Running For Trevor

7 mi backwards loop towards Spanish Fork with Jen easy.  Way tired this morning and I have a cold.  Bummer!  I invited like 5 people to come run with us today and yet only me and Jen showed up. ha...not sure what thats saying but maybe I should start wearing deodorant or something.

Planks/pushups

8 mile orchard loop with Jen, Mac, & Aubs!  I washed my running clothes last night and even brushed my teeth before running this morning so hopefully I can get them to come back again. :)  Fun morning!

I am going to run the half on Saturday.  It will probably not be pretty but I am slated to pace a marathon in 2 weeks and really need a good long run on my feet.  Since I hate long runs doing the half seems like the perfect way to accomplish this.  Plus it will be fun to see so many awesome runners out!  I'm excited to take the pressure off, use the race as a MP workout, and just try to enjoy it.  I am ready to train for something and think I want to refocus and race UVM.  I've already paid my dues for the race so I might as well go for it as long as I'm feeling healthy.  Totally thinking out loud today....sorry!

PM:  1.7 mi jog to subway & back to retrieve dinner.  Running with a 6 inch was not nearly as awkward as running with the $3 of change I scrounged up in my pocket.

5.5 mile loop with 1 x 800 + 2 x 400. 

Kam reminded me earlier this week of the wonderful archive feature of the blog and it sparked my interest in looking back at how I was training last year.  What I learned is that I was running a lot more doubles and "stupid easy" miles with my pup (8:30-9:30 pace).  I dropped Izzy off at my parents house for the weekend back in Oct and forgot to pick her back up....maybe I'll go get her this weekend because I think she was my secret.

Good luck to Christie at the St. George Iron man this weekend!

I want to be stoked about this race but unfortunately I'm completely scarred by the confirmed reminder that my feet are a major issue. I am completely heartbroken because I want more than anything to race uvm but I just MUST address this issue. It is so frustrating to feel so great and have something like this hold me back. But it is what it is and ignoring it is not fixing it. Okay now that my bawling is out of the way on to the report.

Splits: 6:11, 6:01, 6:18, 6:02, 6:04, 6:08, 6:05, 6:05, 6:09, 6:12, 6:18, 6:11, 6:07, 55 (5:47 pace). All splits between 6:01-6:18 - super proud of the smarter runner I have become. Note to self: start conservatively it always, always works for you!

Nutrition: bagel/half a banana & 24 ounces Gatorade. Water/Gatorade at most aid stations & a gel at mi 8.

Recap: I absolutely did not think I was capable of pr'ing today and had no real intent of even trying. I've been feeling a bit off for awhile now and just wanted to run a smart race. Slc half chewed me up, spit me out and left me in a hole and I did not want that to happen again. I started out with Jasmine and she seemed like a smart runner. After a few mi I realized I was going faster than I planned and told her to go ahead and that I should back off. But for some reason I just hung with her, I felt good and more than anything was loving the conversation. We were talking like long lost friends for the first 50 min of the race. It was great and time flew by....and little did I know we were flying down the canyon literally. There were no mile markers in the canyon which was actually nice and before I knew it we were out of the canyon. Way faster than my "plan" but apparently I'll go any pace as long as I have someone to chat with. I like to talk! Jasmine pulled ahead around mi 8 and I thought I slowed down but really I just stayed the same and she shifted into another gear (an incredibly fast one!). Not much else to say. I just kind of cruised into the finish. I felt better than I've ever felt in a race but my feet were on fire starting at mi 6.5 and getting progressively worse until the end. Backing off the pace helped but physically I felt so good it was hard to slow. Such an odd feeling. And that was all she wrote! Happy with my time and the PR - frustrated with my feet!

I wanted 6 mi after the race but that seemed counter productive all things considered. I changed shoes and ran the 5k with my sis. She ran 26 min - woohoo go sister. Feet were semi noticeable but feel fine going slow.

Congrats to all who ran today! My absolute favorite thing about races is the support, the awesome energy, and seeing my friends succeed and run well. Big PRs today for Josse, Ericka, Melody, and I'm sure many others. It was so great to chat with so many after the race and a big huge thank you to everyone who continues to support me. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such great people. Running freaking rocks!

easy recovery miles, 7:58 pace.  Hamstrings were a bit tight but other than that not much soreness from the race at all.  Completely opposite of the train wreck I felt like after SLC.

In salem with Jen, 7:38 pace.  A little tired but not sore at all really from the race and feet feel fine.  Such a frustrating and weird injury I am dealing with.  Hopefully I can get into a doctor this week to get an opinion and a little clearer diagnosis.

PM:  3.8 miles easy, 7:45 pace.  Felt really good.

Orchard loop with Jen, the orchards bloomed overnight and it is beautiful!  We had a good 4 mile push of sub-7 min miles that felt like a nice threshold type of effort.

We are meeting at 6am tomorrow morning at Walkers/Wendys in SF for a relaxed double (or single) loop along the River Trail if anyone is interested in joining.

AM:  7 miles along the River trail in SF with Jen & Lily.  A much needed recovery run with great conversation and a beautiful sunrise.  Can't really beat it! 7:54 pace

planks/pushups

PM:  3.5 miles easy with Izzy & Skippy in Saratoga Springs.  8:04 pace.

Track workout solo this morning.  Jen couldn't make it but I still really wanted to get the workout in.

4 up/1.5 down 6 x 800 + 1 mile with 400 active recovery.  2:53, 2:56, 2:54, 2:53, 2:53, 2:51, 6:05 (aided on the road on the way home).  My goal was not to hammer these but to hit 2:55 and dial my legs into the faster turnover.  Tough workout but  mission accomplished.  I have obviously been watching way too much Yo Gabba Gabba with my niece & nephew because my mantra for the workout was "Don't stop, don't give up."

Feet were definitely noticeable when running fast.  I also forgot to wear gloves (it was 48 degrees) and my hands went into spasm as soon as I got home.  I couldn't even get my ring off my finger they were so swollen.  Could my Raynaud's in my fingers/hands be related to the feet issue?  The feet seem worse in the heat though...I'm so confused!  Dr. Appointment on the 23rd.

PM:  3 miles easy, 8:06 pace

A very much needed 8 miles after maybe 2.5 seconds of sleep and a lot more stress than I'm used to.  I would have called Jen but oh yeah thats right my iphone was lost/stolen last night.  My garmin also died yesterday so no idea on pace for the run.  It was however a lovely morning!

If you've tried to reach me at all I am not ignoring you I just lost (not just misplaced) my cellphone.  Went into target with a phone was there 10 min & left without one.  My brother in law has a tracker on my phone and it was disabled from the phone immediately....meaning most likely I sat my phone down somewhere and it was stolen.  After going through the target garbage can, retracing my steps 100 times, and checking with guest services x 10 I spent the remainder of the night on the phone with my companies IT service desk.  Losing an iphone sucks, losing a company phone that you depend on for work sucks even worse!

Thank you for letting me vent.  I am trying to keep this all in perspective and realize it could always be worse but if you see me I could really, really, really use a hug!

Some good news amongst my anxiety of the past 18 hours:  I have officially been switched from the full marathon 3:35 pacing assignment to the half marathon 1:40 for fargo.  What a huge sigh of relief!  Now I can focus on my own running and getting my feet better instead of stressing about how I 'might' hold up for a full. 

Met up with Josse, Mac, Jen, & Rebecca way too early this morning for a run up hobble creek. The early morning was well worth the great company. I did a 5 mi tempo on the way down 6:31, 6:26, 6:26, 6:04, 5:58. Besides being tired from a lack of sleep the past two days I felt great for the run and really enjoyed running with these girls. 13 total

Went to my sisters house to run with her. I did 1 mi with the jogger and then quit to play at the playground instead. James and I constructed a massive rock castle for his dinosaurs while my sister completed the run.

7.5 in Salem with Jen, 7:30 pace.  So tired lately....I just cannot seem to go to bed at a decent hour anymore.  Maybe I need to start drugging myself with benedryl or something.

Planks/pushups

I am trying to stay in marathon shape just in case I decide I am capable of racing UVM.  I am kind of a stubborn runner...  Jen joined me for the first 10.  4 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo 6:37, 6:16, 6:12, 6:15, 4 miles steady pace (7:05) 2 mi tempo 6:28, 6:11, 1 mile easy and then another 2 mi tempo 6:30, 6:22, 1 mile cool down to get the 18 miles in.  Weird workout I know but it broke things up well and made it go by fast.  I was completely toasted at the end which did not really help my confidence.  But I've had a lot of hard workouts in the past 7 days.  Feet bothered me when going fast but the pain eased with the breaks in between tempos.  18 miles in 2:04.

Another early morning run. I've been breaking my running religion of not running before 6am a lot lately. The sunrise was beautiful and I ran nice and slow. Very enjoyable 6 miles. No watch.

En route to Rochester, MN. Thanks so much to everyone for the positive comments yesterday. I'm sorry I've been a bad supporter and blogger lately. Life has gotten busy on me...very excited to be getting away for a bit. :)

10 beautiful miles of sight seeing and exploring the city in Rochester, Minnesota.  My friend Julia lives about a quarter of a mile from Silver Lake which is a 1.8 mile paved running trail that connects to all of the trails in the city.  Today I connected to the Cascadia trail that goes out to the cascadia lake.  I did 10 x 1 min on/off on the way back at about a 5:30-5:50 pace.  Other than that I just really enjoyed soaking in the sights.  The great thing about Rochester is there are tons of paved trails and endless placed to run.  However the unfortunate thing is the paved running trails are only open about 6-7 months a year because the weather in the winter is so terrible.  Luckily for me the weather is perfect right now.  I really did luck out with the timing of this trip.

2 mile walk with the pups around the lake.  Headed to the Mall of America this afternoon and then off to Fargo in the morning.  I will be pacing 1:40 for the Fargo Half Marathon on Saturday where the weather is predicting 25mph winds and 75% chance of thunder storms.  Should be fun! :)

True Rochester weather today. 15-20mph winds and thunder storms....good practice for Fargo tomorrow I suppose. 5.5 miles nice and easy. 8:11 pace felt really good once I got going. Soaking wet!

1 mile warmup with the beautiful blonde and tan Becca. :-)

13.1 miles pacing the Fargo Half marathon 1:40 group. 

5 mile split:  7:35 pace

15k split:  7:35 pace

Finish time:  1:39:27 / 7:36 pace.  A little dissapointed that I was off but in my defense I was about 3 seconds ahead of pace every mile and rather than pitter patter around into the finish I just maintained the same pace and ended up finishing a bit early.  I tried to do a good job but I'm no treadmill!  Most of the people that started with me ended up finishing ahead of me which is awesome.  The course was great and the weather was also pretty good for the half.  On a personal note my feet bothered me starting at mile 8 and I was thanking my lucky stars I wasn't pacing the full.

2 hour break hanging out in the dome, getting interviewed on the local Fargo TV station (I'm famous in Fargo) and letting Elite marathoner John Njoroge from Kenya back into the dorms.  Me and Becca sat and talked to him for about 20 minutes and it was incredibly humbling...wow!  He had to drop from the marathon because of a hamstring injury and it was just eye opening to hear his story.  Most of us assume that these elite marathoners are well off and have unlimited resources.  So not the case for some of these Kenyan runners that just kind of live race to race without any other income.  When they are injured the make no money and cannot support there families.  Interesting stuff and a very humbling experience for me.  Definitely one of the highlights of my weekend.

8.5 miles out on the marathon course between running with Matt & Julia, 9:22 pace.  About 3 with Matt and 4.5 with Julia.  The conditions for the marathon were pretty terrible.  When Julia finished it was 82 degrees and 80% humidity.  Yuck!  Both of them PR'd and I was very glad that they tolerated me running with them.

Easy recovery miles in Fargo before flying home. 

Hilly route in Salem with Lily and Jen. 

PM:  3.5 easy around Payson

In Lehi from Willow Park with Becca.  My legs felt dead but the company was great and the weather was perfect.

2 x 2 mile 10k workout with Jen.  first set:  6:26, 5:57, no stopping..active mile in between at 7:12, second set: 5:57, 6:02.  Jen was a good 15-20 seconds ahead of me on the second set which was totally fine with me.  Tough workout!  With UVM still up in the air I'm just training for one race at a time.  Next race is Run of Remembrance 10K on Monday.

20 min strength training. 

PM:  2 very easy

Spanish Fork River trail x 2 with Holly, Mac, Jen, Aubs, & Lily.  Very enjoyable run. :)  I talked to Mac a lot about my feet issues and she had some great suggestions.  It was so good to talk to someone that has been through what I am dealing with and could relate because sometimes I just feel like I am crazy!

20 min weights

I went to the doctor this afternoon to get a thorough evaluation of my feet.  I was not expecting a miracle but just wanted to rule out anything major and see what kind of suggestions I could get moving forward.  I am just writing all of this out so that I have record for myself to refer back to.  They did some basic x-rays and ruled out anything major like a stress fracture.  The x-ray revealed that my feet look pretty normal but that my 2nd metetarsal is slighly long and my feet are abnormally wide for my size.  (I already knew that but it was funny to hear it from a doctor.)  The doctor was very thorough and diagnosed me with metetarsalgia.....so glad I could pay for that diagnosis that I figured out about a year ago. 

Anyway he did give me some great suggestions:

• They gave me a free pair of orthotics that should help lift my heel and relieve pressure from the metetarsals.
• Dr. Weenig showed me several different taping techniques that will keep my toes straight and relieve pressure from the metetarsals.
• He suggested and showed me a new lacing technique for me shoes.  He also suggested I try much wider shoes because my feet are so wide that a lot of it could be caused because my feet are abnormally wide.  The term "abnormaly wide" was used a lot. :)
• He recommended I avoid hills and focus on my stride.  He thinks I am maybe understriding when I run fast and I need to focus more on landing flatter and not on my forefront.
• He scheduled me for cortisone shots in both of my feet next Thursday and told me to race that dang marathon!  <-----okay thats not exactly what he said but he is quite confident that cortisone shots would get me through the race...

PM:  2 mi easy

Santaquin Orchard loop solo. 

Totally accidental LR today. My running mojo is gone. I could blame it on a lot of things like lack of sleep, major stress at work, and crappy eating but ultimately it's my feet and I'm just unwilling to accept that. Anyway the first 10 with Mack were great. I felt good and wanted 6 mp tempo miles after. Just wanted to ease into it and keep it a realistic mp effort. I've got lots of too fast miles under my belt but not enough mp. 6:59, 6:38, 6:32, 6:25, 6:25. Stopped and had a completely irrational breakdown. Feet were just not doing well and I think I was hitting a wall or something anyway. Pulled it together and ran back to my house (I think only 1 cow saw me cry).

As I was walking up my stairs to retire my running shoes and quit running forever I remembered I told my sis I'd run 5 mi with her to help her get ready for the 10k Mon. Crap she was waiting & ready to go. Changed shoes quick and we did 5 at a 9:18 pace. Very happy for her and the coolest part was watching her sprint the last .25 as I just barely hung on behind her. One little sip of Gatorade during this 2:46 slog fest...maybe that was part of the problem. I drank 60 ounces immediately and then drove .25 to 7-11 for a slurpee.

5 mi recovery run with Shantell.  7:58 pace.

I absolutely love this race and think it is so cool that they put it on each year.  It has become a tradition to run it every year with my sister and this year Amber was making the big jump from the 5K to the 10K.  I was really excited for her and yesterdays race was all about her.

After my failed run Sat I had quite low expectations for my own performance.  I just wanted to have fun and run at a pace comfortable enough as to not aggravate my feet.  The 10K course is really hard in my opinion and I am very happy with how I ran.  The start was a little chaotic as Carina and I were kind of stuck in the middle of the pack and I may have started my watch late because I had no real idea the race was starting.  But my watch measured 6.11 mi at 38:58 (6:22 pace), official time may have me over 39 I am not really sure.  Splits were:  6:13, 6:30, 7:02, 6:28, 6:11, 5:55, 5:46. <----pretty good example of terrible pacing but that hill+headwind at mile 3 really was hard!

Highlights of the race/day:

• Finally meeting Carina in person!  So fun to warm up/cool down and chat with her a bit.  What an incredible women and runner she is.
• My angel JulieC showing up on the bike at mile 2.5 and riding with me for a lot of the race.  I was not talking back as much as usual but I was loving her stories. :)
• Meeting Brandon's little boy who totally rocked the 5k and then coached his little brother through the 1 miler.  What a little stud!
• Getting beat by a 15 year old!  That kid was legit.....every time I surged close to him he would surge harder.  Sheesh I was totally impressed.
• Seeing my Dad at mi 6 marker and yelling at me to pick it up and beat the kid!  I was trying....
• My sister absolutely rocking the race.  She ran 55:28 and surged so hard at the end Carina, Spence, and I could barely keep up.  It was really really exciting and the greatest part about it is she loved it and now wants to do a half marathon.

It was really just a great day and seeing so many of my friends and having my family there at the race.....it was just perfect.  I know I am completely cheesy but I just really love running.  This race was good to pull me out of my funk and put things into perspective.

7.2 with Jen in Salem

25 min weights

10 min ellipticalling and chatting with Lily.

My plan is to try and over-taper for UV marathon/half marathon....  I know that being off of my feet is probably the best thing for my feet.  It is just a matter of talking my OCD personality into grasping that concept...

PM:  1.6 mi + at home PT, stretching, rolling, ect.

7.5 mi on the SF river trail with Jen, Lily, & Cam.  Fun times.

Can anyone recommend a good lighter weight wide running shoe?  And not altra.....I can't do the zero drop thing.

9 miles in the orchards with a big crew this morning - Jen, Jos, Mac, Sierra and Rebecca.  3 mile tempo 6:41, 6:18, 6:09.  Sierra is running xc/track for SUU next year and I am excited to train with her over the Summer.  Fun morning!

Cortisone shots in between the 2nd & 3rd metetarsals of both feet this afternoon.  Eeeek!

5 easy recovery miles with the south county crew - Jen, Mac, Aubs, & Sierra.  Another fun morning. :)

The cortisone shots yesterday were not nearly as bad as I thought they would be.  Hopefully they help and if not well at least I tried...