For Whom the Dogs Bark

70F, 90% and calm.  Pretty good weather.  I was struggling over the weekend with the ankle I sprained climbing Kings Peak a couple of weeks ago, so I decided not to run hard today, plenty of that on Saturday and otherwise last week.  Went 10.11 miles in 1:40:01, average 9:54 per LHR mile.  My heart rate held through almost 9 miles before it finally started drifting and slowed me down.  Basically I was stiff and sore but otherwise in pretty good shape today.  Every car I saw this morning gave me a wide berth, this is a pretty good neighborhood to run in, even in the dark.  At least if I finish before school.  If I'm running late I encounter teenagers awaking too late from their pampered slumber, 15 minutes late for first period and not caring who is in their way.  Those guys are dangerous.

76F, 87%, SSW 7 mph.  Back to normal running conditions, so might as well do the same old workout.  Ran 4 LHR miles, pace 9:53, then 6 x 1K progressively faster:  8:02 (149), 7:31 (158), 7:22 (161), 7:09 (165), 7:04 (171 and 7:01 (175), average 7:22, maxHR 181.

Just a cell phone picture, but when I was running this morning, right after my 4th split, several large birds settled onto a rooftop right in front of me.  They are turkey vultures, 15 of them.  I obviously need to improve my running form, but at least I got a new slogan for my blog.

77F, 91%, SW 8 mph.  We will break our record high for today by about 6 degrees, these temperatures are astonishing.  I ran 10.18 miles in 1:37:26, average 9:34 per mile.  Started with 6 LHR miles, average 9:52, then did 10 x 200 sprints, except the sprints weren't very fast.  I picked a straight stretch in the back of my neighborhood that was .13 miles long and sprinted down then returned at a slog.  Slowest was 6:34 pace and the fastest 5:52, most in the low 6s, maxHR 179.  A little discouraging that my legs won't go any faster, I felt like I was flying, I was sure I was running in the low 5s, but couldn't see my watch well enough until I got back to the house.  But at least I have identified why I am not fast.  I'm certain it's because I'm slow.  I run at a high percentage of VO2max compared to most runners I know, but that pace so far isn't producing much speed.  I have started working on this and am getting some outside advice, but it was astounding to me that one of my sprints was only a little faster than my 5K pace, and slower than I had planned to be running 5Ks by the end of the year.  I will be paying much more attention to this going forward.

77F, 71% and calm.  Didn't feel less humid but maybe it was.  I ran 5 LHR miles at 9:50 pace, then 5 at GMP:  7:41 (152), 7:42 (157), 7:38 (160), 7:36 (164) and 7:37 (168).  Then I jogged for a bit and sprinted in to the house (not sure how fast) because I am carb-loading today in preparation for Saturday's long run, kind of a dry run for St. George.  It didn't work too well for the Utah Valley Marathon, ended up with GI distress which was probably connected to that.  So I'm trying again with a different powder (Carbo Pro).  If this doesn't work I'll stick with pasta for the real deal.  Got to get 700 grams of carbs today, only about 200 for breakfast so a long way to go.  Overall 10.49 miles in 1:31:01, average pace 8:41 per mile.  Have a good day all y'all running types.

71F, 70%, E 8 mph.  I am not kidding, it felt chilly this morning before I got going.  But the results from the carb loading and slightly lower temperatures were significant.  I wasn't going to run at, so as to fully check out the carb-loading effects, then decided that was dumb, the race isn't tomorrow.  I started out about the same as usual for a LHR run, then sped up and kept my heart rate down.  Mile 8 was 9:29, and mile 10 was 9:43.  Almost no heart rate drift until the last half mile.  Overall I ran 10.08 miles in 1:37:42, 9:42 per mile, all LHR.  Very little sweat, the difference was really quite dramatic.  Interesting if it carries over to tomorrow.

73F, 93%, ESE 3 mph.  Time to taper.  Ran my third hard 19-miler.  First one was 4 weeks ago, when I had to stop at 16 miles and got 8:22 overall, 163 average heart rate.  Temperature then was 80F/80%.  But it helped me set a goal of 19 at 8 flat, in two easy steps, on the theory that if I could get that pace in hot humid conditions I could do 20 or 30 seconds better if it is drier and cooler in St. George.  So two weeks ago was step 1, goal of 8:10 and I got 8:08, conditions were 77F/71%, 160 average heart rate, probably a little too easy.  After yesterday's run I was pretty sure I could hit 8:00 today and it worked out well.  I got 7:56 in high humidity conditions, average heart rate 162, so 26 seconds per mile better than 4 weeks ago at basically the same heart rate.  Temperature was a little lower than the other two runs but I think the higher humidity balanced it out.

Today was a dress rehearsal.  I did my carb-loading two days ago, using CarboPro as a nutritional supplement.  On the advice of the wise Derhammer, I got up at 2 a.m. and drank another 12 ounces of the stuff.  For a minute I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep but the next thing I knew my 5 a.m. alarm went off and I was out the door at 5:30 with 7 solid hours of sleep under my belt.  I used EFS for the run, which I will do for St. George.  I switched from vanilla to wild berry, but frankly it wasn't much better.

Warmed up for 1.15 miles with the watch off, set down two water bottles and I was off for 6 laps of about 5K each.  My heart rate climbed quickly for the first 5 miles then held steady at 160 for the next 4 or 5.  Then it climbed quickly again and I was pretty much hanging on. I had nausea setting in from the heat the last quarter of the run.  I wouldn't have been able to finish a marathon at this speed, but I did average 7:50 for my last 6 miles, including 7:45 and 7:45 to finish it off.  Overall 19.0 miles in 2:30:51, average pace 7:56 per mile, maxHR 182.

Good luck to everybody running a real race today.