New Record ...

I ran 14 miles yesterday morning. Longest run ever for me.

It was tough, but I'm glad I did it. Just over a month to go until the marathon, I've got 2, maybe 3, more weeks before I need to taper off the long runs and rest up for the big one.

Still sore.

Feel the Burn

Last Saturday I ran 10 miles for the first time. Was quite the experience. I have a 5-mile route that starts and ends at our house so I just did that twice, with a little bit of walking and drinking water half way through. Ran in the evening after a long day; we had returned from camping overnight at our property in Duchesne and I had done yard work in the afternoon. The weather was interesting - it rained buckets on me a couple of times, but at least it cooled the temperatures down to a manageable level.

This week I ran 5 miles on Tuesday morning and just finished a 7-mile run this morning. I feel like my body is starting to get used to running those mid-distances (5 to 7 miles) without getting too fatigued. Will try for 12 miles on Saturday.

Thursday Evening Run

Ran Tuesday morning ... terrible run. Barely made it 4 miles while having to stop and walk about 3 times and plagued with intestinal troubles. Not fun. Worst run in a long time.

This evening was much better. Ran 7 miles. Pretty good pace, was able to get into a bit of a groove and keep it up with relatively little pain and discomfort.

Goal is to run 12 miles on Saturday. Time is running short ... have to start doing real long runs each weekend, increasing probably 2 miles each weekend for the next 5 or 6 weeks, then taper off before the marathon.

Mountain Running

I ran about 6 miles on Saturday morning up in the Kolob mountains near Zion National Park. We were camping out up there for the Beatty family reunion. Was a pretty good run, but the altitude made it a little more difficult than normal, plus there were lots of ups and downs.

Wednesday July 31

Ran 5 miles this morning. That makes 16 miles over the past 3 days. I think that's an all-time high for me. Will rest tomorrow then try to do a good long run on Saturday. Will be a little difficult because we will be up in the mountains for the Beatty family reunion, but Wade has indicated that he wants to do a long run Saturday morning so maybe between the two of us we will get the motivation to do it.

Today for the first time I tried some "Fartlek" training, which the coolrunning website defines as "bursts of speed in the middle of a training run." At 3 random points during my 5-mile run I decided to up the pace for a short distance. I can't say that I was breaking any land speed records, but it was definitely faster than my usual shuffling slow pace. Feeling pretty good so far.

Have gone back to iceing down my knees and shins after each run. I have a reusable gel pack that I keep in the freezer for such occasions.

Back in the saddle again ...

Ran 4 miles yesterday. 7 miles this morning.

Trying to ramp things back up after not running much last week. I only ran 5 on Monday and 5 on Saturday last week.

I ran a bit the week of the cruise, but the marathon is fast approaching and I've got to get used to running longer and longer distances. Will try for at least 10 this weekend.

No Posting, but Still Running

So I haven't posted in awhile, but I have been running still.

This week I ran 20 miles total. 4 miles on Tuesday, 5 miles on Wednesday, 3 miles on Friday, and 8 miles this morning. Still maintaining around a 10:00 minute per mile pace.

Last week I also did 8 miles on Saturday, but didn't run on Thursday or Friday.

My knee has started hurting; getting sore and stiff; hard to walk down stairs and things like that. It's okay usually when I'm just walking around. So I've started trying to focus on that. I'm soaking it in hot water more often which seems to help.

The shin splints haven't really come back, so that's a good thing. Started to get a blister on my big toe this morning, so I need to watch out for that. Not good when I'm planning a fairly big hike next week. Going to hike Mt. Whitney with my brother-in-law and some of his brothers-in-law next Wednesday; doing it all in one day, which is pretty crazy. Should be fun, but crazy.