dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Ran pretty easy this morning on the way to school.  1:06:02 for 8.6 miles.  Surprisingly there was very little wind for the first 7 miles or so of the run, and the wind after that was only moderately bad.  I am not looking forward to the evening run however, as there is a wind advisory warning and gusts are supposed to get up to 60mph+ in some areas.  Hopefully it is a tail wind, I would actually enjoy that.

Ok, the wind was a disappointment.  Here I was anticipating wind, and dreading it, but secretly kind of excited to be able to battle 60mph winds on the way home... and I ended up getting wind that was no stronger than on average, and at times even weaker than normal.  So much for that wind advisory warning.  Anyhow, I ran 5.5 miles in the evening in 43:11.

Sasha and his family are passing through town, so they stayed with us last night and I ran with Sasha this morning.  It is the first time in a while that I have run with someone else.  I ran to school, and Sasha went with me and then turned around after 5 miles, and I continued on the rest of the way to school alone.  We kept the pace fairly easy.  Total time of 1:04:33 for 8.6 miles.

PM:  I ran home from school today with a total time of 55:11.  I ran what I will call a 5 mile tempo on the way back in 28:11.  I was not too pleased with the time for the tempo.  I am not sure what it is, but in the evenings I have issues going much faster than 5:40 when I am on the way home from school.  I started the tempo at sub 5:20 pace for the first mile, and then turned onto Eastern Ave, where I was hit with strong but sporadic gusts of wind for the last 4 miles.  When there was wind I can understand slowing a little bit (especially owing to the fact that I was wearing a coat and it acts like a sail when the wind hits it), but I wasn't going any faster even when there was no wind.  I can't even pull out the fatigue card this time and say I was tired, as I felt fine before the tempo and I hadn't run anything hard since last Saturday.  Anyhow, there is something that maybe I am just not seeing that makes this stretch of road super slow.  I will hopefully figure it out someday.

I ran to school again this morning.  I kept the pace easy, and made it to school in 1:03:03 for 8.6 miles.

PM:  I ran most of the way home from school, and Kimia picked me up on the way home, as she was already out in my direction.  I kept the pace pretty easy, but did hit a couple miles in the low 7:00 range.

Just another easy run this morning.  I finished 10 miles in 1:14:xx.  I felt fine, and I am looking forward to a hard workout tomorrow.  I have kept this week pretty light as far as speed work is concerned, so I am excited for a workout that is actually fast.

I know this is long, but the end is interesting, so skip to the end if you don't want to read it all. 

Long run this morning.  I ran out to Sunset Park, with the goal of running a 10.8 mile tempo at close to marathon goal pace.  This meant that I would be running four loops of the park, with a goal time per loop of 14:24 (5:20 pace).  This is more challenging than it would seem, because this park twists and turns all over the place, and there is always the possibility of wind, which can really hurt you if it is strong (but it is a loop, so you get tailwind too).

I got to the park, and the wind was really bad.  I was hoping that it would let up during the tempo, but no luck there.  I realized how lucky I have been the last two times I have run tempo runs here as the wind those days was nothing compared to today (I think I was even complaining about the wind a little then, whereas now I realize I was just being a wuss).  I also realized how much the wind can help you when it is at your back, as at times you don't really notice a tailwind when you have one and it feels like you are fighting the wind all the time, when in reality the wind is helping you almost as much as it is hurting you.

I started the tempo 5.2 miles into my run (37:44 for the warm-up) and things were immediately hard as I was starting heading into the wind.  When I got a tail wind I felt like I was really cruising along, but I mostly had a headwind for the first half of the loop.  I got more tail wind in the second half of the loop, but still some headwind and I came around in 15:00 (ouch, 36 seconds off goal pace, 5:33 average).  I pushed harder during the windy sections on the second loop and I was able to speed up a bit (14:42, 5:26 pace).  I realized in part how strong the wind was on the second loop when I passed a lady on roller blades who was standing with her arms stretched out, who was letting the wind push her.  At the beginning of the third loop I decided to only run 3 loops instead of 4, so I pushed this loop a little harder.  I hit some of the worst stretches of wind during this loop, but I still finished a few seconds faster in 14:39 (5:25 pace).  Total of 44:21 for the tempo (5:28 average), which was 14 seconds faster than the last time I ran an 8.1 mile tempo here, although I was working a lot harder this time.

I decided that since I had cut my tempo short I was going to finish at the track by my house, by running a couple hard 400's just to see what I could push out of my legs after almost 20 miles.  My legs felt like dead weights the entire way home from Sunset Park.  I felt dead.  On the bright side, the wind stopped almost completely by the time I got to the track, so I had a little luck on my side here.  Once I got to the track and was about to start my first 400 (18 miles into my run) I said out loud to myself, "With how I'm feeling now, I'll be happy if I just break 70."  I ran the 400 in 69 (splits of 35, 34), and I was pushing it.  I felt almost maxed out, and 69 was all I could do.  Knowing that I had 1 more 400 left it is possible that I could have pushed a 67 out of my legs, but definitely no faster.  However, after I ran the first 400 it seemed like my legs just woke up a bit and they remembered how to run fast.  I took a full recovery (3 laps) and started my last 400 at the 19 mile mark of the run.

Just before I started my last 400 a little boy came to the track with his dad and started running around the track in the outside lanes.  I figured it was not big deal as he was in the outside, and I was in lane 1.  So I started my 400 not thinking much of it, but as I came down the back stretch I realized that the little boy had slowly moved from lane 8 all the way over to lane 2.  Still, I thought it would be ok.  I hit the 200m mark in 31 seconds, and I felt great considering I was over 19 miles into my run.  I had already passed the little boy's dad now, and I was about to pass the boy as well, when he moved into lane one as he looked toward his dad.  He saw me barreling towards him and he freaked out and immediately moved off the track.  "Great" I am thinking to myself, "the kid was smart enough to get out of the way".  So, I make no effort to move or slow down, however in the little boy's scared state he ran back onto the track after running off of it, and as I now had no time to react I crashed straight into him and sent him flying.  I went down to the track as well, and after stopping my watch I jumped up to help the little boy who was already being picked up by his dad, screaming.  I checked to make sure he was ok (a few scrapes, but nothing major) and after that I finished my 400 where I had left off, finishing in 65 seconds.  So, I quite possibly destroyed a little boy's desire to ever run on the track again, and in the process ran a disappointing 400 that I was hoping I could finish in 62 seconds.

I then finished my run by running to my house, and then running for a minute or two around the block to finish up the last little bit of my run mileage wise.  Total time of 2:11:29 for 20 miles. 

No running today, but the skin on my right leg still stings a little from my crash on the track yesterday.  It doesn't feel like there is anything more than superficial damage however, so I am not really concerned, I am just whining because my leg stings.

So, yesterday before I started my tempo run, I saw the missionaries out on their bikes.  They challenged me to a "race" and I jokingly told them that they would loose.  I went through a stop light, and after they caught up again I took off and "raced" them for a bit until they had to turn.  Today at church I saw them again, and they told me that they clocked me at 15mph (4:00 mile pace).  That surprised me because my 800 pr is only 2:07, but I felt like I could have maintained that effort for longer than 800m.

Testimony meeting was, and always is good.  The comfort that I feel from knowing what is in store after this life has been on my mind a lot recently, and that seemed to be a theme of sorts during today's meeting. 

I woke up at 4:40 this morning to run since Kimia had an interview so that she can become a citizen and her interview was at 7:45.  Because I was running so much earlier than normal my body did not want to wake up, and I made it through the first five miles over 1:30 slower than 8:00 pace.  I finally woke up during the second half of the run, and I finished in 1:18:38.

Easy run this morning.  My right leg was hurting some yesterday during the run, so I massaged it out some last night and it felt a little better this morning.  I took it easy just to be safe.  1:05:03 for 8.6 miles.

PM: I ran most of the way home from school before Kimia picked me up.  She had been out on a walk with a friend, so she was in the area.  I kept the pace fairly quick during the run because surprisingly my leg felt better when I was going a tiny bit quicker than normal.  My leg hurt a little more than it did this morning, but was still feeling better than yesterday.  Ran for a total time of 46:04 and what I will call 6.2 miles.

I ran to school this morning and at the beginning of the run my leg was feeling pretty good.  I decided to test it and see how good it was really feeling, so after 3 miles I ran a mile hard in 5:13 to test out the leg.  There was no pain during the hard mile, but right after I finished my calf tightened up and I could feel some pain in my tibia where the calf was pulling.  My leg felt like this off and on for the rest of the run, but in general the pain was minimal.  It felt similar to how my leg felt last night.  1:03:52 for 8.6 miles.

PM:  I ran home from school.  8.6 miles in 1:05:49.  I took it slow so as not to hurt my leg worse.  It didn't feel too bad, as it hurt less than it did this morning (after the fast mile).  My hips may be getting out of alignment again, which may be part of my problem with the leg. 

I ran to school, 8.6 miles in 1:04:29.  I kept the pace easy.  My leg was bothering me a bit, but not in the same place as usual, and it wasn't too bad.

PM: I ran most of the way  home from school, running approximately 6.3 miles in 48:xx.  My leg didn't feel too bad, just a dull ache in the tibia. 

As I have not really had the chance to run hard this week, I wanted the chance to run hard and fast while still giving my leg a break.  So, I decided to run on the alter-g treadmill in the lab at school.  I ran 10 miles in 50:57, starting at 7:30 pace, moving up to 6:00 pace, and then holding steady at 5:00 pace from the 3-4 minute mark of the run until I had been running for 9 miles.  I started off setting my weight at 50% of normal, and I steadily moved it up until I was at 70% of my body weight 8 miles into the run (went from 50 to 55,60,65,and then 70%).  At the 9 mile mark of the run I started cranking up the speed on the treadmill until I got around 13 mph.  At 9.7 miles I started to bring my body weight back to normal despite running near pr pace for the mile.  I brought my body weight up 1% for each .01 mile I ran from 9.7-9.9 miles.  At this point it was getting too hard to run and change my body weight so I just left my weight at 90% for the last .1 mile.  I finished the last mile in 4:42.

I decided that this week I would run an "easy" 20 miler, meaning that I would not hammer out a long tempo run at a fast pace.  I still wanted to get the run done however, so I was not about to take my time to run 20 miles.  I made it through the first 5 miles in 35:56.  I passed 2 sets of missionaries during these miles.  The second set of missionaries was going the same direction as me, and they were on bikes.  They were surprised to see a guy pass them while on foot.  I made it through the next 5 miles in 34:28.  I suspect that this 5 mile section may have been a little long.  Total time of 1:10:24 at the turn around.  The next 5 mile section took me 32:50 (1:43:14 for 15 miles).  I timed myself over a two mile stretch that was measured on the road during these miles in 12:26.  That is part of why I think that this 5 mile stretch may be long, but I can't be sure unless I measure it.  I passed a third set of missionaries during this section of the run.  I am not sure if seeing all of these missionaries was a good thing or not.  On the one hand I know that they were out working, which is good, however seeing them out also means that they were not inside teaching anyone, which is not so good.  On the bright side, at least I know that they were out trying to find people to teach!  I finished up running the last 5 mile section in 28:25 to finish 20 miles with a total time of 2:11:39.  The last 5 miles was downhill, so I really was not pushing it that hard, but I was happy to go under 30:00 by as much as I did.

No running today.  I have some sort of stomach bug, and I didn't feel so good this morning.  I felt better by the afternoon and I wanted to run a few miles just to get my legs moving, but I just didn't have time.  I was super antsy by the end of the day.

I ran to school this morning pushing the running stroller with Anita, because Kimia had a doctor's appointment to get her thyroid checked.  It ends up that when she got to the appointment they decided to do an ultrasound instead and she found out the gender of the new baby without me being there.  So, we are having a boy this time around.  I am excited, although I am just a little bit disappointed that I didn't get to be there.

I ran to school with the stroller in 1:05:03.  I didn't really push the pace at all, and luckily the wind wasn't too bad.  After I got to school I also ran from the lab to the institute class that I take on Tuesday mornings so that I wouldn't be late.  I will give myself another half mile for that (although I know it was a bit farther I don't have it measured).

PM:  I ran home from school in 1:04:50.  I ran a few strides on the way home.

I ran to school this morning, and I ran 3 x 1 mile repeats on the way to school with about 1 mile recovery in between repeats.  The first repeat was run into a headwind and I finished in 5:25.  The second repeat felt like there was very little wind (so I probably had a tailwind) and I finished it in 5:05.  The third repeat had headwind again, but not as strong as during the first mile, and I finished in 5:19.  I didn't feel as smooth or relaxed on the third repeat as I did on the first two.

I was massaging my leg again this morning, and I noticed that the point tenderness on the bone is gone now.  There is still a nagging ache in my leg at times when I am running, but the pain is not there when I press on the bone, which is positive.

PM:  I ran home from school.  8.6 miles in 55:58.  There was a really strong wind out this evening.  On the plus side, the wind was at my back for 5+ miles of the run.  On the negative side, the wind was in my face for about 3.5 miles.  I was in kind of a competitive mood, so I decided to show the wind who was boss, and I pushed the pace faster than I should have during the really windy sections.  When the wind was at my back I was still putting in about a 7:00 effort (although with the wind and downhill I was averaging in the 6:20's the last 4 miles).  I was really pretty tired in the evening, so I went to bed earlier than normal.

My leg was bugging me this morning.  I think that I pushed it too hard on my runs yesterday, as I ran mile repeats in the morning, and I didn't allow myself to recover in the evening by running too hard against the wind.  Mainly I think that I was just tired, but as a result my leg hurt.  Total time of 1:14:48 for 10 miles.

I realized yesterday afternoon that part of the reason I was feeling like I hadn't recovered properly from Wednesday's runs was because I was actually still sick.  I guess that I had held off whatever bug it was well enough to log a good number of miles on Tue and Wed, but by Thurs it started to catch up with me.  Because of this I scratched the evening run (5 miles) I had planned on doing.  I went to bed early again last night (8:30pm) and I slept in until 7:30am this morning.  I did get up for about a half hour during the night because Anita was screaming (had a rash that her wet diaper didn't agree with) but otherwise I slept pretty well.

When I started my run this morning I was feeling a lot better than I was yesterday, and I cruised through the first few miles a lot faster than yesterday.  However, after about 4.5 miles or so I started to feel like I had no energy and I slogged through the last part of my run pretty slowly to finish 10 miles with a total time of 1:16:05.  So, obviously I am still a little sick, but at least I got a run in.

Long run today.  As I have not been feeling well, I decided to just run and figure out how far I would go once I had been out for a little while.  I figured that I would run a minimum of 15 miles even if I wasn't feeling good, and possibly as many as 20 if I felt great.  I ran out to sunset park, and decided to run a loop of the park hard just to make sure that I would still get a little speed work in even if I started feeling bad.  The wind was pretty strong again (similar to Wednesday, but maybe a little bit weaker).  The wind was significantly stronger than the last time I ran a tempo run here, but for some reason I think that the net effect on me was less as the wind was blowing in a different direction and it slowed me down less in relation to how much it helped me.  Anyhow, I ran the 2.7 mile loop in 14:10 (just under 5:15 average), which made me happy as I was just shooting for a 14:24 (5:20 average).  I then ran two more loops of the park easy.  I started to feel like I was still kind of sick around 10 miles into the run so I decided to run home after the second of the two easy loops around the park.  I still wanted to run some more mileage fast before finishing, so I ran three miles hard followed by one last mile easy.  The wind was against me for only 1:05 of the last 3 miles, followed by a strong tailwind for the rest of it.  I finished the 3 miles in 15:02 with a mile split of 4:55 in the middle of it.  Even though I wasn't feeling 100% prior to the tempo, the wind (plus a mild downhill) really helped.  I made it home to finish 17.3 miles in 1:51:38.

Easy run today.  My legs took most of the run just to feel like they were awake.  I did a few strides during the run just to try and wake myself up a bit.  Total time of 1:15:57 for 10 miles.

I didn't run to school today because of the holiday yesterday (I had no food or clothes there so I couldn't run).  Instead, I drove to school and then ran there.  I ran about 4.5 miles as a warm up, and then went over to the track.  I got lucky today, as there was only minimal wind (it helps that the track is built to minimize the wind).  I ran intervals of 2400, 1600, and 800m with 800 recovery between intervals.  I kept the first interval fairly relaxed and finished it in 7:52, recovery was about 3:40, followed by the 1600 in 5:04.  Again, recovery was about 3:40, but I stopped to fix my shoelaces so it was really more like 4:30ish.  I ran the last interval all out in 2:12 with 200 splits of 31, 33, 34, 34.  I was fairly pleased with the 800, but I was hoping to break 2:10.  I do realize that I had just run two and a half miles of intervals and I kept the recovery brisk, so I guess I really can't expect too much (especially seeing that I only have an 800 pr of 2:07).  After finishing the intervals I ran one last mile on the track before running back to the lab where I work to finish up 10 miles for the day.

PM:  I didn't get enough sleep last night, and this mornings workout took more out of me than I thought it would, so I scrapped the run I had planned for the evening. 

I ran over to the track with Anita this morning, as Kimia had gone over there to do a little exercise of her own, and I ran a tiny bit more at the track.  After that, I walked home with Kimia, and then ran to school.  I ran to school faster than I normally do, as I was feeling pretty fluid and smooth as I ran this morning, so it was comfortable to run a little faster.  I finished the 8.6 mile run to school in 1:01:03.

PM:  I ran home from school.  I felt pretty good, and I cruised through the run fairly quickly.  8.6 miles in 1:00:32.  I got home just in time to listen over the phone as my brother opened up his mission call.  He will be going to Argentina on July, 6th.

I ran to school again this morning.  8.6 miles in 1:02:53.  I kept the pace easy, but I plan on doing some speed work on the way home.  Either 2 x 3 miles or a single 6 mile tempo.  Hopefully the wind doesn't pick up this evening.  The wind has been pretty mild this week, so I hope it stays that way this evening as well.

PM:  I ran home from school.  I decided to run 2 x 3 miles hard on the way home because it was windy, and I was hoping for better wind if I had a break before starting the second three miles (ended up being true).  First 3 miles in 16:16 with a mild headwind for the first mile, and then a stronger wind for the last 2 miles (not terrible wind, but still not easy).  Second 3 miles in 16:03.  The second 3 mile section was the same section I ran 3 miles hard at on Saturday.  I had a stronger wind for the first 1:05 (again, same as Saturday) and then had a lighter headwind for the rest of it.  I could have run the second 3 miles faster, but I didn't push the first mile very hard because my legs were feeling tired, but I sped up the last 2 miles.  Total time for 8.6 miles was 51:51.

I ran 10 miles this morning in 1:18:26.  Strong winds and uphill on the way out, so I only made it to my halfway mark in 41:21, but with downhill and the wind at my back I finished the second half in 37:05.  My legs were feeling pretty tired after yesterday's workout, so I was glad that I was running easy and didn't need to fight against the wind.

I was shooting some high speed video for a project I was doing for class at UNLV, so I ended up running more on the treadmill at school.  I will call it a mile, but I am not exactly sure how far it was (probably longer than a mile) as I was stopping and starting repeatedly.

My long run today put the cap on what for me was a fairly brutal week running wise.  I normally am not accustomed to running a lot of speed work, but on Tuesday I ran an impromptu speed session (2400,1600,800), and I still wanted to run some longer intervals prior to the long run so I ended up running 2 x 3 miles hard on Thursday evening (a workout which left me feeling just a little sore the next morning).  All put together with the long run, and the fact that I ran 66 miles from Wed until Sat, this week wore me out.  I am definitely ready for no running tomorrow.

My original plan was to run a 4 lap tempo at Sunset park (approx. 10.8 miles).  However, the wind was every bit as bad as yesterday, and knowing that I was already feeling tired, I didn't want to have to fight the wind at the park.  Instead, I decided to run 20 miles out and back on the Pittman wash and up St. Rose Parkway like I did 2 weeks ago.  I am fairly certain that it was 10 miles, but I don't have real accurate mile markers along the route, so I will just estimate 5 mile markers for the sake of guessing.

The first 5 miles was mostly uphill with a strong cross wind that slowed me down a fair amount (34:44) followed by 5 miles that was also mostly uphill, but with cross wind (about a mile) tail wind (another mile or so) and headwind (the last 3 miles).  I turned around at 1:10:00 (35:16 second 5 miles) and immediately felt a difference that was night and day from what I had been feeling as I went from having a strong headwind to having a strong tailwind instead.  I started my tempo when I turned around, and based on some marks on the trail I was on it appeared that for the first few miles I was averaging mid 5:20's.  Once I hit the section where I had tailwind on the way out I hit the corresponding headwind on the way back, and it was nasty.  I was just glad that I only had to endure it for a little while (approx. 5:50 on the way back vs. approx. 6:50 for this section on the way out).  After I made it through the section with the headwind I had a really hard time picking the pace back up, as I was dealing with cross winds for what seemed like the majority of the rest of the run.  I hit my 15 mile mark in 1:38:05 (28:05 for 5 miles) and ran the next mile in 5:40 as I fought the cross wind.  I don't feel like I sped up at all over the next 2 miles, and I didn't want to finish the last 5 miles slower than the previous 5 miles.  So, just before my approximate 2 mile mark from my house I started ramping up the effort (extra downhill did help some) and I ran the last "2 mile" stretch in 10:37 to finish my run with a total time of 2:05:43 (27:38 for the last 5 miles).

So, 55:43 for the last 10 miles, with an average of 5:34 per mile.  I am not super happy about the pace per mile for the run, but considering how I was feeling prior to the run I am just happy to get this workout out of the way.  I don't think the pace is really all that important anyhow, as I mainly just wanted to get some work in that was hard enough to give myself a stimulus to help in my marathon prep.

 I ran 10 miles on the Pittman Wash this morning.  I kept the pace easy for the entire run, until during the last mile a city worker passed me driving a tractor and I couldn't resist, so I sped up and ran alongside the tractor for a little over a half mile.  I finished the run in 1:13:0x.