"By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail"

Picked up a pair of Vibram Five Fingers using a 20% off coupon I got from the expo on Friday. They're still expensive...but the 20% off eases the pain.

Now I have to wait until my toes are healed a little (as I lost a toenail from Saturday's race -- it was coming off anyways, so I just sped up the process a little..

Need to find some cheap "toe socks" now online somewhere.

My first run since last Saturday's marathon. Had to let my toes heal.

Tried out the Vibram 5-fingers for the first time. I think I'm going to like them. I was told that I normally run on my toes, so this is not a major change to my stride. One thing I do notice, is that I pay a lot more attention to the rocks and pebbles on the ground. Our road is "chip sealed", meaning they coated a once dirt road with tar, and then spread gravel over the top and rolled it. It is quite bumpy, and in the VFFs you feel these bumps quite a bit more than in my regular shoes.

Going to start increasing the miles in these things gradually. Can't wait to try them on a soft trail sometime.

My second run. Early evening after a rain around the neighborhood. Felt good...road is too bumpy. Maybe I'll get used to it. :)

Ran w/ Darin at lunch. The plan was to run 4 easy at 8:00, as this was only my 3rd run in the Vibram Five Fingers. Hit the first mile at about 8:00, then it sped up from there. Finished with a 7:00. Very slight blister on right big toe--but it will probably just be a callous in no time. Enjoyed running on the smooth concrete...much better than the bumpy road by my house. Also, took a few strides in the wet grass...not bad.

72F, 15MPH wind.

AP: 7:31

HR: 150

 

Ran at lunch w/ Darin. A storm had passed through, so it was a little humid, but not bad. 70F.

Calves are very tight. Going to take a rest day on Thursday.

AP: 7:50

 

After 3 days of rest, I went for a 6 miler on the rail trail. This is the first run in the VFFs on the trail. It felt really good. The weather was beautiful -- 70F, light breeze. 

Most of the miles were between 7:40 and 8:00, but decided to try to go sub 7:00 on the last mile. Ended with a 6:36 (I've decided that I have no concept of speed anymore).

Signing up for UVM. Will be bringing my family out west for a little summer vacation -- with one of our stops being the UVM in June. Can't wait to see a bunch of my Utahn running buddies, again.

Started my run alone at lunchtime (didn't know where Darin was -- he had a meeting). Calves were still a little tight -- it's like I feel every step when running in the VFFs. I ran in the grass beside the road/sidewalks whenever possible. Felt good. Met Darin at about 3.75 miles, coming the other direction. We ran together for the last 2.25 miles. 

55F, N 15

7:29, (169 bpm -- not a good connection)

7:51, 143 bpm

7:40, 152 bpm

7:33, 154 bpm

7:24, 157 bpm

6:42, 156 bpm

 

Lunchtime run w/ Darin. 55F, Sunny...perfect!

Ran in the VFFs again -- had no real plan for the run. Just took it out at a comfortable pace, and kept it about the same. Really liking the VFFs! I don't think they're slowing me down at all...just takes a little getting used to them. Feet feel great. Calves are still a little tight..but improving. Going to have to try a long run in them. Today was the longest run in them, so far (6.2 miles)

7:26,7:22,7:26,7:34,7:11,7:11
 

Enjoyed my 22nd wedding anniversary on Friday. Went to an interesting German restaurant (complete with accordian players and the manager wearing liederhosen (sp? -- leather shorts with suspenders!!!). Then we went to see Avatar at the Omnimax theater. Good movie--but I think it would have been better on a flat screen (we got there too late to get seats in the middle, so we sat on the side -- too much distortion in the pictures (the arrows were curved). Megan was at a state math meet, and the boys stayed at their friends' house...I can't remember the last time we had the house to ourselves. Nice.

Winter is refusing to die. Friday it was in the 70s. Yesterday it dropped into the 30s and we got a dusting of snow on the ground...with 30 MPH winds! I was too wimpy to run yesterday. Today was much better. Still windy, but sunny, and mid 40s.

Ran 10 miles on the rail trail. This is my longest run in the VFFs. The first 5 miles were straight into 20+ MPH wind. But, the last 5 were awesome! Gotta love a nice tail wind. I decided to push the pace a little on the last mile to see what I had left. 6:26. Not bad, I'll take it.

4 weeks 'til Boston. Bought my plane tickets yesterday. I'm not sure why I was pulled back to Boston. I had resigned myself to skipping it this year, but I started rereading Hal Higdon's "Marathon:The Ultimate Training Guide", and he talked about Boston, and its history...and I started thinking of all my friends heading there this year, and threw caution to the wind and decided I'm going...I still have to iron out the details on lodging, but I WILL be there on April 19th!

Ran w/ Darin. Was a nice day (55, sunny, low wind). Because I ran kinda long yesterday, we decided to go shorter. Because we went shorter, we decided to go faster (sounds logical). We decided to run our old 3.85 mile route.

 6:34,6:44,6:46, 6:53/mi for the last .85...yep, I faded a bit.

This was the fastest I've run in a long, long time. I really need to race a 5K sometime.

I also set a PR (26:09) on our course by 3 seconds (I set the old PR on 12/12/06). Darin still has the course record (25:38 - 12/1/09)

AP: 6:44

HR: 160 avg

Another gorgeous day! 60F, S wind at about 20 MPH, sunny.

Ran w/ Darin. Only had time for 5 miles, as I needed to hurry back for a Stress Management class.

Took it fairly easy today...a tempo-ish run.

Just noticing my yearly miles total is pretty low. I'm barely over 300 miles. That's not a whole lot of miles considering I've logged 2 runs of 26.2 miles in Jan and Feb. I see Smooth is over 700!!!! Way to go, Smooth! I'll never catch you :)

AP: 7:28

7:34, x BPM

7:18, 140 bpm

7:33, 144 bpm

7:49, 152 bpm (uphill into the 20 mph wind)

7:12, 155


 

Worked from home today, so I ran solo at lunch time. This is my hill workout. Ran 3 miles out, 3 miles back. 20 MPH wind, 71 F, 59% humidity.

My VFFs were starting to get a little...ripe. So I added some foot powder last night and let them dry out. After today's run, my feet feel a little beat up -- not quite blistered, but a little more wear than usual (might have been the 7:08 mile 3 downhill on the highway). All of my miles in the past 3 weeks have been in the VFFs..and I really do like them. Ordered some Asic Speedstar 4's from Holabird yesterday. I'll give them a try when they come in...if they feel great, I'll start using them a little, and will probably run Boston in them...otherwise, it will be the VFFs at Boston.

8:07, 138

8:09, 148

7:08, 144 (down the hill)

8:19, 148 (up the hill)

7:28, 150

7:19, 154

AP: 7:45 , 146 bpm

Checked BP immediately after run. 151/75, 1 minute later 144/78. (normal resting is about 125/70 for me)

Ran 1 miles laps around my place of buisiness. Darin was going to meet me out there, but his meeting ran late, so I was solo.

I wanted to run nice and easy MP miles (MP = 8:00 for my new BQ level)

7:58, x bpm

8:00, 133 bpm

7:58, 132 bpm

7:52, 135 bpm

7:59, 136 bpm

8:03, 137 bpm

55F, sunny, E5 MPH

Uggg...I guess the little rock I stepped on yesterday left a mark. My heal was a bit sore today, so I had to bag the long run. I'm not too worried, it is already feeling better tonight. I need to get in at least one 20 miler in the next week before I taper. As my training hasn't been very intense this year, I'm not putting any big hopes in PRing at Boston this year. I'm going to enjoy it as a really expensive long run with benefits :-). But, I reserve the right to go fast if all the stars align.

Ronnie (Hillbilly Runner) offered to share his room at the Hyatt-Cambridge with him and his son. Awesome. He's getting in on Sunday -- but I'm getting in on Saturday. So, most of my accomodations are working out. I'll find a room for Saturday night somewhere...even if I have to stay a little out of town. Plans are coming together.

Ronnie is going for a 3:20 this year at Boston-- I'll probably move back to his corral and run the first few miles with him -- if it's a good day, maybe I'll stick with him the whole way. He plans to run even splits (1:40 half). Ronnie ran a 3:10 (I think) at SGM..so I'm thinking 3:20 at Boston should be very doable for him this year.

I gave the new Asic Speedstars a try today. Not bad. After only running in the VFFs for the past 3 weeks, I was surprised at how good regular shoes felt.

Ran 6 miles at lunch w/ Darin. 60F, sunny, 10 MPH wind. AP: 7:35

Ran 11 miles after work in Ft Worth. I ran the El Scorcho 5K loop a few times -- it's a different perspective running it during daylight hours instead of after midnight (I signed up for the El Scorcho 50K, again -- my offer still stands, if anyone wants to run this, you're welcome to stay at my house, and I'll even provide transportation.)

Ran the 11 miles a bit slower than the lunctime 6.

Overall 17 mile AP: 7:59

My right heel is a little tender, but not too bad. I'll be resting it every other day from here until Boston.

am

6 at lunchtime w/ Darin. Sunny, 75F, S17-26MPH (windy)

AP: 7:34

Right heel is feeling much better. Ran in the Speedstars again. Looks like these are good to go for Boston.

 pm

Decided to go to my first spin class in about a year (there was a "farewell" celebration for the instructor. Did 1 hour spin -- I'm giving myself credit for 4 miles...I hope that's fair. This might have been a violation of the "don't do anyting stupid this close to Boston" rule. I won't be doing spin again any time soon. Good workout, though. Tough ont he quads.