my makeup may be flaking

Got out and ran again. Slightly conscious of my achilles, nothing major.

8.2 miles on elliptical in 45 mins. (uh yeah, it was hard)

1.8 miles running to get to 10.

21 miles on the bike (in just over an hour)

2 miles running

PM Ran home and did Allie's double with her.

JAJA run in the morning. Last night I used my gua sha tool to rub out my achilles. I succeeded in rubbing it pretty raw (skin came off). In my experience this is ok. During the run it felt a little sore and I wasn't sure if it was from actual tendon pain or from the raw skin. I honestly still can't tell, BUT it didn't feel any worse after the run than before.

Another factor in me running again (6 straight days!) is probably the superfeet insoles that I got per Rossy's suggestion.

PM: 10.4 miles cycling in 30 mins (heart rate in the 170s for the 2nd half.)

Did 4.97 miles on the elliptical

5:05,5:06,5:20,5:18,5:06 for final .97 (5:16 pace). Total time=25:55. Died pretty badly just before the 2 mile mark but I hung on to break 26.

Afterwards did 4 miles on the track at about 6:45 pace. I felt fine until the last lap when my hip started to hurt.

 PM 5.9 with Allie.

The outside the ice 5k turns out to mean that it is an indoor 5k going around an ice rink. This was actually a pretty cool venue for a race and I'd like to see more races there. Obviously there was a difficulty of lapping people but it wasn't all that bad.

Anyway my goal today was just to test out the achilles to prep myself for the half marathon tomorrow and I figured that I would pace Allie as well. I kind of had fun sitting back and picking people off as we kept a really even pace. We started with a 1:43 lap and we stayed in the 1:42-1:44 range until running the last two laps in 1:41,1:35. I think the funniest part was that the leaders almost lapped us after about 6 laps but then stayed about the same distance back the rest of the way.

As for my foot, it was fine and I even felt like I was pushing off my right foot fully. I think that the superfeet insoles are stopping me from yanking my achilles too much. Additionally, the fact that it is pancake flat was very kind to my feet. The one issue that I got was a blister due to the hole in my sock and the insoles which make my feet sit slightly differently in my shoe. I bet that this will become really bloody and gross tomorrow, but I look forward to it.

Last week I ellipticalled a half marathon in 1:11:23. I'm going to be happy with a 1:16 low tomorrow. Half marathon history (you have to go down very far to get to my altitude half pr)

1:11:14 (Utah Valley 2011, aided) 

1:11:15 (Seattle 2009, Sea Level)

1:11:23 (Elliptical 2012, Um..Elliptical)

1:11:24 (Mercer Island 2010, Sea Level)

1:11:36 (SLC 2009, Aided)

1:13:08 (Seattle 2008, Sea Level)

1:13:37 (Seattle 2011, Sea Level)

1:13:56 (TOU 1st half split, aided)

1:14:00 (Des News 1st Half split, aided)

1:14:14 (Seattle 2010, sea level)

1:14:29 (Boston 1st half split, aided sea level)

1:14:31 (Salt Lake Half 2011, Aided)

1:14:54 (Freedom Half 2011, Aided)

1:15:01 (Sale Lake City Half 2011, aided+short)

1:16:18 (Provo City 2011)!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Clearly my altitude PR is soft. I think that this will be tough to get tomorrow but it's at least possible. 

I had planned on doing this race for about a month. Everytime I thought about, I thought "I'm probably going to regret this". Anyway, I told myself that I had a shot at my altitude PR yesterday and figured that I could get the Wasatch Running Center some good exposure.

I was never on pace for 1:16. After about 5k it became apparent that I was not going to run very fast (like no faster than 1:19). I just clicked off the laps as my left leg became gradually more and more sore. Again, my achilles was fine and my breathing was fine, but my quads were toast.

Anyway, I definitely slowed down by maybe 10-15 seconds a mile toward the end but I was happy with how I did.

Best Pace Guesses

1595m=5:51 (5:54)

3367m=12:20 (5:53/5:53)

4696m=17:15 (5:54/5:57)

6468m=23:54 (5:56/6:02)

8240m=30:37 (5:58/6:06)

9569m=35:44 (6:00/6:12)

11341m=42:34 (6:02/6:12)

13113m=49:21 (6:03/6:09)

Final 7974m in 31:14 (6:18 pace):Ran out of memory

I estimate that I could have (in the latter stages) been losing roughly 15-20 seconds a mile weaving around people. I think this could have cost me maybe as much as 3 minutes. It's actually difficult to say. Anyway, I'm glad that I tried this race, but my legs are really trashed now.