For Whom the Dogs Bark

63F, 94%, ESE 6 mph.  Unfortunately, those are Utah temperatures.  Actually, I was surprised at how warm it is here, but even at 94% humidity the air feels cooler here because at altitude it doesn't hold as much water per unit, if that makes sense.  Got up very early and ran with my brother -- I have been sleeping in his house and eating his food all weekend.  He blogs on here as Stephen.  That's because his name is Stephen.  He needs a tag-line for his blog, right now it says "This message goes at top of blog."  His is probably better than mine, now that I think about it.  Mine makes me sound old, and I am definitely never going to be old.

We ran out to Main Street  from Stephen's house in Orem, up to 1600 North, over to 400 East, down to Center Street, back to State Street, back to 1600 North and home.  Total of 6.39 miles at 9:56 per mile, LHR and old (there's that word again), heavy shoes, still wet from Saturday's adventure.  Pretty good run under the circumstances.

I was just happy to be in the game this morning.  Ankle was very sore when I woke up, but did fine running after I got it warmed up a little bit.  Was talking to my son Clint last night and he said current medical learning for sprains is to work the heck out of it, stay on it as much as you can.  If you don't show bruising it is probably going to be OK, especially if it is on the outside of the foot, which mine is.  I probably did myself a favor on Satuday by walking out on it instead of sitting down and having a good cry, even though it was painful.  Bigger problem right now is my quads, glutes and calves.  It is two days later and I still hurt everywhere, still can't go down a flight of stairs even though I can run, worse than any marathon I can recall.  But I am actually happy about that, it means I probably did myself some good.  Back to Houston today, might get in some TM miles tonight.

76F, 82%, calm.  Ran OK again today, 10.20 miles at overall 9:04 pace, including 4 at 7:40:  7:41 (158), 7:38 (167), 7:40 (174) and 7:42 (179), maxHR 179.  Legs are still tired though.

73F, 97%, WSW 2 mph, essentially calm.  Should be some rain in a couple of days, but not much cooling predicted, still hitting triple digits every day.  We'll take what we can get.  I feel overtrained right now, which is strange because I have done several weeks in a row at less than 70 miles.  Getting slower instead of faster, not a good time for this to happen.  But trying not to worry, and at least I am progressing well this week in recovering from Saturday.  Ran 4 LHR miles at about 10:10 per mile, then 6 x 1000 at HM pace:  7:12 (154), 7:16 (161), 7:18 (165), 7:16 (168), 7:11 (174) and 7:12 (174), maxHR 184, overall pace 8:57 for 10.08 miles (1:30:14).

Here are some photos from Saturday's frolic.  Kings Peak is a stark place.

77F, 84%, WNW 2 mph.  Slightly cooler but didn't it didn't really feel like it.  Didn't run yesterday due to work pressures, and I was short on sleep this morning.  Got out at about 6:20 after doing the seminary run.  Was going to run short but once I got into it, stopping early to get to other duties didn't seem so important -- running puts things in perspective they say.  Started with 5 LHR miles, average pace 10:11, then 5 at GMP:  7:26 (160), 7:34 (168), 7:22 (173), 7:33 (177) and 7:29 (182), average pace 7:29 and maxHR 186, much better than earlier this week.  Total 10.20 miles in 1:30:16, average 8:50 per mile.  Legs felt good, finally, after resting a day, we'll see how they feel in the morning for the long run.

77F, 71%, NNW 5 mph.  Definitely better weather today, just having the wind from the north was a nice touch I thought.  Tuesday morning is forecast at 59F, but I'll believe it when I see it.  Two weeks ago I tried to do 19 miles at 8:00 per mile and ended up with16 at 8:22.  At the time I thought if I could go to 8:10 and then 8:00, I would be setting myself up for a good race in St. George.  So that meant today's goal was 8:10 for 19 miles.  Two weeks ago it was 80F and 80%, so today was better weather, but still a bona fide run in the heat.

I took EFS and set out two water bottles, then warmed up for 1.15 miles with the clock off.  Took one last drink, turned on my Garmin and set off on my 5K lap.  I stopped briefly after each lap to take a drink, and EFS every other lap, 6 laps in all.  I started out at 8:29, but overall the first three laps were a breeze, even hit some sub-8s on some of the splits.  I kept my heart rate at or under 160 through the first 10 miles.  Right at the beginning of my fourth lap the lap counter on my Garmin filled up, so I had to stand there in the dark (alone) and figure out how to clear it.  By the end of the fourth lap I was feeling it, but my heart rate was still under 170, and I was still able to hit 8 flat whenever I wanted to.  I hit 8:00 for miles 17, 18 and 19, and overall pace was 8:08 (maxHR 181), so I beat my goal by 2 seconds and I beat my previous run by 14 seconds, so I was happy about this one.  When I got to 19 miles I stopped, not one step further, and walked it in.  In two weeks I plan to try it again and see if I can beat 8.  If I can do that, I think I will have a realistic chance of getting a 3:30 at St. George even if temps are higher than average like they were last year.

After this marathon I am going to switch to something besides EFS.  I like the fact that I get calories, electrolytes and amino acids out of it, but I don't like the taste and my stomach is not a fan either.  I am getting through my runs on it, but somebody ought to figure out something that does the same thing and is a little more pleasant.