4 is better than 2

Going to take the day off, I feel like I am coming down with a cold and I want to keep it from getting worse. Planning a tempo run tomorrow if anyone is interested. It won't be until mid morning but....

Started with an easy warm-up, and attempted a 3 mile tempo.  I was a little tight from the start and out of sych, so after the first mile I stopped stretched and jogged for a bit.  I took off with Taha for the last 1.5 miles and felt much better.  As I got closer to the 3 mile mark I was running a lot smoother.  Easy cool down.

An easy 9 miler through the trails above red butte.  A beautiful evening for a run, I ran nice and relaxed with no watch and no concern for time.  It was a good night to just lets the thoughts flow and roll with whatever came my way.

I am happy to read of the great success everyone has had with their long runs today :) My run however was possibly one of the most demoralizing runs I have done. I met Taha at his house in Farmington this morning for a run up Farmington canyon. It has been a couple years since I have done this run, probably long enough to forget how bad it was the first time. Essentially the entire run is done on dirt, uneven dirt, but dirt none the less. The first couple miles were nice and kind of a downhill roll towards the mouth of the canyon, this plays an important part later in the run. The first mile up the canyon is paved and ridiculously steep. After that, it is a steady grind for the next 7 miles to the turn around. The pace was not fast, but I was struggling with the climb. Total elevation gain for the 8 miles of the canyon was close to 2400 feet. It was a little warm when we got started but not too bad in the canyon, we happened to find an unopened water bottle on the road which was great, we were not smart enough to leave water out today. By the time we turned around my legs were pretty hammered and the uneven surface on the downhill was not helping. We ran pretty consistent until about the 17 mile mark and then I bonked -huge. I still had another mile of brutal downhill left with shaking legs and then 2 more miles of rolling uphill to the house. As we transitioned to the uphill, I was done. I had to walk up the first hill, my hands had gone numb, my legs were hollow, and my ears were ringing like crazy. I managed to run walk all the way back, but by the time I reached Taha's house I could barely stand. I knew I was extremely dehydrated by the shear fact that my lips had dried and were caked with crap, and my mouth was like a desert. I walked into the house, took a drink out of my bottle and promptly threw up. This was the perfect ending to an already brutal day, I hate throwing-up more than anything! None-the-less, I am at least partially functional now and trying to rehydrate my badly demoralized ego.

am 6 miles easy on the JRT.  Feeling a little beat up from Saturday's bout of dehydration, but felt like I moved ok.

Went to the park for a set of 10x2 min with 2 min recovery.  I struggled mentally to get into the set, and the wind and heat were not helping.  I finally got into the groove about half way through the set.  I am still feeling a little out of synch from Saturady, but I felt pretty good when I finished.  Workouts like these are good because it is when things are not looking great and you can push through to the finish, you can see big benefits.

An easy 4 this morning, it was pretty slow, but I will plan on running more tonight - hopefully.

Did a little shorter warm-up than I would have liked and then started the first of a series of longer tempo runs I am planning on doing.  I was running a downhill course to condition my legs for the marathon, and will probably keep the same pattern.  Some of the downhill was negated by a pretty stiff head wind the entire run, but I still felt ok.  I hit the seven miles in just a little over 40 minutes.

After suffering from headaches the last couple days, I decided a couple days off might do me some good.  I went out this morning with intention of doing just a few to see how I would feel, I felt ok and continued on to 16.  I entertained thoughts of doing 20, but in the end I am glad I stayed cautious. Hopefully I will have a little better week of training this week, but mostly I hope the headaches don't return.

Started slow with a client this morning and then ran 6 more on my own.  I actually felt pretty good this morning.  I felt like I did a good job rehydrating after yesterday's run and am back on track.

Met Taha and Mike at the park for a set of 10x2 minutes.  I was pleasantly surprised to feel pretty good on the warm-up and thought today would be an ok day.  It was hot by the time we left, 10:30, but I planted water at the top of the hill to cool myself each lap, it worked very well.  I pushed the pace early and felt good for the first 6 reps.  We were running consistently faster than in the past few weeks.  Taha opened the pace on reps 7-10 and really started to make us hurt.  We were starting to hit the hills at the end of each rep, and Taha would attack at the base of each one, I fell off the pace a little on the 9th rep, but did not lose too much.  The final rep ended with the climb upto the rose garden, we hit the base of the hill and Mike attacked and I responded with what I had left, but the rep ended before I could close the gap.  Overall I felt better today than I have for the last couple weeks, and look forward to a hard tempo effort again on Thursday.

6 easy miles on the JRT this evening.  I felt a little tight starting, but much better at the end of the run.

Liberty Park tempo this morning.  I was feeling a little tight while warming up, and I firmly believe our warm-up was way too slow.  I find that if I cannot get my heart rate up before I start a hard set I have a hard time getting into it.  Came through the first mile in 5:45 and felt like it should have been much faster.  I took a 10 second pause at the 1.3 mile mark to stretch my left calf and then took off again.  I felt much better in the second mile, and finally felt I was moving well through to the finish.  I did finish feeling like I could have kept going for a bit longer.  Time 17:20.

am 6 - I think I was asleep for the first 2 miles, I may have been passed by a snail, or maybe it was a dream.  I finally started to wake up a little and finished feeling pretty good.  Hoping for rain!!!

Met up with Mike, Taha, Ken and Dantley this morning for a 20 miler.  Ken and Mike turned back at the 5 mile mark, and the rest of continued up the emigration canyon for another 5.  Taha wanted to run the last 1.5 miles hard up to the top, I let him go.  I wanted to run at least 5 harder miles on the way down, and then coast in from there.  Taha and I took off from the top and ran a 5 mile tempo down to Ruth's Diner.  The pace was not so fast I was hating it, but it was a little uncomfortable, I was glad we slowed down after 5 and ran about 7 min pace back to start.  I felt better today than I have felt on a long run for quite some time.  I did not feel trashed at the end and right now I am still feeling pretty chipper. I am very pleased with today's run and effort, and I am happy to have completed my goals for the day.

Ran an easy 2 with a client this morning, and then went out with Taha and Mike for an easy 10 miler.  The pace was slow, but I am pretty stiff from Saturday's 20, so I did not mind running slow.

Met at Sugar House park for the usual 10x2 minutes.  Other than being a little stiff to start, I felt ready to run hard.  I purposely pushed the pace hard on the first couple reps to force the rhythm, Taha hammered the middle part of the set, and we both finished the set pretty tired, but much better than last week.  The last couple laps all ended with climbs which I felt better about this week than last week.  I will not taper at all this week prior to Hobble Creek and just hope for the best.  I have one more tempo run I want to do on Thursday, and then Hobble Creek Saturday should make for another solid week of training for me.

Easy run on BST, pretty beat-up today, felt better as I got going, but man was it a slow start.  Nice to get out and run easy on the trails.

Met Taha at Liberty Park for a 5k tempo run.  I was a little iffy about this run because I was feeling completely trashed this morning when I got up.  After a couple laps warm-up I actually felt a little better.  We took off and Taha opened a gap on me in the first mile, I was ok with this because I did not want to beat myself to death on this run.  Over the course of the next 2 miles I reeled him back in and closed with a 5:30 last mile.  I felt good after the run, and my legs are actually feeling much better now.

4 miles easy just to loosen up the legs. I was pretty stiff, but better towards the end.

I had some concerns before starting that I might pay for a harder last couple weeks of training, but I also knew I could only do what I could do.  Realistically I thought I could run around 1:13 on a good day, but the late start did not help my chances.  The heat may have contributed a little, but not enough to hurt the performance by more than maybe 30 seconds.  After my third time warming up, the race finally started.  I went out with Chad for about the first mile - 5:20, I felt good and thought I might be able to hang for a bit, but he continued to put time on me in the second mile.  I at least wanted to keep him in sight for most of the race, and I did until about the 8 or 9 mile mark.  I did have someone run up on me about 3 miles in, and we ran together until about mile 9 and then he started putting a little time on me.  I felt solid until about 9 miles and then I was starting to hurt a little, by 10.5 I was just surviving.  I was on track to run 1:13 through the first 10, but quickly faded.  Steve H, caught me with about a mile to go and I just tried to pick up the pace to stay close, but he put 20 seconds on me in the last mile.  I finished feeling pretty spent and only managed to cool-down a couple miles.  I would have hoped for a little better day today, but all things being said, I will take it.

An easy 7 this morning, pretty sluggish and tight.  I was in no hurry so it was nice easy run.

Met Taha, Mike and Dantley at the park for a set of 10x3 minute reps.  I was still feeling a bit tight from the half on Saturday, but I felt like I could survive the workout.  After warming up a couple miles, we started the set.  I felt good on 1 and 2, lousy and slow on 3-5, good on 6-8, and was hurting on 9 and 10.  Dantley got away from us on the last 2 by about 3 or seconds which was good since this was the first time he has ever done a set like this.  My hamstrings were singing by the end of the set and indication that I was not fully recovered and that I worked hard today.  No residual soreness in calves or hamstrings.  I feel good about today's set.

An easy hour run with Taha this morning, very slow, but I am feeling a bit beat up.

am 5 - the plan was to do 2 x 3 mile this morning, but I having some achilles issues this morning and after about the first mile of the first one I pulled the plug.  The foot has been bothering me for a while now and I have learned when it's ok to push and when I need to say ok.

 pm 4 - easy couple laps at SH, foot felt better, I just wanted to get out and cruise easy.
 

Very slow and easy, foot feels a little better.  Started ART therapy today, will post results after a couple weeks.