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

10 miles with Melanie out/back from Legacy Center in Lehi to river and back.  Average 6:47 pace.  I was tired on this one.  The pace felt fast.

3 miles avg 7:22 pace.  I was in bed until almost 10:00 a.m.  Couldn't pull myself out. 

Freedom Run 10K.  My body felt tired from the Spartan and my hard run Monday.  Avg 6:32 pace.  6:17, 5:59, 6:15, 6:43, 6:55, 6:55, last .2 6:39 pace.  I felt like this was a good workout.  I need to do more runs like this.

4 miles with my sister Laura in town from AZ avg 8:16 pace.

18 miles with Melanie up/down Provo Canyon/South Fork, avg 7:00 pace.

4 miles avg 7:09

10 miles with Melanie avg 6:54 pace.  Warm up 2 1/2 miles (7:26, 6:57, 6:50) then 10 x 1 min fast & 2 min slower. 5:59 fast pace (7:07 pace recovery), 5:39, (7:01), 5:54, (7:33), 5:39, (7:23), 5:47, (7:20), 5:28, (7:12), 5:52, (7:30), 5:43, (7:16), 5:52, (7:15), 5:50, cool down 3 miles (7:18, 7:03, 6:56).  I felt better doing this workout than last time and the pace on our 2 min recovery was consistantly faster. 

8 miles with Melanie avg 7:23 pace. 

Bryce Canyon 1/2 Marathon today.  Last year I ran 1:22:16 and I thought I should be able to go about 30 seconds faster this year, but ended up only 8 seconds faster with a 1:22:08 (avg 6:16 pace).  Melanie and I warmed up together and saw Amber G at the start.  There was a woman standing near us that looked fast.  I was having a hard time reading what her shirt said when she looked my way and I said, "You look fast."  She said, "Yes."  Then I asked her where she was from and she said, "France," in a very heavy accent.  She was definitely fast. 

It started to sprinkle on us just as the race started and miles 2 and 3 were into the wind and some pretty hard rain.  The clouds were nice and it didn't rain much again until after the race was over but I was soaked the whole time.  I felt good most of the race.  Miles 3-6 are all a relatively steep downhill.  At about mile 5 I said to Melanie, "I feel like I'm sprinting."  I was breathing just fine, but the rest of me felt like I was sprinting.  Melanie and I ran together until into mile 6 when she started having stomach issues.  My stomach didn't feel quite as good on mile 10 but it was nothing compared to what I was afraid of.  My kids were throwing up on Wednesday. I had diarrhea on Thursday and hardly ate anything, so I was happy to be feeling in the normal range on Saturday.  My legs started really feeling tired about mile 11.  I felt like I struggled on mile 13 and that it should have been faster and wasn't.

Overall I was happy with the race.  My splits were as follows:  6:23, 6:34, 5:49, 5:54, 6:07, 6:00, 6:14, 6:18, 6:29, 6:23, 6:30, 6:37, 6:30, last bit 24 sec.  My watch measured a little short. 

About 30 minutes after I got done it started raining again.  I felt a little bad for all the people finishing in over 1:50 because they really got poured on at the end.  We were staying at the KOA in Cannonville near the finish.  We were in a cabin, but my sister-in-law was in a tent with some of her girls.  We waited for a while and the rain just wouldn't stop.  It rained for over 2 hours straight.  We finally took down her tent in the rain and headed for home without doing our usual hike to the waterfall. 

10 miles avg 7:04 pace with Melanie.  My legs, and especially my quads were too sore to run yesterday.  They were still sore today, but I tried it anyway.  Fortunately I made it through the run without feeling like I injured myself. 

10 miles with Melanie avg 7:14 pace.  2 miles warm-up to Orem High track, 8 x 800 meter intervals with 400 meter recovery, 2 miles cool-down home.  800 meter times: 2:58, 2:59, 3:00, 2:56, 2:58, 2:58, 3:00, 3:01.  My quads were feeling better, but my butt muscle was really bothering me.  I almost quit after 6 because it felt so tight.  I was really tired that last mile running home.  More tired than I've been in a workout in a long time. 

21 miles with Melanie, Kim and Jane.  We met at AF High School and ran an out/back route up AF Canyon, first 5.5 miles in the city and next 5 in the canyon.  I have never run up AF Canyon before and it was a killer, so uphill for so long.  I could tell I might struggle on this run from the very start.  I haven't slept near enough this week.  Going up the canyon I couldn't keep up with Melanie, Kim and Jane.  I ran about 10 sec/mile slower than them for about the last 3.5 miles going up.  Average pace at top 7:41.  Coming back down was better, but I was still exhausted!  At mile 17 I wanted to be done and at mile 20 I felt like I was at the end of a marathon.  My legs were seriously more tired than they were at the end of both my other marathons this year. Average pace down 6:33.  My average for the whole run was 7:07.  We stopped a lot, about 40 minutes worth.  It felt like 2 mile marathon pace repeats with standing stops to drink, pee and talk about how bad we felt.  We all had something to complain about on this run.  When I got home I showered and went straight back to bed with wet hair.  Took a 2 hour nap.  I need more sleep.  I should be able to get that next week at Young Women's Camp right? 

4 miles, my butt still hurt.

2 miles, early in the morning.  No time for more.  I realized about a mile into my run that I needed 15 more minutes to get ready for our church young women's camp more than I needed 2 more miles.  I didn't wear my watch, but I ran fast and my lungs were burning at the end.  When got done I wish I knew how fast it was. 

No time to run this week.  I was the ward camp director for our young women's camp.  That means I was in charge of 17 girls and 5 leaders.  I feared I would go crazy by the end of the week if I didn't run, but I think the lord blessed me and I felt great.  The week was so wonderful.  I got less than 6 hours of sleep every night, but it's easier to feel ok on 6 hours when you don't run.  I got home today, Saturday, and wanted to run in the evening, but the only 4 1/2 hours of sleep I got the night before caught up to me and I just went to bed instead.  I could go on and on about how wonderful the camp was, how everyone amazingly got along and how I felt so inspired in everything to do with it, but this is a running blog.  I just added it up.  Only 10 weeks to St. George.  I need to really step up the training!

4 miles avg 7:05 pace.  I decided to do some burpees on this run.  1/2 mile to stop light, 5 burpees while I waited, another 1/2 mile to mouth of canyon 30 burpees, 1 mile up canyon to drinking fountain, 30 burpees, decided I was too tired to do another set on the way home so only did 5 more waiting at the stop light again. 

10 miles with Melanie.  4 x 1 mile with 1/2 mile slow run recovery.  We did these on a 1.4 mile loop around the Riverwoods shopping center.  mile times 6:02, 6:06, 6:05, 6:06.  It seems harder to do these on the road than the track.  The last 1/2 of each mile was always into the wind.  I felt like I was hitting the wall on every one at about 3/4 mile. 

Later in the day I felt like I had been hit with something.  My sides and hamstrings hurt from the burpees the day before, and my patella tendon felt increasingly worse as the day went on.  It got so I couldn't walk without pain.  I rubbed on my hamstrings before going to bed.