Fuel SMART,Train HARD, Run FAST.

Today I ran to Bountiful track (2 mile warm up) and ran 5 miles at pace (3mi on track 2mi with hills on way home). Splits were 7:07 6:57, 6:50, 7:20, 7:27(avg. 7:27 pace). Felt good but last two were more effort with the hills. Planning to increase this run to 7 miles at pace, maybe later in the week.

Biked 8 miles with family hills with caboose.

Long run today on Main. Rolling hills but only ran about 25% on grass, just because I'm sick of being slow. averaged 8:03 mile pace. Overall was 2:46.Warm up first mile at 9:30,8:49, 8:33, 8:11,7:44, 7:54,8:13, 8:00, 8:06, 7:55,8:03, 7:58, 7:18, 7:47, 7:30, 7:34, 7:55 9:10 -hill and cool down time and the last two were around that time too, but Garmin wigged out again. Took a bathroom break twice and a GU midway. Good run, felt tired rest of the day. Pushed to moderate and felt really good. 

Biked 7 miles later in the day pulling the kids in caboose. 

Easy trail run to loosen legs.

Walked about 4 miles around Lagoon today with family...long run tomorrow!

Long run total of 22 miles. Pretty easy till last 7. I didn't have my Garmin due to it being repaird, so clocked run in car last night. Goal today was to run 15 normal then the last 7 at goal pace. I ran down main on 50% grass/dirt and rolling hills. Felt around 8:40 pace and probably so according to time. Ran home for the last 7 on the treadmill so I could be on pace. First mile was sort of rough for some reason, splits were: 7:47, 7:27,7:32, 7:24,7:24,7:19,7:19. I wish the pace was faster on these, but I have no idea what pace I should be planning on, so due my right knee being a cry baby from mile 16 on, I played it safe. Altogether around 2 hours and 50 minutes. Two breaks total-one bathroom break at mile 6 and at mile 15 when I got home to get on the mill (9 mins total). Iced knee and went to Chiropractor today for tens therapy and ice. I also purchased some liquid glucosamine I am pretty excited about!

Easy to moderate run today. A little tired from doing my 20 miler only 5 days ago but wanted to get it in early since my half marathon is in less than 2 weeks. I'm getting excited! 

Today I went to the gym but only had 30 mins so I did 15 mins of spin, and 10 of elliptical. Better than nothing, I guess.

In a hurry today again because I was so unmotivated and waited till last minute to do the workout. I did 1 mile warm up then 6x800 at 6:27 pace then 1X1600 at 6:27 with a 200m jog inbetween each interval. I resisted the urge to go any faster since I wanted to get a steady pace set for my half next week. Workout felt easy, probably should have done a few more, but ran out of time. I think my speed workouts need to be increased- I hate doing them though. If I could do a long run everyday I would:)

Afterwards went to the Chiropractor for tens treatment, ice, some exercises and adjustments. 

Easy run with a 2 mile tempo at 6:10 pace. Kinda hard but then so was the "easy run" at 8:10 pace, off day. Taking tomorrow off.

Later I went swimming with the kids. I had planned to bike 6 miles and run another 8 with my brother after swimming but plans fell through and it was probably over kill for this weekends race. 

Tonight I ran around the church with the kids riding thier bikes. Since my church is on a hill, I took advantage of running the grade 4 times at race pace on the grass. Each were about 200 meters with a 200 jog inbetween. Ran them at 6:40 average pace. It felt like I was going so fast, I hope I can get in a comfortable groove once I'm racing. I guess I expect to run anywhere from 640-50 pace. Hopefully faster:) My calorie count and quality has been down this week due to working so much so I need to focus on good calories for the next few days to bulk up on energy! 

All I can say is that I completely surprised myself today. I made a goal to not let my Garmin tell me how fast to run, so I didn't look at it. I went by feel, and I felt amazing!

I woke up at 4:15 and got ready. I went with my sister, brother in law, and two friends. We caught the first buses and waited around the start for over an hour, but I had good company so it was fun. We started late, but I'm not sure what time. I decided to start in the very front so I could see all the women I was competing against. I'm so glad I did this, I think it gave me a good advantage to race! Gun went off and I tried to hold back some. 

At about mile 2, there were aprox. 15 women ahead of me. One by one I worked on them till there were only 3 left in front of me. At my 10k split I had a PR of 38:39. I was pumped but scared. I didn't dare to look at my watch or do the calculations so I just kept going.

Somewhere around mile 7 Julie Hughs (1st winner) passed me and then I was 5th.The first 8 miles I felt like I was sprinting and started to worry I might have been going to fast but decided to stay up with it.  I knew I was on pace for a great time and I kept saying my mantra, "world class", don't ask me why, but it helped.

Miles 12 and 13 my legs were pretty tired but lungs felt great at least. I felt like a shuffler. With 800M to go, I saw my family and friends cheering me on! But I didn't go any faster:) Finally finished in a time of 1:23.45 (6:24 min/mi), around 30th in overall male and female, 4th in Open women division, (5th counting 1 masters woman), and 1st in age group (25-29). I recieved the Elite 100 medal, shirt and a large plaque!

Splits were 6:37, 6:20, 6:23, 6:15, 6:14, 6:16, 6:41, 6:29, 6:38, 6:39, 6:45, 6:55, and the last 1.1 I didn't pick up  accurately due to not stopping my watch at the finish line and the GSP going in and out of signal through the canyon causing the course to show shorter so, it was messed it a bit.

Went home and took an ice bath with my sister in our racing clothes:) and rolled out my muscles. 

Great race for me today, maybe my best ever for not only time, but feeling. I learned a valuable lesson...don't let Garmin dictate my race! Best choice to date. I'm elated:) 

Sore, wanted to run in the evening but had things come up and didn't care to run anyway:)

Went to the gym today and did 30 mins on the elliptical and an easy 2 mile run at 7:45 pace. Legs are still tired. Afterwards did 20 mins of weights.

My. Legs. Hate. Me.

Okay, so I have been so tired since Saturday's race. I had speed work planned for Monday but was too sore so I put it off a day. Well lets just say I have postponed it everyday till this morning. I made myself go to the track whether my body liked it or not. Surely I am in better shape than I am giving myself credit for...right? Wrong. I need to listen to my body more and today that was evident to me.

I woke up and ran to the track at 6 am.feeling a little sluggish but fine. My plan was 6X1200 starting at 6:00min/mi pace and working down each interval with a minute rest in between. That plan went south after my first 800m. My legs and lungs were spent. Yep. Okay, so 2X800's and the rest 1200's, ya know, to get my body going. Well, after 400m I knew I was in trouble. Feeling discouraged and wondering what I was going to do, I decided to ask a group of women runners (6) on the track what they were doing (clearly they were doing intervals). They invited me to join them and since I had no clear purpose or plan at that point, I did and had fun. It was clear they were all at different levels but GREAT company and so nice. 

After a few intervals on my own and some with the girls, I ended up doing 3x 800 and 4x400 with half the distance rest. The order went  800 (3:03), 400 (1:29), 400(132), 800 (2:58) 400 (1:22), 400 (1:24), 800 (3:10). I tried to stride out my last 800 because my legs were not happy.

I'm not going to lie, this workout was not working for me today. My legs and lungs were spent to begin with. It would have been intersting to see where my heart rate was at, but Garmin betrayed me again and did not pick up my HR while I was wearing my monitor today. I think I need to take the rest of the week easy or I bet I get sick or injured. You know how you can just feel something coming?

Anyway, I am getting pretty nervous about my legs fully recovering before TOU. I didn't know they would be this worn out from my half or I might have planned my races differently. Have any of you had this issue with running a race 3-4 weeks before a marathon and having soreness as an issue? I would love the comfort/advice right now, pretty worried. I have a 22 long run this Saturday with the last 10 as a race simulation but I might need to postponed that for next week...or should I just start tapering all together now? Ugh.

I'm over being a cry baby. Feeling better today but didn't want to run on the legs either. So went to the gym and did:

5x4 min intervals on row machine at moderately hard effort.

20 mins on elliptical

2x36 pushups on various leveled planks

6x1 min planks alternating front to sides.

2x12 ball exercises

2x15 exercise ball planks pulling up and alternating knees. 

 Stretched and rolled out muscles.

Longish trail run tomorrow:) 

This morning I met Kam (from the blog) for a beautiful trail run. Garmin was flipping out as always so I guess I ran aprox. 14-15 miles on Firebreak Rd to Farmington Canyon and looped back on Main street. Walked/hiked some spots on the trail, otherwise nice even run. I wimped out the last two miles and Kam had to basically drag me due to my legs still acting like cry babies-but all in all nice run and great company.

Ran Davis Blvd early this morning. I was so scard and prayed all night I would not be attacked by a Cougar since several people have been seeing them in their yards in the neighborhood. AHHHH! Every dog, deer and movement made me think I saw a Coug. No spottings today:)

Ran the rolling hills and felt ok. The first half I felt a little jello like but pulled it together the last half and felt good. Planned to run according to feel and not push too much.

Mile warmup the mountain. Hard to get a good cadence with the hills, thus the slower and faster split times but overall okay average. Spilts were 7:54, 8:07, 8:24, 8:17, 7:44, 7:23, 7:08, 6:39. Average 7:42 pace.

Stretched with ice bath, compression sleeves and iced knees. Good run. 

Today I went to the gym for speed work so someone could watch my baby for the next hour or so while I was delirious. Today's workout was 1x3200m @ 1/2 marathon pace, 3 mins rest, 2x1600 @ 10k pace, 2 mins rest, 2x800 @5k pace, 2 mins rest.=5 miles speedwork.

It didn't look too rough on paper at first, but it ended up being pretty challenging for me.

Times:

3200 @ 12:50 (6:25)

3 min rest

1600 @ 6:07

2 min rest

1600 @ 6:10

2 min rest

800 @ 3:00

2 min rest

800 @ 2:58

400 m jog and 10 min cool down on elliptical. 

The last 800 I had to hang on to the sides not to fall off. I can't remember the last time I had to do that. Exhausted afterwards but legs felt fine! Stretched, iced and compression sleeves afterwards. I might do a couple miles tonight after the kids go the bed to up mileage and stride out legs. I'm off to a funeral in Idaho for the next couple days so who knows what I will fit in. Long run (20) planned for early Friday morning.