Training for a Belt Buckle

1 mile with the puppy this morning.

30 minutes swimming this afternoon followed my 30 minutes pool running.

After dinner (fish and salad) - Twilight and I are going to run 2 miles in the park.

Five miles around Wheeler Farm after work in 57:20.  I wore my FiveFingers.  If anyone has done those trails, they are not really packed dirt, but are gravel and twigs and such. After about 1.5 miles my feet kind of went numb so the rocks and gravel didn't hurt as much.  Around 4.5 miles the numbness went away and I felt every dang rock.

20 minutes of Yoga for Runners.

After dinner did a Circuit workout and a Core workout from the latest issue of Oxygen Magazine.

5 miles at 5:00 this morning in 58:30.  Did my route with 3 big uphills and then a long downhill.  I always enjoy the moment when each hill releases you from its grasp and things get easy again.  Walked Twilight for a mile afterwards and the concrete was making my feet tired.

My throat was hurting and I was feeling bad after work yesterday, so crawled in bed for the night and napped and read until bedtime.

Walked the puppy 1 mile before work.

Walked the puppy 1 mile after work.  My dad called just after I got home and when I mentioned I had just got back in from walking the dog, he remarked, "It's too windy to go out down here in Provo."  I snidely remarked back (my dad was being rude for some reason)...."I had her on a leash so could pull her back in if the wind blew her away." That seemed to quiet him down on his lecture mode.

My knees were really aching a lot at work. Didn't know if it was from being sick or from not working out for a couple of days or from taper hypochondria, so went out running tonight.  I did six slow, miserable, hard miles out and back. Didn't wear a watch, but the first three were into the headwind and it didn't get any less miserable and painful on the three with a tailwind - just no dirt in the eyes that way.  I just finished stretching and think I'll go to bed for the evening.

Ran 9 miles this morning. After all my problems with last night's workout, I decided to take it conservatively and ran 4 minutes, walked 1 minute. I was still under 12:30 mpm. The second half I felt much better than the first and ran it (net uphill) 5 minutes faster than the first half.  Last night I kept hawking up crap every half mile or so and having to spit.  Didn't have to spit at all this morning, so think I am almost recovered.

I need to clean up and head into the office with the puppy and will take a break in a few hours and walk her around Wheeler Farm for an additional 2 miles.

I love breaking in new shoes.  They are so bouncy!  

My sister came over tonight and we helped her figure out how to get in and out of a wetsuit and she swam in her triathlon wetsuit for the first time. Then I took her out for a belated birthday dinner of Garlic Burgers from the Cottonbottom Inn.

After my sister left I did between 5-5.5 miles.  My stomach wasn't too happy about running less than 30 minutes after eating - but I kept it down. Stretched and am now icing.  Also uploading 5 episodes of The Rifleman to my iPod!

No running today.  Woke up with some kind of bruising below some toes on my foot. I might cross train in the pool - but when I left this morning it was two hours after the pool was supposed to open and it was still not uncovered.

PM- ok, I lied.  The pool never opened today - guess everyone here is a wuss.  Twinkies has been tempting me with a trail running group from The Front and they had a run scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight on the Pipeline Trail.  It was quite an adventure getting there in the downpour and nobody else showed up.  I wore some new trail running shoes and decided I really wanted to run in the rain and was going to do 3 miles. At the turnaround I thought I would extend it to 4 miles, before I knew it I had run 3 miles in and needed to run back. It was one of the best runs of my life.  I will try and describe it tomorrow in my personal blog.  Basically, I enjoyed a solo run with God and prayed the entire run.  My cup is full now.

I'm going to stretch tonight, but otherwise taking a rest day.

Went to the chiropractor tonight for a tune-up.  Much less painful than the last time I went.

3 mile warmup run, followed by a 1 mile cooldown run with Twilight.

Ready for Sherpa duties tomorrow.

Woke up today with a toe on my left foot really hurting.  It is one of the two toes that I had the bruising behind earlier this week. Go figure.  Ice and ibuprofen today.  Of course, in true runner fashion my mind started the paranoia of ....is it broken, arthritis, alien inhabitations?

I will write more later, but had a great race with Marion today.  She finished her first ever marathon and I am so proud of her.  I have pictures and details that I will blog about this afternoon.  My son is over and I don't see him much - so he will take priority.

Yesterday was a busy day with Marion texting me, talking with Marion, emailing Marion - Sherpa duties are tough LOL

After dropping off the puppy, I headed down to Provo.  I got to the mall for packet pickup and was shocked to see the line going on and on.  That is probably the biggest flaw in the marathon - they were not prepared for so many people and it was a little frustrating to be on my feet in line for an hour and during the dinner hour.  About halfway through my wait, Anna Lisa and Smooth each came along with spouses, so I let them cut in line since we were all going to dinner together.

Smooth and hubby, Anna Lisa and hubby and Marion and hubby and moi visited while waiting for a table at Brick Oven.  About the time our dinner came, Josse, her sister and Luz joined us and we all squished together. 

By the way - I am now going to be Miles on the blog according to Marion. She found out yesterday or the day before that my maiden name is Miles - so she says it is my running name. :-)

As I left my Dad's house at 4:15 this morning, Marion called and was already waiting at the mall.  She was afraid to fall asleep, so got up and left. I picked up Luz at her house and Marion, Smooth, Luz and I rode the bus up together.  I found out Luz forgot her Garmin, so let her use my backup Timex watch (double sherpa duties).  We had the world's slowest bus on the uphills - thought we might need to get out and push it. 

The start was well organized. There was a 'kick bike' race starting 15 minutes before ours. That was different. Crockett came over and introduced himself and wished us well. We also saw Sasha, Steve Ashbaker, and Mary Anne.  Josse and Don Gardinero joined us for the start.

We were running down the canyon on the highway - with the right lane blocked off.  There was a good mix of uphill and downhill stretches and only about 8 miles of this portion was concrete and it was not too bad. My goal for this marathon was to finish a race uninjured this year and to get Marion through her first marathon. She is quite an awesome woman.

Here are our first 5 miles: 11:50, 11:23, 11:39, 11:34. 11:50. Marion wanted to stay over 10:30 on the downhill sections and I would rein her in if she started going faster. Oh - Marion yelled at the first mile markers and we honked and flashed our lights during the tunnel.

At mile 6 it was a great break to see a crazy woman in a blue jacket yelling at us and waving her crutches.  MichelleL had waited for us slowpokes and had a FRB sign to cheer people on.  I know this had to be killing her to not be running, but it was so sweet of her to be there for all of us runners.  We gave her a big, sweaty hug and then waved a few minutes later when she drove by honking. The canyon was definitely different than on the trail that we usually see and it was nice to have different views.  We waved at the buses heading up to their 10 mile race, but people were pretty boring on the buses.

Miles 6-10: 11:42, 10:52, 11:34, 11:19, 12:10

Miles 11-15: 11:14, 11:56, 11:41, 12:18, 12:02  It was nice to be out of the canyon and we saw some different sections of the parkway trail that we had not seen before.  I had started out with the plan of running 9 minutes, walking 1 minute, but my Sherpa duties were frazzling my mind (I twittered our position at miles 5, 10 and half marathon) and switched to running ahead at each mile marker and then doing a walk until Marion caught up.

Miles 16-20: 12:08, 12:17, 12:29, 12:32, 12:01 At mile 16 we called Mindy (Marion's sister-in-law) to give her a heads up. She was joining us a mile 21.  There were a couple of poorly marked miles in this section.  We went from being almost 2/10 of a mile behind on our Garmins on the mile markers to way ahead at one point and then back on.  Learned the hard way to keep moving because the skeeters were nasty buggers.  We were glad to see the end of the ups and downs going under the road.  About Mile 18 I noticed that Marion's breathing was getting a little stressed and her footfalls a little heavier.  She never once complained and kept on moving on out. We called Kelli after 18 to let her know where we were and check on Scott. We did find it got significantly hotter when we were on Center Street and did not have the shade from the trees. I started trying to throw out the occasional joke and story to keep Marion off her misery.

Miles 21-25: 12:27, 13:33, 12:36, 12:52, 12:25 Mindy met us at 21 with Reese's PB Cups and helped with the entertaining. Occasionally Marion would request gossip or stories.  I had warned her about how her body and breathing would feel and hope that helped prepare her for the unknown.  Kelli (back from multiple finishes with different bloggers) met us at 24 and was able to give Marion a good motivation and update on what was up ahead.  We did mug a little cub scout to get some water at about 23.5 (LOL). Marion's breathing got really stressed at 24, but she kept running and only walked at aid stations. 

Miles 26: 11:23 The last mile was a struggle, but we kept the pace up and Marion did a great job of finishing.  We crossed the line together after starting together.  I was honored to help her through her 18 mile run, 20 mile run and first marathon. She is a marathon virgin no more and will kick my butt in her next race.

Overall - a well organized and scenic race. I would definitely do this one again.  I ran pain free, and while I was tired at the end, I had plenty of energy left.  My pushing ahead at each mile gave me indication that I had more in my legs, so I think I will definitely be able to break 5 hours in my next marathon and possibly 4:50 by the end of the season.

Walked the puppy 2 miles this morning.  I am still pretty tired. Think I'll get a substitute in nursery so I don't have to wrestle kids for 2 hours.

I registered for the Top of Utah Marathon yesterday - so am back on track for my Grand Slam.

Will work out tonight.

Updated my Adventures In Running Blog with a modified race report and pictures from  Saturday.

I've had a co-worker coughing and hacking all over the place for a week. Marion gave me lots of information about Influenza A during our visit on Saturday.  When Mike came in today and mentioned his grandfather was in the hospital with pneumonia - I suggested that perhaps both of them had Influenza A.  He called his grandfather's doctor who checked the blood test results and I am correct.  At this point we have all been exposed for over a week, but I did give him my jar of Clorox Wipes and asked him to wipe down his cubicle thoroughly each day until he is better. I'm really glad I didn't get the passed on to me before the race.

/*****************************************/

This is another post I just made in my main blog:

Anyone who has entered a long race can tell you that sometimes the supporters/fans can make a world of difference. In my race last Saturday I saw examples of both types of fans and think we can all learn from them.

Good Fans:  Michelle Lowry is an injured elite runner.  She took second place in the St. George Marathon in 2008 and is incredibly gifted. Unfortunately, she has been experiencing some injuries in her hip/SI area this year and it has become debilitating enough that she is relying on crutches to get around and sometimes even a wheelchair.  I can only imagine how frustrating this must be for someone of her talent and yet she took three hours out of her Saturday to come and cheer on fellow runners in the Utah Valley Marathon.  As Marion McLellan and I approached Mile 6, we saw an excited woman in a blue jacket yelling and screaming at us.  Just to make sure we didn’t miss her, she brandished her crutches in the air and we knew we had found Michelle. She had a poster cheering on the FRB (FastRunningBlog) runners and waited until the last ones she knew (us) arrived. We gave her a quick thank you and hug (we weren’t racing after all and a hug can do a world of good) and then headed on.  A mile or so later, she passed us once again in her van honking, cheering and waving.  Michelle continued on the course cheering on runners and watching the elite women finish.  Thank you, Michelle.

Bad Fans:  Marion was really struggling physically and emotionally the last couple of miles.  After Kelli Stephenson joined us (and Mandi – Marion’s sister-in-law), somewhere before the last mile we saw a guy sitting on the side of the road with his finisher’s medal.  Trying to motivate Marion, I said, “In just a short while you will be wearing one of those.”  Instead of being encouraging, this jerk (calling him a gentleman would be wrong), waved his medal back and forth chanting and jeering – “I’ve got one and you don’t”.  I strongly considered going back and choking him with his medal.  It was probably the worst show of sportsmanship I have ever seen at a race.

Thank you to family and friends who have cheered me on at races in the past 6 years.  You have no idea how much it means to me.

And – Boston/medal guy – may you pull an important muscle in your next big race and have to DNF….

/**************************************/

PM - came home from work an hour early and took a long nap.  I felt a lot better after that.

Ran/walked 1 mile with the puppy as a warmup

Ran 3 miles to the Trax and back

Ran/walked 1 mile with the puppy as a cooldown

1 mile with the puppy this afternoon.

Went down to Provo tonight and ran 6 miles on the River Trail.  1st mile at 12:00, remaining under 11:30.

Joined the Provo Weight Watchers with the amazing Melting Marathon Marion as my leader.

RHR 46

Woke up refreshed with a low heart rate, but the joints were all very stiff when I got up, so decided to take today as a low impact day.  Walked the dog for 2 miles this morning before work.

I'm massively depressed and feeling the dark side encroaching and having to seek out comfort food.  If I disappear off the face of the earth, please remember me at marathon_maurine@hotmail.com.

Last run in one of my favorite pairs of running shoes this morning. I met Leslie and some of her friends at Birch Hollow for a before work run on the Pipeline Trail.  Leslie turned back to find her friends at about .75 miles and I was alone from then on.  At the turnaround took a gu and some water.  Started feeling soooooo hungry at 6 miles. Can't figure out why.  At 8 miles I totally bonked and started throwing in some walking breaks after that.  I think the 5 hours of sleep last night and the night before are impacting me because I usually need at least 7.5 hours each night.

Off to work.   Oh yeah - note to self - don't try to leave MillCreek Canyon between 8:30 and 9:15 on a day when there is scout camp.  Tons of cars sitting in the road waiting to park and drop off little scouts and  you can't go around them.

Caught up some on sleep last night.  The knees are really achy today - so I am walking errands instead of doing a long run.

Walked the puppy 2.5 miles.

Walked to the post office and another store and back - 2 miles.

2 1/2 miles this afternoon with the puppy.

Another pair of shoes joins the discard pile today.  My Wave Alchemy's are getting too worn.  Time to break in another pair this week for the next three marathons.

Signed up this weekend for the Sandy 4th of July 10K, Deseret News 10K and a midnight 5K in August. I plan to break an hour for a 10K PR in one of the races (hopefully the first one) and then will know if I can push the pace even more in the next race.

Tomorrow starts my quest for 6 pack abs - which involves not only working on the core muscles, but losing 10-15 pounds to get the body fat down in that area.

Have a great week everyone.

6.2 miles running this morning, followed by a 1 mile cooldown jog with the dog.

12:53, 12:19 (uphill), 10:25 (downhill), 10:28, 10:20, 11:13 (net uphill)

PM - 1.6 miles with the puppy

15 minutes on the Stairmaster

45 minutes upper body, core and calf weights

20 minutes on the Stationary Bike

Around the World Core Workout - 10 reps

1.5 miles with the dog.

Later - met Matt (Twinkies), Kyle, Lindsay, and Nate up in Bountiful and ran the Mueller Park Trail up to the Big Rock and back (3.4 miles each way). With about 1/2 mile to go I rounded a corner and scared a deer about 5 feet in front of me (or it scared me).  What a pretty site.

Driving out of the canyon, I saw the most gorgeous sunset over Antelope Island/Freemont Island and the Great Salt Lake. I was able to continue watching it for about 5 miles until I got on the freeway.

I took a vacation day tomorrow to do a long run.  I'm waiting to hear if it is too late to enter the Logan Peak Trail Run this Saturday. If it is too late - I might do 20-30 miles tomorrow. If it is not too late - I will stay under 15 tomorrow.

The plan was to get a relatively early start running up in Park City on my day off. I was just about to leave at 8:30 when I got an emergency call from work that someone had deleted some important information in the database that all our clients rely on and ended up working until 11:30.

I had not planned on hitting the start of the trail at noon on the hottest day of the year. I ran 15.25 miles from the start of the dirt road section of Jeremy Ranch Road up to Emigration Canyon (I think that is where it comes out) and back. Had some nice visits running through a herd of sheep and talking to some dogs, donkeys, and horses.

Because of the heat of the day, walked the worst of the uphills. No shade whatsoever. Around 2.5 hours I found a stream and soaked my hat and head and arms.

Drank about 20 oz on the way up and emptied a 70 oz bladder on the run, plus 5 Etabs. I don't think I dehydrated, but I definitely was not over hydrated since I only went to the bathroom once in the 5 hour period I was gone (between driving and stores).

Going to get cleaned up now and then try recovery with compression shorts and socks. I entered the Logan Peak Trail Run (28 miles of fun and 7000 feet of vertical) on Saturday, so will start carbo loading and tapering tomorrow.

Rest day today.  I'll just take the puppy on some short walks.

Interesting night - I woke up at 2 a.m. when I should have been exhausted and, after laying there for an hour, got up and ate something hoping I was just hungry. Still couldn't fall asleep, so tried taking off the compression shorts and stockings and fell asleep a few minutes later.  Interesting though - as soon as I took off the compression shorts, I found that my quads were really aching from yesterdays run.  Did not feel it at all while wearing them.

Legs were heavy when walking the dog.

Talked to the Race Director's wife about the course on Saturday. She says there is a lot of mud and snow up on Logan Peak - so I know which shoes to wear to keep my feet dry.

This is Maurine's daughter posting for her. She wanted everyone to know that she finished Logan Peak Trail Run! She made it in time and survived and is currently exhausted and will update with a full report later. I don't know all the details but she will give them all after she gets some sleep and showers.

 ~Jennifer

Today was a big learning experience.  I will be posting more in my regular blog (including pictures) tomorrow. 

This is a 28 mile race up to the top of Logan Peak and down.  There is 7200 feet of ascent and 7200 feet of descent.   I read the reports of Jon and Cody and am amazed that they can run up those steep (and never ending) uphills.

I spent the night in Logan at my Aunt's house - which was only a mile from the start of the race, so I didn't have to get up much before 5:00. Got to visit with a few friends (including Clark Hirschi - an ultra buddy that was in my old ward at church) before the race started.

The race starts with a 5+ mile uphill climb that had me sucking wind and my heart pounding the entire time.  Around mile 7 we crossed the first snow field - but this one was pure ice and I slammed down hard on my butt crossing it.  There was no way to get traction.  There were some nice flat and downhill sections in the first half (not a lot - but some) and Lindsay (another runner) and I ran them all. 

At the second aid station at mile 11, I loaded up on food and said hi to Matt/Twinkies for a minute.  About 10 minutes later I passed Jim Skaggs/Ultra Jim and also saw some other ultra friends on the out and back to the tower.  Lindsay and I kept leap frogging with two male runners (another one dropped out before the first aid station at mile 4.5). They would pass us on the uphills, we would pass them during the flats/downhills.  One of them decided to not do the 6 mile out and back.  During the out and back up to the tower we passed through several snow and mud fields.  One of the steep snowfields I was sliding downhill a lot - so dropped down and buttslid to the bottom. 

We took a short break at the tower for pictures, and that was the last I saw of Lindsay.  Ray (the other guy) started the downhill a little before us and ended up getting lost on a snowfield for a little while - I wondered why I didn't pass him as usual on the downhills - but figured he had picked up the pace.

Around mile 18 I went into a death march.  I was nauseous (but couldn't puke) and had absolutely no energy.  I knew that I could still finish before the 10 hour cutoff - but really only wanted to curl up on the side of the trail and die.  A little after mile 21, I suddenly got some energy again and could trot/run the flats and downhills.  I stopped at one freshwater spring and soaked my arms and hat to help cool me down.

At the mile 23 (or so) aid station, I sat down for 5 minutes to regroup for the long downhill to the finish and get some food in me.  Ate lots of fruit and actually drank a cup of Coke (that was a first).  I was able to trot down most of the downhills, but was pretty wiped and hot since it was midafternoon.  A few more nasty uphills in the last mile and then there was about a half mile of pavement.  As I turned into the park I started crying from relief at finishing this.

This was by far the hardest race I have done.  It was a good lesson in endurance and I have learned a lot about things I need to practice and train for in future ultras. 

On the bright side - Veyo will look like a piece of cake in St. George.

I was looking at my mileage from last week and I think it was my second or third longest week ever. 

I am really hurting today.  My lungs are really sore from all the heavy breathing yesterday and my quads and glutes are totally trashed.  I took the puppy on a one mile walk this morning and that was painful.

When I took a shower I felt a burning sensation in my butt and looked and found that I have a fist size bruise and several cuts in my left buttock.  I slammed down pretty hard at mile 7 on the ice and that must be where that happened.  Darn - the glory of blood in a trail race and only my compression shorts knew it.

I'm feeling pretty crappy today, so took the day off sick from work. Walked the puppy 3 slow miles this morning trying to wear her out. I think it worked on me. Was able to determine a lot on different surfaces which leg muscles are used because of the way I could feel each muscle on the grade and uphills/downhills.

Finished writing up Saturday's race with pictures: http://adventures-in-running-with-maurine.blogspot.com/

3 1/4 miles around Wheeler Farm with the puppy.  Ran more than I walked.  Tomorrow I hope to be able to do gentle running the whole time.  Still soreness in the quads - but much better than the previous days.  The butt bruising is no longer painful.

Tomorrow I will add to my lack of humility and take my coffee mug to work so that I can remember all the 'fun' I had during the 9 1/4 hours or toil and labor on Saturday.  Who wants to make it a party next year?

I am registered for a 10K in Sandy on 4th of July morning.  If the legs are recovered I will try and break 60 minutes for a new PR.  If not - I will go for a PR and figure out my racing strategy for the Des News 10K later this month. If there is any chance at all of injuring myself by racing - I will just make it a hard run.  There is still a lot for me to learn about short races and that will help me improve my long races as well.