Terminator

AM:  20 mile loop from my home with Jake, Brandon, Mike, Toni, Dan, and Chad.  Snowy and icy at times so we kept the pace leisurely. What a wonderful way to begin the New Year.  Thanks to everyone for coming this morning. The miles flew by and the company was fantastic.  Big results for FRB-ers coming in 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

AM:  10 mile easy loop from Reed's home with Mike and Reed. Brutally cold out this morning.

PM:  Hamstring and upper body weights.

AM:  10 easy out and back miles from my home with Reed and Dan.  Very cold (-2 degrees), but do-able with the right amount of layers.

AM:  Easy 10 mile loop from Scott's house with Dan, Reed, and Scott. Was great to have Scott back in the mix again. Very cold again, but not a big deal if dressed appropriately.

AM:  Awesome 17 mile run from Jake's and Andrea's place with Scott, Mike, Fritz, Chad, Jake, and Andrea. Cold out (single digits) but we definitely warmed up during the run. Warmed up 4 miles. Then did 10 mile tempo run in 53:42 (I think I'll copy Jakes' idea of bolding important workouts). I stayed right with Jake for 8.5 miles and then he sped up while I maintained. I felt very strong. There were times I wondered if I could make it the entire 10 miles, and I took it mile-by-mile at times, but I felt strong the entire time and I finished feeling like I could keep going. Splits (these are slightly different than what Jake posted, but this is what my Garmin said):  5:16, 5:20, 5:18, 5:25, 5:18, 5:22, 5:25, 5:21, 5:27, 5:24 (5:22 average). Confidence-building and a lot of fun.

Jake was a total animal as usual. Fritz looked great and wisely backed off after a few miles because of his hamstring. Mike looked great also and even helped Jake and me out by jumping in and doing some mile repeats near the end of our tempo run. Was great to have Scott there with us! He looked great and wisely mostly ran easy. Chad did great. And Andrea certainly didn't look like she has been struggling with injuries -- she's got running in her genes.

We then capped it off with an excellent breakfast prepared by Andrea! It was so tasty and really hit the spot! Thanks Andrea!

Thanks guys for an amazing and fun run!

 PM:  Upper body weights.

AM:  Easy 10 mile loop from Scott's house with Reed, Toni, and Scott.

PM:  Easy 8 miles on treadmill at local rec center. Legs feel a lot better today than I thought they would given Saturday's tempo run. A good sign. Hamstring and upper-body weights.

AM:  Easy 10 mile out-and-back from my place with Spencer and Dan.

AM:  10 mile loop through Highland and Alpine with Reed and Toni. Did 3 x 1 mile repeats at 5:08, 5:09, 5:09 with 0.3 jog in between intervals. Ran into a bit of a headwind for all intervals, and while most of it was fairly flat, there were some slight uphill elevation changes. I had hoped for closer to 5:00, but given the morning and the effort, this is the pace I felt best about. 4 mile warm up, 2 mile warm down. Feeling strong.

AM:  10 miles easy from Toni's home in Orem with Scott, Spencer, and Toni.  Temperature was in the low 30's -- amazing how that feels "balmy" compared to the cold we've had lately. Also, the inversion seems to have lifted and the air was clean and crisp this morning, which was wonderful.  And even though it was dark, the mountains were crystal clear. It is awesome having Scott back -- talk about a class act guy and a great friend. He'll be putting the hurt on a lot of people in 2013.

PM:  8 easy miles on the treadmill. Hamstring and upper body weights.

AM:  10 easy miles on the treadmill at my home.

AM:  12 miles at the Olympic Oval in Kearns with Jake, Andrea, Scott, Mike, Toni, Collin, Kevin, and Kramer & his high school teammates. Was a lot of fun. Warmed-up and warmed-down 4 miles each. Then, did 20-minute tempo run. I have no idea the distance, but it was likely just under 4 miles. The others did mile repeats. Given my race next weekend, I decided to stick with my plan for tempo and not risk anything with faster repeats (since I haven't done fast stuff yet). It was sure tempting to go with them though. I started my first mile with them. I came through at 5:11, and I have no idea what the pace was after that. My guess is that I kept about 5:15 pace average for 20 minutes. There was a mass of humanity of joggers on the track, which required a lot of weaving around them. I made a lot of people mad and had a lot of people cussing at me as I yelled at them to move to the outer lanes. Also, there were barricades blocking off many of the lanes at several points around the track because of a multi-country speed skating competition going on. Not ideal conditions for tempo, but still fun and still a good workout. Everyone looked great. Jake ran effortlessly. And the story of the day is that Scott is back! He looked great and was back to his animal self!

PM:  Hamstring and upper body weights.

AM:  11 easy miles from my home with Toni and Mike. -2 degrees. Cold, but a very pleasant run. Just wear enough layers and this type of run is very do-able. Legs feel like I didn't even do speed on Saturday (a good sign).

PM:  Hamstring and upper body weights.

AM:  10.5 miles easy from my house with Toni and Reed. Cold but fun.

AM:  8 miles from my home with Reed, Toni, Spencer, and Mike. Warmed-up and warmed down 3 miles each. Did 2-mile tempo at 5:25 average -- just enough to get the blood pumping. Felt great.

PM:  Hamstring and upper body weights (2/3 the amount I normally do).

AM:  6 mile loop easy from my home with Mike. Nice and easy. Excited for Saturday.

AM:  4 miles easy from my home with Mike. Legs feel prepped and ready.

AM: Well, you win some, you lose some. Today was not my day. Not sure what happened. I'm not one for excuses, so I won't make any. I just simply did not have it today -- even right from the start. Felt labored the entire time. Never felt relaxed. Kept hoping I'd feel better, but it never happened. In spite of feeling this way, I was on 1:11:00 pace until 8 miles, and then I obviously fell apart.

I did learn a lesson about nutrition. I intentially didn't take any liquid until mile 11. That may have been a bad move, as I felt light-headed and especially bad from miles 8-11 (there wasn't an aid station during those miles, so I was wishing I had taken fluid at the previous one). I managed to get 2 quick swallows of gatorade down at mile 11 and then finished the race. I also didn't take GU. I thought I wouldn't need nutrition during the race because of the length of time I'd be running, plus I was not motivated to do so because it was cold. Nutrition is obviously critical during a marathon, but I'm curious what you on this blog advise for a 1/2 marathon. Maybe that affected my last 5 miles, but it certainly doesn't explain my not feeling good for the first 8 miles.

Definitely frustrating. But that's part of distance running. Oh well. I feel I'm currently in shape to run ~ 3 min faster. There's always next time.... It's time to keep my head up and look forward to the next one.

AM:  10 easy miles from my home with Reed and Spencer.

PM:  Hamstring and upper body weights.

AM:  10.5 easy miles from my home with Mike and Spencer.

AM:  10 easy miles from my home with Spencer.

AM:  10.5 miles from Scott's house with Mike, Spencer, and Scott. Warmed-up 4 miles. Then, did 4 mile tempo at 5:31 average. Did mainly low 5:30's and did the last one in 5:22. Quite a headwind. Felt extremely good, easy, and relaxed. I tweaked my hamstring a bit at the race on Saturday, so I've intentionally waited until that improved to do speed this week. It's not fully better, but it's improving. I felt like I could have kept up that tempo pace all day. The only reason I cut it to 4 miles was just to be careful with the hamstring. Wonderful to feel so good after not feeling good at all on Saturday. Scott did some tempo with pick-ups. He looks great and is ready for a great 5k on Saturday.

AM:  10 easy miles on the treadmill because of icy roads.

AM:  Long run:  easy 20 mile loop from my home, 3:00 am. I knew that getting it done crazy early would be my only option to run today as I would be hunting with my family. I definitely had to force myself out the door, but I'm sure glad I got it done. Weird weather but great temperature. At 3am it was clear (except for the inversion) and a balmy 32 degrees. At 5:30 am when I finished, it was unbelievably foggy and had cooled significantly, which made for icy roads. For the last few miles, I had to turn off my headlamp because it was so foggy (the light just made it worse). Just ran easy today to be careful with the ice, and because of the fact that I would be hunting. Was a good run, but my 2.5 hour run felt like it lasted 5 hours, probably because I did it alone and in the middle of the night. It sure is a lot more enjoyable doing longs runs with a group. My run was my warm-up for some serious climbing of snowy/icy mountains looking for cow elk. Had a blast and it was wonderful to be in clean air. I was a little nervous about how my legs would do hiking in those conditions after a long run, but my legs felt great. A good sign.

AM:  Planned on doing tempo outside this morning. But, no surprise, with the new snow storm, roads were snowy and icy. So, I took it inside and decided to do tempo on the treadmill.  Warmed-up 5 miles. Then, did 4 miles in 20:00. Just set it at 12 mph and pushed stop 4 miles later. Felt great. Because it felt so great cardiovascular-wise, I thought about continuing for another mile or 2. However, my legs were telling me they were ready to be done (and I've learned many times over the years to listen to the legs when they are so communicating). Happy with the workout. Feeling strong. Warmed-down 2 miles. Then did hamstring and upper-body weights.

I am so done with this winter! But at least the air is currently clean!

PM:  6 very easy treadmill miles.

AM:  10 easy treadmill miles.

PM:  8 easy treadmill miles. I really don't like the treadmill, but we got pounded with snow. I actually enjoy running in the snow, and I've done it a lot in the past, but sometimes I'm prone to tweaks when I run in deep snow. Just being careful.

AM:  10 easy treadmill miles.

PM:  8 easy treadmill miles. Hamstring, hip, and upper body weights.  My legs were quite sore after my workout Monday. They're finally coming around. Too much treadmill, but I'm just being careful with the slick roads. Also, my lungs feel the best they've felt in 2 months. Not 100%, but really improving. My lungs have had issues for over 2 months. I completed another course of antibiotics and a brief course of prednisone. I have asthma, and I'm guessing it's related to that, and that perhaps the inversion affected me more than I'd like to admit. Regardless, it feels like I'm on the mend, which is sure making running feel better.

AM:  10 mile treadmill run. Warmed-up 3 miles. Then, did 4 mile tempo in 21:24 (11.2 mph, 5:21 min/mile pace). Had planned to do a few more tempo miles at that pace, but that felt plenty this morning. I felt fine, but my legs did not have the "zip," which is not unexpected given my tempo from Monday, my increased miles, and my lack of sleep. Warmed-down 3 miles. Feeling a twinge just below my knee in the front (anterior proximal tibia). Hoping it's nothing bad. I've decided to take the day off tomorrow because of it.