Marathon Top 10 Finishes: 7 Bridges ('15), Utah Valley ('13), Salt Lake City ('08), Top of Utah ('07), and St. Louis ('04). Ran around the equator (24901.55) in 4,388 days.
And my largest challenge to date, raise $20,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my cancer survivorship and in memory of those lost to blood cancer...
DONE! $26,403.70
Grew up outside Chicago and joined the blog while I lived in Salt Lake City. Now living outside Birmingham. I am married with two daughters. Wife thinks I'm crazy for doing marathons. And yes I am crazy I'm a scientist for a living...
Well I can't believe the New Year is here. Has it really been 365 days? It was a slow start to the day. But started off right with my home made chocolate chip pancakes. Then an ok but slow moving day. After the nightime routine just did the small home loop. I was dragging and though the air quality was the best it has been all week had a rough time breathing. Avg. 8:27 HR 141
Met up with Cody this morning for a JRP run. I do not take enough advantage of this path and it does not look like the rest of SLC does either. I have to admit that when I pulled out of my driveway to about 1.5 in of fresh snow on the street, then going past the mall had it start raining on me I was second guessing meeting up for this run. But by the time I finally got to the parking lot (10 min late) the sky was clear and it was a nice 34F. It was good to catch up with Cody again. It had probably been since TOU that we got to talk. Overall the run went well. We started a little quick so the last few miles were rough but otherwise an enjoyable run with good company. SportTracks Avg. 7:31 HR 143
The weather was nice enough to go on a family run. I took Kaitlyn on a snowman hunt running up and down the blocks south of SugarHouse. We found so many we lost count. We even found a snow elephant. Avg. 8:12 HR 125
AM: A new year and a new outlook on Mondays. I wasn't up back on "normal" schedule yet. But at least earlier than I had been the last couple of weeks. It was about 25 degrees colder by "RealFeel" but considering it is Jan not too bad. I just took it easy to the MG overlook and back from lab. Mi 6 Avg. 8:35 HR 128
PM: Overall the day went well for a Monday. I did a quicker altered home loop. Knee was a little sore at the end but otherwise fine. Mi 6 Avg. 6:58 HR 153
AM: I have to enjoy the flexibility of my hours. I opted to sleep in this morning and got to see my girls before I started the day. However, because of the late start I ended up just doing the direct commute run. Mi 2.5 Avg. 9:26 HR 133 Ascent 481ft
Side note I just noticed that for my double yesterday my runs started exactly to the minute 12 hrs apart...
PM: Today went better than yesterday. Knee not as sore either. Air quality just horrible. Did another new variation of the home loop. Mi 6 Avg. 8:29 HR 132
A very long day, not bad, just long. Ended up going back into work after the bedtime routine and then decided to do a late night run to the Memory Grove overlook. I did it as a look this time and the capitol building looks nice at night. Fortunately the sleet had stopped earlier so it wasn't too bad out. Avg. 8:32
AM: Maybe because of the late night yesterday, the 8F windchill this morning, or the orange air day (down from red at least) this morning was a death march. I managed to slog through it and did a similar run as last night but as a commute run. Mi 9 Avg. 10:03 HR 130 Total Ascent 1,007
PM: Well I'm glad the dedication paid off and that I wasn't sorry for forcing the issue. The day went fine. Then I opted for a hard treadmill workout. I did one mile warm-up avg. 6:30, starting at 7 working down to 6 at a regular quarter mile interval. Then from there I played around with the speed I dropped down a little too quickly, hovered around 5:33, then dropped it again for the last little. Final 3 in 16:36. I was pushing it and it felt good. The last tenth of a mile was twice as fast as my run this morning. Mi 4 Avg. 5:46
AM: Weather channel had it at 5F with no wind. I dressed warm and it didn't feel that cold. I'm sure I was wearing too much but it was nice to get back from the run without a frozen nose or toes... Memory Grove work loop. Mi 8 Avg. 9:00 HR 137
PM: Very busy but good day. Did two miles on the treadmill to warmup for a good stretch and a few exercises. Mi 2 Avg. 7:03
I didn't sleep well last night. But that didn't stop me from having the best run in a very long time. All pistons were firing. The goal was to run about 1 min per mile slower than goal pace. My A goal pace would be 5:55 for a 2:35 so I was shooting for 6:55. This is fairly hard to do as the portion of the race course I run on is the most hilly. Miles 3 to 14 and back (minus a little on the way back). This is probably my most common long run course so I'm becoming very familiar with these hills though. Total there is +1,145/-1,177 of elevation changes. I kept a pretty even effort and my pace more or less matched. I only had three miles slower than 7 min pace. My slowest mile was my first mile at 7:22. My fastest mile was my eighth mile at 6:28 which also had the most descent -141. Avg pace as a little quick but better than a little slow. Avg. 6:50 HR 162
Slept in to get a full recovery. Then after church and lunch went for a run in the "nice" winter runner. I even went in shorts. It was chilly to start out but felt fine over the whole run. I just went south and back. Mi 8 Avg. 7:59 HR 140
AM?: May try for a two-a-day. We have a job candidate in so I have an extra meeting. Then the students come back today so I have all three of mine to manage today. At least I get to finish off the day with a dinner out. We'll see what I'm up for after a belly full of curry... Modified commute run. Mi 6.75 Avg. 9:36 HR 132 Climb +1019ft/-698ft
Ran into Albert Wint on the way into work. It is always good to catch up with him. Then continued on to work. I was later than I thought and cut my run shorter than initially planned. The day went down hill from there and I ended up pretty sick to the stomach by 3pm. I think it was bad leftovers but not sure. Avg. 8:18 HR 140
10 hrs in "bed" but not much sleep. At 3pm yesterday I got food poisoning like symptoms that lasted until 2am. Woke up feeling much better and after a day of hydration just ran south and back. Avg. 7:55 HR 132
AM: Commute run. Felling much better than yesterday. Altered the course a bit. Mi. 6 Avg. 9:09 HR 147
PM: Treadmill workout. Always great to get moving after not feeling well. Did ~2 mi warmup and then 5 miles at sub-6:00. I varied the pace from 10.1 mph and increased 0.1 each mile for four and then each 0.1 mile for the last mile. Mi. 7 Avg. 6:07
So where have I been. Let's say hectic work and life, so it goes. Running is still moving along just not the blogging side. The air is starting to drive me nuts, we need environmental reform!
I ran to City Creek and had it to myself for the whole run. The only person I saw was arriving as I was leaving. Still got into work and started before 9am. Overall, the best start to a day this week. Mi 12 Avg. 8:03 HR 136
Another tough night of sleep. But this morning was much harder to get up. Did end up watching two movies that friends from work had lent me Wall E and Mama Mia both cute movies. Today I decided I didn't want to add to the damage the valley air has been doing to my lungs so I ran up Emigration over a little and back. Saw a number of people out doing the same. Fun run. Took it very easy, goal was even effort both ways.
Out Avg. 8:37 HR 145 (~10 mi up 0.5 dwn) Back Avg. 6:50 HR 149 (0.5 mi up ~10 dwn)
AM: Active recovery, 6 mi, Avg. 10:11, HR 131. Another night of sleep. Took a total of 50hrs off and slept nearly 18 hr in the two nights. I never felt bad but didn't want to take a risk after Saturday's "fun". Since it was the holiday, I got in a little later, helped a student set-up and then went out for my run. We finally had a dusting of snow, this helped clear out the air a little and made it so I could run up Dry Creek. With the snow there was a little traction on the ice sheet that had formed on the trail. It was a nice and easy run. My Garmin had a hiccup with the elevation and had the first 1/4 mile at sea level so the summary said I run had 5494ft of climb in the first mile, I'd say I'm a beast doing it in 10:21 :)...
PM: More active recovery, 6 mi, Avg. 8:38, HR 143. My legs are pretty tight, mostly my right quad. Ran random blocks.
AM: Right leg still a little funky. Plan this week is just easy through Saturday and then try a harder longer run with the week of rest in me. The weather was crazy this morning. Started with slightly clear skies, 20+ mph but warm (Weather Channel said 39F/29F WC). That was for the first two miles. Then it started raining, turning into sleet, hail, and finally large flakes of snow. The final few miles were very pleasant. Even ran into Chad and talked briefly. Mi 8 Avg. 9:47 HR 136
PM: More easy miles. Still not feeling that hot. Mi 6 Avg. 9:31 HR 143
AM: I am just not feeling it.Continue to not get up with my alarm and right leg is still tight. Trying to stretch it out as best as possible but I've felt off since Saturday's run. It wasn't that hard so I do not get it. Mi 5 Avg. 9:43 HR 142
PM: Sometimes not training is harder than training. After looking over the last few days I decided I have to step back from my mileage goals and focus on my training goals. At least for now it looks like 70mpw are better than even low 80mpw. We'll see how this changes but I'm taking tonight off and cutting back for tomorrow. Hopefully that will make things good for the workout Saturday, if I can still muster it.
I'm continuing with my reassessment of my body and schedule.
It appears that my body does not like 80 mpw. It is strange that I could do 70+
for seven weeks in a row with no problems. But with only two weeks at 80 mpw I
seem to be collapsing. This could be work/training stress combo but at least
for now I’m going to plan to stay under 75 for the remainder of my marathon
training for April and focus on intensity if I need “more”. We’ll see how this
goes, I’ll change as needed. Because of the 40+ mph wind gusts I opted to run
on the treadmill. Avg. 8:00
I think my leg is a little worse instead of better. Even with the low mileage days the previous two days. I'm just frustrated at this point. I did two miles on the TM as a warm-up then I stretched and did the home loop. My right leg just didn't want to loosen up. 2mi @ 7:10 6mi @ 7:27 HR 146
I've decided I'm going to take two days completely off. I'll see how my commute run goes on Tuesday...
PT and weights. About the same. Looked over all my running since moving to SLC. Tried to find a theme for these injuries. My body doesn't seem to like >80 mpw. If this resolves quick enough I'll stick to between 50-70 and still try to run SLC in April. If not I'll scrap the race and maybe shoot for Utah Valley?...
