Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Well, first real run in about 6 weeks and I probably went further and pushed harder than I should have. I am sure I will be paying for it tomorrow. Started with Sasha and Jeff at Borders and went 7 miles up the Provo River Canyon and returned the same way. Ran one hard mile with Sasha and Jeff at 5:58 up the canyon into a pretty good head wind. This was very tough for me but I wanted to stay with them for at least one mile. After that I just ran at my own pace but still tried to keep it fairly hard. Anyway I know the next month or two will bereally tough trying to get back to where I was and get my mileage up but I am ready to go for it once more. Overall ran 1:38:14 for 14 miles so 7:01 average. Not bad with the first 7 up hill and not really running for 6-7 weeks. Other good news is that I lost a couple more pounds last week even without much running. Weighed in at 137lbs. Splits as follows:

7:50, 6:24, 7:27, 7:03, 7:40, 7:19, 7:14, 7:01, 6:49, 6:40, 6:41, 6:44, 6:40, 6:46 

Easy 10 miles with Sasha along Provo River. Well easy is a relative term as my legs were really feeling it the second half. This used to be an easy run but right now it is not what I would call easy. Total time was 74:46 for the 10 miles. I added .63 miles in the evening jogging with my eight year old Jared who wants to start running.

Push-ups=80; Sit-ups=100; + 3 sets of other core exercises; Weight=138lbs

Same 10 mile Provo River route this morning with Sasha and Jeff. My son James also joined us for the first three miles. Legs are tired and sore but still managed to average 7:12 pace. About 2:30 faster than yesterday overall. Second half average was 6:45. Sasha and Jeff took off after 6 miles to run a 7.5 mile tempo. May add a little more with Jared this afternoon.

Added .63 with Jared.

Push-ups=50; Sit-ups=80; + 3 sets of other core exercises 

Along the Provo River with Sasha and son James. James ran first three with us and mile two and three were 7:05 and 6:40. Averaged 7:25 for 10 miles. Easier pace today. Legs are stil sore and tired. Will probably run with Jared again in the evening after work. Ran with Jared. His third run in a row.

Push-ups=85; Sit-ups=100; + 3 sets of other core exercises

Sasha House 10 Miler

10 mile Provo River route in 70:16 (7:00avg.). Had a large group today. Son James, Breanna, Sasha, Nick and Jeff. James and Breanna ran first 3 with us then headed back. I ran first 6 with Sasha, Nick and Jeff and then they started there Tempo. I paced the first 400 in 1:20 and then went back to my own pace. Second 5 miles was in 33:08. Legs felt ok today, still a little sore but getting a bit better as the week goes on. I will probably add another short run with son Jared this evening.

Ran with son Jared; his 4th day in a row.

Push-ups=50; Sit-ups=100

Sasha House 10 Miler

Same old course again with Sasha, James and Breanna. James and Breanna turned around at 3.5 miles. A little slower today but legs still sore. Ran 75:32 (7:31 avg.) with second 5.02 in 35:20. Will run a little more with son Jared again later. Looks like I will get close to 70 miles this week. Not bad considering that is more than I ran for the last 7 weeks added together.

Added .63 with son Jared.

80 Push-ups; 100 Sit-ups; 3 sets of core exercises

Total of 19.26 for the day. I ran the Provo River 1/2 Marathon as a long run today and actually ran a bit quicker than I thought I would all things considered. I tried to run easy the first 10 miles and felt ok with 3 to go so decieded to go ahead and pick it up a little. I passed the lead lady and one other over the last mile with my last three miles being my fastest three miles of the race. Time was 1:20:07 (6:07 avg.) and I ended up about 11th overall I think. This puts me over 70 miles for the week as well. Still not decieded about Top of Utah as I am not sure I want to run unless I am in better shape than Ogden and I also may have a work conflict. Congrats to Sasha as he had a great race today in the middle of a very high mileage week. I really think his persistent high mileage is starting to pay off and he is really looking great for a qualifier at St. George. My race splits are below:

Mile	Split/Total	Heart Rate
1	6:12	150
2	6:03/12:15	162
3	6:04/18:19	159
4	6:12/24:31 Flat	163
5	6:06/30:37	166
6	6:33/37:10 Uphill	166
7	6:28/43:38 Uphill	173
8	5:58/49:36	167
9	6:01/55:37	169
10	5:57/61:34	170
11	5:58/67:32	173
12	5:52/73:24 Flat	176
13	5:50/79:14 Flat	179
13.15	:52/80:07	183

Overall pretty happy I was able to pick it up the last 3-4 miles and run faster than I anticipated. I never really felt like I was running threshold pace until the last two miles. It was also good to see all of the Fast Running Bloggers out and running well.

AM - Standard 10.04 Sasha House 10 Miler. James joined us for the first three and then turned back on his own. My legs are pretty sore from Saturday but still managed 7:00 average for second half of run and overall just under 7:30 average pace. Will do a little more this evening with Jared and James.

PM - Ran with Jared, James and Jordan (My Three Sons). My legs are still pretty sore and James thinks it is funny to pick up the pace on me because my legs are sore.

80 Push-ups; 100 Sit-ups; 3xsets of core exercises; weekly weigh-in at 138lbs
 

AM - Sasha House 10 Miler plus 2 extra miles. Overall was 1:28:34 for 12.04 miles or 7:23 pace avg. Managed to average 7:03 for the last 7 miles. Legs are still sore but getting a little better. James ran the first three with us again. Oh yeah if you read this I would really like to run the St. George Marathon this year as I have a work conflict with TOU and it will also give me more time to get in shape. If anyone has or knows anyone with a St George entry that they are willing to sell please let me know. Thanks!

PM - 1.26 with kids this evening.

Push-ups=40; Sit-ups=60 

AM - Standard Sasha House 10 Miler 10.04 average of 7:51 today. Finally a true recovery day for my legs. It felt good to just run easy and chat with Sasha. I will add a couple more miles tonight with the kids again.

PM - Ran 2.36 with the boys this evening 8:00 avg.

80 Push-ups; 100 Sit-ups; 3 sets of core exercises

AM - Standard Sasha House 10 Miler 10.04m in 69:33 (6:56 avg.) with last 5 miles at 6:29 avg. James joined us for first 3 again.

 PM - 3.21 more in evening (.63 with Jared and 1.26 with James thena little more on my own all at 7:40 avg.).

Push-ups=80; Sit-ups=100
 

AM - Sasha House 10 Miler(one would think that is all that we run) Today was another true easy day. Ran avg. pace of 7:42 with second half at 7:24 avg. Legs were a bit tired from yesterday but the soreness is pretty much gone from the Provo 1/2. Planning about 5 more this evening.

PM - Added 5.16 this evening. .63 with Jared and James and then the rest on my own. Average pace 7:50.

James and I are going to run/hike Mount Timpanogas tomorrow morning. It should be a good trip to write about tomorrow.

 Push-ups=40; Sit-ups=50

Well, James and I ran and hiked Mount Timpanogas today from the Timpanooke Campgrounds. We ran when we could and hiked the areas that were too steep or rough to run. We ran at least 9 miles of the 15 that the GPS measured. Others have said that it is 18 miles but I think the GPS was pretty accurate. The trail was very rough in spots and really hurt the feet at times when only wearing running shoes. Especially across the section wear you crossed some very sharp rocks and boulders for about a mile. Overall it was an awesome experience for both James and I. I will post some pictures when I get a chance. People were pretty shocked to see James a 12 year old running and moving along so quickly. We reached the summit in 2 hours and 21 minutes which shocked a few at the top when we told them as it took most groups 4-6 hours to summit. Our return trip was much faster, as expected, and only took 1 hour and 57 minutes giving us a total round trip Timp trip of 4 hours and 18 minutes. I made sure I went at James's pace and he did very well. He was beat by the end but he had a blast is is very proud of his accomplishment. I am pretty tired as well and think it would have been easier to just race a 1/2 marathon. This is a great trip and well worth the experience of standing High On The Mountain Top and seeing such beautiful views. In fact the whole trip was awesome. Some stats and stories below.

It is interesting to look at the GPS elevation chart from my Garmin. It shows a start point at Timpanooke at 7,360 feet and a summit of 11,776 feet which is pretty accurate as the official height at the top is listed at 11,749 feet. It also shows that we climbed the following during each mile. Obviously there were some small decents as well but the vast majority was up and up for the first half.

1	722ft
2	729ft
3	657ft
4	974ft
5	871ft
6	694ft
7	898ft
.5 summit	406ft

It is also interesting to look at heart rate data as I wore my heart rate monitor the whole time as well. I noticed that during the tougher sections that we walked on the way up my heart rate was around the same as if I were running at about 8 minute mile pace. When we were running up hill it was about the same as it ws during the Provo River 1/2 marathon at 6 minute mile pace. Obviously it was much lower when running down hill on the way back. Heart rate peaked at 170 on the way up and the average on the way up was about 140. My heart rate max is around 195 and my heart rate average on the slow 10 miler with Sasha the other day was 140. So I think this was a pretty good workout as well. Cardio going up and tough on the quads and knees coming down. Oh yeah, the hardest part was on my back carrying the 15+ pound pack with enough water food and extra clothes for James and I.

What a great experience and a fun time overall. James felt like he was on top of the world and I know this is a great confidence booster for him as well.

AM - The standard Sasha House 10 Miler plus 3 extra miles at end. Average pace of 7:31 with second half closer to 7:10 average. Legs are pretty sore from the Mount Timpanogas run with son James. Will run a couple more this evening.

PM - 2.5 miles this evening with Jared and James. elizabeth joined Jared for his 1st mile since we moved him up to a mile today. Overall about 8+ min pace after 1st mile at 10:30 pace.

60 push-ups; 60 sit-ups; 3 sets of core exercises; 138lbs

A couple of interesting articles on a few elite runners training up at Park City recently at the following links:

Article 1

Article 2 Looks like Rohansky has joined the Salazar group

Article 3

AM - Standard Sasha House 10 Miler plus 3 miles. Average pace of 7:06 with last 10 at sub 7:00. Legs still sore but getting better. Good news is that my heart rate is getting lower at a faster pace which is an indicator that the cardio fitness is improving. Will run a few more this evening with kids.

PM - Ran about 2.7 this evening. I mile with Jared in 7:56 and then 1.7 with James at just under 8:00 pace and finished at about 6:40 pace.

Oh yeah, I am still looking for an entry to St. George if anyone happens to know someone who has one but can't run it for one reason or another. I am actually going to be in St. George for work that week so it would work out great if I can find a way to get in the race.

AM - Ran the standard Sasha House 10 Miler and then added a mile with James when I got home. Average pace today was a very relaxed 7:49. Will probably add another 4 miles tonight.

PM - Joined James at his first X-Country practice and ran 4.7 miles at 7:35 average with 2 miles on the grass rolling hills in 13:40. Then ran a mile with Jared at 9min. pace.

50 push-ups; 50 sit-ups; 3xcore exercises

AM - 13.4 easy miles at average pace of 7:51. Ran with Sasha, Jeff and Adam. I ran 4.4 miles on my own then joined the group for another 9 miles. Sasha and Jeff split off after 4 to do some tempo work.

PM - After driving to St. George for a two hour meeting and driving back (8 hours of driving) I ran with James for a mile and then added 2.6 more to get to 17 for the day. Average pace was 7:25.

40 push-ups;40 sit-ups 

AM - Standard Sasha House 10 Miler at 7:23 avg. pace. Legs are a little tired rom higher mileage this week but that is to be expected. Probably a few more miles this evening and I think I am heading up to Park City in the morning to use the Park City 1/2 as my long run.

PM - 2.31 with James and Jared. Avg. pace of 7:30.

Well, I joined Sasha and jeff at 4:30am to go up to Park City. The main reason I went is that I really do not enjoy doing my long run by myself and if I did it by myself I would not have pushed as hard and possibly not have gone as far. So, the first goal was to be very conservative on the first half as it was uphill and then if I felt ok put in a tempo effort on the second half. Like Sasha dscribed the course is a tough one with the climbing and the elevation along with the fact that the majority of the trail was a loose gravel surface. The climb the first 3 miles was a very gradual increase each mile which was noticable but not grueling. Then the climbing really started and became more and more of a challenge the last 3 miles with the final mile the steepest and at close to 7000'ft. At the first mile I linked up with two other runners that were running (Kieth and Brian I think) at what I felt was a comfortable pace for the climb. I did not want to feel as if I was racing until after the turn around and that is how I pretty much felt. At the first mile I was in 10th overall with Kieth and Brian right in front ( I was comfortable drafting at this point). The next runner was an unknown and then two Wasatch Athletics runners and way out in front was Paul, Jeff and Sasha followed closely by Chris. It stayed like this until about 4.5 miles and Kieth, Brian and I caught the two Wasatch runners. At this point some of the old racing instinct kicked in a little and I actually picked up the pace and went past them and started to drop Brian and Kieth. As I did this I felt good but realized that I did not really care to run the rest of the uphill by myself and slowed up a little and looked back and asked Brain and Kieth to stick with me. We linked back up and continued as a group until the half way point. Just before the half point I saw Sasha and Jeff in the lead and I noticed that Jeff actually looked very smooth and relaxed and thought to myself that he looked a lot better than Sasha. Sasha looked ok but Jeff looked better at this point. Then came Chris and Bob pretty much together followed by the unknown runner. Brian, Kieth and I made the turn at 44:11 and the Garmin read 6.57 miles so pretty much right on. Shortly after the turn Brian's shoe came untied and he stopped to tie it and I did not see him again. Kieth stuck with me as I gradually picked up the pace knowing that I felt decent and it was time to put in what felt like a true marathon pace tempo effort. By the 7.5 mile mark Kieth had slowed and I was on my own until the finish. Their were several turns on the trail that were sharp and narrow on the gravel that I actually had to slow a bit for to avoid slipping or swinging to wide and catching the fence but other than that I was able to maintain a pretty steady effort the whole way to the finish. I ended up 6th overall with a time of 1:23:28 running 39:17 for the second half which gave me a 4:54 negative split. Overall I am happy with the workout and think that I actually ran a faster effort that the Provo 1/2. I am also pleased as I ran well and will be at 99 miles this week on six days of running. Just need to keep the miles up and hope for a chance to get into St. George. My splits and info from Garmin are below:

Mile	Splits	Avg. Heart Rate	Ascent	Descent	Net Elev. Gain/Loss
1	6:33	155	121	108	+13
2	6:30	160	95	45	+50
3	6:44	163	80	20	+60
4	6:50	165	165	54	+111
5	6:50	167	191	61	+120
6	6:50	170	192	52	+125
1/2 Way	44:11	175	115	4	+111(+590)
7	6:30	167
8	5:55	165
9	6:09	165
10	6:02	165
11	5:59	167
12	6:04	170
13	5:59	170
.11	:35	174

Plan on running a couple more miles with the kids this evening.

Ran 3.65 more miles with Jared, James and Jordan. Jordan just turned 3 and begs to go run with us so I let him run around the block which is .31 miles. He did the first 400 in 2:37 today and the .31 in 3:30. Overall averaged about 8:30 for the whole run.

AM - Sasha House 10 Miler plus 3 extra miles at the end. Average pace was 7:44. The good news is that I do not have any soreness at all from PC 1/2 unlike the last two weeks. My legs are a little tired from the high mileage last week but other than that seem ok. Will run more this evening.

PM - 4 miles taking turns with the kids. Average about 8:00 pace.

60 push-ups; 60 sit-ups

Good news is I am at 136 lbs on my weekly weight check. 

AM - Early start and then linked up with Sasha and Jeff after putting in six miles on my own. Total of 13.1 miles at about 7:47 average. Another easy day but my focus is miles right now. Legs actually feel pretty good. Will run more tonight.

PM - 6.9 miles total, so 20 for the day. I did a warm-up and cool-down with James and was the rabbit for the 1K XC race at Kiwanis park. It is a rolling hill course with very thick grass so James did well running 3:31 (the winner was in the next age group up and ran 3:25) and winning his age group. I ran 1k in about 3:20.

40 push-ups; 40 sit-ups

AM - 13.1 miles at 7:31 average. Sasha House 10 Miler plus three more in hills around my neighborhood.

PM - After going rafting on the Provo River went home and ran 4 more miles around the neighborhood with first mile with James and Jared.

Feeling a little tired from the high miles but hanging in there. 

AM - 15 miles along the Provo River at an average pace of 7:18. First 5 easy with Sasha and Jeff. I then gradually got faster running the next 6 at 7:01 average and the last 4 were at a 6:36 average. Overall, felt ok except legs are tired and a few minor issues. Kayaking on the Provo River for 5 miles yesterday made my shins and ankle sore. I am not sure why? I will probably add about 3 miles tonight. Old news but follow the link to see the last lap of the Men's WC 1500. USA wins for 1st time in 99 years!

USA WINS 1500

Bernard Not Alan

PM - 2 miles with Jared and James. Was going to do 3 miles but having some issues with my right lower leg. Ice tonight and ibuprofin and hope for the best in the morning.

AM - Standard Sasha House 10 Miler with Jeff and Sasha. Right lower leg still a bit tender just above the ankle. I am not sure of the reason why but it was not as bad as last night so ice and ibuprofin are helping. I am favoring it a bit during the run. We ran easy and chatted about a variety of topics today. We averaged just under 7:45. We also had a fairly active animal day. Early on Sasha had stopped and Jeff and I continued and a dog came charging at us that we had to stop and scare off. A few seconds later we heard the dog going after Sasha. After he caught up we passed an area where their is a rooster that sometimes greets us with his morning crow however this morning it sounded like he was doing a little warm-up session prior to crowing. Later on a large owl swooped down on the trail in front of us and perched on a tree branch above us as we passed. However, our most common sighting, the skunk, did not occur today. On the way back we discovered the new tunnel under Geneva Road is finally complete and we utilized it for the first time. It will be nice to not have to negotiate the traffic or construction any longer and Sasha says it adds .04 to the run. Hopefully the leg feels better this evening and I can get in a couple more miles.

PM - 4 more miles tonight. 3.5 with James at about 7:45 pace then .3 with Jordan. Leg was not hurting tonight which is a good thing. I guess that means I will join Sasha up in Salt Lake tomorrow.