BS Rools

Run with Sylvia today.  I tried to talk her into a more of a tempo run as Sasha suggested.  She did run the first 8 miles at her marathon pace, 8:30.  But, Sylvia really wanted to run 20 miles as she has not run anything over 17 this year.  Story of the long run:

1. We ate at Fazolie's last night, cheap, right on with the carbs

2.  Ate oatmeal, banana, Poweraide before the run and gus during the run with PowerAid.  The combination seemed to work very well.  This was the easiest 22 miler I have run for a couple of years. 

Lastly, Sasha, the Tinman and reading blogs has changed how we have trained this year.  Maybe we are just not disciplined enough to do tempo runs.  Syliva has ran 6 half marathons and I have ran 4 this year.  We have substituted our long runs this summer with half marathons.  We both feel in better shape because of the change.  Long slow runs make runners run long and slow.  Also, hope to keep up the tuesday Black Sheep workouts.

We met Steve Ashman on the Jordan Parkway trail today, very nice person.  It was good to meet Steve.  We talked about running, of course.  TOU and St. George. 

B of BS Rools out

Run along the river, 3 miles north and home.  Felt surprisingly well, avg. pace 8 min mile.  Came home and picked up Sylvia, ran with her 5.25, 9 min pace.  Sylvia had somewhat of a rough run today.  It was a beautiful day with about a gazillion dog walkers on the Parkway.  I sure like an early start to avoid the dogs.  Plan on driving up to my daughter's house in Kamas today.

Have a nice Holiday. 

East high today, just did not have the energy today.  Warmup around East high, speed changes for a couple of laps, 400s, Marathon pace, 5K pace.  I never quite caught on to exactly what workout was going on today.  My lack of energy did not help.  May try  a few 800s at lunch. 

Lunch time, warmup mile at 8:20 pace, 2 X 1/2 mile at 6:30 pace with full recovery between them.  I am now in taper mode for the next three days, 5 easy miles per day with a couple of 100 yrd strideouts during the runs.   

Very early morning run, 4 a.m., did not see another sole, dog, cat, fox, but did see 3 racoons run accross the trail in front of me.   Weird to run that early.  Also, biffed it 3 times.  Many branches accross the trail from the wind last night.   It was difficult to run the short distance rather than my normal 8.  I always struggle with this tapering stuff. 

Earyl morning run, dark outside, ran along the Jordan River Trail to Gardner Village and home.  Did not see a single person, did see one fox.   Tapering is tought, I feel like I need to run more.  We all need to be careful right now with the big Marathon races coming up.  There are too many runners on the blog with injuries, sick, etc.  I seen on the blog, the past parties for bloggrs at TOU and St.George.  Me and Syvlia and going to attend both to meet some of the bloggers.  It has been a fun summer reading the blogs, acutally someone paying attention to the runner rambling on.

Greek Fesitval, we ran the race last year, I ran a 22: 43 last year.  I was happy with the improvement.  (Avg pace 6:56)  But, I really wanted to get under 21 minutes, one of my goals this year.   Before the race started, the top runner in my Division, John Straley was there to race.  (John is a great guy and a real gentlemen, he often leads the Black Sheep workouts on tuesday morning).  Two other runners in my division that beat me in 5Ks this year were also there.  Anyway, go for the good, the bad or the ugly.  I decided to go out fast for the first mile and try to hold on, hopefully finish second.   Hit the first mile in 6:20.  My legs were getting heavy at that point. My hang on pace for the next two miles was a 7:10 pace.  Happy to get second in my division and be able to run a 6:20 mile.  This is the fastest mile I have ran in a race this year and last year.  I was not happy with the hang on pace, I should have had more guts.  I really need to work on moving those legs when they feel like lead.

Sylvia had an off day today, low energy, 4th in her division, slow time for her 26:02.  She will surely rebound next week at TOU. 

Awards were funny, everyone in the race got an award, they drew for two cruises to Mexico and quite a few other prizes.  It was fun, but kind of goofy with the awards.   

Lastly, I don't know how to gauge from this race.  Avg. 7:01 pace at Hobblecreek two wees ago and only avg. 6:56 in a 5K.  It is difficult to measure where I am at and how to run TOU.

B of BS Rools out

Following a taper program that calls for a 11 to 13 mile run one week before the marathon. Kept a very even pace except for two miles where a runner was trying to pass me.  I held him off for 1.5 miles, I think was the chaser and kept pretty much on his heels until he stopped.  I still had another 4.5 miles to go.  Recovered from the goofing around with the other runner and got right back on an even pace.  Avg. pace 8:30 for the run. 

We, me and Sylvia, RSVPed for both the TOU and ST. George Pasta parties.  I hope all the injuries of bloggers a healing quick and everyone is feeling better as we move towards the fall marathons. 

After all the years of running, somewhat nervous, Provo River Half predicts s 3:16 at TOU, 3:10:57 at St.George.  I have not not broken 3:10 at St. George since 1999.  From reading Michelle's Spanish Half,  I am going for it at TOU and trust my conditioning.  Try and stay on pace for a 1:35 first half.  I will need to see what pace that works out at per mile.  It sounds exciting, but, also scary.  But, no guts, no glory.  Sasha, is certainly right on, it is always hang on the last few miles regardless of the first twenty. 

B of BS Rools Out  

Run in the dark, easy miles.  The dark is dark, today, crossing a long foot bridge over a swampy area, strange noise of rustling in the trees.  It was real loud and weird and sounded like it was coming after me.  Blair witch project 2.  Anyway picked up the pace.  I then had a problem.  Either go back the same way I came past the scary noise or run 2 miles out of my way on the city streets home.  I was brave, had my peper spray and was ready.  I heard the rustling again on the way back.   I sure it was likely a creature of some sort.  Too much excitement for an early morning run. 

Early morning run, took a different route today, hopefully avoid the Black Forest Creature.  No creatures today. 

The taper continues, it is weird to only run 3 miles. It is predicted to be 40 degrees at the start of TOU, Hardware Ranch, chilly. 

I start by saying congradulations to all the fast, fast, and super fast blogger that ran the race, very impressed with the team work, unselfishness, etc.  Awesome group of runners. 

I don't know what to say when in the posting a blog as compared to the great runners on the blog. 

The arrival in Logan did not go as planned, we got there in time to attend the pasta party, but, Sylvia had some issues we needed to attend to.

The race, great weather, started out at a 7:15 pace for the first 5 miles.  At that point, just didn't feel like I had it in my legs to hold that pace to mile 16.  Decided to save it for St. George.  Ran a very smooth race to mile 18, then the work started.  If you have not ran TOU, one of the toughest hang on courses I have ran.  The last 8 are constant up or down, or so it feels.  Very tough when your legs are tired. 

My last three marathons, St.George, Salt Lake and Ogden have been hampered with injuries and sickness with a result in over 4 hour marathons.   I was very happy today to finish under 8 minute miles, BQ, and 4th in my division (120th out of 1915 finishers).  Received a moose trophy, cool, Sylvia (4:01) also took 4th in her division and got a moose trophy.  Sylvia was also concerned about St.George and did not give it everything.  It was fun, we had our pictures taken together and had a grand old time watching all the fast bloggers get big moose trophies. 

One kind of funny story, when I was about 50 yards from the finish I raised both arms in the air with excitement in breaking 8 minutes miles all the way to the finish.  (This is now a tradition for me and Lybi when we run races)  When I crossed the line, a young lady volunteer said she thought I was going to do cartwheels. 

I have not looked up the predictor for St. George, but, I am confident that I can give 3:15 a shot. 

thanks to the well wishers on the blog, Sarah, Lybi, James, Clay, Maria, Kerry, James, Michael and others.  It really helps to have the support. 

One last kind of weird note  - I ran my first marathon in 1982 in the exact same time, to the second.  Not bad, for an old time runner.

Stay cool,  B of BS Rools out. 

Garmin stats:  2272 feet of ascent,  3290 feet of decent - interesting, only a little over 1,000 feet of decent.  It tells me the course was a little tougher than I expected if this is right.  Also, the Garmin had me running 26.41 miles.  Darn, where did I run the extra distance?  It really says how important running the tangents can be. 

15 minutes excercise bike, 1 mile run on the treadmill, 8:15 pace, upper body circuit weights and 1 set of hamstring leg pushups on the excercise ball.

Legs recovery very well from the marathon.  Plan on running 4 or 5 miles in the morning.  TOU does not beat up your legs like St.Geroge. 

Early morning run, nice cool morning.  Legs seem to have recovered fairly well from TOU. 

Both me and Sylvia have had kind of mental let down after TOU, all the excitement, anticipation, moose trophies, etc.  Now the time and come and gone, we move forward to the next adventure. 

1 mile treadmill, 5 mins. ex. bike, hamstring ball excercies at lunch.  Nice to have running friends at work, excited for you. Good running friends.

Early morning run, ran south along the parkway towards Gardner Village, trail closed for repairs, washout of the river,  turned around and headed back north.  Some issue with right quad today up by the hip flexor area. 

All this oatmeal talkie, talkie, talkie,  I guess all the reading has influenced me, had oatmeal before the run this morning for the first time ever.  I hope the chatter does not start including some really weird food, who knows what I might start eating.

Short lunch run today.  Decided to shake out the cobwebs after the marathon.  From a dead start, no warmup - 5 miles with an overall time of 34:56, east mile got progressively quicker.  Avg. pace. 6:59.   It took real concentration, happy with the effort, about 95%.  This is very close to my 5K race pace of 6:54 a couple of weeks ago with another 1.9 miles. 

Nothing real exciting to report, looking at the past year at a glance, myself, my wife and couple of running buddies, we are going to map out next year's racing schedule to include Ogden Marathon, Pocetello and St. George with 6 to 9 half marathons we will use as long runs of about 17 miles, 1 mile warmup and 2 mile cool down.  From reading Sasha's blog, it seems that the workout from a half marathon is much more valuable than a slow and easy 22 mile run.  My race times seem to correlate to that this year.

B of BS Rools out.

Early morning run, dark outside.  Very slow run, 9:30 miles.  Maybe too much, too quick after the marathon.  Nice to be out this morning regardless of the pace.

Lunch time run with Tony D. and Kirsten T.  Kirsten was quite concerned about the pace, I told her we would run her pace.  She ran 9:15s and really gave it a hard try, her best time ever for 4 miles.  She now has the nick name, sling shot, on the final turn with 75 yds left she took off like a shot.  It took me 50 yards to catch and pass her.  Tony was chicked.  I am glad I got her at the end.  I would have taken more kidding about this forever from all the co-workers, big marathon runner gets beat by Kirsten.  I will now be on gaurd.  It was funny. 

Run with Sylvia and Sammy Dog (Indian Name "Poopalot").  Sammy was ready to go this morning.  Syliva had her the first mile and Sammy pulled the whole way.  7:30 pace.  I took her the second mile and let her have her head.  She gave a  a very good 7 min. mile.  Anyway, it was fun.  Sammy is a very good running dog always stays the right and never crosses to look at other dogs or do dog stuff.  Sylvia really has her trained well.  The parkway was full of runners doing long runs for St. George.  A local church was holding a 5K on the parkway.  All the comotion was fun and seeing the runners.

Sylvia decided our last 3 miles would be a marine run.  Stop every half mile and do bench pushups and tricept bench pushups.  She is tough. 

Slight injury note - right upper quad strained, little bit hip flexor and a little right quad.  I need to search the internet for help.  I may need to take a few days off to get rid of it.  Later today I will start surfing the net.  Given St. George is coming quick, a few days off should not hurt conidition too much.  We nornally do the U of U alumni 5k race the week before St. George, I think we will skip it and avoid the up and down hills around the U.  Get healthy legs for St. George.  I am still somewhat giddy about being under 8 minute miles at TOU.  It is kind of a gift, whatever happends at St. George, I am happy with the running year. 

Run into the wind, out and back, both ways, Ran along the trail 6 miles north, turned around and came home.  Very consistent, 8:08 pace going out and 8:12 coming back.  (1:38:04 total time) Coming back was against the wind.  I was not going to run today, but decided to stretch real good and give it a try.  Felt good with only a very minor twitch in the right upper thigh area. 

No real excitement on the run today, just a grind out run.  Kind of stressed with work lately and will stay that way unitl my vacation starts Oct. 4th, for three weeks.  My boss said to work the extra time this next two weeks to try and get my parts of the project ahead of schedule while I am gone.  My youngest daughter, Shana and her husband have got the Hawaii vacation schedule already set.   They want to dive with the sharks, no way, I'll stay on shore for that one. 

B of BS Rools out

Early morning, light morning with the cloud cover, the air smelled fresh with the overnight rain.  Nice running morning.  Slow and easy today, got to bed late last night and leaving early this morning for Boise and back home tonight.  Busy day.

*Note, Bishop's son ran a 17:59 5K PR, he was excited, freshman at Murray High school.  He has some talent. 

Early run, real tired this morning from the busy day yesterday.  I am now in training mode for Hawaii.  The time is near, run St.George and leave on a jet plane a few days after.  It is a real treat to run up the diamond head road each moring and watch the surfers.  Time to stop day-dreaming, need a real up tempo run on friday or saturday. 

Those of you who take Runner's World, good article about Alberto Salazar.  We have his auto-graph on a running log when we ran our 1st Honolulu marathon.  My opinion, greatest American marathoner ever. 

Race time predictor:  I just plugged in several races, Provo Half, Hobblecreek, TOU marathon, the predictor has me anywhere between about 3:10 and 3:20.  I would be happy anywhere in the range. 

Treadmill workout today, these workouts can be boring or can be intense.  Warmed up for the first mile 8:20 pace at .5% grade.  The plan was to then do 1/2 mile repeats at a 6:31 pace.  After the first 1/2 at 6:31 pace, decided to keep going until out of gas.  Made it two miles at 6:31 pace.  This is the fastest 2 miles on the treadmill I have ran for a couple of years.  I hope this means something good for St.George.  Cooled down for a mile at 8:20 pace.  I may have been able to hang on for another 1/4, did not want to overdo.

Side note,  I may not be any faster than recent years.  The difference may be the motivation to have the guts, the determination.  Reading many of the blogs helps keep me motivated and my wife Sylvia is great to tell me to shut up and go for it.

It was very interesting reading Sasha's entry yesterday about St.George.  What determination and dedication to his goals. 

I have not got my running plan down to a science for St.George.  But, I do know from running the race 14 times, I need to be at halfway by 1:38 to have a chance at 3:15.  I have only ran one negative split race at St. George, a 1:38 first and a 1:34 second half in 1998 (If my memory is correct).

Evening run, Sylvia went home teachng, I went for a run.  Run was not exactly easy, might be more termed junk miles.  Ran a smooth 8 min mile pace with some effort.  It was a great evening for running, 60 degrees.  I stopped and talked to Demetrio for a minute, he is hoping to break 3 hours at St.George, he looks in great shape.  If anyone has the guts and experience to make it happen it is Demetrio, winner of Des New marathon, I think 8 or 9 times on the old tougher course.  First met Demetrio in Magna over 20 years ago when he was positioned to run for Mexico on the Olympic marathon team.  I don't know what ever happened?

7:45 pace with Sheldon, maybe not quite marathon pace miles, count as MP for the effort.  Legs were tired from yesterday and still was able to run smooth, good practice for St. George.

Pacing groups, hum, have not decided yet how to run St. George.  Cal made a good suggestion to James,  3:20 pace group until half and then pickup the pace.  Botton line, it really depends on how I feel on race day, do I have my legs that day.

Lunch time run, ran one mile on the treadmill to warm up.  The running crowd then showed,  Colleen, Harry, Sheldon, Diana, Tony, Kirsten and Nicole.  8 of us for a lunch time run. 

Myself, Harry and Colleen ran together, the others paired up and trailed behind, we waited at 1.5 miles for us all to regroup.  At that point Harry, the fastest 5K man in his division in the state (71), wanted to do some fartlek.  Me and him ran a 6:15 for about 200 yards.  We then slowed down and re-grouped with Colleen.  The others headed back to work and ran 4 miles, we ran another mile.  It was a fun run talking to all the running buddies. I had no doubt that when Harry showed up that we would not stay with the pack.  He likes to lead, and I hate to let him go. 

Total Garmin 5.08 miles at 39:40.  plus 1 mile treadmill.  Good effort.  I have maybe been hitting it too hard this week.  I did not plan on a 50 mile week.  Likely run an easy run in the morning with 12 on sunday, 6 of those at MP (hopefully 7:30).  Moday very easy with tuesday blacksheep workout.  Colleen and myself are only going to do half the workout. 

Running is always funner with a big crowd, chatter, chatter, the heaven of non-stop runner talkie. 

Ran north along the Parkway to the Freedom Shrine and home.  On the way back I stopped at 4800 for a drink of water.  Gene Turner was coming the other way and stopped.  I had not ran with him for about a year.  Anyway, we got talking, he won our division at TOU last year, my time this year would have beat his  time and I took 4th.  You never know.  Anyway, good to run with him for a few miles on the way home and share running stories. 

Last comment, it is very interesting, the synergy of running with someone else.  I was plugging along at about an 8:30 pace, start running with Gene and we are running 7:50 pace with the same effort.  The value of a training partner is priceless. 

B of BS Rools Out

The taper begins, cold run this morning, legs were slow and heavy, good thing the taper is here.  Ran south today towards Gardner Village.  At about 2.5 hit the muddy trail where the river has washed out part of the asphalt.  I was surprised, the city of West Jordon usually is very slow to react.  The repair to shoring up the river must be at state expense.  I hope they finish the work before the real bad weather hits.

This entry is for the creature watchers, Crumpy1, Kerry, and the Wolf.  Running home today seen two red foxes slowly running on the trail right at me, about day break.  I stopped, they kept coming.  One of them ran within 10 feet of me and stopped.   Come to find out, Sylvia told me that golfers have been feeding the foxes.  This does not seem good for their long term survival.   Tough day at work the next three days and then I am on vacation for 3 weeks. 

B of BS Rools out