Training for Top of Utah 2011

My cold is starting to leave finally. I've gone through multiple boxes of tissue in the past week. I can finally breathe out of one nostril.  I wish I would have just hit the TM a day or 2 of this illness.

Finally after a week of no running I got out this morning! It was a little tougher than expected. My speed workout was supposed to be 2 X 1 mile but I changed it to 2 X  .5 mile with .25 mile jog in between. 6:50 pace on the half milers.

Overall pace 9:11 and HR avg. overall was 151. Definitely higher than hoped.

I decided that with all this rain to stay inside and not get soaked. Still got a little cough and a little bit stuffed up. 

Easy 7. 12 on Sat. morning. Then full blast again next week!

Got up at 7 to go run and immediately looked at the temp outside...32.1 and went back to bed for 30 more minutes. Then Tori woke me up to cook pancakes for the huge people(track team's throwers...Discus and Shotput) downstairs in the kitchen. Those guys & girls can eat!!Finally got out to run about 8:15.

Around the ridge for 6 then down the parkway over to centennial park then over to grandma's house to watch conference. Nice weather! Sunshine 8-)

I was pretty tired...why do all the marathon plans say easy long run...that's an oxymoron. The week off is still dragging me down I guess. Mileage full on next week again so I hope I'm feeling better.

Pace 9:10 not too bad.

HR Avg. of 144 decent as well but the parkway downhill really helped that. Last 2.5 miles I was burning it at 150.

Legs were extremely stiff this morning. I was running about 15 min. pace for the first .25 mile...at least that is what my garmin said...not sure if this thing was working right but it seemed to even out. Gorgeous morning! Mild wind 50 degrees.

Ran the parkway hill and was amazed at how low my HR stayed.

Avg Pace 8:55

Avg. HR 138

HR seems to be doing great but my legs are darn tired and beat up a little.

Was supposed to do 8 miles with 2 X 1 mile repeat @ 7:02 but didn't feel like going to the track. So I ran the parkway hill twice hard. Remind me not to do that again! That will test a guys manhood- Way harder than running the track repeats.

Warm up of 2.3 miles 8:38 pace( getting easier) HR avg 139

1st hill repeat of 1 mile @ 7:44 HR of 165

1 mile easy 8:55 pace hr 143

2nd hill repeat with side ache 8:03 hr of 167

2.69mile cool down with some walking and 1 mile of  nice soft trail. 9:36 pace and hr of 144

There needs to be a place on here to put "really" slow miles. Felt great yesterday totally slow today. Day after a speed or hill workout is work I guess. 

Nice day for a run though...rain overnight with wet roadways. Very little wind and wet streets but pretty close to perfect. Saw Sean running and was actually able to give him a high five instead of a miss like the other day :-)

14 miler on Saturday...Not sure how that will go but I better fuel up better for that than I did yesterday.

Pace 9:14 There was a time when I would have felt good about this pace.

HR avg. 144

2nd long run in prep for Newport marathon. I waited too  long to get these babies started! 38 miles this week though...happy with that. 

run log today carried 16 oz gatorade

2.5 miles to main park. 6 oz water

2.5 to bottom of parkway 6 oz gatorade

2.5 to  centennial park via mill pond road 6 oz water

2.5 back to bottom of parkway 6 oz of gatorade then stretched out well as I didn't want to do what my little bro did and tweak a hamstring going up a hill.

2 miles to Fairway 4 oz gatorade - 1.5 miles to tanner jeans park to watch easter egg hunt. 4 oz water. Too wet and cold so I left before it started. .6 mile home

avg pace 9:14 - was 9:05 first ten mile then I got smacked by the parkway hill.

avg HR 142. pretty darn good.

16 next saturday 40-42 for next week

Had to take Tori to school for wasl testing so I stayed over there and ran the sno valley trail. 40 degrees and wind coming in from North bend so 1st half was a little slow.

Big Easter dinner with 2 helpings of strawberry shortcake didn't help the cause.

9:00 minute pace

140 avg. HR

Okay spring anytime now....

Took Tori to the Orthodontist and so got a late start. Woke up and the thermo said 33. Looked outside and was happy to see a clear day.

After dropping Tori off at school went to centennial park. Fogged in there, so a little cold still. 

2.5 warm up on Sno valley trail.  pace 9  hr avg 144

5 mile tempo pace 7:32 HR avg 162(decent) seemed like it was upper 160's the last part. During the tempo I saw what looked to be a horse in the distance...got closer and noticed it was a Giant Great Dane! The woman walking with it didn't hear me and the dog was coming towards me so I started walking and yelled for the lady to get her dog. She said sorry that she didn't see me coming. Seriously that was a GIANT DOG! Scary-

2.5 mile cool down...my legs were not happy about this at all for the first 1.5 miles. pace 9:24 hr avg. 150

The fog burnt off and it was a gorgeous morning!

Gorgeous morning. 42 when I left the house. Not much wind. Perfect day for running except for the fact yesterday was a speed workout. Which means may legs are a little hammered, especially since i did 10 yesterday. 

1st 2 miles felt really good today. After that it was tough so I slowed down and took it easy.

Pace 9:15

HR avg 145

16 miler on Saturday...

Great day for a run. Somehow my shorts have been dissappearing and so I had to borrow some of Tori's shorts. Surprisingly they fit pretty well. I could have used my racing shorts but didn't want to freeze as they are very thin and it was 38 degrees out. 

3.3 miles to main park - water

at 6 miles bottom of parkway accelerade

at 8.5 miles via mill pond road centenial park and water

then to Mt. Si golf course and snovalley trail with a backtrack to mill pond road to the bottom of parkway 12 miles accelerade and stretching before the run/jog up the 2 miles of hill. As of 12 miles pace is 8:52 and feeling pretty good.

Then comes the hill...I'm running it at the end to make myself become a little more mentally tough as that last 5-6 miles in the marathon made me hurt that first time around. First .5 miles no problem, then 1.5 miles with HR in the 160's was tough but I pushed through.

at 14 miles another short walking break with accelerade then off to home with 2 miles left.

Pace ended up at 9:00 and HR avg. was 143. I was pretty happy with the run and even now a couple hours after the run I'm still feeling pretty good. I am definitely feeling better about this upcoming marathon than the last one, my first one. Sommer Reynolds (S. Sundwall's sister) is gunning for a 3:30 and I am going to try and keep up. I ran my first 10K with her for the first few miles and she really helped me.

When I wasn't carrying a bottle and was on flat ground I worked on keeping my arms low with my hands about waist high. Noticed that when my thoughts were just going wherever my HR stayed lower. So need to keep that in mind for racing. Tried to keep a nice easy stride to conserve energy and it seemed to work pretty well.

Holy Cow! What a gorgeous morning! 45 degrees when I left the house...no wind. Perfect running conditions. Started off a little stiff from my Sat. long run but after .5 mile felt good. In fact I felt so good that I thought that something was wrong. I was running easy and before long checked my garmin and noticed my pace at 8:50. Huh? Plus HR was staying in the mid 130's...what the...heck is going on here? Maybe my body is finally adapting and getting faster. Sweet! Sure took it's time though. I think the long runs are really helping. Plus doing the hill at the end of the long run might have somthing to do with it too.

I was powering up hills easy peasy today. This is where running gets to be more fun I guess.

Numbers for today are pretty good.

Pace 8:47   HR avg. 136

Next run wednesday...10 miles with 6 or 7 at tempo pace 7:30-7:40

We are trying to get to know more of our neighbors and invited a family over for dinner yesterday and I didn't get cheated on the eating part. BBQ ribs, slaw, homecooked beans and fruit salad with brownie for dessert with some Chocolate PB ice cream. Decent carbo load there.

47 degrees with misty showers but not too bad. Went out to Centennial park and jogged 2 miles. Then started the tempo run from the golf course. Exactly 3 miles to Mt. Si Road and turned around. Was easy starting out, in fact first little bit was 6:45 pace and I thought WOW, this is getting a lot easier, then settled into 7:30 pace for the remainder of the 1st 3 miles. Then I found out why it was so easy going...Wind was reverse of normal!! And it was killer coming back...surprised myself that my HR stayed reasonably low even with all of the extra work against the wind. It was work but it was doable. Not easy but I know I'm improving and that is nice! Tons of rabbits on the trail

Next speed workout on April 29 and am shooting for 5 X 1 mile with 800 jogs and a total of 10-11 miles.

Todays #'s

2 mile warm up @ 9:14 pace and 132 hr avg

6 mile tempo run @ 7:30 pace and 157 hr avg

2 mile cooldown @ 9:11 pace and 139 hr avg

37 degrees when I left the house this morning. About 4 miles into the run there was some white stuff coming down. I thought it was just something from the trees but it was snow...for about 5 minutes.

this run was the exact opposite of my easy Monday run. There is a pattern that is showing up here. This is my only back to back run and it is always after my speed or tempo runs. My body doesn't really like this run but I know that it is helping my mental toughness to run when my body says "Don't do it...stay in bed!"

Most interesting song on the radio during the run was 'She's a super freak'- Saw a gorgeous white pigeon during the run as well. Avoided hills as much as possible. I'm just plain tired after that-

#'s

Avg. pace 9:16

Avg. hr 142

Next run Sat. in Snoqualmie with no hills this week. 18 Miles

41 degrees at 6:15 when I got up. Drove to Centennial park with 1 stop on the way to drop off some water at the bottom of the parkway. Ran from park on sno. valley trail to mill pond road to parkway. 1st stop for water at 3.35 miles.

Then up and around Snoqualmie for another 3 miles, then water break. Back to the park via mill pond road and saw Sommer and her friend running on there. They were going 20 today.

@10 miles back at the park. Accelarade break and half an orange just to see how my body feels using it. Called grandpa in North bend so he could get me some OJ to drink when I arrived. 12.75 @ his house. Then back to the trail and he caught up on his bike. Chatted and then he took off. back to his house to finish the OJ...15.5 miles. Only 2.5 to go and the wind at my back now.

If you've seen the movie Remember the Titans you will know what I mean when I was saying to myself "What is Pain?" French Bread! It wasn't a killer but it was not easy.

Today's #'s

Pace avg. 8:57

HR avg. 138 (nice and low)

Nice morning for a run. Overcast and 42 degrees. Decided that this week will be 3 easy 10's and then my speed work will be Sat. 16 miles with 13.1 miles @ (hopeful) marathon pace 8:00. 

Today's #'s 

Avg. Pace 8:59

Avg. HR 138

Next run Wednesday 10 easy on Sno valley trail

Nice morning for a run at 40 or so degrees out. Hit the sno. valley trail for 6.5 and surrounding roads etc. for the other 3.5. It is so beautiful right now with the different hues of green everywhere.

Uneventful run other than plugging along for 10 miles(never thought I'd be able to even run 10 let alone on consecutive days).

Todays #'s 

Avg. Pace - 8:56

Avg. HR - 140

Next run - tomorrow 10 miles easy

Wow! Perfect morning for a run! Usually my body has been rebelling for these back to back runs from Wed. to Thurs. This week 3 10 milers easy on M,W,Thurs. have made this pleasant.

This should prove nice when I do my 13.1 @ marathon pace on Sat. 8:00 min/mile pace.

#'s today

9:00 pace easy as I avoided as many hills as possible

HR Avg. @138