Running For Trevor

40 minutes elliptical

3 miles treadmill, no incline, 25 minutes.  Felt like I got hit by a train this morning.  I had no energy and think I might be coming down with a cold.  My calves are also incredibly tight and I have no idea why?  I actually contemplated just laying in bed and calling in sick to work, but then I remembered that I would just be calling myself since I am the Manager.  I'm just glad I got a workout in because I'm a complete grouch when I don't sweat before work!

6 lovely miles around Orem with Josse.  Perfect weather and company.  Thanks Josse for letting me tag along.

30 minutes Strength training at the gym, 15 min elliptical very slowly just scoping out the weather report for the weekend.

Pacing 1:45 at the Snow Canyon half tomorrow.  It should be a perfect weekend to head South.

Paced 1:45 at the Snow Canyon Half Marathon on Saturday and came in at 1:44:56 (Garmin time, official results are not up yet).  I had an absolute blast pacing this race and loved every second of it.  It was an incredibly beautiful course, perfect weather, and I had a great crew to run with.  Sorry Kelli but I think 1:45 if my new favorite time to pace.  There were quite a few people that stuck with us the entire way which made pacing a lot of fun.  It was awesome to meet Brooke in person and have her run with me the entire way.  She is SUCH a strong runner and just a beautiful person inside and out.  I have no complaints, it was a great day and pacing is so much more fun than racing.

I do take pacing incredibly serious and am a little upset that I was 4 seconds fast but overall I think I paced a really even race.  These downhill races are a little hard to pace but I did do my best to keep the effort level the same the entire way.

4 mi in Mesquite soaking in some vitamin D.

25 minutes weights and strength training

8 mi on the treadmill.  I was just planning to run easy today but I got bored so I threw in some fartlek type efforts & messed around with the incline.  I was a complete sweaty betty by the time my 60 min were up.

7.5 miles total.  Ran the extended route up to the Junior High to vote, waited in line for an hour and then ran the short way back home.  The run took less time than the waiting but at least I got a sticker...... :)

Me & JulieC are meeting at the Orem City Center at 6am to run in the morning if anyone wants to join.

PM:  3 miles followed by chasing around my nephew while trying to take care of a newborn and a hyper dog simultaneously.

8 miles in Orem with JulieC and the last 3 or so with Melody.  We ran up Provo Canyon and it was a perfect fall morning for a run.  I have to apologize to Melody for changing our meeting location late last night and not updating my blog.  Hopefully I can make my way up to Orem at least once a week to run with these guys.  Running with friends is so enjoyable to me that it does not even seem like a workout.

25 minutes weights at the gym.  Worked shoulders & chest and then did the usual planks/pushups.  Loving the lifting I've been doing lately and hopefully I can stay committed all winter long.

PM:  30 min elliptical.  I just realized today that I only have about 20 miles left until I hit 3,000 for the year.  CRAZY!

10 min weights working triceps. 

20ish min elliptical talking to Kira & Lily

6 mile boredom buster on the tready.  15 x 1 min on/off intervals.  On at 6:00-5:49 pace and off at 8:27 pace.  This was really hard and made me feel really out of shape.  I want to try and run sub-20 at the turkey trot and clearly I have some work to do to get there.  Crazy how much speed I've lost since TOU!  With a nice 2 week training plan I'm hopeful I can pull off a sub-20 but we shall see.

Off to Vegas this afternoon to run Las Vegas Ragnar.  I want to be excited (and I am) but between work, school, and traveling out of town every weekend I am so burnt out.  I need to find a sleeping bag, and get packed, and get me some dang diet coke after work.  At least I get to meet Nick Symmonds! :)

5 miles in the morning around the suburbs in Las Vegas.  A little windy but a perfectly relaxing shakeout run before the Ragnar festivities began.

3rd year running Las Vegas Ragnar Relay & for the 3rd year in a row I absolutely loved it!  New course & new team for me this year but still the same old fun that comes with a Ragnar.  I know a lot of people think these ragnar things are stupid and I completely get where you are coming from if you are a serious runner.  But until I grow up I will keep running them and keep having fun!  We had a really fun team this year including 800 meter superstar Olympian Nick Symmonds who was completely down to earth and incredibly humble.  Our team was laid back, not serious at all but yet pretty dang fast at the same time.  Perfect combination! 

I was runner #9 and admittedly had quite possibly the easiet leg of the relay.  Normally I like to take the harder legs and challenge myself but with the injury cycle I've been riding for the past 2 months I thought it would be wise to take the safer route. 

Leg #1 - 2.9 miles at 6pm, 6:53 pace.  I have to admit I worked pathetically hard for that 6:53 pace.  It was ridiculously windy and there was a net elevation gain of about 100 per mile which was just enough to make me have to work really hard and feel completely wiped out after only 19 minutes of running. haha

Leg #2 - 3.5 miles at 2am, 6:26 pace.  Net downhill of about 200 feet but a pretty relentless headwind the entire run.  Happy to hit my goal 5k pace for the turkey trot.  This leg was fun because we were starting to catch teams and I passed like 30 people in the 25 min it took me to run this one.  My feet were on fire the last 1.5 miles which was not a good sign considering I had 9.5 more to run the next morning.

Leg #3 - 9.75 miles at 10am, 6:24 pace.  Now don't go thinking I'm all super human or anything.  There was A LOT of downhill in this leg....like 1200 feet or something.  It was a perfect 1-2% downhill gradiant the entire time.  Seriously find me a marathon like this somewhere.  This was by far my favorite leg of the race and it felt really good to run for more than 20 minutes.  My feet were on fire the last mile but other than that a perfect run and I felt great.

Our team ended up finishing in a little over 24 hours.  We were projected to finish in 23:47 which would have been way cool but there is always next year to crack the 24 hour mark.  I think we took like 7th overall and I can pretty much garauntee you we had a lot more fun than anyone else.  I'll get our Nevernudes video posted when our captain Ryan gets it edited.  Another awesome Ragnar experience in the books!

6 miles easy gallavanting around the strip.  Felt great considering the downhill Ragnar leg from the day before.  8:53 pace.

Oh hello Alaska!  Freakity crap it is freezing in Utah.

40 minutes weights working upper body & planks/pushups

20 min elliptical

7.2 miles easy on the treadmill.  Felt oddly great for some reason.

Spent the morning up at Weber State College which is where I have been going to school online for the past 2.5 years but my first time ever on campus.  I am getting my degree in Healthcare Promotion/Administration and for my Nutrition class they were offering a bunch of free health assessments in there Human Performance lab for extra credit.  I was all over it since it was all free and I haven't had any type of blood work done in ages. I am on a ridiculously high deductible insurance plan and have been riding the "just don't break your neck so you don't have to go to the doctor plan" for about 2 years strong so I was kind of excited about this.  They did all sorts of tests including body fat percentage, cholesterol, blood pressure, ect, and I found out I am pretty dang healthy which is great.  The most disappointing discovery of the day is that I am only 5'1.5!  I made the guy measure me like three times and I just kept getting shorter so I guess I'll just have to live with it.  I'll keep rounding it up to 5'3 because that just sounds better.

When he took my blood pressure he asked if I was a runner because it was low.  I said yes and he asked me if I am any good and why I didn't run for Weber.  Well because I am a freaking college Dinosaur dude!  Apparently he is friends with the cross country coach and thinks I have a year of eligibility left since I have only been enrolled at Weber since 2009.  Interesting information but I work in Provo and I probably wouldn't even have a shot at making the team.  But still this was interesting to me.

30 minutes lower body strength training - lunges, squats, & some other random crap.

30 minutes elliptical

6 mile boredom buster workout on the treadmill.  Totally made this up as I went.  1 mile easy, 1 mile @ 6:22, 1 mile easy, 1 mile @ 6:18, .5 mile easy, .5 mile in 3:05, .25 mi easy, .25 mile in 90 seconds, .5 mile cooldown.  6 miles total in 43 minutes.  Sweating buckets and people starring at me and my puddle by the finish, but I did feel like I got a good workout in.

30 minutes strength training - shoulders, core, planks/pushups

7.3 miles on the treadmill easy, 2% incline

Okay so I have to admit that I lied on Monday and I am not 100% healthy.  After assessing my lab results and writing my reports I learned that my cholesterol is borderline high!  yikes I thought I was young and healthy?  It is only barely high at 202 but dang that was a blow to the ego.  My Dad has had high cholesterol for as long as I can remember and it definitely runs in my family.......so I guess the only solution is to start exercising more. ;)

PM:  3 miles at the gym watching the Jazz game.  Just trying to lower my cholesterol. :)

7 miles in Salem with Jen & Josh, 7:54 pace.  It felt great to run outside but my IT band was bothering me a bit.  Most likely because of the cold it just never really warmed up.

Every parent of teenage girls (and boys) should watch the special on KUTV news last night about the Body Image Epidemic.  As someone who nearly died from Anorexia I feel that this is such a big problem that so many people are unaware of.

http://www.kutv.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_2777.shtml 

PM:  3.5 miles easy.  Just trying to lower the cholesterol. :)

Turkey Trot tune-up track workout this morning.  Okay so I haven't done any speed work at the track since the first of July but JulieC somehow talked me into this workout.  Back in July I tweaked my hamstring from overstriding and just haven't been back since.  I think I am a smarter runner now and am glad Julie talked me into suffering with her.  We met at Mountain View HS in Orem for the workout.

2.5 mi warm-up

2-4-6-8-10-8-6-4-2 ladder workout with a stopwatch.  No garmin! ;)  I looked up the goal paces on Mcmillan last night based on a sub-20 5k and we stuck with them pretty good.

200:  (goal 36-40)  40

400:  (goal 1:19-1:25)  1:24

600:  (goal 2:05-2:11)  2:11

800:  (goal 2:59-3:07) 2:57

1000:  (goal 3:45-3:58) 3:45

800:  2:59

600:  2:13

400:  1:26

200:  39

1.75 mi slow cooldown, I was wiped out!  Julie on the other hand felt just fine.  Sheesh!

So I obviously struggle with the shorter distances but I am not a sprinter and the longer the distances got the better I felt.  Overall everything felt really controlled which is great and gives me confidence.  There was no flailing out of control feeling like I used to get doing sw on the track so I am calling it a success.  Very thankful to have Julie there with me and glad she talked me into this one.

I have talked one maybe two people into coming all the way down to Payson to run Payson canyon with me tomorrow so I will open the invitation to all.  Starting at my house (1045 South 1700 West) at 7am.  Seriously if you are willing to come down it is an awesome run and totally worth the drive.

11.3 lovely recovery miles with Josh & Melissa.  We started at my house and ran up Payson canyon and back.  Love this run and it truly was perfect running weather this morning.  So so nice to be at home for the weekend and even better that I actually talked people into coming all the way down to Payson to run the greatest canyon in Utah.  :)  8:10 pace for the run.

4.5 mile loop + 2.5 miles at the track with Izzy.  Nice weather this morning.

Off to the new outlets to shop for the rest of the day.  Woo hoo!

25 min Strength Training - planks/pushups/ITBS rehab/upper body weights

8 mile treadmill run in 60 min.  20 min warm-up, 12 x 1 min on/off with the ons at 10.1-10.5 (5:52-5:45 pace) and the offs at 8:19 pace.  I felt surprising good this morning.

8 miles Santaquin Orchard Loop with Melissa, Jen, & Josh.  I am absolutely loving the South County Running crew we have created.  Such awesome company and everyone agreed that my little Payson routes completely rock!  We started slow with the first 3 miles at 8:30 pace but Jen was feeling good and pushed us to a nice negative split and we finished with a 7:45 AP.  Jen just ran a 18 min 5K over the weekend and I am really excited to start doing some track workouts with her.  She is really great at the shorter distances and I am excited to have someone push me at the track.

I had some extra time after the crew left so I added 2 miles with Izzy afterwards.

This is a good article about pacing.  Most of you have probably already read it but if not it's worth the read.  If you don't have time to read the article just read this:  "Every current world record, from the 1500m to the marathon, has been set by an athlete running negative splits."

PM:  1.5 mile running, 20 min elliptical.  Attempting to burn the two pieces of pumpkin pie I consumed for lunch.  I followed up the workout with a 3rd piece of pie. :)

20 min Strength Training - planks/pushups/triceps/biceps

40 min elliptical

3.4 miles treadmill, first 3 easy and last .4 @ 5kish pace.  Felt hard.

Anyone up for some running this Holiday weekend?  I am thinking Black Friday run on Lehi JRP and Saturday run in Provo Canyon?  I am open to time and location but would love some fun longish runs. :):)  

This was my 3rd year running this 5k Turkey Trot.  When I find a good race I like to try and support it each year.  Fleet Feet does a great job and this race is incredibly organized and an awesome flat course.  The only real downfall is the 199 turns during the 3.1 miles but other than that it really is great.  This was my first actual race since TOU marathon in Sept so I did not have high expectations but I did want to break 20 minutes.  I have strung together some solid little workouts in the two weeks leading up to the race and felt I could comfortably break 20.

Me & JulieC jogged the course before the race and tried to familiarize ourselfs with the mario cart shinanagans that lied ahead.  At the start of the race I went out a little quick the first 800 and it took me awhile to get into a groove.  I guess I'm a little rusty with racing.  Anyway I felt great the first two miles 6:08, 6:06.  After the 2 mile marker the 5k fatigue set in and I went into survival mode.  I was in the lead and got kind of mentally weak losing 5 seconds in the third mile with a split of 6:13.  When I saw the clock I kicked it pushing a 5:35 pace for the final .1 but I just couldn't make up the time I lost in mile 3 to pull of the sub-19.  Oh well I won first place and 19:02 is a pretty solid time considering my goal was sub-20.  I am happy that I haven't lost too much fitness and it sure was fun to race again. 

Shout out to Scott who ran an awesome PR and won the mens race.  Also congrats to Julie who set a 5K PR and a couple of my other friends that placed in they're agegroups.  It was a really fun morning and I went home with a turkey and a pie so I really can't complain. :)

3 mile cooldown with Julie.

13 miles with Rachel, Kelli, Amy, Chad, & George on the Mtn View corridor road in Heriman.  A great run with plenty of climbing.  It was really nice to catch up with Rachel and Kelli and totally worth the drive up to Heriman for the great conversation.  8:34 pace for the run and I couldn't have gone a single second faster.  So so glad that no one felt like pushing the pace this morning.

There is a group of us meeting at the Wynnsong Theatre in Provo tomorrow at 7am to run 12 miles out and back in Provo Canyon.  Anyone is welcome to join.

13.2 miles out & back in Provo Canyon.  Met up with Josh, Pam, Melissa, Josse, Marie, & Desi.  It was a beautiful morning with great company.  I am loving this long weekend running. :)  Me and Melissa finished in exactly 1:45 for the 13.1 for a perfect 8 min mile pace.  I felt great this morning and am so glad my body is allowing me to run further without any pain at all. I think the lower body Strength Training and ITBS rehab routine I've been doing each day is really making a huge difference and I am seeing significant improvements.

7.3 miles around the Orchards in Santaquin, 7:18 pace.  I have absolutely no idea why I was moving faster than normal this morning.  Must have been the beautiful weather.

20 minutes strength training - planks, pushups, biceps

8 miles on the treadmill in 62 min, 1% incline.  Started at 7.4mph and just bumped it up a notch every 10 min. 

I've had an awful eye infection the past 2 days and could not string together more than 2 hours of consecutive sleep last night so I had a feeling that this run was going to be horrible.  I forgot how painful and irritating eye infections are.  Yuck!  I woke up feeling like I got hit by a train but since we were meeting at my house to run I figured the least I could do was roll myself out of bed.  So glad I had people to run with this morning because otherwise I truly would have bailed.  The light in the gym irritates the eye infection terribly but I knew I would be okay running outside in the dark.  Okay what is the point of my ranting?  The morale of my novel is that I had an awesome run and think the run with Jen & Melissa may have cured my eye infection and my terrible mood.  Thank goodness for running! 

8 miles with Jen & Melissa, Santaquin Orchard loop + 2 miles on my own.  First mile was 8:28 and last mile was 6:58.  AP of 7:30 for the 10 miles.  A good and completely impromptu push for the last half of the run.

15 minutes Strength Training.

My eye is still bright red and I look like I got in a fight with a cat and the cat won but it feels much better. :)

PM:  3 miles easy

25 min lower body Strength training

8 incredibly boring miles on the treadmill in 63 min.  Started at 7.4 and bumped the speed up one notch every 10 min until I got all the way to 7.9!

I booked my flight to Phoenix yesterday for the IMS Arizona marathon on February 17th.  Now I just need to decide if I'm going to string together a marathon build up or make the wiser decision and drop down to the half...... 

9.5 treadmill miles.  I am not really training for anything right now but running slow on the treadmill is ridiculously mind numbingly boring so I decided to do 12 x 400 just for fun.  Why not?

3 mile warmup - 8:12 pace

12 x 400 on/off style with equal recovery.  first 4 with 1% incline, next 4 .5% incline, and last 4 0% incline.  On's @ 6:10-5:49 (9.9-10.3) pace and off's @ 8:27 (7.1-7.3). 

9.5 mi in 71 minutes, 7:28 AP.

PM:  4 miles outside easy.  Does anyone down south want to run with me tomorrow morning?  I cannot fathom the thought of another day on the treadmill!

25 minutes upper body weights

8 miles easy recovery run on the treadmill, 2% incline, 63 minutes.