Cool Runnings!

AM - ran 5.0 easy miles.  Did not feel any lingering soreness from my speed workout on Saturday.  Pace felt nice and comfortable, my achilles felt better this morning.  Total time was 40:30, average pace of 8:06/mile.  Two weeks to go until my 5K - I am already getting excited.  I know this is a challenging course, so I don't know quite what to expect, but we will see.  I am planning on running the course a couple times next weekend to get a feel for the tangents and where I can push hard and where to lay off a bit.

PM - ran another 2.5 miles.  Ended up picking up the pace quite a bit because it felt so good.  I was thinking about something Ryan Hall had said about his 1/2 marathon American record in Houston, where his feet were just popping off the ground.  I felt kind of this way this evening.  Total time was 17:10 for the 2.5 miles, average pace of 6:52/mile, and this includes the first 1/2 mile somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00/mile.  The last two miles were probably more like 1/2 marathon pace, but they sure felt good.

AM - ran 6.0 easy miles.  The weather was beautiful, about 60 degrees.  My achilles was stiff again when I first woke up, but I walked around on it and loosened it up before I started running.  That helped quite a bit.  It was still a bit stiff when I started out, but loosened up quickly.  I felt like I found my easy stride today and felt like my form was very good.  Something I think that has been helping my form has been to work on my core.  Every morning, I have been doing 2 sets of the following:

15 slow crunches (legs bent, feet on the floor, raise up and hold it for 2 seconds)

30 leg lifts

12 bicycle crunches (these are killer)

Then I roll over and do 15 superman exercises to work on my back.

I think this is really helping me to run with better form, and is probably helping my posture overall.  Total time for the run this morning was 47:54, average pace of exactly 7:59/mile.

AM - 5 easy miles.  Slept in a little bit because <tragedy> our second son, Joseph, had previously had crowns on his molars due to severe cavities.  One of his crowns broke off last night along with the rest of the tooth.  So we get to go in to the dentist this morning to figure out what should be done.  He will probably need a false molar or something like that to make sure his teeth don't fill in the gap before his permanent teeth come in.  Pace was easy this morning, I wasn't really looking at the Garmin, although my mile splits were a little faster than I had planned.  Total time for the run was 39:47, average pace of 7:57/mile.  Achilles still felt stiff this morning, but Lybi gave my calves and achilles a real good massage with the rolling pin (boy did that feel good, they were pretty tight, I think, from my speed workout on Saturday).  I will continue to do this as well as anything else I can think of, and see how they do over the winter.

AM - 3.75 easy miles.  I'll keep my entry short today.  Total time was 30:22 for the morning run, average pace of 8:06/mile.  Achilles was sore and stiff again this morning.  Found a stretching exercise that goes along with what Ian was saying - doing reverse calf raises.  Tried doing them this morning, determined I have very poor balance . . . Heh.  Did my core exercises.  They are starting to feel a little easier, although they still give me a major burn by the time I am done.

PM - 3.25 easy miles.  Time was 25:38, average pace of 7:53/mile.  First mile ended up being a garbage mile in 7:42, the rest were at a good pace.  I was still feeling the pasta salad I ate at 5:30 for dinner, and I had run 2 hours earlier - another Heh.  I guess I am one of those runners that does not do well with food in my stomach.  I seem to always run better in the morning, on an empty stomach, or late in the evening, with about 4 hours between dinner and my run.

AM - didn't run, slept in a bit, because I stayed up late to watch the BYU-TCU football game (BYU won!).

PM - 5.1 easy miles with Samuel and Adam in the double jogging stroller.  It was pretty warm out - upper 80's, I think.  I am looking forward to the cooler weather in the afternoon, hopefully to stay now.  It is supposed to be in the 70's by Sunday.  For those that have jogging strollers, I actually have a trick that I use to allow me to work up a better rhythm.  Once I get the stroller going in a straight line, I use one hand and place it in a location that will allow the stroller to continue to go straight, and I swing the other arm as normal.  Every so often, I switch hands on the stroller to make sure both arms get a chance to swing freely.  It works pretty well for me.  Total time for this afternoon's run was 41:09, average pace of 8:04/mile.  Pretty good for lugging 75 pounds worth of boys on a double jogging stroller.  The pace actually felt pretty good, too - it was not difficult.  My achilles also felt pretty good as well.  I am considering running in the afternoon/evening until my achilles recovers, as that gives it all day to loosen up.  I have noticed it seems to be the stiffest in the morning when I first get up, but whenever I have run in the evening, it hasn't been sore.

AM - went down to Kiwanis park where the NTN Southwest Region Championships 5K race is to be held to run the course and get an idea of how to run it as well as what the course was like.  Took Joseph and Adam with me to run with the double jogging stroller.

So first, a description of the course.  It starts out pretty nice, flat terrain on grass, then moves rather quickly to the packed dirt of the canal road.  This goes on for 3/4 of a mile, then you do a wide u-turn and run on the sidewalk for a while.  Follow the sidewalk left and then down a short but steep hill, and turn right to go under a bridge, then right again back up the same hill on the other side of the road and onto the sidewalk on the other side.  We then run around a baseball/softball field complex, ending up back at the bridge again.  Go under the bridge, then turn right again to go up one mother of a hill.  I am guessing it was about 50 meters long and maybe about 35-40 meters high.  Geez, that was tough, especially pushing a double jogging stroller with 75 pounds of kids.  Back down a gradual hill, then along a lake on the grass.  Cross the path and head around the other side of the lake, smallish hill, then back onto the canal road for a short distance.  Head left to follow the sidewalk, then back onto grass for about 50 meters, then veer right to go up another nasty hill, although not as bad as the first.  Run along the top of the hill for a short distance, then veer left and run back down the hill, gathering a lot of speed (again, especially if you are now letting a double jogging stroller with 75 pound of kids pull you down), only to go up the huge hill again (I think they call it All American Hill or something like that - it is one nasty piece of work).  That is the last hill, we then follow the same trail along the lake again, when we get to the far side of the lake, turn right for a bit, then make a sharp left turn to hit the final .2 miles or so.  Holy cow, I may have to readjust my goals.  This is definitely a very challenging course.  I am glad I ran it, because I actually messed up and got myself lost (although I am sure the course will be much more clearly marked next Saturday).  Ended up only running one time, and pushing the stroller all that grass wore me out pretty good.  Total distance was 4.21 miles, average pace of 8:05/mile.

PM - Knew I had to get in some more miles to hit 40 for the week.  Headed out the door after coming back from grocery shopping.  It was a bit hard to find a rhythm at first, and I was laboring a bit more than usual, but after about 0.5 miles, I hit my stride and got into a groove.  At 1 mile, decided I was going to do a tempo run.  Sped up to MP.  Splits are as follows:

Mile 1	7:09
Mile 2	6:57
Mile 3	6:38
Mile 4	6:43

Cooled down for the last 1.1 miles at about 8:00 pace.  Felt like a good workout, achilles felt pretty good.