Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

5 miles in 45:36 or 9:07 pace at 5:10 a.m., 50 degrees and nice.  4 miles in 33:37 fairly easy to moderate, on the treadmill tonight at 6:45 p.m.  Between 9:00's and 8:00 min pace. .5 to 1.5% incline.  Needed to start my 2-a-days 2x per week.  But I wimped and ran on the treadmill.  The temperature is plenty warm out tonight, but the stiff south winds were really howling.  The huge flag at Macey's was standing straight out.  I hate running in the wind about as much as cold rain, so I wimped.  Owell.  I'll probably be facing rain or snow tomorrow morning.  Something is blowing in. 

5 miles in 46:52, 9:21 pace.  Very easy.  Warm temperatures again and windy, but not quite like last night.  Felt pretty good.  2 runs scheduled for tomorrow.  Something coming in tomorrow night or Thursday morning.  Winter ain't through yet!

5 miles this morning at 5:10 a.m. in 46:47, 9:21 pace.  Identical to yesterday.  Same wind, same route, same pace.  Man, I'm a boring dude!  2nd run tonight at 6:30 p.m., at the track.  Yasso's again.  3x800's in 3:21, 3:18, and 3:16, with 400 recovery after each.  I don't feel ready to step it up to 4 next week, but I better since I've been at 3 for two consecutive weeks.  Weather held off so far, but supposed to have something by tomorrow morning and then again on Saturday morning.  We'll see.

5 miles on the treadmill this morning at 5:00 a.m. in 45:14, about 9:03 pace.  9:30's for first half at 1.5% to 2% incline.  8:30's for second half at .5% to 1% incline.  Easy recovery run after last night's Yassos.  Icy roads this morning, but it has melted fast today out here.  Supposed to be something more coming Friday night into Saturday morning, just in time for my 14 miler.  Suck it up, bud!

Slowest 5 miler of the year this morning.  49:17 or 9:51 pace.  Legs still feel hammered from 2 a days, twice this week, I think.  Hope I recover well for my 14 miler on the weekend.

14 miles in 2:01:58, or 8:42 pace with Tina.  About 4 minutes slower than last two weeks.  Snow and ice on the roads starting out, but temperature at 9:00 a.m. was 45 degrees and things were melting fast.  Sunny and nice otherwise.  We came home from the S.L Temple late last night and didn't hit any snow until right when we got into town.  5,200 ft. elevation makes a big difference.  I thought it would be much worse weather to be running in this morning and was surprised that it would be nice enough to be running in shorts.  When we were going up the hill we encountered the THS Track Team 5K race coming down the hill.  It wasn't the best turn out and mostly folks were walking, but I think it might be some kind of fund raiser for the team.  I guess we should have supported it.  47 miles this week, not too bad, but my legs are really hammered and it showed in our overall time today.  16 miles next week.  Moab in 2 weeks.

5 miles in 46:49, 9:21 pace.  Slow recovery run.  Just starting to snow at 5:00 a.m. but not sticking yet.  Felt okay.  Bagged second run this evening, try 2 runs tomorrow.

2 runs today.  5 miles on treadmill this morning at 5:00 a.m. in 42:43, about 8:33 pace.  Snowed overnight.  5 more miles on dry roads tonight at 6:30 p.m. in 44:45, about 8:57 pace.  Full sweats and 35 degrees tonight, but nice to have sunshine with the time change.  Felt pretty good.

5 miles in 46:00 flat, or 9:12 pace, fairly easy at 5:10 a.m. 25 degrees. Felt okay. Dry roads

2 runs today.   5 miles this morning at 5:00 a.m. in 44:57, or just under 9:00 minute pace.  Fairly easy running and felt good.  26 degrees.  Not as sluggish as I ususally feel early in the morning.  Speedwork at the track tonight at 6:45 p.m.  Nice to have daylight! Sunny, but 40 degrees with a bit of a cool breeze, but warm enough for shorts and long sleeves with a running vest, hat and gloves.  Ran Yasso 800's.  4 x 800 in 3:20, 3:18, 3:16, and 3:16 with 400 recovery after each plus running to and from the track, 1/2 mile each way for warm up and cool down.  Good solid workout, but I'm beat.  Easy 5 scheduled for tomorrow and then 16 on Saturday, one week from Moab.

5 slow recovery miles in 49:12, 9:50 pace.  Temperatures around 25 degrees at 5:00 a.m.  Long run tomorrow, supposed to be sunny, clear, and warming up, but will probably still be cool in the morning.  On my own tomorrow.  Need to set out some H2O.

16 miles in 2:16:55, 8:33 pace.  9:00 a.m 30 degrees starting out, 50's at the end.  Sunny and nice and clear today.  Felt good about the pace not having Tina there to push me today.  One more week until Moab.  I feel ready for the most part.  50 mile week.  I'll taper this next week and won't run on Friday.  Looking forward to next weekend and hope the forecast holds out.  They were talking 60 degrees here in Friday and sunny.  Fastest mile today was 7:39, slowest 9:30.

5 miles, 47:48, 9:32 pace.  Recovery run from long run on Saturday.  Should try to do one last tempo run tomorrow morning or at least a few pick-ups and then really easy on Wednesday and Thursday, taking Friday off.  Traveling down to Moab early on Friday and hope to have a great weekend.

5 miles in 43:44, 8:44 pace.  5:00 a.m.   High 50's, unseasonably warm for that time of day in early March.  Fairly easy to moderate effort with a 2 or 3 pickups on the flat areas.  Tapering this week.  One run per day through Thursday.  Weather is looking great for Saturday at Moab.  Supposed to be around 70 degrees and partly cloudy.  Could be warm towards the end, but the 2 hour wait in the canyon before the start is always cold.  Time to get fired up.

5 miles in 47:06, 9:25 pace.  Slow and easy.  Saw another old duffer out there the last two mornings.  Nice to know I'm not the only insane old Please follow Fast Running Blog policy regarding vulgar language running at 5:00 a.m.  Temperature was colder this morning, about 40 degrees.  One more easy run tomorrow.  Things are still looking good for Moab on Saturday.

4 miles at 9:49 pace. Real easy. Rest tomorrow leaving early for Moab.

Rest Day and Travel

Well, not my best half marathon, but not bad all things considered.  I was 6 minutes off last year, but still felt fairly good about by effort.  I wilted badly in the heat and gradually slowed with each mile.  Fastest mile was mile 2 in 7:08.  Slowest was mile 11 in 8:08.  7:49 overall pace.  So my range was within a minute.  Running in 30 to 40 degrees everyday in training and then having to face 70 or higher on that asphalt just zapped me of what I needed late in the race.  Last year I had Painter's under my belt and was running higher mileage preparing for Boston, so those are my excuses anyway.  Gorgeous day and beautiful weather!  1:42:10 was my chip and garmin time.  1:42:29 was the gun time.  Good for 22/124 in Men's 50-54 division, 253/1364 in Men's Class, and 329/3282 overall field.  Already have reservations for next year.  It's still my favorite half marathon.

5 miles in 44:38 at fairly easy pace, 8:56 per mile average.  Ran tonight at 6:30 p.m. instead of this morning.  Nice to have some daylight, but need to return to the black tomorrow morning.  Legs still a bit sore from Saturday.  Mostly the hamstrings, but otherwise feeling okay.

Two runs today.  5 miles this morning at 5:10 a.m. in 47:47 and tonight at 6:30 p.m. another 5 miler in 44:57.  Nice to have some daylight and 40 degrees tonight.  Easy effort, still recovering with sore legs getting a better.

5 miles plodding this morning.  My legs were really tired and felt heavy.  Just enjoyed a very leasurely lope. 

2 runs today. 5 miles this morning at 5:10 a.m. in about 46 minutes.  Light snow flurries on the east side.  Ran easy.  Roads and air was dry on our side of town.  A bit weird.  Snowing tonight when I got home so I did my Yasso 800's on the treadmill.  That was strange, too.  Actually 4 x 880 yds. or 4 x 1/2 mile in 3:20 (6:40 pace or 9 mph).  440 yds. recovery after each. 1 mile warm up and cool down.

5 miles easy at 5:10 a.m.

16 miles in 2:19:10.  8:40 pace.  A bit slower than two weeks ago.  Nice sunny day.  Didn't run until about 10:30 a.m.  It was nearly 60 degrees, so shorts and short sleeve tech shirt was perfect.  Ran up Smelter Road into Pine Canyon and back down and then 1 1/2 miles up Middle Canyon and back home.  Saw Liz out at the top of the hill when I was coming back.  I haven't run with Tina for 3 weeks, she's had other things going on.  My Garmin has been doing strange things.  I couldn't get it to work on Thursday or Friday, so I called the toll free technical support number.  They had me do a master re-set, which cleared everything up, I thought.  But today's run it gave me my overall time and pace for 16 miles, but then it only broke it out into 3 laps, so something is wacky still with it.

I overdid it today.  I did 5 miles on the treadmill easy this morning in 44:46.  We had snow overnight and icy roads this morning.  It cleared up good.  I set out to do at least 5 miles again tonight, my schedule had 7.  I ended up doing the 7 in 1:03 or about 9 min. pace, but my hip and back have been hurting since Thursday and it really got bad on my way back tonight for the last 4 miles or so.  I may need to take some time off if it isn't feeling better in the morning. 

No running. I've got some hip and/or back pain that got worse after my Monday evening run.  I think I need to rest it and not run for several days.  This feels like the same thing I had in 2000 when I had to miss the marathon and didn't run for about 6 weeks.  Hopefully, I can get back to it sooner than that, or the Ogden Marathon is out.  The good news is we got Rick's release date from Argentina and if fits perfectly with my taper week prior to St. George for the days we're gone picking him up.  I never ran for the whole time when we picked Scott up from Buenos Aires in 2005, so I doubt I'll get much running in.