Every Race is an Adventure!

I ran two miles before meeting up with Kurt, Kent, and Larry. After a half mile warmup, I ran the next half mile at 7:56/mi. This was slower than normal so I picked up the pace and ran the next half mile at 6:53/mi. That was a little too fast. I ran the last half mile at 7:17/mi before meeting up with the others.

I was feeling tired as we started up the 2000 N hill and was going to take it easy, but Kent taunted me into pushing it pretty hard. I couldn't stay with Kurt, but averaged 9:38/mi for 1.4 miles up the hill, which is good for me on that hill. We recovered on the down hill; 8:21/mi on the level then 7:51/mi down the hill.

Everyone had pushed hard up the hill and we were pretty tired at this point. We averaged 8:57/mi for 0.85 miles over to the next 0.5 mile downhill, which we ran at 7:55/mi. The others began to slowly pull away at this point. I was very tired. I ran 8:38/mi for about a mile, then could only manage to speed up to 8:06/mi for the last mile or so.

My overall average pace for the 7.75 miles (about 2.5 miles of hills) was 8:21/mi. It was a good run.

I started the day by running the normal Wednesday hills with Kurt and Kent. Once we started up the hill Kurt took off. I think Kent and I pushed pretty good, but it was no PR. We took it easy back down. We had to watch our footing through the torn up road down 1600 N, but held a pretty good pace. I didn't kick too hard because I was planning to run again at noon.

At noon, I went out with Cory to do the Lake View run across the freeway from Novell. We saw several huge trees that had been uprooted by the storm yesterday. We then noticed the downed power pole laying near the gate at the end of the trail. We cut through a yard and discovered that there were quite a few down power lines and poles, with lots of crews working to repair them. The main street was blocked off so we had to weave through some side streets. Rather than come back that way, we went north and then east under the freeway and worked our way back to Novell. Cory's GPS said we went just over 5 miles. With all the stopping early on, it was hard to figure our average pace, but I think it was around 7:40/mi.

I started with a half mile warmup. My legs felt really tired so I started quite slowly and only ran the first half mile at about 10:38/mi. I picked up the pace and ran the next three half miles at 7:52/mi, 6:52/mi, and 7:18/mi.

I then met up with Kurt, Kent, Kevin, and Larry for the normal Thursday morning run.

We ran the first 2.17 miles at 9:03/mi, followed by 0.83 miles at 8:41/mi.

I averaged 10:19/mi for the mile up the hill at 2000 North. Coming back down, we ran 9:15/mi at the start, then sped up to 7:06/mi for 0.65 miles followed by 6:24/mi for 0.49 miles to end the fun.

It was a good hard run. It was nice having the whole group together again. It's been a while.

It was a great morning for running and I got to run with a great bunch of guys...the regulars of Kevin, Kent, Larry, and Wayne, and we were joined by Kerry Southworth and Greg Wrubell. We started at the mouth of Provo Canyon and ran up to South Fork. We all went as far as South Fork Park before turning around. Kevin, Wayne, and I went on up to Trefoil to get in a 20 mile run.

I forgot to lock in my Garmin before we started and never did get it going until we stopped at Trefoil before turning around. In my opinion we ran a pretty good pace for all that uphill, in a time of around 1:37 I think, including stops.

Kevin, Wayne, and I averaged around 7:50/mi on the way back down. The pattern seemed to be that Kevin would push the pace a little, then Wayne would take the bait and they would both push the pace even more. I just tried to hang on. We ran the 10 downhill miles in around 1:20, and I believe we ran the 20 miles in just under 3 hours. My goal was just to finish without bonking. I felt strong most of the time. I really only felt stressed the times Kevin and Wayne pushed the pace to around 7:00-7:20/mi. I felt good enough at the end to run the last 1/2 mile at 7:17/mi.

Kent, Kurt, Larry, and I went to the track this morning. Kevin ran some miles on his own then met us at the track as we were finishing up.

Larry and I did three 1-mile repeats while Kent and Kurt were doing 1/2-mile repeats. My legs were still a little sore from the long run on Saturday. I was trying to focus on form and mechanics more than on just speed. I felt strong and ran within myself, and my legs felt pretty good. My times for the mile repeats were 7:01, 6:59, and 6:39.

After 1/2 mile warmup I ran the next three 1/2 mile sections at 7:53/mi, 7:10/mi, and 7:24/mi. I then met up with Kurt and Larry. Kurt headed home after running the hill on 2000 N for bio-related reasons. My legs felt pretty tired this morning. Larry and I ran a fairly easy pace, but it didn't really feel all that easy.

In the morning I ran the normal Wednesday hill run with Larry. We didn't push really hard but the hills are never easy.

At noon I ran the Lake View run. It was pretty warm. I averaged 8:08/mi for the 2.5 miles out and 7:29/mi back.

My legs (muscles and joints) have seemed somewhat tired and sore this week. I haven't been getting enough sleep either. I decided to take today off to rest and recover a little.

I chose to cross train this morning and go to morning basketball with my son Andrew. I had a lot of fun seeing old friends again and getting my workout in a different way. Unfortunately, Andrew landed on someone's foot after shooting a 3 pointer and sprained his ankle (he made the shot). He walked it off and continued playing for a while, but it was pretty sore by the time we got home.

I would have really liked to have run the Provo River 1/2 marathon this morning. It was in one of my favorite places to run, and was a good distance for my training (and it turns out the weather was great), but my running budget didn't allow it this year.

Instead I decided to run repeats of 3 miles around the 1/2 mile loop (around the block) in front of my house. I warmed up for one lap and recovered one lap in between repeats. I planned to do at least 4 repeats, maybe 5. However, shortly into the 3rd repeat I felt serious blisters beginning to form on the balls of both feet. I kept going for a while, but decided to stop the damage after 2 miles into the 3rd repeat. I averaged 7:15/mi the first 3 miles, 7:41/mi the next 3 miles, and 7:33/mi the last 2 miles.

My goal today was to focus on form, not time. Each time I felt myself slowing or tiring I would refocus on running smoothly and efficiently. I was trying to get comfortable with how it would feel to run at my goal marathon pace for a long time.

I averaged just under 7:30/mi for the 8 miles I completed, and still felt pretty strong. I ran slightly faster than my target pace (7:38/mi), and the marathons have a lot of downhill where this course was level.

I'm a bit mystified by the blisters on the balls of my feet. I was running in the same Saucony Grid Tangent shoes I ran St. George in last year (I normally save them for races and ocassional speed work so they are not worn out yet), and was wearing similar socks. I normally put SportShield on most potential problem areas of my feet prior to long runs. I did this again this morning, but I think I missed the balls of my feet, probably because I haven't had any blister problems there for a long time. I also think maybe focusing on holding my form for such a long period of time may have had an impact. It increased my foot turnover rate and I think it affected my foot strike position slightly.

There was no one at the corner at 5:45am. I decided to head to the track and do some mile repeats. It was still pretty dark when I got there but I thought I saw a couple of runners that looked a lot like Kent and Kurt. I was right. They had to get home early so they went over at 5:30am. It was good to see Joel there running, too.

I ran five 1 mile repeats with a one lap recovery between each. My times were 6:56, 7:03, 7:03, 7:12, and 7:00. Like Saturday, my focus was on trying to maintain form to maintain speed, and I think it went pretty well.

Once again I was left to run alone this morning. I didn't feel like running the normal Tuesday course through Lindon so I headed south for a flatter, better lit run through Orem. I worked my way to 800 E, down to Center, then worked my way back over to Main as I headed north and back home.

I had decided to wear the same shoes I wore on Saturday when I got the blisters. I love those shoes and have never had trouble like that with them before (ran St. George in them last year, and set a PR and won my age division at Strawberry Days 5K in them this year).

As I warmed up and then ran the first mile or two I noticed my feet seemed to be slipping a little inside my shoes each time I planted my feet. I stopped and tightened the laces slightly (down near the toe box) on one shoe to see if it made a difference. It did. I eventually stopped and tightened the other as well.

It made a real difference. My foot plants felt much more stable. My pace quickened significantly and I was able to finish the seven miles strong with no blisters.

I ran the Wednesday hills alone, to begin with anyway. I warmed up the 1.2 miles to the base of the hills. I pushed fairly hard up the hills (1.4 miles) in 15:58 against a head wind.

On the way down I met Kevin coming up hill four. I turned around and slowly followed him back up hills four and five. I haven't run with Kevin for a while and I enjoyed running back down with him.

At the bottom of the hills we ran about 8:03/mi for 0.6 mi. At 400 E we sped up as we went down the gradual downhill. Part way down Kevin saw me glance at my Garmin and asked what our pace was. It was 7:10/mi at the time and we were both running pretty easy. Of course, whenever you tell Kevin the current pace it gets faster. We ended up averaging 6:44/mi the last 0.6 miles home.

At noon I ran the Lake View course with Cory, Nathan, and Tom. Nathan had to turn back early to get to a meeting.

We ran the 2.6 miles out in about 20:37 (7:56/mi) and ran the return trip in about 19:28 (7:29/mi). The overall time was around 40:05 (7:43/mi).

I ran the Thursday run alone this morning. I got to bed late so I didn't get out early for the two extra miles. That turned out to be okay because I really didn't feel very well this morning. I had periodic stomach cramps throughout the entire run, and I didn't have much energy. I maintained a moderate pace and didn't push the speed. I only averaged about 8:30/mi on the flat sections and only increased to about 7:45/mi on the big downhill. I still count the run as a success as I really didn't feel like running but completed the run anyway, including the big hill at the end.

I had a great 20 mile run this morning with Kerry and Tom. We ran from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Trefoil at the top of South Fork and back.

We started about 6:00am and the weather was great. There were some clouds that kept it cool for most of the run.

I felt like we held a pretty strong pace for the entire run. My watch had some trouble picking up a GPS signal, but excluding the time for water/bathroom stops, I think we averaged around 9:20/mi for the 10 miles up and 7:50/mi back down. We finished in around 2:51:33 (8:35/mi).

It was great running with Kerry and Tom again. It brought back positive memories of running St. George together last year. I think we're all in better shape than last year. Tom and Kerry both did well in the Provo River half marathon last week. The Hobble Creek half this Saturday we'll be my first real test since the Wasatch Back Relay.

Kent, Kurt, Larry, and I decided to run the Monday course backwards this morning. It was good having Larry back from Alaska and the group back together. We averaged about 8:32/mi overall, and pushed the last half mile pretty hard. It was a good run.

I started the normal Tuesday run with Kevin, Kent, Kurt, and Larry. It was nice having everyone out again...or maybe not. I tried to chase Kurt at the end of yesterday's run and pushed harder than I probably should have. This morning I chased Kurt and Kevin up the big hill at 2000 North. I felt a little tightness in my left calf, but didn't really think too much of it. On the way back down, however, it began to hurt worse even though I was backing off the pace. By mile three I was getting concerned. I finally stopped at four miles and decided to walk home to avoid tearing something.

I iced my calf for quite a while after I got home. I'll lay off running this week and hope I'm able to run Hobble Creek on Saturday. What a bummer.

I couldn't resist the urge at lunchtime to go to the fitness center and try a few miles on the treadmill. I started very slowly and gradually worked up to about an 8:30/mi pace. It felt good, but I didn't risk pushing the pace any harder. I may try a couple of miles again tonight with the compression sleeve on to see how that feels.

My plan for now is to run the Hobble Creek half tomorrow wearing the calf sleeve. I'll start out easy and see how the calf feels after a few miles. What I still need to determine is what "easy" means. I was originally thinking about running 6:45/mi or faster on the initial downhills, so is "easy" 7:15/mi? 7:30/mi? 8:00/mi? or even slower? I guess I'll just have to listen to what my body is telling me at the time.

Today was the Hobble Creek 1/2 marathon. I don't know official results yet, but according to my watch my time was 1:32:40. I'm very satisfied with that time, especially since I wasn't sure if I would be able to run at all because of my calf strain injury. I wore the calf sleeve and my calf didn't bother me during the race. It was a little tight after the race, but feels pretty good.

I felt really good the first half of the race. I started feeling tired about halfway. I stopped to relieve my bladder and took an eGel and felt quite a bit better. I probably went out a little too fast, but I feel pretty good about the way I held on the 2nd half even though at times I felt very tired. I would just focus on my form and try to shorten my stride slightly and increase my turnover rate.

Here are my splits (I missed a few):

Miles 1-2: 13:24 (6:42/mi avg.)

Mile 3: 6:29

Mile 4: 6:08

Mile 5: 7:09

Mile 6: 6:44

Halfway: 44:34 (6:48/mi avg)

Mile 7-8: 13:56 (6:58/mi avg)

Mile 9-10: 15:00 (7:30/mi avg)

Mile 11-12: 14:44 (7:22/mi avg)

to 12.1: 0:58

Last mile: 7:21

1st half: 44:34 (6:48/mi avg)

2nd half: 48:06 (7:21/mi avg)

Overall: 1:32:40 (7:04/mi avg)

According to Sasha's Utah Race Time Predictor I should be able to run about a 3:30 at Top of Utah, or 3:24 at St. George.

I was hoping for a little faster, but that still puts me ahead of last year.

I was planning to run this morning, but when I got up my left calf was very stiff and sore. I tried to loosen it up a little, but finally decided to wait and see how I felt at noon and maybe do a few miles on the treadmill in the fitness center at work. I tried a little jogging in the hallway around noon. It was a tough call, but there was enough pain that I decided to hold off one more day.

I went out to run at the normal 5:45am this morning and found I was alone. I ran the first part of Monday's run and the last part of Tuesday's run for a total of 4 miles.

I wore the compression sleeve on my left calf. I've been gently massaging my calf multiple times a day and it's feeling better, but it is still sore.

It felt good to run this morning. I averaged about 8:00/mi for the 3.25 level miles and took the hill quite a bit slower.

I ran the hills with Larry this morning. We didn't push real hard but maintained a good pace. My calf (in sleeve) felt okay, but it is still sore enough that I'm reluctant to push it very hard. I really enjoyed the run. On the last stretch toward home I was once again in my "happy place"...running strong on a beautiful morning in good company.

I had to take my wife to the airport in the morning so I couldn't run. I was hoping to get in a few miles in the evening, but with chores and playing Mr. Mom it didn't work out. I'm treating this as sort of a recovery week anyway. Maybe the day off will help my sore calf.