dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 10.1 miles this morning in 1:15:44.  We added two fat miles in the second half of the run in 5:55 and 5:57.

I ran a little extra this morning instead of running a double today or tomorrow.  I ran 11.35 miles in a little over 1:27:30, followed by 2 more miles with Benjamin in 15:28, and finally a mile alone in 6:53 for a total time of 1:49:54 for 14.35 miles.  During the first portion of the run Sasha was running a 3 mile tempo, and I ran the first 2 miles of it in 5:41 and 5:23.  The 5:41 felt like a solid marathon effort as I really wasn't pushing it at all.  The 5:23 also felt very comfortable, but more like a half marathon effort.

I ran with Sasha this morning.  We ran 10.1 miles in 1:14:26 with 2 fat miles thrown into the later miles in 5:58 and 6:03.  It was interesting to observe that my heart rate was lower in relation to Sasha's this morning and when we have run earlier lately it has consistently been lower than normal.  Sasha thinks that it might be a blood volume issue that is brought into play by rising temperatures as the day gets warmer.  I am not sure, but my heart rate was also lower in the earlier morning in Mesa, AZ and it was hot there even in the early morning.

11 miles total in 1:17:40.  We went out 3 miles, and then came back and ran the 5 mile tempo.  The goal was to stay relaxed between 5:40 and 5:45 pace.  Splits are 5:47, 5:43, 5:41, 5:36, 5:15.  So, we were pretty close to goal pace the entire time, with the exception of the last mile, during which I ran the first half in 2:46, followed by 1:18 and 1:11 quarters.  Sasha finished 11 seconds back. 

I ran with Sasha this morning out to the lake and back for a total time of 1:16:14.  We ran 2 fat miles on the way back to the house in around 6:00 or a little under.

I ran with Sasha this morning.  12 miles in 1:29:35.  We threw in 2.5 miles a little faster at about 5:50 pace to get the feel for a nice easy marathon pace.  On a side note, the marathon next Saturday goes along the river trail, and it goes through a number of tunnels.  It looks like 3 of those tunnels are flooded right now.  So, my question now is, do they make us run through the water which might be a foot deep, does the city come to try and fix the problem, or do they bring the course onto the roads over the tunnels and pay for more police to deal with the traffic?  I do not want to run through the water, since the first of the flooded tunnels is maybe 15-16 miles into the race, and 10+ miles with wet shoes does not sound fun.  I do not trust the city to get the tunnels cleaned out by race day, and I don't know if it is financially possible for Hyrum to hire more police support to move out of the tunnels (or if he will be able to re-certify the course, if necessary, or have the time to get the changes approved by the city).  Anyhow, I am interested to see how this all plays out by next Saturday.

10.1 miles in 1:12:44 with 2.5 miles at marathon pace thrown in.

8 miles with Sasha this morning in 1:03:32.  We ran 1 mile hard during the run.  The goal was to hit it in about 5:20 pace as a nice little tune up to the marathon this Saturday.  However, I felt good and the pace felt really easy, so I ended up running a 5:03 (78,76,75,74).  The first quarter actually felt the hardest of the entire mile, and it was probably closer to a 77.5 than a 78.  After the first quarter I felt relaxed and smooth and I felt like I was just coasting through the last three quarters.  It felt kind of like 10k race pace, but I don't know if I really could have held it that long.  HR topped out at 177 or 178 during the last quarter.

On a side note, some of the tunnels that the marathon is going through are still flooded.  I guess Hyrum talked with the city and they said that they would clear out all of them with the exception of the tunnel at Geneva Rd.  It just so happens that this particular tunnel is the worst of them all.  So, Hyrum pumped out the tunnel last night, and about 12 hours later when Sasha and I were running, the tunnel was about ankle deep in water.  The problem is that the water is soaking through the ground on the side of the tunnel away from the river and filling the tunnel back up again.  Maybe if Hyrum pumps the tunnel again right before the race starts, and then sandbags it, it won't fill up by the time the runners go through.  Anyhow, I hope that this all gets worked out.

6.25 miles with Sasha this morning in just over 49:00.  We ran 1 fat mile in 5:48, which felt pretty easy.

I ran an easy 6 miles with Sasha (2 miles with Benjamin) in 47:XX.  Not sure about the exact time because I mishit my watch and it was off. by about 5 minutes.  We ran a fat half mile about 4 miles into the run to simulate marathon pace in 2:54.

2 miles in about 16:30.

The first thing that comes to my mind as I write about my race today is about stepping stones, and to put it in just a few words, that is how I feel about today's performance.  I set a new pr in the marathon of almost 3 minutes (compared to my old pr which I set at St. George 2007 it is really more than a 3 minute improvement) and I ran a virtual negative split (barely slower on the second half, but based on terrain, the quality was much better).  I also came the closest to not blowing up than I have done in any previous marathon (although there was a minor blow-up the last 2-3 miles), and I ran the fastest second half of anyone in the race.  However, that is not good enough.  I still finished out of the money (by only 47 seconds to a guy that was almost 5 minutes up on me at the half).  I wasn't able to maintain a 5:50 pace the last few miles in order to get me in the money and under 2:30:00 (instead finishing with a 6:08 and a 6:29).  And finally, I am still comparitively slower in the marathon than I am in other distances.  So, like I already said, stepping stones.  I know that I am not quite where I want to be, but I feel like I am a lot closer than I was even just a couple of months ago, so I am pleased with the progress.  Anyhow, on to the race.

The plan for the race was to go out with Sasha, and to run a 5:50 effort through the first 16 miles or so.  There was a group of 4 guys that took off after a mile and left us behind, so Sasha, me and Steve Ashbaker were all running together.  We were basing 5:50 effort off of our heart rate, so I was paying more attention to that than I was paying attention to my splits, which is just as well.  I think that when I can zone out and forget to look for mile markers and check my splits that I can actually relax more and I run better.  This is more or less what happened during the first half of the race.  At 5 miles we were at 29:10, and we went through 10 miles in 57:00.  We hit the half in 1:15:03.  My heart rate varied from about 160-171 during most of these miles, with an average of about 166.  My heart rate started to climb a bit after about 11 miles, and from 11-16 it was anywhere from 168-173.  I was probably starting to push the pace a little more because I was getting anxious to pick up the pace and begin the chase.  Sasha and I lost Steve around 11 or 12 miles, and At 16 miles I picked up the pace and dropped Sasha.

I owe a lot to Sasha in this race, because he helped pace me during the early miles, and helped me to not get too excited and take off too soon in chase of the leaders.  I hope that I was able to make those early miles easier for him as well, as he was running his first marathon in his five fingers.  Anyhow, After I dropped Sasha, I picked up the pace a lot and my HR climbed into the high 170's.  I then decided that the pace was too aggressive and I backed off just a little until I hit the 20 mile mark.  Mile splits from 16-20 were 5:30, 5:42, 5:42, 5:40.  At mile 20 I realized that I really needed to work if I wanted to catch 3rd place and finish in the money, so even though I didn't feel like I could maintain the pace for 6 miles, I picked up the pace again and got my HR in the 177-178 range.  I made it from 20-22 in 11:11 (5:35.5 average) and maintained pace pretty well for another mile.  However around 23 I really started to hurt.  I could see 4th place in the distance in front of me, and I could visibly tell that I was gaining on him, but I felt like garbage.  I still made it from 22-24 in decent time, running 11:39 for the 2 miles (5:49.5 average) but I think that the second of the 2 miles was just barely under 6:00, while the first was close to 5:40.  From 24 to the finish things started to unravel.  I ran my next mile in 6:08, and ran the final mile in 6:29.  I was still gaining on 4th place the entire time, despite starting to crash, but I was just not gaining fast enough and I was running out of room.

I was never able to really get into striking distance of the 4th place guy, and he ended up passing the 3rd place runner right before the finish to get himself into the money.  I finished 47 seconds back.  So, I am happy with how I ran, and I am mostly happy with how I finished the race, and to tell the truth I really do not care that I finished out of the money.  I was not planning on getting any money before the race started anyhow, so I wasn't dissapointed that I finished where I was supposed to finish.  As I said before and I will say it again, stepping stones.  I think that the key is to never be content so that complacency never becomes a problem, that way I can someday reach my potential.

6 miles in 49:08

6 miles in 48:02

6 miles in 47:29

feeling just a little better now than I did after the Salt Lake Marathon, so I ran a little extra.  8 miles in just under an hour

I was feeling pretty good, so I ran 10 miles today, with 5 of it in 29:23 (last mile in 5:31).  Total time for 10 miles was 1:09:57

It was a good day.  I slept in, and walked home from church barefoot again.  I am no longer getting hot spots on my feet from walking barefoot.

I fell asleep really early last night and slept a lot.  It was good.  I ran 10 miles this morning with Sasha in 1:13:46.  We sped up the last half mile or so and ran the last quarter in 1:18.

mostly ran easy, but Sasha and I did run a short tempo run at "fat mile" pace.

We kept the pace easy, but brisk today.  Total time of 1:11:12 for 10.1 miles.

I ran with Sasha today.  He was running quarters, so after a vpb I ended up running a fat mile to catch up as he didn't wait for me.  We also ran a fat mile together on the way back.  Total time of 1:12:40 for 10.1 miles.

We ran a little slower than we have been going the last couple of days, but we still threw in a couple of fat miles during the second half of the run.  Total time for 10.1 miles was around 1:15:00.

PM:  I ran a half mile with Kimia in 5:14 because she had missed her run that morning and wanted to do something.

Sasha and I ran a warm-up followed by a 10 mile tempo.  The goal was to start out at just under 6:00 pace, and to then slowly pick up the pace throughout the tempo until we were going pretty fast by the end of it.  We started off a little faster than I was expecting, hitting the first mile in under 5:50, but everything else went according to plan.  We slowly picked up the pace throughout until we we in the low 5:30's near the end of the tempo.  I will admit that the pace felt harder than it should have, but I think that it is understandable since I ran a marathon 2 weeks ago, and I feel like I am still recovering to a certain degree.  I finished the tempo with a total time of 56:34.  Here are my splits:

mile splits - 5:48, 5:48, 5:46, 5:43, 5:43, 5:40, 5:35, 5:32, 5:32, 5:27.

2.5 mile splits - 14:30, 14:18, 14:03, 13:43.

I actually ran the last half mile in 2:41, and that felt way harder than it should have.  Sasha stayed with me until about 9 miles in.  He maintained contact to a certain degree until about 9.5 miles, at which point I decided to push the pace a little harder to the end, and he fell back.  Sasha finished about 11 or 12 seconds back.

I ran our to the lake and back with Sasha this morning.  Daniel joined us for the first 3 miles.

Today was a day of firsts, and I can not say that it was a good thing (however, I can't say that it was too terribly bad).  So, during the night I woke up a number of times because my stomach was bothering me.  Nothing bad, but annoying nonetheless.  Anyhow, I wake up and promptly make a trip to the bathroom.  At this point I know that I am in for a fun day.  I drive over to Sasha's house and we leave on our run.  At this point my stomach is not feeling too hot, but I assume that the discomfort will go away as I run, just like in times past. 

Well, my assumptions were not to be, as the discomfort only got worse.  Finally a little less than 1.5 miles into the run, and right before we were going to begin our tempo run for the day, for the very first time, and for the first time in 14 years... I threw up.  Sasha actually thought it was kind of funny, because I went back to take a look at my vomit after a minute or so becasue I wanted to see how well I could make out the food I ate the day before (the lentils were barely visible, but the carrots were easy to see, as were a couple other things).

Anyhow,  I felt good enough physically that we decided to start our tempo run and see how things went.  I was having difficulty maintaining 6:00 pace, and it was weird, because the pace did not feel hard, but I felt like I couldn't really go faster.  We went through the first mile in about 6:07-6:08 and my stomach was still screaming at me.  Subsequently, my body decided that it was not too happy with me for going close to 6:00 pace, so my bowels screamed at me and a vpb was in order.  I thought that I would feel better after taking a vpb, but when we started up again I actually felt worse.  Less than a half mile later I started to dry heave mid run, and promptly stopped and hurled once more all over the provo river trail.  I have to say, it was pure nastiness.

The worst part about puking my guts out all over the trail was that I then had to taste my vomit for almost the entire duration of the run after the fact.  It was nasty.  Anyhow, I began my tempo run anew with Sasha, and we hit the 2.5 mile turn-around in 15:16.  At this point I was starting to feel a little better, and we slowly sped up as we chased an older lady riding a bike down the trail.  At the 4 mile mark we were at 24:10 and had made up just 6 seconds on the 6:00 guy, and were holding even with the old lady but not making up any ground.  I wanted to at least break 30:00 for 5 miles, so I sped up just a little more, and after running an 81 second quarter we finally passed and dropped the old biker lady with about a quarter left.  We finished the last mile in 5:40 for a total time of 29:50 for 5 miles.

We then ran back to Sasha's house to finish up 10 miles.  On the way home we passed by Kimia and Sarah running together.  I gave Kimia a little kiss, but afterwards wondered if she could taste the vomit still on my breath.  So, ultimately I am disappointed that my vomitless streak has finally ended (the last time I remember throwing up was when I was in the 5th grade) but at least I feel fine now (although it took about 3 hours after the run was over for me to start feeling fine).