Why I Love This Place

I'm going to try to pound out an entry in as little time as possible. Luckily I can let the pics do most of the talking. I have been getting some pretty amazing mornings this week in Heber so I thought I should bring the camera along and capture a run. The weather has been crisp, clear and a little on the chili side, but the sun warms you up fast.

 My  favorite route in Heber takes me along the ranch roads. The roads are packed gravel so they are nice and soft on the feet. Sparsely does a car come down the road and if so its usually a friendly ranch passing by slowly. The views are epic and serene.

These guys got out of their yard and were running with me.

Surprising how fast a calf can go.

Monthly Update

I've been a little side tracked and was not able to give the blog any love. In that month not much happened (like always). Trained a little, ran the Salt Lake Marathon, bought a nice waist bag for the camera to take on runs, and took a little break to heal.

I'm not paying $80 for my pictures

The Salt Lake Marathon was a solid race for me. The weather was the worst I've ever ran in and me being nowhere near prepared for that it felt pretty shitty. Had I known it would be below 40 degrees and raining the entire race I would have dressed appropriately. The silver lining is that not being able to feel your legs, hands, arms, and face helps distract from the toil of a marathon. I rocked in at 2:48:05 and finished 7th overall. I am very happy with the result considering that this is all off of base training. Rarely if ever did I do any speed work, tempos, and what not. It was all consistent steady state mileage.
I planed my race off of my performance at the Canyonlands Half Marathon where I ran just under 1:18. Theory is that by adding 16 secs per mile one can go twice as far so I figured adding 20 seconds per mile I would be safe and save myself from a collapse at the end. I adjusted my speeds as the course undulates quite a bit but always kept it in the 6:15-6:40 range. That is a lot of deviation but much of the time I was knocking around 6:25-6:30 per mile. I was able to cruise into the finish line after taking my 2 screwdriver shots at the growingly infamous 'Give It a Shot' aid station at mile 24. I was wanting beer but took whatever my frozen hands could grab.


Which brings me to an important shout out. I want to thank the spectator lady who spared me her gloves at around mile 14. Although they were a size to small I was able to ball my hands up and keep them from going completely numb. The race left me in such a state of utter exhaustion from the running and the cold but to tough it out and finish with a good time makes me not regret a moment of the race.

Burger and Shake at Hire's Big H

To the victor goes the spoils and I spoiled myself after the race with a double Big H cheeseburger and a nice chocolate milkshake. We were so cold that we left the race without getting our beers but had plenty that night, and the following night, and the night after that, and.....

Relaxing with Rocha in my compression tights the day after.

Picked this up at REI for $20.

The marathon left my calves in pretty bad shape so I took 2 days completely off before resuming any kind of running  hobbling. The plan has been to make it 2 weeks running only 5 miles a day at whatever pace was comfortable. My legs have come around now and I'm reading to ramp it up again and start a serious schedule towards my goal marathon in December.
There is plenty of running to go and I'm excited to have bought a camera/phone bag for my runs. I'll now be able to take some good pictures of all the cool things I see and places I run.

The weather the following Marathon week: Immaculate

Rocks in Your Tread

I spent a few minutes removing the rocks wedged between the tread of my shoes. I would recommend doing this at least once a week. A build of rocks can severely impact the performance of a shoe by hindering its capability in stress absorption. Over many miles this impact on performance can inevitably lead to acute injuries. So take some time to dig those rocks out. I used a pair of pliers and it only took about 3 minutes a shoe.

A Post

This feels like an obligatory post considering I haven't much to talk about but I haven't had a post this week. My training is going well as I put in 80 miles last week. All runs were easy pace and aimed at base building. Throughout the week I was sore from the half marathon so most of the runs I felt like I was running fatigued. My goal this week is to keep up the mileage and continue base building. I'm feeling a bit slower than I was prior to the half marathon and I'm not sure if I need a full recovery to avoid over training or if I just need to apply a little more focus to the pace. Usually a good sign of over training is that your paces begin to get slower as your muscles get weaker do to repeated stress without recovery. I have not been wearing my heart rate monitor for a few runs in order to run on the feel and regulate my pace accordingly. I think the monitor will give me a real indication of what is going on. Hopefully I won't have to take much time off before the marathon as it would be ideal to continue base building through the marathon. As long as there are no injuries popping up I'm happy to be out there putting in the miles.

I had to splurge a little on some new running clothes. When I start looking at all the nice gear it makes me a little depressed because I think of the possibilities if I had a sponsorship. This in turn motivates me to get me where I need to be to earn the sponsorship.

Here is the low down on what I bought:
Saucony Inferno Shirt in Element/Citron: I love Saucony apparel. It fits and feels right for me so I rarely buy away from the brand. It may be a nerdy and make me look like a wannabe but I'll stand by their quality, comfort and style. The Inferno Shirt is my go to outer layer for cool and even cold days. Normally I'll wear a form fitting sleeveless or long sleeve under layer along with the Inferno shirt. The under layer helps with any wind cooling as this shirt is very porous. Its super light weight and I never have any chafing issues. I now own three of these shirts including my super bright orange one to wear early morning or night.

Saucony Inferno FX Shirt in White/Racer Red: I like the graphic on this shirt as its simply esthetically pleasing. The Inferno is a lightweight shirt and perfect for summer running (if I wear a shirt).

Adidas Supernova Tight Shorts: These shorts are the one of the few non-Saucony pieces of running apparel I own. So far I'm impressed with the feel and look of the tight shorts. Wearing them feels like running naked. They have a couple hidden pockets for my tp and keys. Best of all they are a nice change up from the lined shorts that begin to chafe the same spot developing a nice raw spot in the crotch.

My next running related purchase will be a nice stash bag so that I can start bringing my phone and snapping some pictures on the run.
Hey this turned out to be not so bad of a post after all.

Canyonlands

I ran the Canyonlands Half Marathon on Saturday and did fairly well. My finishing time was 1:17:56 and was good enough for 18th place. I'm pretty stoked with how well I did considering last year I ran it in 1:25:21. This is a good sign meaning I'm ahead of last year in terms of fitness level. Hopefully I can keep progressing through the season and I'll be looking at some good PR's. Initially I was a little concerned with how well I would do considering I haven't done much true speed work or tempo runs. I've been keeping consistent though and putting in decent mileage. I think the Hadd heart rate training is a good base developer and my aerobic systems are coming around. I'll be continuing to build base up until the Salt Lake City Marathon on April 20th. My weekly schedule involves 2 x 1 1/2 hour steady state runs at a heart rate of between 145-155 bpm. I usually get 10-13 miles in those runs. I have another 2-3 hour steady state run starting this week aiming to build solid aerobic base and get me ready for the marathon length. I will only run one hard workout of a 10k tempo aimed to push my anaerobic threshold a little higher and faster than the steady state runs. In total I will be hitting over 80 miles a week which is far better than what I have ever been doing this early in the year.

Our Accomodations

Back to Canyonlands. Its a really awesome course stretching along the Colorado River in Moab, Utah. Extremely scenic and humbling surroundings as you wind your way down the canyon. It helps to distract you from any unpleasantness of running but I was relaxed and happy the entire race. The weather was pretty ideal. Cool temperatures in the low 50s, overcast, with a slight breezy headwind. I was able to tuck in with some runners so the wind did not affect me too much. I ran conservatively for 9 miles seeing how the pace felt knowing I did not want to be slogging in. Turned out I had a lot better fitness than I thought. I was able to put down some really good final miles including a 5:19 for mile 13. Makes me really excited to get on the track and do some hard miles and see how fast I can get that down to. I think I ran a 4:50 mile in high school but I have such a vague recollection of high school times. Its time to set some new definite PR's for that.

Post Race Dinner. Mole smothered burrito (gut bomb)

I just spent some time looking at the results and this was a really fast race. My time would've been good enough for 6th place last year. The race is definitely attracting some good competition as Patrick Smyth cruised for a 1:09 which I assume was a walk in the park for a guy who finished 3rd in the US Half Marathon Championships. I can only hope to be as fast as that someday.

Meatball Monday

I survived another glutenous feast. Here are the totals: 10 meatballs, 2 plates of fries, 1 small salad, and 2 chunks of cake. Tiffany's birthday dinner request was Boulets en Frites. So I whipped up about 60 meatballs and a dozen potatoes worth of fries for her and her family. Delicious and glutenous. Reason number one for running as many miles as I do.

Boulets en Frites

Catching up on the weekend runs I have finished a 70 mile week. For this time of year it is a good assessment of my fitness level. Of course minor aches and pains are popping up reminding me of the toll that running takes on my body. Much of the mileage is base mileage in attempt to get my endurance to a good level before laying down the speed. I have found a good training philosophy developed by Hadd. Hadd Training stresses the use of heart rate to determine training pace and endurance development. Read more about it in the well written post that was taken from Letsrun.com.
What I did on Monday was a 10 mile run at a heart rate between 150 and 160. It was a nice sunny day but huge gusts of wind hindered any possibility of an even pace. Going into the wind I was running around 7:30 pace and it felt pretty easy. Running with the wind dropped me just below 7:00 and again it was really comfortable. I was also being bogged down by muddy terrain after a little snow storm came through Heber. It was a nice steady state run that aimed at developing the aerobic system. All of the run was kept within the heart rate zone and it turned out to be a very quality run.

It was dark and cold.

This morning was a different story. All I can think of on my crack of the morning runs is how crazy I am for doing this. Once again it was freezing cold and dark. Luckily I only had to put in 4 miles at the laziest pace possible. So I brought my camera and snapped a great picture. That is a picture of the bridge connecting Heber and Midway at 5:45 am. Running home as cars passed I can only image what they think of me as they drive by. Am I admired for my braving of the cold and darkness, or am I laughed at for being out here in those conditions. All of this self doubt vanishes as I head for home and welcome the warm house and hot shower. Its worth it for sure but crazy without a doubt.

Makeover

The quality and consistency of the blog is lacking to say the least. Instead of continuing the way it is I've decided to make a few changes. During my runs I sometimes think of what needs to change to make it more engaging to the audience and more satisfying for myself to write. I always feel the most creative and chatty on my runs. I'm basically stuck with my thoughts for 45 minutes to 2 hours at a time. In that time I see and think pretty funny and interesting things (at least I think so). I think if I can channel some of my thoughts and images from runs into this blog it would be much easier to keep up and more entertaining for others to read.
I see this as a move to a basic format. I was trying to be too fancy with my posts and incidentally it fell way short of what I wanted it to become. Like any en devour I should have known to start simple and gradually build upon my successes and correct my mistakes. This concept is especially true in running that it is ironic that I overlooked it. One cannot expect to run 10 miles having never been able to run 7 before. Well maybe they can but certainly it won't be  an enjoyable run.
It will take a little of working out the details but what I'm envisioning is bringing along a camera and a voice recorder to capture my thoughts and sights from the run. I won't be able to do it every run but I should be doing it for about two a week on my easier runs that are not critical to training. I'm always seeing cool things and thinking great thoughts on the run but as quickly as the come they fade into memory and our lost when it comes time to share them on the blog.
In addition I'll be trying to keep up with my training and explaining my plans and workouts. Hopefully this helps me to put down a solid idea of what I'm doing and why I'm doing it but also help others to understand and even copy my training program.
As I'm rushing to finish this entry I have a good feeling that this will be a much more enjoyable blog for us all.  So without further adieu....