The Life Of Riley

Training for Utah Valley Marathon

Fast Pace for 2.5 Miles & 9% Incline for 2.5 Miles

Got overall pace to 8 min 53 sec. 

working on stamina right now not pace.  Only paced at 9 min 24 sec but I am getting in mileage for the week and the race.  Overall I'm happy with progress.

Increased my pace on 3 1/5 fast miles to 8:26 which is the quickest I have ever ran over 3 miles (yeah).  I started and ended my run with 9:30 pace (nice & easy).  Overall, I'm very excited about my mileage this week.  Tomorrow is my long run.  Need to get some good rest tonight.  Thank you God for Today.

I completed the first week of what I thought might be an insane schedule for me to keep up with.  As long as tomorrow (my rest day) does what it should, I hope to continue on to week two on Monday.  Today my schedule let me run 15 miles, I cooled down for .4 miles after that just to get to an even number of miles for the week.  I am very happy today.  I have never ran 15 miles before and I have never ran 55 miles in a week.  Two new personal records (yeah).

The human body never ceases to amaze me.  Today I increased my pace to 8:50 for over a 9 mile stretch.  After only a few weeks, I have increase both my stamina and pace way more then I ever thought possible.  Today has been a great day.

Tried a little speed work today.  Ran 3.2 Miles to the high school track and did .5 miles of puke running.  I then jogged home very gently, and the best part of the day was the .3 mile cool down with my three kids through the neighborhood.  My almost 3 year old daughter ran most the way.  I never thought she would of made it that far without stopping.  I am very proud of her.  For the 3.2 mile run to the track I averaged an 8:23 pace, once again breaking my 3+ mile pace.  As for the .5 mile puke run, not sure the pace, I was just trying to keep my composure and was not paying attention to the Garmin.  My pace dropped back to a 9:10 pace for the run home.  All-in-all I'm happy with the day and I feel great.

Take that Tread Mill.

Well, I wanted to get in 11 miles but my right calf started to cramp just after 10.  I tried to walk it off for a a quarter mile then I figured that I'd better give it the rest that it was screaming for.  Darn Natural Man needs to stop crying.

Right calf is very tight.  I may hve over done the first week and a half of my training.  That's all good though, I started at 19 weeks and I'm sure that will give me plenty of time to prepare myself.  Better to heal then to push and destroy...  I will let my muscles rest today and get a long run in this weekend.  Thank you God for today.

Happy Valentines Day Mr. Tread Mill.  My right calf is feeling better and I once again broke my personal best for distance.  It was not a speed competition but it did help out my endurance and base mileage.

Felt good tonight, especially for the day after my long run.  I usually take the day after off but where I switched my distance run from Saturday to Sunday this week due to V-Day, I figured I had better hit it tonight and get back on my schedule.  I took the first 3 miles easy and once I got warm I was able to kick it up to an 8:34 pace for 5 miles and then cooled down for a couple.  I have a great start to the week.  I am very excited to improve throughout the rest of this week.  Thank you God for another great day in life...

I felt really good and wanted to go further but my childrens needs come before my own.

First few miles were slow.  I learned a valuable lesson, to not run right after eating chicken strips and fries.  After I got through the first couple of miles I felt good and got my pace up to 9:05 and then even got a couple of miles at 8:36 which I was happy with.  I have backed off a bit on trying to increase my pace faster then I should, I got a couple of days where I felt I was over doing it, I still have 16 weeks until my race so I have decided to not push myself too much. 

I also decided tonight that if I could approach everything in life as I approach mile 3 through 10, I would be very successful.

Houston, we have a problem...  Right IT Band started bothering me tonight just as I hit mile six.  This puts the fear of God in me, for this is what happend last year and I ended up not running my race.  Last year I pushed it for days thinking I could run through it.  Now I know better and I am going to let it rest a few days and slow down on my training.  That is my problem, I think that my body is in better shape then it is and I tend to over train.  I prey that this is only a temporary set back and I hope that I caught it in time, before it needs weeks or months to heal correctly.

Yeah!!!  IT band is working with me.  I took six days off from running and just did a few weights and a little strechin' and tonight I felt pretty good.  I stopped for a couple minutes at 2 and 4 miles and did a few streches and a lot of strechin' when I finished.  I only averaged 9:22's but at least I'm back on my feet.  Last race I started training for was haulted by the infamous IT band.  I'm not going to let that happen this time.  Well I am going to try to not let it happen.  Slow and steady is my new approach.  Not hard and fast.  "Thank you God for another day."

New week & hopefully new knee.  The first 5 miles of the run I averaged an 7:59 pace. I have never ran more then 2 miles under an 8:00 pace so for me to complete 5 was very cool.  I backed off for the last 5 miles so I did not over do my IT Band again.  I felt good over all and I think all the stretching I have been doing and the 6 days of rest seem to have given my knee what it needed.  "Thank you God for another day."