Fuel SMART,Train HARD, Run FAST.

AM- 8 mile hilly bike ride. Tried to push the pace the entire time to get the lungs going without the impact. Done. 1 hour of PT exercises afterward.

6:15 am- 7 miles down main. 8:00 AP. Lots of base mile runs...

6:30 AM- Met up with Kam and Andy for 10 easy miles, the last 1.5 I started to drag a little on the uphill. Up and up. Afterwards did 45 mins of PT exercises.

Later today we are going to a very serious Wii Olympic party. That definitely counts for a  good PM workout. Likely a good ab workout from laughing more than anything.

One hour PT appointment. Right knee is bugging me and going numb with tingling at times. I guess I am cutting off circulation somewhere. Whatever. I got the go ahead for speed work.Also went to Sports Doc today who helped me get a Running Clinic appointment for later this month. I'm excited for that!

Well, I never planned to take nearly a week off of running, but since my kids went and stayed with my in-laws it made sense for me to pick up some late and long shifts at work. Running never made the cut. We went and picked them up this weekend and stayed active with family activities, but again, no running. I am scared to go for a jog tomorrow and find my efforts are hard! Oh well, no clear goal in sight right now aside from jogging Hobble Creek this weekend.

3 miles walking and jogging up Mueller Park with family. My two year old kicked our trash. We may have another little runner in the family:) 

6.5 miles on TM, AP 7:45. Felt great today.

5 miles on Elliptical and 4x200 strides on TM 5:40 AP.

6:00AM - Cross training with weights at the track. Lots of ladies there today. They all looked like fitness models wearing matching clothes. I came mismatched and ratty with white legs. Ha, maybe I'll put some thought into my outfit at least next time:) Some of the nicest girls I've met. 1 hour of weights with sprints in between. I modified some of the exercises so that my legs weren't sore for Hobble Creek on Saturday. Although I don't plan to race, I know running the distance down hill alone will leave me sore. It should be a good day!

1 mile warmup, 1 mile race pace. Felt great.

I had little expectations going in to today's race. Plan was to run around 1:30. I knew this was possible, I just didn't know if I would really do it, or try to go out and race. Happy I kept with the plan but I'm sure tired!

Spent the night in Springville with my sister. We had a bunch of family members running today, including my husband so that was fun. We got on the bus around 5:30 then made our way up to the start. Did .5 warmup and had no signs of pain, so that was promising. Started a few seconds back and went out at a controlled pace. I kept reminding myself to slow down and stop looking ahead to pick off the ladies because I knew I was going to die at the end and that was not the goal. So kept my head down, turned on my music and tried to enjoy the run down the canyon.

Miles 1-3 (6:39, 6:37, 6:31) Felt good and controlled. Ran with Kam for a little then he put on the heat at mile 2. Took a water at mile 3. 5k was about

Miles 4-6 (6:38, 6:31, 6:44) Ran with Jen Hughes (last years winner) for a couple miles. We talked the whole time, which I can never do, so maybe that was a good sign. Then she went ahead and I felt no pressure to with her, nor could I have:) 10k at 40:11.

Miles 7-9 (6:58, 6:56, 7:00) Took some shot blocks at mile 7. They taste much better, but I prefer the easiness of GU for sure. Starting to come out of the canyon here. I remember last year coming to mile 8 and could not believe I had 5 miles left. This year I felt great here. Water stop somewhere in here.

Miles 10-13 (7:04, 7:09, 7:02, 7:09) Mile 10 was a bugger. Hill with headwind.  Saw my sister Tammy who ran with me for a while. It's always refreshing to know someone is out there cheering for you, huh:) The last mile or so was slight uphill with wind. I mentally began to see myself slipping at the last .5 mile but again, that's an improvement from last year at mile 8! I wanted to be around 1:30 so, 1:28 was great! 

I talked to Cynthia Fowler, Angie B, Kam, after the race. Jogged backwards to find my husband. A mile jog backwards I had a terrible charlie horse in my left calf that put me on the ground for almost 8 minutes. Everyone kept cheering me on to go and finish the race, I must have looked like I was wiped out on the ground. I found Steve running with 4 other older runners who were on the Jeff Galloway plan as they explained. They ran 4 minutes and walked 1 minute. It seemed to work for them.

Afterwards took turns jumping in and out of the ice bath with my family members, coldest ice bath to date. I tried to act like it was nothing, something I did in my sleep, but was the first to jump out. Ha ha ha.

 Afterwards went to get a Sports massage from Jorge from the blog. He is a great Massage Therapist and highly recommended if you are in the Springville area! Great day for running. I may be done racing for the year. Too bad it wasn't much of a season after injury from Strider's in the spring, but looking forward to PR's in 2013! In the meantime focus on base, some speed, pacing, and enjoying the sport! Congrats to all the FRB members who ran today!

I had to work today so I actually chose to wear wedges to fixate my leg muscles. It worked but still sore. 3 mile hilly walk with my sister later on. Walked in a skirt with my white Sketcher's toning shoes. It looked real nice together. 

6am: XT- 30 minutes on the elliptical, strides, PT exercises and rolled out some sore muscles. They actually felt better till I rolled them out.

6am: Met with the ladies group at the track to do legs and abs for the hour. Afterwards ran 4x400's in 85 with another girl to feel out my legs. Felt like a tired rag doll.

PM: PT appointment. I finally graduated and I am happy with the results! 90 minutes of training with focus on legs and lower body.

Pt exercises and 1 mile run with my 2.5 year old and Joss on the blog. She's very excited about her new blog, maybe she'll stick with it.

6 AM: 13 miles in 2:09:26. Met up with Twinkies and Kam for Muller Park loop. The weather was perfect and the company was great. First time meeting Twinkies- his enthusiasm is contagious. We had good conversations about racing and mental games. I felt great going up and down until the last 1.5 miles on the road were more challenging. I think it was apparent by my silence for the last 1.5. My legs were spent. I knew I needed an ice bath so put in all our ice in a bath of room temp water. It came out slightly colder, not so much an ice bath:) I'm feeling drained but glad I got this run in today.

Let the race reports flood in! 

6  "easy" miles with ladies group. I felt like a rag doll being drug behind the back of a truck. Left leg was really dragging behind. Felt great to get out anyway! Cross training planned for tomorrow. 

The goal for now is base training. I wonder how many miles a week I can get to BEFORE breaking apart. I'd like to test that out. I'm not really sure how long I should keep base mileage high either without a race in sight. Any suggestions? 

 I signed up for a women's tennis league today. I'm excited to put some of my energy and competitiveness in another area during my building base stage. I haven't played tennis competitively against my siblings since I was 12. My dad and oldest brother use to teach tennis lessons. One day my dad had an idea to get all of us 7 kids into tennis at once. He bought me a tennis skirt, shirt, shoes and racket. I was probably the only one who never took it serious during lessons. I was often running around the court and twirling around in my tennis skirt....missing every ball that came my way. I never knew what my dad meant when he yelled, "Tara! Anticipate, ANTICIPATE!!" Well, I can anticipate that this tennis season will be interesting. On my way to the DI to get a skirt!

45 minutes on elliptical with 20 mins of PT exercises.

6:00 am: Boot camp workout for 80 minutes. Arms are tender!

Most of this is an entry for me to remember about my running appointment, so it may bore you with the results. IF you want to shortened version, it is this...I am messed up. 

9:30 am- Today I had my running appointment. I've been looking forward to this appointment all month. Since I was referred by my Sports Doctor, my insurance covered most of the cost aside from my copay.  It appears to be a small world. I met with two trainers who worked with me the entire time. I connected with them right away. One of the trainers did his studies at ISU where I did my undergrad work. The other trainer did her doctorate at University of Wisconsin, where I also did my graduate work. We hit it off right away!

I started with some strength and flexibility tests on my legs. It appears I have made a lot of improvements over the past 2 months of physical therapy in this area, so that was really good to hear my hard work and annoying PT exercises have paid off! My right leg is about even streghth wise as my left now:

They had me get on a treadmill and taped me running from all angles with a white band around my waste. They looked at everything from my hips down to my toes very througly then went over the tape in slow motion with me, The results were:

1. My knees cave in with each step, especailly my right. This causes lack of efficiency and increased injury to knees.

2. Apparently my legs cross like sizzors. Runners are suppose to keep a center line, I cross over with my legs. Again, the same issues here with injury and efficiency.

3. I pronate normally. This was the best find. I have been running in stability shoes with custom orthotics. I was told I could wean out of these puppies into neutral conditioning shoes. Best advice of the day!

4. I run like a duck. My tail is out, my lower back is caved in and my belly is out. Arms are all over the place.So, butt in, abs tight, hips lifted and arms back at 90 angle with a slight upper lean. Lots of movement in the legs and arms, little to no movement in the core and center- That is the goal. I did this at 8:30 pace on the treadmill and about died. I don't think I know how to run anymore. This is my assignement for the next 2 weeks of running. She said there is a lot more work to do on the lower part, but will add that in gradually.

 5. My foot strike is funny. Although I pronate normally, my stabilization on my leg is weird. I'm not sure what she called it, I can only remember the image of watching it zoomed in and in slow motion. It almost appeared that I jarred my foot each time I struck the ground. Huh. Not sure what this is about but she has a plan to fix too....later.

6. Hips look good for the most part, a little dipping on my right I guess. She gave me several  exercises to help with this.

The good news is that I have the capacity and muscles to fix each of these items, it will just take some practice and cognition to correct. Hopefully this leads to more injury free seasons. I think the going home message is that if it's not broken, then don't fix! Since I am and have been broken, it's time to fix! I pretty much plan on being like Kassi Harmon and all the other great runners by the end of all of this. 

7:00 pm : 1.5 hours of tennis with the family. I appears I have a lot of work ahead before my first game next Thursday. I tried on a tennis skirt at Lululemon and have not stopped thinking about it. I can't get myself to pay $60.00, so I will have to wait till the DI gets one in my size and color preference. Anything but vomit color will do, but that seems to be the only choices lately..that or white with an interesting stain in a peculiar spot. I will wait or go without if those are my choices:)

6:00am- 8 miles with easy 4 down Bountiful Blvd with 4 miles back. I tried to remember the things I had learned during my appointment yesterday and apply, but found it harder to do than I expected. Offered to pace friend for her tempo at 7:40. Found myself breathing a little harder than I wanted up the hills. No pain but right hammy was very aware. Enjoyable run.