Training
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Week of February 8 to February 14
Monday: AM 6 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Tuesday: AM 2 x 3 MILES
Wednesday: AM 4 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Thursday: AM 4 MILES
Friday: AM 3 MILES
Saturday: US OLYMPIC MARATHON TRIALS – 6th place
Sunday: OFF
Total Mileage: 64 MILES
Week of February 1 to February 7
Monday: 6 MILES
Tuesday: AM 8 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Wednesday: AM 10 x 800| PM 4 MILES
Thursday: AM 10 MILES
Friday: AM 8 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Saturday: AM 14 MILES
Sunday: AM 8 MILES
Total Mileage: 79 MILES
Week of January 25 to January 31
Monday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Tuesday: AM 12 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Wednesday: AM 20 x 200 | PM 4 MILES
Thursday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Friday: AM 10 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Saturday: AM 2 x 6 MILES | PM 2 MILES
Sunday: AM 10 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Total Mileage: 113 MILES
Week of January 18 to January 24
Monday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Tuesday: AM Fartlek= 20 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy | PM 4 MILES
Wednesday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Thursday: AM LEG SPEED. 4up. 10 x 20 seconds hard, 1min easy. 4down. | PM 6 MILES
Friday: AM 12 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Saturday: 16 MILES AT MARATHON PACE
Sunday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Total Mileage: 120 miles
Week of January 11 to January 17
Monday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Tuesday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Wednesday: AM 3mile Tempo/ 6 x 1 mile/ 3 mile Tempo | PM 4 MILES
Thursday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Friday: AM 12 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Saturday: 28 Mile Depletion Run
Sunday: AM 12 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Total Mileage: 131 Miles
Week of January 4 to January 10
Monday: AM 12 MILES| PM 4 MILES
Tuesday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Wednesday: 3 x 3 MILES. Pretty solid workout today down in Camp Verde. I wasn’t too sure how I’d be feeling considering how I felt the other day during our long run, but I feel I kind of bounced back for this one. It wasn’t that I felt stellar by any means, but I was able to still hit slightly faster than the goal paces and felt mostly controlled doing it (maybe with the exception of the first 3 miles, in which I struggled to get my breathing under control). Scott and I were supposed to hit 4:58 per mile for each of the 3 mile reps (we did 3 x 3 miles). Our overall times for each were 14:48.7 (4:56.9/4:55.0/4:56.8), 14:49.1 (4:55.4/4:57.6/4:56.1) and 14:41.0 (4:54.6/4:55.0/4:51.4). Unfortunately, since our workout was so delayed in the morning on account of the snow storm, we have to push our afternoon run to a different day this week, as we didn’t even get back to Flagstaff from this one until almost 5:00 pm.
Thursday: AM 12 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Friday: AM LEG SPEED 4up. 10 x 20 seconds. 4down. | PM 4 MILES
Saturday: 20 miles with last 10 cutdown style
Sunday: ALTERNATING PACE LONG RUN
Total Mileage: 123 miles
Week of December 28 to January 3
Monday: 8 MILES
Tuesday: 12 MILES AT MARATHON EFFORT
Wednesday: REST
Thursday: 8 MILES
Friday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Saturday: TEMPO/LONG/TEMPO. 23 miles total.
Sunday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Total Mileage: 90 Miles
Week of December 21 to December 27
Monday: AM 12 miles. Mailboxes with the team today. Savoring the last day of decent weather before we get more snow! | PM 6 MILES. Tried to take it easy this afternoon to make sure that I’d be ready for the workout tomorrow. Followed up the run with some drills and strides, which felt better throughout, so I’m glad I got them in. 12/6 double days are always tough!
Tuesday: AM 20 x 1k. Had a very solid day down in Camp Verde today, especially considering I didn’t feel very good for any of it. The last time I did this workout (July 28th in my Berlin build-up I did 15 x 1k), I felt really good, so I think coming into this workout I anticipated feeling that good again, which definitely wasn’t the case. We did them out and back on part of our Quarterhorse loop down there, and ended up having a pretty strong wind in our face going one way, which of course meant that it was slightly aided coming back. With a goal of 3:00 per km, we averaged 2:59.3 – not bad, huh?! | PM 4 MILES. Didn’t run quickly this afternoon, but felt decent considering the workout and long morning we had today. Got back from the workout around 2:45 in the afternoon!
Wednesday: AM 12 MILES. Ran at Mailboxes and Lake Mary today in the wake of yesterday’s workout. I was slightly concerned that I’d feel like garbage, but to my surprise (and delight!), I actually didn’t feel too terrible. I think Scott felt a little better than I did, or maybe it was just that he had to get to work pretty soon after finishing our run. | PM 4 MILES. Despite the rain, wind, and cold temps, I actually had a pretty decent afternoon run today and didn’t feel nearly as bad as I thought I would after yesterday’s workout.
Thursday: AM LEG SPEED. 4up. 10 x 20 seconds hard, 1 minute easy. 4 down.| PM 6 MILES
Friday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Saturday: 8 MILES
Sunday: 10 miles. Olympic Trials Course Tour in LA.
Total Mileage: 108 miles
Week of December 14 to December 20
Monday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Tuesday: AM 12 | PM 6 MILES
Wednesday: AM 25 x 400. | PM 4 MILES
Thursday: AM 14 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Friday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Saturday: 20 miles with last 10 cutdown style
Sunday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Total Mileage: 118 miles
Week of December 7 to December 13
Monday: AM 10 miles. Ran at Woody Mountain Road (from my house) with the team, but since most of them were only going 6 miles for various reasons, Scott and I added on a road loop to get back to the house at an almost perfect 10 miles. | PM 6 MILES. Ran the road loop by my house and ran into Scott and Ryan about a mile and a half into it, so ran with them for the majority of the run and then finished it off by myself. Did a set of drills and started to do strides but my SI joint felt locked up so I decided to get that addressed rather than push through the rest of the strides because they could have done more harm than good potentially.
Tuesday: AM 6 x 1.5 Miles. 6 x 1.5 miles this morning on Lake Mary with Scott and Ben. Goal time was 7:52 for each (5:15 pace) with a half mile float in between at 3:15 (6:30 pace). Hit 7:49, 7:50, 7:49, 7:48, 7:46, 7:42 and felt pretty smooth and comfortable with Scott and I stride for stride every step of the way. So happy to finally be getting back into marathon specific workouts! 9.5 weeks to go! | PM 4 MILES. Easy afternoon run at Buffalo Park after snapping a few photos there for the new website and logo stuff. Not my favorite place to run, but it’s made infinitely better when you’re there with other people, so I managed.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. Morning run at Mailboxes with the team + Chelsea Reilly-Sodaro. Chilly morning, but warm conversation had us feeling pretty good! | PM 6 MILES. Afternoon on the road loop near my house that goes by the Coca Cola factory and Gore. I’m surprised the real fatigue hasn’t started hitting me on my second runs yet and that I’m still running all of them under 7 minute pace.
Thursday: AM Leg Speed (13 miles total). Got to the track this morning after driving around for 30 minutes looking for a parking spot. Frustrating trying to park at NAU! I told the girls to go ahead and go without me because I figured I’d run a different pace than them anyway, plus I was going a little longer than them to begin with. Got in 5 miles, some stretching and a full set of drills, followed by 10 laps of straights and curves (100m “on” and 100m “off”), a set of some plyos and leg swings, and finished it off with another 5 miles. Turned into a beautiful morning for a little leg speed workout! | 6 MILES
Friday: AM 12 miles | PM 4 MILES
Saturday: 20 miles with surges
Sunday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Total Mileage: 119 miles
Week of November 30 to December 6
Monday: AM 10 miles. Ran from Ben and Jen’s house in Cheshire today, starting with a loop on the road through the neighborhood and then going out and back on Schultz Creek Road. It’s been a while since I’ve done up and down runs like Schultz, but I welcome the opportunity to add them back in and work on strengthening the legs again! | PM 6 MILES. Ran the road loop by my house and followed it up with a set of drills and a few bounds to prep my legs for the fartlek workout tomorrow.
Tuesday: AM Fartlek. Pretty nice morning out on Kiltie Loop for the fartlek this morning with Scott and Ben. As you can see from the graph, the loop we run has a bit of roll to it, but nothing crazy. The other challenging thing about this workout is that it’s up around 7,300 feet elevation. It’s just a little higher than where we usually do workouts, but those extra couple hundred feet are definitely noticeable when you’re trying to run fast! Lungs had a harder time today than the legs did I think. | PM 4 MILES. It’s usually pretty difficult for me to come up with things to say for these easy afternoon runs.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. Dropped down to Sedona to run this morning, mostly because I didn’t want to run in the 12 degree weather we had in Flagstaff. It was beautiful, sunny, and much warmer in Sedona, and Beaver Creek is a road I enjoy running anyway, so it was a good morning. The only downside was that I forgot to charge my old-school ipod so I was forced to listen to my own thoughts for the duration of the run. | PM 6 MILES. Ran the road loop by my house and added on a few extra miles to get to 6 miles, like usual. Sometimes running 6 miles in the afternoon is kind of a drag, but I’ve been getting more and more used to tacking on those extra miles and it’s becoming more of the status quo than it used to be.
Thursday: AM 14 MILES. Out and back run on Lake Mary Road starting at the well-known “Mailboxes” with Scott Smith. The weather was chilly at 9 am, but warming up quickly. I still ran the whole thing with multiple layers, as well as a knit hat and my hood in the upright and locked position! Scott and I were instructed, per usual for our medium long runs, not to take in any carbs before or during the run to work on our metabolic efficiency. Naturally, this led to us discussing our post-run meals for much of the run. Just in case you’re wondering, the top choice for both of us was a big smoothie. I’m not quite sure what kind Scott prefers, but I always reach for a beet smoothie after longer or harder efforts. Today’s run wasn’t meant to be anything special, though – it was more just about getting in a few extra miles. | 4 MILES
Friday: AM 10 miles. Out and back run at Mailboxes – where else?! This is where we run several times a week throughout the Winter because it’s one of the only dirt roads that gets plowed regularly. The unfortunate thing about Mailboxes is that it’s also usually 10 or so degrees colder there than anywhere else in Flagstaff for some reason! | PM 6 MILES. Ran a new loop from the house today, but I’m not convinced I really liked it; maybe I need to do it a few more times before it grows on me.
Saturday: 20 MILES. Ran at Lake Mary today because I wanted to stay on pavement to work on callusing my body to the demands of the marathon. Felt very easy most of the way and I was naturally progressing to quicker and quicker miles until the last couple miles where I consciously picked it up a bit.
Sunday: AM 12 miles. Met up with everyone else for their long runs (most people had 12 to 15 miles), so even though I was scheduled for 10 miles, I decided to show them a new (to them) loop at Mailboxes that’s right around 12 miles. They liked that idea better than doing an out and back or having to do multiple loops I think. | PM 4 MILES
Total Mileage: 123 miles
Week of November 23 to November 29
Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday: AM Fartlek | PM 5 MILES
Wednesday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 MILES.
Thursday: Leg Speed Workout + long warmup and cooldown.
Friday: AM 10 miles | PM 7.5 MILES
Saturday: 18 MILES
Sunday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 MILES
Total Mileage: 104 miles
Week of October 19 to October 25
Monday: AM 8 miles. 8 miles with the team on Woody Mountain Road. We ran out and back but avoided the big hill by turning left at the Arboretum, which stays pretty flat (pro-tip for any athletes coming to Flagstaff in the next few weeks!). Excited for tomorrow’s big team announcement – it’s been a long time coming! | PM Easy afternoon run on the road loop by my house. I love getting to the point where I start adding doubles back into my training schedule. You might think it’s a bit soon to be building up my mileage again since I just took two weeks off. I would caution most people in this approach, but my body is so used to running 120-130+ miles per week that I can typically handle ramping up more quickly than most people. In general, I would recommend a slower build-up if you have time before your next goal race.
Tuesday: 8 miles. Easy run on pavement this morning on my own. As much as I love all of the extensive trails we have in Flagstaff, I also value callusing my body to the feel of the pavement. I think it’s an integral component of marathon training – in order to race well on the roads, you have to be prepared to handle the pounding.
Wednesday: 4 miles. Easy road loop from my house before heading down to see John Ball in Phoenix for some fine-tuning as I return to training this week.
Thursday: 10 miles. 10 smooth miles at Flagstaff’s Thursday Bagel Run. Today seemed to mark the beginning of a chillier Fall season with temps starting out in the high 30s. The problem with Fall (and Winter) in Flagstaff is that you have to learn how to layer your clothing – I was baking by the end of the run! Also, while I never enjoy getting out of shape after a goal race, the process of getting fit again is a fun challenge, and that’s exactly where I find myself right now.
Friday: AM 8.3 miles. The team met and ran from Coach Ben’s house today. First we did a neighborhood loop on the pavement and then followed that up with an out and back segment on the Urban Trail towards downtown Flagstaff. I really enjoy and value these days where we are able to get most of the team together and can all just run easy and catch up on the happenings of the week! | PM 4 miles. 4 mile road loop near my house. I can tell I’m getting anxious to run when my afternoon runs start approaching 6 minute pace overall. I started the run around 7:30 pace and by the end was running in the 5:20-5:30 range feeling very comfortable. I can’t wait to start getting back after it again soon!
Saturday: 12 miles. Met up with the rest of the group (who all had workouts) at Lake Mary Road at the Mailboxes starting point. Because I just had an easy run today, I ran the warm-up with everyone out and back on the dirt road and then headed off down Lake Mary Road (paved) on my own while they all did drills and prepared for their workouts. The sun was blinding on the way out, but made it rather nice coming back as it allowed my eyes a reprieve from the intense rays.
Sunday: AM 10.1 miles. I thought it was kind of entertaining that Nick Arciniaga posted on the Flagstaff Long Runs Facebook page picking where we were going to do the run today, and then he didn’t even show up! I still had a solid run, though. Ran the whole way out and back on Woody Mountain Road with Tommy Rivers and Jake Puzey (“The Puzey Bros”), with great conversation throughout. Rivers even enlightened me on the art of emptying your bladder while still running – I’ve never seen anyone capable of doing that before. | PM 4.1 miles. Easy afternoon run after going to the gym for a little while to work on re-gaining the strength I’ve lost over the past several weeks. Really feel a significant difference when I keep this kind of stuff in my routine, and would recommend everyone use a routine that works for you and addresses your muscular weaknesses and imbalances.
Total Mileage: 72.5 miles
Week of October 12 to October 18
Monday: 8 miles. Ran at Woody Mountain Road today with the team for the first time in weeks since returning from Portland/Berlin/the East Coast. Ran most of the run with Coach Ben and the girls since the guys were going a little longer and didn’t turn around when we did.
Tuesday: OFF. Didn’t run today. Instead, I spent the whole morning and early afternoon down in Phoenix getting treatment from Dr. John Ball and then went straight to a massage when I got back to Flagstaff. I considered going for a run afterwards, but decided that letting all of the treatment I’d gotten settle in would be the better call.
Wednesday: 4.5 miles. Easy morning run at Aspen Corner while we simultaneously did a photo/video shoot for the Hoka Top Trails series. Lots of back and forth running trying to get good shots, but I enjoyed it. After we ran at Aspen Corner, Ben and I went with the crew over to Lockett Meadow for more shooting. Put in almost a 12 hour day shooting photos and videos. Can’t wait to see the end product!
Thursday: 8.4 miles. Bagel Run with Ben and Ryan.
Friday: AM 7.2 miles. Ran at the NAU Cardinal Fields with the young guys as they did the warm up for their workout. Experienced a little sunshine, a little rain, a little sunshine, a little rain, etc – kind of a pleasant morning to get in a few miles. | PM 4 miles.
Saturday: AM 4 miles. My watch died yesterday and I forgot to charge it overnight, so I just ran the road loop since I knew it was 4 miles even. | PM Easy afternoon run before heading over to Alicia’s new house for dinner. Can’t wait to see her awesome log cabin by the mountain!
Sunday: AM 6 miles. Morning run at A1 Mountain Road with the Flagstaff Long Run crew. Turned around pretty early since my run(s) today are pretty short and I’ll be splitting them up, but fortunately I had company on the way back – Tyler Jermann, who just made his marathon debut last week in Chicago. | PM Spent my evening getting in a few extra miles to close out my first week returning to running after the Berlin Marathon. The body is coming around, but I already can’t wait to be back at full volume and intensity!
Total Mileage: 50.2 miles
Week of October 5 to October 11
OFF
Week of September 28 to October 4
OFF
Week of September 21 to September 27
Monday: 8 miles. 8 miles at Leif Erikson trail – probably the last time I’ll get to run at this spot for a while (at least until I come back to visit again!). Wasn’t going for anything in particular today, so just kept it easy.
Tuesday: 11 mile 2 x 3 mile Workout. Good workout today at Sauvie Island – a great training location for flat marathons! Hit 2 x 3 miles in 14:51 and 14:48, feeling pretty smooth and controlled throughout. Now I just have to go out there and put a bunch of those together to run 2:10!
Wednesday: 7 miles. Easy run at Fairmount this morning for my last run in Portland. Chilly morning, but worth getting up early to run as the sun was rising. Departing today for Berlin!!!
Thursday: 4 miles. Easy run in Berlin a couple hours after arriving. Legs felt a bit like Jell-O, but that was expected after the travel, so nothing to worry about. Excited for this opportunity!
Friday: 6 mile workout with Pick-Ups. Easy 6 miles in the Tiergarten right by the hotel with 6 x 1 minute pick-ups mixed in around marathon pace. Adductor a bit tight still on the left side, but I’m going to get it worked on in the massage room today so hopefully will be able to loosen it up in time for the race on Sunday.
Saturday: 4 miles. Easy pre-race couple of miles in the Tiergarten. Feeling good and ready to go tomorrow!
Sunday: 27.2 mile BERLIN MARATHON (+ warm-up). 13th place, 2:12:28 finish at the 2015 Berlin Marathon (my third marathon). Decently satisfied with the race, though I wanted to run a few minutes faster. I will post a full blog update this afternoon with all of the details about the race.
Total Mileage: 68 miles
Week of September 14 to September 20
Monday: AM 8 miles. Cold and rainy day at Leif Erikson today. I actually wished I had gloves! It seems as though Fall is arriving in Portland, but I’m okay with that. It’s kind of nice to run in cooler weather; it’s just going to mean I’ll have to do laundry more frequently because I didn’t bring very many clothes! Kept it smooth and easy today but didn’t feel as bad as I thought I might following the workout I did yesterady. The only thing was that I had a weird soreness on the inside of my hips today – hard to describe. | PM 4.25 miles. Had to get my second run in early today because I have a massage appointment at 4 and then we’re going to meet Joanie Samuelson (1st Women’s Olympic Marathon Champ and former American Record Holder with a 2:21:21 marathon PB) for dinner tonight at Pascal Dobert’s bar, Wine & Growl (Pascal is the strength and conditioning coach for the Bowerman Track Club). Inside of my hips felt like that of a very old man today – weirdly stiff and sore. I just want my hips to be normal again!
Tuesday: AM 10.1 miles. Easy Run at Banks Vernonia, a nice paved bike path a bit of a drive from Shalane’s house. Since I only had one run today, I figured I’d spend the extra time driving out to run somewhere new. This route reminded me a lot of the Baltimore/Annapolis Trail in Annapolis where my parents live – mostly flat (slight incline on the way out), straight path that’s tucked away into the trees. While it’s a fine run, there’s not much to keep you mentally engaged, so it got pretty boring by the end.
Wednesday: AM 8 miles. Went with Shalane down to Duniway Park. I was planning to run down at the Waterfront Path, which I didn’t realize is very close to Duniway, so Shalane just had me follow her there and she showed me where to go during her warm-up. I ended up making a nice little loop along the waterfront (appropriately named), running down to the Steel Bridge, across the river, and then came back over on the newly finished Tilikum Bridge (a pedestrian bridge). Closed out the run with a few laps on the track while I watched Shalane crush her workout. | PM 4.3 miles. Fairmount Loop plus a little.
Thursday: AM 12.8 mile 10 x 800m. Ben and I decided to alter this workout slightly from a 6 mile fartlek (2 min hard, 1 min easy) and instead I ran it as 10x800m on the track. I wanted a little something to feel fast and smooth, and I think this did just the trick. The 800s were fairly comfortable, and I hit most of them right around 2:19 (the goal was 2:20 with 200m jog recovery). Left inside hip tightened up a bit after the run.
Friday: AM 10 miles. Ran at Leif Erikson Trail again today. Felt fine except that the inside of my left hip still doesn’t feel great. Going to see Shalane’s chiropractor again today so hopefully he’ll have some answers for me and can help get me feeling 100% again.
Saturday: AM 4.3 miles. Fairmount Loop. | PM 4.4 miles. Fairmount Loop.
Sunday: AM 14 miles. Did the Fairmount Loop 4 times, alternating directions each 3.5 miles. Felt really good today and definitely had to hold myself back from going to quick.
Total Mileage: 80 miles
Week of September 7 to September 13
Monday: AM 6.5 miles. First run in Portland! I’m going to have a little bone to pick with Scott Fauble, who just moved to Flagstaff from Portland, when I get back home. While this trail was beautiful, it was super hilly and narrow, making it difficult to really even run easy. | PM 4.3 miles. Ran with Shalane Flanagan and her husband, Steve Edwards, this afternoon after Shalane got back from her American Record run in Holland. She ran 31:03 on the road for 10k, which is blazing fast! We ran a loop by their house, known to the locals as “Fairmount.” It’s a shaded, relatively low-traffic, rolling loop filled with walkers, cyclists, and runners. One of the houses on the loop even sets out a water jug and paper cups for whoever might need it while they’re out there. Shalane said the loop itself is 3.56 miles as measured by her coach, Jerry Schumacher (with a wheel, so you know it’s accurate). Since the loop is so buried in the trees, it’s difficult for my GPS to be super accurate, so I imagine I’ll just do a lot of 30 minute runs down here and call it something a little over 4 miles.
Tuesday: AM 11.1 miles. Shalane and I went to the Nike campus today to get our miles in. We started off with a couple loops on the Hollister Trail (flat 1.5 mile crushed gravel loop marked every quarter mile), then hit the woodchip trail that circles the campus. After that, we went to some grass fields for a few miles and then headed back to Hollister to put in the remainder of our run. One thing we didn’t get to run on that I was hoping to was the track, but it’s undergoing a resurfacing and won’t be ready before I leave for Berlin. Next time…Felt okay today, but not great. | PM 4.2 miles. Went and saw Shalane’s chiropractor before my run this afternoon to try to get my hips adjusted and get an overall tune-up to make sure everything was working properly. I’ve had some slight tightness in my right hip for the past week or two, so I asked him to address that in particular. He did some tests and concluded that my right hip was locked up/jammed up into my hip socket and did some adjustments and ART to help loosen it up and get it re-set into the correct position, warning me that it might be sore for a few days.
Wednesday: AM 20 x 200m Workout at Duniway Park. 20 x 200m at the public track at Duniway Park in Portland. I was going to try to get on the Nike track to do these, but as I commented yesterday, the track is being resurfaced, so I had to settle for this public track, which was good enough to get the job done. One point I should make is that the track was measured in yards (440 yards), so it was slightly longer than a typical 400m track, making each 200 just a touch long (maybe a half second or so?). It was a rainy and overcast morning, so I headed out for the warm-up in full tights and a jacket (almost wishing I had gloves). I felt pretty tired on the warm-up, but 200s are never a workout I really worry about, and I knew I might be dragging a bit this morning, so I just went with the flow and figured I could adjust on the fly if I really needed to. Once I got going, I was fine and was hitting the splits comfortably. After I got through the workout, because of parking time limits, I had to get back in the car and drive back to Shalane’s neighborhood to finish the cool-down. I would not want to race on day 3 down from altitude. | PM 4.2 miles. Went and saw Shalane’s chiropractor before my run this afternoon to try to get my hips adjusted and get an overall tune-up to make sure everything was working properly. I’ve had some slight tightness in my right hip for the past week or two, so I asked him to address that in particular. He did some tests and concluded that my right hip was locked up/jammed up into my hip socket and did some adjustments and ART to help loosen it up and get it re-set into the correct position, warning me that it might be sore for a few days.
Thursday: AM 8 miles. This entire run was a death march! I decided to go out to Sauvie Island to check it out for the workout I have coming up this weekend (2×6 miles). I just wanted to get a sense for what the road was like, look for a few mile marks, etc beforehand so I would know the lay of the land going into the workout. I don’t know what was wrong with me today, but I literally felt like I was going to pass out – my legs felt like jello, I was lightheaded. Not a good day. Definitely, by far, the worst I’ve felt since coming down from altitude. I cut the run short at 8 miles (I was supposed to do 10). | PM 6.1 miles. Did an out and back loop on Fairmount today. The loop itself is about 3.5 miles, so I couldn’t quite do 2 loops since I only had 6 miles scheduled today. I felt much better than I did this morning, though still not great. This is pretty much exactly what I was expecting after being down from altitude for 4 days. My hip is also starting to get sore, I think from the work I had done at the chiro yesterday. I’m heading to a massage appointment after my run today, so maybe I’ll get him to address the area as well.
Friday: AM 10 miles. Easy run with Shalane at the Leif Erikson Trail in Forest Park. This trail reminds me a lot of the dirt roads we have in Flagstaff, so I’ll definitely be coming back here for some good running. The road gently climbs on the way out and then you turn around and obviously come back downhill. We only went out to about 4 miles and then turned back since Shalane just had 60 minutes, then I added on to make my run 10 miles. Hip is definitely feeling off – hopefully this is what the chiropractor was talking about when he warned me that it would be sore. It feels as if someone has their hands wrapped around my hip socket and they’re just squeezing it tight. It’s not painful, but it’s definitely all kinds of tight and sore. | PM 4.3 miles. Did the Fairmount Loop plus a few strides near the house this afternoon. Felt okay on the run, but super heavy and awkard on the strides. Don’t feel that my hip is fully recovered yet and ready for a workout tomorrow.
Saturday: AM 8 miles. Decided to push the workout off a day and give my hip the chance to recover for an extra 24 hours. It’s still tight, but when I woke up this morning I felt that it was improved over how it felt yesterday, so I made the call and filled Ben in on the update. I went back to Leif today for the run and added in a few 1 minute on, 2 minutes off segments to kind of test the hip a little bit and see how it might respond to some quicker running. Also, the days of Portland sunshine and warmth may be gone for now; today’s run was rainy and cold. | PM 4 miles. Went out to Hollister to get the run in today. I wanted to keep it as flat as possible so I wouldn’t be too tired for the workout tomorrow. I also wonder if staying on a completely flat surface might help my hip at all. Still tight, but feels slightly better since doing the pick-ups this morning.
Sunday: AM 18 mile 2 x 6 mile workout at Sauvie Island in Portland. Very satisfied with the workout today – what a relief! I knew right from the warm-up that today would be a good day. It’s day 7 down from altitude, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. People often report not feeling very good from 4 to 14 days down from altitude, so I was somewhat apprehensive about this workout, but I handled it just fine. Sauvie Island is a pretty flat place to run with wide open roads, sunshine, a little breeze, and not much to look at or keep you engaged (just a bunch of farms) – perfect for running fast! When I first got to Sauvie, I drove the course I’d be running for the workout so I could put fluids at 3 and 6 miles. I didn’t really think ahead to put two bottles at the 3 mile mark so that I’d also have one during the second repeat, but I didn’t really feel that I needed it anyway since it was a cooler day. For each repeat, I more or less broke them down into 1 mile reps and just tried to keep my average pace under 4:50 (that was the goal for each 6 miler). I tried to keep it as close to 4:49-4:50 as I could, only a couple of times seeing anything above 4:50.xx. When I did, I thought about good running form an inserted a 20 to 30 second burst of speed to get myself back on pace, and was usually able to maintain that from that point on (maybe until I got tired again or mentally lost focus, at which point I’d do it again). Workouts are difficult to conquer when you’re out there on your own, especially when you’re griding away on long repeats like I was today, so I had to find little tricks to get me through. Overall I’m very happy with today, especially after the disappointing workout I had last week. This one indicates I’m right where I want to be, and it’s even more encouraging to be able to nail it when I thought I’d be feeling the worst!
Total Mileage: 100 miles
Week of August 31 to September 6
Monday: AM 10 miles. Easy run on the road loop slash through the neighborhood slash on Woody Mountain. Kind of a weird morning, but there was an accident on the highway so people were really late and our way of waiting for them was to start without them – haha – but at least we stayed in the neighborhood until they got there. Kept it easy. Nice to have an expanding group! Today’s was Craig’s first run with us. | PM 6.2 miles. Easy run with drills, some plyos, and strides at the Cardinal Fields. Had an extremely sloshy stomach during this run – one of my least favorite feelings! The run itself felt fine, though.
Tuesday: AM 17.7 mile 11 x 1 mile Workout in Camp Verde. Very satisfied with the workout today down in Camp Verde. Started a little later than I would have preferred, but that was to allow Klep to get over to my house without having to leave hers before the sun came up. It was pretty warm down in Camp Verde, but I don’t think it was enough to really affect the workout much. The workout was to be run as 11 x 1 mile at alternating paces (4:57/4:57/4:50/4:57/4:45/4:57/4:40/4:57/4:35/4:57/4:30). I was scheduled to have 1 minute recovery after the 4:57s and 2 minutes recovery after the faster miles. I more or less hit everything pretty spot on, and was even a little quick on some of the 4:57 mile reps – it was almost more challenging to hit a slower mile at 4:57 than it would have been to hit them all at, say, 4:50 instead! Felt really smooth and controlled today. The last time I did a similar workout to this was before the LA Marathon (I did it on Feb 18), but I only did 7 x mile that time, and I also had the company of Scott Smith (who is a phenomenal training partner, especially at altitude). We closed that workout in 4:28. Today I did everything faster, did 4 extra miles of work, ran in heat and heavy sunshine, and closed the workout solo in a super relaxed 4:29. Feeling good about what’s ahead in this segment!!! | PM 4 miles. Easy run on the road loop before hitting Hypo2 to use the NormaTec Recovery boots. Today’s been a busy day – workout in Camp Verde in the morning, gym session, massage, lunch + nap, pm run, chiro session, NormaTec Recovery boots. Ready to sleep hard tonight!
Wednesday: AM 12 miles. Easy run at Walnut Canyon Rd on the East Side of town. Put in 6 miles before the rest of the group got to the run. It’s not always fun to have double the mileage of anyone else in the group, but it’s more manageable when I put the miles in before they get there, rather than having to add on after everyone else is already finished. | PM 4 miles. One of the last times I’ll be able to do the road loop for a while, so have to get my fix now! I’m weird.
Thursday: AM 16 miles. I felt really tired on this run for some reason. Left early for the Bagel Run and then added on with everyone else. I even allowed myself to drop off the back of the pack. In fact, I intentionally wanted to go slower than the group, but somehow after the turn around point I found myself back with the group and crusing along. I definitely feel as though I haven’t recovered yet from Tuesday’s workout. | PM 4 miles. Woof. 20 miles today and I’m feeling pretty rough.
Friday: AM 12.1 miles. Ran a few miles with the guys as the warm-up of their workout, then made a loop over to Lake Mary Road and back through the NAU campus to finish up. Met up with the guys again for their cool-down and more or less ran the rest of the way with them. Still feeling pretty awful. Considering asking Ben to push tomorrow’s workout back a day to make sure I’m rested and ready for it… | PM 4 miles. I felt okay on this run – not great, but not terrible. I’m still debating asking Ben to push the workout back. I’m conflicted because part of marathon training is learning how to run fast when you’re tired, but I also have to be smart about it and understand that I can’t go into one of the biggest workouts of the segment already feeling more tired than normal. I’ll have to decide soon.
Saturday: AM 18 mile workout. Well, I should have gone with what my gut instinct was telling me and I should have asked Ben to push the workout back a day. I felt super tired on the warm-up and ran considerably slower than I typically do – not a good sign when you have such a big workout on tap. I tried to convince myself that I could come around and be fine for the workout, but I felt off right from the start. I was hitting the paces spot on for the first 8 miles, which most people would probably see as a good thing, but Ben later told me that he wondered if it was signaling trouble for the rest of the workout. Usually on this one I feel really good and get antsy and have a few miles where the paces are a tad quick. That wasn’t happening today. I started to slow in the 9th mile and decided to call it at 12 miles. Overall it was still a fine day, just not what I was looking for. Hopefully I can bounce back in my last couple of workouts once I get to sea level in Portland. On to the next one.
Sunday: AM 10 miles. Ran at A1 today with the group as my last run in Flag for a few weeks. Still feeling exhausted. Hoping a stint at sea level will help me come around.
Total Mileage: 118 miles
Week of August 24 to August 30
Monday: AM 13 miles. Easy run on Woody Mountain Rd. with the standard crew. Added on a few miles before the run and then finished with the team while they got in their miles. We all watched the World Champs when we got back…so proud of Team USA’s tenacity out there!!! | PM 4 miles. Road loop plus drills and strides afterwards.
Tuesday: AM 18.2 mile 5 x 2 Mile Workout in Camp Verde. Satisfied with the workout today – another one that is nothing special on its own, but in combination with the total body of work I’m putting in, results in significant progress. Drove down to Camp Verde with Coach Ben Rosario and Nick Arciniaga for the workout, which always means it’s going to be a little faster/tougher. Goal times were 10:00, 9:50, 9:40, 9:30, 9:20 on a 3:15-3:30 per half mile jog recovery. Started the workout with Nick by my side stride for stride and hit 10:01. Started the second one and could tell something was bothering him, so he pulled back a bit and I just continued on. Hit #2 in 9:49, then #3 was 9:41, #4 was 9:35, and # 5 was 9:25. Overall, despite being a few seconds off on the last two reps, I would still say the goal of the workout was accomplished. I got faster throughout even though I was a bit tired (#marathontraining), and I’m starting to smell the finish line already! | PM 4 miles. Did the road loop in the reverse direction than I normally do, and man did I regret it! There was a wicked headwind on Rte 66 that just didn’t quit, but fortunately I only had to run directly into it for 1 mile. Didn’t feel that badly this afternoon considering the workout this morning.
Wednesday: AM 10.1 miles. Joined up with the crew who was working out this morning from the Lake Mary start. While it’s not my favorite place to run, it’s always preferable to have company. It also rained a considerable amount last night, so going on any single track trails and some of the dirt roads we usually use would’ve been a sloppy mess. Felt a little tired today considering yesterday’s 22 miles, hard lift, massage, etc, but progressively felt better throughout the run and got quicker throughout (not that it matters on a recovery day). | PM 6 miles. Finally had a buddy for one of my 6 mile afternoon runs! Ryan Dohner, a new addition to NAZ Elite, got to town last night, so I forced him to run with me this afternoon. Always better to have company when I’m getting in so many miles each week!
Thursday: AM 12 mile 8 x 200m workout. Didn’t feel particularly good or smooth on the 200s today, but considering I had a hefty workout two days ago, I guess that’s somewhat to be expected. These weren’t meant to be anything crazy – just intended to get the legs moving a little quicker than I have been lately. Hit everything in the mid 32 second range, which was just slightly under the goal of 33 seconds per 200m, so the purpose of the workout was accomplished. Laced up the Carbon Rockets for the first time for this workout – very excited to use these moving forward at least for a good portion of my track sessions! | PM 4 miles. Easy road loop before heading to our weekly strength and conditioning session at Hypo2. Thought I was going to get rained on, but it held off (resulting in a pretty humid run).
Friday: AM 12 miles. Ran at Walnut Canyon with Ben, Ryan, Rochelle, Kellyn, and Lauren. Not my favorite place to run (I don’t really know why), but got the miles in nonetheless. A pretty uneventful run. | PM 6 miles. Did a few loops at the Cardinal Fields today with the crew + David Torrence, then ventured off and did a road loop through campus, and finished up on the fields with a few more laps plus drills and strides. Brandon from A Runner’s Eye is in town today and tomorrow, so he came out to our afternoon session to hang out with us for a while and hopefully get a few good pictures/videos.
Saturday: AM 22 mile Fast Finish Long Run. Ran out and back at Bellemont today for the Fast Finish Long Run. The workout today was to be run as 15 miles easy, then 5 miles at 5 minute pace or faster, and finishing with 2 miles easy (as a bit of a cool-down). According to my watch, I was somewhere around 25:02 or 25:03 for the last 5 miles, but Ben had me finishing around 24:45. Either way, it doesn’t make a huge difference – the stimulus is pretty similar. The toughest thing about this workout was that Ben had me do it as a depletion run to work on metabolic efficiency, which means I wasn’t allowed to eat anything this morning before the run, and wasn’t allowed to take anything during the run except plain old water (usually I would drink Gatorade or something similar that has carbs/calories). I also didn’t have much of a carbohydrate intake at last night’s dinner to amplify the effect of the workout. Overall a successful and fun day! | PM 3 miles. Easy afternoon shakeout run after the long run. Actually felt better than I thought I would, and hopefully this will help me to feel even better in the coming days!
Sunday: AM 12.5 miles. Ran from home today out Woody Mountain Road and onto the single track trails that go through Fort Tuthill. Took it very easy, and the run actually went by rather quickly. Let’s hope the same will be true of the 6 mile afternoon run I have today! No more World Champs coverage to look forward to😦 | PM 6 miles. Felt pretty good today at Mailboxes for my afternoon run. I drove out there to pick up Jason after he got a flat tire on his bike, so I figured it just made sense for me to run there as well. I don’t often go there for second runs, so it’s nice to change it up a bit. Fortunately the impending thunderstorm held off long enough for me to get the run in with time to spare.
Total Mileage: 133 miles
Week of August 17 to August 23
Monday: OFF
Tuesday: AM 8.1 miles. Ran loops at Buffalo Park today. Not a huge fan of doing this, but other people were working out there today, so I ran their warm-ups with them and then continued on to finish my run. | PM 6 miles. Ran at the single track Campbell Mesa trails, which I thought would end up being about 5 miles, but it turns out it’s a little longer. Felt good and already getting antsy. NOT a fan of recovery weeks!
Wednesday: AM 8.1 miles. Ran early down at Beaver Creek this morning. Since I’m going stir crazy from having a recovery week, I had to get out of town and run somewhere different to keep it somewhat fresh. Finished the run off with a soak in Beaver Creek for a few minutes. | PM 5.75 miles. Easy afternoon run on the road loop followed by some 30 second strides around the neighborhood.
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Standard Thursday morning Bagel Run from Biff’s downtown. Ran most of the run with David Torrence. Got going a little quicker than usual, but I thought it was fine since I haven’t run any workouts this week and felt fine. | PM 4 miles. Road loop. Getting antsy after so many easy days!
Friday: AM 8.3 miles. Easy morning run on the Urban Trail from home. Felt a little sluggish today, so wanted to keep it flat and run solo. | PM 4 miles. Easy afternoon run at the Cardinal Fields with Ben and Steph’s camp, followed by drills and strides on the grass.
Saturday: AM 24 mile Tempo/Long/Tempo Workout. Good solo workout today on Lake Mary Rd. Easy 3 mile warm-up, 4 mile tempo in 20:13 (5:04/5:04/5:01/5:04), 10 miles in 57:10 (5:43 average), 4 mile tempo in 20:32 (5:04/5:05/5:03/5:20), easy 3 mile cool-down. Felt really smooth and easy until the very last mile of the second tempo run portion. I kid you not, the last mile turned into a headwind and as you can see from the course elevation profile, goes uphill – I’m not making this stuff up! That creates a super tough final mile, but I guess it mimics how terrible you might feel towards the end of the marathon. As much as I hate not finishing on a strong note, the overall workout was still good. Glad to have survived my recovery week and to be back on the grind! Warmed up in the Huaka (3 mi), then switched to the Clifton 2 and ran the rest of the workout (including cool-down) in them.
Sunday: AM 10.3 miles. Ran at Waterline today with David Torrence and Rochelle for a while. Turned back with David since I only had 10 miles this morning. Pleasant run – I love it up there! Probably ran a bit faster than I should have considering yesterday’s workout, so I’ll have to make sure to keep it easy this afternoon and tomorrow before the workout on Tuesday. | PM 4 miles. Afternoon run on the road loop. I cut it a bit shorter than I was scheduled because I had accumulated a few extra miles earlier in the week. Since this was a dedicated recovery week, I didn’t want to go too much over the prescribed mileage.
Total Mileage: 93 miles
Week of August 10 to August 16
Monday: AM 13 miles. Ran on Woody Mountain Road with the team and a bunch of guys in town from Arkansas. When Eric told me ahead of time that they were coming, I thought they might try to push the pace like a lot of college guys like to do, but they actually kept it pretty chill. Started and finished with the road loop by my house – I never mind getting in a little extra time on the roads; it’s my preferred surface actually! | PM 4.4 miles. Easy run plus drills and strides from my house this afternoon. Actually felt pretty good on the run portion, despite still being a little sore from Saturday’s gym session. Felt a little worse on the drills, and felt awful and uncoordinated during my strides. Considered telling Ben that I wanted to push the workout back a day, but decided to just stick with the plan and if I had to run on tired legs, then so be it. That’s what marathon training is all about, after all!
Tuesday: AM 17.1 mile 3 x 3 mile Workout. GRIND. Man, it’s great when these sessions feel effortless, but I almost feel like I get more out of them when I have to grind through them like I did today. I knew from the warm-up that I wasn’t feeling as fresh as I’d like to, but that would make the workout all the more beneficial for me. A big part of marathon training is learning to run fast on tired legs, and my legs were definitely tired today! I wasn’t able to nail the paces like I usually like to, but I wasn’t too terribly far off. I did the workout on a 3 mile loop down in Camp Verde (3,500 ft) – weather was slightly overcast and VERY muggy/humid, which probably somewhat contributed to slower times, although I’m not sure by how much. It was at least nice having Ben bike alongside me rather than being completely on my own. | PM 4.3 miles. Decided to run at Buffalo Park today for my afternoon run. I find that if I’m tired in the afternoons, it helps me to get my run done if I go somewhere to do it rather than just running from the house. It makes it more of a commitment in my mind. It’s just a little mind trick, but seems to work for me!
Wednesday: AM 12 miles. Easy run on Lake Mary Rd. Started off doing Eric’s warm-up with him, then added on a bit with Ben Bruce, then just ran out and back to finish off the duration of my run. Felt surprisingly good considering how much of a grind yesterday’s workout was. Also saw Canadian Olympian and 2:10 marathoner Dylan Wykes out there. | PM 6.5 miles. Easy afternoon run on the single track trails by my house, just off Woody Mountain Road. Doing 6+ miles on the second run of the day is tough, so I just remind myself it’s all part of the marathon grind and I get it done!
Thursday: AM 16 mile Medium Long Run. Phew, long morning! Started off from my house, ran to Nick Arciniaga’s house to pick him up, then ran over to the Bagel Run, then back to my house. Felt fine until probably the last three miles when I started to get pretty tired and depleted (today was a prescribed “no-carb” morning). | PM 3 miles. Easy afternoon shake-out run on Woody Mountain Road with Eric before our strength and conditioning session at Hypo2.
Friday: AM 12 miles. Out and back on Observatory Mesa today with Ben Bruce. We kept it pretty easy – these easy days for me are just all about getting in the miles, regardless of pace. I have a big workout tomorrow, though, so if anything I just wanted to make sure I didn’t go too fast. Per usual, I ended up running the second half of this run on my own since Ben was going shorter. It was a little warm and toasty this morning, and my legs are a bit sore from this week’s strength training, so I’ll try to stretch and recover really well today. I might even try to take an ice bath, which I’m usually opposed to, but in this case I think it could be beneficial since I have a big session tomorrow morning. | PM 5.1 miles. Easy afternoon run on the road loop by my house, followed by 6 x 30 second strides. I decided to skip drills today because my legs are still a bit sore from this weeks strength and conditioning sessions.
Saturday: AM 26.2 mile Alternating Pace Long Run. Great workout today on Lake Mary Road with Nick Arciniaga by my side, Jason on the bike, and Jen providing fluids every 3 miles. After a week of big miles, feels good to get in a solid effort and feel good doing it! Pretty much nailed every segment with the exception of a crazy uphill in the 18th mile. Last time I did this workout (with Scott Smith at Beaver Creek in Sedona), I ran it as a depletion run with no carbs before or during the run, and finished feeling lightheaded and woozy. Today, I had a good breakfast and tried to closely mimic what I would do in the race itself (Gatorade in bottles at miles 3, 9, and 15; gels taped to bottles filled with water at miles 6, 12, and 18). Finished this workout feeling great and ready to tackle the final weeks of prep for my next marathon! Amazing what a good workout can do for your mood (and confidence)!
Sunday: AM 10.1 miles. I was a little tired this morning from yesterday’s literal marathon, but I’d say that more than anything I was just lacking a little motivation to get out the door. Once I finally did, it was a little warmer than the temps I’ve been running in lately and I just wasn’t really feeling it today. I suppose that happens sometimes after I’ve had a particularly long or hard session in the previous days. Tomorrow is a day off, though, so that should be somewhat refreshing (even though I hate days off!). | PM 6 miles. Went out to A1 Mountain Rd. to get in this afternoon run. Much like this morning, I would again say that I was lacking some motivation for it, but I started to feel better after getting in a few miles. This wraps up a 136 mile week!
Total Mileage: 136 miles
Week of August 3 to August 9
Monday: AM 12.1 miles. Easy run at Walnut Canyon Road with the group. Since I’m usually doing almost double the mileage of anyone else, I usually like to get there early to run a few miles before everyone else arrives. It helps me mentally to be able to finish at the same time as everyone else and not to always have to extend my run by myself. | PM 4 miles. Out and back on the Urban Trail from the Cardinal Fields at NAU with the group, followed by drills and strides under the watchful eye of one Ben Rosario.
Tuesday: AM 15.7 mile 25 x 400m workout. 25 x 400m workout at Kiltie Loop, which is a slightly rolling mile loop that we use from time to time. The elevation is a little higher – I think it’s around 7,300 ft – which makes workouts there a bit tougher, but not overly so. Felt decent out there. It was nice to have a group of college guys doing mile repeats on the same loop, as well as the rest of the team doing a fartlek in the same spot. The camaraderie is always refreshing when we’re all working hard together! | PM 5 miles. 5 mile second runs are not a very common occurrence for me, so I decided to do this one out at Schultz Pass Road (out and back) so that I was mentally more invested in it.
Wednesday: AM 12.4 miles. Easy run at Mailboxes with Ben today. Got there early so I could get in a few miles before he arrived, allowing me to just finish at the same time as him. So much nicer doing it that way than always having to add on when everyone else stops! | PM 6 miles. Up and back at Schultz Pass Road. Kept it easy and just focused on getting in the miles.
Thursday: AM 12.2 mile Leg Speed Workout. I kinda like these little leg speed days mixed into my marathon training. It’s certainly not enough to be considered a true “workout” for me, but it does help with my turnover and my form since I’m running so many miles. I asked Ben if I could run a few extra reps, but he wanted me to just stick to the plan and keep the workout what it was meant to be. | PM 4 miles.
Friday: AM 12 miles. Ran up at Aspen Corner (9,000 ft) with Maria-Elena Calle and kept it slow and easy. Felt pretty terrible, though. | PM 4.25 miles. Roooooadddd looooop. Started off feeling pretty heavy, probably on account of running slower and higher up than usual this morning.
Saturday: AM 18.1 mile Marathon Effort Long Run. Felt like garbage today (stomach was in knots, heartburn, felt like I was going to throw up for a while, all right from the warm-up), so honestly I was just happy to get the workout in and hit the overall goal average of 5:12 per mile (marathon effort), despite having a few slower miles towards the end. It was an interesting morning, starting off with a thick fog that made it difficult to see even 50 meters in front of you, then pouring down rain for a few miles, and finishing with sunshine and blue skies. Had the company of Andrew Lemoncello for the first 4 miles, which is always nice. Hope to recover well from this one and keep forging on towards my Fall marathon and the Trials in February!
Sunday: AM 12.1 miles. Easy morning run with the Flagstaff Long Run crew at Road 700 in Mountainaire. Probably ran a little quicker than I wanted to, but I didn’t feel that bad, so I just went with it. Turned earlier than the majority of the group so I could get back home to make brunch for our team afterwards. | PM 6.5 miles.
Total Mileage: 124 miles
Week of July 27 to August 2
Monday: AM 12 miles. Wanted to do the big 12 mile loop at Mailboxes today, but a charging pitbull quickly changed my mind about a mile and a half in. I was running along peacefully when I saw him on the road up ahead, and he immediately starting barking ferociously. I stopped and started running back in the direction I came from, prompting him to start chasing me. Yikes! I turned around and ran back towards him and yelled “NO!” to try to scare him off. Thankfully, it worked! I really wasn’t in the mood to get bitten by a pitbull that day (or any day, TBH). | PM 5.3 miles. Easy afternoon run in Payson with the Corona Del Sol High School XC camp. Great group of kids!! The loop wasn’t as straightforward as it looked on the trail map, so the run was a little longer than we were planning, but overall it wasn’t terrible I guess. The footing was very loose, though, which I wasn’t a huge fan of. Unfortunately we got back sooner than a lot of the campers and had to head back to Flagstaff before having a chance to say goodbye to them. Hope they have a great season again this year!
Tuesday: AM 14.3 mile 15 x 1k workout in Camp Verde. Solid workout of 15 x 1k down in Camp Verde (3,500 ft). I might dare say my best ever execution of the 15 x 1k workout, despite being on my own in very warm and humid temps. Went down early, wheeled out a flat section of 1,000 meters, marked every 200m, and got started. I did them back and forth, and I do think that one direction was ever so slightly easier, but the efforts were comparable for the most part. Had to cut the cool-down short because of a sharp pain in my right foot that is slightly concerning. Going to get it checked out immediately today to make sure it’s nothing serious that is going to inhibit my training moving forward. | PM Had to scrap this run on account of my foot bothering me. Want to let it calm down and nip it in the bud before it turns into something more serious.
Wednesday: AM 0.9 miles. Wanted to test out my foot this morning to see how it would feel, but quickly realized it wasn’t ready to be run on yet, so I just turned around and headed back home. | PM 9 miles. 9 miles easy on the Alter-G at 80% body weight. I started off at 60% and gradually increased it throughout the first couple miles because I couldn’t really feel my foot at all. A solid run tonight, albeit a little boring. I did, however, jam out to some old-school 90s and 2000s pop music, so that was awesome.
Thursday: AM 15.3 mile Medium Long Run. Ran from my house to Nick Arciniaga’s house and then over to the Bagel Run. Unlike a few weeks ago when I just finished at Biff’s with the rest of the group, I decided to just run back home today since I knew the distance would be pretty close to spot on anyway. I was also supposed to pick it up slightly in the last couple miles, so this just made sense, rather than me pushing the pace on the rest of the group on the way back to Biff’s – I don’t want to be “that guy!”
Friday: AM 12.1 miles. Out and back on Woody Mountain, finished off with a road loop to make it 12 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Saturday: AM 22.2 mile Long Run with Surges. Easy long run with surges in the second half – well, after 10 miles. Ran easy with a big group of college guys and relative newcomers to Flagstaff, most of whom turned around between 6 and 8 miles out. A couple of guys wanted to see the A1 Mountain Loop, so I kept going with them so I could show them the way (and not have to add on a bunch of extra miles when I got back, if I’d turned around with everyone else). Running a bit quicker intermittently in the second half of the run is a good way to make sure my legs can pop when they’re tired, and it makes the run go by more quickly, so I enjoyed it. Today is also my birthday. I always like when long runs fall on my birthday! Thought about getting in 27 miles for my 27th birthday like I’ve done in past years, but given that my foot has been bothering me a bit, I thought it was in my better interest to just stick to the plan.
Sunday: AM 10 miles. 10 miles starting at Thorpe Park and running up onto Observatory Mesa. The first mile is tough! You run straight up this beast of a hill, but you know what? What goes up must come down, right? I looked forward to that downhill for the entire run! | PM 6 miles. Kind of a hodge podge of a loop that I threw together trying to come up with a new 6 mile afternoon loop. I’ll be doing a lot of 6 milers in the afternoon, and it helps when I can have a mindless route that allows me to just turn my mind off and follow. I didn’t find that today, but I might be onto something.
Total Mileage: 111 miles
Week of July 20 to July 26
Monday: AM 12 miles. Easy run from Ben’s house. Ran out and back on the Urban Trail, then added on a few miles up Schultz Pass Road before finishing up at his place. | PM 4.8 miles. Road loop plus drills and strides in front of the house.
Tuesday: AM 18 mile 6 x 1.5 mile Workout. Man, do I love getting back into the marathon grind! Very solid workout today out on Lake Mary Road with Coach Ben driving along providing support and fluids. After a training segment focused on 10k-specific workouts, switching back to marathon pace feels easy peasy. Hitting 5:12s (marathon effort – about 15 seconds slower at 7,000 ft elevation than goal marathon pace) was somewhat tricky, though, because my body has been programmed lately to run much faster than that. I have to really try to lock in on that pace because running even just a couple of seconds quick in the early miles of a marathon can spell disaster later on. Anyway, in this workout, the goal was 7:48 per 1.5 miles and I hit 7:44, 7:44, 7:43.8, 7:44, 7:44, 7:42.8 and was pretty close to spot on with the floats as well (3:14, 3:10, 3:13, 3:14, 3:14, 3:02). I could tell my legs felt a little heavy on the last 1.5 miler, but still handled the pace with ease. Very excited to get deeper into this block! As a side note for any data-driven folks out there, I started wearing my heart rate monitor again, so you’ll be seeing an extra line of information in my graphs. Hoping to be able to analyze trends in my heart rate to help us further dial in my training!
Wednesday: AM 11.1 miles. Observatory Mesa loop on my own. Not much to say about this one. | PM 6.1 miles. 6 mile easy afternoon run with a high school camp that was in town from Chicago. As I often do, I got there early and put in a few miles before they arrived, then finished off the run with them. After the run we did a Q and A session with them to answer any and all questions they had for our coach and our team. Always fun having opportunities to engage with kids like this!
Thursday: AM 12.2 mile Leg Speed Workout. Leg speed workout at NAU. Had to kind of sneak into the track through an entrance that was propped open with a metal pipe, so I did my best to get in and get out without being noticed. Unfortunately, this meant that I didn’t go through my full set of drills and strides, but rather just got the workout done quickly and got the heck outta there! I found out later that the particular entrance I went through is propped open specifically for athletes like myself to be able to get onto the track, but since I didn’t know that beforehand I didn’t want to risk someone stopping me mid-workout and telling me to leave. Oh well – at least now I know for next time! | PM 4 miles.
Friday: AM 12.2 miles. Started at my house and ran the 12 mile loop of the single tracks off of Woody Mountain Road. Doing this run gets me a nice mix of paved road, wide dirt road, and groomed single track trails – a great combination! | PM 4 miles. Easy afternoon from my house, cutting through Boulder Pointe and over to University Heights. Wanted to do something a little different than what I usually do, but I don’t particularly enjoy this out and back route.
Saturday: AM 21 mile Long Run at Bellemont. Easy long run with a fast finish component out at Bellemont Road. Had Ben to bike along with me for the run, which is always a pleasure as chatting with him makes the run go by more quickly. Finished the last three miles in 14:40 feeling fairly smooth. Now I have to go sit in a classroom all day, which I am not excited about – not the best way to recover from a long, hard effort! | PM 3 miles. Easy post-long-run shakeout run from the house. Felt pretty awful, but I know doing this will make me feel better in the coming days.
Sunday: AM 10 miles. 10 miles out and back from the house. Went out towards the Naval Observatory and over to the dirt roads over there. Not really sure where those roads connect, but someday I’ll try to make a loop. My guess is that they connect to Woody Mountain Road somehow, and could be a great option for a mix of dirt and paved surfaces. | PM 6 miles. Schultz Pass 6 mile run. Felt kind of awful today, so kept it very slow and easy.
Total Mileage: 125 miles
Week of July 13 to July 19
Monday: AM 10.1 miles. | PM 4 miles
Tuesday: AM 16 mile Fartlek workout. Today was a little re-introductory fartlek workout at Buffalo Park. We had Chelsea Reilly and Ryan Dohner in town visiting, so it was nice to at least have a few extra bodies to warm-up with. The workout itself was nothing too special. | PM 6 miles.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Thursday: AM 15 mile Medium Long Run. Admittedly, I forgot that I was supposed to get moving a little quicker towards the end, but I think we did a sufficiently decent job considering. It’s the first of several times that I’ll be doing this on Thursdays, so I’m not too concerned about it – I’ll just make sure I remember next time! | PM 6 miles. Paced Kellyn to a 4:40 mile in Sedona and then ran the cool-down with her. Afterwards we went to Bob’s parents’ condo’s pool for a little BBQ and send-off for Kellyn as she’ll be racing the Pan American Games next week.
Friday: AM 10.1 miles.
Saturday: AM 20.7 mile Long Run. Oh, man! I really wanted to finish the loop under two hours, but I didn’t really decide that until about 5 miles to go, when I was at exactly 1:35:00. I knew that finishing the last 5 miles with each mile at 5:00 was going to be a tall order considering two of the last few miles have significant uphills, but I decided to go for it anyway. I was spot on with two miles to go (I think I was 1:49:50 something, meaning I covered those three miles in 14:50), but I lost a few seconds on a big uphill in the 19th mile and lost probably another 20 seconds on a huge hill in the 20th/21st mile. Oh well – covering the loop in 2:00:30 is still pretty good.
Sunday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4.2 miles.
Total Mileage: 117 miles
Week of July 6 to July 12
Monday: AM 7.5 miles. ElliptiGO ride twice around the road loop by my house.
Tuesday: AM 8.75 miles. Easy run from my house to the single track trails off of Woody Mountain Road. Sometimes these trails feel great, and sometimes it feels awful. Today was probably somewhere in the middle, but no doubt helped me run easier than I would have otherwise, which I think I needed today. | PM 4 miles. ElliptiGO ride around the road loop by my house.
Wednesday: AM 8 miles. Easy run from Coach Ben’s house on the Urban Trail towards downtown with him riding alongside on the bike. Since I’ve been doing so much of my training on my own lately, it was a welcomed change to have someone, especially my coach, riding a bike with me. Hopefully this will be a more common occurrence!
Thursday: AM 8 miles. Easy run from home up onto the Mesa through Railroad Springs. You gain a couple hundred feet in elevation, but I don’t mind doing some climbing on easy days. Plus, what goes up must come back down, right?
Friday: AM 11.2 miles. Uffda! Ran up Mt. Elden for the first time today after hearing people talk about how difficult it is for some time. I drove up it last night with Leah to watch the sunset and decided that I wanted to give it a go running it since I am taking a down week anyway without any workouts. I’m not sure if it was harder running up or coming back down since it’s so steep in some places – makes it hard to control yourself coming downhill.
Saturday: AM 4.2 miles. Short easy run around the road loop before heading out for my day trip with Leah to Page, AZ to visit Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, and maybe Lake Powell. Didn’t want to be too tired all day, so I decided to push the long run that was originally intended for today to tomorrow.
Sunday: AM 21.1 miles. Easy solo long run at A1 Mountain Road. Would normally have run a bit harder on this one, but since I have a workout on Tuesday, I wanted to keep it controlled. Plus, today was the last day of my down week, so there was really no pressure for me to run hard. Tomorrow starts the buildup to my Fall marathon!
Total Mileage: 73 miles
Week of June 29 to July 5
Monday: AM 8 miles. Ran on the Urban Trail out by Schultz. Was going to run up Schultz, but knew before I even started that I was feeling exhausted for some reason, so made the call to keep it flat. Good thing I did! I’m not sure why I felt so dead today – maybe too many easy days recently in combination of cutting back my mileage? | PM 4 miles. Road loop by my house. Started off feeling really terrible for the first mile, but then things started to click and I felt significantly better by the end.
Tuesday: AM Up and Down 800s on Lake Mary. Fun little workout on Lake Mary Road this morning as my last hard effort before Peachtree. Ran up and down 800s, hitting 2:24, 2:19, 2:22, 2:16, 2:19, 2:16 and finished it off with 3 x 200 (measured with the wheel) in 27.5, 26.8, and 26.2 (love that coincidence!). | PM 4 miles.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. Easy run on Woody Mountain Road to the Archery Range and Urban Trail to Service Road 532 and back home. Nice loop, but didn’t feel great.
Thursday: AM 6 miles. Easy morning run before departing for the airport to head to Peachtree. Did the road loop plus a little extension on Route 66. Felt strangely tired.
Friday: AM 5.6 miles. Easy morning shakeout run with Shalane Flanagan, Janet Bawcom, and Rachel Ward. Ran along Peachtree Rd until we found a little neighborhood to run through. Right as we got about halfway out, it started massively downpouring with a significant amount of thunder and lightning. Finished it off with drills and strides by the hotel. | PM 2 miles. Really light shakeout run this afternoon since I went a little longer than I planned to this morning, but still wanted to get out and loosen up the legs a little more.
Saturday: PEACHTREE ROAD RACE 10K. I really have no idea what happened in the race today. I guess it was just one of those days. I felt all-out right from the gun, but initially rationalized that it was just fast because we were just getting out hard. I was confident that we would settle in and the pace would feel more comfortable until the final miles. Because of this, I purposely did not look at my watch to see how fast we were going until the second mile (9:20). I was sure I was going to see a time faster than that, because I shouldn’t have felt so labored running 4:40s. As we went into the third mile, I was encouraged because I started to feel slightly better and moved towards the front of the lead pack instead of hanging off of the back like I’d done for the first 2-2.5 miles. That feeling was brief and fleeting, though, and as soon as we started uphill in the third mile, I fell off hard. The rest of the race was a solo run where I neither gained any places nor lost any. Finished a disappointing 6th overall in an official time of 30:12. I definitely did not think I was going to run over 30 minutes today – in fact, I was aiming for anything under 29. Strange day, but I guess we all have off days sometimes.
Sunday: 16 miles. Short long run at A1 Mountain Road to kick off my down week. Felt very tired today – surely a combination of racing yesterday, being up for over 24 hours, traveling back home, etc.
Total Mileage: 71.4 miles
Week of June 22 to June 28
Monday: AM 8 miles. Ran the 7 mile Mailboxes loop today. Felt rough for the first 20 or so minutes, but then started to feel a little better/more normal. | PM 4 miles. I like running on pavement.
Tuesday: AM Tempo + Miles Workout on Lake Mary Rd. Solid workout overall. I was somewhat concerned about this workout going into it – I’m never a big fan of doing workouts on my own with nobody out there alongside – but got it done and was able to hit everything on pace or even a little faster than prescribed. I was pretty much spot on for the 3 mile tempo, hitting 14:39 (4:51, 4:55, 4:52) and considering that the second mile had a long gradual uphill. For the miles, Ben told me to hit sub 5 on the first one (I was 4:53), low 4:50s on the second one (I was 4:48), and sub 4:50 on the third (I was 4:48 again). | PM 4 miles. Out and back on Woody Mountain. I wish I could learn to fall in love with this road again.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. Ran at Bellemont a little later than usual for the heat, and felt pretty awful. I don’t think I hydrated enough throughout the morning. Also, it’s strange to only have one run today!
Thursday: AM 8.5 miles. Ran up at Aspen Corner today. Sometimes I like going up higher to make myself slow down – it works! | PM 4 miles.
Friday: AM 1600/4×400 x 3 workout in Sedona. 4:36.1, 64.5, 65.6, 65.1, 65.1; 4:33.6, 64.6, 64.9, 65.0, 64.7; 4:32.6, 64.7, 65.1, 65.5, 64.7; A good morning overall on the track down in Sedona. Very nice to have Jason tag along for support and coach me for the day – it definitely helped. Temps got pretty warm pretty quickly, but didn’t have much of an impact on the times I ran. The repetitions may have been slightly more difficult than they would have been otherwise, but it was probably a combination of the heat, the fact that I was solo, and the stomach issues I was having for some reason. Still got it done, though. | PM Was too exhausted from the heat this morning, so I decided to skip this second run.
Saturday: AM 8 miles. Parked at the single track trailhead by my house and ran the 8 mile loop from there. | PM 4 miles.
Sunday: AM 12.2 miles. Did the Woody Mtn Road/FUTS loop from the house, which is about 10 miles, but added on half of the road loop on the way back to make it right around 12. Believe it or not, this is my “long run” for the week. Weird – it’s so short!
Total Mileage: 89 miles
Week of June 15 to June 21
Monday: AM 11 mile workout (Tempo Run + Hills). Mad at myself for the idiotic way I ran this workout. Ben and I were both distracted and having a good time chatting about a few exciting things coming up for the team, so it really all started when I forgot to do my pre-workout strides (something I never forget!). It was all downhill from there. I didn’t pay attention to my watch at the beginning of the workout, so went out way too fast and wasn’t able to accurately hit the paces. I was just off for some reason, but still managed to hit the overall prescribed pace for the 2 mile tempo. The hills were…hills. They were tough, but I know I gained strength from running them, regardless of how fast or slow I was going. | PM 6 miles. Have a few recruits in town, so went a touch longer than I was planning to because we just got to talking during the run and I missed the turn-around point. Felt fine, though, so wasn’t concerned about adding a few extra miles.
Tuesday: AM 11 miles. Easy run at Aspen Corner with Eric, Brett Gotcher, and Craig Lutz. Haven’t been able to run on this trail for a few months on account of the snow that’s covered the trails up here, so it’s nice to revisit it and show it off to our visitors.
Wednesday: AM 9.5 miles. Easy run with Jordan and Amy. Went a little long because Amy wasn’t really certain of where we were going on the trails by her house. Felt pretty awful today – very tired for some reason (probably a combination of the workout two days ago and a run at higher elevation yesterday). | PM 3.0 miles + drills/plyos. Easy afternoon run at the Cardinal Fields with Eric, Amy, and Craig. Cut it a little short since I went a little long this morning and felt so tired.
Thursday: AM 11.5 mile workout (Mile Repeats in Sedona). Satisfied with the workout today. It was a hot one down in Sedona (90 degrees by the time I finished. and I’m certain it was warmer on the track as it always is). The mile repeats felt tough pretty much immediately on account of the heat, but I started to feel slightly better on each one. I decided to put on spikes before running #3 since we were supposed to get going pretty fast. Eric and I alternated laps each 400m until the heat caught up to him and he had to back off and alter the workout a bit. After running 4:29 on my 4th mile, I decided to break the final mile into 2 x 800m (2:12 goal time) + 2 x 200m. Ran the final few repeats in 2:12, 2:09, 29, 28 (had some issues with starting and stopping my watch on time in the first and last repeats of this final set, so the times reflected in the laps are slightly off). Happy with the effort, especially considering the heat. Thinking I’m coming around in good timing for Peachtree in 2 and a half weeks! | PM 4 miles. 4 miles on the road loop. 20 minute ElliptiGO ride. Rode the ElliptiGO while Eric and Craig ran. Jason biked alongside as well.
Friday: AM 8 miles. 8 miles on the single track trails by our house with Eric and Craig before he left to head back home. Felt pretty tired this morning. | PM 6 miles. 6 miles out and back on Woody Mountain Road this afternoon. I felt extremely tired before heading out for the run, but actually felt fine once I got started. It’s a little slower than I’ve been running lately, but I have to take the recent heat into account and not overdo it.
Saturday: AM 10 miles. Ran through Railroad Springs and up onto the Mesa out to 5 miles, then turned around and retraced my steps to come back down. The second half of the run was a lot more enjoyable than the first half (all downhill)! | PM 4 miles. Road loop as usual, but get this – I ran it backwards! Exciting stuff.
Sunday: AM 21 miles. Ran the A1 Mountain Loop and added on to make it an even 21 miles. I truly find serenity in running by myself sometimes – today was one of those days.
Total Mileage: 105 miles
Week of June 8 to June 14
Monday: AM 10 miles. Ran up Schultz Pass Road today (still by myself), and stopped by Ben and Jen’s afterwards to reconnect with them since they just got back to town as well after being gone for a few weeks. | PM 4 miles.
Tuesday: AM 8 miles. 8 miles with Jordan, Eric, and Ben out on Woody Mountain Road. So nice to have company again! | PM 4 miles. Keep forgetting to charge my watch, so had to trust Eric to tell me when we hit 4 miles on the Cardinal Fields before we did drills and plyos.
Wednesday: AM 13.25 mile workout (400m repeats). Did an easy shakeout run in Flagstaff before leaving for Sedona. Wanted to warm-up the legs a little bit before I did my pre-workout stretching. Trying out some new warm-up routines to see what works best for me moving forward. Warmed up down in Sedona with Eric and Rochelle. We went a different way since it had been raining down there recently and I didn’t want to run on the soggy dirt trail we usually use (plus I just don’t really like going that way for warm-ups to begin with). 400s went pretty well today. Ended up hitting low 63s for the majority of the 400s, which was pretty good considering I really haven’t done anything this fast in a while. The short rest was what was really getting to me after a few. I just wasn’t able to recover in 55-60 seconds like Eric was. Already felt better in this one, though, than I did in the 300s a few days ago, so I know progress is being made. | PM 4 miles.
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Out and back at Bellemont today. I think Ben originally scheduled us to run at Woody Mountain Road, but Kellyn and I really weren’t feeling it, so we just decided to run on our own. Sometimes it’s nice having the option. | PM 7.5 miles (ElliptiGO). Doing a little less running mileage over the coming weeks than I’m used to, so planning on incorporating some cross training to feel like I’m still doing something to stay active on the days I’m only scheduled to do a single run.
Friday: AM 8 miles. Ran with Ben from his house this morning. Nice to go easy with him and catch up on all things running and team-related. Hopefully we’ll have some exciting news to share with people soon! | PM 4 miles. Out and back on Woody Mountain Road way too close to when I ate lunch so I felt pretty awful.
Saturday: AM 21 miles. Easy loop of A1 Mountain on my own. Just decided this morning pretty much that I’m going to run Peachtree Road Race next, so Ben wanted me to just run an easy long run (it feels like it’s been a while since I’ve had a long run). The other option was the BAA 10K, but that’s a little sooner than I’d like, so I think this plan will work out better since it’ll give me a few extra weeks to sharpen up and actually be prepared to run a decent 10k.
Sunday: AM 10.1 miles. Easy run from home on the single track trails off Woody Mountain Road – these trails are my sanctuary! 7.5 miles (ElliptiGO). Another easy ElliptiGO ride to supplement the running I’m doing. | PM 4 miles. Ran at Buffalo Park today, again, way too close to when I ate lunch, so I really wasn’t feeling very well. Need to stop doing this to myself!
Total Mileage: 101 miles
Week of June 1 to June 7
Monday: AM 4 miles. 4 mile easy run down kind of by the water before packing up and heading back to Flagstaff. Excited to get back home!
Tuesday: AM 12 miles. Ahh, back in Flagstaff and on my familiar trails by the house. Nice to be back, but being reminded once again that the air is much thinner up here! | PM 4 miles. Watch was dead, so just ran the road loop without getting a time on it this afternoon.
Wednesday: AM 11 miles. 11 mile loop up on Observatory Mesa. Started out pretty slowly and progressed well throughout the run. Already feeling pretty good following the race, which makes sense I guess considering it wasn’t a very good effort out of me. | PM 4.1 miles + plyos/drills. Out and back on Woody Mountain Road from home, followed up by plyos and drills at the house.
Thursday: AM 11.7 mile Fartlek (1′-2′-3′-4′-4′-3′-2′-1′). Felt terrible in the workout today with Jordan up on Kiltie Loop. I started off feeling okay during the warm-up, but knew once I ran my pre-workout strides that the adjustment back to running fast at altitude wasn’t going to be a fun one! Ben reminded me beforehand that he didn’t want the workout to be anything super-fast, but rather wanted to gently reintroduce me to altitude and shake out the last little bit of the race that might have still been lingering in my legs. Hopefully was able to accomplish that goal today and that the next one will be better. | PM 4 miles. Easy afternoon run on the mindless road loop by my house. Nice not to really have to think about how far or how long I’m going – all I have to focus on is making it around the loop and getting back to my driveway; otherwise, I just turn my mind off and go into auto-pilot.
Friday: AM 12 miles. Out and back solo run at Mailboxes. Will be nice when other people get back in town and I don’t have to run alone anymore. This is getting old after a month of solo running! | PM 4 miles. You’ll never guess where I ran today…..the road loop by my house! Shocking, I know.
Saturday: AM 8 miles. Out and back on Lake Mary Road. For some reason, I was really craving a run on the pavement after doing it for every single run for a month while I was in California. You’d think I’d be all about the dirt roads, but I actually like feeling the hard pavement beneath my feet (I’m one of a select few who feel this way). | PM 4 miles. …road loop.
Sunday: AM 12.3 mile workout (300m repeats). Nice little re-introduction to faster running today down in Sedona. Originally, Ben scheduled me to do another long, grinding workout (4 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile), but I wasn’t really having it and wanted to do something shorter and faster since the whole point of this segment was to work on my speed before transitioning into another marathon segment for this Fall. He agreed and changed it to 300s. Although I didn’t feel great on these, it was nice to feel a little faster and start working on some speed that I’ve been neglecting for a while during my marathon training.
Total Mileage: 91 miles
Week of May 25 to May 31
Monday: AM 8 miles. | PM 4.1 miles + drills/plyos.
Tuesday: AM 10.7 mile Tempo Run. Went to Fiesta Island for my last workout before the San Diego Half Marathon today. The tempo run turned out to be exceptionally difficult, so I cut it off at 3 miles, thinking that I’d only over-exert myself if I tried to do the whole 4 miles. I started struggling pretty early on, so to dig myself that much more into a hole wouldn’t have been smart. Just have to trust that the hay is in the barn, so to speak, and go out there and see what I can do in the race this weekend. | PM 4.1 miles.
Wednesday: AM 10.1 miles.
Thursday: AM 8.1 miles. | PM 4.0 miles.
Friday: AM 6 mile easy run + pick-ups. Did the pickups during this run as 6 x 1 minute instead of 3 x 2 minutes – gives me a chance to get the legs moving a little bit more quickly but still without overdoing it so close to race day.
Saturday: AM 4 miles. 4 mile pre-race easy run with Kellyn in Balboa Park. Nothing spectacular.
Sunday: AM ROCK ‘N’ ROLL SAN DIEGO HALF MARATHON. 2 mile easy shake-out run in the morning before breakfast. The city is eerily quiet! Though I did pass by two intoxicated women who were staggering down the street at 3:30 AM, saw me, and muttered, “He’s out running and we’re still out drinking!” 2 mile warm-up with Scott before the race. Meh. Finished the race in 4th overall in a time of 1:03:52. Not a very good day by any means. The pace felt fast from the get-go, and when Meb threw in a surge in the second mile, I don’t think I was really mentally prepared for it. Going into the race, I had it in my mind that we’d have this big group of people and I’d be able to just settle into a race, much like the 2014 Houston Half where I ran 61:47. That was very much not how this race panned out. Meb, Jordan, and me were alone right out of the gates, then Shaddy came up and passed me within the second or third mile, and I ran the entire rest of the race solo. I’d probably consider it a solid tempo run, if anything.
Total Mileage: 78 miles
Week of May 18 to May 24
Monday: AM 6 miles. I would describe this run as a death march. I cut it short and took the rest of the day off because I was just wiped.
Tuesday: AM 10.1 miles. Started to feel a little better today throughout the run. Was kind of dragging a bit through half way, and then started being chased by two pitbulls not wearing collars. After initially scaring the crap out of me, they actually seemed to be quite friendly, but the neighborhood I was running through wasn’t amused that I was running with two huge pitbulls off leash. I received a lot of dirty looks and angry rants to “put my dogs on leashes.” One woman even flagged down a car and had the person drive her home because she didn’t want me (us) to run by her. Little did they know (but I made sure to tell them), they weren’t my dogs! They just happened to join me for a few miles of my run. I tried stopping to let them run ahead, and they stopped with me. I tried running on the other side of the street, and they crossed with me. I tried taking several detours down side streets, and guess what – they stuck right by my side. I then stopped for several minutes and though they lingered at first, eventually they wandered off. Hopefully they found their way back to wherever they came from! | PM 4 miles. New 4 mile neighborhood loop – I’ll be doing this one a lot.
Wednesday: AM 22 mile Progression Run at Lake Miramar in San Diego. Solid progression run at Lake Miramar in San Diego. Started out with 8 miles at 6:30 pace, then miles 9-11 at 5:36, 12-14 at 5:25, 15-17 at 5:15, 18 to 20 at 4:38, and finished it off with a 2 mile cool-down. If you look at the map of where I ran, you can see that the north end of the lake has quite a few hairpin turns, which made staying at a constant pace somewhat difficult, but ultimately I managed pretty well. Feels good to have a good one after a rough one on Sunday.
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Liked Lake Miramar so much that I decided to go back again today for an easy run. Might have run a touch quicker than I should have, but I was feeling pretty good still. Progression runs (like yesterday’s) tend to have that effect on me, but I need to make a conscious effort to slow down for a few days considering I’m racing next weekend. | PM 4 miles.
Friday: AM 10.1 miles. Ran a familiar 10 mile loop from the house in Murrieta today. Nothing special. Didn’t feel especially good or bad. | PM 4 miles. Nice and easy afternoon run followed by modified drills and plyos, and then hill sprints.
Saturday: AM 3 x (1600/4 x 400) Workout at Vista Murrieta High School. Toughie but goodie! I haven’t been running this fast very much lately, but going into the workout I wasn’t too concerned. I did workouts like this all the time in college, so it’s familiar territory for me (albeit somewhat removed by a few years). The hardest thing about it was just that I was out there on my own with nobody running with me or supervising the workout, but that was a reality that I knew when I made the decision to leave Flagstaff and come out to San Diego to train for a few weeks. Ended up hitting all of the splits or coming in just a little quick on all of the reps without straining too much, so I’d consider it a good day. | PM 4.1 miles.
Sunday: AM 10.1 miles. | PM 4.1 miles.
Total Mileage: 103 miles
Week of May 11 to May 17
Monday: AM 10.1 miles. Easy morning run from the house before taking care of a bunch of other errands and taking off for San Diego. | PM Scheduled to run 4 miles, but got to Josh Cox’s (my agent) house too late, so scrapped the run.
Tuesday: AM 12.2 miles. First easy run in San Diego (well, just north of San Diego in Murrieta). Found a dirt road near the house and took it for a few miles to a dead end. Nice to have it as an option for second runs, though. | PM 4 miles. Easy afternoon run. Went the same direction as this morning.
Wednesday: AM 8 miles. Another easy day. I probably would have preferred to do the workout today rather than tomorrow, but I guess an extra day of recovery isn’t the worst thing in the world. | PM 6 miles. Trying to figure out some loops from the house so I don’t have to really drive much for my runs. This is my first attempt here.
Thursday: AM 2 mile shakeout. | PM 20 x 400m Workout at Occidental College before watched the rain-shortened Hoka One One Middle Distance Classic. Altered the workout slightly to be 20 x 400m in sets and did it at Occidental College in the afternoon since Josh and I were going to watch some of the NAZ Elite crew compete there. We got to the track around 1:00pm, hours before any of the events were scheduled to start to make sure that I could get the workout in without any interruptions. It worked out great, but I did get rained on the entire time. I ran the workout as 4 sets of 5 x 400, starting at 70s and finishing up at 64s. Recovery was 200m jog in between each 400 and 400m jog in between sets.
Friday: AM 10 miles. Slept in since we got back from the meet so late (2:30 am!) and then ran from the house when I woke up. Went one of the ways Josh said he’d go for some of his super long runs and have to say I was not impressed. I most likely will not go this route again (too much traffic along the main road). | PM 5.5 miles. Ran without a watch today – not by choice, but because I realized my battery was dead as I was walking out the door. Had some digestive troubles on this one.
Saturday: AM 10 miles. Scoped out a spot for the workout tomorrow, but I’m not convinced that’s where I’ll end up doing it. It was a nice bike path, albeit a little too short (2.75 miles end-to-end). The main issue, though, was that you have to cross two busy streets – not ideal for a workout. I’ll have to check out a few other places this afternoon. | PM 4 miles. Easy run from the house on another neighborhood loop. Nothing significant to note.
Sunday: AM Tempo/Miles/Tempo Workout at Fiesta Island in San Diego. Whoa, mama, this was a tough one (not surprisingly – Ben borrowed this one from Jerry Schumacher/Shalane Flanagan)! It didn’t help that I didn’t get started until almost 10am. Pretty much every day I’ve been here in SD, the weather has been kinda chilly and overcast, but today the sun was shining and it seemed warmer than it has been. I also learned that Fiesta Island can be hella windy. All things considered, I think this was a decent workout, although not as fast as I wanted it to be (the mile reps in the middle). The first tempo run felt pretty smooth and comfortable actually, but then came the 1 mile repeats. Super tough – I think partially because I’ve been down at sea level for about 9 or 10 days now, which is anecdotally and scientifically when most people feel the worst. I remembered Ben saying before I left that I might have a workout or two that I would just have to grind through, and I was confident that this one fit the bill, so that’s just what I did. Though the miles weren’t as quick as I wanted, the mental strength I gained was significant, and it’s still at least a good marathon workout, if not half-marathon workout. For the final tempo run, I was able to hit exactly the prescribed pace to finish on a good note. | PM 4 miles. Killer to have to do a second run after the 21 mile workout this morning, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!
Total Mileage: 111 miles
Week of May 4 to May 10
Monday: AM 10.1 miles. Group morning run at Walnut Canyon. Not my favorite place to run, but it goes by faster with good company, so it wasn’t altogether terrible. I felt pretty tired, though. | PM 6 miles. Oh, how I despise 6 mile second runs! Decided to do this one at Buffalo Park where I planned to break the run into thirds: a 2 mile loop around the perimeter, a 2 mile out and back where we warm up for workouts there, and the 2 mile hill circuit loop we use. Well, once the rain and the temperature started falling about a mile into the run, I knew it wasn’t going to be all that enjoyable. Put my head down and eventually got through it, though! Sometimes you just have to will yourself to get it done.
Tuesday: AM 10 miles. Ran on my own at Mailboxes this morning. Sometimes, especially leading into races, I like to do my own thing to make sure I’m running based on how I feel rather than my perception of how the person I’m with feels. Felt really tired for the first three miles, but then felt a distinct shift where the run began to feel more fluid for me. | PM 4 miles. Easy run from the house with Ben, followed by drills and 40 meter sprints (laughable).
Wednesday: AM 10.4 miles 200 workout in Sedona. One of those workouts where you just focus on putting in the work and getting it done. Felt decent (not great, not terrible), and accomplished the goal of the workout, which was just to loosen up a bit heading into the race this weekend.
Thursday: AM 8 miles. Easy run in the AM before leaving for the Phoenix airport and heading to Grand Rapids, MI.
Friday: AM 4 miles. Easy morning run in Grand Rapids. Got poured on and felt a bit sluggish. | PM 3 miles. Hot, humid afternoon run with strides and drills.
Saturday: AM 2 mile shakeout. Easy morning shakeout before breakfast. Got rained on, but at least it’s warm. USA 25K CHAMPIONSHIP (2 mile w/u, 15.5 mile race, 2 mile c/d). 1:17:33 (5:00 per mile average) for 7th place this morning – not at all what I wanted from my first time competing in this championship. 6 weeks after Chicago this past Fall, I was able to run an altitude-converted 63:30 half marathon off of no workouts. I was hoping to be able to do something similar today (7 weeks after LA) through half marathon and then finish off the race with whatever I had left, but I just felt rough from the beginning and never felt as smooth and in control as I’d hoped I would. Started to fall off the back of the lead pack around 8 miles, but actually held them pretty close for a few miles after that, giving me hope that I’d start to feel better later on and could catch them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really the case. Aside from catching up to the women’s race, I never passed anyone, nor did I get passed at any point. I made up major ground (about 30 to 40 seconds if I had to guess) on 6th place Girma Mecheso in the last mile, but in the end fell about two seconds short of overtaking his spot in the results. Time to go down to sea level and try to turn a corner for the better towards the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon.
Sunday: PM 3 miles. 3 mile run at Cardinal Fields with Ben just to flush out my legs a bit. Ended up going shortly after eating lunch so did not feel particularly good.
Total Mileage: 80 miles
Week of April 27 to May 3
Monday: AM 18 mile workout (4 x 3 miles). Tough workout today. I was optimistic going into the workout that I’d be able to hit all of the times (or at least get close), but once we started, I knew it was going to be really tough. We were running out Lake Mary and straight into a head wind the whole time, which didn’t help either. Made it through the first two repeats fine and right on target, but struggled at the beginning of the third and ended up fading as the 3 miler progressed. Ben decided to stop me there and just have me finish with one last steady mile to close out a decent workout, all things considered. Live to fight another day…
Tuesday: AM 12 miles. Ran from home, met up with the crew and headed out through Westwood Estates over to the dirt road by 40 that I’ve been wanting to check out for some time. Ended up being a pretty good run. Felt a little tired from the workout yesterday, but nothing significant. | PM 4.1 miles. Couple of loops at the Cardinal Fields and a loop through campus to finish off the day.
Wednesday: AM 12 miles. Ran from home, met up with the crew and headed out through Westwood Estates over to the dirt road by 40 that I’ve been wanting to check out for some time. Ended up being a pretty good run. Felt a little tired from the workout yesterday, but nothing significant. | PM 4 miles. Easy run with Ben starting from the Cardinal Fields (but going out on the Urban Trail) followed with some drills and hill sprints. Was really struggling with one of the bounding drills today (and for the last few sessions). Ben tried to teach it to me several different ways and provide cues each time and I just wasn’t getting it – it left me feeling awkward and uncoordinated. I could see his mind working and he tried one more way to show it to me, and just like that it clicked. Thankful to have such a patient, dedicated, and knowledgeable coach!
Thursday: AM 16.7 miles Tempo/800s/Tempo at Lake Mary. Almost put together a good workout today, but in the end left a little frustrated and discouraged. Nailed the first tempo, all of the 600s, and the beginning of the second tempo, and then ran into some trouble and couldn’t maintain the pace I’d established. I think the workouts are still improving each week, but not as quickly as I’d hoped, which I think is a combination of coming off of the marathon and dealing with the allergies I’ve been having. | PM 4 miles. Easy road loop.
Friday: AM 15.5 miles. Tried to make a new loop over off of Lake Mary where we doing so many of our workouts, but took a few detours and ended up running longer than I wanted to. The loop turned out to be okay, but I’m not sure it’s something I’d take the whole team on.
Saturday: AM 8 miles. Since I ran extra yesterday, I decided to make today a couple miles shorter. Ran on the nice single track trails behind Buffalo Park. | PM 3 miles. I really wasn’t feeling up for a run today, but I told myself I’d at least get out the door for 3 miles, which is exactly what I ended up doing. Felt okay to shake the legs out a bit after the accidental longer run yesterday.
Sunday: AM 20K Alternating Tempo in Camp Verde. Toasty solo workout down in Camp Verde this morning. The goal was to do an alternating pace tempo run, where I’d switch off each kilometer between 3:00 and 3:20 and by the end, I’d have a solid overall tempo pace. I knew it was going to be warm and since I’ve been a little off my game lately, Ben told me beforehand to slow down the paces just a couple seconds in the first half of the workout and shoot for something more along the lines of 3:03 and 3:23 and gradually progress so that I was hitting the originally prescribed paces later on. Once I finished the warm-up and got ready for the workout, I knew the heat was going to be a factor, so I had to remind myself to be a little adaptable in the workout and just feel things out. After the first couple of kilometers, it seemed I’d settled into a rhythm of around 3:05s and high 3:20s to low 3:30s, so I just went with that as the groove of the workout. By the end, the faster kilometers progressed to around 3:00 or just under, and most of the slower kilometers were around 3:32 or so (with the exception of a few where I had to stop to get water). Overall I’d say it was a pretty good day, and I never mind a little extra heat training.
Total Mileage: 116 miles
Week of April 20 to April 26
Monday: AM 10 miles. 10 miles with Jordan and Eric (and later Ben, who met up with us about mid-way) on the same route we normally use for the Bagel Run since we were downtown watching the Boston Marathon. Always so inspired by this race! Can’t wait to run it myself sometime – 2017 maybe? | PM 4 miles. Easy run with plyos, drills, and hill sprints at the Cardinal Fields on NAU’s campus.
Tuesday: AM 17 mile Tempo/Hills/Tempo at Lake Mary. Pretty good workout considering I’ve been struggling with allergies lately. Ran the first 5 hills fairly conservatively to make sure I’d be able to hit the tempo run, which was the part of the run I was most concerned about. Ended up hitting 4:57, 4:59, 4:53 for the tempo portion, which Ben and I were pleased with considering the way the last few workouts have gone. Finished up with a few more hills, each one being a tad faster than the one before it. Overall a good day! | PM 4 miles. Easy afternoon run from the track at NAU over to the Cardinal Fields to watch the rest of the team do drills.
Wednesday: AM 12.7 miles. Easy 12.5ish miles from the house on the single tracks, Urban Trail, and trails through Ft. Tuthill. Didn’t look at the watch until I finished because I didn’t want to think about the pace at all. | PM 4.1 miles. Easy run down at the track in Sedona while the girls’ team did a workout. Fun to take pictures and watch everyone nail their workouts!
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Easy Bagel Run with Ben, Drew, and Jordan (and a few other locals). Picked it up in the second half unintentionally I think, but felt fine so didn’t mind the quicker pace. | PM 4 miles. Easy Run at the Cardinal Fields (partially with Eric), followed by plyos, drills, and hill sprints. Really a fan of meeting with Coach Ben for these sessions – it’s really helpful to have a watchful eye to make any necessary corrections as we go.
Friday: AM 4 miles. Easy morning run before a track session later this afternoon/evening in Sedona. | PM 11.2 mile Alternating Tempo in Sedona. Pretty solid workout tonight down at the high school track in Sedona. Warmed up with the company of Ben Rosario and my roommate Jason Blair on the dirt before getting after it with an alternating 8k tempo on the track. The workout alternated between 600m at 10k pace (converted for altitude) and 1000m “float” (about 8 second per 400m slower than 10k pace) – that equated to about 1:45-1:46 for the 600m repeats and 3:15 for the 1000m portions. It’s worth noting that there were no breaks and no rest, but rather it was a continuous effort. I was spot on or faster for the whole workout, and felt super easy, smooth, and comfortable doing so. If I hit the workout spot on, I would have run 25:05 for 8k, but instead I was 24:42 (most of that time was made up on the 1000m sections, which were mostly 3:11s and a 3:05 at the end). Loved the atmosphere of working out at night at the track, and to sweeten the deal even more, we stopped for some high-end Mexican food in downtown Sedona before heading back up the mountain. A delicious way to spend my Friday night!
Saturday: AM 10 miles. Easy 10 mile run on Lake Mary Road, starting out by completing the warm-up with Eric, Amy, and Rochelle for their workout, and then adding on to get to 10. My vastus medialis on both legs is still a bit sore from the strength work I did on Thursday night, but that’ll go away in a day or two and is nothing to be concerned about. Dreary skies this weekend have me more worried! | PM 6 miles. Not the easiest afternoon run I’ve ever done. It wasn’t because the pace was too fast, but rather that I had a splitting headache before I started (I think it was from the air pressure relating to the weather), and it was cold, rainy, and windy. I did feel a little better once I got going, though.
Sunday: AM 12.1 miles. 12 miles with the long run crew at Mailboxes this morning. Felt really tired and sluggish for some reason so Jordan and I backed off and ran a bit slower. | PM 3 miles. Another one of those runs where I just wasn’t feeling it. Cut it a little short because I knew I was already over my mileage goal for the week.
Total Mileage: 112 miles
Week of April 13 to April 19
Monday: AM 10 miles. Easy run at Walnut Canyon on the Campbell Mesa single track trails. Nice to get in a few last runs with Team Run Eugene before they leave town in a few days! | PM 4 miles. Easy run at the Cardinal Fields with Eric and Ben, followed by drills. Spent most of the run trying to make up original jokes about melons and cantaloupe (we succeeded!).
Tuesday: AM 15.1 mile Fartlek Workout in Sedona. Hilly fartleks are always a bit tough to gauge the effort on, but I feel like this one went…fine. I did it down at Beaver Creek in Sedona. All of the hard segments on the way out were uphill, which meant that I had a decent amount of downhill when I was coming back. I would’ve liked to see a bit more pace variation, though. | PM 3 miles. Ran a couple of easy miles at Team Run Flagstaff practice while they warmed up, and then cheered on their relay workout when I finished. Fun to be part of a big running community where everyone is so supportive!
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. My achilles was bothering me a bit yesterday evening, so I decided it might be beneficial to run on a solid surface (Lake Mary Road), rather than a dirt road or trail somewhere. I didn’t feel the achilles at all during the run, so I guess it helped? Well, it certainly didn’t hurt! | PM OFF
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Easy Bagel Run with Eric and some ultra/trail guys. Felt good to take it especially easy today since all of the people who usually push the run are out of town for the Boston Marathon. | PM 4 miles. Easy run with Eric at the Cardinal Fields and then drills, strides, and hill sprints on my own afterwards. Had to rush to get through all of the drills on time to make my strength training appointment tonight, but feel like these sessions are going to be very helpful moving forward!
Friday: AM 12 mile Steady State at Lake Mary. Ugh. Another disaster of a workout. To be honest, I don’t even really want to look at the splits – I just know they got slower each mile, despite me trying my darndest to maintain the prescribed pace. Interestingly, I struggled at exactly this same time last year, though. At the time, I thought it was from coming off of an emotional high from running at the World Championships (for the half marathon), and then injuring my foot, and traveling a lot for a few weeks, but now I’m starting to feel like it was something else then and that it’s the same thing now. My coach and I think it has to do with the allergies I get every year, so my only option really is to grind through the training the best that I can and hope that I come out on the other side of this issue before my next race. Here’s to hoping!
Saturday: AM 12 miles. Nice easy run up Schultz Pass Road to Waterline Road. It was a beautiful morning, and I was really tempted to switch my long run to today instead of doing it tomorrow, but I didn’t end up doing that. I think I’m going to come back here tomorrow for it, though, and start at Waterline so I can run all the way up, which I haven’t done yet. Hopefully it won’t be snow-covered when I get up to the top, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take! | PM 4 miles. Easy afternoon run at Buffalo Park to finish out another 16 mile day.
Sunday: AM 20 miles. 20 mile run at Waterline Road in Flagstaff, which is an old service road that leads up to the San Francisco Peaks. The road was covered in snow once I got about 7 miles up, so I had to come back down and add on on Schultz Pass Road. I was feeling fine until the 10 miles straight downhill caught up with me in the final three miles when I had to turn around and then go back uphill. Ouch!
Total Mileage: 105 miles
Week of April 6 to April 12
Monday: AM 13.1 miles. May or may not have gotten slightly off-course this morning, but quickly realized it and turned around to head back in the right direction. Only ended up running an extra mile (I planned to go 12), and we were running easy, so really nothing to be concerned about. | PM 3.1 miles. Easy run and drills/plyos at Cardinal Fields at NAU with Eric and Kellyn (while Coach Ben supervised). Feels good to get going on drills again and working to make myself an all-around better athlete!
Tuesday: AM 9.5 miles (Fartlek). Little fartlek workout today on Kiltie Loop to get my legs moving again after taking some down time in the wake of the LA Marathon. Man, did my legs (and lungs) feel like I haven’t worked out in a while! It wasn’t the prettiest workout and certainly wasn’t the fastest, but I think it accomplished the goal of lightly reintroducing me to the faster running I’ll be doing again soon. | PM 7.1 miles. Pine Canyon – I hate that I love running through this neighborhood! The hills are gnarly, but that’s the reason I love it. I like incorporating hills into my easy runs each week as a way of building some extra strength without necessarily dedicating a workout day to it. I was actually stopped at one point during the run by a security guard (it is a gated community), but ultimately he let me continue my run because he said I “look too fit to be up to no good.” That’s never a bad thing to hear!
Wednesday: 12 miles. Easy run from my house this morning onto the single track trails off of Woody Mountain Road. Wanted to run somewhere that I could duck out of the wind, and the Loop Trail that I ran on was the perfect place! Hardly felt the wind at all except at the beginning and end when I was running between my house and the trail. Update on the foot soreness I mentioned last week: didn’t feel it at all today. I’ve had to be more careful with how I lace my shoes, but doing that for just a few days has made the feeling I had disappear almost entirely.
Thursday: AM 12 miles (5 mile Steady State). A little bit of a tough workout this morning out on Lake Mary. Originally Ben scheduled me to have a 4 mile steady state run, which seemed too short and conservative in my mind, so I pressed him to let me do more. He compromised and we agreed on 6 miles instead. Let me tell ya, by 4 miles I was ready to be done! I’m not getting my legs back underneath me quite as quickly as I’d hoped or thought I would following the LA Marathon. So did I do 4 miles? No. Did I do 6 miles? No. I split the difference and did 5 miles. I just knew by 5 that I wasn’t feeling as comfortable as I should and didn’t want to push myself too hard too soon during this return to training. There’s plenty of time for me to run faster workouts later this month and throughout the summer, so I think it was a good call. On to the next one! | PM 4 miles. Decided to do my easy afternoon run at Buffalo Park today since it wasn’t terribly windy. Figured I’d take advantage of running the pristine trails there that are usually off-limits during the windy months of April and May! Felt pretty good following the workout this morning and ended up running a little quicker than I thought I would – kept it smooth and very comfortable.
Friday: AM 10 miles. Easy run from home out towards the US Naval Observatory to check out the dirt roads over that way. By the time I got over there, I only had about a mile to run, but it would be worth driving over there or looking at my trail map to figure out what else that area has to offer! | PM 4.5 miles. Love adding in these plyos a couple times a week now. I’ve always been a fan of drills, but it’s not always easy to have the motivation to do them on your own after your runs every day. Meeting with the group makes them more enjoyable and it helps to have a coach’s watchful eye on you making sure that you’re doing them properly.
Saturday: AM 12 miles. 12 miles from home out onto Woody Mountain Road and then onto the single track trails by my house. An uneventful run.
Sunday: AM 18 miles. Ben gave me the option of running 16 to 18 miles today, so of course I ran 18😉 Met with a fairly big group at A1 Mountain Road just west of Flagstaff. Unfortunately I wasn’t going long enough to cover the whole 21 mile loop, so I had to do it as an out and back run instead. The way back was quite pleasant trotting along with Eric and some good conversation (without too many of his jokes).
Total Mileage: 105 miles
Week of March 30 to April 5
Monday: 10.1 miles. Ran the first 10 miles of Kellyn’s 20 mile long run with her at Bellemont. Considering we were running all uphill on the way out and Kellyn had another 10 once I stopped, I thought we were going pretty quick! I was actually only supposed to run 50 minutes, but since I was feeling good, I was able to convince Ben to let me go to the halfway point with Kellyn. Got in the car and drive with Ben back to the start and watched Kellyn roll the end of her 20 miles under 5:40 pace – the girl is a machine!
Tuesday: 9.1 miles. Ran at Walnut Canyon with Kellyn, Jordan, and our Team Run Eugene friend Rui. Not my favorite road to run on, but the company and the weather were nice!
Wednesday: 11 miles. Somewhat of an inadvertent progression run today up on Observatory Mesa. Started at Thorpe Park, ran up “Lungburner” hill, as it is affectionately and appropriately called, did a loop on the mesa, and came back down to the starting point. Nice run up there on my own today. Feels good to get the legs moving quickly again!
Thursday: 10 miles. Bagel Run with a surprisingly small group today considering all of the teams that are here training right now. It was a good run nonetheless – ended up running out with Nick Arciniaga and Andrew Lemoncello (before they started their workout), and then back with Bob and Drew Wartenburg (of NorCal Distance) on the Urban Trail out towards Ft. Tuthill Park.
Friday: 10.1 miles. Solo run down in Sedona at….where else – Beaver Creek! I love this road. It’s nice to get out of Flagstaff sometimes, drop a few thousand feet, and just run somewhere different. The scenery isn’t bad either!
Saturday: 6 miles. Went up to Aspen Corner (9,000 ft altitude) for an easy run today, and boy was that a mistake! A surprising amount of the trail was still covered in snow (hard, crunchy, and slippery snow at that), and whatever wasn’t covered was muddy. I ended up trying to run up on the lumpy grass on the side of the single track trail, but that was getting old very quickly since it wasn’t even footing. I hit a huge patch of snow on a windy downhill section around 3 miles and since I’d been questioning my decision to continue on anyway, decided this would be a good place to flip around and head back to the car. On the way back, I started getting an inexplicable pain in my left foot that I attribute to my shoes being tied too tight so I stopped a number of times trying to readjust the laces to take the pressure off of the spot that was bothering me. None of the adjustments really helped, so I didn’t add on any mileage by the car like I planned when I flipped early, nor did I run again in the afternoon (I thought about doing a short afternoon shakeout run). I’m not concerned about this little soreness, though. Interestingly, I had a very similar issue in the other foot at exactly this time last year coming off of the World Championship Half Marathon in Copenhagen (it forced me to pull out of the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile/US Championship). That resolved quickly, and I’m sure this will also!
Sunday: 13.3 miles. Attended the “Church of the Sunday Long Run” at Woody Mountain with the NorCal Distance crew this morning. A pleasant run with great company on a beautiful Sunday morning. Happy Easter! Talked with my coach a bit during the run and will (finally) be starting workouts again to get ready for my next race! Can’t wait!
Total Mileage: 77 miles
Week of March 23 to March 29
OFF
Sunday: 7.3 miles. First run back since running the LA Marathon two weeks ago. We had a HUGE group at A1 Mountain Road – NAZ Elite, Team Run Flagstaff Pro, Oregon Track Club, Brooks Beasts TC, Team Run Eugene, Very Nice TC, some international athletes, and others that I’m sure I’m forgetting (sorry whoever that might be)! It was a great group, but since it was my first run back I was kind of glad only to be running 50 minutes because I’m sure the rest of the crew got rolling pretty fast by the end. I’d normally be down for that but haven’t been running lately so I’d just be in a world of hurt!
Total Mileage: 7.3 miles
Week of March 16 to March 22
OFF
Week of March 9 to March 15
Monday: 8.2 miles. Ran down at 525 in Sedona on a warm afternoon.
Tuesday: 11.1 miles (2 x 3 mile workout). Felt pretty good in the workout today down in Camp Verde. Ended up being around 70-75 degrees, and Ben had me wear a long sleeve to make sure I was replicating what we thought the weather will be like this weekend for the race. Still wasn’t sweating that much, surprisingly! My GPS watch seemed a bit off of the mile marks Ben put on the roads, and since he didn’t mark anything between the miles, that was the only feedback I had, so I just went with it. I was a couple seconds quick each mile, but I didn’t feel like I was straining by any means, so I just tried to stay consistent, which I did. Nice to have some good workouts on this loop during this segment since the memories I have of this loop from the Chicago segment are pretty sour!
Wednesday: 8 miles.
Thursday: AM 4 miles. | PM 4 miles. Ran the road loop before getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. Didn’t end up doing the strides and drills because it was a little chilly and raining and I didn’t want to risk staying out there too long.
Friday: AM 3 miles. | PM 3 miles. Ran a couple of easy miles on the treadmill once I got to the hotel in LA. Ran in front of a mirror, which I actually really like. I have a weird obsession with watching my footstrike in the mirror or on a video screen. My favorite used to be watching my feet strike on the underwater treadmill because it was like automatic slow-motion!
Saturday: 2.6 miles. Easy run plus drills and strides at Griffith Park in LA with many of the other athletes.
Sunday: 27.2 miles. ASICS LA MARATHON. Fared pretty well out there today at the ASICS LA Marathon. I took second place in the USATF Marathon Championship and 6th place overall. My plan coming into this race was to stay conservative early and try to build throughout, but that would really be dependent on what the other athletes in the field were doing. Immediately when the gun went off, Ryan Hall and the international field were out FAST. The majority of the rest of the American field hung back and didn’t attack the early hills as hard. Scott and I stayed together until around 7 or 8 miles, when I noticed Daniel Tapia and Jared Ward seemed to be getting antsy. Coincidentally, at about the same point, I noticed a huge billboard with Robbie Rogers (the first openly gay man to play in a top North American professional sports league) on it for the LA Galaxy along with the word “STRENGTH.” I really drew on that since his story and mine are so similar and decided to cover the slight move Jared and Daniel were starting to make. It prompted Jared to turn to me and say, “I’m glad you came to play, too!” Over the next couple of miles, our trio continued to press the pace a bit, throwing down a few low 4:50s, but nothing I felt I couldn’t handle. We took water as often as possible (nearly every mile or two), even looking after one another when one of us missed our special fluids bottle. It turned out to be the right decision to cover that move, and for the next 12 miles, Jared and I would run nearly stride for stride until he started to pull away from me around mile 19 or 20. Though I had flashbacks to what happened to me around that same point in the Chicago Marathon this past Fall, I felt fairly confident that I wasn’t slowing down too much so I tried to stay positive and keep the momentum going. I knew that the final couple of miles were downhill, so I just shifted my attention to getting to that point. I felt that once I got there, I wouldn’t get passed on the downhills, and that turned out to be exactly the way the rest of the race panned out. I could see one of the international athletes a few hundred meters ahead of me, and I knew he was in 5th overall, which is something I really wanted. I was gaining on him quickly for the next mile or two, but as we entered the 26th mile, he found another gear that I wasn’t able to tap into this time and he stayed well ahead of me. Happy with the effort today, but still can’t wait to get back to work. A lot to do if I want to make the Olympic Team next February!
Total Mileage: 44 miles
Week of March 2 to March 8
Monday: 18 MILES
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: AM 10 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Thursday: 6 MILES Alternating Pace Tempo
Friday: 10 MILES
Saturday: AM 8 MILES. Easy run in Sedona in the late morning to start to acclimate my body to the heat I’ll encounter in LA. | PM 4 MILES
Sunday: 14 MILES. Long run down at Beaver Creek in Sedona. I went later than I normally would to try to replicate the temperature I’ll be racing in at the LA Marathon next weekend. Toasty!
Total Mileage: 84 miles
Week of February 23 to March 1
Monday: AM 12 MILES. 12 miles out and back down at Beaver Creek to escape the snow we’re getting in Flagstaff right now. Ran straight into a headwind for the first half of the run, which made it quite enjoyable coming back. Most of the group was together on this one. | PM 4 MILES
Tuesday: AM Leg Speed Workout- 2 miles of 100m fast, 100m easy with 4 mile warmup and 4 mile cooldown. Had to take this workout into the dome today because of less-than-ideal conditions outside. It all worked out, though. Nice to get the legs moving and to feel fast for a bit! | PM 6.5 MILES
Wednesday: 12 MILES. 12 miles with Scott out and back at Mailboxes and then out and back on Lake Mary to finish it off while the others did their workouts. Scott and I were both surprisingly sore from the leg speed workout we did yesterday! | 4 MILES. Easy 4 miles on the road loop from my house.
Thursday: AM 10 MILES. 10 mile hilly Bagel Run on a great loop that I’ve never done before through the neighborhood where I hope to live someday. Great morning with a big crew! | PM 6 MILES. 6 miles starting from the dirt on Woody Mountain Road with Nick A., Scott, and two of Scott’s buddies from Oklahoma who are in town for the Phoenix Marathon weekend. Was really glad to get a text asking if I wanted to join them for a run, because heading out for a solo 6 mile afternoon run is almost never enjoyable, especially with the winter weather coming back around!
Friday: AM 2 x 6 MILES. Solid day for Scott and me out on Lake Mary Rd, also with the company of Stephan Shay and Nick Arciniaga. Finally got a chance to redeem myself for the 2×6 mile workout I did before Chicago last Fall. As you can tell from TrainingPeaks file if you check it out, this one was supposed to be a bit of a simulator for LA in a couple weeks, with alternating paces throughout the workout: we started at mile 6 on Lake Mary and ran back towards the start (slightly uphill at first, getting progressively tougher in the last couple miles), then for the 2nd 6 miles we turned around and ran back out to 6 miles (hilly first couple miles, then slightly net downhill towards the end). Having to do the workout this way made the first 6 miles significantly more difficult than the second, both on paper and in the actual result. The first couple miles of the first 6 miler were pretty smooth and uneventful, and then when we hit the halfway point it got exponentially more challenging through those final hills. Luckily, I had Scott out there to keep pushing me and we ended up cruising to a 31:19 finish (5:04, 5:14, 5:06, 5:22, 5:18, 5:12). I was much less concerned about the second 6 miles, knowing that I’ve run that direction on Lake Mary Road a heck of a lot more times than I’ve run the direction we did the first 6. For this one, my intent was to stay as close to the prescribed paces as possible to make sure that I could crank it down in the final couple of miles. This prompted a bit of confusion at one point when I was running a few steps behind Scott and Nick encouraged me to stick right on Scott’s back and let him pull me along. My response was, “He’s going too fast!” What I failed to convey was that I actually felt great and was trying to nail the paces, but Scott was a little quicker than we were supposed to be, so I was letting him go a bit. Shortly thereafter, we got back in sync and finished out the rest of the 6 miles together in a time of 30:30 (5:03, 5:14, 5:03, 5:12, 5:01, 4:55). Sad that Scott had to leave town today to head back to Oklahoma for the last few weeks before LA, but stoked to toe the line with that guy in two weeks! | PM 4 MILES. Couldn’t stand the thought of doing the road loop this afternoon, so I decided to venture into the Boulder Point neighborhood instead. Actually didn’t feel as tired as I thought I might from the workout this morning.
Saturday: 10 MILES. Easy 10 miles in the snow/rain/slush with Eric and Ben from our house. Wasn’t as bad as was originally forecast, thankfully, but I felt pretty tired today. Didn’t talk much, but then again, that’s part of the beauty of running with Eric and Ben, because you don’t have to say a word – they’ll talk enough for everyone 
| 6 MILES. Wasn’t feeling a run from the house today, so drove over to Mailboxes this afternoon – thought it would be a good way to break up the monotony of running from the house. Gotta do whatever I can to get psyched up for my 6 mile afternoon runs!
Sunday: AM 10.5 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Total: 118 miles
Week of February 16 to February 22
Monday: AM 6 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Tuesday: AM 9 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Wednesday: 7 x 1 mile. Man, it feels good to feel good again! After a rough couple of days from being sick, I was happy to bounce back in this workout without missing a beat. Scott and I comfortably hit each of the repeats this morning down in Camp Verde (about 3,100 ft elevation I think). My breathing may have still been a touch off what it usually would have been, but otherwise everything felt pretty smooth. Miles today were 4:56, 4:55, 4:37, 4:54, 4:35, 4:55, 4:28. Excited for the next big one – 16 miles at marathon effort this weekend!
Thursday: AM 12 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Friday: AM 12 MILES | PM 4 MILES
Saturday: 16 MILES at MARATHON EFFORT. Felt pretty bad out there today, but was still able to accomplish the goal of averaging between 5:15 and 5:17 per mile. Was nice to have a bit of company early on, but it’s never easy to keep going when other people stop at various points along the way. Anyway, Scott and I got through it all pretty well – he averaged 5:14 overall and I hit 5:16 pace overall. 3 more weeks to LA!
My hamstrings were inexplicably tight this morning, which I felt on and off throughout the run – hopefully they’ll continue to loosen up today.
Sunday: AM 10 MILES | PM 6 MILES
Total: 120 miles
Week of February 9 – February 15
Monday: AM 5 x 2 MILES. Took me a while to get going this morning since it was pretty chilly and dreary outside, but once I finally did it was a good one. Decided to go into Bay Hills to find a hilly course for the repeats, and think the course I used was awesome as there was quite a bit of up and down throughout. Would’ve been great to have company on this one, but I’ll be glad to get back to Flagstaff and hone in on the final couple of weeks before LA with Scott. Good stuff ahead!| PM 4 MILES
Tuesday: AM 8 MILES. Super early morning run from my parents’ house before boarding my flight to New Orleans. I slept a little later than I was planning, so couldn’t get in the whole planned run this morning. I’ll try to fit in the rest of the miles this afternoon once I get to New Orleans. | PM 8 MILES. Horribly boring run on some industrial road in New Orleans. There has to be better running here…
Wednesday: AM 10.5 MILES. Morning run with Mattie Suver before leaving New Orleans to head back to Flagstaff. Really enjoyed the company and the conversation.
Thursday: ALTERNATING PACE LONG RUN. Great workout down at Beaver Creek in Sedona with Scott today. The way out felt super easy as it was net downhill and we were definitely holding ourselves back. With each passing 5:00 mile, the easier they felt, the more concerned I got for the hard miles coming back. After we turned around, the first several hard miles were all uphill, but we got a little reprieve in the final miles. Felt good to cruise to some fast finishing miles! On another note, we finally figured out exactly how far out Beaver Creek Road goes! It’s about 11.25 or 11.5 miles, give or take.
Friday: OFF- Sick w/ the Flu
Saturday: 11 MILES
Sunday: AM 12 x 1 min hard, 1 min easy (shortened coming off sickness). | PM 4 MILES
Total: 99 miles
Week of February 2 – February 8
Monday: AM 14.5 miles | PM 4 miles
Tuesday: TEMPO/LONG/TEMPO. Very happy with the workout today. 3 mile easy warm up, then averaged 5:11 (5:07, 5:13, 5:16, 5:09) for the first tempo on the very uphill portion of Lake Mary from Mile 4 back to the Start. Felt tough, but just wanted to keep the pace around 5:10 per mile, so I was close! Then I ran 10 miles at a steady pace in 59:55 (goal was 6:00). Next up was another 4 mile tempo, during which I averaged 5:02 (5:04, 5:03, 5:03, 4:58) and felt very controlled and smooth. This was a big difference for me today versus when I did this workout before Chicago – last time was a bit of a grind, but this time was comfortably uncomfortable (more of a cruising effort). Finished off with a 4 mile cool down with my girl Leah Rosenfeld. Overall very happy with the effort today.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. Easy run at Mailboxes with the crew. Showed them all a loop they’ve never done – they loved it! | PM 6.1 miles. Ran a couple of different loops at Buffalo Park while Spratty did her workout. I did 2 miles on the warm-up trail, 2 miles in the park, and 2 miles of the hill circuit that we usually do.
Thursday: AM 12 miles. Easy (and early!) 12 mile run in Anthem before leaving for Maryland. Right calf started to bother me a bit about halfway through – not sure why. | PM 4 miles. Shakeout run from my parents’ house in Maryland. Had a massive headache and ran in the dark, which made the run a tad less than enjoyable.
Friday: AM 20 x 200m (alternating uphill/downhill). Good workout today in Annapolis. Alternating uphill/downhill 200s (ish). Thought my dad had a wheel so I could measure out the hard segments, but apparently he got rid of it recently. Instead, I just measured 0.2 kilometers on my GPS watch (most during the workout registered as 0.20 or 0.21 km). I think I ran the perfect effort for this workout – by the end the uphills were getting really challenging, and I was still moving my legs really quickly to get back down. Solid day! I think the announcement of our team’s sponsorship helped me to have a good workout! | PM 6 miles. Ran at sunset at Greenbury Point, not realizing how dark it would get. Ran one loop on the crushed gravel and then took to the road for a safer option where it was easier to see my footing.
Saturday: AM 12 miles. Intended to run on the trails behind Annapolis High School, but I think my GPS wasn’t getting an accurate reading back there and the surface was covered in leaves so I decided to go out onto the roads so as not to risk rolling my ankle. | PM 6 miles. Easy run around the Newark Reservoir in Delaware. Right calf/soleus a little tight and left plantar a bit tight.
Sunday: AM 12 miles. Ran from my brother’s house back over to the Newark Reservoir, ran a few loops in different directions and on different surfaces (pavement and gravel), and then ran back to his house. | PM 5 miles. Don’t know the time for this run (when I got ready to go, I discovered my watch battery was dead). I knew from my run this morning that it was 2.5 miles from my brother’s house to the Reservoir, so I just decided to run that again so I’d know exactly how far I went for this run as well.
Total: 128 miles
Week of January 26 – January 31
Monday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 miles
Tuesday: 12 miles
Wednesday: OSSLERIAN FARTLEK. Pretty good session today down in Sedona on the hilly and beautiful Beaver Creek Rd. I think I accomplished the goal of the workout pretty well – while the segments might not have necessarily increased pace each time because it was on such a hilly course, the effort definitely increased within each hard 3 minute segment (10k effort, 5k effort, 3k effort, FAST finish). Looking at the graph of each 3 minuter, the most perfectly executed one was #5. The goal next time will be to make them all look just like that! Feels good to get moving again after taking a little downtime following the half marathon in Houston.
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Easy run out at Bellemont with a bunch of NJNY guys and Chris Derrick, who are all in town right now for their altitude training stints. Fun when new people come through town! | PM 6 miles
Friday: AM 12 miles. Terrible run today from the NAU Skydome. Rainy, cold, and for some reason, I must’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed because I was in some kind of mood! Was very happy to get this one over with. | PM 4 miles
Saturday: 3 x 3 miles. Solid workout out on Lake Mary today. Nice running into a few of the TRF guys during the warm-up. Ran 15:08 on the first 3 miles, feeling pretty good, but definitely aware of how difficult the next three mile segment was going to be since it’s all uphill. Hit 15:40 on the second one, feeling uncertain as to whether I’d be able to hit the pace on the last 3 miles. Started the final segment and forgot to split my watch, not realizing it until after I passed 1/4 mile. I essentially ran without knowing the pace for the first half mile, and then split my watch so I could get a better idea of whether or not I was on target. For the second half mile of the final three miles, I was right on 5:02 pace, so I must’ve had a fast first half mile because I came through the first mile as Ben read “4:52!” Oops, a little quick, but I was feeling good so I just continued to roll with it. Finished the workout off with a 14:48 final 3 miles, after which Ben quipped, “You really didn’t like that 15:40, did you?” The man knows me well!
Sunday: AM 12 miles. Beautiful Sunday morning run on a loop of the single track trails with Eric. | PM 6 miles
Total: 112 miles
Week of January 19 to January 25
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: 10.5 miles
Thursday: 9 miles
Friday: 10 miles
Saturday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 miles
Sunday: 22 miles. First 11 miles, 6:32 average – nice and relaxed with a group of 5 or 6 of us. Next 3 miles, 5:55 average – started climbing back uphill after turning around at 11 miles. The average pace on this segment is a little deceiving because I climbed back up almost 1000 feet. Next 3 miles, 5:35 average – Not a whole lot to say about this segment. It eventually started to even out a bit, which was nice because all of that climbing was making me tired! Next 3 miles, 5:15 average – The last time I tried to do a progression run down here at Beaver Creek, this segment felt really hard. Today, though, I felt a lot more in control. Final 2 miles, 5:04 average – again, last time I attempted a Beaver Creek progression run, I fell apart in the final miles because of a few tough hills. Was really happy this time to be able to still get faster and dip under 5 for the final mile. LOVE this road to prep me for LA!
Total: 75 miles
Week of January 12 to January 18
Monday: AM 20 x 200 | PM 3 miles
Tuesday: AM 8 miles | PM 4 miles
Wednesday: AM 8 miles | PM 4 miles
Thursday: AM 4 MILE FARTLEK | PM 3 miles
Friday: AM 4 miles | PM 3 miles
Saturday: AM 3 miles | PM 3 miles
Sunday: USATF HALF MARATHON CHAMPIONSHIPS. 5th place. 1:02:22. Not what I was looking for, but a solid performance nonetheless. I was hoping to improve on my time and place from last year (61:47, 5th place), but unfortunately wasn’t able to achieve either of those goals this time around. I guess you can’t knock it out of the park every time, right? After the race, Coach Ben reminded me that everything is focused towards my Spring marathon, which means I’ve had to sacrifice running a super-fast half marathon in the process. I think Ryan Hall ran a 62:xx half marathon tune-up a few years ago before running 2:04 in Boston, so maybe it bodes well for me!
Total: 80 miles
Week of January 5 to January 11
Monday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 miles
Tuesday: AM 5 MILE TEMPO RUN. Decent workout today, though I’m not completely satisfied with it. Ended up as about 24:30 for 5 miles at 7,000 ft. Was hoping for about 10 seconds faster overall. Still better than when I did this same workout last year before Houston, though – that has to be a good sign. | PM 4 miles
Wednesday: AM 8 miles | PM 4 miles
Thursday: 10 miles
Friday: FAST FINISH LONG RUN
Saturday: 8 miles
Sunday: AM 9 miles | PM 4 miles
Total: 89.5 miles
Week of December 29 – January 4
Monday: 10 miles
Tuesday: 15 mile Steady State. The workout today felt probably a little tougher than it should have, but that’s probably on account of the fact that I woke up yesterday with a sore throat again. May have not been quite at 100% health today, but was able to mostly accomplish the goal of the workout. It was unfortunate that when the workout was supposed to get fast in the last three miles, I turned directly into a gnarly headwind on Lake Mary Road. For anyone who has run on Lake Mary Rd. into a headwind, you know it’s no joke. While the goal for the last three miles was sub 15:00, I was able to struggle through the wind to two 5:05 miles before succumbing to its strength in the last mile and running a 5:24. That said, I was definitely putting forth a sub-15 effort, and that’s really all I can ask for on a cold and windy day. Nice to have had some company from Ben B. from 0 to 6 miles and from Jordan from 4 to 10 miles. Like a few weeks ago, ended the workout with a severe fit of coughing and dry heaving. The rest of the day is dedicated to recovery to make sure this sickness doesn’t take over again!
Wednesday: AM 11 miles | PM 6 miles
Thursday: AM 12 miles | PM 4 miles
Friday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 miles
Saturday: AM “THE LUMBERJACK!” Had a pretty good workout down on the 3 mile Camp Verde Loop that changed my perception of it in a positive way (the last workout I did on the loop was abysmal). Was nice to have a good-sized crew all together to start (Ben, Ben, Jordan, Eric, Kellyn, Jason, Henry, me). First set of 400s was cold and felt quick, but we hit just under the prescribed paces (69, 67, 67, 66). First 10 min Tempo was about (4:47, 4:51) and felt hard as I essentially ran it solo (Jordan stayed behind me the whole time). Next set of 400s felt pretty much the same as the first, but they were faster (65, 65, 65, 64) – a sign that our bodies were starting to warm up. Next 10 min tempo was a little faster and I definitely felt more relaxed and comfortable, and ran a bit quicker (4:43, 4:51). Actually thought I was going to get mauled by a loose dog at one point on this part of the workout but was able to outrun it Final 400s took care of themselves, but it was really helpful to have Jordan just a step or two in front of me on each one to really get me to push to hit the paces (63, 64, 64, 64). Tied up pretty badly in the final 400 of the workout, but was still able to finish in the 64 second range. Have every reason to be pleased with the workout today. | PM 4 miles
Sunday: AM 13 miles | PM 4 miles
Total: 114 miles
Week of December 22 to December 28
Monday: 3 mile tempo/ 3 x 1 mile/ 3 mile tempo Satisfied with the workout today. Ran the first three miles in 14:54 (4:57, 4:59, 4:58), the 3 x mile in 4:52 average (4:52, 4:49, 4:55) with a headwind and uphill on the first and third, and the last three miles in 15:01. Goes to show you that I’m starting to feel better after I bombed those workouts last week from being sick!
Tuesday: AM 10 miles | pm 6 miles
Wednesday: 21 miles. Pretty good long run on the A1 Loop for me today. Started out with Jordan and had him for the first 6 miles of my run, but he had to turn back at that point as he had a shorter run. Turned on some music and was able to comfortably finish off the loop by myself and picked it up slightly in the last 6 or 7 miles feeling smooth and controlled.
Thursday: 12.5 miles
Friday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 miles
Saturday: AM 10×800. Solid workout today down in Sedona (and how cool does that graph look?!). Was awesome to have a whole crew down there with a bunch of moving parts (Ben, Steph & Riley, Eric, Ben, and myself). Had some wind from 0-100m and 400-500m, but otherwise wasn’t that bad. Of anywhere to have to run into the wind on a track, that was actually pretty decent placement. Ended up with close-to-perfect progression of 2:20, 2:20, 2:18, 2:17, 2:16, 2:15, 2:14, 2:12, 2:12, and 2:11. Converted down to sea level, I estimate that these times would probably be 4 or 5 seconds faster per 800m (I had a few people ask). Had some help for a couple hundred meters from Ben Bruce during his fartlek, which was greatly appreciated since he towers over me and helps to block some wind. Finished up the workout by cooling down to Java Love, one of my favorite post-Sedona-workout treats! | PM 4 miles
Sunday: 12 miles
Total – 113 miles
Week of December 15 to December 21
Monday: 20 miles. Ran with Ben Bruce from his house for this one. He did 12 or 13 I believe and then I went out and added on to get to my 20. Ended up just doing the whole run at a comfortable effort rather than worrying about ratcheting down the pace in the second half as initially prescribed. Today was more about getting the miles in and trying to make sure I didn’t fall back into a hole of sickness again.
Tuesday: AM 10 miles | pm 6 miles
Wednesday: AM 12 miles | PM 4 miles
Thursday: AM 6 Mile Steady State. Had to alter the workout today due to a couple of inches of snow that we got this morning, so ended up doing a 6 mile steady state instead of what Ben originally had in mind – wasn’t worth the risk of injury to my plantar fascia and achilles. Despite the weather, this one felt much easier than the 6 mile steady state I ran here a few weeks ago (that one felt more like a hard tempo run). A good day for building some mental strength as well. | PM 4 miles
Friday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 miles
Saturday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 miles
Sunday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 miles
Total – 113 miles
Week of December 8 to December 14
Monday: AM 12 miles | PM 4 miles
Tuesday: AM 25 x 400. Phew – this workout probably felt a little tougher than it should have, but I’ll chock that up to the fact that I was running it in freezing cold temps by myself on a soft grass field with lots of turns. Not making excuses as the workout was still decent, but those are just the facts. I would say that it would have been significantly faster on a track or road. That said, one of the things that I think helped me to be successful in Houston last year was the huge variety of workouts and surfaces that we ran on leading up to the race. In an effort to replicate that success, we’re incorporating the same variety (is that an oxymoron?) this year. Finished the workout with some severe coughing, which, coupled with the difficulty of running 72s-74s per 400m, leads me to believe I may be coming down with a little chest cold. Hopefully that’s not the case! | PM 4 miles
Wednesday: AM 12 miles | PM 4 miles
Thursday: AM 10 miles | PM 4 miles
Friday: Mile Repeats. Wow, I don’t really know what to say about this one. I could tell even on the warm-up that my body was feeling off, but sometimes maybe you just need a little time to warm up and get into the groove. Well, when I started the first mile, I felt with even more conviction that something wasn’t right. My breathing was HARD from the get-go, and I was running slightly downhill. I came through the first mile in 4:59 and instantly wanted to stop the workout. Ben asked, “Do you think you can do that 7 more times?” I had to emphatically say “NO!” between gasps for air. He encouraged me to keep going and just slow down a bit to a more manageable pace. The next one was a little over 5 minutes, and the one after that another 10 seconds slower. After another mile just a tick under 5:20, I took a three minute break and was able to muster up a 5:10 – something that should never feel so hard for me, even at 7,000 ft. altitude. We cut the workout short at that point, certain that I’m still fighting off some kind of respiratory illness that I first felt settling into my lungs earlier this week. I actually felt so awful when I stopped that I didn’t even do a cool-down.
Saturday: Day off.
Sunday: AM 8 miles | PM 4 miles
Total – 86 miles
Week of December 1 to December 7
Monday: AM 12 miles. Easy trail run at Aspen Corner with Alicia, Chris Vargo, Tanner and Colt. Felt good following yesterday’s progression run in Sedona.
Tuesday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4.25 miles.
Wednesday: AM 16.2 mile workout. 3 mile warm-up, 6 mile steady state at Buffalo Park (goal 5:20; actual 5:16, 5:21, 5:18, 5:17, 5:18, 5:17). Then 6 x small hill circuit (6 times flat jog, fast downhill, jog rec, hard uphill, flat jog recovery). The steady state run felt more like a tempo run today. Could have been the constant cold rain, or maybe just the fact that I haven’t done a workout in Buffalo Park in quite some time. Either way, glad to accomplish the goal. | PM 4.2 miles.
Thursday: AM 12.3 miles. No time on the loop today. Ran out at Mailboxes on a loop of which I know the distance. Was a muddy mess! Not an enjoyable run because of that. | PM 4.4 miles.
Friday: AM 10.2 miles.
Saturday: AM 17 mile Long Run. Easy long run with the last three miles at 5:07, 5:03, 4:58. Did this one in a fasted state (no carbs/food before). Went through a couple of rough patches during the run but am glad I’m forcing my body to become more efficient at utilizing fuel sources.
Sunday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Total – 104 miles
Week of November 24 to November 30
Monday: AM 10 miles.
Tuesday: AM 8.3 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles.
Thursday: AM 12.3 mile fartlek. Did this workout on a roughly 12 mile hilly loop I have out Lake Mary Road at “Mailboxes.” Decent run – should help to alleviate the bit of soreness that’s still lingering in my legs from Costa Rica over the weekend.
Friday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Saturday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4.2 miles.
Sunday: AM 18 mile Progressive Long Run (with cool-down). Solid progression run at hilly Beaver Creek in Sedona. Decided to progress every 15 minutes instead of every 30 as prescribed. Went a little something like this: 0-15 minutes (6:48 pace), 15-30 minutes (6:14 pace), 30-45 minutes (5:57 pace), 45-60 minutes (5:38 pace), 60-75 minutes (5:23 pace), 75-90 minutes (5:26 pace). The final 15 minutes was definitely very tough, but that’s why I’ll be running this road a lot in the next few months; it’s going to undoubtedly make me a stronger runner! Followed the 90 minute progression with 20 minutes of easy running and 15 minutes sitting in the icy-cold creek.
Total – 91 miles
Week of November 17 to 23
Monday: AM 13.5 mile workout. Ran this workout solo in Flagstaff in bitter cold conditions and it was tough! I felt like I was running all-out to be able to hit 4:59, 5:03, 4:59 for the 3 mile tempo, after which I felt like I was going to lose my breakfast. Then I went and ran 8 hills, which aren’t my strong suit, but I think went pretty well. I like doing hills on my own because it prevents me from stepping over the line and trying to keep up with my training partners on them. I almost feel like I benefit more from running them more controlled.
Tuesday: AM 10 miles. | PM 6 miles.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4.1 miles.
Thursday: AM 10.3 mile fartlek. Did this workout in the dark in Anthem before leaving for my flight to Costa Rica. Nothing special.
Friday: AM 6 miles. Ran with Abdi Abdirahman and the race director, Mario Reyes, through a park in central San Jose, Costa Rica. Felt a little flat after the travel yesterday. | PM 3 miles. Ran on the treadmill in the hotel because we got back after dark and that was the safer option since I don’t know the area.
Saturday: AM 5 miles. Ran with Ryan and Sara Hall, Abdi, Mario, and Cesar Lizano, a Costa Rican Olympian in the marathon. Finished the run at the local track for strides and drills. | PM 4 miles. Ran with Sara from the hotel for an easy shakeout run.
Sunday: AM 2 mile shakeout. Later AM 2.5 mile warm-up + Gatorade Media Maraton San Jose + 3.2 mile cool-down. Happy to go out there and get the win today over good friends Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman. Really didn’t know what to expect coming into this race because I was under the impression that I had pretty limited fitness. I took two weeks off after Chicago and have been running easy for 3 weeks with only a couple of baby workouts sprinkled in, so to be able to still run 65:00 at altitude (roughly 63:30 at sea level) is a good indicator of the strength I built during marathon training this Fall. Ran with Ryan and Abdi on my heels for about 3 or 4 miles maybe and then threw in a surge on a downhill that seemed to break both of them a bit. I took advantage of the gap and tried to build up as much distance between myself and them as I could, which meant I ran most of the race solo. It wasn’t easy as the course was definitely undulating quite a bit, but in the end I was able to hold a solid margin (65:00 to 66:13 and 68:08). Definitely pleased with this effort, and hope to visit and race in Costa Rica again soon!
Total – 79.8 miles
Week of November 10 to 16
Monday: AM 9 miles.
Tuesday: AM 11.7 mile workout. First workout back after Chicago. Did it out on Trina’s Loop (my first time there) while Ben Bruce did a workout and Ben R. was on the bike riding back and forth between the two of us. Didn’t feel great, but didn’t feel terrible either. A decent reintroduction to faster running. | PM 4 miles.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Thursday: AM 10 miles.
Friday: AM 16 mile Fast Finish Long Run. Solo long run at Bellemont this morning. Uneventful run with a comfortable final three miles of 5:14, 5:12, and 5:03.
Saturday: AM 8 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Sunday: AM 10 miles. | PM 6 miles.
Total – 93 miles
Week of November 3 to 9
Monday: AM 8 miles. | PM 5.2 miles.
Tuesday: AM 6.5 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles.
Thursday: AM 10 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Friday: AM 12.1 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Saturday: AM 15 miles.
Sunday: AM 5.1 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Total – 88 miles
Week of October 27 to November 2
Monday: AM 4.7 miles.
Tuesday: AM 5 miles.
Wednesday: AM 5 miles.
Thursday: AM 6 miles.
Friday: AM 6 miles. | PM 6.5 miles.
Saturday: AM 5 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Sunday: AM 8 miles.
Total – 50.2 miles
Week of October 20 to October 26
Monday: AM 5 miles.
Tuesday: AM 5.1 miles.
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: OFF
Friday: AM 5 miles.
Saturday: AM 7 miles.
Sunday: AM 5.2 miles
Total – 27.3 miles
Week of October 13 to October 19
OFF
Total – 0 miles
Week of October 6 to October 12
Monday: AM 6.12 miles. Met at Mailboxes to do Eric’s warm-up with him and then added on to finish off my morning. Temps were freezing this morning! Definitely the coldest it’s gotten so far. | PM 4 miles. Easy 4 on a gravel loop at Mailboxes. Ran into Leah and Coach Heins when I was really in the zone and almost passed them without even noticing, despite the fact that they were flailing their arms like lunatics! Like the other day, it’s nice to run into people unexpectedly.
Tuesday: AM 11 mile workout. 2 mile warm-up, 2 x 3 miles at 5:12 pace (marathon effort = sea level race pace plus 15-17 seconds per mile), 2 mile cool-down. Workout felt very smooth and easy today – hitting 5:12s was a piece of cake…can’t wait to do it on Sunday! Splits were 5:09/5:12/5:11 on the first one and 5:12/5:12/5:10 on the second.
Wednesday: AM 10 miles.
Thursday: AM 6 miles. | PM 4 miles.
Friday: AM 4.1 mile easy fartlek. Mixed in 6 times 1 minute pickups/strides. Then left for Chicago!
Saturday: AM 4 miles easy in Chicago. Feeling good and ready to race!
Sunday: AM 27.5 miles. 2:17:43. Not at all what I was looking for, but the good news is that I was on pace through 20 miles. More time and strength will get me to where I want to be.
Total – 51 miles
Week of September 29 to October 5
Monday: AM OFF. Ben and I often schedule off-days into my training leading up to a big race. I decided to do an ElliptiGO ride and a pool running session instead.
Tuesday: AM 10 miles. Out and back with Eric on Woody Mountain Road. Pleasant run. | PM 4 miles. Ran at Fox Glenn Park and the Urban Trail. Planned to just run on the grass fields but there were soccer games going on, so I ventured away.
Wednesday: AM 14 mile workout (3 mile warm-up, 6 x 1600m, 3 mile cool-down). 6 x 1600 on the track in Sedona with 400m jog recovery. 4:48, 4:46, 4:47, 4:46, 4:46, 4:46. Felt smooth and controlled the whole way. Can’t wait to get to Chicago! Had an awesome group at the track today as almost everyone on the team was down there either working out or just hanging out. | PM 5 miles.
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Thursday morning bagel run with a great group – much bigger than it has been the past couple of weeks. Decided to turn around at 3 miles and go a different direction because I didn’t want to get on the single track trails and risk rolling my ankle so close to the race.
Friday: AM 8 miles. Easy trail run from Ben’s house | PM 4 miles. Easy run on the Urban Trail from the Downtown Late for the Train. Still trying to get a First Friday run going, but it hasn’t picked up much steam yet. Hopefully soon!
Saturday: AM 14 miles. Long run at Waterline Road with Eric and Danny. We saw a meteorite! Around 9 am we spotted a small fireball falling directly in front of us, until ultimately it disintegrated before hitting the ground. Pretty cool!
Sunday: AM 8 miles. Easy trail run at Aspen Corner with Eric and Danny. Great morning for a nice run with good people! | PM 4 miles. Ran into Eric and Nick A. on the Urban Trail during my run so decided to turn with them. Was nice having company when I wasn’t expecting it!
Total – 82 miles
Week of September 22 to September 28
Monday: AM 10.1 miles. Easy run from Ben’s house up Schultz Creek with Scott, Ben, and Jordan. Wanted to keep it pretty easy since I have a big workout tomorrow. | PM 4.2 miles plus drills and strides. Easy 4 miles plus drills and strides from the Cardinal Fields at NAU. Ran alongside Jordan, Ahmed, and Irving. Strides felt awkward.
Tuesday: AM 20 miles total (2 mile warm-up + drills and strides, 16 miles at marathon effort [5:12 average], 2 mile cool-down). Definitely satisfied with the workout today, especially considering how disappointed I was not to be able to complete the 2×6 mile workout last week (didn’t allow enough recovery time after a 28 mile depletion run (no carbs before or during). To walk you through the workout, the first three or four miles have a lot of undulation, as you can see from the elevation chart. These are some of the most difficult miles for getting the pacing right – I’m usually too fast on these which makes the later miles that much more challenging. Today, however, we were pretty spot on during this section. Mile 5 was our fastest mile, but to be fair there is a fairly significant downhill and we were on pace through 1,200 meters; the last 400m of that mile climbs back uphill slightly, so we must have just majorly compensated to make sure we didn’t slow down with the change in grade. Miles 6 and 7 are pretty fair and flat so we didn’t have any problem hitting close splits for those. As we get into miles 8 through 12, we start to face some grade changes and gradual uphills. When I’m grinding out a long workout like today, these can really get to me (probably more mentally than physically), but Jordan helped to pull me through these miles. Then, I hit the most challenging part of the workout – Jordan stopping at 12 miles and me still having 4 miles to go! I focused on staying relaxed (especially in my face, which leads to relaxation in the rest of your body) and tried to use shorter and quicker steps. The 14th mile is the most downhill of the whole route, so I was able to relax there and try to regroup for the final two miles. I’ve only been out this far for workouts a couple of times, so I’d kind of forgotten what the terrain was like, and much to my dismay, the final two miles climb back uphill, culminating in a brutal final 800m up to 16 miles (hence the 5:19 closing mile). That said, my overall time was 83:19, which averages out to be 5:12.4. If you take off the last mile, my average is spot on – 5:12.0. As I said in Episode 3 of “An Open Look,” I was satisfied with the workout today and would call it comparable to a 15 mile steady state I did out here prior to the World Half Championships (I averaged 5:11 pace that day for 15 miles). The workout today, however, is on much higher average weekly mileage, so to be able to average almost the same pace is a very good sign for my upcoming marathon in Chicago. | PM Strength training and 30 minutes pool running
Wednesday: AM 8 miles. Ran Soldiers Trail from the trailhead at the Woody Mountain/532 intersection. Purposely chose single track trails today so that I’d force myself to go slow. It worked! | PM 6 miles. 6 miles at the Cardinal Fields at NAU. Feels so nice to be able to run on soft grass fields where you don’t have to worry about diligently paying attention to your footing.
Thursday: AM 10 miles. Ran Eric’s warm-up with him at the NAU track, and finished it off by joining up with the Bagel Run for a few miles. Was happy I turned when I did because it sounded like they were planning to do a run with very shoddy footing. Being this close to the marathon, I wasn’t going to go the same way… | PM 4.5 miles. Did one of my road loops from the house. Forgot to cut off one of the additions that would have made it 4.0 miles exactly. Love running on pavement several times per week.
Friday: AM 10 mile easy fartlek plus 30 minutes pool running. Did this one out at Bellemont and ended up doing 14 x 30 seconds. Essentially I went 5 miles out, turned around, and did 5 miles of fartlek on the way back (30 seconds on, 90 seconds off). I usually feel terrible when I start a “workout” like this, but by the end I felt pretty good and wanted to keep going. | PM 5 miles. Out and back on the Urban Trail from the house. We were under a tornado warning all day, and there was significant thunder and lightning, but I was able to sneak in 5 miles at a point that the sun had come out.
Saturday: AM 10 miles. Easy run with Scott and Eric from our house. Ran a new loop that I actually kind of liked. We took the Urban Trail out to the airport and then looped around through the neighborhoods off of Lake Mary Rd and finished it off by doing a loop of our neighborhood. Lots of pavement, but I think that’s a good thing because you need it to make sure your legs are ready for the pounding of racing on the roads. | PM 4 miles. Out and back on the Urban Trail. Again, under tornado warning, so I tried to go to the pool instead, but they were closed, so it forced me to brave the weather outside. Luckily, I found a spot between storms and didn’t end up seeing any lightning or hearing any thunder during my run.
Sunday: AM 18.1 miles plus strength training and 30 minutes pool running. Woke up pretty hungry, which makes it very tempting to eat on these no carb long run mornings, but was able to stave it off by drinking water and tea. Ran at Bellemont again since Eric had a fast finish. Danny and Scott were along for portions of the run as well.
Total – 110 miles
Week of September 15 to September 21
Monday: AM 12.0 miles. Morning run from the track at NAU. Felt like it was a war of attrition as people kept dropping off because they had shorter runs. Being in the midst of heavy marathon training often means I’m the one running the most mileage day after day. First Kellyn, then Ben and Amy, then Eric, then Steph, and finally I was finished after a 12 mile morning. | PM 4.5 miles. Easy second run with the one and only Ms. Emily Infeld at Buffalo Park this afternoon.
Tuesday: AM 16.5 mile workout (3 mile warm-up, 6 miles @ 5:07 average, 1 mile jog recovery, 3 miles at 5:13 average, 3.5 mile cool-down) The first 6 miler of two in this workout. I felt super smooth and easy early on and ended up running a bit too quick but overall averaged exactly the goal for this one. Last mile felt very tough and breathing was really labored. I think I hit three miles around 15:40 on this one (but clearly didn’t stop my watch right away), and had to call it quits. Running just under 5:15 pace felt like an absolute death march and unfortunately I knew it would only get slower from there, so we decided to call the workout. Talked with my coach about it for a few minutes after the fact and we are 100% certain that my performance in this workout was almost entirely reflective of the fact that we’d not allowed for proper recovery from my 28 mile depletion run (no carbs) on Saturday, that I probably ran harder than desired (even though I felt really good during it and in the days following). Lesson learned – this is something we will definitely remember in future marathon buildups, so there is some positive to come out of this workout. Cool-down from the workout, where I felt a little bit like I was going to pass out. | PM 30 minutes pool-running.
Wednesday: AM 4.25 miles. Easy run out and back on part of Lake Mary.| PM 4.1 miles. Easy run at the Cardinal Fields at NAU with a big group of runners. Soft, manicured grass soccer and football fields are amazing to run on.
Thursday: AM 8.0 miles. Bagel Run with Jason today. Hardly anyone showed up, and considering the workout I had the other day, I decided to keep today very easy. My body will thank me later!
Friday: AM 8.2 miles. Met at the hotel where the McMillan campers were staying and ran out and back on the Urban Trail from there. Nice to run with a couple of new faces.
Saturday: AM 10.5 miles. Fartlek workout at the NAU track (warm up, 12 times one minute on/one minute off, cool down). Felt good (mentally and physically) to give my body a little bit of after a tough couple of workouts, but doing a little something shorter and effort-based rather than time-based helped to rejuvenate my legs a bit and hopefully help get them ready for the next hard session that I’ll be doing on Tuesday. It’s a big one. | PM 4.0 miles. 4 mile loop from the house. Felt oddly tired yet refreshed from the workout this morning, if that makes any sense at all.
Sunday: AM 10.0 miles. Easy run at A1 Mountain with our McMillan Running Flagstaff Getaway campers. Simple out and back on the dirt road. | PM 4.0 miles. Ran on a 4 mile loop from home without a watch, hoping that it would make me take it easy. I think it worked, but we’ll never know….
Total – 86 miles
Week of September 8 to September 14
Monday: AM 10 MILES. Ran at Walnut Canyon with Ben, Eric, Scott, and the girls. It was a bit of a muddy mess. I didn’t feel as badly as I thought I would after yesterday’s long run, though, so I left the run in a good mood! | PM 6 MILES. Afternoon run from home (on the pavement). Started raining right as I finished.
Tuesday: AM 12 MILES. Kind of an adventure run this morning with Eric, Jordan, and Danny. Started from Late for the Train with vague plans of where we were going to go, and then just kind of explored a bit. At least it made the time go by relatively quickly. | PM 4 MILES. Easy afternoon run at Buffalo Park with 10 x 30 second strides in the middle of the run.
Wednesday: 5 X 2 MILES. 5 x 2 miles at 9:55, 9:53, 9:56, 9:55, 9:59. This workout felt quite difficult from the get-go. I ran 28 miles total on Sunday (24 mi workout + 4 mi easy afternoon run) and didn’t feel like that really hit me hard on Monday or Tuesday like it usually would have, so it was probably still in my legs a bit out there on Lake Mary today. Marathon training is all about teaching yourself to run fast on tired legs, though, and this is the perfect example of doing that. My average pace on these was around 4:57 per mile (at 7,000 ft), which is the pace I am aiming to run at sea level. It’s a good sign that I ran that pace, which converts to roughly 4:40-4:42 at sea level, on heavy, tired legs. Now to focus on proper recovery and get ready for the next big workout this weekend!
Thursday: AM 10 MILES. Typical Bagel Run morning. Easy run on the Urban Trail. | PM 6 MILES. Easy out and back second run on Woody Mountain Road. They were re-grading it so parts of it were pretty soft – not my favorite surface to run on. I like when the dirt is packed down hard!
Friday: AM 12 MILES. Out and back with the guys on Woody Mtn Road. Nothing special – didn’t feel particularly good today. Oh, and my watch died around 8.75 miles, but I added on the perfect amount beforehand (since everyone else was going 10), such that I would be exactly at 12 once I ran home. | 4 MILES. Easy afternoon run at Buffalo Park with Eric and Scott after speaking at Ben’s middle school team practice. Each run over the past few days has felt better and better – hopefully it will continue so that I’ll feel good for the long, long run tomorrow.
Saturday: 28 MILES! Great run today! I was initially a little concerned about how I’d feel doing a 26-28 mile depletion run (no carbs before or during), but it turned out to be a great day. Four of us started at the beginning of the dirt on Woody Mountain Road, with my best friends Jason and Irving driving alongside to provide fluids. Our plan was to run 26 to 28 miles straight out this road, at which point Jason would pick us up and drive us all the way back. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a great friend right there. The first guy from the group, Ahmed, stopped at 14, at which point I thought to myself, “I JUST got to my halfway point…how is he already finished?!” Our second guy, Jordan, stopped around 22 miles with some mild achilles tightness. The third guy, Paul, with whom I ran most of the run, stopped at 26.2. Then it was me, solo, to grind out the final two miles. Luckily for me, it was one of those days where I felt awesome and could have continued running but obviously the smarter decision was to “quit while I was ahead,” so to speak. Maybe I’ll write a blog about this one to give you guys a bit more insight…
Sunday: AM 10 Miles. Ran at Aspen Corner today (9,000 or so ft) because I wanted something to purposely slow me down – a combination of single track trails and higher elevation. Think I ended up averaging 8:30 pace or so, which is pretty much expected after the 28 mile run I did yesterday. Not feeling nearly as badly as I thought I would, though! |PM 6 miles. Ran up past Aspen Corner at the parking lots of the trailheads up to the peaks (around 9,500 ft). Chose to come up here again today and do my run while the sun was setting. Beautiful run, and it got a little chilly!
Total – 125 miles
Week of September 1 to September 7
Monday: USA 20k Championships- 7th place. Well, this was definitely not the race I was envisioning. I led for the first 6 or 7 miles, trying to keep the pace in the low 4:50s as Ben and I previously discussed, but it caught up to me very quickly thereafter. I did not give enough credit to the heat and humidity out there and just wasn’t able to hang in there when it was time to start competing. Ended up finishing 7th – now it’s time to put it behind me and move on, trusting that this really means nothing about as far as my fitness is concerned. I’ll be ready in 6 weeks when it matters.
Tuesday: DAY OFF
Wednesday: 8 MILES. Ran out and back on Woody Mountain Rd. from Steph and Ben’s house, followed by brunch and a team meeting. I love doing runs when we get to have a big brunch afterwards!
Thursday: 8 MILES. Bagel Run with most of the standard crew. Turned around early as I only had 8 this morning. | PM 5 MILES. New pavement loop to prep my legs for the pounding of the marathon. I actually prefer pavement to loose gravel trails anyway.
Friday: 10 MILES. Ran from Trina’s Loop since Eric and Steph had a workout. Did the warm up with them and then added on with our group plus Shalane and Emily. | PM 6 MILES. First Friday run from the downtown Late for the Train. Chilly and rainy, but an enjoyable run nonetheless.
Saturday: 10 MILES. Nice little out and back run at Bellemont. Kept it at 7 min pace on the way out and then did 8 x 1 minute fartlek with 90 seconds run between to loosen up my legs for the long run workout tomorrow. | PM 6.5 MILES. Easy run from the house on a neighbhorhood road loop.
Sunday: 24 MILES. Great long run workout with Ryan Vail, Jordan Chipangama, and Guor Marial. 3 miles easy, 4 mile tempo (goal was 5:12 pace), 10 miles easy (goal 6:30-7:30 pace, 4 mile tempo (goal 5:12), 3 miles easy. Felt pretty easy and smooth the whole way. This was the first time we’ve ever done an alternating pace long run like this – I really enjoyed it! We will definitely be keeping it in the repertoire for the future. | 4 MILES
Total – 101 miles
Week of August 25 to August 31
Monday: AM 10 MILES. Started at Late for the Train on 180. Felt rough right from the first few steps and didn’t really start feeling any better until around 8 or 9 miles. Makes sense that my body is pretty tired after a 25 mile day yesterday. | PM 6 MILES. Almost the entire run was in total darkness after a meeting I had went long. First three miles on trails, last three on the road through my neighborhood. Had to be very cautious not to twist my ankle or anything silly like that.
Tuesday: AM 13 MILES. Nice run at Waterline again. Ran solo and didn’t pay attention to the pace. Legs didn’t feel great, but definitely an improvement over yesterday’s runs. | 4 MILES. Didn’t wear a watch for this one, but went out and back from the house to a point I know is 2 miles.
Wednesday: AM 20 x 200. 20 x 200 down in Sedona with Scott and Paul. Were also joined on the track by Shalane, Jerry, and Danny, who were doing a different workout. Always fun to have a big group working out together though! Felt super smooth and like the legs had some pop during the workout. First time I’ve done something short and quick in a long while. | PM 6 MILES
Thursday: AM 10 MILES. Bagel Run with the standard group. Not much to comment on about this one. | 6 MILES. Afternoon run at Buffalo Park. Got going a little quicker than I was anticipating. Maybe I’m getting my legs back under me a bit just in time to race on Monday at the US 20k.
Friday: AM 9 MILES. Morning run out at Mountain Shadows with Shalane and Emily. Easy and a nice mix of dirt and pavement. | PM 4 MILES. Easy afternoon run from the hosue before heading down to Phoenix for the evening. Unfortunately the trails behind our house got wiped out, but I found another way I can run a loop – pretty rocky for parts of it though so not terribly enjoyable, especially before a race.
Saturday: 6 MILES. Easy run in Phoenix before heading to New Haven for the US 20K Champs. Felt pretty flat today.
Sunday: AM 4 MILES. Ran out and back from the finish to see the last few miles of the course. I like that it finishes very gently downhill – should hopefully help during the race tomorrow. | PM 4 MILES. Ran the same part of the course that I did this morning to get another feel for the finish and try to spot a few more landmarks that coordinate with mile markers.
Total – 94 miles
Week of August 18 to August 24
Monday: AM 12 MILES. Easy morning run around Buffalo Park. Legs felt decent. I was surprised to look down and see that I was running just above 7 minute pace – it seemed slower. I made a conscious effort to try to slow down more because of the upcoming workouts I have this week. Really want them to go well and give me a good boost of confidence going into the 20K. | PM 6 MILES. Easy run out and back on the urban trail from home. Nothing special.
Tuesday: AM 10 MILES. Ran from Late for the Train today. A rainy morning, but a nice and easy day on an unfamiliar neighborhood loop. | PM 6.5 MILES. Evening run on the single track trails off Woody Mtn. Rd, finished up with drills and strides.
Wednesday: 3 x 3 MILES 3 mi warm-up + drills/strides, 3 x 3 miles with 1 mile recovery (15:05, 15:10, 15:05). Had to dig in this workout as it felt much harder than the last time I did it (and last time was a bit faster, but was also farther along in the training block and was performed with lower average weekly mileage). All things considered, we accomplished the goal today.
Thursday: AM 10 MILES. Bagel Run from downtown Flag. Ran most of it with Shalane Flanagan and Emily Infeld – it has been quite enjoyable getting to know them better. Felt better on the run than I was expecting after the workout yesterday. | PM 6 MILES. Rainy and chilly PM run from home. Not easy to get up the motivation to get out the door, but once I did it actually turned into a great run.
Friday: AM 12 MILES. Easy Run up at Waterline Rd – a first time running there for most of us. Loved it, despite the fact that it was ravaged by fires a few years back. I can only imagine how pretty that run used to be, and it’s still pretty awesome. | PM 6 MILES. Afternoon run from the Aquaplex. Planned to swim after, but felt like I was going to throw up throughout the entire run, so decided it was probably best not to swim.
Saturday: AM 10 MILES. Out and back from mile marker 9 (ish) on Lake Mary Rd. Really struggled to choose a place to run today, I think because my desire to run was almost zero. | PM 4.5 MILES. Struggled to get out the door for this one, but glad I got it in. I’d actually decided I wasn’t going to do it because I was so exhausted, went and got stuff to make dinner and started making it, and then got the itch to go run.
Sunday: 12 MILES AT MARATHON EFFORT. Decent workout, but poorly executed. Got out too quickly for the early stages of the workout and got locked into the wrong rhythm (too fast). I suffered for it later, but was able to rally at the end with the help of Ryan Vail and Scott Smith. Lesson learned! | PM 5 MILES. Easy afternoon run with Ryan Vail and Scott Smith from Nick’s ping-pong party down the street.
Total – 125 miles
Week of August 11 to August 17
Monday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 miles
Tuesday: 15 x 1k (cut short due to sickness). Got 5 in and called it a day.
Wednesday: Day off. Kicking this cold.
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: AM 10 miles (10 x 60 sec Hills) | PM 4 miles
Saturday: AM 15.5 miles (farther than I wanted) | 4 miles
Sunday: 22 miles
Total – 88 miles
Week of August 4 to August 10
Monday: AM 10 miles | PM 6 miles
Tuesday: AM 12 miles | PM 4 miles
Wednesday: AM 20 x 400 | PM 4 miles
Thursday: 16 miles
Friday: AM 12 miles | PM 4 miles
Saturday: Fast Finish Long Run 21 miles
Sunday: AM 10 miles | PM 5 miles
Total – 119 miles
Week of July 28 to August 3
Monday – AM: 10 miles | PM: 6 miles + drills + strides
Tuesday – AM: 12 miles | PM: Swim + 4 miles + Strength Training and Core
Wednesday – AM: 10 miles + Core | PM: Swim + 6 miles + Drills/Strides
Thursday – AM: 3 mile warm-up, 6 x 1.5 miles (5:12 pace, 5:10 pace, 5:11 pace, 5:08 pace, 5:07 pace, 5:06 pace), 3 mile cool-down | PM: 30 minutes pool running
Friday – AM: 12 miles | PM: 4 miles
Saturday – AM: 10 miles | PM: 6 miles
Sunday – AM: 22 miles with a huge crew (probably because Flotrack was there filming)
Total – 119.5 miles
Week of July 21 to July 27
Monday – AM: 12 miles | PM: 4 miles + drills + strides
Tuesday – AM: 3 mile warm-up + drills + strides, fartlek: 25 times 1′ on/1’off, 3 mile cool-down | PM: 4 miles
Wednesday – AM: 10 miles + massage | PM: 4.5 miles
Thursday – AM: 9 miles + core | PM: 2 miles
Friday – AM: 6 miles | PM: 4 miles + drills + strides
Saturday – RACE DAY (Bix 7 Mile US Championship): 2.5 mile shake-out, 3 mile warm-up, 7 mile race (34:08, 10th place), 6.25 mile cool-down
Sunday – AM: 12 miles | PM: Swim
Total – 96.75 miles
Week of July 14 to July 20
Monday – AM: 12 miles | PM: 4 miles
Tuesday – AM: 3 mile warm-up + drills + strides, fartlek: 4′, 3′, 2′, 1′, 1′, 2′, 3′, 4′, 4′, 3′, 2′, 1′ with half-time recovery, 2 mile cool-down
Wednesday – AM: 4.5 miles | PM: 11.5 miles
Thursday – AM: 10 miles | PM: 6 miles
Friday – AM: 21 miles
Saturday – AM: 10 miles | PM: 6.5 miles
Sunday – AM: 12 miles | PM: 4 miles
Total – 112.5 miles
Week of July 7 to July 13
Monday – AM: 5 miles | PM: 15 mile bike
Tuesday – AM: 5 miles | PM: 5 miles
Wednesday – AM: 9 miles | PM: 6 miles
Thursday – AM: 11 miles | PM: 6 miles
Friday – AM: 10 mile progression | PM: 5 miles
Saturday – AM: 16 mile fast-finish long run (4:59, 4:54, 4:49 last 3)
Sunday – AM: 8.5 miles
Total – 86.5 miles
Week of June 30 to July 6
Monday – AM: 3 mile warm-up + drills + strides, 1.75 miles at 4:50 pace before straining hamstring | PM: 60 minute aqurun
Tuesday – AM: 60 minutes on ElliptiGO | PM: 60 minute aquarun
Wednesday – AM: 3 miles
Thursday – AM: 5 miles
Friday – AM: OFF
Saturday – AM: OFF
Sunday – AM: 10 miles + core
Total – 22.75 miles (injured hamstring)
Week of June 23 to June 29
Monday – AM: 10 miles + core | PM: 6 miles + strides
Tuesday – AM: 3 mile warm-up + drills + strides, 8 miles of 4 times 2 mile hill circuits, 3 mile cool-down | PM: 6 miles
Wednesday – AM: 12 miles + core + strength training | PM: 6 miles
Thursday – AM: 12 miles | PM: 7 miles
Friday – AM: 20 miles + core + massage
Saturday – AM: 10 miles | PM: 6 miles
Sunday – AM: 12 miles
Total – 121 miles
Week of June 16 to June 22
Monday – AM: 12 miles + core | PM: 6 miles
Tuesday – AM: 3 mile warm-up, 8 mile cut-down (5:45 to 4:59), 3 mile cool-down
Wednesday – AM: 12 miles
Thursday – AM: 14 miles | PM: 6 miles + drills
Friday – AM: 12 miles | PM: 6 miles
Saturday – AM: 17 miles with miles 13 to 16 fast (5:02, 5:02, 5:05) | PM: 30 minutes pool running + 3 miles
Sunday – AM: 12.5 miles | PM: 5.5 miles
Total – 120 miles
Week of June 9 to June 15
Monday – AM: 10 mile conservative progression + core | PM: 6.5 miles
Tuesday – AM: 6 mile fartlek of 2 min on/2 min off + strength training | PM: 6.5 miles + 30 minutes pool running
Wednesday – AM: 12.5 miles | PM: 6 miles + drills
Thursday – AM: 10 miles + strength training/core | PM: 6.5 miles
Friday – AM: 12.5 miles | PM: 6 miles + drills
Saturday – AM: 18 miles | PM: 30 minutes pool running
Sunday – AM: 12.5 miles + strength training/core | PM: 45 minute swim + 4 miles
Total – 123 miles
Week of June 2 to June 8
Monday – AM: 10 miles + strength training/core | PM: 4 miles
Tuesday – AM: 10 miles + drills and strides | PM: 4 miles
Wednesday – AM: 6 mile SS (5:22 avg) with warm up and cool down + core | PM: 4 miles + 30 mins pool running
Thursday – AM: 10 miles + strength training | PM: 6 miles + strides
Friday – AM: 8 miles | PM: 6 miles
Saturday – AM: 16 miles | PM: 60 mins pool running
Sunday – AM: 10 miles | PM: 6 miles run/hike in Grand Canyon
Total – 106 miles
Week of May 26 to June 1
Monday – AM: 10 miles | PM: Strength training
Tuesday – AM: 10 miles | PM: Off
Wednesday – AM: 8 miles + 35 minute ElliptiGO | PM: Off
Thursday – AM: 10 miles + strength training | PM: 5.5 miles
Friday – AM: 10 miles + Drills | PM: 45 minute pool run
Saturday – AM: 10 miles | PM: 4 miles
Sunday – AM: 14 miles | PM: Off
Total – 81.5 miles
Week of May 19 to May 25
Monday – AM: 8 miles | PM: Off
Tuesday – AM: 8 miles | PM: Off
Wednesday – AM: 8.5 miles | PM: Off
Thursday – AM: 10 mile hike, no run | PM: Off
Friday – AM: 8 miles + Drills | PM: Off
Saturday – AM: 8.75 miles | PM: Off
Sunday – AM: 8 miles | PM: Off
Total – 49.25 miles
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