Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 4 miles easy around the block. Leaving for Phoenix now... and leaving the Garmin on the kitchen counter so there's no temptation to put it on tomorrow morning.

PM - 1 mile w/ Andrea.

My blog has probably read like a whine-fest over the past month, but it hasn't been an exaggeration. I have been feeling "off" since the PF Chang's 1/2. Some minor injuries, consistent (very) elevated resting heart rate, so-so workouts, etc. Andrea (my guardian angel!) asked me a few weeks ago what this race was worth to me, and what I wanted to get out of it. The answer was simple, I wanted to win a marathon in front of my parents this year. Its just something on my running "bucket list" that was very important to me... and I knew this was probably going to be my only shot for a while, as there's a good chance this will be my only marathon this year. So we decided to throw time goals out the window (and I say "we" because this truly was a team effort) and focus on what was my best strategy to win the race and not blow up any of the little nagging injuries. The strategy was to go very conservative from the start, then evaluate at 16-18 miles and decide when to make a break for the tape. I ended up waiting until very late to make a move, but it made for an exciting finish and I was relieved and very happy to have won the race today!

The race started nice and slow as we ran down from Usery Park in the dark. A guy in green took the lead after the first mile, but we caught him by mile 2 and it was pretty clear that it was a 3 man race (Riley, Peter Omae, and me). In the first half of the race we basically ran side by side by side, at what I'd consider a comfortable effort. My achilles didn't bother me at all, which was a huge relief.

Andrea and my Dad were out on the course and they were the best support team ever. My Mom was running the half marathon (my Dad was planning to as well, but he jacked up his hamstring a couple weeks ago). Every 3-4 miles they would hand me a drink bottle and a cold sponge. I'd take a few sips of my drink, then hand the bottle to Peter, who would hand the bottle to Riley. Then we'd pass around the sponge as well. Great way to share germs, but it kept everyone hydrated and cool.

The splits for the first half were: 5:39, 5:19, 5:26, 5:22, 5:45, 5:44, 5:08, 5:24, 5:20, 5:21, 5:25, 5:18, 5:21 and we came through in 1:11:20.

Miles 14-16 were 5:22, 5:24, 5:26. Nothing really changed. Then (if I remember correctly) Riley started to drop back a bit around 16.5 miles, so I tried to increase the pace just a bit when I noticed his shadow slipping away. My right hamstring was feeling weaker than my left, but not as bad as at TOU last fall. Miles 17-18 were 5:22, 5:26 and I got the sense it was down to two. Once Riley fell back, Peter got right in my slipstream and ran a stride behind me for the next 9 miles. I slowed down from 19-20 (5:37, 5:40) to see if he would take the lead, and he didn't take the bait...

Now it was decision time. Normally this is when I would want to throw it down and make it a 10K race / long suffer-fest. But for some reason I wasn't feeling confident in my ability to push it from that far out. If Riley had still been in the mix, with his closing speed, I think I would have had no choice but to lay the hammer down from 5-6 miles out. But against Peter, who seemed to be breathing harder than me, I felt like I might have a stronger kick, so I just kept running around 5:40 pace and waiting to see if he would make a move. Miles 21-25 were 5:39, 5:39, 5:45, 5:41, 5:42. He made a mini-surge at 24.5 but I covered it easily. That being said, these miles were nerve-wracking... I'm not a kicker, and I was starting to worry that I had shot myself in the foot by waiting too long. 

Even when we hit mile 25, we just kept running the same pace. I was thinking that it was going to come down to the last couple hundred meters. Then, at ~25.5 miles, Andrea appeared and told me to GO. So that's when I finally picked it up, and I was surprised at how quickly I opened up a huge gap. It was over... 5:18 for the 26th mile and 69 seconds for the last 0.2 with my Dad sprinting along (and nearly keeping up) for a hundred yards! I ended up winning by 45 seconds, which is a lot of time considering we were still locked together at 25.5. My Mom was right there at the finish line (she ran great!) and Andrea/Dad appeared shortly after... I'm so lucky to have them there for me!

Final time was 2:23:55. Peter was second, then Riley and Dave took 3rd-4th. Our Utah crew dominated the race!

Not really an impressive time on this course, but I'm OK with that. My body held up, and I won the race... accomplishing my 2 primary goals, so no complaints here! I should also add that I was well aware that I had lost 6 races in a row (all 2nd place finishes) since the TOU Marathon, and was very pleased to break that streak.

I'm going to take this upcoming recovery period a lot more seriously than I have in the past. My two big races this spring/summer will be the USA 25K and Half-Marathon Championships in May/June. I have plenty of time to get in really good shape for those races, but I need to "re-build" some of my broken parts first.

Pictures...

Early miles... 

Dad w/ the perfect handoff...

This was mile 16.5 to 25.5... Peter right behind me the whole way...

With my Mom at the finish... this was her first race in about 5 years!


I love this team!

Utah crew...

Day of rest. Went to the zoo.

Here's the article from the AZ Republic:

I had no desire to even run a step today. I actually feel better than I typically do after a marathon, probably due to how the race played out. But I feel like I accomplished all of my running related goals for the weekend and have nothing to prove. I also ate fajitas for three consecutive meals (one of which was breakfast), and that was great. 

Andrea and I did a light PT session in the afternoon.

Its cloudy and cool in Phoenix today. Cloudy and cool in Phoenix!

I decided that the stair test will determine when I am allowed to go for a jog again (not that I really even feel like it anyways right now). The rule is - if I don't feel comfortable quickly bounding up and down a flight of stairs, then no running. Seems objective and reasonable. 

Did you notice that the article I posted yesterday referred to me as "Utah man"? Pretty awesome. Not "Utah boy" or "Utah semi-man who shaves his legs"? Apparently the standards are much looser in Arizona. And that's why I'll keep going there to race. I fear the Irish newspapers would not be so kind to me...

AM - 30 minutes on the spin bike. Maybe at 10% effort. Just wanted to get a little blood flowing to my legs and finish reading the book Rob let me borrow - Ron Clarke's The Unforgiving Minute. Clarke was a blue-collar runner, there's no doubt about that!

PM - Walk-fest. Made it an entire lap around SHP w/ Andrea and Allie.

A couple of my favorite quotes from the book... the long one is especially good...

"...still I cannot define precisely my joy in running. There is no sacrifice in it. I lead what I regard as a normal life... in my case I thoroughly enjoy running 100-odd miles a week. If I didn't, I wouldn't do it. Who can define happiness? To some, happiness is a warm puppy or a glass of cold beer. To me, happiness is running in the hills with my mates around me."

"The impulse to make an excuse is natural in most of us. It is so easy to be self-centered, to make excuses for defeats, and not to concede that others might have excuses when victory is yours. The man who continually makes excuses is always suspect because if he honestly believes the excuses are valid there is no reason for him to tell everybody about them. He is merely trying to assuage his hurt pride and take some credit away from the victor. What he should do, after acknowledging that the better man won on the day, is to become more determined to win the next time. After all, when a man steps on to a track he virtually accepts that the contest is fair and even, no matter how many ailments he is suffering or how much bad luck he is likely to meet."

"You have only one life and it's futile looking back upon it and regretting that you didn't do something when you were capable of doing it." 

AM - 5 miles. Passed the stair test yesterday so I was cleared by the boss for an easy run today. I'm still planning to take a few more days off, but its good to know that nothing is sore. I'm taking way more time off than I ever have in the past, but I don't want to jump back in too quick and risk any unnecessary setbacks. A few weeks ago I was selected for USATF's Athlete Development Program for the 25K Championship in May (essentially, that just means they'll cover my travel/hotel/food expenses). Its a nice little honor, and it makes that race even more important (the pressure to perform well goes up when you receive some freebies - gotta prove you deserve it!). So I've got 9.5 weeks until that race in Grand Rapids, and then another 6 weeks from that point until the Half Marathon Championship in Duluth. Plenty of time, and no need to rush things.

PM - Leisurely walk around SHP w/ Andrea. 

AM - Gym w/ Andrea. 20 minutes on the stairmaster, and then we went back outside and ran a little bit (her idea, even though I wasn't supposed to run at all today). Much safer for me to be running.

So far in my cross training experiments I've learned that I would seriously injure myself on the elliptical (and we're talking something like a traumatic brain injury), I'm not much better at the stairmaster, and ask Lulu about how smooth I am clipping into pedals on my bike. All that's left is skiing, and hopefully I'll be able to do that a lot the rest of this spring.

More great thoughts from Vern Gambetta. 

PM - Andrea and I walked around the perimeter of SHP. And then raced the last 50 meters to the car. 

AM - 7 miles up to work. My legs are full of energy (ie. jelly beans. Did you know that the food you eat becomes energy?) and are getting antsy. They actually feel better than they did before the marathon. Still, I'm going to continue to take it really easy for at least another week.

AM - 8 miles. Andrea took it out fast and I just hung on.

AM - 10 miles w/ the guys. Instead of doing the usual Holladay loop, we ran down to my neighborhood and did a loop around the horse park. I am feeling really, really good. My stride actually feels smooth again, for the first time since PF Chang's.

After the run Andrea and I went up to LCC for our 2013 ski debut. Skinned up Twin Lakes Pass, and did a run off Patsy Marley peak, and then another one off the Emma Ridge north of the pass. It was a beautiful day in the mountains. I just love it up there. We called it a day while Andrea still felt good, hoping that our days in the mountains can get longer and longer as the spring goes on.

AM - 7 miles up to work.

PM - 4 miles down to SHP. 

AM - Took the morning off, as I still need a few more zeros (or zeroes? how do you spell it?) this week to hit Andrea's my quota. 

Assuming a short jog this afternoon, and nothing crazy the rest of the week (not hard b/c we'll be skiing w/ Andrea's family), these two weeks after Phoenix will be far less running than I've ever done in post-marathon periods in the past. I added these up yesterday, and threw in that silly 50K as well...

PM - 5 miles. Easy run around the neighborhood just before it got dark.

AM - 9 miles up to work.

PM - 6 miles. Decided to take the bus over to Park City instead of driving another car over there, so I had a little time to kill before it left. Easy run around research park / THIS IS THE PLACE. Now, skiing the rest of the week :-)

AM - 4 miles + 6 x 10 second hill blasts.

PM - 5 miles.

Perfect spring ski conditions at Deer Valley today. We skied just about all day. The bump skiing was fantastic once the snow softened up. Fun day!

AM - 4 miles around Park City in the dark (so peaceful and quiet) + 6 x 10 second hill blasts.

That's all I'm running today... We're taking Andrea's family to ski at Alta.

AM - 15 miles. Tour de Park City. The Knoxville crew needed a day off from skiing so I headed out for a longer run this morning. I linked together several loops, all of which were very hilly! Felt really good despite the higher altitude and lots of hills. If anything, I'm just a little sore in a couple random spots from chasing Andrea around on skis the last two days... she is a fast bump skier!

I'm definitely more than ready to get back into a "normal" workout schedule next week, but I'm going to try hold off a little longer and only do some light fartlek efforts and strides for a little longer.

PM - 5 miles.

AM - 5 miles + 6x10

Somewhat wintery in PC this morning.

Skied all day at Park City. It was COLD!! Decided against another run... I'll just lay around instead.

AM - 7 miles up to work.

PM - 7 miles home. 

AM - 9.5 miles up to work. Light Fartlek: 22 x 1 minute on/off. Over half of the efforts were uphill. Didn't wear the Garmin, so no idea on the paces... probably not all that fast. Good to get a little sweat going, though.

I put up some photos from the ski trip w/ Andrea's family. We skied a lot of SLUSH last week! 

PM - 7 miles home. 

AM - 11 miles up to work.

PM - 7 miles home + 6 x 10 second hill blasts. I have a great place to do these nearby, I just need to be disciplined enough to finish my runs about a little further away from home. 

I know Competitor Group sometimes gets a bad rap, but the new Half Marathon Grand Prix they announced today is really, really awesome. Great scoring system (takes both place and time into account) and fantastic incentive money for running quick times ($1000 bonus for an OTQ performance, $500 for sub-66/76, etc). This really raises the bar and will take their HMs (which are already a lot more competitive than their marathons) to the next level. I was very impressed by how everything was done at PF Chang's in January... I'm definitely hoping to run a few more of their races this fall.

AM - 8 miles up to work. A very spring-like wintery mix out there this morning.

PM - 7.5 miles home w/ some fartlek: 10 x 2 minutes (1 min off). Timex again, so no paces. 

Great moment for humanity this morning... a car rolled into the crosswalk without looking (as they usually do). I expected it and just ran around the backside of the vehicle. About a block later, the guy pulled up alongside me and apologized for not looking! I didn't even throw up a double middle finger or anything like that. I said it was no big deal and joked that I would try to wear brighter clothes in the future (you can imagine how I was dressed, like a seizure-inducing blinking orange tree).

AM - 6 miles around the neighborhood.

PM - 4.5 miles + 6 x 10s. Horsepark loops on the grass (about 2.8 miles w/ Andrea - she couldn't take the gym anymore and wanted to run) and then she drove me over the hill sprints hill. 

Rob's post today reminded me to post this link from Vern Gambetta's site that I bookmarked a few days ago. Probably would be wise to run some 100s on the track this afternoon!

AM - 21 miles. Really nice group run this morning - Fritz, Kevin, Scott, Mike, Rob, Adam H, and Jon. We ran the Holladay loop (~11.5 miles) at a decent clip, and then did some tempo on the rolling hills Sugar House Park loop. I did 5 laps in 7:29, 7:29, 7:26, 7:29, 7:21 and then added on another minute to hit 7 miles at 5:26/mile avg. Then I jogged back for 50 seconds and joined back in with Fritz as he finished up (another 1.2 miles @ 5:29 pace). So, a pretty good run overall. I'm happy with how I felt and it was really nice to run with the guys.

Now we're headed to Alta to ski all weekend and staying at the Peruvian Lodge tonight! 

I love the repetitive nature of the tempo portion of this run...

After yesterday's long run, Andrea and I went up to Alta and spent the afternoon backcountry skiing in the Twin Lakes Pass area. Then we retired to the outdoor hot tub as the snow kept coming down, spent a wonderful evening at the Peruvian Lodge, eating like kings for every meal, and skied all day at Alta today. So much fun!!!

The conditions were OKAY...

PM - 4.5 miles easy. Looking back over it, I had a pretty good week. So I just went out to loosen up a bit after skiing, and let my legs absorb yesterday's effort and the pounding they take chasing Andrea around Alta.

AM - 11 miles up to work.

PM - 7 miles home + 6 x 10 second hill blasts. Andrea biked up and met me along the way, and then was my rabbit on the sprints. 

AM - 14.5 miles. 3 up, 10 Mile AT Tempo in 53:25 (5:20/mi avg), 1.5 down. First 8 miles were relaxed and between 5:20-5:25, then a light progression over the last two (5:15, 5:05). Felt much more relaxed and smooth than a month ago. I was originally planning on making this more of a true progression run, but I decided another controlled effort was smarter. I want to make sure all systems are 100% before I start cranking again.

PM - 3.5 miles. A couple laps around the perimeter of SHP on the grass. 

AM - 10 miles up to work.

PM - 6 miles down to SHP and a lap around the park + 8 x 8 second hills. Then walked around w/ Andrea and Amiee, neither of whom were using their trekking poles as they are supposed to! 

AM - 10 miles. LT Reps: 6 x 3/4 Mile in 3:44 avg - 3:45, 3:44, 3:47, 3:43, 3:43, 3:43. Recovery was ~80 second jog back to the start of the loop. Was planning on more reps but overslept a little bit and this was all I had time for. Good enough, haven't touched this pace in a while and we're going longer tomorrow, so cutting down today's workload isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Agree. 

PM - 5 miles. Three laps around the perimeter of SHP on the grass. Andrea biked along with me. Great to have her company. 

AM - 20 miles. Long run with Kevin and Fritz. Started from SHP and went up Emigration Canyon a little past the firehouse, then back down to Wasatch and through the Tanner Park death hills back to the start. That was ~18 and then I added on another lap in the park, finishing the last mile with a little push (5:09). Total time of just over 2:09 for the 20 miles. Good run, plenty of hills, the way it should be!

PM - 3 miles. Laps around the horsepark w/ Andrea on mtn bike escort. Then Smashburger! 

AM - 7 miles. Horsepark loops, SLOW.

PM - 4 miles w/ the rollerblader, mainly talking about how awesome Dr. Matt is.

Skied most of the afternoon at the Canyons. Not my favorite resort (because of this) but we had free tickets so as long as I'm not paying into their slush fund, I'm fine riding their lifts for an afternoon :-) Speaking of slush, that's what the conditions were! Fun day, though... we'll ski again tomorrow if it ends up being another sunny day.

South-facing at lower elevations is melting out just a little...

AM - 9 miles. Warmed up 3 to the track, 20 x 200m (hot/cold) in 32.7 seconds avg, cooled down another mile. Good to get on the track and get the legs moving a little bit.

PM - 4 miles, shakeout w/ Andrea (on the bike). Hard day of multi-sport activities: hitting golf balls at the driving range and throwing the football around at Sugar House Park - which was more crowded today than I have ever seen it (and that includes the state xc meet). 

Happy Easter circa 1992... I wish I could get this Zack Morris style haircut again...