Running For Trevor

5 mile loop, 8:33 pace.  My right leg was killing me today and I just kinda felt like crap in general.  I probably just have a vacation hang over.  Oh well you win some you lose some.

5.2 miles out & back.  In a lot of pain the first 3 miles today. :(  I even heated my leg and foam rolled before I ran.  Waah, waah, waah..

Planks/pushups

I need to find a new hobby or some new friends or something.  I'd just start going to the gym and cross training but I hate leaving my poor pup more than the 9 hours I already leave her each day.  Life is just so hard....haha okay it could really be a lot worse!

PM:  1 mile with Izzy, and then some walking.  Felt way better tonight.  ITBS rehab. 

Gym workout - it hasn't changed much same old meat heads.

30 min weights......errrr ah standing in the weights area.  Lots of exercising my mouth.  Thats what happens when you take a 6mo hiatus from the gym everyone and their puppies wants to chat.

40 min elliptical action. 

3.5 mi treadmill action, 0% incline.  The first .5 mi was painful but it got better and oddly enough the faster I run the less pain I feel.  I hate the treadmill but I might be sticking with it more for a bit since it's a nice flat surface and if I'm in pain I can always push that nice red "stop" button.  And I can people watch....always entertaining.

Best part of my day was wearing the new red skinny jeans my Mom bought me while I was gone to Moab.  I LOVE fall fashion!

PM:  2 miles with the pup.

45 min clubhouse ellipitical.  I found a radio station that worked so that was exciting.

3 mi hobbling around the neighborhood.  I feel like a freaking gimp!

PM:  2 miles with the pup.  ITBS Rehab and stretching.

6 miles in the bitter cold, 8 min pace.  brrrrr my hands are still frozen.  I went and got tortured (scraped) by Josse yesterday and so I felt better this morning but there is definitely still something not right.  Today the pain was in my right shin/calf and seemed to get better the longer I ran.  Was only going to do 4.5 but I didn't really feel warmed up until I hit mi 4.

Good Luck to everyone running St. George tomorrow!  I am so glad I'm not running it but so incredibly excited for everyone. 

PM:  jogged a mile with Iz and then walked a mile.  Such a nice night!

7 miles with Merri & Lily.  Such a fun morning!  Running has been depressing for me lately so it was so so nice to run with these sweet girls.  The pain in my right leg isn't getting any better and I'm going to try and take a week off of running.

30 minutes weights at the gym.  Anxiously waiting to here how everyone did at SGM.  EEEEEK!

PM:  1.2 with Iz

Track with Izzy.  3 minimally painful miles. :)  Lot of icing, self massage, stretching, ect yesterday and maybe it's helping?  I am still going to be smart and just stick to mostly cross training this week.

5:45 am Spin tomorrow.  Yikes I'm nervous!

PM:  Family track night.  I biked 2 miles and walked about 1.5.  My parents are in a competition to see who can get the most miles in this weekend.  My Dad is at 10.5 (all walking) and my Mom is at 15 but she is counting her bike miles so I think it's cheating.  Fun night with the fam!

45 min Spin class - my butt is sore!  Spin is weird....I did not feel like I was working very hard but I was dripping sweat by the end so apparently I was.  Great low impact cross training!  The only problem is most days it starts at 5:15am and that is just a little too early for me.  The 5:45am class was perfect!

20 min weights

2 treadmill miles.  Felt really good to start and then Bam.....pain!  So I quit.

Charity 5k tonight to raise money for a girl from my hometown that was paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident.  I will be working on my pacing skills.....someone give me an exact time to shoot for?

Happy Columbus Day!  It's been a day of discovery alright!

• I discovered that Spin is hard and hurts your butt!  Seriously wow.
• I discovered that you should never start at the very back of a 5k with 200 people and half of them with strollers and dogs.
• And most importantly I discovered that you should always listen to the course directions even if you think you will take last place.

I had zero intent of "racing" this race....heck I've literally been dragging my right leg around and not ran one sub-8 minute mile since TOU.  But my brain has issues and honestly running fast with this stupid injury feels better than jogging.  I started way in the back thinking there would be a bunch of HS kids and I would just run with my friend Alisha and hangout.  I truly felt like I was barely jogging but somehow after the first mile and swirving past about 100 little kids and strollers I was in the lead?  I felt good so just decided to run what felt like a comfortable hard effort.  I was in the lead so as runner instinct would have it I didn't want to lose it!  I promised myself that if I had any pain at all I would be smart and stop or slow down.  I did not know the course at all and kept running when I was supposed to turn adding an extra .1 mi according to garmin.  The cop had to chase me down and redirect me and somehow I was still in the lead?  Nephi people seriously need to get in better shape because the fact that I was winning a 5k running slower than marathon pace was just ridiculous!  Didn't look at my watch once and just ran by feel.  Jogged it in at the end because it finished on gravel.  7:05, 6:40, 6:08, 6:15

Moral of the story:  If your injured just run fast and it will solve the injury?  Just kidding I am not getting too excited and sitting here icing as we speak.  I think it just felt so dang good and smooth to run fast that I was able to shut out any sign of pain. Who knows running injuries are so weird!

Gym Workout:  1 mile on the treadmill just to asses the damages of yesterdays stupidity.  Fortunetely felt okay.  The knee pain is still very much there but it is bearable.

30 minutes weights including ITBS rehab.

8 miles on the elliptical, 55 min.  Resistance between 9-12. 

Did a workout on the elliptical at the gym this am. 10 min warm-up and then 10 times by 2 min on/1 min recovery. Kept the speed the same and bumped the resistance up to 14 for the on min. This was way harder than running and I was dripping sweat. 7 mi in 50 min.

iTBS rehab and a little weights

Am 2: 3 mi in the jogger with my nephew.

Gym Workout:  20 minutes weights

5 miles on the treadmill.  Treadmills are freaking dangerous everyone!  I was just running along this morning excited because the pain in my knee was minimal and I actually sorta felt like a normal runner and like just maybe I could muster up 13 miles this Sat for the Fittest State race.  Then all of a sudden the TV went fuzzy and the volume died.....okay whatever I can deal with that.  Then the treadmill started screeching and smelling like it was on fire?  I should have stopped at this point but was really close to 5 mi....and who wants to stop at 4.83......so I kept going and poof the freaking treadmill engine like completely blew up, every thing went black, and it died.....and still smelt like smoke.  Yikes!  So my fear of treadmills that I got over for like 2 days in now back in full force.  Crap it's going to be a long winter.

PM:  2 miles no garmin.  Probably slower than tar but I could really careless because physically I felt really good on both of the runs today.  My stomach was another story tonight but I didn't even care because it felt so good to be running pain free. :)  Maybe this low miles and cross training shinanagans crap is actually working.  I'm going to stick with it all winter long...

5.5 miles of misery, 8:20 pace.  Felt so crappy I stopped and walked the last .25 to my house. haha  I've had a bit of a stomach bug and just had 0% energy today.  My leg was also bothering me more than I'd like to admit.  Waah, waah, waah!  I've got to get some calories in me today if I even want to think about covering 13 miles tomorrow.

My first ever DNS (did not start)!  Was supposed to run the Utah Fittest State Half Marathon with Rachel and I was excited.  But I had the stomach flu all day Friday and with my injury I was going into it knowing it was a completely foolish thing to do.

Woke up at 4:45am to get ready on Saturday and my energy was at 0% so I texted Rachel :( and went back to bed thinking I'd wake up in time for the 5.  Woke up at 7am and went striaght back to bed clear until 10am. haha I was sick and needed my rest and for once in my life I actually made a smart choice since my leg was no where near ready for 13 miles.

Once I finally woke up I ran 4 miles down to the HS track where my Dad met me with the pups and I did 3 more with Izzy.  7 total.  no energy at all and my leg started bothering me after about 5.  So glad I didn't try to do the race.

AM:  Everyone was still gone to church when I got to my parents house so I decided to run.  5.25 miles out and back.  I felt completely out of shape!  But in case your wondering Sunday morning at 11:30am is the perfect time of day to run.  The weather was awesome.

PM:  Walked 4.5 miles at the track with my Mom & Dad and the pups.

Gym Workout:  20 minutes weights

6 miles on the treadmill, 1% incline 8 minute pace.  I have learned that I can go about 4.5-5 miles (or 30-40 minutes) before my leg starts bothering me.  I am definitely making progress.  Slowly but surely. 

20 min ellpitical just talking nice and easy.

I can't believe it's been a month since TOU.  It is pretty ridiculous how long it's taken me to recover from this one.  But I must admit that I am really enjoying the downtime and laid back approach to training. 

Does anyone in UT county want to run 5-6 miles with me tomorrow morning around 7-7:15am?  I have to come up for a work meeting at 6am but should be done by 7.

PM:  2.25 miles easy.  The weather does not get much more perfect than it was this afternoon.

Work meetings at 6am and 9am with a 1.5 hour window in between.  It's totally classy to go into work in running tights. :)  6.25 miles out & back in Provo canyon, 7:58 pace.  My legs are so locked into an 8 min pace right now I'm not sure if I could go any faster or slower.  Such a nice run with perfect weather and even some sunlight.  I would have loved to have run longer this morning but I am really trying to be smart and the IT and right calf definitely start to become noticable after 30 min of running. 

Gym workout:  30 minutes weights.  I even wandered around the gym aimlessly attempting to utilize the actual weight machines for the first time ever.  I am really wanting to strengthen my hips, quads, calves, and well just my legs in general if anyone has any suggestions?  I did my regular ITBS rehab exercises and then tried some abductor machine thingys.

8 miles on the treadmill.  oops!  Only planned 4 but I just kept going for some dumb reason.  I did feel better but it was still probably a foolish choice.  It took me 63 minutes so whatever pace that is.  The IT band and calf are definitely feeling better each day but the dumbest thing I can do at this point is increase mileage and run through pain.  I think if I handle this injury correctly I can be back up and running fast again soon enough.  But if I'm stupid it could set me back a lot further.  So don't be afraid to slip me a reminder to be smart every once in awhile. :)

Meeting at Willow Park in Lehi on the JRP at 5:45am tomorrow. 5-6 miles for me but you can go as long or as short as you want.  Come one come all!

Awww 7.5 lovely miles with Julie & Rachel this morning on the JRP via Willow Park in Lehi.  I was the closest to the meeting spot and was late because I am directionally challenged and cannot find anything in the dark.  My car almost ran out of gas but I made it and loved every second of it!  Thanks to Rachel for saving our bacon with the headlamp.  We probably would have ended up running straight into the river without her.  I forgot to pack running clothes and was sporting my Dad's XXL football underarmor shirt with a pair of shorts my Mom borrowed me.  Quite the sight for sore eyes but I was very warm and it was a great morning chatting with friends.

PM:  2 miles.  Beautiful Fall night!

Gym Workout:  35 min weights - planks, pushups, shoulders, and ITBS rehab & stretches.

40 sweat-tastic elliptical minutes.  Warmed up 10 min and then did 15 on/off intervals.  Kept the pace the same and just bumped up resistance for the "on" minutes.  6.3 miles in 40 min and I was completely dripping with sweat.

3 treadmill miles, 8 min pace.  I think I was just tired from the elliptical challenge but it felt hard and my IT was bothering me this morning.  In hindsight I should have probably just stayed on the elliptical and tried to beat James record of like 19 miles in one hour.

5K tomorrow.  I am 100% committed to my plan of not "racing" the rest of 2012 but depending on how I feel I'll probably shoot for a MP effort (which may end up being 7:30 pace).  More importantly since it is the month of Halloween I do know I will 100% be dressing up.  Costume ideas are welcome.

I had a lot of fun at the race this morning.  It definitely wasn't an easy course but racing without any pressure is sure enjoyable.  I had three goals.

1.  Beat Allie & Andrea's "jogging" 5K time from last week.

2.  Run a negative split.

3.  Keep my 4th of July hat on.

I successfully (barely) accomplished all three so I'm calling it a victory.  I wouldn't go out on a limb and say it was easy by any means but the effort definitely felt right considering I've been a complete mess since TOU.  6:41, 6:32, 6:26, 5:52 for the last .1. 

I felt pretty good during the slow 3 mile warmup and the race but the cooldown was a completely different story.  My IT and right calf were killing me and I thought I might have to crawl back to the awards ceremony.  It may not have helped that Kassi and Devra dragged us straight up a freaking mountain!  But still it was ridiculous how terrible I felt. 

I won a sweet jacket for dressing up like an idiot in my cutoff shorts & 4 leaf clover socks so all in all a successful day and definitely worth the trip up to the city!  The best part of the day was definitely brunch after the race at Kevins.

8.5 miles in Mapleton with Pam, Josh, and Paul.  Gorgeous fall morning, 8:35 pace.

Totally broke my Running Religion of never waking up early on a Sunday to run.  I'll catch up on my sleep one of these days!  I haven't run with this group in a long time so it was worth it and it was fun hearing all about their awesome St. George marathon adventures.

Gym Workout:  15 min elliptical warm-up

35 min weights - Worked shoulders, planks/pushups, ITBS rehab, talking...

5.5 treadmill miles, 1% incline 43 min.  I got all the way up to 8mph (7:30 pace) and thought I might die.  Funny how the treadmill is SO different than the roads for me right now.

PM:  jogged 2 miles easy and then did some stretching and foam rolling. 

Project break the treadmill rut.  10 x 400 with equal recovery.  Kind of a weak workout but hey it's my first real attempt at speed (besides my pathetic 5ks) since TOU.  I warmed up 1 mi and then got going.  The first 2 were @ 6:27 pace, then 2 @ 6:10, next 2 @ 6:00-6:04, and the last 4 @ sub-6 pace and 0% incline.  I thought I might die but I didn't so I'm calling it a success.  It actually felt really good to run fast!  My leg did not bother me at all until halfway through the cooldown mile.  7 mi in 53 min.

ITBS rehab and stretching

Injury Update:  It has now been 5 weeks since TOU and I am finally feeling like my muscles are healing.  My right IT band is still an issue and I just can't maintain any type of distance.  Since speed does not seem to irritate it (whether I go fast or slow it starts to bother me after 40-45 min of running) I might as well use this downtime to focus on 1-2 speed workouts a week.  I just need to be smart and avoid hills, cross train, and continue with the ITBS and stretching plan.

6.75 mi Santaquin Orchard loop.  Did not wake up until about mile 5 this morning.  My IT band did not bother me at all today. :)

Gym workout:  25 minutes lower body weights, planks/pushups, ITBS rehab.

5.25 treadmill miles. 10 min warmup and then 10 x 1 min on/off intervals.  On's @ 5:52-5:56 (10.0-10.2mph) and off's @ 8:27.  There were a few grab onto the treadmill so I don't die moments and this definitely wasn't easy but I did live to report about it. :)

20 min elliptical

PM:  20 min elliptical while watching Two and a half men.

40 min weights - worked triceps and then did weighted squats & lunges until my legs felt like jello.  It did not take long!  I am not racing this weekend so I decided I had no excuse to not start working my lower body harder.

ITBS rehab

30 min elliptical

4.75 mi treadmill, 1% incline 8:00 pace.  I may have overdone it on the lunges because my leg started bothering me towards the end of the run.  I just stopped and walked it out instead of finishing off the 5 mi I was planning.

This indoor cardio crap is getting old.  Anyone want to run with me tomorrow?

13 miles with a bunch of crazies in Provo Canyon.  I just cannot seem to stay away from the madness of the Halloween Half.  New course and me and JulieC decided last minute to dress as Bathing Buties.  Good times!  I did not wear a watch but I think I finished in like 1:35-1:36?  Ran the first 4 with Josse & then ran with my friends Steph & Holly pacing 1:40.  A girl I know from my gym (Melissa) passed us at mi 6.5 and I asked her if she wanted me to run with her.  She did and I instantly became the unoffical 1:35 pacer roping people in as I went.  Only problem was I didn't have a watch at all so I was just pacing on feel and hoping I was staying on track.  What a fun morning and I held up the entire 13 miles so I feel much more confident in pacing Snow Canyon half next weekend!

It was like a a great big runners party/reunion the entire race.  My favorite part was the new out & back section they added because I got to see everyone and chat. :)  So many familiar faces this morning and so nice to finally meet Angie after the race.

6 mi with Kevin in the big city.  Ran from the avenues to foothill drive.  There was a fair amount of climbing involved.

20 minutes weights

8 miles on the treadmill in 63 min.

I found out that Melissa that I paced Saturday finished in 1:35:04.  Not too shabby for the unofficial 1:35 pacer without a watch. :)

PM:  2 mi up to the city building to pay my bill and then up to Smiths to buy a cucumber.  Ended up buying a cucumber, tomatoe, and 2 bags of Halloween candy so I walked home and rewarded my efforts with 1 laffy taffy every half mile.  It was a productive afternoon.

Halloween Spooktacular Fun Run:  Lehi JRP via Willow Park at 5:30am.  Bring your headlamp, or dress up like a christmas tree.

Cardio first today.  40 minutes elliptical

4 miles on the treadmill.  1 mile warmup, 2 miles in 13:20 (6:40 AP), 1 mile cooldown.  Basically marathon pace for the 2 miles although it felt more like 5k pace today. 

Lower body Strength training plan that Teena sent me.  I couldn't remember all of the moves but think I did pretty good.  It only took about 15 minutes and it really felt like I covered all of my lower body.  Once I get better at it I will start adding weight.

Halloween Spooktacular Fun Run:  Tommorow morning meeting at Willow Park in Lehi at 5:30am.  Bring your headlamp, or dress up like a christmas tree.  I'm bringing trick or treats!

8 miles on the Lehi JRP with Smooth, Karen, Karen's friend, Rachel, Chad & Rob.  It was nice to finally meet Rob in real life!  Running is so much more enjoyable when you have good company.  It was a great morning and the 4:55am wake up call was totally worth it.  I really like this route and one of these days I will have to actually run it in the daylight.

Chad & Rob decided to bust out a tempo and Smooth and the crew left early so I am left with an abundance of halloween goodies.  We will have to meet up again so I can get you guys your treats. :)

Can anyone recommend a good pair of gloves for winter running?  I was incredibly warm today except for my fingers which were freezing the entire time and still are.

PM:  2 miles easy.  So nice out!