Keep running

I ran 6.0 miles slowly at the Crossing Park.  Not real happy.  I ran on Tuesday, 5.2 miles uptempo on the roads, and i have been basically disabled since then.  Wow, i cannot seem to go on the roads without feeling like I got hit by a truck.  Not good.

I ran the balloon loop, not too fast, 1:28:44, however, i encountered a rattlesnake out there after running about 50 mins, and it was one of the scariest moments of my life.  It was only about 6 inches from me, rattling and hissing, and i never moved so fast in all my life.  Yikes.

I have talked to others, and I guess there are snakes out there, i didn't realize that.

Mike

I rode my racing bike for 52 miles!!   I haven't rode the bike for about 3 years, and have never rode for more than 18 miles at one time.  It was good.  It took me about 3 hrs 20 mns.

Mike

slow run of 10.25 miles in Mt. Charleston on Mack Canyon road.  It was good.  I ran with Erica.  many ups and downs.

Mike

I set an unexpected record for the 8 laps of Crossing Park.  total time of 30.28.  4.5 miles.  I ran about 3:51 per lap for the first 5 with Erica, then ran 3.45 for laps 6 and 7, then busted out a 3.35 for the last lap.  I felt very good, it felt easy.

Mike

I ran the 15 laps of the Crossing Park, not fast, but not slow.  I ran an average of 4.23 per lap, so about 7.45 pace per mile.  It is tougher on the grass.  I was out there running for about 65 mins.  No sprinklers today, yeah!   Plenty of dogs, however.

i guess i have now been recruited to run on the relay team for Red Rock with Aaron Metler.  It should be fun.  And, of course, I am running Top of Utah marathon next week, that should be a disaster...I have read it is better to be undertrained than overtrained, especially for a marathon, so, well, i am prepared at being undertrained!

Cheers

I ran in the Red Rock Relay.  It was fun.  Teamed up with Aaron Metler and Ross Decker and a few others that I didn't know.  Erica was also on the team.  On Friday night, i had my first leg, it was leg #16, I started around 1030pm, and it was supposedly 5.8 miles, all on a dirt road, all uphill, the whole way, including 4 cattle guards, and plenty of rocks and pot holes.  Actually, the footing wasn't bad, a few distractions, but ok.  My total time was 46.05, which averages out to a 7.50 mile pace, I really felt like I was going about 7.10 pace, so I think it was a bit long, and the van that i rode in measured it longer, but that isn't the point.  I passed quite a few runners, so it was all good.

I did my other two legs in the Red Rock Relay on Saturday.  My 2nd leg was leg #26, which was basically miles 10 to 16 of the St. George marathon.  I felt ok here, i tried to push it as hard as I could, but i had no sleep at all, and it was now 430am in the morning, so it made it difficult to run well.  The first two miles were gradual uphill, and I did those in about 13.35 minutes, so about 6.47 per mile pace.  Then started the downhills, and i was actually quite disappointed.  I know i didn't go 100% because of my ankle is not a big fan of running downhill, but my total time for the 4 miles either flat or downhill was 25.55, so about 6.25 per mile.  ugh.  I wanted faster than that.   So for the six miles, i ran 39.30, or 6.35 per mile.  Once again, I passed a bunch of runners.

My last leg started around 1040am, and it was miserable.  If you have run the Hurricane Half marathon, I ran that route in reverse, but starting at mile 10 of the half marathon.  Which is the beginning of the uphill on Hwy 9 going to Zion.  It was straight uphill for about 1.5 miles or so.  And, with no sleep, and already two legs in, I was not feeling too good.  I was very tight, very sore, and just trying to put one foot in front of the other.  After about 1 mile of uphill, they took us off the main highway onto a dirt trail, which was really cool, but it still went straight up, and the footing was terrible.  During this portion, i am sure i wasn't even going 10 mins per mile, and i still passed 4 runners.  I finally made it back to Hwy 9, and then ran 4 more miles to finish my leg.  And it was miserable.  I was done, shot, finished, kaput.....My average during these 4 miles was probably 7.30 pace, and it was either flat or downhill, so i was struggling.  My total time for the 5.5 miles was 46 mins, so it shows you how difficult the uphill and dirt portion was.  That 1.5 miles took me about 16 mins.

Overall, I had a great time, I think our overall time for the coed team was around 24 hrs and 20 mins, and i think we took third behind the UVU coed team, and also Clyde Behunin's team I think took 2nd Coed.

I went to the Crossing Park today, ran 7 miles, pretty slow, about 8 min pace.

I ran 10 laps at Crossing Park, i am headed to Logan tomorrow.  I am not real optimistic about the 26.2 race.  My feet, both of them are just very sore.  I am not sure why, it isn't really my achilles, but just both feet overall very sore, maybe left over from the relay race last week.  I want to go easy at the start, and negative split.  I know that TOU has a much easier first half, so that is probably not possible, so how about around 1.30, then 1.35.  Probably won't happen, i will probably limp home in 3.25.  My bib # is 35, how did i get that low of a number?!?!?  I think I predicted 2.59, so nothing crazy.......won't that be great to see bib #35 struggling to keep the time under 4 hrs........oh well, excited about a new race, Logan seems to be a cool town, and I get to see Stefani, my oldest daughter on Saturday after the race, she is now a freshman at BYU.

I did 4 laps uptempo, but not that quick at all, between 3.41 and 3.58.

I did a quick 3.1 Trails 5k before the flight to SLC.

We landed in SLC on Thursday afternoon and then drove up to Logan.  I really like Logan, nice town.  We made it to our hotel, had a quick bite to eat, then drove around the 5k course that Erica will be doing.

On Friday morning, we decided to run the 5k course for TOU, which Erica will be running, and it basically follows the last 2.7 miles of the marathon.  It seemed basically flat.  We then met our friend Stacy and drove up to the marathon start line.   The canyon which is the first 14 miles is definitely downhill, but it isn't crazy downhill, much more gradual, which is a good thing.

At the expo, Erica got caught up in the excitement of the marathon, and switched from the 5k to the marathon.  She has NO marathon training at all.  This should be interesting.  We ate at a restaurant called Le Noone Friday night, good food.

Well, TOU is over.  Overall, I would rate this marathon an A on organization.  Seriously, it was very good.

We woke up at 4:15am.  Ate a bit.  Made it to the bus by 5:15am.  Bus ride took forever, made it to start line at 5:50am.  Quick porta potty stop, then went into the heated tent, nice idea, as it was a bit chilly at the start.  at 6:25am, went back to porta potties, holy smokes, the lines were slow as molasses, geez......got back to the start line at 6:58am.  No problem, as i really wasn't stressed at all.  My training has been terrible, only one long run of 20 miles, and one semi long run of 16 miles all summer long.  I wasn't expecting much, so wasn't stressed.  Start happened about 7:03am.

First 6 miles -  The start went down the canyon, it took me 20 secs to get to the start line after the gun, so i had many runners ahead of me.  A bit of congestion at first, so i felt like i was race walking at times.  I decided to not look at my watch until mile 6.  It felt so easy, i guessed 7:15 pace, so my prediction after 6 was 43.30.  The time was 43.34, so about what i thought.

Miles 6 to10 - Just kept the easy pace through the canyon, around mile 10, my stomach started twisting around, uh oh, not good.....slowed down a bit.  Went through 10 in 1hr 12m 25 secs, so my overall pace is still 7:15 per mile.

Halfway is now here at 1:34:50, 7:14 pace.  I am running with 3 other guys, Devin, 20yrs old going to BYU, running first marathon, trying to qualify for Boston.  Matt, 33 yrs old, trying to qualify for Boston, he is from Fresno, covering the Fresno St. football team for the school newspaper, they are in town to play Utah State, and Mike, a 22 yr old from Laramie WY, running 3rd marathon, also trying to qualify for Boston.   So they are shooting for a 3:10, seems reasonable to me.

We come out of the canyon at 14, and then it seems flat until mile 18.  I kind of take the lead from the 3 guys around 16, and break it up a bit, we hit 18 in 2:09:01, so we are now averaging 7:10 per mile.  The course starts to hit some hills, and I start to struggle around mile 20.  ugh.  I didn't want a death march.  I hit mile 20 in 2:24:07, mile 21 is 7:19, and mile 22 is 7:31, so not bad, only four miles, but i am in serious pain.   Miles 23 and 24 are bad, time of 8.39 and 8.40.   I try to rally in 25, and run 8.14, and then realize only a mile left, and run mile 26 in 7.37, and last 0.2 in 1.29.  I didn't finish too well, but still probably passed 8-10 runners in last two miles.  I was 86th overall out of 1,836 finishers.

Matt and Mike qualified for Boston.  Devin missed it by 20 secs or so.  I guess I qualified also, as my age category qualification is 3:20.

I really enjoyed TOU.  Course was great.  Support was great.  Weather was perfect.  Finish line area was top notch.  Erica surprised me by being the 23rd female in a time of 3:19.  Stacy was 3:21.

Recovering from the marathon, decided to slowly do 3.3 miles at the crossing park, averaged a very slow 5min 9 secs per lap.

I ran 9 laps of the Crossing Park, averaged a speedy (not) 4m 48s per lap.  Hey, quicker than yesterday, and more laps.   Still recovering from marathon.

low key week as i recover from the TOU marathon.  slow 5k at the trails.

once again, just a slow 5k stroll at the trails, just to help me wake up in the morning.  I still have the marathon soreness from last week.

decided to run a bit uptempo, i did 2  by 4 laps at the soccer park with Erica and Stacy.  The 4 laps equals 2.12 miles.  So, 7 min pace would be 14.50.  THe first time, I did 14.41, followed closely by Erica and Stacy.  After a 3 minute rest, 4 more laps in 14.23.  we did laps of 3.33, 3.41, 3.41, and 3.27.

two warm up laps and two cool down laps also.

I did the Larkspur 5 miler today, tried to pick it up a bit, ran 37.01, so about 7.24 per mile, first mile in 7.41, so picked it up after that.  I am still deciding on the marathon next weekend, probably a "no", but we will see.

Mike

slow 5k on the trails.

Stacy, Erica and I decided to do a  800, 2mile, 800 on the grass.  Not quite 100%, but close.  I ran the opening 800 in 3.11, pretty slow, but the grass definitely makes a difference.  I did the two mile in 13.06, 6.34 and 6.32.   Felt ok.  The final 800 in 3:00.

I guess it is going to be a bit warm this Saturday in STG.  Marathon should be fun.

11 laps on the Crossing Park fields.  We ran into an old running friend, Andrew Duncan.  Good guy and a great runner.   He is 43, and since turning 40, he has run 8.49 on the track for 3000 meters, 15.22 in the Carlsbad 5000, and 31.57 for 10,000 meters, i believe on the track.  He has been in Wash D.C. for two years, so he is back in Vegas.

slow trails 5k.