Craig's Running Blog

As most Saturdays in the season, I was running this as a coach for SaltLakeFit, a marathon training group. This was a run I was in charge of, so I had to set out hydration and mark the course. It was a 20 mile winding course through the Holiday and Cottonwood Heights area.

As a final 20 miler before St. George, this was going to be a decent workout. I had planned on doing the first 9 miles with Dominique and then the last 11 mostly alone at race pace. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to try something new, so I took Ibuprofin consistently for 48 hours leading up to the run to battle inflamation in my achilles. I found it helpful, but it didn't feel too different from the sports cream I've been using. So I think I'd rather use sports cream and localize the treatment rather than load up on Ibuprofin.

We had about 40 runners there, which is what I expected. To my surprise, Chris Pope was there, so I thought it would be good to run with him. Our PR and goal marathon times are about 5 minutes apart. Dominique stuck with us the first mile, then dropped back. Chris told me that he was going to run 9 miles, then some miles later in the day due to other commitments. So I still had 11 on my own. I ran the majority at race pace (6:20), but found that I needed to back off at the hydration stops and stretch out. The achilles isn't perfect, but it's decent.

Hill course in the evening. It feels great one minute, then the achilles flares up the next. I think I need to start using the sports cream for all runs up until the marathon.

Swim: 30 minutes

Usual 5 mile course. Felt terrible the first .5, but good after that. I had to stop after .5 and stretch for 3 minutes. Amazing what a difference that makes. Ran the last 4 averaging the goal marathon pace.

Same hill course as Sunday night. I used the sports cream this morning, and it made a difference. So that will be my crutch of choice for the time being. I warmed up with a slow mile, and didn't feel too bad. Stopped and stretched out for a minute, then took off. Felt faster than usual down the hills, but not as strong as I want to be going up. Decent run.

I did the pipeline/Porter Rockwell trail in Draper this morning. If I go all the way out to Bangerter Parkway from my house (which is the end of the trail), it is 8 miles. I cut it a little short to play it safe. I used the sports stick (icy hot) again and did a slow mile to warm up. After the warm up and stretch, I felt pretty good. At about mile 5, I felt great, which is a good sign. I was able to keep the pace at marathon goal pace (around 6:30) without issues.

I've been leaving the house before 6:00am every morning since school started, which is fine most days. I have to get my daughter up and ready for school at 7:30. The only problem is that the paved trail doesn't have lights, so it gets a little strange in the areas with a lot of trees. It's also unfortunate that I can't run the dirt trails when it's dark. Well, I could... but that would require a slow pace and a headlamp, which wouldn't help me much. I'm going to do a short run tomorrow afternoon/evening on the dirt instead of tomorrow morning. 

Interesting- I didn't see anyone on the way out, but I saw quite a few people on the way back as it was getting light.  I thought I would see more people getting their last real week of training in before tapering for St George.

This was a trail run up on the Bonneville Shoreline trail. It felt good to get back on the trails and mix it up a bit. I had to hold back a little bit due to the 14 miler tomorrow.

Lighter run than expected, because I ran with friends of mine that did the TOU last week. I couldn't get the motivation to do an extra 3 miles afterwards because I was too busy answering questions and so forth from the group members.

Interesting note: the fast miles felt good, then the slow miles at the end started to ache in the achilles area. I'm not sure why, but I've noticed that more than once. It's almost as though picking up the pace loosens things up better than the long, slow distance.

I am trying to determine if being a SLCFit coach is starting to hurt my training. In some ways, I think it is. I typically get up around 4:00am and don't get home until noon. If I was just running, I could be done in a few hours.

Warmup of 1 mile. It felt bad, but ok after the usual stretch and so forth. I finished off not quite as strong as usual, so hopefully the taper will give me some more energy.

Still trying to work out the taper schedule.

Same 5.5 route as yesterday. It went fine. Nothing great, but I ended strong. I think tomorrow will be a rest day and then I'll finish out the week with 3 simlar runs.

I spent the night last night with the achilles stretched, because I heard that can help. I finally woke up and was able to walk normally without having to stretch out first. Amazing. I took that as a sign to go out for a light run. I figured that a light run would be just as good (if not better) than a day off for the taper, as long as I feel ok.

I didn't apply any sports cream. It didn't feel great at first. I stopped after a mile (as usual), and stretched things out. Then I took off on the hill course. It worked out well. I felt a slight pain going up hill, but down hill was great (as usual). After the run, things felt good. Successful day.

Stretched out the achilles again during the night, and woke up feeling good. I was actually planning on taking the day off, but I felt so good that I had to get out. Warmed up for a mile, stretched, and then took off. Did 2x1 mile tempo at 5:55 and 5:57, and that was over some rolling terrain. So I'm pleased.

It was dark on the way down to Draper on the trail at 6:00am. I have to walk about 1/4 mile down the hill on a deer trail, and it's difficult to see when it's dark. I lost my footing at one point and caught myself with my left leg, but I landed pretty hard and felt my a slight pain in my knee. I've never had knee problems, so I wasn't too worried. The run was fine. I did notice that there was a dull pain in my left knee on the drive to work, but it doesn't hurt at all to walk or run, so I'm not going to get all worked up about it. A lot of things can defeat you mentally right before a big race.

No running. Just raquetball.

I had to go out to Vernal for a wedding reception, so that gave me the chance to run my favorite trail near the Green River. Actually, my favorite trail is in Dinosaur Ntl Monument, but the remote 4wd and dry creek beds by the Green River are a close second. Did a mile warmup. Things felt good, just a little tight. I went up 3 miles on the 4wd road to the top of the bluff that overlooks the river. Pushed it up the hill and again at the end. Coming back down was a blast, as usual. I opted out of the 4wd road and chose the dry river bed instead. There are so many dry riverbeds to run out here, and most of the time they are actually dry.

Same course as yesterday. Did a mile warmup. Things felt ok. I went up 3 miles on the 4wd road to the top of the bluff. Pushed it up the hill and again at the end. Coming back down was a blast, as usual.