running for my mind

7 miles - 7:17 average - 2 miles at marathon pace in the middle.

This was an odd run for me. I didn't really ever feel in a good groove, but decided to just run two at marathon pace in the middle anyway (6:26 and 6;29). I still am planning on a tempo run later in the week with John, but I just wanted to log a couple quicker miles today.

During the two at MP I felt like I was sucking wind the entire time. My legs felt great, but I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. Who knows what was going on. Isn't there something crazy that can happen with the barometric pressure when a storm is coming that causes a lack of oxygen? Totally joking, but those were really my thoughts when I was running the 2 miles at MP! And here is a little proof to back it up - http://www.rotech.com/respiratory/forms_docs/BEWeather.pdf

7.5 miles with Scott this morning. Ran a good loop through Holladay in a light drizzle. After a 2.5 mile warmup we did repeats of 1 min on and 1 min rest. I have not uploaded my watch data so I don't know how many repeats we did exactly, but it was at least 10. We went for a progression with our pace, despite there being a few rollers here and there. Splits started at about a 5:25 pace and the last one was 4:30.

I felt like it was a solid effort for a fun speed day. The last repeat I hit what was my current max speed at the 4:30 pace. I have run faster than that in the past, but today's repeats coupled with yesterday's run made me feel like I was pedal to the floor and wanting to go faster but couldn't on that last one. I guess that means it was a good workout.

7 miles with Tyler and Scott up by Scott's house. Was considering doing a few tempo miles, but none of us felt that great. My stomach was killing me. For whatever reason, I woke up at 4am with stomach pain and didn't fall back asleep unitl 5:30 just in time for the alarm to go off at 6.

I didn't eat enough last night and part of my problem at 4am was that I was way hungry. I also think it may have been some bad food that I ate because when I woke up I feeling really sick with lower back pain etc. 

Was glad I still got out, but it didn't feel great.

7.15 with Brayden. 

Decided to take today as easy as I could. I have not felt great the last few days and something weird happened on my run yesterday that has not happened before. At one point my left arch tightened up. It was as if it contracted for a second and then took about 3-5 seconds to relax. It only happened once or twice, and it didn't hurt, but it made me nervous. 

Brayden and I averaged an 8:00 with the fastest at an easy 7:42 down a slight grade. I felt good but was hesitant with my foot. Once again, my left arch tightened up on me, but only once. And, again, it didn't hurt. Makes me a little nervous so I am going to watch it and see what happens.

15 miles with Tyler, Scott, and John. 7:49 average

Decided to give it a go at the long run despite my arch locking up a few times over the last couple of days. I told myself I would just start easy and if things got bad I would stop. The first slight tightening of the left arch occured at mile 1.5 despite running the first mile at 8:42. After this first instance of my arch issue I paid particular attention to it to see what might be causing the issue. 

The next "tightening" occured at 3.5. This is where I noticed that it occured only on left turns. For the remainder of the run I purposely took any left turn super wide and only on one more occasion did my left arch tighten up. We increased our pace over the run and even logged one mile at 6:00 to see if speed caused any issue and thankfully it didn't. 

PM-stretched a few times throughout the day and then did some foam rolling and hot tub time before bed. Going to focus the next couple of months on stretching and a little strenthening, perhaps.

(also, I think there is a good chance that my slight foot niggle could be due to running too many miles on my shoes so I pulled out a new pair today and they felt great)