"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves"

Not a lot to say today. I didn't get off work until 2:05 A.M. and woke up at 6:00.  So I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep before my run.  Ran up to Castle Rock and up on the Chuckawalla trailhead area for about 7 miles.  I kept up at my target pace of 8:30 for the first 3 and last 3 miles, but had to slow down up on the trails because of elevation changes and soft dirt.  I did bring a camelbak with my and two Gu packs.  Ate one at 45 minutes and the other at 60.  Drank at least 3/4 of a gallon while I was on my run holy crap.  I'd like to have water available, but not available the whole run. I can't get my body used to having water whenever I want it, as nice as it is.

 Worked for 8 hours afterwards.  Talk about being totally exhausted at the end of the day.

Oh, and I am a bit worried about the long term effects of almost doubling my miles in one week ha ha.  I went from 20-25 to almost 45.

I wanted to do a six mile tempo run today but once I set out, my body let me know that I was actually doing to recovery run.  Maintained a slow, but painful 9:00 for the first mile while I stretched out and then I started moving a bit better and got up to 8:30.  Still wanted to keep the pace low, though. 

Wasn't what I wanted, but what I needed.

I woke up this morning and really didn't want to run, as much as I knew I needed to.  But I remembered the 10 excuses to miss a run and knew I was right in line with some of them and pushed myself out of bed.  I felt really good, but didn't have the GPS with me so the pace is an estimate from my watch and the mile markers that I know.  The pace felt a bit faster than I would usually go so I marked it as marathon pace. So yeah, 9.5 miles on a day I didn't want to run.

8 mile tempo run today.  I woke up tired again, but still went running.  Splits:

 1.0- 8:46 nice warm-up mile right on.

2.0 - 8:04 Took it a bit faster, but still let my legs warm-up.

3.0 - 7:27 I was trying to hit 7:30 and it felt pretty good.  Just two weeks ago I normally ran at this kind of a pace.  It was easy to maintain, but I really hope these slower times are helping my running like McMillan says they will.

4.0 - 8:25 Rest mile

5.0 - 7:18 Trying to hit 7:15 but missed it by a little.  I struggled to set my pace this mile and was going all over between 6:30 and 8:00 pace.  Body now has enough water on it to overflow Hoover Dam.

6.0 - 9:35 Didn't mean to go this slow, but I took a little break and got some water, plus there was a steep hill where I gained over 300 feet.

7.0 - 6:42 Wanted it to be 6:30 but I was feeling the previous days' run.

8.0 - No time, but half of it was barefoot! Their were two different pavement methods used on my street.  One produced a nice flat surface which is good for running, whereas the other uses gravel and hurts my feet.  Barefoot running dominates.

I was feeling a little nauseous this morning and convinced myself that I didn't need to go on a run even though I felt better right when I normally start running.  So I sat around at home until I was about to have a morning nap around 10:30 and looked at this site.  Felt guilty and checked the temperature and pulled off an 8 mile run.  I did something of a tempo run yesterday, and did more of a Fartlek today. Same course, but backwards.

Warmed-up for 2 miles or so and started striding out to 5:30-6:30 pace.  It was a bit uneven pacewise, but I would stride for two lamposts and jog for three lamposts.

 Halfway through the fourth mile I had to "take care of business" and finally discovered a useful purpose for tamarisk trees, if you know what I mean. This break let my breakfast and yesterday's miles catch up to me and I dealt with quite the stomachache for the rest of the run. (Only reason I mentioned my break)

I'll be participating in an "active recovery" run tomorrow rather than a "passive recovery." This site has helped me so much.  Thank you Sasha, you are definitely my running hero. I look at your blog entries whenever I'm feeling down about my running and see what can be done if I just go out and work.

Pulled off a 16.5 mile run. I ran up through Ivins and over to Bluff Street.  I went up the marathon course four miles and turned around.  It was really hard going backwards, but once I started going on the actual course, it felt really good (around mile 12) and I started moving a lot faster.  The marathon is going to be great.

I started out the day with a nice mile warm-up and then proceeded to do 400's on my street.  I haven't done much speed work for quite some time, so it was pretty hard.  I'm working on building up to 20x400, but I could only muster out 8x400 today.  First four were under 80 seconds and the last four were under 90.  Pretty good for not doing any speedwork all summer.

 Cooled down with a 4 mile run.

Cooled down after my cooldown with a 6 mile bike ride.  Haven't rode that for a while. I was holding on for dear life where the road was bumpy because I'm not used to keeping my balance like that. Crazy fun though.

Pretty good run today.  I went out and ran around Ivins. Start at my house and run to Pioneer Parkway, then up Ivins Main Street, turn right on Snow Canyon Parkway and follow the trail back to Pioneer Parkway and then home.  I was pretty sore from yesterday, but I just started going.  It was going to be a easy to slow run, but after the first mile in 7:30 and still feeling pretty good, I decided to try and push it the rest of the way.  Stayed under 8:00 probably the whole way (no GPS, only watch) So good run.  It's amazing how quickly you can lose your speed when you start training with long runs at slower paces.  7:30 used to be my slow pace when I went on long runs (7 miles max)

Oh boy, I was sore today.  I still was able to do five miles though.  I thought about running an additional 3 during my run, but when I finally got home I decided against it.  I'm going to take it easy the rest of the day.  Hopefully a little rest will allow me to be in much better condition tomorrow.

Wow. Today sucked. I'm still feeling pain and soreness from Monday's 400s and I had a hard time falling asleep last night so I was pretty tired, even after taking yesterday off.  Just an extremely slow 3 miles today. I'm going to go out and try for 16 tomorrow.  Hopefully I can get some good rest and be ready.

Ouch. This sure didn't feel that good.  Ran from my house up the marathon trail to the Ledges and back. 18 miles. Walked for at least 30 minutes, which sucked.  But at least I completed it and didn't give up.

I did 6x800 today.  I was surprised by how well they felt compared to the 400s last week.  I did make a mistake though, my cat really, really wanted to come outside in the front yard, so I let her out after the 800s and washed my car.  Then I went on my cool-down, even though I had already cooled down and the temperature and jumped ten degrees.  It was hot and humid and I reluctantly stopped a few times.  Oh well.  Good workout today.

Pretty good run today. I ran the loop around Snow Canyon Parkway and Pioneer Parkway which is about 9.5 miles.  I did take two short breaks, but I was pushing my normal pace, so I wasn't very disappointed with those.  Overall, it felt really good and I did my best to maintain 7:30ish pace, but probably averaged more around 7:45. 

This is a good start to a new phase of training.You know, obviously this is my first marathon, and I feel like I'm reaching out in the dark trying to figure out how best to train for it.  But that's what this is; it's a learning experience.  With every passing month I'm changing my running schedule up and making it better and becoming a better runner.  And I have many more years (and hopefully marathons) to really push the pace and become a great runner.

I went for a long recovery run In God's Country.   I drove up to the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve and ran around on their trails for about 9 miles or so.  The soft sand and constant elevation changes led to an extremely slow overall pace.  But it was a good recovery run.  26 miles on the week so far! I'm going to hit 50 if I can stay healthy this week.

Today's run started out as a 3-4 mile tempo run.  I set out planning on making the tempo run last for at least 3 of my 7 miles, and then I would evaluate how I felt at the end of the third mile and possibly do a fourth.  I made it to the end of the second tempo mile and lost it.  My body isn't used to pushing itself so hard for so long right now, and I've put a lot of miles on my legs the past couple of days.  Splits for the two tempo miles are

 1- 6:45

2 - 6:59

 They were both inside my pace zone.  When I hit mile four (first mile after I stopped) my hamstrings tightened up and I struggled to continue running.  I ended up walking over a half mile, trying every hundred meters or so to start running again.  The fatigue is setting in, and I've got to get enough sleep tonight to recooperate.  Saturday will be my last long run in Saint George, so I want to make it a good one.

Easy three mile run today to stretch my legs.  I worked out last night and stayed out until 11:30.  Yeah, I'm not doing that again.  Tomorrow I'm going at least 18, but pushing towards 20.  We'll see what happens.

Ha ha ha! I did it! I started getting a little scared last night because I realized I had this massive run today. I even woke up at 4:20 and then again at 5:20 because I could not sleep.  I was sore and still a little worried about being able to complete this, but I did it!  

 First off, Powerbar energy drinks suck.  Big time.  My mom got some for free because they were past their expiration date at Foot Locker.  Maybe that was the problem, but it is sick, and made me more thirsty.  So I called my mom and luckily she brought me some real water around mile 16.  My mom dominates so flippin much.

 I ran from my house up to Ivins Main street and out to snow canyon parkway.  Two miles up and back on Bluff street, and turned right around and came back the same way.  Ha ha, I choked on my water while running on Bluff street, and somebody passed me while I was coughing.  Yeah. I proceeded to give him a clinic on how to run hills.

 Great run until about 18 miles.  I started getting tired and just had to keep on telling myself to keep on going.  I regret that I did stop a few times, but it was half as much as last week (15 minutes).  That was my goal and I made it.  Last week in Saint George, so next week is going to be amazing.

Ugh. I had to go take a physics test this morning, and so I didn't have time to run. I'm going to try and go about 10 miles tonight, but I'm still feeling Saturday's run. It's going to be hard to get more miles than that this week, especially with going to BYU. The altitude is going to suck for a while.

PM: Ran with the Snow Canyon Cross Country team. We did a 20 minute fartlek. Run fast for 30 seconds and then jog for a minute or so. The heat was killing me, not to mention the fatigue from Saturday's run, but I still just did it for fun. It's fun to see everybody again.

Then I ran a 4 mile cooldown with Hayden. He paced me and we talked about running and stuff. Pretty good, because I probably wouldn't have ran much more if he hadn't suggested it. Tomorrow I'm going to try and pull off my 10 mile regular day. We'll see how it goes on half the regular rest time.

Yuck. I had to take two tests this morning and didn't go running until 10. It was nasty hot outside and I'm still tired from last week.  Nutrition and sleep weren't that great yesterday either.  So I struggled to even pull off 5.  This week is crappy compared to last week.  Really a bad time to have a huge cut in my miles.

About time.  I got up at 4:30 this morning so I could actually run without the heat.  I went on my Ivins loop for the last time.  9.5 miles in 1:20.  I went in 1:12 last week, but I've still got a little lingering fatigue, so hopefully that subsides over the rest of the day.  Good run in the dark.

I drove up to BYU this morning. (Another 4:30 am day) And we had stuff all day long until I went to sleep.  So no run today.

Wow. 9 miles around BYU campus and up to the temple.  I don't really know where to run around here. And I despise having to run on the sidewalk all the time. But wow.  My body got used to the elevation really quickly somehow.  I was running and had no problems with my breathing; in fact, I ran faster than usual.  Maintained 8:11 for the first 7 miles or so and then accidentally pressed the lap button and got 7:45 for my last two miles.  That's really good for my body.

 The funny thing is that I was walking across campus in a hurry to get to my dorm this afternoon and I was having a hard time breathing and talking.  Kinda weird, but this altitude should make my marathon even better.

Hills. Hills. Hills.

 That was the first 8 miles of my run. And with the changed altitude, and the fact that they were extremely long (Temple Hill to Rock Canyon) made me really slow.  Urban running is going to take some getting used to. I basically wandered around adding miles on. Fun.

 Oh and I think I saw the women's cross country team. Wow. Talk about the 20 hottest girls in the school. In short shorts. All together in one spot. w00t. I also saw Thatcher