Trying to keep up with you

Would have prepared the report before but my wife's iphone does not functional weel with this website.  So here it is:

This was the "perfect" race for me, or as perfect as I have come to so far.  By perfect I don't me fastest but given my fitness level the best I think I could have done.  I wanted to go out relatively slow, have a negative split, and not have the wheels come off at the end.  I achieved all three.

Mile 1  8:25 still dark and cold - just trying to navigate through the crowd and find a comfortable pace.

Mile 2  8:02 still cold

Mile 3 - 5   22:56 (av pace 7:30) - stopped to get water at mile 3 & 5.  I made it a point to drink at every water station.  Feeling good and I found my stride.  Shed my lond sleeve shirt, skull cap and gloves (which I never recovered).  Forget to hit the right button on my watch at each mile marker.

Mile 6  7:22 - mentally getting ready for the hill.

Mile 7  7:41

Mile 8  9:10 - here we go up the hill.  Decide to take sloooow and reserve as much as I can for the second half of the race.

Mile 9  8:41 - still going up just not as steep

Mile 10 7:52 - still going up...

Mile 11 8:31 - still going up...start talking to a guy from L.A. (Steve).  We end up talking for the next 11 miles

Mile 12 8:10

Mile 13 7:35

Mile 13.2 - the best that I can remember the clocl said 1:47:xx, so my chip time was probably 1:46:xx

Mile 14 8:03 - feeling good - no signs of fatigue

Mile 15  7:25 - this must have been a steep down hill (?)

Mile 16 - 17  15:01 (av 7:30) - more down hill

Mile 18 - 19  15:48 (av pave 7:54) - little up hill here with more down hill

Mile 20   8:25 - slowed down at bit...not sure why since I was still feeling good.

Mile 21  7:20 - probably a little to fast

Mile 22  8:48 - starting to feeling like my feet where made of cement

Mile 23 - 24  15:58 (av pace 7:59) - try to push to the end

Mile 25  8:32 - see the 3:30 pacer run by as I'm getting a drink of water. Oh well!

Mile 26  8:58 - felt like I was moving at a snail's pace but that was all I had

Last 0.2 - 1:54 - like banging your head on a tree trunk. It feels so good when you stop.

My wife and my two little girls (11 & 12) arrived at the finish line about 20 minutes late so I wondered around the park trying to find other FRB runners.  Obviously they were all too fast and had already left. 

Spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday hiking in Zion Nat'l Park with the family.  My favortite national park.  My legs recovered rather nicely.

Gorgeous course!  My new favorite marathon.

Recovery run.  Legs feel tired but improving quickly.

Easy run up City Creek Canyon.  Ran into Stuart and talked about the race.  He did well given his on going leg issue. 

Legs feeling better.  Pushed to a moderate pace on the down hill and didn't feel any serious aches or pains from the marathon.

Low to moderate effort up City Creek Canyon.  Ran on my own.  When I got to the top Becky was doing hill sprints...four days after the marathon.  I tried to convince her that even a seasoned marathoner as herself hill sprints just after the marathon was not going to help her recovery.  She just has way too much energy.

Gorgeous fall day.  Wish I had time and the energy to do a long trail run today.

Very fatigued today.  Shuffled my way up City Creek keeping the pace around 9 min miles and event hat felt hard.  Tried to relax on the way down.  Probably some accumulated fatigue from the marathon.  I will take tomorrow off and we'll see what happens on Saturday.  Need new shoes...my knees are starting to hurt.

Woke up with fever today.  Got about half a day of work in and then went home to get some sleep.  I HATE being sick.  Today is a perfect fall day and I'm stuck in bed.  But I figure the sooner I kick this flu the sooner I'm out running again.

Went to the InstaCare yesterday and after waiting 1 1/2 hours the doctor checked out my symptoms.  Apparently I have an upper respitory infection.  So I am on antibiotics and Mucinex.  The Mucinex really did me in today.  It tightens your chest up immediately.  I struggled to get air into my legs during the whole run.  So I will stop taking the Mucinex since the cure is worse than the disease and just take the antibiotics. Other than that it was a perfect day.  Tried to changing my running stride to shorter strides after reading "Born to Run".  Lets see if there is a Tarahumara Indian in me.

Easy pace on a treadmill.  I didn't have time to get a run in at lunch.  Ended up going to Ruth's in Emmigration Canyon with a client for lunch.  I was planning to run outside after work but it started raining and I didn't have a rain jacket.  I hate the treadmill but the thought of not getting a run in was worse.

Av pace.: 8:20

Pushed on the way up City Creek, to Stuart's Crack, and maintianed a moderate pace on the way down.  Chest still feels tight but it has improved over the last two days. 

Big game this afternoon (for the soccer fans).  Argentina vs Uruguay.  Argentina has to win to get into the World Cup.  Being half Argentine and having grown up in Buenos Aires a game like this is at par with a national holiday (if we win that is).

very short on time today.  Managed to get out on this beautiful fall day and run up City Creek.  Ran a good portion with Dick at a slow pace, which felt good.

I had to take a little time off to get over pneumonia.  It went from a bad caugh to a respitory infection and then to pneumonia.  I've taken my antibiotics and now I'm feeling better!  Should of listened to the doctor the first time.

Moderate effort run.  Feeling a little sluggish from the recent inactivity.  I'm seriously contemplating doing next year's St George Ironman.  I need to get my wife's buy off first.  It just requires soo much time to training that if she doesn't fully support it then its probably going to create too much friction.  Any how, I need to make a decision soon so I have enough time to get into "ironman" shape.

Average Pace up: 8:20 (3.5 miles)

Average Pace down: 6:12 (3.5 miles)

Pushed up and down City Creek Canyon.  Definetly winded at the end of the run but it was fun pushing myself.

First two miles were warm up, very slow.  Following five I varied the speed each mile, up and down...Average pace: 8:02 mile

mile 1- warmup 8:40

mile 2-7 av pace 7:58

mile 8 - cool down 8:32

nice easy Sunday morning run.

Pretty uneventful run on a treadmill.  Pushed the pace for a few miles at a 7:12 pace.  Forgot my water bottle so by the end of the run I had cotton mouth.  Av pace 7:46.

Five miles on the treadmill, about all I could take today.  I think I would have preferred running in the snow storm.  At least its done.

Finally had a run that felt easy all the way through.  I think my marathon recovery is now complete.  I'll start adding long runs next week and in a couple of weeks start adding tempo runs.

Other than that I ended up running from one store to next, Smiths, Target, Wal-Mart...looking for a indian costume for my 12 year old girl.  Why to we always wait to the last minute?  No luck so that means Lorena gets to sew one...

Got a chance to run with an old friend, not that she's old, but we've been friends since college.  She is new to running and was really down about her performance.  She is terribly competitive and gets frustrated each time someone passes her.  I tried to explain to her that her attitude will make her burn out.  She needs to make running her own thing and not worry about anyone else.  The main objective should be enjoy it and the rest will come naturally.  I invited to join the blog.  Hopefully she'll join.

Too cold today but at least it beats the TM.  Did some fartlek through out the last five miles.

No run today.  Suppose to be my day off but still have too much energy to burn.  Swam 2 miles at the rec center.  First mile pushed the pace and did it in 24:36 (about 2 minutes slower than my training pace when I was doing tris regularly).  Second mile I put myself into cruise control and did in in 31:06. 

You don't get a "runner's high" from swimming obviously but it has its own attraction.  I think part of the attraction is you really turn off the world around you, kind of like sensory deprevation.  You don't hear anything but a little splashing and all you see is the blue water.  Very relaxing. 

Trail on the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  Gorgeous morning and coooold.  It took us about 1:25 minutes.