"If we don't suffer enough we won't remember it."

4 miles with my sister Laura who is in town from AZ.  Avg 9:24 pace.

10 miles avg 7:15 pace.  Ran 6 x 800 meter intervals in the middle with about 400 meter recovery.  My "intervals" weren't very impressive though, all around 6:15 pace. 

10 miles avg 6:56 pace.  I wanted to go a little faster and I did.  I ran down to Orem Center Street, around Riverwoods and North on University Ave into Provo Canyon and back home the same way.  I didn't stop much, or for long and felt good for about 7 1/2.  My legs started feeling tired, no big deal, but about 1/2 way up the Center Street hill (end of mile 9) I felt like I was going to throw-up.  I stopped at the top and just stood there for about 30 seconds before running the last mile home.  It's amazing that running only 10 seconds faster than usual can make you so much more tired.

4 easy miles avg 7:17 pace.  My legs were tired from my run yesterday.  I hope I feel good tomorrow.

18 miles with Melanie, first 8 with Kim and Jane too.  We met at Jane's home in Highland at 5:00 a.m. and ran the first 8 together.  Kim and Jane headed back to make and 14 mile loop and Melanie and I kept running out another mile and back the same way we came.  When we started the run it wasn't windy, but it picked up about 1/2 way through.  Our 10th mile was uphill and into the wind.  Some of the roads had snow on them too.  I was doing fine until about mile 16 when my legs got really tired and the last 2 were hard.  We slowed down, but it didn't help much.  The last 3 miles were into the wind again and when we stopped 3/4 mile from Jane's house to pick up the jacket Melanie left on the side of the road I felt like I could hardly start running again.  Avg 7:22 pace.  I guess I need to do more 18 mile runs.

4 miles @ 7:28 pace

10 miles total with 3 x 1 mile repeats.  Met Melody & Emily B at BYU.  We warmed up outside but the outdoor track had ice on it so we went to the indoor track.  I was very hot in my shirt that keeps me warm in 32 degrees.  My splits were 6:01, 6:02, 6:04.  I was happy with my times, but being 12 seconds behind Melody on the track looks really far and 20 seconds behind Emily B was, well about a whole straight away.  I could barely see her with all the other people on the track.  It felt good to do some speed work again though and I'm excited to do it again.

Met Melody, Emily, Dessire, Josse, and Rebecca for a 4 mile tempo run.  We warmed up 1 1/5 miles then started our tempo.  Our first 1/2 mile was too slow, around 6:37 pace, then we picked it up and I finished the first mile at 6:23 pace.  The 6:10 pace we ran for the second half of that mile was too fast for me and my second mile slowed to 6:34.  Melody and Emily took off keeping up a pretty good pace.  I felt the best on mile 3 and 4 which were 6:26 & 6:28.  I think the last mile would have been faster, but I stopped for traffic to cross the street.  I needed more warm-up.

4 miles avg 7:13 pace.

18 miles @ avg 7:10 pace with Melanie.  Kim and Jane ran with us for 10 of the 18.  This week's run seemed to go by faster than last weeks run.  I felt a lot better than last week too.  I was worried I might struggle after my harder runs on Tuesday and Thursday and only getting 5 1/2 hours of sleep last night, but was pleasantly surprised.  The thermometer at my house said 26 so I dressed for that, but in Lehi it was only 16 and I was really cold the first two miles.  Once I got "warmed up" I felt ok, but by the time I drove home I felt cold all the way down to my bones so I sat in the hot tub.

My brother talked me into doing the 1/2 marathon Spartin race here in June.  The website describes it as "an obstical course from hell."  Some of the obsticals look really hard.  I'm worried I won't finish because I won't be able to climb the 20 foot rope etc.  This week I tried to do some pull-ups and luckily our pull-up bar is down low for our 10 and 8 year old boys because I had to put my feet down and totally cheat in order to get myself up.  I've got a long way to go when it comes to upper body strength.

4 miles avg 7:23 pace.  I didn't sleep well last night so I'm tired.  Over the weekend I said something to my husband about my push-ups/pull-ups etc.  My husband told me my arms were looking bigger.  That wasn't what I wanted to hear!  I told him, "I'm not going for bigger, I just want to be stronger!"  He tried to recover by saying I looked more "toned."  I do feel stronger though.  I graduated from doing women's push-ups to men's push-ups today.  I had to cut back on the number though.

10 mile run with hills, avg 7:13 pace.  It was 8 degrees when I woke up so I waited until 10:00 a.m. when it was a toasty 15 degrees outside. 

I thought for a few minutes abougt skipping today because I'm doing speed work tomorrow and running my 10 on Thursdsay, but I needed the run mentally.  My compulter was freaking out, shutting down, and at first I thought it was because the plug wasn't in really good in the back.  But then I got a message saying it failed to start and the "start-up repair" began.  Three prayers and 20 minutes later the computer seemed to be working again, but my anxiety level was still really high.  The computer is only 9 months old and this is the time of year I really need it to do my bookkeeping. 

8 miles total.  Met Emily, Melody, Desiree, Rebeca and Josse at the BYU indoor track for a speed workout.  8 x 800 meters with 1 1/2 lap jogging recovery.  My splits were: 2:53 (too fast), 3:01, 3:01, 3:02, 3:01, 3:01, 3:01, 3:03.  I felt the worst on #2 and #3 because I did the first one too fast.  After #4 I thought I wouldn't be able to do 8, but 3:01 must have been the right pace, because I didn't feel any worse on #5, 6 and 7.  I felt the fatigue setting in on the last one though and was glad to stop.

I was tired from my run yesterday.  This morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. when I heard the computer make a noise.  I was afraid it was spontaneously shutting down on me again and I was all of the sudden totally awake with a rush of anxiety.  I laid there stressing about it for 15 min then walked into the office and it seemed to be just fine.  I still couldn't go back to sleep before my alarm went off at 5:15 a.m.

4 miles avg 7:07

20 miles avg 7:16 pace.  Met Melody, Josse, Rebecca and two other girls I've never met before who were in town visiting.  Ran up Provo Canyon 7 miles from the River Woods to Vivian.  We didn't plan to go up that far, but the trail was amazingly clear.  I was so thirsty when we got there that I pulled out a Poweraid I stashed away last August.  It only took one sip to learn that 5 month old Poweraid tastes funny an might have mold in it.  Our pace up was about 7:45.  Melody and I sped up on the way down and did a 5 mile tempo starting after mile 10.  The tempo miles were 6:17,6:19,6:14,6:17,6:22.  The first three miles were together then I just had to stop at the drinking fountain but Melody kept going.  I got a drink and it was a little hard to get going fast again, but after about 1/2 mile I felt better.  We met up and ran another 5 miles with the other girls.  It started to really rain the last mile and continued to rain and then snow most of the day so I was glad we ran when we did.

4 miles avg 7:20 pace

10 miles with 4 x 1 mile repeats with 2 lap recovery.  Met Melody, Emily, Josse and Rebecca at the BYU indoor track.  My 4 x 1 mile repeat times were 5:59, 5:59, 5:59, and 6:04.  I set my watch to beep each lap at 6 min pace and I finished righ on the first three.  The first two felt good, the third was harder and the fourth I couldn't keep the pace.  Overall I felt a lot better than when I first did these two weeks ago, so that was encouraging. 

10 miles avg 6:58.  Met Emily for an 8 mile tempo run, that turned into 6 for me and 7 for her.  We warmed up 2 miles then ran 1 mile up Provo Canyon (6:42) and back down along Univ Ave to Will's (6:19, 6:25, 6:22) turned around a little past Will's (6:33) this was where Emily pulled ahead of me, and back up towards our cars (7:07). I "quit" about 1/2 way through this mile.  Emily kept up a fast pace for 7 miles then came back to get me for a cool down.  I wish I would have kept it up for 8 miles, but something about being in pain takes a lot of the fun out of running.

4 miles avg 7:08 pace.  Sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups.

21 miles with Melanie B avg 7:16 pace.  We met Kim and her friend Shondie (spelled wrong, I'm sure) for 12 of the middle miles.  Only 17 degrees outside. 

At the dinner table the night before my son commented on how fast the temperature was dropping saying, "When I went out to kick the football at 4:00 it was (certain temperature) and when I came back in it was (another temperature) and when I went back out at 5:30 it was __ and now it's __.  If it keeps dropping like this it'll be negative 50 tomorrow morning."  I said. "I hope it doesn't go lower than 28 because that's my comfort level for running," and my husband said, "That's a pretty cold comfort level." 

4 miles avg 7:28 pace. 

More computer problems.  I spent at least 4 hours dealing with my computer, 4 hours!  I could have gotten so many more things done in 4 hours.  It's not that old and still under warranty, but this is such a pain.

9 miles at the track.  I decided to drown my computer frustrations in laps on the track.  Met Melody, Emily, Rebecca and Josse at the BYU track.  8 x 800 meter with 1 1/2 lap recovery.  Times: 2:56, 2:55, 2:56, 2:55, 2:53, 2:55, 2:55, 2:55.  I was worried I would slow down on number 5 and ended up going faster, number 7 and 8 hurt a lot more than the others, but I was happy to keep the same pace.