Welcome

My groin is feeling better though not pain free. With help from White, I decided it was my psoas muscle giving me fits, but I think its just minor tendonitis from overuse. So, I will focus on stretching it after runs and I am going to Joel at Tosh on March 11 to see if he can help me manage it.

I started easy on the treadmill and since I was feeling good, I decided to get in a marathon pace run. After 2 miles at marathon pace, my fresh legs were itching for speed so I went up to 12mph. I was .64 miles through a 5:00 mile when the treadmill at work overheated and flipped off. I went to the archaic treadmill next to it to finish the run. It maxes out at 10mph so I finished mile 5 at 6:00 pace and then a 2 mile cool. The faster I go, the less pain I feel. And after the run, its the best its felt all day.

Evening - did 35 minutes of yoga focusing on psoas elongation.

Plan was 1 hr easy, 30 mts marathon pace and 30 minutes moderate. I had to get up at 5:40 to do it because my son is having his birthday party today. Its a bit harder to warm up early but I felt better on this run than usual. First 8 miles at 7:30, next 4.66 at 6:26 and final 4.27 at 7:01. 

Felt strong to finish though it was probably nearly as hard to run the moderate pace after the marathon pace. Ran to Sugarhouse Park and around once down to Liberty Park and around 1.5 times and home. 500 ft of climb.

Hip/groin feels good but still there. I am glad I still managed 30 miles in this down week. 

JRP south to 21st S and back. Rainy. Was going to do moderate pace on the way back, but I wasn't really feeling that zippy and I was pretty wet head to toe. I would rather run in 10 degrees and snow than sloppy rain. 1:34:45 - 7:29 out and 7:04 back.

Treadmill run at work in 50 minutes. 15 mts up/ 10 mts down. 5x3 minutes at 6:30-6:00 with 4-5 incline and 3 minutes rest. Felt good - legs got dead toward the end of the last "hill." Ran later b/c work was busy.

35 minutes of yoga at 9:00 pm.

Moderate Wasatch out and back in 55:53 with 600 ft of climb. Felt great. Lots of runners out and a beautiful afternoon. Ran at 4:40 rather than lunch.

Crocs are retired - I ran with a broken strap and it affected my form.  

35 minutes of yoga at 9pm. Two nights in a row with the wife.

I was looking forward to running in shorts and a T but got outside and felt the gusty winds. 2 mile warm up to Wasatch then 2x15 minutes in 6:26 and 6:10 respectively. One minute slow jog between. I had to run into the wind going south (15-25MPH with gusts). 2 warm 2.3 cool. 64:21 with 600ft climbing.

New shoes felt great though maybe a little snug on the left foot.

Emigration out and back easy with 8 striders. 700+ ft of climb and 58:54 total.

Easy down to McCarthy track (finally clear!) and around and around. With the Striders 10 miler tomorrow, I wanted to stay super easy. Other than the irresistable allure of a quick 5:45 mile 3, I stayed at 8 minute miles. 46:20 with 250+ ft climb.

Goal tomorrow, no matter how irrational, is to hit 60 minutes. That's splits of 5:45, 5:15, 5:50, 6:05, 6:40, 6:40, 6:50, 5:20, 5:40 and 5:55. If I go out agrressive and hang on, I hope to get a good time. Worst case goal is 62:30.

I have learned that if I set unrealistic goals, I get the time I want but if I target the time I want, I fall short. So, this race was right on target. I set a goal of 60 minutes so that I would break the needed goal of 6:15 miles, or 62:30. Goal was 5:45, 5:15, 5:50, 6:05, 6:40, 6:40, 6:50, 5:20, 5:40, 5:55. Warmed up 3.35 doing miles 6-9 of the course with the big hill in mile 7.

Splits were 5:57, 5:26, 6:06, 6:16, 6:52, 6:47, 7:38, 5:29, 5:51, 5:52. 62:16 total with 931 ft of climb and total elevation change of 1832.  The first two were slower than I would have done, but I was right on the heels of the leaders and I had no desire to pass them as they casually chatted and prepared for the grind.

The 7:38 was surprisingly slow, but it was a steep climb of 260 ft and I'd just run the first six 19 seconds faster than the 10k three weeks ago. Overall a positive step forward. I am confident I can target 78 minutes for the half coming up and at least break 80. Last year, I ran this as part of Salt Lake Marathon training in 1:11:11 and it felt way worse.

The shoes were great but I ended up feeling a seam on the outside middle of my left foot the last two miles and there is a blister there now. So, hopefully its a flaw and I can make another pair work. Right side was fine.

3.2 mile cool down at 11 before I got my day started. Everything feels good. 

Feeling a bit banged up today so though I needed to get 12 in, I did them very easy. 8:09 pace and ran about 5 on the Liberty Park wood chips. 1:37:50 with 400 ft of climb.

35 minutes of yoga with wife.

40 minutes on a stationary recumbent bicycle in the "gym" at work. We have two non-functioning stairmasters, so I can either spin or run. Or get a gym membership and start waking up at 5 am.

I had an appointment with Joel at Tosh this morning to assess my hip flexor pain. He figured out that I have zero external rotation of my left hip which was quite surprising to him. He is also concerned that my left foot lands to the right of my right foot when striking the ground (apparently I scissor excessively) and my left foot is not lifting very high toward my rear; it tops out about 6-8 inches lower than the right leg when kicking back. The resulting lack of power is causing my hip flexor to do all the work to bring my hip forward and causing the pain.

He gave me a routine to work on for the next four weeks to strengthen the area but he is afraid it may be something that would require further diagnosis and even potentially surgery if I want to fully resolve the source of the issue (not sure I would do that).  

I had hip pain in high school and I am generally aware of an imbalance in the flexibility of my hips, but I think the higher mileage has damaged the area and it is now weakened. I have been told to do my key runs and cross train for easy days. So, three runs and four cross training days to see this through.  I call it Fritzifying my routine.

Wasatch out and back. 2E, 6:34, 6:16, 5:59, 6:18 (120 up), 2E. 56:11 with 600ft uphill.

Hip is feeling better, but too soon for that to mean anything.

60 minutes on the stairstepper. My first workout of this kind. I did one on an old Precor at work that had a workout where I started at 6.5 floors per minute and then it was 7, 8, 9, 8, 7, 8, 9, 8, 7, etc. It left me more sweaty than any workout. 

Physical therapy on the hip for 30 minutes thereafter. I do not have time for 90 minute workouts 4x/wk. We'll see how I make it through the next few. 

I ran down to McCarthey track and did minute intervals - 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3 at 5:20, 5:40 and 6:00 respectively with equal revovery periods. I ran up to Red Butte and decided to extend the run with 3.5 miles on trails. Nice day if a bit warm!

1:19:43 total with 800ft of climb. The trail pace was nice and easy 9 minute miles.

60 minutes of stairmaster followed by physical therapy.

This time, I lessened the floors to where I was doing 6-7 per minute most the time but kept my hands off the bars. The effort was easier but still kept my HR above 140 for a good bit of it.

Out and back N on Jordan River Parkway/Legacy Parkway to Foxboro. Headwind mostly out and tailwind back. Plan was to do last 5 moderate. I decided to negative split the last 10 and the last 5 so it was 7:20 avg for first 10, then 6:56 for the next 5 and 6:44 for the last 5.

2:21:38 with minimal climbing maybe 200 ft.

I felt great. 

I got a 30 day membership to Northwest Rec. If I can get the family to swim there a few times, it pays for itself. I did 30 hard minutes on the stationary bike then 5000M in 24:18 on the rowing machine and then finished with elliptical - harder to get my heart rate up on elliptical. Overall it sucked.

Treadmill at work. 2.5 warm-up, 2x10 minute at 5:30 and 5:25 with 2 minutes at 7:00 in between, .5 cool all at 1 incline. It was supposed to be 2.5 cool but I had to get back to work.

I felt very strong.

Stairmaster at work for 50 minutes. 342 floors with an interval type routine.

2x10x400 at 5k-10k pace with 1 minute active recoveries and full recovery between sets. 

I was home and jogged to West High. I decided to do 80 seconds per since this was much easier to track on the watch. Went:

• 1:19.9
• 1:18.9
• 1:19.4
• 1:19.0
• 1:20.7
• 1:20.5
• 1:20.1
• 1:22.3
• 1:21.3
• 1:23.2

4 minute recover with walking, jogging, water 

• 1:20.9
• 1:19.6
• 1:19.3
• 1:20.4
• 1:22.8
• 1:19.9
• 1:22.4
• 1:19.9
• 1:19.2
• 1:17.6

Felt good. A little gassed on the last one. 3.3 mile warm, 1.2 cool then 12 minutes on the elliptical since it started raining. Light intermittent rain and a little wind during the work out.

Total of 96 minutes with warm and cool including elliptical. 

60 minutes on the stationary bike - did a variety course and kept the resistance above 14 for 75% of it. Then a 5k rowing in 23:45.

Physical therapy on the hip. It is feeling better but not healed. 

What happened to my Quantcast? How do I know whether I am relevant? 

Easy stairmaster for 45 minutes. HR in the 125-145 range. 266 floors.

It was very disappointing to see snow on the ground when I left the house. It was sticking to the roads and the East High Track. I met up with White from the blog just south of the track and we ran up to the start about 3.2 miles. We met up with his wife Ashley as well and they were both very nice. I am jealous that White has such a good running partner.

The roads were slippery and treacherous. The goal was to run sub 5:30 miles. I wasn't sure how it would go with the slippery icy roads, but it turned out ok. Splits were 5:26, 5:32, 5:25 and 30 seconds to finish. 

Cooled down with White and Ashley about 2.4 more.

The hip felt fine. I generally don't notice it during races. Looking forward to 22 miles tomorrow. 

This is the longest run I've done other than the marathon. I kept the pace easy and the idea was to run as long as I will during the marathon. 2:50 or so. My childhood home in Taylorsville is about 11 miles away so I decided to go there. I'm sure as a kid, I could never imagine running downtown and back.

It wasn't a great run. I think the slow pace is taxing and I felt worse at mile 20 of this than last week going 40 seconds a mile faster. I kept the pace even and steady: 2:50:57 total with 500 ft of climb or so. 

In google docs, I have green runs, yellow runs and red runs (did it and liked it, did it and hated it, didn't do it respectively). I have a remarkably good record of green runs, but this is my first yellow long run. 

30 minutes bike and 15 minutes stairmaster (105 floors) at work. Its nice not to have to run after a day like yesterday.

Specific endurance intervals. 6x800 at 5k pace with 2mt active recoveries. Did .5 miles on my iphone in average 2:45 (2:41 last/fastest, 2:48 slowest) and 2 minutes was .25 each time. 2.25 up, 2 down. Wasn't really feeling it but it worked out fine.

Some lingering quad soreness from Sunday's 22 miler.

75:39 with 1600+ ft of climb. Around Red Butte Gardens and up Dry Creek. I haven't done a true trail run since December 19 and I haven't been around Red Butte since September 19. Its probably still too muddy.

I planned on 60 minutes stairmaster but I had to go outside and I figured a lot of elevation change would be a similar workout and not too aggravating to the hip if I kept the pace super easy. I did a number of random acceleartions up hill. No hip pain :)

I absolutely love these runs.

Idea was treadmill tempo at work with 2 up, 8 at 6:02-5:50, 2.25 down. Unfortunately the treadmill shut down on me half way through and forced me to do the latter half outside.

Splits were 6:03, 5:52, 5:49, 5:49; (then some amount I don't know before it died); outside 6:02, 6:10, 6:04, 5:56. For the outside piece I ran to the Running of the Leopards start and ran the course.

This was a confidence booster for the Striders Half next Saturday. The idea was to run the 8 miles in the same splits as the first 8 miles of the course.

Satisfied, but wish I felt a bit stronger. Hip hasn't really hurt since Saturday (cross my fingers).

Goal - 60 minutes moderate, 30 at marathon pace, 30 easy.

In Bear Lake for Easter. I did 8.59 miles in 60 minutes, 4.65 in 30 minutes and 4.14 for the last 30. There were rolling hills throughout and runkeepr called it 822 ft of climb so I will say at least 500 ft.

Felt great.

I decided to run on the trails behind the cabin. It was still wet muddy and snowy so it made for a messy slower run. The Altras aren't made for trails and they tore in a few spots. 60 minutes total with more than 1100 ft of climb.