Always Try

am: head cold; Figures I'd get sick one day after I get my registration confirmation for the marathon.

pm: 10 miles. VERY EASY & SLOW. Just needed this more mentally than anything, only ran to not lose a day.

am: 10 miles. 4 x 1 mile at 5k pace, 400m jog. Didn't feel awesome, but it was a manageable pace. Still fighting off this silly cold.

Kent and I have gone through almost 20 pounds of oranges since he got sick last week.

am: 10 miles. Temple Loop; recovery pace. I was sore today for some reason.

pm: 4 miles. Short tempo workout with some 200's at the end.

45 minutes core strength & stretching.

am: 6 miles, easy recovery pace. I might have to move my long run to tomorrow...another canyon run? Need redemption from last week!

pm: 4 miles, easy. Just wanted the miles.

Does 4.5 hours of cleaning house for a visit from the parents count for anything?

11 miles. Stayed inside today, despite wanting to go play in the snow. If only I wasn't still trying to get rid of this silly cold.

Watched an episode of The Biggest Loser to distract myself from the quarantine of the basement.

18 miles. Freezing air + freezing wind + ice-chunked sidewalks + angry farm dog + the only hill in the city that's really a mountain = Tour de Rexburg.

Little Sis graduated college last night! Such a great night!

am: 10 miles. Valencia Loop. Back in Brea, I love this place! Felt better than I thought so I tempo'ed back the last 5 miles.

pm: 6 miles. Souplantation Loop with my little sister, who will be running the half when I run the full. So fun to have a training partner!

am: 8 miles. Kraemer Loop. Tired legs this morning, couldn't muster up a very fast pace, but at least I got some miles in.

pm: 4 miles. 10 min warm-up followed by 1 minute hard/1 minute easy for 20 minutes. Legs felt better than I expected.

am: 4 miles. Brea Blvd. Loop. Should have woken up earlier.

lunch: 6 miles. San Marcos hills & wind loop. Legs felt good, too bad the track was chained closed so I couldn't do my workout.

pm: 60 minutes. Elliptical in my parents room while watching "Off Their Rockers" with Betty White. Haha.

am: 4 miles. Santa Monica-Olympic Blvd. to the beach! Kind of a turbo-run this morning because I had to get back to work.

lunch: 8 miles. Brea High School track; 6 x 1200. Did this in my trainers because 1) my achilles is bothering me, 2) (and probably more of an issue) I left my "fast" shoes in Utah.

10 miles. Inside today, pretty crazy rainstorm here in CA! Sounds wimpy, I know, but it was good to stay in because it helped me control the pace for a real recovery day rather than running too fast to get out of the rain. I'd describe today's pace as a recovery² day.

22 miles. Angel Stadium-Huntington Beach-Balboa Pier-Newport Pier. I love running here! My brother came along on a bike and kept me company, such a great day for a run. Only had to battle the strong winds for few miles, pace range from 6:45-7:00 (7:25 in the headwind).

82 miles in 6 days is a PR for me. Oh the temptation to run 8 tomorrow to hit 90 in a week! Sundays are usually not running days though...

 Now I'm jumping in the car to make my way back to Utah. It will be fun to try to walk after 11 hours in the car! 

10 miles. Hollow Road out-and-back. Super easy pace, it was fun to just run and not worry about a workout.

92 miles this week if I count my miles from Monday-Sunday (which I have always done since I started keeping track of mileage). Not sure if I'll do that again anytime soon and I hope it was helpful, not detrimental, to my training.

I'm pretty nervous about my training and preparation for this marathon. I feel like I was floating along, auditing a class (running miles, but not with any training effect) but then 3/4 of the way into the semester I found out I had to take the final  in order to retain any knowledge of the class. Cramming for tests is not nearly as successful as studying all along the way. Hopefully my "cram-session" will be enough for a decent run in 3 weeks.

am: 6 miles. TOU mile 22 loop. Very tired legs today. I just ignored how slow I was running and enjoyed the fact that I could.

lunch: 6 miles. 6 x 200 w/200 jog at the USU track. Gorgeous day and my legs woke up after this morning. Splits: 35, 35, 36, 37, 36, 37. Felt pretty good!

Congrats to all the Boston-ers! What a brave effort for the conditions!

am: 4 miles. I treadmilled (super slow) today because it was still really dark outside and someone told me about a pride of mountain lions that live in the canyon and come down into the neighborhoods right before sunrise to eat deer for breakfast. Sometimes this scares me into my basement because I'm sure I'd appear as a lame deer. Kinda like a shark is attracted to a lame seal that turns out to be a surfer.

pm: 6 miles. TOU mile 22 marker loop, with Jeni. Nice to have company.

Had to use the shop vac to clean the kitchen after cooking dinner. Yep, I'm that good of a cook.

12 miles. 3 mile tempo at MP, 1600 breakdown track workout; pace range from 6:00 down to 5:00, followed by one more MP mile to see the pace difference. Felt better than I thought I would, but still unsure of where my fitness is at this point.

45 minutes core & stretching.

I have a feeling the rain will cancel my bike ride this afternoon. Bummer.

lunch: 45 minutes spin. 3 x 8min w/15 sec sprint-15 sec easy, 5 min rest. I don't love spin.

a.m.: 4.5 miles. Snail's pace.

p.m.: 6.5 miles. Logan River Trail. Luckily I came away with NO ankle sprains. Trails always make me so nervous! Ran with Jeni, Mandee and Mandee's pit bull...

Got my foot zoning done today. Interesting what she could tell me about what has been going on in my body!

am: 7 miles. 10 min warm-up then, 6 x 3 min hard-1 min easy-1 min hard-1 min easy. Put in a lot of "junk miles" yesterday so I wanted some quality today. Felt better than expected.

pm: 3 miles. Ran to the post office to drop off some letters.

16 miles. Tour of Logan. Had a hard time convincing my legs that today was a great day for a long run, had to work harder than I should have to achieve the pace I was running. Beautiful morning for a run anyway.

Congrats to all of you who were running around in Salt Lake City today!

**mileage disclaimer: this week was only 71 total miles because I counted Sunday's 10-miler as part of last week's mileage.

sunny afternoon = 20 mile bike ride up Hollow Road with my husband's racing club. They went 40. I could only keep up with their warm-up speed, I'm a wimp! However, I did get to work on my tan a little bit.

4 mile bike ride around the neighborhood; my legs are super-tired!

a.m.: 6.5 miles. River Heights Elementary Loop. Slog miles, feeling like I got hit by a train.

lunch: 4.5 miles. USU track, 6 x 200 w/200 jog; 33(!), 37, 35, 37, 37, 36. Firemen out walking on the track, in lane 1... they should know that WALKING in lane 1 is a FIRE HAZARD.

p.m.: 45 minutes, core & stretching. Feeling like a hippo.

a.m.: 8 miles. Mountain Lion (a.k.a. Basement) Loop, I let the rumors scare me today. Might be my first single-digit day in a while.

p.m.: 42 mile bike ride. Smithfield-Trenton-Benson with Holly and Carrie. Got in a little over my head with this one! I am not a fit biker and Holly and Carrie are 1/2 Ironman athletes.

Took a 15-minute ice bath. Still shivering...

12 miles. Hollow Road tempo. 1 mile warm-up then, 2 x 3 miles with 1 mile jog in between. Splits: 6:14, 6:22, 6:21 & 6:16, 6:22, 6:07. Originally planned on more miles in the tempo but was pretty worn-out after riding for 2.5 hours yesterday. Now I'm worried I should have slowed it down today and made it longer so it was more marathon specific. Hopefully there was some training benefit, I'm just not convinced my fitness is where it needs to be.

Off to get a deep-tissue massage now and I think I'm more nervous for that than the marathon!

8 miles. Super-easy recovery.

6 miles. Mile 22 Loop. Six miles seemed really long today, hopefully my legs get some life back in them soon. And I'd like the spring weather to come back.

Didn't really know what to expect today. I think the last time I ran a 5k was about 5 years ago. I have never done a marathon "tune-up" 5k the week before a race, so I was a little nervous about doing something dumb and hurting myself. Fortunately everything is still in tact and feeling good.

Mile 1 went out fast, as expected. A really fast girl was there so it was good for me to have someone to pace off of for a bit. A SUPER fast guy was there who would have helped me PR in the 400m! (I didn't pace off of him.) We started about 100 meters behind the 1 Mile fun run so we had to do some weaving through traffic while manipulating a gravel-covered turn. All skin stayed gravel free! Fast Girl took off past me at about 0.5 miles so I just hung back because my garmin was telling me I was running 5:43. A pace I was sure I wouldn't sustain through the race. At about mile 1 I passed Fast Girl with a huge concern that it would come back to haunt me.

We made a hair-pin turn at about mile 1.1 and I looked up to only see hill. Oh boy, mile 2 was going to be fun. And it was...not very much fun. Luckily there were some guys in front of me that I could focus on as we trudged up the hill. I just focused on one at a time as I was able to get by them. Tried to squeeze out a "Nice Work!" but I'm sure all they heard were huge gasps of air. This mile greatly discouraged me because I could hardly hold a 6:30 pace and it was a lot of work. I kinda want to call the hill a mountain to make myself feel better!

Finally at about mile 2 the hill gave us some relief as we turned on to only a slight incline now. That lasted another 0.2 or so and then we got some flat ground. I regained my composure and settled back into a manageable pace, but still not the pace I was hoping for. One more turn and then we were home free to the finish. This downhill was nice, but not as steep as the uphill-go figure! I felt really controlled and comfortable so I probably should have pushed the pace a little, but I just don't know how to race a 5k! Came through the finish in 18:32, which is a PR as far as I know. Not quite what I was thinking, but I can't be upset about it.

Splits: 5:49, 6:30, 5:50 (for last 1.1).

6 miles. Souplantation Loop. Made it to Brea last night after 12.5 hours in the car. My bum is still sore.