dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

So, I am so very far behind in my blogging, as I have not had computer access for a while as my computer broke, and I never was able to blog when at school, or on vacation until now.  Anyhow, I will get caught up with everything as soon as possible, but until then I will start with the beginning of this year.

I found out about this race on the 29th of December, and I saw that there had been good competition the previous year (Iain Hunter was third and got beat by 1:25 by the winner), and the race was close by in an area I was familiar with.  So, I figured I would try to get a comp into the race.  I called up the race director, and he agreed to give me half price on the entry.  Normally I wouldn't run a race unless I got a full comp, but I felt like I needed to get in a race, so I agreed to the half price deal.

I ran from the in-laws house to the race (about 6 miles) and then warmed up a little more after I got there.  Temps were a little colder than I am used to but not bad, however it was raining, and it was a little windy, so the ground was very wet and there were puddles scattered throughout the race course along with wet leaves and mud on occasion.  The race started, and I shot out to the front.  The competition I was hoping for did not show up, and I was all alone for the entire race.  My closest competition was a woman who finished 1:56 behind me (very impressive time for a woman, but I was alone nonetheless).

The race starts on the track at Los Gatos High School, and then runs uphill for the majority of the first half on a fairly wide dirt/gravel trail (there is some pavement near the turn-around).  There are  two monster uphills in the first half that are so steep I would not be surprised if I was only hitting 7:00 pace going up them (I really have no idea how fast or slow I was going on these hills, but nothing would surprise me).  The second of the two big hills is paved, but it is long and ends at the turn-around on top of the dam a little past the halfway point of the race.  After the turn-around you run back downhill, and it is so steep that your biggest concern becomes not hurting yourself, and you end up braking more than running down the hill (honestly these hills were that steep.  Running down them hurt).  At the end of the race you come back onto the track and run an additional 350m to the finish

From the beginning of the race I tried to hit a pace that was hard but comfortable as I was running alone, and I made it to the mile mark in 5:07, with the first 650m on the track, followed by pavement and then the trail, with rolling on the pavement, and a slight uphill on the trail.  There were no mile markers after the first, but there are markers every half mile on the trail, and I caught one split before I hit the first big uphill (2:44 all of it unpaved and slightly uphill).  I didn't catch any more splits the rest of the way because the turn-around is past the halfway mark, so I had nothing to base time on, and I failed to catch the markers on the trail on the way back down.  I accidentally ran past the turn-around because there was nothing marking it, and the guy that was manning the aid station didn't tell me anything until after I had passed the turn and had slowed down trying to figure out where it was supposed to be.  Just after running down the first big hill I also stepped on a decent sized rock, and it got stuck in the heel of my shoe.  I slowed down trying to get it out, and I eventually stopped to try and pry it out.  However, the rock was stuck pretty good, so I started running again and I left it in my shoe (it kind of hurt because it was digging into my heel through the bottom of my shoe, but otherwise it wasn't too bad).  I didn't really push the pace much during the second half of the race, due to the downhill, the rain, wind, mud, the rock in my shoe, and not having much motivation as nobody was close to me, but I still made an attempt to push the pace the last mile or so.  I came in to finish in 26:35, with the first place woman finishing in 28:31.  The second place man was maybe 30 seconds to a minute behind her.

I was pleased with the time given the conditions, as last year in good weather, with good competition the winner only ran 30 seconds faster.  I figure that that the missed turn and the rock in my shoe cost me about 10 seconds.  The wind cost me maybe 5-10 seconds, and the rain probably cost me about 30 seconds more.  If I would have had competition I may have been able to chop another 10-20 seconds off of my time.  Overall, I am pleased, and I feel like things are getting on track to make for a good 2011.

 After the race I was talking to the women's winner, who recently moved to the bay area, and who runs for one of the local track clubs.  She wants to try and get an OTQ next year, and is trying to decide between either Boston, or Country Music/Grandma's etc.  In her opinion Boston is about 3 minutes slower than the other courses (for an elite woman) simply because at Boston the women have their own start, whereas at the other races the men and women run together.  I have always assumed that women have an advantage by being able to run with men, but I had never heard anyone put a number on it, so I would be interested in hearing what others think.

The race on Saturday had so much downhill during the second half that it really hashed my legs up and even though I am not really sore now I decided to take it easy today and I only ran 10 miles as opposed to the 12 miles I have done for most easy runs here in CA.

I ran easy again today.  My right calf is still feeling tight.  This is probably partially due to the race on Saturday, and partially from other things (running too fast on easy runs, not massaging when I knew I needed to, etc).  12 miles total.  I did run a half mile fast near the end of the run just to shake my legs out a bit (2:29 split).

The plan was to run 12-14 miles today, but my calf started bothering me a lot more during my run today, so I cut it down to 10 miles.  I stopped about 4.5 miles into the run and massaged my calf out for a little while and that helped.  No more pain for the rest of the run after the massage.

I found a good sized knot in the muscle just above the insertion point of the calf on the tibia.  It is the same problem that led to a stress fracture just before the St. George Marathon in 2007 except on the opposite leg.  It has almost always been the left leg that has caused me problems in the past, but ever since I switched to more of a forefoot strike I have had more problems with the right leg.

I shortened up my run again today because of my calf.  It honestly wasn't any worse than yesterday, but I started to feel pain a little earlier in the run, and I had been massaging the calf yesterday evening, which may have actually caused more discomfort (when I really massage deep and hard I often am sore for a day or so afterwards).  Anyhow, I cut the run to 7 miles just to be on the safe side.

My leg was feeling a little bit better today, so I ran 10 miles again.  There is still some point tenderness near the bone, but not enough to cause discomfort while running.  I finished 10 miles in 1:14:53, which is a lot faster than I had been running the last couple of days (I had been averaging no faster than 8:00 pace the last 2 days) but it was still slow enough for me to feel comfortable and relaxed.

The original plan was to run after we got home from CA as I wanted to give my leg a little bit more of a rest before another run.  However, one thing led to another and we didn't get home until 11:45pm so I didn't run.  It doesn't concern me much because my calf will probably appreciate the rest.

Easy run today.  My leg felt much better than last week after taking two days off, but there was still just a little bit of point tenderness near the bone as the calf is still not completely knot free.

Just ran easy today, along the Pittman wash trail.

Just five miles today.  I could have run more, but I am taking this week (as well as last week) easy in order to get over the calf issues I was having.

Easy run today.  Calf feeling just a little bit tight before the run, but I massaged it, and during the run it felt fine.  I tested out running with long socks on, as the extra support on the calf seems to help (not sure if this is reality, but it seems to help).  Later on in the run I ran 1 mile hard in the low 5:00 range to test out the calf, and also to practice running relaxed, as I think that part of why my calf muscles tend to lock up on me is because I am too tense when I run.  If I can run relaxed I think that long term I will have less issues in the lower leg.

I am starting to feel a lot better now, so I ran today's run a lot faster than my other runs I have done lately.  For the most part I have been hitting about 7:30 pace during my runs, but today I averaged just a shade under 7:00 pace for 10 miles.  I also threw in a few 15-20 second sprints to test out my calf.

As I am still testing out my calf to see if it will be fine I didn't want to run a full long run of 20 miles today, but I wanted to run more than 10 miles, and I compromised running 15.  I ran out to Sunset Park and ran my second tempo run there (the first being in December) running two loops on the 2.7 mile trail that goes around a portion of the park.  As the trail loops around almost continually the effect of the ever-present wind is lessened and at times I even got a tail wind!  However, the wind still ends up slowing you down and it is impossible to know for sure how much it affects you.  Even minus the wind this trail is not fast due to the constant twists and turns, but it is fairly flat so it is the best location for me to do tempo runs that I can think of.  Anyhow, I ran 4 miles to the park, plus about 1.6 miles extra before starting my tempo run.  I wanted to start off hard to test how my calf would hold up running something a little more dynamic, and also to see how well I would be able to maintain the effort when starting off by running hard.  I was pleased with the results of the tempo as my calf held up pretty well (a few twinges near the beginning but otherwise fine) and after starting off faster than I could maintain for 5 miles I was still able to rally and run the second loop faster than the first (14:08, 14:05) to finish with a total time of 28:13 for 5.4 miles (5:13 average).  I ran home after finishing to finish up the 15 miles.

Today I made a point to keep the effort easy when it was supposed to be easy.  I ran 10 miles on the Pittman wash.  I ran a "fat" mile just after the turn-around in 5:26, and then a half mile later on in 2:33 (big downhill on this one, probably worth about 5-7 seconds).  I finished the run in 1:14:42.

10 miles easy in about 1:17.  I did run a few strides during the second half of the run.

I ran to school this morning.  On the way I ran approximate 2 mile, then 1 mile intervals.  I use the streets to measure out the mileage, and while I don't know if any of the intervals are the exact distance I want, I know that they are close.  I also know that the individual "miles" in the 2 mile interval are the same distance.  The same can not be said for the 1 mile interval.  While I know that the distance is very close to 1 mile I am not sure how close the distance is to the other 2 miles, as the street distances get messed up in that part of town.

Anyhow, I ran the 2 mile interval in 10:53 (5:39, 5:14) with a solid head wind the first mile, followed by a cross/tail wind the second mile after I turned North onto Eastern Ave.  The result was a very slow first mile, and a second mile that was aided ever so slightly, as the effort during the 2 miles probably would have given me something like a 5:22, 5:18 split without wind.  I ran the last fast mile after a 1 mile rest somewhere in the 5:24-5:28 range (I was unsure about my ending point so I took my split at two different spots).  This mile also had a headwind that was similar to the headwind I had earlier on, but I was pushing harder.  I finished 8.8 miles in 1:00:26.

PM:  I ran part of the way home, about 5.2 miles total and Kimia picked me up.  I also ran a couple of strides just before getting picked up.

I just took it nice and easy today.  8.6 miles on the way to school in 1:05:06.

Another easy run today.  I ran with Anita in the running stroller this morning so the pace was even slower than it otherwise would have been.  I did throw in some strides averaging 15-16 seconds each (7 total) which were spread throughout the run, but mostly occurring during the first half of the run.  Total time of 1:19:43 for 10 miles.

Kimia and I drove up from Las Vegas for the St. George Half on Friday evening for the race this morning.  Temperatures were a little colder than I am used to (I know, I am a wuss now that I live in Vegas) so I came prepared this time (unlike with the Indy Monumental in Nov when I only had shorts in 27 degree weather).  I copied Paul to an extent and went with some compression shorts and long socks that cover my calves.  I got in about 3 miles before the race started and also did a couple strides just before the start, in addition to taking off the long shirt, coat, and pants that I was wearing.

The gun went off and I immediately shot off to the front.  I was unexpectedly alone for the first few meters, but I knew that others would be in the mix, so I backed off and waited for Paul to catch up.  He did, as well as Fritz and the three of us went through the first 2 miles in a fairly leisurely pace (5:29, 5:27).  We were actually chatting quite a bit at the beginning, but we started to get more serious past the two mile mark.  We hit mile three in 5:14 despite a decent hill near the end of it, followed by a 5:01.  Fritz fell off the pace near the beginning of the fourth mile, and it was just Paul and I after that.  We hit the fifth mile in 5:11, followed by a 5:13 for mile 6 (total time of 31:35).  

The seventh mile was a 5:20, and I am honestly not sure why we slowed down, but we hit mile 8 together in 5:01 (41:56).  I started to struggle during mile 9, and Paul pulled ahead of me.  He had about 1 second on me at the 9 mile mark (5:17 split), but we made a couple of turns shortly thereafter and I caught back up before we had even made it 150m past the 9 mile mark.  However, this was to be short lived as I started to get a cramp in my side, and Paul feeling good, put in a strong surge and dropped me pretty quick.  I worked through the cramp and was feeling better by the time that I hit the 10 mile mark (5:09 split, 52:22 total) and I started to focus on keeping Paul close.  

During the 11th mile I figured that Paul was about 15 seconds ahead of me, and things didn't look any different when I hit that mark with a split of 5:12.  However, just past the 11 mile mark we went up a steep but short hill and I lost sight of Paul.  I decided to use the hill as a chance to make up some room and I pushed hard up the hill.  The reason I couldn't see Paul is because the course looped back on itself near the end, and as Paul and I were getting to the end of the race there were other people who were only 6 or 7 miles into the race that we now had to pass.  There were so many people that I was constantly yelling at people to warn them, and swerving all over the trail.  On occasion I would bump people or leave the trail entirely in order to get past them.  The last 3 miles of this race were really a mess.  Anyhow, after I got to the top of the hill I still could not see Paul, but I heard another runner mention that the race was going to be pretty close.  It was only a few seconds later that I caught sight of Paul again and realized that my surge up the hill had worked and I had closed close to half of the distance between us.  I decided to use a downhill section on the course to attempt the same thing shortly thereafter and I closed the gap even more.  I continued to push in order to close the gap, and by the 12 mile marker I was maybe 1 or 2 seconds back (5:16 split, 1:02:50 total).

This split was the last that I caught before the race got even weirder.  I passed Paul just after crossing a bridge and he immediately surged to take back the lead.  We were then weaving in and out of people trying to stay in front of one another, and we missed the final turn we were supposed to take to finish the race.  There were supposed to be people manning the turn, but they didn't direct us to take the turn, and there were spectators standing in the way as well, further muddling the picture.  Somehow Paul heard a guy mention that we had passed the turn, and once we realized that we had gone past the turn we both turned around and went back towards the finish.

This was a real momentum killer for me after I had spent so much time catching back up to Paul.  I was slower turning around then he was, and I was a step behind from here to the finish.  Once we made the correct turn Paul really started to push, and I made no move to cover.  I am really mad at myself for not taking more of a shot at winning this at the end.  When Paul made his move I thought to myself that I would wait just a little longer and then really kick hard on the homestretch to try and win, but I was already a couple seconds behind before we even got to the homestretch and at this point I just didn't have anything left in me to try and catch Paul again and I ended up finishing 3 seconds back.  It is possible that Paul still would have out kicked me even if I would have tried to cover his move, but I wish that I would have tried.  On a more positive note, I am very pleased that I was able to keep pushing and catch back up to Paul after he dropped me earlier on in the race.  I really am pleased that I was able to catch back up, as mentally getting dropped can leave you demoralized and it is easy to give up and is hard to make up ground on a runner (especially when you have to dodge around a trail full of people).

Overall I think this was a good race.  I feel really positive about how things went.  I figure that I would have finished in about 1:08:20 if it weren't for the missed turn, which is a very good time, and I feel good about how I competed (with the exception being the last few hundred meters). 

Just an easy run this morning.  There is still some lingering soreness/muscle fatigue in my calves that hasn't gone away yet.  During the run I actually felt pretty good, but on occasion my calves would remind me that I ran a race on Saturday.  Total time of 1:14:06 for 10 miles.

I have also been thinking a bit more about my race from Saturday.  I actually felt very positively about the whole experience despite being mad at myself about how I finished the last quarter or so which didn't allow me the chance to pull out a win.  After some thought I think the real reason why I feel so good about things is because this is the first time since I switched to a forefoot strike while running that I feel I have been able to run a complete effort in a race longer than a 10k.  I ran very well at the Provo City Half last year, but I was only able to make it through 7 miles before I started slowing (despite having a mild tailwind from about 7.5 to 12 miles).  At the Utah Valley Half I made it through about 5.5 miles before I started to struggle.  However, on Saturday I was able to maintain pace without feeling like I was starting to fade throughout the entire race.  This may have been aided by the slow start, but it still reflects 11+ miles of hard, fast running without fading.

Easy run on the way to school this morning.  Total time of 1:03:10 for 8.6 miles.  The last bit of lingering fatigue/soreness in my calves is finally going away.  I may do some strides on the way home.

PM:  I ran a little bit at school on the anti-gravity treadmill as a demonstration for some people interested in a partnership with our lab at UNLV, and then I ran 5.8 miles on the way home before I met Kimia, who had been grocery shopping and who picked me up after finishing.  I did run 6 sprints on the way home averaging about 11 seconds for each one.

I ran to school today, and after getting to school I ran a hard 400 to get a feel for what type of effort it would take to run one in the low 60's after running for almost 9 miles.  I started off pretty hard, and I hit the 200 mark in 29-30 seconds.  I then let up a bit the last 200, slowing a lot just before the line, and I finished with a 61.  So, I was right about where I wanted to be, and the effort did not feel too hard.  I actually considered taking it to 600 near the end, but decided against it.  I then ran a slow lap on the track and then ran to the lab to finish the run.  I will call the total distance 9.7 miles.  Time was probably in the 1:12-1:13 range.

PM: I ran home from school.  8.6 miles in 57:11.  I ran a 4.2 mile tempo on the way home in 23:38 (5:37 average).  Considering the effort the tempo was really slow.  I ran the last mile of the tempo in what felt like a 5:15 effort and I ran that mile in 5:30.  There was a little wind, but it was honestly negligible as far as time was concerned.  Maybe 5-10 seconds total for the entire tempo.  I was confused enough about the slow time that I even plugged the course I ran for the tempo into the course tool, and the distance came out exactly as long as I thought it was.  I think that I was just tired after being at school all day, plus running a hard 400 this morning (even though it was just 1 x 400) in addition to running strides on the way home from school yesterday.  It was all little stuff, but it adds up.

I felt pretty tired today, but surprisingly no so bad while I was running.  I ran to school, 8.6 miles in 1:00:54.  My calf was feeling tight before I started, but after I had been running a mile or so it loosened up and felt fine.

I ran 10 miles this morning.  I was still feeling a little tired when I first got up this morning, so instead of taking Anita in the running stroller, I waited for Kimia to get home from her walk and I ran alone.  I wasn't trying to go fast at all, but I ended up finishing the run in 1:11:50ish.

Today's run was a little odd in terms of it being a long run, but I think I got a decent workout in so I am not upset at all.  This past week had me pretty tired by the end of it, and despite going to bed on time I stayed in bed later than normal and I got up at 8:00 this morning.  Because of that I had less time to run before Kimia went to a stake women's conference.  So, I ran 8.25 miles with the plan to finish that and then take Anita in the running stroller for the remainder of the run.  I ran 8.25 miles in 48:55 (5:55 average), running 5.75 miles as a tempo in 31:35 (approximately) running half of the tempo on a rolling uphill, and then the second half on a rolling downhill.  During the downhill section I started chasing a guy on a bike.  I would gain on him every time the grade was flat or uphill, but then he would gain on me when it was downhill.  I split a half mile in 2:27 while chasing him, and in the next half mile he turned off of the trail, so my fun ended.

After I got home to pick up Anita I got a bad cramp in my right calf.  I think it is because my calf has still not recovered fully from either the issues it was having at the beginning of the month, or the half marathon last Saturday.  I think running hard downhill is really what did me in, I need to remember not to do that any more.  Anyhow, I decided to massage it out before finishing the run with Anita, and while I was doing that Anita fell asleep.  So, I ended up letting Anita sleep, and I waited for Kimia to get home from the women's conference before I finished the run.

My calf was still sore and hurt some when I left again (even though I had been at home for about 3.5 hours) so I decided against running a full 20 today.  I ended up running out 4 miles and coming back, adding a detour to the track near the end.  I ran another half mile or so fast while running uphill on the way out.  I didn't measure or time it, but I got going pretty quick.  At the end of the run I wanted to see what kind of quarter speed I had left after 16+ miles, so I ran a quarter on the track finishing in 1:04.  There was some wind on the track, but not enough to slow me down by more than a second or so (I couldn't feel the tail wind when I had it, so the head wind must have not been too strong either).  I finished what I will call 8.85 miles in 1:02:38 (1:51:33 total for 17.1 miles).

My calf is still bugging me as I write this.  It doesn't feel like I hurt it at all, it just feels like it is sore after a hard race or workout.  I probably should have taken it easier than I did during the middle of last week since I had run a half the previous Saturday.  Hopefully the slightly easier than normal Saturday run and Sunday off will let it recover so that I can keep up with my training next week. 

I took it really easy today.  My calf was feeling just a little weird, but was fine otherwise.  I averaged just under 8:00 pace for the first 5 miles when I was running mostly uphill, and then came back a fair amount faster while running downhill.  Total time of 1:15:50 for 10 miles.