Journey from 238.5 lbs to 2:38:30

Ran with Scott, Jody and Reed this morning in Highland.  Wind was pretty strong on and off through the run.  Woke up having very tight calves, and could feel a slight inflamation in the heel from the tight achillies/calve.  Wondered if it would loosen up enough for the run, as well as the ab strain, which appears to suddenly have gotten much worse, as well as switching sides from where it was a week ago.  Almost turned back after the first 2 miles.  After mile three Scott and Reed took off on some fast pace which I had no motivation to try to keep up with them at the time.  After their fast 800 and Jody and I caught back up to them we hit the slight decline going through Alpine and I started to feel pretty decent, so we started picking up the pace.  Hit mile 6 at a 6:10, and kept pushing the pace as we went into mile 7 at a avg 5:32.  Put in a surge with a 5:16 quarter which pushed my breathing over the edge.  The day certainly turned out much better than what I felt when we started.  Finished the run for a 6:50 total average. 

Then did a 1 mile slow cool down with Scott. 

 I watched Chariots of Fire last night, which I haven't seen in probably 20 years, love running movies.  Nothing like a little motivational movie.

 PM.  Ran 6 with wes in Lindon.  My last mile was a 6:33.  Right hip acting up again.  Legs felt pretty decent during run.   

Ran 10 with Jody and Scott, south on the JRT, then another slow cool down mile afterwards.  Right hip still not working properly, feels stuck forward.  

Ran 6 miles with Wes.  BST from bridal veil falls south.  Tripped on a rock and about fell on my face.  Right hip very locked up, took it slow up and down to try to not to strain it too much. 

Ran with Matt, Scott and Reed in Lehi.  Hips still messed up, I think I got my sacrum to move with about a half mile left, last little bit felt a bit better than the first miles.  When we hit the big uphill from the gully I can always tell how much trouble I am in when I try to push up the hill and my legs try to give out or get sharp pains in the hips on a strong push off.  Nice morning for a run.

Orem Loop with the morning crew.  Good run

South of the JRT with Scott and Chad.  Coming back north was  20 mph winds and snow coming in sideways.  Took a snowflake to the eye, about once every 5 seconds.  Awesome morning for a run. 

Went to Wallsburg with Scott, Jody and Toni.  Planned on 22 back to Jody's house.  I was hoping for a few groups of pick up miles, hoping to stay around MP for some good temp miles.  

I started us off too fast of a pace, we usually like to have the first mile be around 8 min pace or so to ease into the run.  But it was 11 degrees, and I was cold, so I started off going a little faster than normal.  We hit mile one a 7:13, then dropped down to 6:35, then 6:30, and other than mile 20 didn't go slower than 6:40.  Averaged a 6:26 pace for the 22 miles.  Heart rate was looking good most of the way, was concerned that I was just more tired the last couple of miles than I wanted to be.  After looking at the splits and heart rate I was far off of "pushing" it most of the miles, even trying to maintain a 160 heart rate which is what I ran uvm 2 years ago looks to be a huge improvement over that speed.  Will be interesting to see how things go the next couple of months.   

 1 7:13       125 bpm

2 6:35 138

3 6:30 136

4 6:38 149

5 6:38 149

6 6:28 151

7 6:14 145

8 6:34 146 

9 6:15 147

10 6:03 153

11 6:11 147

12 6:34 139

13 6:10 148

14 5:59 151

15 5:52 157

16 5:54 162

 17 6:22 148

18 6:20 170

19 6:28 151

20 7:06 154

21 6:39 153

22 6:28 155

.15 1:19 137 

Ran 8 in the AM with Scott in Highland/Alpine.  Was feeling decent, hips still not where they should be, legs felt pretty decent after saturday's run, though the last couple of miles I started to get a pain on the top of the knee cap, seems like it is some quad tendonitis, or something like that.  One of the quad muscles that attaches to the outer/left side of the kneecap is very tight/sore, causing the knee pain.  Stretching, icing, massage, hope it rehabs quickly.  Did 2 1 mile pushes.  6:00 pace and 5:48.  Both felt decent, though the strains on muscles on the inner thigh really start to inhibit speed at around a 6 min pace.  

Ran 6 easy miles with Wes at lunch, knee giving me more problems, had to stop and stretch a few times to try to loosen the knee, almost turned back after the first mile, but still pushed on.   

Have some tendonitis in my knee.  knee was getting tight as the run went on so turned around at mile 2

Well, not the 40k or 40 miler that would have been more symbolic.  Knee started getting tight again, but later in the run.  Ran a 5:38 mile on my 40th birthday.  

Ran Lehi loop from  Matt's house.  Knee allowed me to go farther, felt it get a little sore a few times, but wasn't getting worse.

South on the JRT.  Left leg still recoverying, not 100% but not getting worse at this point.

Ran from Tibble Fork in AF canyon to my house in Lehi.  My wife dropped me, Ryan, Jody, Scott and Brandon off.  I was worried about the downhill causing my knee issues, but we were taking a reasonable pace which helped.  We ended up averaging an easy sub 6:30 for 18 miles. Mile 17 was 6:05 pace and mile 18 was 5:54, which was a nice push, heart rate went up to 170 on the last mile.  Not sure how I feel about trying to keep that pace for a long time.  Great run, weather was awesome.  Canyon was real and it was spectacular.  Ran on some snow the first few miles which is always fun.  

Ran from Scott's in Highland.  Did a 5:34 mile which really stressed my quad causing tendonitis in my left knee.  

Knee pretty tight and sore.

Ran in Lindon, knee started getting tight so turned around. Trying to minimize inflamation hoping to still pace SLC marathon

Ran in Orem with the guys.  Knee still a little stressed by workable.  

Took day off to let quad/knee rest for tomorrow

Paced the marathon today at a 3:15 time. I had a nice group with me for the first 14-15 miles.  Then it was just Dan and I for the most part until mile 25.  He fell behind on the uphill on State Street.  I had given myself an extra tenth, plus 30 seconds on time on my virtual partner as well as being about .15 ahead of that when I hit the finish chute.  I was about a minute ahead of schedule so I did some slow motion running and when I got to the mat I stopped and waited to see if Dan would make it under 3:15 which was his goal time.  He hit the chute in plenty of time and made it across with about 10 seconds to spare, then I crossed after him.  Pacing was a blast and it was great to have company for almost the entire race.  The knee went through periods of tightening and then feeling ok.  The fact that I never had to push the pace really helped to minimize any further inflamation to the knee.  It was great to hang out and chat with Fritz, Seth, Andrea and everyone else who had a great race today.  

Legs were a bit sore from the marathon Saturday.  Knee/quad combo seems to be mostly better.  Though now new strains/tightnesses are emerging, as is usual for a new week.  They always seem to migrate every week.  

As I was leaving this morning at 4:45 to head to Scott's two little car jackers suddenly emerged from the darkness and pulled my driver door back open just as I had closed it to give me a goodbye hug..  My two oldest girls had heard me leaving and ran out to say good bye.   

Did 10 miles with the morning group from Scott's.  Did a three mile tempo around a 6 min pace, I think one of them was around 5:45 pace.  

When I got  home Janika wanted to go run a mile around the block, and then Makayla chimed in that she wanted to come too, so after a pit stop we got ready to head out and my 3 year old came down the stairs and started crying because she wanted to go run too.  So we all headed out and ran around the block 2 times for a nice mile.

Ran 6 with Wes in the 80+ temps of the afternoon.  Was nice to be out in the day, and in the heat.  I think I need to continue heat training this year.

After the easy 6 my left calf tightened up and had a very sharp pain in it for a few hours.  Ended up going to the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving point and walking around there for a couple of hours.  At the end there is a steep grass hill that all the kids like to run and roll down over and over.  So I raced the kids down and up the hill a couple of times.  Ran up the hill with Kierra on my back.  This didn't help the calf much, so spend awhile icing it which seems to have helped.

Issues with Calves this morning, took day off from running.  Finally broke down and purchased some compression sleeves.  Immediately noticed difference in calves after I put them on.  Not sure why I waited this long.

Met Wes at Timp park to run the Timp trail half marathon course.  We loafed along for awhile having a good time.  After we hit the gun range park lot I started to pick up the pace a bit to see how I felt over the next 2.5 mile climb.  I did stop to wait for Wes a few times so I wouldn't get too far ahead, but was with the compression sleeves on my calves felt so much better and different than usual when running the trails today.  I hit the climbs at a pretty decent pace and at some point realized that if I picked up the pace I could break 2 hours on the training run.  I haven't pushed hard on this course since I raced it 2 years ago.  I hit the downhill miles under 6:30 pace, hoping to not tear up my quads too bad and things were feeling pretty good.  I am loving the lone peaks, and loving them more with the compression sleeves on.  Just wish they were a little lighter.  The last half mile down the gravel road into timp park was at a 5:19 pace.  This was a good confidence boost run. Looking at the trail marathon times from last year I was at least 6 minutes faster on the first 6 miles, which are the ones we were loafing on this morning.  Ended the run 3 minutes faster than my race from 2 years ago with only going "race paceish" the last half of the run.  Was an incredible morning for a trail run.  

Loop in Lindon

Pacing the half today.  Did a 2 mile warm up from my house.  Talked to lots of good people before, during and after the race.  Always a good time to hang out with good people doing a good activity.  I think this half may be the toughest "road" half in the state, but it is also one of the most scenic and fun.  Got to the finish line a bit early, planned for a long course, and it was a little short.  

Ran 10 in Highland/Alpine with Scott, Reed, Matt and Jody.  Nice recovery pace today for Matt and Scott.