Per Aspera Ad Astra

I survived! I'm overweight, I trained poorly (21.7 miles a week for the 50 days leading up to St George, not counting the hiking mileage in Africa), and I'm overall in bad shape. That said, I performed reasonably well for where I was at. This was my 2nd fastest marathon, but my PR (2:42:07 in bad conditions on a harder course) is a vastly superior performance. Anyway, I think I've got the effort and nutrition figured out pretty well for marathons now. As usual, I avoided dairy the day before, went to the bathroom 3 times before the start, ate 2 large bananas, some juice, and a 200 calorie granola bar before hand. During the race, I had gels at 6, 12, and 18, and slowly sucked part of a 4th around 24. I'd normally have one more, but I didn't feel like I needed it. I had pretty even splits (1:24:27, 1:25:19, although a negative split here would be ideal) and kept it sensible. Honestly though, even if I had gone out slower, I doubt I'd have been able to close any faster, as I'm just not strong right now. Hip was a little irritated in the last 12, but never bad. My shoes are pretty worn, so my feet hurt a bit in the last 2 miles. Overall, this was a lot less painful than my 2:42 in Phoenix since I didn't quite push myself as hard. I probably had it in me to make it a minute or two faster, but I just didn't want to kill myself for a slightly faster time that would still be well off a PR. Overall, I think that while climbing Kilimanjaro severely impacted my training (took 2 weeks, never got serious about it once I returned, and, for whatever reason, left my legs just feeling really week for a long time), it was mentally helpful here and will be mentally helpful in the future. Climbing/freezing/struggling to stay awake for 6 hours in complete darkness on summit day with extremely low oxygen was, at least for me, far harder than any marathon I've done and I kept thinking about that during this race. Thoughts like "I suffered worse than this for 6 hours straight back in August... another hour of pain isn't nearly as big of a deal." definitely made the marathon feel a lot easier. In any case, I will take the next one more seriously.

4.5 with Holly and Daria at a hilariously slow pace (10:57 average).  Gotta take the recovery seriously!  Legs felt stiff but not painful.

2.6 miles around NSL.  My legs already feel a lot less stiff than yesterday, which is great, but there's no reason to be stupid, so I kept it super short and quite easy (didn't wear watch, but probably around 8:30 pace).  I don't feel that running right now is particularly productive, but it does shake things out, and, more than anything, I have promised myself to start taking this seriously again so that I can get into monster shape for a Spring marathon.  That means running everyday and everyday includes today, even if I'm still recovering.  If Haile Gebrselassie runs twice a day everyday except for singles on Sundays and Christmas, I think I can manage to stop being lazy and just get out for at least a single everyday.

Just light jogging between holes on the disc golf course.  Legs are coming back!

With Holly.  Up Orchard to 33rd, down to Beck, and back. No watch, but around 8:30 pace.  Still easy and short, probably for the full week.  

Easy pace to Smith's and back with Daria and Holly.  Legs are feeling completely normal now, at least at easy pace.  Excited to get the ball rolling for real in a few days.

The GoMEBs are starting to click for me. 10 miles to and from Lowe's to buy sandpaper. First 3 with a tailwind at 7:10 pace, next 7 with, mostly headwind, at 6:45 (altitude adjusted pace for St George effort, MP because I'm out of shape). Up Orchard, down 5th South, along 89, then back on 89. Not sure why I put in 7 faster miles, but it felt good.

5.7 by myself at 7:39 AP and then 1.6 more with Daria and Holly (Daria didn't feel great, so we did less than planned), at 10:00-ish pace.

HHS easy run with Fritz, Jason, JP, aNate 7:12 ap.

10.6 miles at 7:42 AP.  My place to JRP trail to the Redwood crossing by that school parking lot, and back, with an extra loop around the front of the complex for good measure.

11.2 with Holly at Holly pace (i.e., slow, 8:22 AP). My place to Legacy Parkway Trail to 5th South Bountiful to 89, and back.

Easy short run tonight to rest up for a long run tomorrow.  My place to Eagle Ridge to 350 E to Cynthia to Eagle Ridge to Eagle Pointe to Parkway to Eagle Ridge, and back.  Only 4.3 miles, but 920' of gain and 920' of loss, so quite steep.  Consequently, I averaged 8:45 / mile, which felt maybe a minute per mile faster, effort wise.

Long run!  Felt more fluid than any of my long runs in the month before St George, which was nice.  7:34 AP, and without thinking about it, ran the last 3 the fastest.  My place on Orchard to where it becomes 400 East to 1000 North in Centerville, to the road along the freeway, to Home Depot (to buy a new set of hex keys for a soundbar Daria and I are building out of reclaimed oak), along 400 west to Pages, up to 400 East, back along 400 East/Orchard, with an extra lap around the complex to get the weekly mileage to 70.2 instead of 69.8. :)

11.8 miles at 7:15 AP with Fritz from Highland.

Pm: partied with my buddy Micah at the Odesza concert. Not what I'd usually listen to, but super fun. 

Had a little time to kill, so I ran a lap of the outer perimeter of SHP and Highland.  Will get out for more shortly.

Left home at 8 AM, didn't get home until 11 PM, and still had to pack for my conference.  Given that I had to get up early to fly out, I opted to just go to bed after packing.

13.1 at 6:49 AP in San Antonio.  Actually, my typical pace was more like 6:35-6:40, but I ran on the Riverwalk, which was obscenely congested, narrow and full of sharp turns, so I lost quite a lot of pace by having to wait to pass people (slowed to a walk quite a few times), turning 90-180 degrees, etc.  The Riverwalk is a very nice place to walk, but it sucks to run even a moderate pace on due to the above, in addition to the fact that paths on either side of the river frequently abruptly stop, forcing users without knowledge of the path (ie, me) to frequently have to turn around, go back to a river crossing, and then continue on the other side.  That said, 85 degrees here is a lot nicer than 85 in Salt Lake, thanks to the sun being much less intense.  I still don't love Texas (and I really don't love that the hotel concierge told me that I'd get a $700 ticket if I ran on the wrong part of the Riverwalk!!!), but San Antonio is much much nicer than Dallas, where I went for a different conference in June.

12.1 on San Antonio Riverwalk at 7:11 AP. Ran at the hottest time of day (3:30ish to 5ish), in almost cloudless direct sun, in a humid 87 degrees, so it wasn't particularly fun and I had drink a ton of water, even at easy effort. I'm ready for winter. Haha.

Same as yesterday, but 88 degrees today instead of 87. 7:06 AP for 12.1 miles. Finished a 34 oz water bottle on the run, but was still somewhat thirsty. Hah.

Did 4 hours of volunteer work at the Biomedical Engineering Society conference, gave my talk on "Information Theoretic Metrics as Biomarkers of Parkinsonian Symptom Severity", and then traveled home.  Got home after 10PM, was exhausted, and skipped the day.

Missed a second day in a row.  Spent the earlier part of the day helping a friend move all of his worldly possessions and then worked with Daria on her National Science Foundation fellowship application until 2 in the morning.  Her research proposal is great and she seems to have stronger credentials than virtually every other first year graduate student in the entire country, so hopefully she'll get it.  How many other current first year graduate students have worked with the top professor in their field, earned 3 major research-based fellowships, and given talks at both the National Academy of Engineering and the White House?  Probably none. A pay bump of as nearly $10k plus a $12k / year educational slush fund would be great for her to get.  I'll sacrifice my running from time to time for these sorts of things.

That run was a spectacular failure. Something must have been screwy with my dinner (fajitas, made at home, exactly as usual, so not sure what...), and in the first 5 miles of my run, I had to go to the bathroom 4 times.  When my stomach was still upset after the 4th time, I just called it a day.  At least I had chosen to run on a treadmill for the first time in awhile, just so Daria could run next to me at an easier pace, so I was easily able to take breaks when necessary (once a mile starting at mile 2). 

My place to legacy trail, to 5th South, to 5th west/89, and back. It was 41 degrees when I went at 11PM, and the handful of cold pockets on the trail felt like they were a solid 10 degrees colder. I wore a jacket, but no gloves, so I ran fast enough to keep the blood flowing (7:08AP). Lost 2 minutes due to being held up by a train on 5th South, but otherwise uneventful.

Helped Daria finish off her NSF app, then spent the night at home with her.  No run.

Solid long run.  22.4  miles at 7:15 AP.  18.4 outside at 7:19 AP (my place to JRP entrance on NSL Center Street, down to North Temple, left to the Rancho Market, and then back the same way), then 4 miles on a treadmill at 6:54 AP (mostly low 7, then 5:56 flat for the last .5) so Daria could run on the one next to me (she did 3.2 in the time that I did 4).  Why did I turn around at Rancho Market you ask?  Well, I wanted to take a bathroom break, but had to attempt 3 bathrooms to find one that was functional.  First, I stopped at the 711, but they were out of TP, then I stopped at the McDonald's and their toilet was clogged, so finally, I stopped at Rancho Market.  Ahh, Rose Park, my favorite area of town. :)  In any case, I felt really solid, so that was good.  I didn't consume any food or drink except for a swig of Orange Fanta while grabbing Daria from the apartment before heading to the treadmills.

Also, this was apparently my single longest training run since January (not counting the 2 road marathons and 1 trail marathons I've raced since January)!  It really is time to build a new base!