Rollin' THUNDER

7 untimed miles.

I have taken a while off from blogging, mostly because I have been too out of shape to want to keep track of how bad my runs have been. I injured my right hip last October, and it is just now to the point where I am running pain free and then able to go through the rest of the day without getting any wierd pains or feelings in my hip. I had also drastically changed my diet and got down to a good training weight. When I got injured and stopped running I had no motivation to eat right. I went from 154 pounds on September 29th (right before I got injured), to 184 pounds on January 1st (gained 30 pounds in 3 months). I am currently at 174 pounds, and still have a long road ahead to get back to where I was, but I felt great on my run today. Maybe I felt great because I didnt have a watch and couldn't see how slow I really was going, or maybe I actually just felt great. Either way, I am now excited and motivated to run again.

I was signed up for the Ogden Marathon in May, but my hip kept me from training. I am now signed up for TOU in September. Because of my hip and studying, my training has been very off and on. With only about 6 weeks until race day, my goal is to finish without any major injuries. By finish, I literally mean finish. I have never gone over 4 hours in a marathon before, but I am fully anticipating that it may happen in this race, and if I get even close to 4:15 I think I will be really pleased. I then want to take a week or two off to recover, then get back into shape and good training for a spring or summer marathon next year.

10 miles. Same route and distance as Saturday, only today I did it 3 minutes and 13 seconds faster. My runs have been kind of sluggish lately, especially the last quarter of each run. I thought maybe I was just running a little low on energy. Yesterday and today I had a piece of bread before I headed out the door, and both of those runs have felt much better, and my time for today was much better. I know that an 80 calorie piece of bread isn't really giving me a lot, but the placebo affet has been great!

7 miles. I again ate a piece of bread before I left, and this run went way better than any of the runs I have recently done without eating before leaving.

I felt really good on this run. Each mile felt easier and easier, and I was often surprised when I would look down and see the pace I was moving at. My pace wasn't anything to post, especially compared to where I was a year or more ago, but compared to what I have been struggling to do the last few week I am very happy with the pace and how easy it felt.

Today I felt groggy and didnt want to start this run. The first half mile or so I still felt like I wanted to be on my couch. It took a little while to get going and motivated during this run. I ran the same 10 mile route I did on Tuesday and Saturday, Today I was 1:18 faster than on Tuesday, and 4:30 faster than on Saturday. Not only are my times getting faster, but I feel much better and it isn't nearly as hard to run as last week.

13 miles. This was supposed to be tomorrows run, but I am volunteering at a triathalon tomorrow at 7:30 am, so I switched todays run with tomorrows.

I took a Gu before I left, then another at mile 6. I felt good during this run. I wasn't pushing anything, just relaxed and ran at a comfortable pace. Nothing too exciting, but this was my longest run in a long time. Unforunately for me, I have a marathon 36 days.

4 miles. I left home planning on doing 9. I usually run in the mid morning, but had other plans today, so ran at night. Unfortunately my dinner was running through me faster than I could do 9 miles, so I quickly changed my route and headed directly home. I got to 4 miles right as I got to our garbage can. Made to the toilet, but afterwards didnt feel like heading back out. Calves are a little sore.

8 miles. 59:21, avg 7:25. Today I just wanted to relax and let the miles come. I am starting to feel really good during easy runs and I don't feel like I am strugggling at all. I don't want to try and pick up the pace and force anything, right now I just want to keep adding miles so that I won't die at TOU next month.

I signed up for the Utah Valley Marathon and spent a while putting together a training plan for that race. That is the race and training that I am going to try and push myself, but right now I just need to get back into shape.

!2 miles. I felt good about the first 5 miles, then 6 and 7 I was sluggish. Miles 8and 9 were also good, but 10-12 were killers. I felt way more tired during this 12 mile run then I did on Fridays 13 miler. I didn't leave the house until after 11:00 a.m. so I am hoping it was just heat or time of day that I ran.

9 miles. Again I felt sluggish today, and it wasnt due to me leaving really late for a run. I know I am trying to add a lot of miles quickly so I won't die in a month, but this week has been terrible compared to last week. Last week I felt good just about every mile of every run. This week I am feeling horrible on just about every mile of every run.

Today I did 9 miles in 1:08:15 (avg of 7:35), which isn't a bad pace for me right now, but it felt like I was working extra hard for a mediocre pace. Hopefully things pick up in a little while.

10 miles in the rain. I felt good during this run, and felt really good during the last 3 miles. I found a great way to get an enrgy boost/adrenaline boost when you start feeling tired, come extremely close to getting bit by a car. I was running on a sidewalk about 6.5 miles into my run. A lady was pulling out of mcdonalds making a right turn, ignored her stop sign and only checked for cars to her left. She never saw me, because who checks for people on sidewalks? I can say that I often do the same thing, so I can't be too mad right? I saw that she didn't see me, so I moved as close to the street as I could trying to give her a split second to see me, it didn't work. I was in front of her suburban when she hit the gas to beat the oncoming cars. I smacked the hood of her car as hard as I could with my left hand. I hope it made her pee her pants! 

I was really mad for about a mile, but this did give me an adrenaline boost. 

This is the exact reason I usually run in the road and not on the sidewalks. Most people don't stop at the stop signs (if they stop at all), but they stop with the front of their cars sticking into the road. 

8 miles. Nothing too eventful, not like yesterday. I was taking this run easy, but decided to go a little faster the last 2 miles.

Total time was 59:21 (avg of 7:25ish), last 2 miles were 6:58, and 6:55.

16 miles. I woke up and the rain was pouring down, just like it has been most of this week. I looked at the hourly forecast and it didn't look like it was going to get much better during the day, so I found my running hat and rain jacket, took a gu and headed out the door. When I say it was pouring, I mean it. There were several times where I was running in the road and the water was at least 6 inches deep. My shoes were soaked within a few minutes, and my rain jacket kept my body dry for maybe 3 miles. After that, I may as well have been running naked, because I was soaked. I figured I would spare those around me and not risk getting some tickets and court dates, so I kept my clothes on.

Luckily, I LOVE running in the rain. There is less traffic, less people out exercising, less dogs barking, and it is quite peaceful to be by myself with only my thoughts and only the sounds I want to hear (my music) instead of noises of a city.

I took a gu at mile 6 and again at mile 12. Overall I am very pleased with this run, especially since I haven't been training for super long. This gave me encouragement that I won't die at TOU in a couple of weeks.

16 miles, 2:02:54, avg pace of 7:41.

9 miles. I tried to do every odd mile at normal easy pace and every even mile at a pace that was harder but that I could hold for a mile.

7:34, 7:02, 7:29, 7:03, 7:43, 6:53, 7:30, 6:54, 7:24

Total 1:05:30, avg pace of 7:17

14 miles. I was a little worried aboutthis run because my left knee has been feeling a little funny since my 16 mile run on Saturday. It was escpecially bothering me on my 9 mile run yesterday. Luckily I didn't have any problems with it today, hopefully it stays that way.

14 miles, total time 1:43:03, avg pace of 7:22

9 sucky miles.

From the very beginning of this run I knew it wasnt going to be good. As I started my little warmup jog both of my shins were screaming in pain. I have had some little pains in my shins for a while now, but nothing I can't get over in a mile or 2. I think I either have shin splints of stress fractures (I think and am hoping its stress fractures). My little warmup jog is up a slight hill and then I either turn and go down a slight hill or keep going straight up the little hill for about a quarter mile. Today I turned to go down, but without even thinking I started walking. I had absolutely no natural drive to run, but for some reason wanted to be done before I even started. I have never accidentally started a run by walking, it was weird.

To make a long story short, my hip was bothering me, and both shins were killing me the entire run. I think I may have pushed myself a little hard yesterday even though it felt natural to go a little faster.

My garmin page is just showing errors, but I think my average pace was about 7:50, with the last 4 or 5 miles more than 8 minutes each. Hopefully I can recover and get back to enjoying running tomorrow.

11 miles.

After yesterdays run I was a little nervous about this run, so I procrastinated a little longer than usual to get out the door. I started my run at about 8:30. I could immediately tell that this was going to be a lot better than yesterday because my shins were sore, but I wasn't about to cry because of the pain (if I were a woman, I would have cried yesterday).

From mile 4.75 to 5.75 I went up a hill that is 218 feet and ends at the parking lot of the Rexburg temple.

11 miles, total time of 1:22:34, avg pave of just a hair over 7:30.

0 miles. knees and ankles are feeling achy, I am going to take the day off and let them recover a little more before my long run tomorrow. Maybe I will go to the gym and ride a bike for a while.

22 miles.

I took yesterday off to give my joints some rest, and I think it was a good idea. My legs felt good for all of this run. At about mile 20.5 I thought I was going to hit a wall and slow down, but I was able to push myself for another 1.5 miles.

It felt good to do this run, this is by far my longest run in a long time and it gave me a lot of confidence for TOU. It wasn't that long ago that I was fully expecting to finish TOU in over 4 hours, but now I have confidence that it won't be my worst marathon ever. My training hasn't been going for too long, and I thought taking a month off was going to hurt me a lot more than it seems to be. When I started back up after the month off, I couldn't even do 4 miles, now less than a month later I felt great doing 22.

Hopefully this "easy" long run will translate to a good race in 3 weeks.

22 miles, total time 2:43:33, avg pace 7:26 (including 3 drink stops of about 15 seconds each). Gu 15 minutes before, then at mile 6, 12, and 18.

These were my mile times.