What lies within

Met Scott, Reed, Spencer and Dan for Scott's 10 mile loop. Light wind and light rain the last half. Very pleasant. 7:20 pace.

Met Scott at the Lone Peak track at 5:30. A slight drizzle and gentle breeze did not provide excuse enough to postpone the workout so we started our warm-up. 3 miles on the trail through the golf course. 

The plan was Yasso's 800s. 
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/yasso-800s 

10x800m with 200 jog recovery (400 jog after #4 and #8)

Splits: (2:29,2:31,2:31,2:30,2:28,2:29,2:31,2:33,2:33,2:29) average 2:31

200m recovery was about 1:20, 400 about 2:30.

These felt harder than had I thought they would. The 800s we did 3 weeks ago were much easier.  I had lactic acid coming out my ears for 7 & 8.  I think I'm still in a bit of a recovery hole but I'm happy with the workout.

Scott and I ran together for the first 5 and then he constently pulled away the rest of the workout. I was very grateful to have him there to drag me through the last few, I'm not sure I could have done it on my own. 

1 mile cool down. 

Met Scott, Toni, and Dan for an easy out and back on the murdock trail @ 5:30am. Perfect weather and good conversation made for a very enjoyable run. I needed and enjoyed the recovery pace.

Met the gang in Orem for a run up Provo canyon. Easy pace on the way up. AT effort on the way down.

Splits: (5:39, 5:39, 5:38, 5:40, 5:35)

The goal was to get in a good sub-threshold effort. It felt smooth and easy (the downhill and tail wind probably helped a little :)). 

Then off to the hospital with Ashley for her workout. 6 hours of labor. She gave birth to a beautiful little girl. It was a perfect day.

Easy miles in the wind with the dog.

Ran the first part of the SLC marathon course with Toni and Ty. 

First 5.5 at easy pace. 8.5 tempo (AT effort) through the hilly section. 3.5 cooldown.

My right hamstring was tight the whole time. It started to pain me a little at the end of the tempo so I cut it short to 8.5. Otherwise felt really good. Averaged 5:55 for the tempo section. It's a good thing it's taper time!

Easy run from Scott's house with MATT!, Toni, Spencer and Reed. Just beat the storm. 

Wimped out and went to the gym. Crazy windy today so I'm glad I did. Treadmill was mind numbing. I ran 1 mile at MP to break the monotony.

Moderate workout this morning. 3 x 2mile LT reps.

1. 11:15 (5:39,5:35) - slightly uphill
2. 10:57 (5:29, 5:27) - flat
3. 10:51 (5:26, 5:25) - slightly downhill

Ran around Sandy at 10am. Good stuff. (7:19 avg)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/296503875 

Weights: Squats, *ductors, bench, pull-ups, shoulders 

Ran on the murdock trail with Matt. Easy pace, good conversation, perfect weather makes for a great run. Felt good.

Met Toni, Dave Taylor and Ty in Orem for a ... run. I wanted to do 6 mile repeats at MP. It felt a little too hard so I only did 4. Legs are a little tired still. I'm hoping a taper will get things zippy again.

Splits: (5:45, 5:40, 5:40, 5:40, 5:55)

I really should relax my goals for SLC but what's the fun in that? 

Easy run on the murdock trail with the dog. (7:45)

Short warm up. Progressive tempo (5:57, 5:46, 2:26[0.5]).

Felt progressively better. First mile felt like garbage, last mile I felt strong. 

The Boston tragedy was awful.  Makes me sick. I'm glad folks on the blog were safe. I'm praying for those affected. I can't believe someone would mess with Boston Marathon. 

Easy miles in the cold wind.

Short out and back with the dog on Murdock. 2x800m in 2:50, 2:45. Felt OK...not as good as I hoped.

Easy run with a few strides. 

It was raining. It was chilly (39). It was breezy. I didn't go into the race with much optimism. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to the cold and the wind. Wimpy and marathon are a bad combo so I was trying to stay positive. 

Talked with a few folks at the starting line, had a moment of silence for those injured and slain at the Boston Marathon, and started the race to "Sweet Caroline".

 (Salt Lake Tribune)

The plan was to try and average 5:50 or so the 1st half and then see what I have left. It was lightly raining at the start but not too bad. First splits (1-5: 5:47, 5:54, 5:46, 5:46, 5:45). I was feeling OK. My stomach hurt, I could feel the oatmeal I ate that morning sitting high in my stomach. The pace felt right (must be the downhill!). I went through Sugar House conservatively (6,7: 5:56, 6:00). Here I saw Scott and Brandon who gave me a sports bottle with Gatorade in it. I'm super grateful for those two! They met me several times on the course with an easy-to-drink bottle and a towel! 

At this point something strange happened, at least for me. My left quad started to get very tight. Almost to the point of a strain. I backed off the pace a bit to try and encourage it to relax. It didn't. My energy levels felt great, all systems were firing but that quad threatened to end the race. It was dissapointing so early on. The next few miles were flat or uphill and I kept it conservative, then some downhill. (8-11: 6:00, 6:14, 5:50, 5:46).  I opened it back up a little on the downhill and the quad held up and gradually felt better. By 12 the pain was gone. Yay!

(12,13: 6:01, 6:14). Hills. Hard rain. I was getting cold, mostly my feet! The hills were over. I was 1:17 at the half, slower than I wanted but still in a good position. I'd moved into 3rd place up the hill. I opened it up a little on the downhill (14,15: 5:49, 5:47). Scott and Brandon met me again and provided a good drink. It was good to see them. At this point I had my next worry: both hamstrings started to tighten up. It was frustrating, again, because otherwise I felt great. Lots of energy, legs wanted to move but I really had to hold back to keep the hamstrings in check. These miles were mostly flat and now we were running north west, right into a steady wind. (16,17: 5:59, 6:03). Unfortunately, this time, the hamstrings didn't loosen up but got progressively worse. (18,19: 6:18, 6:11) were slightly uphill. I was still feeling good but felt like the hamstrings were on the edge. Still fighting the wind.

(20-22: 6:16, 6:13, 6:04) felt OK but I couldn't go much faster and now my calf (old injury from last August) started to flare up a little. I started to feel generally crappy at this point and just tried to salvage the rest of the race (23-26: 6:25, 6:35, 6:31). 

All in all, I'm happy with it. I think I was in shape for better... 6 minute PR so I can't complain.

I was really cold at the end but I had warm close in my drop bag. I met up with Ty, my dad, and Scott and Brandon at the end party. It was raining so it didn't last long. I went to my dad's car to thaw out then came back for the awards.

The podium was fun! Bryant and Seth are class acts. There were a good 9 people to watch us get our awards!  Altra wanted to interview us afterwards which was a new experience for me, I don't know if I'll ever see it. 

I've got a lot of work to do to get where I want to be but I'm happy with the race. 

I'm getting very antsy. The plan is to start running again as soon as there is no pain...anywhere. Almost there.

Easy run (if you could call it that) with the dog. 9 avg

Another easy run. 8:40 avg

Hil run on the powerline trail above Lehi with the dog in the sunshine. Very easy pace. Very pleasant. 

Met Scott, Matt, Toni, Reed and Spencer for balmy run on Scott's loop. Picked it up to around 6:00 for 3 miles. Hamstrings were tight for the first 3 but by the end they felt great. (6:50)

Easy run with Matt. Scott and Toni did hill sprints and a fast mile. Windy. (7:10)