Training in Montana

Two mornings ago I took my shirt off mid run due to the heat & humidity. This morning I wore a long sleeve shirt & had to cover my hands until the turnaround as they were freezing. Ah. 44 degrees at the start & at the end. It really was perfect running weather and my times showed it. I've run this same route quite a few times recently and I was able to run much faster on the way back than I have in the past couple months, and I think the cool weather had a lot to do with it. Anyhow, felt very good. Getting nervous for the marathon, even though it's still a month out.

AP: 8:28. Splits 9:31, 9:07, 9:26, 8:42, 8:15, 7:38, 7:36, 7:30.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111247242

Fairly cool this morning, 45 degrees, but I knew it would warm up. Cut out the toes of some old gym socks and made arm warmers. Worked great. Need to redo it to cover my hands a bit more - they were pretty cold until mile 5. Ran up the hill, up my favorite hill, then kept going for a bit to get some mileage, chasing herds of cows as I went. I chased 3 different herds today. Well, I ran, and they felt chased so they all ran away from me. It was hilarious. Turned and ran on a new road that I've driven before as I went to pick up Kaylene's car that we'd left at a mechanic friend's house. I shorted myself a bit on my 12 mile planned run as the friend said he wanted to leave at 8 am and I took his word for it. Turns out I woke him up and could've done the full 12. No worries. I'm feeling good, ready for this marathon. Now need to figure out how to pull off my 20 miler Saturday with a Fathers/Sons/Boy Scout campout in the morning and a football game in the afternoon. Guess I'll do an evening run. Yuck. Morning runs go so much faster.

AP: 8:37. Splits 9:35, 9:19, 9:08, 10:04, 9:19, 8:31, 7:53, 7:37, 7:33, 7:34, 7:51.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111796362

Short run before we headed off as a family to Riverfront Park to make breakfast on the Coleman stove. Yum. Run was fine - stayed on the dirt road for most of it, took a new route. I was struggling heading uphill then looked at the watch and I was at an 8:30 going up. Not steep mind you but I'm normally a 9:15-9:30 on that same stretch. On the turn around I got the legs moving and it felt great. I wonder what I can do on a nice downhill course with proper training. Probably do okay. I doubt I'll do that in the SGM but I'm confident that I'll do pretty well.

AP: 8:38 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112987799

Tough run today, but mostly on purpose. I'm worried about Veyo hill, so figured I'd do my miles heading up my toughest nearby hill. I ran it Saturday and like to tackle it every now and then, but I think I'll start tackling it every run until the Marathon when possible. I felt a little sluggish today, probably from yesterday's work outside. I didn't rest a whole lot and was on my feet most of the day. I was able to get up the hill in a decent time, but coming back down I didn't have the oomph so an 8:00 downhill was tough. I know my legs are beat when that happens. At 6 miles I was doing an 8:44 with a slight downhill and just sluggish, so listened to some Kam advice and bumped up the speed to an 8:15 or so for 30 seconds and that got me out of it. Felt better the rest of the way.

AP: 8:55. 65 degrees out at 5:45 am.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112987791

5 miles this morning. Beautiful sunrise! One of the best I've seen. There's a thick band of haze on the Eastern horizon from some wildfires (not sure where they are) so the haze diffused the sunrise and completely lit up the horizon with oranges and reds and yellows. It was amazing. Then when the sun finally popped through it was a solid orange. Amazing.

Didn't push it too hard on the run as I'm a bit tired. Need to get more sleep before my 8 miles on Friday and 20 miles on Saturday. So, a cat scared me today. I was nearly home, running past my neighbor's house (1/4 mile from mine) and on the right side of the road there's just tall dried grass, 2-3 feet high. I hear a noise to my right and then suddenly a cat jumped out onto the road right at my feet! I screamed like a little girl and jumped into the air. Then I looked around and I don't think anyone saw me. It freaked me out. I'm normally the one doing the chasing, as I scared away a herd of 50 deer this morning. But this cat had the drop on me. Time to change the shorts.

AP: 8:55 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112987780

First, a couple weird dreams. Wednesday night, dreamed I was doing the SGM and my legs were completely leaden and I just couldn't do it. I was so frustrated as my training runs have been fine. Had to walk a bunch and finished in 5 hours. Woke up angry! Last night, dreamed I was in Farmington in my old 2 wheel drive Corolla and I started driving up a dirt road and ended up way in the mountains. Looked up and saw a string of headlamps going up a trail, and realized the Wasatch 100 starts today. I saw Davy's green headlamp in the distance and thought that was cool, then I realized I was in 6-12 inches of snow and I was stuck so had to walk back down and my car was stuck for the winter. Very odd. Wonder how those guys and gals are doing?

Now to reality. Ran up the same Veyo test hill as on Tuesday and did it much faster and felt much better. Ready for a campout tonight, football game tomorrow and somehow will fit in a 20 miler at night. AP: 8:26. Splits 9:17, 8:45, 8:38, 9:59, 7:48, 8:01, 7:41, 7:22.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112987768

My most amibitious and perhaps crazy run to date. We had a Fathers/Sons/Scout campout last night and this morning so that threw out my normal early morning run and I planned to run at night. It's been unseasonably warm - at 6:30 it was still 83 - so I waited until dusk. I don't have a good reflective top yet (plan to buy one but haven't) so I cut up a Harbor Freight one and fashioned it around my waist under my water belt. It worked alright. I had two blinking red lights on back, one blinking green one in front and a headlamp. I felt okay. Headed out just after 8 and drove down to the local gas station as I could buy stuff when I finished. Headed towards the river first for a little warm up, then went up the hill towards my house. My plan was to run up, up, and up, something I'd never done before. It worked pretty well, although it fried my legs and my downhill speeds were much more sluggish than I thought they would be. After about 6 total miles I hit dirt road and realized that with the full moon out I could see better without my headlamp so I turned it off for the rest of the run, except for when cars came and I only saw 3 cars after that. Love rural Billings where I live. Running at night was very interesting. Loved the full moon - loved running without a light. It was tough not being able to just glance at my watch to see my speed and distance, but that wasn't too big a deal. The last 5 miles were really tough. I nearly ended early and ran home which would have cut it short by 2 miles, but I decided against it. Glad I did. I was happy to see I had some toughness/stubbornness in me. Not sure how smart I am, but when I get an idea stuck in my head it's tough to get it out.

Overall thoughts at 12:38 am: hmmm....not sure yet. It was a bit crazy to do such a long run at night, but it was nice being able to run with nobody around. I don't know that I'll do this much more as I really prefer morning runs, but glad to see it's an option to fall back on.

AP: 9:20. Gained 1576 feet elevation, burned 2810 calories. Sleeping this off will be weird. I think I'll be pretty stiff and hungry in the morning.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/113400601

Ran at lunchtime and Garmin has a hard time connecting when I'm downtown. I finally had to stop running after .6 or so miles so it could connect - it was driving me crazy and I wanted to know my speed. It quickly connected and I was on my way, but threw off my numbers.

I started off slowly then kept forgetting it was a recovery run as I was enjoying going Marathon Pace and faster. Legs felt good, everything felt good, but I was hungry and looking forward to leftover stew that my SIL made yesterday. Yum. It kept me going fast, then I backed off for the last couple miles.

AP: 8:41. Splits 9:12, 8:38, 8:18, 8:46, 8:28. Temps in the mid 60s. Thinking of my TOU friends and their prep - wishing I could be there to do some cheering.

6 miles this beautiful fall morning. A bit nippy on the hands. Legs pretty tired, but given that I ran at lunchtime yesterday and gave a good effort, plus still recovering from 20 miles, I felt good. Had a couple miles in the low to mid 8's so that made me happy. 18 days to marathon and counting.

AP: 8:45?

Long sleeved shirt, gloves the whole way. It's only a one-day cold front, but Fall is nearly here. I had a hard time waking up and nearly just slept through this run, but I talked myself into it. I was half asleep the first mile, but after a ways my legs woke up and I got into a nice typical rhythm. I'm glad I got out. 45 degrees with 93% humidity and a 10 mph breeze. It wasn't cold, but chilly through the tech shirt. Glad I ran this morning. Not thrilled, but glad.

AP: 9:11

4 MP miles. Warmed up with 1 mile, then reset the Garmin and hit my 8:15 pace. It was mostly uphill the first two miles, so pushed it good most of the downhill miles, then did a 1 mile cooldown towards home. Temps were 56 which was just about perfect. I wonder if taper madness is going to set in during the next 2 weeks....

AP: 8:07 (for MP miles)

First day of football today, so I dropped off the two oldest boys at 7:15 for their mandatory "first day meeting" and went for my long run. I got back just before 9 and they'd only been waiting a few minutes, then I hit the West High track across the street to finish up the 12.

Overall it was a good run. Kam had advised hitting MP on the last couple miles when I would be tired, and I was planning on doing the run near my house and hitting my pseudo Veyo hill at mile 3-4 so that would've tired me out for the ending. That plan changed, so at mile 3.5 I decided to do 3 MP miles then to wear me out and then hit MP again the last few miles. I struggled that first fast mile, but after that my body woke up (took a gel?) and I was hitting my strides. I kinda couldn't slow down after that, so I decided to push it as best as I could. If the marathon is anything like today's run I should be very happy. I felt great and the rest of the day wasn't too bad. Not too sore, but hungry every 30 minutes. I hate that about long run days. Overall, good last 10+ run before SGM. The football went well - youngest's team tied it up with 22 seconds left on a 2 point conversion, other two won handily, oldest played quarterback a few series and had some great tackles including a sack. Fun day.

So excited for all my TOU friends and FRBers. It was a good day for the blog.

AP: 8:33. Splits 8:51, 8:49, 9:04, 8:34, 8:20, 8:15, 8:11, 8:26, 8:05, 8:35, 8:17, 9:01 (forgot to stop my watch for a while).

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/115128356

4 miles this morning. 50 degrees, hands cold on the out but warmed up on the back. It's definitely getting to that gloves-maybe time of year. After the marathon I don't know if I'll keep running in the morning or switch to lunchtime like I did before summer. We'll see. The run felt okay, but I'm concerned about a couple spots on my body and I'm hoping that they're nothing. Saturday at football I tweaked my groin stepping up onto the stands a little too high. I've got a history of a groin problem - likely the right adductor muscle. I normally do weights a few times a week that fixes that groin problem, but since I haven't been to the Y all summer I haven't been doing weights. I did some today after my run and hopefully I'll fix the groin. Next issue is behind my right knee I've had some twinges of very minor muscle pain. I iced it last week but it wasn't too bad. Feeling it more today, but oddly didn't feel it after Saturday's long run. I'll ice it tonight and hope it's nothing. Then as I was heading home this morning I had pain in my right big toe, like I'd stubbed it. I've never felt pain in that toe, so I'm hoping it's just taper madness setting in. I've heard that all these aches and pains creep up in the last couple weeks and hoping that all the above is just that.

AP: 8:35

5 decent miles. 42 degrees at start so wore gloves and arm warmers (socks) and life was good. From doing 3 sets of squats yesterday my thighs are sore! It's a good sore and will fix the groin issue. I'll do some more of those tomorrow. Felt good on the run. Ended up going faster than I maybe should have, but I'm just running what feels good, not trying to push it, and being wary of injury. My sleep is whacked and the marathon is a ways out. I'm guessing it will be that way until it's over.

AP: 8:40

4 miles, 40 degrees at start.  Bought a pack of cheap white cotton gloves at Harbor Freight - perfect for cool temps. I got them to have a throwaway pair at the St. George Marathon but right now the temps are looking like 60-65 for the low, so I'll need an ice pack, not gloves. The run went okay, but I am tired. Tomorrow's my day off anyway but I'll take a couple or three off. I don't know if it's the sudden aches & pains or if I'm not getting enough sleep (likely culprit) but my motivation for running is pretty low right now. I don't know where it went - it was here on Saturday - but right now I just want the marathon to be over. I've gone from being nervous to being annoyed.

The aches and pains are a weird thing for me. I've heard that it happens during the taper, but thought it wouldn't hit me. My right calf gave me minor aches months ago but during the last 10+ weeks I haven't heard so much as a complaint from really anywhere on my body. In the last week behind my knee is hurting (possible lower hamstring), in yesterday & today's runs my right calf complained a bit, and my right big toe has complained a time or two. I feel like I'm suddenly falling apart right before the big event. I think I'm going to ice, ibuprofen, and imbibe in some sleep (had to keep the alliteration going) and not get up early for a few days and see how I feel. Even for Saturday's long run I might just go for a long walk. We'll see.

Is this normal? Note I am not asking am "I" normal - just is this normal before a marathon for which I've been on an 18 week training plan?

PM - took the Boy Scouts on a 5 mile "hike" around a park on the Yellowstone River. It has a gravel path but is not a typical park - it's very wild and a no leash area for dogs. We did 2 loops then walked back to the truck in the dark (with flashlights) and got our requirement done for 2nd Class. Yay. Now on to figuring out the 1st Class thing they didn't finish at Scout Camp - doing a 1 mile orienteering course. Hmmm.

After a good day of rest and a nice Kam-Allie pep talk, I was ready to hit the road today. Still feeling a few weird aches and pains, but I now know to ignore them. I will do a bit more icing than normal this week and I'm ready to roll at SGM. Good news on the weather front - looks like a bit of a cold front is expected next Saturday, but little chance of rain. 44 at the starting line, and St. George high of 88, so will hopefully only be in the 60s when I finish - hoping to be done about 10:20 or so. Temps are trending towards normal instead of staying high like they are right now.

Ran without the Garmin today - will try and do that all this week. No need to know my times - just need to log some miles.

8 miles this morning. A bit warm at 61 but still very decent. We're having a heat spell. I left the Garmin at home so I just ran. It felt really good not to worry about speed or anything else - just listening to the iPod. No aches or pains. Yay.

I'm debating whether or not to run with an MP3 player. I always do during my runs, but I never have during my races. Do you run with one or without? In what ways does it help you/hinder you?

1 week baby! Things are looking good.

3 easy miles, 4 tomorrow, then 2 on Friday. Taper hell! Actually kind of excited about it. After Saturday's 8 miler I went to football games all day (9:00-5:30) and my left calf was killing me the last 5 hours. Just a throbbing dull ache on the left side of the calf. Went to some friends house after pizza and put an ice pack on the leg and downed 800 mg vitamin I and the throbbing went away. I wasn't worried about it, but man did it hurt, and I had no medicine or ice to deal with it. 5 mornings and counting till M day.

Last run before flying to St. George. No watch, so not sure of speed but felt good. Legs are goofy and doing weird things again, but thanks to Allie's advice I'm not worrying about it and just telling my body to go for it - let out all the craziness so Saturday my legs will be ready. Worried slightly about my right shoulder as I forget that it sometimes yells & screams during long runs. I'm sure it will scream on Saturday, but hopefully it will subside after I let it know that I care. Because I do.