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

Woke up with my knee still hurting.  It felt like something was pulling on my tendon.  There was no way I could have run this day.  I dug into my quad and found two big knots.  I scrapped on them so hard I now also have two big bruises, but as the day went on my knee felt better and better to the point where I was walking pain free before going to bed.  I took a week off and my first long run brought out all the problems that didn't go away with time off.  I've got to work out all the little knots everywhere in order to really feel good long term.

20 miles with Melanie.  We started at Bridal Veil Falls and ran up the highway to the Wallsburg turnoff and back.  It felt like we were pushing the pace the whole way, and I was tired every mile.  Our average to the top was 7:06 pace.  On the way back down at mile 15 I thought, "I don't want to feel this tired at mile 15 at St. George."  Our average down was 6:46 pace.  I'm glad I was able to keep going relatively fast for so many miles on such tired legs.  Average for the whole run 6:56 pace.  We stopped 6 times to drink probably 2 minutes each and one other pit stop on the side of the road that took a little longer.  Figured we had about 17 minutes of stopping.  

I did the Wasatch Wellness Run in connection with my husband's work.  We were going to both go and take the kids.  I was registered for the 10k and my husband and oldest son were registered for the 5k.  However my daughter threw-up about 8 or 9 times in the night over a 3 hour period, so we didn't sleep from 12:30 a.m to 3:30 a.m.  Needless to say I didn't feel like racing, especially after my hard run Thursday, and my husband and I both wanted the other person to go.  I guess he won because I ended up going with my son.  I didn't warm up or cool down so just the race.  Avg 6:41 pace.  Came home and went back to bed still in my running clothes.  I feel like I'm still seriously sleep deprived from girl's camp.

4 miles avg 7:05 pace with two sets of 20 burpees on the run.  The 70 burpees I did last Monday left me sore so I'm going to work up to doing 3 or 4 sets of 30 a little slower.

10 miles with 5 x 1200 meter intervals and about 600 meters recovery.  Melanie and I did these on the road.  The 1st, 3rd and 5th were going one way on the same stretch every time, and the 2nd and 4th were going the other direction along the same stretch.  Paces for the 1200's were 5:47, 5:55, 5:51, 5:56, 5:51.

Started at Vivian Park and ran 3.5 miles "warm-up" up South Fork avg 7:42 pace which didn't necessarily feel easy.  Started up South Fork with Melanie, Melody, Emily, Josse and Rebecca.    Then we headed down the canyon for a 12 mile downhill faster pace run.  Melanie, Melody and I kept up a 6:20 overall average on this part until mile 10.  I was doing ok until about mile 9 when my legs became very tired.  Melody left us and headed back to her car at the mouth of the canyon at mile 9.5.  At mile 10 I stopped running and said, "I need to reevaluate this."  I didn't think I could go 2 more miles.  I said my legs felt like the end of a marathon and Melanie gave me a good pep talk, "It's only 2 more miles...you can't quit when your legs are tired at the end of a marathon... you want your 2:54:45 don't you...etc."  I did the 2 more miles, but they were at a 6:30 pace instead of 6:20.  1.75 of it was continuing South on University Ave with a slight downhill and the last .75 was heading back up north.  Finished with a 6:23 overall average for the 12 miles.  We stopped three times to drink on the 12 mile stretch, again when Melody broke off , and for my mental breakdown at mile 10, but we kept them short. 

I really need more sleep and feel like a broken record as it seems like I say that every week.  Last night I went to bed @ 11 p.m., but didn't think I had even fallen asleep when my husband got home at 12:15 a.m. from being up at scout camp.  Then the carbon monoxide detector went off at 4:20 with a low battery and I didn't go back to sleep before my alarm went off at 5:10 a.m.  Four hours just isn't enough for me to feel good.  I'm happy I finished the run though, and that I have a good training partner to push me.  Thanks Mel! 

4 miles avg 7:21 pace.

16 miles.  I ran 8 miles with Emily at avg 6:56 pace, then my husband, Brent, came with me on his bike for 8 more avg 7:02 pace.  I drank some orange juice before I left the house, but didn't take anything with me on the run, just had water from the fountains.  About 2 miles from the end I felt my blood sugar level getting really low and wished I had taken something. 

4 miles avg 7:05 pace.

10 miles with Melanie and Jane.  2 miles warm-up, 8 x 800 meters on the track, 2 miles cool-down.  800 times: 2:54, 3:00, 3:02, 2:58, 3:00, 3:02, 2:57, 2:54.

22 miles with Melanie and Jane.  Up Provo Canyon/South Fork from my house and back.  7:13 pace to the top and 6:33 pace down, avg 6:53 pace.  I felt better than I've felt in a while on a long run.  Still pretty tired the last few. 

4 easy miles avg 7:23 pace.

10 miles avg 7:03 pace.

4 miles 7:02 pace

10 miles with 6 x .6 mile intervals with about .5 mile recovery.  Paces on intervals, 5:54, 5:52, 5:47, 5:55, 5:46, 5:55.

12 miles with Melanie, Melody and Emily.  Ran up/down Provo Canyon.  5 miles up avg 7:11 pace, then tempo down 5 miles 6:05, 6:04, 6:04, 6:15, 6:05.  Avg for first 10 6:39 pace.  Fastest 10 mile workout I've ever done.  Then 2 mile cool-down avg 7:23 pace.

4 miles avg 7:21 pace

18 miles.  I had some anxiety before this run after how bad I felt running in American Fork Canyon last month, exhausted, seeing spots, felt like I just wanted to lay down and sleep, etc.  Melanie and I met Kim and Jane at Kohler's Grocery Store in Highland, 2.5 miles into their 22 mile run.  We headed up American Fork Canyon about 2 miles away.  The 7 miles going up the canyon were hard.  Melanie and I took a shorter stop 2 miles from the top because we were going .5 farther up than them, hoping if we made quicker stops we could catch them on the way back down.  Kim and Jane changed their plans and ran father up than us to get the GU they stashed with their water, deciding to end their run at Kohlers instead of where they started, so we passed them coming down and didn't see them again. 

When we turned around we had an average 7:38 pace.  Melanie asked me if I thought we could get it down to 6:59 and I said, "No, we'd have to do 9 miles at 6:22 pace!"  After how hard I ran the first 9 miles up there I didn't think I would be able to or even want to try to go down that fast.  We decided to just run and see what we got.  Well, American Fork Canyon is a constant up and therefore a constant down and we miraculously ran a bunch of the miles at about 6 min pace.  Even our last two on the flat part were 6:20 pace.  Our average pace down ended up being 6:10 and we got our our average for the whole run down to 6:54.  I was pleased with how fast we were able to go and also with how good I felt, so much better than last time.  I was able to run to the point where I was breathing hard and have my body still feel good.  It's amazing what some sleep will do for me that way.  I wish I would have slept better all summer. 

4 miles avg 7:10 pace.  3 sets of 20 burpees on the run, one set after each mile, but last.

10 miles with Melanie. Speed work 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 all around 6 min pace except the 400's.  They were a little faster.

10 miles with Melanie up/down Suncrest in Lehi.  Easier pace than usual, talked the whole time, avg 7:17 pace.

4 miles easy, with 3 x 20 burpees, one set after each mile. Avg 7:22 pace