mile 2 (10:26). I was now 24 seconds ahead of my pace from last year and feeling pretty good. At the same time I was concerned that the mile markers were in the wrong place.

At 3 miles trace had about a 20 second lead on me and it looked like I might catch him. I hit the third mile in 16:31, still ahead of pace from last year but falling back.

The fourth mile is downhill again and now I was really closing in. I ran 5:17 for this mile (which was again slower than last year). I pushed really hard in the crucial 5th mile but I couldn't make any headway. Trace seemed to be pulling away again. This mile was only 5:46 which kind of stinks. I figured that mile was probably off as I didn't feel like I had really slowed down any from the previous miles.

I was now trying hard to break 34 mins but it's hard to keep your momentum up at the end of this race. You have to go around a lot of 5kers and there are some twists and turns. Somehow I still managed a 6:28 for the last 1.22 (5:18 pace). This may have been short.

It doesn't matter. I gave it my best shot and still came up short of Trace by about 15 seconds. It was hard to be frustrated because even though my time from last year would have won, I had considered that to be a very good race. Also, at the time, I was focusing on 10k specific workouts in my training. This course is somewhere in the region of 2 minutes slower than Des News, so I was right where I should be.