running for my mind

8 easy on the parkway with Josh. According to Josh, my watch was "all like buggin." Which, it was. Average pace right at about 7:30.

Josh and I talked this morning about my training cycle for St. George and if, and when, I should try to have a bit of a down week before ramping up just a bit before the taper. I think that might end up being this week. I have been wanting to take a look back at my build ups to my previous few marathons and see what my long runs (in this case roughly 18+) looked like. The following analysis is for my own good so I have it all in one place, but any thoughts or feedback is more than welcome.

Ogden 2013 - 3:10.xx
3/16-17.5
3/23-18
3/30-20
4/6-20
4/13-22
4/20-20.5
4/27-22
5/4-18

BCC 2013 - 2:59.02
7/27-17.7
8/3-17.26
8/22-20.65
8/30-18

Boston 2014 - 3:06.xx
2/22-18
3/1-18
3/8-18
3/15-20
3/22-20
3/29-20

St. George 2014 (currenty cycle) - sub-2:50 goal
5/24 - 20
5/31-17.5
6/7-18
6/24-20
6/21-19
6/27-22.2 (ragnar day 1)
6/28-16.27 (ragnar day 2)
7/5-20
7/12-20
8/2-19
8/9-20
8/16-20
8/23-???
8/30-???
9/6-???
9/13-???
9/20-???

So, I am going to take some time to think about these but obviously I have already put in more long runs this cycle than ever before. I am seeing the benefits already from this, but the first thing to note is that BCC 2013 is my PR and I ran the fewest long runs before it. 

Hill repeats up Memory Grove hill. 6 x 3 minutes. Goal was to be somewhere around a 7:05 pace, but ended up pushing it harder. Progressed down with each repeat from a 7:06 to the last one at 6:21. Just focused on effort and time and did not look at distance. After uploading the data the repeats ranged from .43 to .48.

Felt good and built more confidence for St. George. 

Spent the night up the canyon at the cabin and slept horribly. I seemed to wake about every hour or so. When my alarm went off at 4:45 to go an meet Josh, I decided it was necessary to try and sleep for 2 more hours instead of run. 

Had a good hot tub and stretching session last night though. I spoke with a massage therapist who showed me some trigger points for my calves. I put those right in the path of a strong jet and it was a slightly painful bliss.

Moderate pace progression tempo run through Holladay with Scott and Brayden.

I wanted to get a moderate run this week of 8-10 averaging close to 7:00. Brayden and Scott planned to do a 10 mile tempo at 7:03 so I figured that would be perfect. The route had some rollers and was more uphill at the beginning and then at mile 9. Averaged 6:55 for the 10.

Exactly what I was looking for. Will post splits when I get home from work. 

7:03, 7:11 6:53, 6:57, 6:56, 6:51, 6:51, 6:42, 7:03, 6:24

6 easy along the parkway with Josh for his birthday. 

Good luck to all those racing tomorrow. I look forward to reading the reports.

Just over 16 on the same loop as the last two Saturdays. Felt good today to wrap up my "down" week. Will post splits and a comparison to the last two weeks later. Averaged 7:13 today, 7:27 last week, and 7:29 the week before. More later